I would like to say that I wanted to see if I could go five days without making a entry in my journal, but it simply isn't true. Several other factors combined to keep me from making an entry. First off, one of my little "addictions" got a tad out of hand for a few days. I'm talking about Dragonball Manga. Although I am a fan of anime, I have never really been willing to shell out the money for DVDs of Dragonball and DBZ, but I did start buying the Manga (manga is to comic books as anime is to cartoons--manga are Japanese comic books). I never mean to buy more than one or two at a time, but I read them so fast that I'll buy a few, and then read them all in a few hours one evening and then go back the next day and get more. Actually I have been able to limit myself to two bouts of this. The first resulted in Dragonball vol. 1-11, and the second resulted in Dragonball 12-16 and Dragonball Z 1-3, but I don't know if enough time has passed yet for me to consider bout #2 over.
The one thing that I have been able to do to hold myself back is that I have now realized that between the two of them, it is a 42 part series (in Japan there is no distinction between Dragonball and Dragonball Z), but the latest that has been released here is DBZ vol. 18, meaning that so far volumes 1-34 of the entire series have been released here. At the rate I have been going, one or two more "binges" will mean that I have purchased every available volume, and would have to wait for them to become available one at a time over the course of the next two years or so (It looks like they come out about once every three months so that there are four per year). According to barnesandnoble.com, volume 19 comes out in April, so I suppose by the time I had my next binge it would already be out, and then my next after that would be after vol 20 is available, but that one would probably take me through vol 20 and I would have to wait then three or four months at a time for the rest of the series.
The way I figure it, there are 26 volumes in Dragonball Z, and I have the first 3, leaving 23 volumes. If I can exercise enough self control, then I can "celebrate" the release of each of the last 8 volumes by purchasing the next three that I don't have yet. When number 19 is released I will buy 4-6, 20=7-9, and so forth, so that when #25 comes out I will buy 22-24, and when 26 is out I get 25 and 26.
The only thing that I'm not clear on is the relationship between Dragonball GT and the rest of Dragonball/DBZ, and for that matter the latter parts of DBZ the anime. DBZ vol. 18, based on the description on the back cover, includes the destruction of Cell, which means that there are only 8 volumes for the stuff with Babadi and the Buus, as well as any portion of DBGT that occurs in the Manga. So is DBGT a separate series that is not included the the 42 volumes of Dragonball, or is it only an Anime, or what?
In other news, my mail temporarily was stopped, and I have been dealing with the repercussions of that. Apparently, they don't like it if you let your mailbox get to full, but I rarely empty mine because I live in an apartment where the mailboxes are inside the front entrance, but my garage is out the back entrance, so I sometimes go weeks at a time without checking my mail. Usually, the realization that I have bills coming due prompts me to empty it, but in this case I received a phonecall from my phone company asking to verify my address because they had received some mail back. I have straightened everything out as far a bills go, but I haven't gotten it cleared up with some other places, like MediaPlay's RePlay program, and I think there should have been a couple rewards certificates in the mail that was returned.
To be completely honest, I did go a bit longer than usual without checking my mail, but I never got any warning whatsoever from the postman. I used to live at this other place with two other guys, and we rarely brought out mail inside, but instead would often just grab important things like bills that needed to be taken care of right away, and leave stuff that would likely go straight in the trash until we "had time for it". Finally, there was a note from the postman saying that if the box wasn't emptied in seven days, our mail would be taken to the central post office in our area and held for pickup, and we would receive no mail delivery until then. However, if I remember that incident correctly, the note was either on our door or on the outside of the mailbox, so that we could see it even if we never looked in the box. If my letter-carrier left such a note for me in this case, it was inside the box and I never saw it. Meaning I went so long without checking my mail that the box got full, it was taken to the post office, held for two weeks and then everything was returned to sender with no forwarding address. I need to empty that thing more often!
At any rate, dealing with that has also hindered my writing, plus that fact that I haven't played much in the way of games. That's why today I have downloaded all the maps I should need to finish Dragon Warrior II and I intend to use my day off today in order to do so. Wish me luck!

Oh, a little bit of a post script, too: Another reason I hadn't written was because I was embarrassed by the simplicity of my journal. I was looking at various features on GameSpot, and I found the Gamespotting weekly feature. I especially noticed the "Guestspotter" part, where a member of the Gamespot community has one of their journal entries featured along with the journals of various editors. Frankly, it got me just a teeny bit depressed about my own journal. There were all kinds of pictures and such in the guestspotter's, and there were even people who responded to it! Although I can deal with not having the ambition for pictures and all that for now, I couldn't bring myself to write another entry until I had something to say. And I think I said something here.

I see that I now officially have good taste. When it comes to games anyway, but I already knew that. Almost every game I own has received a high rating, even if I don't agree with it (like Black and White). But now I finally have added enough of my collection that I get the thing on my profile that says that I have good taste. Not too shabby! Now if only I could force myself to enjoy the games I have, instead of going out and getting new ones all the time!
In other news, since today is Valentine's Day, I read the feature about Valentine's Day, and thought that there really aren't very many games with good love stories, especially since Paper Mario and the Thousand Year Door made the list. I wonder if romance is kept out of games so much because so many gamers have such depressing loveless lives? Or is that a stereotype which, although it doesn't apply to me, is none the less also not true of the majority of gamers?
Now I need to know if this is true. I'd better go check out the forum about the Valentine's feature.

