Thirty Thousand Trial - Round Two

So I said I had an announcement for y'all today, right? Well, I, uhm... I have some bad news for ya'. There's... there's nothing new for me to tell you about. The announcement that I had for you today was a lie. I'm really sorry. You should just stop reading...



...and if you're still still reading, then I should probably let you know that the above statement was also a lie. There is an announcement, and this shows what happens when you skimmers decide not to check out the rest of the entry. Oh, what's that? You skimmers didn't bother to click the entry itself? HAH! Serves you lazy fools right! =P





CURRENT MUSIC:
Derek Duke - "Angrathar's Shadow"
World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Soundtrack

For those of you who open the link to a new tab so you can listen to the music while I talk about it: you're awesome. And to answer your (possibly) forthcoming question: I'm not in a bad mood or anything. Today's forecast called for it to be cloudy, and, well... I'm not feeling too keen on that. It's better than rain, but something about the sky today just seems murky... and almost hopeless.

So I thought to myself: "How can I aurally catch that feeling? How can I use music to express some kind of subtle horror that saps the listener of any decently positive thought?" And then it hit me like a cold chill (which is funny considering where this plays in-game): "Icecrown's music."

"Angrathar's Shadow" is an assortment of some of the music that can be heard by World of Warcraft players while in the Northrend zone of Icecrown. The area mostly consists of Icecrown Glacier and the immediate areas tainted by the glacier's relentless chill of undeath. No matter what time of day it is in the server, Icecrown seems to have an eternal bleakness to its atmosphere. Whether it's due to the glacier itself warping the air around it or due to the mere thought of the Scourge blanketing any positive thought... I don't know. I just know that I get a slight chill whenever I hear this stuff, and with the real life clouds making things a bit too overcast, it seemed to match to me.


Shouji Meguro - "Jika Net Tanaka"
Persona 3 Original Soundtrack

Probably one of the catchiest pieces of music out there. Anyone who's played either Persona 3 or 4 will know this track as the tune to the Sunday morning home shopping show "Tanaka's Amazing Commodities" - where the host (gee, I wonder what his name is...?) advertises a lot of random merchandise that for some reason seems to appeal to the player character (especially if the player is an impulse buyer like me). Persona fans usually joke about how this piece of music (and Tanaka's show as well) would somehow influence their lives, including (but not limited to):

• making all shopping trips much more exciting
• running themselves broke because they somehow have a use for whatever's advertised
• buying whatever is advertised... no matter how outrageous the price

Case in point: a YouTube comment from user "JuacogbXD123" that sums up the player reaction whenever "Tanaka's Amazing Commodities" is on... [edited to make more sense]

TANAKA: Today's offer is: one Soul Drop [an item that restores ten Spirit Points]... ...for 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 yen!
MINATO: [P3's player character] Meh. *starts calling* Fucking song.

And it's true! Every time this show has aired in Persona 4, I have succumbed and bought something he advertised, no matter how much yen I have. *rages* WHY IS IT SO DARN CATCHY!? DAMN YOU AND YOUR AWESOME SHOW, TANAKA! (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻

*clears throat* Honestly, though, I'm kinda glad this is only from a game. If a store ends up being clever enough to play this as part of their muzak... I can only wonder how many people will be run into bankruptcy because of it.





Goooooooooooooood evening, everybody! Welcome to the last entry here on The White Knight Chronicles (for April 2012, at least)! How are you folks doing at this time of night? I hope it's going swell for you, because it's definitely going well for me here! It's a night off for me, so that means some relaxation time, some show-watching (I'm thinking Hey Arnold! for tonight), some level-grinding on Persona 4 (time for Shadow slaying!), and more fun things! Yaaaay!



Oh, right, right... you wanted to know what that announcement was going to be, right? Well, let's get to it, then!



Remember back in September when I decided to make each of the month's entries at least one thousand words in length? Well, guess what? I'm doing that challenge again. Except this time, I'm going to go ahead and do that for May. Some of you are probably thinking: "Josh... May starts tomorrow. Are you sure about this?" My response to those people is a simple "Hell yes."

Originally conceived as a means to somehow increase the traffic I get on here (pfft), I figured that there could be another benefit to typing a whole lot of things here. It could boost my writing as well. I've been meaning to somehow get myself out of the rut I drove myself into, and by imposing a challenge like this on myself, it just might be possible to get me out of this ditch.

Presenting the second round of the "Thirty Thousand Trial," where I make each entry of the month at least one thousand words in length! *musical fanfare here* It's time to kick myself back into gear and type up a storm. *revving gesture* This will be interesting, seeing as how there's thirty-one days in May as opposed to the titular thirty. Meh. What's one more day and one more thousand words? I'm sure I went well over quota the last time I did this (someone remind me to check how much I went over for September), and I get the feeling that I'll do so again this time!

Yeah. I play video games that are inside of other video games. I'm that lame awesome.

So, yeah; that's the announcement. Now, if you'll excuse me, the rest of my night awaits! Until the 'morrow! *enters the Void Quest*