I really haven't felt like writing anything here.  So I haven't.  It'll pick up soon I'm sure.  Still my family's broke, I've lent them money, so now I'm broke too.  This is not good.  And I've run out of things to write. 

Well, if anyone still reads this, they should message sometime and say hi.  And... I'm turning 26 tomorrow.  I'm getting old.  ...  I really can't bring myself to write much more today.  I'm stopping here then, I'll just toss up a few links.

This may not come as a surprise, but some of those Islamic clerics are crazy.  I don't mean the ones sending people out to blow themselves up.  This is a different kind of crazy. 

And I never knew this, but apparently there is a such thing as a strip poker tournament.  An official strip poker tournament, not just like a group of friends playing.

Once again, the US postal service FTW.

I still haven't seen Advent Children.  I'll have to try getting it later I guess.  As for my proposed journey to the west, I guess I should find out when's a good time.  It's getting down to the wire as it is.  The aforementioned money issues have been bothering me and making me postpone things.

I'm really going to have to start writing more stuff here again.  Oh well, too late to start tonight.  I had a doctor's appointment today for the bump on my wrist.  That's right, it's not gone away, not that I expected it to.  Anyway, I just had it looked at since you never know about these things.  Ganglion cyst, that's what it is.  So nothing to worry about unless it grows big enough to really pinch a nerve and hurts.  So yay.

And a video.  I do not suggest watching it.  If you're a masochist, maybe.  I'm only posting it here as a reminder that if I EVER encounter this kid that I will castrate him to strike his genes from the pool.  I'd considering killing him, but that's morally wrong, and there's the very slight off chance that he MIGHT at some point contribute something useful to society.  That, and leaving him alive seems like it's a fitting punishment on his parents for spawning/raising such an atrocity.  But seriously, I'm not kidding, don't look/listen at any segment of it for more than 5 seconds, otherwise you will actively seek ways to take your own life to stop the pain.  You've been warned.

Well time to sleep now.

I haven't updated.  I'm not even really updating now.  I just feel too busy to write something, which is... strange because I end up wasting time playing solitaire or hearts on the computer at work anyway.  But I'm really going to work, honest.  I just wanted to say that the past couple weeks I have been excessively tired, and I don't know why, and I'm falling asleep right now.  It's hard to work when you just want to close your eyes, and nap.  Meh, OK, time to try and wake up so I can actually do something

Doctor's appointment on Wednesday to check out this bump on my wrist.  New doctor I've never met too.  Pretty much supposedly going to be my primary physician after this.  I guess I needed one for my health insurance or something.

OK, link day.  I've put off posting some of these long enough.  So, lets get started.

First on the menu is an awesome commercial from I believe Thailand.

I believe this is another commercial.  I found it entertaining.

And finally, a link that's horrible.  There are times in life where I believe someone can snap, and temporarily lose their grip and kill someone.  This is one of those times when I would pardon a person for any loss of control they might suffer.

That's it for today.

It's been a few days since I've posted.  And I don't think I'll actually post much today either.  Ultimately, I've had things to write about, but I've been so busy I've never felt like I could spare the time.  Well to start off today, a link.  And here's another, which just highlights how stupid people can be sometimes.

I'll fill out this update with a brief discussion about part of my nature.  Sadly, since no one reads this any more, it's not like it's actually cause any less misinterpretation.  But part of why I write is to help think about myself, and clear my mind, and perhaps change things I want changed about my personality or how I act sometimes.  The other part is so I can possibly progress views of mine.  Writing them down helps me continue them sometimes.  Not that they'll ever be useful, but I'm addicted to thought as much as I'm addicted to video games.  This post falls under the former category though.

So, what brought this topic about is the other day, I spoke with a friend about visiting.  I didn't realize this but how I ask about these things and how I behave at least over text makes it sound like I'm doing them a favor.  Upon further thought about this, I find it's true.  It's not how I mean it to sound.  I know why it sounds that way, and I suppose I'll explain it here. 

To me, traveling is a pain, and organizing any trip is probably a week long process if I have to deal with my parents.  It's not something I cherish.  The other problem is I get anxious or nervous or some variant of those thinking about dealing with others.  It's not that bad, but it's one of those things.  All of this makes me want to just take the easy way and sit in my room and do nothing.  That isn't healthy.

So, unfortunately this comes into play when I'm asked.  But, that's ultimately not why it might end up sounding like I'm doing a favor.  It's a factor, but not the real cause.  It has to do with my nature.  First, I never want to force anyone to do something.  In the situation I mentioned above, I basically don't want to invite myself, and I don't want it to be a hassle.  Something that's an eh, OK type thing.  That's where the the first part comes ito play, so while I personally may want to, my nature says it takes effort, and it makes me behave in the way I do.  I'm really just trying to figure out if I'm inviting myself over, and I'd not truly be welcome.  I just don't want to take the effort and end up annoying someone I consider a friend.

