i've chopped out most of my work for the day (i'm waiting on content) so i put some finishing touches on what i started last night - a style re-vamp. good? i can't say that. i'm not a gigantic fan of it. but it's big and bright which is what i wanted. per the usual, i'll spend countless hours in the night tweaking little tidbits in the design. maybe i'll add lightbox. that'd be sweet. you liiiiike!?!?? not so muuuch?!?

in a feat that will go unrivaled in centuries the Scion made the trip from (North) Austin to (East) Phoenix in a record-breaking 14 hours and 45 minutes! HUZZAH!

in one minute raygun and i will make the trek across the country back to Arizona. i feel like i did this only two months ago (i did). it's going to be a hell of a drive.

thanksgiving was rad. good food. good friends.

hasta manana!

I walked and stood myself into new levels of geekdom this weekend. Yours truly bought the brand new Nintendo Wii on opening day. It involved about 5+ hours of standing in line, making acquaintances, hearing a lot of stories, and I left victoriously! Not as fun, geeky, or as hardcore as The Great Star Wars Camp Out of '99 - but equally (moreso?) rewarding.

First off, let me say that I've been a Nintendo fan for a long time. The only other brand of gaming console I've owned are a TurboGrafx 16 -coincidentally, TurboGrafx game titles are being offered on the Wii's virtual console- and I own a PSP, which was given to me by a Japanese friend for free. In the Genesis/SNES debate I sided with Nintendo, even though (without the code) there was no blood in Mortal Kombat. I wanted blood but I couldn't ignore how comfortable the SNES felt in way it controlled. I've said this here before, but one of my English reports in 10th or 11th grade was about Shigeru Miyamoto -creator of Donkey Kong, Mario, Zelda and so much more- and I even made a pilgrimage to his home town in Japan, which neighbored my town. I've owned every Nintendo console in my lifetime, but passed up on (couldn't afford) a Virtual Boy -which was dumb- and a few of the miscellaneous versions of the Gameboy.

I only came to terms with my fanboy-ness within the last few years. Those of you who know me well, know that it's been a dream of mine for a long time to work at Nintendo (as a translator) and I even applied, but nothing ever panned out. As I'm losing a bit of my Japanese vocabulary, I wonder if this is a waning possibility.

Now on to the story. I didn't pre-order a Wii, partly because when pre-orders happened I was coming back from Japan and was uncertain of my future address -a lot was uncertain- and mostly because I was unemployed and buying a game system when unemployed is foolishness. But I had been talking about wanting one for the better part of a year.

Pre-release date -Sun/11/19/2006- I hatched a plan to saunter up to the local Wal-mart on Saturday at around midnight, miraculously avoid crowds of people and soccer moms and hopefully pick one off the shelf. My plan was so deft, I patted myself on the back.

I show up to Wal-mart and it's packed out with greasy haired, acne-faced nerds. NERDS! I say nerds, but they were people more like myself. Kind of chubby and a couple of guys had anime hair. Did you know that the average age of a gamer is 33? Fact. I quickly started conversation to find out "What's going on?" Asked a few Wal-mart employees "What's the deal?" Apparently, they had only 20 Wii consoles and had already initiated a number scheme; result: all numbers dulled out. And apparently if I had went there at any point during the day I could have probably secured a number.

I stand around until midnight hoping that the 20 was a lie (Internet said they had 59 - and Internet doesn't lie - EVER!). They only brought out 20. Rather than looking like an pitiful idiot, I left. But not without some insider information. Someone there said that the Best Buy on Alma School had 100 Wii consoles.

"What should I do?" I pondered aloud. "Is it worth it to try? What if there's already 100 people in line?"

I milled that question for another couple of hours trying to go to sleep. I had set the alarm for 5:30, just in case I decided to make a go for it. That night I slept a single hour. Awake at 4am, I decided to work on a website to "calm my nerves" or "bore me to sleep" - I hacked a bug in my code, got excited and decided I was awake, and I should just go to Best Buy. I didn't know where on Alma School the fabled Best Buy was, but I set out anyway.

Armed with a book and a cup of coffee, I get to best buy at about 5:15am, there are tents and sleeping bags wrapping around the store. I ask how many people and a girl answers me with a question saying, "About 50?" so I stand in line and proclaim to others around me that"I have a knife." You gotta earn respect on the streets, instill fear into people. especially after the PS3 debacle.

Ten minutes after I arrive, an older man -who I'll call "Emilio" because I never got his real name- steps in line. Emilio is a big fella and within minutes of being there starts chatting endlessly. Emilio quickly let us know that he was standing in line for his son. And WOW! The guy had stories! He's retired, served in the air force, and has lived here all his life. He told us stories of when he used to hunt pheasant on the land we were sitting on and how it used to belong to "Ol' Man Dobson" and this was all cotton and alfalfa fields. He told us stories of how he went to the Killing Fields in Cambodia on a military operation posing as a Cuban advisor (he's Mexican) and he saw headless bodies in piles. He also told a story of how he was stationed in Alaska - face to face with the Russians every day. He once on patrol tripped while walking and found a buried tent with 4 dead bodies(!). Four four hours I was involved in some sort of form of conversation - mostly passively involved. Helped the time fly. He taught us how to tell time by the sun and the wind change.

This made me think of veterans. I know a few vets read this, so I don't want to sound too general. Vets probably see so much fucked up stuff in their short tours that when they finish, they hang out at the VA and just tell stories. Probably helps them cope. Probably builds camaraderie. A common thread. So as a result, these old guys all know how to talk endlessly and tell stories.

*As you can see by the length of this blog post, I wouldn't mind being like that.*

Or maybe it's less of a veteran thing and more of a personality thing.

At 7:00am the sun is up and some blue-shirted Best Buy employees walk the line making preliminary counts... I'm number 46. It looks like I'm getting a Wii - now I just need to wait it out until 9:00am. My only problem is that the coffee I drank at 5:00am has now percolated through my kidneys and is presenting a problem. At 8:00, I get a ticket, which guarantees (a guarantii, if you will) a Wii. Urination fidgeting is getting worse - I can hardly wait until 9:00 when they call my number and there may be an impending embarrassing crisis.

Finally, a little after 9:00am, I'm escorted by a man ironically named "Mario" into the store to pick up my Wii with WiiSports, my copy of Zelda:Twilight Princess, my extra Wiimote, and my extra nunchuk ( <- how cool is it that it's called that!?!? ). I walk out a happy camper and despite one hour of sleep I go home with absolutely no intention of sleeping all day.

Total playing time on Sunday: 4'36"

i done gone up a pants size. dang ol' belly explosion, man.