RTFM

Lack of Hair

2012-02-04T06:50:00.000-08:00

I buzzed my head. It's been a week now.

So, why? A lot of people have been asking and yes, of course there's a form answer that I give, but I suppose digging deeper is what blog posts are supposed to be for right? Speaking of that, this blog has descended into into just another "read about my silly life" exercise. *shakes head* Guess that's a topic for another day.

Also, why didn't I tell hardly anyone that I was going to do it? The first one is easy, I wanted a change. Buzzing my head was attractive in many ways and not permanent. I can wear all the hats I want now! All the time! No hat hair! Wind? No problem! No more annoying hair to get in my face and stuck to my lips. So yes okay, maybe all of these changes (see previous blog posts...) are starting to make it look a little like I'm having a late-twenties life crisis, but so far, a pretty benign one wouldn't you say? I feel restless and vaguely dissatisfied, though I can't pinpoint if there's anything I could change or do that would fix it. I guess part of the problem is that I had a very clear, distinct goal in life for a last few years and now I don't. All of these changes are short-term goals that I've actually more or less already achieved (yay for achievements). Obviously I have no idea what long-term goal I want to pursue so now I'm just floundering around jumping from one thing to the next. This is how most people do life yes?

Okay back to the main topic at hand, so I only told less people than I can count on one hand. Part of it was that I didn't want to deal with people trying to talk me out of it. Another part of it was that I really wanted to see the look on people's faces! Unfortunately that didn't pan out as well as I'd hoped. I saw quite a few people the day after the buzz, but so far, barely anyone from my core friend group. You'd think I'd organize something so I could see everyone but frankly I'm a little tired of organizing things at the moment. It's one thing to be able to count on people to be excited about the things you organize and another to hope that they'll be excited and then have the wind in your plans' proverbial sails sucked out by their apathy. Okay fine, not everyone is into everything that I'm into, but fuck, isn't that what friends are supposed to be for? Be interested in the same things and do stuff with you? So that's certainly a major let-down. I guess I could have kept it to myself and off the interwebs until I saw them, but I felt like I was starting to cross the fine line of it becoming some sort of weird secret.

How do I like it so far? Everything is crunchy. And the back of my neck feels cold. But so far I like it a lot more than I thought I would. I think I will definitely keep this super short length for a while and buy more hats. Certainly a cute fedora is in my future :)

Intense. Passionate. Excitable.

2011-12-15T22:48:00.000-08:00

It's not exactly like I didn't know these things about myself, but realizing that other people attribute these characteristics to me gives me pause.

So yes, sometimes I am very focused and generally, when there is something that I want, I usually get it. If I am grilling someone, there is no doubt that all of my attention and energy is centered on that person and I could care less about what else is going on.

That intensity naturally leads me to be passionate in my dealings. Almost every event that I find interesting I want to share with others and I try my best to promote it and get others interested. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.

I'm pretty cheery. But beyond that, I've been known to get so excited that I start to feel lightheaded and actually, I recently watched this youtube and can TOTALLY relate. It's fun to be excited. I like living in the moment.

Which is why I'm really interested to see where QC takes it from here. Is Jeph going to lean on the side of "Enjoy It While It Lasts" or "It's Not Worth the Pain"? Because really, what is life without a little pain here and there? Some of my best stories are of my worst moments. And isn't it weird that when you're down, or when you're especially happy, everything in the world sympathizes with you?

Lone Ranger

2011-12-07T23:46:00.000-08:00

For the last month and a half I've been making some changes. I've decided to like drinking whiskey. Consequently, I've also been drinking a lot more. I've also decided to like drinking black coffee; so far I can tell the difference between shitty black coffee and not so shitty. I'm still planning on walking to the park and ride a few times a week, but fell sick after the first time. I even tried some olives over Thanksgiving. Yup, they still taste bad. I also have been eating some eggplant (*gasp*) and the ones that I had during lunch yesterday really weren't too bad. I couldn't even taste "eggplant".

Why the changes? Well, to be honest, yes, I'm not satisfied and I want to improve. Whether or not these specific changes are an improvement is up for debate.

But to be really honest, you know how emo people cut themselves? I'm not saying it's like that. It's much less complicated. It's more about being insolent and saying "You know this idea of me? You think you know me? Well fuck you, that box is boring. I will be whomever I goddamn well please." These are not warm, fuzzy, feel good changes. There's a simmering pot of anger and frustration, the makings of every lone cowboy gunslinger. They drink their black sludge because fuck nice things. Getting soaked to the bone and having to sleep without a fire? Good. The outside finally matches the inside.

Nothing like a backpacking trip in the middle of December.

Not Quite the Post I Was Expecting

2011-11-11T20:33:00.000-08:00

Before I set off for China, I envisioned being able to get on the internet on a pretty frequent basis, and I wasn't wrong there, but what I forgot to take into account was the Great Firewall. Being unable to access Blogger took the pressure off of documenting my travels, but now, there's so much to document that really, the picture that I'm going to paint for you is a finger painting using only the primary colors. But that's not the subject of this post, so you'll have to continue to wait for that.

I could have gotten the China 2011 post to you earlier, but then I got hung up on having pretty pictures to show too. I created a Flickr for my co-workers and put up all the typical ones. I put all of the other pictures I took on a Facebook album. The problem now is privacy. How much do I want RoughDreamer to be tied to my name and is it already so tied that it doesn't matter anymore? I've been pretty laissez-faire about my online footprint but I have some pretty paranoid friends, and while Zach (who is also pretty paranoid) is the only person I mention by name on here (that I remember anyway), conceivably, this little web I'm spinning implicates a great deal of people.

But then there's the whole, really, who gives a fuck? Do I really think anyone important or malicious enough is going to put in that much effort to stalk me in order to ruin my life or the lives of people I know? I've been meaning to Google myself and do some self-stalking but keep on forgetting...but mostly I think I won't because there's large part of me who really just doesn't want to know what's out there. I have been pretty non-discreet. But how non-discreet do I want to continue living my online life is the question.

I'm not as whiny about my personal problems and issues online as I could be. None of my status updates/tweets are about how [insert emotion/physical ailment] I am, unless you count the ones a few weeks ago about my foot. But those were special. They had pictures! Speaking of pictures, I have grown increasingly fond of taking pictures using my phone and immediately sharing them. I love the fact that because of the wonders of the Internet, I can be doing something or looking at something cool and then BAM, by the power invested in my phone and technology, you too can practically stand right next to me and experience the same thing. It's the timeliness and immediacy of the interaction that makes it awesome.

For example, Wednesday night I saw Neil Gaiman and his wife, Amanda Palmer do a little show and dance. It was much more awesome than I expected and it actually kind of just felt like we were sitting around and they were just telling us stories. It didn't seem like a big production thing at all. Jonathan Colton was even there. But anyway, I knew some people would have been interested in the fact that this show was happening, so I took a picture of the billboard at the Moore and was going to tweet about it, but the network there was terrible or something and the tweet didn't publish. So instead of doing it way after the fact, I just deleted it. No point in letting people know about it now. It was just some thing that I did. The picture wasn't even that interesting.

The reason I don't post about negative stuff is because I dislike pity or even people feeling like they're emphasizing with me. Not specifically because of the whole "fuck you, you have no idea what it's like to be me", but mostly because I am ALL about managing how I appear to others. Yes of course I'm just as fucked up as the next person, but why should I advertise that? I'm happiest when everyone else thinks I'm happy. And luckily for me, I have a great group of friends that go out of their way to make sure that I'm generally pretty happy, so it's not really smoke and mirrors. Also, I hate dealing with my problems/issues/concerns/whatever over and over again, so if no one even knows to ask, then it's one less rehashing I have to do.

Dubstep

2011-10-07T23:57:00.000-07:00

What is dubstep?

I read the wikipedia article and still have no idea. However, this youtube street performer was my first intro to "dubstep" a few years ago.

I am suddenly super into this type of music with an interesting, fast-paced bass and electronic beat. I stumbled upon SoundCloud, which has a dubstep tag today. It is way way better than my Pandora radio station that I've been trying to cobble together to listen to at work. Of course, now that I'm going out of the country for two weeks, I'm unlikely to listen to any of this.

I'm in a really groove-based, yet high energy wanting to dance mood. I think this actually started at PAX this year. There was a room, Jamspace, that I stopped by on my way to see what was up with story games. It was really awesome and I caught one or two of the last songs by these two guys, but I don't remember their names. I think one of them had was some sort of animal or insect name. I really enjoyed standing in the back and letting the music wash over me.

It was a novelty to be by myself, at a mini concert. There's so few times that I'm not doing something with someone else to share it with that it's hard to enjoy things by myself. I don't remember the last time I watched a movie on my own. I can probably count on one hand the number of times I've eaten at a nice restaurant by myself. I don't particularly think it's because I can't do things on my own. I like sharing things that I think are cool with everyone else I know. I'm that person who derives maximum enjoyment out of looking at art and shows when I can whisper my thoughts and comments to someone.

It's like I almost don't trust that my experience on my own will be as valid or real without someone else there to share the reality. I should probably get over this, but it's so hard because I don't want someone else to miss out on something awesome. I'm always optimistic that the things I go to are going to be awesome. Why wouldn't you want to want to come with me? It's going to be awesome.

I'm Leaving On a Jet Plane

2011-10-07T23:08:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've made an international flight. Not super long. Two and a half years?

One of the differences I feel this time is not so much the "I'm going somewhere!", but more the "I'm leaving." aspect of traveling. This isn't the first time I've felt jaded about travel and I'm not sure why the aversion. I kind of like doing touristy stuff and browsing the little kitschy shops. What I dislike is the pressure I feel to take an obligatory photo of said landmark or landscape with someone in the foreground. I like the feeling of being far far away from everything familiar and being able to adapt and test my limits of going with the flow. I dislike constantly worrying about forgetting something, whether it's when I first leave, every time I leave the hotel, switching transportation, or leaving from a restaurant or event. I also don't like being super paranoid about things like money (is that guy going to rob me), the water (being sick on the go sucks), the time (don't want to get left behind).

I think for once in my life I'm kind of feeling like a vacation where I don't actually do all that much and I spend all of my time sitting in the warm shade reading and all events and food and water are perfectly safe. Like an all-inclusive cruise. Mmmm, food buffets 24 hrs/day! Now there's something to get excited over ;).

Also, taking a longer vacation caused a lot more organizing and training of back-ups than I anticipated at work. Everyone wants to get their shit out the door on Nov. 1st. So slightly bad timing. But I'm sure everything will work out. /supersincere

One thing that I remembered though that will make this fun is that Zach and I will not need to drive anything anywhere. So we can drink at any time! All times! Vacation is awesome! However, I have no idea what kind of alcohol is available in China. Are there cocktails? I don't remember drinking much when I was in Japan either. I'm again glad that Zach talked me into bringing another and bigger check-in luggage because I'm going to need something to bring back the booze. Foreign, exotic booze is so cool that we don't ever drink it (case in point, the rum that we brought back from Jamaica two and a half years ago).

Story Episode #10

2011-10-04T22:31:00.000-07:00

Ten minutes later, after both our hands were sprayed and the mess cleaned up, Jack abruptly said, "Good job. I know you know I didn't think you guys had it in you, but I'm impressed. I'd pat you on the shoulder but my hands are still wet."

I shrugged, a little sullenly but I was appeased. "So now what? Do you think you finally have what you need for your disguise?"

He gazed at me appraisingly and said, "Okay. You've proven your mettle. I'll answer your question, but you are to never bring it up again. Is that understood?"

I nod slowly, "Yes sir."

He leads me up the stairs, taking them quickly, two at a time, but half way up the stairs, he stumbles on a step and flies forward, landing on his face. Or he would have if the stairs had stayed solid. I sigh inwardly, leave it to Jack to devise the most ridiculous secret entrances. With my luck, I'll have a slightly off posture and break my nose. I hesitate at the bottom of the stairs, trying to gauge which step he had "tripped" on when the stairs suddenly disappear and Jack's head pops up. "Come on then, you're taking too long. Just jump in here."

The room beyond the trip-step entrance is opulent and shimmery. Even the air smells rich. Jack takes a deep breath. "Notice that? I have a machine setup to infuse the air with particles of fat. Deliciously extravagant isn't it?"

Nigellians (Microscope - Story Game)

2011-10-02T20:51:00.000-07:00

If this Microscope game seems a little bare, it's because we only had time for one Lens, which was totally fine. I look forward to picking it up again sometime and fleshing it out a bit more :) It'll be really interesting to play a multi-session game. Give everyone some time to think over the history and maybe where they want to take it and then come back to it with a new set of eyes.

***
Our history was about the invasion of aliens who give us amazing technology, back when we were only at the Industrial Revolution-stage. The prime minister of Britain, Nigel Wilcox, manages to convince the world leaders to cooperate with the aliens because they discovered that the aliens were deadly allergic to a specific type of bacteria.

In later years, the followers of Nigel's philosophy and teachings have become powerful in the newly advanced world but hidden behind the idyllic façade are disturbing ripples of abuse of aliens, abductions of humans, and extremist groups.

One of those extremist groups are the Nigellians, extremists of Nigel's way of thinking, who believe humans are recklessly using the technology given by the aliens. They plot to use the aliens' weakness to drive them from the planet, but in so doing, end up dooming humanity and in the end, mankind is obliterated.
***

I think the scariest and most exciting part of Microscope is the fact that huge, major plot points and world blocks are laid by one person, with little to no say from everyone else experiencing the story. That kind of power the first few times is overwhelming and feels wrong, you're just thinking, "Really? You want me to come up with the big secret? I'm pretty sure whatever I come up with is not going to be as cool as what you could come up with."

But the surprise is that most of the time that's not true.

The story just needs to be told. And because whatever you say is going to be a surprise to everyone else, it has that added, "Oh I didn't see that coming" overlay, which is really what makes stories interesting. You listen to someone else tell a story because you want to know what happens next. In Microscope, and most story games, each time someone steps up and drops in a piece of the puzzle is the best part and what you need to keep in mind, is that there's going to be plenty of opportunities for everyone else to do the same, if not in this game, then in others. And the same goes for you. If whatever pops into your head at the moment doesn't seem like the coolest thing in the world, so what? This is just one story. And the rest of us are here to back you up.

And honestly, that's something I need to keep in mind too. I feel like story gaming is kind of like flag football sometimes. When someone is running at you or you're running after someone with the ball, what you really need to do is focus, and I mean REALLY FOCUS on reaching your hand out, and grabbing that damn flag. None of that half-assed flailing. Or worrying about if you're running fast enough, or if you're going to hit into the person. None of that really matters. And in story gaming, plot points and major reveals are that person with the ball. They're coming at you and it's your responsibility to focus and just reach out and grab it.

The Hedgehog

2011-09-27T00:23:00.000-07:00

Why is it that when you write down events that are odd, but really still ordinary, they are imbued with deep, artsy, significant meaning and symbolism? It's a nice power of putting words down, that they make the ordinary seem extraordinary, but sometimes things just happen, they happen to you, to me, and we're just there.

So I went to see The Hedgehog tonight. I've been trying to see it for weeks but haven't been able to because of my crazy schedule. I decided to go to the 9:35 PM showing because I needed to make dark chocolate covered bacon first and I also didn't think I could go home, take out the puppies, get some thing to eat and then get down to the Egyptian for the 7:10 PM showing. So really it was the only logical choice. I was planning on going by myself, but my friend R, whom I haven't seen in a year or more, agreed to go with me when I offhandedly mentioned it to her in an email. So we went. And we both really liked it. And maybe it was seeing an artsy, foreign film in the middle of the night on a weekday, or just the fact that it's something far enough removed from routine, but the drive back home was beautiful. The roads are still wet from the constant raining during the day and the streetlamps make it look like a cross between ice and an oil slick.

And though I'll probably be completely exhausted tomorrow and miserable with wanting to crawl under my desk and sleep, I hope I'll still think it was worth it to step outside the bounds and remember how easy it is to change and do weird things because it's interesting and not think about how crazy it would sound written down.

Level 20 Achievement Unlocked!

2011-09-26T20:21:00.000-07:00

When last we left The Grey Hand...
They had been following a fire salamander and its trail of embers led them to a set of double doors. However, these were no ordinary double doors. After looking carefully at the oddly moving bas relief, they realized that it had been infused with a bevy of tormented souls. Not very nice. Inadia called upon her god, the Raven Queen, to quiet the suffering of these abused souls and her god answered by bestowing a blessing upon the bas relief that eased the souls and caused them to no longer hunger after the lifeblood of the living.

Ever cautious, Vealkarion put his ear to the door and listened for sounds within. The occupants within were arguing with each other about administrative dungeon handling and why it had been the suck lately. There was no mention whatsoever of The Grey Hand. Thus insulted, they gave Kalavich leave to kick open the double doors, so they could give them what for.

Inside the room was a fire throne where a diminutive fire demon was animatedly chewing out one of his subordinates. When The Grey Hand barges in, he states his name as Sinder the Inferno and throws in an insult for good measure. He then Hulks up, and his signature move is revealed to be spewing magma from his body to grab his victims from 20 feet away and slowly roasting them next to his hot, hot body.

