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I’m back in Starkville after a short trip to Jackson. My friends and family were good to me again this year. For my birthday and Christmas I got:

• The Talisman and The Black House, both by Stephen King and Peter Straub
• The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Extended Edition
• Time & Again Shea Butter
• Fraggle Rock: Doin’ the Things That Doozers Do
• a USB Hub
• a USB Adapters Kit
• money
• The Transformers 20th THe Movie Anniversary Edition
• a Visa Gift Card

Recently I bought Bully for the PS2. It’s mission-style gameplay reminds me a lot of GTA. That’s not surprising since they come from the same company. Bully is rated T for Teen, so I guess it won’t be quite as bad as GTA. I wonder if I can finish the game before I go back to work.

I started reading The Talisman on Christmas Eve. I’m already hooked on it and I’m having a hard time putting it down. I think my friend was right when he told me that a lot of the annoying elements of King’s writing are held in check, maybe because of the guy he co-authored the book with. At least I think that’s what John was saying. I discovered tonight that there’s a mini-series based on The Talisman coming out in 2008.

Please don’t waste your time watching The Wicker Man like I did. It was terrible.

The first season of Coupling was really good. I’m looking forward to watching the rest.

I discovered the option on the DirecTV menu that allows you to watch programs in Spanish when available. I never realized how much fun that could be. It really improves the quality of some programs.

I’ll be going back to work a week from Wednesday. I’m going to enjoy this time off as much as I can.

Last week the folks at GameStop told me that it would probably be today before they got anymore Wiis. My roommate also heard that today might be the magic day when he was out of town recently.

I took my lunch break as early as I could and drove to GameStop. Of course, there was already a line there. They had a sign-up list and I was number 14 on the list. More people came after I did. I heard somebody say that people started getting in line at Wal-Mart last night. I was kind of excited. I figured that some people would get Wiis even if I wasn’t one of them. A lady from work came in looking at Nintendo DS games and I talked with her some. After a while the UPS guy came and he had a few big boxes. The store grew quiet with anticipation. Unfortunately, when the GameStop employee came from the back he said that there were no Wiis. Everyone seemed stunned and disappointed. One guy came hoping to get a Wii and a PS3, but he only got a PS3.

I have a feeling that they’ll get the Wiis tomorrow and it sounded like they may only get one shipment per week. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to go by there tomorrow until later in the day. I guess I’ll try again next week. I’m pretty sure I won’t be standing in line trying to get one again. This will probably be the last update on this until I actually get my hands on one. That Xbox 360 is starting to look more and more tempting.

Update, 2:00 pm
I just spoke to the co-worker who I saw in GameStop earlier. She went to Wal-Mart and found out that they didn’t get any Wiis either.

The only things that really happened this weekend were that I bought a strategy guide for Twilight Princess and a 1.0 GB memory card. I asked at some of the stores in the Jackson area when they were planning on getting more Wiis. The answers I got ranged from “Tuesday or Wednesday” to “We might get some more by the end of the year”. I wish I had decided that I wanted a Wii sooner than I did.

I knew that GameStop gets their shipments around noon, so I figured I might go by and check during my lunch break. I didn’t occur to me, however, that there might be people already at GameStop waiting for that shipment to come. I discovered this when I called GameStop about half an hour before I went to lunch. GameStop wasn’t even sure that they were going to get any today, so those people were waiting on the possibility of getting a chance to buy a Wii. I called Wal-Mart and the lady succinctly told me they didn’t have any.

I went by GameStop anyway on my lunch break and the UPS truck was a couple of stores down from GameStop. There was a line inside and I heard the manager say that the 4 Wiis that came today had been sold. I actually saw two people walking out of the store with them. I decided to wait a little until the craziness dies down before I continue looking for a Wii. The guy at GameStop seems to think that things will die down next week. He even suggested that I try Wal-Mart. The manager seemed really surprised that people were already waiting outside the store when he got there this morning. I jokingly said that I was going to pay somebody to stand in line for me while I’m at work and he thought that was funny. I ended up buying Alias – The Complete First Season and then I went to get some food.

I knew there would be no chance of getting a Wii today since I didn’t reserve one, so I didn’t even try. Unfortunately, no one that I know of is taking reserves, so it’s a free-for-all. I went today to find out estimates on when they would have more and to see if I could find component cables and a copy of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and its strategy guide even if I don’t have a console to play it on. I figured that I’m going to buy them sooner or later so it couldn’t hurt to get them while they’re available. I had done some searching online, but I figured that I would check around here in Starkville before I ordered anything. My last stop was Wal-Mart and there I bought the last copy of Twilight Princess that they had. I think it was the last unreserved copy in the entire city. I had no luck finding the component cables or the strategy guide, but they are at the bottom of the priority list. I’m hoping that GameStop will get some more Wiis in this week and that I can get one before they sell out. Maybe I can get one while I’m in Jackson for Thanksgiving.

