Monday, November 1, 2004

It's a phenomonym!

Comment Commentary

Mimmi- Big comment. I am most definitely pleased. :D

Nah, my mom's hair is brown with a very subtle red dye tint- but what you see there is just the lighting.

Shin- Uh.. Someday? <_<

Solo- Done and done!

Solo again- Aw, it's all right. At least you didn't say "hay im nu wanna b buddies???"

--

Last night all plans of going anywhere were destroyed, simply because I didn't ask. It was a school night, anyway, so it wasn't like there could be some major all-night rave in someone's garage or anything.

:P

Instead I watched the History Channel, and it was fun. I really enjoy watching History Channel and the Travel Channel when they have their paranormal stuff on- you know, real-life haunted house locales and things like that. I watched the story behind Dracula the novel, and all of the vampire lore that went into it.

We were having dinner as they were talking about Vlad the Impaler- Romanian ruler who took thousands of innocent people, put them on pikes and drank their blood.

I lost my appetite.

Oh! My Johnny the Homicidal Maniac jackolantern! I printed this (or something similar to it), did the dotting, and went to town. I wanted to carve out the back so that "JTHM" would shine on the wall behind it, but I didn't risk messing it up. It still turned out very nicely- I took pictures, so expect those one of these days.

My brother had this big, elaborate plan to scare people who come to our house. First, he went out to go rob people of their candy, and got freaked out by a couple teenagers in Freddy masks. Ironically enough, he spent the rest of the evening inside.

And I didn't even play any Nocturne. What the hell?

--

I finished Evil Under the Sun in AR today. I spent all the free time I could muster skimming through the book again, memorizing obscure facts that would probably go on an AR test. I'll look for cliffnotes later. Why am I being so hellbent on passing? It's all because of that book report due in a little over two weeks- it needs to be on an AR test over 100 pages that we have passed this year. I haven't done that yet, because of goddamn John Wilkes Boothe and his cohorts and legal jargon that I don't care about.

I had to take a test on the electoral college that I had missed in Social Studies. We were allowed to use the notes that we took, and I'm rather sure that I didn't do too well. I already know I got two of the nineteen wrong (I asked people afterwards), and there were a couple more I wasn't sure of. If I really didn't do that well, I'll make it up by recycling old political cartoons and getting points for them.

Yay for extra credit.

We went over this really confusing, abstract math stuff in math today, which confused me. I don't like math, but I tend to understand things when I'm taught them in class.. Oh well. I don't think we're even going to get tested on it.

We did "cross training" in Phys Ed. We started with lunges, which were followed by a very stairmaster-esque thing on the bleachers.. We then did this thing where you're supposed to jump and bring your knees up as high as you can. I think I sort of started a trend- doing light hops between impact and doing it again, sort of like in jumprope. It helped my already pain-stricken knees cope.. A lot. Then there was some jumping side-to-side schtick, which wasn't tiring, but was still hell after the jumping.

We had a sub in journalism- this very strict African American woman we had last year for Language Arts. She asked us what grade the class was- somebody answered with "seventh and eight" because, well, it is. It was designed to have experienced people from last year teaching newcomers for when they are gone, but the substitute didn't know that, let alone care.

"Oh, a mix class. You all know why you're in here, and you all know that it's not by accident. You need to apply yourselves in school, and as such I expect you to start now. Insubordinance will not be tolerated."

She thought we were remedial. I was cracking up the whole time.

--

As per usual, I was supposed to go home with one of my friends on Monday, because of my mom's college course and my dad's being lazy and waiting until he picks up my brother to come and get me. That friend was absent today, however, so I ended up going home with a different friend.

Generally, we don't talk too much in person, but it was uncanny how talkative I felt I was being with her. Having some time to waste, I got convinced into going over to the mall (it's not far from her house), and we played a game of DDR. Fortunately, this was before the typical "rush hour" of our mall, and there was nobody playing the EXTREME. After one set I was freaking out about my parents freaking out about me freaking out about not being able to get into Friend A's house, so we left.

But not before smoothies. It was, like, the best strawberry-banana smoothie ever. We then walked back through the desert, talking, and my dad's cell phone finally turned on. After disposing of the empty smoothie container, I ran down the block and got into the car.

So yeah, it was really, really cool.

--

I made up for the recent lack of Nocturnity (I'm so clever) when I got home. I raised all of my main party members at least three levels each in preparation for destroying Thor. My Inugami's showing signs of changing into a different demon, so I'm waiting until then, in hopes that it's something useful.

I'm amazed at how the AI actually thinks. The enemies form patterns, such as all attacking one character to get rid of it in one turn. With most RPGs, it seems that enemies just randomly attack my characters, but Nocturne actually employs strategy.

Only when the Magatsuchi is full, though. Oh well. I'm off to fight through the desolate battlefield that is tonight's math homework.
Comments (4) | Permalink

Sunday, October 31, 2004

Filler update.

Comment Commentary

Mimmi- I feel better now. :)

Shin- I'm still in that "naively hopeful" stage. :P

Arcadia- Yeah, I got some odd looks from the vice principal as I walked into school.

"omfgz columbine!!111"

Godel- Yes, that Nocturne. *draws a Pentagram on the bathroom floor and lights candles* >:|

--

Wow, the people at the computer shop actually did something. They somehow installed the printer software, though my dad couldn't tell me what they did for the life of him. Expect a steady stream of fanart accompanied by a fair number of comics (Saikano Fanart #1, bizatch).

