Pilosophy 301

Ok, maybe I think to highly of myself with the '3' part of the title, after all these questions and answers are a few thousand years old.

And before I go on 2 items.
1. Congrats Andrea on your masters degree in HR, your 'new housemaid' that you got mad at me over last nite because I wouldnt tell you what it is will arrive tomorrow. (she needed a vaccum and I'm a geek so...) (gift inspired by Cara, link at right)
2. I GOT AN A IN JAPANESE 3! I swear my teacher cant do math, theres no way I deserved an A, but I'll take it. This gives me my 1st ever 4.0 semester, yay.

Ok.
The other day I realized something about some ultra religious people, although it definately doesnt apply only to them, they just helped me realize it. (btw the people that unknowingly helped me realize this DID NOT fall into this category, and thus had me wondering why.)

It's how you see the world. If you see the world as generally evil, and yourself good, then you're just an egotist when it comes down to it. The other group of people who could see the world as evil would do so to excuse their evilness, also not good.

Targen (link at right, get it yourself) was quick to point out this is rather old philosophy, dividing the world into Self, other, and general. I had heard that before but I guess somehow forgot it, so this was still a revelation to me.

Anyway it inspired some rare inteligent chat in the chanel I hang out in. (#catgirls@irc.rizon.net) I came to some other realizations thru it.

For a long time I have tried to think of what the world would be like if it was 'perfect.' After all, its pretty damned perfect as it is. Sure theres war, famine and other assorted stuff, but I think those things are needed to keep a balance. But there is something everyone spends their whole life looking for, usually without knowing. It's why Bill Gates gets up every morning and fights his heart out, (lol I can hear flames) why people become drug addicts, why people will do anything to get laid, even why we build families and go to church.

It is something only the most successful human beings can hold on to for even a short time.

It is, simply, Joy.

It's beyond happiness, or love, or any other simple (ha!) emotion. Joy is just when everything feels right with the world, and you can accept it for all its faults and lackings. In fact, the lackings are PART of the joy, it helps one see what IS there.

So the new question is, what would the world be like if everyone had a sense of joy? This is a hard one. It's easy to say 'there would be no war, no dissagreements, and everyone would always be happy and play nice.' Would they? Would there not always be something to fight for and against? Would a sense of joy mean everyone had the same opinion, or that different opinions never contradicted eachother? I'm not so sure.

So thats youre homework. If youre actually reading this then comment below on your thoughts or blog about it yourself. But think about it. The easy answers are usually worhtless.

Links of the day!

na, lets stay philisophical

A plea for help

My life seems to be entirely defined by computer problems.

In work, thats what I do. They call me when something breaks and I fix it. Over the years, I have gotten quite good at that and so theres less and less problems (and $, someone hire me damnit)

At home, I'm just too damned complicated. ~1tb of space spread out over 3 main comps and 2-3 other random ones that are usually on my network for one reason or another.

And its ALWAYS PROBLEMS. TV comp's (hooked to tv, and its WONDERFUL when it works) power supply died about 2 weeks ago, so I have a 300w in there from another comp that cant POSSIBLY hope to handle the 6 hds and 2 cdroms AND ATI AIW it has in it, so most of my data drives are inaccessable to me.

Fine, sucks, but when I can scrape the cash together its easily fixed. But the other day windows refused to boot, telling me its missing some file and to run the windows setup recovery console. Oh yes thank you microsoft for such a useless recovery option. Did you guys miss DOS or what?

And my main comp.... I just do too much weird crap too often so it needs a format like every 3 months... and I'm sick of it.

My WONDERFUL, AMAZING, BEAUTIFUL p2 233 server (1st comp I ever built and I love it to death) NEVER has problems. Running w2k I had it up for over a year once till the power went out.

So I've put 2 80gb drives and mirrored them and I want to put all my critical data on it, which means moving my My Documents folder over and telling windows to look over there.

Well, stupid windows just HAS to 'Sync' the folder, meaning it copies it to the C drive for my convinience lest the server is inaccessable. Nice, but I DONT HAVE THE SPACE ON MY C: for that. I had 0kb free today...

So I had to undo it and put them back on the local D drive as they were before.

So I need help- I'm not stupid, you can shut off folder syncronization- except for my documents apparently, the option to do so is greyed out.

Need fix please...

Links of the day!

MasaMania An internet journalist with horrible english but fun stuff
Ring of saturn Lots of cool geeky stuff here
A JET's life in Kyoto Even if you dont know what JET is, youll find this hillarious (and slightly disturbing)

Thursday the 12th vs Friday the 13th

So I had this Japanese class end of semester party thing to go to, and didnt want to brave it alone. Not that its horrible, just nice to have a backup plan.

So Wednesday I asked my friend Jeannine on a 'date' because everyone thinks we're dating anyway. She turned me down cuz she had plans with her man.

Thurs afternoon she calls me and she wants to go, man issues (not describing them :P) have her free. So its a date...

and if anything was ever a first date, I this was.

As much as I love lots of aspects of Japanese culture, me being a vegitarian and theirs being a sea-faring nation means I cant eat 90% of their food. So we went to Typhoon (mmm lettuce wraps) 1st.

As I get off the freeway, my car starts steaming profusely, yay. I joked with her I will now do the typical man thing and open the hood and stare at all the crap that I have NO CLUE to its function. Well this one was obvious, as I opened the hood the now trickle of steam was comming out of the GAPING crack in the top of the radiatior. Whatever, we ate, we shal deal with it afterwards, car can cool down anyway.

Of course getting the fabled lettuce wraps (and no I dont have any clue how to spell lettuce nor will I spell check it) the 1st one bursts all over my shirt. Wheee. Well, we'll be switching cars anyway I can switch shirts.

So we go back to my car and I put a 20 bottle of water into an empty radiator (I'm such a mechanic!!) and gingerly drive back to Jeannines to switch cars. From there we stop at my house to switch shirts (me switching mine, not us trading :P) and head off.

The dinner was pretty fun, despite bad service. (We had the 'white corner' and there was a marked difference.) Most of my interaction was with Jeannine tho, and we ditched the after-dinner kareoke. Grabbed a coffee and complained about our problems in life and then back to her house to talk a lil more (just that :P) and bail. Had to stop 3x on a 5 min drive home for my poor car.

So to recap, that was 2 cars, 2 shirts, 2 restraunts. (and prob at least 2lb more on my gut)

FRI- Ok, I hid, got my car fixed (new radiator cha-cha-cha and as a side note JIFFYLUBE SUCKS) (thats not where I got the work done tho) and just hung out at home (trapped) and played the FMA PS2 game I downlo.. er got the other day.

I did test my luck a bit, I pointed a hand mirror at my bathroom mirror. Read in a manga (Urasei Yatsura translated) that a devil was supposed to pop out if mirrors were pointed at eachother on Fri 13th. Obviously nothing happened.

But thats it. I think Fri wins.

Todays Sun, but its only 3 hrs into it so I have no verdict. Yesterday was my sister Andreas birthday but I wont see her till her Masters degree graduation next sat (gift ideas anyone?) Yesterday was pretty cool, put the new tape drive in my main clients server and all went well, and I'm just getting home from Scott callin me up at ~11:30pm to come hang out.

Thats my story and I'm stickin to it, not that you care.

Links of the day!

doesnt my site prove it :P
Anyone who downloaded Opera over this crap should be ashamed of themselves.
Nintendo has grown up, and I like it.

still here

Yup, didnt go anywhere, lifes been quite boring.

Just got home from taking my Japanese 3 final, think I did pretty good except for the writing part where I couldnt think of anything, so I joked a bit about Link from Legend of Zelda (was supposed to be a biography of your favorite person)

Whatever, its over, and tho I'm still very bad at Japanese, I have gotten better.

Now I shal have time to do all the things I've been saying I will do when the semester is over, like working on this pitiful website of mine and getting some certifications so I can FINALLY GET A JOB.

We shal see if it actually happens...

Links of the day!

Make some money They apparently dont want mine, as I always get a MySQL error (thats geek for their website sucks)
Are you geek enough? I bet you could make some money on ebay with these in a few months...
Kinky! *Note: irivers do this without fancy contraptions

LIFE ON MARS!

I want to be the first to bring this to you. Life has been discovered on Mars.

No other site will tell you such relevant and important information. Why? Because they lack vision, the kind of vision only growing up in the 80's can bring you.

You see, Link is lost on Mars. I can only theorize as to how this happened, but the valiant yet unfortunate elf boy has apparently had a malfunction of his flute, and is now wandering Mars endlessly trying to find his way home.

Dont believe me huh? I'm not supprized, it is incredible. But I have visual evidence!
Link1
And not just one, but two!
Link2

I was unable to reach Nintendo for a response, mostly because my Japanese sucks and I didnt try. (but mostly the first)

This irrefutable evidence comes from NASA itself. Just look at the URL in your browser for proof. I hereby swear under oath to your god that this is factual, and once again remember, you heard it here first.

