Advent Children

school then work
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So, on my quest to watch some more movies I ended up borrowing my friend's copy of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. I wasn't too sure what to expect from it. I heard mixed reviews of it, but I love cool looking CGI stuff, and although the only Final Fantasy I've fully played and beaten was Tactics for the GBA, I've always been intrigued by the whole universe and setup of the characters, especially VII because of its ridiculous popularity.

So all in all, the movie was okay. The cool visual were a definite plus, but I wasn't too enthralled by the storyline and the characters. I'm sure that playing and fully understanding the source material would have enhanced the whole experience ten fold, but still, whether I know the whole story or not, I should be able to get into what's going on.

I'm not stupid, and I did pay attention to the movie. I even know a bit about Final Fantasy VII, but the story didn't suck me in at all. There was something about it that just didn't click for me, something missing. I'm not sure what, maybe it was just development of the story, or maybe I do need to know all the events prior to the movie.

However, like I said, the CGI looked pretty, and the fight scenes were awesome when they worked right. The battle with Tifa in the church was probably the most memorable for me, just because of how fast and thrilling it was to watch. Sadly, some of the fights have a bit too much camera movement and quick shots of other stuff going on to really get me pumped up for whats going on. See, I really like it when the camera stays on the fight for a long period of time and I get action nonstop and uninterrupted. I don't care what the other people are doing, if it's that important to have them in the shot then just move them into it, but don't keep jumping from one person to another. That's just annoying.

Movies are awesome

playing in the snow!!
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I don't watch a lot of movies. I own a couple hundred, and I've seen less than 1/3, and remember less than 1/5 of those. I don't know why, I love watching TV from time to time, I love video games, I like making jokes all the time, and movies are a great way to not only get new material and ideas but to establish a connection with my audience, but I still don't see too many of them. I think I'm going to try to change that though.

Why? I think it's because of seeing Beowulf yesterday. That movie kicked ass for 2 hours straight. Everyone else said it was "good","okay", or any number of other responses indicating vague indifference. The "CGI layered on top of real stuff" effect was stunning. At times, I couldn't tell it was fake, other times it looked like an awesome video game (this is a good thing), and some times I could clearly tell it was animated, but only because the action and effects were so wild and out there that I just knew it wasn't real.

Everything that I wanted from a fantasy movie like this I got. Grendel blew my mind with his skin and screeching and blue fire. Pure genius. The dragon he fought? Spectacular. The liquid fire, the golden scales, how he flies when he gets his wing torn - I feel like a little kid it's so awesome.

Besides the movie, the previews beforehand were equally awesome. JUMPER, or JMPR, or whatever it is looked great, The new Tim Burton / Johnny Depp movie looks promising, and there was the new Cloverfield trailer out too which just made me more confused and anxious to find out what was going on.

So yeah, now I'm watching movies.

Thanksgiving

boys will be boys hiding in estrogen
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I just gotta say that I don't like Thanksgiving. People go absolutely crazy for it and I still fail to see why. Is the food they eat drastically different from what I usually consume every year? Are their families that much more entertaining? Are they spiking the drinks? I don't have the slightest idea.

All I know is that my food usually isn't that special. Yeah it's thanksgiving, but still, as far as I'm concerned, mashed potatoes can only be taken to certain extremes. Turkey can only get so good, and I don't even eat meat anymore anyway. Rolls are usually good, but you can't ever get enough and getting sick while eating is the worst thing in the world. Dessert is pretty good, but still - you only have so much room for food combined with there being 147 pumpkin pies and only 1 apple pie. I don't know why there is always such an imbalance of pies. No one ever finishes all the pumpkin pie and people always want more of whatever else is offered. I don't even like pumpkin pie that much, so it's even less for me.

Maybe it's me, but Thanksgiving sucks.

Waking Up

if only...
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So, I woke up really early this morning, sometime around 6 maybe, which is early for me. Naturally, I tried to get back to sleep, but I just couldn't, and I ended up having the most amazing lucid dreams.

Now, I've been having them a lot lately because of my sleep schedule, but this one was way different than the ones I've had before, and I don't know how this makes me feel.

Usually, they're just simple, stupid dreams I have about whatever is going on in my life or around me. This one though, it was about real people in my life, one person in particular, and some sort of confession of love. I don't know what this means, and I don't think there's anything special about it, but just the super realistic feeling of the dream combined with this sort of feeling of happiness of us talking and being together really makes me do a double take. I really don't want to think anything big of it, but what if I'm wrong?

Almost There

schoolin'
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Well, the end of the semester is almost here, and I couldn't be happier. Yeah, it really is still a couple weeks until it actually ends, but for the most part its all downhill and I couldn't be happier. I'm still looking at classes and credit hours and that sort of thing, but it's not nearly as bad as I had assumed. Plus, my grades aren't seeming too bad at this point, so maybe that time spent in Ann Arbor isn't as far off as it seemed.

Speaking of which, I'm psyched to head up there this weekend for the OSU game. I don't have tickets of course, but I like going for the "atmosphere". Naturally, that's just what I tell everyone as a sort of euphemism for getting ham dammered. Saturday will definitely be a good day, and if we win, it's definitely going to be one hell of a night as well.

Other than that, there's a new episode of "Pure Pwnage" out, and since I kind of owe it to them for helping me get excited about gaming again, I'm about to go watch it. It's a great show to begin with anyway, so I guess it's not only because of its influence on me.

