Hi Cubehouse!

Just wanted to drop you a quick line here with an update on that list of "official item names" (descriptions, and more) that I promised to send your way.

I absolutely didn't forget about you — I've unfortunately been busy dealing with some of those nasty things life occasionally throws your way (or in my case, more than occasionally). The day after I last wrote you, one of my closest friends, Tim, lost his year-long battle with (what started out as) esophageal cancer and passed away; a nightmare, as I'm sure you can imagine, and one still continuing… especially for his wife, Sarah (whom we're even closer to; we've been friends longer than we can remember). She'd been taking care of him constantly for the past few months, barely got any sleep, and was run down beyond ragged… so when the end came, it wasn't entirely real and was somewhat a relief that his suffering was over. But now it's definitely becoming real, and… well, you know, there are those times when you really need/have to be there for your friends and loved ones, and especially those times when you really WANT to be there as well.

In addition, I've got my own hell that I deal with on a regular basis. Don't think I ever told you, but I'm chronically ill and permanently disabled thank to this nasty genetic disease that decided to nail me one day eleven years ago (Von Hippel-Lindau syndrome, or VHL). I've come very close to meeting my maker several times now thanks to the direct VHL-related issues + other side effects that popped up over the years (like kidney cancer; my ENTIRE left kidney was, um, converted over to a cancer mass)  *ugh*) — and there have absolutely been some times that I wished I was gone. I'm obviously still around somehow, but my war has left me with massive amounts of nerve damage (most people have no clue what real pain is…), severe chronic pain, some limbs and other areas that are completely numb and useless (if I can't feel them, why do they still hurt?), some missing organs,  more surgeries than I can even recall now (esp. spinal cord surgeries), and topped with all sorts of other crapola.

Anyway, I've gone downhill a bit more than expected so far this year, and the past few weeks have been very difficult for me here in Los Angeles due to our summer heat wave — heat and nerve damage don't mix (the hotter it gets, the more nerves misfire, therefore the pain gets even worse), plus it causes me to just "turn off" (sometimes for only a minute, sometimes for hours; great fun if I'm talking to someone… I click off in the middle of a sentance, and continue where I left off an hour later when I wake up again).

And there's been a couple other annoying average life nonsense that's gotten in the way that I won't bore you with.

I apologize again for the delay in getting that material out to you — and for all my "excuses" — but as you can see, it's been a bit hectic for us around here. I'd just about gotten my file up-to-date and ready to go; now I just have to get my notes in for last week's gigantic mess + today's update and then I'll send it your way. So it IS coming… just unavoidably delayed a bit.

Database looks terrific so far… only one really glaring mistake still remains with regard to a tile image — the Ice Breaker Snow Boots. I think I may have mentioned this before. Here in the U.S., our "Snow Boots" weren't actually boots, but are instead sneakers, and our Wardrobe Tile reflects that. It's as if the sneakers are from the same "product line" as the boot image on the tile (similar to how you'd know an Adidas's hightop blue/white boot + an Adidas's blue/white sneaker were both from the same Adidas's "Ice Breaker" line). I'll try and get you a picture so you can see for yourself. I'm not sure how if it's the same for the EUR version (I haven't tried to win my EUR Ice Breaker goodies yet), but you may wish to check your own Wardrobe tile and see if it's really a boot, or sneakers like we have 'em here.  [QUICK UPDATE: I think I can get a couple of shots of the sneakers… if successful, I'll send them over via email in a little while.]

Lastly, one quick question: Is the watermarking going to appear permanently over your tile images? It's hard to tell from the way your note on the store pages is worded. The reason I'm asking is partly because the AZ4 logo interferes a bit with some tiles/images… but also because I'd created my own personal "at home" wardrobe/rewards database, so I'd know what the items I had actually were (tile shots + actual reward names). I'd been using atwiki.jp, and other sources, but when your terrific tile images appeared, I quickly replaced my shoddy atwiki.jp (and other) tiles. Will it be possible for us to see them without the watermarking again at some point? Alternately, if you really require the watermarking (due to other websites ripping off your work), is there some way you could program the store to "turn off" watermarking for certain registered users? Any help on this would be greatly appreciated!

Well, once again I've written too much… again, my apologies on the delay of the Reward Names listing; I hate making excuses, but I do hope you understand the rather unpleasant predicament I've found myself caught up in recently.

Talk to you soon!

Best regards,

BaronBrain