Nestor's Cola

No Name Losers (site down as of 4/9/2009) released a standalone install of ef – the first tale recently. This is somewhat irregular in the fan-translation community, so cue the shitstorm. Ethical standpoints aside, it’s certainly an interesting move. I don’t particularly care about those things; I am not going to throw my two cents in and comment about whether they were in the right or wrong. I am not a moral authority and I have no leg to stand on. What I’m doing at this point is the same thing I’ve done with every game up to this point: I’m going to play it, I’m going to write a review about it, and that’s going to be the beginning, middle, and end of my involvement.

As a preemptive strike I’ll say this now; I’ll delete any comment on the debate of right or wrong. This post will have a review of the game itself and nothing more.

Story: I’ll admit: I’ve been trying to play this since the 9th, and I can’t get into it. I can tell that the girls have substance, there’s more lurking beneath the surface, but right now, all I can think about is doing something else. I can’t play it. Part of it is I’ve taken a break from playing these games, the other part is that it’s just not particularly interesting to me.

Interface: Seems pretty intuitive. It is intuitive. moving around is easy enough. Saving, loading, autoread, etc are all one-click functions, easy to get to. there’s even a “Boss Button” (though why you’d play it at work where a boss could see you is something else entirely)

Patch/ Patching: Even though this was a standalone install, you need to install a font that comes prepackaged with the download. It also takes time to install. Mine took @ seven minutes or so.

I’ve been meaning to write a review on Fate Stay Night for a while, just never got around to it. Seeing as this is by far one of the best games I’ve played, i really should just get right on that, if you know what I mean.

Installation: Installation is a breeze in XP, provided you know what you’re doing. Indeed, if you know what you’re doing, you simply pop in the Fate Stay Night DVD (or CDs), run the installation, and then run the translation patch. if you don’t know what you’re doing, go to the Mirror Moon forums and ask. I’m sure they’ll help you out, because I won’t.

Patching: Patching is also easy. Download the patch from Mirror Moon, run the installer. That easy. If you’re feeling frisky, you can buy a copy of the Realta Nua version of the game, slap that into the computer and run the voice option when you patch to english. Your Fate Stay Night installation now has voices. Cool, huh? One small note: adding voice element dramatically increases the length of your patching process. I’ve seen it go for as long as four hours!

Game Interface: Man, I love this interface. you can get anywhere in the game within a few mouse clicks. It intuitively moves the cursor for you too, how awesome is that?

Extras: This game comes packed with extras. Music Player is pretty standard fare for these games, so there’s nothing new there. Again with the intuitive menus, you can browse through each arc’s CGs with a few mouse clicks. There’s also some RPG-style Character Sheets on the servants, as well as a weapon screen so you can take a look at all the weapons used in the game. You get a couple of little teaser movies, too. The only thing it doesn’t have is say, character themes for your Windows installation, or wallpapers, or whatnot, but you don’t need those, and if you did, you already know how to make them.

Story: (to come later)

“Relive three of the best Japanese love-sim games ever brought out for the English-speaking market, with the new JAST USA Memorial Collection. A compilation of three of the best-selling games from JAST USA on one CD-ROM, you get Three Sisters’ Story, Season of the Sakura and Runaway City, all for one great price. All three games have been totally redesigned with a great new game engine that provides many new extras for bishoujo gaming fans.
The totally new game engine support anti-aliased graphics, new background features, and more!”

What I’ve seen so far: Well, It installed easily on XP SP3 on a high end system with a 1920×1200 monitor. the menus are easy to pick from. I started with (of course) Three Sister’s Story. I had a copy of the game some years ago but couldn’t get it to run (my technical expertise being substantially less than it is now) and now with this reissue, the game of course runs fine. I found the menus to be annoyingly complex, but unrewarding- it’s hard to get immersed in (what sounds to be) a good story when you’re brought back to the menus, over and over again, forced to make the same asinine choices over and over and over… I haven’t uninstalled it yet, but at the same time I haven’t been inclined to play, those menus are daunting. We’ll see how it goes.

Review incoming:

Some time ago, me and my idiot son tore apart some “wiccans” and made them cry. While involved in a very similar discussion with Christians, someone popped up with paganism being a more comforting religion. The original deconstruction of “Wicca” went like this.

