AU - Some!

That's supposed to be pronounced "Awesome". It's a play on the abbreviation AU, for Astronomical Units. For those of you not in the know, an AU is defined as the average distance between Earth and Sol (aka the Sun, or "That big bright yellow thing outside")

Wedge - "Sithspit! What is that?!"
Wes - "That's the sun boss, it's after dawn."
Wedge - "Well turn it off, it offends me."
Wes - "It's about a hundred fifty klicks up. You feeling okay, Commander?"
Wedge - "Yes, now get in your X-Wing and blow it up."

I need to find that book and re-read it, it's good (The Starfighters of Adumar, by Aaron Allston, if you're curious).

1 AU = 149,597,870.691 kilometers - a pretty arbitrary number, right? See, this all gets back to Metric vs Standard measurements. The distance of an AU was decided in the same way that an inch or a foot was. Some guy in charge pretty much chose something he saw and decided to make it a unit of distance. But the AU isn't a very useful measurement outside of the Sol Solar System. When we colonize other systems, using a distance measurement is based off of one local standard is going to be foolish.

Okay, that rant is pointless. Moving on, I'd like to voice my displeasure with what's going on in Louisiana. I remember first hearing the reports about how the town had turned into a war zone. A war zone. In America. I was shocked. I'm not gonna point a finger. I feel that several people have dropped their respective balls here. And for once, I'm not gonna give you a buncha links. If you wanted to read news, you could find your own stuff. I AM mad specifically at Michael Brown, former head of FEMA (I heard about the resignation while writing this) for his comments that he hadn't heard many reports about the events going on in New Orleans. You should not be getting your news DURING an interview. It's one thing to admit that you don't know how bad things are until you hear it from the TV. It's another entirely to say that you simply werent paying attention at all. That is simply unacceptable. I'm glad he's resigned. And now I'm done. And horny. I'll go deal with that shortly.

Early Morning Blues

I'm not posting this link for the strip (though MacHall is a great series), but rather for the news post beneath that does a lot of linking to Hurricane Katrina stuff. I'm too lazy to link it all myself, especially now. I'll go into more detail about why I'm so upset later, but now, I'm too tired. Gonna go lie down again. Whee.

Naruto Got A Bad Dub

I was looking forward to Naruto on Cartoon Network. Everyone was telling me what a great show it was. Of course, I wasn't ever really into the shonen style anime, where it's just random action. A villiage full of ninjas really ruins the concept of the NINJA, a solitary assasin of stealth. So I couldn't really be bothered to look into the show with subtitles or whatever. But then Cartoon Network got the licencing rights for it, and now it's on in Toonami. And it sucks. The voice acting is crappy. Its so bad I cannot watch it. The series idea is just as outlandish as I thought, and the acting / dubbing is really terrible. So there you go, all you crazy Naruto fans can feel free to tell me how wrong I am, but that's how I feel.

Lessee... I made a new blue deck. No telling how well it'll do, but I hadda make it.

James continues to haunt the back of my thoughts.

I'm ahead on homework yet again, so go me!

I need to make a Christmas list. I'll look into it asap.

I dunno, I'm spent. I'm really tired for some reason. Gonna lie down. Sweet dreams everyone.

I'm Like Daredevil... Kinda?

I've been chatting with a friend who's been playing through Kingdom Hearts over the past week. I simply don't have the dedication for the marathon run's he seems to be doing, though I'll agree that the game was much too short. I've got the Kindgom Hearts soundtrack running in the background, along with a few other similar tracks I added to the playlist when I found them. Anyway, all that aside, I've got to admit that I've been bitten by the KH bug yet again. I was about 1/3 of the way through the game going through again on hard. I need to start Agrabah. Of course, in order to do that, I'd need to have my PS2 with me, and that was left at home (not enough room for it, and plus I really should be concentrating on school - and I AM! YAY ME!) Anyway, but yeah, if I get my grades up before Thanksgiving, which I've been trying to do anyway, I'll reward myself by bringing back my PS2 and Kingdom Hearts game, plus a few others to tinker around in on the side.

Anyway, my lust for Disney-on-Squeenix action has brought my attention to the number of Kingdom Hearts 2 fan sites and rumor mills about. The new game looks interesting. A conservative estimate puts the number of new worlds at least greater than those from the original, plus the game revisits some old worlds, too. ( This, combined with a general trend of newer RPG's to be more expansive than their predesessors, means that more than likely KH2 will be a great deal more filling than the first. And hopefully more Fulfilling as well. I already covered the "I'm sorry Sora, but your princess is in another castle" aspect of the first games ending, so I won't go into that again, but I'm looking for some conclusion here. I want Sora to get his girl. I want Donald and Goofy to find their King. I want Riku to transend into some sort of world-jumping demi-god or something. I dunno. It'll be fun, and, reguardless, I'm getting this game. It is on my most wanted list. I was stoked by the news that it's slated for a Q4 2005 release. If that's true, that means I'll get to play it at least some over Christmas break. My only dilema is whether I want to put it on my Christmas list, or if I want more to have it the DAY it releases and simply shell out my $50 at Hastings or what have you. I'll prolly go for the latter; I remember how bad I felt about getting a copy of Chain of Memories in early December after adding it to my Christmas list. I think what I'll do is put the DS on my wish list, so I can actually FINISH ChoM (stupid LR buttons), and just splurge on KH2.

Honestly, this scene justifies buying the game in and of itself.


Anyway, before we move past the dorky games topic, I wanted to add that my computer can play a game that Matt's beefed out awesome computer can't: Wolfenstein 3D. Also, it has mouse controls. This game is awesome.

My nose doesn't work. I've been pondering this thought a lot recently. It makes me miss out on things. For instance, I love popcorn. LOVE it. But I've never been able to smell what everyone tells me is an exceptionally strong and noticable smell. It gives me an unfair disadvantage when it comes to finding popcorn. Also, I'm missing the smell of Jackie. Jackie is, honestly, the first thing I've ever wished I could smell. Before I met her, I was merely inconvenienced by the lack of smell. Now though, I regret not being able to sniff her hair and get a wiff of pure joy from it. Sigh.

