Hey guys, SlimKirby here!
It's been awhile hasn't it? Almost 3 weeks in fact, but nonetheless, here I am for another blog entry, and for what is technically my 100th entry. Last time, I got a little deep about the future of this blog and if there was any possibility of me continuing it after some pretty major doubts. I have been doing a lot of thinking, like I said I would, and I'm still just honestly not sure about the direction of where to take this. So I decided that for the time being, I just wouldn't worry about it and focus on doing informal, unplanned entries for awhile, because honestly, isn't that what a blog should be about? Well, in my opinion it should be, so that's what I'm going to do. Who knows, this may actually allow me more time to think about where I want to take this and get me excited about updating again! So yeah, basically, just don't expect an entry every week, and I'll do my part in trying to get something out every now and then. Also, don't be surprised if some of my entries end up being progress reports for my channel, because while some of you probably get enough of that on my channel as it is, that's really the biggest thing going on in my life at this point, which will seem kind of sad to some of you, but when you look at my fanbase, and the benefits I'm getting.....it's a lot more important than you would think. But anyway, enough rambling, that is going to be the plan.
So what has happened since I'm gone? Well....I had a really great Holiday season, as I think I mentioned during my last entry, but I'm going to put emphasis on that again just because it really was a great Holiday, definitely the greatest one I've had for awhile. I got to see a lot of family and friends (mostly family because most of my friends decided to pull a little vanishing act on me...jerks), I got a lot of new gifts and games, and just had a very good time in general. And also (and I'm sure several people are going to freak out about this), I even got to meet MadameWario face-to-face for the first time! And yes, she's just as fierce and pimptastic as she is in real life. =P So yeah, it was a really good break......and it's kind of a shame that it's over already. =(
But yes, I am once again back in school again for my 8th (and unfortunately, not final) semester of college classes! This semester might actually end up being a little easier than my last two, just because of the nature of some of my professors, which I guess is a good thing, but it still might be a bit too early to tell. All of my classes are pretty much morning classes, which gives me a lot of time to goof off in the afternoon and still get some work done on assignments or video projects if I need to. I have an 8 AM class (which may not seem bad to high school students, but trust me, 8 AM is like the equivalent of 5 AM for college students), followed by a two hour block of two classes from 10 - 12 on 3 of the 5 days of the week....something I'm still trying to get used to, but I'm sure I will in the coming weeks. To me, college has always been pretty formulaic, in that once you get a routine going, as long as you stick to that routine, you are pretty much setting yourself up for success every time. The earlier you learn that, the better off you will be.
This Christmas, along with my brand new laptop which I bragged about a few entries ago, I did get quite a few different games, consisting of Samurai Warriors 3, Goldeneye 007 (Wii), Epic Mickey, Zelda: Four Swords Adventure, Advance Wars Dual Strike and Days of Ruin, and a few games on Virtual Console (some of which were actually gifts from other Youtube users and LPers! ;)) I really only got the first 3 as gifts, as the other ones were actually GameStop purchases, but I technically used a lot of the money I got for the Holiday on those games regardless. I haven't touched very many of these games yet (just not have had the time, plus when I have, I've been way too obsessed with Samurai Warriors 3 to play anything else), but I'm sure I'll get them played and I'm sure I will talk about them as well.
I also had my all-day stream of Kirby games about 2 1/2 weeks ago, which for the most part went pretty well, aside from UStream failing on me in a number of different ways (the biggest being destroying most of my recordings of the stream X_X). I guess the biggest thing I can take from the stream event is the realization that I need to plan streams better in the sense of being prepared for the games I'm doing and not biting off more than I can chew, and also that UStream is not an efficient website for streaming. Live and Learn I guess......
As far as Youtube stuff is concerned, I guess things are going well. I'm still not completely ready to start recording with my new set-up, so I've been spending the last few weeks on recordings I've been able to get done while I was at home. Kirby's Dream Course finished up last week, and thank God am I relieved. Again, it's not that I hated the project..it was just a lot more difficult than I thought it would be (and I already knew it was a pretty difficult game). I probably should have done the playthrough on an emulator, because in the way I handled it, I spent more time overall on failed attempts than I did successful attempts, and that didn't really help me one bit. Mario Party 7 is starting to wrap up, and at this point I have all of the videos recorded, so it's not like there is anything major preventing me from finishing up that project. I just want to drag it on (although that's putting that in such a negative way) for a little bit so I don't finish that too quickly and then as a result, also finish Mario Bros. Wii too quickly. I technically know what my next project is going to be at this point, so it's not like I have no idea of what to do afterwards, or anything like that, but this is definitely the most tapped out I've been on ideas, so I am definitely trying to keep an easy flow going as I try to come up with some other ideas. And lastly, there is New Super Mario Bros. Wii, perhaps the project I am the most satisfied with at this point. I'm actually moving through the game a lot faster than I expected to, even with the larger time limit, and for the most part, I think it has been moving along pretty well, and going along well with my audiences. I think it was definitely a great project to start the year with (even though it did start in the 2nd half of December). That project should finish up sometime in February.
Also in other Youtube-related news, things have started up again on CrystalStarStudio with 2 new projects, a 3rd on the way, the concluding videos of TTYD, and then some other great stuff to follow suit. The project I am involved in still won't be starting for a few weeks (still trying to work out all of kinks), but it will be here eventually.
There has been a lot going on recently, and there is so much else I could discuss as well, but I know you guys can only listen to me ramble on for so long, so I think I'm going to try and end it here. So yeah, this is how you can expect the blog to be from now on; all updates will be informal and independent of a common format, and they will all be unscheduled and unplanned (I will try to announce on twitter and/or my channel page when I do have an entry though, so don't worry about checking here all the time). And basically, yeah, that's how you can expect things from now on, or at least for a little while. I may decide to get back on a common format and schedule eventually, but for now, it's not something I will worry about.
I guess that's about it. I will talk to you guys later and see you around Youtube! Take it easy! Later folks!
- SlimKirby
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Monday, January 3, 2011
Where in the World is SlimKirby?
Hey guys, SlimKirby here with a short message.
As you may have noticed, I haven't been doing very much updating as of late. Last you heard from me was the weekend before Christmas, and it's already a few days into the new year, so first off, I hope you guys have had a wonderful holiday season and happy new year celebration like I did! =)
Now, getting on to the main point of this entry; my lack of updating on this front.
Some of you have probably already realized the reason for my lack of updating (or for those who don't like this justification, my excuse for not updating) stems from the fact that I have been pretty busy as of late keeping up with family, friends, and all of that other general holiday stuff. And for the most part, that is true, but I can't honestly say that is the only reason.
I'm not sure how evident it has been in recent entries, but I've just been getting a bit tired of doing a new entry for this blog every week. It's slowly starting to become more of a chore than an activity I like doing (which is how it started), and if it is becoming THAT much of a burden, I really don't think I should do it anymore, or as often. I've always been under the belief that negative feelings of an activity often contribute to poor performance on that particular activity, and I don't really think my blog, or my readers deserve a half-baked entry every week of me saying, "Oh god this week was busy" and "ZOMG! ZOMG! YOUTUBE PROJECTS!" I honestly just don't have that much to talk about, and when I do, I take care of it in my videos or through other media. The only reason I kept with the blog for so long was when I was doing my daily updates back during my Let's Play of The Simpsons: Hit and Run, I legitimately enjoyed doing it, which is why I updated every day. After a few weeks of that, I felt burnt out again, so I switched to weekly updates, and not even 1/2 of a year through that, I was already starting to update late and sometimes just not at all. I'm not sure if this means I should switch to every 2 or 3 weeks, or even monthly updates, but it honestly feels like no matter what, even that would be shortly lived.
Now, don't get me wrong, I do like keeping the blog and if I can make it work, I will definitely do everything I can to keep it moving, but at this point, it feels like I'm more forced to write it rather than just doing it myself, which is not what a blog should feel like. So yeah, that is the dilemma, and where I go from here....I'm not exactly sure.
So here's the deal, I'm going to give myself a few more days (or weeks) to think about everything, and I'll see if I can maybe figure something out. If I determine that the blog might be something worth keeping, then I'll try my best to keep it going at my own pace (but it will not be a weekly pace, I assure you (unless that is what will work best, but eh...whatever)). If not, I'll probably wait til the very least, my 100th entry (this is technically entry #99, but I won't count this as part of the count) and then close it up for a little while until I feel like brining it back again.
Thanks for understanding guys, if you did. If not, oh well, I can't please everyone. Thank you for your time, and I will talk to you guys later.
Later folks!
-SlimKirby
As you may have noticed, I haven't been doing very much updating as of late. Last you heard from me was the weekend before Christmas, and it's already a few days into the new year, so first off, I hope you guys have had a wonderful holiday season and happy new year celebration like I did! =)
Now, getting on to the main point of this entry; my lack of updating on this front.
Some of you have probably already realized the reason for my lack of updating (or for those who don't like this justification, my excuse for not updating) stems from the fact that I have been pretty busy as of late keeping up with family, friends, and all of that other general holiday stuff. And for the most part, that is true, but I can't honestly say that is the only reason.
