I realize I'm jinxing myself by saying this, but I have had next to zero problems with my T-Mobile Sidekick. I just finished another session of perusing the forums at hiptop.com and just felt like speaking out. Plus, I don't believe in jinxes.

If you were to use hiptop.com's forums as your only market research on the Sidekick / Hiptop, not only would you mindwipe the word "Hiptop" from your brain but you'd probably consider quitting your job and moving to an ice cave in the Arctic Circle. There's just a ton of threatening complaints and sad teen IM shoutouts from kids with rich parents. Some posters even use their forum avatar to display how many Sidekicks they've been through.

Lots of new evolutions to report: Beautify, Cradily, Kadabra, Ludicolo, Vileplume, Graveler, Masquerain, Flygon. Also finally allowed my precious Voltorb to evolve into an Electrode. It's at level 40 now, but I still prefer the big-eyed red-over-white color scheme to the small-eyed white-over-red.

I have also claimed all three Regis. I couldn't say which one was hardest, except that I might never have figured their secret puzzle rooms out were it not for faqs on the topic. Each one - Registeel, Regice, and Regirock - is hiding behind a room that requires some sort of strange movement sequence to enter. Your instructions are written in Braille, which is actually mentioned in the game's manual but I took that as some kind of dopey joke. The capture battles were typical of Legendary fights: save before starting, waste tons of Ultra Balls, restart several times after an overzealous knockout.

I tend to do a lot of preparatory game buying. As soon as I heard of Nintendo's plans for GameCube games with multiple connected GBAs (Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles most notably, followed by however they intend to release those Zelda and Pac-Man mini-games), I immediately picked up a second GC/GBA cable. I already have several GBAs, but what good are they without several cables to connect them to the jet black Mother Box? Cable #2 is still in its blister package. Crystal Chronicles is due Feb 2004.

And since the Cube doesn't have those cutsey Game Boy controller paks like the N64 did, I can only imagine that Pokemon Colosseum will operate the same way. 2(Sapphire/Ruby + GBA + cable) + Cube + Colosseum.

Looks like I may have to make good on my promise to buy a Gamecube for every tv in my house. Everybody is reporting that Nintendo will lower the GameCube price to $99 by the end of September. Whoa. It doesn't seem like it was that long ago that I bought an N64 bundle for $100.

Although realistically, the GameCube been at $100 for months now... the ongoing bundle deal gets you a Cube for $150 plus a free game. Games cost $50. That's easy math.

Ape Escape 2 is just so completely inoffensive; it's a bright, happy romp through various themed lands catching rogue monkeys in an electric butterfly net. It's easy to grasp and runs a very respectable difficulty curve. I'd definitely call it one of the PS2's top tier platformers.

If you recall the first Ape Escape - and I doubt many of you do, given its dicey sales - you'll find AE2 much the same. You control a young lad, Jimmy, on a quest to capture several hundred monkeys. The game's big gimmick (other than monkeys) is that you use both analog sticks simultaneously... and I don't mean one for moving and one for camera control. The left stick does control Jimmy's movement, but the right stick is for 360 degree weapon control.

I just finished reading one of the "Cat Who..." books, apparently one of the worst "Cat Who..." books. "The Cat Who Saw Stars" is the only book in the series I have ever read; I usually don't read this sort of small town mystery novel. We picked it up at a local paperbook book trade. I'm always looking for books Rhonda and I can read together, and we're avowed cat people, so it seemed a low risk. The store had several different books from the series, so I selected the one in the best condition. Figured I'd give it a shot.

I'm not going to incriminate the rest of the 20-some book series on the virtues of this one, but boy was this weak. All the "Cat Who..." books star Jim Qwilleran, an ex-reporter who stumbled into an inheritance and now lives a life of leisure in a small town with his two cats. Usually he (they) solve mysteries, I guess, although "Saw Stars" is a terrible example.

Whenever I complain about Mac stuff to Matt, he often rather patiently asks me "What would they have to do to make it perfect for you." That's a pretty good retort, and it usually stymies me for a bit as I sift through the bluster to determine what exactly my problem is.

Say, Apple's iSight. I've already outlined my issues with iSight, but it's a good example. I often come up with very specific and personal needs in order for me to enjoy a product, and then when something naturally doesn't deliver, I get pissed. Like how I would require an athiest, socially-liberal yet fiscally-conservative presidential candidate. Good luck.

Lately I've been thinking about .Mac, Apple's self-contained Macs-only internet service. I've mostly ignored it since they switched it to a $100/year plan, but one feature has been pulling my attention. The user screensaver.

Date: August 20, 1998
To: R&D Division
ATTN: Mr. Morpheus D. Duvall

Upon investigation, we have concluded that you are responsible for the incident in Raccoon City on May 11, 1998. Your services with this company are hereby terminated.

From the Toys R Us that hid Metroid Prime in the back and claimed the eReader would not work in the GBA SP, here's another thrilling tale of foiled plans and shattered expectations.

August 26th. The in-store date for F-Zero GX, Pokemon Pinball R/S, and Soul Calibur 2. We run out to York TRU that night, knowing we've been burned before... but those are three big games, new releases for a major franchises, so they'll be there.

Nothing. Not a one. To their credit, they have signs up saying Soul Calibur 2 will be in on August 28th. Guh. Every EB and GameStop within 50 fifty miles is probably already sold out of Soul Calibur 2. We call the Lancaster Toys R Us; they have Pokemon Pinball R/S.

Around 5:30pm today I called the York TRU. This is the actual conversation, I swear.

I just had the best game of Pokemon Pinball R/S I'm ever likely to have. Final score: 726,622,179. On the Sapphire table. 5 balls used. I wish I had kept track of how long each ball lasted, but the whole game had to run at least an hour and a half, because I started playing midway through Futurama (which starts at 11:30pm) and I didn't finish until Cowboy Bebop was about to start (1:30am.)

If you don't have Pokemon Pinball R/S yet, go re-read my old review of the first Pokemon Pinball. It's pretty much the same thing. It's your regular pinball field decorated in shades of pokemon, with complicated target sequences designed to release and capture random creatures. The R/S version is just smoother, prettier, and has more pokemon to catch. One unusual quirk to Pinball R/S is that, while your pokedex only covers the 200+ R/S pokemon, you can see older monsters decorating the board. Chikorita, Cyndaquil, Aerodactyl. Kind of strange to see pokemon that you can't catch. Makes you wonder if Nintendo has some kind of eCard/Collosseum hidden plan for Pinball.