Terrors of driving

A while ago, I was given the very generous offer of having my driving lessons paid for by my employer, no strings attached -- other than the implied "please stay working with us" on the side. While I'd be a fool to say no to such a significant thing, I'm still incredibly anxious about the whole ordeal... No problem about being too reckless or anything, of course, but more likely my paranoia about making mistakes will make for a bumpy ride in more ways than one.

I'll be having my first proper driving lesson this coming Wednesday. Not looking forward to that one bit... I don't see the point of being able to drive a car, personally speaking... The only purpose I can see would be not being dependent on public transport for getting to/from work, and having me run errands and whatnot. Everything points to things that go against my own interests, but I don't think there's anything I can do about that now.

I keep getting the "oh, you'll have so much more freedom to go where you want" point shoved in my face, but really, all I genuinely care about is being at a place with a computer and internet... Why travel anywhere? Meh, the main positive thing I can think of would be forcing people I'd eventually be driving with to listen to my music of choice, eheh. ...doesn't change that I'm deathly nervous about the upcoming day, tho'!

復活

Yeah. Anyway, first of all, the list of favorite Touhou characters provided in the former post is largely updated. The most recent one at the time of writing would be here. That's all I have to say for now~

Favorite Touhou Characters

In this post, I shall randomly list the characters who are my favorites in descending order, only mentioning the characters whom I consider important enough for me. Only characters appearing from Touhou Project 6 to 12 are listed, also. So, here's the list. Click the small images next to each name to see a picture of them.

1. Mystia Lorelei
2. Cirno
3. Kogasa Tatara
4. Daiyousei
5. Rumia
6. Koakuma
7. Flandre Scarlet
8. Remilia Scarlet
9. Koishi Komeiji
10. Rin Kaenbyou
11. Chen

Japanese Writing

As some of you may or may not know, I'm interested in the Japanese language, very much, as well as... well, English. And a bit Spanish. Or languages in general. Anyway, I've learned how to read Japanese's two main ways of writing, hiragana (ひらがな), and katakana (カタカナ). However, kanji (漢字), being the Chinese characters also used in Japanese, is something I know very little of, though I can read a few of them as well. I'm not so good at really writing hiragana and katakana characters by hand, though I've recently started practicing hiragana, and I suppose I can do it well soon enough. I find it slightly odd how I can read it all without problems, but am still unable to write them by hand (or on computer in an image-editing program) out from memory... Oh well.

Blog Inactivity

Yes, I know, it's been terribly quiet... even too quiet, as it were. I shall attempt really making a new serious entry sometime soon... promise. Keep checking back until then, please, or don't, depending.

Imperishable Night #1

Oh, another post, then. Who'd have ever guessed..? Anyways, this time, my random opinions on the different characters in Imperishable Night, basing on solo teams.

Playable Characters

• Reimu
  Yay, homing shot! Though, with Reimu by herself, the shots are pretty weak. But they're homing, which nullifies the negativeness of that. Or it doesn't, who knows. In any case, focused makes no difference except showing hit-box of special smallness, and slowed down movement, for weaving through danmaku patterns, awesome grazing, and/or whatnot else. Speed is decent, too.
• Yukari
  Yay, attacking Ran! And the shot itself, though not homing in itself, really is quite powerful. Not even quite, really, it just is powerful. The shift, it does nothing, apart from what's already mentioned in Reimu paragraph. Yukari's speed is a bit slow, and awesomely slow on focused, but not too slow, so good enough.
• Marisa
  Yay, rapid attack! Marisa's shot really murders enemy familiars, and is fairly powerful. Shift makes movement slower and hit box turns visible as usual, and the fact that it makes movement slower is really an advantage in this case, as Marisa is very fast (though not the fastest) when in un-focused movement. The bombs are epically powerful, too.
  
• Alice
  Yay, lasers! I don't really like her shot, the laser covers whole vertical area from where she's positioned, though it deals low damage, but constant. I'd not use her as character so much in solo. She's fairly fast, and slows down and reveals hit-box on shift-pressing, woo. Can't say anything on bombing as I think I have really yet to use Alice's bombs, then again due to not having used her much thus far.
• Sakuya
  Yay, knives! Her shot covers whole screen in a fan-shape extending right ahead of where Sakuya is positioned, but deals horribly low damage, but then again I guess is quite effective on enemy familiars. *insert epic tale of focused movement passed down from generation to generation here*. Get it?
• Remilia
  Yay, laser-bats PEW PEW! Shot is powerful, her familiars cover a fair width of the screen, and guess-what, focused movement freezes her familiars in place, which can be quite neat to be able to have in some situations for constant damage-inducing despite moving. Remilia is also very, very fast, or something, so careful movement should be done in focused mode.
• Youmu
  Yay, ghost! Shot is powerful, especially when aligned with familiar's shot, which can be fairly hard to do at times unless in focused movement, which freezes its shooting direction, and the obvious. Her bombing makes her unable to attack for a while after bombing, but the bombs themselves are powerful enough to take quite a chunk of most bosses' life, and eradicate all normal enemies on screen, normally. Speed is a bit faster than "normal".
  
