Jumbled Thoughts

DreamHost = extreme lose

Wed, 16 Jan 2008 08:11:32 GMT

So I wake up this morning (Tuesday) and see an odd e-mail from DreamHost billing where I've just been charged for all of 2008. Naturally I was kind of peeved, as I can't afford a whole year right now, which can really take a toll on me for the month. I send an e-mail out to them notifying them of the mistake and then check my account which isn't in the negative though I'm still skeptical since I don't see the last bill I just paid listed. i have enough available for the week though so I went to the ATM on the way to work, hoping to see an e-mail when I get home. I get that e-mail and it's very apologetic about the issue, which seems to be widespread judging by the tone and the link to the site blog. I then get to see this post (the most current on the blog at the time of typing), which I read all of as well as all near 400 comments.

First off, I can't say I agree with how they handled this. Normally I'd head to the main site myself to see what was up, but I didn't have time to do that on my way out, and since I always check my mail first, the e-mail I got was the first thing I saw. I liked that it was apologetic and told me that my money had already been refunded and might take a day or two to show up. Fine, but being like anyone else I'd like to know why this giant mistake happened. And the e-mail says I can check the blog for details with a link right there. So I click it to see the most unprofessional written passage ever of such a serious issue in that post. I am all for using humor to help ease tension and whatnot, but there's times when it is just completely out of place, and messing with so many people's money is one of those times. He goes on multiple times to say how so well coded this billing system is where there's never a problem and then one small mistake caused a huge one. Then the page is littered with so many pop culture images like it's not a big deal and will pass shortly. Well, it IS a big deal, and it will not pass so quickly for them. I am aware that people no matter who they are or their position will make mistakes. I am happy that Josh of DH has admitted to this mistake and has been working to rectify it. However I am NOT happy to see him pass it off as a big fucking joke. For all I know right now, more work was done making that post than actually solving the problem, which I'm getting from 85% of it being an explanation of what happened, and 15% about what's being done and reflection.

And this comes not long after not so stellar performance for the services I pay for. The sites I host from there are sometimes quite slow, especially those that are database intensive. The past couple of weeks, I haven't been able to access phpMyAdmin at all so I haven't been able to see the table of users waiting to have their accounts activated. Granted, I realize that part of this is my fault not coding my own system for this yet, but using phpMyAdmin until I get around to doing that has been great since I can still accomplish what I need to. Granted, I only pay $9.95 a month, so I can't complain much, and haven't at all to be honest. The only thing that has merited a complaint from me is the lack of phpMyAdmin at the moment. And even that I've waited a couple weeks to do so (was going to send a ticket out for it later this week before this new issue). I've been happy with the services I've gotten and don't expect absolute perfection. However issues have been crawling up lately with them, and then they charge me for a year of service that I haven't agreed to. And reading the comments, it seems they've had a bunch of issues in the past year which leaves me feeling mixed.

Reading what some of these people say really angers me. There's the DH fanclub that defends their every move, saying that it's no big deal since at least they're being open about what happened and really appreciate the whole light-heartedness of the post as it makes them feel like the people at DH are real people and buddy-buddy and shit. My problem with these people? They have no sense of personal vs. professionalism. As I said above, there is and isn't a time for that kind of shit that was posted in the blog. While it's nice to have a bit of a personal touch between businesspeople and clients, the end goal is to provide the service that a client has paid for. For example, at GameStop I love being able to connect with many of my customers, however the goal for each visit is for me to make the sale, and for the consumer to leave and enjoy the product purchased. That is what both sides want when dealing with a business. Now when mistakes happen, I don't expect my customers to be all happy just because I admitted that it happened nor does this ever really happen. When a mistake happens, it is up to the business to fix it and make the customer happy. A lot of the time this happens without a hitch, other times you have to deal with my next topic.

People who take the complaining to far. They want everything to be handed to them because of it. In this case, there is already a group of people putting together a class action lawsuit or other sorts of legal action. It is too early for that kind of shit. If a week or so goes by with nothing getting done, then by all means I'll join y'all. However they stated what they're going to do, and have openly said to contact them if your refund hasn't showed up after a couple days so they can help you. You people who jump to this kind of shit so quickly are contributing to the downfall of society. No one wants to hear what you have to say, STFU.

Among those who are "cool" with the mistake so to speak, are those who are obviously well off who have to give their opinions on how everyone else should manage their finances because they either didn't have enough extra money as a safety net, have auto-pay enabled, etc. These people need to realize that everyone does their finances different, and that not everyone has the ability to have a safety net. A lot of people live check to check because that is what their current situation requires, and therefore plan their money around those checks. No one plans for a company to slip up with a huge overcharge, and it would be idiotic to expect such a thing. I don't care if you're not affected by the $1,000+ that was accidentally charged because you know it's coming back, I'm affected by the $200 that was taken from me because that can mean overage charges, food, and gas for me. Yeah the money taken back and charges made because of it might be on the way, but what the fuck am I supposed to do for the day or two that I'm in the red? No one wants to hear your smugness, and I hope that each of you has a Trading Spaces period of time in your life. You people are probably one of the reasons why the people in the above paragraph exist. Unlike them, no one wants to hear you unless you're asked for advice first, and even then, you'd likely be avoided because you have to be stuck up, so STFU.

Thankfully there were a bunch of comments that used logic explaining why they were disappointed and were likely to leave, or in some cases, stay. Reading what these people had to say was actually helpful to me forming my opinion on the whole ordeal. And really, I haven't decided what I'm going to do, if I'm going to stay with DH or find somewhere else. From the looks of things, I'll likely move all the domains elsewhere. My money hasn't been used properly recently, this huge mistake takes away a lot of my confidence in them, and then they play off the $7.5 million mistake as a joke. And really, what would I get if I stay? With the amount of people leaving, in the short term it could mean less bandwidth being taken up so users have better speeds and whatnot, but in the long term, I really don't see DH lasting much longer as a company. A decent percentage of people will have left them by the end of the week, while others probably will by the end of the month, which will greatly reduce their income. With this reduced income, they are going to have to deal with vastly increased expenses. Overage charges aren't cheap, and even if only a small percentage of people need to be reimbursed for them, it can easily cost them in the hundred thousands. And that doesn't even factor in the possible legal fees if legal action were to be taken on them. Sure they will likely win any case as long as they follow the words they have posted up, but that doesn't mean lawyers do those cases for free. And losing a case could be abysmal with the position they're in. And on top of that, amidst what should be considered a crisis, they try to just joke around such an important issue. One of toe co-founders nonetheless. Keeping all that in mind, if I stay, how do I know that they will still be around later on?

The answer is I don't. I'm going to wait until the end of the week to see what happens before I take any action, but I don't see what they can do to convince me to stay. If they take such a huge mistake as a joke and have had constant problems throughout last year, the future looks pretty bleak for DH. There's a chance I could be wrong and they could eventually flourish, but right now that's not likely.

Where will I move stuff to I have no idea. Idealistically, I'd like to live in a place of my own with FIOS internet and redo everything to be served from phobos. I'd be able to have absolute control again and wouldn't have an additional server fee. But I'm not on my own, there's no FIOS here in my basement, and time has proven that having phobos host sites with my current ISP doesn't work that well. This really sucks because I've been happy with how things have been Internet-wise, and have been getting ready to go back to a couple projects. Now between this shit and apparently GJ won't be up for much longer (a whole different can of worms, but for another time, however not nearly as long or important as this), it looks like I have to shift everything I've been happy for years with over to different places. Blah.

friends only

Sun, 18 Dec 2005 21:54:42 GMT

Because of people being stupid basically, this journal is now friends only. Comment here if you want to be added to my friends list to see the entries from here on out.

new layout

Mon, 12 Dec 2005 03:45:55 GMT

Kait made me a nice new layout if no one's noticed yet. Thank you honey, I love it. ^_^

why do I love thee?

Tue, 29 Nov 2005 08:20:22 GMT

Taken from cleric_sylphiel

Reply to this post, and I'll tell you some of why I like/love/adore you.

