Among other things, this weekend was fantastic as I bought myself a Nintendo DS as a little 'birthday present to myself'.

It may surprise you to hear that not all of us here are jet-setting billionaires with tissues made from 100 dollar bills. No, we're just gamers like you and we can't necessarily afford to buy every gaming device the moment it comes out. Nor would I really want us to. Heck, I love to complain about a bad game as much as the next guy but, honestly, there's no purpose to buying a console if there aren't games to back it up.

Regardless, around the time of my birthday I usually treat myself to a console, usually the one that has the most appealing line-up. Last year was an Xbox, which came with a line-up of Otogi, Knights of the Old Republic and the disappointing Jet Set Radio Future. And this year it just so happens to be the DS.

I knew this year that I'd be buying either a PSP or a DS, and I flip flopped like crazy on it - initially pegging the PSP as the winner, but recently slated the DS into the gold spot. Simply put, the DS has a boatload of software coming up which is extremely appealing (not the least of which is named 'Animal Crossing'), whereas the PSP has, apart from GTA, nothing but empty UMD film releases for the next year. Sure, the screen is gorgeous but memory sticks are expensive and Metal Gear Ac!d sounds horribly problematic.

So, after actually locating a store in Chicago that harbored the games I actually wanted to purchase, I went home a happy man with Feel the Magic, Meteos and Zoo Keeper. And I don't regret my decision - sure I'm slightly disappointed with some of the titles, but they're all vastly entertaining in one way or another. And I'm fully aware of additional titles that I just must have. The DS seems like it's becoming an extremely prolific, and flexible platform, and that's exactly what I want to support.

Well, I suppose you've read enough mindless drivel. Now, just why did none of you tell me about that IE CSS rendering bug on the front page? I knew there was a problem with the short description overflowing a bit but ... damn. It looked like ass in IE.

This weekend contained a lot of excitement, excitement I can't wait to unleash next week. This week we'll be posting some fantastic garage saling material from the 2nd (we're running a bit behind. I could string together some excuses, but they'd all have unitdaisy's name in them), and one of the following:

• A review of Façade
• A review or reflective piece about Killer7
• Some mulling over Rise of the Kasai
• Pieces on Feel the Magic, Meteos, and/or Zoo Keeper
• And maybe, just maybe, another article from Mr. Riley.

That's a lot of stuff to fit into one weekly update. If I had to guess which will get posted, I'd have to say whichever one gets authored first. Right now Façade is tied with Mr. Riley's top secret article.

Place your bets now!