Happy birthdaversary. I am 22. The website is not.
Happy birthdaversary. I am 22. The website is not.
Wow. I suppose it’s due time for an update. I really don’t have any excuse for not typing as long as I have, unless you count being preoccupied by video games. I got Abe Unleashed for his birthday. It’s interesting. We installed it yesterday, at least on his computer. It doesn’t seem to want to work on mine, which I guess doesn’t surprise me at all considering my computer’s history with The Sims. Anyway, I played it. This morning for some reason I spent an hour playing Tetris Deluxe on Abe’s translucent purple (why..?) Game Boy Color. I think there is something wrong with the speaker on it so I connected it to my computer speakers. That is a sad, sad statement right there. Why is Tetris music so good? Anyway, tomorrow’s my birthday, and the website’s. This here is version 3.0ish. Version 2.0 was born on my birthday of last year. Isn’t that exciting? December is a fun month. I am so tired now. Merry Holidays.
Who’s typing this in the Apple Store? I am!
thing 1: I really like McChicken sandwiches (no lettuce). I think that’s partially because there’s chicken there, but it’s also just great to say, “McChicken.” It’s the American food. It’s the peoples’ food. Yessir.
thing 2: I’m not sure what to think of those bell-ringers who pop up this time of year. They seem like they’re doing a good thing, but it also seems like the majority of them hate it. Which makes you wonder; because you would think if they wanted money from you, they’d be nice to you, or possibly civil? I know that not all of them are like that, but some.
thing 3: Why do Wal-Mart and McDonalds both think it so necessary to cater to the every whim of the elderly? Wal-Mart has endless rows of handicapped spaces in every parking lot (yes, I know that not every handicapped person is elderly and not every elderly person is handicapped, but it certainly seems like it), forcing those who aren’t lucky enough to be blessed with the blue tag to walk miles to get to their store. McDonalds has actually re-introduced segregation in their separate seating sections (at least at the one in Point) for the elderly. This could be advantageous in that it keeps them out of my sight, but then they’re still sitting everywhere else too. Perhaps the entire place should be segregated, between: high school punks, college students with water as a beverage, miscellaneous loud-talking people, people who sit by themselves and take the whole newspaper, and finally, the elderly.
thing 4: I worry a little about losing two people who are/were very close friends of mine. Both are about my age. One goes to school with me…or, I should say, goes to the same school as I do, while the other still lives in the same town as our high school. I went to high school with both of these people (and elementary school with one of them), but it just seems like we’ve grown apart and it’s just been impossible to bring them back. I’m not saying that I’m unhappy with the friends I have, it’s just that it feels as though I’m losing them, and I’m pretty frustrated in that all my efforts to reconnect have been shot down.
thing 5: I can’t remember what thing 5 was. I had it in my head on the walk over, but it vanished not long after arriving. I could state some miscellaneous thoughts. My knee hurts. I’m not sick anymore, really. I wonder what’s up with Strong Bad this week? I wonder if anyone’s actually reading this besides me? We watched Along Came a Spider, Goldmember, and Enough over the weekend, and those were all good. I wish someone would email me. I’m tired now.
So, it’s (finally) December, and in spite of the cold weather, I love this month…not only is it the month of Christmas meaning I can add to my inventory of electronics, but it’s also Abe’s birthday (12/18) and mine as well (12/24). I’ve kind of been holding out on doing this until at least until after Thanksgiving, but without further ado, here is my Christmas list: (whooo!)
…but, I am sick. I started to get sick on Tuesday, when I was nearly frozen wherever I went. Then Tuesday night I found a commercial for the Mitsubishi Outlander that has a horsie in it. Then I went to bed, and dreamt that I was thousands of little robots unified to become a person but the robots wouldn’t all unify and let me go to sleep. Needless to say, I don’t exactly sleep well that night. So then Wednesday came and I had to go to Point, despite the fact that I was sick, because I had to physically drop something off there…so as you know, I brought home my books as well. So I went to work Wednesday afternoon despite the fact that I then possesed the requisite “cold voice” and I had Thanksgiving Thursday and that was good, by the way, and then I went to work yesterday too. Sometime yesterday morning, the “cold voice” gave way to the “I’m loosing my voice” voice, which is sort of a combination between and old lady who’s smoked way too many cigarettes and a boy reaching puberty. So I weathered that out as much as I could, until I finally gave up and left an hour early yesterday. Of course, I could at least talk yesterday…today, I’m lucky if I can make an entire sentence that’s audible. I guess yesterday was also the biggest shopping day of the year. I’m not sure it made a huge difference at my job, it was all pretty standard fare. I didn’t buy anything yesterday–scratch that; I bought DayQuil–but I do have a fraction of Christmas shopping done, thankfully. It will be interesting to see what I come up with this year. I’m tired…no, I’m not. I have a habit of saying I’m tired even when I’m not, and I really am just not wanting to be somewhere anymore. So I think I’ll go now, and perhaps write a speech. Whoo.
