I continue to be absolutely blown away by Uncharted. The detail and sheer beauty of the locales are breathtaking. The story and musical score are engrossing, to say the least. And, the game's challenging without being infuriating. I've still experienced screen tearing from time to time, but overall, I'm really enjoying myself.

However, I'm at the point where, well...there might be people out there who still haven't played the game and would like to, so I won't spoil it. Let's just say I'm at the point where enemies that could be cl@ssified as nightmare-inducing begin popping up. I'm a bit apprehensive about it. In general, I avoid anything intentionally scary, such as horror or suspense thriller movies or games, but even that doesn't stop nightmares sometimes from other sources. For example, while I was still in college, I had one of the worst nightmares I've ever had to date and it was heavily influenced by the Flood from the Halo series. How they make those horrible noises and you feel surrounded and the little egg pods are chasing you on the ground. I was able to play through the games themselves just fine, but there was one night where my sophomore year that I guess my subconscious decided to digest such images by throwing it all somehow into a dream. It was bad.

And so here I am at this present juncture in Uncharted and I have no idea what's going to happen. The primary reason why I bought Uncharted 2 instead of Uncharted: Drake's Fortune at first was because I'd heard of these spooky things. Before buying the game last week, I watched a few walkthrough vids on Youtube to try to desensitize myself to them. I can't tell if it's going to work because a Youtube screen is much smaller than a 32" HDTV screen. They'll still make the noises. They'll still jump me and try to snap my head off if I get too close. And they'll still crawl out of whatever holes in the ground might exist and run towards me with much haste. I definitely don't want to just stop playing the game at this point, but I know it's really going to be rough. My plan is not to play through those parts at night; that should help a little.

Telling me "it's not real" doesn't help, by the way. It's real enough, apparently.

ModNation Racers arrived in the mail yesterday! I tried it out for a good four hours last night, staying up until 2am! Anyone who doesn't like that game after playing even a small bit of it has no soul. It's pure fun, after you spend a few minutes getting accustomed to the controls and handling of the kart. Again, I had internet on my PS3 so I was actually able to watch other drivers "zoom zoom" around the Modspot and jump into the Share Station (which I think is adorable) to download other players' racers, karts, and tracks. So far, I've found a really great Mario, Luigi, Monopoly guy, Spawn, Green MMPR ranger, White MMPR ranger, Kit Fisto, and even a Mystery Machine from Scooby Doo. I forget the names of the tracks I downloaded, but their pics looked amazing. I really like the menus in the game. It's real easy to vote and comment other players' work, check out their other creations, search for a certain kind of creation (unfortunately, I couldn't find any good Jack Skellingtons or Nathan Drakes :( ), etc. MUCH better than LBP's system. This is not to mention, that the downloading of said mods is lightning quick! It takes absolutely zero time for someone else's creation to become your own, no matter what it is. I found that to be super impressive.

The Share Station almost feels like an online shop. You're browsing through aisle after aisle, either "just looking" or looking for something specific, passing judgments along the way. I can't wait to show my brother.

I have experienced the load times everyone's been talking about, but really, I don't think they're that bad. If the game froze (which Uncharted actually did to me once this week) frequently, that would be a legitimate point for concern. Besides, United Front will probably reduce the load times somehow in a future game update.

For now, though, I'm simply blown away. This is the game I truly bought my PS3 for and it has yet to disappoint me. It's everything I thought it would be and more.

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Some final remarks:

Sorry for the lack of pics in this post. I had every intention of including a few, but then Imageshack went stupid on me and kept claming my copied url was not a video (well, no ****!).

Also, I finally figured out where to choose an avatar for my PSN persona. I didn't know they gave you so many to choose from for free! All this time, I've been wondering where you've all gotten yours since the PS Store doesn't really have many (and none of yours) to choose from, but now I know.

I downloaded a few free themes as well. Really cool stuff.

I don't know how, but this morning, I was able to connect to the internet with my PS3...in my bedroom! At first, I'd tried hooking the PS3 up downstairs to one of our standard def. TVs, but the A/V outlets on both seem to be full of fail these days. I really don't know what I'm going to do when I want to play my PS1, N64, or SNES. I can't imagine how awful the games would look on my HD screen. But I digress. The stupid A/V outlets were having none of it, no matter how much I wiggled, haggled, and toggled. So I thought, "You know what? Things can't get any worse. Let me try getting a connection upstairs in my room." Crazy thing is...it worked. Don't know why; I'm calling it a fluke and I'm just glad it happened.

