Above the Influence with Sean...

Where does the time go...?

2011-12-01T21:30:00.002-05:00

Has it really been 6 months? Apparently so.

When i was in rehab back in May I remember when my counselor first brought up the idea of me going into a Halfway House. My immedaite response was "I don't think so". To me, a Halfway House was a place for crazy people. When I was in college my dorm was right across the street from a Halfway House and it was filled with some real crazy people. One lady literally stood in the center of her kitchen and spun in circles for hours upon end. I have video footage to prove it.

So you'll have to understand that when I hear that I am going to be going to a Halfway House I was a little worried. Especially when I'm being told I'll be living there for 6 months. But after sleeping on it one night and talking to my family I agreed the very next day to go through with it.

And what a journey it's been. Obviously I'm very glad I went through with it. The first 2 months were amazing. I met a lot of great new people, some of which I feel could be friends for life. But after those first 2 months things changed. A LOT. But I'm not really going to get into that right now. I've promised myself I won't bad mouth this house until after I leave. What I will say is that when a new company took over back in July things went downhill really fast.

So next week is a new beginning for me. I'm moving back into my condo except I won't be living alone anymore. Which is for the better. I not only have one room mate lined up to move in next week but another roomie moving in shortly after.

I plan to continue going to meetings, obviously. 4-5 a week at least. While living here I had to attend a meeting every day. Coupled with work and a house group every day this came to be very taxing after awhile. My schedule was as follows. Wake up, work, dinner, House Group, meeting, chore, bed. That was my routine for 5 months. And I had no problem with it what so ever. I like going to meetings because 90% of the time I get something out of it. Sure there are days when you just feel plain sick and a meeting is the last thing you want to do, but tough nuts you gotta do it.

The only thing i had a problem with was the House Group.

Wow, talk about the biggest pain ever. It will be one of the first things I blog about once I get out of here. It amazes me that an hour and a half long group can literally almost drive me insane. Last i checked the group was supposed to help you in recovery! So obviously they must be doing something wrong if the only thing running through my mind as I count down the minutes til it ends is "Can't wait til this is over so I can go to a meeting and learn something HELPFUL"

But that is for another time. A few more days here and my time will have come to an end. I got here during the summer in 100 degree weather and am leaving now in the freezing cold.

Where does the time go...?

Update in the World of Sean

2011-10-31T21:42:00.002-04:00

I really wish I could post as much as I want to I just don't have the time. I have more access to a computer these days but ironically the moments where I really need to express myself are usually those few moments while Im laying in bed. Reflecting on the day and such.

As you probably DIDN'T notice, the blog title has changed to Above the Influence. My buddy JC came up with the idea. At first it was going to be a temporary change until I came up with something different but the more I see it the more I like it. Plus it's pretty fitting, no?

So yesterday I completed Step 3 of 12 in the program so I'm pretty proud right now. Step 4 is gonna be a bit more difficult but I am definitely up for the work.

My time here at this Sober House will be coming to an end in the not to distant future. While I will miss it a part of me is really glad. When I first got here we were all one big happy family for the most part. most of us all got along and the program here was run a lot differently. But new people took over and changed everything and nothing has been the same since. When I used to look forward to getting off work and coming home to hang with my friends here has now turned into just dreading it. There are some people here i still get along with but the majority make me want to rip out my hair.

The one constant thought running through my mind whenever I'm at home is "Oh please god just shut the fuck up". I used to want children but this experience has tainted those dreams. Living with 20 people who act like they are 5 (ironically they are all older than I am) eventually takes its toll. Luckily Im stronger than I used to be and can handle these situations.

Damn, I was getting in the groove there but now Im getting kicked off the computer. Im gonna try and post more frequently since I always have something to get off my chest by my computer restrictions keep me from doing so. Blah.

Til the next episode...

New Blog Name

2011-10-02T00:20:00.003-04:00

Im looking for ideas for a new title for my blog. "Under the Influence" is obviously not really appropriate anymore given my circumstances. Though i did really like it. Heh...

So throw some ideas this ways and we'll see what we come up with.

Celebration

2011-09-20T14:30:00.002-04:00

Last night was a pretty cool night. My sponsor celebrated one year of sobriety and it really got me to thinking.

This whole program is about me bettering myself. I have to look out for Sean. Its been a rough road but every day just feels better and better. I said a few weeks ago in a meeting that what I really want out of the program is to get my life back together. While this is true I realized that thats not all I want.

I want my life back, and more.

They way I feel now is like nothing I have ever experienced. My head is clear. I feel alive for the fist time in over a decade. Am I going to miss drinking? Hell yes. It was nice to kick back and relax after a stressful day and have a few drinks. But I CANT have a few drinks. Its absolutely impossible for me to control it. Theres a famous saying we have in recovery. ¨One is too many and 1000 is never enough¨

Truer words have never been spoken.

I am not a normal person. I hate referring to it as a disease but it is. I cant drink like normal people. I cant drink to have fun. I can only drink to get drunk. Every time. If I dont have any alcohol whatsoever I am completely fine. But if I have a breakdown and take just one little drink then that is it. My downfall. And theres no coming back from it.

At least I understand this. Most people out there dont. There are very few people I have met in the program who are doing it for the first time like I have. Many have relapsed in the past and have been doing this off and on for years. I dont want that to be me. Im in it for the long run. And there are several reasons.

First and foremost I am doing this for myself. I have to. That is in no ways a means of sounding selfish, its just fact. If I cant get ME together, then whats the point?

Secondly, and this is constantly going through my mind, is letting down everyone that I have already let down once before. I cant change my past. I cant take back all the fuck ups I did. Alcohol turned me into a waste of life. No longer was I a productive member of society. I was a piece of shit wasting away my days feeling sorry for myself because I had been taken over by this demon that was trying so hard to kill me ever so slowly every day.

No normal human being would continue to do something OVER AND OVER that was obviously destroying the very fiber of their being, if they didnt have a problem. We just cant stop. Just a mere 4 months ago you wouldnt have been able to get me to admit any of this. But look where we are right now. My life has mostly been an open book when it comes to blogging, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Im not shy about it. So I have made it my business to do the same for sobriety. Im not embarrassed. Because Im trying to make up for all I have done wrong.

If I take that drink then I lose. Everything I have worked so hard for will go right down the drain. And I dont want to sound like people would be EXPECTING me to fail, but thats how I sometimes feel in my mind. Im doing this for me, but also for all my loved one. My friends and family who have been there to support me even though I didnt really feel that I deserved it. I cannot. No WILL NOT fail in their eyes.

Im sick of being weak. I want control. I have a ridiculous amount of potential that was being pushed off to the side to make room for alcohol. All this potential is going to be unleashed onto the world. I fear for you all!

Just kidding.

But I digress. All these thoughts poured out last night at my sponsors celebration. Seeing him receive his one year chip, all the friends and family there for support, was just awesome. It made me think about how I cant wait for my one year celebration, 8 months from now.

Ive met some amazing people in recovery. Some of which I hope will be friends for life.

Crap, gotta cut this short, could have gone of for pages but time to leave work!

Til the next episode...

The ¨Nooooo¨ heard round the world...

2011-09-15T09:16:00.003-04:00

As someone who is well known for taking a particular interest in The Star Wars Saga, it´s no surprise that when any sort of Star Wars news pops up I am slammed with a barrage of questions. Obviously the big news is that, finally, the complete saga is coming to Blu Ray tomorrow and who wouldn´t be stoked about that?!

Well apparently a lot of people.

Yes George has yet again altered the films and holy shit are fans pissed. No matter what I say about these changes people are just going to throw it in my face, say I´m not a real fan, that Im just sticking up for Lucas, and blah blah blah. So what I am going to do is just lay it out there. I dont care if you dont like the changes. This is my opinion. If it bothers you, oh well.

I consider myself a die hard fan. I know 10 times more about the movies than 90% of the people that say it in theaters before I was even born so I i have pretty good grasp on the subject. So lets start with the big one first. Lucas added in Vader´s infamous ¨Noooooo¨ to the end of Return of the Jedi. Now I have watched this clip a thousand times over and it really doesnt bother me. This wont surprise most people because they believe that I will like Star Wars no matter what is done to it. Which is a complete load.

Did Lucas need to add the Nooo? No he didnt. Do I know why he did? Yeah I think I have a pretty good idea. After listening to Jimmy Mac on The ForceCast he basically said almost everything that I had been thinking. So lets break it down shall we?

Fist of all Vader says No twice. First very low and slow, then the loud crazy one. I REALLY dig the first one. As hes slowly coming to the realization of whats happening. To me, in the original him just standing there in silence felt a bit awkward to me. But i still loved it cause it made you wonder what exactly was going through his head. Now he just flat out screams in rage.

But why?

Prepare for geek overload. The moment Anakin Skywalker truly dies is when Palpatine basically tells him that he has killed the one person he loved most in the galaxy. Anakin Skywalkers last words were literally ¨Noooo¨. This is where Anakin dies and Vader lives. Flash forward to Jedi and we have Palpatine lighting up Lukeś ass as Vader watches. Heres Luke, Vaders own son and probably the ONLY connection between him and the only woman he ever loved, dying right in front of him. When he starts saying NO this is the hints of Anakin truly coming back. Thats why the words have such significance. Lucas didnt just throw it in for shits and giggles. It has purpose. It has meaning. So just think about it.

There are a lot of haters out there when it comes to Lucas and Star Wars. You know, for something you say you love so much you sure do fucking bitch and moan a lot about it. How much does these changes affect you, really? And I mean REALLY? Is it enough to lose sleep over?

-Ewoks now blink? So you mean they now dont look like possesed stuffed animals? Ok thats fine with me.

-Lightsabers have been refined? Wait, so in A New Hope when Kenobi moves his lightsaber slightly to the left Im not going be able to briefly see the crappy rod Alec Guinness is actually holding? Well damn. Most people probably dont even know what Im talking about.

-They added a Dug into Jabbas Palace? Ive honestly read in the past ¨Dont u think its funny that theres all these new species of aliens in the prequel films that we never see in the original films? Why is that?¨ So when Lucas does something about it by adding a Dug into the mix people flip out on him for building continuity. How DARE he!

This is what it all boils down to. Most people hate because they are looking for an excuse to be angry. People fear change. Always have and always will. Do any of these changes really bother you that much? Is it honestly the end of the fucking world like people make it up to believe?

In my eyes, no. And you know what, when the movies come out on Blu Ray I am going to sit down and enjoy every moment of them in HIGH DEF, with amazing surround sound and picture. Its going to be absolutely beautiful.

People boycotting the Blu Rays because of these changes is mind boggling to me. Your going to sacrifice amazing picture quality and sound over some alterations. I feel sorry for you, honestly. Fandom is about FUN! And all this complaining takes the fun out of it. Being a fan isnt a chore, or having to ¨put up with something¨. Its about being passionate about something you love.

But hey, thats just me...

4

2011-09-12T09:58:00.003-04:00

Has it really been 4 months? Wow...

This pic has nothing to do with the blog. It just makes me laugh...

I never would have thought I would have lasted this long without going insane. And ironically it not because of alcohol. As long as I dont taste it Iĺl be fine. Its going this long without internet, playstation, being able to watch the shows I wanna watch. etc...

Since I get up so fuggin early these days I come into work about an hour early to use the internet. Though the time is brief it is enough to satisfy my undying thirst for social networking, blogging, and reading up on video games I probably wont be able to play til the end of the year.

This Friday not only marks the release of The Star Wars Complete Saga on Bluray, but also the hour long season 4 premiere of The Clone Wars. Oh yes. Sadly I dont have access to my Bluray player and I seriously doubt Im gonna be able to get the TV on Friday nights to watch a fucking cartoon. lol I had someone taping True Blood for me this season so maybe sheĺl also hook me up with some Clone Wars action.

I desperately want to get back into writing and one of my favorite things to do was write Clone Wars reviews for Fanboy Comics! If I cant get the episodes taped for me Im pretty sure they have them on the Website the day after they air so I can watch them before work.

I had one of those funny moments the other day where I had a random flashback to college. There was this girl Kimberly Clark who I was seeing for probably 2 or 3 days before my freshman year started. But her name kept haunting me. It was driving me up the wall. Where the hell had I heard that name before? Or was my mind just tricking me into thinking I did?

Nope, Im completely sane. The other day the name was staring me right in the face in the mens room. Kimberly Clark is the name of the toilet paper dispensers you see in rest rooms across the country. Poor girl has sick parents. Giving her a name people associate with making doodie.

I just now yelled at my co-worker for looking over my shoulder and reading my post as I was typing. Which is ironic considering the blog is open for anyone around the world to read and yet I throw a fit when he reads over my shoulder. Though the circumstances are different. I dont like my personal space invaded. Why would someone think thats a good idea anyway? Whatever. Its early and Im in a mood.

Welp time to get back to work!

Still going strong...

2011-08-04T11:15:00.002-04:00

Hello all. I'm still going strong here. My computer access is extremely limited but today is my day off and I figured I'd swing by the library for a quick blog post.

Not having my computer with me at all times is definitely the hardest part of this whole situation. There's are dozens of times a day where I have so much I want to type out or blog about but I just don't have the time to get to the library.

As for life in recovery it's been fantastic. Alcohol has been the last thing on my mind for months. My head is clear, I'm up early every day, been exercizing a lot, and just feel all around amazing. My only problem has nothing to do with alcohol. It's not having the internet at my disposal at all times. Not being able to watch the things I want to on TV. The ability to watch a movie in complete silence without a barrage of room mate induced commentary pointing out every minute detail that flashes across the screen. Such details as The Hulk punching The Abomination in the face do not need to be brought to my attention every 3 seconds. My optometrist proscribed me glasses which enable me to enjoy the images projected on screen. It's a fasinating thing really. Though it is nice to know that if I were to suddenly go blind I would still know if Jason Statham won the Death Race or not.

I am going to have a crap load of television to catch up on when I'm done. Im super bummed that I can't watch Breaking Bad this season or Dexter when that starts up in October. It took me almost 3 months to watch Star Wars. Thats saying something! And don't even get me started on Anime. Good lord.

(Side note: The crazy person sitting next to me is mumbling all sorts of nonsense and staring at the computer in complete disbelief. The beginning of 2001 Space Oddysey comes to mind. If she starts clubbing the computer with a blunt object, I'm out)

What has been nice though is that without all the television to take up my time I have been doing a lot of reading. I finished The Hunger Games trilogy in about 2 weeks which was a great series! Also read Jurassic Park, Water for Elephants, and two True Blood books. Just can't seem to put them down.

I love where I'm at right now. I have met some amazing people and made a lot of great friends. Some I hope will still be friends with after all this is over.

Well the crazy lady has gotten on my last nerve and I can't concentrate while she's babbling incoherently. Til next time folks...

90 days sober this Wednesday!

The Return...

2011-07-07T16:02:00.002-04:00

Did u notice I was gone? Probably not since I barely updated at all in 2011. Why u ask? Lets just say Under the Influence of Sean is not just a clever blog title. It was my life. I was drinking myself to oblivion. I was angry, depressed, sad, lonely, blah blah blah. All that jazz. But now my life has taken a complete 180.

I'm not going to go into much detail in this post because I'm at the library and my computer time here is limited. But I just wanted everyone to know that I'm alive, doing great, and will be 60 days sober this Saturday!

Hope to hear from u all soon

Oh good glavin!

2011-02-11T22:49:00.007-05:00

Man it has been awhile! I feel bad for neglecting the blog for so long but things have been crazy for me lately. Dog, work, money, poor health, etc... Blogging is one of my favorite things so when I can't do it u know I'm busy lol.

For those who don't follow me on Facebook or Twitter u probably aren't aware that I FINALLY got to take my trip to Los Angeles and visit my old college buddy Jason. Not only that but my other good friend JC came to visit too! We had a friggin blast! And we stayed in Kevin Pollak's guest house...

Yes, Kevin Pollak, the actor/comedian...

LA was amazing and I got to meet not only Kevin, but all of the loyal followers of his chat show whom I have messaged and tweeted over the past year or so. They've felt like family to me through the interwebs and to finally meet them in person was truly amazing! I shall share a few pics of my trip...

Mickey Mouse Penthouse Suite in Disneyland. This was the bar :-D And Im drunk

Me, Jaime, Kevin Pollak, and Buffy actor Adam Bush!

Hollywood Blvd and The El Capitan!

The man, the myth, the legend. Oh... and Mickey!

Over 30 years ago 3 of my Gods placed their feet in this cement. I almost cried tears of joy...

Discrimination

2010-12-18T19:03:00.006-05:00

I've probably said it 1000 times but I still don't get it. And I guess I never will. Why discriminate? Seriously?? Why?

Definitely one of my biggest pet peeves. I don't believe anyone should be judged by their race, gender, sexual orientation, or anything. Thats just how I was raised. If someone is an asshole, well then they are just an asshole. lol Doesnt matter what they look like.

I bring this up because I just read this article...

Racists Demand Thor Boycott

White supremacist group hates the idea of Elba as Heimdall.

A white supremacist group is so peeved about black English actorIdris Elba playing the Norse mythological god Heimdall in Thorthat they're urging a boycott of the upcoming Marvel movie.

The Guardian reports that the U.S.-based Council of Conservative Citizens has established a web site to allow other like-minded people to boycott the Kenneth Branagh-directed film because of the change in Heimdall's race.

I'm pretty sure Thor never said "Wait, Black Panther is joining The Avengers? Fuck this noise I'm out"

I could care less what color his skin was. If the dude can act and pull off an awesome Hiemdall then I'm all for it.

Sorry, I just had to vent. I have a sinus infection and I'm in a bad mood. Hahaha. But hey, thats what the blog is for right?!

-Seanthings

Spammers

2010-12-13T18:08:00.002-05:00

So about a year ago I created an account on Deviantart.com to post my pictures. Here is an email I just received today...

"Silverpop Systems, Inc., a leading marketing company that sends email messages for its clients, told us that information was taken from its servers. This was probably part of a sweep by spammers. As a result, email addresses belonging to deviantART members were copied. Corresponding usernames and birth date may also have been removed.

We can assure you that nothing occurred on our systems with respect to this incident and no access was gained to private information on deviantART’s servers.

As a member of deviantART, you certainly have a right to know when an incident of this kind occurs. Unfortunately spammers are an unavoidable part of living on the Web.

The likely result of this event might be an increase in spam to your email. Experts have told us that there is an increase in email scams out there on the Internet and you should be cautious. Only click links or download attachments from people you know, particularly if they ask for personal information, and be sure that your email service provider has adequate spam filters.

Because we value the information that members give us, we have decided not to rely on the services of Silverpop in the future and their servers will no longer hold any data from us. "

Ok, first off, I read that as "SilverPoop" and I laughed. Just sayin. Second, WTF? Man I hate you spammers! There is honestly nothing better to do with your free time? I'm actually deleting spammers at this very moment from the Kevin Pollak Chat Show forum, AS I WRITE THIS.

Spammers: Find something better to do with your life like get a job.

And a girlfriend.

End communication. :-)

Am I crazy...?

2010-12-05T12:17:00.004-05:00

I am a huge fan of Dexter. Both the tv show and the books. Some friends of mine even started a new online show called Stupid for Dexter in which they talk about the latest episode in depth and even have guests come on and discuss as well.

During the show they have some Dexter bobbleheads sitting on the desk. The one of Dexter himself always throws me off because all I see is Anakin Skywalker from the Clone Wars cartoon. Am I crazy? You be the judge...

lol, god I am such a dork...

