With my parents out of town, bardgirl and I went to see kiraya after we heard about her knee and everything. It was a pleasant day: we went to the mall and looked at Halloween costumes and then came back for Chinese food. It was great seeing both of them again and a good way to kick off SUPER-WEEKEND-ATHON '08^TM. I got a fortune cookie that said "Believe in something, so long as it is good". Not really sure how to apply that one.

Just in time for Halloween, I've been introducing people to the profanity-laden Girl's Costume Warehouse. It's funny because as we learned in the mall today, the reality isn't far from that:

• Sexy Tin Man!
• Sexy Wednesday Addams!
• Sexy teddy bear!
• Sexy Raggedy Ann!
• Sexy nun!
• Sexy construction worker!
• Sexy Freddy Krueger!

At which point we probably should have run screaming from the store. Liz got a cool pirate costume though. I still have no clue what to do for Halloween, despite me and Matt looking at the online stores.

I must be quite a picture right now. It's after one in the morning, the lights are out, and I'm listening to the sexy jazz version of Godot's theme. Don't you just envy me? lol

Haha, so much icon potential. However, instead I chose to play around with animated images instead. I think the next big Facebook pic I do has to be animated.

Quizzo is back at work. I'm really excited this year. Also, I got a big laugh when Andres and Jason entered our team. Instead to just submitting our names, we all got nicknames in quotes from the A-Team. Guess who I got.

In further media fun news, I made not one but two totally awesome ringtones tonight. The first is the theme to the A-Team, and the second is Green Lantern by Simple Frustration. In case you where wondering, there is no song called I Will Never Know the Touch of a Woman so we can just cut out the middleman... err... woman.

...I'm good and pure and science turns me on, and one day if I pray hard enough and eat all my vegetables, I just might have hips."

Okay, you know that song I call The Thor song? It's called The Spanish Flea, and it wasn't the theme to the Dating Game but rather the song they used to introduce the bachelors.

Also, there's this song by Rihanna called Disturbia that's more or less a poor man's Thriller. Anyway, I'm one of those people who tends to mishear lyrics ("Blinded by the light, wrapped up like a douche...") and it happened here.

Actual lyrics:	My lyric:
It's a thief in the night To come and grab you It can creep up inside you And consume you A disease of the mind It can control you
I feel like a monster	I can't fight the monster.

I was kind of disappointed when I learned the real one. I think mine better captures the tragedy and horror of what I assume is relapsing into addiction or depression or a similar dark concept. Or, ya know, zombification, as this is a Rihanna song and never meant to be interpreted in any semblance of depth.

Funny thing, if you google "I can't fight the monster" in quotes, they tell you there's no results but offer you the same search without quotes. On the first page there's people complaining about having a hard time with Cephadrome from Monster Hunter, who's old news to me. Guess I can fight the monster after all.

Is anyone doing anything on Saturday? I swear everyone's busy but me. Will has a wedding. My parents are going to a show. These sort of days tend to not be pretty for me.

And to bring the post full circle, Amy Acker was on Private Practice. She couldn't fight the monster. :(

We went for coffee before class. I learned that she's a recent convert to the church of Jim and Pam* and that she's kind of a wreck after her last two extremely brief relationships because both guys were enormous pricks. I was feeling kind of guilty for not helping to undo the trend, but her response was a "You dwell on things too much" and a smile. I guess when you've been with bad people, flawed but well-meaning doesn't look so bad. Sure I think deep down I knew this was the most fucking obvious fact in the world**, but it felt great to hear. In fact, kind of redeeming. Unfortunately, I now feel like Travis Touchdown in No More Heroes when he gets that super power up at a really inopportune time but has nothing to do with it because I'm writing this right before bed.

Seriously though, I'm continuing to learn more about the artist formerly known as crazypants. I feel like she's got a problem similar to being so beautiful, it's a curse, which seems to bring out the passion and the crazy in men. Heck, I'll admit that being around her often has an odd, druglike affect on me-- maybe hyperactive pheromones or latent superpowers. Still, I feel like Boromir succumbing to the Ring and letting it change me when in reality I should be training some bears with laser eyes and crafting a giant catapult to fire that little gold sucker to Mount Doom.

*Eyes narrow, dramatic anime shadows* Of course, this still doesn't explain the bridge and the arrest. Ha, energized and cautious. I think the old Chris is starting to come back.

