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What in the world happened? From what I have read, that is Hootie (Darius Rucker) in the new Burger King commercials. Is he that desperate for money? I have 3 Hootie and Blowfish CD’s, but I feel like I should go buy some more just to help them out.

I have to admit, though, that it is a catchy song. I can’t get the stupid thing out of my head. Too bad the Burger King in Starkville closed recently, or I might have to go get one of those sandwiches.

Everybody sing!
When my belly starts a rumblin’ and I’m jonesin’ for a treat
I close my eyes for a big surprise
The Tendercrisp Bacon Cheddar Ranch
I love The Tendercrisp Bacon Cheddar Ranch
The breasts(?) they grow on trees
And streams of bacon ranch dressing flow right up to your knees
There’s tumbleweeds of bacon and cheddar paves the streets
Folks don’t front you because you got the juice
Theres a train of ladies comin’ with a nice caboose
Never get into trouble, never need an excuse
That’s the Tendercrisp Bacon Cheddar Ranch
I love The Tendercrisp Bacon Cheddar Ranch
No one tells you to behave
Your wildest fantasies come true
Dallas cheerleaders give you shaves
Red onions make you laugh instead
And french fries grow like weeds
You get to veg all day
All the lotto tickets pay
There is a king who wants you
To have it your way
That’s the Tendercrisp Bacon Cheddar Ranch

Because of a long day of work and a trip to Tupelo that I got talked into, I didn’t get a chance to play my PSP until around 11:30 Thursday night. Unfortunately, I got one of the units with a dead pixel on the screen. It’s hard to see most of the time, but my eyes have a tendency to zone in on that kind of stuff. GameStop is directing people to Sony’s 1-800 number. Sony doesn’t consider a dead pixel to be a defect, so I’m stuck with it. I guess I just expect items that I pay a lot of money for to be nearly perfect.

In spite of the pixel, I am really enjoying the PSP. In addition to Untold Legends, I bought Lumines with money I got from trading in games. Untold Legends is an action RPG that is a lot like Champions of Norrath and the Baldur’s Gate games that came out on the consoles. Lumines has been described as the best Tetris-like game since Tetris. Both are a lot of fun and look pretty good. The movie Spider-Man 2 came with the PSP. I watched a few minutes of it and it also looks cool on that screen.

After playing for a while, my arms and shoulders start to get tired. I think that if I change my grip and rest the PSP on my lap, I can change that. I think I’m going to get back to playing. Later.

So, today I went and paid for a PSP in full. I had been telling myself over the past couple of months that I wouldn’t get one at launch and would wait until a few more interesting titles came out. But all the hype I’ve been hearing over the past few days got to me. Also, I few weeks ago I heard about a launch title that looked good. Also, I got a nice fat refund from the IRS, so I figured I could spend some of it. So, I paid for the PSP and Untold Legends. If I wanted one of the games they already had in stock, I could have come home with it today. Anyway, I’m excited and can’t wait to play it on Thursday.

Beware the Ides of March!

So much for beating a game within a week. I just haven’t been motivated to play any games lately. I bought Gran Turismo 4 on the PS2. It’s a good looking game, but I just haven’t felt like playing it. I got my new video card installed in my computer last week and on the same day I noticed a clicking noise coming from my hard drive. I decided to go ahead and replace it immediately. The replacement came in the mail earlier this week. Last time a hard drive started clicking, I wasn’t proactive and it ended up causing me a lot of grief. Anyway, maybe now I’ll start playing Everquest II again. Or maybe I’ll play a game that I can actually finish.

I think I have ADD when it comes to video games. I have trouble staying with a game long enough to see it to completion. Sometimes I get frustrated or bored with a game and don’t want to play anymore. Other times a new game will come out before I’m finished with the one I’m currently working on. In either case I end up forgetting about the game I was playing, sometimes for years. So, my goal is to beat one of the games in my collection within a week. The unscored ones on the list are the ones I haven’t finished playing. We’ll see if that happens.

I’ve been hard at work over the past few days on a project for class. Procrastination sucks! Sometimes I wonder if I went into the wrong field. Maybe I should have gone into education or business. I’m starting to hate sitting in front of a computer typing all day. I think I’m already getting carpal tunnel. Oh well. The pretty pictures I get to create make me feel better…most of the time.

“What straight black man sits there and watches the Oscars? Show me one.” — Chris Rock, this year’s Oscar Awards host.

A couple of weeks ago I started having problems hearing in one of my ears. My ear feels stopped up and I’ve got this constant ringing. I can still hear out of it, but not very well. I’m not exactly sure what caused it. A couple of days before I had used some earplugs because I was using some noisy machinery, but I’ve done that plenty of times before. I didn’t stick the damn things in that far. After a few days of hoping it would return to normal serious I decided to go to the health center on campus. The doctor said that my eardrum was retracted and gave me some medicine to take. The medicine didn’t help at all but it might be useful the next time I have allergy problems. He had asked me to return for a follow-up, so I went in today. The doctor now wants me to go see an ear, nose, and throat specialist. So on Thursday I’ll be going to Tupelo to see this specialist. Hopefully, I’ll be getting some good news. Maybe I’m just paranoid and worried for nothing. I guess we’ll see.

Looks like the site is back up. The credit card that I used to pay for the hosting space recently expired. I never got around to giving my new hosting company new credit card information even though they sent me an email about it. Doh!

Earlier this week I finished playing my newest game, The Punisher. It was a really fun game, but it doesn’t take a lot to entertain me. In terms of graphics and gameplay, I’m sure there are plenty of third person shooters out there that are better (like Max Payne), but that doesn’t mean that this one can’t be fun. I think one of the big selling points of this game is the goriness. Even at the end it was still shocking to see some of the things you could do to the bad guys.

I really enjoyed all the cameos and references to other Marvel characters that show up throughout the game. I guess I shouldn’t spoil it anymore than that. Slaughter Mode is an interesting take on on bullet time. I didn’t use it much, but it came in handy at times. Like X-Men Legends they hinted at the end that there would be more to come. Overall, it’s a good game that’s at least worthy of a rental. I’ll probably go back and play it on a higher difficulty one of these days.

It’s not really surprising at this point, but UPN has now officially cancelled Star Trek: Enterprise. Too bad.