Friday, January 30, 2004

So, what's been going on? Hmmmm... how about BEING SICK! W T F!?!? I've seen two different doctors within a week. They both sucked. In the five years since I've been in Austin, I've seen about 5 doctors. Each one rushed to have me in and out in 15 mins or less. These guys need to start up a fast food chain. I could so fake being a doctor for a day: "Hi, how are we feeling today? Aw, that's too bad. What seems to be the problem? [Pull out my stethoscope.] Uh-huh. Take a few deep breaths for me. Uh-huh. Hmmm. Yeah, that's been going around. Okay, I'm prescribing you some XXX, take it with food and call us back in a few days. Good bye." Assholes.

On the movie front: I hate Hollywood more and more. More specifically, I hate computer generated people in movies. Seriously, am I supposed to believe that that baby in the new Mask trailer is dancing around? It looked shitty in 1998, but at least it was novel then. Now, it just elicits groans. Please, PLEASE, go back to the puppets and wires and hiding car ramps behind bushes. At least then I knew they weren't expecting me to believe the shit they're trying to pull off.

Gaming? I'm in collector mode harder than ever. I hate it. It costs too damn much! I'm buying shit I have no desire to play, only because it's 'rare.' Every little gem I find in a used video game store I have to look up on ebay to see how much of a good deal I got. Like I'm gonna re-sell it or something. Does that Turbo Duo come with box AND instructions? What about the product catalog? Tony's got the bug too. It's kind of ridiculous, but we're stupid. So, anyway, if anyone has a mint Sega CD front loader (not the Sega CD2!) in the box, email me, OK?

Music... the number one CD of this past week? The Gitaroo Man soundtrack. For some reason I love that game. The songs are awesome. Gitaroo Man's songs are almost as catchy as Parappa the Rapper's first game... only a lot less stupid.

Go Bluebirds!

Tuesday, January 20, 2004

I swear to God, if I'm not 100% better soon, I'm gonna... well, I guess I'll still be sick. It's been like over 3 weeks now. Seriously, WTF?!

On another note. My friend Tony and I have been on a game collecting binge lately. I 'found' another video game shop yesterday... Game Zone. It looks pretty shitty from the outside (not much better on the inside actually,) and it's not in the best part of town, but, man, they had some cool stuff at great prices. Turns out they've been around for 7 years! If you've been around 7 years, and two hardcore gaming nuts that live in your city didn't know about your store, you're doing something wrong. Tony and I have every EB, Gamestop, and Gamefellas (local chain) number written down in a list for easy reference. We'll have to add Game Zone.

Game Zone is actually really cool for used stuff. They have a lot of classics: NES, SNES, Genesis, etc. The selection was pretty good, and while Game Fellas tends to have more stuff, Game Zone's stuff consists of games that are sometimes a little harder to find and a LOT more reasonably priced. Turns out they really don't know much about how 'rare' a game is, nor do they seem to care. For example, I picked up Super Mario RPG (bare cart) for $15. It sells for around $40 on ebay. Tony picked up Y's III, Star Control and Exile for the Genesis. Complete in boxes with manuals. Nice shape. $10 for all three. They have a deal going on: buy 2 Genesis carts, get 1 free. All genesis carts are $5 no matter what, so there you go. On ebay? That's easily 60 bucks or more for all those.

Then we found out they had a 'South' store. Muahahaha. So today, we took a trek out to South Austin to see their 'smaller' store. The south store actually seemed a bit bigger, and a bit nicer, however their prices were a bit higher on most things (not much, but higher) and the selection didn't seem as good. No real gems. Tony picked up Dragon Warrior VII for $15 and picked up the companion guide for $8. Great deals. My deals weren't as good, but they were fair. I picked up a boxed Stunt Race FX for $6 (no real reason for it, it's not rare or anything), a Mario All-Stas Nintendo guide, shrinkwrapped by them and in pristine condition for $8, and a copy of Final Fantasy Tactics for $15. FFT for $15 is actually not a bargain, but this one wasn't all stickered up and didn't have that annoying 'GREATEST HITS" green bar running down the side. I hate that.

Also, I picked up an entertainment center from some guy for $50. It's going in one of our spare bedrooms. Guess what I'm doing with that room? Classic gaming room, baby! Yeah, I'm putting in a 27" tube TV so that I can actually play light gun games again. My 61" HDTV is nice, but no light gun support makes me sad sometimes. :-( I'm sticking in a SNES, Genesis/SegaCD/32X, and NES, and I'm hunting down a TurboGraphx-16, 3DO, and Jaguar. Claire's so understanding. :)

Tuesday, January 13, 2004

I didn't get more than 2 hrs sleep last night. Godammit I'm so tired. :-( Plus I took some Benadryl (for the uncontrollable sneezing fit I was having) and that shit just made me even more drowsy. Then try starting off your day with a 1 hour meeting that lasts 1 hour and 30 minutes. When it's you and four other people in a meeting, they notice when you doze off. Trust me.

I had a great day yesterday though. I picked up Claire at her job (I hardly ever pick her up because it's out of my way), bought a few games on sale at the mall, picked up a Final Fantasy X Piano collection CD, went around a few pawn shops looking for rare games or at least good deals on older games. Then had a nice dinner at Olive Garden of all places. I have to say, that even though I have this undying (yet deserving) hatred for the waitressing/waitering profession, that we had an excellent server. That's extremely rare in my book. He was attentive, yet unobtrusive. He got our order 100% right and basically never fucked up. I was pleasantly surprised. I ended up giving him over 20% tip (and I hate tipping servers because they normally suck balls.)

You know, I've been having what seems like extra good days since my birthday. I got some kickass gifts. One of which is a Flame Red GBA SP, which I love. That's my 4th gameboy! I have an original GB, GB Color, GBA, and now GBA SP. You'd think I'd own more GB games then. I don't. I own like 7 GBA games, and a handful of regular GB carts. Dunno why, but I love this SP. I'm thinking of picking up a few more carts.

Man, I really need to stop buying shit. . . especially games. I'm up to 63 or so PS2 games, about 30 or so GC games and nearly that many Xbox games. But they're soo cheap right now! $10 here, $20 there... an occasional full-priced game. :-(

I've also been on a DVD rage. I've either bought or received as a gift: Battle Royale (an out-of-print Tartan Video version from the UK in NTSC format... thanks Tony!), Audition, Visitor Q, Ichi the Killer, MST3K Vol 2 Collection, Vacation (20th anniversary), and Three's Company 1st Season.

Did I mention I'm tired?

Friday, January 09, 2004

I finally got over being sick. Well, I'm about 95% well anyway. I started getting sick on Christmas Eve. That's an insanely long time to be sick. :-(

Anyway, on the bright side of things, it's my birthday tomorrow! Yes, I'll be 31 and I still look forward to birthdays! I don't know that I'll ever stop looking forward to birthdays. 30 sure as hell didn't bother me, why should 31? :-)

Only problem about birthdays when you're older is that you usually can buy most things that you would have asked for as birthday gifts. So when I get asked what I want for my birthday, I don't know what to say anymore. Very sad. But it's a nice problem to have I suppose.