The Chet Weaver Diaries

Santa Cruz Halloween Report 07

2007-11-02T16:09:00.000-07:00

Not much to say this year, unfortunately. I'm sorry to say that I almost didn't go out. I didn't even carve a pumpkin. As a bit of a last-minute plan, I went trick-or-treating at the mall. A lot of places were already out of candy by the time I got there, but I managed to get quite a few goodies. A couple places were giving out stickers and coupons. One of these years, I'm going to look into buying little toys to give away. I know there are catalogs like Oriental Trading where you can buy little trinkets by the gross, so it could be a viable alternative to giving away candy, but you'd have to order well in advance.

Anyway, while I was hoping to take pictures of cool costumes downtown with my cellphone like I did at Comic Con, that didn't happen since I didn't go there. I did take some pictures at the mall, though. Some were good, but most were clearly store-bought. Most of the adults didn't wear costumes, or at least not complete ones, but one guy was dressed like a colonial. It looked good, but I didn't take a picture of it since I figured you could probably rent a costume like that. It doesn't matter what you wear as long as you enjoy wearing it, but if you didn't make it yourself or have it custom-made it doesn't count as a "good costume" in my book.

Me? I kinda half-assed it myself. I wore the Kankuro costume I wore to comic con, but I didn't feel like wearing the make-up so went as a T-Shirt Kankuro, which is what Kankuro would be if he were a T-shirt ninja. To make a T-shirt ninja, just wear a black (or white, for snow-ninjas) T-shirt over your head like a hood so your eyes are visible through the neck and tie the sleeves behind your head. Viola! T-shirt ninja! It took some adjustments to keep my glasses from getting fogged up, though. A couple people recognized me as a Sand Ninja, though. The first was what I assumed was the manager at Lens Crafters. After his employee asked what I was supposed to be, he started laughing and saying, "He's a Sand Ninja! From Naruto. He's a Sand Ninja." Weird thing is, this guy was, like, middle aged and Latin. I'm guessing he caught an episode with his kids. I don't blame him for not knowing the character's name. I had to look it up on-line myself. The other person was a guy who I took a picture of. I showed him the picture, and he said, "Thank you, Sand Shinobi," and I bowed to him.

Since I only took four pictures, I will show them to you in order from crappiest to best.

The first one defies single-term description. Also, I took it sideways and uploaded it direct from my phone, so you may have to tilt your head. I took this at the bus stop outside the mall. If you can't tell, he's got on a jester cap, a Spider-Man shirt, Pikachu pants, a Peace-Sign medallion, and, uh... Gorilla boots or something. I can't tell from the picture, and I can't remember. This is number one because I'm sure it's intentionally crappy.
Monkey on a leash. Undoubtedly store bought, since this was one of three in the vicinity when I took it. Number two because it's so cute. Wish it came out better, though.
Rubik's Cube. Number three because it's clearly home-made, but I'm pretty sure you can find instructions on-line or in a magazine. It's a simple design, but I can't prove they didn't think of it themselves.
Tamagotchis. Tama. Freakin'. Gotchis. Somebody loves cosplay. And Tamagotchis. Probably the kids, since their parents weren't wearing costumes, but I wouldn't rule out Münchhausen-cosplay syndrome by proxy. Those are some sweet costumes.

So, that's my Halloween. Not the best, but those Tamagotchis certainly made up for it. So, how was your Halloween?

What DragonBall Girl Are You?

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The Last Year

2007-09-22T14:57:00.000-07:00

Has it really been a year since my last post? Seems like it was longer. I suppose I better catch you up with what I've been doing. Although, I suppose it wasn't much, that I recall. Unless you count Comic Con '07 as "much."

So my brother got us tickets a few months in advance. By "us," I mean him, my step-brother, my step-brother's girlfriend, my half-sister, and me. Since I didn't finish my Kankuro costume in time for Halloween last year, I wore it to Comic Con. The costume was pretty good, especially for a first effort, although I didn't have the proper props, most notably his giant, killer marionette, Crow. An on-line friend convinced me to go with Kankuro's make-up from later in the series (yet to be aired in the US), as by then he summons his puppet rather than carrying it on his back. I had to get my sister to help with the make-up, though.

Since most of the group had work to get to on Monday, we only went to Comic Con on the second and third days (despite having a four-day pass) so we could leave on the fourth day (Sunday). We probably could've gone on the first day, but we spent that time trying to get to the place. By the time we got there, we decided to just head for the hotel since it was so late and the hotel was so far away. Seriously, the closest hotel we could get was a Travelodge literally a stone's throw away from the Mexican border. I forget what the town's name was, though, but we decided to take the tram rather than pay for parking when we went to Comic Con the next couple of days.

When we showed up, I was almost immediately glomped by cosplaying Naruto fangirls (they literally called out "Glomp Kankuro!"), who made me hug this other guy who also cosplayed as Kankuro, and then we all took a group photo. That felt incredibly awesome, and I hadn't even gotten into the con yet. Unfortunately, that was probably the high point of my visit.

Shortly after entering the con, we all took a moment to check the con schedule to see what we should be doing. I'm pretty sure I pointed out the nearby camera crew to them, but I think we all could've been a little more leery of them. I didn't feel like looking at the schedule, so I decided to space out and follow their lead when they finally came to a decision. A moment later, I noticed that the camera crew was beginning to move towards us. I thought to myself, "They're not coming over here, are they? Oh, crap! They are!" No one else noticed them draw closer, clearly attracted by my kick-ass costume, and it was a little too late to warn them so we could run. They only wanted to talk to me, though. I think I recall the interview going a little something like this:

Him: "So, here we have one of the denizens of Comic Con. Tell us, sir, who are you supposed to be?"
Me: "I am Kankuro from Naruto."
Him: "And what are your powers?"
Me: "I summon a killer puppet to attack my enemies."
Him: "How did you get your powers?"
Me: "Well, I used to carry it on my back, but about three years ago I was defeated by this kid with the power to control bugs. After that, I learned to summon my puppet magically."
Him: "And where do you keep this puppet when you're not using it?"
[I seriously had no idea.]
Me: "At home, usually."
Him: "So, are you here alone?"
Me: "We actually patrol in squads of three or four."
Him: "And where is the rest of your squad now?"
Me: "In the shadows, waiting to strike."
[Short pause]
Him: "Have you checked out the self-help booth near the front?"
Me: "Oh, there's a self-help booth?"
Him: "Well, we'd like you to have this."
[Hands me a cheap-ass award ribbon]
Me: "Oh, wow."
Him: "I don't know how I feel about killer puppets and assassins waiting in the shadows, but I'm sure Comic Con is a little safer with you around. Thanks for talking with us."
Me: "It's been a pleasure."
Him: "So, do you shake hands in Kankuro-land?"
Me: "Actually, I believe we bow."
[We bow.]

I was still riding the high from the fangirl-glomp earlier, so I thought I handled that pretty cool. Now that I think about it, it was probably pretty stupid. Considering the questions he asked, though, that was probably what he was going for. The release I signed was with Comcast Cable, which I don't get at home, so I assume it was some local show.

Me and my brother had differing opinions, I think, on what the focus of our visit should be. Basically, all I wanted to do was take as pictures of cosplayers, which I did, but I didn't take nearly as many as I wish I could've since we spent much of our time running from panel to panel. Even more unfortunately, it was during these inopportune moments in which I saw some of the best costumes. Not that the ones I did take were bad, so this might be a case of "the grass is greener on the other side." I took all those photos with my cellphone, partly because he didn't think he had the digital memory to devote to random people and that landmarks were more important. Suffice it to say, most of the pictures he took were of me with other cosplayers, some of which he had to delete to make more room. Ironically (if that's the right word for it), he later figured out how to turn the picture quality down so he could take more photos. I don't think it was really his camera, so it's not like I could blame him. Only perhaps three pictures that he took were of landmarks, and I wouldn't necessarily compare them to the Eiffel Tower.

The first two panels we went to were for Stargate: SG-1 and 24. The SG-1 panel was pretty cool. It was moderated by the guy who plays Miles (I think that's the name. All I know is that he operates the Stargate and shares a name with "Radar" from "M*A*S*H"), who gave us his favorite line he wished he'd get to say ("I don't know, sir. Teal'c was right behind me."), and the panel included Amanda Tapping (Samantha Carter), Ben Browder (Cameron Mitchell, also Cryton from Farscape), and Christopher Judge (Teal'c). We got to see the trailer for the SG-1 movie (direct-to-video, of course), and learned cool stuff like how the various branches of our military competed over their support for the show. Also, despite warnings not to and the entire audience booing at him, some guy got up to the mic during the Q&A period to sing a song. He probably wouldn't've if Amanda Tapping didn't want to hear it (beat me to the punch, too). His mic was cut eventually, of course, and the SG-1 cast got a chance to play the American Idol judges. Then Miles said, "I believe the next person has a Haiku for us."

I begrudgingly went to the 24 panel. I'm not a big fan (no particular reason. I just don't watch it), but I was, admittedly, too scared to wander around the con myself. I don't think I can remember half of the panels we went to, though I do remember not going to the Kevin Smith panel. Sure, he's all that and a bag of chips, but the line went out the building and snaked around the lawn, and I was not in the mood to stand in the San Diego sun in a black ninja suit. (Seriously. How is it that the only ninja that actually wears black on that show comes from the desert? Must not be a very hot one...)

At some point, while wandering around the con, we met up with first fangirl I met up with, who I only know as "Shampoo" from Ranma, and her friend, an uncharacteristically shy Rock Lee. There was an influx of Naruto cosplayers in one of the entry halls, and since I was apparently part of her group she saw fit to lead me there. I had, in fact, seen that ninja nexus already, and left shortly after being teased for not having any scrolls by another Kankuro cosplayer (I forget if it was the same one. There were at least three of us). So, I stuck around a bit longer, and got my brother to take some photos of me. Two that survived the later delete were me fighting Choji and me with a cute girl (I think) cosplaying as Gaara. I wasn't sure what to do after that, and I was a little afraid of what might happen next, so we moved on. Probably a good move, since I heard later (from "Shampoo's" mom, I think) that there were a string of photo ops involving the "Thousand Years of Death" technique (also known as "Secret Finger Jutsu," I believe), a joke attack from Naruto that generally involves sticking something up someone else's butt, that got progressively crazier. I think there might have been a picture of it in the Summer '07 issue of Animerica.

I don't think I saw "Shampoo" after that. Maybe once the next day. Should I have gotten her e-mail address? Nah...

We met Matthew Atherton, also known as Feedback from the first season of "Who Wants to be a Superhero?". I know that my sister talked to him on his MySpace page and sent him a drawing of him struggling against a microwave monster (microwave radiation being one of his weaknesses), and when they met face-to-face I thought they were totally BFF. Later on, it seemed increasingly more likely that he had no idea who she was and was pretty much just playing along. She got to talk to his wife later, too, but it was mainly about how they literally got so much fanmail they didn't know what to do with it and how actually answering it wasn't exactly a brilliant move. At least we all got free Feedback comics, though I probably should've bought a t-shirt when I had the chance.

Speaking of my favorite reality show (next to pre-celebrity Mole), we stuck around late that night to see the first episode of it, as well as the first episode of the second season's Eureka. It was pretty cool, especially since we missed both due to the hotel not getting the Sci-Fi channel (for shame!). I knew then, and at the panel the next morning, that Hyper-Strike and Hygiena were going to the final round. They were the only two of the second-season heroes that were actually at the con. Too bad neither actually won. I would've liked to see Stan Lee take a crack at Hyper-Strike's anime-inspired goodness, and Hygiena's character (unlike the contestant herself) looked pretty hot on paper. The Defuser looks like it'll be a fun read, anyway, but I hope it's better than Feedback's comic. I don't think it was all that bad, but I'm glad I got it for free.

During the "Who Wants to be a Superhero?" panel the next morning, some interesting things happened during the Q&A session. First off the top of my brain was Man-Faye (a considerably unattractive male Faye Valentine, from "Cowboy Bebop," cosplayer) popping up from under a trench coat (under which he wore his Faye Valentine costume) to express his indignation for not being selected last season (he was the guy in yellow whose power was having a hairy ass. I blame copyright issues) and to announce he was publishing his own comic book starring himself. From various actual questions, we learned that they're brainstorming variations on the show, including "Who Wants to be a Supervillian?" among others not mentioned, that representatives of some country (in the UK, I think) asked them to do a "Junior version" of the show (a request they did not understand), and that Stan Lee wishes he could think of a format in which nobody gets eliminated. The thought occurs that he could do something like "The Real World" on MTV, but that'd be entirely unoriginal and probably boring.

Our second day wasn't as hectic, but god dammit if the panels we wanted to see both days weren't either too close together and/or too far apart (chronologically and physically). I only remember the voice actor's panel, which was surprisingly entertaining. Not only did we get to see an impromptu maiming of "War of the Worlds," but also that guy from "Animaniacs" singing "Yakko's World," from memory, without missing a beat. In case you don't know, that's the one where Yakko sings the names of every country in the world. He turned down the first request, but he had to oblige when the next guy asked as well. We also got this classic exchange with one of the audience members:
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
"Yeah, what's your name?"
"Matt."
[In Pinky's voice] "I think so, Matt, but if Jimmy cracks corn and no one cares, why does he keep doing it?"
Funny! Also, I admire his use of a stall tactic (asking the guy's name) so he could think of a punchline.

I also got to watch some anime in the viewing rooms, but that felt quite a bit like wasting time. I probably would've bought some anime in the dealer's room, but the only ones that interested me looked like they'd be chock-full of fanservice so I wouldn't want people to know I bought them. In fact, I didn't spend nearly as much money as I hoped I would. Frankly, I was expecting to clean out my bank account. I remember buying the following:

Food (the pizza was good, but the hot dogs sucked)
A plush Kanti, from FLCL (my brother convinced me not to pay out the ass for the figures, particularly the hundred-dollar-plus con exclusives)
A DVD, t-shirt, and posters for a animated series called "Revelation."

