Time for another general update

Some time back, I talked of an annoying Amazon sale I had with my book selling. I have had no contact with the customer since they refused the book and according to Amazon policies (as well as how their rating systems go) she can not be refunded nor lower my rating. Looks like I won that battle, and got some free cash out of it. Unfortunately, I haven't sold any books in quite some time now, people just ain't buying. I probably have to lower some prices again.

Concerning about my Creative Writing grade, the professor has continued to ignore me. I need to get my ass up and find out what are my options for taking this up with the school. Unfortunately, every time I think of it, i go in a panic. Hell, writing this has me shaking again. Ugh.

My youngest cousin with whom I'm in contact with has her birthday coming up, which actually is on the night of the new Harry Potter film. Apparently, her mother decided to celebrate her birthday with the family tomorrow, which (as always) is completely sudden. We only found out on Wednesday. My other aunt and uncle are away on vacation, my parents will be coming back from a vacation and unlikely going to feel up to going. My sister had already made plans that day, so it very likely may be just me and the oldest cousin with her husband there. Not to mention I doubt my family had time to get a present for her yet. It's just so annoying yet whenever an event is planned on this side of the family, we always get TOLD with little room for discussion. I'll be doing what I always do for her, and making her a mix CD, she enjoys the different music I can find for her. I just feel bad for her since its her 18th birthday and hardly anyone will likely be there.

Haven't been reading much lately. Need to do that.

Gaming news is active, of course! I finally beat Dragon Quest Swords, which I had been meaning to for awhile. Not bad! Was a lot of fun! The bonus material afterwords is quite challenging, though. I probably won't get around finishing that any time soon... Took 20 minutes to put 25% damage on this one boss's lifebar, I just gave up.

I been playing WAAAAAAAAAAY too much Neopets. I get so addicted to earning points on there; just something so satisfying for some reason. I also got caught up in the plot they have going too. Yes, I realize how kiddy (not to mention evil) Neopets is, but for the time being, it's quite fun!

Haters gonna hate.

Caught up on all my DLC quests for Dragon Quest 9, but seriously need to make more headway into my grotto hunting. Haven't even found a monster that'll provide the best experience so I can grind a little easier, which is another thing I need to get on. Legacy Boss battles have proven to be going well though.


I had some really bad allergies or some form of small cold on Wednesday. It pretty much wiped me out the next two days, making me feel exhausted. Friday I was feeling a lot better and did my DDR thing plus hung with my best friend. Was a much needed thing.

Now to go find some songs for my cousin for a CD, hopefully songs she hasn't heard. No, I'm not asking for suggestions.

Cars

Inspired by loneislander.

When I turned 17, my Uncle gave me his old 1990 Ford Escort. This car had been in my family for a very long time, nearly everyone had driven at one time (either just one time, or for a semi-permanent period). I was the last one to drive it.

Blackened part was my college's parking pass. :X

This car had over 150k miles on it, and lots of problems with it. The main problem I had with it (towards the end of its life) was with the starter and alternator. Always at the worst time, of course. The plus side to this car, however, was that its brakes were EXCELLENT! I felt safe when I was in this car, since I knew I would be able to stop short. Sure, it was slow, ugly looking (I hate red), and had problems, but for a first car, it felt great to be so safe. The steering was a lot better than my current car too... But thanks to all the problems I had with the car, I actually learned a fair amount of car things. One big thing was how to change a car battery.

I never was really into cars like other guys. As long as it drives and I feel safe in it, I was fine. I don't know names of other cars when people start name dropping them, so I could care less if someone had a Miata or thundercougarfalconbird. Needless to say, I hardly knew anythign about the intimate parts of the car either, so when problems came up, I turned to my dad for help. My dad isn't a mechanic, but knows enough to find what the problems of a car are at least. Thanks to my alternator problems, my battery apparently wasn't charging while the car was driving. We got a second battery, and so, far a temporary solution until I had money, I would charge one battery in the house while another would be placed in the car. About every two days I would have to go into the car and change my battery. I believe I became a bit of a pro at it after a week of doing this. I recall a time that this process ended up completely failing, however.

