PE

Yesterday, there was this PE event for the home schoolers for the area. At best, the kids did get to run around. At worst, it was chaos. Here are some observations.

They played capture the flag. The idea was to find the other team's flag and return it to "no-man's land", the scoring box. It came with jails and prison breaks and chained releases. There was no "babysitting" your own flag. There was no waiting for the other team across the line. If you asked to hide the flag, then you didn't get to hide it. This last one, when I heard that, I had thought you get to hide the flag once and that's it. This rule was unclear and got Dave excluded from being able to hide the flag.

I'm used to playing capture the flag found on top games like Halo and Unreal Tournament/Championship. There each team knew exactly where the other flag is. There were several strategies that could be used including "babysitting" the flag. Sometimes that was the only way to defend the flag. However, the way it was set up, only one person on each side would know where the flag is. On a side note, they were playing in a rose garden. Who in hell lets kids play in a rose garden? Anyway, you couldn't defend your own flag on top of having to search for the other team's flag at the same time, in rose bushes.

There was also this rule where if you tagged the other team while they were on your side, they would go to jail. But then if someone from the other team came to tag the people in jail, they could go free. But there was this chaining rule where you can hold hands for a free escape. What's the point of the jail if one person can get everybody out? And "No-Man's land" seems a misnomer as you can obviously go in there cause that's how they scored. Typical capture the flag would require the return the captured flag to the location of your own flag.

A few of the dads just kind of stood there, wondering what the hell was going on. This was my first time there with this PE thing. I wasn't happy with it and Dave didn't enjoy himself after being taunted by a girl. I understand the kickball last week was as bad. This needs some solutions to create a more enjoyable time for the kids. This I will need to think on and come up with something. Please feel free to leave you input as well.

A Mighty Suck

Well, the Seahawks are 2-0 on two away games. They equaled their total wins away for last year. That's a good thing. The bad thing is that I had to watch them suck and suck badly. I don't know how many three and outs they had. It was more than the number of fingers I have. And on the last drive for Tampa, they had three major pentalies against Seattle. Fortunately for Seattle, Tampa had a new QB in which didn't have the exp. The QB's last play was an interception. Geeze...talking about crap. I didn't even see any of the scores for Seattle. Busy watching a documentary about Star Wars. :D

So, Seattle is top of the NFC West for the time being. They have their first home game next week. And I wish Mr. T to have a sucky time there. :P Actually, no. I hope you enjoy your time there. Hopefully they will go 3-0. Here's to hoping.

He'll be back

I'm glad I don't live in California. I don't have to contend with earthquakes, traffic, and now governers who like big businesses, like Wal-Mart, to destroy local economies. Arnold just vetoed a bill that would at least deter super stores like Wal-Mart popping up all over the place. He said that he didn't want to stop businesses from expanding. Well, Arnold, big businesses don't need to expand any more. It's the little guys that need the help. Wal-Mart will just run the little guys out of town. Three cheers for minimum wage, part-time jobs at Wal-Mart! Yay! Yay! Yay!

In other news, the number of people not having insurance have increased yet again. Could there a connection here between not having insurance and Wal-Mart? Hmmmm....

Just a g33k?

Just trying to avoid the hits related to Wil Wheaton's book of the same name...well, with the e's. Coincidentally, he's gonna be the subject of this post.

Tonight, I've been looking at his old posts on his website WWdN. It was interesting to see that he had this insane dislike of William Shatner and then suddenly, while watching a baseball game with him one night, he discovered he's not so bad after all. Of course this was posted like three years ago. He's had several interesting posts since then. I kind of like the blue hair he had back then too. But what I do see is how he grows as a human being.

He seems like a very interesting and likeable guy. He has lots of interest that he shares with a good portion of geekdom. He plays video games, Munchkin, and runs his own website. He even shares some musical interests with Dawn (Cake, Tenacious D, Weezer). He has his share of strengths (humor in his writing) and weaknesses (staying up 72 hours to stuff an online poll). He is human, after all. These are just a few reasons why he has one of most popular sites to visit on the web. One of the most linked to websites as well. And I'm thinking that's he's becoming one of my role models for life.

Here's my reasoning for this. On his site, he not shy about what he likes, what's on his mind, etc. When something pisses him off, he vents. He vents and he has a whole bunch of people he may or may not know behind him 100%. When he sees that he's wrong, he quick to say so and apologize to whomever. He's hard at work doing what he likes doing (comedy in his little troupe, spending time with the fam, Star Trek conventions?). And on top of that, he runs his own website, tweaking it to his hearts desire. He has fun doing it all, well, cept for venting. I'm not sure if that's fun for anybody.

He is everything I wished I was. Though I admit, I am pretty good at venting. I have been known to hold grudges for years and do silent treatments for weeks upon end. The only thing I'm hard at work is keeping the cushion on my chair pretty compressed. I'm pretty reserved about what I say on my blog, believe it or not. His website could run circles around mine.

As you know, I'm in a pretty shitty position due to my own fucking around. Projects I start may or may not get off the ground. While I am at my computer, my desire is to learn/create something starts off at a high point only with it ending up with me flipping through about five to ten of the same websites, most of which I just hit up about 20 minutes earlier. I've stopped the exercise I started in July because of being lazy and/or being depressed about not having a job.

Wil, while not having it easy, shows he has worked hard to get where he's at. He's been depressed and he's bounced back. He started his website and made it what it is today. And he speaks his mind, of course when it's appropriate. It's just all of these things that make me come back to his site. And it is also the reason why today, with great honor, I add him to my list of favorite blogs on the Internet.

In related news...

I finally got the piece of paper saying that I have my 11 year degree. I'm so thrilled. Maybe I'll frame it...right after I'm done working 80 hours a week. I'm sure I can slip in a 30 minute break on Sunday to run to Fred Meyers for a paper frame that they threw away. I can't wait.

exp points

I'm soo fucking tired of every company wanting some god damn experience. Even for junior and entry level positions they want 2 to 3 years of experience. That's fucking stupid...I'm getting fucking fed up with it....

As it stands now, I'm going to have to work two minimum wage jobs to pay for all of my fucking debt and bills. That's just great....I enjoy spending my whole waking existances working...That's why I live...to work for minimum wage.

If you need me...i'll be working........

Shaking off the Dust

Well, if you look around the site, you'll notice a few changes. Firstoff, which will make most people happy, I got rid of the tag board feature. It wasn't being used much and gave most people ads to look at. So I just went ahead to took it off. Also the site will load much faster :)

I've also added the "email this" feature that's a part of blogger. Looking a little further you will discover I listed this site to several weblog searching sites. I'm hoping to draw in the big numbers now, baby! Or keep it pretty local, still. While linking to those sites, I discovered a service called Blogrolling. It's a central site where you can manage all your links on your blog, or any other web related document for that matter. It's pretty neat. They have it set up to where if you found a site that seems interesting, you can click a button (which you have to drag into your browser, look for instructions on how to do that on the site) to add it to your list. You don't have to go into your template, like in blogger, to add a new link. You do have to add one line initially, but that's really painless and easy to do. If you upgrade, you can get multiple blog rolls. So it's all good.

Hopefully I've inspired you all to spend a few hours to do the same on your own blogs. So, that's it for now.

Broken Schools

Some of you might know of this already, being the all-knowing home schoolers you all are, but John Taylor Gatto, an honored and critized school teacher from New York state, wrote a book about his experiences in the American school system. This book is online and it's 18 chapters long. I will eventually read it, but I wanted to post the link to it so others who read faster could write a review for me....cause I'm lazy. heh Actually I will read it all. Just not now.

So, whoever finishes it first will get the most honored "Brownie Point" from yours truly. Good luck.

Arcade games that should have been?

I enjoy a good photoshopped photo as the next guy. This series of pics feature arcade games that could be made. A bit of warning though, there are some tasteless ones and ones that would appeal to the geek inside. I'd say it's above average. Enjoy!

Things I miss from school

Yes, sadly, I miss school. Well, parts of school. The looming deadline of projects and the endless studying for tests I don't miss what so ever. What I do miss is the socialization I got from school. There were other people I got to talk with about computer stuff, games, sports, and other stuff which I just don't get any more. I miss playing pool in the lounge, losing a vast majority of the time. I still attend the game dev club I started last year so I can get my fix. But it's not enough. I like to talk about how you can use some technology to do something that you wouldn't normally do with it. Or even thinking aloud of the what-ifs that is generated.

So I'm a social geek that doesn't talk much, but who cares. I still need that room full of other geeks wanting to do whatever with technology. I miss that the most from school. And that makes me sad.

Invader Zim, interview with a vampire

Over at IGN.com, there is an interview with the creator and color designer of Invader Zim, the best animated television show ever to shown on Nickelodeon and a whole bunch of other TV channels. Look into the minds of which sprung the world of Zim.

Anime: Fun for all

Wired.com has an article about some history of anime and three of the major players in Japan that make anime. It also talks about three new anime movies coming to the US this fall, hopefully. I can't wait to see them. I don't think I've ever seen anime on the big screen. I can only imagine how much better it is.

A test of will

Today, I took...well, looked at and cried...a pre-screening test for a game development company I had submitted my resume to on Friday. I looked and looked at this test for 3 hours before giving up. They said I couldn't use reference so there's no way I could have done it. Out of 5 questions, I could only do 2 of them for sure. And they weren't very hard questions. Two of the three remaining questions you would use recursion to solve. However, I could never figure out anything complex using recursion. I could have solved one of them not using recursion but stipulations said I basically couldn't. So now I realize the best position I'll ever get at any software company is that of code monkey. But if I have any more tests like that, I'm gonna be unemployed for a very, very, very long time. :(

Doom Doom Doom Movie

So, there's this movie that is being based on Doom being made. I'll make predictions right now: It Will Suck. Here's my proof.

