Xenosaga comment, besides the obvious fact that I've been playing it too much. Someone, yeah I've already forgotten who, it was some 12 major cinematics ago, said Peche. The accent was too small for me to be sure, but I'm assuming that he intended Sin as opposed to Peach (the difference is a single accent mark). On the downside, the game has no load screens, doesn't need them, but everything seems a bit too long of a load. Namco should have given Square the game for polishing because Final Fantasy X does everything this game tries for, only more fluidly.

As for Jeff's comment on Kudos (curtesy of Dictionary.com): A praising remark; an accolade or compliment.

[Greek kudos, magical glory.]

Usage Note: Kudos is one of those words like congeries that look like plurals but are etymologically singular. Acknowledging the Greek history of the term requires Kudos is (not are) due her for her brilliant work on the score. But kudos has often been treated as a plural, especially in the popular press, as in She received many kudos for her work. This plural use has given rise to the singular form kudo. These innovations follow the pattern whereby the English words pea and cherry were shortened from nouns ending in an (s) sound (English pease and French cerise), that were mistakenly thought to be plural. The singular kudo remains far less common than the plural use; both are often viewed as incorrect in more formal contexts. ·It is worth noting that even people who are careful to treat kudos only as a singular often pronounce it as if it were a plural. Etymology would require that the final consonant be pronounced as a voiceless (s), as we do in pathos, another word derived from Greek, rather than as a voiced (z).

Alright, for starters. I'm officially declaring myself sick (as in, in bad health), which is okay because I'm going to the doctor's tomorrow.

Work just got longer again for me. I've gone from working 4-6 @ Ron's store to working 3-7:20 @ Bill's to Noon-3 @ Joe's plus 3-7:20 @ Bills. Well, at least it is $50 a day, even if it swallows most of my day.

On to the references to other blogs part of the blog. First, Kudos to me for giving Jeff the link, props to Infoc for giving it to me, and a hearty good job Jeff for getting further than me. That thing is interesting, but not so much hard as stupid and poorly designed.

On the note of Supercomm, apparently Nextell is putting out a walkie-talkie capable of working across the US. Now I want to know how that works because Satellites would likely be inconsistant and if it had that kind of horizontal range wouldn't you be able to invert the signal and make the most ultimate directional microphone. I mean, just set up the signal right and you'll be able to steal signals from say, the Pentagon from a range of, oh...Mexico perhaps? Other Supercomm note, anyone else find it odd that there were only Concourses B and C?

As for the LED ball, I think that three balls are of course better than two. All the more fun. Plus, it was more for the odd source than the actual gain that the story arose.

And finally, the topic of cultured Katie. A point by point answer to her arguements, cause we've got little else to do at this moment besides sleep so I'm not dead tired tomorrow, but that's not the plan.

Table Manners: Start from the outside and work inwards with utensils. Right hand gets the knife. Don't slurp, no elbows on the table. Wow, basically the same rules as you'd apply to surgery or an autopsy.
Dancing involves culture? Most "cultured" dance is the waltz which you can do in your sleep, D'Oraz and I proved that one lazy afternoon afterschool.
Violence and Cussing: Play a video game with someone cultured and beat them a few times. They'll show the other side of the coin.
Appreciating Art: Doesn't matter. Art is art and you either like it or you don't. Certainly you can evaluate what it is that makes it attractive, but that's a talent and not everyone is required to have it.
Contemporary Classical Music: Is a myth, 'nuff said.
Postmodernism: It ends in -ism and therefore isn't vital to existence.
Classic Literature: At least Katie finishes the books. Plus, Weis and Hickman write really really well.
Philosopy: Damn, I was listening to NPC extoll the virtues of teaching kids proverbs and how to apply them in life and I couldn't but think how Fscking stupid the idea was. They had this girl who'd been through the cirriculum and apparently when people act mean they all start reciting the golden rule.
Europe: Good thing you've never been. WARNING: ECON STATEMENTS COMING The EU is getting pissed at Bush for depriciating the US dollar and therefore making Europe's exports more costly to us. Plus, France is in bad footing. Plus most of what we've drawn from Europe in terms of "culure" can be learned in a book in five minutes or else it's been lost to us cause we found it pointless and pretentious.
History: And anyone wants to talk about history? Hello, the past is boring for the most part and even if you do believe that time is a cycle and we are repeating the past, then knowing the past is irrelevant because you know it by knowing the present.
Foreign Languages: Neither do most other people know them. Plus, Katie knows more French than she lets on. She'll deny that, but that's okay.
Writing: Cannot write essays? Thankyou cards? Handwriting? None of those are needed to hold a good converstation. Culture rarely involves writing, and when it does it'll be invitations which are really simple.
Current Events: Grab a paper, a yahoo look, or a friend. Current events aren't that big of an issue. See History above.
Polite Conversation: Usually helps to center it around the current and present. What is happening there at that moment is a good source of discussion usually.
Travel: I've been to the US and London (for a week when I was less than 2). Being Cultured differs in areas, but to be cultured in the US you don't need any travel.
Theater: You wouldn't want to go unless you dragged people with you, plain and simple. I'd have taken the Symphony had I been in ASYO though...but that's just me.
Clothing: And this only matters if you're in a cultured enviroment.

