KATAMARI DAMACY KATAMARI DAMACY KATAMARI DAMACY KATAMARI DAMACY

oh my god. how amazing is it when you roll a construction crane into your katamari? only slightly less amazing than rolling a giant inflatable teddy bear castle. which is slightly less amazing than rolling an entire gas station. which is slightly less amazing than rolling a windmill. which is slightly less amazing than rolling through an entire town and picking up every building and leaving only empty lots. which is only slightly less amazing than rolling through a map that can barely contain your 25m katamari and is COMPLETELY empty except for that hot air balloon you can't reach. when everything on the ground is gone, and your katamari starts rolling "scattered clouds?" wow. better than sex.

i started out with a katamari too small to roll a rat, and at the end of the 16 minutes my katamari was 25 meters in radius. so great. _nothing_ compares.

the grudge

i saw the grudge last night. it was scary. not as scary as the ring. i think a big difference, though, is that i saw the ring in a dark room with mara and her friend. i saw the grudge in a crowded theater with a bunch of morons who couldn't stop making noise. at every scary part, 1) a few girls would scream, and 2) all the guys and some of the ladies would laugh. fellas, i know just how essential it is that you prove to everyone else in the theater how not scared you are. no one gives a shit, you tools. if you're not scared, i am not proud of you. if you drove to the theater, paid 9.25, and spent 99 minutes of your life with the full intention of laughing through the enjoyable parts, you are a sad, sad person. that's just about on par with going to the renaissance fair for the purpose of laughing at the people in costume, who are honestly enjoying themselves, albeit in a strange way.

i never posted about the renaissance fair. i wrote something up on notepad right after coming back, but that was just about the girl running the crossbow game. the fair was good enough - and definitely big enough - that i intended on going back today. but i didn't... due to inertia, the intense cold that prevented me from leaving the warmth of my covers until 11:30 this morning, and inertia. a real shame. i wish i'd found out about it in september. i'll write up my full thoughts on it sometime in the future.

the grudge was scary. the girl was terrifying. the boy was terrifying. the movie was scary in new and innovative ways. one woman definitely got the worst of it... her whole part in the movie had me cringing. it was really cool that the writer used a noise that any person is capable of making, as the sound the dead person kept making, in the house and on the phone, and oh man. so many poor girls are going to receive calls from their jerk boyfriends making that noise.
this initially was intentioned as a post about movies i planned on seeing, but i got sidetracked, as always. and i haven't forgotten about abortion... i want to really think it through before i say anything. this is stuff i plan on seeing in the future.

napoleon dynamite
the forgotten
shaun of the dead
team america
i heart huckabees

i saw a preview for the life aquatic, wes anderson's newest film. it looks good. i'm excited.

wwe smackdown + abortion discussion =

after watching tv for one hour, my thoughts:

1) pro wrestling is undeniably fun to watch on tv. i watched the whole 1 hour smackdown on upn. i couldn't stop! i don't know why. honestly, the moves they do, although fake, are impressive from an athletic perspective. i think so, anyway.

2) commercials for games are getting better and better. the cg on xmen legends and mortal kombat deception make me want them so badly. pretty. shiny. i must have them. and the commercial for gta: san andreas is not bad either. welcome to the jungle always a good thing. and the shot of the dude struttin along with a rocket launcher on his shoulder. i'm excited about simply the halo 2 commercial, not even the game.

3) i also have trouble turning away from fear factor. it's gotta be the girls, because there is no other reason to watch that show. oh man, a week ago or so i watched an entire episode of laguna beach because there are pretty girls on that show too. wow is that show awful.

4) south park is incredible. i watched the wacky molestation adventure. so creepy. the music. and the kindergarteners!!!

5) i'm thinking a lot about this extremely polite and political discussion i'm having with greg. it turns out abortion is the only issue that matters for him. which is valid. the problem is, i can't change somebody's mind about abortion. i don't think anyone can be swayed one way or the other. it's coded in at birth, or with childhood, or something, and once a person's mind is made his mind is made. i have a whole lot more i could say on the subject of abortion, and i figure in addition i might as well get my facts straight and cite all the reasons that kerry is the better candidate. i'm letting the whole abortion issue gestate in my brain, i'll get it out later. as for why kerry is better, does anyone want to help? or abortion too. i'll let anyone log in and post what they think. let me know if you want that and i'll create a user or however it works, that can blog on here.

