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Niekon's

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Apr 3, 2006 - 02:36 PM

lazy weekend...

Finally after a month of not really being able to sit down for more than ten minutes without something else coming up... having to rush off to a memorial... an internment... some other family thing... My wife and I were able to spend at least most of the weekend doing as little as possible... with some exceptions of course...

Friday night was spent catching up on the past couple of weeks of shows on the DVR... managed to get it almost completely down minus a couple of things... thank goodness Billy & Mandy are showing more repeats than shows we've never seen before...

Saturday morning was spent cleaning and organizing the place to await the arrival of my brother and 18 month old nephew... and had to run some quick errands to pick up some stuff for home...
Ended up getting everything done and then got a message from my other brother that they might not be coming down... *sigh*... so I finally finished reading Decpetion Point and started on Anansi Boys and was basically being a bum for the rest of the afternoon. Finally got a call that they were on their way over... just as we were preparing to head out the door again to pick up something for dinner. So dinner went on hold... and ended up being whatever we scrounged up in the kitchen after everyone left.

Sunday = the ultimate lazy day... I don't think I changed out of my pajama bottoms until I took a shower later in the afternoon... even did a breakfast run to a local place for take-out while in my pajama bottoms...
Ended up watching Howl's Moving Castle and Memoirs of a Geisha with a hockey game in between... and I moved over to the computer to skill up my WoW character while my wife watched the extras from Memoirs...

And now it's back to the same ol' bullshit of work... having to battle with Chicago to get re-counts on components before I turn those counts in to Frito-Lay and other vendors and give explanations of discrepancies. And then people here asking for forecasts on promotions that aren't even released yet... all the while I am battling to get my computer RAM upgraded to at least 512MB... can't believe they bought this thing new almost a year ago with only 256MB of RAM... barely enough to even run more than one application in XP...

One of the highlights was that we did receive the unabridged dictionary that had belonged to my grandmother... now to figure out where to put the damn thing... and figure out where in the hell some of my other books disappeared too... can find all of my wife's books... but half of mine have disappeared in recent months and it's pissing me off...

Trying to decide if I want to play WoW tonight or KH2... I've been bad and have neglected my character for the most part lately with the exception of fishing in Booty Bay. Need to complete some of those damn quests so I can clear this shit off of my Quest Log...

Currently Playing: Pizzicato Five - marble index

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[public entry #8]

Mar 30, 2006 - 04:26 PM

Kingdom Hearts! Fill me... with the power of darkness...

Actually it's Kingdom Hearts II... but I was shooting for a quote that kind of fit... or not ^_~

So yes... Kingdom Hearts II was available yesterday for those of us who pre-ordered it... and for those lucky few who managed to find a copy at the different retail outlets around town. And already I've got about seven hours logged in the game... ended up having to quit around 11pm so I could at least get some sleep and whatnot before having to wake up at 5:30am to get ready for work...

So for those who are getting the game and do not want to know what the hell happens in the first four to six hours... STOP READING!!!!!

For those familiar with the first game, you are going to be in for a slight surprise... and for those who also played Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, the story will make a bit more sense once all is revealed...

To begin the game... you are Roxas... a resident of Twilight Town who is spending his final days of his summer vacation with his friends... through various tasks you learn your skills... and earn monies... and slowly advance the storyline through lots of cut-scenes and various events. Somewhere between Hour 3 to Hour 5 you finally get the opening title shot... seriously... I have never seen a game that has made me go so far into it just to get the title of the bloody game on the screen.

And eventually you do get to play as Sora... but there is a backstory about what in the hell has been going on... and those who did play and complete KH:CoM know more about it than those of us who didn't either play or complete the game (I'm the latter of the two)... and then it's off to various places to defeat the Heartless and Nobodies...