On a final note. Working at 4554 Corperate with Bill gets really boring because its a long time and no internet. Any suggestions on how I can spend my free time w/o looking off task?

Australian Rules Indoor Quidditch Players rejoice. I have obtained the second most important part of the game. The most important thing being a dark dorm hallway of course. Today (a term I use lightly, but I did mean to post this Monday) I opened my drawer at the UPS Store and found two rather cruddy looking plastic balls, there were no customers so I grabbed one and bounced it and it lit up. I asked Bill if he knew we had these and he wasn't sure what I had, so I gave him the second. Yvette (being our former Corperate employee of the day, she's there until this Saturday, as is Nick, the rest already left) found us playing and proceeded to go into the back (which is rather large from the appearance of the store) and brought out two nice and clean, formerly unopened bouncing LED balls. Bill proceeded to discuss how the LED activation setup was similar to that of a bomb (so I now know how to build a special trigger bomb from old mercury thermostats). Yvette did fail to ever explain to me why the UPS store had LED bouncy balls, but oh well.

Because I know it will amuse someone out there: Clickie. Most of the questions suck though, so, quiz at your own risk I guess.

Alright. After doing Car "Shopping" we stopped by Sams Club to see if the Graduation Photos had been developped, they hadn't (1 hour photo is such a misnomer) but the Bac/Orch Banquet pics had. Anyways, I picked up Xenosaga (thus the german in the previous post). Haven't started on it, and don't plan on doing so until I get through Suikoden again (all 108 this time), though apparently there is a Status Condition (Bonus? Whatever the opposite of ailment is) called Chivarly. Where, if there is a female character in the back row the character with the effect gets revived upon death. Sounds a bit odd, if cute.

So. after getting home I had intended to have a nice quiet afternoon, late lunch, and then go to the concert (though I had no idea where or when it was, typical of me). My mother decided that she was going to take the family to Sandy Springs to see Cowboy Bebop the Movie. I, not being one to pass up such an opportunity, went.

The Movie. It was a quiet little theatre way out there, $22.50 for the four of us. Small movie room, but there was only 9 people counting myself and family, making 5 strangers in the room, slightly smaller than X-2. I'd seen the few trailers that the site had out of the movie and knew basically what to expect. Didn't even know Electra was in the movie until she showed up though, but she was a welcome addition in terms of character and personality. The movie definately gets my reccomendation. It had all the great plots twists (with not too many odd occurances/loopholes), the fantastic music of Yoko Kanno and the Seatbelts (though if you actually listen to some of the lyrics, you do begin to wonder) and a good mix of plot/action/humor. David asked me my favorite scene and I responded that it was when Spike asks if he can have a cigarette. I wouldn't want to spoil anything, so I'll leave it at that. There are tons of great moments though, except Jet really doesn't do much the whole movie, so if you're a fan of Mr. Black, too bad. Ed actually doesn't pull too many tricks either, but she managed enough to seem like classic Edward. The movie ends the way you expect it to, but you enjoy it enough that that isn't a problem at all.