Then put this in your own journal if you want and spread the love.

semi-reunion

Sat, 26 Nov 2005 06:33:32 GMT

It's almost 1:30 as I start this, and I just got home and am in a great mood. Yeah, hard to believe, especially that I'm typing a post this late. I've been up since 3:30, worked at the toy store from 4:30 - 2, cashed my paycheck from there to put gas in the car and get it washed before going into the bell from 4 - 11. Normally, I would already be passed out. Today though, a bunch of us at the bell decided to go to the B'ville Diner after close, so I joined them. It's been a while since we've done that and we had a good time there like normal. This trip was different though, since towards the end of our meal, in walked a group of friends of mine from high school from the track team. Many of them that I knew well before doing track with them. With one exception (since he went to Oswego), I haven't seen any of them in like 4 - 5 years. I jumped to their tables once I paid my part of the bill on mine to talk to them and everything. We were all happy to see each other (from what I gathered, they were in two groups who found each other not long before dinner, so it was a big reunion for the most part) and did our best to catch up. Everyone was pretty shocked when I showed them my license picture of when I had long hair. ^^;;; They were all very happy to hear about me getting engaged, I really wish that Kait could've been there somehow so she could've met them. Before my co-workers left we had one of them take a pic of all of us on Scott's camera. I can't wait to get a hold of that pic. I never thought I would end off black friday on such a high note, it was really great seeing all of them again.

Now I must head off to bed, I have been offically up 22 hours now and need some sleep. ^^;; I'll finally be back in Oswego tomorrow sometime after I get some things here taken care of which I'll get into later. For now, sleepytime... ~_~

A very happy Thanksgiving

Thu, 24 Nov 2005 23:19:24 GMT

First off, I'd like to wish everyone who might be reading this a very happy Thanksgiving. ^_^

This Thanksgiving for me has definetly been the best in my life thus far. To start off, we had not only one, but two Thanksgiving dinners. One at Kait's parents' yesterday, the other at my parents' today. What made them even better is the amount of time that me and her have been together for the past few days. We left for her parents' on Tuesday evening and spent the night there. We were there all day yesterday and stayed the night there before leaving for my parents' this morning. We had a lot of fun at her parents' between drinking and spending time with her parents, step-sister and her fiancee. We got picture happy too and I'll be sure to post upsome of those pics sometime this weekend. It was a really fun time there and we both enjoyed it there. At my parents' we had a good time as well, though we were only there for a short time, at least compared to the time we spent over at her parents'. Both dinners were very nice and we got filled up with both of them.

The highlight of this little holiday vacation was definetly the great emotional moments between the two of us the whole time. We talked a lot about our future together, raising a family, and lots of other things. The love between the two of us seems to grow everyday and these past couple days it's felt like that ten-fold. With each day, it seems like we find out something else that proves that we're perfect for each other, and the emotional connections we had this vacation proved that even more. The drive of bringing her back up to Oswego was simply amazing, since we had a great conversation about a lot of the things metioned above and it was so powerful to both of us that we both almost cried of hapiness during the drive.

All in all, this Thanksgiving has been the best I've ever had, and she says it's the best she's ever had too. I can't wait to see what the future holds for us after this great Thanksgiving. ^_^

200 questions meme

Mon, 14 Nov 2005 07:27:29 GMT

200. My name is: Dan

199. I was born on: 9/5/83

198. I am a: Virgo

197. My hair color is: red (or strawberry blonde)

196. My eye color is: Blue

195. My shoe size is: 9 1/2 to 10

194. My ring size is: have no clue ^^;

193. My pant size is: 34-ish

192. My height is: about 5'10''

191. I am allergic to: nothing, as far as I know

190. I live in: Oswego, NY

189. The last book I read: currently reading the Ultimate Guide to Video Game History

188. My bed is: a normal sized matress and box spring

187. One thing I know for sure about the opposite sex: they are a lot more emotional than guys

186. I am glad I'm my sex because: less things to worry about

184. My Best friends are: my housemates

181. Three things I can never resist are: Kait, DDR, coding PHP stuffies

179. My favorite pajamas are: don't really have a favorite

178. A perfect kiss is: one that makes you forget about everything else around you

176. Last song that made me cry was: not sure

173. I could not live without: DDR

172. My most treasured possession is: this is tough, but for now I'd have to go with the Odessey 300, one of the earliest consoles in video game history, handed down to me from my dad and uncle

170. What did you do last night: put an engagement on my fiancee's finger finally ^_^

169. The funniest quote I know is: I have way too many to choose just one

168. The quote that sums it all up for me is: ...I will come back to this later on if I don't forget ^^;;;

167. My skin's reaction to the sun is (tan/burn): it burns

166. I do/don't believe in: lots of things, this is too vague

142. Love at first sight? not really

141. Luck? yeah, good and bad

140. Fate? yep

139. God? it's been questioned the past couple years or so, but I'd still say yes

138. Aliens? of course, no way in hell we're not alone

137. Heaven? yep

136. Hell? yep

135. Ghosts? kinda

134. Horoscopes? not really, though I'll still read them

133. Soul Mates? yep

-Which is Better?-

129. Hugs or Kisses: hugs

128. Drunk or High: drunk

127. Phone or Online: online

126. Girls/Guys with/without Hats: I'd have to say without for girls

125. Blondes or Brunettes: brunettes

122. Short or tall girls/guys: short girls

120. Night or Day: probably night

119. Oranges or Apples: oranges

118. Short or long hair: short

-Here's What I Think About... -

116. Abortion?: I don't agree with it, if you screw around then you should deal with the consequenses

115. Backstabbers?: hate them with a passion

110. School?: a necessary evil

109. America?: mixed, I like living here but various things get on my nerves

107. Love?: it's a wonderful feeling ^_^

106. Friends before Love? ...I don't understand the question

-last time I...

105. Took a Shower: this morning/afternoon

104. Talked on the phone: last night

103. Kissed someone: an hour ago

102. Hugged someone: also an hour ago

101. Seen someone I haven't seen in a while: I think like a week or two ago actually

91. I always ask:

90. The ditziest person I know: not sure

89. The one person who makes me laugh the most is: hmm... nowadaya I guess Greg is the best source of laughter

88. Which celebrity or famous person are you in love with?: none

87. One thing I'm pissed about right now is: my financial status and how much time it's taking to recover from some stupid mistakes mixed in with how much my car costs altogether

83. The last movie I saw in the theater was: I think Corpse Bride

82. The thing I don't understand is: ...there's a lot more than one thing ^^;;

80. The most unsatisfactory answer I've ever received is?: anything like "maybe" or something that isn't a definite answer in a situation that there should be one

79. The one thing I love about the same sex is: since we're generally less emotional we're usually more easy to get along with

78. This week I am: working and stuff

76. This Summer vacation I: got together with Kait and went to Otakon

75. Something I will really miss when I leave home is: I'm already out of home, though I do miss not having to worry about a lot of things I worry about now on my own

74. The thing that I'm looking forward to the most: ....why is this numbered if it's supposed to be used to set the start of the next questions?

73. Tomorrow: more sleep and getting some stuff for SMU done

72. Today: finishing this and falling asleep ^^;

71. Next Summer: a-kon and my wedding ^_^

70. Next Week: two thanksgiving dinners ^_^

67. People call me: Dan, Narsk

66. The person who I talk to the most on the phone is: Kait

65. The person I had the longest on-going relationship?: Kait

64. The person I have been friends with the longest is: Steve, Kev, and Jarett, though I've only seen them now and then the past couple months, I've known them since 8th grade

62. The person who knows the most about me is: Kait

61. The person who can read me the best is: definetly Kait

60. The most difficult thing to do is?: telling close friends something painful

59. I have/have not gotten a speeding ticket?: only one

58. I have the following siblings: Jessica (20), Jeffery (18)

57. My favorite people are: Kait, my housemates, the trio mentioned above, a lot of the people I work with

56. My least favourite person in the world is: Keno, after that shit this Febuary, I've never had such disdain for a single person until that

55. The first person I thought/think I was/am in love with was/is: Kait

53. The one person who can't hide things from me: ...I'm usually obvilious ^^;;;

52. The person I find myself spilling my guts to is: Kait

51. Right now I am talking to: Kait

48. I have a job at: Taco Bell and KB Toys

47. I have these pets: none

46. I wish I was: more stable financially since everything else has fallen back into place this year

45. The worst sound in the world is?: scratching a chalkboard

44. The person that makes me cry the most is: I don't cry if I can help it, and if I do it's not caused by anyone

43. shoulder to cry on is: Kait

39. My boy/girlfriend is: Kait (wasn't that obvious by now? this should be near the top)

34. My favorite state?: I like it here, though I would like to get out of here

33. My favorite piece of clothing is: probably my Donkey Kong Country shirt, have had it for almost 11 years ^^;;;;

32. My favorite sport to play is: hmm... I'd probably go with volleyball

30. The last time I cried was: couple weeks ago I think

29. What am wearing right now is: pajama bottoms and long sleeve pajama shirt

28. The school I go to is: none, last school I went to was SUNY Oswego

27. The last person I pissed off was: probably Kait

26. My worst drinking experience was: that's a toughie, probably anytime I get really sick because of drinking or when other drunks ruin a really good time