discretion, or tact, or something

every so often, i worry about my blog being open to the world. it disturbs me that simply anyone can stumble upon it and traipse through my world however they please. i passworded my blog before for a short while, but eventually that got annoying enough that i took it down.

ariel sent me a link to this guy's blog last summer. he's funny and fun to read and stuff. i bring it up because he never names the firms that he works for. due to this one incident a ways back when a firm looked up his blog, read a post in which he said something to the effect of, i don't think i really want to work for them, and decided not to hire him. that sucks.

that last post about new world computing. i was mildly frustrated at the time. i wasn't even very mad. at some point i decided to treat the post as an exercise in using the word fuck. i managed to really pack it in there. but i would never want the tutoring company that i work for, or a law school that i'm applying to, or even a student that i'm teaching, to get wind of it. to me, there needs to be a definite separation of obscenity-packed private life and professional life, and it seems like with the internet, it's getting harder and harder to keep up that partition.

what prompted this post was the very polite and self-deprecating response from greg, the author of the weblog that i linked to a few posts back. yes, the bush supporter. his comment is down there, it's interesting. i went to his website to post a comment in reply, but unfortunately, the char limit is 1000 without an upgraded (upgraded? i didn't know that was an option) account, so i'm putting it here instead. curse my long winded comments that never fit...

hi greg

i was extremely surprised to see a comment from you on my blog. i feel i ought to apologize for using excessive profanity to insult you and your family. i know only two things about you: 1) you have a very photogenic family (pro), and 2) you support bush and cheney (con, to me). that is not deserving of obscenity, but if my blog is any indication, i do tend to overuse curse words in my posts.

i can't tell if your response is genuine sincerity or scathing sarcasm, seeing as this is the internet, the most flawed communication medium known to man, but i'm going to assume it was the former.

if you're so inclined, i would honestly like to know why you believe bush to be the better candidate. if you don't want to discuss it, that's fine too, but you sound polite and intelligent and in possession of a good sense of humor. you can comment on my blog, or post on yours; i'll check in tomorrow.

and yes, without a doubt, cute kid! regardless of the logo plastered all over his back.

fucking fuck fuckity fuck you nwc and 3do

i like playing old computer games. this past summer i rebeat master of orion 2. and i rebeat civ 2... i didn't actually beat civ 2, but my civilization was 3 times as big as the other 6 combined when my interest ran out, so i think i won. i just rebeat link's awakening for gameboy color (actually, i beat the original on gameboy, this time i beat the deluxe, which is not much different besides one dungeon and color).

i want to play might and magic 4 and 5. best out of the series. the series has stopped at #9, indefinitely. from 5 --> 6 NWC (new world computing) made the move to real time combat and 3d. i hated both changes. they sucked. they did an ok job implementing both, but it's still crappy compared to the good old grid map and turn based combat.

i own might and magic 4 and 5. i do not own a pc that runs on dos. or even windows 95. apparently, that means i can't play my goddamn game.

the readme that comes with the game gives several helpful suggestions that don't work. they list a support website, but unfortunately the company has gone under and the website is nonfunctional.

i've checked one or two message boards, and all the helpful people tell everyone to run dosbox. apparently dosbox emulates dos or something. i'm not sure how, but i think it has something to do with sucking up all the system resoures and running incredibly slowly. this game was created before windows 95 existed, and there is a noticeable delay every time i try to simply move forward one space, on dosbox. i also can't resize my dosbox window and when i tried to fullscreen it it did this fucked up wraparound effect. no one on the message boards have responded to my questions about dosbox.

i just want to play the old games that i already know are good. how did computers become too advanced to run a fucking simple game??

fucking dos. fucking dosbox. fucking windows 95, and fucking windows xp. fucking compatibility mode on windows xp that doesn't do shit. fucking conventional, expanded, and extended memory that don't exist anymore. fucking NWC that is now owned by 3do that is now owned by ubisoft that doesn't give a shit about NWC's old games. fucking unhelpful message boards, fucking nonexistent website support, and fucking worthless readme that is written for running a dos program on windows 95.

is it plain impossible to run the game in windows xp? someone wrote a review of the game that said it plays right out of the box. that person is a fucking liar or a genius that won't share his secret. i don't know shit about computers or OS's. why doesn't someone who knows shit figure out how to run the fucking game on fucking windows xp instead of using a shitty crutch like dosbox that doesn't work?

the best part is that the intro loads up, but it freezes before one can actually play the fucking game. it's so close. so fucking close. fuck.

dumb motherfuckers

wow, minutes after writing the post about c.s., my mood is ruined. i remember jess saying something about hours of time sacrificed to the next blog button. so i clicked it. i go here. nice family. cute kids. baby pictures! and then, bam, 3rd post down, it turns out the family is a bunch of fucking morons. and they're going to raise their kids to be as fucking and moronic. look at that shit if you want a quick reminder that america is populated with stupid douchebags.

what choice do we have?