After that I made it over to the North Springs Marta station to join up with Lulu, Cindy, and Jason (who was running on a whopping 3 hours of sleep). We got to Centennial Olympic Park after Jennifer Love Hewitt had finished and Jason Mraz was beginning as we were walking our way over. Since I came straight from Bebop I was in my, no suprise here, black Fila T-shirt and some Khaki shorts. None of us thought ahead to bring a towel, but the grass was dry so it didn't matter. I'm quite glad that I've lived long enough playing the wind without my jacket as a child because I'd have been rather chilly by the end was that not the case. The concert was great, far more than I expected. Jason Mraz sounded really good even if he did seem to be retuning his guitar every few songs. Arrested Development (wow, I'm really suprised I still remember that name) didn't impress me much, but considering that I'd gone in not expecting much, they were rather good. Shaggy was, Shaggy, and knowing how little I know of Shaggy that says something. I'm not overly familiar with his songs, but I knew more of them than I'd have gone in realizing. He does seem to like to borrow more popular tunes to put his songs to though: The Joker by Steve Miller, Annie are you Okay by Michael Jackson (redone very well by Alien ant Farm), and of crud, I cannot believe I've forgotten, oh well, it'll come to me. He wins points for insulting me, but that's a whole different topic. I spent alot of my attention on the Bass though. Very good players. Not anything that was very difficult (I could have played all but the frilly song ends, and perhaps even those with some effort), but well chose, in tune, in tempo, and nice and loud.

Der Wille zur Macht :)

Well, it's a bit past 1:00 AM and I have work tomorrow. So that dual blog on Cowboy Bebop the Movie and the On the Bricks concert will have to wait until later.

Alright. I spent this morning checking out cars so when I went shopping I could have what I wanted already in mind. The key issue to remember is that I want to spend only $2k on the computer and ~$10k on the car, since my Bass is upwards of $5k. Anyways, I first checked out the Chrysler/Plymouth/Jeep dealership where I learned that the PT Cruiser doesn't have enough headroom and that the Jeep Liberty, while accomodating head and legs, has absolutely crappy gas mileage. The Seabring didn't even come close. I then checked out the Honda dealership and found that neither the Accord nor the Civic had a deep enough trunk to accomodate my Bass (the bridge is too high for the depth that the trunk allows), I didn't attempt the Element because it is so God awfully ugly but I did try out the CRV. The 2003 was very very nice, though the folding/unfolding cup holders between the front seats was terrible, and the older CRV's (aka: those closer to my price range) were good as well, not as fun and still a bit short on the legs, but that's my problem. Then we went across the street to the Toyota dealership and checked things out. The Corolla was absolutely too small and the new Camry wasn't managing either, though the older has a larger trunk so I'll have to test it out sometime. The Toyota Matrix, while kinda short on the legs, was a good car and has a built in Subwoofer (a large built in subwoofer). The Rav4 was slightly smaller, but did manage to accomodate the Bass, even if it did get in the way moreso than in the Matrix. Dragging my bass around did get a ton of comments, the most from the Toyota people, slightly less from the Honda people, and nearly none from the Dodge people. It was annoying to say the least.

So, the total learning comes to this. I really want a new 2003 Toyota Spyder, but there's no way in hell the bass would ever fit or that I'd ever afford that for a college car. But it's so very very nice.

"The time has come, the walrus said, to talk of many things. Of shoes and ships and ceiling wax, of carpenters and kings. Of why the sea is boiling hot and whether pigs have wings."

Anyways, speaking of the coming of time, this is my request to all my computer literate allies, I need to decide what I want my college computer to be, so do please aid me in this. And keep in mine, I don't need any complex video editing equipment, just the basics for gameplay: So a vid card, processor, and little else needs to be very end of the line. Sound isn't a big issue for me, but it's always nice, and I'd love to finally be able to play D2 w/o Winamp being distorted.

NPR was worrying me again. On "Marketplace" they did the numbers segment and immediately began playing the song "We're in the Money" (instrumental only, but still).

Today wasn't good. Was woken at 7:13 because I had managed to sleep through my alarm (apparently someone had set the volume to near subharmonic levels). Got to the orthodontist and recieved 5 spacers in the back of my mouth which are currently driving me insane. This coupled with the fact that my allergies have decided to spring up this morning in the form of a very sore throat does not make for a good day.

Work wasn't bad though. Be thankful for the small things I guess.

My Orthodontist is beginning to worry me.

