Maybe it's fatherhood. Maybe it's nostalgia. Maybe it's some sort of innate desire to recapture the glory days of my youth. I dunno. But whatever it is, something deep down inside has been inspiring me to get my collection of video games back.
We didn't have much in the way of video or computer games when I was a kid, partly because we were too busy playing outside but partly because my parents (wisely) did not allow us to partake in those kinds of electronic distractions. They encouraged us to build things with Legos, play with rubber band guns in the basement, dig holes in the yard, ride our bikes down to the park, go to the local pool to swim...as long as we were home by bedtime the neighborhood was pretty much fair game. It was a great way to grow up, and I hope I can give my son a similar type of childhood too. As my siblings and I got older, and had something resembling disposable income thanks to paper routes and after-school grocery store jobs, we started to indulge in the electronic entertainment arts a little more. Over the years we had various incarnations of Nintendo consoles like the Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Super Nintendo (we missed out on the original NES), Nintendo 64, Game Boy Pocket Color, Game Boy Advance, Game Boy Advance SP, and on down the line. Put together a list of classic games from the early- to mid-90's era, and chances are we owned 'em: Super Mario World, Metroid II, Super Metroid (very close to the top of my list of All Time Favorite Games), Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy III, Super Mario 64, Pilotwings 64, Zelda: Link's Awakening, Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Super Return of the Jedi, F-Zero, and the list goes on.
My first Game Boy was black, and I spent many nights poring over Zelda puzzles on it.
I'm now in my early 30's and still enjoy playing video games when time allows. I've got an Xbox 360 and enjoy games like Gears of War (own and have beaten all 3), SSX, Fallout 3, and recently, Oblivion (I know I'm way behind the times with this, but I missed it years ago and want to play through before I tackle Skyrim). But still, there's nothing like sitting down at night with a Mountain Dew and some classic SNES games, which brings me clear back to my original point here: lately I have been attempting to rebuild my collection because, over the years, a good deal of my video games have been lost, traded, or (*snif*) sold on eBay. Thanks to the Virtual Console, this is is much simpler than actually owning a cabinet full of physical video game systems and tracking down all their respective classic games (some of which can be quite expensive nowadays). We've got a couple thus far, like Super Mario Bros. 3, Ocarina of Time, Sonic the Hedgehog, and most recently, Super Metroid, but one problem with the Virtual Console is the controller. The standard Wii controller works, but not very well, which makes some of the games like Super Metroid very tricky. I have an old Gamecube Wavebird controller, but the oddly-shaped buttons make precision maneuvers very tricky to pull off in some of the classic games of yesteryear. The solution? A Classic Controller Pro, which I finally picked up last weekend.
Playing through some of the trickier stages in Super Metroid (can you tell I like this game?) was a breeze with the new controller, though it was a little tricky to get some of the jumps in Super Mario Bros. 3 just right. For some reason, Nintendo configured the Classic Controller Pro such that when playing original NES games, the a/b buttons are actually more difficult to press than on the standard Wii controller. On the Wii controller, as well as the original NES controller, the a/b buttons are situated right next to each other. But on the Classic Controller Pro they are angled upward, which makes it difficult to pull off maneuvers in which both buttons need to be pressed simultaneously.
On the NES and Wii controllers, it is possible to press the left button (a or 1) with the top of your thumb, and while holding it down rock the joint of your thumb to press down on the right button (b or 2). This is very handy in the Mario games, where pressing a/1 makes your character run fast enough to get a boost when jumping with the b/2 button. In those situations, I suppose going back to the Wii controller would probably work but that means adjusting to the Wii's small d-pad and 1/2 (i.e. a/b) buttons. Still, these minor annoyances pale in comparison to the ability to revisit a vast library of classic games (the Virtual Console is missing some of the great ones, but hopefully one day they will add more) without messing with a pile of dusty cartridges and game systems. I hope my son will one day enjoy playing these old games too, but by the time he's old enough to do that we'll probably have Holodecks and he'll be too busy with Parrises Squares to pay attention to dad's crusty old collection of pixellated games from the stone age. And if that day ever comes, you know where to find me: sipping Mountain Dew while going head-to-head with Ridley.
