As I approach my 1 year anniversary at a job I hate with crappy pay, I find out economy is still shit, my roommate is unemployed, my weak stomach has been giving me hell, and as a perfect end to a perfect week–my scanner committed suicide.  And what am I doing about it all? Not a damn thing, obviously, what can you do?  Everyone is struggling.   We live in a world where ‘grit your teeth and bear it’ has long since replaced the ‘American Dream’.

That is why ‘Critical Leisure’ exists.  Because in this day and age, leisure IS critical. What we do with our free time–however much or little of it we have–is the only thing that can keep us sane.

As for me, I’ve mostly been playing video games.  I beat Re: Chain of Memories a few weeks ago, and all I can say is Repliku sucks and Marluxia is the easiest, most pansy-assed boss I’ve ever fought after Xenosaga’s token Albedo battle.

Since then I’ve played FFVII: Dirge of Cerberus.  I’m horrible at FPS games, but as it’s Final Fantasy related, I had to play it eventually.  There’s a rule.  It’s written down somewhere.  What can I say about Dirge of Cerberus? Lucrezia is bat shit crazy, for starters–at least that’s my ever humble opinion.  Graphics are pretty decent, story line is engaging.  There are a few boss battles I could have done without ( *cough* Azul *cough*), but I managed my way through them.  Cutscenes were absolutely gorgeous.  All in all, well worth the fifteen bucks I spent on it.

FFVII: Dirge of Cerberus

Unfortunately, Final Fantasy is a double-edged sword.  It’s such a massive enterprise, that so many great games get swept under the rug and forgotten in it’s wake.  I tend to fall in love with these great RPGs…that no one I talk to has ever heard of until I demand they go find and play them.

Star Ocean: Until the End of Time

One example is Star Ocean: Until the End of Time.

It’s a bit of a slow starter, but once the game gets going it’s almost impossible to put down.  An engaging story with adorable characters like Peppita Rosetti and badasses like Albel Nox.  There’s really something for everyone in this rpg, if you can get past the first …ten hours or so, where the game seems to drag a bit.  Ah, I just adore it.  A big time favorite for me.

And it’s not the only one.  The Xenosaga series is great, if you can get through the horror that is the second game to see how it all ends up with an awesome end to the trilogy (and can tolerate your MC, Shion, long enough to pay attention to the plot.

Suikoden III is a gem hidden in the pile of crap that is the rest of the Suikoden Series, where you get to play as three very awesome MC’s–Hugo, Chris, and Geddoe. (Geddoe is my favorite, for the record) with a HUGE amount of interesting side characters.

And I’ve been reliving my other obsession: Arc the Lad, recently.  I played Twilight of the Spirits a few years ago, and it has since remained one of my favorite games of all time–right up there with Star Ocean and Final Fantasy VIII. Fun, engaging characters, a good storyline, and to put some icing on an already rather enjoyable cake–it’s easy.  I don’t remember struggling with any of the battles –other than the Giant Eyeball of Doom you fight at the end of the game–and that’s more tedious than difficult.

Well, I loaned that game out and never got it back, but I think I’m going to have to buy another copy (as well as get my hands on the Arc the Lad Collection for the first three games) sometime in the near future, because right now, as I play Arc the Lad: End of Darkness, I can’t help but miss it’s predecessor.

Now, I haven’t been playing EoD very long, and maybe that’s the reason I feel this is a game that completely does NOT do justice to it’s predecessor.  The MC, Edda, seems bland.  His sidekick, Hemo, is cute, but nothing to write home about.   The entire game thus far plays like a series of mini-quests with only small spatterings of plot.   It takes place five years after the events of Twilight of the Spirits, and as you go through the game it seems that you meet many of the characters from the previous games.  The only problem with that is 9+ hours into the game you still don’t feel as if Edda has a story of his own.  You learn bits about his parents, meet up with characters from previous games, and do a lot of fighting that more or less feels completely pointless, because it doesn’t seem to be leading anywhere.   i feel like I’m playing a Twilight of the Spirits fanfiction.  …and that fanfiction is badly-planned.

Well, I’m not being fair.  I’ve only played 9 hours of the game, after all.  Star Ocean took more than that to get going (although, Star Ocean by now at least had Fayt–the charming MC, and the adorable Peppita), so I’ll keep an open mind for the time being.

But that’s enough rambling about games!  It’s all I ever do on here.  Before my scanner committed suicide, I did manage to get a scan of something last week, so for once maybe I’ll show off some of my own art instead of someone else’s.  The background is lame and pathetic (a huge weakness of mine), but as far as the character design I’m more or less happy with this piece for a change:

Kiyoku Hono: by K.T. (that's me!)

Check out my other art at: Kou-Tan@DeviantArt.com

Well, I was planning to work on some art tonight, but since my scanner has sold itself to the devil –to the point that I had to break down and order a new one–I think I’ll spend the rest of tonight on video games, and possibly most of tomorrow writing.   I’ll do a real art feature in my next post–featuring myself SO doesn’t count!

Until Next Time,

Remember: Leisure is Critical, so do something with it!

~K.T.~

So 11:30 comes around, and I still don’t really care.  And 11:45 rolls around and they’re messing with the TV because for some reason beyond my fathoming it takes half a dozen people to figure out how to turn on the volume. I’m sorry, but if you can’t figure out how to turn on the volume, you’re television is too fucking complicated! 11: 50 comes around, and they say it’s ready, and I join the club because I want to be one of the cool people too–actually, no. Let’s be honest here: I was falling asleep at my desk and I know a free ride to taking a break when I see one.

