Tuesday, November 1, 2005

   Beware the Ninja of New Westminster!!!
So, apparently I became famous last night as "the ninja" . . .


(Five hours earlier . . .)

It was about 1pm or so. I really didn't know what I was gonna dress up as, if I was gonna dress up at all. In any case, I had all this ninja-like stuff lying around now (y'know, that "ninja accessory kit", the Naruto headband . . .) . . . I didn't solidify on it, but I ended up wearing my kung-fu pants for the day and a black t-shirt. Went to the aniki's house for a bit to drop off a cheque my mom had written up for him. So I hung out with him for the afternoon, shopping, going to the bank, and then bumming at his place while he played NFL 2006 with his actor-friend. Fun times . . . but yeah, I still had to carve that pumpkin . . . got home as fast as I could . . .

It was about 5pm when I arrived. Those kids were fixin' to be at my door any second . . . I was thinking fast, thinking fast . . . 'cause if you ever saw my pumpkin from last year, you know I HAVE to make these look good. I mean, it's amazing what you can really do with just an old, super-sharp filleting knife . . .

In the long run, I did decide to go anime-style . . . then it kinda exploded from there. Using some Naruto screencaps as a guide, I quickly put together an "angry" face and proceeded to lay into the rather large pumpkin. From there, I just kept going . . . I then asked my younger brother,
"if you wanna help, think of a way to make arms I can stick into this that can hold sais . . ."
End result was that I cut a chunk out from the back, plugged that into its side as an arm, and stuck a sai into it. I didn't have enough room to really do that for the other side, though, so we put a mangled "stump" on the other side . . . here's the end result:


And from the side:


And from the other side:


So basically, the brother got the idea to drip wax over the "stump", and it looks good. After we took the pictures we also dripped wax on the bit on the ground. It was brutally awesome.

Annnd . . . yeah, the carver himself:


(In the first one, I'm holding the infamous filleting knife)

So yeah, I dressed up for the pose . . . . . buuuut, then I decided that I might as well do what I was thinking about doing - go all-out ninja, and give out candy OUTSIDE my house. Originally I was thinking of maybe tossing it from the roof and stuff, but well . . . it just rained, roof was damn slippery . . . yeah, I didn't wanna die. In ANY case, though, I did re-dress myself. Changed my black t-shirt for a light grey one, found some other Chinese shirt in my closet and folded it around and tied it under my pants with a kung-fu belt. Then I took the $5 ninja sword, tied my Indiana Jones whip to it so I could sling it on my back, and my Indiana Jones bag and put that on as well (that costume has kicked so much ass for me). Finished it off with the Naruto headband and the now-famous T-SHIRT NINJA MASK . . . . . and well, I looked like this:



So yeah, I filled the satchel bag with as much candy as it would hold, and proceeded to hide around my house . . . . . it was rocky at first, but eventually I got my method down by hiding behind the bushes next to the stairs leading to the front of my house.
Then, I waited for the last kid to walk past me, snuck up on them, and after they shouted "trick or treat!" I'd tap them on the shoulder or something and say hello. I'd give them candy afterwards.

How evil, huh? It gets better . . . I figured the older kids could take a bit more . . . . . nya ha ha . . .

A group of three girls walked by - they were maybe early to mid teens . . . . . I snuck up behind the last one, put the sword in front of her throat and went "what do you want?!" She freaked out and the rest of them turned around shocked. When they realised I was giving candy, they thought it was bloody good.

Later on, these three guys in skull-type masks (one with a skull morning star) come up the stairs. Now, earlier I heard them at another house and one commented, "nothing scares me . . ." Well, I put it to the test . . . again, waited 'til they walked past . . . then I got right behind one, went "boo."
The shocked gasp and turn around of two was priceless . . . .
One noticed it was a Naruto headband . . . . . so yeah, that was good . . . . . .

