Bugged out: Act 3

Twice now, my PC has fucked up while I’ve been typing out this post. And there isn’t a damn thing I can do about it, because the error screen is French techno-babble. I barely understand English techno-babble. So here’s the contents of today’s post, summed up very concisely because I’m annoyed at typing it for the third time.

-No article yet. New one this week sometime.

–Thing Feet

-See Alfie

-I’m pissed cause nobody’s got this yet. Release was the 16th. Get cracking, assholes.

-Nedstat says people still find me from Google. Score.

-Steven of The Sneeze just sold burnt popcorn for about $43 US.

–Musashi pwnz j00.

Everything is super when you’re gay

But I don’t have a homosexual bone in my body, so everything is most definitely not super. The worst thing ever happened today. They hired a new storefront guy. Being the only man who worked storefront was my thing, and now it’s gone. Now I have nothing. I haven’t met the guy yet, but I don’t like him already. He’s going to seriously cramp my style. Everyone knew I loved being the only guy on storefront. I made it clear more than once. I guess now I’m going to have to be more sociable with my girls if I’m to stop him from getting all my attention.

On the upside, I cracked up pretty much the whole store with my antics today. And would you guess which one single person didn’t bear witness to my hilarity? But it’s always worked out that way for me. No matter what the situation, it always turns out that the party I’m out to impress or entertain either doesn’t care or doesn’t notice.

Final note for today, I finished Silent Hill 3, and boy did it get effed up fast once you actually get to Silent Hill. I’m just dying waiting for tomorrow evening so I can start SH4. The intro scares the crap out of me, so the game itself has gotta be awesome, right?

Prolonged dumpage

This one here’s kind of a follow-up to yesterday’s post. Some continuation, some new thoughts, it’s all good. Unless you have no interest at all in what I think about.

I was out all day, and again took the liberty of playing my DS all over the place. Today I attracted the attention of no less than three people, and on a broad range of ages too. I’m starting to feel like the Nintendo DS version of that dude from the Wendy’s commercials. I’mma have to get out more, and make sure I get selling those DS units. Maybe somewhere along the way, I’ll find a friend who will play with me. Maybe I’ll be able to beat a human opponent at Madden. Oh yeah, I bought that. I have to say, I made the right decision. Not only does it interest more casual gamers, but I’m quite enjoying it as well. I really needed something different, and football has answered my call.

My next article will not be so much an article, but something akin to this, should I ever figure out how to do it. After looking at the source, I could probably put it together, but it’ll take a long damn time. Possibly all week, or longer, depending on how ambitious I feel. Or maybe I’ll just rush it and not mind it looking like crap. And that’s all you’re getting for now.

I also picked up The Urbz for DS, under my brother’s counsel. He was right. I really like the game. The only problem is that it uses both the face buttons and the touch screen, so you either fumble between stylus and thumb or just use your finger on the touch screen. The game doesn’t really call for extremely precise pointing, so the latter is acceptable, but after being stylus-trained by WarioWare and Feel the Magic, it feels kind of odd not to use it. Anyhow, it’s a really good game. I’m kind of upset I didn’t know this earlier.

I finally found a Tesla CD! Thank you, Music World! I mean, it’s the newest one, which is excellent, but I really wanted The Great Radio Controversy. Still no show from Firehouse though. I did pick up Foreigner’s The Very Best and Beyond, which is also great, so I’m not too disappointed.

Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance is no longer available anywhere. I’ve looked through around six electronics stores, three gaming stores and two trade-in stores, but nothing. I’ve found Sons of Liberty, and even The Document of Metal Gear Solid 2, but no Substance. So here’s the deal. You find it anywhere, you pick it up and bring it and the recepit to me. I’ll pay you the cost, plus a $15 bounty. The same goes for the Evil Dead 2 DVD. I’ve found Evil Dead and Army of Darkness, but no Evil Dead 2. Maybe I’ll put up a bounty chart of things I want but cannot find, and cannot be arsed to buy online.

I found the first season Corner Gas DVD today. I can’t recall exactly why I didn’t buy it on sight. As I said yesterday, I love the show. Possibly even more than Futurama, and I have all the Futurama DVD sets. Mmm, I love material posessions.

I can’t eat 40 timbits without getting sick. I’m a sham of a man.

The problem with me constantly buying CDs (aside from the rapidly depleting storage space) is that I’m never going to get around to doing that article on my CD colleciton. Maybe it’ll have to go under the pseudo-articles and be updated as new discs come and (God forbid) go.

