Wednesday, November 5, 2003

I am a nerd

I purchased tickets for Matrix Revolutions about a week ago on Fandango, and I made arrangements to leave the office a bit early so I can meet some friends and get a good seat. Or at least I thought I had made arrangements. Yesterday my boss pulled a [warning: Blatant Office Space plug] “Bill Lumberg” [/warning] on me and asked if I could work late tonight…well he didn’t really ask, he told. But, being the ever craft, devious employee, I switched with a person without letting him know and I plan on skirting out of here a few minutes after he leaves. I am sure many of you are thinking “Charlie, you are a moron! Are willing to lose your job over a movie?” Well, boys and girls, the answer is yes. In this case, however, I told my boss’ boss about the switch, so I am covered. I am such a nerd. Last night I was at the gym, per usual, when this old guy that was working in on the lat machine with me tried to strike up a conversation. Now, although I usually don’t really mind when people talk to me in the gym, I really don’t like it. I go to the gym to work out, not socialize, and the reason I have to stay there for an hour and a half instead of an hour is because members decide that they want to jibber-jabber and clog up the weights that I need to use. This old man was worse than most people that try and strike up conversations. He was simultaneously skinny and fat, the way that only middle age men can be, yet he insisted that I wasn’t lifting properly and that I should be pulling down more weight on the lat machine. Some people are so fucking stupid in the gym. I have eliminated nearly every excess movement when I work out because I have consistently hurt myself by over exercising. I tried to tell him this, and attempted to show him the proper way to execute a lat pull down…I even taught him an exercise pattern that is incredible for your back. His response was, “I like doing it my way because I can do more weight, plus I want to get big.” People have this misconception that you only gain muscle by lifting heavy weights, what they fail to realize is that “heavy” is a relative word, and that using extra motion while doing an exercise leads to injury. Anyway, I hope he slips a disc…

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Tuesday, November 4, 2003

My life is rated NC-17. What is your life rated? Anything less would be uncivilized...

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Monday, November 3, 2003

You figured it out, I am the anti-christ

During an AIM conversation with Raiha the other day, I realized that I probably should not be allowed to engage in conversation with people that are under 18. If you have read her MyOtaku, I am sure that you are aware that Raiha was propositioned by her thirty-one year old art teacher who apparently has a girlfriend. Instead of warning her of the inevitable dastardly intentions of said art teacher, I advised her that if she was to have sex with him on one of the heavy art tables in her high school, she should insist on being on top to avoid the risk of getting splinters. I guess I should just fess up to the fact that I am hell bound with bells on. On another note, I didn’t get plastered on Halloween. Actually I did an excellent job moderating my intake of Molson. I did briefly fall in love with a scandalously clad devil that was serving our drinks. I am over it now. It is odd how you can look at someone and immediately feel such an incredible attraction, and I new she thought I was cute because she actually took the time to flirt with me while she juggled an insanely packed bar. But, as my new expression goes, “I didn’t mean it to be” (which I find much more controllable than the popular idiom: “It wasn’t meant to be”)

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Friday, October 31, 2003

Boo! Happy Halloween! Tonight I am going to drink, I enjoy drinking socially. It is a fun activity that helps relieve stress, but I hate, HATE having hangovers. So I think I will keep my consumption low (in amount) and high (in quality and cost) so I don’t get a hangover. There was a Friday the Thirteenth Marathon on when I went home for lunch (one of the perks about living three miles from your office is that you can go home for lunch) and I badly wanted to stay there the rest of the evening. Anyway, here I am slaving away at work. Like usual I am typing this at the same time I am talking on the phone, a talent that I am getting exceedingly better at each and every day. I only have a few more hours left and I have a whole Saturday off! Woohoo! I get one fucking day off this week and next week, my apartment is a mess, and I have a billion things that I have to finish doing so I can take some classes at a local university this spring. I can’t wait until Thanksgiving…thank goodness for paid vacation.

