Nihon ni itta, mata iku (日本に行った, また行く)

I got a new toy

2012-01-31T17:54:00.001-07:00

I just got a new tablet. It's portable and fits in my backpack. To break it in, I sketched this out:

It's like my bigger Wacom, with one or two minor differences. I approve.

Media Post: If you have a Wii you might want to check this out

2012-01-31T09:41:00.008-07:00

So, I'll admit it, I'm a fan of the Trauma games. I had Trauma Center: Under the Knife 2 for the DS and I loved the idea behind the game. You're basically a doctor and you operate on patients.

I never beat this game because [MID-GAME SPOILERS] You wind up fighting alien parasites within the human body and they are quick and hard to kill, and I wasn't ever fast enough. Also, when aliens got involved (and you also have mysterious super-human abilities later on) the game got too silly for me.[NO MORE SPOILERS, /SPOILERS]

But I really loved the game idea. This game was also available for the Wii, but I only tried it for about 5 minutes. It was hard, but fun. The Wiimote was a little different than using a stylus.

The other day I found this game on sale:

I remembered how much I liked the DS game and the cover looked interesting so I picked it up. I will never ever regret that purchase!

This game is similar to the other Trauma games in that you are operating on people using the Wiimote in order to save lives. It is different in that you have 5 different story lines of 5 different doctors working in the same hospital/area. The story lines overlap significantly and most of them are terribly interesting. And each doctor has a different speciality which has a different gameplay. Oh, and 3 of the doctors have a co-op mode, so you and a friend can be operating together. THAT'S kinda cool.

The main surgeon of the game is the most fun to play (his co-op mode is also by far the best; half of the tools are assigned to one player and half to the other, so you are working together to operate), and while I suspect a great deal of this is because the gameplay is exactly like the DS game (and therefore a lot easier for me), his storyline is also fun good times. Besides healing cuts and removing shrapnel/tumors (which is kinda gross so I didn't include pictures), you also get to reassemble ribcages!

The graphics of the game are a bizarre mix between childish and graphic. I mean, you are cutting open a body and you are cutting into organs; there is going to be blood. The game shows surprisingly little of this. The colors are cartoonish, and even when blood does appear on the screen it doesn't usually look real. It's usually shiny and bright pink. You're dealing with innards but I was rarely (if ever) grossed out. This game is not for small children/grandchildren, though. The characters deal with some intense/stressful situations, and some will swear in the story (minor swearing, but still).

One doctor has you using an endoscope, exploring within the human body (mostly the esophagus and stomach so far). This is my least favorite storyline because the doctor is annoying, but the controls are interesting. To slide further down the throat, you push the Wiimote closer to the TV screen. To change angles, you rotate the Wiimote. Steering the angle and camera require the nunchuck, and in general this portion of the game requires a steady hand and patience.

I haven't done too much with orthopedics yet, but the gameplay is different. Rather than having vitals that fluctuate, you get a "5 strike" system. If you stay under 5 strikes you succeed, if you exceed then you fail. This method of gameplay tends to deal with the exterior of the body and uses different tools to correct bones and remove tumors and such.

By FAR the most stressful operations are the First Aid Responder. Some huge disaster occurs and then you are on the screen, saving patients. It's similar to the surgeon, except you never go under the skin and you have less tools to work with. It's scarier in that you are dealing with anywhere from 2 to 6 patients at the same time, and all of them are dying. So you frequently find yourself giving minimal care and a shot to a patient before moving on to the next and hastily removing shrapnel, then racing to the next before their heart stops. And if you spend too long with the 4th patient without going back to the 1st and 2nd then you've got people going into shock or cardiac arrest.

It's stressful, but I kinda LOVE it.

They make good use of the Wiimote, too. When doing chest compressions, you actually have to push down---hard---with the Wiimote. Some of the actions are a little silly (like having to angle the scissors), but a lot of them are pretty awesome and amazing.

Diagnostics has you examining charts, interviewing patients, and pointing out symptoms. It's very House-esque. Once you've gathered up symptoms, the computer will pull up a list of diseases that have those symptoms. You keep looking for matches and testing patients until you've narrowed it down to one disease.
I like diagnostics. There's a lot of different mini-game type actions for you to do, and the pressure is very limited--it's similar to forensics that way.

The "Forensics" portion has you working with deceased individuals in an attempt to discover how they really died, and all the circumstances behind the death. It's like a bizarre mix between CSI, House, and Phoenix Wright. At one point you have to reassemble a skull in order to obtain an ID of the victim.

The forensics portion also makes sure that you are paying attention and ensures that you actually solve the mystery placed before you. It does this by giving you multiple choice questions...frequently. Getting an answer wrong will cost you half a heart, and getting too many wrong will cause you to fail the case. You have to listen to witness recordings, search the crime scene, and examine the body to collect evidence, then sit down and match the evidence together and answer questions about the situation until you achieve "Solid Evidence," a piece of irrefutable evidence that proves the case. At the end you use this solid evidence to explain what happened to the deceased. It's kinda awesome.

Plus you learn a bunch of medical terms for everything. This is particularly true with diagnostics.

All in all this is an amazing game and I highly recommend it. Whistler/someone, come play with me! My roommate K prefers watching to playing, and while I certainly don't mind I want to test out the coop mode more. It looks so fun!

Art Class and Awesome

2012-01-28T18:40:00.002-07:00

For art class (How to make a good comic 101) we drew two 6-panel comics, 10 minutes per comic, with a theme provided by someone else in the class. My two themes were "That could have gone better" and "Sunrise." The comics are below (sorry if they are hard to read. Let me know and I can fix them up)

I got to spend some nice alone time with J last night. It was really nice; the last few times we've hung out it's been with a large group of people and we didn't really get to talk. He's fun times.

We went out to the local lake. If you get a chance, grab some blankets (it will be windy and cold) and some flashlights (powerful ones if possible) and head out there some evening. The lake froze over then thawed, so there are huge chunks of ice floating around. It looks amazing. Even MORE amazing is how the tide picked up most of that ice and flung it at the shore, creating a crazy stack of ice several feet high. It looks like the secret entrance to a lair of frozen awesome.

This is getting ridiculous

2012-01-20T09:11:00.001-07:00

By next Thursday I will have my old comic website back up.

DECIDED.

Still Running

2012-01-18T16:10:00.003-07:00

And still disliking it. I missed this morning but I played a bunch of DDR to make up for it.

And I still hate it, but today I was late for class and I managed to sprint from my car to the front door of the building my class was in. That was...something I haven't been able to do before.

So I still hate it, but I'm still doing it.

And just in case this bored you, have a video. I need to keep this in my blog for future locating, in case I forget the name "Thousand Pounds" again.

Sorry if I've already posted this once. It's not new.

A Psychological Experiment

2012-01-17T17:51:00.002-07:00

I've started a Google Doc that contains information that is absolutely vital to passing one of my classes. At the moment it's a skeleton with some of the information filled in by yours truly. I then offered to share the document with others in the class, asking that they all contribute and thus spread the load.

One week later everyone in BOTH sections of the class has requested that they be added to the Google Doc.

So far, not one person has contributed.

Hrm.

This sounds kinda familiar.

Fascinating. I wonder how this will end. I'll probably send out a friendly request that everyone contribute. There are enough people that if every person looks up ONE word we'll have the entire vocabulary list completed in less than an hour.

I wonder if that could work.

I think I have a button, and someone has gone and pressed it.

2012-01-11T17:19:00.003-07:00

Okay, once and for all, I'd like to make this clear.

What the Internet says:
"Alcohol not only evaporates without heat, but the majority also burns off during the cooking process."

What SCIENCE says:
Table from USDA Showing Percent of Alcohol Retained After Cooking
Preparation Method & Percent of Alcohol Retained
alcohol added to boiling liquid & removed from heat: 85%
alcohol flamed: 75%
no heat, stored overnight: 70%
baked, 25 minutes, alcohol not stirred into mixture: 45%
baked/simmered, alcohol stirred into mixture:
15 minutes: 40%
30 minutes: 35%
1 hour: 25%
1.5 hours: 20%
2 hours: 10%
2.5 hours: 5%

(bolded for the methods I've seen the most often defended in arguments)

From the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, April, 2002, by Eleese Cunningham:

"The extent of loss depends on the severity of the heat application, or any other factor favoring evaporation. Cooking time had the greatest impact on alcohol retention. Flaming a dish results in much smaller losses of alcohol than cooking. Uncooked and briefly cooked dishes had the highest alcohol retention. Alcohol retention during cooking was also greatly affected by the size of the cooking vessel used. The smaller the cooking utensil the greater the amount alcohol retained. This was likely due to the smaller surface area for evaporation."

The sources of this and additional information:
http://www.ochef.com/165.htm
http://family.go.com/food/recipe-sk-19117-ask-chef-mom--does-alcohol-burn-off-during-cooking--t/
http://homecooking.about.com/library/archive/blalcohol12.htm
http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/Data/index.html

I do not mind if other people choose to eat food with alcohol in it. Really, I don't. There is no judging here. But it's just that I prefer not to. And it is a teensy bit frustrating when I am seen as a total prude for declining food prepared with alcohol. People don't think twice that I don't watch rated R movies, but people will assure me over and over that all the alcohol burns off (or boils away) in the cooking process.

To these people: please see the chart above. Thank you.

This is healthy? This is healthy. Am I dying? You're not dying. Healthy feels like dying.

2012-01-10T08:39:00.002-07:00

I went running this morning. I found someone crazy enough to get up early enough to come with me. I would have done it at a different time and gone with different people, but unfortunately my schedule from 8AM to 8PM is already pretty...well, packed, frankly. And running at 9PM does not appeal in the utmost.

So I found someone willing to make sure I wake up at 6:05, who would go with me to the track at 6:15, and would work with me until 7:00 AM.

Thanks, Dad.

The running itself? Felt like this:

I was expecting it to be miserable and I've already decided that I will go 4 days in a row even if I hate it passionately. I figure if I still hate it passionately in 4 days then...well, it'll be a habit by then so I am screwed into doing it until I like it, but also I hear that the first 3 days are the worst so if Day 4 is still terrible I will cry.

But hey, I completed my first goal: Move my legs until they have successfully gone a mile. I went for a mile!

My next goal that I came up with after this morning: Find a way to run that doesn't make you want to vomit.

My legs were fine, it was my lungs that killed me.

Anyway, whatever. I'm healthy now.

LASIK was cancelled

2012-01-06T10:04:00.003-07:00

I went in for the LASIK surgery this morning. The doctor asked to pull me aside before the surgery. He pulled me into a room, shut the door, and sat me down on a chair.

"I sent your eye charts in to confirm the numbers, and the head surgeon did some additional calculations. One of the numbers he calculated puts you from the low risk category to the...ineligible category, as it looks like you have the starting stages of Keratoconus. It's borderline and only one number has any indication of it, but it's enough of a concern that I don't feel comfortable performing this procedure.

"You don't have any other signs of Keratoconus, and it was such a small indicator that we only really found out about this last night (I'm sorry I have to tell you about this today, right before surgery). But just to be safe we'd like you to wait until we can be sure that Keratoconus isn't going to develop."

How long should I wait?

"We can be sure about the development of Keratoconus at around 30 years old."

---

So I didn't get LASIK. What a pity, I was really looking forward to it.

My brother, by the way, does have Keratoconus. So there is a distinct possibility.

All well, I'll keep wearing glasses for a while longer. It's only really an issue when I swim or watch 3D movies, neither of which I do often, and I can lean close to the mirror when I'm putting on eye makeup. Meh.

On the super-duper plus side, I'm suddenly a fair-hair richer than I was planning to be two hours ago. I'll be putting that aside and save for something awesome, like a vacation trip to Japan or a car or something.

I had an awesome day.

2011-12-27T15:04:00.015-07:00

I had a wonderful day on Monday. It was terribly adventurous! It took me until today to write the post as I wanted to make sure it was illustrated.

ACT 1: THE PROLOGUE
For a while I have been wanting to obtain a DDR pad to call my own. I love playing the game and it's great exercise, but I have a hard time enjoying it on the softer pads; you can't play as well. I love playing on these pads:

My brother has some, and while DDR was in it's hayday they were everywhere. Sadly, they are expensive, with a single pad costing about $300. I finally managed to amass the money for the cause. I went onto the Cobalt Flux website only to discover that Cobalt Flux had gone out of business. Noooo!

I still wanted a pad, so I decided to go on an adventure and find myself a Cobalt Flux pad.

These adventurous gentlemen, alas, were not included in said adventure.

ACT 2: THE HUNT

Finding a Cobalt Flux pad proved more difficult than I had originally anticipated. Everyone seemed very happy with the pads they owned, and no one was willing to sell one. Online stores all proclaimed that they were out of stock--all stores save one, which has now--as in the day before I wrote this--gone offline. Finally after sheer luck I managed to find an ad on Craigslist which indicated that a gentleman had a school pad he was willing to sell for $375. School pads are a little different from the regular retail versions that sell for $300. School pads normally cost $700 and look like this:

They are built for public schools. They have higher quality materials and convenient handles and are designed to basically be abused for 7 hours a day and still have a huge long life span. They are lighter than the regular pads and they have no sharp edges. Considering I have cut my feet numerous times on the regular pads this is a nice big relief. I was elated and contacted the gentleman immediately.

No response. Well, that's just fantastic. I tried to reach him a few more times (terribly politely) and then gave up on that venue. Sadly, that venue was the only pad I could find for sale.

Out of ideas, I finally resorted to ksl.com. I came across an ad first thing: a gentleman who wants to unload some pads he has no use for, $150 each. The image he used was the school pads, but I doubted that they were really the higher quality pads. Nonetheless, when I called him, he answered. He was terribly friendly and said that the 4 pads were indeed still available, were actually the school pads, actually cost $150, and he wouldn't mind holding them for me.

That was a jaw-dropping deal, so naturally it seemed too good to be true. Nonetheless, I decided to at least check it out. We arranged a time and place and I borrowed the Prius to head up to SLC. K and I were planning on hanging out all day anyway, so she came along.

ACT 3: THE PURCHASE

We headed up to SLC with the assistance of the ever-helpful GPS system, and we had no trouble following it (don't ever tell anyone otherwise, K!). The only cause of alarm was when it announced "You have arrived at your destination." This was alarming as we were in a low-traffic area and surrounded by warehouses.

When we looked at the warehouse on the right side of the road, we saw a sign we were never expecting:

COBALT FLUX INC.

We were at the warehouse of the company that had gone out of business. We walked through the front door and met one of the employees, who had spoken to me on the phone.

Huzzah!

That's right, folks, I had contacted a former employee who was cleaning out the warehouse. The pads were leftovers that were going to go to the new owner of the place and he wanted to unload inventory. I was purchasing 2 brand new, never been touched highest quality DDR pads for $150 each. I immediately called my brother, who was interested when I explained the situation, and he bought the other 2 pads available.

I took a few pictures while we were waiting for everything to get sorted.

A stack of "lightly used" DDR pads that were pretty much destined for disposal. If anyone else wants a school pad for a ridiculously good price, go get one quick. Seriously. One of the pads we wound up purchasing was one of these, and it looked nice.

K standing near the entrance to the stock area. It was cold in the warehouse, but we were having fun.

Aren't they beautiful? That white stuff is protective, and means the pads are brand new, straight from the factory shelf into my arms.

I asked the employee if we could test the pads (at the time I still thought it was a guy and we were heading to his house to pick up the pads) and he said something could be arranged. In this picture is a pad that was scrapped and therefore just the skeleton, the TV he set up for us, and a huge pile of PS2's that were going to be discarded. Seriously, do you see those two small towers on the table? Those are all PS2's. We didn't get a PS2 because we had no need, but the guy threw in the DDR game we were testing because "I hate that music." It was Disney DDR and it only has happy pop songs, so I can understand his sentiment.

There is something lonely about an empty warehouse, but I had had no idea how big Cobalt Flux actually was. I honestly pictured 4 or 5 guys with one or two rooms, and whenever they got an order they made the pad from scratch for that order. Nnnope, these guys were taking in millions a year, and their school pads were highly successful. Crazy.

Thus concludes the search for the DDR pads! I now own one of my own, so K and I can play freely and often!

THE END

...

On the way back home we got to see something neither of us had witnessed before. A patrol car turned on his lights a few cars in front of us and began weaving madly on the highway. At first I thought he was trying to pass some cars that wouldn't let him by and I was amazingly impressed that we were witnessing an Italian Job-esque getaway in progress. Then we discovered that he was single-handedly bringing the entire freeway to a standstill.

A cop on a power trip, you ask?

No. There were some fellow men in blue walking the freeway just in front of where we came to a halt, throwing enormous chunks of Styrofoam off of the freeway. It was awesome. One car didn't quite realize this is what was happening and tried to cut in front of us, but like a rabid sheep dog the One Patrol Car hounded down on him and cut off his slow advance. It was amazing.

Once the road was clear they let us all go again, but it was fun to be a part of the experience. Also it was nice to be near the front and understand why the entire freeway went from low traffic to bumper-to-bumper stop-and-go.

That's the rest of the story, but K and I did go see a movie later so we snapped this shot:

May the force be with you.

A Different Type of Media (Art in Progress)

2011-12-17T17:09:00.005-07:00

I am not very good at drawing maps.

Cheating, however, is simple enough.

One hour of cheating later:

I really need to fix the color balance, and I need to add the rivers and the political boundaries/towns, but this is a basic look at the terrain.

Wow, I have never done this before. It's not easy.

A Media Post: The Muppet Movie and Tarzan (There are spoilers for Tarzan)

2011-12-14T10:31:00.005-07:00

For some reason I really enjoy posting about media I have seen/read/played so here is another one of those posts so I can take a break from studying.

Finals are progressing nicely; I think I'll take the final (and most dreaded) final tomorrow evening. I'd take it sooner but at the moment I cannot fathom the idea of studying for it. I should recover by tonight and get back on the ball.

So, I saw the Muppet Movie in theaters. I am writing about it now to recommend that you go see it. I enjoyed it.

That's all I'm going to say about it though. Its complimentary 6 months of obligatory plot silence have not yet passed.*

I just read Tarzan last night. It's what I did because I couldn't handle studying after two solid days of reading, memorizing, and test taking. I read the majority of the book in one sitting and loved it. I really love the book.

It's odd; the writing style is curious and the assumptions are sometimes strange, but it's just such a fun read! Tarzan is like the ultimate Mary Sue--except he's the hero of the story.

