What are the odds?

Probably about 3,720 to 1.

No not really, but it's still pretty funny. I just caught an episode of The King of Queens on TBS (very funny). In the episode Doug and his wife Carrie agree to go to the wedding of these people who they can't stand. They are friends, but friends that annoy them. A couple days later they get the Wedding Invitation in the mail. After reading they find out that the wedding is in Maryland. Gaithersburg, Maryland! Ha, that's my hometown.

Later in the episode Carrie is calling a hotel in Maryland and while arguing with them on the phone says "You know you live in a city that nobody outside of Maryland has ever heard of, right?!"

Ouch! That hurts. But mostly true I guess. Any city this close to DC is just known as The DC area to most outsiders.

Anyway, I found that to be humorous and decide to share. I am seeing Wolverine tonight. Heard it's supposed to be kinda "meh". The first have is apparently pretty cool and the second half kinda falls. But whatever, I am a geek and I must go show my support!

My kryptonite...

I've just realized that pollen is like my kryptonite. I always found it silly growing up that the strongest man on the planet was weakened by a small glowing green rock. How pathetic is that? Holding said rock to him makes him weak and pathetic.


But then I realized today as I am being absolutely pwnd by allergies that I too have a kryptonite, and it goes by the name of pollen.

These tiny little particles somehow manage to take me from a normal functioning human being into a weak, pathetic, sniveling, shadow of my former self. Just like green rocks do to the Man of Steel.

When i rained for two days in a row last week it was the best two days I've had in awhile. It washed all the pollen away and I was free to breathe once more. But that didn't last long. 2 days later I get up for work, walk over to my car to discover it is COATED with pollen. When I got to work I took a 5 gallon bottle of water and poured it all over my car. Not only did it get rid of the pollen, but I also saved myself about $10 by not going to the car wash. Sadly, I checked on the car not even 2 hours later and it was covered all over again!

Most allergy medicines don't work for me, but I'm going to try Zyrtec since that seems to be the one everyone recommends. I just wish it wasn't so friggin expensive...

Ohh the bees!!

Since I was young I always liked having a camera in front of my eye. And as much as I loved photography I never seem to get the pictures to come out the way I want. Not only did I want to be Spider-man as a child, but I also wanted to be Peter Parker. What an awesome job to have. Just taking pictures. And while I do have an eye for it, I just need to commit myself to learning all the bells and whistles of my camera in order to have my photos come out the way I want. A video camera on the other hand is my best friend, and has been since the age of 7.

Now that it's Spring time again I'm busting out the camera to get back in the game. I was motivated after seeing some of this guy's photo's on his blog. If you want to see some beautiful pictures, go check out Michael Flux's Page. He's got some amazing stuff on there!

So the other day while walking my dog I almost stepped on a plethora of ants. I immediately ran upstairs to get my camera to take a few shots. They came out pretty good but considering they are always moving it's hard to get the shot you want. Especially with Super Macro.

While walking back to my condo I pass this huge bush at the foot of my steps swarming with bees. I have no problem with bees. I have never been stung before so I guess I have nothing to fear. I was getting in real close with the camera to get the macro shots. It was hard since, like the ants, they don't sit still, but I was able to get a few decent shots. At one point this woman was walking by and saw me. She said "Oh my god! Be careful! You are surrounded by bees." I glanced up from my camera to see that I indeed have bees buzzing all around me. It was actually pretty cool. I counted about 15 or so. But since I wasn't really bothering them I guess they didn't mind.
The pictures look a lot better when they are larger since you can see all the detail. Especially how fuzzy the bee is! I felt like petting him.

That's all for now. I got some Mafia to play on Facebook...

What is this Blog about...?

Honestly? It's pretty much just my thoughts. If you were to look to the right you will see that my Blog Roll consists of only Anime Blogs. These are the people I follow most because they put the most effort into what they do. Seeing as how with anime I only have a select few friends who actually enjoy it like I do, I turn to the Online Community to make friends. Once you stumble upon one anime blog it seems to lead to a word of others, and they are all friends ;-)

But as much as I love anime, I can't do what these guys do. Daily blogs about shows, figures, manga, collectibles. I WISH I could do that. But it's already being done so well by them! So why add myself to the mix?

