A Wild Post Appears!

 Wow, I haven't done this is WAY too long. Sorry if this ends up more text heavy than my past entries.

It's been more than ten years since I've updated this blog in any way. I MAY have done some touching up on the guides, but definitely nothing that was significant. 

Last I left off, I had started work at Fed Ex, which was giving me a proper work out. That place paid me the best I ever had. But holy hell was it awful. 

Man, I can't believe blogger saved all these old ass images I used to use. But this is fitting.

I went through more than 12 managers in 6 months at one point. They treat you like a number, don't give a shit about you unless you are calling out or underperforming, and handed out write ups like candy. They also attempted to break a few labor laws I noticed, and I had to call them out on it. 

Some examples being told we have to fill out some survey or saftey meeting thing at the end of a shift. Manager starts going over it when a higher up asks what he was doing. Manager tells him, and the higher up says "Well have them punch out first!" As soon as he told us to punch out, I just left. If I'm not being paid, I don't have to do it. And guess what? Nothing came of it.

Another example ended up how they would do write ups. You could be doing fine, but if your section failed, you could be getting a write up despite doing all you could. I started just throwing them out, and guess what? Nothing came of it.

I actually hurt myself so many different times there. My first day during training, a box with hard plastic came zooming down the conveyer belt and caught the side of my arm. Immediately bleeding pretty bad. My trainer got me some alcohol wipes and a band aid at least, but still, what a first impression. Also thought I gave myself a hernia at one point despite doing proper lifting procedures. BTW, they tried blaming me on that in the safety report.

At one point I also hurt my wrist, and instead of being allowed to go to a doctor, they wanted me to consult with their 'Wellness Coach' who had a voice very reminiscent of the male Wii Fit Trainer. I swear, I thought he was going to ask me about doing some deep breathing. His solution was put ice on the wrist on and off, with a heat compress every now and then, and maybe a brace. And I was to come into work, talk to wellness coach (they tried to tell me don't punch in, but fuck that shit if you are requiring me to come in) and if I didn't feel like I could lift, then I could go home. They didn't SEND me home, because then they would have to pay. They 'offered' the option and hey, they won't write me up for it! And of course, all light duty areas are always taken up by the retirees that have connections with the company. 

I also wouldn't be surprised if that place gave me some sort of lung issues. There was SO MUCH DUST! I come home dirty as hell, and if I blew my nose, my mucus would be gray. The inside of those trailers are NOT cleaned (or if they are, not often) and they only had dusty fans to help keep us cool. 

They also loved to say things were mandatory despite being unenforceable. They said in our contract, we would have to work on Sundays or Saturdays (despite me being part time and already working monday to friday) during holiday seasons. I checked my contract and... nope, not there. Told the manager, nah, not doing that. They tried to write me up and I told them it wouldn't hold up. They showed the write up in my face and I refused to sign it. Eventually, they bargained with me, and I would come in for SOME of those days but not EVERY Weekend. They also tried to have me sign a new contract to which I refused. 

They also wanted to try and force mandatory meetings BEFORE work without punching in and I told them if you require me to do something it will be on the company time. I punched in anyway and told them if they edit it, I'm calling a labor board. They only tried editing things a few times, but I spoke to my managers each time, and they did change it back themselves (Was higher ups trying to pull crap, not the managers).

What cause me to leave there finally was when I had finally found a section that I vibed well with, they suddenly told me as I walked in "Hey, you're going to Section C, they need help. Permanently." So my reward for being a good worker is sudden relocation with no thought of giving me a heads up, asked input, or care what I felt. I gave it a day, then said, "Fuck this place," handed my new manager a 2 week notice cause I was DONE.

The money was excellent and all, even more than where I currently work, but they CAN afford to do that. Bribe you to ruin your body more. I don't know if it still is the same there, but any time I hear someone consider going there, I let them know how bad it was, and to check their options before doing it. 

Hmm, I think that's enough for now. I just felt the need to write things out and throw it our there. Let's see when I next update, haha!

Working Out: Week 4

Week 1     Week 2     Week 3

As we enter the 4th week, a few changes have occurred. I still am using Wii Fit Plus and EA Active More Workouts on the Nintendo Wii. My workouts are mostly the same, but now a change in the schedule is to be made.Originally, my weekly schedule alternated going Strength exercises, Aerobics, day off, then back to strength and repeating... Now I am going to attempt to not have a day off so often.

My weight starting this was around 177lbs, but since I started this work out regime, my weight fluctuated around it slightly being lower, but not much a huge difference. Since this is week 4, I think it's time to take a bit more action. Perhaps I just need a little more exercising with less days off to make this work. I'm sure some of this ties in with only being active part of the day instead of all day long, or my eating habits, but I'll try to change that.

Working Out: Week 3

Week 1   Week 2

Still working out. Weight lost has been rather small, but I am not expecting anything too big yet. I'm still using Wii Fit Plus and EA Sports Active: More Workouts on the Nintendo Wii. Sometimes, I do other exercises, such as walking the dog, or playing some Dance Dance Revolution/In The Groove at the arcade. A few years ago, using all this, I was able to lose 15 lbs. Now that my BMI is considered overweight, I need to lose about 20lbs, so I'm at it again!

Most of this takes place in my basement unless otherwise stated. However, because my basement has a very low ceiling, I can't do stand-up Yoga poses down there so I do those on my own in my room. The rest are done on Wii Fit Plus with its Yoga routines.

Video links are randomly found on youtube and not my own.

Working Out: Week 2

Week 1

Still trying to keep working out every day to some degree using Wii Fit Plus and EA Active More Workouts for the Nintendo Wii. I'll keep a log of my progress on this blog and update every Monday until I either meet my goal or... fail.

The way I organize my work out days is one day I do strength exercises with EA Active More Workouts, next day do aerobics with Wii Fit Plus, and third day as my day off. However, everyday, I do a minimal amount of Yoga.

Most of this takes palce in my basement unless otherwise stated. However, because my basement has a very low ceiling I can't do stand-up Yoga poses down there so I do on my own in my room. The rest are done on Wii Fit Plus with its Yoga routines.

Video links are randomly found on youtube and not my own.

Faith post once again

This entry will be very image heavy with a lot of Faith related images, and some of the dogs around the neighborhood.

Faith is now 9 months old, has been spayed, and gone through several problems sadly...

Working out post: Week 1

After realizing I was overweight (according to Wii Fit Plus's BMI count, I'm 7 lbs over an "okay" weight for my stature), I decided to start working out again. Using Wii Fit Plus as my scale & yoga exercises, and EA Active More Workouts for my strength training, my goal is to drop my weight back into the normal scale. Currently I am 5'10.5 with a weight of 177~lbs. According to Nintendo Wii Fit Plus, a more normal weight for someone my height is 153~ lbs. With some luck, I'll reach my goal of 150slbs, possible even get some abs!

I did this a some years ago when I felt chubby from being inactive. Back then I used a combination of Wii Fit and Dance Dance Revolution/In The Groove at my local arcade. Unfortunately, my local arcade has closed down, and the nearest arcade isn't TOO far, but just far enough that I don't want to travel there often. Also, most home pads suck so not going to do it at home. When I accomplished this goal last time, I hactually has some definition showing in my stomach compared to the boney ribs I used to have when younger, and no longer had a belly that pinched me when I leaned sideways or forwards. Sadly, it's back now!

If I can stay on task, I'll make an update once a week on my progress of working out. So far, my plan is strength work outs one day (with yoga stretching before it), aerobics day (still some yoga), and my off day where all I do is yoga stretches.

NOTE: Any links to videos I may give for exercises are NOT done by me, just found on Youtube.

Here is what I have done so far.

Another writing of the past: Stages of Growth

Just like a previous entry I am sharing with you another writing I did back in high school. It was for the same class with the same bitch of a teacher. The topic was "3 Stages of Growth" where we had to write about occurrences in out lives we felt made us grow. Being the negative person I was, I wrote about moments that pissed me off that caused me to close myself to others.

