Mail

Yep, a bunch of things came today. Got to hear all of the new Thao with The Get Down Stay Down CD and that was good. The Cat and Girl book came along with my new t-shirt.

Tonight I'm not sure what I'm going to do. I'm thinking...manga or maybe a game, but definitely some manga at some point.

I had a fish sandwich at the fake drive-in by my place. The sandwich came in one of those little paper sacks. Nostalgic. It wasn't very good, though, so not quite as nostalgic. I would've made one at home except the oven still doesn't turn on, as far as I know. It actually tasted fine, but was just kind of soggy. I like American cheese and tomato on my fish sandwiches.

But someone conquered the garbage.

This weekend I'm off to Santa Cruz for Driving Lesson #1. I will maybe write a couple previews in the off hours, and probably play some games. I sort of wish I could bring my netflix and we could watch those, but I won't have them in time. They will probably be waiting on the floor outside my room when I get back.

More Heroes

The past few days have seen both an explosion of work and otaku. It's almost like, by combining the work and otaku energies in my body I will be able to perfect my usage of chakra and jutsu the hell out of life! :D

YES, BY THE GODS, I HAVE BEEN READING NARUTO! AND ENJOYING EVERY MINUTE OF IT!



Granted, I'm only on chapter 18 of 385 or whatever it's at now, but SO FAR, it's really fun. Way cooler than I thought it would be. For some reason I totally understand the draw of these things now. Take a dumb punk and watch him evolve into an ass-kicking machine! Self-improvement! Root for the underdog who can make it if he tries! This is awesome!

But I said an explosion. Surely ONE manga is not enough to justify that grandiose term. But I also have been watching more of my current anime series: Kimagure Orange Road, Denno Coil, and Gurren Lagann, the later of which I managed to find avenues to continue down despite being met with technical difficulties at my original source!

AND, yesterday was finally the day for No More Heroes to come out, and yes, the title express exactly how I feel about that. And the main character is a bad-ass otaku!



It's so cool. I need to keep playing, but it's all about the balance. The balance of my inner energies!!!!!

lol

I guess I'm in an ok mood today. Sometimes it can be surprisingly easy to just get trucking, despite the sadfaces. Especially when you have such awesome freaking hobbies!!!

Tuesday Monday

Last night my pal Koji was homeless, since he didn't forsee the bank closure for the holiday. He spent the night on my couch and we watched Singin' in the Rain, played some games, read some Naruto manga. That was a nice distraction from my sick-feelingness. It's good to have company.

This morning I didn't feel so bad, so we had Lucky Penny breakfast and then went off to begin our respective days. For my part, I took a shower and headed downtown to 1Up for some demos. Dropped by EB but of course, as I should really know by now, the ship date is never the date you can actually BUY *insert anticipated videogame* so it's always pointless to go out until the day after. Really, I should just order things on amazon and not jump around like a squirrelly second grader when something I want comes out. Pre-order and be surprised when it shows up!

Annnnnnd I can see now that I am just wasting time. I thought for a moment I had something to say for some reason. I can see now that I did not!!

*end*

Unsatisfactory Morning

I woke up today feeling sick. Just vaguely ill, and then when I got out of bed it was more than vaguely. Sorta flu-y. I hope it goes away. I made breakfast and ate that. I figured it would make me worse or better, but I feel the same. Just freezing cold and a little blerfy. Sickish. Bleck.

Wrote my article, though, so now I can just lie around all day and watch movies or feel miserable or whatever I feel like doing.

Wow, for some reason I felt like there was a point to writing this post. But I guess that's really all I have to say.

OH WAIT

It's January 21. The anniversary of my first published article. I wanted to have some sort of festivity, but maybe I will just watch Space Amoeba finally.

I hope I feel better later so I can go have dinner with Marc. Since I'm still in the country and all.

