TBQelite

What's In A Name?

2006-12-31T22:00:00.000-08:00

What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.

But would you recognize it by that name when it's used?

After much thought and consideration, I have decided to change my identity from TBQelite to that of Trebonte. Seeing as this is the last night of the year, I see that this is a fitting time to start the transition.

This is quite a drastic and dramatic move but it is one that needs to be made. I've shrouded myself in the identity of TBQelite. I am TBQelite. Google search "tbqelite" and you can see my footprints throughout the interweb. But alas, that'll all change. Few will see the connection between the two and the transition won't be smooth by it's nature.

Why must I change my alias? Why make such a drastic change?

The reason is just that: change. I'm making the transition to my adult life and as such everything is changing.

TBQelite no longer fits me. I no longer am as strongly associated with the organization known as TBQ (last year I was a quizzer and this year I'm too busy to participate as much in quiz events as I once did) nor do I wish to be as presumptious as I once was by adding the label of "elite" to everything that I am. Sadly such a label is not constantly applicable and even if it were there is great value in taking the more humble route.

Names are important. They are the representation of "you." This is one of the reasons why I transfered blogs from innocencebetrayed.blogspot.com to this one at tbqelite.blogspot.com. But I digress.

Anyways... I will be changing blogs, usernames, email accounts, etc. to Trebonte.

Why Trebonte? I used to use Trebonte as an alias in the past (Rabenstrange still has access to my old Juno Trebonte account lol. Long story). So if you see a person named Trebonte posting on your blogs, that is me, your old lovable TBQelite.

If you have any questions, lemme know. I will be starting to post on trebonte.blogspot.com so you can find me over there. *smile*

Twas The Night Before Wintervale

2006-12-24T23:43:00.000-08:00

Have a very merry Christmas!

And here's something silly to pass your time.

Blizzard introduced a new radio play for Christmas entitled "Night Before Wintervale." I love the murloc orchestra.

Night Before Wintervale (mp3, 5.9mb)

Blizzard also released a Christmas and a Halloween play about a group of gnomish adventurers. Those were funnier in my opinion.

Roaming Gnomes - 01 - Halloween (mp3, 5.5mb)
Roaming Gnomes - 02 - Christmas (mp3, 5.8mb)

Note: Best to right click and "Save As."

Momma Didn't Raise A Fool

2006-12-24T00:33:00.000-08:00

Yeah... Yeah she did...

Tonight at work as we were cleaning up (I was doing dishes so I heard about this after the fact), some guy came in wanting to buy some chow mein but we had already turned everything off and the food hadn't been heated for about a half hour so we couldn't sell it anymore (besides the minor fact that we were officially closed and our ringers were all turned off by management). But he was adamant on getting his noodles for his mama so he just wouldn't take no for an answer.

After calling the deli supervisor of the night over to explain things, a store manager had to be brought in. They argued about it in the office (which is right in front of all the checkout stands) and they just ended it. The man followed the deli supervisor (she's just a bit older then me) back into the deli and started chewing into her cussing, spewing racists remarks (she not being Caucasian), asking how her boyfriend put up with her, demanding free food, and all sorts of crap. He left once security was mentioned.

So...

Yeah...

People like that is really disappointing... The big cause for that is how the child was raised. Parents not bringing up their children right...

So rude... So uncalled for...

And sadly... there are a lot of jerks out there like that.

Viva La Blogger Revamped!

2006-12-23T02:32:00.000-08:00

The new version of Blogger in beta is dead!

Long live the new version of Blogger!

(P.S. The old version of Blogger is not dead, but it would like to retire for a little while... maybe go to Hawaii or play World of Warcraft all day? It begs you to let it play World of Warcraft all day.)

One of the Blogger messages.

The Storm Of '06

2006-12-18T18:08:00.000-08:00

It struck hard and with a fury. The signs of it were there as raid dumped, hail plummeted, and snow appeared. People entered my store in seek of refuge from the frigid temperatures.

Power actually went out briefly at my store as I was working but backup power generators quickly kicked in leaving us in darkness for only a minute or so. Main power came back up shortly after that. We brought down our RV from Snoqualmie and have been using the generator to hook up the upstairs heater, the freezer, and random other stuff.

I, however, have been holed out at my good friend The Shadow Walker's lair (now conveniently located less then 15 minutes from my house) as he got his power and internet back much quicker then I did.

I walked into Safeway today to see if I was supposed to work (they didn't have power back at the time) and got drafted for a little bit. They lost a lot of money in ruined product along the lines of several hundreds of thousands. I was cleaning out the freezers as people were getting rid of the nasty junk. Leaking ice cream junk ftw! /sarcasm. I only stayed for a couple hours though.

Now I'm at the scheduled Winter Break LAN party waiting for people to finish setting up. Hurry up slackers!

That is all for now.

Map Of Teh Intraweb

2006-12-14T01:18:00.000-08:00

Click to enlarge

Just in case you get lost on the internet, here's a map.

"Work, Work, Work"

2006-12-14T00:08:00.000-08:00

Something need doing?

I just finished my third day of work.

One of the random managers told me to show up Monday at 8am and the deli supervisor would square me away with a schedule, train me, and everything!

Alas, fate is not always kind. My supervisor called in sick so I was directionless. Well not completely. Several of the older people helped me out. I pretty much got thrown to the wolves as to what and how I'm supposed to do things but oh well. The deli staff is really helpful.

I'm learning how things run quickly. It'll be much better when I finally get up to snuff. Working at the deli is "ok." Much better place to work then others and it's somewhat enjoyable.

Since my supervisor has been sick, I didn't get a schedule for this week but just got times day by day. Hopefully I'll get my schedule for next week tomorrow. I'm working a full 40 hours a week which is very nice.

Anyways... that's it for now.

The Great Disconnect

2006-12-09T16:43:00.000-08:00

So I got my things squared away with Safeway.

I bypassed all the low-end management and went directly to the manager of the store. He got everything in line for me and got one of the sub-managers to finish up my trainings on Thursday. So I now have all my computer-based trainings completed and will start my work officially on Monday at 8am. Yay!

Stupid underlings.

Day Of The Ninja

2006-12-05T12:57:00.000-08:00

"And perhaps for one day the world will be a little more deadlier."

Today is Day of the Ninja, even bigger then Talk Like a Pirate Day. Today is the day where we all get to release that little ninja inside that is trying to get out and kill people with shirikens and various other tools of destruction and death.

Askaninja.com has tons of awesome ninja videos.

The Sleeper Has Awakened!

2006-12-04T13:51:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the lack of posts. So much junk has happened.'

Got a couple days of class canceled so I'm now going to pay for it at finals...

Finished up "the group" project. Went to the BCC film festival late 'cause of that. I missed out on Rocket Man! /sob

Was able to finish up the last shots for our new movie "Rock of New Life." Just need to edit it and it'll be done I believe.

My Mom just came back from the hospital from her back surgery. She had a crushed vertebra or something like that. The surgery was a success with no complications which is awesome but she'll be laid up for the better part of a month at least.

Finishing up finals. 'Nuff said about that.

Quizmaster'd for the TBQ meet that Saturday.

Went to the college Christmas party which was fun.

Dealing with junk with Safeway... They are dropping the ball... Been about three weeks and I'm still not working. Which... I really need to be. Going to pester them once more and then drop that and find another job if they still can't get their act together.

And various other stuff.

Drive of Death, Mayhem, And Other Cool Stuff

2006-11-28T01:11:00.000-08:00

Since it was snowing, sensei let us out of class at 6:30, an hour before class usually gets out. Normally it's like a 20-30 minute drive from class back home. This time I didn't get home until 9:30. Three whole hours!!!! AAAAAAHHHH...

Yeah... it was really bad with the snow and ice...

Everywhere people were in snow banks, spinning out, etc. I took one look at 140th seeing the mess that people had made out of it, decided to get back home via Petrovitsky. Which meant I had to go all the way to Maple Valley...

What a bother... Going less then 5mph on a 50mph highway, watching as the car in front of me start sliding while it was stopped, watching my car do the same...

Yeah... it was pretty sporty.

Look! It's A Bird, It's A Plane, It's...

2006-11-28T01:08:00.000-08:00

Oh, to be young again.

First Few flakes Of Snow

2006-11-26T23:23:00.000-08:00

It's always nice to look out the window...
And see those very first few flakes of snow...

Today we had our first decent snowing. Kind of fun to drive around in... Hopefully I'll be able to go do my errands tomorrow.

After church I finished up my Japanese paper that's due tomorrow (see post below) and then went of to A fine looking young man's house to finish off the last shots of our biggest and latest film! This particular shooting involved simulating a car crash and me putting all this nasty "imitation blood" all over the side of my head, my hair, and poor ears. Seeing as it was made from ketchup and pancake syrup I had to take a shower to remove all that gunk. Bleh... my hands still smell of that junk... But it was worth it.

Our film should turn out pretty nicely. We plan to submit it for the On The Lot auditions (though it prolly won't make it as we still have some improving to do). I'll be sure to post it for you guys later as it should turn out nicely.

Must... finish... the last.. of my projects. Looks like I'll be doing the team project tomorrow whiles studying for my Japanese test + final.

Ring, Ring, Ring... Banana Phone!

2006-11-26T14:29:00.000-08:00

A. もし　もし

B. こちら　は　ジャストン　です。　ヤンさん　は　います　か。

A. はい、わたし　は　ヤン　です。　なに　が　ごよう　です　か。

B. ヤンさん　は　しゅうまつ　なに　を　しますか。

A. にほんご　の　テスト　を　べんきょうしたり、アルバイトしたり　します。

B. たいくつそう。。。　えいが　を　いっしょ　に　みましょう。

A. しかし。。。　ごうかく　を　したい。

B. それで　は　テスト　を　いっしょ　に　べんきょうしましょう。　それから　えいが　を　みましょう。　いい　です　か。

A. はい、いい　です。

B. しつもん　ありますか。

A. はい　どうぞ。

B. にほんご　の　クラス　を　どう　おもいます　か。　そして　どうして　にほんご　を　べんきょうしています　か。

A. にほんご　の　クラス　が　たのしくて　おもしろい　と　おもいます。

A. にほん　の　マンガ　と　アニメ　が　だいすき　なので　べんきょうしています。　あなた　も。

B. にほん　に　りょこうしたい。　でも　わたし　は　にほんご　を　はなす　のは　じょうずじゃない　です。

A. だいじょうぶ。　わたしたち　は　もっと　べんきょうしましょう。

B. ありがとう。　それで　は　じゃあ　また。

Elektronik Supersonik

2006-11-25T20:20:00.000-08:00

And The Lord Said

2006-11-25T01:16:00.000-08:00

And the Lord said unto John; "Come forth and recieve eternal life."

But John came fifth and won a toaster.

The Cognitive Neuropsychology of Zombies

2006-11-23T00:29:00.000-08:00

Zombies are a lot worse at passing themselves off as humans than Dan Dennett would have you believe. There is no known incident of a zombie passing the Turing Test. (Certainly none I have seen published in a peer-reviewed journal.) Often, zombies are detected almost instantaneously due to their obvious lack of social awareness or other simple and striking non-verbal cues. An alert human will have no difficulty discriminanting between zombies and non-zombies.

A more interesting question is, how easy is it for a human to pass as a zombie? There is a well documented history of zombies not attacking each other. The reasons for this are unclear, but a working hypothesis is that they can make the basic perceptual discrimination between living and undead. Certainly this would be beneficial to them, for as the old saying goes "Consciousness is an epiphenomenon of fresh brains."

