The Last Post of the Year: 2020

Well, here we are, New Year's Eve.

TEXT PLAY SIDE GAME: Final Fantasy II (Famicom 1988/PS 2003 [Origins]): Issue #029: Mysidia Tower, Part One

Part of what makes this a long dungeon is that there's four minibosses and a regular boss in here.

MiSTing: DigiDefenders Episode 2, Part Two

There are a couple of things I left out of the end of part one. Like I was saying, I tended to put stuff from my real life in these things, for flavor. In this episode, I had my little brother “cameo” as the “Brains” character, who brought in his laptop for the map scene. He was still in school for computer science at the time. That's not the direction his life went in the end, but then again, my life went in a different direction from where I'd thought, too.

Another real life thing that found its way into this one is that I'm more than a little stubborn about taking medicine for things when I'm sick or in pain. Always have been, and still am to this day. The reason for why I tend to work on these things as late at night as I do is a combination of too much caffene and the fact that my legs, and my left leg, especially, have a fair bit of arthritis in them for a man my age, and I just can't bring myself to take anything for it to help myself sleep unless I really push myself to. I probably did the night I wrote this, but since then, well, I have my doubts. I'm hoping for some sort of improvement on that front going forward, but only time will tell.

In the meantime, let's wrap this up, shall we?

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Merry Christmas!

I hope you all had one!

MiSTing: DigiDefenders Episode 2, Part One

This one's only going to be two parts, due in part to that it kind of breaks weird. This first part's gonna be a good deal shorter than the second one, but if I'd tried to do this the way I would normally, I would have wound up breaking it into too many parts to be practical for anybody. It's already cumbersome enough without adding more work to it, and I'm the sort of guy who really doesn't like making things more difficult than they need to be if I don't have to.

That said, when I reflect on the number of these things I managed to do back in the day, I'm actually impressed. There's eight just in this one series, and that says nothing of however many of these I've done both before and since.

Why? Well, all the page formatting and whatnot was done manually, for the most part, at least on my end. There was a site that did some automatic reformatting for this kind of thing, but I didn't really use it enough to get the hang of it because I didn't discover it until almost the end of my main time doing this sort of thing. The hosting sites also did some of their own formatting, to fit with whatever the accepted style was at the time, which also accounts for some of the screwball line breaks and out of place characters. It also ties into some of the odd typeos here and there. I think I might have screwed some things up as I was doing the formatting work for the “scripts” and wound up doing jokes on that, simply because I was too dumb to notice that I'd messed up on my end. I'm just kinda surprised that I never got called on it along the way, or that I don't remember, if I did.

One other thing I want to mention before I get to the main thing here. I'm going to try a little experiment with this one in that I'm going to try having a specific day and time these things go live. In this case, it's going to be Saturdays at 5 PM, since that's when episodes aired on Sci-Fi back when I was watching on TV. I'm assuming the archived schedules I'm working with mean 5 PM US Eastern time, since that's the standard time zone they use here in the US. Since I'm posting from the US Central time zone, however, that's the 5 PM I'm going with.

That much out of the way, we've got movie sign on part one of Digimon: DigiDefenders, Episode 2: Go Gotsumon!

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Picture Post: Black Hills Trip 2020: Scenic Overlook

These are a couple months old now. I'd meant to get to them sooner, but I've had other things going on.

TEXT PLAY: Final Fantasy IX (PlayStation, 2000, Square-Enix): Issue #065: Mini World Tour: Multiple Sessions

This one's going to cover a couple sessions, at least.

A Missed Milestone

So, it turns out I've been doing something like regular updates to this silly little thing for just over a decade now...

December Already

For as long as this year has felt, it's hard to believe that we're already a week into December.

TEXT PLAY QUICKIE: Final Fantasy 4: Chronicles Version (2001; PS1): Issue #011: Jonah and the Lunar Whale

Not the reference some might think.

