Happy 4th of July! ^_^

I woke up this morning to find ants crawling around where I sleep. Now, there's no food (not even a bread-crumb!) anywhere close to where I sleep, so I thought it was a little strange. They also went to the bathroom, and I'm pretty sure that if I looked hard enough, I'd find them in all sorts of other weird places too. Ironically enough, there aren't all that many ants in the kitchen.

I haven't seen any ants in this house for a while, so for them to suddenly pop up and start scouting out my place is... well, a little strange. I did see a skunk wandering around my backyard last night though, so I'm curious if there's some connection here (skunks almost never come to my backyard).

On a completely unrelated (and happier) note, I got a whole bunch of new albums today. Well, not all of them were new ("Secret Voyage" by Blackmore's Night came out last year, I think), though most were ("Morning" by Janice Vidal just came out today).

Anyways.

Also, I may have found a way around my problem with Firefox. Now, when I look down at my dock, there are FIVE browsers there.

I went to church for the early-morning service, and it wasn't until I got home that I realized I forgot to comb my hair. I'd gone out with the back of my hair sticking up, Sasuke Uchiha-style.



...well, maybe not that bad. Nobody told me I had "duck-butt" hair. Still, this is probably why I usually got for the right-before-lunch service... at least then, I'm awake enough to remember where my hairbrush is. -_-

I've noticed a really weird bug in Firefox. For seemingly no reason, it will sometimes log me out of EVERYTHING. I'll be commenting on LJ, posting on a forum, etc., and suddenly I get a message that I'm no longer logged in. Then I'll go to other websites, and it turns out that I've been signed out of those too.

It's a pretty minor thing, really. I mean, logging back in takes all of what... ten seconds? But it seems to happen at least once a week. It seems like a recent problem, so it might only be this version of Firefox that's affected. Still, it's kind of annoying... I wonder if it's just my laptop that's got this weird quirk, or if anyone else is affected.

As some of you may know, there's a live-action movie version of Avatar: The Last Airbender in the works.

I found the trailer.


Dayyyyyuuuuummmm. ^____^

"I do believe that cockroach is writhing in agony."
"That's okay. Pick it up and throw it away."

Had a busy day at work. The morning was spent running CAT-5 cables (used for Internet connections; they have nothing to do with small furry animals) through the dirty, dusty attic of a large building. Then, I found that the one working computer in that building was starting to have some serious problems, so now it's sitting on my desk, innards exposed, while I perform what amounts to computer surgery on it.

My boss also seems to be disappearing every so often. He'll work in the office for a little while and then vanish. While this is good, since I can play whatever music I want and go online to do whatever, he also didn't leave many instructions as to what he wants done. Most of what's on my to-do list today is guesswork on my part.

On an unrelated note, I started playing Fable II again... for like the first time this year, I think. Last time I played, my character was a good guy who used swords, guns, and a little bit of magic. This time, I'm playing as a mass-murdering hobo who relies almost exclusively on a combination of fire magic, necromancy, and the Time Control spell. As some Fable players can guess, I'm doing pretty much everything wrong on purpose to see what effects it has on the game world.

A few months ago, I met an interesting person. He'd done quite a bit in his life, and he had plenty of stories and experiences to share. And since he'd seen and dealt with a lot of things first-hand, he also had plenty of advice and ideas.

Oh, and he was only a few years older than me. It made me wonder about my own life. I found myself thinking: hey, I've been alive for 22 years, and in that time, I've done a lot too, right?

Well, maybe that's not entirely accurate. A better way to say it would be that I spent a lot of it being busy. I spent a lot of time doing things, but I don't think there was really all that much variety. Whether it's going to school and studying, or going to work and doing my job, a lot of my time was spent going to the same places and doing the same things.

Is this a bad way to live? I'm not sure. I don't think so, but I also think a lot of things are best learned firsthand. This lack of variety means that I've got a pretty limited set of personal experiences and perspectives to draw from. Sure, I have plenty of secondhand knowledge, but the problem with that is that while I may understand the idea on a mental / theoretical level, it might not really seem... "real," I suppose.

If I ignite a cup of gasoline, the explosive force would be equal to detonating five sticks of dynamite. If I'm in a race-car and need to make a high-speed turn, I should maintain my speed but shift transmission to a lower gear. If I go to a restaurant in Japan and ask for a "kansho," I'd get a bill for food, but if ask for a "kancho," I'd just get snickering and maybe a poke in the butt. I know these things because other people have told me, but while I may understand these ideas in my head, it's in a clinical and distant way; it doesn't seem as real or true or personal as firsthand experiences would be.

And the examples I gave are for things that are pretty small and insignificant. What about the more important things in life? What about the knowledge and ideas I think are more important? How many of them are based off of second-hand or third-hand knowledge?

In the end, the moral of the story is... well, I'm actually not sure. Buuuuut, I do think this blog entry is long enough, so I'm gonna stop working on it, and go out and, you know, live life or something. Toodles. ^_^

Finally, a man who can explain... THE PLIGHT.


Though an analogy I'd better relate to would be... I dunno, cars, maybe. Or food. Hmm... *scratches chin thoughtfully*

Cars meets Tokyo Drift:



^___^

Chuck Norris saves a bakery.

...good times.

On an unrelated and more personal note, I beat Tales of Vesperia. It's a pretty good game, and certainly satisfied any JRPG cravings I might have had while waiting for Final Fantasy XIII, which isn't going to be released until next year. -_-

OHOHOHO I FINALLY BOUGHT GRAND THEFT AUTO IV.

