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06.02.02 :: 18:28
I'm back! Well, technically, I was back around 10pm last night, but now I'm back and feeling human again ^^ It was a good trip. I had a lot of fun, visited a lot of people, saw a lot of things, and I probably won't get a coherent account of my adventures written in the immediate (next day or two) future ^^;
I crawled off the airplane (not such a stretch; my legs were sore and cramped from too much walking and the start of a cold was settling in) and my parents dragged me home. When I got there I discovered that Pepper was sick as well =/ The neighbor had *way* overfed her, and the mutt is too stupid to stop before she makes herself sick (we're talking about a dog who will eat toilet paper if given the chance --; ) So, I've spent most of today doing the usual unpacking whatnot, trying to beat off the cold, and taking care of a sick mutt. This morning, every time I put her out she'd go eat the grass and then upchuck. She's finally got it out of her system and I'm only giving her a little bit of kibble at a time until I'm convinced that her stomach has firmed up.
While waiting in the airport in Toronto before I began my journey back, Chaos and I brainstormed some great ideas for the final part of the SeeDfic. [hugs Chaos] I love that man. He's like my writing muse. He can take my base ideas and put a spin on them that changes them from good to great ^_^ We did a few pages of story of ideas. I'm looking forward to having the chance to sit down and explore those ideas more thoroughly ^_^
I didn't spend nearly as much money during my trip as I'd set aside for it (always a good thing). There just wasn't that much in the dealer's room at the con that interested me. I picked up the two FFX Ultimania guides for $50 US (after talking the dealer down :) I might have been able to find them for a little less online, but getting my grubby lil paws on them and the fact that I hadn't bought anything else prompted me ^^;
I did pick up some other nifty things away from the con. Ysa-chan was very kind and picked up a CD by The Tea Party for me after I scoffed at paying $28 US + S&H for an imported Canadian CD. She got it for $15 CAN + Tax. Yeah, that's quite a difference ^^; I also bought an Arrogant Worms CD. Sean got me Geobreeders on DVD for my berfday ^^ I picked up some souvenirs for folks that could only be described as "weird". I bought "polar bear droppings" (chocolate covered cashews) for my dad and bought this weird squishy bear thing for my mom. I bought one for Chris too 'cause it was so much fun to stand there and squish it ^^; Easily amused, I am.
Anyhow, I returned to the US with a pile of traveler's cheques looking for a good home. Would I do something responsible like put them back into the bank? Er... alright, so I didn't ^^; It's not my fault Canada wasn't able to find its way into my wallet! I went to the game store and bought an Xbox and Jet Set Radio Future. (I'd been passively eyeballing either an Xbox or a GameCube since they decreased considerably in price. $200 instead of $300? I think I can swing that ;) Hehe, the guys there did give me a kind of odd look when I paid in traveler's cheques though ^^; JSRF is very cool, IMO. It's easier to control than the DC JSR, which is a relief. I liked the DC version, but was never very good at it because of the controls. The Xbox sequel has simplified things (like painting graffiti), which helps a lot ^^
Just to make sure I tell about my trip in completely the wrong order... ;) I had a great time with Chris and Ysa-chan on Friday. We went all over Toronto exploring it. I couldn't tell you half the places we went 'cause we're not sure ourselves ^^; We found a nifty plaza with a fountain and chilled there for a while. I got my hair cut at one of the salons we found. There's a whole underground city beneath Toronto and we made some serious headway in exploring it :) Too bad I'm terribly out of shape ^^; I was very sore on Saturday and am finally feeling non-stiff today.
I likewise had a good time while visiting Nightbreak, but for other reasons. He provided me a nice, quiet place to curl up in and hide away for a few days. I really appreciated that :) Ottawa is a nice city from what I saw of it, I wouldn't object if I lived there. Lots of "green space" (as his mom put it). I loved sitting out on the porch and reading "In Enemy Hands". It's been quite a while since I've unwound *that* much.
All in all, it was a very good vacation indeed ^^
06.03.02 :: 17:56
Oi oi, a lot's going on right now. Vera will probably be here Thursday night. Jeffy's berfday is on Friday and we're leaning towards throwing a small berfday party at my house for him. Jerry (one of my bosses) is talking about changing our working schedule so that we go into work at 7am instead of 8am o.O; (That'll take some getting used to). Nick is trying to talk Bob into hiring a part time tech to do the after hours support 'cause we're all getting burned out on it. Yeah, my first day back from vacation and I'm the on call tech, blech. Definitely burned out on it.
I had an odd thought this afternoon when I saw a bumper sticker that said "Fuck Terrorism". I got to wondering what exactly defined a terrorist. I could think of several examples that parallelled the Al Qaeda and the US during the revolutionary period. Think of it from the British point of view. The Americans technically didn't have a country to call their own (neither do the Al Qaeda). They did have a geographic location that they were based out of, so that's what the British attacked (Afghanistan go squish). The British were no doubt appalled by the fact that the revolutionaries wouldn't come out onto the "proper" field of battle dressed in their red coats and in formation to fight. Noooooo, the Americans hid in bushes and threw rocks and whatnot. See what I'm getting at here?
Am I saying that Americans are hypocrites? Honestly, I'm not sure. But I do think we should carefully consider what makes one a "terrorist" and be sure to examine it from all angles. Many nations have followed the US's example of declaring war on those it considered to be a threat. There's a danger in that which we're seeing in full display with regards to India and Pakistan. One person's terrorist is another person's hero.
War is not dignified. There are certain "rules" to it that many countries try to adhere to so that they can claim the moral upper hand, but so what? The Al Qaeda aren't playing by the same rules we are, just as we didn't play by the same rules the British did in the 18th century. It stuns me when I see others get indignant because they aren't "playing fair". They're not going to, and, in fact, we don't either. We hardly tell the opposing forces where we are and what we're going to do. I'm sure they see it as a form of terrorism when a plane drops a huge ass bomb on their cave.
I'm not defending the Al Qaeda or their actions. I don't think anyone in their right mind could see the murder of innocents as anything but wrong. But I think we should also keep in mind that our hands aren't as clean as we'd like to believe. We need to remain humble during our "holy war" (and yes, it *is* a holy war to some).
Oops, I ranted ^^; Well, that's what I was thinking about all afternoon. See how my mind can munch on random thoughts?
06.04.02 :: 20:50
YaY! #OS reunion night! Oh my goodness, like, almost *everyone* was there; Jackie, Davey, Immi, Ryo, Nilah, Dark, Pixel, Kawo, everyone! =D We need to get together more often, guys. Poke me to remind me to go onto IRC ^^;
Jackie's been sending me eps of Hellsing. I like what I've seen so far. I want to see more of it ^^ I've got a lot of anime to watch right now ^^; I should just plant myself in front of my compy and spend a couple nights catching up. Still have to watch Noir o.o
Work's kind of aggravating both Nick and me. We're the only two people doing after hours tech support right now and *neither* of us want to do it. Before I went on vacation, I was told that we're rotating by day. Today Nick wanted me to take the on call cell again, even though I took it yesterday. I grumbled and refused ^^; If I took it home with me, I would have left it turned off ¬.¬; So, he took it tonight. Something needs to be done about this soon before we throttle each other or the phone >=(
Also on the work front, I got a lot of the cleaning / organizing finished for my office today ^^ Oi, it feels good to have that project nearly completed. I'm still not sure where I'll finally end up putting my desk, but at least all the shelves are cleared and the parts sorted ^^v
I still can't access Centra Garden's FTP, even though the site is now viewable. First my password was changed on me, then when I get logged in it dumps me into the wrong directory. I can't get to the correct one with the permissions set the way that they are. And Josh (the admin) is on vacation this week. Blech, oh well. I'll get it fixed as soon as I can.