Last year I embarked on my first real Black Friday experience, getting up around 3:30 to stand in line outside a Target store in order to get an Xbox 360. It wasn't even one of the big sale items, but it did come with a $50 Target gift card, so I was worried they might sell out anyway. My sister's husband and I waited in line for an hour and a half, braved the surging crowd to get inside once the store opened, and then calmly went about getting my Xbox and a couple other items on our lists. It was a pretty good time and I enjoyed the cosmopolitan atmosphere, friendly crowds, and yes, the good prices. Was it worth getting up so early? No, probably not. But it was a fun way to spend time with relatives and friends, so that probably makes up for it.
This year my wife and I refined our tactics a little bit, scouring the black Friday ads well in advance and taking note of a couple items we wanted to pick up. Nothing more than $20, and all things we had talked about getting anyway, so it was a good way to keep our post-Thanksgiving shopping in check. We woke up around 3:30 again, and she went with a friend and some of the women in our family to hit up the clothing stores and the local mall. I spent the morning with my brother, whose wife went with my wife, going to a few hardware stores and a couple other places looking for my part of our short shopping list. We actually braved the crowds at Best Buy which, despite the headlines and news stories people may have heard, were casual and easygoing and not at all violent or angry. Even the employees at most stores were cheerful and happy to help when we needed it. After a couple hours we headed back home and I met up with my wife and her friend for some Amigo's and a bit of Shopping Part Two before calling it a day.
Much of the weekend was spent in the company of friends and family, which is just about the best way to spend a holiday. Aside from playing with the nieces and nephews, we boring old folks watched Nebraska beat Colorado on Friday, and then played some cards while OSU got shut down by Oklahoma on Saturday. Earlier that afternoon we were at my brother Phil's to help him and his wife celebrate the first birthday of their son, and like he said, time sure goes by quickly. Seems like just a few weeks ago little Noah was just a big pink raisin in a baby carrier, and now he's this close to walking. Keep it up, little guy!
Me and my one-year-old nephew. Aww.
My brother Andy made this. It was some sort of recipe that
involved cooking a whole pumpkin.
Eagerly anticipating Thanksgiving dinner.
My brother Tom doing card tricks with the kids.
Grandpa and granddaughters, waking up with
a Mountain Dew and carrot cake.
Other highlights from the weekend:
Thanksgiving dinner. My mom makes some really good turkey!
Going back to Russ's Market for the first time in about 5 years, and seeing some former co-workers who are still holding down the fort.
Watching Mega Piranha with my brother, his wife, and a bunch of their friends on Friday night.
Hanging out with our friends and 1.5-year-old daughter on Saturday afternoon. Wow, she loves to jump on the bed!
Staying up late on Saturday with my buddy Gavin, watching speed runs of Super Metroid.
Lunch at Valentino's on Highway 81 on the way home.
And so this Thanksgiving we were indeed giving thanks. Thanks for family, for friends, and for a savior who loved us enough to die for us. May we find rest and peace in His arms this Christmas season.
Before we bought a house we would often hear from friends and family about how much work they are to maintain. And as I have said before on this blog, this type of work isn't really that big of a deal to me as I kind of enjoy putting work into our house and yard. Between mowing, vacuuming, dusting, swiffering, and the occasional fix-it job, owning a house can be a lot of work but it always leaves me with a feeling of accomplishment. Last night after going on a walk we spent a while in the front yard performing the rather unglamorous task of...weeding. Not stylish to be sure, but a task that needs to be done from time to time. And even though we lifted a trash barrel full of leafy pests from the ground it feels like we hardly made a dent in ridding our yard of them. But there are several noticeable improvements already, and we're even thinking about getting our lawn treated next year. Yeah, it's a bow to suburban lifestyle that we would rather not take, but dude...it's tough keeping up with all the weeds. Who knows. :) We have also successfully re-caulked the bathtub in the past week, after an initial attempt that was foiled due to my use of expired caulking (which is no fun at all to get off once it's applied). Someday we'll get the back screen door replaced, the wallpaper taken down, the rooms painted, and a handful of other projects, but for now we're content with the small accomplishments. :)
A few days ago a giant weather system blew through town, which marked the first time as Oklahoma residents that we were subjected to the mercy of a big ol' tornado-spawning spring thunderstorm. Having grown up in Nebraska, on the northern end of Tornado Alley, we weren't exactly freaking out or anything--in fact, we spent most of the evening moving office furniture on the OSU campus. But when the sirens sounded it was nice to be able to head to a lecture hall in the basement of the building we were in, and wait out the storm with lots of good people and three LCD projector screens keeping us updated on weather conditions. Even though the tornadoes mostly passed our town without incident, it was another sobering reminder of the power of nature and the weakness of even the strongest buildings. Hopefully next time we will be just as fortunate!
