Agenda 1 - I lose webhosting at the end of the month. My friend Anthony who has been ever so kind as to give me this space and bandwidth has finally realized that unless he's going to use the space and bandwidth himself, he ought to stop paying for it. Thank you though Anthony for supporting me in this fashion for so many years. Seriously, I owe you a free copy of the nerdcore CD. It exists the way it does because I could build my own site around it, and I could to that because you gave me the space and bandwidth to do so. You gave me a canvas on the Internet, and nothing could have been more valuable, even if I've wasted it at points.

Agenda 2 - This losing webspace thing means I'm in the market for a cheap/free host, preferably one with PHP/MySQL backing. If anyone knows where I can track down a cheap/free host with that qualification, I'll be ever so thankful. I need some place to put the new music, and I'd rather it be on a personal site. No worrying about pesky legal agreements between me and the distributor ruining me. Push comes to shove, I guess it's back to ampcast though, as they are an honest bunch. I'm still gonna have proper hard copies made though, just like the last nerdcore CD. Well, if I make this next CD.

Agenda 3 - This losing webspace thing meant I had to back up the site. In the process, I read through all my old entries. I'm nauseous, embarassed and appalled. No, really. Well, there are some good moments, but still, ugh.

Agenda 4 - In non-losing webspace news, I fixed up an old computer to give to Charlie at Anime Kingdom. This is because she's cool, and she's gonna be stuck in Middle of Nowhere, South Carolina for the summer, far from even the basic necessities such as bookstores and friends. I figure it's better for it to be used by someone in need than sit in my room doing nothing. She can write fanfic in uninterupted in her own room.

Agenda 5 - When/if I ever this site back up, it'll be on new blog software, etc, etc, etc. Part of me would be pretty content though just putting a page that said goodbye though. If my prior blog entries are any evidence, I shouldn't be allowed to talk about my life, ever. I should probably rework it as a strictly business site. If I'm going to have a journal, I'll get out a pen and notebook and emo in there. There is already enough garbage on the internet, and the last thing I ever want to be accused of it contributing to that element.

Agenda 6 - If any of you readers, for some bizarre, perhaps totally-insane reason, actually want to archive something out of this site: music, images or words, now might be the time to do it. I won't trust that I'll ever get the stuff back up on the new host, if there is a new host. This could be it, forever. End of era. See ya if I see ya.

Social: Been focusing on the album, so I really haven't been doing much in this aspect. I did hang out all Tuesday at Anime Kingdom, but that's cause Zoe was sick and she called me and asked me to keep an eye on her just in case she suddenly felt worse. As all I really had to do was the album, I figured I might as well go help a good friend. Not like the album is going anywhere. Not often you get to help out a friend though, especially me, cause it's not like I've got much skill that's of use. My computer skill is surpassed by a lot of the other folks in the AK circle, and my music doesn't really cure illness or pay for lunch or put up shelfs or whatever. Anyway, I hope Zoe's feeling better. She was looking better at the end of the day, but not all better.

Anyway, today myself and my bro got pizza then we went by AK and I picked up the Jubei-chan figure that they got in on Tuesday. It's very cool looking. Well priced at 27 bucks too :)

Music: Nothing more done really, just some tweaks to the existing stuff. Might do another vocal or two within the week. What I really need to do is write more lyrics.

Anime: Watched the first disc of Jubei-chan 2. Freakin awesome. Great emotion, insane animation and very nice music. Y'all should buy it.

so long kids lofi preview alternate vocal version

I can't decide. I think I may need to do a round three.

So I went to Zoe's birthday party yesterday. It was chalk full of awesome. Great people, great food and generally awesome goodness. Brain Donors, FLCL, Home Movies, Dead or Alive, Halo 2, Zoe's #1 Special Homemade Cake, Pizza, Zoe's #1 Special Homemade Macaroni, Card Games and enjoyable conversation? Ain't no party like a nerdcore party. Well, nerd party. Whatever, it was an excellent time. Special shout out goes to Greg for biting a styrofoam cup in a comedic fashion that spawned one of the craziest, energenic conversations I've had in a while. Who knew how much fun you could have making fun of Captain Planet?

Meanwhile, I sold a CD a week ago, and I think it's to what is now my #1 fan girl. However, I should note she's 12...

No seriously, one of my aquintences at college had to bring her little sister to school because the little sister didn't have school that day, and I jokingly freestyled a few rhymes about anime while a friend of mine played guitar, and before I knew it, I'd sold one of my nerdcore CDs to a 12-year-old girl. That was about over a week ago. Apparently she's been listening to the album every night all night since then. I know, I'm surprised too, (blatently bleak humor) but I figure as long as it doesn't spawn a suicide or a school shooting, it's alright. (/blatently bleak humor) BTW, if you're reading this #1 fan girl, thank you very much for your support. I'm glad atleast one person other than myself really enjoyed that album. Not to put down anyone else who has bought or enjoyed it, but this is the first report I've had of someone regularly listening to my music.

Random recommendation: Flower of the Deep Sleep by Yuana Kazumi. Bought it on a whim today, and it turned about to be a short, well-written manga with nice, unique art to back it up. It's only two volumes long, and it's worth your 20 bucks by my estimation.

The Good: The Concept and Some of The Execution.
The Bad: Some of The Other Execution.

And that's about all I've got to say about that.

Because I've been busy. I've been seeing plays and nerdcore mcs live, though not at the time. Zoe was in a production of "A Midsummer Nights Dream" which I saw twice (once with friends from Anime Kingdom, once at midnight pretty much by myself.) Very good production, or atleast the players were good. Their Bottom was comedy freakin gold. So hilarious.

Speaking of hilarious, the mc chris show in Seattle was very, very funny and very, very cool, outside of a couple of idiots in the crowd (who were thankfully ejected from the crowd.) Otherwise, pretty much was everything was perfect. The sound was loud enough to enjoy, but not enough to deafen permanently, mc's interstitial bits were very funny and warped and generally it was just very cool, almost arresting experience. Besides, he did like 3 encores, which is just awesome. Oh, also mc chris my misspelled name on autographs so I suppose that's the one other drawback. Oh, and I forgot to bring a copy of my cd to give to MC. Ah well, I guess I'll just bring in one of the two sealab seasons I should own at that point to PAX, and I'll be bringing whatever is left my nerdcore cds to PAX anyway just in case I can make an offhand sale I guess.

PS: I beat AnimeOnDVD to the punch reviewing Gunslinger Girl. Yay.

http://www.nathanchase.com/2005/04/ghost-that-feedsray-parker-jrs.html

Real blog addicts probably have already seen that, but that's gotta be the best mash up so far this year. Spooky and kitchy? That's what I call mash up success in spades. I should burn this and bring it into Anime Kingdom, but I fear that I might be beaten with plushies.

Ended up catching the Hitchhiker's with the family, and like an idiot didn't remember that not going to Hitchhiker's with the Anime Kingdom crew meant I could catch the breakdancing show. Ah well, atleast I got to see a cool movie this weekend. Y'all should see it. :)

Between reviews, school and real life socialization. Now, if went you through all the links hidden there you'd note Gossip, the awesome bubble tea place; Anime Kingdom, my semi permanent hangout on Friday afternoons where I buy my anime and manga and other goodies; The Massive Monkees, who are doing a performance tonight that I'd be damn tempted to catch because it'd be fun and because I'm acquainted with that crew; and a link to The Hitchhiker's Guide to Galaxy IMdb, because rather than going an awesome breakdance competition, I might catch Hitchhiker's instead.

See, this is where being both a hipster and nerdcore at the same begins to be problematic. On hand, I could check out a fresh breakdancing show, and the Massive Monkee's might even invite me up on the mic to freestyle. On the other hand, I can catch a flick I've been waiting for a while with a group of my otakutastic friends. Told ya' nerdcore life ain't simple. ;)

Anyway, I don't really have any complaints. I've been working on more nerdcore material, just waiting for my tax refund to hit so I can buy the Reason 3.0 upgrade, and I'm highly, highly looking forward to both the Gunslinger Girl release, but also to the debut of Shojo Beat, which looks to be the first proper shoujo magazine produced in America, atleast from the Issue 0 promo. I'm even tempted to pre-subcribe; it is about the same price as a dvd.

PS: I'm probably gonna archive this blog at the end of summer, and then reset up using Wordpress. Don't coun't on getting comments though. :D

I caught Sin City.

Here what I posted on a board about it:

I loved the film. I totally dug the non-linear layout (note that I have been reading a ton of modern European lit lately that is loaded with that stuff, but really, it's just a great way of giving you just the bits you need when need it as means of better catching the viewer off guard with particular connections) the visuals, both in raw quality and in layout, were outstanding, and the stories told, though very dark, were oddly moral in a strange way. Bad guys got their due in the stories; it was just through raw, unbridled vigilantism. It's Film Noir and Digital Film Making taken to a logical extreme, and undoubtly, in my mind atleast, the best comic book movie produced to date.

----

Anyway, it's an amazing flick. Definitely earns it's R rating, but it isn't rated R because it's using dumb violence, it's rated because of just how stylized and artistically shot and rendered the violence is. It's really watching a comic book unfold, and that's quite cool all things considered.

If not a little unproductive in terms of reviews (I'll bang 'em out tonight.) However, given the nice evening shooting pool with friends (yay Zoe, Lucy, Tanya and Mike 1 (as supposed to Mike A aka Mike Check,)) a wonderful April Fool's day and this, it was a pretty cool week. Now to write up a couple of reviews (short preview YAY Princess Tutu, MEH Es Otherwise.)

Outside of a screw up that resulted in my car ending up locked inside a parking garage overnight and getting nailed a 22 dollar parking charge, the Pillows/Noodles show at the Crocodile Cafe in Seattle was a freaking awesome evening of music, easily worth my automobile ending up locked inside a parking garage overnight and getting nailed a 22 dollar parking charge. The local acts were quite good, but the Noodles and the Pillows punched with some outstanding sets. The Pillows' energy was especially amazing: I was sick and the club was smoky, but the music just transcended all that. I rocked out along with the music even though it was almost painful to do so because of my cold and my bum knee (thanks Target!) Seriously, if you can catch them live, do so. They rock beyond hard.

that's a from musical... I think it was Assassins or something.

Anyway...
I aced my second Anthropology Exam.
I've got two stories on Toon Zone's Front Page, namely My advance look at Madlax and my review of the scandalous but incredibly well written Koi Kaze.
I'm pretty happy right now. Life is pretty darn good right now. :)

"I think it was Anne of Green Gables who said 'I feel so lonely when I'm with other people, but I'm walking outside, I don't feel lonely at all.'" - Maho, Kare Kano Volume 10.

I need to walk more often I think. And maybe just take sometime off from socializing both virtually and physically. I've got too much stuff to do lately. Heck, my upcoming vacation will probably involve just as much writing as school has lately, maybe more so if I actually do good reviews. Ah well, atleast I get free DVDs for my trouble. Sounds like reasonably equivelent exchange to me.

BTW, thank you to all 2 people who have bought my CD online, and all 10 who have bought it in real life. 12 discs is 12 more than I thought I would sell. When/If I get around to my next nerdcore CD, maybe I'll be able to beat that. :)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_olson

Watch this get deleted by Admins in under a day. Meanwhile, those who know me should feel compelled to fill that wiki out more completely... or not.

Though I'll probably take this piece of humor to the grave, I felt the need to relate it anyway. Last night/morning/whatever, Zoe and I laughed until we couldn't breathe after seeing something while browsing Ebay for doujinshi (btw Zoe, if you're reading this before I tell you on Tuesday, I got my Fruits Basket doujinshi. They are clean! Yay!) that pretty much fits the headline of this article. One of the doujinshi had an illustration that sort of looked like Doug Funnie was Vash. This then led to Skeeter as Wolfwood, and Roger as Knives.

"Sometimes the answers just crash down from heaven. Honk Honk!" - Skeetwood.

Now you can see why I laughed until my cheeks hurt. That is just funny. Funnie even. ;)

So, I've got my CDs and inserts now in my possession. All I need to do now is cut the inserts down, stuff them in the case, and then I've got 50 cds that I probably can't sell ever! Expect a paypal-type buying link on the nerdcore page soon, which noone will use, ever. ;) Check back in 6 months when most of these will have been used as coasters or tinder for starting a fire in 55 gallon drum in an alley somewhere, depending on the situation. ;)

I've been led to believe that it is some kinda holiday thing today. Personally, I pay more attention to tomarrow, which I like to call discount candy day. :D

...because the cap and nozzle came off her perfume on the car ride home after a nice evening of Kinokuniya browsing (I got the Nakayosi 50th anniversary issue! yay for 50 years of uber-shoujo manga,) sushi from Uwajimaya (yay for friends willing to split a tray of smoked salmon sushi and toblerone minis with you) and some very poorly played but very enjoyable billards (though jukebox did have Queen on it, so "Don't Stop Me Now" got played like million times by us, because after Shaun of the Dead, it's just too darn perfect.) Sure, it's a nice enough scent, it's just that my sweater got semi-saturated with it, and when it comes to scent, you can definetely have waaay to much of a good thing. Yay for friends and good times, boourns for overwhelming the senses.

Ah well, it's cool I guess. In a sense, a perfect evening with friends would be less likely to be remembered than one that had atleast one amusing, effectively harmless mishap. I'd go on about that, but I've written enough about humanities' tendency towards embracing imperfection in English class, and I'm probably only gonna have more to write. I am definitely rueing the whole combined English concept to some extent, though I've not gotten to analysis literature in a formal manner in years, so it's nice to flex those intellectual muscles. Maybe I should take a Spanish course to keep that in shape too. Or not.

Now to sleep.

"You just have to stop before sadness overwhelms you" - Kei Kusangi's Sister, Please Teacher (aka Onegai Teacher, Onegai Sensei)

I'm trying to say anything by it, I just think it's a great little piece of philosophy that was somehow woven artfully and brillantly into what would otherwise be a very average shonen romance anime. Not often you get existentialist when watching a show whose intial tag is "awkward kid ends up marrying his teacher." As a matter of fact, I'd be willing to say that's pretty one of a kind. BTW, the speaker of that quote is wrong, obviously, but it comes up a lot in literature (especially the emo-kid-esque world of European Literature, as I've found out first hand in class as of late.) In fact, this is my lazy way of having that quote accessible for metaphysical debates on existence and the nature of man's state in the world. Yay for the lazy archival options of the internet.

Agenda A: I've been getting into the The Postal Service. Electroglitch alternapunkpop is a surprisingly enjoyable combination. Besides, they have good production that isn't over glossy, and they have some reasonably engaging lyrics. It's music for a near-future utopia, or something like that. Maybe just near-future.