In any case, I'm sure this has its uses. I'm like the crappiest X-Man ever. I mean, hey, Daredevil made quite a career out of not being able to see. So, what can not being able to smell get me? Unfortunately, my vision's not much better (I need pretty strong glasses, though they're supposedly within the range that laser eye surgery), and my sense of taste, which is supposedly linked to my smell, isn't too great either, though it's not dead. My hearings "okay", I guess, but still. So, 4 out of 5 senses, and none of them really exceptional. *Shrugs.* Factor in my genetic heart defect, and I'm pretty much a big loogie thrown on Darwin's grave.

And here's the kicker folks. I love children. I plan on having many with Jackie. So hah. I'm peeing in the Gene Pool during free swim. Take that Natural Selection. Plus, my hands sweat when I use the computer!!! HAH!

It's Times Like These...

...that I need someone to talk to. Luckily, I have Jackie.

My AIM keeps dying on me. X_X Stupid Internet. It is now the Stupidnet.

But yeah. Jackie has this thing about guys kissing other guys. She wants me to make out with a guy. Any takers?

You read right. I'm looking for a "boyfriend" of sorts. I'd like someone sweet and friendly. I don't want any emo guys. X_X No guys in makeup, either. I can barely stand it on girls, I don't want guys starting too. I'm sure I have a longer list of qualifications, but I'm not gonna list it here.

I'm tired. Been writing all day. Stupid Tuesdays. Tuesday is the hardest day of my week. Lemme sleep. Or at least rest. Not the bestest day for Greg. I wanna cuddle with Jackie and /or some sweet guy. Now.

James Issues, Part the Last

Background can be found in both my blog (here) and James' (here). I don't want to bore you with the details. I'm sure I already have some of you. It looks like this is the end - a final comment on James' GreaterJournal.

Meh, I'm sure you won't answer this, but I'm not "defending myself for the sake of debate." I'm flat out defending myself. You have said you have some problem with how I live my life. Apparently its "obvious" to you, and so you can't be bothered to explain it to me. This helps me not at all.

"Greg, do all twenty-year-olds in your college watch the Disney channel on a regular basis? I seriously doubt it. That's something you should work on if you want to be less annoying."

Thus far that's the only 'implication' I've seen from you - I like children's things and that is bad in some way. I've brought up many times that it's not bad. In fact, I derive enjoyment from it, on both the base level it was entended for children, and on a more mature "gimp-spider" level. Adult Swim has build it's line up on being made up of "children's shows" given a mature spin. Space Ghost: Coast to Coast is hilarious. Sealab 2021 is great. Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law is excellent. All of those are based off of childrens shows. Does that make them childish? Does it make me childish for similarly enjoying the Transformers with an adult viewpoint?

I watch one show on the Disney Channel. Kim Possible. I defy you to find something better on at 12:30 on a weeknight. Granted, I think part of your problem is that you don't have Disney, and have never seen the show. You really should. If you want, I can arrange for Matt to send you some episodes he downloaded. It is a good show. Even if you don't like it, that doesn't invalidate my opinion. And really, that's all your argument is. Your opinion of my tastes.

I'm not saying you should like what I like. I've never said that. But you still have to respect my opinions. That's called living in a society. What's childish is running away from a problem. Especially when you have to deal with person on a more than passing basis, like you do with me. Even if you don't need me to drive you around (I'll believe the licence when I see it), we are still going to have to interact, and I'd rather not have this argument hanging over us.

I'll reiterate: I don't have any problem with you, or the way you live your life. And if I did, I'd have little problem telling you it, so we could deal with it, and move on. In this case, though, you are the one with the problem. You have decided there is something wrong with me, and rather than work through it like a responsible adult, you have yelled that I am wrong for no other reason than you say so, and when I refused to agree with you, you assumed I wasn't worth talking to. THAT is the aspect of your behavior that is childish, James. Children give up when something gets hard. Adults solve their issues with other people. Adults work things out. Adults accept that there are things existing outside of their own worldview which might be acceptable to others, even if it's not to themselves.

It seems like I'm alone on this because it's just you and me going back and forth on this. First of all, YOU started it when you insulted things I like on a public forum. I have every right to defend myself against your slander. Secondly, I've even though your comment board seems to have been our exclusive domain, I've been talking to mutual friends. Ask Derek. Ask Mel. Ask your girlfriend Kaylee, for crying out loud. They may not like the things I like, but they do agree with me that it's not a bad thing for me to like them.

James, the bottom line here, the final word, if you will, is that I don't have a problem with you, and I'd rather you didn't have one with me. I've done everything I can to extend the olive branch, but you've gotta meet me half way. And you HAVE to, unless you'd like to lose any support you have in the family at all. I really do like you James. I don't know why everyone hates you in the family. I've always considered you a friend. If you were some random person on the Internet, I would have dropped this from the beginning. I've kept it up because I want to keep a friend. I don't want to lose one over a stupid arguement. You KNOW it's stupid. Don't let it ruin our friendship. I don't want to be in that house without a friend any less than you do.

Don't think you're off the hook, James. We have stuff hanging between us, and I seriously just want to clear it out. I'm not meaning to antagonize you. I'm simply trying to defend the insultes you've levied against me. Of course, I doubt you're reading this. It's sad, really.

Anyway, to the rest of you, I hope to have this thing moved behind me, and in any case, I won't sully your noses with it any more. I just posted this one because I thought it was an important writing of mine, and I don't have much doubt in my mind that James will delete it or something soon, so now it's saved for posterity. The truth is saved. That's my greater purpose. The truth. I don't like the idea of people deleting posts that they don't agree with.

iTunes Quiz?

Okay, found this, gonna post it cuz it seemed interesting. Here goes.