If I had bothered to actually read the DVD case, or even the title, I probably wouldn't've bought that last one. Apparently, it's set in the future (where, apparently, the Republic of Texas has its own standing army) and is based on the Book of Revelations from the bible. The disc contains only the first episode and the pilot (the latter somehow being more impressive than the former), and a short disclaimer from the artist's wife, who said, "Many people worked on this show, but only one artist." Apparently, none of those people were animators, because there is no animation that doesn't involve scaling or sliding. When they can't hide it, you can literally count the frames of animation without even trying. They'll just fade from one posture to the next, which is classier than just snapping into place. I could do better animation in Flash. It's not that hard. The art, voice acting, and writing is decent enough, I guess. I only spent twenty dollars, so I guess technically I got it free with the t-shirt (it says "Because reality sucks" on the front ^_^). They have a website at d7.com, if you'd like to see it for yourself. I think. I haven't actually been to it yet.

I'm a little disappointed that no one wanted my picture, though. Well, I think "Shampoo" and her pals have one, and I got my picture taken a couple times by GameFly. Pretty good pictures, but I discovered about a month too late that it was part of some sweepstakes.
Other than a Pokemon miniatures game, I can't think of anything else noteworthy about my experience.

Fast forward to today, since the rest of the years seems to be a blur. I am out of money, since my Dad is making me pay the phone (and, hence, internet) bill to spur me on to getting a job faster. (I'd probably be able to pay it in full if it weren't for my credit card bill. I'm sure no matter what I say, dad'll feel justified in his decision) Oh, yeah, I also don't have a job. Still. Considering that my employment is at the whim of the prospective employers, I don't think forcing me to spend all my money and cutting off my internet was the right way to go about it. I mean, I'm pretty sure I can find ways to keep myself from leaving the house without help from the internet. I was a TV junkie before I was an internet junkie, so I'm sure I'll find ways to waste my life between the television and the computer. What'd they repossess, anyway? I think my dad paid for most of this stuff. Well, the furnishings. I at least pitched in for the game consoles. Yeah, I'd miss the electronic stuff, but all it does is keep me from thinking I'm depressed, and if my self-worth drops too low there's no way I'm getting a job. For all I know, I'd just sleep all day. And it's not like I don't have my own motivators. I want to get a Wii by December third so I can play Super Smash Bros. Brawl on it. Have you seen their website? This game's gonna be awesome! I can't wait to go up against the subspace emissary. I just need to get about three-hundred dollars in two months. How can I do that if I think I'm depressed? I don't believe I'm qualified to do anything! How could I possibly convince anyone otherwise?

Well, acting, I guess, but that feels dishonest and could push me over my head.

Oddly enough, that was a bit of a tangent. I was just going to mention it and move on to the next thing. That next thing is that we're getting new carpeting, which may have to do with my dad's girlfriend moving in. The old carpet is stained with cat waste, which you can occasionally smell, as is the old couch set and the walls are probably dustier than crap-coated. So, we're cleaning the house top to bottom, painting some of the walls, and throwing out the old couch. We offered it to Goodwill, but they rejected it because the cats tore it up too much and suggested we try the Salvation Army. The Salvation Army wouldn't take it because it was stained. You couldn't see the stains, but they probably smelled them. Thus, my dad took the couches to the dump. The love seat fit well enough in his van, but the couch had to be cut in half. I'm not kidding. Clearly, the proper tool for this was a chain saw, but we only had a buzz saw. I told my dad before he started that it gave me a sense of foreboding, but he did it anyway. Afterward, we said stuff like, "What? This isn't a sofa-bed!" and "Yeah, I think it's dead now." Also, we found a black widow spider in it. It might be in his van now.

Anything else? Well, I was made a mod at my friend's Megaman X role playing board, Phaelin Era, and expect me to recruit new members. (Please do join. We'd love that ever so much.) Since, for some odd reason, I have an account on Gaia Online, I decided to recruit some members from their forums. Not being a big fan of spam-and-run tactics, I thought I'd stick around and try their message boards.

I soon realized why I tried it once in the past and then left: Too many damn people. Now, back in the late nineties, I could spend all night at AGNP despite protests from my siblings that I was hogging the internet. In its heyday, it was brimming with activity and I'd slog through it all on our WebTV. Now I have Outlook Express on a Gateway computer, and its patronage has dwindled to a mere handful. It was considered a bit of an achievement that it recently went from a low-activity newsgroup to a medium-activity newsgroup. (Clearly, AGNP is a BBS on the "Grow.") It doesn't take long to read it, so I've expanded into other, web-based message boards that I can also read all the messages of in one sitting. Sometimes, it takes longer than I'd like and other times not long enough for my liking. Regardless, I have little time for Gaia.

I'm not even sure how to handle Gaia's message boards. I feel like I have to babysit threads I wish to discuss or role play in. Anywhere else, I can post a message, then read other messages as I await a response, assuming whoever I'm interacting with is even on at that time. I could even leave and come back a day or two later with little fear of falling behind. At Gaia, I started a new thread and couldn't even find it when I went back to the index page. There were so many replies to so many threads, it had been pushed to the next page, and the trend continued so quickly I couldn't even chase it down through the subsequent pages. I had to use the search function to find it, and I doubt anyone else will be joining in with incentive. I was just experimenting anyway, so no big loss. I then tried to join another thread that was just starting up. It was three pages long in the span of an hour. There are threads there that number in thousands of posts long, and just keep getting longer. I don't know if I can keep up with that much activity. Maybe subscribing to threads may help...

And for a site that doesn't allow cybersex or anything else above a PG-13 rating, there are some kinky role-play threads. I've seen subject headers advertising a yuri or yaoi focus, vampire girls hunting boys, and even slave role plays. Those other items might not necessarily be hard-core in nature, but BDSM? Seriously, they're making characters that are either slaves to be sold or masters looking to buy, and then take it from there. Under normal circumstances, I might be inclined to think slave threads are just random anomalies amidst the constant ebb and flow of posts, but these threads are so freakin' popular that the RP board has special guidelines for them. Well, not so much special as in a reiteration of what is and is not allowed, such as hate speech and swearing. Not only is cybersex not allowed on the board proper, you're not even supposed to say you should take it to private messages as it would promote cybersex. It is undoubtedly happening anyway, but this is probably making it less likely for minors to get cyber-molested.

Bondage and domination, admittedly, have been among the various fetish-fodder floating around my sexual fantasyscape for some time, including lesbianism, anthropomorphic animals, fairies, multiple partners, and a few things I'm far too ashamed to admit right now but probably have on occasion. But, every once in a while, I see something that pushes a particular fetish to the forefront and it seems to be all I can think about. Lurid fantasies are created or remembered and dwelled upon into palpable intensity. I daresay I obsess over it. I don't know why. Do I find it so disturbing that it simply haunts me? Has newfound validation dredged up hidden desires? Did something seemingly unique stimulated creative inspiration? Whatever the reason, the idea suddenly seems to ramp up to "Wicked-cool," but soon enough settles down to "That's interesting, maybe," and eventually back to "Seriously, what the fuck?"

I'm not even sure I slept last night. I just remember laying in bed, thinking about slave threads, characters, and situations. I even masturbated a couple times. (Too much information?) I'm pretty sure it's not an isolated incident, but in the throes it feels like it is and actual incidents aren't all that frequent. For no good reason, let me list some of the things I came up with:

A young djinn. Djinn are technically genies, the kind that live in lamps and give three wishes, but this one is too young. She has reached the age of consent, of course, and like any good genie she is an enthusiastic, energenic, and willing slave, perhaps even an exhibitionist. She can't alter reality, but she will fulfill any wish her master desires to the best of her ability, even fighting people.
Playing slave. You got the daughter of a slave and the son of a master, possibly below the age of consent. They're forbidden from being true master and slave until they're at least 18, but they like to pretend. They don't have sex or anything, but there is a collar. Its simply a game to them, like "doctor" or "house," and they have a game they regularly play to see who gets to be which. While she (by which I mean whoever is slave at the time) isn't really obligated to do anything for him, she will do almost anything he asks her to do.
Slave Island. A thread idea I had for Gaia. There are all these slaves on the island, and the masters get to hunt them down and dominate them. Masters are identified by some form of jewelry on their person, and anyone without them (be they Masters who lost their ID or shipwrecked sailors) are fair game for slavery.
Slave walk. Alternate version of a story I'm writing. The main character puts a slave collar on her friends at the start of their journey through the wilderness and has them follow her naked. She could be naked, too. They have sex every once in a while.
Pokemon. Basically, I'd just play someone's Pokemon in a Pokemon RP. I've actually been kicking around the idea of playing someone's slave for a while, but couldn't think of a good place to try it. Gaia's an option, of course, but, well, you've read my problem with that site already. I doubt I'd try it in real life, though. The problem with many of the boards I go to is that I feel like I know them too well and I don't want their opinions changed of me.
A Pokemon parody. I call it "Slave Lord," I guess. I've come up with elements to make it into a video game. Here's the premise: in a world filled with magical humanoid races (elves, cat people, nagas, etc.), humankind manages to stay at the top of the food chain by enslaving other races (and each other). A Slave Master could actually go out and hunt down people to add to his or her collection, not unlike in Pokemon. There are even tournaments in which Slave Masters pit specially-trained slaves against each other. Your character, however, is out to change all that. A Slave Master yourself, you seek to conquer the tourney circuit, challenge the Slave Lord who rules the land, and abolish non-consensual slavery. You start off with a single, loyal slave who loves you dearly and soon catch a legendary rebel and make her your slave. She's got the same goal as you, but seeks to do it by freeing as many slaves as possible on her own. She clearly hates you for enslaving her, so it takes some convincing to get her to join your cause. In RPG fashion, you can choose to punish her into submission or try to earn her trust. She can become a willing slave, letting you have sex with her and discipline her, but only if she trusts you. Savage her, and she'll turn against you at some point during the plot of the game. Granted, you could beat her and rape her either way, but she could stab you in the back. I think it's an interesting mechanic, but I doubt it'd make it to the mainstream.

Well, it took about five hours, but I finally got to the thing I wanted off my chest. Not sure where to go from here. I guess I'll just watch TV in half an hour. I think this post got some of that slave obsession out of my system. Feel free to encourage me to explore that angle, of course. Maybe I just need the right environment.

What Anime Legend Are You?

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What I Got for Christmas 2006

2006-12-25T21:48:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas to you all, and I don't care if you don't celebrate it. Just take it as me wishing you to have a particularly good December 25. I can wish you a good day, can't I? Why not let me wish you one specific day to be good? You don't see people getting their panties in a bunch over saying "Happy New Year" in Winter when some cultures celebrate it in Spring.

Wow. That went sour fast. Is the holiday spirit wearing off already?

Anyway, since for some reason I feel the need to tell people, here's what I got for Christmas.

Socks and Underwear: I don't know if you've bought any recently, but this particular batch of underwear was really something. For one thing, they're tagless, like those shirts Hanes makes, with washing instructions printed on the material. Also, the elastic is now inside the clothe waistband. I can't actually tell the difference myself, but I felt it was worth noting. I just wish I hadn't noted it during dinner, because then people wanted to see them.
The Three Stooges DVD: Possibly bought from a dollar store. Features six shorts featuring the slapstick comedy trio, as well as three "Our Gang" shorts.
A Thermos: At least one of my aunts gave me something this year. I'm not even sure if I got gift certificates from them last year. Pretty sure I got money. Anyway, one of the dual-language selling points claims that this is the "Best vacuum insulated container you'll ever own" and shows a thermos half-frozen in a block of ice pouring out piping-hot coffee. Nice.
A shirt: 100% polyester. Pretty nice. I think I can wash it normally. I'm never sure about polyester.
The Far Side Gallery off-the-wall calender: The only problem is I think I may have read them all before. Gary Larsen is dead, you know. Or just retired. I forget which.
A new watch: I could use a new one, too. I had replaced a watch that got increasingly fast with a watch that got increasingly slow. Or was it the other way around? This one's pretty slick, too. Tells me the day of the year and week, can be set for two different time zones, has alarm, stop watch, and count down. Also, it lights up.
Nintendo DS Lite: I bought this for myself.
Digimon World DS: Ditto. I bought it to test for Wi-Fi in my neighborhood and got two access points from my living room. One's password protected, but the other isn't. I want to ask for permission to use it as a courtesy, but I don't know how to figure out where its coming from with just the DS. I've got theories, though...
Brain Age: Technically, I bought this for my Dad, but I plan to use it, too. And boy, do I need it. My brain age registered as 60. You shoot for a low score, the best being 20. Daya-, and might I add, -amn.
Final Fantasy V Advance: This'd be cooler if I hadn't already been playing it. Literally. It's the exact same cartridge I've been playing on since my stepbrother moved back in. It feels a little bit like being regifted, but it is his game. Or was. It's officially mine now.
The Legend of Zelda: The Complete Animated Series 3-Disc Set: The coolness was initially lost on me when I discovered it wasn't "Gannon's Evil Tower," which you can find on my Amazon wish-list (see profile), but I used to watch this every Friday when I was a kid. I don't particularly remember this event, but my brother said that once our family was out driving and weren't going to make it home in time to watch the show, so he told Dad to get us to a TV. We got to an appliance store and Dad convinced the guy there to change the channel on the TVs to the show. Pretty neat story if you ask me. My brother wants to watch this with me.

This is the first Christmas I remember without my brother. He moved in with my Grandmother after Grandpa died to make sure she was taking care of herself. My Mom had originally put herself in a position to do this, but she got a job and my brother didn't, so she didn't have the time and he did.

It's kinda weird not having him here, but not as weird as it could be. He slept all day and stayed up all night, and I tried to keep respectable hours. We watched anime on Cartoon Network on Saturday evenings together, although I taped the late-night stuff and went to bed during Saturday Night Live. I stay up for the Sunday late night stuff, though. And now I find that I'm just watching the Saturday late night stuff, too, mostly because there's something wrong with the tape and I can't trust it to record anything if no one's there to make sure it's working.

Still, it's weird to visit him at Grandma's and just leave him there. We used to joke something along those lines. We'd hug Grandma goodbye, then hug Grandpa goodbye, hug other relatives goodbye, then pretend to get caught up in the moment and hug Mom and Dad and each other goodbye also, even though the four of us were leaving together.

