| ushi sushi 3 |
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| 04:17pm 01/02/2004 |
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mood:  happy music: D7 Peacemaker, Stage 1 soundtrack - The Seaside Groove
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ah, back from 3 days of pillaging at ushicon with elizabeth and ewa. the stuff I bought:
- a membership to d7peacemaker. came with a dvd of stage 1 (with autographed box) and a really spiffy photo poster (in an autographed envelope). however, matt told me that he knows a good friend of arik renee avila. apparently, avila gets drunk and blows all his money. so now I'm confused =\
- a "hack sign" clear plastic poster. the one with subaru and tsukasa, upside down from and reaching out to the other.
- the haibane renmei dvd box set. not the full dvd set, since the last dvd isn't out yet. so I just have 1 dvd so far.
- the someday's dreamers dvd box set. again, not the full set for the same reason listed above.
- the ah! my goddess movie dvd. always wanted to get it. heck, I downloaded 3 versions of the movie already ^^;
- an ai yori aoshi artbook. I guess it's not really an art book, since most of it is pictures from each of the episodes. some really nice full page pictures in it, though. 3-page foldout! whee!
- a mahoromatic, season 1 artbook. now this is a real artbook, with character sketches and cel sketches from particular events (like the intro, where mahoro jumps across all the missiles).
*update* I just realized what they meant by the "Vol. 1" part. Only sketches from around the first 6 episodes are included.
- a mahoromatic, season 2 artbook. similar content as the ai yori aoshi artbook, but since there are only 14 episodes, there's a whole lot of other pictures. secksy two-page foldout! woot!
- a pita-ten deck of cards. I had to get something pita-ten related, and I already have a clear plastic poster.
- an angelic layer artbook. haven't opened it yet. for my sister.
- an ah! my goddess cloth calendar. after getting bitched at by my parents for getting that "azumanga" calendar that looked like it was made from recycled paper, I felt like I had to get something to make up for it. came with a huge belldandy cloth ^^ also managed to save 5 bucks by haggling. couldn't haggle with the mahoromatic artbooks, though =\
- a little lulu figurine (from FFX) holding a coke bottle. apparently, square did a promotion for pepsi. I actually bought it for kristen, but I got lulu mixed up with edea, who she was dressing up as. her belt dress should have given it away ><
- an anime t-shirt. 15 bucks each, but with a buy two, get one free deal, so we all pitched in.
- and two other items :)
some of the highlights (more like the things I went to):
ani-name-that-tune. basically, a contest where a song is played, and you have to guess the series it's from. more people showed up than expected, so there were two rounds, one for the first two rows and one for the last two. one guy was dominating in the first round. no contest whatsoever. we were sitting in the back row, and when our turn came around, elizabeth and ewa wanted to go eat dinner. said I wouldn't have a chance, and I believed them too, since I'm more of a collector nowadays. even so, I still wanted to play. each round is divided into two parts. among the two rows, two teams are made, and they duke it out to see which team advances. after that, each of the people in that team go against each other, and the one with the most points gets 25 ushibux. I managed to name two songs for our team - the opening to mahou tsukai tai, and the opening to noir (on a redo, since the judges weren't ready). we managed to win by 1 point. during free-for-all, I nailed a kodocha song for two points. "ultra relax". amazingly, the first song I ever heard from the series. I can't remember how I got it in the first place. heard it a long time ago, and took the effort to find out where it was from. when that part was over, 3 people (including me) tied for the lead. only two points for each of us. all the 3-point and 5-point songs went over our heads. no one else in the room could get them either. so we had a tie-breaker. first song, all three of us drew a blank. second song was "into the night", the intro song to key the metal idol. only saw one episode of that, but I fell in love with the intro song. I've been meaning to watch the rest, since it's really good. no one else recognized it, so that kicked major ass. ended up using the ushibux on sunday to help pay for one of the mahoromatic artbooks.
the game room. someone brought hardware for para para paradise on the playstation (2). good times. someone also brought hardware for beatmania. and oh em gee, the people playing were hardcore. blowing through hard songs. no way I can read all those notes. ddr isn't so bad, since there are only 4 arrows. beatmania has 4 white keys, 3 black keys, and a turntable. and like ddr, any combination is possible @_@
cosplay showcase. around 60 people participated. kristen didn't participate :( some of the costumes were nice. a whole lot of inuyashas. also a fair amount of FFX-2 characters, as well as wolfwood from trigun. someone dressed up as the milkshake from aqua teen hunger force. that was awesome. and someone dressed up as the tonberry king! complete with poking stick, lantern, and slow shuffling speed! someone else represented the generic npc, giving a speech about how npc >> hero. the last guy dressed up as ark from terranigma. did some standup comedy. his material was all right. and I almost forgot to mention the guy dressed up as jesus. that guy pwned.
keiichi.net radio. an anime internet radio station. the people running it came by and had contests from time to time. the first one I saw involved people answering basic anime trivia to see who could participate in the actual contest, which consisted of recognizing a song and what series/game it's from, then finding a person cosplaying as a character in the game and bringing him/her back. the song was easy - one winged angel from FF7. if I was participating in that, I would have owned. because one floor down, there was a guy dressed up as barrett, but in his sailor costume from junon, so none of the participants recognized him. I expected the winner to bring back an aeris, since a few people dressed up as her (and apparently, the aeris look is effective and easy to pull off). but the winner brought back a sephiroth. I played in the contest after that, but that one was impossible. a scavenger hunt where I have to bring back the following:
- an empty pocky box/wrapper
- bishounen sparkle (glitter)
- a flyer for oni-con (anime convention in houston)
- two people cosplaying as the same character
- "keiichi.net" written in japanese
most of the stuff was easy. you could always find a pocky box/wrapper in the trash, since the dealers room was selling japanese snacks. there was an oni-con flyer printed in the ushicon program booklet. I was planning on dragging back some of the aeris cosplayers. and I managed to find a person who knew japanese (since I couldn't find elizabeth, ewa, rick, or tai). but the glitter... no one was wearing glitter. one contestant managed to find someone, but in the end a third person won. oh well. there was a box where you could pick out a free item of your choice, so I got a cherry trading card (from SMJ) :)
the nes music video showcase. some good stuff. I came in halfway. some of the videos were just songs going along with anime clips. the more creative ones threw in nes elements. one notable one involved clips from metroid. with the metroids (and the mother brain) replaced with afro ken. that was whack. another one involved a clip from one of youske's battles in the dark tournament (from yu yu hakusho). he was fighting a guy who used wind, and the music was "airman windshear" from mega man 2. on oc remix. incidentally, pretty much all the songs the people used came from oc remix. what topped the video off were the health gauges :)
the amv showcase. most of the videos in there were pretty good. one of the best ones used clips from excel saga, flcl, and some other series, and went to the tune of "funk soul brother" by fatboy slim. awesome. well-picked choice of clips, plus the little "intermission" old-skool godzilla sequence. OWNED! other favorites include "grand theft bebop II, vice city", the vampire hunter amv set to the tune of "kill the beast" from beauty and the beast, an escaflowne amv to the tune of "princes of the universe" by queen, an FF amv to the tune of "headstrong" by trapt, and some others that I'm probably forgetting. for the escaflowne amv, that started out with a really bad cartoon network dbz clip to the tune of "doesn't really matter" by linkin park. one of the most typical amvs ever. everyone groaned when that started. then about 20 seconds later, the video pulls a "holy grail" on you. "we apologize for the quality of the last video. those responsible have been sacked." :) by the way, keep in mind that I don't know the actual names for some of the songs mentioned (namely the beauty and the beast and the queen songs).
the no-lyfe anime parodies. they were okay. the best one was "panzer dragoon - when cgi meets lsd". "boards go up, boards go down. boards go up, boards go down." hehe.
and finally, the thing I've been hesitating to talk about in this post... ecchi/hentai-fest. ecchi-fest was supposed to start at 11 pm, followed by hentai-fest at midnight. apparently, the ecchi was skipped completely.
*update* actually, they played ebichu first as a "warm up", but only for around 30 minutes before getting to the "main course". and damn, that show is hilarious. ebichuman! :D the fact that ebichu played on regular tv scares me o_o
naturally, you had to be at least 18 and show some id. and yes, I went in to watch. heck, it was there, so I might as well check it out. no, I'm not trying to give excuses. stop giving me weird looks :P but yeah, it was bad. very bad. and no, not bad-ass. it was also pretty hilarious. with the people chanting "we want porn" and cracking jokes/puns. plus the fact that you can never take hentai (or porn in general) very seriously. the highlight of the event was the "fan dubbing" session, where one tape is muted and the audience supplies the dialogue. and the sound effects. it ended up with the girls saying what the girls would say and the guys saying what the guys would say. very, very interesting. haha, one girl in the audience occasionally shouted out japanese dialogue and this guy said, "you have no idea how much that turns me on."
ah... timeless quotes like "hulk smash!" and "c is for cookie... that good enough for me!" if you don't understand the context, you're not supposed to. for my future reference only :D
I left the room at 2 am. partly because I thought that's when we would head back, partly because I figured I saw enough.
back to homework... nah, maybe some moonbase commander, since it came in the mail today :) |
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| iced out like a freezer |
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| 02:12am 06/01/2004 |
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mood:  lazy music: Squaredance - AE and Dale North - Hip-Hop Corridor (Itchy Trigger Finger Mix)
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temperature-wise as well :P
went to reno, nevada for 5 days. something of a family tradition now. couldn't get a chance to update this thing, since my mom was on it all the time. heck, even if I didn't want to bring the laptop, she would have made me bring it -_- even if she wasn't on, hotel charges you for online usage, and I didn't want my parents to worry about that.
so instead, I got a small sheet of paper and scribbled down some things to keep in mind when I do get around to updating. which is actually later than what it could have been, since... other things got in the way. surprised? you shouldn't be =)
anna wang came along with us. old friend of mine, I guess. my parents know hers. last time I saw her was around 6 years ago, when we went on a tour of europe. mom periodically makes fun of me on how she kicked my butt when I was a kid =\
I felt sorry for her throughout the trip. my parents don't have quite as much tact as I do, and they kept making fun of her eating habits. she snowboards, and my dad kept making fun of snowboarders as well (mainly how they keep falling). usually she goes along with it, even making fun of herself from time to time. at times, it's a bit too excessive.
