The Dangers of Buying Too Much Tea

I did it again. I’ve purchased too much tea.

This time it was a Happy Bag (think lucky bag or fukubukuro) along with a bunch of seasonal teas from Lupicia. It was what I was aiming to get, but the price at the register made me pause for a second.

I’m not sure what was in the Happy Bag, but I made sure to get the year of the dog blend. They called it Merry Puppy and it’s a roasted green tea, oolong, puer tea mix. It’s a nice blend, and I wouldn’t have minded buying at least another package to gift, but I think they’re sold out by now.

There was another blend, but it must have sold out in the US. I found out about it on Lupicia’s Australian store. It was available there when I looked online earlier this week.

Final Fantasy XV – My Newest Addiction

Most gamers have probaby heard of Final Fantasy XV by now. I’ve been playing it since end of December or early January. It’s a little fuzzy.

At first, I didn’t want to buy into the hype. FFXIII wasn’t as great as I hoped it’d be. I never finished it even though it did start to get good after the 20th hour or so. The previous editions I’ve purchased were the collector’s edition and honestly, I never went beyond opening the package. It was a waste of money…

However… I should have bought into the hype. I’m sorry Square-Enix for ever doubting you. I want the hype. I want the collector’s edition.

I did get the deluxe edition at least. Yeay. But what didn’t I get that’s in the PSN store? I want to throw money at them, but not unnecessarily.

Every free moment I get that’s not in front of my PS4, it’s spent looking for more FFXV information.

On February 2, 2017, Square-Enix had a Active Time Report for FFXV. Most new sites gave the important details such as DLC drop dates and fixed updates. But I haven’t seen the translations to the questions asked by NA players. So here’s my quick translation of it.

Q: Why doesn’t Lunafreya and Noctis communicate by cell phone instead of Umbra and a diary?
A: Because people of Insomnia are the only ones with cell phones. They promised to exchange the diaries when they were kids, so it’s more romantic that they continue to do so.

Q: Why does Regis use British English, while Noctis use American English?
A: British English is formal, regal, while American English is much more frank. In the world of the game, the kings of Lucis use the British English, while the citizens of Insomnia use American English. However, Noctis wants to depart from the royalty, he’s even lived on his own, so he’s picked up the language of the people. He’s a modern kid. However Ignis uses a mix of British English and American English. He’s the one that’s supposed to teach Noctis the ways of the Lucian royalty, so that’s why he speaks the way he does. In Japanese, there’s formal and informal language, but in English there’s only British and American dialects.

Q: Noctis is a Lucian prince, why is he sent on errands?
A: Because he likes the common people. He’s hiding his identity while traveling, and he feels like he’s just regular person. Since he acts and speaks like a commoner, he’s treated by others as a commoner and sent on quests. He even says, “So, what do you think/we should do?” (I can’t remember the official translation used in this). He’s thought of as a hunter as well.

Q: How did the concept for Pitioss Ruins come to be?
A: Not just the ruins, but what is a dungeon. It’s different from the overworld where it’s dark, deep, and creepy. A closed world. When we were making dungeons, we made regular dungeons, but if we were to make an insane dungeon how far can we go. The person in charge of Pitioss Ruins wanted to make that kind of dungeon in FFXV. We try to respect the developer’s ideas on their work, and we allow our staff to try out new and original ideas. For a dungeon, we figured we’d should let him make it how he wants to. That’s how it was made. The staff that created Pitioss Ruins also created Ramuh’s introduction scene. First scenes of Ramuh is their original idea. When Ramuh is summoned, the skies split open, and an insanely large face comes down from the sky. Just his face, and then lightning strikes the ground. It was impressive and the old man’s face was cool, but as for the player’s first summon? So we changed the scene, and let him create his own dungeon. He’s an original guy, but has good ideas. The sequence was created as a test before PS4 or Xbox One was released, so we only have a sample. If there was a chance to release it, we should try.

Speaking of Pitioss Ruins, while looking for the correct spelling of ピティオス遺跡 I came across a poor soul escaped the dungeon after 4 hours, only to crash into a wall because he failed to lift off in time. He didn’t save before hopping into the Regalia F-type. Poor guy.

Jurassic World

Finally got the chance to see Jurassic World tonight. It had some references to the first movie, but I don’t remember much from it. A bit sad that they didn’t have Jeff Goldblum’s character, but Chris Pratt’s character more than makes up for it.

It was pretty easy to figure out who was going to survive and who was going to die. My predictions were spot on. C’mon, it’s a dinosaur movie! It’s not that hard to figure out.

Lastly, if science ever figures out how to recreate dinosaurs from billions of years ago, and some billionaire tycoon decides to create a theme park with them, I’m never going to visit.

Mad Pitch

It’s really unusual for me to watch two movies in the theater in the same weekend, but I did. It’s not that I don’t like to going to the theater. It’s just that sometimes I’d rather just veg at home. …Well, make that most of the time.

The first movie up was Mad Max. Honestly? I really didn’t care to go see it, but it was mentioned to me that it’s scoring really well. After watching it? I can still safely say dystopian movies don’t appeal to me. Don’t get me wrong, it was a good movie. It had an awesome amount of action and fighting, but the world is depressing. Sure it had a happy ending, but how happy is it really? The world is still a huge poisonous dustbowl and (SPOILERS) there’s a huge power vacuum left behind by the death of the villain. Maybe that’s going to be picked up by the sequel.

The second movie I watched this weekend was Pitch Perfect 2. I didn’t see the first movie until after my friend invited me to her event. It really didn’t appeal to me, but my friends wanted to see it so I said yes. Somehow managed to sneak a bit of movie time into my schedule to watch the first movie and I have to say, I really enjoyed it. It was funny and a lot better than I thought it would be. Sequels are never better than the original, so I went into the theater will a low bar. That bar was met and exceeded. It wasn’t as good as the original, but it was still an enjoyable experience.

If I had to go back in time and only choose one movie to watch this weekend, it would be Pitch Perfect 2 simply because I like happy movies infinitely more than depressing ones.