An old friend of mine invited me up to his place one night to hang out. He lives way upstate from me, and since my family doesn't like me having friends over at the house, i decided to go to him. I freshly changed the battery in the car and went up. After hanging out till like 12am, I started to head back. On the highway, the headlights started to dim. I quickly turned off my music and the heater to conserve battery power, but it was no use. Soon the lights went off, so I put on my emergency lights so people could still see me (surprised they worked still) and quickly called home. In the end, my mother and sister had to drive out with the spare battery from the house so I could get the car home. Finally made it home at 3am.

During the time of my car's failings, I had an opportunity to buy another car in excellent condition for a very good price. it is my car still today, but has its own problems (of course). My grandfather (may he rest in peace) knew of my great grandmother's neighbor who had a car she was not using for a very long time, and could use some cash. Long story short, I bought a 95 Dodge Spirit that had only 40k miles on it for 1000 bucks. The car was in excellent condition for its age, 6 cylinder (scary fast compared to my red car), and... AUTOMATIC WINDOWS & LOCKS! :D It was such a huge upgrade in comparison! Since my old car was actually doing okay at the time, however, I only ended up using the car sparingly. Then, my dad's van ended up breaking down, so I let him use it instead until he could get another car. This ended up being for a long period of time, too. A problem occurred with this arrangement at one point, forcing me to use my cousin's car for a few months though.

My cousin who I am closest to had two cars at the time just like me; her first car which she painted mushrooms, peace signs, and other hippie-like things, and great-grandma's car which was ANCIENT. She had to alternate between the two cars to keep them going (since great grandma didn't want to get rid of her car even though she couldn't drive it, plus either one of the cars could die at any time... best to have a back up just in case). My red car was starting to have constant problems again, and dad really needed my just-bought car for work, so I worked out an arrangement with my cousin and one of her cars until I could scrape the funds for the red car once more. I ended up driving the hippie car

Unfortunately, I don't have pictures of it. This car was sort the opposite of the red car with the breaks, but had better acceleration. It also had vent problems, so carbon monoxide came into the car if you turned on the heat. It also had manual steering, which took some getting used to, but I later found out the tires were causing it to be more difficult than necessary... Some air in the tires made manual steering feel better than power steering! I got a lot of strange looks while driving, and with me having long hair too made me look like a hippy I think (even though I dressed raver-like/punk). One time I was sitting at a light and someone from the other direction was passing by and honked their horn, and yelled, "YEAH! PEACE MAN!" Despite its flaws, I enjoyed the short time I had with it.

The hippie mobile was returned to my cousin when the semester was over, and during the break from college, mom got a new car so dad got her old car, and I got my newer car back. Though the red car was doing okay at that time (yeah, it had those good periods and bad periods), I decided I was done with it, and ended up donating it to a charity. I wouldn't want to try selling that car to anyone, too many problems to make much money off it. Finally having a car with speed and looking at least semi modern was great! Even better was that it was green, my favorite color! Unfortunately, I had my first accident in this car, which really shook me up for a period of time.

I don't have a picture of it other than the accident photo.

What happened was this guy was coming from the other direction and made a left (right from my point of view) a bit too hastily in front of me and another car (two lanes). The guy even told the police officer, "I cleared the first car fine..." which just ruined his argument for it being my fault. Besides the whole accident thing, the guy and his wife were kind enough to me socially. we both knew we had to exchange information and call an officer to make a ruling, so we didn't argue or anything. We both just said what we felt once and then waited for the officer. I called my father since I was scared shitless. In the end, they had to pay me for damages, to which their insurance said my car was totaled and gave me 1000 bucks for repairs. Awesome enough, I only needed less than $500 to repair the car, so I ended up making money off the thing.  Of course, my luck doesn't hold out like that... someone rear-ended my car WHILE IT WAS PARKED a year later and and ran off, leaving me with a steeper bill than my accident.