So yeah, word of mouth actually travelled about me. After I was done, I'd hear the kids run to their parents going, "it was cool! There was a ninja!" and stuff. As well, the parents who were walking up with the kids would notice me sneaking up on their children . . . they always played along and kept quiet . . . . . but yeah, the parents loved it too. In the end, I remember hearing some kids and parents mentioning various things.
"Go to that house! There's a ninja!"
"I heard all the kids saying there was a ninja around here, and we found him . . ."

Though I didn't know what time it was at the time, I went back into the house at about 8pm after wandering around the front of my house spying for more kids on the street. There was a long lull, and I didn't feel like crouching in the bushes anymore. So, I finished up and that was that - my shoes were muddy by then.


Man, ninjas rock . . . T-shirt ninjas rock . . . . . hell, Halloween rocks ass like nobody's business . . . . . I smell like mud and dirt now, though.
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Monday, October 31, 2005

   Happy Halloween!
So yeah, my bro has taken a liking to bagels. Don't know when, don't know why. Bagels are good, I quite enjoy bagels . . . . . however, he likes the "super-flavoured" ones. So these ones in the temp-kitchen right now are like . . . I dunno, they're spiced or they've got parmesan or something . . . . . in any case, it makes the air very heavy down here, and I'm none too partial to it. Gick.

So let's see . . . oh yeah, the other night I made instant noodles in corningware. I was hungry, but we still don't have a working stovetop yet; likewise, all the big bowls were still boxed up in various places in the house. So yeah, boiled water in the kettle, put the "brick" of noodles in the corningware container which was downstairs, and then yeah. Good times . . . but then I drank the soup afterwards and then I probably felt sick afterwards.

Shall I post pictures of the amazing corningware noodles? Sure!



(Nissin is the most brilliant company ever . . . three cheers for the goong-jai mein!!! Boo for having all the chopsticks boxed up where I didn't know where they were that night!!!)

In sadder news, I haven't quite figured out what I'm gonna do for Halloween today. I'm not working, but I think I might swing by just to see how everyone looks. "Boromir" said he was gonna dress like Rau Le Cruset from Gundam Seed (I think) so that's gonna be good for grins. So we'll see. But yeah, I REALLY need to figure out what I'm gonna do tonight . . . gotta find something . . . . . just gotta . . . . . oh right, I need to carve that pumpkin too . . .


Alright, I'm done. sige. And yes, happy Halloween!!!


Random SomeGuy Trivia: I quite enjoy doughnuts. Not that I eat them a lot, but they're good. My favourites are boston cream, all manner of fritters, and jelly-filled. Honey crullers . . . I like slightly less, but only because for a really long time my mom ALWAYS brought them home if she got doughnuts (because they survive better in the fridge).
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Saturday, October 29, 2005

   Even old New York was once New Amsterdam . . .
Yo. Alright, so I got my Victorian Lit' midterm back. Wasn't great, but it wasn't horrible either. Considering I basically didn't even think about it until the day of, I'm gonna say "phew". I guess I'll make the term paper look better . . . maybe . . .

My dentist knows that I drink a decent amount of coffee and pop. This amuses me to a degree. I got to hear how I need to step it up with my dental stuffs again. That amused me slightly less.

Bought my pumpkin. Not sure what I'll do with it this year, but I'll be sure to snap some pictures and show it off - I'm not sure if it'll top last year's "arrow'ed" pumpkin, but we shall see I guess . . .

Speaking of pictures, the kitchen is allllmost almost done! They just need to make the stove work, put in some tiles (for some reason I kept trying to type "speakers" instead of tiles just now . . . go fig' . . .). Gonna be good . . . . . and then I can have my basement back to normal again! To be honest, cooking in that substitute basement was fun, but it was a drain on the power grid there . . . y'know, as in the one with the COMPUTER . . . . .