anna's a cool person. however, I have the unfortunate fate of being surrounded by overachieving people. or rather, the unfortunate fate of having a mom who knows about said people. cases in point:
julie lin - number sense legend and maybe some debate stuff as well. got into nyu christina tjok - debate legend, got into some uber l33t medical program thingy at rice? (I think that's where she's at) where they supposedly go to europe and get free restaurant meals/concerts/stuff anna wang - took 3 years of high school to go to rice early
every time my mom hears the latest news on these three, she runs straight to me and lets me know. needless to say, this kinda gives me a feeling of inferiority. I keep trying to shrug it off, but I can't completely get rid of it. here I am, at UT austin, with no idea on what to do with my life. and just today, my mom updated me with the latest news on stan and emily. thanks, mom. I was accepted to some l33t schools, too. but apparently, not the ones that really mattered! (princeton, rice, and stanford)
but enough of that. don't feel like being in an angsty mood. had some interesting dreams while on vacation. actually had a hell of a time trying to sleep all 5 days. I got a sleeping bag (anna, sister, and parents got the beds), which is fine with me. reminds me of one particular youth retreat session. we were told that there might be scorpions in the cabins, and I thought I felt something on my foot. so I freaked and tried to get out of bed (we slept in sleeping bags on bunks), and I nearly crushed daniel doing so. he made fun of me for that afterwards ^^;
but back to sleeping bag. for some reason, I couldn't fall asleep too well. kept tossing and turning, but nothing would work. I guess I did fall asleep eventually, since I had those dreams.
day 1 - taking some weird chemistry exam. on one question, there was an optional ib component where we had to do conversions and do more procedure explanations. I kept getting distracted, so I didn't get far on the conversions when time was almost up. then there was some scene with me and sam in a car. it was around 2 am, and sam was driving on the wrong side of the road. I told him to stop, but he kept laughing like a maniac. big semi approached us, and we barely swerved out of the way. we got pulled over by ewa dressed up as a policewoman, who complained to me about her night shift.
day 2 - some weird variation on kung fu heroes, an old skool nes game. stuff about buying optional weapons and techniques.
day 3 - some weird variation on kirby, and then some other... stuff =\
day 4 - some weird baldur's gate II/arcanum thing, where I was in a cave with monsters outside and a dragon who helped me out. then some scene similar to ragnarok online in terms of perspective. involved some spider.
day 5 - some weird ninja scene. then I guess another zelda scene. I get zelda scenes from time to time. they're usually twisted scenarios where I might be stuck in some odd dungeon or something. then a hack sign scene (with ccs characters) too weird for me to explain. something involving an expansion of the game world into the real world and some torture =\
yes, most of these dreams are game-related. but after hearing some of maria's game-related dreams, I think I'm still on the normal side (no offense :D)
bah, just got hit by some instant messenger ad movie. I hate those things.
skiing was pretty cool. we actually had 4 days to ski instead of 5, but that was all right. first day was horrible, though. we tried to go to squaw valley, but the weather kept switching between rain and snow, so we went back to mt. rose, where the rain stayed as snow. and snow was what we got. lots of it. lots of wind too. froze my ass off out there. there's this particular stretch up on mt. rose where you ski perpendicular to the slope to get to the other areas. wind was blowing so hard you had to fight against it to go anywhere. second day got better, and then the other two days were nice.
on the 4th day on mt. rose, there was this wicked jump area. huge ramp with a smaller one next to it for the less adventurous. you can see it to the left while going up the galena chairlift. my sister and dad supposedly saw a person who bent his ski from jumping off that thing. there was another guy who said something like, "holy shit, I actually made it." after jumping. and there was another guy who wasn't quite prepared and went, "ahhhhhh" as he kinda skiied over the ramp. not jumped off, but skiied over. I tried to find it, but without success. went on a black diamond the last time I went up there (although a rather weak one) trying to find the stupid ramps, but I guess it wasn't meant to be. maybe it was for the best. don't wanna go back to school with anything broken.
skiing is one of the three reasons we go on this trip. the second is gambling (for the parents), and the third is hotel buffets. especially christmas season buffets. the line wasn't too bad for christmas eve and christmas, maybe because we managed to beat the rush or something. but post-christmas day. oh man. it was horrible. the lines were probably twice as long as usual. it was a friday, so we didn't want to eat at the buffet in atlantis (where we stayed), since it was seafood and we just had a bunch of snow crab on christmas. so we tried to go to the el dorado/silver legacy/circus circus chain to check out the food there. big mistake. there was no parking left in el dorado. all 10 floors. packed. circus circus did have some space left (and it was free parking too! what the hell?), but the lines were godlike. in the end, we went for mcdonalds right outside silver legacy. yeah, screw you, hotel buffets!
incidentally, I learned that friday seems to be american seafood day. or something of the sort. my dad says his work cafeteria has seafood on friday, too. I joked that mcdonalds would have horrible lines and a special on the mcfish :D
but no vacation is all action and games. there's the boring parts in between, like airplane flights and driving to the ski areas. that's where my newly burned hack sign ost cds come in handy. essentially duplicates of the first and second osts. I'm amazed at how the music actually fits when driving up a snowy, wet mountain. Especially "To Nowhere":
can you hear the calling of the raving wind and water? we just keep dreaming of the land 'cross the river we are always on the way to find the place we belong wandering to no where, we're paddling down the raging sea
who can cross over such raving wind and water? on the rolling boat we sit, shivering with coldness come by an island, come by a hillock, it's just another place, we paddle on down the raging sea
but in one morning we'll see the sun bright shining morning dew singing they who will search will find the land of evergreen
can you hear the calling of the raving wind and water? we just keep paddling down the sea, up the river no destination, but we are together in the silent sadness we're paddling down the raging sea down to no where
lyrics from www.animelyrics.com :)
I only played through the cds once though. didn't want to overload anna with too much anime music. although hack sign muzak kicks ass.
also brought my mp3 player. yes, the old 32 MB diamond rio. lol, almost no software supports it anymore for file transferring. it was a pain in the ass to find something for winxp. forgot the kind of music I put in it. britney, "bump bump bump", "hip-hop corridor", bond (the badass orchestra quartet, not the english spy), an awesome piano rendition of "bottom of the night", and half of "change the world" (stupid software cuts off half of the last song I put in the player ><). rather interesting mix of songs, no? I've forgotten how awesome hip-hop corridor was. on the squaredance collection. check this collection out. very awesome, what the people did to make this thing a reality. check the song out too :)
also picked up some new songs from the radio. gangsta nation, gigolo, hey ya, and big yellow taxi.
when you go ski, you're out there with nature. and damn, there was some really neat stuff I saw. snowflakes, for one thing. maybe I've forgotten, but I don't think I really noticed them whenever I went skiing in the past. they just looked like flakes of ice in the sky. then some landed on my coat and gloves, and I took a closer look. and wow. they really look like the stuff you used to cut out in elementary school. and all unique. yes, it should be no surprise. but it was.
at times, there would also be what looked like huge flakes on our car windows when we came back from skiing. I dunno how they form, but they were pretty sweet.
another time, while taking a break from skiing, I looked up and saw the clouds. wispy stuff that was really close from the altitude. so I just lied back and watched them drift around and slowly disintegrate into the sky. they weren't going in one direction either, it was more of a random pulling this way and that.
when it's slightly windy, you'll sometimes see wind cyclones. here, you can tell by the leaves. over there, you can tell by the swirling snow. watching one of these snow cyclones hit a guy sitting down is pretty amusing.
then there's the snow on the road. not snow-covered roads, I'm talking the light snow that blows by from the sides or off of the cars. from the passing cars and the wind, their movement is pretty hard to describe. closest thing would be that ground-based fire move from diablo II (by both the druid and diablo) ^^;
of course, on any trip there's funny stuff you come across. some of the ones I ran into: -in skymall (airplane catalog), about the uses for an image/audio enhancing megaphone-looking thingy: "Are those men on the street corner dealing drugs?" -on a particular radio station: "we make ghetto sound good!" -on the national enquirer: "bigfoot shot by montana police!" -finding a sofa chair in one of the atlantis elevators (looks like something we would do to the dorm elevators)
and then, there's ddr. I thought they took away the ddr machine in circus circus (turns out they only relocated it), so I went to the one at silver legacy. ripoff. ddr 7th, I think. a dollar for 3 songs. then I went to the arcade at atlantis. two ddr machines, one for the newbies (ddr usa) and one for the real dancers (ddr extreme). and that ddr extreme machine had the best deal I've ever seen. 50 cents for 4 songs, AND the second person can join in for free. l33t. needless to say, I got a lot of practice on that thing. I'm surprised at how much my endurance has improved. in the past, one heavy song would tire me out. now, I can keep doing standard/heavy mixed sessions for as long as my feet can take it. not that I can easily pass heavy songs. I can only do a few, but the number is slowly growing. I can actually kinda get through paranoia. now legend of max... no. half, if I'm lucky. then it's all over for me. and drop out? I'm not touching that. it doesn't look too bad at first, but then the insane doubles that just keep coming. hell no.
there was also a beatmania machine. like ddr, except with 5 piano keys and a turntable. it's all right. if only I could hear the music above everything else going on >< the problem is that it's hard to tell where the basic 4 beats fall. so you kinda have to guess at when to hit/spin.
met some really interesting ddr folks. one of them's named tom. looks very similar to rick from the anime club. goes by TAS on the high scores. up on the first place spot. there's another guy who looks like a cross between nacho and some other guy. a bit tall. I think he and tom work at the refreshment bar nearby. then there was this girl. looked like someone I know, but I couldn't place it. maybe a 6th grader I met in italy? I'll have to check. she had a ponytail with a cap, and she freestyles on basic double to the swingy-sounding stuff, like cow girl. then there was this darius lookalike who danced along with me on legend of max and other crazy songs like that.
on the last day, I had the (un)fortunately opportunity to see dirty ddr dancing. I mean, 2 (later 3) guys dancing homosexually to songs like "it's raining men", "exotic ethic" (something like that), and ricky martin with their custom dance sequences via memory card. and oh em gee. one of the most hilarious/disturbing things I have ever seen. they don't call it ddr extreme for nothing. we tried to warn the little kids nearby ^^; unfortunately, I was stuck in a beatmania session for a while, so I didn't get to see all of their crazy shenennigans.
now I'm back here in plano. christmas? it just kinda passed us by. we don't really celebrate it that much, other than the whole "trip to reno" thing. although my dad did let me get the laptop entertainment pack (red alert 2, alpha centauri + expansion, sim city 3k, and tiger woods pro golf). I got it mainly for the first three games, although I finally have the golf game to go with my mousepad :D new years passed me by as well, although for a different reason. we were over at jason and daniel's house for a little party, and I was playing a bit of/watching people play talesweaver and kingdom hearts. we checked the clock at 10 minutes before midnight and around 4 minutes after ><
earlier tonight, I pulled myself away from tw and RA2 to go on aim. and bam! apparently, maria passed my sn on to other people I knew back in 6th grade, so I got to talk to tony, wayne, and benjamin. in addition to the other friends who messaged me @_@
I need to go to bed. this post took around 2 hours. typing in my sister's room, since that's the only place I can get internet. and she has school early tomorrow ^^;
anna said that my mom is now a fangirl to F4 and jerry. that thought still sends shivers down my spine.
and everyone, go read the book "how to dj right". no, that's not my new profession. but it gives you a new respect for what they do and teaches you to listen to music more attentively to pick out the individual elements.
oh, one quote. enjoy.