Links of the day!

THIS is the greatest LOTD I have ever posted.
A poem that all too acurately explains my life
How cool is this? All you germophobes will love this

Nihon no hon wo yonda, yatta!

Today I am happy. I finished my book.

Now, me actually FINISHING a book (as opposed to starting) is an accomplishment in itself, usually I read about 1/5th to 1/3rd and get bored with it, but this book is special.

Its my first book in Japanese. ^^
Ok, its not a BOOK like er- Stephen King or Charles Dickens,(thx KoshNaranek for solving my brain fart on authors names) but its not See Spot Run either. Its a manga, a Japanese comic for the un-initiated, this particular one is Full Metal Alchemist #1.

It has furigana (pronunciation notes next to the kanji for kids and foreigners like me) and thru using my dictionary as sparingly as possible, and also knowing a fair amount of the story from watching the English dubbed anime on TV, I would say I understood about 70% of it.

Which is fine with me, I do hope that number grows.

At first it was slow going. I'm a slow reader even in English (high comprehension rate compensates for it) but even tho I study Japanese a lot, real world usage opportunities for me are quite low. It had lots of non-commonly used language (the story line is somewhat fantastic, having to do with Alchemy) but I trudged thru it.

Last night, I read an entire chapter (~40 pages) before bed, then woke up and read the last chapter (about the same) this morning. I can see my reading speed, accuracy and recognition increase already, so its quite fun.

On the other hand, I know I've said this before, but I really really really really really (etc etc) cant speak a friggin word of Japanese anymore. I get tongue tied and lost with the simplest things.

I think its a self inflicted curse, because I used to joke that I would rather be able to ask the cute girl what the sign said and understand her answer than learn 2000 kanji. But really, I have no chance to speak Japanese commonly, and the rare occasions it comes up I am WAY shy about it, even in class. There's no Japanese 4 next semester, so I will probably take the conversation class instead and work thru it, or get a private tutor.

For now I'm happy to be reading ^_^

On another note, the blog changed styles again, firefox and IE display the scrollbars different, but both do it well, and I like the look. Hope you do too, because if not, you'll be stuck with it for awhile.

Links of the day!

The perfect case If my friend Adam had an Ipod
Eliminating data securely This site is full of cool things I don't understand
Learn Khmer Long story short, I use ICQ and LONG time ago changed my details and picked funny sounding languages and claimed I spoke them. Literally 4 years later, I get tons of messages from people who can speak them who want to add me (its an Indonesian language I believe, but most people were from Canada for some reason) anyway, expand your horizons!

Douglas!

Blogs been rather heavy lately, so on a lighter note....


Meet Douglas, the newest extended member of the family. Dougie (not like Howser..) for short, which sometimes morphs to Doggie (how creative eh? calling a dog doggie) he's a full sized Basset hound that my brother got a few days ago from a breeder, and we all think he doesn't realize just how big this dogs gonna get...


Here he is in his natural state. Apparently this is the height of activity for him. Of course, he's only 12 weeks old, and human babies sleep a lot too.


Here he is with his owner, my brother. (The original Mr Excitement)


Then it was time for him to go... He actually cried as he left, think he likes our house better than the bachelor pad he lives in.

On another note, I'm in pain today, got my ass kicked when I bumped the cabinet next to my door last nite and had a speaker fall about 4 ft directly into my chest broadside. Guess I'm lucky it didn't hit me on the head or land with a corner first... but it feels like my lung is bruised.

Links of the day!

The local bar Not goin there anymore...
Perpendicular People at Hitachi should REALLY have something better to do.
Quit whining It's funny.

Farewell to a friend

The Pope died today.

I take nothing back from my previous blog. Because its the truth, at least as Ive heard and precieved it, and thats all we have to go on in this life.

He was a great man. He went into the world far more than any other previous Pope, but its also true that he had more opertunity to do so than any other Pope.

But thats not the friend I am mourning.

A little over 4 years ago, Im not sure when, I first attempted to use IRC. I went to aniverse. the first few days on #lovehinaparty, where I met someone (unbenounced to me, an ircop) that helped me learn the ropes. Then I forgot the chan I was in, and found #mae. From there, I met friends, I watched the inception of a chan called #RG where 'we hate you, now go away' I found more friends, and overtime, I ended up in #catgirls.

Aniverse is my home on irc. Its the place I first joined, and the place I fought to keep. I watched it grow from a nothing server to one of the top ten irc servers in the world. It was a beautiful thing.

However, the fact they only have one server, no matter how powerful it is, overtime proved its weekness, as they have been subjected to attack after attack by the idiot 12 yr old script kiddies who cant get laid. This proved its downfall.

Two major DDOS attacks made most of the larger channels leave for other networks. Still, I was reluctant to go. I had found other chanels on other servers that I liked, but aniverse was always my home.

I have watched #catgirls slowly die over the months. Pretending it wasnt happening. Slowly we lost people, without any new life comming in.

Finally, I decuded it was time to go. I will still always be on aniverse. My friends in #rg are still there. but I will probably spend most of my time on rizon now, where #catgirls has moved.

I already miss my good friend.

If you want a great irc network, full of good people (not always friendly to newbie/idiots) aniverse is a great place to go. You will meet many good people there. And I will be there too. But for now, the majority of me has moved, and its sad.

Links of the day!

IRC leeching If irc interests you as a place to get files, read this. But if all you do is leech, youre missing out.
Aniverse www they have a great web server too.
Wow I have got to start waking up early and watching tv

The Pope is a hypocrite

Since I had two people complain about my last post, and I didnt even know two people read my blog, Ill fan the flames.

Ok, now I have nothing against the Pope, the news is full of his long list of humanitarian and spiritual conquests and I applaud him for each and every one of them.

That doesnt mean he cant be a hypocrite tho.
You see, durring the whole Terri saga, the Pope called the people starving her murderers. He even said (and god (tho hes probably on the Popes side huh) I wish I could find the link) that if HE was in that situation, he NEVER wants the tube removed.

Now aside from the fun philisopical concepts of this, mainly that the only way the pope can stop being pope is to actively abdicate the er.. popistry meaning a vegtable living for 15+ years would have a feeding tube in and be Pope...

It also means if hes gonna call people murders and state something so outrageous, and the oppertunity comes up JUST A DAY LATER- he better live it.

He's dying, he knows it, everybody knows it. Even the Italian media prematurely killed him today, but hes close to Jesus and its near Easter so on the third hour he rose again.

But he dosent want to go to the hospital, (can you hear my impression of a small whiny child there?) you know, that place that HAS ALL THE TUBES. Nope, he wants to sit at home and wait to die. And no the situations ARENT the same, because the POPE can still make his own decisions, which is what makes him a hypocrite.

And hes welcome to. Its a right anyone should have. But when you say one thing and live another, thats hypocricy. (Seriously, look it up.)

Heres hoping Cara doesnt kill me.

Links of the day!

MMM Darkside... If theyre going to turn everything into nothing but mass marketing, at least lets make it this good and creative.
Clocky! Id say I really need one of these, but I really dont. If it runs away I can ignore it easier.
Blair Witch This is a website for the town that was featured in the movie (apparently, I never saw it) their horrible web page reminds me of the good old days of the web.

ding dong the witch is dead....

Ok, so I know people are gonna get pissed because I called her a witch, but seriously how do u know those weren't the moans of some demon that possessed her?

Yup, Terri Schiavo finally kicked the freaking bucket. Give her credit, she was a tough old broad.

And yes, I'm damned happy about it, because now EVERY SINGLE NEWS CAST CAN STOP DEVOTING 3/4ths OF ITS CONTENT TO IT. Seriously, there was a school shooting almost the size of Columbine, a war going on we're involved in (and numerous others we never hear about I'm sure, I know my online friend in Venezuela at least passively fears for his life) another HUGE quake in tsunamiland, and STILL 3/4ths of the news was this woman.

But I'm not the only one who's happy...

The Republicans are happy, they didn't WANT to win this one. They just wanted to put on a good show and placate the whack-job constituents of their party. They know full well that those whack-jobs will say to themselves in a year and a half (next elections) "he fought for me!" while the rest of us (what is it now? Like 80% in polls?) wont be able to even recall her name because WE HAVE LIVES. (btw, there's scientific study on this, that the brain remembers incomplete or failed tasks much longer and more often than successes, but you'll have to take my word for it because I cant find a link)

The Democrats are ecstatic that they can stop getting their sorry asses kicked.

People are sad too tho...

The cable news channels are sad because now their ratings wont be a stable 2%. With the afore mentioned whack-jobs unequally divided between the three of them.

The protestors are sad, because now they have no more excuse not to have a job and or life.

So, since I haven't stated it, some of you might wonder what MY opinion is on all of this.