Eventually we all end up cramming ourselves into one office–that was big until you stuffed a dozen people into it, and watching it on the computer.   Now, I’m not going to talk about the speech. There are probably a billion bloggers out there talking about all that political crap today and frankly I want no part of it.  This blog is about the things we do to enjoy ourselves.  Who the hell wants to talk about work, right? Of course I’m right, it’s my blog dammit!

So we’re standing here watching the inauguration and one thought comes to mind–one absolutely horrifying thought: without George W, comedians are going to have to start writing their own acts again! I mean, it’s been eight years of easy comedy, what are we going to do now? Political comedians are actually going to have to WORK for a living.

For an example of how good ol’ Georgie has made things easy on the comedy business, check out Lewis Black’s ‘Red White and Screwed’.

Here’s a clip:

Now, after watching that, come on, you have to admit that skit wrote itself.

You see, my roommate and I are very serious about comedy! Stand-up has a very high status in my life–right beneath video games and kitty cats, at constant battle with my love for anime and my ten billion other hobbies that don’t have the word ‘game’ in them.

So I might as well do a FEATURE of one of my favorite comics, Rob Paravonian (who’s last name I have to look up every damn time! Grr. Complex last names.) just for the hell of it.

He’s got a ton of other videos on youtube or his website: robprocks.com

Okay, now, back to the inauguration! What? You thought I was finished? No, there’s one other thing I’d like to talk about: Air & Simple Things–composed by John Williams, played by Yo-Yo Ma and a bunch of other high class people I’ve never heard of because you just don’t say ‘classical piano’ and ‘punk rock’ in the same sentence without giving someone an aneurysm.

‘Air & Simple Things’ is the reason I’m glad I took that inauguration break. Seriously, it’s an absolutely gorgeous composition.  It’s also the nonsequiter from HELL, in my ever humble opinion. It’s like: ‘we’re finally getting rid of George W. Bush! Let’s Party! And now, for your easy listening pleasure… wtf? What does classical music have to do with Barack, Georgie Poo Head, or sitting out in the BITTER FUCKING COLD WITH NO COAT ON? They must have been freezing. I was freezing and I was inside. Mind you, this was the first, and probably only, inauguration–for all I know they’re all this random. But I will say this, I’ll probably remember the composition ‘Air & Simple Things’ long after I can remember how to spell ‘Obama’.

Check it out, it’s gorgeous:

Anyway, that’s enough rambling for one night. Chain of Memories is waiting for me. (Riku, I WILL vanquish you once and for all dammit!)

And that little story has absolutely nothing to do with this blog other than the fact that I find it amusing.

I always get stuck when it comes to how I should introduce new things, and how I should explain myself, my personality, my likes and dislikes and why I like and dislike them.  It just seems pointless, so starting  Critical Leisure, I decided–fuck it, I’m not doing it.  I’m not going to think up some ridiculously witty introduction that makes me sound way bigger and way more interesting than I actually am.  I’m going to let my words speak for me–to let my likes and dislikes speak for themselves.   I’m going to jump in feet first.

You see, I have this horrible desire to control every little aspect of my life.  I had a ‘real’ website, but the thing is, I loathe HTML.  Some people count sheep–I bracket and back-slash. It’s BORING. I can’t take it, so now I’m blogging instead.

I’m just going to write about whatever comes to mind.  I love art and literature –as an artist and writer they’d kick me out of the club if I didn’t–so I’ll probably do a lot of features.  Speaking of that, why don’t I just jump right into it.

Right now, I’m playing Kingdom Hearts- Re: Chain of Memories

I never actually played the GameBoy version of this game due to my lack of, well, Gameboy, as it were, but I’m pretty well into the game and enjoying it so far.  The card-based battle system is a bit of a nuisance.

When I first started playing it was kind of like playing Xenosaga II–I did a fight or two and thought ‘oooh, I don’t think I like this…’  Well, with Xenosaga II that feeling never did go away, ruining an otherwise perfectly tolerable game, but CoM you eventually get used to it.

I could do without having to reload cards even for a standard attack–rings a bit too much like Final Fantasy XII’s need to learn the skill of ‘how to wear a hat’–but it’s not THAT annoying and overall the game makes it worth it.

Riku battles suck, but that’s quintisentially Kingdom Hearts anyway.  Overall, not my favorite Kingdom Hearts game, but still enjoying seeing where it’s going to go.

Artist Feature:

I love to hunt DeviantArt when I have the time (and for those of you who care I can be found there as Kou-Tan and KillingTrees), and there are just so many amazing artists at that site, but for starters I think I’ll feature the amazing, stupendous, stunning work of Shel-yang. I’m not sure when it was that I started stalking her work, but I’m pretty sure it started with a Fruits Basket fan art of Kyou and Tohru.  I absolutely adore her watercolors and pretty much everything in her ‘Children of Paradise’ series, like this one:

by Shel-yang @ DeviantArt.com

Someday, maybe I’ll have a fraction of this kind of talent, but I kind of doubt it. haha.

Music

I’ve also fallen in love with Ellegarden all over again. It’s so hard to pick a favorite song, but if I give it some thought I really adore Bored of Everything.

Well, I think that’s more than sufficient for one night. If I don’t hit the sack –a stupid saying, I don’t even OWN a sack–I’ll never wake up in the morning. Wednesday, thou art the devil.  Can’t it be the weekend already? There’s a saying about patience and grasshoppers that covers this feeling, isn’t there?

Until next time, my wish for you:

May you goof off more than you should, work only as much as you need to, and enjoy every minute of both.