TEXT PLAY SIDE GAME: Final Fantasy II (Famicom 1988/PS 2003 [Origins]): Issue #028: Dangerous Monsters

Starting and ending with them.

One Month Left

This year is really ending differently than it started, isn't it?

Final Fantasy This Morning: November 23, 2020

I got to thinking about something other than the game I was playing when I was grinding for abilities in Final Fantasy IX the morning I wrote this.

TEXT PLAY: Final Fantasy IX (PlayStation, 2000, Square-Enix): Issue #064: Mini World Tour: One Night In Treno

That's a title I probably should have used when I was in Treno for plot-related reasons, or on one of the many return trips I was apparently supposed to be making over the course of the game.

Not For Lack Of Ideas

 I'm a little behind where I thought I'd be, post-wise, by this point in the year, and it's not for lack of ideas.

MiSTing: Digimon: Digidefenders: Episode 1, Part 3

 Usually, I like to read things like this before I post them, if only to make sure I've got some interesting commentary to put in ahead of the jump or after the feature, but I've got a backlog of stuff I need to get going with, so I'm going in a little blind here. I still kinda remember some of this stuff, but as I've noted a few times now, this has been the better part of twenty years ago now, so I don't remember everything about it.

Anyway, this is the last bit of setup for the premise and the first “real” battle of the series. I think it takes place someplace in Canada. I remember there being one that happens at Mt. Rushmore, too, but I think that's still a couple parts out. We'll get to that soon enough. Here's the main event, folks:

* * * & & & * * * & & &

Odds and Ends and Things: Travel Grooming Goodies Part 2

I'm about a week late in sharing this, but since I had part one up here, I figured I should share this as well.

JMShearer Tries: Brownie Caramel Cream Root Beer

Trying something new here, posting with the widget on YouTube.

TEXT PLAY QUICKIE: Final Fantasy 4: Chronicles Version (2001; PS1): Issue #010: Trap Door!

 Well, it's about time to get moving on, I think.

MiSTing: Digimon DigiDefenders, Episode 1, Part 2

 I had intended to get to this well before now, but I got distracted with other stuff. I'd like to get these parts up more quickly because monthly is just too slow for something like this. Hopefully, I'll be able to improve that soon.

Where we left off last time, five of the eight, I believe, primary human characters had been introduced in the main story, and I was starting to get more of a handle on my own character in these things. Part of the reason why things are coming out the way they are is that we were supposed to be shooting for a PG rating, tops, and this was my way of going for that in my mid 20s. Another part is that whole “mid 20s” thing. I hope I've changed at least a little since then.

Those poster things that I've been putting in were supposed to be reflective of the other MiSTings I'd done using my own character at the time. I'd had a few at the time, and I figured that since the setting I was using was a movie theater, I'd go the poster route.

At any rate, this whole first issue is mostly setting up the characters. There's a little proper excitement towards the very end, but for now, we need to get on with meeting the characters and setting up some of the mechanics. Let's continue, shall we?

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Odds And Ends And Stuff: The Series: Travel Sized Grooming Goodies Part One

 As with so much of what I do, I'm not sure how far this will go or what will come of it,

TEXT PLAY SIDE GAME: Final Fantasy II (Famicom 1988/PS 2003 [Origins]): Issue #027: Where, Now?

 Kept getting a little turned around when it comes to finding the cave where the Crystal Rod is.

TEXT PLAY: Final Fantasy IX (PlayStation, 2000, Square-Enix): Issue #063: Mini World Tour: Madain Sari, Part Two

 I might just have to share that video I mentioned last time I got an issue of FF9 up.

TEXT PLAY SIDE GAME: Final Fantasy II (Famicom 1988/PS 2003 [Origins]): Issue #026: Later Than Planned

I had intended to get back to this at a more reasonable time, but between IRL stuff and letting myself get distracted with some other things I want to get done here, I didn't quite make that happen.

