Something bigger than the Xbox!...

So, yeah, I still have very little to update about. Stuff actually happened this past weekend, and I still haven't talked about Patti's birthday, so I think I'll start actually doing that, or something.

But first, some luck with the job front. Kevyn informed me of an opening where he works for someone to... pack boxes for shipment. Amusingly, this menial task pays more than Suncoast did after providing expert customer service for some 2 years. I'm going to go in and talk to him on Thursday at 1pm (he operates out of his home). Also, I'm following a lead on a job posting from Justin Sevakis about subtitling for the TV station he works for. I want to be able to contact him directly about that, but I'm hoping something works out on that angle.

The anti-hotlinking code for images is also staying for a while. I noticed some people actually searched for the Saikano game images I put up ages ago that got hotlinked in some French forum. They didn't even remove the image from the thread yet...

In any case, on Saturday, I woke up entirely too late to head up to Bel Air (MD) for the console IIDX tournament being held. I also found out it wasn't being held at Boardwalk Fun in Harford Mall anymore, and I had no directions to the new location. So, I ended up going to SF Mall, as it was also the last time I would be able to see Kp for quite a while. Billy was also headed out for CA for a few weeks, so we had to get some Daisukekekeke from him first. =p I also got to see Ken for the first time in forever too.

I also played GGXX at SF on a whim. Putting in a single credit and picking May (the only character I'm half-decent at as I've played the game on maybe 4 occasions now), I beat Chris's Baiken (or did he use someone else?) and went on to get to like the 4th to last battle in 1p. Yeah, I actually figured out how to get more than a 2 combo. Forgot how to do her Destroyed move again though...

After the tournament ended slightly before mall closing, most of us SF people and the Hagerstown people that drove down carted off to IHOP for a late dinner. (Minus Billy, as he had to go pack up to leave the next morning.) Our party of 13 seemed to cause great confusion with our server, with massive delays of our food (bad since some of us hadn't eaten anything over the day) and many missing/wrong side items when the food actually came out. Amusingly, it seemed that the server would have brought anything out at request after we commented about our missing sides. We were too nice to exploit her, though.

I also finally managed to get rid of a large percentage of those FFX-2 posters that have been sitting in my car for who-the-hell-knows how long. =p

After we were done at IHOP, I ended up taking Chris back to his house, along with Dre. Ek and David were there and still alive (as Chris asked when he walked through the front door). Somehow, I end up staying overnight, after watching some more Silent Hill 4 gameplay and unlocking a ton of stuff in Chris's Xbox copy of Soul Calibur II. (He can play as Assassin and Berserker now, which I'm sure he was dying to have...)

Didn't do much else after that... had spaghetti and garlic bread for lunch, played many things on the modded Xbox (after finding out all those games on the HDD were preloaded by Pandora's... gee, we could so get their asses sued out of existance if we ratted them out to MS), saw Ek and David leave, and played Puzzle Fighter and Pocket Fighter before leaving for home myself. My linger powers are strong.

That's about it for this past weekend. Since I'm still up, I guess I'll get into Patti's birthday...

As you can see on the date of my last entry, that happened nearly 2 weeks ago now. As usual, I didn't get enough sleep before departing to SF to pick people up. It didn't help that I ran into the worst traffic I have ever faced getting to SF. I ended up fighting sleepiness on the road for 2 hours, on a trip that usually takes me no longer than 35 minutes. Naturally, everyone was more than ready to go by the time I actually got to SF, so we departed almost immediately.

Once again, we hit traffic before hitting the Wilson bridge. Traffic always seems to be at a standstill there even if the bridge isn't drawn.

That wasn't the end, either... going into Waldorf, we ran into another massive traffic jam, caused by a combination of an accident and one very poorly timed traffic light that was choking the traffic from what -was- an expressway. Not only that, our Mapquest directions caused great confusion that caused me to make a turn far too early, which caused me to never find the place. (Kevin found it in his car because he accidentally passed the sign that confused us - which actually saved him from getting lost.) I had to call and get Kevin to swing back to the Wawa I decided to stop at after trying several times. It didn't help that it had started raining heavily again, so combined with the fact that sunlight had run out when we got past that traffic light, we had no visibility left.