...during lunch break at work, of all times. But now I'm poor. Oh well.

And... yeah, don't really have anything else to say. But here are some pictures of nice (or at least interesting) computer workspaces I found at one of the forums I go to:

( Read more... )

Actually, now that I think about it, all the devices in that last one are here at work, so I could rebuild it here... but the catch is, I don't think the people currently using them would appreciate it if I took their stuff to make a pimped-out workspace for myself. Oh well. Such is life.

Just found out that there are two interesting things being made in Japan now.

The first is a life-sized GUNDAM Mobile Suit:



The second is the Quarter Pounder restaurants. They're McDonald's restaurants, actually... but in order to attract more people, two McDonald's in Tokyo have been converted into establishments that sell exclusively Quarter Pounder burgers (plus fries and drinks, of course). Everything else is gone... even the traditional McDonald's design.

( Picture spam! This ain't yo' daddy's Mickey D's... )

Sooo... basically, it's a more sleek and classy-looking version of McDonald's, but with only two items on the menu. It seemed a little weird to me at first, but looking at those pictures, it seems like those two places are doing pretty well.

And now I want a burger.

I heard from reijigin that some 21-year-old guy has decided to become a superhero. He wears a spandex outfit, and spends time handing out food to homeless people, and patrolling the streets of his city. He even "busted a shoulder" trying to stop a man from beating up a woman. He also calls himself the "Shadow Hare."

I'm not making any of this up. There's an article about it.

My first thought was this whole thing was... really silly. My second was that I found that I respected the guy. As dumb as this sounds, he can honestly claim that he's making the world a better place. How many people in his age group can claim that they spend their free time helping/saving people? To be honest, mine is usually spent playing video games and goofing off online. -_-

So, while I doubt that I -- or anyone else reading about him -- will be prancing around in tight outfits and saving the world, I've gotta say that I think he's strangely inspiring.

Meanwhile, I have to go mow the lawn. Toodles.

My new nephew's still healthy, as far as I know. Some of my other relatives visited, and word is that he's going to be named Hezekiah... which would be difficult to shorten with a nickname. I mean, there's "Zeke," but, uh... yeah. Maybe I'll just call him "Lil' H" or something.

I'm currently blogging at work. I don't think my boss minds, but then, he's busy doing web design and listening to stoner music, so he probably wouldn't notice. I think he'd take it easy on me anyways, since my right hand was injured due to excessive yardwork (no, seriously).

I'm going to go leave in a half-hour and go swimming, anyways. But for now... I think I'll hang out and relax. And I've got SHINee's "Replay" blasting in my ears via my headphones. Everytime I hear this song, I always get the urge to hang out at my college campus, and sit under the trees on a warm Spring afternoon with a bowl of yummy food and watch people walk by.

My 20-year-old cousin just gave birth to a baby boy. The baby is currently in an incubator, due to being born a few weeks premature, but otherwise, both child and mother are healthy. I'd visit, but there's a seven thousand mile distance between myself and the hospital, so... it could take a while. -_-

Anyways... I guess this makes me an uncle now. ^_^

Hello Kitty Online.

It's a real MMORPG now. ^_^

I'm at work, reading stuff and having a frappuccino.

My boss is at his desk nearby, listening to stoner music.

Walking down the hallway outside reveals that about half the staff is nowhere to be found.

This is a typical afternoon at work.

...also, I haven't eaten lunch yet.

I might get another job soon. The commute's kinda bad, and the hours are longer, and I'm going to be working more often, but it pays much, much better, and the actual work is easier. As far as I know, most of it will be spent doing heavy-duty photo/video-editing work... which is a lot more pleasant than fixing people's computers (my current job).

Also, I think I might be doing most of that work on a sleek new Mac Pro with a 30-inch screen. My dark, geeky technological lusts shall be sated... or something. Anyways, good times. ^_^

In other news, I'm trying to work out a new schedule for myself. I'm kind of curious to see what the biggest "time-waster" activities are for me, so I'm going to try to figure that out this week, by acting normally and trying to find when/where I goof off the most.

Speaking of goofing off, I bought Mass Effect last week for my XBOX 360, and I beat it in 20 hours and got my character up to Level 45. Now I'm torn between waiting a while to play it again, or trading it in at the local game store and buying something new. If only I could think of some good X360 games to get....

Just found out that a friend of mine is saving up so she can go to Taiwan this summer.

I checked; her suitcase is too small for me to hide.

So no trips to Taipei's Hello Kitty café for me. =(



But I hope she has fun. ^___^

Epik High's "Map The Soul" album is out!

...though I'm kind of used to buying music at real-world stores, not online ones. Oh well. -_-

M.J. is acting weird. But then he has a beard. It looks like my beard. This worries me for some reason.

On an entirely unrelated note, my neighbor owns her own Chinese restaurant. This is old news (she's owned it since 2003), but she has a niece who's been working there as a waitress since last fall. Anyways, her niece is a transfer student and is going back to China when the semester ends, and so I'll probably never see her again. Which sucks, because she's fun to talk to (her English is really good), and she has an interesting sense of humor.

Oh well. Such is life.

Also unrelated, I just realized I have a lot of textbooks to read tomorrow. And that I've been averaging 4 to 5 hours of sleep this past week. O_o

Good thing I have lots of coffee on hand. ^__^