It also doesn't help that I often think no one would want to be around me.  I find I need too much reassurance sometimes, and there you have it.  I don't trust what people say because sometimes, I think they're just trying ot to be mean.  But this is getting too deep into my nature for today.  Suffice it to say, if I offer anything, it's because I want to.  If I make it sound like a favor, I don't mean to, and I don't consider it as such. 

I don't know if I even explained this well, but I know what I mean, and so I can work on changing it. 

I'm too tired for a full update but... I just realized I have more mental problems than I actually knew about.  How did I realize this?  Because I just discovered another one.

So what happened?  Well, my mother gave me this big stuffed animal leopard.  I assume it's because I like kitties and I want a large predatory cat, like a tiger or a leopard or a cougar.  Not a lion... for some reason I never cared for those.  Anyway, it was in my closet, and I went in there to get something, and I saw it staring out looking really depressed and sad.  The very fact that I thought it looked this way is probably the first symptom.

I pulled it out and proceeded to try and ... well... cheer it up.  Yes, that's right, I literally tried to cheer up a stuffed animal.  I DID try and just make it look happier, but that's not what bothered me.  I literally tried to cheer it up.  I actually got very disturbed by the fact that it was "sad' and freaked out and tried to make it happy by giving it attention.

And that... is scary.  It's scary because it's an inanimate object, and I went beyond just personifying it to actually treating it as alive.  Better yet, I feel guilty about calling it inanimate.  I'll probably go and apologize to it after this or something along those lines.  OK, the issue has been discussed it's time for me to sleep. 

Guess it's time for a daily post of mine.  Before I start, a link.  Cultspace.  I'm still trying to figure out exactly what it is but it sounds interesting, and I've always wanted my very own cult.

You know, I often have things I want to write about, but I never actually do.  I think a lot about what to write here, I get whole talks filling the pages and I never really write them down.  Mostly, it's because my mind wanders while I work.  Since I don't feel like I have the time to write anything then, I don't.  Once I get the time, I don't feel like writing anything.  I can't win.

I've got like 10 topics stored up to talk about, I need to pick one and run with it.  I've got books I've read, religion and/or the supernatural, politics/governmental plans, anime and a few I can't remember specifics on.  Each of those have topics have like several different areas I can cover.  Picking one to focus for the day is tough work, and each will in some way reflect on me.  I'm not about to do a critique of a book I read, or an anime I watched, at least not for the most part.  I'd probably talk more about why I liked it, and how it reflects a bit on my personality.  After all, that's pretty much why I write here, it's to put down all the random thoughts I have in a day since I can't bloody stop thinking.

And while that's not at all what I want to talk about today, I think I just found my topic.  It won't be a long one but my babbling for the first half makes this plenty long enough. 

I don't know if this is the case for everyone, or even many people, but I, myself, become depressed because... I think too much.  Most parts of the day revolve around it.  I find myself becoming distracted by a random thought thread doing anything.  In fact, I've been reading a book before, and had to go back two or three pages because I wasn't paying any attention to the book.  My eyes were on read mode, the words were getting in, and that's as far as they went.  My mind was focusing on something else. 

Thing is, when I think, I reflect on my life and it's problems, the world, and everything going on.  Those thoughts ultimately pinpoint various problems and they all point to how humans are.  I refuse to get side tracked.  Anyway, I find these thoughts depress me since the situation is virtually unchangeable.  Suffice it to say, these thoughts will make up future posts, since that's mostly what my posts are made of. 

Well, that's about it, I get depressed because I think too much.  I wouldn't have it any other way, since the causes are valid.  I'm extremely tempted to break into one point now, but I'll resist.  The fact remains that I could end up happier if I thought things through less.  But who knows, all I know is during the day I focus on things, and I may start out happy, but as my thoughts progress I often work myself into a depression.  Sometimes I wonder if I'm a masochist by doing that to myself.

This was probably illegible babble but I'm too lazy to proof read today.

OK, one vid before I get down to work.  All I can say is Classic Microsoft.

Oh, just found this one because I can't post just one.

OK, here's a final link for all you treadmill fans.  You'll have to select the format, either Windows Media player, quicktime, or realplayer.  I found it entertaining.

Well, plenty of other stuff to write about, but I guess this is time sensitive and I did promise them.  So here they are, my final thoughts about what happend two weeks ago with my cousins visiting, and my aunt and uncle, and the two visitors from Japan. 

We'll start with Anthony.  I remember speculating about his return and how he'd be more mature and different than he was when he left.  I was... mostly wrong.  He's different, only in the fact that he's lost a lot of weight.  I hope he keeps it off.  He looks a lot better than when he left, and if anything rubbed off on him from Japan, I hope it's that he'll continue to exercise like he did there.  Part of it was that he walked to school, or biked to school.  I believe he did other activities as well though.