I just blog because I enjoy doing it. My problem is mine can never be about a specific topic! I LOVE way too many things. Anime, manga, WoW, comics, movies, Star Wars, video games, Final Fantasy, animals, my dog, my family...

So I just like to type whats on my mind and hope people can relate. I will go a day or two without blogging anything, and then in one day type 3 entries. It just depends on my mood and if I have a story to tell.

Time has run short and I must depart. Expect a lot more entries soon. lol

Jsut Cause

Spending so many hours on the computer over the years has given me some incredible speed when it comes to typing. And I love that. My fellow Guild members on WoW always give me grief for typing properly. Apparently that's the kind of world we live in these days.

"Dude, you're typing properly!! What a loser!" That was never actually said because I love my Guild but you get the point.

I remember in Elementary School one of the Librarians, Mrs. Wright I believe, would always amaze me with the speed she could type into the computer while making eye contact with me the whole time. As a child I thought I could never achieve such a feat!

Sadly 20 years later I am no where near her level but I can type really damn fast. Unfortunately the word "just" always gives me problems. It always comes out as "jsut" and it drives me mad. The worse part is that not only can I not wait til the end of what I'm typing to correct my error, I need to fix it right then. And since I hate having to grab the mouse, click the word and change it, I always just delete the entire sentence leading up to the "jsut" and re-type it. Always!

Call me strange but that's how I roll. Even now the "Red Squigly Line of ABC Check" is not only haunting me on the word "jsut" but now also "squigly"!

Does anyone else type in "jsut" constantly??

Funeral for Goku

Since my last post was DBZ related I figured I would post this. I had said many blogs ago that I was going to review the Dragonball Evolution movie I just haven't found the time.

I think this video best represents my feelings for the movie...

Poor Goku...

Dragonball Kai

When I first heard they were going to re-run Dragonball Z in Japan I kinda thought, "Ok, doesn't really affect me. Plus, I've seen every episode and I have others shows to watch." But then I read more and more about it and how it's actually being done in HD AND that they were editing the series to flow better and be closer to the manga. None of that filler stuff and 10 episodes in a row of guys looking at each other shocked. So that really caught my interest. I watched the first episode a couple weeks ago and fell in love all over again. They have a newly animated HD opening that not only looks fantastic but the song is incredibly catchy. Watching the opening alone was extremely nostalgic. I felt like I was in high school again.

Most anime fans will pan DBZ because it's so mainstream, much like how Naruto is being treated in America. Naruto is HUGE here and for good reason. But many anime enthusiasts don't care for it because of it's popularity. I kind of like to think of DBZ as the My First Sony of anime. Does anybody remember My First Sony??

That's what DBZ reminds me of. It's what really got me into anime. And the funny thing is when I first saw it I made fun of it. A lot. And I gave my friends who watched it a lot of grief. Though you can't really blame me when the first episode I see has some little lame bald dude and a small child that turns into an enormous monkey. But then I went back and watched it from the beginning and really dug it.

So DBZ was kind of my gateway drug into the world of anime (the marijuana if you will for all you 4/20 peoples). And over the years I have obviously discovered that there is a TON of anime that it better, but it will still always hold a place in my heart, ya know? And I've decided to continue watching Dragonball Kai because I know I'm not signing myself up for 200+ episodes. I'm getting the condensed version and I'm getting to enjoy something from my past.

Plus, as I said before, the new Opening is awesome...

Party Epic Fail

So in my last post I mentioned how I was going to try and see if I could somehow get into this high school gathering a couple condo's down from me. I wish I had an extrordinary tale of espianage but sadly I do not.

I got denied flat out. lol

Since I saw the kids outside on their balcony I assumed they were there to have cigarettes. As a means to strike up a conversation I decided to take my brothers dog out for a walk. While my dog is cute, my brother has a smaller dog that I figured if the girls on the porch saw her I would get the "aww what a cute puppy" reaction. This, sadly, did not work. Ha. They didn't even acknowledge my presence. So I decided to be the one try try and strike up the conversation.

