Knight of the Living Bread

My Email Asks Me If I Like Elf-Woman

2009-10-26T21:05:08Z

One of the reasons I've held my peace on this journal for so long is the all-too-keen awareness that it's not really a diary in as much as it is a public forum, and I try not to speak on a public forum unless I actually have something interesting to say. Added to the knowledge that the people I associate with tend to have a very specific range of interests indeed, the result is my choosing to just keep to myself for now the personally important but admittedly mundane business of building a marriage.

Well, I could wax poetic about what is to me an exciting engagement, as well as a very riveting religious regimen, but given the volumes I could easily fill my friends' FLists with, I decided to spare everyone for now. :V

Logistically, it's not looking good for me on the pop culture front; of the last few batches of nonessential purchases I've made, the overwhelming bulk was made up of history and historical commentary books (SHOCKING!). Muramasa was the only game I bought this year, and I didn't even play that, leaving it for my brother to finish while I messed around with Einhander, Geometry Wars, Team Fortress 2, and Rock Band 2.

Fortunately I've bought some DVDs instead, plus my youngest brother has been pirating movies like a crosseyed Hong Kong Chinaman selling to the Philippines, thus freeing me from legal culpability, as well as providing me with provender for pithy pulp perspectives!

Alliteration is fun.

Ponyo

As much as I like Miyazaki, I can't help but wish that he actually has less to work with than has been the trend. It may be an inaccurate assessment, but I've observed that the more leeway the animation giant has (i.e., a bigger film budget), the crazier and more involved his movies get. Attend-- My Neighbor Totoro and Whispers of the Heart are among his earlier works, and their charm rests primarily on the character relationships captured by the simplicity of their movies' execution. This is in direct contrast to Princess Mononoke, a movie I outright disliked just because of how convoluted it got towards the end. I don't even remember everything that was going on in that story, it just got so bogged down. Even in the later ones I did end up enjoying, such as Howl's Moving Castle and Spirited Away, the sumptuously animated sequences with the most happening onscreen tended to be a net minus for the films as a whole.

At the risk of lecturing an acclaimed director in a field I have no formal training in, I'd have to say that some of his work could have been better served by the elimination of a good deal of the most fantastical scenes-- distractions at best, confusions at worst. I've decided that my favorite has to be Porco Rosso, a near-perfect balance of narrative simplicity and the impressive animating muscle we've come to expect from Studio Ghibli.

Ponyo belongs to the middle-latter class of Miyazaki movies as I layed them out. Storywise, there's not much to say, really-- a fairy tale that claims direct descent from the Little Mermaid, retooled for more modern youngsters. Animation-wise, it was superb, but left me reeling in some parts. Overall, a cute diversion, but light fare to more seasoned tastes.

allisino liked it a lot though, so this review will probably get me in trouble. :(

Coraline

Gaiman, a strange creature in his own right, breeds similar oddities in the media he touches. Treatment of his original work into different forms have been maddeningly inconsistent in resultant quality-- e.g., the Neverwhere comic was ghastly; the Stardust movie was flashy and fun; both Beowulf movie and comic were inventive and haunting, but strangely bland and lifeless at the same time.

Coraline was simultaneously a relief and a pleasant surprise. I found the book alright, but the animated film adaptation is a decided improvement of the sort that immediately and immovably ingratiates itself in my estimation.

In specific, the stop-motion technique for one lends itself particularly well to the story's mood of muted melancholy, making the brighter parts all the more appreciated. Also, I'm typically wary of any major changes made to story dynamic, such as the introduction of a character woven out of whole cloth, but Wybie was here not only a welcome addition, but an active foil and indispensable support to the film's timing and flow.

At least I'm pretty sure there wasn't a Wybie character in the book. It's been a long, long time since I read Coraline, but I'm preeeeetty sure I'd have remembered a character as... ahem... colorful as Wybie.

... right?

My only regret was that I watched it for the first time in DVD-quality 3-D version, complete with red-blue stereo-optic glasses. While admirably effective at first, the technology was still largely rudimentary, and the novelty wore off fast. I missed a lot of the color play and other visual cues because of 3-D-induced squinting that time around, but it's fortunate for me that Coraline is a movie I'll be sure to watch over and over and over again over the years, one of the surest signs of something's significance and superiority to my standards.

allisino wasn't that fond of it though, so this review will probably get me in trouble. :(

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

AHAHAHAHHAHAHA, OH WOW, IS THAT REALLY SUPPOSED TO BE DEADPOOL? AHAHAHAHA

Easily one of the dumbest things I've ever seen, even without the ham-handed handling of established comic characters, and that's no mean feat.

Drag Me To Hell

A good film by its own standards, meaning that fans of Sam Raimi and the Evil Dead series won't be disappointed, I don't think. Great special effects done for relatively cheap by Hollywood reckoning, and with admirable directing resourcefulness. Ironically enough, it leaves a lasting impression for a horror movie with a lot of bright primary colors, thanks in no small part to its use of basic cinematography and still imagery, coupled with Raimi's macabre sense of humour as manifest in some of the most disquieting but grimly amusing moments I've ever seen in a movie.

I guess it's a compliment to dressed-up schlock that I can proceed to the next points of discussion, but the movie is otherwise a moral morass, and fairly imbalanced in terms of spiritual thermodynamics as well. The weaknesses of the movie's superstructure can perhaps best be expressed in the many questions the film's ending (SPOILERS AHEAD) gives rise to.

Among which-- how broken is it that, according to the movie, gypsies can pretty much consign anyone they wish to eternal hellfire? And with such a simple-seeming spell too! Is denying a mortgage extension to anyone really something deserving of an infinity of punishment, as the main character's final plight seems to imply? From the events of the movie, the main character's pivotal decision appeared to be nothing worse than a momentary failure of charity, with mitigating circumstances to boot, and-- here's the important thing-- eventually repented of as well. You mean to say that saying sorry doesn't count anymore? Perhaps Sam Raimi's own mother was denied a similar extension?

And when will I see a movie where a psychic the characters "happen" to consult is actually a fake (my brother pointed out the movie Ghost, but that doesn't count because Whoopi turns out to be real anyway, she just didn't realize it yet)? Nine times out of ten, movie psychics are real psychics, which is immensely better odds than you'll get in the real world.

Finally, why consult a psychic anyway? Seriously, don't deal with demons on their own terms, don't play by their rules, and you certainly do not try to appease them. You fight the diabolical with its opposite number. If you ever find yourself in any kind of similar straits with occult trouble, do yourself a favor and find the nearest Catholic priest. If he isn't trained to help you, he will know someone who is, and he can help you improve your lot in the meantime.

But again, the movie gives little indication that it even cares about the curious implications it slings around in the service of grisly entertainment, so conjecture and speculation may be for naught. All the same, I am compelled to object; it's no joking matter to condemn anyone to Hell, even in fiction, and I can just hope, perhaps vainly, that future films deal with the subject with more responsibility than was demonstrated in this one.

Perhaps a better title would be I Got Dragged To Hell, WTF?

Monsters vs. Aliens

Watching it by myself would have been bad enough, but with my fiancee and my brother in the same room, I was just downright embarrassed for the craft, that craft being of writing in particular, and making things that are not garbage in general. It hurt to watch, when we weren't all just bored out of our wits that is.

One of the biggest disappointments in animation I've had to stomach, due mostly to my high hopes for the Susan character, hopes which in their turn inflicted the most grievous wounds on my shattered expectations.

This is intolerable. I can do better than that without trying. In fact, I have half a mind to do so. I've got a few minutes and a laptop. That's all I need.

I started making this post at eleven o'clock am. It is now just a little past four in the afternoon. Chee, I'm thinking and moving in slow motion today. Must be the three-day, twelve-hour weekend I just got through. Sooooooo tired. I hope these ramblings find you in better spirits. XD

God bless~

My Mom Says It Was Technically Yesterday, When We Flew Into California

2009-10-22T04:57:54Z

I've been in the America six years as of today. Crazy stuff. I haven't posted in my Livejournal account for about as long. CRAZY STUFF

Just a couple of big things for now, first being my having taken and successfully passed my naturalization test last week. Yaaay! Not that the feat was anything to be particularly proud of; I only needed to study one hundred basic questions that gave a very rudimentary knowledge of the personality and history of the US of A, and it's not like they waterboard you for the right answers or anything either.

