MIA

Sorry I haven't been around to post. I've had a lot going on personally. My computer was hit with a virus (again) and I have been having extremely terrifying and vivid nightmares that have kept me from sleeping for about a week. I've probably slept about 10 hours total in 6 days.

Might be able to make a new post tomorrow that can fill you in on the details...

My collection or That's right ladies, he's single!

While I was able to take care of my car today finally (and what a day!) I will save that post for another time because I'm just too friggin tired to talk about it. Today will be a fun post.

Well fun for those who actually care. It's picture of my geekness! The other day a fellow anime blogger Wakaranai posted a picture of his anime figure collection. His blog is actually one of the first ones I ever read several years ago because while googling stuff about Haruhi back when if first aired his site popped up and had reviews for pretty much every episode. It's been several years between Haruhi seasons but I rediscovered his blog once again. And I'm glad I did.

After he posted his collection I told him I would do the same. Though mine is really small I still thought I would share. Since my obsessions range from Star Wars, to comics, to anime I have to share the wealth. I am not much of a big anime figure collector (those damn things can get really expensive) but I will buy the things that mean something to me. So as you will see when it comes to anime in my collection it's all about Haruhi. There is some Lucky Star thrown in there but pretty much Haruhi dominates. Here are the pics. In theory you should be able to click on them to make them larger. Fingers crossed!

In case I didn't mention before, I really like Spider-man and Haruhi. Just saying...

This would be the large Haruhi figure section with smaller Haruhi characters spread about. The Hammoc-- I mean Haruhi District as I call it.

The whole gang!

I really like all my tiny little ones up front because they cost me next to nothing and it just adds to the collection. The crowning jewels would have to be PVC 1/8 Haruhi (the big one to the left of Rock Star Haruhi), Rock Star Haruhi who is huge and got for dirt cheap!

Had I got most of these figures when they first came out it would have cost me a fortune! That's why I wait. I got the majority of my large figures for 75% less. Otakon Anime convention and Amazon.com were my friends on that one.

Whats amazing is that 90% of the Spider-man and other non anime related stuff (Comics and Star Wars stuff) were all gifts! Barely spent a dime!

And I'm goin right out the door...

Taxi 3

Man can I call it!! I get a phone call today from the taxi place letting me know that my cab was outside. The time was 9:24! I had told them to come at 9:20. Did I not call it in my last post?? Pretty much right on time! God I hate them so much. I had to wake up earlier than I normally just to make sure they were here on time. Though this is what was awesome...

Me: Hey
Driver: What was going on? I have been waiting outside for almost 15 minutes.
Me: Really?
Driver: Yes, did they not call you?
Me: I literally just got a call about 2 minutes ago. (And this was not a lie)
Driver: They never listen to me on my radio! I was about to leave. I couldn't sit here all day.
Me: Well you'll have to excuse me that I don't exactly trust your guys services. I've called several cabs in the past couple weeks and you seem to be the only one who not only came on time, but came early. The past 2 times I've scheduled a pick up they've been 20 minutes late and making me late for work. I didn't feel like waiting outside today so I sat inside until I got a phone call.
Driver: I understand. I'm sorry. Some of these guys can't be trusted. So where are we going?

After that he was totally cool. He was very polite the whole car ride and so I gave him a good tip. I also asked him for his card since he seems to be the only trustworthy driver in the damn service. Though I won't be needing cabs much longer (or at all) since my car is finally going to the shop tomorrow. Yeah!

Can't wait to drive again. Sweet sweet freedom!

I'm taking it to an Acura dealer near my house. They CLAIM that they will give me a loaner car for free in the meantime but I'm definitely going to have to double check on that one. Sounds a little too good to be true and I don't want to get slapped with some crazy bill. We shall soon see.

Got a nice chill night planned tonight. I have no work tomorrow so tonight I plan on watching the season finale of True Blood finally and possibly the last episode of Haruhi. I'm hesitant with Haruhi. I'm excited to see the last episode but I also don't want it to end! Last time a season ended it took 3 years to come back. Who knows if this will be the very last episode or just a season finale. There is still the Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya arc from the books that they could adapt so here's hoping for season 3!

In case I don't see ya, good afternoon, good evening, and good night...

Taxi 2

My lord! They did it again! Yesterday I asked for them to come at 9:30 (that's 10 minutes earlier than before) and this time they were 20 minutes late. I got to work at exactly 10:00 which is not good! There's is prep work that needs to be done at my job. And my cab driver was this really old dude that, unlike most old people, drove really fast. Given the fact that he was so friggin late I didn't care how fast he drove but he couldn't hear a damn thing I was saying.

