Go to the Up

Well, I have been lax in posting lately. Gomenasai!
Last week was all sorts of busy. Talking to insurance people and the car repair place. Everyone was fast and responsive and very helpful so far. Got the insurance money to start the repairs and sent the autoshop the estimate so they can order the parts. Now I just need to check and see if they have a more definite date on when the parts will be in and I have to schedule leaving my car to be fixed.

Among all that I was lucky to be able to stress test a certain cool MMORPG game that should be coming out early next year. I thought it was very good and hope to be able to participate in the beta test. Can't really say much about it due to the NDA, so you'll just have to go here for more: www.ddo.com

Then this last weekend the weather was nice enough that we were able to enjoy the outdoors. Not much more of that left this year. We threw the football around and just enjoyed the day. Then we played Dance Dance Revolution for several hours. I am finally getting good at this game.

Yesterday everyone was over at my house and we were playing our Warhammer RPG game. We were starving so I whipped up a huge batch of miso soup. A delicious and real simple soup that is quite filling. I made like 12 cups of it and all I had left today so enough for 1 1/2 bowls. This batch was probably my best batch yet, I threw in some shitake mushrooms and they added to the flavor quite nicely.
After our game, we played even more DDR. My feet got real tired fast, so I will probably give them a few days off. I have been tempted to pick up that guitar game for the PS2. For some reason I have been loving all these music, rythum (sp?) and beat games like taiko drum master, DDR, the karaoke revolution games.
They are fun to play with a group too and that is probably what I like best is I usually play them when some friends come over, or when I just feel like getting some beat on.

Wow it has been a busy last few days.

On Thursday my younger brother got into a car accident in my parents car. Luckily noone was injured. The front passenger sider corner was smashed up pretty bad and the power steering went out on it. Probably a lot more wrong with it too. The insurance company declared it a total loss.
So my parents spent the whole weekend car shopping. They should have something by the time I get home tonight.

Saturday I went in for my eye exam checkup to get new contact lenses and on the way home I got rear-ended at a stoplight. It was a fairly minor hit and just crumpled my rear bumper a bit and dented my trunk and knocked loose my left turn signal pod. Nothing serious and no injuries, but even something as minor as that can cost so much to fix. Luckily my insurance got back to me today and the other guys insurance will pay for everything.

Was not feeling very well Sunday evening. I wonder if the jolt of adrenalin and the shock of being in an accident just wore me out, but I was so tired I just kinda knapped a bit here and there and took it easy. A friend came over and we sang a bit of karaoke at home.
I finished Vol. 7 of Remote. The plastic wrap on some of these mangas are there for a good reason. Still a good series, but definitely pushing the limit of what I can tolerate.

Anyone know any good Japanese restaurants in my area? I am particularily interested in traditional Japanese food. I have eaten at Hayashi in Gurnee. I love unagi! Drop my a comment for any suggestions on places to go in the NE corner of Illinois.

When did it become 1/3 the way through November?
Where has all the time gone? I was just sitting here when I realized that there are only 6 weeks till Christmas left. I should probably see about using my vacation days real soon. The worst part of the Christmas holiday season for me is the shopping. I hate shopping when I don't know what it is I want to get. I end up wandering through stores and malls and not getting any thing accomplished.
I really hate seeing Christmas decorations and advertisements before Thanksgiving so I have not been watching any TV without skipping through the commercials (I love TIVO!).

Now I love giving people great gifts, but I am terrible at determining what would be a great gift for someone. Even my own familiy members take me weeks to think of a good gift for them, and even then I usually end up resorting to asking them or getting them something from a list they made up. This year I would really like to give some gifts that are original and not just something I picked off their list.
I also am pretty terrible at thinking up gift ideas for myself, mainly because if there is something that I want I probably have already went out and bought it. I am going to try and restrain myself from doing that these next two months.

Fortunately my family gets along real well and there isn't anyone in our family that I don't like seeing over the Holidays. I have not been up north to see my grandparents for quite a while now. I wonder what kind of reaction I am going to get for my dreadlocks. Probably wierd stares and "What did you do to your hair?".
List of family members I will be shopping for gifts for soon and their (current) likes:
Father (computers/music/old TV shows)
Mother (crafts/sewing/quilting/scrapbooking)
Older Brother (very similar likes as I do, has his own house so I might be able to get him something for that)
Younger Brother (also similar interests as I do, but also very artistically inclined, and lazy :) )
Both of my brothers like many of the things that I do, so these are usually fairly easy to get gifts for.
Younger Sister and her husband (I have no clue what she does anymore or even what her husband likes to do. My Mom might have a better idea.)
Youngest Sister (She pretty much spends all her time drawing pictures and chatting online while making a terrific mess)

So if you got any great ideas toss them out to me. I would appreciate it.
When life gets you down, just go to the up.

It has been most of a week since my last post, but not a whole lot to tell about.
My bro's 22nd birthday was yesterday. We didn't do much for it as I get home at 4:45 and he goes to work at 6:00. But anyway happy birthday Chris!

Didn't really do much last Friday. Played our game, but I didn't really get into it. Friday was just an off day for me, was not really together at all. I left things at home that I meant to bring, could not really focus much on the game and was just generally out of it.