I played a little more Dragon Warrior II today. I started just going random places looking for the seals, and I found a second one! Now I have star and moon. I don't know where the others are, but my characters are almost to the point where they can walk around with impunity and have no fear of being slaughtered. I do have to pay some attention to what I am doing still at this point. A few more levels each, however, and they will be able to pick fights and all I will have to do is press the A button, over and over. Not that that's any fun. Which is why I will be looking up the locations of the other three seals as soon as I finish this entry.
In other news, I spent a good chunk of the day cleaning things around my apartment, throwing out trash and so forth, so that it will be semi presentable when Anna gets here. Her visiting is the only thing that ever motivates me to clean, and even then it is a last minute crappy version of cleaning. When she gets here we are going to make chili and then go and see Sideways, which is supposed to be pretty good.
Well that's all that I have to say right now, so until next time, you keep readin' um, and I'll keep writin' um! And by the way, I am fairly sure that no one has read any of this so far, but I still plan to keep writing anyway. So there!

I updated to a "Complete" membership today. No particular reason, except that I like Gamespot, and Basic membership was so satisfying that I thought I would pony up. I don't have a superfast connection, so I won't be down loading much, but I am liking "Ice" for the color scheme, rather than the default colors. It is so much easier on my eyes! I mean, I like having bloodshot eyes as much as the next guy, but enough is enough! I hadn't intended to make a journal entry just yet, but I was doing other things on the site and couldn't resist. I was going to play some DWII before making an entry, but I guess I can always make another entry later in the day.
There is a homeless guy living in a crawl space in the laundry room of my apartment, and I have been trying to figure out what to do about it. I have considered options ranging from calling my landlord or the cops, to pouring out expired milk on his blanket, to locking him in there or worse. Mind you, I am a pacifist in the real world, so I wouldn't actually do anything that would harm him, but a guy can dream...
I found a forum that gives descriptions of the different little icons you can get on your profile page, and have decided that I will try to get one of them. To accomplish this I will be making starting some threads in the forums. Hopefully this will lead to my icon thing. See if you can figure out which one I am trying for.

I had the day off today, and I have done some laundry, watched some shows from last night that I taped cause I wasn't home, and watched a movie. Oh, I also repotted my plant. The point is, I haven't played any video games, and I don't know that I will either. maybe a little DWII if I feel like it, but I've been so sleepy all day, I might just wait until it gets dark and go to bed. In other words, today is a real thrill ride for any one who is living vicariously through my journal. I should probably mention that I did end up getting all the keys, even the dam key, yesterday, and I'm not sure what to do next, so that may be why I haven't felt like gaming today.
I need to go do something else before I fall asleep right here.

Well, I am managing to be less bored now. I watched "Josie and the Pussycats" (I recommend it for anyone who thinks that there are subliminal messages in music) and "Best in Show" both while playing Dragon Warrior II. I also have a different work schedule today, so was able to stay awake late enough to watch Conan O'Brian, something I wish I could do more often. I did not eat at Taco John's, which marks only the second time I have missed Taco Tuesday in the past six months. I'm sorry, but it's just a really good deal!
As far as my Dragon Warrioring, after last night, and some playing today, I have allowed my heroes to return to the land of their forefathers, which was the setting for Dragon Warrior I. They even met the descendant of DracoLord, who gave them some pointers for defeating Hargon (although he seemed a little too helpful). Now they have the first of five seals needed to defeat Hargon for some reason, and they are about to embark on a quest for the remainder of the keys that bar their entry into a variety of places.
In other gaming, I find that I am becoming more like my mother, in that I have been spending a little too much time on FreeCell on my PC. I guess as long as I don't start playing the games in numerical order and find that I have to "limit" myself to ten games per session, I don't have too much to worry about. I usually just play one or two randomly selected games, and if I lose, I might play another game so I can stop after winning. My longest losing streak is three, and I don't think that they were played back to back, but were spread out over a day or two.
I am looking forward to this weekend because Anna is visiting me. However, that means that I have to do some serious cleaning and laundry, so I don't know if I will have time for an entry everyday for a few days. That concerns me because it might mean that I stop keeping this journal. That would make me sad because I have enjoyed writing it, even if no one has deemed it worthy of reading thus far.

I'm bored. In fact, I have been almost constantly bored since probably sometime during the Super Bowl. I have attempted many things to get over it, but none have worked so far. I don't know how much longer I can take it. If I don't figure something out soon, I am worried that I might come down with a case of ennui. Maybe I'll try downloading Snood. That was always a fun game in the past. I'll be right back...
Well, my download is in progress. I guess now I'm stuck online for about twenty more minutes. Why, oh why must you be so slow, dial-up internet connection? Yet why must you be so too expensive for me to even consider, faster methods of connecting? Damned if you do, damned if you don't, I guess. But in this case I have the consolation of not having ever been hooked on MMORPGs, which I'm sure would have happened to me long ago if I could feasibly play them.
I'm sorry, this is boring too right now. Weird. Usually, I love to listen to myself think, and write it. Even though I'm not much a journaler per se.

