A little thing about the little things in life. - Updated whenever the fuck I feel like it!
Wednesday, November 30, 2005
Pick up and Play
Okay, I'll be fitting in a quick update, as it's been a while, I guess.
The fair, all in all, was less tiring than the last couple. This was partly due to the horrid weather we had, as it meant less visitors as well. So I'm not as tired as I was after the last few.
Having said that, I am busy with my other job right now, so that's why I didn't have time to post.
I did, however, take advantage of my free Monday to visit my VG-store as per usual. I bought myself Mario Kart DS, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney and Dynasty Warriors Advance. In other words, I have something to do.
Besides that, it's been rather eventless. As is to be expected when I'm busy on the job, for I don't have the time for whacky adventures. After our next fair - Gent - I'll have some more time, as there's going to be a gap 'till Februari for the next one after that.
Well, that was the Saturday, then. The HCC was easy, to say the least. I got some time to go check some stuff out for myself, and the work part was just, well, nothing at all.
I even ran into two people from the Radiostation, who were there for public-relation reasons. I'll be going over there next week (so soon already?) for a meeting, too. That's Saturday the 3rd, at 18:30, so I'll be back home rather late, then. Ah well, all in a day's work, right?
This means I'll only be having a one day weekend next week as well, unless that whole Monday off thing works out.
Tomorrow is the end of our Nieuwegein fair, so that's going to be a late job again getting everything down.
And then Monday I go and pick up my Mario Kart at the VG-store. I could have gotten it today, but I don't think VB would have approved of that.
Speaking of karting, today was cancelled as well. The track was full once more. Damn!
Anyways, considering the recent releases and the upcoming things the next couple of months, I'm considering putting WoW on a halt for a while - maybe even just skipping it altogether. This is going to get a lot of people on my back, but I have to prioritize, and I am still, first and foremost, a console-gamer.
With that, though, I'll leave you for now. Maybe I'll have some more time next week.
Well then, here I am again. Busy busy busy right now, though, so it won't be a long post.
The buildup went by relatively quick, but there were some glitches that should really be getting fixed soon.
A small team of us, indluding yours truly, did the buildup for the HCC today. I will be at the stand on Saturday. Which means that I'll also have some time to check out the GameXpo. And I'll be done in time to go karting. Woohoo!
Okay, I don't know what I should and shouldn't be posting today, so I'll just get it over with and see what happens.
Yesterday started out the usual way, with work. Oh, actually, it started with me getting fined for riding my bike without any lights on, but that's just not relevant. The relevant part is that I went to work. I left there at 14:00, racing back home to get the present, and on to the bakery to get the birthday-cake, and trying to get it at the VG-store in one piece, which I managed somehow.
There were quite a bit of people there already waiting, and a couple joined in later, which was just as well, since the cake was made for a 16-person one, especially made with VB's avatar on it and all. It tasted good, but it looked even better.
I'm not going to tell you everything else she got for her birthday - that's not up to me to tell. I can tell you she got showered in gifts, though.
After that, for a while, it was just a group of people hanging out, basically, untill she had to leave for that other thing I still won't mention.
Today was back to work again, but I had quite some trouble keeping focussed on my work. Luckily, it didn't last for ever, and I was able to get home in time. I left rather soon again, to visit the VG-store - again. I just didn't feel like hanging around the house all alone.
Well then, let's make an effort again. 'Tis Sunday, the final day of the weekend, and the final day before Nieuwegein Fair Week. This week, though, we also have a stand at the HCC (which is computer-related, for those abroad), so we have to split our forces.
Tomorrow, though, my focus will be getting back as soon as possible. I have said that I would be leaving at 14:00 at the latest, but I'll try to see if there's any way to leave before that. You see, tomorrow is VB's birthday, and there's no way I'm not attending, now is there? And considering the fact that she and Manece will be leaving pretty early in the afternoon for some other event which will remain unnamed on this weblog due to censorship-issues, I have to get there as early as possible.
This weekend was spent on a couple of things, too. Sadly, like I already told you, there was no karting on Friday. There were a couple of VG-store visits, there was the fixing of my bike - or, rather, a whole new bloody tire. There was a gap in mine about 1.5 cm in length. No way in hell to fix that, then. The bike-guy saw it and decided not even to try it.
I managed to find a present for VB, too. I hope she'll like it, as I really didn't know what to get her.
Other than that, I continued on The Record of Lodoss War, listened to some CD's, and did some work for GamesFM. I also did a wee bit of reading (although very wee indeed).