You know, if there’s ever anything you want to see just let me know.
Well, I finally had a chance to bring home the books I bought last week:
Seriously; that’s all I could carry.
So I’ve already mentioned that we checked out 007 Saturday night, but we also went to see Fiddler on the Roof at Marathon, and it was really, seriously, genuinely very good. The music was great and one of the really nice things about that particular theater is that it’s smaller, so they can do without microphones altogether. But now, anyway, I cannot get the music out of my head. I’ve downloaded some choice songs, but I may need to purchase the album (the London cast, please) in the near future. Thanksgiving is also coming up. I don’t quite know how to feel about that. I’ll be spending the day at my parents’. I’m not exactly looking forward to work Friday; I predict that it may be rather busy, considering that it’s the supposed “biggest shopping day of the year.” I guess I don’t mind work all that much, but it’s still work. I guess I can only be thankful that I get paid for it. Okay…well, I just bought the CD I was talking about.
So we just recently got back from seeing Die Another Day. I won’t give anything away except for the fact that it is, quite possibly, the best Bond movie ever. Seriously. I loved it; go see it; it’s worth it. That is all.
I daresay, I think my car is the best-looking in the parking lot at the moment. I’m not sure that that’s really saying a whole lot though, considering the contenders: -an old Plymouth minivan (blue) -an ’89-ish Bonneville (black) -a ’96-ish Lumina (blue) -an old Buick Century (maroon) -a ’97-ish Chrsyler Sebring coupe (silver) Well, it’s at least the best-looking import.
Pressing the “delete” key on this Mac to delete my email in Outlook makes me feel empowered.
So, get this: our University bookstore, in an attempt to unload some of their inventory of used books, is currently holding an “all you can carry for $10″ sale. So, needless to say, I took advantage of that. I have so many books now that I don’t even know what they all are. There are some Math Ed ones in there for Abe, and some architectural/interior design ones, and some Psych ones that I may give as Christmas presents. Oh yeah, and some obscure German ones. Then I also got some other ones that I can’t even remember; at least one of them had the word “Quantum” in the title. So, despite the fact that my arms are now sore-r (?) than they’ve ever been, today has been a good day. OOOOOOh… and the new BMW movie should be out today too.
Yay!
Unfortunately, due to my current lack of a GameCube or Game Boy Advance, I’ve not been able to try Prime or Fusion as of yet. They came out yesterday, and I was so excited despite the fact that I didn’t have any reason to buy them.
In honor of this, though, I spent half the weekend playing Super Metroid, which rocks out in its own special way. To be quite honest, I pretty much love every aspect of that game. I’ve yet to come across another title that is quite as creative, with the exception of the Final Fantasy series, but I can actually finish Super Metroid. The original Metroid is a different story. It’s freakin’ hard, supporting the theory that many games have become easier as systems become better. Note the Sonic and Mario franchises; I can get way farther in their newer versions than I could in the originals. I think the invention of “save points,” is, at least by me, very appreciated. Here’s a random thought; I wonder if I should start playing Oddworld again. I sorta quit that game at some point and I don’t know why. Boy, I’m hungry. Can you tell? Anyway, I suppose that’s as good an excuse as any to depart. Adios.
PS: Oh yeah, I found this and this. My birthday’s coming up soon.