This leads us to speculate as to what form of perception zombies use to detect humans and whether we can fake it. The zombie state is almost synonymous with higher-cortical disfunction; they lack language and expressive behaviours, they show no purposeful action and extremely limited abstract reasoning ability, they show only primitive fears of fire, etc. They do seem to possess some primitive procedural memory, some kind of instinct, memory of what used to be but do not demonstrate the ability to assimilate new information or learn new skills.

Therefore, it seems likely their higher sensory apparatus will also be working on a similarly degraded level and the potential for deception exists. As is true of some much of perceptual psychology far more is known about the visual system in zombies, than other senses. Even leaving aside the question of what level their visual cortex still functions, the breakdown of humours in the eyeball and degradation of the cornea will leave the zombie with very poor eyesight. It is doubtful whether zombies would be able to detect between the fresh glean of healthy skin and the dull, pallor of undead flesh, let alone subtle changes in posture and muscle condition, so on visual inspection alone a zombie could not discriminate between you and a zombie standing next to you. More easily detectable signals such as high contrast or sudden movement are probably within its' perceptual range. And to be safe, I am assuming they may still be able to detect characteristic purposeful human movement.

Less is known about zombies hearing. Again we can expect a fair degree of degradation in their perceptual abilities. Zombies not only lack language but do not seem to respond to even simple spoken commands or requests. Their own 'communication' is restricted to a low moaning or 'death-rattle'. They do retain the ability to localize sound sources and show some awareness of the special nature human vocalization. However, they appear to show no higher understanding of zombie-directed speech. Likewise, although there are no known dichotic listening studies with zombies, anecdotal evidence suggests they are easily confused by multiple sound sources. It is likely that respond aggressively on only a very primitive basis to the highly salient stimuli in the characteristic mid-range frequencies of normal human speech.

Although I know this is a controversial opinion, personally, I dismiss the possibility of zombies detecting humans using olfactory cues. Certainly, little is known about the working of the human olfactory system. It is conceivable that in the absence of higher cognitive function, this relatively independent mid-brain system may have stronger influence on behaviour, I feel the cues will not strong enough. From an evolutionary psychological perspective, I feel that our sense of smell is far more likely to be tuned to the avoidence of putrefaction and decay than the detection of fresh brains. It just smells wrong to me.

In my opinion, by the wearing of drab clothing, the simple avoidance of sudden, seeming purposeful movement, a lowered gaze and the restriction of vocalisations to the lower registers, you should be able to walk amongst the zombies relatively unmolested. Although it might be not necessary, a lower standard of person hygiene might help and may in any case be unavoidable. However, further research is required.

onemonkey.org

Leaves' Eyes - Elegy

2006-11-22T00:22:00.000-08:00

A new band that Gerhalt showed me. Been adding lots of new foreign bands to my playlist. Gotta love variety.

He Said To Her I'd Like A Cheeseburger

2006-11-20T15:23:00.000-08:00

And I might like a milkshake as well...

It's official! Even adults like Veggie Tales.

I was grouping with some of my guild mates and found out that they too shared a love of Veggie Tales. Veggie Tales contain stuff that even adults would enjoy. But not so much the Larry Boy series. Those I'm not all that fond of.

On something entirely different:
A Funky Music Video

Are You A Boy Or A Girl?

2006-11-19T22:50:00.000-08:00

Are ye a boy or are ye a lass? by ~King-Dread-Hyphen on deviant ART

You have to click and go to the actual thing to get it to work.

Movie Review: Casino Royale

2006-11-17T23:41:00.000-08:00

We saw Casino Royale, the new James Bond movie, tonight. It was really good in my opinion. This movie was placed back in time to the start of 007's career which was a perfect point to start as they had a new character fill in the role of the famous James Bond. People were criticizing him but he did a really good job. I appreciate the change.

The movie had a lot of cool things in it. I really like the direction they took with this Bond movie. They also had a lot more humor in it as well.

A very good movie to watch.

The Interview

2006-11-17T01:27:00.000-08:00

And by popular request, TBQelite-sama will now answer the following question from our valued reader, Pam in Colorado:

I want to know what the question answer process of Guild Leader in WoW is, so I can have my boys become familiar with how to completely answer interview questions.

And this is a good question indeed.

How do I conduct questions? What sort of processes do we go through? Just how is it applicable back to The Real World?

A lot of the questions that we ask are strictly technical in nature as our organization's "line of work" is in a highly specialized area. That of the game of World of Warcraft. I will refrain from going into those as they aren't needed.

A lot of the questions that we ask are of this nature but we do have a large portion of questions that are of a more general nature and that Safeway used. But this is not all that different in The Real World. More specialized lines of work like... the computer industry will have questions that are technical in nature while "starter jobs" or basic jobs such as those at Safeway, are more general in nature.

Questions that we ask, and that other "starter jobs" will ask, are:

What is your availability?
How did you hear about us? Why did you choose this company to apply to?
Why do you think we should hire you? Qualifications etc.
What do you have to offer us?
Can you operate under stress?
From previous work experience (or volunteer activities) what are some things that you liked about it? What did you hate about it?

I also throw out random, more personalized questions in order to find out the nature of the person I'm interviewing. This is also done in The Real World but I take it more to an extreme due to the setting we are in. The last time I tossed out random frivolous questions, they were along the lines of "Which do you prefer: Coke or Pepsi" or "Out of all the cookies in the world, which is your favorite?" They also help to relieve tension etc.

Safeway also asked me several scenario questions such as:

"How would you respond if a fellow employee came to you complaining to you about a decision that was made?" (they are not mad at you but at someone else)

"A fellow employee is doing a poor job and his work is obviously not sufficient, what do you do?"

"Safeway values offering superior quality. How do you define quality?"

"What are three crucial elements of teamwork and why?"

And so forth.

The interview process for a starter job such as Safeway is not that big of a deal. I could tell that I was already going to be hired by the interviewer's initial response. When you go higher up though then the interview is more critical then your app.

It's all about impressions that you give them.

Some last words of advice before going to bed.

When you send in your application, make sure you do a good job at it. Neat handwriting as well as proper spelling and grammar are key. If your app looks like you don't care about it, then why should they?

If you are offered an interview, a clean appearance is important. Business attire is recommended. Keep a level head. Don't worry about it. Everything will work out in the end. *smile*

And I'm off to bed. Forgive me for my poor attempt at conveying my message. My coherency and sanity levels have been off as of late.

The Sixteenth Of November

2006-11-17T01:14:00.000-08:00

Remember, remember the Sixteenth of November,
The druid nerfing and plot
Bereft of all reason, this sinister treason
Shall never be forgot

Blizzard, Blizzard, of dark intent
With answers uncoming and reasons unsent
So many nerfs piled to weigh the blow
And prove the poor druid's overthrow

No merciful god to ease this patch
Where all druid hopes found nary a match
Hail druids, hail druids, let your voice sing
Hail druids, hail druids, do not lightly bear this thing

WaffleMouse

2006-11-12T23:42:00.000-08:00

WaffleMouse says...

~(#)8> _squeaksqueakEATME!

Elton John: 'I Would Ban Religion Completely'

2006-11-11T15:23:00.000-08:00

Quoted from a drudgereport special.

Sat Nov 11 2006 15:42:55 ET

Sir Elton John wants religion banned completely -- because he believes it promotes hatred of gays.

Speaking to the Observer Music Monthly Magazine the singer said religion lacked compassion and turned people into "hateful lemmings".

The PRESS ASSOCIATION reports: In a candid interview for a dedicated Gay issue of the magazine he shared his views on topics as varied as being a pop icon to Tony Blair's stance on the war in Iraq.

He said there was a lack of religious leadership, particularly in world politics, and complained that people do not take to the streets to protest any more.

Sir Elton said: "I think religion has always tried to turn hatred towards gay people. Religion promotes the hatred and spite against gays.

"But there are so many people I know who are gay and love their religion. From my point of view I would ban religion completely.

"Organised religion doesn't seem to work. It turns people into really hateful lemmings and it's not really compassionate."

He added: "The world is near escalating to World War Three and where are the leaders of each religion? Why aren't they having a conclave? Why aren't they coming together?

"I said this after 9/11 and people thought I was nuts. Instead of more violence why isn't there a meeting of religious leaders?

"It's like the peace movement in the Sixties. Musicians got through to people by getting out there and doing peace concerts but we don't seem to do them any more.

"If John Lennon were alive today he'd be leading it with a vengeance," he said.

Sir Elton said people were too busy blogging on the internet to go out onto the streets to stand up for what they believed in.

"They seem to do their protesting online and that's not good enough. You have to get out there and be seen to be vocal, and you've got to do it time and time again.

"There was a big march in London when Britain decided to join the war against Iraq and Tony Blair is on the record as saying 'the people who march today will have blood on their hands'. That's returned to bite him on the ass," he said.

Sir Elton compared his place in British culture with that of the Queen Mother's.

He said: "People come to me and I'm a bit like the Queen Mother. I never get those problems. I don't know what it is with me, people treat me very reverently.

Referring to his "wedding" to long-term partner David Furnish, he said: "It was the same when Dave and I had our civil union - I was expecting the odd flour bomb and there wasn't.

"Dave and I as a couple seem to be the acceptable face of gayness, and that's great."

He pledged to continue to campaign for gay rights saying: "I'm going to fight for them whether I do it silently behind the scenes or so vocally that I get locked up.

"I can't just sit back; it's not in my nature any more. I'm nearly 60-years-old after all. I can't sit back and blindly ignore it and I won't."

Boss Level?

2006-11-09T01:46:00.000-08:00

They are sooooo cuuuutteee!!!

The Next Stage

2006-11-07T15:18:00.000-08:00

Mini-boss level!

I finally moved onto the next stage in my life: The Job.

I've known forever that I needed to go out and get one but I really, really did not want to. However I slid to much on that so I forced myself to go out and scour the area for jobs. Luckily I didn't have to.

I went to Safeway and asked the customer services if they were hiring. Apparently all the big chains have you apply online now and they had a kiosk in the store to facilitate that.

As I was filling out the application, a guy came up to me and asked me if I had time after I finished it for an interview which I did.

The interview process was pretty funny. The process was the exact same as it is for recruiting people for our guild in WoW. The wording for our questions is almost exactly the same. However I conduct interviews better imo. I ad lib while he has to read questions off of a sheet.

The questions were great too. I was able to pull all the answers from my experience as a guild leader in WoW. He asked me a question and I gave him a nice complete answer as he's rushing to write it down. Apparently most people don't even know how to answer them.

So anyways... He asked me what position I was interested in so I asked him what spots he had available. He listed off a few and told me what their base pay rates were so I told him I wanted the higher one. BWHAHAHA...

So... I'm going to be working in either the deli or the bakery.

My life will now take it's next step as my time becomes consumed by the earning of the daily wage. Sigh...

Video: "Walk Of Life"

2006-11-05T22:56:00.000-08:00

A fine looking young man and I are currently partners in the awesome film production organization known as "Krystal Clear Films."

We've just released our fifth film and we must say that it turned out nicely. We created this one for a comedy Bible contest on youtube but I doubt this one will go far. We're still messing around with the editing, acting, and all the works so the videos obviously could use some work but we're proud of them.

We've done three quiz promo vidoes, one of which is still the compilation stages, and a third short comedy that was done for A fine looking young man's homework project. That one will take a bit to get back cause he had to submit it to his teacher so... it may take til the end of the quarter before he sees that one again.

A fine looking young man is the one who primary films and does all the editing for our films. He's taking the animation track at BCC and will be one of the best filmmakers EVER!

Videos:
Walk of Life
Quiz Promo #1 - Serial Spoon Murderer
Quiz Promo #2 - God's Creation

Movie Review: V For Vendetta

2006-11-05T00:42:00.000-08:00

Ok, I lied. I couldn't go to sleep.