24. The last movie I watched was: Meet the Fockers

22. The all-time best movie is: oy, so many to choose from

21. The all-time best thing in the world is: love that's returned

19. The most annoying thing ever is: probably my short attention span at times ^^;;;

17. I lose all respect for people who: don't try to improve themselves or their situations and pretty much do absolutely nothing

16. The movies I have cried at are: I haven't cried at movies

11. The worst pain I was ever in was: Emotionally/Mentally? dealing with my first death in junior year of high school, mixed in with having to be the one to tell a lot of people about it

10. My favorite phrases: I don't really have any catch phrases or anything, though I'll repeat stories or other things fairly often ^^;;

9. My room is full of: posters, games and DVDs

8. My favorite celebrity is: none

7. My favorite cliche is?: none

6. My downfall is?: can be too nice at times

5. My weakness is?: ....isn't this basically the same question?

4. What turns me on is?: hmmm... I'd have to say dirty talking and visualizations

3. I want this to end?: yes

2. I filled out 200 questions because? ...it wasn't 200 questions, whoever made this can't count and some of the "questions" were really section introductions

1. Was it fun? a little, but it was too long, and my brain was used too much ^^;;;

ring for Kait ^_^

Mon, 14 Nov 2005 05:05:31 GMT

It's been a hell of a week, a really great week. The day after my last post, me and Angel had a little mediation thingy with Mike and everything got worked out, so we didn't lose her as an employee and we both apologized for what happened and such. The me and Mike talked for a little bit after it, and everything's all nice and squared away with it. Besides that, work has been pretty good actually. We got our audit the day after my last post and got a 94, which is awesome. Tom (our DM) was very proud of us for doing so well with him not being there (he was trying to follow Ed around the best he could to help each of the stores with their scores. Actually, one of the things that we got taken off for he's going to argue about (some log that doesn't really apply to mall units), so we might actually have a 97 if that goes through well. On top of that, we had our Champs Check (mystery shopper type thingy) and got a 100 on that. If we get a 100 on our next/final one, then we're actually in the running to be Golden Bell status for the year, which means we really kick ass, a nice bonus and rewards all-around. I'm really looking forward to that if it happens. I also started up at KB, which isn't bad. I haven't really done much there besides help out with the truck and put stuff away, but that's fine. I was taught register but haven't actually used it yet, though I'm sure it will be my best friend on Black Friday. I am not looking forward to that day. -_-

Other stuff, there really hasn't been that many big things this week, except one really big thing this weekend. This weekend, I was finally able to put an engagement ring on Kait's finger. Yep, a way to get her one finally presented itself this weekend unexpectedly. A few years ago when my grandma died, my mom got a couple of rings. Sometime between when we had dinner that night a few weeks ago and this week she remembered about them. So she showed the rings to some of the other teachers she worked with and asked them if she should offer me one to use for an engagement ring for Kait. They all said she should, so when I visited yesterday, she told me about them and showed them to me. I was really shocked and happy, and very gladly accepted her offer. The one thing I've regretted about when I proposed to Kait was the fact that I didn't have a ring for her, so having a ring offered to me just blew my mind. I never thought that something like that would happen, and it just blew my mind. I accepted her offer and suprised her almost right after work last night. She suprised me by cooking me some dinner and bringing it over, so then I suprised her by taking the ring box out of my pocket and opening it in front of her. ^_^ The sheer amount of hapiness and shock was just plain awesome. It was a great night finally putting a ring on her finger, and seeing her so very happy because of it. It was a little big though, sop we went to the mall today to get that fixed. Since the band isn't gold, it couldn't get refitted, but we were able to get a ring guard to get it to fit on her finger nicely. It definetly looks like it belongs on her finger and we're both very happy that her finger is finally not naked anymore. ^_^

fun work day

Thu, 03 Nov 2005 07:07:28 GMT

Today (or yesterday to those of you who pay attention to the timestamp =P ) was a hell of a day. I already pretty much don't like Wednesdays since I work 10 hours (8 - 6) and then go right to DDR Club (7 - 10) and am pretty much dead. Today, it was not only a long day, but a nice eventful one. Pretty much any day now at any time, we're going to be audited, so being the opening manager I'm trying to make sure everything is going perfectly and whatnot, and wasn't doing a bad job in doing so starting out. However, there is always one variable that can change the course of the day and that's customers. And they did, because they came in drives today, and we pretty much got our asses handed to us. Add into this that truck delivery dates and days to place orders changed this past week after years of staying the same, so now for Wednesdays I have added in the job of doing the truck order. These have to be sent in by 3PM. Since we got our asses handed to us, there was really no opportunity to get this done. Only when I went on my break was there a bit of a chance to, so after I ate my food I started it up off the clock so it would at least get done. I didn't like having to do that, but it had to be done so it wasn't a big deal to me since I'm usually bored on breaks anyways. I finished it up about 20 minutes after I punched back in, then sent Becky on break, and had a little incident occur. For my first time, I've had an employee walk out on me during my shift.

Honestly, I don't see how it grew to that happening. Granted, the day was stressful for all four of us working the afternoon shift, but it was also not that bad and we've all been through much worse. When I sent Becky on break, Angel was still on register and I took over line while Amanda finished up some food prep. In the middle of the line, Angel needed me to open her drawer up since she accidentally short-changed a customer. Normally, not a big deal, annoying, especially with the timing, but not normally a big deal. However, this past week I've had to do that 2 - 3 times a day whenever she's been on register, so I told her how often I've had to do that and to pay more attention so I didn't always have to do that. She apparently took offense to this and defended her mistake giving me some excuse. I told her I didn't have time for this since I was on line by myself and there were orders and she said it wasn't her fault I'm slow on line. I let that go since I'm better than resorting to insults and didn't have time for it. She finishes up taking orders and then comes to me and asks why I yelled at her in front of everyone. I told her that I was tired of having to open her drawer over and over, and that I wasn't yelling at her. Annoyed voice tone, yes. Yelling, hell no. Yelling would've gotten a LOT more attention. She made a comment on how long it took me to do the truck order (I don't know/remember why, it's unrelated), which I didn't let slide as much as the previous one for the sole reason I gave up a lot of my break to do that. I basically said something along the lines of her not knowing anything about what she was talking about (which she doesn't, she's not a manager nor has she ever done a truck order) and that next time, if she wants to I can teach her how to do it and see how fast she can do it. The she crossed the line by yelling at me to shut up. That's when I DID yell, stating that she doesn't talk to me like that, that I'm the manager and she's an employee, and she listens to me when I tell her something. I then continued making food and I guess she went to the desk and cried for a few minutes. Becky saw her there when she came back in the store and asked her what happened, and Angel said that I was an asshole and she was leavingl, and she did just that. I didn't see or hear any of that minus her leaving the store. So I punched her out and wrote a writeup and cashed out her drawer. Well, none of that happened right away, we were still pretty much getting served, so it didn't get done as quickly as I would've liked. I eventually talked to Tom (district manager) on the phone about it (our GM is in a different store while that GM is recovering from surgery so I can't really get a hold of him well, plus Tom was basically calling around each store a lot to keep track of Ed (the auditor)), and he gave me advice on how I should handle it and such, and letting me know that I had the power to do anything I needed to about it. After talking to him, then thinking about it on my own, it looks like this will go down as her quitting without notice. I'm going to talk to her tomorrow is she shows up to work, but given that she walked out in response to a request I made of her, added into the fact that she left the store last winter on questionable terms (barely any notice at all if I remember correctly, left a bad taste in most of our mouths back then and I was sketchy when we rehired her, but she's been great prior to this and was great prior to that back then), it doesn't look good for her. It'll be rougher without her, but I don't want an employee who will act like that at a small thing in the store and I can't let something like this slide. She's a good worker, but can't pull this shit and expect nothing to happen, and she's already done it before as mentioned just now. It'll mean a little more stressful weekdays during the day, but once Brian is back it won't matter too much. Hell, we'll probably save on labor during the day because of this, which Brian will love. Anyways, moving on since this was a hell of a lot longer than I thought. ^^;;;

So the last couple of hours of worked sucked too, but that was the peak obviously. I was just ready to leave and was so happy when I finally did. Esepcially when my numbers were pretty bad for the shift. So much for my streak of good numbers. Today I learned firsthand of what a pain in the ass it can be to be a manager. DDR Club helped releave some stress though, and more stress was relieved when going to Kait's after. Thanks hon. ^_~

Tomorrow (or today >P ) should be an interesting day. First shift over at KB, and then going to the bell right after and dealing with what may or may not happen due to today's incident. I just hope our audit is done before I get there, I hate being there for audits. ^^;;;

test thingies

Fri, 28 Oct 2005 23:30:32 GMT

This Is My Life, Rated
Life:	7.1
Mind:	7.4
Body:	8.2
Spirit:	5.8
Friends/Family:	5.3
Love:	9.2
Finance:	6.6
Take the Rate My Life Quiz

The Slow Dancer
Deliberate Gentle Love Dreamer (DGLDm)

Steady, reliable, and cradling her tenderly. Take a deep breath, and let it out real easy...you are The Slow Dancer.

