dog$

I slept for half of the day today, and had the last part of that extended out because the cat decided to wake me up so that I could lift the blanket for him to burrow underneath it and lay down against my body. I was powerless to resist.

In today's play of Densha De Go Final, I managed to get a no continue clear of a long course with a 4 (out of 5) star difficulty rating, and had one stop where I was exactly on time and only one centimeter over the stop point. I originally intended to stick with the game until I get all courses cleared, but the problem is how the game handles score records and continues. Continuing doesn't affect the clear status you may have of a course - it shows clear regardless. Also, high scores are only kept on a route basis rather than the individual courses within the routes, so that means that everything except the longest course on a route is eventually ignored. The only thing the game needed to do was to have indications of a course being cleared without continues or with No Miss status, but it doesn't. What this all adds up to is an experience where the main determinant in what high score are earned and what unlockables are accessed is how much time is spent in playing. An act of attrition.

Draft.

18370327 08:56:50

Daron lazily sauntered to his front door, despite the rhythm of the strikes becoming louder and not relenting in pace. This person was in a definite rush to see him. The fact that the knocking didn't stop became increasingly irritating to him, and that irritation descended into a kind of dread once he was able to see who was standing on the other side of the door. When he opened it, he kept his hand on door knob and didn't speak first.
"Mr. Hoobler, we need to speak."
"Very well, Reverend. Could you give me a moment to ready myself? I'll be making coffee, would you like some?"
"Nah, Mr. Hoobler, that won't be needed, and this will only take a moment. You don't even need to dress yourself proper Please just allow me a few moments to speak, that's all I request."
"As you wish." Daron wasn't awake enough to properly conceal the contempt in his voice.
He led Reverend Tarro to his kitchen and gestured to the cluttered wooden table with a hand, then walked over to the bucket on the ground to collect some water in a pot, then delicately laid the pot onto the stove to prepare it for boiling. Reverend Tarro didn't wait for Daron to sit at the table with him.
"Mr. Hoobler, I wish to speak with you about a few individuals who have apparently made arrangements to reside in this city, namely Doctors Adewa Kufo and Garr Peterson. If I'm not mistaken, you had the opportunity to speak with them directly once they had arrived here, yes?"
"I did, yes." He opened the door to the stove to throw some small twigs and leaves inside, which were subsequently ignited by a lit match. He continued to speak once he had sat down at the table opposite of the Reverend. "They are graduates of Fourah Bay, and they seem to have an equal desire to conduct scientific research as well as be good citizens here. I take it you have a different opinion of them?"
"Well, did they inform you about their reason for wanting to be here? Why they were essentially exiled from the States and had nowhere else they could go but here?"
"No, though it didn't occur to me to have done so."
"Mr. Hoobler, I'll leave these with you." Reverend Tarro leaned back in the wooden chair with enough weight to cause the frame to audibly creak from the strain as he dug into his pants pocket and pulled the paper out. "This is a page from a Christian journal which I subscribe to. A topic of note are the identification of persons who commit sins against the word of God in the supposed name of science and knowledge. Both of those men, both Kufo and Petereson, were named for their participation of a project in which they used materials from deceased human fetuses to conduct their work. This amoral and abhorrent action cannot be tolerated by anyone who calls themselves the followers of Jesus, such as yourself. These two men must be compelled to leave immediately."
"Reverend, I-"
"On the assumption that you agree with it, I can see it having that proclamation be stated in the paper and to be printed out for public record."
"Reverend, I think you might be hasty in this reaction, because-"
"Hasty? Read this paper! Read it! There is solid proof of their heinous crimes, and we cannot allow that here! We-"
"Reverend, your voice. Please."
The man glared through unblinking eyes and held a quiver in his jaw as he forced himself to remain quiet for the moment.
"Thank you. Now, Reverend, we need to consider that those men were once people like myself who had no other place to go. We also need to consider that the future of all mankind, and us within it, depend on our cultivation and expansion of knowledge. If we exile these men, we could set a dangerous tone that keeps other men like them out. If we foster them, we could gain an advantage over time."

tbc
---

Songs. The most gratifying event was getting a new record for 大桟橋 with the clear. That's another April 2012 record off of the books.