---

<sub>*Okay seriously, I know I have an impressive network in some qualities, but every time she's the biggest fan of something or totally into it, my brain immediately goes "...second best." Maybe she'll try to learn Tarot cards next. ;)

**Second most, number one is "Falcon Punches are awesome!"</sub>

As of today, I've been working at ETS for one full year. Things have been going pretty smoothly here which is good because I hate my first class with Neener this semester. Right now, I'm shooting for a B/B+ in there and an A in my other course.

I ordered Power Stone Collection online about a week ago, and it's been a fun time. I like Ryoma the samurai and Wangtang the martial artist, but I'm sadly finding that I'm better with Jack the token freak character. As for Power Stone 2, the wackier level designs seem like they'd be a lot more fun in multiplayer, but the cowboy Accel was the only interesting new character.

Random: TVtropes labeled St. Christopher a Genius Bruiser turned Gentle Giant. I find the concept of troping saints really funny.

Dammit, someone beat me to it.

Another example of Chris being a strange person: I've taken to reading scathing LJ critiques of For Better or For Worse, but I don't read the comic itself. My mental picture of backwards borderline supervillains trapped in a realistic domestic town (in Canada no less) is probably funnier than the comic can ever aspire to be. Also, it's fun to say "Blandthony".

I'm finding that I'm learning a lot about writing and characterization from these snarky material-specific critiques, including the Left Behind series of all things and, of course, Eragon. It kind of makes me wish I was writing or something.

I cannot figure my body out at all some days. My diet is pretty much the same as it was in February and March, but I've been lingering in the 201-203 range for about a month and a half now. For reference, I was 213 in January and 197 in March/April. The regaining doesn't suprise me so much as the lack of loss after said gain. Yesterday I had maybe 1600 calories, and I've been walking off 150-200 calories during my lunch, even though I think this pedometer overestimates. Plus, I've been having my daily bottle of lies that doesn't work but at least cost far less than the previous bottle of lies. :\ I'd love to have another epic weight loss, but between work and class I don't know how realistic that is. I keep telling myself that this could all change in the new house when I can DDR in the basement without anyone bitching about sweat and noise.

Last night I was helping my mom edit a video for school using the I-swear-it-strives-to-be-mediocre Pinnacle Studio. The program has a feature called SmartMusic that using instruments and a generic predesigned song to perfectly fill in the amount of time you need. One of them is an upbeat steel drum "party song" that I swore I had heard before. Lo and behold, I was watching Cartoon Network late at night and I heard what I swear was that song in an advertisement for Girls Gone Wild. Good thing we've never used it.

Will, I found this totally awesome handbook for Kim!!! You should show it to her next time she wants to build a character.

...who forgot to feed Sirius Black!?

Sad news on the roleplaying front, the big game hasn't been canceled, but Kim and Dean made some point on Saturday to everyone about putting it off and focusing on smaller groups for now. Or something. I started zoning out when Dean, Kim, and Mrs. Lewis were discussing Whose Game Is It Anyway. It kind of reminded me of when the X-Men split up into the Blue and Gold teams in the 90s and one was totally cooler than the others (hint: the one with Wolverine on it!).

X-Men Blue (4th Ed.) "Stop doing that weird talky-thing. I wanna roll dice!"	X-Men Gray-Brown (3.5) "I'll show you to not psychically know to be a cleric and live vicariously through me in your first game!" "Can I be a lich at first level if I have max ranks in knowledge arcana?"
Zakk Jubilee Tersha Will Cricket Chris Sharpe	Dean Kim Josh Sean (invited, but not official) Friends of Josh

I realize this isn't the official splitting up of the gang and that in many ways having smaller groups would actually be beneficial, but I still find the concept disheartening. I enjoy playing Skeigh, and it was nice to have a single character and really try to work out his quirks and mindset instead of writing sheet after sheet of characters without ever really feeling it. Also, watching it grow from one person's masturbatory campaign to a reasonably equal group was actually pretty rewarding. Speaking of which, Dean has a tendency to ask what he can do, and sometimes it means "...to help?" and other times it means "...to make this more about me?". Part of me thinks his desire to place more focus on the more Josh-oriented game is the latter, as he can probably be Grand Poobah again there. Also, my experiences with Zakk (and by extension Tersha) behind the driver's wheel leave me afraid their hamhandedness is going to result in 4E falling onto the "Actually, it's a good game. We just didn't follow through with it." pile.

When we move into the new house, I think I'm going to buy a nice television and an X-Box 360. I learned a decent amount about the matter today at Best Buy, and then I learned that Matt's been looking into one of his own as well. Right now, this television has caught my eye. As someone who plays video games, LCD is better than Plasma because, despite improvements in recent years, Plasma has a tendency to leave a "burn in" image if there's something that's constantly onscreen like a health bar in a video game.

