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I was NOT expecting to see that subject line in my e-mail.

No, we haven't. But based on what everybody has said up to this point, I'm pretty much banking on either the final weekend of August (28/29) or the week before (21/22), and not anytime during on weekdays, which looks too tough to get everybody together for. I'm trying to schedule around DJP's honeymoon too, which might make the final weekend untenable.

Well, it was less "a bunch" and more "just me and Ninja-san" (a random guy wearing a Stevo-ish hat faked me out), but we sure enjoyed it. Classy set, excellent tunes, and major chops on the saxophonist. It was a shame it took half the set before you realized the 'phones weren't actually plugged in, but oh well. XD The only bad part to the evening was how the first thing I did when I arrived was use the bathroom, and subsequently accidentally dropped my Droid into the toilet. Cue one broken phone. (also, I can't believe you guys were handing out CD-R's with only ONE SONG on them, what)

I can never get enough of funk remixes, so this was particularly delicious to me. The guitar was excellent, the organ work was smooth, and everything just came together perfectly. I was also surprised by how imminently loopable the track is... I didn't even realize it had ended until I was 30 seconds into the next playing. Clearly I could listen to this all day.

The only time it's legal to have ISOs of a game on your computer is if you ripped them from your own store-purchased CD/DVDs yourself (and even that, I'm not entirely sure about). Flat out downloading the ISOs is illegal, no ifs, ands, or buts.

Said setting is great stuff, but I was listening to this on an iPod on the way home from work on the metro, so that option wasn't really available to me.

So this morning before work I was checking my e-mail and noticed the most recent newsletter from Eminence Symphony Orchestra had hit my inbox. One section in particular caught my eye: a sort of Wall of Sound-like composer colab that Hiroaki Yura, ESO's head violinist and concertmaster, had set up. It's called The Core, and the list of composers involved besides Yura include Hiroki Kikuta, Shiro Hamaguchi, Inon Zur, Cris Velasco, Kow Otani, and Hayata Matsuo. There's no actual note on what they'll be collaborating on (besides a short mention later in the newsletter that Yura and Kikuta have been working on a colab of some sort that they will announce the details on soon), but I can't be the only one who needed a new pair of pants after reading that. I'd post a link or something so everyone else could see, but ESO's website is down at the moment for some inexplicable reason. Their Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, and Myspace accounts are still functional, of course, but none of them have mentioned this yet. EDIT: Here's a link at squareenixmusic.com.

Fun (and hilaaaarious) episode. Though waiting through 15 minutes of silence at the end in case there was some hidden track or something (there wasn't) was tedious as hell. How'd that get in there anyways?

And on that note, why the hell haven't they ported Chu Chu Rocket to iPhone, Android, DSiWare, WiiWare, PSN, Xbox Live, Steam, and so on and so forth? It's a no-brainer that would make them oodles of cash.

While "Best Of" lists make sense to be wary of in a way, I do think there needs to be some kind of "Know Your Roots" list that hits the important mix points of the site. It would work well as a primer for people who are new to the place, are interested by occasional comments people make about this mix and that, but don't have time to listen to all 2000+ tracks to know what's going on.

Have a happy

I don't know about the emulator quality on Palm Pre's, but GameBoid for the Droid chokes on both Golden Sun titles.

Pretty much any SmartPhone worth its cojones these days will have emulators up to at least SNES/Genesis/Game Boy Advance level. I'm playing FireRed on my Droid as we speak.

Oh snap! Long time coming, and I'm glad to see it happening. Major congrats.

While everyone has been busy absorbing Super Mario Galaxy 2, I've been tackling last week's release of Trauma Team instead. Anybody else have this? I'm loving the variety. Not that I didn't like the surgical bullet time from the previous games, but there really is a lot to enjoy here. So far I've finished endoscopy, orthopedics (ROCK SOLID), and forensics, and am moving onto first response next. Of course, I'll be going back to all three of those later, cause there seems to be a long run of endgame missions that tie all six fields together that you can't access until you beat them each individually first.

