Strep Sucks

Man I remember having Strep Throat when I was a kid but this past week has been unbearable! I forgot to ask the doc if its worse on adults than kids but from what it seem like, it is. I didn't sleep for days because every moment I would swallow my throat was in excruciating pain. So the moments when I would finally nod off to sleep I would swallow and jump back awake in pain. Not very pleasant I have to say.

Plus I had to work all those days which was really painful. Luckily I have great employee's to help me out.

Last night (Friday) I started to take a nap at 5pm and woke up at 11pm. I had actually slept! For the first time in days. I was pissed though cuz I had missed most of my friends party but considering I was still sick, miserable, and didn't want to get anyone else sick, it was probably for the better. But I'm sure I missed an amazing time.

Since I was going to be up for the rest of the night I played a lot of Just Cause 2 on PS3 which is incredible. I could write a whole blog about my antics in that game so I'll save that for later. Then I started watching the movie The Road with Viggo Mortenson. So far I really dig it but I had to turn it off cuz I was getting depressed. Not the best movie to watch when ur sick and depressed, let me tell you. Plus some of it was filmed in Pittsburgh (which I miss) and even though the movie makes the world looks barren and lifeless, some parts actually did look familiar. There is one specific road I really believe is the same road in Dogma when Chris Rock falls from the sky. I could be wrong though.

So I ended up watching some anime very late at night, or early morning if you will. Turns out one of my fellow bloggers, Washi the Blogger from Down Under, started watching the same episode of this one anime at the same time I did and commented about it on Twitter.

Man I swear Ookami-san is Taiga aged 3 years, seriously...

So it was cool having back and forth talk with him as we commented on not just one but two of these episodes. I needed something like that at 5 in the morning. lol

Thats all for now. Oh wait, check that. I'm also down to 186 in weight so thats a total of 31 lbs down from the diet. I finally broke 190! It's been so long...

Stone Age Glasses

These are the things that pop into my head. I really need to find more important things to be thinking about.

I was just on a website that was counting down old cartoons shows that you SHOULDN'T be nostalgic about ( Snorks, Godzilla...) and one of them was The Pebbles and Bam Bam Show where they are all grown up and in a band. Lame! It stuck me as odd that one of their band mates wore glasses. Then I remembered Fred's boss, Mr. Slate, also wore glasses.

So one has to ask themselves. In the stone age where everything is powered by dinosaur or some sort of animal, who is the brilliant Caveman that created corrective lenses?

I'm willing to suspend belief with most of their inventions on the show. A lightbulb filled with fireflies, a wooley mammoth as a shower (and can apparently also be used as a vacuum cleaner), or a woodpecker as a typewriter. But glasses? I don't buy it!

Just because your frames are made of stone doesn't mean you can make stone age glasses...

And while we're on the subject of Pebbles and Bam Bam did it ever bother anyone else that Pebbles was wearing lipstick before the age of 1? What kind of parents are these? And Bam Bam's hair was as white as a ghost. Most people don't start going grey til they are much, much older.

Food for thought...

Young Sean's Letter to George Lucas

I was talking RTS games (Real Time Strategy) with a co-worker today and it reminded me of something. When I was about 11/12 I was obsessed with playing Warcraft (not much has changed apparently) and since I was also completely obsessed with Star Wars I thought it would be a cool idea if they had made a game that was a cross between Warcraft and Star Wars. Basically a Star Wars RTS game. My dad suggested I write a letter telling them my idea. So I actually mailed a letter to George Lucas explaining my idea. I actually did get a response which was really cool. It was a letter from Lucasfilm basically saying that they can't "accept unsolicited submissions or ideas" and that they had to return my letter unread. They did however enclosed a photograph from Return of the Jedi with it. As a kid I was happy as shit. The letter had the LucasFilm logo on the top and looked very professional.

So when I got back from work today I immediately went to look for it. I found it in a box with a lot of my other Star Wars stuff. I'm now really glad they sent my letter back because it was so funny to read something I wrote when I was a kid to George Lucas. I'm still laughing at the fact that I didn't mail it to LucasArts the video game company but to George Lucas himself, as if he has the time to read it.

So it brings me great pleasure to share with you my letter to Lucas, grammatical errors and all...