coroperiquito: fuck yes. coroperiquito: *could be taken as jen's request to duo & wufei* |
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| *sniffle* |
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| 12:33am 22/12/2003 |
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mood:  sick music: Scrapped Princess OST - Pacifica no Kodoku
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I've had nose problems ever since I was a kid. every day, when I went to school, I would fold a few tissues and put them into my pocket. even when moving around, my sinuses were being a pain in the ass. during high school, I started getting allergy shots. those helped. then college came around, and we decided to stop taking them, partly because of inconvenience, partly because they were expensive. for the most part, my nose was fine.
then I came back home for winter break. and bam. I've probably used a whole box's worth of tissues now. and we go skiing in two days >< damn you, nose.
mom never liked me having long hair. each time I came back to visit, she had my hair cut. this afternoon, she pulled out the clippers to trim my hair a bit before we went skiing. why does she have clippers, and why does she know how to use them? well, this goes back to summer of my sophmore year, when I went to albuquerque on a research apprenticeship program. maybe I'll post the link for the webpage I made there someday. anyways, during the last week or two, someone came up with the idea of me getting a mohawk. even the director was a bit fond of the idea. I figured, this is the perfect time. I'm probably never gonna have a chance like this again. conveniently enough, one of the other students there (I was with 19 other people) had a barber set, since he learned how to cut hair from his family. so I got me a mohawk. we later tried to dye it red, but that didn't quite work out ^^;
so I had my mohawk when I went on the plane back to austin. fortunately, I bought me a safari hat, so I put it to good use when I met my family. when I got back, I took a shower and took the hat off. mom did a double take when she saw me ^^; rather than embarass herself having other people see me, she bought some clippers and attempted to bring my hair back to a somewhat decent state.
back to this afternoon. mom pulls out the clippers, tries to cut my hair. the damn blades didn't cut. they ripped >< I was like, "ow. ow. OW. OOWWW." took around 10 of those before my mom got the point. I'm guessing the blades need to be oiled. especially since it says that on the clippers.
12:30. going to bed. and damn, scrapped princess has a nice soundtrack. of the lighter variety. mostly instrumental, as opposed to hack sign. good story, too. has a few plot twists. I actually need to sit down and watch from the beginning. saw a couple of episodes at anime club, but had to miss a showing from time to time, so there are some gaps in what I know. |
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| ghetto rapped |
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| 11:15am 19/12/2003 |
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mood:  relaxed music: Scrapped Princess OST - Senesu vs Shannon
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talesweaver is busy updating itself, so I might as well update myself >.>
comp sci exam was pretty easy. although the professor wouldn't let anyone out until 1 and half hours after the start of the exam =\
sam left with his family sunday afternoon. lucky bastard :O his family did buy me some bagels. good stuff.
bio exam was okay. I look at bio tests along the lines of "either you know it or you don't". so I did what I could do, guessed on the rest, and left.
then it was time for happy hijinxs :D once again, matt got a gang together to pitch in for an elaborate christmas present for jen. this time, it was a gamecube (with zelda pack!), soulcalibur II, an extra controller, and a memory card. the wrapping job for the gamecube... *points to title of post*
jen expected just me, matt, and yvonne for finding nemo. she also got tsung, chris bush, chris milling, tofer, sarah mueller, and jeff :D. and her parents had the uncanny foresight to buy around 10 arby's sandwiches to prepare for an event like this o_O
finding nemo rocked. the animation, the way they manage to weave jokes in, from stuff about dolphins to guys asking for directions... and the knick knack short! poor snowman =(
but after all that... studying for the calc. that was horrible. my "song of the moment" captures the essence of foreboding and imminent destruction :D basically, I stayed up until 4 cramming my ass off, then woke up at 7 to eat, get dressed, and get there early in case I wanted to ask people questions. the exam itself was okay. the two questions on drawing stuff owned me, though. plus I can't integrate >< a B will make me happy. I'm probably borderline B-C in that class. steve called my teacher the gpa killer when I told him I had mitra =\
celebrated the end of that exam with lunch, talesweaver, and ddr. at around 10:30, I had another ddr craving. ^^; then it was time for more talesweaver until I got around to cleaning the dorm room out for the winter. had to clean out the microwave and the refridgerator >< ended up throwing away sam's bottle of ranch dressing and his popsicles. threw out my vodka cheese a week ago ^^; I made an attempt to eat it, but the thing was way too hard ><
hall was pretty empty by then. I saw ben (my RA) and one other guy while cleaning up, but that was it. and there were also some guys playing gamecube in the andrews lounge. stayed up later than I wanted to, since I found some chocolate cake in the freezer. not sure how it got there. best guess is that I got it from central market, but I don't recall buying chocolate cake there. maybe brittany gave it to me or something. or maybe it was just sam's. anyways, I decided to buy some coke to wash the cake down, and I take a long time to finish a bottle -_-
there was also the matter of packing up. I actually didn't have much, but I seem to have misplaced my "atlas shrugged" book. now I have to buy the damn thing all over again.
wow. talesweaver has some pretty tight bgm. rivals ragnarok online. right now, some christmas tune was playing, so I checked winamp and the title was "bloody bloody silent night". that was odd =\ aside from that disturbing example, the music is pretty good. gonna have it on my playlist for a while.
anyways. got around 4 hours of sleep that night, then slept on the bus from austin to dallas. now it's just me chillin here for a month. a whole freaking month. the bus takes me back on january 19th o_O
skiing in 5 days! woot.
*waits for talesweaver to finish updating* -_-
*unscreens matt's reply to my last post* ^^ |
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| "I'm afraid fluffy here will eat the rest of the brownies if he gets the chance" |
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| 01:05am 11/12/2003 |
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mood:  lazy music: .hack//sign OST - Secret Project
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I finished studying most of biology, so I figured I should update =)
last week was ugh. stupid logic project. no more count/mass nouns for me. though I had most of the stuff figured out, so I decided to be an idiot and really get started the night before. when I hit the actual logic part (translation, deduction rules, and what not), that's when I told myself, "I didn't really think this out yet." so I work until 4 am, when I can't work anymore. took a break during the night by watching this on eric's computer. godlike is all I can say. check out the number of lives the guy has before and after the first level on world 8 :O
and wallhax in bowser's fortress! :O although I guess you can pull that off.
next day, I wake up at 8:30 to finish project. get done with it at around 10:50, so I look over it one more time. realize I forgot some important deduction rules, so I spend some more time adding and revising. came to world lit 15 minutes late -_-
like most of the class, I just turned in the project and left. I wouldn't be surprised if devar decided to spite us by throwing a party for the people who decided to stay. although I heard he introduced some new logic systems, so I guess I didn't miss much.
the class isn't so bad. it's just what the guy decides to focus on. he makes the point that you can't translate everything into logic, which makes sense. shows us some logical quirks. THEN SPENDS MOST OF THE FREAKING CLASS DISCUSSING THEM. which wouldn't be so bad except for the fact that we got the point after only 5 minutes of discussing it ><
and then he says something to the effect of, "but we'll ignore this issue for now". the "clark kent/superman" example is now something of an inside joke for us =)
anime club was interesting. last meeting for the semester, so we wrapped up a few series. gatekeepers 21, GTO, banner of the stars, and now and then, here and there.
gatekeepers 21 - darker than the original gatekeepers. only 6 episodes long, so I guess it's an oav or something. I might get it, just because of its interesting, dark style. not sure if I'd bother getting the original series, though. seems a bit too cliche for me.
gto - best series evar. if you want something that'll make you laugh, watch this. you don't find contemporary humor like this anywhere else.
banner of the stars - to me, this series really captures the essence of space warfare. not simple stuff like nadesico or gundam, but real warfare. you have the people on the front lines, risking their lives in chaotic combat. then you have the people up on top, devising tactics and holding the fate of whole squadrons in their hands. you also have the interesting relationships between the crew and the different captains. I played wing commander prophecy when I was younger, so I have an appreciation for this stuff.
now and then, here and there - I've said enough about this. if banner of the stars reflects space warfare, ntht reflects the horrors of war. and damn, it does its job well. grave of the fireflies is more about the effects of war on innocent people. both are similar in terms of emotional impact.
ewa (pronounced 'eva', just think 'evangelion') baked chocolate brownies for our little group! go ewa! :D
online rpgs will be the death of me. if not me, then my social life. if you've wondered why I'm never online or out and about, you now know ^^; heck, sam and I played rpgs one night until 6 am. I kid you not.
had a world lit paper due tuesday. kinda worked on and off. and by on and off, I mean "work on a few sentences, play talesweaver for half an hour" ^^; eventually got the thing done and turned in by 4:35. due time was 5, so I feel proud :D
visited westwood today. got my ass out of bed at 8:30 so I could get there at a decent time. wandered into orchestra, everyone stopped, mrs williams said, "fuzzy!" was encouraged by stan, wonchon, and steve to get a violin and play along. went to history after that, complete with ib purple commie tree shirt. then went to english, but mrs fort wasn't there =( got to work the video camera, though, since there were presentations and I guess fort wanted to see them somehow.
I have figured out that the southbound bus reaches westwood at around 20 minutes before the hour. two times now, I get there just after that ><
I'll probably visit again on friday. study hall in orchestra and history. good times.
three finals for me. plan II bio (monday afternoon), comp sci (saturday night ><), and calc (tuesday morning). the first two aren't so bad. calc will probably kick my ass. need to start studying for that tomorrow. |
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| meep :O |
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| 02:30am 02/12/2003 |
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mood:  working music: .hack//sign OST - In Your Mind
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man. after thanksgiving break, we have to hit the ground running. world lit book to read by tuesday. logic problem set due tuesday. calc test tuesday and wednesday. logic final project due thursday. world lit paper due next tuesday.
it's 2:26 am. wrapping up my calc cramming. sam's already asleep. he has homework in all his classes already. poor guy.
so I may be MIA for a while. once I get my project and essay out of the way... well, there's finals to worry about, but hopefully those will prove less stressful.