Just like the last entry, I didn't change anything, so the bad sentence structures, typos, and opinions were that of my 17-year old self. This does not necessarily reflect my current opinions or way of thinking (though certainly was a bit of a basis on how I became today)

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There are times in your life that you experience tremendous moments that make you feel changed or become stronger. Sometimes it is for the better, other times for the worse. We all hope its for the better, but I can tell you for a fact, that is not true. Events are going to happen, and you’re going to have to make decisions. With your good decisions, you’ll get through mostly unharmed, and with your bad decisions you learn from the mistake made. Well, hopefully you will anyway. I’ve experienced quite a mix of decisions that changed me and made me stronger, or possibly weaker. Each paragraph shows different times I have learned something and start on as a story of its own. Try not to get lost.  

When I was in elementary school, I started out happy and bubbly. Always wanting to make friends, trusting anyone, it was no big deal to tell anyone anything. When I hit middle school, things changed. People became gossipers and I learned the hard way you can’t tell everyone everything. There was one time in my art class I told this guy how I used to have a best friend in elementary school, but then we became enemies. I told him how in elementary I started out pretty popular and everyone liked me until fourth grade when my “friend” stopped talking to me. He became popular and I had a bad end of insults constantly thrown at me with no one ever defending me. This person was also in that art class, but was on the other side of the room. This guy absorbed it and said, “Well, that sucks.” Then my ex-friend was coming over for markers or something and the guy says,”Hey! This kid is whining how you made him unpopular and how you used to be friends.” So the guy betrayed me, and embarrassed me. I started to stop talking so openly after that. I figured only some people will be jerks and other can be kind. Later I found I was wrong still. Through out middle school was horrible and I kept becoming betrayed to a point I stopped socializing with people. People mocked me more, but I held up. In high school, things started to become better. People that were jerks still were, but they were jerks only in their classes and didn’t bother me as much. So I became a little more trusting. I even started becoming closer with my sister since she could drive. We always were sent out for fast food, grocery shopping, Christmas tree finding, and the like, so we became closer. During the summer of my sophomore year, I discovered this great online thing called “Livejournal” and I posted my emotions and feeling into it. Well one summer morning I wake and find my sister logged onto my livejournal reading everything. I was furious. I couldn’t believe someone in my own family had to spy on me. That hit a big point to me where I shouldn’t trust anyone. It taught me if you put too much trust in one person, you’re building up for a bigger and more painful fall. Now, I have the strictest test I give people before I even THINK of telling them anything personal.  I’ve been hurt too much in the past, and I hold grudges. If you made my life painful, I’m going to treat you as I would a pesky fly in my room.

There’s this girl I knew since middle school that I still know to this day in high school. She has quite a good amount of friends, pretty, and is smart. However, she constantly complains about things not going her way and how all the bad things happen to her. She isn’t little miss perfect either. She is two faced; she talks behind the backs of the people she “cares” for. I used to not think the quote, “What goes around comes around” was just BS. However, it turns out its pretty true, and this girl was living proof. She cheated on one of her boyfriends and then made it sound like he did these horrible things that caused her to do it. 3 months later, she finds out she has this disease called hypoglycemia. Sugar is bad for her now and her favorite foods intake was greatly reduced in number. Another time I had to walk home late at night from the mall since I couldn’t get a ride home. I was scared, and wanted to talk to someone while I walked so I wouldn’t feel afraid. I called her and asked her, she told me that she was busy with her boyfriend and can’t talk. I told her how much it would mean to me if she could just talk to me for 5 minutes but she didn’t care and hung up on me. A month later she had a mental breakdown. Many other occasions have gotten her into a state of seeking attention and very mentally screwed. She’s in many bad relationships, but refuses to let go of her cold hearted ways. With that, I found that the quote is true; what goes around indeed does come around.

My sister has a problem with money: she can’t help spending it! One year, she had gotten really deep in her money debts, but wouldn’t tell anyone. A lot of her things started getting shut off, there were phone calls coming on her home line all the time demanding for money until her home line got turned off. When we tried calling her home line one time, we heard the voice recording that said this number was disconnected and we asked questions. She said the phone company must be having problems or something. That would’ve worked if the her home line and the house’s main line weren’t from the same company. Finally, my mother found one of my sister’s bills, and that was when she confronted my sister about it all. She cried on saying she couldn’t help it and was having a hard time dealing with it all. So my parents paid her bills off and told her that she’ll have to give them some money from her paycheck each paycheck to pay it off. She agreed, saying she can probably get organized now. To this day she has not paid them back. They remind her and remind her, but she says, “Oh not this week, I don’t have much money.” The sad thing is she is using so much money she has to dedicate most of her paycheck to paying off other bills she says she doesn’t have. She’s heading toward a direction of incredible debt, but just wants to have a good time. I tried changing her and teaching her to be responsible about her money like I am. She started to get it, but she didn’t like the fact she could not go out all the time just to save money, and quit that. I tried several other times with different ideas, but she just doesn’t seem to want to. If she could only get herself organized, face reality and start focusing on her bills already. I pretty much given up since she refuses to change. From this, I learned that you can’t change anyone but yourself. You can show people the path, its their choice if they want to take it or not though.

These three things made impact on my life. I stopped trusting a lot of people to keep my safety intact. Anything I tell people is usually things that wouldn’t matter getting out, or something I trust with them that isn’t TOO important. However, I’m going to be nice to those who are nice to me. Bad karma can prove to be a dangerous thing, and I rather not chance that. Finally, if someone decides not to take my advice, I tend to leave them on their own unless they ask for it. No point advising someone that won’t listen.

An old writing: Who NOT to become

This came from an English assignment I had when I was a senior in high school. The teacher actually was a huge cunt, but I have to admit, her assignments were somewhat interesting. The topic of this one is, "Who would you NOT want to become?" Keep in mind that I was in a much different thought pattern that I am in today, and I left all the spelling and writing errors I had in it. The opinions I had back then are not necessarily the opinions I have now. But this IS a true story!

An amazing weekend.

Last weekend was probably the best three days I have had in quite awhile.

Names changed to nicknames for privacy reasons.

Last Friday, a friend of mine was heading to one of the few arcades left in our state because a mass music game tournament was being held there for the weekend. I used to go there when I was a DDR fiend and could actually compete, but my competitive days are pretty much over. I asked my friend if I could come along, since it has been months since I stepped foot on a dance machine, and it rather depressed me.

I got a lot of those dance game urges out of the way that night, and even ran into an old friend, Cucumber, from back when I used to compete in these tournaments. He asked if I would be coming the next day saying it would be nice if I could come since there really wasn't anyone from our generation. I originally wasn't planning on it unless my friend was going to go (I seriously have nothing to do while unemployed), but figured why not and went again the next night, rooting for Cucumber as he had entered all of the tournaments.

That Saturday is when I ran into even more old friends from the past! One girl whom I called my "DDR best friend," Butterfly, was there and I pretty much talked her friggin ears off, haha! Because I generally have been stuck inside my home with not much to do, I've been missing this sort of socialization. It felt like a mix of being at a sports stadium rooting for your team, having dinner with old friends, and just hanging out with people you like! I had so much fun that night, I figured I'd go the final day just to see things through.

Sunday ended up with even more friends from the past, including an old best friend that I just had grown apart from, Lex. She made some drastic changes in her life that did sort of made me nervous to approach her at first. When i used to hang out with Lex, she would talk about feeling like a woman stuck inside a man's body, so it shouldn't have been THAT much of a shock to me when she showed up in a dress and sweater. I think because it had been so long since I saw her is what did the shock to me moreso though. Still I had to get confidence from Butterfly to start the talk with her, but after that I realized my nervousness was retarded; Lex was still the same friend, just doing what she needs to in order to find happiness in her life.