Well, remember that whole GameCube dilemma? The one where I whined and whined about the inability to choose between the systems? Well, the decision has been officially made. I hereby announce by new allegiance to the Nintendo GameCube. Why, you may ask? Sonic Mega Collection is why. How can I resist? So I naturally emailed Nintendo to find out whether they have any plans to offer the Mario bundle with the black ‘Cube, ever. That would be excellent. Another thing that has made the decision easier is the fact that the PS3 will more than likely be, once again, backwards compatible. So I’ll hold out on that, and get my Sonic fix now. Mmmmm.
I am exhausted. I wasn’t exhausted an hour ago, but rock climbing tends to do that to you. It makes you aware of every muscle in your hands and arms. It doesn’t make you sore, except in the fingers a bit, it just makes you feel solid, in a manner of speaking. It’s a strange feeling, because your hands and fingers fix themselves in a single position after you’re finished, and it takes a tremendous amount of effort to move them. Typing, surprisingly, is not so bad, but I’m grateful that I don’t have a class immediately after that requires note-taking. I am grateful, also, that I even made it to the computer lab, as I was thinking the entire walk over here that I just wanted to lie down some more. But I can’t, and that’s why I’m here. I think I have some sort of aversion to sleeping in public. Go figure.
A week later, I’m writing also of my Halloween experiences. It was a fun, albeit somewhat disappointing day. I was kind of surprised to find that nearly nobody at school dressed up. And since I have a sort of bandwagon instinct, I left the horse in the car. I also found that my rock climbing class was cancelled, even though I was already there for it, which means, due to my other class being cancelled, I wouldn’t have had to be at school until 14:00, instead of the usual 9:00. It is sad. However, I gladly wore my costume to work later on, which is always fun, and time always passes really quickly when you’re wearing a horse suit at work. Unfortunately, and rather surprisingly, I did not win the costume contest (again) which is really surprising, when you consider the winner was Spongebob, which basically amounted to a large cardboard box and a badly-drawn face. Foiled yet again by undersea life; that seems to be the way it goes. Anyway, we then decided to go out for dinner afterwords, and I became a dog for the remainder of the evening. Abe wore his tuxedo that he may or may not have mentioned, I’m not sure; he’s very proud of it and wears it almost daily now. Well, not really. But anyway, he was some sort of tuxedo’d guy, a secret agent perhaps, but with tails. He had two compared to my one. Our friend George (it’s an alias, don’t be fooled), didn’t have any tails at all, because she was, of course, a whore. Not one of your cheap contemperary whores, though; she was a 19th-century whore. Oddly enough, I didn’t feel out of place at all in my dog-ness, despite the lack of costumes in the restaurant we went to. It was a fun night, and it didn’t involve any sort of sex whatsoever.
Speaking of which, I wonder why the library has a bathroom with a condom dispenser? It just strikes me as odd that you’d be studying in the computer lab, but then you’d suddenly need to go get some, but you’re responsible enough to stop in the bathroom first and pick up some sort of wang-hat? Just wondering, is all, and I really wanted to use the phrase “wang-hat.”
Over the past few days, I’ve been realizing more and more how extremely satisfied I am with my car. Let’s take a look at the facts, shall we? It’s a 1992 Honda Accord LX station wagon, in Opal Green Metallic over Sand cloth interior. I believe it listed for slightly under $20K new, I bought it for $2700 from Abe when he bought his Volvo. Since then, I’ve probably spent another $1000 on maintainance and repairs (distributor, electrical relay, exhaust, oil changes, light bulbs, wiper blades), still well under the blue book for this car. The transmission’s a 4-speed automatic, with a 125 horsepower naturally aspirated inline 4 cylinder engine, which displaces either 2.3 or 2.4 litres. Or maybe 2.2; it’s been awhile since I checked. This drives the front wheels. I just got the oil changed at 123,000 miles last Friday. The car has power windows and locks, remote keyless entry was added later on (by Abe) as well as a remote starter, which is nonfunctional at the moment. It has the original factory speakers but the factory cassette deck has been upgraded to a Sony Xplod CD player, rated at 52 