This is an interview with the CEO of id, Todd Hollenshead. Within in it he says "...we're very happy with [the script]." As we all know id was never known for their specatular plot lines in their games. Hell, Doom 3 is probably the first with a plot line, but I heard not a very good one. So, what this movie will amount to is a dark, visual experience with no plot or a plot where whole ocean liners could sail through.

Yup, that's about it. My name is Keith and I approve this message.

On Being 29

So, I'm 29 now. It's kind of like being 28, just separated by a few days.

Yesterday we went and turned in stuff at Hastings for store credit. If you turn in books there, you basically get double the cash amount in store credit. CD's, DVD's and games didn't have that great of a bonus for store credit, but it was all good. Anyway, I finally updated myself into the current realm of D&D by getting the 3.5 versions of the Players Handbook and Dungeon Masters Guide. They changed a lot since I lasted played 2nd edition. BTW, if anybody is interested in learning/playing this 30 year old game, don't hesitate to contact me. I would be happy to teach anybody. I've already started to teach my 6 year old son. :)

Later, we went and saw Hero at the Mall. First we had to take Dave to my dad's house for some babysitting. I think it was the first time my dad has watched him in several years, 4 or 5 years. He seemed like he had fun there. Everything but the dog that my dad has. The movie was good. Though I seem like I missed a lot of the scenes because I was reading the subtitles. I found myself reading the subs fast and quickly moving up to the top of the screen to see everything.

Well, that's it for now. Oh yeah, it's worthy of me to say that Seattle will be playing their last pre-season game on Thursday. Watch it on tape delay!

Seattle brings it to past division rivals Chargers

dateline: Yesterday.

The Seattle Seahawks walked all over the offense of the San Diego Chargers yesterday in a pre-season game featuring a half time firework display. The fireworks were the only things to light up the scoreboard for San Diego up until the third quarter.

Seattle started off with an interception by Ken Lucas which was ran back for a touchdown but was recalled after a pentalty on the Seahawks. But a few plays later delivered Seattle's first score of the night. The rest of the night was filled with special teams hits and misses for both teams. On a field goal attempt by San Diego, Seattle blocked and returned for a touchdown. The second half was quiet for Seattle's offense.

Overall, I think they played a hell of a game and can't wait for the start of the regular season on September 9th.

WTF?!?

Just cruising my eXTReMe tracking thing and this came up. My site is number two. What the hell? Do you thik I can get Google on slander? How is my blog anyway related to this topic other than Dawn posting about it a while back on her own site? That Elijah Wood site is not in the very least entertaining and I have actual quality things to say. Gah, technology has it in for me.

Paul Hamm, Whiney Bitch?

A few a you might be watching the Olympics. Good for you. I watch the news the next morning to see what boring events got medals for the US. Yay US.

A couple of days of ago was some sort of men's gymnastics medal round. On that night, Paul Hamm got the gold. But there was a math error which forced another competitor not to get the gold, a South Korean named Yang Tae-young. This gentleman only got the bronze because of the scoring error. Three judges got suspended and the Olympic committee said there was indeed a problem. There went out a petition for the South Korean to get a co-gold for the event. But Paul Hamm believes in his heart of hearts that he is the winner.

I saw him in an interview on the Today morning news show on NBC and he seemed like a pompous little ass. The spirit of the Olympics is not to go and win every gold. It's not to beat the competition into the ground. It's a time of camaraderieship and leaving predefined notions at the door. It's the only time when two countries whom had centuries of disputes with one another can be in the same stadium without killing each other. But not to Paul Hamm. Paul Hamm is The Best. Period. He can't share anything with anybody. In that interview, he said that there was another deduction, only seen in replays, that the judges could have taken which they didn't which is why Yang Tae-young doesn't deserve the gold. I think I might have missed something, but I think the NFL is the only sport that has instant replay. What harm will there be if there are two gold metals? I can only see benefits for all. The South Korean would get his gold. Paul Hamm would seem like a compassionate guy and not a jack-ass.

It's things like this that make me want to go for every team or individual that is not the United States. Another example of bloat on the US team is the Basketball team. Enough said about that.

Anyway, that's it for me. Enjoy your day and please don't be a jack-ass.

The perils of Job Searching

I'm really tired of all the user unfriendly job websites out there. There's a couple I like which include HotJobs.com cause after you applied to a job it tells you right on the page even weeks later. I hate how you'll go to a main portal job site like monster or worksource.com and click to apply to a job only to be redirected to the company's own website where you have to fill out another resume. WTF?? It's not like I'm suffering enough from not having a job. Why don't you just add more frustration on top of that. There's need to be some resume formal language created and adopted so the main job portal sites can actually work as advertised. Like on the company's website, the information for a position would lay and the job portal would come by and harvest it at some later time period. The tech is there now. It's just too forward thinking for too many people. *sigh* or I could be just a whiney little pansie with no job.

Another day, another week

Today marks the beginning of the fourth week of me being exercise crazy. Now that I have changed it up a little bit, it's a little less boring. I bumped up my sit-up total to 30 and added a new toning exercise. Don't ask me to name it cause that would require me to find the piece of paper with the names of the exercises on it, which is just out of arms reach.

On Saturday, I will see my 29th birthday come, and go, as soo many had already. The days go by so fast, I'm surprised I not bald with a walking cane. Maybe tomorrow. Anyway, I plan to sit around the house some more, just like the past month and a half. Not having a job sucks...

On the plus side of not having a job, I've been learning more programming crap like XML and MFC. Add some Java in there and you got a tasty salad. Mmmmm, salad.

Welp, that's it for now. May you all make successful saving throws vs dumb asses.

The jokester

Do you like jokes? I do too and here's one to make you smile for at least 30 seconds.

Do you have ESP?

Man, I can't stop laughing at this one. So, I'm looking for a character generator for Dungeon and Dragons and I came across this site. I don't know why. It was even on the first page of search results. "Exposing Satan's Power". hahahhaha Man, that is tooo funny.

Anyway, I decide that the first page is priceless so I decide to see what other great stuff is on his site. Well, there's stuff about Harry Potter, as much as I dislike the books it's still a story as fictional as some other books that I've talked about in the past. Halloween is bad too. Druids whorships the evil spirits in the tress. Bad, very bad. He also has a special section for John Edwards of "Crossing Over" fame. Man, it's a laugh a minute there! Well, the show that is. And watch out for that Ouija Board!! It's gonna suck your soul away! hahahahahhahahhahahhhahha

Man, still..I find it ironic that he hates Psychics, but yet he calls his site ESP. hahhahahah Oh wow.

But back the whole D&D thing. First he claims that role-playing makes people think that they are what they think, according to some passage in the greatest story of all, the Bible. That's true to some extent. And not because the bible is interpretted to say so. But basically he's saying that all actors/actresses who have played roles as murders and what not are evil. Let's talk to Kevin Spacey to see how evil he is for his roles in great movies like The Usual Suspects and Se7en. I could get more people who are actors that's played bad people, but that would take up too much of my time. And well Ben, you're not worth it.

Here's a passage from his site about the unfortunate death of a young man:

John Torell, with Christian Life Ministries in California, received a phone call from a medical doctor in Seattle, Washington. The doctor is treating a policeman for severe depression caused by the suicide of his sixteen-year-oId son. The son, who had been heavily involved in D&D™ for two years, shot himself with his father's service revolver.

There's a quote from a psychiatrist, named Laurence Johnson, in regards to the case:
"If I had a child who tended toward schizophrenia, I'd never let him near D&D™"

Well, Laurence, if I had a child who was schizophrenic, I certainly wouldn't have a loaded gun in my house. *sigh* I like how people reach for things that are not there. I like it when they fall flat on their face after the fact. Pretty funny.

Ok, well, that's enough "fun on Ben's account" for tonight. Hopefully he'll have something else up later for my amusement.

Of Geeks and Jello-brains

Today starts GenCon, this huge bigass sci-fi/fantasy/role-playing/computers games convention held in Indianapolis among 3 other places in the world at different times. I want to be there, but I have to make due with my mental imaging of me being there. Anyway, I was reading this blurb on The Force.Net about how there's some other major events going on the same weekend, making Indianapolis a very busy place. What made me laugh was that on the 19th(which is today), Metallica <opinion>They suck major ass</opinion> will be playing a few blocks down from where GenCon will be at. Can you imagine the head-bangers and role-players just mere feet from one another? Oh yeah, just like high school.

This Routine needs a changing

I hate it when I delete one browser for another and forget all my passwords. *sigh*

Well, I thought I'd update you all on my glorious progress on to exercise greatness. I was bad on Saturday and Monday. I didn't do anything! I suck..I know. Now I've changed my routine a little bit.

Back in the days when I was on E-Diets(which worked for me!), I was going by their suggest exercise plan of cardio one day and muscle toning the next. So, I've decided to go back to that. It makes for shorter sessions which will be good when I get a job. And really, I didn't want to feel like I was working all the time, the same ol blah each day, 6 days a week. Yeah, pretty weak but I'm sticking to that. heh

Though yesterday I started with cardio and did 20 minutes on the bike. I thought for sure it was Wednesday, but then Amazing Race came on. So I was off in lala land yesterday. Oh, yeah. I was reading this history of D&D on Gamespy.com and I read the Tuesday article on Monday night. So that screwed me up right there. BTW, that article has so far been a good read. I'm happy. So happy.

So, that's it from Camp Dirty Basement. So long and be happy.