I bought a high end pedometer at Eastern Mountain spot, a store I wish I had more reasons to go into, as it seems to have the coolest variety of stuff at the mall like bear spray. I measured the walk I take at work most afternoons, and along with a trip to the bathroom which isn't very long, it measured out to be:

• 3920 steps
  
• 1.48 miles
  
• 237.13 calories

One of my facebook friend's status is currently "Stephanie F. is hate hate hate hate." and it immediately made me think of this. If you don't get the reference, too bad.

From my LJ ads:

AAAAAAAAAH Once you've seen anime Gimli you can't unsee him.

Don LaFontaine, voice of movie trailers, dies Many of you may recognize him from the GEICO ads where he was in front of the camera mocking over-the-top film trailer voiceovers. I always found LaFontaine to be an interesting figure; he's such a ubiquitous part of pop culture, and yet most people couldn't identify him in a lineup.

Piccolo Spike! I hear the pants on this outfit are so tight that the balls were inert.

( Now I'll stop changing the subject and talk game. )

Buffy the Vampire Slayer gives women the Wicca. Technically wouldn't Willow be the one who gave them the Wicca? My experience was that Willow gave the kids the bi, kind of ironic since she was more of a lightswitch than anything else. In an unrelated story, Lorne gives the kids the jazz. Cosby approves. Meanwhile in movieland, they're just pleased to see a female get screentime.

At the cafeteria at work, we have an exhibit of these godawful paintings by a guy named Michael Fumero. Scott and I were debating what would make the exhibit better. He thinks there should be a group shot where only one person in the picture doesn't have what I called a "topographic map face" and the expression on this person's face should reveal that he is cognizant that something is horribly wrong with everyone else. I think he should do one with the cast of Happy Days so you're looking at all this normal people painting ones and then go "Wait... is that the Fonz?!"

This weekend I took the train to Washington DC to see the Matt, my first time traveling across a significant distance alone. I departed from the station in Trenton New Jersey and arrived in Union Station in Washington DC about two and a half hours later. The most remarkable thing about this was its simplicity, although the prices can vary pretty wildly depending on when you want to go.

One thing that's definitely better in the cities than in the suburbs is the women. I swear that an extremly particular atom bomb must have hit around my house because I don't even see females of a compatible age (roughly 18-24) on a daily basis anymore even when I do go out, just as Matt described it "High schoolers... and old people". Furthermore, I had a weird incidence of culture shock while passing a woman in a black dress with these bizarre squared-off ruffles. It didn't look like it was for a formal event, just the kind of dress one spends way too much on because they want us all to know that they're fashion-minded. The closest they get to accessorizing around these parts is the same damn Tina Fey glasses as everybody else!

Fun Fact: I was going to call these glasses She's All That glasses, but they're apparently a different style altogether. Take that, self!

Matt and I visited a number of fascinating places. Last time, we visited the Lincoln Memorial. This time we visited the monuments of Jefferson, home to the most badass quote on a presidential monument, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, which had been updated since I had last visited it in eighth grade. Native American Museum We also went to the Native American Museum, but that was just an excuse to eat yummy buffalo sandwiches.

The most pleasant surprise of the trip was that the Jim Henson Legacy Exhibit was in town. I wish we were allowed to take pictures because among other things we saw numerous original storyboards by Henson, pieces from those two eighties movies with puppets I can't tell apart (Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal), actual muppets used on the shows of Bert and Ernie, Kermit, Rowlf, and the Mahna Mahnas. Yes, we saw the freaking Mahna Mahnas. The one unfortunate thing is that despite the fact that the exhibit was refreshingly Elmo free as he rose to prominence after Henson's passing, the gift store was chock full of the little red bastard. Also an aside for Matt, this is the book that I own. The book they had was called It's Not Easy Being Green.

As for food, Friday night we ate at Five Guys. Five Guys is probably best described as the ultimate guilty pleasure with obscenely delicious burgers and fries all coated with a lethal amount of grease. Needless to say, despite taking the metro to get there, we had to walk back. Saturday night we ate at Meiwah the top rated Chinese restaurant in Washington DC. This place was awesome. They had a wall full of pictures of the owner with various famous customers and these giant doors that look like they belong in some sort of film with about a dozen swordfights in it. Despite all that, the place was surprisingly informal and reasonably priced considering the quality of our meals. I had the crispy beef special, and with the tea and everything I was able to leave a $20. I would definitely go there again.

