Thursday, July 7, 2005

One more day to go . . . . .
Since 'Blader asked, I'm gonna share that stupid mark-off story of mine. Once again, remember this is basically the first "truly original" piece I had ever written, so in comparison to some of my newer stuff, well . . . it pales. But, it should be good for grins, so yes, "Bite the Bullet" by me:
http://www.angelfire.com/ny3/someguy/stories/bullet.html

While on the subject of stories, I updated those "Cream Filling & Nougat" archives of mine. They now contain a zipped folder for "Nougat: Origins" in there as well. Again, the link is in my intro, but I'll just stick another link here for sake of simplicity.

In other news, the brother bought "Guild Wars" yesterday and for some strange reason it actually works. Either the router just took some time for my assaults on it to take effect or something, but he can logon and interact with other people in the game! So yeah, I may or may not have a new obsession coming up in my life . . . should be fun, ne?

Again: One more day 'til Part FIVE of the ongoing saga continues! Heh, figured it out yet?


Random SomeGuy Trivia: My favourite "ultra fancy vocab" word which I try to use for as many of my essays as possible is "indefatigable" (it means "untiring" or "not fatiguing" or something). Reason I like it? It was the name of the frigate "Horatio Hornblower" first seriously served aboard in the books and movies that share his name!


[Edit: I know of at least a few myOers in the London area . . . I'm praying upon everything I've got that you're all gonna be okay. Be sure to come back to us . . .]
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Wednesday, July 6, 2005

   Blasted Anti-Air platforms . . .
Kept failing a really simple mission in "Mercenaries" so now I've stopped playing. Stupid pilot I'm supposed to rescue first gets backed over by me, then gets run over by a North Korean truck . . . then on the third try I got shot down by a missile. Phooey. Fun game, though, one of Lucasarts' real shiners from last year.

So let's see, what is up on my end . . . should get around to watching that second "Otogizoushi" disk! That's what I should do! So I've got that to do whenever I'm tired of failure in that video game, I've got work to play around at here and there (okay, 2-3 times a week, really), and . . . yeah.

Here's the truly glorious tidbit of info, though . . . for the past week or so, I've been looking at some little notes I had jotted down in my school planner from about December or so. Well, I thought it was time I did something productive with them, so I cracked out the red binder and got to outlining . . . that said, I'm gonna start posting every other day very soon because I wanna finish it before I start going on trips to places and stuff . . . so I shall start on . . . let's go with Friday.

So yes, if you guys can figure out what the hell I'm talking about by now, we're two more days until the start of it. Heh, bring some friends if ya want.


Random SomeGuy Trivia: The story which I consider as my first "truly original" written short story was an English 10 assignment entitled "Bite the Bullet", which was about a guy building up the nerve to skydive. After reading it to the class (how we shared these stories), I was graded near-perfectly except for a half-mark off for originality (this coming from a class where almost every female student wrote a story about a girl finding her true love). Sure, in the end the story itself was pretty basic and kinda dumb, but still - I later went up to the teacher and asked her why I lost the point . . . she "forgot". Stupid teacher . . .
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Tuesday, July 5, 2005

   The Superman kick . . . . continues.
First off, some clarification:
'Blader, I was trying to get across in my post yesterday that the American anthem is about bombs dropped on them, not the other way around. And it's not that they're the best, it's that they didn't die. So like the song or not, just don't take it the wrong way, a'ight?

Furthermore, the Canadian anthem is quite wild itself - the French version, anyway. Here's a section of it:
Car ton bras sait porter l'épée,
Il sait porter la croix.
Ton histoire est une épopée,
Des plus brillants exploits.

So that means . . .

Just as your arm knows how to wield the sword,
It also knows how to bear the cross;
Your history is an epic
Of the most brilliant feats.

Clearly, we should ALL learn the French words!


