A Maxtor Note

I just checked and realized that all 3 of my harddisks that experienced sudden deaths were Maxtors. Perhaps Maxtor fares poorly in my sorta environment. Anyway, note to self: If a harddisk starts making revving sounds like a muscle car, get it checked for a warranty claim. All 3 of my dead harddisks made that kinda sound a couple months before they conked out.

The Saga Begins!

The Saga Begins, by Weird Al Yankee =p I absopositively love it. I'd recommend this spoof to whomever is able to "get" the references. Just something to brighten up my day...and yours, whoever you may be. Oh my. How can one resist the Starwars Episode 1 tale related in tune to American Pie. heh.

Silent Hill

You've played the game. Now watch the movie! You know you wana. Actually, I know I wana. Hmm yes. The movie had every bit of the suspense in the games, and has a sort of side story going so that the audience is more aware of what's going on. I guess it cannot be exactly like a walkthrough of a Silent Hill game where nobody really knows what's going on and just winds up getting scared all the time, and highly confused. That's probably bad for a movie. Anyway, it's nice that the producers collaborated with Konami on this piece. It really brings out the spirit of the Silent Hill series. (Why was the show censored? I paid good money to watch a good movie at the cinema! You do NOT censor shows I PAY money to watch!)

As for the story, it's about a mom with a highly disturbed daughter. The daughter sleepwalks and keeps mentioning a place known as...you guessed it...Silent Hill. After a bit of research, the mom drives the daughter to the place, sees something spooky and crashes the car. This time, there's a cop who follows. Well, Silent Hill is a ghost town. Exactly the sort of ghost town that's full of the horrors of the past. Not to spoil anything, suffice to know that I loved the ending.

For some reason, Silent Hill is a place where virtually nothing ever works, zombies appear for no apparent reason, and you always have a working torch, a melee weapon of some sort, and a projectile weapon which is often a gun. There's always a torch and melee weapon early in the game! And likewise, there's a melee weapon and torch towards the middle of the show. Don't forget your radio! The one that makes weird noises when zombies are nearby. I think they didn't emphasize that part enough. But for once, you kinda understand why the zombies just look like bags of meat. In this version of the story, Silent Hill was a town gutted in a fire. A witch-burning fire of all things. But all in all, I loved the pace of the story. They actually had a sort of narrative going, instead of having everything come in via whispered conversation and flashbacks. If ya ask me! Watch tha movie! I shan't say more =p

Ah yes. I notice that other girls never admit to being gamers, even if they play video games.

I went for a seafood buffet after the show. The food was so-so, so I wound up massacring their flower crab dish. Couldn't figure out what else to eat anyway. Felt kinda bad when people opened the case and found all the crabs gone. NOT.

Those ABsurd Slimming Devices

Why do we have slim people promoting slimming devices! I know they were originally slim because I have seen pictures of them before the products even hit the market. Frankly, I wonder at the ability of what seems to be a massive vibrator in reducing body fat. The average person who consumes more calories than she expends is probably going to grow fat regardless whether they have a large vibrator shaking their midsection up. Besides, I doubt those slim people actually got their figures through gadgets alone. There's usually a lot of exercisse and dieting involved. Perhaps it is time that we had regular fat people endorsing the product, and showing how much they can gobble down pizza and still lose inches exclusively by the amazing power of slimming devices.

Outlaw Star!

I've finally gotten down to watching Outlaw Star. (Yes, the anime I had sitting on my harddisk for at least 3 years) It just seems so much like a simplified version of Cowboy Bebop. Moreover, the appropriate mood music and dramatic irony are really good at bringing the story to life, pretty much the way Cowboy Bebop did. Besides, the mix of characters is pretty similar, too. How can one not see Spike in Gene! Still, Spike's cooler. So there.

Bad Oysters!

Drat. Who would have thought... Anyway, I probably had a bad oyster in my oyster omelette yesterday. Drove my gut positively nuts. Woke at 4am just to spew liquid food that looked like it wasn't even digested. Yes...out the behind. It didn't even start to smell bad yet. Geez. I think it totally bypassed the lockdown in the gut and just went clean through me. And where it has passed, I shall turn my mind's eye. There will be nothing. Only clean gut will remain.

Routing Through The Wired

I got a router! A new Linksys so that my home systems are now all wired up. Had me in a bit of a pickle when I couldn't configure it, so I called the ISP. Now every computer in the house potentially has internet and LAN connectivity! However...hmm. It appears that the hall computer has decided to develop a RAM problem...again.