On the pop culture front, Matt began introducing me to Gurren Lagann. Considering everything I've heard about this show on TVtropes (mostly Kamina fanboying) I've been meaning to watch it for some time now, and so far I've been enjoying it. The animation style is so bizarre it's great. Many of the fights have a surreal Looney Tunes style to them, especially with Simon's stubby little robot Lagann. Walking back on Saturday night, Matt and I were playing the "What Angel characters people are" game and getting shockingly in-depth. I think we found someone for everybody who's been in the opening credits except for Doyle, and even some of the secondary one-off characters.

And that's my weekend.

I was at the shore from Wednesday morning to Friday afternoon. In the past we've stayed from Monday to Friday, but with work and the fact my dad doesn't really enjoy the shore very much, we each stayed only three days to my mom's five. Frankly, I found two-and-a-half to three days to be too short. There really isn't much to report; I went in the water during the day and got bored around the house at night. Unfortunately, we had a health scare with my grandfather the day after which brought us back, but everything is fine now as it turned out to be one of those things that's a "scare" only when you're in your 80s.

Matt and I saw Tropic Thunder on Sunday. It was a good time and I really heart Stiller and company. I mean, how many movies are hilarious before the film actually starts? However, I think the level of comic violence and R-rated dialog will keep it from reaching that Zoolander/Knight's Tale level of "guess what I watched three times this month on cable" viewing ubiquity, if only because it will be so watered down for TV. Also, I've been wondering if someone else would have been better in Ben Stiller's role. Most of the characters fall into one of two distinct camps: flawed and human yet funny characters where the actor mercilessly pokes at himself and his peers (Jack Black and Robert Downey Jr. Oh my God, Robert Downey Jr.) or so ludicrously overblown that they have to be seen to be believed (Matthew Mcconaughey or... well, go see it if you want to know). Well, there's Plot Boy too, but he's just there to play straight man and move the plot along. Stiller's character was silly but not over the top ridiculous, but unlike the other leads, he isn't an action star, even though he had some scary muscle definitions in a few shots. IMDB doesn't have any notes like "X was originally considered for the role", but I'm wondering if watching someone like Bruce Willis go through the same wringer would have actually actually been funnier.

I have a new addiction: Rune Factory: a Fantasy Harvest Moon. One part farming, one part dungeon exploring plus relationship building, fishing, and other wacky fun. So far, the game's done a good job of integrating the two major elements, as each aspect of your life basically opens the door in another aspect.

D&D Wiki fun: Dean updated Osric some more. The story is improving, but the final paragraph is more or less code for "I want a spotlight too guys!". Will, wasn't Richtor his overly privileged knight from that awful evil game, and have we heard of this consort before? Wait, no, I just got it. Obvious plot twist is obvious. Also, I can't help but giggle at the fact that apparently he's known as the fallen dictator Osric the Homeless

[To the theme of Joxer the Mighty]

Osric the Homeless
Battles through the abyss
Never seems to act amiss
With Tesa as his sidekick
Making all her allies sick
Riding steeds and righting wrongs
Being stoic all day long
He's Osric—he's Osric the Homeless!
Oohhhhhh—
He's Osric the Homeless
He's never been kissed
Everybody fears him
'Cause he acts really grim
Osric—
Osric the Homeless!

Also, alignment!? I'm the @#$ $%^& Batman!

"Chris you stalwart bastion of what's good and right in the world," you ask, "why are you writing another game review? Haven't you pretty much recalled everything there is to experience with this group?"

"Au contraire," I respond, horribly mangling the French, ( "You see. This time Will is running the game." )

I played Soul Calibur IV for the first time at Matt's house tonight. Between my disappointment at the lack of differences from the previous game, gimmicky console characters, and the thought of people taking Todd McFarlane's ideas seriously in the 21^st in Soul Calibur II followed by the disgustingly broken AI, wannabe-Virtua Fighter mechanic tweaks, and corny Zasalamel-centered plot in Soul Calibur III, I was becoming a full fledged SC hater. Soul Calibur IV restored my faith some, but it's still giving the frequently disparaged Dead or Alive series a run for its money in the fanservice department. I also think that there has been too much focus on Siegfried, especially compared to the lack of development in virtually every other non-evil character.

What I want to know is this: Algol here absorbed Soul Edge and Soul Calibur. This is represented by having blue energy in one hand and red energy in the other. With that in mind, if he puts his hands in front of his eyes, do they double as 3D glasses? Also as long as he's in the game, how are Yodas born: hatched for an egg or birthed like a mammal? Inquiring minds want to know.

Next post should be a game review.

