In the wake of Nintendo's admittedly lackluster press conference at E3 this year, I feel compelled to say a few words. You know, as a reality check. Something that an awful lot of people seem to need right about now.

A lot of people were disappointed by what has been seen thus far from Nintendo at E3. Truth be told, I was one of them, in fact. I had my hopes up that we might get a glimpse at some awesome games. While we did get some Animal Crossing love, there wasn't that much else that I was really excited about. So I can absolutely understand people's disappointment. But I must say that my understanding draws a little thin beyond that. I'm referring to, well, I don't know...

"RIP Nintendo!"

"I'm selling my Wii!"

"Nintendo has abandoned me!"

"I feel so betrayed!"

Come on.

One popular line I've heard is "Nintendo spends so much time talking about sales figures that no one cares about!" I have a good laugh when I hear this. Not the whole thing - just the last part: "that no one cares about". Why do I laugh? Well, one thing I ought to remind people of is E3's full official name: E3 Media and Business Summit. Guess who the primary target of press conferences is. Go on, guess. I'll wait. Are you done? Well, if you guessed "the media and businesses", you win the prize! Because that's absolutely right. And - I hate to break this to people - these people do have a very strong vested interest in the projected financial future of companies. So, "no one cares about sales figures"? Try again. "I don't care about sales figures". There. Better.

But still, you're probably thinking to yourself, "They could have still shown games appealing to hardcore gamers! The others did!" And honestly, this is a valid complaint; I'll grant that much. I would have liked to see that stuff too. But we've already learned through interviews with Shigeru Miyamoto that many games are coming, including a new Mario, a new Zelda, a new Pikmin, and quite possibly a new Kid Icarus, a new Punch-Out, and a new Star Fox. Those games are all being developed. We know that they're being developed. Yet still people say stuff like "well Nintendo should have shown us them", as if it doesn't count if we don't see a trailer. And to this I ask: why? Nobody seems to ever give a justification for it; it's just assumed that everyone agrees that if you don't see a trailer for a game then it doesn't exist. Or doesn't count. Or that the clock doesn't start ticking on the development cycle until we see a trailer. Or something. I still haven't figured this part out. People keep saying that this is what they need to see, but completely fail to explain why it's so necessary.

But even besides the above, let's assume for the sake of argument that Nintendo plans to never release another game, ever. There still is a rather long list (1, 2, 3, 4) of other games slated to come out in 2008. You know, third-party games - those games that everyone said they wanted the Wii to get, complaining that Nintendo was dominating Wii software sales, but which now nobody seems to care about. Yeah, those games. Games like Tales of Symphonia 2, Deadly Creatures, Sonic Unleashed, de Blob, Guitar Hero World Tour, Dead Rising... all of which are coming out for the Wii.

But suppose you aren't interested in any of these titles. And suppose you're still convinced that you don't want your Wii anymore in the wake of E3. That's fine - that's your prerogative. But please, for the love of God, if that's the case, stop the e-drama. I mean, seriously folks. Get a grip. I don't understand why people feel the need to make pages-long rants about how they're so disappointed in Nintendo and how they've been with Nintendo for so long and how they feel so betrayed, and blah blah blah. It doesn't help anything. If you want to sell your Wii, Nike has the right idea: just do it. If you're convinced that you don't want it anymore, despite the fact that there are a number of first- and third-party games already known to be coming out in 2008, and despite the fact that the games released already are still in existence, then please, just do it. No threats, no "I'm really gonna do it this time" threads, no detailed explanations regarding why you're doing it, just do it. Nintendo is not going to be reading what you write, so you'll just be saving both yourself and everyone else a lot of time and energy.

I guarantee you that you'll want it back within a year's time, anyway - so you might as well start saving up for its repurchase early.

The internet guy just left, and the IV tube of Internet is finally reattached to my veins. I was jonesing something fierce for a while there!

(Well, maybe not. But it is good to be back.)

Anyway, hopefully I can now finally do something other than cluttering up your tracked lists with short tidbits regarding my status. I'll see you all around GameSpot!

So, as many of you may have figured out, I kinda haven't been around in the past week. I suppose all good news must carry with it bad news just for balance, so the bad news accompanying the good news relayed to you last week is that it's been taking a slightly longer time than I had anticipated to get internet access at home. "Slightly longer" being, of course, "over a week longer and I'm very glad I bought two DS games for the trip because otherwise this time would have really sucked". Since I was not available at my apartment at times such as "noon to 4 PM" on account of the silly reason of "having a job", the earliest they could get a technician out to my house to set things up was this Sunday (the 13th). So you'll have to mostly do without me until that time. Somehow I have a feeling you'll manage.

