13.1.05

More Odd Accents

Chemisty, it seems, is entry level, practically high school material. I don't have a problem with that, though. I need to get my average up, first off, and second off, I need to review chemistry. I didn't like it that much in high school to begin with. Anyway, the interesting thing is that the class is taught by a woman with a rather thick English accent. It's interesting, if you ask me, but it's still better than the Calculus teachers even thicker RUSSIAN accent. X_X

XL looks good too. I dunno... I am a little upset that I have to get a total of NINE books, though not all of them are text books. Still, I'll see what's what. I suppose I don't have anything to say. Oh yeah, I got this program Rainlendar. It's a nifty little proram that gives you a calendar on your desktop, with scheduling and such. I made the mistake of putting "Blog" as the number one entry (above "Get Books") and so you got this. *Shrugs.*

I've been thinking of just writing out my old story idea "GS Calista", one little snip at a time. I may get on that tomorrow, after class. So.. I dunno, look forward to that. Bye for now thouhg.

12.1.05

Waiting

The Waiting. That's the worst part. The Calm before the Storm... Oh wait. Storm. Okay, Storm is worse than Calm. But next after that is the Calm. Actually, after the Storm is uaually a big Mess, which I have to Clean. So I guess the Calm is pretty good, actually.

Anyway, I'm waiting for a few things. I had three out of five classes today. Computer Science seems like more of same, basically. World History finally covers modern times, which is nice - most of my history classes so far ended either just before or just after the American Civil War. Yay history of the present. And Calculus... the good news is I don't need a new book. Bad news is... my teacher doesn't speak fluent English. Again. Sigh. Why can't I learn Math in English. No, I'm not a racist. I'm not some absurd isolationist who thinks that forigners shouldnt be allowed into America, or that they shouldn't be able to get the same jobs as natural born citizens. I just find it a tad frustrating to try and learn about Calculus, by many accounts the hardest subject I'll need to learn, even without the added pressure of having a language barrier to tackle too. Oh well.

Tomorrow is the other two classes - Chemisty and XL. I'll get my brother PJ tell you about the flaws of Chemistry, namely that the periodic table is a hoax. Too perfect, he says. And XL is study skills, I think. That's what I get for failing two outta 5 classes. *Shrugs.* This year... will be different!!!

Oh yeah, in non-academic news, I"ve been watching Smallville more and more often. Lana's little side plot continues to confound my tiny human brain, but I still have a big love for the superhero mythos. Any superhero mythos. True, Superman's about the worst hero ever, in that he's SO perfect. Oooh, I'm fast, and strong, and bullet proof, and can fly, and have ice breath, and heat vision AND X-Ray vision. That's just too much. Which is why in Smallville, everyone and their dog has a bit of Kryptonite jewelry, or a base that was made on a field of Kryptonite, or a car that was runs on the stuff, and I wish I was making that up. Anyway, today I tuned it on, and they had a guest appearnce by a young Flash. Yes, The Flash. And if you're surprised by that, I suppose I shouldn't tell you that young Clark Kent was on a first name basis with Lex Luthor, and even a high-school-aged Lois Lane appears on several episode.

Back to the matter at hand, though. The Flash was played by Kyle Ganner, and, since someone asked me the other day what my "type" was when it comes to guys, he's it. ^_^ Very cute. And he's a superhero, to boot. *Swoons.*

Okay, that's all for now. Class in nine hours, so... See ya.

Pre-Class Jitters

School tomorrow. Starting at 11, I have Computer Science, along with a buncha other things. Sigh. I should be sleeping, but... I dunno. I got the writing bug. (I'm also waiting for Megatokyo to update tonite, and watching How High, a spoof of sorts on that movie Dangerous Minds, I think. Oh well. It's decent late night programming - i.e. best thing on.

Also, this has me worked up for some reason. My step brother wrote it. I hadn't gotten that far into it before finding several factual errors. And yes, I disagree with him on a lot of his opinions. I brought this up earlier, and he got upset with me for it. Sigh. If you're going to post in a blog, that should come with the understanding that someone out there won't agree with you. Putting your opinions in a public space should be like opening a dialogue. I honestly do get kinda bummed that no one ever reads this unless I ask them too. I'm not just talking to myself out here. I'm talking to anyone reading this. That's what it's here for. To start a dialogue about topics that are important to me. And, I'd hope, you guys too. Anyway, bottom line is: if you don't want people commenting on your opinions, don't TELL people them.

On to the article itself: part the first - religion. I've spoken about religion already. I don't follow Christianity. But I don't think that it's wrong, neccessarily. Just wrong for me. Sure, I've met some Christians who don't seem to be the best and brightest, but I never associated that stupidity with Christianity. Interesting fact. Half of all Americans are below average inteligence. I'd be surprised if a similar statistic didn't apply to Christianity too. And while some of his facts are off (the existance of dinosaurs isn't expressly forbidden under Christianity, and the Salem Witch Trials don't fall under the the First Amendment since they occurred before the Constitution was written) my major beef with him was his claim that people shouldn't vote by religion. True, people shouldn't vote along religous lines blindly. Of course, I think the same holds true for party lines. But when someone follows a religion, and TRULY believes it, then it becomes a part of their very being.

The media (and I think James as well) made a big hoopla over Bush winning in November due to voters voting by 'values'. To this I say "DUH". I value Bush's deciet and bull-headedness in the War in Iraq. That is how people make decisions. They assign values to options and choose the one they value higher, i.e. voting on "VALUES".

... I dunno. I'm randomly angry at people whining. I looked through the rest of his article, and its seriously just whining. I'm sorry I stress so much on this shit. I'm gonna still post this, as an example of me being stupid, cuz I do it a lot. Maybe I'll be able to learn from it in the future.

Anyway, ROD the TV finished DLing in 4 hours, I have class in 8 hrs, and I'm gonna sleep... now!

11.1.05

Something Is Amiss Here...

Amazon.com: DVD: Back to the Future - The Complete Trilogy (Widescreen Edition)

$19.59. $19.59!!! for the whole trilogyThat's it. I'm buying this. I'll pay Mom back, I don't care. I just need to buy this.

Okay, with an extra $5, I get free shipping, so I'm getting a Transformers comic too. Yay me. Now to see if I can ship it to my dorm without the credit card info...

Okay, I can't, so I'm shipping it off for Lakeway. Oh well, I mean, holy shit, its Back to the Future for $20!!!

10.1.05

Bored

Sigh.

I'm bored. So, I think I'll rant here a little.

You know what I hate? Impatient people online. I hate it when people get upset about me going quiet for literally 10 seconds, because I'm either running another program, or talking to someone else, or what. I am not you're personal private friend. When I get on aim, I plan on having more than one conversation. I try to do my best to divide my time between everyone as equally as possible, so I'm sorry if you go 30 seconds without hearing from me. I haven't forgotten about you, it takes me longer than that to, even when I'm trying. If I ever AM trying, I'll make it clear to you, because that makes it easier on both of us. But I rarely do. I'm a very nice guy. Probably too nice.

I hate people freaking out about me being bi. That's right, I'm bi. And you know what, I don't care what you think. Scratch that, I do care, because I try my best to not act "flamboyant" in any way shape or form. Because I'm not. I love one guy. One. I'm not trying to get into every guy's pants out there. I'm comfortable with who I am, and I don't want a big deal made out of it. It's a rather private thing to me, actually. Oh, and if on some off chance you hadn't learned that I was bi, I'd like to thank you for proving my point that it really doesn't matter.

I'm working on getting registered for college. I should have registered in November. I had a stupid ass excuse, and I vow to never do that again. But anyway. I've got all the paperwork filled out, and I'll get myself in tomorrow. So YAY me! ^_^ It looks like I'm gunna retake English 2, along with Phsyics, Calc 2, Comp Sci 2 (I dunno) and then another course for study skills, cuz I sucked last semester.

Comp still sucks, but that's to be expected. I'll see what I can get out of Mom or my grandpa next time I'm in Austin and go to Fry's. Sigh. I'm still looking at like $500 worth of upgrades, but it'll be fun if nothing else. With my luck, my current motherboard won't be able to handle a 3.xGHz processor, and I'll need to get a new one. Snd that'll mean I'll need a new case too. So remind me again why I got this computer? *Shrugs.*

Magic has ninjas now. Wahoo!

Lesse... I made a big deal over the things I did get over X-mas break, but I didn't mention the few things I didn't get. Like the rest of the Chobits DVD's. I really wanted those. Any lesse... I suppose I was really lucky. The other few things I wanted to get aren't out yet. I'm waiting on the Transformers G1 Volume 3 trade paperback (a collection of comics), and the Volume 3 of Megatokyo. Sigh. Fucking Volume 3's....

Okay, I think that's enough ranting for today. I thought I had something else to say, but it slips my mind. Oh well. Night folks.

To Do: Fix This Computer

I knew this computer was a fixer upper when I got her. I asked for her for that specific purpose. I just didn't know how bad it was. Here's a few things I need to get upgraded.

CPU: Current one is a Pentium III 450MHz. The one in my laptop was a P4, 2.66GHz. I'm hoping to get up to 3GHz on Chii.

RAM: Good news is I have three RAM slots. Bad news is the sticks currently are 64, 32, and 64, all of SDRAM, for a grand total of 160Megs of ram. I need to get at least up to 512 ram, hopefully even up to a gig or two eventually.

HDD: I need one with more than 10 gigs, lets just put it that way. 100gigs, though... That outta do nicely. ^_^

Video: I don't know much about this stuff, but I know its bad. I'm gonna be looking for a better one... once I find out about it. Anyone with any ideas... The current one is an NVidia 128, I think.

Yeah, I'm hopelessly clueless. If you have any reccommendations or hints or cheats or anything, give me a holler. That's all for now. Gnight.

9.1.05

Daisy Fuentes

In my many holiday season flights, I saw some posters with a sexy picture of Daisy Fuentes, reminding us that she is not pregnant:

I realize that there is some more stuff there, something about the March of Dimes, but all I see in that the sign is a challenge. I think its abhorent. Daisy Fuentes, I feel your pain. If you're ever visiting Lubbock, give me a ring. I'd love to help you get rid of the awful stigma that not being pregnant brings you. I always wanted to be a celebrities baby daddy.

(Don't worry Jackie, she means nothing to me.)

