[1108] potentially catastrophic grade

console

< Piro >

"DannyChoo Belong to Me"

Tuesday - April 1, 2008

I have some rather exciting news to report this morning. As all of you should know by now, the intent of Megatokyo is to further my PGD project (Plan for Global Domination) by using the power of cute, moe, sad girls and lots of snow to take over the world. By contrasting these powerful (but subtle) forces of mind pwnage against the asinine badassery and insanity of a typical gamers brainspace, Megatokyo has proven itself to be a potent vehicle for luring people in so I can burn out their souls with lots of snow.

Of course, a lot of the Cute and Moe moe stuff I use are pale second-hand home-baked reflections of the real thing, shadows of the really powerful stuff you find in the alleys and small dingy apartments in the darkest corners of Tokyo. I needed claws on the ground in Japan itself - a way to not only leech from the source, but expand my PGD there too.

The first step was to sign a HEOAGD (Helping Each Other Attain Global Domination) pact with Kodansha , who will soon be seeding Japan itself with localized print versions of Megatokyo. The next step was to find a local organization I could take control over and use as a digital conduit to facilitate this two-way leeching. Obviously, the best choice was DannyChoo.com. Since Danny is already used to working with evil empires, he was a perfect targe... I mean, choice for us. Dom was able to seal the deal fairly quickly, and now we can officially announce that Danny Choo and his figure collection has been assimilated.

Here’s the official press release, all sweetened up to sound like It’s not me being UTNG (Up To No Good):

---

I Am thrilled that our acquisition of dannychoo.com has closed.

With dannychoo.com, MegaTokyo now has the ability to use dannychoo.com's Mirai Gaia platform to launch localized versions of MegaTokyo with ease enabling us to make MegaTokyo a truly global household brand name.

As you may already know, MegaTokyo with the help of Japanese publisher Kodansha will be releasing Japanese language titles of MegaTokyo. dannychoo.com's Mirai Gaia web application will enable us to instantly create not only Japanese but French, Spanish and other localized online communities with a push of a button and at extremely low cost due to the automation and artificial intelligence systems available in the platform.

This acquisition also means that we will be able to bring you even more MegaTokyo - 3 times a day! The automation tools of the Mirai Gaia platform mean less time preparing content and more time available to do the illustrations.

We will also be working with Azami Yuko sensei to pro actively introduce Mirai-chan into MegaTokyo as one of Piro's secret admirers.

All the MegaTokyo websites will be merged into a global site entitled "Gaia Tokyo" and the user database for Mega Tokyo and dannychoo.com will be merged together to form an account that we are calling "Orion."

Danny will continue to serve as website manager of dannychoo.com for the forseeable future and will be reporting directly to me.

---

The best part of this acquisition is the use of Choo’s Gaia Web application to help give the feel that you will be getting MT comics ‘3 times a day’. That’s how we’ll know if you have been assimilated - you’ll actually believe that you are getting three new comics every day, not just one every three weeks (BTW, if you believe you are getting 2 or 3 comics per week, that’s a sign that the process has started working on you [insert evil giggle here]).

And, of course, Piro is looking forward to adding Mirai to his harem. Kimiko needed a cute rival.

All that’s left now is for Danny to wake up and discover that he now belongs to me,. Dom will be telling him in person when he arrives to pack up that figure collection. :)

Next stop for Dom will be the GoodSmile company, where I expect his negotiations will be very, very ‘fruitful.’

[Insert another evil giggle]

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< Dom >

"The upkeep phase"

Thursday - April 10, 2008

[Dom] - 09:53:05 - [link here]

Now that I'm living in my own place, I'm starting to come to terms with true adult life. And by that, I mean coming to terms with all of this maintenance time that I never had to deal with in my now-distant college days

My schedule used to involve waking up, playing video games, going to class (or playing more video games depending on the urgency of the class), writing, playing video games, and sleeping. There would be occasional meals and hygiene breaks in there to keep myself healthy, but my time was mostly devoted to goofing off.

These days, everything takes more time, which I've come to accept - but it sure does make it hard to squeeze in even close to the amount of gaming time I'm accustomed to. There's the full-time job, of course, that's 40+ hours a week I spend thinking about gaming instead of gaming.

Then there are things like groceries, cooking, regular cleaning and laundry - things I barely thought about 5 years ago (or even 2 months ago, since I still ate with the parents). Now, this alone wouldn't be a problem, since I'm adjusting pretty well to the new amounts of time dedicated to staying alive and comfortable. The problem is that I'm still trying to squeeze in more and more leisure time to see what my limits are.

Here's what's on my plate demanding time:

1) Video games - I'm finally done with DMC4 (which still loves me and wants to make me happy), so I should be moving on to either Mass Effect, Disgaea 3, or Super Robot Wars OG Gaiden. And then there is the daily WoW ritual, but that one's sort of assumed to be taking up 3 hours a day. I'm used to it.
2) Tabletop games - While I had to drop out of my weekly Magic group temporarily, I'm trying to find a way to open up a night a week for it. In the meantime, I'm running two D&D games and am starting up a Mutants and Masterminds game, all of which take place once every two weeks. The time spent writing and developing the stories/mechanics for these games also tie in to the next thing:
3) Writing - I have a monthly column for PiQ Magazine (starting in the June issue, woot woot), three games to write for, a rant space I neglect terribly... and on top of that, every once in a while I get an urge to write a wuxia novel that I've had percolating in my head for 6 or 7 years.
4) Sports - with season tickets to Warriors games and a 10-year perfect Cal football attendance record on the line, I lose about 50 days a year to sports.
5) Social activities - while tabletop gaming counts for being social, I like running around and meeting people. Hell, I've flown out to Chicago just so I can sit in a MegaTokyo line before, because I like meeting new people and hearing their stories.

Now, I know that I need to concentrate on writing more - it's just good practice, and is honestly the most enjoyable of all of these activities for me. But the other 4 parts are demanding giant chunks of my time as well...

What would you guys concentrate on if you were in my position and trying to budget my time? Just curious - I'll make my own decision on what I need to do more of and what I need to cut down on (since the loser in my time budget is currently Sleep, and that can't last long), but I always like hearing from you guys.

Oh, and in good upkeep news, oop-ack, which I was pretty much forced to abandon four years ago, is about to resurrect itself under new management. Woohoo!