This spring has also brought several visitors and mini-trips for us. Between out-of-town work conferences, friends from Nebraska coming down for a weekend, and a bridal shower that my wife put on for her friend back home, it's been a busy couple of weeks. (or has it been months? It all runs together...) We were going to have some family come for a visit this weekend too, but circumstances changed and they are postponing their trip for a few weeks. In a way it's nice to have a free weekend to just be around the house and take it easy if we so wish. And of course play some Xbox too. :)
A few days ago my wife and I pulled in our driveway and lo and behold, what should we see poking up from the ground just to the west of our garage but scores of little yellow daffodils! Or, at least, that's what I think they are. The dude who used to live in this house was a professional landscaper, so there's a lot of cool plants around the yard, but this was the first really unexpected blooming we have seen. Each day it seems like the clusters of yellow flowers grow a little bit more, and today we noticed some more plants joining their ranks near the southern edge of the little alcove. Not sure if the latter are going to result in any blooming action, but it's cool to see the new life of spring showing up around here. Yesterday we did some more pruning on our Crepe Myrtle bushes in the back yard too, and I took an electric hedge trimmer to one of the bushes out front, which now makes it look like the fauna equivalent of Kid 'n Play. So between the yard work and the mid-60s to low-70s weather this week and last, I'd say Oklahoma is a pretty cool place to live. :)
Tonight I'm planning on watching the Academy Awards for the first time ever, and to be honest I'm kind of excited about it. Ever since starting Walking Taco last June I have tried to pay a little more attention to not just movies, but the connections between movies, filmmakers, producers, writers, cultural phenomenæ represented in moving pictures. I guess the Academy Awards are one way for me to experience the metaculture (is that even a word?) of the movie scene, but we'll find out tonight. One of our writers, MJV, is doing a liveblog of the event so I'm looking forward to that too. My wife told me about a site that offers free liveblog services and integrates with Wordpress, so hopefully things should go off relatively pain-free tonight. But I guess we'll find out in an hour or so...
Since getting my Xbox and a subscription to Xbox Live (thanks to my in-laws!) I have enjoyed playing games online but have mostly restricted my online play to me-vs-everyone, or in gaming parlance, free-for-all deathmatches. See, I'm a decent gamer but there's an entire culture of online gaming that I don't really understand because I'm new to it. A lot of online games have team options, but I was always a little wary of playing on a team, due in no small part to my general lack of skill when compared to most online gamers. I figured a team deathmatch would be an exercise in personal futility, but a few nights ago one of my friends showed me that such games are, in fact, quite the contrary. We spent an hour and a half playing Call of Duty 4 in various team deathmatch games, and it was really really fun. The thing is, people of all skill levels play these games--some good, some not so good. And as long as you're not being a jerk like targeting your own team members or just standing around, people are pretty cool. You might not be the best person on the team, but if you're at least trying, the other players will respect you for it. So basically I have just begun experiencing an entirely new layer to online gaming on Xbox Live. And it is most certainly awesome. :)
Ok, time to shut this down and find something for dinner...
I mentioned a few weeks ago that one of our projects here at home was to mount the TV above the fireplace, which we completed right before Christmas break. It wasn't too hard, actually, except for deciding which mounting hardware to use in the masonry. My dad, my brother, and two guys at Lowe's all gave me some very good suggestions, and in the end I used a combination of a few of their ideas. It looks pretty nice up there, and when augmented with a nice fire below...well, it's tough to beat an evening at home with a good movie (or video game) and a fire blazing. And thanks to our ample supply of firewood on the back porch, we'll probably be set for the rest of the winter. :)
Since getting my Xbox 360 a month ago I've had a great time exploring lots of things in the world of video games that might be old hat to many, but brand new to me. And now that I have Xbox Live, which I got from my wife's parents as a Christmas gift, it's like a curtain has been pulled back on an entire world of new things to experience. One of those is a trivia game called "1 vs. 100" where you play against other people, often numbering in the thousands or tens of thousands. It's not unlike other video game trivia experiences: a question comes up with three answer choices. You have a few seconds to choose, and the press of a button locks in your answer. At the end of the round, the person with the highest score wins. But something about playing against real people, rather than the computer, gives the experience a whole new dimension. It's fun to see how many people got a question right, or who got fooled by a tricky one, or how your score compares to thousands of others around the country. One of the downsides of Xbox Live is the cost: $35 for a year of membership. But if that membership includes experiences like "1 vs. 100," I'd say it's well worth it.