8.1.05

I thought what I'd do was I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes



Anyway, I'm all set, so I'm gonna go get a sammich from Subway. Bai.

Lubbock Again

I made it to Lubbock. Lucky me. After a late night scramble to find my wallet in the Barton Creek Mall parking lot, I wasn't much ready to pack, but I managed to get all my stuff up here. Then began the arduous task of setting up. I've set up the "new" desktop I got because my laptop is on the fritz again (overheating problems, plus the "O's" are back. I HATE THE O's!!!

So yeah, I got this old Aptiva. Its got less than 200 megs of ram, an 8 meg video card, and I can't even begin to determine what kinda processor she has. I'm calling her Chi for now, to follow in Motoko's footsteps (though now, Motoko's looking kinda retarded, so I'm not sure what I'm gonna do with her). If you have any suggestions, feel free to let me know.

Oh yeah, and Chi's running Windows 2000 (I don't think she could handle XP), so I decided to start off with a festive wallpaper. This seemed to do the trick:

Anyway, so long!

6.1.05

Implausability

This convo was too funny to lose:
Jamesu san 5789: why does this chick carry around a pair of handcuffs, a ballgag, and a vibrator in her purse?
xx L33T N1NJ4 xx: what chick?
Jamesu san 5789: idk, its from this gross hentai manga eric wants
xx L33T N1NJ4 xx: are you pointing out implausibility in a genre of literature whose pinnacle is tentacle rape?

Anyway, I'm storing it here cuz my computer is dead again. Soon I should be switched from laptop to desktop in Lubbock, and then all these petty problems will be behind me. Yay!

1.1.05

Happy TooKayFive

It's the New Year. Reason enough to post, right? So, What did I do over the past week? Flew to New Jersey. Once I got there, I copied my documents and stuff to the external hard drive, then reformatted my laptop and reinstalled Windows on it, so now it works! YAY!!! WIRELESS INTERNET RULES!!! Anyway, so yeah, I reinstalled all my goodies and nick-nacks and now I'm up and running. I even got a little calendar thingy, which looks cool. So yeah, laptop is up and running.

Moving on... I managed to aquire a few goodies while here. Lets see, going by first things remembered: Alternators Hound, Sonic Advance 3, a 2005 Almanac (o_o?), Negima Volume 4, Johnny the Homocidal Maniac: Directors Cut, Invader Zim DVD Volume 2, some Magic packs (including Kiki-Jiki(!!) and two Engineered Explosives) a Mini-Disk Player, hmmm, I think that's it, really. But yeah, I hope I have enough room for it all... o_o;

Anyway, it's New Years, so time for resolutions. First - be a better student, which seems to involve getting these holds on my TTU account cleared. x_x... Second - be a better boyfriend to Jackie. I love her so much, and it really kills me when something gets between me and her, which happens WAY to much, really. Third - make a time machine. Not using a deLorian. And Fourth - my old stand-by, evolve into a being of pure energy. I'm gonna get it this year, too!

Okay, its half past one, I'd better get out of bed. See ya round.

25.12.04

512-350-1295

Yeah, I put my phone number out on the internet. I'm sure it was a stupid thing to do, but whatever. Yeah. I got a cell phone for Christmas. It's schnazzy. It's got a camera in it, even. But yeah, I'm on Sprint, so I guess that people with Sprint are free or something. I dunno. This is my first one of these. Oh well. Also, I ended up with a few Transformers, including the awesome Omega Supreme! Also, I got a 200 gig external hard drive, which is good, cuz I was down to my last 10 or so gigs out of 60 on my laptop. No PS2, or games for it, but I got couple of GBA games for my birthday, FF1&2 and Metroid Zero Mission.

I've also pretty much stolen my cousin's copy of Pokemon, cuz I'm trying get females of all three of starting Pokemon. I'm going to start breeding!!! O_O So far, though, I've just got a Squirtel-ette. Working on the other two. Lemme tell you, it's annoying as hell.

Okay, that's about it for now. I'm gonna get on Amazon later and refresh my wish list a bit. Surprisingly not much of it was given in the past few days. u_u; Anyone feel like donating to the Greg Levine Get Cool Stuff Fund?

22.12.04

Small Miracles

So I made it home. I hate this house. It’s always a mess. Nothing works. NOTHING. Our 6 foot TV’s projector is being fixed and as such, we can’t watch anything on it. It’s Tuesday now, so we probably won’t get it back before I leave for Jersey… Sigh… All those Christmas gifts of movies and games are gonna go to waste. Hrmm… I was hoping to beat Kingdom Hearts on the big screen. I’m on Hallow Bastion right now, ready for my first fight with Maleficent. So it shouldn’t be long now, I’ve just got to do some more leveling up. I’m 44 now, so maybe at 47-50 or so…. I should be fine. Now I’m actually doing runs through the Hercules Cup in the Coliseum. Cloud is a bitch, but I can beat him, and then lose to Hercules. X_X Speaking of which, I’ve been bad again. I hope none of you bought me the GTA Double Pack, cuz I bought that at Walmart yesterday. Vice City really is a blast to play. And I know we already had GTAIII but that was Danny’s copy. He won’t let me take it off to college, so now I have my own. Here’s hoping Disgaea is in the cards on Saturday too. And my whole list, for those of you not in the know, is available through a link I should have placed over to the right. Yeah, I plan on actually keeping that one more or less updated year round, which really makes no sense, because there’s only one time of year when people need to get me stuff, but oh well.

I failed English and Political Science this past semester. No real huge surprise, its just what happens when you stop going to classes for half the semester. The surprise, to me at least, was that I actually passed Calculus and Computer Science, getting a B+ in Calc and a C in Comp Sci. I really hated Comp Sci, mostly cuz I’d basically learned ALL of that stuff years ago. I was tired of it. So my next course should hold my attention and I plan on getting the A. The B+ in Calc is quite simply a miracle. Either that or some poor schmoe got my grades mixed with theirs, which I wouldn’t doubt too much. Ah well. Onward and upward, right?

After Christmas, it seems that I’m going to Jersey, as I’ve mentioned. I plan to see at least a few old friends, and if I’m lucky my dad will let me borrow a car so I can drive off on my own and find them. Gonna have to spend some time with his family, I suppose. I dunno, they’re not all bad. I still say Wendy’s a little nuts, but then again, I’m pretty sure I’m nuts too, so it all evens out. Dylan gets along great with PJ and Dan, being another musician in the family, while James and I have a surprisingly large amount in common. I still need to get him to run a Magic Tournament quick before December 30th so I can get my pal Rob (who’s also visiting Jersey from Lakeway – small world, eh?) in on the fun.

Agh…. I’m tired. And my computer is NOT working properly, so I don’t know what I’m gonna do with it. I’ve half talked my mom into giving me the unused third desktop computer as a fixer-upper, and I may need it to get online if this laptop fails, like it seems to be going. If my uncle can’t get me hooked up, I’m thinking I’ll send it in to HP for refurbishment again, while I’m still on vacation, keeping all my files backed up on my shnazzy new 200 gig external HDD that I’ma get for Christmas. Anyway, night for now.

16.12.04

All I Want For Christmas

Greg's Amazon Wish List
I spent all night looking through the Amazon.com files, searching through and clicking on things I wanted, didn't want, already had, etc. I made the mistake of saying I owned Shrek 2 (SHHH someones getting it for Christmas), and so it recommended GARFIELD of all things. Agh. Anyway, I eventually got them straightened out. They recommended a few different manga and anime titles for me. I still need to get that one title from James about the robot-battle-school-girl-thing. Yeah, that's about the broadest manga description possible, but he knows what I'm talking about. Anyway, gonna go get some sleep before my big drive tomorrow morning. Night all. Merry Christmas!

15.12.04

The Long Awaited Relgion Post...

...is getting dropped. You know how I feel about religion, and right now I'm just a little bummed out about having failed at least English and Political Science, and possibly Computer Science and/or Calculus. *Sigh* What am I going to do? I don't wanna end up in some dead end stupid job. No offense to anyone out there holding a highschool graduate level job, but I am capable of much better than that. I just don't know how I'm gonna get there. If anyone out there is reading this and thinking "Hey, I wanna employ this kid in a writing job," I'll give you a yes. Anyone wanna buy my stories I wrote in here? Please? Something I can do? Anything? Sigh. I'm screwed.

Sleepless In Lubbock

I can't sleep. It's 4:00am. I have a final in 6 hours. And I can't sleep. This is what I get for throwing my sleep schedule into the trash heap during finals week. Sigh. One more test, and I'm done for the year though. Yay Christmas. It really is my favorite time of year. Why? Because I'm human, I'm greedy. Christmas is the one time of year when people give me stuff for being alive. And, yes, I give them stuff too, but I'm special because my birthday is then too. So I end up getting not quite twice as many presents... thank goodness for Santa Claus. Yeah, I know, I'm too old to believe in St. Nick, but the beauty of having a big family is, there's always SOMEONE young enough to still believe. Santa isn't mean; he wouldn't slight the rest of us just because we didn't believe, and only give Lena and Clara presents. So I end up with about a dozen gifts from family members, and then around 10 more gifts from S.C. Of course, there is always a difference in the quality of gifts. Santa never brings us the PS2s or guitars or what have you, those are always from a family member. Best I can expect from a Claus gift is a GBA game. Oh well. In any case, the over-all present quality drops between my birthday and Christmas Day, but only because it is diluted by a bunch of lesser North Polean gifts. Not to say that I don't appriciate everything I get, because I honestly do. I have a terrible tendancy to complain about things in my life, but really, I shouldn't. I have it really well. I am somewhat scarilly reminded of the whining of Harry Potter's cousin Dudley, complaining that he only has 37 presents when he got 38 last year. "Ah, yes, but some of these gifts are quite a bit larger than-" "I don't care!!!" *Sigh.* I'm not like that, honest. I'm lucky, and I know it, most of the time. I guess that's why I like the Christmas season. It reminds me how truly blessed my family is, to be so happy together with each other, and really, quite well off, for the time being. I'm fucking spoiled, if I hadn't mentioned that before. I do hope I don't come off as spoiled rotten, but just spoiled, I won't argue about.

