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| Few nights back I was finishing a book I was reading (again). At the end, the narrator (first person fantasy) after a long painful problem with his wife, asks her to come back home and even though niether think its the right thing to do yet she agrees. This is touching yes, but it also upset me because it leaves their situation unresolved and I don't have the next book yet. But before I went to sleep it dawned on me how lonely I myself felt. I had for several month prior to moving to Fullerton been very keen on living on my own. Of course once I got here I was completely alone. Sean moved out and I had and still have a roommate but they are there to help pay the rent, not be social. This didn't bother me too much at first but after returning from a trip to Ohio I realized how empty my day to day life has been and is still. I am not in a college with old high school friends or entertaining dorm buddies, I live in an apartment with a foriegn student which I myself am barely able to pay my share of rent and still eat. The stress of the last few months just got heavier and heavier. I had unbeknowest to me done what I never wanted, which was take for granted everything I had while I lived at home in Bakersfield. There the roof over my head wasn't subject to being taken away, there was always food and the job I had payed well and was good with fun people working there. The job I have now doesn't pay as well, the people are nice and things here but the work I do isn't steady. I have to constantly ask others for things to do. I hate that. When I was working everywhere else my duties were always clear and there was always something I could be doing that isn't simply busy work or unimportant. Plus most of them gave me free food. I get some food here too but those are special occasions. So after thinking this over and becoming greatly distressed for half an hour in bed I had to shake it off. It's never really stopped being so heartbreaking but being able to talk with my folks the other day did help. I just wish I had the same connection with people back home, actually more. Even living in Bakersfield after High School was distressing. In High School you see your friends almost every day. When I went to BC there were a few of them there but the schedules were completely different and after the first or second semester there I never saw them again. Lunch was no longer a fun social activity with food, it was simply a single or several hour time period to eat and wait for the next class. Some of my great friends now are living in a completely different state and because of this distance relationships I could have had don't exist and the only connection I have with these people is through the internet which without I would probably go insane. I don't know if there's much I can do about this at the moment. Any social activities I could involve myself would take away from the higher prioties of income and education. And I can't take any time away from those right now. I also miss my cat. I am depressed, yes, but not to the point where I don't want to do anything about it. Things never stay the way they are. Eventually this period will end, by my own hand or by the inevitable. | | |
| I've related this tale to others but it still makes me think. In a nursing home in Rhode Island there is a cat called Oscar that the home adopted. He's a good cat but only shows affection to certain people there (inmates or whatever you call them) and within some hours that eldery person will die. With a record of 25 correct predictions so to speak, Oscar is watched by the staff. If he gets cute with a granny, they call her family and let them know "we think nana's gonna go soon". It mentions that most of the clientel don't fear the little furry grim reaper, but I can't see that being more than a front for public relations. It'd worry me. My explanation is simply animal instincts. Its been noted in other places that animals can tell when ech other are going to die or whatever. Mostly themselves I think. Susie, my own cat, has yet to predict a death but if she does, I'm taking her on the road and getting money from it. Seems the only American thing to do. Here's the link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19959718/ In other news, Circle K attracts the insane and stupid, it's way too hot right now, the sun still rises, and gravity is not letting up anytime soon. Have a day. 
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| Was held in Long Beach this last weekend. I stayed in a motel with my new brother-in-law and friends but before we got there we got lost on the freeway (for my friends in Ohio, it was not my fault, I am not cursed). When we got the the convention center and parked we noticed a very long line stretching from the base of the building to a fair distance along the side of the parking lot.
It was the registration line. Now I had pre-registered and paid for my ticket online so I went all the way up to ask one of the staff (red vests) if I had to wait in this monstrosity and it literally was about a quarter mile in length if not a tad longer. I did. So I went all the way back and waited. We all decided to play Munchkin to pass the time but about half way through the line started moving. Then stop. Then again and so on. There was a lot of picking up cards and things going on so they decided to just say I won (I was 1 level away).
