February 28th, 2005 09:50 hours CST
Currently listening to: "Jerk It Out" by The Caesars
Feeling: Pikmin are in my brain. and they are wrecking my shit.

Didn't do a whole lot this weekend. Lisa wanted to hang out on Friday but I woke up from a nap with a bad headache and just stayed in. I finally beat Pikmin 2 the next morning and then realized that there's a Challenge Mode. Fucking hell. It never ends!

Desperate to get out of my apartment, I dragged Lisa to see Constantine with me at Webster Place. I heard that the movie was 10 pounds of shit in a 5 pound bag, so I armed myself with a flask of Maker's Mark. Seriously, I LOVED this movie and I want to see it again, soon. I won't get into why I thought it was cool but this is one of the best "there is no such thing as bad pizza" movies I've seen in a long time. Lisa was already yawning when we got in the car, so I took her home.

Sunday was lazy. More Pikmin. Band practice was ok. I think I know what to do now to get this cover of Blowin' Cool where it needs to be. Went to Rodan and hung out with Arturo and John while Tobias spun electronic stuff. Excellent fish tacos. Came home drunk and talked to Yuka on the phone while I was passing out. Woke up with the lights still on. ;p

February 25th, 2005 09:15 hours CST
Currently listening to: "Holographic Universe" by The Thievery Corporation
Feeling: watching Yuka asleep on a webcam is cute, but she needs to go to bed

Let's see. We're sooooo close to greenlighting the artwork for the t-shirts and the new CD. I want to get that ordered today if it's possible. I discovered what my yearly bonus will be and I'm freakishly happy. My company renewed its contract with Dell and we have an improved employee purchase program now. I ordered a new computer on Wednesday. It was the last day of a Presidents Day sale promotion, which was in addition to the employee purchase discount. I just ordered a kickass desktop. 3gHtz, 80 gig HD, 1 gig ram, 16x DVD and 16x DVD RW drives, 19" flat panel monitor for just over 1 grand. Rock!!! The timing is perfect because my 19" CRT monitor (which is the size of a refrigerator) is starting to die. I'll finally have a machine with USB ports that work. I can also finally get a Bluetooth adapter and connect my phone. Woooooo!

I have to admit that the first Pikmin game was short, but the 2nd one might actually be too long. I'm STILL playing it. hahaha It's neat that it sort of has two endings and you can keep going. That was a brilliant move on their part. Another brilliant move is that the game automatically saves your progress each time you enter a sublevel. If your Pikmin get wiped out, just reset the GameCube. Hopefully I'll finish it tonight.

Started reading a manga of Cowboy Bebop that I bought when Yuka was here. The characters area little bit.... off. Spike looks way too young, for one thing. The thing I dislike the most is that it's in English. Which is a dumb thing for me to say because I bought it in English, but the dialog just doesn't seem to match what I'm used to with the anime. But it's still fun to read some other adventures of the Bebop crew.

Yuka sent me this link of a boat load of Asian movie reviews. OMFG. I have so many movies I want to watch/buy now. I really like the way this guy reviews films. He's very objective and doesn't waste your time bitching and moaning if he thought it was a bad film. Shit, he even game Stacy a positive review and it got me to watch it again in a whole new light. That's a good reviewer. Bravo, friend. I've been looking at this site for 3 days straight now and I'm still not done making my wish list.

February 21st, 2005 12:15 hours CST
Currently listening to: "Standing Bird" by Love Psychedelico
Feeling: still sick, but much better than yesterday. also, I'm seeing Pikmin everywhere I go.

I'm finally getting over this head cold. I started getting sick the day Yuka left for Japan and it got a lot worse over the weekend. Of course, playing that show on Friday night probably didn't help.

I didn't go to class on Thursday because I was ill and hadn't touched my homework. I played Pikmin instead. That game is so addicting. More on that later. I took Friday off from work so I could rest. I was determined to play the show that night, but I was feelin siiiiiiick. I watched the last of the Haibane Renmi series and it's so good. Sad ending, but such a good story. The show was at this crazy sports bar on the south side (yeah, I know). It had a freaking dome. I walked in and witnessed a high school girls softball match. We played in a basement that looked like somebody's badly decorated house. Every surface was reflective. I hope we didn't deafen too many people. My ears were already clogged, so I didn't care. It was pretty fun, though. I don't remember his name, but the opening act was this one kid with a guitar, amp and sequencer. I thanked Cory over and over again for us getting together because before him, I was about to go that route, and I'm sooooo happy that I didn't have to.

On the way to the show I stopped by EB and bought their last copy of Pikmin 2. I have officially caught the Pikmin illness. I felt so crappy the entire weekend and I did almost nothing besides play Pikmin 2. Seriously. I got so into it that I was dreaming about them!!! My poor cat must have been bored to tears. She slept next to me all day Sunday, looking up every so often with this "wtf" look on her face. I did spend a good 45 minutes playing with her around dinner time, though.

I feel a lot better today. It's that day where you wake up and finally feel like you're getting over your cold. I have a lot of energy today. Possibly because it's the first time I've been outside since Friday night? I had to show an ID and sign a form in order to buy generic Sudafed because a new Illinois State Law is monitoring who buys anything with pseudo ephedrine in it. "Yes, Mr. Ashcroft. I'm buying this to make meth. Not because my head is full of snot."

I still have to sort through my pics of Yuka's visit. Then I'll post that journal.

February 16th, 2005 13:50 hours CST
Currently listening to: "I Miss You" by Love Psychedelico
Feeling: missing

This weekend was wonderful. Yuka arrived on Friday and left yesterday. I've been a bit of a wreck since O'Hare. Luckily Pikmin and a surplus of Japanese curry udon have helped distract me. Dinner on Saturday with everyone at Club Lucky was fantastic. Thanks for being there, guys. Don't have time to write much right now. Still pretty sad that she' back in Saitama. I love you, Yuka.