The fire Salamander Assassin was also in the room, along with two bat-like monsters with a pennant for doing large bursts of fire that caused victims to feel weakened.

The Grey Hand, well rested and raring to go, rolled up their figurative sleeves and got down to business. Which is, of course, the dismemberment and looting of uppity monsters.

Well-placed AOEs from Inadia made short work of the minion baddies and Malak's shouts of encouragement and tactical orders allowed everyone to not only be more determined to wipe the floor with their enemies' faces but draw from some unknown source of strength to deal yet another blow. Vealkarion, in particular, let loose a flurry of arrows so quickly and so densely that the ground ran red from the monsters' wounds. Kalavich separated early on in battle from the rest of The Grey Hand, but stalwartly held his position in the corner. Ctharyan, under the shadow that is ever present but cannot be seen by those of lesser skills, flitted from one side of the room to the other, though not always of his own will, striking his unsuspecting foes. The pool of his own blood was difficult to hide at times, but what he lost of his own blood, he made up for tenfold in the blood of others.

The glowing motes from an earlier scuffle appeared through the walls when the ground was thoroughly soaked and bodies littered the area. The combination of The Grey Hand's valor and bloodlust, and the unforgiving glowing motes caused the last few monsters' blood to run cold (tough to accomplish since most of them were fire-based) and they turned tail like the cowards they were, but not before one of the glowing motes claimed one for itself.
***
We are now lvl 20! This battle in particular really brought to light just how many different status and bonus effects we all do now. No longer is it just simply immobilizing and dazing enemies, but a whole slew of other stuff that is really really hard to keep track of. Zach wasn't at this encounter, but A played Zach's character for him and everyone kept on feeling like we were just not rolling enough dice :). I feel like we should have spent more time in the beginning doing monster knowledge checks because it wasn't until the middle-ish of the encounter when we all realized that the fire demon, Sinder, was undead and thus it was time to pull out all of our radiant powers. And even though I remembered in the beginning that my skull does 2d6 extra to demons, I forgot for the rest of the encounter.

It was a good "let's see how we can fuck up this room full of monsters and not die ourselves" encounter and it was even a little iffy there for a bit when a few of us were bloodied. My character only survived without needing a heal because of her skull which grants +10 resist to necro and fire. Which came very much in handy. Oh god one round lasts so long now. We had more monsters than usual and since we have a party of five, you have lots of time to think about what you want to do, but more often than not, by the time it gets around to you, the battlefield has changed so much that your original plan no longer works. But we did get through several rounds, enough for me to have used up all of my normal encounter powers, though P's Victory Surge really sped things up. It was like we were rolling along really well in the beginning but then lost steam after everyone had used up their encounter powers. Or maybe that's just me and I should pick different At-Will powers...again.

In Ballard

2011-09-24T23:07:00.000-07:00

I saw this:
http://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/kqo4x/new_pajamas_technology/

Your mom, she needs a pair.

Story Episode #9

2011-09-23T22:01:00.000-07:00

"I assume you have good news?" He leaned back in his chair and pressed his fingertips together, classic, though cliché.

I stared at him coolly. "If you'd like to step back into the House, you can see for yourself."

His eyes gleamed and he leaned forward, "I almost can't believe you two fuck-ups succeeded." He laughed and pinched the bridge of his nose, his personal exit motion. I lent down to my bag and slowly undid the zipper, drawing it out as much as I dared. I was insulted by how little faith he had in my skills, so I showed what little defiance I could by making him wait.

As I carefully drew the durians out of my bag, Jack roughly snatched it out my hands, recklessly drawing blood from both our hands. I winced as some of my blood dripped onto my bag, it wouldn't do to have my DNA scattered everywhere. I'd have to get it professionally cleaned if I ever wanted to use it again. I twirled my hands slowly so that the blood wouldn't drip and made my way to the kitchen.

Ten minutes later, after both our hands were sprayed and the mess cleaned up, Jack abruptly said, "Good job. I know you know I didn't think you guys had it in you, but I'm impressed. I'd pat you on the shoulder but my hands are still wet."

Arcane Gate FTW!

2011-09-21T00:04:00.000-07:00

A precursor to this post:
My friends and I have been playing D&D with the same characters since 4th Edition came out, June 2008. We're lvl 19 now after about a year of playing every Wednesday and Sunday, and these last two years of playing on just Sundays. I've written a few posts on campaigns that we've run, notably on Obsidian Portal (The Fallen Leaves of Mithrendain & The Crafters of Lon). It was fun, but also somewhat tedious depending on how much I enjoyed the session. I'm taking it up again, using this space for posts. I usually avoid using my friends' names in blog posts except for Zach, for privacy, so I'll be referring to everyone by initial.
We are in a party called The Gray Hand, our characters:

Inadia, half-elf wizard played by F (me)
Vealkarion, elf ranger played by Z (Zach)
Malak, human warlord played by P
Ctharyan, eladrin rogue played by A
Kalavich, dwarf priest played by S
Vygcarraash, dragonborn paladin played by J (currently the DM, so this char is not around)

Apparently player feedback would also be beneficial, though it'll probably be pretty one-sided with just me giving commentary. So approximately once a week, I'll be writing up what happened and then giving some thoughts. Also I have a terrible memory so if anyone cares enough when I make mistakes, please feel free to correct said mistakes in the comments.

***

The Gray Hand starts off by finding a secret passageway that has a shadow ward at the entrance. Since none of them are shadows or have anything shadow-based, they pass through with no problems. The room ahead is inhabited by two wizard-y scholars of low-importance, though they're nice enough and offer to give information about the tower in exchange for dispelling the shadow ward. Malak takes some valuable books and Inadia finds two rituals and the components that go along with them. The ward is dispatched readily by Inadia's Arcane superiority and Ctharyan's nimble fingers.
The scholars reveal that there is a demon in heart of the tower and that the purple flames around the tower are a means of transportation to and from the Forgotten Realms. They also notice Kalavich's "hat" and how it's not super good for him and have a nice little catch-up chat with Inadia's Skull of Sartine.
The Gray Hand offers one of their tower's rooms (once it's reclaimed and put back in Sigil) to the scholars before continuing down the hallway. The door to the next room is cracked open and they see an epic wresting match between a huge brute and a demon. The door going out of the room is also spied and the party decides to quietly sneak through the room using Arcane Gate.
It goes smoothly and Malak puts a Nail of Sealing into the door to buy the party some time to make their getaway. Inadia uses her nature skill and Mo-Mo to create dust to hide their tracks and they sneak into an empty room and wait for the monsters to go by. Once they emerge and continue on their way, they find gruesome remnants of the two huge brutes. The brutes appear to have been in the way of a large fire snake. Buoyed by the likelihood that all enemies in front of them have met a similar fate, the party picks up the pace, though always checking around corners to avoid meeting the fire snake face to face.
***
I liked that we used our brains instead of brawns for this encounter, but I think a small fight would have still been nice. Honestly, while I like being rewarded for coming up with smart ideas, sometimes it's fun to have things go horribly wrong. It would have been just as if not more amusing if they had already heard us coming and staged a wresting match or if the door had been locked. Challenge is good, tough decisions are memorable, and it's always about being a hero. Whether or not you're an effective hero is up to the dice.

PAX 2011

2011-09-13T23:09:00.000-07:00

Another year, another PAX Prime.

This was the most relaxed PAX I've ever had. I've finally boiled down PAX to what really matters: Friends & Indie Games.

We actually all (minus 1) sat down together at the Tap House Grill and had lunch together. Right in the middle of the day, during normal lunch hours, not to mention the exhibition hall being open. And the food was really good. And we had beers. Like adults. It was a real defining moment: we'd all done this song and dance before and there was no reason we needed to run around frantically, subsisting on junk food and being sleep-deprived.

I didn't even put on makeup for two of the days. Previous PAXes were focused on getting free T-shirts, the majority of which I never wear and fit me poorly, silly swag which sits untouched in bags, and playing up my role of being a hot gamer chick.

I'm hoping that this year's epiphany flows over to my IRL existence and that I can try to cut out some of the things that I used to think were important, but that I don't really need. Boil it down to the things that really matter. And what does really matter? Seems like sleep matters less and less because it's the only way I can hang out with more people.

Writing matters to me. I read somewhere that you have to get to a point where you can't NOT write, when not writing is like dying. I've always been focused on writing something amazing, and that's where it ends. But writing is one of the things that I do that I am genuinely proud of. I re-read good pieces and marvel that it was wrought by my hands and despair that I'll never reach that potential again.

I refuse to believe that I reached my creative genius in high school.

Thoughts on Fiasco

2011-09-13T22:24:00.000-07:00

I was finally able to make another Story Games Seattle Meetup last Thursday. Poor Zach had to wait forever for the bus and then walk 25 minutes home. He didn't get home until 7.

I on the other hand, got to have a relaxing dinner of crepes (#9), at Crepan Crepe World and then headed over to Gamma Ray Games. Fifteen people showed up! Two groups had to go across the street to The Capitol Club, and I was in one of those groups. I really wanted to try out a game of Shock or Polaris, but since I had brought along my book of Fiasco, I felt like I should learn how to play something that I own.

I watched some friends play a game of it during PAX and it really didn't spark my interest that much. The game that I played had lots of rabies and heroin in it and honestly, I was kind of bored during some of it. I'm not a huge Coen brothers fan, I'd rather my movies have a little less coincidental weird shit.

However, this was my first experience playing a game with complete strangers. We got along pretty well. And that's saying a bit since I hate lots of people. I wasn't sure I was going to get along with them at first, but after they loosened up a bit, it was fine. Definitely one of the drawbacks to story gaming for me because it's a slippery slope to outright hostility for me once I get rolling.

But if I like you, it means you're pretty awesome.

Images!

2011-09-12T17:12:00.000-07:00

My first two Reddit images!:

http://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/kdms9/herp_derp_dog/
http://www.reddit.com/r/aww/comments/kdnda/so_comfortable/

Story Gaming

2011-07-03T00:41:00.000-07:00

My second time at story gaming was as enjoyable as the first and I think one of the main reasons I enjoy it so much is that it's a chance for me to exercise my creative skill in an enforced manner. I have horrible writer's block/creative anxiety and it frustrates me because I feel like I am a creative individual but cannot express it.

I love that the elements I drop into the world that we're collaborating on become integral pieces. I love surprising myself with what comes out of my mouth. I'm surprised, but not overly so because as soon as my brain thinks of it and it starts coming out of my mouth, there's this feeling that it fits, that this is what is supposed to happen, like I'm on the outside watching and as an astute observer, can guess at what is coming next. It's all about not thinking too hard, intuition, and being flexible. I am unsure what my next sentence will be, but I have the feeling that if I just go with it, it'll turn out really cool.

This isn't my first time at this story-thing rodeo. I've been listening to others tell their favorite stories and telling my own favorite stories for decades. One of my good friends back in middle school was a fantastic storyteller. I loved hearing his stories, even though I'd heard them time and time again. It got so that I knew when he was skimping on details and when he was really launching into it. I would sometimes start laughing before a funny part, in anticipation.

But then, it's not really anyone's first time. We're asked to tell stories every day, often mundane ones, "What did you do today?" "Nothing much."

My own style of storytelling is full of facial expressions, exclaimations, and expectant pauses. But I never embellish. I occationally tell the stories of my friends if they're not there, or if they don't feel up to it.

What is the key to becoming friends with someone? Listen to them tell their stories, tell some of your own, and then go and create stories that the two of you can tell others. The more fantastic and interesting the stories, the faster you'll bond.

Basically, story gaming is genius.

Story Episode #8

2010-11-27T17:32:00.000-08:00

Before I could change my mind, I closed my eyes and contacted Jack. The bastard was VRing. I appeared right in the middle of what appeared to be a typically epic battle between the Ferengi and the Starship Enterprise. Jack was unfazed by my appearance and continued to shout orders from the captain chair. I looked down at myself and sighed in resignation, the goddamn VR had clothed me in a red and black unitard. I knew better than to interrupt Jack in one of his frequent forays into old Sci-Fi, who knows, maybe this time he was actually doing some research. Unlikely, but possible. Always best to give him the benefit of the doubt. I was about to go search the ship for the holodeck when Jack suddenly looks up and recognizes me. He makes the "pause scene" motion and we're suspended in time.
"I assume you have good news?" He leaned back in his chair and pressed his fingertips together, classic, though cliché...

While doing a small bit of research for this part, I came across this: Blue Stripe: The Life and Times of a Holodeck Janitor, which is an interesting bit of reading.

Story Episode #7

2010-11-18T19:45:00.000-08:00

Eventually, after much anguish, I found myself in front of the most ordinary house in the county. Not because it looked the same as all the other houses, though it did. No, it had a certain je ne sais quoi that caused it to fade into your subconscious, you know it's there, but if someone were to ask you to recall anything at all about it, it would appear blurry and nondescript in your mind's eye. I opened the gate and walked towards the front door, but instead of ringing the doorbell, I walked to the side of the house, which was hidden from view from the neighbors and from people walking their dog by a tall, healthy shrub. And then I walked through the wall.

Once out of sight and in safety, I gingerly lowered the backpack and unhooked it from my arms. Before I could change my mind, I closed my eyes and contacted Jack. The bastard was VRing.

Story Episode #6

2010-11-17T20:15:00.000-08:00

The sirens were deafening as the police arrived, loud enough to cover my grunts of discomfort as the durians poked into my back. I knew I should have splurged and gotten the model that allows you to self-inflate a cushion for the back.

Nevertheless, I trudged on. The day was full of light and waves of heat washed up against me from the ground but the warmth that surrounded me at every turn wasn't able to soak into my bones and ease the coldness I felt there. With every step my back felt like it was being hammered by a spiked mace. I imagined my shirt slowly being soaked and saturated and the droplets leading a path for everyone to follow. Eventually, after much anguish, I found myself in front of the most ordinary house in the county. Not because it looked the same as all the other houses, though it did. No, it had a certain je ne sais quoi that caused it to fade into your subconscious, you know it's there, but if someone were to ask you to recall anything at all about it, it would appear blurry and nondescript in your mind's eye.

Story Episode #5

2010-11-14T18:35:00.000-08:00

Three durians the size of my head were wrapped neatly in clear heavy-duty shrink wrap, they smelled about a week from being optimally ripe, just in time. I carefully unfolded the backpack I had in my pocket and shook it out. The wind caused a flurry of white powder and amidst the fake winter, I gingerly picked up the durian package with my hands and once they were securely in the backpack, I slowly donned the pack and took the back exit. The sirens were deafening as the police arrived, loud enough to cover my grunts of discomfort as the durians poked into my back. I knew I should have splurged and gotten the model that allows you to self-inflate a cushion for the back.

Story Episode #4

2010-11-10T20:17:00.000-08:00

As I crossed the threshold and my eyes adjusted to the dim, powder-caked everything, I instantly recognized what it was I came to retrieve. This post office contained a trophy case of all the various bowling and charity events the employees had participated in. It also contained the unmistakable stench of durian fruit.

At one point in the history of the human race, it was illegal to ship durians by most means because of its pungent odor. It's something you either love or hate, and if you were a hater, the faint waft of the smell could cause dry heaves. Nowadays, you shut up and donned your face mask if you had to come into contact with the fruit.

I let my nose lead me to the shipment. As I rounded the corner and saw the package, I whistled in appreciation. Jack had really gotten good intel on this one. Three durians the size of my head were wrapped neatly in clear heavy-duty shrink wrap, they smelled about a week from being optimally ripe, just in time.

So, I have been reminded that it is Nanowrimo, and while I've been wracking by brain for any sort of idea that I could conceivably write thousands and thousands of words about and be able to re-read over and over again without being utterly blargh, so far, nothing. Some half formed ideas of a sci-fantasy story that I thought of a year or two ago about a world that we discovered that is basically based on our fairy tales. Chock full of unicorns and such. They fed off of and evolved from our imaginations. And today on the bus, children with special abilities, starting with a boy who every night when he went to bed, would in his sleep grow a special hair that in the morning, when he woke up and it fell out, would either create a creature (bunny, etc.).

Wherein I Get Puppies

2010-10-09T17:58:00.000-07:00

I am now an owner of two (2) Pekapoos, which are a Pekingese and Poodle mix. They are six months old. Today is the first full day we've had them.

So where to start? They are of course very very cute. They really need a grooming though, the black one (Kyuubi II) has really long hair and the white one (Sophie) was recently trimmed but their hair still has clumps in it from the cedar that was in their living area from the seller. Unfortunately, the grooming place we've chosen doesn't have any spots open today and we have an appointment for Noon on Monday. They're also seeing the Vet for their first checkup on Monday at 9 AM. :( I have to work so I won't be there, but it's Columbus Day, so Z has the day off :).

We're having trouble getting them to eat and drink. They just don't seem very interested. We bought some Cesar Puppy wet food and we'll be trying that later tonight. We have three different kinds of treats, hot dogs, peanut butter, and bully sticks. So far only the latter two they're interested in and Kyuubi II seems to like cottage cheese.