Oops I slacked

Well, today in addition to being in a rather awful mood, I finally went out and had some fun. Since I bought Indian food last time, Koji bought Indonesian tonight. It was a nice little cafe somewhere sort of Tenderloiny. I don't even know what he ordered, but it seemed like maybe the special since I saw others eating it as well. Rice, veggies, chicken, egg, and curry sauce. Very tasty, but not fancy. I liked it a lot. We stayed there for quite a while just talking and nibbling. He is a very thorough eater, always cleans his plate, picking the bones completely clean. I guess I have to admire that.

He was wearing this bizarre white hip-hop style hoodie with skeleton bones (the hood even zips up completely to make your head look like a skull o_O) only done up with some sort of braces at parts to make it look like maybe it used to be broken? Something? It looked good on him, but he told me he ended up having to buy it here because a friend told him it was always hot here. Poor guy. He got pressured by some shop keeper on market into buying this expensive hoodies that he doesn't even really like.

After dinner we bought some cookies at Walgreens on the way to his place and then sat up in the kitchen of his res hall. Then a party started in there, so we checked out his room. I guess he will only be there for tonight, since he is moving to a hotel tomorrow. He wants a new apt. If I knew for sure about my job I would be apt hunting with him, since we get along well and have the same situation of wanting to live somewhere else. As it stands, I will have to be content here for a little while longer.

Actually, I had this crazy insane idea to run off to Japan until precisely the leap year day. But that seems a little far-fetched after a day... I will probably just have to keep trucking here and do my best. Three in Hokkaido is so nice, though. He would totally help me out completely. I'd still really like to visit him at some point.

Oh, and then the point of this was to berate myself for not finishing my review this afternoon. I could've done it, but instead I played Rock Band drums to try to focus on something else. I even almost took a nap for a while, but then Esteban, one of my soon-to-be-no-longer roommates (he's moving out) showed up and asked if he could check his e-mail. And then I lent him some movies. And by that time I had to get going.

*ramble*

So I'm supposed to be writing! I'm gonna do that. About videogames, I mean. Since that's what I do!

Ah, life...

SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAM.

Friday Night

I think it's ok to make a really stupid first impression, right? Because you can only get smarter from there.

I had a craigslist adventure because I wanted to eat sausage pizza and couldn't think of anyone who would be simultaneously bored on a Friday night and not a vegetarian or vegan. Not just any sausage pizza, mind you, but the Classic deep dish at Little Star Pizza, (apparently) widely known here-abouts as the best deep dish pizza around along with Zachary's, which I may have to step out to Berkeley to try sometime.

Nevermind the fact that I have never had a "true" Chicago pizza, even though I've been to Chicago more than once.

Anyways, so I ate this pizza with a very nice philosophy grad student named Ben, in the end. The ordeal of posting the ad (now deleted) and sorting replies took the better part of last night and this morning and in fact, Ben himself was rather late entering the fray, but he caught my attention to the point where when my first choice (whatever that means) flaked, I invited him.

The pizza was delicious! Ben wants to be a philosopher, which seems admirable enough. He TA's classes, so I bet he can give me reading lists and things. He used to be really into Square, but apparently doesn't follow videogames anymore. He's played NetHack, though, so that's something. I haven't even really fooled around with NetHack, although I watched Scotty a couple times.

A lot of interesting people replied to my ad, which was cool. Just as many were obviously copy-pasting their spiel from reply to reply, which is not so attractive. Although even one of those sort of caught my eye--a graduate of USC cinema. So anyways, the point is maybe I'll meet some other people this weekend, too.

... ... ... ...

I watched Scoop as an exercise in witnessing sexy people on camera, but it cracked me up quite a bit. Woody Allen does that.

How did it get to be nearly 2 am?

Progress Report: About Cars

This morning I walked down to the DMV to take the written test for my "Instructional Permit: Permits driving only. Not for ID purposes." One particular staffer was honestly terrifying. I told more than one person afterwards that I would've been crying if I didn't speak native English. She was just barking at everyone. The guy taking pictures was very nice. Mine turned out great except I look scrubby, which is cuz I was pretty scrubby.