Reading the book generally makes me want to watch the movie, although the plot shifts Disney makes do become somewhat jarring. I just like watching him jump around like a wild thing, and I love how they handle his first encounter with Jane.

I need to obtain this movie so I have it onhand for the next time I read the book. Since this is my 4th or 5th time reading the book, I clearly enjoy it enough to repeat it again later and should plan ahead for it. This time was a little different for two reasons:

1. I read it on my Nook. Huzzah! Huzzah! I am loving this Nook.

SPOILER ALERT IF YOU DON'T WANT THE BOOK SPOILED FOR SOME REASON SKIP THIS PARAGRAPH
2. I stopped at page 176. I would have stopped right when he rescues Jane from the fire in America but I read a little further to where he tries to strangle the man buying her. I cannot bear to read the part where she accepts Clayton and leaves Tarzan in the dust. I mean, how dare she! And how dare the author so clearly leave it up to a sequel to resolve matters! ...Seriously though there is no reason for her to accept Clayton. She even clearly indicates that ever since she met the man in the jungle she's been in love with him, and months have passed since then without her thoughts changing. His weak pathetic argument in the car is ridiculous and her sudden agreement when her lover is 10 feet away is convoluted. Has she never heard of sleeping on it? I mean...How? Why? It's like they rewrote her character and motivations in the last 10 pages!

So despite that obvious link to a sequel and desire to enrage fans of the era who have to wait for said sequel, it is an amazing book I recommend reading. Certainly give it a try if you haven't read it already; it gives the movie new depth.

For those of you still reading (you are amazing if you are not me and you are still reading this) here's how my finals have been so far. I can't give final scores because I don't have the final scores for any of them yet:

CALLIGRAPHY
Time spent studying: 0 hours
Time spent test taking: 5 minutes
Score: Probably an A

PERSONALITY THEORY
Time spent studying: 8-10 hours
Time spent test taking: 1.5 hours
Score: Probably around 85% overall.

ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY
Time spent studying: 3-4 hours
Time spent test taking: 30 minutes
Score: Probably around 85%? Not sure. There were a couple questions that confused me, which is sad because this is my favorite class and subject matter.

DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY: ADOLESCENCE
Time spent studying: ???
Time spent test taking: ???
Score: ???

I'll be taking my last final tomorrow, and then I'll be free of school for 2 1/2 weeks. Yay!

*All new media everywhere should have 6 months spoiler proof, where you do not discuss the plot unless you are certain that everyone in the room has already seen/read/played it. After that you should be able to mention the title and then proceed to spoil it carefully--if someone in the room still hasn't seen it they can stop you. After a year or two all bets are off.

Snippets

2011-12-13T14:33:00.003-07:00

I think one of the most memorable days of class was when we were discussing suicide. The teacher paused the powerpoint, turned to the class, and announced, "We will now have a demonstration."

----

We then had to spend the next 20 minutes persuading the role-playing teacher not to commit suicide.

A few notes from this morning

2011-12-13T10:59:00.002-07:00

Dreams in which you fall asleep and have a dream within the dream and that second dream is you, aware that you are dreaming, dashing about a world that you completely control are very interesting and kinda fun. It's less fun when you wake up a second time and realize that the "waking you" from the first dream was also just a dream. Bleah. And no, the link to Inception didn't actually occur to me until now. It was more like a less-scary version of Amnesia: Dark Decent.

In other news, pizza and/or eggrolls for breakfast is a bad idea. I don't think I can put off grocery shopping much longer. I'll probably swing by a store tonight.

IN OTHER NEWS

There is snow on the ground! You have to drive through it! There is snow all over the parking lot where I live, which is a hill! It took me a solid and literal minute to get to the top of the slope, which is normally a 5-10 second endeavor. I fear the ice that may be coming next year: I may not be able to get out of the parking lot.

But huzzah, huzzah! There is snow on the ground! Yay!

Yay, it's such wonderful news!

2011-12-12T09:23:00.007-07:00

My brother is getting married!

I have proof!

(A close-up of the ring)

He proposed in a car (because it was cold outside) with a ring pop (because despite numerous devious attempts he could not ascertain her ring size) last week. It was amazing to hear about it. They are getting married on New Year's Eve Eve. It's a lot of fun helping with the wedding!

...But before I help with anything else I have finals to worry about.

Currently the plan is to study all day today (fortunately my finals are on surprisingly similar material so the study overlaps quite well) and take 1-2 finals today, leaving the rest for tomorrow morning. I should be completely done by Tuesday at 10 AM, at which point hopefully I'll just be able to work all day for the rest of the week.

So, those are the two main things in my life right now, I think. Weddings and finals. Funny, but I haven't given much thought to Christmas. Good thing I got the shopping done*, hey?

*I didn't really. When I made that post below I was so proud, but I've realized now that I haven't completely finished; I still need to get about 4 gifts for people. Also, I need to ship some of those gifts to Japan. :)

From Conception to Completion: 1 HOUR

2011-12-06T09:35:00.002-07:00

Christmas shopping = DONE. It took me an hour to think up and then purchase all the gifts. BAM, baby!

Now I have 19 days to get creative with stocking stuffers. Sweet...

And now I kinda want one.

2011-11-27T21:10:00.003-07:00

It isn't going to happen soon (not this year and probably not next year) but some of the actions in my family have got me thinking.

I think it would be cool to own a house.

I am not saying I am gonna buy one right away. Now that I'm actually living in an apartment, I like it. The social atmosphere is nice, the utilities being in the rent is nice, the fact that if anything breaks it's not my job to fix it is really nice, etc.

But I found this webpage while browsing today, and that got me thinking and looking at local land prices. I found a piece of land that would cost about $100 a month ($22K land). I found a bunch of other land that was a little more expensive but also better located (about 5 minutes away from where my parents live, in fact).

Then I realized that if I really wanted to, I could totally pull it off.

Now, I don't want a house as small as the ones listed on the Tumbleweed website. Their cottages look pretty good, mind you, but the "Box Bungalows" are too small for my tastes. Awesome if I suddenly decide to go hermit and live on top of a mountain, but terrible if I want to be able to welcome guests into my home. But the cottages do look nice. Really nice. And not that expensive to build...

I also really, REALLY love the idea of building a house myself. I REALLY love that idea. A lot. The box bungalows look feasible in that respect, frankly.

I'm not going to act on this fantasy just yet, but I may fantasize a while longer. Heck, I may even pick up that book of plans he is selling. That's more than a little tempting.

Oh, and for the record:

The house I want to own is this one:

bottom floor:

top floor:

It's the largest one on their website. I love the thing. Although I also love the idea of getting one of the little ones and building it on K-La's lawn. We could be neighbors now! And when you move, it's already on wheels!

I still think it would be interesting to see how life would be living in one of these things. I actually own the plans to this one, now, since the plans were free. I'm loving the idea. I would build it out of wood, not that creepy metal, though.

I have awesome friends

2011-11-25T12:37:00.007-07:00

It's my birthday! Yay for me! Many thanks to all who gave me many well-wishes.

I had a wonderful morning. Last night I was super tired so I took a "nap" at my parents' place after Thanksgiving. I went to sleep at around 8-8:30 and woke up at midnight. I didn't feel like going back to sleep so I went home. I cleaned up my room a bit (it still needs about an hour of work, but at least it looks livable now) and sat around waiting to feel tired. I finally went back to sleep at around 5 am and woke up at 10 this morning.

What a morning!

I woke up to find my door decorated with birthday well wishes, as well as a clue or two :)

Here are the riddles I got this morning:

Clue #1 (on my door)
What always runs but never walks, often murmurs, never talks, has a bed but never sleeps, has a mouth but never eats?

I had K for an audience (she was waiting for me to wake up, apparently she wanted to watch me puzzle it out) and she followed me to the bathroom where I looked in the tub. There I found the second clue, and a present!

Clue #2
I go in dry and come out wet, the longer I'm in the stronger I get.

This one took me a while and a few more cryptic hints, but finally I understood the answer and opened my pantry to find clue #3 and this:

Clue #3
What's black when you get it, red when you use it, and white when you're through?

This one I had help. Specifically, I had K's sisters chatting in the background and somehow the answer was accidentally spoken. So I popped open the oven and found:

I didn't know that game existed!
On top of that game was the last clue:
The more you have of it the less you see.

This one (like the first one) I solved all by myself, but had a tricky time figuring out where to look. Finally I opened the hall closet (which has no light switch) and found two enormous bags of candy. I was super happy with the thoughtful presentation and my amazing friend! What a wonderful way to wake up in the morning!

It turns out K-La also remembered that I aged today, and she sent me a package in the mail. I'm amazed at the planning and foresight she had. I'm also amazed because I didn't know that she knew I wanted this very much:

It's Flight volume 6! I've already sat down and read it. It was amazing! JTTF and thank you so much~!

Thank you so much to all my wonderful friends who have wished me a happy birthday. You are all great!

The birthday celebrations and felicitations are tomorrow, with my family. I think instead of having a party tonight I'll use the time to do homework (I'm kinda looking forward to it, really). I'm baking my own cake and I'm kind of excited for it, so when it's done I'll take pictures.

Anyway. Thanks again! Love you all!

Oh, I guess I should do a post or something.

2011-11-23T10:24:00.003-07:00

Would anyone like to celebrate my birthday with me this Friday?

I'm gathering that quite a few people are out of town, so this may not be possible. I was thinking of doing a party Friday. I originally wanted to do sledding, followed by some-sort-of-activity and chocolate. But it looks unlikely that there will be snow on the ground. It's probably too cold to fly kites, though...

In any case, if I have some sort of celebration Friday, who would be interested in attending?

Since most people seem to be out of town, I'm rather tempted to delay.

Well, it's done and I'm not undoing it.

2011-11-18T10:41:00.006-07:00

After a depressing hit on my GPA for first term and too many nights where I couldn't sleep resulting in a lab that DOESN'T WORK that is several days late (over a week, now), I am done with that class.

Not in the good "hurray, the semester is over" way, but in the "I can't handle putting in this many hours for such a stupidly pathetic reward" way. I withdrew.

I suppose part of me is annoyed that I did the majority of the hard work; I turned in the labs that took about 10 hours apiece, and I got A's on each lab. I didn't turn in one homework assignment and then I got a B overall in the class.

...I got a B? An A-, maybe. Not an A-, not a B+, a B. Because I didn't do one of the side-homework assignments.

It's fine and it's fine and I didn't do the homework so whatever, but at the moment I'm more than a little annoyed.

I'm just annoyed in general. This is NOT a good week. I'll go calm down for a bit and feel better and everything will be okay. I should feel fantastic: I just removed my "cake-fun" class and thus reduced my weekly homework time by 12 hours. I don't feel fantastic, though. I feel dumb.

It's fine. It's fine. I'll feel better in like an hour anyway. Then I can celebrate that I don't have to do so much homework, and I can focus on nailing the crud out of my remaining classes.

It would mean 2 nightmare-ish semesters, but I could be DONE.

2011-11-15T08:18:00.004-07:00

I went to go see my Psychology Advisor (everyone should do this [see an advisor {if you're in school}, not seeing a Psychologist] it's awesome) and discovered that I could substitute some of my fun classes as credit towards my major. Assuming I pass all the classes I have currently registered for for Fall and Winter, I am one class short of graduation--two if I want to graduate with a Language certificate (like a diploma but just for language proficiency).

Both of these classes can be available in Spring, although one is a bit tricky. One class is an internship and one class is a language/culture class.

So here are my options:

1. Take the language class in addition to my other Winter classes, giving me 17 credit hours and a ridiculously difficult semester. Take the final class for my major in the Spring.

2. Risk the chance of not being able to take the language class by delaying it until Spring. The class is available Winter and Spring "on Demand" so if I don't take it Winter and it isn't offered Spring I'm just not going to take it.

3. Skip the language certification entirely (leaving me with nothing official for my resume) and just take my Winter load and the last Spring class.

4. Complete everything as currently planned, but drop one of my current Winter classes and take that in the Spring with the internship.

5. Don't take anything Spring and Summer, work instead. Complete my schooling in the Fall along with a couple fun classes I've been wanting to take.

---

Those are the main options I can think of (dropping out isn't an option). I didn't realize how close I was to graduation. That's kinda...cool. I mean, heck, if I quit my job and took an internship instead I could graduate in April. I'm okay with not doing that, though. I dunno, I'd have to talk to my work and see what they say. If I cut my hours down anymore they'll probably hire someone to replace me, and I like that job too much.

I always do worse in Winter (less motivated, sick of school) so I try to make it a lighter class load. At the moment, however, it's no different from my current Fall class load.

While I'm doing a post anyway, I should point out that last night at midnight I got this:

It's been REALLY hard to not play it, but I didn't and I went to class this morning and I will go to work today and I will be responsible and get all my homework done. I can't really afford to slack in my classes right now. But man, it's hard. I've been waiting for this game for so long.

How can you NOT love Japan?

2011-11-14T12:59:00.005-07:00

You win a million brownie points if you can identify this movie that is coming out next year:

Taken from here (<-- if you click the link you lose the brownie points for cheating.)

The million points is redeemable if you can guess the movie based on that picture alone.

Seriously. They are making a movie. They are making a MOVIE. If you still can't guess what movie it is, I will include some more pictures for you.

This guy is in it:

This gal is in it (there aren't any shots of her alone, sadly):

Text appears on the screen at pivital moments:

(that translates to "OBJECTION!")

One last chance, here's the cast again:

Okay, if you don't know at this point you just aren't gonna guess it. Sorry.

TLDNR: Japan is making crazy wacky games into crazy wacky movies, hairstyle and all.

As a bonus for reading this far, here are a few more images that came up on Google Image Search.
These guys SHOULD be in it:

And Harry wishes he was in it:

It just keeps building and building until one night you get out of the shower, walk into your freezing room, and just flip out.

2011-11-13T00:55:00.002-07:00

And then you cover your window that won't close all the way with tape, saran wrap, and a blanket. I'm too tired to think of anything better and about to go to sleep, but I just needed to do something. My room is so cold!

Things to try

2011-11-11T12:25:00.002-07:00

Lunch of Legends

1. All 5 team members push the middle from the start (set up an ambush, but stay for the long haul)

2. 2 junglers, 3 solo acts who play a defensive game (level advantage?)

3. 3-1-1 for the two lanes

4. Use teleport as second ability (all members) for quicker movement and ganks

5. Is it possible to use several potions at once (no need to return to town)?

6. 5 carry champions---desperate survival game at the start but nukers at the end--worth investigating?

7. 3 tanks, 2 carries - too defensive, but hard to kill?

8. 4 carries and a tank - sounds fun but squishy

9. 1 full support, 1 off support (Kayle), 1 tank, 2 carries

Quick, make a wish! Or wait 12 hours!

2011-11-11T11:11:00.002-07:00

if (mutant_powers==true) {

Flight();

}
else {

Happiness{};

}

Thank you.

Psychologists have an amazing amount of power.

2011-11-10T16:28:00.002-07:00

Upon taking one abnormal psychology class I have reached the conclusion that the entire world is insane.

Congratulations! I can use abuse of symptoms to demonstrate that any one of you has a serious mental disorder that requires treatment or medication. And depending on the treatment or medication given, you will then actually have a mental disorder.

Seriously, this class makes you think you are crazy.

Now, don't get me wrong. There is a lot of fluff in Psychology and a lot of problems, but it is a science. There are chemicals and graphs and numbers and stuff. THAT stuff is fascinating. All this touchy feely stuff is a little weird now.

This was a rough week. I missed a test and a few big assignments. As of right now I'm caught up with all the heavy/difficult things, but I still have some clean-up to do. I'm not sure what happened. Somewhere last week I lost track of my schedule. It was worth it; I got to puppy-sit.

Just a little more...just a little more...as of right now I am passing all my classes. Heck, with a little effort and some final pushing I'm looking at a pocketful of A's. Yay.

I am walking that way to class everyday FROM NOW ON

2011-10-27T13:39:00.001-06:00

I was walking to class today when I saw 8 puppies playing in the front yard of someone's house.

EIGHT. PUPPIES.

I was late to class today.

BESIDES exercise, I've got that covered.

2011-10-27T00:13:00.003-06:00

I put in a search for "computer" and this was one of the results. Here you go!

I was doing the math the other day and I realized (much to my dismay) that I spend at least 10 hours everyday staring at a computer screen of one kind or another. That is a LOT of screen time, and I'll wager it can't be the healthiest thing in the world.

A lot of this screen time is unavoidable, or at least difficult for me to change. I need a computer for one of my classes and I take notes on a laptop to keep my wrist from hurting. I work at a company that creates online software. That's 5 or 6 hours of the time right there, and I fear at the moment there isn't much I can do about it. But even when I'm home my main interactions seem to be with the computer screen in front of me. Heck, I'm using it right now to write this blog post.

I would dearly like to think of some other hobbies I could do. I need things that either get me outside and doing things, or at least things I can do while the laptop gets some well earned sleep. I don't want to be one of those people who spends all day at work staring at a screen and then races home to watch movies or play video games. It makes it hard to meet new people and make friends socially, and it limits my social spheres. Not to mention it seems mightily unhealthy.

That's awesome.

2011-10-24T21:23:00.001-06:00

Note to self: 2 comic ideas you had and don't want to forget...but ironically you've forgotten them. Way to be. Uh...one of them had to do with Saturday I think? One or both? Friday or Saturday? What did you do on those days again?

Anyway.

We got new carpets! The only downside is that we were told to get out of the apartment from 8am to 5pm.

I came back at 5pm sharp only to see that our apartment had no carpet. I worked on homework from a different apartment (I could still see my wireless, RAWK) until 8:30, when our carpet was finally in place.

I have a huge paper due tomorrow but I just can't seem to focus. That's not good! All well, I have until midnight. I have to stay up to register for class anyway, so it's no big deal. Whee! Wish me luck!

Oh no...it's starting back up...

2011-10-09T20:05:00.003-06:00

With the return of Fall semester, it seems my social life has kicked back into full gear. I think I'm booked solid for the next 3 weeks or so. It's fun but a little crazy...

I just completed midterms, yay! Now I just need to focus on keeping up with homework, and maybe even getting a little ahead in some classes. I'd like to get a little ahead because there is an event coming up wherein some Japanese students are coming to see BYU and BYU is hoping to have some of the local students speak Japanese and hang out with the Japanese students. I'm interested, but it'll be a fairly huge chunk of time so I want to get well ahead in my classes first.

Not much else to report, but I felt bad about posting all media and no news, so that is my life right now!