Agenda B: Looks like my replicator will finally have my nerdcore CD for me finally. Apparently his automatic CD maker machine was messed up, so he had to make them one at a time. I feel his pain. However, this means that hopefully with in the month, my nerdcore CD will be up for sale. If you know me in real life and you want a copy, just pester me and I'll bring ya one to buy once I've got them. To everyone else on the net (which is probably noone, but whatever,) I'll be adding a paypal commerce thingy on the nerdcore page once I've the discs in hand.

A: Talking to Johnen Vasquez and the Penny Arcade guys at the same time. Granted, most of the banter was betwixt Johnen and Jerry from PA (Jerry, btw, remembered me from PAX last year, which was cool,) but they were very open in conversation and such. All of those folks are cool people, contrary to what might say on the internet (it's amazing how stuff gets blown out of proportion. Can't a guy take a break from photos and signing to take a break and eat? Sheesh.) Anyway, I guess it was worth my time and 10 bucks as such to hit the Emerald City Comicon. It was a fun and interesting experience. Hopefully SakuraCon is filled with the same goodness this year.

Part A - Working Myself Stupid:
English class is a complete grind that consumes a lot of my time. If anything, I'm still not spending enough time on it. However typing some 4000+ words in two evenings is murderous. However, I need the credit, and I'm managing to do well because of the superb education I got at ICS. It's not hard for me to look in between the lines and find the insight and evidence needed for a paper, but it's like pulling teeth for me to write journal entries about the books I'm reading. I'm past the point where I need to notate the insights I have when reading, I have been for years. However, it's work that I get credit for so, I guess I'll keep with it.

In other news:
-I finally got the Pinky:Cos Evangelion Figures. I'm one happy and pathetic otaku! Kinokuniya is the awesome as such. Now to waste hundreds of dollars on alternate outfits.
-I've come to the realization that I'm pretty darn uncool, even among my circle of geek-otaku friends. Or atleast that's how I feel lately. OTOH, it's good to have cool friends. {/EMO BLOGZZZZ}
-Boca di Beppo's is a pretty good eatery.
-So is the Japanese place above International Models and Toys in Seattle.
-I'm probably going to be continuing my habit of not properly/regularly updating my blog. My apologies to all two of my readers. ;)

Why you ask:

1. I played through nonstop parapara mode perfectly enough to get to the bonus round, and even though I didn't know that song, I rocked that one to. I need to save up for the home version, some how, some way. ParaParaParadise is too much fun.

2. I introduced Zoe to ParaPara, and I think she atleast thought the character designs were cute (which is cool cause they are.)

3. It was a fairly dead night outside of my crazy friends, so I was able to the the In Tha Groove machine, and I had fun dance and rapping along to MC Frontalot "Penny Arcade Theme" and "Which MC Was That." That game needs more Front. I'd gladly volunteer my remix of "Front the Most" for use on In The Groove.

4. Dance games and cool friends are usually a good combination. Besides, we all had dinner at "What the Pho" in Bellevue before hitting Illuzionz. Them's some good eats. 50 cent Ice Tea? Oh yeah.

However, ripping my pants playing Laser Tag sucked. Luckily, I'd gotten many years of service out of those pants, so it was alright. Getting new cargo pants at the price I got those old pants at might take some patience though (5 bucks for new pants is a hard deal to top,) and I think they've gone out style lately.

Side notes: Twin Spica is being fansubbed again, and I love it more than ever. It's a wonderful show that needs be licenced this con season so I can buy it by 2006. Come on American Anime Industry, I want to give you my money. I finished TenchiGXP which was kinda meh. I guess it was worth it. Bleach continues to be filled with awesome, and the whole "sponsored by Bandai" in the credit makes me wonder if they got Bleach. I would have thought it'd be a Geneon show what with Dentsu involvement, but what the hey, the sooner it's in America, the better.

House of Flying Daggers. Darn cool looking film. Lots of gobsmacking action and crazy fighting. However, when you have a fight that either lasts 3 months, or fastest season change ever, well, then it gets a hard to suspend your disbelief. Add to that daggers in hearts apparently not being that fatal, well, that's just silly. Anyway, it's a cool looking film, so if catch in the theaters, do it, because it's one to see on the big screen, but not buy and rewatch a lot IMO.

Anyway, I caught it with the Anime Kingdom entourage, and after watching the flick, we headed down to Red Robin for food, and loitering in front of it was some girls in odd costumes/hats and they notice that I was wearing Kuu from DigiCharat hat, and they noted my hat was like of their's, which was an old skool soviet union hat with ear flaps. I joking throw out that my hat's not communist though, they say that's because the hat's from Russia, Zoe, who was their as well, points out the obviousness of that statement and then I go into a big thing about being homies with Gorbechev "back in tha day."

Tonight: Illusionz w/ the Anime Kingdom crew.
Tomarrow: Ack mein spine!
Side Note: "Concord Down - Don't Tell Me" is Dn'B that puts hair on your chest. "Syncopix - Happy Happy Joy Joy" is jungle that's gorgeous. You should all get your hands on both tracks.

now playing: Ishida Yoko - Asu he no Brillant Road. Because Stellvia is the rock.
I got an Advance Look at Gantz. I don't get it. I'm not sure whether I want to.

School's back in session. It's ok. Boring. But Ok.

Other Noise:
-Samurai Champloo vol.1 is the greatness.
-Zoe deserves a trophy for giving me her old Fruits Basket art book, even though she could have kept it and simply sold her new copy on the Ebay. Seriously, I don't deserve it.
-Condolences to Kii-chan, the ParaPara girl, who is grounded.

now playing: Koikaze OST - Track 23. Easily one of the most amazingly impactful, eloquently-simple pieces in any anime. It captures the spirit of KoiKaze perfectly. Seriously, tracks 20, 23 and 28 alone make the OST worth it IMHO.

kiikii-sempai.deviantart.com

Above is the deviant art site of the very nice girl who I met at Illusionz on the NYE (and in notorius Karl fashion, have completely drawn a blank on name-wise. Seriously, I need to figure out why I can't remember names in a social context.) Since she's a cool person, and further still, an excellent artist, she gets linked in this post, and probably in the side bar eventually. I probably should apologize for inadvertantly subjecting her to one of my friends (hell hath no fury like an InuYasha fangirl vs. a non-InuYasha fangirl,) and I am sorry, though I should probably reiterate that in a email. Anyway, ms.artist-who's-name-I-can't-remember-for-the-life-of-me was a blast to hang out with, and since she digs shoujo, she's ok by me.

Granted, I'm pretty much cool with anyone who enjoys my otakudom. Hence my diverse groups of friends, some of which never interact, which is probably for the best (like I said, some otaku are oil and water... or maybe it's more like bleach and ammonia *_*'''.)

It's a simple equation:

Awesome Arcade + Japanese Dance Video Games + Great Friends + Bohemian Rhapsody Karaoke Right After Midnight with One of Said Friends + Meeting New Cool People + Free Food + Free Soda = One Great New Year's Eve.

So, Happy New Year everyone.

PS: I need to play more ParaParaParadise. That is the fun. And do hammy Karaoke with over dramatic posing and acting, because it's fun too, and the crowd ate it up. :D

So I'm back in Kirkland. Hurrah for home :)

Meanwhile, I've been linked in Wikipedia under nerdcore: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nerdcore_hiphop_%28genre%29

Someone should add a proper entry for me. :)

However, I'm no longer #1 on google when you search for Karl Olson.
http://www.google.com/search?q=karl+olson

Someone fix that. ;)

Meanwhile, I'm still #1 on google when you search for "Karl Olson."
http://www.google.com/search?q=%22Karl+Olson%22

Take that vastly more deserving people with the same name! :D

Lastly, I think I am a chump for any and all Nakayosi-serialized manga. Atleast my new found addiction to Tokyo Mew Mew seems to be evidence of that. Blast you inexpensive manga at Costco!!!

Topic 1: Costco now has manga, in bulk. For about 13 bucks they've got shrink wrapped sets of stuff like the first 3 volumes of a given series, like Cardcaptor Sakura, Clamp School Detectives, Rave Master and Tokyo Mew Mew. My mom was cool enough to pick up the shrink wrapped set of TMM when we were at Costco here in Spokane today. Once I'm back home on cable internet, I'll post some pictures up of the set. It's all Tokyopop manga, probably stuff that's not been moving or something, I dunno.

Topic 2: Happy Holidays from Spokane. I'm here visiting relatives (namely my grandfather on my dad's side, but also one set of my aunts and uncles on my mom's side.) The internet connection is terrible, but I've had time to re-read some manga (Instant Teen, Pita-Ten,) watch some DVDs (Mobile Suit Gundam,) and read through my grandpa's back magazines (Business Week, US News and World Report,) so I guess I've made the most of it. I'll probably most more once I'm back home. See ya then :D

tune back in 9 months when my voice is on a dvd maybe.

Also, Macross Zero was like Macross Evanadiarjuna. Which I guess is cool. Animation was mostly great. where it falters though, it's very awkward.

adult swim coasters
adult swim shotglass
adult swim bottle opener
aqua teen pen
brak cookie jar
a white "cuz anime is teh s uck" shirt
oh, and a VHS copy of "tornado shanks and 3 papers to sign. usual legal blah blah. if they wanna use my likeness to sell dvds, it's their financial loss, not mine. :D

SO, tomarrow, I gets my hate on. Big time. But only because it was requested by the creators of the show.

I'm so nerdcore, I upgraded my processor, my hard drive and did a fresh, legit install of Windows XP, pretty much all by myself (I called a friend for a piece of advice,) recovered the data off my old harddrive inspite of XP's "security," then setup my computer with various freeware and GNU-licence software, free of spyware and other nasty things. Oh, and Reason, Acidph1 and SoundForgeXP. Gotta have those :D

I'm so nerdcore, I finished another dn'b song right after getting everything all set up.

I'm so nerdcore...
...I'm a going a commentary on an upcoming season DVD set of Sealab. A commentary where, at the request of the creators, I get to berate, insult and belittle the show itself. A "Commentary of Hatred." And I'm doing it for free Adult Swim stuff. It doesn't much more nerdcore than that ;)

Yes, that fanart did get posted on Frontalot's website. You should also check out his new song, as not since Tex Avery's "Red Hot Hiding Hood" has there been such an inspired retelling of Little Red Riding Hood.

Meanwhile, I've got some very interesting projects in the works, I just can't say anything about them. So instead of talking about them, I'll just mention I've been playing a lot of Halo 2 on Xbox Live. Enjoyable stuff.

http://karlrolson.com/index.php?m=200309

after browsing through my access logs, I've come to the conclusion that september 2003 is apparently the most important month ever for me, as the above link shows up in my logs a billion times. or maybe that just because I used have chobits, pita-ten and digi charat wallpaper up on that page. surely chii, sumomo, kotoko, dejiko, puchiko, misha and kotorou aren't that important to traffic.

btw, to those in the future 6 months from now looking at this post after finding it a google search because they are looking for wallpaper to deeplink, I've taken the wallpaper down. too many people deeplinking it and violating my bandwidth. sorry. sorta. meanwhile, check out my music or something.

1. Check out the wallpaper section @ Tsubasa's CG Site. There is one wallpaper up right now (and it's of the Japanese Fan Character, Bisuke-tan,) but I did the composite on it. I'll probably be doing some more of that in the future, as Tsubasa likes wallpaper, but is busy making the actual CG art (speaking of which, check out the Bisuke-tan CG in the new Fad Character Section. It's awesome.)

2. I spent 30 something dollars for the Japanese KoiKaze OST. Expensive, but great. Lovely piano and acoustic guitar pieces. Sentence fragments.

3. Gratuitious shout outs to people who made this last week more awesome for me:
-Zoe.
-Amber.
-Samantha.
-Iliana (AKA The Negotiator, Roger Smith.)
-Lea.
-Lucy.
-Justin.
-The ToonZone.net Players.
-The BCC Fishbowl Players.
-People I'm forgetting, but who are still "omg zawesome kekekekeke (exclaimation point) (exclaimation point) (exclaimation point) (one) (one) (one) (one) (one)"

Why'd I do that? Dunno. :)

See, I was over in Spokane, WA visiting my some of my relatives for Thanksgiving. So, my birthday dinner occured in a Perkins Resturant on Division Street, and they couldn't even seat all of us together (we were in adjecent booths atleast.) I had a Chef Salad w/ Bleu Cheese dressing and a Peppermint Mocha to drink. We then picked up a cheesecake on our way back to my aunt and uncle's house, where the cheesecake was then consumed. Then we watched Elf, which my aunt and uncle had rented earlier that day apparently. Actually, I spent some of the time watching my cousin play the Sims.

Dullest 21st Birthday Ever, no?

Well, atleast I won my bid on this.

...I'd have no luck at all. Turns out the replicator wont be able to get to the Nerdcore CD until early 2005 at best, so I'm thinking about bagging it. I dunno. Maybe I'm just not cut out for this.

Meanwhile the new Dn'B CD is done. Maybe I'll just throw that online too. I love the way it sounds, probably my best work yet, but like all my other Dn'B works, maybe a handful of people at best will care.

I dunno, maybe in 2005 I'll be set to do this. Maybe. I hope. Maybe if ten readers were willing to commit to getting the CD (e-mail if you are) I'll do it. I'll take the risk on. Otherwise, I might as well just throw some nicer mp3s online, and let it be.

I just realized that my playing with other blog softwares messed with my links. Good thing media109 is a class taught in a class room w/ computers and internet access, because I was able to not only able to re-add the links that were dropped (gotta plug that nerdcore CD), but add on two new links: One for Bleedman's beautiful and brillant Powerpuff Girls Doujinshi, which may well be the most genius fan work ever produced for any US cartoon, if not one of the best fan works ever, and one for Tsubasa's CG Works which is art done by a friend of mine who is quite gifted with photoshop CG, and he does fairly clean art too (hence why I'm hosting and linking it.)

Atleast not without killing all my old posts. I suppose I could setup this old b2 blog as an archive, then run with a fresh copy of wordpress or movable type, but I sure wish I could rollover. Unfortunately, none of the auto-import scripts I've been playing with want to play ball with my blog. I dunno, I'm going to try playing with the database info later this evening, but I've got a feeling that I'm just out of luck. Maybe I should just leave it be, since I'm not that interested in having comments anyway.

Inspite of killing the the links on the page to my comments section, apparently some jackanape still thinks it's a genius idea to load the effectively unaccessible to the public comments section with spam. Other bloggers out there probably have dealt with the mysterious idiot known only as lilo@suddenenlightenment.us, and I guess he/she/it's been having at my completely ignored comments section too, leaving over 200 spam messages. I think I'll have to learn to upgrade/rollover to a blog system with a blacklist. I'd love to have comments back up some day, even though noone used them, and I've got a feeling the only way to make that work to get a blacklist setup somehow.

For now, I've deleted the comments related php files off the server. I can only pray that works for the moment (not like webspace is a problem, it just ticks me off. Big Time.)