EDIT: CV and Dawn, there's an interview with Stephen Colbert at that D&D page. You should read it.

Let the Goodtimes Roll and Score!!

The Seahawks whooped some Green Bay ass in their first preseason game. Yes, it doesn't mean much, but it's always good to make the team that screwed you in the playoffs suffer as much as you can. heh Now I'm disappointed that I didn't get to see it. Oh well. There's always next week.

GRRR

I want to hate bushey-poo (my little nickname for the big man), but this whole military realignment is all plusses in my book. I still won't vote for him. Far too many negatives still. About the only good thing that will come from his 4 year term. Oh, one more good thing, the day he leaves office in January. ha ha

A quicky

Do you like John Woo, Steve Carell, and dodgeball? Well, you'll like this short film. I personally can't stand John Woo movies, but this funny makes it all funny. Uhh..yeah.

Debt Reduction

I gots lots of debt. Due to my free wheeling days of being in school and having no idea what the future would bring me. It's not fun specially when you don't have a job.

Lately, the CC people call me to tell me of overdue stuff. One company that has two of my cards and other company. The first company decided to outsource their debt people to India, I'm guessing. How do I know? Well, the accents and delay in response of a second or more on the phone. That tips that their, their being Chase Manhattan, callcenter is in some part of the world that stretches from the middle east to Korea. I don't know where exactly, but that's not the point here.

I don't like talking to their callcenters because 1) if the person on the other end doesn't understand me, they repeat their last canned response. I hate that. You can't have empathy without understanding. 2) Talking long distance requires waiting for a few seconds for responses. So I get dead air. It's like trying to control the rovers on Mars. I hate that too. These two things alone will, at the soonest convenience, get both of those cards to some other company. They don't deserve my free money. And you all know my stance on offshoring.

The second company, Capital One, just called me not too long ago. They wanted money too. But the person I talked to, though probably reading canned responses as well, could understand me and had empathy. I was more willing to deal with them other than getting angry and slamming the phone down, which I've done on multiple times from CM.

Anyway, I was very pleased with CO and am willing to deal with them more in the future. Hopefully I'll hit pay dirt and pay them all off. Well, that's all I got.

Hypocritical George

George Lucas, which I tend to call him GL now cause it's easier to type and his name makes me want to vomit, made some comments about the colorizing of old movies. He basically says that they shouldn't do it cause it would take away the time period it was made in. Well, GL, you hypocritical bastard, why in hell won't you release the original trilogy as they first appeared on DVD?

Star Wars: A New Hope began shooting in 1975 with a release in May of 1977. The technology was amazing. It blew people out of their seats. Star Wars was the first blockbuster named cause people were lining up around the block to get in and see the movie, back in the days of theaters that only had two to three screens each. Flash forward to 1997 which the special editions started to appear. The tech used in the late 70s were replaced with current computer graphics. I admit, they looked pretty cool. GL said that the special eds were as they should have been in 1977. I guess that's fine cause it's his movie and his money and all. Though some stupid things were added that enraged fanboys everywhere, including myself.

Han shoots first, period. The end. Luke falling down the shaft in Empire did not need to amplify his whininess by crying like a baby all the way down. Original ewok song, as annoying as it was, should have stayed.

These are the scenes that we, as fans, would like to see as they were. They remind us of our youth, spending sleepless nights watching marathons. For me, I was all but 2 and a half when A New Hope was released and I watched it, as I'm told, at a drive in theater. But I have scene it many times on TV and videotape.

GL said this: "...it puts it in a context where you can appreciate it for what it was." Here I will have to agree with the old man. Though changing the color of a movie is just like changing the scenes of a movie. The movie becomes different, reborn so to speak. I want to appreciate the Original Trilogy as they were. Star Wars is great as it was, no changing necessary.

Since GL owns everything Star Wars, he doesn't need to listen to the fans, the very people that made him, or even the movie studios. He has soo much money, Bill Gates wants to own him. LOL Yeah, probably not. But the point here is that GL can do what he wants. And he is. Which is terribly unfortunate for the rest of us who would like to relive their first experience with Star Wars in DVD quality at home.

Doom Doom Doom Song

Well, I just got done reading a review of Doom 3 and I'm not feeling it. I read a bunch of reader reviews as well. While most of their scores ranged in the 8 to 10 point range, there were quite a few of less than ideal scores. While I can't trust reader reviews posted by fanboys, I can at least gleam some information from them and compare.

The graphics are great. The gameplay is not so great. I was planning to get it for XBox (BTW, if you steal my XBox I will not come knocking on your door, but I will be really sad. thank you) knowing that they had to put some dullness on the graphics for the three year old console. Reading that the gameplay is the same old gameplay, I will probably skip it. Maybe I'll rent it.

This is disappointing since they worked on it for four years and all they did was work on the graphics. I sense that some bright game designer is gonna take the doom 3 engine and bring it up to par with a great mod. I hope. heh Maybe the guys at id should have t-shirts made saying "My parents worked for 4 years to save up to buy me the computer of my dreams to play Doom 3 but all I got was uninspired gameplay." Yeah, maybe they shouldn't. Or maybe find another quote. That isn't mine.

I think that the game industry has spent too much time on the prettiness of games. It's time to dig deep and find some great AI and story design that will make gaming fun and entertaining again. Multiplayer with real people can only go so far cause there are always the idiots who sole reason for existence is to cause pain to other players who are online. That's no fun. I've had my run-ins with those players. They probably got cracked versions too. I hate those people too. It's interesting that I call them "people".

Game designers and game programmers need to step up to the plate. Consumers are always willing to spend $40-$60 for a game. But when consumers are forced to play crap that's not worth an hour of their time, consumers will let publishers know. I read an article/editorial about a possible future of the games industry a while back. The author was pointing out how a lot of games coming out are the same old thing, over and over and over again. He was comparing it to the video games crash of the early 80s. I want to disagree with his view of impending doom (no pun here people), but it's looking that way. Publishers have dollar signs in their eyes and those signs grow with each passing financial quarter. They only want the sure-fire hits. However those hits are all the same. We'll see. Maybe the guys at Valve will bring gaming out of it's funk with Half-Life 2. Then again, it might be the same ol stuff, rehashed in a new shiny box.

Well, that's all I got, for the short term. So until the next time.

Seattle...

...plays on ESPN next Monday night. Is that not fair? Yes!! Goddamn it! Well, I almost want to go to a bar or something to watch it. Hmmmph. Maybe I'll get a job before next week and they'll give me an advance. hahaha I think winning the lotto is a better chance. *sigh*

Warp speed now, Mr. Scot!

Yeah, I know. It's a star trek quote. I couldn't think of a Star Wars quote that I could use. Oh well. If you know of a Star Wars quote, please leave it in the comments of this post.

So, once again, I was cruising my fave websites and got to Blue's News and found an interesting article about the uses of quantum entanglement. Quantum computing, quantum cryptography, and now...drum roll please...deep space propulsion!!

Now, is that cool or what? It's basically teleporting power to space probes through the quirky uses of quantam entanglement. Instead of having nuclear material on board a rocket that could go boom, you have a device that recieves power from earth. The author also mentions some other uses for teleportation including "beaming" power from solar arrays in close orbit abound the sun to the earth's surface.

It would be really cool if this technology comes of age before I die of old age. heh

Well, that's it for now. So until next time.

An End of a Week

I just finished up my last exercise session for the week. Tomorrow I will take off and begin again on Monday. This morning I was a little stiff and sore, but I think it's because I ran around yesterday with the kids (Dave and Henry). Then I tripped over the soccer ball and landed on my back. Don't worry...nothing broke. heh

On Monday, I've decided to up my sit-up count to 25 and increase my bike time to 12 minutes. Here's the pattern I will be using. Every two weeks I will up my sit-up count by 5 till I get to 50. Every 3 days I will up my bike time by 1 minute till I'm up to 20 minutes. So I will be a couple of months before I top out. That is one of my goals on this quest, get to my pre-ordained maxes. Cool eh? I have lose weight on that list too, but at the moment I'm more concerned that I'm eating. I won't be picky until I get a job.

Well, that's it for now. See y'all later.

too good to be true?

Here's a quote made by our great president. Quote. Isn't he just soo cool? Don't you just want to love him? Oh, I gots the audio mp3 to that too. But here's a link to a mp3 off of Al Franken's radio show.

Exercise is good....FOR ME!!!

Imagine CV saying the "for me" part. Ahh, yes.

My legs have finally stopped hurting. Yay! I can walk around with no soreness. I think I may have lost a pound already! heh I think I have a plan to keep me going on this. I have noticed in the past that if I stop too long, I don't want to do it any more. I hear you're suppose to not work everything everyday. Well,I say pooh on that. This is how I'm gonna work it. Six days a week, I will do the sit-ups, muscle toning, and riding the bike. I won't be overworking myself. I'm doing enough to keep it interesting. Do it often enough to where I won't stop. So, that's my plan. Until I get a job. Then I'll have to wake up at 5am or something and do it. I'm sure Dawn will enjoy listening to the bike at 5am. heh

Well, that's it for now. So until next time.

It's August. Do you know where your NFL is?

I'm getting some good vibes from the media about the Seahawks. This article is picking Seattle and PHilly for tops of the NFC! Is that great or what?! Of course, I have to wait until the end of the season for it to actually be happy. The forecast is good.

BTW, this weekend marks the beginning of the preseason. Well, Monday of next week, but it's close enough. I'm pretty excited. Football is the only sport I watch any more, with a spattering of Indy car races and Golf. Seattle's first preseason game is Monday, August 16th at 5pm, PST. This almost suggest to be that it's gonna be on Monday Night Football on ABC. That would be cool. They do have one Monday night game in December, in Seattle. Might be a worthwhile trip to see, if I win the Lotto. Yeah, I know, good luck with that.

