“Man, I wish we had a hawrse. I lahve hawrses.” — Ellis

I’m so addicted to the Left 4 Dead 2 Demo! I’ve been playing it with my Japanese Steam friends/groups because I only know a few Americans who pre-ordered and have demo access (although that might change today). I’ve noticed that I personally know more Japanese Steam users who pre-ordered L4D2, than I do English-speakers who plan on purchasing it sometime in the immediate future. I think that L4D2 is still controversial among some American fans, so they might still be “boycotting” its release, or expecting a one year shelf-life/price decline. I have to admit, L4D still feels like only half a game to me and I resent Valve’s decision to split its community so soon. But at the end of the day, I understand that this is just the nature of business, and I love L4D too much to pass up a sequel at launch. I wonder if Valve will learn from all of this criticism and turn it into something positive for L4D2; such as regular updates, like its predecessor deserved.

If you couldn’t tell, Ellis is my favorite of the L4D2 survivors. Maybe it is his Southern accent, or the fact that he loves horses as much as he appreciates firearms (my kind of guy)! I still prefer the original L4D survivors though, and I suppose that is to be expected. I just don’t find the new cast as interesting, or their banter as entertaining. I’m sure that the full game will develop my appreciation for their personalities even more, but playing the demo really makes me miss the interaction between the old cast. I even miss hearing Japanese players refer to Louis as “Obama” (they have trouble pronouncing his name due to the L — it is kind of cute =).

This is gross, but I have to give Valve credit where it is due: I never thought that any zombie could be as disgusting as the Boomer, but the Spitter manages to be just as revolting while looking even more hideous. I noticed while resizing screenies for my diary that it has a pink thong, too. I’m… speechless! ww

I received this cutie in the mail a few days ago. =) I pre-ordered him from Juicy Couture as a belated birthday present for myself along with a couple other things. There are some slight differences between him and the version shown on their website. The bridle in the stock photo is black (not pink) and the ribbon has two white banners on the side instead of blue. They only list one color option too (“etiquette”). I still think that he’s darling though and love all of his little details; particularly the embroidered horseshoes on his hooves! Gosh he’s just sooo adorable!! *hug hug hug* I have him on my bed right now, but I’m probably going to relocate him to my bureau eventually so that he can keep my Steiff lamb company.

Whenever I tell Japanese players that I live in California, they always ask if I live in Hollywood, or San Francisco. I just tell them that I live “where there are more cows than people.” Well, here’s my proof!

The US Mint raided Liberty Dollar back in 2007 and I was curious to see what became of the case, so I looked it up on Google. I discovered that a federal grand jury only recently indicted LD (May 2009), but was more surprised by the amount of articles written by Liberty Dollar proponents that call the raid and indictment “unconstitutional.” One of these was Walt Thiessen, Libertarian, of NolanChart.com. Below is a quoted excerpt from his popular (among LD supporters) front page article, which makes the bold assertion that the Mint/Congress do not have an exclusive power to coin money, and that they acted outside the scope of their Powers under the Constitution by shutting down Liberty Dollar’s tax evasion minting operation.

If Thiessen had read the beginning of Section 8, rather than Clause 5 by itself, he would have seen that this is in fact a Power granted by the Constitution. If a Power is granted by the Constitution, then it is not delegated:

The first clause of Article I, Section 8 begins with “the Congress shall have Power” and ends with a semicolon. Semicolons are used to separate and connect clauses. The language of the wording requires that we keep reading beyond the semicolon, and what follows are Powers:

Political “blogs” remind me of the game Telephone that I used to play at slumber parties growing up. One girl starts a dialogue, but by the time it reaches the last girl, it barely resembles what it once was.

I bought this delicious lipgloss quartet from Urban Outfitters ages ago, but I still wanted to post them on my diary, because the cupcake containers are just too cute! Their designs mirror their flavors (raspberry cream tart, chocolate cream puff, etc.). I’ve used up one of them so far (strawberry cream tart) and still have no idea what I’m going to do with the empty containers. They’re just too adorable to throw away! *L* Maybe I could re-use them if I found a hard perfume to put inside? Anyone out there with some ideas?

I always look forward to reading the graffiti in new Left4Dead Campaigns. Reading the graffiti in Crash Course felt a bit too much like reading the Steampowered Forums, though. QQ

BTW, I really want to pre-order the new Poupee Girl DS game. ArGh!!

