Wrapping Up a Crazy Week

First off, I want to send my sincere condolences to those directly affected by the shootings at Fort Hood, Texas and at Orlando, Florida. One of my co-worker's brother is stationed at Fort Hood. He is okay. I don't know why these people resort to violence! Everyone is going through a tough time with so many things going wrong, but taking your frustrations out on people by using violence is not the way to go!

The horrible shootings this week combined with my usual stress from work, the Philadelphia transit union going on strike and the United State's unemployment level surging past 10% capped off a crazy week. It was not a pleasant week to say the least.

I was kept busy for work during the week. I did my usual rounding up of getting all the Philly employee's timesheets in on time and reminding them to submit their expense reports on Monday. I updated some budget numbers on Tuesday. I ran draft invoices for my project managers on Wednesday and Thursday. I was kept busy with a few assignments which included producing a project tracking table on excel yesterday. I did not find myself totally stressed out as I usually am, but the events outside of work made it tougher for me to get working this week.

On 3AM Tuesday, the Philadelphia transit union went on strike. The union planned to go on strike last weekend, but they held off after a counter-threat made by the Pennsylvania governor. Unfortunately, the strike has already made commutes in and out of the city much more stressful. All the buses, subways, and trolleys in Philadelphia and not operating, which left a lot of people forced to get to their destinations using a different method. Traffic has increased significantly inside the city and the major highways that suburban commuters drive to get to the city, along with an increased amount of accidents. The trains on the regional railroads are always packed and moving slowly. There were two accidents on the railroads this week, one of them killing a railroad worker who was working on the tracks. The union and negotiators are at the table tonight in hopes of agreeing to a new contact.

The United States government reported on Friday that the country's unemployment rate increased to 10.2%. A lot of companies are not hiring and are awaiting to see the the economy become more active before they feel comfortable in hiring again. The problem right now is that a lot of people are out of work and cannot spend money. A job would help those gain that extra amount of money they can use to spend outside of their immediate needs. I sincerely hope things turn around soon.

A quick update on my new job search. My job applications to Aria Hospital Torresdale, Comcast and Misericordia University ended up as losses as I have not been contacted by them for over three weeks. I have applied to the Gift of Life Donors Program last weekend, but no response yet to that application.

Lastly, I made five video game purchases last week: Borderlands (X360), Forza Motorsport 3 (X360), Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 (PS3), Tekken 6 (PS3) and Uncharted 2 (PS3).

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Blogging Thoughts

I have been visiting Gamespot actively since July 2003 and kept a blog here since August 2006. I have made great friends throughout my tenure here. However, in the last year or so, a lot of people I had contact with are not active in Gamespot anymore. I still have a few people here are read here, but I feel like I am not connecting out to a lot of people anymore. Lately, I have been thinking of not blogging on this journal after New Years Day 2010. That can still change, but I have some doubts whether I want to continue blogging here. That does not mean I will be leaving Gamespot altogether. I'll still be here reading your blog entries and visiting the site daily for news and reviews.

Unfortunately, my blog has dwindled down to mostly work and life related context instead of talking about games and other fun stuff. The only person I can blame for my downfall in blog quality is myself. I hope all of you can understand my frustrations at work and I apologize for bringing it up so often to you guys and gals. I am still working my way to find that happiness where I won't be as stressed out and take things more in stride.

I have a few neat blog entries coming up, along with the typical Thanksgiving and Christmas blog entries. Here's what I am working out on my Livejournal to transfer over here.

A] Five Favorite Games from This Decade (2000s)
B] Under the Radar Music Albums from This Decade
C] Ten Favorite Albums This Year (2009)
D] Five Favorite Anime from This Decade

I hope these blog entries will bring some life to this blog and keep me motivated to continue. Expect the first blog entry on one of those topics around Thanksgiving.

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Thank you for reading today. I hope things are going well with all of you!

And now for something different!

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BlazBlue is a 2D fighting game developed by Aksys Games, who is also responsible (and well-known) in developing the Guilty Gear franchise. If you are familiar with the gameplay on Guilty Gear, the transition to BlazBlue will be smooth for the most part. For those who are new, BlazBlue will take a lot of time to truly embrace. If you manage to get used to all the characters and gameplay, the game will be a rewarding experience to most. Hardcore fighting gamers will love the fast-paced and on-your-feet strategy matches the game provides. Those not much in tune with the fighting genre may be frustrated by it all.

The production in BlazBlue is top notch all around. The graphics look amazing from the characters, their animations, and the active and crowded backgrounds on all the stages. The music is okay, your standard Japanese music fare. The fighting is fast and furious and the game manages to get every little move you command instantly with no lag, which is impressive considering how crazy most matches you'll get involved in.

BlazBlue features your usual fare of game modes to dive into. It has arcade, versus, score attack, story and online. However, Aksys did something neat with the score attack and story modes of the game. On the surface, score attack may seem like a straightforward survival/high score mode. But the difficulty in score attack is defaulted to the game's hardest difficulty. So if you manage to beat score attack mode, you are one hell of a fighter. The game also features a story mode, where the games goes in depth with every character so that you get a sense of what each character is fighting for. I have no played through story mode a lot, but it's nice that Aksys put some time in getting some story fleshed out to understand more of their cast of characters. The game's online mode is solid. There are two modes you can enter in online mode, ranked matches and player matches. You gain experience in both modes and the game keeps track of your stats in both modes. Ranked matches are your competitive one-on-one matches. You can either get a quick match going with another, or see what other opponents are available to fight. Player matches tend to be more casual, as you can enter into a room with other gamers and play. The neat feature in player matches is that you can watch other players battle as you wait for your turn to fight. As for connectivity, I found most of my fights lag free. There are a few matches where the lag is pretty bad, but overall no overwhelming issues with online.

