Three stores, one hour, no love (Or: my quest for FF XI.)

Ever since it came out, I've wanted Final Fantasy XI. I've resisted though, all through the months it's been out. Finally, after starting my second week of watching live feed of the game through the official site, I gave in. I decided to get it! Yay!

Or so I thought.

I have an hour long lunch, plenty of time to run out and buy something! I started at Fry's. (Their motto: 'You'll never come back', you say? We'll see you next time!) Somehow, in their giant game department, they didn't have it. That or none of the employees spoke enough English to understand my request. Bah! Grrr! I'll never go back to Fry's again!

With still 40 minutes remaining, I decided to hit Toy's R Us. 'Toys' is in their name! Games are a toy! How could they not have it? So in I trotted, and after wandering around the game section and not finding it, I went to ask one of the clerks. He spoke English, of that I'm sure! How did I know? He was on the phone for *ten minutes* while I waited for him! Grrr.

With two strikes and only about 20 minutes left of my lunchtime, I headed back to work. Then I saw it. Target! Target has everything! How could it not have this one game that's not even all that new? It shouldn't be sold out? ...hey, wow, the road into their parking lot is closed for construction! How strange! How annoying! I parked in a different lot than the one I'm used to, and went in. Eventually I found where I needed to look. No game.

Grrr.

The only good thing about this whole deal is that Target sells popcorn, so I now have some sweet, sweet salty love sitting next to me on the desk.

So I ended up doing what I should have done to begin with: Bought it on line. I would have gotten overnight delivery if it was an option (which I've never, ever used before). It *should* be here on Friday. It better be!

...Back to reading game FAQs...

Three stores, one hour, no love (Or: my quest for FF XI.)

Ever since it came out, I've wanted Final Fantasy XI. I've resisted though, all through the months it's been out. Finally, after starting my second week of watching live feed of the game through the official site, I gave in. I decided to get it! Yay!

Or so I thought.

I have an hour long lunch, plenty of time to run out and buy something! I started at Fry's. (Their motto: 'You'll never come back', you say? We'll see you next time!) Somehow, in their giant game department, they didn't have it. That or none of the employees spoke enough English to understand my request. Bah! Grrr! I'll never go back to Fry's again!

With still 40 minutes remaining, I decided to hit Toy's R Us. 'Toys' is in their name! Games are a toy! How could they not have it? So in I trotted, and after wandering around the game section and not finding it, I went to ask one of the clerks. He spoke English, of that I'm sure! How did I know? He was on the phone for *ten minutes* while I waited for him! Grrr.

With two strikes and only about 20 minutes left of my lunchtime, I headed back to work. Then I saw it. Target! Target has everything! How could it not have this one game that's not even all that new? It shouldn't be sold out? ...hey, wow, the road into their parking lot is closed for construction! How strange! How annoying! I parked in a different lot than the one I'm used to, and went in. Eventually I found where I needed to look. No game.

Grrr.

The only good thing about this whole deal is that Target sells popcorn, so I now have some sweet, sweet salty love sitting next to me on the desk.

So I ended up doing what I should have done to begin with: Bought it on line. I would have gotten overnight delivery if it was an option (which I've never, ever used before). It *should* be here on Friday. It better be!

...Back to reading game FAQs...

We don't want your moon cheese babies!

Grump! Stupid Amazon pushed back the delivery date of my game to 4/5-4/7. That's next week! Monday to Wednesday! And I paid for 1-2 day shipping! Darned weekend, couldn't you move back a couple days? (Who'd have thought I'd ever want that?)

So I decided to take fate into my own hands and try to find the game in a store. Again. But this time I did what the old advertisements told us to! I let my fingers do the walking. I called ten or so gaming stores, and not one single one had it in stock! Buh?

This is all my fault. I've been wanting to play it forever, why didn't I just buy it before now? Mumble, trying to be good and thrifty and stuff. Stupid me.

Gimme my game! Now now now!

(I can't believe I'm this hyper without sugar. Two days now since I've had even a crumb of a cookie or a nibble of chocolate. I really thought stopping sugar/chocolate/sweets would be harder than this, but it's not. I left candy and chocolate around my desk so that I could laugh at it! ...well, okay, I don't laugh at it, but I left stuff within arm's reach because it's so much fun to see it and know I don't want it/need it! Ha! Take that, candy industry!)

