Well, I have officially failed at National Blog Posting Month. Part of it wasn't my fault, though. On Saturday, I woke up with a medium-bad headache right above my left eye, which I figured it was sinus-related and would go away eventually. After I'd been up and around a while, I decided to play some Guitar Hero. Yes, stare intently at flashing lights while listening to semi-loud music, Migraine Sufferer - probably the most brilliant idea I've had in a l-o-n-g time. Ranks right up there with home improvements.

I gave in, took some medicine and lay down in the dark bedroom, hoping to head things off before they went migraine, at which I was successful. I haven't had a migraine in a very long time, a span measurable in years, not months, but it is not an experience nostalgia urges me to repeat. After a couple of hours I felt much better, but decided that squinting at the computer screen wasn't a great idea.

As for Sunday, no excuse other than laziness and/or lack of inspiration. I played video games off and on most of the day, never even bothered changing out of my lounge pants. I played Final Fantasy X-2, which I need to finish in order to justify buying FFXII. I find it difficult to justify purchasing a new game, even if someone buys it for me, if I have too many unplayed/unfinished games sitting around. By the way, if you're confused by the Roman and cardinal numbers, I'm not mixing them arbitrarily. There was Final Fantasy X (ten) which has two parts, the second of which is titled X-2, while Final Fantasy XII is a different game further along in the franchise, Final Fantasy Twelve.

I've had FFX-2 for quite a while - I think Mom bought it for me (I know she bought me FFX) but my first playthrough, I got irritated with it. I was irked because I learned, about 25 hours into gaming, that I'd missed something in the first 10 minutes which was going to keep me from getting a high enough completion percentage to see the good ending (and by inference 100% completion which was required for the bonus scene/perfect ending). It was irritating enough realizing that I would have to start from scratch if I wanted the good ending, because despite having several staged save files, all of them were (shockingly enough) saved after the ten-minutes-in point where I missed something. However, what made it worse was that what I'd missed was something I'd have never thought to do, not in a million years, because the game instructions/conversations/storyline more or less advised you NOT to do it, hinting and guiding you a different way.

I only found out because I bought the BradyGames Guide, which was a total fluke. I never read game guides or walkthroughs unless I'm stuck, and then I only read the part that's thwarting me, I never read ahead. It was pure chance that I saw the BradyGames Guide for FFX-2 in Borders, was captivated by the gorgeous drawings and fantastical beasts, as well as the complex alchemy mix-chart, wanted to share same with Alan and had spare bucks I was willing to waste.

At that point, when I found out I'd spent 25 or so hours gaming which were rendered useless, I almost became the second member of my family to Frisbee an FF disc out of the PlayStation into oblivion, but in a rare display of equanimity, I simply played other games instead for about 15 months. :-)

And anyway, back to my non-blogging excuses: when I got home today and wrote most of the above, the intarweb was all broke, which I told Alan when he came home but he didn't believe me, and the whole time I was fixing his dinner & stuff, he was mucking about with our settings and routers and access points and stuff. Finally he called HellSouth, and the recording said the intarweb is broke. Well, maybe not in SO MANY WORDS....