I really have no idea what I'm going to do in Portland, so I went to TripAdvisor. According to the popular vote, the top five places to visit there are gardens.

Dad had to come downstairs to investigate why I was squealing with joy so much.

Sorry, really busy tonight. Here's a clip of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix as a teen comedy, a tribute I think to the effects of editing:

DMC thread (or "floss" as it's called in the needlework world) pretty much has a monopoly. Let's say you want jade green. Each one of their colors is attached to a number, so if you get a pattern somewhere it'll say, "Get DMC 505," and it'll be jade green. There's literally hundreds of these with the highest number being 3866. Recently I got a new pattern that with numbers higher than that, which confused the shit out of me. And it was worse when I went to all the thread stores knew of and they didn't have anything higher than 3866. It seems DMC released sixteen new colors recently, but because every single shop has a display that has the exact amount of thread, there's no room for the new ones. And because I haven't seen this new palette in real life, I can't match it to an existing thread that's close. Why the hell would they do this to us? Isn't hundreds of colors enough?

You have to be there to find this as funny as Moham and I did, but I'll try to explain: In Grandia a very muscular woman joins our party and says we should meet her husband because he knows the old lore and would be able to help us on our quest. Over and over she talked about her husband: how much she loved him and missed him and how she couldn't wait to return home and see him. Now, because of her body structure, I expected her race to be something like the orcs from World of Warcraft: Although ripped as fuck, the females are still smaller than the males. I thought when we met him, he would be huge.

When we entered the town, she squealed in delight at seeing him, and then the camera panned over to show us this:

It took about 0.5 seconds for this image to register before Moham and I collapsed in laughter. Our lungs literally were hurting for the next two hours because we howled so much. That probably was the last thing I imagined her husband to be. And the worst part is this isn't interspecies! Every single male in town is some sort of adorable cow creature! How high were the designers tripping when they designed these people? It doesn't add anything to the game; after commenting he looks like a bull, the characters just moved on with their lives. So why make him like that? It's so ridiculous I started laughing again as I uploaded this picture.

Although in third person, Harry Potter is definitely narrated from Harry's point of view with the exception of the occasional chapter that takes place elsewhere. And as such, I've picked up on some of his speech patterns. For example, he almost always calls someone of his age group by their first name ("Dean" instead of "Thomas"), even if they're on bad terms ("Ernie" instead of "Macmillain.") Older students he varies; he tends to use last names unless if he's friendly with them ("Diggory" became "Cedric" after the Triwizard Tournament) with the exception of Oliver Wood. Slytherins are always by the last name ("Malfoy," "Crabbe," "Goyle") however he consistently uses first names with females whether he knows them well or not and even if they're in Slytherin ("Pansy" instead of "Parkinson," "Millicent" instead of "Bulstrode"). If he meets a student's parent, he will call them by title to differentiate them from the child ("Mr. Malfoy" for Lucius) and he very, very rarely calls an adult by their first name even if they're close. And now I'm stepping into controversy: If he meets a black person, he will instantly note their race, which is why I don't think Hermione Granger is black, but he doesn't for other races.

These small nuances is what makes a character unique and creates layers to their personalities. It shows how they view other people and how they regard their relationships with them. Harry is respectful toward his elders, but with his godfather, the one person he views as a surrogate father, he calls him "Sirius." And if you're going to translate this type of stuff, you need to pay attention to these to retain the richness. For example, let's look at this:

This completely threw me off because the speaker always calls him by his last name, Okumura-kun. I've always taken note of this because I found it weird to call him that when they're brothers. So I checked the original and the line is, "君もこちらへ." Yeah, he didn't call him Rin! The translator just fucked up!

These kinds of discrepancies are all over the place in many different series. If you make these types of errors, then fans start treating these words as gospel and write long-ass essays about stuff that isn't even right. I would not be surprised if I found a post saying these two brothers' relationships has strengthened now that they're on a first-name basis, even though it's completely, utterly wrong. Admittedly for scanlations the groups aren't being paid for this, but I would hope if you like a series so much that you dedicate your spare time to translate it, you would notice these nuances.

What concerns me particularly about the picture above is I believe it's from the official translation. Meaning someone was paid for that fuck up.

Grandia is a 3D game, and even though for the time that was pretty impressive, I really wish it went with a fixed camera. Let's compare it with a contemporary, Final Fantasy VII. It had gorgeous drawn backgrounds that were so memorable that to this day I can look at a screenshot of it and know which direction I was supposed to go. Grandia has no focal points in any of its dungeons; they're literally all the same walls and floors. It's one step away from just drawing a maze with lines. And because it's 3D, it's harder for me mentally to remember whether I came from the right or left and there's no focal point to situate myself. And Grandia dungeons aren't like the ones nowadays. None of them are linear. There are branches in every direction, and some places have you walking up and down floors. I lose track sometimes if I've been somewhere already. If you're going to create dungeons that complicated, please dial it back a bit. Don't waste your space for graphics on 3D and spend more resources on generating unique backgrounds so I can figure out where the fuck I am.

