that yellow bastard

Well, go see one anyway.

2009-06-30T14:14:15Z

Warning: there's some pretty dark stuff in this post.

As I posted on twitter at 6:30 or so this morning, I think I need to go see a psychiatrist. I had the most dark, rage-filled, OH JOHN RINGO NO-esque dream.

It basically started like most dreams--inexplicable situations in which I'm dressed only in my underwear, wandering about generic school hallways (I do seem to recall that I was on some covert mission to retrieve something from said school). At some point, however, I encounter a female friend of mine--not a specific friend, just a girl that I know in the Dreaming. She's almost naked, and sobbing. I realize that she's been assaulted, so I throw a blanket over her shoulders and guide her to safety.

Through some instant dream exposition, I learn that she's the prey in some sick game where a group of "hunters," both men and women, track girls Most-Dangerous-Game-style to have their way with them. I also realize that these hunters are famous, like celebrated reality-show or UFC famous. Somehow I manage to confront the leader of the group (through a vague tracking/fighting sequence that seems to have slipped from my mind), and I tell him, "if you do anything like this again, this will be the least of what happens to you."

And then I grab his thumb, and I dislocate it.

Not much later, I see the group gleefully preparing for another hunt, this time with some new equipment--a new crossbow. I realize that they're gear nuts, and I formulate a plan to craft special equipment for them, like a gun that will backfire and dislocate your thumb.

I wake up then, and the dream has so permeated my mind that I continue thinking of ways to punish these people, like shooting them in the kneecap with a shotgun, so they're permanently crippled. I even make a mental note to ask hradzka if it's possible to craft a gun that will dislocate a thumb.

Ironically, someone accused me of being a White Knight the other day.

You take the good; you take the bad

2009-06-15T18:46:03Z

A note to anyone playing Fallout 3:
If you've installed the Broken Steel add-on before attempting the Finding the Garden of Eden main story-line quest, there's going to be a section of the quest where you're walking through Vault 87 (I'm pretty sure it's the Lab section--it might be the Crew's Quarters, though). You're going to come across a two-story room (like in every other Vault) that'll be the second door on your left after going up a set of stairs. Once you enter, two Super Mutant Overlords will come out and blast the bejebus out of you.

This is a pre-programmed encounter that I'm guessing was with Super Mutant Masters before I decided to pay money to up my character's level cap from 20 to 30. As soon as you step into that room, the encounter activates.

So here's a hint:
Backtrack to the stairs, and go into the first room on your left. Walk across that large room, and exit through the door on the other end. After taking care of all the other Super Mutants around, enter that same room from the other side (where the Overlords would be coming from). The encounter will activate, but this time, with the original Super Mutant Masters without Tri-beam Laser Rifles. Much easier to deal with.

I hope my seventeen hours of gameplay yesterday (note: not all at that part of the game) helps you out.

To all my CIM techie peeps

2009-04-22T21:01:32Z

Remember inky?

Tell me about you (or tell me about me through questions about you)

2009-04-20T18:08:41Z

From tankfreak, a survey of sorts--tell me about you:

1. Your Middle Name:
2. Age:
3. Single or Taken:
4. Favourite Movie:
5. Favourite Song or Album:
6. Favourite Band/Artist:
7. Dirty or Clean:
8. Tattoos and/or Piercings:
9. Do we know each other outside of LJ?
10. What's your philosophy on life?
11. Is the bottle half-full or half-empty?
12. Would you keep a secret from me if you thought it was in my best interest?
13. What is your favourite memory of us?
14. What is your favourite guilty pleasure?
15. Tell me one odd/interesting fact about you:
16. You can have three wishes (for yourself, so forget all the 'world peace etc' malarkey) - what are they?
17. Can we get together and make a cake?
18. Which country is your spiritual home?
19. What is your big weakness?
20. Do you think I'm a good person?
21. What was your best/favourite subject at school?
22. Describe your accent.
23. If you could change anything about me, would you?
24. What do you wear to sleep?
25. Trousers or skirts?
26. Cigarettes or alcohol?
27. If I only had one day to live, what would we do together?
28. Will you repost this so I can fill it out for you?

