This morning, I collected my 120th star as Mario in Super Mario Galaxy. That was awesome. The whole game. Is awesome. From start to finish. I had beaten the game last August, playing the game on my brother's ex-roommate's Wii while visiting for a week. This time around, I looked forward to replaying all the Power Stars that I so fondly remembered (wall-jumping up the waterfalls in Beach Bowl, all of Sea Slide Galaxy, the Trial galaxies, etc.) while eagerly looking forward to the stars that I didn't have the chance to experience last year. Because of all the fond memories, I was always way ahead of the minimum required number of stars for the next observatory. I was sticking around in Galaxies for two or three stars instead of just one or two. In the end, I decided to collect as many as possible before beating the game for the first time - 104, to be exact. This was good times because this left me with just the Purple Coin challenges, and it was really fun to check out the map after each Power Star to see what my next destination could be.

So now I've unlocked Luigi. This being my third run through the game, I'm gonna go through it a different way. First time was "check out as much as possible". Second time, I ran on nostalgia until I hit a wall, then I maxed out. This time, I'm gonna go "minimalist". I'm only going to get as many Stars at any time as I need to unlock the next Galaxy. I'm curious to see how this will affect the overall pace of the journey and what my choices are for each Power Star at any given time.

To close, I am ECSTATIC that a direct sequel is in the works. The idea that Nintendo had more power-up and level design ideas than they could fit in one game is insane. I just hope it doesn't come off feeling like a fundamental expansion pack.

So remember how for years I've been saying how I have no plans to get a current gen system and life's been just fine without them? Well, that's about to change. My younger brother (21yo) has made it known that he'd like a Wii for Christmas and through my clever thinking, it'll arrive alongside an extra Remote/Nunchuk pairing and copies of Super Mario Galaxy and New Super Mario Bros. Wii before Thanksgiving next week.

You see, we're having Thanksgiving at my house this year, just my parents, my brother, and myself, because it's my "dad's" year, but no one on his side of the family invited us over for the holiday. Likewise, my mom's side of the family isn't really doing anything either because we're getting together two days later at my aunt's house. So it's just a quiet Thanksgiving dinner with the immediate family...and so I thought "why not get the Wii early so we can take turns playing it both on Thanksgiving and on Black Friday?"

My parents didn't object.

My brother doesn't know. He's like, near impossible to reach on his cell phone and he doesn't have a phone in his apartment. I'm sure he'll be very delighted to hear the news, though. :D

EDIT: As of last night, my brother knows about the Wii. He's super excited, just as I expected he would be. It turns out - I'd totally forgotten - that he already had a Wii game, Dokapon Journey. He played it with friends and loved it so much he bought it even though we didn't own the system yet. Needless to say, he's going to bring it home with him next week and we'll have that to play as well. On top of SMG and NSMBW...and Geometry Wars Galaxies. I was at work last night and it suddenly hit me to see how cheap the Wii version of GWG was going for. We both have the DS version - got it for Christmas two years ago - but we know the Wii version is brighter and does not suffer from lag issues. Plus, having that version will unlock even more levels. And that's definitely a game my parents can try out...and my cousins when we get together for New Year's (they have a Wii, too).

A whole lotta FFVII on my PSP, that's what!

I'm just 130,000 AP shy of mastering Knights of the Round and then I'll be making a trip to Cosmo Canyon to make myself some homemade Master Magic, Master Command, and Master Summon materia.

I've gotten all the final weapons (though I almost had a Magic Pot run away after stealing Vincent's from me earlier today) and all the characters using their lvl4 Limit Breaks. As I have KOTR, I bred a gold chocobo, which I named Jag [ :D ], and I also managed to nearly master all four Enemy Skill materia (I'm only missing Trine on one of them). Cloud's lvl99 and everyone else is really close.

All that's left before I jump into FFXII (something I've wanted to do for years) is defeating Emerald and Ruby Weapons (first time I'm seriously attempting it) and then pwning Sephiroth in his face. I've always loved how there's about a disc's worth of extra stuff you can do on FFVII's third disc. The story just "pauses" and you can run around doing lots of stuff for hours. I think I was at 55-60 hours when I swapped to disc 3 and now I'm currently at 81 hours or so. Anyway, I say about a week to a week and a half before I'm running around like this playing just about the most subtly naughty game I've ever played, hehe.

So I've had this little problem ever since I first set up my new desktop computer in the spring. Quicktime doesn't show up on websites. OCR, for example. Instead of the minibar with the volume control, play, stop, etc., I just have a black rectangle covering all of that. So I can't control anything. Same thing happens if a vid is playing.