V for Vendetta is based off of the comic series that coincidentally goes by the same name. Funny how that works out. The plot is based in England where everything is controlled by the tyrannical government. Basically a nazi-England. Our masked hero is an anarchist who sets to free the people from the evil government's iron-fist rule.

Introduction of himself. Feel free to skip it if you like. I thought it was awesome.

This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is it vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished, as the once vital voice of the verisimilitude now venerates what they once vilified. However, this valorous visitation of a by-gone vexation, stands vivified, and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin van-guarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition. The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta, held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous. Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose vis-à-vis an introduction, and so it is my very good honor to meet you and you may call me V.

To start off, I must say that the movie was pretty nifty. The plot was pretty cool, had cool action scenes, and the dialog was awesome. There were so many quotes from there that were just plain cool. I intend to use many of them.

The storyline was particularly cool as it was anarchists vs the big brother government which appeals to me. However I would have much rather have had the two factions flipped. The government was represented by cruel "Christians" and the faith, while the anarchists were your homosexuals, etc. The way they portrayed the so-called "Christians" was upsetting but I can go past that. Unfortunately there are people who do stuff that claim to be "Christians" but warrant that preconception in the minds of unbelievers. But that's a topic for another day.

This movie deserves it's rating and I wouldn't see it with others of my family (except for Dad of course) or as a Quiz video as it does contain content that is better not seen by the younger eyes. I would say that this is more of "male" movie (sexist pig!).

It was worth watching at least once and I know I'll be seeing it again later in the future. However it does not have the same re-watchability as other great movies. The movie could have been longer as it touched on various issues that you can tell were important in the comic series but they didn't have the time to go into in detail in the movie. I'm still debating whether I should go read the comic series as the movie hinted at an awesome story.

I give this movie a four out of five stars rating.

And for something amusing, and slightly less boring, see this youtube video "C is for Cookie."

Guy Fawkes Day

2006-11-05T00:12:00.000-08:00

Today is/was Guy Fawkes Day. For those not familiar with it, a Wikipedia summary has been so thoughtfully added.

Wikipedia excert:

Guy Fawkes (April 13, 1570 – January 31, 1606), also known as Guido Fawkes, born in York, was an English soldier and member of a group of Roman Catholics who attempted to carry out the Gunpowder Plot on 5 November 1605.

The plot was an attempt to assassinate the Protestant King James I (James VI of Scotland) and the members of both houses of the Parliament of England, by blowing up Westminster Palace during the formal opening session of the 1605 Parliament, in which the king would address a joint assembly of both the House of Lords and the House of Commons. Guy Fawkes was in large part responsible for the later stages of the plan's execution. His activities were detected, however, before the plan's completion. Following a severe interrogation involving the use of torture, and a trial in Westminster Hall by Judge John Popham, Fawkes and his conspirators were executed for treason and attempted murder. Guy Fawkes' failure is remembered with Guy Fawkes Night (also known as Bonfire Night or Fireworks Night) on November 5.

Anyways... in honor of Guy Fawkes Day, I shall do my review of the movie "V for Vendetta" which uses the Guy Fawkes event as a basis. That however will be posted tomorrow as it is late and I am weary.

Algorithm March! With Bryan Suits!

2006-11-03T21:02:00.000-08:00

As The Shadow Walker and I were driving to the South Center Barnes & Nobles, we were listening to Bryan Suits. In the background was playing some japanese music which was vaguely familiar. And then I caught it! They were playing the Algorithm March song!

Apparently that's his current background music which I find very amusing.

For those who don't remember what the Algorithm March song was, I posted it on my blog earlier. You can find it here.

Death From Above!

2006-11-03T00:45:00.000-08:00

"Death from above" is the best running gag ever...

All Candy's Eve!

2006-10-31T23:32:00.000-08:00

SANJI

I love this "holiday"! Even if I can't celebrate it to the fullest extent anymore.

Last couple times I tried to go trick 'n' treating, I got yelled at. I told them that "you can never be too old to go trick or treating" but alas, they wouldn't buy it.

Tonight I took my statistics test. I feel much better about this one then the last. The trick is to not allow all the gibberish to overwhelm you... I also managed to make it home without hitting any children. Yay!

Last Sunday our church's college group had a Halloween bash which was great. The Shadow Walker, his sister, his friend from school, Neemund, and myself went as the Straw Hat Pirates from the anime series One Piece. I went as Sanji the cook. Coreman also went as "random monk number two" from Monty Python. The big hit of the night was kareoke though The Shadow Walker wouldn't participate. Chicken!

Anyways... just that for now. I'd say sorry for the lack of timely updates but I'm beginning to sound like a broken record...

Oyasuminasai!

Weird Al Yankovic - Eat It

2006-10-28T00:45:00.000-07:00

This was done waaaaaaaay back.

You can tell that he has no idea what people are saying lol.

Posting this mostly for Rabenstrange's sake.

No More Crying...

2006-10-25T00:54:00.000-07:00

No more crying... by *KariNeko on deviant ART

Japan Talent Show - Polevaulting

2006-10-23T20:21:00.000-07:00

This is awesome. I love the ninjas. I would totally love to do a video like this.

It's Just Not Right...

2006-10-23T13:42:00.000-07:00

http://youngfeds.org/blog/

Check that out...

OMG is right...

Like A Child Having Nightmares

2006-10-23T12:56:00.000-07:00

I will run... run into your arms...

I still remember the worst nightmare I've ever had. It was many years back, back in the first Fairwood house. I had a bad fever which is probably the cause of this dream.

I was in a Void, drifting aimlessly. All of a sudden a creature of raw Shadow and Fire appeared before me. It had no shape nor form but was a mass of elemental evil. It was something from the Abyss, something that had no definition and only could be barely recognized on a subconscious level. It's primal nature exuded a sinister desire that cared for nothing except my complete destruction. It attacked me, wrapping and twisting around me. I was helpless as it began to consume me. Terror filled me and all hope of rescue vanished. I was saved only by sudden arousal from my dark slumber.

Never before had I felt such fear. Even up to now, nothing matches the fear I had during that ordeal. When I think of terrifying things, my mind wavers back to then.

Why Worry?

2006-10-17T19:34:00.000-07:00

I worry
I wonder all the time
Why worry?
It's killing me
Forget about it

I used to worry all the time. Mostly about hitting deadlines or being on time to events etc. Stuff that I didn't have control over. And it was killing me to an extent. I'd have extreme anxiety and it had a noticeable impact on my physiological self.

I thought about it some and decided that it just wasn't worth having stuff that stuff have such an effect on me. So I just let it all go. Which in of itself wasn't bad. You can't let stuff eat at you like that.

My mistake, however, was that I crushed it with such a weight of apathy that I overadjusted and now I've been taken to the other extreme. Instead of worrying about deadlines, I just don't care about them at all. I notice that it's slowly ticking to that time but I just can't bring myself to take care of it cause.. I don't care about it.

Which leads to really annoying situations. Such as finishing up a take home final the hour before it's due or getting up three hours early to get to school to work on that project that's due or just missing out on random opportunities.

So now I have to rebalance myself all over again.

Anyways, I hope to have some interesting things soon.

World Of Warcraft Scientific Paper

2006-10-16T15:50:00.000-07:00

Warning: WoW-related content and dry reading involved.

Edit: The link has been fixed.

I found a scientific paper that a couple people did. I believe that they actually turned it in for their class. It's really nicely done though dry as scientific papers are.

They did their paper on how resistances works in the online game: World of Warcraft.

Click here to download it - recommended (requires Adobe Acrobat Reader)

If you don't have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your computer, please click here and do so.

Weird Al Yankovic - It's All About The Pentiums

2006-10-15T23:33:00.000-07:00

You're Giving Me A Breakdown

2006-10-13T17:12:00.000-07:00

Stuck on the side of the road...
Emotional overload...

Thursday was a busy day. Due to various conditions of the truck, our vehicle situation has been hectic as of late not to mention our ferrying schedule. The truck has been having various issues with it so Dad has transfered to the van as his work vehicle (which he likes much better btw), Mom has moved over to the car, and I (being on the botom of the pecking order) now use the truck.

The truck needs (amongst other things) it's alignment redone but as we currently are inbetween funds at the moment we had to go to the next best option: have the tires rotated. So I went down to Les Schwab a couple weeks ago and had them do it for free (as they do when you've purchased tires from them) and continued on my merry way.

Thursday was a particularly hectic day as we were trying to get everyone to where they needed to go. Mom works at Alaska Airlines and has a full-time job, Dad runs his own alarm company, and I have classes. The plan was for me to take Kelly and her friend down to their gymnastics class in Maple Valley, I wait at the library there for them to finish and then rush Kelly back down home and speed to my class (which as I was driving to Maple Valley, I thought about some more and heavily doubted me being able to get to class on time). After class I was to drive into Seattle to do some more cabling at Seattle University. However this plan was not to be.

As we were reaching the end of Petrovitsky, the truck made a loud noise (like something falling out of the bottem) and driving became extremely difficult. I slowed down as quickly as possible as I turned off to the side of the road and was lucky to find a gravel side area to turn into. As soon as I hit that part, I stopped moving period. Upon investigation the cause of this trouble was immediately apparent. The driver's rear wheel had come completely off and was wedged into the wheel well.

Now that day was the day that I had to leave my cellphone at home and I had to little girls in the back. I couldn't leave them behind in the truck so I took them with me as I walked down the road to find a phone. We tried the church nearby but the doors were all locked and were about to go try the school but a lady drove by and I flagged her down. I borrowed her cellphone and was able to contact Dad. She gave us a ride my sister's gymnastics class and I waited for Dad to come pick us up.

Due to all this junk happening we were about 10-15 minutes late to Kelly's practice and they wouldn't allow her to participate in the rest of the session because she "had missed warm-ups". Now it is dangerous not to do warm-ups before but that's still BS... She could've warmed-up on the side and then join in but no, she had to make up the date. Which made her cry...

So we waited there til Dad picked us up an hour and a half later, rushed back home. Grabbed the tools necessary to work on the truck, dropped Devin Griggs down at church for TBQ practice (he was staying with my sibs that day along with his other siblings), bought the parts needed, and went back.

Daylight had left us by then and after we propped the truck up via a jack, we found the bolts to be sheered off and stuck in the plate which we had anticipated. We were going to hammer them out but it just wasn't feasible to do it there so in the end we got AAA to send out a tow truck to tow it to the Fairwood Texaco.

God had his hand on us during this whole situation. We were extremely lucky that no one got hurt. Also the side of Petrovitsky is a MUCH better place to have this happen then the side of 405 or, even worse, at The Shadow Walker's residence which I went to the day before.

The reason the tire came off is because a couple of the lugnuts weren't screwed on tight enough. Eventually they just wiggled off and the bolts got sheered off. I was talking to some other people and apparently Les Schwab has a bad repuation (killer of families...) of not tighting them enough... I'm not a big fan of them...

Needless to say, I did not make it to my class.

Premonition Studios - Red September

2006-10-11T01:19:00.000-07:00

I don't watch AMV's (Anime Music Video) a lot but there are some that are just awesome. This particular one is based on the anime Bleach and is using the song "Red September" from Spoken.

Sierra Lorna (the person who made this one) is my favorite AMV maker. She does an awesome job. Even more so when you compare it to all the junk that's floating out there that people try to label as an "AMV". Everything is in time with the actual music and lyrics. Another cool thing about her stuff is that it's all done with Christian (or at least the vast majority of it) music.

YouTube kills quality when movies are uploaded so you may want to check them out over here if you want to see them in their full glory. Unfortunately though they require evil registration (free though!) but you can download all of her stuff and very good quality.

