Almost makes Bastok look attractive, doesn't it. ^^

When I was walking to work the other day, I couldn't help but notice that every ant nest on my route to work (and there are a lot of them) was engaged in the annual ant Departing the Nest Festival. The air was thick with them - I believe I may have inhaled/swallowed two. Curious that the nests were quiet on the days before and after - they all just chose that particular day to fly, despite the weather conditions being pretty much the same all week. Strange how nature works. I have also decided that ants were never, ever designed to fly, and it is fortunate that they only have to engage in that particular activity for one or two days in the year. I'm not sure if they have any control over their flight, or if they just flap like mad until they hit something.

*** Warning *** Today's "Arghh! I don't want to read any more of this random drivel!" character graphic is Arno from Summon Night Craft Sword Monogatari 2. I strongly suggest you scroll down to safety now.

You probably noticed the content of last Thursday's post was a little different from the usual fare. It's been a while since I've written a decent amount here on something other than otakunews, and the change of topic was rather refreshing. So, I thought I'd give it another go this week. Rather than something seemingly entirely random like last time, I thought that today I would attempt something much more popular among regular bloggers - a dream log.

There is just one tiny snag - I don't dream. It hasn't always been this way. I remember having dreams aplenty throughout my childhood, right up until perhaps my 5th year of secondary school, at which point the dreaming suddenly stopped. The only possible explanation I have been able to come up with is that around this time, my sleeping patterns started to become much more disrupted, which is the state in which they remain to this day. So, as you can see, this makes writing a dreamlog somewhat of a challenge.

My brain does, however, seem to have a habit of engaging in strange dream-fantasies when in a semi-awake state - for example, in those moments just after my clock radio has gone off in the morning and jolted my brain into gear, but before my foghorn has sounded, bringing with it a swift return to conscious thought. (Yes, I need multiple alarms, otherwise I just don't move. One day, I will forget to set any and never, ever wake up again.) Given the time between the set alarms, I would estimate this period of semi-conscious time to be around 20 minutes in length - more than long enough for the spongey matter to generate a substantial random fantasy of some sort. Unlike classic REM sleep dreams, I have far more control over these, although I would say that I am more of a participant in these fantasy worlds rather than an omnipotent controller. I am also able to recall events much more vividly.

These dream-fantasies (I wonder if there is a less clumsy word I could use - they're not really daydreams) often include elements of whatever happened to be on my mind the night before. Recently, I have been playing Ragnarok Online as a way of winding down before heading off to bed, and so the other morning, I was treated to a random RO-oriented dream. This is perhaps the third or fourth time I have had this dream or one very similar to it - the scenario seems to be a popular one with the spongey matter. I shall attempt to explain it for anyone who hasn't yet browsed elsewhere. Go now, it's not too late.

...

... ...

Hmm, a glutton for punishment, eh? Well, don't say I didn't warn you.

It starts off in AzieƖ's hut, located in a quiet part of the forest, a couple of miles north of the town of Payon. It is early summer; the leaves on the trees are fully grown, shielding the ground from the sky in most places with a thick, green spread. The air is heavy and warm.

It is mid morning and AzieƖ is fletching arrows, the shafts of which are laid out side-by-side across the table in the centre of the hut. Tomoko is there too (my subconscious apparently decided catgirls were needed - I'm not complaining), looking out of the open shutter, her chin resting on the bottom edge of the frame. She seems a little restless. With only an hour or so of the morning left, the pair leave the hut, carrying a couple of baskets and a fishing rod, and head down to the river, about a mile north of the hut. They stop a couple of times along the way to pick fruit; apples to eat in the afternoon, berries as bait to lure the fish.

They reach the water at the point of a fall, perhaps twenty feet high. The river is quite shallow and about a dozen yards across, except for the pool at the base of the waterfall which is slightly wider and of a reasonable depth. The pair move to the lower level and stop a minute's walk downstream from the fall, on the south bank of the river. While AzieƖ goes about trying to catch something, Tomoko's attention is focused on trying to find a path across the river using rocks protruding from the water's surface. She returns about a short while later, a little wetter, to eat some of the fruit and nap in the shade of the trees lining the river.

By mid-afternoon, the air, warmed by the scorching sun, uninhibited by the cloudless sky, is at its hottest. Tomoko goes to swim in the pool at the base of the waterfall while AzieƖ, by this time having already caught several large fish, rests with her back to the trunk of a large oak, her eyes closed, enjoying the sounds of the flowing water and the leaves rustling in the gentle breeze.