--

They killed the Venture Brothers. They can't have a depressing ending- media is supposed to have schmaltzy happy endings! And then I'm supposed to complain about them and make up my own sad endings. I don't know what to believe anymore.

--

I decided to go sit down on the couch and "spend some time with the family." After some rabid channel surfing, I discovered that The Animatrix was coming on, and after some persistence I finally got it on. Of course, my parents shunned it in five seconds because of the whole dojo thing in The Final Flight of the Osiris. I brought up the nudity that is rampant in art of the Bible, which is accompanied by some of the dirtiest books to ever be reading material in (private) schools.

"Oh, don't even get into that."

After that came the inevitable "This is Adult Swim! You shouldn't watch it" debate.

"It's rated PG-13."

"Then why is it called Adult Swim?"

I wanted to bring up how there are so many movies intended for adults that get PG-13 simply because they aren't so explicit, but I saved my breath. It wouldn't have gotten through to them- they'll forget about it by tomorrow and we'll be on the same subject in two weeks.

Case in point: I showed my mother the opening sequence to Nocturne today to test this theory, and she said: "That was cool. What game is this again?"

"The one with the pentagrams."

">:|"

--

I watched The Nightmare Before Christmas for the first time tonight. It's always been a movie that's intrigued me, and I have always felt sort of ashamed having never seen it. I came in about halfway, I guess, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I actually grinned as I watched.. That's not a common thing.

It reminded me of all of those old 1950's claymation Christmas cartoons mixed with darker (in a funny way) tones. That was probably the point, but.. Yeah, it was admirable. I'm glad that Disney hasn't bastardized it with a CG sequel with lackluster voice actors who can vaguely imitate the sounds of the originals.

--

Finally beat Matador in Nocturne today. I leveled up to twenty, fuzed my High Pixie with my Angel, and whooped him with the rest of my anti-force armada.

I then went on only to get my ass handed to me by Thor. Oh well.

Halloween today. May end up going to a friend's house, then traversing over to another's, and we'll go from there. I'm not sure how likely it is.. There hasn't been much concrete planning. If all else fails, I'll just bring my PS2 over and play Nocturne and Devil May Cry all day.

I apologize for this post.
Comments (4) | Permalink

Saturday, October 30, 2004

This is worth some fidgeting.

Comment Commentary

Syk- Not if I ever decide to get off my lazy ass and start playing constantly again. :P

Godel- I try to avoid sweaters with brand names or things like that one them- you're bound to get criticism from somebody if you do that, and I prefer to just fade into the background, ignored by those people.

Shin- Gorf = Galaxis ripoff with a funny name.

Azure and Shin's little space-waster- No comment.

Mimmi- I want attention, too. ;_;

--

I ended up borrowing my dad's trenchcoat and wearing it to school yesterday. I had told people that I wasn't wearing anything special for Halloween, unlike a lot of people I know, but I figured I would surprise them if I did something.

And the best I could come up with was a trenchcoat with black slacks and a turtleneck. I got a lot of people asking me what I was supposed to be, and eventually I just answered with either "it's just a trenchcoat" or "what do you think?"

To be honest, I didn't think of it as a costume- it's a piece of clothing. I probably could get away with wearing one any day of the year without being accused of "being in costume." I could be accused of going Columbine on everyone's asses, yes, but not of being in costume.

--

Remember a couple weeks ago, when I came up with excuses to get out of going to a junior high church meeting with a friend? Well, I ended up going to his church's Halloween thing last night. It was boring as hell, and he admitted it, and says that the regular meetings are better.

Freaking everybody there was a skater, it seemed. There were a bunch of guys dressed in drag- skater girl drag- and they played their parts disturbingly well. Overall, I found it incredibly ironic. Halloween in Church.. It's just messed up. Of course, there wasn't that much religious stuff involved. Aside from a couple of songs performed by the band that plays there (their drummer was really, really good), it was all basically a bunch of lame carnival games and a shoddy maze. I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt and go another time, I guess.

I really think that I have social problems. Try as I might, I can never think of anything to say when in conversation with people I don't really know, and even when I do, I'm too quiet to be heard. I want to talk, and I want to be heard, but sometimes I think it's just not worth the trouble.

After all of that I came home to find that my dad had taken the computer back up to "Superior Electronics" so they could figure out what is wrong with our printer. I really don't trust those guys anymore. I keep having these weird thoughts, like they're going to reformat the hard drive without permission. I don't think of it as probable, but you never know with these idiots.

He took it up there because my mom has a project due for her Interior Design course at UCLA. It figures. Whenever I ask for something to get done he ignores me, and he does whatever he can for her. It's not that I think that he's totally biased or anything, but sometimes he's really irrational and inconsistent.

Oh well. In the best case scenario the printer will be fixed, meaning I can scan things once again.

Not much else to say- my family's at a cousin's birthday thing and I got to stay home. I guess I'll go play Nocturne now.
Comments (4) | Permalink

Thursday, October 28, 2004

[angsty title]

Comment Commentary

Mal- *high five*

Godel- How easily we forget. :/

Shin- I should have guessed. Ejaculation is God's way of healing flesh wounds, after all.

Aleia- To tempt young men and bring them down to the pits of hell with them?

Mimmi- Ah, a note of absence. You are excused.