As for everything else about him, he's virtually the same.  His personality remains unchanged, he's probably just about as mature as he was when he left.  Keep in mind that's not very in a lot of ways.  I don't think he's really much more careful with his money.  Save really doesn't seem to be in his vocabulary.  And how he behaves and acts is not what I'd call proper sometimes.  It sounds rather stuck up or prudish when I say it like that though.  I suppose I should say he'll talk and say just about anything at any time, pretty much regardless of the people who are around.  Then again, that sounds wrong too.  Oh well, I give up. 

Regardless, he's pretty much the same kid who left so, there you have it.  How he is, I just have a hard time describing things like this so it'll have to be left unsaid for now.

Other thoughts on last week, I guess I'll say things I learned.  First, Japanese eat small portions.  Or at lot of them do.  So much so in fact that they make funny faces when they see a large serving of something.  I also learned that I pretty much dislike NYC with a passion.  Then again, it might merely be the method that I saw it, and the whole not a minute to spare attitude we were there under.

And, finally, I learned I have the personality of many Japanese boys.  Guess I was born into the wrong culture.  Oh, and I guess the whole family has a possible place to stay in Japan if any of us are ever there.  I'd probably find a hotel anyway, or if someone I know is living there for a bit, I think I'll randomly show up on the doorstep and beg for a floor to sleep on.  I'd rather not impose on a family I barely know after all. 

Well back to work or perhaps seeing about getting a ride home.  And finally I can get back to my normal type of posts.  I've missed them

Eh, not in the mood to do a real update right now.  I had a bunch of links to some fun videos, but they're at home.  So, I have other links for my faithful viewers.

This one may come in handy some day.

Some of these are mildly entertaining.  And there's at least one that I would seriously considering getting if it was real.  Hell Tycoon.

Ok, One more, video this time.  You may have seen it on TV.  I find it entertaining none the less.

OK, we're finally on to sunday.  But before I start, one video.  Watch it to the end.  The sound's a little screwed up so his voice has this weird slightly satanic gargle to it.  Just ignore that, I don't think it's supposed to be here.

So, sunday, woke up, cold was a little bit better, and I discovered the hotel room had no bloody shampoo in it.  So I was less than pleased about that.  Everyone was supposed to get up early, they didn't, they got up and went to breakfast at like 10, instead of like 8.  I sat in the room watched TV since I was waiting for Alex.  He had some shampoo so I used that and I was slightly more pleased.  We stuck around the room a little more watching iRobot on the TV, but we needed to eat so we went to the diner where everyone else was.  I was supposed to bring my mother's pocketbook with me, but I forgot it so I had to run back in.  Since I had, Alex went to Target to buy some batteries so the light stand for the crystals would run.  We brought all our presents with us since it was my mother's birthday.  My mother liked her presents, and Takako and Aya seemed pleased with the crystals. 

So, we checked out of the hotel, and drove back into NYC.  THIS time, we had two cars.  So, entered the city in relative comfort, and found the cathedral again.  This time it was open and a service was going on.  My aunt was happy since she's been trying to go to a service there for years, but has always been showing others around, and never got the chance.  We looked around there for a bit, then went to Rockefeller center.  Strangely enough, most of the shops inside were closed.  We did find a nice souvenier shop for Aya and Takako.  They seemed happy about the items there, and both left with bags of presents for folks back in Japan.

Alex and I went out onto the street area, we stopped at Nintendo World(They actually had a full store dedicated to Nintendo there)  It was interesting since it was more like a history of Nintendo, they had all sorts of old items on displace.  They even had a gameboy that was in the first gulf war.  It's case was all burned and melted, but it was still running.  Afterwards we went to Barnes and Noble for a couple minutes, then back to meet everyone else.  We left from there, headed onto the highway and stopped to say so long to everyone.  Then it was just my parents and myself.

Only one last situation of note.  We stopped at a restaurant on the road, and I ordered prime rib.  It was one of those small places, where you aren't going to expect really good food, but OK food, for a fairly reasonable price.  When I got it, I was shocked.  The thing was literally 2 inches thick, and huge.  I was pleased.  Only problem with this place is that the waiter was REALLY slow.  I don't think he brought any of our food out to us when it was ready.  My mother ordered dessert, just pie with ice cream, and 10 minutes later, still nothing.  So we canceled that order, and headed on our way back home.

And that concludes everything from last week.  I think next post I'll throw in some conclusions and such.  Mostly it'll be about how my cousin changed and didn't change.  And later today, in a few minutes even maybe, I'll be leaving to help someone with their computer.  I think I might get paid a little for my efforts too! 

I think I'm on part four.  Oh well, I didn't get around to writing it yesterday.  I think I have time today.  I hope so.  I'd like to get past it.  So, here we go.

Saturday:  We got up nice and early and actually managed to be out the door around 9.  I thought it was a great achievement, but apparently we were supposed to leave at 8.  Leaving only an hour late is pretty good for my family though!  I grabbed whatever I have that made up my pitiful anime DVD collection and gave it to my aunt since the van they rented had a DVD player.  Basically it was just in case they needed something to watch, and it's the only thing any of us had that was in Japanese.  Most of my DVDs are still with a friend in Rochester, so the selection really was abysmal. 

