Sunday, April 25, 2010

4/25/10 - April in the Morning, April in the Evening, April at Suppertime!

(Not sure why I referenced the Bagelbites commercial in my intro.....)

Hello everybody, SlimKirby here!

The first thing I would like to do is apologize. Not for making this entry late or anything, but I promised you guys I would have a topic prepared for this entry, but unfortunately I do not. I am not quite sure what exactly happened, but whatever I had planned to talk about, I just simply forgot. I’m not trying to give you guys bull crap or anything like that….I honestly and legitly (which doesn’t seem to be a word) forgot and I feel embarrassed by it. I’m not going to let it eat on my conscious too much though, as I have some major overhauls and plans for this blog in the future, some of which you may enjoy. I’m not going to go into very much detail about this, but I will say that it will be a lot more organized, and organization seems to be my biggest problem with the blog itself, along with finding topics of discussion, for that matter…

Anyways, the countdown for summer vacation continues as I only have 2 weeks left of classes (one of them being a modified week for final exams). As I have said many times, I am very much looking forward to being done for the semester. I’m still working hard on my Pokemon team for Heart Gold….really only because it is going to be awhile before I beat the entire team. Red has some very high-leveled Pokemon afterall, and I’m only confident in the abilities of 4/5 team members. The only reason I say 4/5 instead of 5/6 or 4/6 is because I’m not teaching Rock Climb to any of my team members, and unfortunately you need that move to actually advance through Mt. Silver (which sucks), but the member I had to bench wouldn’t be that helpful anyways (it would, but it’s my most original moveset). Again, I’ll maybe talk about my team some other time.

Anyways, let’s get to the Youtube updates, I guess….

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Super Bomberman 2:

The recordings have been finished, and they will be posted daily from Monday to Friday. The project will be done on Friday, so hooray for that!

The videos themselves went pretty smoothly and the commentary wasn’t too bad. However, you can only get “so excited” about Bomberman Battle Mode where there is only one human player involved….

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Advance Wars:

I know I said I wouldn’t talk about this project this week, and I won’t, but I’ll quickly mention that I have completed the mission successfully a few times on my own. I haven’t made my way to the desired rank just yet, but I’ll start looking through some guides and some tips this next week.

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CrystalStarStudio:

GaiaCrusher9 has started his chapter, and has been doing a great job! He also has informed me that he doesn’t have too many videos, so he may be done sooner than you think! =O

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Future Stream Event:

I think I’ve decided that I am going to host a stream event on the 14th of May (yes, the day before Mario Party 6). I would host it earlier on in the week, but I would be concerned with attendance due to the fact it would be during a school day and night. This will mark the first stream of the summer, and Im going to see if I can sit down and make some progress with my current stream games (New Super Mario Bros. Wii, and Banjo Tooie (maybe Diddy Kong Racing again if it is in high demand, because that was fun last time)). I’m still wondering if streaming Galaxy 2 would be a good idea when it releases, but I may decide against that because I don’t want to spoil the game for anyone. We’ll see what happens though. :P

I’m not sure if this date will end up working or not. It really depends on what my parents have in store for me during that first week of May (last year they tried to force me into doing substitute teaching for my old Jr. High school (didn’t go through though). I would like to get a few streaming events done this summer. I usually have a good time doing stream events. =)

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Well, I hate to leave you with a short entry today, but I’m all out of creative writing juices, and I should probably get to bed as well (I have class in 6 and a half hours, as I am closing this out). See you guys next week, and I hope you enjoy battle mode.

Later folks!
-SlimKirby

Sunday, April 18, 2010

4/18/10 - We Don't Need No Information! (Even Though it Seems Like That is All I Gave)

Hello everybody, SlimKirby here!

Another week down the drain, which means it is time for another blog entry. I’m personally still very much looking forward to getting out of school for the summer (although who isn’t?), and am excited to report that I just have 3 weeks left! So basically, after today, two more entries of complaining about it, and then I’m off for summer. =D

Not much has really been happening in my world. Last week I had the whole thing with my laptop being stupid, and I’m happy to report that I have it back now with those problems being fixed. Although most of my problems were caused by wear-and-tear damages (battery getting old, and the backlight getting loose), I’m still going to take more careful measures with my laptop, as I want these problems to not happen in the future. So I’m going to be a lot more cautious with laptop space and how long I leave the laptop on and active. Again, not sure if these things would contribute to making sure these things don’t happen in the future, but you never know.

