They warned us:

The current collective bargaining agreement between owners and players expires at 12:01 a.m. Thursday. With no talks scheduled, a lockout is a virtual certainty once the NHL board of governors conclude a Wednesday meeting in New York.

[ Yahoo! Sports - NHL ]

Props to Dari.

Maybe I should switch sports and start following Football, Basketball, or Baseball? Baaaah, that's insantity...

I'm in Tokyo's Narita airport, headed home after a nice vacation.

This trip has further advanced my theory that one truism transcends all cultures:

Wedding photographers are irritating.

I don't expect that I will have many blog entries for the next few weeks. Computers will be hard to come by as I take a small trip:

• Tokyo (Akihabara)
• Jakarta (US Embassy)
• Makassar (Getting married)
• Makassar (Hanging out with new wife)

And then back by mid September. See you then!

Playstation distractions aside, my Metroid P2E bonus disc arrived:

Metroid Prime 2 Echoes won't hit stores until November 15, 2004, but novice and veteran bounty hunters can pick up an official bonus disc with a playable demo in the new Metroid Prime Bonus Bundle! If you already own a Nintendo GameCube, you can receive a bonus disc by registering your GCN and five games, or you can get it with a subscription to Nintendo Power magazine.

[ Metroid Prime 2 Echoes - Bonus Disc ]

Better than Metroid Prime 2 for sure. The HUD has been reworked a bit, giving it a more subtle “lock on”. Much design work has been done on the pirates, and the newer 2 types the demo shows are reminiscent of Scizor, but still cool. The demo starts off with Samus having the “light” and “dark” guns, which doesn't make sense, so I'm hoping it's just the fact it's a demo. Game feel was very similar to Metroid Prime, and I'm sure there are some great surprises too.

The bonus disc comes with a preview (including Halo rip-off opening movie), a trailer (snippets of game-play), a demo (not a lot, basically what was displayed at E3), a gallery (including a nifty shot of an updated chozo), and a time line of where the games fit chronologically (including story synopsis).

If you have a GameCube and 5 registrable games (mostly anything published by Nintendo directly since Mario Sunshine) I highly recommend ordering this great freebie. If you don't have a GameCube, go buy one and get Metroid Prime and this bonus disc for free.

Yes!

Prayer Times 2003 is a plug-in that integrates Islamic prayer times in Microsoft Outlook 2003.

Prayer Times enables you to generate appointments for the five main prayers as well as for Friday prayer in your personal Outlook calendar along with your other daily appointments.

[ Microsoft Products and Arabic Support ]

Microsoft actually originally released this unsupported with Outlook 97, it had been taken off their site years ago, and I was still installing the copy I had. They've now updated it a bit for Outlook 2003, and it's integrated a bit better. I expect the next update in 2009.

I heard it was good. And I resisted.

[ davidkearns.com: Cowboy Bebop ]

The geekery continues. I found an Amazon.com seller who had the Cowboy Bebop Movie, Series, and soundtrack for a decent enough price that I just had to order. Seems like they were all made for the Chinese market, but the DVDs appear to be region-free, and seemingly legit, so I'm happy.

One appetizer that remains popular year after year is Crab Rangoon. The sweet, delicate flavor of crab and the crunchy texture of deep-fried wonton make for an intriguing combination. What many people don't realize is that, despite having the capital city of Burma in its name, crab rangoon isn't an Asian recipe. Its exact origins are difficult to trace. It may be the creation of a chef at Trader Vic's, a restaurant chain started by "Trader Vic" Bergeron that became famous for its Polynesian cuisine in the 1950's. In any event, today Crab Rangoon (occasionally misspelled as Crab Ragoon) is very popular, particularly in eastern states and the Midwest.

[ Asian Appetizer Recipe - Crab Rangoon Recipe ]

This looks like something right up my alley:

The Question of God, a four-hour series on PBS, explores in accessible and dramatic style issues that preoccupy all thinking people today: What is happiness? How do we find meaning and purpose in our lives? How do we reconcile conflicting claims of love and sexuality? How do we cope with the problem of suffering and the inevitability of death?

[ The Question of God | PBS ]

Unfortunately, my faux-tivo won't let me choose to record something so far in advance. I shall certainly not want to miss this one.

I expect some big issues tomorrow.

While recognizing the security benefits of Service Pack 2, some organizations have asked that we provide them the ability to temporarily disable delivery of this update via AU and WU. These organizations have populations of PCs which are enabled to receive all critical security updates via AU. Since Service Pack 2 will start to be delivered to Windows XP Home Edition PCs on August 18 and to Windows XP Professional Edition starting on August 25, these customers have asked for the ability to temporarily block the delivery of Service Pack 2 in order to provide additional time for validation and testing of the update.

[ Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 and Windows Update ]

I've been the guinea pig for my company, and so far it's been smooth sailing. I've reviewed all critical systems and used my computer for regular business and only run in to a few small issues. One security product required an upgrade (which had been available anyway) and CRM needed me to white-list it. I understand that I'll have to tweak security settings if I ever try to setup debugging via DCOM in VisualStudio, but I doubt I'll be doing that so no worries.