--

Nothing happened today- journalism was stupid, we had a lot of subs (GATE convention in Burbank), and journalism was stupid. So, instead of a substantial post, I bring you pictures from Vegas.

I didn't organize them chronologically, so things will end up jumping back and forth in time. Doing a good job wasn't taken into consideration until I was halfway done uploading and naming everything. Enjoy.

Above.. Stuff. For those of you who have never been in an airplane, there's a bit of insight. There were some really cool clouds to the right (they almost looked solid), but I couldn't get a good shot of them.

Crack is bad. It speaks for itself. *mourns the loss of near-mint condition-ness*

Swanky bed. Isn't that a cool bed? Of course, I refused to share a bed with my brother, so a third bed was ordered.. And it wasn't as vernacular.

A rather lame shot of the pool area at the Bellagio. The building to the left is in progress- you can't tell from that angle, but it's pretty unfinished on the other side.

Lobby Leaves. These were hanging from the ceiling near the lobby (by the entrance to the area with the nauseatingly overpriced clothing stores).

OMFG ITZ SEN!!1 Not sure why I took this one.. At least you all get a very nice view of the inside of my nose.

Clouds. Rain.. In Vegas? Never!

Of course.. You couldn't get away without a picture of DDR. My dad took this with the flash on as I was playing, and I was blinded for a few seconds, totally messing up the beginning of the song.

Everything Coco Cola. It's M&M World.. Only with Coke! You can't really tell, but the girl to the far left looked exactly like Haruko would if she were a real person- clothes and everything- but I doubt it was intentional.

Geek To Chic Ad. I just had to take a picture of this one.. It has a White Stripes DVD in it, after all.

"Virtual Reality Fighter." The blue panels on the sides are supposed to sense your motions, but they do an awful job of it. People struggle with character selection alone. A waste of three dollars.

The DDR Phantom. It looks like I was wearing bellbottoms.. o_O

Lake Bellagio. For the sake of redundancy, this is the lake outside of the Bellagio. They have a big water fountain show out there every couple hours, but we didn't get a good picture of it.

Blatant Nintendo Knockoff. One of the many souvenier shops in the slummier area of Vegas had this.. Actually, there's a booth in our mall with a similar product. They could have at least used a better controller design- other than for First Person Shooters, I always felt the N64 controller design was sort of impractical.

Mystery Bag. Why, anything could be in there. Cocaine, explosives.. Or even a laptop!

Other leaves. You see these just as you walk in. Cool, no?

Utility Van of Mysterious Wonders. I was trying to get a picture of the fountain outside of the Paris, and this came out. Oh well, I think it's better.

The Eiffel Mini-Tower. I didn't take this one- I was too scared of getting ass-raped by a bunch of drunken businessmen to leave the room at night. Other than that, I can't think of much to say..

The Strip at night, as seen from our hotel room. It's cooler without the blur.

That's oldschool, yo. Pinball.. My dad's the one doing the Twister one (He got the second highest score).

Southwest Airlines- We love to screw you over.

Three-puck air hockey at Gameworks. I didn't bother playing.. By the time I discovered it I had blown most of my money on DDR.

A very tired Sennen. Will you ever see a picture of me without the lame-ass short hair?

Bathtub! That bathtub was incredibly deep. Either that or I've been ruined by the lame bathtubs in my house.

The real way to play Virtua Tennis. It's also the real way to waste four dollars on Virtua Tennis.

The fabled wall of M&Ms and the sweaty fat man of yore.

Gorf..? What the bloody hell is Gorf?

There was one picture of my mom getting reacquainted with Space Invaders, which had unlimited plays on it, but I can't seem to find it. Oh well.

--

My parents have suddenly fallen in love with Trigger Happy TV. o_O I did not see that one coming.

EDIT: Yellow M&M, my old arch nemesis. I feel sorry for the guy in that costume.. But he probably gets free M&Ms, so it's all good.

Nintendo Knockoff Console, continued. Syk thought that it was just a third party controller, so I'm just clarifying: It had fifty "amazing" games, including Popeye, Star Gate, Space ET (Probably had nothing to do with the movie), and a Speed Racer motorcycle game. Motorcycle game. Yeah. Speed Racer on a motorcycle. Right.

Rain.. In California!?! Again, surely ye jest!

Found it! My mom used to be a major Space Invaders junkie, so.. Yep.

Satan's Minifridge. You know, the one with the pressure sensors so they charge you three times the retail price for anything that you even accidentally nudge.

Slummy Strip. Before I resized it, you could tell that the guy I circled was a porn hawker. Don't ask how.
Comments (6) | Permalink

Wednesday, October 27, 2004

A busy day of.. Sleeping.

Comment Commentary

Shin- Um.. Yeah.

People who didn't reply- >:O

--

Today was one of those days where I did absolutely nothing. I slept until noon (got out of school because of a fever), got up, dragged myself downstairs, and fell asleep again watching Saturday Night Live on E.

Do they ever show the old 70's episodes? All I've ever seen on there is Chris Farley and Dana Carvey.. Never Chevy Chase John Be..Loochi. :/

Talked with my dad about Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Out of nowhere a few days back I became excited about the game.. I think it's just the immensity of it all. If I were to rent it, I would probably spend most of my time just driving around and bouncing down on the east side with my crew.

Tee-hee.

He really does seem to want to play it, "but only if your mother is away. Far away. Like, five hundred miles and there's no chance of her turning around to check on us."

