Heh. As I should have figured, I had tons of responses to my "Du Hast" dissertation of yesterday. "You're wrong!" "The CD has an english version and it says 'Hate'!".. anyways, what follows is a German student's analysis of the line, "Dust hast mich gefragt, und ich hab nichts gesagt".

First point others make. "hassen" (to hate), conjugated in the 'du' form, is 'hasst'. Very similar to hast. But not the same. But that could just be style, or something. But the real key isn't in translating 'hast' correctly, but figuring out that there's 'gefragt' in there. Without the 'gefragt' , well, it'd have to be 'hate', pretty much, because the sentence wouldn't make sense. You see, 'gefragt' is the past particple of the verb 'fragen'. And, well, not in all cases, but at least in this one, a past participle is preceded by a version of the verb 'to have'. We do this all the time in English. "Mary has gone down the street". This translates to 'have asked'. Now if this statement 'du hast' was 'you hate'.. how the heck could the word gefragt be worked in there? Grammatically it'd be more than akward, but then listen to the lyrics, "You hate me asked, and I said nothing". .. come on! Makes much more sense to be "You have asked me, and I said nothing". So nyah. And to the person who said, "But hab is incorrect, it's habe!" .. 'hab' is shorthand for 'habe'.. it's just how they talk. So much so that they spell it that way, too. </german lesson>.

Anyway.. it's like 3 in the morning. I didn't get out of work today until like 1:30am, then hit 'get new messages', and well, spent most of the time sense then playing with my new leather Palm Pilot carrying case (OoOoh, love the smell of new leather.. mmMMmmm), and answering mail. (Yes, as some will testify to, I do answer email.. sometimes.. if you're good). Well, that being said, I really don't think I'm going to last much longer, so if I cut it short today.. just ... uh... someone come up and write CGI for me all this week and I'll be less tired. Yeah. That's it. :)

Hey Oracle,

Just wanted to say to that guy who had problems with the Giant Cactuar, all I did was junction 100 Waters to Squall's Elemental Attack, kill off Squall in battle then revive him again(I didn't have Aura at that time), cast Haste on Squall, then whacked the Cactuar's sorry behind with Renzozuken. The Giant Cactuar didn't seem to attack all that much, and the other two characters were just there to revive Squall in case he fell again, as well as the occasional casting of Leviathan. He hesitated once, but I killed him before he could run away=).

And the Cactuars are pretty annoying to kill, with their high evade, but don't forget that Squall has a 255% hit rate. He can usually kill them in one hit. You get EXP in the single digits for killing it, but gain a yummy 20 AP for each dead one, as well as some Cactus Thorns.

-Deranged

Brad:
.....zzzZzZZZzzzzzzZzzzz

How goes it Oracle?

I know this might be a pretty large spoiler about FF8, but regarding drawing Cerberus from a boss in Ultimecia's mansion... You can actually draw any missed GF from a number of the bosses in her mansion. Draw the following from...

Siren - Tri Point
Leviathan - Trauma
Pandemona -Red Giant
Carbuncle - Krysta
Cerberus - Gargantua
Alexander - Catoblepas
Eden - Tiamat

This is especially helpful if you've missed any of these along the way or don't feel like doing that huge side quest in order to get Eden. I can confirm that all of the previous bosses have these GF's as I've drawn all of them from them myself. You'll also need to be sure to unlock the "Draw" ability right after you beat Sphinxaur on the front stairs. It was my pleasure clearing everything up for you and the other readers.

Jet

Brad:
*mumble*..*roll over*...

Okay, he seemed *really* stuck, so I'll give em an early excerpt from the side quest section of the guide:

The goal of each Chocobo Forest is to use the ChocoSonar and ChocoZiner modes of the whistle to lure out Chicobos. You must do this in a pattern that leaves only one chocobo on the ground. When you approach and talk to this baby, the Big Chocobo comes out and it's time for you to hunt for secret items. When you've located them all, the chocobos will come out and the forest is solved. If you do not find all the items, the forest is reset.

Next, how to find Chicobos: use the ChocoSonar until it starts blipping like mad. Switch over to the Ziner mode, and blow. A chicobo will either go into hiding or come out. Be careful that you have the right spot, cuz if you don't the chicobo will snatch your whistle and you'll be out 700Gil for another :)

Next, just for fun, here's a couple of solutions. Keep in mind that a forest may have as few as one solution or as many as 3

"The Basic Forest" (Found south of Shumi village) First, find the spot almost right in the middle of the map. Blow, and 3 Chicobos should drop. Next go south and slightly east until you hit another spot (There's a Chicobo there :) And blow to make 2 go up. Tada! The hidden item is on the far left side in about halfway up the screen, a Flare Stone

"The Roaming Forest" (Found North of Trabia Garden) Okay, go over to one of the chicobos that are already down and blow. Next, picture a diagnal line between where those 2 chicobos were, and search around the midpoint of that line for another chicobo. Then, head to almost the bottom of the screen and stand between the smallest icicle on the log and the other side of the bank, and blow again. You should have 4 Chicobos now. Finally, go back up to the top of the screen and blow on one of the Chicobos that originally started on the screen. Tada! The hidden item is north about halfway acress the top of the screen, a Shell Stone and a Holy Stone.

I hope this helps, and the rest of the forests will be in our guide :) -Paws

Brad:
..mumble..no .. ma.. just five more minutes.. *pull pillow over head*

Brad:
o/` Triangle Man, Triangle Man, Triangle Man hates Particle Man.. they have a fight.. TRIANGLE WINS, Triangle man.. *insert tenor sax solo*

Why is fate such a cold, heartless *insert derogatory term here*?

I had been playing FF8, up through disk two when for no apparent reason my memory card decides to take its own life, *poof* everything gone.

One might think that this might be the end of the story, but no!

I buy myself a new memory card go back to playing FF8 up to half way through disc two, and guess what happens.

Correct! My new memory card also decides to leave this world and venture on into the great unknown.

I am now almost to the point where I don't want to play the game just because I am afraid it will all be lost again. Do you have any encouragement for this poor down trodden soul whom life has made its punching bag?

Also do you know of any RELIABLE brands of cards that I might purchase the next time I am able to summon the strength to go back to FF8 or any time consuming rpg for that manner.

Thanks

Entropy Man

Brad:
I've had a similar problem with a memory card I own.. I've finally just decided to stick with the Sony brand hardware.. it does seem to be the best out there. Though I recently saw some memory cards in Fry's up in San Jose, that had very scantly clad women on them. If I weren't so appalled at how they think they can just get me to buy something because it's got some absolutely gorgeous woman on it baring just about all, well, I might've got it. Well, okay, probably not. Though I do need another memory card or two. I like to store up data way too much. I'm a memory card packrat.

-Toni

Brad:
Maybe Square (and Cadbury eggs, for that matter) like Australians even less than they like Americans. Crazy if that's true, and sad for you guys. Square hates us all. ;D