a raincheck and makaipunkery

sometimes i keep asking myself why i continue to keep this blog up, considering updates on here just seem to be more and more sporadic. not to mention said updates don't seem to be very substantial since i am not a writing sort of guy and i make a lot of promises about writing about stuff that i don't follow up on.

well, as far as the first bit is concerned, i keep this site up because i like talking about the things i love and sharing them and my thoughts on them with other people. even if i don't keep this place as updated as much as i'd like to, i like talking about stuff i find interesting. and if someone likes the stuff i write or write about, then that makes the time invested all the more worth it. c:

as for the second bit of what i said, uh... yeah, i'm pretty sure i've said stuff on it in the past on here but i think it's plainly obvious i'm more of a visual kind of guy when it comes to creative stuff. i'm passionate about talking about stuff, but i'm not good at elaborating on my thoughts about things. said stuff about this sorta thing before whenever i talk about why i'm delaying on reviews and stuff so much, so i'll just leave it at that. no use in repeating every word i say.

with that said, might as well talk about a bit of stuff i've been doing as of lately. game collecting, book imports, other hobby stuff... and of course, talking about them. i kinda feel like i owe you guys a bit of newish content after several periods of stagnancy.

a small sampling of some games i have, some new, some oldish.

and yeah, with the mention of MAKAIPUNK in the title, expect a good deal of the stuff i'll be talking about to be related to Nippon Ichi game stuff.

and first off, i think i should mention that i managed to adjust the resolution on my camera when taking pictures. expect larger, more detailed photos of things here and in the future!

gen's daily life - the dream is real

so last night i managed to finish my collection of sixth-generation consoles: i finally now own a Dreamcast.

i did say i had the famous 6th-gen trinity of the PS2, classic Xbox, and Gamecube (via Wii's native GC emulation), but i've been meaning to get Sega's console swansong for quite some time. why? because it's got a solid library for its time, it's the very first console of the sixth generation prior to the PS2, and it still has a cult following and devoted modding fanbase to this day.

... okay, i mostly wanted one to play Power Stone 2 after playing it at Anime Boston last year. also Jet Set Radio. and i have a revision 1 console too, so i can run homebrews and bootleg stuff on it.

but yeah, gushing aside, it's a little interesting piece of gaming history and Sega's past in the console market. there's also a good deal of decent games for the system like Shenmue and Sonic Adventure, and they're pretty cheap at around 30-50 dollars depending on where you're looking. got mine for 35: 30 for the console/cords/controllers themselves, 5 for the VMU. if you want to run homebrew/bootleg games on it, make sure the revision number is either 0 or 1; revision 2 DCs won't run bootleg discs.

while i don't have any Dreamcast games yet, i'm planning on doing some reviews of some in the future, so that's something to expect.

meanwhile, i think i'm done with console collecting for a while. a probably-10-years-long while.

probably good that i don't have any incentive to get a PS3 or PS4 or Xbox One or whatever

MAKAIPUNK - building a netherworld travel diary

so first week of the new year went pretty well so far. managed to grab a couple obscure ps2 games, been working on getting my sleep schedule back on track, been helping out with quest writeups and design for that WoW private server i mentioned in my last non-jukebox post, and even got back to practicing my hand at pencil drawing. alongside a variety of other things. one of which was getting a cold last week and having to suffer through that.

been cleaning up a bit of my room a while back; my drawers and cabinets, mainly. stumbled upon a handful of drawing pads and various notebooks i had shoved in there when i moved into my new bedroom. they're a bit worn with age, but a majority of the pages of them are unmarked, so i'll use them for drawing instead of using a lot of printer paper for it.

the book before and after the new cover. art by airana@DA

that aside, stumbled upon a hardcover notebook with the title of "Forum for Excellence" and "The Warren Conference Center 2002" on it. so yeah, seemed pretty old, but the pages were all in perfect condition, oddly enough. from what my dad told me, he got it at a meeting way back when but never seemed to had used it. as for why i shoved it in my own cabinets when i got my own room... okay, to be honest, i'm not even sure why i had it there to begin with.

so now that i've rediscovered this little gem, i figured i'd make use of it and get started on a project i've been meaning to do for a while: making a "journal" of sorts centered around the world of Nippon Ichi Studio's Disgaea game series.

might seem like an odd project to write about on here, but it's been a while since i did a MAKAIPUNK thing anyway, so have a bit of a warmup on my end before i get back to bigger things. like hopefully chapter 3 of the Disgaea 1 manga readthrough thing. or maybe some game reviews or something. i don't know.

gen's daily life - no promises, no bets

so uh, kind of remembered something from last year, and... well, remember when i posted some new-year's-resolution-type things last December?

well, uh, looking back at it, seems i only got a tiny bit of those supposed goals done. did review another steam game a while back (said game being Undertale, of course), did get one chapter of the Disgaea manga readthrough up this year even though i haven't mustered up the motivation to snap shots of the other pages after chapter 2, did do a musing writeup on Hearthstone which i guess would classify as Warcraft-based things...

