Hell of a Halloween

It was fun.

From waking up and jamming on some FM2010 and watching some Office to riding in the car listening to the Monster Mash.

We dressed up as Bob Harris and Charlotte from Lost in Translation. Ashes pulled it off perfecto! I was a lump of coal next to her diamond of a "costchume" as she says.

We went to the "Fright at the Fort" in Ft. Knox (Bucksport, ME... not the one with all the gold reserves). It wasn't that bad. It was the right atmosphere and they put a LOT of effort into the event. I was laughing my ass off in amusement, but it was incredibly entertaining. Ashes got jumped a few times.

After that we went to the Union on campus to check out the goings-on. We had our picture taken, ate meatballs, and had our caricatures drawn. It was crowded and hoooot in there. A couple of really decent costumes there. The chicks all seemed to lean towards the slutty side. I think I counted about 8 slutty nurses, 6 slutty maids, and 6 slutty schoolgirls. The slutty leprechaun was by far the sluttiest of the sluts, and the slutty geisha in blue was the classiest of the sluts. The slutty Simba was the oddest choice of a character to slut up. Though I did see a very non-slutty Virgin Mary, which sorta balanced the whole thing. The guys had some more clever choices in costumes. A tetris piece, two Mario's, and a tall dude as Hagrid. The best costume EVER, though, was the guy dressed steampunk. He was decked out in goggles, vials with glowing liquid, copper steam valves on his back and a top hat! E-P-I-C.

Then we closed it down watching Hocus Pocus and bailing on Monsters vs Aliens.

¡Listo! - Favorite Final Fantasy Characters

It's time for ¡Listo!
Whenever I've got downtime it's... ¡Listo!
Whenever I want to blog, but don't feel like being wordy (fucking awful writer habits...) it's... ¡Listo!

10 Favorite Final Fantasy Characters

10. Mog

The greatest Moogle of all, Mog! Before the whole Ivalice Alliance thing made the Moogle race into something closer to bunnies, this odd white puffball was a crazy party member in FF VI. His main attacks were, oddly enough, dances. The guy was cute and had a memorable theme. Not very useful in battle, but a huge change from the rest of the game.

9. Penelo

The peppy thief girl from Rabanastre finds her way onto the list. Featuring in FFXII, FFTA2:GotR, and FF:RW. In FFXII she's Vaan's sidekick and voice of reason. Her infectious pep and excellent character design are what get her on this list.

8. Laguna Loire

The second protagonist from FFVIII, and if you notice the ONLY character from the eighth entry in the series. Why, you may ask? Because the rest of the characters were horribly developed whiny teens. As cool as the designers tried to make the rest of the cast, they came off horribly immature and boring. Now Laguna, he's a character with some depth. His side stories were the best part of the game. How he ended up with a pre-emo son like Squall (sigh, weakest main of the series) I'll never know.

7. Wakka

Blitzball player/mystical guardian from the island of Besaid. Voiced by the amazing John DiMaggio, Wakka was the sidekick character from FFX. Developed a fast friendship and believable friendship with fellow blitzer Tidus. His weapon was one of the most unique in the series, a tricked out game ball that he threw at enemies. His character grows the most of the course of the trip. He begins as a xenophobic follower of the Yevon religion, and ends up completely open to the lies of Yevon and the al-Bhed. His Overdrive was how I killed Yu Yevon on two different playthroughs.

6. Turks

The hyper cool secret police of the Shin-Ra organization. These guys were essentially the MIB of the FFVII world. The group suffers beatdown after beatdown at the hands of the main characters, but always pull through to hassle Cloud's gang down the road. Tseng, Elena, Reno and Rude are the greatest repeat bosses in the whole series. That finger snapping theme of theirs is so hip it's painful.

5. Rydia

The young summoner from FFIV comes in at number five. First encountered as an orphan child in the village of the summoners, she becomes an anchor of Cecil's party in the first third of the game. Her magic ability supplements both Tellah and Rosa very competently. The shipwreck at the close of the early part of the game sends her out of the party and presumably out of the game. However she appears later on as a full grown adult. This is where she becomes one of the strongest members of the group. The primary black magic user for the endgame makes her perhaps the most valuable character. Rydia's probably the best magic user in the series. Summons. Meteo. Awesome green character design. These are all reasons she deserves her spot.

4. Yuna

Forget Tifa, Yuna is the sex symbol of the Final Fantasy series. Her role in FFX was somewhat muted and she was a very pensive character. In FFX-2 Yuna simply came alive. She was a good character in her first role as the summoner destined to save the world. By the end of the story you felt that the connection between Tidus and Yuna was something real. That was Tidus' story (yeah I know :P) and Yuna broke out in FFX-2. She went from covered up magician to scantily clad heroine. She didn't even have to use the overused Japanese RPG cliche of gigantor boobs to be sexy, she just was. Her transformation between games is believable and it's why she is so high up the list.