Two greats

2010-11-30T00:02:00.002-05:00

Wow this has been a crazy 24 hours. Last night before going to bed I find out that Leslie Nielson died. It's so tragic. I grew up on the Naked Gun movies and of course Airplane. I can quote them all backwards and forward. That was comedy to me growing up. I thought those movies were brilliant and I still do so that was a hard blow when I found that out last night.

Then I wake up this morning to find out that Irvin Kershner had died as well. For those unfamiliar with the name he was the director of The Empire Strikes Back, not only my favorite Star Wars movie but also one of my favorite movies of all time. When I read about it I honestly teared up a bit. He was old and I knew that he hadn't been doing very well for awhile so I shouldn't have been too surprised.

This man directed a movie that I have been watching over and over again for more than 2 decades and I still love it every time I watch it. Hell, I actually have it on right now!

I think what I really love is reading all the posts from people online. All of us Star Wars fans are upset and as a collective unit are all posting online thoughts, feelings, memories, and all that. The Star Wars community is awesome. We are dedicated to what we love. Hearing the stories from celebrities as well has been amazing. Here's what Anthony Daniels (C-3PO) posted on Twitter...

"Kersh fell asleep & snored, listening to me dubbing Empire Strikes Back. Just one reason I loved him. He was a lovely, thoughtful, talented man. We owe him."

I'm really interested to hear what they say tomorrow night on The ForceCast. That should be a good episode. I'm hoping they let people call in and share their thoughts on the whole thing. I think that would be a great thing for Star Wars fans to Skype in live and give their thoughts.

Well thats all I'm gonna say for now. I put on Empire in the background so I could blog but now I'm getting attatched to it and want to go watch. lol

Later

Return of the Jedi... I mean me...

2010-10-25T20:38:00.004-04:00

I think this is the longest I've gone without a post. I've been in a bit of a slump lately. Still not quite out of it but its not as bad as it was a few months ago. I had so much stuff going on. I took a tumble down the stairs, hurt my ankle and had a mild concussion. That wasn't fun. It's hard to do my job with a bum foot.

This is what I looked like after my fall. Well, not really... :-)

If I had the time to tell u all the things that were going on with me the past few months I would but it's all depressing so I'll just leave it at that. I will say that one of the main reasons I haven't been on is because my hair has been falling out and I've had chest pains. I went to the doctor and he said it's because of stress and that I need to take it easy for awhile. That's pretty much impossible considering I work at a job that consists of pretty much 5 people. Can't really get much time off so reducing my stress level has been, how u say, stressful? Oh well. As of 2 months ago the things I have needed to keep me out of being depressed have been stripped from me. I now have to work afternoons at work which means I can't see my counselor anymore on Thursdays. I barely see my friends because now I work all day Saturdays which means I can't go out Friday nights like I usually do which fucking sucks. The other thing that keeps me sane is having fun in the chatroom of my friends radio show, Black Sky Radio, but thats on in the afternoons which I am now working everyday. So I've been missing out on that a lot. Before I found Black Sky I was always working morning and then I would come home and nap. But for 6 months now Black Sky has kept me from napping all afternoon and just have fun chatting with friends.

Those 3 things kept me from being depressed and now I don't have have any of them. Not a good thing. Especially the counselor. Haven't seen him in months. He does it for free cuz he's a family friend but now I'm going to have to look into someone else unless I can get Thursdays and Saturdays off again like I've had for the past several years.

Basically my mood for the past 3 months...

Le sigh...

Now on to good news. In this time I haven't been blogging I've been catching up on movies and video games. Haruhi season 2 came out and I got that a few weeks ago! U can imagine my excitement when I got that one in the mail. lol I am also now the Moderator for the Kevin Pollak Chat Show Forums on the website which is pretty rad! As for video games I've played Just Cause 2, Star Ocean: International, Fallout: New Vegas, and tonight at midnight I will be picking up Star Wars: Force Unleashed 2!

ZOMG I can't fuggin wait! I've got 3 more hours. It's gonna be a great night.

These are the things I need to keep me happy and stop me from sinking back into depression. Sometimes it's the little things, ya know...?

Later all!

Bad Food

2010-09-06T20:20:00.002-04:00

So awhile back my brother introduced me to this Chinese restaurant down the street. While not as awesome as our normal restaurant, which is farther away sadly, it is still pretty damn good. They have these amazing Crab Rangoons and their General Tso is pretty sweet.

I wanted to get some food in me tonight before I met up with friends and I had a hankerin for some General Tso's. I call ahead for carryout and when I get there the sign outside is different. Instead it says that it's a Persian cousine restaurant. *scratches head in confusion*

According to the hostess its the same place but now they serve both Persian and Chinese food. Looking in the bag I got really excited because they added in soup, 2 egg rolls, and a can of coke and I didn't have to pay anything extra. Definitely felt I got my monies worth!

Until I ate it....

I have never had worse food before. The chicken was way too dry and crispy, I could barely chew it and the Crab Rangoons tasted like the inside of a Tauntaun. I spend $17 and I get something that tastes worse than dog poop and I can get that for free at my house if I ever sunk that low. It's terrible that someone can come in and buy a company and produce food that is 10x worse than it was before. Perhaps the chefs were being lazy because its Labor Day and they didn't want to be at work so just half-assed it. Even if that was the case, I can't bring myself to give them a second chance. It was THAT bad.

Just now as I was talking to my friend BlueDrakon he asked on Twitter "Do you think u just ate dog or cat?" I told him "Im thinking platypus or ring-tailed lemur..." Maybe it's all of the above. The texture is not very consistant between pieces. I could have an entire amazon forest in there. I'm not gonna finish it to find out.

Anyone else have problems like this before?

Strep Sucks

2010-08-28T17:39:00.003-04:00

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

2010-08-18T16:45:00.003-04:00

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

2010-08-15T20:12:00.003-04:00

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

2010-08-14T12:24:00.004-04:00

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

2010-08-13T20:49:00.004-04:00

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

2010-08-03T17:57:00.003-04:00

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...

"Your mom!"

2010-07-29T00:00:00.002-04:00

I hate that this became some sad attempt at a comeback when guys are joking around. You can say anything and someone with throw out "Your mom!" and BAM they win.

"Dude I just read that in the 1985 edition of the Atlas they mixed up the names of The Tropic of Capricorn and The Tropic of Cancer!!!" ....... "Oh yeah? well YOUR MOM!!"

What does that even mean? Man...

My longtime friends all know about my mom and now my new friends I have met online and around the world as well!! They are all very nice about it. It's hard sometimes when I am in a new chatroom, with friends, like I was tonight and someone I don't even know's first word directed at me were "I fucked your mama" in response to something I said that wasnt even rude. And then actually calls out "That was directed at Seanthings" What a gentleman...

"Mom" is a trigger on my sensitivity button. So I hear that and memories pop up. I remember over 20 year of happiness with her and then 13 months of pain and suffering. 13 months of pain sticks out the most since sadly that was the most recent...

*sigh* I had to vent. Thats what blogs are for...

Arachnophobia

2010-07-26T03:24:00.003-04:00

I don't know if I've mentioned this in the blog before but I have a serious case of arachnophobia. When I was around 7 I woke up because I felt a tickling on my foot. This is who I saw when I opened my eyes...

HEY! I HAVE EIGHT LEGS AND EIGHT EYES! I AM AN ABOMINATION! WANNA BE FRIENDS?!?!

Ever since then I have been petrified by spiders and I always wear socks (I guess to protect my feet). The only time the socks come off is when I need to do water related things like shower, swim and what have you.

So it's 3:45 right now and around 3:00 I was peacefully sleeping when I rolled around I woke up because I realized I still had my headphones in listening to my Star Wars podcast. The moment my eyes were open I saw that hideous creature you see in the picture above, on my bed, staring me right in the eyes! All eight of them!!!

I flip the fuck out and knock that abomination to who knows where. The dog is no help and now I can't get back to sleep knowing that creature is still alive AND IN MY ROOM!!

I think I need to move out...

Black Sky Radio

2010-07-12T19:06:00.003-04:00

I've come into an interesting online community. Starting with Kevin Pollak's Chat Show on Sunday's at 6pm eastern time where Kevin spends sometimes up to over 2 amazing hours talking to guests, they also have an interactive chat room at the bottom of the screen. From this chat room I have made many, many online friends. Coupled with this blog (that I hate when I neglect for so long sometimes, my apologies!) I have friends from around the world! It's an awesome feeling. And these aren't people I just chat with through Facebook and Twitter. I mean like talking on the phone and using webcam, A LOT. lol Though its only been roughly over a year I feel like I've none some of these people for ages!

Black Sky Radio has been another big part of this. You can check them out at http://blackskyradio.com/. 2 of the hosts @Nightmare54 and @JennaAtBlackSky you can follow on Twitter. They always post links to the site and when special guests will be on for interviews and callers can chime in with their questions. Also, much like the Kevin Pollak Show, there is an interactive chat room that they set up so we the fans can all interact, ask questions, and just have a shitload of fun.

Up until about 6-7 months ago if I worked a morning shift and got home at 3pm I would have nothing to do so I would pass out, sleep til 8pm, then not be able to sleep all night, wake up in the morning, rinse and repeat. Obviously this was not good for my sleeping schedule but I just have such a hard time sleeping at night in general that napping in the afternoon would become the only rest I would really get. Then on Black Sky they added the chat room, which u can open from another page at http://tinychat.com/blackskyradio. Then u can listen to the music on their main page and then if u want during the down time Nightmare and Jenna can entertain u in the chat room. This became my savior. It kept me from napping and wasting my afternoon sleeping.

There's a lot of regulars in the chat with people from around the US like me in DC, people in Missouri, Texas, Los Angeles, and quite a few people from Scotland! We can all talk in the chat or also join in on the webcam fun. It's always a great time.

The past couple weeks, every Wednesday they have been having someone from the HBO series Band of Brothers since the 10 year anniversary is around the corner. Our friend in Scotland has been getting these interviews and for the past few weeks they've had Scott Grimes (voice of Steve in American Dad), James Madio (Hook), Ross McCall (TV's Crash), and coming up this Wednesday Dexter Fletcher (Hotel Babylon, Kick-Ass!!). The hosts are always awesome and the interviews very comfortable. They can have a guest on for hours and u wouldn't even know because its so engaging and informative.

Also tune in tomorrow for Fiesta Bo, @fiestabo on Twitter, who is Tom Hanks apprentice. Should be an awesome interview. Plus, when you come visit the chat room u also have the pleasure of seeing me! lol. I'm not there all the time as sometime I work in the afternoons.

So tune in!

The MilkMan Cometh...

2010-07-10T15:09:00.004-04:00

As always, I've been MIA from the blog for awhile. Spending too much time on video games (Heavy Rain, Borderlands) but now I have free time to share this story.

Earlier this week I came home from the grocery store to find a dude with a crowbar running away from my door (cuz he heard my dog barking) and as he was running towards the stairs he shoved me against the wall. Not with the crowbar mind you, so I was OK, don't worry folks! So as he was starting to run down the stairs I was in complete awe of what was happening so in order to stop him I had my grocery bags and I threw my bag with a gallon of milk in it and it hit him in the back and he fell down the stairs and he hit his face on the concrete steps.

He was down for the count and I didn't know what to do so I called for help. A neighbor of mine had gotten back from work and heard me screaming so he ran up the stairs and saw me standing next to this guy who is laying on the ground, face bleeding, and a gallon of milk and a crowbar near him. He asked me what happened. I was in complete shock and just said "I threw milk at him..."

When he asked why I said he had tried to break into my house, then ran like a coward, so I didnt know what to do so I threw something at him. The milk was the heaviest thing I had. And I will admit, straight up, I was not some awesome bad ass when this happened. I wasn't thinking straight and when my neighbor found me I was, as he said, "pale as a ghost and trembling" so I'm not Spider-man (at least until I close my eyes and picture it).

My buddy Nightmare has dubbed me MilkMan and now I dont think that will ever be let down. lol Nightmare has a radio show online which u can listen to at http://blackskyradio.com/ Monday-Friday 3-8 eastern time. I had called in to his show and told the story on the air, hence where MilkMan came from. So now all my friends are calling me that too.

200!!!

2010-06-08T21:43:00.003-04:00

Weighed myself today and I'm at exactly 200 lbs! One more and I'm outta the 200's!!! Sooooo happy.

In other news my blog name has been changed to "Under the Influence of Sean", a name my friend came up with. His blog can be seen here. He also does super Photoshop work so if u need something done get in touch with him. I'm going to have him make me a new banner for the blog with the new title the moment I'm not poor. lol

Those who have me in their blogroll please update the name. I'm not sure if it does it automatically or not.

I am going to go watch the latest episodes of Working and Angel Beats! And since I hate leaving the blog without some sort of picture I will post this incredibly cute Haruhi picture I stumbled upon recently. It's the can for Haruhi juice in Japan. lol I want some....now!

Ponytail Haruhi is super kawaii...

Memorial Day

2010-05-31T10:40:00.003-04:00

Memorial Day, the day where we commemorate the U.S. soldiers who have died in the military service. While I have had family members in the military none of them had died during war. My grandfather was a pilot during World War II and my father served in Vietnam. Both made it out safe and sound.

So how are you going to spend your Memorial Day? Most of my friends are our of town so I'm just going to be kicking it here at my place. I beat Red Dead Redemption the other day but there is still a crapload of side missions and stuff I need to do so I'll probably do some of that today. Might also catch up on some reading as well. I'm almost finished with the latest Dexter book, Dexter By Design.

My friend in Pittsburgh is having a BBQ today so I'm probably going to call them on the webcam so I can see all my friends and pretend that I'm actually there.

Hope everyone has a great day!

Attack of the Clones!

2010-05-30T20:13:00.004-04:00

So at the store that I work at we have a Trivia Board set up for the customers to guess while they are waiting in the store. Kind of a fun thing we like to do. One of the questions we put up the other day was "What was the first animal to be successfully cloned?" Now almost every single person who guesses is so sure of themselves that the answer is a sheep and they are WRONG.

I'm sorry the correct answer is Jango Fett...

Now I understand why people are guessing a sheep because as most of us know the sheep, Dolly, was the first mammal to be successfully cloned and it was a huge deal! I remember seeing Dolly all over the place in the newspapers and Time magazine and the like. So yes, I see where they are getting that answer from. But when I tell them that the first animal to be cloned was actually a tadpole some of them don't believe me at all. Yes a tadpole. I know it sounds weird but it's true, look it up. What angers me is when people get upset that sheep is not the right answer. This is where, to me at least, I think common sense should kind of kick in...

If you were a scientist in charge of cloning wouldn't it be wise to start small and work your way up? I mean, that seems most logical to me. I highly doubt that one day at the Roslin Institute in Scotland the scientists were sitting there and thought "OK, time to clone something! Let's start with a sheep!" I seriously doubt it. I mean, what kind of sense does that make unless you were either trying to move this project really fast or just makes things that much more difficult on yourself.

Maybe it's just me...

Please silence your douche bags before the movie

2010-05-29T10:38:00.003-04:00

Ahhh Memorial Day weekend. Had things gone the way I planned I would be in Pittsburgh right now but that didn't work out. I couldn't find anyone to watch my dog, plus my dog has to go to the vet and I never know how much THAT is going to cost, and also shit came up at work. The majority of my friends are all gone for the weekend as well. So I'm basically just hanging out this weekend. I intend to spend most of today and Monday playing Red Dead Redemption.

Last night my buddy and I decided to catch a Swedish flick at one of the independent theaters near us called The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. My friend pointed out as we were walking in that we were the only people there under the age of 40. This made me happy for several reason. For starters it made me feel really young. Score! Also, there would be no obnoxious teenagers being rude and talking during the flick. That's always a plus.

Sadly, I was wrong.

For some ungodly reason there was this older couple sitting right behind me and the man decided he was going to whisper to his wife pretty much the entire movie. I just can't wrap my head around this. What possesses someone to do something like this. And it's not like he was some young obnoxious guy, he had to be in about his 50's, so he should fucking know better. It was like he was narrating the movie to her or something. The only reason I didn't say anything was because I had this vision of me telling him to shut up and him saying something like "My wife is blind" and then I would feel like a total chode. While that would be highly unlikely, this is how my mind works. There were also some women behind my friend who would get pretty chatty at points.

And just to add insult to injury there was this woman next to me, who came by herself, who would occasionally make comments to herself as if I was supposed to be listening and agreeing with her. She'd say things like "Why would she do that?! Don't do that!" It wasn't loud or anything but it was enough so that I could hear her perfectly. I just wanted to say "Who are you talking to?!?!" Perhaps the empty seat in between us sat her invisible friend and I just wasn't aware. I should have held an imaginary gun to it's imaginary head and told her to shut up or I would blow her "friend's" brains out.

I expect this from teenagers because most are obnoxious and don't give a shit about anyone around them, but adults? I was shocked. When I went to see Kick-ass for the first time there were some teenagers behind me who kept talking and I eventually snapped.

Me: Can you please shut up. I paid $10 to see this.

Kid: Yeah, so did we. (They all laugh and give each other first pounds)

Me: Yeah but I didn't pay $10 to hear you fucking morons talk.

Man it is so aggravating. I was raised to be respectful of the people around me but I guess most people were raised differently. Oh well, not much I can do about it. For now....

Laryngitis

2010-05-27T17:12:00.002-04:00

So last week I was going thorough a bit of depression. I had laryngitis and couldn't talk. It was driving me absolutely insane! I should have taken that opportunity to get a lot of blog posts in since typing was my main form on communication but I was just too bummed out to write! I hate not being able to talk. Hate it! I probably would have gotten over it faster had I not had to keep forcing myself to talk at work. The doctor said the best thing to do is to rest my voice but thats impossible to do while working. As soon as I would get home I would stop talking completely until it was time to go to work the next day. I don't know who out there has had laryngitis before but it's a really weird thing not being able to talk.

What was killing me the most is that while I'm at home I love just sitting at my computer and trying out different voices to do. For someone who wants to pursue voice acting, losing my voice is pretty much the worst thing that could happen. Hence my depression.

To cheer myself up last Friday I purchased the video game Red Dead Redemption. Man oh man and what a game it is. It's basically Grand Theft Auto set in the Wild West. Definitely one of the best games I have played in a long time. Anyone who is into those types of games and has an XBox 360 or Playstation 3 I can't recommend this game enough. Go buy it now!

So playing that definitely cheered me up quite a bit. Plus, I got my voice back! Thank Haruhi! I was worried when the doctor said it might be 1-2 weeks. I think I would have gone insane if it had been 2 weeks. Luckily it was only 1 and I survived...

Mother's Day

2010-05-09T22:00:00.003-04:00

I don't want this to be a sad post. The majority of you who read my blog know that my mother is no longer with us and I talk about it every so often.

I just want everyone out there to have a great Mother's Day and I hope you all treated her right today! lol She obviously deserves it.

Konata and the spirit of her mother. Beautiful picture...

Later all...

Geeks Unite!

2010-05-08T13:37:00.003-04:00

Wow, so I decided to stop by Wendy's to treat myself to a little snack. My diet is going awesome so I deserve something awesome every once in awhile. Query: Is it a good sign when your pants are getting too big? Methinks yes!

So anyway, the Drive Through lane was waaaaaaay too long so I just decided to park the car and go inside to order. I also wanted to get out of the car anyway because right no it is insanely windy here where I am and I love it! So after I order my food I'm standing around waiting for my order. I start looking around and notice the whole place is really packed! But then I heard a lot of loud obnoxious laughter so I looked over and saw in the corner of the restaurant a bunch of huge dudes laughing. I won't call them jocks per se, but I will call them MeatHeads. Actually, is there a difference? I dunno, jock is something I would say in High School. MeatHead is just a MeatHead, there is no age limitation. Let us define MeatHead real quick, shall we?

