Calling all gamers!

I have a slight problem that maybe one of you could help me out with.

The other day I ordered Lego Star Wars 2: The Original Trilogy for the Gamecube. I was psyched to receive it in the mail yesterday, but there was one small problem that came up once I opened it. As I was reading the instructions I realized that the only way to get a bunch of the characters in this game was to load them in from what you unlocked in the FIRST Lego Star Wars game.

The annoying thing with that is, while do I have the first Lego Star Wars, I have it for the Xbox. So there is no way for me to load anything for my new game (thus, I can't use guys like Darth Maul, General Grievous, Mace Windu, etc).

The problem is that since I already opened the game (even though I haven't even played it), I can't return it. I called up Amazon and tried making up a story in order for me to exchange it, but since I want the game for a new system it's a pretty big pain. They basically want me to return my ENTIRE order (I had also purchased a CD and a DVD) in order for my stuff to be changed. Thing is, I had already opened the other items and there is nothing wrong with them. I tried to come to some sort of resolution with the customer service operator, but with the way he was explaining things, I'm not 100% sure I'd get a flat out exchange without losing any money. So I'm not gonna risk it.

So now I've only got a few options open to me. I can:
A) buy the first game for the Gamecube and go through that whole game again so I can transfer stuff over (something I'd prefer not to do, cuz although the game isn't long, it took me a good amount of time to unlock everything I did in that game).
B) find someone who played and unlocked everything for the Gamecube version and see if they'd be willing to let me copy their save game on my memory card (something I'm thinking is very doubtful to happen).

or C) seeing if anyone would like to buy my copy of the game, so I can use the money and just flat out buy a copy of the Xbox version for myself.

So I'm basically hoping that one of you reading this, is a fan of the Lego Star Wars games, and would like to buy my copy. It's $40 (flat, forget the tax), and while it has been opened, it's basically BRAND SPANKIN NEW b/c I haven't even taken it out of the box.

Just let me know if any of you (or maybe someone you know that is trustworthy) are interested, b/c it would be a big help to me! Thanks a lot!

Back In The Swing Of Things

So yeah, once again I've fallen behind in my posts... it's just how it goes, lol.

I'll try to keep things short.

-In the first bit of news- I bought a digital camcorder last month! It's something I've been wanting ever since I was an undergrad (especially for things like Spring weekend). I've talked about getting one for awhile, but now I was finally able to afford it. So I'll try to bring it around for some of our group gatherings (I already brought it to Joe & Patty's Poker Night).

-I've been to the movies a handful of times over the past month or so. First I went to see Talledega Nights a few weeks back with a few people. The movie was about as hysterical as I expected. It probably could have been edited down a few minutes, but overall, it was pretty funny.

Then last week we went to see Beerfest. Now that movie was pretty crazy. It was one of those typical "dumb" movies, that you need a certain sense of humor to appreciate. That said, I just thought it was ok. Some scenes were hysterical, but those scenes were far apart. I do have to say, I found the whole "Landfill" story (if you've seen it you'll know what I'm talking about), to be both insulting to people's intelligence yet brilliant at the same time.

Finally, the day right after that, I went to see Crank with a big crew. Jason Statham has basically become this generation's big action star (b/c the Rock and Vin Diesel didn't capitalize correctly and claim that title for themselves). So far, I've enjoyed every movie he has been in, and this was no exception. The movie was a total summer action flick- great fun, and I definitely recomend it.

-Jordan finished up his new apartment and had his housewarming back in August. The place looks great, and is in a nice neighborhood. The party itself was a lot of fun too. I don’t know how we fit so many people inside that apartment, but we did. Definitely a fun time, and I can’t wait for his upcoming movie nights.

-A few weeks ago, Marisa contacted me about putting together a b-day party for Joe. She set the time and place, and it was my job to get everyone together. Things were kind of crazy at first due to scheduling issues, but everything worked out in the end and we had a great time. We wound up going to P.F. Changs for dinner (great food there, especially the chicken lettuce wraps), and then afterwards we went to Jordan’s place again to chill.