Me: Excuse me!
Girl: Yeah?
Me: You wouldn't by any chance have a cigarette would you?
Girl: Ummm no. (turning to her friends) Hey, does anyone have a cigarette?
Everyone: No!
Girl: Sorry, no one here smokes. Maybe you should continue walking your dog.

And then they all start laughing. Loudly.

DENIED! Given that I'm about 10 years older than these people they probably saw me as some sort of a "square", as the kids say. I'm not "hip" enough to chill with that type of crowd. I didn't know what I was expecting but I definitely didn't think I was going to get shot down that fast. lol. Oh well, my attempt to get a few free beers failed miserably. Live and let learn I guess.

I did however hang out with some of my friends last night and their baby. I love their kid and so I was glad I was able to spend some time with them. They had some other friends over to who were really nice. The one other guy started to become kind of a rude drunk. I don't know how the conversation started but I had mention that not only was one of my friends an extra in the movie Zack and Miri Make a Porno but also that I was in a Disney movie called First Kid. For whatever reason he did not believe me. My buddy even downloaded the movie and we freeze framed it so you can see me. I'm farther off in the background with long hair and I'm about 12 years old, but it's me. And this dude just kep denying it like I was lying about the whole thing. What would I gain from lying about something like that?? lol

Aside from that he was still a good guy and I had fun. When people get rude like that I just chalk it up to the alcohol. Alcohol turns me into a friendly, talkative, and childish human being.

Well I'm off for now. For some Battlestar to watch before bed. It's so frakkin good!

Par-tay!

So I was just outside walking my dog and I can hear obnoxious screaming coming from some sort of party. I look around to find where it's coming from. My Condo development mainly consists of old people, but the voices I here sound like either teens or early 20's people. I know this because while you can always hear the loud thumping of music and ambient chatter of people, there are several phrases that actually come out loud and clear.

For girls: "OH MY GAWD" and "YEAH!!!"

For guys: "DUUUUUDE!!"

So as Kenobi(my dog) and I walk around the neighborhood I spot the condo making all the noise. They are on the 3rd floor, like me, 2 buildings away from me. I could see them on the porch smoking and yelling.

I think I am going to try an infiltrate the party. They all seem pretty hammered so, being in a sober state of mind, I'm wondering if I can make my way into this party. I think it would be pretty funny if I did.

I will write about whether or not I got in next blog. Later!

Slice O Life/Toradora Continued...

So the other night I was "reviewing" Toradora. I say "review" because most of the people who read this are my friends and they probably don't care about me reviewing something they will never watch. Sadly, that means anime as a whole. *sad face*

Though I never really did review the anime (too many other blogs have done this several months ago, towards people who cared. lol) but I did kind of go off on a tangent last time which I will continue about Slice of Life. After I wrote my last post about Toradora, the next day I went online to another anime blog and noticed a post by this one guy. What he had to say intrigued me so I clicked on his name and it brought me to his Blog. His topic for that day was Slice of Life anime and how it's one of his favorites! So I was obviously hooked. I went back and read his last 20 posts. One of them being about Toradroa. Ha!

So this dude rocks and in his post he described his love of Slice of Life like this and I totally agreed...

"Call it simply getting older. In the so-called "real world," life is a bitch. OK, it isn't really that bad. But after 8 hours of soul crushing work everyday, I tend to want something relaxing. I'd like to escape to a world of fun and games, of silly everyday moments removed from the daily grind of a working life"