Some issues I'm having with the game so far...
a) camera... camera... camera... Yeah for camera control but it is still a pain in the arse. Couldn't they put it up on the L2 & R2 buttons instead of R3?

b) at the beginning of the game until you are able to finally visit your first "world"... be prepared to sit through a lot of cut-scenes. I mean a lot of them. Cut-scene... little action... another cut-scene. I think in the first few hours I actually got control of my character for maybe an hour... seriously. It's really boring at times sitting there and not really knowing how much long it's going to go on. Can't grab another drink... can't take a leak... why? Because most of cut-scenes managed to launch into some action that I'd most likely die from if I walked away and missed the transition.

c) once you are a "team", the game likes to pick some interesting times to have Sora go solo... Land of Dragons is where I'm at now so I'm using it as an example...
Right before you battle Shan-Yu you are attacked by hundreds and hundreds (I'm sure thousands) of Heartless creatures. But instead of the trio being there... it's just you... and your keyblade. Granted... it's only for a certain amount of time... kill as many Heartless as you can in a certain unspecified time period. It does look cool to see the screen swarming with Heartless, but not when you're not really sure how long you have to survive... and you've managed to lose the "quick-heal" button with your potions because you're trying to fend off the masses of Heartless and kill as many of them as possible too.

d) some of the voices they chose... in particular that of Cid and Aeris (though IMDB lists it as Aerith only)... Cid sounds like a fuckin' hick... and Aeris sounds, uhmmm, dead...

Things I'm enjoying so far...
a) the new fighting abilities (or what they call a Reaction Command) that seem to be enemy specific. This certain type of Nobody you can do a reversal move on... this type of Heartless you can do an Overdrive on... quick reflexes (or massive button mashing for the lazy) will get you the win in the end.

b) the new two-keyblade form that one can take... I really like battling with dual keyblades... you actually get the chance to do that when fighting one of the Unknown early in the game prior to to arrival of Sora.

c) the new Gummi Ship thing... think of it as a side-scrolling shooter game... but the angle changes all the time. You could be going forward... sideways... up... down... it's not for those who get motion sick easily. But I enjoyed it. At lot more fun than in the original game... and easier to get additional types of ships.
You will need to use the Gummi Ships in order to open pathways between worlds... so no getting by this one. But at least they made it more entertaining this time around.

So my strategy guide should be arriving tomorrow... along with my Team Germany hockey jersey... and then I'll be able to decide whether I want to start fresh again and get a 100% on all the chests and stuff like that or if I want to just continue with where I am now... better to decide now before I get too much further into the game ^_^

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Mar 28, 2006 - 01:09 PM

ramblings from a nobody...

First of all... RIP Caspar Weinberger... aside from Reagan... you're just about the only other name of someone I recall from that era that I would hear about on the news at various times.

So now on to current national news... this immigration bill that is up in the US Senate today... for those who are following this issue you have your opinions on the matter and I'm going to voice mine... and we can agree to disagree. The exact particulars of HR4437 I am not sure about... but I do agree that something needs to be done about the illegal immigration problem that is happening here.
A felony if you are an illegal immigrant? Why not? It just prevents them from becoming a legal citizen at a later date due to that felony.
A felony to assist an illegal immigrant? Not quite sure about this one... if you are simply offering them food paid for with money you've earned then it's humane... if you're smuggling illegals across the border then yeah... felony...
A felony to hire illegal immigrants? Woohoo!!! Tie up the court system with even more cases... and fill our over-flowing jails even fuller...

Now don't get me wrong... while I do have some issues with some of the pieces of this bill... it doesn't mean that I support whatever the hell all this protests have been about over the past few days. I do not think that illegal immigrants in this day and age should be given amnesty... sorry, but you are here illegally... you are earning wages without having to pay federal, state, and local taxes thus leaving the rest of us who are citizens to pick up the tab. Sorry... but I have enough issues covering my own bills without having to pick up the tab for others who aren't having taxes deducted from their wages...

"But they're doing the work that no one else wants to do"... seriously? Or could it be that they will work for wages lower than the federal minimum wage? Cheaper labor and paying them under the table... saves someone having to deal with insurance... taxes... et cetera. Too much paperwork I guess...

And to the students who are leaving school to partake in these protests... why disrupt your education? Or don't you care enough about your education and are resigned to just become part of the system that leeches off of everyone else? If you care so much... get your ass in the classroom... educate yourself... graduate... go to college... graduate... and get a decent-paying job. And using race or something else as an excuse isn't going to cut it... you have the choice... you have to make something of yourself because no one else is going to do it for you. You are not going to be handed opportunities...
And stop dressing like an idiot and pull up your fuckin' pants...

