Friday, September 10, 2004

Teaching
Ugh...Our lab is broke and now I have to be a TA for General Chemistry Lab this fall term. I dread this immensely. I'm going to have to do my best Onizuka impression and school their asses in some chemistry. Maybe I can have some fun with explosions or something....Ugh again.
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Wednesday, September 8, 2004

Death
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld cited progress on multiple fronts in the Bush administration's global war on terrorism and said U.S. enemies should not underestimate the willingness of the American people and its coalition allies to suffer casualties in Iraq and elsewhere.

Slightly over 1000 of the American people have died in Iraq. And for what? The Iraqi people are worse off then they were before we went in. If they try to help us fix their country they risk death. Even more Iraqi people have died than americans. How can Rumsfeld say that we are fucking willing to take casualties. Wasn't the whole idea of the war to protect our people in the first place. "Terrorists" don't need to attack the states anymore because they can just head on over to Iraq to go and kill US troops. Bush says that he will honor their memories by completing the mission. He is the biggest fool ever to hold power here and is so stubborn that he will not seek a different plan to help save lives on either side. Obviously we need people there to fix Iraq's electricity and water, train police and an army and protect all of the people try ing to help. We've proven unable to do this the way we're going about it.

Imagine your whole high school dead and thats getting close to the numbers of people that have been KILLED. And why is 1000 people more newsworthy than 980? It totally trivializes human life down to statistics. I'm not willing to accept any casualties.
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Thursday, September 2, 2004

Music and Concerts
Lately a big source of new bands has been the Magical Tony, though only about half of the 150 musicians that rock that he's written about I myself like. I've been in a big CD buying mood though lately and have been pretty willing to give anything a try.

So far my favorite bands/albums of the year have been:
Ratatat (really really good instrumental band)

Rilo Kiley (Tony reccomended girly rock in the vein of Ani Difranco but better)

The New Modest Mouse CD (MTV and radio play but thats OK)

Blonde Redhead (Synth-heavy female fronted band)

There's more, but these are a good few to pick out because I have or will be seeing all of the m in concert in the next couple of months. Rilo Kiley play on the same weekend in Portland Friday and Sunday respectively. Ratatat plays at the beginning of October in Portland and my town Eugene so I'm going to see them 2X. Blonde redhead plays sometime in November but I don't have tickets just yet. The Mouse I saw just after the album came out and it was a little disappointing, mostly because the crowd was so much bigger than when I saw them in Toronto and Philadelphia. They are from the NW though and actually live in Portland so its not really that unexpected. Still crowdriders threw me off and I just wanted to watch and listen up close w/o having to get sweated on.
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Tuesday, August 31, 2004

The wide world of videogames
I just finished Front Mission 4 a week ago and had a gap in my videogaming. I needed something that would take a bunch of time to finish so I bought Tales of Symphonia for Gamecube. I think I can play that through September and then some of the big holiday games are going to start coming out. The New GTA sounds pretty cool but I'm not sure if I'm going to buy it. While I thought GTA 3 was amazingly good, vice city was essentially the same thing and had very little innovation. GTA kinda lives off shock value, and that was missing after spending hours on 3 killing stuff until the Tanks rolled out.

I'm really just wetting my pants and waiting for the new Metal Gear and Final Fantasy 12.

Tales of Symphonia is pretty fun, it has a lot of silly dialogue. It reminds me of Zelda II, where the monsters appear on the field and when you touch one, you enter the battle screen. I'm a big fan of cooking in the game. It makes sense as health replenishment and also is fun to do. A cooking game is truly overdue. There's a cool Japanese PS2 game where you manage a noodle shop I saw when I went there but I wouldn't be able to play it on my US PS2 and also I thing understanding the text would be pretty important for that kind of game.
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Tuesday, August 24, 2004

History
Its funny now to think back on how I used to spend a lot of time on the boards here, and visit other peoples MyO sites. I would post a lot in Otaku Lounge on topical stuff and it was fun. Now I only occasionally post on my own site and very rarely go to the boards. One difference is that I spend a lot less time in general on the internet killing time at school. I'm keeping myself pretty busy and accomplishing a lot in lab. Well, thats what they pay me for anyway so I should be getting better.

In theory I could end up the chemistry professor to some of the younger kids on OB someday. If I have 3 years til I get my doctorate, then 1 or 2 years foing post-doc work I could conceivaably get a job at a college. That would be pretty cool to even imagine.

