Saturday, August 14, 2004

   SomeGuy Alpha: Rant for July 5th, 2002:
(The following is the transcript of a hand-written thing made the night of the above date . . . it was very late, and I was very bored . . .)


1-800-GO-YAFFA. It's a line of furniture with the most retarded commercial. Not so much the furniture, but the half-excited woman talking about it. "It's incredible! Go Yaffa! Look at the amazing Yaffa Pasta Strainer! It's like it's floating in air! Yaffa! Yeah! We love you Yaffa! I want to birth your children Yaffa! Gooo Yaffa!"

Ah, the wonders of late-night television . . . . . while most normal people are sleeping or trying to sleep (I've since given up trying), I'm up watching "Mars Attacks" on TBS (it's at the Tom Jones part right now). But yeah, pretty much over the course of the past 2 months my internal clock's been, well . . . overclocked. I've pushed myself to the point that I can't sleep early even if I try - trying of course read "tossing for 2-3 hours." So yeah, I basically intend to stay up until 3:15. Gundam comes on then.

Ya know, I'm actually pretty impressed that they even made this movie. I mean it's filled with famous movie people (plus a soon-to-be famous Natalie Portman), most of them get killed, and it's a deliberate homage to the uber-cheese sci-fi films of the fifties! I honestly feel that the making of that movie was a necessity for our world. It's just one of those, "yes, we WERE this dumb one" moments, and allowing all these big names to be a part of it must've been a real treat. Honestly, when are we gonna see a movie like that again?

Ooh, Gorden Lightfoot Greatest hits! Hmm . . . . . . . ya know, I actually think I might have to download some of his stuff just to hear it . . . actually, now that I've heard some of it, I don't want to download it anymore. Yeah, gotta love mail-order music . . . . Hey, one of those wolf-faced brothers is gonna be a daddy. Neat.

I'm kinda getting hungry right now. I guess that's what happens when it's 2:30 and the last time you ate a meal was around 6:00. I also suppose not eating breakfast could also be a factor . . . waking up in the afternoon'll do that to ya.
Yeah, I really need to find a reason to wake up early again. This whole "out of bed until 3:45" can't be too good for me . . . same goes for the "in bed until 12:00".

But yeah, one chocolate donut's not gonna do it . . . . . better go with 2 chocolate-chip cookies and 1 big chocolate-chip cookie. Oh, the whole chocolate-thing is a coincidence, honest.

Hey, all the army-guys are carrying M-14s! What's up with that? Maybe this is actually set in an earlier decade . . . or maybe the US home-guard uses them or something . . . oh, and the part with the 2 heads kissing reminds me of something my brother told me. Apparently before science got ethical, there were transplant experiments where chimpanzees . . . oh wait, Natalie's on screen! Okay, ANYWAYS (you know "anyways" isn't even a real word?), apparently people decapitated chimps and put them on the bodies of other animals . . . and they'd survive for a minute or so before dying of shock. Creepy, no?

I'm starting to think there's a bit of technique to staying up late. It's all about the low volume, low lights . . . chocolate cookies . . . . . hey, "Combat's" on! Good ol' black and white TV . . . and yes, I COULD have just watched it at 2:00 in the afternoon . . . of course, like I said, this is all to kill time until Gundam comes on. I mean, if I wanted to I could always watch "Highlander", which no longer has an awesome afternoon showing anymore (I think they changed it with "The Lost World". Man, they took away my good-time "Jackie Chan Adventures" too - now it's Powerpuff Girls . . . I'd SO rather watch Jackie Chan!)

I'm only through half the big cookie, 2/3rds of my milk, and stuff is blowing up on TV! Man, the times that predated "SPR" . . . yeah, I'm really starting to like old war movies a lot now. It was really cool once. I saw a documentary about the Battle of Midway, where I learned all about it. Then, a little while later the movie "Midway" was on History; it was almost exactly the same! Down to the bomb-or-torpedo dilemma on the Japanese ships!

Usually I'll start falling asleep halfway through Gundam. I blame lying down on the couch for that. We'll see what happens to me this night . . . . .

I have a feeling I'm never going to hear from Yaffa ever again . . .