watts peak x 4. It has a luggage capacity of 34.5 cubic feet with the back seats up, probably twice that with them down, and can easily hold a full-sized mountain bike, but is not quite long enough for a six-foot person to lie comfortably in with the rear hatch shut. Speaking of which, the hatch ajar light now remains on despite the hatch being shut and locked. The right passenger window rattles horribly when not rolled up quite right; the left one needs major assistance to even meet the seals after being rolled up. There are various cracks, scratches, and dents on the inside and outside of the car, but nothing major. One of the center caps for the wheels is missing, so the other three spend their time in the wheelwell. On that subject, there is a full-sized spare tire. There are only three settings for the intermittant wipers in the front, and only one setting for the rear wiper, but there are spray washers for both. There is no roof rack, nor is there a sunroof or ABS, but there is a cargo cover that can be moved around in multiple configurations, something that is very neat but really just gets in the way (it is thankfully removable). There are headrests for all 4 main passenger seats, and all are adjustable and removable. The back seat bottoms fold forward, after which the seatbacks fold down, making for a nearly flat load floor. Yesterday, Abe, Abe’s dad, and I removed the badging and dealer icon from the trunk of the car, leaving only the Honda emblem. There is a handle on the trunk to open it without the key, and there is also a lock on the trunk, inside, that locks all the doors. Since coming into my ownership in June of 2001, I’ve jump-started 6 cars. Most recently Abe’s, 20 minutes ago. The car has never had a problem that delayed me for more than 15 minutes, and never caused me to be late to anywhere that I needed to be. This is the fourth car I’ve owned and the first one that I will be sad to give up, most likely for a new VW or Audi when the time comes. I will sincerely miss it, sentiments that were (and are still, she said it was her favorite car) felt by Abe’s mom and Abe after it came into my ownership. This car is the best I’ve ever owned. It’s reliable, fast, nimble, practical, and great-looking. And that’s that. It’s not for sale, unless you’d like to trade for an allroad. Maybe.
Well, it’s cold… and that means it must be November.
Wow. It’s almost exactly 12 hours later. Anyway, the rest of yesterday was fun too. I think. I know that we went to look at shoes, and while we were there, I heard this song on the radio. Of course, it was a song I liked, and of course, I didn’t know who sang it, so, of course, they neglected to mention the title of it. Well, thankfully, after about an hour of searching last night, I was able to find it. It turned out to be The Middle by Jimmy Eat World. Thank the lord, it was driving me nuts, alright, alright, alright. Anyway, I played Sega GT way too long today. I think I have a love/hate relationship with that game; that is, I love it when I win and I can’t stand it when I don’t. But it is performing as expected; it’s no GT, but it’s good nonetheless. We went to Rocky Rococco’s yesterday, which I think may be Abe’s most favorite restaurant in the world. And conveniently, it has also just opened in our town. This is good, because I have escaped the obligation of bringing him pizza from the one in Point. Now he can get his home. I mention Rocky Rococco’s because it reminds me that we had a conversation in which, basically, Abe stated that he does not believe “nefarious” is a real word. I tried to convince him that it was, but he didn’t believe me either. Hmmm. I was also thinking that a really great bumper sticker would be: I’m with stupid! and in smaller letters below: Bush-Cheney. This came about because I saw this great Audi A6 Avant except for the fact that it had a big ugly BUSH-CHENEY sticker on it. I can’t stand Bush, so that made me sad. It’s even worse than the “LIVE ANIMALS” sticker that Abe’s brother put on his Audiwagon. Which brings me back to Sega GT. I was ecstatic to find that they had included the Audi A6 2.7T in the game. So I naturally bought one, and was amazed at how fast it actually was. So then I naturally modified it, meaning I now have an 800+ horsepower A6 in my garage. That is a strange thought. Next, I’d like to see an offroad racing game (you heard me) including both an Allroad and a Volvo Cross Country. I guess, (according to their site, at least), that it’s actually called the XC70 now, which is a surprising burst of continuity, considering the company we’re dealing with.
