May 25th, 2006 10:12 hours CST
Currently listening to: "The 3rd Time We Opened The Capsule" by Kitchens of Distinction
Getting married in: 55 days
Feeling: sleepy

I dropped off my Roland JC-120 at the shop after work. I bought it off of Chris to replace my Fender Twin which, let's face it, is a ticking time bomb. Sounds good live, but holy crap, that thing has problems. After that I went to Paper Source to look at reception invitations. That store was much larger than I had imagined. My eyes were sorta (@_@) when I walked in. Found some really cool designs and I think my friend Kim will be able to draw cherry blossom branches on them. ^_^

I watched Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children again last night before the thunderstorm hit. I never noticed on the first disc that they do a brief synopsis of FF VII using footage from the game. That was SO COOL. I loved playing that game and I was really glad that they threw that in there.

May 24th, 2006 10:47 hours CST
Currently listening to: the rain on my window
Getting married in: 56 days
Feeling: annoyed and amused

It is no secret to anybody who knows me that I'm an atheist and that I feel that religion is a giant crock of shit. Believing in an invisible man that lives in the clouds seems a bit, I don't know, insane to me. Thanks to Youtube and google video, it's possible to see some excellent examples of religious insanity these days. I see it all the time through bumper stickers ("what would jesus do?", "1 cross + 1 savior = 4given") and other media, confirming my stance that most of these people don't have a clue that Pat Roberts is pure evil and is serving nobody but the people who write his paychecks. That being George Bush and the American Taliban.

What annoys me even more than Pat Roberts is when I read or watch some report about an atheist trying to sue a school system or government body because we have "in god we trust" on all of our currency or "you're forcing my child to say the national anthem an acknowledge god" etc, etc. Look guys, the Christians and Catholics of this world (particularly this nation) are doing an outstanding job of already making themselves look like asses. Don't fuck it up by getting involved. Yes, I understand that it's upsetting that we have god this and god that in practically every major slogan associated with the United States and sure, I would love to see that crap erased in favor of a more enlightened ideal. However, it's not going to happen in our lifetime. Therefore, trying to sue the government to get these changes made is a waste of time and money.

Someday, when people have collectively wiped religion out of their minds and all of its hateful practices aside, and we don't see any more jihads, alter boy rapes, cross burnings (explain that one to me, please?) and governments controlled by morons that can't spell n-u-c-l-e-a-r, then everyone will be relaxed and groovy and we can get back to fixing the environment and ourselves. Blood will stop boiling when a gay couple is seen holding hands and smiling at each other and playing catch with their adopted child. Certain areas of land will sop being coated in bodies year after year because they no longer care if god said it belonged to them. A poor pregnant girl will be able to seek a safe and healthy way to terminate the pregnancy that her drunk-ass father bestowed upon her. I'm not exactly sure what it will take to make this happen, but I'm 100% sure that the solution isn't going to come from a bunch of men with archaic ideals that listen to a voice that comes from the clouds.

Actually, I think a step in the right direction would be to tax the living shit out of all churches. To quote George Carlin: "If you're so interested in government and public policy, pay your fuckin' admission price just like everybody else."

So, my message to my fellow atheists is: fight the good fight, but don't make an ass out of yourself. They are already doing a stellar job.

May 19th, 2006 09:20 hours CST
Currently listening to: "The Promise" by When In Rome
Getting married in: 61 days
Feeling: excellent, despite the back pain

Woo hoo! Got my new phone yesterday. So far, it's awesome. I'm getting used to the qwerty keyboard and I'm typing much faster now. I already miss not having a regular phone keypad to create messages. Being able to do that one handed was great, but oh well. This will prevent me from text messaging while DRIVING, so it's really a good thing. When Yuka is finally here, we'll be able to send normal text messages and I won't have to jump through as many hoops as I do now.

Awesome weather today. Drove my Vespa to work for the first time this year. Man, that felt good. Got paid today too. Might have to do some shopping on the way home.

May 18th, 2006 09:21 hours CST
Currently listening to: "Waterfall" by The Stone Roses
Getting married in: 62 days
Feeling: kinda pissed off

I ordered a new phone last week. It's a quad-band PDA phone. The T-Mobile MDA. I'll finally be able to chuck my piece of shit iPaq out the window and never have to deal with the crap synchronization problems with my current Nokia phone over Bluetooth anymore. I will finally have everything on one device. Too band it's locked in the talons of UPS.

I got back from the gym last night and after fuming over seeing a 2nd delivery notification slip on my door, I did some dishes (therapy) and cooked up some curry with udon noodles (massive therapy). I watched some episodes of Samurai Champloo and just before I went to bed, I booted the 360 and played Hexic HD. I made my first black pearl last night. I realized that once you have a few starflower pieces and no bombs on the screen, it's pretty easy to move those around to make the black pearl. Once you have 6 starflower pieces, I mean. 2 of them were made by accident. My brain is starting to get used to the way that game actually works. It's NOT simply a matter of making clusters and lasting as long as you can. Kind of weird. Anyway. I patted myself on the back. The black pearl sank to the bottom pretty quickly and I was fucked after that. :p

May 15th, 2006 16:05 hours CST
Currently listening to: "Lounge" by Esthero
Getting married in: 65 days
Feeling: like I drank too much water

Stupid weather.com. It keeps saying rain, rain, rain and right now it's super awesome outside and I could have taken my Vespa to work. It did this yesterday too. My only excuse for not riding was that I was making curry, and, well, it's a damn good recipe. Yuka and I have been busy with wedding details. I think she has everything squared away for the Japanese portion. Well, we still have tons of forms to fill out for the marriage petition and green card business. I'm going down to my parents over Memorial Day weekend to work on more wedding/reception stuff.