It's true: shows really do aim to appeal to different audiences

2011-10-06T08:30:00.004-06:00

When I was a freshman or sophomore in high school (I can't really remember), I started to really get into anime. With my brother and his friend's help, I had access to a lot of different shows. After a while they showed me how to download shows from Japan, so I had even more freedom in the different shows I watched. Anime fascinated me; the art style was addictive and the stories were engaging. At the time American cartoons were highly episodic, with every episode ending in such a way that nothing really changed, and it didn't really matter what order you watched in. I found very few anime that took up that practice; animes tended to be 13 or 26 episodes (1 or 2 seasons), and from episode to episode and beginning to end the show would change, the characters would grow, and plot happened. It was awesome.

I got a few favorites that I loved and would still love to watch again (I'm about to list a bunch of shows, so I'll include very basic summaries in parentheses for people who have no idea what I'm talking about). Scrapped Princess (A girl is on the run because it was prophesied she would destroy the world when she was 16) Chrono Crusade (a nun with a gun and her demon friend go fight other demons), RahXephon (a boy discovers a huge robot that only he can use with which he can fight aliens), AIR (a tragedy/love story about a girl who knows she will die soon), Pumpkin Scissors (A small band of soldiers decides to go about doing good in a post-war-devastation setting and has to deal with old habits and prejudice), Ouran High School Host Club (a hilarious show about a group of boys being silly constantly), Fruits Basket (an orphan girl stays with a family cursed to transform into the animals of the zodiac), Cowboy Bebop (the anime version of Firefly: Cowboys in space), Trigun (A western that takes place on a distant planet), and Escaflowne (a normal girl is sent to another planet and is protected by a prince as everyone tries to kill her or use her) are some of the shows I really enjoyed.

The summaries make them sound silly, but I loved the character interactions and how the story grew as the series progressed. I really believed some of the characters, and when situations went south I felt and feared for my favorite people in each show. It doesn't help that after some of these shows that I won't specify the main characters die or get badly injured, and I learned that shows could do that so I worried for their safety all the more.

It helps that I loved all animations in general and still do. I still love that cartoon-y style and collect shows and comics with reckless abandon. I just bought a comic book the other day; I think I was going through withdrawal from not reading comics for so long.

But there was one show (and this is the point of this blog post) that I saw back then that I absolutely hated. It was a show called Darker Than Black, and as far as I could tell it was about...nothing. Scary scenes happened and were shortly followed by random characters doing random things. I couldn't tell if the main character was a good guy or a bad guy and it didn't seem to matter because he was rarely on screen and never showed emotion. I gave up after a few episodes and never returned.

Well, the other day I was looking through old files and tidying up my storage when I came across the show. I was curious and took a second look at it.

It is an amazing show. I must have been too young before because it is one of the best shows I have ever seen. They tell a huge story by having the "side character" of the week be the main narrator, but how these side characters weave in and out and how they handle the main character's strengths and weaknesses is astounding.

Anyway. The moral of the story is that this show is definitely aimed at an older audience (something else I like about anime; they have cartoons for grown ups with excellent story telling and deeper plots). When I was in high school and watching anime with reckless (read: stupid) abandon, I didn't like this show. Now that I'm a lot pickier about what I will watch and a bit older, this is one of the best shows I've ever seen. It's amazing. I simply cannot wait to find out what happens next.

Okay, this is two media posts in a row. Sorry, next time will be news. I guess reporting "I have been doing homework* and preparing for exams" isn't that fun to report.

*I have been doing homework. I've been watching this show mainly in small increments.

I can GIVE you happiness!

2011-10-03T23:41:00.002-06:00

ATTENTION:

Anyone who is having a bad day please apply the following medicine:

That is all. Thank you.

That was super DUPER fun...HAPPY BIRTHDAY, K!

2011-09-30T07:13:00.009-06:00

For K's birthday I had a unique chance of surprising her this year: we totally live in the same apartment. While she was getting ready for her 8:00 AM class, I took the opportunity to set up her battlestar!

Here are images of the setup along with the original pictures I used.

The first part of the mission was on her door:

Which led her to the laundry room (aka Brig):

At this point I really wanted her to go in the correct order, so from the laundry room to the balcony I left a few "hints" for her to follow:

Those are Snickers, which were her favorite candy bar last I checked, and on the table is a huge bowl of candy for her to a) keep, and b) use the bowl to pick up the rest of the hints.

Taped to the glass is her next clue, which is impossible to see from the photo but looks like this:

The last part of her mission was to get to weapon's control. I just now realized the grammar error there. Alas. Anyway, I left her some "hints" again which lead her to the oven (sorry for the lousy pictures here; I couldn't leave the light on anymore, I was trying hard to not have K notice I was moving around):

Underneath the sign is the message telling her she completed the mission successfully:

I'll bet the cast in the show wish missions were that easy!

Inside the oven was K's present:

For those who cannot see under lighted pictures taken in the dark, here's the original:

Behind that picture (how did that get in there...) was her real present, the Battlestar Galactica board game! She never saw it coming. I bet she thought I was getting her the X-Men movie. Psht.

(She also got Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood. This is because her friends are awesome and they teamed up with me to get her two of the fun gifts that she wanted. This surprise and these presents were from all three of us)

K was really surprised to come back from drying her hair to find the paper on her door. She laughed her way through the whole mission, and loved the presents:

(She insisted on keeping the pictures)

Happy Birthday, K!

CLEARLY something needs to change

2011-09-29T10:51:00.003-06:00

Okay, I need to devote a little less time to my social life and a lot MORE time to my homework. Sorry, I need to do some catching up.

It's even started reflecting in my dreams. I haven't been sleeping well for a while, and lately all my dreams have had me lost in corridors or trapped and unable to accomplish whatever the goal of the dream is. Bleah. I want my normal adventure dreams back, so I'll be focusing a bit on working hard.

AFK for a while. Well, not really, since 99% of my homework requires a computer. But you get the idea.

I got a scanner! GLORIOUS DAY!

2011-09-22T08:55:00.007-06:00

Okay, here's a proper post. And since I have a scanner, I will be giving a sample of some art I've been working on. Whee! Scanner! I bought a scanner! Verra' shortly after talking about wanting a scanner I found a scanner/printer/copy machine for $40. Shockingly, the Wal-Mart in Orem beat Amazon's prices. That's rare for me. Sold.

Okay, first, Battlestar Galactica deserves a little more tribute than I gave it before:

For those of you who are actively watching this show or on the fence, I encourage giving it a shot. It's a fun roller coaster to go through and I'm glad I watched it.

My classes are going well. When I have to write case studies I'll probably wind up posting them here. If you like, you can guess what the disorder they have is. That's the game we play in class: they give us a case study and we have to try and give a diagnosis. It's fun!

Okay, I'll end with some sketches and get back to doing homework. If you want to actually see any of the images I suspect you'll need to look at the full-size image. Seeya!

Oh, right, I forgot! I'm working on some special effects animations. When they are done I'll post 'em here.

MAN, I wish I had a scanner!

2011-09-20T13:07:00.003-06:00

Because a) I still want to post and color that lineart of the assassin I drew before, and b) I found a pretty awesome way to take notes in a dull class and I wanted to show you. I took a look at the printer sitting in my room and it appears that the "scanner" I thought it had is actually a copy machine. Also, apparently it is out of ink. At least, I hope that's what the problem is.

Life has been pretty good lately. Hopefully things will be positively awesome tomorrow but today is good. Yesterday we had a stake carnival. Nothing is better than eating cotton candy while standing in a cake walk and watching a large cluster of people dancing like Michael Jackson. It's nice to have the games you've always wanted to ride in a carnival purely for people your age. You don't have to pretend!

I finished watching Battlestar Galactica. Mm-mmm.

Also, apparently balgram.blogpot.com is a gospel sheet music website. I thought my site had been hacked and had a small heart attack, I don't mind telling you.

Aw, I wish I had checked earlier.

2011-09-16T13:09:00.002-06:00

I just discovered that my least favorite/most inconvenient class had a far more interesting and convenient alternative (switched from an hour long lecture 3 times a week in the middle of the day to a one day a week 3 hour class), but the Add/Drop deadline has passed, meaning I can't change classes.

It's a pity, I'm not really enjoying that class. I am starting to wonder why on earth I bother going, since the lectures are not the most helpful. I would take avid notes during the lectures but I was completely unprepared for the first quiz, and as far as I can tell the exam and quizzes take material purely from the reading. Remind me why I should go to class again?

All of my other classes are great, where the material taught in class is either necessary to my continued survival academically (programming) or just plain fascinating (psychology).

Learning about crazy people is a lot of fun

2011-09-08T14:16:00.002-06:00

And that's why the abnormality class is my favorite.

It may have something to do with the fact that the first class period discussed schizophrenia in detail, including several interviews with people who were schizophrenic (and various decrees of ill), and he illustrated several examples with current patients and their conditions.

And in the second class we watched a modern-day "real" exorcism. I put "real" in quotes as he was very clear that we weren't going to discuss whether or not the exorcism/possession were real. I like what he said about it, "I'm LDS and you're LDS, but I wouldn't dare to suppose that my religion is your religion. Some people drink caffeine, some don't. Some believe in demonic possession, some don't. We're not going to get into it. Just keep in mind that these people are not actors; for them this is all real."

It was pretty messed up. If you want the link I can provide it, but...it was pretty messed up.

It's my messy art of the day!

2011-09-07T22:02:00.004-06:00

Here's a video because I wanted to see what I could do in an hour. It took 90 minutes. I wish I had settled on an arm pose for the human.

Very jumpy and rough, but it's my art of the day.

The most fun I've had in a REALLY LONG TIME

2011-09-02T21:27:00.004-06:00

Which is not to say I haven't been having fun lately. This is just that cool.

It's Assassin's Creed.

MAN I love this franchise. I was hooked from game one, and I'm still eating it up.

I wanted to rant about this game for a while so I hunted for some good images. After a while I started to dislike the idea of using other people's images on my blog (mostly out of some form of guilt?) so I drew my own sketch:

This is Ezio. Kinda. It's not the best sketch in the world (I'd say 1 hour?) and I don't have a scanner so I took a picture of the drawing with my camera and uploaded it that way. I didn't bother cleaning it up all the way since my starting mediums were so poor. Oh, and this is my sketch for today. Anyway.

This is Ezio. He is an assassin. You run around the city as Ezio and basically have a blast doing parkour and trying not to get caught by the guards. You also assassinate people. It's a highly addictive game mechanic, with an enormous world to run around in, full of buildings to climb over. It feels like how Batman/Spider-man games ought to play.

Lately I have found ways to hook this PS3 to the Internet. I finally sat down and tried the multiplayer.

THE MULTIPLAYER IS AMAZING.

One problem I had with the game was how stupid the opponents started getting. Yes, there are more types of guards to fight, but once you figure out how to kill said guard you basically have the game down pat (HINT: Kick the guard that is about to attack you until he falls down, kill him, then use that move to start a combo against any remaining opponents. Victory in seconds, also kinda old after a while). It's still hard, don't get me wrong, but I wanted to go up against some real people. I went into the multiplayer assuming I would get crushed by other players until I got the hang of things.

Not so!

The multiplayer game has a few different options, but by far the base option "Wanted" is my favorite mode of play. You and 5-7 other players are put in this world full of crowds made up of your 8 models (there is a sea of you walking around!). You are given a target as a profile image in the corner and a compass that basically gives you "warmer, colder" tips to seek out your opponent. You then race about the city finding your target, and when you get in range you look for the member of the crowd that is acting strange. You then assassinate your target.

The awesome part of this game is not only is your target a thinking human being, someone else is targeting you. So while you run about trying to get other people and trick them into giving themselves away, you yourself are trying desperately not to reveal yourself to your opponents.

The first game I played I didn't fully understand the idea behind the game and I ran around madly, just trying to catch my target. I believe I came in 4th place. After that I started to realize the importance of moving slowly (if you approach your target slowly they can't detect you coming, and it makes it harder for your marks to find you) and I started coming in 1st or 2nd every game. What I love about the multiplayer is while you gain levels and abilities, you can still have fun at level 1 taking on players at level 50. The game is nicely balanced so that everyone stands a chance. Even so, I kinda leveled quickly...I got to level 7 in about 4 matches. When you level you gain new abilities, but while they seem to be neat parlor tricks they don't change the playing field as much as I expected. It is important to know that the abilities exist, however (the first time I got nailed by a mark in a disguise I discovered that disguises were possible. Go figure.)

I think my favorite part about it is when I crouch on a rooftop edge lining up my shot for a great assassination, only to spin my camera idly around to look behind me and notice someone walking towards me quickly (not running, so I can't detect them). I then panic, leap from the building in a desperate effort to get away, triggering my target's "Someone is rapidly approaching you!" alert and they take off running, too. I then try to get away from getting assassinated while still trying to keep my target in eyesight so that I don't lose them. Hilarious results tend to ensue, up to and including my successful elimination of my target immediately followed by my own death as I watch my mark come and claim me.

No, I think my favorite part is when my target is pursuing their target and they run right under me, thus letting me nab them with minimal effort.

I was going to talk about school and work and life in general but I think I'll do that on another post.

I 100% agree with this

2011-09-01T13:14:00.002-06:00

And I strongly encourage people to take this up. I am also annoyed when people tell me "you don't have to apologize" when I am clearly trying to offer sympathy. Sorry has more than one meaning.

Oh my goodness school is HARD

2011-08-31T11:54:00.002-06:00

I forgot just how hard it is.

I had a lot of insanely hard classes that I have now changed or rearranged in an effort to reduce the sheer workload I had had before. Initially I had accidentally taken classes wherein every teacher warned us "This class has a lot of hard reading." That wasn't going to fly, so I swapped teachers or courses until I have a new set of classes that hopefully has less reading and more learning.

Now, don't get me wrong. I read. I read just fine. But when I have a textbook that is the single most boring thing ever published since ever that I have to read 20 pages from each night and daily quizzes on the details from the reading, I'm just not okay with that.

I'm living somewhere else now!

2011-08-23T23:01:00.002-06:00

And you shall have a virtual tour once the boxes are cleared (read: in November).

I like the new place. I cannot believe how many things I took for granted. Like pots. And spatulas. And salt. I own all of those things, now.

I was thinking that I wanted to do an art piece a day. At the end of the day, post the art piece. If I do this in a digital format I'll post them on my blog, otherwise they'll just be in my sketchbook.

I like living here. My bedroom is fun and the roommates are really easy going. Things should go well.

Cleverbot

2011-08-17T16:51:00.002-06:00

And now some conversation snippets with an artificial intelligence.

It's like being addicted to illegal substances: you know it's no good and it'll keep you from doing good things, but you just jones for your next fix!

2011-08-14T23:46:00.004-06:00

Guuuuys.

I got back into Twilight for a while. I loved the books when they came out, recognized that they weren't the most amazing literary feats in the world but still adored them, and read them a few times. Around the time they announced the Twilight movie my interest had already faded significantly.

And then a series of unfortunate events and a well put together Eclipse parody on Youtube got my old fetish reawakened.

I then proceeded to waste a weekend I couldn't really afford to waste by reading the entire series. Bleah, but I have a reading hangover.

For those of you who try to remember why you liked the books, the below comics won't help. However, for those of you who are curious about the story but don't want to spend 4,000 pages in the mind of a whiney, self-absorbed, irrational, doesn't-deserve-to-have-two-hot-perfect-guys-fawning-over-her-like-that girl who won't shut up about how pretty people are and how they smell like perfume, please read these comics for an excellent plot summary. Lucy Knisley made 4 comics; a summary for each of the four books in the Twilight series.

Image 100% stolen from this site. I mean the author Lucy no disrespect and would encourage you to go and look at that page. It's pretty funny.

I'm over this Twilight thing, sorta, and I can move on with life again. I saw the movies New Moon and Eclipse and will grudgingly admit that they aren't as bad as I'd feared. They are leaps and bounds better than that first Twilight movie, that's for sure. I still don't plan to see either part 1 or part 2 of Breaking Dawn in theater; I will rent them and then RiffTrax them and then be done with this.

I was surprised at why I even read the books again. I thought the whole "vampire" thing was silly; maybe I just like romance novels? I'd investigate the theory but I'd need to be careful with my choice of reading material...I gather that's a loaded genre.

Oh sigh I am such a girl.

Lots of news (Life update)

2011-08-09T12:57:00.003-06:00

A number of things have happened in my life, so here's the brief updates to help catch up.

The Nerf War

That kid means business. Those glasses look really silly on real people though.

Our office planned and then carried out an amazingly fun Nerf War last week. Tech (the people who write the code) versus Content (the people who use the code to make products). We all armed up over 2 weeks and bought big hilarious-awesome guns, then went over to an abandoned warehouse and shot at each other for 2 hours. It was glorious. We played capture the flag and last man standing. Tech won capture the flag, and Content won last man standing. We had a ton of fun, and I definitely feel greater unity towards my veteran companions, so I can say that it was a successful team building exercise. I understand that the media team also made a video, which I look forward to seeing. If it's funny and small enough I'll post it here.

Dating/Tennis
Later that same day I went over and hung out with an old friend. It was labeled a double date but since everyone already knew everyone we basically just hung out together and talked. Since it was the Japanese House we only spoke Japanese. We ate curry and played Apples to Apples. After that we walked over to the tennis courts in Kiwani's Park and played tennis.

Alas, our court wasn't as cool as Dubai's, but it was still a lot of fun. I like tennis, but I'm not really much good anymore. I'd like to pick up some of the old sports I used to enjoy, but I think I'd rather get good at racquetball than tennis, and swimming most of all. Swimming has more real-world application, and it would probably be the best workout to boot.

Oh, and my date and I won. That was nice.

How to Host a Clue
K La and I are planning on creating our own "Solve the Murder Mystery" based on the board game Clue. We're each planning on hosting an event at our respective locations around Halloween. (I won't be doing it Halloween night; I have other plans. I dunno when K La is hosting hers, check out her blog for any details later) It's still in the early design stages but we've got some fun ideas to try, so if you are interested in playing let me/her know. I'm really excited. If you have any tips for things you loved/didn't like about any LARP mysteries you've done in the past feel free to let us know that, too.

