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So it's been almost a week. Well...I've been...lazy. Stuff has happened and I should have updated, but I'm really lazy and sorta busy. So, here's another one of my patented "super updates", which should have actually been 3 or 4 regular updates.

Being back at school rules. I mean, just not being in South Jersey is a huge plus. Also, having a roommate with a car 0wnz. So, thanks to Eric, I have multitudes of stuff from Wegmans and the mall and GameMania. On one of the many trips, I picked up some extra F-Connectors so I could fix some coax cable. It was being really annoying, so I was trying to cut back part of it so that I could start from scratch. Anyway, here's more or less what happened, only in Haiku Theatre form:



So, yeah, my finger was really tore up. It was gushing. It didn't really hurt, though. I was more suprised at the fact that I had actually continued to fix the stupid cable instead of finding some kind of alternate means. Anyway, I went the bathroom to wash it off, but the blood just kept coming. Like, I'd put it under the water and the blood would wash away. Then I'd take it away from the water and it gushed again. I decided it'd be a good idea to put a BandAid on it, so I went back to my room, sucking on the wound to keep the blood from dripping everywhere, only to discover that I hadn't packed any BandAids. So, I grabbed a washcloth and rapped it around my finger and went to Sols (the store at the bottom of my building) and got some. I got back and fixed myself up and sat back down at the computer. I was bored again, so I grabbed the coax cable and some pliers and continued to try and fix that thing. I forgot, however, that using my hand to squeeze the pliers would greatly increase the bloodflow to my finger. The BandAid was soaked in blood. So, I went and fixed myself up again and decided that the coax cable was best left unfixed for a while. It's looking a lot better now. The BandAid fell off in the shower yesterday and I forgot to put a new one before I went to bed, but that ended up being a good thing. My finger looks normal again. Well, normal with a large gash in it, anyway. Meh. Here's some more pics of it in case you really wanted to see it.
The bleeding wound.
The covered wound.
The bloody BandAid.
The aftermath.

Throughout other trips, we scoured the Asian import stuffs in Wegmans. Eric and PenPen were delighted by the Pocky selection. I grabbed some gum. We got some Panda crackers or something. Anyway, here's the rundown.

Pocky: Good
There was a lot of hype about this stuff last year. To me, it didn't really live up to it. I mean, they're really good, but there was a lot of hype.
Panda Crackers: Good
I don't actually know the name of these things. There's just some japanese writings. Eric swears it says 'Panda' something or other. I don't know. They're basically a thin cookie surrounding milk chocolate. They're quite awesome. PenPen got the strawberry ones. Those are good, too. They're like eating FrankenBerry, milk and all, in a cookie form. It's so uncannily similar.
Fusen Gum: Good
I mainly bought these because there was a frog on one of the wrappers. I mean, you see a strawberry on one, an orange on another, and then a frog. I was hoping for frog-flavored gum. To be perfectly honest, that may be what it was. I couldn't place the taste of it, so it just may have been frog. Also, there was some kind metallic moth or something on the inside of the wrapper. You figure it out and let me know.
Shrimp Chips: Bad
These things aren't even japanese! And they suck hardcore. Check The Potato Chronicle for more info on those pieces of crap.

So, being the 1337 beings that we are, me and PenPen maganed to mod Eric's Sega Saturn so that we could use the swap trick and play 'backups' on it. So far, we backed up Nights and that worked. The only real problem with it is that our 'backup' of Nights actually is a backup. I managed to find Warriors of Fate, but it won't work. I tried a whole slew of different burns and swap tricks, but nothing really worked. Oh well. Hopefully 'Radient Silvergun' will work better. By 'better' I mean 'actually work'.

Hrm...that about wraps it up. So, uh, see you next time or something.

--UJ
2002.09.06

Hellooooo Rochester. It's cool and breezy and doesn't smell like compost. After a mere 5 and half hour car trip, I am back at RIT and ready to buckle down and learn stuff! Yeah! (if my parents are reading this, you can stop now...). My room is big and quite full of electronics. Computers and video games and speakers and tvs and..um...lamps. It's not completely set up yet, but I have staked my territory (see webcam) and get to enjoy a refreshing cross breeze between the window and my fan. My computers aren't quite set up yet, as the school won't give out more than one IP to each student...yet. Come thursday, I can call them and get an IP for my desktop...that means my Smashing Pumpkins server can go back up. Actually, it's probably for the best, since I'm quite unprepared for it.