I'm not sure how evident it has been in recent entries, but I've just been getting a bit tired of doing a new entry for this blog every week. It's slowly starting to become more of a chore than an activity I like doing (which is how it started), and if it is becoming THAT much of a burden, I really don't think I should do it anymore, or as often. I've always been under the belief that negative feelings of an activity often contribute to poor performance on that particular activity, and I don't really think my blog, or my readers deserve a half-baked entry every week of me saying, "Oh god this week was busy" and "ZOMG! ZOMG! YOUTUBE PROJECTS!" I honestly just don't have that much to talk about, and when I do, I take care of it in my videos or through other media. The only reason I kept with the blog for so long was when I was doing my daily updates back during my Let's Play of The Simpsons: Hit and Run, I legitimately enjoyed doing it, which is why I updated every day. After a few weeks of that, I felt burnt out again, so I switched to weekly updates, and not even 1/2 of a year through that, I was already starting to update late and sometimes just not at all. I'm not sure if this means I should switch to every 2 or 3 weeks, or even monthly updates, but it honestly feels like no matter what, even that would be shortly lived.
Now, don't get me wrong, I do like keeping the blog and if I can make it work, I will definitely do everything I can to keep it moving, but at this point, it feels like I'm more forced to write it rather than just doing it myself, which is not what a blog should feel like. So yeah, that is the dilemma, and where I go from here....I'm not exactly sure.
So here's the deal, I'm going to give myself a few more days (or weeks) to think about everything, and I'll see if I can maybe figure something out. If I determine that the blog might be something worth keeping, then I'll try my best to keep it going at my own pace (but it will not be a weekly pace, I assure you (unless that is what will work best, but eh...whatever)). If not, I'll probably wait til the very least, my 100th entry (this is technically entry #99, but I won't count this as part of the count) and then close it up for a little while until I feel like brining it back again.
Thanks for understanding guys, if you did. If not, oh well, I can't please everyone. Thank you for your time, and I will talk to you guys later.
Later folks!
-SlimKirby
Monday, December 20, 2010
12/20/10 - One Break to Rule Them All!
Hello everybody, SlimKirby here, and welcome to another blog entry!
First off, big apologies for not being able to update last week, but I really needed that time to study for finals. And then I also missed my update yesterday just because I had some other things going on. However, I did find some time to update tonight, so I figured I would, even if it will probably end up being a small one.
So I am finally on my Winter Break, and my god am I thrilled to be. That last semester of mine seriously never wanted to end. But thankfully I can look past it now and try to regroup. As for my grades, I don't expect very much or really any high marks, but I have a pretty solid cumulative GPA right now, and if I just get my act together, the blunders I made this semester shouldn't impact it very much.
Also some recent things to note, I have officially ordered my new laptop and should be getting it sometime after Christmas. For the time being I can manage recording on my "stay-at-home" desktop, but soon I should be back in action in terms of where I was a month and a half ago. But anyway, I'm going to be getting an HP Core i7 (which was quite pricey...but I didn't have any major requests for Christmas, which kind of justifies it (plus this is something I actually need)), and I am very much looking forward to getting it. =D
Besides that though, I don't have too much to report. I've basically been trying to take it easy these last few days before things start getting crazy with the activity and family get-togethers. Christmas is that time of year after all! =P
Anyways, moving on to Youtube stuff.....hooray for being completely back in action! Not only did I resume progress in both Kirby's Dream Course and Mario Party 7, I also added a new project to my list, that game being New Super Mario Bros. Wii, a game that I have actually done an online project for, but just not on Youtube. It feels good to be back in the swing of things, but let's hope that the "3 PROJECTS" don't hold me down too much. =P
Ok, so first off, for the first time in a month and a half, I can talk about Mario Party! The board I did this weekend was Neon Heights, a board, as I mentioned, that is far from my favorite, just because of the luck-based nature. Yeah, it seems kind of contradictory to hate on a board for something like that because so much of the game is luck-based already, but the board mechanic just adds that much more to it. I mean, from the beginning of the playthrough, I think that was pretty evident by the fact that I had such a hard time getting a star at first despite having quite a bit of coins, and the computer players seemed to get to them no problem. This is especially made true by the fact that the star is technically only worth 10 coins, and even if you get the wrong chest, you still have a 1 in 2 chance of getting those coins back with an additional 10 on top of it, and if not, well, that bob-omb just ends up screwing things up too. =P But nonetheless, I stayed pretty much at the top in terms of coin count, and that ended up working quite well for me. And it also helped that I was a demon when it came to the mini-games. >=D And I know I made such a big deal out of it, but man, I was glad that the bonus stars couldn't decide the outcome, because it was kind of lame how the 3 bonus stars I would have won weren't even up as options and the fact that Daisy got the 3 that were offered. If I didn't have more coins than she, I would have been in trouble. =P But in the end, I got a rightfully deserved victory, and I guess that is all that matters. Oh and lol @ Magmagical Journey happening in the same turn right after one another.
As for Kirby's Dream Course, things are going ok I guess. At this point I have more than half of the project recorded and I should be done before break...or at least that is the hope. If not, I'll be finishing just as I return back to college. Despite some criticisms on the commentary (or rather the idea that people can't understand that my voice has a natural monotone to it that I can't control), I'd say the project is going along well.
And yesterday, or technically today because it was updated at midnight..... although yesterday might be more appropriate since this blog probably won't be read til after this coming midnight......bah, technicalities.....the point is, I started New Super Mario Bros. Wii in my last video! I will admit, at first I was kind of unsure about the game as I was filming the episodes, but after I got done and started putting them together.....I dunno, it started to grow on me a little bit, and this should be a pretty fun project. Although the one thing I will say...never announce in a Let's Play how familiar you are with a game...the commenters will go after you on every little thing. I think one of the things I said in the first video was, "I know this game decently well," (which I think is true), but everyone interpreted that as, "I KNOW EVERYTHINGZ, I R MASTER, GIVE ME MONEYZ!" and everytime I said the slightest thing wrong, or missed something, it's almost like I violated one of the 10 Commandments. I mean, the people that do that are stupid, so it shouldn't bother me, and don't get me wrong, the idiotic comments don't bother me at all....but I am seriously concerned with the intelligence of most Youtube users. I really hate saying that, but come on, is it really that hard to use your brain or common sense to such a small degree? Is it? I guess not.....
Anyways, that is what is new in Youtube for me, so I hope you guys enjoy all the projects I have for you throughout this Winter Break, and hopefully you guys will be able to see nothing but daily updates from me from now on! =)
Once again, while I have finished Donkey Kong Country Returns at this point, I still don't feel comfortable enough talking about it, so once again I am putting that review on hold. And because of that, I think that about does it for this entry! Thanks for joining me this week and I'll see you next week for more bloggish excitement....unless I decide not to update due to Christmas and my 22nd Birthday! =)
Later Folks!
-SlimKirby
First off, big apologies for not being able to update last week, but I really needed that time to study for finals. And then I also missed my update yesterday just because I had some other things going on. However, I did find some time to update tonight, so I figured I would, even if it will probably end up being a small one.
So I am finally on my Winter Break, and my god am I thrilled to be. That last semester of mine seriously never wanted to end. But thankfully I can look past it now and try to regroup. As for my grades, I don't expect very much or really any high marks, but I have a pretty solid cumulative GPA right now, and if I just get my act together, the blunders I made this semester shouldn't impact it very much.
Also some recent things to note, I have officially ordered my new laptop and should be getting it sometime after Christmas. For the time being I can manage recording on my "stay-at-home" desktop, but soon I should be back in action in terms of where I was a month and a half ago. But anyway, I'm going to be getting an HP Core i7 (which was quite pricey...but I didn't have any major requests for Christmas, which kind of justifies it (plus this is something I actually need)), and I am very much looking forward to getting it. =D
Besides that though, I don't have too much to report. I've basically been trying to take it easy these last few days before things start getting crazy with the activity and family get-togethers. Christmas is that time of year after all! =P
Anyways, moving on to Youtube stuff.....hooray for being completely back in action! Not only did I resume progress in both Kirby's Dream Course and Mario Party 7, I also added a new project to my list, that game being New Super Mario Bros. Wii, a game that I have actually done an online project for, but just not on Youtube. It feels good to be back in the swing of things, but let's hope that the "3 PROJECTS" don't hold me down too much. =P
Ok, so first off, for the first time in a month and a half, I can talk about Mario Party! The board I did this weekend was Neon Heights, a board, as I mentioned, that is far from my favorite, just because of the luck-based nature. Yeah, it seems kind of contradictory to hate on a board for something like that because so much of the game is luck-based already, but the board mechanic just adds that much more to it. I mean, from the beginning of the playthrough, I think that was pretty evident by the fact that I had such a hard time getting a star at first despite having quite a bit of coins, and the computer players seemed to get to them no problem. This is especially made true by the fact that the star is technically only worth 10 coins, and even if you get the wrong chest, you still have a 1 in 2 chance of getting those coins back with an additional 10 on top of it, and if not, well, that bob-omb just ends up screwing things up too. =P But nonetheless, I stayed pretty much at the top in terms of coin count, and that ended up working quite well for me. And it also helped that I was a demon when it came to the mini-games. >=D And I know I made such a big deal out of it, but man, I was glad that the bonus stars couldn't decide the outcome, because it was kind of lame how the 3 bonus stars I would have won weren't even up as options and the fact that Daisy got the 3 that were offered. If I didn't have more coins than she, I would have been in trouble. =P But in the end, I got a rightfully deserved victory, and I guess that is all that matters. Oh and lol @ Magmagical Journey happening in the same turn right after one another.
