Blinded by Light

Before I start, I should admit that this will be a Final Fantasy heavy post. But not all of it will. Maybe.

First of all, an update on me. I am still alive, as you can tell by this post. I've just been abducted by the purchase of a PSP and the Clic residential in Welshpool. I'll link you up once the article is up on Wicid/Clic.

About the PSP thing. One of the only reasons for me buying Sony's portable system is to play the older Final Fantasy games. I've only played the newer ones. Well, that's a lie, I've played the first half an hour of VIII, but it bored me to death, though these days I'm willing to give it another chance. But yeah, so far I've only played X, XII and XIII, and ever since I played X I've wanted to play them all. And expensive task, but one helped by the fact that I don't spend much anyway. Win.

Anyway, I have a problem with something, and that is mainly with the fan base of FF games. No, I don't mean the whole "my fuck, VII should get a remake and not X" and all that shit, but the VII fans need to realise that it will virtually mean creating a new game from scratch, not just tidying up the bugs and the graphics ready for the HD age. It'll probably take Square Enix under a year to do that (give or take six months), while a remake of VII will take ages. Just look at how long Versus XIII has taken, and that's not a remake.

But it's not that, it's the "shippers". At first, I have no idea what "ship" means (and I have no shame in admitting that I only found out a few months ago), other than the boat type ones. I looked into it, and I realised it means when someone pairs two characters up.

I understand why they'd pair up some characters (like in X, if someone paired up Wakka and Lulu I'd somewhat understand, considering in X-2 they were married and waiting to have a child), but not any character whatsoever.

A perfect example is in XIII, and two characters in particular - Lightning and Hope.

To those who don't know the story (and I'm going to power phrase this part, and there might be spoilers if that effects you somehow), those two characters (as well as the other playable characters in the game) are hiding from the army as they are considered fugitives. Lightning, being an ex-soldier, tells those around her that they need to press on, so she does. Hope, who is somewhat in despair due to seeing his mother die in the events leading to the party to be fugitives, wants to get stronger for his future plans, thus he heads off in Lightning's direction and meets up with her.

At first, their relationship was more civilian and soldier, with Lightning just destroying everything in site while Hope throws down some magic support. But a few chapters in, and Hope's plans didn't go to plan, and from there you can see that the relationship between Light and Hope changing, but only in a sibling manner. I mean, some people may see everything between Light and Hope in the cutscenes and think "that's proof that they are meant to be". No it doesn't. That's like saying every time someone punches Snow, that means they want to bonk his hat off.

Personally, there is nothing between Hope and Light, nothing sexual anyway. I mean, if someone actually plays the game they'd see that. At most, Light (and to an extent, Fang) is more like a mother figure to Hope than a lover. I mean, look at the scene where Hope unexpectedly summons Alexander for the first time. Who goes to his defense? Fang and Light, but not in the "we've got to save the penis, for he'll create our babies" way. They are giving him advice and confidence while preparing to fight the eidolin, not to mention that nearly everyone treats Hope differently due to his age and his situation prior to the third chapter.

Also, it makes no sense that people link Sazh and Vanille together. It seems that when people partner characters up outside of the game, they just see any time where they are together in game, and that's the case with Light-Hope and Sazh-Vanille. Those two pairings are together for the most of the game. Why? Because that's how they split up during the game, and that's no reason to partner them up sexually.

On another note, FFXIII-2 is coming soon, and I have three problems (well, one of them is if SE decide to do it that way). The first one, is Serah's costume.

I mean, look at them. Her in XIII is on the left and the right is her possibly in XIII-2.

I don't know why, but I don't really understand why they could have just modded the XIII costume up a bit. Granted, it's not a brilliantly designed costume. Personally, I'd have made the skirt slightly longer and make Serah herself slightly taller (because in the scenes with her and Snow, it makes Snow look like a pedophile). But the things that annoy me about the new costume (and animations) is that for starters, she has a choker-type thing on her neck. It just looks awful. And the way she holds her weapon (when it is in sword form), it is horrible. It's next to identical as how Cloud held his sword in VII, which is horrible too.