If that sounds weird, well it is, but I met an 11-year-old girl (who shall be called Tomato from here on out, as that is her nickname, seriously) into Evangelion, and gothic/elegant gothic fashion. It's strange, cool and unsettling all at the same to meet someone 10 years younger than you into anime probably 5 years too mature for them. It's weirder still when they are able to hold a fairly solid conversation about said anime.

Heck, the whole ten years younger bit is awkward enough. I'm nearly 21 (november 27th is my birthday,) and yet here I am, talking to an 11-year-old girl in the middle of an anime store. To a third party observer, that's gotta seem somewhere between sorta sad and very wrong. I dunno, maybe it's like that time with "Chie," the eerily mature girl who got seperated from her mom at Target back in 2003. Ack 2003, I'm getting old. I suppose I was fairly mature and pop-culture aware at the age, but it's still something that takes me aback when I see it now in kids. Heck, maybe I just taken aback that I'm holding a conversation with a kid. I was horrible with talking to my peers when I was a kid, so maybe I never really got used to it, and now I've been dropped into situations where it was somewhat of a necessity, ("Chie" needed to find her mom, Tomato was looking at DVDs, wondering what to get and I always try to be helpful,) and it's awkward. Sometimes you've just got to try the best that you can, and hope you're doing right by that, even if it's, well, weird.

So, while I gave her a suggestion that kept her entertained this week (she bought the InuYasha movie, as she's a fan of that too,) I'm selling Tomato my old copy of the Eva boxset next week. She hasn't seen all of Eva, she's a little too impatient for the Platinums, and I need shelf space. Everyone wins, everyone's satisfied and "God in is his heaven, all's right with the world."

Come on, you had to see that line coming. ;)

Money has been procured via the sale of my old 4-track machine. All I need is to run the cover art by a few friends of my mine, and then nerdcore album action should follow after that. I'm shooting to have released before my birthday on November 27th.

After that, I've got a Dn'B EP I'll either shop around to labels or release under a Creative Commons-type licence. Either way, it's a neat disc IMO. Probably the best Dn'B I've written yet.

Meanwhile, I bought the Delgados' "Hate" basically for one song, "The Light Before We Land," the song that was used as the opening to Gunslinger Girl. It's probably the best track on the album, though the other tracks are alright. I kinda wanted to see the Delgados show that going to be at Crocodile in Seattle on November 1st, but alas, it's a 21+ so I'm out of luck. Ah well, I'm 21 on November 27th, so I'll actually be able to see some of the awesome electronica act that only seem to play 21+ venues. It's lame though. I don't want to drink, I want to see a good band that plays music I like. Sure, Seattle has an all-ages scene, but it rarely has much in the way of the acts I'm looking for.

I guess I'm on the brink of more than a few changes, musically and temporally. Hopefully all goes well.

I've got a full course load, so I'll have health insurance, yay!

I've the job I thought I had to replace my Target job has fallen through, boo!

I saw Shaun of the Dead on Saturday and it was hilarious, yay!

One my friends fell ill and was unable to watch it, boo!

I'm back in school, and since Zoe is there, we'll probably eat lunch together often, as that is fun and interesting, yay!

The line for texts and admissions is friggin crazy, boo!

I might get a deal on replication for the nerdcore album, yay!

I might not have the money to do it right now, and even if I get them made, I'll have to setup some kinda e-commerce to ship them to what few people care, boo!

Mixed assortment of life I guess. ;)

As of the 25th/26th of September, I'll no longer be a Target employee.

And I couldn't be happier.

Even though my job working at the digital music lab isn't a lock.

Even though my budget will be tighter, and I already owe my mother for the otakon trip.

I'm free.

I didn't mind cashiering.

I didn't mind food avenue cashiering (never trained me to actually make food though, because even though they made me take the test to get a food handler's card, they lost the card.)

I didn't mind guest service (aka customer service, which they made me learn after I gave them my two weeks notice. I don't get it either.)

I didn't even mind pestering people about Target Visas. (Even when some guest berated me with words just as prerehearsed as my own.)

But those carts.

I couldn't take that any longer.

And losing my weekends and holidays all the time.

I couldn't take that any longer either.

I want to, and need to focus on school. I want to have sometime for friends and family as well. Target was in the way of that, big time sometimes.

Adios Target.

I'll miss being payed to be silly, but you didn't pay enough to deal with open disposable diapers and empty malt liqour bottles while nursing a bad leg and a worse cold in the middle of a downpour with a strong wind.

Adieu.

Itsumo Sayonara.

Oh, but I'll make sure and buy clearence stuff after holidays and stuff. Gotta love that 50%+ off halloween and x-mas candy, and clearence rack clothing. ;)

I may not be a hardcore gamer, but PAX this weekend was a blast. The gamers I met were fun, talketive people who definetely helped the time pass in the lines. Gabe and Tycho were cool enough to not only autograph my program, but when I mention to Tycho that I remixed MC Frontalot, he asked which mix, and I told him I did the Ultrastep mix of "Front the Most" to which he replied that he loved it more than the original! Props! from Tycho! So, I plugged my current nerdcore project to him. Hopefully he likes that too. The Red vs. Blue guys were really cool and nice. They were just hanging around on the balcony of the Maydenbauer Center when my brother spotted them. We go up to give some respect and, they hook my bro and I up with a free copy of Red vs. Blue Season 1, autographed! The musical show was amazing, and when I talked to Front after the show, he was quite cordial and awesome, and he was happy to meet the man that remixed him. Again, I plugged the nerdcore project.

In general, the con was a blast and I can't wait to come back next year.:)

A.K.A. all the zillions of people Rick at work refered to the site.

The pertinent info is here. All the nerdcore rap you can handle.

Anyway, I've been finally working through some of my anime in the past week, and I've even watched everything I picked up on friday. Nice to have a cloudy sunday off to kick back, and watch some Azumanga Daioh. It's just got the right tone for this kind of this kind of day. Delightfully bittersweet ambient comedy. That kind of day.

Hey everybody! It's a few Otakon pics. Mooninites! Yaoi paddles! Me looking bleh from the heat!

I'm happy to be home in the Seattle grey. Doesn't make work any more fun, but I traded out my cart shift for a cashiering shift, and I won a coke. Yay me :)

The Con = Pretty Good (I prefer SakuraCon, at least when it comes to dealer's room, guests and number of familiar faces. Oh, and 24/3 closed circut anime in the hotel.)
The People I met from the internet @ Otakon: Pretty Cool, though Solitude_1 from TZ was the coolnessest.
Baltimore Weather = Hot, Sticky and Icky. I have a new appreciatation for Seattle summers.
Overall, it was pretty cool stuff, but I'm not sure whether I'd do it again. Their just isn't enough cool stuff I think to justify it, because even though I met some very cool people, it's expensive to do this (maybe if certain cool people attend again, I'll show up.) Howver, I think I'll stick with the local con for now, but I'm very glad to have the experience as a member of the press, as a traveler and as a fan. :)

between having to get up at 4 in the morning on thursday, a 45 minute layover in philly, the subway out of Reagan to Central, and then the train ride up, I'm a little nervous about missing a beat somewhere in this little trip. However, I'll have 30 something nutrigrain bars on me for food, so atleast I'll be able to keep nurished (yay costco.)

once I get there, then I've got the fun of waiting in line for my press badge and other such stuff. however, I'm truely excited about the whole thing, so with any luck, I'll be able to handle this stuff... in theory... ^_^'''''

Huge thanks and props to Ny for doing battle with the server move and fighting around Linux getting everything up and running wonderful. He deserved a pizza, or trophy, something from Otakon. :)

Oh, yeah I am I guess.

Anyway, the nerdcore album is basically waiting for one track to get wrapped up by the producer working on it, then I can do finishing touches and ship it.

Meanwhile at work, I'm back to doing carts now that my knee is better. Bleh. I'm so outta there once school starts back up. As matter of fact, if they don't give me time off for Otakon in Baltimore (which I've got my press pass, hotel and airfare all arranged for,) I'm out of their even sooner.

BTW, expect some bloggage from Baltimore if I end up with some internet access. Else if, well, I'll post some pictures or something up when I get home.

PS: the site might dissappear for a day or two as my friend Anthony is switching to a much better host (more space and more bandwidth.)

This: http://forums.toonzone.net/showthread.php?t=115201 = AnimeTVGuide.

This: http://www.karlrolson.com/nerd.htm = Ultraklystron - Revision 4920: A Nerdcore EP

And I softmodded my XBox so I can run ems and play fansubs and stuff on it. Yay!

First full day of summer vacation was today. I went out and bought a cable. Then hung out at Anime Kingdom.

really interesting, no?

Right. Not at all.

So, Zoe broke up with me. Not all that long after I wrote the first thing today. Ah well, another defeat snatched from the jaws of victory. Still went and saw the movie with her and Jason (another cool guy from Anime Kingdom.) The potter movie was quite good, and I highly recommend it.

I think I'll end this with a quote, well a poem:

A man said to the universe:
"Sir I exist!"
"However," replied the universe,
"The fact has not created in me
A sense of obligation."
---Stephen Crane.

I'm gonna carry that weight, right through finals week.

I bought Zoe 30 bucks worth of gift certificates for Anime Kingdom (the local anime store) for her birthday, and I think (hope) she was quite glad to get them. Her birthday party was fun. We watched Casino Royale and Azumanga Daioh (any girl who is fan of both of those rocks in my book,) we ate delicious cake, burgers, salad and chips and in general had a good time hanging with a bunch of our friends. Today, the same group (more or less,) will be going to see the Harry Potter movie, which should rock. :)

Upon closer inspection, my DVD backlog is larger than I thought, as I've yet to watch GXP 2&3, 08th 3&4, Angelic Layer 3-6, Azumanga 2, Millenium Actress, Big O 3, Grave of the Fireflies, Nadesico: Prince of Darkness, Lain 3&4 and Nadia 4&5. That's 17 anime dvds to watch. 17. I might be able to half the list in the first couple days after finals week, but that'll be some very dedicated anime viewing action.

On the birthday note, today was Zoe's birthday. I wanted to get her something really cool, but all I got her was some Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex trading figures. I mean, they are cool figures, but they aren't the coolest. I really would like to get her something, but I wouldn't want her to feel guilty or needing to pay me back for them. I guess I'll try to pick up something she'd really enjoy before heading to her party tomarrow. If only I could get a hold of some cool Cardcaptor Sakura stuff on short notice. I recently got her hooked on CCS, and I'd love to get her something cool like a clow key or clow wand replica, but that'd be hard to get on short notice. Or maybe some Zim stuff. Or maybe I'll make buy her some cornbread. I know she loves the stuff, and I'm quite a fan of it myself, and she asked people to bring food to the party, so I know it'd be well recieved.

Ah well, I'll try to find something. She's an awesome person, and deserving of awesomeness.

DVD Backlog to Watch:

Angelic Layer Vol.3-6
Azumanga Daioh Vol.2
Grave of the Fireflies
Martian Successor Nadesico: Prince of Darkness
Mobile Suit Gundam: 08th MS Team Vol.3&4
Nadia: Secret of Blue Water Boxset 1 Discs 4&5
Serial Experiments: Lain Vol.3&4
Tenchi Muyo! GXP Vol.2

And I'm probably forgetting a few discs. I can't wait til class is out for the summer. Those DVDs are going to eat up some time to watch and I'll finally have that time soon.

...when you get rid of old boxes, magazines and other garbage. I really got thank Jim, Zoe and Jason (and Leia on Saturday) for helping me and my family out with the spring cleaning. The house looks awesome. Thanks to hanging out Anime Kingdom regularly, we've (my family and I) made some great friends, and I hope we stick together for a while.

But Tuesday will mark the final burn on into finals week, and it'll be a doozy. Luckily I'll be free for the summer once everything is said. I'll be at BCC longer than I wanted, but I think I'll be able to live with that. I'll survive and move on, somehow someway. I just need to study like no tomarrow for my calc final.

But my Friday evening at home w/ Zoe, just her and I, watching Invader Zim with commentary, was delightful. My Saturday where I didn't have work because there is no way I'm coming in for a cart shiftn until my knee doesn't need a serious dose of Advil to be functional, and if that puts the people at Target in tough bind, too bad. I don't want to spend my summer in physical therapy, thank you very much, and I doubt they want they want to pay for it (they'd have too.) Sunday involved a nice breakfast at the Pancake house in Redmond, a shift at Target where I hopefully had straightened things out when it comes to carting and my infernal knee, and having a bunch cool friends over (including Zoe) to hang out and watch Zim and Clerks, the animated series.

I guess the balence of suck and rock is about even, but I think deep down, the rock wins ;)

But more on that in a bit.

I had physical therapy today, and it's definetely helping, but at this rate, it'll still probably be another few weeks before I can cart. Standing is one thing, moving is another, especially without anti-flammatories in my system keeping walking from being too much strain. Anyway, because of physical therapy, I drove my car to BCC today, and in trying to get home, I accidentally grabbed the wrong branch of the 405, so I decided to head to the same mall I hung out with out Zoe at, because I wanted to browse the mass-market, anti-establishment haven, Hot Topic, for some T-shirts (didn't get one,) some pants (I'm just not cool enough to be goth or punk, so I passed on it) and a wallet chain (last one broke in 2000, and I've really needed one ever since, especially now that I'm driving and I need my keys to be easily accessible, so I did get one.) However, though I didn't get a lot of things, I did get an awesome Dieselboy/Kaos 12" from the Hot Topic record rack I didn't notice the first time I was there. Great stuff. Melodic, but hard also.

Kinda sad when the best record store on the Eastside isn't really on the Eastside, but down in Southcenter, it's actually an mass-alternative clothier and the selection still isn't what it should be.

Ah well, atleast it was a fun wrong turn. :)

And by this, I mean this:
http://funimg.pchome.com.tw/img_upload/FUNNY/a/2/20030712_a200044_104615.gif

I mean, it's pretty impressive for a gif animation, and it does seem to be done by some guy who goes by the name "Dead Karl," but as I'm living and I didn't do the animation or anything related to it, it's a weird coincidence.

No particular reason for mentioning that, it just came up in my internet travels today.

In other news, I mainly spend the day with my girlfriend Zoe, and her mother, and that was quite fun. We went to a nursery first so that Zoe could get the tools and a plant for bonsai, then we headed down to the mall, where we did some shopping (Hot Topic may mass produce underground culture, but that doesn't stop me from be tempted to spend big money on cool pants and cool shirts related to awesome cartoons.) I also saw Shrek 2, which was pretty funny, though I'm not sure how Dreamworks plans to get another 2 movies out the franchise.

After that, we headed to Zoe's house, where we watched TV, ate dinner, told funny stories and generally had a nice time before she took me home. The more time I spend with her, the more I want to get to know her, and the more I like her. Thankfully, she wants to take it slow, and that's fine by me. I'd rather really get to know her as a person before anything more serious than hugging. She's just too cool, too cute, and too awesome, and I'd rather not lose that by doing something stupid or too soon.