"in your mind" doesn't exactly come to mind when you think of .hack//sign music, but it's beautiful in its own way. simple, yet strangely haunting. noticed it while using my laptop as an mp3 player on the way back from dallas. set winamp to random for two reasons - to keep myself from changing the song and using up battery power for the monitor, and to make myself listen to some new stuff for a change. |
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| dream = weaving a tale |
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| 11:21pm 29/11/2003 |
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mood:  full music: Now and Then, Here and There OST - Taku Iwasaki - Standing in the Sunset
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I am an mmorpg whore. :D
in the past, when visiting daniel and jason's house (family friends in plano), I would notice this little "talesweaver" icon on one of their computers and wonder what the heck it was. I later found out it was another korean mmorpg (go korea!), but the purely korean interface intimidated me. but then I figured, how can these guys play it when they don't know korean either. I found out the answer last night. now if only I can get onto their bloody test server ><
there's a large population of nomadic gamers like me, drifting from one free online game to the next. it goes like this:
1. company announces new mmorpg in its beta testing phase 2. public finds out through various channels, such as this one 3. nomadic population flocks to said mmorpg to try it out 4. company announces end of beta and pay-to-play phase 5. most of nomadic population drops out. the only ones left are those willing to pay for the game. in other words, those with money to spare.
oftentimes, more than one mmorpg will coincide with each other. at the moment, I'm playing priston tale and talesweaver. but in the past, I've wandered from ragnarok online to earth and beyond (beta tested for only one week ><) to EVE to these two.
companies don't have to worry about a lack of testers, for we are the quality control of mmorpgs around the world! :D
now about my family. fragmented, as usual. my sister will be in the game room, reading fanfics and either watching anime or listening to anime music (the same song over and over @_@) while studying. my mom will be in some other room, reading chinese F4 fansites. my dad will be in the living room, working on his laptop or taking a break with some tv. it's like this for nearly the entire day. me, I'll sometimes watch tv with my dad, but I'll either be catching up on homework or play on the laptop in the game room.
went to eat lunch at osaka sushi with daniel's family. learned that there is such a thing as "eating too much". different from eating till you're full >< left side of my stomach hurt no matter what position I was in. eventually went away, but damn -_- it was worth it, though. good sushi :D
finally got on the talesweaver test server. as you may have noticed, I'm going on and off with this entry for the entire day =) my first impression of the game? there's more going for it than in games like ragnarok online and priston tale. priston tale is just about getting a character and going as far as you can with it. not that rpg's aren't like that, but that's the only thing priston tale has to offer. RO did throw in some quests later on, but they're for the sole purpose of getting some nifty item. talesweaver, on the other hand, is built with a storyline in mind. there are actually different intros for each character, and while there are extra quests you can take on (there's actually a noticeable amount of them), there's also primary quests to advance from chapter to chapter. of course, you could always just treat it as a regular mmorpg and spend your time leveling and mingling. experience system is also different, since you have to decide between leveling your character and leveling your skills. and to add some life into the "hack and slash" part, your character can pull off combos to unleash nonstop blows of doom =) these three things alone offer something new and refreshing to the genre.
played it for a couple of hours after lunch. and by a couple, I'm talking around 7, 8 ^^; I actually managed to connect before lunch, but then I tried to keep myself online while we went out to eat. didn't work. I'd still be playing for just a bit longer, but my mom decided to download some massive (1.6 gb) video file on jerry (guy in F4) via bittorrent, which severely lagged my game up.
now I must actually get some homework done tonight. before I do that...
wait. just remembered something. my dad and I went to best buy friday morning. there was a thanksgiving day sale, and we wanted to see if there was anything good to pick up. while browsing the anime section, I came across this. came out only four days ago. seriously, my jaw dropped when I saw it on the shelf. the artwork on the box itself makes me wanna buy it >< the artwork doesn't quite reflect what the series itself looks like, though. I guess that's to be expected. if they somehow pulled that off... *drool* :D~~~ story is nothing revolutionary. one reviewer did compare the series to "haibane renmei", so that's a good sign =)
also found a sweet command and conquer software package at best buy. tiberian sun, firestorm, red alert 2, yuri's revenge, and renegade for only 20 bucks. put it back on the shelf at the last minute, though. I'm not terribly good at rts games. I'm the guy who spends hours trying to do things strategically rather than amass a huge force and throw it at the enemy. plus, I suck horribly when it comes to online play. wonder if I'll end up regretting my decision later on ><
I think I'll wrap this entry up with one of the things that came to mind while I was waiting at the bus stop on monday. this deals with "zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance", since it came to mind after I heard about the senior class not getting anything from it.
pirsig isn't only frustrated with the romantic/classical split, he's also worried about the way we've decided to perceive the universe as a series of dualities. but when you think about it, there are certain characteriestics of the universe that just end up that way. take electric charge, for example. positive and negative. or to be more general, two opposing powers. as for humans falling into a duality mindset, we seem to have no choice. let's say you've just come into the world, and you come across one object. for convenience, we'll call it a bicycle. you'd be tempted to comment about its size or speed, but you can't. you have nothing to compare it to. if you said it was fast, and then learned that every other kind of transportation involved rocket propulsion, that bicycle would turn out to be the slowest thing there. same thing for size, hardness, and a bunch of other characteristics. incidentally, this coincides with locke's philosophy about inherent and secondary qualities. the secondary properties don't exist until you have another object to compare it to. at that moment, you can then say that one object is harder/faster/stronger (no pun intended :D) than the other. and that's where we get our perspective of duality from. you can try adding a third object, but you'd still be thinking in terms of two extremes (fuzzy logic, anyone?). if you tried to think in terms of one extreme, you'd get something like "fast" and "not fast", which still creates two different extremes.
and consequently, that's where we get our romantic/classical split from. maybe there's a different way of seeing the world, and maybe it'll be better, but I doubt it'll be as natural as the way we're seeing it now.
I'm tempted to talk more about the concept of romantic/classical, but that would be taking time away from my work, plus most of you have probably heard me talk about it already in tok/english class ^^;
*update* "someday's dreamers" has music by the indigo! rock on! ^__^ and by the way, if anyone's trying to figure out how to navigate the website, the links are on the bottom right. it may be my laptop, but the white kinda obscures them. |
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| "you are here, no escape, from my visions of the world..." |
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| 01:59am 26/11/2003 |
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mood:  relaxed music: aura, fake wings, end of the world, and other songs from the .hack//sign soundtrack
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jackie summed up the awesomeness of hack sign in two words. "the music." very beautiful stuff. makes up for the slowness of the series. saw the first four episodes in the past, then decided to watch the rest of it over the weekend as a way of reintroducing myself into the world of anime that I've spent so long collecting. ai yori aoshi - enishi doesn't count, since it's still a new series I'm downloading.
as I mentioned, the series is slow. picks up later on, but most of the time it's dialogue between the different characters as they figure out what to do. after hearing of the online rpg setting, you'd expect a bit more action going on. matt's opinion of the series was that you really get involved with the characters in finding out what happens to them. and I can't argue that. it's also fun to watch the subtle shifting of alliances between the characters.
some anime series (flcl, dnangel, evangelion, and more) pull you in with a partially-explained story, as you spend the rest of the series trying to figure out all the details. sometimes, everything is clarified by the time you're through. but most of the time, like in the aforementioned four series, you're still left trying to draw your own conclusions. sometimes the effect is intentional, like in evangelion and lain. but usually, when you try to work out logistics, it gets a bit messy. such is the case for hack sign. maybe things will be clarified in hack liminality and hack udeden, but I doubt it, since they don't directly relate.
incidentally, hack sign was directed by the same person who did noir, and it shows. noir had a similar style, being more drama than action, although there was a good number of tense gunfire action scenes. music also had a similar flavor to it. what I liked about noir was that you get an idea of what'll happen when the series ends, then when it happens you realize there are still 4-6 episodes left, which rekindles your interest. but like hack sign, things don't quite wrap up neatly.
whew, had to get that anime review out of the way =)
started playing priston tale again after watching hack sign. coincidence? maybe ¬¬ surprised to find out that my account was still there, so I went back to work with my lvl 18 pikeman and got him to lvl 24 tonight. sam said it was weaning me away from diablo 2. I kinda denied it at first, but now I have to agree. I won't be uninstalling it anytime soon, though.
went back to westwood yesterday. as usual, I underestimated the time needed to get there. still managed to chill a bit with the ib seniors in hl math. also stayed for book club =) had to spend almost an hour waiting for the bus afterwards, though. bus was supposed to come at around 4:50, but that never happened. either that or it came extra early, since I was already at the stop by around 4:45. spent that almost-hour contemplating. was feeling a bit philosophical, since I had just heard that this year's ib senior class got nothing out of "zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance", to schaack's disappointment. I can't say that everyone in our senior class did, but the tok class I was in (with only 8 people) sure did. had drawings on the board and everything while talking about the romantic/classical issue. my head hurt after one particular day of hard discussion. seriously. reading "atlas shrugged" that day (for my tc next semester) might have also had an influence on me, since it's ayn rand material.
nothing major came out of my contemplating, though. just reiterating through my mind some principles of life that I hope to leave unchanged years from now.
went to matt's house last friday. also stopped by jen's house for a bit while waiting for matt's party to start. *huggles his azumanga daioh manga* we were supposed to watch the first two matrix movies, but that didn't happen. instead, we played on/listened to the piano, had some fun with soulcalibur 2, drove to the mall to pick up tsung for the party (and finding out he already left, something like that), hung out at wendy's with ryan silvia (and ran into brad horne, which was a pleasant surprise), and played "loaded questions" back at matt's.
time for bed. no classes tomorrow for me, so I get to sleep in and then go back to plano for thanksgiving. huzzah! |
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| (diablo II) --> ¬(social life) |
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| 10:58pm 20/11/2003 |
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mood:  amused music: The Indigo - I Do! (Ai Yori Aoshi Enishi ED theme (second season! woot!))
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ah, it's good to be back.
diablo II has somewhat lost its grip on me. I'm still running around with my level 51 sorceress (my lvl 74 javazon is kinda stuck for now), but the d2x cravings aren't as strong now. I might actually be online more often =)
this week was more annoying than most. had to wake up early tuesday morning (after sleeping at 3 am) to finish up my world lit paper. as usual, I underestimated the amount of time needed to finish it ^^; today, I had to wake up early again to study for my calc quiz. gradients and partial derivatives. "practice problems" will be the death of me, since I don't bother to do them ><
had an interesting discussion in world lit today. by "interesting", I mean stuff about pederasty (go look it up) in greek society. let's just say, too much info =\
also had a logic test. half the people in that class chose the philosophical essay option instead, throwing some bs together so they don't have to worry about studying and taking the test. test wasn't too bad. could have been better, though. at least temporal logic wasn't on it. I kinda dozed off (no surprise there) when he introduced it last class, so I was freaking out when I saw it on the practice exam. "what the hell do G and H stand for?" :O
finally got around to showing sam some anime. had a "now and then, here and there" marathon on sunday. from around 4 to 10 pm. you may recall that series being the one that left me utterly depressed a while back. hopefully that had the same effect on him. I tried to pick a series that was completely unlike the stuff you see on tv. kare kano might be next on the list. I'm afraid "grave of the fireflies" right after "now and then, here and there" might be pushing it ^^;
in other news, I am out of cash. out of the 100 bucks my dad gave me for this month: renaissance festival - around 50 bucks "atlas shrugged" by ayn rand (for my tc next semester) - 10 bucks bus ticket to dallas for thanksgiving break - 37.50 bucks
plus some other stuff. sam had to bail me out by lending me 10 bucks so I could get the bus ticket -_-
time for some world lit reading. gotta make the best of my time away from d2 =) |
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| do not start off your day by watching "now and then, here and there" =( |
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| 03:39pm 26/10/2003 |
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mood:  contemplative music: Final Fantasy X - Suteki da ne
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man, this day is depressing. had a depressing dream (even made me cry), then watched a depressing anime series to start off a sunday with depressing weather.
went to an anime marathon last night to watch the second half of dnangel. good stuff, although I have yet to figure out the logistics of the ending, with the black wings and all that. warm front came in last week, but a cold front snuck up on us last night, so I was shivering on the way back to my dorm.
had a dream that went to the tune of suteki da ne (FFX). just the song itself is enough to make something sad. not quite sure what all of the dream was, but it was probably influenced by dnangel and the fact that I'm a sucker for romance and drama. the last part of my dream had to do with a girl, a hatchet, and having to sacrifice her to make things right again. I think there was snow in it too. heck, I woke up with tears coming down =( also opened sibelius on my computer and jotted down the tune I heard until I realized where it was from. and the only reason I know the song to begin with was because matt gave me the sheet music for it.
now about college life. I realize this blog was left untouched since my first trip to the anime club. no, anime hasn't consumed my life =P it's just that I haven't bothered to write stuff down. the one time I tried to write an update was a couple of weeks ago, when I went to visit my family and brought the laptop along on the bus. I quickly lost motivation =\ so much has happened since my last update, so I kinda regret it now. stuff going on in the blanton lounge, meeting new friends, visiting westwood to see old ones, and the list goes on.
does this mean things are gonna change around here in terms of me updating? probably not. I guess you could say this post is to let everyone know I'm still alive =) |
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| we be clubbin |
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| 01:17am 30/08/2003 |
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mood:  geeky music: DJ Amuro - A (from ddr... also from rahxephon?)
