Sunday, January 2, 2011

The End

I hate goodbyes, so I'll make this quick.

I'm hosting this blog on my own domain now.

Blogspot was cool, but...moving on.

www.burnwash.com/journal

^_^|/

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Monday, December 27, 2010

One of Those Days

Well, today was one of those days.

Single-digit temperatures plus the fact that I went four days without starting my vehicle equaled a very dead battery. I started to notice that my battery was losing a bit of power last week, and despite that realization, still failed to keep my car cranking over the weekend. So, I wasn't the least bit surprised that my car didn't start, but I was quite perturbed by it.

Then, after getting a ride, I showed up to the squadron, having failed to grab my security badge before I left home. Great start to the day ⌐_⌐

No big deal, though. I and a couple of buddies of mine had a fun little shopping trip after work, partially in order to get a new battery for me. Plus, I got to put my new pliers that I got for Christmas to use, what with having to un- and re-install the battery. I also pre-ordered Dead Space 2 from GameStop and bought a cheap but really good cake.

The sister got me a nice shiny new blender for Christmas, but I haven't had anything to blend, so I'm going grocery shopping tomorrow morning for smoothie supplies. I've been stocking up on bananas and milk at the dining facility, since it doesn't cost me anything, which kind of feels like cheating, but I don't care ^__^

New Orleans beat Atlanta tonight, which pretty much kills Tampa Bay's playoff chances. I thought it was completely over for them, but if they beat New Orleans next week, and Green Bay and the New York Giants both lose, they're in. Not likely, but possible.

Former Morning Musume member Nozomi Tsuji had her second child yesterday, so congrats to her.

The AKB48 member that I mentioned as being rather ill the other day, Mariya Suzuki, is out of the hospital now, so I'm quite relieved by that. Apparently it was something quite serious, but she and her agency aren't giving details, and I guess it's none of my business, so I'm just glad she's able to come back.

I'm so glad I'm off work tomorrow. Then, after my half-day on Wednesday, it's another four-day weekend. And this weekend, I'll be sure to turn my car on every now and then :P

On Sunday, I started playing Minecraft. It just recently went from Alpha to Beta, and I finally decided to go ahead and jump in. It. Is. Awesome. Seriously, it's one of the most amazing games ever made, even though there's no real objective or point to it. It's the ultimate sandbox-type game, and truly allows the player to play however he desires. It's kind of a hard to explain what it's all about, but I guarantee I'll be me mentioning it often from here on, and showing screenshots of my progress and stuff.

I'll save a lot of her story and my thoughts about her for my end-of-year musings, but I have to mention that today was Mayumi Uchida's birthday. This girl may be my "person of the year," due to the fact that an opportunity that she didn't deserve was thrown at her, and she took it and she performed so spectacularly well, and so beyond anybody's expectations. She was placed in the front-and-center position for the latest AKB48 single after winning, of all things, an all-48-member rock/paper/scissors tournament. That's a huge deal, as she was certainly one of the lesser-known members at the time, and had a lot of people (all the way up to Yasushi Akimoto, the AKB mastermind himself) doubting her. Long story short, I can't tell you how glad I am that she won. I'm genuinely proud of the kid, and honestly feel that she somehow deserved it more than any of the others. She said on her blog that this is by far her best birthday ever, and that just puts a huge smile on my face. So congratulations and Happy Birthday, Mayuchi!!!


Oh, and since I bought that cake earlier today ^__^...


^_^|/

Friday, December 24, 2010

Merry Christmas Eve!

Well, this seems appropriate today:


The song is °C-ute's "Aitai Lonely Christmas," which translates to "Lonely Christmas, Missing You." :(

Lyrics are basically, "I miss you; I want to see you again; I wish I was able to spend Christmas with you; I've never felt like this before; blah, blah, blah...I smile as I do my Christmas shopping, but my heart is aching"

...you get the idea. Geez, this song is depressing.

AKB48's Christmas song is much more positive. Maybe I'll listen to it instead:


I dunno...Christmas just doesn't feel like Christmas this year. I look at the calendar, and it just...seems like any other day. I guess I haven't taken the time to sit back and realize how much I really wish I was back at home right now. I try to convince myself that it's not so bad, but then I start to think about it (and that darn °C-ute song doesn't help), and...yeah...it's pretty lonely being thousands of miles away from your family on Christmas. There are so many sacrifices that go along with wearing the uniform I wear, but...so it goes, I guess.

Ugh...I'm not sure how to lighten the mood now.

Sorry.

Um...here's the dance version of that song:


A bit less depressing ^__^

Anyway...I guess I'll write some more tomorrow.

Happy Merry Christmas!

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Target

Sorry about yesterday, but I was really caught up in the story of that DS game I bought the other day, "9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors." Yes, that's the title. It's a "visual novel" game, so the vast majority of it is just reading the story. Every now and then, you're required to make tough decisions that determine the course of the plot, and solve various puzzle situations, but the story is incredibly compelling and the characters are fully-realized and genuinely interesting. These types of games are very popular in Japan, but they hardly ever come to this country. This game did, and I heard it was really good, so I went to GameStop to see if there was a chance they had it in stock, and was really surprised to discover that they did. So, I was very happy. Today, I managed to get one of the many possible endings to the story (and because of some decisions I made, it didn't end well), so now I'm on my second time through, knowing some things that I didn't know the first time, and hoping for the real ending. Good stuff.