Well the line finally started moving more frequently and it was atleast an hour and a half of waiting to the point where pre-registered/paid was seperated into a different line. That wasn't too bad and once I got inside I got my badge fairly quickly and set out to grab a goodie bag and wait for the others. I called then and they said it would take a while so I went ahead and went to check out the exhibition hall. It was located behind the arena and you had to walk around the block to get there. It wasn't going to open until 12 at this point so I waited around, played PSP and called to check up on Hung and the other. They were still in the line for another 2 hours. I bet they wished they paid ahead of time now.
I got tired of waiting so I went across the street for lunch at a irish pub. Had a pint of cider and a fish sandwich before heading back into the exhibition hall. I managed to meet up with a few of the others there and was given the note that were would meet someplace to head for the Anime Music Video Contest line. So we did. And we eventually managed to figure out where the line was. Of all the staff working at the Expo only a handful really know crap. The others are left in the dark so it took a while. We waited in line a couple hours, they played Munchkin again and I watched movies on the PSP and talked with other people in line. People way more obsessed about anime things than me.
We got good seats inside when we were allowed in and if anyone has been to previous AMV contests there at AX then you are familiar with the MC who, god bless him, always scews up.
It wasn't completely his fault, everything was rendered and good to go but someone reached into his unzipped bag and stole his laptop. Had he made a back-up of the contest, like he should have learned to do years ago, this wouldn't have been bad. But the result was there was only one category available for showing at that was the AMTV category. So we watched that and enjoyed them. During which AMV creators hurried and grabbed any AMV they had to show for the rest of the night. So after that years category finished we watched some by the creators who were present. The rest of the show was to be played Sunday morning.
After that disappointment, 2 hours for about 20 minutes of scheduled and awaited AMV, we left and went back to the hotel.
Saturday we got there fairly early. I went to the exhibition hall and basically looked around for an hour or so. Only thing I got was a couple shirts. I was pretty tempted to get the Mario Kart DS remote race track but it was too heavy to put in my bag. The Gaia Online panel was Saturday at 5pm so I had quite a few hours to kill. I went out and got a smoothie then returned and just wasted time in a panel from a publisher and writer of a book about an american animator and her trip to Japan. It was kinda neat. I got a postcard out of it. After that I wasted more time by sitting in on the panel for the art director of One Piece and a few other things. I don't care for that anime but it was the same room as the Gaia panel was going to be in so I figured I'd try and get a good seat early. Which I did.
However when it came time for the panel to start everyone was ushered out to recieve raffel tickets so I had to wait outside for a little bit before getting back in. I have some photos and videos of what the panel was about and it was really fun.
GAIA ONLINE PANEL SYNOPSIS:
LOcke dressed up in a chicken outfit. But the straight jacket wouldn't tie around him so they left it undone. Before the panel started something I thought only occured at baseball games happened, beach ball passing. Three beach balls were smacked around the room. One of my videos actually shows me getting him with one, much to the digress of the fellow Gaians. Several times throughout the presentation there were raffel give aways for grunty plushies and OMG hats. I didn't win anything. During the start they ran out and grabbed a quest panalist. She didn't do much but she was funny at times.
The new tattoos and a few swimsuit items were revealed. One of the first cool news was the revealing of plans for a Gaia Online Animation which is really exciting and the new characters to be revealed, including Victor Van Hellsing. father of those twins so long ago. And of course the Gaia Battle was explained. Using rings for different actions like fighting and healing we can go around a world similar to Gaia towns in design and "free" or "dispell" monsters. No killing of course. There will be quests and eventually PvP. And finally during the Q&A there was the mentioned the plans made for Guild Halls, so rejoice my Savage Arts companions! Also during the Q&Q were the usually hug requests, marriage proposals, and some tech questions. At one point the room chanted "Myspace sucks!" for a bit. I forget why. I was in line to ask questions, one of which was answered my a mexican oregon resident and it was about guild halls. I never got to ask anything because the line was waaay too long and they were short on time.
After the panel I met up with the others and we watched some anime. Yukikaze is hilariously dumb so that was a good laugh, Petit Cossette was a bit disturbing but I loved the music from it. Midori Days was odd and made no since but I wouldn't mind watching the rest. We went and got some yummy burgers and head back to the motel.