I'm about 1/3 of the way through How to Raise the Perfect Dog by Cesar Millan. It's been interesting so far, but the only thing I've taken away from it is exerting a calm-assertive demeanor. Which I guess is pretty important.

PAX 2010

2010-09-05T23:05:00.000-07:00

Today was the last day of PAX Prime 2010. It was great as usual. Much much more relaxed this year than previous years, mostly because I've finally given up on winning swag/getting a bunch of free stuff. This economy just isn't cut out for the type of treasure looting I like.

Highlights include:

Winning diamonds* from the Monaco booth! I'd been thinking about winning them actually ever since I read the article and the guy was so nice! I played it once on Friday but it was with two little kids and basically we had a hard time working together and everyone died. The second time he basically waved the bag of diamonds* in my face and was like, go ahead and play a game and you'll get these. I got the most points out of my group but the Locksmith class usually does and he didn't really mention any sort of contest.. Anyway it was awesome. *i.e. 10 Cubic Zirconia

The final Omegathon battle was 15 rounds of The Claw! The plushies were all so cute! Zach and I got great seats up in the balcony section, actually right across the room from Scott Kurtz. This year's game was no less epic than any of the others. Though it was definitely swankier being in Benaroya than being crammed up next to sweaty BO boys in a huge room, but at the same time, it's nice to be able to jump up and down and have the room charged with energy. Benaroya's ceilings are just a little too high for good energy containment.

I bought Volumes 1-6 of Scott Pilgrim and also got a T-shirt, two wristbands and a sticker. I read through them all during this weekend, though I got a head start at my friends' house several weeks ago.

I got to hot tub for a bit on Sat. at my hotel. It was pretty nice.

I played Monty Python Fluxx with a bunch of strangers while waiting in line for the final Omegathon round and didn't win, they were nice to me, but also a bunch of jerks.

SIFF 2010

2010-06-08T00:09:00.000-07:00

So we watched 4 movies during SIFF 2010. Friday night was a midnight showing of Fight Club, the next day, Leaves of Grass, the day after that, Utopia in Four Movements, then the day after that The Wild Hunt.

Utopia was the only movie that wasn't filled with beating/deaths. Funnily enough, Fight Club was the least death-ridden. Only one death, and his name was Robert Paulson. Leaves of Grass had the most deaths, with about 5 deaths, and The Wild Hunt ended up being very violent for people with foam swords etc. and had at least three deaths.

What do I take away from watching four movies in four days?
(1) I do not want to get beaten up or shot.
(2) It is hard to be optimistic when human beings have such a high potential for really fucking shit up. Especially when things get crazy.
(3) [insert cliché redeeming human quality and/or witty funny].

Seriously though, my first SIFF was pretty cool and seeing Edward Norton was pretty awesome. Fight Club is still one of my most favorite movies ever and I've probably seen it more times than any other movie (though maybe not my Disney movies when I was a kid (i.e. Bambi, Beauty & the Beast, the Little Mermaid)). Anyway, I'm looking forward to next year's gluttony of movies.

I Want to Have Your Abortion

2010-06-05T19:11:00.000-07:00

Just finished watching Fight Club on the big screen with hundreds of other people. I've probably seen the movie about a dozen times now. One of the few movies that I've seen all the way through on commentary.

This time it was different. I'm no longer as reckless or restless as I used to be. It used to be that after watching the movie, it would alter the way I viewed the world and acted and I would have all this pent-up aggression and energy. The last time I watched it was in college and I ended up running laps around the UW fountain in the middle of the night. Now I guess I just feel like blogging.

Slicing my finger open and going through the excruciating pain that was getting "numbed" and getting three stitches in my flesh has reawakened my sense of frailty as a human, awe at the amazing ability of the body to heal, and OMG WE CAN FUCK OURSELVES UP SO EASILY. It is a goddamned miracle that the majority of us manage to go through life with all ten fingers and toes, and die of old age.

The movie certainly doesn't answer what should be the purpose and goal of life but it does give you the freedom to realize that you do have a choice. YOU are making all of the decisions here and at least you're probably more aware of it than Jack/Tyler.

Story Episode #3:

2009-01-30T20:51:00.000-08:00

Ghostly people started streaming out, caked in white powder, rubbing their eyes and face and looking dazed. I stood up, donned my shocked face, and ran over to see if I could be of any help.
"Oh my God, are you all right? Should I call 911?"
Several people were coughing and others were looking sadly at their ruined clothes and hair. An elderly man stomped over to where I was, he was purpley-red in the face, a sure sign of classic furious-rage-bottle-up-er.
"GODDAMN PROTESTERS! I HOPE THEY ALL ROT IN HELL!" He took a deep breath to continue his tiarade but instead inhaled some of the white powder and instantly doubled over with coughs. I tried to pat him on the back but he shook me off. I could hear the sirens in the distance, some neighbors must have took it upon themselves to report the incident. I slowly walked towards the entrance of the Post Office and casually called out to anyone who might have been interested, "I'll go see if there's anyone else inside that might need some help."
As I crossed the threshold and my eyes adjusted to the dim, powder-caked everything, I instantly recognized what it was I came to retrieve. This post office contained a trophy case of all the various bowling and charity events the employees had participated in.

Okay, so it's been a while but this episode came somewhat easier than the others. I think I'm going to be less hard on myself and not try to document every single movie I've seen. It's like dieting I guess. If you f-up it's okay to just forget it and move on.

"Friday Night" by Lily Allen

2009-01-30T20:31:00.000-08:00

Ooooooooooo
Ooooooooooo

Friday night last orders at the pub,
Get in the car and drive to the club,
There's a massive crowd outside so we get in to the queue
It's quarter past 11 now we won't get in till quarter to two.

It's quarter to and we get to the front,
Girl on a guest list dressed like a cunt
She asked security to check inside my shoes,
You can play this game with me but you know you're gonna lose.

[Hook]
Looked me up and down,
I don't make a sound,
There's a lesson that I want you to learn,
If you're gonna play with fire then you're gonna get burned,

[Chorus]
Don't try and test me cos you'll get reaction,
Another drink and I'm ready for action,
I don't know who you think you are,
But making people scared wont get you very far.

Ooooooooooooo
Ooooooooooooo

In the club make our way to the bar,
Good dancing love but you should of worn a bra.
Guy on the mike and he's making too much noise,
There's these girls in the corner wanting attention from the boys.

I see these girls and they're shouting through the crowd,
Don't understand why they're being really loud.
They make their way over to me,
They try to push me out the way,
I'll push her back, she looks at me and says,
What you tryna say?

[Hook]
[Chorus x2]

Oooooooooooooo
Oooooooooooooo

I heard this on the radio today and it made me think of myself lol. Oh it has been a long long time since I've been vicious and thrown some punches. The sucker who gets all that pent up aggression will definitely be worse for the wear. (Don't worry friends, I usually only hit strangers). I was thinking about it at work, how I would go about throwing down some punk ass and it's important when fighting a woman to make sure not to get your eyes gouged out and be prepared for a serious headache/less hair. I hope I remember to tense up my stomach and that if I get in the position to slam her head in the ground, that I remember to just rub it in the ground instead (don't want it to look too bad). Jail time for such a fight does not daunt me in the slightest. Just going through various scenarios gets my blood pumping.
....I should probably do some more yoga next week...

If you want to hear it, here's a funny YouTube Sims Music Vid of the song.

Movie Review #30-31

2008-11-30T16:57:00.000-08:00

11/24 Les Poupees Russes (The Russian Dolls) = Sequel to The Spanish Apartment, 30 yrs later.
This was a fun movie, I liked how realistic it was in going over the issues that people have to deal with, such as how do I find someone who will tolerate me and whom I can tolerate to love? The whole "needle in a haystack" -ness of it all is definitely super depressing and makes someone seem incredibly unlikely. And there are SO many people out there to shift through. You definitely need to know what you're looking for and have enough will power not to waste your time on someone that you know isn't suited just because you're bored.

11/17 Lust, Caution = A group of students decide to help the war by trying to kill an important figure.
I loved the fact that there was Shanghainese in the movie. In a lot of ways it reminded me of Crouching Tiger, mostly for the fact that it was typical (an unhappy ending) and shockingly untypical (graphic sex) in terms of Asian movies. I've always maintained that the majority of Asian dramas and movies are overwhelmingly depressing and horrible horrible things happen to the main characters because it makes Asians feel better about their lives. It was a good movie though and it's amazing what make-up can do for a person.

2 Songs that I Thought I'd Share

2008-11-14T09:53:00.001-08:00

Eels - Fresh Feeling
You don't have a clue
What it is like to be next to you
I'm here to tell you
That it is good
That it is true

Birds singing a song
Old paint is peeling
This is that fresh
That fresh feeling

Words can't be that strong
My heart is reeling
This is that fresh
That fresh feeling

Try
Try to forget what's in the past
Tomorrow is here
Love,
Orange sky above lighting your way
There's nothing to fear

Birds singing a song
Old paint is peeling
This is that fresh
That fresh feeling

Words can't be that strong
My heart is reeling
This is that fresh
That fresh feeling

Some people are good
Babe in the 'hood
So pure and so free
I'd make a safe bet
You're gonna get whatever you need

I heard this on KEXP today and it was SO CUTE, some guy requested it because his wife was having twins and they pick songs for all their births or something like that, anyway, I got a little choked up. Violins and a good beat in the beginning is so perfect.

I Was Dancing In a Lesbian Bar - Jonathan Richman
Well I was dancing at a night club one Friday night
And that night club bar was a little uptight
Yeah, I was dancing all alone a little self conscious
When some kids came up and said, "for dancing come with us."
And soon...

I was dancing in a lesbian bar.
I was dancing in a lesbian bar.

Well I was dancing in the lesbian bar
In the industrial zone.
I was dancing with my friends
And dancing alone.
Well the first bar things were alright
But in this bar, things were Friday night.
In the first bar things were just alright.
This bar things were Friday night.

I was dancing in a lesbian bar.
I was dancing in a lesbian bar.

Well I was dancing in the lesbian bar
Way downtown
I was there to check the scene
And hang around
Well the first bar things were stop and stare
But in this bar things were laissez faire
In the first bar things were stop and stare
In this bar things were lassez faire.

I was dancing in a lesbian bar.
I was dancing in a lesbian bar.

In the first bar folks were drinking sips
But in this bar they could shake their hips,
In the first bar they were drinking sips
In this bar they could shake their hips.

I was dancing in a lesbian bar.
I was dancing in a lesbian bar.

(Guitar)

I was dancing in a lesbian bar.
I was dancing in a lesbian bar.

Well in the first bar, things were okay
But in this bar things were more my way
In the first bar things were just okay
But in this bar things were done my way.

I was dancing in a lesbian bar.
I was dancing in a lesbian bar.

Well in the first bar things were controlled
But in this bar things were Rock and Roll
In the first bar things were so controlled
In this bar things were way way bold.

I was dancing in a lesbian bar.
I was dancing in a lesbian bar.

I was like wahhhaa? when I first heard it but this has seriously grown on me in a Jonathan Colton-kind of way.

Anyway, on to playing more Gears of War2.

Yes We Can And Yes We Did!

2008-11-04T20:11:00.000-08:00

Oh yeah. So that this can also be captured in history, Barack Obama has been announced by CNN as the next President of the United States of America.

The ground movement was unpresidented and I'm so so glad that I can say I was a part of it. Sure, it was only a few hours, some money, but it was well worth it.

Now we wait.

Movie Review #28-30

2008-10-29T10:31:00.001-07:00

11/8 Constantine = About a man who rids the world of demons that have meddled in human affairs too much.
Pretty scary at parts but a really interesting plot and concept. Kind of reminds me of Stigmata which also dealt with religious stuff and was pretty scary at times but at the end it was refreshing and deeply invigorating. Surprisingly, I've actually seen Stigmata several times, at least three times I think, and I wouldn't mind seeing it again. Even though there are some super scary and creepy parts, I think it's the fact that the concept is so cool that makes me interested in it.

10/28 L'auberge Espagnole (The Spanish Apartment) = About this guy who lives in Barcelona for a year to learn Spanish for his future finance job.
I got the sequel, Russian Dolls, from the library today so I'll be watching that within the next two weeks. It was a pretty good movie, just about the random dealings and sex lives of this group of extremely diverse people from various countries all placed in a foreign country trying to cope and learn something. Most of the movie is either in French or Spanish.

10/29 Forgetting Sarah Marshall = About a guy who composes the soundtrack to a CSI-like TV show, is dating the lead actress, but then she dumps him and he can't cope.
About as funny as Heartbreak Kid, maybe a bit more. The women in it are quite beautiful and most of it is in Hawaii so it's pretty too but definitely has more of the "omg this is so painful and embarrassing to watch that it's funny" type of humor.

Movie Review #27: Transformers

2008-10-21T22:45:00.000-07:00

10/20 Transformers = Alien machines on Earth.

The special effects made up for the nerdy silliness of the movie.

Movie Reviews #22-26

2008-10-14T21:54:00.000-07:00

Okay yes, I have been neglecting the blog for a while now again. Movies have suddenly been piling up and while I HATE HATE HATE inconsistency and not adhering to standards, the blog will not be able to continue unless I make it a little easier to catch up. I hope I didn't forget any or else this count will be inaccurate (another annoyance).

9/25 Tremors = Small town gets terrorized and many die.

10/4 Starship Troopers = Futuristic movie with soliders fighting alien bugs.

10/9 Stardust = Everyone's chasing after a fallen star but for different reasons.

10/12 Hellboy = During WWII Hitler's soliders open a portal and things come out of it.

10/14 I Want Someone To Eat Cheese With = About a fat actor guy.

Stardust was by far the best out of the bunch. It was beautiful, the characters were interesting and funny and the "oh noes...I know something that you don't and bad things are going to happen" moments weren't too bad. I usually don't like those moments because I don't like suspense. Hellboy was pretty good too, there was a bunch of interesting magic features that were cool.

I've been unmotivated to write for a while, but I've recently been on a reading binge. Soooo...instead of writing some more, I'm going to read.

Story Episode #2: The Beginning Part2

2008-10-01T22:15:00.000-07:00

Meanwhile, Joseph had rounded the corner of the block and was only picking up speed and falling into his escapist-stride. As soon as he was out of sight, I closed my eyes and tapped out the sequence to initialize the explosion. To a passerby, it appeared as if I was enjoying the feel of the grass, but thanks to virtual keyboards and the wireless connection I had implanted in the back of my neck, the Internet was always before me, instantly accessible. There was a muffled boom. Ghostly people started streaming out, caked in white powder, rubbing their eyes and face and looking dazed. I stood up, donned my shocked face, and ran over to see if I could be of any help.

Movie Review #21: Cashback

2008-09-30T09:03:00.001-07:00

9/29 Cashback = Boy gets dumped and ends up becoming an insomniac. He takes a night shift job at a supermarket to pass the time.

One of the weirder movies I've seen recently. Kind of meanders around, shows a lot of skin and has a weird creepy scene in the middle that made almost no sense. Almost all of the characters are good-looking though so it makes up for a lot of the unanswered questions. It had some funny parts in it but the only reason I'd see it again would be for the skin.

Story Episode #1: The Beginning

2008-09-27T18:45:00.000-07:00

As I sat waiting for Joseph to appear from the Post Office, I idly played with the lush grass that covered every inch of the city that wasn't paved. Each blade of grass was immaculately created and practically indestructible. Whoever came up with the idea to create natural-looking, feeling and smelling grass that was completely unnatural, must be a billionaire. I wish I had thought of it. When the strict water-conservation ordinance was passed, everyone's lawn turned to shit. People were quietly furious that their hard work could be destroyed in mere weeks. However, now that this unnatural natural grass is everywhere, no one cares about their lawn anymore. There's no way to make their lawn look better than anyone else's, especially since lawn ornaments have been outlawed.
Joseph ran out of the Post Office and jerked his head to the right to signal that Plan #1b would be the ideal course of action at this time. I smiled in response and continued sitting, lazily leaning back against the tree and for all intent and purposes appearing as if I was enjoying the hell out of the nice weather and quiet chirping. Meanwhile, Joseph had rounded the corner of the block and was only picking up speed and falling into his escapist-stride. As soon as he was out of sight, I closed my eyes and tapped out the...
Sorry, got mildly distracted by some speaker talk and I think I'm also at least two or three minutes over on this first attempt. I think after the first couple of these I'll write about if this is helping or not and if I should continue.

Movie Review #20: Tremors

2008-09-27T18:10:00.000-07:00

9/25 Tremors = Two handymen from the town of Perfection try to save the town's inhabitants from something that is killing them.

A bunch of my friends got together to watch this with me, seeing as I was the only one there that hadn't seen it. It was...silly. The acting during the 80's and early 90's really kind of annoys me. Pretty much any fist pumping, thumbs-upness makes me feel embarrassed for the actors. As for the movie's lvl of scariness, okay, it wasn't really that bad. Any of the Aliens movies are much scarier.