Anyway, my cold had become full blown over the night.  Luckily, it was pretty mild so I wasn't horribly miserable.  We stopped for gas, I bought some dayquil.  It was the first time I'd ever tried it, and I only considered it because otherwise I figured I'd be absolutely miserable in the car.  And... thank goodness, we actually TOOK two cars, the van and my parents' station wagon. 

On the way, we stopped for breakfast at some deli place.  I was sad because they had cream of wheat, but no grits.  I like grits too.  Oh well, basically i had cream of wheat for breakfast with a side of ham.  And some really watery ginger ale.  Only two other events of note during this time.  First, Aya had wanted a US hamburger for the whole trip I think.  Here she finally ordered one.  Turns out the thing was giant.  Again the face was priceless.  The waitress asked if something was wrong when she delivered it.  Anthony explained that she was just shocked that it was so large.  I'm sure Aya felt self conscious because we all kinda watched her start eating, and her mother as well as my uncle took a couple pictures of her trying to eat it.  It probably wasn't nice but we were all kind of snickering at the sight.  Well it was funny!

Second event of note is... I found I apparently have the personality of a lot of Japanese guys.  At least it seems that was the impression Aya had.  Bit fuzzy on the details, since it went through Anthony.  I assume this conclusion was made because I happen to watch a variety of anime and some of which might not be considered by Americian men if not ones from other countries as well.  I think the fact that I had all of Marmalade boy, as well as a dvd of I my me, Strawberry Eggs is what triggered it.  After all, those are relationship type animes, and not something that would typically be watched by guys(at least US wise).  In Japan, I guess Marmalade boy has a pretty large following by guys.  Well, that's all I could gleen from that comment, still, I found it interesting.

Moving on, we made it to our hotel, dumped off all of our bags, and the cars were parked by the valet.  That was the only way the car could be parked, so we ended up having to wait a long time when we wanted them.  We actually didn't stay at the hotel long since we needed to get into NYC to show them around.  After all it was Saturday, we had to leave Sunday, and they were flying back early Monday.  So, much to my displeasure, we ALL crammed into the 7 seat van.  Yes, 9 people, 7 seats.  We were in NJ so we still had like an hour drive just to get into NYC.  It was not pleasant for my cold, and since I'm one of the smallest, I ended up having to share a single bucket seat.  I won't dwell on that.

So we went searching for the Statue of Liberty.  Got some pictures in of that, but we missed the ferry to Liberty island.  After that, we went into NYC, found ground zero, but no place to stop and since NYC is mostly 1 way streets, and sometimes several in a row that go in the same way, we never found our way around it.  Then we stopped in Times square.  There we found a really horrid resturant to eat at.  Horrid, why? Because the food was extremely expensive, and small.  My aunt wanted to show them a true NY pizza.  That didn't happen.  This place DID have pizza, but it was not what you would think of as such.  Take the thinnest cracker you can think of, make it about 16" in diameter circle, put about 20 drops of sauce on it, sprinkle just enough cheese to cover that sauce then add toppings, or don't.  That was the pizza.  We ordered 3, one was just plain cheese, one was half sausage half pepperoni and the third I don't remember what it was.  We were warned that the pizza was meant to serve only one person(I don't disbelieve this, I'd need two to actually make a meal of it probably) and that it was paper thing.  But at 20 dollars a pizza, that wasn't going to happen.  Still, not real pizza, it tasted good, but ... seriously, I'm not exaggerating when I described the things.  WITH the sauce and cheese, our napkins were still thicker than it was.  We ordered a fourth pizza after that since some of us were still really hungry.  That one was a sausage pizza.  The sausage was good, not that they put much on, but it was good.  This place charged you for water by the way.  They FORGOT to put it on the bill, and at the price and how they skimped on everything they possibly could with what they served, we weren't about to say anything.  I looked on the menu, a baked potatoe cost 8 dollars.  8!  Steak fries were 8 dollars too.  Even with just 4 pizza, (80 dollars or so there), and drinks, which were like 4 beers and a wine(Since they forgot the water) The bill came to about 160 dollars, might have been closer to 200 too.

Note to self, next time family brings you to Times square, Look at the menu and instead of just going along with it, kick them, and kick them until they look at the PRICES on the menu.  I understand it's Times Square, and that prices will be high.  However, there is, and WAS no need to eat there.  There WERE better places to eat, nearby and within walking distance.

Alex and I left the restaurant early.  I didn't have a chance to buy my mother a birthday present yet, so shopping we went.  We had to move fast since everyone needed to get to the van before 2 hours were up, or it'd be 10 dollars more for parking.  There weren't many great shops on Times Square to be honest.  I saw a lot of electronics stores that just sold a bunch of random things, from a couple of laptops to DVD players, to remote controls, all in the same store.  I don't know why anyone would go to Times Square and be like, I need to buy a laptop!  The crowd itself would drive me away from doing ANYTHING there.