Anyways, I can drive now, as long as there is someone sitting shotgun who has a real license.

Tale of Two Sad Foods

Sad Food, the first:

Oleya and I hit up the Café du Nord on Saturday night to see Thao with The Get Down Stay Down. The concert was great! The food...was MISERABLE. It was meant to be a splurge, as it was rather expensive, and seemed fancy. SEEMED. It was not. We ordered mac 'n cheese and made the mistake of ordering a whole separate salad, not realizing that they did have enough foresight to offer some greens with the meal itself.

The mac 'n cheese came in two triangle wedges, which was nice looking and easy to share. It wasn't very hot, though, and it tasted very cheap. It was "spicy" mac 'n cheese, but the spices--yes, the best way I can think to describe the way they tasted is "cheap," if that even makes sense. The whole thing tasted like it came out of a box, maybe, although Oleya remarked that she has had better tasting box food before, and I would have to agree.

The extra salad we ordered mostly went to waste. It was huge unwieldy wedges of iceberg, which could be foreseen from the description in the menu, but they were just too huge, the wedges. You almost had to pick them up with your hands and just take bit wet crunchy bites. We were not about to do that. I ate a couple of the tomatos and Oleya picked off the blue cheese.

All in all, a very Sad Food.

Sad Food, the second:

Yesterday I wanted to have some fish for lunch, but the oven is broken so I couldn't heat up my (embarrassingly delicious) frozen cod filets. I instead decided to go out for a sandwich, and used the Internet to try to see if I could locate a good one nearby. I found a site that told me the Honey Baked Ham Company right down the street does a sandwich and two sides for four dollars. That had to be seen to be believed, so I put on my coat.

I had originally planned on ham and cheese, baked beans, and spinach. Well, they don't melt the cheese anymore and they didn't have any baked beans. Screw that. So I ordered the turkey cranberry plain, just the turkey and cranberry, and was hoping for something as close to a baguette as possible. No go, and I ended up going with squaw bread because when I asked her what it was she described it as a dark, whole grain bread. REALLY, she should said that it would add to the horrific candy taste permeating EVERY SINGLE THING THEY SELL, or at least the turkey, cranberry sauce, and that bread. The "honey" in their name is not a joke, nor is it subtle. You have to be very careful how you utilize such intensely honey'd meat. Aiiiiie. So this sandwich was just not very good.

But still I somehow decided I should eat the rest of it for breakfast this morning. Ugh.

SAD SAD FOODS

What is up

Up is up! And so we continue on this rather sloooooow week. Yesterday I accomplished some things, which was nice. Invoices, assignments, post office trip. Today I have nothing to do, which is nice. I've just been assigned a preview I can go pick up tomorrow, allowing myself the freedom this afternoon to do whatever until meeting Oleya after work for Mexican food, anime, and videogames.

My Roger Cicero CD arrived today. I ordered Männersachen. I...don't even know what that word means--I didn't take much German. Not that it would be hard to find out or anything, I just haven't yet. Ok, now I got it ;p Just so you wont' all think I'm lazy. In ENGLISH: Men's Affairs. I think I like that. Anyways, his voice is just as amazing and classic as it was on Frauen Regier'n Die Welt (Women Rule The World) which is INDEED a bonus track on the disk, hence the order of it. I'll be tempted to pick up others now, though, despite the fact that the case got crunched a bit in shipping. I love his voice, I love the big band, and it's a much needed return to swing. Been a while.

Let's see. Other than that I watched Seven Up over lunch, the first in a 7 year-spaced episodic documentary series about...people! British people, in this one, kids of seven years old. They were, in a word, adorable. They talk about money, skin color, kissing, school... The wikipedia page lists copycat works for a variety of other nationalities including American, but also...

JAPANESE!

What I wouldn't give to see that.

