My Favorite Osu! Songs

Osu! is a game I recently stumbled upon while watching NA team Team Solo Mid, or TSM's solo top player Dyrus' stream.  He often will play the game between matches, considering queue times at his level are quite long, and I instantly downloaded it and started playing, considering I've been a huge fan of DDR for years now.  DDR for my mouse?  Hecks yeah.

None the less, I just wanted to point out a few of my favorite beatmaps I've managed to find so far, mostly just being the ones that I always fall back to playing simply because I find them fun.

All you have to do is click the images to be directed to the song's page on the Osu! website.

Tsugaru - DDR

Tsugaru is one of my favorite DDR songs turned into a beatmap for Osu!  When playing it on the DDR game, I was the first in my group of friends to complete the song by developing the 'horse gallop' technique that got me past the complicated main theme of the song.

Pulsefire Ezreal Log-In Theme - League of Legends

While this isn't a typical beatmap, being the Taiko drum type of beatmap instead of the classic osu! type, it's the only Taiko map I've come across and actually enjoyed playing.  Reminded me of how kick-ass the theme music was for that log-in screen, even though I personally have no urge to own Pulsefire Ezreal myself.

Fight Against Culex - Nobuo Uematsu

I personally love Super Mario RPG for the SNES.  It was an awesome game, and this was one of the most amazing songs from the game.  Apparently, as I learned after downloading the game, this theme was not only for fighting the hidden boss Culex in Super Mario RPG, but was also the regular battle theme for both Final Fantasy 2 and 4.  Learn something new everyday!

Final Fantasy IX Battle Theme - Nobuo Uematsu

God, I just love this composer in general.  Final Fantasy IX is by far my favorite Final Fantasy games, and it had so many great musical pieces that came from it.  While I've only managed to snag a few for Osu!, this is definitely my favorite thus far.

Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Melody - Michiko Naruko

This song is basically every song you learn on the ocarina beautifully pieced together into one fun to play song.  It's incredibly well done and very nostalgic for all Zelda players, creepy windmill dude and all!

Final Fantasy XIII Battle Theme - Masashi Hamauzu

From the moment I heard this song while playing FFXIII, I fell in love with it.  I've discovered variations on it through out my youtube exploring, and love the song to death in result.  Now, I've got it to play on Osu!, which makes it even better.

Pink Rose - DDR

Another DDR song I managed to dig up, one I quite enjoyed on the console and was happy to find on Osu!

League of Legends Dominion Song - Duncan Watt

I'll be honest that I had no idea this song was the dominion song until I found it on Osu!  I had just thought it was one of the many log in songs League had out before they really fell into the groove of having log in screens based on whatever was the latest ultimate skin or newest champion.  Still, it's pretty awesome that it's on Osu! for us to play.

A - DJ Amuro

Heavens, one of my absolute favorite DDR songs I've ever played.  I played this one for hours, and worked my fingers to the bone learning the hardest difficulty on the remote controller, considering my feet had no chance of ever moving that fast.  So flippin' happy to find it on Osu!

And that's all the songs I find worth mentioning!  I have quite a few others downloaded, but the songs I've listed, as said, are the ones I always fall back on when I'm bored and looking for a beatmap to play that I know I'll enjoy and have a fun time completing.

I Love Cats

I am, through and through, an animal lover.  I'm not in the extreme side of things, joining PETA or protesting or anything, but I do have a deep and impossible to ignore love for almost any creature, particularly cats.

Currently, I have two cats that I love and adore.  The first one is Nina, my approx. 11 year old spayed female cat, and the second is Oreo, my approx. 12 year old neutered male cat.

Nina

Nina belonged to my boyfriend before I met him.  She was adopted from a farm in Iowa, apparently hiding until the very last moment of my boyfriend making his decision before popping out and stealing his heart.  I know he spells her name differently, but I like to spell it Nina.

