As of last Friday I am now 100% debt free. No more student loans or car loan. It honestly feels like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I'm not sure what to do now. Maybe a $400,000 crack party?

St. Elmo's Fire wrote: *DEFINITELY* the last bit!^

Seriously though, nice one!

Thanks!
My mistake, it was actually $450,000.

Never forget.

Just received my exchange vouchers for the shinkansen and Studio Ghibli tickets for my trip to Japan in October. Can't wait to go back. Woo. :O

PU: Intel I7 4770k @3.5 ghz
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD4H
Memory: 8GB
OS Drive: 120GB samsung SSD
Storage Drive: 2 separate 1 TB HDDs from Toshiba
GPU: EVGA Geforce GTX660
Case: Corsair
Power Supply: Corsair CX 600M
OS: Windows 10

Cost me about $1000 2 years ago and still runs like a charm and plays basically anything. In the next few months or so I may get a new GPU though as it is a tad outdated.

Will I ever actually get a fucking boombox from the tomato convenience store raffle?

Just saw it last night also. I feel like I sat through a 2 hour movie about nothing. Also, why was Enchantress samba dancing during the entire final scene? She kept gyrating and I was so confused why she was doing that.

What's funny is that I've kinda taken a music break this past 6 months after discovering podcasts. I listened to nothing but podcasts and did a sort of cleansing of music. When I went back to it, my standard music sounded refreshing again and led me to find new artists as well. Another thing that I think helps is finding music not in your language. Just because you can't understand them doesn't mean it's not good.

At the 50th anniversary Star Trek convention this weekend in NYC. Got my photo with Levar Burton yesterday and when I told him he was why I became an engineer, he gave me a fist bump. My life is complete now.

I'm in Japan right now for vacation. Last night I went to Lawson's for some food. After I made my purchase I was able to put my hand in a raffle ticket box to win a prize. Didn't win anything, but I was really hoping for a boom box.

Nearly pissed myself when I watched this.

I went a little overboard these last few weeks, but fuck it I haven't bought games in forever and I am about to get my yearly bonus.

Got an original model PS4 with a 1TB HDD off ebay. I can finally join everyone in the year 2014 and play PS4 games.
http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0762/1493/files/PS4-Old_grande.png?5953189323513169241

Pre-ordered Yakuza 0
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/ba/Yakuza0.jpg/250px-Yakuza0.jpg

Tokyo Xtreme Racer for DC
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/1d/Tokyo_Xtreme_Racer_Coverart.jpg/250px-Tokyo_Xtreme_Racer_Coverart.jpg

Cosmic Smash. Been wanting this game for a loooooong time. So good.
http://www.theisozone.com/images/cover/dreamcast-1323416884.jpg

Behar Bros Toro VGA Box
http://static.wixstatic.com/media/1a1987_9084e2d5dd37455bbdb98a6617e51b9a.png_srz_580_331_85_22_0.50_1.20_0.00_png_srz

Atlona VGA to HDMI Converter
https://s.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2010/02/atlona-hdmi-02-20100218-600.jpg

Yeah I am gonna be busy for a little while... :rotflmao:

I need an entire series HD collection on PS4. Please and thank you Sony...

Been watching Hannibal. Man this show has some really sick shit in it. Great story and Mads Mikkelson is phenomenal.

Just beat The Last of Us Remastered. Man what a great game. I loved the story and the gameplay was really engaging. I normally dislike survival games, but this game somehow made it enjoyable. It wasn't too overbearing, but you still had to be mindful of what ammo you did have. It really forced you to use stealth techniques and not run and gun either. Would highly recommend people play this. I also got it for $17 on amazon so I can't complain about the price either.

This is really good. So sad that he's gone, but man what a great manga to go out on. Just as good as his animes.

Got married over the weekend in Vegas in a rocky horror picture show ceremony. I can now officially say my wife and I were married by a fictional alien transvestite in fish net stockings. It's gonna be one hell of an ice breaker for the rest of my life.

