Last week, I worked. A lot.
DDR MAX2 US came out, so I bought that, and pretty much unlocked everything right away. Provided minimal amusement before the real mix (Extreme JP) comes out. Yep, ended up ordering it from Himeya.
Speaking of Himeya, I got my pop'n ASC last week. A delivery attempt was made Thursday, but I slept through it somehow, and it ended up getting delivered on Friday. So, that took up a day of free time. ^^;
On Saturday, had to go to work during a morning shift on less than 4 hours of sleep. Not fun. Despite the extreme lack of sleep, Josh and I went to SF mall afterwards - though stopping by Waldenbooks first to pick up Chobits 8 + box + figure. Saw everyone at SF - even Hanna ( back home again ^^; ) and Shiene (been months since I saw her last)! Didn't get to stay long, but long enough to thoroughly prove how bad at arrow-stomp I got. =P
Also found out that if you have to continue on one of the final stages of Gunbird 2, you have to start that level over from the beginning. Oops.
Today (Sunday), mowed the lawn as much as I could before having to go to work -again-... came back, took a nap, and continued work on the very last episode of Pretear.
I'm not done yet, but I really want to get to sleep, and it's already later than I had planned to stay up. I have another half hour or so of work left, then I'm done with the entire series.
Gallery updates are suspended right now. Assuming things actually start working instead of staying broken for no apparent reason, you'll see why this week...
Power came back to the house around 7:20pm or so - meaning the power outage lasted a little over 72 hours. I came back at around 11:30.
The tourney was good - turnout was incredible, though none of the SF people showed. It was nice seeing some of the NJ/NY people again, too. Naturally, I played zero DDR over there. =P
I got there around noon, as planned. The room was much larger than I expected, and lacked proper ventillation, but it accomodated the massive amount of people rather well. Rather than Amanda's TV from home, an HDTV was rented - it appeared to be the Sony KP-57HW40, but it might have just been a similar model. Of course, it was set to "Vivid" picture mode - which has the highest level of SVM - which made me want to gouge my eyes out rather than look at it. (I fixed it before long, changing it to "Pro" picture mode... even though I kinda wished I had the remote control so I could do some service mode tweaks. Of course, I doubt the TV owners would have appreciated it if I did THAT much.)
A 2nd TV was brought in, but having only RF input, we couldn't hook any of the PS2s to it. Eventually, a 3rd TV was brought in as well, but that was much later. Also, one of the people with PS2s had an LCD screen for it. I wasn't able to set up pop'n right away, but it started on the small LCD, and made its rounds across all the sets except for the RF-only TV. Of course, the HDTV was dedicated mostly to the fighters and IIDX.
It was nice actually finding someone else in the damn state that plays pop'n, too. =P Of course, I'm disgusted at how bad I got at the game after not playing it for a month or so. I'm not really going to have much time to get better now, either, and I'll have to re-learn the game basically from scratch when I get the ASC anyways.
I eventually went to the Sheetz next door to get food - and proceeded to buy far too much. I did finish it all eventually, though, but not in one sitting. Sheetz was pretty much where everyone went for food, as I assume Playland's own kitchen closed earlier than most people wanted to eat.
One of the big problems - smoking. Playland strictly forbids smoking, so the smokers did their thing -right outside the door-. Now, this is almost worse than smoking inside the building itself, as we had fans sucking up air from outside that door to give some kind of air control to the area. When they smoked there, the smoke got sucked in too, and several people had fairly bad asthmatic reactions to that. I didn't feel too hot after that, either. Now, we told them if they were going to smoke they had to do it far away from the building, but they kept on smoking in that same area, not understanding people were getting SICK from them. I guess the nicotine had already rotted their brains out enough so that they couldn't understand that.
Yeah, I have very little tolerance for smokers. Almost as little as my tolerance for actual smoke. I had to run to Sheetz for extra water and spend some time outside of the building to get some fresh air before I felt slightly better.
Other than that, it was fun. I got very little sleep during it, though I kept sleeping in random locations near the end, but kept getting woken up before getting any worthwhile time in. Not getting much sleep was bad, as I needed to drive myself out at some point. When we all packed up and left at 8:30, I decided that if I couldn't walk straight, I shouldn't be driving. Dollarbill got more sleep than me, at least, and they set out to go back to NJ/NY. Ms. Tenicela somehow ended up with some 16 or so passengers (or so it seemed from the way the tires were being squashed flat and the muffler was rotating in a very unnatural way as they departed). I ended up curling up in the passenger seat of my car and sleeping until about 12:20.
