Bravo

I pop in on occasion, just to peek in on the old place. It's a weird kind of comforting that it's still here after all this time.

Well, time again for what has inexplicably become my favourite new year tradition. I hope everybody's doing well and that that continues into this coming year. I still poke my head in here every once in a while. Not sure what I expect to see, but the nostalgia keeps driving me back to check. But enough blather. Happy New Year, everyone!

Here we are again. A happy new year to you all!

Hey, Jayon. I was struck by a bout of nostalgia and remembered this place. It's been so long... (And a month-and-a-half-late Happy New Year from me.)

I think you had best count me out, at least for this first month. I've got some niou-se I need to work through and there's no telling how short or long it'll take me. Just figured to give you a heads up.

So, I notice along the top of the cover page there is a list of features... And one of these features is fan fiction... I'm hesitant to put this forward, but I have been working on a story of my own, and it happens to fall within the Metroid universe... My reticence stems from the fact that I currently only have just over four pages written, and I've been too busy these last couple weeks to work on it at all. Also, the beginning at least is not very Metroid-y, it's not a Samus-centric story, and its primary source material is one of the series' more maligned games. (And it's something I made, which I tend to feel should devalue the thing on principle.) But after this week I should have more free time, so if anyone (mainly Chris. He's the boss, after all) is interested I can try to get some more work done on it so it can be submitted for review, or however things are done. Nearly the whole plot is planned out to some degree or another, so I imagine things should go rather smoothly in regards to actually typing it up. So, yeah... how 'bout that.

I was recently directed to this essay on the writing and story in Metroid: Other M: http://moonbase.rydia.net/mental/blog/gaming/metroid-other-m-the-elephant/article.html It drew some rather disturbing conclusions, but it's well reasoned and written. I would suggest reading it to all here, if you have the inclination and/or time. It left me concerned about Yoshio Sakamoto's continued involvement in the Metroid series.

First impressions: I like it. It's very crisp. Professional. The layout doesn't seem too cluttered, so it should work well with any number of background images. One concern I have involves the plug of Conglometroid. The little Metroid-insignia for the "C" is a bit blurry, so a simple aesthetic fix there, but it led me to wonder: if someone didn't know what they were looking at, might they read it instead as "onglometroid.com", with a nifty little Metroid decal beside it? I don't know if that's likely, but who knows with people...

I recently-ish got myself a new computer. I went for a Mac this time, because I'm impulsive and it seemed like the thing to do. So, I'm transferring over files I want to keep from my decrepit old computer, and find something I'd been working on in Paint.net. I bring it over, thinking I can finish it on my new computer. Of course, now I know that PDN doesn't have a mac version, so I asked google what to do. I was told GIMP would be a suitable alternative, but now that I've tried to open the file I realize that it's saved in Paint.net's own special .pdn format. And GIMP will have none of that. So I go back to google, ask it if there's any way I can get things rolling along here. Google is being spectacularly unhelpful in this situation (an unheard of occurrence, to me) which leads me to believe I am out of luck. But I figured I'd try you guys out, just in case. Is there any way to open .pdn files in GIMP? Or is there another Mac-friendly program I can use to open it?

MSN/Bing seems to be peeking in, too. I don't think I've seem them around before.

I feel as though that is German, but the nearest I can tell it says Which seems somewhat random to me... I spoilered it in case anyone else wished to take a swing at it.

I am uncertain as to what that means.

Pourmoic'estplusfacile.

I didn't think anything of the name at first, but then I heard.... someone, I don't remember who, talking about it and he pronounced it "Weeoo" and for whatever reason it made me think of . (Maybe it was Satoru Iwata? Who knows...)

I'll take a crack at this... I believe Ikus first said (in a very rapid fire manner) "Hello, how are things?" (or something equivalent, I'm no linguist.) And then maybe something like: "What, is everything alright?" And I can't even guess at the third. I'm probably off on the first two anyhow.