Your focus is love, not sex, and for your age, you have average experience. But you're a great, thoughtful guy, and your love life improves every year. There's also a powerful elimination process working in your favor: most Playboy types get stuck raising unwanted kids before you even begin settling down. The women left over will be hot and yours. Your ideal woman is someone intimate, intelligent, and very supportive.

Your exact opposite:
The Hornivore

Random Brutal Sex Master

While you're not exactly the life of the party, you do thrive in small groups of smart people. Your circle of friends is extra tight and it's HIGHLY likely they're just like you. You appreciate symmetry in relationships.

ALWAYS AVOID: The Battleaxe

CONSIDER: The Maid of Honor or The Sonnet

Link: The 32-Type Dating Test by OkCupid - Free Online Dating.
My profile name: narsk

NES 20th Year Anniversary

Thu, 27 Oct 2005 18:00:16 GMT

Last week marked the 20th anniversary of the NES, the system that shaped the video game intustry as we know it. 1up.com is having a week long special to celebrate the NES. It's been a great read and has relived a lot of memories of the days when NES ruled the industry. Everyone should go and relieve the great days of the NES by checking the special out and play a lot of NES. XD

fun couple of weeks

Thu, 27 Oct 2005 04:02:25 GMT

So yeah, that mention of updating more often didn't seem to happen these past couple of weeks. ^^;;;; One of these days I'll be as good as I was in the past with updating so much. In any case, as you can imagine, it's been a hell of a couple weeks. I'm happy to say that everyone is happy about the engagement. Shocked obviously, but still happy for us. Each of our familes seem to have the same concerns, and neither questions the strong feelings between the two of us, which is great. I'm glad the response to it has been so well, I had no idea what to expect with it since I'm the first I know of out of many of my friends to get engaged, and it looks like I had nothing to worry about. ^_^;;

Keeping on that subject, the two of us have grown a lot closer since then. We've had a couple arguments and disagreements since it happened, and we've gotten through them really well. I've definetly opened up a lot more with those and even though I don't like going through those things, getting through them has paid off so much and makes it all worth it. We've only gotten stronger together and I see that continuing on for a good long time. ^_^

The two of us had dinner with her dad and stepmother this weekend. It was really nice. We went to Coleman's and had a great dinner with a very good talk. Her parents voiced their concerns to make sure we're prepared for everything that's going to come up. Finances, insuirance, etc., a lot of the important stuff. Though Kait was uncomfortable talking about that kind of stuff, I think it did us good to have that. After dinner, the four of us went back to her place and had a much more emotional driven talk involving Kait's past and her worries about how it will affect her future and such. It was a very emotional moment and really tough on her at times, but we all got through it and I believe it did a lot of good to have that conversation. All in all, it was a very good dinner, and all the talking helped prepare us for what's ahead. This weekend we're going to dinner at my parents', with my sister there too, and possibly even my brother if he doesn't head back to school before it (he's visiting home this weekend). I'm a bit nervous, just like this past weekend, but I'm also really looking forward to it.

Onto other things, I finally got a second job. As of Monday, I'm now offically working at KB Toys in the mall. I'm a seasonal hire right now, but that may turn into an actual part time job after the season depending on various things. The manager (Mike) mentioned a possibility of me becoming a part time assistant manager there sometime and told me to think about it. If he mentions it again, I think I'll accept, since it will be a big help to the wallet. But it's nothing I'm going to get my hopes up for. Right now I'm just going to assume that things will stay with me being seasonal only with a possibility of it becoming a permanent part time position after the season. I'm not going to get ahead of myself with that just yet, especially without having worked a shift there yet. ^^;;; My main concern right now is to get Kait a ring before the end of the year and stay afloat in the process, and this new job will definetly help that.

I'm also looking forward to this weekend because as I mentioned, my brother will be coming home from school this weekend. We always love seeing each other, and right now even moreso since he's been having a rough semester. Not grade-wise, but he's just not enjoying himself there. Except for his roommate and a couple others, he doesn't really know anyone there and most people just stay in their rooms there so he's not really meeting anyone. Worse off, is that his girlfriend broke up with him last week. Complete bs that is imo, there's no logical reason for why she did that, especially after being with him for so long (a year would've been a week and a half away from today). So he's really been down lately and I want to help bring him back up. He's going to be transferring up here to Oswego which will be great. I'll see him a lot more often and better yet, he'll have a lot more fun on campus here since this is a very social campus. This will be a lot better for him, plus he'll always have here to come to whenever he wants and will be close to my place whenever he wants to chill or anything here. I'm glad things are starting to look up for him, I know he'll get through everything well and will do what I can to help.

Last but not least, since I haven't really been much up to anything else not mentioned above outside on work on SMU, I have been kicking ass in DDR lately. I passed Cartoon Heroes in the arcade a few weeks ago, which is a barrier I've been trying to break for a good while now. I also got my first SDG on the home pads in DDR club which was awesome. I tried to do the same in the arcade the very next day, and a pad miss screwed me out of it, I had 9 greats otherwise. >.< At least I know I'm capable of doing them now, which is a great barrier to break when I finally break it, which should be soon. Most impressive though, is my doubles skills in the home version in DDR Club last week. I've been in a bit of a doubles lull since we don't play them much in the club (once, maybe twice a month) and the mall's pads haven't been that good for them. However, in my last song last week on doubles before we packed up, I passed Sakura. Yep, a fricking 10-footer. The easiest 10-footer yet, but still, a 10-footer. Damn did that feel good and was everyone shocked and proud. Tried it in the arcade the next day to no avail, but it was more the pads than it was me, so I know it will happen soon. I'm definetly enjoying this burst of breaking barriers in DDR. ^_^ I haven't played any other games really, but Kait just got X-Men Legends 2 and it's been real fun so far. She's kicking ass with Jean Grey and Scarlet Witch with me using melee characters such as Rouge.

I think that sums up a lot of the past couple weeks. More posts hopefully in less amounts of time between them coming. ^^;;;;

big news tonight ^___^

Tue, 11 Oct 2005 04:58:45 GMT

Tonight marked a big night in mine and Kait's lives today. We were having a serious talk about our future tonight, with lots of talk of how confident we were about being with each other and such, and I did something during that which I'm sure a lot of you will think is crazy. However, with how we've worked through various troubles along the way and how well things are going, as well as the everything we were talking about in our conversation, I felt very sure and confident about what I did right then. At that point, I couldn't hold my thoughts in anymore to her and asked her if she would marry me. I didn't have a ring to ask her with which I wanted to wait until I had one to do that with, but I just coundn't hold it in. Like I've been saying alot recently, I really love her and I do love her that much to be able to ask her what I did. She was pretty shocked that I did (who could blame her?), but she said yes. ^____^ So now, we are offically engaged. It will obviously be a while before we set a date or anything of the sort, but in any case, we are offically engaged and I have never been any happier than I am now. I love you Kait and I'm really glad you feel the same way. ^_^

heh

Mon, 10 Oct 2005 04:33:54 GMT

I really should update on a more normal basis so it doesn't feel like a catch-up post everytime I post here. ^^;;;

First off, the damn cat is gone from the house. For those of you who didn't know, a little over a month ago, a cat was following someone and we decided to keep it. I was pretty neutral on the whole thing at the time, though as time went on the damn thing was annoying the hell out of me, and worse it kept Kait from coming over here since she's really allergic to cats. Almost two weeks ago, the cat disappeared and it's gone for good I was told a few days ago. Yay for no more annoying kitty, and bigger yay for Kait being able to come over here again since I cleaned after it left. ^_^

I rearranged my room. It works out better now with this arrangement.

