Cave Johnson

Despite saying "URL not allowed" the link still works for me. Here's the same link shortened with TinyURL in case that might help: https://tinyurl.com/3mnyssf5

I was recently reminded of this song in a rather unexpected way after hearing King Crimson’s “Red” a few times (great album, but that’s not the point). The last song (Starless) sounded familiar to me, and then I realized it sounded like a song from the Akagi soundtrack—needless to say it’s actually the reverse, in that Starless was written decades prior. Based on the Youtube comments, I was far from the first person to notice this. There are far too many similarities to write it off as a coincidence, but I don’t think calling it a “rip-off” is accurate either.

I had some time to kill the other day, so I skimmed through the current sale.

That explains a lot then. I just (mistakenly) assumed it was dead. The guide wouldn't seem to come up from googling it, but I managed to find it on PSNTL: https://(URL not allowed)/forums/forum/gaming/ps3imports-org/playstation-vita-games/gochuumon-wa-usagi-desu-ka-wonderful-party-ご注文はうさぎですか/81810-gochuumon-wa-usagi-desu-ka-wonderful-party-33-ご注文はうさぎですか-wonderful-party-33-trophy-guide

There was a guide, but it seems to have died along with ps3imports.org. The only other option I could find was a Japanese guide which isn't primarily focused on the trophies, but should be helpful regardless: http://www.damegamer.com/Wonderfulparty

Lately I've been catching up on some prog classics that I should've listened to sooner. I've been a big fan of Rush for a long time, but never listened to other progressive rock bands from around the same time for whatever reason (until recently).

The popularity of Bocchi the Rock is insane, and it makes me feel like I crossed into a different reality at some point recently. When I read the first few chapters of the manga over three years ago (and then mostly forgot about it), I never imagined it would make it this far. With how much love and effort was put into the anime adaptation and its music, though, I'd say the success is well deserved. Right after the anime finished airing, a full Kessoku Band album released, and simply put, it's a great album. It contains full versions of all the songs featured in the anime, as well as some new ones.

Ah yes, one of my key trophy highlights from this year was earning my first trophy 11 years ago. And who could forget "NOT AVAILABLE" from 12/5/2022? /s Did I play 16 games or 17 games? While interesting to look at, it's difficult to take this seriously when it gets so many things wrong.

I haven’t seen it myself yet, but Bocchi the Rock (currently airing) might cover similar occurrences, lol (probably not). It's a slice of life comedy with a moe guitar player as the main character, so it's pretty close. Yeah, that’s correct. I never thought this would happen to me, but I guess the Youtube algorithm knows me better than I know myself. I kept clicking on clips in my recommended, for some reason Pekora stood out to me the most, then I started watching her full archived streams and there was no turning back after that. Anyway, I can understand not having enough time, in fact, the last thing I needed was yet another interest that takes up countless hours. The good news is of course that these streams can be put on in the background (depending on what you're doing, as you noted). As much as I'd like to give them my undivided attention, it's not really feasible. Recently while working on various school stuff, I got through about 17 hours of Pekora's Elden Ring streams (also a good example of how far gone I am lol). It certainly didn't help my concentration, but it made getting through all the work more bearable. The last medley in X is likely the hardest thing left after completing F and F 2nd, or at least I think so anyway. At this point it’s been too long for me to remember the chart. Either way, I’m sure the rest of the series will be a breeze when you get back to it.

A lot happened in the last month, but I can at least report that after various other setbacks, I'm on track to improve my guitar skills again (fingerstyle is still on hold, though.) In short, I ramped up my practice too suddenly and wrecked my fingertips, bandaged them up and waited for them to heal, wrecked them again, waited longer that time for them to heal, but by the time my fingertips were fine, I had no time to practice and had to focus on dealing with essays, presentations, studying for final exams, etc., then I spent too much time procrastinating on Youtube and somehow became a devoted member of the Nousagi Doumei (it happens, I guess), and then finally, I only have one final exam left tomorrow, giving me plenty of time to work on my guitar playing after that. [Though it pains me to write such a long run-on sentence, I decided to leave it that way for comedic effect.] Anyway, I'll save the finer details for a status update I've been meaning to write for a while now; I'd like to go over what happened in the last few months that brought on this change, what I've done since then / plan on doing. The legend continues! As insane as this is, I can't say I'm surprised; after everything I've seen in this thread, it was only a matter of time before you reached this point. I haven't been playing lately, but I'll have to make a note of that for future reference. I didn't know that edit mode could be used for practice in such a way until now, actually.