Me: Make a left at the light?
Driver: Make a right?
Me: No, at the next LIGHT make a left.
Driver: Turn right now?
Me: NO!

Later...
Me: OK now a right at this light up here
Driver: Right here? (almost stops completely in the middle of the road)
Me: No, up at the light. The light! Right there (pointing to the traffic light)
Driver: Right?
Me: Yes, a right up at the light!

I was already at my wits end from pacing back and forth outside my house for 20 minutes I was really not in the mood to deal with this. And because such I'm such a friggin nice person I still gave him a good tip, which I'm really regretting right now. To make matters worse I had a terrible day at work that day and even though I was only working for 5 hours my back was killing me. The icing on the cake was that I walked home again that day! You can probably assume that after the day I had it was the last thing I wanted to do but it had to be done. I was not going to pay for 2 cabs in one day, I refuse. Way too much money.

I just got off the phone with the taxi people before I wrote this. This time I told them 9:20 which means I'm getting up earlier than need be. I'm going to call it right now, THIS will be the one time they come ON TIME and I'm going to get to work 30 minutes early and have to sit there like an idiot. Either that or they will come late, so either way I'm going to be pissed and going to tell you all about it next post.

Good news is that hopefully my car will finally be getting towed to the shop tomorrow! Then I get to sit back and enjoy as the mechanic drains me for every penny I have to my name and I will once again be broke and unable to do anything. It's really going to be fantastic!

Taxi

Being without a car for awhile now has been death. As you've hopefully read in a previous post you know why I can't easily take the bus like I would like to...

Fuck, I would even take the horrific Catbus to work if it was free...

Anyway, I am normally able to get rides from friends and co-workers to get to and from work (Haruhi bless you all!) but sometimes I feel the need to call a cab to take me because I feel like I am inconveniencing people. And I hate that feeling.

So last week I decided to play it smart and call for a cab the night before work and SCHEDULE a pick up in the morning. That way I wouldn't have to wake up 20 minutes early to call a cab and wait. So I scheduled a cab to come pick me up at 9:40am. Being the punctual person I was raised to be, I was already outside waiting for the cab at 9:35 just to be sure. Next thing you know it's 9:45. I need to be at work in 2 minutes at least but they still aren't here. Normally I give people the benefit of the doubt, especially since that day was very rainy, but it was getting way too late so I called the taxi service. I asked where the fuck my cab was and they said "We're sorry sir just give the driver 7 minutes or less. He actually just left at 9:40"

He LEFT at 9:40?

I'm pretty damn sure that's when I was scheduled to get picked up. Why on Earth would someone leave at 9:40 to pick someone up at 9:40? Did Doc Brown give the company a Delorean? Probably not. That's why I called ahead the night before! If it is your job to pick people up at a certain time then you should probably do said job. My store opens at 10:00. I gave myself 20 minutes to get to said store (which is a 5 minute car drive to get to) in order to be open on time. Because it's my job to be open on time.

If we're being paid money to do something that we can't even do properly then the whole system is flawed...

I'm now tired, I have work tomorrow, and I have a cab that is supposed to pick me up tomorrow for work. I played it smart this time and told them to come at 9:30. Fingers crossed...

So little gaming with so much time!

Strike that, reverse it.

There are way too many video games that need to be played recently. So much so that I think I'm actually going to forget some in this post. I sometimes have a habit of getting into a game and then have a new one come out and completely forget about the first game. I will eventually go back to the first game, obviously, because I can't leave a game unfinished but it's still a terrible habit. But I'm not going to let that happen this time. Right now I'm still playing Final Fantasy X-2. Sadly I'm only 32 hours into and 48% complete. I am going to finish this game before I move onto the next one. I have to. Since I never made a New Years Resolution back in January, I will make it now in September. I will finish games before I move onto the next one. If you see me post on Twitter or Facebook that I'm playing something other than FFX-2, call me out on it. But one must be asking themselves now, what other games could I possibly be playing right now? Well lets take a look see...

First I have to mention Batman: Arkham Asylum. It is getting amazing reviews. I had been waiting for this game for a real long time. I remember back in May GameStop had signs up for it's release in June! I was so excited I went in to pre-order it. The girl at the counter then informed me that they just found out THAT VERY DAY that Batman was being pushed back til the end of August. After having my heart torn out of my chest I left the store leaving a trail of blood and tears. August was way to far away. I decide in the meantime to play Infamous, which I didn't finish yet, sorry Sean (not me, my friend is also named Bort, I mean Sean). I didn't finish it because then I got the Ghostbusters game and in all fairness I've been waiting basically my whole life to play a Ghostbusters game that truly captures the feel of the movies. Once that was done instead of going back to Infamous I went to Final Fantasy X. A game I started a few months back but didn't finish (notice a trend here?) After I beat FFX I went to FFX-2 and here we are again. Batman has been out for several weeks now and I refuse to buy it until X-2 is done.