I went back to rooting for Cucumber in the tournaments he had left. I barely paid attention to the In The Groove tournament going, and mainly rooted for him with the Dance Dance Revolution Extreme Doubles tournament. That was a hilariously awesome tournament with so many close matches. There ended up being a lot of AAAs (meaning got everything absolutely perfect), and a few upsets. Okay, actually it's kind of hard to describe what the hell happened without being boring, so let's just say Cucumber won that!

After all the tournaments were over, they announced the winners of each individual one, and made the announcement of the winner of them all. The way they determined the overall winner was based on how many tournaments they entered and how well they did in them, then making some sort of average. I don't know the exact formula, but doing more tournaments could only help your score. And who won? Cucumber! Made me glad I came this weekend to see him win! He did say, though, that he was maybe barely breaking even for all the entry fees, but it was worth it for all the fun he had.

After the weekend, i ended up sick until now. The over-exertion with shouting, playing dance games, and being in a germy environment probably did it. I think it's a small price to pay for a damn great weekend, though!

I did take pictures at the tournament, but they were take on the 3DS camera, so the quality is UNBELIEVABLY SHITTY. So... enjoy! :D

I apparently messed with the kind of shot I wanted this to be, thus the black outline. Just an example of the crowd. To the left WAS a Pop 'N' Music machine, but I suck and failed capture that.

The crowd watching the "In The Groove" Tournament. Can't see it, but where the gray shirt guy is standing is where the In The Groove Machine is.

Failing again to get the Pop 'N' Music machine, but a better picture of the crowd. Also worth noting is a shitload of fighting games.

A somewhat decent picture of the Dance Dance Revolution Extreme Singles tournament going.

The winners of the tournament posing for the camera, with some other people. The winners are the ones wearing the bronze, silver, and gold helmets. No, I don't know the significance these helmets have to do with music games.

If it's possible to believe, there WAS shittier pictures! These somehow came out the best. On a sidenote, if someone has a 3DS, see if you can see these in 3D if you put them on there. All of these were takein in 3D originally.

Father's Day

My father and I have had a weird relationship throughout my life. Growing up, I hated him and resented him, even at times wishing death on him. Today, we have more of an odd buddy and annoyance thing going on. We're not exactly close, just when we get along, we crack some of the funniest jokes with each other. When annoyed with each other, it's either passive-agressive anger, or angry for the day, then tomorrow we forget about it. Or at least he does.

To be honest, I've harbored extreme resentment with him for a very long time. I still resent him today, but it's just easier to forget about it then delve into it. As much as I hate some of the things he's done in the past, it just seems stupid to start an argument about it.

Once when I was around 5-7, my sister and I shared a small room together, bunkbeds and all. She was keeping me out of the room when I wanted to play in there, and I was pissed off that she wouldn't let me in. I don't think anyone was home at the time, or if they were, outside, so I couldn't tell on her. Instead, I got a metal baseball bat and hit the door with it. Dad see's the damage to the door, and slaps me upside the face. While I'm on the ground he's yelling obscenities at me for doing something so stupid. I tried arguing but all I could do was babble out incoherent things... I think I managed to say what happened but I was the one to get fully blamed for that in the end... I deserved to be punished, don't get me wrong, but I hated how he handled the situation.

One time around 7-9 years old, it was summer time. I had been enjoying sleeping in a lot. My sister barged in (we had separate rooms by now) and said mom wanted to talk to me. I yelled back I just want to sleep, but she kept pestering me. I even started giggling out of frustration because being half asleep, everything is kind of funny. Mom apparently heard that too... Later in the day, I was hanging out with some friends at the park near my house. Dad came up from behind me, grabbed me by the hood of my jacket and ran me back home, yelling at how I should talk to my mother when she asks it. I don't think he hit me this time, but I cannot be sure. Definitely was grounded for retarded reasons. My best guess is I should have called mom when I actually "woke up." Mom took me giggling though as being awake and just not wanting to talk to her and lying or some shit...

In the Middle school years, I was going to a psychologist since I was quite depressed. They suggested I take an IQ test for some reason or another (I tried very hard to block out a lot of the middle school years, so minor things tend to get hazy). In elementary school, I had gotten a pretty good IQ score, I can't remember what it was. When I took this VERY DIFFERENT psychology IQ test the results came back pretty bad. My father called me out to the living room, and yelled at me. He believed I didn't try hard enough since the test results said i was retarded. He then made me feel i was a complete idiot and useless, then grounded me for such a thing. Dad mentioned something like an IQ doesn't go down, therefore it had to be my fault. From what i remember of that test, however, it was just recognizing images and making stories about them and some computer test where I had to hit a letter that quickly flashes across the screen. The IQ test in elementary school actually had problem solving and such, so I really don't think you can compare the two.

Unknown age, we were visiting New York City at a toys r us. We had gone to many places and this was the last stop. I wanted to look around, but all I got was 5 minutes and then they said, okay we're going. I through a tantrum (Maybe I was 8 at the oldest then?) and stomped my foot saying how unfair this was and dad got a death threat look on his eyes and yelled "Don't you dare ever stomp your foot at me." This was more of a minor thing, but this became a catchphrase of his for a short period of time and the punishments were more than a simple yelling to.

We were setting up the Christmas tree one time and dad was making me  I think trim the bottom of the tree, or filling it with water... I can't remember. The annoying tree kept getting in my hair and down my back or something otherwise uncomfortable, and I still had really bad allergies at the time. I yelled saying I'm done with this, and stomped away. Suddenly I heard dad getting up and he had that death look on his face, and so I ran to the only place with a lock on the door; the bathroom. He banged on the door demanding I finish dealing with the tree or he'd knock down the door. I yelled back, "Only if you don't hit me." He yelled obscenities some more but eventually said yes. I went back, crying and cringing to finish the tree, but he kept his word on not hitting me this time.

Back to middle school years, I was pretty much terrified of my dad by now. So every time he raised his hands, I cringed from him. He noticed and yelled at me for cringing, saying if i keep doing that, he might just smack me for it... This was a bit of a boiling point for me, where I was slowly not just fearing him, but resenting him in totality. If I'm starting to cringe around you, doesn't that say maybe you have done something wrong? Not to him, though.

Even when i was 18 and older, we have had shouting matches, but he wouldn't dare hit me in these years. When I was younger, I never attacked my father back, because besides having very poor self image of my strength, I also was weak armed. My legs were very fit though from playing soccer and running around for years, as well as I knew how to kick from karate class for years too... I could have actually hurt him back if I was able to will myself to. However, once when I was 17, dad once tried to just put his hand on my arm about something (nonviolently), and I quickly batted it away before he could even get close (thank you karate and paranoia). He told me to relax, but noticed how quick I was, and I believe learned just not to do anything (or he just was getting old and knew it was actual assault). I also developed a bit of a touching phobia by now, which I still have today.

Still, he managed to yell at me bad enough to make me do things in my adult hood. For instance, my sister used to take the train to work some years back, and occasionally needed a ride back home. We were in walking distance of the train, but it WAS a little bit of a long walk. I think I had not slept very well or had work earlier in the day and did not want to pick her up this time because I was tired. I talked to my sister and she said it's okay, she'll walk this time. Dad woke up from his nap and asked why I wasn't picking her up and I told him why and how we already talked it over and he flipped his shit demanding I go pick her up because I was being lazy. By this age, i was a lot more stubborn however, and yelled right back at him at how exhausted I was from work (or possibly college?) and I just wanted to rest this time, but he wouldn't hear of it. By now, I was so angry, I couldn't relax so I told him fine, drove off like a maniac and picked her up and dropepd her off, then went off somewhere in anger since I couldn't deal with him at the time.I waited until he went to sleep before coming home that night.

I blame a lot of my anger issues on him really. It pisses me off I can't do anything about it either... Well, rather, I can, but besides being pointless and wrong, I owe him too much to do something horrible like beat him up (which I believe I could). Plus even if I didn't owe him, I've stopped myself from doing dramatic things like attacking him or calling police on him because I knew it would hurt my mother on the inside. In fact I know she would get upset everytime we fought. I do have a little resentment in her not stopping some of his little acts, but it's easier to forgive her for that.