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Tuesday, October 28, 2003

Damn IRS

I realized today that I still haven’t received my North Carolina state tax refund. I am incredibly pissed! If it was just a small amount of money I wouldn’t be overly concerned but it is nearly six hundred bucks…I could really use an extra six hundred bucks. I decided to call the state IRS to find out where on Earth my money was. After waiting on hold for a half hour or so I was disconnected. So I called back and waited another twenty minutes until my good friend Rodney answered. According to Rodney because I waited until March to send in my tax return they have not gotten around to sending out my refund check. When I asked him when the state was going to release my check, he told me that he a) wasn’t positive and b)that the check would arrive shortly. Now I didn’t think that it was appropriate for Rodney to use the term shortly since it has been nearly eight months since they received my tax return, and I politely told him so. At this point in the conversation my friend Rodney flipped out, ranting and cussing at me like I killed Christ and took a piss on the American flag at the same time. After a few minutes of listening to his incessant ranting about us greedy tax-payers that get money deducted from their paychecks on a weekly basis, I decided to remind my good ole’ pal that he was a fucking government employer and that I really don’t care what he needs to do or ho he needs to take one in the ass from but I want my fucking money. Screw North Carolina, screw the IRS, and screw Rodney. Screw them all in the ass with a thirteen inch steel dildo. What gives them the right to hold my money? A poor (not really) young man who is struggling (not really) to make his stake in the world…this was about the point that I realized Rodney hung up on me. I guess it was the whole “dildo thing”. Anyway, I hope the IRS sends me my check.

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Friday, October 24, 2003

Reflections

Today officially marks my two year anniversary as a member of the Otaku community. I thought that I would use this entry to express some reflections on my time spent on the boards. Embarrassingly enough, I first became a member of the OB because I wanted to find out more about DBZ because I had missed a few episodes. Although I am not very interested in DBZ anymore, I still frequent the boards and have no immediate plans for leaving. The following are some of my fondest memories of Otaku Boards and the community that surrounds it. On My First Thread When I first joined the OB my friends and I were enamored with one of the greatest movies of all time, High Fidelity. We were constantly creating top five lists for everything: our favorite college basketball players, our favorite horror movie massacres, and our favorite supporting actors under twelve years old and practically anything else you can think of. I decided to bring this idea to the OB, and I posted a “Top Five” thread in which members could list and explain there top five choices for a set category. I thought it would be neat to change the topic every week or so, that way the discussion would continue for quite awhile. Unfortunately the idea was a flop, several other members decided to create similar threads and all of them were closed. Bummer. Meeting a Member I didn’t join Otaku Boards to meet people and begin friendships, however, it is why I have remained a member. At first I was a pretty reclusive member, new to the internet, I was very skeptical and wary of people online. I don’t remember who IM’d who, but my first conversation with a person that I had never met before was with BabyGirl. Our first conversation was over a thread that dealt with severe mental illness, and both of us were pretty upset with some things that were being written in the thread for personal reasons. I knew right away that even though I had never met or saw Jenna, I liked her, I enjoyed talking to her. The conversation that we shared helped to make me feel comfortable with people I met on the internet. Deborah I remember noticing Deb’s posts immediately after joining the OB. I assumed (correctly) that she was close to my age, and we seemed to share a lot of common interests. After commenting back and forth on each others posts Deb sent me a PM and we began conversing that way. Over time we have become fast friends, and I still look forward to her opinions and our conversations whether on the phone or on OB. Ganging up on Toriness I don’t know why this comes to mind whenever I think of OB, but it does. At one point in time during v.3, there was a thread on alcohol, use of alcohol, shoot, I don’t even remember exactly what it was about. Anyway, I remember that before Jenna finally closed the thread innocent ole’ Asuki ended up having to defend her point of view against three or four of us that had entirely opposite views on the subject at hand. I think that is when I started to have a little bit of respect for her, although I didn’t agree with her argument on whatever the subject matter was, I remember thinking that it was admirable of her standing up for her beliefs while she was being hassled by several of us that are older and have a bit more experience than she did. The News Editor This was a job that I was really excited about but then ended up failing miserably at. I had been asked to fill Rick Hunter’s place as the “Anime News Reporter” for theOtaku. Now, even though I am not Kevin’s biggest fan, I am the first person to admit that the guy knew a ton about anime and what was going on in the anime world. I only had magazines and online sources to take information from, and I was always plagued by not knowing what to write about, not knowing what events were important to the average OBer. So I wrote about what I thought was interesting. It was fun for awhile, but I was glad when it was over. I really didn’t do an adequate job as the “OB News Editor” or whatever my title was :) HC and Mod Rod Power Despite my shortcomings as an anime news editor, I was asked to mod the OB’s Cowboy Bebop section. Obviously I jumped at the chance. Cowboy Bebop had long been my favorite anime series, and I was one of the many that adamantly pushed for its own section on the boards. It was a blast at first. There were a bunch of really good topics and conversations dealing with all aspects of the show. There is, however, a limit to how much one can discuss a series that only has twenty some episodes. Conversation in the forum soon died. One day I decided to PM James and let him know that I would be willing to help anywhere else around the boards if he needed it, within two days the sub-forums were collapsed and I was a mod of the Anime Forum. Initially I was wary of doing too much in the forum, mainly because I didn’t want to step on Tori’s toes. I tended to just delete posts and send generic ban warnings via PM to members that were continually breaking the rules. I never really found my niche in the Lounge, mainly because I really am not all that interested in shows like Foolycooly and Inuyasha and I had absolutely nothing worthwhile to contribute to the conversation. I spent most of my time thinking of bizarre ways to close similar threads. When James told me that I wasn’t needed anymore I was quite relieved, I was no longer obligated to read 8000 posts debating who the best anime swordsman is. cAttitude Just to make it clear to everyone, I was the first person to ever display cAttitude. Although there may be those that display more cAttitude than your truly, I was the first so nyah, nayh , nyah. Although I have only really known Charles for seven or eight months, quite a few of my most memorable OB memories involve him in some form or another; Otaku Idol, the infamous sock thread, and of course, our rap battle. The battle between Charles and me is epic, and I doubt that any other will touch it. I am an arrogant person so I have no problem blatantly stating that we revolutionized the battle arena…who knows if it was for the better or the worse? There are a bunch of other memories to be made on the OB, right now Mitch and I have a very unusual battle, that my not be a battle at all and v.7 is on the horizon. Anyway, I think I wrote my fill for the day…sorry if I left anyone out, it wasn’t intentional.