06.05.02 :: 14:28
I'm so blasted bored right now ;_; I don't lack for things to do, I but I don't have an motivation to do mind numbing projects (which are what's sitting on my desk currently). I don't want to clean 150 accounts out of the server right now. It's such a nice day, I want to be outside soaking up the warmth. I can think of plenty of things to do once I get home tonight. I can watch a couple more episodes of Helling, or I could do the dishes, take Pepper for a walk, any of those things seem infinitely more interesting IMO.
I'm the on call tech tonight. We're working on a compromise that starts tomorrow. Lincoln (another co-worker I don't see often 'cause he works nights) is going to start covering some of the weekday nights. That'll leave the rest of us to rotate on who covers what weekend. I can live with it; just so long as it's not all on Nick and my shoulders.
I've been having a lot of weird dreams lately with my friends in them. Monday night I had a dream with Helen in it. We were battling robots and we had to physically destroy the robots with our bare hands to win. Last night I had a dream with Jetwolf and Ultrace in it. Ultrace owned an arcade (that's *so* appropriate) and Jetwolf was designing an arcade game. She needed my help with formatting the game when pitching it to a publisher. Twas weird ^^;
I feel kind of bad that I haven't made it up to visit Jetwolf and Ultrace yet this year. I meant to go up around February, but life got busy --; It probably won't be until July at this rate. All of our schedules are so full that it's hard to find a free weekend between us =/
06.10.02 :: 10:32
Oi, it’s been busy. In typical beanie fashion, I’ll start with Sunday and work my way back in days ^^
Yesterday was a pretty mellow day, just the way I like them. Vera, Austin, and Jeffy spent the morning playing video games in different rooms while I floated between them watching and doing Sunday chores (laundry, dishes, etc). Vera was in the living room playing Tetrisphere. Austin was in my room playing Jet Set Radio Future. Jeffy was in the master bedroom playing Final Fantasy X.
On Saturday night Jeffy had accidentally erased his save file (around 30 hours, he was on Mt. Gagazet) ^^; So he started over using my strategy guide (I’ve been going through the game again and “correcting” all the omissions in the English guide). It’s all good, Jeffy’s too cool to get bent out of shape about having to start over. That’s a trait I admire about him :) On Sunday morning Vera pulled a Jeffy in Tetrisphere and erased all of her game files as well ^^; She was on chapter 10, level 6 of that game. She spent the morning rebuilding her game file. Looking on the brighter side of things, she’s owning the high scores the second time around ‘cause she knows all the tricks :)
Anyhow, Jeffy gets in the most FFX playing time while he’s at my house since I make sure he has little or no competition for that game system. At the house he shares everyone fights for the tv and game systems, so he doesn’t get much game time at all (How is he to become an ubergamer when he doesn’t get much practice time in? =( ) When Austin was finished playing JSRF he was at the same place in the game that I was with an hour less of time. He’s pretty l33t at Jet Grind Radio. That game was his bitch [laughs].
To go on a slight tangent, but I’d love to run a gaming room at a smallish con. I have some great ideas that I think would make for an excellent experience. I’ve also been talking over my ideas with Alessar and he’s been adding to them. I’ll put them here so that I don’t forget them if I’m ever given the chance =]
Technology wise I’d like to set up a “wall of retro gaming”. Have like the back wall set up with 2 – 3 older game systems; NES, SNES, Genesis, or an Atari 2600 if I could find one. I’d also have at least 2 PS2s hooked up together so we could hold Gran Turismo 3 races. I’d, of course, also have at least 1 Xbox and 1 GameCube set up as well. In the center of the room I’d set up 4 computer stations set up on a LAN. If I had 2 rooms to work with or a lot of room, I’d set up 2 4 station LANs that could play against each other. Another thing I’d like to do is to have a projector set up that I could switch between gaming stations for people who want to watch. Just flip between the games every 20 minutes or whatnot. Or if I’m running a competition, switch to that so people can watch :)
Comfort wise I’d first and foremost strictly enforce a “No funk” rule. It’d be posted on the door and I’d run regular room sweeps. If someone needed to take a shower (especially a DDR player), I’d ask them to go and then come back. There’s no shame in keeping a room stink free. The smell was a large part of why I didn’t go into AN’s gaming room. I’d like to have beanbag chairs thrown around the room for the console players to use. Personally, I like sitting on the floor when gaming (as do many of the gamers I know), so beanbag chairs would add to the comfort. I’d make sure there were bottomless quantities of water for people to drink. Gaming is hard work y’know! For those who want soda or bottled water I’d set up an ice chest with a good selection of liquid refreshments for people to purchase for a $1. If I had it in the budget I’d like to do bottomless popcorn and / or pretzels, though I’m not sure how realistic that is. I know Costco sells the bags of popcorn that are as big as I am for a reasonable price. If the budget didn’t cover it, I could as for ask couple dollar cover charge on the room or something and put a sticker on the badges of the otaku who have paid. Dunno, it’s just a thought.
We made arrangements for next weekend with Austin. OIT’s commencement is then and Vera and I are going to it. Austin is going to be playing host / social co-ordinator to many of our friends’ parents while they’re here. I figure that Vera and I will be helping him out :) On Sunday he’s going to be coming back to Medford with us so that we can start on the house remodeling projects we have planned out ^_^
I was having a massive allergy all day yesterday. Around 5pm I got fed up with it and took some Actifed. I usually try to avoid taking allergy medicine even though I need it at times like that, it just does bad things to me. Dad came to the house around that time to help fix Vera’s bed (it’d fallen off its frame and it was too heavy for the two of us to get back up). By the time dad left I was out cold on the couch =/ When I groggily woke up again it was nearly 7pm and I’d slept through the last 2 hours of my on call shift ^^;;; (At least I wasn’t sniffling and sneezing anymore...)
Surprising as it is for me, I’ve actually already gotten my dad a Father’s day gift =] He collects model cars (ones that he’s built and die cast ones). I bought him a die cast woody to add to his collection :) I might get him something else as well, but I’m not sure what yet.
Anyhow... On Saturday we all went to see The Sum of All Fears. It was a pretty good movie. I usually don’t check out the Clancy movies unless my parents rented them or if they’re on tv. Now I’m kind of curious about the other ones with Harrison Ford in them.
The on call support this weekend was mostly quiet with the exception of one customer who kept calling over and over and over again -- both her and her husband. I have crappy cell phone reception out at my house, there just isn’t anything I can do about that. I know that reception’s at its worse when I’m in my bedroom (all those electronics probably don’t help...), and that it doesn’t improve noticeably when I’m out in the front yard in the open. I tend to get the best reception when pacing around the kitchen table. So, anyways, this woman kept calling with inane problems and it was hard to get her to understand the answers ‘cause of my allergy attack (I had a bad one on Saturday too) and the reception. I finally asked Nick to speak with her today ‘cause I’m about ready to put my head into my desk. I’m tired of telling her to type her username in correctly and resetting her passwords --;
After the late movie (we went to the 7:15pm showing ‘cause of my work), Vera made a quick pasta dinner with Jeffy, Mike, and me as her assistants. (I’m good at buttering bread ;) We then went into the master bedroom and curled up on the large bed to watch Drop Dead Gorgeous. I’d never seen it before. I think it’s good to see it once, but I don’t think I’d go out of my way for multiple viewings. Kirsten Dunst did a better job in this movie than she did in Spider-man, IMO.
