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Friday, July 25, 2008

11:50 am - Hey! It's July 25! MERRY CHRISTMAS (in July) !!! Current Mood: cheerful

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Wednesday, July 23, 2008

04:36 pm - Random thought..... It's hard to take a nap when it's thundering and raining very hard outside. Current Mood: annoyed

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Tuesday, July 22, 2008

11:09 pm - Quick! Hurry before the scouter says.... .... IT'S OVER 9000 :) Yes. "Travis and the Fangirl" has gotten 9000+ hits. Thanks everyone! Current Mood: excited

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Monday, July 21, 2008

02:26 pm - Finally, some sanity! "Wardrobe Malfunction" fine from 2004 Super Bowl overturned!!! Current Mood: bouncy

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12:15 pm - The fifth time is a charm! After trying to get in the last four years and failing, I set myself out to make a video destined to compete at Otakon. None of this "let's throw this together in 3 days" business or "I'll just send my ACen/AZ video for Otakon" anymore with my Otakon entry... I buckled down, started my Otakon video in March, and eventually finished it up for the Otakon deadline. (I wanted to have this finished by ACen, but I found myself pushing the video back to Otakon with deadlines and more work to be done.) I felt pretty confident with this video. I showed it at the AMV critique panel at AMA to gauge the response, and it was very positive. It was shown at the pre-screenings a couple weekends ago or so - one of the participants dropped a line and succinctly told me that he liked my video, perhaps the best video from me so far. Again, nothing was a sure thing... until this morning. The list of finalists was posted at a-m-v.org, and my studio name ("Brakus Media") was on there! Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I AM A FINALIST IN THIS YEAR'S OTAKON AMV CONTEST! I got serious this year and it has paid off. This looks to be a fun contest... and I'll have a blast knowing thousands of otaku will see my video over the course of the weekend. This rocks my day so much. Current Mood: bouncy

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Sunday, July 20, 2008

01:00 am - HEY INTERNET! STOP BEING SO NERDY! I should be one to talk considering that I like anime and game shows and such, not that one thing is more nerdy than the other or whatever, but..... .... sometimes I'm amazed at how little in common I have with so many of my LJ friends. I kinda wanna think that it's a good thing that I'm not as nerdy as the rest of the people on my LJ. Still, nerds do rule the world; even my family (to a degree) comes from a long line of nerds. Still, I feel like I wanna talk about sports and such (yeah, even horse racing is a sport), and the occasional gambling trip to Delaware.... but few people are into that stuff. I mean, I hardly ever talk about my job, but that's mostly for my own self-preservation-of-job (and that not much out of the ordinary happens that would warrant such a post). Sometimes I'll talk about my family, but again, not much happens that would warrant a post. I wanna talk about TV, but I'm not much of a TV watcher (as more of a TiVo watcher; I mean, once you get a TiVo, your time spent not watching TV goes way up because you can watch TV on your own terms with TiVo).... And the stuff that I watch on TV rarely matches up with what my LJ friends watch on a regular basis. I'm not engaged to Avatar, Dr. Who, Heroes, Bleach, or Lost. The last real TV shows I was really engaged with were: Fullmetal Alchemist, Deal or No Deal, and Million Dollar Password. Yeah, I do have nerdish tendencies, but I don't seem to flaunt them like others on this LJ list do.... is that a good thing or a bad thing? I just never want to come off as "that creepy guy that just won't leave me alone".... and yet when others talk about stuff that doesn't make me care one way or another, it makes me feel like they're the creepy guys that won't leave me alone. What's going on here? Current Mood: annoyed