"love anything
i love stuff.

and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken.
oh no! that's not good.

if you want to make sure of keeping it intact,
i do, i do.

you must give it to no one, not even an animal.
ok... i like ones, and i like animals, but i'm with you.

wrap it carefully round hobbies and little luxuries;
done and done. hello ebay!

avoid all entanglements.
no entanglements for -->this guy<--.

lock it up safe
safe is good.

in the casket or coffin
yecky. why can't i lock it up safe in a non-death-associative safe?

of your own selfishness.
i got that covered.

but
there's a catch? there had to be a catch, didn't there...

in that casket--safe, dark, motionless, airless--
safe good, dark good sometimes, like during movies or sleeping, motionless less good, and airless is definitely bad...

it will change.
i knew it! this can't be good.

it will not be broken.
but this is good.

it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.
also good, good, goo -- wait! i don't like the sound of that last one. i like redeeming things, like coupons or cash prizes or my spiritual being. forget this.

to love is to be vulnerable."
*sigh* who wants that? but i suppose it's worth the risk. maybe.

- c.s. lewis
read the screwtape letters. do it.

re: _tANGERINEsCREAM

it pains me to write the title like that, but that's how eunji did it. she has a nice thought-provoking post up at her website. which is one of the question marks because i'm a jerk and i don't change the ? to her birthday, which i've asked her about twice so far, i believe. it started as a comment on her blog but it got so long that i thought i'd move it over here. i'm not pasting her post here because that might be stealing? and also because i read an interesting post on raj's blog, which is also thought-provoking, although along a completely different line.

to eunji:
you're stuck up? i don't think i've ever had a real life conversation with you, only the rare IM, but you don't seem so.

it's not pretentious to say people are pretending when they drink. but i don't think you're seeing the whole picture (that's such a crappy phrase - it sounds like something an ad exec would say, but it's the most apt i could think of). those people pretend ALL THE TIME. maybe they have less inhibitions and pretend more when they're drunk. but i know plenty of people that get drunk and stay themselves, and i know even more that get drunk and become more themselves.

i've never met the coaches or any of the new girls. and it sounds like some of the girls i already knew have changed much since i've been gone. but regardless, coaches should not interact with their players at the partying level, and they absolutely should not flirt with them. that is disgusting. it feels wrong in many ways. maybe i feel this way because i am asian. but it should not be characteristic of only one race to hold one's elders or betters or whatever on a different level than oneself. it simply makes sense. they _are_ on a different level.

it was cool when coach came to the strip club with me and mike liu and corey because the opportunity for that sort of thing comes along so rarely. it's ok to let that unspoken barrier down once in a while as long as both parties understand why it's always there the rest of the time. it sounds to me like these two coaches don't understand this concept. but then again, i don't really know enough - or anything - to judge.

drinking is cool. that's just how it is. drinking alone is not cool, though. drinking with a friend? cool. drinking with multiple friends? more cool. i always try to coerce someone to come with me before i go out. i try to coerce multiple someones. and when i do, it's usually because the person wants to spend the night studying or moping or not having fun - in other words, sucking. i also try to coerce people to eat dinner with me. not much of a difference. people need to eat, and people need to relax. especially people living in dirty guarded soulcrushing manhattan.

last year my dad came to visit me at columbia. he came out to a bar with a few of us. at first he didn't really understand why we went to bars... he had this vague idea that people at bars pound down beer after beer until they pass out. but we sat there for a long time, drinking our beers and chilling. telling stories, making jokes, talking smack, the usual. he sort of sat back with this pleased look on his face, and when we went back to my room, he was really impressed with how laid back and social the experience was.

later that year when i visited him in china, he told one of his friends about it at dinner. the guy responded, ah, (here i will spell it out phonetically, for which the arabic alphabet is grossly inadequate - but pin xing (how the hell do you spell that?) offends me and i don't know it anyway) mun mun huh, mun mun liao. which literally means: slow slow drink, slow slow talk/converse/socialize. i think. it's a really great phrase. if i ever owned a bar, that's what i would name it. and if you steal that name, i will kill you. i swear.