Hell yeah. That's basically how I feel. But while he compares it to work (which is how I deal with it now these days) several years ago I would compare it to taking care of my mom. That was the worst time of my life as anyone could relate to. But my anime fixation went up during that time. Why? Because I would watch certain Laugh Out Loud Anime. Anime that for a few several hours of my friggin day I could go without feeling sad. Ranma 1/2 being the main one. Watched all 7 seasons during that time and as funny as it was I would tear up with that too. It had amazing character development and that's what I dig. One night while watching it I decided to bring the DVD down and watch a few episodes with my mom. I knew she wouldn't be able to understand it because of the cancer, but it's a very bright, colorful, and silly anime. I figured she would get a kick out of it. And she did!! I really don't think she understood what was going on, but I know she loved Genma as a Panda and how he and Ranma fought. So one night I saw this picture online and I REALLY wanted to draw it. So I did and drew this Ranma picture for her knowing she would recognize the characters. I did it on huge posterboard and it sat by her bed until the day she passed. All the smudges and crap you see on the picture are from when the dumb nurse would trample over my artwork when it would fall off the wall. But whatever, the drawing still lives. Here it is...

After my mom passed I didn't want to talk to anybody for awhile. While sulking in my house for several weeks I discovered a little anime called "Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu" or "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya". Given the fact that it has Melancholy right in the title how could I not be drawn to it??

As it turns out, not only was it amazing, but it actually brought me out of my depression and made me laugh. A LOT. What's also funny is that Haruhi does have some supernatural themes going on, in the guise of a Slice of Life.

Brilliant. Slice of Life mixed with the Paranormal. What more can I ask for?

Sadly, this might have to be an on going post, because I wasn't expecting to go so much into "mom" territory but it kinda flowed with what I was trying to say. That's the beauty of blogging.

Til next time...

To my anime peeps

I think with an obsession with anime will often come with a love for Japanese music. I'm a fan of both the Pop and Rock. After just watching the latest episode of K-ON! the opening and closing songs are really getting into my head. I'm sure I can find them online somewhere, but is there anyway to get Japanese music on iTunes? As a fairly new iPod user I am still learning the ways of The Pod.

Let me know, I need my fix

Toradora

Toradora is an anime that I just finished watching. Not only did I really enjoy it but after trying to explain to a friend what kind of anime it is it helped me realize the type of genre I seem to enjoy the most.

I explained to my friend that it is a comedy about a teenage guy Ryūji (who is viewed as a delinquent for his appearance even though he's a nice guy) and a short tempered girl named Taiga. Each misunderstood in their own way and can't really stand each other either. But once they find out that they both have crushes of the other's best friend they decide to help each other woo their respective crushes. So while it has comedic elements it's also very dramatic and sad. Then I realized the best way to describe it.

Slice of Life.

That seems to be my anime of choice. Sure I enjoy Bleach, I grew up on DBZ, and am desperately trying to catch up on Naruto so I can watch Shippuden. But besides that most of the fighting anime just aren't my style and I think most people believe that this is what most anime is like. And that is really sad.

I think the reason I REALLY got into anime a few years back was because of anime like this. It's just more real. The Japanese aren't afraid to animate something that could easily be done live action. They take their animation more seriously and I love that. If something animated can really pull certain emotions out of me then you must be doing something right.

I watched all of Toradora in the span on a few days. 25 episodes in all. I had actually put another anime on hold to do so, called Clannad, because it was starting to get to me a bit. Clannad is a great example of something that can make you laugh hysterically and then tear up a bit the next. I thought Toradora would be a nice little pick me up but then that would get sad at times too. But the relationship between the two main characters really grabbed me. And let's face it, Taiga is adorable...

All in all I thought it was a great show and am glad I stumbled upon it. I had more to write but I realize it's now 3am and I want to watch at least one episode of Battlestar Galactica before bed. Perhaps I will add to this next post.

Until next time...

My Anime List

So the other day I was perusing through various anime blogs and came across one, http://www.animoe.net/ where the guy was writing about a website called My Anime List.

Naturally I checked it out and it's really sweet. It's an online database where you can keep track of all the anime you have watched, are watching, and plan on watching. Since I had just made my own list a month ago or so it was a lot easier to go through their database and add everything I've seen by looking at my list.

My favorite part is the "Currently Watching" section because I have a few that I'm watching right now and this allows me to keep track of what episode I am on each show. You can also blog, make recommendations, write reviews, join groups. It also compares your anime compatibility with others. Kinda like Facebook for anime peoples.