MeatHead: (n) Usually buff (or thinks he is), obnoxious, loud, care nothing about others, and constantly crave attention. Usually travel in packs. Hobbies include The Gym, Sports, The Gym, looking at themselves in mirrors, The Gym, The Gym, picking on the weak to make themselves feel better, and The Gym. (See picture)

Notice the cocky look, wifebeater, and insanely cheesy shell necklace he's been wearing since he got it during beach week 10 years ago. How can you look in the mirror and not want to punch yourself in the face?

Now back to the story. So at first I just thought they were laughing and being obnoxious because they are just jerkoffs. Thats what they do and are know for. Then I notice the table I am closest to has 2 guys playing what at first I thought was some sort of board game! Curious as to why someone would bring a board game to a Wendy's I inched my way closer to see what was going on. Turns out it was actually a Yu-Gi-Oh gaming board and they were playing the card game. (For those unfamiliar Yu-Gi-Oh is a battling card game kids play and it's also an anime). So I had to ask the guys..

Me: Do you normally come here to play Yu-Gi-Oh?

Guy: Yes, we come every other Sunday. We all do.

Me: What do you mean "we all do"?

(The guy points to the other tables and I notice half of the room are guys playing one on one Yu-Gi-Oh. lol!!)

Me: Holy shit, I didn't even notice! And the people at Wendy's don't care?

Guy: Nope. This place rarely does business. Plus we are always quiet, we all buy food, and we don't disturb anyone. Unlike some other people I know. (referring to the MeatHeads)

Me: You go to school with them?

Guy: Unfortunately. They actually passed us on the street and then decided to follow us here when they saw us carrying our equipment.

Me: How long have you guys been here?

Guy: Hmmm (looks at cell phone) about 2 hours and 20 minutes.

WOW!! So these kids are just trying to have a good time and they are actually FOLLOWED to Wendy's by these jerkwads who apparently have NOTHING better to do than give the geeks a hard time. Jesus it's a Saturday! These assholes have nothing better to do on a Saturday then give kids a hard time? Don't they do that enough at school? I think I was more upset about this situation then the geeks were. They seemed very level headed and just blocked out the insults.

Man, the geeks, dorks, and nerds are always the ones referred to as "losers". I think the real losers are the ones who go out of their way to pick on the "losers". Get a life man.

This post could turn into a novel and I actually had a lot more to say but I'm just gonna drop it before I get even more angry.

ClustrMaps

2010-05-07T18:22:00.003-04:00

First off my allergies are absolutely destroying me right now so you will have to bear with me. lol I'm too lazy to correct my spelling and such but wanted to do a quick post while I queued up some anime to watch.

So a couple weeks ago a blogging buddy made a post on his blog 2 Old for Anime? about a feature he added to his blog. It's called ClustrMaps and basically it keeps a tally of how many people from all different countries visit your blog! I was curious to see where around the world people were tuning in. Here are the results!

United States 63

United Kingdom 3

India 2

Germany 2

Poland 1

Hungary 1

Italy 1

Saudi Arabia 1

Australia 1

France 1

Pretty cool huh? I knew of a couple people already in different countries already as I talk to them a lot on Twitter and Facebook, but a lot of the others suprised me. Very cool!!

Thanks all for visiting and I hope you stick around!

Voice Actor: Dee Bradley Baker

2010-04-29T14:30:00.005-04:00

First and foremost as an update I have lost a total of 12 lbs in the month of April. Who wants to touch me?

OK, now that that's out of the way I've decided that I'm going to start something new on my blog. After listening to one of my favorite podcasts last night called The Forcecast. I decided to download some past episodes and I found one where they did an interview with voice actor Dee Bradley Baker who does the voice of every single clone in the Clone Wars animated series. That's a really impressive feat considering the show is called "Clone" Wars for a reason. So after listening to his interview he brought up some cool things I would like to talk about. But it also gave me the idea to start doing a blog entry for all my favorite voice actors and maybe how they effected me in some way. I think it's a pretty cool idea. So we're gonna start with Mr. Baker since his interview gave me the idea.

Besides being the voice of all the clones in The Clone Wars he has also been Klaus in American Dad, Curt Connors in Spectacular Spider-man, Appa and Momo from Avatar: The Last Airbender, Daffy and Taz in Space Jam, and a bunch of voices in SpongeBob, Ben10, and Fairly Odd Parents. Oh, and I should mention he was also the voice of Olmec in the Nickelodeon series Legends of the Hidden Temple!!! How cool is that???

First I'll mention Clone Wars. There are so many clones in this series and he does the voice of all of them. The most amazing thing is that he gives them all their own personality and tone. It's not like they all talk exactly the same. Captain Rex and Commander Cody are the two leaders each with their own distinct way of speaking, as do a slew of others. When asked why they all talk differently Baker said that even though they were all created after the same mold they are all sent out to work under different masters on different planets so obviously they are going to be speaking differently. I thought that was a really cool touch. Even adding little things like one clone pronouncing the name of a planet one way and a different clone pronouncing it another way. It's subtle things like this that I pick up on and enjoy about this series. Here's a clip of Dee as the Clones. It's the best I can do at the moment. I could go on and on but then this entry would just turn into a straight up Clone Wars blog.

Captain Rex is definitely one of my favorites...

He mentioned something else in the interview that was really upsetting to me. He brought up the fact that when the animated Clone Wars was fist released as a movie in theaters he thought it was so fun to have all his fellow voice actors get to go to the big movie premiere. He said that after doing the voice of Daffy and Taz for Space Jam he and the other voice actors weren't invited to the movie premiere! What is that about? Since this was Space Jam and the majority of the cast was voice actors then who the hell was invited to the premiere besides Michael Jordan, Bill Murray, and Wayne Knight? I am upset with this. But Mr. Baker has a good head on his shoulders and didn't seem as upset as I felt about it. lol

Hope you found this interesting because I am definitely excited about writing about more voice actors in the future. Here is a link to his Homepage where you can listen to his voice demos and such.

Later all!

Kick-Ass Part 1

2010-04-15T20:14:00.004-04:00

So I will be seeing the movie Kick-Ass in a few hours and I'm really pumped. I have read the comics and thoroughly enjoyed them! I love a lot of what Mark Millar writes and so I had to check this book out and it blew me away. The dialogue between the teenagers is spot on, seriously. Kids probably curse more than sailors these days. The violence is very over the top and gory. Had this been done by another writer and artist the comic probably would have sucked. But the genius of Mark Millar and John Romita Jr. are spot on!

So when I heard they were making the making the movie I got pumped. As most people will agree who have read the comic is that the characters of Big Daddy and Hit-Girl are above and beyond fucking awesome. Big Daddy is an enormous hulking dude in a mask with his tiny 11 year old daughter by his side. And they both fucking pwn, hardcore. By this time you have all probably seen a lot of the trailers and commercials on TV. If Hit-Girl's first appearance in the movie is as good as it is in the comics, be prepared to be blown away.

There Will Be Blood II: The Origin of Big Daddy and Hit-Girl...

I was kinda skeptical about the casting of Nicolas Cage as Big Daddy though (case in point, picture above). As I stated earlier Big Daddy seriously lives up to his name in the comic and his costume looks nothing like the one I see in the trailer. But I'm gonna let it slide due to the few scenes I see in the trailer where he's out of costume and acts like a goofy father figure (something that differs from the comics).

All in all, I am excited and I will be posting my review of the movie in the next few days. Though it won't be posted here, it will be on the Openly Lewd Comics website! So check it out.

Will it live up to the hype?? Will it suck?? Only Sean can tell...

Sweet deal

2010-04-14T23:43:00.006-04:00

It's been 14 days since my last post and and in that time I've lost 5 more lbs. So hey, not too shabby. And as of yesterday a friend of mine started helping me work on an exercise program. We didn't do too much yesterday as I was incredibly sick, hadn't eaten at all that day, and not had a wink of sleep the night before. All in all I was a complete and utter mess and yet I still dragged my ass out there and did what I could. If only I could lose weight doing the things I love! Losing a pound for every minute of an anime I watched would be too easy. Maybe for every hour?? Perhaps there is some sort of demon pact I could conjure up to lay this awesome curse upon myself...

Speaking of anime, new shows have started airing in Japan and I actually found a few that piqued my interest. Fellow blogger Washi introduced me to new shows like Working! and Angel Beats. I had been eying Angel Beats for a few months now waiting for it to come out, mainly because of the main character's uncanny resemblance to Haruhi...

The new SOS Brigade...?

It's definitely interesting so far. I thought the 1st episode was OK but the 2nd definitely had me more interested. The anime Working! is a nice light-hearted slice of life type comedy. Put me in a good mood as I was sitting at my desk and my entire body was aching. So these two shows I will be keeping my eye on this season. Second season of K-on has also started and although it can be a bit too upbeat and cute at times I'm gonna stick with it because I love the animation. After I'm done writing this I'm watching the first episode of Mayoi Neko Overrun, figured I'll give that a shot as well.

I just finished doing my taxes tonight. Yeah I totally waited til the last minute. D'oh! I was filling out the forms and it somehow got to the point that I actually OWED money in my State Taxes. I knew that was completely wrong so I started over and did everything online, which I should have just done in the first place, and it was super easy and accurate. Accurate meaning I will be receiving money back and not owing. Man that was a scary 5 minutes...

Now it's time to kick back, watch some anime, then read some Dexter by Design (the 4th book in the Dexter series that the TV show is based on) Really good stuff so far...

Diet Update

2010-04-01T13:50:00.003-04:00

So my weight has gone up and down a bit the past month or so but as of right now I have lost 7 lbs. I had lost 9 but at some point gained 2 back. Baka...

None for me thanks! I gots to get thin!

But as of today, April 1st, things kick into high gear. The past month I had beat allowing myself one or two guilty pleasure foods a day to ease myself into the diet. It's like trying to quit smoking, it's hard to just go cold turkey on a diet. So now that I've gotten that out of my system I've reached the point where I have basically phased those out and now it's only healthier things. Today being the first of the month is perfect cause now I can keep an accurate account of my weight loss throughout all of April. Got my little notepad with my weight starting today and I will be counting my calories in it as well.

There will also be no consumption of alcohol unless it's a really important special occasion. Alcoholism runs in my family and I don't want that to happen to me. I love the feeling of getting drunk but once I drink one night, then I'm gonna want to do it again the next night, and then maybe the next night. And because of my weight and tolerance it takes a lot to actually get me drunk, which in turns makes me gain weight. It's just not fucking worth it. It's also nice waking up in the morning and not feeling like complete ass.

Wish me luck!

Customer Service my ass...

2010-03-30T14:44:00.004-04:00

A year ago I posted about how I hated the damn ear plug head phones they give you with your iPod. I never understood those things. Why are they so awkwardly shaped? Do they honestly think this is the universal shape of the human race's ear? Maybe it's just me. Apparently the inside of my left ear is the dark disfigured twin brother of my right ear. The Yin to it's Yang. The Hugo to his Bart. Hellboy was born with the "Right Hand of Doom" while I was blessed with the "Left Ear of Gimptastic Retardation"

A few weeks back I finally got fed up with my headphones popping out of that ear while I was laying in bed listening to music. I went to Best Buy in search of those ear phones that wrap around your ear, that way I knew those little bastards couldn't pop out. I found a pretty solid pair for about $20. Took them home, tried them on, fit great, but the sound quality sucked ass. That metallic type of sound. So a few days ago I had the chance to finally return these cursed things and get my money back. The advantage of being a creature of the night is that I get to do all my shopping at that point. I tell ya, the grocery store is a lot more peaceful at 10pm and I don't have to wait 20 minutes to return something to the Redbox. Same goes for Best Buy. The customer service line at 8:30 was basically nonexistent. Just they way I like it.

In fact it was completely dead. There was one customer at the counter waiting but nobody behind the desk. So there I sat for 5 minutes and nobody is around. 5 minutes is a long time where you are standing there like an idiot trying to find things to pretend to look at interested and girls you have to pretend you AREN'T trying to look at. Eventually this older Best Buy employee comes back carrying some product. I guess the dude waiting at the counter was waiting for them to go find something for him. This is when it gets annoying. The customer just starts arguing with the employee. I'm 10 feet away buy I honestly had no idea what was being said even though it was pretty loud. This started around 8:40.

This goes on for awhile. From what I could gather he wanted to exchange something expensive that he had broken 6 months ago with no receipt and obviously way past the 30 day return policy. Gotta love people. At 8:50 the Best Buy guy can obviously tell how aggravated I am since I have been standing for 20 minutes and have had no assistance whatsoever. So he asks me real quick "What do you need today sir?" and I said "I just have to pair of headphones to return. I have the receipt and everything is in the box. I'm ready to go" so he says to the customer "Do you mind if I help him real quick, it will only take a second?"
"No. You help me first, then him. I was here first."

So I throw up my arms in obvious frustration and says to the employee "Hey, thanks for trying". At exactly 8:56 (I was checking my cellphone constantly since I had nothing else to look at) another person decided to show up at customer service. Finally! Where the fuck have you been the past 26 minutes?? Granted the store closes at 9 so everyone is trying to get everything cleaned up so they can leave. So this lady seems to be a manager of sorts and she takes over to help the disgruntled douche bag and the older guy finally helps me. Here is exactly how it played out.
"Sorry for the wait"
"(angry) It happens"
"You said you wanted to return headphones?"
"Yeah, they don't fit in my right ear"
"OK. Since you used debit for the purchase I can only give you cash back, is that alright?"
"That's fine"
"Alright there you go. Would you like to keep the receipts?"
"No, I'm alright, thanks"

I think we all have an Inner Sakura waiting to burst. I was very close...

That was it. I waited almost a half hour for that. So I pretty much got a dollar back for each minute I stood there. So as I walked away I passed the angry customer, smiled, and said "One minute. That's all I needed. Thanks a lot" What an ass. Waste my time like that. Plus the store was closing at the point so I didn't get to look around like I wanted to which really pissed me off. Well, I could have, but once I store is closed I hate being that person who dicks around so the staff can't go home. I work in retail, I know what it's like.

So disgruntled customer, where ever you are out there, I hate you and everybody like you...

Jack Russell Terrorist

2010-03-21T22:43:00.002-04:00

I have mentioned in the past my neighbor's dog. When my mom, brother, and I first moved into this condo complex the women we bought the place from warned us of "The Jack Russell Terrorist" that lived not even 6 feet from my door. She asked us if we had a dog, my mom said "yes" and this women said "May God have mercy on your soul". Boy she wasn't kidding. This dog barks just for the sake of barking. It barks at everything.

EVERYTHING!

When it's in the house it doesn't make a peep. Thank fucking Christ. But the moment the leash is put on that dog it's all downhill from then on. Every morning. Every FUCKING morning I am treated to what I call my "4th Alarm" I have my cellphone alarm, my alarm clock, my dog jumps on my bed to get fed for breakfast alarm, and then, technically my first alarm, the yapping dog from next door. The moment they put the leash on that dog and open the door to take it outside it starts barking. At nothing! Could you imagine owning a dog that every time you walked it it would bark for the entire time you were outside?? It's uncanny!! It's like the entire outside world upsets this creature and it wants it's voice heard. And I love animals, especially dogs, so for me to actually downright LOATHE a dog is saying something big.

They even put a small muzzle on this dog to try and shut it up but it doesn't work. How is that even possible??

So what inspired me to write this is that I was just out walking my dog at 10:30 at night. Low and behold I hear this barking in the distance and there's the fucking "Terrorist". Now this dog is obviously very tiny while mine is 80 lbs of pure fucking muscle Yellow Lab. My dog loves going for walks but once he hears another dog barking, he starts barking and going crazy. Now this is when I become the asshole. My dog and I are the terrible people because I am one of the few people not in my 50's in this neighborhood and I don't own a dog that could fit in my fucking pocket. Hence, young guy/big dog = bad people. Because when big dogs bark it's loud and deep and therefore evil. Just like me. I always wear a hoodie and sunglasses and am mostly seen at night (yes, sometimes I wear the sunglasses at night) so I look menacing. So I'm the bad guy. Always.

So just now when the "Terrorist" barked at us my dog went crazy and I had to use all my strength to pull him back. I mean, I think he really wants to kill this dog and I can't really blame him. But man my dog is strong. Imagine those Strong Man competitions with a dude using his teeth to pull a firetruck on a rope, thats how I look trying to keep Kenobi in check.

So this woman tonight, my God, she has the nerve to roll her eyes at me cause I have the strong dog going nuts. She obviously doesn't care about the fact that her yappy dog is barking non stop at 10:30 on a Sunday night annoying every condo they walk by. She walks the dog 3-4 times a day for about 20 minutes that barks the entire time!! Can you even imagine that? I don't know if she or her husband wear earplugs or it's just they are so old that they can't hear anything anyway but it is the most obnoxious bark in the universe.

But whatever, I'm the asshole apparently. Just typing this is getting me angry. I shall quit now. lol...

Happy St. Patty's Day!!

2010-03-17T20:48:00.003-04:00

One of my favorite days of the year! I'm 50% Irish so it's a given. It sucks that it's on a Wednesday this year but oh well. I haven't drank anything in about 2 weeks and plan to keep it that way for awhile. Tonight is the one exception though I'm not even getting drunk. I bought a couple Guinness which I will casually enjoy throughout the night. It's a tradition, what can I say?

Yotsuba wishes you good luck with your drinking...

Tonight is just going to be a chill night for me. As I said I will be having a few bottles of Guinness while I play some more Final Fantasy XIII (I'm 31 hours in) and watch the latest episode of Lost. While it's nothing too exciting it's definitely an awesome night from my point of view.

Hope everyone has a great holiday! Be safe!

Adventures at the Drive Through

2010-03-16T18:18:00.003-04:00

So not even 30 minutes ago I was driving back from Blockbuster when I decided to swing by the McDonalds nearby. I don't often eat fast food, especially when I'm on my diet, but they have a limited time offer of 99 cent Fillet of Fish sandwich. As I'm pulling up I get cut off my some douchebag and he gets in line in front of me. Fine, whatever, he's an asshole who apparently can't wait 2 seconds for me to pass, I'll fucking deal. He then, of course, proceeds to order 2000 things. *sigh* I just can't win. But you know what? Normally that would drive me up the friggin wall but not today. I had my iPod in the car and my mellow Japanese music playing which was keeping me at peace. I'm seriously considering just stapling my headphones to the inside of my ears and playing this music constantly where ever I go to drown out everything that annoys me. Seriously, just listening to this music puts me in such a great mood.

So once toolbag pulls up to the window the McDonald's guy is literally handing him soda after soda after soda and then bag after bag after bag. I counted 5 bags of food. Good lord! So he then finally starts pulling away and as I'm about to move forward the McDonalds guy is leaning out the window trying to wave the guy down. The car stops and the guy yells that he forgot one more bag.

At this point I have my music off and my window down. As I'm watching this guy slowly reverse back to the window (I left him plenty of room since I moved forward probably an inch or 2) I suddenly hear this high pitched screaming. And when I say screaming, I mean SCREAMING! I couldn't tell where it was coming from until I looked in my rear view window and I saw this woman in absolute hysterics! She was yelling, banging her hands on the steering wheel and also motioning for me to move forward. Honest to God, she is flailing her arms like a fucking ring-tailed lemur in heat

GIVE ME THAT FILLET OF FISH! GIVE ME THAT FISH!

I can hear her yelling "Move. Move. MOVE!! MOVE!! MOVE!!" Since I obviously couldn't move forward I just started laughing. Hard! And she could see me staring at her through my rear view laughing. It was like watching a coke addict suffering from withdrawal.