In fact, I believe you only need to get six questions out of ten right, and as soon as I got exactly six questions right, the agent stopped asking me questions. Oh, government! Now am just waiting to be contacted for the swearing in ceremony, and then I'm officially a citizen. CRAZY STUFF

Second, I've been in the Cadbury Adams plant making gum for five years as a permanent since this past July. It may not seem like such a milestone at first, but when I realized that this means I've been working in that place for longer than I've been in some of my schools, it kind of puts some things in perspective. CRAZY STUFF

Perspective being that I believe I am being kept in that place so that I learn humility and patience. I sure do wish I learned a little faster.

Nextly, one of my biggest excuses for spurning the internet and all its charms altogether boils down to a giddy, semi-nervous state of anticipation and preparation for a very special date about seven months from now. I'll be asking some of youze soon if it's possible for you to be in the general Chicago Illinois area on the 22nd of May, the Year of Our Lord 2010. Chances are, you'll get to witness me sacramentally secure myself to my sole soulmate indissolubly, and afterwards maybe have dinner with us and the family or something. CRAZY STUFF!

We hast begun the pre-marriage orientation process with our parish priest, and have been puttering about with other things besides; to follow will be a friendslocked post with a link to something we have up under construction at The Knot. Please to be checking it out, as it will have pertinent information on the both of us for the interested, including a re-post of allisino's version of our pop-the-question story, and some photos taken throughout the course of this not-very-long-but-feels-pretty-long engagement. Seriously, I catch myself sometimes and have to be very careful not to dwell inappropriately on the events of the wedding night. :O

Finally, I have begun reading Dante's Divine Comedy, Book One: Hell, and his description of the inferno probably helps with the troubles I intimate on in the preceding sentence somewhat. It's the translation by Dorothy Sayers, as very thoughtfully provided to me once again by the inestimable lirazel, a repeated procurer and purveyor of fine literature for my most unworthy self. I've never been an enthusiast for poetry, to put it mildly, but being exposed to what is arguably human history's best instance of it is threatening to change that. Seriously, the notes and addendums feel like I'm taking a school course on both Dante and artistic language, not to mention orthodox moral thought, all of which comprise a most pleasant and welcome surprise, yet another thing for which I must extend Lira my most heartfelt thanks once again.

I can't do very much more than very quickly skim my Flist nowadays, but please know that my prayers are still with all of you. Perhaps soon enough, when my flesh and blood and soul aren't engaged -- heheh -- in other endeavors, I can spare some soon enough for a returned resemblance of regularity on this rambling reader's ruminating r... uh... rrrr.... blog.

God bless! :D

Matthew 13: 45-46

2009-07-01T17:14:07Z

Alright, here's how this is going to work. Before I garage sale/E-Bay my stuff, I would like to offer all my buddies the chance to snap them up first. Most all of these are in good to perfect condition, minus the original packaging, and missing nonessential parts in some cases (the tabs of a guitar, a bust of Lord Raptor one of the Liliths was leaning on, etc). Near the following items will be the estimated retail price as best as I can Google them or as best as I can remember.

For the most part, the ERP is only a guide; this will be a silent auction, held right here in this journal, on this post, as far as I am able, because I can't be stuffed to do it anywhere else in any other way. I will be using for the first time the comment screening feature LJ offers, so please be patient if things are a little hiccupy at first.

All I want from interested parties is a good reason for me to send them something they want. You can give me your best monetary offer, or even a trade. Though you have nothing to send me in return, perhaps you can try to convince me that the item would have a perfect home with you. Maybe it was something you've wanted all your life, or your dying dog wants it. Or, just as likely as any of these, nobody's expressed an interest in the item at all, and simply by being the first to drop by and say, "That would kind of look nice beside my garden gnome", it could be yours by default. You may ask for more than one item. Or just tell me that I am a fool and that an item will fetch 500% its original price in the black market, and we can split the profits. You could be a friend of mine for years, or a passing stranger. Say something. Ask and you might receive.

Be warned however-- not everyone will be treated equally. I owe a lot of people a lot of things, and if I spurn a good, reasonable price for someone else's mere "Send it here", there may be reasons for this beyond your ken. Comments, offers or questions are subject to being unscreened and published at my discretion, unless otherwise specified or requested. When I say I am considering an offer, it means I am considering the offer. Once I promise you an item, it is as good as yours as soon as manageable.

Once a matter is settled, the details of addresses and logistics can be discussed over email. It may take moments to settle. It may take days. I have almost a week off until next Wednesday, and excepting Friday, so this is the best time for anything. Beyond that, the ball will be in the air. I will try to provide ample time for as many as possible to see and consider what I offer, but beyond a certain time after the latest ping I got from interested parties, all items are going to be gotten rid of some way or another.

While I do not require full price for any item, I do hope that interested parties give some small token to cover as much shipping as they can, though, again, it is not required.

Finally, you may not even be interested in anything I have (which is hardly a surprise), but may still be interested in helping me out a bit (which is always a pleasant surprise). Feel free to drop any amount you wish through the button below.

All proceeds will go to the Alliedeo 2010 Matrimony Fund, and whatever charities we deem worthy.

Yuki Nagato gashapon based on a doujin cover. Exquisitely crafted, one of my very favorites. Head, right arm and vest detach naturally, do not be alarmed. ERT = $49.00 - 60.00

Haruhi Suzumiya in season finale concert bunny outfit. Superb craftsmanship, good heft. May be missing some small locks of hair, or ribbon, and guitar may be missing one or two tabs. ERT = $65.00 - 80.00

Jo from Bakuretsu Tenshi. Terrible series, great character design, mediocre figure. ERT = $16.00 - 25.00

Some Chick From One Of The Summon Night Games. Ingenious character and weapon design, disappointing figurine (what the heck is up with giraffe neck here?). ERT = $25.00

Dunno Who This Is, But The Pumpkin Skirt Charmed Me Into Buying Her. Come on, you guys, pumpkin skirt. ERT = $25.00 - 36.00

The Demoness and Succubi Revue. From left to right:

Playful Lilith Aensland. Wings are around here somewhere, but could be missing. Mass produced manufacture, cheap plastic, won't stand on its own. ERT = $10.00 - 16.00

Distracted Lilith Sitting On Top Of L. Raptor's Blue Crystalline Bust For Some Reason. Raptor head somewhere around here somewhere, but who cares about that guy. Decent cast, but fragile and falls apart easily, can't stand independently without Raptor. ERT = $10.00 - 16.00

Etna from Disgaea: Hour of Darkness. Excellent piece, though tail may fall off if one is not careful. Is this one seriously selling on EBay for two hundred dollars?? Seriously? ERT = $85.00

Ceras Victoria from late game Hellsing. Beautiful workmanship for price, though leans forward oddly. Great character, one of my favorites. ERT = $25.00 - 30.00

Disgaea 2 Etna With Considerably Shorter Micro-Skirt. Excellent make, gorgeous design, one of my very favorites. Falls off stand if moved too much. ERT = $49.00

~~I-No of Guilty Gear. Kickass character, poor figurine, low detail, bad aesthetics, alarming anatomy. Not sure why I bought it. ERT = $20.00 - 25.00~~

New Arrivals Corner. From left to right:

Aya of Oneechanbara: Bikini Samurai Squad. Her clan's bloodline feeds off of power from the blood of zombies splashing on their skin, which is why she wears as little as possible to combat, I kid you not. I can't make shit like this up myself. A superb figurine nevertheless, sturdy and very finely detailed. Hat comes off. One of my favorites. ERT = $30 - 40.00

Misato Katsuragi of Neon Genesis Evangelion. Unique among the batch, completely handmade from ceramic, bought in the Philippines. Fragile and must be handled somewhat gingerly. Low detail and finish, but admirable simply for skilled work. ERT = 10.00

Yuffie Kisaragi from Final Fantasy VII and Advent Children respectively. These things are all over the place. Articulated joints mar otherwise finely-made statuettes, but I suppose it's a trade off for the poseability. Alternate hands and shuriken are around here somewhere if desired. ERT = $16.00 - 27.00

Agrias Oaks of Final Fantasy Tactics. Great character, small airtime, smaller figurine. Came in a set, but is now alone. Missing stand. Good make. ERT = $5.00

Yuki Nagato Again, Facing Mirror, Obliviously Adjusting Bathing Suit. Generic make and design, but golly, it's a real mirror! ERT = $7.00

Operators are standing by to take your calls. God bless!

Star Trope, Up Ours

2009-06-03T17:46:22Z

Events after my youngest brother's wedding have been a blur of depressurization and the whirlwind descent of the preparations for my own nuptials in The-Year-Of-Our-Lord-Two-Thousand-And-Ten. Can there be such a thing as preparations for the preparations to a wedding? It's looking more and more like this is the regular run of things when speaking of the impending merger of two people and two families. How can people have more than one of these things? It boggles the mind.

