Yay, it’s 2004. I’m not sure it matters, but last January I had dubbed 2003 to be the “year from he**” Here’s hoping 2004 will be kinder. (2003 improved as time went on, say, about april 2003…)One of the companies I work for gave me a nice present, a Zodiac 2, for christmas, although due to shipping delays they didn’t get it until the end of the year. It looks great, and the sound is amazing on it.

FFXI is far too addictive.My original goal was to have a game I could play that would keep me occupied until my finances recovered to the point where I could buy new games. I had added it up and figured that for it to meet my average RPG cost, that I’d need to play 8 hours a week for the first 2 months, then at least 4 hours a week after that.

Man, Ratchet and Clank 2 is good. They didn’t mess with the formula much, which is also a good thing. I picked it up last wednesday, and already tossed 22 hours on it, and have everything but the 1-million-bolts-plus armor and weapons. I’m short 2 platinum bolts as well. I’ll have to track those down. I’m on the final boss (I think), and keep getting about 15% left on his health before one of the side-turrets nail me.

Well, I’ve been waiting for R&C2 for months. Nov 11th… It finally came…Yet, I do not have the game. Why? Software Etc, my local branch of gamestop/electronic boutique. I made a special trip out during my lunch break today. They first said “We don’t have it yet.” When I asked further, they looked it up on their computer and said that it was in the back in a box still. I asked if they could get it out for me and they stated “No.

Bored… I don’t feel like playing any of the games I have here. Hmm.Well, I guess I could play some more Unreal. Perhaps I should play the demo for R&C2 more. I hate when I’ve finished all the games I think I have time for, right before a new one is released. Hmm. It’ll be post-work tomorrow before I can play it too. :(In other news, I wonder how many people have heard of any of the songs I toss in my “music” section.

Another game polished off, this one not long after I bought it. It helped that it was only about a 11 hour game. It has a Hard mode which I’m not sure if I’ll try and finish. All in all, despite how ancient the game is, it was fun. I paid all of $10 for it, and managed 11 hours. About par for rpg games I buy. (90 cents per hour.

I upgraded!Here’s the modification in the stats for my systems.Lain:Athlon 850mhz -> Celeron socket478 2.4ghz256mb PC133 -> 256mb DDR2700300watt non-p4-approved -> 300watt p4 approvedShuttle AI61 motherboard -> Shuttle AB60N mb3com 3x59x lan card -> built in intel lan cardYamaha XG sound card -> Realtek AC97 lan card.(ok, so the last two aren’t really upgrades… I hope to put a SBLive or some better sound card in eventually, but at least the Yamaha isn’t in my system anymore to crash it whenever I plug in the speakers)Ruri:Athlon 500mhz -> Athlon 850mhz256mb PC133 -> 384mb PC133HP-OEM Asus K7M -> Shuttle AI61 motherboardNo cdrom drive -> 40x IDE drive for ripping cdsThe final results?

I was really excited about apple iTunes. I thought that they could be a reliable source for buying e-music online. Well, it looks like they’re not going to be the source for me. I bought one cd from them this week. Bowling for Soup - Lets do it for johnny. I immediately burned a music cd of it for my car. Well, I upgraded my computer 2 days later, figuring that the LBA couldn’t have changed much since the last generation of motherboards, I was wrong.

You may or may not know that I have way too many games. I frequently start a game, and go half way, or most of the way through it in the first few weeks I have it, then never quite finish it. ZOE was like that. I had 3 hours finished on it, and just stuck it on the shelf when I bought my Gamecube, thinking that it was probably a 20 hour game and I’d finish it later.

I bought FFX over a year ago. I had it darn near close to finished (although I didn’t know it at the time) and was at the final “serious” boss. (there’s two non-serious bosses afterward that there is just no possible way to lose on, like the final battle in FFVII)I lost my memory card. I had about 68 hours in the game at the time.(Not only that, but my Dark Cloud 1 game was on there.