I bought a Sony PlayStation way back in mid-1995, with a couple of games. Prior to that I owned the Sega Master System (SMS), the original 8-bit Nintendo, then an SNES. When I bought the PSX, it was like stepping into a whole other world for me as far as console gaming was concerned. As with the other consoles, I always loved and enjoyed the baseball games they made. With the Nintendo, I couldn’t get enough of the Nintendo-released Baseball(tm), or R.B.I Baseball, or Bases Loaded. For the SNES, it was Ken Griffey Baseball. So for the PlayStation, I had one choice: Triple Play Baseball ‘97. It came out just before spring training in 1996, and I loved it to death. Todd used to play this one game called Baseball All-Stars, and it had this option to create your own players. TPB did the same thing, and it captured the whole arcade feel that some of the baseball games for the PC had lost. The PC games tended to be a little more clinical than fun, often just being fantasy league simulators with the option of watching full games played out, like Baseball Mogul.

TPB 97 was followed by 98. 98’s version improved several features but retained most of the game that I loved. 99 was the same thing, and 2000 was amazing. Then, in 01, things started to suck. 2002 I didn’t even bother buying, as it had taken it to moving a cursor around this stupid little box in order to get a proper hit. You couldn’t even be bothered with the feel of actually swinging the bat anymore, not the way I was used to. In the other games, you moved the directional pad a certain way, you swung the bat and off you went. Now, with the newer games, you must move your bat into position and then swing, instead of changing bat position on the fly. I felt too removed from the gameplay for it to be enjoyed.

Now that I have a PS2, I’ve been looking for a decent baseball game to play. I bought the 2002 TPB but it blew chunks, so I traded it back in for store credit and I picked up High Heat Baseball 2003. Everything that Triple Play lost, High Heat made up for. Gone is the stupid cursor, and they enhanced the aftertouch on pitching to make those curves a little curvier, or the knuckleball almost insanely wicked. I love this game, it just returned to me all the cool features I loved about all my early baseball games. Also, it does allow me to create players, so now I have this roster of players made up of nothing but anime characters!

I’m taking this team to the series!

LJ Archive | No Comments »

For some reason, I’ve always been of a particular belief that one’s birthday is supposed to be something of a wonderful day. When I say wonderful, I mean in the sense that perhaps there’s a great expectation on the outcome of the day. Something to look forward to, it’s drilled into you as a kid. Your birthday is like Christmas Junior on the calendar, though you’re the only one getting presents. While I don’t judge how good a birthday is by the material aspect, I did feel somewhat disappointed. I didn’t do anything except lay around and watching movies, chatted online for a bit. I wrote a little bit, too. But that was it until dinner.

I had to schedule my own birthday party this year. A dinner at my favorite restaurant, with my mother and some friends. My best friend couldn’t come because he was working, and I was pretty disappointed by that. My own grandmother didn’t even go, all because she doesn’t like Japanese food. I felt hurt by that, not because of my choice in food, but because I thought maybe she’d give in because it was my birthday. I guess love has it’s limits, a lesson I’ve learned time and time again, but I never understood completely. Because of that action, I think it just reset the whole night for me. I mean, she’s pretty important to me, so it said a lot when she decided to stay home and not spend time with me. If my father knew, he would be very pissed off, but I just feel rather hurt by it.

I’m sure you wouldn’t know it to see me over there, I think I held myself admirably, but I just couldn’t get over it. I even extended the night by going to pick up Todd from work and going to go see The Bourne Identity. Good movie, by the way, highly recommended. Right now, I still feel the need to want to go out and have some fun, somewhere. It’s too bad Todd and Jody had to go home, but it is a weeknight and they both have work tomorrow. I guess I’m cursed out of a proper social life with my working weekends and having the week generally free. None of my friends are of such a schedule, and that makes going out a little tougher. I live with my grandmother, who’s pushing 80, and my mother… both of them aren’t exactly what I call active. I guess this is why I try to play DDR everyday, as much as possible. I’m getting out, and I’m exercising. I never come home without feeling as though I just ran a marathon, but it feels good to do that. I get a lot of frustration out of my system by doing that.

Tonight, though, I got a visit from a friend of mine who lives pretty far away up in San Mateo. John was able to make it down and spend time, even though it was for a mere hour, I still felt very happy by his making the trip down through rush hour traffic on 101 and even though he got lost, he still made it. He had 30 minutes notice, but he came. It gave me a little pause to really think about that whole friendship thing. John and I hardly spend time together, not every day or even every month at times, but when we do talk, we just sort of pick up from where we left off, y’know? I don’t think I’ve ever heard him get upset with me once for going a long time between chats. Same with Todd, Jody, Robert, Dave, Mark, Karen, Mike… except one.

Now this isn’t to say that everyone is the same. Others might have a different view of friendship, different definitions of what friends mean to them. This is something I’ve been trying to understand, lately. John’s act made me realize about something. So, I need to take some time and figure out what I’m going to do about that one person. I have the middle of the week free, but she doesn’t. Makes things pretty difficult, especially if I’m going to do what I want to do. But we’ll see. I’m sure this’ll pull it all together. This is going to be the one thing I know that’ll help things between us.

LJ Archive | No Comments »

Unlike others, I tend to think of my birthday as the most appropriate time to set my resolutions for the coming year. I mean, this is the beginning of a true new year for me. New Year’s is a little too cut and dry, and to be honest, I’m just not as introspective on New Year’s as I am for my birthday. Therefore, as I’ve come to understand what I want this year, I have written down online here for everyone to see, what I intend to do.

I, Zefram Cochrane, resolve to:

1) Have the very best time I can at Anime Expo 2002.

2) Continue losing weight and watching my diet.

3) Mange my money enough to have a savings account I can be proud of.

4) Work as hard as possible to get into a school in Tokyo.

5) Avoid emotional entanglements.

6) Complete my current creative project before I leave the country.

I can try and explain what I mean by each, of course. The first and second one is pretty explanatory. I’ve already begun losing a couple of inches off my waist. My goal here is to be able to fit in a damn coach seat for the long almost-day-long flight to Japan. The third resolution is to ensure that I’ll have enough money to fall back on, and use it for the living expenses part of my stay in Japan, which leads to the fourth resolution pretty nicely.

Number five is a strong one. I cannot afford any kind of relationship beyond intimate friendship. I have a personal goal I need to tend to, and that’s paramount as of right now. This is pretty important, and a resolution that’ll be difficult, as I am very aware of the fact that I tend to wear my heart on my sleeve, but so far so good. Ever since Marla, I’ve been emotionally free for almost six months, a new record since Stephanie left me. I definitely need to continue on by myself, so that I can accomplish this and then maybe I can work on that whole “shiawase” concept everyone is finding these days. My extended thoughts on this could be the subject of another livejournal entry, I’m sure.

The sixth resolution is pretty important, too. I have this book I’m writing, and I’ve finally found a good outlet for it. Not to mention, someone who’s actually interested in seeing this project to fruition and able to technically advise me along the way to make sure that I’m writing accurately on that level. This is good, as it’s provided me with inspiration to continue instead of falling short and losing interest. I hope, this time, I’ll be able to see this one through, because so far it seems like it’s going pretty good.

Anyway, there we have it. I don’t believe that this is an unreasonable list of resolutions. I’ll see what happens in a year, and try and make sure I accomplish as many as possible.

LJ Archive | No Comments »