FUCK OFF

I don't have one. Why? BECAUSE ITS NONE OF MY FUCKING BUSINESS, and none of yours either. This is one of those topics everyone whips out their assho.. er I mean opinions on, even tho it has NOTHING TO DO WITH THEM NOR SHOULD IT.

For the stupid, lets get some things straight.

1. The courts and or the state did NOT kill her. The courts simply upheld the rights of the next of kin as they well should. If they did not, then lots of the legal system would fall apart. Imagine custody battles between a Father and his dead wife's parents, or estate battles between a woman and her dead husbands parents, or (more directly) being denied seeing your dying spouse at a hospital because their parents don't want you to. (Kind of like being gay in America)

As a side note, there was a quite hilarious quote by one of the protestors on the local radio news channel. She said "Well I learned from this that I need a living will because I damn sure am not going to let my husband decide my fate. I will leave it up to my parents if they're alive or my children." Whoohoo- a whole new way to hate men! If he's such a bastard DIVORCE HIM, stop living off someone you despise because its easier. She also shows she's obviously not rich putting it in the hands of her children.

2. This became a war for two reasons.
A. The parents need serious psychological counseling, they need to first see their daughter as an independent entity of themselves (aka her life rather than their life without her)
B. The 'right' saw this as an advantageous political issue. (and as I said they WANTED to lose)

3. Her husband is NOT evil, he could have EASILY walked away from all of this and let her live as a vegetable. (If she is one, and I think 'UNNNNNAAAAAAaaaaaaaAAAA' doesn't constitute intelligent thought.) He fought this for a reason, what exactly it is I will never know (and neither will you because no one seems to care) but I do know its NOT because he is controlled by Satan.

4. This has NOTHING to do with abortion or 'the culture of death.' If you connect the two, you're an idiot. This question of feeding tubes is played out many times every day and it doesn't make national news. Why? BECAUSE IT HAS NO RIGHT TO. My own father had to make the excruciating decision not to put a feeding tube in his mother. He also had to decide NOT to amputate her gangrenous (if that isn't a word it should be) legs just to keep her alive a little longer. Just a day or two after, she died, we all had the chance to be there with her, and it was the RIGHT DECISION.

5. The bible says NOTHING about euthanasia. I'm no biblical scholar, so feel free to comment if you think I'm wrong, but all the nut-jobs quoting stuff never come up with anything that isn't EXTREMELY vague. And if you say this is because euthanasia wasn't around back then- seriously grow up. Its not new, hell even abortion has been practiced for hundreds if not thousands of years.

There, now don't you feel smarter?

Note: this contains more 'colorful' language than my other posts, and for a reason.

Links of the day!

Terri Schiavo's blog
And now ACTUAL OTHER THINGS.
Spore Wow, this game seems INCREDIBLE, and how its made is just as incredible, read it, it just keeps getting better as the pages go by.
Adidas smart shoe I'm sure you've been annoyed by this commercial EVERY SINGLE COMMERCIAL BREAK (which is sad, because it is a good commercial the FIRST 20 times you see it) So I googled to find out what it was... Apparently it falls under the heading of 'everyday stuff we can now slap a microchip in and charge 3x more for'

mmm pagan

So I'm laying in bed last nite and I realized.

Easter is the spring holliday, oh-so-close to the spring equinox, where the sun- er I mean Son, rises from the dead and begins life anew, with classic images of bunnies (who are known for their spring activities) and new flowers.


Ancient weapons and hokey religions are no match for a good blaster at your side kid.

Links of the day!

The Segway gets served
Real life Hairy Potter (no not Weirdo)
Hmm, for a few thousand dollars.. I can pretend I'm in Japan.

sigh

well the last post worked as well as I expected. just 1 mystery married woman.

On another note. An online friend of mine arrived in Tokyo for a week this morning, having me consider seppukku.

He was using some horrible ad filled image host to host pics, so instead I gave him space on this site. and thats the link of the day. If you love Japan, and especially if youve been there before and are too broke to go back like me, enjoy the self torture I do.

Links of the day!

Toro in tokyo
Not TOO much there at the moment, but I think he'll be updating daily.

Personal ad?

So, while offline, I had lots of time to think and read and realize just how crappy TV really is.

One of the things I thought about, is (well, one of anyway) the reason(s) I'm single.

I'm a vegetarian, conservative, non-Christian, computer geek who likes to party and hates 99.5% of American popular culture (.5% being NFL, but I'm not obsessive, just like watching the games)

As if those weren't enough contradictions, I live in southern California, and really don't care if I drive a BMW/Mercedes/whatever's popular this week or care about wearing the latest fashions or have the money to throw around on them like everyone else here seems to do. Hell, currently I'm barely employed, tho looking for a new job, and STILL living with the 'rents.

So in this age of digital life, probably the one thing I reject is personal ads. Still, the thought has crossed my mind occasionally.

So, I thought I'd try one, in the least public place possible...

namely, here.

But with all of the above, why the hell WOULD anyone want me?

Well, I'm kind, (*watches net friends laugh*) generous, funny (ok, that's often debatable..) and honest. (sometimes to a fault) I like people, and tho I can sometimes take a bit to warm up, I really shine when I have. I'm no Adonis, but I try to keep myself as close to 'in shape' as possible and people are often supprized by how strong I am.

What do I want?

Someone free spirited, funny, interesting, someone with a head on her shoulders (eh- ya, no guys thx.) but not some boring intellectual. Body? Well my friends have all sorts of theories on what 'type' I like but I mostly confound them. What I like is a girl that keeps herself moderately in shape. (not afraid of a girl who could kick my ass but don't expect me to have a 6-pack outside of my fridge) I always say, I like sexy, but its cute that gets me everytime. Mostly I like someone who looks unique, not the cookie-cutter blonde or the stereotypical 'mysterious brunette.'

So anyway, if by some amazing chance you're reading this, in the area (amazing x2) and interested, (amazing x3) I consider that fate don't you? Drop me a comment below.

Links of the day!

just one, but a real gem
Webcollage this is insanely cool. A robot randomly searches the internet and makes collages out of pics it finds. There CAN be adult material so kiddies beware. But it really is just cool. I found it when I saw in the logs they hit my site, man I woulda liked to see that.

boku wa doko

For those of you coming here wondering if I died, yes, I did.

the digital me anyway.

Cox.net, my oh-so-capeable ISP died in the middle of the night on monday. Took me till tuesday afternoon to figure it out because I happened to be re-installing my router when it died, so I thought it was my fault.

Called them, and did the usual monkey dance ("reboot the router" "oh thanks I never thought of that!" "is the cable light on?" "no dumbass thats why i called you") and they decided to send someone right out at their earliest possible time


Next monday......


assholes, why do I pay you again? This week shal be free when Im done with them. No reason to pay for NO SERVICE.

so thats the story, those of you who have my # can contact me that way.

Links of the day? theyre on my real computer.... im on AOL DIAL UP right now....

title

As I sit here, eating cookies and ice cream with magic shell, and wondering how I re-gained ten pounds, I thought I'd say...


hi

Links of the day!

This is so funny and Im such a bad person
penisland.com someones a marketing genius, or using the above link for hiring
techie blog this guy puts macs in cars.. I cant tell if thats a good thing

Hypnotic suggestion

Well lets see, whats new.

A couple months ago, I signed up for an Audible account. I get two (audio) books a month for $20, which is a very nice addition to my ipod. My only gripe with audible is the website, which is horrid. Dont get me wrong, its very easy and intuitive to navigate. But its all java and java sucks.

1st, I painfully discovered that if I give anyone a link, they ARE LOGGED IN AS ME! Can you say incredibly stupid? Good way to get word of mouth purchaces idiots.
2nd, the site loads at one width then shrinks to another, giving one a headache when trying to begin to read a page.
3rd, you cant open in new windows, because java sucks. Making you constanly hit forward and back.
That all being said (and seriously audible, fix it you idiots) its very easy to navigate and has a great selection. Especially if you have an ipod, I suggest you browse their selection to see if its what you like (they have a great selection but limited categories, afterall audio isnt the best way to say, learn programing.)

Anyway, on a whim I decided to get a hypnotic suggestion book, always wanted to check that out. Listened to it in bed last nite and as he was 'dropping me down' I kept thinking "My mind isnt clearing, I still am thinking of other things, this isnt going to work, suck.."

Then I woke up. No idea what the tape said, but I did wake up at the end of it (Probably the classic "you will now wake up refreshed.. etc") and today I've been much busier than my average Saturday afternoon. I finished a book on Japanese. Making Sense of Japanese (formerly Gone Fishing) Short, but a major acomplishment since I almost never read more than 1/3rd of books.

In other news.

