I got my copy of Kingdom Hearts 2 a day early–and my copy of FFIV Advance US, several days after the fact (though it was shipped the day it came out–thanks Bobby!)
It’s a good day to be a ridiculous Square fanatic like myself! Except even fewer updates than usual.
How to Eat Sushi, an instructional video. Everything in this video is accurate and true.
I was at the Shibuya Tsutaya last night (where the main Xbox 360 launch event takes place this Saturday). The demo kiosk was STILL displaying a widescreen image scrunched down to 4:3 on the widescreen Samsung monitor, resulting in a squished-up image and big black bars. I stared it at for a while, tried fiddling with the monitor, then went to the counter and said, “Excuse me for being so rude, but…why are the Xbox 360 graphics messed up?”
The people at the counter were like “Huh? What are you talking about?”
I said, “The graphics should be widescreen, but they’re just a normal square right now. Come see.”
So one of the guys came over with me, and I showed him how the display was squished and there were big black bars on the left and right side of the screen and basically it was just all fubared to hell. “Those?” he said, pointing to the black bars. “It’s supposed to be like this. The black bars would be on YOUR TV, too.”
I thought, “No, they wouldn’t, because I’m not retarded,” but what I said was, “I think the Xbox 360 uses widescreen graphics, so it should use the whole monitor… If you watch a demo movie like this, then the people’s faces, etc. are too thin…”
I then showed him the [eM] demo, which I think was the first time any employee had actually LOOKED at the kiosk since plugging it in, and he was like “Oh!”
He said, “Wait a moment,” went back to the counter, and came back with the Samsung remote. He pushed the aspect ratio button once ([automatic]), twice ([wide]). Voila. Display fixed, after only a WEEK of being completely and ridiculously miscalibrated in the most trafficked retail storefront in all of Japan, and ground zero for Microsoft’s Xbox 360 launch events. “Thanks,” he said, and went back to the counter.
I then pushed over a magazine rack to punish them for their insolence.
In exchange, I shall give you valuable gaming merchandise.
December is Bokosuka Wars Awareness Month. Merry Sumiimas!
Making Light put up a fun meme this morning: rewrite famous poetry usig words of only one syllable. I started in on The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, and soon discovered it’s much harder than it looks. Still:
Let us go then, you and I,
When the night-time is spread out next to the sky
Like a man laid out in bed on N2O;
Let us go, through these more-or-less cleared-out streets,
The half-heard, half-seen beats
Of too late nights in one-night beds of rest
And no good clams from crab shacks (not the best)
Streets that trail like a spat that has no end
To lead you to one huge, grand, strong, and big thought…
Oh, do not ask, “What is it?”
Let us go and see who is it.In the room, the girls come and go
With talk of old art that they know.
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