Now moving across the globe to Afghanistan... you've all heard about this one right? There is a former Muslim who converted to Christianity... and under old Afghan law such a conversion is punishable by death. This was a law implemented during the rule of the Taliban. And here we are, along with various other western countries looking at this case and shaking our heads and shaking our fingers at Afghanistan. It does make one wonder though... what was the point of going over there if they are still in this ass-backwards close-minded way of thinking? Maybe the money from these other countries isn't important enough...
But the man in question has been released... only to have now disappeared... hmm... me thinks there is foul-play afoot... I sense that they will find his body there... and his head elsewhere. At which time I feel that all countries that have been lending any sort of assistance to Afghanistan should immediately halt all aide... stop the funds from flowing in... remove all troops... let them go back to the festering hellhole that will allow for us to bomb a few more holes into it to wipe out whatever else is left there. Maybe add in some sod later on... and have a rather nice looking golf course... holes are already pre-built... just need the flags placed in the holes... ^_~

Back to news around here... or at least over in Florida... I'm sure folks have caught bits on CNN/MSNBC/Fox News/local outlets about the warnings for women going to Florida for Spring Break. In one area there is an alleged serial killer who has killed three prostitutes. Rape and murder... except for the raping part I'd almost say that it's a copycat of Jack the Ripper except with a gun instead of some shiny and sharp blades...
But I think it was The Daily Show that pointed out a rather hilarious bit on Fox News where they were discussing this topic... and on the split screen had scantily clad women in bikinis dancing and shaking their asses and tits... not sure what they were going for there. Maybe finally getting some blood flowing through the crotches of some Republicans? But yeah... discussing a serial killer taking out prostitutes and showing college women shaking their thing... not quite sure there is a correlation there.

And in less globally and international realms...
I've been spending a lot of time thinking over these past few weeks... reflecting... reviewing... contemplating... et cetera...
Shit like people close to you dying does that to you... and brings in a whole new process about what is truly important anymore. The glaring thing is actually coming to the realization that I'm going to need to sit down and get somewhat serious about the "what if" factor... what if I were to die tomorrow? What would become of my estate (what little there is of one right now)? So somewhere in the near future I'm going to be sitting down and drafting up a living will/trust... obviously the estate goes to my wife... but what if she happened to die before or concurrent to my death? Then what? Without a will or trust the estate reverts to the state. So I have to name an executor of my estate in the event that my wife has already passed away.
And then there is the fact that I really need to get into a doctor at some point to get some tests run... do a CT Scan to get a baseline... get an EKG... and whatever else to get an idea of where I currently stand and so that if something did happen that doctor's could go back and see where I used to be and possibly rule out different things if need be.
I just want my life to go back to what it was a couple of months ago... pretty carefree and not whatnot. Currently there is so much crap on my plate that I don't know which way is up and down at times...

But in these reflections I am also looking back at those whom I consider to be friends... and in reflection I'm asking myself exactly what are the connecting factors anymore? Some of us have grown distant and I question whether or not the friendship is justified anymore. Is there anything in our lives that is a commonality? Maybe it's just the mood that I've been in for the past month or so and eventually I'll snap out of it and move on with whatever is going on...

That is all for now... I'm going back into my work to disappear for a a few more hours before heading home to disappear there for the rest of the evening...

Currently Playing: The Primitives - Shadow

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Mar 27, 2006 - 10:28 AM

memorials... burials... completed...

This has been the most difficult few weeks that I've had to deal with... and I'm not even down in Huntington Harbor everyday...
March 2006 can just get filed under "Do Not Open Again!!! EVER!!!" for all I care right about now... between the various services... being introduced to family members I never knew I had... forcing a smile when talking to friends of my grandmothers and listening to their stories... trying to even find a moment in which I can mourn... and then dealing with an uncaring employer who couldn't give a rat's ass about all of this and is wondering why I'm taking various days off here and there or leaving early at times...