Google Acquires YouTube

2006-10-10T11:21:00.000-07:00

Google has done it again. It acquired Youtube however Google has said that they will not merge Google Video with it.

BBC News Article

A Message From Chad and Steve

Also... YouTube video on Google domination. It's dry though but it predicts the future!

にほんご　の　クラス　は　たのしい　でした　よ。

2006-10-10T02:20:00.000-07:00

Translation: Japanese class was fun!

I had an unusually fun time in japanese class today. Sensei had us split into groups of two and told us to create sentences based on mood types (a.k.a make a "sad" sentence). Yan-san and I paired up and since sensei gave us free reign (heh.. heh.. heh..) of the topic, I got a little... "creative."

Apparently she decided to make it a competition so she split the class in three and had us use our good sentences against each other based on the category. Luckily sensei appreciates our good sense of humor so she allowed us to get by with what we were saying as long as they were gramatically correct. Well... she'd correct us if it just would work but our imagination was set free.

Due to Yan-san's and my sheer brilliance we managed to win the competition. I'm really getting better and having a dictionary certainly helps things out a lot!

<3 (#)

2006-10-08T23:50:00.000-07:00

Heat the waffle iron, turn and heat on the other side, then oil thoroughly...

It's time to upgrade the old blog. For far too long has this blog been without a decent banner so I've decided to fix that. I messed around in photoshop a little bit and that's what I came up with.

Alas, my skills are still poor but with some more tinkering it'll be finished. I just need to modify the text a bit and I'll call that good.

Algorithm March! With Prisoners!

2006-10-08T22:36:00.000-07:00

And now take it to a much larger scale!

(see the post below before watching this one)

Algorithm March! With Ninjas!

2006-10-08T11:00:00.000-07:00

Waffle?

2006-10-03T15:17:00.000-07:00

And here's a image that The Shadow Walker in particular would enjoy.

Not much since yesterday's post but I won't have an opportunity to post again tonight so meh...

Did some mass cleaning of my room and organizing of my stuff. I also ordered a textbook and a japanese dictionary from amazon.com. That irritates me... Apparently the school decided to update all the versions of their textbooks and for my online class it is actually important to have the new edition for the graded homework. ><

What a waste of monies... Sigh...

In other news, my quest for a decent job has resumed. No longer can I remain as a freelance bum. Though my contracting days won't come to an end, I fear I must acquire a "traditional" job.

Tonight I'm going to be working after class til the wee hours in the morning on a project for my male parental unit. Being able to do work with him is nice but that's by a per project basis so it's not constant.

~ TBQelite the Unemployed

Waffle Waffle Waffle Waffle Waffle!

2006-10-02T16:31:00.000-07:00

Forgive me for my failure to update my blog in a timely manner. Now that school has started back up again I had intended to start posting on a regular basis but things just got busy. Gomen!

After two weeks of classes, I can say that my classes are good. Japanese is even difficult then it has been in the past. I'm going to have to put a lot of study into the language in order to pass. I HATE sitting through things and being mediocre at them. I'm improving but I fear I'll be spending a lot of time with the tutor on campus. Which is annoying as the available hours are poor when linked with my class times but oh well... I'll make it work.

Statistics is ok. I really like the teacher but the class is just... odd... Really odd... There has yet to be one class in which (so far) a lot of new stuff is brought up. It's mostly going through multiple applications of stuff. Tests are open book and open notes and we can use all his resources that he's made available (having examples of questions to look at along with the answers is really really nice).

I guess that's it for now. I'll be sure to continue posting in a reasonable time frame.

New Wierd Al Songs

2006-09-19T00:43:00.000-07:00

Found on his myspace site: http://www.myspace.com/weirdal.

here's a music vid.