The primary reason why I needed to connect was because after four solid hours of Uncharted goodness last night (I completely lost track of time and ended up staying up til 1am), I noticed I hadn't received a single trophy. I knew trophies in the Uncharted games were directly linked to in-game achievements, so I stopped to wonder what was up. And then I realized, "oh. I have to update the game." And thus, why I needed to get online. That part was easy. Uncharted got updated in no time at all, and now I can get trophies (I've already erased my savefile from last night and I'll be doing it all over again tonight, probably.). Yay!

On a side note: How the heck are enemies in Uncharted able to take over five bullets to their body, or more than one shot to the neck or head, and not die? I can't tell you how many times I ran out of ammo and had to run out in the open to get some more off dead guys in the midst of a firefight - and this is on EASY!!!

On another note: Any other owners of the first Uncharted ever experience screen tearing? I know that the sequel has none whatsoever, but this game definitely does. I'd never seen screen tearing before - though I'd heard of it - and now I know what it is for sure. I can live with it, especially if I'm not the only one who's experienced it with this game, but otherwise....sigh, no more technological drama, pleeeeease!

With the update downloaded and installed and my PS3 still connected, I wandered into the PS Store. There were a few add-on packs I wanted to check out. I ended up just buying the "More Animals" LBP costume kit, though. I was considering the Incredibles Level Kit, but I don't make levels. I was also considering the second Uncharted 2 MP Pack (Siege), but seeing as how I can't reliably get online, how would I play the multiplayer? And besides, I have so many other games to get to, soooooooo I passed on that one as well.

I was all about to leave the PS Store completely when a little voice inside my head said, "check out the demos!" So I did. With my connection still shockingly sturdy and only semi-sluggish, I downloaded and installed the demos for Mirror's Edge and Split/Second.

I tried out Mirror's Edge first (NeonNinja, maybe you were the voice in my head). I love the whole idea of running in and out of buildings and jumping from rooftop to rooftop. The way the tutorial taught me the controls, however, was a little too quick paced for me. I lost track of a lot of what each button did. The camera also gave me some trouble. I mean, I'm still trying to figure out the best camera scheme for Uncharted. In FFXII, I had no control over the camera, but it was set a certain way, mapped to the right analog stick. I'm used to that scheme. I still have to find it in Uncharted so I can stop failing at aiming (I also need to settle on a good aiming sensitivity...any suggestions?). In Mirror's Edge, I couldn't adjust the camera, so it was stuck in "correspondence" mode, as I'll call it. Left was left, right was right, up was up, and so on. I think the game is cool and I just might fool around with the demo a few more times; I don't think I've made up my mind just yet about whether or not I'll ever pick up a full copy of the game. Though, it is only like, $9 these days.

Split Second was interesting. First off, it sadly didn't look as awesome in person as it did in every trailer and gameplay vid I've viewed in the last two months. The controls took some getting used to. And even though I was in eighth place for the whole first lap, I somehow managed to get into second at race's end. I had gotten the hang of it by the end of my first race. I played again, got into third, but shaved a minute off my time (rubberbanding much?). All in all, I don't believe I'll be buying this one. Although it was fun, I feel like I'd grow tired of it pretty quick. I actually found myself thinking about Pacific Rift during the second race. That game is far more fun, in my opinion, and it's got far more content. So it's a no-go for Split Second, for me. But happy chaotic racing to those of you who do buy the game. :)

Sandpiper121PP gave me a great idea a few days ago when she happened to include a pic of her entire current game collection in a blog post. I thought, "What a great idea! I should do that, too!" So here we are. A few notes: 1) I rarely, if ever, sell or trade in games. That's why I still have so many. The few occasions where I have sold games...maybe about 70% of the time, I come to regret it at some point down the road. So overall, I don't believe in it. But anyway. 2) This is not how my games are typically stored. If you notice, the shelf is exactly the same shelf in all the pics that feature a shelf. Typically, this shelf contains all my paperback Star Wars novels, my entire DS and PSP collections, and the select few games that I'm actively swapping between. I just wanted to let that be known. I don't even think they'd all fit in the one shelf anyway!