One thing that's been the topic of many an online discussion forum lately has been the weather, and I would almost feel remiss if I did't mention it here. It's been very cold here in Oklahoma the past week or so, but every day my wife and I would check the temperatures in different locations and see that it was always much colder up in Minnesota. And to be honest, I never liked this kind of weather when we lived up there but I do appreciate having been through five years of bitter winters now that we live in a warmer climate. I feel as though we have earned our warmer weather. :) Forecasts are predicting warming trends across the midwest this week, but there should be plenty of snow left on the hill at Moses Merrill this weekend. Awesome!
In many ways, living down here is the same as living any other place: I get up, go to work, come home, have dinner with my wife, spend the evening working on projects (or playing on the computer), go to bed, wash, rinse, and repeat. That's not to say it's boring, though it may sound uninteresting. Far from it, in fact. I enjoy living in Oklahoma, I like my job, and I like finding joy in little things as well as big things. But recently I've become keenly aware of how different things can be just based on location alone. To wit: it's been cold and snowy up in Minnesota, whereas down here we've had weather in the 70's with a bit of rain on the side. As such, I have continued to bike to work, which I have not been able to do for a long, long time. My wife and I also went on a nice 3.5-mile hike yesterday, with a blanket of yellow leaves underfoot and a big lake just to the west of the trail. After we got home, we spent an hour or so doing yard work--nothing entirely too interesting, but very different from the environment I have been used to for the past five years. And it's not necessarily better or worst, just different, and a difference I'm learning to appreciate. While my Northern counterparts have wintertime ameneties like skiing, snowmobiling, and white Christmases, down here we have...I'm not sure. Because this is my first winter as an Oklahoman. :) So whatever it is, I'm looking forward to it.
I spent a while playing Rainbow Six 3 the other night, and I realized it was the first time I had sat down to play a video game in months. I enjoy video games, but find it difficult to keep up with the newest trends and games mostly because of the amount of money it requires (one game is about the price of three months of Netflix, and we still have the same DVD player we've had for years) to not only buy games, but buy the newest hardware as well. But my old Xbox is still alive and kicking, even though I don't play it that often, so when a new friend offered to let me borrow his copy of RS3 I was pretty stoked. I also realized how not-good I am at games that require a learning curve, as I prefer the Halo-style of game where you run around, guns blazing, and take out all the bad guys in sight as quick as possible. RS3 is pretty cool though, and it's a nice change of pace from the usual, so I'll probably give it some more time before going to bed tonight.
Ok, time to hit up some internet tubes and maybe read some Dune before heading to bed.
I just finished a video project for my uncle's newsletter company, and I'm nearly finished with another one for my work. There's also a wedding and two video slide shows on the horizon, and I think the only real big expense we have to take care of in the next year or so is a set of good tripod legs and our journey toward the Video Side will be complete. Until we go full-on HD, that is, but that could be a few years yet. High-grade standard definition video is doing fine for us right now. :)
Just last week I found out about (gasp!) a cheapo movie theatre not too far from our place. It's no Roseville 4, but then, few things are. It should suit us well, though, and we might hit up a flick there this weekend. I wouldn't mind seeing Wall-E or The Dark Knight again, but Eagle Eye looks pretty good. We'll see (har!).
24 hours from now we will most likely be rolling on the floor, with our friends Jon and Sarah, after eating *way* too much build-your-own pizza. My wife and I picked up the crust and cheese, and the two of them went to get the fixin's tonight. They will probably be here around 6:30 and we'll spend a while crafting the perfect pizza pies, which in my and Jon's case will involve at least one pound of Italian Sausage, one pound of cheese, lots of mushrooms, pepperoni...you get the idea. We are also going to, thanks to Sarah, watch Home Alone while punishing our colons. Thankfully there's Wii Bowling to help us drop the extra poundage afterwards.
Speaking (or writing) of video games, my wife and I have been playing a game called Star Trek Conquest recently. It's no Metroid Prime Corruption or Halo, but it's actually a pretty good time. It's kind of a simple turn-based conquer-the-galaxy game, but that format allows us to play a few rounds and then come back later for some more.
Alright, time to get outta here. Later.
Oh, and if anyone knows a good place to pick up Chrono Trigger DS, lemme know.