"Weird Al" Yankovic - Don't Download This Song

Land Of Alligators

2006-09-18T15:02:00.000-07:00

Yes... it may sound odd but that's because this is a copy of an email. I'm so lazy lol.

~~~

Disney was fun. It's obviously intended for small children but I had a good time. We went to all the Disney parks there and managed to do all the rides that were open. Unfortunately I couldn't find the camera when I was packing so I don't have any photos... I'm thinking I may just go out and buy my own camera...

We went during the "hurricane" which people were making such a big deal of so the parks weren't packed full of people and we rarely had to wait in an annoyingly long line which was awesome. It drizzled a little bit off and on but it was weak Washington drizzle except for the fact that it was warm. It was kind of funny watching people scurry about and put on their ponchos while Rich and I were walking around in our tshirts not caring. Though... it did get annoying when we entered building because they have extreme airconditioning and being wet at the time just isn't fun.

When we came back home though I managed to contract some lethal disease or something like that and, combined with a severe case of jet lag, so I felt extremely cruddy for the next couple days.

Thankfully... I lived.

Where Has TBQelite Been?

2006-09-16T16:03:00.000-07:00

So nice of you to ask that question! (even though it was me who asked it...)

This past week I've been working with my male parental unit from before dawn until after dusk. He currently is working on a big project at Seattle University and he's drafted me to help him with it. Which is good as I could use the money.

What we've been doing for the past week is setting down all the wiring. We've layed down several tens of thousands of feet of cable through two old buildings. I've been performing tasks such as wire management, drilling through walls of concrete (which is no easy task), running around and ferrying things, undergoing various minor errands, cleanup, running the cable, preparing rooms for cabling, ect etc etc.

It's been a really exhausting week. I hurt all over. I feel like the number two son in the family (due to privacy concerns I can't use his actual name so let's call him... "Bob" for future reference) ran me over with his bicycle multiple times and then decided to "help" me up. And he's by no means the daintiest in the family. I've also been so freakishly tired. I've been falling asleep all the time. I'm just not made to wake up so early.

Anyways... that's what I've been up to and why I haven't updated my blog recently. I'll talk about my trip to Disney World in my next post. :)

And Now For Something Completely Random

2006-09-13T17:06:00.000-07:00

A couple of music videos of some guy singing in Swedish (or maybe Finnish?) about computer stuff. The lyrics are simple but they sound nice. Besides... the topic made me laugh.

Them playing DotA (Warcraft 3 custom map series)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Eq7hbalqgI

Their admin on their IRC server is a bot
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wX79tgB2PVk

Change Of Plans

2006-09-10T22:17:00.000-07:00

My apologies for my lack of updates on this blog which sadly I must say every so often. I haven't been the most consistent of bloggers as of late. Which is kind of funny 'cause I used to post a lot. However that is not the centerpoint for this post.

This was one of the posts of the multitude that I have on the backburner of my mind and Emily's comment has brought it off that metaphorical backburner.

I have made a somewhat important change in my plans of higher level education. Instead of attending the University of Washington this year as I had previously intended, I will be taking some more quarters at Bellevue Community College.

Though this sets me back a year or so in my attainment of the end goal, I don't mind so much since I'm already a full two-years ahead of the masses. Excuse me... that should be limited even further as not everyone finishes one two-year degree in the two years immediately following the graduation from highschool. Let alone finishing 2 of those two-year degrees. So... I am still ahead of the masses, just not as far ahead as I was before.

The primary reasons for me taking classes at BCC vs. UW is:

1) I didn't get into the program that I desire to be in. Now this wasn't a problem originally as just getting accepted into the UW was enough for me. I was going to bide my time 'til I could get into the program of choice. However... some things have changed. Apparently... I can't take any of the classes for the degree that I'm seeking to get and, as I already have the first two years of the degree accomplished, they would be totally worthless for me. Also... all the other classes that would be mildly acceptable are already full and/or have freshmen priority which is totally lame.

2) I need to take another class or two to finish up my actual business associates degree. I did manage to get two of the three AA's in the two-year period but I slipped up on a couple classes so I wasn't able to get that last degree. I need to take those classes as BCC in order to accomplish it. There are also classes available at BCC which will look good on my record when I try again to get into the program of choice and those classes happen to be at least half the price of the full classes at the UW. So... that's a plus.

I have more reasons but this is getting long...

My current schedule is Monday through Thursday I have classes from 5pm-7pm as well as an online class. I've decided to take second year Japanese as that will look really nice on my transcript besides the fact that it'll be fun. But... this year I'm going to put some serious effort into it...

Anyways... that's it for now. I need to turn in early so I can actually get up early.

Disney World Hooooooo!

2006-08-27T00:29:00.000-07:00

My apologies for those who became blurry-eyed. It wasn't my intention to make the post into a quasi-eulogy but merely as a quick overview of the past which I ended up cutting off abruptly.

Tomorrow evening I am braving through airport security and taking the red eye flight from Seattle to Orlando along with Neemund. From Sunday until Saturdayish we'll be enjoying ourselves in the Disney parks, maximizing our experience there to the max.

Neemund formerly worked there so he has a couple free park passes while my female parental unit works at Alaska Airlines so I have a couple free/relatively cheap plane tickets so we decided to combine our powers, form Voltron, and go enjoy ourselves for a week. We also got particularly lucky and are staying at one of Neemund's friend's parent's house (wow... so many possessive nouns...) and she's allowing us to borrow a vehicular device as well.

So... we pretty much scored... Cheap trip to Disney World ftw!

Tribute To Rabenstrange

2006-08-18T01:03:00.000-07:00

Rabenstrange was like a brother to me. And when I say brother, I don't mean, like, an actual brother, but I mean it like the way black people use it. Which is more meaningful, I think.

So it appears that amongst the members of our group of friends, Rabenstrange has made the first move.

He's taken the first big step of his life and has moved out from the comfort of his home to a totally foreign land to encounter and experience things of a whole new variety.

Though we can remain in contact via the electronical wonders of the age, it's just not the same. There will be no more getting together and hanging out. No more LAN parties to induce much gloating and boasting. No more playing cards or Risk with others. No more sitting around idly chatting about random nonsense.

Yes, he'll be back for winter and summer breaks but that's not now.

I remember some of my earlier memories of him. I first met him (or so I recall) in Royal Rangers at Ranger Camp. I attended a different church and thus a different Ranger outpost so we had never met before. My outpost didn't really have many going to Ranger Camp (maybe it was just me and another) so we grouped together with the Renton Assembly of God outpost. We hit it off somehow and we shared a tent. On the trip home we got into some random discussion of Star Wars books. And thus began a beautiful relationship.

Over the years things have slowly progressed into what it has become now. We've gone through many different things and had many great times together.

I'm proud to say that Rabenstrange is my friend. Truthfully I wouldn't be where I am today without him being there. He is such an awesome person.

And now he's gone and I will miss him.

*starts planning out winter vacation...*

Edge Of My Seat

2006-07-31T13:50:00.000-07:00

And I'm sitting on the edge of my seat...

Due to Rabenstrange posting his cliffhanger, I've decided to post my account of our near death experience. Well... I was going to post about it but then I got busy.

It took place on our way to Mt Si as we were taking the 18. The 18 (at least at that particular point) was composed of four lanes, two going one way and two going the other with no physical divider going in between.

Now I was driving and we were in the left lane passing this semi. We got up next to it when it started to merge unexpectedly right where we were. Now we are in a Century Buick and this large vehicle of mass destruction has decided that it wants to be in the lane that we are in so due to the laws of gross tonnage we had to abide by the semi's wishes. BUT there was no real place for us to go. I couldn't slow down as there were cars behind me and I was at the time already half way into the lane of the traffic going the opposite direction of us so we didn't have time for that anyways. So I took the only option available to us: I floored it.

We did quickly pass the semi and were able to make it back into the proper lane but it was close as the other cars coming from the other direction. There wasn't much room for failure...

We were probably going around 45 (I believe. I can't remember the exact speed limit of that particular point) initially and the other traffic was going the same. A head on collision of 90mph (45 one way and 45 the other) would have probably resulted in the end of TBQelite as we knew. him. It would actually have been much higher then 90 as I had to speed up to pass the semi.

Apparently there was an accident that took the entirety of the right lane which was why the semi was forced to merge where I was. For him that was the lesser of the damage he'd have caused if it resulted in an accident. Running into the accident and two police cars or pushing a small Buick off the side of the road and maybe getting a head on collision.

*sigh*

Driving has a lot of responsiblity and hard decisions that one must make. We made it without any real mishap but driving isn't all fun and games that some believe it to be.

The reason that our trip to Mt Si didn't turn into such a disaster was solely the result of the Lord's mercy. It could have resulted in such a tradegy but He didn't allow it. For sure I wouldn't have made it if it did came to a head on collision and the odds of the others surviving would have been really bad to put it mildly.

Star Wars: Secrets Of The Rebellion

2006-07-31T12:27:00.000-07:00

http://edmsun.canoe.ca/News/Edmonton/2006/07/28/1708135.html

Some guy in Edmonton, Canada will be filming a Star War movie "for the fans." Due to intellectual rights, he can't profit off of it so... his only purpose is publicity for himself and furthering the fanatical love of Star Wars.

It should prove to be interesting. It'll be free so... I'll prolly watch it when it comes out.

Actor Jim Siokos of Davenport, Iowa, will re-create Harrison Ford’s Han Solo character, as he wins the Millennium Falcon from Lando Calrissian. The film will delve into the the downfall of the Jedi, the theft of the Death Star blueprints, and the Empire’s efforts to reclaim them.
“We’ve taken (Lucasfilm-approved) storylines and expanded them, to fill in the gaps between Episode III Revenge Of The Sith, and the original,” Twitchell said. “It’s for the fans.”

Frustrated And Tired, Where Do I Go From Here?

2006-07-25T10:33:00.000-07:00

I throw up my hands
"Oh, the impossibilities"
Frustrated and tired
Where do I go from here?
Now I'm searching for the confidence I've lost so willingly
Overcoming these obstacles is overcoming my fear

Such words are perfect. Where do I go from here?

I've perservered for so long and now, having accomplished that which I've set out to do, what do I do next?

I'm so tired of school... Since I've started the college path, I've been following it continuously for these past two years with no substantial breaks in between unlike my counterparts. Sure that was my decision but now it's waging it's toll on me.

I'll continue on and get my bachelor's but that's only for the sake of getting it. What will I do with it? What do I do after that step has been finished? What do I do in between while I'm working on this goal?

Sigh, so many things to think about. What will my next move be? I'm going to have to substantiate a few things before too long so that I don't wander off aimlessly.

Persistance

2006-07-25T00:47:00.000-07:00

The scary thing about Despair.com is... there are truths to be found there...

As much as I hate it, perhaps it is time to just let it go.

The Druidic Creed V2

2006-07-15T12:24:00.000-07:00

We, the unwanted, led by the unwilling, do the impossible for the ungrateful, asked to do so much for so little for so long, are expected to be capable of doing of everything with nothing.

Yet we continue to have the sight to look outward for the good of the whole in the face of the blind who focus inward for the good of the one.

The End Is Here!

2006-07-05T17:08:00.000-07:00

The end of fireworks week is over! Yay!

And there was much rejoicing.
I have many fireworks stories to tell which I may or may not. So much has happened; some that I remember, most that I do not. But that is for another day.

I slept until 1pm today which is almost unheard of. For me I rarely sleep in til 10. Apparently I'm quite "chippery" or so The Shadow Walker tells me. Now that I think about it... he's right. Curse chemical imbalance!

For some reason he wanted to carpool to BCC which is fine by me but I'm still not sure why he wanted to do that. I don't think even he knows why... Oh well.

Let's see... I have class in 45 minutes. My summer schedule is Monday and Wednesday from 6pm to 9:45 I take Business Law, Tuesday and Thursday I take Business Calculus from 6pm to 9:45, and I take this freakishly annoying Statistical Analysis class in the form of an online class.

I Thought About Fire In The Sky

2006-07-03T13:27:00.000-07:00

I thought about... FIRE!

I have been working at a fireworks stand since last Wednesday. I've been staying here selling fireworks, watching the stand in the lone cold nights, and just being here offering emotional support and the like (heh... heh... heh...). This has been the first time I've been on "Teh Intraweb" since that time and now my time is about up (curse the time limit on the Library Sysyem's computers!).

The Bible Quiz team has been commissioned once again to run one of the Youth Department's (our church's youth group) fireworks stands. We are earning about a thousand for Bible Quiz purposes and the rest is going to help out the Youth's budget.

Ah!!! 40 seconds left! Must... publish... NOW!!!

I Don't Need Your Acceptance!

2006-06-17T23:04:00.000-07:00

But it's nice.

I received my acceptance letter to the University of Washington on Friday. Take that all you naysayers!

Anyways... the UW is one of the top 20 universities in the world. This was the school that I wanted to go to and now instead of being collegeless for a couple quarters, I get to go to the UW this fall quarter.

So... yet another two year grind to get some degrees. *smile*

Duel Graduations

2006-06-15T16:50:00.000-07:00

Warning: Densely packed ranting.

What a pain.

So apparently I was off by a week...
Instead of being able to do both my graduations during my sole week of vacation between quarters, I get to do them during finals week. Oh joy.

Today I got to rush my siblings down to the church to go to their campout, rush back home, email Dad's business proposal which apparently would only be accepted in a particular way, rush down to school to take my final, rush back home, grab lunch and enjoy an hours rest (which involved more phone calls asking me to find stuff for people and whatnot), rush down to another highschool where my highschool reheasal was to take place for tomorrow's highschool graduation ceremony, get a phone call halfway down there asking why I hadn't picked up my siblings and that I needed to pick the up NOW (this being a Thursday, the day I NEVER pick them up. Apparently my female parental unit had informed me that I was to do so. Lies!), cut across multiple lanes as I had just arrived at the critical intersection, picked them up after spending precious time finding the office and since I had no time to drop them off back home, I took them with me, left them alone in the car at the school (which is a pretty bad school... I really didn't want to leave them but I had no choice... arg!!!) to be picked up by my Dad, got lost on this stupid highschool campus cause they don't have anything labelled right and people couldn't give decent directions, got in late to the practice thing and endured that (what a total waste of time), ran out of there 45 minutes later to find that my siblings HADN'T been picked up yet and my Dad was just driving into the parking lot, gave the kids to Dad, hopped onto Central to get on the freeway (passing at least two accidents), and arrived back at BCC to wait for my stupid college graduation. Tomorrow I get to go to my highschool one.

On top of that I got to deal with all sorts of "fun" things this week which I won't go into detail.

So... I'm about to snap. Well... that's not quite true... I've been about to snap for the past month so... *cry*

All this better make my female parental unit happy. I wasn't going to go to either but Dad had insisted that I went to one which I was ok with but then my female parental unit threaten to withdraw financial support if I didn't go to both. WHY?!!! WHY DO I HAVE TO GO TO BOTH?!!! I knew it would be extremely hectic to do so but no... I still have to do it. Going to my college one is reasonable. It is the epitome of my last two year's of hard work, time, and efforts. My highschool diploma was merely a bonus, a side thing.

Soon it'll be over with though... and then I get to go through Summer Hell in which I take 15 credits worth of classes during the summer. At least three hours of class time a day of sheer lecture not counting my online classes and all the homework that inevitably will be dumped upon me.

Someday I'll have peace but that day is not foreseeable. They tell me that these are the best days of my life and I cry. I feel myself sinking back into my depression but I can't have that! I do have some small beams of sunlight in this gloomy time to look forward to.

The Rise Of Blizzard

2006-06-07T09:50:00.000-07:00

Category: Technology > Blizzard

I found some articles on The Escapist (an online magazine that usually has a lot of interesting articles) that I thought I'd share. The current edition of The Escapist is focusing on Blizzard.

Secret Sauce: The Rise of Blizzard
This article talks about how Blizzard started as a small company producing B-rated DOS games just barely surving to becoming the very successful company hold three popular game lines. Talks about the creation of Blizzard North.

Exodus
Basically talks about the various people working for Blizzard and how many of them left to start up companies of their own and create games. Apparently Guild Wars was created by a former Blizzard employee. This one isn't quite as interesting as the others.

Ripples in the Pond
Talks about how WoW has affected the gaming world. If you're into online games then WoW is one that you should pay attention to in some extent.

Below is a pie chart showing the market share that the various online games hold. Click the image to enlarge it.

Google Launches Online Spreadsheet System

2006-06-06T15:47:00.000-07:00

Category: Technology > Google

Slashdot story

Google has expanded it's reaches once more this time now targeting at spreadsheets. While this may not mean much to people, it does to Microsoft. The spreadsheet is one of the programs commonly used in "office-type" productivity packages and this is yet another intrusion into Microsoft's sphere of influence.

Having online based programs like this is extremely useful for people for people (such as myself) who use multiple computers. (computer labs...)

I really like Google and what they are doing. I look forward to seeing what else they bring out. Go go Google!

To see a quick "tour" of it click here.

TBQelite Blog Is Either Dead Or Dying

2006-06-06T12:20:00.000-07:00

And it was good, it was good, it was really really good.

Yeah... I'm over it Woody. Mostly...

Anyways... I've been thinking a lot about this blog. I've thought about ending it and moving on but.. I still like it. I still have things that I want to post etc but I just don't feel like posting as much.

As I look back through the past, I can easily notice a trend in my postings. I post in cycles. There's my cycle of constant post after post after post after post. Then there's the time of sporadic posting and finally there's the gap between postings. Then it starts back up again. It's that time of my posting cycle again apparently. The time where I take a break and rest for a bit.

So... I'll keep posting but please don't expect daily posts from me! *smile*

I'll try to get back to posting but no promises.

Betrayal So Base

2006-05-23T11:24:00.000-07:00

I was watching the end of Alien: Resurrection (for some reason my family is into watching these types of movies...) and saw the part where the mother, Ripply, (grandmother? whatever...) killed her evil alien child in order to save the world and I thought those lines to myself. Then I thought how cool of a blog title that would be and that I was very fortunate that I'll never ever have to use it.

Well... I was wrong...

~~~

As most (if not all) of you know, I play World of Warcraft. In that game I'm in a guild of 80+ people of whom I'm in a leadership over. I love being in that position. I love making their game as enjoyable as possible. For me... it's not about the loot, the raids, the whatever... It's all about the people. I've come to know many of these people and have become friends with them.

Last Thursday (or Wednesday... the days blur...) was the start of our misery. The Guild Master (Droggles) had been acting strangely for the past couple weeks. It all blew out that night and the arguements and whatever between him and the rest of the officer team spilled out into guild chat. Finally being able to all agree to give it a night's rest, I logged for the night thinking that things could be repaired.

Unfortunately that was not the case. Over the next couple days, we took over the guild banks contents and took the GM powers away from Droggles. Upon inspection of the guild bank, we found that several items of extremely high value were missing. Droggles and his RL friend had taken them and sold them for self-profit. I don't know if he himself did it but he covered over it and didn't tell his "trusted" officer team.

They were promptly removed from the guild.

Of course that was an outrage and harsh words were said. From then until last night, I've been running damage control trying to piece things back together. This entire debacle ate me up inside and almost pushed me back into my depression but I have a responsibility to the guildies, to the friends that I've made. I must say that without the constant private messages from them offering their support and encouragement, I would have just given up.

