Of course, my interpretation of "important" varies all over the place.
CURRENT MUSIC:
Daisuke Ishiwatari - "Bullet Dance (Noel's Theme)"
BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger Original Soundtrack
Apparently listening to music from fighting or strategy games puts me in the zone when it comes to tactical analysis. As a portion of this blog is dedicated to my current analysis of JOSH BLANCO vs. THE WORLD, it would only make sense for me to play something like this. Surprisingly, I could actually see this being used in a custom strategy game soundtrack.
Of course, the fact that Noel Vermillion is my best character in the BlazBlue games helps, too. =P
Good day, readers! Or is it good evening? I started typing this around 1400 hours, but as you can see by the posting time, it's clearly no longer daytime Ah, well... depending on what time you're reading this, welcome to today's entry on The White Knight Chronicles.
Today's entry will consist of a myriad of topics. While it could be argued that doing so qualifies this as a "non sequitur" entry, I say otherwise - I planned on talking about this stuff (most - if not all - of it in lengthy detail) instead of just ranting about the first thing that enters my head.
Pacific Media Expo - THE Last Good Thing in November*
I mentioned earlier this month that I'd talk about this convention, and now I deliver.
At the Los Angeles Airport Hilton from Friday, November 11 to Sunday, November 13, a fun and rather entertaining convention will unfold - Pacific Media Expo.
Now, for those of you who don't know (which is just about everyone who currently reads this), Pacific Media Expo is a convention that focuses on and promotes the Pacific Rim's entertainment industries to us Americans. Various things are showcased, such as music (bands and artists), movies (and not just K-Dramas), fashion designers, art, cuisine and - of course - (Japanese) animation. (To those of you who know of Anime Expo, think of that - except smaller, friendlier and not primarily focused on just Japanese anime.)
For the past three years I've gone to PMX and staffed as part of the security team. It's been a joyous experience each time, and when we begin the convention on November 11, I'll be doing the same thing again - watching over the con, peace-bonding weapon props, helping the attendees around places, making sure the hardly-rowdy crowds don't go berserk and swarm any guests of honor... that sort of thing.
Now, why does it seem like I'm attempting to advertise a seemingly-geeky convention to you all when a decent number of you aren't actual geeks of any kind (as far as the world knows of, at least)? Well, a few reasons.
One: It's a fun three-day weekend that showcases the Pacific Rim's varied entertainment industry to the people who already like this stuff and to the average American alike. More often than not we end making attendees out of travelers with loads of downtime or relatives of con-goers who end up curious as to what the hullabaloo is all about. With the exception of my first year at PMX (2008), I always make it a goal for me to
Two: COSPLAYERS. As I said before, PMX isn't focused on just Japanese anime. As such, people have cosplayed as things I wouldn't expect to see at other normal conventions. Case in point:
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| Yes, that's me with our current President. No, I'm not affiliated with any political party. |
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| American animation, anyone? PMX previously had Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, creators of the famed Avatar: The Last Airbender series, as guests of honor. As such, it's not uncommon to see an A:TLA cosplayer in PMX. Toph Bei Fong proves my point here. |
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| Of course there has to be cosplayers from all walks of life - video games included. Here we got an Engineer and a Soldier from Valve's famous Team Fortress 2. |
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| Sadly, working in security means I have to keep on alert to make sure our attendees are safe. Between this Pyramid Head from the Silent Hill games threatening to make every time "raping time..." |
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| ...a crazy schoolgirl name Sakura throwing a hadouken at Ryu... (Yay, Street Fighter cosplay!) |
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| ...and G.I. Joe's infamous Cobra Commander trying to recruit more peons... |
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| ...I'm always busy. That's me to the left, "subduing" someone... and yes, that's a plasma rifle from the Halo games. |
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| I said cuisine was present. And yes, Pocky counts as cuisine - especially if there's an all-you-can-eat Pocky bar... |
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| ...presented in a room designed as a maid café. |
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| That, or you could go outside for the most epic fusion food ever: the Kogi Truck! |
* = "'THE Last Good Thing?' Josh, are you smoking? What about Thanksgiving?" I hear some of you ask. Well, as I work in retail, Thanksgiving always heralds Black Friday here in the U.S. and Canada. Not a fun day - especially if a friend decides to collect on a favor you owe them on that day.