Him(Dr. Mach)- I wonder if I could put some brackets around those teeth.
Me-*Unable to speak with his hands in my mouth*
Him-Sounds like a plan *Takes hands out*
Me- Wouldn't I have to pre-med for that?
Him- Oh yeah. We'll do it next time.
Him- Actually, keeping 3 groups would be kinda hard *calls over a nurse* instead of doing the 5, 6, 7 binding, lets get some spacers in so we can bind his 5's and 6's.
Nurse-What about his 7's?
Him-They aren't large enough, plus they are 8's, not 7's.

At least I know what all that means, but it was still really odd at the time.

The Adult Swim summer stuff is really great. I'm enjoying it too much I think.

Well, I wrote 6 of the Thank You notes, I don't have an address for the other so it doesn't matter yet. I did sign up for G-Tech, made second session. But no, I didn't teach Jeff anything in Brood today. Yesterday, however, I extolled the virtues of Attack-Move and taught him the important a least 1 miner per mineral patch (he wasn't always using them all), so hopefully we'll be able to graduate to 2 vs 3 games.

I managed to watch Oh Brother Where Art Thou without developing a southern drawl, which yes, is actually an accomplishment for me. Great movie though, and anyone who hasn't seen it certainly needs to.

Anyways. Time to make some goals for the summer I guess. There are of course only a small portion of the grand scale of things, and actually only some of the smaller items, but that's nothing new.

Goal: Learn HTML and various graphic artistry tools to the extent that I can add animations to the Blog. Learn to rip Sprites so I have a basis for said animations (since I can only find really really good Megaman stuff and not anything for Valkyrie Profile. I guess I'll have to harass AlienInfection and Dr.Lucent for stuff (15 points each for anyone who knows who either is. Jeff is not allowed to answer on the AI topic, which might give it away, but oh well). The end result being that I'd love to have a Valkyrie Profile hero and Zero dancing in opposite corners of my Blog. On a related note, since I technically only own my PS and a SNES, I need to spend some hard earned cash purchasing some older RPGs (Valkyrie Profile being among them).

Goal: Get a better car. Currently I'm open to suggestions. The major issue is I have to fit and my bass has to fit as well. So I'm open to any suggestions. I'm sure you'll figure out how to get in contact with me without my aid.

I've finally reached the point of having three seperate folders for my webcomics. 1 is the commonly updated and the creme de la creme; 2 is the good comics, if a bit slow; 3 is all the finished, the extraordinarily slow, or those that I don't even know why I still have on my list. Kinda a frightening thing.

To do List:

*Finish writing thank you notes (only 7 left to go)
*Choose my day for G-Tech Orientation.
*Stop merely playing Brood Wars with Jeff and start actually trying to improve his mistakes. I'm actually starting to micro, kinda scary. I still play with a zerg mentality 24-7 though. If my troops die it's just less supply I need.

Perhaps sleeping from 9:00 PM to 11:00 AM is a bit excessive, but 14 hours is a good compensation for not sleeping the night before (even if there was a 4 hour nap during the next day as well).

Today was devoted to mass D&D which went over just about as well as could normally be expected. Nothing of great note to post. Oh well.

Alright, Jiaz covered all the important stuff, just replace his time playing in the Casino with a game of Spades where Kyle and I triumphed over Tim and Edmund. The question is indeed "Was Project Graduation worth it?" and my answer is a resounding, "Meh". Yeah, I'd most likely do it again, but there weren't any singularily fantastic moments the entire night. The whole thing fluxuated between too many people and too few. I could have done Magic or Mao or Spades anytime of day anywhere else and what little I did see of the Casino falls into the same category of activity. I didn't attempt the obstance course or the bull and don't feel bad for either. Obstacles courses tend to enjoy areas of clearance much lower than Colin is tall, and this one was no exception. It was certainly good seeing all those people who are going off to the far reaches of the United States next year and that alone is probably the main reason why I would do it again. It was enjoyable jousting, earning some beads from Jeff the hard way, and exploiting my dress socks for some very very smooth and slick dancing on the gym floor.

I don't know why Mardi Gras was the theme, nor even why the event had a theme, but most of the decorations were simply annoying and ugly. The DJ did absolutely suck, but I've begun to think that of most any DJ these days, I guess I don't like most of today's "popular" music.