Three Awesomes and a Suck

2009-04-19T03:26:42Z

The E3 Trailer for Prince of Persia that I downloaded a while ago on my Xbox 360.
The haunting music from the trailer: Saeglopur by Sigur Ros.
The Android app Shazam (originally developed for the iPhone) which told me what the music was without the need for me to do various permutations of the search: "Prince of Persia trailer music."
My Playstation 1 memory card has somehow lost my save game data for my not-even-through-with-disc-1, but-spent-over-a-week-of-playtime game of Final Fantasy VII.

From Toni on FB

2009-04-14T20:57:13Z

Tired of all of those surveys made up by high school kids?! 'Have you ever kissed someone? Missed someone? Told someone you loved them? Drank alcohol?' 49 questions for the people who are a little older...

What bill do you hate paying the most?
I hate paying Comcast for my television addiction.

Where was the last place you had a romantic dinner?
Probably Carroll St. Cafe.

What do you really want to be doing right now?
Touring Australia.

How many colleges did you attend?
Technically, two: Miami-Dade Community College with dual-enrollment credits in high school and University of Florida.

Why did you choose the shirt that you have on right now?
Because it was clean.

What are your thoughts on gas prices?
I'm glad I have a car that gets great gas mileage.

First thought when the alarm went off this morning?
*sigh*

Last thought before going to sleep last night?
I should stop playing Sudoku and go to sleep.

Do you miss being a child?
Frequently.

What errand/chore do you despise?
Dusting--my allergies always kill me.

Get up early or sleep in?
I seem to have become physically incapable of sleeping in.

Have you found real love yet?
I wish I hadn't, but yes.

Favorite lunch meat?
Pastrami.

What do you get every time you go into Wal-Mart?
An utter distaste for being in Wal-Mart.

Beach or lake?
The Mountains.

Do you think marriage is an outdated ritual?
No.

Sopranos or Desperate Housewives?
Sopranos.

What famous person would you like to have dinner with?
Probably Barack Obama.

Have you ever crashed your vehicle?
Totalled my ten-year-old Pathfinder.

Ever had to use a fire extinguisher for its intended purpose?
No.

Ring tone?
Peter, You Suck

Strangest place you have ever brushed your teeth?
America's Best Value Inn in Las Vegas. What an utter shithole.

Somewhere in California you've never been and would like to go?
Tijuana.

Do you go to church?
Not lately.

At this point in your life would you rather start a new career or a new relationship?
That's a very good question.

How old are you?
35.

Do you have a go to person?
No.

Are you where you want to be in life?
No.

Growing up, what were your favorite cartoons?
Transformers, Mighty Orbots, Thundarr the Barbarian, Robotech, Gargoyles.

What about you do you think has changed the most?
My naive optimism has given way to a bitter, nihilistic cynicism.

Looking back at high school were they the best years of your life?
I can't really decide, because high school was a crapfest, but lately, adult life has been, too.

Are there times u still feel like a kid?
Sometimes, when I'm playing video games with Nandu.

Did you ever own troll dolls?
I had one which you shoved a pencil into its ass.

Did you have a pager?
For work, yes.

Where was the hang out spot when you were a teenager?
At Walter's place or Dalt's.

Were you the type of kid you would want your children to hang out with?
Probably, I was a nice boy.

Who do you think impacted your life the most?
My brother.

Was there a teacher or authority figure that stood out for you?
Numerous ones. Ms. Garner, Ms. Kjos, Mr. Caballero.

Do you tell stories that start with "when I was your age"?
Sometimes, to young'ns.

Nostalgia ruination

2009-04-08T20:27:39Z

batnandu: uh. wtf? http://www.hampsterdance.com/
batnandu: it's like they ruined my childhood
batnandu: except i was in grad school

Note to everyone:

2009-03-31T20:18:23Z

I work.

I go to my job in the morning, and I get on the computer. While I sign on to all my various communication services, I do not closely monitor them all the time.

Where am I going with this?

