FF ramblings

[ria_oaks]

I happened to check Rpgamer.com a few minutes ago and noticed that FFIII:DS comes out today (I haven't really been keeping track...). I'm probably just being too over-emotional, but this day feels rather historic in the RPG world - the last Final Fantasy that wasn't released in the US is finally here. I checked, and it's been approximately 16.5 years since FFIII was released in Japan - well, better late than never, I guess. XD I mean sure, I played it years ago on a translated ROM and I won't be buying this version anytime soon (lack of a DS... and lack of time to play. woe.), but it's still cool to think that it's here. It's sort of a pity that the original version of the game will never make it here, most likely (how hard would it have been to include the orignal version in the new game, really...?), but the new version looks pretty spiffy. Hopefully I'll get to play it someday.

3 FF games in the past 2 weeks, 2 of which are new to the US (FFXII and FFIII:DS) and one of which only ever made it here in a mangled fashion (FFV Advance) - makes me miss the days when I could play all the time... I haven't really been into gaming as much the last few years, largely because of a. lack of time during school, b. other interests take up my free time, and c. i'm lazy., but I still get excited hearing about games and still want to play when I get the chance. I'm way behind on all the games I'm playing, but I still plan to ask for either FFXII or Disgaea 2 for Christmas (leaning towards the latter - FFXII will be easy enough to find for years to come, and it'll get cheap fairly quickly, whereas Disgaea 2 will start disappearing soon...). I am sorely tempted by FFXII, though - it's been getting fantastic reviews, and hell, it's FFXII! We've been waiting for this game for years, and it's finally here... and I really can't justify the time or money to get it. Part of me, too, is still a bit uncertain about it - but most of the reviews have said that the game is nothing like (and much better than) anything we've seen of it to this point, including the demo. I plan to give it a chance eventually, but can't do it yet.

And... I'm procrastinating. Back to my Farscape paper... it's due tomorrow at 9, so I need to get moving. Up to 5 pages, need about 12 - and I'm still blathering on about the context, haven't even gotten to analysing the series itself! Ehehehe. baaack to work.

Comments

[ria-oaks.livejournal.com]

Hi.

You end up going to Metro? Finish your Christmas shopping? ;) I'll likely be down next weekend, so we should see a movie or somehting... still want to see I Am Legend. And Sweeny Todd, though Mom maaay want to go to that (she's trying to decide if she can handle the gore, lol - personally I could care less about the gore, it's Johnny Depp singing for chrissakes!).

I'm cleaning my room. Go me. Well, actually I'm taking a break (for the past, like, hour and a half) and looking for Browncoat Cruise pics online for my scrapbook. Planning to buy some from the official photographs ($1 per digital negative emailed), but the one that I really want (me at the masquerade) is for some reason not available digitally - only as a $3 4X6 print that costs $2.99 to ship. And I think that $6 is a tad steep for one 4X6. o.o So I'm being bad and saving the version (with the copyright watermark) off of their website and erasing the watermark. Only for that pic, though... I hope that the ones they email me are bigger/higher res, too, than the watermarked ones.

Should finish cleaning my room. o.o It's... mostly done. Tis really a relief to get all the crap off of the floor and various surfaces (it was a MESS in here). Ooh, and need to wrap presents. :)

Can you tell I'm bored? XD

[bk635.livejournal.com]

No, I'm going tomorrow. On Christmas Eve. I haven't even started my Christmas shopping (I don't have much to buy).

I wouldn't mind seeing I Am Legend. I saw the original black & white; and I like the whole "last man on on Earth" plot. What's Sweeny Todd about?

I'm bored myself; I want to go back to school already. I really want to find out what I got on my Cell Biology exam.

Just got done helping my Dad deal with a Paypal scam. :\

[ria-oaks.livejournal.com]

Haha, bad you. XD I remember last Tuesday or Wednesday hearing a statistic that said 1 in 5 Canadians hadn't started Christmas shopping.. lol. Well, good luck - it's gonna be batshit insane in there. :)

You never hear of Sweeny Todd? It's quite a well known musical... I saw it once ages ago, I believe. It's very dark. I don't remember the details of the plot too well, but it's pretty much about a barber who starts killing people and putting them in pies. :) Or something to that extent. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1183955-sweeney_todd_the_demon_barber_of_fleet_street/about.php
It's got good reviews and a great cast (Johnny of course, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman). I've been looking forward to it for awhile. Tony Head also has a tiiiny part in it - think it used to be bigger but he got mostly cut out. Now he has, like, one line. Too bad, I'd love to hear him sing again - he's got a fantastic voice.