So that's it for the preface. Let's begin the tour, shall we? Don't forget to use your inside/library voices, lest you attract the attention of the mean librarian and she smack you fiercely across the face. Heheh. :P

Game Boy Pocket/Color

That's it. For real. As you'll see, I didn't really become even a semi-serious portable gamer until the DS came around. Pokemon is the reason my brother and I got our very first portable handheld systems, Game Boy Pockets. I keep my GBA SP around just so I can keep playing these games. I don't have my GBP or GBC anymore, unfortunately.

Game Boy Advance

Again, not a big collection at all. Mostly enhanced ports. Super Circuit is the reason I went for the GBA in the beginning. I was beyond overjoyed when each of the DKC ports came out. I was really excited about the release of the two SMAs as well. To this day, however, I still hope for an announcement at an E3 for a 3-in-1 DKC collection for the DS. I don't care that they released the games on the GBA and they're all on the VC. Bring the originals to the DS, all in one cartridge! On that same note, I still wish for a DKC4.

Nintendo DS / Sony PSP

Tada! See? I wasn't lying. Portable gaming really hit it off with me once the DS picked up steam after its first year of life. Since I didn't own a Wii or PS3 until just recently, my DS game collection is essentially the extent of my gaming habits during my four years of college, excluding WoW. Things are kinda slow with the handheld now, though. I haven't bought a single game for the DS yet this year.

Super Nintendo

Second grade through sixth right here, haha. My first video game ever was Super Mario World, followed by Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (which, if I'm not mistaken, Hart704 completed recently on just one life!), followed by Donkey Kong Country. It's the platformers I own for the SNES that really let my young imagination run wild. Words cannot describe what those many worlds' themed locales did for my sense of creativity. A favorite childhood pasttime of my brother's and mine was to create a DKC3 (before it was a real thing) and DKC4 on drawing paper. We'd come up with different types of bananas, barrels, and pets; come up with world and level names; draw out the overworlds - we went all out. :)

Nintendo 64

I had them all lined up in rows of five, but the labels just wouldn't have shown up well at all had I taken just one picture. So here we are. Welcome to fifth through ninth grade. :) Not much to say here. Everyone knows how awesome the N64 was. I feel like developers really tried new things on the console, things we weren't at all accustomed to seeing. I'll mention it here because I don't want to spoil the other picture, but looking at my SNES and N64 collections, doesn't it make you the least bit sad when you consider what the Wii's library looks like after what, three and a half years of life? Some of you do have pretty large Wii game collections, but I just can't find myself interested in too many of the games personally. Maybe I have to be younger to find more of the games appealing. After all, I was a kid back in the SNES/N64 days. I don't know. I just feel like the Wii is letting everyone down, whether they know it or not.

Sony Playstation

Essentially, these games were a huge part of my gaming activities while I was in middle school. Between these games and the N64 games, oye! The PS1 really opened my eyes to RPGs. SMRPG got everything started for me in this department, but after my second RPG ever, Final Fantasy VII, I realized there was magic happening. Swords and magic spells and great stories, characters, and music, all wrapped into a single game that lasted far longer than any of the other games I'd ever owned (I look back on this memory I have of my dad bringing home a copy of the NP strategy guide for SMRPG and my brother and I looking at each other with this awestruck face of utter shock when we discovered where we were currently in the game was nowhere close to the end of the game...and I just laugh). It helped, of course, that because FFVII was so big sales and popularity-wise, RPGs became popular in general and more were made as a result. They seem to be dwindling in quality and number nowadays, though. I still haven't quite formulated a personal theory to explain it yet.

Last Generation (Sony Playstation 2, Microsoft XBox, Nintendo Gamecube)

Welcome to drummer131's gaming experiences, High School edition. Actually, I didn't own the XBox until I was a freshman in college and that's primarily why that console's game collection is so small. And come to think of it, the other two consoles have rather small collections, too. With the PS2, it's because my original PS2 got hit hard with the "Disc Read Error" plague in 2003, so I just stopped buying games for it (kind of sad, right? Think of all the games I missed! I do, sometimes.). The Gamecube...I like every game I have for it, and I don't think I've ever sold a Gamecube game. Mario Kart Double Dash is my favorite Mario Kart of them all (excluding MK Wii because I think that one's crap and I'll never ever own it) and SMB2 is the very essence of fun. Even so, as the next evolution after the N64, it just didn't have that many great games coming out for it, in my opinion at least. But, what can you do, right? At least the Gamecube was fairly inexpensive from launch.