Today was my first day of four off ^__^ I actually slept for a solid eight hours last night, which was nice. I spent a good chunk of time writing today, which is always nice and frustrating. I seriously need new hobbies. My current ones either require too much of an emotional deposit, or too much of a desire to pull out my hair. Sometimes I wish I just participated in fantasy football and did awesome things to my car, like every normal 20-something male. Actually, that's a lie. I don't wish that at all. I have way too much fun re-thinking Shakespeare and idolizing 15-year-old Japanese girls ^__^

I am trying to stay busy and involved in things, as this could be a pretty rough time for me if it allow it to be. 28 years old and my first time not at home at Christmas-time. Feels bad, man.

I think I'm going to go to bed early tonight, even though I don't have to. I can already tell that I'm not going to want to get up on Monday. But at least I have next Tuesday off. And a half-day next Wednesday. Then another four-day weekend. The best part? My paychecks don't change ^__^

Ooh...I almost forgot. One year ago today was my last day at Target. Wow, the places I've been and the things I've experienced since then...

Crazy.

I'm going to have a lot to write about for my end-of-year musings, which I need to start thinking about thinking about. Next Saturday's 2011, after all.

There are a number of various things that I've been wanting to post here, but they're all sort of queued up, waiting for a day on which I have nothing to say, which may never come. Heh. I'll be so glad when I get my domain up and running, then I'll be able to have more control and a central location to do what I want to do with the Internets. It'll be cool, eventually, but looking at where it stands right now, it'll probably be pretty weak when it first goes up. I confess that I've been spending more time working out the rather complex J-pop pages, than I have on the blogging sort of stuff. I'll be at it tomorrow, though. Hoping to put some good work into it, maybe to a point where I can actually preview what it looks like at this point.

One more thing, then bed.

I haven't mentioned a birthday in quite a while, after a run of quite a few earlier in the month. But I have mentioned the girl whose birthday is today. *SIGH* Just as I was starting to feel that I was done being so moody over her graduation, Eri Kamei had to go and have her birthday, and put herself back in my thoughts ^__^ I kind of feel that I've posted enough pictures of her over the past couple of weeks (plus, she's been on the header picture for this blog since August), but then I realize that there's no such thing as enough pictures of her, so:


Happy 22nd!!!

Not the same without her <_>

G'night.

^_^|/

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Can't talk now; gotta get back to this story...

^_^|/

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Things Sure Have Changed

You know what I need to get back to doing?

Reading.

I'm still way behind on my comic books, and I need to get back into the Dark Tower novels. Not to mention the fact that I'd love to go back and read through the whole Dune saga again. Hmm...when I do that, should I go through them in chronological order, with the prequels first, or in the order in which they were written?

Work was super-crappy today.

Half my shop was off today, as half of us got today off, and the other half (of which I'm a part) gets next Tuesday off. So I got there at 7:00, and worked on some of my training until 9:00, at which time SSgt Name-Withheld told the other two Airmen that they could go ahead and go home. I guess he couldn't justify sending all three of us, so I was stuck at work all day doing absolutely nothing, with nobody to talk to or anything. Plus, the two guys that got to leave early are essentially getting BOTH Tuesdays off now. I didn't have a happy day. And to make matters worse, I went to lunch at noon, and when I drove back to work, I walked in to find that nobody was in the office. Everybody else was released while I was at lunch, so driving all the way back up there was stupid and pointless. Ugh. I was so frustrated. But I still got out kind of early, and at least I know tomorrow is going to be short (and will lead into a four-day weekend), so I guess it's no big deal. I'm over it.

I ran by GameStop after work today to see if they possibly had in stock a pretty obscure DS game that just came out (they did), and while I was there, I bought my new Wii ^__^ I guess they had just gotten a few of the limited edition red ones in, so my timing was impeccable. That definitely served to put me in a better mood. Now I just need to find a good spot to put the thing.

Hmm...I wonder if we have PT tomorrow morning. If so, then we won't actually be into work until 9:00, which will make it a three-hour work day. Awesome.

No J-pop birthdays today, but a bit of more serious-type news. AKB48's Mariya Suzuki is apparently really sick right now. They're being really quiet about the details, but it seems like it's pretty bad. She's one of the less-popular members, and I don't know her that well, but she's one of my 48, so this whole situation kind of worries me, and I hope she gets well soon.

Today's the 21st, so the days are going to slowly start getting longer. Of course, by the summer, they'll be way too long and I'll be whining about the lack of darkness. You just can't win up here.

Oh dear...I found a kiwi that's been sitting here for...I don't know; a few days. It's a little squishy, and I'm slightly afraid of cutting into it. I'll try it later.

The third Robot Chicken Star Wars special aired on Sunday night, and it was hilarious. The bit with the wampa at the gas station is an instant classic. Surprisingly, I can't find it on YouTube, or I'd embed it here, but...wow; I was on the floor. Funny, funny, stuff.

I was finally able to get my online banking set back up today. First time I've been able to access it all year, so I'm now 100% caught up on my financial records and balance and jazz. Time to start looking at next year's budget. This year was kind of hard to keep up with, with all the changes in pay and benefits, and all the moving around and everything. Next year should be a lot easier.

Heh...I just looked at my post from a year a go. I was questioning decisions that were being made at work, listening to Bob Dylan in my car, and wondering about my own sanity due to my J-pop obsession ^__^ Gee...things sure have changed ⌐_⌐

That's funny.

Speaking of J-pop, I wonder if there's a new AKBINGO tomorrow Last week was a sort of year-in-review best-of kind of thing, so that may have been all until next month, which isn't cool. Apparently Yui Yokoyama and some of the newly promoted girls are going to finally get to be on. Looking forward to that.

Alright, I've written enough.

Bye for now.

^_^|/