I then made a few phone calls to get updated on the situation outside. Power had -not- been restored to the house yet. Nor was power back at Josh's - they were still running off their generator. I ended up going back to Anthony's after making a futile effort to find a PS2 LCD screen or a controller converter - items I could have probably found if I knew how to get to Valley Mall. Spent some more quality time with SC2, once again taking turns on Weapon Master mode, took a nap, and set off to go back home.
Apparently, campus is open tomorrow, so I have to go to class after all - I wouldn't have minded an extra day off. Also have to work after class as well.
It figures a natural disaster would prevent me from finishing Pretear last week like I planned to. =P
Yeah, so I missed two more days, but you can blame it on Hurricane/Tropical Storm/Tropical Depression Isabel taking out power at home (and likely it is still out as I type this - I am at Anthony's house currently).
So, that made for an interesting couple of days, to say the least.
Day one - woke up just after my brother had finished the outdoor preparations - he removed the unused DirecDuo dish, put the outdoor grill in the garage, extended all the water pipes, etc. So, what did I do to prepare for the hurricane? Of course, I finished off another episode of Pretear. ^^;
Power went out at about 7:16pm. Just before that on IRC, people who had lost power were calling people on cell phones who still had power, and I was joking that I had no one left to call =P So, when my power went out, I looked through my stored numbers, and ended up calling Laura (Maizie) ^^; We then had a nice 3 and a half minute conversation about weather. ^^;;;
Not much happened while power was out. We had a leak near one of the basement windows that required some creative bucket placement to cover. I spent the night with my GBA SP (which had enough power to last me even though I haven't charged the thing in months) - a good hour and a half was spent with Megaman Zero, then I switched to Metroid Fusion, opting to start a new game. Yep, Metroid was a whole lot more fun.
Day two - still no power. Bro pulls out an old tabletop version of Wheel of Fortune. We play that for some 5 rounds before putting it away, then going out to eat. (For the last two rounds, I was text messaging Jessica, who I apparently was keeping awake by keeping a conversation over text... oops x_x) Driving after a hurricane passes through is interesting - there were many, many places where tree limbs were interfering with overhead lines, and downed trees in people's yards. Shady Grove Rd. was closed between Crabbs Branch and 355, too, though I saw them let a USPS truck through to get back to the depot.
After stopping at a Greek/Italian restaurant that ended up not having power, we ended up having lunch at Mama Wok - my bro picked our table based on it having a power outlet on the wall so he could recharge his cell ^^; After eating, we stopped at Giant for water and other supplies, then headed back home.
Not having anything else to do, I ended up mowing the lawn, of all things to do. I actually ran over a piece of our roof that somehow ended up in the middle of our backyard. There was another piece even further out, but I stopped to pick that one up rather than running it over.
After mowing the lawn, I set out to Anthony's, as I now needed a shower, and our house doesn't have any supply of water when there's no power for the well pump to run off of. Packing up the PS2, I realized that pop'n 8 was still in it, and I needed power to eject it if I was to transport it a long distance. So, I actually brought the PS2 into Giant and plugged it in there (though only the 4th employee that happened to overhear what I was asking actually knew where there was a plug I could use - apparently, this Giant was running off its own generators).
So, I set off to Anthony's...
... and a somewhat empty large jug flies into my lane. Not being able to change lanes, I fly right into it.
Yep, went to the shoulder, and found it wedged between the front and the wheelwell, and had to yank it out. I love when people decide they can discard large plastic jugs right onto the interstate.
It was a few minutes after that I realized that I had forgotten to bring Anthony's Hysteric Blue single that I had been borrowing since Otakon. Yep, the "I ALWAYS forget something when leaving the house" rule continues.
Got to Anthony's house in pretty good time (unlike the local roads, the interstates were actually in good shape, and you couldn't even tell it was rush hour), took that shower I so badly needed, and we went to Valley Mall in Hagerstown to buy FFTA and eat.
FFTA is interesting. I bet it would make more sense to me if I had actually played FFT.
Anthony's internet came back while we were messing with FFTA, so he did stuff there for a while, until we decided to pop in SC2 X-Box - with only one controller. Drat, I knew I should have brought that controller converter =P So, we ended up playing Weapon Master mode, getting to the last chapter, but stopping because we needed sleep and we didn't want to do the last dungeon.
So, yeah, now I'm typing this entry in the guest room, and I should sleep if I'm going to get up at the same time as Anthony tomorrow morning. Playland tourney, 2nd try starts in 11 hours...