So. Who's been paying attention to E3? I wasn't. But then an awkward little birdie informed me that Nintendo was up to something. Turns out it's their new console! Excitement abounds! Called the Wii U, the console is following Nintendo's pattern of... re-imagining gaming. The new controller is, simply put, a beast. It looks to be about physically the size of a standard Wii console, and boasts features out the wazoo. The controller has a touch screen with stylus, a camera, an accelerometer and gyroscope, a microphone, speakers, rumble, and a sensor strip. Not to mention the traditional button controls and two analog sticks. Just hearing about this I thought Nintendo had lost their minds, trying to jam as many features as they could think of into this thing in the name of innovation. But is that what it is? Innovation? Or just more "gimmicks"? I will say right now that watching a few videos of the proposed gameplay purposes of the controller actually soothed some of my apprehension. Also, the console and controller are still in the prototype stages, so Sylux will swoop in and steal them to crush the Galactic Federation things could still change. The current release date is simply '2012'. Nintendo has also displayed new games, and more information on games we already knew about. Skyward Sword was what I was most interested in. From what I've seen of the game lineups, Nintendo seems to be reaching back to the "hardcore gamers" demographic (as well as nurturing its casual gamers). In a software lineup video I picked out a couple games in the ever-growing "realistic and gritty shooter" category, and also a new Ninja Gaiden game, among others. So, long story short, go check things out for yourself, I guess? http://e3.nintendo.com/

At first, when I was just reading about the whole thing, I found the concept just interesting. Then I started watching the Marble Hornets series. My interest grew, and then it grew into apprehension, and then into fear, and then into terror. Now, whenever a new video is posted, I click play and in the back of my head I have "why am I still watching this why am I still watching this why am I still watching this" running in a loop. Marble Hornets is the only "Slender Blog" I've really gotten into. It makes very good use of the concept of "nothing is scarier", letting your imagination run wild and do its own thing, but the videos actually featuring the Slender Man are even more terrifying. I began "EverymanHYBRID", but it never really hooked me. Anyways, continuing with your Slender Lesson: The Slender Man's preferred method is to stalk its subjects (or prey?) for long periods of time. Sometimes very long, like childhood through college. What exactly it does to these people isn't always clear. There have been mentions of dismemberments. I've heard a tale of someone being found and it seemed each internal organ had been removed separately, wrapped in some kind of film, and then put back into the body cavity. Some people have been impaled on tree branches, or sometimes on entire trees. It seems like these more violent attacks are usually towards people who are actively trying to interfere with whatever it is the Slender Man is doing, as the stalking and driving people insane seems far more prevalent. There are at least two surefire ways of attracting the attention of the Slender Man. First, if you enter its "home" which usually seems to be a forest, where it blends in with the trees due to its spindly appearance. Second, investigating the Slender Man. This, of course, means that anyone who reads or watches these Slender Blogs is liable to become another victim. Finally, due to its nebulous nature, many, many theories have arisen as to what it is or where it comes from. It could be an alien, a demon, an extra-dimensional being. Because of its seeming affinity for forests some say it is a form of dryad. Some say it evolved from trees. A wonderful (and terrifying) theory is that the Slender Man is a Tulpa, sometimes called a Thoughtform. Basically, it started as just a story, but then the collective thoughts of everyone who became embroiled in the mythos gave actual form to the Slender Man. This leads to a spin-off theory that because of the many different versions of Slender Man stories that are now various Slender Men. Opposingly, some say that only one Slender Man was created and the myriad interpretations are actually destabilizing it, or even tearing it apart. It has also been compared to various creatures from popular culture. It could be related to the Gentlemen from Buffy, or the Silence or the Flesh, both from Doctor Who. Maybe it is Anonymous from message boards. Or it could be a Myrddraal from The Wheel of Time. Or an Observer from Fringe.

Good news, everyone! I unlocked the final route! And! I caught the last two pokes! Woooooo! Which means I am now playing HeartGold again, until I can evolve my Feebas. Which should take about three more days. Funtimes. EDIT: Except I forgot the stupid haircut brothers are closed on Mondays. Adds a whole 'nother day. Grumble grumble... Actually, I've also been playing the online internet flash game on the web known as GemCraft: Labyrinth !!! (*Crashing thunder*) It's a tower defense game. Rather fun. I enjoy it.