Right now, my (green) car is doing OKAY. Just got the brakes done a few months ago so it's drivable, but it hasn't had inspection for 3 years now... not just because it would fail, but the rearview mirror fell off and hasn't been wanting to stay on... and I think its illegal to drive without it (I still do though). It has all sorts of other problems but until I can get myself a job, I can't get the rest finished. :X

Quick opinion & Phone scammer?

My best friend said she would make a banner for the blog. Thing is, neither she or I know what sort of design it should be. Any ideas for it would be appreciated.

Funny thing, she just got a call from somebody saying she won a $200 gas card. The guy claimed she was a valuable customer (of what, the guy didn't say), and lived on the same street as her. Then said "[her name] is your mother or sister, right?" She messed with him a little, and kept asking, "Why are you trying to scam me?" he kept reassuring her he wasn't just wanted to give her a gas card, and at the end of the phone convo, he says he'll knock on her door "for some friendship."

Those curious to mess with the guy, she has the phone number of the scammer. Wanna mess with him? Go for it! 1-800-219-7809. 800 number so it's not like a personal phone call, it's free. If anyone does decide to, please describe the experience. I don't encourage this, but just throw it out there. ;)

Just want to remind everyone my last post was just something I was pondering, not something I was going to consider. I would not want to place that sort of burden on my family intentionally. I do appreciate the concern though. Willingly going into insanity sounds like a tv show plot, actually...

Anyway... A friend of mine linked me to this story some days ago: My Son Is Gay
Short version is a mother's 5-year old son wanted to dress up like Daphne from Scooby Doo for a supervised Halloween party at school. Son was worried he'd be made fun of only when he got to school first, but his classmates were having no problem with it. it was the classmates mothers who made this whole stink to the mother saying they shouldn't let him dress up like that.

Is it wrong to let a child cross-dress for Halloween? The mother mentions if this was a daughter dressing up in a guy's costume, the parents probably would not have had a problem. Personally, I think it's just stupid for other parents to get all in a huff about it. It's just for Halloween! Kids are supposed to dress differently that day.

I remember the Halloween parties done in Elementary School. There were a few guys dressed as girls, and there was hardly any problems. One guy was a male witch, another dressed as a woman, telling everyone "Yeah, don't I make a scary woman?" Couldn't argue with that. Neither him or the male witch ended up gay in high school either (but if they decided they liked women's clothing in secret or something, I wouldn't know). In short, it just wasn't a big deal.

Now if a child started wearing dresses or something on a regular basis, there may be room for concern. Not because its wrong or something, but because THEN it can be harmful to the child socially. Children are cruel. I understand it is not right to force a child to be something they are not, but at this point, it's more of a matter to protect the child from ridicule.

Sometimes children would be more accepting than people would think, but it is just the parents that have the biggest problem, and fuel their hate into their kids. My mother told me about how the PTA was in elementary school, about how high school the parents acted. My mother and a friend of mine at the time's mother were talking to several parents, getting along with them, and then this other mother came into the room. This one was lower class, so the bulk of the parents told my mom and friend's mom not to get close to her, she might be infested with all sorts of bugs and diseases. Not liking being told what to do, nor to be mean to others, my mother and friend's mom went right over to the woman and started chatting it up right then and there.

A week or so later, I was started to be picked on by a fair amount of the kids, along with my friend and the daughter of the poorer woman. The three of us were getting along fine with everyone else until that one meeting. It's really sad.

Warning: Somewhat depressing.

Last two days, I have been falling asleep in the middle of the day. sort of ruins the mood to update or anything. At least Friday I was able to get out of the house and do something (lol In The groove). Instead of waiting to update later in the day, I figured I would update now while I'm still awake and have nothing to do yet.



I been thinking some pretty depressed thoughts, not exactly happy with where I am in my life. I have been pondering how it would feel to submit into insanity, if it is possible. For instance, the worries one would have would probably go away, and probably feel more content. I am not saying all insanity works like that, but if a logical person were able to just force themselves to believe in things that are clearly not there (example: imaginary friends, monsters/creatures that never existed). Is it possible to just forget logic and let yourself go insane?