If you ask me what's going on, I'm going to tell you that I'm working. This is not an invitation to tell me everything that's going on with your day, your weekend, your life. While I am genuinely interested in what you would like to tell me, the middle of the workday is not necessarily the appropriate time, as it's more than likely that I'm either in the middle of creating code for my job or speaking with my co-workers about creating code for my job.
If we have a conversation, and I stop responding for an extended period of time, there is a high probability that I have been distracted with work-related subjects. This is in no way out of any disinterest to communicate with you. It is work.
If I don't answer you immediately after you message me, it's more than likely because I'm doing something work-related (such as creating code or having a meeting). If you're interested in talking to me, please don't just message me and then log off. That is akin to calling someone, hearing them pick up, saying something, and then hanging up.
I have this nasty tendency to leave myself logged in to my messaging clients around the clock. If you message me and I do not respond at all, it's likely because it's after hours. Send me a note on Twitter or Facebook, and I'll more than likely get back to you in a more timely fashion than if you wait for me to see your instant message when I come back to my computer at work.

The latest Facebook plague

2009-03-20T15:00:17Z

This has nothing to do with the new Facebook layout.

Back in 2002, I started this Livejournal, because, as batnandu suggests, I'm something of an emotional exhibitionist. Drawing compelling content from the dross of my daily life, however, is a Herculean task--were I more dedicated to poetry, short fictions, photos, or videos, I suppose I could have some gems to offer every day. As it stands, I'm that post-modern, neo-geek, sarcastic, hipster-douchebag that only ever drops the occasional grain of wit (I'm guessing this is why Twitter might be so popular) amidst a sea of memes and self-absorbed whining.

So if you go back and look at the succession of posts following that November, 2002 debut (no, really, don't waste your time), you'll find a series of memes and quiz results offered from sites like quizdiva.com, quizilla.com, or okcupid.com. With such a frequency that one of the people who (for some yet-to-be-determined reason) follows this LJ said, "please stop taking quizes, for the love of god."

And yes, I did eventually tire of seeing the insipid things populating my friends page--I even wrote a filter for my friends page to automatically cut them.

So it's with a supreme sense of resignation that I see the latest items scrolling onto my Facebook homepage:

"What painting are you?"
"Which Great Philosopher are you?"
"Where should you be living?"

These are the same kinds of things I stopped posting a long while ago, and it seems that Facebook is just recycling the whole Online Junior High Slambook concept again.

But here's where it's even worse--each application that Facebook approves for its users need approval from each individual user before they allow it to post on that user's page. The quiz application developers, in their idiocy, instead of creating a single quiz framework application to access the user's information, set their quizzes up so that each individual quiz has to ask for access to the user's details. So every Facebook user wanting to take the both the "Where should you be living" quiz and the "Which 80s band are you?" quiz has to approve access for both quizzes individually, when the access required for both is essentially, "Can this application post its crap onto your news feed?"

And all for those unspecific, non-committal gestures at your personality.

First! (The breakup)

2009-03-19T18:45:35Z

On February 13, 1998, I drove up to Gainesville, Florida from Miami after work in preparation for a weekend visit to my long-distance girlfriend as well as a consultation with my graduate advisor. I had planned a nice evening out with my girlfriend for the next day, following a stop-off at a friend's birthday party. I had high hopes that we'd have a nice intimate weekend with one another.

As we waited for the meal to arrive, we talked about the various things that were happening with our lives--the details that don't come readily when exchanging email or instant messages. I talked briefly of my job, and the boring minutiae of my days in Miami. She told me a short story about one of her classmates, who had asked about our relationship. She recounted the details of that conversation, how her classmate had asked if we were still together. I asked for more detail on her answer.

"Well, I told her that we're not."

I would glance at my watch then, and see the clock hands near vertical, the longer one just slightly past the shorter one. I've convinced myself that I'm the first person in the Eastern timezone to be dumped on that Valentine's Day, some eleven years ago.

If only because it makes for a more interesting story.

Movie Recs

2009-03-17T19:54:26Z

Based on a recent request for movie recs to add to a Netflix queue, here's a couple from my 5-star rating list:

12 Angry Men
Amelie (French)
Big
Charade
Chungking Express (Chinese)
The Count of Monte Cristo (with Gerard Depardieu) (French, Mini-series)
Coupling (British BBC Series)
Dead Again
The Fall
From the Earth to the Moon (Mini-series)
Great Expectations
In the Mood for Love (Chinese)
Out of Sight
Persepolis (Animated)
The Pixar Story
Please Vote for Me (Documentary, Chinese)
Rain Man
Raising Arizona
Rear Window
Reversal of Fortune
Shakespeare in Love
Spirited Away (Animated, Japanese)
Swingers
This Film is Not Yet Rated (Documentary)

Claiming my name on http://tinyarro.ws/

2009-03-11T18:08:16Z

Liebe miener Website

http://❥.ws/民
http://›.ws/蕭季民

Eso es todo.