The deconstruction of Wicca

I’ve updated my theme- I felt that the one I was originally using was too dark for my tastes. Of course, I’m just borrowing Korosu’s blog theme, but I’ll get around to customizing it …. eventually.

Also, I’ve got some older works I’m going to be importing. Look forward to it?

It’s also come to my attention that I’ve been getting hits about games. dunno if that’s good or not- but I’ll postpone a post about the latest game i’ve been playing and we’ll take it from there.

Nestor_sensei UG: Ayn Rand was far from stupid.
Nestor_sensei She was misguided
UserGoogol I suppose so, but “misguided bitch” isn’t as funny.
Nestor_sensei But her work regarding the cultivation of the ego and the expressions of individuality and solitary expression were fairly on-target
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CrackPr0n new sharpnel \o/
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UserGoogol Nestor: I don’t know what you mean by those words.
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Nestor_sensei Obviously you need some work on individual thought and ego-cultivation~
CrackPr0n HAHAHAH
CrackPr0n Sharpnel has a song called
CrackPr0n “All of oils are belong to me”
UserGoogol It’s just that those words can be intepreted in many different ways.
Nestor_sensei Look. The Fountainihead and Anthem were about the realization and embracement of the Ego, right?
Nestor_sensei …did you even read her work?
UserGoogol Just a bit of her non-fiction.
Ani UserGoogol, read Action Philosophers
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Nestor_sensei I haven’t read all her work, but alot of it is what modern day ‘satanists’ hold as the core of their tenets: namely the embracing of the self, worshiping the Ego, holding themselves as the higher value over the group.
Ani it’s good and cheap like RoxRawr
RoxRawr Ani is trying to rape me Nestor, stop him and tear off his penis
Nestor_sensei The embodiment of self-actualization, Ego-worship, individuality, and solitarinism
Nestor_sensei Rox: it’s not rape, you’ve been begging for dick since you came into the channel
Nestor_sensei Shut up and fucking enjoy it
UserGoogol There’s nothing wrong with worshiping the self per se, but she seemed to go about it in a silly way.
RoxRawr Hey! I’m giving you the chance to humilate and castrate Ani so that he may never have sex ever again and you deny that chance?!?!
Nestor_sensei I’m male, he’s male. Why would I be interested in sticking up for a female?
RoxRawr you aren’t doing it for me you’re doing it for you!
Nestor_sensei UG: you know the era in which she wrote, right?
UserGoogol Yeah.
Nestor_sensei Rox: I gain nothing from assisting you, or Ani.
Nestor_sensei You’re on your own
RoxRawr fine! D:
Nestor_sensei UG: One of the things she was concerned with was the consolidation of civilization and the abandonment of the individual.
Nestor_sensei I can’t remember if this is accurate or not, but I think she came from Communist Russia
RoxRawr she did
Nestor_sensei So perhaps her ideas weren’t so off-base at the time
RoxRawr she was an actor in Hollywood
UserGoogol Yeah, and her philosophy is certainly extremely understandable when you look at it in that context.
UserGoogol Rox: I don’t think she acted, but she wrote scripts.
RoxRawr hmmm
RoxRawr I think you’re right on that
RoxRawr but I thought she did one film as a minor role to make money
UserGoogol Defending individualism was worth doing, she just defended a stupid kind of individualism which values “self-respect” over actually being happy.
wombat74 AYn Rand sucks ‘cos she’s not English
wombat74 and only English people can be awesome
Nestor_sensei No, her idea was that all happiness stemmed from self-respect
wombat74 just ask Malcolm
RoxRawr ino rite
UserGoogol And I would have to disagree with that.