My brother came home from school this weekend. I had him over last night and he spent the night here, and we had a good night chilling with playing games and watching stuff with Kait here too with us. He's going to the open house for here tomorrow (technically today) and is very likely transferring up here. I really hope he does, I think he would enjoy it a lot more up here and it'd be awesome to have him around a lot again. I've missed him a lot since starting college myself.

Finishing off, with the most important thing of all, Kait. ^_^ Things are going fucking awesome with us. I never thought that I'd be doing so well with anyone after such a short time, but that's happening right now. We've been together for a tad over four months and despite a few arguments here and there along the way, it has been simply amazing. Like I mentioned in my last post, we've already been planning on moving together, and the wait for that is rough, but will be worth it. We've also been planning for a trip to TX for A-Kon next year to see Tiff and Derek and possibly more people. I enjoyed my time there last summer, and I know we'll both have a great time down there this coming summer. The really cool part about the trip, is that it falls really close to mine and Kait's one-year anniversary. What a way to celebrate a one year, move in a place together then take a vacation together as well. I'm really happy with how everything is going between us and love her very much. ^___^

great week

Sun, 25 Sep 2005 19:15:47 GMT

To start off, things have been great between me and Kait. The time we spend together is great, and I've been feeling a lot of feelings I haven't before which has been amazing. It's hard to put into words, but I love it. We've even started talking about moving in together after the school year ends. ^_^ I spent a lot of last weekend with her as well as the past few nights (minus last night) and I feel really good about how things are going. I love you Kait! ^_^

Other things are going well too. I FINALLY got my black shirt and promotion at the bell this week. It's such a great feeling after waiting for so long. Also, I'm finally getting stuff done for SMU on a semi-regular basis again. I'll probably do some more work on there after I finish up this post. I also finally got my couch and other furnature from my old boss this week too, and my room is finally complete. He also gave me an older computer too, which should be nice to play around on. I'm planning to use it to play my older PC games since Windows XP sucks for old school gaming. Just need to clean up a bit and organize some things, which will take me a while. ^^;;;

I'm really happy that things have finally gotten better for me this year. ^_^

nice couple of weeks

Sat, 17 Sep 2005 17:51:42 GMT

It's been a hell of a couple of weeks. Some bad, but a lot of good, and good came out of the bad. First and foremost, there was stuff between me and Kait. In the days prior to my birthday, we went through some rough waters. It got to a point where we almost broke up right on my birthday. We decided then to take a break from seeing each other for the week and see what happens from there. It was a more calm week for me at least, with work dying down since the kiddies are back in school and staying at my parents' a couple of nights. It seemed to me during this time that being single might be better for me, but when the break stopped, so did those thoughts. We made up on her birthday night, though sadly I was sick and the birthday run came to a halt. I went home to get some rest and told Paul to finish up the run with her giving him my money for her drinks, but she came to my room a little later and then brought me to her place to help me get better. I got a lot of rest and started to feel a bit better, so me and Paul tried the run again that night staying at one bar we like and I didn't drink at all. We got her really drunk, she beat out my birthday by a few drinks though over a little longer time, and even more amazing is that she asked for a drink while she was puking. She only drank half of it, but damn, that was pretty hardcore. I'm so proud of her, and made an away message for her saying that, which she kept up the entire next day. ^^;;; Things have been staying well since then, I'm happy we worked things out. ^__^

Other things have been working out pretty well too. I've been closer to my parents than I have been in years. I've been going there more often to help Dad out with building his barn and other yard work, spending the night when my work schedule makes it not worth driving back home then back to work the next day, it's been pretty nice. Financially, I'm finally just about out of the red. Chris let me borrow some money to help me out since he doesn't want to see me selling my stuff and is letting me pay him back a little each week. I'm caught up on car insurance, will have my rent back pay paid after the weekend, and am off a monthly plan for a cell phone. Granted, I'm nowhere near where I was prior to this past spring, but it is nice to not have to worry as much about getting the important things paid for.

I got a new cell phone. As mentioned above, I'm off a monthly plan, which is largely in part to the bill being unpaid. ^^;;; A phone isn't that important to me, which is why I let that lapse instead of other, more important things. However, with my extra money for the week, and knowing I need a phone of some sort for people to find me (even though I loved my little isolation from this ^^;;; ), I went and got a new phone with pre-paid minutes so I can just buy minutes as I need them. I have to say, I made out really well. The guy working was awesome, he didn't try hard to rope me into any monthly plan or anything like that (like someone at another one of their booths was trying to so bad), he only asked me once and I let him know I already thought about that stuff, and that was it. The rest of the time was just focused on getting me setup with a new phone. I got a pretty nice phone for $100 and it has two and a half of minutes to start out. I also got a case for the phone, which was discounted since I was buying the phone with it, so only $15 there. And to top it all off, they were having a big promotion for prepaid phones, and with the purchase of my phone, I got a cheaper phone with 60 minutes completely free. I didn't need it but I figured I might find someone who may want it, and ended up giving it to one of my shift managers.

Pretty soon, I'm finally going to be getting new contacts. I've been stretching the life out of this last set for over a year longer than I should, so my parents decided for my birthday to have an eye exam and get new contacts. I had the exam this past Tuesday, so hopefully they will be here after this weekend. Onto things not really important but pretty cool, me and Chris have been having a Donkey Kong Country trilogy marathon in our free time the past couple weeks. We got an urge to do that after playing Super Smash Bros. Melee one night and talking about the DKC music in it and started right there to relive the memories of that amazing trilogy. We're going for the max percentage in each game, and have already gotten 101% in the first one, and 102% in the second one. As I type this, we're all the way into the last world and have gotten everything possible to the point we're at, though we're not touching the lost world until we beat the last one. Once we finish that game, we're going to work on Donkey Kong 64 since neither of us really played that game. He never played it, and my expansion pack for the N64 was semi-stolen from me back in the day and I never went through the game when I replaced it a year or two later. It's been nice going through the older games back when they made better quality games.

It's been a nice couple of weeks, my stress level has gone down quite a bit and I finally feel really relaxed in general, something I've been waiting to attain all year long. And I've got this weekend off. I originally was going to the Syracuse DDR tournament, but decided against it last week since I won't get much play time and will pretty much just waste gas and money, not to mention I'm sure there will be a bunch of videos up so I won't miss too much. I was thinking about visiting my brother this weekend, but just as I was thinking about that, I was informed he was coming home this weekend and already made a bunch of plans with a few others also coming home this weekend. I guess today is our school's marching band home show so a bunch of them made plans and such. So with both my plans not really working, I'm just going to relax a bit more. Going to get some cleaning done today since I'm finally getting that couch from my old boss tomorrow morning which means I finally get my loveseat in my room and it will be complete. I'm also going to get an SMU comparison or two done up since it's been a while and I think I can finally get back to getting them done on a regular basis, and I've set myself a goal to help this happen.