We put up polls asking the guildies opinion on reinviting Droggles back as that was split issue. After offering his defence a little of then half wanted him back to give him a second chance though not necessarily in a position of power. Bound by their wishes, we (the officer team) decided to do this. However there was just too much bad blood between us that we each decided, for our own personal reasons, that we would /gquit after bringing him back.

While I could and can forgive him, the way he has treated the officer team and the members is unacceptable and I'm not willing to bear the same guild tag as him. Also... my friends feel the same way and staying is pointless as they are a large reason why I play.

We announced this to the guildies last night and to our surprise they were all for us. The vast majority decided /gquit as well and follow us. Their support means a great deal to me. One of the things that was weighing heavy on my heart was the thought of abandoning them but they decided to follow. Sticking with us til the bitter end. And truth be told my one good eye was filled with more then one tear.

I feel so relieved now! I hate drama and that is drama of the worst kind. As one of the guildies described it, "It's like finding out that your true love is cheating with your neighbor." What do you do?

However we've made a clean cut. We relinquished the RoA name and all of the guild bank contents back to him and we are starting anew. Our guild name is now and my heart is much lighter.

So... that's what I've been dealing with this past week. That's the main reason why I haven't posted.

Now that this is taken care of, I can focus on more important things... like duel graduations... *shiver*

Please Hack Into My Bank Account!

2006-05-18T15:54:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer: I am not actually offering an invitation to do so...

So today I participated in this statistics gathering event for a software company that's testing software that's yet another security layer for passwords and whatnot. This one will log your typing style and if it's not within a certain thresh hold it won't allow you to log in.

After making our own accounts they had us hack into three dummy accounts. I was able to get into two of the three. One of them only two times and the other several dozen times. Then we got board and started hacking into each others accounts. Which we were successful.

Apparently this was not kosher as when they found out what they were doing they immediately became agitated. Apparently we were really close to throwing off their statistics or whatnot. I thought it was funny.

And... I got a 20$ starbucks card out of it.

Land Of The Lost

2006-05-15T08:12:00.000-07:00

Friday/Saturday I finally had the house free since the rest of my family (with the exception of the number two son) went to their respective Regionals.

Rabenstrange, The Shadow Walker, and myself binged watched the first season of Lost. Unfortunately due to my consistent lack of sleep, I had to take a break and sleep so we weren't able to finish the entire season. I also had to clean up the house in preparation of my grandparents coming over and then pick them up from the airport so there was a time limit there. We stopped halfway through disc five of seven.

The series is pretty good. I can definitely see why a lot of people rave about it. This is one of those series that I would absolutely hate to watch on TV. All those commercials would drive me mad! This is also one of those series that I wouldn't watch by myself. It's too creepy...

Also, watching with friends allows us to watch the series with full enjoyment as we talk through it.

We'll have to pick up the rest of season one later and then move onto season two. Bwhahaha...

Only 24 Hours Left To Live

2006-05-11T15:53:00.000-07:00

If had only 24 hours to live, I would make sure that my affairs were set in order so that my loved ones wouldn't have to go through that trouble.

Then I would spend the rest of my time left with my loved ones, just enjoying their company. I wouldn't really care what we did... just spending that time with them would be enough. Talking with each other or just sitting in silence with each other, that alone would be enough.

Spending my last moments with my loved ones is definitely the way I would prepare for my end if I had that opportunity. Relationships, in the end, are what truly matter.

How would spend your last 24 hours?

What's The Big Deal?

2006-05-10T11:27:00.000-07:00

Apparently my female parental unit is pretty adamant of me going to my high school graduation ceremony thing. I, however, am utterly opposed to going.

Why should I attend a ceremony held by a school that I've never gone to with people I've never seen and be applauded by people who don't care? It's just a waste of time and energy. I am not going. I too can be adamant and stubborn. Hopefully though it doesn't reach that point.

Besides... I underwent the Running Start program with the sole intention of getting my degree. And now I'll be getting three. In all honesty I could care less about getting the diploma in the first place but as it didn't deviate from my plans of grabbing my college degrees and because it'd make my female parental unit happy, I'm putting in the extra time to get it.

Yes... getting your high school diploma is important. It is the first step in your educational credentials. However... my college credentials are much much more important.

Warcraft: The Movie

2006-05-09T13:51:00.000-07:00

Category: WoW

Blizzard has just announced that they will be partnering with Legendary Pictures in producting a live-action movie based in the Warcraft Universe.

Though it'll be a while before it gets released (I'm pretty sure they haven't started filming yet), this will be one of those movies that I'll anticipate coming out. I really love the Warcraft universe and if this movie is done correctly (with Blizzard watching over it, it probably will) it'll be really awesome.

Video games turning into movies has seemed to become pretty popular. Doom has been released (though... that was cheesy...), some vampire movie based on a game has been released (forget which one... Payne? Blood Rain? Something like that), rumors of Halo, and various others.

Not quite a surprise as producers are running out of good books to base their movies from.

Shoujo Vs. Shounen!

2006-05-09T10:41:00.000-07:00

There are two primary categories of anime and manga: shoujo and shounen.

Shoujo (少女) is literally translated to "girl" and, when used in the context of manga and anime, is used to describe manga or anime that is targeted at females. Not that it means males wouldn't like it, it just means it's catered to the fairer sex. Instead of the action and explosions that you'll find in shounen (male-targeted) manga/anime, you'll see a lot more... emotions... and... feelings... and the like. The slice of life (realistic things... stuff with indepth emotional/relational/etc meaning behind them... stuff like that) genre also tends to be shoujo based.

The genre is stereotyped as melodramatic stories of romance with a female protagonist, and drawn in a flowing style where beautiful characters with huge, intricately drawn eyes become spontaneously surrounded by flowers, stars, and bubbles.

- VS -

Shounen (少年) is literall translated to "boy" and, when used in the context of manga and anime, is used to describe manga or anime that is targeted at males. Not that this is restricted to just boys as I know a lot of girls who watch/read shounen anime/manga. In fact it's more common to have girls watch/read the shounen genre then to have boys watch/read it's counterpart, the shoujo genre.

Shounen anime and manga is characterized by high-action, often humorous plots featuring male protagonists. The camaraderie between boys or men on sports teams, fighting squads, etc. is often emphasized. The art work tends to be less "flowy" then that of shoujo but that varies between artist.

The Saddest State My Heart Has Ever Been

2006-05-08T10:34:00.000-07:00

Tricked you! I did think about writing about my true "saddest state that my heart has ever been" but that's just too sad to write about at the moment.

Duh! Isn't the "saddest state that my heart has ever been" by its very nature sad? As in the epitome of sadness? What a stupid thing to say. Maybe it would be better to say "but I'm not emotionally prepared at this time to even go there" or "but it's too depressing of a subject to talk about on such a wonderful day" or...

But I digress.

Yesterday after coming home from church, I was cleaning up the newspapers and found the Frys ad. The Shadow Walker immediately saw the awesomeness of their sales and pull me from my chair and we quickly made our way to the store before the goods were gone.

Luckily we both were able to obtain the items that had peaked our interest to such a degree and both of us walked out of the store each carrying half a terabyte of data storage in our hands. 300 of which is mobile data storage.

I desperately needed more hard drive space and Frys had two hard drives (a sata internal 200g and an external 300g) for freakishly awesome (I don't think I've ever used that combination before...) prices. The best part (well... one of them...) is that they were instant rebates so my cash isn't tied up in rebates that'll take several months to get back. /dance

But I hate spending money... Even money that's not mine. I'm am such a cheapskate and miserly with it but... it was a needed purchase and they did have awesome prices.

And today after spending the last of my precious 1 dollar bills to buy gas... I'm broke...

Looks like I'll have to pick up racketeering again.

TBQelite Of The Brown Thumb

2006-05-06T16:42:00.000-07:00

I was going to call myself "TBQelite of the Green Thumb" but as I wasn't growing things and as my hands and digits were stained brown, this works out better.

It's that time of year again. The time when my male parental unit hands down his royal decree that no weed shall remain in the yards. Yes! That destined time has arrived! All weeds shall shudder in the face of the coming purge!

I forsaw this coming but for some reason it hit my siblings by surprise. Weed?! Why should we do that? But they were doomed to fulfill their destiny and so we weeded. And weeded. And weeded even more. Did I mention that we weeded?

We had so much fun that it was almost like work but it couldn't be labelled as work as it's already labelled as a recreational activity. Did you know that gardening is America's number one favorite past time? Or so said by the Russians as my male parental unit tells me. I haven't decided yet whether that is the Russian government's or our government's propaganda.

I don't mind weeding for a while but it's not something I particularly enjoy doing. 'Specially if I have something else that I could be doing. Being a professional gardener wouldn't be bad though.

Moving Up In The World

2006-05-05T11:28:00.000-07:00

Or more accurately, I'm moving up in the Google search links.

Just search "TBQelite" and you get 650 links. And they are all me. Every single one.

My other companions have around... 100ish links (some are difficult to determine as they share their username with a LOT of people. The Shadow Walker has about 700 links but the vaaaaaasttt majority isn't him) which you can use as a comparison.

Most of the sites they link to are random forums (mostly linux, web coding, and anime/manga related), random blogs, and a TON from my counterstike days when when I was in CAL. I'm also on a couple phishing lists. It's just so wonderful. I'm on a phishing list.

So how many links do you have when you type in your username?

Kosher Dogs

2006-05-02T23:36:00.000-07:00

Because we answer to a higher authority.

Kosher is a word that originally came from the Hebrew term kasher, meaning "fit" (in this context, fit for consumption by observant Jews). It has to deal with food that is proper for a Jew to eat as defined by the rules and regulations that were placed in... Leviticus I believe...

Many languages have borrowed it and in the United States we use it mostly as a business term. When referring to a meeting or a contract, your boss may say "Are things kosher?" And by this he would mean is everything good? Have all the legal steps and whatnot been completed? Is it right and acceptable?

In English as slang, it generally means legitimate, acceptable, permissible, genuine or authentic.

Though I haven't heard it used a lot by those around my age (I tend to use it though). It's mostly used in a business enviroment.

Source: Wikipedia

About TBQelite

2006-05-02T11:45:00.000-07:00

I wanna talk about me, I wanna talk about I...
Wanna talk about number 1 oh my, me, my...
What I think, what I like, what I know, what I want, what I see...

My name is Justin Fischbeck (eep! Did he actually post his real name?!) and I am eighteen years of age. I am the eldest of six children and originally came from California. We currently reside somewhere in Washington.

I have the Inspector Gaurdian (ISTJ) mentality according to the Kiersey tests.

I am currently working on three two-year degrees (General Education, Associates in Business, and Associates in Arts and Sciences. The latter two being transfer degrees) at Bellevue Community College. I will finish these degrees this summer quarter. I'm actually pursuing an education in International Business or Business Administration. That may change however.

I just finished my quizzing year in Teen Bible Quiz. I've quizzed for four years, have received the National Quote Award twice (requires memorizing and quoting the entire Scripture portion that we are going over that year), and recently got 6th place individual high in A-1 at Washington Districts. I plan to be a coach next year but we'll have to see what life has in store for me.

I play World of Warcraft (an online MMORPG) as a druid class (Jadefire on the Frostwolf realm) on the Alliance side. I serve as an officer within my guild.

I enjoy watching anime and reading japanese manga.

And that's a brief overview of me!

C Is For Cookie

2006-05-01T22:14:00.000-07:00

Category: Amusing Randomness

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9rzMaAucI4

Movie Trailer Spoof of V for Vendetta. What happens in a futuristic world where the consumption of cookies is controlled by the government?

I thought it was amusing.

Wasting Away In Margaritaville

2006-05-01T08:15:00.000-07:00

Now that quiz is over for myself I have more free time and less stress. I'm still slightly disappointed that we didn't make it but... I needed this change of pace as well so... meh...