I might be around intermittently over lunch hour and whatnot, but for the most part I'll see you all on Sunday.

Hi guys,

I'm back from Toronto, and I've got good news and... well, more good news. The good news is that my work visa has been approved. The more good news is that, while Microsoft has still not gotten back to me regarding relocation, I've successfully found an apartment on my own within walking distance of the Microsoft campus. It wasn't exactly cheap housing, but if the choice is between having a place to live and not having a place to live, I don't think that's a difficult decision. Needless to say, that was a load off my back.

Anyways, I'll be heading out Friday and will be signing the lease on Saturday (I would do this on Friday, but they're closed for the Fourth of July on that day). I'm not sure if there will be internet when I get there or whether I'll have to order it and wait, so you might not see me over the weekend.

Hi guys,

Just a note not to expect me on tomorrow (July 2). Things surrounding my upcoming new job at Microsoft have kind of all gotten crammed into the last minute, making things a little hectic right about now. I'm going to be flying out to Toronto tonight to get my work visa that I'll need to get into America to start the job and won't be back until . I'll also probably be away this weekend as well, as my new job is supposed to start this Monday (July 7).

On another a slightly stressful note, I also still have yet to receive notice regarding where my temporary housing within Redmond will be that I was supposed to receive, so I have no idea if I'm even going to have a place to stay when I get there. So I might be living under a bridge until I can find housing. Worst case scenario, but I looked up all of the hotels and inns and whatnot and they're all ridiculously expensive, so I'm not really sure what's going to happen if I don't hear from them about housing. We'll see how things go, I suppose.

Anyway, I don't want to complain or whine about anything; I'm just relaying info on where I am and what people can expect in the coming days. Hopefully things will all work out.

All right, I've got a bunch more pictures, and I've decided to squeeze them all into one just to get this thing finally over and done with. So this might be a long one.

On with the show!

Montmartre

Montmartre, an arrondissement (district) in Paris, is most famously known as the location in which the hit movie Amélie was filmed. It also houses the Sacré Coeur and is just in general a pretty part of town, so I got some pictures of it.

We saw a lot of these Smart cars in Paris; I liked the one in this picture for its driver's clever parking trick.

There were a lot of these stone roads in this area.

Place du Tertre was a neat place in Montmartre, home of many stores and restaurants.

This next picture was the biggest prize of the day. There was a bona fide mime in the Place du Tertre who I saw, but who wouldn't let me take his picture (he brought down his umbrella when I attempted to do so). But I kept at it, and eventually I managed to snipe a perfect shot of him without him seeing me.

The domes of Sacré Coeur loom above everything else in this next picture. We'll get to it shortly.

We then finally found our way to...

Sacré Coeur

We first saw it creeping above the tree line once more.

Let's walk up to it.

As usual, there were a lot of great sculptures attached to the walls.

You want to see pictures inside, you say?

...Well, unfortunately, there was a strict "no photos" rule within the cathedral. So you'll have to just visit it yourself.

Which brings us back to...

Montmartre (continued)

Before we went any further, we were hungry, so we stopped for a bona fide French lunch: crêpes.

Mmmm, mushrooms and cheese.

They were good.

All right, back to business.

This next one was kind of funny: German graffiti!

Before anyone asks, no, this next picture is not the Moulin Rouge. "Moulin" is French for "windmill".

We next went to our last destination in Paris...

Montmartre Cemetery

This was a pretty darn big cemetery, and it also had another special feature, which you'll see in a bit.

And now we come to the special feature of this cemetery... we found out that it seemed to house a population of wild cats!

...But back to the cemetery.

One more kitty for good measure.

It started to rain when we went to leave; as we waited for a bit under an overpass, I thought to take a quick video of the rain. It turned out kind of meditative, in a way.

The next day, following our trip through Montmartre, it was finally time to prepare for the...

Trip Back Home

I have a number of pictures from the train ride back to the Charles de Gaulle Airport, but I also took a video of a segment of the ride, and I really think that it serves as a much better guide to how it was, so I'll just use it here.

After another long set of airplane rides to take us back to North America, we finally got on the bus that would take us back home. I got a picture of it driving through downtown Victoria.

Next, we retrieved our luggage from the bus...

...and got on a local bus that would take us home.

We finally got to very familiar territory as we got off the bus.

Here we are at the end of that street.

...and a quick right turn brought us home.

The lady sitting on our doorstep, for those curious, is a nice old lady who lives in the top suite of the house. We live in the basement suite.

Just like that, we were home again.

...And that officially brings my Perusing Paris series to a close! I hope you've enjoyed it, and I thank each and every one of you who had the patience to sit through this long string of travel blogs.

We now return you to your reguarly scheduled Gabu, to be picked up once more in the near future.