Sorta like this

While I wouldn't know personally, I imagine it is possible through misery or drugs and alcohol... I've heard of homeless people who were of high intelligence before becoming homeless go crazy in some ways. Probably not the way I mentioned, but rather into antisocial behavior. And druggie or drunk would not only go antisocial probably, but criminal behavior.

Not that I would try to make myself crazy, it's just a thought that crosses my mind. I know I have a few mental things about myself, but nothing that would put me legally insane. OCD qualities (not full blown OCD), ADHD, and a few phobias, but not to the point where I'd be insane.

Now excuse me as I talk to that flying spaghetti monster into buying a time share.

Weight Loss

Earlier this year in the spring, I had noticed I had gained some unhealthy weight. Unhappy with that, I changed my ways and started working out every day. I used Wii Fit and DDR to lose 10-15 lbs.

Yes, they do work. I even had started getting much more defined abs. I'm not a heavy guy or anything, so of course, results may vary. But if you want a fun(ner) way to lose weight, they both can help. So you know, I'm about 5'10, WAS 168lbs  , managed to get down to 153 at one point.

I probably gained back half the weight I lost by now, but I'm not too worried; I know some of it is muscle. I stopped working out every day after getting so many distractions from being able to work out (with the wii or just traditional exercises on my own). I only like to work out in private, but my room is not big enough for the more strenuous work outs, and the only room with enough space would be the living room... which is occupado most the day. My only options would be to wait for family to all leave for work (anywhere from 5am-11am before they leave) on weekdays, and wake up early on weekends, hoping no one would wake up. As soon as someone wakes up/gets home, I would be open to teasing and other colorful commentary from father and sister, or my mothers cloud of cigarette smoke engulfing my lungs. This was also during the time I was in college too, so I wouldn't have the opportunity to focus on working out all the time.

These days, I pretty much do a few yoga poses on my own, and play ddr/itg every now and then, but the motivation is being lost slowly. I probably need another wake up call of fat before I get back into it. I am worried about getting fat because of my father going on about saying, "One day, you'll be just like me with a big belly!" I know it's stupid, but I see it as a challenge to prove him wrong (or perhaps its a complex, though I wouldn't call it that). And I love to prove him wrong.

My metabolism from playing soccer when I was younger and playing ungodly amounts of DDR is what probably keeps me skinny when I'm lazy, but I know for a fact it is winding down. It'd be nice if I had a better atmosphere (or better yet, ROOM) to exercise, but that doesn't look like it will be happening until I move out or parents find a better house.

5 Days a Stranger

I'm not feeling to well today, so I figured I would just share with you a game that I found to be amazing in its sci-fi horror elements. I first found it from looking at "Let's Play's" on youtube. For those who don't know what a "Let's Play" is, it's when a player plays through a game either as a guide, for entertainment of other people (and so they don't have to play it themselves), or both. The guy who does this is an excellent "Let's Play" host, and the storyline of the game is completely fascinating (to me anyway).


5 Days a Stranger Playlist link

This is the first of the series. It starts off sounding like a mystery, and then goes into the horror elements. After this one, it starts going into the sci-fi/horror genre. After that it starts to become completely whacked out and crazy. If interested after a few episodes, the guy who did this let's play did the rest of the series to. The next series is called, "7 Days a Skeptic," then "Trilby's Notes," and finally, "6 Days a Sacrifice."

I'll admit you will need to do some reading as you watch, which can get annoying sometimes, but it's worth the read and watch. If you rather play it, by all means try playing it! I never did, but I imagine you can find it by googling it.

Election Day

Election Day today in the USA! If you are able to vote, I recommend you do so! I voted sometime in the morning.

Was researching some of the people I had to vote on, and some of the candidates were just freaking odd. One person wanted to cut off all military support other than getting troops back home and no longer wanted to do any sort of weapon research, as well as cut off relations to other countries... Basically be up for grabs to the next country who wants to attack. I understand not wanting to be apart of a war, but leaving the country absolutely defenseless is not very smart either.