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just got back from the anime club at UT. 7 to midnight. what they showed:
sheep's song. what a lovely introductory series to show the freshmen =P this series is more than just borderline disturbing (and no, not disturbing a la hentai). to sum it up, there's this family line being cursed with some kind of mental illness that makes them have spasms, which induce a craving for blood. ominous music playing throughout most of the episode. reusage of short scenes, which is either being artistic or being lazy, depending on your appreciation for it. if you're tired of your usual anime (case in point: gatekeepers = nadesico = vandread; I may be oversimplifying since I haven't actually seen a whole lot from either of the three), give this a try.
gatekeepers. basic sci-fi action anime, with a guy+girl group defending the planet from alien invaders. corny attacks too.
kino's travels. this was during the break, so it was unsubbed so as not to leave people out (those using the break to browse through the anime library). the style is very nice. from what ewa tells me, it's about a guy named kino traveling by motorbike through different towns, each with its little quirks and problems. you would expect him to help out with these problems, but he just passes through. I'll have to check this out sometime.
hime-chan's ribbon. after seeing the intro, with the ribbon, the necklace, potoke (small lion that looks like a doll) and the girl from another world watching hime-chan, I realized that I saw this before back in italy. old skool. I don't quite remember what the story was, but I think the girl gave hime-chan, as part of her own magic training, a ribbon that allows her to change into whoever she wants (with a mirror) for up to an hour. it's cute to watch.
scrapped princess. still being subbed. cool stuff. takes place in a ROLW-type fantasy setting (record of lodoss war). apparently, there's this "scrapped princess" who was born under an ominous star, and the oracle predicts that she will bring the destruction of the world when she turns 16. the series so far is about her being protected by her brother and some other girl, as they try to escape from their kingdom.
brother, dear brother. more old skool than hime-chan in terms of anime style. and oh em gee, this series is the epitome of angstiness. fucked up. that sums it up. I still don't understand the plot, but it takes place at this all-girls high school with this all-encompassing sorority, where the members often try to kill each other or something. it's that twisted. and the doves! the doves! they show up at least 3 times per episode (with the flock flapping off in the sky).
episode 28: -within the first 10-15 seconds, this girl, being insulted by this other snobby girl, pulls out a safety knife and slashes the snobby girl's arm -said girl tries to burn her house down because of her frustration with her family and her life -doves crash through a stained glass window during a climactic moment
episode 29: -girl (with knife), upon reflecting upon herself and her rival (the girl she slashed), suddenly tries to run and throw herself off of the balcony -a particular fountain, merely dripping once every few seconds, suddenly pours forth with water when a particular character motions to abolish the sorority -girl in charge of said sorority, frustrated because of the danger to her sorority, is shown to walk into a stained glass window (although you don't see her actually crashing through it)
and one of the club officers told me that there are hundreds of episodes in this series =\
I'll talk more about college life in future entries. stay tuned :D
and to all the friends of mine reading this, I didn't see you guys at the meeting =P |
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| the way college should be |
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| 10:15am 24/08/2003 |
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mood:  happy music: Gman - Breath of Fire 2 You Must Dance OC ReMix
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helped friends move in today.
- went to help Gail at 9 in LLE 207 (Whitis Court)
- went to buy a hanging file carrier at UT Co-Op
- checked out the different electronic organizers at the campus computer store
- went back to help Erica at around 11 in Carothers 218
- walked with Erica to pick up her books at the Co-Op
- came back to Carothers to see Dan Ellenberger there
- returned to Blanton to find Brittany and some of her friends chillin outside the courtyard entrance
- ate lunch with said group at Kinsolving, where a whole bunch of Blanton people were eating there. unfortunately, there was no space for me and a guy named Phillip, so we had to eat at our own little table =(
- came back to meet my roomie, who just moved in. samuel placette. from houston. focusing on computer engineering. tried to set up his l33t gaming rig (3 ghz, 1024 mb memory, all that jazz), but without moveable furniture and holes for wires, we had just a bit of trouble =) we have yet to figure out how to set up his 7-piece sound system. his subwoofer kicks ass, though
- left at around 3 to help Andi at San Jac 1406. on the way, I round this corner to see Holly talk with Manasi about me being here at UT or something. what a coinkydink :D we chatted for a while, but Holly had to go somewhere. hung out with Manasi while we waited for Andi to finish with checking in
- met Sarah W. and Teena while waiting outside Andi's room
- met Joel and Ari, who came by to help Gabe with moving in
- helped Andi move in and proceeded to mock her room... San Jac >> Blanton -_-
- went over to Gabe's room, where Ari, Joel, Gotham, Deepu, Moon, Gabe's mom, and Gabe's brother? were helping Gabe move in. it was hilarious.
Gabe's mom: do you want this here or there? Gabe: I want it everywhere
Gabe: phone. p-h-w-n.
Gabe's mom was freaking out about the bunked beds, which we didn't bother to put all the stabilizers in. one of the holding pins got bent, and Gabe's brother was hammering it back the other way. Deepu did the noble thing to test out the bed to see that it didn't fall. we all learned about Gabe's Disco Steffi Doll =) plus, Gabe's stereo plugs got bent up when we shifted the bed over to the right for more "spaceage"
- Ari and I had dinner with Andi and her family at a chinese place. very, very yummy. should have been more aggressive at paying my own meal, though =\
- met up with Joel (who had to take all the other seniors home) at coco's cafe. bubble pina colada smoothie = :D~~~~~
- saw Andi's flower, then got a ride with Joel and Ari back to my dorm, where I proceeded to turn on the light and find my roomie lying on his bed, talking with his girlfriend on a headset
I need more days like this ^__^
if anyone's interested:
132 Blanton 2500 University Avenue Austin, TX 787059012
512-495-5505 (dorm phone, but my roomie has it) |
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| *plop* |
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| 11:32pm 22/08/2003 |
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mood:  tired music: Mindless Self Indulgence - Molly
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it is an unstated rule that I must do something stupid every day while I'm at UT.
wednesday = went to engineering orientation before I realized I was in nat sci thursday = realized I forgot my wallet just when I was about to buy my textbooks friday = lock myself out of my dorm because I left my wallet (with ID) behind so it wouldn't hinder my ddr playing
how was I supposed to know the outside doors lock at around 9:30? =\ fortunately, some people were watching tv in the common area, but they kinda looked at me funny when they let me in.
haha, while taking with chong about ddr recommendations:
Kupo3: hopefully you haven't heard its raining men. The Fuzzy Ducky: rofl The Fuzzy Ducky: uh The Fuzzy Ducky: english project. Kupo3: ? The Fuzzy Ducky: you don't remember? Kupo3: no... The Fuzzy Ducky: hmm, what was it about... Kupo3: u gotta be kidding me. Kupo3: pink dinosaur or its raining men? The Fuzzy Ducky: raining men. Kupo3: oh god! Kupo3: not this year! Kupo3: ahhhh, my ears! The Fuzzy Ducky: haha The Fuzzy Ducky: remember, when I was in that all-girl group that made music videos? Kupo3: OMG The Fuzzy Ducky: forgot what the project was about, though The Fuzzy Ducky: lol Kupo3: NO. Kupo3: AHHHH The Fuzzy Ducky: haha The Fuzzy Ducky: *claws eyes out* Kupo3: where is this tape? The Fuzzy Ducky: even if I knew, I wouldn't tell you =P Kupo3: lol Kupo3: OMG. Kupo3: MEMORIES FLOODING BACK. The Fuzzy Ducky: ROFL The Fuzzy Ducky: *twitches on floor* Kupo3: oh... Kupo3: my... Kupo3: god... Kupo3: that... Kupo3: omg. The Fuzzy Ducky: screw you =P Kupo3: you... oh... god... Kupo3: *off to throw up* The Fuzzy Ducky: warning the rest of the population about me Kupo3: im never gonna finish my math today... Kupo3: uggggggggggggh The Fuzzy Ducky: lol
he warned me by 5% =(
things I did today:
- went to the MEC to fill out the form for taking the chem 204 credit-by-exam
- went to the campus computer store to see if brittany was there, since she suggested last night that we (me and some other people) go there to help pick out a computer for her. her roomie told me she was already gone by the time I woke up. she wasn't there, but I bought an optical USB mouse and a cd binder :D
- went to take a clerical and spelling test for job applications. 87 words per minute, biatch :D with only 4 errors too. a 93 on the spelling test, though. out of 100 words, I think
- went to the UT co-op center to try and find more of the textbooks I needed. only found one, but I did get some pushpins and hooks for wallscrolls. lain now watches over me =)
- ate lunch at around 3:30 =\
- went to find out about university orchestra auditions. the sign up sheet still isn't up yet =\
- took a much needed nap
- looked up different banks and their checking account services
- went to le fun to play two games of ddr (insert locked-out incident here). some girl (looked like an adult) was smoking the ddr extreme dance pad. bustin out the AA's on oni mode and making a note of them on a list :O gave me the finger when I selected "end of the century" after she had already played two games :D
tomorrow I help some of my friends with moving in. if anyone also needs help, let me know =)
mindless self indulgence has a weird style with their songs. oftentimes it's screaming and stuff like that, but it's not exactly pointless screaming. I admit, the songs are kinda disturbing =\
*update* two more stupid things to add.