In the world of Nintendo, we have been getting some interesting information as of late. The new generation of Pokemon games have been announced, “Pokemon White and Black,” and some images have also been shown as well. Since I’ve been on a bit of a Pokemon high as of late, I can definitely confirm that these games will be mine once they release (not sure when this will be though). Also speaking of new releases, Super Mario Galaxy 2 is right around the corner as well. It’s April 18th when I post this entry, and the game releases in just 35 days (unless we get a very, very late and unlikely delay). I loved the original Super Mario Galaxy, and I am very much looking forward to the sequel. I may even go to a midnight release of the game (I haven’t decided this yet though). Another thing Nintendo has announced recently is the next handheld. Now, I’m not going to go into this very much, because I want to save this for a rant sometime in the future, but I will say that I am not very happy about it. Save all your comments and questions for when I actually do discuss it, because I don’t have all the information myself.

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Advance Wars:

What would you guys say to this statement?

“Advance Wars will be finished in 2 update weeks.”

The reason I ask is because that statement is now actually applicable at this point, believe it or not. This very long project, which I’ve been talking about since November, and which I’ve started LPing in February, is coming to a close very soon. However, don’t assume that everything will be done before April ends, even though I did technically say 2 weeks.

This next week will feature the last two missions of Sami’s path in the Green Earth strand of missions, and Saturday and Sunday will feature the last two missions before what is the hardest, and longest, mission in the entire game, and what may be one of the hardest missions in the entire Advance Wars series. I’m putting a lot of emphasis on the difficulty for a very important reason. After this week, I am going to be taking a week off from the project so I can practice, and practice, and practice. This mission is not going to be a piece of cake….far from it. In fact, I may consider dropping the “S-Rank” challenge if I just can’t handle it. I won’t set that into stone just yet, but just know that this is going to be a huge mountain to climb if I want to finish this game.

I will probably not discuss Advance Wars next week, because I won’t have anything on the horizon for the coming week, but just know the project will be coming to a close very soon.

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Super Bomberman 2:

Ironically, Super Bomberman 2 only has about two weeks of content left as well (one if I wasn’t doing Advance Wars), and in two weeks time, I will also be done with this game as well. Unlike Advance Wars though, I won’t be taking a week break from the game.

Although….I will be taking two days off. Tomorrow I will post what is left of the Single Player game, which will consist of two short 5-7 minute videos. I didn’t plan to do it this way, it’s just the unfortunate way the project came out to be. So tomorrow, I will post the last few levels, all of the final bosses, and the credits.

I won’t have any updates or any videos on Wednesday or Friday (which gives me an excuse to work on something for 9000 subscribers, since that is also approaching). However, when I return that next Monday, I will start the Battle Mode videos. Since I am taking that week off from Advance Wars, I will be posting the videos daily. As I will say in tomorrow’s videos, I’m not sure how long Battle Mode will take, but expect me to be done either Thursday or Friday (Saturday (May 1st)), the latest.

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Future Project Dates:

For those who haven’t been checking my channel page as of late, I’ve been hinting at some possible, future LP dates, along with the conclusions of Super Bomberman 2 and Advance Wars. As usual, I’m not going to give very much information about this stuff, put I will go over a few things.

Mario Party 6:

Earlier on in the week, I announced I would be starting a short LP on May 10th. However, unfortunately that date is not going to work anymore, so Mario Party 6 will be the first project I start during my summer vacation. The project is unfortunately not going to start on May 8th, but it will start on May 15th. I know that is a few weeks away, but please understand that I can’t afford to start it any earlier than that. I just have too much going on. And trust me, I am aware of the very large following I have who want me to start this game as soon as possible. I’m so aware, that I want them all to shut up about it. =)

Like Mario Party 5, I will update one board of the project every Saturday, and once I get to the extra content, I will probably upload more.

Short Let’s Play:

I will be starting another short LP, ironically on the day after I start Mario Party 6, on May 16th. I would start it on the 17th, but I actually want to finish this game as soon as possible, and 16th is the earliest I can start it. I would go into more detail about why the date is so important, but that would ruin the surprise. Let’s just say I have something planned. ;)

This game will be uploaded on a daily basis (except Saturdays when I would be doing Mario Party 6). As for length, I predict around 12 or 13 videos.