As for Kirby's Dream Course, things are going ok I guess. At this point I have more than half of the project recorded and I should be done before break...or at least that is the hope. If not, I'll be finishing just as I return back to college. Despite some criticisms on the commentary (or rather the idea that people can't understand that my voice has a natural monotone to it that I can't control), I'd say the project is going along well.
And yesterday, or technically today because it was updated at midnight..... although yesterday might be more appropriate since this blog probably won't be read til after this coming midnight......bah, technicalities.....the point is, I started New Super Mario Bros. Wii in my last video! I will admit, at first I was kind of unsure about the game as I was filming the episodes, but after I got done and started putting them together.....I dunno, it started to grow on me a little bit, and this should be a pretty fun project. Although the one thing I will say...never announce in a Let's Play how familiar you are with a game...the commenters will go after you on every little thing. I think one of the things I said in the first video was, "I know this game decently well," (which I think is true), but everyone interpreted that as, "I KNOW EVERYTHINGZ, I R MASTER, GIVE ME MONEYZ!" and everytime I said the slightest thing wrong, or missed something, it's almost like I violated one of the 10 Commandments. I mean, the people that do that are stupid, so it shouldn't bother me, and don't get me wrong, the idiotic comments don't bother me at all....but I am seriously concerned with the intelligence of most Youtube users. I really hate saying that, but come on, is it really that hard to use your brain or common sense to such a small degree? Is it? I guess not.....
Anyways, that is what is new in Youtube for me, so I hope you guys enjoy all the projects I have for you throughout this Winter Break, and hopefully you guys will be able to see nothing but daily updates from me from now on! =)
Once again, while I have finished Donkey Kong Country Returns at this point, I still don't feel comfortable enough talking about it, so once again I am putting that review on hold. And because of that, I think that about does it for this entry! Thanks for joining me this week and I'll see you next week for more bloggish excitement....unless I decide not to update due to Christmas and my 22nd Birthday! =)
Later Folks!
-SlimKirby
Sunday, December 5, 2010
12/5/10 - A Decemberish Update Type of Entry
Hello everybody, SlimKirby here, and welcome to another weekly blog entry. The month of December has finally began and the first snows of the season have already been upon us, or at least for me anyways. Not only that, but at this point I only have about 10 days left here at my university for my fall semester, so I am really looking forward to being done with the freaking semester that has tried so hard to get the best of me. Oh well, it’s almost over now and I can seriously see the light at the end of the tunnel. I just have to get past this difficult week and then make it through a week of finals, and then I’m done. Anyways, let’s get to talks about stuffs.
First off, I will say that I do have my laptop back now. Unfortunately, the changes made to it to get it to work got rid of any ability or capability for the machine to record anything, so I can no longer make videos at this time. However, this does not mean I’m necessarily “out of commission” until I get a new one. I still have videos ready for this coming week and then unfortunately I will have to take another small break (for just a week) when I won’t have any videos at all, but after that week I should have the capability to record again before I actually get my new laptop. I’ll basically be recording in the same fashion that I recorded my first Kirby’s Dream Course videos, but this time I’ll actually have a TV screen to look at while I’m playing and not just the stupid Windows Movie Maker window, which I refuse to use to play Mario Party 7 and my next playthrough.
Speaking of Youtube stuff…..HOORAY FOR UPDATES THIS WEEK! I can’t believe I’m actually saying this, but it actually felt good to make updates again. Of course they weren’t daily updates or anything like that, but still, it felt like that small part of my life that vanished for a few weeks had finally returned to me. I only hope the return was enough of an impact for the viewing public, which from the reception, I’d say it was at least good enough.
So let’s get started talking about Kirby’s Dream Course. This was a game that I really wanted to do for awhile, and for the longest time I was juggling my thoughts together about whether or not I wanted to do this game or either Super Bomberman 3 or The Adventures of Lolo 3. Of the three games, I knew this game was going to be the biggest challenge because Super Bomberman 3 is actually pretty damn easy, and Lolo 3, despite how challenging the series actually is, I think for a Let’s Play it actually is a pretty sensible choice and a game that’s relatively easy to handle. All you need to do is just record yourself playing through, cut out footage if you really need to, and WHAM, you have yourself a video. Kirby’s Dream Course, while really anti-climatic for a casual Let’s Play, if you want to do an all-gold medal playthrough like I am doing, you’re going to be in for quite a storm if you aren’t an expert player. I am of course not an expert player, but I think I’m good enough to at least handle the expert-leveled challenge that the game offers. I knew from the beginning that I would 1) have to play the courses multiple times, 2) make plenty of footage cuts until I got everything right, and 3) practice and do my research on game mechanics to get the best performance possible. Since I am not working with an emulator on this Let’s Play, save states were out of the question and I’d have to get the gold medals based on personal skill alone. I actually almost considered making the move to an emulator during the final weeks leading up to this Let’s Play, but then my computer went “kah-put” (or however you spell that) and forced me to use my Virtual Console copy instead. In the end though, I don’t think game was a bad choice, I just knew that I was going to be in for a lot.
The first recordings of this game were actually pretty “interesting,” and I’m not sure if I mean in a good way or a bad way. I wouldn’t say they were “catastrophic,” necessarily, but they were pretty far from easy-going…that’s for sure. The first recording, I really didn’t mind how that turned out just because it was the first video, and no first video is truly that perfect. I just figured I would cover the basics, do what I could to get a good score, and if I didn’t succeed, I could easily just try again and knock it out of the park, which is pretty much how that worked. The 2nd video/course was a little more strenuous, just because of that stupid recording glitch which caused me to redo that entire course. The 3rd was ok, but I had to replay that so many times due to small, stupid mistakes that I really shouldn’t have made. The following 3 videos, which I also recorded at around the same time, and which will also be released on my channel this coming week, were pretty much the same story. I got them done, but they could have been smoother for me. I’m really hoping the recording set-up that I’ll be using when I return home will be so much more beneficial for me, because it seems like my timing is just a bit off when I was playing the game for my finished videos. Oh well, I guess it’s just something we will have to wait and see what happens. For now though, I hope you guys enjoy.
As for Mario Party 7, I feel so bad that I haven’t been able to update this project, just because the first half of the Party Mode playthrough went pretty well for me. I did have that stupid loss at Pyramid Park, but even that went well considering. It really sucks that I had to put this on such a long hiatus, especially since at this point I actually would have been finished with Party Mode by now. Looks like the extra videos and even Party Mode itself will be going on til the first weeks of 2011.
As I briefly mentioned earlier in the blog, I actually had another playthrough planned for the month of December. However, due to how cruel nature can be to a Kirby with sunglasses, that project is also going to be significantly delayed quite a bit. At this point I was honestly hoping to have started the project as I finished Mario Party 7 and as I was closing out Dream Course, but now it looks I’ll be smack dab in the middle of both at this project’s beginning. It really, really does suck, I will admit, but that’s the price you pay when you go about 3 weeks of no updating, 2 weeks of light updating, and then another week of no activity. Again, just for emphasis, it sucks, but you really can’t control these things. In a perfect world, my Computer Tech people would be geniuses that could fix any problem simply by touching the screen, instead of taking it apart and having it at the mercy of their cold-hearted souls. In the end though, I still plan to release this project, whatever it is, around the week of Christmas, so I hope you guys enjoy it when that time comes (and yes, once again, keeping the project in the dark. ;)).
I could talk about a few other things, like CSS or the Kirby’s Stream Land stream I talked about during my 20,000 Subscriber special, but honestly, these are things that I just can’t address at this time because there is honestly just too much going on and the future is just uncertain. I’ll try to keep you guys updated as much as possible.
Also, this is going to be a short entry just because I’m really, really, really busy at this time. Plus I haven’t exactly made any progress on Donkey Kong Country Returns so I’m not ready to talk more about that yet. So without further adieu, I’m going to close the blog entry up here and talk to you guys next week! See you then!
Later folks!
-SlimKirby
First off, I will say that I do have my laptop back now. Unfortunately, the changes made to it to get it to work got rid of any ability or capability for the machine to record anything, so I can no longer make videos at this time. However, this does not mean I’m necessarily “out of commission” until I get a new one. I still have videos ready for this coming week and then unfortunately I will have to take another small break (for just a week) when I won’t have any videos at all, but after that week I should have the capability to record again before I actually get my new laptop. I’ll basically be recording in the same fashion that I recorded my first Kirby’s Dream Course videos, but this time I’ll actually have a TV screen to look at while I’m playing and not just the stupid Windows Movie Maker window, which I refuse to use to play Mario Party 7 and my next playthrough.
Speaking of Youtube stuff…..HOORAY FOR UPDATES THIS WEEK! I can’t believe I’m actually saying this, but it actually felt good to make updates again. Of course they weren’t daily updates or anything like that, but still, it felt like that small part of my life that vanished for a few weeks had finally returned to me. I only hope the return was enough of an impact for the viewing public, which from the reception, I’d say it was at least good enough.