Damn, missed another day. =P
Not much happened, anyways. Went to class, need to write up journal entry and figure out what book I'm doing a book report on. Went to work, nothing really unusual aside from two DOAX dual-image things being left outside my car (and my windows were open enough that they could have just been slipped inside rather than placed onto the wet exterior). I watched Super GALS just now, and ended up telling CD Japan that I wanted all three GALS CDs they carried added to one of my orders. ^^;
I'll make animated GIFs from that later this week. ^^;;;
This enty was short, as I do need to get to bed to be able to do aforementioned journal entry/book selection before class tomorrow.
For some reason, I'm still up. I really shouldn't be, but I am.
After that last post, I ended up doing, well, none of what I listed, and I actually collected the lawn clippings - nope, had no idea what the rubber tube did, but it was put back somewhat where it was last seen, and off I went.
After finishing that up (I had given it a good hour or so to dry, and it wasn't too wet to begin with, so it went a lot easier than last week), I showered (again), and we went out to dinner.
THEN I played SC2, while vidcapping the last tape of Pretear. By the time the vidcap was done, I had gone through all the dungeons I needed to. =P
So, yeah, I've unlocked everything possible to unlock from Weapon Master (all stages cleared including extra missions, and all items from all stores purchased)... and I'm reminded of how tedious the non-Weapon Master unlocks are. x_x Oh well, it still won't take as long.
And yeah, I finished Weapon Master with about 10 hours elapsed on the game clock. Woo.
Spawn's moves look kinda cool, but they're ridiculously useless in a real fight. Heihachi actually plays a lot better - at least HE has more than 5 moves.
And I really should sleep if I'm going to make it to class tomorrow, and especially if I want to do a textbook run beforehand. ^^;
Yeah, played a lot of SC2 last night. Even when just using the basement TV with S-Video, the graphical superiority of this version over the other two (and the arcade) is obvious. Can't wait to get it hooked up to the HDTV to see it in 720p glory... x_x
Mowed the lawn, too. Was going to collect the clippings, but I noticed a mysterious rubber pipe sticking out from under the engine. I don't want to do anything more with the lawnmower until we figure out what purpose that pipe has... the collector apparatus isn't working quite right after the insane collection job we did last week, either.
As for this site, I updated the comment templates to what more recent MT templates use - for the cookie, it's now the two radio button selection, rather than the checkbox/button combination it was before. This looks a lot better, and is definitely more functional than the old method.
Now, while I'm waiting for brother to get back, I'll probably either get some more ADV work in or go for more SC2...
So, I bought an X-Box today.
I feel dirty.
But I do want to set it up and start playing SC2 again. I'm weird that way.
And yeah, it did feel like having the X-Box in my trunk sapped my car's performance.
Yeah, I missed a day. =P
Not much really happened this week, aside from going to work/going to class.
I'm looking into actually buying an X-Box now. I might actually do it soon, as I do want to start on one of the US versions of SC2. Somehow, I'm looking forward to re-completing Weapon Master mode. In fact, I did some 15% of it at GameStop today waiting for Calvin to get off. =P
So, yeah, I also found out yesterday that Dan was wrong, and I had indeed forgotten to pick up last week's paycheck. So, I had two paychecks to pick up, and discovered my raise has finally been put in - from $5.67 to $5.90. Yep, I'm still paid crap over there. =P I guess next week I'll be doing more ADV work...
I'm trying to figure out plans for next month - my birthday is coming up fast, and I don't know if stuff is happening for it on the weekend before, the weekend after, or both (as my birthday falls on a Tuesday this year). Billy's birthday is also in the same range, so maybe we can have a big combination party again...
I wonder if anyone would actually syndicate this site... in any case, the links to the RSS feeds have always been there (I added the alternate link in case the older format was needed). Also made the URLs jump to the entry they click on instead of just bringing up that entire month, as I don't build individual entry pages.
Yeah, Penty linked this Firebird RSS Reader extension... and, yeah, I think LiveJournal will do syndicated reads for paid users, too.
The 2 year anniversary of Hikari no Kiseki's first release is almost here - and yeah, we're doing something again, in the same vein as the previous releases... it won't be Two-Mix this time, though. =P
(Thanks to mashadar for original link: http://www.moeboard.net/moe/20030910-0854-699.jpg)
Today consisted of... work. Yep.
Actually deposited the first and largest of the Pretear checks. I actually invoiced for the 2nd check on Monday, too... so hopefully I'll get that by the end of the month. Now, I can pay off my credit card balance. ^^;
Work was pretty uneventful, though I got insane loyalty numbers today for some reason. I'm still convinced it's mostly pure luck, as I have insanely good days right after insanely bad days.