I guess this site is technically a sponsor for the BCC Anime Fest this year (I'm buying soda for it.) I suppose I should plug it. It's happening today and they'll be watching everything from Angelic Layer to Akira, so it's got variety. Besides, free candy and soda.

So, I decided to sign up for Google AdSense. Not that I need the money, but I figure I might as profit off the site a little if I can. Besides, no cookies or other garbage is attached to running the ads, and since they match the interested of the site, it might even generate some click through... or not. I guess we'll see.

...was weird. 1 hour of trying to figure out just how messed up my knee is by figuring out where it hurt exactly by straining it in ways that should bring about hurt, 15 minutes of cold and electrical treatment on the knee, then some demos of exercizes I should do. So, following the advice of my physical therapist, I'm blogging with my leg elevated (read as: I've got knee iced with a few pillows under it, so I'm blogging from my laptop in bed.)

I've got some pretty considerable music news (no, not signing,) so I'll post that up in a separate post.

Went to see it with Zoe, my parents and my little bro yesterday, and it rocked in an intensionally hokey way. Then we went to the pancake house nearby, which didn't rock as much. Too many chocolate chips on the chocolate chip pancakes.

In other news, Nadia: Secret of Blue Water, is also quite awesome. Buying the 50 dollar boxset with the first 20 episodes and two OSTs is well worth it. I'm waiting for the next box quite eagerly.

Waited in a doctor's office... for 2.5 hours so I could get my leg looked at (messed it up at work.) He perscribed some Naprosin, some physical therapy, and two weeks w/o carts (w007.)

On a more hilarious note, I saw a Toyota Sienna minivan... with chrome, spinning rims. Comic gold. Comic gold.

I guess I better give thanks to Anthony (the man who hosts this out of the kindness of his heart.)

Anyway, I was serious about trying to focus in on school. I'm not going to be graduating from the two year college on time (partially my fault, partially the fault of nicely mannered, yet poor-quality professors.) I'm also seriously contemplating finding a new job. All these carts shifts aren't doing my health any good (especially with respect to the joints of my legs as of late,) and cashiering is only fun when I'm being a total smart alek, which I can't always maintain. I've been told by customers and by supervisors that maybe I should try to get into radio or stand-up since I'm so jovial and goofy at points, but communication and entertainment careers (said the wannabe electronica musician.) However, if I drop my current job, I don't think I'll take another one (unless it's a small store, not a huge retail chain,) for the remainder of my education.

On a lighter note, Zoe came over and hung out last night which was fun. We also went for a quick bite (mmm... FatBurger,) which was great. I'm really happy to be dating Zoe. As I told her last night, she brings out the best in me, and that's the truth.

...as people have decided that spamming my blog is worthwhile.

Expect the comments option to disappear in the near future. As in when I get home from BCC.

In other news, I'm in the market for a new video card (the old one is slowly but surely dying,) so if you've got some spam related to say, a 20 dollar NVIDIA-based video card (Geforce 2 or better,) I'm all up ons. ;)

Especially since it was just Zoe and I. :) Yay Zoe :)

However, to contrast with the euphoria of a date with Zoe (yes, she's my girlfriend, officially,) I had to deal with the worst cart shift ever. I mean there were atleast a dozen carryouts, half of them for obscenely overbuilt, super-heavy barbaque grills. I was there till 10:52pm, a full 52 minutes over when I should been able to leave. 52 minutes. Scrap watching Gundam SEED.

The worst part. I'm carting Sunday night (well, tonight) as well. And I've got a take home test in calculus. And certain people are making a mockery of my efforts at ToonZone.net as a reporter by not trusting my sources, namely the companies that own particular anime. I might as well not attend the industry panels if everyone is going assume that any news from them is bogus. I can go spend more time in the dealers room, and hanging out with my friends, rather than waiting for company X to finish flogging some trailers from their newest shows, so I can get to the Q&A part.

Test and Difficulties. It is through pressure diamonds are created. Etc. Whatever. ;)

With Zoe and her mom.

So I'm feeling good.

And I'm doing better in Calc.

And I'm done with my first project in Digital Audio Production.

Yay. :)

http://forums.toonzone.net/showthread.php?t=109249

Fun, and I still have money left (OMG!)

Tomarrow (well later today): Panels and Cosplay.

Technically not just yesterday's news, but the day before yesterday's news, but on Tuesday, I did go out to dinner with Zoe. And we admitted to each other, that we liked each other. So much so that we'd date each other. So I guess Zoe and I are dating. Or something. I'm too happy to really define it right now. Or too dense (I've got Sana Kurata-itis about these things IE: I'm dense about love sometimes.)

I've been happy and little nervous at the same time, because it's the first time I've ever even sorta been the one to try and move the relationship in that direction, but Zoe is just so charming I had to take her out to dinner, and find out if she also liked me that much. It's kinda of funny, because we were both kinda worried that maybe the other was just a very kind person, and didn't like them to that extent. I'm very, very happy that that wasn't the case. I don't really know what the future has in store (though I know I'm going over to her place this friday to hang out with her family, my family and our friends to celebrate the completion of her Robin costume,) but I'm excited.

In other news, cashiering at Target on wednesday was uneventful, other than getting lots of easter discount candy. Yay!

I'm trying to apply for work study so I can be paid to hang out in the digital music lab! Yay!

I'm struggling with Calc, but I feel better about it this time. Yay!




I'm going to move forward, accelerate, all at my own pace. ;)

But when you've got two friends over hanging out, talking about the minutae of anime, manga and general pop culture, it's hard not to have fun while shoveling out the better part of two years worth of junk. Yet again, I'm lucky to have friends like Zoe and Jason. Jason, because he always has some kind of interesting anecdote, and Zoe, because she's smart, cute, nice and the first non-family person ever to help clean my room. SakuraCon this year is definetely gonna rock since they will be there with me.

...but very cool. Great art, great music, great story.

In other news, it's been summer-like here in the Seattle area, much to my chagrin. I guess I need to bust out the convertable pants (you know, the kind that zip off into shorts.) In other news, Easter Sunday dinner was made extra nice (a Ham dinner is always nice,) because one of the otaku sowing circle, Jason hung out for dinner after the sowing part. He's a cool dude, so it was extra fun. Zoe and Jason should be back tomarrow for more otaku sowing (it's getting down to the wire for these costumes since their is only one more weekend before sakuracon.)

In other other news, Kodocha is licenced, which makes me a happy fanboy. See ya in 2005, Sana-chan. :)

Either it's spring allergies or an unreal piece of luck when it comes to colds (probably both given my fortunes,) but I've got a sore throat, a sinus headache and I'm coughing when I laugh. It just saps the get and go outta ya, and just when I need as much get up as I can get. Blasted Calculus.

So, I watched Nirvana Unplugged for the millionth time, which is part what motivated my interest into music. Still one of the best live performance I've seen on TV. You can just feel that raw emotion.

A Good Saturday...

1. Get Up.
2. Go to work.
2.5. Cart Attendend.
3. Leave work with 2 great friends (Zoe and Liz.)
4. Deposit pay check and get some snacks at the grocery store with said friends.
5. Go get fast food with said friends.
6. Watch lots of uncut Sailor Moon with said friends at Liz's.
7. Head out to Claim Jumper for dinner with said friends.
8. Pick up Liz's boyfriend along the way with said friends.
9. Enjoy dinner and conversation at Claim Jumper with said friends.
10. Nip by Border's with Zoe while Liz and her boyfriend talk in her car.
11. Head back to Liz's w/ everyone mentioned so far.
12. Drop Liz's Boyfriend off with said friends.
13. Watch some Fruits Basket with said friends.
14. Get a ride home from Zoe.

Cart attending aside, that was a very fun day. I need to this more often.

Yeah, finally bit the bullet and got rid of all the winter moptop. Kept the side burns though. Pics will come. Tomarrow. Maybe.

In other news, I took my orientation for Life Fitness (aka workout on Fitness machines for credit.) Hopefully, I'll be more in shape because of it. Granted, I should probably kick the junk out of my diet while I'm at it.

"Bein' human, havin' your health, that's the most important part." -Arumi, Abenobashi.

PS: 15,000 hits. Still going strong. Oh yeah.

I suppose I could be all yay me about it, but I've got more important reasons to be happy.

See, last friday, besides getting Angelic Layer Vol.5 and this month's Newtype, besides getting to hang out at the Anime Kingdom store with various cool friends, besides getting a ride home from the super-cool-cute Zoe (who my mom is helping out with a nice cosplay of Robin Sena from Witch Hunter Robin,) besides Zoe hanging out w/ the family and I to watch WHR, have dinner and play videos games, besides then going over to my friend's Anthony's after that to watch some Anime, talk and spend the night (otaku sleepover!)...

...I got my license to kill drive... barely.

(to all the Karl's, congratulations.)

Now all I need is insurance on the car. My parents are picking up the tab for that, and they really shouldn't have to, since I'm working. Granted, in the process of trying to play video games, Zoe helped me look in my room for my copy of Soul Calibur 2 (which is still AWOL) and in the process kind of helped clean up my messy room. It was very nice and cute of her and kind of awkward in a way for me at same time. I guess I'm lucky to have good family and friends who are so helpful and kind. I hope I'm worthy of it.

Speaking of Zoe and Driver's Licences, she even brought over a lovely cake she baked for me that said "congratulations" in Japanese on it on Sunday when she came over for the weekly otaku sowing circle that's been sorta formed to manage not Zoe's cosplay, but our friend Jason's cosplay (Buggy from One Piece.) Zoe's really a wonderful girl like that though. I should do something in return. I mean, I bought her a hot chocolate that friday at the Starbucks near the Anime Kingdom store, but that's not quite as from the heart, you know?

Ack, I'm really getting into super bloggy territory here. Shoujo manga-esque bloggy territory.

Well, on a more serious, realistic note, I'm definetely retaking calculus 3. My course-load is pretty light this quarter (just barely full time, and two of the classes don't have homework,) but I really can't afford to screw up any more. I'm going to end up taking almost 3 years for a 2 year school because I'm so disorganized, unfocused, absent-minded and easily distracted. And I've still got to transfer to a 4 year after that, if one will take me. And I recently broke up with my girlfriend, albeit quite without any strife...

...congratulations indeed.

Blast, I'm back into very bloggy territory again, emo "there is no hope" bloggy territory... yipes. Well, all I can do is try my best at this stuff, and take two steps forward for every step back. I can't change the past, but I can look forward to the future.

As in, if I recall correctly, atleast Zoe will be at BCC next year. It'll be nice to have a good friend like her there. Someone who I can talk to rather than get glomped by or mocked by. I'm so tired of glomping. How quick the physical becomes dull, and dulls the light of the soul, or something like that. Give me intelligent conversation, or give me... well something other than glomping. And catching crap about my taste in manga and anime is wearing thin too.

Ack, still not looking that up, am i?

Oh yeah, I watched Gasaraki in it's entirety over my spring break, and I've gotta say, that it was totally great. The blend of hyper realism in the political/military/corporate aspect with a slightly surreal, mystical element make it definetely a favorite for me. Not a number one, but it's up there, and it was easily worth the 30 bucks. It would have been worth the usual price of 90.

Ah, there's the positivity I was looking to end on ;)

Way too easy to fire up winamp and just starting watching Eva through streaming tv.

Anyway, I've been watching Gasaraki (got the boxset brand new for 30 bucks a long while back, and I'm only just watching it,) and it's great. It was easily worth the 30 bucks, and would been worth the 90 it would have been had it not been on sale. Great show with a very smart story. I wish Sunrise did more Mecha anime like it.

He fights the mighty fight in the night:



Ultraklystron, Go! Super Rhythmical Attack!

Not my drawing (thanks for that go to Dave @ Anime Kingdom in Bellevue,) but the concept of me as 1970's mecha pilot is pretty awesome, albeit in a silly way.

Granted, Dave is notoriusly over of the top with his character design and concept, most notoriusly in the case of Beefy, the Love Pirate, an over-muscled, Fist of the North Star looking guy, who, as Dave puts it "Sails on a sea of women," and as another regular at anime kingdom once said "he'll swash your buckle!" Comic gold, if ever something could be comic gold. Granted, Dave once said he liked anime for "the giant robots and the women with big breasts." He's like a walking sig quote machine, and he's awesome as such. He also rocks the illustration action.

Well probably, unless I somehow skin by. Unlikely though I'd say.

I won some musics from the Pepsi/ITunes promo. ITunes' selection is very weak when it comes to drum n' bass, but decent when it comes to indie hiphop (sometimes.) It does have like 8 different versions of "Thriller" which I'm sure justifies the lack of dn'b outside the 2 Roni Size/Reprasent albums and one Breakbeat Science comp, and the incompleteness of the Big Dada (UK HipHop Imprint of Ninja Tune) catalogue.

If only I could buy digital copies of the dn'b dubplates online. That'd be worth a buck a track no question. Seriously.

Me: How much money have I made at cafepress?

Internet: 3 dollars.

Me: How much till they send me a check?

Internet: 22 more dollars.

Me: Snap.

Moral of the story: buy stuff from my cafepress stores. Because I'm not working enough these days to maintain my unglamorous life style ;).

...but it's so tasty. If I had the bag, I suppose I'd review it, but I don't and if I'm going to review something, I'd like to have pics, ya know? Anyway, I'm gonna get some anime dvd reviews done for ToonZone.net sometime soon. Maybe once finals are over, I can do it during my break.

Speaking of school, the music lab finally got the samplers up... with one day of class to go. Ah snap. Oh well, I'll make it work somehow.

Somehow = this

The beat mix will be reposted to ampcast at some point, but for now it's down. Congrats to the 71 people who d/led it.

BTW, I broke up with my girlfriend Grace. Well, mutually agreed to a break up. *Insert Blog Angst Here* Ah well, life isn't like shoujo manga. If it were, I probably would have met the right girl, only to find out she's like earth defending ultimate weapon or something. ;)

Just came back from "The Black Out" at the Kirkland Teen Center. Great MCs, great beats, and they even let borrow the mic for some nerdcore stylin. The only part that was weak, was the crowd, which was largely filled with people who neither grooved nor shook it, except for this one guy who dance battled me and, of course, won, and the crew that that the people that threw the show got out there.

However, it was definetely a nice change of pace from the usual friday night at the anime club, and since they've got another hiphop show comming up, this time with with a $1 entry fee, rap battle contest component, I might have to step on stage, and try and win the 400 dollar prize... or get micropwn3d. ;) Either way, it'll be fun, unless I'm workin' that night...