• Yuyuko
  Yay, wide shot! Shot is okay, more concentrated right in front of Yuyuko, and covers all of the upper part of the screen, if positioned at the bottom in the center. Focused movement makes the obvious events of previous obvious non-special and still obvious effects come into effect. The bombs are okay, and her speed is fair enough.

And that's that for now, 'till next post, if any.

Subterranean Animism #1

What a generic post title, hmm? My creativity isn't exactly known for being awesome.
Anyways, Touhou Project 11, Subterranean Animism. So, my opinion and such so far...

Playable Characters and Types

• Reimu A
  I've not used Reimu A so much yet... Teleporting from one side of the screen to the other has not shown to be of any good use to myself yet, except maybe letting me be able to escape a few difficult situations. But not good enough to make me use it often, as I mostly accidentally get myself hit immediately after teleporting.
  The shot is nice and quite powerful, and covers a fairly wide area when not focusing, in my view.
• Reimu B
  Reimu B is the character + type I use the most. Auto-collecting point items and power-ups when not using any keys is awesome, in my opinion, and quite useful!
  The shot is okay, the homing bullets pack a punch, and ensures that you'll inflict decent damage on, for example, bosses, even when not directly near the boss, horizontally. It won't hit if you're too far away from the boss or if the boss is behind you, though, oh well.
• Reimu C
  Reimu C, I've used horribly rarely, really. Moving fast can be nice, but having to not using any key other than arrow keys to make use of it makes it slightly less handy. At least for me. Zooming around on the screen, not shooting, is quite risky... or so've my experience with such been.
  The shot is... meh, okay, can hit enemies who're below you on the screen, which can be quite handy in some situations. Good-good.
  
  
• Marisa A
  Can't say I've used Marisa A so much, though, if only Marisa was playable, I'd probably've used Marisa A the most. Having maximum power as 8.00... Yay, more bombing allowed! If one is good at strategical and timely bombings, it'll surely increase one's chance of getting through the game somewhat. The bomb of this type is quite powerful too, though it only hits in a straight vertical line from where you bomb from.
  The shot is nice, though, un-focused being the lasers crossing, concentrating more damage on the enemies right in front of you, and the focused being the lasers spreading, covering more of the screen, but inflicting less damage, I'd prefer having it the other way around, especially during boss phases.
• Marisa B
  Marisa B is fine too, I could manage only having this mode playable, I suppose. The whole changing attacks thing is neat, and must be quite handy for strategical people. ...who I can't really claim to be a member of, thus I mostly just stick to the red formation. I like attacks which hits the heaviest right in front of yourself, not bothering much with the sides and behind. Or so.
  So yes, the whole shooting thing is absolutely awesome.
• Marisa C
  I'd say I like Marisa C the least, really, but it's... manageable. Bombing, setting up a barrier for a limited period of time, restoring half of the 1.00 of power used if not hit whilst having barrier up, is quite nice for people who bomb when they don't really need to, by accident and such, but I mostly bomb when I'm certain I'll be hit, making that effect's advantage void for myself, but oh well.
  The shot, missiles, is... powerful, I suppose? But it damages such a small area, vertically. Not really the most practical shot, for myself.

Music
All of the music I've heard so far in this game, which is all except extra stage and extra boss themes, I've found to be very nice and catchy. I especially like stage 3 boss, Yuugi Hoshiguma's theme (華のさかづき大江山 - A Flower-Studded Sake Dish on Mt. Ooe), and stage 4 boss, Satori Komeiji's theme (少女さとり　～ 3rd eye - Satori Maiden ~ 3rd eye), former due to its livelyness, and the latter due to its plain awesome. My opinion only, of course.

I suppose I could type more, but that's all for now. More about my opinions and possibly something about my current progress in Subterranean Animism or some other game (or alternatively something completely different) coming sooner or later! Perhaps.