I'm not dead

Thu, 01 Sep 2005 07:25:25 GMT

So.... yeah. It's been a long time since I've done much of anything. I'm not sure where to start since there's been a lot of stuff on my mind and a bunch of stuff I've been made aware of that I've been too blind to see myself. I guess I'll start with my isolation for the good part of the year and hope that leads into things. As I'm sure anyone could tell, I've had a rollercoaster of a year this year. I won't go into any details since most of them are detailed very nicely just on this front page. Somewhere along the way, I got a girlfriend which added a lot more to the ride. It's been crazy having various shitty things happen, going through moving to a different place, and then adding a lot of unknowns when it comes to relationships since this is my first. So for much of this year, instead of venting on here, talking with various people, doing my normal stuff on and offline, and basically anything I normally do, I've kept a lot to myself. Not that I haven't really done that before, but it was taken to a new level. No matter how much in the past I would do something similar, I would never shut myself out so much that interfered with my normal way of life so much. Why I've done this I'm still not sure, hell, I may understand more by the time I'm done because I'm trying to type as I think through this all. In the middle of this isolation, somehow I got together with Kait and it got to the point where I was sharing a lot of my feelings and emotions I was keeping to myself with her and finally slowly letting everything out. It felt good getting them out. Along the way through talking and stuff with her, I've become aware of my flaws, the big one being simple minded, as for some reason I always seem to think that there's easy ways to deal with things and that problems are essentially over once things are dealt with and such, and that's just an example of how I'm simple minded. It's a gateway to even more things which I can't even begin to list. Seeing these flaws in me for the first time was kind of a shocker. I'm not saying I ever thought I was perfect or anything of the sort, it's just that I have discovered various things about myself that I didn't know existed. So those things have been on my mind a lot lately, and because of that, I reverted back to a point long ago where I would basically just shut myself out except to a few people. There's a big difference this time around though. Way back when I did that shit, I was quite a bit of a loner and didn't have many friends, so doing that wasn't really that big a deal. Nowadays, it's the opposite, as I broke out of my shell a while ago and have many friends both IRL and online. However I went about it the same way, and never thought much about anyone else, being very selfish. I've been made aware recentally of just how badly I've shut out so much lately, and that various people are actually worried about me. In some ways, I can't really understand why, but that may be beacuse I've been pretty low on self-esteem for a while now so I might be confised about how anyone could care about someone at such a low point. But then in other ways I can understand why because I know I would be for any of my friends if they were going through tough times. Except for lately though, since I've been horribly selfish about myself to not pay that much attention to other things going on around me. And I want to apologize for that, I've basically been a jackass and not worrying about much of anything outside of me. I've basically left behind a good chunck of my friends off and online, as well as various obligations. Anytime that I probably could've done something, I've just been too lazy to take some initiative and haven't really seemed to care. It's been killing me inside because I know I'm unhappy like that, yet I somehow gave up and until tonight, never really made any strides to get myself closer to where I was. I know I'll never get there again, too much has happened for me to just go back to how I used to be, but I know I can get back on track at least.

I could go on and on about various other things, but I think the general idea was shown fairly well and I know I'd end up repeating myself a bunch of times, if I haven't done so already. ^^;;; But I wanted to explain what's been going on and apologize for my big isolation from the world. I've got a lot of things to work out with in my head, but I'm done shutting everything else out. This is my first step to getting back into the swing of things, and I'm going to make sure it's not the only step and keep working on everything from here. And once again I'm sorry for reating the way I did to my problems by shutting out almost everything. It wasn't the right way to go about it and I feel bad about anything that may have happened that I wasn't there for someone on or anything of the sort. I do feel a bit better now getting all that off my chest and finally doing something about my problems instead of sitting around doing nothing while waiting for good things to happen. It's about time I did something and I'm happy that I finally am.

Otakon 2005 report

Thu, 25 Aug 2005 07:41:23 GMT

I will eventually make a small page out of this like A-Kon last year, but until I do that, here's the text of my Otakon trip.

Thursday, 8/18/05 – pre-con

Today started out nice and slow, got to sleep in a bit and I also got to spend some time with Kait before heading out for the long drive. I picked Paul up from work when he got out and packed his and Kait’s things in the car. We then picked up Matt and got ready for the long ride. Stopped for dinner and gas not too long after and had a fun ride through New York and Pennsylvania. I must say, you see the dumbest signs driving through PA, my favorite being a “Bridge May Be Icy” sign that you see with every bridge you might cross. Seriously, they didn’t miss a single bridge. That state had to have drained it’s entire roadway budget with littering the streets with so many dumb signs. If you ever have no idea where you are and are wondering if you might be in PA, drive around for 10 minutes, and if you see a slew of worthless signs, you’re in PA. After some more driving, complete with some circles thanks to confusing road signs (where the budget money should’ve gone to), we finally made it to Kate’s place. We stuffed all her stuff in the car (she had more stuff than me and Kait combined I think o.o;;; ) and made our way to the hotel, which was thankfully only two more hours of driving. Surprisingly, we found the hotel very easily. Can’t say the same for finding a place to park, but even so, we found a parking garage after only 10 minutes, and was only two or three blocks from our hotel. Even more amazing was that we were able to get all of our stuff in the hotel in one trip. We checked in with no problem and settled in, getting the air mattress set up and such. Me, Matt, and Kate went exploring for a little bit, checking out some of the hotel and walking around a little bit of Baltimore. When we got back, me and Kait talked for a while in the hallway. Once again I screwed something up, this time I was ignoring Kait ever since we picked up Kate. I wasn’t aware of it as always, and she was also worried that there was more than friendship between me and Kate (we’ve been online friends for over four years). I assured her that there wasn’t anything more between us and apologized for my actions for the day. After a talk, we had things worked out, and went to bed not too long after so we could hit the con early.

Friday, 8/19/05 – Otakon, Day 1

We all got up early so we could get our badges and into the con faster. One big problem though, it was raining pretty hard. Normally a quick walk in the rain is nothing, but today was no quick walk in the rain. Since it’s the first day, it means that the vast majority of people are picking up their badges, and there’s a long ass line outside. Me and Paul roughed out the rain, Kate shared her umbrella with Kait to protect her costume, and Matt’s costume was made out of waterproof material. Matt and Kate were hungry and broke off from us to get some food while the three of us wanted to just get our badges faster and worry about food later. Kate left her umbrella with Kait to protect her costume while she was gone if it started raining again, which it did. I must say, the line for registration went along more smoothly than I had expected. Considering that the line circled a good part of the convention center, and then setups inside when you finally made it in, I was thinking at least two hours until we got our badges. Instead, it was only one. Really, the only sucky part of the line was the fact that it was raining, and took a toll on me, but more on that later. The three of us decided to eat some Burger King from across the street right after getting our badges and con stuff, and then we went back to the con and checked everything out. However, I wasn’t feeling too well and Kait was picking up on it. I think it might’ve been the food since I didn’t feel anything until not long after we ate, but it may have also been me being outside in the rain for over an hour without being prepared for it. After we walked around most of the convention center and checked out a lot of the AMVs in the contest, me and Kait went back to the hotel for a nap, since she was a bit tired as well with her sleep schedule being changed around. We got a nice little nap in and Kait took good care of me after and I got all better.

We called Paul’s cell to see what they were up to and planned to meet him and Kate to eat dinner somewhere. I guess Matt found a bunch of cosplayers and clicked with them leaving us behind for the weekend, but at least he was having a great weekend. I’m pretty much going to write him out of this con report since he was always on his own, kind of like Derek back at A-Kon last summer. However, because of the crappy map Otakon game us, we got lost and were wandering around for a while, with little help from Paul. Thankfully I found a map on a corner, and we met up with them and ate at Tex Mex. I must say, eating there kicked ass. The food there was really good, I should’ve not ate BK earlier and ate more at Tex Mex. Afterwards, the four of us went back to the hotel to chill and drink some rum Kate brought. Sadly, it was coconut flavored and I really cannot stand coconut. Kate and Paul stayed at nice paces, Kait on the other hand drank about a glass and a half of it straight up. She got fairly drunk and a tad sick, but we cuddled and talked before eventually falling asleep.

Saturday 8/20/05 – Otakon, Day 2

We all slept in a little longer than yesterday, and pretty much did things on our own instead of as a group. The three of them went to get something to eat, I went to the con for the Bandai panel. However, the Bandai panel was cancelled, as they didn’t have a representative there. Apparently Jerry Chu left the company a week or two ago, and no one was sent in his place, which is understandable since Jerry played a really big part in the company and you can’t expect anyone to fill those shoes so quickly. So instead of going to the panel, I ate a hot dog then went to see some AMVs that were in the contest, seeing all of them minus the first category videos between the two times I went. Afterwards, I went to the video gaming room to play some games. This room kicked ass. It was a huge room filled with TV sets and a ton of systems and games spanning a lot of generations. Simply amazing. I played a bunch of games, and for the first time in my life, I got schooled in Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo. I’ve played the game on and off ever since its initial release and I’ve either kicked ass or had simply awesome matches, especially with former housemate Mike. With so many years under my belt, let’s just say the owning of me hit the ego a bit. Granted I hadn’t played in a while prior, but like I said, never before have been owned like that, no matter how long a break. I ran into Kate there and we played a round of DDR. She told me that Kait got an allergic reaction from her food earlier. Kait also said to tell me to not worry about her so I could have a fun day since I was really looking forward to the con. So I stayed at the con since she insisted so much.