And that would cover my totally usual and thus rather uninteresting weekend. So that's all there's to it. I wish I could tell you about my wondrous adventures in the land of Dëàriiël, but you wouldn't believe it if I told you anyways.
Well then, here I am again. I really don't know what I should be writing about right now, but I'll give it a shot.
*Gives it a shot*
Hmm... I'll just make a little thing about nothing in particular, then. Just for the hell of it.
It's cold outside in the morning. And when I say cold, I mean cold. Even worse, I'm out there only a short while after getting out of my nice, comfortable, warm bed. It's not very motivating getting up in the dark. It's even worse knowing that once you get outside, you'll almost freeze to death. Worse still, is the fact that you'll survive to freeze again another time.
The plan for tonight was to go karting, however, I got a phonecall once I was back home that the track was full 'till about the end of the night, so it's rescheduled to next week, although I can't guarantee my presence then.
I did still go by my VG-store, though, even though my original reason to go there - karting - was cancelled. It's just, you know, I could stay in all night by myself, but that's just so, well, alone. So I went there anyhow. I even ran into Venusbelly on the way there, who was just leaving at the time. I hope she's not angry at my visiting during her absence, but I spent whatever time I could with her before going in just in case. I wouldn't want any retributions.
On the way back, I got a flat on my front wheel. Some stupid fuck thought it would be a nice idea to break a beer bottle on the cycle path, and I ran through one of his shards of glass. It was dark, and they were lying between the leaves. Damn. I'll be needing my bike next week - especially on Monday and Saturday, if my plans are to work out.
So that sucks then. Now, I'll have to find the time somewhere to get that fixed, but I don't have that time in my schedule. My weekend was basically booked to the full. Damn it.
What else, then? Any good news? Let's see...
Hmm, there is some good news. A plane did not crash on me today, which is always nice. I consider this to be today's good news. If you always make up worst case scenarios, you usually end up on a positive note, don't you?
On a totally different note, then, when I was on my bike heading for my VG-store, I noticed there was a car-crash on the crossroads just behind here. I noticed a bus and a car somehow entangled, and there was an ambulance and 2 policecars. I don't know what happened, as I didn't stop to find out. If you can't help, you shouldn't get in the way.
Once again on a totally different note, I vote for fixing it so that the sun gets up a bit higher in the sky when I'm riding my bike, or sitting for my break. It just shines right into my eyes whatever I do these days, it's no good. If only it would warm things up, too, but noooooo. Either it's broken, or someone's left the windows open, 'cause I don't see it warming things up around here.
But since this post is getting quite incoherent, I'll leave you here.
Err... Yeah... So I should really post something here today, shouldn't I?
Well, I forgot my keys this morning, but luckily, my sis was in, so I could recover them prior to work (otherwise, I wouldn't have been able to go there by bike, by the way). After work, I wanted to go to the VG-store. I forgot my keys again. I had to walk there. It takes about 45 minutes on foot. It started raining about halfway there. Just one of those days, I guess.
By the way, does anyone need a N64-keychain? I have a couple left.
Karting next Friday. Fair next week. Busy times, they are. At least it keeps me distracted, as this is usually bad times for me. I never really can take the whole dark, cold time of the year. And the holidays are usually even worse to me. But I'll just have to pull through there. You might notice that I don't really feel like writing stuff on a daily basis for a while, but that comes with the season for me. It's a recurring event, I guess.
Okay, so I feel this extreme need to make a fun post today, seeing as how it's 11-11 at 11:11, but I can't guarantee anything. After all, I'm never any fun, right? On top of that, my personal calendar doesn't run parallel to the one used in general. I prefer to use the ancient Roman calendar, starting when life starts to respawn in nature, and actually making November the ninth (novem) month. This is also the reason why Februari has only 28/29 days - they gave all months 30/31 days, and dumped the leftovers in the last month of the year. This usually makes for people that don't understand why I don't feel like celebrating new-years in their usual way. Wishing me new year two months early just makes no sense to me - how would you react if someone came up to you and wished you a happy new year in October?
But enough of my calendar-rantings. After all, no-one cares, right?
Yesterday there was no post. This was because of my VG-store visit after work. It was a fun night - 'till around 22:15, meaning I was back home at around 22:45-ish, and with a couple of things left to be done, I had no time for posting.