Sunday we got up early so we could get to the AMV second showing. Which we did, got good seats again and there were no problems this time. But we didn't get to vote since they wouldn't have time to count them all before the awards. My photos of the line should let you give you an idea on just how many ballots would have to be counted. After that we just spent the rest of the day watching anime. Genshiken was by far the best I'd seen there. I have to watch the rest now its great. We also wated to see something with the secondary title of "The legend of Moby Dick" so we played a bit in the arcade, I kicked Hung and his friends butt but some stranger guy beat mine. I don't play arcade fighters, I think that was my third time. We watched Banner of the Stars until Moby Dick started and I was not surprised to find very little common ground between the anime and the classic novel. There is a Captain Ahab. He hunts whales so the speak but it takes place in space, Ahab is a bit more social and friendly (his peg leg is steel, he has a odd crutch and a robot parrot), there is no Ishmael instead a short chibi kid named Lucky Luck ( >< ), whales are the term for fast drifting abandoned space ships and Moby Dick is a hyper intelligent white space ship. So yeah...
After that I was driven home. Where I am now. The videos I took will be uploaded on my YouTube account and the pictures will be on my Facebook Album. Hope you enjoy.
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| I'm sorry but these fake friend's requests (most of which are
undoubtably links to a porn site of some sort) and the blog responses
on myspace which end up only as an advertisement have raised my threat
level to orange.
Not only myspace either. If any of you play
World of Warcraft you have no doubt been subject to the constant
barrage of "cheap gold and leveling" either in personal message by a
chr with a name that looks like they hit their head against the
keyboard or in the mail. Luckily the game designers are doing something
about it.
All of this of course raises the question of
advertisement as a whole. How far is too far? I think when one's
personal space is invaded by such and I view digital mediums like the
internet as such. A website has every right to have an ad on it. But
when the ad forces you to
take notice, say by a pop up window that is nearly impossible to close,
then its time to put up a wall. When a player of a game pushes their
product into your gaming its time to complain. Its no different from a
pop up. The people who do these things usually are souless greedy
monsters and as such hurt the company they force their advertisement
on. Plus you have to feel sympathy for all the poor koreans chained to
computers they enslave (its gotta be true, I saw it on Penny Arcade).
Secondly,
and this probably pisses me off more, people fall for it. They have to
be, otherwise the advertisers wouldn't keep doing it. So to all of you
sad miserable fools I say this: Jump off a cliff. Seriously. You
obviously won't be helping the world when you lack common sense. I pray
to God atleast being somewhat intelligent and insightful is common.
There's a special place in heck for all of you. Have a nice day.
Too
cruel? Fine. Sorry. But like I said. I won't tolerate it any longer.
For example, if this particular blog gets an ad response know now that
I am totally going to come after you any way possible.
I'm going to Ohio in a couple of days so that's particulary exciting and looked forward to. Here's to a great week ahead.
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| So much will be happening in the next few weeks its a bit overwhelming. But most of you know all about that so I won't mention it much. Just letting you know I feel a bit out of place and very anxious about most of it. Finals are next week and since only one class is actually having a final I'm not going to be too worried. The class that does have the final already had a big test last week so there's only 2 lectures days added to the final. So after next Thursday I'll be out for good. Then its several weeks of parties and shindigs before I once again return to study. Oh yeah, work will still be involved. But not sure how my hours will be like. Sunday I had the opportunity to enjoy a entertaining Feng Shui RP game designed by my brother. Chilling and fun, I miss RPGs. I need to see if there are games here on campus I can mosy on in to join. Probably not good ones though. I'd like to try Mage: The Awakening in the WoD setting, reading up a little on it I found it interesting. June will be here soon. Not soon enough but I've managed to wait an extra 5 months already so I figure a few more weeks won't kill me. I've managed to stumble on some a few good webcomics. I'll update with them and share when I get back to where I can find my bookmarks and things. http://dresdencodak.com/index.htm
http://www.holybibble.net/index.php http://lfgcomic.com/
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