And yeah.... closed Rift down and returned to EQ2 for my mmo fix. May try Secret World next spring. Otherwise, the game time has been mostly Skyrim, Rock Band, and a few Steam indie games.

Musing on the gaming front... after the meltdown at the Sony Station, we took a break from EQ2 to try Rift out. Results so far ... its a reasonably fun game, competent BUT:
1) You run out of things to do and hit rinse/repeat far too soon.
2) The guild tools are almost non-existent, no housing... equals difficult to create a sense of community.
3) And my usual complaint.... where's the 2-3 player instances? What is it with 10-20 player instances that the devs love so much? They're button mashing fests of boredom...
4) Questing is largely a solo operation.... which would be fine if some of the storylines weren't so shallow (e.g. spot the traitor 10 or 20 levels before the truth is revealed)

I'm getting pretty tired of swapping MMOs every time one of my sons get bored though.. one is already twitching. There's a closed beta of an asian f2p mmo starting up soon and I may just solo over to that (Tiara Concerto), otherwise I'll head back to EQ2 after they overhaul the major cities as they planned before the Sony disaster that left us adrift in MMO land.

Natsu Matsuri ....

She-who-is-small-tsundere and I attended the local version of a japanese summer festival this weekend. One of the local taiko groups leads the effort (Takohachi). The festival was decent, many more food booths than last year (though the taiyaki booth was missing) and entertainment (missing was our local japanese news guy as emcee and a renowned koto player). The missing-in-action I blame on it being the 4th-of-July weekend (whose idea was THAT?).

Otherwise, we're having our "new year cleaning purification" a few months late. I'd started on a whole house overhaul with my son in January but we got derailed by burn out a month later. We're trying to get to a decent point by mid-July when my younger son comes to visit for a few weeks. Much gaming and feasting anticipated.

Snagged manga Yotsuba& vol.10 (にほんご) at the local Kinokuniya.

One of these days I'll remember I have this blog...

Just a short note....

Anime land....
Finished up Otome Yokai Zakuro, one of the few series I enjoyed last fall/winter.
Otherwise, keeping up with Kimi ni Todoke (shoujo angst) and a couple of odd ones.

Working!! was just announced as a second season for the summer and there's an OVA due out of Seitokei Yakuindomo, so goodness there.

Gaming-wise...
Still mashing along in Everquest 2. It remains more compelling than many MMOs simply because there's so much to do and its frankly nostalgic. Some of my other games (Dragon Age, Recettear, etc) are just idling in limbo as a result.

Finally scored a couple of interviews in the last month... but both were "already had someone in mind and are just going through the motions". I've been on the hiring side long enough to know the clues. I'm really tired of not-working. Absolutely anything that requires a smidge of brain power would be good or something that benefits the community. I've been volunteering but even that has been sporadically available.

I'm trying not to turn this into any rant... but I'm increasingly pessimistic about the country I'm in and its probable future. Both sons are training in careers that provide options elsewhere on the planet so perhaps they'll make out.