Math and music

I did the math. I went back into my amazon.com history and checked to see how much I had spent on shipping in the calendar year of 2004. When I got to April and I had already spent more than $79.95, I knew that Amazon Prime was for me. I also paid for it with my new Amazon Visa, so I got an effective 2% off. I was already getting 1% back in the form of Yahoo! Points on my previous Visa, which I always converted to Amazon.com gift certificates anyway. The Amazon Visa gives 3% back on purchases made on Amazon, so now I can buy anything on Amazon at “3% off and free shipping.”

I finally got my copy of Dai Gassou! Band Brothers in the mail. The only FAQ on gamefaqs.com is pitifully incomplete, it just lists the songs and instruments, and it’s obvious that the guy hadn’t even played it, because there are a few things he doesn’t know about. I managed to “beat” the game, (I got to “Pro” mode) but there’s still the Pro difficulty, which is actually quite challenging. I’m very tempted to actually write a more complete FAQ, but the fact that I only understand a fraction of the Japanese text that’s flying by might make my effort only three-quarters-assed instead of half-assed.

In FFXI, I’ve made it to level 68…. 1/3 of the way to 69. I’m getting close to the fight with Maat, which is something I’ve been dreading ever since I found out about it. I also got invited into an HNMLS, which will mean nothing to most of you, and it’s hard to explain. I haven’t done anything with them yet, I’m still focusing on trying to get to at least level 70.