It's official. I have succumb to the temptations of the dark side. A friend of my girlfriend has gmail, and she asked Anna (my girlfriend) if she knew anyone who wants a gmail account, because she had five invites to send. Anna gave her my name and e-mail address because she was not aware that I believe that gmail, if it is not actually evil, could definately be used for evil. To find out why, check this out: http://www.google-watch.org/gmail.html (google-watch is a group that shows why google is, if not evil, at least very, very, bad). Anyhow, I told Anna to tell her friend not to waste an invite on me, but today I checked my email, and there was the gmail invite waiting for me. I am sad to admit that it only took me about two minutes to cave in and sign up for an account. So now I am little more than a servant of evil. On the plus side, the address I created for gmail allow me to endorse one of their competitors every time I use their service.
In other news, I was sad to see that the Patriots won the Super Bowl. I didn't care all that much who won, but I have been a Vikings fan all my life, and I would have preferred to see the NFC win. Unfortunately, I hadn't put any money on the Eagles, because although they lost the football game, they did manage to beat the spread. Not that I'm a betting man.
Gaming-wise, I have played some more of Dragon Warrior II, and I have acquired a companion, as well as some kind of mirror thing that I assume I need to use in order to turn this princess, who was turned into a dog, back into a human. After doing so I assume she will join me to complete my party, for apparently there are three lines of the descendants of Loto, and I am only from one of them, but all three are needed to defeat the guy who's name escapes me, but he's really bad, and he's the one who turned the princess into a dog in the first place. So there.

By making this second journal entry, this journal is now twice as long as half of the journal that I have started in my life. If I make a third, then it will be the biggest journal I have ever written voluntarly. To update, I watched "From Dusk 'Til Dawn" last night. Before watching it, though I have seen it before, but before watching it yesterday, I was wondering why it has never been made into a video game. After viewing it again I decided that the answer is obvious--the game would suck. I don't know for sure, perhaps there is a game based on it. If there is, I would wager large sums of money that it sucks, or at least that I wouldn't enjoy it.
Today I had to work in the morning, and when I got home I watched "Full Tilt Boogie", a surprisingly good documentary about the making of "From Dusk 'Til Dawn". I think it is worth mentioning that every time I have typed Dusk so far I have typed Duck and had to correct it. Weird. Anyways, after I finished that I decided to try to beat Dragon Warrior I, which took me about half an hour. I was level 18 and went straight to Dracolord's castle, went straight down to his room (and leveled up to 19 on the way), looked him in the face and then kicked his...posterior. Then I walked back to Tintagel Castle, enjoying the fresh flowers on the way, accepted the thanks of the King, and took leave of him to seek my fortune in other kingdoms, all with Princess Lora at my side. Video Games always have such happy endings. Unless you count "Game Over" as an ending, cause that's just depressing.

I have never kept any kind of journal with any consistency in the past. For that matter, I do not know if I will keep this one up-to-date. I suppose the best way to begin something like this is to tell about what I have been doing, at least to the extent that this journal is intended to. For now, I will limit myself to what I have been doing in gaming, and any interesting things I have done outside of the realm of games.
Today, I spent a good deal of time playing Dragon Warrior, on the Dragon Warrior I & II GBC cartridge. I have never beaten this game because when it was originally out for the NES, I had gotten into Nintendo Power just a teeny bit too late to get that free Dragon Warrior subscription tie-in. Also, I am quite a bit more of a Final Fantasy guy. Final Fantasy was one of the first games I had for the NES, and it was the very first game that I ever beat. My all time favorite game is FF VI, although it will always seem like FF3 to me, mainly because at the time I was completely unaware that there were aditional Final Fantasy games that had never made it to the US.
Anyhow, I finally bought the DW I&II cart shortly after it was released. I was very pleased with FFVII, but I still longed for and "Old School" rpg, with top-down, turn-based, text-driven action. Since I had always been a SquareSoft kind of guy, I though it was time to give the other best selling rpg series of all time a shot. I attempted to avoid using to many walkthroughs and FAQs on the game, so I had a slow but rewarding experience as I gradually leveled up and explored. Then, one fateful day, my young cousin, who was old enough to figure out how to use my GameBoy, but young enough that she didn't know any better (and since her family was more sports oriented and less gaming oriented than my own), erased my save game.
So now roughly four years have passed, and I have been going through a phase of miserliness (I have student loans to payoff and need to start saving for an engagement ring). Because of this I have been rewatching my old movies, replaying my old video games, and reading all the books which I have purchased but haven't gotten around to. So far I am enjoying the experience. I tend to get carried away with the sparkle of new things, but I have been learning to appreciate that comfortable felling of enjoyment that goes with reexperiencing something forgotten. Also, although I have a huge collection of games (which I am still in the process of adding to my Collection), the majority of them I have never completed. I guess I can give my ADD most of the credit for that.