Man, I'm really not looking forward to tomorrow morning. Like all other mornings, the mother's gonna call to check up on me, and I'll either miss the call and feel bad or rush out of bed to take the call and feel bad that I did . . . but yeah, I damn better do something tomorrow . . . I wasted my black t-shirt on my house and not the outdoors . . . but, with JC off in Alberta and "poor" Steve getting bored, I'm sure we'll be doing something. Likewise, Ryan said he wanted to do something - I'm sure "Shaolin Soccer'll" be involved in that . . . . .

Gah! Gundam started at 3:10!!!
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Thursday, August 12, 2004

   SomeGuy Alpha: Rant of June 30th, 2002:
(The following is the transcript of a hand-written thing made the night of the above date . . . it was very late, and I was very bored . . .)


I think it's safe to say that I hate very few things. Of the things I do hate, generally they are things I have a witty observation for. I can't think of an example right now, but in gerneral, yes, I don't hate a whole lot. I mean, that IS a really harsh word, which SHOULD be reserved for very specific things or people (a particular clique of people come to mind . . .). That being said, Ii'll get to what brought this on: I had recently finished rereading the novelisation of "Star Wars: The Phantom Menace".

I'll admit, I have a fan-bias, so I do see things from a certain point of view. Still, it's not hard to pick faults of that movie. Of course, it's not hard to pic faults with ANYTHING! It's always easier to see what's wrong than what's right (in general, if something is done right it'll just go by smoothly & you don't even notice). Still, I feel that the criticism that movie took was a little harsh. Seriously, they don't even think about what's good. Still, let me say this: if movie critics were so smart, why wouldn't they be making their own movies? No, the fact remains that all they know is how to alliterate "this sucks" in 5000 different ways! Honestly, they only word things so brutally so they'll be catchier.

But yes, I'll admit that "TPM" wasn't the greatest movie ever, but so what? The fact remains that when I watch it I am entertained. I think that's a key word there. ENTERTAINMENT. Movies are made to entertain people. Some people add extra little meanings to their movies - yes, so the people that catch them can feel good that they could see such a thing. But yeah, in going back to critics (both professional and domestic), everyone will still have a preferred type of film, so having one person judge all is dumb. Still, if a movie doesn't interest a person, why would they want to see it? And I don't want to hear that "that's what critics are for", because you take one critic who'll love it and find another who (ahem) hates it. It happens. You can't please 'em all. 'nuff said.

Another things I can't stand is the single-flaw-fallacy excuse that people use to hate something. Honestly, the idea that one thing can ruin a movie is retarded. If that kind of thing can put one off, then seriously, movies aren't the problem. Okay, you dislike this ONE thing; nut up, get over it, get on with it.

I recall a short while back I was in a heated argument with an ageless friend. He had said that he wouldn't see a movie because of the rather visual depiction of an American flag which he saw as brainwashing propoganda. Well, as the argument went, it was more or less focused on whether or not our world was going to hell, optimism/pessimism, etc.. Well, as "7th Heaven" so eloquently put it, "when 2 people fight, it's usually not really about what they're arguing." I find it so funny that that is so true. No, the argument wasn't about the United States potentially ruining the world; it was that he single-handedly and brutally put down a movie I was really looking foward to seeing. Frankly, I was just tired of that (likewise, the few subtle pot-shots at my intelligence/naivety were just uncalled for ["you jerk! I should spray you with water or something . . .]). But yeah, the fact remained that something I liked was instantly hated for ONE thing that was blown WAAAY out of proportion. For that, my friend & I had to endure a ridiculous evening of undending squabbling.

Oh, and for the record, this friend saw this movie and liked it. THAT'S another reason for why the single-flaw fallacy is so dumb.
Wow, ranting is fun . . . . .

Ya know, I bet I'd have a lot of fun writing some sort of essay on why "TPM" was in fact good. It would be something for the ages, I'm sure. Meantimes, I'm gonna continue with some other stuff.

I still can't quite decide whether this rant is about movies or hatred. The thing is, hate is a very weighty subject, and only a truly serious-minded individual can comprehend it intelligently. For one thing, when someone says, "I hate this song," it is such alie. They may dislike it, or disagree with it, but they won't earnestly hunt out the artists and murder them. THAT is hate. When people are willing to go the extreme and do something irreversible in the name of their beliefs. Like after September 11th, after the terrorist attack suddenly there was a roar of "I hate Arabs" or "I hate Islamics" . . . well gee, it's a terrorist! A group of people who feel what they're doing is right. Don't condemn the millions of other who might just be living there.