Anyway, my day was mostly spent saying 'hi' or 'j0' to old friends. There was also the whole 'move beds and desks around without hurting myself' part. Me, Eric, and Dan (who doesn't actually live in the same room, but was bored) thought of some way of arranging things and managed to set up the room in a way almost entirely different than it. PenPen is yet to show up (not until tuesday), but he won't have too much to complain about. Well, he can complain, but we can't really move the stuff around anymore. And besides, we left him plenty of room for his DDR'ing, so he should stay quiet.

In other news, there's a panel in the wall. It's right behind my laptop. If you open it, there's this little water pump thingy. I'm not going to actually turn the knob in there, but I may use the hatch to hide sandwiches or something. Maybe I'll do some kind of complete room coverage update...with pictures and stuff...maybe...maybe not...

Well, I have to find space for the ever-important game consoles. Wish me luck.

--UJ
2002.08.31

So, just one more day of work, just one more day of vineland. I'm packing up my stuff. Most is packed except for my tv, computers, and nes...and clothes and posters...and fan and clock...ok, so I still have packing to do.

I got two more NES games today: Kirby's Adventure and M.C. Kids. Kirby's Adventure cost me a hefty $7.99, but the game is great. Some might even say it's "wicked pisser." Or maybe not, I don't know. Still, Kirby has got to be one of the coolest ideas for a character (stealing abilities) and the game executes it so well. Especially for a 8-bit system. M.C. Kids, on the other hand, is just plain...well... take McDonalds' blatent commercialism and mix it with an NES game. Yeah, it's pretty bad. Granted, I haven't played through much of it, but I'll tell you what I know so far. It's just another day in happy land (or wherever Ronald lives) until the Hamburgler (gasp!) steals Ronald's Magic Bag (probably just a happy meal...whoops, did I predict the ending...?) and now you have to go find 4 puzzle pieces and return them to Ronald so that he'll show you how to get to Birdie's house. I'm not sure why he won't just tell you, but I'm sure it has something to do with evil and him being a clown.

I don't really get anxious for things. I mean, it won't make them happen any sooner. So I haven't really been anxious to move back to RIT. Don't hear me wrong, I definately want to and am looking forward to going back, but the thought of moving back doesn't consume much of my daily thought processes. That is, until, I talked to one of my room mates, Eric, who has already moved in. He already set up most of his stuff and is saying how big the room is and how cool it's gonna be once we set up all of the game systems. So, thanks a lot Eric, now I'm anxious.

I wish I had more time to chat..er...type, but I have to get to sleep soon. Oh, as far as adding more stuff to the site goes, I still haven't finished my church's site. I plan on finishing it by next Sunday, but that's just a personal goal, so don't think of it as a definate date. First thing on my agenda is redoing the Shrubbery section. Some of you already know what my plans for it are, but for those of you who don't...well, you'll see...oh how you'll see...heh heh heh...

--UJ
2002.08.22

Boy, doing nothing really takes up time. Sorry for the lack of updates (oh crap, it's starting already...), but I've working and doing this and that. So, here's a rundown, not necissarily in chronological order, of what I've been doing.

I went through most of those NES games that I got. The one that really got my attention was Bucky O'Hare. For a show that sucked (at least, I remember it sucking) as bad as it did, this is one amazing game. Pure side-scrolling action. Some annoying puzzles, lots of dying, and bosses that anger the mind...but pure fun nonetheless. I paced myself and took three days to beat it, so if you have a couple of hours to kill, get the rom and play away.

Work still sucks. However, they did get a copy of Blindside's new album and only charged me $6.88 for it. So, I was like 'r0x0r!' and picked it up during my lunch break. It's a solid album. Well worth my money. It's heavy music that isn't all angry and depressing. Tough to pull off, but it does the trick. At least download 'You Can Hide It', 'Cute Boring Love' and 'Midnight'.

I got my haircut...sux0r...(see webcam)...I really hate getting my hair cut. It usually takes about two weeks before it starts to look alright (to me, at least). Bah. I know I'll just Corgan it eventually. Until then...it's crappy haircuts or long, girly hair...woe is me...woe is me...

A short time after beating Bucky O'Hare, this...thing...

Yeah...that thing appeared in my lawn. It kinda freaked me out. I mean, you don't expect to look out of your window and see some creepy-gold-ball-on-pedestal thing. A bunch of theories came to mind, but one seemed to make more sense than the rest. You know that movie, 'The Last Starfighter'? Well, I figured something like that happened. Like, my superior old-school gaming skills would, in some futuristic way make me one of the best space cowboys or something. I contimplated going outside and checking it out, but I decided It'd be best to let it be for a while. I eventually...like in a few hours...went out and checked it. The pedestal dealy had a rabbit on it. Rabbit? Hare? Oh crap! Then I went back inside and waited for some space taxi to come pick me up or something. You know, like the movie. They haven't come yet, but I'm ready to dish out my mad 1337 old-school gaming skizills on some evil mutant alien scum.

