The ScooterBlog

This may be the most perfect interpretation for MMORPG’s and World Of Warcraft that I have ever seen!

… because while it’s not technically a drug, the way I see and hear of people playing it, it may as well be. Why don’t I play? Heck, I barely have enough time to play conventional games as-is, and even though that will be better when I get moved, it’s not gonna be “MMORPG” better. Not to mention, while Danielle (thankfully) doesn’t mind the video games and wants to play them more, I don’t think the step into character levelling and guilds is going to be way to go. I was thinking more of Pac Man!

So let the picture do the talking, it’s a perfect descriptor!

(I got the picture off of Kotaku, it’s a very good gaming blog)

Well, I’ll make this post short and sweet as I need to reboot the computer and maybe I’ll fix it later …

I GOT MY JOB IN COLUMBUS!!!!!!!!

I guess I’m a little excited, eh?

Considering it’s been a week and a half since I’ve posted anything of anything, now seems like a good time to put some content up.

I’ve found 2 very cool (and seemingly very off-the-radar) sites which are worth your time if you’re an emulation fan, or even just someone who bought an older game that didn’t have all the goods you were hoping it would.

The Game Manual Archive - Over 5,000 scanned in manuals for systems from pinball machines all the way to the current-gen XBox and Playstation 2. They even have torrents which let you download the complete sets of what they have on given systems (very cool!)
GameScanner.Org - A single user’s site which has thousands of cover and box scans for video games and other assorted video game goodies.

Check them out, and I’m seeing if there is a way to donate to The Game Manual Archive, as their current webmaster and the person whom started the site may have to drop the project soon for various reasons, so maybe it can continue with a little help.

I’ve talked on occasions about cool little services on the Internet that I use, or maybe more accurately, hope to use at some point in the future! PBWiki is one that I have used and plan to keep taking advantage of.

The site’s free and lets you nearly instantly put the beginnings together for a Wiki, a quickly editable set of pages which can hold great amounts of linked and organized data. I’m using it to organize how much gaming I do (which up to this point has been a sad sad low amount) over the course of the year. It’s a great way to tune up on web editing as well because this site will let you use any type of HTML you deem fit too.

(And shamelessly, plugging it allows you to double your space, but today is the last day for that too! It’s not too late to sign up, plug, then get your bonus I guess)

But seriously, for group discussions or possibly just to track things you’re doing personally, a wiki might be a good idea.

I will go to my grave stating that the last bastian of the Internet world is newsgroups. A very antiquated service that through the power of software, has been given life again, it’s the haven of finding just about anything you need. Every ISP typically gives you newsgroup access, but to varying degrees. Sometimes, it’s solid and you can search back weeks on files, and months for discussions. Other times, it’s barely functional and there just so they can tell you they host it.

UsenetServer, one of the biggest providers of paid newsgroup service (which if you use it, is worth it), is offering a free trial of their servers for the next two and a half days.

Try us out for Free!!!

So since the 3rd of January, both myself and Danielle have fasted from things we enjoy to help us get over those cravings, and generally feel better. Hers was to completely lay off sweets, and mine was to completely lay off fast food. Today would be Day 39 of that! With a few exceptions, it really has not been all that bad.

The exceptions would be the days like the Halo 2 event, where I was at the game store for 16 hours and couldn’t just escape to have a sit down meal, or days where I have been stupid and didn’t pack lunch, meaning I’d be dying for food by 5 PM then too. That all said though, I’ve made it through!!!

Of course, it helps that I did allow sit down meals, but the cool thing is, I was generally smarter about those too. I’ve eaten more entree salads in the last 6 weeks than I had likely consumed in the past year before that, and the results have me down about 6 or7 pounds total, the same for Danielle with her staying off the sweets.

Thankfully for all parties involved, it’s over on Sunday, although I think my big splurge into fast food again might be 2 Wendy’s Double Stack sandwiches (yeah, breaking the bak at $2 there!), and hers will likely be raiding Target on February 15th! Hey, whatever it takes to get the job done.

