Duality

I’m going to put a region switch on my GameCube.

I think I was reading this list of “top 10 games you’ve never played” at IGN or something—can’t remember how I got there—and one of the entries was Mr. DRILLER: Drill Land. Years ago, Drill Land seemed like it was on track for domestic release. But then, it was never released in the U.S. Seeing it again reminded me of how badly I’ve wanted to play it all these years. That’s when I made my decision.

Admittedly, it was a spur-of-the-moment decision, but I’m sticking to it. Everything that kept me from indulging in import games—cost of import games, cost of a replacement console (in case I screw up), cost of mod materials, lack of soldering skills—are non-issues now. I’ve already placed my order and Drill Land, Nintendo Puzzle Collection, and a 4.5mm Gamebit (to handle Nintendo’s special screws) are on their way. No turning back now.

Things to get:

• Fine-tipped soldering iron (maybe that ColdHeat iron)
• Thin rosin-core solder
• 30-Gauge Kynar wire
• On-off switch (SPST or DPDT if I want to do the dual-LED mod too)
• Digital multimeter with connectivity testing
• Electrical tape
• Wire stripper (come on, gotta have one at home…)
• … some kind of grouding bracelet or anti-static thingy?

Resources:

• IGN: How to Modify Your GameCube (JP to US mod, but has good disassembly pictures and instructions)
• GameCube Import Mod (covers JP to US and US to JP; nicest button placement out of the links here)
• GCN Mod (JP to US mod, but with high-res photos)
• mmmonkey Game Cube Region Switch (site also has a nice dual-LED mod to complement the region switch)
• Region switch guide (covers three different sets of contacts for the switch)

Yesterday, my alarm woke me up at 7 AM. I thought something was wrong because it was still so cold and dark. I must have set my alarm clock wrong, right? All I wanted to do was stay in bed. And I did for another hour or so.

This morning was even colder than yesterday morning, so I stayed in bed until almost 9.

My parents bought a space heater for me last week. I thought they just wasted their time. I guess not. I’ll have to bring it over ASAP.

Postpwning: (verb) dropping a pwnage class with the intention of taking it next time.

(tell them you got the job, Xero =))

I’ve noticed something about working full-time. The more I get used to it, the more my brain shuts off after I get off work. When Cal’s semester started, I made a point to at least think through each problem set from EE 140 and EE 142. It kept my analytical skills sharp and kept me ahead of the homework questions my friends still at Cal threw at me. Now I don’t look at the problems until they ask me and when they do ask me. And when they do ask me, I let out a few brain farts before any helpful tidbits come out.

It’s just so easy to be content with doing nothing after work. I’m tired. It’s late. Why exert myself at all?

Well, because I like progress. I’m going to try to turn things around this week starting with the still-upcoming redesign. I’m going to push for a 2005—yes, this year!—release.

So I was telling my mom how I haven’t even accumulated one vacation day yet and she tells me that 8 vacation hours—not 24—equals 1 vacation day.

… oh.

Wow, Wikipedia, you sure can read my mind. You even know what working full-time is like for a young’un like me.

But really, the work part isn’t that bad—it’s pretty cool, actually. There’s already a part of the current project which is mine. Okay, so it’s only tweaking model files to match data from the technology group. But still, it’s nice to be responsible for something other than showing up every day, you know?

It’s the everything-else part that makes me feel lost sometimes. The QLC article in Wikipedia covers it all, except the times when I read about great video game deals and think about how little time I have to play games. Do I still buy? Or is that a waste?

Back in June of 2003, I was in a bit of a jam. I had just left school, I had no financial aid, and I needed a job. After several days of walking around town handing out resumes, I got a call from a small gas station/car repair shop called Hoffmann 76. Seeing as how I needed the money, I took the job. At first, I had no real interest in the repair side of work. I was never much of a car person and barely knew the difference between an oil filter and a windshield wiper. (OK, extreme example, but yeah…) But they took me in and over the years I learned a lot from them.

