イエスキリスト ... です

Old Disney vs. New Disney
This is actually a re-posting of my reply, in a thread over at MM-BBS. The topic was mostly in comparing the current generation of Disney shows and movies to the Disney shows and movies from "the olden days." Since I replied so late in the thread's lifespan, I didn't get any replies. That and, I suppose, some of my points had been brought up before. But since I spent the better part of twenty minutes writing this thing, I thought I may as well post it over here as well. ^_^;;

I did this once before, in my Livejournal, for similar reasons: to see if it could spark any discussion outside the boundaries of where it was originally posted. As for the context, my reply was in response to lots of people bashing on the newer-era Disney Channel shows (both live-action and animated). And then of course, them saying how the stuff from a couple decades back was so much better. And while this was true in many cases, they seemed to be giving a little TOO MUCH credit to the Disney works of yesteryear.

Keep in mind, this mostly applies to the television side of things.
Although the same stuff can be said for the theatrical films, I suppose:

I think people are over-glamorizing the olden-days movies and shows. Sure, for sentimental reasons, people often get attached to the era they grew up in. When they see the products that are marketed to later generations, they have a natural impulse to draw back. But listen, I'm one of the most sentimental fools that you'll ever meet. And I'm usually of the mindset that, "They just don't make 'em like they used to." And in many ways, it's obviously true. But on the other hand, as much as I adore the classics, I can also appreciate modern things for simply what they are. And even with as many downgrades as they make to modern productions, they also always have a good amount of improvements thrown in as well. There's always a balance of some sort. People just don't tend to notice the improvements, half the time, because they view those olden-days productions through rose-colored glasses.

But in reality, the flaws have always been there. Whether it's the cheesy over-acting, the recycled and predictable plots, and the cookie-cutter musical score. This is nothing new to Disney, and certainly nothing new to the world of movies or sitcoms. And on the same point, there's nothing wrong with any of these aforementioned "flaws." When you ask for "Pop," you get POP. The beauty of pop music and pop television... is that they can take the simplest of methods and make them immensely enjoyable. Using the same basic chord progressions, comedic timing, or romantic storytelling that people have enjoyed for hundreds of years. Just package them differently, in a way that works well, and there you have your pop content. And for me personally, I love pop content from the new millennium just as much as I love pop content from the 1960's.

Take two examples from my own youth, shows that I was a big fan of. Chip & Dale's Rescue Rangers, which premiered in the Disney Afternoon. And Saved By the Bell; which was syndicated as well, but actually premiered as a Disney Channel show (long story). I hear people all the time, praising either of these shows left and right. Saying how, "They were cheesy, but also very fun and likeable. They had a real charm." And then those same people will bitch about the current-generation of Disney shows, calling them "trash." But if you sit down and watch those classic shows nowadays, come on. How are the current Disney shows, either animated or live-action, any worse than those 1980's ones were? In fact, most of the modern Disney shows have better acting, humor, and production than either of the aforementioned classics. I can say this from experience, as I've avidly followed almost every Disney show since the early 1980's. I've also avidly watched the stuff from decades before that, mind you I had to catch it in reruns.

If you're the kind of person who truly enjoys pop television, you'll find that a lot of the modern Disney shows are actually quite entertaining. But of course, much like anything in life, you have to give them a chance. You have to watch it, in a comfortable atmosphere, and typically do so by yourself. If you're watching it for the first time, along with other people who have already formed an opinion of the show, their opinion is just going to taint your experience. If it's with a group who really likes the show, and the environment is completely free of stress, you'll most likely find yourself liking the show as well. But if it's the type of people who are always telling you to like it, then it may have the opposite effect on you. You may have a very hard time liking the show, in that case. Much like how it's hard to like something when people are constantly telling you how awful they think it is. Outside influence, while it can sometimes be good, is more often a bad thing. It can unfairly swing you in either direction, engaging your natural response to either go with the flock or to run completely against it. Don't make yourself watch the shows just because your little niece likes them. And don't sit there over-analyzing and grumbling, either, because all your friends said the shows are trash. Just let it be.

It's like in the olden days, when we would discuss ways to "try and get our IRL friends hooked on Hellopro* music." There were threads about it, and everything. But we eventually noticed how the strongest Hellopro fans were usually the ones who discovered it on their own. Or at least the ones who were kinda nudged toward it, and allowed proper room to breathe and explore. But in cases where folks tried to push Hellopro music on their friends, those friends would rarely take very well to it. Even in the cases of friends whose musical tastes adhered to that style of pop very closely. It's proof of how human nature plays a huge part in whether we'll end up liking something, and often times the quality of the product barely even matters. Because when you look to the root of things, you can always find the good in them. But that takes a level of open-minded and objective examination that is tough to achieve. It's something we can't just tell ourselves to feel, it has to come naturally.

* The term "Hellopro" is short for "Hello! Project." It's a collective of female pop singers, in Japan, with the main group being the once mega-popular "Morning Musume." It's the thing that brought the MM-BBS people together, and upon which that message board was founded. The last paragraph speaks of a thread many years ago, where people pondered how to try introducing Hellopro music to their IRL friends who had never heard of it before.