So let’s get started talking about Kirby’s Dream Course. This was a game that I really wanted to do for awhile, and for the longest time I was juggling my thoughts together about whether or not I wanted to do this game or either Super Bomberman 3 or The Adventures of Lolo 3. Of the three games, I knew this game was going to be the biggest challenge because Super Bomberman 3 is actually pretty damn easy, and Lolo 3, despite how challenging the series actually is, I think for a Let’s Play it actually is a pretty sensible choice and a game that’s relatively easy to handle. All you need to do is just record yourself playing through, cut out footage if you really need to, and WHAM, you have yourself a video. Kirby’s Dream Course, while really anti-climatic for a casual Let’s Play, if you want to do an all-gold medal playthrough like I am doing, you’re going to be in for quite a storm if you aren’t an expert player. I am of course not an expert player, but I think I’m good enough to at least handle the expert-leveled challenge that the game offers. I knew from the beginning that I would 1) have to play the courses multiple times, 2) make plenty of footage cuts until I got everything right, and 3) practice and do my research on game mechanics to get the best performance possible. Since I am not working with an emulator on this Let’s Play, save states were out of the question and I’d have to get the gold medals based on personal skill alone. I actually almost considered making the move to an emulator during the final weeks leading up to this Let’s Play, but then my computer went “kah-put” (or however you spell that) and forced me to use my Virtual Console copy instead. In the end though, I don’t think game was a bad choice, I just knew that I was going to be in for a lot.
The first recordings of this game were actually pretty “interesting,” and I’m not sure if I mean in a good way or a bad way. I wouldn’t say they were “catastrophic,” necessarily, but they were pretty far from easy-going…that’s for sure. The first recording, I really didn’t mind how that turned out just because it was the first video, and no first video is truly that perfect. I just figured I would cover the basics, do what I could to get a good score, and if I didn’t succeed, I could easily just try again and knock it out of the park, which is pretty much how that worked. The 2nd video/course was a little more strenuous, just because of that stupid recording glitch which caused me to redo that entire course. The 3rd was ok, but I had to replay that so many times due to small, stupid mistakes that I really shouldn’t have made. The following 3 videos, which I also recorded at around the same time, and which will also be released on my channel this coming week, were pretty much the same story. I got them done, but they could have been smoother for me. I’m really hoping the recording set-up that I’ll be using when I return home will be so much more beneficial for me, because it seems like my timing is just a bit off when I was playing the game for my finished videos. Oh well, I guess it’s just something we will have to wait and see what happens. For now though, I hope you guys enjoy.
As for Mario Party 7, I feel so bad that I haven’t been able to update this project, just because the first half of the Party Mode playthrough went pretty well for me. I did have that stupid loss at Pyramid Park, but even that went well considering. It really sucks that I had to put this on such a long hiatus, especially since at this point I actually would have been finished with Party Mode by now. Looks like the extra videos and even Party Mode itself will be going on til the first weeks of 2011.
As I briefly mentioned earlier in the blog, I actually had another playthrough planned for the month of December. However, due to how cruel nature can be to a Kirby with sunglasses, that project is also going to be significantly delayed quite a bit. At this point I was honestly hoping to have started the project as I finished Mario Party 7 and as I was closing out Dream Course, but now it looks I’ll be smack dab in the middle of both at this project’s beginning. It really, really does suck, I will admit, but that’s the price you pay when you go about 3 weeks of no updating, 2 weeks of light updating, and then another week of no activity. Again, just for emphasis, it sucks, but you really can’t control these things. In a perfect world, my Computer Tech people would be geniuses that could fix any problem simply by touching the screen, instead of taking it apart and having it at the mercy of their cold-hearted souls. In the end though, I still plan to release this project, whatever it is, around the week of Christmas, so I hope you guys enjoy it when that time comes (and yes, once again, keeping the project in the dark. ;)).
I could talk about a few other things, like CSS or the Kirby’s Stream Land stream I talked about during my 20,000 Subscriber special, but honestly, these are things that I just can’t address at this time because there is honestly just too much going on and the future is just uncertain. I’ll try to keep you guys updated as much as possible.
Also, this is going to be a short entry just because I’m really, really, really busy at this time. Plus I haven’t exactly made any progress on Donkey Kong Country Returns so I’m not ready to talk more about that yet. So without further adieu, I’m going to close the blog entry up here and talk to you guys next week! See you then!
Later folks!
-SlimKirby
Sunday, November 28, 2010
11/28/10 - SlimKirby: Returns!
Hello everbody, SlimKirby here!
The title is no lie, SlimKirby has definitely returned, but in more ways than one (and not just because I got Donkey Kong Country: Returns =P). For one, it is time for another exciting blog entry, and two, as of tomorrow, I should be returning to the Youtube scene after 3 long weeks of not updating. Will this return set the wheels back in motion, will my laptop be back in action, will SlimKirby still be able to lead the Germans to victory on that Civilization II file I keep talking about? The answers to these questions will be answered….shortly.
First up, the laptop situation should finally be done with after tomorrow (the key-word is “should.”). I talked to the computer people on Wednesday and they’ve told me that there is nothing they can do about getting my laptop back up to the way it was before I started having problems, so they are going to do something else. Basically, what they are going to do instead is install a thing called Virtual Box onto my laptop. With this, I will be able to control a Mac OS and Windows OS simultaneously besides just one or the other. Of course I’ll lose some functionality this way, but it’s the only thing they believe they can do about this for now. Installing Windows via Boot Camp is impossible with the way my laptop currently is, which again is very strange because they actually say my computer is mechanically fine. Anyways, in the long run, just having the Windows OS would solve a majority of my problems, so I’m taking this as a victory for the time being. Of course, I’m not really sure what this means for my videos as far as this laptop is concerned. The thing is, my capture card only works on the Windows OS and is completely unrecognized when I plug it in whenever I’m on the Mac side. I’m not sure if Virtual Box will affect the device, but there is always that possibility. I guess the only thing I can really do is test it once I get my computer back, whether it’s tomorrow or Tuesday, or whenever the hell it will be X_X.
Now you are probably wondering….with this uncertainty still at play, how exactly will I be making my return tomorrow? Well, let’s just say that during this Thanksgiving Break, I did find a little bit of time to get some recording done on my desktop at home. Of course, my desktop set-up isn’t exactly the best set-up to use for the type of prolific work I do. For one, it’s just a really small space and not a very comfortable place to do recording. And second of all, there is no TV, so I have to use the small Windows Movie Maker preview window…something I haven’t done since Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance back in 2009. It’s not a terrible thing to use, but it sometimes hinders precise gameplay, just because you are playing a console video game through a computer program while it’s trying to record it. However, I think I got it to work fine for what I could do with it, and was able to pump out 6 videos from my recording sessions (even though they took a long time). The way I figure it, I will be uploading these videos every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for the next two weeks. That way, I can figure out what I can (and need to) do when I get my laptop back, if I can do anything, and even if I can’t, I’m at least covered for two weeks.
So yeah, that is the activity you can expect on my channel for the next two weeks. I know 3/7 (6/14) doesn’t seem like much (it could be more if everything works out ok), but it’s better than the 0/21 record I’ve had for the past 3 weeks. In the meantime, CrystalStarStudio is also back in the swing of things (FINALLY), so you will have something to watch there for the next two weeks as well. Of course we only have TTYD extras for you, but soon we will have a winter line of projects ready for you guys as well. It’s a relief to know that finally CSS is back on the move. I know the wait has been rather long and ridiculous, but it honestly isn’t something we could’ve handled at the time. In fact, I’m actually still a little unsure about a few things, but I’m not going to get into those now.
As for other Youtube stuff, I really just don’t know right now. As I said before, a lot of it just depends on how the whole laptop situation goes. I hope it goes well enough so I can continue Mario Party 7 this coming weekend, but again, it’s just too early to tell. I also have another big project planned on the horizon as well. I would like to start that one on the 13th of December, but it may not happen until the 20th. School and education has quite a lot to do with things as well, and I am reaching that point where final projects and exams are quickly approaching. I guess the only thing I can really say right now is just stay tuned to my twitter updates and recent activity feeds for information pertaining to Youtube stuff.
So now that I got that covered, I guess I could talk about a few things that have been going on in my real life. After all, there was an American holiday we just had! =O My Thanksgiving (and TG Break) actually went pretty well. It didn’t last me as long as I would have liked, but then again, all breaks are like that. =P Anyways, I guess I’ll just cover some of the main highlights;
1). On Tuesday on my way home, I actually got the pleasure of picking up Donkey Kong Country Returns, a game I have been very excited about ever since it was first revealed at E3 2010. It was my “Best in Show” choice for the Wii (even over Epic Yarn), and after playing through most of the game thus far, I have to say that this game could possibly be Game of the Year for Wii as well. So far, the game is just incredible, and I can honestly say there hasn’t been a single part of it that I haven’t enjoyed. There are quite a few bits of frustration though, I will admit, but I’ve always been fond of a little challenge here and there. This game is seriously one of the most difficult games I have ever played, in the entire DKC series, of all Wii games, and may even be a candidate for of all-time. Unlike other games I have played this year, I’m not just breezing through it either. This game actually feels like there is some good length to it. And also like traditional DKC games, there are a lot of collectables and hidden stuff, so even after you finish the game, you’re probably not finished yet. ;) =P Anyways, I didn’t want to get too in depth with this game just yet. I will probably have a Game Discussion/review (whatever you want to call it) of the game soon in the next few weeks, so stay tuned for that. For now though, if you love platformers and if you were in love with the DKC series as much as I was back in the day, definitely give this game your consideration.
