'Tis the season for a new update.
Star Wars in Concert was well worth the trouble I went through to see it. My supervisor scheduled me to work 9 AM to 5:30 PM on Wednesday, December 2nd (the show started at 7:30 PM), so that left me with two options:
1.) Run to my car, fight rush hour traffic to get home, change clothes as fast as humanly possible, and fight traffic back into the heart of the city.
2.) Bring in a change of clothes, get dressed in the locker room at work, and simply drive down a couple of streets.
Needless to say, I opted for the latter. On Monday night, I started packing up what I would need; a t-shirt, jeans, sneakers, and of course my ticket. The one thing that I clearly forgot was money for parking - I don't carry cash very often, but I missed several opportunities to go to an ATM before heading out that night (including the machine right next to the Mount Carmel West gift shop).
I left Mount Carmel around 5:45 PM and reached the Neil Avenue Parking Garage, about a block away from Nationwide Arena, at 6:00 sharp. Despite the lack of parking money, the guy at the gate let me in because I promised I would go get $10 from the nearest ATM, which he described as "across the street and to the right". Due to my poor sense of direction, I didn't realize which street to cross. I spent at least 30 minutes wandering through the Arena District in Downtown Columbus before I came back to the corner of Neil Avenue and Nationwide Boulevard. Apparently, the ATM was right next to the Nationwide Arena ticket office. I inserted my card, punched in my PIN, withdrew $20 (most ATM's around here require transactions in intervals of $20, because loading $10 bills is a step they would rather skip), accepted the $3 fee for not being a Huntington customer (and the $2 fee for not using a Chase ATM), and found my way back to the garage. Once I had a parking stub, I pulled out of my temporary spot by the door (a handicapped space, but that's where the guy at the gate suggested I park for the moment) and found a proper space.
I made it to the gate by 7 o'clock, so that gave me half an hour to walk around and see all the movie props on display. There were several costumes, including Chewbacca, various Jedi from Episode II, and a couple variants of Stormtroopers. I don't remember seeing Han Solo in Carbonite, but I believe there were plenty of helmets, blasters, and a couple of lightsabers in the traveling collection. Unfortunately, the gift shop didn't have anything good, but after the show I did pick up a toy lightsaber for $5. I got a blue one, but I realized after the purchase that the green one would've matched the glow of my alarm clock.
The show itself was spectacular. The London Philharmonic Orchestra played the iconic music while Anthony Daniels narrated each segment, telling the story of the series. The part where Anakin Skywalker fell to the Dark Side had amazing pyrotechnics - I was ten rows from the stage and I felt quite a bit of heat from the flames they shot into the air.
The next morning, Thursday the 3rd, I woke up with a cold. After two weeks, I still don't think I've fully recovered. I would put myself at around 95% health, but I can't tell for sure without checking an HP bar.
It's almost Christmas, and I got my shopping done about a week ago. I sent money via PayPal to my sister in Hawaii because everything she wanted was too expensive or perishable. I got my brothers and sister-in-law $50 GameStop gift cards because I think we're all going to buy Borderlands or Left 4 Dead 2 and play together on Xbox Live. I got my mom a 4 Gigabyte micro-SD card for her mp3 player and picked up a new multi-function power tool (interchangeable cutting/sanding heads) for my dad. We'll find out what they got me next time.

As promised, I have reviews and an event report for you, as well as a sample of what's to come.
First, Tekken 6 is just what I thought it would be - a 3D fighter with relatively simple controls. Each face button controls a particular limb (A is left foot, B is right foot, X is left hand, and Y is right hand in standard control setup), as opposed to having buttons for different strengths of attack (light, medium, and heavy punch/kick). Also, the button layout on the included wireless fight pad seemed a bit weird at first. This is the Street Fighter IV fight stick layout:
X Y RB LB
A B RT LT
and this is the Tekken 6 layout:
B X Y LB
A LT RT RB
As you can see, only three buttons are in the same place. But after I adjusted the controls in-game and assigned a finger to each button (index for left kick, middle for left punch, ring for right punch, and pinky for right kick), I can pull of moves just as simple as I did in Tekken 3 back on the PS1. The controller works for Street Fighter IV as well, after you switch from Controller Layout A to Gamestick Layout A. I think I can now pull off Ryu and Ken's super/ultra combos at will, so I may stand a chance of unlocking Gouken before Super Street Fighter IV comes out in February or March.