However, I feel like as I've gotten older that I'm more jumpy than I used to be. Not sure why...maybe my tolerance has decreased and so my guard is down and my instinct to yelp takes over. Screaming actually makes watching scary stuff a little more tolerable. I'm not sure I enjoy the feeling of being totally freaked out and super tense though. As I look back on some of the scary movies that I've watched, it's more the amusement and reminiscing that comes after surviving something horrible that wasn't particularly enjoyable at the time. Several such things come to mind: The Camping Trip, trying out for high school soccer, losing my big toe nail, and my high school graduation ceremony. These were all horrible horrible experiences at the time, but now that I've successfully survived them, they're now somewhat funny stories. Character builders I suppose. I also used to read a lot of scary thriller books back as a teen. A lot of Stephen King books as well as Anne Rice and even collections of short ghost stories. Of course, I was always super paranoid after reading them but I guess that period of my life when I was actively seeking out scary stuff was just a phase. This leads me to believe that no, I do not enjoy watching scary movies, they are something to endure so that I can "Character Build". I'm not sure though, if I've regressed somehow in my fear factor and if that's a bad thing. Maybe I'm really more comfortable in my skin that I can feel free to let my emotions out instead of bottling them up. I like to think that if something truly horrible happened in real life (such as a zombie apocalypse) I would be able to reign in the terror and be useful instead of a liability. It'd probably take a little effort and time in the beginning though. I'm sorry if it causes anyone to have their brains eaten. Maybe this is one area I need to undergo some training in preparation...though I think Left4Dead will be good enough.

Movie Review #19: Definitely Maybe

2008-09-27T17:49:00.000-07:00

9/22 Definitely Maybe = Dad tells his daughter about how he met her mother because she wants to know why they're getting a divorce.

It was kind of Princess Bride-ish, in terms of it's a story being told to a kid and the kid sometimes interrupts. It was really cute though and it's always interesting to follow people's lives and see where they're at and how they got there 10 years later. It's not super typical in terms of plot devices for RomComs, the ending bit is fairly original and I didn't expect it. Also, I shed a few tears...it was more of a awwww, sweet father-daughter thing than anything super sad. It was a pretty good movie overall I'd have to say :) And everyone in it is super pretty.

Movie Review #18: Raise the Red Lantern

2008-09-20T12:44:00.000-07:00

9/20 Raise the Red Lantern = Follows the inner politics of a household with four wives. Focuses on the 4th wife and her struggle to survive.

I'm still not sure if I've seen this movie before or not. While the movie was good, I still felt like they could have focused more on the women and what it was about them that made the Master marry them in the first place. I can't imagine what they did all day, cooped up in their little "houses", every night wondering if they're going to get the chance to maybe produce a son, which is the only way to better their position in the household and thus in their small world.

Would being a kept woman be super great? Or would you feel tied down to the guy and like a pampered slave? I would think the issue of being bored and useless could be easily solved by going out and getting involved in something of value. Reading to little kids at the library seems like it'd be fun. Or volunteering to help create stage sets for high schools or other theaters. There must be plenty of things that are worth doing without needing monetary compensation. I for one, love accomplishing tasks. I am extremely goal-oriented and, at least in games, will more than likely do plenty of grinding if I like what I'll get in the end. Having lots of little tasks with loose deadlines that I can accomplish easily would be my ideal volunteer work. I mean, my current job is pretty task oriented and I feel like I'm fairly happy in it. Now, if I did the exact same stuff in a cooler, more relaxed and fun-loving company that paid me at least $15k more, I'd be super content. I might even be happier doing it than I would be if I stayed home all day and tried to write. Writing is multitudes scarier and a foggy, undefined task. While I don't particularly want my tasks to be detailed out, I need at least a base level of detail to feel confident in my abilities to successfully accomplish it.

...this is kind of feeling like a boring post. No one is ever interested in hearing about work. I really need to meditate or do something that brings out the muse. Though, I guess this is what this is supposed to be for, practicing the writing so I can get inspired and be creative and re-find my "voice". Okay, now it's going to sound like I'm complaining, but I don't like my current "voice". It's too logical, not theoretical enough, not spontaneous enough. Hmmm. Maybe I should start an episodic short story. No plot, no themes, nothing to start off with. I'll try not to think about it at all and just spend fifteen minutes on each episode. I'm always up for experiments.

Blog Idea: Dating Experiences of the Delusioned Desperate

2008-09-10T22:05:00.001-07:00

It would be HEE-larious to start a blog that was solely about someone's love/dating life. Like it would start off a brief, vague description of the guy or girl doing the searching and then launch into a description of Date #1 with Girl/Guy #1. Of course the main concern would be anonymity, which might be solved by having anyone be able to post their dating stories, but I personally think it would be far more interesting to follow one person's struggles and triumphs in the dating world. I haven't seen the movie yet, but maybe this idea is kind of like Train_Man? There's probably blogs out there that people use to detail their love lives...I should really look into getting an RSS feed, besides the little ticker on top of my Gmail.

Of course, this could only work if the person was willing to make light of their failures and the weirdness of people and situations in general. I don't think the purpose would be to scare people and discourage dating, but to make it seem more fun and crazy cool (for stories later anyway).

Movie Review #17: Enchanted

2008-09-09T18:21:00.001-07:00

9/8 Enchanted = A Disney flick that starts off as a typical Snow White-que fairytale. There's an added step inbetween the poisioned apple that makes up most of the interesting part of the movie, that they somehow get thrown into the Real World.

This was a cute movie. Even Zach agrees. The animation in the beginning and end are really well done and the chipmunk is SO F-ING CUTE. SO CUTE!11!!1!1!! Some of the plot twists weren't very original but some of them were. Bit of hitting, bit of missing. The singing was pretty epic though.

Ratatat @ the Showbox in the Market

2008-09-08T19:46:00.001-07:00

It kind of feels like I've been suddenly obsessed with this band, but I think it's mostly the excitement of discovering a great music feel and then discovering that tons of other people are similarly totally into it too. It's exclusive, but not so exclusive that no one knows what you're talking about. A larger inside joke if you will. Overall, the live performance of it was fantastic and it was great to rock out to it. Even with earplugs. I wouldn't have really imagined that I'd be jumping up and down for some of the parts/songs but it was pretty intense and I just love some of the parts so much. I kind of wish that I had been closer to the stage so I could actually see them, but it really wasn't that important. I'm not really invested in the band members, in fact, I've been thinking that there were only 2 members in the band, but there were three on stage.

The two cover bands were really kind of weird though. The first one, E*Rock, were these two guys with full head/face covers, like KKK, but black and not pointed and the one at the turntable type thing for some reason, had the Wii controller with the nunchuck around his neck and kept on acting like he was playing the Wii or using it somehow...which, even if it were true, was kind of weird.

There's a delicate balance required when using popular implements in an entertainment fashion. If you use it a few days after the thing becomes popular, it's usually considered extremely hip, but if you wait too long it becomes tacky and tryhard. Even more interesting is the relative quickness of tragedy-inspired jokes that pop up practically before you even have a chance to grieve. Each time people are like...too soon? And the answer has always been...nahhh, it's still funny...a bit grotesque/morbid/off-color...but still funny. We're curtailing human sympathies for a quick laugh.

In other news, we killed some time before the concert at Gameworks and Zach got me an awesome T-Rex from the claw machines:

OMG isn't it awesome?

The 6 Traits

2008-09-04T21:58:00.000-07:00

So I'm reading this book right now right? And I'm on the Chpt titled "Finding The One True Love". Cheesy I know, but it just went over this story of this woman who was great-looking, with a great personality. "A catch in anyone' book." But she had a hard time picking guys. So the author was like, okay, do you have a business card? Write these on the back:

Not stupid.
Not crazy.
Not creepy.
Not mean.
Not ugly.
Not smelly.

It's pass or fail on each item and if you fail one, you fail period.

What I thought was interesting was that it's a Not instead of Is (like is smart). They just have to not be it. But really, you must have to really not know what you're looking for if you can't weed them out without having a card of basics. Or at least friends that can be like, "oh no honey, not that one. That one's not so good."
If I do say so myself, I am particularly good at picking people and seeing basic flaws (yeah yeah, I'm sure that means I'm not so good at seeing my own flaws blah blah blah). Though I guess sometimes I can be a little harsh about it, when someone flips the "not so good" switch, I can seriously get into a strong dislike streak. And it takes showing quite a few good characteristics to get back into the light. I know everyone has their good points and most people are generally good people, and I feel like with my initial grilling that I give strangers, I can pretty quickly find what it is about them that's interesting and enjoy them at their best. But if it turns out all of that was really just a show then why should I waste my time putting up with a faker or worse? :) Or maybe I just surround myself with good people in hopes that it'll rub off on me and/or my evilness will be diluted and the scent will get lost.

Movie Review #16: Tsotsi

2008-09-01T23:41:00.000-07:00

8/31 Tsotsi = A thug shoots a woman and steals her car, only to find out that her baby is still in the backseat.

I thought it was very realistic and gritty and reminded me of City of God/City of Men with the frank and random violence and the casualness in death. The mortality of humans is aptly portrayed, as well as the conflict between doing the right thing and being decent. I enjoyed it and liked hearing some South African. Foreign films are great. Usually pretty weird and totally non-mainstream like Hollywood flicks, but each is a little gem. Babies are so cute! They're evil like that, making your head spin and not letting you think rationally and in your best interest.

PAX 2008 Re-Cap

2008-08-31T22:46:00.000-07:00

So this marks my 3rd consecutive year of attending the Penny-Arcade Expo (PAX). Friday and most of Saturday were mostly not the awesome swag getting that I remembered from last year, but I made up for it on Sunday by getting 4 T-shirts within an hour, five if you count the one I bought. Six if you count the one that I got at the Rockstar booth for Zach (the woman just shoved small t-shirts at me and I came out with two). The other cool swag that I got were Penny-Arcade postcards depicting their first D&D 4th Edition Quest (which we also recently finished) and a air gun that shoots little balls. Speaking of balls, I barely saw any Bawls at this year's PAX. I maybe saw one or two empty bottles lying about, but it was definitely not at the forefront of anyone's consciousness. Maybe they're going under? Hahaha...no one likes the bawls. I also didn't see very many raffles and such going on; it was very hard to figure out how and when to get the swag. I didn't attend any extraneous panels this year, which is a deviation from previous years, and I feel like I didn't really miss out. Sadly I didn't get to see Jonathan Coulton, but it was probably for the best...I'm not sick yet from the lack of sleep and running around!
Okay, now, for the more detailed day by day recap:

Thursday
We participated in the Pre-PAX Pub Crawl, also known as the Tri-Wizard Tourny. It was pretty crazy, and we actually met some people, both of which we saw again later at PAX. So that was pretty cool. I was apparently dressed up as Ada Wong from Resident Evil. Maybe next year I'll be a little more accurate. It was pretty fun, though crashing at the guys' place was not so great. Highlights: the make-out session, cream cheese, onion, and ketchup hot dog, and people surreptitiously taking pictures of me.

Friday
PAX begins!! I get up early and take the bus down to the WA Convention Center to stand in line. Zach does not come with because he drank too much the night before and was still feeling ill and needed more sleep. About being in line for a while, I've finished going through the PAX schedule and decide I'm bored enough to try to make friends with the nice looking guy standing next to me. He's not especially talkative initally, but luckily Ben spots me and comes to stand in line with me. He subsequently steals my new friend that's supposed to entertain me and starts to talk shop. And I'm still mostly bored. Once inside the expo hall, three seconds later I spot Zach. Turns out waiting in line was completely worthless. We wander around and completely squander the fact that we're early to the expo (i.e., we should have stood in line for something worth playing, like Left4Dead and RockBand2).
Highlights: the beginning of the Q&A Panel was f-ing BADASS EPIC AWESOME. Everyday I'm hustlin', everyday I'm hustlin'...

Saturday
My fave day at PAX, hands down. In the morning, we got up early and headed over to help some friends move. They had some difficulty getting the van and stuff so they were about 1/2 hour late. It was kind of cold outside and I didn't bring a jacket since I assumed I'd be getting pretty warm from moving stuff. It was warm inside, but Zach was just sitting and sleeping and outside, I chatted with the guys for a little bit but then they also retreated to their car to sleep. So I was bored. I ended up entertaining myself by climbing around and jumping off the porch. However, since I was launching myself off to get the most air to do a cool move before hitting the ground, the momentum practically forced me to do a roll after landing. It was exhilarating, silly, and slightly embarrassing, which resulted in me laughing uncontrollably. It's been a really really long time since the rebellious daredevil f-what people think (sort of) side of me has had an opportunity to get some fresh air. Though I guess the rocking out dancing I did for a RockBand song last week counts too. I used to do that kind of shit all the time. But over time it became more important to me to be the cute, silly, slightly befuddled girl than it was for me to be badass and do things for the shock value. I guess it was growing out of being a teenager. Anyway, I did it to impress people and shake their impression that I was just some quiet asian girl and I think I'm more stable now about who I am as a person that I don't need to do outrageous things to convince myself and others that I'm not stuck in some box. At the same time, it is completely refreshing and freeing to know that I'm still capable of thinking up and following through with my harebrained shenanigans.
Anyway, then at PAX, we hung out in the expo hall until it closed, with a short break to Starbucks near the end. I didn't get very much accomplished, I think I tried winning a t-shirt and failed miserably and kind of played the new Viva Pinata, but I couldn't figure out how to do anything. The coolest thing was watching a game that's not out yet, The Maw. The environment just looked really beautiful and cute. In retrospect, if I had known it was a PAX 10 contender, I would have voted for it.
After the expo hall closed, we putzed around for a while and then stumbled upon the RockBand freeplay area and they were playing Weezer and everyone was singing along and clapping along. There was some really great community there. Then we went over to the Annex and I got to participate in a large manual, old style adventuring quest, Action Castle, which was pretty cool, even though I almost "used" the fishing rod on the lake. I got to demo Burning Wheel and managed to kick some major ass as the lowly rat guide. It seemed like everyone else also enjoyed watching the demo and that it was a pretty good indicator of what the game play/style/fights are like. The guys actually talk a little bit about their experience doing 5.5 hours of demos on their forum. It looks like there'll be a podcast about it on Tuesday from Front Row Crew. I'll be interested to see if any of my demo session was worth mentioning :). It was a great time, though I was pretty anxious/nervous/hyped up and had the shakes for a good first half of the demo. Then we went back over to the RockBand area and stood in line for a really long time and played Highway Star for everyone. It was super exciting performing for a crowd though the drums were quite a bit harder to play due to the height, chair, and they seemed modded so I had to hit them quite a bit harder for it to register. I didn't get to see any of the cool stuff that everyone did to warm up the crowd, but it seemed like everyone really liked it. I got a high-five afterwards from some random guy. It was a good way to end the night.

Sunday
Got to sleep in a little and got to PAX around 11 or so. Hung around the expo hall doing pretty much nothing else but get t-shirts. We were quite successful at the endeavor too. I stood in line for the second Q&A and not a bit too soon since I managed to be the second to last question. I felt like I stuttered a lot of was weird sounding but Zach said that compared to the other people, I sounded great. After that, Zach and I lounged around on the Sumos for a while and then went to the console freeplay area and checked out Boom Blox. It was entertaining, but we're probably not going to buy it. I have pretty unsteady hands which is a liability in that game. We have so many Wii games that we haven't finished either even though they're just go through mini games. Then we stood in line for some Taco Del Mar food and waited in line with the guys to see the final Omegathon. Which was okay, it turned out to be Vs. ExciteBike. It was f-ing hard, like many of the ancient games. It was also a total shut out, which was too bad and the guy that I was rooting for didn't win :(. Hopefully next year's final round will be cooler. I also didn't win the drawing sadly. Some girl named Grace Wong won though. It would be cool if a girl won the Omegathon someday.
Zach and I ended the day by watching Tsotsi.

Overall, I had a great time at PAX and will need to come up with a better plan next year for making the expo hall a little more worthwhile. The lines are always ridiculous (no one got to play Left4Dead or RockBand2), and the swag was more challenging to get, but there was still cool stuff to see and a surprisingly large number of booth babes this year too. Still undecided about how I feel about that. All I can say is, I can't wait for next year's PAX! I'm so glad I live in Seattle and don't have to pay tons of money to attend it. It's totally worth it.

Modeselektor - Hyper Hyper

2008-08-27T22:02:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBmdfL7hgtM - no animation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AON2R-HCQ3E - weird kid + two girls

This is really more trance/dance music so I had a hard time finding lyrics.

Hyper Hyper! Bass Bass Drum! So Beautiful...see your hands in the air.

Yeah, that's about it. I'm listening to a bunch of their other stuff right now, and it's all pretty sweet. Maybe I'm suddenly into trance now? I used to think it was so boring with such little variation, but the beat is just awesome enough that I don't mind listening to it for several seconds with little to no variation. Man, this would be good music for visualizations. ;)
This one is pretty cool: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7p-1NUoapQc - just a pix

I might have to make this CD #2 to get...though I dunno if Best Buy has it?