We eventually ran into Paul too and we played some games as Kate went somewhere. She eventually met back up with us and we split up not long after. Paul went to the EVA panel (which I was told totally bombed since the special guest for the panel showed up late, and then came with no material), as me and Kate headed to ADV’s panel. I was expecting a panel similar to A-Kon’s, where they made announcements, previewed new trailers, and had a Q&A session while giving away stuff. However, at Otakon, apparently they had a preview panel with the announcements and trailers the night before, so this one was pure Q&A while giving away stuff. I was pretty disappointed since I would’ve loved to know about that. The panel was still very informative though. After ADV it was time to see Geneon’s panel, and Kate broke off from me at that point. When I got there, there was a Q&A session that just started with The Indigo, a group that came to perform at the con that Geneon helped bring over. Normally I wouldn’t have minded such a thing, however there was already an Indigo panel scheduled for later that night, so this seemed like a waste of Geneon’s time to me. And it was, since they took almost 45 minutes of the panel, which was an hour and a half long. Geneon showed off a bunch of trailers of stuff in the works, which was really cool. However, after the trailers they decided to start a bit of a game session where anyone who wanted a prize would line up, they would ask a question to the next person in line, and if they got it right they got a prize. So there wasn’t much for announcements, and no Q&A session. As they were getting people set up for the game, they explained that the trailers would be replayed at the panel later that night, which meant that they were sharing the panel with The Indigo later as well. I must say, I was disappointed with how the studios arranged things with their panels. Bandai I can understand as mentioned above, however I didn’t like how ADV and Geneon had stuff setup, and I guess Funimation did some stealth stuff as well. I didn’t even see them on the schedule, but I guess they had a couple under different titles. I really didn’t like that since Funimation is my favorite anime company over here at the moment and I was really looking forward to attending their panel.

After the panels, I went back to the hotel to check on Kait and she was doing a bit better. We spent some quality time together then ended up taking a walk to talk about things when Paul and Kate came back. After a serious conversation about various things, we went back to the room. Just as we were starting to fall asleep, she needed her inhaler but her purse was nowhere to be found. She flipped and we couldn’t find it in the room or in the hotel lobby. She kinda had a bit of a breakdown outside, we eventually went to our hallway, and then Paul eventually comes out saying he found it under the air mattress. -_- How did it get under there, and even moreso, how would Paul NOT feel it under him? Oy, at least that crisis was solved, and we went to bed.

Sunday 8/21/05 – Otakon, Day 3

Well, I didn’t go to the con at all. Kait and Paul went to the dealer’s room to buy stuff, while Kate and I stayed in bed. I dunno if she was tired or not, but I wanted to be rested for the drive. The two came back with some posters and manga, and Kait had an early birthday gift for me. She bought me In The Groove for PS2, since she knew how much I wanted it. Very nice surprise by her. ^_^ When Matt returned, we checked out of the hotel and started the drive. We had lunch at a Wendy’s just off I-83, where I saw the coolest sign ever, “Employees enter the closet at your own risk.” I took a pic of it. ^^;;; We got to Kate’s house not much later and said our goodbyes while finally getting a group shot of us taken. Then it was time for the long stretch back to New York. We ended up stopping at a McDonald’s not long before dropping Matt off, then finally getting back to Oswego. I dropped off Kait and Paul, then got back to my house and went to bed.

slightly drunken post for Kait

Tue, 23 Aug 2005 07:31:19 GMT

Well, Kait told me to have a post up before I go to bed, and I really don't feel like making an Otakon post just yet. Though I will say from that weekend that she got me an early birthday gift before we left. She bought me In The Groove for PS2, which is plain awesome. The next in line of dancing games does not disappoint, and I'm very glad that she got it for me. She is awesome. ^__^ I've played a few rounds on controller and have really enjoyed it thus far, can't wait to play on a dance pad. Looks really fun. ^_^

catch-up post

Sat, 06 Aug 2005 06:10:03 GMT

Well, it's been a hell of a month with lots of things to mention though I probably will miss a bunch of them. My finicial status is still quite shaky but I'm still holding on, everything else is great. A couple of weekends ago, me and Kait went up to her parents' new lake house not too far from Cooperstown. It was the first time that I met any of her family and I was a bit nervous, but we all got along pretty well. She later told me that they liked me which made me happy. It was a fun weekend and really made me feel more comfortable in the relationship and everything in various ways. I don't remember if I mentioned this before, but I brought her to my brother's graduation party about a month ago where she met my family, and they liked her. So it's really good that both families like the other in the relationship and I'm really happy for that.

Moving on to other things, I sold a chunck of my DVDs this past weekend to EB Games since I needed money to make a car insurance payment before my next paycheck. I have said this many times, and now that I've done it myself and have experienced it, I will say it again. Never sell your used stuff to stores like that. You will get raped up the ass with what they give you, and they will likely more than double the price they bought it for when they put it on the shelf. I went in hoping that it wouldn't be so bad in that I would get the difference of the money I didn't have for the payment plus enough store credit to leave with In the Groove, which roughly would be ~$100, and there's no reason to get less for as many DVDs as I brought in. I got $63 and some change and was pissed. I was going to take that recepit and laminate it (my mom actually has a machine that does that) or something to show excatly why no one should deal with those places when selling stuff, but I guess I left it on the counter so I can't do that. However, I'll bet that if I go to that store any day now and could randomly find less than 1/3 of those DVDs and the total will probably be double what I got for all that I brought in. Fucking ridiclous.

This past weekend was Harborfest. For those of you not familiar with it, the weekend is basically a town-wide party. There's events and concerts going on everywhere, and tons of drinking. You could roam the streets and just play beer pong with random people, some may just offer you a drink, and there's even places you can actually just walk into and actually party with people you don't even know. I usually take this weekend off from work, and this year was no exception. My main reason for taking it off is that traffic is horrific all weekend long, and the effort to get to and from work just isn't worth it. I spent a good majority of the weekend with Kait, who was feeling pretty uncomfortable with the whole event, and the people out on her porch (her apartment is split into 3 parts) partying really didn't help. I wasn't much in the party-mode either, so it was good casually drinking with her and Paul, and eventually being joined by her step-sister and her boyfriend to play drinking games. It was a fun weekend, and relaxing to have a few days off in a row for once.

Now the big thing for me to look forward to is Otakon. I know I probably shouldn't go since my finicial status isn't excatly the best, but I have two big reasons that are having me still go. First off is that I really need a vacation to keep me sane, I need a good break from the bell and everything else. What's awesome is that it's going to be a longer break than I thought. I took off Thursday - Monday for the trip, the Monday and Tuesday prior to the trip I have off (my normal two days off for the work just happened to fall on those two), and it look like I may have Wednesday off too, which would just kickass since that would be a whole week of no bell. I am really looking forward to that. Reason two for still going is the people going with me, and I'm not gonna cancel the thing just because of me. I would never bring myself to do that to anyone and I refuse to start now. Granted, a lot of people bailed on me, including my brother, which is annoying, but the people who are coming have been dedicated. Kait and Paul haven't backed down since they heard of the trip, Matt (hometown buddy) has been working on his costume for months, and Katy, an online friend of mine for years who lives in PA, has been interested about it since I told her and will be joinging us as well. It's going to be a great weekend, the con itself will already be amazing, and I know we'll all have lots of fun, and I'm looking forward to finally meeting Katy after all this time.

Today (as in Friday, since I haven't gone to bed yet), I finally cleaned this shithole I call a room. Yep, for the first time in this house, there is not stuff just lying around in random places or on the floor. It finally looks presentable in here, as well as in my "office," the little block of space that leads my room and rally has no other purpose. I call it my "office" since it has my old desk as part of it and cleared off with a desk lamp so I can do my reading and other work on it.