...then I'll just rap at the customers. ;)

That is to say, people who read this weeks issue of Seattle's counterculture alternative weekly paper, The Stranger, and then visited this site because I was listed in the annual seattle area musicians guide that anyone and their grandma could submit their name and such to.

Actually, their is usually more traffic from my blog posts than there is from any hoopla generated by the annual listing it seems. Ah well, maybe I'll get in touch with the A&R folks at the clubs listed in the insert as well...

...or not.

so here's a link to my ToonZone oekaki board profile, which also has links to all my really bad oekaki art:

and this is why I got a 2 out of 5 on my AP Fine Art Porfolio.

DigiLain? Yikes.

Habanero-tan? Super yikes.

I think my self protrait and my whack profile are tied for most yikes-ish.

Just thought I'd do the going grey for tuesday protest bit. The Grey Album is excellent, and highly recommended... if you can find it.

Anyway, I also pruned some dead links and added some fresh ones, like GeeXbox.org genius micro linux for media playback, which I may soon use on dedicated media box for the front room) and mini-itx.com (a site devoted to the mini-ITX factor, which I'm tempted utilize should I not be able to make a media box using an existing system, and which I'd like to use to make a miniature, fanless, distributed computing setup.)

I bought and watched the last Haibane DVD yesterday. It is still just as moving, just as poignent, and just as hopeful as it was when I first saw it fansubbed, even dubbed. It is still the best anime I've ever seen.

Ah well, time to start Texhnolyze in April, and to continue collecting the Lain reissues. Atleast I won't be without an aBE designed series for weeks on end.

my ultra 1337, virtually indestructible keyboard has one fatal flaw:

the letters all rubbed off of it.

this would be fine, if it weren't for the fact that I miss a beat every once and a while and need to recenter myself, which is difficult to w/o distinguishing markings.

so I bought a cheap, 4 dollar Belkin super barebones until I can figure out how to fix my roll up board. Carpel Tunnel, here I come :)

Gunslinger Girl - Dead or Alive

Rated PG13 for virtually non stop gunplay.

Anyway, it was a fun thing to make, and besides, I'm a big fan of both Gunslinger Girl and the artist who did the cover, Unscrew. Nothing like combining two passions together.

Things that I got to do this weekend since I did have to work:

1. Go to anime club friday, and catch psuedoflack from my friends for reading Gravitation, Fruits Basket and Suki.

2. Go to Costco saturday afternoon by buy a couple cases of soda, Lost in Translation on DVD (widescreen!) and some some fruit leather.

3. Go to anime club's president's birthday party, which included going to an ok chinese restaurant (Cafe Ori in Bellevue is better,) seeing Lost in Translation on the big screen (which btw, is wonderful and very cool. Highly recommended,) watch horrible old 80's Saturday Supercade cartoons (Zelda needs the Sealab 2021 treatment, as Zelda looks like stormy,) play Sega Master Games (in 3D,) and generally act silly (sorry, the pics are in another castle, I mean blog. My camera stayed at home.)

4. Generally get chillout and enjoy Sunday.

5. Make a new AMV set to a friends cover of "Dead or Alive."

Ah well, Wednesday is probably coming too soon for me. Atleast it's usually a pretty slow day when it comes to customers.

...goodbye starbucks coffee.

as much as I probably need a caffeine boost in the AM to help get me firing on all cylinders, the reality is, I don't think it's doing my stomach any good have a tall nonfat mocha on an empty stomach everyday, and though if I had it with whole milk, it's would be a little more buffered, the fat is definetely something I can do without. I think I'll switch to hot chocolate, or pepsi, or caffinated water. Whatever.

Anyway, Calculus 3 is proving to be very interesting, yet insanely difficult at the same time. Luckily, I've now got a much better work schedule starting next week (sunday, wednesday and saturday are my available days now.) Atleast Midi Sequencing and CompSci are interesting, and, for lack of a better word, easy.

PS: I'm running out of shelf space, again. I think I need to make with a serious reorganization of my room, if only so that I can both have space for dvds, and have space to play DDR on my XBox.

I guess I really wasn't missing that much though. McDonalds makes me sleepy. As does staying up late working on remixes. I think I've got another keeper in the bag, but I'll wait a bit before posting it. It's got a very jungle/illbient with a modern hip hop production kind of sound meets a experimental production vibe (filtered chorus echo delay and other weirdness. Sounds fresh though.)

Btw, I'm having fun in midi sequencing class. The gear is old, yet not old enough for retro flava, but luckily, I'm used to getting awesome out of nothing. :)

I did? Well, it wasn't. But it was another person who knew of the mahou shonen shtick. Ah Well.

In other news, I need to figure out how to get reason to export to certain tracks of midi, for my midi class so i can then write at home, then bring stuff in to play it back in performer.

Fun.

I think I'll the first and best of my "Fett's Vette" remixes tonight. Watch out for it. :)

http://www.chump1039.com/mcchris-chat.txt

...but I was brought up anyway, and here's my favorite proof:

"karl's remixes kick ass. we love karl. especially when he dresses up like anime characters" - MC Chris, in response to a question about my remix work for him.

and the responses, made by people who know of the notorius mahou shonen shtick... also comic gold:

"oh s*** [...] he saw karls pics" - Tienshin, ToonZone.net poster

"lol...his pics are awesome" - Matt Wilson, ToonZone.net moderator, creator of ToonZone.net's Animated Diversions site and creator of the hit net series, High Score.

However, there were some other cool bits about me as well:

[billmcdougal] mc: have you heard the Ultraklyson DQ Blizzard mix?
[hardcase] i love the ultrakystron mix
[mcchris] yes, the dq mix is awesome
[billmcdougal] yes, ultrakystron sounds great in my car"

So there you have it -- I've connect with... uh... the internet masses...

...well, it's something, right?


PS: I blew 70 buck at Anime Kingdom (Bellevue, WA's wonderfultastic anime store) on just 3 things: Lain Cyberia OST (which is fantastic, loving the dubish mix of the OP theme,) a Lain Cyberia-Type LE Doll (it's got little headphones and a synth, and it's so cute) and a Rei Ayanami Cat Girl Style Figure w/ Shiny Mini Poster (an impulse buy that I'd regret, if it weren't so darn cute. I am a consumer otaku, and how.)

Yeah, that bit. Massively. The rain that brings the pain.

In other news, Tokyopop's release of the Pita Ten manga does not bite massively. Koge Donbo really makes a fun, cute, yet not stupid manga with PitaTen. Now if only I could get my hands on her Harry Potter doujinshis. That would be the greatest, thing, ever. Or atleast be pretty cool, ya know?

So, I'm blogging.

Weather, has went from "teh s uck" to "not quite as teh s uck."

I'm doing carts at Target tonight.

Bleh.

Atleast I got Garasaki for 30 bucks off rightstuf.

Main screen turn on.

We get signal.

Post on new host.

For great justice.

I'm just moving hosts. (thnx Anthony.) Hopefully all the data contained in the blog will be kept in the move, but just in case, fans of this blog (which I guess means Grace and Anthony,) might want to back up the content contained in the blog.

In other news, I went with Grace again (yay!) We went to Anime Kingdom (where I got Arjuna OST 2, yay,) Borders (she got Azumanga Daioh 2, yay,) Kojo's in Bellevue Square (good Chicken Teriyaki and a great fish tank filled with ancient goldfishes yay,) and we went to Return of the King (Frodo Lives! yay!) All in all, a very fun and memorable time. Grace really is quite cool and fun to be with. :)

BTW, I've uploaded a ton of mc chris remixes to ampcast, and in the process, inadvertantly gotten Grace into nerdcore. Another why she is grood. Great and good.

First, what I got for Xmas (yes, I'm a Baha'i, but my mom's Catholic, so we celebrate xmas in my house, or atleast the gift giving part.):

This Notebook Computer (thank you mom and dad)
Cardcaptor Sakura Manga Boxset 1 (thank you Grace, my kanojo)
75 bucks (thank you grandparents on both side of the family)

Also, as some of you might have noticed, my site was down for a while. Blame some one Denial of Servicing my host.

BTW, I had more carts on Friday. They keep this up, I'm outta there. Prednisone and Biaxin drug combo are not something I want to regularly be just to work a non-essential job.

Ah well, atleast I've got my site back. And a laptop and manga :) I'll survive ;)

1. Turns out I didn't have to cart attend, though I'll be doing so tomarrow.

2. My kanojo and I went down to Bellevue on Tuesday. It was quite fun. We went to Anime Kingdom (yay for Kodocha 10!,) and we had Teriyaki Chicken at the mall (healthy, and delicious,) and we hung out in stores (Sanrio is t3h cutezor I guess,) and we shared an Italian Soda at Borders (which needed more cream, but oh well.) In short, it was utterly delightful, and I hope to do that again sometime soon.

3. I have a class reunion tomarrow. During school hours. Centered around an assembly. Where we give advice. This should be amusing.

That said, guess will have had to Cart Attend 3 nights in a row by the time tonight's shift is done with? If you guessed me, you = correct.

In other news I recently watched the live action City Hunter starring Jackie Chan. It's cheesy, it's silly, and it's fun as all get out to watch. Especially with Jackie Chan fighting like out of the Street Fighter video game. Comic campy gold. I also watched Interstella 5555, the completed version of Daft Punk's and Leiji Matsumoto's collaboration. (I've got a lot of DVD watching a head of me though: Chobits Vol.5, Angelic Layer Vol.2, Cardcaptor Sakura Movie 2 and Vol.18, Nadesico: The Movie, Kiki's Delivery Service, Castle in the Sky and Haibane Renmei Vol.3 and Abenobashi Vol.1 are going to be out this week too... so much stuff, so little time.)

This artist will be doing an album cover for me. She's also, I guess, as they would say in Japan, my kanojo (if you don't know it, look it up ;).) She's an anime fan and she likes my nerdcore music too. Me = happy. We're gonna hangout tomarrow. w007.

Also, check her comic: http://syntaxcomics.keenspace.com. It has a magical boy in it. Not me though. Maybe later. I dunno.

PS: I'm going to put some old articles back up during the break. :)

So, today is thanksgiving.

And, it's my birthday.

And, I've got a head cold.

And, I've got to work carts at Target tomarrow.

Bleh.

Anyway, I hit Anime Kingdom (Bellevue's friendly, and only anime store) and got the second Cardcaptor Sakura movie and Someday's Dreamers Volume One with box. I've already watched Someday's, and I've got to say, it's a really sweet show. Kind of NieA_7 via Kiki's Delivery Service and Harry Potter. The series art is wonderful, and surprisingly enough, it was animated by JC Staff, whose prior works, Excel Saga and Azumanga Daioh, share little in the way of tone and style with Dreamers. They are essentially more comedically oriented series, but in much different ways. Anyways, Someday's Dreamers is yet another I want a wallscroll for, but probably won't be able to track down (just like Haibane Renmei.) I also got the second volume of the Azumanga Daioh manga, and it's a stitch.

Slowly but surely, things continue to look up. I got some new manga (Trigun and Excel Saga Vol.1) and new DVDs (Black Heaven in it's entirety, and Onegai Teacher Vol.4.) I'm beginning to patch things up with a person I unintensionally, but quite completely ticked off a while back.

That said, I really wish the Gunslinger Girl manga release hadn't been pushed out a week. Ah well, November 25th isn't that far away.

Inspite of the fact I have work tonight...

Inspite of the fact I had a math project due today and a test in C++...

Today was good. Why you ask?

My Clover poster came in. It's beautiful, and a real work of art. Jordana, my favorite drum n' bass artist, the reason I really got into drum n' bass as deeply as I have, is apparently working on a new album, and from I've heard of it, it's superb.

So my day has been brightened. Kinda silly things to be happy about, but it's better than nothing.

PS: I'm definetely sticking with music, because I got some very positive feedback from a person I admire a lot. I'll not say more at this point ;)

ah well. whatever.

anyways, I also finished watching Risky Safety and Boogiebop Phantom this weekend.

Risky Safety was cute, amusing and even a little dramatic in a very genuine way. I'm glad I took the risk of buying that series. It's quite enjoyable.

Boogiebop Phantom is now on my list of all time favorites (still can't quite topple Haibane in my book as my all time favorite, but it comes close.) It's just such a well told story, and it has great characters in it's weird way. The soundtrack is awesome. Again, I'm took the risk of just buying the deluxe boxset outright.

Next Sight Unseen Risk: Serial Experiments Lain.

But a lot of work and school makes non-essential stuff writing about the monotony of work and school (ok, I'm digging C++ and Meteorology, but not Calculus as much) fall on the back burner. Anyway, so of y'all may have noticed a server outage, but is remedied, huzzah!

Anyway, this month I did lots of school work, and lots of normal work. I caught a flick with Anthony and some other ICS kids. I wanted to see Kill Bill, but we missed the matinee showing, and since a couple of folks in the crew didn't want to shill an extra three bucks, we went to the worst film I've ever saw (atleast if you're trying to take it seriously,) House of Dead. It's MST3K's dream come true. In game shots used as scene transitions. I mean, that is the comedy, but it wasn't supposed to be funny. Ah well, I guess next time they'll shill out the extra money though.

Speaking of not shilling out money, because I won a couple of the Target Visa employee contests at work (which is the only thing good that come of Target's recent desperation in relation to getting people to sign up for more Visas. The additional pressure sucks, and is making me considering getting a job elsewhere.) I won couple of DVDs, namely "Castle in the Sky" and "Kiki's Delivery Service." Always nice to get a little something. BTW, Target has started to carry some non-kid geared anime, IE: Heat Guy J and Tenchi Muyo. Watch out for them, because 14.99 is a great price for anime.

BTW, the haibane costume project is coming along ok, though I really need to work out a lit halo some how.

So, I'm now a mod at ToonZone.net on the anime board. This basically means, whether it be school, Target and now even the internet, I'm not really participating in recreation per se.

Well, not really, but it could be viewed that way.

In other news, I'm going as a haibane for halloween. I've got the wings and sweater that are both near perfect. I still need to gray up the wings some how, I need cut wing slits in the sweater with out killing the sweater and I need to make up a halo. Ah well, I'll find a solution some how.

Now, I think I'm going to try to watch a dvd before work.

Yes, I'm back home and back at school. Courses this semester are Introduction to C++ Programming (programming experience = good,) Calculus 2 (again, cause I fowled it up last quarter, being sick for a big part of the time and all) and Meteorology 101 (I was told by a friend it was a good course, and so far it's ok.)

Anyway, between work, school and pointlessly long bus rides, my freetime is probably shot. The updates of this blog might get even more sporatic, but with a pinch of luck, I might be able to get the Canada Trip pictures up. Atleast the Gundam Wing microphone will show up I hope.

On side note, I bought Azumanga Daioh Manga Vol. 1 and Confidential Confessions Vol. 2. Azumanga is hilarious, while Confidential is as poignent as ever. I can't wait for the next volumes of both series. Now I just need more shelf space, assuming I can find time to get some shelfing.

