Where Is Edo?

Well, that's a good question.

The main problem, of all problems, was that my laptop was basically broken. What do I mean?

Well, I got my laptop for Christmas in 2001. A Hewlett-Packard.

Even when I got it, the CD-burner stated giving me crap. When making CDs, I had a 1-in-10 fail rate. And sometimes, the drive wouldn't even read some discs. I thought nothing much of it, since it only happened once in a while.

Then, a year and three months after getting the laptop, the hard-drive crashed, and was unrecoverable. Some people may remember, from the old board for my PC Game, that I had to re-program over two years worth of data. It cost me over $300 (U.S. dollars) to fix it.

Even while that was happening, the CD drive began giving me MORE crap. It was getting to the point of a 1-in-3 fail rate. I had a desktop as well and didn't use my laptop for Internet work, so it didn't much matter. Then I moved to Japan, where it became my main computer.

The CD drive basically started to crap out totally. I was running into a 2-in-3 fail rate for the drive when making CDs. I decided that enough was enough, and bought an external USB drive for my laptop. I thought the problem was solved.

THEN, three or four months ago, the keyboard stated to give out. The G, H, Backspace, and quote keys weren't responding. I sort of fixed the problem by putting a little pressure on the left side of the laptop. However, when I type, I type relatively FAST. If I can't use all of the keys at my disposal, I can't do much. Also, the G, H and backspace keys are needed when programming.

Then, two months ago, the backlight of my LCD got damaged somehow. It made the screen VERY dark -- too dark to do much of anything. I solved some of the problem by being able to hook the laptop up to my TV. However, reading some things can be rather hard, as a television's resolution is less than a monitor's resolution.

So, I waited for a new laptop to come in. I finally got it, so I can resume life as normal.

Basically, I hadn't been able to work on projects that I wanted to do:

1) More programming of the PC Game.
2) Translations of the new sets and promo cards.
3) Translations of the other Kingdom Hearts sets.
4) An update of the main page which includes the Moderator's section.
5) Go through my backlog of e-mail, and proxy sending.

Other than that, stress is building up (I've been smoking two packs of cigarettes a day), and I have been doing other things to take my mind off of things. I know/do karate (Wadoryuu), and am in a cooking class. I'm also getting older to the point that I need to find a good mate to settle down with. My body, heart and soul are pretty much worn out from traveling the world -- not to mention that teaching kindergarten, first and second graders has kicked my biological clock into high gear (I hate to sound like a woman in that respect). I'm also writing my book about my Japanese "adventure" -- ALL in Japanese (which gets a lot of comments from teachers and some students).

But yes, I'm still alive. I usually wrote me at work during a break. And most of you that work for a living know that using a computer during work time is somewhat "rude."

So, if anyone is wondering "Where the heck is Edo?", now you know.

Yugioh + Odd Things = Connection to Edo?

You know, Yugioh is starting to get stranger and stranger now. What I mean is, concidences keep popping up in the series, or connected to Yugioh somehow.

Some may know that my best friend here is a guy that I met indirectly through Yugioh. It was conincidental enough that I moved to the town next to where he lives, and the odds of that happening are astronomical.

Any person who has played through the storylines of the Yu-Gi-Oh! PC Game I wrote knows the original character named "Makoto." I get here to Japan, and there's a regular player here named, coincidentally enough, Makoto, nicknamed "Mako-chin." (He looks nothing like the game character.)

I'm an Assistant English Teacher in Japan, as many of you know. In April 2005, I changed from an earlier Junior High School to another one (was not a choice of mine). I walk in, the teachers introduce themselves, and there is a third-year teacher who's last name is "Mutou." Yes, same pronunciation and kanji as our Yugioh hero. He looks absolutely nothing like Yugi, however.

Yugioh GX debuts, and there is a character named "Misawa Daichi." Misawa is a place up north in Japan (Aomori prefecture) where there is an American military installation -- and I stayed there for three years during the early part of my childhood. No biggie. Those kinds of coincidences can be overlooked.

Most of you already know one of the new characters that popped up in the GX series, named Ed Phoenix. Well, many of you don't know that the Japanese language does not have a sound specifically for "Ed," so the name is pronounced as "Edo." I should know, I get called that every day that I'm here in Japan. (As a side note, my Internet handle, "Edo," is a nickname that my father has called me by for years.) Well, concidences like that happen. No big deal, right?

It wouldn't be, if it stopped there.

The next thing that made me really scratch my head was in the episode in which Asuka and her brother face-off in an "idol" match. Their pairing was to be called "Bucky and Aslyn." Of course, they pronounced the name "Bucky" as "bookey," but the name itself gave me the willies.

See, "Bucky" is a family nickname that my father's family has called me by, oh, ever since I was BORN. Even to this day, they still call me "Bucky."

As a minor one, when Judai went into outer space, he told a REALLY BAD dolphin joke. If you don't understand Japanese, you probably won't get it, and would take too long to explain here. At any rate, I tell bad jokes like that OFTEN here in Japan. Yes, in Japanese.