As usual, in the face of enormously important things looming over the horizon, I have chosen to break my silence by speaking of enormously unimportant things-- specifically, my opinions on movies professionals are paid to have opinions about.

Star Trek was an enjoyable movie experience, but a markedly poor Star Trek story. I can't call myself a Trekkie, but I've lived around them, and the series is firmly in the background of my makeup. What I saw in the theater was a big, transparent RESET button for the franchise, but a shiny, understandable one. I only wish that they'd offered a better tale while they were at it.

Basically, I now see that what they (by which, I mean the writers/producers/source) had set out to do was to breathe new life into the old, familiar characters of the series' inception, at which they have succeeded admirably; every name was given a new face and a new dynamic, especially effected through the contrivance of forcing the 'original' crew together in the context of just having emerged from the academy. I particularly enjoyed the new hook of Young Spock being romantically involved with Young Uhura (missed her first name, how ironic).

What I didn't appreciate was seeing old cudgels of lazy science fiction being used for the purpose; black holes, planetary destruction, time travel. I acknowledge their usefulness in evoking emotion and thought-pictures, but they are quick fixes and cop outs for the most part. I had imagined that the Star Trek franchise might start adopting a more mature approach to science fiction and thus shed some of the disdain it's accrued as 'McScience Fitcion' over the years, but I guess I'll have to wait a little longer.

Sadly, these are the least of my problems with it-- what prickles me more than the pseudoscience involved (which I am not a qualified authority on by any means) are the botched narrative opportunities littered throughout the film (which I am still not a qualified authority on by any means!). Most disappointing to me was the revelation of the nature of their primary antagonist; the captain of one of the most fearsome starships ever designed for the big screen turns out to be nothing more than an angry Romulan miner out for revenge. While I cannot reasonably hope for another favorite pulp SF villain, it almost makes one wish for the Borg again.

Finally, we get to the elephant in the room, the eye-popping moral conundrum that the writers seem to flit blasely through and about (and I'm not even talking about how easily Green-Skinned Girl was forgotten after her ship was presumably destroyed in the Federation fleet that was wiped out)-- how it can be considered, by any stretch, that the day was 'saved' when an entire planet of souls was completely and utterly annihilated. Now, I have no great love for Vulcans; to my mind, they are the Star Trek equivalent of Tolkien's elves, and you all know how I feel about that lot. No, my bigger problem is the implied attitude that as long as the planet destroyed wasn't Earth, it's perfectly okay to carry on without it.

Seriously, you guy? Seriously??

The sequential beginning of the events portrayed have an older Spock seeking to save planet Romulus and failing, subsequently earning the eternal ire of one of its survivors, with the additional complication of them both being thrown back in time to different temporal points. So far so good. And then we have the irate fellow swearing revenge on the Federation older Spock represents, starting with the ship that lay conveniently just outside the black hole he emerges from into the past, which just conveniently happens to carry James T. Kirk's father.

Somehow, despite the drastically different circumstances of James growing up with no father, not to mention the other, myriad changes to the universe presented by an extra-temporal visitor, Kirk largely grows up unchanged and the universe is still a perfect place for the crew of the original Star Trek tv show to appear together like family again for the first time. O... kay. Fine. I can accept that.

So now Irate Fellow means to destroy the Federation, starting with planet Vulcan, and following with planet Earth. He succeeds in destroying Vulcan in the first half; the rest of the movie is about saving planet Earth (which is, of course, saved in the end).

Alright, so a new alternate reality rife with future franchise possibilities is born; a Federation universe minus Vulcan, plus two Spocks, and an extremely young and plucky revivified crew of the Enterprise. All perfectly acceptable, but they didn't have to rub it in my face.

The dialogue and mood of the story were at odds with each other at very critical points, particularly when Older Spock speaks warmly to Young Kirk about 'cheating' being sometimes acceptable to solve no-win problems, 'cheating' being in reference to time travel.

... but they didn't mean to travel back in time! And the cure was worse than the disease, in any case-- Vulcan remains destroyed, Irate Fellow killed and gloated upon for all his trouble, with Romulus faring no better in the other reality. I kept expecting them to plunge into a black hole and through time again to bring Vulcan back, but then the credits started rolling, and I was all like wtf?

Seriously, you guy? Seriously??

I look forward to more jaw-droppingly beautiful rendered pew pew in the future, but damned if I'll ever forget that they murdered a planetful of people and casually told us all that it's perfectly alright.

I'm always sorry when I have more to say about things I didn't like than I do about things I did like, because I did like Star Trek (as a net gain anyway). However, I liked Pixar's Up a great deal better, and thus I will probably speak about it exponentially less.

Aside from the fact that I watched this one with allisino this time whilst nomming on some decadently chocolatey brownie melts, it was the first 3D film I'd ever been to, and the effects are wholeheartedly recommended (if you're not prone to siezures or bouts of vomiting in the face of overwhelming visio-sensory assault, that is). I didn't even mind sitting way up on the very first row; may have enhanced the experience, really.

And of course, it was Pixar, from which I've come to expect lackluster publicity but great filmmaking. If I hadn't seen the trailer to Up, I'd have been better off; as it was, I still had a swell time. As such, I don't really want to give too much away, but I will a couple of general impressions.

I have an extraordinary respect and admiration for Pixar's commitment to perfecting the art of expressing motion and emotion without words. They're no slouches when it comes to narration, dialogue, and banter either-- their previous films, particularly The Incredibles and, my favorite, Ratatouille, establishes that-- but I take an exquisite appreciation for the times when they put the microphone down and let the reel do the talking. As with Wall-E, my favorite sequences in Pixar's Up were all in the first few minutes of the movie-- if wishes could be granted, I would have wanted for both movies to be entirely speechless. But alas, as with Wall-E, Up is, first and foremost, a children's movie (so no smart-alec 'What's Up?' jokes anymore, hmm, k?), and they have children to please.

That's the movement I perceive in Pixar's last three feature-lengths; perhaps Ratatouille's comparatively poor reception was due to the fact that it was a more cerebral comedy, with some very nuanced, eccentric dynamics carrying the bulk of the chemistry. Both Wall-E and Up start off with subdued scenes and situations, which suddenly-- almost jarringly-- segues into a lot of rollicking action sequences and a lot of physical comedy. Happily enough, Pixar blends both to their purposes masterfully, but with marked contrast comes a marked preference-- I enjoyed the fast-paced sections well enough but I dearly loved the quiet parts.

Oh, and so daring! Pixar deftly and subtly tackles extremely sensitive issues in Up as well, and again does them justice without dwelling on them too much to be depressing. They remind us that some of these things are real, as any storyteller should. But they do not lie to us and say that it is all perfectly acceptable-- something better is always possible and within reach, and you always leave their movies with a sense of hope and a smile.

These two movies amount to my total expenditures for media-based entertainment in forever. Has it really been more than a year since I last bought a videogame for myself? The times, they are a-changin'. More on this when I return.

God bless!

sotiredkthxbye

2009-05-23T00:33:27Z

ACen weekend was a big, long blast, and it was followed immediately by my youngest brother getting married. I am wiped out.

So, now I get to plan for the date exactly a year from now, which will be the most important day of my life.

I hope I make it there, haw. Godspeed~

Would Have Posted Sooner, But Had No Internet For Whole Weekend

2009-05-05T00:47:34Z

I'm going to bed now. I'm totally wiped out. Good night and God bless~

'Seeing' Of Course Meaning 'To Behold With One's Own Eyes' And Not The Modern 'Meeting Socially'

2009-04-27T15:55:03Z

"I could never mix in the common murmur of that rising generation against monogamy, because no restriction on sex seemed so odd and unexpected as sex itself. To be allowed, like Endymion, to make love to the moon and then to complain that Jupiter kept his own moons in a harem seemed to me (bred on fairy tales like Endymion's) a vulgar anti-climax. Keeping to one woman is a small price for so much as seeing one woman. To complain that I could only be married once was like complaining that I had only been born once. It was incommensurate with the terrible excitement of which one was talking. It showed, not an exaggerated sensibility to sex, but a curious insensibility to it."

- G.K. Chesterton,
Orthodoxy

MAN, I love this guy. As a bonus, the more and more I read him, the more and more I see how he has influenced Neil Gaiman himself to the point where I now recognize that one of Gaiman's more beloved characters is essentially Chesterton.

How oddly their paths have diverged since this meeting of minds.

Easter Feaster

2009-04-22T19:57:11Z

The weekend is gone, but not its effects! Man, what a three days. Not even working two twelve-hour days back-to-back can seem to dampen it. As it is not within my power to have my friends live those days with me and thus share my joy, I will instead report on some of the highlights!