Moving on, there WAS the Hershey store there, so I bought my mother some nice items from there(she loves chocolate.)  Alex also bought her a present there.  At the cash register was a black man, and I was going to pay with my credit card, but he said if we had cash we only needed to give him 30 dollars instead of 39.  So he hooked us up.  I think he pocketed the cash, but what I don't know for sure won't really hurt me.  Besides, after we gave him the cash it was too late, and he DID save us 9 dollars.

On the way to the huge Toys R Us(Alex works at one in Utica, so he wanted to see this one) we stopped at a street vendor and bought two smoked crystal souvieniers for Aya and Takako.  They were only 5 dollars each, and came with a nice light stand.  The price was right, and they looked really nice.  Besides, since my aunt was dragging them everywhere and rushing here and there and everywhere trying to see everything, I figured they'd not have much time to do any real shopping.  These were nice items for them to take back.

The Toys R Us was suitably impressive, but we had so little time we needed to rush to the van, and turns out, we were 4 minutes late, and had to pay extra.  We SHOULD have just decided to stay there longer after that, but oh well.  We crammed ourselves back into the van, and drove around NYC for a bit.  Stopped to gawk at the empire states building, and stopped at a famous cathedrial.  Unfortunately, by that time it was closed, so we only looked at the outside.  More about that in my final post.  Anyway, after all this, we headed back to the hotel.

Well that concludes Saturday.  And I've written plenty for this update so there you have it.  Shockingly, despite the abuse of the car ride, van ride, and NYC(Which I've grown to hate immensely) my cold didn't get worse.  I suppose I'm not being fair to it.  After all, the van ride, and my cold made it that much worse, and we were rushing around so Takako and Aya could see as much as possible.  Still, I truly don't like Times Square.  Too crowded and for what it's worth?  There's not much there from what I could see. 

Anyway, final day whenever I get around to it.  At least by the next post or two.

Linkage post.  There's someone in that story who needs to be pushed out a window.  But I think you can figure out who.

And... Oh my gosh, You may not have known this but... rum is flamable!  I sense another stupid warning label in the making.  Similar to how all coffee cups now say, Warning Contents may be hot.

Finally, I have a video or two.  The first looks related to that second story.  And I find it quite entertaining.

And the second, well it appeals to my scientific side, as well as my pyro side, what with the flames and breaking of stuff.

Later today I'll probably continue the adventures of last week.  I'd have posted more videos, but they were rather traumatizing to me, and I'll not to inflict that upon you, my faithful, if few readers.

I told myself I wouldn't do any other real posts until I actually covered how last week went.  Seems I lied to myself... or not.

Bah.  I had a whole topic I was going to write about and I sat down, and I lost all the momentum.  I remember the topic but I suddenly have absolutely no real urge to write anything about it right now.  Anyone else have these sudden changes of mood, I mean like split second type ones?  Oh well, Guess I'll cover Friday, and maybe Saturday then.  Or just Friday since Saturday and Sunday will be nice to stick together.

Friday:  Again, a late start, and late breakfast.  After I'd woken up at 4 am, went back to sleep around 5:30, I got up at about 9:30.  Now after using my iPod, and I assume having seen Anthony's while he stayed with them for like 5-6 months, Aya decided she'd like one.  I believe the decision was made the day before, and as plans were made for Friday, we were going to buy it today.  The idea was so Aya would have it for her return trip to Japan.  Then they said they were going to buy it in Japan.  Turns out they thought the only reason going to New Hampshire that day was so she could get her iPod.  Since that wasn't the case, purchasing it was put back on the agenda.

Originally the plan was to drive into Boston and visit The Tokyo Kid since Anthony really wanted to go there, and I have to take his word on this, but he said Aya did too.  Then we would come back, and take everyone miniature golfing since I guess they don't have it in Japan.  After that we would have ice cream(it's in the same place, really nice area BTW) and then head off to NH.  Plans changed suddenly, as they always do.  There was a 180 person convention going to arrive at Kimball's Farm(The place with Ice cream and everything else).  So we rushed out the door, and went there first.

So, everyone seemed to enjoy miniature golf, and afterwards, Anthony, myself, Aya, and Takako went on the bumper boats.  Alex was grumpy from the heat, so he didn't want to go, and I dunno about everyone else.  They probably didn't want to spend the money.  Took me about 3 minutes to actually figure out how to steer the darn thing.  Those 3 minutes were spent mostly with the "boat"( it was basically a inner tube with a motor set in the middle front)  Turning the motor was how you steered it, but that basically just made the boat spin.  To move forward the motor had to face forward, and it seems the boat had to be mostly not spinning.  Anyway,  there was a small waterfall around the area too, so everyone pretty much tried to get someone else stuck in the corner where it was so they'd get drenched.  Anthony, Aya, and Takako all got stuck there, but no one really came after me that much.  When they did, I'd managed to master steering the boat just well enough to escape.  Basically, it could be put into reverse, it was tricky, but since I hate getting wet, escaping was a must.

