Pathetic

(Desperate measures...)

If you look in the dictionary for the word "pathetic", somewhere near the bottom of the list of definitions will be one that looks like this:

"15. Playing Armagetron Advanced and chatting with players (who may in fact be bots) because their damn PS3 won't work at all any more."

This is not a sleight against Armagetron. It's actually a pretty well-done game and I've had quite a bit of fun with it (although finding low-rubber servers has been hard). And many thanks to Penny Arcade for implanting that subliminal notion in my head. But it's no FFXI and I haven't played for almost 4 days now. The last time I was off that long I was on vacation and couldn't take my PS3.

Bear in mind my mom's laptop is *still* dead. Curse you, Catch22 (you know who you are). Whatever happened while you were surfing really dorked this machine up (Don't worry - we know it was IE's fault, not yours ^^). Mounting the drive in a 2.5" enclosure shows the drive itself is intact, and the data is fine. But Windows seems to be having a really hard time with either the SAM or LSASS security components. Attenpts to patch or use "repair" copies of key files has not worked so far, and I don't have a vendor-neutral repair disc for XP Media Center.

So trying to play on a gamepad-less laptop was already desperate. Now I sink once more. I'm trying to get TheFunMachine (PS2) operational again so I can install there. I still have the Sony 40GB drive and both the original core + Zilart and Collection 2008 discs. FunMachine's problem is that either the laser or the spindle motor is toast. And that thing has waaay more time logged than TheAlmighty did. So no surprise.

Web searches for drive assemblies suggest I should just go to a pawn shop and buy another phat PS2 and either install straightaway or pull parts. I also have my Japanese PS2 (10000) which works but I have no idea how compatible its innards are with a later-spec NA unit (30001). I might try that tonight after the Y and if that fails, go pawn-shopping tomorrow.

As for my friends, well, I miss all of you and hope to be back online in a couple days. And as for Sufhi? I hope Aerin's been feeding her in my absence. I don't want to find a dead Mithran on the steps of my Mog House and a citation from the VSPCM tacked to the door...

Oh, almost forgot. My jonesing is so bad I'm *dreaming* in Vana'diel now, and I don't mean the website! Fhox, Archer, and I (others? not sure) were doing our best to stay alive among dangerous mobs in an area I don't remember seeing in-game before. I kept doing the raise/reraise thing but we were set upon by a number of bones. And of course, in my dream, this is when my system froze again leading to a wipe.