i remember telling tao about that, and he told me a story about his mom. every week she would get together with her friends and they'd eat crabs. it wasn't just dinner though. the whole process took hours. just like us, but crab = beer.

ok, out of steam. have i posted the story in the last 3 paragraphs before on here?

good is the worst enemy of better

i took a shower last night around 3am. i do a lot of thinking in the shower. my mind drifts, wanders, and generally meanders. eyes closed, with the hot water running down one's face, it feels almost meditative. i don't remember why, but some train of thought led me to thinking about better vs good, and at some point i realized i was just huddled up, sitting on the floor of the shower, with my knees curled up to my chest, and my heart beating rapidly.

amanda says that better is the worst enemy of good. it seems to me like those are the two, the only two, approaches one can take to life. i don't mean there are no other approaches, but whatever else you think, in this facet of the approach to life there are only these two choices. better / good. could be better / good enough. but it seems so odd, or wrong somehow, that these two approaches, while making so much sense, can also be portrayed to be just as nonsensical. if someone is always striving for an ideal, how can that be bad? and if someone is happy or content or fulfilled with his or her lot in life, how can that be bad? each is a perfect argument against the other. so what's the right way? we need someone, religion or science or medicine or therapy, to tell us at what point our search should end and we should settle. how in hell else are we supposed to know?

i am absolutely positively certain that people will never be happy in relationships until they learn to settle. you have to bat your league. but everyone wants that someone just a little bit above. i know i do. someone that's bright enough and funny enough, and unavoidable though superficial as it is, pretty enough, that i'd tell myself every day, man, i am lucky that she picked me when she could do better?

i think i could be happy as a high school teacher. teaching kids is fun. summer vacation is fun. but would i be happy enough?

i agree with amanda. but knowing me and my inertia and just the way i live, i also think that good is the worst enemy of better.

feelsky!

star wars is incredible. clone stars still better. but man, the original trilogy... it just makes this new trilogy that much steamier a pile of turd.

when princess leia gets shot in the shoulder, right outside the shield generator entrance on endor, han solo totally cops a feel. haha, or a feelsky, like they say in hawaii. she gets shot, cries out, falls back. han grabs her shoulder, _moves_ his hand _down_ so he is _cupping_ the _left_ _breast_, and then moves it back to her shoulder. harrison ford you smooth bastard. that's exactly what dvd is for, so you can freeze a scene and run it frame by frame. or in the case of the new guy, you can magnify eliza dushku's breasts, set up a 18 second loop, and slow motion the whole sequence.

life is good. sure, i'm not really making any money. i'm mooching off a friend. i just made myself dinner for myself, had two beers by myself, and watched star wars by myself tonight. but life is still good.

lindsay don't stop with the shrugging

oh my lord. austin notified me that making the video was on tv for lindsay lohan's debut "rumors." the girl has breasts. and she knows how to use them. i watched the whole incredibly crappy video because of her outfit.

breasts are the female equivalent of tallness. although some guys like flat chested girls. i don't know how many ladies like short fellas. i wonder if the ratio is anywhere comparable. someone needs to do a study. no, tallness is still more important. fucking god.

wow ffxi halo 2

would anyone play world of warcraft with me?

i've failed to convince both mike liu and raj to play ffxi with me. they're both big ff fans, but not big enough, i suppose. would anyone play any online game with me? i'm convinced that's where the bulk of my friendship interactions will take place. on mmorpgs.

i'm going to preorder the collecter's ed of halo 2. i just need to decide where to preorder it from. really. every place has it for 54.99. and no place has any special benefits for preordering it. not one tiny little bonus throw-in. so which store should get my money? i honestly can not decide. any help?

ah, sweet mystery of life

i almost wish i didn't already have a title for my blog. that is a pretty good one right there. much better than most people's.

i really can't change my title. it was so appropriate, when i changed it from everything's coming up milhouse last last summer in 2003. it really resonates with me, because every time i've disregarded that philosophy, i end up miserable for the next year or two. and it resonates with lesbians. and it resonates with retarded people, i suppose, because it is part of the soundtrack for "i am sam." i never saw the movie, but demographically, me, lesbians, and a retard could not be more diverse. unless at some point i become a transexual and suffer massive head trauma. but the odds of both of those happening? inconceivable!

it's a really good title. i'm happy with it. oh, and it works very well with c.s. lewis.

design

which looks better? under the title or on the right in the profile? i think i prefer the title, but it seems more like the lesser of two evils.