And while I'm on the subject, I understand why they chose the roles they did for Serah (as they are the same roles as Lightning, her sister), but I can't understand why Serah's main role is a commando. Why couldn't they spiced things up a bit by making her a saboteur or synergist? Would have made things interesting in a party with a commando already (the new guy, Noel).

And now I'm on the subject of designs, I'm going to talk about Yuna from X, and how awful I thought her design was in X-2 (and this is the same problem I have with Hope in XIII and XIII-2).

Right, same thing again. Here's Yuna in X and X-2. Her in X-2 is the more revealing one.

Now, before anyone goes on me on ranting about the clothes, I'm not. Well, I am but not as much as I will be doing where her face is concerned.

I mean, look at the left one. Now look at the right one. Now, do the same, but this time concentrate on their faces. They are supposed to be the same person (albeit with two years difference), but they look nothing alike. Yuna's face in X is more rounded than in X-2, which is much more pointier and longer in general. Surely that wouldn't happen in real life? Nobody that I've known long enough has had their face change that much. And I don't understand why they had to "slut her up". Yes, I understand there was a change between the world she lived in between X and X-2, and the attitudes of her world had changed considerably, but surely faces stay the same?

And the fact that SE made X-2 for a sequel to X makes me worry about the story for XIII-2. At the end of X, Yuna basically loses someone she loves/feels very much for (depending on the region you play), while all that seemed to be washed away as she (in one of the endings) gets her man at the end of X-2, that makes me think that SE were thinking "give the fans what they want", and at the same time basically shitting on one of the best endings I've ever witnessed in a game.

I fear that SE will bow down to the fans again, and make Lightning and Hope a couple. Please, if you're reading this Square Enix, please don't let that happen. If there is a legitimate reason or way that they somehow fall in love or something, then that's fine. But not for them to just see each other after three years and then decide that they want each other. Oh, and while you're reading this, SE, bring back Fang and Vanille. But only in a legitimate way. Thanks.

Right, that's me done on Final Fantasy for now. And if you've read all that, bravo.

In personal news, I have an EEG examination this Monday to see if there's a chance that I have epilepsy. I'll get the results during October. That should be fun.

I also begin university for the second time this week coming. I have my induction on the Thursday coming. I think that's the twenty-third or something. I don't know. Anyway, this year I shall be learning about green screen stuff and maybe some mobile technology. Win all around.

So yeah. That is it. And I know my ranting is annoying and that, but yeah, it's just what I think.

Oh, and the title to this blog is the title of the battle music of Final Fantasy XIII. It's brilliant. Have an ear-gander here. It's the long version. Win...

Fucking gorgeous, that.

- Can't think of anything witty, so I'll end this with a FIN.

Redesigning Clic

I've been off from studying for roughly four months now, due to me not needing to do exams during my introductory year in university. It has only been in the past four days that I have actually used the techniques that I've learned during the year of learning.

I looked at the Clic homepage, along with a few other websites that I cannot remember the names of, and I came up with a new front page idea for Clic. And before I start, I don't think it's better than what Clic has currently, it's just an idea that holds more ideas. If that makes sense, free e-cookie to you.

There were a few ideas that I had in my mind when I came up with this design. The first thing was to try and use the Clic Network bar (which is at the top of every website in the Clic network) in a way that doesn't hide it once the reader scrolls down the page. More on this later.

Anyroad, if you've clicked on the link above to Clic, you'll see the current homepage. the images for the articles are above the article name. What I found, though I might be the only one to be like this, is that when looking at the homepage, I view the image first and the the title of the article. I have no idea why I do this, I just do. As the title is more important to the image of the article, I thought what if we merged the two? So that's what I've done. For the featured articles, the text is only overlaying the lower half of the image, while for the two next to the Flash area (the place that says "Welcome to Clic"), it is completely overlaying about half of the image. I also got rid of the information as to where the author of the article comes from and the time the article was published, though these'll still be seen on the article itself (well, in my mind only the published time will be, the information on the user will be on the user profile).