Maybe I'm reading too much into this, but it looks like someone in charge is looking into my personal life.

And I'm getting scared here, people.

Shadow of Infinity

Well, Shadow of Infinity came out a while ago, and I must say...

...it's one of the more lackluster sets that has come out in a while. Don't get me wrong; it's not a "bad" set, but there is nothing incredibly groundbreaking in it.

The stars are, of course, the Phantasmal Demons -- Uria, Hamon and Rabiel. And they are not so good in themselves, as their Special Summoning conditions changed somewhat from the animated series version. This makes them a bit harder to summon. There are a few decks that I have seen that use them. One of them used a Hamon-Ectoplasm combo. An Uria deck used those Trap-monsters to power the summoning and attack strength bonus. Those of you wanting to use Uria in the next set in English should start collecting some [Avatar of Apophis] to throw into your deck.

About two months before Shadow's release, a Konami representative came to the toy store that I frequent to teach basic game mechanics and play against other players. If you won, you got a Japanese deck box and a tiny folderover pamphlet with the restricted list -- that got changed shortly thereafter. At that time, Dark Realm (e. Dark World) Monsters were making a big splash, and the Konami rep said that "there is something even more frightening coming in the next set" (paraphrasing). When the set was released, nothing that compared to the Dark Realm came out. Perhaps he was talking about the Phantasmal Demons? In any case, I think that line hyped up the set for me a little more than it should have.

For you [Cyber Dragon] lovers, you can use the two [Cyber Dragon] evolution cards with the [Proto Cyber Dragon]. Not only that, [Proto Cyber Dragon] is great when combining with [Hellish Gang Summoning] from the Manjoume Duelist Pack. Just enough to Fusion Summon a [Cyber End Dragon]...

[Sphere Bomb] finally got a "reprint" of sorts, but it doesn't do any damage when the Monster is destroyed. [Chainsaw Insect] is one of the highest attack strength Monsters without a "really bad" drawback. Works well in a [Skill Drain] deck. A rather tough deck that I saw uses all those high attack strength, turn-to-defense Monsters, but combos them with [Castle Gate]. Use [Damage Condenser] to Special Summon a [Castle Gate], use those high attack Monsters to attack with, then launch them with the [Castle Gate]. With a rapid assortment of those Monsters, the game can end fast.

Insects get a useful assortment of Monsters. [Gokipon] can start summoning those Insects from your deck. They get a trample Monster, and [Devil Dozen] is a must. Not that many people use an Insect deck...

[Afterlife Frog] is good for decks that use Sacrifice Summon Monsters, such as [Moebius], etc. You can dump one into your Cemetery with [Foolish Burial], and start bringing them out each turn. We've got two new Ritual Monsters. Great. Rituals are underused, and that will include these cards as well. [Antique Gear Drill] is a GREAT searcher for your deck, as long as you include Antique Gear Monsters. Antique decks got a massive boost with [Antique Gear Castle], and makes them a formidable deck.

The anti-Fusion Deck cards, [Success Rate 0%] and [Memory Crusher], could have been used when Scientist made it appearance. [Success Rate] has the ability to stop a good Fusion Summon (if you hate Elemental Heroes), and [Memory Crusher] just nukes those idiots who carry around a 50+ card Fusion Deck. But who will use these two cards?

[Consequential Severence] is that new trap that removes Monsters from the game. The interestial part is that I never really noticed how the [Wilderness Female Warrior] and [Twilight Zone Female Swordsman] look somewhat similar. She looks like she's getting swallowed up by the Twilight Zone, so maybe in the storyline, she ends up being the TZ Female Swordsman. (As a side note, I was looking at some of the stuff in the Japanese Duel Master's Guide. It has a chart where it lists the relationships between all of the Twilight Zone cards. The Twilight Zone Swordsman (the male one) is in love with the Female Warrior, but she thinks of him as "just a friend." Poor guy.)

There are some nice cards, but nothing that will radically change the environment. Overall, nothing really to go out of your way and search for, unless you're a Phantasmal Demon kind of a person.

Emissary of Harmony

Remember that whole article I wrote for Emissary of Harmony, explaining the relationship between battle damage and how it destroys Monsters? It was a must-read for players of the game at the time, to fully explain HOW Emissary (e. Waboku) worked. Well, before the official Upper Deck explanation was released, it you didn't read it, Emissary became a pretty less-than-understandable card. Then the UD explanation came out, and my article became unnecessary.

Now, I think both articles have become obsolete. Why? Well, after X number of years, Emissary got reprinted in the most-recent Structure Deck, "Fortress of the Guardian." And it basically makes Emissary a whole HELL of a lot easier to understand.

EMISSARY OF HARMONY
Normal Trap
Battle Damage received from all of your opponent's Monsters
becomes 0 during this turn.  Your Monsters aren't destroyed
as a result of Battle this turn.

Wow. Just...wow. A whole page or so of rulings got axed with that "aren't destroyed as a result of Battle" line.