Yet another of the memes that I keep getting tagged with on Facebook

2009-03-10T20:43:45Z

Yes. Another meme. Not feeling like writing anything beyond a short description of how I'd like to punch anyone and everyone I meet in the balls. So, yeah...meme:

Four names that people call you:
James
Ming
Dude
Hsiao Ji-Ming

Four jobs I have had in my life:
Computer Programmer
Junior System Administrator
Consultant
Data Entry

Four books that I would (& have) read more than once:
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons
Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
The Cider House Rules by John Irving

Four places I have lived:
Atlanta, GA
Gainesville, FL
Miami, FL
Taipei, Taiwan

Four favorite places I have been:
Jamison Square Fountain, Portland, OR
Whistler Mountain, Whistler, BC
San Francisco, CA
Las Vegas, NV

Four of my favorite foods:
Pie
Bacon
Eggs over-medium
Pastrami

Four places I'd rather be right right now:
In bed.
Hurtling down a mountainside with two long planks clamped to my feet.
With TWIWTM.
Anywhere but here.

Four things I am looking forward to this year:
9
Terminator: Salvation
Star Trek
Finding some measure of joy in my life.

Four movies I'd recommend:
The Usual Suspects
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
The Iron Giant
The Seven Samurai

Four musical acts I've seen in concert:
Jawbreaker
Hot Water Music
Yo-Yo Ma
Queensryche

Spoiler-free Watchmen Review (and a meme)

2009-03-06T21:01:10Z

Watchmen succeeds in capturing the main plotline of the comic, and there are some lovely sequences where Snyder emulates the slow-paced pull-out that Moore and Gibbons created when introducing a new issue. You can tell that Snyder used the comic as storyboards, using the art to set up angles and shots. There's a bit of over-exposition in a couple of places, where the script has characters Legolas the plot points. The guy playing Ozymandias is at times so soft-spoken and wooden, it robs his particular scenes of power--Ozymandias is supposed to be cool and emotionless for the majority of the plot, but there are a couple of scenes in the books where he emotes more, and I didn't really see any of that in the movie. I would have preferred an older, more mature actor in the role.

Pacing was odd--for a three-hour movie, it flowed pretty well, but emulating the comic in plot and focus gave the movie a certain meandering quality, pointing the audience in different directions as to who to empathize with or pay attention to. Not a problem during a 12-issue comic series, but an issue for a largely single-threaded movie. Part of me thinks this would have worked a great deal better as a television mini-series.

There were some changes to the ending that I would have preferred unchanged. I'm not talking about THE BIG THING, but the epilogue. I think the changes undermine some of the themes of Watchmen, but for the most part, I thought the movie a very, very good adaptation of the comic.

Incidentally, for those of you who haven't read the comic, both the movie and the source are very, very dark and violent. You have been warned.

As I've twittered way too many times, "3 out of 4 'HURM's."

And now, a tagged meme (from Jeremy):

Five names you go by:

1. James
2. Ming
3. Jimmy
4. Ji-Ming
5. Dah-Toh

Three things you are wearing right now:

1. Boots
2. Rings
3. Boxer Briefs

Two things you want very badly at the moment:

1. Someone I have lost.
2. To find any manner of joy in life.

Two people who will probably fill this out:

1. Kara
2. Don't know who else.

Two things you did last night:

1. Committed the classic blunder of trusting the Non-Asian when Math was on the line.
2. Saw Watchmen

Two things you ate today:

1. Trader Joe's Butter Chicken
2. An Orange Dream from Sublime Donuts.

Two people you last talked to on the phone:

1. Dad
2. Ben

Two things you are going to do tomorrow:

1. See Watchmen again.
2. Go to Mark's birthday party.

Two longest car rides:

1. Dallas, TX to Gainesville, FL
2. Miami, FL to New York, NY

Two of your favorite beverages:

1. Tropicana Pure Premium
2. Water

FML

2009-03-01T00:17:06Z

Today, the automated process that I set up for reminders sent me a message about the upcoming birthday of the piece-of-shit former friend who started dating the woman that I wanted to marry six months after she broke up with me. FML

You know what rules?