…and just after I said that, I might have to put learning fingerstyle (mostly) on hold until I get a classical / nylon string guitar, lol. As I soon found out, these arrangements are not as simple as the tablature makes them look, and trying to play them on a steel string is rough. Thankfully that's not why I bought my recent acoustic guitar; it was due to a deal I couldn't pass up. I'd also like to get a bass someday. In fact, if I keep going to Guitar Center it's only a matter of time before I end up buying one. When it comes to playing guitar in general, I've found that putting a guitar somewhere in plain view, preferably where you spend most of your time, will make you more likely to pick it up. This is also related to what I'm going to mention next; from reading interviews of some of the best guitar players, I noticed a few bits of advice that often come up. First, practicing everyday, or at least regularly is more important than simply the duration of practice. For example, practicing for 15 minutes a day is going to be more effective than practicing on only one day for two hours. Also, it's best to change up what is being practiced each day, scales one day, learning songs another day, etc. Lastly, playing along to songs and trying to figure them out is a great way to practice (apparently). This is something I never really did, and wish I would've known starting out. Though it's something I can't personally vouch for, if Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, and John Petrucci, among others, are saying so, then I'm inclined to believe it. Anyway, I didn't intend to go off about guitar, but hopefully some of this will be useful to you in the future.

Due to certain circumstances, I ended up buying another guitar. Until now, I've never owned an acoustic guitar that wasn't a cheap piece of junk. Thanks to a deal at Guitar Center, I got a Taylor GS Mini-e Koa for $299 (normally $999). With the way the deal works (buy a qualifying Taylor guitar, choose from three guitars at a heavily reduced price), however, it isn't great unless you need two (Taylor) acoustic guitars, or know someone else who is buying one. In my case, my dad happened to be looking for a new acoustic guitar when this deal popped up, and he kindly let me take advantage of the other half of it.

Nice, I usually try to limit myself to three songs, otherwise I probably would've included Lacie as well. I'm not sure if I mentioned before that I actually tried to learn how to play piano, although I ended up giving up on it and switching to guitar at age 11. I've always admired the piano and those who can play it well, but I can't seem to grasp the instrument myself.

That's insane! I can't say I'm as surprised as last time, but that's only because it was clear from what you wrote last time that things were going in this direction. As for myself, I've made little progress since last time, and most of what I wrote didn't age well... I was getting in about an hour of practice a day, but then for various reasons I suddenly decided I wanted to get a lot better at the guitar, bought a new acoustic guitar, then started trying to learn fingerstyle arrangements of video game songs (despite having no prior experience playing fingerstyle). I don't want to go on about myself here though, I'll save that for a status update (or my own thread). 203 times! I've only got about 30 so far, but I can see why it would take that many. Though I've managed to clear it with one safe twice now, the distance between that and a perfect still seems far. The amount of notes and constant variations in the chart create an endless amount of chokepoints. With that, I think you're more prepared than 99% of players going into DT 2nd and Extend. You've basically proven that you can do it already by perfecting an overall much harder tracklist, along with the majority of F 2nd. Project Diva X is a great choice for a milestone, especially since there's (unfortunately) no platinum for any of the Dreamy Theater games. Speaking of which, I've been wanting to boot up X again, but the only problem is going back and forth between that and F / F 2nd is very jarring due to the framerate difference. I assume by then you'll have completed F 2nd, so that shouldn't be a problem in that case.