Sure, the game has the violence and the language and all of that good stuff, but they're worried about the prostitution aspect. Do you ever, ever have to do anything like that in a GTA game?

Oh well. I'm still more excited about other games, and it hasn't suddenly become some top priority. I just want to experience the franchise so I can do more than just stare blankly and nod my head when people are talking about it (which they are).

--

To fill out this post some, I'm going to rant about The Pillows. I was originally going to pit Happy Bivouac against Little Busters and talk about how I like one more than the other, but instead I'm just going to review (rant?) Bivouc, song by song. If you don't know / listen to / give a shit about The Pillows, you're free to go now.

Track 1- Happy Bivouac. I only remember hearing this song once in FLCL.. Personally, I think it could have definitely been used more. One of the OST's main resources was named after this one, for God's sake. It also sounds very Haruko-ey.

But I'm not supposed to be going on and on about FLCL.. The topic is the song. It's one of The Pillows' more laid back songs (most of them are), and while I'm a bigger fan of their more energetic tracks, this one catches my ear more than most. The bridge is insanely catchy.

A number rating, you say? Haha.. No. I don't feel like it.

Track 2- Rush. I think of this one as a basic Pillows song. It has the familiar bass and the trademark vocals, and it doesn't really stand out to me. It's sort of average.

Track 3- Last Dinosaur. Last Dinosaur used to be one of my favorites, right up there with Blue Drives Monster. It was used as the "next episode" song on FLCL, without vocals (boo), and for good reason. It's one of the more distinct songs by the band, with its energetic, psuedo-thrashy sound. There's also a more mellow part in the middle to break things up a bit, and it fits perfectly. Of course, I'm always a sucker for that sort of contrast (see: Asian Kung-Fu Generation).

Track 4- Carnival. Ah, Carnival. I could go on and on about it for days. Back in the day, when free MP3s were still somewhat easy to find (even outside of file sharing), and I downloaded a bunch of FLCL songs, it had vocal Carnival.. It stuck with me as a favorite for quite some time. When I eventually bought the domestic OST, and found that they used a "karaoke" version of Carnival, I was devestated. It just doesn't sound the same without the familiarly appealing lyrics.

Of course, the song is still great without the singing.. In fact, I think the strong point of it is the guitar in the beginning. Vocals are just the icing on the cake here.

Track 5- Our Love And Peace. ..Meh. This one is too slow, and while the vocals are the highlight, they still can't save the song. This is my personal least favorite song on the album.

Track 6- Crazy Sunshine. Now here we go. It may sound biased when I treat the faster songs with such reverence and put the slower ones down, but how can you not enjoy Crazy Sunshine? Unlike a lot of songs by The Pillows of this type, it sort of sounds sentimental, in a way, instead of just playful and youthful. This is easiest to spot during the break (around the two minute mark), which quickly reverts back to the normal tone. The lyrics were surprisingly easy to find on this one. It's one of those more "omfg this generation sucks" songs, like Runners High's Instant Music, and in a way it's funny.. When I take the tone into consideration, and the half-angst of the lyrics, I can't help but giggle insidiously.

Track 7- Back Seat Dog. The guitar is the motif in this one, though Mr. Sawao's familiar voice is accompanied by.. Little kids, or young Japanese girls, or something. They don't really add to anything.. But it's not like this song has that much to offer anyway. Despite it being a catchy song, it's still mediocre by Pillows standards.

Track 8- Kim Deal. I don't know what the people on Amazon are smoking when they say Kim Deal is the worst song on Happy Bivouac. The bridge is amazingly catchy, and for once there are actual- wait for it- backup vocals (I disregard Back Seat Dog because I'm biased). The rest of it is sort of generic, but it's no big deal.

..*stares at Sarah Michelle Gellar on the cover of Entertainment Weekly from a few weeks back* ...Oh, I'm sorry, where was I?

Track 8- Funny Bunny. I have good memories of Funny Bunny. For once, the drums and bass seem to dominate a song, and it all comes together for a very sweet yet casual sound. Whoever decided to put this on FLCL OST 2 instead of Yori Gallop needs to die.

Track 9- Beautiful Morning With You. To be honest, I'm not sure why I like this one. There's nothing about it that stands out. Throughout most of it it's incredibly simplistic, accompanied by serene echoes of.. Noises in the background. It's all very calm, and fits the title perfectly.

Track 11- Advice. Woot. Best. Pillows Song. Ever. I didn't really care when I downloaded the karaoke version of it all those months ago, because the vocals are absolutely NEVER heard in FLCL. Not even on the OST. I had basis to assume that it was one of those rare voiceless Pillows songs, but when I downloaded the discography I was pleasantly surprised. At first I hardly recognized it, because the vocals take such dominance over the rest of it. But that's not to say that it's a bad thing.. It's sweet. Oh so sweet, and a perfect way to close a near-perfect album.

"Sank yew."
Comments (4) | Permalink

Tuesday, October 26, 2004

Oh.. My.. God. Punch cards.

Comment Commentary

Shin- I'm sure there's some really kinky Read Or Die doujin out there involving her and books, but that's a little too out there for me.

Godel- If I had a choice, I would have watched it subbed, but it was on TV so :P on you.

Solo- *debates you about not wanting to debate about dubs versus subs*

Aleia- ..Wow. Then the Japanese version must have been pretty lame.

--

Did I mention how I failed the AR test on The Brethren yesterday? Apparently, you need to get 70% of the questions right on twenty-question tests, but you only need 60 for ten-question ones. How lame is that? Nobody knows why, it just sort of.. Is.