That’s all for today. I’ll try not to bog down the blog with so much impertinent information during the next week. I’ve got the weekend off, so I’ll be making sure I devote (at least) Saturday to article production. That is, if I’m not too wrapped up in Samurai Legend Musashi. Two days, baby.

Taking a mind dump. Excuse the odor

The coolest thing happened to me yesterday. So I’m at Subway, right. I’m done eating, so as would be the natural thing for me, I pull out my DS and get my game on. And then all of a sudden, this dude sits down across from me and starts asking stuff about it, and going on about how he finds it so amazing. I found it cool, because I don’t know a single person who is interested in the DS (nobody I know can handle its pure awesomeness), and it was nice to for once have a little chat about it. Just thought I’d bring it up.

My bro’s hockey team got creamed 8-4 last night. They started off real strong, with two goals in the first five minutes, but then it just went downhill. It was pretty bad, but the defencemen were really slacking. Can’t say he was having the best game of his life either, though. But then again, guess letting in eight out of like seventy billion shots isn’t so bad.

Three days until Musashi!

Following GDC 2005, we’ve got some things to look forward to on the Nintendo front. Seems the Revolution is gonna be some hardcore online business, and Gamecube backwards-compatible. PGC has a bunch of info, so check that out if you’re interested. Again, I’d like to bring up the new Zelda. There’s a poster of it in the Minish Cap player’s guide, so I’m thinking maybe I’mma buy that. What can I say? I need a Zelda poster.

I’m also considering getting Madden 2005 for the DS. Any time ago, this thought would never have even crossed my mind, but for reasons I cannot properly put into words, I want to own some sort of sports game, and there aren’t any hockey games for the DS yet. It’s Madden or Tiger Woods, and I don’t like the way Tiger is pointing at me so condescendingly.

How is it that I’ve gone 18 years without ever listening to Duran Duran? I can’t imagine how such a good band has gone under my radar until just recently.

iMesh 5 is pretty. Probably coated in spyware (they claim to be clean, but…), but my God is it pretty. And efficient. At least 76 times moreso than the last version. Say what you will about the spyware issue, I still like iMesh. I’ve got plenty of cleaning utilities.

I added a little hit stats dealie down on the sidebar. Click it for more info.

Is it wrong to try to win over a girl who’s currently seeing someone by pretending to be much more awesome than you are? (Not like it gets much more awesome than me) We’re still cool, even after the incident, but I’m thinking maybe I should cool the engines for a while. TV has tought me differently, so I’m not sure what the proper protocol is for this situation. Advice is appreciated.

Why is it that not a single store around here carries either Firehouse or Tesla? Best Buy and Future Shop I can see, but HMV? Come on! I guess I’ll be having to make that dreaded venture downtown if I hope to secure any music from either of these awesome bands. I hate downtown.

Speaking of Firehouse, they’re pretty much kicking ass on the ol’ AudioScrobbler list. You should totally sign up for an account there, even if you never use the thing, just so I can add more people to my friends list. And it’s just a neat little thing to have.

Is there a Corner Gas DVD? Amazon says no. Dammit. That’s an awesome show. If you don’t watch it, you so very totally should. I can’t stress enough how hilarious it is. Best show I’ve watched in years. Upon further investigation, the official website says yes. Flippin’ sweet.

Back to good

I probably won’t have an article up this week. I’ve been doing a lot of gaming and being out these past nights (which has been a nice change from the sitting in front of the PC all night I had been doing for the past few weeks), and I’ve finally fully recovered from that horrible bout with emotion I was having. It’s nice to have the old me back. Now on to why I’m making this post. I have three very important orders of business.

1. NEW ZELDA TRAILER! Here’s the link. Prepare your drool buckets, nerds, this is the greatest thing ever.

2. MUSASHI! Yep. Only five days until Samurai Legend Musashi comes out. I loved the first one, and from what little info I’ve gleaned from the site, the sequel looks to be kick ass. I know I usually don’t have many words of praise for samurai, but Brave Fencer Musashi is my second favorite Playstation game ever. The first being Final Fantasy Tactics.

3. BROKEN! It seems that old Edwin’s site is brokies at the moment. Oh, wait. Stroat. Stroat’s site. I wasn’t orginally gonna say anything, but he figures maybe some people visit both here and there. It’s possible.

I really want to write more, but I’ve got nothing. I guess it’s back to listening to Beck for me. Alt-rock is sweet.

Starting from zero, got nothing to lose

The February archive is now up. Or, it will be shortly after this post is completed. Maybe I shoulda done that first. Oops.

