The latest news about the Uighur conflicts in Xinjiang don't really come as a surprise - while they're less popularized in global media, than, say, the Tibetans, many of the ethnic minorities in China retain their own unique cultural identities and the further away from central power (Beijing) the more they resent interference from the government.

Despite whatever popular media might want you to believe, ethnic groups in China aren't comprised exclusively of Han Chinese, Mongols, and Tibetans when people remember they exist. There are over 50 minority groups officially recognized by the Chinese government and quite a number of others that aren't.

Historically, the Han-dominated coastal cultures are the "Chinese" culture that's most popularized, and to them a lot of the minorities are thought of as "those people who wear funny hats and live out in the middle of nowhere in tents"... or Xiongnu, the group of northern raiders that frequently appeared as antagonists in the older Chinese historical accounts and eventually inspired the creation of the Great Wall (historians are conflicted over just what sort of people Xiongnu actually were). As you might expect from any civilization conceited enough to name its ruler the Son of Heaven (the Central Kingdom stuff came a little later), Han Chinese attitude towards the "barbarian tribes" was somewhat less than sterling, and the raiding barbarian tribes gave as good as they got.

Which is kind of ironic considering that the Qing Dynasty (the last one before the republic) was a dynasty set up by Manchurians who invaded the Han cities, took over, set up shop, and were promptly assimilated into Han culture.

Dice don't have to look like anything as long as they fulfill their function (to frustrate you by never coming up greater than 5 on your saves vs poison, for example), but pretty dice are a geektoy thing, so:

1) My favorite set of dice are a teal/green transluscent set. The color blends between the two and it looks incredibly good under sunlight.

2) I will not buy dice that are illegible at a distance, no matter how they look, or how funny it becomes when I keep telling the DM I always crit. This includes both dice with funky script (Steak Legion!) and those that are entirely translucent.

3) Dice in foreign languages, on the other hand, are fair game. Unless they are abominations unto nature and/or also include random squiggles to make them hard to read.

4) The standard color for decorative dice seem to be two-tone swirly designs.

5) And if you have a set of dice where the die itself is pretty but the pips are, say, vomit yellow, you can always color over them with metallic pens.

6) "Roll damage." "Cat plus 9."

7) Now kicking self for having thoughtlessly thrown away the original dice boxes, since it occurs to me that they are the right size to store, say, 28mm miniatures in.

8) Need to make D&D-themed icon of some sort...

I was about half an hour early for my dentist appointment this morning (being at the mercy of bus schedules and so forth), and so took a few moments to stroll around the Crossroads area (take the 245 South from the Redmond campus). While most of these fine establishments were closed due to it being, oh, 8 am, if I wind up coming back at some point less early in the morning or take an extended lunch break at some point, it's a good shopping area. Things of note:

-Radio Shack
-Secondhand book store
-QFC
-Barnes & Noble
-Blockbuster Video
-Petco
-Obligatory Starbucks

Not in the mall but a few blocks down:

-Hardware store
-Uwajimaya!

I always like looking at the small animal section of Petco, because occasionally the mice/ferrets/rabbits will actually be awake and do their thing with the hamster wheel, which is cute. This is somewhat complicated by the fact that for some reason the small mammals section is usually fairly close to the reptiles section, which I have to carefully edge around while trying not to pay too much attention.

Sort-of-related: Dental care is one of those vaguely intimidating things where someone spends half an hour poking around your mouth with a sharp object. It would be less disturbing if the general texture of tooth cleaning did not feel like the enthusiastic application of a cheesegrater, but you do feel better afterwards.

dr4b's post mentioning Shop class reminds me a little of the stuff I took in high school. I had to fight my dad tooth and nail to take CDT (what we called Shop) instead of another humanities elective ("Learn more economics, it's good for you." "But daaaaad I wanna make little plastic gadgets!"), and I seem to remember eventually convincing him that it wasn't just another art class by *cough* creative interpretation of the class description. Drawing orthographic design specs using the drawing boards with horizontal rulers attached and set squares (triangles, for those of you using American English) and filling in the margins with funny leaf sketches was some of the best fun I ever had in high school. Also, sanding wheels are cool, though I always wondered if anyone ever lost their fingers to it.

Anyway, on to more relevant topics...

-Final Fantasy Gaiden: The Four Light Warriors is a new game rather than a remake, billed as a return to classic fantasy. What's interesting is that the producer comments that it's a return to the era "before RPGs became JRPGs" (in exactly those terms, mind). Since FF more or less defined the JRPG genre, I'm wondering what they mean - D&D tabletop? Or do they mean "JRPG" as in "post-FF7", when they moved away from swords and sorcery and good old Evil Overlord smackage to post-modern heroes with problematic psychological issues and classy villains in black leather?