Anyway, the cartoon version of Lobo's funny . . . heh, and man, those creators are funny people. On all the commentary tracks they're always having so much fun. "My favourite is still Mr. Mxylptlk." "Hey, we did get to reuse some Krypton stuff!" "So our approach had to be different from how we did Batman . . ." "And we're done. Bye-bye!" So now I'm all anxiously awaiting volume 2 of both "Superman: TAS" AND "Lois & Clark" (SUCH a great show).

Other than that . . . .you guys hear about NASA and that comet? Hehe . . . I don't care what other people might say. I say it's money well-spent to video-tape a thing crashing headlong into a comet! I mean, that's just funny and cool all at once. 'Sides, when guys have a 180-some day head-start at aiming and then driving this thing with that sort of accuracy, well . . . dat's some mad skillz, yo.

Ummm . . . . . and yeah, I guess that's it for now. Have a good Tuesday, everyone.


Random SomeGuy Trivia: My earliest memory is of being on an airplane (what I assume would have been a flight from Kelowna to Edmonton, making me 1-2 years old). In any case, the memory is short and consists of myself spilling juice on the airplane seat. Then the memory sorta jumps ahead from there.
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Monday, July 4, 2005

   The Star Spangled Banner is Four Stanzas . . . Interesting . . .
I can't remember why I looked this up a couple nights ago, but somehow it came to my attention that the American national anthem is quite abbreviated from the original poem. Neat poem, though, when you take it into context . . .

It seems the guy who wrote it got to see the siege of Fort McHenry during the War of 1812, and basically tells the story of how British naval ships shelled the hell out of this one fort. But then the fort withstood it all and then the Brits retreated. Being Canadian, I think it's fair to say that this probably wouldn't be common knowledge to me. And y'know, it does put a lot of stuff in my mind at ease . . . . . eheh. And now is the time we all learn why a Canadian guy is making a big long post for the 4th of July . . .


I'm gonna admit it. In my 21 years of life I haven't always been completely kind in my thoughts towards my neighbours to the south. I'm sure the words "loud," "violent," "stupid," have all popped into my head as well. Heh . . . for the record, "overly kind," "weak," and "dependant" have come to my mind about my own nation as well (yeah, just insult them right off the bat, good job . . . . . . I promise, this gets better). It's a fact of life, we substantiate what we are by often figuring out what we are not - and yeah, when you have two large modern North American countries side by side, well . . . it's not hard to look for comparisons. Well, not hard to want to look for them, anyway.

Thing is, as much as all the Social Studies classes have ever done and everything, and no matter how much I will say to people around me about ideals or ideas on whatever, people are still people. Yes, The States have a pretty bad rep these days and I can see why that is the case.

But who am I kidding? Ever since I could vote, I've found myself more often than not voting for the lesser of evils each time. Canadians don't murder each other? Then why is there a pig farm in British Columbia that had bodies of dozens of prostitues buried underneath it? We're progressive and liberal and all? So why has it been SUCH a big fight for the same-sex marriage bill that's still not completely in just yet?
By that same token, I can think of some amazing people who I love more than quite a lot of the people that live close to me. They don't eat fast food every meal (one even reprimanded me for getting a McDonald's deli sandwich!), or own firearms (well, one does but that's besides the point), or whatever. Heh, let's face it, we're all more the same than we are different. We just . . . live at different latitudes, is all.

I remember some years back, I was ICQ'ing with a friend about the Spider-Man movie. Remember how in the commercial there was the shot of him leaping onto the side of a flagpole with the US Flag waving and everything? Yeah, said-friend said that night that he would not watch the movie solely because of "them constantly trying to ram that patriotic crap down my throat". This guy . . . . . he liked to think he was a smart guy who read intelligent magazines, watched CNN, understood the world. But he couldn't handle a single two second shot of an American flag in a movie commercial. This coming from a guy who thought this one particular car commercial was "brilliant... the most brilliant commercial I have ever seen in my life." Needless to say, I don't really talk with this friend much anymore.
Oh yeah, he's a heavy pot-smoker too, along with a lot of people from high school. But, I guess it seems pretty smart too . . . psh . . .