Updates And Stuff: October 13, 2020

 I had considered doing this as a Final Fantasy Tonight/This Morning post, but there's at least one non-gaming thing I want to cover here, too.

TEXT PLAY QUICKIE: Final Fantasy 4: Chronicles Version (2001; PS1): Issue #009: Underground Side Quests

 Well, some of them, anyway.

MiSTing: Digimon: DigiDefenders Episode 1, Part 1

This is going to be kind of a longer pre-jump intro, but it's worth it. Some of this stuff might have been better put in one of the prolouge bits I did last month, but I didn't think of it until it was too late, which is kind of typical of me, I'm afraid.

Like I was saying in the preface bits, I had intended for there to be sort of a continuity with these things, extending from the Rugrats movie thing I was mentioning before through the last of these, including a few spam emails and at the very least, the Samurai Pizza Cats fic I mention in this one.

First, though, we'll be starting with the user-generated headers most MiSTing authors like myself put in to help with categorizing on Web Site Number Nine and the newsgroups. Most of these are fairly self-explanitory: Story title, story author, MiSTing Author, and era. In this case, the “era” header is “nonstandard” because I was using characters other than the ones from the television show to make fun of the story.

From here, I think I'll let the actual thing speak for itself, and try to explain more at the end.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ******************************************************

A Standalone Post

I used to do more of these.

TEXT PLAY: Final Fantasy IX (PlayStation, 2000, Square-Enix): Issue #062: Mini World Tour: Madain Sari, Part One

 This bit is turning out to be harder than I thought it would be.

TEXT PLAY QUICKIE: Final Fantasy 4: Chronicles Version (2001; PS1): Issue #008: Hooking Up

We're starting off back at Baron, but we'll go a few other places along the way.

TEXT PLAY: Final Fantasy IX (PlayStation, 2000, Square-Enix): Issue #061: Mini World Tour #1

 I did a fair bit of running around for this one.

A Foreward to the Digidefenders MiSTing Series, Part Two

 I'm having second thoughts about doing this now, but I also realize that if I wait until later or when I get what I've got of this series posted, it'll never get posted, assuming it ever gets written at all. With that in mind, I may as well just get this knocked out.

TEXT PLAY: Final Fantasy IX (PlayStation, 2000, Square-Enix): Issue #060: Grinding Zidane

 Legends of Chocobos!

A Foreward to the Digidefenders MiSTing Series, Part One

 At first, I was just going to post something like this as a preface with the first part of the first “episode”, but then I thought there was enough need-to-know material to make a seperat post for, especially for readers here.

TEXT PLAY SIDE GAME: Final Fantasy II (Famicom 1988/PS 2003 [Origins]): Issue #025: Sooner Than Expected

Both this issue and my return to Mysidia.

TEXT PLAY: Final Fantasy IX (PlayStation, 2000, Square-Enix): Issue #059: Fixed, Kinda

This is something of a tie in to a Final Fantasy This Morning post I made a couple weeks ago.

So Many Things To Get On With

As always, I've got a huge pile of things I need to get on with.

TEXT PLAY SIDE GAME: Final Fantasy II (Famicom 1988/PS 2003 [Origins]): Issue #024: Maria's Island

No stranded castaways that I'm aware of here.

TEXT PLAY QUICKIE: Final Fantasy 4: Chronicles Version (2001; PS1): Issue #007: Airship Go Down Da Hole!

I probably could have done a James Bond reference for this issue, but the way my night went when I did the first session for it, the Tiny Toons one seemed more apropriate.

ART: Yellow Kittygirl

It's been awhile since I've posted any art here.

Slow Progress

It's like I was saying in my most recent Final Fantasy This Morning post.

Final Fantasy This Moring: August 10, 2020: A Potential “Well, Shit” Moment

Just my luck, I get a little farther in Final Fantasy 9 than I think I ever have, and it starts looking like I might have to wind up abandoning it due to technical difficulties like I did with my Lufia Text Play some years ago.