it's late

almost everyone i know is more than four hours away by car. everyone has gone to sleep and i have not. it's a weird feeling, and it only gets weirder every night that it happens.

is this only a temporary thing? or will the rest of my life be like this? a lot of the time i swim against the tide on purpose, because i hate doing what everyone else is doing. i hate new york; that is clear. but if i had felt ambivalent about it, i am sure that the fact that most of my friends stayed there would have been enough for me to want to get out.

i don't think i'd be able to move to a place because someone i like lives there. i'm pretty sure i'd have to be the first to settle (some place that i know is cool before it becomes cool), and i would need people to come to me. that's the way i always am. it's why all of my friends would hang out at my house in high school. it's why i always have a tv and all the video games, so i don't need to go somewhere else. so there's no reason for me to leave my room, and reason for people to come visit me. it's why i threw parties. it's why i organized dinners and movies and so on.

i wonder if it's a control thing? i'm not sure. but i know that i do hate trusting other people's judgment. leaving decisions up to other people? not a good idea in general.

i need to stop drinking jasmine tea at night. but it's so good. and once i brew one cup i might as well brew more. and it doesn't feel unhealthy. but it must have a decent amount of caffeine, because every time at some point my head starts pulsing and i am stretching at the seams with energy and i realize i've drunk too much.

luminous beings are we. not this crude matter.

the world according to garp according to digital cable

i was flipping through channels, and i came across the world according to garp on hbo. starring robin williams and mary beth hurt. 1982. john irving's satire about an author and his feminist mom.

what? what? that's my favorite book. out of all the books that are my favorite. it's the cream of the cream. did i miss the point somehow? or did john irving change his book that much when he wrote the screenplay? or did some douchebag screw up the tagline (or whatever it is that shows up when one pushes the info button the remote)?

satire? i was not aware. how in hell was it a satire? and, his mom was not feminist! she became a figurehead of the feminist movement, without meaning to. besides, the book was not about his mom, in any way. she was in the book, but that doesn't mean it was about her.

who writes these things? i demand bloody satisfaction.

vp debate

i hate politics. i wouldn't touch them with a 20 foot pole. but this election we really can't afford to sit around and hope the rest of the nation is not a bunch of gullible morons. because 4 years ago those morons voted the biggest fucktard of all into office. and now look at us.

jesus. i avoided the presidential debate because i knew it would just upset me. i didn't mean to watch the vp debate, but i flipped to it for 10 minutes or so. in that time, the VPs talked about 4 topics. hmm, what do i remember? capturing osama bin laden, the current state of affairs in afghanistan today, and kerry's voting record in terms of defense.

every time, one of them would answer the question posed. then the rebuttal: no, you have your facts wrong. then the rebuttal: no, you have your facts wrong. let me reiterate what i just said 90 seconds ago.

i listened to them cite facts from two apparently completely different sets of facts that blatantly contradicted each other. jesus. how upsetting is that? i was so distraught that i emailed my friend ariel (a very involved kerry supporter) and asked him how i'm supposed to know who is telling the truth.

he sent me back some really useful links. check this out if you're interested, which you really ought to be. especially you people in swing states. i'm in mass, so i'm not worried, but if your state is about half composed of god-fearing christian gay-hating easily-mislead idiots, then you need to read this.

i figure everyone voting kerry (or not bush, because you can't waste your vote on nader) will believe edwards. and everyone voting bush will believe cheney (although i don't see how, the man looks like a fucking snake). so i won't be changing anyone's minds... but maybe someday you'll, god forbid, find yourself in a political discussion at a party, and you'll have some facts to back you up, instead of the airy bullshit faux intelligence that most columbia students rely on.

from slate.com: John Kerry's Defense Defense.

also from slate: If He Can't Stand Up to Cheney. good article about cheney's bald lies (if slate says it it must be true?) and how edwards failed to counter them. read it read it read it. please.

from the same article:

Edwards was not without clear victories. Toward the end of the debate, he noted that, three years after 9/11, this administration has still not created a unified terrorist watch list. "What are we waiting for?" Edwards blasted. We have to be strong, but "we also have to be smart."

The moderator gave Cheney 30 seconds to rebut—and, amazingly, he declined the opportunity. What was that about? The Kerry campaign should put that moment of silence in a thousand ads. It's devastating.

from the nytimes: when points weren't personal, liberties were taken with the truth. less detail than slate, but it covers a lot of points that i knew nothing about.

from the washington post: misleading assertions cover Iraq war and voting records. i'm not registered for the damn washington post.

and more from ariel:

I forgot to mention, last night Cheney mentioned a fact check website. He said www.factcheck.com, which, up to last night did not exist. He meant to say www.factcheck.org, which is a legitimate independent website supported by UPenn.