Then she laid down the horn.

That shut me right up. Now I was pissed. She went and ruined my good mood. So I undid my seat belt, leaned my head out the window and yelled "Chill the fuck out! He's still getting his food ya nut!!" Now I have no idea what kind of reaction she thought she was going to get out of me. Maybe she thought if she kept babbling like a fucking mental patient long enough I would somehow cave in and move forward but I could tell by the look on her face that the LAST thing she expected was someone to yell back at her. So that shut her up and boy did she NOT look happy about it. HA!

As if yelling back at her wasn't enough to make me feel REALLY good about myself I just had to milk it for what it's worth. She was obviously in a hurry so I decided to take my sweet ass time. I grabbed my bag from the guy and slowly pretended to look through it to make sure everything was in order (keep in mind, I only got one Fillet of Fish Sandwich) Then I asked the dude for some BBQ sauce. And then just to be a real asshole I ask if I can get a cup of water. While he's getting that for me I look in the rear view mirror and see that she is looking mighty agitated. I decided this was a good time to smile at her and wave. The guy gives me my water and as I'm driving away I reach my entire arm out the window and wave to her again. As I round the corner I notice her giving me the finger. LOL

God that totally made my day. I am so glad I decided to swing by McDonalds! You just can't make this shit up...

Quicky

2010-03-11T19:46:00.003-05:00

And not the sexy kind.

I just wanted to share this real quick while it was fresh in my mind. It's not a big deal but that's why I have a blog!

So as I was just leaving work I walked through the parking lot to my car. As I'm about 10 feet away this car comes flying up the street. I stop in the middle of the street as to not get hurt and he stops too. As I'm about to start walking again he speeds ups and quickly passes between me and my car. My instincts kick in as always and I just yell "Go right ahead!" as he's driving past. Not realizing his window was open I heard him say "No problem man" very nonchalantly. He didn't even look at me. He was just some smart ass teenager who thinks he's cool.

Halt awesome teenager! I wish to live!

His response was so irritating to me that I couldn't stop dwelling on it the entire ride home. I thought "Should I have added 'asshole' or 'douchebag' when I yelled at the guy? Would that have pissed him off? Would he have gotten out of his car?" These are the things I think about. I've been in situations like this before where people just get pissy right back at me like I'm the one at fault. That I'm used to. This not so much. Maybe that's why I'm so mad. This guy didn't fight back. In fact, he didn't even give a damn. He was in a hurry and my yelling at him made no difference. He knows he's an asshole and has come to accept it I guess. He is all important in the sports car his parents got him and I am not. Fair enough.

By the time I came home, instead of dwelling on what had happened I had a pretty good idea. There is this song in the new Final Fantasy that I find extremely relaxing. I heard it over and over last night while on this one level and it must have seeped into my brain. I liked it so much I got it on iTunes last night and played it several times while trying to go to sleep. Very soothing. So I did the same thing once I got home. I plugged in my head phones and listened.

It definitely calmed me down. lol Serenity now, serenity now...

Final Fantasy XIII First 8 hours (No spoilers)

2010-03-10T21:06:00.006-05:00

***NOTE: This was an email to my friends that I just copied and pasted to the blog so you might be confused at parts***

So now that I've sunk about 8 or so hours into this game I can pretty much give you guys the general idea of how I feel.

I love it.

Lightning, Snow, and Vanille: Super awesome...

The first 2 hours were strange to me because it was VERY linear, mainly because the first area is on a train track (yuck yuck). In those 2 hours it's just a bunch of hack and slash with basic attacks. I won't get into all the details about that but I will say that it will seem pretty repetitive those 2 hours because you have very limited attacks. But they do switch you around and have you play with different characters in different places. See, this is why I think they chose to go linear with this one and it's because of the story. Characters go off and do their own thing from time to time and so you end up taking control of them in different places but during the same time frame. So while Lightening and someone else are kicking ass in one area you eventually switch over to what another character is doing elsewhere and follow their part of the story. I don't want to give much away obviously but once you get used to it, it works. Plus it forces you to play as other characters which I think is pretty damn cool. It's always switching up. Once I get comfortable using Lightening I switch to another part of the story and have to control another character that I'm not used to. This throws you off a bit at first because now you have to figure out a whole new strategy in battle. It really keeps you on your toes and I dig that.

The story, so far, is fucking great. It has held my attention the entire time. Early reviews stated that it was more movie than game. I think that's probably because while there are a lot of cut scenes, they aren't particularly long. It will go battle, scene, battle, scene like that but most of them are just quick bits of story which fit in well with the flow I think. This isn't Metal Gear Solid with 40 minutes cut scenes, though every once in awhile they do have some long ones but that is expected.

And you can't enjoy the story without good voice acting and this game delivers. Everybody does an amazing job, even a lot of the supporting cast. Yes it can get melodramatic, this is a JRPG after all, but we're used to that from these games by now. Vanille is the bubbly, high voiced girl that will annoy most but at this point if you've heard Yuffie and Rikku speak in past games so you are used to this kind of character by now.

And now the battle system. Boy oh boy. Once you get passed those 2 hours or so is when shit starts opening up. As you've read about paradigms in the reviews they are extremely important and things can get pretty fucking hectic while fighting. As the only one who has played both FF X and X-2 it reminds me of a cross between those. Maybe even more so just X-2 by switching your "classes" mid battle. So while the game starts out slow it is slowly easing you into what will eventually become some awesome battles mechanics. As the game goes on you still learn even MORE shit. It just keeps on going! At 8 hours I THINK I've been taught everything by now but I can't be certain. Heh. It sucks that you can only control one character during battle but because of the paradigms it's almost like you're changing characters anyway. Oh I'm a Commando! Now I'm a Medic! Now I'm a Ravenger! Etc...

Bottom line, battle fucking rocks once it gets into the meat of it. I thought it was a bit easy at first (even after the 2 hours mark) but last night I had several fights that were driving me nuts. The beauty of playing a game like this when it first comes out is that there are no walkthroughs online. When I get frustrated with a boss or something I sometimes cave and look it up online. I don't have that option now and it's great. It really forces me to strategize and figure this out on my own.

As a hardcore Final Fantasy nut one might think I am more bias towards it since I love the franchise so much but to be honest this should have been the game that upset me. No open world? No mana? No switching characters in battle? No forming my own party? Are you cereal?! Those are some of my favorite aspects of those games! But I trusted the designers and figured whatever they threw my way would be awesome. And it is!

I'm hoping that once enough of the internet fanboys calm the fuck down and actually play they will realize that while it is different it's still a great game. But then again, internet/gaming fanboys are the some of the most hardheaded morons in world. lol

Welp, hope this helps!!

He's alive!

2010-03-08T21:05:00.005-05:00

I'm baaaaaack!

Yes I know it's been awhile. The past couple weeks I've just been zoned into my own little world. Depending on the week I was either working a lot more than usual or a lot less than usual. I found myself extremely busy at points and have absolutely nothing to do at others. Kinda threw me off. Normally even if I don't write in my own blog I still go check on and post on all the blogs that I follow but I totally forgot about that too. I have a lot of catching up to do on those blogs!

I really got into the zone with Assassin's Creed 2. I basically played that during the free time that I had and beat it within a week. Then I immedietely started playing Bayonetta. I guess I was just on a Playstation kick for a few weeks, you could say. I also rented Prototype which I just really didn't care for too much.

I was also still aggitated with my "almost accident" for awhile I really didn't even want to get in my car to be completely honest. It's not a pleasant feeling but I'm definitely past that, for the most part. I still tense up a lot anytime someone tries to pull into my lane and also, sadly, I have noticed that I drive slower than before. God I am lame...

I think being engrossed in my video games, eating better and losing weight (down 9 lbs), and talking to my counselor a bit more I've found myself in a better mood. I haven't had much to bitch and moan about like I usually do. Though the past couple days I have had a few encounters that I will be sharing in the next few days. One involving my boiling point almost reaching an all time high while at Gamestop. I'll be visiting Gamestop again tonight so maybe I'll have a story about that as well considering all the nerds I'll be surrounded by.

Why you ask?

The midnight release of Final Fantasy XIII, that's why! That should be highly entertaining. I actually requested the next 2 days off work so I can play. Yes, I am that awesome. I didn't even lie to work either, it literally says on my Time Request Sheet "Final Fantasy XIII". It's been getting mixed reviews because it's not your typical Final Fantasy game but I don't really care. If it's fun it's fun, if not it's not.

Well I'm gonna run now. Gotta catch up on the blogs I read and then head on out!

45 Funny Thoughts on Life...

2010-02-21T17:53:00.003-05:00

Somebody sent me a link to this and I thought it was pretty funny. I DID NOT come up with these myself. I have no idea who did because there was no name attached to give cred for. On wellz, enjoy!

More often than not, when someone is telling me a story all I can think about is that I can’t wait for them to finish so that I can tell my own story that’s not only better, but also more directly involves me.
Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you’re wrong.
Have you ever been walking down the street and realized that you’re going in the complete opposite direction of where you are supposed to be going? But instead of just turning a 180 and walking back in the direction from which you came, you have to first do something like check your watch or phone or make a grand arm gesture and mutter to yourself to ensure that no one in the surrounding area thinks you’re crazy by randomly switching directions on the sidewalk.
That’s enough, Nickelback.
I totally take back all those times I didn’t want to nap when I was younger.
Is it just me, or are 80% of the people in the “people you may know” feature on Facebook people that I do know, but I deliberately choose not to be friends with?
Do you remember when you were a kid, playing Nintendo and it wouldn’t work? You take the cartridge out, blow in it and that would magically fix the problem. Every kid in America did that, but how did we all know how to fix the problem? There was no internet or message board or FAQ’s. We just figured it out. Today’s kids are soft.
There is a great need for sarcasm font.
Sometimes, I’ll watch a movie that I watched when I was younger and suddenly realize I had no idea what the f was going on when I first saw it.
How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?
I would rather try to carry 10 plastic grocery bags in each hand than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.
I think part of a best friend’s job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.
The only time I look forward to a red light is when I trying to finish a text.
Was learning cursive really necessary?
LOL has gone from meaning, “laugh out loud” to “I have nothing else to say”.
I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.
Whenever someone says “I’m not book smart, but I’m street smart”, all I hear is “I’m not real smart, but I’m imaginary smart”.
How many times is it appropriate to say “What?” before you just nod and smile because you still didn’t hear what they said?
I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars teams up to prevent a dick from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers!
Every time I have to spell a word over the phone using ‘as in’ examples, I will undoubtedly draw a blank and sound like a complete idiot. Today I had to spell my boss’s last name to an attorney and said “Yes that’s G as in…(10 second lapse)…ummm…Goonies”
While driving yesterday I saw a banana peel in the road and instinctively swerved to avoid it…thanks Mario Kart.
MapQuest really needs to start their directions on #5. Pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.
Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.
I find it hard to believe there are actually people who get in the shower first and THEN turn on the water.
I can’t remember the last time I wasn’t at least kind of tired.
Bad decisions make good stories.
Whenever I’m Facebook stalking someone and I find out that their profile is public I feel like a kid on Christmas morning. 546 pictures? Don’t mind if I do!
Why is it that during an ice-breaker, when the whole room has to go around and say their name and where they are from, I get so incredibly nervous? Like I know my name, I know where I’m from, this shouldn’t be a problem.
You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you’ve made up your mind that you just aren’t doing anything productive for the rest of the day.
Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after DVDs? I don’t want to have to restart my collection.
There’s no worse feeling than that millisecond you’re sure you are going to die after leaning your chair back a little too far.
I’m always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten page research paper that I swear I did not make any changes to.
“Do not machine wash or tumble dry” means I will never wash this ever.
I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello? Damnit!), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to voicemail. What’d you do after I didn’t answer? Drop the phone and run away?
I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.
When I meet a new person, I’m terrified of mentioning something they haven’t already told me but that I have learned from some light internet stalking.
I like all of the music in my iTunes, except when it’s on shuffle, then I like about one in every fifteen songs in my iTunes.
Why is a school zone 20 mph? That seems like the optimal cruising speed for pedophiles…
As a driver I hate pedestrians, and as a pedestrian I hate drivers, but no matter what the mode of transportation, I always hate cyclists.
I keep some people’s phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.
Even if I knew your social security number, I wouldn’t know what do to with it.
Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, hitting the G-spot, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey - but I bet my ass everyone can find and push the Snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time every time…
I think the freezer deserves a light as well.
I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lites than Kay.
The other night I ordered takeout, and when I looked in the bag, saw they had included four sets of plastic silverware. In other words, someone at the restaurant packed my order, took a second to think about it, and then estimated that there must be at least four people eating to require such a large amount of food. Too bad I was eating by myself. There’s nothing like being made to feel like a fat %$#@! before dinner.

Friendship...

2010-02-20T23:51:00.002-05:00

I made a post recently about my friend making his employees believe he is Superman, which was hilarious! But we have both gone through some hard times and always feel the same way when it comes to helping people. He sent me this personal message on Facebook and allowed me to share it with you all...

"""Isn't it interesting how life experiences effect people in different ways? You always hear about how some people are changed forever by certain circumstances that occur in their lives, or by the ones around them. What I find even more interesting is how the same incidents that effect different people can provoke different reactions. I believe if they happen when we are young enough that it can mold us to whom we are today and who we become in the future. I thought a lot about this ever since I lost my brother. The person it has made me is something I'm both afraid of, and proud of in different ways. On one hand, I feel like I have become desensitized by almost everything. It's almost like nothing effects me anymore. I have had relationships come and go and really not feel anything from it. I see others who have problems in their lives, and depending on the degree of the situation I just gaze and think to myself, why are they letting this effect them? I wouldn't let it bother me. Have I lost my heart, my soul? Do I not have feelings? Then I take a step back and I literally have to think about this persons emotions and how they feel, and why it's effecting them. It scares me for a split second, why don't I feel like this? Should I? Have I ever? Then the other half of me seems to understand what people go through and it makes me want to help. It almost bothers me to see people stress about everyday situations that they can not control. I do not understand it. I consider myself to acknowledge, act, and move on very quickly to any situation that any other person would dwell on for any given time. Then there's always that other half of me that chimes in and wants to help. I think about it and wonder why? Why do I want to help someone? Is it because my brother died and nobody could help him? Is it because I want to make sure nobody has to feel that same way I did, or is it because I truly care about people in general? I like to think that I'm like you Sean, I put others before myself. I really do not matter to me, as long as everyone is else is ok, I know I'm going to be just fine. Sean, if you remember one thing I tell you remember this, everyone who knows you, your friends, family, co-workers, all know who you truly are. We all know you are a very loving, passionate, selfless individual and I commend you on that. Never change my friend. As for the individuals around us who are the exact opposite of us, consider them opportunities. These "opportunities" are the very same individuals who need someone like you. Whatever you do, do not let their acts of ignorance, immaturity, and selfishness effect who you are Sean. Keep your head up..."""

Just wanted to share that...

Near Accident...

2010-02-18T16:13:00.002-05:00

Was almost in a serious car crash today and I'm just going to copy and paste the email I sent to my friends right after it happened...

"""I was just driving back to my house and seriously could have almost been killed in a fucking accident. I'm doing about 50 in a 45 mph street, as is everyone else, when this fucking truck up ahead is obviously NOT paying attention and pulls out right into the middle of the street! He was trying to get to the neighborhood across the street and decided he could "make it" and accelerated. My mind is racing so fast I couldn't even believe what I was seeing so I slammed on the breaks as hard as I possibly could. My car skids for about 10-15 if I was to guess while I am turning the wheel to the right. I was in too much shock to slam on the horn but I do actually remember screaming "What the fuck" as loud as I ever have in my entire life. The whole thing went so fast and I see as my car missed his front bumper by about a foot or less and I skid to a stop in the middle of the road. I am absolutely frozen about 10 seconds or so when i hear a honk. I look to my right and it's this older guy in his 50's with his window down. I snap out of it and lower my window and he was yelling "Are you OK?? What the hell was that asshole doing he almost killed both of us! I can't believe he actually accelerated!" I nodded my head. "I have to say though that was unbelievable. I can't believe you got your car around him like that. Are you sure you are OK?" I told him I was fine and that my house is just down the road and he gives me a thumbs up and drives away.

It was nice of him to compliment my maneuver but at the time I was in so much shock I couldn't even register what had just happened. I looked behind me to see where the truck was and I assume he drove away in fear. I had contemplated turning around and going into the neighborhood that he was so desperate to get to that he didn't mind endangering people's lives, but my entire body was literally trembling and I couldn't even think straight so I pulled my car to the side and I just sat there for a couple minutes with my hazards on while I collected myself. I didn't want to drive in that condition. I'm still shaking a bit now and that was 30 minutes ago."""

Then after laying down for a bit and the initial shock wore off I went back to my email and said this to my friends...

"""Yeah I haven't been thinking too hard about the driver, I've just been thinking about the fact that it actually happened. I have never in my life been that scared before, ever!! It was SO CLOSE. So fucking close. Doing 50 down the road and then have something pop out like that is insane! It's like dodging a brick wall that pops out of nowhere and you just have to slam on the breaks and pray that you somehow get around it.

There was a quick realization that while I was skidding towards him he was still moving forward and my heart basically stops as I see myself getting closer and closer to his front tire. I then suddenly feel my steering wheel turning to the right. I don't remember him stopping but he must have because I felt my car skidding at an angle like Mario Kart and instead of seeing his front tire in my front windshield I was now seeing his headlights passing right by my face on my side windows.

I am so so so so so lucky. If it was another car it still would have been bad, but running straight on into a fucking truck? I'm trying to get the image out of my head..."""

I've done my best to describe it in as much detail as I can and even that doesn't feel like it does it justice. Obviously things like this happen so fast it doesn't even seem real and instincts just kick into gear. My tiny car would have been completely fucked by this truck. Seeing the image of the front end of the truck as it barely grazes mine is literally going to haunt me the rest of my life. When I pulled up to my neighborhood I parked the car and was about to get out but my legs were trembling so much I just decided to sit there for several minutes, slammed my head on the steering wheel and fucking balled my eyes out.

I can honestly say I have never, ever, ever, ever, EVER been so scared in my entire life. It was way too fucking close...

Superhero Complex

2010-02-16T00:16:00.002-05:00

I have a huge superhero complex. I just want to help people but I am not really able to. I am sick of all the hate in this world and I hate when bad things happened to good people and I am unable to do anything about it. I'm sure I've said this a million times before but it's true.

But I also like to have fun with it. While I am at work I am always making some sort of Spider-man reference, or trying to use The Force, or even a Superman reference every now and then. I love comics and making references to these heroes makes me happy. When I first started working at my current job several years ago my manager at the time ended up becoming a really good friend of mine til this day. He was as obsessed with Superman as I was Spider-man. We would always talk about these heroes and geek out. He eventually left this job to pursue another but our geek talks will never die.

I continue to make my silly Spider-man, Batman, and Star Wars references at work and everyone knows me for doing so. Several years ago I had actually tried to HINT to my boss the reason I was always so tired at work was not because I don't sleep at night but because I'm actually out fighting crime to all hours of the night.

My Superman friend took it a few steps further. At his new job he likes to try and convince his staff that he is Superman. Not straight out tell them, but with subtle little hints. When someone leaves the price gun in a random place, he'll be sure to find it and relocate it to a random part of the store. When a staff member comes and asks him if he's seen the price gun he will squint his eyes (using his X-ray vision) and tell them it's in a specific spot across the store. They walk away dumbfounded as to how he knew.

