Felocity

Usually when I say I will update later, many have learned that this means I will look at my journal in a post midnight hour, say "fuck it" and leave it alone. I intend to shatter continuity now in my posting habits right now. There, see?

So now then, about this drinking game. Well, we watched a few things, and played a few games. For Cowboy Bebop, it was simple. There was a general set of rules (such as finish your drink whenever they lose a bounty) and then each person had to declare a personal rule. Chris: "I'll drink every time Faye is on screen because she is so hot." Jakob: "I will drink every time we see the stock footage of the Bebop landing, making it seem different to me every time." Michi: "..."…

There was a weekend somewhere. I think I missed it as it went by though; kind of like drivers on Hwy 1 who have no qualms about doubling the speed limit. I think that will do it for today's pointless attempts at analogies. The weekend could easily be divided up into four sections: the preparation, the party, the 'illin, and the zzzzbt. Yes, I said "zzzzbt" and yes I know it isn't a word. Now then, about the preparation which took place all the way back on Wednesday. You see, I wasn't paying attention to my clothes reserves, and as a result was wearing all black with a somewhat silly vest thing for color in the outfit. Most people that see me on a regular basis could attest to the fact I don't often wear all black, and it is even less that I wear a vest as well. So anyway, if when I pulled this outfit out of the closet wasn't enough of a clue, grabbing my last pair of socks surely was. Thanks to an unexpected ICC officers meeting (last one, woohoo!), I didn't get to meet up with Erin for errand running until 8 or so. We had to hit Mervyn's as well as do laundry, and since she needed something nice for some ASAP conference thing, I went ahead and went there with her. We left the Del Monte Mall at about 9 or so, and by then all laundromats were closed. There was only one place left to do laundry...the dorms.

I want to say, right now for the record that all washing appliances located within the CSUMB residence areas are evil, dangerous, and otherwise not nice. I have learned over time that these machines eat clothes, don't dry them, take your money, and laugh all the while. While washing clothes, I learned some very important things.…

Wow, I seem to be neglecting this a lot as of late, but see, I have reasons I swear. You see, these bears with silly hats came knocking on my door, abducted my sanity, and decided to gorge themselves on it behind the Ord Market. Okay, so maybe not that. I mean look at Kryn. (Update: Kryn, you suck in your link back spiting ways!) Right, anyway, enough about me, let's talk a bit more about me.

These past few days have been a bit of a blur, but that is by no means a bad thing. I am done for good with ICC, and Anime Club has elections coming up. I am thinking pretty hard about stepping back from the President slot there and doing something more to my liking like Webmaster or Publicity. Sexy web sites and drool-worthy flyers are much more my forté than trying to run a meeting. I mean, do I look like a leader? Pshaw. I am glad to be wrapping that up since after 3 years of dedication I will actually have my Wed. nights back. I went ahead and replaced that with a class, go me. Last night, despite having far too many projects and a need to be up at eight this morning, I made a trip to see a friend. I know how I get around a certain day in November however, so I threw everything aside and made a point of being there for fun, insanity, and a little bit of Fruits Basket (mmm.... Kyo....). I ended up leaving in the AM hours, and on the drive home was a bit too tired. I ended up pulling over along Hwy 1 and sleeping for a half hour so I would be awake for the rest of the drive. No amount of singing could have kept me awake, because I tried; oh how I tried. When I did get home and get everything situated, it was almost 4 so I hopped into bed for a good four hours of rest before the morning. This whole long chain of events brings us to today.…

Hail is an odd thing, or at least it is in Monterey. The last thing you expect to be doing is sitting outside in the cold, feel it warm up slightly and then ZING! Hailstone to the skull! I sat there for a moment wondering if it was a rock. I tried to finish out my message in AIM to Cyn about OP sound tracks. ZING! My hand was stinging and I almost dropped Wizard (my pocket pc) into the unforgiving concrete. I quickly tucked it away and made for shelter. I had been there for maybe a minute when the upstairs department called "sky" decided to bless us all with rocks of frozen rain. I saw from the safety of the doorway people in the main quad running for shelter as ice pelted them and tried not to laugh. A few people slipped on the grass in the middle of the hailstorm; I laughed a bit more. I then remembered the throbbing in my hand from a single one of those shards of ice. Okay, yes, I still laughed, shut up. I would fully expect all of you to laugh at me if I ever fell flat on my ass in the middle of a torrent of ice falling from the skies above. This also seems to sum up the last 24 hours or so for me: little stinging incidents followed by amusing related moments or other assorted things that made me smile.