2). Thanksgiving itself was a pretty good day. I got to see some of my family (some of which I hadn’t seen in a few months), so that was nice. I spent most of the day feeling pretty tired (a certain girl wearing yellow and purple was doing her job of trying to keep me up as late as she could again =P), but that didn’t really ruin my day any. After the festivities started to wind down, I got to play some Rock Band with my cousins, aunt, and even my mom (my mom is surprisingly a good singer….by Rock Band standards =P), so that was a lot of fun, and perhaps the highlight of my day. Man though, after almost a year of not playing those games, I still remember when I used to be so addicted to them and Guitar Hero. To think if I never started Let’s Playing, I probably would have ended up being a Guitar Hero/Rock Band guy XD. Oh well, I think I chose the right crowd. =P
3). The last and final highlight of my break was that I got to see some of my best friends on Friday night. However, this gathering was not just a friendly, “let’s get caught up” type of visit. Since the end of October, me, and 3 of my best friends, have been trying to start a little Pokemon tournament of sorts (between ourselves). Basically, we replay our old R/B/Y games, and using the team we create in our games, we will use those teams and do battle with each other at a future date and time. All 4 of us have been Pokemon-a-holics for as long as we can remember (in fact, we even call ourselves “The Elite Four” =P), and this competition is kind of a way for us to go back to those times and try to relive those moments and memories. Although, I guess “relive” isn’t exactly the way to go about defining it. It’s moreso “re-nostalgializing” (if that’s even a word) with something near and dear to our childhood. Anyways, on Friday we got started with our new games and we’re all en route to our own individual paths of becoming Pokemon Masters! =P So yeah, this should be a lot of fun! And for those of you wondering (since I don’t think those guys keep up with my Twitter…. not like it really matters either), but I chose Charmander, and I currently have my first badge on my game. As for potential team members, I have a few Pokemon in mind, but I’m going to see how my game plays out first before I choose a finalized version. =P
So yeah, that is what has been going on for me as of late. I’m anxiously awaiting the end of this semester, but to do that I have to get through 3 more weeks of hard work (work I’m honestly not that excited about). However, once that work is finished, HUZZAH! I guess that’s a good word to explain it! =P
Anyways, since I kind of talked a little about DKCR already, I’m not going to bother with any additional game discussion, so I think that means it’s about time for me to wrap things up for this week. I hope you guys enjoy the line of videos I have planned for the next two weeks, and hopefully I can get back into the full swing of things (Youtube wise) very, very soon. I know that most of you are and will continue to be patient with me, but a part of me really misses making videos and updating. =( I’m not trying to overwork myself or anything, but I do get a lot of enjoyment out of it, just like I hope you guys get a lot of enjoyment out of watching my videos. But alas, kind of blabbering on for longer than I need to. =P
I’ll talk to you guys next week for another exciting blog entry! Catch you guys then! Later folks!
-SlimKirby
The title is no lie, SlimKirby has definitely returned, but in more ways than one (and not just because I got Donkey Kong Country: Returns =P). For one, it is time for another exciting blog entry, and two, as of tomorrow, I should be returning to the Youtube scene after 3 long weeks of not updating. Will this return set the wheels back in motion, will my laptop be back in action, will SlimKirby still be able to lead the Germans to victory on that Civilization II file I keep talking about? The answers to these questions will be answered….shortly.
First up, the laptop situation should finally be done with after tomorrow (the key-word is “should.”). I talked to the computer people on Wednesday and they’ve told me that there is nothing they can do about getting my laptop back up to the way it was before I started having problems, so they are going to do something else. Basically, what they are going to do instead is install a thing called Virtual Box onto my laptop. With this, I will be able to control a Mac OS and Windows OS simultaneously besides just one or the other. Of course I’ll lose some functionality this way, but it’s the only thing they believe they can do about this for now. Installing Windows via Boot Camp is impossible with the way my laptop currently is, which again is very strange because they actually say my computer is mechanically fine. Anyways, in the long run, just having the Windows OS would solve a majority of my problems, so I’m taking this as a victory for the time being. Of course, I’m not really sure what this means for my videos as far as this laptop is concerned. The thing is, my capture card only works on the Windows OS and is completely unrecognized when I plug it in whenever I’m on the Mac side. I’m not sure if Virtual Box will affect the device, but there is always that possibility. I guess the only thing I can really do is test it once I get my computer back, whether it’s tomorrow or Tuesday, or whenever the hell it will be X_X.
Now you are probably wondering….with this uncertainty still at play, how exactly will I be making my return tomorrow? Well, let’s just say that during this Thanksgiving Break, I did find a little bit of time to get some recording done on my desktop at home. Of course, my desktop set-up isn’t exactly the best set-up to use for the type of prolific work I do. For one, it’s just a really small space and not a very comfortable place to do recording. And second of all, there is no TV, so I have to use the small Windows Movie Maker preview window…something I haven’t done since Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance back in 2009. It’s not a terrible thing to use, but it sometimes hinders precise gameplay, just because you are playing a console video game through a computer program while it’s trying to record it. However, I think I got it to work fine for what I could do with it, and was able to pump out 6 videos from my recording sessions (even though they took a long time). The way I figure it, I will be uploading these videos every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for the next two weeks. That way, I can figure out what I can (and need to) do when I get my laptop back, if I can do anything, and even if I can’t, I’m at least covered for two weeks.
So yeah, that is the activity you can expect on my channel for the next two weeks. I know 3/7 (6/14) doesn’t seem like much (it could be more if everything works out ok), but it’s better than the 0/21 record I’ve had for the past 3 weeks. In the meantime, CrystalStarStudio is also back in the swing of things (FINALLY), so you will have something to watch there for the next two weeks as well. Of course we only have TTYD extras for you, but soon we will have a winter line of projects ready for you guys as well. It’s a relief to know that finally CSS is back on the move. I know the wait has been rather long and ridiculous, but it honestly isn’t something we could’ve handled at the time. In fact, I’m actually still a little unsure about a few things, but I’m not going to get into those now.
As for other Youtube stuff, I really just don’t know right now. As I said before, a lot of it just depends on how the whole laptop situation goes. I hope it goes well enough so I can continue Mario Party 7 this coming weekend, but again, it’s just too early to tell. I also have another big project planned on the horizon as well. I would like to start that one on the 13th of December, but it may not happen until the 20th. School and education has quite a lot to do with things as well, and I am reaching that point where final projects and exams are quickly approaching. I guess the only thing I can really say right now is just stay tuned to my twitter updates and recent activity feeds for information pertaining to Youtube stuff.
So now that I got that covered, I guess I could talk about a few things that have been going on in my real life. After all, there was an American holiday we just had! =O My Thanksgiving (and TG Break) actually went pretty well. It didn’t last me as long as I would have liked, but then again, all breaks are like that. =P Anyways, I guess I’ll just cover some of the main highlights;
1). On Tuesday on my way home, I actually got the pleasure of picking up Donkey Kong Country Returns, a game I have been very excited about ever since it was first revealed at E3 2010. It was my “Best in Show” choice for the Wii (even over Epic Yarn), and after playing through most of the game thus far, I have to say that this game could possibly be Game of the Year for Wii as well. So far, the game is just incredible, and I can honestly say there hasn’t been a single part of it that I haven’t enjoyed. There are quite a few bits of frustration though, I will admit, but I’ve always been fond of a little challenge here and there. This game is seriously one of the most difficult games I have ever played, in the entire DKC series, of all Wii games, and may even be a candidate for of all-time. Unlike other games I have played this year, I’m not just breezing through it either. This game actually feels like there is some good length to it. And also like traditional DKC games, there are a lot of collectables and hidden stuff, so even after you finish the game, you’re probably not finished yet. ;) =P Anyways, I didn’t want to get too in depth with this game just yet. I will probably have a Game Discussion/review (whatever you want to call it) of the game soon in the next few weeks, so stay tuned for that. For now though, if you love platformers and if you were in love with the DKC series as much as I was back in the day, definitely give this game your consideration.
2). Thanksgiving itself was a pretty good day. I got to see some of my family (some of which I hadn’t seen in a few months), so that was nice. I spent most of the day feeling pretty tired (a certain girl wearing yellow and purple was doing her job of trying to keep me up as late as she could again =P), but that didn’t really ruin my day any. After the festivities started to wind down, I got to play some Rock Band with my cousins, aunt, and even my mom (my mom is surprisingly a good singer….by Rock Band standards =P), so that was a lot of fun, and perhaps the highlight of my day. Man though, after almost a year of not playing those games, I still remember when I used to be so addicted to them and Guitar Hero. To think if I never started Let’s Playing, I probably would have ended up being a Guitar Hero/Rock Band guy XD. Oh well, I think I chose the right crowd. =P
3). The last and final highlight of my break was that I got to see some of my best friends on Friday night. However, this gathering was not just a friendly, “let’s get caught up” type of visit. Since the end of October, me, and 3 of my best friends, have been trying to start a little Pokemon tournament of sorts (between ourselves). Basically, we replay our old R/B/Y games, and using the team we create in our games, we will use those teams and do battle with each other at a future date and time. All 4 of us have been Pokemon-a-holics for as long as we can remember (in fact, we even call ourselves “The Elite Four” =P), and this competition is kind of a way for us to go back to those times and try to relive those moments and memories. Although, I guess “relive” isn’t exactly the way to go about defining it. It’s moreso “re-nostalgializing” (if that’s even a word) with something near and dear to our childhood. Anyways, on Friday we got started with our new games and we’re all en route to our own individual paths of becoming Pokemon Masters! =P So yeah, this should be a lot of fun! And for those of you wondering (since I don’t think those guys keep up with my Twitter…. not like it really matters either), but I chose Charmander, and I currently have my first badge on my game. As for potential team members, I have a few Pokemon in mind, but I’m going to see how my game plays out first before I choose a finalized version. =P
So yeah, that is what has been going on for me as of late. I’m anxiously awaiting the end of this semester, but to do that I have to get through 3 more weeks of hard work (work I’m honestly not that excited about). However, once that work is finished, HUZZAH! I guess that’s a good word to explain it! =P
Anyways, since I kind of talked a little about DKCR already, I’m not going to bother with any additional game discussion, so I think that means it’s about time for me to wrap things up for this week. I hope you guys enjoy the line of videos I have planned for the next two weeks, and hopefully I can get back into the full swing of things (Youtube wise) very, very soon. I know that most of you are and will continue to be patient with me, but a part of me really misses making videos and updating. =( I’m not trying to overwork myself or anything, but I do get a lot of enjoyment out of it, just like I hope you guys get a lot of enjoyment out of watching my videos. But alas, kind of blabbering on for longer than I need to. =P
I’ll talk to you guys next week for another exciting blog entry! Catch you guys then! Later folks!