I also had the sudden urge to work on my old P100. I had installed the 5 1/4 floppy in place of the 3 1/2 floppy...but it didn't really work, so I closed it up and went to bed. Now, about a month later, I decided to give it another shot. I discovered eventually that I had the cable upside down, which was why it wasn't working. Also, the cable that was hooked up to the 3 1/2 actually had a plug for the 5 1/4, so I just linked them up, messed with the BIOS and jumper settings for hours (yes, hours...i was like a man possessed) and finally got it to work. 'Work', however, is a term that I use loosely, as the 5 1/4 disks that I have are bad. Really bad. Not working or formattable even with special proggies bad. So, I'm being optimistic and assuming that, instead of just having a bum drive, it's only the disks. SOO...if you happen to know where to get some working 350k 5 1/4s, let me know. K thx.

I went to FuncoLand during my lunch break (a big mistake, I know...) to see if they had gotten the new gamecube demo disc. The one at walmart has a playable demo of Mario Sunshine, so I wanted to check it out. Alas, they didn't have it. However, their demo disc had Super Monkey Ball 2. Yay! I got to play a rousing round of Monkey Soccer, and enjoy a 3-round game of Monkey Target. Ah...Monkey Target...reminds me of college. I can't wait for 4 player games of Monkey Ball 2. Before I left, I checked out the NES games (an even bigger mistake). They had a bunch of the same. I was ready to go without buying anything (which I really hate to do...I feel like such a prick when I just go in there and play the demos and leave), and, Lo and Behold!, 'Volleyball'. Just Volleyball. Old-school Nintendo-made no-frills Volleyball. I had no idea that this game even existed. I mean, I usually know when an nes game exists...especially one this old and made by the Big N themselves. I was shocked and ended up blowing my last four dollars on it. I checked the nes rarity list later on and it's a fairly common game. Still, I was shocked that it existed without letting me know first.

An outing to Tweeters with CCS ended up turning into a trip to Best Buy when we showed up after it closed. Not much was accomplished aside from changing the screensavers on three of the laptops to scrolling marquees of 'anal my dingo', '1 4m t3h 1337 h4x0r!!11!11 1', and, of course, 'somebody set up us the bomb'. There was also a purchase of a CD and warm Mountain Dew. The event ended up with us going to Vulgar's house and heading to Pizza Hut.

I've been trying to get the site for my church up and running before I head back to college (the 31st). So, most of my programming time is going towards that instead of this. Once I get that done, I'll start working on more cool stuff that no one will use. But, until then, just bear with my bumbling rants.

So, uh, yeah...

--UJ
2002.08.22

So here's an update on my life:

I have lost even more faith in the human race. Why? Because when I was at work, someone called in asking if we sold "Bonzai Buddies." Yes, those Bonzai Buddies. That ugly little purple ape who eats up system resources and may or may not hack the gibson when your back is turned. I was shocked at her request, but managed to blurt out something about only being able to download it from the internet. I mean, the lady wanted to pay money to have a program send various tidbits of personal information to random companies. Bah.

Now for happier news. THE decided to dump a bunch of his nes games (and a few snes games) on me in exchange for my Vampire Hunter D DVD. Huzzah!

Recently, my dad bought some kind of heater thingy. It's supposed to heat a range of 8 feet around or something. Sorta like a dome of heat. Anyway, he was bored the other night so he had me lug it inside so that he could assemble it. This thing is huge. It nearly touched the ceiling. There was something creepy about it, though. I couldn't really put my finger on 'why' it was creepy, but it was. Later that night as I was pacing around, I figured it out.

Notice a similarity? Space Harrier was one of my favorite games as a kid. This was one of the harder levels, since the ceiling drops down really low and you can't fly up as high. This is definately what was creeping me out about it. Anyway, it's out of the living room now, so I'll be fine so long as I don't go into the garage (where it now resides).

In site news, I re-did the navbar. It looks basically the same, but it's a lot different from my side of the site. It'll basically just make adding new pages much easier for me in the future. The only change that you'll really see is that it's broken into sections now. Also note that I added a new link button. It's my friend Eric's page. Since he linked me I decided (and by decided I mean 'was told by Eric that I'd better') to link him back. So go check it out. Also, I started archiving some of my rants. I'm gonna leave the five most recent rants on the home page, and move the older ones into archive pages with five rants each on them. So, if you actually wanted to read them all, you know where to check.

--UJ
2002.08.12

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