I guess I'll have to rant about that another day too. In the meantime, to tide you over, I'll leave you with some advice. Regardless of if a movie is good or bad, or if you are told "you must see it" or "do not see it", you must always see it! You must make your own decision about it. If not for that, then to go see a bad movie.
That's right, I love watching hokey, corney, badly acted, stupid, blatantly terrible movies. Why? The fact remains that no matter how bad it is, I'll still be sitting in my seat, grinning, saying "Oh man, this is SO bad! I love it!" I feel there is value in bad movies. They remind us of what it truly means to see a masterpiece.

As for the people that think they're just so gosh-darn smart that they're better than some movies and happily speak of how they wasted their lives watching it, I say this:

I bet they all still laughed when some peer of theirs told them the joke that ends, "my dad farted and our house blew up!"

You just laughed too, didn't ya?
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Wednesday, August 11, 2004

   SomeGuy Alpha: Rant of June 28, 2002
(The following is the transcript of a hand-written thing made the night of the above date . . . it was very late, and I was very bored . . .)


From the way I live - from the way I do my hair, figure things on the fly, or half-look for work - most people would undoubtedly figure me to be a pretty chaotic guy . . . and they'd be right. Still, amidst all this chaos lies a very strong and distinct line of order. I'll give an example: I got the inspiration to write this when I sat up in bed, twisted my torso left to crack my back, twisted right, then did the same with my neck - first to the right with help from my right palm, then to the left with the backs of my fingers. As I did that, I realised strangely that I had done that in that order for quite some time now. I can remember doing it in Bi 12 because this other guy in that class would crack his neck no-hands and freak out this other girl.

While on the topic of Biology 12, I recall one day when Mr. Miller the teacher said something about "concrete-sequential" people. In his example, he stated, "a concrete-sequential person would have all his bills in his wallet in order of lowest value to highest . . ." I smirked at this. ". . . and they would all be face-up and right-side up." I dropped my head in personal embarassment in conjunction with the smirk. Sure enough, my wallet read: 2 Laurier's, 1 MacDonald, all heads facing up. In fact, quite a few people did that that day. I mean, it's not like I consider it odd or anything. I just see it as something I do to keep track of things.

I believe it was Tom Clancy who once said, "the difference between fiction and non-fiction? Fiction has to make sense." I'll be honest, I probably make the strangest connections in my head; still, to me, they all make sense. I think a part of that is that I think very militaristically (how did I jump to that? I was talking about Tom Clancy earlier). Hell, whenever I call out to a group of people I'm a part of, I'll refer to it as a "platoon". Ooh, mental note: I have to rant about things I say some day. But yeah, I think order is pretty nice. That's probably why I hate it so much when the flatware gets messed up in the drawer . . . oh well . . .

I'm looking around my room right now. Sure the desk is completely covered with stuff, and there's a pile of clothes on the floor, but the fact remains that there's a subtle order to this chaos. For instance, the pile of clothes. Keep it in mind that it is indeed a single pile of clothes; all the dirty clothing is dropped next to the bed, cornered with the dresser. You will not find dirty clothing anywhere else on the floor. The posters on the wall were played with as well. They may not be uniform due to the fact that you can't predict what you'll get 5 Christmases into the future, but they do fit together well. Really, they're more like brickwork than anything else. As for the desk, it's really not my fault. If I decide to clean it up, it will be completely ordered. However, a couple things get moved during cleaning and it all goes to hell. And then I feel sad (but really, who DOESN'T hate it when other people move their stuff?).

The basement was pretty much completely ordered by me. I don't say that to praise myself; I say it to belittle the effort of others. As I recall, I had pretty much single-handedly sorted the tapes on the shelves: Top 2 shelves are of the movies, all in alphabetical order. 3rd shelf is of "commercial special interest" tapes and taped movies. The next shelf is the DVD's and VCD's (also alphabetically, of course). The next shelf is kinda weird, with piano books and other stuff. However, I still made it all fit nicely in a Tetrisy sort of way. The bottom shelf is of boxes. It's lined mostly by game boxes and other computer stuff (it's themed, get it?), with the N64 games rowed in the front.

