News & Updates in September 2004

Posted the pictures from our Lake Tahoe trip.

Added the anime profile of Classroom of Atonement. Wrote about our recent trip to Lake Tahoe.

We went to the store to pick up the new Star Wars: Battlefront PlayStation 2 game last week, and while we were there we also picked up Lord of the Rings: Return of the King PS2 game since it was cheap. We also picked up Star Wars: Clone Wars for GameCube because it also had a two-player mode, but it was rather disappointing. It wasn't two players taking on missions, it was basically just two players one-on-one. We haven't even tried the one-player modes yet.

Added character profiles for Panther, Baiko, Leopard, Luchs, Otaru Mamiya, Soemon, Tamasaburo, Tiger (from Saber Marionette). On the advice of Who Wants to Know?, I added an RSS Feed, which just lists a simplified version of this updates page. Only the first paragraph from each update is listed. I'm new to making the RSS things, and don't really use it myself, so let me know of any problems or suggestions.

Okay, so what's been going on. My wife, Treese, is still recovering. She seems to be improving every day. She found out today that her blood clots way too easy and she will have to be on some type of blood thinners for a long time.

Since she's been home a lot, I've gotten her addicted for Star Wars: Rebel Strike. At first I got her to play the two player mode with me, and after a while she started playing the one player mode. She would never even touch this game before, and she always felt it was just way out of her league. Now she can't get enough. Too bad there's no sequel.

Around the middle of last month, I bought a hard drive for my PlayStation 2. It was a great deal at Circuit City (well, great after rebates that is). The drive was a 120 GB Western Digital, but unfortunately Western Digital drives don't fit into the PlayStation 2 consoles. Luckily, Maxtor's do, and I just happened to have a 60 GB Maxtor as the main drive in my computer. So I swapped the drives and put the Maxtor in the PS2.

The reason for getting the hard drive was because I also purchased this little thing called HD Loader. It's for the PlayStation 2, and allows you to copy all of your existing games to a hard drive, so you no longer have to switch discs or wait for loooong load times. It's really nice, even if it is a little buggy, and doesn't come with any defragging abilities.

The bug that I encountered several times was that it told me I didn't have enough space to copy a game to the hard drive, when I so very obviously did. The work-around for this bug: keep trying until it finally does it. Unfortunately, they always want you to type in the name of the game before it will start attempting to copy it, so I learned quick to just name the game "A" and then rename it after it had copied successfully.

So far, every game has worked great with it except for Escape From Monkey Island. The voice clips sometimes don't play, and it will get caught on lines of text until you hit the L1 button to break out of it. And then once it even locked up. This is extremely disappointing, because the reason I stopped playing the game was the crappy load times.

Added character profiles for Ranka, Hisae Aoki, Yukari Kashima (from Vampire Princess Miyu); Dik Dik Van Dik, Kevin Mask, Ricardo (from Ultimate Muscle: The Kinnikuman Legacy); Starscream (from Transformers Energon); Grindor, Highwire, Star Saber, Sureshock (from Transformers Armada); Akuma, Balrog, M. Bison, Blanka, Cammy White, Chun-Li, Monitor Cyborg, Dee Jay, Dhalsim, Eliza Masters, Fei Long, Guile, E. Honda, Ken Masters, Ryu Hoshi, Sagat, Senoh, Thunder Hawk, Vega, Zangief (from Street Fighter II- The Animated Movie); Magalia, Yukimura Sanada, Benitora, Mahiro (from Samurai Deeper Kyo); Jordan, Lady Badiyanu (from Sailor Moon); Choji Akimichi, Genma Shiranui, Hinata Hyuga, Hoshigaki Kisame, Kankuro, Kiba Inuzuka, Konohamaru, Kyuubi, Rock Lee, Shino Aburame, Temari, Yakushi Kabuto, Yondaime (from Naruto); Rakka, Reki (from Haibane Renmei).

Added character profiles for Zork Necrophedious, Crump, Gansely, Johnson, Leichter, Nezbitt (from Yu-Gi-Oh!); Ruka, Roto, Kibano (from Yu Yu Hakusho); Hige, Toboe (from Wolf's Rain).

Added anime profiles for The Super Milk-Chan Show and Kite. Added character profiles for Sandra Nogami (from City Hunter); Mallanox (from Eagle Riders); Aqua, Betterman/Lamia, Forte, Nebula, Oltos (from Betterman).

Added character profiles for Carrot Glace, Tira Miss, Chocolate Miss, Gateau Mocha, Dotta, Big Momma, Milphey-Yu, Zaha Torte (from Sorcerer Hunters). Split the 2003 and 2002 updates pages into separate pages based on month, and added List of Updates page.

Added anime profiles for Grimm's Fairy Tale Classics, Night Warriors and Princess Tutu.

Added anime profiles for Burn Up Scramble, Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu, Art of Fighting, Wild Arms Twilight Venom, Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi, Panyo Panyo Di Gi Charat, and Stainless Night. Added character profiles for Noike Kamaki Jurai (from Tenchi Muyo); Lan Hikari (from Megaman NT Warrior); Ikki (from Saint Seiya); Katsumi Liqueur (from Silent Mobius); Kurumi (from Steel Angel Kurumi).

Added an anime profile for Dr. Slump. Added character profiles for Sara Goodman (from Flint the Time Detective); Lain (from Serial Experiments Lain); Karin (from Medabots); Moo (from Monster Rancher); Himeno Awayuki (from Pretear); Q-chan (from Pet Shop of Horrors); Akari Fujisaki (from Hikaru no Go).

So we weren't sure if Treeses was going to be released today or what, but when they told us that the blood clot in her arm came back, we pretty much assumed that she wouldn't. While we were waiting for the various doctors to get in touch with each other, Treese's brother Joe walked through the door, surprising us both. He drove all the way up from Sacramento to see how she was doing. Soon after he arrived the doctors decided to release her. She needs to take blood thinners and blood pressure medication while at home, and they said eventually they will need to perform a surgery to keep her vein from getting pinched, which is supposedly what's causing the clot. Anyway, we all headed back to the house, ordered a pizza, and talked. He left around 8-ish as he had to be up early tomorrow morning.