Oh yeah, along with the pumpkin, I also bought this $5 "Ninja Accessory Set" that included a sword, two sai and a shuriken . . . oh yeah, and a ninja mask that I assume would only fit on a 5 year old. I dunno, the sword and scabbard looked pretty nifty, and you never know when you might need a toy Japanese sword . . . . .

Methinks I've rambled enough. I should go watch Naruto on tv now. People with whom I should be speaking with right this minute, I'll be back in . . . half an hour!


Random SomeGuy Trivia: Another driving thing. More often than not, I'll generally prefer using the A/C over opening the windows. Not that I dislike open windows, though. More so, it's that I'm prone to listening to . . . . . "socially questionable" music sometimes (y'know . . . video game music, anime music . . . Star Wars soundtracks . . .). That said, the closed windows help keep the music in the car where it needs to be . . . erm, or something . . .
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Thursday, October 27, 2005

   I am experiencing deja vu, I am experiencing deja vu . . .
Again, I should be reading and trying to catch up in that one class . . . oh, speaking of which, I'm getting that midterm back today. Hopefully it doesn't completely suck . . .

So, I ended up making a Spanish home city in Age of Empires III. The city itself is named "Alexa" (via a request) with an explorer named "El Pollo Diablo". In retrospect, I should probably give Evil a Russian city. Y'know, Slavic style and all . . . in any case, I'm finding the Spanish to be a rather tricky civilization to play . . . the Portuguese are still my team thus far. Organ guns, y'know . . .

I think . . . . . that's about all I've got in the way of news at the moment. anything I need to fill in?


Random SomeGuy Trivia: According to Red Tigress, if I were an anime chick, I'd be like Hitomi from Escaflowne. Scary enough, I can see where she's coming from . . . . . I refuse to answer her further question bit about what kind of guy I'd go for if I 'were' an anime chick, though . . .

EDIT: I deleted "Alexa" and remade her as a Russian city. My Spanish city has instead become . . . I forget what it's called, but it has to do with dead dogs. Oh, funny enough, that game doesn't let you use profanity in city names. Funny, huh?
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Wednesday, October 26, 2005

   If Courtney Love gets love, what does that say about Courtney Cox?
So, I kicked ass at that Alliterative Morte Arthur midterm. I only screwed up one part of the translation and it was minor, but the prof enjoyed my alliteration - I forget exactly what, but it was something about the enemy "who pillaged the land and pilfered the children of the people". Something like that . . . in any case, I did well. I'm happy.

"Smallville" was filming up at campus again yesterday. It's funny because they basically stuck a bulletin . . . column-thingy . . . in the middle of this main plaza in front of the library. All over it were posters for "Kent" and a picture of Clark's dad. I guess they're gonna be campaigning for something . . . in any case, Tom Welling was there with who I think might have been Erica Durance (couldn't tell exactly, my eyes were blurry that day). In any case, it's always fun to see Smallville at school. Vancouver's fun that way . . .

Oh yeah, I made a couple more home cities in AoE3. I made a French city called "Arbogast" and an Ottoman city called "Not Constantinople" . . . in the case of the latter, the joke may be lost on some of the younger ones reading, but trust me, it's funny for a reason. And y'know, I gotta say, it's a shame that I simply don't have the time or resources to get more games that came out this month . . . . I mean, "Call of Duty 2", "F.E.A.R." (REALLY wanna check this out!), "Civilization IV" comes out soon . . . meanwhile, I never got on top of "Black & White 2" which I'm also kinda curious about . . . . . aw man . . . . . ah well, something to think about when these games get cheaper . . . . . maybe . . .

So, what kind of city should I make next? The remaining civs' are the Spanish, the Russians, the British, and the Germans . . .