Personally, I can't wait until everyone is on SP2, I think Microsoft has done some good work, and it will stop much of the viral shenanigans that have been going on. And the naysayers? Whiners, in my opinion. I've seen nothing insurmountable, and (as far as I can tell) all issues are from the added security, and the added security is what everyone has been begging for, so when you get what you ask for, don't whine about it?

GameFly has been kind enough to send me a copy of Jak and Daxter, which I heard was decent, and so far appears to be so. It looks like I can pick up a used copy for about $8 off of Amazon and just might do that.

The game-play is OK so far, a basic collection platformer. Daxter, the sidekick, is a bit irritating, but most reviews point this out so I was prepared. One nice thing about the game is all load waiting seems to have been eliminated. PS2 games don't, apparently, require those heinous waiting times while a level loads, as long as the game programmers know what they're doing. So far I've been getting used to the controls, looking around the world a bit, and trying in vain to get the “love interest” in the game to care about something besides her little experiment.

If I had paid $40 for this game, I think I may have been disappointed, but at the price you can get a used copy for, this is certainly enough bang for the buck.

Kingdom Hearts is turning out to be as good a game as I suspected. I was off to a bit of a false start, making assumptions that I shouldn't have we're helping, but a quick trip to GameFAQs straightened out my assumption that the levels were purely linear. My aggravation with the crappy menuing system for using items has been fixed when I learned a spell to heal myself, and (since I didn't read the manual) now I understand that “abilities” need to be activated to be used, they are working out better for me as well.

Mark of Kri still irks me with the control of Rau, who stops short and pauses at everything. Truthfully I'm not too far along in the game, and there are clearly additional weapons and skills for me to learn, so I'm still unsure what my feelings will be when I'm done. I have gotten far enough that I understand where the M rating came from. Once you start stealthing around, the “killing” animations can be quite gruesome. And, since I truly don't even know the point of the game yet, I can't really judge the overall story. However the “stealth” level gives me promise that many unique game play features are waiting for me, so I anticipate a great overall game experience.

The big question is, will I remember anything about these games when I return from Indonesia in mid-September?

I love wireless controllers. My Nintendo WaveBird (of “Is that a WaveBird?” fame) is indispensable, and having purchased a PS2 I didn't want to go back to dealing with cords. I asked around and most said that the New Logitech 2.4 GHz wireless was the way to go.

Experience the freedom to play anywhere you want and eliminate cable clutter in your living room. The second generation Logitech Cordless Action™ Controller delivers the performance, convenience, and comfort you've been looking for. It's engineered to be small and light, yet it still uses Logitech's highly reliable 2.4 GHz radio frequency technology to deliver precise control with no lag.

[ Logitech ]

Since I just had to buy a new phone because my old phone didn't play nice with my WiFi I was a bit nervous, after checking out the options it seemed that all PS2 wireless controllers that looked even 1/2 way decent utilized 2.4 GHz technology. I figured that worst case scenario I'd have to try and return it from whence it came.

I am happy to report that there are seemingly no interference issues with the Logitech and my WiFi network. In addition the Logitech uses hi-grade parts all the way through, giving the controller a very solid feel, and feels like it will last quite a while. I think it is also a bit bigger than the standard PS2 controller, which suits me fine. Unlike the WaveBird, the Logitech has rumble built in, and oddly no on/off switch or channel selector, I haven't spent much time trying to figure either one of those out, as I am so sucked in to Ico.

I give this controller 5 thumbs up, and I would recommend buying it.

Each console has exclusive content, my preference tends to be toward Zelda, so I get anything with "Nintendo" emblazoned on it. I had thought that my “killer app” was surely to be Kingdom Hearts. Kingdom Hearts has both Square and Disney behind it, it's sure to be a winner (and may turn out to be so, once I get used to the crappy controls).

However, what I am finding is that another gem is truly reason enough to get the PS2 (at least for the price I paid), and that is Ico from SCEA:

Ico weaves the tale of a young boy trying to escape his imprisonment in a large, vacant castle. Along the way, he discovers another captive — a beautiful princess named Yorda. Players control Ico with the goal of escaping the castle with the princess safely in hand.

[ Buy Ico from Amazon ]

I encourage you to check out the homepage for Ico, which will give you a feel for the game. As disorienting as the site is, since all navigation needs to be discovered and unlocked, the game is more-so. It plays a bit like Prince of Persia, and is as beautiful a game as well, but a bit more spooky and more confusing.

The Amazon.com description lists one of the “cons” of the game is the short play time, but I for one would much rather have an A+ gaming experience in the 10-20 hour range than an average gaming experience in the 50-100 hour range, quality over quantity. And if you have an aversion to Japanese culture, this one is dripping with Japanese style, and (although subtitled) all speech is in the original Japanese.