-SlimKirby
Sunday, November 21, 2010
11/21/10 - I'm Not Thankful for Long Laptop Examinations
Hello everybody, SlimKirby here, ready for another blog entry!
Last week, things really weren’t going that well for me, and to be perfectly honest, they still really aren’t. Since I’m already talking about it, I guess that will be the first thing I discuss.
If you couldn’t figure it out yet, that’s right, I still do not have my laptop back. At this time I am actually writing this entry using a loaner laptop from my university’s computer care place. Now, I know what you guys are thinking; “But SlimKirby, I thought you said last week that you should have everything solved by the start or middle of this week?” Well, it turns out that I was dead wrong, because at the end of the week, nothing has really been solved yet. For those of you wondering “How?” or “Why?” or “What in the hell is actually going on?” I’m honestly looking for the answers to those questions as well, because nobody seems to really know what the heck is going on with my laptop.
I’m not going to talk about the problem again, or rather, how the problem started, so if you are just joining the blog scene this week, I explain the problem to the full extent in the last entry, so you may want to look at that if you have no idea what I’m talking about. Anyway, on Monday morning I took my laptop in for the university computer experts to examine, and right off the bat I got some pretty bad news. The person at the desk said my hard-drive was most definitely failing on the Windows side, but not only that, the failure had already started going towards the Mac side as well. This of course put me in a very uneasy mood from the very beginning, but they did tell me that they were going to do anything they could to make sure that I had the machine back in the evening. So later that day, 30 minutes before the place was supposed to close, I went back and checked in with the computer peeps just to see how things were progressing. They did tell me that they were still running some diagnostic tests, and that they wouldn’t be done until the next day, so I was like, “Ok, but for the meantime, can I at least get a laptop to borrow until this problem is solved?” and they allowed me to use a loaner until Wednesday. This way, I figured I could at least use the computer until Wednesday, so if they didn’t call me on Tuesday, I wouldn’t have to worry about going back to check in again and give them ample time to finish whatever the heck they were doing.
Fast-forward to Wednesday afternoon! I did end up receiving a phone call that day, but because I had an all-nighter the night before working on a big homework assignment, I was not in a very perceptive mood when I got the call (in fact, at that point I was napping trying to get some energy after that night). The lady could have asked “Will you join me in a hostile takeover of America?” and I would have been like “Yeah…no…whatever, bye,” immediately zonking off back to sleep right after. So I went back later that day and got a pretty good status update, considering. They said they were still running diagnostics, but they at least gave me a little more confidence that the problem would get solved. Not only that, but they also extended my loaner laptop until after Thanksgiving Break, just in case the problem didn’t get solved. They also gave me a number I could call to check in every now and then if I wanted an update on the status. So overall, while they essentially accomplished nothing over the last two days, I was a lot less worried than I was on Monday, and they convinced that they were at least doing something to fix the problem and not just hitting the machine over and over again with a hammer.
Now we are fast-forwarding to Friday! I didn’t check in on Thursday, because like Tuesday, I wanted to make sure that I gave them a little more time to work on things so I wasn’t just breathing down their necks the whole time. So I called them on Friday at around noon, and sure enough, the same lady who gave me such a worry on Monday picked up and was all like, “You’re laptop is not happy! We tried this and this and this, and it’s failed 3 times! You are a horrible person for even installing Windows on a Macbook because Apple bribes us with money to say these things!” Ok, so she didn’t actually say the last thing, but that’s seriously what I feel like whenever she is the one talking to me. She basically gave me a “We don’t know what’s wrong or what’s going on, so we’re running even more tests, but if you would like a better update, you can call back in an hour when our expert isn’t eating lunch,” type of update. So I called back one hour later, and thankfully I got to talk to someone who wasn’t that peach (I use the word “peach” now, instead of the actual b-word, because Princess Peach is a b-word! =D). They essentially told me the same thing, but they promised me that they were not going to give up on me and asked for my patience over the long weekend. I liked the person who I was talking to, so I decided to comply and be nice about it. They had been working on it for an entire week, among many other laptops as well, so even if they do work for a satanic company like Apple, they had been putting a lot of work specifically into my machine, so I had to give them a little credit.
So here I am, one week after I originally had the problem, still not really sure what the problem even is. I still can’t record, I still can’t do any of my homework that involves programming unless I go to a computer lab, and I still can’t continue to dominate the randomly-generated world of my most recent Civilization II file. It sucks, but those are the cards I have been dealt with for this week, and unfortunately I might have to hold on to these cards for a few more weeks as well, if the problem continues. I have definitely decided that when I’m home over break, I am going to start talking to my parents about getting another laptop because I’ve had it with the problems of this one. As I said before, it’s a great laptop, but it just has too many problems that I shouldn’t be dealing with, and doesn’t provide me with the necessities that I need for a laptop. Plus, it has the whole hard-drive space issue I think I mentioned in the last entry. It would be so much easier if I had a desktop computer, but I couldn’t exactly make much use of that either, considering I’m still living in dormitory residence halls. Maybe after this year when I start doing commutes….
So besides that though, things have been going all right I suppose. Last Friday we actually had a LAN Party at my dorm, and at this party they had a Super Smash Bros. Brawl tournament and a Mario Kart 64 tournament (amongst other tournaments as well, but none of which worth mentioning as far as my game library is concerned). I did enter both tournaments and was actually satisfied with my Super Smash Bros. Brawl placement. I got seventh place out of 32, and had every possibility of advancing further than that considering my two losses (double elimination) were extremely close matches that came down to one lucky strike. Oh well, I guess I will just have to own them all next time. ;) For those of you wondering, I used my main man Diddy Kong in the tournament as a tribute to my most recently completed Let’s Play. =P As for the Mario Kart 64 tournament, I don’t even want to talk about that because that was the most disorganized piece of garbage of a tournament I’ve ever seen. I’m not going to go into details, but tell me if this makes sense; 1) All of the matches were 4-Player matches, 2) Each round was just one race, 3) If you aren’t first, you’re eliminated, 4) One elimination, and you’re out (single elimination). Who in their right, non-ignorant mind would make a Mario Kart tournament based on that? That’s so freaking stupid, considering quite a bit of the game is luck-based. In fact, that’s so stupid, I’m not even going to explain what would have been the right thing to do and end the paragraph here.
Another positive that came out of this party was that I also entered a raffle (I got 3 free submissions into the raffle because I attended and entered two tournaments), and actually won something. I only entered one of the three drawings because they only had a PS3 game, an Xbox360 game, and a Wii game, and since the Wii is the only system I own of those three, that was logically the only one I could get any use out of, so all 3 of my tickets went to that one drawing. And sure enough, the next morning when I woke up, I had an e-mail that said I won. I went downstairs to claim my game, and the game ended up being “No More Heroes.” Besides hearing the name of the game before, I had no idea what the game was actually about or what it consisted of, so last evening I actually sat down to play it for awhile. My first reaction, after playing 2 hours of the game, was pretty much the following: “Holy crap, that’s a lot of blood! O_O” NMH might just be the bloodiest, goriest game I’ve ever played, and I’ve played the Grand Theft Auto games. Safe to say, I was a bit surprised at what I first saw. Not to say I’m completely against blood, gore, and violence in video games, or anything like that, it’s just not what I’m normally used to. I’m more used to seeing goombas getting flattened, and octoroks vanishing after a quick swipe of a sword. Aside from that though, the game doesn’t really seem like a bad video game, but again, I’ve only played a very small portion of it. If I really feel like it, I might cover it in a future “Game Chat” discussion, but a lot of my viewers are pretty young, so in that regard, it’s probably not a good idea unless I “Viewer Discretion” the hell out of that discussion.