Oh yeah, I remembered another "militaristic" thing: I assign my self-made soundtracks as "mark 1" & "mark 2" & such.

Okay, I'm done.


(Wow, things have changed a lot in that basement shelf now . . . all me, in any case . . . . .)
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Tuesday, August 10, 2004

   A look into my old life . . . . .
I recently cracked out my old red binder - it was sort of my "writing binder" in the late years of high school. It was an old, beat up red binder with a pen strung into the spine of it so it'd always have one. A lot of times I'd get to school really early, and just sit in the hallway with this thing open in front of me . . . it spawned many of my earlier works.

Later on, I still wrote my random writings in it, and still sorta do. Last year, when I was tutoring a neighbour, I was using it to write out my examples and stuff. In any case, I still have that red binder, and I guess to an extent I still use it . . . . . what's fun about it, though, is that all my old writings are still in it! So, seeing as I can't think of anything better to post about, I think I might start posting a few old rants I wrote a few years back.

Whadayathink? You wanna see it? I think I was watching anime by then, so there's a bit of influence already . . . could be fuuun . . . . . . .
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Monday, August 9, 2004

   Heh, I'm a Hypocrite Now . . .
Yeah, I couldn't sleep the other night . . . . . I was up 'til almost 5am after I decided I'd distract my mind with "Horatio Hornblower: The Wrong War". In any case, I had a lot of thoughts in my head and they didn't wanna shut up. I won't go into the thoughts, because it's really not that interesting, and would just be me griping about stuff. Point of the story, I was very tired all Sunday because of it, especially since I wasn't able to REALLY nap. Ah well, guess I'll just hafta sleep through most of today, huh?

Anyway, being 21 so far has involved nothing but work and being tired. I guess that's as good as any way to describe it . . . I suppose it could be worse, eh?

I don't really have anything else that's really good to say right now, so um . . . . . heh, here's a thought I was tossing around for ya. Now, it's sort of a silly question, and in all manner is rather unmasculine of me to ask . . . . . but . . .
Who do you think will hook up with 'Mel at the end of it all, Cream or Nougat? Or will none of them hook up? Hmm . . . . . hee hee . . .


(For those of you who have no idea what I was talking about just now, might I recommend you sift through my archives to October 21st, February 8th and 12th, and to May 17th. Yes, I am a shameful plugger, I know.)
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Saturday, August 7, 2004

   Ah! I'm late! I'm late!
I would've posted something on the 6th, but I was so insanely tired on Thursday night . . . I mean, just early morning plus late night . . . yeah, I didn't want to think to hard (same reason I didn't get around to everyone either - sorry). Anyhoo, here's the rundown of things that being 21 has involved:

• Left the house at 7:15am to get to work at 8am.
  
• Found out that the floor cleaners moved ALL the platforms in the flower shop that make up the bouquet display - supervisor and I had to reorganize them.
  
• LOTSA work to do - declined my chance to take a break.
  
• lunchtime - little Chinese restaurant downstairs really busy. Slightly bigger Japanese restaurant downstairs really busy. Went to Wendy's across the street instead.
  
• Back to work, found two idiots talking idiot stuff re: exchanging electric fans - wasted my time.
  
• Woman unpopped a pop-tent, couldn't fold it back up. I couldn't either, woman opts to not buy the tent - my time wasted again.
  
• Ended up getting the fish-water dripped off the fish guy's cart on me near the trash compactor. Smell is icky.
  
• Spilt regular water on my shirt above my apron while watering the plants.
  
• Slowly started going insane by the time my 8 hour shift was over.
  
• Got home for dinner, ate noodles to prolong my life (or so my mother says).
  
• Found out I forgot to get my laundry done.
  
• Watched a bit of "Horatio Hornblower: The Fire Ships" with my brother before heading online.
  
• Wonderful conversation with many, many people. Night went late.
  

So I dunno, I guess being 21 involves working a lot? That's what I'm thinkin', in any case . . . . . meh, could be worse. In any case, laundry's in the dryer now, so it'll all be okay - 'til the 8-hour shift today . . . . . durnit. Alright, I'm off around the site. Peace!
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Thursday, August 5, 2004

   Real Canadian Superstore rule #42: All employees must work long shifts on their birthdays . . .
Hehe . . . 8am-5pm today. Ain't that grand?