Got a couple of gears to shift through before I'm done tonite. First I wanted to point you to this little discussion I've got going on at the PSPvsDS forums. I've pretty well flip-flopped my earlier decision on the DS. Of course, my earlier decision was made well before the DS was released, and was partially based on the fact that the forums two admins were pretty obviously PSP fans. Since the entire site is based on which system is better (an argument I think should be null and void, but I'll get to that), I felt a little counter culture was in order, so I raised my flag in support of the DS. Of course, as time went on, I discovered that A) the DS wasn't going to be able to run any of my older Game Boy games - for some reason they decided to only let it go back as far as GBA, and I have no idea why, and B) the DS's launch titles weren't all that great. It's for those reasons that not only did I refrain from saving my cash to buy a DS, but I have actually made it known that I do not want one for Christmas, thus my current position on the system. Here's my take: The DS is an expensive toy. I mean, yes, all video game systems are, but the DS is more like a Virtual Boy than a PS2 or GBA, in my book. If you don't remember what a Virtual Boy is, then you are a luckier person than I. It was, for all intents and purposes, a gimmick system, much like the DS. The DS's primary pitch is not "Look at the amazing games you could be playing, it's "Look! I got's two screens! And one's touchable! Ain't it cool? Don't you wanna touch it?" That's not what I look for when I decide to get a game system. I look for the games I want to be able to play. Which goes back to where I thing the forums premise argument is a moot point. The PSP and the DS shouldn't be competing. They're two different animals. The PSP is a high end multimedia system, primarily for gaming but it could just as easily be a pocket PC. The DS is an experimental system, and even Nintendo says it isn't meant to be the next level in Game Boy Evolution. More like an offshoot. So the two shouldn't be competing. Ah well, people are dumb. But like I say, I'm not deciding that the DS is worse than the PSP. I don't know enough about the PSP yet to really decide whether I want one, though I'm leaning towards yes. I've decided though, as far as the DS, that not having one is better than having one. It's just one of those things I don't want, just like the other things I've listed in the thread - Virtual Boy, X-Box, Segway, Aztek, Super Mario 2, etc. Anyway. I've got to get a move on.

As I stayed up tonite, I glanced through various people's blogs in my insomniatic state (no, they weren't really updated). And I wondered. Who the fuck reads this? The last comment I got was from Gina being a sobbing mess because I'm a dumbass, and she didn't even care enough about what she was saying to reply to the right post. What does that say about this sad excuse at journalism? That people only write in it when they're mad me, and even then they don't care enough to make it clear why they're mad at me? Unless Gina was mad at my hot dog contest thread, in which case she's got further issues than me. (And no, I don't think she does. I know she was just upset, and I'm up too late to make good jokes.) But seriously, why do I write in this thing? Does anyone care that I don't like the DS, or that I'm listening to the Kingdom Hearts soundtrack (which I'm loving by the way ^_^)? I mean, really, who am I? Some random college student who's never done anything for anyone. I'm a non-player character for 99% of the world. And I need this shirt to identify that fact to people. Anyone wanna get it for me for Christmas? ^_^?

Oh well. I've been blogging for a good 40 minutes. I should try and get back to sleep and get ready for that test. Sigh. I hope I do alright. Nah, fuck that. I KNOW I'll do alright. Night folks. Folk. You there, my ~1 person audience. Thanks for listening.

Oh yeah, I still owe y'all that treatise on my religious beliefs. I'll get it out tomorrow, again, after the tests.

14.12.04

Giant Fighting Wheelchairs!!

I WANT!!!
I'm sure I've told you that I want to live out my days in a robot body. If not, consider this my way of telling you. When my currnt body craps out on me, I'm gonna hook it up to a robot body, and live that way. Nothing fancy. I don't want a Gundam or Battletech mech. Just something that'll fit me and every day life. Either a spider-type thing or a transforming body: robot to helicoptor, personally would be my favorite alternate mode. Normal, human size - six foot tall, tops. But yeah, point is that they're developing my technology for me.

Meh, final final tomorrow - Political Science. I should do okay on it. If not... I dunno. I'm prolly redoing most of the other classes this semester, so what's one more, eh? X_X My mom's gonna kill me. Anyway, I've got a blog entry about religion brewing in my head, but am too tired to put it up now. Maybe tomorrow. Also have to see if I can snag a Christmas gift for my mom before she picks me up on Thursday... I gotta stop Christmas shopping for myself. I picked up Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories the other day, and it's been on my Christmas for like a month. So I'm gonna prolly get it again. Which means I'll have to return it. *Shrugs.* I got a buncha other games to trade in... Armored Core 3 sucked ass, as did some other games I have. Oh yeah, I need to trade in Iridian 3D, for GBA - that game was absolutely terrible. Or maybe I just sucked at it. In any case, I don't want it any more. Oh, and a really old game of Pokemon Blue that decided to stop working. I wonder if they'll take it. *Shrugs.*

Okay, I gotta go. I'm expecting a call from a special someone. ^_^; Ciao.

13.12.04

I'm Popular

I've just gotten messages from two random people. It's rather interesting. One of them went like this:

sTreEtRaCe4LiVin: hello
sTreEtRaCe4LiVin: wats ur name
me: xxl33tn1nj4xx
me: yours?
sTreEtRaCe4LiVin: streetrace4livin
sTreEtRaCe4LiVin: lol
sTreEtRaCe4LiVin: no but im serious
me: kay
me: im greg
me: u?
sTreEtRaCe4LiVin: greg wolf
me: nope
sTreEtRaCe4LiVin: greg wat?
me: greg "i dont give my last name out to random people online"
sTreEtRaCe4LiVin: i go to horner
sTreEtRaCe4LiVin: im chris
me: howd you get my screen name?
sTreEtRaCe4LiVin: i got it from nicholes profile buddy list
me: ooh
me: k
sTreEtRaCe4LiVin: yea
me: wheres horner?
me: nvm
me: your xanga was quite helpful
sTreEtRaCe4LiVin: quite helpful?
me: eys
me: chris
me: *yes
me: from california
me: you're 12
sTreEtRaCe4LiVin: yes
sTreEtRaCe4LiVin: yup
me: and you like ddr
me: heh
sTreEtRaCe4LiVin: yup
sTreEtRaCe4LiVin: so do u go to horner junior high
me: i live in texas
sTreEtRaCe4LiVin: oops
me: i go to texas tech university
me: so... nope

(Sigh, so much for formatting that... oh well.)
And then this one, who caught me as deceptikhan34 and squirrelmonger34. (Stupid thing merged them, so I've gotta split em up.)

UAroRock: yo
me: hello
UAroRock: u no me
me: i do?
UAroRock: IM NOT ANDREW
me: oh
me: alright
me: who are you?
UAroRock: HIS FRIEND HES AT MY HOUSE
me: okay
me: whos andrew?
UAroRock: UARO ROCK
me: oh right
me: i dont remember him
UAroRock: K

----------------------------

UAroRock: HEY
me: hey
UAroRock: DOES ANDTREW NO U
me: im not sure
me: you're already talking to me on deceptikhan, btw
UAroRock: LOL

Anyway... I'll go and relax. I had my computer science final earlier today. Just gotta get through Political Science and I'll be alright. ^_^

11.12.04

One Down

...three to go... x_x. Finals, that is. I managed to muscle my way through the calc final earlier today, and it wasn't as bad as I'd feared. Luckily, that was supposed to be the hardest one, so it should be smooth sailing.

It looks like I'm gonna go Christmas shopping tonite. Dunno why, because I'm almost done with my Christmas shopping. I need to find something for my mom. I have something in mind, but I dunno if they'll have it. I'd better go check quick before I get swept away and forced into something else. Bye!

9.12.04

Hot Dog Whating What?

I can't believe this is real. O_O

Time for a nice light subject - hot dog eating. I just saw the greatest thing on ESPN2. Of a contestant in the contest, one announcer said: "She doesn't let emotion get into the game." The game of HOT-DOG EATING?! I'd always considered it was a completely emotion drivin sport. *Shrugs.* Live and learn, I guess.

I'm Scum

I've been lying to all of you. All of you. And I'm not proud of it, not at all. I'm scum. I'm fucking lying scum. Here's why:

You see, I'm shy in real life, but as many of you know, I'm a huge flirt online. Or something. I dunno what it is, but I can make chicks online feel loved or whatever. It's a good feeling, I think, to make other people feel happy about themselves. Problem is, I've got a tendancy to take things too far with them. To each one of you out there who think's you're my only one, I'm truly sorry. I really hope you didn't have to find out about it through this entry, and that I'd told you about this on my own, but if not, well, I'm sorry. I never meant to hurt anyones feelings. But I did. What I thought was harmless flirting ended up snowballing, and now I'm fucking screwed. I can't do anything to take it back, though. I can understand any feelings you have against me. I deserve it, because, like I said, I'm scum.

I want to especially apologize to my one true girlfriend, Jackie. She was actually the one who brought it up. If it wasn't for her, I would have continued my dumbassery. She's been really cool about this, and I really love her for it. I'm so lucky I found her, and luckier still that I've been with her for nearly a year. So why, then, didn't I tell anyone about it? Quite honestly, I'm a pussy. The last time I had a girlfriend, I'd met her online, and my family teased me to no end over it. So I decided I'd be secretive about them in the future. Thus, my current mess.

Okay, enough apologizing. To all you non-Jackie girls, sorry, but I'm taken. Commence the Greg-Hate in 3...2...1...go. X_X

Meanwhile...

The Inner Workings Of A Ph34rBot.

I don't know why I linked that. You all know where Megatokyo is by now. Oh well. I like it. Also, I wanted to point out they're RSS feed. I discovered them when I got Firefox, because it will single out sites with such a feed and allow me to link to it, which I usually do. I now have six of my twenty of so webcomics linked via RSS, as well as a number of blogs. Unfortunately for all you Xanga users, Xanga doesn't come with an RSS feed, at least as far as I've been able to discover. If you find one, please feel free to tell me. Thus far, however, I've found that Blogger and Live Journal both have feeds for their users, as well as something called Moveable Type, but that's a professional tool, and as such a pay service, and I don't have the money for anything like that.

Okay, I've wasted enough time talking about this stuff. I'm gonna sleep. G'night.

8.12.04

I Need A New Risk Board

South America is unifying.
*Shrugs.* I found it interesting. It'll make all my frequent trips to Rio De Janero (so far none) that much easier. Yay Carnival!