Long Let’s Play:

As soon as I finish the aforementioned “Short Let’s Play,” I will be starting another one shortly after…one that will actually take more than 10-20 videos. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if this game gets video numbers in the 50s or 60s, but we’ll wait to see what happens. Once again, not going to give very much information about this game, but I am very much looking forward to it.

I plan to start this one as soon as I finish the short LP. If I had to make a prediction, I would say May 30th, but don’t assume that date.

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CrystalStarStudio:

Congratulations ThePastaKing for not only completing Chapter 3 of our Thousand-Year Door project, but for also doing a hell of good job with it.

As I’ve said before, I was concerned about putting PK in the pilot seat at first. Not that he wasn’t qualified or not good at doing Let’s Plays, but if you don’t know ThePastaKing, let’s just say he’s not the fastest uploader. I think his unfinished Ogre Battle LP, after at least 8 months of it being in session, with less than 20 videos, speaks for itself. Uploading was really my only concern with PK, just because he’s just not good at sticking to a schedule, and sticking to one was very vital and important to this project.

However, with the completion of his chapter on Friday, with no missed updates whatsoever, ThePastaKing sure proved me wrong, and I’m glad he did. There were a few times where he was a bit late in uploading (a few days where the upload didn’t go through until the following day), but the fact of the matter is that he still met the 3-per-week goal that we set for the project. And even when he was late, he was always there to explain and put us at ease, letting us know that the episode was coming. That may be a bit unprofessional, but at least he didn’t give up. He stuck with it and did what we expected him to do.

Also to PK’s credit, the videos themselves were quite enjoyable to watch. Usually when you have a LPer like PK, someone with a relaxed nature and a somewhat structurally informal way of doing things, you always run the risk of having very stale and boring videos. However, that doesn’t seem to work or apply to PK. He just has a quality about him that makes him enjoyable to watch, and because of that, I’m glad to have him on the CSS team…..as I’m sure everyone else is too.

Next up in the project we have GaiaCrusher9…..get the cake ready! :P

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Video Back-Up Progess:

Yes, I am still backing-up videos on SlimKirby64, and for anyone interested, I’m up to over 700 videos, which means I can’t possibly have too many videos left, right? Well, I know I have 1200+ on my main channel right now, but keep in mind that I will not be backing up any of the Brawl Custom videos, the random wifi videos, the announcement videos, and all that other stupid crap, so if I had to make an estimation, I think I have about 200 left. We are getting down to the wire in number of projects though, with only 6 or 7 left. Once again, thanks to MegaFreak400 for helping me….even though you sunk my battleship! =(

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Next Week:

On next week’s blog entry, I will have a topic in mind (although it relates to Youtube…nothing interesting), so my focus will mostly be on that. However, if I’m feeling good, I may drop a few other hints about my upcoming LPs, and other stuff you can expect at channel SlimKirby!

Anyways, since this word document is quickly approaching the 5th page by this point, I think it’s as good a time as any to end this entry. Talk to you guys next week, and have a good week ahead!

-SlimKirby

Sunday, April 11, 2010

4/11/10 - The Screen May Go Black, But I Will Still Move Forward

Hey guys, SlimKirby here up for another blog entry!

What can I say about this past week? “Gag me with a mechanical pencil!” I’ve had some crappy weeks this past semester….I’ve had sick weeks, I’ve had weeks with nothing but nonstop homework, and I even had a week of recovery from a kidney stone, but honestly, this one may take the cake. I mean, the work load was manageable, and I didn’t have any issues with Youtube stuff, but it was just a very mediocre week. Also, the fact that my laptop has been acting up (to the point where I will need to get it repaired this next week), does not help matters in the slightest. Basically, here is what happened….

A few Wednesdays ago (March 31st), I noticed that my laptop was starting to act funny when I turned it on and all of the sudden it was still dark on the screen. I restarted the machine and sure enough, it was fine after that. A few days later, I noticed it did the same thing again. However, the computer was clearly on and working…..the screen was just so dark that I could barely see what was on it. After adjusting the brightness, the problem fixed itself, but as the days went on, the problem became even more uncooperative. On Monday (April 5th), I took it in for a diagnostic, just to find out that the backlight to the screen was dysfunctional. Now, while it still works on occasion, it still needs to be repaired, so this next week I am going to be without my computer. Thankfully, the computer tech place at my college should allow loaners, so I may be able to have a temporary computer, but as far as my videos are concerned, I’m going to be out of luck, but I’ll get into that later.