Random SomeGuy Trivia: I don't know if it's because I'm such a child (which I am) or because I've watched a lot of Ranma in the past while . . . but I like to walk across the tops of things like curbs or raised surfaces and stuff . . . . . oh yeah, and in parking lots I'll jump across those cement bumper-stopper thingies (there's a really good line of them at work - 2 really long jumps to narrow landings!).
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Tuesday, October 25, 2005

   Who wants the monsters . . . don't want 'em . . . monsterrrrsisisisi . . . . .
So yeah, Simpsons Halloween episode playing in the background right now, if anyone's wondering what's up with the Subject Title . . . so, as it turns out, Martin's Latin is actually incorrect. Y'know when he's dreaming about Latin and he starts going, "Morire, to die! Morit, he she or it dies!" And then Willy pops in and goes, "Moris, YOU die!" Then he strangles Martin with his tongue and kills him. Fun times.

The actual latin verb is a deponent verb with a different conjugation than other verbs. "Mori" is the infinitive "to die", moritur" is "he/she/it dies", and . . . actually, "moris" could be right . . . . . too much info, let's get on with it . . .


So yeah, I spent basically all of Sunday catching up on all my DVDs and whatnot. So yeah, "Unleashed" is a pretty neat movie. Very violent. Good times. Gotta watch "Ong Bak" now . . .

In other news, the Portuguese city of Catarina is now up to level 8 and is prospering very well. Meanwhile, the Dutch city of Mariska is at level 4 but is kicking ass (the Dutch are economic powerhouses in that game). Yeah, AOE3 rules . . . the campaign is fun, too.

I've also been reading a ton of Bleach manga. Man, the story gets crazy . . . . . I'll leave it at that. Be well now, everyone. Things're all gonna be alright . . .


Random SomeGuy Trivia: I have a funny love-hate relationship with the Romans. It's like, I love seeing them in action and stuff and totally admire the professionalism of them and stuff . . . . . and then at the same time I love seeing them get their asses handed to them (see: Romans vs Goths - Adrianople, 378AD).
All the while, I'm sad when the Greeks get beat up . . . how odd . . .


EDIT: Turns out I didn't exactly finish the Latin stuff earlier in the post. It's more complete now.
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Sunday, October 23, 2005

   Time to learn video game Portuguese!
"Faramir" is such a wonderful friend. He figured out my driver problems with my machine, so I can play Age of Empires III now! This makes me very, very happy . . . let it be known that it's never a bad thing to have a software engineer as a buddy . . . well, them, or Petie . . . Petie's on the other coast, though, so . . . . . in any case, I'm having much fun leveling up my home city of Catarina and its explorer envoy "Botoes Moniz". Bwahaha . . . I should start up a Dutch home city soon too . . . too bad the Swedes aren't in the game, though . . .

So yeah, the other night "Faramir" calls me very last-minute because he remembered that "Doom" came out on Friday. So I got to the theater, met up with him, and then "Legolas" met up with us as well. So how good is "Doom"? Well . . . . . I'll just say that as a movie based on a video game where you shoot monster alien-ish thingies, it delivers what it promises. Not an especially great movie, but good for laughs (especially so if you're in the know about these games). The first-person-shooter sequence in the movie is actually pretty nifty - it's . . . quirky and fun, we'll say. Oh, and Karl Urban stars in it opposite The Rock, so that's another plus (Karl Urban played Eomer in the LotR movies).

After the movie, I made those two guys come to my house. "Faramir" figured out my computer and chatted with his girlfriend back home for the most part, and "Legolas" was sat down in front of the tv and we watched some episodes of "Firefly". So yes, now he's hooked. See? You really can't stop the signal . . .

Alright, time for more game. Tchau!


Random SomeGuy Trivia: I'm a notorious car-singer. More often than not I'll only do it when I'm alone in the car, but still . . . actually, if no one's in the car I can't really be notorious for it, can I? In any case, I sing in the car a lot . . . . . it's a half-hour drive to work, ya can't blame me.
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Friday, October 21, 2005

   The Alliterative SomeGuy and his Awesome Account . . .
Thus I made it through the Thursday and gave thanks
Truth be told I took it well
Victorian Literature lashed me for not learning
How to rapidly read the readings in time
And quizzes and group collaborations crushed the rest
Arthurian Lit' leant to me more lenience though
And I did my duty speaking in the discussion
Then we watched a wee bit of one of the worst films ever
"Sword of the Valiant" teased the tale of Gawain and the Green Knight
With Sean Connery starring as the steely knight
We laughed out loud and lurched in joy
and proved to me I must purchase that poor film.