So I guess I should mention that yesterday I turned 26! Really, it was a pretty anti-climactic birthday, they get that way after you hit 25. But I got to spend time with my parents and Danielle, got an awesome teddy bear from Danielle, and to top it off … went to the dentist! Not exactly ideal, I know, but my six month appointment just hit on this day (and almost didn’t, long story). But, my teeth checked out fine, so life is good.

Ben will be pleased to hear that I have made it 15% of the way through Dawn Of Sorrow and might make that the game I work on beating for awhile, it’s not hard to get into, the graphics and gameplay are a lot of fun, and so far, I’ve only died a couple of times 1 hour into the game (I’ve prolly played two but stupid non-decisions to save have cost a lot of time).

That, and there may be bowling on the horizon, as well as some other cool stuff. Updates will ensue!

I think since the talk is now going around the grapevines, I thought I would clear a couple of things up. My apologies for using a Barry Bonds style method for my madness (a.k.a. using just a web site).

I have decided to step down from running tournaments and helping organize the Anime conventions from Game Junkie, which effectively means, I’m not working there consistently anymore. I am going to still run the event on the 11th (Perfect Dark Zero) and will be there just as help on the 25th for the 3D Fighters event. The stress of the work began to outweigh the satisfaction of seeing the events come to fruition, which for me means that the best thing I can do is step away and remove myself from the stressful situations.

There are lots of things happening in my life … hopefully a new job in my future, a new city a little farther away, and a lot of time commitments, and I appreciate the support and gratitude of everyone for these things, but they can add up quickly, and so the things that should be fun, when they become not, need to be assessed.

I do want to nip one thing in the bud to make sure that there is no blame casting and finger pointing. My choice is the fault of no one, and was mine alone. There have been, shall we say, strongly worded discussions, both public and private that have happened, which I am sure have been discussed ad naseum through the grapevine, but that’s part of being in a position of organization, and there is no point now to the who and why and when of these things. I hold no grudges, and hope no one will hold any either.

Stephen will be taking all of the e-mails about tournaments and events in the short term, and I’m sure from anything outside of this blog post, there won’t be any interruptions. The shows will go on, and they will still be great, because while we as the employees and help may help make things go smoothly, it’s the participants and the fun that they have that make Game Junkie so, and its tournaments and event presence so special. I thank every one of them for the nice things and the support they’ve given me, it means the world!

All I ask of everyone reading this is to keep doing what you’re doing and keep supporting Matt, Stephen, and everyone at Game Junkie, because that’s exactly what I plan to do too. I have no desire to drop off the face of the earth and not see anyone. I love Game Junkie, plain and simple, and it holds a very special place in my heart. If it wasn’t for my working there, none of the great things in my life currently would have happened, plain and simple.

I look forward to enjoying life as a fellow regular again!!

Here’s the computer rundown for the moment:

• I am making this post using Internet Explorer 7’s public beta preview. It seems to interact with WordPress just fine for this post, and in general, with the exception of a web page or two that displays a bit funky, it’s not too bad. I don’t know if I’m going to switch back necessarily … FireFox is having issues with me with memory leaks right now, but its system of extensions and generally how friendly it acts is second to none. Maybe this will mean I have two browsers that I feel comfortable with. (Update: It doesn’t like to show Wordpress standard lists, and it also gave some kind of funky MySQL error and posted twice. Weird stuff … that could be the fault of my upgrade too)

• WordPress 2.0.1 is out, and it squashed the only bug I found that truly annoyed me …. Permalinks with GoDaddy servers! Before, they just didn’t work at all unless you use the default non-descriptive numbers, but now, any of the PermaLink types work fine. I was attempting to use a workaround, but now there’s not even a need for it, which is really nice.

• In non-important news, I also found two sports things on the ‘net I wanted to save for the collection … Kobe’s 81 point game, and the Texas-USC Rose Bowl. Woo hoo!!!