Aside from the LAN Party, not much has really been going on in the world of college. Classes and projects are slowly, but surely winding down. I have a nice 3-day break coming up for Thanksgiving this next week, so I’m looking forward to that, especially since I get to see and spend time with my always wonderful family. And then, before you know it, Christmas time will be upon us once again, so hooray for that! =D
Once again, I’m afraid I’m going to be kind of brief with this entry, so no game discussion this week, or Youtube discussion for that matter (not that it would matter, I haven’t exactly posted anything anyways). Hopefully I get some better news this next week with my laptop, and hopefully I can start posting videos again. If not, once again, I am very apologetic with the wait, but there is nothing I can really do about it. I hate not being able to upload just as much as you guys hate not being able to see any my uploads. I might try to figure a few alternatives out as well, but once again, there are no guarantees. I'll also try to have some game discussion up next week as well, considering there are a few games I want to talk about, plus I should have Donkey Kong Country Returns by that point as well. I'll also try to give an update on what will be happening with my Youtube stuff, whether I get my laptop back this next week or not.
I’ll talk to you guys next week for another exciting (hopefully) entry from the mind of SlimKirby!
Later folks!
-SlimKirby
Last week, things really weren’t going that well for me, and to be perfectly honest, they still really aren’t. Since I’m already talking about it, I guess that will be the first thing I discuss.
If you couldn’t figure it out yet, that’s right, I still do not have my laptop back. At this time I am actually writing this entry using a loaner laptop from my university’s computer care place. Now, I know what you guys are thinking; “But SlimKirby, I thought you said last week that you should have everything solved by the start or middle of this week?” Well, it turns out that I was dead wrong, because at the end of the week, nothing has really been solved yet. For those of you wondering “How?” or “Why?” or “What in the hell is actually going on?” I’m honestly looking for the answers to those questions as well, because nobody seems to really know what the heck is going on with my laptop.
I’m not going to talk about the problem again, or rather, how the problem started, so if you are just joining the blog scene this week, I explain the problem to the full extent in the last entry, so you may want to look at that if you have no idea what I’m talking about. Anyway, on Monday morning I took my laptop in for the university computer experts to examine, and right off the bat I got some pretty bad news. The person at the desk said my hard-drive was most definitely failing on the Windows side, but not only that, the failure had already started going towards the Mac side as well. This of course put me in a very uneasy mood from the very beginning, but they did tell me that they were going to do anything they could to make sure that I had the machine back in the evening. So later that day, 30 minutes before the place was supposed to close, I went back and checked in with the computer peeps just to see how things were progressing. They did tell me that they were still running some diagnostic tests, and that they wouldn’t be done until the next day, so I was like, “Ok, but for the meantime, can I at least get a laptop to borrow until this problem is solved?” and they allowed me to use a loaner until Wednesday. This way, I figured I could at least use the computer until Wednesday, so if they didn’t call me on Tuesday, I wouldn’t have to worry about going back to check in again and give them ample time to finish whatever the heck they were doing.
Fast-forward to Wednesday afternoon! I did end up receiving a phone call that day, but because I had an all-nighter the night before working on a big homework assignment, I was not in a very perceptive mood when I got the call (in fact, at that point I was napping trying to get some energy after that night). The lady could have asked “Will you join me in a hostile takeover of America?” and I would have been like “Yeah…no…whatever, bye,” immediately zonking off back to sleep right after. So I went back later that day and got a pretty good status update, considering. They said they were still running diagnostics, but they at least gave me a little more confidence that the problem would get solved. Not only that, but they also extended my loaner laptop until after Thanksgiving Break, just in case the problem didn’t get solved. They also gave me a number I could call to check in every now and then if I wanted an update on the status. So overall, while they essentially accomplished nothing over the last two days, I was a lot less worried than I was on Monday, and they convinced that they were at least doing something to fix the problem and not just hitting the machine over and over again with a hammer.
Now we are fast-forwarding to Friday! I didn’t check in on Thursday, because like Tuesday, I wanted to make sure that I gave them a little more time to work on things so I wasn’t just breathing down their necks the whole time. So I called them on Friday at around noon, and sure enough, the same lady who gave me such a worry on Monday picked up and was all like, “You’re laptop is not happy! We tried this and this and this, and it’s failed 3 times! You are a horrible person for even installing Windows on a Macbook because Apple bribes us with money to say these things!” Ok, so she didn’t actually say the last thing, but that’s seriously what I feel like whenever she is the one talking to me. She basically gave me a “We don’t know what’s wrong or what’s going on, so we’re running even more tests, but if you would like a better update, you can call back in an hour when our expert isn’t eating lunch,” type of update. So I called back one hour later, and thankfully I got to talk to someone who wasn’t that peach (I use the word “peach” now, instead of the actual b-word, because Princess Peach is a b-word! =D). They essentially told me the same thing, but they promised me that they were not going to give up on me and asked for my patience over the long weekend. I liked the person who I was talking to, so I decided to comply and be nice about it. They had been working on it for an entire week, among many other laptops as well, so even if they do work for a satanic company like Apple, they had been putting a lot of work specifically into my machine, so I had to give them a little credit.
So here I am, one week after I originally had the problem, still not really sure what the problem even is. I still can’t record, I still can’t do any of my homework that involves programming unless I go to a computer lab, and I still can’t continue to dominate the randomly-generated world of my most recent Civilization II file. It sucks, but those are the cards I have been dealt with for this week, and unfortunately I might have to hold on to these cards for a few more weeks as well, if the problem continues. I have definitely decided that when I’m home over break, I am going to start talking to my parents about getting another laptop because I’ve had it with the problems of this one. As I said before, it’s a great laptop, but it just has too many problems that I shouldn’t be dealing with, and doesn’t provide me with the necessities that I need for a laptop. Plus, it has the whole hard-drive space issue I think I mentioned in the last entry. It would be so much easier if I had a desktop computer, but I couldn’t exactly make much use of that either, considering I’m still living in dormitory residence halls. Maybe after this year when I start doing commutes….
So besides that though, things have been going all right I suppose. Last Friday we actually had a LAN Party at my dorm, and at this party they had a Super Smash Bros. Brawl tournament and a Mario Kart 64 tournament (amongst other tournaments as well, but none of which worth mentioning as far as my game library is concerned). I did enter both tournaments and was actually satisfied with my Super Smash Bros. Brawl placement. I got seventh place out of 32, and had every possibility of advancing further than that considering my two losses (double elimination) were extremely close matches that came down to one lucky strike. Oh well, I guess I will just have to own them all next time. ;) For those of you wondering, I used my main man Diddy Kong in the tournament as a tribute to my most recently completed Let’s Play. =P As for the Mario Kart 64 tournament, I don’t even want to talk about that because that was the most disorganized piece of garbage of a tournament I’ve ever seen. I’m not going to go into details, but tell me if this makes sense; 1) All of the matches were 4-Player matches, 2) Each round was just one race, 3) If you aren’t first, you’re eliminated, 4) One elimination, and you’re out (single elimination). Who in their right, non-ignorant mind would make a Mario Kart tournament based on that? That’s so freaking stupid, considering quite a bit of the game is luck-based. In fact, that’s so stupid, I’m not even going to explain what would have been the right thing to do and end the paragraph here.
Another positive that came out of this party was that I also entered a raffle (I got 3 free submissions into the raffle because I attended and entered two tournaments), and actually won something. I only entered one of the three drawings because they only had a PS3 game, an Xbox360 game, and a Wii game, and since the Wii is the only system I own of those three, that was logically the only one I could get any use out of, so all 3 of my tickets went to that one drawing. And sure enough, the next morning when I woke up, I had an e-mail that said I won. I went downstairs to claim my game, and the game ended up being “No More Heroes.” Besides hearing the name of the game before, I had no idea what the game was actually about or what it consisted of, so last evening I actually sat down to play it for awhile. My first reaction, after playing 2 hours of the game, was pretty much the following: “Holy crap, that’s a lot of blood! O_O” NMH might just be the bloodiest, goriest game I’ve ever played, and I’ve played the Grand Theft Auto games. Safe to say, I was a bit surprised at what I first saw. Not to say I’m completely against blood, gore, and violence in video games, or anything like that, it’s just not what I’m normally used to. I’m more used to seeing goombas getting flattened, and octoroks vanishing after a quick swipe of a sword. Aside from that though, the game doesn’t really seem like a bad video game, but again, I’ve only played a very small portion of it. If I really feel like it, I might cover it in a future “Game Chat” discussion, but a lot of my viewers are pretty young, so in that regard, it’s probably not a good idea unless I “Viewer Discretion” the hell out of that discussion.
Aside from the LAN Party, not much has really been going on in the world of college. Classes and projects are slowly, but surely winding down. I have a nice 3-day break coming up for Thanksgiving this next week, so I’m looking forward to that, especially since I get to see and spend time with my always wonderful family. And then, before you know it, Christmas time will be upon us once again, so hooray for that! =D
Once again, I’m afraid I’m going to be kind of brief with this entry, so no game discussion this week, or Youtube discussion for that matter (not that it would matter, I haven’t exactly posted anything anyways). Hopefully I get some better news this next week with my laptop, and hopefully I can start posting videos again. If not, once again, I am very apologetic with the wait, but there is nothing I can really do about it. I hate not being able to upload just as much as you guys hate not being able to see any my uploads. I might try to figure a few alternatives out as well, but once again, there are no guarantees. I'll also try to have some game discussion up next week as well, considering there are a few games I want to talk about, plus I should have Donkey Kong Country Returns by that point as well. I'll also try to give an update on what will be happening with my Youtube stuff, whether I get my laptop back this next week or not.
I’ll talk to you guys next week for another exciting (hopefully) entry from the mind of SlimKirby!
Later folks!
-SlimKirby
Sunday, November 14, 2010
11/15/10 - I Hate When Things Don't Work =(
Hello everybody, SlimKirby here, and welcome to another weekly blog entry!