In general though, there simply wasn't enough reminiscing and that was mostly what I expected.

In summation, no I'm not miffed that I didn't win a door prize, no it doesn't matter that we were originally promised that everyone would win one, and yeah, I guess I might do it again. I wouldn't do the same things, but yeah, I'd do it again.

Since I arrived late (a bit past 9:30) to Graduation, I didn't get to rehearse on stage so I had my Bass with me until we got on stage. So, to occupy my attentions I started playing a G major arpeggio followed by a descending run: (G up to B up to D up to G then descending from the high G as F E D C and then starting over. It sounded pretty good).

Anyways, Stony River was vastly unimpressive. I had Unsweet Tea which was Luisanne (not a brand that I'm favoring). I should have realized the mistake when upon my ordering went something like this:
Server: What would you like?
Me: Unsweet Tea
Server: Right, Sweet Tea
Me: UNSweet Tea.

Repeat this process replacing me with David, because it happened like with him immediately beyond me. But I still had the tea and was incredibly unimpressed. I added lemon to help it and instead got cold lemon flavored substance with an awful aftertaste.

I ordered a steak which comes with their seasoning meant to "enhance the flavor and tenderize the meat without being spicy." After the server walked away to allow us time to think David immediately asked aloud how a seasoning could tenderize meat whereas I pondered how you could have no spicy seasoning (it seems to defeat the point of the seasoning). Apparently it was a lie though, and as near as I can tell ever chef there was a reject for an Emmeril teaching school. Which Emmeril kicks it up a notch, these people made the notch the level of the food. The fries tasted like seasoning with an odd texture (because herbs usually don't have the texture of french fries) and the steak was definately reduced in greatness by the over flavoring brought on by the seasoning. Overall I'd much rather go to Hops and save the cash and enjoy my house brewed Root Beer and better food.

Nothing really momentus to say about Graduation except that anyone who drove in the far right lane and then merged deserves to be shot. It took me 40 minutes to get to Mount Pisgah because I was driving lawfully, and upon getting here I proceeded to scratch the truck next to me with my front fender, so I got to walk into the church behind a family I didn't know, the father of which was quite angry at me (his damn truck was too far right).

Anyways. Anyone want to tell me the odds that I'd end up walking out next to Dunn (who apparently had issues crossing the stage, but I'll openly admit that I wasn't watching. Sitting at the extreme right relative to the stage really hindered my view of any but those about to cross.

Ok, time for the random congradulations: Kudos to everyone who sang, especially the soloists (Chloe, Laura, Kate, and Joe) and to everyone who gave speeches, mostly Royal and Edmund though. Points to Charlene for losing her hat and to Alex Liss for not understanding when I tried to convince her to straiten out her honor cords (I thought I did a fairly good wordless demonstration).

Glad to know that all the Orchestra people were told to be Alpha for practice, all sat on the Alpha side of Graduation, and then they put our diplomas in Omegazone, way to go school!