3. Agrias Oakes

Final Fantasy Tactics had a giant cast of characters, but Agrias stood out as one of the most interesting. While Orlandu, Ramza, Delita, Mustadio, and Vormav all compete for best FFT character it is Agrias that wins. The princess' guardian is powerful and stern. Yet Agrias also has an aura of coolness surrounding her. She doesn't have much of a role after becoming a permanent party member. She's strong, but she just doesn't matter in terms of the story later on. It's sad that she disappears since her role early on is just so damn strong. She doesn't fuck around, she just beats ass.

2. Locke Cole

The second party member acquired is the skilled thief... treasure hunter, Locke Cole. Now here's a character with some personality. He's a confidant thief that refuses that title on moral grounds. He's friends with a king, for gods sake! He's just so friggen COOL. There are few characters in the series that are as suave and cool as Locke. I'd even argue that Zidanes is partially based on this guy. Even though most people argue that Terra is the main character of Final Fantasy VI, I've always sorta viewed Locke as the lead. When you throw in his stories with Celes and Rachael you realize how he's quite deep. There's so much beneath the surface of this amazingly great character that he earns the number two spot on my list.

1. Tidus

While I'm sure not many would agree with this choice, Tidus is my absolute favorite character in the Final Fantasy series. With an incredibly unique design he is also one of the slickest characters in the series. He's bright, like his personality. He's cocky, not giving up the spotlight to anybody else. He's a pro athlete, utilizing his athleticism to become a guardian and a champion. For once the lead isn't some pseudo-deep, brooding, wannabe-emo crybaby. Tidus is lively, interesting, and completely off the wall. Nothing is held back and he foolishly jumps into every situation. He's not an intellectual and he doesn't want to be one. He makes poor choices at times as a result of his bravery and stubborn attitude. He's great! He's a character who I actually want to see what he'll do next. It's not a wonder that so many people are drawn to him since he's so friendly and social. Is that why gamers generally dislike him? I don't know. All I know is Tidus is a great character at the helm of a great game.

And y'know what, the endings of FFX and FFX-2 made me tear up. Yeah, I have emotions. That may be the only time you see them, but I've got them. If a game/character can affect me that much they must be doing something right.

Cosmonaut... NOT

SCRIBBLENAUTS!
Epic fun, epic nutzoidness! That's not a word. It's not a word because it's not in the game. What is in the game, you ask? FUN.
The game presents you with a goal and you are tasked with solving it using... ANYTHING. You write a word and whatever you wrote shows up. Sometimes it can be straightforward, like giving a lumberjack a saw to cut down a tree. Other times it can be crazy, like riding a cow to escape from a tornado.
Unlimited solutions to each puzzle.

GO
GET
IT
...
y'know if you want or whatever.

Brewer Haikyo!

HAIKYO! It's a Japanese word that means... well I don't know what it means exactly, but what it represents is the concept of exploring abandoned buildings. I've been following Michael John Grist's website for a while (during my years of reading ex-Pat Japanese blogs), and my favorite posts were his haikyo posts. Clearly they were his favorite posts as well because now it's the focus of his entire site. I read plenty of blogs on this topic enthusiastically, yet I've never had the chance to join in the activity myself.

When buildings stop getting used in this part of the country they just get torn down. Or else they sit around until somebody else rents and renovates the space. It's rare for a property to sit around for years untouched. Right here in Brewer there are few examples that catch the eye. The old paper mill sat around for a few years before being sold to Cianbro and made a useful, if unattractive, addition to the town. Sad. Impossible (and unhealthy) to get into the place before it was leveled.

I've been spending the last two months, however, working in a warehouse. I mentioned before how much of a difference this new project was in my life, and now I realize it was for the better. I'll talk about all that at a later time. Right now the focus is entirely on the location. Sitting on the main drag in Brewer, the warehouse is the abandoned Pepsi building. For ten years the building has sat untouched, the owner for whatever reason deciding not to do anything with the property. My company was the first to touch the place since Pepsi left it back in the 90s.
The working conditions weren't quite the best considering the dank state of the back four warehouse rooms (which was the space we were renting). The first week the floor was covered in old motor oil and kitty litter was needed to soak it up before any work could be started.

It wasn't until my final day there that I had the opportunity to explore the place more extensively. My company only rented out the back of the building which was simply four large empty rooms and a dock for trucks. The front of the building was where the offices had been. So on our last day there we had nothing else to do and we decided to go and check out the rest of the place.

The first room was a large room that the Pepsi trucks had used in some capacity or other. There were drainage grates in the floors, so perhaps they were cleaned here? Hard to tell considering the state of the place. There was a lot of water in this room thanks to a giant hole in the roof and a rainy night. Pics taken with my phone (sadly), so forgive the quality.



After this room there was a hallway. Going down there led to the front lobby area. The place was in pretty good condition considering how long it had been untouched. The ceilings were the cheap white paneling you'd find in plenty of offices, and had tons of water stains.



The front rooms in this part of the building were in decent shape, surprisingly. There were some big empty spaces that had been some kind of conference area I'm guessing. There wasn't a lot of evidence that anybody had used this place. Nothing was left behind. Just emptiness. And a LOT of dead bugs. The window facing the front window had at least two dozen long dead wasps. Probably something you'd find in any abandoned place.