Forza Motorsport 3 is by far my favorite game now. I haven't had a racing game since the original Gran Turismo on the PS1 (which I was never very good at), but I was able to unlock around 50% of the achievements in the first week. Currently, I'm in Year 5 of Season Play; My driver level is almost 40 at this point, and I have over 50 cars in my garage, but I still need at least one car from about a dozen more brands. I haven't played it online yet, but it supports up to 8-person multi-player.
Halloween was kinda slow this year. We had 3 bags of Reese's peanut butter cups, 4 bags of Kit Kat bars, and 5 bags of Butterfingers. I took two bags of each out with me in a canvas tote bag, handing out one piece of candy per child, and had over half my supply remaining after the two hours of Beggar's Night elapsed.
My mom and dad bought a leather sofa and loveseat to replace the old couch and recliners that were falling apart. They made sure it would be delivered by Thanksgiving because my brother is bringing his new girlfriend home to meet the family. We're trying to find a matching ottoman and a way to keep the cats from ruining it.
Star Wars in Concert comes to Columbus on December 2nd, and I've got a ticket for one of the best seats in the house. I asked for that day off back in October, so I hope my supervisor remembers that when he works out the next schedule. I'll let you know how it goes next time.

It's that time again. I have more to share than I originally thought, although it's not all good news.
First, I took advantage of a GameStop trade-in offer that ended on October 5th. I sold Too Human, Halo 3, Fallout 3, and Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion for about $50, and got a bonus $20 for trading 4 games. I put that money on a pre-order of Tekken VI, with the wireless fight pad (which runs for $149.99), and also pre-ordered Forza Motorsport 3. By pre-ordering, I get a costume in Tekken VI that will turn Yoshimitsu into the Cardboard Tube Samurai from Penny Arcade and I can start with that sweet Audi Quattro in Forza 3. Both of those games hit the street on October 27th, so I'll let you know how awesome they are next time.
Also around October 5th was Food Service Workers' Week. I don't know if that's a nationally recognized holiday, but at Mount Carmel West, that means we in Nutrition Services get stuff that makes putting up with the crap a little more bearable. On Monday, we got a meal pass worth $4 (enough for a sandwich, a bag of chips, and a bottle of pop). On Wednesday, we got a pair of free AMC movie vouchers. On Friday, there was a department pizza party, which was fun for a few minutes but backed us up for hours with work.
I used one of my movie passes to go see Zombieland, on the 12th if memory serves me right. It's amazing how much I can relate to the main character: We're both college-aged nerds from Columbus, Ohio with brown, wavy hair and practically no social skills. Maybe that's why I enjoyed it so much, and I hope that sequel they're planning pans out. I'm also thinking of seeing Surrogates and Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs in Imax 3D (there will be a surcharge for that, but $2 or $3 is a lot better than $8).
My father's birthday was October 17th, and he asked for two things; a pair of shoes exactly like the ones he's worn out, and a banana cream pie. Unfortunately, I couldn't find either, but I did treat him to some barbecue ribs for dinner.
Last but not least, I currently have two major problems at work, and they're both named Ron. My supervisor, Ron Bowen, overhauled the assignment sheet and has yet to brief me on what the changes entail. That means I literally don't know what I'm doing anymore. The other (mo)Ron is a co-worker who won't pull his head out of his ass long enough to listen to me. Just the other day, he was supposed to do the Floater position and he did Floors (my job duty) instead. I told him he was wrong, and he just ignored me. Our manager told him he was wrong, and he ignored her. After 5 minutes of suppressing the urge to knock his teeth in, I begrudgingly did the work of the Floater position for the rest of the night. When I go back to work, I'll have to look around the department for a broom to use on the dock, to replace the one I broke in half out of rage.