He also once unscrewed part of the handrail in the backroom stairs early in the morning so that later when him and a staff member were walking on the stairs he "accidentally" pulled the railing off claiming. When the employee asked him how he did that he claimed "he didn't know his own strength".

Absolutely brilliant. I was laughing my ass off when he told me these stories. There were more but I can't remember them right now.

It's definitely true, geeks have the most fun...

Questions for Nein Nunb?

2010-02-05T20:25:00.006-05:00

So I'm pretty sure by now most people know how much I love Star Wars. Last night an interesting thing happened while I was on Twitter. A friend that I have met though The Kevin Pollak Chat Show, who lives all the way over in Scotland, informed me that he was acquainted with Mike Quinn. As a geek I am familiar with him because he was not only the puppeteer of Nien Nunb from Return of the Jedi, but he also helped Frank Oz with Yoda! Fucking Yoda! He's also done countless work with Jim Henson such as Fraggle Rock, The Great Muppet Caper, The Dark Crystal, and even animated for A Bug's Life and the 50's style Woody's Round Up segment in Toy Story 2 for Pixar!

Down at Fraggle Rock!

Nein Nunb! Coolest Sullustan ever? I think so...

So my friend on Twitter said that not only would he try to get me an autograph (boss!) but that if I wanted I should compile a bunch of questions for him that he is totally willing to answer and that I can post on my blog as an interview! I thought that was pretty bad ass. I did ask a question already though if he had done the voice as well and here was his response...

"All the Jedi creatures were dubbed in post for continuity etc. In fact we knew Jabba and others would be dubbed because they were supposed to be speaking alien languages. So I actually wrote all my lines as proper English sentences so that they would make sense to Billy Dee. Ben Burt used a Kenyan intern who was around for the Nunb at Skywalker during looping for the movie long after we were done"

I loved that he referred to him as "the Nunb"

So I obviously have to get down some questions. I'd be happy to take suggestions from all you guys as well! If you are a die hard Star Wars and Muppets fan throw some questions my way. To me this is a really cool opportunity to talk to someone who has worked side by side with George Lucas, Frank Oz, and Jim Henson!

And to finish it off a great Nien Nunb video...

Breaking and Entering

2010-02-04T18:29:00.002-05:00

After an incredibly crazy day at work due to an upcoming blizzard all I wanted to do was home and and rest my back. My back has been doing a lot better lately because of my mattress but today was so crazy at work that it only took about an hour or so til I was in pain. As I pulled my car up I noticed two of my neighbors talking and one of them did not look happy. As I was walking by the one guy stopped me. He lives on the top floor, same as me, right across the hall and is one of the few neighbors who is actually nice to me. He asked if I was just getting home from work and I told him yes.

He then explained that his condo was broken into. He had several flat screen HDTV's, stereo system, Nintendo Wii, watches, his girlfriend's jewelry, and a mess load of other stuff all taken. He told me he left early in the morning around 6 and got back at around 3. I told him I left at 9:20 today and I hadn't seen anything. He's trying to find out what kind of time frame this could have happened. After talking with a few other neighbors it most likely happened between 11 and 1. This is simply amazing to me considering that not only are we a very quiet neighborhood and that this happened in broad daylight, but also that this guy lives on the 3rd floor like me. That's several flights of stairs you have to go up and down and NOBODY sees it happen. There were probably several people but even my neighbor said that even with like 4 guys they would have had to at least take 3-4 trips with the amount of stuff they took. I felt terrible because he's a younger guy like me and we live in a neighborhood of old people who don't like us even though we do nothing to bother anyone.

Since we both live on the top floor our condo's have an upstairs loft. That's where I basically live. One neighbor asked if it was possible they came in through the window of the loft because it's right next to part of the roof. If I wanted too I could easily open my window, take off the screen, and go walk on the roof. There are people always doing work on the roof ( I should know, I hear it constantly) so people were wondering if they could have come in that way. That was unsettling for me because my bed is right up against that window and I often leave it open to let the cool air in. Now I have to be fucking worried about someone coming into my house through a window 40 feet up?? Jesus...

The guy said they came in through the front door because when he got home from work he went to unlock the door only to find that the deadbolt had been pried open with a crowbar or something. Ouch. So when he first told me about all this he was like "I literally just got home 10 minutes ago. I'm standing outside to ask people if they have seen anything and to check if anyone got into their place" That scares the fuck out of me and I run up the stairs to my place. My door is still locked and my dog starts barking loudly like he always does and a sudden calm comes over me. Nobody in their right mind would try to come into my house if they heard a dog that large barking. And although that is very comforting it's still not enough. I never in a million years thought this would happen in my neighborhood and especially to us people on the top floor. It's too inconvenient! The bottom floor, maybe, but not the top.

I just have to wonder, was this a personal thing? Did they check other buildings? Did they test every door in the condo and just settled for this guys place? The whole thing is fucked up and I hate that things like this happen. That someone could actually seem to lack any type of conscious whatsoever to break into a complete stranger's house and take their valuables. My neighbor's girlfriend was on the verge of tears because all of her dead grandmother's jewelry was taken. These types of people just don't fucking think about the effects of their actions. They don't care because they are heartless. I really wish I hadn't been working today, I really do. I hear everything that goes on in that hallway, everything.

I hate so many people in this world it's literally incomprehensible. I really hope they catch these guys...

What scares you...?

2010-02-01T18:18:00.004-05:00

There are few things that scare me in life. The first is spiders and the second is ghosts.

Do I believe in ghosts? Hard to say. I am definitely interested in them though. Ever since I was a kid I was always watching creepy shows on TV about ghosts and aliens. My mom would always yell at me to turn them off because they would give me nightmares but I would never listen, even though I knew she was right. I was a sick kid. lol. I loved to get scared and then would hate myself that night when it was time for bed and I couldn't sleep. Dreams of ghosts would haunt my mind and keep me up til the sun came up.
Now that I am older these things still disturb me. Spiders mainly since I see them all the time. Ghosts not so much as it's all in my head. I was honestly excited to see the movie Paranormal Activity because I was looking for a movie to actually scare me. It was cool and I enjoyed it but I was actually able to go home that night and sleep peacefully. I thought it was going to prevent me from sleeping for days! So I was disappointed in that regard. A movie hasn't really scared me in a decade because horror movies suck now these days except for one. And it's not even a horror movie it's more of a suspense. Plus, there are no ghosts.

The Strangers.
Man that movie was awesome. I hadn't been that creeped out since the original Halloween. I didn't have nightmares about it but every time I walked my dog outside near the woods or I passed by a window in my condo I had shivers go down my spine.

Which brings me to the reason for this whole post. Last night I somehow stumbled upon a youtube video that brought back terrible, terrible memories. It's from the original TV mini-series for Stephen King's Salem's Lot. When I saw this as a kid there was this one scene that prevented me from sleeping for god knows how long. Luckily I have the clip right here for all to view! *shudder*

Salem's Lot- Kid at Window

If you didn't click on the video I have to make you view a screen shot...

Sweet merciful crap!! That scene ruined my life. In my sick twisted imagination that little boy was outside my window every fucking night for weeks scratching, scratching, scratching at my window but I would never let him in. I would pull the covers over my head and hope he would just go away, but he never did because he was in my mind.

I thought that maybe seeing that scene again as an adult would be less creepy but no, it's just as unsettling.

Anyone remember this scene? If not, what prevented you from sleeping as a kid?

One of those days...

2010-01-27T23:32:00.004-05:00

I'm usually always in a grumpy mood when it comes to everything (hence the blog title) but good lord I hate those days when all these little annoying things happen and it just seems like nothing is really going your way. I had one of those today...

I worked a short shift at work this morning which wasn't too bad. My plan was to go straight from work over to my storage facility so I could start cleaning some more crap out of there. As I'm about to leave I remember "Crap, I left the storage key at home". *sigh* So now I have to drive all the way home first to get the key. So right from the start I'm already kinda peeved. Now it normally takes me about 7 minutes to get to my storage place from my house depending on how many traffic lights I hit. There are a bunch but they are normally always in my favor. NOT TODAY! So out of about 13 lights I hit 11 of them. That is absolutely unheard of. Then some woman in a PT Cruiser starts tailgating my ass. Being one of my biggest pet peeves on the road I switch over to the other lane to let the crazy retard past me in hopes that she'll kill herself somewhere down the road far away from me. Of course now I've apparently switched over to the "slow driving moron lane". And I mean painfully slow. So I'm trying to switch back into the other lane but all these other cars are flying passed me cause we're moving to slow. So I gave up.

Finally I'm in the home stretch. All I have to do it drive up this hill and then it's about a mile away. There are three lanes at this point but being the genius I am I stay in the right lane because I know the far left lane is going to have to merge into the middle lane very shortly. So as I'm about to get over the hill we all come to a complete stop. Weird, the next light is pretty far away isn't it? So I sit there inching along for 7 minutes til I get over the hill to see that there is construction! Yay! They are closing off the right lane in 500 feet!! Joy of joys! So now they have it set up so both the left and right lanes are feeding into the one middle lane. Fucking brilliant. I sure know when to chose the right days to do something productive!

So in the end my normal 7 minute drive took 40 minutes. Boy did that put me in a good mood.

I finally get to the storage unit, park my car, get a cart, and wheel it to my unit. Now mind you my initial plan was to load up my car (which can barely hold shit might I add) with stuff we don't need and make several trips back and forth to the local dump a few miles away. So I start loading up my car which is a pain in my ass considering I have a bad back but hey somebody's gotta do it. When I'm about to leave I realize "Fuck, if I go to the dump I'm going to have to come back through all that traffic to get back to the storage unit!" Noooooooooooooo!

But then I see a glimmer of hope! There are the end of row of my storage units is a giant dumpster! I've never noticed it before. So I drive the car to the end of the road to check out the dumpster. There are signs reading "Do NOT leave garbage outside the dumpster. If you need to use the dumpster please ask a manager for permission to unlock. All activity is being monitored by camera". I glance up and there is indeed a camera. So I drive my car back down to my unit, get out, walk in the building and walk all the way down this long ass hallway to the office door.

Locked.

The fuck? It's never locked. So I knock a few times and get nothing. So I proceed to a door to the right that leads outside to the actual MAIN door to the office. Locked. I notice a sign that says "Sorry Management is showing new Storage Unit to customer" Awesome, just what I need. So I got back to my unit and just started wheeling stuff outside with the cart and leaving it by my car so that way I'll have a bunch of stuff to take to the dumpster once I get someone to unlock it. It's about this time I really need to use the bathroom. Of course the bathroom is in the office which is locked. So I have to tough it out. Every 5 minutes or so I would walk down the long hallway to the office to see if they were open and it would always be locked. Guess how long it took for this asswipe to get back to the office?

45 damn minutes!!! I really need to go to the bathroom at this point and I mean it's killing me so I ask the guy 2 questions. 1) May I please use your restroom? and 2) Can you please unlock the dumpster for me?

"Sorry our bathroom is out of order but you can use the dumpster. It's already unlocked for everyone to use, just pull the gate open"

Me: *twitch twitch* You... don't.... say............?

BRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!! SEAN SMASH!

I'm not even going to bore you with the details of the pain and agony I was experiencing in mind and body while trying to lift heavy furniture up and over into the TOP of the dumpster because they wouldn't fit through the sides. And I don't even want to get into the ride home...

All in all it sure was a fun day and I hope to have more like it soon!

I'm still here...

2010-01-27T00:31:00.002-05:00

Yeah I haven't been around in awhile. I hate not being able to blog. Lately I've just been dealing with a lot of stuff. I was sick for awhile, my diet has made me irritable, and I've had some family issues that have been going on. All in all, not a good week or so for me. Good news is that during the time I have lost some weight. It's only a couple pounds but it's still something. Don't know whether to thank the diet or the sickness. Hmmm...

So here are a few random things I thought I'd bring up...

-I was just reading an article, which you too can read HERE about how Avatar may be the top "grossing" movie of all time but that doesn't mean it's the biggest movie of all time like they have been claiming. Back when Titanic surpassed Star Wars as the "biggest movie of all time" I would always argue the fact that just because it made more money doesn't exactly make it bigger. Because it all has to do with ticket prices! How much money do you think a movie ticket cost back in 1977? Not much I'll tell ya that. Plus because Avatar is also in 3D that bumps the price up to $13 a ticket! So obviously something like that is going to rake in more dough.

But that's not the point of the article. The point is that if rated by the number of actual tickets sold then Star Wars A New Hope comes in at number 2 and Avatar all the way down at number 26. HA! God I love it. Empire and Jedi are on there too :-) Ahhh it's things like this that make me happy.

- I rented the movie Moon starring Sam Rockwell the other day. If you want to see a great flick in the spirit of Twilight Zone and 2001 A Space Odyssey, then definitely check out this movie. The less you know going into the movie the more you'll enjoy it. Trust me. Sam Rockwell needs more work.

-I mentioned awhile back that I ordered some memory foam for my mattress in hopes it would help with my back and my sleeping. Well I can honestly tell you that I am really starting to notice a difference in my back, which is awesome. As for sleep, not so much. My sleeping habits are basically still the same I'm now just more comfortable as I toss and turn in the wee hours of the night. Oh well, I tried. Guess the only way I'm gonna be able to get a normal nights sleep is to get sleeping pills from a doctor. And I can tell ya right now there is no way in hell I'm doing that.

I've got more to say considering I have been gone for over a week but I shall save those for future blogs this week.

Adios!

District 10

2010-01-11T17:25:00.005-05:00

OK now bear with me on this one. I hope at least some of you can understand where I'm coming from with this. I'll just go right out and explain what it is that's bothering me instead of trying to get you to relate first.

So the neighborhood where I live is right next to a "gated" community. When you pull onto my street you can either turn right to go down my road or turn left only to be stopped by a huge metal gate. For the longest time I had no idea why this neighborhood was restricted. There is even a big sign off to the side that says something along the lines of "Government Property, No Trespassing or you will be fucking killed" blah blah blah. My geek brain insured me that this was obviously where the government was keeping the aliens that live amongst us. I would later begin to refer to it as District 10. Sadly, years later, I was told the truth that it's actually a community for the people that work down the street at this federal technology agency. Why they get some fancy fenced in community all to themselves I have no idea.

But now here's what's bothering me. At the beginning of the month, starting on New Years Day, there was a cop car sitting on the other side of the gate. Now cops are coming in and out of that neighborhood all the time, so I didn't think much of it until the next day when I saw the car was there again. Not only was it still there but I realized that it never left! There also wasn't even a cop in the car the whole time. So here we have this car, inside the gated neighborhood, blocking the entrance/exit so no one can get in or out. The first few days I kind of assumed that maybe it had something to do with it being New Years weekend but then I thought that that doesn't make any sense! You can't just "close" a neighborhood. I know that these people are apparently special and all and need their privacy but at some point someone is going to have to leave to run errands or something!

No, nothing.

The cop car was there for 5 days. 5 days! No one came in or out. How is that even possible?! And now that the car is gone I notice that half the time I drive by the gate is wide open! I could walk/drive right in if I wanted. I'm pretty sure they have canon towers somewhere in there so I don't want to risk it.
So not only does this bother me because I have no idea what's going on, but it really drives me crazy that I will NEVER know what was going on. I asked a neighbor if she had any idea what was going on over there.

Lady: I noticed that too. That cop car has been blocking the entrance for days now. I don't think it's moved.
Me: You have no idea why?
Lady: Haven't really thought much about it.
Me: I mean, those people need to leave at some point right?
Lady: Yeah I guess you're right. Didn't really think about that.

What the fuck? Am I the only one that is bothered by this? Here is a huge neighborhood that is fenced off. How is it that not a single person is able to enter or exit for 5 days? Someone would of had to leave at some point. Maybe it happened while I was at work. It's not like I was staring at this place the whole 5 days. but even if that is the case and someone did leave at some point, it would have been a big inconvenience considering how the cop car was blocking it and there is never an actual cop in sight. So weird.

So today when I was coming back home from work I noticed a cop car sitting at the entrance to my neighborhood. He wasn't behind the gate or anything, plus the gate was wide open. So since this has been bothering me all week I decided to roll down my window and asked the cop if he knew if there was anything going on in that neighborhood.

"Don't worry about it"

That's all he says. He was all serious about it too. What the hell is going on over there? It's things like this that really drive me crazy. I just want to know what's happening! Next time I see that gate open I think I'm just going bolt in there.

I imagine it'll be like a movie where I run in flipping around like Yoda, dodging canon fire, flaming arrows, landmines, and lasers and then I'm going to reach the center of the neighborhood only to discover that the secret this neighborhood has been keeping is that they have a fucking baby Brontosaurus or something being held captive. Then suddenly all these search lights will spot me and helicopters will coming flying out of no where with machines guns aimed at me. The baby Brontosaurus will notice that I mean it no harm and stand in between myself and the helicopters as a means of protecting me. Not wanting to harm the Brontosaurus, the helicopters will stand down. They know how valuable this creature is and that no harm should be brought to it. But suddenly, out of no where, the power hungry General leaps from the skies in a giant Exo-frame and grabs the baby dinosaur by the tail. In an attempt to toss the poor dinosaur (ala Bowser in Mario 64) the General starts swinging the Brontosaurus like a rag doll. With what little strength I have, I leap onto the Exo-frame and impale the General with a lightsaber that the Brontosaurus gave me mere seconds before the helicopters showed up. As the General takes his last remaining breath he mentions that Brontosaurus was his favorite dinosaur as a kid, and with a tear in his eye he tries to look at the dinosaur to say "I'm sorry" but all that comes out is a gurgle. And with that, he is gone. The people of the neighborhood realize their mistake and decide to worship the Brontosaurus as a god.

"Bronty" as he would eventually be named by the townsfolk, ruled over the community in a fair and just manner while I, Sean, was able to sleep well at night knowing what exactly had been going on behind those gates.

The End...

New Years Resolutions

2010-01-04T21:25:00.003-05:00

First of all thank you to everyone for the Christmas/Birthday/New Years wishes. I really appreciate it!

I can't remember the last time I actually made a New Years Resolution. I'm never actually going to do it so what's the point? Well this year I am going to do one. Since I haven't been sticking by my diet like I should, that's what I'm gonna do. Weight loss is a common resolution for people but my fucking god I'm sick of being overweight. I haven't been happy in awhile because of it. So that's my deal and I'm sticking with it. And it's going to suck, badly...

Lose the weight dummy!!

As for fun personal things, I'm almost done with Dragon Age. I've been taking my sweet time with it but I work in phases. I'm also trying to find some new manga to read or anime to watch. There's just so much! Basically I'm looking for a new anime that airs a new episode every week in Japan. Like something to look forward to. Also, if I wasn't a big enough geek already I started watching Doctor Who last night on Netflix. I've heard nothing but good things from friends and family and I definitely enjoyed what I saw. Gotta love those Brits.

At this very moment I am downloading the new Weezer single "(If Your Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To". Can't get that chorus out of my head! Great song. Except it keeps saying error when I download it. WTF? I better not keep getting charged every time I try this.

Sadly for a good part of my time off last week I felt pretty sick. Went out for New Years Eve to a friends house and could barely bring myself to drink anything. Talk about a bummer. I'm feeling a bit better which is nice but I'm also back at work which is not so nice. After 5 days off, going back to work is like putting your head in a vise. And not in the funny way like when Moe does it to Curly.

I got to catch up on some reading too. A real book, not a comic book or manga. Granted it's a Star Wars book, but a book nonetheless!! And it's friggin long too.

Well I'm off for now. Rented the CGI movie 9 so I'm just gonna lay down and watch that and hope that I feel a lot better tomorrow...