And now I have a book report coming up where you have to talk about an AR book that I have passed this year, is in my level and is at least one hundred pages. Now that's not really that difficult, but for some odd reason it's irking me. I'm reading an Agatha Christie novel right now (Evil Under the Sun), and I've had rather good history with passing her books.

Not that this one is all that interesting yet.

Because I failed that test, I still have 31.1 points to read by December ninth. If I sit down and really focus and really try to drown out my brother's relentless.. Noise.

I spent a bit of time last night dividing the big-ass bag of rare color M&Ms into equal groups for my close friends, because I felt sorry for missing school for three days to romp about Vegas. I'm not sure how many of them really appreciated it, but I do know that a bunch of people came over and started mooching off of them.

The bag was mostly black, two shades of purple, gray, red and beige. In all, it sort of looks like Valentine's Day colors, which may have sent out the wrong message. I should have balanced it out with greens and blues and other Skittle colors.

I did my best to avoid batting during softball today. Yesterday I came incredibly close to getting up there and sucking, but today the game was over before I was even sizing up the bats. In a way, I think I sort of contributed- I assisted in getting one person out, in what was probably an incredibly foolish way.

..Man, my mom turned on the heater for the first time this fall and it smells like burnt plastic. *gets back on topic*

Journalism is starting to really suck. I'm never given anything to do these days (I seem to be left out of a lot of newsletter stuff).. About ten useless appendages were added to the class today, as if we don't already have enough dead weight. I mean, seriously. There's a bunch of ghetto bizatches and a bunch of former special ed kids whose minds are incredibly blurred by all of the medication. There's one faint speck of hope in this one seventh grade kid with a name I have trouble spelling, but he's very upbeat and cheery and I dislike that.

Apparently there are going to be two movie reviews this month. The Grudge was the first one, and the horrendously optimistic kid decided to review his dad's Van Helsing DVD. I read over the shoulders of people who were typing them up, and as usual I was disgusted by what I saw. They weren't reviews. They were lame summaries of the lame storylines with lame five-star ratings plastered all over it "because its violent."

And it seems that everybody wants color pages in the yearbook. If they do that, and keep the shittiness going, and if I'm still going to have to make the only good pages while desperately trying to remain on top of the bad ones, I'm seriously going to threaten transferring.

Oh, and I was asked to make a comic for this newsletter. It's two frames, I did it in five minutes, and I entitled it "Impotence is Funny." The first panel has some poorly done pseudo-stick figure thinking, in a Florida voting booth in 2000, "Oh.. My.. God. Punch cards." The next panel has an updated Florida voting booth with a computer, with the same stick figure, thinking "Oh.. My.. God. Technology." I really wish I had my scanner. It doensn't sound that great, but it really is. I'm just not good with describing these things.

If I am approached to do these comics regularly, I'm probably going to make comics that totally fly over everyone's heads and silently jab at them at the same time. I'm already going by the pen name "Loser X", so that will prevent some of the hatemail.

--

Normally I don't pay attention to television dramas. I am and have always been a bigger fan of comedies, but I was introduced to ABC's "Lost" by my mom about halfway through the pilot. I was hooked pretty instantly, and I have made it my goal to watch every episode during its first run.

I'm not in the mood to go into a real in-depth review right now, but I think that the characters is what draws me to the show. They all have their little quirks and, for the most part, seem pretty original. There's a lot of them, and I'm bad with names, so I've just made up my own for all of them. There's the doctor guy, the fat guy, the coke-snorting guy, the asshole guy, the black guy, the pregnant girl, the middle-eastern MacGyver (I admit I stole that one from Entertainment Weekly), the hot girl and the Asian dude with the hot wife.

Oh, and the crippled guy who got un-crippled after the plane crashed. That was messed up.

In fact, quite a few things about it are messed up. A polar bear? Come on.. And was that monster thing the formerly crippled guy saw? A dinosaur? I swear, if they do something stupid like that I am giving up on plot twists forever.

Bleh, I'm going to do the simple homework now, and then I'm going to try to drown out all external distractions and comprehend that book to the best of my ability.
Comments (1) | Permalink

Monday, October 25, 2004

Get orgasmic over reading!

Comment Commentary

Evitabug- Sure.

Aleia- Meh, I feel like a big weght has been lifted off my shoulders.

DDG- The curse has been lifted off of me and placed on another. It never ends.

Mimmi- *parties*

Shin- Damn right! *is in random half-assed comment mode right now*

DDG- There's an art to it. It just takes time and lots of practice. :P

Syk- Damn right again!

Ben- *chuckles oddly*

Shin- Aw.. I thought I was a hero.

Godel- Well, there goes the only remaining shred of my self esteem.

Ben- You took my smarmy retort..!

Shin- Long live recluses!

Solo- See, Shin cheats because he does his posts the second it's midnight. He can't be trusted.

Semjaza- I got pretty close to beating him, but then he pulled out taunt and that fencing move. It wouldn't have been so bad if I hadn't forgotten to save. I seriously need to kill myself for doing that.

I think I'd like to fight the skeletal Fiends anyway. I really want to milk this game for all it's worth.

--

I watched Read Or Die on Adult Swim. About ten minutes before it began I found out it was airing.. It was one of those DVDs that I wanted to get because it sounded cool, but seeing things for free is always a plus.