Soooo... I wish I had more to say. Feels kinda awkward leaving on that note... Have I mentioned yet that I got a job at GameStop? Oh, yeah. I did.

Oh! I've got this DVD of photos taken by my Make Up and Masks teacher of the students wearing their make up and masks. I tried to show it on a DVD player at my Grandma's house today, but the teacher didn't put in any sort of interface. Also, for some reason, the DVD player only showed half of the pictures. I had to put in my computer at home to see the other half. Kind of a bummer, as I didn't get to show the half I wanted. I'll have to upload them to the internet to show them off. Maybe I'll post them up here, too.

PokeOps: Rift Stadium Brainstorming

2006-12-15T16:09:00.000-08:00

Now that the semester has ended for me I have been considering promoting my Pokemon roleplaying board, Pokemon: Special Operations. I'm not sure how I should go about it exactly, but I'm sure it involves going to like-minded boards and advertising my board there. Of course getting them to come is one thing, but getting them to stay is another kettle of fish entirely. With a ruleset inspired by PokeWars! and the board itself inspired by Mega Man Crosswars, I set out to create a Pokedex for it but found I had no real drive to complete it. Now I'm thinking of adding something inspired by an aspect of Mega Man Crosswars that drew me in when I first arrived: The Reffed Arena. Since I don't have access to the data for it, though, I'll have to make my own Arena from scratch. I call it "Rift Stadium."

Now, you may notice that PokeOps has a Stadium forum already. That one is set up for free-form battling that essentially ends when someone gives up. Rift Stadium, like Reffed Arena, will use a stat-based combat system and a Game Master to determine a victor. Also unlike normal Stadium, this will have some form of continuity and maybe a storyline.

The first problem is coming up with stats. There are two systems I'm considering using and modifying. The first is the one that West End Games originally used for their Ghostbusters RPG. This one first asks the players to divide twelve points among four traits: Muscle (physical strength and endurance), Moves (speed, agility, accuracy, and perception), Brains (over-all intelligence), and Cool (grace under pressure), with each point representing how many dice they can roll when using said traits. Then for each trait they assign a talent, which can be anything as long as it fits the trait, which allows them three more dice when using that talent. For instance, if I had a Brains score of four, I could have an Occult Knowledge score of seven. Since this is all battle-based, though, I may do away with talents completely. Players are then given thirty Brownie Points, which, kinda like in the video game Killer 7, act as combination Health/Mana/Experience Points. I may do away with that, also.

The other system I'm considering is kinda the same thing as above, but with more points and Pokemon stats: Health, Speed, Physical Attack, Physical Defense, Special Attack, and Special Defense. However, Speed may seems a little inconequential as turn order in Rift Stadium, like Reffed Arena before it, is more or less determined by who manages to post first. But I've already been kicking something around in my head that could make good use of Speed...

I call it the Momentum Meter. It has a minimum of zero, a maximum of 100, and all contenders start with fifty. At the beginning of each round, initiative is determined by rolling for each contender's Moves/Speed score. The highest roll gets a Momentum Bonus of Momentum Points equal to their Speed, but the lowest roll gets a Momentum Penalty and loses Momentum Points equal to their Speed. You can also gain your Speed score in Momentum Points by successfully damaging or casting spells on your opponent, but you can lose just as much by missing, failing spells, or getting damaged yourself. This is doubled for Critical Hits. Effects like Haste can earn you more Momentum per round, while effects like Slow or Paralyze can drain it. When your Momentum reaches zero, you become exhausted and can not act in the next round.

Momentum Points can also have other uses. For instance, you can spend them to buff attacks, perform extra actions, substitute for mana, or on Signature Attacks /Abilities. The default will be to multiply your Muscle/Attack by your Moves/Speed, and use that as the base stat of an attack, which may cost upwards of 50 Momentum Points. Using it too soon or too often can result in exhaustion. If you spend Momentum Points, you won't be able to gain them in that round or win the Momentum Bonus next round.

Something I assumed was unique to the Reffed Arena in Mega Man Crosswars is that, like the Blue Bomber that inspired the board, each character gets a Copy Unit that allows them to use the Signature Attacks/Abilities of fallen foes. This is alot like being a Blue Mage, which can copy the abilities of enemies. Since this will be on a Pokemon board, Rift Stadium will give each character a complementary Snag Machine. This device, featured in the Pokemon Colosseum and Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness games, will allow players to capture certain enemies using PokeBalls, Dark Rings, Blank Cards, etc., and use them in later battles. I'm not sure how to implement their use just yet. Allowing each player to have a character's pet(s) fight along side them may make battles a tad character-heavy, while allowing the pets out for a single attack in any one round feels like I'm under-utilizing them. Maybe I'll find another solution, and I'll probably include a Beastmaster class anyway to specialize in their use. For the most part, I think giving your pet a command will cost Momentum Points.

Last, but not least, is the part of the Reffed Arena that most appelaed to me: the Hazard and Wyld Surge systems. These were events with random effects that could help or hinder or just be plain weird, sort of like Chance cards in Monopoly and other games, only crazier. One round you could recieve an e-mail consisting of twenty-seven random words, the next Kirby could show up and swallow everyone whose names begin with the letter "D." This is the part I most want to replicate. It adds a touch of insanity to an otherwise plain system. Its also the part that makes me think I shouldn't work on this alone...

Warning! Life Changes Ahead!

2006-11-16T20:38:00.000-08:00

Well, it happened. It had to sooner or later, and the sooner the better. Best of all, it happened right where I wanted it to happen. However, I'm not sure this was the best time to have it happen.

That's right. I finally got my first job. I'm a "Game Advisor" at Game Stop, a video/PC game retail store. The position isn't nearly as glamourous or important as the title. Basically, I'm a sales clerk.

It was cool because I didn't think I was doing any better at this interview than at previous ones, and whether or not I'm right is beside the point. I've signed up for the Christmas shopping season, which begins immediately after Thanksgiving. In fact, I start work that week (Gee, I hope they train me before the rush...). Anyway, the interview went normally enough. I was asked things like why I wanted to work there (the games, duh), how I handle stressful situations (I said, "Pretty well," though I'm sure I haven't experienced the type of strees I'm about to before), what three words my friends would use to describe me (I only came up with "Trustworthy" and "Funny," and I'm not sure that's even true), and what I'd do if I saw a co-worker stealing a game (Rat him out, of course, because "that's just wrong."). Lastly he asked three questions to test my video-game knowledge, and coincidently the first two involved the scant bits arcane knowledge that I knew: What Nintendo made before they got into video games (playing cards, as in poker, which I believe was about a hundred years ago), what "Sega" stands for ("Service Games," as they supplied video games to the military), and what the nickname of the Wii's processor was (he tells me it's "Broadway," sounds like I should've known it). I got the last one wrong.

I was pretty much hired on the spot, which came as a bit of a shock as the first two places I got an interview with said they'd call me back and never did (the third did and said the position was filled, and I had done better than, like, 80% of the other applicants). They put me into the payroll computer, gave me the cash card I was to be paid with, as well as a bunch of paperwork I had to sign and return in a couple days, and said I start work the week after next (this was last week, by the way). I imagine I get Thanksgiving off, although not so much that it's a holiday as I told them I wasn't available on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Let's see, what else happened...? Oh, yeah. Have I mentioned I'm taking both a "Make-Up and Masks" class and a "Clothing Construction" (read: Sewing) class? I did it so I could take advantage of them for Halloween, but it didn't really pan out. I've only recently gotten anywhere close to done with the costume I had intended to wear this year. I would've gone with my second choice, Indiana Jones (I found this old leather jacket in my closet over the summer, and I was pretty sure I had access to a whip), but since my Creative Writing class met on Halloween this year my teacher wanted the class to come dressed as characters they have written and I felt obligated to obligde. If you've been reading my MultiPets: Chimera Knight novel blog, you may be familiar with the character Katrina Arden. She was my third choice, as it was a simple costume requiring only a pair of blue jeans, a white sweatshirt, and a black wig. Unfortunately, I only owned the black wig (see last year's Halloween report), so I went with my fourth choice: Orion Chardonnay from the same novel. I'm so unenthused about it I'm not even going to tell you what it looks like. A couple days later, I realized what I could've done was dress up like Indiana Jones and said I was Orion (or Katrina, for that matter) dressed-up for Halloween. Hey, whose to say I'm wrong?

That's a bit of a tangent. Anyway, both classes require a kit, which I keep in seperate tackle boxes. Since I don't like having both hands full while... well, doing anything other than playing video games, I crammed both into a duffel bag that I carry to school every Tuesday and Thursday. Also, having been asked to drop out of a hiking class a couple years ago by the teacher, I walk to and from school during daylight hours (and nighttime during bus strikes). The trip takes me about forty minutes at my normal walking speed, and is a real pain with the duffel (I'd probably keep one in a locker at school if I didn't have negative-twenty minutes between the two classes - don't ask). Recently, my Make-Up and Masks class had moved on to life masks, thereby no longer requiring me to carry both kits around but I had been carrying both of them anyway just in case. Today I was about halfway to school when I started wondering if I was really going to need my make-up kit for the rest of the semester (I won't until the final, by the way). That is when I realized, quite ironically, I had left both kits at home. Fortunately, I had made a habit of arriving two hours and forty minutes early so I could feed my various internet addictions in the computer lab, so it's not like I was pressed for time. In fact, I probably should've realized something was up when I noticed I was making good time and hitting the crosswalks just in time for the signals to change. Not that the duffel prevents such things, but, as the saying goes, if everything seems like its going smoothly you've obviously overlooked something. To make it just a little more awkward, right as I was realizing this some guy walking towards me makes a comment, which in turn makes me not want to look like I was stalking him. My mind is crazy like that. It actually made me consider not going back for my kits.

On an even less interesting note, a couple nights ago I fell asleep during the Colbert Report. I woke up about an hour later thinking I was still watching it, but it turned out to a Pablo Francisco stand-up special. Fortunately, I was about to catch the rerun of the same episode (of Colbert Report, not Pablo Francisco) the next morning. I think I was able to pinpoint the exact moment of the show when I lost consciousness, 'cause I remembered having seen the intro graphic to the "Tip of the Hat/Wag of the Finger" segment, but not anything after that. (Did you see him wag his entire body at that guy? Hil-freakin'-larious)

That reminds me, I missed both the Colbert Report and the Daily Show last night because I was in my room playing Final Fantasy II on the SNES (otherwise known as Final Fantasy IV on the Super Famicom in Japan and on the GBA) for, like, four hours. My brother would've told me it was on, but he had thought I had gone to bed. I had to watch it this morning, too.

OH! Did I forget to mention that my step-brother gave me his collection of old video game consoles and games that he got from a mutual friend of ours? I catalogued the whole thing, even the random crap that also got into the boxes, reorganized the collection to fit in two boxes instead of three, and tested all the ones I could hook up. I don't want to go through the entire collection right now, but I basically have every system emulated by the Wii's virtual console, plus a Jaguar, an Intellivision, and a Pippan. Don't know what a Pippan is? That's because it never came out. There are no games on it, so all it can run is an SDK disk (like an old mac OS) and audio disks. The only systems that work reliably are the ones I've already mentioned by name, a TurboGrafx 16, and a Sega Nomad. There's also a somewhat tempermental Genesis. I have a Sega Master System and two NES's that're defunct. In case you were wondering, I now own three defunct NES's. The collection also included games and controllers for systems that weren't included.

One last thing that I also don't remember mentioning before: Sci-Fi's reality show "Who Wants to be a Super Hero?" has been picked up for a second season. All I know is that casting begins early 2007. If I can get away from work and school for it, I may try out. First choice is a technorganic cyber-assimilator call Tech Weaver. If I can't get his costume done, which I think I can do with found/bought items, I'll go as the time-bending Captain Retro. I have a jacket that, when combined with a scarf, makes me look like a World War II fighter pilot. I should probably get a longer scarf, though.

Who Wants to be a Superhero? I do! I do! Pick me! Pick me!

2006-08-03T23:30:00.000-07:00

I think Who Wants to be a Superhero is now my favorite reality show. It might just be cooler than The (pre-Celebrity) Mole. Reality shows may have their twists, but only Stan Lee can twist them like this.

Most reality shows are about physical challenges and coalitions. The Mole was about that and perception as you tried to figure out who was hired by the network to screw the other players. Who Wants to be a Superhero is all about character. Stan Lee tasks the players to the spiritual standards of the superhero, such as honesty, integrity, and perserverance. During the elimination ceremony, Stan Lee can call out a player on questionable performance, ignoring civilians in distress, or even making fun of another hero's costume.

The twists started early in the first episode. After assembling the heroes in a mansion, Stan Lee has them all transported to a secret lair that all but one contestant will enter. One was eliminated before the first commercial break! Turned out, Stan Lee had placed a spy in their midsts: the traitorous Rotiart (which, as he points out, is "Traitor" spelled backwards. I was cursing myself for not noticing all week!). Rotiart snitched on the questionable characters of Levity, a toymaker by trade who planned to sell action figures of himself for $500 each, Creature, who was flirting with the other heroes, and Iron Enforcer (Steel Chambers can't be his REAL name, can it?), who Stan Lee doesn't like because of his huge-ass gun. Of the three, Stan eliminates Levity, which I'm sure has nothing to do with the fact that he was gay.

Their first physical challenge was, starting in civilian garb in public, to secretly change into superhero form when summoned and run to the finish line. What Stan Lee didn't tell them, however, was there was this lost little girl near the finish line (planted by him) crying for her mother. Of the ten superheroes, only Cell Phone Girl, Fat Mamma, Lemuria, and Major Victory lent a hand. Major Victory in particular hammed it up as much as possible, especially on the way over, and called out for the girl's mother a couple times before taking her to the security office. Cell Phone Girl looked to me like she had got on to Stan Lee's game just after passing the girl, because I could've sworn she had a crafty look on her face. As for the other players, Feedback cooly and indescretely slipped behind a barracade to change, Monkey Woman (who I keep calling Monkey Girl) changed in a tree, and Tyvyculus (or however his name was spelled) changed behind a portapotty, which my brother tells me was labelled "Construction Workers Only."