In any case, I doubt I'll ever do something to my father unless he attacks me first. I still do love him too and we are able to get along these days still... It just eats at me any time I think of things he did. But these days, not only does he have MS, but has other related pain problems. I don't know if I'd call it karma really and I really don't enjoy the fact he has problems like this either... In a way, though, I suppose I could say it is punishment for overreacting in the past, but i don't consider it like that. Hopefully I'll be able to let go of this anger sometime.

Blast from the past once more: A Snow day

This is a story I tell time and time again to my friends. I've even created it into a mini-play for when I took a scriptwriting class. It is one of my more favorable childhood memories.

It was winter time and my cousins were over. It was either a snow day from school or just on break at the time. We were all outside on my front yard, my sister and our oldest cousin K (girl) were chatting it up, I was trying to make an igloo with my cousin O (I mentioned her a few times in entries), and the twins (boys) were throwing snowballs. I was about 8, which makes the twins 7, O would be 9, my sister 11, and K would be 12. We had to take my dog out which is why we were there in the first place. He was a puppy at this time.

My dog kept trying to bring his tennis ball out, but we had to take it away because we did not want it to get lost. He started whimpering, and went after one of the snowballs the twins were tossing, and a new game was made! We all started tossing snowballs in the air so he could try to catch them. A few missed but he was okay with that. Mom called from the house hat some hot chocolate was ready. We all started to go in but my sister said someone has to stay out since our dog didn't do his business yet. She of course appointed me, and went inside with K and the twins. O stayed with me though, and we continued playing the snowball toss game.

Then came A. He was a kid and neighbor across the street, 11 like my sister. He saw us playing with my dog and asked what we were doing. After we explained the idea of it he asked if he could try. I saw no problem with it and said sure. A made a snowball and tossed it up, but the dog missed it, and got a faceful of snow. He let out a small whimper, which had A starting to laugh. he then proceeded to pelt my dog with snowballs instead of tossing them up. O and I yelled at him to stop, but he wouldn't listen, so i ran forward to get him to stop and ended up with a snowball in my face. A went back home laughing, my dog ran to the door shivering and whining, and O ran to me asking if I was all right.

Then I entered rage mode, so to speak. No one does that to my dog! I started to head to A's house, but O stopped me, reminding me that we weren't allowed to cross the street without my sister or K around. I shook her off, screaming I don't care and ran across the street after him. O let my dog in, quickly mentioned to Jess and the others what I was doing and then ran after me.

A was in his backyard doing something with the snow. I just ran up to him and pushed him down. He cursed, and pushed me back, and we had a shoving war, with him winning, being bigger than me. O came a moment later and nailed him with some snow, and helped me up. She started yelling and screaming at him and trying to shove/scratch/bite/everything to him and I punched him futilely. I really couldn't hurt him, i was never very strong when i was a kid. He managed to grab O by her hair and knock me in the face full of snow. We were both crying and fighting him at the same time, so upset in general. Then came my sister.

She managed to get O away from A and was trying to break up the fight A and I were in, but we both kind of shoved her off. I managed to get a good push on A and he hit his head on his metal fencing in his backyard. He got super pissed, grabbed some toy to use like a club and charged us. My sister threw O and I behind her and grabbed onto the toy to stop him. She managed to wrestle it out of his hands and threw it over the fence. Still pissed, A went after us again, but then came K and the twins.

The twins threw snowballs which slowed him down some to get my sister drag O and I away (which we both struggled to attack A still). Still unrelenting, A tried to charge after us still, but K then made a snowball and smacked it right into his face. Defeated, he went back inside his house, probably told on us, but nothing ever came of it.

My sister and K then proceeded to scold us for crossing the street without them, fighting with A, and anything else they could think of. After I told sis what he did to our dog though, she lightened up some.

Even though it seems kind of wrong to like a memory of a whole gang of kids beating on one asshat of a kid, I liked it because my cousins and I came together and helped one another (like we should).

A blast from the past: My first DDR Tournament.

This is taken from my 15 1/2 year-old self's perspective of when I still was on livejournal. As such, there will be spelling errors, walls of text, and general overexcitement because I was a teen. Throw in some angst too, while we are at it. Only editted parts are the names of people and places.
----------------------------------------
I eneterd my first DDR Tournament today and guess what? I made third place in perfect attack! Besides that, it was ctually a quite weird day.

WOke up early unwantingly, but quickly remembered about the contest through L, or Little Butterfly as she is named (Who is on my friends list here) in her journal. I went to ask my mom about it, we went through this whole ordeal of "Its probably Free style and you don't like that," or "You had to sign up earlier didn't you?" and so on. I'm glad I didn't let i get me down, though I was VERY stressed out, I did show lots of childish frustration, such as banging my head on the wall, exasperated groans and sighs, and whining. :p I called S and got more info on the contest, and a great thanks to that, otherwise I would of had to lie more... :D Anyway, I had to tell my mom that no matter what, at the time Lord of the Rings starts, (ARound 9pm or so) I must leave earlier. I agreed to this since I thought I had no chance at all.

My sister was chosen to drive me there. We had to stop at her friend's house for some reason, I didn't care. We eventually made it to ARCADE. My sis was instructed to wait for me so I can check out if the contest is set and such. It was, gave her the ok, and thus began my little adventure. :)

I signed up, found both C (Mr. Roboto or the 20 year old one) and the other C+ with his wife (Both who are 28) there, along with L/Little Butterfly, unknowingly for awhile. Basically I had talked to Married C+ and he explained the tournament and such. It gave me an idea as what to do, but oh well. :D I then found out that a girl nearby was L by C+, and Introduced myself as [LJ name here]! :D Let's say we were both hyper in the tournament, singing all the songs nearly, talking of better music, and who has more of certain music and such. :D

Anyway, during the time I more formely met L, The ladder was set. It was Double Elimination round. I was the first to go up, and it wasn't good who I faced. I faced J, one to be known as the best (officially) in the east coast. Pressure from married C+ and L wasn't helping. :p (On a note, I only talked to Roboto C a few times) Anyway, the first round began. I shook hands with J wishing luck for both myself and her in a sense. Then the choosing began. Character chose. I was first to pick a song. I thought of something tricky and enjoyable: God of Romance. That song was now known to be my prime song to help me become tricky and andmake people think of me as strategic and crazy. In that round, I beat J. J picked Can't Stop Fallin' in Love [Speed mix]. Big mistake, I think she took me as no threat, though I thought the same. In that song, she didn't beat me by much. Then the last song was I think by audience pick. It was somthing I didn't expect, Paranoia Eternal on TRICK! I didn't know that was allowed. Oh god, I messed up on here, but nopt too badly. But I believe it gave tribute of my low perfect attack score. In the end, J beat me by 15 steps, however, there was a double elimination, and I was put in the Loser's bracket so I could face all tose who lost once, but I must keep winning, not lose anymore, or I was out. Songs and people went by, I ate two funnel cakes, and then I've been known as a tricky player.

My songs did me proud. My most valuable songs were God of romance, Sante ete ante molle te (I know wrong spelling, but S knows what that is), No Limit, Do Me, and Lupin the 3rd. The songs that did better however were God of Romance and No limit, they saved me a lot.