Friday night was awesome. I don’t think I could have planned a better berfday dinner for Jeffy (since the best stuff tends to happen when it’s *not* planned ^^ ) We went to Callahan’s for dinner, which is a nice 5-course meal, wear a button down shirt, sizable wine list type of place. I figured since we’re all “adults” now, we could have an “adult” dinner party. [laughs] It worked out well. Our waitress (who happened to be named Amanda ^^ ) had a great sense of humor and knew that we were there to celebrate and have a good time. We took plenty of pictures with Jeffy’s digital camera (so easy to use. I like it!) The best part was at the end when Amanda brought everyone out to sing happy berfday to Jeffy ^o^ That’s really special since Callahan’s usually *does not* do that. You have to pay extra to get anything along those lines and they just did it out of the blue. It was very cool =D
Wednesday and Thursday sucked hard core --; I was feeling pretty depressed during those days, nothing went my way. The most noteworthy disaster was when I killed ACS. (Our access server. It authenticates people when they dial in). I didn’t mean to. The blasted thing started acting wonky around 2pm and the last resort to get it to start authenticating people again was to reboot it. When I did that it didn’t come all the way back up again --; It took 20 minutes for Nick to figure out how to manually start the services (Win2k Advanced Server isn’t one of the OSs I’m intimately familiar with =/ ) The next day I found out that it really wasn’t my fault that the ACS server failed; two other things were playing against me. The first (more damaging) problem was the Unicom changed their Radius server (which ACS talks with) without telling us. That caused ACS to have a crap and dump. The second was that ACS *really* needed to have some maintenance done on it. Jerry stayed until 2am that night doing maintenance to make it work smoother. I still felt bad though ^^;
That was the last several days in one long blog entry ^^; I need to try to do this more often, but I’m not sure I’ll have time considering how busy the next month is going to be. I may just have to settle with long entries every few days.
I started a new summer schedule at work today. I’m now working 7am – 5pm, Monday – Thursday and 7am – 11am on Friday. When I told my dad that I was working 7 – 11 on Friday he assumed 11pm. Those are the type of schedules I’ve been getting for the last two years :P But this is probably the nicest schedule I’ve ever gotten ^^; I get to take off early on Friday all summer. That’ll be sweet ^_^
I’m still really diggin’ JSRF. Right now I’m a bit stuck, but I’m sure I’ll figure it out. There are two things I can do. In one section I have to race up to a third level of a building from the ground floor and meet a character in less than 20 seconds. The frustrating part is that the game keeps slowing down when I start grinding up the rails --; (It’s amazing, the Xbox is, without a doubt, the most “powerful” game system on the market currently and game designers can *still* find ways to slow it down!) The other place I’m stuck in is the skyscraper district. I’m not sure where I can go from the first building. It looks like all the buildings around it are taller, so I can’t jump up to them. I went to the fenced “netting” under the building and skated around. I haven’t found out how to get to any other buildings. Once I do that, I should be fine.
The only real problem is that some of the songs are starting to grate on me ^^; If I have to listen to that birthday cake song one more time I may scream. It’s at that point that I put in the other game’s soundtrack and listen to it instead ^^;;
I finally have FTP access to Centra Garden again =D It only took a few weeks to get all the bugs worked out ^^; The latest problem was that, when Josh set up the site on a different server, he’d pointed it to the wrong directory. That’s why I wasn’t seeing anything when I FTPed in. Now that it’s all pointing where it should, I can get some updates done ^^
06.11.02 :: 11:43
I stayed up *way* too late talking with Vera last night while she played Tetrisphere. We talked about anything and everything. It was interesting. Earlier in the evening we watched the first 3 episodes of Noir. I'm not sure what I think about it yet. It's not as slow as I feared, but I'm just kind of indifferent as well. Vera's jazzed, but it's one of her favorite series.
I wrote a game review for Jet Set Radio Future today. That was one of the things Vera and I talked about. Personally, I don't care if people read my reviews or not, it's a personal matter. She wonders why I bother if I'm not writing for an audience. I guess review might not be the right word for how I view them, even if that's what they are. Maybe more like "my opinions on this video game that might actually be helpful especially in the case of SaGa Frontier 1 where I went to more detail on the game mechanics than the manual did." I write because I like to write. If I didn't like to do it, I wouldn't.
I went to mall after work last night to have my glasses adjusted; they kept sliding down my face. I had to wait for a while before someone as able to get to me. The guy pulled out a pair of pliers and started having at it. I've had my glasses adjusted plenty of times before, but I've never seen someone attack the problem quite like he did. While he was doing it he noticed that I was wearing a FFX t-shirt and he wanted to talk about video games (this guy had to be in his 50's). I politely chatted some while he bent my frames around and finally scooted out of there as quickly as I could 'cause he was giving me the creeps ^^; My glasses are still tweaky =/ He'd made them so tight that the nosepads were leaving indents on my nose. I took my own pair of pliers and adjusted them a bit so that my sinuses weren't being squished ^^
06.11.02 :: 13:48
Some people *so* do not deserve high speed internet connections. I had a woman call to complain about getting 408k / sec on a cable modem. ... That's better than what I get at our office and it's certainly better than what I get at home! Grrr... [takes her connection away]
I had a weird dream last night that I vaguely recalled while driving home for lunch today. I can't remember all the details, but these terrorist nuclear bombs kept going off and killing a lot of people. I was in the immediate area of where the first one went off and someone protected me (and died as a result). After that I joined a team who sought out to find the bombs before they exploded and disarm them. We did get to some of the bombs in time, others we had to run just to get away with our lives. It was an odd dream...
06.12.02 :: 07:28
I've gotten a lot of anime watching in lately. Vera spent yesterday watching Princess Nine so that we could watch DVD 4 together after I got off work. Heh, I'll concede that Princess Nine isn't that well animated. It's "cheap", but there's a certain charm to that, IMO. Anyhow, by the end of DVD 4 we were cooking up crazy Princess Nine / Battle Athletes crossover ideas. The best one of the lot was that Mylanda was a descendant of Izumi :P
I was probably driving Vera nuts by yelling at the tv when the girls did stupid things on the field. Like, Izumi sliding fingers first into second base. That's the quickest way to sprang or break the lil hummers, and since they *only* have 9 people on the team they can't afford to have anyone out with injuries :P I was also yelling at Hikaru for bunting down the first base line when no one was on base and one out. Excuse me? [kicks] Bunting is most effective for advancing the base runners, not getting on base in the first place.
After Princess Nine I watched a couple more episodes of Noir. I've seen through episode 6 now. I'm not sure what I think about the series yet. The music is nifty, but I knew that before watching it. I have a hard time remembering the characters' names. I've gotten Mireille down, but the other one I keep wanting to call Lain :P I'm also dubious (to steal an elf-ism) of their ages. Vera says they're 18 and 14 if she recalls correctly. I can see Lain being 14, but I'm not buying Mireille being 18. She doesn't *act* 18. She acts more like 25 or 26.
I had another weird dream last night, but I don't recall enough of it to write it down. I do know that it woke me up around 2am and that I thought on it a bit before going back to sleep. Huh, I guess it wasn't that interesting.
06.13.02 :: 08:51
I'm in a grumpy mood this morning. Nothing "big" has happened to make me grumpy, but several little annoying things have. Bah, I won't go into them again since I've already bent Helen's ear, but I'm still grumpy. Grump grump grump.
Yesterday was stupid question day. Here's a sampling of what I was getting; A user with one machine called to ask if he could download the files he needed to fix his networking (so that he could get online). Another woman who claimed to be the tech for the company she was working for couldn't tell me if she was using WinME or WinXP by looking at it. I can understand confusing any of the Win9x OSes, but ME and XP look *very* different. Just a glance at the desktop should tell you which one you're using. And I'm afraid even dear Bob got in on the act =/ He sent an email to our customers as an attacted Word document. Not everyone has Word. When I'd proofread it I sent it back to him as a text document. I'm guessing he didn't use the version I sent to him 'cause some of the errors I'd fixed were in the document he sent out =/
I went to the mall last night and had a lady at the eyeglass place fix my glasses again. I think the problem started when the first guy saw that one side of my glasses were bent higher than the other. He tried to correct it, but it was supposed to be that way -- one ear is higher than the other. I just needed the frames bent in, not up and down (if that makes sense). Anyhow, the lady saw the problem immediately and got them bent back to fitting my face. Yay.