In one of the front offices was a pretty damn fancy looking safe built right into the desk. The thing looked pretty secure. There was a massive floor to ceiling safe just down the hall from this room but I wasn't able to snag a good picture. It looked about the same as this one just the size of a regular door.



Past the giant safe door led to some kind of teller window. It looked like a drive through window and was a little booth with some shelves and desks. I couldn't figure out what it was for, because the other side of the window just looked out into another big room.



From here there was darkness. No windows and no working lights meant it got dark and trippy (not the drug kind). We explored up this way a bit. It lead into the bowels of the building. Anything that you would've expected in a basement was down this way. It had an industrial feel, and a musky smell.
Looking back at the light.



Turning back it was time to head upstairs. There was only one route up and that was back in the main lobby.



It was more of the same up here with empty rooms that were once offices, supply rooms, and meeting places. Greater disrepair greeted us up here with the rooms much more decayed than the others.





Hanging wires, exposed ceilings, and rubble on the floor were common hazards up here. After ten years I admit that I was expecting the floors to be in much worse shape. The place was fairly solid. Like the rest of the warehouse we had been in the only real damage was in the roof. I'll admit, this was really exciting. Even though it was just empty, dilapidated rooms there was something... FUN about this exploration. It's a shame there aren't more places around.
At one point we found a couple of storage rooms built above the room we were in and I swear there were bats. Either that or it was just more insulation with black mold (which was everywhere in our part of the warehouse).

Anyway, this final part was the coolest. After passing by a block of office rooms and what was likely a break room, there was a small hallway. Taking a left at the end greeted you with this site.



What was once a walkway was just a sudden ending of the floor! Yup, the floor just ended and boom there's the next room. Was kind of a shock to turn the corner and see this greeting you. Stopped me dead in my tracks. Here's the view from the bottom looking up.



This was a result of recent construction work. That's right, while this property was abandoned for ten years it had been sold in the last month we were there. Here's to economic recovery! The whole property is being redone and rented out... just like I had said. So all of this will be renovated soon. Sadly this place won't be allowed to linger as an aging relic any longer. Even so, I enjoyed adventuring in it's crumbled glory. It was a fine send off for someplace that had been a decent chunk of my summer.

I enjoyed haikyo! I wish I could do more haikyo. Abandoned properties have a haunting spirit about them that is undeniably enticing. Perhaps the chance to do something like this will come up again in the future. If not I'll enjoy this experience and have a memory of seeing the corpse of a building untouched for a decade.

Way Back Whensday

I'm joining the WBW wagon as started by my loving GF, The Ashes. Click the banner to go check out her site. Or rather, since my only reader is her, HI ASHES!

Well here's what happens next, I join in on the party! I'm a little late to the party seeing as she (you) have quit the whole blogging thing. I've been neglecting this whole blog for quite a while. I'll be honest I never got into it. I'm not going to be leaving it alone though. Probably just going to post more short and themed posts.

I'm going to be doing this WBW thing a bit differently. It's classic gaming time foooooools!

WAY BACK WHENSDAY
WWF No Mercy - N64

It was 2000. The year that changed everything... like the numbers 19 to 20... and not much else I guess. Anyway, my friends and I had loved the game Wrestlemania 2000 which had come out the previous year. Compared to the WWF games on the PS1 at the time it was a giant golden goose egg. Let us not forget that wrestling was basically at it's peak and it was the obsession of all my friends. The "F" was still there, it was the 'Attitude Era', and the focus was still firmly on The Rock, Steve Austin, and Mick Foley. Combining the juvenile action of wrestling with the flashy, twitchy excitement of video games was the pinnacle of excitement at the time. Sorta.

The game featured an up-to-date roster and revolutionary gameplay. In fact the game is still considered one of the most revered combat systems in wrestling games to this day. Modern games simply lack the FUN that No Mercy had in bucket loads. Four player gameplay made for exciting CHAOS! Royal Rumble matches between four friends quickly became shouting contests as we continuously threw each other over the rope. I could never forget the contests we had for the in game championships, hotly contested, which became bragging rights at school.

No Mercy was based on a Japanese game, Virtual Pro Wrestling 2, so it included all the moves that belonged to the wrestlers in that game. These moves were WAY beyond the tame crap they were putting on in America at the time. From crazy high-flying stunts to head dropping death bombs, it was jaw dropping stuff that helped introduce all of us to the Puroresu scene. The Burning Hammer was my CAWs finishing move, and the Emerald Fusion was the legendary CAW Andoras Nirdu's finisher.

The in depth Create-a-Wrestler, or CAW, system added to the overall experience. Creating a character and pitting him, and his extensive moves, against your friends CAW led to epic feuds. Just ask my friend Joe, who had a long standing feud with "The House" Andoras Nirdu. The game allowed for individual parts of the clothing to be colored, rather than the entire thing being on a palette slider. It was by far the best wrestling game in the last 10 years, with only King of Colosseum II coming anywhere close to having as strong a package.

Fame is like a drug, and drugs are like a drug.
- Homer Simpson

The Only Hurdle to My Success

The only hurdle to my success...

...is me!

Pivo

You are BANNED from this blog!
You and your children, and your children's children!



For three months.