Ok, a lot of things, but really--where can I find a copy of that?

Apparently they've also started a new batch fresh for the new millennium, but the originals are still going, too.

Annnnnnnnnnnnnd it's almost three o'clock...got some time yet to frolick about it. I took a shower already, so that's taken care of. I guess it's J-time.

EmaWii vs. DMV-- FIGHT!

OR Declaration of Intent With Regards to Cars Etc.

I'm gonna try to get my driver's license. All I have to do is study for the permit test, learn to drive (again), and ACTUALLY TAKE THE DRIVING TEST THIS TIME. We'll see. I have road trip motivation and my friend in Santa Cruz said I can come down there and he'll teach me in his car. So there is really no reason not to do it, as far as I can tell. I mean, it doesn't cost much to buy the actual little plastic card, and I don't ever have to use it. I certainly don't want a car or anything like that. It'll just be handy if I ever need to rent one or something. And for road trips...

It's a lot better to tell your friends you want to road trip if you can do something besides read the map ;D

Anyways, so that's a long term goal, a few months out. I'm not sure if/how long you have to wait between getting your learner's permit and taking the test, but I'm sure it will take a while before I feel comfortable. I suppose I should probably take the test in Santa Cruz, too, to make things easier. I wonder how quickly I can reasonably be expected to learn. I mean, if I go to Santa Cruz and spend the good part of two weekend days driving (and a good amount of my cash on gas, dammit) say like, twice a month? I wonder how many months it would take.

I guess tomorrow I will call and make an appt to take the permit test. If I study for a week or two I should be able to get it. Most of it is common sense, if you've spent any time in a car. Plus, I did this before. Granted, that was in Wisconsin, but still...

Ah, *sigh* I don't want a California ID...

BUT I guess I'll just have to suck it up. Plus, then I can get a pic of me with short hair like it's supposed to be instead of the nasty pic I have no on my...*sniff* awesome Wisconsin ID.

WARP THE SKY

It's come to my attention rather organically that if I borrow that phrase as my last slogan then we hit both extremes as well as the middle paradox.

Oleya and I are meeting up to see There Will Be Blood and I...can't wait! I'm going to leave early toting the copy of Wicked my mom gave me for X-mas (with the Chicago Broadway ticket--good show o_o) So far I'm enjoying the book even more than the musical, which is to be expected, I guess. So far it's a lot grittier, and uh...sexful.

Ha, I think I like that word. Now we can call all those prowling she-cats "sexful seductresses."

What am I talking about?

So yeah, we'll go see this new film that I am so hotly anticipating for whatever reason, and then we'll have some food. I am drawn to the idea of stopping by Golden Era for some vegan Chinese, but not irrevocably.

SOMETHING, ANYTHING

To go with MORE HOBBY, LESS BULLSHIT, stemming from a conversion with teh best friend regarding life, the Internet, and everything.

Today I am thinking specifically (and this is what I asked her just before announcing my coming here), "...how can I simultaneously want to insulate and expand??????"

HOW can I possibly at the exact same time (this brand spanking 08 day) want to scurry further down the rodent hole of my own exciting hobbies and yearn to broaden horizons till the sky warps?

I think the important way to start, which was expressed yesterday in the SOMETHING, ANYTHING line, is to realize that you don't have to learn everything. Stop being paralyzed by your tiny self and realize you will never wrap your mind around every single thing. If you look at something new and different everyday, no matter how briefly, then you're at least going somewhere.

Does this all become rather trite if I then express my exuberance upon finding that NPR streams a hell of a lot more than it used to? i.e. everything? I can listen to All Things Considered! I can listen to World Cafe!

As I explained to Oleya the other day, semaphores have always been my poster-boy for the SOMETHING, ANYTHING endeavor because I have always found them fascinating for some reason. I jokingly requested that we make flags and spend weekend afternoons across a park from each other.

And then we could sign things like "rofl lollerskates" and life would be complete.

Let us think not of...