Thanks for all the well wishes, guys. I'm sure today will be exceptionally normal for me, so it'll be good. I'll be sure to tell ya how 21 feels compared to 20 once I can, okay?
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Wednesday, August 4, 2004

   Mmm . . . Elvis Platter . . . . .
Went out to dinner with the family last night at a place called "Memphis Blues Barbecue House" - apparently we're all gonna be fiendishly busy on my actual birthday, so we figured we'd get it out of the way now.

So yeah, neat little restaurant, lots of self-serve . . . but, I think it was worth it in the end. $60 netted us the hubcab-sized "Elvis Platter" of meat: half a chicken, ribs, sausages, pulled pork, beef brisket (the last of which I dubbed the "assorted animal" part), plus the beans, coleslaw, potato salad, and cornbread. For five people, we still only finished off about 2/3rds of it. Man . . . I am SO going back there some time! I mean, it's really close to one of the bus stops on the way to/from school!

So yeah, fun restaurant. That's where I was last night. Then I came home, blew out a single candle on a cake with my nose (never tried it before - seemed like it'd be fun), and opened some presents. Not a bad night, considering how angry we all were the night before planning it all out . . . . . yeah, my family's weird that way.

Well, gonna hafta go to work this afternoon - see ya afterwards!


[EDIT:] I almost forgot the most integral part of the story!!! Okay, so our table gets called to get our food. I, naturally, get up to get it. So while I'm balancing my hands under this GIGANTIC wicker platter, this one waitress is just grinning as she watches my eyes going wide and my lips slowly mouthing three words: "holy f--king hell . . ." Hehe . . . she thought that was one of the best reactions she'd ever seen for the Elvis Platter before
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Tuesday, August 3, 2004

   More shameless J-drama plugging . . . . .
I've got nothing better to talk about right now, so I'm just gonna re-remind everyone with BitTorrent capability: you all need to watch GTO and Shinsengumi!

GTO:
Sorimachi Takashi plays the title character based on the manga of the same name. Don't know who he is? Look up, where my avi is - yeah, that guy. The rude pointing guy. Anyway, Onizuka Eikichi is a former delinquent biker gang leader who got to become a teacher. So, he was given the worst class of them all . . . and he's gotta show that all these troublemaking kids are alright! Will he do it? Will the school force him to resign? Will you continue to smile and grin and cry as he works his incredible magic?! Well . . . you're just gonna hafta check it out the power of the Great Teacher Onizuka for yourself, won't ya?
(Maybe 2-3 episodes involve HIGHLY brief nudity, but I'm sure it won't have been anything you haven't already seen before. Otherwise, it's clean and sweet)

http://drama.afraid.org/japan-tv/active_torrents.html


Shinsengumi!:
See the humble beginnings of one of history's most romanticized groups! The black ships have come to Japan, and differing opinions are tearing the country apart! What's an adopted farmer from Tama to do? Hehe . . . kicking off with the now famous Ikeda Inn incident, the series backs up to when chief Kondou Isami was known as "Kat-chan", when "The Devil of the Shinsengumi" was a womanizer, and when a young Okita Soujiro was prepubescent. From there you get to see all your favourite historical figures like Harada Sanosuke, Nagakura Shinpachi, and Saito Hajime . . . . . no psychotic piglets this time around, though. This is some good Taiga drama, people!
(Samurai show. People die sometimes. Not too messy, though.)

http://www.d-addicts.com/forum/torrents.php?search=shinsengumi&type=&sort=

If you ever need seeding for Shinsengumi, just give me a head's up, 'kay? 'Til then, do give these shows a shot - I guarantee you won't be disappointed.
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Monday, August 2, 2004

   And here marks my 1-year mark
It's official: I've been a registered member of myO for a full year now. Heh . . . back then I was always muttering about how old I felt/was, and I'm still doin' it . . .

Funny thought . . . way back when, I didn't really REALLY get into myO until about a month afterwards. Even funnier, this was my first post ever, August 2nd, 2003:

New toy to play with
Hmm . . . I wonder how often I'll actually play around here . . . . . should be interesting . . .


How the hell did I become the wordy bastard that I am, I wonder? Hehe . . . . . so yeah, this is SomeGuy, registered myO member number 452, saying that it's been a great year, folks. Glad I was able to share it with ya.
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