Disturbing note: I saw an oldish woman walking around in a t-shirt with the words "Juicy Bunny" sequined across the front. I...don't know what to say...

Thank Ye...For Now

Ok. Got a call from Maxtor. They had a harddisk replacement for me, and it's a 320 gig monster. That's 70 gigs above and beyond my 250 gig monster. That's pretty sweet...assuming that it actually stays reliable for a year or two at least. Um yeah. But I *am* pleased at the swift service and upgrade without demand. Yeah. heh.

Disturbing Omens

I was at a family dinner and repeatedly saw what I thought were omens pointing to my great aunt's death. She just turned 90 and it was her birthday dinner, after all. Just as a personal note, I saw spilled red wine. There were 4 sisters present, herself included. The shawl they placed around her shoulders resembled a death cowl. And she led the exit the way she would were she at the head of a funeral procession. Disturbing? Maybe. Only time will tell.

An interesting side note: Sticky pasty stuff should NEVER be brown or brownish. That's wrong on so many levels that it grosses me out at the very thought. Oh. There was one such dish served at the dinner. It tasted good, but the aesthetics were just...wrong.

Note to Fenris: Nail polish is dissolved by surgical spirit

Drat You Again!

I just noticed that the other harddisk that had Sudden Death (tm) on me was a Maxtor as well. I kept the carcass in a box as a reminder. Much good that did. Pfft. So now I have 2 sudden death Maxtors. Gee. I wonder if it was a coincidence. Pity that I believe in causality. Problem being that I will not dare to put anything important in that replacement harddisk. Now...erm...WHAT! It's 250 gigs!

I was at a park with my friend and walked along this pavement. I met this dog walking the woman, and the dog actually looked at me. However, it not only met my gaze, but chose to relieve itself in a rather fluid fashion right before my eyes. Seriously, I can't tell if I ought to be offended or amused. Perhaps a mix of both?

Drat You, Maxtor!

Yes. My esteemed Maxtor SATAII 250gb has decided to disappear from the face of my Windows Explorer, and refuses to be activated via Disk Management. In fact, nothing seems to want to touch it at all. The horribly inadquate thing... Well anyway, I hope the Maxtor guys provide me with some kind of a solution that doesn't involve formatting and stuff like that.

The Broken Mug

Dad broke my mug today. An unfortunate incident, but one that cannot be undone. But we have spares, so it won't affect my drinking pleasure.

If there's only one truth in life and the afterlife, it matters not where you stand. Any deed done and undone will only lead you towards that one truth. However, if there is a multiplicity of realities, the deeds will determine one's path. People like to simplify things, to limit the chaotic complex aspects of reality to the orderly, limited scope of human understanding. But like a broken mug, the understanding can be shattered. Will there be a struggle to try to reform that understanding in the old ways and forms which it maintained, or will there be an attempt to start anew?

Boiling Pearls

Bubble tea is remarkably difficult to prepare. For one, I never seem to get that syrup-tea mix up to the optimal levels. Moreover, every time I boil the tapioca balls, weird things happen when I store 'em. They clumped in the bowl despite my soaking them in water first. Worse yet, they became hard on the inside instead of chewy like they were when freshly boiled. I suspect it's something to do with keeping them in the fridge instead of leaving them in the open. More experiments!

Lament of a Neo-Nazi

Doctor: I'm sorry, sir, but I've already done the measurements.
Father:That's impossible!
Doctor:It's true. I've measured your child's nose. He's most assuredly jewish.
Father:But we're both pure of blood! There was no jewish parent.
Doctor:I'm pretty sure you believe that, but the proof is right here. I'm sorry, sir, but you have jewish blood.
Father:...
Doctor:It invariably runs in the paternal bloodline.
Father:Is there nothing we can do?
Doctor:Well, not for your child, but you can blame the jews.

How absurd can humans get.

Standing Alone

One must gain the strength to stand alone. One cannot possibly have another to form a whole, for that would make the person a half-person. The objective in life should be to gain wholeness in oneself, and to help one's partner achieve that exact same wholeness. It is lazy for one to merely find another to lean upon and thus cease in one's development of one's Potential Self. Instead of two halves making a whole, why not have two wholes making a perfect pair, with each able to stand by oneself if and when necessary? It is true that no one person is an island, but that is no excuse for one to forsake the ability to go it solo when the time comes.