If I open up Quicktime outside the internet, like the program itself, to watch an avi or something, it says I don't have the appropriate codec. So it sends me to the Apple site, but then doesn't tell me which codec to download. I'm not downloading ALL of them! I don't even know what they all are!

As I've never had this problem before EVER (Quicktime has always been a no-problem program for me), I'm kinda annoyed and have no idea how to remedy any aspect of the dilemma. Does anyone have any possible solutions. Has anyone ever had to deal with this themselves?

It's crazy how much life changes in a decade.

Ten years ago today, Sega's Dreamcast home console system launched in the United States, as did then-Squaresoft's Final Fantasy VIII. Also, the eBay auction for nearly 500 Pokémon cards that Josh, my best friend through middle school, and I had been tracking and trying to win concluded. This day is not just a highly memorable day in my own life history, but it's a historical day in the video game industry as well.

The Dreamcast would go on to have a very successful launch, but a very short life cycle. Once Sony announced the Playstation 2 and Nintendo announced the Gamecube (then called the Dolphin), the Dreamcast's days were numbered (especially once it was revealed the PS2 would feature a built-in DVD player and backward compatability). Sega the company, fortunately, did not go down with the Dreamcast's ship and has been developing and publishing games for Nintendo systems, both console and portable, ever since then.

FFVIII, if I recall, also had a very successful launch, but was soon met with very mixed reviews, from professional critics and gamers alike. As FFVII brought RPGs into the mainstream and introduced a vast number of video game players to the genre, many were expecting a FFVII-2, not knowing that that's not how the FF series worked. On its own, FFVIII was quite different from previous installments due to its Draw and GF systems. MP was non-existent and summons played a significant role in characters' development, as far as abilities and stats were concerned. The story was also a change of pace from its predecessor, focusing on a central theme of love, rather than a "David versus Goliath" meets "Save the world from utter annihilation" motif. Personally, I remember getting to the point in the second disc where you stop off at Fisherman's Horizon and then just quitting the game altogether. I had gotten bored with the story and the gameplay I guess just wasn't doing it enough for me to stick with it (I think the Junction system just confused me). Granted, I was only 13 (and exactly one week into the eighth grade), but still. It wouldn't be until 2006 when I watched my brother play through the game while I was playing through what would become my second completed save of FFVII that I realized that had I just kept playing for maybe four or five more hours (not even), the story would have picked up big time and I would have ended up loving the game. To this day, I've yet to beat FFVIII, though that's definitely something I hope to do once the game gets released on the PSN.

The Ebay auction, hahaha, is a whole other story. I was completely obsessed with it. 485 mint-condition cards, where 106 were 1st editions and eight of those were holographic. On top of that, the seller was including the March '99 issue of Duelist magazine and forty counter beads. PLUS, if the auction hit at least $200, he was going to throw in 47 Japanese Pokémon cards, of which five were holo (How do I know all this? Well, I certainly haven't remembered it through all these years! I have my Language Arts folder from 8th grade hanging out in a cardboard box in the attic along with other old school folders and binders, and I knew that my Personal Narrative, the first written assignment my teacher ever gave us, was in that folder. I knew the moment she gave us the assignment that I was going to write about this experience, and my graded paper, complete with a printout of the concluded auction's internet page, has been stored safely in that folder all these years.). For a thirteen-year-old that was into the cards, this was unbelievable and far too good to pass up. The auction was ten days long, and Josh and I had been tracking it for a little over half that time. If we won, we were going to split the final cost in half and try our hardest to split the cards fairly in half as well. Well, this was my very first Ebay auction. Josh was far more familiar with the site than I was and he was really helping me out when it came to bidding and watching the auction. Unfortunately, when 8:40pm came around and there were only about twenty minutes left to the auction, it was as though Josh had disappeared off the face of the planet. I don't even remember if he ever explained to me where he was that night. He wasn't answering his phone (the home phone…cell phones weren't even a quarter as popular and mainstream as they are today), he wasn't logged into AIM, and email would have been way too slow. So I was stuck manning this two-man operation all by myself. Well, we ended up losing the auction. Some guy came in right at the last second and bid $100 higher than the previously highest bid. At the time, my inexperienced self had thought that someone had literally bid that much right at the end to clench the auction, but for years I've been thinking that it was probably a hidden "maximum bid" by someone that was just preventing other bidders from winning while keeping him on top. He must have really wanted those cards and had confirmed a ridiculously high maximum bid in order to ensure victory, no matter what the cost. Still, it was insane. Now, I had truly been obsessing over this auction in those six or so days before the ninth. It was to such an extent that everything else seemed unimportant. Now that it was over, I was upset and very frustrated. But shortly thereafter, I was quite relieved. It was over, so there was no more stressing, and the winner had actually saved Josh and me from effectively wasting hundreds of our birthday/holiday money on silly Pokémon cards. In retrospect, even a few seconds after the auction had ended, I was so glad we lost.