Well, just thought I'd let you know about the upcomming season of hot football! YEAH!!!

The evil men must do

*Warning* This post has loads of opinions.

Ok, last week I had made a deal, a deal with the devil so to speak lol, with my father-in-law to get a short term loan until we get some money (hopefully next week). Well, he said he would if I reviewed two of his videos that he mass produces in his basement. I don't joke. Well, these videos are about creationism and the bible. A topic I would rather not view because it's a load of bunk. But I needed the money...So, what can I do? (Get a job, ya bum!)

Well, he wants critiques of the two he lent to me. He wants the atheists view on these recordings and I will give him my best effort on it. Though it's funny. I have seen another video from him, I think in the same series but from another speaker (the first speaker was way uglier). But they both did the same thing. They found one or two years old articles and picked them apart. Not a whole bunch of articles, just one or two. The most recent was from 1986. Another fact they tried to play out is them using a speed comparison from a super computer from 1985 when the video was produced in 2003. The speeds have changed so much between now and then that this is irrelevant.

Also, it's very easy to say anything in hindsight, which this guy was doing, constantly. Saying "That's how the Lord intended it to work", "That's what He wanted" and so on and so forth. What kind of proof is that? That's right, boys and girls, it's not.

I'm just so irate that there's people in the whitehouse that are exactly like this. That's how your run a country, because he wanted that way.

The Hard Life

No whining on this post. So read away!

Last week I decided I would do 20 situps a day and see where that takes me. The first couple of days were painful. The second day I almost stopped after the first situp cause my body rocked with pain. But I endured! I did the full 20, much to the dismay of my abs. Today's situp didn't have any pain, but it was slow at the end. I'm feeling good about it.

A few days back, I thought it would be good to add some more exercise to the 20 so I began riding our exercise bike yesterday for 10 minutes. Today I did more of the same, but this time I added stretching and some muscle toning sets. It's good to do the stretches. The back of my thighs ached for three days and kept me up last night! Well, you may ask, you just started the bike yesterday. What were you doing three days ago to do in your thighs? Well, I won't get into that. wink wink nudge nudge.

I consider this training to kick CVs ass at DDR and for not willing to apply to The Amazing Race with me. LOL If you haven't seen him lately, he could probably hit me once and I'd be a goner. So I gots to get ready for the "Rumble In Richland"! haha

Ok, that's enough. So until next time.

My First Java Program

Yup, that weird looking thing below this post is a screen shot from my first java program which I constructed from bits and pieces of stuff I learned. Isn't it sooo cute? I would post the byte code for all to enjoy, but I'm sure it will be a pain in the ass trying to get it in a package correctly.

Yeah, I'm happy. Didn't spend too much time on it and the results are spectacular! heh not really. Well, so until next time.

My First Java Program. Isn't he sooo cute? 

An Incredible Game

I so do love Blue's News. I always get the best of the internet from there. Now here's a game that was posted on Blue's News just today. This game is incredible. It's simple, elegant, and has very beautiful art. This has a dark, gothic feel to it. It's very cool and I would appreicate it very much if you go there and play. Go here to play. Click on "A Murder of Scarecrows" to start it. Once you get started, there's an option to turn the music on on the right side of the playing area. Please turn that on too. Good music to go with the game

Well, enjoy!

If you like Batman...

...and I know you do, they just released the teaser trailer for Batman Begins staring Christian Bale. Doesn't show too much. A brief glance at the suit, him walking around the world. Pretty teaser. I just hope that it's better than those crap ass ones that Joel Schumacher did. Please, for the sake of all person kind!

So, that's it. Oh yeah, I have gone to the myspace place in the sky. Here's where you can see more info and where you can also....Be. My. Friend. Don't you want to be my friend?

Depressing the job market

It's me again. *SPOILER* Time for me to whine some more. If you want to stick around, cool. If not, please see me in full color goodness on my webcam.

So, I was reading some threads on Monster.com this morning. I was reading about how people who have degrees who have been looking for jobs for 2 or 3 years and how their current job is at fast food joints. It's very bleak. See, 2 or 3 years is too long to wait for a job that will pay for all your bills and have some left over for food and misc. It's really depressing.

It doesn't help when you have companies that have policies of posting jobs to positions that have preferred internal candidates. It's a waste of my time to do up a new cover letter and spiff up the resume for a position that has no chance of external light. They could at least put on the posting that "This is a preferred posting. You can apply, but it may not help your sorry ass. Have a nice day!" Wouldn't that just be grand?

Anyway, the options are getting slimmer everyday. My patiences wears thinner. I have decided that work in manual labor such as forklift/warehouse is out of the question for me. Sure that scrunches my job possibilities, but after having a person I know killed at a place I used to work at involving forklifts, I'll live with the consequences. Food service is mostly out as well. I've held two food service positions and each one was thankless from managers and customers, well most customers. I've only had one stint in retail, but it left a bitter taste in my mouth. It's something that I'd do again, only if things prove to be the end.

Yeah, so that's that. I really don't know what to do other than keep on sending out resumes and learning stuff on the sly. It's been 4 weeks now since my internship ended. Hopefully some windfall will happen and the events and times of my life will improve. Or some wind will fall a tree on my head. Can I say anything about breaking wind? No? Oh, ok.

Well, that's it for now. I think I'll go "borrow" that bottle of rum I got for my father-in-law now.

My first comic of stuff 

Creative Cake

Here is a guy that really enjoys what he does. Check out these cakes that this guy made for halloween themed parties. They look really cool. I bet they taste really good..mmmm....Brains....

Going where none of us have gone before

Please direct your attention to the right side of the page. There you will see a tag board. Please use for fun and recreation. Hopefully it will work as advertised. heh

Three Hours in the Park

My new movie, coming to a screen near you.

Today, Dawn, David, and myself went to the park to help celebrate Chelee's and Mr. T's son's birthday. We were there for a little over three hours. Yes, three hours. It's probably the longest I've been outside that didn't include doing work out in the yard (which I really hate doing). Dave enjoyed running all around the place. Fortunately, he stayed relatively clean meanning he didn't dump dirt on himself. Always trying to stay clean, that one. I guess he figures if he doesn't get dirty, he doesn't need to take a bath. Oh, what little does he know.

Also had a long chat with Mr. T about Star Wars and other worldly stuff. It was quite the enjoyable time. Even had some good pizza made by Chelee. Oh yeah, can't forget the Dirt and Worms in a cup. Very tasty that.

Well, that's it. So until next time.

Experiments

Today I have been experimenting....you know...werid stuff. Like streaming webcams. Really freakishly weird stuff. I can't tell you how weirded out I am.

So, without further nonsense, here's my work from all this morning. Static Me.

I was working on a streaming part too, but the software I have only allows for 1 minute at a time. Need to shell out $25 for the full version. Anyway, I'll put a link to the side so you can always look upon me with uncaring eyes.

It's worth to mention that if the pic doesn't change, it means I'm asleep or I'm just not serving images.

Me in all my glory! 

More Star Wars Stuff

Well, get ready for some Sithly revenge. Yes, the next Star Wars movie title will be Revenge of the Sith. I think it's the best title of the prequals. Hopefully it will turn out to be the best movie as well. Here's hoping to GL not being a complete idiot.

Thank You Gansta Rap

So, this morning I've been in a funk. I don't want to do anything. Feel like crap,you know...the usuall. Java isn't making sense, my future is bleak, and I'm yelling at people I shouldn't be yelling at. It sucks...and I hate it. I needed something to make me laugh and I found it. In the form of Star Wars Gansta Rap: Special Edition.

Those familar with the first version knows of the catchy tune and pretty ok flash animation. The guys took it up a notch. They kept the orginal song and added brand new animation that matches well with the song. Darth Vader rapping and Luke with his Jawa posse is hilarious. It's great! I feel a little better now and I thank the BentTV crew for updating their great creation.

The Library

We went to the library today. Dawn got the third Harry Potter book and some videos for Dave and some others for herself. While she was doing that, I saw something that almost made me jump up and down and yell with glee! And I would have had it not been the library. While on my way to the computer books (Dear Richland Library, Get more recent computer books. Best Regards, Keith), I stumbled across the young adult section. Well, I didn't really stumble, I pretty much knew exactly where it was. Doesn't matter. Anyway, what I saw, sitting on the highest shelf, just about my eye level, were several anime DVDs. Inuyasha, Ranma 1/2, Sailor Moon, Gundum, Outlaw Star (should of picked that one up) and something else I think. Can't remember what it was. It wasn't a huge selection. It was just the mere fact that some of my fave anime titles sat at my local public library for anybody to enjoy.

Ever since I had to cancel our Netflix account, I have been mostly animeless. Yes, it's a huge shame. I was busy waching Neon Genesis Evangelion. Now I don't remember which DVD we stopped on. Besides Neon Genesis, there's new stuff that is released every week, day even. So, I'm missing out on a whole bunch of stuff. I'm just glad that the Library has Inuyasha. I started watching that last year when it was on Adult Swim. I got to see the first 20 episodes or so? They don't have that many at the library, but it will be nice to see what they edited out.

So, yeah, the library might become my new source of anime goodness. So, here's hoping for them to get more anime DVDs! So, until next time.

3 Weeks and Counting

This editing thing sucks. Maybe it's a mozilla thing. I dunno. Anyway...