Dude, shouldn't you be, like, enjoying your holiday and doing fuck all? XD

Haha, I get those all the time... annoying.

[ria-oaks.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, and it's directed by Tim Burton. Almost forgot that, and it's one of the most important points. XD

[bk635.livejournal.com]

Haha.. A segment on the news about regifting. They even showed that Seinfeld scene.

My Dad was going along with the scam; neither one of us has any experience with selling items over Paypal. Good thing he didn't give out any critical information.

I'll dress like a terrorist. Watch people move out of the way.

[ria-oaks.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I don't remember a Seinfeld regifting scene - which was that? Amazingly I still come across eps I haven't seen, so... :)

Oh, you mean it wasn't an email scam? He was trying to do something through Paypal and it wasn't legit? That sucks. Email scams are easy enough; I just don't trust anything that comes from Paypal/Ebay/etc unless I've double checked it through their website.

Or watch them taser you to death. Just don't go to YVR. XD

[bk635.livejournal.com]

The term originated from a Seinfeld episode. The episode where Dr. Tim Whatley gives Jerry a label-maker that was originally given to Whatley by Elaine. Elaine calls him a regifter.

Yeah, he was trying to sell a camera. Some "woman" contacted him via email saying that she wanted to buy it because she needed it for a photoshoot (What? A photographer without a camera?). My Dad wanted to meet with her and sell it to her in person to avoid the hassel of shipping and everything, but she kept dodging around the idea, insisting that we use Paypal.

So he gave her his Paypal address and received a fake payment confirmation from a "@paypal .com" address (note the space), confirming that Paypal had received the money, and is waiting for my Dad to email them the tracking number as verification that the package was sent, in order for the transaction to be reflected in his Paypal account; he was supposed to send the number to "paydeutschland@europe.com." The email specified that he had to send the number within 48 hours, and that the shipping address of the woman was in Nigeria.

The thing is though, we were stuck as to how to actually ship it. The email reported that she sent the money to Paypal, along with an additional $300 for shipping and handling via Purolator. We weren't sure if he had to go to the post office and they'd handle everything or not. Paypal had a walkthrough for how to ship, part of which explained how you could print out your own shipping label. It involved pushing a "Print Label" button on the transaction's entry in your Paypal Account History, which was obviously still blank.

So I looked at the email from the fake Paypal address closer - it looked legit, something which you wouldn't really bring notice to if you just skimmed it. But it was riddled with spelling and grammar errors, and at second glance looked extremely unprofessional. Finally I copied a few suspicious lines into Google and there you go - quite a few hits.

:\

[ria-oaks.livejournal.com]

Yikes. First thing I would have done, upon getting that email, would be going to my Paypal account and seeing if anything was listed under pending or whatever... if not, I'd know it was fake. But yeah, that sucks. Glad you worked it out and didn't send off the camera. :)

[bk635.livejournal.com]

Yeah, we're just going to ignore any further emails. Because neither one of us had any selling experience, there was always the notion that it could be legit. I hope it isn't legit now, because if it is, we're about to screw a very unlucky photographer over. :\

[ria-oaks.livejournal.com]

I sincerely doubt it was legit. Anyway, your Paypal account would show if money had been deposited to it - if it hasn't been, then you know it's fake. :)

Go check out my latest post. Want to buy a print of a certain famous (someday, anyway) artist's painting on eBay? Only one up so far, but we're working on it! ^_^

[bk635.livejournal.com]

Just got back. I was in and out within 30 minutes. It was more crowded than usual, but it wasn't too bad.

Christmas shopping is done. I win.

[ria-oaks.livejournal.com]

30 minutes, damn. XD I guess you already knew what you wanted to get? Glad it wasn't too crazy, anyway.

You guys opening your presents later tonight? Let me know if you get anything cool. :) Do you have a big dinner tonight or do you do that on Christmas Day? We're having a nice dinner, anyway, steak and such. And we're baking our own baguette! Very exciting. It's aaalmost done - just gotta make sure we don't burn it.