Anyway, I'm gonna try to catch up on my netcomics before Calc 2. Later ;)

Got into Spokane last night. The drive was pretty straight forward from Ft. McMurray to Calgary. Stopped by an A&B Sound store in Edmonton and bought to u-ziq CDs, "Brace Yourself" and "The Fear." (BTW, I've already listened to them. Makes me want to do more glitch.) We (my grandpa and I) ate lunch at restaurant called "Earl's" while in Edmonton and grandpa didn't particularly care for the ambience, though I was surprised to see the small LCD TV screens mounted above the urinals. So Sci-Fi.

Calgary to Spokane was a little more interesting. Went through the Canadian Rockies this time, and the weather couldn't make up it's mind at all. Also, in some middle of where town my grandpa stopped at, the convience store there had, of all things, a Gundam Wing microphone. I kid you not, I've got pictures. I'll post them when I get home.

Anyway, today before breakfast, my grandpa and I did some shopping. He bought groceries at Safeway, while I bought volumes 2-4 of Wish at Borders, which all had the color pages in color, yay! I've already read them, and yet again, I have to give my respect to CLAMP's impressive artistry. Great storytelling, with great art. I may have to save up and buy the South Side and North Side artbooks from Clamp. They aren't cheap (40 a piece,) but they are wonderful.

That's not to say where I currently at has been uncivilized. Any place with pay internet terminals and Shonen Jump in the drugstore is cool by me.

However, I'm happy to be on my way home. I've got a lot to do when I get back, and not a lot of time to do it. School, work, that boxset and 3 other dvds to watch. Also, the work reporting for Toonzone too.

Besides, theirs no Starbucks up here, nor does their seem to be a bookstore with manga. It's cool to visit, but I question whether I could live here, especially since Cartoon Network's Canadian Equivilent, Teletoon, bites for the most part.

Like I said, I'm happy to be headed home.

-Number of miles traveled to get Fort McMurray from Spokane (lets not even include the plane flight from SeaTac): nearly 1000

-Amount of time spent in the car to travel said miles: over 20 hours.

-The fact that the factory tours of the oil sands factories are only Friday and Saturday: hopeless.

Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. This was a loss on the whole, atleast for my grandfather.

There are some cool pictures, but they are all pretty much at a distance, except some pics of some very stationary (read: retired) machinery. Good album cover fodder.

Ah well, maybe next year, my grandpa and I can take the tour.

"The important thing in life is to stay healthy." - Arumi, Abenobashi Mahou Shotengai.

I think I've got that at least for the moment. ;)

So I'm here at a pay internet terminal at Rusty's Motel in Fort McSomething, Alberta. It's pretty cold (it was snowing in Calgary when my grandpa and I started out today,) yet the drive was pretty dull. The roads are insanely straight and boring, and a large chunk of it was divided too. Had lunch at a Humpty's Restaurant in Edmonton. Pretty decent eats. Then more boring driving. I got some cool pictures of the burnt out forests north of Edmonton though. They'll turn up later.

BTW, I forgot to talk about the whole reunion thing my grandpa and I went to. He had fun talking to his old coworkers, and I had a pretty good teriyaki bowl.

Tomarrow, I visit the tar sands... then two solid days of driving... perhaps through snow... and then another plane flight.

Man, that Boogiepop boxset will be just what the doctor ordered when I get back home... too bad I have school and perhaps work the next day.

Atleast it's interesting blog fodder. :)

blantant plug to thank the store for letting me use their internet:

http://www.computeroutlet.ca

anyway, the drive up wasn't bad, but I'm quickly tiring of Denny's food. Picked up Wish Volume 1 @ the Chapters bookstore across the street. 18 bucks CDN. Pretty darn stiff. Selection was pretty weak too. I feel for Canadian Otaku. Seriously.

Yeah, I thought I was going to be part way up to Canada by today too. Appartently, my grandpa wants to do it in one big shot on Sunday. That should be interesting. Also, it makes the plane trip over last night arguably pointless. I could have bussed out from Seattle today. Sure, I wouldn't have gotten issue of the Digi Charat manga from Borders, a cheap belt and dress shirt from the Spokane Target (which wouldn't give me a discount with out my employee card :P) or the very nice, limited edition Boogiepop Phantom boxset w/ soundtracks and other goodies from the Best Buy (too bad I'll probably be too busy with school and work to enjoy until Octoberish). And oh yeah, I went by White Elephant too. Maybe I got my little bro something for his birthday. Maybe not. I'd say which, but I know he reads the blog. ;)

On the other hand, I wouldn't have had to drop a shift Target last friday. Something that would have payed for all the stuff I got today (well, not quite, but still, it helps.)

Ah well, I suppose it's for the best on the whole. The plane trip wasn't bad at all, and it went really quick anyway. Barely finished one volume of manga after the accent, before we had the decent. Security was a breeze too, though they banged up the luggage a bit. The sweet $1.50 clearance lunch box I got last Thursday at Target which was inside the suitcase got a little banged up :(. I guess I'm going to have to cover it up with the Powerpuff Girls stickers I got a looooooooooong time ago.

See ya in Canada, maybe.

Those of you who were with the site before the php rollover happened where I basically ditched a lot of the old content (one day it shall return, really,) know that last year I went up to Canada with my grandfather to visit some old friends of his. This was a really fun experience for me (scary night driving in Montana on the way back aside) and I'm going back up there again. I might, maybe post a note or two from an internet cafe or something should I run into a good one that I feel safe to use. Security first :)

In other news, my year review at target came through, and it was good enough to warrent me a 60 cent per hour raise. Yay! I also got some neat stuff that was on clearance, like a metal lunch pail w/ free shoulder strap for about a buck fifty, a x-long twin sheet set for my bed that was only $3 or so, and an upright pillow for sitting that was about the same price. I'm tempted to pick up some other things tomarrow, should they still be around. I guess I just tipped off the world to the deal's existence. Ah well. Everyone hit their local Target and score some cheap stuff off the clearance racks. :)

In case any reader was wondering why I was so quiet other than the wallpaper binge last week, it was because of the following:

1. I was only schedule to do 2 shifts as cart attendant last week. I ended up doing 3 and 1/2. That flattened my energy post work, especially since I was wearing the wrong clothes and the wrong shoes on those days. Clunky shoes and dress pants are fine for cashiering, but miserable for running outside in 80 degree weather.

2. Even when I was schedule to do carts, the shifts were surprisingly hectic. The last shift I had five carryouts, one of which involved fitting 800 dollars worth of stuff (including 4 bookcases and microwave into in a Mitsubishi Eclipse. Punching out at 10:40pm, when you were supposed to punch out at 10pm bites.

3. The wallpaper binge was distracting, but I really needed a cute fix bad since work was decidedly sub par. On the plus side, I'm getting into DigiCharat, nyo. It's good because once Cardcaptor Sakura is done with it's stateside release, I'm going to need a new upbeat shoujo series fix, nyo. Besides, it's soo cute, nyo. The nyo thing can be a little annoying though, nyo?

Anyway, on to the positivity:

I got SoulCaliber2 for my XBox. It's tons of fun, though I smoked (well blistered) my left thumb playing it in about an hour and half. Gonna have to hold off for a bit. Besides, I can't get past that 20 hits thing. I can play through arcade mode fine though atleast. I also picked up the new version of the Atari 10-in-1 Games Controller. The games are cool, but I'm finding it's novel design to be a be of a hassle. The joystick design is tricky to handle. Of course, I also hit Anime Kingdom on Friday, which meant I had more material for backgrounds. After watching some DigiCharat episodes, I think I'll pick up the manga ASAP. Maybe I can get it tomarrow....


...nyo.

I hope you all like this Pyocola wallpaper, pyo. Because I think it's cute, pyo. Though her habit of ending every sentence with pyo is kinda of annoying I think, pyo.

0. Sleep

1. Plug Haibane Renmei on the site - It's out, it's wonderful, it's got a suprisingly solid dub, and it's almost too crisp visually. A very wonderful anime, and now my favorite more than ever.

2. Relax - No Target work = happyier Karl.

3. Release the Fun Confusion CD - It's ready to be rolled out. I hope y'all enjoy it.

Classic animation fans and anime fans are in the same boat: both see their favorite shows get edited and rehashed, and no one seems to be interested in airing the full range of what anime or classic animation has to offer. Unfortunately for me, I'm a fan of both. ;)

Random side notes: The Fun Confusion CD's almost ready to go. The tracklist might be different yet again. I got 6 and 1/8 pounds of Nestle candy for about 9 bucks. Not healthy, but an excellent price. Might be going to Canada again. Picturelarity to ensue if it happens.

Well, rather than releasing random tracks while I shop "Never Knows Best" around, I've almost got an album of ambient and downtempo ready for release. Here's the tracklisting for the moment:

Fun Confusion - Solace
1. outage (5:48)
2. little planet (6:49)
3. nightengale (5:54)
4. cafe (9:28)
5. little match girl (7:24)
6. internal ocean (4:50)
7. transformation (7:19)
8. one year (8:24)
9. foresight (5:41)

Yes, this disc will be released under the Fun Confusion moniker because that's what that name was meant for; Weird, offbeat stuff. The left over dn'b tracks will see release while I wrap up one more track for this cd, and CD will be released directly to the net. It'll be released with very fancy packaging on Cafepress, and very simple packaging on Ampcast. Also, half of the cd will be available for download on Ampcast, and all of it will be streamable.

Anyway, cart attending tonight was a zoo. I go through all the effort get the reserve carts (the ones outside the store) filled, and it turns out they are all needed inside anyway. Ah well. Atleast I can look forward to no work tomarrow (w007.)

Oh, I also visited in Spokane last weekend. Fun stuff. Bought the Junior Senior CD at Hastings. Very funky. A picture or two will be up, debuting the "pictures" category.

Just as the Eastern seaboard seem to be largely without power (welcome to 1965 I guess,) my blog seems to be without the ability to ping Weblogs.com and blo.gs. Ah well, the traffic boost was nice while it lasted. I've tried tweaking the script, I'll guess I'll know whether it worked or not.

Anyway, I've sorted started into another CD, and this time I think it'll be a Fun Confusion one. I've already got a bunch ambient that didn't make it to "Never Knows Best," and I wrote a song today, "Outage" that has this dark downtempo thing going on. When this disc is done, it's going straight to the net.

I'm tempted to call the nerdcore cd that. Btw, I've started work on that again. Here's a taste of that. Yes, nerdcore rap metal, about Eva, Gundam and FLCL no less.

Time for yet another Target story though:

Today, after my break (mmm, grilled cheese, fries and cherry Dr. Pepper,) the cashier supervisor asked if I'd go out and basically bug people to get Target Visas. So, much to the surprise the cash supe, I did just that and without complaint. Actually, it wasn't too bad, and wasn't as bad as people have made it out to be. I didn't get any Target Visas, but I was able to help out various customers.

The most interesting case of this is a customer I'm going to call Chie. Why Chie? Because she reminded me a lot of Chie from Niea_7, IE very mature for her age (she's apparently going to 5th grade next year.) Anyway, Chie and her mom were walking around looking for school supplies. After the obligatory Visa plug, I helped Chie track the supplies need from various sections of the store while her mom was looking at some stationary, and I managed to help Chie track down everything but pens. However, the problem was, is that when we went to back to stationary, her mom wasn't there. I began to worry, but then I worried even more that Chie might freak out. However, she was more calm than I was, because I was about ready to go up to customer service and have a call out over the PA for Chie's mom. I asked Chie why she was so cool about the whole thing, to which she replied "this happens all the time. My mom always seems to wander off." It's at that point she reminded me of Chie, because like her, she's a kid whose more mature than her parent(s), and I even told her, "I can I guess I can see why you're so mature, you're compensating for your mom." to which she replied, "yeah, I guess." Well, we tracked her mom down not too long after, and that was that.

Definetely a different night from the usual cashier and carts shift.

Coffee and Tea are pretty good, but I'm a big of getting a shot of one flavor or another in there. However, for the price of Starbucks or Tully twice, I can get a bottle of Torani, a very good flavor syrup brand, and besides, I've got a friend who works at the company.

place to buy stuff maybe?

I'm thinking of getting these flavors:

blueberry
raspberry
pink grapefruit
root beer
toffee

It'd be about a 40 buck investment, but it should keep in flavored drinks for a long while. So, if anyone else has a bright ideas for flavors I should get, email me.

PS: new music up at here. First track listed is a new remix action.

Btw, what sparked this is the now very near by Starbucks. It'll eat my paycheck alive if I make it a regular habit.

Rather, I was gonna DJ an old high school friends party, but it kind of fell through. Granted, I would have probably been a wet blanket on the procedings. I am fun and crazy guy pretty much every where but a club, box social, rave or party, where I usually clam up like chowder. Hence, why I usually hide in the corner and spin beats, and maybe cut loose on the mike with some rhymes. Without that sanctuary, I'm pretty square.

Earlier today (yesterday?) I had a shift at Target doing carts, which burnt me up pretty bad, both energy and skin wise to an extent. However my stomach wasn't quite settled, which was actually more annoying then the sweat getting into my eyes (and I bought a head band for that. I looked like an 1980's rock star.) Before that, I hit Starbucks for a Venti Mocha and Toffee Caramel Crunchy Chocolate Pastry thing. Might explain the upset stomach. Venti is too much for me I think... unless it's a venti Lemonade Ice Tea. Oh yeah. Anyway, before that, I sent the songs for the cd out for copyright. Once they are back, it's new music time!

Oh yeah, the poster half of my cafepress order came in. It's pretty cool. Different than expected, but neat. Now for the shirt. Also, Friday I hit Anime Kingdom (the funtastical anime store of Bellevue) and got Chobits manga Vol.7 (which was very, very good,) Clamp School Detectives manga Vol.3 (also very good) and the US Version of the Haibane Renmei sound track (no Blue Flow, TV Edit or other wise on it which makes me unhappy with Pioneer. Maybe they'll combine the Blue Flow single and Image OST for Haibane instead.)

And yay (hiphop) hurray, the site now has over 11,000 hits, thanks to viewers like you. :)

I spend most of today tearing apart the "deep mysteries of" FLCL on over at ToonZone. It's a great show for that kind of metaphysical palm reading, because it's got a lot of lines on it's hand, if you know what I mean. Everyone should watch it. It's on Cartoon Network. Starts again this Wednesday, Midnight, Pacific and Eastern. Not for younger viewers though. Sentence fragments ahoy.

In other news, I stopped by the new Starbucks on Rose Hill, or rather, the first Starbucks on Rose Hill (btw, Rose Hill in the neighborhood in Kirkland where I live in and wander about.) This Starbucks was at one point a Burger King, but the sub-franchiser went down and took almost all the Burger Kings in the Northwest with it. Oh well, the Starbucks is nice to have, because I love mocha frappachinos and expresso brownies (though I had a certain soft spot for BK fries.) Oh yeah, the ice tea, citrus frappachinos, berry frappachinos and ice tea lemonades are very nice too, especially with a shot of raspberry in the tea drinks. Oh yeah. That's the ticket.