Current Music: High School Musical 3 - Now Or Never

finally broke down and joined facebook
That's right, I caved into peer pressure. After all this time, and people nagging me a dozen times per week to get one already. There were a couple things holding me back, I suppose. One being, of course, that I don't go online nearly enough. And then there's the fear that a random person from my highschool days has become some sort of skin eating psychopath... and has harbored feelings against me for ten bucks I never paid them back in 1997. But meh, I'll set my privacy settings properly... and I'll do my best to come online more often. Just tonight, delving into the thing, I was hooked for hours on end. I can see why some people get addicted to this thing.

If nothing else, I wanna see all the pictures that our friends take whenever we hang out. People always mention how there's tons of pictures of ME that they wanna tag, and now they can! Plus Facebook is a good way to stay in touch with people. It seems that literally every person living in America has this damned thing. Even just with the people I currently associate with, there's gonna be over 500 to add so far. And then just doing random searches for people from my school days, or other friends I've lost touch with, almost every one was a hit. If I factor those people in, then the number more than doubles. Not sure if I wanna go down that avenue just yet, but we'll see. I would love to reconnect with plenty of them.

You won't find me by searching, if I set the options right.
Click here for my page, and add me!
And I mean everyone who reads this post.
It'll be a good start, and is much appreciated. ^_^;

Current Music: The Wallflowers - One Headlight

Jesus has risen again, so the gospel says...
Wow, it's been awhile. My computer has been packed up in a box for the past four months, so this is my first time using the internet AT ALL since the first week of autumn. For the few of you who still don't know why I've been offline so long, there's good news to share with you. At the end of October, I moved out into my own apartment! For the first time in countless years, I have an actual bedroom. And an actual BED for that matter; no more couch for me. Little did I know that when I moved into my mom's one-bedroom condo, back in the spring of 2002, that it would take me more than five-and-a-half years to move out on my own again. After about three months here, there's still a lot I haven't done in terms of setting the place up. But man, does it feel good to be free.

I'm living in Arlington Heights, right at the center of it all. Still working at Meijer, unfortunately. But at least home is close to work now, like two minutes away. And my apartment building is literally across the street from Mitsuwa's rear parking lot. As if that place wasn't a second home already, now I can walk there in about thirty seconds. Although funny enough, I've actually been going there a lot LESS since moving into my place. Probably since there's so much more to do at home nowadays. It's rare that I'll stop there on a random weekday anymore. However I still go there for "church" every Sunday, gotta lead my flock. And regardless, it's so nice to have my three most important places be all within minutes of each other. Saves on gas, which means a fillup now lasts for an incredibly long time.

My mom is helping me with a couple hundred bucks towards the rent each month, but that means that she is no longer helping with food like before. I got so spoiled by eating good food whenever I wanted, and now I've been going LEAN for the past few months. Since all of my paychecks now go to the rent, electric bill, car payment, insurance, comcast, cellphone, gas fillups, and all the other bills... there's literally NOTHING left. I have zero spending money of any form. Anything that's left after the bills goes to meager amounts of food. No more music or any other luxuries until I can find a job that pays a lot more. Also doesn't help that they've been cutting back my hours for months now.

Although thankfully, in that brief period just after I moved (and right before I had zero spending money)... I finally picked up an XBOX 360. Mostly thanks to countless Best Buy gift cards I had saved up over the past year or two. It was the first time in ages that I've even remotely wanted to buy a new game system. Aside from the exception of the DS, I pretty much stopped playing video games about six years ago. Some of it was to do with being at my mom's place, and not being able to set stuff up properly. Some of it was because all my money had to go towards music once I finished college (and had to work to survive). And while I'll never go back to playing or buying games in the ridiculous amounts that I did as a kid, I'm glad to be at least somewhat back in the scene again.

A lot of what drew me to the system, aside from it having all the best games, is the way that XBOX Live works. Literally EVERY game on that system has online play of some sort. So on any given night when you can't go out with friends after work, just hop on Live... and play with them from the comfort of your own home. And with the headset on, you can talk with them all the while as well. Then of course 360 has achievement points, one of the best marketing decisions ever by a game company. For a perfectionist/collector personality like myself, achievement points are both the best and the worst thing that could have ever happened. ^_^;; That's fine though, I'm pretty much stuck with the half dozen or so games that I bought back in November when I got the system. I won't be able to afford any new games for god knows how long, not even those ten dollar sale ones we see now and then. I guess it gives me time to really milk the few that I do have.

Back to the point at hand, however, I'm back online. And now with my own place, and the freedom that comes with it, I should be able to come online a lot more often than I used to. I know I've said this before, but I'm determined to make it happen this time. Same goes for MMBBS, I need to go back there and actually stay around for awhile. Although I still always go out with friends every saturday and sunday night (with few exceptions to that rule), I'll probably be home on the weekdays a lot more now. Can't really afford to go out as often. Aside from my trips to either Steve Summers or Chris Punzalan's houses, both of which I stop by once per week. That eats up my gas budget, if not exceeds it. Damn I'm broke as hell. But even as broke as I am, I'm also happier than I've been in aeons.