In the meantime, we're opening up a Cafepress store for Dad... http://www.cafepress.com/newarcadia Think we'll ditch the eBay store and stick with this - they do prints, too, and it'll be a lot easier! We put up the pictures, they do all the work. And it's free, or at most only $4.99 a month for a premium account which we'll probably get (eBay was $15 a month plus item insertion fees). Now, how to market it... Anyway, check it out, spread the word around. :) It's gonna be good! We've got a t-shirt, a mug, a bag, and a mousepad up so far... nifty.

Oh, and Merry Christmas Eve. :)

[bk635.livejournal.com]

I didn't ask for anything this year. Probably just shirts and stuff; I really don't know.

We aren't celebrating tonight, because my Mom has to work until eleven tonight, so we'll do it tomorrow. Usually we have a big dinner on Christmas Eve, then we open presents. When I was still practicing Catholicism we'd go to Church for a midnight Mass, but since I stopped, my parents did as well; they still occasionally go on Christmas, however.

Hee.. I put a Christmas-themed bandana around my cat. He's all like ":|" now.

If you're gonna ditch the eBay store, you should edit your previous LJ post so it directs to CafePress. Best of luck to you guys with that. You should print out a few shirts for yourself (with URL and all) and wear them around for a little promotion. ;p

Happy holidays to you too. /PC

Merry Christmas.

[ria-oaks.livejournal.com]

Oh well, hope you get something nice. :) I've been dropping not-so-subtle hints about iPod Touches, but I sincerely doubt I'll get one lol. Hoping for the stuffed DRD from Farscape and Farscape s1, mainly.

That's too bad. :( Well, hope you have a good time tomorrow. :) Out of curiousity, do you normally do anything on Christmas Day itself?

Haha, poor kitty. XD

I'll edit it, yeah. Also making a new post, though. And yeah, I should buy some of the t-shirts and wear them.. we're probably going to buy some of the merchandise ourselves for selling IRL, or at least just to have.

Wee, I'm getting giddy for tomorrow... prezzies! *coughismaterialisticcough* Still have stuff to wrap, too, but we're out of paper. Grandparents are bringing some up tomorrow, so we'll be wrapping presents on Christmas Day... oh wells. We were supposed to be "cutting back" this year because we're not making as much money since Mom's sick, but.. that didn't happen. o.o Least not on Dad and my parts - we bought way too much for Mom, as always. We're too nice. -_- I'll have to take a picture tomorrow of all the presents once they're all wrapped and we have G&G's presents.

[bk635.livejournal.com]

Christmas Day? Nope. I mean, there's Mass, but we never went. Usually just have a big meal and that's it. Christmas Eve is the main event, really. I think everyone within the religion, or at least the Polish community, does it this way.

If we had family here then maybe there'd be more, but that's about it.

[ria-oaks.livejournal.com]

Hmm, interesting. :) Mom said that a lot of cultures in Europe are the same, so I wonder if it's religious or cultural? Granted those are often the same thing..

Do you have any family come over? Does you uncle still live around here? I haven't seen him in ages...

[bk635.livejournal.com]

95% of the population in Poland is Roman Catholic, so I don't think that's answerable.

No family. It's very difficult to get a visa to enter Canada from Poland - lots of rejection. To add onto that, airfair and everything is very expensive so a lot of people can't afford the costs of travel.

My uncle still lives in the same place, but we don't keep in touch, even on holidays.

[ria-oaks.livejournal.com]

Fair enough. :) I meant for the rest of Europe, too, though - am curious which cultures/countries celebrate Christmas your way.

Yeah, fair enough. That's too bad, though...

I'm playing FFXII right now, lol. How festive of me. ;)

[bk635.livejournal.com]

Had to go pick my Mom up from work. Yay..

Hm.. I suppose it heavily depends on religion, since cultural tradition tends to somewhat intertwine with it. It wouldn't surprise me if countries that have large Roman Catholic populations (e.g., Scotland, Ireland, Italy) celebrate Christmas in the same way. Countries with large populations belonging to various Catholic denominations (Anglican, Protestant) probably do it the same.

I personally always thought the tradition of celebrating on Christmas Day/morning was a predominantly Western thing (but I'm mainly jumping to conclusions).

I spent a few hours playing Shadow of the Colossus. I figured out how to enable 720p on my PS2 games, since my TV supports it, so now I have incentive to go back and look at shinier graphics. :\