At the VG-store, it was a busy thing. They had just received the demo unit of the next console, and there were a lot of people trying it out. I haven't touched it, though. Why should I? It's not the Revolution, is it? I spent my gaming time there on Tetris Attack, on the good old SNE(S).
I have to thank Sci for the Katamari CD's as well. They're absolutely fantastic! That music is just so happy, I can't help loving it.
But that's not all for yesterday. At work, we have received a load of Tokyopop manga. We got them a couple of days before Eindhoven, but it was decided to only take them to Nieuwegein, which is our next fair. So they were left for during Eindhoven to be finished.
I got to finish them. It was a pack of 250 booklets. They are priced at $ 9.99 across the Big Pond, and I usually buy them at around € 12,50 at my Comics-store or € 7,50 at Archonia.com, but we had them at the laughable price of € 1,99! There are 207 going to Nieuwegein, the rest of them is sitting nicely in my bedroom right this instant.
This week is going pretty well on the new stuff front, then.
And then we have today. At work it was a final crawl to the weekend for everyone - the healthbars were pretty low today. I guess I'm not the only one that's struck by fatigue, then. But that's only to be expected, I guess.
After that, not much of interest happened today. I did make a nice drawing, though:
Nice, eh? I can really work that mouse in Paint, can't I?
And just because I can't resist, here's my newest hardware (not actually my unit, but it will give those of you unknown with obscure hardware an idea of what I was talking about):
Hmm... I'm trying to think of something fun to end the day with.
Ah yes: the return of question time, let's call it the 4 times 1 edition:
You're sitting at the back of class. It's math, and you were never really good at it. The teacher, an old man, slightly frustrated because his wife left him for the mailman just a few days ago, knows this, and decides to vent his anger on you. He calls you to the front of class. You have to fill in the solutions to the calculations on the board. You do pretty well for the first three, but you get stuck on the fourth problem. You just don't know how much 4444 / 4 is. What do you fill in?
The year is 1111. You are a young priestess in some weird sect worshipping the Holy Number One, and today is the most holy day of the year: The Eleventh of the Eleventh. What do you wear to the celebration - keeping in mind, of course, that you are only allowed one item of clothing?
Fast forward to the year 11111. That same sect has become more mainstream, with 11.111.111 followers worldwide (it's still a smaller religion, but it's no longer a sect). You are once again a priestess in this religion and you are now celebrating the most holy day since 10.000 years, which will be the holiest day ever for another 100.000 years untill the year 111111. What changes were made to the ritual since our previous setting, and how does this include the Holy Number One?
Hmmm... It would seem all the excitement from these past few weeks has gotten the best of me. I had to leave work early today, as I wasn't feeling a 100%. In fact, this morning, I was feeling more around 40-50%, to say the least. I really needed the break.
I spent most of the day lying on either the bench or my bed, doing nothing but resting up. I hope I'll be feeling better tomorrow, as I had some things planned for the evening as well. I'll just have to take it easy, I guess. And not go to bed too late tonight.
I wish to apologize for my extended absentee-ism. I was planning to post yesterday, but something important came up. Something very important. In fact, it was almost a matter of life and death.
I'll tell you all about it, then. But, I'll start at the beginning of the day. That is, the beginning of Monday. The weekend was all work and no play, so not interesting.
Monday, then. After coming back home from work at 01:00, I had to get some quick shut-eye. For, of course, I had to visit my VG-store in the morning. It was a nice day, I ran into Eresir before they were even open, as he had taken the day off from school. I met denitonis for the first time ever, which was long overdue as far as I'm concerned. There was also alexbaba and some guys I'm not sure of their nick of. And of course the staff, starring madspunky, RNS and, most importantly, the ever charming Venusbelly.
It was a good day. I stayed, of course, 'till 20:00. I mean, seriously, like there was any other choice. After all, I had to make the most of my day off. I took home my newly acquired pink GB Micro. I know it wasn't a priority, but I could get it second hand, so I moved it up a bit. It's terribly cute, even though the screen is slightly small. Then again, it's mighty practical. You can seriously carry it everywhere. It's about the size of an average mobile phone, so you can imagine how portable it really is.
Once I got home, at about 21:00 (I had to eat as well), I snooped around their forum for a bit, and found big-jer asking for my phonenumber. He had told his friend - whom, incidentally, happened to be an old acquaintance of mine, as he worked in my previous VG-store - who I was, and I got his phonenumber right then and there. Or, well, kind of.