-Speaking of decontructions, Stein's Gate is a new game apparently about a 厨房 college student who goes by a DQN nickname and sets up an inventor's circle in Akiba. And discovers a system of sort-of time travel that allows them to send messags to the past. I don't know what genre of game it is, but it's definitely looking to be weird and philosophical.

I mentioned before that I'm not fond of directly competitive games because of the social implications - it's fun to gloat and cackle when you play particularly clever tricks on the AI, but probably bad form to do it when you're frustrating a friend. It's particularly true of Magic because I always liked the Blue control/wonkiness decks which, even if you lose, are almost guaranteed by nature to annoy your opponent.

Off the top of my head, I remember a game involving Metathran Elite + Sigil of Sleep that wasn't very fun for the other party, and I probably wouldn't like it if it was done to me, either.

I guess there is something fundamental that people are less upset by "I stomp all over you with giant creatures" than "I put annoying effects on all your lands and make you tap them".

I wonder if it's possible to do a real RPG video game based on the weird and wonky all-encompassing multiverse of Magic (apparently there was a Shinto version while I wasn't paying attention). As in, with a plot and cinematics and everything, rather than just the few lines of text describing [random planeswalker] trying to kill you in the arcade. Or maybe I am missing the point in wanting a plot-based campaign for what is essentially a competitive multiplayer game.

Utterly unrelated: Sengoku Basara 3!

I came across the word 啓蒙 in a work-related translation the other day; while I figured out what it meant from context, plugging it into a dictionary turned up "edification" or "enlightenment", which seemed overly obscure for the context, but I shrugged and put it in anyway.

I'm reminded of this listening to See-Saw's Key of the Twilight, which has the line auguries of destruction be a lullaby for rebirth. It took me a bit to figure out what augury meant, and while Kajiura Yuki is generally better with the Engrish lyrics than many other Japanese artists, was still somewhat surprising. I think that due to the literal translation dictionaries that we sometimes employ, it's possible for translated material to pick up obscure or uncommon words that don't immediately click with even native speakers. Sometimes the exact correct word with all of the connotations and implications is one that isn't common vocabulary, and it's kind of fun to play with that a little.

-

Come with me in the twilight of a summer night for awhile
Tell me of a story never ever told in the past
Take me back to the land where my yearnings were born
The key to open the door is in your hand
Now fly me there

Poked a bit at the Magic XBox download game.

-I'm not a big fan of the deck building system, since I like theorycraft, and you have to "unlock" cards to add/remove them from your deck. Plus, you have to start with certain pre-built decks, and Blue, my preferred color, wasn't one of the defaults.

-I suppose it does make it easier for new people who have not played Magic to actually win, however, as the starting decks are functional for what they do. In particular, the Green default deck is a simple, straightforward all-purpose set with some very cheap and nasty tricks ("Blanchwood Armor: Enchant Creature to give +1/+1 for every forest you control"), and they've been smart enough to put in some Giant Spiders for anti-air. The other default deck, Red, is also fairly straightfoward but less forgiving since it lacks the healing/HP buffer.

-The method of unlocking cards only unlocks one card for the deck you're currently using when you win against the CPU, so it seems like it'd take awhile if you're trying to play around with various decks instead of sticking to one.

-The early game CPU plays fairly predictably and conservatively; keeping in mind the possibility of instants, it's fairly easy to predict what it might do with the cards on the board on any give turn.

-Currently experimenting with White, which appears to be an Enchantment-buff Angel deck. It doesn't have the raw power of Green (8/8 Trampling Grizzly Bears!) but has more of the control spells that I like about Blue, such as Pacifism (Enchanted creature cannot attack or block) or Holy Day (prevent all combat damage for 1 turn). And the reason that all fantasy angels these days seem to be pretty winged women (sword optional) instead of, say, four-faced starfish aliens is that they make for pretty art.

Why do newpapers go on about politicians' family and extramarital affairs as though it were significant information? What does that have to do with the rest of us, or the ability of said individuals to perform the functions of their office?

There's a fairly complicated set of priorities that people, when shopping for a product or service, take into consideration if there are different options available. For example, pricing, convenience, features.

Let's say I want to buy something online. Online shopping is simple and convenient, and it all gets delivered to a mailbox. Great.

Let's then suppose that there was a problem with this order. That happens sometimes too, due to various machine and human errors. Then let's suppose I spend about 20 minutes calling various bank people to ensure that my card is working and verify authorization.