I got to bed a bit early last night, mostly because I was having a hard time sleeping lately and figured I would get a jump on the night hours' struggle. This plan worked a bit too well and I was up well before my AM class. Since I had some time, I decided to give the whole DCC thing another go. I got a few episodes, some MP3s, and even got my file server working. For having not touched DCC in the longest time, I was quite happy with myself. I remembered why IRC was the most common form of distribution as well. No need for file servers, you can control your own rules, you don't have any costs involved, and you don't have to do any of the work. This also works a lot better than BitTorrent for older episodes, even though there were only a few people serving them. Of course, the other thing I had going for me was most of my experimentation was done on campus computers, where a simple reboot erased all evidence of me ever doing anything.…

I ate far too much food. I think I will take the week off from eating at this rate. We ate dinner (our apartment) almost 5 hours ago and I still feel full. We had moist turkey, we had potatoes, we had breads, and we had stuffing. We had good wine, we had soda, and we had more than enough for before, during and after. We had pumpkin pie, we had pound cake with strawberries and whipped cream, and we had pineapple sheet cake with sugared frosting. We had firsts, we had seconds, and some of us were crazy enough to take thirds.

We have leftovers, even after all that eating, we still have food left over. As for me, I am not sure if I will be having lunch tomorrow because I do honestly believe I am that full. This dinner hammered my appetite into another dimension or something. It was worth all the work, all the prep, and all the last minute errand running. Lisa and Eric also deserve 99% of the credit for igniting the butter and smoking the kitchen (and doing a lot of the cooking work).…

Today, while listening to WinAmp, I came to realize something. It was so simple that I only wish I had thought of it sooner. Much of my music is in CD form, and when you want to listen to a variety of things, changing CDs every 3 minutes is kind of silly. Hey, why don't you just MP3 your CD collection? It's not like you go and share it or anything. So I did just that. Even now, after burning most of my CDs, it only compares in size to 28 episodes of Naruto. MP3s are so small, you can just put them in your pocket and take them with you. (Wish list item: iPod)

I spent the good part of this last afternoon cleaning the bathroom. It now glints, sparkles, and for a while I was almost swimming though the air courtesy of a large amount of bleach fumes and steam. I took a large break and gave Tu a hand with some code related geek things.…

"So are you going to Spring Formal?"

I choked back a laugh as I tried to figure out a way to answer that. Lacking usual wit (it was still AM after all) I tried to carefully form an answer that would step me around her question since I knew what the inevitable follow up if I didn't word it right. My attempts at manipulating the English language failed, and I replied, "Spring Formal? Me? Yeah, right, like I have someone to ask."…

It's not a lack of things to do, as I have plenty of things that I should be giving my attention to. In fact, ever since I got back from Anime Club, those same things have been getting the attention they so rightly deserve. And by "them" I actually don't mean video games. I've been slogging through boring assignment after boring assignment, using the tedium of tasks to keep me busy. In my ongoing effort to stamp out any last ounce of angst I have though, we are instead going to focus on something amusing. Everyone with me? Trays up right, it's time to shift. shift There, now please deposit 85 dollars for the next three minutes.

Apparently MTV is looking to UCSC to do their next college film...thing. For a while now, our campus has been fighting to get official fraternities and sororities on campus. I see this as a perfect opportunity for both people. For the groups trying to organize here at CSUMB they would gain the publicity they would need, and be able to argue their case on national television, defending the ideas regarding greek organizations that they presented to our school. MTV wins by video taping a bunch of drunken fools out in the apartments and airing, getting them both money and ratings (which translate well into money). In fact, MTV could make this a series. I can't wait to see what frat life is in Idaho, can you? Anyway, since we are CSUMB and not in Idaho, let us return to our own school here. Currently we have 0 official greek organizations. What we do have, is several people that banded together, claiming to being a greek organization and have begun doing greekish things. In the eyes of the MTV executives, if it sounds greek, if it looks greek, and it smells greek, then it is worth filming. You could get so much footage from a Thursday and Friday night, and you could have an episode full of wild parties, drunken foolery, and general mayhem; hell it's staple around here on weekends. You just get used to people walking under you window screaming in tones that could shred your eardrums like a razor on a Q-tip.…

Every last ounce of my computer right now is in use. Thankfully, running TextPad doesn't really require much, allowing me to at least due something while my drives haul. It's been a good past few days, and despite it's addictive nature, I haven't been flying the friendly skies (playing Skies of Arcadia Legends) as much as one would think. I would say only 50% of my free time or so is on that game. "But Jakob, the other half is always spent sleeping," you might say.

"Mrow, fuck you," I would say back, and then we would sail airships or some crazy shit like that.…

For anyone that was trying to get to my web site in the past 24 hours or so, I apologize. Some major repair work was needed, but things are back up and running smooth again (including the FOG Board for those that use it).