Nestor_sensei by submitting to a society, or group of individuals in favor of the communal idea means that your value as an individual has just been comprimised.
RoxRawr Bitch be cool!
Nestor_sensei The idea was a rebellion of the common idea that man can only be happy and functional when he’s part of a group.
Nestor_sensei This ties in to the idea that as humans we’re a terrible waste… unless you factor us all in as a whole
Nestor_sensei that an individual is useless in favor of a group.
RoxRawr that idea was very present in Anthem but she was also a firm believer in the corporation which is an extreme example of a group
RoxRawr it wasn’t so much rebellion as it was the group adapting to the needs of the members
Nestor_sensei but you’re still abdicating individual control to a hive structure
RoxRawr sure but you’re not rebelling against the hive
Nestor_sensei in a group ideology, you don’t have needs, you have a ‘group concern’
RoxRawr no you have a group of people working toward an objection or goal
RoxRawr not an absolution over their actions
Nestor_sensei there’s no individuality represented in an individual, no matter how much they’re interested in you.
Nestor_sensei ….fuck
Nestor_sensei there’s no individuality represented in a GROUP, no matter how much they’re interested in you.
RoxRawr represented in a group?
RoxRawr well take for example you have a group of artists each different in what they do
RoxRawr they work towards a common goal but they do their specific jobs taylored to their strengths in order to work towards the group
Nestor_sensei this ties strongly into why Governments run “by the people and for the people” will always destroy itself; it’s the ego rebelliong against the group ideology
RoxRawr thus you take in account individuality and still mainatin a group mentality
UserGoogol I don’t think Ayn Rand was opposed to people forming groups, merely “groups for groups’ sake.” If individuals have common interests, then she had no problem with them teaming up.
Nestor_sensei a group, by its very nature, cannot understand, respect, or even come to terms with an individual need without the inevitable corrosion and destruction of said group
Nestor_sensei UG: right
RoxRawr well it depends what group you are talking about
RoxRawr the idea of a group a collection of people
Nestor_sensei If I want to go down the street and carve up a steak at the local restaurant, and there are like-minded individuals, then the group certainly holds precedence
RoxRawr the collection of people working towards a goal that’s a goal they all should possess
RoxRawr it never addresses nullifying the idea of individual desires
Nestor_sensei well, small groups are easier to express individual thoughts and desires across
Nestor_sensei refer to the steak-hunting party I mentioned above
CrackPr0n mm steak
Nestor_sensei Now, if the entire city of DFenver decided that it was steak night, but I felt I’d be better off with chicken, you’d see the destruction of the individual in favor of the group ideal
RoxRawr hmmm but if you wanted chicken you wouldn’t be part of the group
Nestor_sensei how many people in Denver would say, “Well guys, I know we want steak and nothing will stop us, but Nestor thinks we should have chicken, so let’s make it chicken night
Nestor_sensei Rox: exactly
Nestor_sensei the group fails in addressing the needs of the individual.
Nestor_sensei You’re not so stupid after all
UserGoogol Rox: Thus the distinction between voluntary groups formed by a comon interests (that Ayn Rand had no problem with) and the kind Ayn Rand thought were evil commie bullshit.
CrackPr0n i want steak
DRwut I want in n out
RoxRawr I suppose~
UserGoogol At least I assume she had no problem with it. I don’t remember reading her explicitly say that, but it seems like a logical interpretation of her theories.