The best part about this Starbucks: it's open 24/7. I could go there right now if I wanted. I just might. A citrus frappachino would be a nice way to cap off the day. :)

Ah, I'll just have some ice water.

Random Note: High Contrast's CD, "True Colors" is awesome. Seriously. Dn'B done melodic with great breaks.

Normally, I'm a pretty polite guy at the register at Target. The people I ring up at Target have even said so, as I've mentioned previously. The one thing that irks me though, and it's been really bad of as of late, is people on cell phones while I'm ringing up their purchase. This bugs me because there are some obligatory things I have to go through: I have to greet the customer (which I would do even if Target didn't tell me to, because it's more fun to have conversation that not) and then I ask them if they'd like a Target Visa (which I only do because Target demands it of me and the rest of the people cashiering and out the sales floor.) Beyond that, I usually go the extra step of trying to be amicable and funny, or to phrase it another way, I treat cashiering like stand up comedy. I've gotta a few routines for different folks.


However, when a person is on the cellphone the whole time, it just sorta flattens out the experience. I ask people about their day because I do care to an extent. Whether their day was awesome or horrid, I try to give them a couple of giggles, if only because my delivery of "would you like to save ten percent today upon approval of a Target Visa?" is usually done with some sort of spin, like a radio announcer voice or monster truck ad voice, because that'll be more interesting and at at minimum funnier than a dull, robotic delivery, though I'll gladly lampoon that kind of delivery after the wacky delivery. Also, that light delivery usually allows me to roll with another bit or joke. This effect of brightening another's day is blocked when a person is on a cell, and robs my job of that which makes it feel rewarding beyond a paycheck: the idea that I made someone smile or laugh, and that kind of dampens my spirits. Besides, if they are making some big purchase, maybe hearing about that ten percent isn't a bad idea.

Anyway, I can see why Cellphones are being called the new second hand smoke. They may not be cancerous (to others, we'll see with people), but they can be just as annoying when used at an awkward time.

On the positive side, one of the customers remembered who I was from the last time I rung her up, and she was happy to see me. I'm glad I'm doing some kind of good, and I will do my best to keep doing good. The world could always use another laugh, another smile.

Reason #1 why today is awesome: My Harry Potter doujinshi came in from Japan. A huge thanks to Michelle of Addiction: A Harry Potter Doujinshi Site for hooking me up at reasonable price for some beautiful Potter doujin. I can easily see why she's gotten over 200 something Potter doujins; they look wonderful. On a related note, I'll be linking to her site permanently in the side bar soon. (Like, right after this post soon.)

Reason #2 why today is awesome: FLCL makes it's US Television premiere. A huge thanks goes to Gainax and Production IG for making the show, SynchPoint for getting a lovely dub on it and lastly but not leastly, Cartoon Network for having the guts to run it. One small step for man, one giant leap for Anime in the US.

Reason #3 why today is awesome: I got everything done for the new cd. Anything that won't be on the CD will be on the net before the end of the month in theory.

It's served me well for a cast off monitor from a company that was just gonna toss em anyway, but it's beginning to give up the ghost. If it bites it, I'll have to either use the small, and also near death monitor currently downstairs, or I'll have to pay up atleast 15 bucks for a used monitor. Oh well. As Queen once said, "Who wants to live forever?"

In other news I bought Lupin the 3rd: The Secret of Mamo and Gravitation Vol.1 Manga. I've not yet watched Lupin, but I've already read through Gravitation. I liked the anime, but the I love the manga. I can really relate to Shuichi's struggle as a musician and I've been through some of the same stuff; crashed sequencers before talent shows, loving music over romantic entanglements, long, late shifts at work to buy more gear, turning down career opportunities because of moral issues and not being the greatest student because of spending too much time on music. I can't wait for the second volume.

But I'm glad it does. I know I'm no Wil Wheaton or Matt Cara, but I try to keep people interested in my music and the minutae of my life informed. Besides, it's gives me something quasi-productive to do in this obscene heat. Note to Earth: Seattle-area residents can't deal with 90 something fahrenheit. That's why we live in Seattle. As the band Garbage once said, we're "only happy when it rains." :)

Anyway, I also overhauled a couple of my merchandice stores at cafepress, and deleted a couple of them too. My Ultraklystron Store has a couple of new designs, my favorite of which is the one exclusive to the large poster. The little preview really doesn't to it justice. I'm gonna buy one of these myself, if I can find some where to put it. It's 23 inches by 35 inches, so it's pretty massive. The Mahou Shonen Karl Olson store (that's Magical Boy Karl Olson for those who don't know, and it's long story, but the short of it is, I dressed as a fake anime character for Halloween, and it quickly became a running joke, but a fun one) has been updated with some new merchandise too.

So, if you like it, buy it. Or not. Whatever :)

But stuff keeps inspiring me. This time, the source inspiration is Risky Safety, an anime that manages to smoothly blend the comedic and cute side of anime with the dark and dramatic, so tonally, it's somewhere in between Hamtaro and Haibane Renmei, but it manages to pull it off so well. Anyway, it's resulted in another track, "apprentice" being written (side note: that name might change, we'll see), though it won't make it on the cd unless I pull something else. Maybe I should go the double cd route. Well, until I've got it worked out, I'm gonna focus on getting some demos somewhere in here.

On an unrelated note, tonight's shift has reaffirmed my dislike for doing carts (IE: moving carts inside) at Target. Between exhaust fumes, high humidity, high heat, some guy spraying the plants with pesticide or fertilizer or something and a generally taxing job physically, it just really took it out of me. Carts burn me up in general, but the suffacating air and heat just made it way worse. It's also a bit of a depressing job as well. You see just how inconsiderate people can be. Dirty diapers, empty containers from every beverage, alcoholic and non-alcoholic, half eaten food, Mc Donalds toys and all sorts of over objects are left in shopping carts. Besides being very unsanitary, it's just rude, as is the practice of leaving carts everywhere but the cart returns. A parking place is a dangerous place to leave a cart, as some absentminded driver might pull in there and wreck both the cart and the car. Luckily, I'm cashiering next shift, and cashiering is fun. You get to interact with people, most of whom are pretty decent folks. Maybe the not decent ones are the ones leaving empty 40 ounce bottles of malt liquor in the cart.

Ah well it's best not to dwell on it.

Now to end this entry on an upbeat, I'll note that FLCL (aka Fooly Cooly) will be making it's US TV premiere on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim block August 4th at midnight. It's a brillant show, filled with the awesome. Makes you laugh, makes you think, just like the Simpsons' Prof. Frink.

Yes, I spent 88 dollars and 12 cents on a couple of DVDs (Risky Safety Vol.1 and Grave of the Fireflies,) a Haruhara Haruko action figure w/ Vespa and Rickenbacker 4001 modified bass, a Kero-chan fridge magnet (cuz Kero-Chan is teh c ute,) and some more Evangelion stickers for my friend Aaron. I also ordered a couple of Potter doujin off of one of the collector sites (they had some spares), which I guess brings the total this week to $101.13. Worth it though. Leaves a little short to buy this though:

Kenna - New Sacred Cow

It's awesome. You should buy it. I will very, very soon. I'm just glad it's finally out. Only took an extra year and half.

Also, I'm out of shelf space. I've got to get by Ikea or Home Depot or somewhere and get some shelfing material. Additionally, I need bail out my room. Now that I've got the Pay-Pal, don't be surprised if I decide to E-Bay some random stuff. Well, not random. I sure don't need my four-track anymore though.

Music progress notes later. :)

I went down to AM/PM today to quench my powerful thirst, and I bought a Jones Cherry Soda and a Green River Soda. On the top of my Jones cap, what should it say but this:

"Your mind, being creative and original, will make you famous."

Granted, famous doesn't mean what it used to. If you become a photoshop cliche, you are in a way, famous. Fame in this day and age is probably a lot closer to the Warholian view of 15 minutes of fame than it used to be. Reality TV has made famous people out of nobodies, and there are no signs of stopping that trend. I'd care, but I don't watch reality TV anyway. Well, I used to watch Real World, but I was a young, dumb kid. Forgive me.

Speaking of soda though, I know a bunch of my reviews have yet to make it back to the site. I will eventually get that content back up and then some (Sprite Remix vs. Karl: The Battle Continues). At the very least, I'll get the my pictures of me being silly and stuff back up at some point. Mahou Shonen Karl Olson is almost a cliche itself, but it's funny, and it's the reason this site is this color anyway.

I'm currently roasting in my room. The computer is probably adding to the ambient heat. Further still, Windows Movie Maker has been crashing like whoa. Lastly, I'm out of shelf space for my manga, so I'm going to have to remedy that situation soon.

Now for, some positivity.

First off, I discovered the wide world of Harry Potter Doujinshi (fan comics) today. Some of it's just as creepy as certain Potter Fan Fiction, but some other stuff is some pretty neat, like stories about James Potter's years at Hogwarts. It kind of makes me wish J.K. would let a professional manga artist or artists have a shot at doing some canonical, offical work in the Harry Potter Realm. It'd be very cool.

Secondly, I think I'm slowly but surely stumbling my way forward as a reporter at toonzone.net. It's not easy, but it's worth it. Now I need to find something I want to review. I know I'll have something to review by September though, as that is when the first sweet, sweet Haibane Renmei dvd comes out. yoshitoshi ABe = awesome.

Thirdly, I think I'm done with the album. Now I need to start sending demos around. First targets: Breakbeat Science, Commercial Suicide, Hospital, Moonshine and Liquid Sky.

Lastly, I hit 7-11 today. Cool soda + candy = yay!

I bought "Kid A" and "Amnesiac". I've always enjoyed Radiohead's singles, so I decided to pick up the two cds that had my favorite singles. Pretty nice stuff. It's the kinda of stuff that inspires better technique in my work as opposed to emotion, which is usually draw from life, film, anime, manga, books, etc.

Speaking of life, did my usual shift at Target last night, aside from running around a lot, talking to a cool guy with a Sealab 2021 t-shirt and someone saying I should be a perfume pusher at a department store, then that person offering contact info for that job (might give it a shot, it'd be an interesting experience, and pay better.) My shift on last Tuesday was pretty odd because a guy I just checked out asked if I knew Jesus. The question kinda caught me off guard, and I said I knew of him, which is an honest enough answer. He replied with something that threw me even much more off guard: "That's interesting, because you seem to have a little Jesus in you." I'm not sure what to make of it. I guess it's a good thing. Maybe I should read up.

Also that night, I bought this 4 pack of movie box size Spree and Sweettarts for $2.51. I'm still working my way through them. You just can't have much of those in one sitting.

In other news, I'm still learning how to be a reporter, as opposed to a reviewer. Luckily, the people at toonzone.net are willing to teach me.

I suppose it was inevitable. I keep with anime news pretty regularly, I review anime and manga anyway and they were looking, so I'm now helping out there. Pretty cool beans I guess.

It's not the prettiest way of doing things, but it's delightfully functional. Now, back to reuploadin.

well, back in a revised form. looks a little cooler though, no? tomarrow, I reupload content like reviews, galleries and other fun stuff on the site. hilarity will probably ensue as haphazardly learn the ways of images and php.

So, it's time for another site over haul. However, this time I'm finally in the wonder world of php, which should make updates a lot more common. We'll see if this really works out in practice, but that's half the fun. Anyway, for now I'm just gonna run with the blog format. It's a lot more casual. Besides, that way reviews are always ready on the front page. On that note, I'm off to make some catagories. :)

Well, it was August 9th, 2002 sometime in the afternoon, when my friend Sho'leh called me. Apparently, it was youth night at the Baha'i center in Redmond at 8pm, and they were either going to watch a movie or go by the local coffee shop, Victor's, to get a latte and listen to the music. Well, I figured it beat watching TV, so I got a ride with my dad down to the center.

When I got there, I was presently surprised. Apparently, Sho'leh and her family were hosting two exchange student girls from Japan (whose names I just can't remember unfortunately), and Sho'leh brought them to youth night. Well, aside from a couple other folks, not many showed up. A couple other people stuck around to keep the center open in case anyone else showed up, but since the two exchange students wanted see what a coffee house was like, we went down to Victor's, which is about a block away from the center. Sho'leh guided us all down to the shop, then headed back to the center.

Well, at first, it was a little uncomfortable, because they aren't entirely comfortable with english, and my Japanese is very limited (I know following words: kawaii - cute, otasan - father, shoutengai - shopping center, sugoi - amazing/awesome/cool, shonen - boy, shojo - girl, bishonen - handsome guy, bishojo - handsome girl, hontoni - really, chikyu - earth, usagi - bunny, sakura - cherry blossom, tsunami - huge tidal wave, konichiwa - hello, ohayo - good morning, Nippon - Japan, Nihongo - Japanese, tenchi muyo - no need for Tenchi/no need for heaven and earth/this way up, otaku - fanboy/obsessive nerd, ecchi - slightly perverted, hentai - really perverted), but as we began to talk, it got easier. They asked me what my hobby was, and I said that I compose music, I have my own website and that I enjoy Japanese anime. Of course, I mentioned that what little Japanese I knew I learned from anime. I began to tell them what anime and manga I liked, and we talked about that kind of stuff for a while. It was definitely an interesting conversation. They asked me about some stuff also, like my age (I was at the time 18, and by the way, they were each 15), whether I've ever been to Disneyland or Disneyworld (I haven't been to either), if I've ever been to Japan (I haven't, but my dad has visited there, and has even been up to Hokkaido, in addition to Tokyo) and whether I was in high school or college (college) and I tried to answer as clearly as I could.

Anyway, after a while, we headed back to the center. On the way, they asked where they were, so I replied Redmond, then pointed out the Redmond Town Center. I clarified by calling it a shoutengai, which it is because it's essentially a big shopping center. It was at this point that it really became clear that what little Japanese I knew was useful, because they said sugoi in reaction to my use of shoutengai. I guess they didn't think I'd know that one, but it helped them out I think. Then they asked where a movie theater was, and pointed out that there was one behind us in the shoutengai, and one down the road a bit. I think they thought that was pretty cool. Anyway, we got to the center and Sho'leh and another person were playing Uno. Once they wrapped up their game, the other person at the center, the two exchange students and myself all joined in, and it was a lot of fun. It was almost cute how both the exchange students said "gomen" every time they used a take two or take four card. During the game of Uno, I offered to see I could set it up so that the two students could visit the Experience Music Project, and that may or may not happen. Well, around about 10:45pm we decided to pack it in and head home, so I got a ride with Sho'leh and the exchange students to my home.