It's interesting to mention that factcheck.com was snatched by George Soros, the billionaire raising and spending millions to oust Bush. If you go to that website, it redirects you to www.georgesoros.com, which greets you with a "Why you shouldn't vote for George Bush" personal message.

why does the nytimes or washington post require registration? it's free, right? if i register and post the login and password here, will they somehow know and invalidate it? or better yet, can someone give me their info so i don't have to register?

comment

man, before i wrote that last post i wrote a comment on casey's blog. and i thought it was good enough to put here also. but it's not showing up on his goddamn blog because he sucks. so i'm going to try to reproduce it.

sasha's right. i know that sounds strange, but he is. why stop drinking? drinking is fun. is observing other people having fun fun? no, it sucks. you want to join them in their sad sad escapades and ESCAPE your own shitty life for a few hours, until you pass out. or until you go home with a girl and then forget to stick it in her butt. YOU LET US DOWN CASEY. YOU LET US ALL DOWN. every man on the planet. you owe us. how could you.

what the fuck is going on?

yet another trend. these things are always trends. never an isolated occurrence.

funny, but from stoops' blog, titled "trend":
Flirting, fondling, hooking up, and/or having sex with a girl when she's drunk has lost almost all its appeal.
Unfortunately, that seems to be about the only way its going to happen.
It feels so fake and empty. And what does that say about me, that someone's perceptions and decision-making abilites have to be that impaired for it to happen?

from eunji's blog:
But being sober is an often-overlooked amazing state. Maybe not a positive 'amazing', but amazing nevertheless. The things you see when you're sober at a party where everyone's drunk? Walking around not stoned, with people who are stoned? You see all the faking and the pretending and the wanting to be someone or something else. How everyone is so desperately lying to everyone else and to themselves. Really, it's a better trip than being on any drugs.

then from casey's, in response to eunji's:
I've been thinking about doing this for awhile now, and eunji's post concluded my thought.
[here he excerpts the same passage that i took from eunji's so i cut it]
Next party I'm going to try to stay sober. I'll take a few birthday shots, but I don't plan on getting plastered. I want to see whats its truely like at a party. Am I having fun because of the party? Or is it just the alcohol. I'm hoping that my conclusion will be that the partying truely is fun, and that the alcohol merely makes me more social and willing to talk/get to know others that I normally wouldn't do. I'll try to be more outgoing without external help.

what's with everyone? you drink because you want to. because it's fun to be plastered. if you start worrying, yourself, that you're not drinking for yourself, then of course it's not going to be fun anymore. why mind fuck yourself? just be confident in the fact that you're having fun the way you want to. you shouldn't have to test yourself.

and i guess, if you aren't sure, then go ahead and try out this sober thing. but i know that i drink because it's simply fun.

as far as perceptions and poor judgment, fuck that. i think people become more honest when they drink. i honestly don't understand where people get this idea that some completely unrelated stranger controls one's actions when under the influence of alcohol. a person doesn't become compliant and open to suggestions because he (i'm using the masculine he in place of he or she) is drunk. he is compliant and open to suggestions because he wants to be, all of the time. he uses the drink as an excuse to be the way he always wants to be. a girl does not become a slut because she's drunk. a girl becomes a slut because she always wants to be a slut. she acts on it when she's drunk because she can blame the alcohol in the morning. i never took psych, but whichever that one, the id or the superego or whatever that is all of our desires, that's what comes out when we drink. there's reason behind a person's drunken behavior. it doesn't come out of nowhere!

look at jess. does he wear women's clothing when he's drunk for no reason? NO. it's because he's a fucking cross-dresser. does he get naked when he's drunk for no reason? NO. it's because he likes being naked. look at brian white. does he start wrestling with anyone in range when he's drunk for no reason? NO. it's because he's really violent and kinda hyper. look at austin. does he start singing along with 80s songs when he's drunk for no reason? NO. it's because he likes to sing 80s songs!! look at tao. does he walk in on people having sex when he's drunk for no reason? actually, that one is yes. i have no idea why that always happens to him. but you get the idea.

i could start talking about all the girls that i think want to be whores deep inside (and sometimes not so deeply inside). basically, any girl who enjoys sex and the city. i'm not going to though.