Following the Footprints - The Life of a Cosplaying Genome Soldier
(Author's Note: If you took off "Cosplaying" from the title you'd be left with "Following the Footprints - The Life of a Genome Soldier" - which I think makes for a great mockumentary video title. Oh, and DIBS.)
After much deliberation on what I'd dress up as for PMX, I ultimately decided on an idea that I've always wanted to do after I discovered cosplaying:
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| "Huh? What was that noise?" |
JOSH BLANCO vs. THE WORLD - Turn 2: Folly or Feint?
(Author's Note: Remember that all moves reported here are from my perspective. Commentary is from my point of view and therefore might be represented differently than what someone else might say. Also, knowledge of algebraic notation is highly recommended to further understand the moves and tactics that'll follow.)
Barring a near-week-long "hiatus" (more like "lack of participation") from the World Team, they responded, and now gameplay looks like this:
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| (position after the World Team's surprising 2...a6?!) |
2.d4 a6?!
While any chess master will be wondering what the hell the World Team is thinking, I for one am actually concerned about this. From a strategic standpoint, most decent chess players will see the following:
- Black has zero central control and has hampered future advancement of their stronger pieces. While moving the a-file pawn like that prevents White's kingside bishop from either developing properly or pulling off 3.Bxb5, it does nothing to impede White's advancing pawns.
- White on the other hand now has direct control of the middle and is capable of developing the queenside bishop and queen at any given time.
Now, in terms of development it can easily be said that White has a major advantage. From my standpoint the best move I could make would be 3.d5, which prevents 3...c6, 3...c5 or 3...Nc6. Theoretically, the World Team could opt to play one of the first two maneuvers*, but if so, then the game would look something like 4.dxc6 dxc6, resulting in...
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| (after 3.d5 c6 4. dxc6 dxc6) |
* = Playing 3...Nc6? 4.dxc6 dxc6 puts Black materially behind and with doubled pawns on the c-file. Ostensibly it looks like a decent tradeoff (as Black now has domineering control of the queenside), but the negatives as explained above don't seem to be worth it...
Of course, Black could ignore those three moves and instead reply with 3...e6, finally beginning the fight for the center and threatening White's current reign. Advancing with 4.d6? gives Black a free pawn while 4.dxe6 ends up with 4...dxe6 (resulting in the potential queen exchange scenario described above) or 4...fxe6, taunting White to follow up with 5.Qh5+? g6 and lose tempo in the process.
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| (position after 5...g6 - White loses tempo) |
I might go ahead and advance one of my pawns anyway, but my mind is screaming at me not to. I wonder what could result with my third move. Regardless of my choice, it would seem that I hold the upper hand in the game so far. Despite this, I have but one question that's haunting me at the moment: does the World Team not even give a damn about their detrimental predicament, or are they gambling on my recklessness and overconfidence to show up and force me to blunder?
Food - Of Melted British Heartiness
So I decided that my mini-project of the day would be to experiment on cooking something. After a half-hour of cycling through the recipes I had in Personal Trainer: Cooking and America's Test Kitchen: Let's Get Cooking (both games for the Nintendo DS), I settled on trying to make my own variant of Welsh rarebit. Common procedure is to melt a bunch of cheese (usually Cheddar) into a sauce, mix it with whatever blend of herbs and spices desired (typically a dash of pepper), put the mixture on partially-toasted bread, allow said bread to finish toasting and then top off the finished product with Worcestershire sauce and parsley.
I followed that general recipe, except I pre-buttered the bread, and tossed in some Monterey Jack and some Sriracha* into the cheese sauce. What resulted was a fugue of cheese flavor that felt... wow. I threw a pinch of flour into the sauce and the resulting cheese sauce was a tad grainy and yet creamy at the same time - perfect for spreading the concoction onto the partially-toasted bread! The Sriracha also provided a kick to my taste buds that magically didn't overwhelm the cheese or the Worcestershire sauce.
TL;DR: It was tasty.
The food connoisseur in me was heartily impressed - British cuisine has been known to be no-nonsense, heavy and tasty all at once. Examples can be seen with bangers and mash, fish and chips and - now added to my proven repertoire - Welsh rarebit.
If only I had taken pictures...
* = Matthew Inman of The Oatmeal could not have expressed my love for Sriracha any better...
Well, I certainly hope that you enjoyed reading this entry as much as I enjoyed writing it. I will see you all tomorrow with another post and another... farewell. *shrugs*
(Author's Note: Talk about last-second, eh?)
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