Through out the tournament, I was contantly bugged to call my mom, since she thought I was not in some important tournament I guess. I kept begging, using C+'s wife's cell phone as well as L's. I was able to luck out I guess though. :)

I don't want to go into detail, but withe these 5 songs, I overcame the Loser bracket, and soon made it up high. However, before my matches, the semifinlas were C (roboto) and J. I rooted for J only since she beat me, and I could say I was beaten by the best. However, she lost, and was placed on the Loser's bracket, but as the last threat before finals. I had to face her again, and I thought I was rready, but I apparently wasn't completely this time. It was 2 out of 3 match, and I lost both, but with the songs I chose, for not just the match against her, but with all my matches, I always won the song I picked. I did lose and all, but I was happy still. I came in third, and won $20,double my money back of what I spent. :)

I watched the finals between the rematch of J Vs C (Roboto). Man, that was a good match. At one point, they had tied perfects, and went by greats next. In the end, J won, I yelled out I was beaten by the best, and C took the defeat fairly humbly, saying encouraging things that I don't remember. I got my name announced in the speaker thing, picture taken for some websites (Not just me, but the top three did), and a bunch of people kept saying,"You went from nobody to somebody!" I mean, yeah, I am unknown compared to C and J, but I DOUBT I'm of any popular now than I was before! Maybe in TOWN I am, but that's all.

15 and a half year old has made it good. No one believed I was that old, they thought I was 17 or something. Not sure if that's a compliment or not, but oh well.

Made lots of friends, everyone I beat I talked to after the match and apologized for such odd songs, but they understood (at least they say they did). I loved this experience however!
:D

At the end of the tournament, I had another funnel cake and some fries that I split with L since I used a lot of her cellphone minutes. I talked too much, played doubles and failed Stomp since I tripped, and was too tired to bother to save myself. No I didn't fall, but I couldn't summon the energy to myself. Parents came in after that, and I was forced (it was in another agreement) to watch Lord of the rings. This is why I'm typing so late.

Out of everyone to thank, it must be these people:
1) S-She told me info on the contest!
2) L-I heard the contest from her first, she let me use her cellphone, and she gave me moral support, plus a great fun evening of singing and talking of DDR! :D
3) C+ (Married)-He explained to me what the ladder matches were like, bragged about me to advanced players (It was nce of him, but I felt more embarassed then thankful... o_O), and gave me some backround on some players.
4)L+ (Married C+'s Wife)-She lent me her cellphone and her support too! :)
5) Funnel cake-This was my meal of breakfast, lunch and dinner. Fries were more just extra dinner. :p
6) Family-Though very stressful and agitating, if they didn't help me, I'd not have been there.

Ok, that sounds corny, I left info out, but I'm getting tired, mom nagging to get off, time to go!
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It embarrasses me some on how I typed back then, but I suppose is helped me improve upon myself today. That was a really great day though for me. Sadly a lot of drama came in the next tournament I entered though... I also don't talk to ANY of these people anymore, save one via texts on special occasions. I miss when I had such metabolism. It's a little shocking to know this was close to 10 years ago. o.o

And now I leave you with an image I recently editted.

Fucked up games of the past.

As I said in my last entry about friends, there were some fucked up games my cousin and I came up with. I find it odd I can remember some of these so clearly being so long ago, but I have a weird vivid memory thing going with odd events.  (I have memories of still being in diapers, and even my first nightmare)

This image is a disclaimer to the following entry as it is composed of a kid's imagination with fucked up stories.

We had a lot of bullying plotlines, which I think to be normal. We'd have one set of toys be bullies (but we both HAD to have a bully toy AND a victim/hero toy or we would bicker) and then decide certain characters be picked on. I remember our pound puppy phase where we had so many of them, and we designated this one special colored blue dogs with dalmatian spots to be a special "race" with weird powers and shit. They would often be our favorite ones to play as, and thus the group that gets picked on. One pair of members of the blue dalmatians would be the youngest and therefor be the victims of mean things while others would be the big brave older ones who would stand up to the bullies as best they could. The bullies ended up being black cat toys for some reason. I think it's because one of them was really fat, so we made her leader and other black cats would be followers (some unwillingly). We based a lot of this off TV shows and video games.

Keeping the above in mind, we then went into some creepy dark territories as well. Sometimes, the bullies would actually KILL someone, and so the other dogs would go on an adventure which would take place across the room tracking down those bullies who would lay traps and evil creatures on the way. Sometimes we creeped ourselves out a bit much because we combined horror movies/stories with our games and then we couldn't get to sleep. One time we had a motherly toy die and come back as a ghost haunting and killing the children. I don't know where it came from, but it properly freaked us out so we stopped playing and watched Nick@Nite to shake it off.

One game gained attention from my cousin's mother. To those that remember the cartoon Tiny Toons, there was a character called "Shirley the Loon" who had psychic powers. I decided to make up a story to my cousin, saying there really was a person named Shirley out there who had psychic powers and apparently lived in space and was also a duck. Furthermore, this is what the cartoon character was based off (so I told), and sometimes she would contact those who were also psychic. We then dived into trying to be psychic by mimicking the things Shirley did on Tiny Toons. eventually, we confessed to each other of having visions and such, and claimed we were small psychics, haha. We just claimed to have visions, not read people's minds or anything. We would look hard into our dreams and claim they had significance in seeing the future. We said we should never tell anyone since no one ever believes in psychics and that it would be our little secret! However, one should always know that kids can't keep secrets very well.

My cousin made the mistake of telling one of her friends the story of Shirley that we made up at a sleepover of hers. Her friend then got freaked out and told her mom who then told my cousin's mom. My aunt freaked out at the idea of her daughter seeing things and possibly hearing voices, and made her go to a psychiatrist/therapist/whatever. My cousin told her it was just game she plays, but her mom didn't really listen. She made sure to not implicate me in anyway so I wouldn't fall to the same fate. However, she did mention saying she played it with me, but never said I was one to hear voices and see things and such. I was strongly urged by my mother to go with my cousin since the therapist wanted to talk to me too. My cousin and I made sure to rehearse our story of it just being a game while telling each other it's just a lie. It was really just an overreaction to the games we played.

Another thing we did involved imaginary friends. Of course, we took our imaginary friends from things we saw. Mine were Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles since I was really into my Sega Genesis at the time with Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and hers were mostly Disney things like Nala from Lion King. I don't remember her others, but she ended up having a lot of cat-related ones. These games were less fucked up than our above mentioned ones as we only implemented these when we were forced to go to a cousin's baseball or soccer game, or while in the car. One game which I think is still kind of fun is while in the car, we would imagine our friends running outside on the scenery to keep up with us. Sonic would be running along the powerlines while Nala would weave in and out of traffic, and our flying related characters (she had one; mine was Tails) would play recovery for when their path is cut short or they fall behind (aka no more connecting powerlines or at a traffic standstill).

Best friends.

Over the years, I have gone through a lot of people that I considered a best friend. Some betrayed the trust we had, others started good then just fell apart, and one went on and off.

The earliest best friend I had was my cousin, whom I have referred to as "O" in past entries. We still are best friends to this day, but not as close as I'd like to think, but that's another story. As kids, she was the bossy selfish one, and I was the one that could tolerate it best. I was able to reason with her selfish, bossy ways enough to make things enjoyable for the both of us, and she even started adapting to things I liked, such as video games, and having our toys fight each other instead of stupid plots of a surprise party for her animals, owning a store, and what not. Actually, some of our stories started getting really fucked up, but that sounds like a whole separate entry altogether. I essentially got into the toys she got into. I was one of the few boys who had one of those original "Littlest Pet Shop" toys before they redid the image. Course, we played with them a lot different as intended, with deaths and shit.

Around late elementary, early middle school is when we had a dry period of just not really talking, which is about when I got another friend who I consider to be my best mate (Call him X). It was his first day of second grade and I just went right up to him and said, "Hey! Are you new here? I don't remember seeing you around!" From there, we became best friends for about... 2 and half years. We had a real key difference in that I was an inside kid and he was an outside kid. He managed to get me out of the house a lot more than I wanted to, but I enjoyed exploring the creek near our houses, and going deep in the woods of it. In fact, there was a time during the winter where the creek froze up, and we were just jumping up and down on it, surprised how solid it was... and it broke! We were so soaked and freezing!