Finally, let's suppose that everything is in order and the bank, in fact, confirms successful pre-authorization for the purchase from the merchant. Attempting to add a "care of" line to the shipping address (to my workplace, so it gets delivered to the right internal department) caused the process to fail, but they're not actually allowed to tell me that directly when asked, resulting in more time attempting to decipher their canned response catch-all wall of text.

Why would you go to all the effort to develop a cool product that people want and then make it difficult for them to actually give you money for it? I do not understand.

I'll give them this though, their customer service turnaround is fast.

-

Unrelated: I am amused to discover that the transfer sheet that came with one of my mini boxes contains transfers for Righteous Fury, Hand of Sacrifice, and Seal of Justice. Obviously I need to convert a belfadin model. Or just the UI.

Was late for bus this morning, and saw it pass by just as I was running for the stop. However, a lady who lives down the driveway was just getting into her car, saw me running for the bus, and offered me a lift to catch up to it. Eventually she dropped me off one stop ahead of of it and I managed to get into work on time.

I wonder if it'd be weird for me to leave a thank-you note on her doorstep or something.

/ritual comprehend languages: GW model transfers sheet instruction diagram
Result: critical fail

1) Cut out transfers
2) Leave to soak in water for 30 minutes
3) Apply to model with brush
4) Add granola oil

Banking red tape making life difficult. Also, dear online newspaper: Senator Bob admitting to having an affair is not Breaking News and doesn't need to be in my mailbox.

Here is where I go curl up with a video game and some books and wait for the rest of the world to go away until it stops being annoying.

I'm of the opinion that hot tea with milk/sugar/etc in it is evil. Conversely, un-sweetened iced tea is one of the most vile substances known to man. Iced tea with just sugar, however, generally tastes off for some reason, so I prefer to get the ones with funky fruit syrup, such as raspberry iced tea or Sobe. "Diet" Sobe is also particularly vile, though I'm not quite sure why, particularly since I can't taste the difference between Coke and Diet Coke.

My favorite type are the white teas in the small glass bottles, as they're generally lighter on the flavoring than green teas, but our cafeteria's started carrying green tea with honey (Lipton Pureleaf) recently, which also has a very light flavor and smells wonderful.

Game-related:

New screens for FF13 indicate that summons will be partially controllable in combat and character specific (Lightning's summon, for example, is Odin). Apparently Shiva is now twin sisters (Shiva-Stelia and Shiva-Nyx) who, under the right conditions, turn into a motorcycle. Somebody's been watching Utena?

-After a few tries at General Vezax, I have decided that he is a pain in the ass. Like the DPS who like seeing big numbers or playing with their twitch reflexes during fights to move around and pay attention, or tanks who have to be on top of alertness for adds and changes in environment, twitch-reflex healing is way more interesting than mana-conservation healing. Mana management should certainly exist, but not to the degree that it becomes the ruling mechanic of the fight regardless of how you gear; spamming heals where your main concern is prioritizing healing targets and making sure you move out of bad stuff is a heck of a lot more interesting than standing around throwing one off every few seconds for fear of OOMing. I'd take Hodir or Mimiron over this any day, and hope to see no more of these types of encounters in future raids. It puts me in mind of the older tanking rotation where I'd pop Holy Shield, Consecrate, and sit there waiting for those cooldowns to come back up and doing nothing much else because there were no active abilities to use.

-Somewhat related:
- Although not required, a level 80 Alliance character would be helpful.
- A bachelor's degree in anything.
...is one of the more interesting job postings I've seen. But hey, it's Penny Arcade, so can you blame them?

-ketsugami was commenting the other day about how it's impossible for him to listen to his audio books without noting the inherent doujin possibilities (said audio books are about the Civil War. Try not to think too hard about this), which proves the point that fandom is some sort of contagious viral existence.

-The evolution of using internet slang in everday parlance is interesting, but I think I need not worry about the integrity of the English language as long as the speakers understand that they're not real words. Beware of the basement cat.

-Bus failed to exist this morning, and I can confirm that it wasn't just a product of my imagination (lack of imagination?) as four other people were standing around wondering where it went. Also seem to have misplaced my cell phone in between getting back to the house and getting to work (I can hope it's sitting on my desk, though why I would have found the need to take it out is beyond me). Not the best start to the day.

幸せにゃ～

-I'm forgetting the correct term for "mood being influenced by weather" (probably something-somatic?), but it's definitely having an effect on me right now. Summer weather in Seattle is absolutely gorgeous, and it's a good time to notice all the details that add a bit of magic to everyday life. Something that I was better at as a kid, probably due to being more observant and less self-absorbed. It's also inspiring for art projects - that feeling of "wow" when you look at something that has that little touch of wonder.

-Having gotten enough sleep last night might also have something to do with it.

