Linkstew

You know, being reminded about Bakersfield almost makes me wish I were going home for Spring Break instead of going to Whistler.

Almost, but not quite.

In addition to buying that snowboard, I also bought a new jacket. However, this caused an unexpected problem.

The snowboard is great. I felt far more capable than I ever had on rental equipment, and with that added confidence, I found myself willing to go faster than I ever had before.

However, while I knew I was going faster -- and subsequently falling harder -- than before, I was uncertain of how much harder I was falling. You see, I used to gauge just how hard I fell based on how much snow got into my clothes. But thanks to my new jacket, no snow got into my clothes all weekend.

So now I'm going to have to calibrate a whole new metric to estimate how hard I'm falling.

So back in October, when I made that ridiculous list of which games on each platform I was looking forward to, I only listed Myth III for the Mac. And sadly, I didn't even choose to buy Myth III. After playing it at MacWorld SF, I was totally turned off by the way the game just seemed to have a slower pace.

But in that entry, I made reference to the ridiculous game situation on the mac. But you know what? I forgot the mac game I was anticipating even more than Myth III: Escape Velocity Nova.

And EV Nova came out today! Woohoo!

The graphics might look deceptively simple, but the gameplay is ridiculously addictive. I can't even begin to guess at how many hours I sank into the first two EVs, and this one has everything that was good about the first two and more. And the best part is, it's a Mac exclusive. I remember how envious my Windows using friends were back in the day over EV Override.

(Basically, it's a very open ended arcade space simulator (top-down view), where you start as a lowly shuttle pilot and go on to do any number of things, from being a trader, to a bounty hunter, to an explorer, to whatever you like. It's very addictive.)

Uh, anyway, if you're a Mac user and have spare time to kill (and a big link to download this 100 meg file with), definitely check it out. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to play "one more mission" before going to bed... ;-)

So, last weekend, I bought a Snowboard. And boots and bindings, of course, but isn't that assumed?

We only made two two stops: First we went to REI, where I started by trying on several pairs of boots without finding anything that was fantastic... None of the clearance stuff fit me very well, and even the non-clearance things that did fit me reasonably (Notably, the Salomon Synapse and the Salomon Dialogue (I'd love to give you links, but the Salomon idiots used flash, so I'm not going to bother)) still pinched my heals. And while those Salomon boots were on sale, they were still moderately expensive.

So we left REI and headed a block down to Destination 1440, which had a much better selection of things snowboard. In addition to their better selection, all of their boots, boards, and bindings were also 40% off.

Basically, we got there at about 6pm on a Saturday night. The store wasn't very busy, so Tom the clerk proceeded to help us for two hours until we departed as the store was closing at about 8:10. So with Tom's help, I picked out a pair of boots, and then a board, and then some bindings.

When I realized that I was going to be buying things there, I realized that I should probably make sure that would they took a check, since I knew my debit card had a spending limit on it. When Tom said that they would take a check, I stopped worrying about it. But then, when I tried to write a check, their system wouldn't accept it. When they called their "merchant verification company," they were told that I couldn't write a check for that amount. So I tried writing a check for half the amount, which triggered the same process, with the same result.

D'oh.

So on a whim, I had them try to use my debit card, and bam, it worked! Rock!

But damn if it didn't suck that by writing a check I caused the exact problem I was trying to avoid. A later call to my bank revealed that my bank account is fine, and it was just Destination 1440's merchant verification system that didn't like me. The Destination 1440 staff, though, was patient with me through this whole mess. It was really horrible. When they had to call in my checks, I was just left standing there feeling like a crook, after they'd spent so long to help me. I was afraid I was going to have to leave without buying anything. But everything worked out okay.

Basically, I highly recommend Destination 1440 if you're ever in the market for a snowboard. Just don't write a check.

Oh, what'd I buy? Well...

• Boots: Burton Driver. These were so much more comfortable than anything else I tried on that it was just kind of obvious. The next Burton model down wasn't as soft, while the next Burton model up was a little too stiff for my tastes. Basically, this boot hit the balance I was looking for. (Um, size 9.5, if you're wondering. Though I can't imagine why you would be.)
• Board: Burton Custom 156. Basically, I deferred to the knowledge of the clerks on this one. Well, one notable point is that this board is bigger than the ones I've been renting -- I've been riding a 152 or 153, so this board is a little larger. Tom suggested that I might have a little trouble turning initially, but said it would probably be better in the long run. I'll have to let you know how it works once I ride it.
• Bindings: Burton Mission. Basically, at this point, the decision was basically made by brand. Well, that and bindings were what they apparently had less selection of. But doesn't it make sense to link a Burton board with Burton boots with Burton bindings?