Anyway, I'm watching Jon Stewart on Larry King Live. He's raising some interesting points. He always does, really. I suppose I'm a dumb person because I trust a comedian more than trained political analysts. Or maybe he's just more likeable. Politics today is just so depressing. The current administration is ready to tell us that there are boogie men out there ready to kill us every waking minute. They are PROUD that the terror level has been at the second highest for a full year. And the other side really can't do anything but complain about they're opponants. It's all fucking rediculous. Okay, back to pool. Bye.

Tic Tac Toe is HARD!!!

...or coding it is. When my brain was unable to fathom creating a set of rules for a computer to follow (mostly because I had painted myself into a corner with my earlier "dumb" design), I set out to encoding every possible situation that could arrise, and the approrpriate action for the computer to take. It was all going rather well... Until the compiler decided I had too many nested "if statements." Sigh. So I gave up. Cropped the situations list to an acceptable amount, and had my dumb function solve anything it couldn't. And you know what, I'm tired, I don't care right now. In future, though, I'll give myself more than a night on programming AIs.

7.12.04

'Go Canadian'

CNN.com - Company lets U.S. travelers�'Go Canadian' - Dec 7, 2004
This is just hilarous, I think. My family often goes on long out of state vacations, and this is just the thing I need for my next trip out of the country. (Note: My first was when I went to China last year.) Or I could just wear it domestically for fun. That would be great, show up at class wearing a Canada shirt. ^_^



On a more serious note, I just wanna add that it is something of a sad state of affairs that Americans are so hated around the world that they need to travel abroad disguised. And no, I don't want to blame this on Bush, or at least not completely. My mom spent a year of college in Scotland, and was so polite to the locals that no one would believe she was American, she had to be a Canadian. And this was thirty years ago, about.

So why are Americans so despised? Are they just jealous of our status as the most powerful nation on Earth? Or is there something we have done to make them angry? I wish I could tell you. Unfortunately, I fear our domestic news services are in fact blinded by bias towards the US. Not just Fox News, either, though that was the channel where I heard an anchor declare, "Am I slanted and biased? You damn well bet I am." So I doubt that if we DID do anything wrong, it wouldn't make major headlines. I wish i could say that's why I started subscribing to the BBC website, but really its just because they're the only ones who've got an RSS feed, and I love those things. ^_^

In other news, I've contributed close to 1000 hours of CPU time to the SETI@home project. For those who don't know, its a program that runs in the background of your computer, using all time that would be spent idle to instead analyze incoming signals from space. Most is just normal radiation and such, the static of outer space, but the goal is to find some form of a signal with an intelligence behind it. Anyway, it's also a cool screensaver, and hell, why not, right? I'm not using those cycles anyway.

6.12.04

Enchanting cards

So I came home today and decided to finally make the Green and Blue Enchantress deck I'd been thinking about for a while. After digging around and seeing what I had, I settled on the following janky little build:
4x Elvish Pioneer
4x Llanowar Elves
4x Verduran Enchantress
4x Enchantress's Presence
4x Wild Growth
3x Seal of Strength
4x Centaur Glade
2x Words of Wilding
3x Shimmering Wings
2x Future Sight
3x Standstill
3x Words of Wind
2x Yavimaya Coast
1x Okina, Temple to the Grandfathers
(Wow, that took a while to type out. Don't expect me to make a common thing of this.)
Yeah, it's pretty janky. Anyway, the gist of the deck is, get an enchantress card into play, then start playing enchantments. (Really Greg, I couldn't tell!) (Shut up, you. x_x) The deck runs really slowly, but it isn't REALLY for competition as much as a fun combo thing. The real fun starts when I get out a Words of Wind, an Enchantress effect, and a couple of cheap enchantments. At that point, you can flip the two back and forth, skipping the draws you get to the Words of Wind. While you're returning Wild Growth or whatever for the umpteenth time, you're opponant runs out of permenants to return, and has a very full hand. Granted, it takes several turns to pull it off effectively, but when you do, the game becomes pretty much locked unless your opponant has some one mana enchantment removal spell, and even then, you should have enough of an advantage to beat the other guy easily.

At least, that's how it usually works. When testing it out earlier tonite, my opponent refused to accept that he was locked out of the game. In any case, I won, but only because, really his deck isn't that great. In other words, this deck I have made is bad. I'll have to work on it some more. If any of you Magic savvy peoples have anything to say, I'm open to suggestions. Until then, I'll need to go find food and water.

Hail!

So I wake up at 10 and decide to actually leave for class. 0_0! Good thing too, I managed to figure out when my final in that class is - Monday at 7:30. One down, three to go. Anyway, the reason I wrote this log is that it's hailing. That's right. When I arrived at class it was a beautiful day, if a little cold. After a short class (just a over view of the final details and then a teacher evaluation) I came outside, not a half hour later, and its raining. And by the time I made the five minute bike ride back home, it's HAILING. Tiny blocks of ice, pelting me... Garr... Anyway, I guess I'll get back to work and procrastinating it. ^_^

5.12.04

Under Construction

Not really, but yeah... I've been going through fixing up little things, working on my blogger profile, what have you. Check out the cute picture I put in there. I had a hard time deciding what to use, because most of my pics are of cute girls, but I was worried that might give people the wrong impression about me, as I am not, in fact, a girl. So I put the Tails plushie up instead. *Huggles.* Hrmm... maybe I AM a girl. O_O!

I put up a few links to the side, but it feels empty. I don't wanna link to ALL my webcomics on rotation, just those two for now, anyway. If you think of any I should include, feel free to tell me. For now, I'm off to fill in the blanks in my profile, why not? Chao! (No, I didn't misspell it, it's a pun. Nevermind.) x_x;

Late Night Linkings

Hikikomori
I found this hitting a little too close to home. Thought I'd link it. Anyway. That's three posts tonite. I'm tired. Oh yeah, while I'm linking things, did I show y'all these? They're awesome. I need them. I will have them re-enact WWII battles on my shelves. Okay, enough linkings. I'm gonna sleep. For real.

4.12.04

Version 2.0

After over a year looking the same, I decided that I needed a new look. So voila! It's Blue!!! I'll have to redo everything sooner or later, with links and such. Ah well. It was getting pretty bland though, so... enjoy.

My Deck Is Cursed

I just played like a dozen games against Matt with my random red deck. I made it using just random, cheap, efficient burn and creatures. Not my best work, but I like it. Anyway, despite it not being that good, it as a fool proof secret weapon - luck. Out of most of the games, I won due to him not getting enough or the right color mana. One game I actually lost due to the same fate, and then one he won through a long drawn out battle. Anyway, I like that.

Lately I've been wondering about the possiblities of sentience (which is basically being alive or self aware, either artificially or otherwise.) For instance: Given the stated (actually false, but work with me) premise that the Furby toys learned, how long do they take to become self aware? Matt and I debated this to some length whether or not a Furby even had the memory capacity to store sentience. While he used the fact that no advanced computers have achieved sentience, with undoubtably more memory than a Furby, to prove that a Furby doesn't have the memory, I counter by saying that sentience isn't about memory, but rather programming technique, So memory shouldn't be a factor. Anyway, that's just one of my little ponderings. I know Furbies don't have the capability to reach self-awareness. However, it is NOT because they lack the memory, so much as they're not really learning.

I still want to figure that out, though. The way to give a computer sentience. Having a computer child of my very own (most likely shut off from the outside world, so he doesn't cause trouble) would be very cool. That's what i want for Christmas. A self aware computer program. Please Santa? ^_^

Okay, I'll sleep now. Or just shut up. Either really works. G'night!

If Johnny Cochrain gets to play the race car, I want the thimble.

Happy Blog Birthday

Yeah, apparently I've had this for a year. Not much has changed. Hrmm... Maybe over Christmas break I'll actually break down and write those stories I was talking about a year ago. Oh well. And I've been getting shorter winded. I used to type out pages of stuff. I guess I've just gotten it all off my chest. I dunno why. Oh well.

Anyway, I'm watching White Chicks right now. It's a TERRIBLE movie, but not as bad as I'd feared. Like, take every buddy comedy ever, it's terrible. Wait...

Oh my God. I've been doing this for a year and I was about to my first anniversary rant about White Chicks! Someone kill me. So, new topic... Ummm.... I've got it. A brand new story, which I will make up right here on the spot. There's no telling whats going to happen. Ready? Here I go. (Yeah, I have a tendancy to write myself into my stories.)

------

Greg rapelled down the tunnel. His rope was tied to his truck, currently on the surface twenty meters above him. He glanced up, at the daylight rapidly grew smaller and farther away. He glanced to the sides, and saw the dust covered walls all around him. Looking down just revealed more darkness, rising up to surround him. It was in this darkness, as his body thoughtlessly plunged deeper, that Greg's mind began to wander. He thought back to his ships long journey to get here, and how that even after this, he still had another month in hyperspace, alone, before he reached the nearest colony world. Another three months after that he would spend traveling with some company, at least.

Greg sighed. "Another four months till Virginia Prime, and Mayleen..." It'd been that long since he'd said goodbye to his beloved wife. He hated that his job was keeping him away from everyone he loved, but the money was good. Very good. And in between the months of travel, he did usually get a good solid day or two of fun work. That's the real reason. Love what you do and do what you love. That's what Greg's dad had taught him. And besides, after only 5 years of treasure scavaging, Greg had earned 40,000,000 Unicreds, enough for he and Mayleen to retire on for a long while.

"After this last find, at least." Greg focused on the light now coming into vision beneath him from the drill scout he'd launched earlier, creating the tunnel he was now dopping down. Greg's time in hyperspace hadn't been spent idly. He'd spent his days pooring over maps (both starmaps and the usual kind) and historical essays, searching for this one site. The last of the original fourteen Earth Venture Expiditions.

The EVE project had been humanity's first careful steps into deep space. Over a dozen probes, loaded with stasis-helf crews and enough supplies to start a colony that would hopefully one day contact Earth again. It was a terrible failure. After a millennia, none of the colonies had been heard from. The main flaw in the plan was that for the most part, the probes had been launched blind. Remains of seven of the fourteen ships had been found inside of stars or gas giants. Four had landed, and the inhabitants were found mauled by the native predators. Two more, surprisingly enough, had been passed by ships traveling at lightspeed, found drifting hundreds of light-years from earth. The last one, Pod 14, was similarly dismissed as lost.