Saturday I spent some time sleeping and went to get my eyes checked as I ran out of contacts a while ago and my old ones where getting irritating. After that just chilled at home and watched some anime and read some more Remote manga, still good stuff.

Sunday was pretty fun. After church went to friends house where we did some benchpressing until our failing point (which I am still feeling yesterday and today) and then we gamed for several hours. After that we watched a movie and tried some dry sake that I can't remember the name of, something about snow. I like more fruitier sake better, but this was the best dry sake I have had. Sake is my drink of choice and there are so many different types to try. I love sake because even drinking a whole bottle I don't get upset to my stomach or even have a hangover the next day. Sake rules.

Monday was well, a Monday. Not much else can really be said about them.

Tuesday was my bro's bday as I said above. In our family we pretty much have the bday person pick what type of dinner they want and what kind of cake or pie they want. Sometimes we get a small gift or two, but lately we have just been pretty lax about that part. The thing about growing up and having a job is that you have money and probably have already bought anything that you needed or wanted, unlike when you are little and can't afford to buy the toys that you want and have to hope you get them as a gift.
My older brother came over and was talking with my mom about the insane things going on between him and his girlfriend. I work with my older bro, but we just don't talk a whole lot. From what I was over hearing is that my older brother's gf is definitely insane and so is he. It almost made me glad that I don't have a SO in my life if it is going to be like that. But then I realize that she is just crazy and not all girls are crazy, right? Right?

If you have not tried it yet go to www.websudoku.com and try out the latest puzzle game thing. It is simple and fun. Good for wasting time when you have nothing better to do like when you are at work.
That pretty much catches you up to what has been going on in my slice of life pie.

I am so boring.
Every week is just like the last, but the worst part is I don't know how to change it. I should get out and do something, but what to do? I just don't have any experience in things like this and don't have a clue on how to get started. Anyone up for some activity?
Today is D&D game night so at least I will be getting together with other people, but I am not sure if that is going to cure my melancholy or just amplify it. Sometimes I get depressed when I go to the mall or overhear others talking about thier significant others. I just feel so alone sometimes, especially after my older brother moved out of the house and my younger sister got married and moved out. So our house feel more empty now, kinda like me.

That's right on Oct. 30 my 5 week aniversary of my new knotty dreadlocks came around.
If you knew me when I was younger you would probably pass me by on the street and not recognise me at all. No more glasses cause I got contacts and no more military buzzcut hair. I gree it out long the last few years cause I am too lazy to go and get it cut at all. That is remarkably the same reason that I am growing a beard. To much effort to shave every day.
Any way with my long hair you have to brush it or you get some nasty snarls. So I get the bright idea one day when I was bored of dreadlocking my hair so that I don't have to brush it anymore.
Well that is true once you have mature dreadlocks, but that can take 6 months to happen. In the meantime I have to backcomb and tighten each dreadlock so they keep thier knottyness. All 28 of them. I can end up spending 15 minutes backcombing a single dread to make it nice and tight. So I sit at my computer watching anime backcombing my dreads for about one to two hours a day working my way through my dreadlocks. It is hard doing the back ones, so they are kinda pathetic looking and in dire need of attention, but the front and side ones are coming in pretty nice.
I gotta snatch a digital camera and post some before and after pics.

My cell phone stopped acting up. It must have been a wierd glitch in Cingular's voice mail system.

I have finally started to recover from a nasty cold and sore throat that I have had the last two days. Ahh, to be able to breathe through my nose again.

I finished playing FEAR for the PC on Halloween night. A creepy sci-fi FPS game that is kind of short but still good. Started playing it again on the hardest difficulty and am kicking butt.

Lately I started read Remote. It is a manga series about a young female traffic cop who quit her job and is about to get married. Then her fiance gets the bad news at work and his pay is cut forcing her to beg for her job back. She gets a job, but instead of being a meter maid, she is assigned to a detective who lives confined in the basement of his house and investigates murders and other major crimes. So she is this detectives eys, ears, hands, and feet as they solve these mysteries.
I have read up to volume 2 and just picked up 3 and 4. Very good series.

I have restarted watching the anime episodes that I have downloaded as there have been fewer releases on DVD that I am interested in. Scrapped Princess vol. 4 just came out and is waiting to be watched, probably see that one tonight.

Other than that and playing bits of the various games I own, but never beat, I am getting interested in the game go again. Especially after reading the blog of Jason D. who is a go player, linux lover, and computer programer, anime lover, and is 24 years old.
Too much like me it is creepy, must be some sort of evil clone. However seeing as I am not very good at go, am just learning linux and programming, I must admit defeat to Scooter. Muahahahaha! Yes I weant there. I only hope you read this.

I really can relate with Jason as I also have a lot of trouble with people. I just don't know many people and don't really know how to expand the circle of people I know. I pretty much have my friends from since 7th grade who were in the same home school group as my family was. The four of them are my closest friends and we hang out every Sunday. The other people I know are the group of guys (and now a gal) that I initially met playing Warhammer and then got invited to play D&D with. Awesome group of people, but have not really done much with them besides play D&D. Hopefully I get work up the courage to do something and get to know them better and let them know me better. Aside from them I have passing acquaintance with some people at my church, but none of them really have the same interests or are even close to my age, so that kinda leaves me with nowhere to turn to for meeting new people.

I gotta slink off to find a new box of kleenex now. Later.