To start with, a most prize find from a garage sale near my parish church served to buoy my spirits in a most welcome fashion on Friday, a beautiful sunny day, perfect for curb shopping. I'd been desiring and keeping an eye out for an easy chair or recliner for a while now, something for if I wanted to just sit and read, or lie back and relax and watch the rain. I didn't want something cheap but serviceable-- I wanted something Nice, something that was worth my time and money and more. I wanted something that could possibly outlast me, something hard and sturdy, but luxuriant and comforting as well; in other words, I wanted a chair I could love.

Divine providence has graced me with the beauty you see before you:

In a word, this chair was perfect, exactly the sort I was looking for, large enough to lounge in with a book, a drink, a laptop, or all three and STILL have room for someone small to sidle in beside you with her own book/drink/laptop/cat. The latter quality was actually the thing that first struck me about it, but you know, whatever.

The thing comes with a fairly interesting semi-adventure too; the minute I walked into the house it was in to look at the big furniture they had for sale, I knew immediately that I may have stepped in way over my head. The dining set was genuinely antique, and the living room looked like something from a high-end designer catalogue. No way I could get anything here for something reasonable a poor working boy like me could afford, right? My trepidations were heightened when the owner's husband called and engaged her in some conversation; from what I could accidentally overhear, he was allowing the living and dining sets to be sold in separate pieces, which was good news. Bad news was I heard something about him getting the chair for a thousand frickin' dollars.

I was about ready to bolt, really.

Much to my surprise, when the woman turned back to me and the other customer with us, she said she could give it to me for a hundred bucks.

Now, I know I can be impulsive sometimes (HAHAHAHA), especially when it comes to money and unwise purchases, but this seemed too good an opportunity to miss. I didn't have the cash up front, as I was short by like five dollars, but I made a down payment of half and promised to return with a vehicle capable of actually lugging the thing around. The other fellow with us nodded sagely as we left, saying it was a very good buy. Feeling rather pleased with myself and my new acquisition, I made the garage sale rounds for a while after that, snagging some other great stuff, and picked up some additional liquid funds on the way home. I called my mom somewhere in there too, as, through circumstances irrelevant and too lengthy to relate here, she was borrowing my van, and I wanted to know when I could retrieve it. When I told her what it was for, she asked me how much I got the chair for. I told her, and she didn't seem terribly impressed; my mother is a very frugal woman, she well knows my weaknesses when it comes to finances, and I was driving while talking, so I wasn't terribly inclined to explain the whole situation to her.

Anyway, she felt that a hundred was a little much for a garage sale item, and so she decided that she'd bring my dad and have a look at the thing on their way from somewhere else. Yeah, she does that kind of thing quite a bit. She's only looking out for me though-- something for which I am eternally thankful, even though I may not feel as I should it sometimes-- and besides, I was quite convinced that the chair would enchant anyone who laid eyes on it.

As it turned out, it was very, VERY good that they made their way down to the sale. Still thinking I had some time before going back, I suddenly got a call from my mom; apparently, they had shot down as they had intended to the place I told them about, and they had paid for the rest of the chair for me... temporarily. In a mild state of agitation, my mom was telling me to hurry down with my brother to help me carry the thing because someone was offering the owner to pay more for the chair and it was a good thing that they were there to hold it for me because the woman had wanted to call me but it was good that I didn't leave any name or contact information whatsoever because the lady said she'd remember the young man with the black hat.

A little flustered, I hurried down as I was instructed, perhaps feeling a little peevish too because I was under the impression that the lady and I 'had a deal'. Apparently, they were more of a mercenary bent than I had imagined, and so I should really rush down if I still wanted that chair. Which I did. But I was already somewhat resigned to the possibility of not getting it; the owners were well within their rights to renegotiate if they so chose, and I was imagining some rich, fat Texan with a cowboy hat waving a wad of bills in their faces, ready with a pickup truck and burly manservants to take the chair away and out of my life forever.

Well, at least my mom and dad likes the chair too.

I arrived without incident, and loading the chair into my van transpired in a similar fashion. The lady wouldn't even take the little extra I had resolved to give her for the trouble of ultimately holding the thing for me even in light of a better offer.

It wasn't until we were on our way out that mom pulled me aside for a bit and told me what she had learned in the thirty minutes or so of small talk she had a chance to share with the owners while waiting for me to arrive: this family was selling their possessions because their home was under foreclosure. My eyes went wide at this, but she went on: they had to be out in three weeks, but they didn't really have anywhere to go.

All this new information put a whole new light on the situation as I drove away with my prize. I had assumed that this family was simply relocating to greener pastures as so many other pseudo-nomadic American families have done for generations; the truth was profoundly sobering. I began to imagine what the woman must have felt like, selling the trappings of her home piecemeal to roving opportunists all too ready to pick them clean. I felt bad about taking her chair from her, projecting my own infatuation for it onto her, and trying to imagine what it would be like to lose it after years of owning it.

I was sad for her, but I thought I had at least not gone there knowing I was swooping down on the spoils of their misfortune. In some small way too, I had done them a service by taking the thing off their hands, albeit at a price smaller than they deserved, but I plan to make up the difference by keeping them, and all those like them, in my prayers. You guys please pray for them as well.

Now I have to ask my mom what their names were.

So, yeah, I can hast a chair nao, and have a story to go with it too.

A link, a link! Because I'm a moron, and can't figure out how to embed video.

This is copied and pasted from the video description:

"On Friday, the weather told my girl and I that it would be nice and sunny on Saturday. IT LIED TO US. We had planned to shoot down to the park near my condo, lay out a blanket, and then eat lunch while watching the river people frolic in the water. As it turned out, the water came to frolic on US when it became obvious that it was going to rain that day.

Unwilling to be defeated by some downcast skies, we decided then to have our picnic indoors instead, trying not to cheat and using only the things we were going to bring with us anyway. As it turned out, all we forgot were the napkins, and we weren't messy eaters then anyway. Too bad about not having ants or squirrels though.

In the end, the clouds were a tease, and only threatened with a few sprinkles of water instead of actually out and out raining. We both say we could have taken it on, but oh well.

In the background is my laptop playing some generic classical music for 'ambience', and, very faintly, my brother playing Resident Evil 5."

On Saturday, after going to Mass with the family, we ran down to mom's place to hang out a bit. While there, I had a twinge on my back, and asked Allie to knead the area. Well, whatever she did, it loosened up all kinds of tension in me, as the next day, I woke feeling more physically relaxed than I had in a good, long time. I mean, I was always pretty calm and laid back, but the body can harbour all sorts of subconscious tensions and knots that don't get noticed until they are removed.

That, and the rainy weather, which I have always loved, combined to make our visit to her parents' place, where I have always seemed to be fully at peace in, an incredibly restful one. Her mom made us a traditional lamb cake, which was both very cute and very novel to me.

There, Allie was gracious and wonderful enough to tackle the rest of the knots in my back, surprised and a bit disturbed that she wasn't hurting me with her ministrations, even when I asked her to use her knuckles. Not only did it not hurt me, it was just what I had been needing for a good, long time.

The next day at work subjected my muscles to all the usual twists and stresses, but they somehow slid off better, and I coasted through the day on a cloud of pleasurable limpness. If nothing else, Allie may have a very promising future ahead of her as a professional masseur. Exclusively catering to me.

And there you have it, Best Weekend Ever, topping what already seems to be an obscenely long series of Best Weekends Ever.

I'm going to play Team Fortress 2 now. I didn't get to play any over the long weekend, but I really wouldn't have it any other way.

Godspeed! X3

Pocket Theology

2009-04-16T01:38:42Z

I still love Neil Gaiman dearly for his role in my creative and artistic development, but damned if his influence didn't nearly cause lasting harm on my conception of spiritual realities. That was a close one. Not to say that he hasn't learned me some pretty good life lessons over the years, wholly independent of any sought-after objective metaphysical truth.

For instance, I've had cause to ponder something he shared with me in the story with the gypsy fortune teller and her wares: value is in the eye of the buyer.

I'm still at Ezekiel, so I haven't gotten to come across Paul's teaching that humanity has been bought at a steep price, but I'm still at least familiar with the concept... and it's made me wonder just what sort of value humanity has been given as a result.

When a buyer purchases something at what he feels to be a fair price, there is almost always a range of deviation in the exchange between what was paid and the actual objective value of the item acquired. That is why someone who pays much of his wages for something that is worthless is thought a fool, and someone who pays very little for a pearl of great price is thought blessed.