By most, anyway. Greg thought he'd been able to track it down. Using collected readings of anomalous readings of sublight drive trails intersecting hyperspace drive trails, along with Starmaps dating back to the early Third Millenium Standard Years, he was able to track down a possible landing spot for the mysterious EVE Pod 14. As he touched down on his drill pod's landing pad and looked around, Greg started to believe that he was right. Two hundred lightyears from earth, this planet, Marvis 87, was a footnote to a footnote on Unification Starmaps. It was set apart, though far from unique, by it's pecular structure, having a thin crust surrounding a light atosphere underground, and a lower, more fertile surface under the darkness. On his initial approach, Greg's scan's had revealed a single hole in the outer crust, just the size that an EVE pod would have made if it had tried to land.

As he looked now, he saw no ship where it should have been, but what he did see amazed him. A gigantic city had sprung up, seemingly abandoned now, with buildings growing almost up to the roof. Apparently the colonists had been fearful of piercing the crust, for fear of causing a cave in, crushing their budding settlement, so many buildings were exactly the same hight, and no higher. A more detailed look showed a large garden had been build under the inital impact hole, directly in the only direct sunlight their claustrophobic city ever recieved. Aside from that, apparently they had set up a number lamps to light their lives.

Also, as Greg looked upon the land, he found a number long unused drilling vehicles. "Apparently they found something worth digging for," Greg mused. He wandered into the villiage, his visor feeding him still more miscelanious facts from around him, all of it being recorded into a computer on his back. He looked past it, at the marvelous archetecture surrounding him as he walked through the city streets. The computer was just showing him data and figures, but he was walking through history. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. It was very much in an Ancient Earth style, obviously free from the much more cosmopolitan tastes Unification Citizens were surrounded with from the myriad of species comprising it.

As he thought about that, his mind wandered back on course: the colonists. Where were they? Surely some remains had to be here. Greg flicked a switch on his side, activating the bioscanners in his visor. Slowly the green, almost ghost-like sillouettes of decayed bodies appeared, contrasting and overlaying the dirty-yellow sides of the buildings. As he followed them, slowly creeping through the barren streets, he noticed a definite cluster effect to the bodies, a focal point of death, so to speak. Greg felt a grim look come upon his face. The worst part about relic hunting, he thought, was the dead. He couldn't stand looking at them. Eventually, though, the bright green filled up his vision, and he had to flip his vision.

Once he did, he was able to see unobscured the reason all these people had died like this. A treasure room. Glimering piles of gold, the kind of stuff told in legends. This couldn't be happening. It didnt. It just didn't happen. Sure, relic hunters loved to dream about it, but honestly, this wasn't supposed to happen. And yet it was. Greg was face to face with an honest to God treasure room. And aparently a rather fatal one, judging from the piles of dead bodies littered among the piles of gold. As Greg surveyed the room, he found a central point, to both the treasure and the corpses, appeared to be a large altar in the middle of the room. He walked up to it, in half-disbelief of where he was. Greg looked at the dust covered plaque adorning the monument.

"For helping us to get where we were, this great wealth is left in loving memory of our forefathers, the first generation of Earth Venture Expedition Pod 1" Pod one? That had been found decades ago. That couldn't be right. Greg extended a hand, and wiped some dust from the plaque, revealing instead, Pod...

"18?" Greg said aloud. "Then this means, there were survivors of the survivors? Fourteen launched her own pods!" That last bit Greg said excitedly, and a little too loud. The cavernous room began echoing, and as it did, heard an inhuman rumbling coming from all around him. "Oh shit, I woke the guard dogs." Greg grinned at the two sentry robots slowly awakening from their centries slumber. He wasn't going to wait for their systems to boot fully. Reaching for a pair of pistol blasters at his hips, Greg set at a dash for the door, and back to his ship. He'd done enough treasure hunting for one day.

The machines, however, were not as friendly. A pair of lumbering, ten story, faceless metal golems came charging out of the treasure room, each one more than armed to take out any would be bank-robbers the colony could spit at them. Greg, though, had half a millenia and the combined technology of ten thousand square lightyears of civilization. He could hold his own against these relics. The real challenge, for Greg, was bringing himself to shoot up these antiques, no matter how deadly they were. As the machine's gunfire traced its way closer to his path, Greg leapt into the air, and a pair of hover jets on his back fired, propelling him higher into the air. Greg spun and looked at his adversaries, and saw that they were indeed able to raise their guns above the horizon. "Fuck, and I thought you guys wouldn't use drones to go duck hunting." Greg took a few potshots at the drones before juking and hiding on the top of a building, out of range, for now.

Unfortunately, it wouldn't buy him much time. Looking left, Greg saw another building with a wall torn in, seemingly by those guard drones in one such chase. He wasn't safe for long. Even now, the sound of bullets ricocheting of the side of his own building rang clearly to his ears. Greg peered over the ledge and took a couple of shots at the "head" of one of the monster robots, managing to take out its sensor unit, effectively blinding it. After ducking for cover, Greg looked over again and tried to similarly blind the second unit, but found that both it and the "blind" bot were prepared for him this time. "So, you can talk to each other, hmm?" This was going to be a little harder than he thought. Greg rolled away from the edge and stood, surveying his landscape weighing his options. Straight ahead he was what might be his only option. A river, and crossing it a golden gleaming suspension bridge, apparently leading off to the mines.

Greg launched off, and dove in over the mechs, distracting them from their twisted demolition attempt. He zigged and zagged down the streets in front of their fire, dancing, occasionally taking a random shot back at his persuit. He was actually enjoying the danger, in spite of it, or perhaps because of it. As he neared the bridge, though, a stray shot blew out his starbard hoverdrive, causing him to lose altitude. Greg hit the ground at a run, and dashed towards the bridge, off to the left side. He started firing in two different directions. One gun shot behind back at the walking death mechs chasing him. The other, though, was shooting ahead, fraying the delicate suspension wiring. Meanwhile, the sub par accuarcy of the robots was completing the job on the wires Greg passed. Greg soon felt the bridge starting to sway.

After the twenty somethingth cord broke, the bridge jerked to its side. Using his remaining hover turbine, Greg was able to maintain his footing on the tumbling tower. His foes were not so lucky. The lead one, the blind one, fell first, landing in the water and frying out, just like that. Apparently the colonists weren't expecting much rain. The second drone, though, was a little smarter. It jumped off the bridge, and landed with one foot on the island that was its compatriates head. It stood there, for a second, balanced like a six-year-old balerina, until it made a surging lunge to shore.

Greg, meanwhile, had made it to the cover of a mine. The drone followed him in, but was unable to see where he had gone. It's visual sensor no good in the pitch black mine, the machine began to improvise. Bang. A bullet rang from the machine's turret into the nothingness. Bang. Another. Bang. "Sonar," Greg thought to himself. "I am impressed." Unfortunately for the machine, the colonists hadn't seen any reason to program the caves topography into the machine, so it couldn't recognize a man resting flat against the wall. After the tenth step into the building, the machine found itself as Greg's new mount. Like an unscratchable itch, Greg was in the machines blind spot. With surgical precision, Greg sliced into the top of the machine. Just above the sensor unit was computer core of the robot, its "brain". And Greg wanted it. Let the historians have their eighteenth pod out of fourteen. Greg wanted the machine who could use sonar.

When he slipped the computer core out of the mech, it went dead, silent in an instant. Greg sighed with relief and slid off to the ground. He packed the core in his pocket, and headed out the door. After surveying the rest of the city, finding nothing of particular intrest, returned to his drill probe, and began the long slow trip to the top. "So," he thought. "There are still four other EVE Pods out there. I wonder if they're as interesting as this one...."

The End.

------

Wow, that was fun. Alright, I'm off to bed. Be sure to tell me what you thought.

29.11.04

What I Did Over Thanksgiving Break

Yep, I celebrated Thanksgiving over the past couple of days, as did most of you I'm sure. So let's see. How did it go?

Wednesday I come in and right away go out to a movie with some friends I haven't seen in a while. We saw the Spongebob Movie. Aside from the like "I Have Ridden The Mighty Hasslehoff!", it turned out to be a lousy movie, but I was in good company.

Next morning, I wake up, go shopping for some little things before the big meal. When I get back, Mom makes me an offer: The TV only displays black and white. If I bring over some techy type friends and we try to solve the problem, she offers to buy us pizza. If we FIX the problem, she buys a round of video games. So I decide to go in and take a quick look see to figure out what the problem might be. About five clicks into the investigation, I have the problem fixed. I actually felt kinda bad about this, because It meant Matt and Dan didn't get any video games. Or pizza. Next time that happens, I'm going to unfix it and invite over Matt and Dan and then together we will "Fix" it. ^_^

Thankgiving dinner itself took place at a resturaunt called Threadgills. That was fun, because I don't really like turkey. Ham though... Ham I like. So I had ham. And it was good. And so were the carrots and salad. And that's all I have to say on that.

Black Friday was surprisingly bright, actually. We went out shopping, and I'm pretty sure I have something for everyone in my "direct" family. Twelve people, if im counting right. Also, I got that game Mom promised me - Pokemon Fire Red. Yep. I'm a Pokemon fan. This game is actually really cool, though. I really liked the extra tidbits added for the Ruby and Sapphire versions. That, plus the old-school goodness of the original Pokemon storyline, fromt he old Red and Blue, makes me happy. I picked Charmander for my starter, who is currently a level 27 Charmeleon after fifteen hours. Named Piro (not pronounced "pie-row", but "pee-row", after the Megatokyo character who was in turn named after a cat from the Kanon series who was named after a Russian meat-bread o_o)... Anyway, I've taken to nicknaming my party Pokemon, a task which has gotten easier since I just recently arrived in Lavender town, home of the rename person.

Lessee... I got to see National Treasure on Saturday night, which was alright. I will say till my dying day that the movie looked like it was written for higher caliber actors, but it couldn't get them, namely Seth Green as goody sidekick and Rebecca Romijn-Stamos as sexy love intrest. The funny part of the end, too, was Nicolas Cage's character stepping out from the shadows, letting the villian know he wasn't dead after all, which raised the question, can Nicholas Cage truly be killed? See the bottom for answer.

Also saw the Stepford Wives. Matthew Broderick plays a guy who is married to Nicole Kidman, and simply not satisfied. I found the premise unbelievable, ignoring also the robot wives and such. Anyway, I just found that funny.