Current Gen Consoles (Nintendo Wii, Sony Playstation 3)

Okay, you can't really blame me here for having such small collections for both consoles. I've only had the Wii since last November, and I've only had the PS3 for two months. Five (technically six because ModNation Racers is due to arrive at my doorstep in a couple of weeks) games for a two-month old system ain't too shabby. I'm going to go out on a limb here, though, and predict that my PS3 collection will definitely outshine my Wii game collection by the time this generation is over. It already kinda is. The games I own for the Wii thus far are each good in their own ways, but I just don't see that collection as a whole growing that much larger. It'd be nice if it at least tied with my Gamecube collection, so we'll see. Meanwhile, I have no doubt my PS3 game collection will tie my PS2 collection and perhaps even surpass it.

And that's it! That's every single game I own.

How does yours compare?

What the heck is today's blog post title talking about? Well, notice anything different?

Last year's banner, while still packin' the awesome factor with Zack Fair and a moomba, was getting outdated as far as my current gaming was concerned. If I could think of a decent idea for a FFXII-themed banner, I would have made it (or at least tried to). But I couldn't think of anything. So, I decided upon my second choice. To all of my friends who already have Nathan Drake-inspired banners, trust me when I say I'm not copying you. Now that I've experienced the awesome of Nathan Drake's adventuring myself, I felt it was a great idea to celebrate the awesome games with a new awesome profile banner for me. Not to mention, I love how it looks like Nathan Drake is looking down at my blog like, "what is this??? I have got to check this out." lol 8)

I've only played about two hours of Uncharted 2, but I've already learned a few things:

• I love the game, even though it's the first third-person shooter I've ever played, let alone owned. I didn't even know it was a third-person shooter, honestly, until I realized how much gunplay there is in the game. Gamespot cl@ssifies the game as a modern action adventure, which to me, doesn't read as "third-person shooter", but whatever. The game's gold. The music reels you in, the stellar voice acting reels you in even further with its authenticity, the graphics and special effects are very realistic, and the story itself - again, only two hours in - is incredible. I love looking for the hidden treasures, too. Like, here's this excellent game with a great story, cast of characters, and gameplay elements, but then there's this game-long sidequest of keeping a watchful eye at all times, in the midst of all the action, to find the little "shiny spots". Even this is interesting, because you never know what the treasure's going to be and Naughty Dog was awesome enough to show you exactly what you've found...and give it a fun name, too. :)
• A new copy of Uncharted: Drake's Fortune is destined to come into my possession in the near future. Even though it's a "prequel" to Uncharted 2, I know I'm going to want more after I beat Uncharted 2. It's just so easy to like the character of Nathan Drake, not to mention become immersed in his adventures. I was not expecting the game to play as it does. As many of you already know, it's very cinematic, on purpose. You're not just sitting around watching a cutscene; you're playing through it. To a spectator, it'd totally be watching a movie, except your buddy's playing through it for your entertainment, heheh.
  
• Cursing, when not just thrown about just for the heck of it, is fantastic in a game. Case in point, Uncharted and Uncharted 2. I've experienced some of UC2's occasional humor already, but I did check out some gameplay footage from Uncharted and I have to say, really funny **** right there! The dialogue just makes me laugh out loud, and the cursing just makes it better for me. I've never owned a single game ever that has featured cursing in any capacity (unless you count Barret's occasionally "cussing" in FFVII). So it's at once shocking AND awesome.
  
• Naughty Dog is a brilliant game developer. As far as I know, they've created only three series: Crash Bandicoot, Jak and Daxter, and Uncharted. It impresses me beyond all measure that each time they start a new series, it starts off with an amazing first game, only gets better after that), and earns critical acclaim and a huge fanbase. Not every developer can say that they've earned this achievement.
  
• Clearly, my taste in games is changing. Buying a PS3 has given me the opportunity to explore games I don't think I'd have considered at all even a few years ago. This is really exciting for me.

Well, that's it for now. I apologize in advance for any strange wording or typos; I'm typing this while half-watching the Survivor finale. :D

Let it be known that today, the twelfth of May in the year 2010, I have beaten Final Fantasy XII.

