Hope to see you soon, big girl. The Wii is starting to get old.

Thank you, Joystiq Podcast Appreciation Group. Thank you for your generosity.

A little background: my Playstation 3 died around june/july of this year. From what I can tell, the temperature sensor is conked out. The system is completely and utterly dead. It's a 60 gig console with the backwards compability, so I figured getting it fixed would be an easy thing.

Well sure, I'd be easy. After $150. It was out of warranty. I grumbled a bit, and saved the money needed to fix it. I waited a while to do so, saving small incriments of money from my part time job. In waiting, I was even mentioned as one of those rare cases of a broken PS3 on the Joystiq podcast.

Unfortunately, my car died. I lost all the money I had saved for the PS3 to fix the heating coil (first time I discovered cars HAD heating coils).

Then any money I had at that point disappeared as the car broke down AGAIN-major components, including the oxygen sensor and part of the engine, melted (the temperature sensor failed after I Ieft the mechanics, causing much of the car to overheat.). My car, my precious LaFonda (or Joystiq One, if any Joystiq members were present.), had put me into debt considerably.

A couple of friends offered to help me out with the system repairs, as they had played the console more than once, but they seemingly dropped out over a series of issues. I had resorted to playing games rarely- playing my wii on short bursts and looking at some of the games I bought after the fact (I have a collector's version of Resident Evil 5 that hasn't even been played yet.). I gave up on fixing the system and decided to wait until December- where christmas money would be spent to pay off the black monolithic console that was reduced to a very heavy paperweight.

Today, I went to an Uncharted 2 event. Frazzled and annoyed that I got lost twice, I waited in bumber to bumper traffic with an eve shorter fuse. Waiting completely stopped on the 101 freeway, I received this message on my phone- a Facebook message from a fellow JPAG member, Alex Raymond:

Hey Dan,
After you told me the other day that your PS3 was broken and you didn't have the cash to fix it (and frankly the fee is ridiculous), Randall and I rallied the JPAG and a bunch of us pitched in and raised $175 for you to send in your PS3 and have it fixed. Just send me your email address and I'll be able to hand it over via Paypal!

I lost it. I checked my phone six, seven times over, trying to see if all this was true. I couldn't believe it.

I lost it. I cried right then and there on the freeway. Crying as a police officer drove by, giving me a stange look upon seeing my face. I was overjoyed, shocked at the generosity, the compassion the JPAG (and some Joystiq writers!) had given me with this gift. I'm crying right now as I try and type this all out on my Blackberry.

Thank you again, JPAG. You really do make me proud to call you my friends. I don't know what to do to repay you all.

Christ, I need a tissue.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

 Take today, for example. A mother and her son walked into the library today, making a beeline for the video section. I took no notice when they first walked in, until i noticed a flowing cape behind the son- he was dressed as Superman.

 They took no time to pick out an individual VHS copy of Thomas the Tank Engine. He bounded towards my counter, sliding the VHS onto the counter as best as he could, standing on his tiptoes as his mother shuffled through her cards to find her library card. She found the card moments later, and I quickly checked out the movie. As per policy, I walked past the security gates to hand the VHS to the patron- but i leaned over to the child's level, over the counter.

 The joy on his face as he bounded around the corner and to me was one I can describe in a limited scope- he hopped and skipped over to me with cape flowing, he looked like a small, latino version of Superman as he took the VHS from my hands, a big grin crossing his face. He thank me, and scampered down the stairs. The last thing I saw of him was his crew cut hair being hidden away by the cape. The joy and utter pleasure he took at something i grew up with made me smile. It helped that he was dressed as Superman, though.

 It's moments like these I love working at a library.

Yesterday, I took apart my second computer to get it scrapped.
 
It was built by a small computer shop on Colorado Blvd. in Pasadena. It no longer exists.
 
I remember helping picking out the parts- a 500 mhz Pentium 3 CPU. 20 gigs of storage. Two optical drives in it. The green case, I picked out to "make it look more like an iMac.". I started playing a bunch of games upon it- Starcraft and Diablo being my favorites.
 
I remember the immense pride I had in installing a second drive, when I was just in middle school.
 
After this computer died, I built my family's first computer. The first one I named. This computer was never named.
 
See ya, lime green.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Kusanagi and Togusa are from Ghost in the Shell, while all of my external hard drives are characters from a recent-ish anime, Black Lagoon. The only thing that bucked this trend was my old iPod mini, which was named Hannibal.

I don't know if I can make a funny comment for this.