I (FINALLY) got my free TV! Thats right, freeflatscreens.com works, albeit very slow. Had a manager apologize to me himself, he blamed Sony, who knows. Point is I got it, now I just need a new video card so it can replace my current tv. You see my current tv has a VGA in, and I use it with a computer for all sorts of fun ^^

What else. Its spring break, but as little as I have to do lately I barely notice. This weekend is rather quiet and Im happy about it, got things I want to do besides party. Jeannine is planning on spending the whole week on the beach drunk, which she constantly says to other people 'ya eD wont be there because he hates the beach.' I havent argued, I dont hate it nearly as much as she seems to think I do but oh well, no need to correct or I'm inviting myself. Besides I'm very much in get-things-done mode.

Finally, two items of website news.
Nanaka Crash is rediculously popular, I may have to remove it for a few days at the end of the month. Its the 13th and I've use 14/40gb of bandwith. 90% on the game itself because the rest of my site is useless.
Thatguy (link on right) coded a bash.org-like quotes database for the irc chanel I hang out in, and I offered to host it. go check it out. But understand its for comedy only, we're not nearly as bad as our quotes may make us seem ^^;;

Links of the day!

Science and the art of female matinence.
Cool art one of the best flashes I've ever seen, just because I love the art.
When ya gotta go.. would you go here? ^^
The best blog youll ever read. Seriously, its the best.

Death by internet

Well well well. Remember that Nanaka Crash game I told you all about? and how the japanese like to ban popular things from international users and so I put it on my site? Well, a friend posted me to a few message boards it seems. The result is..


(click for full rez)

Wow I'm popular! Nice to be wanted, I just hope my bandwith holds out. I get 40gb/month. Im gonna keep an eye on it and if it gets near the top I'll remove it till the end of the month, but the trend seems to be just under the wire...

The game is quite fun- go play why dont you?

Links of the day!

Once again theyve been backing up, so enjoy special bonus links!
Microsoft, what would we do without you? ^^ I humbly request no one use any of these ever again.
Oh Microsoft! how we love the! Part 2.
ebonics!Since someone bugged me about a tiny detal in the last post, I submit this with impunity.
Y2K just wasnt a big enough flop...
Submitted as a free public service The perfect thing after all those dirty things you look at on the internet. (and yes, this is clea, its the definition of clean ^_^)

Quick quips

Ok, no more huge posts, just a quick rundown.

Tues- emailed teacher telling her im LOST in japanese, shes incredibly nice, wants to do everything possible to help all her students. Worries its her, I told her I'm just stupid.

Wed- dinner and a movie (Cursed- save your money) with Jeannine. Sometimes its scarry how much it seems like were dating. Was smiling back and forth with a really cute blonde at the bar, but I'm a wuss, I'll take the small victory.

Thurs- er, school. not much else.

Fri- (today) ran around all day doing erands, most of it was driving around lost cuz noone puts addresses on their buildings here- but I'm a liscenced (grr sp) driver again!!! YAY!! While at the DMV (not as painful as I thought) I saw probably the hottest black woman (gah do I have to qualify that? Shes black, I'm orange, its all good damnit.) I've ever seen. Jet black with a BEAUTIFUL face and nice body, real short hair. She caught me lookin on the way out so I winked at her and she smiled. Another small (yes pitiful) victory.

Not sure what else. May be a boring weekend, who knows. Thats ok. I got a job interview monday!

Links of the day!

Apple Product life cycle I like making fun of Apple, but this goes for a lot of things with geeks, especially games.
History Lesson I found this quite cool. The middle has the good stuff so feel free to skip around. I still think if only they made it 'Frog Fries' it would have caught on.
Firefox news The browser I hate to hate.

Mmm Ice Cream

As I sit here eating ice cream, I thought I'd say hi.

Not too much happening this weekend other than dodging Japanese homework and being mostly car-less. (in the shop till tomorrow but borrowing other cars) I missed Japanese all last week, (2 classes) Im so dead.

Last nite went to go see Meet the Fockers. It was mostly amusing (mostly because I had a few drinks before I went) but honestly a crappy movie. An easy formula to tell if a sequel is good or not is 'Would this be a good movie if the first one (or 8, whatever) didnt exist?' Fockers is a no. Casting was good and it was entertaining, but a movies in trouble when it has to refer to its preqel for jokes...

I also discovered something wonderful. You see, I love music, but I completely refuse to be one of those people (idiots) that puts 'now listening to _____' on the blog, beacuse I know 99% of normal people dont care. (Then again do 'normal' people read blogs?)

Anyway, Audioscrobbler has given me a solution and oh-so-much-more. Not only will it tell you what I've listened to lately, but also my favorite stuff overall. It also has streaming radio based on what I like to listen to AND I can surf others listings and listen to THEIR favorite music, helping me find new artists and such. My Music is now linked on the side of this blog. So feel free to look/listen to it.

Note their poor server is mostly horribly overloaded, so you may have to refresh once or twice in awhile. Its still worth it.

In website news, I fixed the major stumbling block of the new blog layout this week (check the Test Blog link at the right) But still have to tweak the sizes and colors and such. Ive also been working on learning php/mysql for the website. Once I figure this out Ill be able to add to the site much easier and better, but its somewhat infuriating to learn two things that intertwine at once, because if something goes wrong Im not sure which. (although I seem to have an easier time with php)

Anyway, before this becomes another HUGE post...

Links of the day!

Be an artist. This is so cool. Heres my butchering of an online friends work (I did the end) Then she butchered mine (should be obvious) And I even used it to put a smile on a friends face. (and no, I cant draw)
My wonderful sensei's site Too bad I cant keep up...
Finally, someone tell me what the heck this is.

My new superpower!!

Lets see, since windows doesnt like connecting to my cellphone (softwares fault) no pics, so heres the summary. :P

Spent all weekend with Jeannine, think we're a bit sick of eachother. (At least she is of me)

Fri- went to see Hitch (google it yourself) great movie. I almost never buy movie DVDs, this one I'm buying. Jeannine spent a solid 5 mins laughing herself to tears because a fat guy fell down at the very end (not a spoiler dont worry) which I found quite funny except the fact I had a large rootbeer to unload so it hurt to laugh.

Sat- Off in the limo for someones birthday I didnt know. Jeannine invited me and was the only one there I knew. Still was pretty darn fun, and everyone was really nice, except the limo driver was annoying has hell. He was treating us like teenagers going to winter formal rather than adults. (Btw he should be proscecuted because I swear he stole Norm McDonnalds voice...) Most of the time was spent in the limo since it was pouring rain. (Now 4th ranniest season on record for Los Angeles, was 7th as of Thursday. The whole state is sliding off into the ocean.) Still, being in a limo isnt really something to complain about.

Apparently at some point durring the night I was doing squats or something, because my legs hurt like hell till today. It was also eventful in that I finally got to talk to a Japanese person that found me on ICQ. (yes, at 3am when I got home...)

Sun- Hangover not withstanding... THE RETURN OF PROSPECTORS! I love that bar. Jeannines cousin Marie moved out of the area so we hadnt been there since, but because of the long weeked she came back. Wasnt overly exciting, I've definately had better nights there, but its still Prospectors damnit. Prob wont be going back there anytime soon either... so I stole a pint glass with their logo. *hides*

Mon- was day of recovery (apparently 1 of 2) for what turned out to be a two day hangover. (3 if you count Sunday) It wasnt that I was in pain, but.....

I have a new superpower!!!

Apparently, no matter how late I go to bed, no matter how much I drink, eat, excercize, etc... I'm wide awake at 7:45am. I'm actually really glad for this, except for the fact I went to bed at 3 friday, 4:30 saturday and 5 sunday. Even last nite I was up till 3 sleepless.... so..

Tue- (today) hasnt been too exciting. Took a couple naps and other than that the most exciting thing is the pizza from Chicago we recieved today, love that stuff, cooking it now ^_^

And yes the blog is still naked.

In the mistaken assumption people actually read this thing, I need help on The test blog. Its looking very much like I want it to, but the comments page is just WRECKED. I have no idea why. I dont know how to read bloggers itempage tags.

Even if you cant fix it, I'm interested in what you think of it. I wanted something different and non-linear. Comment here to let me know. ^^
Help wanted!

Links of the day!

Funnest game ever! can you beat My score? (everyone else can)
Voicemail! I'm SURE you've seen Paris Hiltons Phonebook, but have you heard what this guy did with it? ^^
Roleplay Ran into a girl online the other day looking for artists or 'roleplayers' (whatever that is) for this story she has. This is my way of helping her. (since I have no artistic talent)

----- Update -----
Minutes after posting this, I went back to that game. Try beating This score!

----- Update 2 -----
Either they banned forigners (Something the Japanese like to do with popular things sadly) or they exceeded their bandwith- well I can fix that...
Now go play!

Woa, life got exciting!

Wow I may have to start posting here more often, this is gonna be another long one.

Saturday nite, my brother calls my mom and says hes commin by in an hour to move out... o.O, er ok... nice notice Frank.
Freaked my mom out, and was just weird, but thats just how he is...

Valentines day!
Hate this holliday. Always single. So I think of things to entertain myself.
This time I outdid myself...