I find this helps a lot with that, minus the save room issue.

Finally saw it today courtesy of the DC Anime Club, and I agree with most of the opinions displayed here so far. CGI was hit or miss, and some of Dr. Light's lines were a little too much and partially cliche. But overall, I enjoyed it a lot. I liked Roll a lot more than some others seemed to. BLUES PAUNCH was by far the most awesome scene in the film. Also, I got a nice surprise; Eddie Lebron, the actor who played Mega Man, two producers, and the CGI artist all came to this screening to answer our questions. Pretty badass of them.

In that case, I demand you read this and this back to back.

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuun. Feels just like the original games, which was probably no mean feat in 2.5D, and is a definite plus. Though I'm encountering some graphical errors. Some rocket and water effects are showing up in the foreground, which isn't an issue with the rocket, but really got annoying when I was on the lowest section of stage 1 and I couldn't see where I was walking. (thankfully that part was a flat platform with no pits and no enemies)

I use this for normal tracks, this for tracks that have been removed, and the obligatory album art where applicable.

For those of you still interested in this, you've only got about 2 days and 3 hours left. If you're an asshole, you can even donate just one cent! But the reason for this post is to inform everyone that they added another game to the list, Samorost 2. Those of you who have already bought the bundle can just use your previous e-mail key to go in and download it post-haste, without needing to donate again.

Excellent, excellent concert. Mother 3 music was delicious, Aerith's Theme is always enjoyable, Unreal Tournament was killer, and DAMN did Mr. Jamolin tear it up when performing Snake Eater. Also, thank you SO MUCH for not doing Stay Alive as an encore again; I love the song, but two years in a row is a bit much. Baba Yetu was a much nicer surprise. My only problem with the concert is the cocktease of the picture of Balrog in the program, heralding the intermission, followed by no music played from Cave Story. You must fix this problem next year. And I don't mean by taking Balrog out of the program. XD

I already own World of Goo on Wii, but I couldn't resist this. Dropped $10 for the package.

Wow, sure took a while for the people I called in the group sales department to get back to me. But I have a few answers/clarifications to things I was wondering and things people asked. Group discounts can be purchased at any time, but there's an early bird special too. If we were to go ahead and buy the tickets for this outing by May 31, we'd pay $20 a person. Past that, and the price jumps to $24. Not bad either way (regular price is $50), and paying this early for a late August trip might be rough, especially since we haven't really set about figuring out who's going for sure. So let's just say everyone can expect to pay $24 for their ticket. Possibly less, depending on how many people come; every 16th ticket is free, so that would obviously drop the individual price. Just a reminder though, we'd have to have at least 15 people go. Any less, and it doesn't count as a group, meaning we'd all have to pay full price. The tickets obviously have to be purchased in bulk and then mailed to a single address, so the best plan is still for us to figure out who's all going, for me to then buy all the tickets, for everyone to IM me addresses so I can mail them out, and then for you all to pay me back once your ticket arrives. As long as everyone pays me back quickly and we don't end up having, like, 45 people come, I should have no problem doing this. Otherwise, I'd probably need cash sent in advance. Part of our group discount includes a "Picnic in the Park" thing where we can spend a little extra money to get a buffet lunch all to ourselves, but this is limited by scheduling (aka: if someone asks for it first on the day we're going), so it's only really an option if we get this together early. Brushfire, military IDs can't be used with group tickets. You either go group or you go troop. Speaking of military discounts, you have to get those through your MWR/ITR office, and according to the closest one to you, the tickets would be $29 for adults. So obviously, it'd be better for you and the wife to just roll with the rest of us in the group deal, especially since this would get us closer to nabbing the free ticket.

I knew you weren't; I was just being stupid. The demo was only available as a Gamestop promotion to people who pre-ordered the game. Maybe you can find one on eBay or something, but now that the game is out, you're probably not gonna see the demo in stores. Although it's not like I'm using mine anymore now that I've got the full game, so if you're in North America and want it, I'll be happy to mail it.