Our Novice team was able to hit top three in their league (heh... heh... heh...) so they will be going to Regionals. As such they are studying extra hard and are undergoing "emergency practices" Sunday nights so that they can dominate all the other teams at Regional level. And they need these practices as they didn't do that well at Districts...

So I decided that since I have to drop my brother off for that, I might as well stay. However I won't be practicing with the Novice (though... that probably would help them...) but rather I'm watching movies and playing games. Bwhahahaha...

And that's what I did last night. The A-league quizzers (who had Novice family members) played Mario Party 2 and 3 whiles the Novice practiced and next week we shall watch Life on a Stick (which I highly recommend).

Anime Review: Air

2006-04-27T10:40:00.000-07:00

Category: Anime
Warning: Rated "R" For Anime.

This series was most definitely shoujo. Shoujo is a term which I'll explain further in detail at a later time. For this post however all you need to know is that is a series generally targetted towards a female audience that is centered more on emotions and the like. I personally don't watch them a ton but it is refreshing to watch every once in a while.

As with most shoujo this one had excellent artwork and was riddled with emotions. I'm not going to go into detail about the plotline as I myself am somewhat confused but to quickly sum it up, it's about a girl who is suffering this horrible illness which cannot be cured and which worsens as she becomes close to people. In the end she eventually dies because of it.

This series was not what I expected. I tend to browse series' summaries and grab the ones that sound good to watch at a later time. Most of the time I forget what the series was about when I actually go to watch it and this was one of those encounters.

This series is actually divided into three different arcs even though it was only 22ish episodes long. This is pretty uncommon and very unexpected.

The first arc was focused on the male character, a roaming performer, who is trying to find "the sad girl in the sky" (which turns out that the ill girl is a reincarnation of) and he ends up helping several people around town with their problems and befriends the ill girl. Of course, this friendship merely makes her condition worse and he has to deal with that.

The next arc was a really cool one which went back into medevial Japan and was the story of "the sad girl in the sky". The original one. That arc actually could have been made into its own series. I liked it but maybe that's because it contained a lot more action then the other arcs.

And the last arc was the ending of the girl's life from the point of view of a crow (which still doesn't quite make sense to me...). The struggles of the foster mom trying to take care of the girl, trying to keep her well against this unknown illness. The girl lost her memory of everything and became like a little child and the foster mother had to rebuild their entire relationship.

Then it goes to her regaining her memory and she puts on a valiant effort to recover. In the end she dies. Which was very sad and touching.

This series almost brought tears to my eyes throughout the entirety of it.

+++ Pluses +++

*Strong emotions
*Excellent artwork
*Several other excellent "side-stories"
*Unique storyline

--- Minuses ---

*They got rid of one of my favorite characters! *sob*
*Series should have been longer

I would only recommend this to those who've watched several other series and who are interested in emotional shoujo-type anime. I'm going to give this series a 3.5 out of 5 as well.

In Response To "Tongues Are Hard To Tame"

2006-04-27T10:00:00.000-07:00

And yet another poorly written post is published. Someday my mind will awaken and my cognitive prowess will return to me but I fear that this day is not that day.

I combined two issues which, while they were somewhat related, were different and as such things didn't turn out the way it should have. Nor did I spend enough time fleshing it out so that my actual point was conveyed. Things were lost in translation.

For this please forgive me.

~~~

I'm not hurt by said words but I am irritated by them. I'd just let them go but they are brought up again and again and again. Each phrase in of themselves is insignifigant when placed against my resolve but combined... I'm just tired of it. Yet another example of the metaphorical "straw that breaks the camel's back."

They are not words used diliberately to hurt but they are little remarks used casually and that's what bugs me the most about it.

You've seen and know very little and yet you've already casted your judgement upon it. In your ignorance you've already made up your mind.

Also...
You are my friend. Why would you disparage me? Why would you belittle my efforts? Do you truly think it's hopeless and, even worse, worthless? That all my time and effort is for naught? If so, say so. If not, why don't you support me?

But enough. This is now in the past and now that I've vented, I shall not bring it back up.

Time to move to some more cheerful things.

Tongues Are Hard To Tame

2006-04-26T11:00:00.000-07:00

Powerful as politics, sharper than a razor blade.

I'm tired of people's negative comments. Particularly them speaking death on matters that they think they know about but truly do not. Which unfortunately has been a common problem as of late.

Words cut deeper then any blade and these wounds are not ones that easily heal. They are wounds of the spirit. They can fester in people and consume them.

They break relationships, destroy authority, undermine marriages...

Words have power to heal and power to maim. They have power to build or destroy.

"Out of the same mouth comes praise and cursing. My brothers (and sisters), this should not be!"

The Bible (particularly James 3) talks a lot about the untameable tongue. About how it's a restless evil, full of deadly poison. No man can tame the tongue.

Unrealized Dreams

2006-04-25T11:35:00.000-07:00

We went to Districts and failed in our vie for power. Er... our vie to make it to Regionals.

In order to move on we needed to take third place. We took fourth.

Of course the top three teams were the traditional winners of our district. They are the teams that are comprised of people who have no lives and study ALL day.

And the sad thing is a lot of them aren't that great. Aaron and I, if we had the same amount of studying within us, could surpass. Oh... if I wasn't attending college we'd probably be going to Regionals in a couple weeks. If only...

It's just too much...

However the hard truth is we didn't make it. This was my last quizzing year and I won't be able to see Nationals as a quizzer. Hopefully as a coach I will but it's not the same. I longed to take the others to Nationals with me but I failed.

It wasn't enough and never is.

I was going to rehash some of the things that took place but... it's not necessary and it's depressing.

I did end up taking 6th place individual high.

At least now that it's over I'll finally have peace.

Tuesday, Wednesday Heartattack

2006-04-21T10:43:00.000-07:00

But it's Friday...
I'm in love...

And there was much rejoicing.

Tomorrow is THE BIG DAY that determines whether we get to go to Regionals. I hope so earnestly that we do. I pray that we have clear minds and quick hands. That we'll be able to remember what we've studied and make this our best quizzing day ever.

This meet is held at Northwest University and it'll be a long one. We'll be playing each team twice, not counting any playoffs that we may have to do. Therefore I won't be home til really late. The good news is that I can sleep in 2+ hours! Huzzah!

Let's win!

Softer To Me

2006-04-20T15:48:00.000-07:00

Life could you be a little softer to me.
Life could you be more gentle to me.
Yeah I know this is a selfish plea.

But this world is hard,
It's cruel and I wish it could be...
Softer to me.

I'm so depressed right now...

So Hungry...

2006-04-19T11:22:00.000-07:00

I'm slowly wasting away...

I need some edible substance to keep me going but alas! I have to wait another 10 minutes!

Who knows if I can make it that long?

Probably not.

My body is already canabalizing itself in order to keep going and soon I'll loose enough crucial material that it'll prevent me from doing anything.

Oh the inhumanity!

How can I suffer to something like starvation? How could it end this way?

Oh! 7 more minutes to go!!

Wait! 6 minutes!

Maybe I can make it!

Oh noes! I'm now getting lightheaded. Even if I survive for another 6 minutes I'll probably not be able to walk all the way to the courtyard where they are going to nourish me.

Today is the election of the student government for my college and they are providing this barbeque full of hamburgers and hot dogs!

Ooh.. only four more minutes!!!

Maybe I should get in line!

With the last of my energy I shall push forward in order to receive the nourishment that I so desparately need.

Only 3 minutes now!

If only Rabenstrange would hurry up! Must.. go... now!!!

Wonder if he'll be mad if I turn of his computer?

And God Permitting

2006-04-18T16:04:00.000-07:00

And God permitting we will do so.

This Saturday is Teen Bible Quiz Districts. This is where we see whether we make it to Regionals or not and, by extention, whether we get to go to Nationals.

I have yet to go to Regionals as a participating team let alone Nationals and this is my last quizzing year. Therefore we must go!

The odds of us going aren't that bad either. Though we didn't have enough teams to allow four to advance to Regionals (which would almost mean a shoe-in for us), the teams this year aren't doing so well either. Cedar Park (I believe... could be the other one) will only be bringing one team, while Tacoma will be bringing two. We've been able to beat all the "top" teams at least once this year and it wasn't because they broke down.

I really want to go to Nationals and we've been studying hard for this goal. Failure means seppuku for me. Wait... maybe I'm being too harsh. Maybe I'll only burst into tears and never speak to anyone again.

But it doesn't matter as we'll never find out what will happen since we are going to go. Ne?!

The Canon of Scripture

2006-04-18T10:35:00.000-07:00

As promised here's a long answer in regards to the canon of Scripture. Hopefully this helps explain a little as to why some books are canonized, while others are not leading to the belief that the others are not God-breathed.

Courtesy of my quiz coach, Evan Hamilton.

To begin with, most experts agree upon the 66 books that are included in the Protestant Bible. 27 New, and 39 old. Early church fathers wanted to “gather up” the (New Testament) writings that accomplished several things among which certain criterion was adopted (or set down) to determine those letters which were accepted and those of questionable integrity. This is called Canonization. Further the “Canon” or measuring rod/stick guidelines were agreed upon by a governing Church Council. Some of these criteria were: Does the text compliment the Old Testament? Is the source (i.e. the author) known in the Christian community? Does the text agree within it’s own interior—meaning no heresy is taught? Is the work inspired by the Holy Spirit?

Now Deutero-canonical books (second canon) were those deemed by some as not up to the standard of ‘inspired,’ but yet worthy of collecting for their historical or pedagogical value. Examples of this are those included/collected in the Catholic Bible. Some of these writings cover that Inter-Testamental period between Malichi and Matthew—perhaps more appropriately viewed as the 434(?) years between the last OT Prophet and the FIRST NT prophet John the Baptist. (See the prayer of Daniel in chapter 11 and the answer provided by the angel.)

What I would classify as heretical works would be those that fit in neither of the above categories for canon; but their source comes rather from groups like the ascetics or syncretistic (mixing) sects; that of mixing several then extant religious traditions—perhaps mixed with Greek or other influences. Their chief quality is they have questionable origin and seem to have NO parallel basis in the OT. Examples include: Extra-canonical books, or Pseudo-pigrapha—meaning ‘false writings,’ or the Gospel of St. Thomas. I may be wrong, but I think it was common practice for an early author who was unknown to add a prominent Christian’s name (such as Paul, Barnabas, or Apollos) to the letter to make it seem more impressive—to give its import weight.

Perhaps the writer of Hebrews isn’t named because it was a woman (some believe Priscilla) or someone who was not well known. Or, they were so well known to the readers (Peter or Barnabas or Apollos) that they didn’t need to be named in the body of the text—and so it is lost to us Modern readers. Also, as you, know the likelihood of Pauline authorship is slim since this writer writes so differently from what we know of Pauline style say from Romans or Corinthians…

Even if I and other Protestants are wrong concerning the ‘second canon’ books you can rest in great assurance that the Holy Spirit has protected God’s Word down through the centuries. His Word will stand up under any scrutiny.

Sorry this is so brief in overview. Two book length discussions of Canon are available. One from F.F. Bruce is available from IVP: “The Canon of Scripture” let me know if you are interested. The second book is by Wegner from Baker publishing: “Journey From Texts to Translation.” I will inquire about the church councils and get back to you.

~~~

Even if I and other Protestants are wrong concerning the ‘second canon’ books you can rest in great assurance that the Holy Spirit has protected God’s Word down through the centuries. His Word will stand up under any scrutiny.

Exactly.

More on the other questions later.

Should I Stay Or Should I Go Now?