Sometimes, the act of buying in itself imputes some value to the item; that affirmative act of bestowing value on something which did not have it before is commonplace in the buying and selling of items with a certain flexibility in subjective value, such as art or currency. And yet, the buyer of bad art is still thought a fool, because sometimes, no matter how many millions was spent to buy it, a toilet seat is still a toilet seat. Neither the buyer nor the act of buying can gift it with actual objective value.

... but what if the buyer was the creator of actual objective value? Actual objective reality? Not only would the act of buying attribute a subjective value, but if there was a discrepancy between the price and the item, such a purchase by a divine Buyer would impart the value of the price onto the Bought, essentially recreating it.

What is the price discrepancy between the God-Man and the men He came to buy with His blood? No wonder He makes all things new.

I walk about life nowadays with the air of someone who has been given a great gift and responsibility, but unsure whether he can live up to it.

Trials and tribulations have a way of forcing one to shed the immaterial things in life and forces one to change perspective and hang on to what really matters, if only as a way to make it through; it becomes possible to be satisfied, or even happy with less. In an almost inverse manner, great blessing and great fortune have a way of making those with grateful hearts keenly aware of how undeserving they are of such gifts, especially in the midst of what seems to be so much misery and suffering. Certain children think nothing of being given something they have dreamed of all their lives; certain others, upon receiving, immediately think, "Oh, darn it, now I'm expected to live up to this. Now I have to earn what I have been freely given."

But a gift freely given, by definition, can never be earned. When presented with a happiness the heart cannot contain, it can either blanch and retreat, try to take in too much at once and burst, or float along idly, satisfied only with what it can hold... but it can also expand.

I'm... I'm trying to expand. Sometimes despite myself. I have been given great gifts, and I'm finding that this means I must unclench my fingers to receive them, must let go of the things of this world that I have held on to for so long, and which are really just so much dust in comparison.

I can't do it on my own. But I'm not alone anymore. And that's another gift I have to live up to for the rest of my life.

mads @ 2009-04-12T23:48:00

2009-04-13T05:04:17Z

Fixed the place up a bit and cooked a big dinner for family and company. I'm pooped. 'Pooped' is such a funny word.

This was probably the first Easter Triduum where I reeeaally paid attention. It was awesome. Oh, and allisino is Catholic now-- my heart is apt to burst. Mine cup doth indeed overloweth. Eth.

Happy Easter, you guys.

God be with you!

Giants of a Generation and a Mental Midget

2009-04-08T03:30:46Z

So, in the past few months I've had the singular pleasure of reading C.S. Lewis's The Screwtape Letters, Mere Christianity, and The Great Divorce. Somewhere before the last two, I also had the great blessing of getting to read G.K. Chesterton's masterpiece, The Everlasting Man. It was at this point that I pondered J.R.R. Tolkien and wondered whether you had to be an englishman to get cool first name initials like that.

Next, I made the inimitable blunder of thinking in the following manner:

"Wow, Chesterton is such a thinking heavyweight! Good thing I have Lewis for lighter, folksier fare."

And C.S. Lewis's sainted soul, apparently ill-disposed to suffer such a misapprehension as I was laboring under, was all like, 'o rly?'. I shortly came upon his book Miracles, and was driven to blushing, if I were of the complexion to blush. It was like being punched in the head with clear thinking.

Chesterton and Lewis aren't theologians in the strict sense, but their musings make my own reflections seem like just so much desperate grasping, reaching, as with little raccoon fingers.

This is gonna be a huge week. Godspeed!

Throw and Throw

2009-04-03T15:22:17Z

Me: Say, you know those throw moves in Street Fighter?

My Brother: (while playing) Yeah?

Me: What if the character doesn't have a shirt on?

My Brother: Haha, I thought of that too. I guess they get grabbed by the chest hair or something.

Me: But wait a second-- some characters don't have chest hair.

Me: I guess Sagat just always gets grabbed by his nipples.

My Brother: ...

Me: No wonder he seems so angry all the time.

Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before

2009-03-26T21:42:29Z

So for lunch I was doing a Tuna Helper dish for the first time, and Allie reminds me to drain the tuna before adding it to the mix, otherwise it would turn the whole thing soggy-- Tuna Helpless, as she quipped.

I retorted that, knowing me, it would as likely turn out to be Tuna Hell. That cracked her up.

Seeing as I already had as many as three fleshed out D&D characters I had never gotten to play with yet, it seemed silly to be making any more. Silliness seldom stops me from doing certain things however, and I decided that Tarkov, Farlow, and Siya would be lonely all by themselves; they needed a party.

I enjoy drawing Mei, and so she had to be in there somehow, small and smug as ever, but packing the firepower to back it up. Human Wizard was the easy spot for her, canceling out my long-standing allergy to casters and magic users in general. Snuck in a little Spiral Power flavor in there as well, heh.

Now we had crowd control. We needed a healer.

Once again, it was time to mix it up with a race I never play, and a class I avoid. Dwarf was the obvious pick to round out the races but am not sure whether to pick a Dwarven Cleric or a Dwarven Paladin, both of which are as common as the grass. To distinguish him a little, I decided that a fairly unusual background and backstory might be in order.

I already had a female black Elf, so why not a male Asian Dwarf? I'd already decided on a black, bulky armour motif, wicked-looking sword/war axe, and if I had to have a shield at all, it would have to be spiked. I'm keeping the long, silky black hair, too. Can't quite decide if I want them braided though. At the same time, I tried out a couple of other concepts I liked, including the scarab-horn helmet and the sacred writings draped over the breastplate.

As sinister as the initial appearance of this fellow is, he is designed to be the most benevolent and charismatic of the group. His story is one of the religious devout, happily married for some hundreds of years, but sadly lacking in offspring to bring up in the faith. Eventually, this dwarven dogmatic decides to go on a pilgrimage to his pantheon's holy land in the hopes of acquiring favor enough to father a pious heir or heiress. He sets off not on the usual paths however, or even in a caravan of like-minded dwarves, but throws in with a most unlikely set of adventurers whose goals, or at least destinations, intersect with his own.

If he was going to go on a pilgrimage, might as well take the time to preach and perhaps convert others on the way. Then he might get twins.

So now we had the rudiments of a party-- a little geared towards offense, but with myself being the sole architect of this gathering, one can scarcely expect something as quaint as balance.

When the PHB2 came out, I was told a little about the Primal classes, including the Druid, which gave me some ideas. Having looked over the book myself, I saw that another viable option for an additional controller in the team was available.

Male Human Warden, and none of this forest-love nonsense either. This fellow is a bog-dweller, and channels the powers of rot and decay. Drawing heavily from Magic: The Gathering themes here, particularly the regime of Black mana and swampery. I don't even have a drawing for him yet, as I can't decide whether to have him in black, or dress him as the most colorful of all, on account of his clothes and gear all being random salvage from the hundreds of travelers to have lost their lives over the years in the marshes he dwells in. Maybe the latter is better. Point is, this fellow's hook is in his quiet mystery, this gaunt, pallid fellow with the stringy, greasy brown hair and the air of nausea about him, even though he has not a speck of dirt on him.

A poison fighter if I can make him so, and an angle I think would be neat is if all his weapons were corroded to the point just above usability, but so rusted over that any contact by the blades with a victim would likely result in some kind of enchanted tetanus or something.

Finally, we get to Saynora, whose name means the colorful marbling found in various metamorphic rock. Thinking up this female Goliath Barbarian was loads of fun, primarily as a comedic foil to Tarkov, my big, obnoxious Dragonborn. Sparks flew immediately upon their first imaginary meeting, centering on how short Saynora is compared to other Goliaths, and Tarkov's insistence on calling her Elthen, the dragonborn word for 'tower'.

I already knew this girl would be very, very angry-- straightforward rage barbarian for easy play, but I was free to mold her appearance as I wished. Given the significance the dark patches have for the Goliath race in general, an ominous tear drop shape was something I was thinking about if it didn't feel too contrived or generic.

As another departure from my convention, she will be a Great Mace user. The fun thing I want to try to implement is a minor weapon she has that doesn't interfere with the two-hand status of her main weapon, but is an off-hand weapon that can be used in conjunction with it-- in giving her a nice, long braid, I decided to add an iron ball at the end of it. Might just count as a distraction at most, but the thought of a mace-wielding girl flicking her head around in battle to swing what amounts to a hair flail into enemy faces tickles me to no end.

So there you have it. None of these guys even have character sheets yet; just placeholder images and glimpses of lives into whose shoes I may want to jump in in the future. The biggest temptation I'm trying to resist is the thought of just taking the lot of them, saying bollocks to actually playing the game, and then setting them down on their own adventures with each other, where I am both PCs, NPCs, and DM.

