The Dell CRT monitor is probably going bad

I've noticed for the past couple of days the Dell CRT monitor is doing this little flicker jumpy thing, like it jumps back and forth vertically like a couple scan lines. It doesn't happen when it's first turned on. It is about 6 or 7 years old by now (Mom got the computer in 2004 if I remember right). I would think it could be dusty inside. TVs also act up when too dusty, so perhaps this is the CRT showing dusty signs.  Maybe I just need to disconnect, open the case, and blow it all out. I do have a backup monitor which has a bad wire (the red cuts out if the cable isn't properly placed) just in case. Maybe it's time to find a decently priced LCD monitor. I don't know.

Always something

Sherriff called on redneck neighbors fighting out in the street

Ookami-den for the Nintendo DS

It's been about a year since I found a used but in good shape copy of Ookami for the PS2. I had traded in a bass fishing game Mom bought but never played (probably due to not having a fishing controller if there was one) and got a paltry 63 cents for the exchange. I had to also go online to find the cover to print out and a PDF for the instruction manual. I am thankful that Capcom supports their games in that manner.

Now I find out about a sequel game for the Nintendo DS, Ookami-den. After about 10 hours into game play, I'm stuck. But some reflections on what I've played so far.

There's no longer this nit-picky annoying collecting of 100 strings of beads. You don't have to feed any animals. I like that there's still the blooming of trees. Most of the locations in the original game are here and some new ones as well. So if you're used to Shinshu Field and the guy who does pottery there, you know you'll see that again. There's plenty of signs that this is a sequel - time has moved forth and some things are slightly different. It's nice to see more of the story.

What I greatly miss is seeing this game on a big screen TV. I guess I could still plug the audio out of the DS into the Dolby unit with a patch cable instead of using headphones. The look and music of the PS2 game are re-created for the DS, though there are more areas per game part likely due to the less RAM in the DS. I was used to Shinshu Field being one area in the PS2 version.

Funny how a lot of the treasure locations are the same, and there's new puzzles to figure out. I decided to go the Greenhorn aka Easy route to play even though I know what to expect in this version for the DS.

Brush techniques have to be re-learned again. You have different friends accompanying you in various parts. I was able to get to a point where I'm going to have to backtrack a bit due to unfinished business in one part. At least now there won't be a feeling at one point going "Is this all there is?" like I did last time only to find out there's more.

Some control of the camera is lost but the user interface helps make up for it. I like one difference from the original: No Falling Off of Cliffs. Or at least less of it.

I have lost sleep due to playing Ookami-den. I was up until 3:30 am last night before I realized I was up that late. It was similar to last year while playing Ookami on the PS2, but not quite as late.

I doubt there's a walkthrough to help me figure out what I forgot in the previous spot...

I'm glad I saved the gift card to help pay for this.

It's Gone!

Richardson's hardware got knocked down. We lived there for 6 years after my mom got divorced. His wife was my 1st grade teacher at West Elementary, which closed as a school and was sold in the past year. I pretty much grew up here. My younger sister started life here. My cat Queenie, a Siamese, died here (we lived in the apartment upstairs). I kept my bike in the basement. At first, the owner let his father live in the downstairs apartment. I should find the pictures I took while we lived there in the 1970s.

I had seen the place fall into disrepair and neglect. It made me wonder who owned it now. You could see the old hardware store display windows filled with boxes, and the kitchen downstairs had the floor collapse. It just boggles my mind because the area where it stood doesn't seem as big now. I guess the work that happened on the road out front was the gas line being disconnected.

Gotta love Google Maps Street View.

Facepalm

"If you decorate your Easter eggs with a
camouflage design, you just might be a Redneck."

Just Got done visiting here

Going through some stuff

For some reason I decided to go through some of the CDs and stuff Mom has around here. I find she bought, while we were out at my grandparents' house, some DVDs of Roy Rogers that she never even opened. I imagine she bought these and then hid them or definitely intended to watch them. I don't even know where she found them. The Elvis movies were opened, but they might have been from Half.com. And she might have watched them when I was at work back then. She could get around rather well, but as my mind flashes through things, her mobility gradually declined.

I found home video tapes of stuff she recorded, and it's sad to see her there doing things just barely 11 or 12 years ago. She bought our VHS-C camera in late 1999, and she got to use it quite a bit. She went to a few festivals - there's some tapes I hope I still run across and copy to DVD. First time at Jacobs Field on Mother's Day in 2000. The time she visited my older sister when she lived in Ann Arbor and went to the Windsor Casino and went to a Detroit Lions game on Thanksgiving. I really hope I find that tape.