Jeffy's set up a Centra Garden mirror on his own server because of all the problems I've had lately. Thanks a lot! ^_^
I watched up to episode 10 of Noir last night. It's an interesting series, but I haven't hit the 'rabid fan' stage yet. I could still 'take it or leave it' and it wouldn't bother me either way.
06.13.02 :: 19:50
Okay, this was driving me nuts today, so I'm just going to vent a bit here. A person emailed me today with a "correction" to the SeeDfic. He asserted that in part 18, the most powerful spell class is -aga, not -ga as I'd written it in the story. Soooo... I went back to my FF8 books, whipped out the old Japanese dictionary to double check and, in short, I'm right. I won't bother to put the katakana up unless someone asks for it, but here's how it goes: (blizzard) Burizado, Burizara, Burizaga; (fire) Faia, Faira, Faiga. I think it's safe to say that the spell classes are -ra and -ga. I can see where an English speaker would get -aga, but that's not the source I'm using.
On to other Final Fantasy related things I've gotten out of the Ultimania guides. The Shuu character in FFX that I suspected was Xu really is her =D I'm so happy! Nida is in there as well as an Al Bhed Free Agent. (They called him Neida in the English version). I've also learned that Wantz, O'aka's brother, shows up more than a half dozen times in the game before the "first time" you meet him on Mt. Gagazet. He's always in the background and whatnot. I should scan that page in because it has pictures of where he can be found. The Battle guide has some nifty top 10 lists of monsters that give the most money, worth the most experience, etc. Those would be easy to type up as well... ^^
06.14.02 :: 07:30
OIT's commencement is tomorrow. Vera and I are going head over there after she raids the JoAnn's $0.99 pattern sale. I'm happy for my friends that are graduating, but I know I'll be sad. I'll be sure to bring some tissues with me.
I've watched Noir through episode 13 now. I've decided that I want Mireille's pool table and Chloe's cloak. That would rock :) I still can't remember "Lain"'s name. But Noir did remind me of something else last night. I was thinking about how Vera likes lesbians and assassins. Then I recalled the game Fear Effect 2: Retro Helix. That'd be right up her alley I think ^^
It's weird, I had Retro Helix figured out before I even knew it ^^; One of the first things I notice about people (in life, in movies, in games, etc.) is whether they are right or left handed. I'm not sure why my brain picked up on that little detail. I'm a righty myself, so it's not like I'm sensitive to the southpaws' troubles with right handed scissors or anything ^^;
I got further in JSRF last night =D I figured out the Skyscraper district, which had me stumped. ("You want me to jump from rooftop to rooftop. Who do you think I am, Spider-man?!") Now I'm kinda stuck in the Rokkaku-dai Heights trying to knock down the Noise Tank that's standing on top of the tallest smoke stack. Idiot! Get down here so I can kick your butt!!
06.17.02 :: 09:43
It was an adventurous weekend (as expected). I only had to work a 4-hour early shift on Friday. After I got off at 11am I took Vera to this big JoAnn's Fabric sale. They were selling patterns for $0.99 that usually cost $11 - $20 (from what I saw). Vera made out like a bandit by snagging $260 worth of patterns for under $20. Vera also wanted to get a dress form ($170 normally) for 50% off, but the coupon was time based --; We were going to head off to kfalls right after the shopping spree, but had to wait until 5pm so she could order the dress form. It's all good, we spent the time doing other errands.
Vera had a flash of inspiration while we were packing our bags for the trip. She noticed how we both had a handful of memory cards sloshing around in the bottom of our bags, so she decided that she needed to sew some small pouches to hold our cards in. When we went back to JoAnn's for the dress form we also picked up some drawstring and little beads to put on the bags so we could tell them apart :) They're black satin and mine has a green drawstring with BEANS on it :) Honestly, we both needed 'em. I have 3 PSX cards, 1 PS2, 2 Dreamcast, and 1 PocketStation ^^;
Anyhow, by the time we made it to kfalls the dinner party Austin was hosting was well on its way to being over. Will wanted to have a party where everyone's parents got to meet each other and they had dinner. I've never seen so many vehicles parked in the lot outside Austin's apartment! We came in and were promptly hug-tackled. I met some parents that I hadn't already. I was asked if I was Elf's sister ^^; We don't fight often enough to be siblings... [laughs]
After most of the crowd had left, I called up Jeffy to see what he was doing. He had just sat down for dinner at a restaurant with his new friend (someone he'd wanted us to meet). "Perfect!" said my scheming mind. I sort of kind of invited myself and Vera and Austin along to dinner with Jeffy and his friend ^_~ Once there, Vera played the role of interrogator and grilled the friend properly. [laughs] If he could survive that, he'd fit in well with our lot of weirdos ^^
We went up to the dorms after dinner. Timmy gave me back a bag of anime that we'd both forgotten he had until he cleaned out his room and discovered it. I've seen (and taken part in) plenty of room-cleaning-outings during the last 5 years, but this one was different. I knew that only a couple of these people would be coming back next year, and I wasn't that close to any of them. It was liking having to clean up after a grand party. You know that you'll never experience anything quite like it again.
Devin came by that evening and we played Super Smash Bros. for a while (I *suck* at that game ^^; ) I can't remember what all we did besides that. I know that I fell asleep on one of the couch reclining seats and that I was pretty comfy. (I can easily fall asleep while watching tv, with the lights on, with the volume up loud. When my body says it's time to sleep, I sleep).
The OIT graduation started at 10am. We didn't plan on arriving until 11:30am or so. Every other department was in line before the computers one --; None of us wanted to sit around while a bunch of dental students that we didn't know walked ^^; We went to the field around 11am and there were still 2 and a half pages of names before they reached the computer department. We went to lunch and then came back ^^;
We went down to the field to greet the graduates after it was over. Again I was asked if I was Elf's sister ^^; (I wonder if someone was introducing me to others as Elf's friend who was like a sister or something like that..) The reception was hot, hehe, yeah, very hot outside. I saw a couple unexpected acquaintances that I hadn't seen since I left school myself.
I tried to talk Elf into coming with me back to Medford. He wanted to go, but his mom wanted him more [grins] I spent some time thinking about how much both Elf and I have grown since we started school. I remember when Elf was the shy guy who would slide into the shadows if you didn't keep a hand on him and he would rather spend time at my house than with his family. But now... 5 years later he's found a balance in his life. He's made his peace with his family and has many friends who love him. I'm more proud of that growth than of his Bachelors in Computer Science and minor in Math. They don't give degrees for personal growth, but we've both earned one, I think :)
I also had a nasty allergy attack that day. Talk about miserable --; We stopped by Circle K (think 7-Eleven) to get some allergy medication. It helped some, but I was still sniffling, sneezing, and miserable. Even worse, most allergy medications tend to make me either very sleepy or a bit loopy (or both, as the case may be). We went back to Austin's apartment after a trip to Safeway for munchies. (We decided that Austin's would be the post-commencement gathering place.) I fell asleep for about an hour, and then was groggy for the rest of the afternoon. Once I had my feet under me again and people started arriving, Vera and I baked cookies while teams of people played cribbage on the kitchen table.
Austin, Vera, and I went to see "The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisters" after everyone had gone their separate ways. When it comes to stories about daughters learning about their mothers' pasts, I still like "The Joy Luck Club" the best, but Ya-Ya wasn't bad. One part of it made me cry (I don't cry at many movies). I didn't cry because the movie was sad, but because it struck close to home. When Vivian couldn't control her rage, I felt her pain. I wondered if the other people in the theatre truly understood what it was like to not have control over your emotions. Not like, crying and not being able to control it, but like... being unreasonably furious, knowing that it was wrong and baseless, and yet, not able to *stop* it. Having the rage coursing through your veins like it was your life blood. That's why I cried, because I've fought that demon with mixed results. Austin later told me that the movie made him cry too, though I don't know if it was the same reason, I'm fairly sure it was the same scene...