Can't believe I'm just finding this thing now.

http://myanimelist.net/profile/Seantaku

Netflix

I love Netflix. Don't get me wrong. But as genius as it is, I have to deal with the one factor that upsets me most.

It's been previously handled my morons...

Before I got Netflix I would just constantly buy new DVD's at Best Buy. Sure it was expensive, but if I knew it was good and I knew I would re-watch it, then why not buy it for keeps? One of the other main reasons was that I seem to be one of the few people on this planet who is capable of maintaining the quality of a DVD. The other person would be my father.

It's quite simple. You take it out of the case, put it in your DVD player, and when the movie is over guess what you do?? You take it out of the player and put it back in it's protective shielding. That way, the disc doesn't get scratched and you are able to view it multiple times.

Sadly with Netflix I have to deal with the fact that most people take the DVD out of their player and use it as a frisbee, coaster, or just simply to wipe their ass with it. I have found that using the Windex and cleaning the disc works wonders. But the times it doesn't work, that's just bad news. The reason I am so upset right now is the fact that most of the stuff I get on Netflix is ongoing series such as anime and other television shows. I get three DVD's at a time. That's my subscription. So I put in disc one and it's scratched to shit. Now I have to send out the damaged disc. Can I pop in the other 2 discs? Ummm, no because I haven't watched the first yet.

I dedicated the end of my night tonight to watching the final two episodes of Battlestar Galactica Season 2. I was going to watch them last night but it was too late and I needed to sleep. I figured, it's best to stop here and leave the suspense for tomorrow night. Had I not had that thought I could have watched 12 minutes into the episode and realized this disc was damaged goods and had it sent out this morning.

So seriously people. It's a friggin DVD. Take care of them. It is sooooooooo incredibly simple.

Can't wait to watch these Battlestar episode on Monday/Tuesday...

Headphones

I got an iPod recently and I love it. Especially for the podcasts. But the moment I bought it I knew that I would have a problem with the "headphones" that they give you.

OK, I know we're going for small and sleek, something barely noticeable than two giant Princess Leia buns on your head, but I hate these friggin "ear plugs" as I call them. They just don't fit for me.

I remember my first encounter with these ear plugs as a kid. My dad bought them for my original Gameboy. All the other kids were able to place it in the ear with ease. I would stick them in sideways with the tip sticking straight out like a retard because it was the only way to keep them in. I am kind of having the same problem now only this time the right ear is fine and the left ear is rejecting it. I thought maybe it was the earpiece so I switched them and sadly neither fits.

I have a gimp right ear. Lame.

And what's even more sad is that less than two weeks of having the ear plugs, one of them has already decided to stop working (sadly the right side, the one I need!!). I can only hear from one side. Thanks Apple!! This is why I normally steer clear of you.

Sean signing off...

Bank fun

Yesterday I had to go to the bank to turn in a buttload of change. Turned out to be a good amount of cash too! At least, enough to last me til payday at the end of the week.

So I go to the teller and give her my receipt from the coin machine. For whatever reason it takes her FOREVER to fill out the form. Apparently they can't just take the receipt and give you the cash. They must first deposit the money into your account, then you have to withdrawal it. It's annoying, but it's a hell of a lot better than using CoinStar since they take out a percentage of the cash to keep for themselves. A convenience fee of sorts?

So as the teller lady is finishing up the form she sneezes, twice. Into her hands. I say "Bless You" because it's always polite and I'm hoping she's going to do something to clean those hands before man handling my money. She does not. In fact, she messes up the first time and has to count it out twice. I'm trying very hard not to let her see me shudder. She slides me my money and I very carefully put it in my wallet trying really hard to touch it as little as possible.

I'm sorry but that's just gross. I'm not a Germaphobe or anything, but there are times at work when I'm handling cash I can only imagine where this money has been. But I put it out of my mind. But when I see it happening right in front of me, that's a different story.

All I could think about was Seinfeld when Poppie doesn't wash his hands after using the toilet and then procedes to hand prepare Jerry's food. When the lady was handing me my money I jsut wanted to keep shaking my head "no" like Jerry does to his date.