It make me depressed to see some of that again, but things like Makenzie (then my only niece) watching and playing along with My Neighbor Totoro made me happy that I found it again, glad that I was able to record that, but sad that things turned out the way they did.

Anywho, some of the CDs I might look to taking to one of these places that buy or exchange your unwanted media like CDs and DVDs and see what I can get in exchange. I really don't need cash for these CDs. Stuff I really have no interest in. I guess if other family members really wanted them, they'd have claimed what they wanted already.

I am keeping some of Mom's CDs. At least the stuff I also like. I see no reason to get rid of all of Mom's stuff at the moment.

Annoying!

Power out again! 5:23 pm

How we were affected by the 2011 storm (so far anyway)

Last night I was watching Tosh.0 on Comedy Central, and around 23
minutes into the latest show, the power hiccups and so does the
satellite box. Dammit. It's having troubles locking onto the signal, so
I knock some ice off the dish. That helps things, but then 3 minutes
have passed. Another 2 minutes possibly left, and the power drops out
for a brief moment and comes back on.. ARGH...!!! And then just as the
box is getting done with that, the power goes out AGAIN. It comes back
on and then out for the rest of the night after 10:39 pm. The UPS keeps
1 light and the router and cable modem powered for about an hour or so
before it beeps continously and I shut it off.

Anywho, I find the electric company outage reporting number and go to
use the wired-in phone, the one that works when nothing else will and
report things. I get told due to the overwhelming weather related
problems, it might not be until 12 noon Wednesday for most areas, and
even then, there's spots that won't get power until later in the day.

It's going to be a long, cold night.

Schools are closed, Cleveland is in a state of emergency. There's ice
everywhere there's snow. And ice where there isn't snow.

Wake up this morning to find that the report of above freezing
temperatures was accurate, as some of the ice is gone now. A green tarp
put out front to keep water from leaking in has actually backed up water
to the door and leaked underneath it. It's just in the carpet on the
front porch... Not much but that tarp needs moved or adjusted.

At 8:59 am, the power clicked back on. I started cranking the heat and
getting things powered on. The satellite easily finds a signal. My car
which was covered with ice last night isn't covered this morning. But
now we have a howling wind and I don't need that.

Oh wow. I hear the fire siren from in town now. At least some part of
Minerva had power last night. I saw the orange glow of the sodium lights
over the distant tree line in that direction...

Some people who went to Dizzney World for the week aren't missing
anything. I wish I could not be missing it with them.

Heartcatch Pretty Cure ends and I has a sad

I wanted to see Dark Precure get her ass handed to her and feel good
about it. I wanted to see this series last another year. It got me
through a very tough time last year. Around this time last year I was
deep in depression because my mom had suddenly passed away and none of
us got a chance to say goodbye. I mostly sat around, did very little (I
did work on some figure kits but after I was done with them...) and all
the shit with the anime club, the convention, and life in general came
crashing down on top of me and life pretty much stopped.

I sat and cried a lot. I watched a lot of TV. Then there was Heartcatch
Precure. Its opening song was a bright spot in a dark room. I had
something to look forward to.

Dammit, I wish I was able to afford ordering the toys from Japan.
Dammit.

I liked how the episodes played out over the year. The summer episodes
covered Erika's club going to the beach and working on things for the
fall culture festival. Erika's lack of ambition in cleaning her room or
doing summer homework. Then the culture festival came along and that
turned out pretty awesome.

They got to be on the Uta Gassen over New Year's Day. I still wish I got
to see that clip of Morning Musume in their red china dresses a few
years ago, according to a note a friend sent me.

There were the various action stage shows that played throughout Japan
througout the year. There are lots of clips of these shows on Youtube.
Look carefully and you might find pieces of entire shows. I found 2
complete shows. One recent show had Kumojacky, and ones I've seen all
year had Cobraja as the bad guy. I didn't see any with Sasorina in it,
or maybe I didn't file that away and I probably did. All of them were in
the musical over the summer. According to the last couple of episodes,
the Heartcatch winter musical is playing now. It started on Christmas.
Maybe that will also get released on DVD. At least the show will be
released on DVDs in the coming year so maybe there'll be extra stuff on
them. Dammit Toei - you had a good thing here.

I hear the show was darn popular and the movie was a big hit.

Then I see a photo from someone in Japan - a bin of small Cure Marine
plushies discounted to 100 yen each. It's like giving them away!!!
Dammit!!!

I must get some sleep. 2 am and there's a coating of ice on things
outside. I don't know if it'll freeze solid with the layer of water on
it. Storm, what storm.