Things are going pretty well here, but could be better. I don't draw or paint much anymore and I haven't played my guitar very often either. I'm super happpy with my 4 month old marriage, and am an overall 8.5/10 on the happiness scale. I think our government pisses me off so much that I lose 0.5 because of it. We have made no significant progress in 3 years to protect the environment. The best thing that has happened is the really cool Toyota hybrid cars. We've killed more people in Iraq than were killed on Sept. 11th (to make us safer). We basically beat any terrorist to the punch and got hundreds of our soldiers killed. Al-Qaeda could have never done that much damage to the Marines/Army/whatever.

Ugh. If you ever wondered if our government and big corporations were in bed with each other, you know now. If watching any of the previous presidents was suspicious, watch this administration and its like theyre sodomizing each other on national TV. We can't have cleaner air if it hurts the poor energy companies. Their CEO's could all sell off 8 of their cars to buy the air scrubbers they would have needed. You can only drive one car at a fucking time! Why do you need so much stuff! They have fucking competitions between each other to outdo one another's excess. If you put one of those guys in front of me right now I would beat HIM senseless and he could spend some money on a much more practical hospital bill.
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Tuesday, August 17, 2004

Why does it continue???
Lately I have been starting to think about my collections of things, movies, CD's, toys and comics. Living in a 900sq. ft. apartment doesn't exactly leave me with infinite amounts of space. I bought a new shelf to go beside my bed where I had stacks of Manga books piled up to the height of the bed, and finally organized them. I also sorted my comics into boxes, and pulled out a pile of weak comics. I didn't really like them and don't want to keep em' but am not sure what to do with them. I don't like throwing that kind of thing away, but I don't know anyone who would want them either.

I tend to hang on to things (I never sell back CD's) and it has been pretty good so far. When one of my pals mentioned the band Shelter, I was able to bring my CD to Lab and listen to exactly how horrible it was. I have some PS2 games I never play, like Herdy Gerdy, Okage and Onimusha. The kind of stuff that wouldn't be worth putting on ebay. Maybe I should collect it and sell it as stuff from Andy's and put a box up on ebay. That would be funny.
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Tuesday, August 10, 2004

Cold slither
The first few years of GI JOE were really amazing. It was a show that taught you important life lessons like that it was a bad idea to spray paint your bike in a garage without opening up the door and windows. Also that if you can't hit the bad guy with your laser, then run up and punch him. There are also fun science facts like how identical twins can feel each others pain, so punching one in the face will be effectively like punching both of them.

The joes also tackled such big issues as heavy metal hypnotizing kids into killing their parents or worshipping Satan (the almighty). Twas that which opened up my wallet to buy seven DVD's that encompasses the whole Joe season 1. Cold slither is by far the best GIJOE episode that I remember. Its on season 1 part 2 which was released a little bit ago. The dreadnoks form a heavy metal band with a hypnotic message that gets kids to join Cobra. Its an amazing song which I put the lyrics down for at the end of this post.


We're cold slither
You'll be joining us soon
A band of vipers
playing our tune

With an iron fist
and a reptitle hiss
we shall rule!

We're tired of words
We've heard it before
We're not gonna play the game no more

Don't tell us what's right
Don't tell us what's wrong
Too late to resist
Cause Cobra is strong


We're cold slither
Heavy metal machine
Through the eyes of a lizard
In you will dream

When the venom stings
A new order brings
our control

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Tuesday, August 3, 2004

2000
These are some inspirational quotes to use at the end of your emails, curtesy of Millenium.

"I smell blood and an era of prominent madmen."
WH Auden
Gehenna

"For the thing I greatly feared has come upon me. And what I dreaded has
happened to me, I am not at ease, nor am I quiet; I have no rest, for
trouble comes."
Job 3:25,26
Dead Letters

"And there will be such intense darkness that one can feel it."
Exodus 10:21
Kingdom Come

"...and the visible world seems formed in love, the invisible spheres
were formed in fright."
H. Melville
The Judge

"I am responsible for everything...except my very responsibility."
Jean-Paul Sarte
522666

"This generation is a wicked generation; it seeks for a sign, and yet no
sign shall be given to it..."
Luke 11:29
Blood Relatives

