Anyone collect old magazines? I have a bunch of old nintendo power magazines that I decided I don't need. I would hate to throw them out, but those and some old games, and other crap have got to go. Speaking of which, I've got some Maxim and Stuff and FHM magazines if anyone is interested. I'm thinking price of shipping plus a few bucks for the trouble, and they are yours. Picking them up would be even cheaper. (in washington/oregon)

Nintendo Power was the s**t back in the day. These would be a good item for that gotta have it all kind of collector.

Well, after WAY too long playing KOTOR, I finally got to the end. And after what seems like 10 tries or more just on the 2nd to last boss, I have decided that life is to short to keep playing. So its on to the next game. I read the end of a walk through, and then end is pretty much "you thought that boss was hard, well check this last guy and his endless life and supply of droids out." Great game and everything, but if you make the computer too strong in just a few certain spots, it just ruins it for me. I don't want to wipe out 90% of the bad guys without even trying, and have to replay a handful of trouble spots over and over and over and over, just to see some cutscenes.

It seems like bounty hunter got like this, and Driv3r, and spy vs spy, and kung fu chaos, and etc. etc. Now that I think about it, a lot of games have this problem. Oh well, thats why they make thousands of games. So everyone can find something they like. I guess my main b***h is that this game is RPG, and not based on skill, but based on how lucky your character gets when you tell it what move to make. It gest old fast if your character just isn't strong enough and you can't backtrack to choose a different path, so I'll wait for KOTOR 2 in the mail, and start over on that one.

When the going gets tough, erikgus gets drunk. and quits. and takes his ball and goes home. :P

And another one gone and another one gone and another one bites the dust. (union invites probably now get complained about more than the reviews...)

You should be in no more than a couple unions. tops.

Legolas_Katarn, goodbye. what the heck is a huxley unlimited union.

Zaber13, goodbye. what the heck is a legendary consoles unions.

edit: wait, neither of these people are even on my friends list. looks like its an IGNORE for both of them. I wrote that I would need to leave unions to stop additional union invites, but both these guys aren't in any of my unions and aren't on my lists or in the forums i visit. How the Hell are they finding me to spam me? UHHHHHH, I HATE UNIONS.

and i hit up my blog with some non-video game whining type posting.

edit: I also finished Harry Potter #6. great book. so good that I actually feel bad and good for the characters while I am reading it.

gus008 is the name of my blog . I thought maybe if i wanted someone to read it i better get it off a video game site. then my entries here can be shorter, and have links to the rambling s**t on my blog. we will see if I have the will power to keep gamespot, a blog, and my website going, as well as planning a class reunion and making a site for that, and going to all these weddings and crap... video games: i ordered KOTOR 2, so I will have to beat the first one this weekend. Plus there is a slightly better chance then 0% that I will finally dig out my video games and stuff and sell them to (you know who you are) on gamespot or on ebay. movies: my friend in china sent me the star wars boxed set, all 6 movies. kinda funny cause the packaging is in chinese, the pictures are ep 3, the box says its only ep 2, but all 6 are inside. and the little flyers for each movie resemble new dvd covers, but with pictures on the back that do not match each movie. Now I just have to watch them and see if they work and how the subtitles work...

edit: speaking of blog, it has photo hosting, so I am no longer stuck with angelfire unlinkable pics.

edit again: never mind, it keeps adding a space, so I am guessing that means no linking from blogspot either. dam.

This is almost like a blog, except no one I know outside of gamespot actually reads it. I'm considering actually using my blog that I never use, and just cutting and pasting the info here. So here goes...(what follows will make it to a blog)

Did anyone ever talk you into doing something that you kept saying no to, basically just because you were being lazy? And then when it turned out good, did you thank them for talking you into it? I bet you didn't, and you should, because you know if it had turned out crappy, you would have been beating them senseless with the "I Told You So" stick...

Well my wife and I needed to go to the fair (small town, small fair) to see some pictures that our friend Amy had entered in the photo contest. We realized this at 6:35, as I also realized that I had not clipped the free entry coupon from the paper at work, and that it would probably be 5 or 6 bucks to get in, even though we would be there 20 minutes tops. To make a long story longer, after much convincing we get the papers, clip the coupons and race over to the fair to make it to the gate right at 7:00, the coupons work (saving me $12 bucks, not $10) and we get to see the pictures, including one of Amy's and our friend Nate's with honorable mention ribbons, and a friend of the family with a 2nd place ribbon, and it was all free.