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Wednesday, October 22, 2003

On Relationships

I shared a pleasant phone call with an elusive flame haired, axe wielding angel last night. I had a good time and I got to listen to throaty renditions of songs by Bob Marley and Nirvana, her voice always blows me away. Sometime during our conversation the topic fell upon my past relationships, or, more appropriately, my lack of serious relationships. I don’t really picture myself as a layabout playboy, but I am sure that I often present that impression. I am twenty-three years old and my longest relationship was five months, which, despite being an eternity on the Charlie relationship-o-meter, seems relatively short to most. I date fairly frequently in a breezy manner, and most of these “relationships” never get past a few dates. Although I don’t sleep around, I freely admit that most (if not all) of my relationships that have lasted more than a month were (on my part) solely based on passion, not love. Despite my flighty nature when it comes to relationships, I insist that my lecherous tendencies are not intentional. If anything, I am a hopeless, helpless romantic. I believe in love in its purest, and I will settle for nothing less. I have been told that the love that exists in the movies is a fiction and that the Romeo and Juliet portraits and prince charming murals are fairytale paintings that exist only in my head. My mother, my family members, and my horde of female friends constantly tell me that I have impossible expectations, but I really don’t have any set expectations, that isn’t how I picture love. I just want to meet someone that blows me away, someone that I find infinitely interesting yet uncannily familiar at the same time. Until I find someone that has those few qualities I intend to maintain my fleeting and fickle habits. On too other news, on the 24th I will be celebrating my two year anniversary as an OBer…maybe I’ll post some OB reflections or something of that nature on Friday, or maybe I won’t…who knows? Besides me that is…

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Monday, October 20, 2003

Random Thoughts

1. A wise man once said “Don’t use bleach on denim”, obviously that is not the saying he is best known for. 2. How can it be partly cloudy? Is there such thing as part of a cloud? 3. Is it just me, or does anyone else want to see Christopher Reeve go head to head with Stephen Hawking in a celebrity boxing match? 4. McDonald’s drive threw windows are now open 24hrs a day. Now obese people can get even fatter at four o’clock in the morning. 5. I let the dogs out. Sorry, I didn’t think it would cause such a fuss… 6. Carrots are the incredible edible vegetable. I would eat nothing but carrots, if not for the simple fact that some other foods taste better. 7. Blue; it is not just a color, it is also a mood. Red, it is not just a color…well, actually it is… 8. I was surprised to find out that a man encased in concrete shoes couldn’t float. I wonder if mobsters are aware of this. 9. Don’t throw babies in the trash, they are recyclable. 10. That last comment was sick, I am appalled at myself, and for the first time I realize how demented I truly am. Yeah right…

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