We didn't stay up too late Saturday night (like 11pm). I fell asleep on George's couch (Austin's roommate). I meant to sleep in the recliner like I had the night before, but it was a case of sleeping where I happened to crash ^^; I woke up on Sunday morning to find Vera and Austin sitting on the other couch playing Glover. When they got tired of playing Glover, I curled up between them and we started watching "Playing by Heart" (excellent movie if you've never seen it). About half way through George came in and told us this his family was only a few steps behind him and they were going to help him start moving (he graduated as well). We'd planned our Sunday around helping George move, so having him tell us that he was starting at 11am was a surprise to all three of us. He'd originally told us that he wasn't getting his UHAUL until 4:30pm. Luckily, Austin's apartment has two showers. We quickly cleaned up and started helping with the first load of stuff. George hadn't picked up the UHAUL yet, but he'd found someone to give some of his furniture to.
George really wasn't getting the UHAUL until 4:30pm, so we reverted back to our original plan of going to see a matinee showing of "Scooby Doo" to kill a couple hours. SD was an okay movie. We were expecting something bad and that's what we got ^^; I did like who the bad guy at the end was, though I'm not sure all the kids in the theatre could appreciate it. Gyah, there were so many kids there. The three of us scrunched in our seats so that the kids behind us could see the screen. Austin assures me that the theatre is a stadium seating one, but I don't consider anything stadium seating if an average sized adult has to sit with their head against the back of the seat so that the kid behind them can see. It was also cold, and we were hungry. As soon as we got out of the movie we raced over the Blimpies (think Subway) for a sandwich ^^;
By the time we got back from eating George was backing in the UHAUL. We couldn't have gotten the timing more perfect ^^v Several members of George's family had come along as well to help out. It was quick work to get everything downstairs and into the UHAUL with all the people helping out :) I had another allergy attack and was solidly knocked on my butt by the medication by the time we were finished. I slept on the way back to Medford while Austin drove ^^;
As soon as we got back into town I gave my dad a call. He was holding Father's Day dinner for us to get there. It was a bit of a late dinner, but that's okay. It all worked out alright. He really liked his Father's Day gifts :)
After dinner we went back to the house and I curled up to go to bed since I was really groggy from the medication. Austin wanted to play more JSRF and the Xbox was in my room. He offered to move it to another room, but it's okay. I like watching (sleeping) through people playing games. Too bad my body decided that it hated me and the minute I laid down I wasn't sleepy anymore --; S'kay, I helped Austin out with some of the puzzles that he was working on. I think around 2am I started to drift in and out of sleep. I don't remember that as clearly. I remember asking him how he got past that stupid smoke stack since he was further than I was. I think he told me that I don't have to, but I don't remember (I'll ask again tonight ^^; ) I also vaguely recall him telling me that I'm going to hate the later levels, but that's it.
I got about an hour of solid sleep last night before my alarm went off. I'm surprisingly chipper considering how little I'm going off of. I could be doing okay because I got some great Z's in while we were at Austin's. (I like sleeping on couches. I almost prefer them over beds ^^ ) It's dreary and rainy today. I'm kind of glad for that. Maybe it'll make it easier for me to rest if it wasn't so nice and happy outside.
06.18.02 :: 07:35
Austin and Vera began work on the house yesterday. I really am grateful for all they've done already and all that I know they'll do before they're finished. Yesterday Austin made the windows gleam in a way I haven't seen since I was a child. They also pulled out a lot of the underbrush that has been cluttering the 'flower beds' around the house.
When I got home they handed me a 3-page shopping list. Heh, my role was definitely "facilitator" yesterday. My checkbook said "Ouch!" after I bought them most everything they asked for (I couldn't find all of it). I then spoke with Mrs. Neufeld about letting us dump yard trimmings onto their slash pile. She lent us a wheelbarrow also :) Already this morning I've been making phone calls to arrange other things that the dynamic duo has requested. Between the three of us, we should be able to get a lot done. I just wish that we had more time ^^;
Since I didn't sleep much last night (a lot of people I spoke to yesterday hadn't o.O) they we very pushy about me going to bed early. Austin came into my room and took the Xbox out to the livingroom. I barely remember him coming in ^^; I don't remember them turning off the lights or if Pepper ever came into the room to sleep with me or not. Yeah, I guess I needed it ^^; Waking up at 6am is still flipping hard. Not used to it yet =/
Austin reconfirmed what I thought he told me about JSRF the other night, but I couldn't recall clearly. I don't have to get that taunting SOB on the smoke stack to finish the challenge. And he maintains that I'm going to *hate* the level after the one I'm on. Joy, something to look forward to ^^; If gamestop.com isn't lying, then the first Arc the Lad hint book should be out today. I could use it, but I don't see myself having the time to make use of it for a while ^^; I have the next couple months planned out with activities almost every weekend. It's going to be a busy summer :)
As a final footnote for the day, I'd like to say that I like the new Vanilla Coke. I'm more of a Pepsi drinker myself, but Vanilla Coke's pretty good. I'd suggest giving it a taste :)
06.18.02 :: 13:21
Wah! It's not fair. Vera says that Yggy is getting awesome connection speeds and I'm not at home to enjoy them. Vera's been downloading anime at 1.07M while I'm at work ;_; I want to enjoy Yggy going fast!
The Postal Service is back on my shit list. I took a package to be mailed to Canada to an outlet ('cause I always get crap when I go to the main office) and sent it off. I got the package back yesterday with a sticker over the address saying that anything over a certain weight going international has to be taken to the main office. WTF?! Why didn't the people at the outlet tell me that? Even more so, why did the outlet charge me $8 to mail the package when there's $5 in postage on it? --; No wonder there's a slang for going insane (postal) when they pull BS like this. Grrr.. --;
06.19.02 :: 09:25
Oi oi, tired bean x.X; I think a combination of working hard and *still* not being used to my schedule is wiping me out ^^; That and allergy attacks. My eyes have itched for days now x.x They didn't appreciate when I got home from work yesterday and started working outside with Austin and Vera. Luckily we only did that for an hour or so before calling it a night (my dad arrived to look over the work that's been done already).
Wow, let me say, after only 2 days the place is already looking a lot better :) Vera and Austin did a lot of work in the flower beds. Heh, I came home and they'd raked and trimmed back the bushes, but hadn't realized that what they thought were bushes were actually blackberries ^^; (The bane of my gardening existance. I've fought them for countless summers now!) Heh ^^; So we pulled the blackberries out and I took them over to the neighbor's slash pile. Now the bed looks kind of empty with only a handful of bushes in there ^^; Not sure if we'll get around to planting anything in there this year or not. It's a bit late in the season. Just having the beds cleared so I could plant flowers *next* year is great :)
Anyhow, dad had no complaints when he inspected the work that's been done. I've had to continuously reassure him that we do have a plan and that we're carefully and systematically executing it. He's also concerned that we don't waste money ^^; Heh, that's not a problem. I don't have much money *to* waste. We have to keep it within the budget or it flat out isn't getting done ^^; As it stands though, we're doing pretty well on that front.