And you know what I did? I said thank you to Abby for making me get off my ass and running to get the papers and making me go to see the pictures, because there were really some outstanding shots. Think about that the next time you are laying in to someone for talking you into something that blows up in your faces...

And on another note: I emailed Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert, today and he actually emailed me back. Pretty cool, and made me feel much more important than I really am. It went something like this...

• Mr. Adams, Is it just me, or is the officer in today's comic shooting bullets out of a donut? - Erik
• Erik, My editor wouldn't let me show a gun in the comic. So I replaced it with a doughnut that shoots bullets. Everyone seems happy. - Scott

Plus the Lama, a big hitter the Lama, told me that on my death bed, I would have extreme consciousness. So I got that going for me, which is nice.

I am also interested in figuring out how to access the hot coffee mod on GTA:SA if anyone can tell me how or direct me to a place to find out how. I keep getting into discussions about it, but haven't actually seen it and want to form my own opinion on whether it is funny, lame, offensive, or not worth all the hype. And whether it is closer to the M rating of that Sims game, or closer the AO version since they just changed the rating of GTA and I heard its not any worse then the M rating since there actually isn't nudity...

That's right wedding fans, I got a phone call last week, followed by the invite today. I wasn't sure if it was 8 or 9 weddings I had plans to attend this year...That number has now risen to 11, maybe 12 cause there is still one wedding I heard about but haven't received any phone calls about or invites to yet. If I hit a dozen, I may have to do something drastic like get real real real drunk and get un-invtited to some of the weddings that will undoubtablely be on the agenda for next year. Of course, one guy has already done that at 3 of the last 4 hes been to the past couple years, and he keeps going. hmmmm.

As for gaming, I thought I was close to beating KOTOR, and then low and behold, my ship is brought down by a disrupter field and I find myself not on the way to the last location as I previously thought. But I went ahead and bought KOTOR 2 off ebay anyways, and hope to have it taking the place of all other video games in my life soon.

And as for gaming news, this article gives me a chub. I want to play Diablo 3 almost as much as I want to play starcraft 2.

Jekyl has a really good idea. If you send massive amounts of union invites with no explanation or anything, you should get booted from peoples friends lists. If you find yourselves on this list, feel free to send me a new friend invite and I'll add you back on...if you promise to not junk mail me union requests. I was off the forums for a month or so, and have 43 messages waiting for me. luckily they are not all union invites, but unfortunately I saw the list just after I read jekyl's journal post. so you all are the weakest link. goodbye.

• the TNA: The Alternative union. -kieblerfan69, goodbye
• The PSone Alliance union. -maximummaker, goodbye
• the Console Control union. -Lordgamer0001, goodbye
• The Shenmue Union. (Twice)-maximummaker, oohhh, man I got this request twice, and I recoginze your name from other requests I have declined. You are so gone, and don't come back. no wants to join all 50 unions you belong to.
• The Military History Union.-DarthMichael20, goodbye
• The Lucas Arts Union.-DarthMichael20, goodbye, I know we are in the star wars union together, but I don't need to be in 4 of them like you, nor am i interested in the other 10 unions you are in...seriously, do people on here have time to actually participate in more than a couple unions???
• The rpg star wars and general discussion union. -DarthMichael20, seriously do you wear a shirt that says "geek" on it like I do?
• The StarWars BattleFront Union 2 union. -DarthMichael20, before I clicked on this one, I thought, I wonder if this is from Darth Michael. KNOW THIS: I will never turn to the dark side after all these union invites. In fact, when I go home tonight and try to finish KOTOR, I am specifically finishing up the light path just to spite you and the rest of the Sith!
• the Games Fans Union. -Hosam_Saif , goodbye (at least you weren't Darth Michael, but you still get the axe, wait, I just realized that I don't think you are even on my friends list. who are you? where did you come from?, why is the name of that union SO LAME?)
• The Huxley Unlimited Union. -Hellmen21 (I read your journal, but I also realized that the big red type is annoying, and then I find a union invite. sorry goodbye. please send me a friendrequest if you really want me on your list and to read each other journals, or if you dont care, then do nothing)
• the Halo 3 union. -Citoreh (I do like Halo, but I don't like union invites with no explanation. In fact most of the halo related unions are full of little kids saying HALO ROCKS, which got old about 4 months ago, maybe 6...)
• the International News Network union. -Citoreh, again, and you sent me two of this one. goodbye.
• The Virtua Fighter Union. -Demon2545, sent it twice, don't know you, goodbye.
• the The Contra Alliance union. -maximummaker (wow, i hope people are reading this and realizing they can save themselves a union invite or two a week just by getting rid of this guy) again, it was sent to me twice...
• World Wrestling Everything union. -keiblerfan69, again, goodbye.
• the flood zone union. -atmk, goodbye, and now that im looking at all these union requests from people I don't know, I think maybe an "ignore" is in order, considering I don't think half these people are even on my friends lists...
• the Golden Gamers union. -Aussie_kid_2, this is getting rediculous.
• the Portable Gaming Network union. -maximummaker, I hate you, and you sent this one twice, again.
• The Jedi Fury Union -Killzone_Master, goodbye. How about you guys get together and combine all 30 star wars unions into one....
• the Beefdogs hangout union. -cornholio157, goodbye
• the World of Warcraft Players Union. -stryker1234 I dont even have WOW, jeez, goodbye.

