… can be a timeless classic!

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is the sole reason why I purchased the N64 console six years back. The console I bought was a bundle set that included Star Wars: Episode I Racer, which is another awesome game (more on that later). Why pay for a $99 console for just one game? My buddy Travis got me absolutely hooked on Ocarina of Time while he was living with me for awhile. When he moved to Florida, the Zelda withdrawl symptoms came and I needed my gaming fix! The storyline and gameplay drew me in like no other game on my first time playing it. I wasn’t alone, either. This game garnered the most awards out of any other game for that system, period.

Like I said in my last post, the same goes here. If you’re into gaming, and you haven’t played this, borrow a friend’s system and get a copy of it from somewhere and spend some quality time with Link (the hero of the game storyline). A warning: this isn’t a game that you finish overnight; it takes days to get to the end, not to mention a fair bit of patience!

… can still ROCK!!

I still play Super Smash Bros. Melee when I get the chance. It’s probably the only title I continuously go back to in my game collection. I haven’t played it for a while and yesterday I took some time to relax for a change. I popped the little disc into the GameCube, and engaged in lots of seriously silly cartoony fighting! By most reviews on the ‘web, even some of the ultra-realistic fighting games out there today don’t come close to matching the replay value of this game. If you’re a gamer, and have the NGC but don’t have this game, you’re missing out. Even if you’re a 33 year old adult like me!

I may do another classic game post soon. This was fun!

Well, I’ve read the reviews of the iPod Nano, and seen the pictures. Yesterday though, Christine and I finally went to Comp USA, after dinner at Chili’s, to see if they have one so we could hold it in our hot little hands.

It was just as the reviews warned: once you hold it, the next thing you’ll be reaching for is your credit card! I successfully fought the urge to buy it right there and then. Instead I again weighed the advantages of a 4 gigabyte Nano versus a 20 gigabyte color iPod, with only a $50 difference to boot! The two displays they had gave me a good comparison on subtle, and not-so-subtle things. First, I noticed that the Nano’s screen is brighter than the 20 GB iPod, albeit a half-inch smaller. If you don’t have good eyes, you’ll be pulling out your glasses to see pictures stored on it, much less album cover artwork, which is smaller still! The Nano’s sheer smallness and weightlessness is very appealing for people who aren’t used to a weighty 20 GB pod. However, I’m used to it and I like the storage capacity of my current iPod. Over 1500 songs (files) on it now, a few being full-length albums! I could see using a Nano as a primary playlist player, with faves being on it and my larger collection being on my 20, but here’s another caveat: Photos! The Nano displays photos, but my 20GB does not. However, the Nano cannot display them on a TV, just on it’s small screen. If I got a new 20GB color iPod, it can display photos on both it’s screen and a TV.

So it’s settled. I’ll be getting two new 20 GB color iPods as soon as the money permits. The Nano was mighty tempting, though!

Update 9/24/05: We think Buddie (or Buddy) may be a boy. Typically, male birds are more vocal than their female counterparts. Buddy is not only chirping much more than our female cockatiel Emily, but he is also trying to emulate speech at four months old, which is almost unheard of! The similar body contouring to Emily is what threw us off, which makes me think that Emily and Buddy may be an extremely different sub-species than Alex, out Lutino cockatiel. Stay tuned!

(9/21/05): Well, we just had to get another bird. This time, it’s a cockatiel we have lovingly named Buddie. We chose that name because this bird responded very well to the sound of that word and, well, we don’t know if this one is a boy or girl! Hence a name that can go either way. We’ve had her for three weeks now (we do think it’s a girl) and she’s very personable… and clingy, too! The first week, we had a hard time prying her off of Christine’s neck and shoulders because she felt so safe there!

Now there’s five birds and a bunny… will the madness stop??

My wife wants all to know that this is how she’s been feeling at work:

I feel this way too, sometimes, and I work in retail!

In the meantime, here’s a link to a list of suggestions any aspiring conquerors (or supervisors with delusions of grandeur) would be wise to follow. Hail, hail!!