I also changed the social media icons to be the Clic icon with the social network design within them. These can be seen on the very top of the design and the What's being said on Clic area, which I've now merged the Twitter feed and the commenting on the site into one feed, as I thought it would be better to have one feed instead of two.

Another thing I changed was the links at the top of the design. In the original, they are in eight boxes of sorts. Personally, I prefer the way that the links look on the Wicid homepage, in a straight line and not having a holding box. That's why in this design, I've done is so then the links are in one line, though having the same holding box. Is holding box the right term for it? Who knows.

Obviously, I've kept the same theme as the original. That was done by someone at Burning Red, I believe. So a da iawn to them for a good theme design.

So yeah, without a do of a further, here's the design that I've done.

If this isn't that good in the terms in visibility, then click the image to make it biggerer.

As you can see from it, the Network bar at the top of the website has been replaced with a button thing that hugs the left side of the screen, and the idea is that every time you scroll up or down, it will follow you. This will be the main place to log in, sign up to the site and to go around the Clic network, but instead of a drop down menu, there will be the full map of Wales visible the moment you click on the button.

If someone is logged in to the site, the username of the user will replace the words "log in or sign up". The new function of this sidebar thing when it is clicked is not just so they can go around the Clic network, but an easier place to upload articles/events, edit their information and the like.

I also had an idea to expand the "My Clic" thing that is currently available. So far, all that's there is the ability to add content to be moderated, change your information and to send a support ticket if there is a problem with the workings of the site. I had an idea that this could be a living hub for the user, and add the ability for users to favourite an article/information page, in the originally thought out process that I'll call "Clic'd".

The idea I have is this. On the top of nearly every article or page on Clic, there are options to share it with your friends or followers on Facebook and Twitter respectively, though (for the time being, at least), there is no option to favourite the page on Clic itself. Hence the name "Clic'd". If someone likes an article, and wants to return to it or just to show others that they liked the article in question, they could click the "Clic'd" button and a link to said article will be added to the user's "My Clic" area. And, as well as the amount of people who liked or tweeted the article, there'd be a new icon on the top of the article stating how many users had "Clic'd" the article. Aren't I inventive?

So yeah. for the past four or five days (well, on and off), I've redesigned Clic (sort of). Not because I think I can do better than the original design (far from it), but because I needed to do something in between playing endless hours of Final Fantasy XIII and sleeping. My, how my life has improved these past few years...

So yeah, please let me know what you think of the design. All comments will be taken on board, even if it is "man, this is worse than [insert something horribly bad and rubbish here]". I'd rather know than not. Also, let me know what you think of my ideas. I want to know if these are actually interesting ideas or just inane rubbish that flows in between the satellites of mine called ears.

Well, see ya.

- Your FIN ends here. And your meaningless existence with it (yeah, I really love that battle in Final Fantasy X...).

Sunburst

Wel siwmae, hên frind. How's it hanging?

Well, that's the first tine in an age that I've used Welsh in a blog. Or in anything in general.

If you have not guessed by my activity on Twitter or Tumblr, I am better from chicken pox. Huzzah for recovery from ailments.

At this moment in time, I am currently writing a Dear World for Wicid which, hoping that it'll go to plan, will be published tomorrow. And if not tomorrow, I shall ask what the problem is on Tuesday as I shall be attending an accreditation workshop in Miskin run by Clic, I believe.

Anyway, it seems when I am stuck on a piece of writing (be that work for university, a blog post, an article for Wicid), I turn to YouTube in my hour of writer's block. For what? Well, to see endless videos of comedy, that's what.

How does it help? It doesn't. It hinders more than anything. It just makes me go "mehehehe, I want to watch more" and all that jazz. And then the hours sail past, it's five in the morning and I need to sleep before the sleep owls scratch my eyes to the endless slumber.

Anyway, this is just a thing for me to spur myself to write more of my Dear World. For some unknown reason, the last Dear World I wrote went up a week and a half late. They had nothing to say about it, but all I knew is that it was up when I queried it.

So yeah, that's it really. Nothing exciting happening in my life. Apart from me reliving  Final Fantasy X again from the beginning. Probably the best game that I've ever played on a PS2, possibly ever.