Just so you know, I am nice enough to decline rather than just delete the messages. Also please note as you read this, that I have no problem joining a union that matches my interests. (especially if we chat a lot on here and you actually ask me to join rather than just junk mailing me.) And I did actually join a few of these requests becuase they sound very interesting. But for the most part, I wonder how long the union invite option will stay the way it is, cause everyone complains about it (except for the spammers of course).

• Welcome to the Star Wars: The Expanded Universe Union! - Thanks A-Low (although I don't recoginze the tag, the title is right down my alley. You all sent me a seperate note about this union allying with the union im already in, which was a good touch.)
• Welcome to the My Empire of Rated M Lovers union!- Thanks Lik (although this sounds cool, I may end up leaving if it isn't, because there are too many unions...

and on top of that, I would really like a little note saying why I should add a friend (same as a union). Until you identify yourself, or unless I recognize the name from the forums, I will add you as a friend as soon as the next star wars movie comes out...(yeah, that would be never)

End of the day, finally done. As my good friend Jay would say "F**k all that s**t Silent Bob." Im leaving a few unions, and deleting some friends. I could have been online actually talking about games, or better yet, playing them, and instead of that i was here, b***hing about unions. so even though i joined those two, i probably will only keep the first, and am going right now to leave all but 1 or 2 of the other ones im in.

NOTE TO UNION SPAMMERS: If there is already a union (or 20) exactly like what you want to start, why don't you just join the one that already exists.

NOTE TO GAMESPOT: Easy fix for this would be to limit people to one union they can create. period.

Interesting news. I just found out (via the local papers I was checking out that I missed while on vacation) that the author of the new age of conan books is from my hometown, went to my middle school and everything. conan.com kind of cool to see. Now if i could just get some contact info and find out when he will be signing books next, that would be cool.

That led me to gamespot the round about way of through his interview on conan.com then to the front page, then to the mention of the upcoming MMORPG coming out next year titled age of conan. Definately going to have to check that out, considering KOTOR and Diablo have got me back into playing RPG again. Im going to get Fable and KOTOR 2 this week (if I can finally beat KOTOR. Man this game is taking days to beat.)

I never did get Conker, and seeing that I am hemoraghing money with all the weddings, back yard remodel ($4,000 ouch), vacation, hotel rooms, and normal ebay addiction, it will probably be used games for me for awhile. I dropped $80 on Spy vs Spy and Doom 3 in one day, and got stuck half way on both and havent picked em back up. Stupid stupid stupid...

Of course, we did eat dinner at a great place called Stella's in New Orleans. Not sure if I mentioned this yet, but it was the best meal of the year, even better than the place we ate in Astoria after the Crab and Seafood fest. This might be because we sat next to Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Brodrick (cough, NAME DROPPER!), or because it was really expensive and really really good. I'm not sure. and $50 each is really nothing compared to the $30-60 i dropped each day, and the fact that I was paying for my sister and my wife almost everywhere we went...

and I have been so busy, i haven't been on here, and also forgot about checking my favorite blog out. If you haven't seen pork tornado yet, you are missing out. It is one of the few blogs that is seriously funny enough to go back and read all the old ones, even though it will take you hours, its worth it.

Vote for Tricia at Sonics.com for the 2005 dance squad.

In case you didn't see it in my sig. I know I haven't been around much, but a friend whos been on the squad for a few years asked for some help cause this years voting is partly decided by online fan votes. So help her out. Plus, as you can see, she deserves to be back on the squad for obvious reasons... (i.e. shes hot)

So, I'm back from vacation. Time to start going back to work tomorrow. I'm only on here for a little help with KOTOR, which I figured out on my own while the computer was booting up. So back to the game. See you around.

p.s. Harry Potter arrived in the mail. Maybe I will turn off the xbox and go read all night...