Over-all, she's a fantastic cat.  I call her my beautiful baby kitty, because I can't count the number of times I've had people gawk over her beauty and say how she's the most beautiful cat they've ever seen, which I agree with.  She's a black tabby cat that has a gorgeous mix of golden-tan and white spots, particularly above her eyes like seen in the picture.

In the first few years of being around her, she was mostly a solitary cat, not being much for attention and falling into the habit of just sitting in one spot for hours and just staring at you unflinchingly.  It apparently really freaked out my boyfriend's best friend when they were roommates together.

Now though, as I've been around her for 7 years and actually lived with her for 5, and also likely because of her aging, she's all for the attention.  She can't get enough of it, and often rolls around on the floor in a sort of hissy fit until I give her said attention.  If that doesn't work, she'll just walk around and meow endlessly until we try and shush her, effectively giving her attention.

One of her most endearing traits she's fallen into lately is how she'll sleep in bed with me.  While a lot of cats like to sleep between your feet or even sometimes next to you, Nina finds her place of choice is right on top of me.  My little diva will wait for me to lay down and stop moving before jumping up on the bed, crawling on top of me, and just curling herself up on my side, considering I usually sleep on my side.  Let me tell you, she's a fantastic heat blanket!  Of course, her getting comfy doesn't come without a lot of mewing and sass, considering she loves to get some attention before really falling asleep.

The only thing that drives us nuts about her is often occurring mistake of missing the litter box when she's going #1, and her rare habit of peeing on anything wet left on the ground.  If anything, it just taught us to hang up our shower towels and robes right away instead of leaving them laying around.

Oreo

Oreo, on the other hand, was adopted from a shelter by my boyfriend's mother.  Apparently, he highly resembled a cat that his family had owned and that had recently passed away, and his mother just couldn't say no when she spotted him.  Heck, I know I wouldn't be able to say no, it's why I avoid going to shelters.  I'd bring the entire shelter home!

Oreo is a maine coon cat, and is a model specimen of his breed.  With a vibrantly black and white coat, his distingushing feature is his 'beauty spot', a small black circular patch of fur on his left lip right in the middle of a patch of white fur.

Beyond his handsome appearance, Oreo is a playful, gentle cat who can never get enough attention.  He likes to be pet very rough, although will sometimes end the rough petting session with undeniable energy to play with the hands that were petting him.

We believe that before he was found or given to the humane society that my boyfriend's mother found him in, Oreo was mistreated by an adult male, considering he is skittish and wary of my boyfriend's movement even after 5 years, while barely caring what I do or how I move about him.  He used to be scared senseless of new visitors and people, hiding in my boyfriend's roommates closet way back when, but has now received enough love and attention from us to be comfortable and attention loving from new people.

At night, once my boyfriend and I have gone to bed, Oreo often gets lonely, or bored, unsure which, not realizing for whatever reason that we're just upstairs with the bedroom door open, and will proceed to pick up a toy and walk around, meowing with it in his mouth.  The sound that is produced is this weird, airy, chirpy almost meow that I'm sure has drove my neighbors nuts on more than one occasion.

His favorite toy is a small catnip cloth mouse, that if he gets particularly spunky with, will play fetch with.  I throw it, he flips out and chases, maybe chucks it around a bit, then brings it back meowing in that weird 'toy-in-his-mouth' way he does, all proud he caught his prey.

One of his odd habits is his 'love nibbles' as I've affectionately deemed them.  When he really desperately wants attention, and his two humans aren't giving it to him, he will often nibble on our elbows, arms, or even our sides sometimes to make sure we know he's still there and that he still wants attention.  While it's just meant to get our attention, more often than not it will hurt, considering Oreo is a ridiculously strong cat.  It's never broken the skin by any means, but it's definitely the attention grabber he's aiming for.

Over-all, I don't think I could have asked for two more perfect cats.  Our household use to consist of three cats, but unfortunately our landlord's inconsistency with their pet policy forced me to give our youngest away, thankfully to my brother who was kind enough to take the little rascal in.

Still, both Nina and Oreo will be living their lives out, happy and healthy and full of attention, until they pass from old happy fat-cat ages.