but yeah, outside of those three and probably some others i forgot, i haven't gotten too much done in terms of living up to any of those resolutions. i guess this is what happens when i expect too much out of myself despite the fact that it's hard for me to really get into writing about things.

well, i did a few other miscellaneous writeups like the BKPC review and my Anime Boston experience over the first half of the year, and then things just... kinda slowed down exponentially. i know i should stop excusing myself for leaving drafts unfinished and generally slacking on here, and the whole "i've been busy" excuse gets really old after a certain point, but that genuinely has been the case for the latter half of the year.

around summertime i got a PSP as an early birthday gift, so i spent most of my time customizing it and tinkering with homebrew things on it. pretty much got well over 2500 games slapped onto it as well, even if most of them are emulated retro titles. mostly spent autumn wrapping up things with the PSP and (admittedly) struggling to keep the site updated with actual content. eeeeeven if the only substantial things during that time were the Undertale review and a little writeup on my thoughts on the upcoming Disgaea PC.

also was considering doing a liveblog playthrough of Soul Nomad on here, though i haven't started it up yet. or touched any of my consoles in a while, for that matter.

with the holidays just around the corner, life's just gotten more busy for me. got a scanner/printer so i'm now able to get back to traditional pencil drawings, and i've been spending most of my time talking with my friends and getting gifts ready for them. i've also been frequenting another WoW private server and doing things on there, to the point where the admin asked me if i'd like to be part of the staff. so now i've been answering player tickets and shaping up my SQL knowledge so i can help with database stuff.

it's been a busy year in general, to the point where i've p much realized how much i haven't been living up to the goals i set for myself last year. this site is mostly a personal sort of endeavor, so compared to things like... idk, i guess completing video games, working on drawings, and finishing roleplays with my friends, it hasn't really been a major priority for me. i dunno if it's because of the lack of too many visitors on here or my own lack of motivation, but i'd have to say it's the latter, honestly; i haven't been doing too much vidya/drawing/rping this year either.

at the very least, one thing i'm p happy about getting done this year is expanding my video game collection and talking with my friends more. got the famous 6th-gen trio that is the PS2, Xbox, and Gamecube (Wii, but it can run GC games, so), and i've even made a few new friends and started hanging out more with some older pals. plus with learning about SQL, i might get into learning some other programming languages as well in the coming year.

so while i haven't been able to do a lot of stuff i've been hoping to do and keep the site updated like i promised, i don't think this year's been a complete waste. especially with how well this month has went so far. c:

as far as new year resolutions go, i'm just going to focus on getting last year's actually done over the span of the next year. as well as generally just improving my skills in what i know. hopefully i can get at least half of the unfinished drafts done at some point.

not that i can 100% guarantee it, but it's a step up in keeping this place active, at least.

anyhow, have a wonderful holiday this week, and thank you for sticking around for so long despite the lack of activity here on KKGS. <3

gen's daily life - 20 + 1

so uh, i'm 21 now. not much i can say outside of the whole "wow i've matured quite a lot since i was 10" stuff i said last time.

i'm still on hiatus, but i figured i should post an update, just for the sake of the occasion and to let anyone who actually frequents this place know what i've been up to lately. doesn't mean there'll any new posts or feature stuff immediately after this, but it might give insight on some stuff that i might do writeups on. fingers crossed, bruhs.

mostly kinda been focusing on compiling a gameboy library (GB, GBC, and GBA games) for both my own computer and PSP. mostly the PSP since i've kinda been focused on getting a general sizeable game library of games on it; not just for PSP/PS1 games but also other older consoles that can be emulated on it as well. shame that running N64 games on it is out of the question, though.

outside of that, i've been expanding my physical game library as well. dad managed to fetch a classic Xbox at the game store close by us, so not only do i have all three 6th-gen consoles now (okay, i don't have a Gamecube anymore, but the Wii can at least run GC games), but it def opens up another selection of old stuff i'll be able to play. like Jet Set Radio Future. aw yeh. though considering how slow things have been going on here this year, don't expect it coming too fast.

i've still been doing stuff like drawing and some small side-stuff just so i don't slip out of practice with them. haven't done any polished artworks, but at least doodling has been keeping me from being rusty. couple of them can be seen on my twitter if you wish.

not a whole lot of eventful things happening on my end, but at least i've been keeping myself preoccupied, even if not heavily productive as far as this site is concerned. something might pop up on here sooner or later, but i wouldn't hold my breath on it. if you wanna keep in touch with me and get to know when the next important thinger gets posted here, you can follow me on twitter and plurk! of course i also ramble a lot on there (mostly twitter), but i'm game for answering questions or just friendly chatting.

oh yeah, in other news before i head off, i got a flavors.me site. might replace the old makaipunk/jetsetkokoro tumblr contact hub with this soon, especially since tumblr's HTML editor is really iffy to work with.

spring cleaning and other things

haven't done any major posts since a bit after the beginning of the month. still chugging along slowly on actual article work, namely since i've been doing a bit of cleanup and reorganizing on my computer, as well as preparation for twitter commission work so i can get some funds towards a Playstation Portable. alongside the PC reorganizing, i'm overhauling my emulator collection and getting some other games on here, so hopefully that gives me more eventual stuff to review. also got a pretty sizeable haul of PS2 games now, so i'll likely shoot for articles for them in the future once i get stuff off the backburner.