What happened to us was we got into some rather nasty verbal fights (and a few physical ones), and he found another person to string along with us that actually liked the outdoors as much as he did so we became "enemies." It was more like a darker side of rivalry, but we considered ourselves to be enemies. Things got a bit dark here in terms of friends, since my cousin was getting busy with school by this time, and X had gotten a lot of the school to hate me since he suddenly became popular. I started to hibernate in my home right after school, getting very depressive. Parents threw me into a special class called, "Art Therapy" to help express my feelings through art projects. That never really helped.

My next-door neighbor who was a friend (but not really best friend; he was a kid 5 years younger than me) introduced me to the person I would consider a best friend in high school, but nothing more than just a friend  until then. She was a year older than me like my cousin O, but she was more of a tomboy. She helped get me into the WWF (when it was called that), and also became the bad influence for my younger neighbor friend with drugs, stealing and shit. We became a group of friends around the neighborhood with another girl, always hanging out at the playground. However, our group was very fickle with each other, and played very nasty pranks on each other. Once was invited over to Tomboy's house, so I walked over and she left a note saying she went to the movies, k bye. However, Neighbor Kid and Other Girl's bikes were parked in front of her house. HMMM. We also played nasty tricks on neighbor kid, saying he had an older brother that used to be here but was killed, and on Other Girl with her weight, so we all were rather vicious. Only Tomboy seemed to have no real pranks played on her, being the oldest I suppose elected her as leader and thus unfazed by pranks.

Our group was joined by two more girls who were sisters, which was funny because our age/grade difference went into a straight line then, haha. Tomboy was oldest, then me, then Other girl, Brunette of the sisters, Blonde of sisters, then Neighbor kid. By high school, Tomboy was my best friend, while my cousin was coming back into the picture somewhat as a friend. Tomboy and I would go to the mall all the time, either getting a ride from our family, or walking the 3-5 miles to there. Neighbor kid and others would sometimes come along, but it was mainly Tomboy and I every Friday night. I would go into the arcade, she would get drugs and socialize outside, and we'd meet up every now and then. She also stole things and had me hold onto them for her since I always brought my backpack with me for water and such.

Doesn't sound like much, but it worked for us. We both needed company, we just had different sets of friends (I had arcade idiots, she had druggies that hung outside the movie theater). We stood up for each other too.... well usually. :P

Towards the end of high school, however, the neighbor hood crew started to disperse. Tomboy was going to college soon, and she started flaking out on us. Neighbor kid by now was such a weasel with his tricks on me, I started to ignore him completely and Other Girl disappeared. I was still good friends with the sisters however, just we weren't exactly close. We all used to hang out every new years at Neighbor Kid's house, but one year he decided to mess with me saying he wasn't having a party this time and the others weren't coming. I said fine and invited an older friend I made in high school to my house for a small gathering. Later in the evening, Neighbor Kid admitted he was lying and said I could come over, but I told him to piss off, I had company. That company became my best friend  to this day, even though she can be aggravating, I wouldn't change it for the world! Besides my cousin, she's my longest lasting best friend.

There were a few minor "best friend" scenarios that happened in between, but those ended really nasty, and would be incredibly long. Another entry for those! :P

Merry Christmas, Part 2

So my last entry was about the pains of Christmas, but there are some great joys to be had around the time too. Seeing your family and friends faces when they get a gift they want, the wonderful decorations and lights... ... ...And of course getting things! I don't mean that last part selfishly,  but it certainly is nice.

My mother complains people aren't in the Christmas spirit as much this year... It makes me think, what really is the Christmas spirit? Everyone has their own take on what Christmas means to them. Some find it to be a time to get free stuff, some just wish to make someone's day brighter with a gift, others it is a religious time, and some just see it as another day. There is no one answer to what Christmas is, despite anyone's beliefs. For a history lesson, check this out.

There have been some really nice Christmas times for me as well as more depressing ones too. One that sticks out that makes me laugh when I think about it was when I was really young. I was the typical, "I hate clothes as presents," kid. We were opening presents and I kept getting clothes in a row. I threw a hissy fit, and said I won't open the last one cause it looked like another clothing box. Dad mentioned to mom, "well we do need a gift for them to open in front of my grandparents, we'll just have him open it over there!" My great grandparents (father's side) didn't really buy gifts for us because I believe they were not exactly well off in money. My sister had to re-open a gift she had opened already for in front of them. When I opened the gift I was SO sure to be clothes, it was DOMINO RALLY!

My parents laughed at my shock, and I think that made my great grands thrilled with my reaction, haha! 

On the flipside, there was a Christmas where my "big gift" was something I did not want and my mom really thought I would want so much. It was a deluxe keyboard with a stand and little minibench to sit as you play. When I was a lot younger, I wanted one but as I grew older I stopped caring to have one, and I hadn't asked for this in years. I felt really bad I didn't have any desire for it. I might have played it twice or so but really didn't play it much at all. I much later told mom how sorry I am but I really didn't have my heart on this and that disappointment I saw killed me. It would have been a lot worse had I told her after I just opened it but I let her down over time. In the end, the minibench came in handy as I use it all the time in my room to hold things and such.

This morning, my family and I exchanged gifts. My sister got a purple shirt and some purple pants, and mom said they could go together. My sister told mom if she wore this out to the mall, she would be dubbed the crazy purple lady, which just set us all off in laughter. I got a lot of shirts this year since my style pants seems to always sell out or get discontinued... One shirt my mom got me looked like a special ed child's shirt. I don't think i could wear it ironically either.

I'm happy to have gotten Donkey Kong Country and Goldeneye for wii now! I'll be playing them like mad for awhile, haha. :)

Another trip down memory lane

Thanks to a lack of progress on a few other entries I have been working on, I figured I would share with my followers time in the past when I was little.This story gets in my head and infuriates me to no end very often. Just thinking about it now is already getting my blood boiling, which might be a good thing since it is freaking cold in this room right now.

I was in the first grade with quite the bitch of a teacher. She might not have been the worst, but extremely close to it. She could be nice and I recall a few instances where she actually was to me specifically, but it doesn't excuse her for what she had did this time. She bullied and humiliated me in front of class.

In the classroom, we had a closet/coat rack where everyone kept their backpacks, lunch, and coats. When we were allowed to go to the closet, it would be quite the scramble to get to your stuff, since the closet was quite confined. Often, we would have to wait to get to our things, and sometimes in the scramble, people's things would be knocked down, or even sometimes knocked off the hooks but wouldn't fall down until later because of how compact everything was. Thus, started a problem.

People's coats would be stepped on, becoming dirty or sometimes ripped. My parents were getting upset how my big-ass coat would be so dirty and worn for being rather new so they complained to the school. The teacher then decided to take this up with me during the middle of class.

"All right, Tal, so who stepped on your coat?" She asked out of nowhere, out loud to everyone. We were learning fire saftey at the moment I think, and it must have triggered her memory on this matter or something. there was no specific persons that step on one's coat, it just accidentally happened at times. I tried to convey this notion to her, but being 6... maybe 7 at the time, I was quite short on words.
"Um... pretty much everyone...?"
She then decided to go to each student and asked them if they stepped on my coat. OF COURSE no one would admit it, so she prosecuted me further. "None of them said they did it, are you lying?"
"No!"
"But they said they didn't! Maybe you stepped on your own coat!"
"No! Maybe they are lying?"
She then asked if they were lying... cause that will work. When everyone denied it, she kept badgering me to make me say I stepped on my own coat, and though I have always been quite the stubborn person, at that age being in trouble scared me more, so I finally gave in. She then went on how I should not lie and scolded me for lying and basically made me feel like absolute crap.

When I went home, my father told me the teacher called him and said I stepped on my own coat. I broke down and cried, telling him how I really didn't, but no one would say they did, so she blamed me. He believed me, and said they'd get me a new coat (I really didn't care to have a new one but whatever), and told me to keep a watch on my coat from now on. If someone stepped on it, just tell on them right away. Yeah, that would never work, but I didn't have this problem later since that scene in the classroom made my classmates a "little" more careful with the closet.