1. for two days I've been washing with cold water because I thought there wasn't any hot water yet. turns out I had the damn faucet handle on the wrong side. stupid design >< 2. forgot my towel -_-
if anyone wants to see something amusing, find the anime music video "mindless self indulgence - b*tches" made to pokemon and see pikachu pimp :D |
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| go longhorns |..|. |
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| 11:52pm 21/08/2003 |
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mood:  optimistic music: Warmen - Beyond Abilities (an unofficial ddr song)
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damn jeefo virus. turns out that was the thing that messed around with my exe files. read more about it here if you want. I still don't understand exactly what it does, but it's more of a prankster than anything major. panda to the rescue =)
moved into my UT dorm wednesday morning. woke up at 4:30 -_- felt like the disney trip all over again, with the slightly-too-cold ac and having to wander into a cold mcdonalds for breakfast and a pit stop. getting everything into my room only took around 20 minutes, I think? then it was time to head over to orientation for engineering students.
...oh, did I say engineering? I meant natural sciences >< thought I was an engineer until right after I got my orientation materials. I had my parents drop me off at the place to save time, but I ended up running like hell to the natural sciences orientation, which fortunately started just when I came in. then it was back to my dorm for unpacking and making the place feel like home.
plan II orientation at 2. came in early and walked in the middle of a discussion between the plan II OA's (orientation advisors, I guess) talking about vampires. only 9 plan II fishies (myself included) were in this orientation. afterwards, it was off to meeting with my natural sciences advisor, where she gave me a ton of paperwork to look through because I had so many different majors in mind >< tried to get my ID made at the student services building, but the place closed at 5, and since I couldn't use my dine-in dollars without an ID, I fed myself at taco bell. also got me a magic 8th edition core pack. cards were too basic, though. they need to sell random 60-card packs with land in them. the theme decks are too plain for my taste, plus I wanna customize.
day 2. had to wake up at 7 so I could get to the plan II office in time. course lottery was at 8:30, but free breakfast was at 8:10. will (the plan II student association president) shared his story about the plan II freshman girl he shafted because he forgot to add her into her requested voltaire's coffee session, and how she brought blueberry muffins, wheat thins, and garlic (or goat) cheese to apologize for her tone in her frustrated e-mail reply. she even left without giving him a chance to refuse the gift. the moral of this story, children? jerk people around more often :D as a random fyi, will sold himself in a date auction for 13 dollars and 50 cents. in contrast, the highest bid-on girl was sold for 150-175 bucks. and this quote is priceless:
(not in exact wording) from will: all people secretly desire to be bi-sexual so they can walk into any hotel room and go, 'ohhhhhhhhh yeeeeahhhhhhh'
the plan II OA's talk about the craziest things. will also made fun of laura neumeyer's "I'm going to get some sparkle" comment by deducing she meant crystal meth =) she got a good kick out of it too.
course lottery went pretty well. only two conflicts with the world lit people, one of them involving me and pablo. gail, you wanted me to get hubbard, and luck was on my side. I feel sorry for pablo, though, since he had to go with his 4th choice when I could have gone with my 2nd =\ the freshman tutorial classes were smooth. the few conflicts there were cleared out voluntarily, so everyone was happy. after that, I spent the next 4 hours getting my ID made and hanging out in the plan II office, designing my schedule, plotting the classes on the map (I only have to seriously run on monday), and waiting to register. thank goodness for scholarships :D
chilled out in my dorm for a while, then went to buy textbooks. I was up to the counter when I realized I left my wallet in my dorm room >< came back to find a message from brittany on my whiteboard. met her yesterday while trying to find our way around our dorm. ran like hell (again) to the co-op place to buy my textbooks so I could meet her and her friend at jester at 6. got there early, and at 6 three girls came into the building. I had kinda forgotten what brittany looked like, so I kinda hung around for a bit until she came 5 minutes later with a guy named daniel. ate stir fry at the jester food court and had a good time talking and sharing stories. lisa offered to drive all of us back to the honors dorms, so we squeezed into her car and saw her mad parallel parking skillz =)
that pretty much summed up the day. good times. now for a shower. stupid feet. my feet are the worst when it comes to smelling funky after walking around in shoes/sandals for a while =x
oh, for anyone interested:
location: blanton 132 classes: logic + reason, world lit, problems in modern bio (plan II classes) multivar calc, comp sci |
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| 01:09pm 18/08/2003 |
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mood:  angry music: JS16 - Beat Box (from DDRei TournaMix 4)
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windows is being a pain in the ass. most of my programs won't run for me anymore (stepmania, virtualdub, crystal player, etc) and I've spent hours trying to look up stuff on it. for anyone who thinks they might know what the f___ is going on, here's the e-mail I wrote:
( long letter with technobabble even I don't understand )
since I'm gonna be leaving plano soon, I might as well talk about what things are like here. plano is a very nice place. very traffic-friendly, with wide roads and garages arranged rather differently than in most places. all the garages in most of the neighborhoods I've seen are behind the houses, and you get to them through a small path that's usually near the entrance of the neighborhood. it's kinda like an alley, with all the garages passing by you. neighbors were nice. they threw a little neighbor party two days ago to get together and welcome us. not too many people my sister and I can relate to, since all of the kids there were mostly babies =\ weather's pretty much like normal texas weather - mostly hot, with some radical temperature shifts from time to time.
the radio here... whee! 107.5 - the oasis, jazz station 107.1 - some pop spanish station (none of that tejano stuff) 106.7 - kdl, techno/party station (what mega 93.3 should be) 106.3 - kiss fm, your usual pop stuff 105.7 - old skool r+b station
and emily, your beloved 104.7 spanish station is still alive and kicking here =)
hacking simulations have been put on hold. current game: priston tale. similar to ragnarok online. not as cute-looking, but still pretty kick-ass. used to be pay-to-play, but for some reason it's free again. installed it on my laptop in case I have time to play with my character at UT.
speaking of stuff to do at UT, my parents (especially my dad) bitched at me for trying to bring all my anime cds with me -_- here's a list of what I can take with me:
( anime inventory for UT )
the list isn't necessarily what I would want to bring with me, but what just happened to be on the cd binders and spindles I picked. so if you guys wanted to get a series from me that's not on that list, let me know and I'll see if I can smuggle it out of the house the next time I visit my family.
I can imagine chong saying "that's all? :O" to this list =)
and jen, included in that list is what I could find of gargoyles and dnangel.
my mom gave me a coupld of cd-r's as a "college present". actually, she just gave them to me so I won't go buying my own cd-r's ^^;
that's all for now. UT move-in in two days. oog. =\
one last thing. chong, I'm gonna upload DDRei TournaMix 4 to your server. some pretty kick-ass stuff. |
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| plano, day... something =\ |
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| 03:04am 12/08/2003 |
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mood:  bored music: Earth, Wind & Fire - Fantasy
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yeah, I lost track of how long it's been ^^;
*checks the date of his last entry* haha, back in june. damn. I've been way too lazy with this stuff. now where to start...
well, we have our house now. and most of the boxes are finally gone and recycled. first couple of days were a nightmare. couldn't find the bed pillows and sheets for some time. sleeping on a sofa pillow doesn't work for me -_- I managed to pass the time by reading my books for plan II and playing magic with my sister. since my mom couldn't make meals yet at home, I drove myself and my sister to mcdonalds for lunch every day, where I would be conveniently sidetracked by places like gamestop and space madness, which happened to sell magic cards ¬¬
I eventually ended up paying 20 bucks to participate in magic's 10th anniversary worldwide celebration, which was hosted here at space madness. format was sealed deck, where everyone gets a number of booster packs and all the land he or she needs to come up with a deck to play with. competition consisted of 6 rounds, best 2 out of 3 in each one. if it wasn't for the fact that we got to keep the cards, I probably wouldn't have signed up :D sealed deck format was also a must - I don't have the money to construct uber decks to battle with =\
to anyone familiar with magic, sealed deck has a particular strategy, which I had to learn in one night >< since you won't be able to construct decks with a particular theme due to the randomness of the cards you get, you have to focus on creatures. for anyone interested, read about it here and here. unfortunately, I got the number of cards for spells and creatures mixed up, so I lost the first two rounds. first guy wasted me with flying creatures, and I would have forced a third game on my second opponent if I didn't have a dyslexic moment reading the stats on his creature >< after reconstructing my deck, I proceeded to win the next four rounds, with one 2-0 round and three 2-1 rounds. "relentless assault" (gives you an extra attack round for your attackers) has laid the smackdown more than once for me :D
in one game... opponent = "can you do 10 damage to me in one round?" me = "I dunno, lemme check..." *bam*
went from 25th out of 40 after the fourth round to 11th at the end. pretty good for a guy who's never played in a competition before ^_^ but only the top 8 got prizes =( hopefully, I can improve some more at UT :D
it was while sneaking money to buy magic cards that I found out how bad my financial situation was. somehow, I was down to $20.10 =\ I knew I had a couple of hundreds in there, and I only bought 3 decks and a booster >< looks like I'm gonna have to find a job when I come back to austin.
even if I did had money, I couldn't go back and buy more cards because my auto insurance expired and my parents didn't want to pay it anymore. so I'm car-less =\ furthermore, we managed to find most of our stuff from the boxes, so my mom can cook now. things are pretty much back to normal. my parents did decide to have the carpet replaced about a week or two from now, so everything's not quite where it is yet.
in other news... we have dsl now! woot :D so it's back to downloading anime and "borrowing" some of my parents' cd-r's ¬¬ anime of the moment: jungle wa itsumo hale nochi guu. it defies placement in any anime category. it's whack, but not di gi charat whack or excel saga whack (although it was produced by the people who brought you the latter). even with UT's T3 connection, that might not be enough, since I managed to downoad 20 gb in around 2 days, and UT's connection plans only go up to 12 gb per week ^^;
I've also gone through a gaming phase change - from rpg's (baldur's gate II and the recently pirated neverwinter nights :D) to hacking simulations. currently, there are five such simulations that I know of - dark signs, digital hazard, blue sky, hacker2003, and uplink.
there are two parts to hacking. I know this from gaming experience, not *real* experience ¬¬ one involves the physical aspects - getting better tools, upgrading hardware, and improving your reputation. uplink accomplishes this very well. your character must start off by carrying out small tasks, such as copying or erasing files from other people's networks, in order to prove himself worthy to the hacking community of carrying out the dangerous stuff, like changing social security records. software plays a big role here, as you'll have various programs running at once - password breakers, trace detectors, file copiers, etc, and you not only have to have the space for all of them on your computer, but you also have to watch for system resources, as each program requires its own share to operate. and when you come up against elliptic-curve encryption cyphers and voice-recognition programs (not in the demo ;_;), you're gonna need the best hardware out there. uplink is also open-ended in the sense that you're mostly carrying out small jobs. there are two plot missions, but those happen near the end.