Sonikku,

I sincerely hope you do well and remember that people will always be there to support you. I've been a member here for years and even though I haven't spoken to you in depth by any means, I have​ always enjoyed your posts as has everyone else. That alone makes you valuable. You life, while hard and filled with challenges, is worth living. Also, don't be afraid to keep asking for help. It sounds like you've been trying to get work in the medical field perhaps. If so, please PM me. I'm an engineer at Johnson and Johnson and while I cannot guarantee you a job as I'm not a manager, I can keep an eye out for opportunities and put your name in for internal referrals across all of J&J. No pressure though. Do what makes you happy.

Take care and please please please get better. At the very least, PM me your address. I'll order you a pizza. Noone can be sad eating a pizza. :)

Is there a game series you would like to be part of that you haven't been in already?

I definitely agree. I finally got a PS4 back in February so I've been catching​ up on games since then. It's been one game after another nonstop. All of which have been great and I have more coming soon. It's a phenomenal console.

Just started P5 the other day. Never really played a persona game before besides a little of 3. This game is great. They really got the feel of Japan down. I was even laughing when I went to Central street and saw a Nigerian dude trying to get you to come to his bar. Too damn real.

Oooo I'll have to give em a try then. I was a little on the fence about this game because I normally don't like dungeon crawlers, but so far it's good. I just hope it doesn't get too repetitive.

I've waited 16 years for Ryo to get out of that damn cave. I can wait one more.

Finally got around to listening. Awesome job! Loved his enthusiasm.

The Switch with the wife.
Mario Kart 8 we are having fun. But..
Sniper Clips we are having a blast. After playing the demo we were hooked and immediately bought it. What a delightfully smart game. Having a couple drinks and yelling at each other "Ok now cut my head off!" "Don't stick it in there" etc. So many sexual innuendos and nonsense. GOTY lol

My wife and I are playing Snipperclips also. Super fun game. I feel like it's not getting the coverage it deserves.

Star Trek Beyond & Star Trek Into Darkness. I watch because I love Star Trek but I really don't approve of JJ Trek in many ways. I don't hate them. I just have some issues with them. Nitpicks really.

As a star trek fan I usually explain it like this. The latest star trek movies are good action movies that happen to be set in the star trek universe. They aren't good star trek movies, but they are still fun to watch. Hell, even the original movies weren't that great. There were maybe 2-3 that were good and the rest weren't worth watching. Star trek will always be best in the shows where there is time to develop stories and characters.

Bit of an update. :) Going to New York City for the first time in my life tomorrow for a consultation with Dr Jess Ting for SRS. I'm feeling equal parts excitement and anxiousness right now, tempered by caution on account of the countless seemingly promising opportunities to move forward with transition that have always ended up falling through up to this point.

Good luck! Also enjoy some good food while you're there. :P

So if I already pledged to the game on Kickstarter for PC how would I go about ordering another copy for PS4? Do I do the pre-order through the normal shenmue 3 website?

I just watched Death note on Netflix. I'm literally speechless. I wasn't expecting much going into this, but Jesus Christ this may be one of the worst adaptations and movies period. It was so unbearably bad. Close to nothing was kept from the original manga other than what the deathnote was and honestly they got some parts wrong. There's the obvious whitewashing bs but whatever on that. Light tried to be an edgelord the whole movie which is not the point of his character. Super awkward music scenes. Story didn't make sense alot of the time. This is some mystery science theater material right here. Holy fuck Netflix what happened? Granted I'm a huge fan of the source material, but that aside this is absolute garbage. One saving Grace is Willam Dafoe as Ryuk. He did well surprisingly and it fit his voice.