So that's what I've been up to. I'm gonna go do more stuff.
_______________________________________
By the way, killing Nick Cage requires three silver bullets one to the heart and each lung, plus a gold tipped spear. Needless to say, it's not an easy task. Plus, he's simply not that much of a threat.

Preview Of Things To Come

Greg's sleep schedule continues to suck. I need to work on that I suppose. Anyway. I need to tell you about several things including:

Thanksgiving - I hate turkey, opted for ham.
Pokemon Fire Red - Fuck. I gotta catch them all. Again.
National Treasure - Can Nicholas Cage truly be killed?
The Stepford Wives - For the man who won't settle for just being married to Nicole Kidman.

And more. All tomorrow. Maybe. *Shrugs.*

21.11.04

Unhinged Awesomeness

Yep. I finally got to sleep last night. Turns out it was OUR heater (among others) making the sound, and it did eventually end. But I still have the images of a pair of dormies beating their heater with broadswords. Anyway, I got up at noon. Not enough sleep.
Well, apparently enough, since I was able to come in first at the Unhinged Tourney! ^_^!!! Yep, I got first (out of twelve, this wasn't a normal release tournament). It was sealed deck with three rounds of swiss. In other words, everyone played three matches, and then prizes were dealt out accordingly. After opening my five packs and being startled at the repitition in them, I made the following deck.
9x Island
6x Forest
1x City of Ass
1x _______
1x Artful Looter
2x Bursting Beebles
3x Carnivorous Death-Parrot
1x Double Header
2x Loose Lips
1x Mouth to Miuth
1x Smart Ass
1x Fat Ass
3x Our Market Research Shows That Players Like Really Long Card Names So We Made This Card To Have The Absolute Longest Card Name Ever Elemental
1x Shoe Tree
3x S.N.O.T.
1x Stone-Cold Basilisk
1x Supersize
1x Symbol Status
1x Rod of Spanking
I have to admit I felt a little guilty, making a deck that was actually trying to be GOOD, as opposed to be something fun. Keeping in mind the different minutia of this set, I made sure to get every land by a different by a different artist and, if possible, from a different set. Being the only one to bring basic lands, I got first pick of the lands. ^_^ Anyway... Some fun stuff that happened - ummm... I can't remember. It was fun, though! And... I won!!! Yeah, I got first. Went undefeated the whole night. It was awesome. I managed to walk away from it with 13 packs worth of cards, plus 7 DCI premiums - two Ass Whuppin's, two Booster Tutors, and one each of Ashnod's Coupon, Bone Splitter, and Darksteel Ingot.

Alright, enough bragging. I'm gonna go to bed. Again. O_O.

19.11.04

Need Some Sleep

Okay, it's 1:48 AM, and I'm still up. I know, most of the time this isn't a big deal, I've stayed up later than that. But tonight, Matt and I decided to get to bed early. No big reason, just that he felt tired early, and since I couldn't watch TV after that, I decided to follow him (into my own bed, you sickos). So, why am I still awake? I swear, this time it's not my fault. Some jackass is banging on the pipes. I don't know where its coming from, because its coming from all the pipes at once. But it is REALLY annoying. I first heard it in the middle of a dream. I think it was about Magic and this deep, rumbling voice said "I win." I was a little shocked by this, as my opponent didn't have a deep, rumbling voice. I don't remember who it was, but I do remember that much about them. So just as I was about to ask the voice something, it repeated. And in the middle of a normal dream, it was creepy. It probably didn't help matters that the voice didn't go away after I woke up. It just got louder and less understandable as my grogginess faded. It's elevated to what was a low grating noise to a loud, repetitive clanging, coming through the pipes, which is creepy because now it sounds like it is surrounding me. Anyway, I'm going to stay up a little to try and wait it out, but it seems to just be getting louder and faster and more persistent. I may before morning be forced to seek out the source. >_< I hate this dorm right now.

16.11.04

I'm Weird

A conversation with my step-brother:
Jamesu san 5789: do my math work
xx L33T N1NJ4 xx: i seriously had no idea what the card did before i tried that
xx L33T N1NJ4 xx: whats this math work?
Jamesu san 5789: stupid algebra
Jamesu san 5789: wtf? "solve pV/nT for p"
Jamesu san 5789: i didnt do that section yet!
xx L33T N1NJ4 xx: solve pV/nT for p?
xx L33T N1NJ4 xx: theres no equal sign?
Jamesu san 5789: oops
Jamesu san 5789: R=pV/nT*
xx L33T N1NJ4 xx: k
Jamesu san 5789: stupid fingers
Jamesu san 5789: i hate letters!
xx L33T N1NJ4 xx: R*nT=(pV/nT)*nT
xx L33T N1NJ4 xx: which equals just pV
xx L33T N1NJ4 xx: then divide both sides by V
xx L33T N1NJ4 xx: RnT/V = p
Jamesu san 5789: >.<
xx L33T N1NJ4 xx: you wanna know whats REALLY scary?
Jamesu san 5789: what?
xx L33T N1NJ4 xx: i enjoyed that
xx L33T N1NJ4 xx: o_o
I've been in school to long. I'm starting to snap.

15.11.04

What is up with my hair?

I've had troubles with my hair recently. I swear I'm washing it regularly, but no matter what I do, I end up with knots in the back of my head. Only on the right side, too. It's freaky. Am I sleeping on it funny you think? Or am I just weird? Oh well. I am ALWAYS weird. ^_^

That's all, aside from the picture for my desktop being being uber-cute! Lookie!

Okay, I'm gonna finish watching the climax of Ocean's Eleven.

14.11.04

Another For Today

Matt wouldn't let me watch the whole Green Ranger Mini-series. ;_; Oh well. In other weekend news, I control Asia in a game of Risk 2210, though I doubt that will last until the beginning of my next turn. Sigh. Red has really conquered a bunch... North AND South America, Europoe, and both of the three island water continents. I don't think we're gonna stand any chance. *Sniffle.*

GO GO POWER RANGERS!!!

I am watching the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers now.

Instead of sleeping.

I think I'm going nuts from being up all night.

Oh well.

By the way, it's the original series.

The first episode of the green ranger mini-series, to be Precice.

It's awesome.

Especially if they run all five episodes this morning.

Okay, enough of that, later.

12.11.04

C-c-c-cold

Sigh. I got bored tonite, so I rode down University to the 'nearby' Magic store - Challenge Games. Yes. I rode. My bicycle. In 40 degree weather. It was about a half hour, each way. I dunno if it was really worth it, either. I mean, the tournament was free, and I managed to beat a rival Tooth and Nail deck. Apparently TnN is my only Standard format deck. Anyway. I managed to win one game out of three. The first game was a rather odd matchup. I managed to counter his Darksteel Collossus with one of my own just in time, but he still was able to burn me out with a fireball, I think. It was alright. Second game poor guy, Patrick was his name, was sorta stuck. Add in that I managed to Mindslaver him twice. Once to fireball hisself for 6, and then another time when it was just a 10 mana time walk. I managed to barely squeeze out my own lethal fireball, shortly after Naturalizing a Sundering Titan as it was being copied with Kiki-Jiki. (If you don't know the names, don't worry. Neither do I ^_^) Anyway, the third game I was stuck with a lone Cloudpost after mulliganning once. I kept because I had enough mana fixers in hand that if I got one more land I would be set. Not only did I never see the second land, but when Patrick finally got enough Cloudposts on his side that I could have played a Solemn Simulacrum, he then turns around and Reap and Sow's my only post. ;_;! Ah well, so needless to say, I found my next land, a Forest, about 3 turns after I died. Shrugs. Twas a single elimination, so I went home after watching a few other games. Ah well. I'm looking forward to the Unhinged release tournament next Saturday - No not tomorrow. I'll be sure to tell you all about it.

Also in my news... .Hack Vol 3 FINALLY came out!!! It was FANTASTIC!!! I LOVED IT!!! I CAN'T EVEN... *POP*

Okay, but yeah, I like it a lot. ^_^ I'm gonna just leave it at that, and say you all must read it now. Alright, so long.

10.11.04

A Little Quiz For You

Feel free to E-mail / comment you're answers, whatever. I can't wait to read them.

01. Give me a nickname, and explain why you picked it.
02. Am I lovable?
03. How long have you known me?
04. When and where did we first meet?
05. What was your first impression?
06. Do you still think that way about me now?
07. What do you think my weakness is?
08. Do you think I'll ever get married?
09. What makes me happy?
10. What makes me sad?
11. What reminds you of me?
12. What is my best quality?
13. How well do you think you know me?
14. When's the last time you saw me?
15. Ever wanted to tell me something but couldn't?
16. Do you think that I could kill someone?
17. Who would play me in a movie?
18. If I were to be a color, what one would I be?
19. Describe me in one word.
20. Do you think our friendship is getting stronger/weaker/or staying the same?
21. Do you think that I am stubborn?
22. Are you going to put this on your xanga and see what I say about you?
23. Have you ever liked me as more than a friend?
24. What do you think I'm going to be when I grow up?

8.11.04

Time For Something With Substance

Funny thing happened just now. I saw a person log onto AIM, and briefly considered saying hi, but he beat me to the punch. I got the one word message "fag" from him. Then he signed off before I could say something back. I'm confused. But also, I'm a little flattered. The idea that someone cares enough about me to want to sign on and off again soley to offend me (I guess) is sort of an empowering feeling. Especially because I don't know what I did to piss him off. He know's I'm bi. I know I'm bi. What's he trying to prove? Ah well. I feel special, kinda. ^_^;

Lesse... I got to go back home this weekend! The internet there sucks. Terribly. Sigh. I hate that house. I've been spoiled by the T1 line here at school. However, it was good to be able to go back and see my family. I spent Saturday at the mall Christmas shopping for others, and got things for about 5 people, I think. I also picked up the last three volumes of CCS I need. Now I can finally finish Sakura's tale of whimsy and wonder. Afterwards, I got dropped off at my Aunt's house and played with Clara, my two-year-old cousin/niece. (Don't worry, my Aunt isn't also my sister, or some random hillbilly nonsense. They call me Uncle Greg, but I'm really a cousin.) After that, and a nice family dinner at the Guadalajara Mexican resturaunt, I went home, finally got in touch with Matt and Dan to go see the movie we'd been planning on seeing since Thursday, The Incredibles. While I waited for the 955 showtime, I got to go back and finally defeat Oogie Boogie, clearing Halloweentown once and for all. I was PLANNING on doing that Halloween Weekend, but travel plans sucked for me. Anyway, I did manage beat that, though only after putting the game on pause at the very end of the Boss battle to see the movie.