Did I mention both Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill are doing the voices of Batman and Joker?! If you didn't watch the Batman Animated Series this probably means nothing to you...

But wait, there's more!

Little did I know that another comic book related game was just on the horizon. I made sure not too read to much about it online because this is the game I was super excited about and if I read too much about it I wouldn't be able to sleep, eat, or be coherent at work until it came out. I'm talking, OF COURSE, about Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2. It's coming out in 2 days!! Sweet Jebus. But even though Batman came out first I'm definitely going to have to get Ultimate Alliance first. I'm a Marvel guy first and foremost! There is a reason Spider-man is the centerpiece of both game covers!

Take out Thor and Reed and put in Deadpool and TBD and you basically have my team. Spidey and Daredevil FTW!

Now to the DS games. I think I love my DSi as much as I love my PS3. They are both unbelievable in their own way. DSi rocks the RPG department to no end and anyone who knows me knows how much I love the RPG's. And they got some good ones coming out.

Mario and Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story just came out to amazing reviews! It's not a surprise that this game is also RPG related. I like! This game is apparently the 3rd in a series of Mario and Luigi games. The first was on Gameboy Advance which I don't know. But Mario and Luigi: Partners in the is on the DS. That means I'm going to have to play it because it also got amazing reviews back in 2005.

Soooo many games....

Now back to PS3. I've have read such AMAZING reviews of the fighting game BlazBlue but often put fighting games to the side because most of my friends only like certain fighting games (read: old school) or I play the new games online and get absolutely raped. But after reading Low on Hit Points review of BlazBlue I am definitely going to have to pick this game up at some point.

Well thats it for right now. As predicted there are several games I did not even get to mention. Heh.

What games are you all playing??

How to talk to women

This is so fucking great. I'm sorry but if I ever met this dude I would totally kick him in the nuts. I know it's a cheap shot but he's just such a loser it would have to be done.

You have to hear this, it's hysterical...

http://melodymaker.posterous.com/the-reason-some-girls-stay-single-very-funny

Might make a real post later. All my friends are at the beach and I'm bored as all hell...

9-11

As of now, on the East Coast, the time is 12:10am on September 11th 2009.

I just watched the second half of the Steelers opening game and was wowed by the very end. But then the News came on. My happiness soon faded...

They had a segment about 9-11 where a lot of the friends/family of people lost at The Pentagon were standing all day at the Pentagon Memorial in memory of the fallen. It was incredibly depressing. If I was able to drive I would have tried to be up there myself.

I have to work all day tomorrow. Not looking forward to it cuz this is all I'm going to think about...

The Final Fantasy Series

(Just a warning, if you have not played the games there will be possible spoilers ahead. Just a warning if you actually care.)

Yes I had already made a Final Fantasy post not too long ago but that was just about the game Final Fantasy X-2 in general, which I am still currently playing. This one is about the series as a whole. It's really kind of hard to believe how long this series has been around. Since I was 8 years old! The first game came out when I was 8 on the Nintendo and the series has been a part of my life since. That's almost 20 years and the majority of my life. I remember the first time I saw the game played. It was at my aunt and uncle's house and I was watching my older cousin playing it on the NES. I was young so I didn't quite understand how you were supposed to play. I was all about Super Mario. It wasn't until a couple years later where one of my neighborhood friends got the game and he let me borrow it.

The graphics may be dated, but the game play is just as addictive.

This is probably the precise moment in my life where my life was either ruined or awakened (depending on how you see it). I'm going to go with the latter on this one. It introduced me to a whole new world of gaming that I found to be incredibly addicting. And thus began my obsession with leveling up. An that addiction still haunts me til this day.

As the years went on more and more Final Fantasy games were being released. It wasn't until the Super Nintendo came out that I was able to dive into this universe once more. What I didn't know at that age is that I was getting jipped! Final Fantasy 2 here in the US was actually FF4 in Japan and FF3 here in the US was FF6 in Japan. I didn't find this out until later on in High School but once I did I was torn between being angry and happy. On the one hand I was happy because that just meant that there were more FF games out there for me to play. But on the other hand they had only been released in Japan so how would I ever get to play them? But we'll get to that later.