That same teacher became a principal at a middle school later, and wanted to enforce a dress code that parents must pay for. I feel bad for that school tremendously. She was even a teacher in my middle school, but luckily i didn't have her. The interactions I had with her were very short and I wouldn't converse with her. I still want to make her pay somehow, even just to convey a message because she made my 1st grade really miserable, which led to miserable school years till high school. I can't blame her for everything, but she sure as hell didn't make everything wonderful.

Law and Order

First want to mention I am still working on my "obscure gaming" tips and guides, but probably will sit in my drafts for awhile. I attempted to recreate my drawn maps in paint, and said, "fuck it" after awhile. Besides the fact my drawn maps are not to scale and just are directional, it takes FOREVER to recreate it by hand. I'll likely just scan the maps themselves. To give you guys an idea of how they are done, I'll post up a simpler map recreated in paint (one that won't make me want to kill babies) in a future post.

Anyway, the point i really wanted to talk about was of the testing facilities I am apart of. When I was younger, my parents had me join a testing place where they wanted kids imput and I would get paid money for my time. Unfortunately, i was not a typical kid, so I suppose they lost interest in me. I remember they were trying to make a new cartoon series and were asking us of our opinion on the characters. Most the boys hated this robot character but liked this guy with an eyepatch. At the time, i found the robot to be fucking awesome and the eyepatch guy to be a bit creepy cause he lost his eye. That's all I can remember about it now, but there was more to it. I remember some years later the cartoon was on TV at an obscure time too, but it was so crappily done. I do not remember the name, btw, but it was similar to an oldschool anime made in USA with a little hint of Hannah Barbara cartoons.

Getting off track of what I wanted to talk of...

Fastforward many years later, my friends tell me of testing places looking for people and helped me get signed up. I signed up to this one place by their recommendations and I found another nearby thanks to one of the forums I frequent mentioning them. I had some cool offers that I unfortunately was not eligible for thanks to my odd interests, but I have been eligible to do some surveys (which gives you points to exchange for amazon giftcards; a small but okay award). I had a recent one I was qualified for and found so interesting, I wished to share it. I am kicking myself for not saving the story as you can't go back to it after completing.

It was of a court case malpractice thing. A woman had been having trouble conceiving with her husband but finally managed to! Unfortunately some weeks later she miscarried, so went to her doctor to find out ways to improve their chances. The doctor found a problem in her vaginal area and went in to take care of it. While in there, they had made a small incision somewhere by accident or otherwise unintended. In bold print, this survey mentioned both parties agreed this was not negligent as it was one of those things bound to happen in this sort of surgery.

Some time after the surgery when she was let home, she started experiencing some really bad pains. She called the doctor, who said to take some more motrin, as this pain was normal. Hour later the pain was still there, she called again. He kept telling her there was no need to come in, what she was experiencing was normal, and just to take more painkillers. The next day she was in excruciating pain and had some other bad symptoms showing up (can't remember them all), so she went right to the emergency room and they found that the small unintentional incision from the previous surgery had cause the problem and one area was leaking out into other areas and other such messes. They operated and were able to have her recover, but because of all that, she was told that she would not be able to conceive in the normal fashion, and other pregnancy methods would have to be used to just give her a CHANCE at having kids. (Summation: No sex for babies, unlikely chance other methods will work, but they might) It mentioned the couple had planned to have 4 kids.

The survey then went on to say that both parties agreed this qualified for negligence lawsuit, not because of the incision thing, but because the doctor would not take her in to look at her (or so I surmised). The questions they wanted me to ask was based only on this information, how much compensation should this woman get for this, excluding economical reasons (which I took as medical bills excluded), so the value would be based on pain and suffering, mental anguish and so forth. They gave choices with the lowest option at 5-25k and highest option being over a million dollars.

I chose a middleground of 200-500k, with in mind of it being a LOW 200k range (like 210 or so). I gathered that first comes the physical pain she had to go through which was already 100k in my book, then mental anguish of the possibility of not being able to give birth to a child which lopped another 50k or so based on 4 kids planned plus the general idea of not able to have kids. Then thought of the whole doctor not taking her in when she called a second time, on principle, and figured in around 60k. There might have been a few other factors I can't remember but those were my thoughts. I generally keep a middle road because I know sometimes people ask for way too much or companies try to lowball them with way too little.

After that question, it asked if I had found out they managed to conceive one child thanks to invitro, would I change my amount awarded to her? I said yes but very little, and chose the minus 5-25k option, with intent of making the amount 190k-201k range. They planned for more kids, which they might not be able to get they way they intended. At least they have adoption if they choose to, which i think the doctor should have to pay at least partially for (though something tells me they rather have their "own" kids. Selfish somewhat, but better then giving an orphan an unwelcome home to live in again I suppose... maybe...).

Survey then asked if people are to litigous in today's society (I agreed), and then asked if I was for this law trying to be passed to restrict or limit people's ability to sew others, which I said no. A law like that just would cause as many problems as there is now. If it just was a law to limit but not restrict, I might partially agree... but there are bad doctors and businesses out there, they need to have something to fear. Maybe restriction based on how much the company makes in profits and salaries?

Feel free to share your opinions on this and how I responded. I am curious of what others think. My sister, for instance, said she should get 250k and all medical bills related to this issue paid (she didn't believe economical reasons meant what I thought it meant. If it didn't mean excluding bills, then i agree with her on that part).

Update5.3127

Tis the start of the holidays, and thus, less updates are likely to begin. I have another part to Mr. Autodelete story ready as well, but figured I would give a general idea of where I am first.

Lack of updates have been due to three things: my new neopets obsession, holidays = busytime, and lack of comments. When I don't see many comments, it makes me desire to update less. I don't plan to stop updating due to those reasons, but I will less frequently. Comments help bring motivation to tell about my day or share a story. Some days I don't need the motivation to update, but to keep a steady schedule, it is nice to have. I imagine most of my followers are busy with their own thing this season, and that's understandable. Just expect less-than-frequent updates from me then (as well as checking on your blogs; I'm pretty backlogged as it is).

Now that the nasty business is out of the way, I been meaning to write about my black Friday experiences from when I used to work for Target. I should narrow that down to just, "experience," actually, since I was one of the lucky ones who rarely had to work black friday in the 5 years I worked there. I worked once for the closing shift, which is not much of a story to tell... and one morning shift, where I worked in the Toys section.

The team leader (think specialized managed) of Toys was gathering his crew for the season's biggest sale, and I was asked to help out. He was a cool, lenient guy and after some nights working, I was able to handle Toys pretty efficiently. I learned the names of which Bratz toy was the hot seller, and why we don't have EZ Bake ovens this year, and other fun toy stuff.

It was the first time I EVER worked an opening for Black friday, so I didn't know what to expect. Had to get to work by 6am, and when I did, there was NO parking and a line I couldn't have imagined. I just parked way in the back and walked over to the staff entrance, to which i was already being asked by customers, "hey do you know how many Nintendo Wii's you will have in stock?" and other such things. It felt as if I was a celebrity being barraged with questions by the paparazzi. I squeezed into the employee entrance and clocked in. As I clocked in, they had JUST opened the store, so through the employee door's window, I saw a bunch of people running like mad. I saw an old lady knock over a man which made me laugh my ass off. I grabbed all equipment that I could for the floor (walkie talkie and a scanner to let us know what is in stock/price/location of item), and headed to Toys.

Wading through the crowd was surprisingly easy, as everyone was looking away. I thanked my stars no one was asking me anything, since usually that red shirt makes you a... ...I can't think of a non punny way to say it... target. I managed to get to Toys, where a few shelves were already bare. I looked at my co-workers asking them for any updates on out of stock items, and they already count off a few. This information was helpful 5 minutes later as I got assaulted with questions of where some doll house was, to which I was able to spout off an answer. At one point it felt like I was directing traffic in that 5 people asked me a question at the same time to which I held up my hands and pointed to each person what is their question. That was pretty cool.