Calvin called the store and had me come down to GameStop - he had a DDR MAX2 US demo disc for me. It only has 4 songs, but it shows off the interface - definitely far different from its Japanese namesake. I wonder why they bothered calling it MAX2 even - a different name would have probably suited it better =P
At the end of the day, I also got yet another Soul Calibur II artbook. Apparently, there's a stockpile of them that isn't depleting itself like it should have. I should start putting them on eBay or something.
The second Playland at Hagerstown tournament is coming up, and promises to be better than the first one by far (which, aside from getting everyone addicted to pop'n music, was kinda a flop). I actually ordered a pop'n ASC from Himeya finally, and if it's here by the tournament (which is on the 20th), I'll bring it up with me. Don't expect me to lug that thing to too many places, though =P
Come to think of it, I haven't actually played DDR in a long time - I went randomly that one day when no one else I knew showed up, and I ended up impressing people with my not-that-great doubles skill. I even failed Legend of Max heavy double for them, and they were still impressed. ^^; I ought to get back into playing on some kind of regular basis, especially if I want to enter the tournament (which I still haven't decided - I'll definitely be there but I might not compete).
And, it's nice to know at least one person still reads this =P
Yeah, I'm going to try to get back into the habit of posting something every day. I'll worry about recounting the stuff that happened in the past couple months later, though for the most part it consists of pop'n music, working on HnK projects, working on ADV projects, working at Suncoast, eating, sleeping, and mowing the lawn. Pretty boring. =P
Of course, Otakon happened, and I didn't comment on it at all. I also never recounted the last day of AX, which has probably been quite thoroughly purged from my memory by now. (I needed Lauren's assistance remembering stuff for the entries I wrote during the con itself, even!)
My mom was doing better for the weekend, but had a bit of a nasty time in the morning - she was too tired/sick to make the appointment at Kaiser Permenente (aka "the medical center"). She managed to vomit without eating anything. Not even I could manage that - normally, one would just retch.
I hope none of you were eating while reading that last paragraph.
She was doing better by the evening, and if she's well enough, I'll drop her off at work in the morning... which is in less than 6 hours now. Oops...
On campus, Pat noted that I've had the "mowing the lawn" away message on IM up for some 3 days. This is actually reasonably accurate. --;; I even worked on the lawn today too, trying to collect the unimaginable amount of grass clippings left behind by the first mowing of the lawn in about a month. x_x I need to re-mow the lawn too, as it was too tall for the mower to handle, thus leaving the entire cut very uneven. Then there will be even MORE clippings to collect.
It's nice actually meeting my ADV deadlines for once. Yayoi is your goddess.
My right hand hurts.
Well, to summarize...
3:00 - I get a call from my mom's coworker to tell me that she was dizzy and needed to go to the medical center to get it checked. I went to her office, then the medical center from there.
4:00 - My mom was already at the medical center when her coworker had called me, so it had been an hour or so wait until a doctor finally showed up. The symptoms weren't that serious, but my mom was worried it was a stroke, especially since she must take blood thinners.
4:10 - Yes, it took all of 10 minutes to determine my mom needed a CAT scan, which they lacked the ability to perform in their building, and sent us to the nearby hospital's emergency room.
4:40 - After transportation and a bit of wait time, we were placed in a triage room, waiting for a bed in the actual emergency room to become available. Someone takes a 9-point ECG reading during this wait.
5:10? - It seemed like that long had passed until we actually got into the emergency room. If it was a stroke, my mom would have probably been dead by now.
5:30 - Gee, about time they sent a nurse to actually hook up the monitors.
5:45 - After yet MORE waiting, we finally get a doctor in. The doctor repeats basically the same inconclusive tests the one at the previous medical center did.
6:10 - Finally, my mom is wheeled off to get the CAT scan done. The scan takes all of 15 minutes. Of course, it had been over 3 hours since we started the whole process.
7:15 - After a long period of hearing nothing, a guy comes by and announces it's time for my mom's CAT scan. Of course, we had already done a CAT scan.
7:17 - Yep, he misheard the bed number, and went two beds over to the correct one.
8:10 - Finally, the doctor is able to tell us that it wasn't a stroke. Yes, this is now over 5 hours from when we started. We're still waiting as he called the medical center to try and coordinate what they will do.
8:30 - The doctor comes back. We get a perscription for an antihistamine to help with my mom's balance, and an appointment has been made for Monday morning with the medical center. We are finally able to leave the hospital, get the perscription filled at the supermarket, and go home.
And it only took 5 and a half hours to figure out it was an inner ear inflammation.