actually, on rereading stoops' post, i do have to agree that perceptions become altered by the sauce. i mean, i look around, and suddenly that girl isn't as fat as i first thought, or that girl's mustache kind of works on her, or that girl's acne-scarred face has character. you get the idea. people should watch out for that kind of thing.

rennaaiissance

i'm so excited! earlier this morning (jillian worked from home today), jillian was looking at mitre's list of various special offers for this month. one of the things was discounted admission to the maryland renaissance fair. renaissance fair! (that is hard to spell, i keep typing two n's or two i's)

i got excited and asked her to click on it, and she really thought i was joking. but i wasn't! this sort of thing is definitely in my department. i was just looking at the website, and i got excited all over again! it's every weekend, saturday and sunday, and the 24th is the last day. giving me three weekends to make it there.

there's some really goofy stuff, like a singles weekend that already happened, but imagine that... i'm most likely going on saturday the 16th, which is shakespeare weekend. although i might not, depending on what ben's plans are. and the last weekend is the joust! apparently they joust all the time, but on that weekend jousters from all over the county (i know, what?) are coming to compete.

so cool. in a not cool way. but cool anyways.

pooja, when are you coming to visit?? we could go!!!! how awesome would that be?

also cool is some anime convention on the 29-31st. although tickets are $30... that kind of sucks. but i've never been to one and i am really curious. i meant to make it to the big apple anime fest last year but never got around to it.

i logged onto ebgames today to order lord of the rings: the return of the king for xbox, and deus ex: the invisible war, for pc. each was 14.99 two days ago. they're both now 19.99.

i've had my eye on the arc the lad collection for psone for a while. it's been on gamequestdirect.com for 59.99 for months. i checked two days ago. i look today. 69.99.

what the fuck? screw you guys. i'm going home.

another gem

austin and i discussing his latest shafting. how does it happen to him over and over? anyway, i'm still lamenting his decision to not give me her address, because i could have sent her a thank you card thanking her for reaffirming my belief in this shit world. how great would that be? it's the analogy at the end that truly shines. tao you jew bastard.

(23:46:06) ericthehodgeheG: but i could have sent her a thank you card
(23:46:07) ericthehodgeheG: a thank you card
(23:46:10) The Lexicologist: it's true
(23:46:26) ericthehodgeheG: ok in a world without consequences, you would have consented?
(23:46:44) ericthehodgeheG: do you acknowledge the principle, like with the baggage question?
(23:46:48) The Lexicologist: yes
(23:47:00) The Lexicologist: it would be an amazing victory for the right-minded people of the world
(23:47:09) ericthehodgeheG: have you met any girl 2^-7 as interesting?
(23:47:30) The Lexicologist: emma, grace
(23:47:34) The Lexicologist: different ways, though
(23:47:37) ericthehodgeheG: oh, i met since you got to rooster
(23:47:39) ericthehodgeheG: wuster?
(23:47:40) ericthehodgeheG: damn
(23:47:41) ericthehodgeheG: ruster
(23:47:41) The Lexicologist: no, not a chance
(23:47:53) The Lexicologist: no one even remotely close
(23:48:10) ericthehodgeheG: that's so cruel
(23:48:22) ericthehodgeheG: it's like god is your tao, and cat is the star wars clone wars series
(23:48:29) ericthehodgeheG: and he shows them to you
(23:48:37) ericthehodgeheG: and forgets to modify the permissions
(23:48:40) The Lexicologist: heh
(23:48:54) The Lexicologist: that's amazing
(23:49:02) ericthehodgeheG: could i put that on my blog? i like the analogy, but if you think cat could read it
(23:49:16) The Lexicologist: no, go ahead
(23:49:17) The Lexicologist: worth it

YESSSSSSSSSSS

this was incredible. i'm looking on raj's photo gallery at pictures from tom's latest birthday. la da da, lots of people i don't recognize, boring boring, then a cute asian girl. i say to raj, "I'd do her." then i click on next picture. guess who i'd do??? hahahaahha. i honestly did not know it was her til i saw the second picture. so awesome. i was laughing in my chair for 2 or 3 solid minutes.