We don't want your moon cheese babies!

Grump! Stupid Amazon pushed back the delivery date of my game to 4/5-4/7. That's next week! Monday to Wednesday! And I paid for 1-2 day shipping! Darned weekend, couldn't you move back a couple days? (Who'd have thought I'd ever want that?)

So I decided to take fate into my own hands and try to find the game in a store. Again. But this time I did what the old advertisements told us to! I let my fingers do the walking. I called ten or so gaming stores, and not one single one had it in stock! Buh?

This is all my fault. I've been wanting to play it forever, why didn't I just buy it before now? Mumble, trying to be good and thrifty and stuff. Stupid me.

Gimme my game! Now now now!

(I can't believe I'm this hyper without sugar. Two days now since I've had even a crumb of a cookie or a nibble of chocolate. I really thought stopping sugar/chocolate/sweets would be harder than this, but it's not. I left candy and chocolate around my desk so that I could laugh at it! ...well, okay, I don't laugh at it, but I left stuff within arm's reach because it's so much fun to see it and know I don't want it/need it! Ha! Take that, candy industry!)

Hi no Tori (The Phoenix) (A)

Being semi-new to anime, I don't know who all the "big names" are, but I'm told Osamu Tezuka is very much one of them. (I'm told he's called "God of Anime and Manga," and he's made things like Astro Boy and Metropolis.) No matter if that's true or not, his "Life's Work" is something beautiful to see. He started writing the stories for it in 1954 (!!!). He's dead now, so I'm not sure how much of a hand he could have had in the anime version of his stories, but there's little way he could have improved them.

Hi no Tory (or Hinotori, I've seen it both ways) means 'The Phoenix', and all 12 eps of the series (which will tell five of the stories) are based around that bird.

The first story is set in "early days", when people were living in small villages in the jungle and outsiders were never encountered. With each new ep, another story will be told and another step forward through time will be taken. As far as I know, only the first ep has been aired (subbed?) so far.

To say the animation of it is beautiful would be the understatement of the year. I don't believe I've ever seen crisper, sharper, perfectly colored animation before. While screenshots will do it little justice, here are a couple:

Magic time!

Old woman.

I disagree with the subtitle. (The phoenix is the centerpiece of the series, so why in the world did they make it look like an overgrown chicken made up with eye-liner? Blech!)

Like the chicken phoenix, the character design made me blink lots. Blech! But even though they were ugly, the characters were still wonderful to watch when in motion.

Besides great animation, the music was pretty darned nice. They seemed to have some big-name voice actors, too. (Ed from FMA, and someone else who I've heard a lot but couldn't put a name to.)

BT Link.
Official site.

Hi no Tori (The Phoenix) (A)

Being semi-new to anime, I don't know who all the "big names" are, but I'm told Osamu Tezuka is very much one of them. (I'm told he's called "God of Anime and Manga," and he's made things like Astro Boy and Metropolis.) No matter if that's true or not, his "Life's Work" is something beautiful to see. He started writing the stories for it in 1954 (!!!). He's dead now, so I'm not sure how much of a hand he could have had in the anime version of his stories, but there's little way he could have improved them.

Hi no Tory (or Hinotori, I've seen it both ways) means 'The Phoenix', and all 12 eps of the series (which will tell five of the stories) are based around that bird.

The first story is set in "early days", when people were living in small villages in the jungle and outsiders were never encountered. With each new ep, another story will be told and another step forward through time will be taken. As far as I know, only the first ep has been aired (subbed?) so far.

To say the animation of it is beautiful would be the understatement of the year. I don't believe I've ever seen crisper, sharper, perfectly colored animation before. While screenshots will do it little justice, here are a couple:

Magic time!

Old woman.

I disagree with the subtitle. (The phoenix is the centerpiece of the series, so why in the world did they make it look like an overgrown chicken made up with eye-liner? Blech!)

Like the chicken phoenix, the character design made me blink lots. Blech! But even though they were ugly, the characters were still wonderful to watch when in motion.

Besides great animation, the music was pretty darned nice. They seemed to have some big-name voice actors, too. (Ed from FMA, and someone else who I've heard a lot but couldn't put a name to.)

BT Link.
Official site.