As evening draws in and the sun sinks lower in the sky, AzieƖ begins to pack up. Tomoko, having returned and dried off in no time in the warm air, helps to wrap the fish in salted rags. Taking two fish each, the pair head back the way they came. On reaching the hut, AzieƖ puts three of the fish into a sturdy, lidded curing box, two of which she will try to sell at the market in Payon the following morning. The remaining fish she prepares for supper.

Darkness sets in and the air outside has a slight chill to it. The hut, shutters closed and fire burning nicely, remains comfortably warm. The fish, eaten with a soft green vegetable native to the forest, a little like a zucchini, was most satisfying. The pair, content yet tired, retreat to a cushioned chair positioned in front of the fire. Tomoko, lying across AzieƖ, falls asleep almost immediately. AzieƖ wraps the large blanket draped across the chair around the both of them and it is not long before she also succumbs to sleep.

... And that's pretty much it. Sorry if it wasn't quite as eventful/strange as you were expecting. In the dream, I tend to either see the world from the point of view of AzieƖ (which makes sense since AzieƖ is part of myself), or from a third-person perspective - it switches between the two, but I don't really notice. It all just seems to cut together seamlessly, like a well-directed movie.

So what does it "mean", if anything? Probably nothing, since as I am in a semi conscious state, my subconscious is unable to strut around unchecked. I'm pretty sure you can only derive meaning from dreams that are dominated by subconscious control. It appears to just be a reflection in my imagination of a yearning for a simpler life. And possibly cute catgirls.

Okay, back to the less worrying stuff. I have stuck section headings in the text below to try and break things up and make each topic easier to locate.

 
Ragnarok Online

Continuing the RO theme, my subscription to RO expired recently (annoyingly while I was in the middle of the game). The last subscription I took out was the newly introduced "30 Hour Prepay Plan". Since iRO went P2P, I had been playing on the 3-month subscription plan, which I renewed each time the 3 month period was up. However, due to finances being a little tight and the fact that I don't play quite as often as I used to, I decided to try out the pay-as-you-go plan. The 30 hour subscription lasted exactly two and a half months, meaning that I played for, on average, 12 hours per month. Costing only $7.99 for 30 hours (which my credit card company works out to be exactly £4.50 at current rates), my total monthly subscription cost came to a mere £1.80. Quite reasonable, I think. :) Oh, and in case any iRO players haven't noticed yet, more client changes are on the way, starting with the upgrade to 5 characters per account (from the current 3). The changes are due to go live on Sakray on July 20th. There are no dates yet on when the main servers will receive the update.

The Ragnarok Online animation continues to be really quite dire, yet I can't stop watching it out of a strange, twisted loyalty towards the RO brand. Character-wise, it is pretty bad. Story-wise, it is far, far worse. I can't help but think any characters or stories in the RO universe would have been more appealing than the ones created for the anime. Perhaps it could have been an animated adaptation of Lee Myoungjin's original manga. The DL Action RO cast would certainly have been more likable, although I'm not sure the story could really be used. Even a cast made up of the in-game NPCs would have had more appeal, with their random insults and barely interpretable speech at least adding some kind of warped humour to the show.

 
Tears to Tiara

As I promised last week, now that I have the time, I will ramble a little more about Leaf's new game, Tears to Tiara. I guess I should start with the background story. The following is taken from the official site:

The main character in the game is Arawn, the aforementioned Demon Lord, awakened from his eternal slumber. I have to say there have been a lot of pretty hot demons around lately, and while Arawn may not have quite the looks (nor the seiyuu) of some, his silver hair and red eyes are quite fetching. Normally, I would avoid most adult PC games with a demon as the protagonist since demons in adult PC games often have a tendency to go about perverted demonic activities, such as demonic molestations, impregnations, and so on. But this is a Leaf game. I'm sure it won't be all bad. >_>

Riannon and Arthur are likely to be Arawn's main companions for most of the game. Riannon was raised by her brother after the death of their parents. "Hot blooded and impulsive, he doesn't like to lose", reads Arthur's character profile. I can just tell he's going to become annoying. I think Morgan is my favourite character at the moment, although her character profile suggests that she too may be somewhat irritating.

I think I mentioned last time that the character art style was very similar to that of Routes - bright and bold. I have a feeling this could be echoed in the game itself and don't expect it to be quite as "soft" (story-wise) as, for example, Utawarerumono. Still, it looks good and will undoubtedly be purchased on my next visit to Japan, if not sooner.