Lie to Me Science
I found Paul Ekman's blog, The Truth About Lie to Me the other day. Paul Ekman is the doctor who studied microexpressions and emotions, and it's his science that is the basis of the Lie to Me show. He points out really effective uses of his research, as well as a few times that the show took rather liberal poetic license on his findings. I found the blog completely fascinating and thus I am linking it here. I also love his books Revealing Emotion and Telling Lies. I can't decide which book I recommend more, although I think for general theory and useful information I'd suggest Revealing Emotion. Or you don't have to read it at all. We don't have to like all the same things.

Moving
My moving date was apparently moved from August 24th to August 22nd. Rather, I should say that K found out that we can move in on the 22nd if we want to, although the official moving date is still the 24th. I thought that was interesting and filed that away as "useful information." K also discovered that at the moment we have one other roommate, which K ecstatically informs me "is Korean." That will be nice for her, and she might even be able to retain/expand her Korean this school year.

I'm just excited to move and be done with it.

New and Pretty Gadgets
I currently possess a PS3. I am pleased with this. I'd like to get a nice monitor soon and a nice Dance Pad really soon, but both of those are still on my "to buy sometime" list, not my "I really would like to have this NOW, please" list.

I can sew! Kinda!
I made a skirt last week. I think it's cute but I don't have any pictures of it. This week I'll try making a dress. Next week, who knows?

2011-07-27T09:44:00.003-06:00

Okay, so I thought it might be kinda cool to have one of these lying around. I dunno why, but I do think it would be cool for making my own clothes---something I still really want to do.

But here's my question:

Wouldn't it be a pain to get one that matches your size?

And also:

Why can't I just get a bunch of plaster (that stuff with glue and newspapers, what's that called? Paper mache?) and wrap it around my body, let it dry, cut it off, and use that mold to make my own? Because that'd be weird? But it would create a dress model that would exactly fit me.

A Rather Serious Hypothetical Question

2011-07-26T13:31:00.002-06:00

If we played another Saboteur game (hosted by K La and I) in September (probably a Saturday in late September) who would be interested in playing? It would be an all day thing, and it would probably cost about $10-12 per person.

If you are interested but feel the price is a problem, how much do you think it should cost?

K La and I are talking about setting up a game with some revised games and rules (with some new stuff, of course) to make things more interesting.

My Quarter-Life Crisis

2011-07-20T09:21:00.004-06:00

Have you ever just started freaking out because you have no idea what the future holds for you? I don't think I'm the only one who gets worried when I don't know if this job is going to stick around, or when I wonder what I'll be doing in 30 years and whether I'll be enjoying it. The worst is when the feeling is money related, and I don't know if I can even afford the basic necessities for the next month. I think we all can feel the same about our living situations, our friends and other relationships, and generally get this fuan (insecure) feeling in all aspects of our life.

Lately I've been experiencing this a lot. I love my current job, but is it something I'd want to do for the rest of my life? Do I want to visit Japan again, and if so, for how long? Do I want to live there? What would I do if I went? When should I graduate, and how soon can I do so? Do I stay here and get a job in my chosen career? Should it worry me that I haven't done anything to study for said career in over 2 years? How am I going to get my degree when I'm not studying the things that fascinate me most?

Where am I going to be in 5 years? Who am I going to be? Who will I be with?

What about my life in 10 years?

I can't even imagine 20 years into the future.

Sometimes when I feel this way I just need to sit on the floor and relax for a moment, then do something fun yet constructive, like playing the piano. I can't accomplish herculean tasks in one day, and tomorrow will come regardless of if I'm prepared for it. I have enough on my plate each week that I can't really worry about next month or next year.

Whether or not I decide to take another internship in Japan can wait until December. When I choose to graduate can wait another semester (it certainly won't be this year, at any rate). Who I am and who I am with are things that I can work towards each day. If I want to be a good pianist, then it's a matter of practicing the piano each day. If I want to be a good artist, then I'll need to sit and draw. Someday I hope those 15 minute blocks really add up and leave me with some skills and talents I can be proud of. In the mean time, I need to stop freaking out about this. Things will happen or they won't. Time will move on regardless, and I just need to go with it.

I need to quit being a stress-spaz, but I admit that it's days like today that leave me craving Wingers Sticky Fingers and/or chocolate. Or soup. (My comfort foods)

Forget 10 years in the future, I'll focus on the immediate future. I have a room to clean out, a friend's birthday party to finish planning (I am enjoying planning this one, I think it'll be good fun), and a life to live. Let's get to it, shall we?

--

For anyone curious, the whole thought that got this process started was whether or not I should go teach for Interac next summer. It's like the summer internship I did before, only instead of getting paid $100 a week I'd be getting $800 per month, but while meals were pretty much provided before, I'd have to get my own meals now. Oh, but airfare would be included. So, yeah, that's sorely tempting! The debate I am having is whether or not it is worth my time to spend a summer in Japan when I know that English teaching is not my dream job.

Apparently it's a trick of the shutter, but still!

2011-07-15T18:28:00.001-06:00

GUYS

CHECK THIS OUT GUYS

Piano playing update

2011-07-14T10:27:00.001-06:00

I have finally successfully played that sheet music in one sitting, from page 1 to page 5.

I will not tell you how long it took me to play, but progress is progress, right? Now that I've played it through once, all that's left is speeding it up!

Last time I played it through I got stuck halfway when the music started sounding strange. I worked out after a day that it was a key change I completely missed. Go figure.

My friend is more awesome than I can say

2011-07-12T19:12:00.003-06:00

My friend Michelle has just opened her own online greeting card store. I've always admired her art and style and have kept a small collection of pieces that I have either received from her as gifts or commissioned in college.

You can check out her art and store here:
http://michellerweaverportfolio.blogspot.com/

Here's a sample of what is currently available, although I believe she is always open to requests and custom orders. I was impressed when I saw her store; she is selling the cards at a fantastic price! They're high quality and unique prints, so if you have a moment please check it out!

STOP DANCING ON THE KEYS!

2011-07-12T11:12:00.003-06:00

Jarrod Radnich, there is no denying that you are a great pianist. And I'll grant that you've done an amazing job with this song:

And, to be fair, it's my own fault for getting the sheet music and attempting to play this song on my own. It's been a while since I've touched a piano, it's true.

But fer cryin' out loud, stop with the spider leg sliding on the keys! That's a ton of notes to play verra' softly with not a lot of time! I'm playing at a snail's pace, which makes these scales sound really weird, but man oh man, that hand movement at 0:30 and the right hand action at 0:54 are driving me nuts as I try to play them myself.

I reckon I might, maybe, be able to play this song after a month or two. Bleah. New songs always take a while, I just need to remember that. I always feel foolish when I pick up a new song and it's really tricky, but hopefully that's just normal.

While I get that this is random, it may give you something to do.

2011-07-11T13:10:00.002-06:00

So, lately I've gotten into this kind of music. This music list isn't complete, but I listen to it at work right now and it's got me in the "zen" mood for drawing.

Oh, speaking of drawing...well, I'll save that update for another day. I have something fun happening art-wise right now.

Here is my currently playlist. You can try this list out yourself at Grooveshark or Playlist.com:

1. Pumped up Kicks (Foster The People)
2. If Today was Your Last Day (Nickelback)
3. West Coast (Coconut Records)
4. Hero (Nickelback)
5. Mad World (Gary Jules)
6. American Pie (Don McLean)
7. Rolling in the Deep (Adele)
8. Piano Man (Billy Joel)

The Nickelback is optional. I like Nickelback, but last time I mentioned that out loud I discovered an entire genre of people who despise that band. Shrug.

This isn't the only genre of music I like, but I'm a fan of this..."gentle rock"?

I do tend to prefer softer, easy-going music. I thought I liked rock once, until someone introduced me to Heavy Metal. I do not like music that is turned up so loud I cannot communicate with someone sitting right next to me. For some reason people think rock and heavy metal should only be played at that volume. Perplexing.

Life-wise I'm trying to catch up on some translating I was supposed to do over the weekend. At the same time, I am hoping to write 2 short stories this week (3,000 words per story, shouldn't be too bad...). The art project will hopefully be ready for bragging this coming weekend. I'd like to get my website online and pretty looking soon.

SOMEDAY I'll get started on the homework I was hoping to do during the summer. I'm starting to run out of time before Fall semester starts.

The Vacation is Over

2011-07-10T20:44:00.001-06:00

I'm back in Utah now. I had a super-duper blast right up until the end and now I am having a blast once again being home.

Life is just grand.

My Awesome Vacation: Part 2

2011-06-29T00:26:00.005-06:00

I know only two days have gone by, but so much awesomeness has happened.

For one thing, my fried K is here! Now I get to hang out with two of my best friends. Huzzah!

We picked her up on Monday morning. We've been hanging out ever since. Monday afternoon was spent enjoying our time in California and catching up in general. Monday night we went and saw X-Men: First Class.

Ha ha! Nah, I'm just messing with you. The only one of those people who is actually in the movie is Beast. Here's a more accurate line up of the movie cast (Uhm, warning, spoiler alert?):

I loved this movie. This movie was great and awesome and I would put it up there with X-Men 1 or 2. It definitely belongs in the X-Men Movie Files. It was much better than I was expecting, and I wish they would do a sequel, but I guess they already did? (It's called X-Men. You know, that movie that came out forever ago.)

Today K and I went to SeaWorld.

It was grand. Almost all of the shows have been updated, so it was rather different from last time I went with my brothers. I must say, the Dolphin Show is now my favorite show, and I am going to go see it again tomorrow (we got two day passes because they were cheaper than one day admission. Weird, right?). The Shamu show is now kinda depressing---the trainers don't get in the water at all. I mean, I kinda get why, but still. It made for a lesser performance, I felt. It was still awesome, don't get me wrong, I cannot believe that anyone managed to train aquatic life as well as the creatures living in Sea World behaved, but the Shamu performance just felt...lacking, somehow.

K and I got very, very wet. We were absolutely soaked for the entire day. It was glorious, I look forward to tomorrow!

Oh, and I got to drive a stick shift. Without help. On the freeway, and in two different cities. I am verra' proud of myself for not crashing/destroying the car.

Here's the reason why California rocks so much:

2011-06-25T23:13:00.007-06:00

K La is here.

It's been a fun vacation so far. I had a few minutes this morning so I thought I would give a quick rundown about what is happening here in the sunny lands of southern California. Unfortunately, I still can't find my camera (it may be lost forever, which is horribly depressing) and K La has misplaced hers after the first day, so the pictures provided have been borrowed from other sources. If they aren't free images then clicking on them will take you to the website I got them from.

Okay, let's get started, yes?

I arrived in the Long Beach airport, which was awesome. I have never been to an airport so small that you go straight from the plane to the tarmac, but now I can officially say I've done it! I got off the plan onto the runway, and then walked along to the airport itself, which looked a lot like a trailer. I thought it was fun. Long Beach airport was about 90 minutes away from where K La lived, so we had plenty of time in the car to catch up. It was grand!

The first full day in California was spent doing fun things with K La and having a good time in general. We played the Battlestar Galactica board game with only two people (each of us playing two or three characters) to give her an idea of how the mechanics worked, so she'd be ready for the Game Night later in the week. That game is surprisingly fun even with only two players, although the dynamics are radically different. Having a full cast and crew is still much, much more fun, but I must say I would not object to another 2 player game sometime. It makes you think a lot more--in a different way.

After Drek (K La's husband) got home from his business trip, we grabbed Ash (K La's baby girl) and took off for Legoland's waterpark!

That was tons of fun, and it was nice going with a child. You can go on all the rides that normally you would think "Aw, I'm too old for that, no way" and you have a small child with you as an excuse so you can scream and laugh like you've always wanted. Having Ash with us also meant we spent an inordinate amount of time in the kiddie pool. Happily, that kiddie pool isn't so bad, and I could officially say I got back in the water. First time in a swimsuit since my mission, really. Plus, the lazy river-type attraction at Legoland has LEGO PIECES built into your floating raft and floating lego blocks all along the river, designed to let you pick up pieces and build things while you go along. THAT was cool.

I also learned that you can indeed get badly burned on cloudy days. I have learned this lesson a number of times before but thought I'd be safe for just an hour. Nope. First sunburn in California hit my second day.

After a brief jaunt through Legoland proper (we'd been there before so it wasn't a big new thing, and Ash kept us from many of the rides with her tiny cuteness) we headed back.

Next we went to the wild park and I got to draw a bunch of animals that were less than 2 feet away from me. The wild park is inordinately expensive but has the huge bonus of letting you actually go inside the cages so you and the animals share the same space. This is at least true with the bird exhibit. The other cool thing about the park is the Animal Ambassadors, which are wild animals that have been trained well enough to endure crowds for brief appearances. This is how I got to see a baby cheetah.

I also got to see a bird show that was impressive, hyenas (gorgeous animals!), and an African Cerval.

The Wild Park is far, far too expensive for my tastes (the door price is $70 and everything inside the park has an additional fee of at least $70, and a small cup for a slushie cost me $6), but as they point out a number of times your money is directly funding efforts to save these species and keep them wild. I went once and it was great (my ticket was also free, huzzah), but that park was not worth $70. I would have preferred the park being cheaper and donations being encouraged more than what it currently was. Sigh, all well. You get to see cheetahs. That was so cool.

Most recently I went to the beach. My sunburn from Legoland that became more noticeable after the wild animal park made me take a few more precautions this time. I wore a shirt and shorts all the time, I had a hat, and I had sunscreen that I reapplied a few times. In return, I got to do some awesome stuff:

Nah, I'm just kidding, it was more like this:

We went Boogieboarding! A boogieboard, for those who may not be aware, is more like a kickboard than a surfboard. It's a shorter version of it's longer cousin, and you don't need to ride it/stand up on it. Rather, you can wade into the ocean, wait for a good wave, then push off and keep your front half on top of the board with your legs trailing out behind. The board catches the front of the wave and pushes you to shore. The trickiest part is holding onto the board and not getting overwhelmed by a wave bigger than you anticipated. Boogieboarding is AWESOME and I loved it and I am half tempted to buy a board just so that I can use it when I'm out here. Ach, it was so great. There was a lot of standing chest-deep in the ocean judging waves and deciding they were too small and a fair bit of me accidentally swallowing sea water (YUCK), but the feeling you get when you come across a wave that's pulling you towards it, and the rush you get when that same wave shoves you to shore faster than you thought possible...it's just so great!

Surfing will be next time we go to the beach, but frankly I don't mind if we only boogieboard each time we go!

Saturday I got to watch Ash on my own for a bit while my kind and gracious hosts went scuba diving (which they never actually got to do, but that's another story) followed by a Chinese buffet. I gorged on awesome delicious things until I found the spring rolls. I ate a lot of spring rolls. Why do I still crave spring rolls?

Sunday had a great Relief Society lesson I really enjoyed. All in all this trip has been awesome so far! I'm excited for next week, although I will need to work a few more hours than usual for a while...

This is so exciting.

2011-06-17T09:56:00.003-06:00

I just can't wait, so I went to flickr.com and typed in waiting. These are my favorite results:

Kim comes come tomorrow! I have missed her greatly.

There are some foods that were not meant to be.

2011-06-12T13:49:00.003-06:00

I made Rootbeer Pulled Pork Sandwiches finally. I had been fantasizing over the taste and quality when I found the recipe, and I have put off doing it since I didn't have the pork or the know-how. Saturday I found myself in a situation where I had promised to make these sandwiches for others, and that was enough motivation to haul out the slow cooker and make the dang things.

Pulled Pork? Awesome success.

Rootbeer sauce? Abomination.

I have never been so grossed out by meat in my life. How can something that contains equal parts rootbeer and hot sauce (two verra' delicious things) turn out to be so vile?

It was soggy and wet and sweet and tasted like weak nothingness and gross.

I'm glad I didn't marinade the meat in the sauce. The pulled pork may yet be salvageable if I slap a thick BBQ sauce on there. I am discarding the leftover rootbeer sauce though.

I did like the slow cooker though. I think I'll use that more often. Next on my list is to try a chowder/stew. There was a recipe for meatball stew that I really liked.

Waxing Spiritual

2011-06-12T13:36:00.002-06:00

I got a letter from a friend the other day. You will probably know who I am talking about when I describe the situation behind the letter. She was recently deployed in the army and is currently in basic training. As she was not the most physically fit person I ever knew (she wasn't overweight by any means but she never did much strength building exercise), she and I both knew that the basic training would be very hard for her. She still chose to go through with it and I wished her luck.

It's been a while since then, a few weeks at least. She wrote me a letter asking me to write her (I was lacking in my duties in that respect, but I have since dropped a line). She told me that she was having a really bad time---it was worse than she'd imagined. I felt sympathy for her predicament, but also found myself saying, "It's just a few more weeks, hun. You knew that this would be hard and it won't last forever. You can pull through this." I didn't feel like my letter would be a necessary encouragement for her, but I remembered how hard some weeks of my mission were and how much I valued letters then, so I sent her 4 postcards all at once (quantity vs quality, ha ha).

The next morning when I was driving to work I started to think about how this relates to our relationship with God. I was struck that he really does comfort us, a lot more than I comfort my friend that I do indeed care about. We can receive daily strength when we seek it, and we can find ourselves comfort in our darkest trials. He loves us enough that we can be comforted constantly--like being wrapped in a warm blanket---even when times are hardest. I was simply amazed with the true depth of love that God must have for each of us.

My friend will soon be out of basic training. She'll continue her studies, learning things that interest her and doing things that she loves. She'll still continue to grow, but the hardest part, the darkest trial, will be relieved with new joy. The difficulties of this training will soon fade into memories and the pain will gradually become less, and perhaps she will even be grateful for the experience as she finds herself more capable to deal with the difficulties that await her in future. Despite the fact that someday she probably will come to think of basic training as vital and important, she still needs comfort now in order to get through it.

Heavenly Father is the same, I think. He knows that we will each experience trials that seem impossible and dark for us. He also knows our trials won't last forever. He still comforts each of us when we seek him, and loves us with all our failings. He shows that love to us constantly, probably a lot more than any of us would ever show to one another. He really does care.

I was really impressed by that on my way to work.

Where IS it?

2011-06-08T10:57:00.002-06:00

I lost my camera very shortly after coming home from my mission.

I'm really starting to miss that camera. I want to photograph some of the art I've done this semester.

Let me explain. I drew some pictures in this class that I am rather pleased with. I'm still not a pro and I wouldn't publish what I've done (or think it deserves that), but they are good enough that I'd be willing to show people what I've been working on.

But after looking at the art pictures I had uploaded from my class I realized that my cell phone is destroying art when I take pictures of flat images with it. Seriously. I wish I could show you the atrocity it did to my teacher's art (and he's a pro). There's a picture I drew yesterday that I really want to show off (I adore it) but I don't want to take a picture of it with my cell phone. Blast, where is my camera?