After the fun there, we bought everyone ice cream.  The face on Takako when she saw the banana split was entertaining.  Then again, the looks on both their faces whenever they saw the size of some food dish or another was always entertaining.  Large portions are the reason the US is getting fat, no?  After that, we went home, washed up cause the temperature outside was horrid.  Yes, I literally start to melt at like 90 degrees.  I'm so temperature intolerant.  Well, after that, 6 of us went into Boston simply to go to the Tokyo Kid.  Their reaction? Surprise surprise, they have stores like it in Japan!  They didn't have the CD Aya wanted, but Anthony found a T-Shirt with Japanese on it that said "Strange Foreigner"  He just had to buy it, so he did.  Reminds me of a web comic actually. 

Oh, I forgot to mention, on the way up, we got stuck in a torrential downpour.  Literally 0 visibility there was so much rain.  And there was some lightning.  We pulled off the road till it slowed down.  Some of the roads into Boston after that were literally filled with water.  It was so deep in some places that it was higher than the curb.  Pretty impressive.  After we left, Again we hit torrential downpours.  Figures.  None the less, we went straight to NH, and met up with the others there.

Aya bought her iPod, she was pleased too, it was much skinnier, and nicer than mine.  (Darn new bloody nice iPods)  After that we went to an American/Italian/Chinese/Japanese buffet.  It also had karaoke after like 10 I think.  The food was good there, we stayed, my cousins sang Basket Case by Green Day.  They were going to stay for another song, but turns out, my youngest cousin(Anthony) got carded.  Seems because it's a bar, they wouldn't let anyone under 21 in there.  They carded me too since I looked like I'm 15.  Alex(who's 5 years younger) looks older than me.  But that's because he has a mustache and a goatee now.  He didn't get carded, though he IS under 21 for about 14 more days.  Anyway, after that we left, and went home.

I spent the rest of the night basically putting songs onto Aya's new iPod so she'd have stuff to listen to when she went home.  The funniest part about that was... she virtually freaked out when she saw I had the opening theme for Marmalade Boy.  Guess she likes the song, and knew what the opening looked like.  Anthony was no use translating as I was trying to see what was going on.  Something about a dance on the show's opening I think.

I stayed up quite late considering everyone intended to get up early to leave for NYC.  I was getting frustrated with them in my room since I realized I'd caught Anthony's cold, and I wanted to sleep on the off chance I'd get over it before it really started.  But unfortunately I didn't, so it just got worse during the night.  Yay, I caught my first cold from Japan.  And that's the end of Friday.

Nothing else to add here, except I might actually have a third reader, though probably not a consistent one.  Darn person is never online often.  But, if you are reading this, you can always leave comments even if you don't have an LJ account.

Oh, and the bump on my wrist is getting worse I think.  I better get it looked at soon.  It might be something scary after all.

Eh, because I can. Besides, my one other reader might find it interesting. Assuming he's not seen it before.

Disorder	Rating
Paranoid:	Very High
Schizoid:	Moderate
Schizotypal:	High
Antisocial:	Moderate
Borderline:	Low
Histrionic:	High
Narcissistic:	High
Avoidant:	High
Dependent:	Moderate
Obsessive-Compulsive:	Moderate
-- Personality Disorder Test -- -- Personality Disorder Information --

OK, time to continue the saga of the adventures of last week.

Thursday:  As typically of my family, and by family I mean extended family including my aunt, uncle and cousins, we got a late start.  My late start was because... well I woke up at around 5:30.  Strangely enough, my cousin Alex, who was sleeping in the same room as me, woke up at the same time.  Seeing as this amounted to something like 3-4 hours sleep, it wasn't exactly a good thing.  So for the next 5 hours we both were sort of in a waking sleep sleep state.  You know the type, where you don't get up, but you can't really fall back asleep.  You end up going into half hour dozes, and half hour periods where you're awake.  So yea, we weren't too pleased about that one. 

Moving on, everyone eventually got up and we ate breakfast and made plans for the day.  They were going to include the museum of science with an Omni theater show, then a duck boat tour, but then the plans changed.  By the time everything was squared away, there was only one available time for the duck boat tour.  Anyway, it ended up that we were going to go to the New England Aquarium, then Quincy market, and finally to the tour.

We ended up leaving at around 2, we should have left around 12.  But remember, my family, nothing goes on time.  We crammed 8 of us in a 7 seat minivan.  That was interesting, and uncomfortable for some of us.  I blame this ride partially for why I got sick since long rides always make me weak unless I can lay down.  I brought my iPod so I could listen to it on the ride.  It ended up being used by Anthony and Aya.  Yippy.  Still apparently my selection of music was satisfactory to them, and had some songs even Aya knew.  I suppose not surprising since I've got a fair selection of Japanese songs there as well.  Seems that she knew Sobakasu, which should be recognized by at least one person here since I got the song from her.  Granted, I'd heard it first from Kenshin but that's a different story. 