Halloween is on a Saturday this year, but Beggar's Night is probably Thursday the 29th (they like to do it on a school night). I'll let you know how that goes in November.

September has been somewhat uneventful so far. In the latter part of August, I watched District 9, Ponyo, and Inglourious Basterds. My brother turned down the offer to see that last one with me because it's about 3 hours long. I have plenty of tokens from my manager to redeem for a movie pass, but I don't think there are any more movies worth seeing right now.
Matsuricon was pretty decent for a smaller convention. I bought a "Mixed Martial Arts & Crafts" t-shirt, a Bible Black cast-off figure, and a commissioned full-color drawing of a catgirl in a negligee. I won a Fullmetal Alchemist volume 10 DVD in a panel they called "Anime Millionaire: Championship Edition" (from the audience), got four bricks of Maruchan ramen in "Who wants free ramen?" and lost much of my dignity cosplaying Guile on stage.
There were actually quite a few fans of my cosplay, including a guy who ran a panel on 2D doujin fighting games. Before that day, I never would have guessed someone would make a game based on Les Miserables, or that it would include a robot clone of the main character, an embodiment of divine judgment, or a stuffed rabbit that drives a Mini. ArmJoe is a complete mind-fuck and you owe it to yourself to check it out.
Speaking of games, I traded Madden 09 in for Madden 10 as well as picking up Scribblenauts and WET. I almost traded Madden 10 back in for Madden 09 because Superstar mode is pretty much a shell of its former self: You can't run drills to establish your stats. You start out with everything set at 65 points with 100 extra points to allocate, but you can't take points away from skills you don't need - I will never kick the ball, but my power and accuracy are at 65. Online co-op, a feature they touted this year, is also a bit iffy: You can only play as the home team. Only the host can choose teams and plays, and be the QB. The server doesn't seem to be very reliable, but Castle Crashers had this same problem at launch.
Scribblenauts is a fun puzzle game with the tag line, "Write anything, solve everything." That's a pretty accurate description of the gameplay: you write the name of an object (nothing copyrighted or vulgar) that you can use to solve the puzzle. You earn Ollars for each completed level which you spend on unlocking new worlds, song tracks, and avatars.
WET is a third-person action game, and the guy at GameStop described it as "John Woo's Stranglehold with a chick as the main character." It's about Rubi Malone, a "fixer" from Texas who will take any job within reason if the price is right. The quicktime action can be somewhat annoying, but eventually you learn to anticipate it and get through to the rest of the game.
I really don't have much planned for October, so the next update could be rather short. We'll see how it plays out next time.

My birthday was rather enjoyable. I had the day off from work, but I went in around 10 o'clock for a meeting and my manager gave me a token for being early. I now have four tokens, and once I have five I can redeem them for an AMC movie pass.
The meeting was about diversity and ran from 10:10 to about 10:30, so I waited in the break room until 11 and returned to the cafeteria for the ice cream sundae. Apparently, I got the practice sundae; I was the first of the day and I guess the lady forgot that the cherry goes on top. It was still good, though, and only cost $2.
I was going to buy some kind of pitching net and a half-dozen baseballs, but the guy I called at Dick's Sporting Goods said that they only had it in stock at the start of baseball season. I could still buy one online, but I prefer making impulse purchases in person.
My dad baked a German Chocolate cake and picked up a large sausage & pepperoni pizza. I ate just half of my cake to save room for some hot dogs, because it was Dime a Dog night at Huntington Park, the Columbus Clippers' new stadium. My dad and I left around 5 PM and met up with my brother in downtown Columbus at 6 to see the game at 7:05.
The Columbus Clippers were playing the Gwinnett Braves, AAA affiliate of the Atlanta Braves, who are doing quite well this season - now three games ahead of the Durham Bulls in the International League South standings with a record of 73-53. The game was scoreless until the bottom of the 6th inning when Tony Graffiano drove in a run, and the Clippers held it together for another couple of innings until they gave up two runs in the 9th. The Braves won 2-1 that night, and swept the whole 4-game series with a combined score of 26-8.