Dear Mr. Lucas,

Hey how's it going? My name is Sean. I'm a die hard Star Wars fan. You and Steven Speilberg are the coolest directors ever. I just finished writing a letter to Steven. I have a subscribe to Star Wars Insider. It's a great magazine. I wanted to purchase a silver 2 1/2 inch Boba Fett figurine. The ad said to call between 7am-11pm. When I called at 8pm it said that the hours to call were 8am-4:30pm. I was really upset that I couldn't get it. I also wanted to say that my friend and I, Danny, whose brother Steve writes to you, have an idea for a Star Wars game that LucasArts can make. It's a cross between Star Wars and Warcraft. Warcraft is a game everybody plays. You should check it out. What you can do is have different races like Jawas, Tusken Raiders, Wookies, the empire, rebellion, stuff like that. Then you build up your men and go into battle. It's much easier to understand if you play Warcraft. I make movies with my video camera because I plan to be a director when I grow up. The movie I'm making right now is Star Wars. My dad thinks your a genius because you took a billion dollar movie, added new footage, released it again, and made another billion dollars. Plus the new trilogy is coming out in a few years and all the games LucasArts is making. You are one rich man. I don't want to sound needy but can I have an autograph?

Sincerily,

Sean Foster *There is also a picture I drew of a Jawa saying "Tee dee!"

P.S. I am starting a Boba Fett collection. If you have any B. F. stuff you don't need I'll buy it. Also if you have the internet this is a good webpage to go to about Star Wars. My friend's brother made it. It's called Steve's Docking Bay 94.

How adorable was I? Only a child would start a letter to a celebrity "Hey, how's it going?" and have the balls to ask George Lucas if he had any spare Boba Fett "stuff". Ahh I love it.

Ironically enough, several years later they did come out with a Star Wars RTS game! No I don't think they stole my idea, but it is kinda funny. It was everything I hoped it would be! lol

It was my idea first!!

Just had to share that with you all. It fun finding things from my past. It's also nice to know that nothing has changed 15 years later. I love Star Wars more than ever and I still play Warcraft. HA!

Crappy Comic Book Store for Jerks

Being a vampire myself I often find myself captivated by all that is vampire related. Except for Twilight of course. True Blood is the latest show in the vampire craze that has caught my interest. Once I learned the show has actually based off of a series of novels I immediately went out and purchased those as well. I'm now on book 8 of 10 so far.

A couple weeks ago a buddy of mine posted a link saying that there was going to be a True Blood comic. I like comics and I like True Blood so this was basically a no brainer. I went to my comic book store last week only to find out that the damn thing had already sold out. Lame!

Lookin good Sookie. J. Scott Campbell knows how to draw women...

So this morning I decided to try my luck at the crappy comic book store down the road from me. It's a lot closer than my regular store but it just sucks so badly it's not even worth going. But I figured if no one really goes there then there's a pretty good chance the book didn't sell out.

The moment I walk in there are young kids playing Pokemon cards by the door with some really bored fathers standing over them. This is the busiest I've seen the store in ages and there were only about 8 people in the store. I'm standing there trying to get through but the kids are so focused on watching each other play nobody bothers to get the fuck out of my way. 2 of the fathers are looking right at me and neither bother to tell their kids to get out of the way. As I'm about to say "excuse me" this one kid isn't paying attention to what he's doing and backs up right into me pretty hard hitting his head on my stomach. The kid looks up at me and walk away not saying anything. The father saw the whole thing and he doesn't say anything either. I guess in this family we don't apologize to people we walk into. Nice parenting.

When I finally make it over to the crappy display of comics I don't see the True Blood comic anywhere. Though I wasn't expecting to find it right away because their display is completely unorganized. I have no idea what's supposed to be new or old. What I believe is the "New" section has comics from 5 months ago. *sigh* How this place stays in business I have no idea.

After looking at every book on display I saw nothing and decided to ask the guy behind the counter. I hate this guy, mind you. He's been working there since as long as I could remember. He was always very rude to me when I was in High School giving me attitude like he thought I was going to steal something. So I reluctantly asked him about the True Blood book...

Me: I was wondering if you had the True Blood comic?

Guy: The what?

Me: True Blood comic. It just came out recently.

Guy: I'm not sure what that is.

Me: True Blood. It's a popular show on HBO. They just came out with a comic book for it. J. Scott Campbell did the cover.

Guy: I've never heard of True Blade.

Me: True BLOOD. It's about vampires.

Guy: Oh True Blood. No, I haven't heard of that either so I guess we don't have it.

Me: Well can you check? Last time I asked you if you had Power Girl #11 you said no and yet there was a huge stack of them in a box right behind you.

Guy: Well I've never heard of True Blood so how could I have something that I've never heard of?

*LONG PAUSE*

Me: Alright sorry I asked. I was already at Beyond Comics and they were nice enough to take my information down so they could call me when the True Blood reprints come in. I came here in hopes to find a direct release print but I can see I've wasted my time. Looking for a comic in a comic book store...

There were so many curse words on the tip of my tongue but I figured I'd be civil. Plus I always watch my language when children are around, no matter how obnoxious they are.

God I HATE that place!

