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]

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. :\