Then came a moment I will never forget. I was helping a motherly-looking woman about what deals we still have in stock, checking things on my scanner for the many locations they could be found when a guy about a foot and a half taller than me actually grabbed me, picked me up for about 4 feet, and then said, "WHERE ARE THE MICROWAVES?!"

I meekly pointed a direction and he was off. The woman I was talking to had her phone out, running over to me, "Oh my gosh, I thought he was going to take you with him!" She had apparently started to dial 911 in that instant. That alone made the experience less mortifying; it's nice to see people actually give a shit about one another.

The rest of the day went pretty peaceful, surprisingly. It felt more like a typical busy day, which was nothing to me. Because of how busy it was, we didn't have to put away stray merchandise (fun fact: customers did that job for us in buying them before we could put some products away). The most annoying part was the friggin cabbage patch dolls, since everyone needed that PERFECT doll and we had some up on a high top shelf stacked pretty high, and people would always want the top one.

Yes, I mad.

It sort of makes me glad I didn't work this black friday either, though I'm sure that could have been some nice money to take home since places usually offer a lot of hours for that day alone. There still is Christmas sales to be had though, to which I hope to be working by.

Hey DJ!

Sorry for lack of posts, but trying to re-read this book again has proven to be trying on me. Not because it is not interesting, but because I've had to handle a few more things to organize my life more as of late.

While filling out applications, I asked for some advice from my family members what sort of references I should put down, and they suggested I should put down the time I was an internet DJ. I haven't been putting it down since I never was exactly paid, I just received a few perks here and there.

A few years back, I was really into Maple Story. Scary into it, to the point of how you hear of WoW obsessions except it did not interfere TOO much into my normal life, just all my spare time and sleep. I usually played music on my computer while I played, but I got tired of my music and needed to hear some new music. I used to listen to anime radio but got tired of it repeating the shame shit over and over, but then saw an advertisement for a radio station in Maple Story. It was unofficial of course, but I checked it out and liked what I heard.

Over a period of time, I noticed a lot of dead-air times for it, so I decided why not volunteer to be a DJ? There wasn't a DJ for my server, I liked to get new music, and I was around enough to dedicate some time to it, so why not? Two days after sending in an application, I was looking through my e-mail and notice no reply. I went through my spam folder since back then I used to check it, and noticed an e-mail from the owner of the station. He requested an interview... which ended up being in 30 minutes from when I read it! I hurried up, installing skype and thinking of what I would say... Long story short, i got the job.

The station averaged around 40-300 listeners a day, depending who was listening and depended if people dead-aired the place or not. I ended up being pretty popular solely on the fact I was the first and only DJ of my server. I gained several friends and a lot of help from strangers. Some gave me in-game money, others provided me with help in quests and such. The in-game money was the better part of it, along with just people to chat with while monotonously training. I also enjoyed delving into new music. A shame things started to get bad along with the good.

The owner decided to expand the radio station by adding two more channels. This was just a bad idea because all it would do (and did) was spread the listeners out, not gain more listeners. In the long run, it wasn't a horrid decision, as it did provide listeners 3 different DJ styles. But then he wished to expand further by adding more (useless) channels. A channel dedicated to asian music? Seriously? I don't know what happened to it since that was around when i started to fade off, but that was just horrible.

At one point, I became a pseudo Human Resources person. Some fights broke out among the many DJs, so i made an effort to find out why and try to solve the problems. In general, all I did was play baby sitter; not only was i one of the few DJs who were over 20 years old, but most the DJs were from 14-17. Yeah... The restricted age was 16, but a few underage people lied about their ages so they could be a DJ. If we found out later and they proved to be competent enough, they stayed though. Some were good DJs but horrible co-workers. Not surprising, seeing as they were in high school, therefor brought in the high school drama. "He said my music sucks!" "She keeps kicking me off when I'm DJing!" Petty squabbles indeed.

I could go on about other petty details I can remember, but I believe I'll then be listing as if it were a history book and not as an interesting tale. I'll leave things open for your guys to ask questions about this and I'll answer them tomorrow in another entry. I ended up leaving the radio station by... no longer DJing and disappearing. I was a "Seasonal DJ" which meant I would DJ when school would allow it, but that didn't last long either. I just stopped caring about Maple Story by then and hated hearing the same music over and over. People asked for the same music all the time it was maddening. Made me hate Dragonforce, Linkin Park, and Breaking Benjamin.

Fun Fact: I did go back to Maple Story for another half-a-year run when the Pirate class first came out, but I did not return to DJing. In fact, i went on a separate server and gained friends whom helped me more than the DJ job did (except I got less free money, but more old equipment and opportunities for legendary runs).

Movie tradition

Yeah, I don't have much for funny Potter things...

This Thursday night/Friday Morning, I will be joining my two cousins in watching "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1". We have been going to midnight premiers for about 3-4 years (or movies, rather) now as a tradition.

The first 3 movies, I had just watched the movies either on DVD or in theaters on a later date. I had already read the books so my hype for the movies wasn't too strong. I don't remember which movie it was when my cousin told me about how she and her family go to the midnight premiers, and invited me along. I figured it could be kind of cool to see it early, and been craving to go to the movies (and friends being busy) so I said sure. Since then, we had been going to the midnight premiers together... with a few bumps in the road.

One of the times we went, there was this real bitch of a lady telling off some teenagers for saving seats. "I paid just as much money as you did for these seats, if your friends aren't here yet, that's their problem!" The guy was holding 4 seats by himself. I'm not sure if his friends were there and in the bathroom or hadn't gotten to the theater yet, but this lady made a huge stink about it. I can understand seat savers can be a little annoying, but people want to sit with their friends. Granted this lady was also pregnant, but that doesn't give you an excuse to bitch out somebody for trying to hold seats for their friends. She was with two other fellas, and I have no doubt about it in my mind she would try to save seats for them as well. The guy backed down and found other seats in the end, but throughout the movie, I kept thinking what a cunt she was.

Another time, my younger cousin and aunt were on vacation during the premier of the new movie, so we all didn't see it together. Instead, My aunt and younger cousin went to the theater near their vacation spot for the midnight premier while my older cousin and I went together to our local one. It was not such a big deal to be separate, just it sucked since it slightly broke the tradition of us going together. Last movie, however, the tradition was broken further.

My car wasn't working too well, so my older cousin had to pick me up from my house, which was rather out of the way from where she was coming from. We were running really late, so she started zooming there. My aunt and younger cousin were already there, calling us to let me know the tickets were almost sold out. They bought theirs in advanced, so only I was without one. I did ask them to stand in line to get me a ticket and I'd pay them back. About halfway to the movie theater, they called back, letting me know the tickets had sold out. Pretty pissed and dejected, my older cousin rushed me home before rushing back to the theater so she could still see it. In the end, my older sister went with me to see the movie another day. Funny enough, that movie was kind shitty anyway. Least favorite of them all.

They deleted a scene to ADD a scene that had no impact on the story whatsoever. I don't remember what scene they deleted, but they added a house burning for NO REAL REASON! My cousin suggested it could be to emphasis a rivalry between two certain characters, but there was no such extra rivalry needed in the book, and it certainly didn't need it for the movie. I even asked my sister what she made of that scene (she never read the series), and she figured it was just some random burning. Disappointing.

I almost thought this movie would end up trashed like the last, but when I heard they split it up into two parts, my faith in the movie series returned. I have no doubt there will be some piss-off points in this movie, but at least the split will make it less likely for the directors to cut some of the more awesome scenes in the book.

I likely will be re-reading the last book for a fourth time now so I can refresh my memories for the movie. It's what I did for all other movies since I been going with my cousin's family (yes another tradition). I originally read the last book within the first 24 hours I had it, so I know I have enough time to read it before the premier.