published 2007 October

This post from 2007 was migrated from my old blog I FEEL ASLEEP, which was shared with Neverhitboxes.


So we learned about a…disease, if you could call it that, in AP Psych today. It’s called Phantom Limb Syndrome, and imagine this: it occurs when you have a missing limb (which is enough for me) and you have an itch on it.

But you can’t scratch it. Because it’s not there.

TALK ABOUT ANNOYING!!!

You can also feel pain in it sometimes, usually something that feels like it’s being held in a flame. Ouch. This occurs because sensation is completely located in the brain; not the body part. So if something goes wrong in the transfer of information in your brain (or something like that), you feel stuff in a body part that doesn’t exist.

And speaking of ice cream, I’ve been playing The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass for DS recently, which came out the day before yesterday. It rocks! I never thought a game that uses virtually only the stylus could be comfortable, but it feels pretty natural (there’s always that position you have to find where you’re holding your DS with only your left hand and/or leaning it up against something so you can freely use your right hand for the stylus, though). The world and the exploration of it isn’t as needlessly huge as Wind Waker‘s was (not that I’m complaining), but still makes good use of the boat you have at your disposal (draw a route to take, let your captain/partner do the driving (boating?) and take care of baddies and obstacles by shooting and jumping (I’m still in a complete daze as to how boats can jump, but hey, if you’ve gotta jump something, you’ve gotta jump it)).

I actually just finished a multiplayer session with my fellow blogger (and got owned), which is also a lot better than I thought it’d be the first time I tried it. There’re no tools to use from single-player; it’s actually more of a game of cat-and-mouse. One player controls Link, and the other controls three Phantoms. Phantoms cannot be killed, and a single blow from them will kill Link, but they are somewhat slow and more sluggish to control instead of a standard go-to-where-the-stylus-is-pointing movement system, they rely on the player to draw them paths on the map (which is on the lower screen for this player) to travel along. The player of Link must carry force gems (kinda like Triforce shards) to their designated zone to earn points. The bigger the force gem, the more points it’s worth, but the slower you walk while carrying it. Players switch off roles every round.

Anyways, it’s a pretty sweet setup, and if you’ve got a DS, you need this game Zelda fan or not (although the former would probably appreciate it more). But beware, ornamentalists this game sports the cel-shaded goodness of Wind Waker (my favorite kind).

I should probably start collecting the condensation from my soda…it’s starting to pool.

Oh, and one more thing Valve just triggered preloads for Portal and Half-Life 2: Episode Two, so I’m pumped to start playing them come release. Nothing’s better and nothing’s worse than being as close as possible to your goal (having the games on my computer!) and not being able to reach it.

OMGSOEXCITED