Happy New Years

2009-12-31T17:38:00.002-05:00

Just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Years. I will be ringing in the new year over at my buddy's house for some drinking. Rock Band will be played as well on his new HDtv. Pretty excited to see this thing.

How everyone has a great night. Stay safe!

Birthday

2009-12-29T12:37:00.003-05:00

Well today is my birthday. I took off work from today til after New Years just to have some nice R&R.

For me?! You shouldn't have!

Sometimes there is seriously nothing better than doing absolutely nothing. That's the plan for today. Well not exactly nothing since I'll be playing WoW, watching some anime, maybe a movie or 2, that kinda stuff. I just went out to go the the grocery store and picked up a delicious Subway sandwich. I don't plan on leaving the house again today except to walk the dog.

Ahhh so relaxing...

"YOU ARE A GAS STATION!"

2009-12-27T15:02:00.004-05:00

So last night my friends threw me a nice little birthday party dealy. Nothing big and crazy, as I requested, but super awesome. One of my friends got me the Marvel Comics Encyclopedia which is fucking huge and my other buddy got me a how to draw manga kit complete with miniature posable mannequin. I've wanted one of these mannequins for the longest time so that really made me happy. The rest of the night consisted of Smash Bros on the N64 (of course) and beer pong. My friend and I actually had an EPIC comeback in pong that was so fucking awesome. It was a sight to behold.

This morning though sucked ass. After having such a great time last night of course something had to go wrong today. I was obviously hungover as hell and all I wanted to do was get back home and relax. My car was parked several blocks away so it wasn't a fun walk considering my backpack was stuffed and I was carrying my manga kit and cinderblock of an Encyclopedia. Once I reach my car I get in and try to start it. The engine runs but as soon as I touch the pedal the damn thing dies. WTF?! Being that I'm on a steep hill it's hard enough trying to get out of that parking space. If there is a car in front of me, like there was this time, you have to start the car and quickly put it in reverse so you don't hit the car. I was apparently lucky today because there was a patch of snow blocking my front tires. So in my hungover state of mind I for whatever reason think that I can't get my car moving because of this patch of snow, which is completely idiotic considering the car just turned off and that's why it couldn't move. So I called my "friend" and I use that term loosely (just kidding bra!), to come help and push my car out. Obviously that wasn't the problem and so I showed him how I can start the car but as soon as I put my foot on the gas pedal it dies. His first instinct was to call Triple A (AAA), which I don't have, but I have emergency call service with Geico. I told him, dude, I think it's actually the gas. I was almost positive I had a quarter of a tank left when I parked there last night and now my gauge is telling me it's empty. Something is amiss...

So my buddy gets his car and we drive to the nearby gas station. There are about 12 of them on this road so we figured we could go in and get a gas canister to fill up and take it back to my car. We stop at the first station, the Getty, and I go in and ask. The guy gives me this look and says "Sorry man, we don't have that"

"................."

"YOU ARE A GAS STATION! You don't have a gas canister?? "

"No sorry, u might want to try the Sunoco next door, they've gotta have one!"

"Yeah, because they are a REAL gas station"

So I get back in my friends car and tell him the bad news. We then go over to the Sunoco and I go in. I ask if the have any gas canisters. He gives me that awkward look and inhales through clenched teeth. "Don't think we have that..."

"YOU ARE A GAS STATION!"

"Hold on, let me check in the back room"

He goes to the "back room" which from what I can see just looks like a cellar. I see him looking around and finally his eyes fall to the floor and he pick up and dirty ass red canister. Thank the fucking maker! So he gives it to me and charges me $2.72 on my Visa Check card because it's a gallon sized jug. Then he tells me there is a $7 deposit on the jug. I say "OK" and then we stare at each other awkwardly for awhile until he says "So do you have $7?" and I say "Dude, ur holding my Visa in ur hands. Swipe it again, I don't care" and he says "Deposits are only cash"

FML.....

So we come to an agreement. He will hold my Visa hostage until I come back. FINE! Good! Just let me take the damn gas to my car already. So I go outside and starting filling this tiny plastic jug with gas. It's such a strange feeling filling something that isn't ur gas tank. It should also be noted that he didn't have a cap for it. So I get into my friends car with an open container of gasoline.

He says "Just please god don't spill that in my car.... and why the fuck didn't they give u a cap??"

I told him they didn't have one. And then as we are driving away it hits me...

How the fuck am I supposed to pour this in my tank without a nozzle? This thing was so awkwardly shaped that it would be impossible to pour it in the tank. So we turn around and go BACK to the gas station. The guy is standing outside when we pull up so I put the window down and ask..

"U didn't give me a cap but is there something u can give me to actually pour this in my gas tank?"

He gives this kinda weird eye roll of confusion and walks into the store. I didn't budge from the car. I thought I would wait for him to bring me nothing. I mean, if he had just randomly found a gas container for me with no lid then obviously the poor soul had no idea where the spout would be. Next thing ya know my friend is telling me that the dude is signaling me. He's in the store waving to get attention from us because he has used the metal sliding tray that they normally use after hours, to give me a funnel! Wow a funnel! That's actually very useful and will definitely help! But here's the kicker. It's not a real funnel.

It's a fucking paper cone cup with the tip cut off....

I "thank" the guy and I leave, still concerned that my Visa is being locked in a tower guarded by a dragon until my return. So my friend takes me back to my car and I have to use the damn snowcone cup to pur gas in my car. It, of course, goes everyone when I start out and I get gas all over my left hand. Perfect. Luckily though, it was a gas problem so I didn't have to call Geico, and I was able to drive back home.

Well that was a long one. Hope u enjoyed my misery. And a note to all people who work at a gas station. If you don't carry gas canisters u are fucking retarded!!

Merry Christmas

2009-12-25T16:14:00.007-05:00

Want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas! Kenobi and I are spending it indoors hanging out watching movies and playing video games. Well at least I am, Kenobi is enjoying the bone he got for Christmas. Will be ordering Chinese food and watching movies later. I have definitely become more Jewish during the holidays these past few years. Heh

Enjoy a Haruhi Christmas...

This is my mouse pad. lol

Christmas Eve

2009-12-25T03:04:00.003-05:00

Wanted to throw out a Merry Christmas Eve post tonight to everyone out there.

Lucky Star gang with video games = My Christmas

I'll also make another quick post tomorrow for Christmas Day, complete with Haruhi picture.

Hope everyone has a great day...

The Disappearance....

2009-12-22T02:03:00.003-05:00

Yeah...

I've been wondering how they were going to do this arc...

There had been many rumors about it but I didn't get too excited...

The animation looks fucking gorgeous...

Can't wait...

It's actually happening....

Can't wait...

Star Wars: The manga

2009-12-21T19:54:00.004-05:00

I've decided to get back into some reading. My back has been bothering me more lately and sometimes it's just relaxing to sit in my chair and read. Also very peaceful compared to the noise I'm used to (anime, WoW, video games). So today I decided to pick up an old classic Star Wars book called Heir to the Empire. It's the first in a trilogy and it introduces new characters that become HUGE in the Star Wars expanded universe like Mara Jade and Grand Admiral Thrawn. The sad thing though is that even though I've never even picked up one of these books I already know about all these characters because as a Star Wars geek it's just common knowledge. Still excited to read the books though.

So while I was looking through my bookshelf to see what other books I might have that I haven't read yet I stumbled upon my Star Wars manga. Yes, it does exist. They started coming out in 1997 right before the re-release of the movies. Now at this stage in my life I was not the anime/manga freak that I am today. The only anime I had watched at this point were Ninja Scroll, Akira, Street Fighter 2 the movie, and a few others here and there that my cousin got me into. I also referred to it as "Japanimation. As for manga I was just getting into it at the time when a friend at school let me borrow a few Ranma books. It was a lot harder to come by at this time. So when I went to the comic book store near my dad's house and found a Star Wars manga I thought it was probably the coolest thing ever! After seeing things like Akira and Ninja Scroll I could tell the Japanese knew how to do action so I couldn't wait to see how they would interpret Star Wars.

And boy was I impressed...

Fact: Han Solo is a fucking PIMP

Not only was the artwork amazing, it also felt totally natural. Mixing manga and Star Wars can seem a bit strange at first but once you get into it something just felt right. I loved it when I first read it 12 years ago, and I just read it again and love it on a completely different level now that I am obsessed with anime/manga. Even the death of Obi-Wan kinda got to me. They handle it so well in this book...

Vader looks so bad ass in the manga..

Another cool thing was that they added scenes that we're deleted from the movie into this story. So it was kind of like reading a Special Edition before they actually existed. This was a big deal for me cuz back then Star Wars was only on VHS. There were no DVD's, deleted scenes, or bonus features. Crazy huh? I had only read transcripts of deleted scenes in my Star Wars Insider magazine. So to actually see it drawn out was pretty damn rad. Sadly though, the comic book store stopped carrying it. I had got all 4 books of A New Hope and the first Empire Strikes Back book. That was it. When I asked the store clerk when the next ones were coming in he said they weren't. Like I said earlier, back then manga was not that big and for a small hole in the wall comic book store to keep carrying something that doesn't sell much, well, you get the idea.

But that has all now changed. After finding these books again today and very bitter that I never got to see the rest of them I turned to my friend the computer. Sure enough, there they are on Amazon! God bless the Internets. Most of them are going for $4 or less used, thank god. A NEW copy of book 2 of A New Hope is going for $75!! Sweet Jesus.

I just love knowing that you can almost find anything you want on the internet these days. I had given up years ago that I was never going to get the rest of these books and then it just slipped from my mind. So glad I checked that bookshelf today. lulz...

Irony...

2009-12-18T18:24:00.002-05:00

Well that's pretty damn ironic. Shorty after posting my latest blog yesterday about how strange the weather is, I had found out that we were to be expecting a snowstorm of sorts this weekend! Now I'm not going to get excited until I actually see it with my own eyes but if it pans out like it's supposed to then we're supposed to get around 10-12 inches on snow. That would be the most snow we've had in about a decade.

I just found it pretty strange that the day I start bitching and moaning about not getting snow like we used to that I'm told we're going to get absolutely punished by it. So weird.

And you should see the way everyone was reacting today. My job was absolutely insane but I'm not going to get into that. The grocery store near me was an absolute madhouse! Barely any parking spaces, people were waiting for others to finish using their carts since there were none available. It was just insane. Lucky for me I did my shopping last night when I first got word of a potential blizzard.

I shall keep you all updated.

Crazy Weather

2009-12-17T12:17:00.004-05:00

I'm not one of those guys that goes around spouting stuff about Global Warming or anything but you would have to be insane to not notice something is definitely going on here.

When I was a kid we would get out of school due to snow all the time! When winter came around you better believe there would be snow. There were a few years where we actually had blizzards that would keep us out of school for days! It was truly awesome. I don't think it ever snowed on Christmas here, which always disappointed me, but at least it snowed. These past few years I've just been disappointed by the lack of snow in general.

Rukia in Hoth Gear...

The past week or so has been a good example of what I'm talking about. Since I'm constantly walking outside at my job I get a feel for the weather and have to dress appropriately. Last Thursday and Friday was ass freezing. We had these incredibly strong winds too which made it almost unbearable to be outside. 2 days ago I was wearing a t-shirt outside! A t-shirt in December. That just has wrong written all over it. Then yesterday I was all bundled up again to walk my dog in the cold. I shouldn't be wearing a t-shirt one day and a hoodie and jacket the next. It's just not right.

Our biggest concern these days is ice. It will rain on a warm Dec/Jan day and then over night it drops 40 degrees and freezes over. So lame. As most of you know I love the cold. So you can understand my anger when it's 75 degrees out on a day in December. It's warm for more than half the year! Give me the few months I need of chilly weather so I too can be as happy as you normal people in the warmer months! It's all I ask.

My dog and I enjoy the cold weather...

My dog loves the snow but he never really gets to play in it as much as I would like him too. It sucks that we are pretty much destroying this planet, it really does. I've only seen part of An Inconvenient Truth but what I saw blew my mind. I hate to say it but I think Gore is onto something. lol.

That's enough ranting for now. Time to walk the dog. Haven't been outside yet so don't know if I should wear a shirt or hoodie. Guess I'll find out...

Wake Up Call

2009-12-11T19:23:00.002-05:00

You know that incredibly confusing and awkward moment when you wake up and have no idea what time it is or even what day? I had another one of those experiences today which I'll get to in a sec.

Usually these work in my favor. As a night person I don't normally get much sleep. So when it is time to get up for work in the morning I'm tired as hell and the only thing on my mind is that if I have a short day at work then I know it will only be a few hours til I can come back home and take a nap. My nap time is when I am most pleased. Those are when I have the most vivid dreams. But as incredible as those dreams can be sometimes, it always comes with a price. When you wake up, be it alarm clock, phone ringing, or just being jolted awake by the dream itself, depending on what time it is you are going to be confused as hell.

When I was back in High School I would stay up til at least 1:30 in the morning (watching Conan O'Brien) and then would be woken up by my mom yelling ti get up around 6am. Later when I would get home I would end up taking a nap. I lived in the basement of my house so after turning off all the lights and covering the one small window I had it would look like night time. After napping for a few hours I would hear my mom screaming for me to wake up. Thinking it was the morning I would jump out of bed, start putting on my clothes, packing up my backpack, and run upstairs to find my mom was cooking dinner.

Dinner!

God dammit! The clock said 6, it was dark, I thought it was 6 in the morning. I'm sure everyone has been through this at some point. You wake up suddenly from sleep and you are completely disoriented. It's crazy. But while it usually works in my favor considering I would find out it WASN'T time for school/work and that I actually had the whole night ahead of me, today was a bit different.

I got to bed a little late last night because I couldn't stop watching my Firefly DVD's. I got a call at 7 in the morning from one of my fellow employee's. I was so completely out of it when he called. I had apparently been dreaming about being in the log cabin I stayed in last week, so when this guy called, he told me he was going to be late and he didn't know what to do. In my dazed state I had no idea what to tell him because 1) I thought it was Saturday morning, which I never work and 2) I thought I was at the cabin! He asked me if I could come in to cover for him and I told him I was out of state. He was panicking and so was I for a bit because we had no idea who was going to open the store. As we slowly moved through the conversation my eyes became more clear and adjusted to the dark I realized where I was. My house!

Me: Wait, what day is today?
Employee: Friday
Me:......FUCK It's me! You work with me today! Oh man sorry I've been half asleep this conversation.

I had honest to god thought it was Saturday and I was in a cabin because that's what I was dreaming about. So it sucked big time because now I knew that not only was I working that day and that I needed to get out of bed in a few hours, but that I was going to be working all day! Curse you subconscious!! Leading me to believe I would be resting peacefully with friends in a cabin for the weekend only to be woken up from bliss to find I have to work all damn day. It's the exact opposite of what I would want to be doing!

Oh well, now it's time to really relax. I ended up having to work alone for 2 hours today which was really bad on my back. Resting tonight and then tomorrow I gotta go shopping for a gift. My friends and I are doing a Yankee Swap on Sunday which should be fun.

Later yinz...

Cabin Trip

2009-12-10T22:26:00.005-05:00

So I'm back. I know it's been awhile. I spent last weekend up in a cabin with a few of my friends. I was a little worried about there not being a TV, computer, internet and the like but it turned out amazing.

This isn't our cabin but they all look the same

The first night there we didn't do too much considering how late it was and most of us were pretty tired. I was fine though and gung ho about doing anything. My one friend suggested going outside to make a fire at 11:00 at night, which I was all for. It took us a bit since it was cold and windy but we got that bad boy burning. After chilling by the fire for a while we all went inside. Everyone went to sleep except me. I chilled out in the living room laying on the couch resting my back and reading some Catcher in the Rye. Holy crap it was relaxing and just what I needed.

The next day I woke up early. To my surprise it was snowing! We had heard that it might happen but not until later in the day so it was really exciting. One of my friends was already up and asked me if I wanted to play a board game. We only had Rummikub which I had never played before (even though I remember the box sitting in my house my entire life). After being taught how to play I became addicted. All 5 of us ended up playing at some point off and on the entire day.

No TV and no internet make Sean something something....

Play Rummikub..?

Don't mind if I do!!

Right before I won the second game and the first beer of the day!

Strangely enough I got worse at the game the drunker I became throughout the day. Considering this game involves math, which I'm terrible at sober, this was bound to happen eventually and not at all surprising.

In the morning we ran up to the local store to buy burgers and such for the fire pit. For some ungodly reason these people not only didn't have the hamburgers they claimed that had but I also found that all their bags of hotdog buns were green and moldy. Keep up the good work guys!
We ended up just getting same bacon which we successfully cooked on the firepit! It was pretty awesome and tasted great.

Fire eventually went THROUGH our tinfoil. Didn't see that one coming...

Since it took us so long to get the fire started that morning and we knew we were going to use it later in the day to make hotdogs, my friend and I decided we would try our best to keep it going the entire day. The snow and wind made that a little tough but were able to keep it running for about 12 hours. Not too shabby. We ended the night with some smores outside by the fire and then turning in for more booze and a trivia game. All in all an awesome day. I really didn't want to leave. It was so relaxing there and not having the internet kinda made it nice. Not constantly checking Facebook or Twitter and all that stuff. In fact, I think I was the only one who didn't use my friends Blackberry to check things online. What control I have!

Time for me to "turn in" for the night. That basically means it's time for me to wind down and watch some Firefly on DVD and Conan O'Brien.

100!!

2009-12-01T19:57:00.002-05:00

I have never really counted how many posts I have done. It only shows you after the login screen but on my main computer I always had everything already saved so it would go right to the blog. Well lucky for me this spare computer (which is sucking ass and I feel is going to crash at any moment) I haven't saved my passwords so when I signed into blogspot just now it said I had posted a total of 99 blogs.

So that makes this one, 100!

Kinda hard to believe. It says I joined blogspot in October of last year so it's taken me 13 months to make 100 posts. I don't think that's too bad for a n00b. I can't post everyday and I mentioned that towards the beginning, plus I have had several months of downtime due to computer problems. One has to wonder how far I would be had my computer not gimped out on me.

Next post I will have more to say, I just had to dedicate my 100th post to being my 100th post. But here are some things going on with me...

-I will soon be providing reviews for my friend's website. The website is called Openly Lewd Comics and it is your non stop shop for geek related stuff! I will be one of the contributors in the reviews section lending my "talents". I'll keep you updated when it happens.

-I totally fraked my back at work last week and have been a mess ever since. My job involves a lot of manual labor and my doctor said I need to take it easy but that was impossible since my boss was out of town and we were understaffed. Joy!

-I'm going to spend this coming weekend with a few friends in a cabin. I was hoping to get in some snowboarding in at a mountain nearby but I don't think my back is going to handle it. But I'm still excited cuz I think it's just going to be a nice peaceful weekend.

-I have played the fighting game BlazBlue on the PS3 and it's the kind of fighting game I have been waiting for for a long time. Awesome 2-d fighting! I'll get more into that later. Dragon Age comes first!

Well that's all for now. Happy 100th!

Happy T-Day

2009-11-26T12:55:00.002-05:00

Time for some food punishing of epic proportions! I barely ate anything last night and then I slept through most of the day. It's about 1:00 now and dinner at my aunt's house is around 3:00. So I'm going to pretty much just relax until then.

Normally Thanksgiving is my entire family on my mom's side (and a rather large family at that) but this year most relatives are doing other things. So my cousin got in touch with me to let me know there would be a few of them going to my aunts house this year. So at least it's something! Since my aunt and I couldn't figure out what I could make to bring to dinner, since I can't cook, I have been entrusted to bring chips. And maybe some store bought rolls! Dunno, that might be a bit much for me to handle.