The movie, by the way, was GREAT! Its not really a kids movie, the way most Pixar films have been thus far. I mean, yes, most Pixar films had jokes in there that both adults and kids could enjoy, but some parts of the Incredibles, including a man suing the hero for foiling his suicide attempt, may require some delicate conversations with parents. I enjoyed it, though. I have a big interest in the field of Superheroics. Jason Lee plays the fanboy villian, and you can almost tell that the role was written just for him. It was like Kevin Smith flashbacks all over again. Also, it was sort of neat how none of them could really fly. That's the one super power that so many people take for granted in their super heroes.

So then the question remains, what super power would I pick? Hmmm... And I'm not just talking about in the ones from that movie. I'm talking about all heroes ever. (Except for ubermenches like Superman. He's just unfair.) I think I'd have to go for Nightcrawler's (X-men) teleportation. That would be cool. It's not inheriently violent, and being a pacifist, I appriciate that. It's also got a really cool sound effect, "Bamf." That's the mark of a good power. ^_^

Alright, later. Oh yeah, along with that question, I still have the question of "What famous actor would star as me in a movie of my life?" Any suggestions on this would help me out. Okay, so long.

Butt dance butt dance.....
o0
0o
o0
0o
o0
Butt dance butt dance.....

4.11.04

Then They Came for Me

I was reading over CNN, and got the inspiration to seek out this poem I learned in school a few years ago:
First They Came for the Jews, By Pastor Martin Niemöller

First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.


For those of you who were on the winning side on Tuesday, and need a little help with the analogy, here's my modern revision.
First they came for the Arabs
and I did not speak out
because I was not an Arab.
Then they came for the homosexuals
and I did not speak out
because I was not homosexual.
Then they came for the liberals
and I did not speak out
because I was not a liberal.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.


...

Tyrannies of Majorities scare me. ;_;

3.11.04

Of Traps And Shrimp

Another link that needs immortalizing.

The ultimate wisdom of Admiral Ackbar.

Shut Up Wesley

I saw this on Star Trek just now. I couldn't resist. These links must be shared with the world!

Shut up, Wesley!

24 Hours Later

Bush won.

I found out as soon as the news broke. I woke up at 10, checked out CNN.com, and found that it was still a dead heat, with Ohio becoming the deciding state. "Oh great," I thought, "Another Florida." The debacle last election was still being contested even today, and the thought of having to go through another four years of that was almost as disheartening of the fact that my candidate lost. Then a funny thing happened. I checked out Fox News, who had early on called Ohio for Bush. They had a headline I had never expected.

"Kerry Concedes."

What? It's over? I was just getting ready for a good week at least of vote contesting. All those people who filed lawsuits are probably kicking themselves now. Oh well. Kerry conceded, and I'm sure that he wouldn't have done it unless he was sure he didn't have a chance. I have to admit, I don't see why Ohio wan't being called for anyone by CNN. It had a larger difference than some of the other states that had already been called one way or the other. I think they were just holding out until everything was settled, not wanting to make a pre-emptive call.

I've made no secret that I don't like Bush's presidency. I think that he's destroyed America in the eye of the World. I think the war in Iraq was a mistake, and I'm disheartened that now no one will make Bush own up to it. Honestly, that was the only issue that I felt strongly about. I know different people who feel very strongly about certain moral or domestic issues. I don't, really. Honestly, I respect their opinions, I really do, I just have over the past few weeks gotten tired of people who have opinions about things they really don't know about. I've met people on both sides of the fence with this problem, and I suppose the point of a campaign is to simplify complex issues into simple black and white coinflips for voter processing. And really, the Bush administration has been working on this since 2001. The Axis of Evil, himself being sent to do God's will, drawing definative lines between people, places, ideas. I think it's a little bit scary that (A) they believe they have the right to do this all unchallenged, and (B) they HAVE gotten away with this mostly uncontested. I remember watching the Daily Show, when Zell Miller was speaking at the Republican National Convention, berating the Democrats for questioning the President, which Jon Stewart then paraphrased with "How dare the Democratic party field a candidate; And during an election year!" I've seen similar sentiments expressed by far to many people. I have to admit, when the Daily Show hinted they may postpone the elections indefinitely, I only partially dismissed it as a joke, and I'm still not ruling it out for an October surprise in '08.

Gah. I need to calm down. Bush really isn't that bad a guy. The country didn't blow up over the past four years (except for that one time, but I'm not dumb enough to blame him for that). I may not agree with him, but I'm not the first time to note that there are much worse candidates for presidency. In the mean time, I've started preparing for the 2008 election: Jeb Bush vs Hilary Clinton. O_O!

2.11.04

Big Day, No Time For Titles

Wow, what a day. Election is still going on, so I'll save that for another day. First: IT SNOWED (a little). Oh well.

Also, I recently got invited to a forum - PSP vs DS. Since I really don't care for either of them, that makes me a perfect impartial judge. Anyway, I proceded to take an active part in the boards, and currently have 44% of the posts. I was, this evening, named moderator of their off-topic board. So I guess I would encourage you all, especially the gamers out there, to join up and voice your opinion over there. Registering is free, easy, and its a cool place to hang out and just talk about whatever. Especially my forum, where basically anything goes. I dunno what that is exactly, but its probably a lot. Alright, I guess that's it. What an election, eh? I'll voice my opinion on it when I come back.

Official Forum Plug: Voice your opinion on the war of the hand-held consoles @ the PSP vs DS forum: http://s8.invisionfree.com/pspvds or visit the easy to remember www.freewebs.com/pspds for the redirection link!!! Spread the Word

I feel like such a whore. ;_;

29.10.04

TIC TAC TOE BITCH!

Want some three in a row action? Check this shit out:
.....
.....
.....
FUCKING HTML!!!!

Okay, I stayed up all night working on my CS project. Actually, it was more like a couple of hours, but still. *Glances at clock.* Hmm, its seven. I have class in three hours. Oh well. Lemme tell you about the night.

I played Magic.

Yeah, I promised, no more fan-boy-ish-y stuff, but let's face it. I AM a fan boy. So all the stuff about me will be fan-boy-ish-y. I'll try to spare the in depth details. Anyway, the decks I made were alright, if you ask me. Mana screw was a common occurance at the table, with four players. It was odd, if you ask me. Shouldn't have happened THAT much. Anyway, my Last Laugh deck went off a few times, which pissed people off, so the time I DIDN'T get a good hand with it, I was being double teamed from the start. My squirrel deck preformed admirably, I think, and the enchantment deck... Well, it needs some work. Actually, I have long been planning to make a tournament quality Enchantress deck, so I may do just that, and swap out red for blue, and cheaper, less wacky enchantments. Or maybe go White/Green. I dunno.

The point is I'm tired. Two and a half hours till class, I think I'd better get some sleep. If you wanna see the Tic-Tac-Toe game, message me, I'll send it on over. Laters.

26.10.04

Multiball!! MULTIBAAAALLLL!!!!!

Umm... The title is cuz shouting Multiplayer just doesn't have the same ring. Anyway, I just spent the early afternoon making up two magic decks. It felt good. It's been far too long. What prompted me to make not one but two decks after such a long period of not? My roommates brother. He calls us last night, telling Matt that he arranged a multiplayer game or two with a friend. Naturally we accept. Problem is, he didn't have a deck. So I got drafted to make one for him, because none of my other decks, aside from my precious Last Laugh deck (you can't spell slaughter without laugh...) aren't really cut out for group games. So, I asked him what kind of deck he wanted. "Black and white or red and green," comes the responce. As I'm looking through my rare binder, which I often do for inspiration, I notice a large number of "Junk" enchantments in the colors. So I mention them to him, and he says "Sure, I haven't done an enchantment deck in a while." My original plan was to simply have it be you're basic dumb red and green deck, elves and fast mana on the first few turns, then ramp up to huge mana for huge stupid-big effects. However, upon him calling the idea an Enchantment deck, I'm reminded of the four Verduran Enchantresses I have, and the four Enchantresses Presences. Stupid Enchantress Deck was made shortly thereafter, with a light sprinkling of all the junk enchantments I could find. I through in Confusion in the Ranks for sheer dumbness, as well as Teferi's Puzzle Box out of Masochism. I will annoy EVERYONE at the table tonite, even though I didn't play the deck. Maybe Mike will annoy everyone, instead, while I quietly Armageddon the field to death. Speaking of combos, based on the sheer number of one- and two- ofs in the deck, there are some spiffy interactions. My favorite is the Mana Flares with either Saproling Burst or Words of Wilding (or even Dragon's Roost if things get really out of hand), to create ungodly amounts of mana. Meanwhile, there are maybe two mana sinks in the deck. Umm.. Oh well.

Also, as I sloshed though my common and uncommon boxes for cards to fill out "the most expensive deck I've ever owned I think," I passed through the remains of my old squirrel deck. Once I had the Red Green Dumbness created, I went about making a better squirrel deck, if only for flavor. I hope Unhinged has more squirrel cards, I need them. Oh, and Deranged Hermits if anyone out there has some. Plus, if you couldn't tell from my nonsensical rant, I'm excited to test these babies out. If you're up for an online game over AIM, lemme know when I get back from class. Speaking of which, I gotta go to class now, bye!

....Oh, and sorry about the pair of nerdy-type rants in a row. I'll see about putting up some non-fanboyish posts later on, promise.

25.10.04

Revenge Of Starcraft

Here's something I wrote in Calc and Film class for this. Enjoy.

I've told you about how I bought Diablo II and such. Honestly, I'm getting bored of the game. One of these days I'll start a game from scratch, and play through at a normal place. It's no fun rushing through what should be a long and in depth story line in an hour or three with my higher level friends' help. I know for some people see customizing their characters as being half the fun, but it doesn't have any appeal to me. Questing for the sole purpose of leveling up seems pointless. I prefer the adversarial nature of Starcraft because it puts each player on an equal playing field. The "collect and dress-up" element isn't there. It's just one player against another, winner take all. Or none. I like the Red Vs Blue description of the situation.