-I started to play my latest RPG, Suikoden V for the PS2, at the beginning of August (during the weekend Ariana was away in PR), and I just beat it this past weekend. It’s definitely one of the best RPG’s I’ve played (and I tend to play some pretty cool ones). It had a great story, and fun characters. Another thing was that it actually took me 94 hours to beat the game, which is the longest game I've played since Final Fantasy VII (which took me well over 100 hours, but that was also b/c I did a LOT of extra stuff in that game). I just ordered Lego Star Wars 2 the other day, so that will probably be my next game, and once I beat that I’ll probably start X-Men Legends 2 (yeah, I still haven’t gotten to that, lol).

-I’ve gotten a few TV shows on DVD lately. I did wind up buying Animaniacs- Season 1 on DVD the day it came out. I’ve only had a chance to watch a handful of episodes so far (b/c I’m watching them with Ariana), but they are still just about as funny as I remember. I also bought Darkwing Duck Season 1. I haven’t started watching it yet (mostly b/c I want to watch the entire first episode in one sitting and that’s almost 2 hours long), but I’m psyched to get to it, b/c I loved that show as a kid. And finally, I also got the first season of the HBO show- Entourage, b/c I had heard so many good things about it (and I also got it on a pretty good sale). I’ve watched about 2-3 episodes so far, and it’s pretty amusing, but I hear it gets even better by the second season, so I’m looking forward to that.

Oh and just this past Monday, I decided to bite the bullet and order the first season of the new series of Battlestar Galactica on DVD. I’ve been wanting to start watching the show for awhile b/c I’ve heard many good things, but never got around to it. But this past Monday I saw a recap episode on USA, which basically told the story so far of the second season. It looked really interesting and just made me finally want to catch up and watch the show. They also ran an 11 hours marathon of the second season the next day, which I DVR’d, so I hope the DVD arrives soon, so I can catch up and watch the two seasons within the next month, and watch the third season when it starts in October.

-We went to the last 2 Yankee games of our season package last week. The first was a win over the Devil Rays on Wed, and the second was against Boston. That game was originally supposed to be the Friday Night game featuring Wang vs Beckett, but it got rained out, so we got the Sunday afternoon game, which featured freakin Jaret Wright. And although he pitched decently, the Yanks still wound up losing the game 6-3, mostly b/c of Craig Wilson, who was unable to pick off his man on first (I forget who, I wanna say Coco Crisp but I’m not sure), which should have ended the inning. And then Boston took advantage and scored 4 runs that very inning. So that sucked. But at least we finished our season this year with a winning record. In the 10 games we attended we went 6-4. So that’s not too shabby, especially considering all the injuries the Yankees went through this season.

(Oh and to make note, as of this writing, the Yankees JUST clinched the AL East tonight. And the Mets clinched on Monday Night, so NY is in good shape at the moment. I’m still rooting for the Marlins in the wild card, but I know it’s a slim chance. Still, I am VERY proud of them, as they are doing way better than ANYBODY expected them to. Heck, last week, their young pitcher- Anibal Sanchez threw a no-hitter, and as of “press-time” they have a 75-77 record with ten games to go. And at the beginning of the season I was thinking that anything over 60 wins would be great, and that if they finished with 74-76 wins, I’d be ecstatic. So by this point, they’ve achieved more than I could have hoped for. A playoff berth may be out of sight (although let me not jinx them completely), but I’m proud of that team no matter what (cuz I mean really... with only a $15 million payroll for the ENTIRE team, who expected them to do anything this season)?

-And lastly, the big news as of late is that I restarted grad school this month in the School Counseling Masters Program at Lehman College. We’re currently in our third week, and it’s going well so far. I like my professors as well as the classes, so that’s a plus. It’s gonna be pretty intensive, but it sounds really interesting. The main plus, is that unlike the Fordham program, which was more broad in it’s counseling aspects, the Lehman program focuses on school counseling, which is exactly what I want to do, so that’s pretty cool.

-But yeah, speaking of school I got a little bit more reading to do before I call it a night, so I’ll end this post here.