You know the drill. Pull up iTunes and set it to random, then answer the questions with the song that comes up, and your interpretation of this answer. *I took this from Jackie, who took it from Emma! ^.^*

Post your results as a comment or in your own blog. I wanna read them ^.^


What do you think of me, iTunes/Windows Media Player? Danger Zone - Kenny Loggins

Apparently I'm dangerous?


Will I have a happy life? Sin City End Titles

"An old man dies. A young girl lives. Fair trade." X_X

What do my friends really think of me? Wake Up - Rage Against The Machine

My friends think I'm spacy I guess?

Do people secretly lust after me? Dream On - Aerosmith

Apparently not, but it's okay because they do so openly instead.

How can I make myself happy? Sonic the Hedgehog 3 Ice Attack Remix

Play video games! Duh!

What should I do with my life? Real Emotion - YRP (FFX2)

Either play video games, or devote my life to emotions and the people I love. "What can I do for you?"

Why must life be so full of pain? Guerrilla Radio - RATM

Because people are violent by nature, it seems.

Will I ever have children? Starcraft - Nuclear Launch Detected Remix

Now, some people would see this as a bad sign, but missiles are classic phallic symbols, so...

Will I die happy? Not Gonna Get Us - t.A.T.u

Yeah. They'll never catch me. Muwahaha.

Can you give me some advice? Theme from R.O.D (I love Hong Kong)

Obviously I must travel to China again.

What do you think happiness is? 1000 Words - Koda Kumi

Love is too big to describe here, obviously

What's your favorite fetish? Tetris Techtris Typez OC Remix

Apparently I've got a mecha fetish? I like puzzles? I guess that's true. Creepy.

Okay, that's that quiz. Yay that.

Sitting Down

Okay, I'm trying to work on writing in this a little more often. I really am not doing anything major, and spend way too much of my time cycling through my webcomic bookmarks waiting for one to update, so I don't know why I don't blog more. It'd help me get rid of all this stress. I'm still really stressed out over James' deal. I wish I could just talk to him and resolve it with him, or something. I hate having it unresolved and just hanging out there. By the way, can someone check on his blog and tell me if he's updated past the 31st? I havent seen anything new from him in the past few days, and I'm all paranoid about it.

On less weird topics... Wait, I have none of them.

As I told you, I've been doing my homework on time. Part of my homework is doing peer reviews of other student's works. I did one of those the other day, and got a grade back for it. I wrote that the paper focused too much on himself, and not on the more interesting situation of his father... I don't want to into details here, cuz I can't retell it all here fairly, but basically, I got graded down because my review of it was too "personal". I guess I write too emotionally. *Shrugs.* Anyway, at least I'm doing it. I'm kinda glad I waited to do the 2nd one until after I got the first reviewed.

Another way I'm relieving stress (the first obviously being "insulting people's papers") is playing a lot of Starcraft. I think I've finally gotten at least AS good as the computer, if not a little better. Or maybe it's just the fact that I'm double teaming them with Jackie. I love siege tanks. Even more than my once ubiquitos nukes. So if anyone out there is interested in some 1v1 Starcraft (Jackie doesn't like fighting me, because I have been playing for a while longer than her), tell me so.

I'm back at college, which means I can't masturbate as much, which means sexual frustration. X_X

[MAGIC STUFF] What with the upcoming Extended rotation taking out everything before Invasion (the set I started on) I've decided to go ahead and try to get a competitive Extended deck. I'd been looking through my cards, and decided that a White weenie / control deck wouldn't be too bad. I've got 3 Blinding Angels I've been itching to use, and my 3 Dampening Matricies (plural of matrix) would go nice in a deck full of cards that just want to turn sideways. All of my other decks want things to do interesting things with activated abilities, but I really like the idea of shutting down all sorts of annoying effects, especially EQUIPMENT (more on this later). Anyway, then I found this thread on the MTG.com boards. I really hate to be a net-decker, but I really like the blue splash, and I'll switch it around enough to make it my own, like I did with Tooth and Nail. (Yes, that was a rogue Tooth build. I refused to use Tron over Post, and having a semi-solid red splash helped me fireball randomly.) Anyway, so that's what I'm gonna make. Expect a semi-solid list soon (and hopefully a physical deck shortly there-after. And I'm still entertaining the idea of an Enduring Ideal deck for Standard, simply because both the Ideal and Form of the Dragon are too rediculous to pass up.

[MAGIC STUFF] That's right, still not done. Now for my rant about equipment. I was at a draft last month. Betrayers only. For those of you who don't know, the "must have" card from the set is Uzemawa's Jitte. A 2 mana Legendary equipment that gains 2 counters each time its bearer deals damage, and then can use those counters to do pretty much anything it wants. If you play the game, you've heard of it. It's rediculous in draft, and any constructed deck that hopes to win through combat damage is running four. It's out of hand. This isn't the first equipment like this either. Skullclamp went into any deck that made a creature before it was banned. The Jitte isn't quite as ridiculous as the 'Clamp was, but its up there. It's defining the format. Decks running main deck artifact hate during Mirrodin block, the artifact block, made sense. But the Kamigawa block? Out of 621 cards, there are less than fifty artifacts. People are maindecking whatever artifact hate they can find to deal with the Jitte. And I think the flaw lies in the very subtype of equipment.

Back when it was introduced in Mirrodin, as tweaked local enchantments (now Auras) that were artifacts, it was okay. Yeah, they stayed around longer than enchantments, but in the artifact block, it wasn't too hard to deal with artifacts, so they weren't too broken. But outside of the controlled environment of the Mirrodin block, equipment run a much. Part of the problem is that the only way to deal with an equipment is to actually GET the equipment. Either that or kill every single creature your opponant would attach it to. It's simply overpowered by nature. Simple power ups aren't too bad, but even the lowley Bonesplitter is a beating in most decks. It's like a 2 power creature with haste for 2 mana that can't attack alone. Not too shabby when you look at it like that. Anyway, I guess equipment's here to stay, but it has pretty dramatically changed the face of the game. And Wizards has to look at the power of the equipments it's making.