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Saturday, July 19, 2008

09:21 pm - VA Derby day: Smile for the Camera! Today was quite the profitable day at Colonial Downs for the Virginia Derby, but it almost didn't turn out that way. I think almost all the races today at CNL had the horses wearing their Saturday best. There were so many photo finishes! And early on, most of those photo finishes didn't end up in my favor. In fact, I hadn't done very hot at all until the 7th Race, where I decided to go for some aggressive punches in the Pick 3. The first leg of the Pick 3 was a nail-biting finish with a 3-1 shot against a 14-1 shot. I had both of them on my Pick 3 tickets, but more of them on the 3-1 shot. The judges took about 5 minutes to study the photo, and the 3-1 shot prevailed by a nose. In the second leg of the Pick 3, an 11-1 shot opened up a huge lead at the beginning of the race, at times 15 lengths ahead of the rest of the field. As the field turned for home, that horse started to tire in the stretch, and my 2-1 shot came racing from the back of the pack and crossed the line first, passing the very tired 11-1 shot (she still finished 3rd, though). In the last leg of the Pick 3, which was the Virginia Derby, with those two horses that won the last 2 races, I had covered all the possibilities with my Pick 3 tickets. The possible payoffs for me ranged from $106 all the way to $1500, from shortest to longest shot. This race had another close stretch run with an 8-5 shot and a 9-2 shot... and it only took about 3 minutes to figure out the photo finish ... the 8-5 shot, Gio Ponti, won by a nose. The Pick 3 paid $89.80 for a $2, and I had it twice, for a total of $179.60. I had a $0.40 voucher left over in my wallet, so I had a total of $180. It didn't matter that I made a token bet on the last race and lost.... I still was ahead by quite a nice margin. I think I have lived through a few too many Photo Finishes today.... thankfully those last few turned out right for me. It was a fun day at the races. A great turnout with great weather (upper 80s but not humid at all, just hot) and good times. Summer should be this fun all the time, don't you think? Current Mood: excited

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Friday, July 18, 2008

08:57 am - Two random things (or, why do my LJ friends have to be so nerdy?) -- I finally got on Facebook. I can't access it from work, so I'll give more details about it later. -- I feel like such a non-nerdy person right now.... with everybody talking about the Watchmen trailer (I'm not into comic books or movies based on comic book characters) and the Avatar impending finale (I still haven't gotten to watch the show), I feel so left out... I wish that others would talk horse racing (the Virginia Derby is coming this weekend), Otakon (it's in 3 weeks), or other not-so-nerdy stuff with me.... *sigh* Current Mood: blah

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08:40 am - The new DBZ? (revisited) One Piece was the most BitTorrented television show for a second week (week ending 7/7/08, according to Big Champagne). The note at the bottom of the article mentions that such "rankings are based on global download volumes as measured by swarm sizes, swarm speeds, and file sizes, reflecting the collective global popularity of all available show content from all seasons current and past, not just the most recent broadcast." This leads me to believe that One Piece is immensely popular around the world, and all its episodes, new and old, have gotten anime fans everywhere to get excited about One Piece. Now... if FUNimation can get viewers to: --watch One Piece (i.e. get it back on TV soon) --obtain legit copies of uncut product --buy associated merchandise of the show Perhaps FUNimation may make One Piece the incredible property it is here as it is around the world. Current Mood: bouncy

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Thursday, July 17, 2008

05:32 pm - Jumpin' through July already Well, we're halfway through the month, and Otakon looms large in 3 weeks.... are you ready? Current Mood: calm

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Wednesday, July 16, 2008

11:03 pm - "Be Careful What You Wish For" I swear to God, I did not wish any harm to anybody. But the reality is this: I just found out that a close friend of mine had a sudden life change for the worse, and I'm nervous that I might have mentioned something about it (here on LJ, mySpace, or just offhand) by sheer coincidence. I'm not the type to speak ill of others, especially behind their back. I just fear that I might have inadvertently triggered something awful to happen to this close friend. I can only hope that he will not blame me for his life change. Any of you out there had a sudden sheer coincidence like this happen? Current Mood: scared

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04:11 pm - If you know your Japanese... ... then you'll know that Team Four Star got the translation right. :) Way to go, guys, on your subscriber count! Current Mood: amused

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03:02 pm - FMA, take two? From shadrad and csakuras - A possible remaking of Fullmetal Alchemist could be in the works at Bones Studio, this time following the manga storyline more closely. My question: If this is ever made and brought over to the States, who's going to play Alphonse? I mean, Aaron Dismuke's voice has gotten a lot lower (and dorkily cuter) since Conqueror of Shamballa.... ;-) Current Mood: shocked