Sometimes, you know, you worry if the grand conclusion of a game you've spent countless hours playing is going to be satisfying, given how much you time you gave it. Well, FFXII is not one of those games that disappoints at the end. Oh, no. It saved all the big guns for the end!

I laughed, I let my jaw drop a few times, I was scared ****less, I sat at the foot of my bed in suspense...I even shed a tear or two. Good ending.

And now, on to Uncharted 2. Nice, gradual transition, eh? ;P

Kind of unbelievable that I'm actually nearing the end of what has truly felt like a big, sweeping adventure. I mean, I've been working on my FFXII gamesave since last November, off and on, but now after 123 or so hours, I'm nearing the end.

I spent all day - when I wasn't at work - ascending the Pharos Lighthouse at the Ridorana Cataract. With no spoilers, let's just say that if you've played Golden Sun 2 and remember the "end of the world" or whatever that place is called, it was just like that. Here, just watch the first fifty-five seconds and you'll see what I mean (but no more if you want to remain spoiler-free!!!). Anyway, it literally took all morning, early afternoon, and night to get through this dungeon. It was like three dungeons in one! Clearly, it was the final dungeon of the game, but c'mon! FFVII's final dungeon can be travelled through with purpose in less than half an hour if you're not underleveled or undergeared. This took HOURS! But I digress. It's always fun to grind enemies in the game, letting Gambits enforce their usefulness in different circumstances.

It was funny...I just woke up yesterday and said, "This week is the week I beat FFXII." Granted, it almost has to be if I want to get a good deal of Pacific Rift and Uncharted 2 in before ModNation Racers arrives in a few weeks. My plans with XII beyond beating the game are hazy, though. There are certainly still at least 50 hours of content or general things I could choose to do (like level and farm for loot, fill out my characters' License Boards) even after I beat the game proper. Will I run back to do some of that stuff right after I beat the game? Maybe, maybe not. Something tells me I'll wander right into UC2. But that's not to say I'll be leaving that XII save for good. Oh, no. Just like there was an indescribable pull towards the game through the years when I didn't even own the game nor a working PS2, there will be a pull now, to continue exploring Ivalice, to obtain the remaining Espers, to go after all the remaining Hunts I've left unhunted, to do copious fishing with Cactaurs...haha, yes, among many MANY other things. I don't weep for the end of this journey; I merely put it on pause and will come back to it when I hear its sweet song calling to me in my sleep. There probably won't ever be an official end to the journey.

And so today will most likely be the day that I beat FFXII. So, wish me luck!

Last night, I found myself nearly taking complete ownership of the comment box for nirvanaphoenix's most recent blog post, effectively turning it into a podium for me and him to praise FFXII until our minds turned to soup. I realized by the time I chose to stop the "one-sided debate / kissed love letter to FFXII" that a couple of things had clicked in my mind without me really knowing it, things I've been thinking about, but were never really sure I wanted to publicly say, in case they weren't actually 100% true. Both "things" are personal conclusions; one will be mentioned a little later on while the other...the other was the conclusion that there is no way I'd ever be able to write a review, on this site or anywhere else, for FFXII for the simple fact that I can find no flaws in it. I literally love every single major, minor, and miniscule element of the game, and what good would it do anyone else for me to write a review when this review's only purpose would be to exist as a sappy block of adoring words. It'd almost be as bad as the user reviews I find here from time to time that don't say much at all except for one's personal opinion, in a single paragraph devoid of any semblance of proper grammar, syntax, or proper punctuation usage.

The funny thing is, when I went to write about these conclusions in my own personal journal, once I'd quit typing, I realized that exactly what I'd written was in fact, a review. A review for Final Fantasy XII. It's still not what I would call "critical" and it barely scratches the surface of what I could discuss within, but it does get the point across of how great a game I think it is and why I'd wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone willing to devote a great deal of time into a game that not only requires it to get even a remotely full experience, but thanks you kindly for your temporal devotion many times over with layers of subtle depth and gradually unlocked optional content.

So here it is, my review of Final Fantasy XII.

It's official. Final Fantasy XII has officially replaced FFVII as my all-time favorite Final Fantasy game. It only took thirteen years for a game to come along to do that, but it most certainly has now.