[/MAGIC STUFF]

Okay, that's outta my system. And I still have more to say. For instance, the question came into my mind. Can a man with no legs sit down? At first I thought no, because sitting down implies you started from a standing position, and the man has no legs. None. Not even stumps. He ends at the buttocks. So. This hypothetical man (we'll call him Reggie) can sit, and he can sit up, from a lying position, but I didn't think he could sit down. Then someone (two people actually) pointed out to me that Reg could stand on his arms and hands, since they now reach below the rest of him. So, from that position, I guess he could sit down. Therefore, I propose adding the following stipulation on poor Reginald. He is limbless. THIS man, therefore, cannot sit down possibly. Thoughts?

Okay, I've been writing for over an hour. Good time to stop.

I Am The Night!

So I've started doing my homework. Go me! Check out my random essay of 400 words. Stupid limits....

One Summer, I believe I was in 6th or 7th grade at the time, a few friends and I went for a walk along the beach, looking for a water fountain. This was before bottled water really started to take off, so water fountains were all we had. For whatever reason, the beach planners had decided that water didn't need to be all that close together, once every two blocks must have seemed fine at the time. I guess it usually is, unless you come up to the first fountain and find a kid there, putting his lips on the spout. When we told him, “Hey, that's gross, you're not supposed to do that,” he turned to us, and, in a voice I will never forget, said a phrase I guess he picked up on Sesame Street.

“I can do whatever I want.” He didn't say it with intimidation, but with the seeming joy of a kid exerting his limited authority on some older boys. It's hard to describe in text, but the lilting quality of it will stick with me for a long time yet.

Of course, we simply moved on to the next fountain, but the event stuck with me. No, I thought, you can't do whatever you want. There are obvious things like rules and laws that prohibit one's actions, and the basic laws of nature, too, but the idea is told to our children nearly every day. “You can do whatever you want. You can be whoever you choose. Your potentials are limitless.” It's a nice dream, and surely every parent wishes the universe would bend around their child's unlimited potential, but it rarely does. Children are born to families that can't support them, into situations where survival is the best goal for a person, or with conditions that limit them. The people out there who want to help sometimes seem outnumbered by those who couldn't care less.

This is of course a very pessimistic view on life. So I guess some questions I should look into about this are things like what obstacles are there for people to overcome, and what people are doing to help remove those obstacles. Also, what alternatives are out there for people who've had their dreams cut off? Is McDonalds a jumping off point for people whos dreams have stalled, or is it the dumping ground for those who've lost their dreams to chance?

Sigh. I love that story. If you're ever talking to me, I'll give you an example of that kids voice, cuz its just such a random way to say it. Anyway, I'm all written out for now. Good news is, this HW wasn't due until Sunday, so I've got a leg up on things. Go Greg powers!

Strange Goings-On

For whatever reason, this discussion has taken up way too much of my time and effort. It shouldn't have been that much of an issue. I quoted the Lion King, and he should have said something about the Lion King being stupid, and I would have agreed, but said that the quote still applied. He instead decided to escalate it by deleting the quote outright and insulting me for "liking Disney movies" too much and being immature. See, if you ask me, there is a time and place for maturity, and the Internet is rarely it. So yeah, I go around being immature online. Is that a crime? Is that so bad? *Sighs*

James feels that people should simply forget their childhood when they enter high school. Okay, good for him. I don't want to. He seems to feel that the world is divided into things for children, and things for adults, and past a certain age you should switch. I think that he should know better than anyone that this field is blurred far more than that, especially since he loves video games, and has a GameCube, unarguably the one system of the big three targeted to the youngest market. In any case, I need to move past this. He's right, some things are more imporant than others. Right now, for instance, a lot of things are more important than that issue. I just hope James realizes that we WILL have to interact several times over in the future, and I'm not the one with a problem. I didn't mind ferrying around someone and talking about issues like religion and politics and things, but if he's going to attack me and the things I enjoy, I simply don't want to be in the car with him if I can avoid it. And, as luck would have it, I can for the most part in this case. ^_^

Lessee, in other news, I've started school, and I think it's a good thing that I'm enjoying them all so far. I have a really kick-ass schedule, with plenty of time to hang ou- I mean get my work done. *Nods* Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday afternoons are completely open for me, along with the weekends. I've decided to set those afternoons apart for doing my homework. Gasp! You heard right, I've scheduled time for my home work! O_O And that's not all: I'm going to be doing it EARLY if I can. Blasphemy! But yeah, this afternoon I still need to go and get my books. I waited until I'd seen all my classes and listened to what they needed, and now I know. Thankfully, I managed to get all the information my Aunt needed to her so she could get all my financial issues straightened out. I probably got more money than I'll need for my books, and as much as I'd like to keep the money for myself, I'll probably have to at least TELL her about it, and probably go to the trouble of sending it back so it can be invested. With any luck, it will be some amount that is too small to be worth returning to my college fund, but big enough that I can use it to buy food or something cool.

Anyway, that's my plan. I'll probably give an outline of all my classes or something later... And do some serious writing (or as serious as I get, anyway) to take my mind off this James thing and get some of my pent up aggression out. Yeah, that's right, I do get angry, but unlike some people, I know how to deal with it. Anyway, That's later. Calc is now. And again, James, if you're reading this, you seriously need to unblock me. I don't want to discuss things ad infinitum in your Journal any more than you do. That's something we can at least both agree on.

Tail

Random thought for the day: I'm planning on having children some day. Not myself, but through the vessel of purity that is Jackie. Anyway, this came up on TV just now, and it hit a chord with me, but if my son/daughter is born with a tail, I'm not sure I'd remove it. It might be cute or something. I dunno. No ears, of course, but still. Ah, who'm I kidding, I'd love it.