No Luck for the Rule Followers

Ugh, it's just something I am ridiculously sick of happening to me.

I'm a rule following girl.  I think rules are in place for a reason, and as long as they're not obviously unreasonable, I'm going to follow the rules.  Everyone makes mistakes of course and slips up, but that's unintentional.  Yet, somehow, someway, enforcers in all forms always seem to target out those tiny, unintentional slip ups compared to people who are obviously intentionally breaking rules.

My first example is my first ever ticket.  I received it when I just barely rolled a stop sign near my apartment.  I lived at the base of a hill occupied by a college, so yeah, I know there were plenty of college students that were ridiculously poor drivers, but instead of pulling over the people that blatantly sped, drove drunk, or completely blew stop signs, all of which I witnessed tons of times, they pull me over for barely rolling a stop sign.

Also, I had never been pulled over in my life before.  I've been in a car that's been pulled over, but I was not driving.  So, after getting pulled over for such a small, inconsequential reason, I got a ticket instead of a warning.  Awesome, especially since it was when my boyfriend and I were struggling to pay rent with us both having jobs.

Second example is my recent experience with the moderators on Gaia Online.  I often roleplay on the website, and often will open new threads to look for new RP partners in the appropriate forum.  To be honest, I've been using the same general self-imposed rules for my roleplay partner search criteria for years now.  A few weeks ago, after my thread have fallen weeks and weeks into the post history of the forum, a particularly bored moderator managed to fish through the threads to find mine and send an 'informal warning' about sexually inappropriate material for my references to off-site naughty bits.

To be honest, I love the naughty bits in roleplays.  Sexual relations between any created pair of characters helps develop them in the eye of reader, and well, I'll be honest that it's fun to write.

Still, I got this silly informal warning that the incredibly bored moderator managed to get pissy about, so I went and changed it.  Today, I then get another, actual warning of the same nature because I apparently didn't change the material correctly, even though they didn't bother to tell me exactly what they wanted in the first warning.  Now, I got my entire thread deleted, and since I had it in my thread subscriptions, I have the annoying, ugly, bold red reminder of the dick moderators preying on me out of boredom with 'Topics Blocked: 1' at the bottom of my list of subscribed threads.

I have never gotten in trouble on the site before, only having received one informal warning that was a legitimate case of moderator power abuse that was promptly reported to the company.  I had ordered a piece of art where my character was nude but holding the black bars over their naughty bits, which was perfect for the sassy nature of the character I was ordering for.  Considering Gaia itself had a damn item that turned avatars into the offered art, it seemed alright.  I got the PM warning once the shop got closed down, and I literally threw a fit and reported the moderator.  Should have just turned my character into an avatar with the described item, then they really would have had no rights to say shit.

Lastly, there's reddit.  I am very new to the site, and honestly didn't understand some of the posting regulations.  When a few of my posts advertising my blog started to not show up, I PM'd a moderator and asked about it.  I used perfect English, was super nice, and thanked the moderator when they explained everything to me, notifying me that I needed to add variety to what I posted, to make sure they weren't all from one source.

As I tried doing that, however, I realized I couldn't post anything, and googled it.  Found out people's accounts are often put on a sort of lock down if they're reported as potential spammers.  I searched my name in the reddit search bar, and found out the nice moderator I thought was being a friendly helper simply had just reported me as a spammer even though I had obviously contacted him as new, confused member looking for help.

When I critisized him for not thinking before acting, he spoke of a duty to Reddit rules, and all I thought was 'They have a rule about being an ass to new members and trying to make them feel unwelcome?  That's odd.'

Top 5 Reasons Why I Like Supporting

You always see 'Top X Reasons Why [insertrole] Hates You', but where is the love?  Why does everyone have to be hating on everyone else?  Lets see some reasons why someone loves their role, instead of why they hate another role/their team.

1. I like to protect and save

Whether it's popping that Locket at the last second to stop a death from ignite, or arriving in lane just in time to bubble the enemy lane under our tower mid dive, the feeling of saving my ADC from certain death is an awesome one.