Politics in general piss me off... So I normally don't care to get into anything. However, when it comes to voting, I try to research the positions and then see which candidate sucks the least. If I can't get good enough info or both candidates equally suck, then I choose not to vote (on them, that is). I know a lot of people get really up the ass about voting, and say to not vote is pathetic, but I believe to ONLY vote for the sake of voting is just as bad as not voting due to laziness. Part of the right to vote is the choice NOT to vote. Unfortunately, since a large amount of people don't vote due to being lazy/apathetic, people not voting for other reasons get lumped in with them.

It has been awhile since I was taught how our voting system actually works but from what I recall, the citizen's vote in the USA barely matters thanks to the electoral college. It is kind of depressing enough to make people not want to vote (which is what I ended up doing one of the election years). After that year, however, I decided I should still vote just to make an effort towards something I care for. Better than giving up completely. BTW, if I am wrong about the electoral college, by all means correct me.

Anyway, for those last minute voters or those who want to get more information on candidates in the future (for those in the USA), I used this website for a bulk of my information, using the courage test as a guideline and then the party's website for more info: Vote Smart.org The courage test is just a form that expresses what issues the politicians are going to address. A fair amount of politicians choose not to do it, probably because doing so would give their positions, which means they can't act like they care for both sides. Personally, I find the test as a nice quick way for voters to get info, doing so can help your position as much as hurt it.

I looked over the courage test, and it's not bad. So I decided to share my general views on a few of the things there (not the whole thing, cause that'd be too damn long):
- Pro-Choice on Abortion
- Decrease funds toward Welfare (I have a problem with people living on it forever, so want a cut off date instead)
- Decrease funds toward international aid (No offense to other countries, but we need to fix our own mess first before we can help someone)
- Greatly Decrease middle class's income tax (Middle class is the backbone here, stop stomping on them!)
- Marijuana's legalization should be restricted just like alcohol and cigarettes are currently. (must be 18/21 to purchase, not allowed in public eye, get equivalent of DWIs if caught under the influence of marijuana while driving) Otherwise, remain medicinal.
- Give college students better financial aid for college (extend harder for middle class)
- Rid public schools of federal testing. (Just seems like a waste of money, let the STATE school systems handle itself)
- Indifferent to Global Warming
- All for alternartive energy sources
- National healthcare should be an option to subscribe to, not a mandatory change.
- "Illegal" immigrant procedures need to be stepped up. (I appreciate that people want to come to the country, but feel we need to step up on border control. It is a crime to come in here illegally, thus the word "ILLEGAL" in "ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT." However, the system does need to be reformed, too many problems)
- There should be no national language, but still need to have people learn English (and provide some sort of free class to legal immigrants and new American citizens).
- For gay marriage
- For stem cell research
- In favor of SLOWLY weeding out affirmative action laws (maybe even just disable it until it is deemed needed once again).
- Think "don't ask, don't tell" is unconstitutional, but should stay maintained. Not to hate on gays, but there are people who join the army who will be uncomfortable with KNOWING you are gay. More hate may end up coming out of it, which can't be allowed in the army.

A new month, a new blog season!

No update yesterday since I managed to busy myself with a nice horror movie marathon with my best friend. First watched Candyman, which was not very impressive for us. Good enough to watch though, and great to make fun of! Phantasm was the next movie, which was rather pathetic. I might be judging it too harshly for its age, but it pulled a lot of bad horror movie clichés. I did respect an interesting connection/twist it threw at the end, but that was about it. For the most part, the movie ended up more sci-fi than horror. Lastly, I saw Dawn of the Dead remake, which was excellent! Nice to know of the references to the movie I seen in shows like South Park. The ending left a little to be desired, but was fitting enough.

As it is a new month, it is time to do some blog cleaning. I basically hid from my follow list people who haven't updated much last month, nor much recently. Some exceptions were made, such as people I have had for awhile and provided incredibly interesting blogs, as well as people who might not have updated much, but stayed in contact with me. If any of said people came back and commented to let me know so, I'd welcome them back of course. No worries, if you are reading this (within the date this was posted anyway), you likely are not apart of the cleaning.