I got a call from my sister in Hawaii and a card from my brother in Seattle, with a $50 GameStop gift card enclosed. I'm not sure what I'll get with it, but I'm thinking either Brutal Legend or Forza Motorsport 3. It would be a lot easier to decide if there were demos available on Xbox Live, but I'm sure I'll find something worth buying.
My brother who lives in town is turning 26 on Sunday, but he spends every other weekend in Berea with his girlfriend, so he's coming by today to celebrate his birthday with us. I believe my oldest brother got him a copy of Madden NFL 10, or at least a gift card to spend toward that purchase. I'm probably going to offer to see Quentin Tarantino's new movie, "Inglorious Basterds" with him. I was planning to see it myself, so if he turns it down it just means I only need to buy one ticket.
I have to work the next six days straight, and then I get a 3-day weekend to attend MatsuriCon. I'll let you know how that goes next time.

As promised, here's the follow-up on my 360:
I got my console back from Mesquite, Texas on June 26. The faceplate that I forgot to remove was damaged (the USB cover was broken off), and the system worked for about a day before going pear-shaped. I couldn't get on Xbox Live because my system "cannot connect to network hardware" and I tried literally everything the troubleshooter said to no avail. I even, foolishly, followed the advice of some Microsoft tech support guy in India and messed around with the settings on my router. Not only did it not restore my Xbox Live connection, but it ruined my laptop's wireless network settings. My brother, who has a Master's degree in this stuff, came over on July 5th to restore our network, but couldn't do anything about my Wi-Fi so I'm stuck on LAN.
On the 7th, I sent my console back to get the ethernet port fixed again. This time, I remembered to remove the faceplate, of which I bought a replacement on eBay, but forgot to remove a game disk. I was able to get through to an operator in the Xbox call center and let them know about the disk one day before the console arrived at their repair facility, so they removed it and sent it back to me ahead of the console. I was called by people from Microsoft a few times, but nobody remembered to give me a tracking number for the disk. They did, however, let me know that it would arrive on the 16th and my console would be delivered on the 17th. Unfortunately, the UPS driver who normally does this route had the day off and his substitute apparently doesn't understand the concept of a doorbell, so all of Microsoft's efforts to get my disk back before my console (in case I had another console I could play the game on) were in vain.
I received both packages on Friday and everything works fine so far, except for the fact that my Xbox Live connection seems to disconnect at random intervals. It only takes about a second to sign back in, and I think it has interrupted gameplay only once in the past two days (I lost it after starting a 1 vs 100 Extended Play and missed questions 2-5), so I suppose I can live with it. If I called Xbox, they would probably tell me that this is a problem with my ISP, which isn't listed as 100% compatible.
I went through that Reds game on my DVR, but didn't see my dad, brother, or myself in the stands. We're still looking for another Clippers game to attend, but it's rare for three completely different schedules (four if you count the team's) to line up perfectly. If we don't make it to Huntington Park by the end of the season, there's always next year.
By the way, my 24th birthday is coming up in 15 days. I bought myself a Lego Racers Thunder Raceway set and the Thunder Racer car to go with it. I got some road plates on eBay; Someone had a lot of 6 curved and 3 straight pieces, which is just what I needed to make a racetrack. Lego sells them in packs of 1 straight & 1 crossroad or 1 curve & 1 T-junction for $15, and that would have cost a fortune and left me with way too many unwanted pieces. I'm expecting my brothers to get me something from my ThinkGeek wishlist and I'm hoping my mom & dad will chip in for a punching bag, specifically a 80-lb Heavy Bag that we can put in the basement between the weight bench and the treadmill. There's also an Ice Cream Social at Mount Carmel West that happens to be held on August 3rd. That means a sundae could take the sting out of having to spend my birthday at work. I'll let you know how my day goes next time.