I think that's called 'writing'.

Godspeed~

Ching Chong Nip Nong Panda + PHB2 Sandwich~

2009-03-26T02:31:46Z

I did promise to say something about this movie, so let me just get it out of the way, and then we can move on with all our lives. Also, I have no credentials for cinematic criticism, so pay no attention to moi, but here is how my thoughts on it boil down: Kung Fu Panda never let me forget it was a movie made for children. It succeeded sometimes, which was probably what was most surprising, so it gets points for that at the very least. However, this is as opposed to, say, a Pixar film, where you look around sometimes and wonder what are children doing in this audience? Then again, I remember Dreamworks' earlier efforts, where you wonder what am I doing in this audience?? ~~Oh, heaven, help me, get me out of here, oh, lord~~. In conclusion: great effort from Dreamworks, almost all in the right directions, and I just hope they don't blow it on Monsters Versus Aliens.

Bonus review: Secrets of the Furious Five. Wonderful supplement, but a complete ripoff when they make it so that the only way to purchase it is to buy the Action Pack, meaning that the original movie clings to it like some unwelcome cordyceps fungus. At a mere thirty minutes in length (not including the fairly anemic extras), the cartoon feature's life is all but sucked out by the feature length film piggybacking with it in the plastic wrap, the bewildering addition singlehandedly jacking the price up to triple what it might have been reasonable to ask. Unless of course you don't actually have the movie yet. In which case, it's a good buy, and you won't be a sucker like me (I gave the extra DVD to my little sister lul).

The cartoon itself proved almost reverse-climactic, by which I mean they put all the best parts first, leaving me first amused, then awesomed, then underwhelmed, and then downright bored towards the end. I'd be snittier, but two of the stories were cute enough to make me forget that this was a universe written by people who couldn't be bothered to name a tiger, snake, monkey, mantis and crane other than Tigress, Snake, Monkey, Mantis, and Crane.

The weekend saw the advent of some kind of Dungeons and Dragons Day, which demota was kind enough to inform me of, but I was involved in an advent of a different sort elsewhere, in the Light of the World retreat at my local parish. It wasn't that I was uninterested in D&D Day-- it would have been the perfect chance I'd been looking for to finally get some real, hands-on experience doing tabletop with real people-- but it came at a time in my life when I'm seriously reevaluating my priorities.

No contest, really. Allie was also pretty excited about the retreat, and markedly less excited about D&D, so that helped my decision along quite a bit. The irony is that I'd held off at first mentioning anything about the RCIA to her when we first went out, fearing that I'd scare her away if I looked like I was proselytizing poor, innocent young women. Now she's helping drag me to some very Catholic activities in my very own parish (did I mention that she volunteered at a Knights of Columbus event completely on her own? She's awesome (even if she did drag me to that one too, after a twelve-hour workday)).

Anyhoo, still not playing, but I got the Player's Handbook 2 regardless. Personal opinion: I'm actually kind of glad that pretty much everything I need is in the first one, aside from some pretty jaw-dropping new feats. The races seem to include a nod to Hindu-Buddhist spirituality (Deva), a concession to furries (lol Shifters), and the Goliaths, the only one I was interested enough in to make a character for. Thinking of a female Goliath barbarian and a male Human Warden. Got a male Dwarf Paladin lying around I want to develop too, so I guess all that can be saved for another post.

Allie just reminded me that ACen has a tabletop gaming room, so I'll see if something can't be scared up from that. Looks like she'll be dragging me to the ACen forums for this.

In the meantime, robust character generation in a game I never actually play remains worth my money.

Godspeed!

Russian Wrestling Is Always Number One!!

2009-03-14T01:18:34Z

I enjoy a lot of things by proxy. This is particularly true for things I can't be bothered to do, watch, or play, but I appreciate it by virtue of someone else enjoying it. Take, for instance, my brothers and the videogames they play; just watching them go through a game is usually enough for me.

Currently, my brother has been mastering the very character I thought I would regularly use in Street Fighter 4, Zangief. You see, the analog stick isn't very kind to his preferred character Ryu, and consistently conspire to corrupt his commands, especially during online play, which just drives him up the wall. He's since moved on to the more responsive Russian bear-hugger, and his track record's steadily improved for it. In fact, he's much better at using Zangief now than I am (which isn't surprising-- I must have played about an hour of the game in the past two, three weeks).

I can't say I particularly mind-- Zangief is absolutely fricking hilarious whenever he pulls off any of his throw moves, no matter who uses him.

Right now, I'm 'playing' Rock Band 2 by putting it on No Fail mode, using the controller to get the microphone interface-- the most unobtrusive one-- and then going to the tour gigs that let you make setlists. Now I can sit back and watch 'music videos' where my band characters cavort about the screen, and I don't have to play at all.

AWESOME!

Now for some way to record this shizzle. I pray part three has some way for you to control the behaviour algorithms for the avatars.

YOU HEARD I LIKE WHAT!?

2009-03-10T01:34:22Z

On Thursday, when last I worked, I turned my celphone on during my last break to talk to allisino. I suddenly got a text message from an unknown number, and I quoth:

"Short shorts party on the 18"

W. T. F!?

I texted back: "You have the wrong number. Thanks for the invite though :V"

And then I got the reply: "Ha ha sorry. See you there random person"

D:

I was going to reply about being spoken for already or something, but my better judgment told me that replying once for the lulz was fine; any further correspondence was asking for trouble.

It was a minor incident all told, but it serves to make me a little uneasy. It feels almost as if that exchange, and several other seemingly-unrelated 'minor' incidents this Lent are... targeted at me somehow.

WELL, WHOEVER'S DOING IT, YOU'RE NOT BEING VERY SUBTLE, SO QUIT IT, I'S GOT PURITY OF HEART AND CHASTITY TO MAINTAIN HERE, SO NYAAAAAAH

Ever have one of those weeks? :V

It wasn't all bad though; m'amour and I found some kitten videos... WITH A TWIST ENDING..

CARTOONS CARTOONS OH LAWD CARTOONS

2009-03-05T02:55:25Z

HAY GUYZ

THIS

HAS A SUPERIOR CHARACTER DESIGN TO

THIS

SHOCKING BUT TRUE!

Okay, not that shocking olol. More when I talk about Kung Fu Panda soon! Or not!

I'm actually way tireder than I sound; another twelve-hour workday, yes, but at least I didn't have the damnable leather steel-toes that made me want to die by the tenth hour. My feet are apparently powerful pleasure centers or the focal point for an all-consuming desire for self-annihilation.

I was off three days prior to this, but, man, WHAT a three days! Sunday, I took off on vacation to join allisino as her sponsor on her RCIA journey. We were at a beautiful Rite of Sending at our own parish before we all met up again as a group at a cathedral to meet the bishop. Only the unbaptized catechumens got to shake his hand though, and along with the unbaptized also getting to sign the Book of the Elect, we both half-wished we were unbaptized too lol. But not quite, heh.

Monday was spent running errands and preparing for my awesome mother's awesome birthday, which was had by all yesterday, and we gave her the laptop she'd always wanted. Woohoo! Now she's not the only one of her sisters who doesn't have one! Seriously, she was determined to go out that night and buy one for herself if we hadn't pulled out our surprise gift. And now I find out spacemantis bought himself the exact same laptop, down to brand and model in the pretense of it being a completely wacky and uncanny coincidence of some kind. REALLY, SIR. If you were a fan of my totally awesome mom, you could have just said so, instead of going through all this stalker nonsense! HUMPH AND HARRUMPH

Oh, and there was also some major DRAMA going down through all three days, but unfortunately not anything I am at liberty to discuss, I don't think. Suffice it to say, it does not involve me and ma belle, at least not directly, but a different couple in close proximity. I've been praying for them intensely recently, but darned if sometimes it doesn't seem like anyone's listening!

In closing, something very interesting I learned over Sunday with a man who is fast-becoming my favoritest EVER priest; mom had given up coffee for Lent, and after the Rite of the Elect, wouldn't you know it, they were serving coffee and cookies! So she was looking around for tea when Father Randy asked her what she was looking for. She told him, and explained that she had given up coffee for Lent.

He was all like, "Oh, no, no, you can have whatever you gave up for Lent on Sundays."