On Collecting Video Game Series

This is an idea I got from a conversation I had with my brother last time I had a chance to spend some time with him.

Big Dumb Me

Sometimes I do some really stupid shit and it winds up biting me in the ass.

TEXT PLAY SIDE GAME: Final Fantasy II (Famicom 1988/PS 2003 [Origins]): Issue #023: Firion's Big Adventure

Maybe not quite as silly or as much fun as Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, but the thing we're looking for actually is in the basement of Castle Fynn.

TEXT PLAY QUICKIE: Final Fantasy 4: Chronicles Version (2001; PS1): Issue #006: First Tower Of Many

I'm pretty sure this time through the Tower of Zot is the first, anyway.

Just Something To Do

I'm just doing this to keep myself busy and I don't want to do video games right now.

TEXT PLAY SIDE GAME: Final Fantasy II (Famicom 1988/PS 2003 [Origins]): Issue #022: Back to the Fynn Part II

This wasn't so hard to Fynn-ish after all...

TEXT PLAY: Final Fantasy IX (PlayStation, 2000, Square-Enix): Issue #058: Noggy the Nog Sprite...?

Is the Moogle I saved with at the end of this session like the little sprite in this MST3K short, only for the Deep Space Nine character?

Feeling Drained

Yeah, again, I'm afraid.

Night Writer

With 100% less David Hasslehoff.

TEXT PLAY SIDE GAME: Final Fantasy II (Famicom 1988/PS 2003 [Origins]): Issue #021: Back to the Fynn Part I

It would be nice if I could get this part of the game done in two or three parts, but this is where the game really starts kicking you in the teeth, especially if you play the way I do, so it's hard to be sure how long this'll take.

Feeling Like Vaporware

There's a lot I've said I want to get done here, but I've been having way too much trouble making it happen lately.

TEXT PLAY QUICKIE: Final Fantasy 4: Chronicles Version (2001; PS1): Issue #005: Grinding Away

I'll probably be doing a lot of that as I go along here, just so I can have my levels high enough to do what I want to do later on.

Updates On Other Stuff

I keep talking about all the things I want to get done, but I never seem to make any of it happen.

Final Fantasy This Morning: June 15, 2020

It's been way too long since I've done any of this, and I really need to get on with at least some of it.

Feeling Short Of Ideas Again

Yeah, I'm having trouble with both coming up with things to write about and the motivation to write about the few other ideas I do have.

A Quick Update

This is something I've started a couple times now.

TEXT PLAY SIDE GAME: Final Fantasy II (Famicom 1988/PS 2003 [Origins]): Issue #020: It's A Trap!

It's also the obvious Star Wars line to use here, and I suspect it'll turn up in that LP I mentioned last time when the guy doing it gets to this part of the game.

TEXT PLAY QUICKIE: Final Fantasy 4: Chronicles Version (2001; PS1): Issue #004: Moving Right Along

I'm not sure if it's just me, but this game seems to just move right along.

The Stack

This is something I'm sure most “creative” sorts are familiar with.

Revisiting Old Projects

I keep saying I want to write more, and maybe finally doing something with some long-outstanding projects will help with that.

TEXT PLAY SIDE GAME: Final Fantasy II (Famicom 1988/PS 2003 [Origins]): Issue #019: The Princess Snek

Hadn't intended to advance the plot, but I didn't want to just grind, either.

Okay Then...

I've said before that it's funny how things work out sometimes, and that's still true.

TEXT PLAY: Final Fantasy IX (PlayStation, 2000, Square-Enix): Issue #057: Ibsen's Castle, Part Three

It's a part of what I did this time. Asmall part, sure, but a part all the same. Plus, I didn't find any reason to swear this time around, which is good.

TEXT PLAY SIDE GAME: Final Fantasy II (Famicom 1988/PS 2003 [Origins]): Issue #018: Deist Cave, Part Three

I keep forgetting that VGMaps is a thing I can use as a reference, but then again, it often doesn't do much good when I'm playing in a different room from my computer.