So anyways, the computer place told me that the repair should take anywhere from 3 to 5 days in theory, so hopefully I will get my computer back this week. However, I can’t say for sure, just yet. I guess we will just have to wait and see what happens. Tonight I will be a posting a notification video on my account that will talk about this situation in more detail. For those of you wondering if I will have to go a few days without updates, I will say that it is a possibility, but only in dire circumstances.

As far as other stuff goes, there is not much to talk about. For some reason, I started a playthrough of Super Mario RPG again. Don’t ask me why, but it was a game I was interested in playing again, and the fact I have it on my Wii console through the Virtual Console is nice, because it’s such a great game that I have easy access to. Going through the game again has brought back memories, and not just of the game, but my LP of the game. The project itself, looking back at it, was nothing spectacular, but back in the day, it was one of the first projects on my channel that brought me into the LP radar. Perhaps maybe a replay project in the future? Who kows?

I’ve also been working on Pokemon Heart Gold still. Last night I actually finished up getting all of the Johto gym badges, and now I am en route to training for the Elite Four. My team is nothing spectacular, but I may go into more detail about it later on, but for right now, I’m keeping it a secret.

Anyways, let’s talk about Youtube!

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Advance Wars:

I still have a few obstacles in the way, but this project probably won’t be around for that much longer. The computer repairs could possibly extend this a bit, but I still say this project should be completed before my spring semester ends (May 7th).

Super Bomberman 2:

Halfway done? Well, I never expected this project to go on for very long, but for those of you predicting a 7 video project (for at least the single player mode), you are advised to think again. I said from the beginning that Super Bomberman 2 would take longer to finish no matter what. Yes, the first game has six worlds, and this one has 5, but the puzzles in the 2nd game are just enough to extend the length. Also, the bosses are a bit more slow-paced. If I had to make a prediction, I would say 9 videos, but it is still up in the air at this point. Also, don’t forget that I also have Battle Mode to do as well, which will be covered in the same fashion.

Back-Up Progress:

I can’t really say that I’ve made that much more progress on this front, but me and MegaFreak400 are most certainly getting there. I’ve been working on the biggies, and Mega has been working on the smaller projects, and with only a few big projects left, and the number of small projects getting even smaller, I predict to be caught up during the summer (maybe even before then :O).

CrystalStarStudio:

Believe it or not, ThePastaKing just has one week left, and once again we will be switching hosts. I’ll talk more about ThePastaKing next week when he is actually done. However, he has done some great work.

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Yeah, kind of a short entry today, but I went into some big discussions last weekend, so I figured I would give myself a little break this week. Next week should be a big week, with April being about half-way over, and with all the stuff I have planned for May coming ever so much closer. Perhaps I will even drop some hints? Well, anything is possible, so I guess you will just have to wait until next week!

Later folks!

Sunday, April 4, 2010

4/4/10 - I Am Not a Fool......An April Fool

Hello everybody, SlimKirby here!

It’s been two weeks since my last update, and I do apologize for the long wait, but last Sunday ended up in disaster for me personally, and by the time things calmed down, it was already the middle of the week and I didn’t feel like updating. Basically what happened was on Sunday morning, I had to be ambulanced to the hospital because I had a kidney stone. However, the stone is gone and I am fine, so there is no need to go into very much detail about it.

Anyways, I am very thrilled to say I have about a month of college left before my summer break, which is great. I just have to get through a few weeks of work here and there and then a week of finals, but then I’m good.

Anyways, in my last update I mentioned that I got Pokemon Heart Gold. One thing I forgot to mention is that I actually purchased two other games alongside it. First, I also purchased “The Legendary Starfy,” a Nintendo DS platformer. Although this was the first Starfy release in the US, there are actually 4 other games there were only released in Japan, so the series itself has actually been going on for a few years by this point. For those who don’t know who or what Starfy is, he actually made an assist trophy cameo in Super Smash Bros. Brawl (the spinning star character). Anyways, I gotta say, for a game I was kind of skeptical of at first, I was actually pleasantly surprised with the game. It was a pretty unique platforming game with great music and graphics and some cool characters. Not only that, but once you finish the game, there is also plenty of replay value too, so there is plenty to enjoy in this title. I definitely recommend the game to anyone who wants to try a unique platforming title.