And we were all like, "O RLY"

Basically, he explained that Sundays on Lent, and indeed, every Sunday of the year is a feast in commemoration and celebration of the Resurrection, and so fasts are not normally exercised on that day. I observed that this made sense, as I learned some time ago (and have been trying to practice) the parallel habit of keeping Fridays holy by fasting a bit and engaging in some abstinences and mortifications in memory of the real Good Friday throughout the year. And mom had been joking earlier too about Sundays having special dispensation from fasts because of its relationship to Easter. She was right without knowing it! So she got to guzzle coffee, and Allie got to gorge herself on a chocolate chunk cookie while all I could do was watch because there wasn't any Coke in the area. HARRUMPH. At least Allie looked absolutely ecstatic eating that cookie-- I don't think any pastry was ever as happily consumed as that one was.

At least I can look forward to this Sunday, when I can hop on Team Fortress 2 and people will be all like, "Cobbly Wobbles! Where have you been?" and I'll be all like, "Oh, I gave TF2 up for Lent." and they'd be all like, "But it's still Lent!" and I'd be all like, "Yeah, but I get to lift my fast during mini-Easter."

The obvious contradiction in this story of course is that nobody will greet me when I come back to my regular server, but instead the usual carnage will progress unimpeded, and people will take turns peppering me with buckshot or caving my skull in with blunt instruments. I would have it no other way, really.

Godspeed!

Anyone Keeping Track of My Heads Batted In? BONK

2009-02-25T22:03:35Z

Life, while not idyllic, is wonderful. Twelve hours on my feet makes me tired and weak, but I have more days off now. allisino has been downsized from her employment, but that just means we get a little more time together before she finds another assignment. A number of family and friends are experiencing infirmities of health and spirit, but I can pray for them, and not alone this time, as ma belle has been my spiritual partner for almost as long as she's been my romantic one now. \(ºwº)/

I cooked goulash for the first time for her and my brother last week, and nothing bad happened to any of us! So yay! Mads: 15 - Food Poisoning: 0!

My brother got Street Fighter 4 for the PS3 a few days ago, and I still suck at fighting games. Mostly it's because I can't be stuffed to spend the time necessary to be good at anything on a videogame (the next iteration of which will have an almost completely different learning curve altogether for itself anyway), but also because I tend to pick lower tier characters whom I feel deserve a little more love, thus ensuring that I can't train on the stronger ones more, while becoming only moderately competent on the weaker ones who can't do much against the stronger ones anyway.

Come to think of it, that's not entirely accurate; for Street Fighter 4, and the series in general, I've always favored M. Bison (or Vega, whatever translation you're working with), and he's a pretty decent hitter, even when not in Boss mode. I've taken a liking to Zangief too, especially now that I can actually get his special throws with the analog stick.

On the whole, I have some hope of actually learning this game to some level of respectable skill, if only because the aesthetic does not appeal to me at all. For instance, my brother observed that while the faces on the females seem okay, their in-game models' hands are hilariously bigger than their faces. I suppose it's better than their tatas each being bigger than their heads? I honestly don't know. Anyway, what this means is that I can focus on playing better as long as I am not distracted by the graphics, unlike when I played... well... pretty much every sprite fighter I've ever played.

In fact, that's the primary manner I've derived entertainment from arcades as a youth; just roam around for hours watching people play. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that we were too poor in the Philippines to be constantly feeding money to the slots. Every time I did, I'd get my buttocks handed to me anyway.

The Team Fortress 2 Scout Update is out! Woohoo! Which is great timing, because I'm giving up Team Fortress, Street Fighter, and all other videogames for Lent anyway! WHAT A TWEEST!

Yep, for the next forty days, it will be no games, plenty of study, and eating and sleeping right, with plenty of exercise. Then I might even get to think about offering penances too! AWESOOOOOME lol

Godspeed! ¯\(ºwo)/¯

P.S. By the way, Capcom, what the hell is UP with Crimson Viper's character design? I can dig the business suit look, but please-- either lose the tie, or button up your shirt, girl; the having-it-both-ways thing does not work, and is only hypnotic in the way one might be unable to help but look at someone in public who appears to have forgotten how to dress themselves properly. All in all, her appearance seems to be another concoction of creativity by committee, a phenomenon I have seen entirely too much of lately. More on that when I get to talk about Kung Fu Panda! Adieu!

P.S.S. And her shirt's way too short too! Man!

Hello, My Name Is Amadeo, I Believe We've Met

2009-02-11T02:33:28Z

I think I could get used to working twelve hours a pop. I hesitate to say 'I like it' because then someone might hear me and then change it around again.

As far as LJ disappearances go, I've had longer absences (and on purpose), but this recent neglect seems more... natural, I suppose? I've joked more than once that, since LJ is primarily designed to be a vortex of emo and pathos and angst, I have very little use for it now that I am actually happy.

... THE JOKE BEING OF COURSE THAT I'D ALWAYS BEEN PRETTY HAPPY TO BEGIN WITH, OK

Also, LJ is pretty good for happy stuff too.

Seriously though, I love every one of my friends and acquaintances as much as I did in the past, but, if I may employ an analogy, it's like I've been admiring this little string of Christmas lights in the dark, and then I'm suddenly thrust in the sunlight, where I'm all like OMGWTFBBQ, and it will take a while for me to even see the Christmas lights again.

Please don't tell Plato I stole his analogy.

The schedule change workwise sums up the most radical of recent developments, and my overall status is largely unchanged, though of course winter always provides some wonderful fluctuations as far as mood and outlook go. Thankfully, it's been getting unusually warm around here for the time of year, and I only feel a little guilty for enjoying the global warming it portends instead of loathing it like the leprosy of the earth.

Games-wise, surprise, surprise, I'm still playing Team Fortress 2, only now coupled with another playthrough of Final Fantasy Tactics; only this time, I only used Ramza for all the mission modes, save for when I was forced to team up, at which point I always picked my member chocobo-- because mounted cavalry on a black chocobo named Phantom is pretty frickin' sweet. I am currently turning my party members into toads one by one and making them gang up on an enemy toad for an hour. Sometimes, it's the simple pleasures.

I'm getting quite a few more days off now than before, so we'll see if this translates into even more transmissions from this space in the future. Someday, I might even draw again.

Godspeed!

I Am NOT Iron Man

2009-01-01T20:29:44Z

I don't drink. Last night at allisino's, I had a shot of Battery Acid, a shot of Orange Crap, a shot of Smoky Sake Crap, a shot of Cherry Crap, and about three solid shots of Rumple Minze, with a dash of Grenadine somewhere in there for color.

I was pretty much destroyed-- not falling down drunk, but it seems I rapidly melted my way to a small couch, and was laying down already (thankfully), singing on Rock Band when my muscles went on union strike.

I woke up next to her, with one of the cats purring on top of us, and it was the single sweetest thing in the universe ever, primarily because I could verify the current location and status of my pants (aside from my shirt, underwear, thermals and jeans, I was naked).

This was all after midnight. Highlights of the closing of 2008 were me spending it building a Lego Star Wars Republic Walker transport, and the arrival of Allie's good, crazy Korean friend, who is about as Anonymous as they come. The hilarious thing is that none of Allie's landlord's buddies showed up until like, ten or eleven or so, and for most of the day, it was just me building Legos with ma cheri beside me, and later, just me, her, her sister, her landlord, and her two friends, and we all just kind of made fun of some reality tv, and looked at some Failblog entries and Youtube videos.

Best. Party. Evar.

2009

Happy New Year, Everyone!

Have a blessed and prosperous and safe one! Lots of love for '09! EEEE! :D

mads @ 2008-12-30T12:22:00

2008-12-30T18:23:16Z

just got back last night. so tired. brb in a billion years

Christmas Post By The Token Catholic

2008-12-24T20:54:40Z

This holiday season had me running around so much, it would have been funny had it not been for the snow, slush and ice that interspersed the December days. Instead, it was hilarious.

I just finished my amazing gift-wrapping extravaganza, but I must needs keep this brief still.

In my running around grabbing material expressions of my love for friends and family, I had time to reflect somewhat on the nature of the luxuries I can afford to indulge in for myself and others. It would seem that as all these recreational or 'time-saving' devices proliferate, perhaps we are in danger of losing sight as to what we are saving time for. It is no secret that there exists a prevalent notion (and even some statistic/scientific studies that confirm it) that the more we have things that make things like communication easier and faster, the more we actually lose touch with each other. Perhaps it's not as universal a phenomenon as it may seem to be (thank God), but it cannot be denied that for every niche of time we have available, there is something that offers to fill it for us, whether it be easy access to music, blogging, quick entertainment, or even organizing that same slice of an hour into a neat category in one's scheduling PDA. The temptation to succumb can be strong.

Forgive me, I'm probably not as coherent as I'd like to be, but remember, these were contemplations made in the middle of the Yuletide mob season, in near-blizzard conditions.

