Linkstew

If I were to ask John McCrea, "John McCrea, what could possibly be stranger than a song written in the second person putting you in the role of an Austrian nobleman, squeezing money from the peasants so you can commission a sympony in C for your nephew?" John McCrea would reply "How about a song written from the point of view of -- get this -- a dime?"

Arg, between moving and starting a new job and it being summertime, the number of movies I kind of want to see (actually, movies I want to see, but only at a matinee) is getting distressingly long. Here we are:

• The Hulk
• Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (Mmm, Drew Barrymore... I think I have a thing for blondes with dyed red hair.)
• Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
• Pirates of the Caribbean
• The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
• And I'm embarrassed to admit it, but if the reviews aren't too terrible, I might see Lara Croft and the Cradle of Life. (The reviews were too bad. I'll be skipping this one.)

Jesus, I better get started. Of course, this would be a lot easier if I had DSL at home.

I just got the weekly "New Music Tuesdays" email from Apple's iTunes Music Store, and even though I still don't plan on using the music store, I must admit it does have a certain draw. Thanks to this week's email, I found out about Live's new album (Birds of Pray). Clicking on the link in the email opened the album in the iTunes Music Store (admittedly, jumping in the way of whatever I was already doing in iTunes), and from there I was able to listen to 30 second previews of every track on the album. And if I'd liked at that point, I could have downloaded the whole album for $9.99 right then. I could have gone from knowing about the album's release to buying it in about 5 minutes. Pretty slick.

Of course, if they'd had Weird Al's newly released Poodle Hat, I might have bought it. But they don't have it, so I'll just have to wait until tomorrow. How terrible.

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.

They Might Be Giants is performing Robot Parade on Conan O'Brien tonight. The show starts at 12:30 on NBC, so they'll probably be on at around 1:20 am.

Robot Parade is a track off of TMBG's upcoming children's album "No!," which will be released June 11th. Robot Parade isn't exactly my favorite song, but I'll take what I can get. The rest of the content on the album is equally hit and miss, but it does have at least a couple of good songs, the most notable of which is "Four of Two." It's also got "I am not your broom," but I really don't like the version of it that they recorded for the album. Regardless, I'll be picking up the album when it comes out.

Apple upgraded the Titanium PowerBook G4 again on Monday, and now I want one. Of course, I wanted one before, but my Pismo always had enough life left in it that though I wanted one, I didn't want one, y'know?

But why was this upgrade the straw that broke broke the camel's back? Why do I feel that my Pismo is no longer sufficient? Well, there were three big reasons that I was always sufficiently happy with my Pismo, but those reasons have all been either addressed by this newly revised TiBook, or nullified by my Pismo's old age.

So let's examine the big reasons I was happy with my Pismo, what's changed such that the TiBook is sufficiently desirable, and what other wins the TiBook has over my Pismo:

• Point: Sure, the TiBook's have G4s, but they aren't that much faster than my Pismo's 400 mhz G3.
• Counterpoint: Yesbut, the newly revised TiBook has an 800 mhz G4 in it. Twice as many mhz is sufficient reason to upgrade.


• Point: My Pismo's dual battery support is much more useful than the TiBook's built-in cd drive.
• Counterpoint 1: This would still be true, but, my Pismo's batteries are dying. The first one won't last more than 30 minutes anymore, and the second one only lasts a couple of hours at most. I could spend $200 to replace them, but it seems more sensible to put that money towards a new TiBook.
• Counterpoint 2: Hell, if I got 3 hours out of a single TiBook battery that'd be better than what both of my Pismo's two year old batteries can muster put together these days. And the TiBook's advertised 5 hours (which I don't particularly believe) would probably blow me away.
• Counterpoint 3: I don't even own a cd burner, so there's an extra feature I don't have to make the tradeoff more worth it.


• Point: The TiBook only has one firewire port! I keep my mp3s on an external firewire hard drive, and I need a second port to put them on my iPod!
• Counterpoint: I'll have at least twice as much disk space on a TiBook as I have on my Pismo, so I can just put my mp3s directly on the laptop.

And then there are the other advantages that the new TiBook has over my Pismo:

• The TiBook's resolution of 1280x854 pixels offers nearly 40% more screen space than my Pismo's 1024x768.
• My Pismo's screen is dying. When I wake it up after it's been asleep for a long time, it's more often than not red, though it gradually fades back to a normal white after being awake for awhile.
• Sex-appeal: Sure, my Pismo has some nice curves, but the TiBook's a little thinner, and has nicer skin. ;-)

I love my Pismo. It's never done me wrong. Ever. The biggest problem I ever had with it was when I shorted out its processor. But these new TiBooks are twice as good in several domains (screen size, processor speed, and disk (though admittedly, the disk issue could be addressed with my Pismo)), and my Pismo's getting a little long in the tooth.

So come August or September, I plan to retire my Pismo and replace it with a decked out TiBook G4. I want to wait until after MWNY to make sure that they don't sneak in any more minor revisions or drop the price, and then I'll look around for any notable deals before I make my move. Besides, I'm going to need to save for this all summer anyway.

They're making a sequel to Jedi Knight?

They made a sequel to Jedi Knight, and it's out now?

::blink blink::

If you'll excuse me, I need to go to CompUSA.

Man, this means I'm going to have to install Windows. Well, let it be known that Jedi Outcast is what got me to cave.

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... ;-)

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.

In fact, if you're a fan of classic platform-game action, the GBA price drop comes at a perfect time with the impending releases of Sonic Advance on February 4th and Super Mario Advance 2: Super Mario World on February 14th. There's some sort of sick irony about a sonic game and a mario game both coming out for the Game Boy Advance within about a week of each other, but instead of worrying about it, I think I'll just pick up both games and enjoy replaying Mario World and exploring Sonic Advance.

And the icing on the cake is that Sonic Adventure 2 Battle is also coming out for the Gamecube on the 14th. Once I heard that Sonic Adventure 2 would be coming out for the Gamecube, I put off on buying the Dreamcast version. Even better is that Sonic Adventure 2 on the Gamecube can interface with Sonic Advance on the Game Boy Advance to exchange data to (presumably) open up extra gaming options in each game.

Ah, platforming goodness! How can you possibly go wrong?

Yaroze, my copy of Final Fantasy X is in FedEx's sometimes capable hands! I'll be getting it tomorrow, with superb timing, after my final final, and with only a few other commitments, I'll be able to go home and immerse myself.

To Zanarkand!

(On a related note, here is IGN PS2's review of the game. It's long and kind of poorly edited (in my opinion), but it's very informative without spoiling anything important.)

(This post brought to you by the letters, F, X, and the number 10.)