Linkstew

Oh, I just noticed that PGC posted links to Nintendo's previews of Super Mario Kart: Double Dash (for the GameCube) and Pikmin 2.

I'm not sure how I feel about the doubled up karts, but I'm sure it'll still be Mario Kart when the day is done. But between that and the upcoming F-Zero GC, I'm going to be very happy, because Mario Kart and F-Zero have always been my favorite racing games.

And as for Pikmin 2, Pikmin was one of the most enjoyable games I've played in recent memory. If you never played Pikmin, then you should either find a used copy, and you should definitely check out Pikmin 2.

I pretty much blew my entire entertainment fund for the month on Friday, when I bought tickets for three consecutive TMBG shows from April 28-30. Now, I've been to five TMBG concerts (in the last 4.5 years), and I've commented on the lack of diversity in those shows already, so you might think it strange that I spent so much money for three more shows -- especially shows that are more likely to have common material because they're so close together. But of course I had a good reason for buying tickets for all three nights. In a TMBG newsletter last month, Flans said:

[W]e're doing multiple nights in a number of cities including San Francisco, Portland and Seattle. These shows will be radically different from night to night with almost no repetition of songs, but we've chosen to keep our set lists variety-filled to reduce general audience confusion. We may choose to play a side from an album or all the songs we know in alphabetical order, but after playing shows dedicated to entire albums only to find half the crowd had no idea what we were doing or why, we're going to "keep the ball rolling" as they say in television.

So with that promise, I decided to go all three nights.

As it happened, Kevin IMd me on Friday night (no more than two hours after I bought my tickets), telling me that he was in line (and IMing me from his hiptop) to go to a free TMBG concert at CMU in about half an hour! That only fueled my excitement for the shows later this month, but looking at his mini-review of the concert, I've heard every song he listed (with the exception of Bangs and Supertaster, which I've only heard once and twice, respectively) at least three times live. And in fact, I've heard most of those songs at 4 or all 5 of the concerts I've been to.

So while I'm still excited, I'm kind of worried after looking at Kevin's set and some other recent shows, because I've still heard most of those songs live. While I've heard TMBG play (by my wc's quick estimate) 149 songs, I've only heard them play 73 different songs.

Basically, if the shows aren't as different as promised, I'm going to be a very unhappy camper. I want three completely different shows, hopefully with many songs I haven't heard before, and ideally with some unreleased material. You'll certainly hear how it goes. After I go to these conerts later this month, I think I'll post a list of what songs I've heard (and how many times), and what songs I still want to hear.

Oh, and you should go check out Kevin's mini-review -- he took a short video and a very funny audio recording about how bad the acoustics were with his d-cam.

And oh, if anyone is interested in meeting up with me at any of the three concerts, let me know, because right now I have no one to go with.

I was distracted in class all day today. I just couldn't focus on what the professors were saying.

You know how when there are a few girls floating around that you have crushes on and you've got a feeling that something might happen soon, but you can't be sure? Despite all the anticipation, in the end it comes down to the fact that girls can often be fickle. In the end, all you can do is wait until something clicks.

And you know how at some point, something does click? Maybe it's a look in her eye, maybe it's a new name she's started calling you, or maybe it's just availability... But at that point, you know that something is going to happen, and the only question left is when. There's no more uncertainty, and instead there's just a controlled exchange leading up the inevitable.

Well, this morning I checked my computer and found out that something with one of those girls finally "clicked."

After receiving that kind of news, it was understandably hard for me to pay attention in class today. I spent all day looking at her picture on my laptop. I thought about how she'd keep me warm in bed on cold winter nights (Well, once California figures out that it's November and not August). I whispered my good news to a friend in class, laughing quietly when I described her as a "Gigahertz witha Gigaram." And I wondered if she would ever be able to love me as much as I know I'm going to love her.

So the only real question left is when, and according to Apple, my new PowerBook G4 and I will be hooking up in 5-7 days.

Remember the one where I claimed I had a ticket for Episode II at 12:30 am on the 16th?

Yeah, well, the person who'd offered me the ticket completely failed to qualify the time, and I just assumed it was AM, when it was actually PM.

Honestly, if someone said "Hey, bsii, do you want a ticket to Episode II on the 16th at 12:30?" when would you think they meant? Especially if you were only paying half attention because you were working on a gigantic CS project when the offer was made?

So since I can't make it in the middle of the day, I've been left in a lurch when it comes to seeing Episode II. I suppose I'll just have to wait and see it a little later. If it weren't for the fact that it's going to be impossible to avoid spoilers, I'd just wait and see it after my last final on the 25th, because I figure the Berkeley theaters will be less busy once the students abandon the ship.

Surprisingly, I care about this setback less than I would have expected. I suspect that this is because I'm actually less excited about Episode II than I am about Friday night, when I'll be watching Gigantic (A Tale of Two Johns) at the SF Indie Festival. Thankfully, I've already got my ticket, because it looks like they've already sold out.

Oh, most excellent: Castlevania: White Night Concerto has been announced as coming out for the Game Boy Advance on June 6 in Japan, which means it'll probably follow here in the states within about 2-4 months.

Castlevania: Circle of the Moon was one of the first games I enjoyed on the Game Boy Advance when I got it, and the prospect of a follow-up is really exciting. If they just make the graphics a little brighter than CotM's while maintaining the Catlevania ambiance, they can't really go wrong with a new story built on the same basic engine.