Window Seat

Don't worry all, I'm still alive. For now...

I've been feeling much better lately. I'm still on my meds but I've been back at work the past week and it hasn't been too bad. Though I did enjoy that week off. Gave me a lot of time to catch up on anime. I was kind of worried I wasn't going to have anything to watch this season but so far I've found at least two shows that have caught my interest. High School of the Dead is the first. You can't go wrong with anime chicks, violence, and zombies. It's a win win! The other is Ōkami-san to Shichinin no Nakama-tachi which is just a fun little slice of life type show. Plus a few older anime shows I've been watching in between.

During this week long anime marathon I noticed something funny. If an anime shows the main character at school that character is almost always sitting in the back of the class next to the window. Now from time to time they might not be in the back but you can almost always guarantee they will be next to the window! I first noticed it in Haruhi Suzumiya. Then in Death Note. Then in Kanon. Then in Clannad. Those are jsut the ones off the top of my head. Also, if you were sitting in the classroom facing the board then the windows are always to the left. Never the right!

Classic chin on hand staring out window pose. An anime must!

While searching for the above Haruhi picture I stumbled upon this little diddy. Obviously I am not the only one who has been thinking about this. Ha!

It's hard to see but yes, he's doing the same pose as Haruhi

Good to know I'm not the only one who noticed. I just wish I knew the reason as to why. Perhaps we'll never know...

Hooray for seizures

So this past weekend I had Otakon (anime convention) up in Baltimore. I have been looking forward to this for so long, but as we know, nothing really ever goes right for me. I did get to enjoy a good amount of time there and I will save my Otakon post for next time because I feel this is probably more important to get out first.

Due to the heat, empty stomach, and being dehydrated for the most part, later in the evening when my friends and I decided to rest and get some pizza I had managed to suffer from a seizure and pass out in the middle of the dining area. I don't remember passing out at all. All I remember is feeling my body being lifted and when I opened my eyes I saw my friends and people helping me up off the ground and walking me to the exit. I had no idea what was going on but I remember them telling me that they were taking me to an ambulance. That when I started to remember things and I started freaking out for some reason. As I was in the ambulance I went nuts and started saying things like "Im fine! Im not coming with you. I don't need help! I want to leave!" and shit like that. Like, I was REALLY freaking out. I would not go with them in that ambulance. Why? I have no idea. So after much fighting the one guy said "Well I can't keep you here but I really think you should reconsider" and with that I hopped out and left.

Still in a state of shock I wander back to where my friends are getting my stuff. They see me and freak out. "Why the hell aren't you in the ambulance?!" I told them I was fine. I remember trying to keep it straight so they would believe me. Thats when they told me what happened.

This is how they described it to me... "After you took a few bites of pizza you started to look out of it. Next thing we know you say 'I fell kind of light-headed' and before we knew it your face was going red. Then purple! Your body kind of seized up! You started to fall over but we caught you in time and layed you on the ground. Spit and stuff started coming out of your mouth. The guy at the pizza place saw this and said he's been through seizures before and came over to help. He said to lay you on your side and don't put anything near your mouth. You were out for almost 10 minutes"

10 minutes I was out and I don't remember anything! That's fucking terrifying. After they told me that I agreed to let them take me to the hospital. By the time they actually saw me I wasn't feeling that bad but I was really shook up. They gave me a once over and decided it would be best that I at least stay over night for observation. That one night turned into 2. I was there Saturday from about 6:00 to Monday at 7:00. I spent the whole time either sitting in a small room or being tested on.

Sadly my care looked nothing like this...

The first night I got a cat scan which turned out OK. They wanted to give me and MRI as well but they couldn't do it that night so they had to wait. Well, lucky for me, they don't DO ANYTHING on Sundays so I had to lay in my hospital bed all alone the whole day with an IV stuck in my wrist (then later the back of my hand) and 5 of those sticky circles attached to my chest for the heart monitor. Boy what a pleasant day. It's especially awesome when your bladder is as pathetic as mine. The whole time I'm sitting there Otakon is still going on down the street.

In the end I was diagnosed with a new onset seizure and mild Rhabdomyolysis (caused by muscle strain and dehydration). I was discharged last night and my aunt and uncle picked me up. I wanted to get my car but the doctor said driving is not a good idea. It's good to be back home but I hate not being able to go anywhere when I want to. I am so antsy right now. Plus, I'm not allowed to work until Thursday which makes things harder for everyone at work and I need money. I don't have much food and even though my grocery store is in walking distance, walking isn't really the best thing for me to do in this condition.

In my next post I'll talk about the time I DID spend at Otakon. There was a lot of fun but sadly, even a lot of THAT got fucked up. Glad I spent that $75...