I've been bitten by the writers bug lately. When I'm in college, I'll prolly settle up and do write. And you can read it, if you're lucky. O_O

Anyway, I'm back in Austin tomorrow, for about 3 days, then Lubbock! Whee. No time for posting now, it seems. Talk again when I'm on CST.

Back In The Swing O' Things

Well, I'm sure you're all wondering just what I've been doing here. Or asked me and I told you. Why the fuck do I write this thing again? Oh yeah: I'm a fool. Ah well. A fool's life be a merry one, and not full of the fret or worry that has a king.

So yeah, I've been here in New Jersey. It's not bad. My dad's nearly constantly away for work, since he works in Philly, and would rather make the 1.5 hour commute at night, then sleep and be rested in the morning; than to wake up 2 hours earlier and drive half groggily through heavy traffic. Wendy thinks this is "weird." She thinks a lot of things are "weird", and though she doesn't say it outright, the way she uses it gives you the implication that she thinks its wrong or bad or something. It makes me kinda sad, that she sees things that are different as being "weird". It also makes me angry that she talks for hours on end about all the things she doesnt like about my dad. His drinking, his staying in another place. Meanwhile I never hear him complain about her once, and I do the same, not wanting to make any waves in their already precarious relationship. I'm sorry, though, Wendy, if you're trying to make me see you as the 'victim' here or something, it's not happening. My mom talks bad about my dad, and I'm kinda torn. They're both my parents. Wendy, you are not. You're a nice lady, and I'm glad my dad is so happy with you that he married you. If he's happy, then that's great. But if it comes down to you or him, don't think I'm going to take your side.

*Sigh* I'm glad I got that outta my system. Lets see.... I had one more thing to say while I was ranting. Oh well... It'll come to me. Meanwhile: Isn't it bizzare that Matt Damon was in Eurotrip? I still can't get that through my head. You know that song "Scotty Doesn't Know", that they're playing at the party? The guy in the band... That's Matt Damon. Tell me if that makes sense.

Yeah, we're making a random comedy movie, and we've got a part for a guitarist on stage for about 4 minutes in a montage concert scene. Lets make it Matt Damon. That seems like a good use of our money.

Sigh....

So anyway, what have I been doing here? What HAVE I been doing? Well... I helped my dad fix the steps on his porch at the shore house. That was somewhat interesting. And I get to drive his van a lot of the time, so I can go get James and Dylan from their sundry adventures. Which leads me to:

MAGIC STUFF!!!!

Don't worry, I'll try to be brief about it: Friday night I went to the gamers realm for their Friday Night Magic draft. Champions, Betrayers, Saviors. I lost 3nd round, and my opponant was apparently the only one undefeated after that, some how, so he pretty much automatically won. Yay me. X_X Anyway, I got a few nifty trades out of it, Including the FOIL Sword of Fire and Ice I got off James for driving him to his gf's house, traded away for Kokusho!!! I have Mom's Xmas present all wrapped up. ^_^

Saturday was free day though. As in... free booster draft. Randomly, it was Betrayers only, but some library in Mt. Holly was paying for boxes, and I wasn't about to start asking questions. I had a blast though, so that was good. ^_^ I made a pretty solid Gr/w deck, and then proceded to draw my one of nine forests every game.... X_X Sigh... So I was out of that. Then I lost in a Type 2 tournament by simply refusing to win. I don't know what came over me. I had the win in hand. Duplicant on the Hokori, survive a turn to play Tooth and Nail for Triskellion and Vampire. Sigh... Oh well. Now that Tooth's going out of Type 2, I'll prolly never play it again. I dunno. Maybe I'll make it extended or something, and run Bojisu main. *Sighs* What could have been... On the way back, I got a Grimlock alternator, though, so it wasn't a total bust for the day. And plus, free magic cards. I can't say no to that. Ever.

I've also been fiddling with the old interface again. Yeah, I reskinned my computer. Again. And now it looks nifty. You wanna see? It looks all macish! Seriously, you guys!



I've also got my background on rotation, every 30 minutes, or whenever I get bored. I just flipped to this Homestar one cuz it seemed appropriate. Anyway, I'll catch you all later. Have I talked about Superman Vs Batman yet? If not, I should. Ok, bye.

Oh, not by, thanks to editing! I almost forgot to put up this link to the page I was viewing when I took the screenshot. In it, Jack Thompson (Anti-videogame Lawyer) goes crazy in front of the author of VGCats. It's great.

Random Quiz

I took a quiz. I feel so ashamed. Oh well. Consider this filler till I tell you all about the week I've had:

SUPA UKE!You are -100% seme!

You are cute, loveable and huggable, everything a
seme would ever want! You either have very
mediocre skills/powers or have no skills at
all. But that doesn't matter, You exist only
for your seme's pleasure. And if you are lucky,
you will be protected for the rest of your
life! I wish you luck my little one.. for you
are doommmedd doooomed for eternaty.

Most compatible with: Any seme actually!

Ultimate Yaoi-level selector!
brought to you by Quizilla

Apparently, thats me. I like being cute, but I'm ashamed to say I'd never heard the terms Seme or Uke before today. U_U

Made It

Well, I made it. I'm in New Jersey. Whee. I've spent about one full day here, and it was actually rather full. After arriving at about 6:30 (my flight was delayed somewhat,) Dad took me to TGIFridays for dinner with Wendy and James. It was odd, considering that apparently everyone except for me already ate. So I got a sandwich, I think Dad got something interesting, and Wendy got a brownie dessert. (Interesting side-note, there is no Chinese word for dessert, because they don't have dessert after meals.) James, meanwhile, just had a Coke, didn't eat. I don't know why, and I won't speculate. Anyway, after a semi-akward dinner of catching up, we went to Barnes and Noble's, and I feel like a failure, because I didn't find anything. Oh well. We came back, and I quickly did my best to set up an Internet connection. I'm on some guy named Hector's connection, so thanks Hector.

That night, James' listened to his headphones when I went to sleep.