This is going to sounds dumb, but I really miss Who Wants to be a Superhero. I feel like not having it this year was actually a factor as to why this summer has been somewhat lacking. I'm pretty much over my other summer television obsession, America's Got Talent. Instead, I amuse myself with observations I find at work like this:

“I credit our amazing team for not only working hard to sell ETS products, but for building relationships with our customers to ensure that those products are a good match for their educational needs,” says Internal Sales Manager Frank Miller.

He should know. He is the G@# D$%^ Batman.

I had a 4.0 semester! *confetti* Of course I only had one class. Perhaps someone should defend my case. But who!? To celebrate, I declare a link post. Anti-Shurtugal has explained to me the explicitly how and why to hate the Inheritance Trilogy. However, Arya is very pretty. Also, for my roleplaying crowd, I'm sure you've noticed that the Magic Item Compendium is a pain in the butt to search, but this index may be of some use. Too bad it's only organized by names.

As part of a wellness campaign at work, we were all given pedometers. I assume that if I get enough steps, I'll get my secret last weapon or a super secret technique or something. So far I've noticed that the least effective method of increasing the little number is by walking with it, as it only records about 75% of the actual steps taken. It's far more effective to just shake it really fast.

I'm reading Endangered Species, a story set during the third season of Angel: The Series and not the second like I originally thought, as Fred (far left, see below) lives in the hotel but doesn't leave it. It's not bad so far and the canon characters are pretty well done, but the original characters are total snark bait. I think the reason you get more of these sorts of characters in literature than in television is because in television you need to find a real person to physically represent the character.
Of course, like most television shows the regular cast is generally good looking, but in the novel they don't appear to hold a candle to the new characters. The first is a female vampire named Marianna, who we spend about an entire page describing in physical detail. Okay, she appears to be a villain whose charm is an essential part of the character, but that much physical description, especially into how her outfit clings to her body, makes me want to fire a Sue warning flare. This is still pretty reasonable compared to the new good guy, who made me have to put down the book and start laughing for about a minute straight. To set the stage, Wesley (second from left) and Gunn (far right) are being overcome by what could be described as "mix and match" demons, each having a unique combination of things such as hair, limbs, fangs, eyes, etc. from existing demons. Thankfully they are rescued by a tall, musclebound, gray-haired Spaniard in a cape and bare-chested vest with an electric sword named Chaz Escobar. At this point I'm imaginging some bizarre combination of Zorro and Joachim. Chaz has an appropriately booming voice and ever-so-slightly theatrical mannerisms. Fortunately, Cordy (second from right) has already suggested that all of Chaz's masculinity simply must be compensating for something.

( Coming to NBC this Fall. )

There's a shelf of free books at work, and somebody handed me something off it today. It's about a vampire, who solves crimes (yes, he does) with his friends (with the gang) It appears to take place during Season 2, as there's Gunn but no Fred. This means Wesley is nowhere close to a leather jacket.

Research Methods is done done done. We're doing a class review in lieu of the exam. I don't know whether to be more or less scared. Knowing that we're doing it as a class made me study less intensely than I had expected, but that might mean everyone else did the same thing. I'm selecting specific areas to focus on. The good thing is that the papers count for more now, and I just got A's on the last two.

Two references in one header. Bam.

The end of Research Methods is actually extremely close. I'm as good as done on the final paper, and we're reviewing for the final exam Monday. It's kind of sad when you start learning statistics how things in articles just don't add up. Take for instance the article I'm reviewing, Still at Risk: What Students Don’t Know, Even Now. The first statistics don't have a control group or an experiment group except maybe the reader's mental definition of what students should know which is subjective and pretty shaky. When we finally do have two groups, they compare students with educated parents to students that don't have educated parents, which has what to do with teaching to tests? Plus once you calculate it, the literature table isn't even statistically significant, so mathematically speaking there's a noteworthy chance the results are just a fluke, although this might not have been the case had they added more questions. The literature survey practically has half the questions of the history survey.

And on the other brainthinky scale, LJ's featured links led me to a comic journal about video games, mostly Ace Attorney games and this comic! Warning, massive massive Apollo Justice spoilerage.

For my roleplaying friends, I found this wiki that could make searching the Magic Item Compendium easier. I'm building Skeigh's wishlist now that we have actual golds.

( In next week's episode: Grand Papillon-- I mean Skeigh Daetann-- goes shopping! )

[Edit] Will's family has a cake sitting in the basement freezer from Kim's engagement party, and it's shaped like a comma. I was told it was a paisley, but I don't know how that helps the cake's case to be honest. I think it's really a Magatama. Eating the cake will let me see the lies in people's souls.