Yesterday, I found out that Gamestop wanted to hire me.

So it was with a heavy heart that I decided to say goodbye to my beloved gas station. Today I quit my job. However, today I also finished the necessary paperwork and was hired at Gamestop. It’s an odd feeling I have right now. One one hand, I’m sad to see the station go and I feel bad for leaving. On the other hand, I’ve got a new job that I should enjoy even more and a bright future to look forward to. (Oh, and the fact that I get discounts on games helps ease the pain too.)

Farewell Hoffmann 76, Hello Gamestop.

Well…interview (singular), to be exact. I’m gonna combine several things into this post that slightly relate to each other, but are things that I think are awesome. And yeah, its a bit more ‘personal digging’ and whatnot, but bear with me.

In high school, I always knew that there was one place I could go to and be myself. I didn’t have to worry about people judging me and I didn’t have to worry about whether or not I ‘looked cool.’ For me, that place was the theatre. I loved the theatre. I love the theatre. After high school, though, I dropped out of the theatre scene almost entirely. I went to college and studied to become a Computer Science Engineer. But despite how much I loved computers and really wanted to learn how to program, I just never felt like I belonged among the other engineers. I never felt like I was accepted. And after two years, I dropped out.

A year went by and I decided to return to school. But this time, I was going to do what my heart had been telling me to do all along. Theatre! So I returned and joined the Theatre department. I took several theatre classes my first quarter, and while I did meet some new people and get to do a bit of acting, all in all, I never got the feeling like I did in high school. And the fact that the next two quarters (and two summer sessions) were almost theatre-free didn’t really help things.

However, this quarter started about two weeks ago and through a series of coincidences and a risk or two, it’s turned out to be the best quarter ever! In a later post I’ll be explaining one of the biggest factors, but the other one is the fact that I know people in my classes now. This may sound like a trivial thing, but in all my classes so far, I’ve known like one or two other people in them, tops. But this time, I’ve got four classes and for the most the same group of people in each one. That, to me, makes all the difference in the world. Being able to sit in a class and joke with someone makes them all the more bearable (not that they’re that hard to sit through to begin with, but it definitely gives me another reason for going to class).

And my time outside of class has also changed. Now I can walk up and down the halls and see people I recognize. Somehow these past two weeks have changed me in such a wonderful way. I’m meeting new people and I’m actually being outgoing, and talkative, instead of my usual shy self. It’s awesome! I really get the feeling that I’m back in high school with all my old friends. I’m finally becoming hyper again! School has no longer become something I need to do. It’s turning into something I want to do.

I know I skipped a lot of things, but as long as the gist is there, I think you’ll get it. Anyway, to tie it into the second thing I was going to talk about, today I had a job interview at Gamestop. For the past 5 months or so, I’ve been stopping by Gamestop every week and asking them if they have any job openings. And while the answer was always “not now, but we’ll be hiring for Christmas time” I kept going. If for no other reason than they might eventually get so tired of me asking that they would give me a job. However, last week I went in and was told that the hiring for Christmas has started and I scheduled an interview time.

Today was the interview and I have to say that it went GREAT! If I didn’t have such a crappy ass schedule right now I could almost guarantee that I got the job, but since I do have a really busy schedule, we’ll have to wait until Friday or so to find out. “But what does this have to do with theatre,” you’re probably asking. Well, I felt that because of how open and loose and confident I’ve become over the last few weeks, I was able to have a REALLY great interview. Because I’ve been taking so many risks lately, and saying things I usually don’t say, It’s like I’m a different person. And i think that really showed in the interview. I was completely relaxed and I was even joking around with him and everything, it was awesome.

Anyway, long post, I know, but just a taste of what I’ve been up to lately. I’ve still got about 4 or 5 topics I want to post about, but for now this will have to suffice.

I think my inner child has been waiting 5 years for this moment and now, the spotlight’s finally back on him. Wheee!!!