Character personality is important in a fighting game in my opinion. You don't want to play a game where the characters lack that personality that makes you attached to the game. Luckily, BlazBlue manages to pack in plenty of distinct personalities in its cast of characters. [I wish I could say more about the characters, but I haven't played in-depth with many characters yet.]

Ultimately, a fighting game makes its mark with its gameplay. This is where many gamers will be tested. First is the characters. Not only the twelve characters all have their distinctive personality, each one has a very distinctive fighting tendencies. They're so distinctive that you have to literally change your mindset if you choose to play around with each character. What may work for one character will not work for the other. In short, each character is a challenge in itself. As well as getting used to the characters, there are a couple of features to keep in mind while in battle. There are two different forms of blocks. You have your standard block, but there are also barrier blocks in which you receive no damage from any attack you defend. But you have to be careful is using barrier block as your meter quickly consumes as soon as you use it. There is also a barrier burst, typically used to break out in a middle of an opponent's combo. It's a neat feature in the game as it pushes your character back and gets you back on your feet. In consequence, you cannot use it again once you deploy it, and you take in more damage after you barrier burst. There are also negative warnings (you receive extra damage for being hit because you are not being active in battle) and guard crushes (there is a meter under the timer to indicate if you're getting close to being guard crushed). All the little features in battle encourages (or forces) you to be offensive. You can play a defensive game if you know what you are doing, but in the end, all the gameplay features tend to favor an offensive fight.

Your enjoyment of BlazBlue comes down if you can handle and enjoy the gamplay of the game. If you can put in the time and effort of getting a grasp of the character's fighting tendancies and the features during battle, you will enjoy the game. Otherwise, this game will end up being frustrating because there is so much to learn.

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For me, BlazBlue is enjoyable to a point. I enjoy fighting games but I am no expert, so I get frequently frustrated whenever I play the game. It's one of those games that can be fun at times, but downright awful at others. BlazBlue is great with it's production, engaging characters, crazy and active fights and solid online multiplayer, but being able to grasp the different fighting methods and keeping up with the offensively driven fights keep me from truly enjoying the game.

BlazBlue is available on the X-Box 360 and Playstation 3 consoles in the United States. It was initially released as a limited edition with a second case which includes a DVD strategy guide and two soundtrack CDs for $60. Now the game is released in its standard version (just the game) for $50.

I might as well get it over with so that I do not have to think about it in the near future. I have a rough work week ahead.

Work / Life Recent Updates

There was one severe repercussion on taking a vacation. When I returned to my cubicle on Monday, I had 85 e-mails sent to me during my absence. I had to work long hours Monday through Thursday last week to catch up on the missed work. **SIGH**

I applied for a new job last Sunday for a staff accountant position for a hospital. I have not received any feedback since I applied, but I hope I do get a chance to compete for the position. If I don't hear back from them by next week, then I will consider this a loss. I do have my hopes up since I am looking forward to a new workplace which may improve my spirits.

I have been bothered with headaches and other mild issues with my health due to the sudden drop in temperature as fall is upon us. It's nothing serious but I do need to take better care of myself.

I have to admit that I've been a bit reserved with my recent blog entries as I was afraid to discuss a few topics. Down the road, if I'm in a better mood, I may open myself up to some topics I may have stopped myself from sharing here due to some circumstances.

Lastly, my friend introduced me to an article that I think everyone should read regarding the political environment the United States has fallen under. (Where Did 'We' Go?)

Refurbished X-Box 360 Console Arrives

I finally got an X-Box 360 console back in from Microsoft on Thursday. But instead of getting the console we purchased back, we got a refurbished console from them. Well, as long as it works without fail I will not complain. However, there was one issue when I logged back onto X-Box Live. I noticed that some of the arcade games and game add-ons can only be played on the profile it was purchased for. This stinks in the fact that at least half of the arcade games and game add-ons were purchased from my brother's profile. So in order to play whatever is purchased on my brother's profile on my profile, I have to log him in as well. In short, I have to open my brother's profile and my profile to play everything that is on my X-Box 360 hard drive. It's not that much of a problem since my brother is only a silver member on X-Box Live, but it'd be more troublesome if he was gold and had a lot of friends on it.

Microsoft also extended our warranty on our refurbished model up to the end of this year, in case anything occurs with our refurbished console. They also gave us a free one month gold membership card for our troubles. My brother does not intend to use it, so I'll use it once my current gold subscription ends.

Other Items

I may have found a possible anime I am going to do my best to follow. After reading through Anime News Network's editors provide their thoughts on the new anime being released this season, I have found one that peaked my interest, Sasameki Koto. It is currently being streamed at Crunchyroll, but I will have to wait a week to watch new episodes as I am not a paid member. No worries. I hope this will be a nice series to watch. [I know I have other anime to watch that I have yet to get to.]

All I have written thoughout the year primarily concerning my reactions on my work. I have not been able to write anything else as I continue to work, take care of my family's finances, look for a new job, and trying my best to stay sane. I have some other thoughts in mind that I want to post here, but the stress from work and life continue to place an entry I would love to write on the back burner. Maybe as the workload decreases toward the end of the year, I will have an opportunity to write these other entries and share them with you.

In the meantime, are my blog entries boring? I have a feeling they are boring because they are long and is essentially me ranting about my job.

Recent Purchases

MUSIC

Caspian - Tertia
The Feelies - Crazy Rhythms
The Feelies - The Good Earth
Jesu - Silver EP
The Mountain Goats - The Life of the World to Come
This Will Destroy You / Lymbic System - Field Studies EP

VIDEO GAMES

Ninja Gaiden Sigma (PS3, used)
Songs for Rock Band (X-Box 360)

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Thanks again for those who stopped by! I hope all of you are doing well with your lives! Till next entry...