Had to go into my client, and decided to play quite a prank on the receptionist.
She has a long-time boyfriend. So I knew I was safe doing this. (we get along but not THAT well..)
So I grab an empty ringbox.....
Now I was gonna just leave it empty, but that wasnt good enough.
So I wrote a note.
"{her name withheld},
I cant resist.
(messing with you)
I just wanted to see
(the look on your face)
I know you have other (real) Valentines, but I am
(definately)the(funniest)one."
Folded up the note and put it in the ringbox.

The point was to see her face when I handed it to her. I expected shock and fear, but she had a look of pure horror on her face. (that I guess put me in my place lol) I was trying to do it straight-faced, but I had to smile to soften it.
Once she read the note she busted up laughing, I had guessed right that she had a good enough sense of humor to enjoy it.

Today she tells me her boyfriend wants to talk to me LOL, turns out he needs computer help ^^ (she did tell him, he made fun of her)

But ya, after a long boring lul, life is speeding up. This Friday might be hittin the bars in a limo for Jeannines friends birthday, and Sunday I'm DEFINATELY goin back to PROSPECTORS!! (a bar I love)

Stay tuned...

Links of the day!

In other news, Naruto (an anime that has many huge idiot fans) got liscenced. Youd think that was a good thing. (I do, I like Naruto but am not obsessed)But no.....
The News
The Petition the retarded fans (known as Narutards) made. Im sig #411 (making fun of them, I wont be suprized when they delete me)
In other links...
More shirts I want!
MMM speed...
A complete waste of time Can you figure out how to cheat?

IM NAKED!!!

Well no, not realy, I wouldnt do that to you. But the blog is.

Couldnt stand that layout anymore, it just HAD to die.
So i gave it a nice naked look, and it inspired me to actually work on a real layout.

got real ambitious on this so I had a lot of trouble. Spent the better part of the last 2 days on it.

The probs I have left are the comments page is totally messed up, and the stupid blogger bar likes to print itself out doubleize for no reason whatsoever.

Anyway, its on the test blog, you can see im going for something a little different ^^

If you care to, leave comments on how it looks for you, with the browser you use and your resolution. Im testing in IE and Firefox, but im at 1280x1024.

Links of the day!

The Test Blog

dealing with the gov sucks part 1 of ?

So when I got in my little accident I decided that maybe I should start wondering where the heck my renewed drivers liscence is. It had been about 60 days which it turns out is the time to start wondering.

So I call the ever so friendly and efficient DMV about when I was going to get it in the mail. Amazingly, the menu system was one of the best Ive dealt with recently and I got to a human after about 2 minutes of menu and 2 minutes on hold.

The woman was nice and helpful, she told me that I havent gotten my drivers liscence because the DMV had intergrated with the national social security database, and my Social Security numbers dont match. I would need to come in with a social security card to get my liscence.

So a couple questions came to my mind. I asked her if they were ever going to notify me of this or if I was understood to be psychic. She said yes, but Sacremento (our lovely dirtbowl state capital) had a 8-10 week 'backup' on sending out the notices. (Seriously how hard is that, I bet they dont even have to lick a stamp.)

She was nice tho, so the question I didnt ask was: If your're not going to send me my liscence, WHY did you cash the check? But really, its government, if someone sends them a check theyre DAMN well gonna cash it.

So the problem is: I dont HAVE a SS card, it burned in my fire like 12 yrs ago. So first I gotta get that. Leading me to the lovely 'Ziggaraut' federal building.

!!if windows would talk to my phone there would be a picture here!!


No parking in the front entrance, (later i found out there was in the back) so I and several others at least (Seemed most going in or out) had to park across the street at the Walmart, but thats ok, I like to walk.

Thru the metal detector I go. Pass, didnt even have to take off belt or shoes or anything. Then I walk up to the room I'm gonna have to sit in and he tells me if I have a phone I have to shut it off. So I do, but he quickly changes his tune and tells me I have to put it in my car. (turns out its because its a camera phone)

I protested, telling him I was all the way across the street and could he or the other security gaurd hold it. Nope, thats too inteligent, back to my car I went. Dumped off my palm too to prevent further retardedness. (missed that palm later while waiting)

Finally get to the window. Dont get the exceedingly attractive girl, get the guy instead. He takes my name and tells me to wait. 45 pointless minutes later my name is called (by the same guy.. my luck sucks) and Im done in 30 seconds.

So glad to be out of there.

Getting home I called my seemingly long lost friend Jeannine who invited me to lunch with Lydia (whos name I still am not sure how to spell and am beginning to care less and less) and had fun, being outdoors restored me.

Of course, whenever this card finally comes in the mail, I get to repeat the process at the dmv, I bet thatll be even MORE fun...

Links of the day!

I want SO MANY of these. I got mad bills.
mm pictures The tsunami thing has been done to death but its cool to look at.
For the otakus Its actually a fun game...

grrrrr

I have very descriminating tastes.

When I go to hit a car, I cant just hit any car. Today I hit a MERCEDES SUV.
To be honest, theres almost no damage to her hulking behemoth. Afterall, it was my car that slid allong her back corner basically just chipping some paint off her while caving in my entire wheel well.

She was nice about it, and to be honest kinda hot, but probably one of those well pampered MV MLFs.

Did I mention the mercedes was brand new?

go me

Links of the day!

screw em

remember me?

ya, its me, no, not dead. maybe tomorrow.

not a damn thing goin on, JA3 kickin my butt, 1st chapter test tomorow. So ive been studying all day, but i never study what im supposed to damnit...

Havent gone out to do much in WEEKS, everything sounds boring. So i sit here and learn verb conjugations and kanji i dont need for the test im gonna fail :P

hmm what else.. nope, sadly thats about it. im stuck in idle someone come shift me.

Links of the day!

My new hero. the best kind of mcgyver.
Wordcount Pretty damn cool. Won a design award I guess, its Brit, so its a little off real english ^^
A moron In my ongoing series of blogs even worse than mine, heres a real idiot whos gotten famous for being so.

Shinda...

The beer finally died today. After new years there was still 40 beers and almost ALL the alcohol you see in the previous post.

Well, today we killed all the beer. All because this guy came home.

Hes around for ~10 days, despite what Scott says.

Btw- the previous pic was taken by my christmas present.

thats right- the Razr baby... bonus points if you can fig out how I took that pic.

Wonder when Cara will stumble into town...

Links of the day!

Mephis Quite impressive, try it out
Annoy everyone! (just like me!)
What santa didnt bring me for xmas

New years!

Ok, this should be interesting. Yesterday I stood up so I could pull a party out of my ass. (bonus points if you get the reference)
Cleaned my room, something that hasnt been done in MONTHS, actually prob not since I came back from Japan.
Then this morning, I went to spend ~$100 on supplies.
$182 later I have this.

3 30 packs of coors lite, 1 1.5ltr of capt morgans, 1 1.5 ltr of absolut mandarin, 4pk of bodingtons pub ale and 2 pints(?) of Sapporo.
Also got, 2 large trays of jalepeno popers, and 2 small trays of both bean burritos and cheese sticks.
Not sure whos commin or how many at this point, but I figure I'm well supplied ^^
Thinkin about hain ppl pay $5 for all u can drink/eat.. but I've never done that before so we shal see.

Hope your new years is fun, happy and safe, and if you got nothin to do, come over.

Links of the day!

Since when do geeks cut lawn?
uh..huh huh... he said wood
AAAAAAAAAAHAHAHHAHAHAHA

Shhhh.... dont look down

Christmass was fun, got some new shoes from my sister and a shower radio/mp3 player from my brother. Still keeping the main present secret till it can reveal itself to you ^^

Not much up, was supposed to go out last nite but it didnt happen, spent a lot of yesterday working on the site. I'm kinda stumped for design ideas (especially for this area, which is the next I want to work on) so I worked on adding content to the Japan page. About 6 pages added, although theres much more to be done. Still I think its shaping up to be a quick reference site, which is what I want. Added a new toy to zeta too, the place you shouldnt go. Might play with zeta more today.

The problem with this area of the page is I was born completely without artistic genes of any kind, so figuring out design is hard on me. I have an idea right now, but even if I can get it to work it'll probably suck, just like the last one did on the test page. The other problem is its the only part of the site that has things I didnt code myself. Both the blog and esp the gallery (which hasnt been linked to in awhile now...) have a ton of code I dont understand. The blog isnt os bad, but the gallery SAYS "only mess with the CSS if you dont want it to break." Could make it an iframe (yes I know you dont know what that is) but iframes kinda suck.... must learn to css them.

And so begins the long, slow burrial of the previous post...

Links of the day!

Ok I guess I've been scaring people here recently, so heres some kinder, genteler ones
Yay! I'm helpful!I posted the short workaround comment, and yes, firefox still sucks.
bugmenot I usually give interesting or funny crap here, but sometimes I give things everyone should have bookmarked. This is one of those, its how i posted on bugzilla above too ^_^
Saddness reported from an appropriate source

Evil Christmass

So
Ive been wanting to do this for awhile, and what more perfect time to unveil it than cristmass?

