When I learned that Namco came out with a Tales title for the 360 it was all the convincing I needed to finally buy one
the fact that it just dropped in price to $200CDN was nice too

Next payday I bought the console and Tales of Vesperia in one go... I love that thing to death now <3

I haven't drawn anything or gone on the internet in days XD
I've already beaten the game but when I got to the GRADE menu I only 1.6k in grade :'D. So I went back to my previous save file and instead of going to beat the boss I ran around getting GRADE

I will have 10x EXP and SP cost 1!

lol, its killing me.

But holy crap.

Never before in any Tales games have I gotten any costume titles, but in this one I have them coming out the ass! I didn't even get any until I turned around right at the save point before the boss and started wandering around for GRADE.
I thought you didn't do that I RPGs?

God, I can't wait for the second play through... I'm going to get all the titles and get that flippin' 'True Knight' title!
mhahaha... Yuri looks so sexy with his hair up
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I now own all 3 next-gen consoles! I thought my life would be complete with this but when I went over to my parents house for Christmas I got to play my bro's 360 on my Dad's 50" HD TV....
Oh god, I don't ever want to play anything on anything else but that TV ever again!
I think this one will take more than one paycheck though XD
But come the end of January and I'll have a little less space in my living room!

Oh God.
Its been forever and a day since I've done anything with my life, let alone this account XD
Between work and club meetings I've been using all my down time to just relax and browse the internet.

But recently my roommate and I bought 'Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World' for the Wii and we've been playing it nonstop. Its so addicting @__@.
The new characters, Emil and Marta, have this agonizingly horrid romance going on in the story. Maybe they get under my skin so horribly bad because I'm older now and teen romances(especially really badly portrayed ones) just don't appeal to me. Anyway, my point is they can go die in a fire for all I care.
The fact that we dreaded character interaction between Emil and Marta so much that we'd spend 10+ hours leveling up in a quest dungeon before actually going on to complete the task says a lot... especially considering that we'd do 6-7 quests in a row.
If I ever have to visit the Sandy Wind Cave again I think I'll just cry.

But the game makes up for the characters by giving you those fancy quests and letting you catch monsters to level up and evolve Pokemon style!
We got to level 50 just before the halfway point in the game, and our favorite monster-wolf --named by the game 'Quenstedite', who we affectionately call 'Wolfie'-- was at level 95 by then.
Oh the pure ownage. I don't think I've spent so much time leveling up, synthesizing or item hoarding so much in a game that wasn't a MMORPG.

So that's basically rekindled my love for Tales games. Technically I've only ever played two, not counting Dawn of the New World. Those were the original Tales of Symphonia and Tales of the Abyss, the latter being (in my opinion) the best RPG in the history of the world... storyline wise.
So yeah, I've been visiting fansites, reading articles, saving so much fanart I don't know what to do (I have 976 files on my TotA folder D: ) and being an all around nerd.
I plan on playing all the other Tales games one of these days, but part of me is afraid that one will replace TotA in my heart and I don't want that to happen.... I keep hearing people compare one Tales game to another, saying their favorite is the best one. It doesn't help that TotA seems to have such a small fan base even though it was so good. I've heard talk that it was because it was made for the PS2 exclusively and most Tales fans only owned Nintendo consoles.

Argh, when will people learn to get over this lame console war and just but all of the systems! That's what I did and I look forward to playing Tales of Vesperia once I save up enough for the 360 and complete my console collection.
....
...

I'm going to stop rambling now since I really don't have the patience to write this much XD

Wow, its been so long since I updated.
Well, a bunch has happened since I last updated; I had strabismus surgery and was practically blind for a bit (that was fun =_= ), I got a tablet (check out my TegakiE account under the username AntiDrug) and I moved out of my house!
I'd elaborate more, but I'm supposed to be heading to work in a bit and I don't have time to make a full journal entry XD
Oh... my artist block is gone.... its been replaced by an inability to draw anything else but Kekkaishi fanart Its to the point where I'm on the verge of writing a fic and/or a fancomic.
Though my acute procrastin-itis kicks in as soon as I start either XD

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CLUBS:

I think I'm about to explode from artists block here any second now. I've had it for 2 fucking months!
This has to be the most frustrating feeling in the world. I have such a strong urge to draw, but everything I put down on paper looks like shit; I'm not even kidding (I've drawn stick figures better than the shit I've been cranking out lately)

ARGH! Its infuriating! My mind is so blank and devoid of any originality and artistic flair! I can't think of anything. No poses, no gestures, not even a quirky expression on a characters face!
I'm pretty sure its because my total and utter lack of any communication with anything or anyone artistic other than myself. Everything is so fucking 'BLAH'... My mind is so fucking empty! I feel like a retard, like seriously mentally handicapped!
My mind stops and stutters, pauses and doesn't complete any thoughts anymore. When someone asks me a question it takes me a whole 5 seconds for my mind to even fucking start up!
I have zero interaction with people, absolutely nothing to engage my mind. It feels like I have a half rotten brain in my head, like its about to start oozing out of my ears and nose any minute.
I need to become original again.
All this anime, manga... anything cartoon-ish; I'm getting so fucking sick of it!
I enjoy the storylines and the in depth plots of the manga I read, and I do wish I will one day be a comic artist... though my complete lack of ambition and my total lack of knowledge on the matter makes it seem impossible at the moment =_='
ARGH, I need to do some fucking art! Not drawings; ART! Something to assure me that I still do have a creative mind, something original, a little spark of SOMETHING that at least sets me apart from other artists (though I can't fell I can even call myself something like an artist at the moment)