So, it’s been a couple of days. The Joseph project, as I now like to refer to it, is coming along nicely. I had my review yesterday also; my transfer review, that is. What this basically amounts to is, me taking about 30-40 pieces of artwork for the review committee to critique, from basic and advanced drawing, to 2-D and 3-D design. This is not a required procedure, and it is actually meant to precede the real Sophomore Review, which is the decision point as to whether you are in the BFA program or not. So this is recommended because they can tell you what your strong and weak points are, and what may need to be improved for the actual final review, which you can only do once. Now here’s the kicker: if you pass this review, then you automatically pass the final review and are immediately in the program. So I was thinking about this as I was waiting with Abe (he didn’t have school yesterday so he went down to Point with me), and another person, because they were an hour behind schedule. And Sophomore Reviews are also taking place on this same day, and every person we saw leaving their reviews had failed. This is bad, because if you fail it, like I said before, you can only do it once, and you then cannot get your BFA, meaning you cannot major in Graphic Design. So this other person and myself are somewhat nervous, because they failed a guy who is graduating in 8 weeks. And a nun. A blind nun. With cancer. Yes. And that school of orphans. So anyway, seriously, that’s pretty scary. So it *finally* comes to me, and I’ve hung all my work up, and I’m kind of worried. And I’m standing in there with the committee, and we’re talking and I’m showing them stuff, and then I get sent away (as everyone does) so they can talk amongst themselves. So I really just stopped thinking about it as I left the room, because nothing bad can really happen; they can only criticize my work, but I can’t fail. And so I’m talking to the other person and to Abe, and they call me back in (it didn’t seem to take them long at all). I go in, and the first words out of their mouths are: “You passed.” And there was this massive wave of relief and it was all I could to to keep from shouting in joy. So I’m in the BFA program now. I’m happy, Abe is happy, my parents are happy, Abe’s parents are happy. And those orphans are, too.
Well you know, I’m just sitting around here, playing on the internet, and this box pops up (as they often do). This is one of those ones with the multiple choice ones, you know? And the question is, “what is Spiderman’s alter ego?” And the answers are like, Clark Kent, Bruce Wayne, Peter Parker, and Sir Walter Rewick, or something like that. And I’m looking at them, and thinking, well, I really like that last one. I know it’s wrong, but maybe I’ll pick it and see what happens. So I did. And a “congratulations!” box pops up on the screen. And I’m all like, what? That wasn’t right! So I got rid of it, but I was thinking, maybe that’s a test to see whether you’d be stupid enough to accept their offer? Perhaps had I chosen Peter, a box would’ve popped up that said, “Oh, we’re sorry, but, um, well bye!” This brings me to another issue: gas pumps. I was filling my car this morning, and I always do pay at the pump because I’m afraid to actually go into a gas station. So before I started filling it, I did the little debit card thing, and then it asked me whether I wanted a car wash. I of course pushed “no,” because it is very cold. But what I actually said out loud was, “What are you, stupid?” and that made me laugh, because then I was thinking about how great it would be to actually have a button that says that on the pump. And then there was another time that I was filling up the car, and it said, “please take receipt.” And it was already printing it, but I pushed “no” because I didn’t want a receipt. Of course, it kept printing it, but I thought it would’ve been interesting had it just said “fine then!” and then crumpled the receipt up and thrown it on the ground. Now that probably sounds really stupid, but wouldn’t it be great to see these gas pumps getting all smart-ass with everyone? It would brighten my day, I know it.
Woohoo! RS6!
Well, I’m at school. Unlike yesterday, because somebody decided it’d be fun to have a freakin’ blizzard. Seriously, we got probably 6-8 inches of snow, which is absolutely ridiculous, considering that it’s only October. I decided against commuting yesterday, as I am just not mentally prepared for snow. I hate snow, so I could’ve waited, oh, you know, until maybe the end of December. Everyone talks about how lovely a white Christmas is. They’re lying. I want a green Christmas. No, make that a shorts Christmas–75 and sunny. That’d be fine. Anyway, that’s probably the only bad thing, but it caused me to miss classes yesterday. On the plus side, I did get some work done for other things, which you’ll most likely see in the future. I’m tired now, also, from climbing this morning, as much fun as it was. I wonder how much climbing walls cost…anyone know? More exciting news is the Mario Sunshine bundle for the GC, despite the fact that it’s only in indigo, but even more surprising was that an X Box with two games is the same price as an X Box with zero. Is Microsoft having sales difficulties? It’s hard to tell, and I’m not the one to ask, but if you are desparate enough to include two games with your system, without raising the price at all, that might be some indication. This doesn’t make my decision any easier. Anyway, despite the abundance of things happening that are much more important than video games, I still write about video games. My priorities certainly are in order, yes?
considering that i’m a sucker for driving games, it should then come as no surprise that i ordered a copy of sega GT, for dreamcast (of course). now i just have to wait and wait for it to arrive. thhhbbbbpt.