Weekend Update! Part Deux!

"And now, Weekend Update with your host Zrath-Smiley."

Hello out there in LJ-Land! Welcome to "Episode II: Mah Hair!"!

Sunday January 14th (Magic Castle: t-minus 1 day)

This was the day to get a haircut from our stylist buddy in Beverly Hills.
First, I had to run a couple of errands. I went to a hardware store (an actual, local, genuine hardware store) to see about
a replacement lock for the storage unit. They didn't have any, but I discovered that they stocked genuine Key-Baks (tm)!
So I bought a new one to replace my well-worn Key-Bak of 15+ years.
Then I went to an unpleasant place to get some money. No, not the bank. It's Sunday after all.
The local Best Buy was nearby so I went in to grab a flyer and see what was on special this week.
It's funny how, when a videogame system nears the end of its life, kids games and kart racing games multiply like weeds.
And so it is that I saw "Cartoon Network Racing" for the PS2 on display. Apparently, it lets you race characters from the
old-school Carnet Toonwork shows like "The Powerpuff Girls", "Cow And Chicken", "Johnny Bravo", and "Dexter's Laboratory".
You know, back when Cartoon Network was actually good. :)
I also saw "CapCom Classics 2", also for PS2. "Over 20 classic games!" it said on the front of the box, eventhough it's
exactly 20 games. Over 20 games would be 21 or 22, or maybe even 23 games. Anyway, I look on the back of the box and see
some screenshots of games, arranged in an odd ring shape. None of the screenshots are captioned. Also, the back of the box
totally fails to feature a list of the 20 games in question. That's odd since there's plenty of room for one.
If you want to know which 20 games are in this compilation, you have to go online and look it up.
As a professional Quality Assurance engineer and an amateur graphic designer/pre-press Kzinti, I find this insultingly bad design and marketing.
"Hi! We're CapCom, a name you trust. Here's a compilation of old games. Just buy it. You trust us, right?"
Up to now, every single multigame compilation I've seen always featured a complete list of games on the box.
This is the first one to break that rule. I hope it's the last. It's a dumb thing to do.

I started getting really hungry, so I had lunch at Baja Fresh. Definitely not as good as Chipotle.
I got a Dos Manos burrito, but only ate half of it. I got the other half wrapped, then went to the storage unit.
After paying the rent on the unit, I went in and looked for my ties and a book for Pascal. I found neither.
I did find a box of toiletries and bathroom supplies we could use though, so I grabbed it.
When I stepped out, my stylist friend was in the parking lot, waiting for me (no cellphone reception in the storage unit).
I squeezed into his car and we went back to his place. Since I couldn't make it to the salon in time because of work or
having to get clothes the day before, he was nice enough to offer to cut my hair at his home instead. What a guy!
And while there, I also did some maintenance on his computer.
He was getting nagged by AVG about it stopping to work on the 15th, so I did the same thing I did on my machine:
I shut AVG down, deleted all of it, including registry keys, and installed a newer version of it.
I also ran some malware detection stuff and did some general cleaning up.
Then he cut my hair. I have nice stylin' short hair now, W00T!!
We ran an errand on the way back, then he dropped me home.
I wasn't too hungry, so I let my sibling gobble up the "Una Mano" I brought home.
("dos manos" = "two hands", so half of a "dos manos" = "una mano" = "one hand")
A long time ago, when he worked in restaurants, my brother was saddled with the nickname "Pac-Man" by the staff.
It was a reference to his uncanny knack of eating just about everything in sight. :D
I had a light dinner later, consisting of a homemade BBQ burger, with a PBP sandwich for dessert.
(PBP = Peanut Butter and Preserves. I don't use jelly. The PB of choice at Chateau Kzin is Skippy Super Chunk, BTW.)
Then we watched some DirecTV. Niiiiiice, cleeeeeean picture.
The box has S-Video out, so I'm tempted to connect the TV through S-Video instead of coaxial. Must investigate...


In the next post, I will actually talk about my visit to the Magic Castle.
No, really!!