The whole thing was a little far-fetched to me. I'm not talking about the paper powers- that's what it's about. I didn't expect it to be realistic, but I didn't think it was going to be as odd as [spoilerage coming up]:

Suicide symphony? Come on, what the hell is that? I can let cloning Beethoven and even a fictional Chinese hero slide, but not creating a song that is going to make people kill themselves.

Unless it's really heavy satanic death-metal.

And what was with Nancy? "Oh my God, Nancy's hot. Oh my God, they killed the hot girl! Oh my God, she's still alive- wait, no, she's dead! BUT SHE'S ALIVE AGAIN! Will she make it this time!?!11/"

Okay.. Spoilerage done.

It's not that I dislike ROD (What I saw of ROD the TV was exquisite), but they were just asking for criticism when they did that.

The voice acting was good overall, but the main character got on my nerves. Sure, at times she was appealing, but after a while I just wanted to put on the closed captioning and mute it.

"Oh my gosh, old books! *lots of elated moaning noises*"

I still liked it. Nothing is sacred in this realm, not even cool OVAs.

--

Being gone for three days and knowing the math homework ahead of time can be quite a problem. I didn't bother doing my homework for Tuesday night "because I had five days to do it," plus the other three days.. It was a pain in the arse. I started around eight, realized that I had completely forgotten everything about what I had learned that week and sat there for four more hours trying to put it all together. Not even the text book helped- I learn these things best through example.

Not that my parents were of any help. My mother, despite having graduated college, can't remember a single shred of algebra for the life of her, and my dad had a freaking tent sale going on (Yes, he endorses them, feel free to throw things), and he got home around one.

It all got done, and I wrote "If I'm totally bombing this please assist" on all four assignments, but it took forever and got me pretty angry. It didn't help that my brother called me a nerd on his way to bed, but I won't get into that violent story.

Magically enough, I suddenly remembered all of the math when I got into class. Even when I checked the problems (which has been the breaking point every time) they made sense, and I gave myself an imaginary pat on the back for remembering, accompanied by a real kick in the ass for not remembering it the night before.

They were jacking up the yearbook when I was gone. Apparently, clipart was added and lame backgrounds were selected, though I didn't see it. The sooner the teacher gets her new computer (floppy drive is busted on this one) I'll be satisfied and able to show up the junkies.

Bleh, I hope nothing interesting happens tomorrow. I've got a pleasant little television-related rant lined up, and I'm getting a strong itch to talk about it.

PS- Softball sucks.
Comments (4) | Permalink

Sunday, October 24, 2004

I am defeated..!

Yeah, I am. But it was justified. *decides to do comment commentary first*

Comment Commentary

Shin- It's easier if you just put your credit card through a paper shredder. It even wastes the money you spent on the shredder!

Ben- I know.

Aleia- Well, I aim to please.

Karmi- I guess I'll just go with grow-dee, then. That's how I've always heard it pronounced.

Mimmi- Oh, I forgot my favorite moral that I learned from O: Taking off your clothes can be a rollercoaster of emotions and often leads to sexy parties ala Stewie.

Mal- New York. I want to go there. *pouts*

Godel- But that's just it. I didn't want to see the French people jump around haphazardly.

Godel- I can't believe you made that mistake! God, I think I need to disown you now.

evitabug- There's this one in our mall that totally sucks. Even by clown standards.

Syk- Sort of puts a damper on the fun, eh?

--

Stupid Matador, stopping my otherwise steady progress in Nocturne. I even flipped through the strategy guide in the mall today, looking for his weakness.

First time I fought him he totally owned me in two rounds, but the second time I managed three. He keeps on using these attacks that deal pretty heavy damage to my winged female characters (I forget their weakness), and those are the characters I have been working with most. This leaves me in a rather awkward place.. I guess I'll just have to fiddle around with magatama and fusion and see what happens.

But man, the guide book is cool. I would get it just for the cool art and creature designs, which could be used as reference materials / fanart fodder.

Oh, speaking of fanart, I sort of redid that one drawing last night. I didn't really mean for it to turn out as a schoolgirl looking over her shoulder, but whatever. It sort of looks good (I was experimenting with different ways to draw faces), but I'm probably not going to scan it (ONCE IT GETS FIXED). Her head's sort of off to a funny angle, and it's all a little too angular.

--

I woke up at noon today, to my brother practicing the saxaphone. Badly. He left for his lesson soon enough, and I enjoyed a little quiet time browsing the internet. I then got called and was asked to go to the mall.. Ended up getting there around three. There wasn't much walking around or shopping done- by the time a couple friends finally got their requests through the Hot Topic workers' thick heads (They had ordered a couple of dresses) and tried them on and everything, only a few minutes were left before the movie started.

They had seen The Grudge yesterday- I was going to go, but I couldn't get a ride, and so my friends, being the saintly people that they are, were nice enough to go see it again.

It was sort of lame. For the most part, it was predictable, with only a few good moments, but I found myself heckling it.

I never heckle in a public place. Whenever people talk in a movie theater I get angry, and in return I never say a word. This time, however, with friends around me and a bunch of assholes screaming at the lamest things, it seemed like the appropriate atmosphere to talk in.

It's amazing how screamy the girls in front of us were. The book opened on its own, with nothing scary about it, and they all went off. At one point somebody asked them to be quiet..

"Okay, look, my friend and I here paid money to see this movie, and we'll scream as much as we want, okay? Okay."

