Ree’s musings

I got a PlayStation 2 so um yeah.

No, that's not a typo: a pea ess two, not three. Yes, I am behind the times. What else is new?

A PS2 wouldn't be huge news for most people, but the last time I've been able to rent a video game, it was for the Super Nintendo. (I have a PSone but I got it used, well into the PS2 era.) I went to the rental place today and was shocked at the number of PS2 games they still rent out. I think I'm going to have some fun. (I was also shocked that they want $40 for their old, rented-out GameCube copy of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. I bet I could get a better-condition copy for $25 or less, and that's including any shipping fees.)

You guys, I was able to swing a copy of Persona 4! It's been out in America for less than a year, and I'm playing it, and I own it, and there are swears and other things to earn its M for Mature and that weirds me out like whoa. I grew up under the diktat of Nintendo censorship, so with every "bitch!", my eyes dart sideways and I wonder how this slipped past the censors. Heh. I guess I'm just too set in my ways.

Persona 4 is lovely, by the way. Turns out some of the things I liked in EarthBound, like enemies visible on the field (as opposed to random encounters) and gaining advantage in battle by sneaking up behind enemies, are alive and well here. I may go back and snag a copy of Persona 3: FES as well, before the prices get out of hand. I sort of want to get further in P4 before committing to another game in its series, but sealed, reasonably-priced copies of P3 and P3:FES won't be available forever...

On another note: I have two PS1 games with bad scratches. On my PSone, the first will play haltingly until a certain, unskippable cutscene, where it will hang forever; the second won't run at all. On my PS2, however, the first shows no problems at all; the second, a fighting game, will let me configure options and select fighters before hanging on a "CD Error" screen. I have no idea why this should be, but I'm very impressed with the backwards compatibility. My PSone is now in storage since my PS2 does everything even better!

ReeToes is a happy ReeToes. If nobody hears from me for another month, assume I'm holed up with Persona 4, GameFAQS, a case of Cherry Coke Zero, and a huge, dippy grin on my face. You won't be far wrong.

Busy day today.

I played Dance Dance Revolution. In public. It was awesome and I find myself needing a home game containing some version of "Butterfly" - preferably not the speed mix I pounded my feet to today, but some other version.

I paid $3 for a secondhand Atari joystick game, one of those self-contained jobs that just needs batteries and a television. I knew there was a chance it would be a model containing Adventure, and a chance that it would not. Turns out mine has Adventure. (The bat in Adventure is as annoying as ever, but he didn't stop me from returning the Enchanted Chalice to the Golden Castle. Thrice.)

I saw a video game today priced at $39.99. I already own a copy, purchased a few days ago for $9. I could sell it, unsealed, for $30 or more.

Basically I totally win today. Now to bid on that perfectly perfect video game console set, in hope that my streak continues!

I think that every line I write
Must be the opposite of bright.
I'm not sure why; perhaps that I
Have loaded up my brains with stuff.

(The subverted rhyme relies on non-American pronunciation. No, I'm afraid I'm not particularly sorry about it.)

Roy asked, "Out of curiosity, for those of you are still using Tabulas ... why?"

Maybe I'm taking the question more seriously than it was meant, but my immediate reaction was that I should think about this. I'll try to give a considered answer.

I initially began using Tabulas as a way to crosspost to LiveJournal and Xanga. Semagic wasn't a good option for me because I wasn't always using the same computer, but a web-based crossposter was perfect. Unfortunately, Xanga never appreciated crossposting and often made changes that broke crossposting to Xanga. I've long since given up on posting to Xanga, although I continue to crosspost most of my entries to LJ. The majority of my blog comments are made on my LJ crossposts, no contest, which is why I continue to make them. But back to Tabulas.

I like Tabulas because it's sort of self-contained. Want to edit the CSS of your layout? Sure, go ahead; you don't need any offsite web host for that. Want to show off pictures of your last party? Go ahead and use your own personal gallery; it's there and it's free. Blogroll? Just add the bookmarklet to your browser and click it when viewing your friends' sites. They don't even need to be on Tabulas and you don't need to know any HTML. Profile page? It's part of your personal site and uses your chosen template, unlike profile pages on LiveJournal or Blogger.

When I use LiveJournal, I feel like I've been given permission to use a fixed area: no content pages, no image upload unless I pony up, ads all over, my profile in the site's layout rather than mine. On LJ, I must do things LJ's way. Meanwhile, my Tabulas feels like freedom: to design, expand, and rearrange just as I like, with a minimum of exceptions (I must always leave the grey navigation bar visible and usable, which is exactly the way I want it anyway; it's half the size of LJ's equivalent and at least twice as useful). Don't use the gallery? Then remove the link to it. Want your blogroll on its own page instead of your sidebar? Easy as pie. LiveJournal wishes it had that feature!

I also like helping the Tabulas community. I figure megalithic sites like LiveJournal have a wide user base and any number of experienced Support volunteers sharing their knowledge, but Tabulas, being smaller, has fewer experienced users to assist, and I seem to be one of them.

For example, I've sort of slipped into the role of wiki moderator. Why? Because the spam was getting a little crazy and someone needed to keep it under control, or it would start to reflect badly on Tabulas and make it hard to find real information. Wikis make it easy to revert spam, but nobody else has done it yet. So I did.

And, well, all the improvements that have been going up lately and are still to come! Communities, template sharing, interests, user directory, filtering for friends-only entries... I'm just pulling these out of posts on my friends' page rather than looking for anything in particular. But this? This is what happens when Tabulas brushes its teeth, combs its hair, and starts picking out the perfect dress shirt. This is Tabulas pulling itself together.

I wouldn't dare miss it.