Shittt....I could do this all night: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THQPeNIvvyc
Maybe I'm just really in the mood for techno trance right now. What is the difference between techno and trance?

Movie Review #15: Sex Drive

2008-08-27T21:31:00.000-07:00

8/27 Sex Drive = Guy meets hot chick on the internet and decides to drive 9 hours to go see her and lose his virginity.

It was pretty funny, but mostly in a OMG, he did not just do that supremely embarrassing thing, OMG OMG. Several times I had to duck my head in shame for the dude, it was a little bit too much on the horribly tragic things that can happen when you're young and stupid. Much like how SuperBad was, but I think this one had much hotter chicks and more action. Less of the deadline feeling. Zach says he liked it and would see it again with everyone, though some pottery might be involved. Also it had amish people in it AND Seth Green AND Seth Green as an amish guy. Seth Green is the shit. I dunno what it is about him, but as celebrities go, he's on my to do list.

How to Entice a Nerd

2008-08-27T17:58:00.001-07:00

Having a nerdy boyfriend is becoming more popular these days and not just because of the potential financial gain, but because the nerd of this day and age is no longer merely a programmer, he is the handyman of all things computer-related and most importantly, can quickly self-educate on anything else you need. Most nerds are loyal but have issues with self-esteem and being social (think of it as a challenge).

Now, it is extremely easy to attract a nerd's interest, but to truly develop a lasting relationship, you need to do your homework. If this comes naturally to you, congrats! All you need to do is go out there and drop some references. If not, use the lists and suggestions below to find at least one or two nerdy things that you feel you can get into. Remember, it has to be genuine interest! Nerds are smart, they'll eventually see through you if you feign interest in a nerdy activity. For the good-looking ones, it'll be a big bonus if you are at least down-to-earth pretty. It's been my experience that most nerds like girls that don't spend an inordinate amount of time looking good every day (it also intimidates them). This means minimal to no makeup day-to-day, but feel free to glam up for special occasions.

Required Reading List:
Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (for extra credit, read the entire series)
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
Recommended: Snowcrash, 1984, Dune, A Brave New World, The Name of the Wind, Harry Potter series

Required Watching List:
Star Wars (original)
At Least 5 episodes of Star Trek (The Next Generation version)
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (for extra credit, watch the other Monty Python offerings)
Office Space
Evangelion
Firefly TV series
2001: Space Odyssey
The Simpsons TV series
Recommended: Futurama TV series, South Park TV series, The 5th Element, Ghost Busters

Websites:
Slashdot - News
Digg - News
IGN - Gaming News
Wikipedia - Information about everything
xkcd - Comic
Penny Arcade - Gaming Comic
Homestar Runner - Animated Web Comic
Bonus: research Internet Memes, such as All Your Base Are Belong to Us

Basic Terminology:
Monitor - the screen that you are looking at. Is connected to the
Computer - the box that holds the various parts that allow you to do stuff, like access the
Internet - a network of cables throughout the world that allow your computer to be connected to servers and millions of other computers, not to be confused with
Internet Browsers - programs that display the content of the Internet such as Internet Explorer (IE), Mozilla Firefox, Opera, etc.
Motherboard - core piece of your computer that determines how much RAM your computer can handle and the other types of pieces that your computer can use.
Random Access Memory (RAM) - the part in your computer that controls how many items you can have open at a time and running. Not to be confused with
Hard Drive Space - what your computer uses to store files and programs.
Sound Card - is considered to be "on board" if the motherboard comes with one. Used to produce sound. Can be bought as a separate piece from the motherboard.
Video Card - same as sound card except for video/motion, especially important for computer games because their graphics are more intense.
Ping Time - the amount of time it takes your computer to access a game server or website.
Lag - used to describe what happens when you have a high ping time. For example, games tend to look like they're moving in slow motion and websites take a really long time to refresh.
Framerate - used in games to describe how quickly the screen refreshes. Measured in seconds, framerate per second or FPS, which is not to be confused with
First Person Shooter (FPS) - a genre of games where you are the person shooting things. Examples would be Halo, Quake, Doom, or HalfLife/CounterStrike.
Leet (written as 1337) - elite or cool.
Über - a german word meaning super or extreme.
Fail or Epic Fail - when you or someone has messed up.
w00t or woot - exclaimation of pride and accomplishment.
Pwn or Pwned - to win against someone or to say that someone has been beaten. For example, "I pwned you!" would be equivalent to saying "I beat you!".
Bonus:
Frag - to kill someone in a first person shooter game.
Modem - Short for modulator-demodulator. Enables a computer to transmit data over telephone or cable lines. Computer information is stored digitally but information sent over telephone lines is in the form of analog waves. A modem converts between these two forms.
Router - directs Internet information.

Games:
*Note* - Games can be pretty expensive and it is not necessary that you have actually played the game. An interest in playing a game is just as good and is a ready-made date idea. For any of the titles below, you can look up information from various websites (IGN).
Computer (also known as PC) games - Spore, Quake/Doom/Half-Life/CounterStrike, World of Warcraft (WoW), Diablo, StarCraft, Portal, Fallout, Might and Magic, Warhammer 40k Dawn of War
Console (an extra piece of equipment you need to buy to play the game) games - Halo, Gears of War, Guitar Hero, RockBand (extra credit if you can play the drums), Burnout, Final Fantasy
Different types of consoles:
XBox 360 - made by Microsoft
Wii - made by Nintendo
Playstation 3 (PS3) - made by Sony
Bonus: read up on Jack Thompson and listen to a few Jonathan Coltan's songs (Still Alive (though it's the end song to the game Portal), Code Monkey, Re: Your Brains).

Movie Review #14: Van Wilder

2008-08-26T17:54:00.001-07:00

8/23 Van Wilder = College the way it was meant to be.

Ahhh, this is such a classic movie. I'm not sure when I first watched it, but I know I watched it at an Honors Croquet screening of it since there's a scene where the douchbag boyfriend is playing croquet using the frosh as wickets. Most of National Lampoon's movies are great and pretty funny. You'll never look at twinkies the same way again...

Movie Review #13: Better Than Chocolate

2008-08-24T23:44:00.001-07:00

8/23 Better Than Chocolate = A lesbian who's in the closet to her mom has to deal while her mom (who's in the midst of a divorce) and her brother stay with her and her new girlfriend.

A fair amount of sex in the movie, tastefully done though and it didn't quite feel like a pron so that was also good. The plot wasn't very straightforward and jumped around a bit but overall it was enjoyable. I can definitely see why this is a favorite movie of lesbians.

The Concept of Revolution

2008-08-24T23:42:00.001-07:00

Decision are made on an individual level, yet it usually takes the consensus of the masses to implement change.

As an individual, I feel like I have reached a point where I am ready to take the responsibility of choosing the direction that I think the world should evolve into. Though I have never been especially political or rally-ist, it seems like they actually work in bringing about change. As silly as it may seem, if enough people band together and make enough noise, something will happen. It's like peer pressure on a grandiose scale. My experience with community events are pretty much volunteer work for one-time events as well as some light donating...and so it'd honestly take something that I'm truly deeply passionate about to wrest a commitment from me.

This brings up the question, what is the best way to make the most of my limited resources (time, money & energy) to be a part of change, as well as make that change and participation sustainable?

Will we choose to become the change that is revolutionary or just be spectators? Are we at the cusp of a revolution? And if so, what exactly are we revolutionizing?

It's been a really really long time since I've produced a serious blog post/any sort of serious writing and I read over this and am somewhat concerned that it comes off a little too academia. Which is one of the reasons I didn't get an English degree. One of the reasons I did want to get an English degree had to do with the fact that one of my favorite things to do in general is to think up completely off the wall, out of the box reasons for events. Works of literature are rife with opportunities to drag in elaborate themes and analogies and cleverly tie them together to create a framework and viewpoint that are borderline preposterous. I fear and love my imagination. Fear because I am afraid of not being able to live up to its potential (which is why I didn't seriously consider becoming a creative writer as a career choice) and love obviously because I like coming up with crazy solutions. As a pre-teen/teen, I used to spend HOURS upon HOURS in the bathroom doing nothing but role-playing scenarios between me and other people, where I would hold both sides of the conversation. Of course, in time I came to realize that every single scenario that I played out would never be the actual one so it seemed like the more I did it, the more unlikely it seemed that it would actually turn out that way. Anyway, I still feel like this blog is helping me connect a little bit more with that creative side (as well as D&Ding :)) and getting used to putting down thoughts. And hopefully, the end goal of all of this is that someday a book will materialize out of me.

Movie Review #12: A Home at the End of the World

2008-08-22T22:47:00.001-07:00

8/20 A Home at the End of the World = Follows Bobby from when he's 9 to when he's 15 to when he's 24 and a few years after that.

It's about the relationships that Bobby has throughout his life and how other people cope with that. It's interesting but still in a cliche'd kid growing up in the late 60's early 70's with the hippy free love stuff as well as growing into sexuality and the early gay casual sex-ness as well as a brief HIV bit. A bit meandering. I'd rather watch Rent again.

Things the Next Generation will be Amazed At

2008-08-22T11:53:00.001-07:00

That Pluto was considered a planet and taught in schools as such for the majority of our schooling.
That we had to wait until we were 21 until we could drink legally.
We were around when no one used to listen to a music player 24/7, on the bus, walking around, waiting in line...no music. iPods will be laughed at for their simplicity and weird controls.
That we would be so stupid to vote a complete idiot into the White House...twice.
That we used to use something called film in these small containers that were difficult to put into cameras instead of digital media. And in order to see the pictures we took, we had to develop the film instead of seeing the picture as soon as it's taken. In addition, we kept these fragile photos in photo albums instead of a digital frame.

Some Interesting Stuff

2008-08-22T11:47:00.001-07:00

Common Errors in English - An interesting site that has TONS of commonly misused word pairs. Choose/Chose is a pretty good one. Also, since I have so many friends from TX, Y'all. If anyone starts using all y'all...that's going to be trouble.

Also, a song that has one of the best one liners..."I've got soul but I'm not a soldier"...very relevant to these days:

All These Things That I've Done - The Killers (Official Vid, UK Version-the better one I think)

When there's nowhere else to run
Is there room for one more son
One more son
If you can hold on
If you can hold on, hold on
I wanna stand up, I wanna let go
You know, you know - no you don't, you don't
I wanna shine on in the hearts of men
I want a meaning from the back of my broken hand

Another head aches, another heart breaks
I am so much older than I can take
And my affection, well it comes and goes
I need direction to perfection, no no no no

Help me out
Yeah, you know you got to help me out
Yeah, oh don't you put me on the blackburner
You know you got to help me out

And when there's nowhere else to run
Is there room for one more son
These changes ain't changing me
The cold-hearted boy I used to be

Yeah, you know you got to help me out
Yeah, oh don't you put me on the blackburner
You know you got to help me out
You're gonna bring yourself down
Yeah, you're gonna bring yourself down
Yeah, you're gonna bring yourself down

I got soul, but I'm not a soldier
I got soul, but I'm not a soldier
...

Yeah, you know you got to help me out
Yeah, oh don't you put me on the blackburner
You know you got to help me out
You're gonna bring yourself down
You're gonna bring yourself down
Yeah, oh don't you put me on the blackburner
Yeah, you're gonna bring yourself down

Over and out, last call for sin
While everyone's lost, the battle is won
With all these things that I've done
All these things that I've done
If you can hold on
If you can hold on

Movie Review #11: Sicko

2008-08-13T21:04:00.011-07:00

8/13 Sicko = Documentary on the state of the healthcare system in the US and compares it to countries with government run healthcare.

I know Zach thinks I'm easily influenced and gullible and stuff like that and as such, I try to take a step back and be really pessimistic about stuff and sometimes worry that I am believing things too easily. But there's always a bit of truth behind all documentaries and the fact of the matter is that Americans are getting screwed and the sooner we have Universal Healthcare the less trashy America will be. If I ever get diagnosed with an expensive disease, I hope that I will remember this movie and look deeply and think hard about moving to a different country. Like say Canada, France, or England where the healthcare is free. In France, they get 5 wks minimum of vacation, when you have a baby, the gov't will send over a nanny and when you get married, they'll give you an extra week of vacation. I only get 2 wks of vacation. Though I guess the benefits of living somewhere where you can understand 90% of the population is nice, work does take up a LOT of time. Anyway, it was a disheartening movie and I really hope Obama becomes President and starts fixing things. And I hope I or anyone else I know doesn't get sick.

Anytime Present Ideas

2008-08-13T18:43:00.001-07:00

Since my friends are no longer (were they ever...?) doing birthday presents this year, I thought I should start encouraging Anytime presents. The list below represents items that I like in general (some imagination might be needed to make an appropriate gift) and stuff that I can't imagine having too much of.

Anytime Present Ideas:
Cute stickers
Postcards
Canned Corn/Corn on the Cob (roasted or steamed)
donut peaches
A list of interesting books/movies
Fresh flowers
Fruits Basket Manga
Ramen
Unique/creative pottery
Performance/Interactive Art
Themed parties
Garage/yard/rummage sales
Knowing interesting facts about others' lives
Yarn
Roasted marshmallows
Geeky/nerdy funny items (clothing, etc.)
Starbucks
Tim's Hawaiian Sweet Maui Onion potato chips
Traveling and doing touristy stuff
Winning at games
Card games
Hugs
Arbitrary organization (for example, in a candy dish, separating the candy by color)
Bubble tea
Funny true stories

I guess that should be enough for now. For most of these, I get really excited over.

Book Review - The Mystery Method: How to Get Beautiful Women Into Bed

2008-08-12T22:47:00.000-07:00

Though this is definitely not a book to be taken word for word, and it definitely takes a lot of effort and talking A LOT, I would say most guys that are dating out there could learn something from this, if anything not to make stuff a big deal or to freak out over things like calling a girl and all those unspoken dating rules.

Basically, if you talk a lot, say interesting things, you can probably get most average girls. For the really beautiful ones, you have to employ a few tactics.

Honestly, I'm not sure what to think about Mystery himself or those that really put in the effort to become pickup artists. There's probably a point where they become interesting guys and not just sleazy liars that are playing you. It's fun for a girl not to have to make an effort in making the experience fun, just being there for a ride and having someone along that always has something to say, some fun story and knows what next fun place to be at. Even if he's always negging you, making you jump through hoops, conditionally testing you, or giving IODs so that you're strung along. I'm looking forward to reading this other book in the pickup artist world: The Game by Neil Strauss. Apparently, Mystery is one crazy mofo (I suppose this is probably unsurprising) and it's like a documentary of pickup artists and their lifestyles.

Mostly, I'm glad I'm not a guy and am not about to delve into trying to become good at picking up hot chicks. It sounds like a LOT of work, memorization, rejection, and feeling stupid and like a loser. Though if I was already a guy that was desperate and I actually saw some improvements, maybe it wouldn't be so crushing. And you have to talk ALL THE TIME. However, if I ever meet someone who is actually out there practicing opening sets and such, I'm not sure what I'd do, if I'd purposefully try to f-him-up or go along with it or tell him that I'm on to him and that he's gaming. So yeah, I really hope I meet a pickup artist in training someday because it would be supremely interesting to see one actually at work.

Thou Shalt Always Kill - Dan Le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip

2008-08-07T16:28:00.001-07:00

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thou_Shalt_Always_Kill

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoN6XfyQsr4

Thou shalt not steal if there is direct victim.
Thou shalt not worship pop idols or follow lost prophets.
Thou shalt not take the names of Johnny Cash, Joe Strummer, Johnny Hartman, Desmond Decker, Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix or Syd Barret in vain.
Thou shalt not think that any male over the age of 30 that plays with a child that is not their own is a pedophile… Some people are just nice.
Thou shalt not read NME.
Thou shalt not stop liking a band just because they've become popular.
Thou shalt not question Stephen Fry.
Thou shalt not judge a book by its cover.
Thou shalt not judge Lethal Weapon by Danny Glover.
Thou shalt not buy Coca-Cola products. Thou shalt not buy Nestle products.
Thou shalt not go into the woods with your boyfriend's best friend, take drugs and cheat on him.
Thou shalt not fall in love so easily.
Thou shalt not use poetry, art or music to get into girls' pants. Use it to get into their heads.
Thou shalt not watch Hollyoaks.
Thou shalt not attend an open mic and leave as soon as you're done your shitty little poem or song you self-righteous prick.
Thou shalt not return to the same club or bar week in, week out just 'cause you once saw a girl there that you fancied but you're never gonna fucking talk to.

Thou shalt not put musicians and recording artists on ridiculous pedestals no matter how great they are or were.

The Beatles - Were just a band.
Led Zepplin - Just a band.
The Beach Boys - Just a band.
The Sex Pistols - Just a band.
The Clash - Just a band.
Crass - Just a band.
Minor Threat - Just a band.
The Cure - Just a band.
The Smiths - Just a band.
Nirvana - Just a band.
The Pixies - Just a band.
Oasis - Just a band.
Radiohead - Just a band.
Bloc Party - Just a band.
The Arctic Monkeys - Just a band.
The next big thing - JUST A BAND.