2009-02-23T20:17:45Z

When you're plugging your phone into your computer, you draw your hand across your keyboard, and the edge of a piece of paper there slices open your cuticle.

Oh, no, wait. That sucks.

10 Albums

2009-02-23T19:35:18Z

From coffeeachiever: Think of 10 albums, CDs, LPs (if you're over 40) that had such a profound effect on you they changed your life. Dug into your soul. Music that brought you to life when you heard it. Royally affected you, kicked you in the wazoo, literally socked you in the gut, is what I mean. Then when you finish, tag 10 others, including me. Make sure you copy and paste this part so they know the drill. Get the idea now? Good. Tag, you're it!

Herbert von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 in D minor "Choral" (1977)

This is one of the few classical albums that still remains part of me, despite my not owning it. My uncle had this on CD, and I listened to it repeatedly one summer when I was in Taiwan, eventually learning the intro, first verse and bridge of the final movement, the "Ode to Joy." To this day, I can sing those parts phonetically, although I only have a faint idea of what I'm actually singing in German.

a-ha Hunting High and Low (1985)
"I fear the crazed and lonely looks the mirror's sending me these days" - "The Sun Always Shines on T.V."

Far from just the pop punchline "Take On Me" (which still has a great video replete with influences from comic books and Altered States), a-ha's debut album has a wide variety of different styles and moods. This was one of my favorite albums when I was in junior high, and I've been an a-ha fan since. I drove my brother crazy listening to the extended version of "The Sun Always Shines on T.V." on repeat.

Quit Earlier Thoughts (1990)
"I'm waiting for you to come into my life." - "Waiting"

I picked up this album by a local Miami band when I purchased my comics for the week at Coral Comics next to the University of Miami back when I was in high school. Just a simple curiousity turned into a lifelong passion for punk rock with melodic pop overtones and/or point/counterpoint vocals. These guys wrote punk songs about relationships people might have called 'emo' before 1) everyone else started overusing the term as derogatory catchall for whiny, self-obsessed bitchsmithing and 2) bands started writing whiny, self-obsessed bitchsmith songs (I'm looking at you, Fall Out Boy) in a crappy vicious cycle. I've been searching for about 20 years for their second album, which apparently was never pressed, but samples of which are here.

Descendents Somery (1991)
"They made me go away, sometimes life isn't fair, but I'll be back someday; I hope you'll still be there" - "Silly Girl"

The Descendents' "Greatest Hits" of sorts, Somery will always have a place in my life--from the humorous short tracks ("I Like Food" and "Weinerschnitzel") to the more heartfelt songs ("Get the Time" and "Cheer"). Following Quit's Earlier Thoughts, this was the next lesson in my pop-punk education.

Cranberries No Need To Argue (1994)
"And the thing that makes me mad is the one thing that I had. I knew, I'd lose you. " - "No Need to Argue"

Both this album and the following listing are two that particularly affected me, because they both came out and spoke directly to me during a time which up until recently saw the worst thing to happen to me--the dissolution of my five-year relationship with my longtime, high-school sweetheart girlfriend. At times, I often find myself going back to "No Need to Argue," with that resigned, "you're leaving, and there's nothing I can really say about it" feeling.

Jawbreaker 24 Hour Revenge Therapy (1994)
"Drank and just about smiled, then I remembered us in that bed." - "Condition Oakland"

As mentioned, this album is also full of post-breakup anthems that carried me through that rough patch. There's a quiet poetry in all of these songs (sometimes literally, in the case of "Condition Oakland"), and songs like "Do You Still Hate Me?" and "In Sadding Around" (which starts with the line "Sleeping of the last five years takes another five"), gave me the wiggins in how prophetic/clairvoyant they were with my life.

Hot Water Music Finding the Rhythms (1996)
"Got thinking I'm not happy not thinking right. I can't wash this away but gotta get it out of my mind" - "Counting Numbers"

Sometime in 1996, I went to a concert at the Covered Dish in Gainesville, FL. I watched Hot Water Music open up for Jawbreaker, and was mesmerized by the heavy, distorted sound combined with the point/counterpoint vocals. I had a hard time pinpointing an individual HWM album for this list, as all of them have been deep parts of my musical upbringing, so I just chose the first one I picked up at that concert some 13 years ago.