I also purchased, finally, after what seems like several years now, Mario Party DS. People consider me to be the Mario Party guy and I hadn’t even gotten or played the DS version until just recently. However, that has now changed! Anyways, I haven’t played much of it yet, but I gotta say, I do love the mini-games. I just wish the boards were more interesting and less frustrating.

Anyways, that’s all I have to mention about video games. The next and last thing I want to quickly mention is March Madness. While I am not a big sports fan, I do get into March Madness (for those who don’t know and who more than likely live in another country, it’s a college basketball tournament thing where people make brackets based on what teams they think will win specific games and enter contests where they compete and compare their brackets with others). In fact, I even had a contest with my fellow CSS and Blargg Pit members. Anyways, while I didn’t do very well at all this year, I just wanted to give a quick shout-out to Butler (a college which isn’t too far from the university I go to), for making into the championship game. I actually have a few friends of mine who also attend that university. Anyways, it has been very exciting to watch Butler play and I am very much looking forward to the championship game tomorrow. Good luck guys! Show them that Indiana means business. :P

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Yoshi’s Island:

When I last left my blog, I was actually still working on this project, but now that two weeks have passed, so has this project. It was a lot of fun working on the project, and ending the project as well. It was definitely one of my better projects, I have to say (in my opinion).

While there is the possibility of me doing the GBA exclusive levels, for now the project is done with, and it is satisfying to know that another +50 video project is completed. I would go into more detail about my feelings of the project, but I think I have done enough of that in the actual videos.

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Advance Wars:

Yesterday I started the Green Earth missions, which should take me about 3 weeks to completely finish. However, since I switched the uploading schedule from 2-3 missions a week to 4 missions a week, it is going to go a lot faster than it would normally go, which is a good thing. I’m still unsure when the project will technically end (that last mission is the determining factor), but I’m still going to say by the end of April.

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Super Bomberman 2:

Also, fairly recently, I started my LP of Super Bomberman 2. As stated numerous times, it won’t be a very long project, but with the way I’m updating things, it should stick around for a few weeks. I also may have underestimated how short the project would take, because after the first video, and recording a few others, I’m not where I expected to be, so it will probably be a little longer than expected. That shouldn’t be an issue though.

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CrystalStarStudio:

ThePastaKing is still taking us through Chapter 3, but from the look of things, this week could be the end (from what he has told me). I will get into my evaluations of him when I’m sure he will be finished. So far so, he has done great.

Also, I’d like to say that we have also started discussing possibilities for future projects. Some projects that will involve all the members, and some that will only involve a few members. We will start bringing our ideas together eventually and maybe we will introduce a new project come June (maybe….).

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Other News:

8000 Subscribers – Well, I wasn’t in the 7000s for very long, as I am quickly reaching the 8000 mark at a very swift pace. Heck, by the time some of you read this entry, I may have already made it there. I can’t believe how fast I have been gaining them as of late. By this rate, I’ll have 10,000 by my 3rd year anniversary (I didn’t even have 2,000 by my 2nd year). Thanks to all of you who have been subscribing to me, I really appreciate it.

Back-Up Progress – Still not quite finished with back-ups, but I should get back into the swing of things soon. Also the fact that summer break is quickly approaching is a good thing as well. Also, as usual, thanks to MegaFreak400 who has also been helping with this stuff.

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Blog Changes?

I’ve been thinking about this blog over the last few days, and I think I’m probably going to make some changes. First off, this has nothing to do with the scheduling, as I am pretty comfortable with updating once per week….that isn’t and has never really been an issue. I just have to remember to properly prepare for it in advance, and then have an idea of what to talk about, which is what the changes will mostly be about.

I’m thinking about going back into the way I used to have my blog entries, where I would first, quickly talk about the projects I am (would be) working on, and then having a misc. section where I would talk about things that aren’t related to my Youtube stuff, like stuff in the news, things about me (outside of Youtube), Top 5 lists, etc. I thought that worked pretty well, and the fact I was able to update that on a daily basis was quite impressive. Now it feels like I struggle with having something to talk about when I have all week to prepare. I don’t like being that unprofessional, but it’s hard when I don’t really prepare myself for this.

Anyways, I’m thinking that once summer rolls around, I think I am going to try and make these transitions, because I’m tired of half-assing these updates. I’ll put some thinking into this and hopefully I can get some ideas come May. Also, if you guys have any ideas, I would love to hear them as well.

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Anyways, that is about it for this entry. This has been SlimKirby….I will see you guys next week, and during the week for my video updates.

-SlimKirby