If you're going to throw a metaphor into your work, it needs to be somewhat understandable. Take Animal Farm. We all know it was about communism. We can even say which animal was Stalin or Trotsky. Or in The Lord of the Flies, Piggy is civilized society. I get it.

Because otherwise it's going to confuse the audience, particularly if the metaphor isn't subtle. Last night I watched Wagner's opera of Tristan und Isolde, a story about two people who accidentally drink a love potion. Unfortunately Isolde is married off to Tristan's uncle, and eventually their love affair is revealed. After being injured in a duel, Tristan dies and Isolde mourns her loss.

Whenever Tristan soliloquized his difficult situation, on occasion an actor in a white uniform or a small child would appear on stage, walk around a bit, and then disappear into the darkness without uttering a line. They clearly were placed there by the current director and were not an invention of Wagner and are supposed to represent... something, but I had no idea. Duty? Innocence? I thought my ignorance was perhaps because I'm terrible at this shit, but during the intermission from overheard conversations I could tell no one else could figure it out either.

It's like when that wolf would randomly show up in Advent Children. The creators are clearly aiming for something, but it's so vague it's nonsensical and even destroys the flow of the narration now that the viewer is bewildered. Metaphors are great if they enhance the experience. Doing it like that is not. It's jarring and can actually upset the audience. Don't fucking do it, unless you want your entire work to be a giant mindfuck like Ulysses.

My local library has a huge kids' section and often tries to help the community in various ways, like hosting talks, providing computer or ESL classes, or even giving a space for knitting circles. That's great and I'm really proud that they're providing a valuable service that's desperately needed.

What I don't appreciate is no one seems to realize this is a fucking library. I come here because it's too damned loud at Starbucks. Kids will be screaming as they stand in line and the parents don't even bother to teach them this is a quiet area. People will just have long, loud cellphone conversations. Teenagers delegate this as their hang-out spot and start arguing the merits of a video games. One dude started watching a boxing match on his laptop and didn't put his headphones on. Again, this is all great, just do it outside of the door. And the staff doesn't give a shit. They'll let it all happen. Where the hell are people expected to study?

I've had a Hotmail account for the past two decades that I use mostly for online purchases. However in the past two years the Hotmail website (now under the auspices of Microsoft Outlook) is nearly fucking unusable. I delete shit and when I check later it's still in my inbox. I try to open an email and it just doesn't work. Maybe they're designing it purely for Explorer, but they really should assure it functions on different browsers. Microsoft is on the defensive right now, so you'd think it would be best not to alienate more users. And seriously, how fucking difficult is it nowadays to make shit compatible?

Recently the McDonald's near my house added kiosks. If you've ever used them, you'll notice they as for you to provide a "location number," which I assumed meant you could sit down somewhere and they could locate your place using that number. It's just none of the McDonald's I've patronized ever pretended it was anything besides a fast food joint.

Except for my local McDonald's. They will walk out with a tray and hand it to you at your seat. However they never added the kiosk to their system. Normally they'd hand you a cup at the counter and then you walk to your seat. If I'm ordering from a kiosk, then there's no cup. And I blame corporate McDonald's a bit as well; they never really explained what a "locator number" is from the start, and after the whole city doesn't heed them, I just waited in line patiently for them to give me my order, not realizing a woman was walking around the tables with my food, looking for me.

Really, if they're going to add this system, they need to give better cues and flexibility. Tell me what a locator number is and tell me to wait at my seat. If that store doesn't do that, then allow the management to remove that part of the ordering process so I don't just assume it's meaningless. How the hell hasn't anyone figured that out?

Update on yesterday's post: Even the map on the GamePad is tiny because the developers felt it completely necessary to add a giant button in the center to honk your horn, as if anyone would listen to that.

The Wii U GamePad has a screen on it, and developers have been trying to figure out what to do with it ever since, but so far it's mostly used for menu or map purposes. I generally find them annoying because I have to move my finger away from its default over the buttons to the touch screen, and then even look down because there are no physical cues to help direct my finger where to go.

But the most asinine usage so far is Mario Kart 8, which does put the map on that little screen. Who in their right mind would take their eyes off the screen during a race to stare at their hands? What was wrong with it in the corner of the TV like has been for over a decade?

Through some miracle of God, Legaia 2 was completed before Alex went off to China. You may have heard bad things about this game, and I can assure you it's pretty accurate. The plot is short and weak: The world was created in the "Source Forge" by three crystals. Some crazy person wants to destroy the world and create it anew by misaligning these crystals à la Kefka. Somehow both the protagonist and the antagonist were directly smithed by the forge — how and why wasn't revealed — so we are "Star Shapers." I guess that means we're more powerful and special than others, but like Zidane I don't see how the protagonist is stronger than the rest of the party. Through the Power of Hope and the Will of All Living Things we managed to put the crystals were they belong. I guess. On top of that there are people called Mystics who have these summon spirits that perform magic and everyone hates them, but no mention why they have it or how they were chosen. Really the whole thing didn't make much sense.