I guess I have no choice. It's time to go back to the parents' place and unpack some boxes.

...Speaking of which, I think I am currently establishing that I can live very happily with 1/8th of my belongings. I guess I should throw away the other 7/8ths at some point.

I keep saying that and nothing happens.

Time to kick it up

2011-06-06T20:34:00.000-06:00

I've been having a lovely time not doing anything productive.

I'm going to stop that now.

Life is Beyootiful!

2011-06-01T21:11:00.003-06:00

I'm so excited.

Some things that have happened lately:

1. Isshi-kun got into his first car accident!

(not Isshi-kun's car)

Nah, he's fine. It was kinda interesting. He was going to turn left on a green light and someone ran through the red and hit his driver-side door. He was very surprised but no one was hurt. His car was not drivable, sadly, so he's waiting to hear back from insurance and find out if he's out of luck in that respect.

2. Spring term is almost over! Yay!

3. Work got less stressful. YAY!

4. I'm going to California again later this summer. HUZZAH! I'm so excited.

That's all for right now.

It's kinda like scratching an itch.

2011-05-27T22:33:00.004-06:00

Sometimes I just gotta draw something for the heck of it.

It felt good not to draw something for class or for work/an assignment. I gotta do this more often.

The drawing is sorta someone who has discovered their hand creates death on contact...or something. I dunno. Shrug.

This place is haunted, in case you were wondering.

2011-05-24T18:19:00.003-06:00

While I love this apartment and I want to make that absolutely clear, I should point out that it is not perfect.

It is haunted.

I can prove it. Take, for instance, the demon clock. It is a clock that chimes every hour.

It is also possessed by a demon.

I'm serious. Every night it gradually gets lower and lower and softer and softer. The chime is the same, but the key changes. At first it sounds like it is running out of power, but it sounds like that every night. Every hour gets progressively lower and more sinister.

And then there's the midnight chime.

This is no ordinary chime. It is the unholy call that brings imps into the house. They have small impish bodies with long claws and glowing eyes. They sneak their way up the stairs and peer around the corner if I dare leave my room. They will sneak into my room and crawl under my bed and wait for me to turn off the lights and close my eyes if I leave the door open.

Only sunlight can stop them, and that's only a theory.

In every other way the place is perfect. I've even gotten into the habit of putting things in the dishwasher while cooking. I'll use a cutting board and the moment the veggies are in the pot I throw the board into the dishwasher. Ditto the pot and the plate I eat off of. That way when the meal is done the dishwasher is running and the kitchen is clean. It's nice.

A little creepy and there are footsteps and creaking sounds (also door slamming/opening noises) in the evenings that I can't identify, but this is still nice.

AUGH HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN

2011-05-23T20:22:00.000-06:00

I beat that dating game and didn't get the main character because I forgot to raise my "Style" stat to 150. I thought it only needed to be at 100.

RAUGH.

A not-so-hypothetical question

2011-05-20T17:00:00.002-06:00

If you suddenly found yourself with $500 extra that came out of nowhere but was totally yours (say you won it or something), what would you do with it?

All I can think of right now is the option of buying a much more reliable motorbike than I could previously afford. It's not enough to raise my transportation budget to the "reliable car" category.

I have a couple options I was thinking of, but I can't decide. I guess this is an open ended question. Things I have considered are listed below:

1. A Nintendo 3DS
2. A new game system and a few games
3. A new hard drive
4. Update my manga collection
5. A motorscooter
6. Save it (boring, but most likely what I'll do)
7. Go do something stupid and fun
8. Spontaneous trip to Disney World this summer
9. Buy new furniture for my place
10. Donate it to charity
11. Fund a roadtrip to California
12. A new wardrobe (I would throw away 2/3rds of my current clothing)

I honestly can't decide, but at the moment getting a motorcycle or just squirreling it away seem the most likely.

I guess the money should be considered hypothetical at the moment, for sake of argument.

This is one of my biggest fears (really)

2011-05-18T17:55:00.006-06:00

I have some pretty vivid dreams sometimes. Frequently when dreaming I have difficulty discerning between dream and reality. I can be confused for several minutes (and in a few cases, several hours) after waking up.

This does depend on the dream, however. I rarely believe that there are monsters/aliens/dinosaurs outside my door or that I can fly after waking (if I have an action dream), but if I have an emotional or reality-based dream then I will often have issues throughout the day trying to remember which conversations actually happened and which were just dreams, or I'll be confused when I go to check my bank balance and discover either a) I am not a millionaire, or b) I didn't actually buy that big screen tv/car or whatever. Dreams in which I am diagnosed with cancer will have me crying when I wake up, and I'll be nicer to people throughout the day. Dreams in which family members get married/have children/die/move away can make me believe they are reality for most of the day until I stop and try to put names and dates to faces and events.

Some dreams I enjoy, some I do not. Emotional dreams tend to affect me a great deal, and I am just now wondering if these dreams engage the amygdala while I'm sleeping, which is why they have such strong residual effects. Huh. Anyway. Emotional dreams have me awake either laughing, crying, or so scared that all my muscles are tensed and I'm sore for the day from it.

But by far the dreams that affect me most are the dreams when my teeth get damaged. This is a huge fear of mine. I cannot stand the idea of having my teeth be physically hideous or the thought of losing some of them. Penny-Arcade sums it up pretty nicely:

I hate hate hate these dreams. They are the only dreams that I can recall that fool me: I think that it's reality inside the dream. Most dreams, if I consider whether or not I'm dreaming, I can tell that it's a dream. These ones get me. I hate the part where I am actively calling the dentist in an effort to save my poor teeth and while I'm talking on the phone I'm chewing on my own teeth. That horrid crunchy sensation and feeling of loss/dread are both hard to shake.

On the plus side, my teeth are always well cared for the next day.

I love math!

2011-05-17T21:01:00.003-06:00

I'll admit it, I kinda dig math. There's something refreshing about working with absolutes and teasing answers out of problems. It's like solving a riddle every time. I discovered a new formula today that simply proves how awesome math is:

fresh pineapple chunks + fresh mango + grapefruit soda + blender = delicious

In other news, Bountiful Baskets is pretty cool. I have so many fresh fruits and vegetables that I don't quite know what to do with it all. For the past two days I've been eating a salad and corn on the cob. Tonight I had pineapple and chicken (I was too lazy to add green peppers and I realized too late that I don't have rice or bread, shrug) and had to do something with the leftover pineapple.

I can't believe how nice it tastes to eat fresh. I like these Bountiful Baskets; I'm gonna do this more often!

“Look, I don’t mean to interrupt you all the time but I have to touch your arm to raise your friendship points and this is the only chance!"

2011-05-13T13:20:00.002-06:00

I never thought any video game would ever get me to say that, but I have been proven wrong.

I don’t know if anyone has ever heard of dating simulation games. They are decently popular in Japan and not so much here, as far as I can tell. When my brother and his wife went to Japan I mentioned that if they could pick me up a safe/clean dating game I’d be interested in trying it.

Boy did they deliver.

There are dating games for men and dating games for women. Obviously I wanted one aimed for girls, as I didn’t particularly want to go flirting with women/those other dating games tend to have really nasty gross unwanted scenes, frankly. The game I picked up is incredibly tame and awesome. It’s also a little frustrating because I don’t know exactly what all the buttons do. My Japanese will improve from playing it, but at the moment I have a lot of scenes like this:

Scene: Date in the park, sitting on a bench

Brooding Boy I am Trying to Hit On(audio): It was horrible…I saw that man kill my parents and now I have sworn revenge.

My choices (WRITTEN IN TINY TINY KANJI)

A: That’s horrible! I can understand why you are so quiet in class…that must’ve been hard for you.

B: (Say nothing, but reach out to comfort him.)

C: Wow, so, that’s really stupid and you are stupid and I hate you.

Tired and sleepy and not wanting to look up each individual kanji, I pick up the kanji for "hate" in C and guess it's referring to our now shared hatred for that villain. I then get confused when the next scene goes something like this:

Brooding Boy (audio): What?! How dare you! I can’t believe I ever talked to you. I’m deleting your number from my phone, don’t ever speak to me again!

Narrator (written): I don’t think that date went very well…

It’s curiously addictive anyway. I wish I had more time/energy to play it.*

Oh, and my sister-in-law gave the ingenious advice of “Why don’t you look up a walkthrough? Not to get the answers, but to get an idea of what all the little niggly options say.” It was good advice. I was okay for the most part but I had missed a button that, when clicked, tells you which stat is most likely to succeed if you focus on it for that week. That’s a NICE button.

*I'm actually struggling a lot LESS than I expected. I follow the game roughly 90% of the time.

Sorry if I seem out of it

2011-05-10T08:19:00.002-06:00

This week is crunch week at work. A heartfelt and thoroughly relieved "thank you" to everyone who is being patient with me and helping me out for the next few days.

I have the rather curious problem of not being able to decide where to live for the rest of the summer. Granny's apartment is a possibility, as is my brother's place or my parent's place. My logic is sort of as follows:

Granny's:
Close to work, I have the whole place to myself, but I'll be living alone which is creepy.

Parents:
By far the closest and most convenient, but I would thus end this little excursion of living on my own, which I am currently totally loving.

Brother's:
Most fun by far with fun roommates, but really far away. When the van is my main mode of transportation it isn't really feasible.

Current thoughts: Why not live at home until you get a better mode of transportation? You can move in with your brother in about 3 weeks, and if you want to try living alone until then that's certainly an option, too.

Still in the thinking stages of things. The alternative "mode of transportation" is still under wraps until it actually happens. Then it will happen with pictures.

Success for others does not diminish the self.

2011-05-05T16:48:00.005-06:00

I rode to work by bike for the umpteenth time. It was nice! It's getting really warm outside. It's a little different than when I rode from home and back again, though. I don't have any real desire to ride all the way from where I am currently living, so I settle for driving to work (carpool, whooo!) and then biking from work to campus and back again.

I got to chat with a good friend of mine last night. It was really great to hear from her. We started playing Portal 2 co-op and then quickly realized that both of us had already beaten co-op mode, so we playing around and called it a day. We figured out a way to propel ourselves higher and essentially generate momentum. For those of you who have played portal, you can see how this would be useful, yes? I am pleased that we can do it now and wish to practice doing it.

2011-05-02T20:16:00.003-06:00

I had a number of people ask me if I drew that picture in my last post. No. No I did not. That was done by a very brilliant master artist. To demonstrate the difference in skill level, I will now supply some of the (not very good and not very well photographed) art I drew today to compare.

This last one wasn't a terribly good drawing and the throne, robe, and crown were added due to a conversation with the model.

So, there, now you can see that while I do like what I've drawn, it doesn't really compare with the gorgeous art below.

The End.

I don't really like jell-o. It's fine and okay, but how is this really food:

Art, maybe, yeah, sure, but not food.

I've lost completely

2011-04-27T22:53:00.004-06:00

FEMALE NUDE by Pierre-Paul Prud'hon, a French painter of romanticism style. (Image Courtesy Wikimedia Commons, taken from Flickr); No WAY I draw this well.

I like drawing and I like making comics. I enjoy the process and (for the most part) I like the result.

But when I go and read a story told by a truly great storyteller, and find myself falling in love with lines on a page and sympathizing with characters that cannot and will not ever exist...

When those same stories give you characters with such great differences that when a situation is thrown at them you can guess what will happen and are pleasantly surprised to discover you are right--and laugh aloud when you are wrong...

When I come across these stories...I feel like I've lost and can never win.

But it doesn't make me want to give up!

Oh, I had my first drawing class today. It went well, I was pretty interested and happy with some of the role reversals* that happened. I still have issues with proportions and I am NOT the cleanest artist there, but I was surprised to have other students come over and look at my art and admire my shading technique/gesture drawings. I'm not the best student in there and not near where I want to be (not by a long shot) but I will not lie: I was happy.

*Last time I took that class (it's repeatable) I was without a doubt the worst student in it.

One of the Shocks of Moving

2011-04-25T09:32:00.005-06:00

I've moved. I'm not living at home anymore. One of the horrifying things I realized when I moved was that throwing away four boxes of stuff just wasn't going to cut it. I had carried two heavy boxes into the new place and wondered "is having this many books worth it?"

The time has come. It's not enough to just skim on knick knacks and clothes. It's time to clean up the book and DVD collections.

This thought worries me. I have a hard time throwing away books. I only read one shelf-worth of books, really, but I still have two bookshelves. I tell myself that if I really wanted to read the book I could just go to the library but the collector within me screams, "Why should you go to the library, you have the book here and now!"

But books are heavy and take up space. I'm not that into Kindles yet; there is something refreshing about having a physical object in hand when you read it. I realize I'll probably change my mind later on, when digital books become "the thing," but for now I'm into books. It'll be hard to chuck the books, but I think if I start with books that I haven't read since high school or art reference books I've never read I can clear out most of the collection pretty easily.

One of the bigger debates I am having is with my DVDs. I keep my DVDs in good condition. Every DVD I own is still in its original case, and if it had the little booklets when I bought it then it still has those same booklets now. I love how DVDs look all lined up and pretty in their cases.

Sadly, I'm also really into movies.

So I have a lot of DVDs.

Not this many, but still.

In my room with a huge shelf along one wall this wasn't a big issue; my DVDs were lined up in their little cases and beautiful and I loved them. But in my new place storage space is at a premium. I need a new way to store these things.

When I started this post I was considering putting them into a CD wallet, as all I really need is the movie, but after writing the last few paragraphs I realized I can't do it. I just can't do it yet. I love those little DVD cases and their art/design so much. I'll just have to find a compact/effecient way to store them because I've seen DVDs in those little wallets and I can't stand that.

Boy I am weird.

As part of my grand quest to throw away everything and as part of me having friends who are into this sort of thing, I found this:

The Story of Stuff (Website)

It's a long watch, but it's kind of interesting. A kind of "wake up, people!" thing.

The movie is good and interesting and worth taking a look at, but for those of you who don't have 20 minutes here's the moral:
1. We use too many resources (and create too much pollution) to maintain our current cycle of production and use.
2. Recycling is good but really isn't going to cut it. We also need to cut down how much shopping we do.
3. You don't have to throw away all your stuff and live like hermits. Just know that people are trying to change how this cycle works, changing our current model from a linear unit to a totally re-usable unit.
4. You may not be able to do everything alone, but before you buy things ask yourself where it came from, how long you'll use it, and where it will go after you throw it away. Do you really need the latest upgrade, or can you live with what you have now?
5. America is 5% of the population but using up 30% of the world's resources (not just our soil, in fact mostly not our soil). We are not doing a good job as Americans. (I admit, this was not a huge surprise but it was a bit of a good wake up call for me personally)

I really become opposed to a lot of these videos. The people talking within them strike me as fanatical and don't seem to approach all the views. I like this one, though. I don't like how she chooses to phrase everything, but the message still came across and I like it enough to continue my desire to clean up a bit.

And while I still intend to buy myself a new wardrobe if I can throw out all the nasty clothes I currently have, I'm now inspired to get a wardrobe that will last, including a number of items I'll sew myself.

Not everyday

2011-04-21T09:46:00.002-06:00

I lock the door via the door because I always put my keys in my pocket. Change that routine and suddenly, click! You've got your keys locked in the car. D'oh. Good thing there were two sets of keys, and I knew where the other set was (if it was lost in the abyss of my room, I would still be screwed. Yay for putting things away!)

I helped a friend move yesterday. It was a lot of fun, so far as moving goes. I haven't seen that friend in a long while and it was good to spend time with him again. I had no idea that U-Haul also did self-storage, but now I've learned! I've also learned that a college-boy can fit all his stuff comfortably into a 5 x 5 x 5 container (including complete desk and mattress) and easily into a 5 x 7 x 5 (ft). If you find yourself in need of temporary storage and don't mind paying a monthly fee, might I suggest U-haul? They are very clean and very friendly/helpful. It was a really smooth and simple move; one car trip. I'm likely moving into Adam's place this weekend for a while and I would like my move to go just as smoothly. My new goal is to be able to move all the stuff I would need for a semester in less than one car trip...which is to say, do it in one car trip wherein the car is not full.

In order for the move to work, my bike needs to be placed at work and my art supplies need to be put into my locker. I can deal with those things either tomorrow or next week; they are not high on my priority list.

I'd also like to get rid of 60% of my stuff. I don't use it, it just sits there. It's very annoying. I actually have so much stuff that it's hard to get rid of anything because before I can get rid of one thing I have to tackle a different pile. It's also a bit sad because most of it is stuff I like in nice condition, I'm just not using it. Like my stationary drawer. I have over 50 colored pencils. They are all in very nice condition and a high quality brand. People who come over and hang out will use them to color if we do such things. My problem? I don't use colored pencils! I do almost all my art (and certainly all my coloring) digitally! I want to learn how to paint because I don't like the unevenness of colored pencils...granted, that's because I'm bad at it...but it means I am now left with the task of getting rid of a large chunk of perfectly good art supplies. Sigh.

Ditto for my stuffed animals. I have too many and only really love 3 or 4 of them, but every time I go to chuck some out I think about how I might be hurting their feelings and I visualize the heaps and mountains of not totally clean stuffed toys at DI and I can't do it. I can't make these poor guys suffer that fate!

And these clothes were gifts from people dear to me! They are nice, they just don't flatter me! They're cute anyway!

etc. etc.

I'm a musician

2011-04-20T10:27:00.003-06:00

My Otomata Piece

Now go, clear the board, and make your own.

PS. If you listen to that piece for more than a few minutes (I have it playing in the background at work) it'll start doing some crazy solos.

Just thinking.

2011-04-19T15:19:00.004-06:00

Hee hee hee.

K La is in town, so life is pretty wonderful right now. I'm excited to swing by and see her soon.

Not much else to report in the life department lately, really. I'm working hard at work. I am stressed that I won't make my deadlines. I just made a pretty big deadline and my brain is fried and doesn't want to kick into gear and work on other things, so here I am.

I love life right now. Fun things are turning up left and right, but it does keep me rather busy.

Oh, actually, I just thought of something I can make my brain do. Never mind, back to the grind.

I was thinking the other day that there is no way other people see me how I see myself, which is a clear statement and true of everyone. But it got me wondering just how I am seen. Do other people consider the strengths I believe I have as well? What do they see as my weaknesses? I've always viewed myself as a social person who is good at getting along with others, but is that really the case? I've seen myself as a good artist, but BYU has consistently disagreed with that stance.