Below is an excerpt from that Personal Narrative paper I had to write. I thought it'd be fun to show you an example of how I used to write, given that you're all quite familiar with how I write today.

After reading the small caption "Bidding is closed for this item" in the Bidding portion of the auction information, I felt as if a bucket of sand fell over off my shoulders and onto the floor. I was both upset and relieved at the same time. The only possible explanation for this feeling is that all the stress I had been feeling that past week was lifted off my body, as if I had lost ten pounds in the five seconds I sat there before logging off. But, there still was that unwanted feeling of envy toward the person who won. The fact that this temporary obsession was fading out of my memory made me become so angry. The voice in my head kept saying, "Why? Why did it have to be me? Did I have to get deep into this situation so much to the degree of having an emotional meltdown?" Then my mind would start saying something like, "Then again, it's over and that's all I'm worried about. Now I can be myself again."

I went on to go downstairs and find some of the girls that lived on the block and their moms in our family room. After telling my mom the news, I began to detox and enjoy the rest of the night in peace. All in all, it was an experience that resulted in a life lesson. Passion and dedication can be a very good thing, but taken to an extreme, they will lead to obsession, which is very unhealthy. Even today, I find myself getting overly excited or enthusiastic about things sometimes, to the point where I'm almost feverish with determination. At these times, I recognize this myself and try to bring myself down to a sane level of such emotions. Consequently, I have been able to save myself from several potentially big mistakes and from spending money unnecessarily on other impulse buys. As I sit here thinking about it, I think this experience is why it's become so easy for me these days to track thirty-something games on this site, but only end up buying 2-5 of them.

Yes, September 9, 1999 was a huge day in my life. But it didn't end with just these three events. No, there was more. I vividly remember my younger brother Dominick and myself getting lost in a department store in the mall time and time again (Looking back in my 7th grade agenda pad, this event happened on Saturday the 11th. My mom took us to pick up our pre-ordered copy of FFVIII.) because every time my mother stopped in a new area to browse, we would open up our shiny new FFVIII strategy guides and look through them. She kept moving on to new areas without letting us know (or maybe we were so immersed that we never heard her), so when one of us did look up, she was nowhere to be found. We lost her maybe two to four times before we lost her real good and decided to keep the strategy guides in the bag until we were back in the car. Once we got home from the mall, I remember showing off FFVIII to some of the other kids on the block in my bedroom.

The next day, on Sunday the 12th, the entire family (Mom's side) took a trip to the New York Renaissance Faire. With me and Dom having FFVIII on our minds, this was our first trip to a Renaissance Faire. It was awesome. This is when and where we bought these dragon claw orb necklaces (which enabled us to really infuse some life and new creativity into our imaginary games), which I still have in a little plastic container on the middle shelf of my hutch, where they've been ever since that day. This is also where Dom, our cousin Carrie, and her cousin Jenna got a picture of themselves taken in medieval costumes and where Dom got his Phoenix necklace as well. He still wears the Phoenix necklace from time to time. I also remember my cousin Stephen checking out a stand that was selling swords, haha (he was 16 at the time). It was a really fun outing. I've always wanted to go to another Faire, but at this point, I'm afraid that this first visit has become so legendary that any future visits to any Faire will end up falling flat. =

So that's my September 9th time travel post. This "school year" that we're in right now is going to be full of time travel moments for me, as my eighth grade year turned out to be my last year living in New Jersey and it was full of very strong, happy memories. :)

So I beat Crisis Core about fifteen minutes ago. Sad ending. GREAT game. I just wish I could've understood the story a little better. And Genesis...two comments on him: 1) He became so predictable, I could forsee seconds beforehand each time he'd begin spouting Loveless. 2) For that very reason, it felt so good to deal my final blow to him in the form of a 99999 damage Costly Punch right to his pretty little playscript-quoting face.

Anybody out there that owns a PSP and has yet to play this game, it's a wonderful action RPG, despite what I and others have said about the story. The graphics are beautiful (if you care about that) and the combat system, DMW included, is so addicting and engaging. I personally could not get enough of it. I'd start a New Game + this very instant if I wasn't so excited to start my FFVII save on my PSP.

Official review to follow. As a heads-up, I've decided to start a new tradition. In addition to the five categories I normally calculate a game's score by (Graphics, Gameplay, Sound, Value, Tilt), I plan on adding a unique sixth category based on the game's genre. Crisis Core, for example, will earn a numerical score between 1 and 10, inclusive, for its Story. RPGs are all about the story, so I feel they should be rewarded or punished based on the quality of their story. In retrospect, Suikoden Tierkreis probably would have gotten an 8 for its story. It was too good for mediocre, but the main character's constant mantra spouting and the occasional lame dialogue by other protagonists knocked a couple of points.