I'd go into all the reasons why, but then I'd never be able to stop typing. I find nothing wrong with the game and quite literally everything, from major aspects such as graphics and music and the user interface to incredibly minor things like how the Hunt system is set up and the fact you walk into stores and they all look different and are filled with fellow shoppers and appropriate merchandise on display, is phenomenal. If nothing else, the game wins out, not just over all other numbered FF games but over all other RPGs I've ever played, because of its totally immersive and enriching sense of atmosphere. FFXII's Ivalice has a deep history that is palpable in what the characters and NPCs say, the way the world's society operates, and the physical appearance of the diverse geographical locales, especially the cities. It draws you in from the first hour and holds you thoroughly even after you're done playing the game. It's amazing. A game has never done that to me, nor have I ever found a game that has so many major, minor, and even miniscule elements that are all at once so truly cohesive, relevant, innovative, and breathtaking. It's astounding.

No, this does not mean I've beaten the game. Not yet, anyway. Besides, I already know that once I've beaten the game and gone back to obtain more Espers and complete a few other sidequests, there will still be so much more that I can do (finding the materials necessary for the best weapons and armor, hunting even more Marks, additional sidequests that become available after completing others, etc., in addition to just running around killing things for the pure and simple fun of it, swapping Gambits and the gear on characters on the fly.).

Truly, expanding beyond the confines of genre cl@ssification(s), Final Fantasy XII is one of the best video games I have ever played in my life. If that statement is not a testament to this game's greatness, I don't know what is.

I don't know how many of you frequent Joystiq, but if you do, then you probably already know what I'm about to say. This is another public service announcement, presented to you for the benefit of your wallet, conscience, and overall well-being.

From now until next Monday the 10th, Kmart is selling Final Fantasy XIII (both versions, I think) at half price. That's $29.99.

Now I know many of you already own the game, but for those of you that, like me, may have been waiting for a killer deal to come around on Ebay or Half.com or some other place, trust me when I say that this is a solid deal. I really couldn't pass this up myself (and I didn't. Went this morning and picked up a copy...I don't think anyone else in my area even knows about the sale, to be honest, lol).

I should also add that the sale is not exclusive to just FFXIII. Other recently released games are on sale at similarly significantly-reduced prices. Click the link to check it out.

This concludes the PSA. Thank you for reading and have a nice Cinco de Mayo! :D

Now it just so happened that I was initially planning on ordering a personally customized base model of Subaru's 2010 Impreza today after work, but when I walked back onto the dealership's lot late yesterday afternoon to get some questions answered about various things, I ended up buying this hot piece of modern auto engineering. It was a hatchback that was already on the lot, a car of the model above base with lots of added stuff that I wasn't planning on ordering for my custom car. That said, because it was the very last day of the month and they knew I was very close to buying a car from them anyway, they gave me an insanely good deal simply because they really wanted cars to move off the lot so they could reach their sales quotas as individual salesmen and as a dealership for the month of April. Instead of me negotiating a desirable price with them, they were negotiating a desirable price for me! If I'd held off, turned them down, and waited until today, they certainly would not have been able to offer me such outstanding deal offers.

So it turned out, that for just $600 more than the invoice price of the base model customized car that I was looking to order, I got tons more. Here's a list of everything extra I wasn't planning on getting but have now: aluminum wheels, leather-wrapped steering wheel, audio controls on said steering wheel, a ten speaker system (rather than four), six-CD disc changer (as opposed to single-CD), cargo tray in the trunk, bumper cover, splash guards, all-weather floor mats, heated front seats, heated side mirrors, windshield wiper de-icer, auxilary audio jack, fog lamps, and a power sunroof. I was going to order a roof carrier base kit (for my bike), but decided against it - I can just take the front wheel off my bike and lay it in the trunk after laying the back passenger seats forward. I also wanted body-side molding so the doors wouldn't get dinged up by neighboring, aggressive car door openers or rogue shopping carts, but I'm gonna wait a little on that. So now you see that the deal was just too good to be true. They'd cut the price down so much that I'd have been a total idiot to pass it up. Why pay more for a lot less when you can pay less for a lot more?

The stereo's just fine so far and I'm waiting on an aux. cable that I ordered off Amazon to hook my iPod up in the car (the thieves had stolen my iTrip cable along with the stereo). I'm eager to hear how my iPod sounds; maybe, I won't have to upgrade the speakers after all. What's neat about the stereo as it stands is it tells me the name and artist of the song currently playing. I've never had a stereo that does that.