Simmons: Seriously though, why are we out here? As far as I can tell it's just a box canyon in the middle of nowhere...no way in or out.
Grif: uh huh...
Simmons: The only reason that we set up a red base here is because they have a blue base over there. And the only reason they have a blue base over there is because we have a red base over here.
Grif: Yeah, that's because we're fighting each other.
Simmons: No, no, but I mean, even if we were to pull out today and they were to come take our base they would have two bases in the middle of a box canyon. Whoop-dee-fucking-do.


I for one like that semi-rediculous nature of games. Two players are boiled down to their cores. It is sport at its purest. In a Starcraft match, your name doesn't matter. All those hours you've spent on the campaign don't matter in a match when your mining SCV train wanders through a canyon overlooked by Dragoons. Each player starts the same every time. Four peons. A town hall. Fifty minerals. Zero vespine gas. And the knowledge that your opponant starts with the same. After the game is over, nothing has changed. The winner gets nothing but a tick mark somewhere on the Battle.net servers, and maybe bragging rights. Aside from pride and dignety, nothing is taken from the loser.

And then there are the memories. Both players take a small bit of experience with them of the game. The loser is made aware of a strategy, and either learns to adapt it for his own use, or how to beat it next time. The winner may have noticed something he could do better next time, or some tip from his opponants strategy could be gleamed. Or maybe it was simply two comrades-in-arms enjoying a friendly skirmish. I've got a few memories that still bring a small smile to my face. Like the time I hid my last building in a random corner of map to avoid the enemy gang of roving Carriers. ("Our big... spaceship... gang." "Ar-ma-da?" "Yeah, that.") Or the time I finished my opponents last two buildings with the most overkill ever.
Game: Nuclear Launch Detected.
Game: Nuclear Launch Detected.
Him: I KNOW NUCLEAR LAUNCH WAS DETECTED!!!
(Silence as not one but two nuclear missiles, one per building, crash into his final installations.)


One of my favorite memories wasn't actually from a multiplayer game. It was a campaign mission: Johnny the Homocidal Ultralisk from New Gettysburg. Anyone who's ever played the mission tell me if this sounds remotely familiar. The mission has three goals: Protect a Zerg outpost, destroy the attacking Protoss forces beneath you, and don't let Kerrigan die. However, while you are protecting the Zerg, they are feeling no such thing about you, and see no reason to not attack you. Ingrates. Anyways, at one point in the mission, the Zerg rise up and swell past any defences you have set up. The first few times I played it, I noticed an even more shocking event taking place. One lone Ultralisk, who we shall call "Johnny, the Homocidal Ultralisk", was charging straight past any other units I had, and made a direct bee line to the lone chick in the ghost uniform. Bam. One solid swipe of the tusks, and that's it. Kerrigan lets out a high pitched scream/squeal, and the game alerts me that the game is over. I watched this happen at least three times before I caught on, and on the fouth time, I knew how to beat it. I went in and immediately built a dropship for Kerrigan. As soon as it was done, the USS Canadia set course for parts unknown, far from the intense violence, miles (I guess) above the looming Ultralisks, and out of my mind from then on. I was able to beat the mission on my own, without worrying about pissy dignitaries or whatever Kerrigan was.

***********************************SPOILERS************************************
Then, Kerrigan dies (captured, really) to the Zerg anyway!!!! Talk about a downer.
***********************************SPOILERS************************************

Anyway, I ended up with a small tick from that mission. I have a tendancy to favor using dropships from now on. I like them. I trust them. They're nice. Now you may all go ahead to plotting my eventual downfall by destroying my dropships... If you dare!

Sigh. That was a long rant half of you probably don't care about. Oh well. Anyone who wants to play, lemme know. You will be destroyed. Or not.

21.10.04

Here I Am Again

So anyway, it turns out that just after I posted my last entry, they showed Mean Girls on the college network. It wasn't too bad, actually, though I suppose I can now never watch it again. I won't be worse off. In other news, I believe Lindsey Lohan is 18. *Does his "yay, another celebrity is now old enough to turn me down legally" dance"* Aww, I made myself cry...

Also, someone needs to explain to me why 9/11 caused an economic downturn. As I recall, last time there was an attack on American soil by a foreign enemy, there was a 10 year depression, but, no, wait, that was the decade BEFORE Pearl Harbor got attacked. If memory serves, that attack brought our economy into a boom. Yeah, most wars have, in fact. So, then, why are we currently in a recession again, or just coming out of a small one, or what have you? Sigh. I'm serious, though. Anyone who can explain to me why the 9/11 attacks created a downturn, please do so. Thanks.

Oh yeah, and here's who I'm voting for come November:
I approve of their middle class values, coming from a middle class family themselves. I know their war record, I served with them through all three of the Mushroom Kingdom Wars in the Plumber Battalion, and the continuing Tours in Dinosaurland. I know they won't hesitate to use our armed forces when threatened, but at the same time they know the risks, and won't put our troops in unnecessary danger. They're the ideal candidates.

Vote Mario Mario / Luigi Mario in '04.

19.10.04

Villians

In English class today, the professor presented three topics for discussion: a plan for re-buffaloizing the mid-west plains, and something about expatrioted, two things I didn't know anything about, and then the third topic, a discussion on whether girls the "Plastics" from the movie Mean Girls, girls who are the rulers of the school and exist as a kind of elitist nobility among the students, really exist. I've never seen the movie, but I saw the commecials enough, combined with how most Hollywood movies work, to put forth a nice theory for the class. I said that the reason the girls are portrayed as such, as being some how in power while at the same time being universally hated or what have you, is simply an attempt by Hollywood to villianize the girls. I pointed out that if the movie had been done with them not being in power, and just bitches, then the hero, Lindsey Lohan's character, whoever, would lose all credibility and justification. "Those girls picked on me so I'm going to be mean back to them" isn't as persuasive an argument as "Those girls are tyrannical and evil incarnate and must be stopped."

Of course, we couldn't talk about this all period long. We had to actually learn. But the issue tugged at the back of my mind, and I decided to show them to you, since I must release my ideas somewhere, and I have no friends, it seems. Anyway, the whole thing stems back to the nessessity to villify characters in movies. The plastics are BLATANTLY evil, partially because its funny, and partially because audiences are stupid. They need things laid out for them in very obvious terms. The girls are evil because they're the bad guys, its just that simple.

I also realized that there were two kinds of bad guys, in general. The overlord and the minion. The mean girls are obviously overlords, the big bad guys, whatever. They're the characters who personify evil. They come from a long line of overloards. Darth Vader, the Iceland Team in the Mighty Ducks, Saddam Huissein, whoever. The minions are just that. Faceless pawns. They're interesting to me in how similar they are. Stormtroopers (who many people thought were robots when the first movie came out) and TIE Fighter Pilots all wear face-concealing helmets, where as their rebellion counterparts have their faces in full view. Remember the beginning of Star Wars IV: A New Hope, how they show the rebel soldiers lined up ready to defend the princess? They show a close up of a soldier who looks like he could be your grandfather, not so much that he's old, but that he has a loveable face. Right away you look at him and think: "This guy is a good guy, I like him."

Then he gets shot. WHAT THE FUCK! I LIKED THAT GUY!!! YOU BASTARDS KILLED HIM! I HATE THE EMPIRE!!! Yeah, that's how movies works. I noticed a similar thing in Top Gun. Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer barely wear oxygen masks, but their Russian (or whoever) bad guy enemies have their faces entirely concealed, and have tinted visors. They aren't human.

Gah, I hate when I get all rambly. Seems like a good reason to stop and lie down.

18.10.04

Internet Has Returned

Well, I got the Internet back, as well as my perennial lazyness. A bunch of stuff has happened recently, but I haven't really been keeping track. Oh well. Lemme go over recent memory...

I'm not gonna be able to vote! Not on time, anyway. I forgot to update my voter address, so I'm gonna do an absentee vote in Lakeway, most likely after the election. Oh well. MY VOICE WILL BE HEARD. *Imagines someone in 1946 discussing a possible retaliation to Pearl Harbor.* Agh. I suck at analogys it seems. Anyway, next item.

My mom visited this past weekend. She brought doughnuts. Not much else there, except to note that I'm coming home some time soon. At the very least I'll be there the weekend of the 5th. November 5th. WAI~! I can't wait. I wanna go to Frys and Borders and all sortsa... Well, I guess thats it. I dunno. Anyway. I need to go about building a computer when I get there. I'll post more on that when I know more.

I also need to get that CCS boxset. The guy at the local anime shop says they're not out yet, but I KNOW I've seen it. He's got a varied selection, but none of the things I want. He doesn't have CCS, or a new title I've decided to try out, Azumanga Daioh, which seems pretty popular. It's a bunch of four panel comics about schoolgirls, and their comedic lights. The pictures I've seen of the characters are cute. In the chibi way, not cute sexy.I wanted to at least give it a try, possibly buy it.

Oi! I found a source for Chobits DVD #5. Whee! Anyway, thanks to Kathy and Stacy for giving me their copy. I owe you two.

Here's a final version of my wish list to finish things off. By the way, I'm PISSED that Kingdom Hearts:Chain of Memories isn't coming out till just AFTER Xmas.
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Transformers
Mom has a list of transformers I need, except for the Toys’R’Us exclusive reissues. Here’s a list of the one’s I want:
Power Master Optimus Prime
Rodimus Prime
Dirge
Hoist
Tracks
Hound

Game Boy Advance games-
Pokemon Fire Red
Metroid Zero Mission
Final Fantasy I & II (Releases Nov 21st)
Mario Pinball

PlayStation 2 games-
Slim console unit
Disgaea: Hour of Darkness
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Grand Theft Auto: Double Pack

DVDs-
Chobits # 2, 3, 4, 6, 7
Star Wars Collection
Invader Zim #2, 3
Aladdin Special Edition

Tech Equipment-
Longer battery, light-weight laptop (I’ve been eyeing the Compaq V2000 series)
Ipod, other portable mp3 device
Flatsceen Moniter
Wireless Keyboard / Mouse

Magic Cards-
Boosters / Booster boxes from the following sets:
Darksteel, Fifth Dawn, Champions of Kamigawa, Unhinged


Alright, I suppose I should go. Sorry I've been gone for over a week, I'll try to post more often. So long.