Shrug, just something I've been wondering. I would actually prefer it if you wouldn't comment on my strengths/weaknesses in the comments, but if you want to throw in how you see yourself go for it.

I've grown weary of your insults Will, they sting and they make me want to punch you in the face.

2011-04-15T11:08:00.006-06:00

I might

be just a little

excited about

this game.

Just a little.

The title of the blog is a quote from my other media obsession. Any guesses? It should be pretty clear if you've heard of it, I hope...

And in OTHER fun/bizarre news, I had a really really fun dream last night. Don't you love the dream where you can do special stuff, like fly around or shoot beams? I have never managed to be very good at either of those powers in-dream, but last night I got my fun running abilities again. I frequently have dreams where I can run, and the running turns into jumping, and I basically have full range of movement in air when jumping (it's very, very similar to flying). Last night I was on the run and getting shot at a lot for having this ability (also for having a half-mutated face) and I enjoyed myself immensely.

But for some reason, they don't scare me much.

2011-04-14T14:26:00.003-06:00

This is a random doodle I made with a mouse in a few minutes. Shrug. He's blue because I was sketching and planned to fix it later. Basically, he's blue because I'm lazy.

I'm into scary stuff lately. I've taken up listening to scary books on tape while I'm working. It's probably because all the stories are things I've heard before, or maybe it's because very few people die, but I don't get scared when I listen to these.

Now, even as I say that, I wish to point out that I don't handle the really scary stuff very well. It gives me nightmares for weeks and lingering phobias that last for...well, some of them still haven't gone away.

I don't know why I like scary stuff. It doesn't make me happy in the long run, but I still go look at ghost stories and read scary books. After The Ring I'm a bit off when it comes to scary movies (it's just...too much. Too much bad freaked out feeling after) but I'm still a sucker for scary/spooky stories.

Weird.

There's a lot of scary stories that have been audio recorded on Youtube. Some people do a pretty good job (a lot of people don't). It's fun.

Well, that's just BRILLIANT. My phone updated and decided to start over. Fresh.

2011-04-12T09:39:00.003-06:00

EDIT: I don't give my phone enough credit. I got all my information back, never mind.

Hey guys,

I updated my phone and now it's all nice and new and pretty and I lost all of your phone numbers. If you could give me a text message with your name I'd appreciate it and will promptly add you back into my phone. Thank you.

(I'm not actually mad at my phone. It kinda warned me before updating, I just wish it said "This update will delete all of your contacts, so back that information up!" a little more clearly, if it said it at all. Lesson learned, in any case.)

How to Spot a scam on Craigslist (BONUS: some weird video game rant)

2011-04-11T09:15:00.008-06:00

I went with my brother when he went house shopping. I don't know if this is keeping up with the Jones' or whatever, but now I really want a house. I learned that it doesn't need to be this monster of a place, it can just be a neat awesome little piece of I OWN THIS. Someday, world, someday. The concept of renting is so strange to me. It's like taking money and flinging it into a dark black hole. I want no part of that. Anyway.

So, for those of you who are not aware, it has come to my attention that I require a vehicle as of this summer. It's sad, since I was fully planning on relying on the bus and saving some money and trying to help reduce pollution, but that option is no longer feasible. I'm moving to another city and the bus just doesn't work.

So I took a look at my budget and realized that I could afford a $3,000 car. I could take out a loan and get a $6k car (which makes a lot of sense in the long run), but I was looking for something that would last through college and then I-don't-care-because-I'm-getting-rid-of-it. Yersh.

I couldn't find a lot of websites on the web that were selling the types of cars I was looking for at a price I could afford. Most used car websites list cars that start around $10k. I was getting pretty tired of it so I tried Craigslist. Craigslist is a grand place to list cars, and I found a lot of fun ones. Sometimes I would find one that blew me away, like a like-new lexus for $1,800, or a like-new Honda Civic for $2,800.

Wow, seriously?

That can't be right, that's gotta be a scam. I spoke to my brother and mentioned this car (the Lexus) and his coworker pointed out that maybe he is getting a divorce and he's screwing over his wife. Laughter. I e-mailed the guy, asking why he was selling the car for 1/6th of what it was worth (at minumum). I got this reply:

The 2003 Lexus ES 300 you've inquired about is still for sale and is in excellent condition, both, mechanically and cosmetically.
I'm the first owner (non-smoker) and I can confirm you that the car has been very well maintained with a full service history available.
The car has only 78,865 miles, it has never been involved in accidents, even more it has no dents or any hidden problems.
The car has a clean title, automatic transmission, a 3.0L engine, leather seats, navigation, it was always garaged and is free of bank liabilities.
The only reason I have to get rid of the car is that my family is going to have a new member and we're in need of money so I'm looking for a quick sale.
I'm an Airman deployed to Lajes Air Base in Portugal right now and that's why I'm selling the car using eBay's help.
The car is still located and registered in United States and my final asking price is $1,800 and includes shipping costs to your location.
So, if you're interested and want more info about the deal or more pictures please get back to me when you get the chance.

Respectfully,
Sgt. Samuel Barrows

...Yeah. Mmkay, I believe that. Here's the e-mail conversation with "Matthew Freeman" for the Honda Civic:

Hi,

I appreciate your interest regarding my 2001 Honda Civic LX Sedan. I will sell it for $2,880. The price includes shipping and insurance to your address.
The car has only 88,094 miles and it is in perfect condition. It has never been involved in an accident, it was always garage kept, it has always been professionally serviced, using only original parts and accessories. All the service records are available and they will be delivered with it.

Looking forward to do business with you .
Thanks!

Matthew,

I don't want it shipped, I'd rather pick it up. I'd like to get it inspected and take it for a test drive first. Is there a time I could come up and meet (I'm free tomorrow) or a phone number I can reach you at?

Thanks,

Balgram

I live in Regina, SK, Canada, I've just moved and the car is here with me. It has clean title, cleared of any obligations or fees (no lien) and it is registered in US.

I want to close this deal through eBay. It will be shipped from Regina and I'll pay the delivery costs. It will arrive at your address in 5-7 days, then you'll have 5 days for inspection. I'll start the shipping process in the same day with the payment confirmation. eBay will keep the paid amount until you'll receive, inspect and agree with the car. This is their policy regarding this type of transactions.

Tell me if you are still interested and I will contact eBay regarding our transaction. In order to do that I need your contact details, full name and shipping address. They will send you all the details (delivery and payment information).
Thanks!

Okay, so, for those of you who might be wondering "So, what's the problem?" EBAY DOESN'T DO THAT.

If it looks too good to be true, IT IS. The part that gets me is that there is always something, SOMETHING that they try to use to make them seem either trustworthy or pitiable. Either they need the cash fast, hence the low price, or something about them is different, like they are a Sergeant in the military.

By far, BY FAR, this one takes the cake. I didn't see this as a scam. I just saw that it was a blue honda civic listed for $2750, no pictures. Curious about what was wrong with it engine/mechanics wise (why else would you sell a car so cheap?) I sent an e-mail requesting information and/or pictures. I got this ultimate scam gem back:

I am glad to know you're interested on my Honda Civic CVT, I wanna get rid of this car as fast as possible. I inherited the car from my husband who died in Afghanistan. He was a soldier in the army corps peacekeeping detached.
The Civic has been sitting in the garage ever since, collecting dust, didn't move it an inch. My asking price is $2750. The car is in perfect condition though, 85000 miles and running great but each time I try to drive it it kills me and makes me cry...knowing how much he loved it and how much he babied it all the time makes me want to sell it even more. You may think I'm a terrible person but right now I'm pregnant in 6 months and I've been forced to relocate... moved back to Dell City, TX.
It sucks big time, but I'm hoping for the better.. that's that, I'm not going to take more of your precious time with my rant.. we'd better discuss the subject at hand.
I'm in no condition to travel, every time she moves my belly hurts and now my back is hurting.. I can barely walk.. I was told this was coming and just before leaving Denver,CO I left the car with the shipping company (DAS) to be stored in their warehouse, sealed, ready to be delivered with all documents, clean and clear title signed by me, owner's manual and all the service records I could find with both sets of keys.
I've arranged so that shipping is free on your side, it's paid with a voucher issued by my insurance company to help me move but didn't use it because i didn't really have much to carry..Get back to me if you are interested in purchasing and we can have a smooth deal.
Bellow you can find the options and features of the car together with more pictures:

http://hondacivichibryd.shutterfly.com/pictures/65

2006 Honda Civic CVT (Hybrid)

Year: 2006
Mileage: 85,000 miles
Title: Clear
Engine: 4 - Cyl., 1.3L, I4 MPI
Transmission: Automatic
Fuel type: Gasoline

Thank you!

Take a look at the pictures. It's ridiculous. Anyway, this to me embodies the whole scam ideal, so I had to point it out.

Well, I managed to find two or three real, actual cars (they get pretty easy to spot after a while--there are a TON of scams on Craigslist! Oh, the humanity!) and even got all the way to "let's set up a meeting place tomorrow so that I can look at the car" before I found a solution that lets me delay a year before buying a car. A pity, since now I'm all excited to get one. All well, maybe next time--or this time next year. My new current plan is to treat myself to a nice little car as a graduation present to myself.

In other more nerdy news, I have played and beaten Lost in Shadow, a game I borrowed from my brother.

It's a side scrolling platform game where you have to solve puzzles to advance to the next level and climb the tower. The fun little twist is that you are a shadow and can only touch the shadows of other objects.

That fairy you have floating by you is the only named character in the game. Spangle the Fairy is able to interact with objects in the real-world and can manipulate certain areas to open up areas that weren't available to you before. She can also be a jerk, and you can accidentally remove the platforms right beneath your feet.

The levels start as simple jumping puzzles with shadow monsters lurking about, but later levels have you manipulating light sources, fighting angry giant shadows, and even granting limited access to the 3D world at large to allow you to run about and move objects, changing where their shadows are located. The story is very simple and vague, and the majority of it is optional "memories" that you can collect on each level that give you glimpses into what is going on. The memories start off pretty beige but get pretty durn creepy as the game goes on and you start to figure out what's going on. I wouldn't have collected them (I don't do creepy well) if they didn't increase your maximum health: nothing like a bunch of text to make you not trust ANYTHING around you and get the heeby-jeebies...I don't want to give an example because I don't want to spoil this game.

This is a spoiler, but it's very early in the game so I don't feel too bad. If you think you might play the game though, skip this paragraph. The worst part is the first time you meet the big scary boss. The memories first start getting creepy when they begin making references to a "dark presence" in the tower and alluding that the reason there are so many fallen is because they get eaten. Memories start spouting things like "I'm frightened" and "It's coming" and "No escape" or "RUN." The next level has this ENORMOUS shadow made up of human body parts (mostly a large ball of feet and hands) that runs faster than you and chases you through the level. Merely being in near proximity of the big scary shadow drains your health like a bucket with no bottom, and physically touching the shadow will end you. The music gets your heart pounding and you basically sweat and freak and make little screaming noises in your throat as you run like crazy and try to remember how to breathe. The levels have little gimmicks that can speed you up (you have to use them or die) and slow the monster down, but unless you are amazingly good it's always just on your heels and you feel very very screwed.

Okay, I'll stop spoiling the game now.

I liked this game. I'm glad I played it. My one concern, which is a rather large concern, is that the game was too long. This would have been fine, but it was rather monotonous. New physics were introduced every 10-20 levels and the first 20 levels or so were frankly a tutorial, but the game doesn't end when it should. I had thought the tower had a certain number of levels, but I was wrong it had many more on top of that, and the game doesn't end when you think it will. It feels like it'll end at a certain point, and then suddenly the game says, "Nope! Ha ha! Here's another 10 really hard long levels! Gotcha!" It's a pity, because if they would just remove 15 levels or so it'd be about right, but as it was it was just LONG. The last level was by far the coolest, granted, but still. It should have come much much earlier. Oh, and the boss battle was weird.

All in all I liked this game and I'm glad I played it (despite how I feel about the ending, which I didn't like, the gameplay is immensely addictive and how they give you story is fun), but I wish it wasn't so monotonous/long. That said, I'm probably going to go back and get all the memories. I'm missing about 30 and I think they'll explain a lot. I sure hope so...

Aaaand I'm done for now. I have an urge to go house shopping and car shopping. Must...stay...in...present...

So many things to do, so many other things to do.

2011-04-07T10:06:00.004-06:00

I'm busy. I have many things to do and nowhere near enough time. Sigh.

EDIT: Okay, that's a lame blog post.

I had some friends from Japan surprise me by visiting Utah for General Conference (which was awesome, by the way). It was really great to see them, and we spent a good chunk of time together. I had a blast, and I met a really great artist at the same time. My friend is AMAZING, and I got to keep some of her art. I had no idea she was so good!

GC itself was great. I liked painting while listening, it worked really well. I got a lot from the conference, and my Skorne army is painted now.

Check it out next time you are by. My favorite part is the warbeast. I'm still new and you can still tell that I'm new at this, but I like what I've done so far...I'll try to take some pictures to show next time. Sadly these figurines are expensive considering you are buying 1-2" of metal. Thus I think I'd like to try designing and building my own army...

In other news...nope, actually, the other news warrants posts of their own.

Here's a Post to Good Health!

2011-04-05T15:41:00.002-06:00

I thought I had hayfever on Friday. It evolved into difficulty breathing and cold symptoms Saturday, which quickly changed to downright cold on Sunday, but Sunday evening I was feeling fantastic and figured it was over. Thank goodness it happened on a weekend, I thought.

Monday I woke up and promptly was sick, removing everything in my stomach I had eaten on Sunday. Attempts to refill my stomach with anything--water, juice, graham crackers, an apple, etc. were met with similar results. I had a fever, was too weak to stand most of the time, and hated life in general.

Today I'm feeling much better. I think it would have been better if I wasn't so hungry yesterday. Today I want to each an entire buffet.

Just a Random Thought

2011-03-31T13:10:00.002-06:00

Sometimes when you look at people you can say to yourself, "I don't want to become that." You then look at the parts of yourself that could lead you down that road and ask, "Is this hobby really worth it, if the end result means I become a person who acts like that?"

And then you decide if you need to change how you play Life.

The Prodigal Student Returns

2011-03-30T14:24:00.006-06:00

I went to BYU campus yesterday. I hadn’t been in a while. It was really weird to walk around all these students, and a part of me whispered, “You have a job that pays far more than you could make here. You are better than this,” and the rest of me teamed up and beat the ever-loving snot out of that thought. Everyone on that campus had potential and worth just as great as mine, and the fact that I was doing things a little out of order didn’t really change anything in the long run.

I want on campus with one goal: I want to join the pressing throng of interestingly dressed people: I want to join the Visual Arts. Brimming with confidence, I stopped by my Dad’s office to check on some of the rules before going to speak with a professor. I know what question you aren’t thinking: Why didn’t you just go change your major through the advisement office? Well, that’s because I’m old.

BYU has a new rule that you can’t change your major after 90 credit hours. Which is wonderful and designed to encourage students to hurry up and get out so that new bright-eyed students can have their turn. That’s fine. Sadly, it creates a problem for me, since it means I can’t officially change my major.

These next two paragraphs are totally unnecessary background if you already know about moi:

I went to BYU very excited to study Animation and with dreams to work for Pixar. I applied with a HORRIBLE and IGNORANT portfolio. I did not get in. Hurt and sad, I went to see the professor and he told me to take several art classes that would make my portfolio awesome. My portfolio improved ten-fold, but still wasn’t very good and since I could only apply twice, I was worried. I asked if I should apply (ie if I apply am I going to get in, because this is my last shot). I was told to go for it and apply, and that even if I didn’t get into animation I should be able to still apply to other art programs. I applied, I was rejected. At this point I was fed up with that program and said “Fine, illustration it is.” I went to the advisement center and was told that since I had already applied to animation twice, I could now NOT APPLY TO ANY OTHER ART RELATED PROGRAM. Totally disgusted with the outright horrible advice I was given, I thought, “Well, I’ve been screwed. I have to do something, I guess I’ll do Psych.” and thus I went into Psychology. I thought I was done with the art program and it was certainly done with me.

Well, right before my mission I was having a hard time. I enjoy some aspects of Psychology, but it has absolutely nothing to do with what I want to do with my life, and the classes I was required to take in order to graduate were frustratingly hard and irrelevant to what I planned to do (like volunteering for 20 hours a week at a mental hospital). I didn’t hate Psychology, but I missed art and was torn about whether or not to go to another school and do what I wanted to do. I served my mission and came to the conclusion that I missed art much more than I had thought and decided I’d take my chances and petition my way back when I came home. That’s where we are now.

Okay, now that we are on the same page, I marched into the art building as a Junior with over 100 credit hours and hopes to get into the program. I brought my best art samples that still survived and went to see a professor who was willing to take some time to talk to me. He sat down with me and took at look at my art and said it had potential, but it wasn’t quite there. He suggested I take some classes and that I try to apply in Fall after showing him my portfolio again to make sure I was on the right page. I thanked him, and he told me to start the petition to get into the pre-major.

So I marched down to the advisement center and asked about some of my options. Turns out I can actually change my minor anytime I want to, even if I don’t want to change my major. I asked if I could double minor and got a “Yeah, why not?” answer, so I filled out the paperwork. Victory there, mwa ha ha.

Now I’m a Visual Arts minor Psychology major. My current debate is whether or not to still go for the illustration major or if I should be happy with what I have now. I’m still undecided.

Oh, but random fact: If I stick it out and complete the Visual Arts minor as well as the Japanese minor, it’ll be the same as if I double majored—only in MORE fields. Mwa ha ha.

At the moment I’m tempted to just stick with things as they are now, but I’m taking those classes this Spring/Summer to keep my options open. I don’t really know how I should handle this one.

In other news, looking for BYU housing is HARD when you are looking for a place for you and a friend and that friend isn’t around to offer their input. Still, I’m having some success and I’ve found three potential places for the Fall/Winter. I won’t be able to do anything until next week, so now I get to happily twiddle my thumbs. …And by twiddle my thumbs I mean work really hard and prepare for classwork and stuff. You know what I mean.

You know what? You worked hard to read this far. Here’s a video response to a girl who posted a video rant after the tsunami hit Japan without really thinking things through first. It’s a little off at first, but it’s a surprisingly addicting song:

New RPG

2011-03-18T12:27:00.002-06:00

My brother has started a new tabletop role-playing game. It's fun and I am enjoying it. It's a little different since the base setting is current-day current-planet (it gets weird from there). That means we have to create characters that aren't mages or knights or whatever, but people here with job positions here and such.

