Hi everyone, I'm kinda back

Today was Sandwich Day # 3. In Sandwhich Days, May 4 of each year, my best friend Danny and I exchange gifts that we collect through an entire year. Since I don't celebrate holidays or even my birthday, we do this on May 4 (the Sandwiching of both our B-days, April 4 and June 4) and we get a ton of presents

WHAT I GAVE:
- 2 Nintendo water toys from Japan
- A Goomba plushie for the car
- A Luigi springy thingy toy
- A Wii remote and a PSP phone strap / whistle
- A Wii / Wii Sports keychain
- A Tom Nook phone strap
- A Mario jigsaw puzzle, in the shape of a CD
- A 3-game mini DS case branded with New Super Mario Bros.
- A mini Wii remote full of candy
- A custom game music CD with awesome custom boxart
- QuickSpot for the DS
- Puzzle Quest for the DS

WHAT I GOT:
- Wii Points Card (2000)
- Wii shirt
- Two Zelda Phantom Hourglass styli from Japan
- A mini Buneary Pokemon toy
- Wii remote phone strap
- Final Fantasy VII Advent Children Special Edition DVD
- 20-inch Zelda Phantom Hourglass Young Link plush
- Okami for Wii!

Okami; YAY! I wanted that game so badly! I can't wait to play it, but I want to get some games out of the way first so I can actually play through it without delays. Thank you, Danny, for such awesome gifts!

I'll just say it now; I'm not really looking forward to WiiWare. There are only two or so titles for it that interest me, and what's more, this service has taken games that could've been great DS titles (Toki Tori, Shantae for instance). However, I have noted a few points that make WiiWare a worthy 'platform' to develop games for:

1: Freedom - What I mean by this is that many developers can work on WiiWare and not just big-name companies. The small guys have an equal share of good ideas, and the system is perfect for them.
2 - Cost-effective - No packaging, shipping, publishing or anything of the matter. Although I'm sure Nintendo gets a share of the profits, it probably doesn't compare to the cost of buying game boxes, printing manuals, and shipping titles.
3 - Piracy - Ah, game piracy, my sworn enemy. WiiWare titles won't be pirated anytime soon, if at all. This is my favorite aspect of the service, seeing how DS / GBA piracy has expanded greatly over the last few years.

There you have it. I hope more WiiWare titles are announced soon; I'm bound to like some of them!

It's finally happened; I've got a PSP!

'What!? The self-proclaimed No. 1 DS Fan / DS King got a PSP!? This is madness!'

Perhaps, but my love for the DS has grown into love for handheld gaming, and the next obvious step after DS / GBA is the PSP. I got a Piano Black Slim unit and a copy of the rhythm-like game Patapon. Unfortunately, I can't save anything yet, but I have a ton of stuff ordered online and on its way; 2GB memory stick, composite cables, system case, strap, screen protector, USB cable / charger, and some games; Crisis Core FFVII, Castlevania Dracula X Chronicles, and Kingdom of Paradise. Woo!

I love the thing, although it's taking me a while to learn how to push its buttons...and where they are It feels so...fragile, so delicate, but I'm sure Crisis Core will show me the unit's power. I can't wait for the memory stick to get here; perhaps Saturday, if not Monday for sure.

And no, I won't collect PSP games; that's for DS games (123 now). I'm still the biggestest DS fan you'll ever meet

Oh yes, and I got my purple GameCube with the mail today. The unit is actually much better than anticipated; very clean, hardly any smudges or scratches, and works perfectly.

Oh boy

So last week I finally decided to buy a copy of Pokemon Emerald for the Game Boy Advance. In order to keep my collection in mint shape, I always look for new games or used ones that are complete, with box and manual. I was having a hard time finding Emerald in these conditions for cheap...until a certain website offered a new copy for $19.99 + $5 shipping. $25, brand new? What a deal!

Or so I thought. I just received a shipping confirmation e-mail, with a tracking number that ends in 'HK'. As soon as I saw that, I knew what was going on. A quick search in Google confirmed my fears; buyportablegames.com sells illegal, pirated copies of games. So, a 'new' and fake Pokemon Emerald is on its way to me, and will erase itself every 15 hours of playtime or so. Why even bother.

According to other people's misfortunes, Paypal (the payment method I used) doesn't offer refunds for illegal software, since, according to them, it's my duty to make sure these items are official. As much as it angers me they're right; I should've done the research BEFORE buying the game.

So I wasted $25. I want to get the game though; I'll just buy a new one at WalMart to keep it safe. And, now I have to think of how to get rid of the fake game; I don't want it to roam the streets and fall on the hands of a little Pokefan, happy to get the game, only to be dissapointed when his or her file is erased; ugh.

In closing, beware of buyportablegames.com and many, MANY Amazon / Ebay sellers that pirate GBA titles. As you may recall, I hardly ever hate anything, but piracy I do hate, with a passion; imagine how angry it makes me to be the victim of this thoughtless crime that I hate. Let me tell you; it feels horrible. But, one thing's for sure; I've learned from this experience, and I hope this helps any of you if you ever face a similar problem. Beware....beware! DOWN WITH PIRACY!

UPDATE - Woohoo! Circuit City had a new copy for sale online; $23.63 shipped. Now THAT'S a good deal on an authentic, brand new game!

I just bought an indigo GameCube like the one above. Why, you might ask? I already have one, AND I have a Wii! Well, I'm not very fond of playing GameCube games on the Wii. I guess I would if I could just use the GameCube controller to get it started instead of the Wiimote, but it's not just that, it's a bunch of small little things that make me want to keep my GameCube plugged in, like the Game Boy Player.

So, since I already have a black GameCube, why did I get a purple one? Because ever since I sold my original purple Cube I have wanted to get another purple one. I guess my foolish self wants to think that my purple GameCube is back. Nothing against my black Cube, it works great, but I've always seen purple as the standard color for the GameCube, and my sister will surely give the black one a good run. Meanwhile, I'll keep the new purple Cubey and play it. I actually do; I recently got the Mario sports titles for the system, and a great addiction of mine, FIFA 06. The Wii can keep that copy of Brawl for months to come with no competition, except some sporadic Zack & Wiki here and there

Next old-school system on the list; a silver DS Phat, simply for nostalgia purposes for yours truly, a crazy DS collector.

There it is; my final project for my After Effects course last quarter. It's a compilation of 'super powers' that people would have. I could've gone with the traditional Flame, Invisibility, Flying sort of powers, but I decided to make things more random and weird, therefore funny. By the way, the frame rate here is quite bad; it's much better on the original version. Here are the actors in order:

1 - My mom
2 - My sister
3 - A brother from church
4 - A cousin
5 - Yours truly

Overall, I'll say it took me about 20 hours to complete this project, but it could've been less if I had done most of it on this PC and not my slow laptop. So, feel free to comment on it