2. I love warding

People have actually said I have a ward fetish.  I often don't even like buying the sightstone because it's just not enough wards for me.  I like making sure my team knows where everyone is at all times, and making the map look like a Christmas tree of lights is always fun!

3. Supporting is a high skill position

You have a lot of things to be thinking about all at once.  A support worries about warding, counter-warding, enemy positioning and ally positioning, map awareness, keeping the ADC alive with their positioning/spells, and in some cases like Sona or Leona, initiating big fights.  Many supports are also relied on for keeping track of timers, both for buffs and objectives like Dragon and Baron.  You honestly have to have a high level of awareness and be pretty good at multitasking in order to be a good support.

4. I love activated items

If the game lasts for a long while, a lot of GP5 items I've bought turn into active items like Locket of the Iron Solari, Mikael's Crucible, or Twin Wraiths, all which are extremely gratifying to use when used correctly.  Spotting a team doing baron or slowing a team running with the wraiths, stopping a chunk of damage on your team with the locket, or saving your ADC from a stunlock of certain death with the crucible are all incredible feelings of accomplishment.  Only issue is when people get these items and then forget to use them.  Don't do that.

5. Most of my favorite champs are support champs

Sona, Lulu, Zyra, Janna, Leona, and Nami are some of my favorite champs, and all make the role of support work in their own way, whether it's through sustain or going all in through a bursty combo with their ADC.

League of Legends and E-Sports - LCS

If it's not obvious that I love League of Legends by now, then I feel sorry for you.  Go read my posts, look at my blog if you legitimately don't know that.  None the less, one of my favorite aspects is the League of Legends LCS, or League Championship Series.  It's competitive play of professional teams in both North America and Europe, and all the information you could ever want to know about it can be found at the website.

Of course, this would be a boring post unless I delved into my favorites from both the European and North American scenes, and trust me, there's some players, and sometimes even teams, I completely just love watching.

     North America

My favorite team as a whole would definitely have to go to Cloud 9.

They are just a beast this split.  Having just barely missed getting into the Spring Split, they are now dominating the Summer Split with a crazy 17 wins to 2 losses, putting them very solidly in first place with the highest win ratio the NA LCS has ever seen.

Besides their ability to put the beat down on whichever team they so chose, their players are fun to watch individually in streams, particularly Meteos, their jungler.  I've only managed to catch it once, but I had my fair share of laughing and gasps from the things he was able to do in game.

In the end though, my favorite individual player from the NA teams would have to go to Voyboy from team Curse.

Click for VoyBoy's Profile

Voyboy's Stream

From the very start of my stream watching days, I always keep an eye out for voyboy's stream.  He's an absolutely incredible top-laner, a super chill kind of guy, and amazingly informative.  Whenever he's going into a game, he always lists off what his runes are, his masteries, why he chose the summoner spells he did, and will always comment on his build and in game decisions he makes.  I've learned a lot from his stream, and I really believe others could also.

     Europe

For the European scene, while I do enjoy a bunch of teams, I always have and always will fangirl over one team no matter how good or bad they play.

ADC Yellowpete, Support Krepo, Top Lane Wickd, Jungle Snoopeh, and Mid Lane Froggen

Evil Geniuses.  Oh heavens do I fangirl something awful over them.  Between 'skumbag Krepo' for periodically stealing kills from his ADC, the 'Snoopeh stare' and Froggen's absolutely ridiculous plays in mid lane, who couldn't love this team?  They are one of the most friendly teams to their fans in the entirety of the LCS, and it shows with their large fanbase.

Originally, back in Season 2, they were under the banner of CLG EU, but moved over to Evil Geniuses once they didn't sign on again with CLG as the season finished.

The team started off a bit weak in the Summer Split, getting smashed down by a variety of teams.  Only in this last week, when they brought in a new jungler to trade off games here and there with Snoopeh, did they really put a foot down on the gas pedal and tell all their fans they were far from being out of the game yet.