Occasionally, I look on ebay for random dreamcast shit to see what rare stuff pops up. I took a look today and found this oddity. Has anyone ever heard of it before? $25000 seems pretty steep, but then again I have never seen it before. I know the Divers 2000 DC is super rare, but this thing may blow it out of the water.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Sega-Fish-Life-Console-for-the-first-time-on-ebay-Japan-exclusive-hard-to-find-/122616869616?hash=item1c8c88f2f0:g:jj0AAOSwawVZd-va

IGN got James Franco to do video game voices in the voice of Tommy Wiseau from The Room/Disaster Artist. One of the lines is Ryo from Shenmue. Pretty funny.

After watching the documentary "Jim and Andy" on Netflix, I finally watched "Man on the Moon". It was really fascinating to watch and pretty crazy how into character he got. I would highly recommend both movies if you haven't watched either.

Lately I've been reminiscing about gaming and pondered about why after so many years of gaming (including skipping a couple of console generations) I still regard Shenmue as my personal greatest of all time.

I was doing the same thing the other day when I was explaining to a friend why I was so pumped for 3. I remember going to Blockbuster not long after 1 came out and I rented it. Had no idea wtf it was, but seemed interesting enough. I got it and honestly stopped playing after disc 1. I couldn't bare to finish it. I guess it was too boring for me. However, that was one of the first times I got into Japanese culture and started learning about it. About 3 months later I went back to Blockbuster and it was summer so I had more time on my hand. I saw it again and figured I would give it another shot and I remembered it too. I brought it home and for some reason I was hooked after I became more open minded. From there, I became fascinated with Japan and started reading more manga and watching more anime than before. That spiraled into me learning basic Japanese in school, eventually going to Japan for multiple vacations (one of which was to visit Yokosuka/Dobuita), and even working in Okinawa for 6 months after that. I of course love both games now and can't wait for 3. However, at this point, I think I love what the game did for my life more than the game itself which is why it will always mean something for me. This is also why 1 will always be my favorite over 2 and most likely 3. It started it all for me and every time I go back to start a new run of the game, it takes me back to that same time of learning about Japan for the first time.

I'm not sure how I have just found out about these 2 sites, but they are great.

Jet Set Radio themed stations
http://jetsetradio.live/

Sega Music in general
https://www.radiosega.net/

I can't stop listening to both!

Can I get the option to play in Japanese audio for S1, but still have Goro's english voice? I'd really like that.

70 person battle leaderboards will get intense.

In addition to the features that will be in the HD release, here is what I would love to see if they have time to implement.

1. All extras from the xbox version of Shenmue 2 added. i.e. Comics from the missing boat chapter and photo filters.
2. A main screen menu where you can boot into all of Yu's arcade games, lucky hit, the duck race, and the 70 person battle.
3. Of course transferring saves between all 3 games. :)
4. What's Shenmue demo.
5. Archive/museum of old promo videos and artowrk.

What else would people like to see as nice to have features?

Honestly, they could release this game on the Atari 2600 and I would play it so I'll take anything.

I better be able to carry over those cassette tapes and listen to Tom's rap on repeat while going through the green hills of China.

ShenSun wrote: Ryo can now use the toilet.

Toilet paper is paid dlc though.

#Burning4BurningRangers

"Especially because you bought merchandise" - Get 5 losing lotto tickets in a row at Tomato Convenience Store.

Showing my friends the game for the first time. I have 3 different friends who I've raved to about the game for years, but they've never played it. When it comes out I may have a party to show them all the game and get them hyped so they can buy it.

My wife and I just got tickets to E3 this year. I am pretty excited to go especially with last night's Shenmue HD announcement. I will definitely be stopping by Sega's booth to see what merchandise they have to buy. Can't wait.

Henry Spencer wrote:Doing a replay of SH2 for the first time since the PS2 era and being reminded of Akira Yamaoka's OST.
Masterpiece. Probably still his best work yet.

Thats crazy. I just started playing Silent Hill 2 on xbox for the first time a couple weeks back. Man this game is creepy as fuck even today.