I arranged to have a carpet cleaner come in on Friday. Now I'm in search of some people to help move the furniture out of the living room and into the yard. Since I get off before the cleaners will be there that'll give us 3 people to move things with, but I'm concerned that 1 guy and 2 petite females are going to have problems moving the couch ^^;; I've got a couple days to find some friends to help out :)
I've seen through episode 18 of Noir. Wow, episode 17 was a kick in the shorts. Now I'm curious to see how the rest of it turns out. There's no doubt that the series starts slow... and I can see myself being disappointed if it doesn't take some dramatic turns like I hope it will. I just hope it will [laughs]
Lesson of the day: "A little patience goes a long way." A customer called up because it was taking a long time for his email to download. The first thing out of his mouth (even before any pleasantries) was "Is the server down again?" When I assured him it wasn't he asked why it'd taken over a half hour to get his email and it wasn't done yet. I looked on the server and saw that he had over 2M of mail sitting there. His system *was* downloading it, it was just going to take some time unless he wanted to log on to the server directly and delete it off. I put him on hold once when his snarkiness was getting to me and let him simmer for a minute. I continued to monitor his account's downloading progress from the server while he ranted on the phone. After a few more minutes I pointed out that his email was finished downloading. He looked in his Outlook Express and said "oh, so it is." and hung up. Yeah, just a bit of patience and there'd be no problems...
06.19.02 :: 21:40
Austin and Vera cleaned out the hot tub today. Since I'm not that big of fan of water I never use it, so why bother maintaining it? ^^; I tend to turn it off and let it sit there until someone comes along who wants to put in the effort to get it going again. Anyhow, they're really digging it. I'm glad to see them relax after a hard day's work.
Oi, I have a lot of anime watching to do and not enough hours in the day. I have 8 more episodes of Noir to watch. Sean had gotten me Geobreeders and I haven't watched it yet. This evening I picked up Mini Goddesses 3, Love Hina 3, and Excel Saga 1. Other titles that are on my "get" list once they're released and I have fundage are Silent Mobius, Hellsing, and Noir.
I finished reorganizing my office the way that I wanted it this afternoon. The only thing missing is the Linux box that I want to set up on the back table behind my desk. Now my desk faces the door (no sneaking up on me!) and I have plenty of shelf and drawer space. In fact, my office could well be described as a live-in storage room ^^; Most of our parts inventory is squirreled away neatly in boxes and put on to shelves. And they're going to put up some more shelves for me. Yay :)
Tomorrow is going to be an interesting day at work. I'll write more after everything's happened and I'm free to talk about it.
find your element
at mutedfaith.com.
<º>
06.20.02 :: 07:17
I had a dream this morning that my stomach was all cramped up and I had to go to the bathroom. ... Then I woke up and realized that it wasn't a dream. I spent a half hour this morning getting my guts to unravel. Dunno why they were all worked up, but I'm feeling better now ^^
I brought most of the parts I need for building my junker Linux boxor with me to work :) I'll get that set up when I have nothing better to do ^^ It's all coming together nicely, wai wai ^^
I noticed that some punk ass kids did a bunch of tagging along the route I take to work in the morning. I think it bothers me for the wrong reasons though. I'm bugged because they do these big loopy things that I can't read and have no artistic value IMO. There is some very nice graffiti around town that no one's covered up 'cause it actually is well done. But what they did is like a kid coloring on the wall with a crayon; nothing but an annoyance.
06.20.02 :: 11:57
W00t! W00t, I say! I pieced my Linux box back together and have it humming contently on the back desk behind me :) It's not *pretty* by any measure of the word, but it's functioning! I remember how to get into root, so I'm dangerous as well! Now to teach myself the rest ^_~
06.21.02 :: 07:22
Josh was fired yesterday. We all knew it was coming except for him. That surprises me a bit since it seemed pretty obvious to me that his behavior was going to land him into trouble. I'm not sure how this'll affect me. When it came to working with him, it was hard to get answers to begin with. Now that he's gone, I'm *still* not getting the answers I needed. Not much of a change if you ask me ^^;
There's going to be an unscheduled get together at my house this weekend. It started innocently enough and have ballooned into a party ^^; Vera and Austin are already there. Mike was going to come up this weekend to check on things (make sure Vera and I haven't killed each other ^_- Just kiddin' ;) Then Adam called and said he's stopping by (with Mare?). I told him to kidnap Elf for me since it was along the way. I invited Justin over 'cause we needed help moving furniture today. Then Vera wanted me to invite Jeffy and Nathan over to go hot tubbing and, well, now there's going to be a lot of people at the house ^^; Alessar has already told me that I can't play video games in the hot tub or play Blitzball ;_; No fun!
I got some solid JSRF playing in last night (the first time in a week ^^; ) Heh, it's weird how the levels I really suck at Austin blasts right through, while the opposite is true as well. If we were one person we'd be an ubergamer :P Austin's already finished the game and is now in chapter 9 (where you can do all the bonus stuff). I'm in chapter 7 currently. I picked up all the bonus skaters that you can before chapter 9 including Austin's girl, Cube ^^v
I'm up to episode 22 of Noir now. Sean says it's a gripping ride from here until the end. I just have to find some time to enjoy it ^^;
06.22.02 :: 11:26
W00t! I finished Jet Set Radio Future this morning =D The last level was evil, EVIL I say! --; Here are my tips for the game:
- When doing races at the Expo, choose a character that is good at *grinding*. I like Garam and Boogie for this. Cube is the fastest character, but outright speed won't win the race. Grinding is faster than skating, so grind through as much of the track as possible. That includes grinding off the blue walls unless you have enough spray cans to boost down the straightaway.
- During City Rush challenges, you don't have to strictly stick to the course. Use shortcuts and back alleys if they're available. If you can drop down to a lower part of the track and cut off part of the length, that's perfectly okay!
- The black baddies on the bottom level of the last stage can't be defeated. They're only there for smacking spray cans out of. When trying to find the way up to the final boss, grind off of the telephone lines that have the spiral stair case behind them. You'll never touch that stair case, but it'll tell you that you're going to the right set of lines. You can't damage the boss until you've grinded all the way up 3 times. Once you make it up, you might as well jump right down again and come back up (yes, this is *very* aggravating). If you knock the boss down, he'll come back up again. You don't have to chase him around.
- During chapter 8, don't bother fighting the baddies in Shibuya station. They regenerate and continue to be a pain in the rear. They'll go away permanently once you hit chapter 9.
- Most of the skaters share stats with at least one other character. It's possible to go through the game using 3 or 4 of your favorite skaters. My personal picks are Garam (or Boogie) for levels that require a lot of grinding. Beat (or Corn) for general tagging type challenges. Gum for City Rush challenges. I also tossed Yoyo in there 'cause I just like him :)
06.22.02 :: 21:44
It's a party at my place. Woo, 12 people. That's a heckuva lot more people than I expected ^^; Anyhow, Justin said something really funny and I wanted to write it down before I forgot it. We were discussing how to immigrate to Canada. I told them my half-baked plan on going across the border and claiming refugee status =P Then we Nathan said that his father had a friend who was deported from Canada. I asked how such a thing was possible. Justin's answer, "He declared at the top of his lungs that he hated hockey." ^^; Okay, so it's probably funnier in context, but still =]
I'm pissed at my father right now, but not as much as I was this evening. We've gotten a lot of work on the house done. The living room is more or less finished, as is the yard. We're well on our way in the kitchen. We've chipped in more than a few pretty pennies out of our own money to put this place back together. In short, we've done a lot.
Anyhow, my dad called me this afternoon and left a voice mail scolding me for leaving these 4 speakers that are older than I am (but cost him $150 each at the time) on the porch while we were moving furniture around. When I called him back to tell him something else he told me again to move the speakers. I turned around and bit him for not at least *thanking* us before complaining about the work we've done. It's like he's so blasted ungrateful --; My friends are putting a lot of effort into this project and he isn't grateful... Augh! He hung up on me before I could tell him why I called in the first place. I threw my phone to Mike and then went in the back yard to scream at the cows until I'd vented most of the anger off.