They were the kind of crazy girl who says things like "Oh no joo DI-INT" and the like. I really wanted to say something along the lines of "And we paid good money to see a movie without a bunch of assholes screeching at the most un-scary things," but then their crazy boyfriends would have been waiting for me at the door.

God, did the ending suck. "Oh, we saved the house from getting burned down to leave room for sequels. :}" Lamest thing ever.

After I got picked up, I found out that a friend of mine, who is moving tomorrow, was having some sort of party at her house. Considering I would probably never see her again in person, I went, and had a pretty good time. She didn't invite any other guys (or, at least, no others showed up), so as usual I was surrounded by people of the opposite sex talking about nothing in particular. Now all of their parents think I'm some sort of pimp or something.

It was enjoyable, but the goodbyes weren't as sad as I had expected them to be. It was all sort of casual, as if nothing was changing.

So my absence is justified. Suck on that, Shin.

Teh Silly Circus Day- Hey wait. I'm out now. From now on you can count your own freaking days, people! Hah!

EDIT: *changes "madator" to "matador"* This is what happens when I type posts with headphones on. =_=
Comments (14) | Permalink

Friday, October 22, 2004

*sigh of stressful relief*

I plug Ben because he told me to.

Comment Commentary

Godel- I've never stayed in a Marriott, but the lobby of the one in Anaheim is swanky.

Shin- ..That's what your mom said. <_<

Aleia- To be honest, I don't know how it's pronounced.. Grow-dee or grot-ee?

Solo- Lucky for me I hardly eat anything.

Mimmi- Well what can I say? :P

Semjaza- My initial opinions on the show were incredibly blind.. But I'll get to that later.

--

Man, Gameworks was so cool that I could go on for hours about it, but I'm going to spare all of you. Nobody wants to hear about my DDR ramblings, right?

Instead, I'm going to go on and on about "O" by Cirque Du Soleil, the show that we went to last night.

To be honest, I don't know how many people are actually familiar with what Cirque Du Soleil is all about. It's a very large, very odd troupe that has quite a few shows going on internationally. Odd costumes are one of the reasons that Cirque stands out in the sea of live shows, and it's also one of the main reasons people get freaked out by it. From what I had seen of it on television, I was one of one of those people. This led to a lot of whining when I found out tickets were aquired for the Cirque show at the Bellagio.

After getting all dressed up (it requires formal attire), jamming my overly large right foot into my overly small right shoe, and taking advantage of the all-you-can-eat buffet and standing in line for about half an hour, we finally filed into the theatre, avoiding most of the crazy program-hawkers ("Pro-greeeams heeeere"), and sat down in the fourth row. Whoever the hell got us these tickets really put out..

It started out with clowns. I do not like clowns. These clowns were not any different. They rolled a liferaft around for a while, humiliated a few audience members (another thing Cirque Du Soleil is known for), and then the real show started.

I was really, really wrong about the show. You can't help but marvel at the sheer immensity of it all. There are so many things going on the entire time, each incredibly puzzling and thought-provoking, so it kept you paying attention.

And the music! Even my brother enjoyed it so much he said that he wanted to buy the soundtrack. It was sort of like Yuki Kajiura's work- ethnic, I guess you could say. I enjoyed the more somber songs, but the vocals were amazing throughout. It's done live, too. We did not expect that.

It was all wonderfully orchestrated.. One of the biggest things that worried me about the show was the costumes. From what you see in most of the propaganda, the performers are covered in makeup with odd masks and disturbing facepainting. This particular Cirque show has a lot to do with water, so they really couldn't do a lot with masks. The costumes were still elaborate and impressive, but not in the somewhat flamboyant way that the other shows seem to have.

All of it was inspiring, and some of the imagery used is bound to somehow influence me in the future.

After the show, the "progreeeams" people were out again, but this time around they were also sporting the soundtracks. My brother wanted to get it, but then he found out they were thirty-five bucks. I checked on their official site just now, and they sell it for $19. Another perfect example of Mr. Bellagio being a money-grubbing Italian man.

--

Oh, we also went to a Monet exhibit. It was also artistically inspiring, though my favorite painting was not done by Monet himself. I think it was by Pisarro, but it gave off a very distinct tone, especially compared to the other, more impressionistic paintings.

Translation: It kind of looked cel-shaded. :P

--

Time for a list of lessons I learned from Las Vegas. I apologize to Sara for stealing her bit.

- Slot machines are inescapable. Even as you walk into the airport terminal, they're everywhere.

- They'll advertise the "topless revues" to anybody. Not even five year old girls could escape from the porn-hawkers' grasps.

- 99-cent buffets are but mere legends anymore. They're just $25 a person now.

- Not all taxi drivers are fat and smoke and have thick Bronx accent. Some of them just smell.

- People spit on you if you're not old enough to get drunk off your ass and blow all your money on Keno.

- It's illegal in the state of Nevada to wear skirts that don't reveal less than 75% of your legs.

- The city of Las Vegas must have paid the government some pretty hefty cash, because all phone numbers start with 777.

- Monet was an exhibitionist in more ways than one (Thanks, Cirque Du Soleil -_-).

- There are three sections to the strip: The pretty Bellagio area, the slummy area filled with internet cafes and porn hawkers, and the area with the novelty places such as M&Ms world, Everything Coke and ESPN Zone.

