I'm being taken back to the past, to play the awesome games that kick ass.

In case you missed the reference.
I was browsing through the Wii Virtual Console store the other day, clearly not fixing my computer as I should have been (it's still in a coma). I have to admit, they have put up a very decent selection of the old school games that I played on their original platforms. I got the urge to play some F-Zero X (for N64) while browsing, and was just about to buy it when I realised, "Hey, I own this game already, why buy it a second time?" Thus began my quest to find my old consoles and get them in working order again. Turns out, my SNES and N64 were in boxes around the house, both sans their AC adaptors. Boo-urns. A quick browse through Ebay proved fruitful, and both the adaptors arrived in the mail in a few days time. The SNES seems to be in good shape, playing games with the occasional old school NES cartridge blow or cartridge wiggle. The N64 unfortunately powers on but puts out no image or audio signal, so I'm in the market for a cheap used control deck.

I have to mention the moment when I opened the boxes with the games. I must say, I had a decent taste in games in my youth. I'm not going to list them all, but it was more like Christmas morning than the actual gifts under the tree business. There is also something very cool about playing my old pixellated 16bit favourites on my glorious HDTV.

I started playing through Final Fantasy III (or Final Fantasy IV for you nerd purists). I always regretted not beating it, so we'll see if it maintains my interest long enough to do it this time around. I wonder if that depends on whether or not I fix my computer. Mebbe Lonk will browbeat me enough for me to do it this week. Do this now thx.

Oh, I forgot to mention, I was crazy sick this weekend. Missed a day of work and my Monday class as a result. It seemed to be some sort of stomach bug, with nausea and fever as the main symptoms. I think I can say that at the moment, my stomach is probably as empty as it'll ever be. I can haz cheezburger?

Short Note: I boned my PC.

You may have read on my last post, I think I scrambled my BIOS to the point of it not booting fully, leaving me unable to get into the OS. You would think that I had the hardware skills to install a SATA drive, having built several computers and all. Alas, I am still a nub deep inside. During the process of trying to get XP to recognize the drive properly, I decided to try to flash my BIOS via a Windows based utility, on account of my not thinking I'd ever need an floppy drive again. Somewhere between the start and the finish occured an error, which resulted in what I assume is an imcomplete BIOS program and a comatose computer. Thanks to Lonk for trying, but after several attempts to revive it, it seems that my last resort is to perform a little bit of surgery on the motherboard. My board comes with a Dual BIOS setup, that is to say, it has a main BIOS and a backup BIOS in case something happens to the main. Unfortunately, the backup is not coming forward and taking over, so the plan is to physically remove the chips from the motherboard and swap their positions on the board, thereby allowing me to boot from the backup, and letting me reflash the main to a working condition thereafter. And I'll be able to get back to watching quality films and killing jerks.

I haven't had the time to do it this week on account of homework. I would have to pull out the motherboard from the case to have room to pry the chips out, and if you have ever built a computer, you know how much of a pain in the ass and time consuming that is. Luckily my laptop is still somewhat of a (relative) beast. It'll still run the Source engine at a decent clip with about medium settings, and since Valve games currently reign on the PC, it buys me some time to buy a replacement motherboard in the event that the surgery is unsuccessful.

Non-nerds may now resume reading.
Buy me a PS3. Thx.

I'm sorry John Edwards.

What he said.

It is a sad day. It's proposterous to say that I, personally, had not done enough, but it does carry a sting that announcements of Edwards suspending his candidacy appear the day after I post my own endorsement. I am now left to take a harder look at Obama, see what Hillary does next, and hope that Huckabee and Romney don't win their own tickets.

Good news is that Giuliani has dropped and supports McCain. As much as I'd like for a bad candidate to be setup to take the fall against Clinton or Obama, the chimp in office has me hoping for someone with some qualification, just in case.

Now we'll see what Edwards does next. He's still legally allowed to accept campaing contributions, and he has delegates that he has won in the previous primaries that could go to Obama or Clinton. There is also the possibility of him endorsing or even joining Clinton or Obama's ticket, though I'm not sure how I would feel about that.