He said we could pick anything. I said, "Cool, I'm Vice President of the United States."

And it was okay.

So before I went and became a very powerful yet ridiculously standing-out-and-political time bomb I changed my job position to Hostage Negotiator. Still really awesome but I can blend with crowds better.

My top three choices were
1. President
2. Terrorist
3. Hostage Negotiator

I went with the one that would be fun but still legal. She's got a really lazy, laid back personality, which is not something I'm used to playing. It should be interesting to see how this goes, especially since she would rather sit in a corner and wait for combat to end than to actually participate. Weird but fun.

I got paid today. I had forgotten to submit my hours last week (again) so I got two paychecks at once, again. I gotta stop forgetting. Still, with this I am now well on my way to paying my way entirely through school. Pretty cool, that.

Random Stuff

2011-03-18T06:25:00.001-06:00

Just three random things.

1.

I was looking around Flickr again and came across this. I rather like it, it's cute:

T'ain't my picture (I really should draw illustrations for my blog, though. Hrm.) but all props to the artist!

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2.

I got a coupon book in the mail a while ago for my "soon to arrive little one" including coupons and discounts for diapers. Either Pampers knows something I don't or they were just guessing.

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3.

Sometimes I want to autodefenestrate.

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That is all.

The Art of Arguments (how to not look like a jerk) - Part 1

2011-03-15T09:32:00.009-06:00

Introduction

So, I was thinking about arguing a little while ago. I had gotten into a dumb argument with a friend that got me really heated up and angry over...very little, really. It was a silly argument over something small, but somewhere in the middle of it all I was so furious I was shaking and thinking that I didn't care if I ever saw this person again.

And that got me thinking, why am I so angry? This isn't like me.

Well, calm reconsidering the argument made me realize that I was the spark, albeit unintentionally. So really, it was all my fault. However, I know as well as the next anyone that it takes two to tango, and happily this argument took place on a computer screen so I was able to sit down and dissect exactly when I got angry, and why something that was said made me feel that way. I was also able to extrapolate which of my comments and remarks made the other participant particularly mad, which were adding to the fire instead of putting it out.

And the fact that I even sat down and did that makes me wonder if Psychology might not be right for me after all. It was a lot of fun to consider the emotion behind the action.

The point is all of this got me to remember a few bits of advice I have collected from my mother over the years. When I was young, she taught me how to argue. At least, she taught me how to deal with a situation without getting angry, and how to avoid making the other person angry. I like this advice, so I'd like to present part of it here. I call it "How to Argue" and I have divided it into parts since it would take a while to read. It's a topic that interests me almost as much as "How to lie," which is also something I'd like to study and write about, but not right now.

Anyway. This is a first draft, just something I wanted to note. I've tried to bold the main points so you can only find the stuff that interests you (if any of this interests you). If this isn't your cup of tea, I shan't be offended, but I think that this advice is useful to everyone, up to and including/especially me. I've even included some images from Flickr to spice things up. All images belong to the people what that's own them.

Ahem.

How to Argue

Few people in this world actually enjoy arguing. If you get angry, it's even worse. It raises your blood pressure and tends to make your insides tie up. You feel sick, you get shaky, you feel the need to cause pain and damage to the world in general. You don't feel happy and you wouldn't be able to feel that way for any sort of long-term duration without serious damage. Learning to control this anger (or better yet, learning to not get angry) is a very useful skill to know. It's also incredibly difficult. One of the important things to remember is that you shouldn't cause harm. Even when you are seeing red, even when you are shaking and ready to fight, even when every instinct is telling you to lash out, it's important to remember the long-term: this person is your friend. You are having an argument, but you are friends. Once you've calmed down--and you will calm down eventually, you will want to keep this friend.

Never burn a bridge, you might need it later.

This section is discussing arguments between friends. (As opposed to people on the street, people without established connections to you, or people who dislike you from the outset of your relationship) This assumes that you and your friend do not actually start conversations with the intent of damaging the other person. This is pretty typical, as 99% of conversations between 98% of people are not attempting to harm one another. Most arguments occur over misunderstandings. People want to be understood, and want other people to see their position or take on life. When this position is misunderstood, an argument begins.

Most of this section is damage control. Most arguments should be avoided before they even begin, which is something else I would like to discuss later.

Now for my list: Ways to avoid confrontation

1. Do not appeal to an unaccepted authority

In an argument, we have a tendency to appeal to authority. If our authority beats the other person's authority, it means our point has more gravitas. This is fine if you have a commonly agreed authority and your argument truly does appeal to it. What is typically a bad idea is attempting to establish yourself as an authority, or using an authority that the other person does not accept.

Rather than appealing to an unaccepted authority, treat the other person and their point of view as equal or greater than your own. Consider their point of view, consider their feelings. Consider why they might feel that way, and don't be afraid to discuss that with them. There is nothing people like more than to talk about themselves. Use this to your advantage. Learn to listen, and pay attention while you are at it.

Establishing yourself as an authority and talking down to the other person is the worst mistake you could ever make. Treat your friend as your equal, even when you disagree. It becomes their obsessed desire to tear down your authority, and the reason behind the argument is lost, which brings the second point.

2. Don't get so caught up in pointing blame that you miss the point.

In an argument, it's always the other person's fault.

Don't play the blame game. Spend that energy working towards a solution instead. It takes two to argue, it really does, and it doesn't matter who started it. Assume you are at fault, especially when you are sure you aren't. Work out what is making the other person angry, exactly. Figure out what has you so upset, but don't get riled up thinking about it, just consider it. Notice if what has them angry and what has you angry are different things (oftentimes it is different things!) Focus on these problems, and then

3.Compromise.
You and the other person are upset. It's not always the best time to try and sort things out, so it might help to take a short break before hitting this step, but it's a good idea to hit this step at some point. Work out a solution, calmly, that gives you something you want and gives them something they want. Even if a compromise is unavailable, find a way to resolve the argument. Ideally, find a way for both of you to "win."

Make sure the other person knows you care about them.

Most anger, if you don't allow it to fester, will dissipate soon enough. Find something fun to do, alone if needs be but together if possible, and relax. Do things you both enjoy to remember that you do, in fact, like this person and enjoy their company. If you need a break from them take it, if you want to be with them do it. Come back to the issue if you need to but don't dig up issues that have already been resolved.

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This concludes part one of How to Argue, as that's all I think one person will actually read at one time regarding arguments. Other things I want to point out are tone of voice and word choice, which I can discuss another time.

I have all this fun stuff to say and then I never get around to it.

2011-03-14T13:22:00.004-06:00

So you get posts discussing whatever media I've been involved with instead. This one will be better, I promise.

Sensei has officially given the dojo to one of the students. The new dojo has a new name and location. I'm sticking around since I like the student in question (he's a good instructor and I will be able to learn a lot from him) and I'm rather excited to see how this turns out.

I saw Tangled in 3D the other day. I saw it with a neighborhood family, as they had 2 homestay girls who spoke only Japanese and needed someone who could understand them. It was great fun and I enjoyed spending time with them.

I also enjoyed the movie, which was a shocker. Last time I saw a 3D movie I got a massive headache and motion sickness. This time I walked out the theater without any symptoms at all. It was luvverly. My neighbor gave me an interesting solution to 3D movies:

Sit in the back of the theater.

I don't know if it was the fact that Tangled did 3D right (and Nightmare Before Christmas 3D was just WRONG) or if it was because I was sitting in the farthest seat in the house, but it was great. I actually ENJOYED the 3D aspect. It wasn't something that was like "hyurk hyurk! I'm 3D, durr!", it just added an extra element to the movie. And MAN, it made the cinematography on some of those shots AMAZING. One scene in particular had me thinking "man I am glad this is 3D" while also wondering "I wonder how this looks without 3D?"

Anyway.

I found some scary comic books. Or rather, I found some comic books that are full of scary stories. One contained 6 ghost stories that weren't scary until all the lights were off in my room. Then it became particularly scary.

The other was rather intriguing, although now every time I see this picture I tend to panic a little:

The story is scary enough without her, but oh so much more when you find out about her. If you are interested in reading a rather scary story (NOT suitable for children, sorry) you can get it here. Basic plot rundown (I'm still in the middle, so what I know so far): Loser kid without friends makes up an imaginary friend who can control time and space. Turns out imaginary friend is REAL and puts the kid in a game where his diary can predict the future. Twelve people have these future predicting diaries and can use them however they will, but if they destroy the other players and remain the last one standing then they'll gain control over time and space itself. Kid doesn't want to play but doesn't have much choice. He runs into a girl at his school with a diary who rather likes him and offers to help him stay alive. This becomes rather...important for him...rather quickly. The premise itself (a game of dueling to the death) is pretty freaky, but that girl is by far the creepiest part of the show.

Something random that reminded me of this story was listening to Bruno Mars' Grenade today on the radio. I kinda sorta heard this chorus as her theme, I wonder why?

I watched all ya had
Even when you tossed it in the trash
I searched through all your trash, yes I did.
To give me all your love is all I ever asked,
But what you don't understand is
I’d chuck a grenade for ya, (yeah, yeah, yeah)
Throw around tons of blades for ya (yeah, yeah, yeah)
Push people in front of a train for ya (yeah, yeah , yeah)
You know I'd do anything for ya (yeah, yeah, yeah)
Oh, oh
I would go through all this pain,
Get a bullet straight through their brains,
Yes, I'd let people die for ya baby;
But you won't do the same...

So. Anyway. I am pretty freaked out today. Which is rough because today is a pretty great day otherwise.

More normal posts next time.

Dream Log and Question

2011-03-09T09:27:00.002-07:00

I know that few people read these, but I just have a question.

Last night I had a scary dream. Or rather, it was one of the scary dreams I had as a kid where I was attacked by bees and falling off cliffs and eaten by a T-Rex. Only this time, I'm behind the scenes setting up this dream and making sure I go through it correctly. Last night was a whole lot of keeping the T-Rex in its cage and happy, setting up a pool with sharks, and arranging bees at the bottom of a big cliff. Some stuff went wrong and I had some close shaves, but it was bizarre that I was setting up a nightmare for myself to go through. Well, not the behind the stage me, but the other me. There would be two me's.

Has anyone ever had a dream like this before? Anyone who has studied dreams wanna give a shot at this? I thought it was perfectly normal in the dream and totally bizarre when I thought about it this morning.

Life Things

2011-03-08T13:50:00.002-07:00

Had a few interesting events happen lately.

Sensei is actually leaving next weekend, not end of May, it turns out. That's...actually really sad. I liked the dojo and I loved training under him; he's a good teacher and I learned a great deal from him.

The students will carry on the dojo (a new teacher was chosen, he's good) and are currently hunting for a new building to train in. It's all rather exciting, but it's still unhappy business.

I bought some new video games. I have also decided to stitch shut my wallet. There are still games I want to buy and play, and I can actually afford it, but I now have a new rule: I must play and beat every game currently in my possession before I am allowed to buy any more games. Considering I currently have 10 games I have purchased but only played once/haven't played yet, this will be fun. For the curious, those games are
Starcraft 2
Dawn of War + 2 expansions (counting as 3 games)
Aquaria
3 DS Games (Fire Emblem, WarioWare, some Zelda game)
Crisis Core
Dissidia

I also need to beat FF13 and Assassin's Creed 2.

I also need to read those books I got from the library. The library is so great.

It's hard because there are a few games I still want to pick up. The latest Professor Layton. A PokeMon game. Guild Wars 2. Portal 2. Eternal Sonata (this would require an XBox 360, so still waiting a long while on that), to name a few that come to mind. I also really want to play Zelda Master Quest. If any friends of mine have that game please speak NOW because eBay is annoying me. Bah on you, eBay. I'm not gonna pay $60 for a game that was made for the N64, regardless of how awesome it is.

Oh, I have been using eBay lately. It's interesting. I keep winning auctions I don't expect to win, which catches me by surprise.

...You know what? Upon rereading this post I realize just how much money is leaking out of my wallet. That's it. No more spending money, starting NOW. I will bike everyday. I will bring my lunch to work. And I will NOT spend a penny on any more gaming or movies. If I don't already own it, can't borrow it, can't get it from the library, and can't see it on Netflix, I ain't gonna see/play/read it.

I'm on strike!

Saying that art style doesn't change is a big fat lie.

2011-03-07T23:19:00.004-07:00

Which is why no one says it.

I just think it's interesting to compare the stuff here with the newer (although ironically earlier in story) pages here.
NOTE: Those links are dynamic and the older pages will be taken down at some point soon, so these links will become somewhat irrelevant.

I don't like how text and word bubbles are handled in this particular program (the comic-making program that was used to create the newer pages). It's something that is annoying enough to me that I think I will handle all dialogue in Photoshop once I can get it. Not being able to put pointers on the balloons? Not being able to adjust the angle of letters? Not being able to put letters underneath other layers for sound effects? I think NOT. That's not cool.

In every other way I am impressed with this software. It makes drawing faster and simple. The drawings are not all top rate, but in my defense I am trying to get a healthy balance of speed mixed in before I get bored. If I can draw quickly, I can advance story quickly, and the main reason I do webcomics is because the ones I like don't update fast enough for me, so I want something else to do/read.

In any case, I am thoroughly enjoying myself and rather enjoy having a script to work from, although I am already retreating from it and tweaking things. It's nice to have it there to remind me of my pacing and general mood/text. Scripts are handy. I can see why movies and plays like them so much.

That's all for now.

Lots and lots to say, but only one blog post to put it in.

2011-03-07T09:55:00.002-07:00

QUICK ANNOUNCEMENT
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I am throwing away a bunch of my stuff. If you are interested in free stuff in the lines of paints, ink, stuffed toys, DVDs, books (mostly old textbooks relating to Psychology, Japanese, and English, but also some fantasy/fiction books), paper, and any other random things then please let me know, and I will list what I am getting rid of (once I know what I'm getting rid of). There's also some sweet knick-knacks and such things that I collected in Japan but frankly don't really look at and I would like to give them a more healthy happy home. Some of the stuff is worth selling on Craigslist, some is going to DI, and some I have no idea what to do with and may wind up chucking. If you are at all interested, drop me a line. If not, all well. Just thought I'd let you know.
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I have seen some interesting media of late and thought I might spend a blog post writing about it all. I do have a few things to talk about in regards to life as well, and a few thoughts I wanted to pen, but let's try to keep this relatively organized, shall we? Setting aside dojo news, the fact that my room is actually clean for the first time since unpacking, my biking exploits, and all that other interesting stuff, let's get on with the less useful media discussion!!

Here are some movies and books I have seen/read in the past two weeks. The movies that have been out for a while have spoilers. Frankly, I think I may have included spoilers in all the movies, sorry. They aren't too bad.

I am Number Four
The plot consists of an alien whose planet was destroyed and he was sent to earth to flee the invaders who wiped out his home planet. He came as a baby and has no memory of home, but he has a guardian warrior man with him who knows everything, so he's not in the dark by any means. Sadly, the destroyers found him and the other 8 children on earth and are now hunting them down one by one in order. He is #4, and the movie opens with the death of #3, marking him as next on the list. The movie consists of him running, his life in the new town, him being discovered, and the ensuing battle, etc.

This is a generic teenage-boy-discovering-his-super-powers movie. It's an original written to become a movie, which is kind of nice. The script is not amazingly stellar but it is funny, and while the plot is predictable it's a fun ride. I'm glad I saw the movie and I plan to see it again. The main character is a brat, but he's fun, too. Intelligence is not his strong point but that appears to be deliberate. The sidekicks are appropriately comical in their relief. The villains are definitely villains; no gray area there. I think if you go keeping in mind that it's not designed to open your mind to a new way of thinking you'll enjoy it.

The Guardians of Ga'Hoole
A CG movie of two baby owls who are kidnapped by bad owls. The bad brother joins the bad owls, the good brother rescues other baby owls and flees to Redwall--I mean, he reaches the Guardians of Ga'Hoole and trains to become a guardian in Paradise--I mean, Ga'Hoole. The Guardians go to stop the bad owls.

So, not to put too fine a point on it, this is an amazingly predictable and unlikely kid's movie. The tiny baby/teenage owl (the main character) has to do EVERYTHING. HE is the one who summons the guardians. HE is the one who persuades them to fight. HE is the one who warns them of a possible traitor. HE is the one who can fly through a storm with his eyes closed. HE is the special one. HE is the one who defeats the big bad guy and saves the world. By himself. Even though at the beginning of the movie he couldn't even fly, and not too much time passes between then and the end.

However, I didn't see this movie because I heard it was good. I watched it because I heard it was PRETTY. It lived up to it's name in that regard. This movie is GORGEOUS.

I saw it and I'm glad I saw it. I might Netflix it again at some point and pause at frames just to stare and wonder. It's impressive, and the details that went into flight are amazing. The little twitches and adjustment each bird makes when flying are just incredible.

Book of Enchantments
This is a collection of short stories by Patricia C. Wrede, an author I like. I liked this book as well as most other short story collections. The commentary on where/when/why she wrote each of the stories that she included in the end was amusing as well. If you are a collector and like the author, pick it up. If not, then shrug. Doesn't make you think, just gives you classic tales in new light. I enjoyed it.

Runaways (MARVEL)
The story is set in the MARVEL universe and I own the first book. It is essentially the children of an evil organization grow up oblivious that they are different and their parents are evil. One fateful night they accidentally see a human sacrifice ritual that their parents host/participate in and they all run away together. They gradually discover their own super powers (one has time traveling machines and a pet dinosaur, one is a super powerful mutant, one is a flying glowing alien, one is a witch, and two have no powers whatsoever but they are friends so part of the team). It's a fun idea and it started off well. I found two books in the series in the library and picked them up. That showed me that while the idea is still cool, it has the same habits as every other MARVEL comic I know: THE STORY NEVER ENDS.

This is why I like Japanese manga. There is a beginning, a middle, and an END to most stories. The two novels I read took the ending I figured might happen, and then ages everyone by a few years and keeps going.

Didn't like it. I would consider picking up the original storyline up until the ending I anticipated and then pretending it ends there.

Twilight
I just read it again. It gets cheezier the more I read it, sadly...I still enjoy it but not as much as I used to.

Spider-Man: RiffTrax
The RiffTrax for this movie is rather good. If you haven't seen the Riff and you weren't a huge fan of the movie (or even if you were) I suggest it.