I'm not sure if any of you guys have been to my channel in the last 2 days, but if you haven't, I'll go ahead and explain here. My computer started having some issues, and unfortunately, those issues are preventing me from recording any videos, working on any of my programming (and just ordinary) assignments for my school work, and perhaps the most major, preventing me from playing Civilization II! Ok, that last one is not that much of an issue, but I was in the middle of game that I was doing really well on when this happened. =(
Basically, for those who don't know, I use a Macbook laptop. Now before we start any of the Apple bashing, I want to state for the record that I dislike Apple, Mac, and pretty much anything associated with Steve Jobbs. I'm not saying they should all burn in a fire or anything like that, but as far as their hardware and their software go, I'm just not a fan. So anyways, the reason why I ended up with a Macbook was because my first major was Math Education, and all Education majors were supposed to buy a laptop. I personally never figured out why (I think it's because the portfolio software for that major and the BSU website was specific to Mac, or something like that, but even then I imagine there are ways to get through that), but either way, I was forced into purchasing a Macbook I didn't really want. =\ Like most Americans, I wanted a big computer with a lot of disk space! =3
Anyways, two years ago, after I dropped out of Math Education, I decided to partition my Macbook so it would allow the use of a Windows Operating System (that way, I could also record my videos much easier). Once I did that, everything was happy again (until I realized that I had barely any space to work with, but even then, I dealt with it), and that same laptop has been the laptop I've used for pretty much everything for these past two years. I had a few problems here and there, but they were fixed in pretty much no time. =P
Now, fast forward back to the present, last Thursday, when I turned my laptop on in the afternoon (after uploading my 20,000 subscriber special earlier that morning), for some reason, the machine just wouldn't start up. I got a little concerned and a little scared, because at that time I was planning on recording Mario Party 7 and the new project I was going to start this next week, but then I wondered if maybe I just wasn't getting it enough time to start. Before I tested that though, I decided to see if I could at least boot up the Mac operating system, and strangely enough, that started without a hitch. After that I wondered if maybe I had just gotten a random glitch or something, but sure enough, when I tried to start up Windows, it once again gave the black screen of non-loading. So yeah, at this point I was getting pretty ticked off, but figured that I could just take it to the computer repair place the next day and just deal with the Mac OS for the time being, which I did. During this time, I also tried to do some research on the problem, but couldn't really find anything. I figured though that since I was able to access the Mac OS so easily, it might've been a problem simply with the Windows side, in that case, a simple repartition would suffice (even if that meant losing all of my programs and files that I already had installed).
So the next morning I went to the computer place, but I was unfortunately unable to get my laptop looked at. The guys at the desk said that it would be better if I just came back Monday, because they didn't have any of the experts in the building, and even if I did turn it in, I probably wouldn't get it back until Monday regardless. So I decided to not turn it in yet, just so I could have it for the weekend, and maybe research the problem a little more on my own. I still came up empty-handed on the research, but oh well, at least I had a laptop.
Of course this meant that I couldn't record anything for my channel, which I was very apologetic for, although there wasn't much I could really do about it. I actually did try to get at least a Mario Party recording done though, using a very unique way of recording (which I will talk about when I play Neon Heights next weekend, or whenever I get the chance to record again). However, since there were no episodes this weekend, you can pretty much gather that the plan didn't exactly pull through the way I was expecting it to.
So yeah, at this point, I really don't know what's going to happen. I'm writing this entry late Sunday/early Monday, so I've still yet to turn the laptop in. I really hope it's nothing that major, because I honestly feel like a mess sometimes when I don't have my laptop. As pathetic as that might sound....it's the truth. I really do keep a lot of stuff on my laptop, and without it, I feel a bit lost. Not necessarily because I don't know what to do without it, but moreso because it's hard to transition from having everything in front of you, to having nothing in front of you. Oh well....I guess it's just one of those things that you have to deal with sometimes. Computers are definitely not perfect. So yeah...I guess we'll see what happens. Until then, I'll keep updates posted on my twitter account and main channel page, if you are curious on the progression. Hopefully this is something that can be fixed in a timely fashion...hopefully.
In Youtube news.....well, I don't have anything, mainly because I didn't upload anything but the final DK64 extra video. =P I did post my 20,000 subscriber video though, which went ok for being a small video with me talking a lot about stuff you may or may not care about. =P
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So yeah, I think I might actually end the entry there actually. I know it was kind of a short entry, but it pretty much explains this entire week in a nutshell for me. I'll see if I can find something gaming-related to talk about next week (Donkey Kong Country Returns is on its way after all ;) ), but for now, this has been SlimKirby! Hope you guys enjoyed this entry for what it was, and I'll see you next weekend!
Later folks!
-SlimKirby
I'm not sure if any of you guys have been to my channel in the last 2 days, but if you haven't, I'll go ahead and explain here. My computer started having some issues, and unfortunately, those issues are preventing me from recording any videos, working on any of my programming (and just ordinary) assignments for my school work, and perhaps the most major, preventing me from playing Civilization II! Ok, that last one is not that much of an issue, but I was in the middle of game that I was doing really well on when this happened. =(
Basically, for those who don't know, I use a Macbook laptop. Now before we start any of the Apple bashing, I want to state for the record that I dislike Apple, Mac, and pretty much anything associated with Steve Jobbs. I'm not saying they should all burn in a fire or anything like that, but as far as their hardware and their software go, I'm just not a fan. So anyways, the reason why I ended up with a Macbook was because my first major was Math Education, and all Education majors were supposed to buy a laptop. I personally never figured out why (I think it's because the portfolio software for that major and the BSU website was specific to Mac, or something like that, but even then I imagine there are ways to get through that), but either way, I was forced into purchasing a Macbook I didn't really want. =\ Like most Americans, I wanted a big computer with a lot of disk space! =3
Anyways, two years ago, after I dropped out of Math Education, I decided to partition my Macbook so it would allow the use of a Windows Operating System (that way, I could also record my videos much easier). Once I did that, everything was happy again (until I realized that I had barely any space to work with, but even then, I dealt with it), and that same laptop has been the laptop I've used for pretty much everything for these past two years. I had a few problems here and there, but they were fixed in pretty much no time. =P
Now, fast forward back to the present, last Thursday, when I turned my laptop on in the afternoon (after uploading my 20,000 subscriber special earlier that morning), for some reason, the machine just wouldn't start up. I got a little concerned and a little scared, because at that time I was planning on recording Mario Party 7 and the new project I was going to start this next week, but then I wondered if maybe I just wasn't getting it enough time to start. Before I tested that though, I decided to see if I could at least boot up the Mac operating system, and strangely enough, that started without a hitch. After that I wondered if maybe I had just gotten a random glitch or something, but sure enough, when I tried to start up Windows, it once again gave the black screen of non-loading. So yeah, at this point I was getting pretty ticked off, but figured that I could just take it to the computer repair place the next day and just deal with the Mac OS for the time being, which I did. During this time, I also tried to do some research on the problem, but couldn't really find anything. I figured though that since I was able to access the Mac OS so easily, it might've been a problem simply with the Windows side, in that case, a simple repartition would suffice (even if that meant losing all of my programs and files that I already had installed).
So the next morning I went to the computer place, but I was unfortunately unable to get my laptop looked at. The guys at the desk said that it would be better if I just came back Monday, because they didn't have any of the experts in the building, and even if I did turn it in, I probably wouldn't get it back until Monday regardless. So I decided to not turn it in yet, just so I could have it for the weekend, and maybe research the problem a little more on my own. I still came up empty-handed on the research, but oh well, at least I had a laptop.
Of course this meant that I couldn't record anything for my channel, which I was very apologetic for, although there wasn't much I could really do about it. I actually did try to get at least a Mario Party recording done though, using a very unique way of recording (which I will talk about when I play Neon Heights next weekend, or whenever I get the chance to record again). However, since there were no episodes this weekend, you can pretty much gather that the plan didn't exactly pull through the way I was expecting it to.
So yeah, at this point, I really don't know what's going to happen. I'm writing this entry late Sunday/early Monday, so I've still yet to turn the laptop in. I really hope it's nothing that major, because I honestly feel like a mess sometimes when I don't have my laptop. As pathetic as that might sound....it's the truth. I really do keep a lot of stuff on my laptop, and without it, I feel a bit lost. Not necessarily because I don't know what to do without it, but moreso because it's hard to transition from having everything in front of you, to having nothing in front of you. Oh well....I guess it's just one of those things that you have to deal with sometimes. Computers are definitely not perfect. So yeah...I guess we'll see what happens. Until then, I'll keep updates posted on my twitter account and main channel page, if you are curious on the progression. Hopefully this is something that can be fixed in a timely fashion...hopefully.
In Youtube news.....well, I don't have anything, mainly because I didn't upload anything but the final DK64 extra video. =P I did post my 20,000 subscriber video though, which went ok for being a small video with me talking a lot about stuff you may or may not care about. =P
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So yeah, I think I might actually end the entry there actually. I know it was kind of a short entry, but it pretty much explains this entire week in a nutshell for me. I'll see if I can find something gaming-related to talk about next week (Donkey Kong Country Returns is on its way after all ;) ), but for now, this has been SlimKirby! Hope you guys enjoyed this entry for what it was, and I'll see you next weekend!
Later folks!
-SlimKirby
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