• Apple Financial Services (800) 624-6914
• AppleCare Extended Service and Support (800) 275-2273
• AppleCare Support - 90 Day Warranty (800) 275-2273
• AppleCare Support - Legacy (800) 767-2775
• AppleCare Support - Education (800) 800-2775
• Apple Customer Relations (800) 767-2775
• Apple Disability Solutions (800) 767-2775
• Apple Public Relations (408) 974-2042
• Apple Software Upgrade Center (800) 785-9445
• Apple Software and Volume Licensing (800) 793-9378
• Apple Store (Consumer) (800) MY-APPLE (800-692-7753)
• Apple Store (Education - Individuals) (800) 780-5009
• Apple Store (Education - Schools) (800) 800-2775
• Reseller Referral (Resellers, Trainers, Consultants) (800) 538-9696
• Service Provider Support (800) 919-2775

i do not want financial info... what is applecare? whatever it is, i do not have extended service, or a 90 day warranty (the ipod is covered for one year). i have no applecare legacy or information.

i could try customer relations. i guess that's my best bet. i'm not disabled, or concerned with public relations, or software upgrade, or software and volume licensing. i do not want to talk to the apple store, for any reason. reseller referral? no thanks. service provider support? what service, and who is providing it?

i see nothing concerning ipods, so customer relations it is. thank you, anonymous commenter. i sincerely doubt they will tell me anything besides (if they tell me anything at all), have you checked the online support page, and you can send it in for service for 29.95 plus S&H. but heck, why not bother them. it's not like i'll waste lots of time on hold.

fucking ipods suck and so does apple and i hate them

ever since i bought this thing in may, it's been giving me shit. and it's getting better and better.

first i loaded a ton of music into itunes. then i moved it onto my ipod. then i deleted it from itunes to save space. then i realized it is impossible to drag music from one's ipod back onto itunes. so a lot of my music is only on my ipod, and not on my computer.

it is possible to recover this music, by going into the ipod as a disk drive in explorer, and copying it all back. but it is incredibly disorganized, and good luck sorting it back by artist and album. plus i'm out of space on my hard drive, and i don't want 40 gigs of music on my ipod AND my computer, seeing as that is the reason i bought the fucking thing in the first place was that i wanted someplace BESIDES my computer to store my music.

so i want to play music from my ipod, through itunes, on my computer. my ipod liked to disconnect automatically from my computer, and freeze until i manually reset it.

so i don't do that anymore. but i still need to move music from my computer onto my ipod, occasionally. my ipod likes to error in the middle of music copying and make me select the same files to be copied again.

so i try not to copy music onto my ipod anymore. but i would still like to be able to CONNECT MY FUCKING IPOD TO MY COMPUTER. my ipod's latest little game is to never register with my PC at all. i plug it in, and nothing picks up. no hardware or anything is recognized.

apple is a piece of shit. it has a nice online support page that answers none of my questions.

most pertinent troubleshooting question i could find: my ipod doesn't respond or appears to be frozen.

possible solution 1: you have the hold button on! you must be a fucking moron!

i am not a fucking moron. next...

possible solution 2: reset your ipod. that's NOT A SOLUTION. that's a temporary fix.

possible solution 3: do you have the most recent software? again, yes, as i am not a fucking moron.

and where is my question? my ipod doesn't register with my computer at all. when it does register, it freezes within 5 minutes.

it doesn't seem to be there! thankfully, apple has no email support. or phone support. or support of any kind. i can choose to send it in for repairs, meaning give them more money, or restore factory settings, which may or may not fix the problem in addition to wiping out all of the music on there.

i dropped half a grand on this piece of shit. apple i hate you. you make pretty things, but i hate you. i hate you so much.

garden state

i have many things to say about this movie. many things.

FINALLY

otherland. finished. incredible. so great. the ending. perfect. couldn't be better. this series. amazing. it is now 4:52 am and this last book weighed in at 1066 pages. so many passages from the book that i thought of writing about, in here, but that would simply take too long.

two things:

one for sorrow
two for joy
three for a girl
four for a boy
five for silver
six for gold
seven for a secret
never to be told

these 8 lines, attributed to traditional, start part 4 of 5 of this book. they're also in a murder of one. i'd google the passage, but i figure it will only turn up counting crows song lyrics. eh, might as well try it now. i remember i downloaded some live version of a murder of one, freshman year, off kazaa, and i've never been able to find it since. it was much more down than it is on live across a wire, and whatever album it's in. it made much more sense to me that way, and i've never been able to find it again, which sucks. (apparently, it's just a nursery rhyme? what the hell kind of nursery rhyme is it? it doesn't seem right for a little kid to hear it)

i'm reading this as i've got all the 5-star rated songs in my itunes playing. and, exactly as the hero rises, reborn, out of the well, last dinosaur by the pillows comes on. exactly. it felt so right. i don't know how it worked out that way, but it made the experience that much more vivid.