Due to the nature of the Slender Man (having been created on the internet and then having stories built around it by several, independent people and groups) its traits are somewhat difficult to pin down absolutely. I suppose I'll begin with a physical description. At first it will simply look like an ordinary person. A man, tall and thin. Bald. Dressed in a black business suit. It's usually seen in the distance, or the background of photographs. If you look closer, find something against which you can scale it, you'll find that it could not be human. It is impossibly thin and tall. Tall enough to have to stoop to pass through an ordinary doorway, with long, lanky limbs. And if you get close enough, you'll surely notice its face. I believe the original story said that its face appeared different to each person, or it had a different face each time you looked at it. Now it seems to be agreed by all that it actually has no face. None at all, just smooth, bare skin. The Slender Man has displayed a variety of "powers" or abilities. Which abilities it shows tend to vary depending on which blog you read or which video you watch. Most commonly, it is known to cause insomnia, amnesia (to varying degrees), paranoia, and outright insanity. The method it uses to cause these is unknown, perhaps some psychic abilities, maybe people just go mad with fright. It is also known to "hypnotize" people. By raising its arms, as though asking for a hug, it can compel people to walk towards it. Perhaps related, some people also begin to serve the Slender Man, acting almost as mindless drones often known as "proxies". On the more physical side, the Slender Man is sometimes able to extent and contort its limbs, allowing it to grab or entangle prey, or enemies. It has also been known to grow additional limbs from its back and sides. Sometimes it uses these extra limbs to walk about on, leaving its body to dangle freely off the ground. A form of rapid movement, or maybe teleportation, is also seen. Curiously, it tends to not use this ability when directly observed, either by eye or camera, leading some to believe it has "quantum properties" or something of that ilk. It also has a sort of passive ability. Anyone exposed to its presence tends to experience coughing and weakness, and electronic media (such as videos) often experience audio and/or video distortions. People or places that accumulate knowledge of the Slender Man tend to turn up dead or destroyed. The first time a page was made about it on Wikipedia it was taken down, which could be (and was) seen as rather creepy. I could go on, but for now a couple links will suffice: This page contains the (I believe) photos and information from the original post on the Something Awful boards. And probably a bit more. This is a list of most of the better known Slender-blogs.

Some time ago, The Internet, after its inscrutable method, created a creature most foul indeed. It is something of a modern-day bogey-man, a folk tale meant only for terrifying and bewildering those who hear or read it. But these harmless tales might not be so harmless after all. Some would tell you the story has taken on a life of its own... I speak, of course, of the Slender Man. Every story about it raises more questions. Theory after Mulderian theory is offered up, attempting to explain who it is, or what it is, or why it is... To no avail. Is anyone else familiar with the Slender Man? The first I read about it, I found it interesting, intriguing. But then I started looking at more and more material about it -- the "Marble Hornets" series in particular -- and those feelings turned to terror. Actual, legitimate terror. The kind of terror where I wake up in the middle of the night, drenched in sweat, my eyes clenched shut, but I don't dare move, don't even dare open my eyes, because I just know that it is lurking in the corner of my room, watching over me with its faceless gaze. Waiting for me to wake. But then I reach the end of my archive binge, and have to wait for the next video update. I gradually get better. I can sleep normally again. For a while, at least.

I don't know why I didn't mention this before, but... Since you like OotS you might want to check out anti-HEROES. The art style is inspired by OotS and it's D&D based as well. Unfortunately, it seems to be going through some... creative troubles currently, which kinda made me double happy the RP spiritual successor is up and running again. EDIT: It looks like the comic may also have returned. For now, at least.

I enjoy all of those. Everything I know about D&D I learned from Oots! I used to read a whooole lot of webcomics. So many that I needed a designated folder in my bookmarks to keep them all straight. I'm proud to say that I've cut back quite a bit. Now I have a small group that I follow, and a few others I check on when I remember about them. By far my favorite is Gunnerkrigg Court. The character design near the beginning is a little... wonky, but the art has evolved wonderfully.