So things have been going well lately, and hopefully they'll stay as good as they are, and that my checkbook will get better along the way too. ^^;;; (and I have been a good boy, haven't bought anything for myself non-necessity-wise for three months now minus Warriors of Legend, a great book I highly recommend. ^_^)

meme time

Thu, 04 Aug 2005 06:15:40 GMT

To make Kait happy... =P

Have you ever
1. smoked a cigarette - yes, couple times after drinking
2. smoked a cigar - yes
3. made out with a member of the same sex - no
4. crashed a friend's car - no
5. stolen a car - no
6. been in love - yes
7. been dumped - if rejected = dumped, then yes, if not then no
8. shoplifted - no
9. been fired - yep, waiting for said person to be released to take out aggression, have I been fired and deserved it? no
10. been in a fist fight - a couple growing up
11. snuck out of your house - you can't sneak out of my parents house o_o;
12. had feelings for someone who didn't return them - almost always
13. been arrested - no
14. made out with a stranger - nope
15. gone on a blind date - nope
16. lied to a friend - not that I can recall unless it was to prevent pain for them
17. had a crush on a teacher - probably
18. skipped school - a bunch of times in college, even if you don't count this past fall semester ^^;;;;
19. slept with a co-worker - no
20. seen someone die - no
21. been on a plane - yes
22. thrown up in a bar - yep, twice
23. taken painkillers - nope
24. love someone or miss someone right now - yep
25. laid on your back and watched cloud shapes go by - yep
26. made a snow angel - yep
27. played dress up - don't think so
28. cheated while playing a game - probably
29. been lonely - yep
30. fallen asleep at work/school - work no, school I think I have once or twice
31. used a fake id - no
32. felt an earthquake - not yet
33. touched a snake - yep
34. ran a red light - only when it's "pink" as Steve says
35. been suspended from school - nope
36. had detention - a couple times
37. been in a car accident - yep
38. hated the way you look - not really
39. witnessed a crime - no, but I have been the victim of a couple
40. pole danced - hell no
41. been lost - all the fricken time
42. been to the opposite side of the country - farthest I've gotten was Texas twice
43. felt like dying - a couple times this year yeah
44. cried yourself to sleep - yep
45. played cops and robbers - probably
46. sang karaoke - I think like once, not counting Karoke Revolution
47. done something you told yourself you wouldn't - yep
48. laughed till some kind of beverage came out of your nose - yep
49. caught a snowflake on your tongue - yep
50. kissed in the rain - nope
51. sing in the shower - nope
52. made love in a park - nope
53. had a dream that you married someone - yep
54. glued your hand to something - wouldn't suprise me
55. got your tongue stuck to a flag pole - one of the few things I was smart enough to not do as a kid ^^;
56. worn the opposite sex's clothes - nope
57. been a cheerleader - nope
58. sat on a roof top - yep
59. didn't take a shower for a week - I can't go more than two days
60. ever too scared to watch scary movies alone - nope
61. played 'chicken' - don't really know what that is ^^;;
62. been pushed into a pool with all your clothes on - yep, as well as jumped in myself with clothes on
63. been told you're hot by a complete stranger - nope, but I've been told by strangers I have beautiful eyes now and then
64. broken a bone - no
65. been easily amused - all the time
66. laugh so hard you cry - yep
67. mooned/flashed someone - nope
68. cheated on a test - don't think so
69. forgotten someone's name - until I get to know someone well I'm bad with names
70. slept naked - nope
71. gone skinny dipping in a pool - nope
72. been kicked out of your house - nope
73. blacked out from drinking - came very close on my 21st, but I never completely blacked out
74. played a prank on someone - yep
75. gone to a late night movie - yep
76. made love to anything not human - nope
77. failed a class - if we don't count this past fall (and argubly spring since I was technically enrolled somehow) then no
78. choked on something you're not supposed to eat - don't think so
79. played an instrument for more than 10 hours - yes, if you take away food and short breaks, done in marching band camp and at least one honor band
80. cheated on a gf/bf - nope
81. felt like killing someone - yep
82. ate a whole package of oreos - hell yeah
83. thrown strange objects - yep
84. thought about running away - yep
85. ran away - nope
86. did drugs - did pot for a bit a while back (and have been done with it for a good while)
87. had detention and did not attend it - nope
88. yelled at parents - yep
89. made a parent cry - not sure
90. cried over someone - yep
91. been in a band - yep
92. owned more than 5 sharpies - nope
93. dated more than 1 person at once - nope
94. had a dog - nope
95. had a cat - nope
96. owned an instrument - yep, own a trombone
97. had more than 25 sodas in one day - .....I will work hard to accomplish this ^_^;;;
98. broken a cd - yep
99. shot a gun - nope
100. visit lj more than 5 times per day - nope

things slowly looking up

Fri, 15 Jul 2005 05:36:49 GMT

Over the course of the past few days, things have gotten better for me:

* Some of my DVDs have finally started to sell. While I hate to see them go, it's good to have some extra money coming in to help out with everything, and at least I'm not losing much since I'm making my own copies of them.

* Otakon stuff. Personally I feel behind since I wanted to have everyone registered by now so it would be cheaper, but not everyone can ensure plans will work that far ahead like I can so it's understandable. But the real good news in this case is that joining us in the trip is one of my online friends from PA. I was talking to her this week and she seems to be a definite to go and is sending me her reg check right now. I'm glad I finally get to meet another online friend I've known for a good few years now. ^_^

* Phobos. While back online last week, I finished doing the other stuff that had to be done with the server, except my e-mail. That addy was starting to get way too much spam anyways and I really don't want that shit to try to make its way over here anyways. Also, I definetly learned a lot in the process of working with it the past couple of weeks. Granted, I would've rather learned that stuff in other ways, but better than not at all I guess.

* Work. It's still a shit job, but things there are starting to look up a bit. I get along with the new manager pretty well, though work-wise I'm getting used to how he does things still. Thought it was going to be the catalyst for me to finally leave actually, but recentally the opposite has happened. He recognizes me as manager material and plans to promote me to a shift manager finally. ^_^ He's going to talk with the DM about it or maybe already has, since he told me that he jost ordered me the book to study from for the food safety test when it comes around here again, a test that only managers take. It'll be nice when the promotion finally happens, I'll finally be making closer to what I should be, and get benefits as well, which will be great in itself since I'm off my parents' insurance. I've been telling myself that the only reason worth staying would be if I got promoted since right now the only thing making it worth it is working with the people I do and being very close to them, and it looks to finally be happening.

* My ticket. Finally taken care of. With it being said and done, I managed to get it reduced down more than I expected, so now I only have a fine to worry about paying within the month.

Tis been a good week for me. Granted there's still a lot of stress in my life right now, but between all that above as well as me and kait getting closer and doing really well, it looks like that things are finally starting to turn around this year. ^_^

about time

Tue, 05 Jul 2005 23:34:37 GMT

Phobos is back online. Not 100% setup, but everything that the people all over the net use is up and running. I am so happy right now. Now to move onto the other stuff on the list. ^^;;;

room nearing completion

Wed, 29 Jun 2005 03:51:05 GMT

After the phobos fight for the day, I decided to get more done with my room. So my project was getting my entertainment center all set up, and I must say it's my best work of that sort to date. Two TVs stacked on top of each other, each with its own VCR, each TV can tune into a different station, each has its own A/V switch box, the box for the bottom TV has an output going into the top TV's box so everything can make its way to the top TV, in which the A/V box for that leads to the 2.1 speakers. I'm not sure if that makes any sense or not, but let's just say that the setup really kicks ass. ^_^ I'm so glad I finally got that done, second to last big task I had to get done. All that's left now (besides moving the loveseat up here once I get that couch for the livingroom from my old boss, but that's not really in my control right now) is to clear my shit out of Chris A's room. It's about time that the end of getting everything in here setup is almost here.

......bah

Tue, 28 Jun 2005 23:54:22 GMT

Well, everytime I seem to be getting ahold of things, something has to happen that shows otherwise. This time, it's phobos. Yep, my beloved server which hosts everything found on smuncensored.com and fightingmongooses.com has decided to be a bitch. It's not the fact that something's going wrong that bugs me, it's that it's not giving me any clues and whatnot as to what the fuck is wrong with it. Thankfully with some creativity, I was able to get everything backed up from it so nothing will be lost when it get's back up. However, getting it back up is proving to be harder than it should be. Everytime I try to reformat it with a different linux build, it usually randomly locks up and then has various kernel panic errors. I've cleaned out the dust from the system (damn there was a shitload), even put in new RAM strips (the mistake of getting those eariier this year paid off), and there's been little progress. I have no idea of what's wrong and how to fix it. If anyone has any idea of what I can do, please let me know. I hate that the server is down and there's nothing I can do about it, and I especially hate that this also means everything on the server is down until I can get this fixed. Hopefully people will see this and understand what's going on, and even better that this all get's fixed so things can go on like normal. Is that so hard to ask that something just stay working the way it was? >=(