I was gonna soften it up by also making another image with a santa hat on the s....
but I got lazy.
So ya, I'm going to hell for christmass so I might as well top it off.

Links of the day!

Only one, but you dont need any more ^^
WWJD

Real christmass list

So ya, xmas sucks this year.
The same dozen songs Ive heard since I was a month old that I got sick of when I figured out Santa didnt exist (sorry kids!) annoys the HELL out of me now. Ive even partially renamed this 'vegas time' because of all the lights.

I think part of the reason (tho I promise not all of it) is that theres nothing really on my xmas list this year. Theres plenty I want (and one thing I'm getting which should make this blog more interesting.. ^^) but the important things are things I can only get myself. So..

My real xmas list:
A new job
Security+, Network+, MCSA 2003 certifications
To get better at Japanese, PHP, MySQL, Linux
To finally have a place of my own again

A friend of mine is asking for a boyfriend. So I guess its going around.

While on xmass, to those people who are afraid of religion in daily life- santa IS secular, has been since before Coca-Cola (and Norman Rockwell I believe) made him fat. Sure he was a 'saint' but most any sane kid isnt thinking about jesus on christmass, they want presents. Let kids have SOMETHING damn it, theyre not supposed to act like stuffy middle age people.

In other news, I got a C in math (meaning I never have to take that class again YAY!) and a B in Japanese 2. Had an A in my Security+ class since it ended mid-semester. Expecting my last 2 classes to be A and A or B. Either way its above a 3 GPA. Getting a good grade in a 5 unit language class is very good for offsetting C's ^^.

Links of the day!

Can you raed tihs?
I previously showed you a pregnant man, this may be worse
Hey, it worked once...

Yatta!

Well, im still alive! Honestly I'm not done with finals, but it feels like it. Yesterday was hell-day, the rest is easy.

4-6pm math final. By my calculations I needed a 66% or better to pass the class, and about a 99% to get a B in the class. Considering 2 weeks ago I had an F- and was 2.5 chapters behind, Im happy.

Then Japanese 2. For previously mentioned reasons, I ignored the entire last chapter of Japanese. Basically only studied Mon and some of Tues. Still, I think I did pretty good. I used noburo (which seems to mean nothing...) rather than narau (to learn) about 5x on the test..... and my writing section made absolutely no sense and stopped in the middle because I had nothing to write about........

Now just a THIRTY FIVE PAGE computer security class to print out and mail by fri...

Other reason Im suprized I'm alive- Jeannine called me yesterday afternoon and suggested we go out drinkin- worked for me. I invited a friend Jarell (ok so I dont have a clue how to spell his name- cept in katakana...) and we had some fun.

Stupid spectrum bars closing at 11 and 12..... we ended up in HB at a cool little bar. Honestly I expected to not remeber the night- these last few weeks were STRESSFUL. But I didnt really drink that much. Guess Im out of practice.

Links of the day!

ooh I got some winners....
Go get yourself a date. I wonder if that girl in the upper right knew what she was posing for...
Who would Jesus do?
A continuation of the last link. Proving christians just dont get the point.


now back to bed

Motion to repeal the act known as Murphys Law

Ok.
So I have like a million math problems to do.
A Japanese II final.
Two online finals.
Basically all due by the end of Tuesday.

So guess what happens to me last nite?
everyone say it together!

i got sick.

Cold ease + benidryl + robutussin that expired in May of 99.
Yay brain!

On the only bright note, out Japanese final presentation was rediculously hillarious.
Because I like embarrasing myself, I'll probably encode it and throw it up here...

If I survive finals...

Links of the day!

no, im just too damned lazy

new layout

So ya, anything to avoid math...

New layout for blog, not done, just felt like spending 20 mins on it and breaking everything :p Goin for that emo look that seems so popular these days. :P

At least now the site navigation is at the top, and no it doesnt quite match, I'll work on it sometime...

Thatguy, whos site I need to link to again, fixed my background pic for the Japan sidebar. MUCH better now, but I wish it would repeat like i coded it to.....

Math math math... I did very little today and none yesterday.. must.. get... off... ass...

oh wait I have to sit down to do math.

Links of the day!

Ok, so its a little outdated now, but its still downright hillarious.
If only I knew Sweedish
Just got this the other day Cant wait to watch it.

daigaku wa taihen

Did another 6 subchapters of math today, why I care about factoring trinomials is beyond me. Algebra IS useful for learning logic and manipulating formulas, and geometry is also very useful. But honestly, once u get out of that they should be teaching you economics, physics, hell even chemistry math. Math with REAL APPLICATIONS TO LIFE.

But no, thats too easy.

Had my computer security class tonite, we're finally in the linux chapter of our book.

even tho it was ch4 he left it for last, because he doesnt know jack shit about linux

hell *I* know more than him, only new thing so far is umod

it sucks cuz I understand the basics of linux, but i dont WANT to create directories and files and set their permissions, I want to do REAL things
like administering servers and just everyday stuff like playing multimedia files, and unfort that takes tons more knowlege than I have.

Guess its true, school != real life.

Tomorrow is a day off math to study japanese, hopefully ill be ready to take the ch8 test and the ch 12 vocab test I missed by classtime.

Links of the day!

Oh god, its me.
Why I cant talk to Reid anymore.
Kill it with fire. Dont you love it when someone takes two popular things that have NOTHING to do with eachother and combine them....

ARGH

So I did about 200 math problems today. An entire chapter (8 subsections) on polynomials (ya, just shove the 'thats easy' crap, I hate math and its been 8 years) So that ends chapter 4. Next chapter 5 on factoring, another 8 subsections on stuff I could care less about. THEN I'll be current. THEN I can do the 8 sections of chapter 6 so I can take the test by Sun. THEN chapter 7 (5 subchapters) and the test by the end of the next day, the optional test I have to take since I missed 3 out of 6 tests this sem............................................................

Oh ya, I suck at Japanese too........................

Just 2 more weeks....

Links of the day!

If only I knew spanish. I could READ about the place I miss.
Hooray! till they get sued for DDOS
Someone else we all wouldnt miss from the genetic pool. Now if theyd just die...

Omoshirokatta

Today was interesting. Woke up wide awake at 7:30am after falling asleep around 4, which is becoming par for the course for me.
Went to a client, took care of a few things, bought probably the best sake I've ever had (Otokoyama, which I am enjoying right now hot) it was about the price of a decent bottle of liquor, not too bad.

Anyway it was a prop for our groups's japanese final project, which we videotaped so we dont have to present it in front of the class. Actually, Jarells' (groupmate) talented friends did it.
It was done in pictures with voice over and lots of incredibly strange things like genie costumes and me in my yukatta and getta. (wow, I thought for SURE I'd get pulled over wearing my yukatta on the way over) It makes all the sense of Super Milk Chan on acid, and thats why I love it.

If youre lucky, REAL LUCKY, you might find it here someday- We shal see...

Links of the day!

A public service announcement that is causing some controversy in the LA area, stations are too afraid to play it. I think its funny.
Ya I'm sure youve heard of it, but do u know what it can REALLY do? Read the user review!
One last one about that murderer chiq, heres her and her acomplices. In pretty orange jumpsuits! I can see how at least one of the guys has to kill to get laid.

a bit of a coincidence

So I get to my computer security class about half an hour early as usual. (we have to log in to the computer lab a certain # of times per semester.) Cant think of anything to do so I try a few strange urls, including japan.com and end up clicking on an add to find housing in Tokyo. Browsed for a few mins and closed it, no big deal.


Just before class, I went to log out of the computer lab, and there were some fortune cookies on the counter with a sign saying 'take one' taped to it.

this was my fortune:


Of course if you bother going to the link, you can see what it is and why they would be free in a computer lab, but still...

I dont think I ever even looked at places in Japan before....

Links of the day!

I wanna transfer here...
Parents, pay attention to what your kids want for the hollidays. (I'm so P.C. arent I?)
Of course if you do, maybe theres other things to worry about.

My so called blog

I thought of that name today, probably more fitting for this blog than the lame one I came up with on a moments notice some months ago.

Anyway, last monday was my birthday. Lots of people didnt know, if you didnt dont feel bad. I dont like talking about the fact I have a birthday comming up, especially this year. I didnt blog about it till now because there was really nothing to say. I didnt go out the entire weekend before (or after for that matter) and my day consisted of studying for a computer security midterm, taking the midterm, then getting home to a sleeping family as usual, having the 1st peice of my birthday cake and opening my card-gift at my desk in front of the computer. To 'liven things up' I pounded a few beers, the first I've had in awhile.