Less than Jake Hello Rockview (1998)
"A boring life in a boring town in the same old crowd; and I used to say that I'd never stay, but I'm rotting here today." - "History of a Boring Town"

I listened to this album for months in Miami, having it seep into my bones, noting all the similarities between me and the characters described in each of the songs--the general malaise at being back home, the unshakable feeling that I was meant to be somewhere else, doing something else. This is the album that got me to move out of my parents' house and to Atlanta.

Rumbleseat Is Dead (2005)
"Someone once told me, if there's a road to happiness, I must have passed it long ago." - "Restless"

Chuck Ragan and Chris Wollard of Hot Water Music put together this alt-folk/country side project who's album didn't get pressed until 2005 following various delays, including a hurricane ruining some initial recordings. I know how to play a number of these acoustic tracks on the guitar (for some very loose sense of the word "play"), which despite a marked difference from my generally-preferred genres, have always talked to me. And it introduced Don Gibson's "Sea of Heartbreak" to me, which is a heavily-played favorite for me.

Mixtapes

From the days when I would hold a small portable radio up to another radio to my most recent additions to favtape.com (which as I've mentioned on twitter, is sorely lacking in their Screeching Weasel and other indie band collection), I've made mixtapes all my life, taking the best tracks from all the various albums of my life, and rearranging them in theme, genre, humor, or at random. I can remember where I was in my life based on what mixtape I was listening to at the time, and my brain is hard-wired to always expect Antonio Banderas and Los Lobos singing "Cancion del Mariachi" to follow the Mighty Mighty Bosstones' "Hope I Never Lose My Wallet."

FML

2009-02-20T22:59:50Z

coffeeachiever: http://www.fmylife.com/sex/88381
thepeopleseason: yeah, that teh suck.
coffeeachiever: bigtime
coffeeachiever: damn
thepeopleseason: I actually commented on this one http://www.fmylife.com/love/87320
thepeopleseason: can you guess my comment?
coffeeachiever: ROFL
coffeeachiever: #2
thepeopleseason: wow.
thepeopleseason: how do you people know me so well?
coffeeachiever: come on
coffeeachiever: your user name was "cockpunch"
coffeeachiever: of COURSE that's you

Uncle Patrick's Ball-Punch Theory

2009-02-20T22:32:09Z

Uncle Patrick's Ball-Punch Theory

Punching someone really, really hard on the balls can potentially flip their breaker switch, ideally resetting their personality to something more manageable.
-- http://tr.im/gCRL

Unfortunately, there's no shortage of test subjects.

It occurs to me...

2009-02-12T13:44:25Z

It occurs to me that one thing that some women are attracted to about me initially is my ability to sit quietly and listen to what they're saying. Unfortunately, I have a feeling that eventually translates to boring a few months/years down the line.

Regarding Karma's Lever

2009-02-11T21:25:07Z

coffeeachiever: you make me sad.
thepeopleseason: Apparently. that's my other superpower.

Karma's Lever

2009-02-10T14:59:07Z

I think I have a superpower.
It's one I think I can't control.
The power works subconsciously
And scares me to my bitter soul.

I got the news as I drove home
Eight years ago (this very day),
A man had died, a man I knew--
The man who stole my love away.

His fearful widow, full of tears,
the greatest love of my short life.
I cut her heart and cut her child.
My guilty will was the knife.

Am I the fulcrum upon which pivots,
Karma's lever, scythe, and hammer?
Does my mind speak in secret words,
The syllables of Death's own grammar?

I couldn't find my love today,
She gave her heart to another.
I thought the man was my friend.
Betrayed and failed by my brother.

I think I have a superpower.
It's one I think I can't control.
But days like this, I can't help wish,
I'd flex my mind and take my toll.

Dear Romie: I'm sorry.

Sea of Heartbreak (or more memes people keep tagging me with on Facebook)

2009-02-02T19:36:05Z

The Rules? Only one rule. Two men enter, one man leaves. OK, here's another rule. Never get involved in a land war in Asia. Anyway, I made up 25 pieces of trivia about me. There are an additional 2 that are true...ish. Go ahead and figure out which is which.