TEXT PLAY SIDE GAME: Final Fantasy II (Famicom 1988/PS 2003 [Origins]): Issue #017: Deist Cave, Part Two

I got a little lost this time, and covered pretty much the same area I did last time.

More Than Just Video Games

There's a line from one of the Next Gen Star Trek movies where Picard asks a member of his bridge crew if they remembered when they were explorers, on account of they'd been doing a lot of political or defensive missions instead.

TEXT PLAY QUICKIE: Final Fantasy 4: Chronicles Version (2001; PS1): Issue #003: Here And There

We'll be going a few places this issue, too.

A Bit Of A Slowdown

I haven't been doing as much of this as I'd likely, and health issues are part of the reason why.

TEXT PLAY: Final Fantasy IX (PlayStation, 2000, Square-Enix): Issue #056: Ibsen's Castle, Part Two

Generally speaking, I try to keep the swearing to a minimum in these things because I don't always know who reads them, but in this case, there's good reason to make an exception.

TEXT PLAY: Final Fantasy IX (PlayStation, 2000, Square-Enix): Issue #055: Ibsen's Castle, Part One

But first, the Qu's Marsh I was near when I left off last time.

Too Tired To Write

Even though that's essentially what I'm doing here.

Just Writing: March 26, 2020

I keep thinking I have ideas beyond what has become my standard fare here, and then I never seem to make anything of them.

TEXT PLAY QUICKIE: Final Fantasy 4: Chronicles Version (2001; PS1): Issue #002: Slow and Steady

There's quite a bit of grinding going on in the sessions that this post covers, but I think I mentioned there would be last time.

TEXT PLAY SIDE GAME: Final Fantasy II (Famicom 1988/PS 2003 [Origins]): Issue #016: Deist Cave, Part One

This is going to take at least two sessions, folks.

MiSTing: Over Night Medication

This is going to be another one of those posts with a long above-the-jump intro, because it's the best way I can think of to do this.

This is one of the old Mystery Science Theater things I found on that old laptop I had with me on vacation back in October. I'm still planning on posting the rest of the finished stuff I found, and revisiting some of the base material, like I mentioned in my first post of the year.

The relevant bits of history here are that this piece, Over Night Medication, was originally intended to be used as a short before one of the longer pieces I was doing at the time, or as part of a compilation like the one my character mentions at the start of this one.  I'm pretty sure I wound up doing this one on its own like this is because there was this thing called the Dibs List, run by the same guy who ran a MST3K fan archive called Web Site Number Nine, and I'd had this one on the list for long enough that I needed to take it off regardless of if I'd done something with it.  Therefore, we wound up with something that's not my best work ever.

Perhaps more interesting is that this was meant to be in continuity with the Digimon fan series I was doing with another author at the time.  That continuity doesn't mean much anymore because quite a lot of the related material has been lost over the last fifteen years or so, and even if I had some idea of what I was doing with it back then, I've since forgotten what that might have been.

I'll be posting this before I get to the main part of the series I still have because it's short, and I can't exactly remember where it was supposed to fit in the continuity I was going for.  So, anyway, here's the main work:

=================================================================

Remembering Drafts And Stuff

Sometimes I have trouble with that.

TEXT PLAY: Final Fantasy IX (PlayStation, 2000, Square-Enix): Issue #054: Finding Ibsen's Castle

So we finally get to move on.

A Filler Post

I've been know to make a few on occasion.

TEXT PLAY SIDE GAME: Final Fantasy II (Famicom 1988/PS 2003 [Origins]): Issue #015: Pendant Season

I only wish this were baseball sometimes.

MiSTing: Franchise Opportunities

There's going to be a bit before the jump here folks, but I've got a little explaining to do before we get down to business here.