What have I've been doing with my time in the last three weeks? Well, I've applied to at least 15 jobs nationwide. Hopefully something local will pop up. I've brushed up on my Java. I don't think I'm a complete idiot using it now, but I haven't actually used it other than learning it. I should probably do a simple app or something.

I've also been playing Dungeon Siege and been learning more about the Dungeon Siege Toolkit. It's always fun to mod your favorite game to make it do things you want it to do. Lots of work. The good part is that I don't have to make any new models are art if I don't want to. I have access to all the pre-created pieces that's found in DS. The editor does have the tendancy to crash. Not too much though. Just annoyingly so. I wonder if it's because I'm still running win98. I had the same problems with the Unreal Editor but that crashed far more often and I know that it's pretty stable under WinXP. Why don't they make a linux version? Tell me!!! Oh? I could do it? I could. It would be the biggest project I'd ever worked on, that's for sure.

Well, that's enough stuff for the time being. So, until next time.

My most disturbing post....EVER.

wow...they changed the editing stuff here....anyway.

Some of us have played Soul Calibur II. And some of us are grossed out by the character named Voldo. He's very icky. Some of us also know of the song "It's getting hot in here" by our favorite Nelly. Two people out in internet land thought it would be a good idea to combine the two. Here is their creation. Prepare to be grossed out to the max, man.

JibJab

A little quicky for your viewing entertainment. I guess I should put in a viewer warning thingey here. I'd say it's a pg-13 rating. Pretty funny though.

Hard Things

Yeah, so I think I mentioned I was trying to learn Japanese a post or two ago. I'm using a program called The Rosetta Stone Japanese explorer CD-ROM. It claims to have over 3 million users worldwide though I think that's for the whole Rosetta series. But let me tell you something, this particular learning system is hard. I'm not stopping by any means. It's just hard.

It's gets right to the meat and potatoes of the language, skipping the typical stuff you might learn up front like individual words and how to work with the language. What this system does is give you a phrase and tries to associate that phrase to a picture. Sometimes the pictures are hard to discern properly. Also they have a particular word meaning one thing in one picture and it looks to mean something different in the next picture. It's very confusing. True in our own language, we have a whole bunch of weird things going on. And I admit since English is the only language I really known all my life, these things are second nature to me.

Another problem I have with the software is that there's no way to hear each word in turn. You have to hear the whole phrase or nothing at all. The speaker is also talking fairly fast (I think), another problem since some letters sound different to what I'm use to. I think I hear one thing but my mouth want to go "blah".

Now I mention plural things. Here's the second. Trying to keep focus on one or two things so you don't spread yourself like butter on toast. I find it difficult to try to keep on one thing for very long. I might come across a second thing that may take my interest and I go and do that for a while, then a third thing might come sniffing around and I go and do that. While I'm doing the 3rd thing, the first two and just hanging back unfinished. Lately I've just trying to 1) find a job, 2) learn more Java, and 3) learn Japanese. Those are my three most current white whales. Aye, great whites they are. Errr Anyway...

So, that's it for the time being. I hope I've been entertaining for all three of you. So, until next time.

Of the worth of a piece of paper

So, I'm about through the first full week of looking for a job. And it still looks bleak. All I know is while I don't have a job using the skills I gained through school, that piece of paper (which I won't get actually till August at the earliest) that says I did all that hard work will be slowly deprecating. Though really, in my field, slowly actually means pretty damn fast. Yes, the $25,000 I spend on school (including food, lodging, and tuition) is all going to result in a worthless degree.

As I look through the job listings, almost all companies are requiring a BS/BA and around 4 to 5 years of experience. Before I started school, people told me to get a 4 year degree because companies like that. And I head full steam into getting the degree. But now, as I think more about it, the degree is pretty worthless. For a person who's been in the computer industry for 5 years, that BS/BA is nothing more than a memory. Skills gained then are going to be useless now because that's just how the computer industry is.

My degree is particular worthless because I started back in 1993. Back when if you had a computer, you were lucky to be running Windows 3.1. Looking through a notebook I had which I used for a biology class in 1997 did not ring any bells with me, though some of it could have been applied to that last quarter of bio. The cliche of "Use it or lose it" is too apparent here. I didn't use bio so I lost most of it. I started out programming with Pascal in 1993. I don't remember any of it other than I had a class or two in pascal. I started C programming around 96 or 97 and I still remember it cause I've used some version of it off and on since then.

But that's where I stopped. I know technology that's about 8 years old now, to me. Now a days, people are using stuff created about 3 years ago with the advent of Windows XP. That's just about when I started WSU and WSU doesn't like teaching the new technology, unlike CBC where they try to keep up with the Jones.

Anyway, I think I'm just whining about the whole worth of my degree here in a few months. I'm disappointed with myself for not staying in the CS program and completing my degree in the recommended 4 to 5 years. New tech comes out every day and I'm playing catch up all the time. I'm so far behind now in some things that I wonder if I'll ever get to a position in my life that I'll enjoy.

Ok, that's enough. I think I have more job postings to look at or something. *sigh*

The icky Locker Gnome is Right

So sayeth me.

Ok, for those of you who watched TechTV back before it turned to crap, there was this one show on it that was called Call For Help. For a majority of the time it was one, it was hosted by Chris Pirllo, the Locker Gnome. He had far too much spunk to be a host for a show. He eventually got canned/quit, whatever ( I don't keep up on the gossip) but he had his website for longer than that. He still has it in fact.

There are also many of you who still use Internet Explorer as your main browser. As you know, there's tons of problems with that. First of all, it's a Microsoft product which infers tons of bugs and flaws. Second of all, it's a Microsoft product. Third of all, etc. ad nauseum. Yes, it's a bad bad thing. I've been using Mozilla for a year at least now and I have to say I'm pretty happy with it. And you know what? That Locker Gnome agrees with me. Now I wouldn't normally openly agree to anything that he has to say. But here, I must agree with the gnome. IE is the devil and it will claim your first 3 children and their first 3 children.

So, for your own good, go do what the gnome tells you to do. Ignore the nightmares for a night or two. Just go do it. Do it so humanity can move on into a safer, happier place. Pluueazze? Do it for the children.

Blog

This link may not make sense to everybdoy, but here's a link to the comic strip User Friendly about blogging. It's a couple weeks old now. Anyway, that's it for now. Until the next time.

hanford tri-cities asshole

An actual search hit from google. Sure all terms can be found on my blog, but for someone to look for that in particular? All I can say is "wow". Though I want more "adam brody shirtless" hits. LOL

Live from South Central

Well, it's more like central Richland if anything. Anyway, I thought I would give you all a little update to what's up with me.

I'm done with my internship so I'm looking for another job. Now I'm not limiting myself to the local area. I've opened it up for Seattle and beyond. Hopefully Seattle. While there's too many people there, it's not all that bad. Also lots of computer jobs up there in general. My big worry is moving from here to there, if that should happen.

We got one of our last major purchases on Thursday. And it's it swell. We got a new dance pad that has thick padding that dulls the noise created from jumping around on DDR. This pad also has a connection for a PS2, so when we do get a PS2 (and we will so we can get DDRMAX2) we'll be set for more dancing madness! But job first.

I've started to learn Japanese again. Now that I don't have the guilt of not doing my homework on my mind, I have all this free time. I've always wanted to learn Japanese so I could watch anime without English translation. And it will be useful when we get to go to Japan, at some point in my life. It's an interesting and difficult language and I'm going to work at it so I can move my tongue and mouth in the ways it needs to move. So, look forward to be hearing phrases from my mouth that isn't English and isn't quite Japanese. LOL

Ok, that's it for now. So, until next time.

Two Things

I'd rather be writing than working.

Second, I get a lot of email from various things I have signed up for over the years. Stuff I don't care about and things I direct to the spam box because....well, I can. Think Clinton here. Anyway, one of the things I signed up for was Reunion.com. Yeah, I signed up for that and classmates back before the reunion I didn't go to last year. So, just checking up on my email, I find a newsletter from the R place (said r com above) and in the subject is says the normal stuff you find from high school reunion places. Says 3 or 4 new members from my class or range of years, blah blah blah. But a new things shows up. It said someone was searching for me. 1 search. This perked my interest cause really, who'd be looking for me now? So I click through and ultimately learned that if I want to find out, I have to sign up. So, this is either a ploy for them to make me sign up or someone did a search for me. In any event, I'm not signing up. My interest has to be perked up by more than one search.

But a couple of weeks ago, while looking through my blog log (which is lost cause I forgot to copy before I put up the new design) I found that someone found my blog by searching by my name. This was on June 2nd. I certainly didn't do it cause I know where my blog is...for the time being. I could attribute this to submitting a resume a couple of days before and they were using google to find info on me. Which is weak. Seriously, if you have to google me to find stuff on me...well, I don't know what to say. Nothing about natural selection this time though.

Well, that's all I got for the time being. Oh yeah, I'm enjoying not worrying about school. It's soooo cool! I can just come home, cook dinner, clean up, veg for few hours and repeat work day the next day. Having every other Friday off is good too, though this next week is my last week of my intern. Time to go back to worrying again. *sigh*

A new look

I hope you aren't green with envy. :P

As you can see, my blog as turned a shade of green. It's not easy being green, so says one frog. However, I forgot to copy my links so don't be too angry with me. The links will be rebuilt within a few weeks, or when I have time. Which ever comes first. On a side note, I have signed up for a Gmail account. You can reach me at InvaderSil *at* gmail dot com. For those not in the know, remove *at* and insert @ and remove dot with a period (.). Also any extra spaces should be removed as well. I'd like to keep that spam free for a few weeks at least. If you do send me an email to that account, it might be a few days before I get to it. I'm not in the habit of checking yet. Give me time.