My parents have been making trips to the library to look at travel books on Japan. I called mom yesterday and she says that they really want some help with pronunciations. My dad adds an "r" when he says the word "wash", so I'm not sure if I'll really be able to help them. Just kidding, you two.

I made a reservation for a restaurant for the Chicago reception for September. This will be a lot of fun. We do have the option of bringing in live music, but we're still gonna opt for a friend to DJ. Although, for dinner, I dunno. We'll see. Lots to think about.

I cleaned a bit over the weekend and took stock of how much junk I'm gonna throw out or sell just to make closet space. When you live by yourself for 5+ years, you REALLY collect a lot of crap. Even though I can't wait for Yuka and I to have a big, 2 or 3 bedroom apartment, I'm not looking forward to moving at all. Just looking at the shelves in my living room makes my head hurt. Or rather, makes my back hurt. Either way, there's a lot of pain coming. It will be worth it, though.

I borrowed Call of Duty 2 from DJ and finally got around to playing it last night. It's very intense. I was really impressed with how chaotic the battles are. You honestly feel like you're fighting for your life. Hearing your comrades shouting constantly makes your nerves frazzled. The A.I. is impressive. Watching them pick up live grenades and throw them back at the enemy makes you stop and say "wow". There was a segment where my comrades and I were waiting for a huge wave of Germans to come over a snowy hill and there was so much shouting and gunfire. Then, suddenly, my comrades roared in triumph and chased after the retreating enemy soldiers and we pushed them back. It's an incredible game.

I had to sit and listen to some ambient techno for a while to calm down afterwards.

May 2nd, 2006 11:10 hours CST
Currently listening to: "These Are The Things" by Ivy
Feeling: hungry

I FINALLY finished my journal for my latest trip in Japan. Go here to read all about my engagement to Yuka, birthday cakes and the coolest hotel ever.

On another topic, The Nintendo Revolution was officially renamed last week to the Nintendo Wii.

This pretty much sums it up, right?

I have to say, I'm not happy about this. It just sounds stupid. The first things I think of are taking a leak and the little piggy that cried "wee wee wee all the way home". Nintendo has their reasons for the renaming, but good lord….. It just sounds stupid.

However, Xbox was a dumb name.
Playstation was also a dumb name.
Gamecube….. was OK, actually.
It was simple. Told the story.

I shall not be referring to the new console as the Wii. I shall be referring to it as "the new Nintendo". The is my grassroots protest.

See, on the new Nintendo, you're going to be able to play loads of games from the previous Nintendo systems, all the way back to the original NES. I'm a huge fan of this idea. I would love to play Section Z, Bionic Commando and practically any Konami game all over again.

Back when I was playing these games as a young lad, we simply called it "playing Nintendo". I shall be going back to my old school roots and will conduct myself in the same manner. I will not be playing "Super Mario gets another off-putting attachment to smiling mushrooms 128 for the Nintendo Wii." I will be playing "the new Mario on the Nintendo."

Again, simple. Tells the story.

Damnit, this is stupid.

May 2nd, 2006 11:20 hours CST
Currently listening to: the gigantic pile driver working at the art institute across the street.
Feeling: sleepy

Well, let's see. Turns out my stomach pains were caused by a bleeding ulcer. So, that's fun. I've been on some prescription medicine now for about a week and it is doing a great job. I'd been getting up 2-3 times a night to drink water so that I would have something in my stomach to stop it from hurting. Man, that was a drag.

Stella picks a new spot in the house about every 3-6 months to sleep. Her current spot is now the left side of the bed near the top. This is adorable! She's never slept this close to me before.

Airiel went down to Bloomington last weekend to play at 2nd story. It was really fun. Each time we've played out of town, I've always driven my Volvo, but I got to ride with the rest of the guys this time and we had a blast. We played a little louder than we probably should have, but it was still fun. Nice that we could sleep in at my parents place too.

I came home from Bloomington with a bit of a cold, so the Xbox 360 kept me company the rest of the weekend. Played all the way through Quake 2, which was the bonus disc for Quake 4. Ordered a pizza too. It was just like being in college again!

Yuka is going crazy planning our wedding. There are so many things to do and the date is getting closer and closer. We've reserved the Meiji shrine in Harajuku for July 22nd. I'm really excited. Can't believe that I'll be wearing a kimono for my wedding. My parents will be coming and we're trying to figure out just what kinds of food dad will be able to eat with his wheat gluten problem.