I could rant for a good long time about all this sort of stuff, I bet. But that would defeat my purpose, I think. Hehe . . . long, large tangent, I know . . . I'll get back to the "brief" point now. So yeah, being not American, I'm sure I've also at some point made some sort of crack about how a national anthem could involve bombs and rockets blowing up or something . . . . . but, now that I've learned the origins of the song (and read the incredibly anti-British third stanza), having those sorts of lines in the anthem really doesn't seem so bad. Heh . . . who knew the bombs and rockets were actually falling ON the Americans in the song? Kinda puts things into perspective, ne?


So yes, here is a message for all you wild and crazy yet loveable Yanks' down south of me (except for the ones past the Mason-Dixon, you guys aren't yankees. I learned that the hard way. I don't have a new word to sub in as of yet though . . .):
Either way, you don't need to prove it through the night - your flag is still there. Happy Independance Day, you guys!
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Sunday, July 3, 2005

   If you're goin' downtown, take me with you, I don't care . . .
For the first time in a while, my title has nothing to do with this post. Of which there is little I have to report at present. I guess . . . I'll tell ya what I'm coming up against pretty soon: my road test.

"Schwa?" you ask? Why does this guy who has clearly been driving around for the psat 5 or so years need to take a road test? Ya see, British Columbia is the first province in the country - and, the first area in the world as far as I know - to require people to pass TWO driving tests before they can get their full license. Indeed, this madness has even spread eastwards to the land of oil and beef . . . hehe, Alberta and Texas sound so similar, ne? Anyway . . . so yeah, graduated licensing, came into effect MY driving year, and goin' strong since. So yeah, basically I have rules on my license of zero blood alcohol and I have to have a green "N" sign (for novice, I think) visible behind me. Anyway, they upped the rules more since, limiting the number of non-blood relative passengers you can carry, among other things. For you see, even with these new rules and though the number of idiot young people killing themselves has decreased, they're still killing themselves and others . . . asses.

Aaaaaanyways, I've been elligible for this road test for a few years now. I just haven't gotten around to taking it. However, with this new rule, once I have to renew my license on my birthday, I'm gonna hafta switch to the new rules (which would be DEATH for me). Meanwhiles, my younger brother has already taken and passed his final road test a while ago, and almost all my friends have too. It's kind of embarassing, I gotta say. So, last month I finally signed up for a road test . . . the date of which was set for about 6 weeks later (loooong queues for testers, yo). So yeah, my final test is July 12th or 14th or something.

So sure, the road test is about 3-4 times longer than the other one, and if I fail this one chance, I'm gonna be stuck on stupid new rules which would be horrible. This shouldn't be a big problem, because really I am a really safe driver on the whole . . . I fear the habits, though. Y'know, take a hand off the wheel, drive a 'little' too fast here or there . . . I might as well add that to get my "Class 7" license I actually had to take the test 3 times before I passed it . . . . . just nerves, stupid mistakes that piled up . . . and sure, on that third time I totally rocked it, but that was a while ago . . . heh, you can feel the fear, ne?

So yeah, that's what I've had running through my mind for many a year now. In other news, I'm outlining a new story. I'll give ya three guesses which one . . . meantimes, I'm gonna go watch some DVDs. Peace!


Random SomeGuy Trivia: My middle name is actually my Chinese name, so my full name is James Juen-Fei . . . and last name. That said, as a child I never exactly knew how to "spell" this middle name, and upon filling out my application to high school in grade 7 (no middle school), I spelt it "Jeun-Fi" and it stayed that way all through high school except the very end when I finally decided to get that fixed. I always feared that that one mistake would really screw up my future at university and stuff.
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Saturday, July 2, 2005

It's late, and I'm tired . . .
Canada Day was pretty kind to me. Bought more DVDs from that store (my brother has taken to calling it "The Cult"). I also grabbed "Legolas" and brought him along with - heh, as we left his house, his mom told him to look for all these DVDs for her.
Anyway, he had a field day, buying "Star Trek" movies IV-VI, the old "Hitchhiker's Guide..." tv series, and other bits. I got PMK v6 (three weeks before it should come out, might I add), Otogizoushi v2, "Sword of Doom" which is a samurai movie that actually involves the Shinsengumi (though I think they get whooped bad), and . . . "Adventures of Superman" volume 1 (still feeding that particular kick).