Basically, I'm a Burton poster boy. Well, below the ankles, at least. It's not like all of my clothing is also Burton. But between everything being 40% off, and them giving me more off the board because of a ding in the base, the price was right, and I'm very excited to try it all out.

Oh, here are some pictures of the stuff I bought, too.

Just skimming the news for the week, here's what catches my eye:

• Crazy Taxi 3 is coming first, and possibly exclusively, to the Xbox. D'oh. But then again, I haven't particularly cared for what I've played of Crazy Taxi 2, so perhaps it's for the best. (See Benjy rationalize away Xbox's every advantage).
• Here are some pictures of Pokemon Advance. While I'm interested in this game, there's absolutely no getting around the fact that the graphics are very disappointing. There better be some rockin' GameCube/Game Boy Advance interaction to make up for the graphics.
• Oh, Mario Tennis (And Mario Golf, but that's less exciting) is coming to the GameCube. Mario Tennis for the N64 was a blast. Now where's Mario Party 4?
• The notoriously harsh Famitsu gave the GameCube exclusive remake of Resident Evil (known as Biohazard in Japan) a 39/40. Wowie. I might have to give this game a try, though I've never played any of the Resident Evil games to date.
• Finally, some Sony guy has some interesting ideas about where he thinks video game consoles will go. Here's my favorite imaginary scenario involving this idea: The PS2 becomes even more popular, to the point that it's considered to have a monopoly on video game hardware. Then, Sony gets in trouble for trying to sell TVs with its Video Game monopoly. Heh, one unlikely scenario amongst hundreds.

This IGN Cube article hypothesizes that games based on the Final Fantasy Unlimited anime series (only in japan (at this point)) might be (among) the first Square games coming out to take advantage of the Gamecube/Game Boy Advance link. The plot synopsis of the series (see the article) really got my mind in gear, coming up with some ideas on how a GBA game and a GCN game could interact.

With the Final Fantasy Unlimited background story, imagine that the Game Boy Advance game puts you in control of the parents, stuck in the monster world and attempting to get home (and probably save the earth from certain destruction, if past Final Fantasy stories are any indication), while the Gamecube game puts you in control of the children, attempting to rescure their parents from the monster world. Imagine that the parents could send messages to the children, affecting the unfolding of the story. Imagine that the children could send items and supplies to their parents in the monster world.

Sure, these are all hypothetical ideas, and aren't based in any sort of reality (Heck, I know nothing about Final Fantasy Unlimited. For all I know, the parents are dead, so my ideas wouldn't even make sense.). My point is, just with the premise of a party divided into two worlds, with one world being played out on the Game Boy and the other on the Gamecube, there are a lot of neat possibilities. I'm looking forward to seeing what they actually come up with.

Wait a second. In just two weeks, I'll be somewhere where the weather has been hanging out between -5 and 5 degrees???

Oh wait, that's Celsius... Damn those Canadians! At least it's not as bad as I thought. But maybe I'll still look into getting some new socks...

Holy crap: The sky is falling, hell has frozen over, the earth is standing still, and pigs are flying over the moon!

Square will be developing Game Boy Advance and GameCube games!

Also, here is an editorial on the news.

When I went snowboarding a couple of weeks back (When the Winter Olympics were still happening), I made the joke that some sketch comedy show really needed to do a Crosscountry Snowboarding sketch.

There'd be the snowboarders frantically thrusting their hips to move themselves forward a foot or two at a time. There'd be the pained expressions on their faces. There'd be the frantic grunting and random cursing. And most importantly, there'd be the dramatic commentary.

My friends liked this joke so much that several of them have since repeated it. And for that matter, I'm sure someone else has already made the joke. But I'm pretty used to being originally unoriginal.

So after my initial decision to pass up that great deal on that PowerMac G4 bundle, I did a lot of questioning of my decision. A lot of my co-workers were going in on the deal, and I tried to figure out how I could afford it and afford Whistler... But in the end, I came back to my decision that it wasn't worth cleaning out my bank account for because I didn't really need the computer.

But then, this afternoon, I got to my office and found an email me telling me that I hadn't picked up my January paycheck.

"That's impossible," I thought to myself. "There's no way I could have as much in my account as I do if I'd missed a paycheck..."

So I wandered over to payroll, and there was my January paycheck. And I went back to my office and looked at my bank account, and sure enough, I hadn't deposited a paycheck in February.

The check by itself was for more than enough to cover the PowerMac bundle. Yay!

Except, they already sold out of the PowerMac bundles. D'oh!