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08:36 am - The Otaking is dead? The Otaking of Japan, Toshio Okada, recently wrote a book that has denounced what Japanese anime fans have become nowadays, when compared to when he was into anime. The book is entitled You Otaku Are Already Dead, apparently the third in a series of books that Okada has written to try to disassociate himself with his otaku history. The first book asked "Is World Conquest Possible?" while the next book exclaimed "You Don't Have to be Fat Forever!".... I'm thinking these are allusions to things in the anime portion of Otaku No Video. As others have stated to me from time to time, it's not a matter of letting go of things - it's more of a matter of dealing with the things that change. You don't have to necessarily disassociate yourself from the otaku crowd, but you don't want to alienate them either. It's great to get a real job, eventually lose weight and feel great - but ideally you don't want to tick off your friends in the process. Current Mood: weird

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Tuesday, July 15, 2008

12:53 am - Soft-spoken Trunks It's weird now, but I'm almost finished with DBZ Season 5, which has a lot of Trunks action. I decided to take a break and watch Fruits Basket.... ... and having seen so much DBZ, whenever I hear Yuki's voice, I'm starting to think "Trunks on Quaaludes".... :) Current Mood: amused

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Monday, July 14, 2008

02:48 am - Brief Delaware update - The Colonnade is open! Sadly, no luck at Harrington with the Break the Bank giveaway, but it was a fun show. Kind of a cross between Punchboard and Press Your Luck. :) 5 people won well in excess of $1250... it was fun. I went to activate my online entries for Dover Downs' daily, weekly, and monthly drawings (you play for free on doverdowns.com), and discovered that The Colonnade wing is now open! All the slot machines are in operation in the wing, with about 500 new slots in some new ways to play. I'll check them out more when I have more time. Also in the Colonnade, the Fire & Ice Lounge is open, as well as a couple of restaurants.... some more shops will be opening by the fall. Dover Downs is definitely looking very nice! Current Mood: tired

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Saturday, July 12, 2008

11:15 pm - "Relax, I think our luck is changing." Have you ever drove three hours to get someplace, where you could be staying there for as much as only 30 minutes or so? That's exactly what I'll be doing tomorrow, although I hope it turns out a lot more profitably. Harrington Raceway Casino is having a promotion called "Break the Bank", and I happened to earn about 20 entries or so into the drawing tomorrow night at 6pm. What's going to happen? Well, the casino will draw 10 entries to play a little game called "Break the Bank" and you can win up to $5000. After those players win their money, whatever is left over will be split evenly among 5 more entries from the remaining batch. This could be fun.... I'm going knowing full well that I might not get my name drawn at all... but I'll bring a little money with me to play on the blackjack tables there to see if I can turn it into something bigger and better. Then I'm going straight back home. Yep. 3 hours up and 3 hours back, and maybe a couple hours at Harrington. My luck is beginning to pick up lately. Today I hit some nice numbers at Calder for about $210, and I felt good enough to stop there. Maybe it will turn into more money? We'll see about that tomorrow. Current Mood: anxious

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Friday, July 11, 2008

11:39 pm - So much for that endurance test.... Ouran Squee-gasm girl has been removed. I just knew that as soon as she was being inundated with all the dub-hate and Vic-hate and squee-girl-hate comments and such, she would remove it from YouTube. Luckily, I kept a local copy of the video. Thank you Download Helper! :) So if anyone else wants an endurance test, Squeetastic Ouran Fangirl will always be available from me. Current Mood: content

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07:04 pm - ... but it IS a kids' show! Maybe the reason One Piece is the most BitTorrent-ed show around the world is because certain countries deem its content objectionable during times when children are the audience. *ugh* But One Piece IS a kids' show..... What is it with some people having this stupid belief that children should be shielded from certain content on television? Current Mood: distressed

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Thursday, July 10, 2008

07:16 pm - "Guitar Hero is so much.... is that beer?" Guitar Hero World Tour (IV) is coming out in the fall. It's almost like Rock Band but now with cymbals on the drum set.... (but it's not quite Drum Mania because it still lacks a bass drum pedal...) Check out this preview. If only this really *was* the design team for GHWT(4)..... (h/t kabael) Current Mood: cheerful

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