why i love pokemon pinball (advanced)

You have completed your Pokedex!

This message was waiting for me when I finished my game of Pokemon Pinball Advanced earlier. I've never managed to complete a Pokedex in any of the many versions of Pokemon games Jo and I have played over the years (one in each GameBoy series except for the most recent set, plus Colosseum). It's the game that lives in my SP, and I haven't been able to find a replacement for it on the SP or DS. In fact, it was a replacement of the GameBoy Color version of the game that was the only game I went back to after the Advances came out. Even when the Advanced version of the game came out, I kept playing the old version for a while because I loved that version so much that I couldn't let it go. The Advanced version is actually easier than the old Color version, and the gameplay flows better. You rack up points faster, too, and there are more bonuses to keep you alive longer. I've tried other pinball games--they're just not the same. Even the much-anticipated (by me, anyway) Mario Pinball couldn't compare. It's got a better story, sure, but it loses in controls and replayability. Anyway, without futher ado, here are ten reasons why I love Pokemon Pinball Advanced:

1. I've cleared the Pokedex :)


2. I didn't need to connect with any other systems or game packs in order to do so.


3. I didn't need to travel to places I could never get to in order to do so (like I did in the old version).


4. I never get bored of it.


5. I can pick it up and play wherever I am. I've gotten to the point where I know the game well enough that I can stop whenever I need to. I don't care enough about what's going on to worry about where I am in the game, but it's still fun.


6. Playing the game is like riding a bike--I never forget how to do it.


7. In case I do forget or am a little rusty, there are two different levels--one that's easier, to warm up with or play with lots of breaks, and one that's harder, if I feel like a challenge.


8. The game is broken up by bonus levels that give you a sense of accomplishment in what can be a very short time. Getting to these bonus levels is likewise broken up by hatching, catching, or evolving a pokemon, which can take as little as twenty seconds. (Or a frustratingly long time, but hey, if it were always easy, it wouldn't be fun anymore. Right...?)


9. Each game can go on forever with these little breaks, and I can pick up a game even after not playing for months and still get into it right away. (Of course, this means I don't remember which pokemon I've caught during the game, so I don't know what the last pokemon I caught for my Pokedex was...)


10. The little pokemon sprites are just too cute! (Sorry, I had to add that in. Especially in the hatching mode with pokemon like Corsola and Spheal :)

Now I just need to wait for a DS version for an excuse to buy a DS lite... Although it may be what Pokemon Troize is supposed to be. If that's the case, I'm not sure if I'll ever get a DS. I think pinball has lasted this long as a game for a reason, and a game made up just to utilize the DS will have a hard time competing. I won't know until I try it, but it doesn't seem quite as fun or interesting as pinball.

rest in pieces

Milliways, aka Squishy
May 2001 - April 2006

Two owners, two hard drives, two cd drives, four drops, and five years later, my old iBook is officially dead.

I took it apart for the first time today (Chris did it for me when it got a new hard drive and more memory). It's much easier to take it apart when you don't have to put it back together again, but it's still hard to get all the latches to come off and pry the case apart. The powerbook was easier in the sense that it had more screws and fewer latches, so it came apart more easily, but it had more screws.

The hard drive is out, as are the airport card and extra ram (although who can still use those is beyond me...), and it's in pretty much as many pieces as possible. My dad and I have stripped it for parts. Or at least, he's taking the electronic parts, and I've taken off the top cover as a keepsake. And because I think it would be fun to use for some sort of project. It looks like it would make a great book cover or outside of a bag.

I also took the little tiny magnet that was used to cover up a screw under the keyboard. I remember I used to collect these from my dad's work when I was little. It's really pretty cute. I've stuck it on my desk, but I just know I'm going to forget about it eventually, especially since it's so small. It'll just be another one of the many things on my desk.

spring forward!

I was doing stuff online, sending emails, etc. and all of a sudden it was almost 4 a.m. I had forgotten that today was daylight savings time, but my computer didn't forget. It was just too subtle about letting me know. It barely feels like 3 a.m., let alone 4 a.m. I've always had more problems adjusting to slight changes in my schedule than crazy ones. When I'm completely flipped around, like in Taiwan or Ukraine, I just stay awake until I'm exhausted and sleep the night after that. But slight changes to my schedule mean that I'm still expecting certain things to happen at certain times, and when they don't, they throw me off.

Like tonight, now that I know that it's really only 3 a.m., I feel wide awake even though my computer's trying to trick me into thinking it's later than it actually is. But it actually is later than I think it is, so no one's trying to trick me but me. See? I've even been fooled into posting a barely coherent late-night ramble about it, which is usually blamed on lack of sleep, but am I really lacking sleep, or is it just a figment of my imagination? Or my computer's?

rice cooker bread

rice cooker bread
Originally uploaded by nitaspitas.

Rice cookers are amazing things. Especially the new ones that have non-stick pans and can cook everything from rice to soup. And apparently bread.

In the middle of watching Yakitate!! Japan today, Jo and I saw a recipe for making bread in a rice cooker. After watching a season of this show, we were both itching to make bread, so I went out and got some yeast, and we started making it this afternoon.

It was hard at first, because the measurements we got were all metric, and we used wheat flour instead of white, so the water absorption was different, but it ended up turning out okay. (It was also too salty because the recipe didn't say unsalted butter, and I didn't really think about it until afterwards...)

Rice cookers are actually really nice for making a fluffy bread--you can use the pan as a mixing bowl, then set it into the rice cooker to rise (it's warm and covered all at once!), and it keeps it warm after it's done. The only difference is the crust--it's not crispy like oven-baked bread. And it takes a lot longer to bake because the temperature in a rice cooker is much lower than that of an oven. It took about an hour of prep time (because we didn't really know what we were doing...), two hours for the bread to rise twice, and three hours (turning the bread every hour) to cook. Not too much work once the bread is kneaded, but six hours to wait for bread is kind of long...