After that, we eventually went to the Night Market with "Boromir" to just look around. Still no okonomiyaki, but I did try some red bean Taiyaki for the first time (those are those fish-shaped pastry things) - quite good, quite good . . . and pretty cheap too, explains why there was a long line-up. Anyway, I've decided that I'm probably not gonna be able to find anything at Night Market to mail to you people (they had anime-type keychains everywhere, but most were selling as whole sets), so I'll hafta wait 'til after Anime Evolution next month, I guess. But don't worry, I'll find some cool stuff . . . meantimes, I've got work tomorr . . . .erm, today. Bed time!


Random SomeGuy Trivia: When drinking, there is something known as "Asian Blush" where the face goes bright red after a few drinks. In my case, it only applies to my ears and the whites of my eyes - fun image, ne? Ahem . . . that said, I expect everyone here to drink only if of the legal age and only while doing it responsibly, ya dig? Good.
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Friday, July 1, 2005

   138 Years Old And Still Goin' Strong!
In 1868, the Governer General declared a celebration for the 1-year anniversary of British North America as the Dominion of Canada on July 1st.

In 1879, the holiday was officially recognised as "Dominion Day".

In 1967, Queen Elizabeth II came to visit Canada for its centennial, among other ceremonies.

The Canada Act in 1982 made the North American dominion into its own independant nation separate from the United Kingom.


Throughout all those years, we gained a memorable flag, a nifty theme song, and a few gold medals in Olympic hockey. Regardless of how things may be today in terms of the world and whatever, we're still chuggin' along and not backing down from anything.

So that said, our long weekend starts today. Everyone else, while you wait for yours a few days later, look northwards and smile a bit. So for today, remember:
-spell them as "colour", "honour", and "valour" among other things.
-"beanies" are called "touques".
-It's okay to eat french fries with gravy and cheese curds all over it.
-The initial minor third at the beginning of the anthem goes up the scale.
-The "Eh?" ending is a quick throw-off from the main sentence, so don't linger on it for too long.
-(NSFW)Guys and girls alike can proudly proclaim that they love beavers.


Ahem . . . . . anyway, I'll finish with the final words . . .

One hundred and thirty-eight years old and still lookin' beautiful! Happy Canada Day, eh!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAND . . . . Happy Birthday, Aurus' Mother!!!!
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Thursday, June 30, 2005

   Wednesdays . . . bah!
I am so fired . . . hehe. Not really, but still . . . . .

So yeah, I leave the house for a short closing shift last evening. Driving along the way, a little worried that I might not be making as good time as I should . . . . then WHAM! Traffic up the proverbial sphincter that is the bridge entrance. Eye on the clock, counting the minutes until it was too late, I hauled ass to work once I could . . . quick detour through the side streets, get to the last turn that'll eventually go straight to work and . . . . WHAM! Construction.

I was three minutes late. Not horrible in itself, but I haven't been late for many, many months. Kind of a shame, y'know? Well, I purposedly signed out three minutes late anyway, so who knows?

While working, I called my supervisor to ask what I needed to do. Seems the lightbulb section was getting re-planned, so I could pretty much work on that for my shift. And yeah, I got maybe three sections of shelves done before my shift ended, and I felt pretty good.

Went back to the office to put the shelf plan back in my supervisor's mailbox . . . and speak of the devil, there he is wearing his civilian clothes (just came to order something or something like that). It was then when we both realised I may have done something very bad . . .