Given the fact that I am also just coming down from the flu (or Las Plagas as my friends believed I had) I'm not trying to get something else from snot covered monies!

Gross...

Paintballing

I went paintballing yesterday for my friends birthday. We had done it the previous year and decided we liked it so much why not do it again this year. Although last year was like playing in a muddy pig pen it was still amazing and everyone (I think) had a great time.

I think this year was even better, mostly due to the weather and the fact that since I already had some experience I knew what I was getting into and decided to play more aggressively. All in all I had a great time and I was glad I got to participate. Also we reserved private time for ourselves so that we didn't have to play with other paintballers. Which brings me to my next point.

The one thing I hate about paintball is the people that play paintball.

Getting to just play with my friends is awesome but I don't know if I could handle playing with strangers. Not because they could light me up (I know they can, I'm not that experienced) but because there all so smug. They can read n00b all over you the moment you walk in and give you the cockeyed "I'm better than you" grin. During the safety speech if someone asks a question they kind of snicker like "What a fucking moron" to which I want to reply "The girl is like 15, let her ask a damn question"

Now I know not everybody is like that. I have friends who go paintballing all the time. But through my experience, and I've been to two different places in Virginia, a good amount of the people AND staff, are pretty damn rude. I really hope it's just that area. My one friend and I got there pretty early and were both extremely irritated by listening to most of these people talk. Esspecially the one guy who briefed us on Safety. Just a loud, obnoxious guy who later was flirting with two of my female friends. *shudder* Dude was so creepy...

So if you are a casual paintballer I reccomend getting a group of friends together and just getting some private time. You probably won't have any fun joining a random game since these guys will immediately try to light your ass up. Rental equipment = n00b. Once your shot you are out for the round. I don't know about you but I'd rather not spend $50 to play for about a minute or so each round before getting shot.

Til next time...

So messed up...

For those who don't know I live in a Condo Development. So instead of a mailbox sitting at the end of my lawn with a red flag I have a tiny little compartment surrounded by 20 other little compartments. Though that's not what really bothers me. What bothers me is that to send out Outgoing Mail there is a small basket set on top of the "Mailbox Unit". You place your mail in here and use a safety pin to clip it to the basket. I never really trust this thing because I've seen mail get rained on (even though there is almost no way possible for rain to reach it) and I don't trust putting my bills there over night. Same with my Netflix. There have been times I have wondered why people don't just go up and nap these things. Free movie! But my brother and I are the youngest people in our neighborhood, besides children, so I figure everybody is an adult here and trustworthy.

Until today...

Now I normally use the Mailbox that we have at the entrance to our neighborhood. One of those big blue ones . That thing I trust. So I will normally jus drop off my mail there on the way to work. Well today I was going to the grocery store and decided to check my mailbox before I left. I placed my Nexflix envelope's ontop of the "Unit" while I glanced through my mail. Noticing some important documents I decided to run them back upstairts to my place so I wouldn't forget. I run back downstairs and run back to my car. I do the Tri-Tap (tap all pockets to make sure I have keys, cell phone, and wallet) and as I'm about to get in my car I realize I don't have my Netflix envelopes. SO I run back over to the mailbox and thankfully they're still there. BUT in the 3 minutes I had left it there somebody opened it up, pulled out the DVD, decided they weren't interested in BattleStar Galactica Season 2.0 discs 2 and 3, and put them back into their respective envelopes.

WTF?? That is so incredibly rude. Had they actually taken it that's shit I'd have to pay for and it's exactly why I NEVER leave my mail up there. Today was a fluke.

There are these somewhat new people in our complex who are probably in their 30's and have like 3-4 cars outside with Virginia Tech stickers. If I was to guess I would say it's them because everyone else in the complex is between 50-80. I also discovered recently someone was mooching off my wireless internet. I think that was them too but I'm not going to jump to conclusions.

Anyway, just had to vent. I gotta go walk the dog. I got paintballing tomorrow in celebration of my friends birthday. Though I still feel pretty damn sick I'm not gonna let it stop me.