Not only that, I'm having the temptation to play its sequel, Final Fantasy X-2. I know that the story is extremely cheesy and there's a lot of "girly"parts in it (not being sexist when saying that), but the look of the gameplay (the battles, more than anything) is beginning to interest me. Hmm. Maybe I'll just wait until FFXIII-2 comes out. That should be a laugh. and don't get me started on how epic Versus XIII looks. Thank fuck I bought a PS3. Ha.

Yeah, I'm done, ya?

- All we here is, radio FIN FIN.

A Pox On You

There has been a few things going on since the last post.

For reasons only known to me, my laptop and the hideous graphics that the BBC decided to use for the T In The Park festival (seriously, if that was the best idea, you need to sack that person), I shall do it in the good ol' format - the good, the bad and the ugly.

First off, the good. It is rather a lovely good piece of news. To cut a long story short, I've passed my first year of university. Those many few already know my surprise to this knowledge. Allow me to expand.

For some reason, Glamorgan University doesn't tell you how you've done for the year, just for the assignments and the mean marks for each module. For my university (and I guess every other one, though correct me if I'm wrong), I'd need over seventy for a first, between sixty and sixty nine for a two-one, fifty and fifty nine for a two-two and then anything higher than forty for a third (the basic pass). Anything lower than forty would mean I'd failed the assignment/module.

Luckily, that was not the case. Overall in each modules, I had one third (Video Production), one two-two (Radio Production), three two-ones (Media Technology For Applications 1, Internet Technologies 1 and Computer Graphics Technologies for Integration 1) and, the one that shocked me the biggest, one first (Electronics for Music and Media). As you can see, the subjects that I like the most are the ones I was best at. Well, that and the two modules where I had group assignments were my worst. Grr.

Granted, these are probably not the final grades for the year. Maybe they'd chance slightly, but probably not enough to change the grade (though some of the marks are close to the threshold). Anyway, I was intrigued to see what was the overall mark I was given for the year. So, I did what naturally came to me at first but then deteriorated as the years eroded its abilities and used my maths skills. And what was the value I got? I shall tell you, it was 59.5.

That's a two-two. I should call it a 2:2, which I shall now. But yeah, that's half a mark away from a 2:2. Get in.

I was further intrigued, and wanted more accuracy in my results. I then added up the marks from all assignments individually and divided by the amount of assignments (which, for the few of the few who are interested, is twenty). And what did I get for that? 59.55.

Ooh, only 0.45 marks away from a 2:1. Yes, a low 2:1, but one all the same.

I'm not miffed that I didn't get that fraction of a mark to get a 2:1, I'm just pleased that I've passed my first year and rather decently. Maybe if I was bossy enough and told my groups in the Production modules to wise up and finish the work, I would've had the 2:1, but you know me, I'm no good at that.

Next up, the bad. Not going to dwell on this too much, though. The people at Wicid decided to give the members of the editorial team a charter to fill out. In short, it stated that if we signed it, we'd agree to not write anything that could be considered pornographic, sexually explicit, abusive and political. Please say you looked bizarrely at this idiotic blog as you read that last sentence.

Anyway, some of us disagreed and are now trying to make a new charter that will mean that the council would not block us out all the freaking time. Oh, and to let us write about whatever we want, be that on whatever subject matter the user wants.

To finish off, the ugly. It's me. I have chicken pox. At this time, I've been plagued with it for about six days now. The first day (Saturday, I think it was) was just me being bed bound. I couldn't get up at all. For all of that day, I think I was only conscious for about eight or nine hours. Not good.

The next day was when the spots came out. The doctor told us just to take Beechams and that will be fine. That was wrong. On Wednesday morning, going on for about three I'd say, I was heading back to the hospital. I had an epic fever, though by the time I got to the hospital to see le docteur, that had gone. Throughout, he told us tales of when he had chicken pox at the grand old age of thirty one, and he knows how bad it can get in adults (me, adults... ha). For that, he instantly gave me antivirals for the virus, and some stuff for the fever. Hopefully I should get better in a week or two. Enough of that.

I'm off now. For the moment, ya?

- I pity the FIN.