Then again, I've never owned a car with power doors and windows, let alone a stereo that tells me song titles.

By the way, that picture does not do the car justice. If you've ever seen a blue Impreza or Forester out on the road, you know what I mean. It also doesn't help that unfortunately, the battery in my digital camera was dead, so I had to take the pictures with my old digital camera, which has five less megapixels and is remarkably good at taking very discolored, frequently blurry pics. But you get the idea.

I'm just so excited! Yes, it sucks that my Honda Civic was stolen. Yes, it does kinda suck that I'll be making monthly car payments for the next six years unless I can pay more off every once in a while. But you know what? When I was shopping for that Civic's replacement, I wasn't thinking as a 24-year-old that just needed a new car and wanted to try to get the coolest car I could find within my budget. I thought as a 24-year-old guy who's looking to be married and have at least one kid within the next ten years. This is the car that I hope someday to drive my family around in, knowing that they're safe, comfortable, and not embarassed to be riding around in said car. I'm sure it's not exactly the first type of car you would think a guy my age would go for (I mean, just look at the Impreza's competition, the Honda Fit and the Mazda3. Those are way sportier looking and in most cases, faster.), but that doesn't matter to me. All I was really going for was "blue" and "hatchback". It just so happened that the day I mentioned at work that I had to start car shopping, one of my co-worker friends mentioned Subaru because of their standard AWD and consistently high safety and crash test ratings and that really turned me on to the brand (my parents have only ever owned Dodge and Mercury vehicles). At the least, it made for a good starting point in my search.

And here's where I've got to give props to the dealership. It's a relatively small dealership, located right on the outskirts of the city portion of my town and the campus of my collegiate alma mater. Its size, I think, actually helps it because let me tell you, I didn't think it was possible to encounter honest car salesmen, but there certainly are at least a couple at this place. Sure, they turned their mental "salesman" dials all the way to "unabashedly aggressive" yesterday, but truth be told, it was a completely different atmosphere exactly a week prior when I'd gone there for the first time and ended up taking a test drive. Yesterday was like they cast a Berserk spell on all the salesmen or they'd entered a timed bonus level or made contact with a shiny Invincibility Star, compared to how it was a week ago, calm, chill, and low-key. But it was the end of the month and that's just how dealerships are. It might have been a bad situation if I'd walked in unprepared for typical dealership "end of the month" mode (my boss had actually brought it up yesterday morning!) or if yesterday had been my first visit to the place, but that's not what it was and I digress. My point is, I was very impressed with how I was treated and how they served me. They gave me time to think without hovering when I asked them to, the salesman walked into the dealership to get real, truthful answers to my questions when he couldn't readily provide one on the fly, and they were cool with the fact that I was dead-set on certain characteristics, such as blue car color (even though they were really trying to move cars off the lot yesterday). I bet I would have even gotten some kind of good deal if I'd had to order the car. I was just really impressed, and as such, I don't mind that I've got their dealership sticker on my trunk. Can't say a bad thing about any part of the experience...other than the fact I don't remember any of the negotiating because I kept trying to keep my head on straight as they were trying to get me to accept a deal! Also, when final selling prices and monthly payments and interest percentages began to get thrown around - I hate to admit it - even as a math teacher, I got overwhelmed quickly, trying to keep all the numbers straight. But it was all good; they didn't mind clarifying or repeating things for me. :)

This is the first car that I have ever officially owned (the other two cars I've driven, while "technically mine", were given to my family for free from very generous family members. This car is the first one I've ever had to pay even a single cent for, and I'm the only one who will ever pay even a single cent on this car. It's mine. And I love it.

As you can see, the Jagster's very happy to have found a home off the lot, lol. :)

• I've clocked in almost 95 hours into my FFXII savefile. I've still got so much more to do in that game before I move on. I think it just might top FFVII as my #1 favorite Final Fantasy game.
• Still nowhere with the whole "PS3 online" bit. Gonna call Netgear sometime soon to see what they have to say about their router that's giving me issues.
• Job hunting season has begun again! I revamped my resume like crazy and I'm making the rounds around the area. Hoping I get some bites and something sticks.
• My car, the one that got stolen? Classified as "totalled" by the appraiser. I got $4600 for it from insurance, so that's a good start towards a new or used car. Looks like on top of everything else on my plate right now, I'm goin' car shopping. 8)

And now I'm off to work. The end.