February 10th, 2005 10:05 hours CST
Currently listening to: "Slow" by My Bloody Valentine
Days until Yuka is here: 1
Feeling: like it's x-mas eve

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!! I get to pick her up from the airport tomorrow. \m/

I've got a bitch of a headache thanks to the weather change. Whenever the weather goes from cloudy to sunny, I always get a headache. It sucks. But whatever. I did some updates on the airiel site this morning. Just saw the t-shirt designs that Yann sent my way. They look awesome. I seriously can't decide.

Met up with team Merryl Streep last night. My lag was through the fucking roof for some reason. Seriously. I had the most bullshit, suck ass connection. I left to reset my modem twice. I was in the green for one match and then I was red lining again. So I just said "goodnight" and then left. Pissed me off.

February 9th, 2005 13:18 hours CST
Currently listening to: "I'm Happy But You Don't Like Me" by Asobi Seksu
Days until Yuka is here: 3
Feeling: caffeinated

Chris and Maria came over last night for our study session. Chapter 14 is pretty short, so we didn't have much to do. We translated a kids story about a boy and a girl going to a toy store. Then we watched Battle Royale since Chris had never seen it. I hadn't watched that one in a while. It still gives me goose bumps. Such a good movie. We got some kickass pizza from Lucky Vitto's as well. Yesterday was a good day. I got my DVD's of Shaun of the Dead and also Uzumaki. It's really weird and really fun. I watched a bit of Shaun of the Dead before Maria and Chris came over, then watched a bit of Uzumaki after they left. John is sick, so we don't have band practice. That means I can watch the rest tonight. I needed one more night to finish cleaning. Now I've got it. Woot.

Oh, if you've never watched Samurai Champloo, you are totally MISSING OUT.

February 7th, 2005 09:00 hours CST
Currently listening to: "Omid (Hope)" by Thievery Corporation
Days until Yuka is here: 4
Feeling: calm

I was a cleaning machine this weekend. I swept. I swifferd. Hell, I even mopped. Kitty litter bags with draw strings are a blessing. I got a new comforter for my bed. It's more inviting than ever now. I threw away the blue rug under my bed. It had too many cat puke stains that I simply couldn't get rid of. I know I know. That's totally gross. Anyway, it's in the dumpster now.

Ben and I went to a good Thai place last night. Super Bowl Sunday is the best night to go out for dinner because everyone is at home. We had the whole place to ourselves. Then we went to Long Room over on Irving Park and had a few drinks and caught up on gossip. It was a nice, productive weekend.

February 3rd, 2005 15:00 hours CST
Currently listening to: "Call Me, Call Me" Steve Conte (on repeat. ALL DAY.)
Days until Yuka is here: 8
Feeling: lost

You know where I would love to be right now? Yokahama. Clear sky. 73 degrees. Windy. Sitting on grass with Yuka leaning against me. Eating mango pudding that we just bought in Chinatown.

February 3rd, 2005 09:00 hours CST
Currently listening to: nothing
Days until Yuka is here: 8
Feeling: drained

I finally watched the last DVD of Cowboy Bebop last night. SPOILERS: The scene where Ed leaves the Bebop with Ein to go meet up with her father has got to be the saddest thing I've ever witnessed. The song "Call Me, Call Me" by Steve Conte plays during this scene and I cried for HOURS. She gives Spike her pinwheel. Ein watches Jet making hard boiled eggs. Jet and Spike see her "bye bye" message painted on the landing platform of the Bebop. I looped the scene over and over again and even learned the guitar part for the song. I sat on my couch playing this song along to the scene, crying my eyes out. END SPOILERS. It's absolutely amazing to me how music can affect a scene to cause such a reaction. I have such a headache this morning from all of it. My face feels puffy.

We had some good Halo 2 action last night, in between my fits of crying. I finally got a chance to sword fly. It's hilarious. We're really working well as a team. That is, until Xerxdeej stars barking too many orders. It's funny how he doesn't say anything like "good game" when I beat him, but he'll compliment me when we're working as a team. Although his constant chatter is basically what gets us to communicate and work as a team. We have yet to really pull off any team battles like CTF or Assault. Team matches of King of the Hill and Slayer seem to be all we're good at. Waterworks might be my favorite map.

Somebody please make this headache go away. 3 Advil and a diet coke chaser didn't do a thing.

February 2nd, 2005 10:28 hours CST
Currently listening to: "Happiness" by Love Psychedelico
Days until Yuka is here: 9
Feeling: BUSY and tired

Ok, somebody is eating something nearby that smells like strawberries and cheese. That's fucking sick, dude.

An update on my life. This is why people don't really see me out anymore. Yuka is coming here in 9 days. Awesome. I'm in the middle of putting this new airiel EP together. We hired a cool designer. We're doing all of this out of our own pockets, so that's why I haven't been buying whiskey's at Smartbar every Wednesday like usual. This guy is also going to do our t-shirts. We're getting the CD's and the shirts done at the same place, so I'm praying that we get some sort of discount. This is all to help us make money while on the tour, which I'm also working on. We should be ready to book the thing by the end of this month. Hartfield is prepared to stay here for 2 weeks. That's perfect. If all goes as planned, we should be on the road for 12 nights. I'm having minor heart attacks each day about all of this. This is why I'm asleep by 10:30, if I'm not playing Halo 2 online to relieve stress. And then after all of this tour stuff is over with, I'm going to try to make it back to Japan so I can go to the big Fuji Rock Fest with Yuka. That's if I have any vacation time left or more likely, any money left.

But, Yuka is going to be here in 9 days and I will totally relax then.