So you see, these plans are basically photocopied blueprints of 4' sections of shelves that tell you how many facings of each product, where to put them, how many shelves to use, how many pegs . . .you know. Straight forward and simple . . . . . . what I DIDN'T know, though, was that it was planned in such a way that the shelves were numbered in order of which direction the customers would be coming . . . . .
Trying to explain this in detail will probably fail, so I'll just say it bluntly: I worked at the plan BACKWARDS from the way it was intended. This, if course, explained why the first section of shelf involved products that were all lined up on the extreme other end of the shelves. So yeah, 4 hours of wrecking work that had been done earlier in the day. Eep.

Don'cha just love Wednesdays? Hehe . . . ahhh . . . . . I need a shower . . .

[EDIT: Just so no one worries, I'm gonna throw in some extra dialog between the supervisor and I . . . so after I learn how the plan REALLY works, I'm all like, "Hmm, I guess I'm sticking around a little while longer." Then he's all like, "Nah, it's alright. I don't have to do anything tomorrow anyway." Still kinda sucks for him, but there are perks to having who I think might be the 3rd-youngest supervisor in the entire company (my buddy's 2nd-youngest, for the record).]


Random SomeGuy Trivia: Being an English Major, my "dream job" for the future would be Freelance Writer (like Panda!); I have a few "novel ideas" already floating around in my head as well. However, I have also been considering maybe enlisting in the Army Reserves as a part-timer after I graduate and stuff - something my policeman brother wholeheartedly supports and encourages. That latter bit is still slightly questionable, but it's definitely something I'm considering. In any case, the former occupation probably won't pay too well, so I'll probably also have to marry for money . . . . . . I'm kidding! Come on!
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Wednesday, June 29, 2005

   My goals in life have been thus reshaped . . .
If anyone was wondering, "Shinji and Asuka" are from Evangelion. "Maho and Koyuki" are from Beck. "Rukia and Ichigo" are from Bleach, and well . . ."Naruto" is from some other show . . . anyways, who cares about chocobos anymore . . . . .

[wordybastard]
So it was late night last night, I had just posted yesterday's thing a few hours earlier, and come midnight I just thought . . . I have to get back to that game . . .

I head back to the PS2, fire up FFVII, and get back to where your parties keep getting split up. I'm a little worried, seeing as my materia is not divied up all too nicely at this moment, and basically all of the good ones were between Cloud, Tifa, and Cid. Anyway, I luck out, team gets back together, I divy up again and whoop Jenova (easy fight, I was happy). Then there was the second-to-last boss with the gimmick . . . in this case, a body part that's basically invincible. I don't know if I figured it out or not, but I casted "Knights of the Round" eventually and that was that . . . . . then I took another deep breath, since I knew it was now game time - time to fight the REAL Sephiroth . . . . .

And the screen went black . . .

And the music kicked in . . . . .


Dun Dun Dun Dun
Dun Dun Dun Dun
Bada DAda Bada DAda
Bada DAda Bada DAda
Dun Dun Dun Dun
Dun Dun Dun Dun
Balabarabalabarabalabarabalabara
BaDADADADADA

Dun Dun Dun Dun
Badala DAT dah, dahh, badadada daaaaaah
(Badada badada) badalada! badalada!
(Badada badada . . . badada)
Dah, datdatdat Dah, datdatdat Dah, datdatdat Dah,
datdatdat Dah, datdatdat DAH, datdatdat DAH,
datdatdat DAH, datdatdat

Badeedadeedaaaah, Bada daDeet daDeet daDeet dadee
BAAAM beedadee dadee daDEE
daDee daDee daDee daDEE
daDee daDEE DADEE DADA DEEEEEEEE!

Estuans interius!
ira vehementi!
Estuans interius!
ira vehementi!
Sephiroth!
Sephiroth!


Wow, he looked a lot different from what I imagined . . . ah well, not important . . . gotta finish this fight fast before he kills my t . . .

. . . Tifa just got iced. She had the summon. Crap.