Thou shalt give equal worth to tragedies that occur in non-English speaking countries as to those that occur in English speaking countries.
Thou shalt remember that guns, bitches and bling were never part of the four elements and never will be.

Thou shalt not make repetitive generic music

Thou shalt not pimp my ride.
Thou shalt not scream if you wanna go faster.
Thou shalt not move to the sound of the wickedness.
Thou shalt not make some noise for Detroit.
When I say "Hey" thou shalt not say "Ho".
When I say "Hip" thou shalt not say "Hop".
When I say "he say, she say, we say, make some noise" - kill me.
Thou shalt not quote me happy.
Thou shalt not shake it like a Polaroid picture.
Thou shalt not wish your girlfriend was a freak like me.
Thou shalt spell the word "Pheonix" P-H-E-O-N-I-X not P-H-O-E-N-I-X, regardless of what the Oxford English Dictionary tells you.
Thou shalt not express your shock at the fact that Sharon got off with Bradley at the club last night by saying "Is it".
Thou shalt think for yourselves.
And thou shalt always,
Thou shalt always kill.

The artists claim that the title, and final line of the song, refer to 'killing' in the sense of performing excellently.

This is a super awesome song...even if it's also super British and many references are of that sort. The music vid is pretty entertaining and catchy.

Man...Ratatat...

2008-08-05T23:08:00.000-07:00

I am SO sad that I discovered Ratatat just a few weeks too late to see them perform live in Seattle...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlGx0nJsOkM&feature=related

It would have been so awesome.

Busy Weekend - Fruits Basket Marathon, Chapel Clubbing, Wedding/After Party

2008-08-04T13:47:00.001-07:00

I can just feel it in my bones that if I don't start getting some good sleep, I'm going to get sick. It feels like I pulled an all-nighter, everything's kind of fuzzy and slow. I had a great time over the weekend though.

I wasn't lonely Friday night because everyone was at the bachelor party LAN because I had someone over to watch the Fruits Basket series with me. And we finished it too. And I did all my laundry. Then we got to sleep for 4 or so hours before getting up and getting some Starbucks. The rest of Saturday was pretty normal, we watched the movie Miss Potter, and then at 10, we went to pick up a friend and went to the Chapel, a club that had been a mausoleum in its former life. I was hit on twice, which was di rigeur for me, especially since Zach wasn't on the dance floor with me. The first time was really typical, some guy leads off with a compliment and then tries to draw you into a convo. He asked me what I thought of his shirt, which in my inebriated state, was white with red text that looked like some lame ass college T so instead of shouting something witty (which likely would not have been witty due to my previously mentioned condition), I ended up just making the "Loser" right-hand two fingered from the forehead move. I can't remember what he said but I was laughing and then my friend dragged me away, likely being correct in thinking that I was getting in over my head, whatever it was that I was getting into. Zach was impressed with my audaciousness. The second time was pretty minor, just some guy asking me if I would dance with his friend, who was at least 30, likely 32-ish. After that dance though I was pretty tired. It's really hard to move with the beat while not stumbling into anyone nearby, in stilettos to boot! We got home at around 1:30. I need to work on getting drunker early on and then being not so drunk by the time I hit the bed. Somehow the drunkness doesn't wear off quickly enough by the time I'm ready to call it a night.

Sunday, we finally got to sleep in a little and then we got up and got ready for the wedding. It was held at Denny Blaine park, which was this really small quaint little park right next to the water, which had this stone wall and stone steps that led to this lower bit of the park which was perfect for a wedding with a hedge that hid the water. Anyway, at first the park was absolutely packed with people who were there for Seafair and were watching the Blue Angels' show, which was really loud. At 2:30 though they all cleared out and the wedding went off without a hitch. We had Thai food that was really good and I took a bunch of pictures with the disposable cameras that were lying about. The Maid of Honor gave a really heartfelt speech that made more people cry than the actual ceremony.
Unfortunately, I got kind of sunburnt due to being out in the sun a lot, but hopefully it doesn't peel... At 9, they had their after party at their place, and it was fun, everyone just sat around with snacks and told stories and chatted. We didn't get home until 11 and we were actually the first ones to leave :).

Overall, I don't remember a more packed weekend, full of a variety of activities that each on its own would have been more than enough to make a weekend interesting.

TV Series Review #2: Fruits Basket

2008-08-02T21:27:00.001-07:00

I have recently had the good fortune to spend several hours in a Fruits Basket Marathon, a series that I finally just bought and that its manga recently finished.

This series has every single cute, enduring, funny, heartwarming anime quirks that make me love watching anime in the first place. Everyone should watch this.

Movie Review #10: Miss Potter

2008-08-02T21:17:00.000-07:00

8/2 Miss Potter = Story about Beatrix Potter, an unmarried woman of 32 who wrote The Tale of Peter Rabbit.

More of a romantic drama than comedy, it was pretty blasé. Had some pretty landscape but was not particularly thrilling as a movie. Maybe as a romance book it could have been interesting, but there was also only one kiss in the entire movie. Interesting if you liked those times when unmarried women had to drag around chaperons.

Band Names are Silly

2008-07-31T13:35:00.001-07:00

And so are the names of most songs. Is there a band out there that named their songs in such a way that they make up a paragraph or story or something? If not, the world is sadly, sadly missing this vital artistic expression. Like, that's another thing that sometimes bugs me about listening to KEXP, just how nonchalant everyone is about spewing forth this mish-mash of random words strung together and how ridiculous it all sounds. Completely ridiculous, pompous, and that word that means you're trying too hard to be artsy, you poser you, but I can't think of it at the moment.

I think it just seems worse right now because bands have outrageously long and high-fluting names that just add to the confusion. Band names should be limited to 3 words. The fewer the better.

Movie Review #9: Jumper

2008-07-30T11:26:00.001-07:00

7/29 Jumper = A guy finds out that he can teleport.

This movie could have been so much cooler than what they made it out to be. It's more deplicting a playboy who is living up life and "jumps" around the world with a not very well written plot about people trying to kill Jumpers. I would say it's definitely set up for a sequel and the second one could be way better. The whole jumper concept could have been used more interestingly than just a lazy way to get places and get things. The acting wasn't super great and the action scenes were okay but weren't very fluid. It's only 1 1/2 hours, which seemed like just the right amount of time. Nothing really spectacular.

Movie Review #8: Nancy Drew

2008-07-29T20:12:00.001-07:00

7/26 Nancy Drew = Based on the popular book series about a teenaged girl who solves mysteries and catches criminals.

I thought it was a pretty cute flick. Nancy Drew is totally a McGyver for teen girls. She had really really straight hair too. I loved how she was the best at everything, astoundingly good actually. Unfortunately, it seemed like pretty much all the best parts of the movie were in the trailer. I had fun anyway.

American Boy - Estelle

2008-07-29T14:53:00.001-07:00

The beat on this is really nice and I love travelling so I can totally relate. For the music vid, I LOVE how she does LA with her fingers...hawt.

American Boy - Estelle

Just another one champion sound
Me and Estelle about to get down
Who the hottest in the world right now.
Just touched down in London town.
Bet they give me a pound.
Tell them put the money in my hand right now.
Tell the promoter we need more seats,
We just sold out all the floor seats

Estelle:
Chorus
Take me on a trip, I'd like to go some day.
Take me to New York, I'd love to see LA.
I really want to come kick it with you.
You'll be my American Boy.

He said Hey Sister.
It's really really nice to meet ya.
I just met this 5 foot 7 guys who's just my type.
I like the way he's speaking his confidence is peaking.
Don't like his baggy jeans but Ima like what's underneath them.
And no I ain't been to MIA
I heard that Cali never rains and New York heart awaits. First let's see the west end.
I'll show you to my bedroom.
I'm liking this American Boy. American Boy

Chorus
Take me on a trip, I'd like to go some day
Take me to New York, I'd love to see LA.
I really want to come kick it with you.
You'll be my American Boy, American Boy.

Can we get away this weekend.
Take me to Broadway.
Let's go shopping baby then we'll go to a Café.
Let's go on the subway.
Take me to your hood.
I neva been to Brooklyn and I'd like to see what's good.
Dressed in all your fancy clothes.
Sneaker's looking Fresh to Death I'm lovin those Shell Toes.
Walkin that walk.
Talk that slick talk.
I'm likin this American Boy. American Boy.

Chorus
Take me on a trip, I'd like to go some day.
Take me to New York, I'd love to see LA.
I really want to come kick it with you.
You'll be my American Boy

Kanye West:
Who killin em in the UK.
Everybody gonna say you K,
Reluctantly, because most of this press don't f**k wit me.
Estelle once said to me, cool down down
Don't act a fool now now.
I always act a fool oww oww.
Aint nothing new now now.
He crazy, I know what ya thinkin.
Ribena I know what you're drinkin.
Rap singer. Chain Blinger. Holla at the next chick soon as you're blinkin.
What's you're persona.
About this Americana?
Am I shallow cuz all my clothes designer.
Dressed smart like a London Bloke.
Before he speak his suit bespoke.
And you thought he was cute before.
Look at this P Coat, Tell me he's broke.
And I know you're not into all that. I heard your lyrics I feel your spirit.
But I still talk that CAAASH.
Cuz a lot WAGs want to hear it.
And I'm feelin like Mike at his Baddest.
The Pimps at their Gladist.
And I know they love it.
So to hell with all that rubbish

Estelle:
Would you be my love, my love.
Could be mine would you be my love my love, could be mine
Could you be my love, my love.
Would you be my American Boy. American Boy

Chorus
Take me on a trip, I'd like to go some day
Take me to Chicago, San Francisco Bay.
I really want to come kick it with you.
You'll be my American Boy, American Boy.

Ratatat...You Blow My Mind

2008-07-23T19:14:00.000-07:00

I've been listening to KEXP more and more at work lately, just cuz it's really really good background music, most of it is nothing that I know, there's a lot of kind of techno-y stuff with no words. The only thing is that their announcer DJ people are kind of annoying and weird. They do this continuous wave inflection thing with their voice when they're saying stuff and it's weird.

Anyway, since I've been listening more, I've been recognizing some of the songs and one of them I heard today has no words in it and I thought it was really innovative and went on their site to see what band it was and it was Ratatat's Mirando. I decided then and there that I was going to Best Buy the next chance I got (which was today after work) and get their newest album LP3.

Every single track on here is amazing and is blowing my mind. I LOVE THIS CD!! Damn this stuff is amazing. I got the CD because Zach and I need some tunes to listen to during long drives when the radio goes out.

Movie Review #7: The Holiday

2008-07-22T16:37:00.001-07:00

7/21 The Holiday = Two women switch houses for 2 weeks during the Christmas season. They're both trying to get away from their respective broken relationships and in their new pad, find someone new.

It was a fairly fun movie but not the best chick flick by any means. Cameron Diaz is gorgeous throughout the whole thing and Jude Law is pretty dang handsome. Otherwise, there's a bit of "um yeah...like that'd ever happen" type of stuff, some random old men, and the fact that there's kind of two storylines going on at the same time is not very well interconnected. I was looking forward to seeing it because I thought the whole life swapping thing would be interesting but it really wasn't what I expected.

Movie Review #6: The Dark Knight

2008-07-21T19:25:00.000-07:00

7/19 The Dark Knight = The second installment in the new Batman series, the Joker is introduced.

What can I add to the enormous list of why this movie is so great? It's twisted, scarily human, a Batman's version of Fight Club. People are f-ed up...but at the same time, there's some real decency in the world too. RIP Heath Ledger but I think even if Heath was still alive and nothing bad had happened this would have still been a great movie. Comic book movies are really taking off and I think it's because of the content. People are ready to think. They want to ponder life's meaning and the dark nature of humanity and the cruelty of one's destiny and fate as it is intertwined with others and their random choices. With so much information at our fingertips (haha literally), we're on the brink of an era where knowledge is free and accessible and what we choose to do with it will hopefully blow future generations' minds.

Finally, Another Look at "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"

2008-07-21T19:07:00.001-07:00

http://www.newsweek.com/id/147961?from=rss

This is obviously one of those extremely retarded laws that will undoubtedly be overturned in my lifetime and my kids will learn about it in their History of Gay Rights in the US class.

Dead Again - Best Gaming Song Ever?

2008-07-18T11:00:00.000-07:00

There's some fundraiser thing related to this song right now to benefit Tom Smith who had a nasty accident on stage and is now in the hospital. I listened to it and caught some of the references (yay for being a well rounded gamer?) but it's not as catchy as Still Alive I would say. Though I would say it has greater appeal to gamers everywhere with at least one of their favorite games mentioned in here somewhere. And we can all bond together with our shared misery of dying over and over and over again. Though it would have been nice if he had mentioned some racing games...like Burnout. Nothing like dying in an explosion of metal and flames while flipping through the air.

http://www.thefump.com/fump.php?id=1071

Lyrics to Dead Again:

Rocket launcher, rail gun, BFG Nine Thousand One,
Never saw it coming and I never had a chance.
Bad enough being dead, Sub Zero pulled off my head,
Master Chief is doing his victory dance.

Lost Asia in Risk, Diablo burnt me to a crisp,
Even though I had the Godly Plate of the Whale.
Two pair, eights and kings, Sauron got the One Ring,
Getting dysentery on the Oregon Trail.

Harry Potter came up short dueling with Voldemort,
Elspeth Holliday met the Blair Witch.
Spider-Man showed such aplomb till he met that pumpkin bomb,
Mr. Incredible didn't throw the switch.

Cliff racers, cave bats, stupid frickin' giant rats,
Deadly pirahna poodles, or soldier ants,
You were eaten by a grue, Hah! The wumpus got you,
Nancy Drew and Scooby Doo teabagged in Halo 2

Dead again,
Splattered all over a rendered killing floor,
Dead again,
Let me respawn and I'll be back for more,
Dead again,
Let me get to the checkpoint, then you can do your worst,
Dead again,
Then I'll reload but this time I'll shoot first.

My marble plummets from a height, should have rolled it to the right,
Jumped through lots of traffic but then fell off a log.
Russian cubes from the sky, and I let 'em stack too high,
Punched right off the screen by a humanoid frog.

T-rex got me, now I'm toast, chased down by a blinking ghost,
Landed on some spikes and dropped every last ring.
Bitten by a fanged slug, Jafar zapped my flying rug,
Trampled in a bog by a Barbarian King.

Mechanized war bots, Mudokan slingshots,
Centipede dropping a flea on my head.
Couldn't fly as Alfred Chicken, Duke Nukem kept on kickin',
Fought Guy of Gisborne with only some bread.

Skeletons hit me twice, dragon breath cased me in ice,
Couldn't line up all the jewels three in a row,
Shot up by Miami cops, beaten with karate chops,
Kept on missing platform hops, and the timer never stops.

Dead again,
How come these worlds have so many bottomless pits?
Dead again,
And everyone that I meet wants me blown to bits.
Dead again,
Reincarnation one byte at a time,
Dead again,
It's so embarassing to be killed by green slime.

Real life goes on until you're
Dead, or so I'm told,
Injury, catastrophe, or
Simply growing old
Fantasy's supposed to be where
You can find your dreams,
But all I find is game designers
Hooked on players' screams.

Smothered by a boa constrictor, drawn and quartered by a lich or
Eaten by a cat while dodging Beethoven's Fifth.
My flying ostrich drowned, monkeys thowing barrels down,
Torn apart by creatures out of legend and myth.

Zombies got a hold of Jill, nurses up in Silent Hill,
All those German snipers on the beach at Omaha.
Swallowed by the sand worms, infected by some nasty germs,
Didn't slap the leather when I heard him say, "DRAW!"

Running from Koala Kong, made a turn that's really wrong,
Sephiroth's supernova fried us where we stood.
Broiled in a lava flow, squashed by Super Mario,
Didn't make my saving throw against lawful good.

Thirty zillion space machines blowning up in cut scenes,
I actually found a way to die in Myst.
Ninja swords decapitate, plasma guns obliterate,
Pocket nukes annihilate, reboot, transubstantiate.

Dead again,
Inching ahead until once more I choke,
Dead again,
The funeral bills would leave my whole state broke,
Dead again,
Something is trying to chew off both my legs,
Dead again,
Who in the hell dreams up these easter eggs?

Dead again,
All of the guys at work think I'm a freak,
Dead again,
They watch golf and NASCAR every week,
Dead again,
They'll never understand what I call fun,
Dead again,
'Cause any of my lives is cooler than their one.

Movie Review #5: High School Musical 2

2008-07-17T21:03:00.000-07:00

7/17 High School Musical 2 = The entire cast from the first HS Musical are out on summer break now.

Yes, I liked it. There were definitely some way way cheesy bits that made me laugh out of disbelief and amusement but overall, a lot of the songs were really catchy. Makes me really want to take up Hip-Hop again! I just wish I didn't suck so bad. Anyway, this definitely isn't a movie that I would casually recommend to people...seeing as how Zach practically refused to see it with me and I watched it on my own. I had fun though. I dunno whether or not I liked the second one better than the first. They're both pretty on par with each other.