There's a weekly podcast I listen to called The Hotspot, where four or five guys from Gamespot talk about video game news, events, trends, and the like. They also run contests, mostly on a weekly basis, and this morning I made the following audio file by editing segments from three separate episodes of the show: April 15, when one particular contest was introduced, April 22, when the winners were announced, and April 29, when one of the entry submitters called in to clear up some rumors.
And while failed podcast contest entry submissions are generally not blog-worthy, this is, without a doubt, the best Optimus Prime impression I have ever heard...
In other news, I put my second broken electronic item on eBay today (the first was my broken iPod I sold over a year ago). I ran across this listing a few days ago for our same camera, with the same problem, and figured I could get at least $40 since I have a better feedback score and a more impressive listing overall. But who knows. In any case, here's hoping our old camera will go out in a blaze of PayPal-induced glory...
A few days ago I hit a major milestone in Wii Sports Bowling, or, rather, a major milestone in my player score that just happened to be on Wii Sports Bowling (and that, I might add, has nothing to do with my "Pro" status). Rather then pontificate further, I should probably just let the picture speak for itself:
As I have mentioned before, it might seem kind of silly to blog about the weather, but when you live in a state that has had over 20 days of sub-zero highs during the recent winter months...well, one can see how a warming trend might be newsworthy. This week the highs are all above 30, which seems practically tropical up here, and combined with the advent of Daylight Savings Time it might as well be summer already. When I first moved up here I didn't really understand why so many people had expensive summer toys like ATVs, Jet Skis, speedboats, and the like. It's because up here, you earn your summer months, man. So (as the thinking goes, anyway), you might as well enjoy it. In our case, though, it's nice just to know people who own the toys so we can use them but not have to, you know, pay for them. :)
Tomorrow we are going to see The Sound of Music at a community theatre near my work. It should be a good show, as they usually are at this place, and I think every date is sold out until the end of the production, so at least you know it's popular with the locals. Pre-show dinner will find me, my wife, and our friend Sarah at Davannis, which is always excellent.
It's been somewhat of a crazy week, and the evenings have not left much time for recreation or relaxing, but we did manage to beat a few more songs on Guitar Hero 3's "Medium" career mode. We not have four or five stars on every song except for the final set, of which we are a tad leery. Of course, there still remains two additional difficulty levels we have not even begun to tackle yet, but still...the idea of playing "Cliffs of Dover" or "One," even on medium, is enough to make any casual gamer cringe in fear.
Last night we made a trip to the nearby mall to look for a few things, and before we left I stopped by Chipotle to use my free burrito card I received in the mail a few days ago. Oh yeah...free burrito. This is the second time I have received one of these, the first being when a new Chipotle opened up a few miles south of us. I think they do it as a promotion to let people know about the new stores, but whatever the reason, I walked out of those shiny metal doors with a delicious steak burrito loaded with extras, courtesy of the restaurant itself. Mmmm...steak burrito...
We spent the rest of the night watching the Michael Mann movie "Thief," which is a decent story about these guys who rob safes. While we do enjoy going out with friends and things like that, it's nice to just spend an evening at home, too.
I should also mention, albeit a tad belatedly, that one week ago I took the Buffalo Wild Wings "Blazin' Challenge" with a few other guys. We all passed, and our reward for several nigh-unbearably spicy minutes and an evening of abdominal discomfort was the same reward that has motivated more guys to do more stupid things than almost any other force in history: a free T-shirt.
The rules of the challenge state that each participant must eat 12 Blazin' wings in 6 minutes with no other sauces (ranch, blue cheese, etc.) and nothing to drink. The guys I was with did it in about three and a half minutes, and I finished my final wing in just over four. Was it worth it? Definitely. Would I do it again? I severely doubt it.
It's nice to be back in a routine after being out of it for a little while, and as much as I would have liked to stay on vacation even longer over Christmas break, it has been pleasant in many ways to return to life as normal. I still have a bit of trouble waking up early, but the odd thing is, on weekends I can hardly sleep past 8 even if I try. Just a few years ago I could easily sleep to 10 or 11, and in college...well, take a guess and you're probably not far off. I guess I just feel restless on the weekends, as if I need to get up simply for the sake of being productive somehow, even if it's nothing more than taking out the trash or posting on me blog. But after two weeks of, more or less, lazing about and taking it easy, I suppose a return to routine is probably a good thing.