ther other part to hacking involves your mind - problem-solving skills, ingenuity, and a knowledge of code. this is where dark signs shines. the main story plot involves you investigating a research company, which seems to focus on dolphin research but might be involved in a hidden, sinister plot. the first mission leads you by the hand, as each e-mail you get tells you what to do, but after that, you end up having to figure things out on your own. case in point - after getting a particular file for the group that asked you to investigate, they ask you to find some more info, and the only hint is to try other related servers, which you have to discover by yourself. eventually, you'll have to design your own ip scanning script, unless you want to test out 115*255 different ip combinations manually. unlike uplink, which is a bit time-based (you try waiting for your program to finish up with your trace detector pinging nonstop as the last seconds tick away), you have all the time you need to experiment and explore. you can even find extra stuff to do this way.
the other three games I mentioned fall somewhere in between. digital hazard and blue sky are closely related to each other. digital hazard is similar to uplink, except there are less command functions and the plot is linear, in which you're led by the hand every step of the way with helpful e-mails. blue skies has a bit more commands, places a heavy emphasis on time (tracing times are shorter, and there are connection costs for each minute you're online), and is less guided. both games involve software upgrading, but unlike uplink, there's no randomness involved - once you get the appropriate decrypting/cracking program, it will always finish during the last 2 seconds.
hacker2003 just sucks. no realism whatsoever. the basics of the game:
1. check out the news server 2. copy every ip address you see there, no matter what it's related to 3. hack into each address and transfer money to your account (instantly)/copy files 4. sell any files you copied to the black market 5. repeat
my evaluation:
1. dark signs (pure nitty gritty hacking) 2. uplink (merges cool GUI with hacking) 3. blue sky (solid hacking game) 4. digital hazard (not-as-solid, but decent hacking game) 5. hacker2003 (stay away x.x)
yeah, I know that half of this post is all about game reviews ^^; live with it =P other topics will eventually come back to mind. like college... move-in on the 20th =\ |
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Read 4 - Post |
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| hotel life = blah |
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| 12:53am 27/06/2003 |
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mood:  relaxed music: Kikaider - Gemini Theme (Instrumental) (end song for adult swim)
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well, just finished watching the last episode of kikaider. good stuff, despite the fact that I only found out about it recently and started watching when it was near the end anyway. although I'm not sure I'm up for watching the old skool 1970s live-action version that it was based off of =\
had some pretty creepy dreams in the past few days, all involving death/near death experiences.
dream 1 - setting is in some huge house, with all my friends there. we hear word that a huge asteroid is heading towards earth, huge enough to wipe out all life on earth in one huge blaze of fire. we all lie down and await the one instant, the one blast wave that will consume us all. dying was kinda odd, though. we all seemed to still be there. at least, our spirits were. the place seemed to still be there, too. tsukasa from hack//sign summed up the experience well, when he talked about dying online when he's not able to go offline. you just lose a small part of yourself. and something seemed to be missing from me, something within my soul. all I remember after that was going around the house and talking with my friends about what just happened.
dream 2 - not much here on the death thing. first part was about some variation on a sonic game =\ then I found myself in some maze of hedges during a war, and the only vivid thing I remember was a live grenade being tossed to me, and me throwing it back before it could explode.
dream 3 - this one scared the shit out of me. it was probably influenced by the family guy episode I saw that day, where lois becomes a target of the mob. first part of the dream was at some ski place, where an old friend of mine from elementary school was out to shoot me. he kept reminding me of how it was better this way than being hunted by a professional, impersonal killer, but I still raced and scrambled all the way down the mountain trying to get away from him. then some other stuff happened, including the both of us taking school buses and having a chase scene downtown. finally, I made my way to the school office and told the people there what was going on while hiding behind the open door. suddenly, he comes in and shoots me in the head as I try to twist away from his aim. I notice a bigger-than-usual opening where my left ear used to be. then I put up a struggle against him with a chair and finally manage to take the pistol from him. in spite of his constant blabbing about how I'd be screwed if I took him out, I pistol-whipped him. since I didn't notice any major pain in my head or any blood streaming down, I asked the people in the office if I really did get shot, and they told me that I was shot through the ears, with no blood coming out because it congealed or something like that. unlike my other dream I had a long time ago about getting shot, I didn't have a lucid moment. I still didn't realize I was in dreamland =\
enough about morbidness. laptop finally came in on monday. whee. although my mom monopolizes the thing every day to visit chinese fan sites/bulletin board sites or watch her vcds -_- I'm starting to think she has more burned vcds than I have anime cds o_O the only time I can go on the laptop for an extended period of time is at night, and my dad already gripes at all of us to go to sleep at 11 ><
oh well. already had a nice talk with jen about fanfics and other matters, and andi has confirmed that I exist =) |
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| couch/bed potatoes |
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| 06:07pm 21/06/2003 |
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mood:  happy music: FFVIII music/sound effects from eugene playing
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since the real world hasn't been too exciting lately, I'm resorting to the dream world for sources of amusement. therefore, I actually took the time to jot down the dreams I've had over the past couple of days.
sat. night - dreamt about playing magic with daniel. probably had this dream because we went to his house that day (btw, he's our current internet source =). the only clear part of the dream I remember is him countering my circle of protection card (black, I think). that guy has all sorts of counterspells in his deck ><
sun. night - dreamt about teaching someone how to play descent =\ although the levels looked completely different. I would explain the one part I remember, but no one would understand it unless I explained the weapons in the game ^^; then I had one of those "literal" dreams, where it was almost like reality. the only thing that tipped me off was that the hotel bathroom in my dream had a different layout than what it really was. no, I didn't try flipping the light switch =)
mon. night - dreamt about the fast and the furious. even though I haven't even seen either of the two movies before. it was a sequence where I was zooming through this small town, busting out the mad driving skillz until the car's computer told me that it was on autopilot, handling everything for me >< still wasn't sure if I was driving for filming purposes or if I was driving to escape something. probably the latter, since I think my secret base in the mountains was suddenly under attack after I got out of the car =\ the sticky note where I jotted down my dreams tells me that I had a sequence involving the matrix afterwards, but nothing comes to mind. the "mom robot" note that I also jotted down to help me remember that part doesn't help either. maybe that was referring to when I was attacked. anyways, after that, I ended up at some orchestra performance. but reading the score was just bizarre. it was in a circular layout, where the notes radiated from one side to the other and our current location was lighted in all sorts of colors. the only way I can better explain this is that it looked kinda like the playback option in music composition software, where that bar sweeps by while your song plays. the last sequence had me at some kind of party. I was walking by on the right side of this huge temple-like structure, moving from the back of the structure to the front, and putting all sorts of food on my plate. I ended up finding this huge slice of cake (and by huge, I mean twice-as-tall-as-me huge) and tried to put that on my plate as well.
whoo. that was a doozy @_@
tue. night - dreamt about diablo II. in first person. I walked into this room where I had to face off against three human-like demons. I was shooting arrows, but I guess I was also a mage, since the room looked like a shop and you could take these robes that were by the wall and run out to this alleyway outside to refit yourself. my sticky note says "parallel dimensions (houston)" after that, but all I can remember is that it was a pretty cool sequence ><
thur. night (either I forgot to jot down wednesday's or part of monday's was actually tuesday's, with tuesday's being wednesday's, and so on) - dreamt about x-men evolution. I was riding on this monorail, and I remember nightcrawler poofing right beside me and one of those not-so-good teenage mutant guys (the decent looking one) sitting across the aisle. all of a sudden, the monorail derails and I think I remember either jumping out and crashing through the window or punching my arm through the window. next I found myself in this desert cave (more like desert terrain with a slab of rock extending out a bit, maybe 15 feet over my head. don't remember what happened there. switch scenes to my friends taking me to my piano teacher's house. actually, one of my former piano teacher's houses, who apparently relocated into this foresty neighborhood. that part's kinda hazy too (and no, chong, that's not a drug reference =P)
fri. night - dreamt about staying in this hotel in italy. my old friends there from 7th grade decided to stop by to see me and invite me to come with them to this shopping mall. I eventually caught up with them after first going to the bathroom or something like that. then I vaguely remember this piano-playing sequence where I was playing what almost sounded like secret of mana music. eh.
okay, enough about what's going on in my head. now for what's going on here. I guess I'll elaborate a bit more on our current living conditions. our hotel has two floors and it's in a rectangular ring format. the ring encloses this small courtyard that also has a small pool (which is currently closed because of balancing out chemicals in the water or something like that). there's still some signs of unfinished business here and there, since it decided to open for business before everything was done. our door leads to this square washroom area that branches out into the bathroom/showerroom on the left (and showerroom as in "no tub" - there's a kind of shower section at one side of the room) and the living room straight ahead, which has a small kitchen area (with a smoke alarm directly above it, which means no operating the coffeemaker/toaster there ><), a tv, and a sofabed. that room connects to the bedroom on the right - your basic two beds and a tv. pretty nice arrangements, actually. although I can never seem to sleep comfortably in the bedroom, since I have to share a bed with my sister. the sofabed, on the other hand, is acceptable.
all that my sister and I have done over the past week is watch cartoon network, do math (my sister), read (me), play pokemon on the gameboy, and play magic against each other. gets boring after a while. then again, we've done this before. cartoon network has some pretty good shows on it:
samurai jack - there's something about this show. it's somehow not as in-your-face as other shows. in some ways, it's kinda minimalist, with the simple drawing/animation style and the occasion scenes of near-silence. it's hard to explain. I saw the first episode on my computer, but when I saw the episode where jack fights the shinobi warrior and they bust out the white/black scene... now that was tight. and in the end, when jack realizes that he has to end the fight before the sun completely sets, the shinobi betrays his presence when the wood bar he's on creaks. jack shines his sword in that direction, blinding and showing the shinobi briefly. in a split second, jack throws his sword and impales him. good stuff. and story-telling aku was funny. aku as "little red hood" =) aku ownz. one of the cooler bad guys I've seen.
rurouni kenshin - yes, I have this on cd (courtesy of tsung). but it's in realmedia format, and I haven't gotten around to watching it all. and if anybody wants it from me, my cds are messed up because I left them in the open state instead of closing it, and now I can't copy the files anywhere. my sister noticed that kenshin says "that I do" often in the americanized version. I guess they did it to illustrate some of his personality. I miss his oro =( right now, they're on the shishio story arc, where kenshin and saito just liberated a town from shishio's men. fortunately, I started watching just when misao came in =)
kids next door - now this show is funny. kids fighting against evil adults. as well as the "delightful children from down the lane". the episodes with these guys are pretty cool. the way they speak monotone and use advanced language just sends shivers down your spine =) and most of the episodes reveal something new. like who the 6th knd member is, how knd member 274's parents are actually part of the bad guys, where the age-altering device came from and how the children from down the lane got their hands on it, how two of the adults used to be part of the cowboy kids club, and stuff like that.
lol, I was planning to go on with this, but I realized I'm spending way too much time talking about cartoons, and I already spent too much time on dream sequences. by the way, jen, you mentioned something about futurama and fry in one of your past entries. and I have to agree - fry is one sweet guy. in the episode about leela's parents, when fry said "if those aren't tears of happiness, please stop crying", I got this warm fuzzy feeling inside.