As you can imagine, Stan Lee wasn't pleased, but he could only call out three of them per ceremony and eliminate one of them. Called out this time was Nitro G, who didn't bother to hide while changing, Monkey Woman, because she apparently looked right at the girl (but so did Creature, didn't she?), and Iron Enforcer, because Stan Lee doesn't like his gun. Each had to say something to convince Stan Lee not to eliminate them, but in the end, Nitro G was cut.

The second episode begins with Stan Lee reading questions written by the heroes. In question was Major Victory's previous job as a male stripper, Fat Mamma's fatness, Creature's unwashed dreds, and Iron Enforcers body odor and apparent use of steroids, which he neither confirmed nor denied but definitely defended.

Next, the heroes were taken to a house where an old lady had locked herself out. All they had to do was go around back to let her in... while being bitten by trained attack dogs. Fortunately, they were given protective padding. Iron Enforcer got within a foot of the back door before giving up. Tyvyculus managed to wrestle the dogs to the goal at the back door, while Major Victory impressively carried the dogs by letting them hang from his arms. But what was really impressive was Monkey Woman. Win or lose, the other contestants finished in under a minute. Seeking to make up for her earlier disgrace, Monkey Woman was dragged around by those dogs for a little over nine minutes before she reached the door. She was probably helped a little by the fact the dogs' goal was to keep her down but not necessarily away from the door, as they had a tendency to drag the players in that direction. I liked her before, because she reminds me of the Monkey King of Japanese folklore and has that skimpy outfit, but now I'd have to say she is my favorite hero on this show just for fighting those dogs so long.

Then there was another elimination. On the chopping block this time were Cell Phone Girl, for complaining about a headache and quitting after four seconds, Creature, for laughing while losing, and Iron Enforcer, for quitting inches away from victory. Cell Phone Girl gave the weakest speech and was eliminated, which I don't mind since she had a lame gimmick anyway.

Next, everyone got a costume makeover which some cool transitional effects. Everyone's upgrade was pretty cool, though I preferred Monkey Woman's original costume (more jungle-y), except for Tyvyculus and his feathered helmet. Feedback, who looks like a movie superhero now, went as far as to say, "You are now officially Stan Lee's biggest fan." Tyvyculus pretended to like the new costume at first, but, after an unsuccessful modification, went back to complain about it, at which point Stan Lee told him to put his old costume back on. Iron Enforcer's new costume was pretty good, but Stan Lee couldn't help but think something was missing...

Immediately after the makeovers was another elimination. Stan Lee called out Tyvyculus, for not being honest about his outfit, Feedback, for making fun of Tyvyculus's costume (I bet you thought I was kidding!), and, yet again, Iron Enforcer, for defending the use of steroids and because Stan Lee didn't like his gun. I was pretty much able to guess who was going to be eliminated in the previous rounds, but this one had me stumped. None of these guys felt to me like they should be cut out at this stage. I was definitely suprised that Iron Enforcer got eliminated, since he was such a solid antagonist for the other players. Apparently, Stan Lee felt the same way...

As Iron Enforcer was walking dejectedly down the street, Stan Lee appears to him again. He finally figured out what was wrong with Iron Enforcer's makeover. Iron Enforcer just didn't make a good superhero... but he'd make for a terrific supervillain. Stan Lee gives him a new makeover befitting his new role of standing in the player's way, and transformed him into The Dark Enforcer!

Now, up to this point, Who Wants to be a Superhero seemed pretty cool, but hadn't really done anything to make me at all excited. But when that happened, me and my siblings couldn't help but exclaim, "That is so AWESOME!" several times, as there was simply no other way to express how awesome that was. No other reality show that I know of really had that sort of twist. Sure, The Mole had a villain, but Who Wants to be a Superhero not only gives you a villain, but an origin story to boot! "Rejected by Stan Lee, Iron Enforcer returns as the villainous Dark Enforcer to thwart our heroes!" Did I ask how cool that was yet? Because that is cool. And just as wacky is Tyvyculus' reaction in the preview to the revelation: "What treachery is this!?"

This show is awesome, man. Wish I had known about the tryouts so I could've been on. Of course, first I'd have to have had made superhero identity and costume. Maybe I'll try out for the sequel, probably as Tech Weaver. Now I just need a costume...

I am Storm!

I am very strong and very protective of those
I love. I am in tune with nature and are
very concerned with justice and humanity.
Unfortunately, certain apprehensions and fears
are very hard for me to overcome, and can
often inhibit me when I most need to be strong.

Which X-Men character are you most like?
brought to you by Quizilla

Was It a Dream? Or Maybe a Vision?

2006-07-31T14:30:00.000-07:00

For some reason, whenever the word "Dream" is mentioned, I feel compelled to make the above Escaflowne reference. For some other reason, I can't change the image at the bottom of the previous post because my browser keeps freezing whenever I hit the "Publish Post" button. Hopefully, this won't happen with this post. Otherwise, I'll have wasted all this time and effort without even having a post to read.

Anyway, I had this weird dream last night. In the 1940's, there was immenent threat of attack by Space Godzilla. So this one scientist sequesters himself in his lab as he attempts to build a weapon capable of destroying the creature. Sixty years of near-ceaseless work later, he sets up a both outside his building so he can start selling the weapon capable of defeating Space Goji. Thus, I'm walking to school, seeing signs everywhere for the device, and wondering how in Hell we're going to defeat Space Godzilla with the Video iPod Nano with color.

Then I see my dad driving his bus. Instead of driving it from the inside, however, he's pushing it from behind on a bicycle. Then we're off to this theatre (or, at least, that's what it turns out to be later), and in the lobby there's this canvas sheet with two holes in it so you can see a pair of eyes looking out from the picture behind it. Some old scientist in my group says the hidden picture is of the bald-headed alien standing next to me, which the alien denies. So the scientist lifts off the canvas sheet, and while it is shaped like the alien's head the picture is clearly a collage of eyes. Rather than admit he is wrong, the scientist explains that the picture is instead integrated into the numerous bas-releifs of other faces in the black walls of the lobby, which you could see if you stand back far enough.

I lose interest at this point and enter the theatre proper. The first thing I notice is that above the projection screen is another screen showing an image of ghostly people like on the computer screen in the movie Pulse. Walking in deeper, I am suddenly beset by a vertible marathon of ghosts running in the opposite direction. However, I soon realize that the ghosts are just sepia-tinted holograms because I recognize my still-living brother among them. Apparently, we had been in this theatre some months ago and helped record the footage for this effect. Even though I knew this, I found the effect so creepy that I decided never to set foot in this theatre again.

And that's all I remember before waking up. Then I fell back asleep and had another dream where I start making popcorn with a frying pan, get all upset when my half-sister puts a different pot on the same burner despite the free one right next to it, and find myself unable to properly articulate my feelings on the matter. She also has a pink cell phone for some reason.

On the topic of things that really did happen yesterday, my dad took us to Costco to buy that big-screen TV he promised us a month ago. Unfortunately, they were no longer selling the 46-incher he had his eye on. After some grocery shopping there, we decide that the 50-inch TV they were selling should be able to fit the modified entertainment center we had just fine. After we get it on the dolly, we realize that it might not actually fit in the van. Another customer told us that he bought a similar TV and had to take it out of the box to get in his van. After borrowing a tape measure from the store, we come to the conclusion that we can fit the TV in the van if three of us took the bus home. There was a delivery service, but they couldn't pick up the TV today.

After buying our groceries, we decide to go to Sears to see if they have the TV dad wants. While my dad, his girlfriend, and the sales associate mess around with of the TV's, I take to watching Space Balls on another set. Not long after I figure out how to turn up the volume, my half-sister tells me to turn it down. I can barely hear Lord Helmet talk about how he always drinks coffee while watching the radar, and somehow it's keeping her from enjoying The Matrix: Revolutions at the opposite end of another isle. Eventually, I'm bored, my dad's girlfriend is hungry, and my dad has had about as much of this particular sales associate as he can stand (having had to deal with him twice already on seperate visits), we all go home and have mushroom burgers.

The end.

Okay, so below is the same image as in the previous post, only larger. Blogger shrank it for some reason, and, like I said, my browser won't let me change it. I don't know if this will even work now, so if you don't see this post let me know. ^_^

Who Needs MySpace?

2006-07-29T15:00:00.000-07:00

I'm pretty sure I don't, but I've been considering gettting an account there recently. My step-brother's girlfriend asked me if I had a MySpace account, which I don't. She seems to think highly of it. Then again, it's probably the only site she goes to on a regular basis. Should I join something like that if I'm already a member of so many message boards? Let me show you just how many places I go on the internet pretty on a daily basis.

First, since I have dial-up, I log on through CompuServe to check on my e-mail and read some headlines.
Then, I open up Outlook Express to read the e-mail in my Hotmail Account.
After that, I use the Mail & Newsgroups application in my Netscape 7.1 browser to read the e-mail in my Netscape account, as well as newsgroups alt.games.nintendo.pokemon, alt.fan.digimon, and alt.creative.writing.
Then, in the Netscape browser proper, I visit (in no particular order):
The Mega Man Crosswars RP board
The Fiction Writer's Guild Google group
My Pokemon: Special Operations RP board (which would be a full-time job if I had more members)
The Legend Saga message board
The Kingdom Hearts RP board
The Pipian.com Forums
The Pocky and Sugar message board (the head admin's a friend of mine <_<)
The Dream Keeper's Epitaph forums
The Province message board
Adventure Quest
Dragon Fable
Nation States
Twisted Kaiju Theatre
Girly
Pulp Pixels
Bob and George
Hellbound
Sluggy Freelance

... and maybe some other webcomics I might consider catching up on, having not read them since February 10, 2005.

So why would I even be considering going to MySpace? I suppose it's the romanticized notion that it'd get me a girlfriend (no pun intended). I've been feeling lonely, or at least sexually frustrated, for a while now, and they're always talking about those MySpace hook-ups, so I'm figuring if they could do it, so could I. I'm pretty sure the places I go now are mostly sausage parties, and if there are any girls I don't feel particularly confident about trying to pick them up. Then again, if I'm not confident picking up girls where I already hang out, how would MySpace be any better? I think another romanticized (again, no pun intended) notion of mine is that some girl is going to just stumble onto my page and that's going to be the start of something. That's incredibly unlikely, but then it'd be impossible if I don't allow the opportunity.

I'm tempted to waste my time with it, but I don't know if I have the time to waste. On top of these sites, I'm also kinda trying to find a job. I was able to get an interview with Sears, but they filled the position I was going after before they could call me in for a second interview. Aw, well. Not like I wanted to be a cashier, anyway.

Oh, and I found these on my harddrive the other day. I feel like doing something a little different today, so I thought I'd show off my Pocket Bishoujo catches...

What Would You Do For a New TV?

2006-06-29T13:39:00.000-07:00

Ever since we had to hit our old TV to maintain a picture, we've been discussing getting a brand new TV. Dad's found one that he likes, be he doesn't want to buy a new one without going at least a month without any television. When my stepbrother moved out, I replaced our television with the smaller (13", I think) one he had in his room. My half-sister has moved back in, and she complained that it wasn't any good for video games. Being the clever sort, she set up a timeline with my dad. Specifically, the month without television is July 1 to August 1.

I was fine with that, but then I noticed July 1 was a Saturday. Not a good day for me to start on. Frankly, I can handle no television on the other six days, but I watch Saturday cartoons almost religiously. I don't mean just the mornings, either. Cartoon Network unloads a boatload of anime that I watch from 7 pm to 11. Then I tape some other anime on that channel while watching Saturday Night Live.

Talk about widthdrawl, huh? If it started on Sunday, I might be able to build up an expectation of no television, but this is Saturday we're talking about!

Okay, okay. I know it's not going to kill me or anything to miss Pokemon or Bobo-bo Bo-bobobo, but generating a bit of cognitive dissonance. I don't like missing episodes. I want to see them all in order so I'm not wondering what the Hell is going on.

There's still a VCR in my half-sister's room, but there's no cable in there. I figure I can move the little TV back in there, tape my shows from the cable in the living room, then watch it in her room. Not the most comfortable option, but if you're not supposed to be watching TV anyway I figure discomfort is a good thing.

My only concern is that it's cheating on the deal. I'm still watching television. The only difference is the location, perhaps the level of video quality, and the fact that I can fast-forward through the commercials. Not exactly practicing restraint here. The idea, I think, is to break the habit, and this action is like sneaking smokes into a public restroom. I haven't quit anything, I'm still a slave to the programming schedule.

Conversely, it's not like I just turn on the TV and just watch whatever crap is on at the time. There's just a handful of specific shows I want to watch, usually on at a regular time. In that sense, I'm not "Just watching TV." I'm "watching my shows."

How is that different? Think of it like this: Instead of eating everything in the fridge just because it's there, I'm eating the foods I like because I'm hungry and I like them. I'm not gorging between meals, I'm practicing a particular diet. Granted, it's not necessarily the healthiest of diets (probably the equivelent to eating all candy), I'm only eating three times a day in what I at least percieve to be moderation. And by taping the shows and watching them in another room, it's like I'm preparing the meals before I eat them.

To me, that sounds completely delusional, but it's the best "for" argument I could think of. I think I'll prep for that, then argue with the folks later.

Also, I recently moved my Pokemon: Special Operations RP to a new board. I'm still looking for new players, so click the link below and join in! What's the plot? You're a Pokemon trainer, there's the Pokemon League, there's the Grand Festival, there's Team Rocket/Magma/Cipher/whatever. The rest is up to you. Have fun!

We is Revolution

2006-04-28T15:26:00.000-07:00

I just heard about this on G4. Nintendo's Revolution console has been officially named "We." Like the plural of "Me." With the long "E" sound. Not pronounced "Way," but "Wi." Perhaps it will be spelled "Oui" in France.

Their explanation is something along the lines of "'We' suggests that games are for everybody. 'We' will put people in touch with games."

At the moment, I don't quite like the name "We." I think it suggests "Small," or even "Urine." But while I think it sounds ridiculous now, I get the feeling that soon enough "We" will sound like a perfectly natural name for it. Or not. But if there's anything that I think is cool about that name, it's that the commercials can use that "We will rock you" song.