Moving on, we got into the city but everyone was hungry so we went to eat at Quincy Market first.  Since we were now short on time, they couldn't shop there afterwards.  It was sad, and personally, I find Quincy Market more interesting than the aquarium.  Oh well.  So we ate, ran over to the aquarium, where we only had about half a hour to spend before we had to leave for the hour or so ride to get to the duckboat tour.  Hour because it turns out we started to head there during rush hour.  So we saw some interesting things there, and moved on.

We just barely made the duck boat tour, and it's good that we caught it since the tickets were like 26 dollars per person, with 8 people that's over 200 dollars.  At the beginning of the tour, Anthony was translating for Aya, and Takako, but the driver said he hoped he wouldn't be translating for the whole trip.  Think he didn't want Anthony translating at all, but I'm pretty sure Anthony translated some, but kept it quiet enough so the driver didn't complain again.  It was an entertaining ride, and I think they enjoyed it.  We even rode by a Dunken Donuts.  This one was special.  It had a sushi bar in it as well.  Had we known about it beforehand, I think we should have stopped there.  Apparently they even have a wasabi injected donut.  Just the kick you need to get you started in the morning.

After the tour, it was getting late so we couldn't stop at the Tokyo Kid, and we went straight to the restaurant.  That mostly sums up thursday.  I don't actually remember much of what went on afterwards.  We ate, I had one of my favorite drinks, it's basically vanilla ice cream with lots of oreo cookies, and Kahlua and creme de cacao.  Mmm ice cream, cookies, and alcohol, how can it be bad?  I only drink sweet and tasty alcoholic beverages.  I'm not about to get drunk ever after all.  Anyway, once we got home, I pretty much just fell asleep.  I don't know why, most likely the van ride wore me down.  I woke up at 4 am, and decided I better actually wash up.  Then I stayed up for about an hour more before I went back to sleep.

So concludes Thursday.  Dang that was longer than I thought it would be.  OK, I think that's long enough for today.  Tomorrow I'll cover friday then.  In other news, turns out the mailbox wasn't stolen, some nice person put it on our front steps, presumably after someone else had knocked it off.  But I only assume it was someone else who placed it on our front steps as I doubt anyone who takes a baseball bat to a mailbox would bother.  I have work to do so till next time.

OK, time for a linkage entry. 

First off, The thief in his natural habitat.

Next, one of my personal favorites, in no small part because of the music.  The Muslim Rave Party Sensation.
Speaking of which, I spent like 4 hours trying to find out what that song is.  I eventually did.  If interested, just ask me.

Third, we have someone who's on my strike from the gene pool list.

And finally, proof I don't always have to post videos.  A website, which hosts a list.  A special kind of list.  A list that I agree with many of the choices.  Here's the 2002 one.  It's a little out of date, but I agree with most of the choices on this one I think.  More so than the others.  It's easy enough to look up the rest that they have if you want.

Meh, I'm at work, I'm still sick so I don't feel like working.  I don't particularly feel like updating either, but as said before, I also DO feel like updating so... there you have it.

Lets see... Tuesday:  Nothing occurred since they were arriving wednesday.  I worked on tuesday though.  And got annoyed at things not working.  Yay. 

Wednesday:  They arrived, but late evening.  So I worked Wednesday as well.  See previous day's description for how work went.  Now because this is my family, they managed to end up leaving way late, so arrived at my house at like nine.  During the day, my cousin called me and asked about going into Boston to see about heading in when they arrived.  Basically, he said Aya(his host sister) wanted to head to a bar or dance club and have something to drink.  I wasn't really quite clear on this whole subject. 

None the less, apparently my cousin and she also wanted to go to the store The Tokyo Kid.  I'm sure at least one of... my potentially only one readers knows this store, but for the benefit of the doubt that anyone else actually cares and reads this, I'll describe the store.  Basically, it sells... stuff from Japan.  Mostly manga and anime related items.  There are a few t-shirts, and they sell and insane variety of pocky.  They also sell a limited selection of music CDs, as well as some old game systems, like Nintendo and Super Nintendo, and Segas.  Now... remember, my cousin, and Aya just came from... Japan.   And... they wanted to go to a store in the US that sold stuff from... Japan.  The logic escaped me as well.  From all I could gather, the reasoning was that it might be cheaper there.  Oh well. 

Now, obviously since they arrived at my house at 9, and it takes 45 minutes at least to get into Boston from my house, the store would be closed by the time we actually made it there, so I told him this.  Anyway, getting to the store is a tale for one of the following days of my two thirds week adventure.  So, when they arrived, we all greeted each other.  My cousin played translator since his host mother and sister didn't speak much english at all.  And after everyone was settled, we sat down to eat.