Well, I hope you enjoy the new look. Until next time.

Summertime Driving

Yes, summer is here again. How do I know it's summertime? A: Is it the warm to sweltering weather? B: Or perhaps the longer days and shorter nights? C: Or could it be some crazy event is happening every weekend? D: None of the above?

If you went with D, you'd be correct. The correct answer to this perplexing question is....the insurgent of crazy teenage drivers. Yes, every night is filled with stupid kids driving like they are in some NASCAR race. Stupid kids that can't look where the hell they're going before they pull out into traffic. As if there's enough stupid drivers on the road talking on their stupid cell phones, summer just gets worse by a factor of 20.

Driving to and from work is bad enough cause of Hanford area workers feel like since there's a 25 mile drive to their particular work area one way, they have the right to do 80 Mph in a 55. That's totally ridiculous. Now I have to contend with the sumertime antics of crazy teenagers who feel like since they are let out of their cage, they get to do 80 in a 40.

If you're a teen, all I ask is you pull your head out of the sky and look where the hell you are going. You're going to have a short life otherwise.

And if you're not a teen, but a driver who feels like they must use their Cell phone while driving...well, I don't know what to say about you folks. Other than may natural selection have mercy on you.

The circle is now Complete.

When I last pulled out the guts of my computer, it was about 2000. Four years ago was my last major computer upgrade. When I left, I was an undergrad student. Now I am the graduate. I am happy to report that all is fine within the computer known as The Massive.

Here's the breakdown of what I got.

• 1 new mobo(motherboard) that supports SATA (Serial ATA) hard drives, USB 2.0, Firewire, and AC3 audio


• 1 AMD Athlon XP 2400+ CPU with fan


• 2 sticks of 256 Meg PC3200 DDR RAM


• 1 HP flatbed scanner

My next major piece of hardware will be a new video card. My current video card is a cast off from CV. I'm happy with it, it just doesn't cut the mustard any more. Specially when I'll be making the next gen computer games! In my next life. Anyway, that's what I got and I'm happy. :)

Miracle of Life

So, as of Wednesday, I am an official graduate of computer science, unofficially. I actually have to wait till August to make it official official, but I can look past that. There are a few things I'd like to share, nuggets of pure delight, that I have gleamed from my time at school.

First, your ass is indeed connected to your mouth. Yes, it's true. The biology book said so. Well, in not that direct fashion. I kind of summarized five or six chapters. Since the beginning of the time when I have thought about life, I had viewed it with some sort of mystery behind it. We are just alive thingeys walking about, doing stuff. I had the concepts of organs and stuff like that. And when I had to urinate, I just went. I didn't think about it, just did it. Now, after my year long biology lesson, every time I tinkle, I think "Gee, there goes some Urea out the ol' urethra. Good-bye Nitrogen waste, I'll miss you." Now, is that just depressing or what? Other mysteries included the mobility thing. How things move around. See, one neuron from the brain shoots a potential down to the motor cap on the muscle telling it to contract. It goes "YES, I OBEY!". The counterpart muscle "AHHHHHHH" while it relaxes. Every time I move, I'm thinking "Go neurons, Go neurons, It's your birthday..." Ad nauseum. The bottom line of this is that Life isn't so mysterious anymore. We are all big bags of water that secrete urea and use ATP constantly.

My next nugget of knowledge comes from the whole length of my time in the prison...errr school system. It is harder to barely get by than it is to make a conscience effort to actually do well. This last piece of wisdom was clearly appear to me just this last quarter. About half-way through the quarter, I stopped trying to do well and tried to just do. Meaning I only wanted credit. This will add new ulcers to your hole ridden stomach at the end of the quarter. This class was my last class. I needed the credit to finish off my degree. If I didn't get it, I would have shelled out another $350 for one class during the summer. Fortunately, another person is teaching that class. But fortunately, that was pre-empted with my 0.7 grade point. Yes. I totally suck. 0.7 gets credit at WSU and CBC. I didn't write the rules you know. I had worried for a week wondering if I did well enough, would I have to go back to CBC? It just wasn't worth sitting there, waiting, calculating an imaginary grade point. So, with that, when you go out there, just don't do your best, do more than your best because sometimes your best just doesn't cut it.

Well, that's enough insightful from me to last.....ummm....a week. So, until next time, enjoy the nacho platter.

A fistfull of NULL

So, as of late, I don't really have anything to post about. The trials and tribulations of school is almost over. That all I had to bitch and whine about. I'm almost a working man. I'm hoping that one of several resumes gets to the right place. I really do. Four weeks left in my internship and the gross reality of having nothing after that is on my mind. But other than that, I gots nothing.

I could post about cool games, neat stores I've been in, or even my daily mundane life. Maybe, just maybe, I'll start an underground comic about my life. That would be swell! Oh? Already been done? Damn. Figures. Always the last to dinner. Well, that's all I got. See y'all later.

Before I forget

Here's another installment of "What to watch on the Internet". Today's video is umm..filled with fighting bunnies. Yes, that's right. Fighting Bunnies. Watch at your own risk. Go Now!

It's Sunday morning. Do you know where your Paper is?

So, yeah. Lots have happened in the last week or so. I finally did the walk down the red carpet at my graduation on the 14th. However, it seemed to take more time waiting to shake hands with school officials I have never seen before than the whole 11 years I was in college. Spooky, yes? So, I'm almost done. I just need credit in my last class. Believe me, that's all I'm aiming for now.

I'm really tired of Biology. It's memorizing without application. Also the worst smell that you could ever pssibility encounter while programming, ok there's two, is the smell of your computer catching on fire cause you tweaked it too much. The second one I mentioned is the BO coming from your coworkers who feel like they have evolved beyond the need for showers. Which can be pretty bad. But the smell of a dead pig you are dissecting stays with you. It gets in your clothes, your hair, it lands your skin. It's like smoke from cigars (and other smokable stuff). Biology is not for me. Nor will it ever be.

My internship that I have has turned into a hunt for data laying around in 10 year old data files. I'm pissed off because it's a manual job which has no hope of automating in the short time they want the data. I'm pissed because I spent a day and a half looking through the files only to be told after I thought was done that I got the wrong data. The data I was told to grab. But you know what? That's fine. If they want to pay the more expensive intern to do the grunt work, fine. I don't care. But it's about time that I start looking for a job for afterwards. *sigh*

So, until next time.

New and Impoved

It may be new, but I don't see the improved yet. Well, really this is just a test post...nothing to see here. These aren't the droids you're looking for...move along...move along.

EDIT: Say goodbye to Haloscan comments. I'll sure will miss them.

EDIT: For Crying out loud, I can't quote from Star Wars anymore. I guess I need to watch again soon.

A little off the top, please

It's been about ten days since I've lasted posted. That beginning seems like something you'd hear from a confessional thing at some church. Which? I don't know and have little energy to go research it. If you know, please let me know.

I guess I'll cover the last couple of days. Starting with today. First, I mowed the back yard with my landlord's lawn mower. Once I get a stable income, I'll get my own lawn mower. My dad has a mower that has a power train, self-moving kind of stuff. $300 for it. It's pretty sweet. After mowing the lawn, I took a shower and ran some errands which ended with getting my nephew to play with Dave. We all then went to Dawn's parents for the first BBQ of the season. Steak and fish. Not bad. The steak was really smokey though. But free is as free does.

Yesterday marked the end of the first full (kind of) week at work. It pretty much included reading a bunch and playing cribbage. Well, I played a few hands on Friday and watched the rest of the time. I'm suppose to be working 8x9s but my class in the morning won't let me get all that in. They won't let me stay there at the office by myself either. I'm kind of annoyed. At PNNL, they give students at least 12 hour access unsupervised. Of course that's case by case. I had that access at PNNL. So I'm getting a great deal as I"m not working a full time schedule and doing hardly anything for the time being. I'm actually gonna be doing something that's kind of cool. My mentor seems knowledgable but talks a lot. But he's knowledgable about chemistry stuff and not so much on CS and that's cool. I imagine that he'll be looking for me to do some cool stuff.

Friday also marked the 30th which was the last day to enter that writing contest that I had mentioned a while back. This last week was a busy one for me and I didn't find the time to get it write more. It's an interesting story though and I'd like to finish it just to say I actually finished something in my life.

Thursday was Dave's first T-Ball game. He did pretty well. Both teams batted around 3 times and called it good. Which is fine for 5 year olds. It was kind of amusing at times trying to see the kids run the bases. Two of them on the same base, running when their coach told them to stop. But fun was had by all, cept at the very end.

Thursday was also the first annual (I hope) Games Day at WSU TC. It was something I personally started and more or less ran cept for the time I was at the T-Ball game. We had pizza. We had games. We had lots of fun. Though a word to the wise: Order lots of pizza for hungry college students. At all times we got pizza, it all went fast, like less than a minute fast. They had all circled the area like vultures, sensing that their prey was near. It was disgusting. But a lesson learned for the next time it's held.

The rest of the week went by without major events. A week from today, we had a yard sale. We raked in $300. I was happy because we had no money at the time and that allowed us to get groceries and gas. We also have less to move now. heh

I'm not sure what else to say right now. Oh yeah, in reference to the title, I got a haircut today. I didn't even go to the barber. I was actually getting tired of the crap I was getting. Anyway, that's it. Until next time.

The Light has shined upon me!

Actually it was pretty random. But I found this site off the main blogger page. It's called Smoke and Mirrors and it has some great content about being an atheist including a link to this video aptly named "Kissing Hank's Ass." Ahh...yes...good times.