Kinda makes me think of Mick Foley's "Mankind" character, since he could use all sorts of "all mankind" puns with it.

In other news, I've been thinking that you can't really have a nation without a god. That's the difference between having an empire and having a loose association of tribes. I'll probably sound like an uneducated twit for saying it, but as far a I can tell most tribes don't worship an omnipotent force of will. They worship nature, which while it may be personified in some way, doesn't really feel the need to tell people what to do. Their life lessons come from stories about people and animals, and maybe a few dieties, none of which really demands a strict moral code or absolute obedience.

Then comes God. Maybe he's your emperor, maybe he speaks to your emperor, or maybe he speaks to your religious leaders who then relays the messages to your emperor, but chances are that if you're in an empire you're following the will of God. This God is a unifying force. This God knows everything. This God has some sort of plan. This God offers you an eternal afterlife of either bliss or torture, so you better listen to him. Otherwise, everyone else is against you.

This God is the omnipotent force of will. Its uses it powers for your benefit. If it isn't, you're doing something that displeases it. Sure, you could follow a man, but he is only a man. If you want to be on the winning side of things, you better be on the side of God.

That's how empires are formed. At their core, there is a single, unifying concept. There are a lot of people in an empire, and people want lots of different things. On a basic level, they want power. They want their nation to be powerful. Being a willing member of a powerful empire can be a great source of pride. It's like having a favorite sports team. You want them to be the best, just because you like them so damn much. Thus, you want them to have as much power as possible. And what gives just about anything great amounts of power? God, that's who. God is the most powerful thing there is, was, and ever will be. Your God gives you the resources your empire needs to conquer all others. Not flippant nature, not talking animals, not people.

Kyo... go ahead and introduce your family to Kyo.
They'll probably be a little frightened, and
that's most likely the reaction he's going for.
Even if they don't like him, you still will.
They'll have to get used to him.

Which member of Dir en Grey should you want to bring home to meet your family?
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Vocational Anxiety

2006-04-12T12:21:00.000-07:00

My dad showed me an article in the newspaper yesterday and suggested I read it. The article was about how there were thousands of job openings in Silicon Valley. The article went on to say that the numbers were deceptive because there were still a significant amount of worthy applicants being turned down, and this was all skilled workers.

I'm not sure what my dad's intentions were in handing me the article, but I've no doubt they were noble. Unfortunately, I felt an uncomfortable amount of anxiety reading the article and didn't get through the whole thing. The first stressor was the very idea of working in an office, but not so much the actual work as the environment. Pictures and captions in the article mentioned the benefits being offered, including expresso bars and rec rooms. In many office-related shows, mainly sitcoms, co-workers are shown as a close-knit group of friends. So why am I stressing? I dunno. I just see myself silently slinking in, trying not to get noticed, while everyone else is enjoying themselves all around me. It would seem to me that the idea of going somewhere and not being part of the crowd... frightens me, like I'd slowly die of some suffocating disease. But I can't socialize because I don't know how. Then the idea occurs that I don't know how to do the kind of work I suspect I'll be asked to do, and that bothers me even more. I can't work, and I can't play, and my life becomes a choking miasma that threatens to rip my heart in half.

Then there's the idea that I might not even get the job. For some reason, compared to actually getting this job, this is an unfathomable horror. I can't even picture what rejection will do to me. In the end, my life is no different than what it is now, living at home with no job and no skills that I'm aware of. Granted, that's not so bad, even comforting, but it's only transitory. At some point, what is supposed to be a mere safety net in this point in my life is going to dissolve and I'm going to fall into the bottomless cavern of personal responsibility. With no means of supporting myself, I'll wind up living under an overpass and eating out of a dumpster. It's not what I want at all, yet I can't bring myself to face the terror of corporate or social life.

I don't know what I'm going to do. I need help, clearly, but I'm too afraid to ask. I'm not even sure what the right questions are. What do I do? Someone, please tell me what I'm supposed to do!

Perhaps I should try to find something a little more positive about this. Judging by the article, people with far better skills than me are being turned down for this cherry positions. All that means is that I'm in good company. These people aren't giving up and they aren't dying. This sort of thing happens to all sorts of people, and it doesn't inflict any sort of greivous injury upon them. They simply do the only thing they can do: Move on.

I need to move on, yet I just don't know how. One of these days, I'm going to have to learn to pull myself out of the quicksand. I just wish someone would help me. And I may need help overcoming myself.

What Am I Supposed to be Doing?

2006-03-09T19:47:00.000-08:00

I don't know what to do with my life. In two months and ten days I turn twenty-five. I feel like I should be doing more with my life. I don't mean like all that cool stuff some people have done by my age, like setting records or earning billions of dollars or anything like that. I don't have a job, or a major, or a girlfriend, or anyone I would think is close enough emotionally to call a friend. I'm not even sure what I want to do with my life, but I feel like I should do something soon or I'm going to be in major trouble. Minimum wage won't even get me an apartment in this town. Not if I want to eat.

I don't think I even feel driven to do anything. Not driven driven. I feel like I need to do this stuff, but apart from that I'm not really motivated to do any of it, and that disturbs me. But to think about it, is it that I'm not motivated to do anything, or am I motivated not to do anything?

I'm inclined to think I have a social phobia, a fear of interacting with people because they will react or judge me harshly. What's difficult with this phobia is that it's hard to cure. With most phobias, they can be cured with relaxation techniques and exposure to the frightening stimuli. With social phobias, one's fear becomes a self-fulling prophecy. With fear of social interaction comes the need to avoid it, and with avoiding it comes a lack of social experience, which only serves to make social interactions more frightening. To overcome social phobias, one must be trained in the art of sociability as well as relaxation in order to confront the fear and extinguish the phobia.

What bothers me is that I don't think anyone will take this seriously, and I don't have the temmerity to convince them to help me. I once told my dad that I thought I was depressed, and he tells me that I'm just feeling a little down. To my recollection, he didn't even bother to ask about why I thought I was depressed. He just assured me that everyone feels a little down sometimes. The phrase that comes to mind is "Fuck that." Yeah, people feel a little down sometimes, but there's usually a reason for it. Maybe they're down because they're depressed, and then you have to figure out why they're depressed. Sure, sometimes you can ignore it and it'll go away, but the probability of a mental problem going away by itself without treatment is only 30%.

You need to at least talk about the problem, get to the root of the dilemma, and figure out a solution. This will not be a quick and easy process. This is going to take time and experimentation. At this point and time, I feel too overwhelmed by my psychosis to willingly stray from my pattern by very much. But if I don't, I'll miss out on everything, and I've missed out on a lot of stuff already. Lost time and memories that I'll never have back. So much to do, so little time.

A this point in time, I'd like to point out that there's this girl.

SHUT UP!

The girl is not the source of the problem by a long shot. She is only an irritant that exacerbates my social allergy. If she wasn't there, I'd still be having this problem, but I think it's less likely I'd be making this post right now. Without her, it would just be an anxiety about not having a job or purpose. Now it's about not having a girlfriend, too.

I don't know how she feels about me. I haven't so much as talked with her. Hell, I'm not sure how I feel about her. All I know is that I'm a moment of utter desperation away from stalking her. Heh. Even I think that sounds funny, but I'm serious here. I'm trying to figure out how to get close to her without looking like a stalker, and I may already be failing. She's in a class I have, and I've started migrating across the room to one day sit near where she usually sits.

There are two problems with that: One, this will get me no information about her whatsoever, and, two, she's usually one of the last people in class. Depending on where everyone else is sitting by the time she gets there, she'll either be way in back or way up front. I'd have to guess in order to just happen to sit near here, since I'm one of the first people to arrive in class. I could show up late, but that's not my style. I could move after she sits down, but then people would notice.

I don't know if she has a web page or blog or myspace account or what. I do, however, have her e-mail address. Then again, I have the e-mail address of everyone else in my class since the teacher specifically asked for them (and our phone numbers) and then distrubited a list so we could contact each other if we miss a day or two and need to catch up. The thought occurred to contact her over the 'net and make her a cyberpen-pal in order to establish a casually relationship with her that I think I could easily deal with. Again, however, I'm not sure how to start such a thing without sounding obsessed or desperate or a complete putz.

A good plan could be to cut out all this crap and just ask her out. Again, we run into problems. Aside from the fact that she may be at least dating someone else already, and I wouldn't be too surprised, I'm not sure what to say. Or not to say. Or shut up. Sure I could walk up and ask, "Hey, if you're not busy this weekend, how about a movie?" but I've got a bad feeling I won't stop there. Sometimes when I speak, I feel the need to explain myself, which I never do well. The above question could easily become, "Hey, if you're not busy this weekend, how about a movie? You know, with me. I mean, I don't know if there's anything you'd want to see, or even if you like movies or anything, but, uh... yeah." And I'd probably warn her that I don't have a lot of money or a job or anything. Yeah, way to advertise yourself, fantasy me. For that matter, way to fantisize about yourself, real me. Think I could make a more obvious comment? "I don't know if you even like movies." Yeah, that's what you find out by asking, dumbass. And you don't tell her you don't have a job. No one needs to know that. If you want to make some kind of spiritual connection, you can't let a flaw like that get in the way. It might not make you look to appealing right off, but if she comes to like you enough it might not matter that much. Of course, you still need a job. Can't really live in this town without one.

Have I run out of things to say yet? I guess so.

Oh, yeah. I finally got the pictures from Hallowe'en developed. Last year I said I was going to include a picture of me in my costume, so here it is. I guess I'll leave this up instead of a quiz result.

Food in the Sink

2006-02-14T10:29:00.000-08:00

The behavoir of other people can sometimes be perplexing. Take my step-brother, for instance. Well, I think it was my step-brother. I could be someone else, since I never saw him do it, but the evidence is definitely there. Anyway, every once in a while I'd go to the sink to wash a few dishes, and I'd find a plate or a bowl with a significantly unfinished portion of a meal. I can understand that he might have been in a hurry, or perhaps he just wasn't as hungry as he thought. Still, the proper place for food you don't think anyone is going to eat is the trash. And this morning, I found an entire slice of pizza sitting on a plate in the sink. I just left it there, but it looked fine to me. No noticeable bite marks or anything. Maybe he dropped it on the floor or something. I don't know. If the only thing wrong with it was that he reheated it, I think it would've been perfectly acceptable to put it back in the fridge. If it looked used, I would've thought to throw it out, but now I'm just mystified. What's putting it in the sink going to accomplish, anyway?

toshiya

Doki Doki Dir en grey quizz ver 2.0
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Stops Banging Head Against Wall

2006-02-13T20:00:00.000-08:00

I believe some of you might be interested in the situation of my education. Somewhere around SuperBowl XL, I discussed how I thought I signed up online for classes in December only to find out the day before classes start that I only filled a virutal shopping cart without taking it to check out. The process now involved going to each class on the first day, getting an add slip, taking said add slip to enrollment services so they can officially add the class, and taking the add slip back to the teacher. Repeat until you've signed up for all your classes.

Using this process, I got into four of the six classes I wanted. That includes the Creative Writing class, or more accurately my Advanced Fiction Writing class, which didn't have nearly as long a waitlist as I thought. The only classes I didn't get were ones I didn't show up for. Go fig. They were the Total Fitness class, which I didn't think would be worth the effort, and the Beginning Voice class, because my bus didn't show up. I thought I had missed my Popular Songwriting course, which was in the same room at the same time on a different day, only to discover I mistook it for my Beginning Voice class.

For those of you keeping score, this is my current schedule:
The Art of Play Reading - Mondays and Wednesdays, 9:30 AM to 11 (ironically, nothing to do with voice acting)
Abnormal Psychology - Mondays and Wednesdays, 2:30 PM to 4 (Oh, I hope we learn about Dissociative Identity Disorders! *Crosses fingers*)
Advanced Fiction Writing - Tuesdays, 6 PM to 9:10 (Maybe this time I'll actually write for six hours a week!)
Popular Songwritting - Wednesdays, 7 PM to 10:10 (The coolest part? I only have to write one song for the entire semester!)

Here's my fantasy for my Songwriting course: Y'see, at the end of the semester, I have to turn in the song in the form of a performance, either live or recorded. Meanwhile, my brother's girlfriend is the manager of a little-known Psychobilly band called the Formaldabrides (I wish I knew if I was being ironic). I'm hoping I can get them to perform my song. Live would be great, but recorded would be good, too. Of course, I don't know if I can retain the rights to my song...

Meanwhile, I'll probably be spending about three dollars a week printing out four copies of my stories for my Advanced Fiction Writing course, and since my mom stopped sending my money after she left her job to move back in with her parents and keep Grandma company (she has feelings of isolation due to Grampa being hard of hearing), I'll have to get a job of my own. This had me feeling kinda edgy, since it would most certainly interfere with homework and my internet addiction. Then I found out the college's computer lab is looking for office assistants. I figure that being in the college's computer lab, where I'll be printing out my work anyway, wouldn't interfere too much with my school work and getting out of the house might help focus on my writing, so I picked up an application. I wonder if I can put some of my paycheck directly into my print account...

Everyday

What Dave Matthews Band Song Are You (Results Contain Pictures)?
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Bangs Head Repeatedly Against Wall

2006-02-05T11:15:00.000-08:00

First, I would like to start off this post with some tension-releiving cusswords.

Fuck.

God fucking dammit.

God fucking Jesus fucking Christ.

For the luva fucking... fucking... FUCK.

God dammit.

God FREAKIN' dammit.

Dammit, dammit, dammit.

God DAMMIT all. Dammit all to Hell.

Okay, now that I've gotten that out of the way...

Before the end of last year, I went on-line and signed up for classes. Their system was a little different from last year, but it seemed intuitive enough. Or so I thought. I signed up for classes and confirmed my choices.

Or so I thought.

So then February 2006 rolls around, and my schedule hadn't arrived yet. In fact, I received nary a correspondance from my local college. My step-brother, on the other hand, has recieved three letters from them, probably junk. "How odd," I thought to myself, and wondered when they were going to send me my schedule. Thus, I waited until yesterday (Saturday, February 4, 2006) for it to arrive. Since they don't deliver mail on Sundays and classes start Monday, I waited until this morning to look my classes on-line so I can copy down the room numbers.