I spent the morning playing Skies of Arcadia. I declared this game a lot of fun back when I started with an airship. I now tack on to that you get to have your own base. It reminds me of Breath of Fire II actually; a secret hideout from which I can wage war against an evil empire. Actually a lot of things in this game remind me of Breath of Fire, but in a fun and refreshing way (not the rehashed shoot me now way).…

I've been modding a new forum. No, that's not it. (Although Kitsune's mockery of a typical forum reminds me of several I used to read.)

I have been playing Animal Crossing. No, that's Kryn who is probably up right now because the store may have that one item he couldn't get any other way. So no, I'm not playing Animal Crossing.…

The annoyances of the last week melted away this Sunday, and I must say, I am glad they did. Optimistic outlooks are rare for me, so I tend to savor them when they wander my way. I got robbed of my half hour of sleep and woke up later than I had planned, which meant the rest of my Ethics paper was put on hold, and I grabbed a few things before making my way up Highway 1. I used to think the 40 minute drive to Santa Cruz was annoying and boring. I have since then learned to enjoy it, accept it, and peacefully go along, not really worried about being there at any specific time, no longer rushing along the two lane road. I know, it sounds a bit looney, but I am at peace when I drive by myself. It lets me think about a lot of things; and I had a lot to be thinking about.

Spirited Away was every bit as fun as I remembered it to be. This time, I got to see it dubbed, while I saw it subbed the first time. Having now seen the two, I admit I liked the sub a lot more. This doesn't mean the dub is bad, as it is excellent. I couldn't however, get over the added dialogue that leads the audience by the hand that wasn't in the original version. All in all though, was well worth the money and the drive. Heather got a hold of my GBA SP and had much better luck with manipulating the L/R triggers than I did. She also took me through the Ice Palace in one sitting: 10 minutes. I remain even now in awe of her Zelda skills. (Especially since I usually get lost in the Ice Palace for at least an hour.)…

I always like to stay up until 2 am so that I can be pretend I just traveled through time. I am still unsure who decided this amazing change in clocks would occur at 2, but now in my timeline, there was no 2:15 this morning. I will instead claim I got sleep for half of it and played Link to the Past for the other missing half. For those that know LttP, I am at the point where I am about to do the ice dungeon. No, I am not looking forward to it, yes I am going to get lost, yes you may laugh.

Yesterday was full of Sega Soccer Slam, which I got for $9.99 at EB. I also picked up Dead or Alive 3 for $26. I felt good getting games for so cheap, and I felt even better that when I got Soccer Slam, the packaging still said 39.99. Monterey dwellers, rejoice in the EB! It sits near Circuit City in Sand City, on the corner. They are also where I got my GBA SP.…

Okay, so it's been a few. I finally bested Zelda: The Wind Waker, and I must say that while I rather enjoyed the first half, everything after the third temple is a horrible downward spiral in where the game developers feed you everything you need (except cash). I want to say really good things about it, but I'm afraid that it will either be a one play deal, or I will simply stop halfway through and deny existence of the second half of the game. I ended up talking with a Zelda fan for a good part of the a.m. hours about the ending. I will take my little rant I had, and set it on a shelf to age until more people have beaten it.

I have been busy catching up on homework lately, which while it has been successful, has left me with very little free time. I need to invent the next segment of the adventure for Friday's session, since I am certain I won't have much time tomorrow. I also need to set aside some money to go see Spirited Away. (I'm never one to turn down Miyazaki.)…

The more I am playing Wind Waker the less I am liking the story. Sure, it plays nice, and looks good, but my reason to play has been reduced to wandering aimlessly, and then taking on a 26 floor survival tower all for a chart. The torture doesn't stop their either, as I have to pay 400 in Zelda cash to be able to read the thing. Then, and only then, can I go get my piece of golden goodness. Why can't I just have my piece of Triforce fused into me like all the other Links? I suppose it would be good since it lengthens the game a bit, but right now all it has managed to do is draw out an inevitable conclusion.

A few nights ago (as in Sunday night) Kari had her 21st birthday party. She has also kindly provided the photos from the night, linked here for my notes more than anything. I suppose if you want you can click the link and see how silly we all looked. It was a good evening, and Kari seemed to have a good time (which is no doubt the most important part). Since Jake, Eric, etc didn't go, I ended up being the only guy there. This was probably more a curse than anything, as the conversation wandered many times over things I didn't know / want to know about. I also discovered by knife was magnetic. I can apparently shell a shrimp in my mouth using my tongue and teeth. There was a really cool person who I want to get to know better who happened to be cute. Only Missi and Kari were of age and drinking. Our plans to have Kari drinking like a fish failed. And lastly, as much fun as it sounded like, letting Erica bring me into a state of relaxation (technically true hypnotism) was some of the scariest shit ever, but don't tell her that.…