Just a general update on things, since I've not posted much lately. I'm currently working at Ashland University in the ACCESS Programme (aka Center for English Studies) teaching English as a Foreign Language (ESL) - same thing I did when I lived in Japan, but with international college-age students instead of Japanese(-only) high school students. I'm an adjunct, so it's just part-time, but it's pretty good so far.

I also finally caved in and picked up World of Warcraft. I successfully avoided it for over a year and a half, but between a free demo and a Best Buy sale (which I price matched at Circuit City to score it for $18), I couldn't resist. I'm playing both Alliance (Draka realm) and Horde (Sentinels realm), and I've managed to get my wife hooked also. Now we just need a second computer...

My Beatmania machine is totally up and running. Turned out to be a bad board - bought a replacement and a different mix kit and got it up and running. It also turns out that the US board has some kind of difference when compared to a JP board, so my US CompleteMIX 2 doesn't work on my new JP board. I was able to get a CompleteMIX (original) and a 5thMIX, so between the two I've pretty much got the same thing as CompleteMIX 2, albeit with some internal swapping. About the only thing the machine needs now is a couple of button lights and a marquee that matches the mix that is in it.

So, it appears that a few people stumbled across my oft-ignored blog - welcome, and thanks for the comments. It also appears that I have attracted some spambots - I just deleted over 1000 comments. Should they come back I might have to do something about changing the no-login commenting.

To sum up some of the questions that were asked of me, yes, I'm fine, no, as of about March I don't work for Temple Games any longer (and do not wish to go into the reasons in public), and yes, the Beatmania machine is up and running :)

I'll try and do better about updating, but with life as busy as it can be, I won't guarantee anything. Regardless, thanks for reading!

Ever have one of those days where you are busy (or should be busy) but you don't feel like doing anything? I've been having a week like that. Granted, having the flu sure doesn't help, nor does the total exhaustion that was the New York Toy Fair (which was during the blizzard that dumped almost 30 inches on NYC). Of course, during that week I put in quite a few extra hours, so taking a little bit to get back up to speed is ok.

Regardless, I'm glad that it's Friday.

This weekend ended up being pretty decent. Friday was my birthday - I was able to take most of the day off work (thanks to extra hours worked earlier in the week) and we had a nice dinner of curry rice. Ended up getting many of the various games that have been clearanced out at a number of stores:

- Mr. Driller Drill Spirits (DS)
- Golden Sun: The Lost Age (GBA)
- WarioWare: Mega Microgame$ (GBA)
- F-Zero GP Legend (GBA)
- WarioWare: Mega Partygame$ (NGC)

A trip to Mansfield also yielded the following:

- Gungrave: Overdose (PS2)
- Jak II (PS2) - non-GH version
- Rise of the Kasai (PS2)
- F-Zero GX (GC)

Also got a copy of the board game expansion Runebound: The Island of Dread, along with the micro-expansions Crown of the Elder Kings and Scepter of Kyros. Played Scepter of Kyros and rather enjoyed it. I just wish that I had more people around that enjoyed board games.

Also ended up getting some money, which works out well given my new relapse into BEMANI addiction.

Saturday was fairly low-key, as was Sunday. Went out with Megan, my father-in-law, and his wife for both my birthday and Megan's birthday. Red Lobster - 'twas good.

Today just brings more fiddling with company websites. Such fun.

Thanks to everyone who is seeing this thanks to me mentioning it in my LiveJournal. Hopefully everything works fine - I've had some issues with comments, but I think it's alll straightened out. You also shouldn't need to log in or register or anything ever (something I've had to fight the script regarding). Obviously, if you see something that isn't working, just contact me through the normal methods. Thanks!

So today is my birthday. No idea what to expect at this point, which is fine :) I'm hoping for a few games, like Shadow of the Colossus and Digital Devil Saga 2, as well as a few Alternator Transformers (Prowl FTW!). We'll see what people were actually able to find ;)

I've also managed to get insomnia for my birthday. Gotta love it when it's 5:30am and you can't sleep. Luckiily I've put in extra hours this week so I'm going to try and just put in a half-day tomorrow. Hopefully it goes through as planned.

Sites continue to come together, which is nice. Managed to finish up a work-related site as well, which is always good. We're actually going to be converting our existing sites (http://chizorising.com, http://polaritygame.com, http://templegames.com) over to PHP so that I can actually do something with them. They were built in a rarely-used language that I can't handle at all, and that is only slowing the server down.

I think today is the day that this page will go public. Yay!

And we're up and running. Spent bits and pieces of the last few days getting this up and running. I was never real fond of Livejournal, so hopefully this works better for me. I've added a wedding gallery as well, for all of you who weren't able to see it in person (or have since forgotten what it looked like - it was almost 3 years ago at this point).

So I'm back in Ohio, and have been for some time. The move went fine, though we got some water damage on some of my stuff. Megan and I are actually living with my mom for now, and it's working out ok. Seems strange to be living at home being 28, but given the circumstances... It's been a nice mutally beneficial arrangement, as we all just pitch in on everything. It's good for my mom to have us around both emotionally and financially, and the reverse is also true.

My job, which I got right after coming out here, is stressful, so I won't go into that. It's at least in the same industry that I was in before (card/board games), so that's nice.

I've been starting to get back into music games & RPGs lately, which is kinda funny as I didn't do much with them for quite some time (after all, my gaming has tended to be the non-video type, as that is the industry I'm working in) after being so very into them for so long. Guitar Hero was worth every penny, though now I'm aching to play Drummania again. And of course my Drummania controller was in the box that never arrived from Japan. I got a rather pricey replacement 3rd-party controller, but it's somewhere between horrid and acceptable (more towards the horrid end, but it's better than nothing). And of course it doesn't help that I go and find things like this on Yahoo Japan Auctions. 980 yen, no bids. And of course, it's pretty much a controller only (if I'm gleaning info from the description correctly), which is exactly what I need, as I have the stand, sticks, bass pedal, game, and box. Konami is going to do another production run, but it's looking like getting one here to the states will run somewhere around $100. Bleh.

And, that's pretty much that for now. I just hope that the next few weeks go decently, given the fact that this Christmas will be very much unlike any other...