Blogging & the Law

2008-07-16T16:56:00.001-07:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/15/technology/15law.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

During the infancy of the Internet, when "blogging" first came about, it was just a journal on the computer. People wrote haphazardly about everything from their love life, to their dogs, work, and used real names, real places. No longer is such naivete suggested or tolerated. More and more often, there are news stories about so-and-so being fired because of what they wrote on their blog or other similar consequences of simply exercising their freedom of speech. Things that were never a concern in the beginning are rapidly becoming huge issues that could change the Internet until it is unrecognizable. Net Neutrality, cookies, bots, privacy issues, identity theft...these all encroach upon the air-bytes that the Internet breathes. Too dramatic? Not nearly.

Anyway, the article is really more about when people should be forced to give up the anonymous cloak that is being behind a computer. It's pretty easy these days with IP tracking and fancy hacker-like programs and triangulation...and stuff... so really, the less you know about someone, the better for everyone. People who gain internet notority...I guess it must be cool, but really really weird. And probably a good dose of scary in there too with all the potential for stalkers. People are f-ed up man.

E3 2008 - Microsoft, EA, Nintendo, & Sony's Press Conferences

2008-07-15T22:23:00.001-07:00

Microsoft Press Conference - I want to be a Microsoft Booth Babe!

EA Press Conference - Man I need to play with that Spore Creature Creator soon.

Nintendo Press Conference - Yay! More Animal Crossing!

Sony Press Conference - Ugh wow...the 80 GB for $400...still pretty pricey. Little Big Planet looks hella fun though...I think I should be able to find some friends that have a PS3 come October...

Movie Review #4: Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix

2008-07-15T09:37:00.001-07:00

7/12 Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix = 5th installment in the Harry Potter series. Things take a darker turn and the young wizards at Hogwarts will need to take up arms (i.e. their wands) to stave off The Dark Lord once again.

There's some definite ugliness in this movie, the CGI is used to further the plot than to show how beautiful and fun magic is. No Quidditch for one thing. There's a scene early on in the movie where a bunch of them are shown flying on their brooms and it is SO badly CGed. Easily the worst and most "unrealistic" flying in the entire series. Other than that, that books are still much better than the movies, which even at 3 hours, feel like they're picking bits and pieces and cramming it in. But it's always fun to see the scenes in the movie played out. Man, I can't wait until they finish all the movies...Harry Potter Marathon!! We can spend all day reading the book, and then watch the movie at night. For a week straight!

Now I wish I was in college where I had tons of free time to actually accomplish this.

Movie Review #3: I Am Legend

2008-07-11T11:19:00.001-07:00

7/10 I Am Legend = The miraculous cure for cancer turns into a deadly disease that kills the majority of the world's population and turns a smaller percentage into monsters. One man is living in NY trying to find a cure.

I was thinking...how scary could a movie with Will Smith as the main character be? Turns out it's pretty scary. The deadly disease turns 9% of the world pop. into very fast, part zombie, part vampire monsters. Most of the scariness of the movie comes from being in the dark and/or having the scary monsters rushing at you. Overall though, I suppose it was a pretty good movie. Survival movies are always kind of the same, bleak, with tons of unanswered questions about how they could possibly rebuild after such a huge collapse...and the realization that it's not a totally unrealistic possibility and just how f-ed we'd be with so much of the world's population dead and not a small number out to kill you. The world is a fragile place and there's always talk about how people should be prepared for disasters of a large scale but you really have to want to survive and be able to endure the kind of post-apocalyptic lifestyle. And I guess, be lucky enough to have the immunity.

Pre-PAX 2008 Thoughts

2008-07-10T09:47:00.001-07:00

OMG, they're going to start sending out our PAX badges next week! Exciting times are almost upon us!

Every year (so far this'll be my 3rd time), I dream about what it would be like if I were chosen to be one of the Omeganauts. Or, I guess, someone that I knew. Anyway, they're doing the random choosing between this week and next! Ahhh, the fame and the glory...or possibly the utter humiliation and shame...the chance to participate in one of the greatest Gamelympics ever. Though I suppose with PAX being next month, you'd only have about a month to "train" for it. Man, the final round was last year with Halo 3 was really intense. Though, pretty much all FPSs are.

Also exciting...Jonathan Coulton will be there (though apparently he was there last year as well...how did I miss that?)!! Time to brush up on his songs and memorize all the lyrics so I can sing along like a true fan. I hope he plays his song on Rockband and gets people from the audience to fill in the rest of the band. He can even play guitar and sing. That would be the roxorz.

TV Series Review #1: Band of Brothers

2008-07-09T17:48:00.001-07:00

7/8 Band of Brothers - Follows Easy Company, the US Army 101st Airborne division, and their mission in WWII Europe.

Zach, Ben, and I finally finished watching Band of Brothers last night. Probably because as TV series go, it's pretty short. Sure the episodes are an hour or so long each, but there's only 10 of them.

So, to sum up the series in one word: Intense. Especially the initial foray into the war, which in retrospect, is really perfect because the soldiers are also shell-shocked and chilled. Almost all war movies make me think of the famous war poem:

Dulce et Decorum Est

by Wilfrid Owen

Bent double, like of old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind:
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.

Gas! Gas! Quick, boys!- An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling,
And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime…
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If in sonic smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,-
My friend, you would not talk with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.

Which means "It is sweet and fitting to die for one's country". Though it was written during WWI, it aptly describes the numb horror and churning despair. I think along with that if I were in a war situation, I'd constantly be fitfully wavering between acceptance of my eventual death far far away from everything familiar and loved and wild, drunken, blinding hope that I'll survive and live the rest of my days peacefully.

I'd recommend it anyway though, because the amazing bond forged through the pressure and craziness is really beautiful. It's really not about why wars are fought or if there's a better way, but about the individual in the war, which can so easily be overlooked, especially when the death count gets really high (say in the 4 thousands...). It's easy to romanticise it but Band of Brothers really strikes a good balance between the awful death/dying bit and the bad ass I'll f you up if you f with my brothers.

The Art of Blogging Part 2

2008-07-09T16:24:00.001-07:00

Sooo...now that I've started to blog more frequently, half of the fun of it is the fact that others are actually reading what I'm writing. That this matters. That it's entertaining.

Luckily, I was able to make a sorta (okay, not really...but in my head it seemed) subtle foray into the recent movie reviews that I've been doing. Though it's still up for grabs whether or not anyone's going to remember to check this :(

People! If you're reading this, make a nice comment! I'll love you 4eva!!

Movie Review #2 - Garden Party

2008-07-07T21:11:00.001-07:00

7/7 Garden Party = About several adults and teens trying to make their way in LA/Hollywood.

This was a fantastic film. One of the best that I've seen for a while. It's about several people's lives and they lightly twist together near the end but not like any of those other movies. The people are really interesting and it's actually a pretty happy movie. There's lots of pot in the movie and some really good music, underage nude photography and some people who find their way. Some of it felt too good to be true, like where's all the horribleness of Hollywood...and it's in there a bit, but I almost feel like there should be a sequel that shows how awful everyone's lives become later on. It's really an American Dream type of movie. Everyone comes out better in the end. Definitely recommended.

Movie Review #1 - Wall-E, The Jane Austin Book Club, & 2 Days in Paris

2008-07-07T15:42:00.001-07:00

Since Zach and I watch so many movies and I tend to forget them very quickly afterwards, it feels like it would be worthwhile for me to document the ones I've watched. This way, it'll be easy for me to tabulate later on how many movies I've watched. I should do the same for the books I've read, but my Facebook keeps a pretty good record...but if it ever got erased that would really suck.

6/27 Wall-E = animated movie about the last robot on Earth, tasked to forever clean the planet up. Mankind is living on a spaceship far far away. They send robots from the spaceship to check up on Earth every once in a while.

This really wouldn't be a little kids movie, the beginning is kind of slow and depressing and when the other robot shows up, it's a bit scary. However, the animation is great and the tones they set with the background and colors are really apt. The stuff about the humans was grossly unreal and a little too easy. I LOVED the end credits though. The pretty one as well as the aski art one. It's good, cute, well animated, but in terms of plot and depth, it didn't really explore all that much, there could have been so much more interesting and funny things on the spaceship.

7/6 T he Jane Austin Book Club = a rom-com about 5 women & 1 man who each pick a Jane Austin book and discuss one per month.

You really don't have to know or have read any of Jane Austin's books to enjoy this movie. Two of the men in the movie are super super hot, especially the bad boy high schooler. Reminds me of Jared Leto in My So-Called Life, who was SO HOT in the series. The movie ended on a really happy note and was surprisingly very conservative and kind of moralistic in the end. Which, though I'm a rebel at heart, I approve of. I'd let my daughter watch it. More serious than funny but pretty good. The eye candy really added to the movie though ;)

7/6 2 Days in Paris = another rom-com about a french woman who is living in NY and her boyfriend and her are touring Europe and decide to spend 2 days in Paris, where she has a flat that is directly above her parents.

Sort of a foreign film in the sense that there are subtitles during most of the movie, but the main characters also speak English. Some really funny bits dealing with people talking in French about the guy or around the guy and the guy not understanding. I really liked it because it reminds me of how it must be for Zach since he understands a tiny tiny bit of Mandarin and most of the time my parents and I speak in Mandarin even when he's around. So sometimes when my parents and I fight, he has no clue what's going on. He's always like, is everything okay? And I'm always like oh yeah, sure, it's nothing. Don't worry about it. Lots of talking in the movie but pretty interesting. Recommended for those in interracial relationships.

2008 4th of July Weekend in TC

2008-07-07T11:44:00.001-07:00

We drove down the night of the 3rd and it was pretty uneventful. We listened to the Beatles Love CD, which was pretty cool with the scenery going by and it was somewhat inspiring.

On the 4th, my whole family and Zach went over to the neighbor's at around 9 because they were having their annual neighborhood potluck brunch and flag raising. The food was pretty good and it was nice and sunny out but it was fairly boring with no one to talk to (mostly everyone there was really white, suburban, and/or Mormon) and after the flag raising, Zach and I left to go down to Columbia Point where Zach's bro and family were holding down a BBQ spot. It was pretty chill since Zach's nephew and nieces weren't there to actually do stuff in the park, so we all just sat around and ate and I knitted a bit. It was pretty windy out though. Then we packed up and headed back to Zach's place where I got to try out WiiFit. I got 313 on hula hoops! Then we played some Rockband and sat around and chilled. Zach and I walked back to my house at around 6:15, and after some deliberation about what was going to happen on the 5th, we decided it'd be best to walk back to Zach's so I could drive the car back and use it tomorrow morning. Then I had some good home cooked grub. Afterwards, my Dad, brother, grandma, and I played some Mahjong. By the time we quit, around 10:30, I was pretty ahead in chips. I headed back to Zach's where it turned out that they had just left for Home Depot or something and I sat around with Zach's dad and brother, who was doing calc homework, and ended up sort of starting his English essay and writing down some writing points/focuses. I stayed until midnight and then went home to sleep.

On the 5th, my mom, grandma, and I went to the Pasco Farmer's Market. I didn't buy anything, but we got some cucumbers, squash and snow peas I think. We finished a bit early, at 10:30 and needed to kill some time, so we went over to the Asian market and got a few items there. By that time it was around 11 and since we didn't have anything else to do, we headed over to the Hawaiian restaurant around the corner where we had all agreed to meet up for lunch. We ended up waiting there for like an hour and a half since my brother didn't get out of volunteering at the hospital until noon, but then my dad was at Wal-Mart getting the oil in the car changed so by the time they had gotten there, we had already ordered and pretty much finished eating. My brother rode in my car and we went home and then I immediately left to go to Zach's and we were supposed to go to Casa Mia to see if it'd be feasible to do the wedding reception there but Zach had called earlier and it didn't seem like it'd work out. So I just tagged along with his whole family as they went to Some Bagels (a super delish bagel sandwich place). They even had gelato. Then they dropped me off at my house and my brother drove me to Smoovies, this smoothie/food place that has several game systems and other stuff to do. His friend was there and one of my friends came by as well and we all sat around and had a good chat and then played some card games. Then my brother and I went over to Zach's where we played some more Rockband and WiiFit and ate some yummy grub that Zach's mom cooked up. Zach changed the oil in the car in the meantime. By then it was getting pretty late and we needed to start on the drive back to Seattle so my brother and I went back to our house where I packed everything up and then we sat around playing cards until Zach showed up. The drive back to Seattle was pretty uneventful too, except that there was some heavy fog at one point. We got home at around 12:30 so it was pretty much unpack the stuff we needed, email my parents to let them know I got home okay, and then crawl into bed.

It was a short trip but I got a lot done, saw a lot of people, and I guess got a tiny little bit further along with the whole wedding plan things :)

Rumor! Text! Internet!

2008-07-02T13:39:00.001-07:00

Yayz! Soon I will be getting a new shiny cell phone. The proposed candidate is the Sprint LG Rumor in Green.

The picture really doesn't do justice to the green color, it's a bit lighter and more jello-y looking. It's pretty cute though and I think I'll really like the sliding keyboard feature and finally learn how to txt. The plan that I'm getting will have UNLIMITED texting and data, so I'll have plenty of opportunity to use the hell out of it. Though don't think that my standards will be lowered by it, I'm pretty sure I'll keep the same level of grammar and spelling as I do currently in my IMs...in fact, it'll be like IMing on the go!

I suppose I'll have to find out from all the people that I could potentially txt whether or not their plan supports txting and if there should be a cap on my txt harrassing :)

The Art of Blogging

2008-07-01T16:19:00.001-07:00

I've been feeling extremely restless lately, dissatisfied with my current hold on life, and hence, I guess, the desire to pick up blogging again. However, the more I think about what I want to say, what I can say, and then what I SHOULD say, it feels like Web 2.0 and the utter mesh of everyone you have ever known being able to find it is completely killing the spirit and healing nature of the blog. No longer are blogs solely for the narcissistic emo mind dump and gossip, they're respected independent news sources, educational mini-discovery channel type feeds and basically are supposed to serve some sort of purpose. For the greater good of all that is.

That was actually what this blog was supposed to do...but I've found that giving my opinions and thoughts about random news articles is not a creative enough outlet to fulfill the void. Yet I don't feel ready/up to par to actually sit down once or twice a week and pound out a few pages for my "book". Ugh...maybe I'm going to have to go back to writing poems. Break out the razors.

But really, how can blogging make any sense when you can't mention work and can't mention most personal things (because work might be reading and stalkers...or is that redundant?). Blogging has become an inside joke. Oh sure, of course you could say, "F the Man, if they want to take offense then fine, I'd rather be fired." But the whole firing thing aside, the internet is no longer as private as it used to be. I should know, I have successfully found people's "secret" livejournals. Which then brings up the question, why not just keep a "blog" offline? I would probably have to say narcissism and maybe the fact that the world is so wired, so interconnected all the time that things that happen "offline" aren't as real or worthwhile.

Okay. Back to the subject of the first sentence....nevermind.

These are the Times We are Living In

2008-06-25T14:24:00.001-07:00

Airlines are now run by the mafia. They don't allow you to bring hardly anything useful in your carry-on, forcing you to put things like toothpaste and contact lens solution in your check-in luggage, where you can't get to it AND forcing you to pay $15-$25 for that "privilege".

Visibility to messy mergers are commonplace and kitchy names like Microhoo are splashed around, though the reality may be more like Microsoft-hoo.

Speaking of Microsoft, Bill Gates, the founder of the Blue Screen of Death is now "retired". It's the end of an era.

Let's not even get into the fact that the CANADIAN dollar is suddenly worth more than the US dollar. Though I do get a little chuckle now when I see mail orders and the price of books that are higher priced for the Canadian $ than the US amount...suckers.

There's a news article for every single time gas is mistakenly priced at some outrageous price like $1.40...though that was a perfectly normal price for gas a few years ago.

"Organic" is now a huge, thriving market of its own encompassing everything from fruits and veggies, canned soup, frozen food, eggs, and milk to dishwasher soap, detergent, weed killer, and various skin care products.

Hummers, the ultimate American car, is no longer in production because of the high price of gas and the economy conditions. Now how are we supposed to pretend to be as elite as the military?

Cell phones are no longer sought after for being as small as possible. Instead, they're going back to brick-size...thin, light-weight bricks.

The Democratic Primary was more exciting, well covered, and had higher voter turnout than many actual Presidential Elections. Potential candidates spent millions and millions for the opportunity to actually qualify to race. Before this year, I would say an extremely small percentage of voters even knew how the Primaries worked. I personally thought some important players in the Democratic Party got together at the Convention and picked someone. No public involvement.

FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency), which before was an unknown, uncared about agency that sucked up tons of taxpayer money, is a bitterly laughable farce. Two national disasters have knocked it on its ass, Hurricane Katrina, and the flooding in Iowa. Though the flooding in Iowa gave FEMA plenty of time to get its act together, again, it was caught sleeping on the job. President Bush was no better either.