Ok, time for more meat

Yeah, so my last post was not very good. I apologize. It's just been a long time since I'd had a flow of money into my dirty hands.

So, I think I mentioned a few posts back that I should enter a writing competition. So far, I have about 1 page worth. I'd say it's about 20% done. It's starting out well. I have an idea for the middle. But the ending I would really like to have something different going on. Something unexpected. So far, I'm riding the cliche express to the ending. I'll hopefully think of something. I won't post it till I enter it though. I don't want to break any kind of vague rules.

So, until the end.

YESSSSSS!!!!!!!!!

I got an internship at CH2M Hill today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I might be able to start as early as the 26th of April!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Terribly Clear

After going to two job fairs in the last month, it is very clear to me that the Tri-Cities is not where it's at for jobs in making computer software. The local colleges temp you with computer classes and degrees. But once you're all done, they're laughing all the way to the bank. See, they know there's no computer software industry here. But they offer the classes all the same. *sigh* Another problem includes WSU just teaching theory classes based on Linux when the whole rest of the fucking world uses Windows. It's like "Thanks for all that great information, let me go apply it on something that will take me months to learn first." Here's a kicker, during the summer, they are finally teaching a class that has application in Windows. There's just no slack to be had with me.

As you probably know, I am but 2 months shy getting my degree in compute science. Now I'm in this limbo, ethereal place where I need a job, but minimum wage isn't gonna cut it and I can't leave the area until my degree is done. Of course, there's that ever popular chicken and the egg syndrome of to get a job, you need experience, but to have experience you need a job. I think I've said something about that before.

Over the years, I have watched my mistakes pile up. And of course, each mistake pointed me to where I sit today, in my sleeping attire, typing on my blog, inevitability missing my first class of the day. And slightly hungry. Of course I'm hungry not from a mistake, but from not eating this morning. Anyway...

The point being of this whole post is that the light at the end of my tunnel has shrunk exponentially to where I can see a small sliver of light using high tech light detecting technology. It's really dark right now and it just not fun. Yes, this will pass....

$100 for your short story

Well, not exactly, but it's something. At the community college I attend, they are doing a writing contest. The categories include Short Story-Fiction, Essay, and Poetry. The grand prize (why do they need a grand prize?) is $100 and $75 for first in each category. I'm thinking of writing a short story and throw it into the mix. With the amount of free time I have, I could easily get a short story out in before the final submission date, April 30th I believe. Writing is cool. But it's something I haven't tuned so I'm real rough. But what the hey. I think I'm due for some sort of luck...

So, as of late, I've been hitting up the internet for some decent viewing material. Yesterday I gave you Tedi. Today, I give you Ninjai: The Little Ninja. This series of animated shorts is the best series I have seen on the Internet. Period. Chapters 1 to 10 are out now, 11 and 12 are on there way, soon I hope. If you want to see what's the best little ninja out there, please watch this. And the best thing about it? They did all orginal music and it's GREAT MUSIC! While watching, I was sure that it had to be from some movie soundtrack. Nope, all original done by them, The Ninjai Gang. If you only have bandwidth to see one series of animated shorts, see this set. You'll like it. Oh yeah, probably isn't really be good for kids. That means you, David.

One tough stuffed bear

Yes, here's yet another short film that I found entertaining. It's simply called Tedi. As hosted on Atomfilms.com.

And I'd like to introduce you to my new site for my game related thoughts. Welcome to Game.this. The site isn't as defined Blogspot is, but it's a work in progress...I hope. Anyway, if you have any problems getting to it, let me know.

I WON THE FREAKING LOTTO!!!!!1111!!11

*sniff* April Fools...... *cries in the corner*

Perspiration...errr Inspiration Strikes!

So, I was just sitting here, looking at the daily websites here at school and a thought came to me. I have the problem of not knowing what businesses are in and around the Tri-Cities. I'm sure there's a lot otherwise there'd be no reason to live here. If I don't know who sells products here, how can I know who I can work for? For jobseekers (like me), it's a big pain. But suddenly, I realized that I could look at the chamber of commerce for the area! Brilliant!

So, now I have this new avenue to look for CS type jobs. I've only been looking at PNNL and IT based places in the Hanford area. These jobs, of course, will disappear as soon as the cleanup ends or less people are needed. PNNL might last longer cause they are a big national research facility. Anywho, I've just scratched the surface of the commerce site. Hopefully there are other companies out there that actually do software and not just IT. It's not a catch-all solution cause a company that I applied to was not on the list. But a good portion of Tri-City area businesses will be in there.

So, there you have it. Now it's time to look in the commerce website and find a company that's looking for me!

Just a reminder

There will be no DDR today due to illness and evil neighbors. But if you all want to just bring us food and then leave, that will be ok. :)

Thanks to Tania

She gave me the rest of her birthday goodies! :) The green stuff was really yummy. A must buy the next time I'm in that neighborhood.

The tallies are in...

I passed bio with a 2.9 (way higher than I was hoping) and in math I got a 2.5 (just about right where I thought it would be). So this officially means I have only two classes left to finish my 10 year 4 year degree!! I start Animal Bio on Monday at a bright and early 8am at the Pasco CBC campus. That will be 5 days a week with a two hour lab on Fridays. This will last until the 2nd week of June. My other remaining class, Intro to AI, I struggle to not fall asleep in. The instructor drones on about stuff and he's not fully prepared to answer questions thus wasting huge amounts of time I could be sleeping. AI lasts until the first week of May. I can't wait for it to be done with. It's soooo boring!

While I don't actually finish school until June, they had said that I would be able to walk at the graduation ceremony mid-May. Which would be cool cause I am the first of my siblings to have graduated college with a 4 year degree. And I am the next in my family to do so since my Dad got his 4 year back in the 70's. Thus I break a huge dry spell of no degrees. It will be weird. I won't have summer school this summer. I probably won't have classes next fall (If I want to continue with my Masters degree, I have to take two more classes which are offered in the fall). All I will know (hopefully) is a 40 hour work week. I will become one of the many working slobs of the world.

So, on that note, anybody want to hire a newly graduated drone for your workforce? :)

The gods of Uno

Today, me and Dawn, and sometimes Dave, been playing Uno. We've been playing since a little after 11am. We typically play to 500 points each time we play. Most of the time it takes several days of playing before we get that far. Today, we managed to play to 500 twice. Here's the weird part. Dawn would call it the part where I cheat. I won both time. That's not weird though. It was the ratio of wins each time that was weird. I won twice as many games as Dawn each time. David was the "judge" for some games and he was taking Dawn's said that I was cheating. The reason was I was shuffling all the time so they both suspected I had altered the deck in some fahsion. Obviously that wasn't the case cause I was shuffling right in front of them each time. Probability just managed to shift in my favor for a few hands...that's it...nothing more!

The first game to 500 included almost every hand that I dealt to myself having at least 2 wild/draw 4's plus a selection of skips and draw 2's. It was crazy. The first game, needless to say, didn't last very long. I was over 500 points to Dawn's 84 points. In the first hand that Dawn won of the next game, she managed to get 90+ points alone! It was crazy!

I just want to say that I am not in league with the demonic gods of Uno. I do not make sacrifices of goat cheese or similar dairy products. I can only say I have decent luck playing Uno. Though I wish it would rub off onto one of my lotto tickets.

A stack of envelopes on my desk

Tomorrow is the last day of the winter quarter over at good ol CBC. This really only means one thing: I have only 1 quarter left before I finally finish my 4 year degree. Yeah, I finally managed to get to the end of the long and ragged road that some people call college. But grades don't officially come out till the 24th. So I live in this limbo land until I officially find out my grades. In that bio class, I slacked a little in the lab portion. As we all know, lab is an easy 100%. That was the case more or less last quarter. Not so this quarter. While I could blame how the class was ran, I'll just say that bad management is to blame. Doing some calculations, I found I can pass the class with about a 80% on the final test. But considering how well I did on the test (I perhaps missed about 20 out of 156 and I did all the extra credit which is another 21 points) I fell very confident I'll get enough to move on and take the final class.

My math test is tomorrow. Doing the calculations there provided with a 65% to pass the class with a 2.0. And that's just fine with me. These last couple of sections are killers. The problems take too long to do. I feel like I can do better than a 65% but I'll take whatever.

After getting back my third Bio test last week, I really felt like I should have done better considering the amount of time I had over the course of the year. This led to the stack of envelopes currently on my desk. There's also a juniper branch here as well. I had some crazy idea that I could up my lab grade by actually doing the required work. I went out last Friday and collected a bunch of biological samples: mosses, hornworts, lichens, fuzzy plant, seeds, and some unknown plant material. Of the stuff I collected, I had to identify what it was, take pictures, and submit it. On Monday, I had a chance to identify the crap. However, it soon became apparent it would take far longer to ident what I had than the time left I had to do it in. The resources was not present in good enough form to give me quick searching. In the end, nothing was done. The envelopes remain my on desk, asking for the big bio heap in the sky. So, before I head off to my last math class (for a while I hope), I will set the poor souls free and give them to the large grey bucket of trash outside. Maybe I'll even say a few words. Maybe a hymm. But whatever I do, it will be a relief to see plant biology behind me.

Making games of the future

So, the other day I was thinking about all the types of games out on the market right now. I could not think of a current release that didn't involve destroying something. The Sims came to mind but it's not really current any more and there are cases where you could put your sim in a room with no doors (Evil, you should try it sometime. It's liberating). Doing a quick check of the most popular games on Gamespot.com revealed two games that don't involve destroying things: WWE and MVP Baseball 2004. Both could be regarded sports games (WWE is more of a sport in video game form than in it's TV farce form). 1up.com has a similar list of top 5 games, all of which are games with some sort of destruction.