I believe the huge milestone in FF history came when I was in Middle School in the form on Final Fantasy VII. A whopping 4 discs worth of 3D game play and eye-popping CG cut scenes. It was like nothing I had ever seen before. The story was absolutely amazing and it had you hooked from beginning to end. But one of the big moments in the game is when Aeries was killed by Sephiroth. I mean, wow... It was probably the first ever video game to actually make me tear up. You really cared for the characters and not only that Aeries was killed so suddenly but you had NO IDEA it was coming. Considering she was the main love interest in the game I was amazed she was killed at the end of the first disc! Plus FF7 had Materia which is probably the greatest thing ever and the only thing lacking in the other FF games.

Then came FF8 and FF9. I really enjoyed 8 but it just didn't match up to 7 story wise. 9 on the other hand is sadly one of the few games I never got to finish, something I hope to take care of soon. I was really excited for 9 too since they were going back to a more classic Final Fantasy look (Black Mage!). FFX is just finished about a month ago. Even though it came out while I was in college I never got to play because I didn't have a Playstation 2 at the time. After playing it recently it's definitely one of my favorites. FFX made me care about it's characters as much as FF7 did.

FF11 was an online only game (like World of Warcraft) and unfortunately by the time I was able to actually play it it was pretty much too late. But FF14 will also be online so we'll have to see about that one.

During college is when I played all the FF games that were not released in the US. That's right! I was introduced the a Super Nintendo emulator that you could download online. After waiting many years all the missing games that I had wanted to play were at my disposal. Plus a whole crap ton of other SNES games that I loved playing as a kid. What's cool now is that they have re-released FF3 and 4 (the Japanese ones that never came here) on the Nintendo DS with updated graphics and CG cut scenes. So I will definitely be picking those up at some point.

Then there was FF12. My god do I love this game. Not sure which I love more out of 7, 10, and 12. I definitely put the most time and effort into 12 than any other video game ever. I clocked in at around 115 hours or so. 12 has by far my favorite game play. I like being able to control my characters in battle and to actually be able to avoid random battles if need be. While I didn't get 100% in the game I came damn near close. Stupid Shadowseer made sure of that!

Princess Ashe is hella awesome, even when she picks her nose...?

So 12 games and 20 years later here we are! It was finally announced the other day the release date for Final Fantasy XIII here in the US. April 2010! So actually it's not too far off. I plan on quitting my job and locking myself in my room without any human interaction until the game is complete. Well, not really, but that's what I would like to do. If I can't afford to pay my power bill then I can't play the game at all right?!

Pets

Bear with me people, I'm still very sick. And considering how crazy last night was for me I'm not getting better any time soon. lol. So enjoy this post about pets while I am extremely medicated!

Man oh man the pros and cons of being either a dog person or a cat person. Personally I am a dog person. I guess it's the companionship. Dog truly is man's best friend. They do nothing but look up to you. They want attention, they like to play, but they can't really take care of themselves without you. And that's a definite con. I can't leave my dog alone for too long (be it vacation or even just a long day at work) unless I know that someone can watch him. I feel bad because my dog has been seriously trained to not go to the bathroom in the house, so if I am gone for a long period of time and can't get someone to walk him, then the poor guy is just going to hold it in a suffer. And I hate that, mainly because I have the bladder of an infant and can totally feel my dogs pain. Heh

One of these days I'm seriously going to run out of Haruhi and Lucky Star pictures that fit my blogs.

Cats on the other hand are completely independent. Teach the little guy to use a litterbox and you are set! My main problem with cats is that most of them are a little too independent! They just don't give you the attention that a dog does. Dogs want to play, cats wanna chill.

Given that I am a huge animal lover I think I've reached the age in which I'm going to turn into a cat person. I'm not saying right now, obviously, but a few years down the road when (Haruhi forbid) my dog Kenobi passes on and haunts me as a Jedi spirit, I think I'll get some cats. I NEED animals in my house. I've had pets my entire life. So if I think I was to have a few cats running around my house I'd be pretty set. I like birds too but I kind of have the feeling I'd end up picking the really loud retarded one that won't shut up and it's incessant chirping would drive me mad.

lol wow! I was just about to end this post but my dog just threw up. And the funny thing is that he always does it in the exact same place! Right at the top of the staircase to our loft. I don't know if he does it there because I'm always at the computer and at that angle I can't see him vomit and he's embarrassed OR if it's because he hates me and wants me to step in it when I get up in the morning. Could my own dog be plotting against me?

I have to wonder...

Sick Boy 2: The Journey Home

Since we just lost a lot of employee's at my job (they all left for college. Stupid high school kids getting older!) I was unable to call off of work today even with my ridiculously high temperature. The worst part is that my job consists of a lot of manual labor so it's not a lot of fun when you aren't feeling well.