I logged in and clicked on the link that took me directly to my schedule.

The schedule was empty.

"What the Hell?" I thought. I figured it was just some odd nuance of the system. As classes hadn't actually started yet, perhaps the system didn't think I had an actual schedule yet. Thus, I poked around the site a bit to see where else I could find the classes I thought signed up for.

I clicked on my Course History.

It only went up to Fall 2005.

I checked my schedules for last Fall and Wintersession, thinking that maybe I had accidently signed up for the wrong semester.

I hadn't.

So, going for broke, I clicked on "Drop Classes," hoping to see a list of classes I signed up for. The classes I had chosen were all still listed there, with information on where to go at what time. There were two tables on the page. The one at top, labled as "Preferred Courses," had all the data and next to each course name was a drop down menu. In each drop-down menu were four options: The first was blank, the second was "Register," the third was "Remove from List," and the fourth was "Waitlist." The table below that was labeled "Current Registrations."

I was looking at a shopping cart.

For those of you woefully uninformed, an on-line shopping cart is not unlike a physical shopping cart. It allows you to go around an on-line store and keeps track of the items you wish to purchase until you either remove them from the cart or buy them all together. If you don't do anything with them, they just sit there forever. My college's on-line registration worked on the same principle.

Now, I'm pretty sure I didn't just throw the courses into the cart and expect the clerk to follow me out of the store with them. From my foggy recollection of what I did a couple months ago, what I believe happened was that I saw them on the list and assumed it was a list of classes I registered for, perhaps awaiting automatic processing in a queue. Or, maybe, I clicked the confirmation button at the bottom, expecting the default option to be "Register." There's no telling what bone-headed decision I made, but something tells me I just didn't look at the page hard enough. How was I supposed to know it wasn't going to register by default, other than actually looking at the drop-down list? Perhaps it's just victim mentality, but I think they could've made it a little more obvious.

Well, I suppose there are at least two good things about this major blunder:
1) The books I hadn't bought yet are the least of my worries.
2) I now have more time to look for a job.

Bad things:
1) Having to suffer the indignity of showing up for class to see if I can get an add slip for late registration...
2) ... Only to be turned away because the class is full. The creative writing class I signed up for, for example, has a waitlist to get on the waitlist.
3) In not having a class this semester, I'll need to re-enroll if I want to take one next semester.
4) I'll have to find a job.

All things considered, though, there was one major deception, though not an intentional one. See, when I signed up for classes I was also able to pay for them on-line. Also, when my college raises tuition fees they still expect me to pay the difference eventually. So when I payed for the classes I thought I signed up for, I was actually paying for last semester's classes. So when my credit card bill arrived with three hundred dollars going to my college, I figured those were for my current classes. Although, now that I think of it, at the time I did wonder how much of that went to pay for last semester.

Well, hopefully there'll be less ambiguity next semester, if there is one. This time, I'll know that there's a shopping cart when registering, and I'll be able to pay for rising tuition costs as soon as I know about them.

But now I wonder if it isn't too late to apply for the San Francisco Academy of Art College...

Rate Your Cuteness!
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White Elephant Update

2006-01-02T23:10:00.000-08:00

For those of you who don't know, a White Elephant event is where all the participants bring gifts for no one in particular and everyone takes turns selecting and opening them. This can result in a lot of gag gifts. My family sets the price bar pretty low, so you see a lot of Dollar Store stuff, rummage sale junk, and crap people didn't want taking up space in their house anymore. Last year, someone got an old car radio in the box of the radio that replaced it. The quality varies, of course.

Here's what I got:
*A cap from some transportation company
*a blank postcard
*a little, foam Hertz rental car (possibly a stress toy)
*a single bag of microwavable popcorn
*a CD of Hannukah songs
*the sci-fi book The Howling Stones by Alan Dean Foster
*the sci-fi book Lacey and His Friends by David Drake
*a "Cool Junk" Grime Buggy toy ("This junk ain't junk. How cool is that!")
*a decorative Japanese fan. My sister wanted it real bad, so I traded it for...
*a J!nx t-shirt that reads, "I am not a Geek, I'm a level 12 paladin." Unfortunately, I'm the only one that brought shirts.

Also, my dad's girlfriend forgot didn't get to bring us gifts for Christmas due to confusion about what was going to be happening at the White Elephant party, so she gave us our gifts today. I got another cool shirt out of it. It's one of those tacky, Hawaiian numbers. It's got a real cool design.

Incidently, I also brought four other J!nx shirts to this party. They read, "Carpe Noctem: Seize the night", "The first rule of Computer Club is no one talks about Computer Club", and my personal favorite: "Jesus saves... (on back)...and only takes half damage." Granted, only me and my brother even understood the reference without an explanation, but everyone thought it was funny once it was explained to them. I didn't bring more, since I wanted to keep costs down and certain other reasons. The shirts I considered bringing were, NPC, "You are so off my buddy list", "[Please wait while image loads...]", 42, and, another personal favorite, "I cast level 10 Rock Your World".

Well, I can't think of anything to add, except that my computer sucks. Aside from the viruses that riddle it due to a complete lack of viral protection (my fault, really), it's a wuss when it comes to power outages. While I was typing this up, the power went out for less than a second. Not enough for the VCR to forget what time it was, but just long enough for the computer to shut off, reboot, and run scan disk. Now that sucks.

Which Colossal Death Robot Are You?

What I Got for Christmas, 2005

2005-12-26T18:36:00.000-08:00

I'm not going to lie. I like getting presents at Christmas. I also like to tell people what I got. Feel free to leave a comment bragging about your Christmas booty.

*Socks
*Underwear
*Pajama pants (which I thought I could use more of)
*A yellow towel, which I then traded for a green one.
*Off the Deep-End CD by "Wierd Al" Yankovic. (My mother spent hours searching Rasputin Records for a used copy)
*America (the book): A Guide to Democracy Inaction
*Pocket Guide to the Apocalypse: the Official Field Manual for the End of the World (should be the perfect compliment to my brother's Zombie Survival Guide that I've been reading since he got it for his birthday ^_^;)
*A total of $15
*Tales of Symphonia for the Game Cube.

Eshu. I am one of the great wanderers who
spreads tales of epic battles, heroic quests,
and love lost. I travel the world, the
dreaming, and the stars in search of adventures
and a good tale to weave. I know I am
king of my own land, and see no
reason to bow to any sidhe. I follow my own
rules. I am an artist of a dying craft, and
I will spread my tales as far and wide as
possible to keep the stories alive.

What Type of Changeling Are You? (Now Including Pictures for Each Kith)
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PokeOps Is On-Line! I Guess...

2005-12-20T18:23:00.000-08:00

That's one of the link images for Pokemon: Special Operations. It's the Pokemon role-playing board I at least think I mentioned in a previous post. You can click on it now, in fact.

I'm a little disappointed, though. I signed up expecting it to be like an Invision board, but it isn't. For one, you can't upload images to the board. They have to be linked off-site. I can live with that, but there's another feature missing that's really got me scowling in dismay.

You see, Invision and certain other message board types give you the ability to nest forums (I usually refer to these as "sections," but I'm going with this today). This way, you can pretty much make message boards within your message board. Your users could go into one forum and find several more forums. Unfortunately, I put PokeOps up on ezBoard. On ezBoard, I can make as many forums as I want (within reason) and arrange them how I please, except I can't put forums inside other forums. Granted, what ezBoard has given me is fine, especially since its free, but it's just so... simplistic.

But maybe it's just me. Maybe I had my expectations up a little high. For ezBoard, maybe, but Invision is free as well and you can make an Invision board go much deeper than that. As I stated before, assuming I brought it up at all, the only reason I went with ezBoard is because I already had a Global Account there. The Global Account not only allows me to use one username for every ezBoard in existance, it also allows me to create message boards for free. Thus, a liscense to make a message board. Unfortunately, I failed to take into account that there are certain limitations. Granted, the two I mentioned I wouldn't have known about for sure until I actually tried to make the board, but there's kind of a third problem...

Once the trial period ends (in about... *checks watch* twenty-five days), all the premium features I have access to will be replaced by advertisements. From what I can tell, among those features are the ability to stick threads (thus keeping them at the top of a forum forever) and the ability to close threads (thus preventing people from replying directly to them). Now, I don't know about you, but that sounds like a basic administrative ability to me. I mean, if you don't at least have that kind of power, it makes the whole thing seem rather... impotent. You have no control over the flow of information. Well, aside from deleting posts, threads, and forums, but you can't make any of it seem more important short of adding a "READ THIS" to the title.

From what I can tell, ezBoard is definitely easy. "Baby's First Message Board" easy. Granted, I may be new at this, but I'm pretty sure I can handle the big boy toys. I'm going to look into other free, hosted message board services. Meanwhile, I'm going to wait for comments. If other people approve of it, I might keep it and put a little more elbow grease into the presentation. However, I think I'd rather use something else.

I am Hannibal The Cannibal!

What Kind Of Cannibal Are You?
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Who the ***k is Lola Bunny?

2005-11-09T14:56:00.000-08:00

This question has probably been raised before in regions of cyberspace more devoted to Warner Brothers and its Looney Toons franchise, but I've decided to take issue with Lola Bunny. If you're asking the question in this post's title, Lola Bunny is a yellow-furred anthrophomorphic rabbit first introduced in the movie Space Jam as Bugs Bunny's love interest. I had no animosity towards her then, and I continue to possess none now, but I find myself wondering why variants of her have been created.

As far as I know, the Lola Bunny character, in her original form, has not appeared in any Warner Brothers project since Space Jam. However, the powers that be somehow declared her suitable for bastardization and created a toddler version of her in the series Baby Looney Toons. I won't comment on the series since I have made a point of not watching it because I thought the concept was both ludicrous and outdated. Wasn't Tiny Toons "baby" enough for them? But I digress.

After making up for not having a counter part in Tiny Toons (Babs Bunny doesn't count since she existed first), they went ahead and made the "extreme" version of her in the form of Lunatics Unleashed's Lexi Bunny. Granted, I could also complain that Road Runner's scion, Rev Runner, can talk (as does Tech E. Coyote, but I've seen Wile E. Coyote talk when he was trying to eat Bugs Bunny in one cartoon) or that Slam Tasmanian (Devil) utters a word of English now and then, but I'm not really a purist. I'm just curious.

What I'm curious about is whether or not Lola Bunny is so amazingingly popular. I don't follow the Looney Tunes community at all, so I don't know. Perhaps find one and ask them. Meanwhile, I have to wonder. Did Space Jam fill the Warner Bros. offices to the brim with Lola Bunny fanmail? Did she slowly gain popularity by starring in cartoons I was not previously aware of? Or does she merely fill a quota that Disney satisfied for years with Minnie Mouse and Daisy Duck? I think its the last one.

For the longest time, Warner Brothers's roster of classic cartoon heroes has been a total sausage fest. How many classic female Warner Bros. cartoon characters can you name? Here's what I came up with:
1. Witch Hazel
2. That cat that Pepe le Pew falls in love with in every cartoon except the one with the panther
3. The old hen in Foghorn Leghorn cartoons
4. Granny

That's four characters, and they're not even designed to be attractive. The cat isn't even anthropomorphic enough for a decent figure. The only other female characters I can think of aren't even characters. They're just set dressing for the male characters to ogle at. If Lola Bunny isn't the best female character to appear alongside classics, then she's at least the most modern. Well, I assume. I haven't really seen Space Jam.

Okay, ducks and bunnies, let's see if we can't start a discussion up in here. Who's the better bunny, Lola or Babs? I'm going to say Babs. She was first, she was in more cartoons, and she wasn't designed to be eye candy as far as I know. Think I'm wrong? Click the comment link and prove it!

You're Xander!

What Buffy character are you?
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Santa Cruz Hallowe'en Report 2005

2005-10-31T22:48:00.000-08:00

In Santa Cruz, Halloween is like Burning Man. Except nothing burns. To my knowledge. It's like a big party, man. Downtown is filled with people in costumes and people playing music and performances. One thing I like to do once I get home from that is put up a list of the notable costumes I remember. Usually, I do this at some forum, but this year I'm using my blog. You may expect this list to be updated if I remember more stuff, and I may even add a picture of me in my costume. I was sort of a biker cat guy, although I cheaped out on the cat stuff and wound up looking more like a mouse. One guy actually saw me and said, "Oh, Mickey Mouse. Sort of."

Anyway, on to the list, in no particular order...

*Roy Mustang (Full Metal Alchemist)
*Havock (Full Metal Alchemist)
*Fantanas (Fanta commericials. "Do you / wanna / Have a Fanta?")
*Discarded packing materials knight (Best way I can describe it)
*Mamochi Zabuza (Naruto), sword and all
*Snap (Rice Crispies)
*Crackle (Rice Crispies)
*Pop (Rice Crispies)
*Smathy (Star Control 2)
*Tetrads (Tetris)
*Mario (Super Mario Brothers)
*Waldo (Where's Waldo)
*Frylock (Aqua Teen Hunger Force)
*Master Shake (Aqua Teen Hunger Force)
*Dr. Zoidberg (Futurama)
*The Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man (Ghostbusters)
*Camoflaged (My dad had to point him out to me)
*Megaman X (Megaman X)
*Zero (Megaman X, as opposed to Megaman Zero)
*Free Mamograms (Basically, he had a box on his head with a boob-shaped hole over his face)
*Music Pirate (Eye patch, CD's, anti-RIAA logo)
*Quail Man (Doug, probably the same guy as last year)
*Thing 1 (Cat in the Hat)
*Thing 2 (Cat in the Hat)
*A panda
*Captain Morgan
*Cotton Candy
*Patrick (Sponge Bob Square Pants)
*Neo
*Beatrix Kiddo (Kill Bill)
*California White Snake (Kill Bill)
*Halley Barry's Catwoman (and she was hot)
*Wolverine (X-Men movies) Added November 2, 2005
*Sailor Moon Added November 2, 2005
*Rainbow Brite (Although, I was later informed their were about five of them) Added November 2, 2005
*Hunter S. Thompson (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas) Added November 2, 2005
*The Avian Flu (All I remember is a chicken mask and a sign reading, "Mr. A. Flu") Added November 4, 2005

If you were in Downtown Santa Cruz this year, be sure to leave a comment telling me what your costume was, including a picture if possible. (You may want to host it at Photo Bucket or something) I especially want you to do this if I haven't mentioned you. If I like your costume, I'll add it to my list.