Another thing coming up in August is MatsuriCon, a smaller anime convention here in Columbus that's going on it's 3rd year if memory serves me right. It will happen August 28-30 and I'll tell you about that in the September Update, assuming these guys ever cash my check and give me some confirmation. Patience is a virtue, and I'll have to be a frakking saint to reach the end of this long wait. I'll keep you posted, then.

So far June has been a mixed bag, mostly little thing going well with a few problems that seem rather large.
Sometime in mid-May, the most senior, most skilled, and most valuable associate in Sanitation was abruptly fired for taking a few trash bags by our dumbass supervisor who I've witnessed taking boxes. We were practically a skeleton crew already, so now we have some people working shifts of 12 hours or longer and others getting no weekends off. If I had another job lined up, I'd be long gone by now.
On May 31, I took my dad to see X-Men Origins: Wolverine. I bought the video game when it hit store shelves and I think they compliment each other nicely: the game has all the blood and gore you would expect from a guy with foot-long claws, and it fills in some gaps between scenes of the movie (Alkali Lake, for example). There are a few details changed, but overall they're both quite enjoyable.
On June 8, I went into work on my day off for a mandatory meeting and went to the movies afterward for a double-feature. I saw Up in Digital 3D and The Hangover. The meeting put me in a bit of a bad mood, because it was announced that nobody's getting a raise for the next fiscal year, and there will be no employer contribution to our 403(b) retirement plans. That means that starting July 1, no one gets their annual performance evaluation bonus until Summer of 2010, if they decide to resume the practice of giving raises, and the hospital will not match the money you put into your retirement account. Since my evaluation occurs in August, I'm screwed. At least seeing those movies made me feel a little better. Up was good, wholesome fun and the 3D glasses didn't give me much trouble - if I didn't know better, I'd swear they weren't designed for people who wear glasses. The Hangover balanced that out with tons of slapstick and crude humor.
My brother came back from a week-long trip to Europe and brought me a couple bars of chocolate and a book based on a Greek comic strip. The chocolate is too bitter for my liking, but at least the book is good.
On June 11, my XBox 360 suddenly failed. One red light came on and the screen displayed error code E73. There was no information on the official XBox website, but a quick Google search told me that code stands for Ethernet Port Error. They said my warranty expired, so it would cost $100 to repair, but I just found proof that I bought an extended warranty, so I'm going to see if I can get that money back, if I can pull up the support page - it's taking forever in my other window, and on a separate computer.
On Tuesday, my dad, brother, and I tried to see the Columbus Clippers, but we never found any good tickets online and by the time we got there to buy in person, all they had left was standing room only. That and the fact that it looked like rain was coming made us skip that game and try for something next week. Yesterday, we went down to Cincinnati to see the Reds play the Atlanta Braves. We had tickets at least a week in advance somewhere around 1st Base, so my dad and brother, both Braves fans, got plenty of pictures of the visiting dugout. It was a close game, but the Reds won 4-3 thanks to a 3-run homer by our starting pitcher. That game was on TV, so I recorded it on my DVR and I'll go through it today or tomorrow to see if we were on camera.
Today is my mom's birthday, so I'm probably taking my parents out to Red Lobster, Olive Garden, or a steakhouse. It happens to be my turn to buy dinner, so they're taking full advantage of it.
If all goes well, I should have my 360 back by July. I'll let you know more about that next time.

I may be jumping the gun by posting this so early in the month, but I have a few things to share with you guys.
On April 30th, I saw Death Note: L, Change the World, the third live-action movie which shows what L did with his last 23 days. The showing I attended was the version dubbed in English by the same voice-actors as the anime on Adult Swim, and I never realized that L was voiced by the guy who played Felix Gaeta in Battlestar Galactica until they showed him in the bonus material intro. The subtitled version was shown on the 29th, but I worked that morning and saw the first two Death Note movies dubbed.
May Day served as a prime example of how dumb my luck is. I was called in early, but still had time to refill the radiator of my '91 LeBaron, which I believe was leaking coolant and burning motor oil. While driving towards the freeway on the way to work, my engine died on me in the middle of an intersection. Thankfully, a guy who works on car radiators just happened to have a shop on that street corner so I coasted into his lot, mostly. The apron between the road and the paved lot was on a bit of an incline, so I only had enough momentum to get my rear wheels past the sidewalk before I had to put it in park.