Last night I finished reading Song of Susannah, book 6 of The Dark Tower. It was short compared to the last few in the series, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I didn’t mind the story so much as I did the last one. I can’t wait to get started on the last one. Hopefully, it’ll be here by the weekend.

Those Intel Core 2 Duo commercials bother me for some reason.

I saw Saw III over the weekend. It was ok up until the ending.

I think I want to get a Wii instead of an Xbox 360 or a PS3.

George R.R. Martin is upset because PayPal locked his account after his name showed up on a Treasury Department list. It’s an interesting story.

Update (Nov. 9):
Looks like George R.R. Martin’s PayPal dispute was settled after he wrote his blog entry. I doubt that he asked for any special treatment, but I’m sure that fact that he’s a celebrity didn’t hurt.

Last night I went to GameStop in Starkville for the midnight release of Final Fantasy XII. It was the first time I had done this for a video game. I’ve been to many early showings of movies and I was out at midnight for the releases of the last two Harry Potter books, but I usually wait on games.

I got there about 25-30 minutes before midnight and there were about 35 people already in there store. It only got more and more crowded as it got closer to midnight. Most of the people were cool but there was one loud, obnoxious guy a few spots in front of me. He would not shut up. I wasn’t the only one who noticed how much quieter it was in the store after he left. I’m glad I got a spot close to the beginning of the line. They started selling the game at midnight and I was out of there about 15 minutes later. I’m glad that I went and got to see all of the excited people. I wasn’t worried about GameStop selling my copy, but I am still glad to have the game in my possession. I got the collector’s edition game and the collector’s edition strategy guide.

Another positive result of the trip is that I finally found a copy of the Tales of the Abyss strategy guide. I’ve been trying to get a copy of this guide since the game came out almost 3 weeks ago. I’m not sure what the delay was. The guys at GameStop could never tell me anything about what was going on. I placed an order with Amazon as sort of a backup plan and they kept delaying the ship dates. Our GameStop only got 2 copies and I got the 2nd one (a guy in line in front of me got the other one).

I had thought about playing for a little while when I got home, but I was too tired. I didn’t even open the packaging. Tonight I want to watch horror movies and Nip/Tuck so I probably won’t play FFXII until tomorrow. From what I’ve seen of the reviews, it’s going to be a lot of fun.

I got a copy of Tales of the Abyss for the PS2 yesterday. I only got to play it about an hour, but it looks like it’s going to be another highly addictive game. More on this another time.

I’m almost finished reading Wolves of the Calla, the 5th book in The Dark Tower series by Stephen King. If I have to read the way of speaking that these people use much longer I might go crazy. I’ll get to move on to the next one soon, and I’ll say thankya. The story of the book is good, but it seems like it’s just a lot of filler material. To me it doesn’t seem like this book and that last one advanced the story of their quest to the tower that much.

I have to figure out something to cook and bring to work tomorrow. It’ll probably be a dessert. It’s been a long time since I’ve cooked anything major.

Last night my roommate and I finished the game Gladius for the Xbox. It’s not the kind of game that I would normally play, but it was a lot of fun nonetheless. It’s a turn-based strategy game with RPG elements that’s similar to Final Fantasy Tactics if I remember that game correctly. The co-op multiplayer feature was one of the main reasons I decided to give it a try.

The graphics on the Xbox look great. I read somewhere that there are textures in this version that you won’t see on the PS2 or Gamecube. There was one problem that kept popping up. The game gives you the option to change the appearance of your fighters, everything from skin color to the color of their armor. During the cut scenes, sometimes the characters would have their customized appearances and sometimes the characters would look the way they originally looked when we first met them. So, sometimes Urlan (the brother of our hero) was black and sometimes he was white. It was more humorous than annoying, however.

The battles are the meat of the game. Preparing for and fighting the battles are how you will spend most of your time. For the first part of the game the battles are all insanely easy, but eventually you’ll have to do some real strategizing in order to survive. They change the opponent types, the locations, the conditions of each battle, and the requirements for victory just enough to prevent the game from getting too dull. Many of the attacks are really cool to see, even if you’ve seen it a countless number of times already. The strategy element of the game is really engaging. I love it when a good plan comes together.

There is a plot to the game, but it doesn’t seem that important until the end. The voice acting is pretty bad. The bad voice acting was also more humorous than annoying. The most unintentionally funny character in this department was Ursula (our hero). The grunts, groans, and battle verbiage are better, but can get on your nerves at times.

Overall, Gladius is a fun game to play. I recommend it if you enjoy this type of game.

I got my order from Contacts1st today. It’s been less than a week since I placed the order.

I’m still making my way through Battlestar Galactica. It’s nice to see GOOD sci-fi on TV in the post Star Trek era. I think I’ve even helped create 2 new fans. I ordered Season 2.5 over the weekend and it shipped yesterday. I can’t wait to watch it all.

I rented a game called Black today. I hope it’s worth the time. Since I got it for free it won’t be a big deal if it’s a bad game.

Today I wrote an OpenGL program for the first time in at least a year, probably closer to two years. Funny how the the little things can give you the most trouble sometimes.

I like the cooler weather.