So, by the time we actually got there, it was past 8pm or so, well after the halfway point of the party. At least we didn't miss one of the blaringly loud bands that could almost be heard from the Checkers we got our dinners from, or the cutting of the cake and the multilingual (kind of) singing of Happy Birthday. Since I had actually taken the trouble of hauling my computer over, I set it up regardless of the remaining time. Kevin had to leave shortly after that. Kevyn and Josh left a while later, too, but not before I finished setting the PC up...

My makeshift computer setup consisted of Spare, the 486's 14" monitor, the not-very-portable stereo from the basement, my keyboard and mouse, Jon's PSX->USB adapter, and some other guy's power strip when I wasn't able to bring one. To test it, I pulled up Marvel vs. Capcom, and used it to configure and test the controls. It worked like a charm, and people ended up playing that instead of switching to another game. They had never played the game before though, and had absolutely no idea what they were doing. So, I jumped in, picking my joke team of Roll and Rockman (Megaman). I end up with a winning streak of somewhere around 10 or so (playing someone who was actually pretty decent twice) before I just handed it to Kevyn after I was sick of playing. =p

At some point, we also switched to Tetris Attack (after once again setting up controls) and had many matches. Despite sucking total ass, I managed to come up with a few wins. Jeff creamed me in a match against him, though. I just can't pull x9 chains out of nowhere anymore. >.> No one else did that night either, though. The flakiness of the adapter probably had something to do with it, too... we were having some significant control issues. There really is nothing as good as the original SNES controller...

Other games throughout the night included titles like Saturday Night Slam Masters and other games I can't recall at all. I also got a chance to pull out the pop'n ASC that I had lugged in at the end, which ended up delaying our departure as a line formed for it. x_X We ended up leaving at just about the same time as everyone was vacating the building at 2:30am though, squeezing Billy, Chris, and Ek into my car. (That passenger load would ordinarily not be a problem, but the fact that I had taken up two passengers worth of space with the computer and other things caused Chris and Ek to get rather close for comfort in the backseat. =p)

The way back was largely uneventful, with no cars on the road. On the way out of Waldorf, I saw another wreck still sitting on the road near the one that was causing us problems on the way in. I also passed an SUV that was flipped upside down in the middle of the Springfield interchange. Naturally, it completely blocked the exit I needed to get to, and I ended up looping up 395, then coming back so I could get into the Springfield area. We finally arrived at Kp's place at nearly 3:10am or so. So, for the third straight time the trip took way longer than it should have, and it wasn't even due to traffic.

We all ended up staying overnight, with Kp and I staying up the latest. I actually ended up catching that night's ep of Detective Conan (Case Closed), continuing my streak of no missed episodes regardless of where I was. =p Kp mostly played Disgaea, trying to finish the game before he had to be shipped out. (Unfortunately, he didn't quite make it.)

In the morning, I hooked up my PC to their LAN, and we copied stuff off of each other's PCs. The noise factor from my PC came up, noting that it made the basement sound like a jet engine - and with 3 PCs already running in their basement, it was quite impressive that my PC alone drowned out the noise of all of them.

I also finally got the chance to try out Burger King's "Angus" burger, which I had been curious about since the ad bombardment for it started. Naturally, it turned out to be a big disappointment, being basically a larger portion of beef, which tasted almost exactly like their normal Whopper except the patty was thicker and more tender. I think if I eat at Burger King again, I'll just stick with the double Whopper, which is twice the meat and much more in condiments from the wideness, for pretty much the same cost.

Eventually, Pakman gave Ek a ride home (Billy had gone home before the Burger King run) and I took Chris to his house. Silent Hill 4 was in, as was the PSX, which I still think is a rather silly purchase to make when you're in the US. When you can't use its PVR-like functions at all, the inconveniences it forces on actual game usage just counted against it. The fact that it actually took up more space than their Xbox didn't help it, either.

So, I departed after watching some of Silent Hill 4 from the beginning. I was able to identify Cynthia before she introduced himself, simply because of the fact that I had been keeping up with the DDR Extreme US news. (The "Your Rain" mix prominently features Cynthia in the background video, with her name literally spelled out in big neon lights.)

And, that's about it for the two breaks in boredom over the past two weeks. People are going to be off for AX soon if not already, and I'm still wishing I could have gone this year. At least I know I'll at least see Jascii at Otakon, but many people aren't going this year. ;_;

I swear this entry isn't long because of the glitch that makes the right sidebar expand to the entire browser window's width if the left entry section isn't long enough to cover the space. Really.

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