IF YOU DARE.

Or not. Really, I don't care. This is just me getting all meta on Facebook (or LJ). Enjoy!

25 Untrue and 2 Unexpectedly True Things About Me

I went to high school with Skylar Ulrich, current wife of Lars Ulrich, and former girlfriend of Matt Damon (as dramatized in Good Will Hunting).
I am related to Taiwan's founding President Chiang Kai-Shek.
I am currently shopping around a novel of approximately 732 pages which many companies, including Scholastic, have declined to publish because of a particular scene which they think involves necrophilia.
I have eaten dogmeat.
I can stretch my leg behind my head.
When I walk to/from work, I cross the street without any regard to traffic.
I have committed adultery.
I wrote a spec script for Buffy the Vampire Slayer that former Buffy scribe Jane Espenson reviewed.
I competed in video gaming at DragonCon one year, and I got first place for the game Soul Blade.
When I was younger, I was detained at a local Miami Eckerd's Drug Store for shoplifting.
Somewhere on the web, there is a video of me and an ex-girlfriend making love. She uploaded it.
I have attempted suicide twice in my life.
I can recite the entirety of Superman: The Movie.
I have written software to flood a sweepstakes website with entries, thereby guaranteeing that I would receive a large percentage of the prizes.
I contributed code to Mozilla Firefox.
I love doing these meme things
I have completed "Maps" by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs on drums at Expert difficulty in Rock Band.
I invited Bill Clinton to play Dungeons and Dragons in college.
Interviewed after the first showing of Star Wars: A New Hope Special Edition in Gainesville, Florida, I said on camera, "...and I can't believe they blew up the Death Star!"
I once sketched an image that an ex-girlfriend now has tattooed on her body.
I have spent over $25,000 on comic-book related collectibles on eBay.
When I was in middle school, I got into numerous fights, one of which chipped my front tooth.
When I was an infant/toddler, I came down with the first case of Mumps in Taiwan.
I once intentionally shot my brother with a BB gun.
In elementary school, I ran at my father across the street and was struck by a vehicle moving obviously too fast in a school zone, breaking my leg in three places.
I once stayed up all night and watched the entire original Star Wars Trilogy then the Lord of the Rings Trilogy just to see if I could.
There are actually three other items in this list that are true.

Magic 8 Ball

1. Put iTunes/WMP/iPod on shuffle.
2. For each question, advance to the next song.
3. Write down the song name no matter how stupid your friends are going to think it is.
4. Tag 5 or more friends + the person who sent it.

I'm not tagging anyone.

If someone says, "Is this okay?" you say:
"Carry On Wayward Son" (Kansas)

What would best describe your personality?
"More Than a Feeling" (Boston)

What do you like in a guy/girl?
"In a Manner of Speaking" (Nouvelle Vague)

How do you feel today?
"Breathe Me" (Sia)

What is your life's purpose?
"Born to Run" (Bruce Springsteen)

What is your motto?
"Since I Don't Have You" (Don McLean)

What do your friends think of you?
"Don't You (Forget About Me)" (Billy Idol)

What do you think of your parents?
"Cool To Be You" (Descendants)

What do you think about very often?
"My Happiness" (Elvis Presley)

What is 2+2?
"Love and Happiness" (Al Green)

What do you think of your best friend(s)?
"Iowa (Traveling III)" (Dar Williams)

What do you think of the person you like?
"Kiss You" (Iio)

What is your life story?
"Sea of Heartbreak" (Jimmy Buffett w/ George Strait)

What do you want to be when you grow up?
"Thunder Road" (Bruce Springsteen and Melissa Etheridge)

What do you think when you see the person you like?
"Insanity Test Techno Remix"

What do your parents think of you? (Nothing but love baby! =))
"Don't Fear The Reaper" (Blue Oyster Cult)

What will you dance to at your wedding?
"Ring of Fire" (Johnny Cash)

What is your hobby/interest?
"Keep Breathing" (Ingrid Michaelson)

What do you think of your friends?
Man in Black (Johnny Cash)

What's the worst thing that could happen?
"Hurt" (Nine Inch Nails)

How will you die?
"Happiness" (Elliot Smith)

What is the one thing you regret?
"The Luckiest" (Ben Folds)