In other news, it is an all around crap day. The girlfriend is mad at me (my fault), and I may have boned my BIOS, two days before a LAN party. Let's hope for better fortune in trying to fix those problems.

Tell Your Mom and Your Friends to Vote For Edwards

I've been putting off this post on account of it being some pretty serious subject material, and I'd prefer to have some research behind me on the subject before I put any thoughts in writing. That and I'm a lazy bastard, but you all knew that. But in the interst of giving my readership something to read, I'm going to put down what, admittedly little, I know. For these primaries, it's best for you to sponge everything, no matter how insignificant.

I've become a bit of a die hard John Edwards supporter. As a lefty, of course I'm going to get behind the most populist candidate, and in this race, it's Edwards, bar none. More on that shortly.

One "critiscm" of Edwards, if you can call it that, is the perception that he's already lost. Alright, I'll concede that he hasn't had much success in the first few states, and certainly the media coverage has all but ignored him. In a way, I believe the media is to blame for that false perception. The media thrives on conflict and drama, so when you have stable and steady Edwards on the one hand, they shift all attention to the bickering between Obama and Clinton. To me, I imagine it as a cycle. Give Edwards more coverage, allow him to get his message out, and he'll find more success. I realize that as usual, that is naive of me to hope for, but I truly believe that if people were to look beyond the drama, the glamour, and the tendency to turn these things into two person horse races, that everyone with any kind of populist leanings would be amazed that they hadn't seen it sooner.

I'm not going to go much into specifics about his views on the various issues, mainly because I don't remember specifics. The specifics that I've heard I liked, however, all I need to know is that Edwards has more mandate to call himself a candidate of the people than Obama or Clinton. The fact that he is funding his campaign through Public Campaign Financing is a loud enough gesture alone to tell me that he is anti-corporate and anti-special interest. If elected, the only ones he'll owe favours to is to the public who spent their money to support him. Sure, a cynic might call it a gimick, or suggest that he's taken soft money, but the disadvantage that he has put himself at in an effort to send a message speaks volumes.

Other reasons, he's been good at putting out specific plans out first out of the three, which indicates some balls if you ask me. His policies ere on wresting the power away from the corporations and special interset groups and putting it back in the hands of the people.

What about Obama you ask? Amazing speaker, sounds very sincere, certainly the most charismatic of the three, but I'm still not sure that he speaks to the lefty. He seems to be targetting independents, which makes me wonder about him being a champion of the left. With all the talk of bitaristanship though, that will probably be what gets him elected if he gets on the ticket. He still has to get through that whole Rezko business that I'm sure the media will jump all over in due time. And you guys already know of my thoughs on Hillary, with that shameful tear (shameful in it's insincerity), and seemingly calculated nature. I will admit tho, I have less ire towards her than before.

In conclusion, please, read up on Edwards. Check out his site. He has everything up there, from his stances on the issues to how you can help the campaign, and believe me, now is the time to lend him a hand (I've givin him some cash myself, something I have never done, hell, not even the local PBS station has gotten money from me yet). I wanted to get this out before Super Tuesday (Feb. 5), with the hope that you might find it within you to act. If you know anyone living in one of the Super Tuesday states, or you yourself live in one, spread the word and get out to vote. It is a critical time for Edwards, and we cannot let him die out.

If you haven't registered to vote yet, you are officially a nub.

I Can't Sleep (Call the Wahhhhmbulance)

I'm tired and crabby. For the past couple of weeks, I've been unable to sleep before three in the morning. This wouldn't be so bad if it were after the semester, but as I type this, I still have one major exam left and a paper to finish writing. Good times, great memories. I should try reading the Bible as a sleep aid again. I'm sure it would work better than my current method; around one or two in the morning, I've been popping in my House MD DVDs and getting under the covers, thereby disengaging myself from the computer, which can keep my brain enganged, and thus awake, for hours. I'll end up getting through two episodes by the time I feel the least bit sleepy.