When I see other people's works of art; not just drawings but photographs, music, sculptures... something that really shows that person's talent it makes me want to fucking cry because I can't even understand it anymore!
I think shit like "oh... thats pretty..." but I don't know why its pretty, I can't think anymore! It feels like this big cotton wall is dividing up my mind, I can kind of see through it to the other side but I don't know whats there...
Does anyone know what I'm talking about? Do I even make sense anymore!? Argh! I need a break from the internet, a break from TV and a fucking break the this shit-ass hick town in the middle of fucking nowhere, where nothing happens and the people are just fucking zombies!

Totally unrelated with anything I've ever mentioned; ever, and completely out of the blue... I'm going to drabble on about an original story-type thing that's been floating around in my head so often that I've been tempted to write it out (on computer of course, I hate writing by hand!!) and maybe post it in the original section on AFFnet.
Of course I'm not 18 yet (that sure as hell hasn't stopped me from frequenting the site for the past year or so XD) But I WILL be 18 by Aug. 31st, and since I'm grading in a few days I'll be living the life of an "adult" now that I've graduated, so I don't see the difference >.> So PLEASE bear with me.

It starts out in a little village in a valley, locked in an almost perpetual winter. They mostly farm animals; particularily a species of very fuzzy cows. There's a mideval theme, and a kinda sort of a magical theme. There used to be magic... about 100 years ago, but the King decided that people would be better without it and sealed away the ability for people to utilize magic (some how)... yeah... he's not exactly mister popular. But what can you do? He's the only one that retained his magical abilities, probably on account of him not exactly being human and has be the king for hundreds of years. Some people are getting miiiighty sick of him actually and are plotting to kill him... but first they have to figure out if its possible to do so XD. This comes in later....

The story's main character is named Thomas, has a 'terrible secret' (GASP!). Should anyone ever discover it, it would ruin his life completely. He'd loose everything, his friends, his job, he'd most likely get kicked out of his little snowy farming village! Thomas, it would appear, has a longing for things frilly, lacey, soft, cute and possibly pink. He often wonders what he would look like in a dress, and blushes at the thought. He also sees his male friends in a slightly 'different' light as they see him. No, he's not gay. You see, Thomas' real secret is that he was born with the complete lack of male genitalia, instead nature opted for a nice uterus and a pair of hooters. Yes, he is really a she.

The reasoning for this is that in this world a woman's place is at home, managing the money and assets, raising the kids, scrubbing floors, walls and dishes (there's also a reason for this. I don't feel like explaining it though. Its not really sexism... its just tradition.) Thomas was actually married off by her parents at the age of 16, she just wasn't cut out for it; she ditched and ran away. Wanting more excitment in life she, well, abandoned her gender and any intentions to persue that part of her life, as relationships would be quite impossible in her new situation. But for her, it was worth the sacrifice.

Okay, this story does NOT revolve around sexism issues, oppression or ANYTHING like that. Feminists... are not exactly my favorite type of people. Just had to clear that up.

Anyway, Thomas is seen as an outcast. Usually 'men' her age (she's 19 now) are married and have a family. She avoids physical contact for obvious reasons, and people would definately describe her as femine male'.
Of course she's not as physically capable as real men, but she can pull her weight on the farm. While she is an oddball almost everyone likes her because she's nice, polite and helpful to everyone. No one suspects anything at all.

The plot finally kicks in when Thomas's boss is identified as an insergent, plotting against the king, as well as a great deal of her buddies. She's caught up in it and they all are forced to flee the village to join up with the main rebel forces in refuge. So she's stuck traveling with a group of men, trying her veery best to keep her secret, as a secret. Eventually, way down the line she's discovered, but she's too far in for them to consider leaving her behind and they come to terms with it. Thomas has to come to terms with the gender she abandoned through out the journey.

They finally join up with the rebel forces, by now her friend's hate for the King has influenced her and she decides to join up as well. Believing that their fighting for justice against the Kings tyrany and are representing the very people oppressed, they're all filled with foolish righteousness. Things eventually lead to a face to face confrontation with the King himself. Thomas finds out things aren't what they seem at all. Things aren't black and white at all and this new perspective causes realization to dawn on her that she, and the rebels, are completely in the wrong. After confronting her friends, and following the ensuing argument. To make up for her folly she becomes a mole, working for the King.
....
.....

Yeah, I drabbled a lot, but I really needed to write this all down. I want to write the entire story, but at the moment I don't have the patience to write it aaaall out. I don't wanna screw it up because I was impatient.
Oh, and there's romace between Thomas and the King (who doesn't have a name yet), mostly on account that when Thomas acts as a mole she is in direct contact with the King and they get their own personal time together.... and the King's a bit of a perv (I DID say that I was going to post this on AFFnet right XD?) I also haven't decided on a Thomas's name before she ran away, but she does keep the name Thomas even after her true gender is dicovered.... 'cept the King refuses to use that name when talking to her XD
Anyway I really appreciate that you've read all the way to this point. Feed back would be nice XD