While this is slightly old news, it’s something I’ve been meaning to write about. Sadly my life has taken a turn for the ‘busy’ and…well, I’ll explain about that later. Anyway, last weekend (October 2nd and 3rd to be exact) I got to go somewhere I’d never been before. VEGAS! But I’m getting ahead of myself a bit, so I’ll back up. And since this is in the past now, I can freely talk about it.

About a month ago, I received a call from Ken, the father of one of my best friends, Alex. Now I had been talking to Alex earlier that week and he had explained to me that his parents were going to take him to Reno for his upcoming 21st birthday. So I then receive this phone call from his dad telling me that he’s actually going to take him to Las Vegas. “Cool,” I thought, “but what’s he telling me for?” But before I could say anything, he comes out and asks if I would like to join them! Not only that, but he’s going to be paying for my ticket! This is too good to be true! So I of course accept and take a vow of silence.

Time passes and soon enough, it’s time to head off to Vegas. So Sunday night comes and I’m about to head to the airport when I just happen to see Alex online. We start talking, and in my opinion (since I knew the surprise), I thought the conversation was hilarious.

Alex: It’s Vegas baby!
Me: Vegas?
Alex: Not Reno, Vegas!
Me: wow…thats a heck of an upgrade ;-)
Alex: Yup, we’re bringing a camera so I’ll take some pics and send them to you.
Me: Sweet
Alex: And I’ll call you for a loan when I run out of money :-D

Anyway, so my flight leaves before their flight so that I could be standing at the gate when they arrive and, to quote Alex’s dad, “see him shit his pants.” So my flight leaves around 8:40 PM and I arrive in Vegas about 9:55PM. Their flight was supposed to have left at 9:05PM and arrive around 10:25. However, it was a bit delayed and I ended up siting at their terminal for about an hour and a half before the plane actually arrived. But eventually the plane did arrive and Alex walked out the gate and for the first few moments didn’t seem to notice me at all. Then, after a double-take proceeded to freak out. His father, laughing hysterically, continually said “Oh, we got you!” and a merry time was had by all. :)

So! Travel aside (oh yeah, and his dad rented a freaking convertible! Talk about cruising The Strip in style!) we eventually make it to our hotel just as the clock strikes midnight. Party Time!! Now that it’s October 3rd, Alex is officially 21 and we decide to hit The Strip! The next few hours seem to be a bit blurry at this point, but I do recall playing slot machines for a little while, and then searching many a casino for a cheap table game like Blackjack or 5 Card Stud. The cheapest we could find at the time were 10 dollar tables (ie, $10 was the minimum bet required) and we played blackjack for about an hour. SO MUCH FUN! I’ve come to accept that I love playing table games at casinos. Screw slot machines, I play enough games at home! Table games have that human interaction (especially with other players in Blackjack) and it makes them so much more fun. Oh, and we also tried our hand at some Roulette and that was fun too, but a bit too random for my taste.

We eventually got some sleep around 5:30AM and woke up around 10AM to get some breakfast (Buffets Rule!!). Afterwards, it was right back to the casino floor! Alex and I finally found some 5 dollar black jack tables and I actually managed to stay at one table for almost two and a half hours with the same 20 dollars I originally put in. And by the end of it, I actually walked away with that original $20. But by 4 o’clock or so it was time to start heading to the airport. We took one final cruise around town and a few hours later said our goodbyes to Sin City.

So, how much did I lose, you ask? Well, perhaps this breakdown might help:

Things Lost: 160 dollars, my innocence, and self restraint (j/k about those last two ;)
Things Gained: Wonderful memories, a love of card games, the knowledge that Vodka and Amp taste 100 times better than Vodka and Red Bull, oh yeah…and like SIX freaking blisters! (you really never realize just how much your actually walking)

So in conclusion, Vegas=Good. Thanks a ton Ken. I had the time of my life. And Happy Birthday Alex!