I’m not sure if I ever mentioned, but I saw Jacob’s Ladder a while back. It seems a bit of an obscure title, and you know how I love the obscure. Truth be told though, I only hunted it down because I heard that the Silent Hill games draw a portion of their creepiness from it. And boy, is it true. Well, it’s not quite as big an influence as I was led to believe, but you can definitely see the similarities. Oh, and it was a pretty good movie as well. Confusing as all Hell until the end (which was a cop-out to boot), but I would certainly recommend it to those who like movies that are out of the ordinary. Oh, and if you didn’t know by the title, you probably wouldn’t pick up on it anyway, but there are lots of biblical references here. Good movie. Wouldn’t buy it, but good movie. It’s really hard to find, but there’s a torrent for it over at Novatina. It’s under “mystery”, but it’s really more of a thriller. Not that I’m championing piracy or anything…

On a related topic, I got Silent Hill 3 and 4 the other day. I’m about halfway through 3 and haven’t even started 4 yet. Such good games, and the only ones I cannot play with the lights off, even with my newfound policy of facing my fears. Creepy stuff. And the best part is that I got ’em for $15 and $25, respectively. I picked up I-Ninja for $10 as well. It’s totally worth $10. this whole “buying preowned games” thing is working out really well for me and my wallet. Three good, slightly used games for less than one new one? Sounds like a killer deal to me. And as an added surprise, SH3 comes with the soundtrack packaged in! I didn’t know that! Ah, material posessions: my one true love.

Oh yeah, and I updated my profile page, for those who care. While I’m at it, I’ll mention that I lost like seven pounds over the last week. This is alarming, because I was in no way trying to lose weight. All these people on TV working so hard to drop the fat, and then I come along and start losing it without even trying. Ah irony, thou art a snide bastard indeed.

And my fate remains unchanged

Another chapter in my life comes to an end that is both surprising and predictable. I stared my greatest fear in the eyes, and proceeded to do what had to be done. In the end, I’m still doomed to spend my nights alone at the computer writing about stupid things. But I have grown, and learned that sometimes, even when you have no courage, you just have to give ‘er. I also learned that the outcome wasn’t what I really cared about, but rather that I was out to prove to myself that I’m not as weak as I used to think. I’m not disappointed. I don’t regret my actions. I have no time for sorrow. I’m happy that I faced my fears head-on. I know that with a little more time and research, I could have avoided the let-down, but like I said, I have no regrets. I guess you’ll be happy too now that you won’t have to read about this anymore. Oh, and if you have no idea what I’m talking about, you might want to consider reading the last couple posts a little closer.

Band of the Month – March 2005

2000 hits!!! Booya! I retain my title of Webmaster Grand Champion!

Okay, enough of that. I was gonna make a banner for the occasion, but I have a tendency to not get things done (you should be familiar with this particular trait by now), and well, it never got done and it’s too late now. On the other hand, it looks like you’re gonna be getting your article sooner rather than later. I gave it my best shot, but lonely is the fate of the man who burns for a girl who works almost literally all the time. Oh well, there’s always next week. For now, it’s time I get my Band of the Month on.

It’s probably not a great idea for me to choose Boston as this month’s BotM, as I really don’t know much of their stuff, save for the greatest hits. So while this one could be very short, just remember that the other BotMs that I thought would be short didn’t turn out too bad. Anyhow, I’ve bought not a single Boston album, but I do quite like the band. Obviously enough. I think it started way back when my dad got the greatest hits CD. A lot of the time, I hear a band, think nothing of them, and then come back some time later to really get into them. Boston is a perfect example of this. Though I may be thinking of the Eagles. Either way, that’s how I’m gonna say it went down.

I have to say, I think the first song that really drew me to the band is one of their slower hits, “Amanda”. I can only faintly remember the time when I started listening to them, but I do recall that I’ve always liked that song. That one and “Foreplay/Long Time”. So of course, since I liked the songs I checked out some more, and hooray! I like Boston. Some other choice songs would include “Rock & Roll Band”, “Cool the Engines”, and “Smokin'”. Yeah, Boston is a pretty solid example of what rock n’ roll should be like, with some brilliant guitar work and just an overall great sound. The aforementioned and aptly titled “Rock & Roll Band” is a great example, for those who need one. “Higher Power” is another really good one, as it really puts the guitars in the spotlight, right where they belong, being so awesome and all. Though in essence, it is more reminiscent of metal than rock n’ roll.