Next day, at like 9am, we got a call from James' girlfriend Kaylee. He was supposed to meet her at the mall asap. So, way too early for my tastes, and I thought James' too, we went to Freehold. I always loved that mall. Two Kaybee Toystores, two gaming stores (at least), and quite frankly its HUGE. THERE'S A FUCKING CAROSEL IN THE FOOD COURT! Anyway, so I get there yesterday, and its not quite as big as I remember. I guess the Carosel is still there, but there was only one KayBee. In the good side of things, though, I found a place selling used PSP's for $200. I don't think that's too bad of a price, honestly, and pointed that out to my dad. He said he'd "think about it." Semi-good sign. Otherwise, I've got to save my money, but I think it's worth it for a tiny wireless web browser.

Then we went to the shore and worked on a collapsing porch. Did you know that the Home Depot rents tools? I didn't, until my dad rented a diamond tipped electric rotary saw and blade, so that was cool. We cut a hole into the side of the concrete porch, and found that it was entirely hollow. That was weird. Apparently it's not really collapsing, though, so that's good. So after we finished pouring a layer of concrete to help level out the hole, we went to the beach. That was fun, tho there was a layer of some weird tiny-jellyfish-thingies... Soam? I can't recall what they were called. But it was nice to take a dip in the water, which was just great aside from the floaty things.

So that's what I've been up to. I've spent most of today fiddling with my computer, trying to make it work on the local network, despite the continual failures which are no fun at all. x_x. I've also got other things to occupy me. I have my entire (though largely deminished) Magic collection which needs sorting, plus a number of PS2 games to work on. I suppose I should get off the Internet now. Yes. That's what I shall do. *Nods.* Okay, later. Or now, if I get my Internet more stable. Just a tip though, if you need to say something, and I'm not online, you can either email me, or, if you know my cell number, call that, if its REALLY urgent. Okay, so long.

Leaving for NJ

Yeah, tomorrow I go to NJ. In like 8 hours, actually. So why am I writing this now? Shouldn't I be sleeping and resting for all the flying I'm doing tomorrow? Or packing? Probably. But I can sleep on the plane. And all I have left to pack is my laptop bag. So everything's cool.

First, a few random thoughts. One: If I ever make a cure for a venerial disease, I will make sure that one of the side effects is sexual in nature. The only dilemma is which way to go with it. I could punish them for their lustful ways by giving them an inability to be sexually active while on the stuff, which would help control the spread of their condition. Or, on the other hand, I could go the cruelly evil path of giving them an increased sex drive, a larger penis / breasts, sort of like a cross between Viagra and Enzyte. That would probably be bad, though, because then whatever STD I was "treating" would spread like wildfire... And then more people would have to buy my medicine! It's Brilliant!!!

Okay, no more thoughts now. I need to be sure everything is in place for tomorrow. I'll post when I get a conn up on the East Coast

Random Thought

This needed to be written down:

I need a t-shirt that has a picture of two untapped Islands on the back, and on the front, in plain text: "Do you feel lucky, punk?" Yay Counterspells.

Also, stay tuned, I need to write one about the origin of Ham, as well as something about the similarities of a firefighter to a knight in shining armour. So that'll be fun.

Oh yeah, and Wednesday August 3rd, 6:30 PM: Draft at my house. Lemme know if you're in.

Too good to pass up

Five year old article about current topics:

"The reality is that the video games train you to put one bullet in every target. (But) it's not natural to put one bullet in every target. The natural thing to do is to fire at a target until it drops, and then go on to the next, and the next, and the next."

Oh, see, I always thought the NATURAL thing to do was NOT SHOOT AT OTHER PEOPLE! Stupid stupids.

I really should just stop thinking about this, and let the satisfaction that I'm gonna be a much better parent than all the dumbasses who are upset that their's pixelated sex in their 10 year olds GTA when I have kids. Sigh. I just need to vent.

Where's Goldeneye when you need it?

Now For Your Regularly Scheduled Update

Wow it took a while to bring me to the edit screen. In any case, I think its time for an update. Here goes.

First, I'm writing this between bringing Danny back from his last driver's ed lesson and driving him out to his 2nd hour of actual driving. I hate his schedule. 30 minutes each way sucks. 9:30 in the morning sucks in general. I hate it. But yeah, it could be worse. Like Thursday. Oh God Thursday was rough. You see, that day was the day Jackie was leaving to go to see family in PA. Being the loving boyfriend I am, I was willing to drive her there at 5 in the morning. And since that meant I'd have to leave her house at 4AM, I decided, eh, why not stay up all night. Whee.... So I got Jackie to the airport all right, and I got back home in one piece. And I went to bed. Thank god for the other mother in the carpool, who was willing to take over for me. I wasn't sure if I could make the full hour long driving.... x_x. I got a little sleep and I guess I'm okay now.

No, not really. It's mostly my fault. Ever since I got wireless Internet installed I've had no real reason to stop looking at the computer and actually go to bed. So yeah, I've become a real night owl, cept I still have (well, had - YAY no more drivers ed!) to get up at 9AM. That kills, because then I can't even try to fall asleep again until midnight or later. Sigh...

Speaking of late night activities, I went and saw MC Chris at Emo's last night! It kicked ass! I really need to learn all of his songs, because they really are great. And the guy's hilarious, even without music.

"Now some of you may have noticed that I have an extremely high voice, and yeah, that got me picked on a lot when I was younger, but ask me if I care!"
*Croud asks*
"well, yeah, actually, I think if I had a lower voice I might have more sex."

*Later that night.*

"I love that a lot of you have bought my music."
*Crowd cheers*
"And I also know that even more of you STOLE my music!"
*Crowd cheers louder*
"Now ASK ME IF I FUCKING CARE!?"
*Crowd: "DO YOU CARE!?"
"please buy a t-shirt."