It makes me feel like I'm wasting my friend's time and our money by doing the work we are. Yes, fixing the house is for me since I live here.. but it's *ultimately* for my father so that he and mom will move back here and I can move out. (Something we *all* want except my mother, who won't budge until the house is repaired). We're putting our efforts into this, striving for that goal, and he won't help us. I mean he's giving us some money towards this project, but not as much as myself, Austin, or Vera. How sad is that? =/
We went to see Minority Report this afternoon. It was a pretty good movie, great story, but just a tad on the long side for my tastes =/ If they could have told the same story within 2 hours I would have been totally for the movie.
06.23.02 :: 23:26
I'm irritated right now and it's not anyone's fault but my own. I can identify "triggers" for my irritation, but they aren't the source of it. I'm just feeling touchy right now and kind of want to be left on my own. I've had someone at the house constantly for 2 weeks now... how odd... ^^;
I'm aggravated that I'd overdrawn my checking account even though I'd been keeping a close eye on it 'cause of all the work we were doing. It also makes me mildly angry that I would have never been put in the position of spending the money if I wasn't working on the house. Then I get feeling angry at my dad for not helping out more (physically or financially). But it's not his fault that I overdrew my checking account. I've never done it before, actually, so it'll be a learning experience to see what the fall out is (besides the fees that the bank has already levied against me).
I'm annoyed that people keep touching / poking at my computer. Again, that's not their fault, it's the only net connected machine in the house (along with having a burner). But I don't want my net connection messed up since I need it for work. I'm annoyed that the burner is acting up and is making more coasters than actual discs... --; And that I have to listen to complaining about how it's not working. I'm not made of money, I can't afford a new burner. I have no inclination towards rebuilding the machine right now anyways. Yggy works just fine for what *I* need her to do. It's childish and selfish of me, but that's how I'm feeling.
Don't get me wrong, I had a great time this weekend with everyone visiting, but I'm tired ^^; I should lay down to rest, but when I do I start thinking about all the crap that's on my nerves and I can't sleep.
I've tried to drown out my thoughts by playing a lot of games this weekend... Vera hit the nail on the head when she said Austin and I have played JSRF to death by now. We both have over 20 hours in the game, have finished it, and are in the midst of doing the bonus challenges. I tried to distract myself by watching anime last night. Watched Geobreeders and wasn't that impressed by it ^^; (It could have just been my mood, not sure). I watched the first episode of Excel Saga after that and think I enjoyed it more. I can't remember [blinks] I know that Adam really liked it. He kept watching it after I restlessly wandered off to find something else to do.
I watched through episode 25 of Noir on Friday. I'll probably watch the final episode tomorrow, but I'm not sure that'll change my overall opinion of the series... ^^; Honestly, I found myself getting more worked up over some of the mid-game cliffhanger episodes in Princess Nine than I have at anything that's happened in Noir ^^;
It's like... when there's a story that people think is fairly simple, but it's actually quite complex once you've dug deeper than the surface in reverse. I assume that the Noir is complex and I'm just too dense to not see it as a simple story. My summary of Noir: A case study of raising 3 assassins. Chloe is the control specimen. Mireille is the one left in her native environment. Kirika (Lain) is the one they've influenced, but not absolutely. There's a lot of window dressing about taking over the world, or reforming the world, or something o'rather, but that's not important. What's important is understanding how the 3 specimens act and interact.
Or... maybe I'm just too cynical right now ^^;
06.24.02 :: 08:45
I added a JSRF tips page to the review section this morning. Most of them are general tips. I could write a more thorough guide if I were sitting in front of the game playing through it again, but I probably won't ^^;
I was looking at the log files for the site this morning and found some surprising things. First, the logs look different now. Josh had reset them up since he hadn't done it right the first time ^^; Now they give me *a lot* more information than they used to o.O; Like they can tell me down to the city where most of my hits are coming from o.o I also discovered that most of my search engine hits are coming from my dex drive saves section ^^; Hehe, I guess there had to be *something* useful on this site, eh?
06.24.02 :: 23:38
I finished watching Noir this afternoon. I still think I hit the nail on the head when it came to describing what the true plot of the series was ^^; Forget all the Soldats stuff, it's just about lesbian assassins, baby.
Vera, Elf, and I watched the first 3 episodes of Excel Saga this evening. Yep, I did like it ^^ So far, episode 3 is my favorite because of the fun it pokes at Leiji Matsumoto(sp). I *really* don't like his work. I don't like the art style and I don't like the inconsistent plots within the *same universe*. So, the end of Excel Saga 3 was great with the Matel rip-off being, well, ripped off ^o^
06.25.02 :: 10:00
Augh, I'm having a bad allergy attack right now ;_; I've left a trail of tissues and empty boxes in my wake as I try to escape the runny nose and watery eyes of summer! I woke up at 4am with a runny nose (usually my attacks don't wake me up o.O; ) I've found that I'm *mostly* okay if I hide out in my office, but the second I'm outside the door my nose is flowing like a faucet.
Needless to say, this has done little to improve my sullen disposition. My current aggravations revolves around people telling me things I already know; and they're not even *useful* things... Like, telling me obvious things. Dad called me last night to remind me that Wednesday is garbage day. Uh... Wednesday has been the garbage day for how many years now? Why on earth would I need to be reminded of that fact? --; That's like pointing to the sun and saying that it's hot. Yeah, so...? (He also called me last Friday to tell me that the carpet cleaners wouldn't move the furniture for me. Uh.. no shit --; )
Jackie has a new address. I think I updated all my links. I adore her new layout. It's very cute ^_^ I also updated other links that I was too lazy to fix before ^^;
06.25.02 :: 22:05
Justin came over for dinner tonight ^^ Vera made chili with green beans and corn in it, very yummy ^^ We're going to go with Justin to see Lilo & Stitch tomorrow evening. Something to look forward to.
There was a cool Elf / Justin quote combo while they were playing Mario Kart 64 this evening:
Elf: ;_; "I'm so far behind I couldn't send you a postcard!"
Justin: "Wish you were here. -- 3rd place"
Thankfully my allergies backed off some this evening. This morning was ridiculous with how runny my nose was. I'm still sniffling and sneezing some, but not to the point where I'm absolutely miserable. I'm going to go to bed as soon as my sheets are finished drying. I didn't expect to come home from work today to find my bedding stripped o.O; [blinks] I'm not used to others even thinking of doing such a thing for me ^^;
I also added a bunch of weird links to the side stats bar. Okay, so I was bored, what can I say? ^^;
06.26.02 :: 08:50
We watched the rest of the first Excel Saga DVD last night, though it was a struggle. For some reason my PS2 hates that disc and refuses to read it --; A bit of coaxing and a lot of button pressing later I'd managed to get it to play, sorta. I think it skipped part of the 4th episode. It definitely skipped the permissions intro and the opening song, then the audio track was out of sync with the anime, then the subtitles are all funky (it switched to "Pop-up Video" mode and wouldn't go back to just straight subtitles). Maybe I should buy the remote for the Xbox after all so that I can use it to watch DVDs...
I installed another network card into Yggy like Elf asked me to. Elf wants to try to set up Internet connection sharing on Yggy so that he can hook his laptop up to my cable connection, but I'm not sure it's going to work the way he thinks it will. Charter does some funky blocking and the only way I've found around it so far is to use a router (which I don't have). Well, Elf can have fun trying to skirt around it. Maybe Jeffy knows how... I didn't even think of asking him ^^; [stupid bean]
I'm listening to Here is Greenwood vocal best collection. A song just came up that I haven't heard in years. I used to listen to it all the time, like, 5 - 6 years ago after I had the first incarnation of Yggy built. I can't even remember the title of the song off the top of my head even though I know it. It's that song that plays during the last episode of the OVA. Wow, and another song just came up that I used to listen to a lot. Memories~~
06.26.02 :: 14:10
Ah.... the vindictive, vicious, spiteful, likes-to-see-the-pain-of-others part of me is cajoling at all the misery that's being spread around today. First off, the shake up of WorldCom. As a spill over of my burning dislike of Qwest and big telcos, I can't help but feel a bit of glee at WorldCom's recently disclosed financial troubles. I shouldn't be as happy as I am about this. If WorldCom sinks they take UUnet with them, and UUnet is sort of important in the structure of the Internet as a whole, but still...