-Argument in favor of buying an iPod or something similar: "hey, I'd really like to listen to that song now, but I don't want to be trying to surf download sites at work". YouTube lacks something in terms of music quality. I even own the physical copy of this particular album.

-Why would you play RPGs in Japanese if you do not really speak the language? I mean, I did it back when I only knew most of the kanji, but "most of the kanji" was enough to get the basics of the plot - a giant pile of text makes for poor subtitles. Why do you ask me to write a plot FAQ? What's the point? /boggle

-Regrettably, I was not able to actually do anything with the closed beta MMO due to technical difficulties. Whatever's going wrong isn't giving me any sort of coherent error message so I can't troubleshoot it, though I've found other people on the boards having a similar issue. The common denominator seems to be that we're all using GeForce 6x - 7x graphics cards, though it could also be something else.

-Dawn of War 2 rates you on several different aspects of how you do your missions, and I always manage to get high on Fury (kills) and low on Speed, because RPG instincts to comb every corner of the map (and, of course, destroying everything that moves) always kick in, even though I know there aren't any hidden treasure chests.

-New word of the day: Deathing. Like Warring, Pestilencing, and Famining. Courtesy of siliconrose, or perhaps her medication.

-

The fields are filled with desires
all voices crying for freedom
but all in vain they will fade away
there's only you to answer you, forever

Game News

-First, while I may complain about English voice acting, I don't mind if it's good English voice acting. Castlevania: Lords of Shadow is apparently a Castlevania game made by Kojima (@MGS), with Patrick Stewart as the narrator. It must be something about those oldschool theatre actors, that they have such regal-sounding voices. The video looks fairly good, but the concept feels almost as surreal as Kingdom Hearts.

-Evidence that Warriors: Legends of Troy actually exists. Equal opportunity history-crushing (literally) for all!

Art-related

The reason I never went for fine art classes in school is this scenario, which occurred often enough in the classes I did take that I decided not to pursue them further:

"Alright everyone, now explain to the class the political or philosphical meaning behind your work."

"..."

[BS* switch on]

"The green represents the natural state of the earth. The bottles in the foreground are indicative of the current wastefulness of our consumer culture..."

Inner monologue: It doesn't MEAN anything. It just looks pretty. Geez.

*The fine art of BSing is, perhaps, one of the most vital aspects of any high school curriculum.

What I did get out of art classes, however, were deadlines. I think most artists suffer from rampant obsessive perfectism on some level, but having a schedule that says your project is due now helps you actually get stuff done instead of worrying over every single fine little detail. Or at the very least, you've handed it in and it's done, no more editing. Left to my own devices, I become extremely unproductive because I spend so much time on redoing things, getting annoyed, and sometimes starting over.

But hey, at least in this world being anal over little details only causes lack of productivity. As opposed to, say, demons.

Famitsu and other Japanese sites sometimes do cover overseas games now and again. They are immediately obvious because pictures of bald guys in camo shooting each other are interspersed between pictures of cheerful, colorful anime characters. Possibly this reinforces stereotypes of the sorts of things that Japanese and American developers tend to do, but it seems a bit of a chicken-and-egg question.

*Note that some of this news will be a bit older than E3, since I don't track English games very often.

( sequels and more sequels )

Unrelated: reading a bit more, I find myself rather nitpicky about writing style. Coherent plot and characters and stuff is important, but so are the actual wording and sentence structure. I guess I am more nitpicky because it's my day job.

EDIT: Closed beta! SQUEE. Now if the damn client will just download properly. Thanks to frakkinfabulous.

World Builder, courtesy of harinezumi.

Absolutely perfect combination of artsy hijinks, awesome tech, and sentimental foolery.

It's been awhile since I last found myself chewing through books at a remarkable rate. While I read reasonably fast, getting through a paperback novel still registers as "a strangely long time", which probably indicates how much less I've been reading since my high school days.

This is probably because there were rather fewer distractions (read: internets) around at the time, and reading a book while maintaining a coherent mental picture of the plot requires more concentration than simply surfing the web, as books tend to take longer to digest and have more elements to keep track of than your usual one-page web content.

I tend to think that reading more is a good trend, as I'm of the belief that my IQ drops without regular feeding of literature. I suspect it's something to do with the habit of maintaining cognition and the memorization of details (locations, names, events, as presented in a book) over a sufficiently long period of time, as well as exercising sufficient imagination to illustrate what isn't quite as obvious in text as flashy CGI. Something of an exercise in mental organization and discipline, if you will, almost like the mental equivalent of a light jog. The mental equivalent of push-ups would probably involve mathematics, which I'm never motivated to do willingly under any circumstances short of Theorycraft. And no, I'm not motivated to do shopping, either.