The worst part was that after work I couldn't get a ride from anybody. For whatever stupid reason there is no straight Ride-On bus route between my home and work. I only live a few miles away, how can there be no bus route? After looking up the routes online just to be sure I found that the 56 bus picks up right in front of my work and goes down the road. Less than a mile later is the intersection I would normally take home but the bus doesn't go that way. According to the website I could pick up another bus here called the 67. I told the bus driver this and he said he didn't think the 67 was running today. This cute Asian girl came up to me *growl* and told me that the 67 only runs for a couple hours on the weekdays (rush hour). Bullcrap! So that meant I had to walk the rest of the way home.

Ridin on the bus, Ridin on the Bus, sittin next to bums, there's on open seat, hope that isn't pee

So let me lay this out for you. I'm about a mile or so away from home, it's hot, my back is killing me from work, I have a fever of 102, and worse of all my foot was all sorts of gimp!! You see, yesterday afternoon I was finally able to drag my sick ass out of bed to walk to the grocery store and get medicine. Upon arriving at the store some how the material on the back heel of my shoe was open and the hard plastic "membrane" of the shoe was protruding outward and scraping against my heel. It was so incredibly painful that my normal 10 minute walk from the store to home took about twice as long. When I got home I threw my shoe at the wall, took off my sock and saw that the damn plastic had literally scraped off a sizable amount of skin.

So obviously today the one time I'm using the bus and I really need it it's not running. I had to limp my sorry ass back home. I'm sure all the cars passing me on the road were laughing hysterically at me considering how miserable and pathetic I looked. Fuck, I would have laughed at me if I saw it! So after my 45 minute walk I arrive home and all I want to do is pass the hell out but of course I need to walk the dog. Sweet, more walking!

Needless to say I am extremely tired and won't be doing anything the rest of the night. Tomorrow my friend is having a BBQ/ Pool Party. I was going to attend and just kind of nap on a lawn chair or something but I just can't bring myself to go. My friend who's throwing the shindig also thought the same thing and told me I should just stay home and rest. So not only will I be missing out on that but all my friends are going to Dewey Beach this weekend and I can't go to that either (as I stated earlier we have too few employee's at work right now so I can't take off).

So tired and aggravated. Guess that's why I have this blog. To vent!

Later all

Sick Boy and Playstation Home

The past couple days I really haven't been feeling well. It started at work and I was pretty sure it was just my allergies. Though i was a bit confused my allergies would act up in September considering I'm only allergic to pollen.

My temperature today was 102...

I worked a 9 hour shift yesterday at work and as the hours slowly went by I was starting to realize this wasn't allergies at all. I remember getting home last night, being extremely tired and collapsing on my sofa trying to watch some TV. Next thing I know I'm in my bed and it's 3 hours later! I don't even remember waking up, let alone standing up and walking across the room avoiding the many obstacles strewn about my floor and passing out on my bed. Apparently my body just wanted a quick power nap because when I awoke it was around 11:00pm and I wasn't tired anymore. But boy oh boy did I feel like crap.

So I ended up spending the rest of the night kinda sitting around doing nothing. I didn't feel like playing video games, I didn't want to sit at my computer, and I didn't really feel like watching any anime. Later on I did mess around with Playstation Home with my buddy in Pittsburgh. It was pretty interesting and it definitely has some potential. You basically create an avatar and walk around a virtual world. You can talk to people, play games, go bowling, shop at the mall, and all sorts of stuff. There is an actual movie theater where your avatar character can sit in and watch movies. My friend and I tried watching some Gunslinger Girl but my internets were running a bit slow last night and it had to keep buffering. Your avatar also has it's own apartment or "personal space" as it's called. I had my character travel to "The Mall" and pick up a picture frame. When I got back to my place I hung up the frame and then used the Playstation internet browser to download a Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya picture which I then uploaded into the picture frame! Now it looks like I have a Haruhi poster hung up in my apartment. Pretty slick if I do say so myself.

So that was a nice little distraction last night. Sadly I felt so crappy that I couldn't even get back to sleep until around 5am this morning. I woke up later around Noon and my throat was dying. It hurts to swallow and I can't stop sneezing. I decided to take my temperature (something I haven't done in ages) and it turns out my temp was 102. I don't have any medicine and since my car doesn't work I don't have the energy to walk all the way to the grocery store to get some. Blah!

I shall spend the rest of my day resting. I have work all day tomorrow with no way of getting off so I'm gonna have to suck it up and deal with it. What an awesome Labor Day Weekend...