Well, that's all I've got for now. :)

(Cross-posted in Off-Topic)

I've been working on a little project for the last hour and I seem to have hit an obstacle. I scanned a bunch of 8.5x11" pages onto my computer and have cropped them so that the text will line up. However, I thought that I would be able to just go into MS Paint and fuse them all one right next to the other, but it seems that's not possible because the files are so big? I can't even get two of them to appear in a Paint doc at one time. Is there anyway that I can do this? In the end, I want a very long .jpg that I can just scroll across in a Picture Viewing program.

Thanks in advance to any that can offer assistance.

Against my wishes, my brother forced me to watch the new Cataclysm trailer that was posted on the WoW site. How did he force me? Well, there's not much you can do when he's laying next to you in a hotel bed with his laptop wide open enjoying the hotel's free internet. No matter how much I told him "I really don't want to see it. I really don't want to know." he wanted me to see it. Arg. I'm not even fighting him this time. This time, he won't even need to think about trying to convince me to jump back in. When the Cataclysm hits Azeroth, Jag will be making a triumphant return, so long as my own occupation status allows me the time to play.

There's some pretty sick stuff going into this third expansion. Sure, the level cap's only going up by five this time around, but players will be able to fly around all of Azeroth with their flying mounts, there's a Sunken City under the Maelstrom that will act as one of the zones for leveling past level 80, they've added "reforging" to many of the professions, they've added a new secondary profession called Archaeology, many of the cl@ssic zones will undergo significant geographical changes, guilds will be able to level up, earn achievements, and gain talents that will benefit guild members wherever they may be, the Alliance get a new race in the Worgen and the Horde get a new race in the Goblins, and so on and so forth. I've always been so amused by Blizzard when they just create new locales out of this air, but this goes above and beyond what's been the norm in that department. They're completely redoing cl@ssic Azeroth.

There's no way I can ignore this. Thankfully, I'll be jumping right back onto Sisters. I'll have a previously capped character with which to resume play and due to the nature of Cataclysm, even starting a new Worgen character will be a completely new experience due to the fact all the zones are getting new monsters and new quests and won't look anything like they used to.

*sigh* At least that's a year off. I hope. I'm about 83% of the way through all of Crisis Core's missions and once I'm done with all of them, I'm off to finish the game's final chapter. Then, it's off to FFVII. My brother beat most of the game in just this last weekend (not even playing all that much), so that gives me high hopes that it won't take me that long to play through the game myself. Granted, I'm going to breed a gold chocobo and for the first time ever, try to defeat Ruby and Emerald Weapons. But still, with this being my third time through the game, I think it'll go pretty quick. Then it's off to FFXII. Man, I can't wait to play FFXII. And after I've done all I want to do in that game, it's off to either FF Tactics: War of the Lions or Dissidia. Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box (DS) and LittleBigPlanet for the PSP have officially gone on my Christmas list. My hope is that I'll be playing Dissidia by then. If all goes as I hope it will go, by the time Cataclysm is a month away, I'll be ready for it. I'm gonna jump in a few weeks prior to release so I can reacclimate myself to the game and get used to all the changes whose installation I've missed. I'll do dailies in Northrend like I had been right before I quit to earn a little extra coin and then after a week or two have gone by after the expansion's release, I'll throw Jag into the new content and make my new worgen character. It has always been the case that I've completely avoided release lag. When BC came out, my main was only level 56 and when Wrath came out, Jag was like level 22. I wouldn't be able to stand it and so, I simply avoid it. The content will be there when I'm ready for it and at least this time, I won't have to wait too long to start enjoying it.

I was going to post this in Off-Topic, but you never know what jokers and jerks you'll have to deal with. I'm going to apologize in advance for the lack of detail. It's just to be safe.

Is it considered a date if not twenty minutes or so into a thank-you dinner, she asks you if you plan on having kids and if so, how many?

I'll tell ya, it really caught me off-guard, though I didn't show it. It was a genuine question, just one I wasn't expecting. I didn't go into the evening thinking I was going on a date. And no, the girl's not crazy.

Winners of Poll Round #1

Match 1: Force Your Way (FFVIII)

Match 2: Seymour Battle (FFX)

Match 3: Those Who Fight (FFVII)

And now for the next poll, which song makes you feel the most melancholy?

Aeris' Theme (FFVII) vs. This is My Story (FFX)

*I apologize for the lack of tracks from FFVI and back, but I'm not nearly as familiar with those games' tunes. If you'd like to propose a duel, let me know and I might set it up to see what happens!