In The Beginning

In the beginning, there was nothing, and the universe was exceedingly boring. And then it got so bored that it emitted a huge flash of light in order to ask for help. As a result of that flash of light, lots of dirt started forming out of apparently nowhere. The dirt felt lonely and started clumping together. Some dirt clumped so close together that it began emitting light entirely of its own accord. Some tiny dirt particles clumped together and formed sloshy dirt. And some dirt formed nearly perfectly spherical structures that were all hot and nasty and bothered.

After some time, dirt clustered in the sloshy dirt to form small squishy things. The small squishy things gathered to form larger squishy things. The larger squishy things started making tougher outer layers of more dirt in order to avoid being damaged by other squishy things.

This went on until the not-so-squishy things discovered that it was crowded in the sloshy dirt, and that there was actually solid dirt beyond the sloshy dirt. The not-so-squishy things that were able to survive then decided to go visit the solid dirt, and some found it to be good.

Later on, the not-so-squishy things became more solid from their diet of solid dirt and minimal sloshy dirt. They got bigger and bigger, and less and less squishy, though they remained squishy on the inside. Some became so hard on the outside that they became scaly things, and some had softer outside and became furry things. Some just stayed and vegetated and became tall and not-so-tall leafy and scaly things.

Unfortunately, something happened that was scaly thing-unfriendly and most of the larger scaly things died out except those in the sloshy dirt. The world became furrier and furrier. But some furry things started flying. It was all rather complicated. The flying things started staying in the leafy and scaly things. And the furry things that didn't hide in the dirt also took to playing in the leafy and scaly things, much to the flying things' chagrin.

As usual, more and more aberrations turned up in the bizarre universe and some furry things started growing up without fur. They were laughed at so hard that they set themselves aside from the rest of the dirt and started doing their own thing. Since they were furless, they figured that they may as well rule over all the dirt since nobody else seemed inclined to.

The rest of it happened in a comparatively short period of time, and is highly documented. Much of what is recorded appears highly unusual and egotistical. The gist of it was the furless things started gathering in ever larger groups and finding ways to do things together, disgusting as it may seem.

To this day, the dirt remains infested with furless things that build tall and hard things and throw all sorts of junk all over the place because they're too lazy to clean up after themselves. They also believe that the dirt will never build up enough to cause weird problems. Oh, and they are also convinced that everything began from nothing, and then there was a flash of light.

As a side note: The MacBook!

Harmony and Domination

Do you understand harmony? Or is the concept of power merely for the sake of acheiving domination? I spoke with the trees today, and they were unhappy at the state of events. In communion they shared how they felt and what life was like for one of their kind. The power of sunshine and the blood of the earth. The laws of nature are not inviolate, but are meant to be upheld. In trying to force changes upon the world, far-reaching consequences will result. Mankind stands upon the earth, not apart from it. Unless humans find ways to leave this place, they will forever be bound by the laws and requirements of this existence. It is far better to harmonize than to dominate the natural world. One cannot hope to command unwilling forces far greater than oneself.

Are You Blind?

If you don't see anything wrong, how do you know whether everything's alright or whether you're blind? There's a tendency to attempt to reinforce one's beliefs about something rather than to refute them. Just because a system is believed to work doesn't mean that there isn't anything wrong with it. There is a chance that people have become so used to the existence of the system and its flaws that they dare not and have no wish to change it. Hiding in plain sight is a very real phenomenon. No system is perfect, and people should learn to accept that change is an inevitable reality of evolution. After all, unless a system's perfect, there is nothing to ensure that it will most certainly take a turn for the worse once there is change involved.

Note: Apple cheese sausages don't taste particularly good.

Flooring

The terrazzo flooring in my apartment is just perfect for seeking out all sorts of obscure and occasionally strange images. I've seen witches, wolves and dog faces in it when I'm idly staring at it. I wonder how people ever put up with plain monotone flooring. Wouldn't trade my floor for other stuff.

A note: A people being ancient does not automagically denote the wisdom that they hold. Just because a people survived from long ago to the present age merely implies that they have much history and have yet to do something that causes them to be wiped out. Moreover, the "wisdom" of the ancients is overemphasized. The ancients have done many bad things to their environment much as modern man has, just as they had strange and wonderous innovations that impress the people of today. As such, people should be vigilant and do their best to maintain that which is beneficial, and make an effort to be aware of the impact they have on the world.