I'm proud to say I did buy one. An Optimus Prime sketch that reads "MC CHRIS OWNZ"

And then I hit publish. X_X

Anyway, I also ended the night by getting Chris to sign a Darksteel copy of Fireball. I wanted his DJ, John, who kicked ass on the iLaptop, or whatever Apple calls them. Unfortunately, the DJ left the signing booth just before it was my turn. x_x. I'll get you next time, John!

In future events, Matt and I need to venture forth to Best Buy and Fry's to return defective wireless equipment. That shall be fun indeed. Also, some news for the Magic players out there. It seems that the booster draft I'd planned for NJ seems to have lost half of its planned guests, so that seems to have fallen through. So I'm not gonna use my Champions of Kamigawa Box there. Instead, I'm rounding up Austin MTG for an 8-man draft. There's not too many slots left, but if you're free this Wednesday evening (we don't quite have a definite time, and even the date is subject to change), drop me a line. I'm only charging $5 per person.

That's right. Five (5) dollars. And prizes (6-4-1-1).

CHK CHK Draft at my house. Be there.

I'll leave you with that.

Childish Things

Since I didn't get a Summer job, I've been tasked with being Danny's personal driver while my mom is out of town. This entails mostly driving him to drivers ed in the morning, picking him up in the afternoon (it's a two hour class, and the drive is a half hour each way. I get an hour to rest while he's there. X_X), his multiple bass lessons on Tuesdays, and whenever he and his friends need rides around. There are bonuses, though. Like, one of his bass lessons is near a Borders, making that the perfect place to wait for his lesson to finish.

I've always loved bookstores, ever since I was young. Of course, recently, I've found myself straying from actual "Books" and more towards comics (both American and Japanese in origin). I suppose this is bad. I always thought I was a smart guy. Why am I not reading anything? Oh well. If you all have any decent books to read, I'm up for it. (Actually, I've still got a few to finish, including the last book of LOTR, and I was rereading the Hitchhikers series. I'm just wondering what all you guys are reading.)

But back to the comics, which is what the majority of this is about. I love comic books. I think they're a great way to tell a story. The perfect blend of graphical and text-based narrative. I actually got into the whole comic book thing from Chobits and Transformers. (I've really got a thing for stories about different artificial intelligences, actually. It's fun.) Chobits opened to me the world of manga, and I quickly jumped into Love Hina, Card Captor Sakura, and others. But Transformers wasn't comics to me, it was Transformers. It wasn't gonna draw me into the American superhero comics. I'd always liked the superhero cartoons, though. To a point, anyway. Batman: The Animated Series (and its long line of spinoffs, up to and including Justice League Unlimited and Static Shock, though not the Zeta Project. Blech) was a great series. I really am interested in getting any and all of those on DVD (maybe not Static, or Superman), though maybe not for quite as much as they're charging now. Maybe later.

Anyway, moving on. Batman was good. And the new Teen Titans, though not really a B:TAM spinoff, was superb. That was superheroes the way I wanted them: in easy to digest 30 minute chunks, minus commercials. Superhero cartoons NOT the way I wanted them, on the other hand, were the ones that came from Marvel's universe. X-Men and Spiderman. If you ever watched them, you'll be with me in saying that they played out like soap operas. That is to say, that underneath each episodes major villian fight, there was an ongoing emotional issue or two. Or 100, I don't know. And honestly, it hurt the direct plot of the episode. When each episode was viewed as a small chunk of a much larger epic storyline that spans the entire series, then yeah, I guess that works. But the flaw there is that that kind of show is targeted at children who, like I was when it was on, don't have that kind of attention span. So I saw a couple of episodes and went, "I'm confused, what just happened?" I caught the gist of the random villian for the episode, but the other things flying through the episode confused me. Wolverine's bizarre past. Whether Cyclops and Jean are together or not. What the hell Professor X and Magneto were doing on that island from the past or whatever. When I turned on an episode of Spiderman last year, and saw the title was something like "The Mutant Saga IX: The Punisher - Part 3 of 5" I decided that I had made the right choice.

So, flash forward a bit. I've become hooked on the Teen Titans. I must know more. Which brings us back to me being at Borders a lot. And Barnes and Nobles, and Waldenbooks, etc. I see, among their other Graphic Novels (big people talk for comics), Teen Titans, volume one. Which, like the Transformers Volumes I'd gotten, is the best answer to my major problem with comics. My crappy attention span. I can't be bothered to go to the comic store or whatever every month to get the latest issue of whatever series I am. Or rather, not that I can't be bothered; I can't trust myself. I'd miss an issue here and there, and have no idea what was going on. Issues 1-4 and 6. What a waste. The volues though, have all 6 issues in a particular story-line. This I like. So, long story short, I bought Teen Titans, volume one. I became hooked.

Yup. Hooked on Comics. So flash forward to today, I've been buying all sorts of comics. Marvel and DC alike. I haven't hit on any of the more "Indy" titles. Batman is good. Teen Titans is good. Ultimate X-Men is good. (I need to do a paragraph about them in a sec.) I'm tinkering with the idea of adding Spiderman in there somewhere, but I'm not sure.

X-Men - I got into these guys cuz I really do like the characters. All of them. And the way they all balance each other out. It's not just one unstoppable Ubermench like Superman. (God I hate Superman.... Maybe another day I'll talk about that... Or maybe later in this.) The problem with X-Men, though, is that, as one writer put it, "the Marvel Universe is one of the longest continuously running narratives on the planet." Since the first Marvel comic in whatever old year it was ('40s? '50s?), its all been one long interconnected story line, filled with plot holes, cross-overs, deaths and rebirths... (DC isn't much better, really) I don't have the energy into that massive a project. But I found the Ultimates line, which is like an alternate universe, where they all started over, just a few years back. I dunno when, but yeah. I started with that. I doubt I'll get all the way through. Oh well.