I suppose what I'm really trying to get at is the irony I personally perceive in trying to reconcile our 'modern' life, and how it was supposed to improve upon every aspect of the 'classical' model. We are surrounded by technology that promised us that they would make life easier for us (and in some ways, they have), and promised us that they'd give us more time for our families and other things that matter (and in some ways, they have), but when was the last time you thought, man, thank goodness emailing people instead of writing them an actual letter saved me enough time to stop and look and smell this flower.

The actual trouble though, is of course not in the devices themselves, but in an attitude wherein these things are taken as ends in themselves. When leisure activities are pursued for their own sake, and not as something to help prepare us for the next thing we have to be doing, then something is wrong.

In other words, the timeless principle; freedom is not about getting to do anything we want to do, but the ability to do the things we ought to do. When we are enslaved to objects, we have less freedom to devote to love subjects-- that is, other people.

Anyway, on the 26th, I will be flying off to Missouri, kidnapped to attend my godmother's wedding, and taken away from Allie. BOOHOO!! At least I will make sure to spend New Year's Eve with her, thus breaking a five-year Loser Streak.

In the meantime, these present two days provide me opportunity to reflect (more properly) on the fact that, if Jesus is God, and Jesus was born at this time two thousand (plus or minus change) years ago, then an infinite and timeless God had deigned to reduce Himself to a single point in time, and that by itself is staggering enough in its implications even without the rest of the story (i.e., the Primary Purpose and Ultimate End of His mission, and how the story culminated [or, if you want to look at it like we do, began-- linear time is seldom a hindrance to theological reckoning]).

Also, allisino just corrected my use of recurring parentheses (and my spelling of plural parenthesis), which is indescribably awesome.

So, you guys,

Merry Christmas!

And may you all be blessed today and every day! X3

Valkyria Histrionicles

2008-12-12T19:13:09Z

Alright, I'll admit it-- I bought Valkyria Chronicles because some of the female characters seemed interesting to me. This interest was not enough to make me actually play the game, much to my own surprise. My initial gravitation towards the game seemed habitual more than anything, vestigial almost. True, the game has its weaknesses, but I used to be able to suffer through much more just to get to know some new and fascinating specimens of fictional femininity. However, in this case, not only am I not interested in Valkyria's offerings, but I am increasingly disinterested in seeking out or awaiting any other conceivable newcomer from any other angle.

There just doesn't seem to be any point anymore. You know of what I speak. I used to pursue. Now I have no need to pursue anything. At least in that department. True, I still enthusiastically create female characters hither and yon, but I think of them more as daughters than wishes, really.

Please don't bring up the matter of the attires I pick and choose for them. :|

Valkyria Chronicles is going to a different interested party, and may he derive the joy from it that is now happily lost on me.

In the meantime, my impressions from four missions + what I saw from m'amour's landlord's playthroughs; lol, war.

In a nutshell, there's no problem at all with its cartoony, pastel-colored aesthetic; that was a selling point for Advance Wars, and it works here too. The art style is clean and pleasant, technically robust, coherent, and conveys most of what it needs to (although I do have a personal little twitch about the main girl character's ribbon-headdress type thing that they couldn't help but add to what was already a fine design (interestingly enough, there is a character who wears pigtails, of all things, but I somehow do not have a problem with this, and am, in fact, rather amused by it)).

Now if only what it conveyed was any good. Don't get me wrong, I was weaned on many stories similar to what Valkyria seems to be trying to tell, but it is precisely because this sort is so much associated with my childhood that I am trying to get away from it. The trouble isn't so much in subject matter as it is in scale: they have an overly simplistic vision of war that works in the more abstract, chessboard approach of Advance Wars, but falls flat when you get to the trenches of Valkyria.

I can't speak to how it plays gamewise, or tactically; I only have impressions and preferences. Take this as coming from someone who played through Final Fantasy Tactics over six times, but lost interest in Disgaea after like, thirty minutes.

Advance Wars at least shows you units being blown away by the platoon, and little icons that explode, leaving no trace; you can imagine for yourself what actually happened in each individual skirmish if you're the sort. Valkyria leaves almost no room for the imagination, as it shows you exactly what transpires step-by-step, and that pretty much kills whatever proper spirit of war they were trying to capture. Or maybe they weren't trying to capture it, I dunno; all I know is that they might as well have made a story that had some concession to a 'bloodless' war of some sort, like in the old Lazer Tag cartoons, and I'm sure the story wouldn't have been hurt any. Well... except maybe where [SPOILER DELETED] dies.

And even then, me, allisino and her landlord just kind of laughed, as horrible as it may seem. "Bummer," he says, followed by a spoiler for some of you, "now who's going to drive my tank?"

It's just too animu, complete with lol Empire, lol Resistance, lol tsundere, lol racism, lol disturbingly convenient superweapons ("Oh, by the way, we have a special tank in the barn!"). If you're going to play with war, at least take it seriously! Or something.

Srsly though, I'm getting kind of tired of the 'war happens only for materialistic and economic reasons' bull already. Just say that the Empire wants to conquer the world and be done with it. At least the Black Hole Army never pretended otherwise.

I Think A Valuable Lesson Can Be Learned Here

2008-12-10T01:24:16Z

Okay, so I have a proud and vain streak that I have not entirely killed off yet. This undesirable side of me often has occasion to manifest, particularly on dates like my birthday.

I never used to be much of a birthday celebrant; back when I became old enough to be self-aware enough to pretend to modesty by downplaying myself, birthdays seemed to be an unnecessary way to draw unwanted attention to oneself. Over the years, I've changed my attitude, and they've been occasions of great thanks and gratitude for me since, aside from an ooportunity to subvert the cliche of people not wanting to count years gained any more after 25 (I'm 26 now, haha, noobs!).

Anyway, I took a day off from work for today, and I had everything planned out-- I was gonna rent my dream car for a day-- a Dodge Charger-- take my girl out for dinner, get a lot of minor errands done in the morning, and basically awesome up the town. Dressed up for the part too, with good shirt, tie, leather, the whole shebang.

On my drive this morning, I found that a massive snowstorm had settled upon the state.

I did my best to follow through with all my plans despite the weather, but it proved more draining than I foresaw, that coupled with my lack of sleep got me really tired by a bit after midday. I got a little over half of everything I intended to do done, but I decided to let it go after that.

The moment I let go, relaxed, and just loosened up, things improved greatly. I took of my tie and my stuffy shirt, and just spent a couple hours of the afternoon playing Team Fortress 2 like I secretly wanted to do all day. I am now at allisino's place, about to enjoy another sublime homecooked meal from her hands, and basically lounge about in the warmth of her living room while the weather remains frightful outside.

It's the simple things that make life beautiful. Life continues to awesome me out at twenty-six, and I fervently hope for more. God bless. X3

Eternally Benighted

2008-12-05T19:38:19Z

In a nutshell: last Thanksgiving was jawsome x 2. I managed to attend two celebrations this year with m'amour, so it's like we're catching up to all the time we had in our lives before we met each other. Has only/already been six months??

There were lulz to be had from learning and playing Apples to Apples and Taboo; never thought I'd have as much fun playing board games as I do videogames. But there was that as well-- Little Big Planet has some of the softest, most frustrating controls I've ever encountered, but when there are four of you failing at the same time, it's hard for hilarity not to break.

We found a superbly-done ICO tribute level on the online created maps selection, tempting me muchly to create levels of my own. Highlight of the playthrough: Allie managed to accidentally lift the drawbridge up at an angle with everyone else on it, almost pitching us all into the abyss. Only I fell in. When I respawned near where Allie was unsuccessfully trying to navigate her way back to the control lever, I was all like, "k guys i got this", pulled the lever, and proceeded to lift the drawbridge up all the way vertically, shaking the other players off and into the void.

I didn't mean to do it, I swear!

Allie got an education in mixed family cuisine too-- over the years, my stepda is usually all, "wtf, guys, i cooked all this cornbread and corn on the cob and potatoes, and ur all lyk, 'where's d rice lol'". So this year, he's adjusted his repertoire some, and we feasted on rice, chicken rice soup, and, much to Allie's amusement, "Thanksgiving Spaghetti". We know what we like, okay!

Aside from what you guys have christened a LolLash, I also managed to finish a couple other pieces over the long weekend, namely Howdy and a gift I'm giving to my friends who own the store from whence I buy most of my Magic cards (High Res). They gave me a lot of free stuff last time I was there, and while they do have a quick grayscale, pencil-shade drawing I did for them I gave them last year, I'd always promised an upgrade but never seemed to deliver. It's a good feeling to finally follow through.

The week flew by, but only because it was so busy. That's okay-- next week will be awesome, I can tell already. lol plans

God bless!