Foreclosure + banks + morgages + loans = thousands of homeless Americans, and making it difficult to sell or buy houses.

One Laptop Per Kid

2007-11-14T19:50:00.000-08:00

http://news.wired.com/dynamic/stories/H/HUNDRED_DOLLAR_LAPTOP?SITE=WIRE&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2007-11-07-10-56-03

http://www.laptop.org/

This promotion is going on right now!! The promotion is buy one to give one for these cute little GREEN laptops. I read about this a few months back and was very much interested in participating. It took a little bit of searching, but I managed to find out that the age range for the laptop is apparently 6 to 16! I bought one for Zach's nieces/nephew. They'll be perfect test subjects to see how much the laptop really teaches kids and their interest in it.

I'll let you know how it goes. I'm really excited for this program though, the people who put this together are really dedicated and I really think it could change the world.

Blue Scholars Lyrics: Blue School

2007-11-14T19:44:00.000-08:00

I've been listening to a bunch of Blue Scholars and after unsuccessfully searching online for some of their lyrics, have decided to devote my time to producing a few. Now, I'm not the best listener of rap so if you see a mistake, let me know and I'll fix it! Enjoy!

Microphone check (x5)
One, Two
I'm a Blue Scholar working,
studying the art of of labor to create
flavor to relate to listeners
alleviate the danger associated with strangers
Isn't it strange how we estrange ourselves from our neighbor
Enables us through music to connect
Release some fluids in our neck
With the rhythmic forward movement of our heads and back again
Indeed as we succeed the pioneers maybe give back
All that we've taken through the years
I bleed for what I believe to be the truth
Nurturing the seed planted in the fertile youth
The poetry hanging from the branches eat the fruit
Pluck the most succulent to suck upon the juice
So what's up with you
frequently they ask
been hibernating
writing till the last page
deciphering the past days by
Bypassing the lies and the bullshit
Get off the mic and save it for the bull pit

In the Blue School
Class is in session
Ask us a question
'Cause class is in session (x4)

I'm an exile, motherland stepchild
metropolis-dwelling Middle America's prisoner of war
combat the papers til the blankness is gone
listen now talk about the beat after the song
Astronomical 'cause that is just a modest measurement
of my ability to represent my family correct
because I be about it
ain't no other way to say it
discovered my potential
and I stay late to tape it
in the basement
with an ancient karaoke stereo
in lieu of a studio
We made do with everything laying around
And if I'm not mistaken
Isn't that improvisation what hip hop is all about
If you popping at the lip then I will sock you in the mouth
sonically to render you the opposite of loud
Apology accepted in advance
I think it's kind of cool at one point that you thought you had a chance

In the Blue School
Class is in session
Ask us a question
'Cause class is in session (x4)

A veteran's fate
written on pages of mixed tapes
I'm all about a government that citizens dictate
sick of fucking dealing with the President's mistakes
sit back and rant is just misplaced anger
so I cradle pens
from now until the fable ends
taken friends for granted
but now I gotta make amends
Calling out the big talk small walk
Towers high above the ground
yo we're shaking down your towers demanding our money back
plus reimbursement for parking and shit
I put my heart in this shit
And now my arteries connect to the amplifier wire
Music make the flames in my inner fire higher
I reinvent the language in the image of a dancer
contorting where the floor becomes an answer

Blue school graduate dawg
After this last verse when the revolution come
we gonna shoot your ass first

In the Blue School
Class is in session
Ask us a question
'Cause class is in session (x4)

Class is in session
ask us a question
give us suggestions
yo strapped for protection
whatever you do, whatever you say
step up front
be good at what you do
at least be good at something
writing, reading
producing, DJing
cooking, cleaning
doing laundry
something
learn an art, a trade
be somebody

In the Blue School
Class is in session
Ask us a question
'Cause class is in session (x4)

Maine Middle School to provide Birth Control

2007-11-07T21:09:00.000-08:00

http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/10/18/middleschool.contraception.ap/index.html+

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/10/19/national/main3384673.shtml?source=RSSattr=HOME_3384673

Can middle school students (11-14 yr olds) be trusted to remember to take birth control pills in a timely fashion? If the birth control pills were the kind that is "seasonal" where you only have your period every three months, the chances of unknowingly being pregnant for a whole trimester can easily happen.

But all that aside, would they then also be providing access to the emergency contraceptive pill?

I honestly can't remember that much about being in middle school, but I'd definitely say by that time there was some hanky-panky going on. And that was a decade ago! With the teen pop stars and TV and movies these days, those kids are not innocent. Even more so if they're not as sheltered as some more "privileged kids".

Saving the Monies

2007-11-07T21:05:00.001-08:00

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21548538/

retirement calculator: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21563675/

Man, I hope retirement is all that it's cracked up to be. There'd better be some awesome games 40 years from now! Hopefully, there'll be some worthwhile stuff still standing to visit and that the smog won't ruin the view. Hopefully, the kids (if there are any) won't turn out to be bums that live at my house still and the world in relative peace to make traveling safe enough.

I can't even begin to fathom life in 40 years. Hopefully I'll still be around.

Reality TV...for Gaming!

2007-11-07T21:04:00.000-08:00

http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/topheadlines/~3/178564050/pl_games

Man, the Japanese think of everything great! If this caught on here, it would super boost the gaming industry as well as make gaming more accepted as a somewhat type of sport. Maybe a split screen of the gamer and the game. All those gamers out there that gave up on the game because it was too hard would be able to finally see the ending and stuff. Or in the case of poorly planned (re)formats, when the game file gets wiped and it's too much trouble to go through it all again. Perhaps this is the idea that Zach and I have been waiting for and I should be podcast gaming?

Non-Picture Exhibit C, D & E

2007-10-31T19:25:00.000-07:00

Ugh, uploading pixs to Blogger is horrendously difficult. These don't really need pictures to be enjoyed anyway...

Exhibit C: Las Vegas
For Rae's 21 Birthday extravaganza, she decided she wanted to go party it up in Vegas. Ironically, very little partying happened, most of it being done by Zach, Andy, and me. I took extremely few pictures during the trip because Zach and I had stayed in Vegas for about a week last year and pretty much saw everything noteworthy then.

Highlights from the trip:

Getting a bruise the size of a half dollar on my elbow because of getting knocked around so much on the New York New York roller coaster ride. My shoulders were also sore for the rest of the stay.
Warily watching the Harley Davidson motorcycles sway back and forth as they were lifted up above us while eating at the Harley Davidson Cafe.
Learning to play Craps! And then promptly losing $40 each that night during our first Craps experience. However, later on Zach and I played again and won $25 each.
Only losing $5 total on gambling! Comparatively, Pat lost several hundred dollars playing poker.
Playing an abridged version of pool volleyball where the rules were expanded a bit and the score didn't matter.
A random convo with some Brits...after some very very cramped clubbing, we were sitting on a bench in one of the malls and this group of British chaps came over and we had a bit of a row about how three of their shoes were piss poor and the bloke at the club wouldn't let them in. Bugger that! It was pretty entertaining.
Watching Zumanity. They had a couple who had been married for 40 years go up and do a 'romantic slow dance' which they didn't look all that enthralled about and halfway through the dance they up and decided they had done enough dancing and tried to get off stage. Unfortunately, they just stood at the edge and looked down because they didn't go to a spot that had stairs...poor old people, not up to the stage jumping.
Watching Spamalot. Only Zach, Slava, and I went because everyone else thought it'd be lame. How can getting a grail filled with strawberry daiquiri be lame?! And the Holy Grail store afterwards had the fanged bunny slippers that made Zach almost cum in his pants.

Exhibit D: Housewarming Party

The housewarming party was a long time in coming. I put it off so I would have ample time to finish getting unpacked. Ha, as if. There's still a couple boxes in the living room. It was super fab though, I had yummy spinach dip, fresh veggies (the sugar snap peas went like crazy) with dill dip, chips (the delicious Hawaiian chips that come in a purple bag), and bagel bites. And of course GUITAR HERO!! Though I didn't get to play much it was probably for the best since the whole slowing of the brain signals to the hands makes doing any song on Hard REALLY hard. Again not many pictures though there are a lot that my friend Megan put up that I subsequently stole from her facebook.

Exhibit E: Wild Mushroom Show

Yum! Mushrooms galore! The best part of this show, which was at the UW Horticulture Center (which was also the place for my Tech Comm graduation) was that we were allowed to bring in mushrooms that we found for ID. So that morning, I went to the front yard to dig up some mushrooms that were growing aplenty and after looking closely, noticed that there was another kind too after digging that one up, I noticed yet another kind. Then I turn around and there's this quite large mushroom growing right behind me! So I found FOUR different kinds of mushrooms in my front yard. Later on, Zach and I went into the backyard and found at least two other kinds. The big mushroom turned out to be a shaggy mane, which is apparently quite edible. Unfortunately, there was only one and I haven't seen any others growing yet. It was really great though because at the show, they had a bunch of shaggy manes and I was all like, Lookit here, I have one too! There was also a chef cooking mushrooms and I got to have a little taste. Speaking of mushrooms, the stuffed portabella mushroom food item ( Champignon Gefullt mit Knoblauch und Kase, mit Spätzle und Gemischtem Salat) at Fierabiend is delish.

Thoughts on Guitar Hero 3

2007-10-31T19:22:00.001-07:00

Sunday: Strolled into Best Buy and picked up my pre-order of Guitar Hero 3 at around 12:30. Managed to stave off playing by reading Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss (a great book btw) until around 2 PM. Then I pretty much played until around 10. With two or three 15 minute breaks scattered unevenly throughout. Initial feelings? So far, there aren't any songs that really stick out to me as being must play songs. Whenever I play any of the other GH versions, there's at least two or three songs that I have to play and hear. And there's a surprising amount of foreign songs as bonus tracks. One of them, Generation Rock, I didn't even realize was foreign until about 1/3 of the way through, I was like....you know, I don't think this song is actually in English...maybe that's why I can't understand any words besides the work Rock. Most rock songs have a bit of mumbling here and there and screeched out lyrics so I didn't really pay much attention.

Monday: In retrospect, I was probably just burnt out. Andy and I finally unlocked the song that I'd been waiting for, "Monsters" by Matchbook Romance. Yayz. I guess some of the other songs need some time to grow on ya. And man do I love earning money and buying stuff from the store. The. Best. Thing. Ever. It was also entertaining seeing the expressions from Andy and Ben on the various songs and various factoids. Too bad I'm not more into music, it'd be nice to know when I should be excited to unlock certain songs.

What I Would Take in an Evacuation

2007-10-31T19:21:00.001-07:00

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1675600,00.html

Most of my life is captured in 1's and 0's so I would definitely pack up my laptop, and I'd really want Zach to get the computer that has my backup hard drive.

My purse has all of my daily necessities: phone, wallet, Sansa, keys, DS, pills, and bus pass.

Probably my filing box, which has my SS card, Naturalization cert. and a bunch of papers from my before college days.

I suppose the guinea pigs...so their traveling case, water, food and vitamins.

It'd be a bonus if I could take as many of my clothes/coats/shoes as possible, my fave makeup, extra contacts, and a few pieces of jewelry. There's a couple pictures on my dresser that I'd take. I'm not super keen on my yearbook(s) but if there was space/time, I'd grab those too. Lastly, as a super bonus, I'd try to grab as many consoles, games, and DVDs as time/space permitted. Or if not, then the memory card from the PS2 at least.

See...as a list it doesn't seem like that much!....really....

Halloween!!! Got Drugged up Candy?

2007-10-31T19:21:00.000-07:00

http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/halloween/ss/halloween_7.htm

I clearly remember as a young trick-or-treater how there was the scare of malicious drug dealers that spike their candy with coke or other highly addictive drugs so that kids will become newly addicted customers. Any strangely wrapped, non-identifiable "cheap" candy was promptly thrown away with the almost certain chill that it could have been one of those doctored candies. I can't even image what it must have been like before this 'scare' came about. Did parents really just let their kids walk around the neighborhoods (hopefully at least with their friends) in the late evenings, in the bitter cold, and get candy from strangers? And then let their kids eat the candy whenever and in whatever amount they wanted? No wonder the Baby Boomers are so fucked up!

Catchy Headlines...to what end?

2007-10-24T18:17:00.000-07:00

Newspapers have always drawn attention with outrageous headlines, but now that the news has migrated online it feels like the need to outdo others in coming up with an attention-getting catchphrase has taken priority over what used to matter...what the article is actually about.

Just this week, I clicked on a link in the Seattle Times that was titled Want to make money? Stand in line. Was the article about getting unemployment benefits? Was it about some other easy way to make money? Nope, it was actually about politics surrounding lobbyists that pay people to stand in line to save them a spot. This wasn't the first time that I had clicked on a headline that lead me to an article I was not prepared for. Most of the time, I think, wow, I'm glad I clicked that link because this is kind of interesting, but in any other frame of mind, would I have?

Maybe it's just a fault of the Seattle Times. Slashdot, digg, reddit, and others also employ crazy headlines, but they also have a sentence or more of tagline so you know what you're getting yourself into. And for most readers of Slashdot, just reading that bit is enough to churn out pages and pages of comments. I mean come on, what article can't be summed up in a sentence? Brevity is close to godliness.

Cheap Dinner & a Movie

2007-10-24T18:16:00.000-07:00

The Dinner Part:
OpenTable.com is a site I just joined this week. I needed to make a reservation to this Afghan restaurant, Kabul, and it allowed me to make reservations on this site. Apparently, for every reservation you make and go to, you get 100 pts. Once you get to 2,000 pts, you get a $20 gift cert! Unfortunately, we never got to go to the restaurant and ended up going to Mala-something the UDistrict instead :P However, I will continue to look for opportunities to use the site and get points.

The Movie Part:
The Warren Report is THE best thing Zach and I have stumbled upon in our time in Seattle. About two years ago, we were at a 1Reel film showing at Bumbershoot when some guy (Warren) gets up on stage and is like, if a couple will get up here on stage and make out, I'll give them a free 1 yr subscription to the Warren Report! And thusly is how we got involved. It turns out, the Warren Report allows you to sign up to watch free movie previews. That's it. You pay a measly $20 per year, and in return, you can watch all the free movie previews you want. Zach and I must have seen close to a dozen or so movies by now. Recently, we saw Why Did I Get Married? and Lars and the Real Girl. Both were very interesting, but I actually really liked Why Did I...I'd definitely watch it again. At the end of this month, Oct. 30th, we're going to go see the Bee Movie :D! So yeah, I can't imagine anyone NOT wanting to join this, if only to watch movies that haven't come out yet.

Picture Exhibit A & B

2007-10-24T18:15:00.000-07:00

Last week's post was a little rushed and dull, so I thought this week's posts might be more entertaining with pictures!

Exhibit A: My first ever pedicure & manicure

As the title so accurately points out, the following pictures are of my first ever ever pedicure and manicure. I think it cost me about $50 for both. However, the place that I went to was decidedly the suxorz. They butchered Rae's manicure, i.e. several of her fingers were bleeding after the cuticle removing bit, and both of our manicures were all cracked under the clear veneer after just a day or two. Which apparently is a sign of cheap nail polish :P.

I'm looking forward to going back to the Tri-Cities where Zach (the boyfriend)'s mom knows of a nice parlor and I'm planning on taking my mom to get her nails done there.

Figure 1: My Bootiful fingers & toes!

Exhibit B: PAX 2007
Our second year of attending the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX). Good times were to be had by all, though none of us won anything, I got a couple free T-shirts and lots of chicken ramen.

Figure 2: Most Annoying Experience of PAX

Figure 3: The Tetris Loser from Last Year's PAX

Figure 4: Lobby Outside of Exhibit Hall & PC Gaming Room

Figure 5: Big Daddy - BioShock

Figure 6: Orc Man Playing Cards

Figure 7: Pirates & Booty

Figure 8: Rock Band!

Why RTFM?

2007-10-17T19:37:00.000-07:00

As a technical communicator, this particular phrase is dear to my heart. However, I haven't yet decided where I want to take this blog and the title may or may not change in the future. Why come back to blogging after a two year hiatus? I realized, after talking to one of my friends, that I had completely stopped writing creatively and actually missed it somewhat. There so much more I could be doing and I intend to explore that.

Wow this is sounding pretty dry. See what I mean by the lack of creativity? I also want this to be a spot where I can expound upon all the interesting things that make me so much more awesome and cool. In other words, a repository where I can put all the useless pictures I take. Mayhap this will also get me out of my photo-taking slump which has caused several events (Vegas, my party) to go largely undocumented. Though I did take tons of random pictures at my party using Megan's camera, they were not all together sober ones.

Since at the PAX panel that I went to on online blogging and podcasts mentioned consistency as its #1 suggestion with starting your own thing, that's why I've decided to only blog once a week for now, on Wednesdays. That way, this blogging thing won't take over my life and I won't get burnt out right away. The only problem I see with this is the potential for ginormous posts but I think I can get away with saving several drafts throughout the week and then posting them all at the same time on Wednesdays.