This is one of the things I was talking about in my first post of the year.  As you can tell by the title, , this is a MiSTing, a Mystery Science Theater fanfic.  I'm still kind of a fan, but I've only watched just shy of half the Netflix-exclusive episodes I know about.  Part of the reason for that is something I was telling my mom about when I was watching that first season.  This is part of a self-insert take on the basic premise, where a character based on the real me chooses to watch the movies or TV shows, or whatever was being presented.  The Netflix seasons reminded me a lot of my own work in that regard, even if what we were seeing on Netflix was funded by fans and headed up by Joel himself, who also had a small role in the series, outside the theater.  I've been meaning to get back to watching the new series again, and with any luck, I'll actually get to that before they come down from Netflix,

As to this actual post, I've got the older stuff I was talking about towards the beginning of the year, but before I get to posting that, I'm going to start with something much more recent, something that I actually finished back in December and have been meaning to get posted to various places.  Here and the newsgroup I mention at the end are the only ones I'm sure I'll be posting to.  I'll have to check the other site I mention at the end to see if they take one-offs and fan series like this before I go for that.

Anyway, here's the thing, below the obvious break here:

===================================================================

A Long Few Weeks

I've had a few major things going on lately and haven't had as much time for this as I'd like.

TEXT PLAY QUICKIE: Final Fantasy 4: Chronicles Version (2001; PS1): Issue #001: Yeah, Yeah, Again, I Know

This is a different version, though, and it's kind of a lead-in to one of those posts I've been meaning to get to for awhile now.

TEXT PLAY: Final Fantasy IX (PlayStation, 2000, Square-Enix): Issue #053: Zidane And The Castle On The Forgotten Continent

I guess I could have seen how this was going to end last time around.

Coming Soon

It's been awhile since I've had a plan like this, but it's also been awhile since I've felt up to it.

TEXT PLAY SIDE GAME: Final Fantasy II (Famicom 1988/PS 2003 [Origins]): Issue #014: DIE-st!

Or Deist, as it is in the game.

Out of Practice

For as well as this year has started off for the blog, things aren't looking as good as one might think.

Picture Post: Mementos Of My Job At Mt. Rushmore

I've talked about this particular job a few times here, and it's about time I got around to doing one more post about it that I've been meaning to do for awhile now.

TEXT PLAY: Final Fantasy IX (PlayStation, 2000, Square-Enix): Issue #052: Back to the Gulug, Part Three

This part of the game seemed a bit glitchier than the third Back to the Future movie.

TEXT PLAY: Final Fantasy IX (PlayStation, 2000, Square-Enix): Issue #051: Back to the Gulug, Part Two

This one's going to be a little shorter than the last part, but some things still do happen.

TEXT PLAY SIDE GAME: Final Fantasy II (Famicom 1988/PS 2003 [Origins]): Issue #013: Dreadnaught

I know I said I was probably going to do a little Final Fantasy IX here last time I posted one of these, but my plans changed again.

No More Flatbed Scanner

That's OK, though.

Vacation Pictures: Fishing at Pactola

This will be kind of a shorter post, with different memories from the last.

Final Fantasy This Morning: January 29, 2020: Back To The Stories

Got a few things to talk about here, but I'm going to start with the video game stuff because it's in the title.

The Old Flatbed Scanner

I wonder if the one I've got still works, and if it'll work on my current computer?

TEXT PLAY SIDE GAME: Final Fantasy II (Famicom 1988/PS 2003 [Origins]): Issue #012: Not Dreadnaught

OK, so maybe I won't be taking out the Dreadnaught this issue.

Kind Of A Filler Post: January 25, 2020

Mostly because I just want to get something up here on account of I haven't in awhile now.

A Rough Winter For Feet

I started writing this way later than I probably should have, and I'm also writing about something I probably should have done well before I did, too.

The First Post Of The Year: 2020

I'd intended for there to be one last post of 2019 that went up ahead of this, but that didn't quite work out.