I’m a fanboy of two game series - The Legend of Zelda and Sonic the Hedgehog. My fandom for Zelda is evident in the multiple fansites I run about the game series, but my Sonic fanboyism is not as evident. In reality, I’m deep down a Sonic boy; I grew up with Sonic, not Zelda, and so the blue blur has a little place in my heart that Link will never occupy. And that’s why I’m so upset about the state of the Sonic series. Sega is truly lost.

Let’s start by looking at Sega’s current focus for Sonic: speed. Speed is the focus, because Sonic runs fast. Sonic always runs fast - nowadays, too fast for your eyes to keep up. There is nothing wrong with pairing Sonic and speed. It’s always been done, and it should be done. But there’s a problem when you have too much of a good thing - the most recent 2.5D Sonic games, Sonic Rush and Sonic Rush Adventure, focus so much on speed that the player can hardly keep up with Sonic as he blazes (no pun intended) across the screens of the DS. But it’s too early for criticism, I’ve hardly explained the rest of the Sonic series.

The three-dimensional Sonics are in a purgatory of sorts; they don’t really seem to know what they are. Sega was onto something with Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2, and I think if they’d gotten the camera just right then the games would have been spot-on. I, personally, thought both were great fun, especially Sonic Adventure, which kept a good amount of the spirit and drive from Sonic 3D Blast for Genesis (a good deal of the music in SA1 was rehashed from 3D Blast). In addition, there was something nice about seeing Sonic jump up into an actual spherical BALL that made the action more pleasurable - they’ve since renounced the ball jump in favor of a more realistic less-flippy jump.

To take you through the years of that jumping mechanic, from the very first Sonic up until Sonic Adventure our hedgehog would always form a neat, spherical ball. Sonic Adventure 2 changed this mechanic by using the same model for Sonic’s jump as for the normal, stationary Sonic - so the current model was made to literally jump straight up in the air, and then tuck to flip a few times before gracefully landing. As unrealistic as it was, it would have also left Sonic open to attack - something spinning that slowly wouldn’t damage a think on impact. If anything, I always thought it was the sheer speed of Sonic’s rotation that dismantled Robotnik’s robots, not the foce of the jump itself, which is why Sonic is able to destroy baddies by spin driving into them or rolling into them as well. In Sonic and the Secret Rings (Wii), the flipping jump has been completely abolished - Sonic jumps like a normal human being. He even has to charge his jump.

There are some intrinsic differences between the newer 2.5D and the 3D Sonics, differences that have remained contingent throughout both developments. The 2D Sonics, as I said earlier, focus entirely on speed - there is no other purpose to the game than to run incredibly fast. In the 3D Sonics, we see a difference: Sonic does not run very fast, and if he does it is never too fast that he can’t be followed. This was refreshing in Secret Rings, which I considered the first in a long chain of “hybrid” Sonic games that began Sega’s attempts to merge the 2.5D and 3D Sonic series. And yet, both are lacking something remarkable that keep them from being successful - and it appears to have flown over Sega’s collective heads time and time again.

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The so-called “browser wars” can be a pain in the neck for good, honest people who just want to use the internet. And hey, those people are already using the internet - you’re probably one of them. Here are ten reasons why you absolutely should ignore those pompous freaks telling you to switch your browser for another (like me, for example).

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There’s something wrong with the DS, and I’m noticing it now more than ever, since ZU gives me a little bit more spending cash than I used to have (not that much more, mind you, since I have to send most of it off to pay the gargantuan debt I’m in from buying the place). My suspicions began with Phantom Hourglass, but having moved on to Mario Kart and Final Fantasy III, both games that were released prior to Phantom Hourglass I know, I’m noticing a distinct pattern: DS games lack music.

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This is a piece I wrote during the beginning of a school day two days ago. I was inspired in part by an anime (yes, an anime) I saw beforehand, but I had mostly been thinking about this stuff in the back of my mind for a while previously - for years, in fact - and never put into words. I have now. It’s highly debatable, makes MANY assumptions, but if refined and investigated could one day be, possibly, a solid theory.

I should point out first that it is NOT, contrary to what is written, consciousness that I am discussing. It is something else entirely, as someone pointed out to be, for consciousness already has a very concrete definition that the contents of this essay don’t entirely fall into. Therefore, I’m clearly discussing something that has no name - and I call it, for those purposes, “consciousness.” Read the rest of this entry »

Today I encountered a commenter on Cerulean Studios’ blog, named John, who stated the following:

I’ll be honest and say that I’m one of many who have pirated an alpha build of Astra without an Astra account. I do realize that I’m missing a number of features but… I don’t feel like I’ve lost out. I upgraded to Windows Vista when it launched and wanted a pretty new IM client… and Astra was the top choice.

John also went on to state a caveat to all other pirates who would dare steal Cerulean Studios’ next flagship product, Trillian Astra, that in its essence said that the alpha build had a lot of bugs and the user pirates at his or her own risk. He also stated that there is no reason for anyone to want to get in on an alpha program to quickly. To his statements, I must ask: When is piracy okay?

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Today is Physics Day, a day where our entire Junior class (Juniors take Physics here) goes to Six Flags: Great Adventure and rides roller coasters all day. I’m absolutely terrified of both heights and sharp turns from drops, and roller coasters have both. However, if any day, today was the day to conquer my fear and finally go on a roller coaster, even if it wasn’t one of the more harsh coasters in the park.

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More recently in math I’ve come to the conclusion that every graph we make is a cross section of something three-dimensional. This is probably wrong, but I can’t help but wonder in my n-dimensional mind, are many of our polar graphs simply cross sections of 3D shapes?

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I didn’t realize how badly I needed a vacation. I’m seeing a general improvement in my studies now - even hearing the word “studies” fills me with an unimaginable joy and indescribably feeling. It’s as though I could take those “studies” and gobble them whole, as though they were a form of fine cuisine. And yet, they do feel filling, as holding a brand new book does. If you know this feeling, then you must be an avid reader, because there isn’t another feeling like holding a brand new book. The smell of it, the look of the text that has not yet been blotted or spoiled by human hands, as library books have. Library books feel dull and empty, as though their life has run out, but new books from the store have a magic within them. It’s a magic that says, “This book is my book. The knowledge within is mine alone to consume, to drink in its entirety.” Likewise, the thought of “drinking” the contents of a book also brings a pleasurable feeling. Oddly, I’m finding knowledge, much like books, once again tasty.

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They’re not going to improve. Once an addict, always an addict. As unreliable human sources tell me, about one third of alcoholics over sixty are dead, one third are still fighting their addiction, and the other third are clean. I’ll explain why I think all of them are either the first or the second, and never the third.

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A while back I wrote an article about HPV, or Human Papillomavirus. I mentioned in it that there was a vaccine in the works. Now, whether or not it is the same vaccine, it has been put to market.

I’ve been a bit upset about the hype that HPV is getting. HPV is not an epidemic, nor does it, at its stage, deserve the various commercials that now invade my television set more than the “Above the Influence” ads do. And when the ads come on, they’re incredibly cheesy and hyped up. The vaccine’s commercial, product named “Gardasil,” flaunts that with each vaccination there can be “one less” person affected by HPV.

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