Anyway, I was thinking about the lines of comics, and how, in a sense, DC and Marvel Differed from each other. It's hard though, because DC has the full range of superheroes. You've got your Batman, Robin, (and the rest of Batman's crew), and Green Arrow, regular humans who are out fighting crime to be good guys. And on the other end, you've got Superman (who I believe got Kryptonite added as a weakness long after the fact as a way to "nerf" him by DC writers) and the Green Lanterns, two guys with nearly unbeatable superpowers. (I'm sure there's more than this, but those are the only two in this category that came to mind.) You've also got a host of mediocre superheroes, like Beast Boy and Flash, who, while better than the average human, aren't EXTREMELY spectacular.

Marvel has the same range, but I really can't be bothered to think of them. Anyway, I wanted to see what set the two "universes" apart. And it finally hit me. I started with Batman to see if there was a comparison for him in the Marvel Universe. At first I thought Daredevil, but then I remembered that he wasn't just blind, he was SUPER-blind. Blinded by toxic chemicals. Thus, superpowers. It's weird, but yeah. I was nearly stumped and ready to call that the distinction, but then I remembered the Punisher. X_X Really, he's no Batman. Batman is a force to fear. A symbol of terrible justice to evil doers. The Punisher isn't. He's a mercenary and a vigilante, near as I can tell. I could be wrong. Anyway, he's Marvel Comics token "non-powered" superhero. So I'm back at square one.

Theory number 2 is the one that I've stuck with. Here goes. DC is all about Extraordinary people. Superman. The Flash. Batman. All of them. They aren't normal people. They just aren't. Meanwhile, Marvel is more ordinary people in extrodinary circumstances. The X-Men all seem to react the way normal people would if they had superpowers like that. That's how it is with most of the Marvel characters. Both of them, though, have a unique feel. Marvel is like our own world, only with random freaks (I hesitate to call most of them superheroes, but several are in fact) running around, reacting and being reacted to. The DC comics, though, seem more apt to embracing costumed superheroes. Batsignals, whistles that summon Superman, whatever. The DC universe is truely a super heroic universe.

And, on a somewhat lighter note, I've recently gotten back into skipping. Not skipping class (Lord knows I do too much of that already). Just plain ordinary skipping. Like kids do. I haven't skipped in so long, years, I think, and tonight I just skipped down my driveway after taking out the trash. It's FUN! I'm gonna do it a little more often. Not all the time, but yeah. When I'm feeling giddy. ^_^

Night. *Skips off.*

A Fairy Tale

Here's a little story I wrote for my girlfriend last night. It was sweet and cute, and I thought you might like it too.

---

For my Princess~
From her Prince~

The Princess's Ocean

Once upon a time, in a far off kingdom, there lived a beautiful princess. She was friends with a handsom prince from a nearby kingdom. Whenever they were together, they had the most wonderful time. They would laugh and play and run through the fields, and do all sorts of fun things together, and theyd each have smiles on their faces from the time they joined to the time they left at the end of the day. They were always happiest together.

Since it was hard for the prince and the princess to get together, the prince and the princess would often write letters to each other to keep the other happy, and try to bring smiles to their faces; and usually, this would work too. But one day, the prince wrote a letter that made the princess cry. The prince had missed one of the princesses words in her letter, and answered a question totally innappropriately. The princess got sad, because she thought it meant the prince didn't love her any more. She cried and cried for days and days. She never wrote the prince back, she just stayed in her room and cried.

Eventually, her tears became a river, and that river divided the two kingdoms, seperating the prince from the princess even more. When the prince heard about how the princess was sad because of what he had written, he was devastated; the last thing he'd ever wanted was to make the princess sad. So he wrote a letter to the princess, begging her forgiveness.

"Dearest Princess, please don't cry. You mean the world to me, and every tear you drop pains me like a thousand arrows."

But the princess did not stop crying. She read the letter and cried harder, now because not only was she hurt by what the prince had written earlier, she thought the prince was now outright telling her she was hurting him. Undaunted, the prince wrote another letter.

"Dearest princess, please be happy. Your happyness to me is like a warm summers day, pushing the clouds away and bringing light and joy to all the creatures in the land.”

Now the princess cried harder still, because she thought the prince had told her that her being sad was hurting everyone in the land. By this time, the princess had cried enough tears that an ocean had formed between the two kingdoms. Roaring waves beat against the castle walls of both kingdoms, and vicious sea beasts had made their homes in the ocean. Finally, the prince vowed he would right the princess one more letter, and hope it would be enough. The princess was sitting at her window, staring out at the kingdom across the ocean, when a servant entered her room and handed her the third letter. She read it:

"Dearest princess, I will not beg you to be happy. I will not try even to persuade you to stop your crying. All I am asking you in this letter is one simple favor for the man you once considered your love, and the man who still considers you his:"

The princess turned the letter over and read the last two words:

"Turn around."

Startled, the princess spun towards her door and saw, standing in its frame, the prince. He was wearing his full royal regalia, though it was soaked with the salty water from the ocean of tears. The prince had refuesed to give up on his princess, and built a boat for to reach her. He had sailed across the treacherous currents and dangerous waves to reach his love. And he stood there, looking at her sad face, with the same big kindhearted smile he always had for her. The princess leapt from her seat and ran towards the prince, leaping into his arms. He still cried, though now she cried tears of joy, and the prince cried with her, sharing in her happyness for the first time in far too long. For the rest of the evening, the two simply stood there, crying in each others arms, until at last, neither cried no more.

"I love you", the prince told the princess

"And I love you!" the princess told the smiling prince

Now, the two had kissed before. But these were friendly kisses, pecks on the cheek, that sort of thing.The had never had a kiss like this. The prince and the princess, for the first time in their lives, shared a kiss of true love. From the passion of that kiss, a rainbow was formed. It shot into the sky, and parted the clouds before the sun, and finally ended back at the princes own kingdom. It wasn't long before the sun dried up the ocean, and the two kingdoms could work together as they had before. When the valley between the kingdom was completely dried, the prince and princess got married, and their union so unified their kingdoms into one.

The rainbow still stays in the sky to this day, a symbol of their love, and any two lovers love, showing how even after the tears and the storm, the beauty of love remains.

The End