Can I say that there were any highlights to March? Not really... nothing that made me feel like I've accomplished anything (I still don't know what the hell has been happening to my weekends)... nothing that stood out as making me feel good about being alive...
But I can honestly say that I am glad that this is over for the most part... the more difficult part that is... over the coming months we, as a family, will be helping out to go through the stuff at the house and figuring out what to do with it all. And I guess then the next decision becomes what becomes of the house that so many of us have considered to be the family home for so long... it's been owned by my grandparents for over thirty-four years... someone dug up photos of me when I was only three days old and on the family boat that was usually moored at the dock right next to the house...

But for now... I just want to curl up in bed for a few days... not worry about anything or anyone... but the chances of me actually getting to do that any time soon is next to none. Monday through Friday I drag myself into this office to sit for hours on end... getting pissed off with something that someone isn't doing in Chicago... and me having no control anymore over that warehouse... don't even know why I even work here anymore... they do what that ant to do and I'm just taking up space...

Only bright spot this month? Kingdom Hearts II coming out this week... and possibly going to Disneyland with my 18-month-old nephew...

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[public entry #5]

Mar 23, 2006 - 10:11 AM

just not quite here this week...

I've been sort of floating in between being here on GFF and not really being here all week. I've missed out on a round or two of The Truth Hurts which bothers me a bit since I had been asking questions of others since the beginning and once my round was over it was *poof* disappeared... and I don't want to be like that... just really haven't been in the mood for GFF this week.
Sure... I'll come in and post something here and there... but nothing that actually requires me to do some research for my questions and whatnot.

In other news...
Finally watched Good Night and Good Luck as well as Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire this past week...
Really liked GN&GL... but didn't realize that it was only going to be 90 minutes long. I guess I'm so used to 2+ hour movies anymore that something like that kind of threw me off. While a great film... paying $8+ to see it in a theatre for 90 minutes of film compared to other films that are hitting 2+ hours in length... which would you spend your money on if you were wanting the most from the money spent?

As for the HP flick... they definitely seem to be getting darker and darker with each film. Highly enjoyable... and was glad to see how they envisioned Voldemort to look... ooo... Ralph Fiennes. Doesn't he know that he's gonna have to play that role from here until the end? ^_~
Did find it interesting to see an Asian actress with a Scottish accent... and dug into IMDB to discover that she was actually born and raised in Scotland. Can there be anything hotter than that? Well maybe... I do have a thing for dames with the Aussie accent... ^_^

Tonight's viewing I think is going to be Rent and then playing catch-up on all of my shows from the past week... I am behind on my Daily Show episodes... gotta watch Lost from last night... and filter through everything else that's on the DVR right now...

Weekend is going to be pretty low-key... will spend some time playing .hack///Mutation to complete that disc so I can move on to the third installment of the series... .hack//Outbreak and of course get in some serious playing time with Kingdom Hearts II that comes out next week. ^_^
Crap... and still have to find time to play my nightelf druid over on WoW... lots of quests... so little time. I am contemplating making up a horde character just for fun but I barely have time to play the character I have now... what makes me think I'll have time for a second character? I must be out of my mind. I was just happy to get my character up to level 30 in about a month... it's the last 30 that are going to take forever... and will probably be 40 since I won't be remotely close when the expansion comes out later this year... *cry*

Oh well... back to work... trying to catch-up on this crap piling up on my desk and keep getting pulled in different directions by different folks... so I really never get the chance to get caught up. Lighter fluid and a match is needed I think...

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Mar 20, 2006 - 04:28 PM

Scrambling to get people scheduled in now...

This is going to become the two weeks from hell I think... okay... exaggeration... but pretty damn close.

I have family in town from around the globe... many of whom are staying in town this entire week for the memorial service that is on Sunday. And being in SoCal what does everyone want to do? Visit Disneyland... and who do they call? The relative who has his own main gate pass and ask if we can get them in on such-n-such day. *cry*
So I'm having to sit down and figure all of this out... and decide who I can help out and who I can't since we are limited to the number we get per year and it would pretty much kill me if I wanted to go in later this year.

Brother from Germany... in... just trying to figure out his schedule since he's heading up to Santa Barbara at some point for a couple of days...
Relatives from Santa Barbara... possible... would have to possibly recruit some friends to help us out with sign-ins
My other brothers and mother... do I have to? they can pick any other time of year... why now? Besides Pirates is closed...
Others... probably not... you're Cousin Who? How are we related? Have we ever met before the other day?