I Alexander Graham Bell-ed him up, then, and we arranged for a meeting that very night. I was there at his place at around 23:00, and we took our time to check what it was I would be getting. For you see, he had a lot of interesting stuff which he had left from his VG-store period, and he had to get rid of a large part of his collection due to space restrictions. I have a large load still waiting for me there, that's being held 'till I come and pick it up. He knows me well enough to know that I'll come and get it, heh.
But most important, of course, is that I managed to get my greedy little hands on that Virtual Boy. Yes, I know, it's unbelievable. Yet it's true. I finally have every Nintendo console in my collection, which now as follows:
1 Nintendo Entertainment System
1 Super Nintendo Entertainment System
1 Nintendo 64 (Standard)
1 Nintendo GameCube (Purple)
1 Game Boy (Classic)
1 Game Boy Pocket (see-through white edition)
2 Game Boy Color (Purple)
1 Game Boy Advance (see-through blue edition)
3 Game Boy Advance Special Project (Famicom color, Zelda, Pink)
2 Nintendo Dual Screen (Standard, Pink)
1 Game Boy Micro (Pink)
1 Virtual Boy
1 Pokémon Mini (Green)
Looks fairly complete, doesn't it? And I can get my games from anywhere without a problem, as I have converters for all my consoles except my region-unlocked NES.
Anyways, I only got back home at 01:30, which is too late for my blog, but I couldn't sleep for a while. I ended up sleeping at around 02:3o. My alarm-clock, however, took no note of this and still went on happily ringing at 05:30, as he always does when I have to go to work. Sometimes I really hate that thing. It's like I previously said, I omniloathe waking up in the morning.
Work, then, was obviously very hard today. I had a lot of trouble starting up in the morning, which is usual, but today was extreme. However, once I did get started, I felt the rush from the night before that got me going again. So I ended up on a high again.
But this entry has been keeping your attention for way too long now. So then, I say
Well then, due to excessive calmness at the fair today, I was able to get out of there in time for a surprise-visit (it was early, I wasn't expected 'till Monday) at my VG-store. There, I got a GB Micro shoved under my nose, as if I was meant to buy it. Which I didn't, by the way.
There is a chance, however, that I have a Virtual Boy in my area waiting to be bought. Through another guy on their forum, I may be getting one soon. Which would be absolutely great. I'm just hoping it's not a hoax.
Other than that, no news from me. I'm still not sure about tomorrow night, but today I'm just sticking to my other project again, getting another bit of work done on that.
And I even made it back in time for bloggin'! How about that?
It was an absolute mess, over there in Eindhoven. The totally disorganized rush-job in Brussels on the Sunday was having it's full effect on us these past two days. Add to that the fact that we were unable to organize enough students to help us out, and you have a high-tension stress job getting everything done in time.
But it's done. And now it's all hoping it wasn't for naught. But I doubt that will be the case.
I begin at 11:00 tomorrow, so I can get some rest in, which is nice. Very nice.
And this, then, is all you're getting from me tonight, as I don't know what else to tell you. A short one, then, but an update nonetheless.
Wee! Internet in the hotel! I can post! I can post! This is great! Ah well, it's not like you wouldn't have survived without me, but still, I'm using every oportunity I get right now.
Today has been a fairly long day, then. The ones of us that were left started the day by loading the last trailer, and then we left for Eindhoven to join the rest of the crew. There we went on to do as much as we could with the rather messy stuff we had left from Brussels, and the newer stuff we brought along now. All in all, it was a pretty, well, scruffy day.
Yesterday's hours were 07:30 - 17:15, today was 08:30 - 19:00, and tomorrow will probably be pretty late as well, as we still have to get back to IJsselstein after we're done. Right now I'm in our Eindhoven hotel, which, truth be told, is rather good.
So then, what can I say besides all of this? Well, I can say that, if you want to keep yourselves busy untill my return to "regular" life, I can advise you to try out this little gem. It's pretty good, once you get the hang of it. All the while, I'll be cursing at this medie-eval computer this hotel provided me with. It doesn't even register CTRL+C -> CTRL+V... I had to type the URL. How old fashioned can you get... Typing... Tss...
Next up - My planning for next week. Well, I don't have anything planned for real, other than my day-off\VG-store thingy I announced to Sci at least. This means that I'm missing the music games, yet I'll hear all the stories the following day. I'm not sure that's a good idea, but I guess I'll have to make due with what I have, then. That's the way it is, isn't it?
What else can I say? Not much, I guess. So I'll leave you here. I have about 45 minutes of web-time left on my card, so I'll go play some online games or something.