I'm a little particular about what I'll accept. I'm not going to add you to the list if your "costume" looks like something something slutty that you pulled out of your closet (although the picture would be much appreciated), looks like you bought in a store, or is merely a mask/facepaint with your normal clothes. It has to be original, and it should impress me as much as the above list has. (November 2, 2005 edit: Or I might just add it if I really like it anyway)

Anyway, here's hoping you had a great Halloween and a nice All Hallow's Day. I hear it's celebrated with a feast. Too bad I have class that night.

You represent... apathy.
You don't really show any emotion. You can be
considered cruel and cold, but you just don't
really care about anything. This is just the
way you are... you're quite a challenge to get
close to, and others may perceive you as
boring.

What feeling do you represent?
brought to you by Quizilla

I'll need to clear out my quiz result folder soon. A lot of them don't work anymore. One site seems to have stopped operating completely.

Pokemon: Special Operations

2005-09-02T14:22:00.000-07:00

My latest pet project is Pokemon: Special Operations (or PokeOps for short), a webforum-based role-playing game set in the Pokemon world. My desire to start this project began shortly after joining the Mega Man Crosswars RP forum. In one of their non-rp boards, they had a thread devoted to the advertisement of forums own by the players. By golly, if all that concentrated "I've got a forum" didn't get my poser-juices flowing. When one of the players started their own Legend of Zelda RP forum, I started thinking about what subject matter my RP forum would be.

Of all the game I like to play and all the shows I like to watch, only a few struck me as something I knew enough about to run on my own board: Pokemon, Digimon, MedaBots, and my very own MultiPets. As much as I would've liked to start a MultiPets RP forum, precious few people know about it as well as I do, and I'm still in the dark about the details myself. I had always wanted to join a MedaBots RP, but that show's been gone so long I doubt anyone would be interested in playing. (Although, I suppose I could ask around...) The Digimon anime was kinda dead for a while, but now they're showing movies for it again and the manga and card game have still been going strong in Japan. That means there are several new Digimon I know nothing about and will most likely continue not to without serious instruction in the Japanese language. Plus, no one's playing that Digimon RP in my Digimon newsgroup anymore.

That leaves Pokemon. Pokemon clearly still has a good fanbase, as evidenced by the existance of so many games and the upcoming Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness game for the Game Cube. Even the Pokemon RP, PokeWars, in my Pokemon newsgroup still has a few players in it, and it's, like, five years old now. If there's one thing it means, it means I combine the organizational convenience of webforums like Mega Man Crosswars with the rules and spirit of the the PokeWars newsgroup RPG. All I have to do is rewrite the PokeWars FAQ/Rules so it can be divided into multiple posts in different sections of the board. This is giving me a bit of a problem, as I can't figure out what needs to be expressly stated. Maybe I should play it safe and make posts regarding everything.

I'm also trying to work on the name. I'm trying to think of one that might not already be taken by another website but still had the same connotation as PokeWars. That's how I came up with Pokemon: Special Operations. PokeOps sounds silly, parodies game titles with "Ops" in them, and sounds to me like something other sites might disregard. I should probably actually look around, though, in case "Pokemon Revolution" hasn't already been taken.

All I really need is a board. Currently, all the message boards I go to are Invision boards. While clearly an excellent choice, as proven by it's popularity, this makes me want to use a completely different host. Guess on some level, I'm a non-conformist. I see three choices here: 1) EZBoard. I already have an account there from when I used to go to boards hosted there (apparently), and I can use that account to make my own board. Unfortunately, they have a clear preference for me to buy a board and they don't tell me how long the free trial lasts. (I'm going to check their FAQ later, though, if I can find it). 2) Proboards. I hear this is an excellent choice. Unfortunately, I can't remember who I heard it from or if I can trust their input. 3) XSOrbit. I've never heard of them before, but I like their name.

It's also been suggested that I ask the admins of Nintendo's own forums to host the game, since their lively forums should give me a steady influx of new gamers. I'm not comfortable with the idea though. I haven't read their forum, but I have seen it, and I'm not sure if I want to invest my time there. Then again, I don't really know if I want to invest my time with my own board, but this somehow seems like more fun.

So, if you have any ideas, suggestions, or comments, feel free to lay them on me. I'm pretty sure my blog will accept comments from everybody, and I may even give a reply.

You have an intense kiss! You and your partner
connect when you kiss and you forget about the
rest of the world. Hey, call me!!! ^_~

What anime kiss are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

How Do I Fight Someone with a Monty Python Quote?

2005-07-28T15:33:00.000-07:00

Seriously, that's the question I'm asking.

Here's what happened: I'm at the Mega Man Crosswars RP forum, goofing off in their out of character section. I'm Roll. I think everyone believes I'm a girl, but I'm not sure so I remain neutral on that point. That's kinda beside the point of this post, but that's a bit of FYI. Anyway, since Blues/Protoman is Roll's older brother, me and the guy playing him get into a bit of a sibling rivarly. You know how it goes...

I steal one of his sandwiches, he steals my hair ribbon.

I steal his pants, he threatens to tell on me and shave my head.

I threaten to tell on him about the time he (actual quote, by me) "borrowed" that "thing" and "donated it to charity" as an "anonymous gift."

He tells me he sold all my stuff and that I don't have a bed anymore.

I decide to kill him.

That brings us to this page, where Protoman decides to defend himself. Now, maybe I misinterpreted the intent of his post, but he appears to be attacking me with a Monty Python quote. Specifically, "Ni," from the infamous "Knights who say 'Ni'" scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Hankou's post further suggested that interpretation. Perhaps it was the fact that it was almost midnight, perhaps it was the fact that my attention was divided between that and Adventure Quest's Suggestions Board, but I was completely baffled by this and didn't know how to respond. I think what immediately came to mind was "It's only a flesh wound," from a different scene in the same movie, but I felt it was too early in the fight to admit to being wounded. Thus, I go with the second, maybe third, thing to come to mind, the Lumberjack Song. About this time, Protoman sees it fit to start an instant message conversation with me, apparently just to get all up in my grill. It goes something like this:

(AIM SN's changed because I can't remember them)
Protoman: That's right, I went there.
Protoman: How does that fit ya, fancy pants?
Me: I'm not really the biggest fan of Monty Python, but I'm retalliating anyway.
Me: I'm a fan, to be sure, just not a very big one.
Protoman: ...

Maybe fan wasn't the word to use. What I meant to convey was that I didn't have every single line engraved in my cerebellum and ranked by attack strength. I knew I was pretty much fighting a battle of wits unarmed at this point, so I decided to secretly use a life line. I instant messaged a friend, explained the situation, and asked for Monty Python quotes. He suggested the insults the French used in Holy Grail.

In retrospect, I realize there were probably better lines to retalliate with, but none of them came to mind at the time. I don't know how effective these bits would've been, but I probably could have used the Holy Hand Grenade, the Flesh Eating Rabbit, or, my personal favorite, the Beast of ARRRRRRRRRRGH!!! Unfortunately, I was in a bit of a panic since I was now involved in more than a casual conversation, posts seemed to be appear with more frequency than they had a moment before, and I lacked the sense to stop reading the Suggestions Board while a lot of this was going on.

The Lumberjack Song, meanwhile, apparently goes over like a lead balloon, as Hankou claims Protoman had laid the smackdown on me when he countered with a herring. I flounder (no pun intended), not entirely certain this was a Python reference, so I respond with Dead Parrot. Then Protoman hits me with a can of Spam.

My AIM buddy comes finally coughs up a French insult, specifically, "I... FART in your gen'ral direction! Your mother was a hampster, and your father smelt... of elderberries!" Protoman replies my slapping me, saying that I insulted my own parents as well (I'm playing his sister, remember?). This apparently disrupted the rhythm of the battle as he has stopped using Monty Python, but I continue with another French insult.

This prompts Protoman to hit me with Rolling Cutter, switching the battle to Robot Master weapons. I counter with Flying Saucers, a Robot Master weapon of my own design, and he follows up with Flame Sword and Giga Crush Death. I don't recognize either attack, since I haven't played Mega Man 8 yet or any game outside "Classic" continuity except Battle Network 4, so, tired and hungry, I let myself get crushed.

He gloats and tells me to make him a sandwich. I tell him I can't like a sexist remark like that go unanswered, and retaliate by crushing myself with a space ship. That was sort of hari kari, as I had felt embarrassed at getting served like that. At least, I think I was served. I was going to hit him with that spaceship, but I didn't feel like prolonging the fight.

This stuck in my mind far longer than I think it should have. When I made the decision to write this post, I thought it ought to write it with bitterness and rage and top it off with a "Damn right, I'm taking this too seriously! But don't you tell me how I should feel about it! I lost face in front of these people, and I don't know how to get them to respect me!" But, now that I've had lunch and reread some of those posts, I don't think anyone cared nearly as much as I did what happened. I jusst felt stupid and slow-witted for not having thought up adequate Python quotes, although the ones I used were probably just fine. I put too much pressure on myself and was too concerned about making an entertaining tete-a-tete, or however that's spelled. Granted, Hankou's commentation didn't sound like I was putting up a good fight, but it's not like I was dancing like I was having an epileptic seizure out there. Hankou's posts only came after Protoman's and didn't mention me doing anything, so I imagine that if she posted after I did it would look like I got a good hit or two in as well.

Que sera, sera. What happens, happens. You just gotta have fun with it.

Your anime hair color is blue.

What is your anime hair color?
brought to you by Quizilla

That Soulless Bastard. He Took Over My Dead Cat

2005-07-11T06:39:00.000-07:00

When I decided to blog this, I wasn't sure I could stop crying long enough to actually type this, but my computer took so long to boot up I think I might be able to handle it now.

Minutes ago I woke up from what I now consider the worst dream I ever had. The bulk of it wasn't even any stranger than how my dreams normally go. It was the end that got to me, even after I woke up.

Only this last scene is relevant. There was this bad guy, I don't know who he was, but he had managed to upload his mind into the computer system of a futuristic house. We managed to get him out of the system and into a throw pillow, from which he telepathically threatened and demanded of us. I wrapped him up and had taken out back to be destroyed. But it wasn't until after this had been done that we figured it was a bad idea, because now he could be in anything, the computers again, a toothbrush, someone else... anywhere.

Then the water aliens showed up because he had been misusing their technology. I had to break the news to them and we started brainstorming on how to figure out where he was when I saw him, or rather her. My cat, Fluff, who had died last year and was apparently buried in the backyard (for purposes of the dream. She was, in fact, cremated) was trotting through the house as if it were no big deal.

That soulless bastard. He took over my dead cat.

I was all "Oh, no you didn't!" and we leapt into action. One of the aliens caught her and I was talking smack to her. "You're in trouble now, young lady. Or should I say old lady?" Although, while I was talking smack, she looked like my grandmother's grey cat (who is probably also dead by now) with a suitably comically horrified look on its face. Anyway, it was Fluff again when he was throwing a fit, clawing and screeching and telepathically cursing and all that. The alien had me hold her as we took her outside to their car. Meanwhile, the screeching had taken on the quality of the sound that accompanies a test pattern and my ears were ringing when I woke up.

The aliens had a dolly set up outside, but it was designed to restrain a human so the aliens had to dig around in their trunk for the cat carrier. Meanwhile, this guy, I guess he was the groundskeeper 'cause he looked kinda like Scruffy from Futurama, came out from around the house with some equipment and started putting it in the car. I didn't know if he knew about Fluff or not, so I tried to hide her from him while trying to hold her tightly so she wouldn't escape. Her body was in pretty good condition (she had died in her sleep), although the hair around her mouth was matted down and gunky like when she got sick, so anyone could've assumed she was still alive at first glance. I was still holding her as I was waking up, and was even a little reluctant to let go of her after I realized she wasn't in bed with me.

I kinda choked up just thinking about writing up that last sentence. Thinking about writing the next paragraph is making my eyes water.

I kinda lay there for a while, thinking about Fluff. When my brother had found her, she was laying under a bush near our house. She had been staying outside because the fleas were too much for her to handle. My brother, trying not to cry and trying not to laugh because he was failing to, said she looked like she was asleep. I couldn't bear to look at her, even when he and my dad put her into a box. We took her to the vet to have her cremated. She was put on a table in a room just off the waiting room so we could say our last goodbyes. I didn't even want to look into the room, but my brother assured me we were supposed to be in there (I looked like I was being a look-out) and urged me to look at Fluff. Aside from the lack of breathing and other movement, she looked like she was only sleeping and would wake up at any moment. My brother had made sure she wasn't dirty and there were no bugs on her. I had many cats die on me, one even had what I think were death throes as I held his box to my lap on the way to the vet, but this was the only one I recall having seen the body of. I realized that I didn't want to look at her because I knew I was going to cry, and that's exactly what happened. I'm practically crying right now just thinking about it.

Even as I relived that horrible moment and thought of how the dream could be incorporated into a story, one sentence repeated intermittently in my mind:

"That soulless bastard took over my dead cat."

What Creepy Anime or Supernatural Anime Being Are You?

New MultiPets Post Up, Webcomic is Dead Again

2005-06-21T18:52:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I've got a new MultiPets post on the MultiPets blog. I only put one there because I told my Fiction class about it, but I do intend to put more on.

As for the webcomic, my heart just isn't in it. I find that happens to me a lot. I start something, lose interest, and never work on it again. Of course, purposely not working on it so I can focus on homework over the semester didn't help much, either. I still have an idea or two, but I'm not as excited about it anymore. The magic's just gone and I don't think I care enough to get it back. Hell, I don't even feel like fixing the main page anymore.