...the Great Hinge.

...the weather.

...tomato soup.

Tomato soup isn't really soup at all, at least not the limited varieties I have come across. It is to be used almost exclusively as sandwich dipping sauce. I mean, ok, ketchup people, would you drink ketchup? CERTAINLY NOT. Thus, tomato soup shall not be slurped, but rather consumed secondarily riding the crust of a grilled cheese sandwich that you actually baked in the oven instead at 400 degrees.

For breakfast.

It's actually a really great breakfast on an intensely rainy day while trying to occupy yourself so as not to contemplate LARGER MATTERS. Especially when there are still X-mas cookies left, too.

Today my goal is not to clean my room, but rather, I think, to...finish BioShock and maybe write up an import preview of Xyanide, and maybe finish Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates, too. Finishings of the day be known! I'm obviously not going anywhere:

# of X-mas Cookies on the Decline

Well, it's the 2nd. The hinge day or so we hope.

I woke up earlier than I have been lately, had some cereal, read some manga, chatted online, took a walk to procure burrito, ate half of said burrito, played some BioShock, lost a Little Sister, decided to restart the zone later. Now it's...2:18.

I've been eating bunches of cookies and I'm sad that they will be gone sometime soon. The same thing has happened the past two years: I eat them away to the bottom of the plastic container and then refrain from washing it for awhile because it smells like X-mas. Not like we're to that point. I don't even think I'm half-way through the pile yet, but I'm already saddish.

I'm gonna hop in the shower and bus downtown to collect some work. Yep, work. I was sort of hoping we could hinge, enjoy BioShock, etc, before that would happen, but I guess I'm just meant to take assignments.

Which is fine. I guess as long as I'm picking up work this afternoon I should come back and clean my room, too. Real life must return at inverse the rate of cookie # decline...

2008 #1

Well, last night went off without a hitch as far as I can tell, which is about as far as my bedroom stretches. I was watching anime by that time, about a third of the way through Gurren Lagann ep 2 when the west coast switch happened. Scotty was still punking around online, too, so I said Happy New Year, finished my show, and sacked out.

Today and tomorrow present a wealth of opportunities to get right down to business on the biggest resolution, which happens to be:

MORE HOBBY, LESS BULLSHIT.

Actually, it's more like one extended opportunity, as I have absolutely NO PLANS until I find out (tomorrow) about what we shall here call "The Great Hinge." The Great Hinge will have quite a LARGE CHUNK of bearing on at least the immediate future, possibly extending into less foreseeable regions. It may not even do its hingy thing tomorrow, but the sub-hinge is that I will find out what I'm doing with the rest of my week or so.

My point is that at least for today and tomorrow, I am going to simply get over my cold and geek it up. That means more BioShock, more anime, Japanese, finishing up my latest Tom Robbins outing, etc. Sounds pretty lovely, I think.

Incidentally, let's talk for a minute about Gurren Lagann, which is being aired for free on the Anime Network's website, but seems to crash browsers or just plain not work more often than not. I did get it to work finally for the first episode, but for the second I just switched to fansubs on youtube. Annnnyways, I'm very interested to see what happens next. There's an awful lot of boobs and flaming gay, but the robots are really goofy and neat. They remind me of little cartoon characters I used to draw in fourth grade called "Headies." They were basically an egg-shaped head with little stubby arms and legs attached--a mom, a dad, a little sister, an annoying brother, a policeman, etc. The robots in this one have more useful appendages, but still retain the head as the entire core body. Bizarre! I love that Lagann's brain case acts as a shield for the pilot. Basically, I really hope they start talking about why there are giant robots fighting on the surface of the planet? Maybe that's too much to hope for? Maybe we should just be happy there are giant robots fighting at all? Could be, but I'm still interested in seeing what happens next :D

Ah, I'm so excited I'm not even sure what I should do first. I'm feeling mentally genki even if my physical self is a little phlegm-wracked.

(!)