I went inside to have the shop owner look at it, but he said it looked like the starter or the alternator - something he doesn't fix. It turns out the real problem was that the timing belt snapped, but the car was rendered undriveable regardless. I first called my father, but he was at work; He's a security officer at the same hospital I work at, but he was switched from 3rd shift to 1st a couple of weeks ago. I then called my brother to give me a ride, and he just happened to be in the neighborhood to pick up a printer my parents got for him.
While I waited, I decided to try pushing my dead car into a parking space. I opened the driver's door and leaned in to shift into neutral, but the car immediately started rolling backwards towards the street. I didn't get a chance to secure good footing for leverage, so my efforts against gravity were in vain - the open door knocked me down and pinned me on my right side against the road, cutting my right pinky finger and right knee, scraping my right elbow, badly bruising my left hip, and somehow messing up my right shoulder (there were no marks, but a great deal of pain). A couple of guys in the first oncoming car stopped to give me a hand as soon as I rolled onto my front and crawled out from under the door. When I put the car in a parking space, I tried to close the door and discovered that I bent the hinge, further reducing the trade-in value of poor old Walter (the name I gave to my Chrysler). One day away from trading in my car, and it gets FUBAR.
I managed to get to work with just enough time to get patched up, and my co-workers (and supervisor) gave me plenty of help. I think I regained half of my mobility by the end of the night when my dad came to pick me up. My shoulder and knee still bother me, but the gaping wound has scabbed up and my right arm's okay as long as my left does all the heavy lifting.
I would've gotten the whole weekend off, but yesterday I had to work a half day to cover for a co-worker whose friend was getting married. My parents dropped me off and then went to a car dealership to scout out a deal for me. They got me a 2003 Hyundai Elantra with about 83,600 miles on it for a little over $6800. Because I've developed a habit of naming my cars, I call it "Ellie". My dad was a little late picking me up, but that's because he was busy cleaning out his truck. He traded it in for a brand-new Hyundai Accent 3-door to give to my mom for Mother's Day and her birthday.
I believe today my father and I are going to Pick n Pull to sign the title of the Chrysler over and tomorrow they're sending a tow truck to haul it off. I'm only getting $136 for it, but it's a better deal than the other junkyards would offer; That should cover the first monthly payment I make to my parents after I give them $1000 down.
I've got a week off in the middle of June to see the Cincinnati Reds play the Atlanta Braves and celebrate my mother's birthday, but not much else planned this month. If something interesting does happen, I'll let you know.

Edit: Holy crap! It seems Newgrounds gave me a birthday present 90 days early; I'm User of the Day in the BBS. I knew the Year of the Ox would be eventful.

Anime Punch: Armageddicon IV was quite enjoyable. You can get a detailed report of my experience in the Anime Club. I was able to pull together my Guile costume with the old BDU pants I got from an Army Surplus store quite some time ago, olive green A-shirt I bought online a few years back, boots I bought for a Heero Yuy costume about the same time as the shirt, dogtags I got from the American Red Cross for being a blood donor, temporary American flag tattoos I got on eBay a few weeks before the con, and a Punk Rocker wig I had to settle for shortly after my last post in March. People loved it, and I posed for at least 6 photos. It's a shame I couldn't show off the moves I practiced, but there's always next year, or MatsuriCon.

There's not much to report this time. I picked up a copy of Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion so I can pick up where I left off over a year ago. I have all the alternate costumes in Street Fighter IV, but I still can't unlock Gouken or Seth. I'm slowly but surely getting caught up with the TV shows on my DVR, but it will probably take another month or two until I'm anywhere near current. I'm still trying to find a costume wig; I have three weeks until Anime Punch: Armageddicon IV.
I'll tell you about the convention next time, and if I ever get out of this rut, you'll be the first to know.