- Napoleon was incredibly muscular and wore nothing but his hat and a thong (Again, you have Cirque to thank).

- Red trenchcoats are not in short supply, yet I can never seem to find them.

- All French Candians don't walk- they jump haphazardly and wave their arms around.

- Clowns suck. They got my popcorn wet.

- To make the guys passing out cards advertising various strip clubs leave you alone, you pound your fist into your open palm. We're not sure what it means (It's something more than just a threat).

- Nobody ever goes into the pool, even if it's bright and shiny outside.

- Outside of the strip, the whole place is a wasteland.

- Keno is a game of many mysteries, but I think the biggest one is "how the hell do you play it?"

- If you listen very carefully in a casino, you can almost hear the hammer song from the original Donkey Kong in the background when somebody's playing slots.

- There are more Far Eastern television channels in the Bellagio than English-speaking ones.

- The lighting will always mess itself up just as you're about to take a picture.

- The maids just come into your room to clean without knocking, even if you have a "do not disturb" sign on the door.

- Complimentary poker sets are not only heavy- they lead to a long sequence of security checks in the airport.

- People in buffets want you to die, because their steak is always incredibly raw.

- Gameworks is an evil place because they put Crazy Taxi in the bar area, where nobody under 21 can enter.

- M&Ms World has a wall of M&Ms, most of which have colors that are exclusive to the store.

- Everything Coke has a large polar bear which people take pictures on, and it makes funny noises.

I'm sure I'll come up with more later.

Teh SillyCircus Day 66- Haha, burning man.
Comments (9) | Permalink

Thursday, October 21, 2004

Sushi hangovers aren't fun.

Comment Commentary

Karmi- I enjoy exploring hotels.. Except for the grotty ones, of course.

Shin- At least they would accept me as a client. Zing.

Aleia- Grr.

Mimmi- Heh, I am. I just miss my MP3s.

Solo- I've made it a little ritual of mine to pray during the liftoff and during the landing.

--

My brother and I had the hotel room all to ourselves last night, because of some cocktail party.

I got very, very thirsty and was desperate enough to take a Coke out of the minibar. Here at Bellagio, Cash-whore Capital of America, the minifridge is decked out with pressure sensors, so every time you take something out- even if you don't consume it- they charge you for it. Normally, that wouldn't be a big problem, but practically everything's price is multiplied by three.

It was a good Coke, though. It kept me occupied as I watched Lost (A good show, but that's a rant for another day). After that there was nothing interesting on TV, so we decided to try out Pay Per View. There was a pretty good selection of movies.. All of the comedies I had wanted to see over the summer were there. Napoleon Dynamite, Garden State and Saved. My brother really didn't care for any of them, so I just ordered Garden State ($10.99? Is that the normal price?). The only thing missing was Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

As with a lot of films, the best parts were in the commercial. It really wasn't that funny, or that entertaining in any way. There were lots of little.. Visual gags, I guess you could call them, and they were all good, but for the most part I was disappointed. I hope to watch Saved tonight, if we don't get tickets to this show.

And I don't hope we will.

After the movie I talked with Karmi for a while. We did a voice chat, though I didn't say anything. Considering this is a laptop, I didn't think there would be a built-in mic, but Karmi discovered the truth when my parents came back into the room. I still couldn't say anything.. Even if they knew it was "that nice girl you met at Anime Expo," their response would still be "OMFG CYBER SEKZ!!1!!!11"

Heh heh.

--

Today we woke up around ten, and went to this buffet down in the casino. It wasn't one of those 99-cent buffets you hear so much about.. After we used up our discount vouchers, we only spent $2.40 on each of us, which was spiffy. The food was delicious- I even had three cups of the chicken tortilla soup.

We then went touristing, to the almighty land of Gameworks, M&M world and Everything Coke, and the Harley Davidson Cafe.

Yesterday we had only seen the "good" side of Las Vegas. Everything around the Bellagio is high-class and nice, but as we walked down toward the MGM grand things got grottier and grottier (word of the day). The slummy areas were filled with cheap burger joints, slummy internet cafes and illegal immigrants passing out little cards advertising for strip clubs and, occasionally, whore houses.

"Hey Ted, what did you get?"
"I got hot and horny lesbians!"
"Oh, man, I'll trade you! I only got 24 Hour Sultry Services."

Eventually we got down by the MGM, and saw the glorious sign indicating we had reached our destination: Gameworks was right in front of us. I went off on my own, turned 20 bucks into a little card, and explored.

The place is huge. There's one base floor, with tons of little lofts and overpasses strewn about. Even when we were leaving I was still noticing different pathways.

There were only two DDRs- an Extreme and a USA. I used more than half of my card on the DDR, but it's not like I really got to do that much. It was $1.75 for three songs.

As per usual, I did poorly at first.. Overstepping, slow response time, etc. By the end, however, I was doing surprisingly well, passing songs I had never even heard of before.

It seemed as if the machine was not unlocked at all. Lame.

My mom discovered that her favorite game, Space Invaders, was completely free (funny), my brother tried out a virtual-reality Tekken game (weak), and my dad did pinball (Sort of weak but not as lame as Tekken).

We have to go get ready for freaking O by Cirque Du Souleil now. I'll be updating tomorrow when I get home. The internet service dies in about fifteen minutes, and it would be pointless to renew it, considering we're leaving at noon tomorrow.

Teh SillyCircus Day 65- No shirts, no shoes, no worries.
Comments (6) | Permalink