Characters are pretty blah. They're not terrible but none really stand out in my mind that I'll keep with me like with other games. The writers wanted to demonstrate how layered a people's personalities are; two siblings who were nothing but dicks the whole game had a touching death after revealing they were abandoned by their parents for being Mystics. It's just the writing is so bad that the heart strings are never tugged.

Music is aight, but the first game was better. Clearly the composer thought so too because about a fifth of the tracks are just remixes. The original song is probably the final boss.

Fundamental game design could've been tweaked too. If you've ever played the first Legaia, you know these are long battles. To reduce the time, they could've stopped a combo if the first hit killed the enemy instead of making us watch the whole thing. They didn't need these long zoom-ins of the enemy after an attack. But if they insisted on keeping those, they should've realized it is a fucking long battle system. By the time we're done, we forgot what we're doing in a dungeon. So what would've been better is to adjust the experience gained and needed, and lowered the encounter rate so we could fucking get shit done instead of spending seven hours in battle for just one dungeon.

Speaking of dungeons, holy shit. So at one point we needed to sneak into a castle via the sewers. A really complicated thing involving water levels and sluice gates. So we get to the end... and it's literally a ladder leading manhole cover at the end of town. We could've just walked there above ground. It didn't bring us to the castle. Apparently you're supposed to punch a hole in the wall right next to the ladder which brings you forward except it doesn't look anything different from the rest of the walls so without a FAQ it's impossible to know. Why did they force us to do the entire sewer dungeon then if we could've just gone down the manhole then? And even worse, after we went through that hole, there was another fucking dungeon afterward that was just as long! What the hell! And then the castle was another dungeon! Three ridiculously long dungeons in a row with puzzles and a high encounter rate. And the worst fucking part was we needed to go back to the castle again, meaning we had to do all that bullshit over again!

So yeah. I would not recommend this to anyone unless if they're out of things to play. It's not the worst thing out there, but it's not high up by any means. I can see why the series died with it.

I'm becoming more and more concerned about my memory. My short-term is completely shot, I've known that for a while, but even words are an issue now. Names in particular have always been a problem since I was young, but now I'm even forgetting regular terms. Here's a list of what I've had difficulties recalling in the past week:

• Dome
• Stew Leonard's
• Wisteria
• Music
• Hyde Park
• Malevolence
• Drapes
• Cue stick
• Tournament
• Museum
• Container
• Firetruck
• Playing cards
• Newspaper

The thing is I don't even know how to address this. When you've reached the point that you can't even remember the name for a firetruck, what can be done?

I really hate talking on the phone. Although I have no problems texting or IMing, for some reason when I'm talking with someone and not being able to see their face to gauge their emotions bothers the fuck out of me. I will go out of my way to avoid a phone conversation whenever possible. To the point that even when I get phone calls from fake, imaginary guys I can feel my blood pressure rising. How is this possible? They don't exist and I'm still stressed out!

Do you think my parents would be pissed at me if I did this?

Child: I'm tired of playing "I Spy!"
Me: OK, what do you want to play?
Child: Let's play a game where I find a color in the room and you have to figure out what it is.
Me: ............Let me get this straight. You look around the room, find an object, tell me the color, and I have to guess the object from that.
Child: Mm-hm.
Me: ............And this is a completely different game from "I Spy."
Child: Mm-hm!
Me: ............Because you're tired of playing that.
Child: Mm-hm!
Me: All right, let's go with that logic.

Busy again today, here's a video:

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Voting rights have always been a contentious issue in this country. It envokes old memories of whites standing outside the polls with guns to deter blacks. It reminds us of workers being forced to vote for a certain candidate if they wanted to keep their job.

The matter still continues today with the right decrying voter fraud whereas the left says this is voter suppression, but in some ways I feel both are wrong. Several independent studies demonstrated any voter fraud, if there is any, is so small to the point of being insignificant to the outcome. But conversely when people talk about voter suppression, I wonder what the issue is.

Now if they're closing polling stations in black or Latino areas, that I can understand is an issue. But if they're asking for an ID, that I don't understand. Why is this a problem? Who the fuck doesn't have an ID? How do you buy alcohol? Or drive a car? Or get a loan? Or apply for a job? Honestly if you don't have a government-issued ID, I just automatically assume you're an illegal immigrant who can't vote anyway. Why is requiring an ID a problem? I fucking need one to walk around NYC because the cops can detain me otherwise. And I know outsideo of NYC everyone needs to drive everywhere to get places. How does no one have an ID?

Then there are other things like same-day voter registration. I'm sorry, why the fuck are you registering to vote literally the day of the election? Honestly I'm not certain you can complain about being surpressed when clearly you didn't give a shit about voting until literally the last second. You've relinquished the right at that point. Do you even know what the issues are?

Sorry, busy today as well so here's a picture of Christopher Columbus' coffin:

How fucking cool is that? Imagine your final resting place is literally the anthropomorphized four kingdoms of Spain carrying you to the afterlife. I want something as cool as this.