2006-04-17T11:03:00.000-07:00

If I go there will be trouble...
An’ if I stay it will be double...

To move out or not to move out. That is the question.

Moving out and living on my own would be a pain. Very much so...

However staying at home is becoming an ordeal that I may not pass.

*sigh*

Decisions... decisions...

Right now I'm waiting to see what'll happen. My family "discusses" moving to Arizona and if I get accepted into the UW I may live on campus.

Whatever I do there will be trouble.

Might Have Ben Hur

2006-04-16T01:40:00.000-07:00

'Cause I want someone to
Share my smile
To share the pain
To be there when the sea
Turns gray

To share the joy
For better or worse

I guess I'm just one of those hopeless romantics. *smile*

Heh...

I would love to have someone to share my life with for better or for worse. However now is most definitely not the time. I am nowhere close to the person that I long to be nor am I in a position to support another.

It wouldn't be wise nor prudent to seek out my companion as of now. Courting (or dating) another when you aren't ready is selfish and mean (I had another word on the tip of my mind but it escaped... when will this end?!) and that's something I just won't do.

So when I have my sisters and female parental unit pestering me about it, I just give them an incredulous stare. I've already told them when the time comes, I may date but I don't think they understand the reasoning behind it. Which they should...

At least my male parental unit understands and recognizes my wisdom (which he labeled as such not I. Therefore I'm not being presumptious... this time...).

And there's a short summary of my feelings on dating for myself.

Bears Just Wanna Have Fun

2006-04-14T10:33:00.000-07:00

Category: WoW
Warning: World of Warcraft content enclosed

Bears,
They want,
Wanna have fun.
Bears,
Wanna have.

Oh~ bears just wanna have fu-un! Oh bears just wanna have fun! That's all they really want~

Anyways...

Hakkar the Soulflayer

Last Monday I had the opportunity to tank Hakkar the Soulflayer - the last boss in Zul'Gurrub. The other officers were skeptical about it since Hakkar periodically mind controls the first person on his aggro list and those mind controlled people then procede to own the raid. Usually mages will sheep these warriors who get mind controlled but druid tanks can't be sheeped. However I convinced them that hibernate would work and I got to tank.

The Hakkar fight (on the tanking side) basically consists of three tanks fighting each other for aggro. I'm proud to say that I was able to acquire a large majority of that aggro and we do have very good tanks. Times like that makes me love my druid. I love to tank with my druid and each new boss that I'm able to tank properly merely increases that love.

I have also had the opportunity to be the first tank to try out the Prophet Skeram in the Temple of Ahn'Qiraj (AQ40). Druidic tanks are better for this fight since we have feral charge which allows has to charge in combat. Warrior can only charge outside of combat. (charging is teleporting... kind of...)

I also tank Majordomo in the Molten Core on a fairly regular basis.

Soon I will tank all of the bosses in this game. Bwhahahaha...

You're A Liar And A Thief!

2006-04-13T16:42:00.000-07:00

Oh noes!

So... apparently no one else cares but I do...

I come home on one of my long days wanting to listen to music and talk to people on vent. Wait.. wanting to talk to people on vent on a long day...

Correction: I come home on one of my short days wanting to listen to music and talk to people on vent and I find that someone had stolen my headphones! Oh the inhumanity!

I'm actually really ticked about that... In order to undergo raids, I need headphones; in order to watch my anime, I need headphones... The list just goes on and on...

I didn't misplace them either cause I never move them from my computer and I have performed a indepth search around the house for it.

The only reason for this loss of headphones is that my siblings took them but I have interrogated them and they all deny it. Which doesn't mean that they didn't take them. I've had them blatently lie to me before (what's up with that? I'm not one easily deceived). Also... my two sisters were going to California for a week the next day and that little fact narrows my suspicions...

However I'll be the kind and benevelent older brother and let them get away with it. This time... It just makes me sad that they'd do that to me and angry at the fact that I had to buy another pair of headphones. And I really like my old ones.

Don't Ban Anime!

2006-04-13T15:50:00.001-07:00

Category: Anime - Articles

I got some bad news. I Just read a comment on the Ban Anime Now Petition. Here Goes.

"My fellow Americans, I have read many of your comments and concerns, I feel that if we want to eradicate this evil that is plaguing America we have to come together and voice concerns such as you have my fellow Christians. I am working to pass a new law that bans every type of questionable animation that comes into America. It is our duty as Americans to see that our children are not subjected to these evil images that will plague our childrens minds. I thank you for your time and opinions. - George Bush."

Is this really the hurtful truth or did some impersonator trying to pull our leg? Is Anime really going to end right now?

Sincerely,
*scrubbed*

Mother of God.

People are still actually buying into this "ban anime petition" garbage that's been roaming around the internet for years.

Here's a tip, Josh: The "Ban Anime Now" petition is a hoax started by a bunch of bored IRC kids who have some bizarro persecution fantasy going on where everyone in the country hates them for enjoying Japanese cartoons. This petition is almost like roleplaying for them, where they get to pretend that someone actually did start an internet petition (which always work, by the way) to "ban anime in America", which if it succeeded would not only be a massively unconstitutional but downright absurd and surreal.

The reality is, of course, that outside of bizarro fringe groups nobody listens to anyway, you'd be hard pressed to find a group or an individual that has sincerely made a statement about "banning anime". Nobody cares if you like anime, nobody cares about that fake petition, there is no cultural war being waged on anime. Nobody cares.

Furthermore, I'm trying to understand why in the world you would believe this to be a real quote. Something tells me that the President of the United States is too busy worrying about his low approval ratings and the war he started to bother leaving comments on an internet petition.

To illustrate my point, let's have a pop quiz:

On any given weekday, George W. Bush is most likely to be found doing one of the following:

A. Attending a White House Press Conference
B. Reading over that day's presidential briefings
C. Planning his appearance schedule
D. Receiving updates on the Iraq war
F. Reviewing the immigration legislation that recently passed the Senate
G. Vacationing at his ranch in Texas
H. Writing poorly-written, unfiltered comments by himself on a fake, obscure internet petition about banning Japanese cartoons

What was your answer? Here's a tip: THE ANSWER IS NOT H.

In fact - and this is not sarcasm or even a dig at the President - I wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't know what the word 'anime' means. I'd wager most people his age don't and don't care, especially not someone with higher priorities in life, like say, the leader of the free world. Besides, I may not hold our President's intelligence in very high esteem, but I'm going to assume he can at least use proper punctuation and grammar, none of which can be found in that stupid "quote".

THINK, people. Think.

Hey Answerman!

2006-04-13T15:50:00.000-07:00

Category: Anime - Articles

Source: http://animenewsnetwork.com/columns/answerman.php?id=239

I normally don't copy and paste questions and answers however these two are pretty good. As such I have pasted them into posts as you can see below. They are about anime and the questions are in regards to why Gankutsuou is le suck and the other is a reply to someone wondering why "George W. Bush was going to ban anime."

Gankutsuou Is Horrible!

2006-04-13T15:49:00.000-07:00

Category: Anime - Articles

I figured that since you're something of a Gankutsuou fan, you could answer me this:

See, my absolutely adoration of Dumas' Count of Monte Cristo made me go out and buy the Gankutsuou animation volume 1. I enjoyed lots of the things Gonzo did with it, like the visuals and character designs and some of the French and such...

But uh... Comte in outer space? Monte Cristo actually as a vampire (from what I could tell)? I mean, I don't find it TOO particularly distracting (at times I don't even remember that the series IS "sci-fi" because I love the story and am so Monte Cristo-ed), but... where did THAT come from?

Was it just some kind of ploy to get more people to watch it, marketing it as a "sci-fi" series? Was it some crazy symbolism, like saying post-Napoleonic France was some kind of "exotic, foreign realm" or something? What? I don't feel that it really enhances anything about the series at all... I... really can't make heads or tails out of it...

I've actually heard on more than one occasion from "fans" of Dumas' original work (I hesitate to call them "fans"; it's like saying "Well I've been hearing from A Tale of Two Cities fans that..." it's classic literature, somehow it seems wrong to designate oneself as a "fan" of it) that Gankutsuou is some kind of bastardization, because it changes a lot of the original story and has more than a few fantastical elements in there.

Honestly, I can't really get my head around this line of thinking. Yes, the series' director - Mahiro Maeda, one of the few working directors in anime today actually willing to take so many artistic challenges - took a lot of liberties in his version of the tale, but Gankutsuou is hardly an 'adaptation' of the original work. It's more of a re-imagining, like Tim Burton's remake of Planet of the Apes (minus all the suck). Expecting it to be anything more than one artist's take on the story, for better or worse, is a road to ruin. I have no reason to believe that Gankutsuou is the way it is for any reasons other than purely artistic ones; having met Maeda several times and interviewed the man, he isn't the type to simply slap a bunch of gimmicky crap onto a classic story to get it to sell. He made the series he saw in his head. This is what creative people do.

You know, a whole lot of people seem to thrive on complaining about changes made to film and television adaptations of books and novels, and frankly, I don't see the point. Maybe it's because I'm so immersed in film as a medium, but in my mind, if it's a good book AND a good TV show or movie, then what's the problem? No, the adaptation of Alan Moore's V for Vendetta did not include every single panel of the original graphic novel, but it was still an excellent film that maintained the spirit of the book while creating something marvelous for the film medium. Adaptation means 'change', after all. Unless the reworked version completely lacks the spirit of the original work and instead creates something completely new (that also isn't very good or worthwhile), I simply shrug when people complain about excessive changes from the source material. What's the point? Just enjoy the book for what it is, and enjoy the series for what it is. Life's too short.

But, regardless of all that, people will still cry bloody murder when even a single word is interpreted "wrong" in the film version of a beloved book, so attempting to stem the internet fury of these self-appointed guradians of the original text is a completely sisyphean task.

Shakugan No Shana

2006-04-13T10:52:00.000-07:00

Warning: Rated "R" For Anime.

I just finished watching Shakugan no Shana. I was quite pleased with this anime series. Though there were several faults (which I'll list below) that I found with it the main part that attracted me to it was well done in my humble opinion.

Animenewsnetwork Review

You can view the above link for a summary of the series if you'd like. I'm just going to go on my opinions of the series.

The first episode tried a unique approach in introducing their main character however it flopped. It was this fancy flashback sequence which, while it could have been pretty nifty, just didn't turn out right. Luckily I'm not a person who drops series at the first episode as they tend to do the series no justice.

As with most fighting series there is some "combat system" or whatnot that the characters follow to an extent. While they did have a lot of awesome combat scenes, overall I didn't like their system.

Also the ending didn't offer complete closure. In the end all the "bad guys" escaped leaving room for another season. However they did give some closure, some sense of accomplishment, with the character development between the two main characters.

I wrote up several complaint and you may be wondering why I thought it was a good series and why I "stuck it through to the end."

One of there main characters (Shana) is introduced into the story as a cold, emotionless proffessional who was bound by duty. But then she meets Sakai Yuuji and throughout the series you can see her development from having no emotions to struggling with them and then finalling dealing with them.

There were also many other characters whose development was nicely done as well.

Bleh... that does not justice to the series either. Oh well... what I really liked about this series was the character development.

+++ Pluses +++

* Very nicely done character development

--- Minuses ---

* Mangled first episode
* Odd "combat system"
* Partial closure

I'll give this series a three out of five stars (worthy of me keeping). This is not one of the series that I'd highly recemmend to people. However if asked I'd give it a good referral.

Have to go to gym. Sorry for this rushed post... meant to go indepth some more but this will have to do.

TBQelite

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にほんご の クラス は たのしい でした よ。

<3 (#)

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にほんご　の　クラス　は　たのしい　でした　よ。