Some games has unrealistic destruction such as Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker and Mario Kart Double Dash. In the Wind Waker, the player controlled hero runs around swinging his mighty sword at goblins and other baddies, which disappear in wisps of smoke when destroyed. Double Dash has somewhat tamer destruction where as instead of non-player characters wisping aware, balloons are popped, the shine is stolen, or the vehicle is simply blown up in the air creating a delay for that character to return to the action. Of course there is the totally opposite side of destruction with ultra-gore, ultra-realistic chaos. The recent game Ninja Gaiden has the player spinning around, running along the walls, slicing the bad ninjas in half. This is of course with gratuitous amounts of delightful squeamish stuff. You know, blood, guts, arms flying off, heads rolling on the ground, etc...I think you get the point. Of course my favorite right now, Unreal Tournament 2003 where players run around "gibbing" each other. I can only hope that UT2004 will be just as much fun.

Now before you all get up in a huff about how right I am and those games should be banned, you need to hear my main point. I like to play fun games. All the games in the 2nd paragraph are all fun. All are engaging breaks from the real world. All I am saying is that there's a whole bunch of games based on the destruction of stuff. There just has to be something more out there. A new genre that hasn't come of age or a dying one that needs a giant restart. Of course the latter I'm talking about is the adventure game. The former...well, hasn't come of age yet so it hasn't been heard of yet.

In the past, I could not stand adventure games. They require too much thinking and as young boy, thinking was not high on my list of things to do that day. Playing games like Kings Quest, while entertaining with it's witty dialogue and somewhat "killer" graphics of it's day, was an exercise in futility. I could never beat the damn games. I preferred games like Super Mario Bros. and Castlevania, precusors to the current trend of "twitch" games. Now, I almost yearn for the days of a plot that's interesting and a game that requires thinking. It would at least be something different. However, getting new adventure games will be a huge challenge as the major companies of the past great adventure games like Monkey Island and Sam and Max are killing the new games in production cause of the list found on Gamespot.com.

Now, as a game designer wannabe, I'm really curious where the next generation of genre will come from. Does it exist already but needs some spit shine on it? Or does the technology that will spawn it years off down the road? One game that I really like, and I can't seem to stop talking about, is Dance Dance Revolution. It's basically a rhythm game where the player hits specific combos on a dance mat instead of a standard game controller. This is innovation on two levels: It's doesn't involve killing/destroying anything and it makes the player get in shape if he/she wants to be good at the game. The only draw back is that the first DDR was first released 6 years ago. It's still fun. Subsequent versions just include some new feature and new songs. Both are pretty good. Though because it's one of those games that's simple to learn, impossible to master, it's still an enjoyable time. Something I would enjoy looking into is combining the use of the dance mat and the new Eye toy to make a super dance game where you have to use your arms as well to hit markers on the screen through your imported body movements from the cam. Another direction I would love to see the dance mat move to is a game requiring movements like in DDR but translating them to a character on a screen having to hop around moving platforms. The simple mechanics would remain, it would be just mixing it up a little.

And there's always new technology that's pushing the direction of computer/video games that comes out every so many months. Our game world is always in dynamic flux. It's almost always a wait and see type of situation. I have other ideas I would love to pursue as well. But the night draws to a close and sleep is overcoming me. So, with that, I say goodnight.

The life and times in a duplex

I want to hate my landlord...really I do...but I can't. Right now they are playing loud music, loud enough to where I can clearly make out what's playing. I'd be more angry if they were playing crap music. But they aren't, so I'm only partially not mad at them. Now I present the reasons why I can't be mad at them.

• The man side mows the lawn. That's a big plus cause I don't have the time....read...lazy.


• The woman side is...umm..hot? Yes, that would be the term for it


• They are both really nice. They don't normally play loud music...maybe once a month.


• They cut us a deal on the rent and one month we were late and they were cool with it...I think.

Other things came to light just in the minutes while writing this entry about the LAN party event I went to this morning. I'm not happy camper right now. So, with that I will imagine I have a punch bowl of Romulan blood ale in front of me.

Games, sweet games

Today I was kind of unmotivated. Today is my long day for school. It should have been 11:30 bio, 12:40 math, 1:50 bio lab, 5:45 AI. But what actually happened was I played Return to Castle Wolfenstien for XBox from about 1 or so to 7. Yes, I know that I shouldn't be slacking at the end of the quarter. But really, I only slacked in one class, math. Bio wasn't required to be there. AI was simply putting me to sleep for the current topic. As for Math, as long as I get around a 70 on the last test, I'll be fine. Though that means some cramming between now and a week from Thursday. I guess I'm still in a funk about the current job market that I have waiting for me. Also our mod project probably won't have anything to show other than concept stuff. *sigh*

ok, well, perhaps tomorrow will be better. So, until next time.

Flash! ooohhh ooohhhhhhh

While looking at my daily news site, I came across this silly little flash animation. It apparently came from Korea, somewhere. The animation style is very anime though. The story line reminds me of the Peppy Le Pue cartoons where he's always running after some cat. Anyway, I thought it was "cute". Enjoy!

Update, Redux

It would appear I was in haste when I said DDR was on for this weekend. I have to retract and say DDR is not on for this weekend. I'm sorry for any umm...problems this might have caused. Please leave your hate mail on the comments. Thanks.

Thank the maker!

I know that we, the government and me, don't see eye to eye on every issue. But when it comes to giving money when it counts...I'm all for it! I just finished our taxes and we get to live for another month an a half. So, expect less whine and more cheese. Also, tomorrow I will make the trek to Kadlec to apply for a database analyst job. My chances of getting it are slim. I'm surprised it's still open considering how long it's been open and taken the job market. But I'm not being picky here. heh

So, because of this good news, DDR on Saturday will be a go! Though I haven't played for almost a week now. I've been busy moping around. lol So, that's it! Until next time.

Drunk...on Mars

I know there's a whole bunch of you wondering what I would look like if I was drunk...on Mars. Well, here you you go. Me, kneeling down, drunk...on Mars. Oh yeah, there's Mike and Beth in the background.

The joy of Anime

I like anime. I've liked anime since my early days in the early 80's when I was watching Star Blazers and naming our cats after the characters. Back then, I didn't know it was from Japan. It was just a great cartoon show that was on early in the morning before school. Or was it the afternoon? Really, all I cared was that it was way cool. The mid-80's brought the joy of Robotech to my bright young eyes. That show had it all! Action, big robots (they are actually termed Mechs, but what did I care back then?), and a story that mattered from one episode to the next. The third season, also known as the third generation, presented me and the youth of the United States the best piece of science fiction based machinery: the Veritech Cyclone motorcycle. This mech has been in many a dream since I saw that season. It's just soo cool! I thought so then and I still think so today.

I have been hooked on anime since then, watching whatever I can that is broadcast on the US channels. There are exceptions to my rule like I don't care for the kids anime that they play now. Stuff like Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Beyblade, and Kirby (my least liked kids anime ever, it's worse than Barney) I rather not watch. Kids anime movies I tend to like such as Castle In The Sky, My Neighbor Totoro, and Kiki's Delivery Service are all fun to watch. The animation is superb to watch which is a major reason why I tend to go for dubbed movies. Until I learn enough Japanese to keep me going through the story, I'll have to stick with the dubbs.

Besides the great animation of series, there's one other characteristic that keeps me coming back for more. This characteristic is the music. A vast majority of the series I have seen include J-Pop songs as their themes. Now, as some of you know already, I'm a pop whore. Meaning I'll listen to most whatever is on the radio. And like it. The J-pop songs are just Japanese pop songs and well, I whore for them too. Songs that are featured at the beginning of Evangelion, Escaflowne, Record of Lodoss War, Inuyasha, Ranma 1/2, and Cowboy Bebop are almost always can be found in my playlists. I keep on hearing more great J-pop tunes in every new anime series/movie I watch. In the past couple of days, I have sought out more j-pop music and tuned my mp3 player to the streaming bits of a couple of anime music stations which you can find on Shoutcast.com. Though I don't understand any of the lyrics, it's very entertaining nonetheless.

I tend to like the anime that has some sort of sci-fi flair to it, be it a setting in the future or having huge mechs running around. As I mentioned in my previous post, I have been watching the Neon Genesis Evangelion series over the last month or so. That story is based in the near future and it has huge mechs running around. Vision of Escaflowne is/was another favorite of mine, if I don't try to think about the last several episodes of it. There are mechs, but the setting is kind of mediaeval times. Though actually it's an alternate reality filled with magic and technology.

Once again, there are exceptions to the rule of mechs in the future. Ranma 1/2 is a great comedy with the main character switching from male to female at the drop of some cold water on himself. Now, how can you not find that hilarious? Inuyasha, from the same person who did Ranma, is another anime series (I actually haven't seen in about a year!) that doesn't revolve around future technologies. Inuyasha is a half-human, half-dog demon wanting this one magical jewel which will allow him to be a full demon. The setting is mediaeval Japan. A lot of the same elements can be found in Inuyasha and Ranma, which only seems natural. A movie that comes to mind that is based on real events that occurred during World War II is Grave of the Fireflies. That was a really sad story and could really compete with traditional films for content. Sadly, anime is still considered a cartoon for many an American.

There's still tons and tons of anime I have never heard of. There's tons still only available in Japan. They seem to only trickle over here. There are several more series that I do know about which I would love to watch, but those series are long and each DVD costs a good chunk of change. So, along with watching the rest of Evangelion, it will be a while before I get to view the joy that is Anime.