My diet has also gone to hell, tho I figured my birthday and thanksgiving would do it. Lost about 10 lbs, gained about 3 back, not bad. Ill probably resume in a week or two. One thing about this diet is I dont want to shock my body too much, or the body will resist loosing the weight. (for those of you who dont know me, I swear I'm not a fatass, just keeping myself from becoming one before its too late)
Thanksgiving of course came with my now traditional bottle of Wild Turkey 101, being a vegitarian, its the only kind of turkey I can have.

Ya... in case you cant tell, I've been down lately. Looking back on it I think I'm often like this this time of year, which makes no sense because I love rain and cold. Just when I think I'm out of it its back. If youve been trying to call me and arent my client I'm sure you noticed my absence. Im comming up on that big final stretch in school. Where all my lagging necessitates (what, you havent figured out I cant spell yet?) a big final push... and this semester I seem to be out doing myself.
My attention seems to swing back and forth between computer security and Japanese, and the past few weeks computer security has really been winning, to the suffering of Japanese. Winston asked me why I dont just give up computers and concentrate on Japanese. I'd love to, problem is computers feed me, and honestly they are something I'm also quite interested in, so I dont think I could ever really give them up.
Of course between these two, math gets NO TIME (I've missed the last 2 tests entirely) Though if my syllabus math is correct, if I ace the final (I aced the midterm) and ace these last 2 tests (last one is optional) I still could even get a B!
Miss 3 out of 6 tests (not counting the optional one) and get a B. Now thats my kind of math class.

The house is too quiet without Willie. My mom put a bell on Harry, I think to make him sound more like Willie, but it was taken off. Harry should be allowed to hunt just like Oscar!

On a bittersweet note, looks like my X is getting sent home early from China. Finally I can get Disgaea and my Tenchi Muyo DVDs back and be done with her.

Links of the day!

wow these are piling up, I gotta post more. Im going to dedicate this to a news story that many of you may not have heard yet (though its quickly becoming internet legend) A girl had her mom killed. Whats so big about that you ask? She had a blog, making it into a phenomenon.
First, the news story
The murderer, Rachelle Waterman
The victim, Lauri.
The blog, which is now LiveJournal members only because of the ENORMOUS ammount of comments and other crap that it generated. Also, because evil places like livejournal and xanaga will do anything to get more members.
It should be noted that she didnt actually KILL her mom, she had 2 24 yr old 'ex boyfriends' do it. Kowaiso.
EDIT: seems good old Rachelle deleted all her recent posts yesterday (how did she do that from jail?) its also friends only for commenting, but it seems that anyone can view it now.

Inu ga shindan desu

I wanted to find a pic I hadnt really put on the web before. I find I really dont have that many pictures of Willie.

Our family has always had a bit of a love hate relationship with him. He was never properly trained (we were too young to do it and my parents took no interest) and especially as he got on in years he cared less and less, as a little yelling when you've heard it at least once a day for years doesnt really matter anymore.

With the remodel of the house, Willie started getting 'contained' upstairs, out of most of the bedrooms, to limit his damage. Over the past couple months however, I've started letting him hang out in my room all day, at least when I'm home. (being a contractor I'm often home) He sleeps in my moms room which over the past month or so means she gets up 2-3 times a night to let him outside so he doesnt crap in their room. To which I always told her she should just let him walk around upstairs, afterall he craps there durring the day.

Last nite she told me she was going to let him out, for reasons I wasnt sure of. I picked him up and put him on my couch since he cant really jump anymore. It was obvious he was having difficulty breathing, but didnt seem to be in any pain, just tired. He slept almost all day yesterday and the day before in my room, causing me to wake him up occasionally to check on him.

As I went to bed I put him on my bed to sleep with me, but he soon got up and struggled to move his bowels. (under my desk...) Tried to go outside my room to do it, but made a wrong turn and ended up lost. (my room is not that big, hes just senile) I put him back on my couch and went to bed. I decided I would spend the day with him today since it was obvious he didnt have much time left.

In this house my whole family gets up and leaves the house before I'm conscious. Its ok, as theyre all unconcious when I get home from school at 10:30. Today the fuss was about Willie who was sleeping on the couch at the foot of my bed so I was in and out of consciousness. My mom decided to take him to the vet. I wanted to protest, I think I even might have a little, but I knew it wasnt easy on her either.

I knew what the result would be. Turns out his kidneys had failed and his heart was going. Which of course would mean a nice natural death of old age, but thats not convinient.

I got a call from my mom at about 10:30 this morning that they were going to put him down. This time I DID protest, but once again I didnt want to hurt her. She asked if I wanted to be there, I couldnt answer right away, but ultimately I didnt like the idea of him being alone. He wasnt in pain, he wasnt rabid, he was just old...

About 20 minutes later I called the vet, he had already been put to sleep.

My father will probably remember him for all the money on cleaning products (and the recarpeting that is sure to happen soon now) he spent.

My Mother will remember all the time she spent taking care of him, and all those weekend mornings hed sit staring and barking at her while she ate (this dog was famous even among dogs for gluttony, more evidence coming)

My sister might remember the time we came home from church on sunday (wow mustve been long ago if I went) and this tiny dog had somehow managed to knock an entire box of dougnuts off the table and eat the WHOLE THING.

My brother will probably remember the first half of his life when he slept in his room, until he went off to college.

I know Adam will never forget that time he made a microwave burrito, put it on the coffee table and got up to get a drink, never to see that poor burrito again.

Ill remember throwing the tennis ball up on the hill and into the pool for him when he was younger, and giving him the rawhide treats he wasnt allowed to have and hanging out with him in my room all day in his last days.

I dont know his exact DOB right now, I will edit that in later. He was 14.

Monday is my birthday. Something I already didnt give 2 shits about. I even have an essay midterm on computer security that day. Looking at the calendar on my freshly formated XP computer (why I was up late enough to spend time with Willie last nite) I'm pretty sure its someone elses birthday too. But shes half the world and oceans of emotions away.

BTW- Dont call me. Im not hangin out this weekend anyway, and I smashed my phone against the wall across my room (actualy glanced off the ceiling too) after the vet phonecall. I dont know when I'll get around to checking to see if its broken. Hope my clients dont need me today.

Links of the day!

to hell with them

Is this thing on?....

Lets see if anyone actually reads this.. (or at least geeks)
Been looking for a couple things and I'm hoping for some input.

1. With my now living Ipod, I would like some utilities for both Windows and Linux that dont depend on the OS (run from their own directory and dont require an install)
Mostly I'm looking for tech-support and trouble shooting stuff. Already got several things from sysinternals including a very reudimentary protocol analyzer, but I truly wish ethereal worked T-T
So far no linux apps, as I suck at the Linux. Which brings me to my next question.

2. Been wanting to get deeper into linux for awhile. Played with lots of dists over the years, and now im fairly fond of Fedora. (watches the true Linux geeks die) and Gentoo really interests me. But I failed at an install at the begining of summer, just refused its first boot...

However, for the purposes of learning (and for a possible stupid blog trick) I want something thats going to install and give me a decent configuration in a day (overnight is ok) and Gentoo doesnt really fit that bill. I like having a GUI, (preferably KDE, maybe gnome as a 2nd, not really ready to play with anything else) and while im not afraid of a Gentoo type install, debian and slackware annoy the heck out of me with questions (that I usually dont understand) if I do a custom install.

So... ideas? theres a comment button below.

On the election front (the last I swear) I promised to do this, and I want to get it out of the way (hell even I am burned out on it) so here goes as quick as possible.

I had
Bush: 275
Kerry: 253
Giving Bush New Mexico, Colorado, Minesota, and Alaska he has 255.
Giving Kerry Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Iowa, Michigan, New Hampsire and Hawaii.

I was wrong. It ended up

Bush: 286
Kerry: 252
Kerry got MN and Bush got Indiana and Nevada. (CNN still has New Hampsire as a tossup, not sure if thats just because they quit updating tho.)
So I was wrong on that (but not the outcome) and a cursory glance shows I cant add either. Oh well, as I said, I'm more than over it.

Last thing: kitch, youre a lucky girl, you got a ticket, not all do. Now get on the train before it leaves the station.

Links of the day!

Spamer goes to jail! (I'd prefer hell)
The new internet standard, Infinate Monkies!
Now that my Ipod is back, someone buy me this

The SCREW ATKINS Diet!

Im a bit plump for my tastes, not really FAT yet, but I can see myself moving in that direction. (im 6' 192lbs, broad shouldered build) So I'm going to dust off a diet I used a few years ago and got great results off of. It's a rather boring diet, but what works works.

*DISCLAIMER: If you die because you used my diet, well theres one less idiot in the world, its not my fault*

The basic plan is to eat a lot less, and the easiest way to do that is to restrict what I eat to just a few things. The plan involves me 'eating breakfast' (something I almost never do regularly) and using that to fuel myself thru the day, rather than my usual custom of eating a BIG meal in the middle of the day (usually 2-5pm) and then snacking all night. SO..