Surviving, healing like mad, I revived Tifa so she could cast Knights of the Round - a summon allegedly SO powerful that it can defeat the final boss in one cast. Well, either my people weren't too strong, or because he put up a wall . . . . . but Knights of the Round did NOT kill him in one hit!!!

I kinda freaked. 'Cause then he started casting this freakishly scary meteor-thing that demolished the entire solar system. Eep.

Buuuut, the move didn't kill my team - just really really really hurt them . . . another quick instant heal with a megalixer or whatever they're called . . . by this point, Cloud's limit break was on . . .

. . . and y'know, that actually did it. One Omnislash later and Sephiroth was doing the FF boss shake-&-disintegrate thing. And I took a deep breath and looked over my shoulder at the clock.


It's official:
June 28th, 2005, 1:07am, PST. After eight years of restarts, losses, and moving aways - after almost a decade of console RPG playing - I had finished Final Fantasy VII.


And y'know, one of my goals was to finish an odd-numbered Final Fantasy in the next year or two. Sure, it was over two years ago when I first wrote it, but the fact remains. This huge chip on my shoulder has finally been finished. And MAN did it feel good. Heh . . . I swear, I was like, wavering on the verge of tears the whole time.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not THAT sappy . . . .well, I am, but that's not important. Thing is, every time Aeris' Theme came up during that ending, well . . .. . that song has a lot of meaning to me now, y'know? I didn't actually cry . . . well, until I told another friend about it, but that's another thing . . .

Soooo yeah. I did it. Now let's go buy Xenosaga and finish that . . .
[/wordybastard]


Random SomeGuy Trivia: I played trumpet in high school band. And, though I upheld my role as a leader and whatnot in the actual band itself, I must confess my actually skills were not as great as they should have been. My greatest claims to fame were probably wearing a fedora during jazz band, spinning the trumpet on my finger (something you should NEVER do, mind you), and knowing how to play the Super Mario Bros. theme.
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Tuesday, June 28, 2005

   'Least I have chicken . . . . .
Since everyone asked about it yesterday and I didn't actually say anything about it, I am feeling a lot better now. Still a little stuffy, but nowhere as loopy as I was the other days. Heh . . . everyone else in the house has been eating the Dayquils I bought except me now. As for the Nyquils, I'm not so sure (I didn't take any last night - didn't feel like I needed it).

Uhhh . . . so that's the sickness. Other than that, a fun little obsession finally rerooted itself in me. Basically, a new guy at work was talking about how he bought FFVII after never being able to finish it before, and now he's playing it. That said . . . I played for maybe 6-7 hours straight yesterday, before noon and ending at about six. Turns out I was a lot closer to the end than I realised.

Anyway, this should be interesting for anyone who can follow along:
-My Great Chocobo was named "Asuka".
-My Good Chocobo was named "Shinji".
-Borne from the fruits of Asuka and Shinji, my Green Chocobo was named "Maho".
-Also borne from the fruits of Asuka and Shinji, my Blue Chocobo was named "Koyuki".
-Borne from the labours of Maho and Koyuki (who are in fact siblings, but I guess we're not supposed to worry about that), my Black Chocobo was named "Rukia".
-Caught elsewhere, my Wonderful Chocobo was named "Ichigo".
-Borne of Rukia and Ichigo, my Gold Chocobo was named "Naruto".

Turns out, racing them all to "S Class" is a lot less painful when you have a guitar to pass the time while the computer races your birds for you . . . . . so yeah! Time to take that punk-ass Sephiroth down!!!


Random SomeGuy Trivia: The furthest West I have ever travelled is Vancouver Island. The furthest East is . . . New York. Furthest North would be . . . Edmonton, and furthest South would be . . . Baha California in Mexico. That said, there is a LOT of travelling I need to do in the next little while . . . and for the past few years, I always try to travel with my "red writing binder" with all my handwritten stuff in it - y'know, if I feel like writing something or anything.


[EDIT: I changed my side profile slightly. I'll say more about that tomorrow.]
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