Edwin MacPhisto

Go to alldirect.com or cheap-cds.com, and buy in bulk. Cheap prices, decent shipping. Buying music digitally really isn't worth it yet.

No, no. I was just making reference to all the out-there, ridiculous things you have to do to get the best equipment in all the Final Fantasy games, Knights of the Round in FF7 being one of the foremost examples of boggling minutiae.

Go for it. I think you can make a strong case for it being his third-best album. "My 1st Song," "December 4th," "99 Problems," and "Allure" are as good as anything he's ever done. A couple of weak tracks spoil it from being 5-star stuff, but for the 9.99 it's selling for at places like Best Buy and Circuit City this week, it's absolutely worth it.

Yikes, just checked out a brief completion walkthrough. Talk to certain people 4 times? Go back to places after you've completed the missions there? Press "X" repeatedly in utterly random places? They've really outdone themselves on the Ridiculous Stuff You Must Do To Win card this time. I've often wondered if anyone would have ever uncursed the Paladin Shield, gotten Knights of the Round, or actualized the FFX ultimate weapons without guides all over the place.

The Blueprint, no question. Reasonable Doubt is great, but Blueprint is incredibly coherent, has his best production, his best rhymes, and remains his most mature and interesting album. It's one of my top 3 rap albums, period.

Oh, yeah. I forgot about that. Her sword magic is really the only thing that separates her - she's not flat-out amazing. You can stick with your regular guys and be fine.

Bah. I've already logged 6 and a half hours. I'm not starting the whole game anew for that. Oh well. It's a great game aside from the fact that you never know when you're going to lose certain opportunities. I've found that once I get into an area I don't have much trouble finding a job to do, but it's just that missing it when the game shunts you to another chapter. Boo on Square for not letting you stack up the missions and hit ones you've missed because of their odd game design.

Snicker. I find it amusing that I've had lunch with both the guys quoted in the article. I took Julian Bond's UVA class last spring - he teaches the History of the Civil Rights Movement. Good class, and having been such a big part of the civil rights movement in the 60's he obviously knows quite a pile about that, but anyone who's had a conversation with him will be quick to tell you that he's fairly deluded when it comes to interpreting American history before the 20th century. His read on Robert E. Lee is *somewhat* correct in the most literal sense that, yes, had the side he fought for won, slavery may have taken a much longer time to dissipate. Bond doesn't see the value of Lee's actual actions on the smaller scale, taking the position that were he truly against slavery to a wide scale, he should have either not fought in the war or, more preferably, aligned himself with the Union. It's tricky to argue with him about that, because really he is, at this point, just a nice old man who likes barbershop quartets.

From the IGN boards part of the article. There's a bold future in this.

Reading through it and translating it into something much easier: He returned Summerslam and CSI to the wrong store and made $45 on the "exchange" because of the price difference. Then he paid too much for all of the three DVDs he actually bought.

And, to add a post, I love FFT. One of my favorite Square games for the PS (with Vagrant Story and Xenogears being its other chief competitors), and it's incredibly addictive. I liked it so much that I almost bought a GBA just for Tactics Advance, but then I heard about how blah it was and decided to pass.

Agrias is pretty solid. She's with you the whole game from there on out. I never actually used her, but that was because I'd spent a lot of time getting lancers and black mages set, and I was having fun playing with Mustadio. A couple friends of mine swear by her, and at this stage of the game she's a strong addition to the regular party. You get another character later on that's basically a much better version of her. Spoiler (Highlight to Read): It's Orlandu, and he's the most hilariously overpowered character in the game.

I desperately want to watch the Alien 3 cut with the extra 30 minutes, but I'm holding back. My friends and I are planning Alienpalooza for this week and I don't think I can handle 3 twice in 5 days.

Nah, he's still excellent, and it was clear watching the game that he is pretty much everything he's cracked up to be. He caught 5 of 6 passes thrown his way for about 80 yards, but never got near the end-zone. They just played a solid zone, usually keeping a safety on him at all times, a corner near him, and one of the linebackers dropped back to not necessarily cover him but be in the vicinity. It ended up with UVA usually only putting 7 people up on the line, but they still managed to get through to Rutherford, especially on a pair of big corner blitzes. Whenver Rutherford did throw to Fitzgerald, he did usually do something pretty dynamic to catch a tough pass. UVA basically made containing him their #1 defensive priority. He still made a few plays, but they kept him from really having a big effect on the game. It's more the fault of the offensive coordinators for not being more creative in finding ways to get him the ball. The commentators kept mentioning it and I agree - they didn't put Fitzgerald in motion or in the backfield at all after the 1st quarter, and so the UVA defense was always able to get a pretty good read on his patterns. Weird, weird offensive playcalling for Pitt.

Well, it's not a *great* deal, but Firefly isn't a movie - it's 3-disc, full run of a 14-episode show. So I think it retails for $40. I'm baffled that this actually works. None of the stores in my hometown would bite on this for a second.

Told ya so. Great game by the defense, and even I, UVA fanboy, was shocked to see them turn Fitzgerald into an absolute non-factor.

Great game going on so far, 17-13 Cavaliers. Solid play on both sides of the ball, probably the most balanced bowl game I've seen this year. I have nothing but murder, however, for the SEC official who blew the Pitt muffed fair catch dead. That was a turnover, flat-out, and his early whistle was riiiiiiiicockulous. Time for the second half!

Woo. Only 10 hours till the bowl *I'm* most interested in. Though obviously biased as a UVA student, I feel like the Cavaliers are more balanced in this one. Pitt's run defense is quite poor, and in Wali Lundy and Alvin Pearman the Cavs have a pair of young tailback playmakers who each topped 1100 yards this year combining running and receiving. Fitzgerald will score a few touchdowns, because while our CB's are more than capable of picking off passes, they're just too short and the secondary is merely eh. Still, Matt Schaub can put points on the board just as fast, if not faster than Rod Rutherford. The crowd is also going to be a big difference - with less than 5,000 Pitt tickets sold and over 25,000 Virginia tickets sold, this is basically going to sound and feel like a homegame for Virginia, which makes a bigger difference for them than most other teams I follow. And of course, Al Groh, Cavs coach, will call at least one fake something and one halfback pass. Watch for #18 Marques Hagans to be involved in at least one or two ridiculous, wonderful maneuvers. In any case, this ought to be one of the best match-ups of the bowl season.

And a brawl to end it! Someone's gonna ram that bronze pineapple through a chest if they're not careful. The early bowl season has been pretty satisfying this year, on a sheerly visceral level. This and Fort Worth were big time shootous, and we had some disgusting blowouts in the Tangerine and Las Vegas.

Hawaii deserves to lose after that abysmal clock management. Seriously. Once they're out of time outs, just run it up the gut and you win. None of this pass nonsense.

Shit. I knew there was *something* I left off my list. I admire my mom's combination skills: leather jacket/fedora/Indiana Jones DVD set. A bunch of other fun stuff, especially a new set of Sennheiser headphones and the Alien Quadrilogy on DVD. And, finally, I own the ridiculous, bright orange sweater that all University of Virginia students really ought to have. Most importantly, there's a giant pan of lasagna and brijole coming out of the oven right now. Later, suckers.

GO YUNA~ Whenever Flyboy does this, I get a little erect. Well-played, young man.

This is a fun game so far. Two good teams going at it, but man - Boise State's linemen need to speed up. TCU's shredding them on the option 2 out of 3 times.

The Rapture, "Olio." Now that 2003's almost over, I figure it's time I start listening to all the stuff that came out this year.

Boise State QB Dinwiddie > TCU secondary. He's got a cannon.