Incredibly Annoying and Unfortunately Unpopular

Well, it’s summer. At least it is here. That time of year when people eagerly head out to garbage-infested beaches filled with cigarette butts and shards of glass, for a chance to soak up rays through our deteriorating ozone layer, all in hopes of finding or becoming an attractive mate. A time when hot dogs are eaten by the hundreds, sometimes in one sitting, the barbeque is out and smoking, grills burning brightly because we added too much lighter fluid to the already flammable firewood and briquettes.

It’s currently raining, a car recently died after being struck by lightning, and I am here, in the (dis?)comfort of my own home eking out this blog.

Having done nothing but type out a fanfic that seems to have achieved little popularity and answer a few QoTWs, I have been pretty sedentary, I guess. Perhaps it’s time to go back to what I do better: look at games.

Maplestory

If you have not heard, Maplestory, the Global version, is going through another major update, this one named Chaos. We now have PvP (something I distinctly remembering they would assure us that we won’t have 5 years back). Well, PvP doesn’t come along until later in July, I believe.

We have a new skilling system. discarding the old maker skill in the process. Now there are several skills able to train, though may only pick two. Some make potions, some make armors, some does wacky stuff to potential items. This is coming up sooner in July, something that I am surprisingly eager to test. What can I say? Gems are shiny.

The part of Chaos that we DID get in late June pertains to the revival of the opportunity to create heroes, such as Aran and Evan, and make Dual Bladers again. For those of us/you that are in excess of level 160, good news:

Ereve crashes into Victoria Island and Cygnus Knights decide to beat the shit out of everyone because they become possessed by the Black Mage. Corrupting everything in sight, everything from slimes to pigs are of an excess of level 160, and deal an excess of 4000 damage, even into the 5000s. The boss, the empress herself, is currently unbeatable without the use of cheap or hacked tactics.

So… good luck with that!

Runescape

Yea… ever since free trade and the wilderness made their epic return, botting has apparently risen tenfold, and with fair reason, RWT, laziness and gold farming a rampant virus.

Jagex have stepped up their game to attract players, with quests, auras, minigames and more, but most players generally disapprove of the updates, with pathetic reasons such as “useless” and “WTF” and so forth. Then again, most forum-goers are generally the high-end players, who are snooty and act like the rich people of Runescape, and the clueless noobs and trolls. So it’s been said in agreement: Runescape is still a good game to play, not necessarily great, but good, and is only marred by the incompetence of the player. I could have sworn I’ve heard that on a late-night talk show once…

Life

It’s been rough. Had my graduation last week, as well as last day. Being the lowly outcast I am, I took it in stride, and never looked back. Now, I just have to get a job. Ah well, it was inevitable that I would somehow screw up in the job search. My parents, being asian, have once again scorned me for failing to obtain a job, thus following my theory that a good education doesn’t equate to a good job (associations have been found, but it’s not a certainty, that’s for sure).

My depression since 7th or 4th grade (can’t remember which was the beginning of true sadness) has probably never recovered to a great extent, and if it did, well, let’s just say relapse is a prevalent word in my vocabulary.

I’ve long since come to appreciate the art of newspaper games, including Sudoku, KenKen, Kakuro, and the infamous crossword.

Crosswords are an acquired taste, to say the least. The fact that one probably doesn’t know but two clues is a major turnoff to avid puzzlers. However, it usually takes a certain type of crosswords to get hooked onto the game. For instance, don’t expect anyone to fall in love with crosswords if you’re introducing them the New York Times. The amNY, on the other hand, has become laughably easy for me to complete, missing a single cell at most on rare cases. My preferences go to the Metro, which has a crossword from the Daily News, but is free, so my money can go to buying graphite, or erasers.

Well, that’s been my story so far. Hopefully something more incredible/incredulous will come along this summer. Who knows? The season is young.