I started reading Twisted Kaiju Theater recently, but only on the off-chance there was an on-going saga starring the Kaiju Girls hidden somewhere among the photo-comics starring Godzilla toys. Sure, there were some black-and-white K-Girl comics, but nothing on the magnitude of plot suggested by some of the profiles in the gallery. I figured as such after reading the first year of strips in their five or so year-long archive.

Quick Japanese vocabularly lesson: "Kaiju" means monster, and is used as a blanket term to describe Godzilla and his ilk. A better term, as their FAQs suggest, is "Daikaiju," which means giant monster or great monster or something. The Kaiju Girls, or "K-Girls," are sexy and frequently nude female anthromorphizations of Daikaiju that can be found in the site's K-Girl gallery. In case it's necessary for you to know, a lot of the art and fanfics are pornographic in nature, and some may even be considered pedophilia (Imomu, in particular). I drew a few K-Girls myself, but I've lost interest in coloring them in since, last I checked, Shin-Goji (the site's owner) is no longer accepting new characters. Plus, one of them was Gamera, which he seems to have something against. She is hot, though.

I have a picture of one of them up on my website, actually, but since she's not based on an established character I don't think I can really call her a K-Girl. She's more of an anthromorphic coyote. Granted, I could say she's based on Ralph (I think his name is) from the video game Rampage, but her coloration is all wrong. I think I put the pictures here. Whattaya think? Shaggadelic, or just shaggy?

Let's see... I wish I had something else to say... Aw, well. Here's another test result... Oh, yeah, and my usenet access is just fine now. It's just painfully, painfully slow.

Purple! You have purple eyes! You're a dreamer,
artist, poet, whatever. You enjoy all forms of
art and literature, and tend to be quite good
at creating them as well.

What Color Are Your Anime Eyes?
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I Seem to be Having Tremendous Difficulty with My Usenet Access

2005-05-01T17:15:00.000-07:00

For those of you who don't know, I hang out in newsgroups alt.games.nintendo.pokemon and alt.fan.digimon. Since I refuse to pay for usenet access, I need to find free newsservers. After news.individual.net decided to become a pay service, I switched to usenet.com, the self-proclaimed "Best Free Usenet Newsgroups Server in the World" (they're the best because they're free!). Aside from being terribly slow (I think the server is in Asia), I haven't had many problems until last night. I keep getting an error about some sort of temporary license expiring, and none of my newsgroups appear to be on the server anymore. I don't really care to try to find a new free newsgroup server, so if this problem doesn't go away on its own I might have to resort to using Google Groups for my usenet needs.

On a happier note, guess whose birthday coincides with the premeire of every new Star Wars movie in recent memory? No. No, guess again. No, you're not even trying. Oh, for the luva... It's me, all right? My birthday is May 19, the same day Revenge of the Sith comes out. Coincidently, it's also the same day my Final Project in Flash class is due for user-testing. This'll be my best 24th birthday ever, assuming I don't decide to start lying about my age for some reason.

Okay, remember when I said I enterred a Nintendo Power contest years ago to create a Robot Master for MegaMan 6? Well, I decided to look through my Nintendo Power archive to see who did win. It didn't take long, since I already had the issue out to use the strategies in MegaMan Anniversary Collection. In volume 55 (December 1993) a sidebar at the end of their article for MegaMan 6 mentions what anyone who already beat the game already knew: which two bosses were not created by the Japanese. Specifically, they were Knightman (by Daniel Valle of St. Julie, Quebec) and Windman (by Micheal Leader of Gouldsboro, Pennsylvania). However, at the time I was really looking for the issue where they showed off their favorite entries. By bizzare coincidence, that showcase began on the same page as the MegaMan 6 article, except eleven issues earlier. There, just before the MegaMan 5 article was the art of everyone who could draw better than me as of Volume 44 (January 1993).

I discovered a few things whilst perusing those periodicals. One, it apparently took less than a year to create a new Megaman for the NES and localize it for American audiences. Two, Knightman was not among NP's favorite entries. Three, Windman was, but he looked completely different. However, that was only because THIS Windman was submitted by Micheal Niedda of Dale City, VA. And now, for no good raison, I will list each and every one of them, along with the name and city of their creators, and whatever captions NP put next to them (and my own comments). I bet they've all moved or something by now anyway, so I doubt I'll be putting them in much danger of stalking. See if any of them remind you of actual MegaMan bosses.

Page 1 (well, technically page 76)

Bee Man - Yusef Cardiel of San Francisco, CA. "You can bet your last stinger I ain't makin' no honey! Look out for my Yellow and Black attack, Mega Man!" (I cannot imagine what a "Yellow and Black attack" is.)
Dart Man - David Nelson of Dredsen, NY. (Has a dart board on his chest)
Blade Man - Jason Hundley of Collinsville, VA. (Has a sword for an arm instead of an arm cannon)
Freeze Man - Greg Hill of Cherry Hill, NJ. "I know Greg was only trying to create a robot that could freeze Mega Man in his tracks, but... hey! Greg! I froze myself! Help me out, huh?" (He does look like he's a little frozen)
Optic Man - Tom Melgaard of Phoenix, AZ. (The dude's a giant eyeball with a tail.)
Balloon Man - Sara Wischnewski of Wilkes-Barre, PA (has balloons on his back and coming out of his head. Doesn't look to bad, but is probably the worst-drawn of the lot. And he still looks better than what I drew.)
Scorpion Man - Tom Benedict Jr. & Tom McNamara III of Broomall, PA. (He's a scorpion, but he has two tails)

Page 2:

Smoke Man - Ulyesses Johnson II of Pensacolo, FL. "I have a way of quickly 'exhausting' my opponents. Mega Man will no doubt succumb to my Smoke Bomb Attacks." (Kinda resembles a green, brown, and black Fire Man with smoke coming out of his head)
Sun Man - Mark Lopez of Pinedale, CA. (Has a sun for a head, and judging from the spirit bomb above him he has pretty much the same attack as Pharoah Man)
Volt Man - Marcel LaMontagne of Ste. Helen, Quebec. (Plugs for hand and head, and a socket on his chest)
Yo-Yo Man - Andy Adams of Sandusky, OH. (I was wondering where MegaMan.exe got those Yo-Yo battlechips...)
Copter Man - Phil Rivera of Haledon, NJ. "I have the ability to attack from almost any angle. Watch out, Mega Man. You'll never know what hit you after I attack!" (Picture a hunchbacked Gyroman, but with out the struts on his feet.)
Plasma Man - Gerson Sanchez of Brooklyn, NY. (I'm reminded of Transformers whenever I see this guy)
Clone Man - Ty Stalnaker of Longwood, FL. "Dr. Wily made me just like that fool, Mega Man. However, my Mega Buster is twice as powerful. Hey, wait a minute. I just called myself a fool. Hmmm. This may be more difficult than I expected." (This one's a crudely-drawn, pink MegaMan with gray skin. Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't there already a MegaMan clone in the first game?)
Spring Man - Micheal Rocco of Kenmore, NY. "I'm gonna bounce all over my room until I land on your puny little head, Mega Man! Super-long jumps will propell me to an easy victory!" (Trust me, this guy isn't walking anywhere)
Diamond Man - Jose Daniel De Hoyos of Deltona, FL. (not a bad drawing... OF GEMINIMAN)
Also on this page are three Rush Adaptors: Rush Cannon by Greg Wilson of Corpus Christi, TX; Rush Cycle by Nik Fournier of Manchester, NH; and Rush Pellet Gun by Scott Koehler of Oceanside, NY. Personally, I prefer the Rush Cycle, despite being badly drawn and miscolored.

Page 3:

Atom Man - Logan Addington of Burton, MI. "I may be vulnerable to your attacks, Mega Man, but you'll pay the price if you get in the way of my Radioactive Cloud Attack. Your little blue suit will be glowing green when I finish with you!" (Fire Man, only taller, thinner, and spewing toxic waste)
Steam Man - Thurston Long of Kansas City, MO. "Is it a little hot in here, or is it just me? Well, it must be me! That's too bad for you, Mega Fool. My scorching-hot Steam Bombs will scald your blue hide when you try to jump over me." (Sort of a combination of Fire Man and Air Man)
Glue Man - James Yan of Carmel, IN. Glue Man presents an awefully sticky situation for Mega Man. "First, I'll paste Mega Man with my a blast from my Glue Cannon. Then, I'll charge and bash him with my spiked head!" (Yeah, no Robot Master in the history of MegaMan ever needed special equipment to just walk right into you. It's more annoying than being frozen by them. If anything, this guy has a two-hit combination for instant Mega Death. Also, the best drawn Robot Master in the showcase.)
Dial Man - Mike Ster & Andrew Namias of Wantagh, NY. (The guy's a phone with a rotary dial)
Magic Man - Jason Clayton of St. Marys, OH. (Certainly doesn't look like the Magic Man from NT Warrior, but I'll have to check and see if he resembles the one from the classic series. I kinda doubt it, though. He's a little squat)
Storm Man - Herman Lau of Edmonton, AB. (Has an arm that generates thunder clouds and a propellor on his head)
Clock Man - Evan Cosman of Melbourne, FL. "The clock struck four and I blew Mega Man out the door! Flash Man didn't really know how to use the Time Stopper, but I do. It's my specialty!" (Clock face. 'Nuff said. The beginning of that caption sounds familiar, though...)
Frost Man - Scott Machicote of West Islip, NY. (Has an ice block for shorts)
Whip Man - Joe John Guerro of Baytown, TX. (Whip it! Uhn! Whip it good! He's got on in his hand and on his head.)
Weaseletta & Terror Teddy - Grasyon Schuler of Madison, NC. "I'm not daddy's little girl. I'm daddy's MEAN little girl!" Dr. Wily's daughter is a terror! This is especially true when she climbs aboard her robotic toy of destruction, Terror Teddy! "My daddy will always come back for more... and so will I!" (Next to the picture of this punkish, pig-tailed tyke is her inside the patchy Terror Teddy. Nice idea for a one-time Wily Stage boss, but returning for every game? She also seems a little young to be old man Wily's daughter, unless he likes women considerably younger than him. Besides, I never really thought of Wily as having time for dating, much less children. Then again, making her a boss might be the only way he can spend time with her...)
A side bar on this page is reserved for two feminine entries, the imaginatively-named Mega Woman (by Maxime Mercier of La Tuque, Quebec) and Mega Girl (by Matt Cargile of Lewiston, ME). Mega Woman is rather busty and has definite rainbow theme going, while Mega Girl is pink, sassy-looking, and has Dr. Wily's logo on her chest. I think her coloration is the reverse of the Mega Girl that appeared in an episode of Captain N: The GameMaster.

Before I go on to the last page of the showcase, I feel compelled to mention the dream I had once. I was reading an issue of Nintendo Power in a wicker chair on this porch when I came across a similar article. The only difference was that all the Robot Masters were female, and one of them said something about taking over. I have to wonder why none of the Robot Masters were ever female. Even in Battle Network and NT Warrior, the only important female Navi I've seen is Roll. All the other female Net Ops own male Navis. That's just so odd. I wonder what can be done about that...

Anyway, on to Page 4:

Slice Man - Ryan Magyar of West Mifflin, PA. (He's no Slashman, I'll tell you that. He's like Wolverine in a hood)
Power Man - Jason Mioduszewski of Libson, CT. (Remember Volt Man? He was drawn better)
Blade Man - Lagerriat Tounes of Chicago, IL. (Aside from having a sword for an arm, no resemblance to the previous Blade Man. The swords replace both of this guy's hands and there's one glued to his head)
Spook Man - Kenny Simpson of Agoura Hills, IL. "I do a lot more than say 'BOO!' My supernatural Spook Shield will protect me against blasts from your wimpy Arm Cannon, Mega Man. I'll strike fear in your metallic soul!" (Possibly drawn worse than Baloon Man. The sheet hanging over this guy doesn't quite cover his Jetsons-style hover unit, and he is shown performng his Spook Shield technique. About here I start to wonder if coloring in my submission would've made much of a difference)
Blader Man - Noel Schornhorst of Forth Smith, AZ. (Green, shiney, and accompanied by one of those flying heads from the first game.)
Black Man - Kevin Vogt of Victoria, BC. (In no way African, but he does have some black on his costume.)
Wind Man - Micheal Niedda of Dale City, VA. "Mega Man has no idea what he's gotten himself into now! I'll downgrade him against the far wall with one of my blustering Hurricane Shots. There's no eye of the storm' with me!" (As I said before, not the same Wind Man as in the game. Different look, different creator. Blue, black, and looks kinda like Nezzerschmidt from Gad Guard)
Uranium Man - Randy Fiske of Twin Lakes, WI. (Dark blue, radiation symbols, and his arm cannon spouts dark blue flames)
Cosmic Man - Luke Yezik of Slatington, PA. "With my ability to transform into a comet and blaze all around the room, Mega Man won't have a hope in the entire Cosmos!" (Looks like a nuclear Crash Man)
Insect Man - Brain Davis of Wills Point, TX. (Kinda like Gyroman, except for the bug parts)
Clown Man - Eugene Han of Ridgewood, NJ. "HA HA HA! Mega Man is no match for my comical Cartwheel Attack and Sonic Laugh. First he'll laugh . . . Then he'll cry!" (A good drawing, except it was obviously drawn on graph paper)
Nuke Man - Jamie Fitzhugh of Cambridge, MD. "4... 3... 2... 1... Goodbye, Mega Man!!! If you can't find a way to deactivate me, it'll be Judgement Day for all of us!"

The last side bar here mentions that a similar contest was held in Japan for Mega Man 5. (I remember hearing that they did that for most of the MegaMan games). What I like is the part that says, "If we're lucky enough to see a Mega Man VI from Capcom, we might just see some of these designs included." It's especially funny considering they reviewed MegaMan 6 by the end of the year, and even more so when Adam Sessler and Morgan Webb whine and moan about how Capcom just won't let the series die. Let's see, that's eight MegaMan games, eight MegaMan X games, five MegaMan Battle Network games, and four MegaMan Zero games. That's twenty-five games, plus MegaMan & Bass, the Power Fighters, the Power Battles, four or five MegaMan games on the Game Boy, MegaMan Soccer, and a few more games that I'm sure I forgot. Lucky, indeed. Lucky, lucky, lucky.

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