Boring stuff followed.  It was mostly talking and chatting so we won't cover that.  It's not like I remember much anyway.  What I could tell is that Takako(the host mother) and Aya were friendly folks, and had grown to like Anthony.  It's good since his first host family basically ignored him and made no effort to help him.  From what I understood basically everything he did was wrong, and incorrect in their view.  They gave him no leeway for mistakes, which is virtually guaranteed to happen since it was his first three months there.  Which brings us to his second host family, and what I was saying about them.  For the most part, I suppose you can say they treated Anthony like one of their kids.  So there you have it. 

Well, after dinner we brought out the cake with "Okaerinasai Anthony San" written on it.  That went over well.  Not much else occurred on wednesday.  They liked our house and brought my family some gifts.  I assume they gave similar ones to my Aunt and Uncle and cousins.  Basically, they gave us each a t-shirt from Japan.  They were nice.  I like them.  I found it entertaining that an XL fit me perfectly, considering a medium from here fits me perfectly.  My cousin also had gifts for my parents.  My mother got a paper parasol, and my father got a crystal with an image of mount Fuji in it.  My gift is apparently in one of the 5 boxes being mailed back to Anthony so will arrive in about a month I think.  I've already found out it's not a sword so I'm all sad and stuff over that.  Not that I expected him to buy me one anyway.  Heck, I doubt he could afford it. 

Well, our dinner ended at like 12 so it was basically out of the question that we would head out to Boston anyway.  So that was the end of the day.  I'll put up some pictures if I get them.  I think I've written enough here for now, so next update will be for another day.  Oh, and Anthony had his cold at this time. 


In other news, it seems our mailbox was stolen late last night.  I seriously wish I knew enough about wiring, and had the cash to spare to put up a video camera to watch it since mailbox vandalism and theft occur every year.  I really want to screw those people up by catching them on tape.  After all, it's a Federal offense, and is punishable by a 250,000$ fine or 3 years in jail.  Since I'm evil, I'd gloat over their misery, and feel not one iota sorry for them.  Besides that, apparently there was a handcrafted item on the mailbox made by a family friend.  Not that it affects me that much, but I'm sure it bothers my mother. 

In a strange and totally common twist... I feel like updating yet I don't.  It's tempting to write a bunch here, and now that I'm starting I feel like writing more.  I said it was strange(If you comment that I'm strange so it shouldn't be surprising, I'll kill you, or at least torment you endlessly.  I'm very good at that).  On the other hand, I'm sick, and I'm not feeling that great, and I blame my cousin for it.  Which means, I really don't feel like writing anything at all, I just want to sit and be miserable because... That's what I do when I'm sick. 

It totally didn't help that I was crammed in a minivan with 8 other people for all of yesterday.  And I'm getting ahead of myself.  It also didn't help that for most of the time I wasn't stuck in that van, was spent traveling long and painful distances in a car, and the same today.  Meh.  I'm still getting ahead of myself.  I have a whole bloody week to cover, and I don't feel like writing much of it right now, but I do.  Screw it.  I'm calling it for the night.  Oh, the song I quoted ... I guess yesterday it was... (Why doesn't it feel like yesterday?) the ending theme for the show my new icon came from.  It seemed fitting to put it in the first time I used it.  OK, I'm done for now.  Tomorrow I'll see about covering this past week, at least a couple days at a time, maybe I can stretch it out and make use up enough time till I have something else to babble about.






Baten Kaitos - True Mirror

(Yes, I'm the only person in the world who'd try to write the lyrics to a song which has none)

I haven't updated at all, but I've been busy. And... for the most part, I don't even have time to update right now. End of this week, start of next I'll have to write a bunch of stuff.  But for now I'll just say I have a new user pic.  Took the screen cap myself.  Still I suspect someone else must have this particular screen used somewhere.  While I think I may have actually seen it once, I was watching AMV Hell 3 and saw it, and decided I must have it.  So here it is.  Ah, I do so like it.  That being said, I'm heading to sleep, or to burning CDs with lots of songs so Aya can transfer them to her brand new iPod for her trip home.  More on that later, in the huge update(s) I was mentioning.

Oh, driving to NYC tomorrow.  And I'm coming down with a sore throat... yay how nice huh?  Oh well. 

I never really feel quite right
I don't know why, all I know is there's something wrong
Every time I look at you, you seem so alive

Tell me how do you do it, walk me through it
I'm following every footstep

Baby on your own you take a cautious step
Do you wanna give it up?

But all I want is for you to SHINE
Shine down on me
Shine on this life that's burning out

I say a lot of things sometimes that don't come out right
And I act like I don't know why
I guess a reaction is all I was looking for

You looked through me, you really knew me like no one has EVER looked before

Baby on your own you take a cautious step
Do you wanna give it up?

But all I want is for you to SHINE
Shine down on me
Shine on this life that's burning out

I know, I know, girl you got something

SHINE (shine it on to me)
Shine down on me (I wanna feel it)
Shine on this life that's burning out

Baby on your own you take a cautious step
Do you wanna give it up?

But all I want is for you to SHINE
Shine down on me (just show me something)
Shine on this life that's burning out (you give me something that I never
know)

Mr. Big - Shine