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So my quarterlife crisis is mostly past, and by "it's past" I mean "I mostly forgot about it."
I mean, so many small, weird things have happened to me over the past few weeks.

Saturday was especially strange, as I went straight from a college football game to a game of Dungeons and Dragons. I'm not quite certain, but I do believe that this is the first time in human history that particular sentence has been written.

Things got weirder in the middle of it, though - I got a call from Suberunker telling me that among the Xbox 360 achievements for Gears of War is a pair of little gems called "Dom-curious" and "I can't quit you Dom."

Riiiiiiight.

Meanwhile, I've been getting in little packages of Amazon lovin' (the online store, not the series of porno flicks that I'm sure exists) over the past week or two, which has consisted of DVDs and CDs by which I can thoroughly confuse Amazon's recommendation. Take a look:

* 1 of: Kannazuki No Miko, Vol. 3 - Destiny Eclipsed (Limited Edition)
* 1 of: Over the Hedge (Widescreen Edition)
* 1 of: Catch-22
* 1 of: Birth of the Cool [Original recording reissued] [Original recording remastered]
* 1 of: Run-D.M.C. - Greatest Hits
* 1 of: Hot Shots!
* 1 of: Saturday Night Live - The Best of Phil Hartman
* 1 of: Bottle Rocket
* 1 of: Jackie Chan's Who Am I?
* 1 of: The Tick Vs. Season One
* 1 of: My Man Godfrey (Colorized / Black and White)
* 1 of: The Naked Gun - From the Files of Police Squad!
* 1 of: Straight Outta Lynwood
* 1 of: Earth Wind & Fire: Greatest Hits
* 1 of: The Cannonball Run


Combined with previous purchases of miscellany and the addition of a copy of From Eroica with Love for a friend of mine, Amazon has NO idea what to do with me. Page 1 of my recommendations page is full of anime, page 2 is full of gay porn (though after I deleted From Eroica with Love from my history it disappeared, thankfully), page 3 is old black and white horror flicks, and on page 6 I got a recommendation for zither music. I love confusing automated systems.

Let's see what else is going down...

Ah yes, I'm at another crossroads in my life - with my DVR coming in, I am now at two remote controls, and I'm wondering if I should take the plunge and become one of Those People With Three Remote Controls.

What makes this a difficult choice for me is cost vs. usage - my TV exists for two primary purposes: watching sports on TV and playing video games. Yet it only has one component video input.

Well, that's not true, it has two component video inputs, but one of them has no RCA audio in, instead demanding coax digital audio. But my DVR only came with RCA audio in, while my Xbox 360 uses optical audio (I still feel funny writing that). So I have to choose now - do I buy a switchbox for my component video feeds, or do I just take the plunge and buy a receiver, complete with its third remote control and gargantuan presence?

I mean, should I want to get a DVD player, I'll definitely want component video on that - I've gotten used to a certain standard of viewing. But I'm not really an audio freak, and I don't even know if I have room for the subwoofer, much less a full suite of 5.1 speakers. Meanwhile, my home theater advisor, Ed, has somehow has found a way to fit all of this in a room with a dog, two cats, countless toys and comic books, and a metric assload of consoles. I envy his space management, though it is somewhat hard to find seating for more than 4 in that room.

So I'm heading out today and trying to figure out what I want to do with my TV and my home theater - do I go whole hog and actually make it a home theater, or do I continue to be OK with a flat-screen HDTV playing my Xbox 360?

Meanwhile, I'm trying to figure out what I want to do this New Year's during my Japan trip. Thanks to Asmodeus, I think I'll be going to Comike and sneaking into the show two hours early, so there's no reason not to go to that - but for example, Cal has a significant chance to make it to the Rose Bowl this year, something they haven't done in almost 50 years. I'm trying not to put the cart before the horse here, since there are 4 games to go and one of them is against UCLA, but it's something I have to think about - I'll be in Japan between December 27 and January 7, but it wouldn't cost TOO much to buy a ticket back to America just for one glorious New Year's Day... right?

And what about the other way around? I've made it my goal to make it to one Tomoyasu Hotei concert before he passes his rockin' prime (I already missed the boat on AC/DC and the Stones, for example) and now I find out from mixi that he's going to have a concert with Brian Setzer at the famed Budokan. But it's on the 20th, two weeks after I get back from Japan--should I buy a ticket BACK and go there for one weekend concert?

Ah well. I'll figure it out in time. I have plenty of time for this and everything else...