 
Summon Night Craft Sword Monogatari 2

Summon Night Craft Sword Monogatari 2 hits the Gameboy Advance on the 20th of August. As far as gameplay is concerned, it appears to be very similar to the first Craft Sword, with just a few changes here and there - the PowerUp (excuse for a naked transformation sequence) feature, for example. I have my doubts about the apparent introduction of mech battles though. This time around, the two playable characters have reasonably sensible names - Air and Edge. ... Well, at least they're more sensible than "Pratty". Although if you listen to Edge actually say his name, it sounds a lot worse. >_>

 
White Breath

F&C are continuing to churn out titles with White Breath due for release on the 23rd of this month. The game initially drew my attention because of the character designs. Takashi Hashimoto is the illustrator for the game and has a style which reminds me of that used by Takamichi in his more recent works (Kakera series, etc.), with perhaps a hint of Goto-P. While the game is adult in nature, it does appear to be heavily story-driven and may not have too many adult scenes. Indeed, F&C have gone to great lengths to promote White Breath as a pure ren'ai adventure game, even commissioning a series of romantic short stories. I shall add it to my provisional "to get" list while I await reviews.

 
Dragon Age

This month's Dragon Age is interesting. After the conclusion of Chrno Crusade last month, this issue sees the start of several new series. I have picked three of note. The first is Seal Online Wandering Party, the official manga of the cute MMORPG. (KR JP TW) Drawn by Mattaku Mo-suke, the manga is easily as cute as the game. The story isn't particularly deep, but then this is only the first chapter, so things could change.

The second series I'll point out is Mahou Shoujo Neko X by Mimana Orimoto. Althought a series with cute, magical catgirls has to make quite an effort to be bad in my book, this one certainly tries its best. (A brief look at the artist's gallery should give you an indication that this manga could have some wrongness.) Ignoring the dubious title, pages of gratuitous pant-shots, juice and "rope tricks", what worried me most about the manga was the tendency of the mangaka to have his main cute catgirl character beaten, punched and physically abused by the main male protagonist, her master. And then, after the choking and beating, they hug and profess their love for one another. The extent to which Mimana does appear to enjoy his "happy" portrayal of domestic violence does concern me somewhat. Perhaps his plan is for the cat-people to rebel, crush human kind and live happily ever after, in which case I will be happy. But looking at his website, I fear that is not his intention.

Finally, and on a slightly more promising note, there is Variante by Ikura Sugimoto. The series actually started last month, but I hadn't got around to mentioning it before. The premise - a girl coming-to in a strange facility, her left arm disfigured and with faint memories of her parents being murdered by a strange mutant monster "thing" - is probably not the kind of tale I would normally go for, but the story is told and paced in such a way that I found myself drawn into it quite easily. The art is also rather nice, expressive and well laid out, complementing the story perfectly. For a first manga, it really is most impressive, and I strongly doubt it will be his last.

 
In closing

Before I go, a quick note on BBI changes. You may have noticed the addition of the "Print this page" entry in the menu which displays a more printer-friendly version of the page you are currently viewing. Possibly the most useless addition to the site to date, but there it is. I have also updated AzieƖ's and Tammui's pages with their latest levels. I will probably update AzieƖ's screenshot diary at the end of this month. Tammui will never get a screenshot diary since, as nobody ever responded to my request at the end of the June 25th log entry, there seems not to be any demand for one. Which suits me just fine as they are somewhat tiresome to create.

Until next time~

Game news follows the SoZ ramble. Scroll down until you hit Mii, who is in this post for no reason other than it's been a while since I posted a picture of her.

Men and cars. In western society, there is often presumed to be some mysterious connection between the two. Like dogs and bones. Despite being male, I have never really seen or fully understood the attraction some people have to 4-wheeled automotive transport. Beyond the obvious "mmm, shiny" value, of course. When I was growing up, my walls were never plastered with posters or magazine cutouts depicting sports cars, nor the scantily clad women who seem to enjoy draping themselves over them. Despite having a father and a next-door neighbour who were both hardened motorsport enthusiasts, the passion they possessed never seemed to wear off on me - much to their disappointment, I believe.

However, from an early age, I have had a fascination with another area often regarded, in an unjustly sexist social perception, as a domain for young human males - that is air and space craft, and, in fact, air and space travel in general. I have never been too sure of the reason why though. Perhaps because, unlike the high octane "bigger, badder, faster" world of the motor car (or at least that was the world of the enthusiasts I encountered), flight has always seemed to be about "freedom". The exhilaration of soaring above the earth is a feeling that appears to be shared by many people and was something sought after by humans for centuries.

