10.25.06
Unified Theory
Do you know, ladies and gentlemen, what happens when you turn your back on the wild and wooly world that is gaming? Well, yes, you do manage to get a life, but I’m talking about a temporary, “moving from Cleveland to Pittsburgh” kind of turning my back. What happens is that all hell breaks loose. As I haven’t really had much of a chance to let everyone know what is up, I figure now is as good a time as any to give the rundown of the last week’s events.
On October 17th, I was offered a job at a fairly high-tech company down on the east side of Pittsburgh. I accepted the position and made plans to start on the 30th. As luck would have it, I had come across good luck in that the resolution to the Secret Project had occurred over the weekend prior, and as a result I haven’t had to worry too much about the costs of moving. Most everything has been taken care of, and all that remains as of right now is for me to haul all my stuff down there (I got the keys to the new place on Monday of this week). When I got back to Cleveland on the 23rd, I figured all I had to do was to just go ahead and pack up all my stuff; on Friday I’d rent a U-Haul and drive the whole shebang down in one run.
Yeah, that kinda wasn’t gonna happen.
See, for whatever reason, I could not activate the electric utility over the phone Tuesday morning. I was told that I would have to go down to the office in downtown Pittsburgh, or else I needed to wait for them to mail me a form, and then I had to mail it back with a deposit. Fun thing about it is that my lease said if I didn’t get electricity in my name within three days, I would lose the apartment (and forfeit my deposit et al). Mailing was not an option. I loaded up my car with as much stuff as I could and drove down to Pittsburgh yesterday afternoon. On the way I also called and set up appointments for cable and internet.
The cable appointment was either Thursday, or not for three weeks. And the DSL is being installed on the 1st. While I have been assured that I will be allowed to leave work to get the DSL installed, the cable is a different matter. See, of all of the things in my apartment, the TV is by far the heaviest. But without a working TV in the apartment, the cable technician can’t check to see that the cable is installed properly and I’ll be pretty much waiting until three weeks from now for him to come out again (oh, and he’ll charge me for wasting the trip). Ideally I would have let it go until Friday, when I would have help. As stated, however, I don’t want to wait three weeks without cable, so I get the wonderful experience of hauling the TV myself. Which is what U-Haul is for, except I’m not renting the truck until Friday.
It’s not really so bad, actually. See, when I bought the TV– back in Erie– I dragged it up a flight and a half of stairs. I did it once, I can probably do it again. Probably.
All right, enough about life. I’m trying to keep a positive outlook for the time being so if I harp on what’s going wrong, that’s not going to help at all. Let’s see, what can I say…
The Chinese buffet near the new place is terrible, and I don’t think I’ll be going ba– dammit, positive. Hrm.
I found a DDR machine near the new place, in a theater. That’s positive! Except it’s an Extreme machine that’s a buck for three songs. GAH.
NaNo approaches; I still have no idea what I wan– wait, I’m probably going with Five Hundred Prayers.
I think Phoenix Wright got reprinted; I picked up a copy when I was in Pittsburgh but also saw a copy when I went to Macedonia for the– aah, yeah, there is that.
So, Final Fantasy XII. The forums are all atwitter with early predictions and hopes. I of course seem to be able to see both sides of the main argument– there’s some elements from FF Tactics Advance that are getting a more fleshed-out treatment, but at the same time the gameplay is not entirely dissimilar to dot Hack. While I’ll refrain from actually going ahead and saying what I think– because right now I’m going off of fuzzy, pain-enriched memories of the last time I played the game, five months ago– I should probably mention that I’ll be taking a trip back to Macedonia to pick up the Collector’s Edition of the game that I preordered there. Granted, not on release day– that’d be silly– but the weekend afterwards.
Meteos Disney Edition will be the hotness, without a doubt.
World of Warcraft… Hrm. I’m addicted, but it’s only marginal right now. I advanced to Level 15 while at Pez’s house, and started my career as a skinner/leathercrafter. The crafting system is very interesting– there doesn’t seem to be much chance for failure or wasted resources, so it’s not nearly as frustrating as FFXI’s. However, it does take a considerable amount of time and silver/gold to raise your levels; currently after about two hours of dedicated work at it I think I’m at a level 45 or so in Leatherworking and over 75 in Skinning. To be geek-proud for a bit, I made most of my current set of armor. These three days without being able to play have been all right, mostly. However I’ve got the opportunity to play… but I’m not going to right now. Partly because I need to continue loading the car, but also partly because I know if I started I’d be on it for hours at a time.
I have meant so many times to buy more import games. I mean, I spent $300 on a Japanese PS2 under the assumption that I would use it for more than just Pop’n Music; an assumption which has, unfortunately, been invalidated by crippling bouts of just plain rotten luck. I do intend of course to rectify this when I get the chance, but I will unfortunately not be able to do so through Lik-Sang. Sony shut down the notorious importer– whom I’m sure most gamers on the verge of the bleeding edge have heard of, and who I know at least three of my readers have dealt with– under the pretense of intellectual property impropriety in regards to Japanese PSPs somehow making their way to the European Union. I myself don’t see the harm. Except for the harm that removing one of the biggest names in the game importing scene from the scene does to the scene. Anyway, I suppose I shall have to rely now upon NCSX or (more likely) binging at anime conventions.
Which reminds me, I need to volunteer for Tekkoshocon ASAP.
Anime! O glorious product of the Rising Sun, how I’ve missed thee! I had downloaded Fate/stay night a few weeks ago and finally got around to watching the first couple episodes (whilst stuck in my TV-less apartment last night). I’m interested, if just a little confused. I’m not entirely sure if Rin is going to become an ally or not, or if this is going to devolve into Emiya vs. everyone (including Saber). We shall see.
This post has, in actuality, been in the making for three hours. In that time I’ve done some of the packing and loading, but now it’s time for me to put away the TV and thus disallow myself access to my Mac for a while. I’m not entirely sure when I’ll be able to update again, folks; let’s say the 1st at the latest. Wish me luck, ladies and gentlemen.
Oh! One last thing. I want to thank whoever it was (most likely Eric, who rocks mightily) who fixed the LiveJournal syndication of the journal’s RSS feed. If you have an LJ, you need only add furryone_feed to their Friends list, and then you never ever have to come back here again. But please do. I need the hits.