Last night my wife and I were talking about the research papers we both had to do in high school, so I went to see if I could locate mine on my computer. See, when my parents got a Mac LCII in the early 1990s (Mom, if you read this...when did we get that computer, anyway?) I was allocated (by way of my brother Andy and I more or less agreeing to voluntarily partition the internal 80 megabyte drive amongst ourselves and the rest of the family) a share of the computer's storage space, on which I kept myriad papers, letters, programs, writings, games, and other minutia. Well, by today's standards, anyway. My school assignments accumulated over time, and were transferred to our iMac in 1998, and then to my own iMac in college, and now to my eMac which dutifully resides, albeit rather humbly, in our apartment. So I have all kinds of school papers and personal letters and whatnot going clear back to when I was 12 years old. And it is all, very literally, just a few clicks away.
Anyway, as for the research paper, I did locate it after just a few minutes of searching, and spent the next 45 minutes going through all kinds of school assignments. The cool thing is that it's all preserved in a way that takes up virtually zero storage space (less than a few MP3s) and it's extremely fast to access and sift through. In the next few days I want to post some excerpts from such gems as my 11th grade report on tapeworms, my 7th grade ballad of the Brothers Wright, and even some letters to my cousins, which I think you might find enjoyable.
That is, if I don't sleep in too late or get distracted with Mario Galaxy. :)
And in quick other blogworthy news, we made delicious lasagne tonight. It's a recipe that my wife got from a friend when we got married, and though it lacks meat, it is just about one of the most tasty entrees I have ever had. And it's not even broasted. :)
When I woke up this morning, the air temperature was one degree. Below.
I just thought I would mention that.
Anyway, last night our friends Sarah and Jon came over for some good cooking, good laughs, and a good movie. The dinner was lasagne, homemade, using Sarah's recipe, with about twice as much cheese as it called for. The laughs were mostly from a Comedy Central special that Jon brought, of a guy whose name slips my mind, but who was, in what is rather singular in his business, funny but not very foul-mouthed. The movie? Robert Zemeckis' gift to nerds the world over: Back to the Future. As Jon said, why don't they make movies like that anymore? I don't know, but someone really should. We capped the night with a few rounds of Wii Bowling, during which I finally joined Sarah and my wife in the "Pro" club, which is attained when one reaches a score of 1000 in the bowling rankings. It takes quite a bit of work, and the reward, a sparkling bowling ball, is more than worth it.
Today, after sleeping in and then fiddling with the backup software on my computer, I made some calls to local stores and managed to locate one copy of Guitar Hero 3, which I have been attempting to find for some time now. I high-tailed it down to the GameStop on University Avenue where an employee named Colin (thanks, Colin, if you're reading this, the chances of which are highly unlikely. But it never hurts to try...) handed me their last copy, which he graciously held for me. Much of the day was spent trading the Les Paul between my wife and myself as we strummed virtually along, unlocking songs and battling opponents online and off. My wife's brothers introduced us to Guitar Hero 2 this summer, and we have both been awaiting the release of the series' third iteration ever since. Well, I have, at any rate, though my wife does enjoy the games a good deal also. :)
So yes, it is one degree out, but we have a roof over our heads, a heater that works, a pair of reliable automobiles, food in our fridge, clothes on our back...I suppose I could go on, but one does get the point. It's not the dark circle of winter on which I try to focus, but the bright spot in the center of the degree, the brilliant point the cold of winter is farthest from.
My computer would not print today. All day, printer jobs just got stuck in the queue on my eMac and would not get sent to the printer. I restarted my Mac. I power-cycled the router. I hooked the printer up to another port on the router. I tried and re-tried, and finally I went on to other things.
Then tonight I could not connect to my shared iTunes library from my wife's iBook. Odd. I could also not connect to my computer's shared drives on our network. Double odd. So I checked the DHCP Client Table in our router from the iBook and only three devices were found: the printer, the Wii, and the computer I was using. I went back to my eMac, which could send and receive data over TCP/IP, entered the IP of our router, and it could not locate it. I literally said to my wife, "My computer can connect to the internet but our router doesn't know it's connected to the network."
You probably already know what was wrong. Well, it took me a few more minutes to realize that my eMac had, sometime in the morning, disconnected from our LAN and hooked itself up to an open WiFi network in our building. I ran to my eMac, connected it to our LAN, and BAM! Everything works.
It's sort of like beating a boss level, wouldn't you say?