Also along the "WTF?" scale, a court today declared the US Pledge of Allegiance is unconstitutional. It's nice to know that instead of *remembering* the lessons of our founding fathers we'd rather dig them up and shoot them. Whether anyone likes it or not, this country's founders were religious people who saw their faith as a tenant of daily life. As time progresses, I have no doubt that history will continue to be rewritten until that little fact is obscured or removed entirely.
I think the important thing to remember that is all too often forgotten is that the division of state and religion was not put into place to protect the state (as it's used nowadays) it was originally put into place to protect *religion* from state interference. We can remove every 'mark' of religion upon our nation -- the direction we're headed in currently -- but we'd also be erasing a very real and meaningful part of our history if we did so. We don't have to be a religious state, don't get me wrong, but it *is* wrong, IMO, to forget where we've been or even worse to *deny* where we've been.
06.27.02 :: 08:53
Lilo & Stitch is awesome, it's the most enjoyable Disney movie I've seen in years ^_^ I don't think it'll be smash hit in the box office, but I liked it :) Stitch is so cute, it reminds me of Pepper (destructive tendencies and all ^^;;;)
Justin came by after the movie and helped set up the network Elf fiddled with all afternoon. Elf worked on it for 6 hours and got no where. Justin worked on it for 6 minutes and it was working ^^; Despite what people think, all geeks are not made the same. Justin is a leet network person while Elf is a leet programming person. Anyhow, it all works. Now I have to build some long network cables so that there aren't 3 people and their computers in my relatively small bedroom using the net connection :P
Some really weird computer errors have been happening to me lately -- *just* me. My co-workers try to reproduce the errors and it doesn't happen to them. Only to *me* =P For example, the web based mail was popping up extra windows when I replied to customers' emails. We rebooted the server. Rebooted my computer. Poked at it with a stick. It's just.. weird!
Vera and Elf are going to conduct "Operation: 4-player" this afternoon. Their mission is to go to kfalls and rescue Austin from that awful place called "school" so that he can come over here and play for the weekend. Vera's going to be the pilot while Elf is the navigator (well, in theory, Elf says he doesn't know the way well enough to direct anyone there ^^; ). I gave them the keys to my car, directions, and my cellphone. They should be okay ^^
06.28.02 :: 10:09
Oi... my sleeping schedule is weird... well, no, *I'm* not weird. The people staying with me are the weird ones. But I *feel* like the weird one 'cause I'm the only one maintaining it. I usually go to bed between 10pm and midnight (depending upon if I'm watching anime or not) and then get up at 6am. Vera-tachi goes to bed who knows when (I'm guessing around 2am on average) and sometimes don't wake up until I poke them at noon. (I go home for lunch some days). I'd *rather* maintain the sleeping schedule they do, but I can't =/ And I feel like I'm missing out on all the fun 'cause I have to go to bed so early and they're still up playing games and whatnot.
Anyhow, Pepper hasn't slept with me in over three weeks. I leave my bedroom door cracked so that she can come in if she changes her mind. Usually I find her in the hallway asleep (that way she can catch whoever comes out of their room first).
I woke up this morning and found that my room door was closed (I hadn't left it that way), Pepper wasn't in the hallway, stuck my head in the guest rooms and didn't find anyone o.O; I wondered if the unthinkable had happened and Vera-tachi had gotten up before I had and left. The last place to check before I panicked was the master bedroom. Yup, I found them there. Pepper was stretched out at the foot of the bed asleep. Austin, Vera, and Elf were all asleep on the bed as cute as could be. They'd fallen asleep while watching MST3K: The Movie ^^;
When I went out to the kitchen to feed Pepper I discovered *why* my door was closed and they were passed out cold: they'd started the work on the kitchen last night o.O; (It's been around 95F during the day. They must've wanted to do the work while it was cool at night). They'd pulled *everything* out of the cabinets and pulled off the 'tact paper. O.O; I dunno how they could have done that without waking me, but they did. I'm amazed to say the least, and extremely grateful for their help in getting these projects done.
Dad and I have mostly kissed and made up from this weekend. Meaning: we've stopped growling at each other, but we haven't really addressed the underlying issues (at least, to my satisfaction). We're going to have lunch together today and probably talk s'more. He was grumpy this weekend 'cause he has a sinus (mom said it was a tooth. Not sure which is parent is right) infection that had swollen his right eye shut. He's looking a lot better now and is disposition has likewise improved.
He gave me some money last night. He said it was to pay me back for other things that he owed me on. Eh, whatever. When I lend money I don't ever expect to get it back ^^; However he wants to tag it, it's still cash that'll fund work on the house =] He came out the other day and took away a load of trash and the cans (he got $8.05 back from the deposit). He's going to come out on Tuesday and take away another load. He hasn't pitched in as much as I'd hoped yet, but every little bit helps :)
I finished the Jet challenges on the Rokkaku-dai Heights level of JSRF last night, unlocking Gouji. That level was tweaking me the other night because I'd finished tagging the level in 7 min 15 sec when the top score was 9 min and only got a Nitro rating. Grr... When I did it last night I'd tagged it in 4 min 59 sec and got the Jet rating I expected the first time :P I could probably shave another minute off if I didn't have such a hard time getting up to the highest part of the level ^^;
06.28.02 :: 22:51
Weird thing happened when I went to lunch with dad. We went into a market to get a soda and I'd stopped by the newspaper rack to look at the headlines while he went to pour the drinks. A guy with a backpack ran into dad. He then suggested that dad watch where he's going. Dad replied that he should step up to the counter he was working at instead of standing in the middle of the aisle. I didn't think much of it until they continued to exchange words and dad finally said (loudly) "Do you want to make something of it?!" I stepped between them at that point and told them to chill o.O;
The guy with the backpack was an idiot even if he was 'right' (which I'm not saying he was. I mean, honestly, people bump into each other all the time. Heaven forbid he live in Tokyo!) But he was a wiry guy that didn't look to be much older than myself. My dad is 6'5", hefty, and was wearing his mechanic's uniform. In short, he was *looking* like someone you wouldn't want to mess with. I dunno about most people, but I wouldn't mess with someone who was a foot taller and 100lbs more than me.
When we were leaving we spotted the guy with the backpack riding off on a bike with "Jesus" on it. Gyah --; Almost getting into a scuffle in a market over nothing is hardly the impression He would want us to give, I'm sure...
06.29.02 :: 19:46
Final Fantasy Mages is back! Wai!
Austin, Vera, and I went over to Justin's this morning to help him move. After that we went back to the house and started cleaning s'more. My parents were coming over for BBQ at 5pm and the kitchen was still in shambles ^^; Of course I had an ill-timed allergy attack --; I feel pathetic when I go places with a box of tissues under my arm, but I have to sometimes... Dinner was so good though *_* Everything came out perfect. [Wuvs on fruit salad]
06.30.02 :: 22:18
I took Vera to see Noises Off at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival today. She'd chosen it a couple months ago and I got the tickets for us. I'd never seen Noises Off before. It was pretty good. I wasn't uproariously laughing like most everyone else in the audience was, but I could see the humor in it :)
After that we had a quick pasta dinner. Then Vera, Elf, Justin and I went to see Spider-man (Elf and Vera hadn't seen it yet. It was my third time and Justin's fifth ^^; ) After that we went to Wendy's and watched Vera and Justin create a ruckus ^_- Note to self: Don't take them to Wendy's anymore ;P
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