Anyway, hope everyone has a great holiday!

Boondock Saints 2 Review

2009-11-23T23:07:00.002-05:00

....

HA! I tricked you. There is no review. Because I didn't get to see it!

My friends and I were obsessed with the original Boondock Saints, and for good reason. It was violent, funny, and the main characters were fucking Irish brothers. You can't go wrong with the Irish! Every guy wanted to be like the MacManus Brothers. Have a fuggin awesome accent and kill people that did wrong. That's right. If you haven't seen the movie the "Saints" decided they would go around and kill everyone who they felt did wrong in the world. Like murders, pedophiles, and pimps. It's like a superhero without morals.

Now I would take the more Spider-Man route if I could and just bust criminals and leave them dangling from a web for the cops to find and arrest. I could never really kill a person, but the Boondock Saints did and it was edgy as fuck. Which made it such an interesting movie. But I'm getting off topic. It took a decade for the sequel to come out. Most of us gave up hope on the whole thing, but now here it is, in limited theater release. Sadly only a few of my close friends were able to go see it so we set off to one of the few theaters playing it.

So my friends and I were running a bit late. The movie started at 7:50 and we got there right around 8. We figured we had just missed the previews so we weren't too upset. But once we entered the lobby of the theater it was mass hysteria!! The lobby was a complete mess! I had originally thought we were going to the Indie Theater down the street for Boondock, but apparently I was wrong and we were in the GINORMOUS GENERAL PUBLIC THEATER! This theater as so huge that while I was looking for a much needed restroom I had to take the stairs that were about as long as a DC Metro escalator...

But anyway, the line to get tickets was ridiculous. One of my friends and I were drunk and so we were confused, but our buddy who drove us was sober enough to point out the fact "It's opening night for New Moon"
.......
.......
......
.................

New Moon???

New Moon????

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Yes sadly, it was true. It was the opening night of New Moon. We were surrounded by Tweens and Middle Aged Women unsatisfied by their marriages. It was a sight to behold! But the worst part was that even though we were late to our movie, we had to sit in the same line as the Twilight people! That's right, it was all one big line to the ticket booth.

I call bullshit!! I am a geek boy. We all know this. So whenever there is a big geek movie (Star Wars, Spider-Man, X-Men etc) there is always a separate line for them because the movie is so huge! Well apparently it wasn't the case for this theater. If you wanted to see the limited release for Boondock Saints 2 then you would have had to arrive at the theater early on like the rest of the New Moon crowd. Not only that, there were like 15 other movies out in that theater that night and if you were a poor soul not seeing New Moon, good luck catching your flick!

I'm sure it was just this theater that was being retarded, but I mean, come on. Put the mass public in a separate line (like I'm used to being in for my geek movies) so the kids can go see Planet 51 or The Christmas Carol!

So annoying...

Star Wars in Concert

2009-11-19T20:32:00.002-05:00

So last night was the big night. As I stated in my last post there are very few things in this world that I love more than Star Wars and so a month ago when my uncle called and asked if I wanted to see Star Wars in Concert I didn't even give him a chance to finish his sentence. I didn't even know what the hell it was! I hear Star Wars and I'm there. So it was me, my uncle, and my two younger cousins. The older of the two is obsessed with Star Wars so we have a lot in common. While I do have a great deal of knowledge of the prequels I haven't seen them nearly as many times as he has. And although I feel like less of a man when someone younger than me knows more about Star Wars than I do, I just have to remind myself that the prequels are what he was raised on so he saw them the most.

The car ride there was pretty funny because my uncle and I kept singing Bill Murray's lounge song version of Star Wars. My cousins we're not as amused as we were. For those unfamiliar, here's the video.

We were told that there was going to also be an exhibit of Star Wars costumes, weapons, and the like before the show. I was kind of expecting a big room with everything on display but unfortunately they were all in glass cases in the very cramped hallways. *le sigh* Another dumb move was that they put Darth Vader and Chewbacca on display right before the entrance. So there is a mass of people blocking the area you need to give you tickets. And once you were in, you couldn't go back out until the end of the show. Hella lame! Once we were on the other side of the gate you could immediately see the other displays. First were Kit Fisto and Plo Koon from the prequels. It was hilarious seeing my cousin get all excited to see the characters. It was exactly like when I was a kid and saw the Star Wars exhibit at the Smithsonian in DC. Pointing out every character you see in complete awe. "OH!! There's Vader!" and "Ohh ohh!! It's Chewey!" At once point my uncle actually turned to my cousin and said "Dylan! Stop being a geek!" Fatherly love.

As we moved on they had C-3PO, Han Solo in carbonite (or as one dumbass said "You wanna see Han Solo in his ice cube?"), Imperial Guard, Naboo Pilot, Emperor Palpatine's robe, Amidala's get up and her hand maiden's, some blasters, and a few helmets (Scout Trooper, Death Star Gunner, and A-Wing pilot). They also had HDTV screens everywhere playing different "making of" documentary stuff. All in all, pretty rad.

As for the show itself? Fucking amazing. They had this orchestra on stage with a gigantic move screen behind them. The lights go out. It's completely dark except for dozens of mini lightsabers keychains (from the gift shop) twirling around. Of course "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away" pops on the screen and then BAM! Logo hits the screen and the orchestra is a blazing. When the yellow Star Wars logo appeared they used yellow lights and swept them across the audience which looked amazing. As they are doing the main theme so they are showing clips from all the movies and cutting to shots of the band playing. I was in complete awe. It was so fucking beautiful. The very last clip they showed as the song was ending was of Darth Vader. They quickly zoom into his face and then the song ends and everything goes black for a couple seconds. Then there is some quick strobe lights and jets of steam shoot out of the stage floor and it goes dark again. Then you just hear Vader breathing. Such a great effect. As the lights come up we hear fucking James Earl Jones voice! He's introducing our host for the evening. None other than Anthony Daniels! C-3PO himself!

So now I have seen both R2-D2 and Threepio live in person. I can die happy.

The second song they played was Duel of the Fates which is one of the best things to come out of the prequels. I LOVE that song. The song first starts with a choir chanting. As soon as I heard the chanting I was looking to see where the choir was. Then I saw them slowly being revealed behind the orchestra. They had been raised out of nowhere on a moving platform. Brilliant!

During the whole show they did some real nifty shit with the lights too. While showing clips of the Carbon Freezing Chamber the spotlights would all turn red giving it this awesome feeling like you were there. Same with Tatooine. Lots of yellow and orange lighting. One of my favorite parts is when they would show the Death Stars blowing up. As we have seen, when a Death Star explodes a giant shock wave is produced. They made the lights shoot out and sweep over the audience. Give that lighting dude a medal. Seriously.

When they played The Imperial March for the second time (once before and once after intermission) they had these amazing lasers. They would flicker back and forth a set of about 7 lasers back and forth to the beat sometimes. Kind of gave the illusion of lightsabers crossing. It was a thing of beauty.

After the show they ended up going an encore of both the opening title and Imperial March. Thank god. I forgot to mention that the first time they played Imperial March they used these two really bright spot lights on either side of the stage. One was shining directly in my eyes! So badly that my eyes were watering. I turned to look at my Uncle and he looked like he was being blinded. So sadly, my favorite song was ruined for me the first time around. Luckily, they came back after intermission and did a dark version with the lasers I mentioned earlier. Thank god.

My only complaint was that even though I loved seeing the clips from the movies, it would have been nice to see more close ups on screen of the orchestra playing. To actually see HOW the music is played. They were so damn good that as you were watching the movie clips you would often forget the orchestra was there because it sounded absolutely perfect. I think the most interesting song to see them play on screen would have been the Cantina song. They went all out with that one but only showed a few clips from the movies and then some pretty interesting "concept art". What really got me was as soon as they showed Ponda on screen a good portion of the audience had a good laugh. I can only assume they were thinking the same thing that I was. The Robot Chicken Sketch.

So I guess to sum it all up, it rocked so hard and if you are a Star Wars fan you should probably get your ass there when it comes to your town. I mean come on, Anthony Daniels is the host!

Later!

Back home

2009-11-18T01:25:00.005-05:00

Well I am back from the Burgh, sadly. Wish I could have stayed a few more days but unfortunately one needs to work in order to make money.

After work today I decided to do a bit of shopping. I needed to get an electric razor to trim the ol Van Dyke I be sporting (not a goatee!) and a copy of Catcher in the Rye. So I swung by Target this evening since my brother had picked up a pretty good razor there for pretty cheap. After searching the small electronics aisle for 10 minutes it was nowhere to be found. So I walked around the store looking for it. Now my Target is 2 floors so after searching the downstairs I made my way upstairs. Nowhere to be found. WTF? Where the hell would it be? During my search I passed many Target employee's and the majority asked them if I needed any help to which I replied "No, I'm alright"

Why didn't I ask? Because apparently that's what guys do. You always see it on TV and in the movies. Guys don't like asking for directions or whatever. I never really thought about it but I guess it's true. Maybe not so much with directions while driving, but when it comes to finding something, leave me be. For whatever reason I would rather wander around aimlessly then ask anybody for help. And that's exactly what happened tonight. I was in Target for 30 minutes and it was eventually in the last place I could have checked. Over in the corner that I thought was mainly just girly crap there were a few aisles for bathroom necessities. Well duh!! I should have guessed. To be fair I wasn't wearing my glasses. Had I had them I would have been able to actually read the signs from far away.

Why do we do it? Had I just asked somebody I could have been in and out of Target right quick! Hell, the damn thing was on the first floor several aisles away from the registers. So why did I meander around like a damn fool for so long? I have no idea. It's not like I was trying to impress anyone. There's was no one with me! I had no point to prove, no nothing. If you think I'm going somewhere with this then you would be wrong because I have no idea. Apparently I just like to inconvenience myself and waste my own damn time.

In other news I have a big day tomorrow! After work I'm driving up to my uncle's place and he's taking me and my cousin to go see Star Wars in Concert!! *Epic drool*

Not quite what I'm seeing, but how fucking rad would THIS be?!

There are very few things in this world that I love more than Star Wars. Very few things. So when my uncle called me a month ago asking if I wanted to go I agreed before he could even finish his sentence. What's also sweet is that there is going to be an exhibit there before the concert with a bunch of costumes and props from the movies. It says you can bring your camera and take pictures of the exhibit, but not into the show. So where the fuck do I put my camera for the show? I tried calling and asking but they only gave me a recording. Hella lame.

I shall make a post about it sometime in the future, hopefully with pictures to go along with it.

Later nerf herders...

"My trip to da Burgh" or "Sean, Sebulba, and Optimus Prime"

2009-11-12T02:24:00.005-05:00

So I arrived in Pittsburgh tonight around 11:00 tonight and I had quite the journey.

I would have normally left right after work at 3:00 but it was raining hardcore and the highway was already a disaster. I decided to wait it out and hope that the rain would die down in a few hours. Sadly, it didn't. I called my buddy and asked how the weather was in Pitt. Clear skies! Which is odd for Pittsburgh. So I set off around 7 in the pouring rain. If there is one thing I hate more than driving long distances at night, it's doing it in the rain. Luckily for me I was only in the rain for about an hour or so. Basically once I hit PA it was gone (which is the exact opposite of every trip I take).

Since my bladder is pathetic I already had to go to the bathroom after an hour. Luckily I knew there was a rest stop coming up. WRONG! It was closed. So now I'm freaking out because I know the next rest stop has been under construction the past 2 years. And it was my favorite stop because it had Sabarro Pizza, Quiznos, and more! So I'm freaking out thinking that the next time I'm going to be able to go to the bathroom is in 70 miles. But guess what? It was finally open!! Thank the lords! And it was all nice an fancy too. I really dug the remodeling. Just wish it didn't take so long.

It should also be noted that before this happened I met my first "friend" of my trip. There are certain vehicles on my car rides I dub friends and enemies. Right before I got on the PA Turnpike I passed a massive truck. Since I had my window down (to enjoy the nice frosty PA air) when I passed the truck it was so loud it sounded like Sebulba's Podracer from Phantom Menace. So I dubbed him Sebulba, obviously. After leaving him in my dust, I eventually reached the rest stop that was finally open again. I went inside, did my thing, and as I was about to get back into my car I hear down the road the *chug chug chug* of Sebulba's podracer. I got in my car thinking "Oh no you don't fucker". As I drove down the road I passed that sucker again. Sadly, for Sebulba, this happened again at my last rest stop later in the trip. The poor fool. Getting to Pod Race with him was one of the highlights of my trip as it was pretty fucking wizard. But while this was going on I was also dealing with my main nemesis.

Optimus Prime.

I had a truck tailgating the shit out of me for a long time. It's absolutely horrifying having a vehicle that big with it's enormous headlights in your rear view mirror right on your ass. The PA Turnpike for the most part is only 2 lanes and since I couldn't change lanes due to the cars ahead of me and to the side of me, I had no choice for many miles but to deal with this huge ass truck on my ass. I dubbed him Optimus Prime because Michal Bay is a jerk off and so was this truck. He must have been late for his delivery or something because he was out for blood on the road. I felt like I was in the movie Duel for awhile. Once he passed me he ended up doing a good 95/100 mph down the road. The speed limit is 75 most of the time just so you know. At this point I was missing my playful back and forth with Sebulba.

I had been making amazing time by the way. But once I got off the Turnpike and was in the home stretch (right before the Squirrel Hill Tunnel for the people who are familiar with the area), I get stopped dead in traffic at 11 at night! On the other side of the road I am sitting right next to a police car. One of 5 to be exact. Obviously there had been some sort of an accident on the other side of the median. So why was my side stopped? Were people gawking at the accident? That's what I thought at first. Once I was able to move forward a bit I saw that on the other side of the road there was a PT Cruiser smashed and upside down!! How the hell could that happen? Now I understood why my side was gawking so much, it was quite a sight to see. But apparently thats not why my side had not been moving. It was because there was another car, not only on my side of the median, but so far of to the right it went off the street, went up a hill, and was pretty much crushed to half it's size against a tree. I don't know if there were other cars involved that had already been moved because if it was just these 2 it doesn't add up. They were way to far apart and on opposite sides of the median. Craziness...

Then I went to Wendy's drive through and specifically asked for plain Jr Bacon Cheeseburgers and they gave me ones covered in tomato and mayo.

I was very mad...

Vacation!

2009-11-11T00:12:00.003-05:00

...sort of.

I've been working my ass off for awhiles now. It's been really hard to take some time off of work to get out of town. Well my boss went out of town last weekend. We made an agreement that he could take however many days off and I would work my butt off covering the shifts while in return he would do the same for me. Well after an excruciating week at work it's now my turn! Vacation time! And I will be spending it in the always lovely Pittsburgh!

The exact opposite of how I will be spending my "vacation"...

Going up to The Burgh to visit my college friends. That is how I like to spend my time. Chilling with friends and getting drunk as all hell. I'm leaving tomorrow night and coming back on Monday. Since my friends whose house I'm staying at will be working Thursday and Friday I get to use that time for R&R. If it's going to be anything like last time I was at Pitt it will consist of laying on the couch, not moving, while playing video games and watching movies all day. Basically, bliss. My job involves a lot of manual labor so laying around is just what I need.

Even though my buddy has a PS3 I will be bringing up my own so I can continue playing Dragon Age Origins, since my game is already saved on my hard drive. I can't tell you how much I love this game. Well i could, but it would just take a long time. I'm only about 10-12 hours into it or so with so much to look forward too. We'll see how much I can punish in the 2 days I'll be chilling on the couch.

Then the rest of the weekend will be dedicated to getting completely smashed. Huzzah!!

Well it's time for me to start winding down before bed. I have 3 episodes of Naruto Shippuuden queued and ready for some watching.

Later all!

Christmas

2009-11-06T21:25:00.004-05:00

Wow they really just go right to it when it comes to Christmas, don't they? The DAY after Halloween the shopping center next to my house was already decorated with their Christmas decorations. Since I went to the grocery store in the morning and saw this, that means they had to have put the decorations up Halloween night. Fucking amazing...

Wish I could have a Christmas this year...

What sucks is that now that I'm surrounded by Christmas shit, I'm all bummed out. I don't really have a Christmas this year. Nor did I last year. My mom is gone and my dad moved away. It's just me and my brother now.

My parents separated when I was very young. But Christmas was the only holiday we would all share together. Thanksgiving, Easter, and Christmas Eve were always celebrated with my mom's side of the family and my dad never came. But Christmas day was always with both my parents. My brother and I would wake up in the morning to have all of our "Santa" gifts assembled and scattered across the living room. All of our family presents (from mom and dad) were wrapped under the tree. We weren't allowed to open those until my dad arrived.

Obviously as you get older the Christmas tradition changes. Our parents would get us each 1 or 2 expensive gifts and then a mess of small things. But it was those too big gifts that made it all worth it. I would always get tech stuff (computer related things, video camera, editing equipment) and my brother would get sports related things.

Several years ago my mom passed away 3 months before Christmas. It was an extremely hard holiday to go through but our dad really pulled through and made it great. There was no Christmas tree, no wrapping paper, no nothing. It was pretty bare bones but we had all been way too depressed to get all that stuff. Especially the tree. It sucked that we didn't get one, but my brother and I decided it wouldn't be the same to decorate it without mom. She would always take us tree shopping every year and my brother and I would always find a tree we liked (just so we could hurry the fuck up and get out of there) but mom always made us stick around for an hour trying to find "the right one". As much as it always annoyed the living hell out of me, I would do anything to get moments like that back.

Which brings us to last year. Mom is gone and my father retires, buys an RV to travel the US and leaves. This was last October. But before he goes he takes us to dinner and leaves us a bunch of DVD's and a 27 inch monitor for my computer!! I was going to bring up to him if he was going to come back for Christmas but I just assumed this was probably it right now. Sure it was a few months early and took place in a Mexican restaurant, but hey, it was something. That's why I wasn't too bummed out about Christmas last year. Technically we had gotten gifts and such, just not in the traditional sense. But that's what makes this year so much harder...

We have nothing going on this year. My brother and I aren't the kind of guys that are going to buy each other expensive gifts. While it would be a nice gesture, rent money gets in the way of us doing so. I have a shitload of relatives that I will be seeing on Christmas Eve (hopefully) but we only do a playful Yankee Swap lately. Christmas Eve with my mom's family was always celebrated at my Nana's house with all my aunts, uncles, and cousins (my mom had 7 siblings) so you were guaranteed a shitload of gifts. Now that we're older it's just evolved into a Yankee Swap. Which is fine but now that both Nana and my mom have passed, everything just seems off. I don't even think we had Christmas Eve last year because of Nana's death and we're still trying to figure out where we are having it this year.

What I am going to be doing on Christmas day? I have no idea. I remember 2 years ago my Jewish buddy was nice enough to invite me to join his family for Christmas Eve dinner and a movie! (Chinese food and Sweeney Todd).

But I am not going to get to enjoy the classic Christmas morning. It's the one time of the year where I can actually ask for something I can't afford and actually get it. Does this sound selfish? Do I only care about gifts? No, but it would be nice to at least get something. Last year I spent Christmas day playing WoW all day. I wanted to put my dad's 27 inch monitor gift to use cuz that's all I had. That was my Christmas!

Hoping Santa brings me a Time Machine this year... *fingers crossed*

Rocky!

2009-11-04T21:10:00.003-05:00

So the other night I read a blog that really broke my heart. Anyone who knows me knows how much I love animals. The top right picture in my blog is always a picture of my dog. Kenobi is the friendliest dog ever (sometimes too much, ha) and I don't know what I would do if something bad ever happened to him.