Over the years, I have flown in a number of different craft, both large and small, winged and rotored, and was lucky enough to be able to witness, in person, the launch of Atlantis on NASA mission STS-43. (Random news: NASA is still on target to resume flights in spring/summer 2005 with STS-114.) Every time I go to an airport, I never tire of marvelling at the sight of vehicles comprised of a hundred tons of steel and aluminium lumbering along the runway and hauling themselves into the sky. It remains a personal aim of mine to gain a pilot qualification (PPL or similar) at some point during my life.

So why, you may wonder, am I telling you all this? Well, hopefully to make what is about to follow a little less random.

Like many people around the world, I have been following the progress made by Scaled Composites and their privately funded space program, top contender for the X prize. However, when watching the events of the latest mission, my attention was drawn not to SS1, but to the high chase aircraft which accompanies and monitors SS1 during its flight. I was struck by its unique, futuristic appearance, having never seen anything quite like it before, and immediately fell in love with it. Determined to find out more about this aircraft, I consulted Google, which is how I uncovered its sad story. (...which I may be about to share with you. You should have scrolled down to Mii like I told you to at the start. You still can, you know - she's waiting just below. Go on. Scroll down and end the pain now.)

The aircraft, NC-51, is a Beech Starship, owned by Robert Scherer. The Starship began life in 1979 when planning started at the Beech Aircraft Company on its new business/executive aircraft. The sleek design proposed by the company was innovative in more than just appearance. The airframe was to be contructed entirely from moulded composite materials. The twin turboprops powering the craft were positioned at the rear in order to reduce noise in the cabin. The design also did away with a rudder, using control surfaces on the two wing stabilisers to control yaw instead. Additionally, it was the first aircraft intended for large-scale production to be designed almost entirely on computer. In 1982, once planning was complete, Scaled Composites were contracted to build an 85% scale model of the aircraft, which was introduced to the world a year later to much acclaim.

The first signs of trouble surfaced in 1984. Having no production facilities for composite materials, Beech had contracted out a number of companies to produce the various parts for the aircraft. However, it became clear that many contractors were not going to be able to produce the parts in time for the Starship's promised 1985 launch date, if at all. With no other options available to it, Beech expanded its factory by a quarter of a million square feet in order to incorporate a composite materials production division so that it could manufacture the required parts itself. Many months were lost as equipment was installed and a new workforce was hired and trained.

In 1986, the first Starship rolled off the production line and began a lengthy testing program to gain Federal Aviation Administration certification. Being the first production composite aircraft, the FAA had to devise a new testing program more or less as it went along. Eventually, in July of 1987, the Starship was certified as airworthy by the FAA and was ready to be released to the public. Unfortunately, the economic climate in the late '80s was not what it had been at the start of the decade. The previously booming business aircraft market had all but collapsed as a result of the recession, and those who still had money to buy aircraft had long since gone elsewhere after the Starship's production delays.

Beech, now owned by Raytheon after a merger, spent more than $300m during the five and a half year development program, much of which went on the new production facilities and employees at its factory. A total of 53 Starships were built before production was halted, a small handful of which were sold. The majority of the craft sit rotting in Raytheon's Starship graveyard, occasionally being dismantled for parts. Raytheon is quietly encouraging the owners of the few Starships that did make it out of the company to sell them back, offering free upgrades to newer models as an incentive.

To the Starship, one of the world's most loved aircraft that sadly never really took off.

Starship links: The Starship Diaries, Robert Scherer's Starship Pages, Robert Scherer's Starship Tracking

Aaaaaand back to the usual stuff. My apologies to anyone who just read the above ramble. m(_  _)m

Ren'ai game news. I have quite a bit I could say, but as it's very late and I can hardly read the screen any more, I shall stick with the most important topic - NEW LEAF GAME! Tears to Tiara, an "Adventure Simulation RPG", will be released on the 24th of September. From the screenshots provided so far, it appears that this game will revolve around the RPG element and as such will be much more user-driven than other Leaf titles. The character design feels quite Routes-like, although I detect a mixture of Leaf styles in some of the character styles. I might put a translation of the story outline up here at some point, perhaps when it is not 5am.

The next FFXI expansion pack, Chains of Promathia (Promathia no Jubaku), now has a final release date for both the US and Japanese releases. The Japanese version will be out first on September 16th, followed by the US release the following week on September 21st. The European launch of FFXI is also scheduled for September. Although a definite date doesn't appear to be in place quite yet, it will most likely follow a few days after the release of Promathia in the US. The FFXI EU website is also now online, although it is currently just a selection of pages taken from the US site.

I'm exhausted, it's late, and I must be awake for work tomorrow... today. Therefore I shall bid you farewell and continue babbling later. zzz... *thud*