If I was better with imaging, I'd probably revamp the blog a bit too, but alas, I am not. Instead, I'll reflect upon the most popular entries I had in views this month!

For My Fellow Archipelago Remastered Players - I'm a little surprised this was the number one entry I've been having since I started blogging, despite the lack of comments. I suppose it is just because of the (few) people that play the game and search for help on google. Most the hits are from people searching for recipes in the game. Kind of funny since that game on BYOND has been going down a lot, due to the heavy turnover rate of hosts. Ah well.

Guess Who's Back - The post after I returned from vacation. I suppose that mini-vacation with the family wasn't so bad. It was nice to get away from the normal life I have been leading, even though the highlight of it was the casino. It also got me back into wanting to gamble and thus back to playing Neopets more regularly.

... - When I first found out Great-Grandma died. Yeah, that has been in my head for awhile. It's hard to accept since it felt like she would be around forever. Again, I'm not exactly depressed over it, just got me thinking about life a bit more. Also renewed my appreciation for family, which I feel was a bit of a blessing in the end. Only problem I'm having is I feel like I'm losing touch with my cousin, who was my other best friend for the longest time. Now, I feel like much more of an acquaintance, or just a normal cousin to her... though I will admit that has been slowly happening for a long time now, great-grandma's death just made it more apparent.

Sudden Vacation - This was just talking about my feelings on havign to go on a vacation. In retrospect, I feel I was rather immature about it. I was just wanting to have the house to myself for a week since it makes me feel so much more independent. Just a mask over what I actually am; an unemployed son living off mommy and daddy. The job market sure isn't treating me too well (nor my old school for that matter).

Super Smash Brothers Brawl - Heh, this likely was only popular because of the name and how popular the game itself has been. Since this entry, I have gotten another 6 characters through Classic mode on Intense, and another handful through boss battles intense mode. Stickers needed remain at 2. :(

Halloween party searching.

It's hard to find a good halloween party around here (or at least one that won't cost shitloads of money). I googled parties for my state and nothing with too much detail came up. I could only guess a handful of the parties that looked interesting were for children (especially since they had a chaperon special price... ugh).  Others are either too far away or look stupid. Or worse, have already happened.

Hay Rides and Corn Mazes just don't do it for me, which is the majority of the halloween events that I scanned through. I just never really cared for people to jump out at me for a scare or make a bunch of loud noises. And wandering through a corn maze... ... just seems stupid. My sister and mother had been to them and mentioned how there was hardly anything to them other than trying to find your way out. Big whoop.

I'm a bit mad at a friend of mine, who had gone to a radio show's halloween party and never mentioned it once to me. Shows how good a friend he really is, since I've told him before I'd love to be invited to events more often, yet he never mentions them until after he goes, and how much fun it was.

 

 Not that I have my green Ness costume together yet anyway, but I do have a back up of a knight costume I had for years (cheap looking fabric, but it works well enough). The yellow-and-orange-striped shirt remains elusive.

My old college has nothing going on either, and the "party" friends I had have either moved too far away, or I haven't been in touch with for awhile. My best friend doesn't like to travel too far and is about as social as I am, so I have no help from her. My cousin who I am close to has been a zombie since great-grandma died, not to mention i feel like we are growing apart so not bothering with her (not to mention she's always freaking busy). I may end up just caving in, and asking my sister if she mind me tagging along. Which I think she will since she wants to pick up guys, and it feels weird to do that with her younger brother around (And I feel the same way about picking up someone with her around). Not to mention, I like to have a friend nearby so I can fall on them when I get bored, and my sister is not the person I want to be chatting with.

I don't know why I want to go to a party so bad, considering I suck at socializing at them usually. Guess I just want to get the fuck out of the house and socialize with people around my age. Maybe I'll do what i did last year, and just go to the arcade in costume. At least there is something to do there.

...and that is my whiny rant.