Speaking of relatives coming out of the woodwork... damn... and some of them are damn good looking too. Where in the hell did that part of the family genes come from? Meet some sort of cousin who is probably early 40's... steel blue eyes... dark hair... not at all bad looking. If I didn't know better I would have figured she had married into the family and not an actual blood relative. Another relative that I noticed as not being bad looking was the daughter of one of my cousins... and I'm like "huh?!?!?! She's only how old?" What in the hell is going on in my family? Cousin is a few years younger than I am... and he has a daughter that looks like that and is that age? I must be getting old...
And then we have the relatives that we just aren't sure where they fall in this giant family tree... and they try to explain it and it just gets more and more complicated to the point that my wine glass was empty by the time one relative finished explaining the convoluted twists and turns that somehow tied us together as family. O_o
STOP!!! Get me more wine... and get a flow-chart... map it out visually... and get back to me when it's done... I'll be passed out on the boat dock with this bottle of wine...

And in a surprise... my boss actually offered my his condolences... Was a bit of a shock since I had been warned before that they wouldn't give a rat's ass... think it might have been the fact that her obituary was in yesterday's paper and they live in the same area... so hard to miss unless you don't read the local paper...
Might ask him if he has any recommendations on an attorney and CPA... right now I'm just trying to get personal recommendations from folks that I know... better than going to someone cold...

Currently Playing: Björk - Violently Happy

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Mar 19, 2006 - 11:18 PM

Trusts? Estates? Wills? WTF?!?!?!

So yesterday we buried my paternal grandmother... the youngest of several siblings and the first to die which apparently is raising several eyebrows amongst the family now and there are various members of the family (myself included) who will be making appointments in the coming weeks for full check-ups to include CAT scans... and EKG's... woohoo!!!

But this isn't what this entry is about... it's about some news that I was told about last night. Due to some issues in the past my father was disinherited from the family... so in his place, his four children were named as recipients of his share of the family estate. So it was originally three sons that would share in the estate... and now it's two sons and four grandsons that would share in the estate. The estimate given to me for the share that my brothers and I would each receive at the ages of 30, 35, or 40 (it is our choice since two of us are over the 30 mark and I'm a year and a half from the 35 mark) approximately a half million dollars (pre-tax) when everything is finalized (six to nine months is the estimate).
So now I'm sitting here going over so many things... trying to figure out the taxes... and whatnot...
California apparently abolished the "State Estate Tax" (or death tax) in 2005... but there is an Estate Credit that I need to read into more...
Now the federal taxes are where it gets really weird... and I'm even more confused than ever. And this is where I'm going to be calling in and attorney and CPA to explain it to me and to handle my side of things...
If you had asked me a year ago or even a month ago if I would ever be using the phrase "retaining an attorney and CPA" I would have laughed in your face. But now fiction has now become reality... and my life just became a lot more complicated...
Retain the services of an attorney and CPA
Create a living trust naming my wife as the sole benefactor to my estate if in the event of my death, and then list my oldest younger brother as the executor should my wife have passed before or at the same time as me to deal with my estate as specified within my living trust

Why in the hell does all this crap have to be so complicated? It sure does add a real interesting wrinkle into my life that I was never expecting... nor did I ever wish to endure. I can only hope that somewhere in the near future this will all make sense and I'll be able to set something up for my family so that they don't have to deal with this crap at whatever point in time I do pass.

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Mar 18, 2006 - 12:17 PM

a few things...

somber

For those who are interested... and I'm sure there is no one who is interested... You can ask me "Truth Hurts" questions via comments into my journal...

But don't be expecting answers immediately... I will be attending a family funeral today and spending the rest of today with members of my family...
At some point I will begin ranting and whatnot on various topics that are bugging me whether they are something related to GFF... my personal life... or something I saw or read in the news...

That is all for now... time to begin the prep work to dressed for this funeral... iron shirt... shave... shower... dress... make a run to Hi-Times Cellars to pick up some smokey beer for my brother and for some of us to consume when we get back to the main house afterwards... then head off to Cypress for the funeral and head over to Huntington Harbour for the "afterparty"... or whatever it is that they call these things...

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