Alright. Apparently crossing my fingers really didn't help. I did manage to play several hands of spades though. Why did we have to read everyone's name? Was there a practical application to that action? Anyways, in case you haven't noticed this is yesterday's overdue blog. I got kinda busy and naver managed to get to a computer. So, after Grad practice I went with D'Oraz to turn his AP Calc practice book into Bolt and on the way back got accosted by both Duncan and Burke for still being at school (wow, I never realized it was such a crime to hang around), so I lied that I was on my way home and went over to the Orchestra room where I played random music with Keith and Fu until it was time for rehearsal. So, I went to the Band room, got my copy of the slide show from the concert (which I have not yet had time to look at), said my final orchestra good byes to all the people I'm really going to miss: Louise, Christine, Christina, Christine, Yichen, Sonica, and played my way through a quarter of a hour of Pomp and Circumstance. ((Damn, time for photos, I'll have to finish this...crap...looks like tomorrow cause I think photos will lead into dinner into Project Graduation...okay, until I return this'll have to be unfinished. So much to say, so little time today)). Yay! Another few moments of spare time! Okay. So after Orch finished for the Seniors (cause we didn't have to play the Rondeau (The Masterpiece Theater Song)) I talked with John fora bit and decided that invading his house sounded like a good way to spend the rest of my day. So I called home and David reminded me that I needed to get an application for him and I remembered that I needed to pickup my paycheck. So, I went over to the UPS Store and found Joe packing 3 printers, 2 computers (sans monitors), a scanner, and a few other miscellaneous electronic components. I proptly joined in (I'd say I rolled up my sleeves, but wearing my Black Fila T-Shirt I didn't have long enouh sleeves to roll at all) and after a good half an hour of work managed to get out of the store (and net an hour worth of pay). I got out to my car to find it claiming 2 missed calls so I checked it out and discovered that my mother wanted me to drop the graduation tickets at home so she could take them to my grandparents so they wouldn't have to rally to my house. So, I detoured from my intended path and took a turn into my neighborhood, immediately getting caught behind the Elementary School Bus. Which sucked because we have lots of little kids and it was the last day of school so the air was filled with pre-adolescent attempts at singing songs no one knew the lyrics to and the bus's ponderous pace was slowed by all the parents and children saying goodbye to the driver. So, after traveling 80 ft in the course of 5 minutes, I handed the tickets to my mother and turned around and headed for John's. I gave him a call to warn him I was on my way and began to regret not going home to change out of a black shirt and jeans. I got to Compton's and we started hurling his Aerobie back and forth (that's the hollow frisbee thing, if you didn't know). Then, after Royal's older sister arrived to see Katie Compton (John's elder sister who is also back from college), John and I went inside and watched some Black Adder (British Comedy is rather predictable these days). After about 4 episodes of that Compton and I beat Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance and then I went home, had some dinner, and went out to escape the incoming of David's friends.

*Crosses fingers hoping that graduation practice won't suck*

Actually, that's all I really had to post, did close to nothing today. But then again, how's that a change from the norm?

Not having to go to school is fun. I woke up at about 9:30. Actually got up an hour later. Showered and then crawled Infoc for anything fun to read. Didn't find much, though I've resolved I need to get either "Benthis" or "Miranda" into the RPG Forum (yes, those are names of my invented story characters who don't have a story yet). Anyways, after David came home I ate lunch and went to work at about 2:00 PM. I was at 4554 which is the former corperate store setup across the street from the main store (the one that was setup specifically cause the main store as an MBE was doing so well). It's a rather unique place since it has 6 stations where people can enter their own info, a conveyor belt, 3 shipping stations. It's a pure self-service shipping center and good at it. The packing area seems rather lacking on supplies, but that only matters if you want to send something fragile (speaking of which, I was playing soccer with boxes while loading the UPS trailer, it was fun). At the store are the two UPS employees (well, there are 4 but only 2 today) Frank and Chris. They all have jobs until next Friday and all have been paid as such. Frank is probably 40-50 ish, a short Black man, and funny. He wears an apron which contains perhaps everything you could possibly need to pack something (usually multiples of item, and oftentimes the phone too, though he fails to realize this until the third ring). Chris is younger, likely 25-30ish and slightly taller (though both are shorter than me). Chris is more serious, but today was really really slow and under the "watchful" (umm...right) eye of Bill so more serious wasn't really saying much. My day was spent enjoying their antics, learning how to do things on their systems, and changing prices over to the UPS Store level as opposed to the UPS Store level (yeah, that's the whole truth and not a typo). I was using a Stylus double ended for awhile in the process of changing price settings on the computer, it was kinda scary. That went on until 7:20 ish when we had the store closed down and were finially deciding how we needed to change things. The place is much larger than it looks form the outside, but very inefficient with most of that space. The "gate" for locking the store is a series of $5k glass panels depicting the globe with the words UPS in the center, it was disconcerting to say the least.

Today's French lession shall be idiomatic expressions involving the verb Avoir, but first we'll have to learn to conjugate Avoir in the present, here goes:
j'ai / tu as / il a / nous avons / vous avez / ils ont

Just for the record, Avoir means "to have."

All of these go Subject + Appropriate Avoir form + Situation Word (you'll see)
Faim (Hunger), Soif (Thirst), Tort (Wrong), Raison (Right), Sommeil (Sleepy).

So, I'm hungry is "J'ai faim". They are wrong is "Ils ont tort". You get the idea.

Apparently Katie has joined the ranks of the Christine-ists. How sad.

Current Song: Final Fantasy X - Symphonic Suite.