Feminism interests me. Not because I’m a misogynist, or chauvanist, or sexist, or any other *.ist you might whip up. I’m just me. Nestor. The problem with Feminism is that instead of identifying and correcting inconsistiencies within the gender roles and striving for a balance, they instead veer off to the other extreme, misandry. Look it up if you’ve never heard of it before.

This is what disturbs me. Rather than establishing an empowerment of the female psyche, an embodiment of what it’s like to truly exist within ones’ own gender, they instead lash out destructively at the other gender… to accomplish what? To further increase the division between the two sexes? What, exactly can come from these enforced divisive tactics?

So extremist feminism is really a bunch of hopped up cunts with no sense in their heads. That’s really all there is to it.

I’d been thinking about El Jeffe’s post today, and finally brought it up during a guild run today. Yes, we can talk about such things. One girl said, “Well, we truly don’t own our bodies, we’re simply receptacles for your penises.” And on a superficial level, that’s true, but grossly inaccurate on a majority.

God, Nature, Old Man Habeeb, whatever it is you believe in, made you with a passage, and made us with a tool to enter said passage. I don’t see the problem. you’re fighting against your very genetic makeup if you don’t like that, an ultimately futile and worthless gesture. As for “not owning your body” what the fuck is that shit? You have a vagina, yes? Do you control who/what/when/where/why goes in there? I’d certainly hope so! So in fact you are in posession of your vagina. Otherwise you really are simply a sperm receptacle for anyone with a penis, and are incapable of doing anything else other than accepting semen. Paints a crude picture of you being an unconcious and unwilling participant, doesn’t it?

For you to refute that image implies you have a sense of reason, an ability to utilize free will and make descisions. Certainly sounds like you’re not only in posession of your body, but also the concious ability to make choices that affect and impact you.

I also pose you the question of which, exactly, is more vulnerable? The one who is getting penetrated, or the one doing the penetrating? Decide for yourself.

Oh, god, how else did I take her statement apart? Ah yes. Having children, as relating to the whole ‘body ownership’ statement above. Yes, you carry children. Again, a genetic fucking imperative. But you’re pretty ignorant if you think that you’re carrying our children. You’re carrying around a child that is the contribution of two people. takes two to tango.

So what we have, then, is an absolution of free will, of responsibility, and an empty ideology supported with hollow words that really only define an insecurity from within. Perhaps you didn’t feel appreciated? Bah, who am I to analyze?

Anyway.

Why this fixation on the vagina? Let’s focus our attentions someplace else. Domestication, glass ceilings in the workplace, etc etc. These things can be fixed. Fuck, these things are getting fixed.

Hmmm.

Where, exactly is the problem?

Will I myself deny a woman an opportunity to feel empowered? certainly not. A woman who is in full command of her faculties, is comfortable in her sex and sexuality, who is flexible in both mind and body, these things I will not only lust after, but encourage. But at the same time, I will chastise and discourage any woman who feels the need to destroy men to elevate her own ideology regarding women.

Are men superior to women, or vice versa? Hahaha, now you’re asking questions.

You can’t say that one is superior or inferior to the other. each has complemetary characteristics that the other half lacks. This is what makes us whole. I will advance the opinion that men are quicker to react physically in situations while women on the other hand, will examine the situation intellectually before acting. Genetic imperative? Not sure. Maybe thousands of years of genetic memory where men smashed things and other people with clubs, rocks, spears, bows, guns, bombs and warheads gives us that defining characteristic. Men lead, women follow, or stay and raise kids, or whatever.

Anyway, the arguement concluded when I suggested that the woman was blowing hot air with unsubstantiated claims based off irrationality and an abdication of reason.

Bitch, get back in the kitchen and make me some fucking pancakes, ‘fore I give it to you up the other side of yo stupid head.

(:P)

Breastplate of Humanity

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To immanentize the eschaton is to commit a basic error in self-understanding. It is to assume wrongly that human aspiration and destiny are coterminous with the natural world.
To immanentize something is to draw it in closely, to make it a part of one’s immediate, subjective consciousness and experience. The eschaton is our ultimate destination, the final end toward which our lives are ordinated. Affirming an insight that lies at the core of classical Greek philosophy as well as Judaism and Christianity (the three streams of what Voegelin terms “the Mediterranean tradition”), Voegelin views the yearning for transcendence, the restlessness for a world better and higher than this world, as a universal and empirically self-evident component of human personhood, nothing less than a fundamental part of who we are.
It is to assume wrongly that metaphysical questions, which are life’s core questions, either do not exist at all, or can be rationally investigated only through the methods of physics, which in practice tends to be another way of defining such questions as unanswerable and therefore irrelevant. In sum, to immanentize the eschaton is to assume wrongly that ultimate reality, of which God is the final measure, is instead some form of this-world reality, of which man is presumed to be the final measure.

Just thought you’d like to know. ^_^

Just got Ah! My Goddess ep 23, was pretty nice.
Got Mahoromatic (both seasons) the other day, and been working my way through them as well.
Got Samurai Champloo, and that one is pretty nice. Not seriously stupid. I like not-stupid shows.
Just went out and BOUGHT a series, got the Noir brick for about $80. Not too shabby. I’ll watch that while I’m bedridden.

Got a game today, Pariah. Gonna try it out tonight. vehicular combat, upgradeable weapons, all the good stuff.

Nothing else to report, except that I’m raveously hungry.