"The cruelest lies are often told in silence."
Robert Louis Stevenson
The Well-Worn Lock

"His children are far from safety; They shall be crushed at the gate
without a rescuer."
Job 5:4
Wide Open

"But know ye for certain...Ye shall surely bring innocent blood upon
yourselves and upon this city..."
Jeremiah 26:15
Weeds

"O Lord, if there is a Lord, save my soul, if I have a soul..."
Ernest Renan
The Wild and the Innocent

"Two souls, alas, are housed within my breast."
Faust
Loin Like a Hunting Flame

"You can remember, a single deluge only, but there were many previous
ones."
Plato
Force Majeure

"A man's past is not simply a dead history...it is a still quivering
part of himself, bringing shudders and bitter flavours and the tinglings
of a mertited shame."
George Eliot
The Thin White Line

"He said to me in a dreadful voice that I had indeed escaped his
clutches, but he would capture me still"
St. Teresa of Avila
Sacrament

"I remember the very thing that I do not wish to; I cannot forget the
things I wish to forget."
Cicero
Walkabout

"Thou dost frighten me with dreams and terrify me by visions."
Job 7:14
Covenant

"Every man before he dies shall see the devil."
English Proverb 1560
Lamentation

"Paranoia is just a kind of awareness, and awareness is just another
form of love."
Charles Manson
Powers, Principalities, Thrones and Dominions

"Man is the cruelest animal"
Nietzche
Broken World

"Behold ye scoffers, For I will work wonders in your days, which ye will
not believe."
Book of Rabakkuk
Maranatha

"And now there is merely silence, silence, silence, saying all we did
not know."
William Rose Benet
Paper Dove

"Approaching the Sun brings definitive change. It will never again be
the same. Appearing in our skies it is believed to be a prophecy of
extraordinary events. The birth of kings... The death of empires. After
centuries... or millennia... the journey must end. Perhaps smothered by
its own dust, the dark, soulless body continues eternally through space
and time. It may disintegrate and crumble into inconsequential rubble.
Or it may be lost forever; crashing burning... into the yellow sun. And
tonight... as I look into the sky, and it looks back on me... I want to
know... which I am? I need to know... is this the beginning of the
journey... Or the end?"
Frank Black
The Beginning and The End

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Tuesday, July 27, 2004

Samurai Champloo #2
I watched the first three episodes of the series so far, and I am completely and utterly impressed. The basis of the story is the two main characters Mugen and Jin being drawn together by hte female lead (name escapes me). Mugen is a wild, everything goes type of swordfighter. He's more of a punk, poor and scraping by sort of character slightly reminiscent of Spike (bebop). Jin is a more honorable ronin traditional swordfighter and they both want to kill each other, though not for any personal reason...episode one introduces all that.

The visual style is fantastic, far better than 99% of anime out there now. It feels like they spent a lot of time polishing the show so that its not plain and simple like a lot of anime where you get a lot of still shots with just mouths moving. There are a lot of transitions inbetween scenes and its put together quite nicely. Like Cowboy Bebop it has a good blend of action, comedy, emotion and great characters. Having seen the first 2 eps, its at least as good as CB.

I don't know when it will come out in the US, but it will likely take a while. I hope they get good voice actors for it.
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Monday, July 26, 2004

   Score one for ME
Some new game store opened up in my town, and when I went to check it out, I saw the tell-tale tables and folding chairs that could only mean Role playing games. While I used to play them til about 9th grade or so, the people really into them are usually creepy, fat, bearded smelly dudes with capes. Not even cool superhero capes, but "cloaks" which divide you out of normal society. I'm used to them from having to peer around their cloaked, black jeans wearing smelly forms to see the new comics rack on Wednesday but less contact is better.

Anyway, disappointed I stopped in the Videogame store two doors down which sells mostly used games and hit their NES section. They actually sell them pretty cheap, from $2.50 to $10 bucks for something like Megaman 3 or the first Final Fantasy. I picked up Paperboy, Gradius, Tetris, Clash at Demonhead, Rush n' attack and double dragon II for 26 bones. Double Dragon was $10 I think but its worth it. The only game I've never owned before was Clash at Demonhead but according to Semjazza its quite good so why not buy it?

I also got on the evil-bay Castlevania 1-3 and Contra, which are awesome games and I curse the Minibosses for making me even more nostalgic about them!!!
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