What makes you laugh?
"Mr. Brightside" (The Killers)

What makes you cry?
"Cry, Cry, Cry" (Johnny Cash)

Will you ever get married?
"Sea of Heartbreak" (Don Gibson)

What scares you the most?
"American Pie (acoustic)" (Garth Brooks)

Does anyone like you?
"Happiness Is All The Rage" (The Promise Ring)

If you could go back in time, what would you change?
"Sea of Heartbreak" (The Searchers)

What hurts right now?
"Save Me" (SuperGreenX)

What will you post this as?
"Sea of Heartbreak" (Leo Sayer)

That 25 Random Things Thing... if you give a crap.

2009-01-30T23:04:34Z

Rules: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you OR I've already read yours and think we have a lot in common.

Honestly, I'm not going to tag anyone because either you've already been tagged or you're getting tired of this whole thing...

I've done this before, but with 100 things. Any item listed with a number is a reference back to the numbered item in that post.
I'm a Highly Sensitive Person (HSP), which means that I process stimuli to a greater degree than the average person, and the range between where I'm understimulated and overstimulated is far smaller. So from what I can remember of my childhood, my extreme introversion is not innate, but is a result of my high emotional sensitivity to ridicule when I was younger.
I'm guessing that growing up as a minor minority in Miami didn't help the feelings of being on the outside of things.
I'm ready to have children. I've been ready to have children since 1995.
Despite a long hiatus of not writing, I still write poetry, but I'm also still convinced I'll never write anything as good as Abraham (41).
That I've again experienced a situation where the woman that I love leaves me and starts dating a mutual friend (76) makes me all the more bitter (77).
I still haven't gotten the black splotch on my back (96) checked, confirming (27).
I should probably go see a psychiatrist, but (27).
I weigh eighty pounds more than I did in high school.
In 1991, my senior year of high school, I was 13th best in the nation amongst competing high school students at computing Matrices and Determinants. I can't for the life of me tell you what an eigenvalue is today, though.
I've had unusually large tonsils my entire life. The dentist makes a point to talk about them every visit.
When I was younger, I wanted them gone, because I heard that you got to eat lots of ice cream.
As a result of (95), my opthamologist recommends that I not get LASIK, because of the potential that I may need further retinal detachment correction.
Whenever I encounter a baby, toddler, child, and sometimes dog, cat, or turtle, I'll say, "Hey, how's it goin'?"
I've had more than one person say that I bear a resemblance to Elvis Presley (granted, one guy was a panhandler). Frankly, I don't really see it.
If I'm in the mood, I usually sing Elvis at karaoke. When I told one of my friends that if I ever did karaoke regularly, I'd only sing Elvis, he told me, "You can't do that; there's already an Asian guy who sings Elvis at karaoke." I knew immediately that he was talking about Ben.
Despite a concerted effort by Iron Maiden, Metallica, and Queensryche to try to blow my ears out, I have a high sensitivity to sound, like being able to hear a car alarm or building construction from five blocks out, or not being able to sleep when a neighbor is playing music loudly.
I've significantly curtailed my television watching from 17 hours weekly (81) to about 10.
I'm 3/7ths of my way through my goal of standing on every continent. My next intended continent is Australia.
I asked Greg, manager/bartender at the Independent, if he would ban me if I got into a fight at the bar. He replied, "I couldn't ban you because if you got into a fight, you'd have a really, really good reason." This made me feel very good for about five minutes.
My favorite classical composer is Rachmaninoff. My favorite work of his is his Piano Concerto No. 2
I keep learning that adult life is just like high school, and I wish everyone would cut that crap out.
I have a tremendous amount of respect for people with unshakeable faith and morality like Tim Tebow and Danny Wuerffel.
I am an emotional voyeur--I like sites like Postsecret, Dear Old Love, and F*** My Life.
I tried very hard to not be a whiny emo bitch putting this list together.

For those of you who don't read my identi.ca/twitter

2009-01-30T16:14:35Z

If you have a MicroSD card, and you volunteer its use to someone who wants to get a file off of a Samsung Helio phone, be aware that you might lose the 1.5 Gigabytes of MP3s, photos, and customized ringtones that you've built up when in an unknown series of steps, the phone reformats your SD card.

Just so you know.