Jumper
The book is good. It has nothing to do with the movie, except for the fact that Davy can teleport. The similarities stop RIGHT THERE.

Reflex
The book is a sequel to Jumper. It is GREAT.

Battlestar Galactica
It's a TV show I am just now watching. I'm still near the start of Season 2, so no spoilers, thank you. It's good show, albeit a little "rough," and the moment you watch it half the other Sci-Fi shows out at the moment will suddenly make a ton of sense.

Crisis Core (PSP Game)
Okay. So. Final Fantasy fans, I would wish to borrow your ear. I hate to do this, but I will summarize my opinion on all these FF7 prequels and sequels in one phrase:

They are official FAN FICTION.

I think it's a little ridiculous and sad to make so much media for a game that stood by itself very brilliantly. Yes, these other games/shows/movies coming out are pretty and fun, but they have the smell of fan-fic on them and that ruins it a little bit.

That said, Crisis Core is a fun game. The battle system is AMAZINGLY FUN to play, and I find myself seeking combat in order to play it more. I do not get the whole roulette thing that happens occasionally and I don't much care about it. It's like Final Fantasy meets Kingdom Hearts (which is weird enough as it is) in that they took the smooth turn based battle and made it into a field where you run around and react to monsters that react to you. You can do your moves or dodge or block, and it's lots and lots of fun to play.

Firefly Season 2??

2011-03-03T09:37:00.004-07:00

While I'm here and posting, I have something for Firefly fans. There is a group that is trying to gauge reaction of fans when opening the possibility of having a third party purchase and revive the Firefly series.

The story:
The news story (CNN)

The website:
Help Nathan Buy Firefly

The place where you can pledge (again, it's not actually giving them money, just an idea):
Pledge Page
Note: This page is on the website. It's just a bit down the page, so this is so it's easy to find. Take a look, even if you don't want to pledge, to see how many fans pledged and how much has been pledged. It's kept up to date.

It's still in the "wouldn't it be nice if" stages, but if you want Firefly back enough that you'd contribute to have the rights purchased, then mosey on over and take a look. They aren't asking for money, just "if this were real, how much would you really honestly pay for this?" Don't put a joke answer, please.

Oh, and tell anyone who might be interested in this. They need to spread the word fast.

Biking to Work: Day 1 - Initial Reaction

2011-03-03T09:09:00.002-07:00

Distance: 3.2 Miles
Number of Traffic Lights en-route: 5
Number of Stop Signs: 4

Time it takes by car: ~15 minutes
Time it takes by bike: ~20 minutes

Not too bad at all. It was much faster than I expected it to be. I got about the same amount of luck with lights but traffic was lighter today than when I leave by car. Probably because when I leave by car it coincides with students crossing to campus, and when I'm on a bike I don't have to stop for them as much.

Google says it should only take 17 minutes by bike. Curses, I must be slow. I wonder how they calculated that time? My new goal is to BEAT IT.

I wasn't racing and it's my first time on Scott in 2 years (Scott and Anakim ride very differently*) so I bet if I tried to go faster I could. The ride home is a different story: it is 90% uphill. We'll see how that goes. Google thinks I can do it in 22 minutes.

Biking was nice. Next time I want to make sure I have the following:
1) music (to you who disapprove, it's in one ear and playing softly, it just gives your brain something to do when you are bored. I can hear traffic very well and am aware of it/listening for it when it's there)
2) ear-muffs (it's cold outside)
3) gloves (see above)
4) bike repair kit
5) some sort of bell or lead pipe for cars that try to hit me (I had 2 near misses today. SERIOUSLY? I was in the crossing! I was stopped on the corner, and then I started crossing. What is WRONG with you people?!)

Other than that I think this could work nicely. I'm surprised, I thought it would take longer to bike to work. After work I will try biking to the dojo, but that's a huge uphill battle (literally), so we'll see. I will certainly be warmed up by the time I get there, that's for sure.

I miss biking though, and it's good exercise, so I'm happy about this. Hurrah, less gas consumption!

*Scott and Anakim are my bikes. Scott was my bike before my mission (and is my current bike), Anakim I purchased in Japan. Both names are bad puns on the brand of bike. Scott is a Scott, and Anakim is a Giant ("Anakim" is the term for Giant in the Bible). Anakim was a city-built bike with a basket over the rear tire to put stuff in. He was fast and convenient and awesome, like a mountain bike with city tires. Scott is a hand/custom-built mountain bike, designed to be sturdy and usable. Both are nice bikes. Anakim is faster, I think, but Scott is more durable--especially on bumpy trails. I miss Anakim but only because they ride very differently and I'm not used to Scott yet. They are both nice bikes and I like them both.

"Dream Log #" + i++ + ": The 4 Beasts"

2011-03-01T09:59:00.004-07:00

Keeping a dream journal is a habit I had on my mission (I filled 3 books) that proved very nice when I went back to reread and relive some of the adventures. Seeing Inception was a nice reminder that I love dreams and dreaming. Lately my dreams have taken a more 'task and goal' tone and I want to remember some of them. This dream is decidedly influenced by the Inception movie.

The dream begins in the midst of a game run by dad. People are living in a Second Life style world, where you can live normally but everyone is playing make believe. The money is monopoly money. Everyone is given $1,000 but with no way to break it. I lose mine (gambling?) and am angry that I can no longer buy the game “upgrades” that were announced mid-game. Annoyed that I had no way of reclaiming my lost funds, I take money from the “bank,” leading to dad getting angry and the other gamers declaring me cheating. “He said he’d give us money each hour. It’s been 3 hours and he hasn’t given squat," is my justification.

I am kicked out of the game.

Annoyed, I wander around and decide to join a different game. This one is a bit scarier. Given the equivalent of laser tag guns, we have to fight our way through 4 levels. I have played this game before and remember that the briefing room will be attacked by a large and super fast bear. Last time I “died” in that assault. Now I know that that bear is the boss of the level, and if we can survive the attack we can win. Two others are playing alongside me, my companions from the MTC (it seems).

The bear is part of the briefing and helping to explain the rules of the world, but he leaves through the chimney and I realize that we have about 10 seconds before he bursts through the door and kills us all. I shut the door but don’t have time to lock it. Backing away from the door, I set my gun to a 50% charge (the weapons can fire a limited number of times based on how strong the blast is and I want to save some for the rest of the level). The bear bursts through the door and I shoot immediately to no effect. Jumping over his super fast swipe I panic, set the gun to full blast and pull the trigger as I am swiped and falling backward over a table. I think that I just died and lost the game, but it appears I was a hair faster than the bear’s mortal blow, and I win the level. Surprised but pleased, we move on to the next level, which is somewhere in town.

The next level is a humanoid boss, Blanth. I do not remember combat but he takes us to boss number 3, a flying gargoyle-like creature. He tells me we must do combat from the top of a trampoline as the gargoyle dive-bombs us. The gargoyle seems very stern and unfriendly, with a hint of sad. Blanth gives away too much information in his hints and I understand that I have to throw mud at the gargoyle to blind him. If I blind him, we win the level.

My companions aren’t yet here when the gargoyle begins his attacks. I can see them on the path leading to the tramp and I yell for them to hurry while I grab some mud and begin flinging it. The mud causes him to land and I throw more until it covers his eyes. He looks like he is bored and going easy on me. Once the mud covers his eyes Blanth declares me the winner and wishes me luck on monster number 4 because they won’t help with the final boss.

(The Inception influence is here, as the town looks much like the Inception-built city and the population seems a lot like projections.)

The final boss is a cheerleader looking perky woman, we gradually discover. We discover this by going to an area of town where all the people (including the creator of the 4 monsters and leader of the game) have endless duplicates that populate this large chunk of the city. We somehow (cell phone?) are contacted by Blanth and the real leader, telling us that monster 4 will ACTUALLY try to KILL us (for realz) and that we need to get out of there and come back. Problem is, we’ve spotted monster 4 and she’s really nice. She asks us if we can help her sell her edible wares from her large vending van. One companion gets roped in but I try to move away and the other companion splits away from us. While moving away I spot Monster 4 again and realize that SHE has endless duplicates too, and they are all lethal. Thoroughly freaked out, we explain this to the game’s creator and ask for help while trying to evade the duplicates that are “incidentally” closing in and trying to be really friendly.

He tells us that the game has gotten completely out of control and tells us to get out, quick, or we really are dead. Monster 4 hasn't turned aggressive yet, but with the creator's word we have a sense of thrill and terror as we try to escape this area of town and cannot; we find ourselves blocked at each turn and getting deeper and deeper into the heart of this area rather than getting back into "normal space."

The evasion leads to the top floors of a skyscraper building with both companions and 3 or 4 duplicates offering clothing or assistance. The fear is that once we accept any of her help or items she will use it to kill us, so we keep running, but finally reach an area where all the doors are blocked and the only way out is either through a window or through Monster 4.

I get a crazy idea and really, really hope it will work. I then jump out the window, with Monster 4 rushing at me and clawing at my shoes.

I start to fall from the skyscraper. Not thinking about much (not scared of falling, not feeling the falling sensation, not thinking at all) as Monster 3 swoops in to pick me up. This makes my companions safe as Monster 4 was only pursuing me. Heart calm and slightly happy, I wake up with the vague thought that we have to deal with the Monster 4 problem.

Overall emotion of the dream was slightly intense but fun since everything was on a pseudo, make-believe level. Dream actually forced me to declare actions in order for them to take place in-dream on occasion. I was not aware that I was dreaming.

Back on track

2011-02-28T12:11:00.003-07:00

I put up that California post, so it's not a placeholder anymore. (see 2/24: I'm back from California!)

Life is going really well. I got into painting figures (finally!!) and immensely enjoy it. Painting the figurines I have is part 1 of my 3 part plan:

1. Paint the figurines I own
2. Play more Hoardes with them
3. Upon determining I like the game, sculpt my own figurines
3b. Make my own cards for my figurines, and play with my own custom army

The ideas 3 and 3b are what have me interested. How cool would it be to fight with an army of figurines that you personally created? Shway cool, that's right. The cards would not become power-crazy, they would be cards using exact stats from existing cards with custom names and pictures. Balancing would stay the same. Thing is, this would take a lot of effort, possibly days and weeks of concentrated effort with limited results, so I have to be sure I LIKE the game before I try to pull anything.

If I did it I would do it with my own characters that I created, but while you are in the business of creating characters anyway, can't you just see themed armies? Harry Potter and his rag-tag team of sorcerers could go against Voldemort and the Death Eaters, sure, but wouldn't you love to see how he'd fair against the armored animals of Narnia, led by Aslan and his A-Team? Animals would be ten times easier to sculpt than people, too...I could even build some dragons from D&D just for the heck of it, but I'm not good at dragons. I would consider big cats first. Lions and tigers and bears, oh my. I've never sculpted statues before, so it would be kinda tricky.

While I'm posting, this article is indirectly talking about this website, which is a pretty decent (and real) attempt to get Firefly back on the air. Read carefully, it's written simply so you can understand what is going on and what all you are getting into. It's an interesting idea. I pledged what I felt I would be willing to afford to see Firefly again, which is limited more on what I feel I can afford and less on how much I would like to pledge. I liked that show. It was good.

Webcomics?

2011-02-24T09:31:00.005-07:00

I just got some rockin' awesome software from Acius' wife (I dunno if she is using a nickname for the Internet I'll need to look that up). Thank you, sister-in-law! Using the Manga Studio software I played around for about 30 minutes and came up with this:

That's supposed to be shadow on his pants in the last panel. Cavan.

There's a number of problems, up to and including I don't understand tone yet and those first 2 panels look awful, but considering it was 30 minutes from blank-page-and-no-sketch to this, I am rather impressed. Most of the interface is pretty understandable, although I made a number of mistakes that need correcting, and it took me 10 minutes to figure out a) how to add text to the durn thing, and b) how to make dialog balloons appear on TOP of the panel lines. That took me a while.

The lack of tutorials and help in the program is a bit frustrating, but goofing around answers a number of questions. After work (most likely this weekend) I think I'll sit down and see how easy it is to color and add some serious detail in there. If all goes well and I can still churn out about 1 page per hour, I am MOST interested in doing a webcomic.

Now comes the painful part of going through my current files and finding out how many of the old pages are really missing, and whether or not I want to redraw them or just reboot, or whether or not I should put a [insert pages here, but here's the plot] or if I should redraft the introduction to the comic. Opinions on this subject are most welcome.

This is also a good chance for me to (re)discover php and see if I can't come up with a decent page layout for a website. Details will follow.

I'm back from California!

2011-02-24T08:16:00.004-07:00

Okay, here's the REAL post of my California trip. With photos!

Four people took a roadtrip to California and four people took a ride back. One of the riders staying in California and one only came for the ride home, it was interesting.

We arrived Thursday night, whereupon I got to see K-La and her baby. That was the purpose of the visit and really I could have been most happy and content right then, but since we were already in California we decided to at least look around before climbing back into the car.

California was cold, but it was still shorts and t-shirts weather. We actually came during a rainstorm, so the skies were cloudy or drizzling for the entire weekend. It was weird, but it meant that once again California smelled like rain. That was great!

On Friday K-La wasn't feeling well so Toshi (one of the people who came down; he came to visit the husband while I came to see the wife) and I hopped in his car and did a massive shopping trip. We found this by accident:

That's right, Japanophiles! It's a Book Off! I guess they are all over the states but still rather uncommon, so we were just lucky. I bought some dirt cheap nice stuff and found (and purchased) the entire Card Captor Sakura manga in Japanese for $10. I am very glad about this purchase; I had been looking for it in Japan with absolutely no luck at all. I also picked up the first 3 seasons of LOST, the first season of Chuck, and a few books for the car trip home.

We also visited the San Diego Temple:

There was a wedding in progress and we were dressed in street clothes, so we were content to wander around the back of the temple and get rained on.

We also visited the beach and I saw a huge starfish. It was raining so the beach was empty. I immensely enjoyed the beach but suspect it would be better without the rain. Go figure, I like the wet to be from the bottom up.

After a big shopping spree, a beautiful temple and some general relaxing it was Saturday. You know what that means?! LEGO LAND!

(This sign is made out of Legos!)

K-La had two free tickets to Legoland, so we put on our jackets (still raining), packed some waffles and set out for the ultimate theme park that is made out of legos!

Well, it turns out it wasn't made out of legos, but it is certainly a theme park that any 7-11 year old would absolutely adore. Everything was lego themed, and we found a lot of great entertainment.

K-La looking awesome in the gift shop of our favorite ride!

This was the best part of the park. If you find yourself in Legoland and grow tired of the rides clearly aimed at audiences 1/2 to 1/3 your age, hope onto the blaster ride. It's still aimed at people much younger than you, but the wait is tiny and the ride is fun; you get to shoot things and compete for the high score. K-La rocked me at this game; she's really good. You can see my pathetic score in that photo. She had a score closer to 850.

We also spun around in lego-themed tea cups. It was fun, but I should never ride spinny rides in my work pants. I was slipping and sliding all over the seats! Upon crashing into K-La (who was originally sitting across from me) we took a picture.

I then dedicated most of the rest of the ride trying to get a photo of us from inside that mirror.

We also took a boat tour floated on a river that covered a little of the middle of the park. There were some cute little statues (made of legos) that you could only really see from the boat, including that elephant. This tour was made for little kids, but our tour guide was awesome. At one point we were looking at a statue of two lego men (construction workers) and one of them was clinging for his life and shouting "I can't hold on!" while the other replied, "Hold on!" and just as we passed under the speaker announced via sound effect that he had fallen and splashed. The statue was apparently unaware of this development as it was not made to move.

"Oh no! I guess he 'Lego-'d' too soon!" cried the tour guide in her best this-is-a-pun voice.

The boat was full of adults, and we all groaned appreciatively of a terrible joke that someone is being forced to say. Our response sparked a reply from the tour guide, who said in a much quieter voice, "I'm sorry. They make me say that." We all laughed.

Which inspired the tour guide to continue the tour, but after really awful puns she would add commentary of her own.

"Oof, that one was really terrible, wasn't it?"

"I hope you enjoyed the boat tour! I liked it so much...I think I'll ride it again."

"Thank you so much for riding. I'm Captain Satsuko if you enjoyed your ride, and if you didn't enjoy it...my name is Bob. From [Legoland Gift Store]."

It was hilarious and we loved her. K-La and I raced up to her at the end and thanked her for the laughs.

This was a picture of a lego-version of New York City. They had a lot of cities in Legoland. The lego builder has an awesome job and we understood why he doesn't get paid very much (everyone wants his job).

That's an octopus band. And Kayla near the end of the ride.

Hagrid was one of many lego-made statues throughout the park.

As was Batman, who is so cool he blurred the screen.

And this guy. I dunno if he's from anything but I thought he was Alfred at first and that just had me smilin'. K-La and I thought he was amazing.

How can you not take a picture with this guy?

But there really is a true "this is a real theme park yo" feeling in the air. You can tell when you look around and see the mascot characters walking around! Haven't you always wanted to take a picture with the toy representation of a fake pharaoh grown to larger than life size?!

Or chillax with a pirate?

Or do a fighter pose sort of thing with a Bionical Man?

I didn't know I wanted to do any of those things until I saw that I had an opportunity to do them.

We went through the lego making/building factory and learned some neat things about legos. The end of the tour was a huge gift shop and I was reaaaally tempted to pick up some legos, which shows you that it was an appealing tour.

But I didn't get anything. I wound up buying a t-shirt near the end of the day. I felt we needed a shirt, at least.

We called Drek for a ride home and while we were waiting we decided to build bionical men. It was SURPRISINGLY fun. If I buy action figures for my kids they will probably be bionical because I want to play with them again. It's like Barbie but better, and you can combine two action figures into one big one, which is great for marketing and also a neat idea. Like transformers but easier to put together and harder to break, based on my past experience with transforming action figures.

And just for fun, Kayla in the shot.

I didn't take pictures of the amazing Mexican food in California, Lego Rock Band (fun but easy), the roller coaster we rode (pretty tame but fun), or some of the other things we did in Legoland, but suffice to say it was fun.

Sunday found us in church. Church was really fun, I enjoyed it. I learned a lot. We also took a drive and saw the new home. It was really cool, and I'm excited for K-La!

Monday found me on the road, with plans in my head for Saboteur - California and the summer. Unemployment means much more freedom to move around and live in other people's houses for summers. Huzzah!

All in all it was a great trip and I loved it. California is a great vacation spot!

Nihon ni itta, mata iku (日本に行った, また 行く)