BREAKFAST: a can of tomato juice and one of those 2 for 99cents bags of Planters peanuts, to give me energy for the day and make sure I get protein.

LUNCH: 2 white bread single slice cheese sandwiches, sometimes with a little butter or mustard.

DINNER: well not really dinner, the idea is to eat a peice or two of white or wheat bread with a little butter if I'm hungry.

At first I'm not going to 'work out' other than maybe play some ddr or go on walks to raise my heart rate. After I loose about 10-15 lbs I will begin doing pushups and situps, because I do know that I will loose muscle on this diet, but thats alright, my muscles arent big but I'm still quite strong anyway.

I actually will loose lots of carbs doing this tho, because I'm going to limit my beer intake to the weekends :P Tho last time I did this I switched to Sake for the evening calm-down and that seemed to work well ^_^

So why screw atkins? Because I'm a vegitarian, I'd starve on Atkins. :P

The overall goal is to get to about 175, I dont think thats too much to ask. Then the trick becomes changing the lifestyle so I dont have to do it again in another three years. But isnt that the answer to the $10million question? ^^

Links of the day!

And I thought those late 80's wrap around Oakleys were ugly!
Lesbian cows? we have a winner!
These are the only things that make the Oakleys look cool.

Post election... and actual real life!

Was hoping to make this the last election blog, but I want to square away my numbers I predicted a few blogs ago, and I can't do that until the final numbers are in. I know I was wrong. Part of my error was I was just concentrating on giving Bush the bare-minimum to win. Turns out he did better.

On other political news, I'm breaking this story. a friend Zain online found in another chanel this link A CNN news site from Netscape.com What makes this interesting is the URL of the picture of Bush and his wife: if you right-click on the picture and go to properties, you see the image is called Asshole.jpg. Unfortuantely as I write this
I see that they have changed it. I should have took screenshots. Anyone who believes ALL media is not biased to some degree is fooling themselves. You can say its the act of some lone web designer, but thats what editors are for.

Last thing on the political front, at least for now is this link fromCNN on voting stats divided into categories. It's quite interesting, especially when you look at income, education and age.

In real life- heres what I did yesterday ^_^


Smoked a Padron 1964 Aniversary, the most expensive and best cigar Ive smoked in my life at $45. Anyone want to buy me a box? ^^
It was a spur-of-the-moment buy at the place we went to on Sunday for my Mom's birthday. It was worth it, perfect for clearning the election crap out of my head.

Other than that I literally havent done ANYTHING lately, including putting off school way too much and not finishing the re-arangement of my room. As it is, I have a Japanese 2 chapter test today and I missed the last two classes, Thursday because I was lazy, and Tuesday for the election stuff. So I should be doing that now.

I think I'm going thru the 'mid-semester blahs' right now, that time of the semester where I fall behind, neccessitating the big push to the finish a few weeks from now. Theres other things too tho, I've been a bit lonely and there are other things that I cant talk about with anyone, not even here. But life goes on, or so they say, after my birthday I hope things to get better.

In other personal news, I had a long conversation with an online friend last nite who I found out had been shot a few months earlier. Hes ok, but may never be perfect- so hey, I guess I should stop whining so much.

Links of the day!

Here's something to take your mind off of just about anything- a pregnant MAN.
Or maybe a dancing hippo will do it for ya.
If all else fails, give yourself a seizure.

4 more years

Well, screw my cinicisim of the other day. its 9pm PST and I'm calling it for Bush. Seems some news organizations are already doing so, but I'm just looking at the #'s on the web.
Bush has 237 and Kerry 188 according to the abc news link I'm using.
Giving Bush New Mexico, Colorado, Minesota, and Alaska he has 255.
Giving Kerry Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Iowa, Michigan, New Hampsire and Hawaii he has
253.

So its not coming down to Florida afterall, its coming down to Ohio.
Ohio is going pretty solidly Bush, giving him 273

Bush 275
Kerry 253
We shal see how my predictions hold. New Mexico COULD go Kerry, but its not enough to matter.

Election Day

On this election day, I would like to make an appeal you will not hear just about anywhere else.
In a Democracy, participation IS key. People SHOULD go out and vote. However its not the only key.

So, if you havent been paying attention, if you get all your 'news' from Rush Limbaugh or your union meetings or even the same nightly news broadcast everyday, please dont vote.

Democracy depends on INFORMED VOTERS. Lets look at that. Everyone imediately sees the 'voter' part, but ignore the qualifier. Thats why the mentally retarded arent supposed to vote, they cant reasonably be informed. Its the same reason why the founders of this country made it that only white land-owners could vote- because the assumption was they had a stake in it and so they would be informed. Im not saying to go back to those days, but use your concience- decide if u actually KNOW anything first.

Politics is a haven for idiots. In every category, from one wing to the other to the moderates to the apathetic. But I think the biggest idiots are the ones who go off to vote because of what someone told them. From 'there will be a neculear attack if Kerry is elected' to 'Bush will re-instate the draft' to 'my friend told me ____' to 'Rush said ___'. If those are youre reasons, please stay home.

Of course I'm not voting this election, so maybe I am an idiot too. I consider myself fairly informed, however as I have said before I need something to vote FOR not just against. Thats probably what annoys me with Kerry voters, they mostly just seem to hate Bush, Kerry would probably get more votes if they changed his name to 'not Bush' on the ballot.

Links of the day!

Another thing youll have trouble finding today- NON ELECTION STUFF!
If I wasnt so honest I could make a lot of money using these ^^
Targens web comic should allow anyone to rest their brain power for awhile.
In my constant search for blogs lamer than mine- heres Barbies!

Pre-election wrap-up

Well, it looks as tho things will go solidly for Kerry, all the sane and insane predictors seem to be saying so. This would keep in line with my theory that this election will NOT be nearly as close as the media (ratings = $) would hope, But who knows. If it still comes down to Florida, its anybodys game.

For insane predictors, lets look to sports:

Since the late 1930's there has been 16 elections, all of which predicted the election with the Washington Redskins' last home game. If they win, the incumbant party retains power. If they loose, the chalenger wins. They lost to the Green Bay Packers, Targens favorite team, 28-14. However, the Patriots 22-game-record-win-streak was also broken yesterday, so maybe that could be seen as a nullifying factor?

Also when the Boston (Kerrys home-state) Red Socks won the World Series a few days ago they did it in BUSCH stadium. Wrong spelling to be sure, but you get the point.

As for at least semi-sane predictors:

The site I use most to follow the actual election stats is electoral-vote and he has Kerry up quite a bit. All he does is average the polls done by all the pollsters and make predictions, and he still believes its anyones race, so he seems to provide a very unbiassed view.
Interestingly, he revealed himself today and besides being the creator of Minix (precursor to linux) it turns out that he, himself is quite biased. I could debate his arguments, but instead I congratulate on being at least seemingly very fair to both sides and reporting honestly.

However he also points to electionprojection who has it completely opposite. He does think he has a decidedly Bush tilt, but does not argue with his meathods. So still- who knows.

As for me, well my insane predicions are mostly about the election.

All though statistics seem to be on my side here, I seem to be the only one who thinks that this will NOT be that close. It is anybodys game and it all depends on that "snapshot in time" that the votes are actually cast, but I think when its all said and done it wont come down to one state. You can tell this will be true on election nite when the spinmeisters and even real news people start talking about multi-state combinations. If it is close, this could be strange. There is a record number of absentee ballots this year in many states and they might not know for days or even weeks if its too close.

My sane predictions are mostly about the next four years.

The economy will grow. Thats just the bussiness cycle, few years up, few years down. I think its fairly rare that a president has a major influence in the economy more than if people are confident in him or not. I could even see a mini dot-com like bubble grow if oil prices inspired America to go to hydrogen. But the details I'm bad at, I just think it'll go up. I give both candidates equal footing here.

Iraq will be a success. The only ways Iraq will fail is if we 'cut and run' or we make some HUGE tactical mistake. I dont believe its another Vietnam, but being slightly too young for that whole mess I both dont know vietnam well, and NEVER WANT TO HEAR IT SPOKEN OF AGAIN. (Seriously, Vietnam was like the 1 place we got our ass kicked ever and we just cant get over it, what are we- French?) Things take time, Bush was silly to declare victory so early, but things will stableize when we get them to the point where they can be their own police. Thats pretty much what we are at the moment, except the 'gangs' there have stuff like RPG's and missles. And you thought the LAPD had it bad.... I give the edge on this to Bush, they both will run this war through advisors, neitehr one of them REALLY knows jack about the military or the middle east, but Bush has got experience under his belt now, and Kerry is more likely to cut and run.

Because of these two reasons, you can see it pretty much doesnt matter who will be president in probably the largest two issues facing the country. I guess part of me wants Bush to get credit for what he started, but I really dont want things like national healthcare either. (btw I am uninsured)

Links of the day!

Not today, theyre all in the text above.