this is probably enough journal writing for now. but I must mention one last thing. we went to the arcade with daniel's family on monday, where most things were at half price. and they had this thing called paraparaparadise. it kinda looked like ddr, except that there was this octagonal pad with 8 directions to it. I saw that the metal in the center was worn out a bit, so I thought that you used your feet for it. halfway into a song, things were getting kind of awkward until either eugene (daniel's brother) or eugene's friend told me that you use your hands. I was like, "you use your hands on the ground? no way." and he proceeded to show me how you move your hands and arms around in the air to play. I then noticed the second ring of sensors over my head, and everything clicked. and oh em gee that game is l33t. I seriously want that for my dorm room ^^ either that or I hope there's an arcade near UT that has it. that game is for the not-so-athletic people among us (like yours truly ^^;). although your arms get a teeny bit sore afterwards. for the next day or so, I couldn't quite extend my arms out 100% without them hurting a bit. I realized that raving complements the game very well when I saw this guy try to bust out the movez. although I have no raving skillz whatsoever, I still managed to get the top scores ^^v on another note, there was also this pump game, which is exactly like ddr except that the arrow pads are diagonal and there's a 5th center pad. ooo. ahh.
time to sign off. hopefully our laptop will arrive next week. in the meantime, I get to occupy myself with the books I ordered for the reading sessions (plan II and non-plan II) at UT. whee! |
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| dallas/plano, day 2 |
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| 08:01pm 15/06/2003 |
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mood:  okay music: nothing besides what's coming from the disney channel
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whoo, I'm in plano. actually, our hotel is in dallas, but I'm currently at someone's house (that my parents know - they have all sorts of connections everywhere =\), which is the only reason why I have internet access right now. I think I'll have dial-up when the laptop arrives. whoo.
sharing is caring. and my mom doesn't care. when my computer got packed up, she still had hers intact, but when I walked over to borrow the internet, she was like, you're not getting any =(
went over to matt's birthday party the day before we left. we had mini golf planned, but it got dark and stormy pretty early, so we sat around and watched family guy episodes, since one guy brought all of season 1 and 2 on dvd. oh man, good times. I don't remember why I stopped watching it. in comparison to FOX's other cartoon shows:
The Simpsons - more satire Futurama - more visual humor Family Guy - part satire, part I-can't-believe-they-said-that-on-tv humor
definitely not for children =) but then again, the dirty jokes will probably go over their heads, since they're too innocent to understand them :D
later on, alex brought the Happy Tree Friends DVD. this baby has a category of its own:
Happy Tree Friends - disturbing, twisted stuff that'll scar your children for life
I'm serious. they look all cute and cuddly (heart-shaped noses!), but just watch on episode and just try not to react. the anteater episode... damn. I couldn't even watch the tv when the ants brought the cheese grater out :x only people with twisted senses of humor (aka me, alex, matt, jen) will enjoy it. even so, the "oh my god" factor was pretty high ^^;
we also played taboo. fun stuff. played some ddr before I left. and once again, I feel the urge to buy that game. but one thing I've noticed - DDR at parties is only for good people to dance with. like jeff and chris. when people like me try to go up and dance, people lose interest and go away. and I don't blame them.
left at arond 10:30. stupid pawan left to pick up some gamecube controllers at his house and didn't come back, so we couldn't bust out the cake and presents. sigh. and so I walked off into the dark and rain, with few people noticing my leave.
another thing I noticed - sleeping on a hard wood floor sucks. there is no comfortable position. had a dream about two different things, but I'm trying to remember what they were. oh yeah. at one point, chong and I were at some political party (as in dinner party, not the republican/democrat kind of party). some woman saw us and asked us our names. we kinda didn't say anything for a while until I spoke up. then throughout the remainder of the party, I was treated with class while chong was kinda pushed away to the side =\ then, later on in the dream, I was walking around at some complex at disney, where there were all these holes in the ground where people could go scuba diving in the huge underwater place that the complex was built over. I think I was looking for my sister or something.
drove over to our hotel in dallas saturday afternoon. we would have gone first thing if not for the inspectors and the other family and the roof repairman who came over. blah. hotel was kinda weird (homestead suites, something like that). they opened for business even though they weren't done with all the construction yet =\ lighting in the halls was rather dim. we also almost got locked in our room, since the stupid metal loop thingy that you use to hold the door open a crack wouldn't open ><
something else that suddenly came to mind. if you want to pass the time, play a game of magic with someone. yes, the card game. my sister and I wasted a whole hour without even noticing. okay, back on track.
had another dream after I eventually went to sleep in the hotel. ugh, I hate those deformable hotel pillows. I only remember part of the dream (so what else is new?), but it took place at some camp. at one point, I tried to go to the bathroom, so I went up these square spiraling stairs at this tower-like building. at the end, the stairs turned into this sloping hill that it was impossible to get traction on, with the toilet at the top. needless to say, I gave up and went back down. then later on (or earlier in the dream), I snuck out with a friend to go outside. the landscape was strange, changing from green grass to white snow at some winding borderline. we took pictures of it, then tried looking farther to the right but got caught by some officials and had to go back inside.
so anyways, after eat at one of those chinese places where the people come by with the food in those carts (which we waited around 20 minutes for our table because the place was packed, probably for father's day), we later went to my dad's friend's house, where I'm typing up this entry right now. played some cs with the older kid there, where he kinda wasted me (even got knifed at one point, arrgh). then I played magic with him, where he proceeded to bust out counterspells and once again waste me (both of us were playing with his cards). then some chess, then some dinner, then here I am.
I think it's time to wrap this up. maybe I'll go see what else is on the disney channel. saw an episode of kim possible earlier. the episode with the monkey ninjas. good stuff. |
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Read 4 - Post |
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| con te partiro |
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| 02:58am 12/06/2003 |
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mood:  tired music: Black Eyed Peas feat. Justin Timberlake - Where Is The Love
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if I ever tell anyone about not remembering what a sunburn is like (or if I ever had one), please do the following:
1. remind me about the pain (just mention something like carrying/taking off a heavy backpack) 2. remind me about the peeling (what's the point in getting a tan if the tanned skin ends up coming off? ><) 3. proceed to beat me with a heavy, blunt object so I remember the next time around
first, the good.
finally started playing cs, the game that everyone else plays. and I have to say, it's not bad at all =) dunno if it'll replace ragnarok online, though. as I have feared, my sister's now obsessed with it and keeps bugging me to find a way to connect to dovac's hacked server (from aftp) -_- all she does all day is watch stuff like "antique roadshow" and other pbs shows and play neopets on the computer. she would be playing RO if I gave her the chance =\
went with alex, teena, shelly, jenny, matt, and sarah to play/go swimming at a nice park downtown. after a slight change in plans (to put it euphemistically), we decided to go to sarah's house and proceeded to have our picnic of sandwiches (turkey, provolone, and mayo), "fruit salad" (watermelon and grapes), cookies, and chips in her dining room. then we had fun in her outdoor pool (after some persuasion from teena to jump into the pool without proper swimming attire). matt took some pretty nice pics of the whole thing. also saw gail's mom and steve with his dad at HEB while shopping for picnic supplies, as well as judy pulling out of her house on the way to sarah's =)
now, the bad.
two of my friends, teena and jen, got into car accidents on the same day, related to the same activity. fortunately, neither of them were hurt badly. to the both of you - you don't deserve this kind of shizzle (especially jen, who's already been hit with both a fever and summer registration issues at UT after coming back from her trip to new york). and I don't want to hear this crap about being a goddamn disappointment. I DON'T WANNA HEAR IT. everyone accepts the risk of driving a car when they're behind the wheel. coulda, woulda, shoulda, there's no point in blaming yourself on that. we cut corners all the time, and it just so happens that luck wasn't with you at that particular moment. you guys are still alive, and that's all that matters. so what if you screw up once? that doesn't make you a disappointment. besides, friends forgive each other for the silly things the do.
shit happens. it's how you react to it that matters.
as for the other piece of bad news, I just learned that the moving company is coming by tomorrow morning to start packing up stuff. so that means no comp and no internet connection for some time - at best, a few days, at worst, 1-2 months, depending on whether I have access to it at the hotel in dallas that we're staying in for a month -_- and like the procrastinator I am, I've put off cleaning up my junk/hard drive until the last minute. since it's now 2:30 am, there's no way I'm gonna finish organizing and burning all the stuff I want. as for personal belongings, I think I have that taken care of for the most part.
one thing I've learned about my parents - they don't understand the concept of personal value. whenever I take pictures, my mom always criticizes me for wasting a picture on this particular scene. gee, maybe I took a picture of that because it means something to me - that maybe I did something with my friends there and I want to remember it. same goes for stuff I buy. whenever I buy something when on vacation (like on an orchestra trip), my parents start nagging me about how I could have gotten this and that at a much cheaper price back at home. but come on - a mickey mouse t-shirt from disneyworld and a mickey mouse t-shirt from target are two different things. one means so much more to me than the other.
needless to say, I don't have much to remind me of my childhood. you know those warm and fuzzy images of parents storing their children's old test papers, drawings, and awards in boxes to put in the attic and bring out after a couple of years? pfft. not in this household.
maybe it's because our family doesn't seem to care for each other. my sister and I haven't gotten much support from our parents. case in point - my mom, with some reluctance, decides to come to senior awards night. on the way to the car, she talks about how it was all a waste of time for her because I didn't get anything worthwhile. okay, so all I got was recognition for being a national merit finalist/being senior parliamentarian/being in the top 10%. maybe one or two other things, but I can't remember right now.
the problem with asian parents? they expect us to be the best, and criticize us when we don't end up being that way. so no matter what small victories we might achieve, we not only get no acknowledgement, but we aren't motivated to do better because we get a sense of failure from our parents. one side effect of this is insecurity. since we don't find praise from our parents, we try to look for it elsewhere. am I insecure? oh yeah.
blah, my attempt to talk about serious stuff isn't working at 2:50 in the morning. I'm gonna have to wake myself up early so I can make that backup cd for my new laptop (with programs, video codecs, games, and whatnot) before the movers take the computer away.
I guess I'll wrap this up with some lyrics from my new favorite song. emily said it suits me perfectly, and I have to agree.
People killin’, people dyin’ Children hurt and you hear them cryin’ Can you practice what you preach And would you turn the other cheek
Father, Father, Father help us Send us some guidance from above ‘Cause people got me, got me questionin’ Where is the love (Love)
the only thing I disagree with here is the part about asking from guidance from above. we need to take responsibilty for all the crap that's happening in the world today and not wait for a higher power to make things all better again. even if everything suddenly turns out right in the end, there's no reason why we can't start moving towards that goal now.
bedtime. maybe you'll see the next entry soon. maybe not. I doubt laziness will play a factor in this, but you never know =\ |
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