Well the other day I was reading the blog of Michael Flux. He's is someone I consider a good blog friend. His blog always had amazing pictures of Japan that blew my mind and I was a follower of his page since the day I discovered it.

Well recently he just started sharing his blog with his girlfriend. She is a volunteer at Paws for Life Rescue and Adoption. She made a post about an awesome dog named Rocky that had been taken into Foster care. Sadly things didn't go to well for Rocky. Very depressing.

Please checkout The Flux's blog about Rocky's story! Read it here

And visit Justice for Rocky!

All Hallow's Eve

2009-10-31T13:34:00.003-04:00

God I love Halloween. As a kid it's all about dressing up and punishing as much candy as possible. As an adult it's all about dressing up and punishing as much alcohol as humanly possible.

Anime characters dressing as anime characters hurts my brain...

This morning while I was walking my dog I noticed how much today not only looked like a fall day, but looked like Halloween as well. It was overcast, the wind was blowing, leaves were swirling around in the wind and covering my entire neighborhood. It really looked amazing! I went to grab my camera to take some picture but realized that the batteries were dead and I didn't have time to run out and buy some. Lame!

In other news, last night (or technically 5am this morning) I got WoW running on the spare computer and it runs fine! Huzzah! Unfortunately for me I got it up just in time for the Warcraft Hallow's End holiday event to end (dammit!) and not only that I will be gone this entire weekend! So sadly I will not be able to feed my sweet sweet addiction to WoW until late Sunday night. I haven't played in a month, I think I can wait another day or so. Maybe.

Well I best be on my way. Hope everyone has a great holiday. Don't eat too much crap and don't get alcohol poisoning...

Night cap

2009-10-30T02:25:00.004-04:00

Can't sleep. Figured I'd post a quick one before I "attempt" to go to sleep. I don't know why I even bother to try and sleep if I'm not tired. I just end up tossing and turning anyways. Might as well stay up and do the things I wanna do.

Anyway, I spent the majority of my day today playing Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2. I could not stop playing. I wanted to divide my free time today into multiple things. The first was trying to Install WoW on this spare computer I'm using. Since I have every single WoW disk except for the first one I had to sign up for a Battlenet account which allows registered WoW players like myself to just download the game from the website. Of course I knew downloading from the internet would be a lot slower than using the disks but I didn't have much choice. So I decided to pop in Marvel while allowing for WoW to load. Next thing you know 6 hours have gone by and it's time to watch Office and 30 Rock! I also realized I hadn't eaten in hours. I had been completely lost in the game.

There is a reason Spidey trumps the cover box. Because he fucking r0xx0r!

Apparently WoW is still loading. My god it's been almost all day! Oh well, should be done by the morning. I have a short day at work tomorrow and then I gots the weekend off! Sure I have a lot to do the whole weekend but still! I'll be meeting up with my friends at some point for some Halloween festivities. I will be going as Bruce Banner aka The Incredible Hulk. I bought these enormous purple sweatpants for the costume. They are extremely comfortable and I'm almost hesitant to rip them to shreds (I'm going for the Banner look after turning back from the Hulk.)

Well that killed some time though I'm still not really tired. Oh well, guess I'm gonna lay in bed and do a bit of reading. I think a little Negima manga is in order...

Night all...

Wow that was a close one!

2009-10-29T00:37:00.004-04:00

It seems like anytime something happens to my computer or my internet goes down, as soon as I find some way to get it back, the next day (or sometime soon after) something happens again. So very, very frustrating.

Couldn't find a picture of an anime character smashing a computer. This will do though...

So my last post was on Monday afternoon describing how happy I was to have the internet back up. Later that night I finally got to go see Paranormal Activity. I was excited to see the movie and then come back to give my thoughts about it in a blog post. Unfortunately for me as I open up Firefox nothing loads. I try several websites and nothing. I was extremely tried (since I had got less than 2 hours of sleep the night before) and cranky about the fact that I had JUST made a post about how I got my Internets back and was so excited to blog again. Then I looked down at the icon for my wireless connection. It was working perfectly (as in it was connected properly) but it just wasn't finding any Internet! WTF?

Then I had a sudden realization. The Earthlink bill is automatically charged to my dad's credit card. Something happened to his card recently and he had to get a new one. He had called me and gave me the information to update it since he didn't want to deal with "those idiots at Earthlink" on the phone for several hours. I had been so busy with work I had completely forgot to do this and now I was freaking out because I assumed that since they hadn't gotten paid they shut it off. I decided it was too late to do anything that night and tried and get some sleep.

After another restless night, probably around 2 hours or so of sleep, I "woke up" to get ready for work. It's hard to calculate the total hours you've slept when your basically drifting in and out of consciousness the entire night. I normally like to check my computer real quick before going to work but thought "Fuck it, I can't, so what's the point?" After coming home from work later that day I turned on the computer and decided to get this NEW problem fixed. I quickly checked just in case to see if it was still not working and then my Facebook page pops right up! The deuce?! It was working fine! I have no idea what happened. Perhaps Earthlink's servers had gone down briefly the night before or whatever but it was back and working.

Not wasting any time I immediately called Earthlink to get the credit card information changed. I was NOT going to risk them canceling this shit at any time. After dealing with a voice automated robot for a painful 20 minutes. I heard phrases like"I'm sorry, that information does not fit with our records" and "I'm sorry, could you please repeat that?"over and over and over again. Finally the robot gave up and finally patched me through to it's superior, a living breathing human. In less than 8 minutes we had everything squared away. I want those 20 minutes of my life that robot stole from me back!

I have a feeling the robots are actually evolving, like the Cylons. I bet every minute of time a robot wastes sucking the lifeforce out of me on the phone, brings it one minute closer to becoming more human.

"Please say your name..." Sean. "I'm sorry, that information is incorrect. One step closer to eradicating all humans....complete."

Well that's it for me tonight. Thank Haruhi I have a pretty easy day tomorrow...

And I'm back....

2009-10-26T17:27:00.003-04:00

... for the most part.

Victory! Kind of...

My computer is still messed up but the spare computer I mentioned last post is now fully connected to the internet! And not a moment too soon. I was really starting to lose it. I don't know what it is but the Playstation Browser is just really weak. Sure it sucks having to use the controller as a keyboard/mouse but at least it was better than nothing. My main problem was that the browser is just really friggin slow. Certain websites either take forever to load or don't even load at all. After over a week I think the browser just gave up on Facebook all together. At first I was able to get on and things functioned normally (but slow) and then slowly started to fail. I couldn't type in comments, some pages wouldn't load, and then the site wouldn't come up at all. Twitter I fared a bit better with though because I was at least able to post comments on there. Sadly I wasn't able to scroll down past the first 20 tweets that are on the screen. Needless to say I was getting very frustrated.

But now that I at least have my back up computer running I don't have to rush to get the other one fixed. As long as I have Internet to get on to I should be set for awhile. That is until the Warcraft bug bites me and I start itching to play that. Oh damn, I shouldn't have thought about WoW, now I wanna play!

I was amazed at how much of my spare time was spent on the computer. Anytime I wanted to play WoW, I couldn't. Then I would get a hankering for checking out some new manga online, no go. Or maybe watch some new anime? Nope! Those are just a few examples. It's kinda pathetic how much I would rely on the Internet. So in this down time I was getting a lot of video game action in. Totally destroyed Batman: Arkham Asylum (great game), downloaded some Fallout 3 DLC's, played Kingdom Hearts 253/2 Days, and now I'm on Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2.

Which I'm going to go play right now! Just wanted to let you guys know I'm still alive and with my Internets working I can continue to post on a regular basis. Plus I get to catch up on all the blogs in my blog roll that I've missed the past few weeks. Look for my comments!

Hey oh!!

2009-10-22T02:52:00.002-04:00

So yes this is a new blog. I'm sure by this time time I've lost a bunch of "viewers" sadly. I seriously apologize. My computer seems to be "fucked" for a better word and I have yet to get it fixed. I have several friends who are great with computers but I haven't had the time to get them to help. My schedule has been busy and it pains me to ask my friends to take the time out of their busy schedule to help an idiot like me.

I have a back up computer that my dad gave me before he moved away. I have it hooked up, with a wireless Internet card attached, it should be easy peasey to use my wireless internet to connect to this computer but ALAS, IT'S NOT.

My virus ridden computer can be put aside and worked on later by my friends to salvage 4 years of memories I have saved on there. But the new computer I should easily be able to hook up to the Internets through WiFi so I can bring back my daily rants to you all! But I can't get it to work!

Oh well, I will keep you posted!

MIA

2009-09-26T05:13:00.002-04:00

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!

2009-09-17T18:53:00.006-04:00

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

2009-09-16T18:46:00.003-04:00

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

2009-09-16T00:36:00.003-04:00

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

2009-09-14T01:08:00.003-04:00

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!

2009-09-12T15:50:00.004-04:00

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

2009-09-12T14:41:00.002-04:00

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

2009-09-11T00:05:00.003-04:00

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

2009-09-10T13:33:00.004-04:00

(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

2009-09-07T15:58:00.003-04:00

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

2009-09-06T19:34:00.004-04:00

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

2009-09-05T15:22:00.005-04:00

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...

WRC's

2009-08-31T18:17:00.004-04:00

One of the worst things in my opinion about getting older is having to deal with WRC's. If you are over the age of 22 you encounter these probably around 20 or so times a day at least, be it in your neighborhood, apartment building, office, wherever. I'm talking of course about Weather Related Conversations. There is apparently a specific age in your life when everything you have ever learned about conversing with other people and basic human interaction is tossed out the window and replaced with meaningless weather babble. No adult is able to start a conversation without somehow relating it to the weather. It is impossible.

For starters, I don't like talking to people in general. So when a random neighbor I don't speak to or sometimes even complete strangers walks by me and says "Beautiful day today, isn't it?" or something along those lines, I'm not going to be happy. I don't know you, so don't talk to me. I also don't care what the weather is like. In fact, when most people say it's a nice day outside I am most likely miserable as hell. I don't like the heat. My pale Irish skin doesn't fair well in the blistering sun. I like it when it's cold out and I can wear jeans and a hoodie. Hoodies are my all time favorite type of clothing. I also like the night. I AM the night. I am vampire...

But yes I know that I am technically the weird one in this situation since my idea of "nice weather" is the exact opposite of everybody else's but when it's snowing outside I don't go up to people and say "Awesome weather huh?". I have been particularly excited for the Fall to arrive this year since my A/C hasn't worked all Summer. The average temperature of my condo this Summer has been around 80 degrees. So last night the temperature dropped significantly to 65. I woke up this morning to see that I was not only cold but that I had turned off my fan in the middle of the night and threw on a huge blanket.

Score! Though I'm not getting too excited. The people who approached me with "Beautiful day" comments today also informed me that it will get warmer as the week goes on. So not only are these people obsessed with the current weather, but they also have knowledge of the incoming week! Very impressive. But I did agree that today was nice. I got to wear my hoodie to work today (double score!) and since I can't drive my car I walked to the grocery store without sweating profusely. Not too shabby.

Though I hope these people are wrong and that it's going to start cooling down from here on out.

Hey Fatty! I got a movie for ya, A FRIDGE to Far!

2009-08-29T21:47:00.008-04:00

So I was watching some YouTube videos today and stumbled upon some Judd Apatow movie clips. I personally am a fan of all his flicks, though I haven't seen Funny People yet, and I LOVE Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared.

So while watching these videos I can't help but looks at the YouTube comments left by people. Or as I like to call them "The Scum of the Earth". It's always fighting, fighting, fighting fighting, fighting, fighting fighting, fighting, fighting, fighting! (Get it now?) It's so annoying. The Internet has given us a voice, and that voice apparently it to be as obnoxious as humanly possible! But anyway, one of the comments on a Knocked Up clip was "I am so fucking sick of these fat, Jewish, stoner, losers getting these hot girls in movies!! They are taking all the roles!!"

"......................."

(Long pause)

They are taking all the roles?????? Seriously?? While I don't always agree with the fat guy getting the hot girl, it does happen in RL. Humor is a big thing with the ladies, trust me I know.

Watch out Pitt, apparently Rogen is stealing your roles!

It was so interesting to see a post complaining that all the fat stoners were taking all the lead roles. I'm so used to seeing posts about "All the attractive people get all the great roles!!! They have it so easy!" Now there are a few movies with stars who are the exact opposite and people are still complaining?? Good gravy at this rate we will never be satisfied! You can't win if you're a hot actor/actress and now you can't win if you're a less attractive actor/actress. So what's next? The middle man? An amorphous caricature of a human being?

Who could love me??

Neighbors Update

2009-08-28T13:27:00.003-04:00

So I mentioned awhile back this dude at the end of my neighborhood, Scottie LaDouche. The guy who doesn't know how to take care of his dogs and leaves their windows and glass door open so their dogs can bark at anything and anyone who walks by at all hours of the night. I'm lucky I don't live in the same building as him because I would go absolutely insane if I heard those dogs barking all the time. The dude just does not care if he annoys his neighbors. I LOVE dogs so for me to be annoyed by his dogs is saying something.

So a couple weeks ago at around 6 or 7pm, I was walking my dog around the neighborhood and as always we at some point end up at the end of the neighborhood. I stay on the opposite side of the street so I'm not anywhere near Mr. LaDouche's place but his dogs can still see us. And as soon as they did, they were barking up a storm. I had had a pretty crappy day at that point and was not in a good mood. That coupled with the fact that I had a few beers in me, I ended up doing the only thing I could think of at the point.

I barked back. HA!

And not like a fake "woof woof" type of thing. I basically mimicked his little yappy dogs with a series of constant high pitched yelps. That only encouraged his dogs more, so I kept it up. Dogs kept yapping and I was yapping right back. I was reminded of the episode of Family Guy when Brian is at Denny's and a baby next to him is crying loudly so he cries right back in the babies face.

Here's the video for those who don't know what I'm talking about.

Brian at Denny's

Was it childish? Your damn right it was. Was it satisfying? Oh god yes! One lady in Scottie's building came out to walk to her car and saw what was going on. She stared briefly and then continued on her way obviously being very confused as to what was occurring. lol! Scottie never came out and said anything so I continued on my walk. A couple days later he was walking to his car while I was walking my dog. As I got closer to him he actually called me out. He said "Barking at my dogs huh? That's real cute man. Real mature" I walked right past him not even looking at him and told him to "Fuck off". Since I noticed awhile back Scottie seems to be afraid of my dog he didn't say anything else but I could feel him staring daggers through the back of my head.

It's been about a month since then and guess what?! I haven't heard their dogs bark once!! Their windows and glass door are always closed now! Recently I bumped into Scottie neighbor lady who saw some of the incident. We talked for about 15 minutes and to give you the basic gist she said "While it's not exactly how I would have handled the situation what you did he had a long time coming. I ended up talking to some of the people in our building and we got together and knocked on his door and told him we don't appreciate being woken up by his dogs at all hours of the morning"

Neighbors unite! Sweet Victory! (Cue Final Fantasy victory music) Scottie LaDouche has been defeated. You receive 2000 gil, 1 phoenix down, and 3 echo herbs. + 7 Dexterity, +12 Barter, +2 Luck, - 37 Maturity.

Totally worth it...

Cicadas

2009-08-26T13:10:00.003-04:00

Behind my house is a huge forest filled with crazy animals, annoying woodpeckers, pesky owls, and now extremely loud and obnoxious cicadas.

I guess it just started about a week or so ago. The cicadas have been freaking out! And I guess since it's such a heavily wooded area that there are probably hundreds of them all screeching their little hearts out at starting at 9 in the morning and going all throughout the day. Could you imagine if you life consisted of sitting in one place for an entire day and every couple minutes starting screaming at the top of your lungs and have it get progressively louder and louder as time went on? I know I couldn't.

Catch those little bastards!

I had an extremely long day at work yesterday and when I came home I was so tired I actually went to bed at a decent time! That's about 1:30 for me. I could have slept all damn day if need be but little sirens from hell started going off at around 8:30 in the morning. The worst part is since my A/C is broken all the windows in the house are open. That doesn't help the situation.

And as much as I can't stand spiders I saw this tiny little arachnid had caught a cicada, I guess right after it shed it's shell and vulnerable. I saw the spider starting to wrap it up with it's webbing and I just started at the cicada and said "GOOD! One down!"

Millions more to go...

Happy Birthday Mom

2009-08-24T18:17:00.004-04:00

So just a quick one today. I don't want to get too much into it and be all depressing and what not. Today is my mom's birthday. She would be turning 59 if she was still alive. Just goes to show how early she was taken from us.

I was lucky enough to have someone cover my shift at work today because days like this it's just too hard to put on a straight face at work and pretend I'm not sad.

Since I make a habit of posting pictures with the blog I found this one which is very fitting. In the anime Lucky Star one of the main characters, Konata, also lost her mother. Although the show is a comedy they did a really good job with one of the episodes having the spirit of Konata's mom watching over her family. She even jumps into a picture Konata and her dad are taking. They can't see her, but she's there...

Still with them in spirit...

Happy birthday mom!

New "banner" for a Monster

2009-08-22T13:36:00.004-04:00

So as much as I loved the Haruhi picture that I had as my banner it didn't really fit the mood of my blog, more just the fact that I really like Haruhi. While looking through pictures online I found this one of Kyon (from Haruhi). I figured this would be more fitting considering he kinda looks like me and he's not looking to happy at the moment. Much like myself...

Still deciding on what to do for a more permanent banner. I have a friend online who I might pay to make me some sort of banner, but I don't really have any ideas yet on what it should look like. Also thinking of changing the name as well. So much to think about, so little time.

But for now, today is my only day off this week and I made a promise to myself that I would finish reading the manga Monster. I've said it before and I will say it again this is probably one of the most engaging things I've ever read and even if one doesn't usually read manga I HIGHLY recommend this one anyway. If you can get over the fact that you have to read it backwards you are in for one hell of a ride!

Monster Manga

Much like the movie District 9, the LESS you know about the story going into it the better it is. I got one of my friends to start reading it and she doesn't even like manga!

Coincidence or Conspiracy....of one?

2009-08-22T02:33:00.004-04:00

So when I was at the anime convention a few weeks back I kept seeing this skull logo everywhere for the show Gurren Lagann. I've read a lot about the show and have heard great things, I just haven't had the time to watch it yet. But what was bothering me was the skull logo. There was something about it that was just so familiar and it was driving me crazy until a couple minutes ago. I opened up the door to my mini fridge to get some water. My fridge is decorated in all kinds of stickers and one of them is what reminded me of the Gurren Lagann logo.

Gurren Lagann Skull

Offspring Conspiracy of One Logo

While comparing them they don't look exactly alike but there is definitely a resemblance I think!

Diet Update

2009-08-21T22:00:00.003-04:00

Took me so long to update on this and for good reason!

I hadn't lost anything that whole time! Jezus. I've been on a diet before so I know not to expect results immediately but this was just ridiculous. Instead of stopping cold turkey and just going straight into diet food I ease my way in by mixing it with a few of the normal things that I eat. Unfortunately I work directly next to a Ledo's Pizza and while I don't get their pizza they have some really good sandwiches and flatbread combos that while delicious aren't so good for you. But after about a month of that I seem to finally be in the groove of things. While I do on occasion have something a bit fatty it's only every couple of days of so. My stomach no longer is constantly craving something. My routine is to now just eat a lot more lighter things throughout the day. That way I'm basically eating more smaller meals a day as opposed to less bigger meals. And it seems to be working.

Nom nom nom...

In the past 9 days I've lost 5 lbs. Hells yes. Not drinking alcohol will also help this procedure go a hell of a lot quicker. Though I will be drinking next Friday for my friend's birthday.

I'll keep you updated!