Alright folks, here’s the skinny: our webhost made changes to the running versions of PHP and MySQL last night, changes which seemed to have played havoc with our site and forums. The site is back up and running fine, but as I’m sure you already know, the forums aren’t in as good of shape.

The bad news is, the absolute worst possible database table that could be screwed up is the one (and only one) that is screwed up: the table that holds all of the data for posts. That is then made worse by the fact that during my recent computer issues, some of my files were lost, included in which I believe was the back-up I had for the forum database.

If there’s one thing I can’t stop doing, it’s being online all the time. Not just on my laptop surfing, running our message boards, or looking for the latest wacky YouTube clip, but firing up my game system of choice and knockin’ someone the frak out with a headshot from 100+ yards down the line through my high-power lens. The latest of these endeavors is on the servers of Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops via my PSP. I was there from day one (I’m a Metal Gear fiend from the days of NES– so sue me for my fandom).

I had an absolutely fantastic idea yesterday living in NYC… Why not later on Thursday night (11.16.06) head down to Times Square and check out one of the hotspots of game buyers, Toys ‘R’ Us for the Sony Playstation 3 release before midnight? I mean, this is NYC, land of lights and spectacle after all. I wanted to see the madness firsthand.

Last year around this time, when Microsoft’s X-Box 360 hit, there were crowds that rivaled the 1 p.m. partygoing crowds on New Years Eve there (Yes, people show up that early there– you have to. No one gets in after 3 p.m.–you’re locked in until midnight. No bathrooms, no food stands. But I digress).

Oh, that Aaron Sorkin. Fresh from winning another handful of Emmys, he doesn’t just stand on his presidential soapbox laurels for his now cancelled, decade-long (well, at least it felt like it) show The West Wing. Nope. He takes the concept of Saturday Night Live and uses it as a pneumatic catapult for railing on what tv has become.

I’m always surprised to find out that some show, which I thought was scraping the bottom of television “entertainment” was still on. Celebrity Fit Club, Blow Out, or Next come to mind. It’s funny how just about any pop-culture fixture can get their own show these days.

Flavor Flav was lookin’ for a hookup on his show– now back on for a second season (because the winner was a smart enough girl to know there was more to life and moved on).

Lack of Hitlerbots in Activision’s Gun has made me cranky and irritable. I spent the entire game waiting for a Hitlerbot to bust through the game’s saloon doors, proclaiming in a loud and sterile voice that the reich was back in business before I laid the matter to rest with cold, burnished steel and hot, hot lead.

I’m not sure what it is, but I’ve been all kinds of sick lately. (Which partially explains my slacking off and not posting a blog post recently.) I was sick about three weeks or so ago for a couple of days, and the timing couldn’t have been worse: my girlfriend was flying in from Japan for ten days a few days later. Thankfully, I felt fine the entire time she was here.

Crash wins Best Picture at the Oscars, Brokeback Mountain does not. I am very pleased that the best movie of the year was given the credit it deservers. For all the folks screaming that homophobia sabotaged the Brokeback win, get over it; your movie was beautifully shot and socially relevant and even touching at times, but no way was it as good as the politically manipulated critics wish it to be.

I was going to call this entry “A Tale of Two (Three) Siddies,” which made me chuckle, but then I remembered that I had already used the “A Tale of” title thing. Drats.

So today I was at my local Best Buy. I had decided to break down and pick up Drill Dozer for the GBA, and thought I’d do a bit of browsing before making my purchase. As I turned the corner from the Sony and Nintendo isle, something caught my eye… a box, medium sized, not quite square, but close, and a distinct green color.