Lunar Beat. Extra Mode. Double play. "@" denotes Random chart modifier. All songs are of highest difficulty type unless specified.
First line, by column; song title, EX score percentage and letter grade rank, EX score value and pass/fail, judgment readout (just great, great, good, bad poor), highest combo reached, note count of chart under Extra Mode, original note count of chart, percentage increase of Extra Mode notes over original note count, timestamp.
Second line, by column; pass count / play count, EX score percentage difference from record, EX score value difference from record, judgment readout difference from record (if current play is new record), highest combo reached difference from record (if current play is new record), timestamp of old record (if current play is new record).

Code:

			EX% & Rank	EX.p/f	pg.gr.gd.bd.pr		combo	nc	onc	%+nc 	date
gentle action @		52.14 C		1266.F	460.346.251.36.221	0054	1214			2013-10-16T00:54:55:857Z
0/8			06.30-		0153-

m31 @			38.43 D		1875.F	653.569.694.169.639	0092	2439			2013-10-16T00:58:48:066Z
0/5			05.12-		0250-

shes an esper @		34.11 D		1422.F	485.452.554.203.737	0285	2084	1559	033.67	2013-10-16T01:01:49:058Z
0/5			00.31+		0013+	19-51+16+26-148-	0095+				2012-06-25T01:02:15:970Z

s!ck @			35.20 D		1718.F	572.574.632.252.956	0098	2440	1416	072.31	2013-10-16T01:05:33:650Z
0/3			03.44+		0168+	32+104+7-100-162-	0004+				2013-02-07T02:56:48:842Z

大桟橋 @		74.53 A		1370.P	563.244.83.8.53		0282	0919	0574	060.10	2013-10-16T01:09:38:146Z
3/6			03.70+		0068+	58+48-2-6-4+		0001-				2012-04-09T01:23:34:291Z

罠 @			70.44 A		1702.F	673.356.119.7.105	0163	1208	0730	065.47	2013-10-16T01:13:03:498Z
0/5			00.12+		0003+	11-25+10-5-10-		0023+				2012-05-04T23:32:53:322Z

fffff @			31.63 E		1463.F	482.499.645.283.1026	0067	2312			2013-10-16T01:15:57:697Z
0/11			03.41-		0158-

programemd sun remix @	66.33 B		1466.F	544.378.142.12.65	0230	1105			2013-10-16T01:18:59:130Z
0/3			00.36-		0008-

flashback 90s B14 @	60.63 B		1921.F	692.537.225.4.190	0244	1584	1318	020.18	2013-10-16T01:23:10:257Z
0/7			00.12+		0004+	31-66+53-31-21+		0070+				2013-08-06T01:42:23:213Z

superstring theory @	45.65 C		3159.F	1099.961.786.231.815	0079	3460			2013-10-16T01:28:42:233Z
0/5			02.02-		0140-

empty of the sky @	78.30 AA	1447.P	585.277.42.2.29		0182	0924			2013-10-16T01:32:55:658Z
6/6			02.54-		0047-

challenge the final @	28.61 E		1354.F	447.460.725.318.1088	0019	2366			2013-10-16T01:37:43:289Z
0/2			03.88-		0186-

crazy kino @		70.77 A		1458.F	530.398.68.12.48	0226	1030			2013-10-16T01:41:40:914Z
0/5			01.21-		0025-

let the track flow @	33.19 E		1580.F	537.506.640.275.1034	0060	2380			2013-10-16T01:46:12:080Z
0/6			01.76-		0084-

go faster @		50.13 C		3019.F	1028.963.616.163.565	0140	3011	1473	104.41	2013-10-16T01:53:15:969Z
0/2			02.96+		0178+	49+80+6+74-204-		0056+				2012-05-18T00:43:43:488Z

maria @			76.29 A		1500.P	591.318.65.3.14		0283	0983			2013-10-16T01:58:12:489Z
6/6			00.55-		0011-