Wednesday was also well for my oneself
Work went fast and I went on my way
Before I came home I bought more brilliant movies like "Batman Begins"
I also own "Ong Bak" and the beginning disk of "Bebop"
Elsetime I edited an essay for an elegant ethereal
and afterwards achieved completion of "Alchemist"
after almost an anniversary


(Gotta love Middle-English poetry . . .)


Random SomeGuy Trivia: I'm gonna think back to all my old cartoons again for a little while . . . . . my favourite Ninja Turtle was Michelangelo. My favourite Transformer . . . for whatever reason seemed to be Wreck-Gar when I was really young. My favourite COPS character (anyone actually remember this cartoon?) was Sundown (a cowboy-type cop). Out of the big three Disney mascots, I'm confident that Mickey was most likely my fave . . .
. . . that said, for some reason I have it in my head that we figured it out: my older brother was Goofy, I was Mickey, and my younger brother was Donald. Why and for what, I couldn't say . . .
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Wednesday, October 19, 2005

   Ahem . . . alright, let's see here . . . . .
So . . . . . I think I passed that midterm. Not a good pass, but I think I knew enough to fake knowing . . . I mean, sure, I responded to a thing about one person in COMPLETELY the wrong way and basically edited it with cross-outs and write-aboves to say something completely different . . . . . buuuut, allegedly markers pretend that things crossed out aren't there. They're supposed to, anyway. Ah, she knows I barely keep up with the readings anyway, not like I'm gonna fake that all too well . . . . . . ahem . . .

Soooo, I picked up "Age of Empires III". This made me happy. I was looking forward to ripping it up with the caçadores and the organ guns . . .

. . . . . so yeah, turns out AOE3 isn't a big fan of the ATI Radeon X700 Pro video card, and likes to make my computer shut down and restart if I try to run the game. This basically in turn ticks me off a lot. Like, a lot. I honestly don't think I can express in words how truly ticked off this makes me. It's like the part in "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" when Grandpa Joe sneaks Charlie a hoarded dime so he can buy another Wonka Bar for one more try, and then that bar turns out to be another failure. It's kinda like that, but more so since I know finding another dime on the street isn't gonna help me in this situation.

Maybe since AOE is a Microsoft thing they'll try to patch that up . . . . . maybe . . . . . still, grr.

Annnnnnnd, I don't own "Batman Begins" yet. I was hoping my brother was gonna get it. Maybe he still will. I'm just sayin', I'm down a bit of money buying that game I can't play, it'd be enjoyable should he choose to buy it.

On the other hand, I do have the rest of FMA to watch . . . this is a plus . . . . .


Random SomeGuy Trivia: I know that today we like to joke around that in the olden days the best idea for fighting they had was to stand in straight lines and shoot at each other on a field. Still, I hold a strong fascination with musket warfare. I mean, the drilling people went into to keep composure during that sort of stuff to the eventual charges and all that . . . kinda neat, I find.
Then again, I'm a pretty all-age military dork as is, so who knows . . . heh, you should see how many WW2 movies/books/games I have . . . no action figures yet, though, though I'd like a few . . .
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Tuesday, October 18, 2005

   Quick and curious early morning post
So, it's a few minutes before 9am as I type this. I'm getting ready to go to school today, putting my stuff into my bag, seeing what I need to have allegedly read today . . . . .

. . . then it dawns on me that I have a midterm in Victorian Lit' today . . . . . this is where I go wo de tian a . . .


See ya tonight!
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