After a little research, I’ve discovered that Boston has released six albums, including the greatest hits compilation. First up and apparently most popular among fans was their self-titled debut. While it is only eight songs long (shameful, but the trend continues throughout), they’re all pretty awesome, and this is probably the one I would pick up were I to get any. Next is Don’t Look Back, which I’ve been told is another popular one, but I’ll admit I only know the title track. The third release, Third Stage, seems to have been a bit of a mixed bag. I would say it’s okay, but I only know three songs from it, so my opinion is invalid at best. It’s got “Amanda” and “Cool the Engines”, two songs that I love, and “Can’tcha Say (You Believe in Me)”, which is a sweet ballad, but gains power at several points, particularly when the chorus comes around.

The other two albums, Walk On and Corporate America are what some might call very “un-Boston”. I know not a single song from either disc, so I really can’t tell you what’s going on, but people are really giving these ones a beating in the reviews. In either case, the last one (though released before Corporate America) is their greatest hits disc. It seems fine to me, but the fans say that a few songs don’t belong, and could have been replaced by some that really should have made the cut (“Can’tcha Say”, for one, is commonly mentioned when listing songs that should’ve been there). The odd thing that I’ve discovered, is that there were huge gaps in between each album. Hell, it was apparently eight years between Don’t Look Back and Third Stage. I guess they’re kinda like the Nintendo of music.

So in closing, I like the classic Boston. I don’t know any of their more recent stuff, but if the reviews on Amazon.com are anything to go by, I’m not missing out on a whole lot. For what I know, I give the band a high recommendation. If you like rock n’ roll, chances are you’ll get into Boston pretty quick (if you haven’t already). As usual, the songs I mentioned are the ones I think you should listen to first, but keep in mind that I didn’t mention a lot of good ones too, so if you’re gonna be looking into them, just take what you can get and run with it. Chances of disappointment are very low.

The mouth opens, but the words won’t come out

Another milestone has come about. I’ve recorded 2000 hits. Shazam. Sometimes I really wonder why I bother.

Gah. And to think I was so excited about my first thousand hits that I wrote a freaking article. And this time it means nothing to me. I mean, I’m writing one for the weekend (hoping for Sunday here), but that was gonna happen anyway. I’ve just been a little bipolar lately, so maybe I’ll be enthused about it tomorrow. I don’t know. Right now I just dread having to go to work tomorrow, a feeling that hasn’t come over me for a couple weeks now. I really should have posted yesterday… I was in a good mood then.

Oh, there is one positive note on my agenda. I saw “Harold and Kumar go to White Castle” the other night, and I was pleased. It wasn’t great, but it was easily worth my time. There were a couple hilarious lines, and a lot of boobies. You know, forget what I said before. It was a great movie. I might even buy it. Man, I wish I was watching it right now… The only real problem with it is that it left me with a serious case of the munchies. A real hankerin’ for somma those little burgers.

So yeah, I might have an article up for yah’s this weekend. If it’s not there by Sunday night, that means I’ve got a date, suckas. (Though in that scenario, unlikely as it may be, it should be up on Tuesday at latest.) Yeah, I wanted to be more subtle with that one, but wording isn’t my strong suit. Oh well, wish me luck. I’ll need all I can get.

Exhibiting uncharacteristic behaviour

I really don’t have much to say today. I watched those charming Don Hertzfeldt cartoons again today. If you’ve never seen ’em, or just haven’t watched in a while, I recommend doing so. Sometimes making no sense is the best way to go about it.

I’m totally making a “silly hats only” sign for my room. Oh, and if you don’t have them immediately available, the media archive at GorillaMask has them all. I’d host them for you myself, but you know, the no webspace thing.

As a bit of a follow-up, I got the full version of MegaMan X8. After the atrocity that was X7, it’s really nice to see that X8 turned out to be excellent in every respect. It’s rather tough, the graphics are great (the cutscene style is beautiful), the sound is awesome, and it’s much more fun than its predecessor. All this, and there are unlockable things! Like characters! And weapons! Most amazing of all is the fact that after inputting a code, you can face off against an 8-bit CutMan! They even remixed the old boss theme. It’s absolutely hilarious, and it’s just in there because some Capcom dude thought it would be fun. You get nothing for finding it, and it lasts all of maybe 10 seconds. I love it. I’d take a screenshot, but hooking the PS2 up to the PC is a rather complicated production, and you know how I am about doing stuff. After all the Battle Network E-Card bullshit, this game has restored all of my faith in Capcom.

EDIT: I was in the neighborhood, and, well, here’s your damn picture. It’s tiny though.