and of said stuff? well, while i can't say a MAKAIPUNK manga readthrough update is coming too soon, i'll likely do a different sort of feature for that segment. some other upcoming things of note are new STEAMPUNK reviews, a three-part feature on Crash Bandicoot kart racers, and even a look at a fanmade JoJo RPG!

so yeah, stick tight. at least one of these things will come next month.

oh, and while i'm at it, have one of my preview paintings i did for part of my eventual commission sheet. i don't think i put up any of my artwork on here yet, anyway.

see you soon, everyone!

gen's daily life - gensou's boston adventure

hoo boy, saturday was a HUGE day for me. last week, i attended Anime Boston for the first time ever in my life. i registered back in February, but i never actually attended a convention of any sort in my life till now. plus it marked the first time in a while i ever went to Boston. sometimes i forget what the big city looked like.

am i still tired? yes. did i nearly run my wallet broke? yes. did i nearly exhaust myself walking around for around 10 hours? yes. did i have a blast? hell yes.

shot of the full outfit. iiiiii did not have the wig on (yet)

i went as Almaz von Almandine Adamant from Disgaea 3. scarf, jacket, belt, and gloves were done with my dad's help, and i managed to find a use for my leg warmers as well. might not be a 100% accurate cosplay, but it was comfy enough and inexpensive to make. thrift shopping and my dad being a tailor helps wonders for cosplay.

i was the only Disgaea cosplayer at the con that day, aaaaand subsequently that meant that not a lot of people recognized who i was. despite that, i got to see quite a few neato booths, saw some rad cosplayers (and even snapped pictures of them!), played some games in the game hall, and even ended off the con by attending their JoJo panel.

so yeah, as you can imagine, there's quite a bit i can say about my first ever con experience! as much as there were only so much photos i could snap with me in them, aaaaaand the fact that i only attended one panel, quite a bit went on that day!

photos and a brief overlay of what went on under the cut, of course!

gen's daily life - stuffed shiara shenanigans

not a lot happening here aside from a crapload of snow here on the east coast, not to mention i'm in the process of refurbishing my contact hub and working on some WIP articles (including the Disgaea manga readthrough), so have something a bit more mundane.

around the middle of 2014, my good bud Cyber (who you may remember from my Neopets Haunted House playthrough during that year) started working on a plushie of my minotaur bloke Ayiru as a birthday gift. though, the plush didn't get finished until later around Christmas, and just recently this week she managed to ship it out.

and man was the wait worth it. <3

the plush Ayiru (inset) and one of my recent drawings of him.

it might not be professional-grade, but it's still a lovingly-crafted buddy for my desk. he's pretty soft and he's even got strands of yarn for hair! bless you so much, Cyb. you've made me a happy fenn. ;o;

as you can expect, i had a bit of fun with him and my camera. more shots are under the cut!

gen's daily life - too oh

so yeah, lack of much happening 'round here. been working on various other things, both irl and on the internet, so i haven't had much time for blogspot stuff. that, and i'm kind of a lazy butt, so that's another thing i gotta work on.

turning 20 on the 8th. kinda made me realize how much i've matured since my younger teen years. can't say i won't be missing parts of those years, but i'm pretty happy with where i am now. lot wiser, lot more mature, and a lot more vidya to play. not to mention my art skills and other creative-based doofery have improved quite a bit since then. hopefully that means i'll be more active here. no guaruntees tho.

as far as what i'm doing right now is concerned, i've been trying to work on artstuff and progressing with the games i have (got a backlog for a fraction of them now, will put the link on my contact info eventually). also doing a playthrough/analysis sorta thing of Star Fox Adventures with my pal Mobian, so i'll probably put the videos up on here once i get her okay. also getting the Disgaea 3 Return artbook and a copy of the Disgaea anime, and i'll probably be doing a review of the latter eventually.

other than that, not much else eventful happening. things have been pretty chill, though there's definitely some things i need to get a move on.

anyhow, see ya'll soon! best of luck with you all as well!

gen's daily life - den of a fenn

apologies for the lack of updates. been kind of busy with some renovation stuff, alongside other things.

well, on the topic of the renovation stuff, family's been working on getting a getting a new room set up for me; sort of a mix of a personal bedroom and an entertainment station, as well as a work area for computer stuff and traditional drawing (hopefully i'll get to the latter thing sometime this year once i find the scanner.).

honestly nice to have a more personalized space for relaxation and goofery. been in the older bedspace for a little over two years, and it just kept getting more constrained as time went on; a tv i used for gaming got removed so i couldn't play anything on it, my desk setup was absolutely awful for drawing on paper, and my bed was kind of sandwiched between a cabinet set and the wall. i've only ever really used my old bedroom for sleeping and the computer.

now that i've got settled into the new room, i can do quite a bit more than i did in the old room. hopefully that means working on some things for the blog amongst other things.

might be a while, but i can assure you guys i'm not dead!

photos of the new room are under the cut for those curious.