On the whole, the night was great because I met some really cool people, who I hope I hang out with again before they return to Japan and I got to have a great mocha at Victor's.

Update: Didn't get another chance to hang out with them, but that's ok.

I've been filling in for Mike B. and Stevie. Y for the Das Musik Live Shoutcast (Tuesdays, 8pm Pacific at ampcast.com) for over a month now, since Mike is so busy with his work in the military. It's been a blast filling in, but I really have a very different style than them. They are to Howard Stern as I am to Dr. Demento. I figured I could at least recreate some of the co-host dynamic by broadcasting with a friend. The tough part was deciding who should I co-host with. I ultimately chose my friend Amber, because she's got a great personality, and besides, I wanted to really clarify something that people just don't seem to get, and that is that Amber and I aren't dating. We have similar interests, we talk to each other a ton on the phone and on the internet, we are both big anime fans, we hangout on a semi-regular basis and we have plenty of other things in common, but we are not going out. I've tried to ask her out, to no avail, about a year or so a go not to long after I first met her. So, we're good friends instead. She's a totally awesome person, and I hope we're still friends when were really old so we can arrange anime nights at the senior center.

Anyway, I had my mom pick her up after work. Amber as usual, was looking about a dozen times cooler than I do. It's simply a fact of life which I've gotten used to. We watched the first five episodes of the Tenchi Muyo OVA, looked through a japanese fashion book named Fruits and then it was time to cast.

It started out pretty cool, but Amber was a little tired, so mom made a run to the store. My mom got Amber vanilla Coke (Amber likes the stuff), got me a Dr Pepper and between Amber and I, we ate a whole bag of caramels. The chatroom aspect of the cast was weird as usual, because some of the folks were jokingly hitting on Amber, who Amber seriously turned down. Those who weren't hitting on the 16-year-old Amber, were either being cool folks, or telling Amber and I that we should hook up. So we repeated the statement of “we aren't going out” about 234,598,690 times. Alright, that's exaggerating the figure, but I did lose count.

The interaction in the studio with Amber was great. It was fun “sissy fighting” with her and joking around with her. Then she spotted the wig from the Mahou Shonen Karl Olson costume, so I grabbed the wand for her and she was looking cuter than ever. So, we bumped a bunch of songs into the play list and ran outside to play. She accidently busted the wand when we playing, but it no big deal. Then we went back and played some more music. I wanted to get some pictures before she left, which took a little longer than expected, because started fight with a big rubber band. Then my dad and I dropped Amber off at her house.

The trip began July 3rd, 2002. My parents, my little brother and myself packed our suitcases and bags. Though I did have the sense to pack my computer, I didn't have the sense to pack my DVDs too, which left me with not a lot to do on the computer aside from watching fansubs, writing music and writing this blog. Anyway, once the suitcases and bags were in the car, we headed off to my Grandpa's house in Spokane, WA, where my family and I would spend the night before tackling the second half of the drive to Butte. The six hour drive wasn't bad at all, mainly because I didn't have to drive any of it and besides, my mom and I brought plenty of good music to listen to. We hit Spokane about midnight, so I went straight to bed, because I was tired and I was going to have to do some of the driving on the next part of the trip and I wanted to be well rested for that.

Granted, the driving thing wouldn't be a big deal, except that I don't have my license, just a permit. This is because I had no reason to have a license. Seriously. My school was on the way to my mom's work, and I bicycled home because I needed the PE credit. Granted, the only reason I need the PE credit is because I went to a choice school that didn't offer PE, in spite of the fact that it's a state requirement. Therefore, I got I my PE hours of them through bicycling and walking. Also, since insurance is required in Washington State on all drivers, I'd have to get a job to pay for the insurance, which I didn't really want to do unless I needed to, and I didn't need to. Now that I'm going to be going to community college, which isn't on anyone else's way and since I don't particularly want to get up early to take the bus, I'm finally biting the bullet and learning to drive. I'm also looking into getting a job, but that's for another blog or a rant (depends on what kind of job I get I guess).

Anyway, after getting a pretty good sleep, we had breakfast and then headed out towards Butte on I-90. First my dad drove, taking both of the passes between Spokane and Butte with ease and then my mom drove for a while. Then came my turn and it wasn't that bad. Even the areas where construction was being done were pretty easy to drive. About 40 miles before Butte, my mom and I switched out again, and she drove the rest of the way there to my grandma and grandpa's house. In case you were wondering, my grandpa on my dad's side lives in Spokane, my grandma on my dad's side passed way when I was 7 and my grandparents on my mom's side live in Butte.

Pretty much everyone from my extended family was there, and it was pretty cool. My cousins and I had a water fight, the food was good (hamburgers and chocolate covered strawberries = delicious) and there was plenty of pop to go around, because my family and I brought four 24 can cases of pop (one or Dr. Pepper, one of 7-up, one of Coke and one of Root Beer). I brought out and booted up my computer, which impressed everyone with it's 1337 roll-up, spill-proof keyboard and with it's RCA video out which allowed me to use a little 5 inch black and white TV as a monitor. I worked on few tracks in Reason (some of my relatives we're impressed with that too) while my some of my cousins watched TV. By the way, Butte cable has virtually nothing I want to watch. No Cartoon Network, no Learning Channel and no MTV2 either, so there was essentially nothing that interested me, except Nickelodeon, and by the time I got a chance at the TV, it had switched over to Nick at Night. The night was wrapped up with a home firework display, which was ok, but to get to my aunt's and uncle's house where we had the display, my family and I had to dodge about dozen other families' home firework displays. The whole of Butte was exploding with various fireworks, including what must have been well over a hundred of those mini-mortars that look like tiny versions of the big displays. It sounded like a war-zone, but it was a lot of dangerous fun. Granted, since virtually everyone else shooting them off, I don't think we had to shoot anything off, but we did anyway.

Then my family and I headed back to the hotel and pretty much went straight to bed except for two problems. The first was I had to share a bed with my little brother, which is no big deal, except that both of us roll around all over the place when we sleep, which was worrisome because either one of us could have ended up unintentionally pushing the other off the bed. The other problem was is that even though it was midnight Mountain time, it was only 11pm pacific time and since I usually go to bed about 1am, I didn't get to sleep until about 2 am Mountain time and then I woke up about 8am. I couldn't get back to sleep though if I had, I would have missed the free continental breakfast. Granted, it's not like I would have missed much except Apple Juice and Bagels, but I was hungry and I like Apple Juice and Bagels. The hotel had some other food too, but I wasn't in the mood for it. After breakfast we headed back to my grandma and grandpa's place.

Grandma and grandpa proceeded to take my family and I out to a second breakfast at Denny's. Normally, I would have had the Breakfast Dagwood sandwich, my favorite at Denny's because it's pretty good and it remind's me of Gene Starwind's (main character from Outlaw Star) bacon and eggs sandwiches, but since I already breakfast once already, I went with french toast and bacon, which were delicious.

Then we headed to Walmart, which was both fun, yet sad at the same time. Fun because they had some good deals, including Akira for only 15 bucks and because my mom was kind enough to get it for me, but depressing because it's obvious that Walmart is why Butte's business district is almost deserted. The mall did enough damage to it, and Walmart's just about finished it off except for a few stores and some bars. Granted, Walmart's sticking it to the mall and the local Safeway too because virtually everything you could conceivably want to buy is at Walmart, including a few uncut anime classics (they had Tezuka's Metropolis too.)

After Walmart, we all headed back to my grandparents' place. First, my dad, my little brother and myself threw around this big, inexpensive foam glider my dad bought at Walmart. It was fun, until we realized that there were rattlesnakes out in area were we tossing it around, so we packed the plane up and headed inside. Then my grandma wanted to show us some of the sites of Butte, MT. Unfortunately, though a lot of history has occurred in Butte, it's not particularly scenic in my opinion, and many of the historical sites are kind of depressing.

After picking up my granduncle, we stopped by the Butte pit. The Butte pit was created by a large copper strip mining operation. It is basically a big hole in the ground that filled up with rainwater which then reacted with the sulfur in the area to create sulfuric acid which leached out a bunch of other nasty chemicals. It's currently one of the largest Superfund sites in the nation because the pit continues to fill and if something isn't done to purify the water, the pit will eventually overflow and contaminate the ground water which will basically make Butte uninhabitable because the tap water will be poison, assuming it can make to the tap before eating the pipes away. For a tourist destination, it's really depressing, especially considering that inspecting geese land in there and are essentially dead on contact. At least the EPA is finally building a purification plant for the pit water which will provide some much needed jobs to the Butte area and clean up the water, killing two birds with one stone (or is that saving countless birds and people with one plant?) After that, we went to a memorial for some miners who died in a massive mine fire back in the early days of Butte. Though there are some inspiring tales of heroism at the memorial of the people who managed to save other people, it's ultimately a somber place to go. We wanted to hit the mining museum next, but it was 5 bucks a person so we decided not to bother with it. It's emblematic of what Butte's been reduced to: a tourist town. Most of the industry that was going has been shutdown, and their doesn't seem to be any sign of it coming back any time soon. So, a lot of tourist things that were free now cost money, and if they are still free, they probably have a gift shop attached to them. Even the memorial had various local sponsors' names on the bricks on the ground.

After dropping off my granduncle, my grandparents, my parents, my little brother and myself went home, and once we got there, I setup my computer again and watched Akira. My grandma didn't want me to setup my computer upstairs again, so I set it up downstairs in the unfinished basement. I suppose I could have watched Akira upstairs on my grandparents TV, because it wouldn't have been the first time I watched a R-rated movie at their house (they rented Three Kings the last time I was there), but on the other hand, it would have been the first time that the movie was something I picked and it would have been the first time that said movie was a violent, yet intelligent anime movie. Since I didn't feel like trying to explain my tastes in entertainment, I watched downstairs on the little black and white TV. Even on that though, the movie still looked good. I'm still not particularly into it's violent aspects, but the metaphysics of the piece are interesting regardless of the violence and the quality of the animation is excellent, even when compared to today's best cel-CG pieces. After that, it was time for dinner.

Dinner was good, and not too long after dinner, my aunt and uncle from Spokane and their kids, including my cousin Tyler (the person who is partially responsible for the creation of my CouZ-n Carl alter-ego) arrived. Talking to Tyler was pretty cool as usual. If anything, it was better than the last time we'd spoke because he'd seen Cowboy Bebop and the rest of Cartoon Network's Adult Swim, so he finally got why I enjoyed certain animes. He even recognized Akira when I brought that out. It was like old times really, because we both used to always go over to my grandparents in the summer with the rest of our cousins and we'd have a lot fun joking around and talking about our interests which used to have a lot of crossover. Now we've both grown up and our interests are fairly different in some aspects, but it was cool that we could still relate in some ways. Anyway, everything seemed like it was going cool almost everyone of my relatives over the age of 21 started drinking except my parents and my relatives from New York that were in town. I don't think Tyler was drinking either, but I wasn't paying perfect attention to who was and wasn't drinking. It'd be depressing for me if just one was drinking. Now, it's not like they were drinking to get drunk, but drinking (along with the usage of any other substance that can play with your senses and do damage to your body), always depresses me because I'd hate to lose some I love (and I love all my relatives), to some disease that could be easily prevented by not drinking or smoking or whatever. That feeling, if anything has gotten to be worse as I grow up because I remember some of the friends I had back in 7th grade who were drug addicts and how messed their lifes had gotten, so I always worry when one of my friends or relatives deals with any substance that can be abused and cause damage to their body and/or mind. It's probably silly of me to worry and be depressed about it, but if I'm going to worry about anyone, it's people I'm related to who I love. Anyway, about 10pm my family and I left for the hotel.

Once we were back at the hotel, we watched TV for a while, then went to sleep. I got more sleep that time, and was able to go back to sleep for a bit after waking up at 7am. I was awake again by 8am and we all headed down to have our continental breakfasts and then check out. After we checked out, we headed over to my grandparents to say goodbye to everyone and we had a second breakfast again, except this time it was waffles, which were good. Then we headed out toward Spokane on I-90.

My dad drove the first part, and it went nice and smooth. Then we stopped for lunch in St. Regis, MT at a restaurant that's attached to the biggest souvenir shop in Montana. Lunch was pretty good. I had a bacon cheeseburger (just like Tokio from Earth Maiden Arjuna), and then I nosed around the gift shop for a bit and I found a cool necklace which I bought so I could give it my friend Amber (the same Amber who designed the Fun Confusion logo and the person who co-designed and made the Mahou Shonen Karl Olson costume) because she said she was going to make me another pair of phat pants, this time out of a pastel rainbow corduroy. After my family and I were done with the gift shop, it was my turn to drive.

I had to drive both of the previously mentioned passes and the very twisty road in between the two passes. It was nerve-racking, but I managed to do it fairly safely (Now I need to work more on in town driving.) Anyway, my dad I switched out a few miles before Coeur d'Alene, ID, and he drove the rest of the way to Spokane. Once we got their, I read through some of my grandpa's US News and World Reports. Normally, the journalism in that magazine is pretty good, and the editorials are different from everyone elses. Unfortunately, they pretty large omission in my opinion in their special on American music. Namely, they completely neglected to mention electronic music. Granted, electronic music is a world music in one sense because completely transcends any boundaries and most cultures. On the other hand, House and modern Techno were invented in the US. Big Beat, Trip Hop and all forms of Drum n' Bass have their roots in America because the breakbeats which underpin all of those genres came from American funk and Hip Hop. US News and world Report completely neglected electronic music though, so I'm going to send them letter about it. Anyway, after that, I started to work on this blog, which has been easier to write than expected. Then my dad came in with some books of old Australian comics. The political cartoons by Rigby were often just as valid today as ever, though some were a somewhat sexist, and the Witchetty's Tribe comics by Joliffe were pretty sharp, though somewhat racist and sexist at times. Granted, these comics were from a different era, and the ones that weren't sexist or racist (only were only a handful of them were sexist and/or racist), were incredibly funny. My grandpa was kind enough to give them to me, so maybe I'll scan some of the sharper comics and review them for you at some point. Anyway, I got back to work on the blog, but then I stopped for a bit to have dinner. then I worked on the blog until I realized that everyone else is asleep, so I shut down and went to bed too.

After a pretty good rest, I shaved, then had breakfast, which was half a grapefruit and a bowl of shredded wheat with bananas. Then I worked on the blog until we had leave to for Kirkland. It was time to go home and catch up on Das Musik and the TV that was taped.

My dad took the first the piece of the drive. Then we stopped at the Schrag Rest Area where we switched out and I drove until just a bit before Vantage, WA. Then mom drove it until about Cle Elum, WA, and then my Dad drove the rest of the way home. When I wasn't driving, I was playing backseat DJ, which was cool.

All in all, it was a good trip. I got more practice driving, I got more comfortable with my roll-up keyboard's response, I finally got Akira on DVD and I got some good content.