I haven’t posted in awhile because I’ve been addicted to the Left 4 Dead Demo (which goes public tomorrow if anyone is interested that hasn’t pre-ordered already). Right now you’re only able to play two campaigns, apartments and subway, but the AI director and four difficulty settings manage to keep you on your toes each time. The highest difficulty I’m able to clear consistently is Advanced, but I have cleared Expert with Taki a few times (usually because a tank didn’t spawn =P). I think he’s one of my favorite people to play L4D with because he’s so spontaneous and always doing something crazy; like setting off car alarms at the apartments to call zombie hordes, or flashing his light at witches in the subway to see how much they can be aggravated before he gets pounced. LOL I didn’t think that Left4Dead would take my attention away from Team Fortress 2 for very long with a four player limit, but it is refreshing to play an FPS that involves this much cooperation and communication between a small group of people — especially when they’re your friends. ^^

I mentioned that you’re only able to play two campaigns in the demo with four players. The full game however will have support for additional players who will spawn as special zombies. This functionality is already present in the demo and there is a thread on the Steam Powered Forums explaining how you can play as zombies. I was able to get it working in single player mode easily enough and last night I played zombies in multiplayer on a server setup by PARANOiA. Playing against PC-controlled survivors was rather challenging on Expert.

Zombie score board (Boomer).		Tank out of control and on fire.
Taking down Zoey as a Smoker.		Zombie info popup (Smoker).

There are four playable zombies with two moves each: Hunter, Smoker, Boomer, and Tank. Left-click is your special move (tongue-snare for Smoker, pounce for Hunter, etc.) and right-click is your short range swipe/slash attack. Each special move has a recharge time that varies from zombie to zombie. The Hunter is one exception in that if you crouch and charge his pounce it can be used repeatedly as long as you remain in the crouched position. The zombie with the longest recharge time on its special move is the Boomer, since its projectile vomit attracts zombie hordes to anyone unfortunate enough to get splattered. This makes the Boomer one of the most difficult zombies to play considering it is such a large and noisy target, but it can be lethal for a group if you know what you’re doing. For example, zombies can choose where they want to spawn, including rooftops. The Boomer’s special move has a long enough range to be used from a roof, and if it falls from a high enough point it will explode on any survivors below, covering them in bile and/or incapacitating them.

The Tank is the zombie that most people will probably want to play. It has the most HP in the demo (8000) and its rock throw will incapacitate any survivor in its path. There is a catch however, called the “Control Meter.” This slowly ticks away while you play the Tank and if you don’t kill a Survivor before it is depleted, your Tank will go into a rage. Out of control tanks will not avoid environmental hazards like fire, which do damage over time, and their rock throw instantly kills player-controlled zombies (friendly fire isn’t just for survivors).

All in all I’m really impressed with the demo and anxious to see player-controlled zombies in the full game. Playing as a zombie can feel both empowering and challenging. It definitely adds a different perspective to the gameplay. Not being able to open doors is one of many simple yet aggravating disadvantages however. =P I think I’ll stick to playing as a survivor. Plus, I’ve become rather partial to playing as Bill anyways.

If there is one thing this economy is good for apparently it is sales. Victoria’s Secret is having their annual fall sale and this month’s catalog came with more offer codes than I could possibly redeem. Since I used my computer upgrade money to purchase stocks recently I wasn’t going to allow myself to be enticed into spending the remainder on clothes, but then VS marked all coats down 20% for one day — resistance was futile! I snagged THIS A-line coat along with THIS cute cardi and cami set in pearl pink. The offer codes that I used were for free shipping, $30 deducted from my order, and a complimentary lipgloss set, so it really was a bargain. I couldn’t help feeling guilty for betraying my ‘PC first’ goal though, so I resolved that I wouldn’t do anymore shopping this whole month. That lasted all of 5 minutes before I logged onto Steam to discover that Left4Dead had been released for pre-order. LOL! =P Gosh, I’m so hopeless sometimes. I’ve been looking forward to L4D for a looong time though and I can’t wait to play it with my Steam friends. ^^

This is a song called Red Lantern (赤ちょうちん) by the Japanese folk band Kaguya-hime (かぐや姫). I really enjoy this style of Japanese music, which is reminiscent to me of artists like Meiko Kaji and Kyu Sakamoto.