Speaking of House, what a great find! I had never actually seen an episode of the show, but I was intrigued by the one to two minute clips on Norms excellent site, Onegoodmove. On Black Friday, the House DVDs were put on sale on various websites for around 12 bucks. They normally retail for around 40 bucks, so in a total impulse buy, I ordered seasons one and two. I have to say, I am very pleased with my purchase. Sure, the episodes are extremely formulaic (mysterious illness, House and his team mess with the whiteboard, House has an epiphany, phat healz), but the House character is so entertaining. A genius doctor who doesn't like patients. Reminds me of letting people die in Warcraft raids for being idiots. Despite being one who normally shuns television programming, I still have to wholly recommend House to anyone slightly interested. Then again, you probably already are numb from your CSI, ER, and whatever the kids are watching these days (can I get through a post without being pretentious?).

I guess I should be hunting down my Bible. Hopefully it hasn't burst into flames since I left the flock of sheep.

Short Note: It can be vacation time now pls?

Alright, school sort of kicked into overdrive all of a sudden, so I feel like I have a lot on my plate at the moment. I'd like to think that I'm doing relatively well, compared to my previous study habits. At the moment I am taking a break from writing one of the papers that I have due in the next two weeks (this one is actually due this Saturday, but hey, its technically not last minute), leaving tomorrow to finish the online assignments for the same class. After that I have to write my reflection of the classroom observation hours, due the 11th of December, along with having to compile my notes for the same class into some sort of journal that the instructor can make some sense of, also due on the 11th. Also for that class I have to make a Powerpoint presentation about some court case involving the Mexican chilluns. Luckily I'm not alone on that assigment, its a group project. I volunteered to do the Powerpoint, so I'm hoping they produce the content. I'm not going to think about the education assigments until I knock out the stuff for this Saturday class.

I guess it's a good thing that I am not beholden to any games at the moment. Its nice to have my distractions be limited to movies that I could watch, which are much easier to avoid than life sucking MMORPGs.

Oh, I also registered for next semester, and have deduced that after this semester, I'll need about fifteen credit hours to go after this Spring. That's full time semester. I have my doubts that I will finish in time; class availabilty will probably force me to take a part time semester or two, but that is some home stretch right there. I can't wait.

N E WAYZ, wish me luck, two more weeks to go till I'm granted a temporary respite.

Short Note: Thanksgiving Weekend

I think I'll start doing a 'feature' I will call "Short Note" as a sort of filler when I don't have time to do a full-on article as I have been recently. My intent is to populate this thing enough to give what few returning readers I have something to read more often. That said, here is the first.

This string of Thanksgiving days off was pleasant, despite the lack of a lazy day amongst them. During these days I spent some much needed time with Little Bitty. We've been having some issues that seem to be exacerbated by time spent apart, so we got through this weekend in good spirits.

Mike got the ROCK BANDS, which indeed does rock. I had a good time during its inaugural run with him and Carlette. It has a vocal component, akin to karaoke that, suprisingly, I've enjoyed quite a bit. Getting to pretend to be M1K0P4TN was very fun, especially when you add some Monopoly Vodka into the mix. Drumming is hard, makes my leg hurt, and its pretty fun. Rock Band is supposed to hit the Wii at some point, and I hope to pick it up to get my drum on in private. Perhaps I can get enough practice in to be able to coordinate my legs and arms to the point of doing some real drumming. You may laugh at the notion of a video game's ability to do such thing, but I challenge you to try drumming on Rock Band without using some inherent drumming skills. You would fail, I assure you.

I picked up a Wii Zapper and Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles this week with my Toys R Us gift card, with the hopes of getting Little Bitty to play through it with me. We didn't get a chance this weekend to get into it, but I did manage to pop a few caps in some zombie asses, to my delight. I so do love the facilitation of zombie perforation. In the face. Facially.

Looking at the week's game release schedule, it looks like the game industry has 'blown it's load' in terms of releases, so to speak. Which is a good thing, because the wallets of gamers accross the country were wrecked for a good while there while the gaming industry worked at padding their fiscal year reports by releasing their cream of the crop in the span of a month or so this fall. I have one more release that is a must have (Call of Duty 4) and then I'm calling it quits for the year. My bank account will thank me.

N E WAYZ, that was my Thanksgiving. Lots of Little Bitty and some Rock Band. I cant think of a better way to spend a holiday weekend (except having Little Bitty heal a 40-man raid group (kidding).

Until next time, bbl ttyl kthxbi.