Beaten

at school. so cool.
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I feel so stressed out right now, it's unreal. I've got quite a bit to do, such as studying, doing a project, getting a birthday present for my father finished, cleaning my car, doing lots of laundry, math work, registering for next semesters classes, setting up some kind of network for the computers in my house, work, and most importantly, sleeping, since I don't get nearly enough as I think I'd need to function realistically.

Of course, with my massive amounts of procrastination mixed with a very small attention span when theres a computer within 100 yards doesn't make it too easy to get all this done. I want to play Quake4 and get good again. I want some F.E.A.R. multiplayer action and to get the expansion packs. I need to beat Bioshock. I want some more Starcraft LAN action. I want to sit on AIM all day and look at Facebook for no apparent reason. I want to just blow all my money on amazon.com and newegg. Hell, I'm happy just shopping around and putting stuff in the shopping cart just to see how much it costs. Oh, and I'd love to start bringing my DS with me everywhere like I used to, but Tetris and Castlevania don't mix with studying or work.

So Happy!

smo to the gon
eating some lapita!
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The car is back, and alive. The guy at the impound lot did us a favor and bent the stuff back out away from the back tire. Everything is still a bit messed up, but I'm happy. I probably could replace the stuff on the back of my car, but I'll just worry about making the exhaust pipe not all bent out of shape and crazy looking.

An End To Things.

I'm actually at my computer right now. Tricked ya, huh?
---

Got some news today, and it doesn't look like the car is savable. The 1993, pink, Geo Tracker with no airbags, a cracked front windshield, dog hair coated back seats, cup holders overflowing with change, isn't going to be around much longer. I'm really sad, it was my first car, and I honestly don't think that I'll ever have a car that will equal the supreme awesomeness of this vehicle.

I've had so many adventures in that car. The discovery of Canton2.0, my random 1a.m. trip to Toledo for absolutely nothing, getting lost in Detroit after a Keane concert, people wanting rides in it because of the novelty of it, and a lot more.

Yeah, the car was old, it leaked oil and some other fluids, didn't accelerate too well, and was kind of rusty, but still, it was cool, odd, and had a history to it. Whatever I get next probably won't have the same air of mystique to it. Plus, whatever I replace it with will be an old car anyway, so it's not like I'm getting a great performing car in lieu of losing my old one.

Though, in all seriousness, if anyone could get me a Pontiac Solstice, I'd consider taking it.

And It Only Gets Worse!

some bitch decided to hit my car
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So yeah, if the away message didn't make things crystal clear, some bitch hit my car today. I'm fine I guess, but the back of my car - oh man. The whole thing fucking folded into itself in a way that made it so whatever is around the back bumper and exhaust pipe is curved inward and scraping my back wheels. Needless to say, I had it towed since the last thing I want is for the tires to get ruined too.

So now, I have no car, but I still have school and/or work 7 days a week, plus other family members that work and need to get around in one way or another. I really don't have any idea how this will work out except that it's gonna be very interesting.

Besides getting to places, I'm wondering how long it's going to take to fix the car, if it's even worth it. I really don't have any idea how long the insurance will take, and I've been told that with the insurance on my car, stuff might not get covered. I'm hoping for the best since I need a car, don't want to spend a whole load of money, and because I don't know what life would be like without my Geo.

Let's just pass the time away...

Not doing my papers/studying
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friend: so i took mushrooms

tomkamrad: aaaaand?

friend: and we listened to rainforest music and looked at monkeys
---

So, I'm a pretty decent Starcraft/Brood War player. Or I used to be.

See, today I decided to do a LAN with my brother Adam in Brood War just to waste some time and get back into the game. I've always been okay at the game, and he's not too spectacular at all, so I figured it'd be a couple quick rounds. Maybe a few big battles if I moved slow, but nothing too exciting.

Wrong.

He beat me with the Zerg on a money map where I played Protoss. And he beat me pretty good too. I got kinda pissed, so I wanted a re-match with me being Terran and him being whoever.

Now, I usually just build a big lot of barracks, stock up on minerals, and make masses of fast cheap marines and rush the base in the first 4 minutes of the match- but today, Adam learned how to do the same thing, and he got Siege Tanks out a lot faster than me which sealed my fate early on. Not to count me building Firebats while he's sending cloaked Wraiths at me like its nothing.

So I lost again, and now I want revenge. I WILL BEAT HIM. Mostly cause I feel stupid since the student completely owned the teacher.

Crappy Halloween!

work work work
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Can someone please tell me what's happened in the past few years to Halloween? Last time I checked it was about staying out all night long, getting 2 or 3 bags of candy, and being a kid. It's really not like that anymore.

Why? Well, it all started while I was driving home from work yesterday. It was just a few minutes past 9 o'clock. Once I got into the neighborhood I though something was weird, and it didn't hit me until I was parked in the driveway. Not a single person was out. I even didn't believe it at first and stood around looking for someone, anyone. Nobody.

So I go inside. Only one of my brothers went out that night. He was already in bed, and had just 1 bag of candy. Are people this lazy now? It was ridiculous.

Fast forward to today. My coworker went trick or treating. He's around 23. My friend Aaron went out with some people. They're 17-18. I'm kind of pissed at how these people are still trick or treating. It's not a holiday just for the kids, but still, I don't believe that people over 14 or 15 should be going out begging for free candy. Maybe I just don't get it - though I have a hunch that its probably most of these other people that really don't know whats going on.