If the drug raid isn't successful, then just play Wii Bowling...

Kin Chan told me about this as we were driving home from lunch a little while ago, and the video is indeed awesome: Some police officers were caught by surveillance cameras playing Wii Bowling after an unsuccessful drug raid. Wow... Just wow.

I am simultaneously highly amused by the video and appalled at what these officers did while on the job.

Annoying experience in Super Mario Galaxy

I was playing some Super Mario Galaxy after yet another grueling day of reading Masters dissertations. I decided to start with the 'secret' star on the second level of the Toy Box galaxy, which involves going to a secret planet and turning all the blue question mark panels into yellow exclamation point panels and then picking up the star you're allowed to get once you do so.

I find this particular part of that level annoying because I find the game's camera very annoying in this particular spot. (I find it annoying in some other spots as well, but this one really irks me. In fact, the parts where the game's camera goes a bit nuts make me dizzy in real life when I play them. This is one of the spots in the game that does that.) OK, so I fought the camera and turned all the blocks in a way that would make Q*Bert proud and then I tried to make my way to the star (while fighting the camera again). Certain spiky platforms no longer move after all the blocks are turned. I got greedy and decide to get some star bits and I accidently bumped into the edge of a non-moving spiky platform because of my carelessness. The deflection from this knocked Mario prone in between two of the turned platforms. He tried to get up, but was caught in between so automatically ended up prone again. This turned out to be an infinite loop, as no form of jumping registered. Fuck. I thus needed to leave the level without my coveted star, and now I'll need to redo my efforts for this particular star. Bloody Hell! I'm not doing it now though because I play such games to reduce frustration, not to add to it. I'm just going to go read or something, but this will be pleasure reading rather than another dissertation.

More on Smash Brothers

I've continued to play lots of Super Smash Brothers Brawl. In many respects, it's more of the same from Super Smash Brothers Melee, but in part that means more fun, though there are lots of new things too---such as new characters, an adventure game that reminds me of things like the old Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles games, and a very cool way to do unlockables by hinting what else one might get based on doing certain things. And, as I mentioned, more of a good thing is extremely welcome as well! I've only played on my own so far, but I've had a ton of fun with the game so far.

I'll discuss possible spoilers in the comments if there is any interest. In particular, I locked a very cool character today although I actually knew earlier that he was in the game. I still haven't locked Jigglypuff. They apparently made her much harder to unlock this time around. (Cue Lemming?)

I just had a particular character join me in the adventure game, so I think I can unlock him now. I'm going to go do that...

See! The third dungeon in Zelda: Twilight Princess is really hard!

OK, I feel vindicated now!

As this recent article in The California Tech demonstrates, I am not the only person who found the 3rd dungeon (the water dungeon) in Zelda: Twilight Princess. Some of you reading this will remember that I got very frustrated by it and kept putting it down for long periods of time on multiple occasions.

Well, many of you have probably heard of the program WikiScanner, "which traces back anonymous edits of Wikipedia entries to corresponding IP addresses and organizations that they are associated with, allowing users to uncover cases of companies, businesses, politicians, and others editing their own entries in a way that benefits them."

And guess how this program came about? It was because its author couldn't beat the 3rd dungeon of Twilight Princess! Here is the evidence in his own words:

“I was playing Zelda and I got all the way to the third dungeon, the water dungeon, and it was very hard,” explained Griffith. “I got very frustrated at the puzzle, I still haven’t beat it, so I had to go do something else. And that’s the only reason that the WikiScanner exists, because that dungeon is too hard.”

Given my experience with that dungeon, I can't overstate how much that quote amused me!

In related news, I really was in the mood to play Zelda today. I hope my stuff from the US arrives soon, so I can set up my Wii again (buying an appropriate new tv, if necessary). I really want to play Twilight Princess right now, although I have been dealing with my gaming needs by playing Civ IV. (I'm well on my way to another cultural victory.) Video games cost roughly twice as much here as I'm used to paying, so my plans for the forseeable future include buying my games in the US (and for the Wii, I have a US version of the system anyway, so I have to buy them that way). Sadly, I found out last night that Super Smash Brothers Brawl got delayed yet again, so it looks like that particular brand of four-player goodness will have to wait a bit. I have requests from people to... um... come over and play with my Wii, and while I can have some fun with some Wii sports to show off the system, I really want to get Super Smash Bros. Brawl and play multiplayer games with that.

Brawl!

Super Smash Brothers Brawl became available for preorder today (it comes out in early December), and I just preordered it and Super Mario Galaxy. The goods and I will both arrive in Pasadena around early to mid December. (The package may beat me by a week, but we'll see.)

I really enjoy kicking ass as Jigglypuff! :)

Blessing in disguise

Yesterday, I bought a new battery (and film) for my camera at Target. I stupidly bought the wrong kind of battery (and I even-more-stupidly opened it because I didn't anticipate a problem and then found that it was too big the hole where it's supposed to go), so I went back to Target this morning to buy another battery (with my $6 completely down the drain). And I checked just in case (even though I checked yesterday as well) and they had Wiis there! Dude! Buying the wrong battery was fortuitious (though opening it was still stupid). I also bought a carrying case and an extra controller. They had enough controllers for me to get my fill, but I decided that for more than two players, people can bring them for now. (And then I went Wii, Wii, Wiiiiiiiiii all the way home.) Maybe I'll see some controllers and Amazon, and then I'll be able to use my remaining gift certificates.



Target did not have any nunchuks, so one question I have is whether Zelda needs those. I want to play Zelda tonight.

I'll set up my Wii later this evening.

It's a start.

Amazon just got a new shipment of Twilight Princess for the Wii, so I ordered it. Now I can stare longingly at the game while I wait for my chance to buy a Wii without having to pay a lot of money or get out of bed too early (or not go to bed at all). (Ironically, this time I'm staring longingly at something because I don't have a Wii.)

This does give me some hope that Amazon may get some new Wii systems soon, and I won't repeat the mistake of my job search making me get caught flat-footed when I have an opportunity for the truly important things in life (by which I mean pre-ordering a Wii).

Additionally, I still have enough Amazon gift certificates left to put a serious dent in the amount of money I'll be coughing up out of pocket.