Current Music: Reel Big Fish - Good Thing

drink, or don't drink, to your health!
This is actually a reply I posted in my friend Becky's journal. (I was gonna link to it, but it's locked). She was talking about being on a health kick, and how the changes were really starting to work. By the time I finished typing this reply, I figured I may as well share it with everyone and see what their thoughts on the subject were. I focused on the beverage side of the issue, specifically:

I'm glad to hear about all these positive changes you're making! I can really relate to a lot of them, especially the water thing. I drink a ton of water each day, and it's the only thing I have with meals. I have a coffee or tea in the morning, and sometimes a second one in the evening. But that's typically my only flavored beverage in the day. I made a conscious decision to switch to water a couple years ago, a lot because of something my grandpa told me...

He said, "You should stop drinking so much pop, remember that diabetes runs in the family." He was right. It didn't strike my dad until adulthood, and didn't hit my grandpa until he was a senior. But when it did, it made the end of their lives far less liveable. And it's the things you do early in life that will ultimately catch up with you later. As much as I like to live for the moment, sometimes foresight is good.

Not that I mind, I can't imagine ever going back to pop. Even the diet sodas, while they didn't have the sugar and calories, always left me feeling loagy in some way. Not to mention that now, since I've been weened off the stuff, I don't really like it anymore. In the rare cases I do drink it, it usually leaves me feeling icky. Plus the fact that water is good for you in so many ways, particularly in terms of digestive health. Most people on this earth are either dehydrated, constipated, or both... throughout most of their life. Drinking more water helps with both, and it's so easy to do.

And then the booze, yeah. I pretty much gave up on that stuff, just under one year ago. I was at a convention, called "Reactor," with lots of friends. I got drunker than I've ever gotten in my life. Not only did it make me sick, which drunkeness will often do, but it left me feeling sick for almost a week afterwards. Not to mention I puked all over myself after finally getting some rest the next morning. For someone like me, who over-reacts to even getting glitter or little shirt fuzzies on me... imagine how fun that was. Not to mention I actually forgot lots of what happened in the last few hours of the night. I've NEVER had that kinda thing happen before this, so that scared me.

Moreover, and this is something I've told very few people before, I actually lost my job because of it. I had to call off work that day, as I was too sick to do anything. It was only my third day of work, at a place called HomeMade Pizza. I was a MANAGER there, so missing work in general tends to get frowned upon. But to do it on your third day, yeah. Needless to say, I had to scramble to get a new job. Without the luxury of waiting for something nicer, I ended up at Meijer. A place that I work at to this day -_-

I've had some beers now and then, with friends at dinner or etc. But never enough to get tipsy over it. Just enough to dehydrate me, and waste calories. A lot like drinking pop, really ^_^ And I haven't touched a drop of hard liquor, nor do I think I could stomach it. I was never a fan of drinking in general, I just loved how fun it was to be drunk with friends once in a while. But I'm the kinda person who can be just as goofy and weird without needing to drink, so I can't say I miss it that much.

Current Music: Moriguchi Hiroko - Mizu no Hoshi e Ai wo Komete

The O.C. ends; a sign of the times?
The final episode of The O.C. aired last week, and I mourn. It was, without a doubt, one of my favorite shows of the past decade. Some people say they didn't like it, because they thought it was "just another shallow teen drama." But if they had bothered to watch more than just an episode or two, they would've realized that it was exactly the opposite. The show's creator, Josh Schwartz, is brilliant. And in his brilliance, he managed to merge a couple of different genres together in order to facilitate the show's success.

Schwartz has been quoted, in numerous interviews, saying that his favorite shows were modern cult classics like My So-Called Life and Freaks & Geeks. Quirky shows with intricate and deep character development, focused on young characters but with concepts that appeal to any age. He knew, however, that these kind of shows didn't tend to last for more than a couple seasons. Those shows failed to get the mega-ratings that help a show survive in this day and age. And the buzz at the time, in 2003, was that FOX wanted a show that could be the hip and modern equivalent of Beverly Hills 90210. So in this, Schwartz teamed up with Wonderland Productions (directors McG and Stephanie Savage) to develop The O.C.

With their savvy for modern teen-sppeal shows, they helped Schwartz to refine the show into something that outwardly resembled a "hip teen soap opera." Their experience in music video production helped give it an emphasis on music, and an MTV vibe. This was something that FOX could give their full support to, and which could also grab some of the shallower viewing audience (the people who only want flash, rather than substance). All the while, the show was actually incredibly deep. It was very telling of the human condition. Critics saw this, and tended to herald the show (even in its last season)...

The O.C. told of how the word "family" sometimes has nothing to do with bloodline. It told of how the rich and elite can actually have far more complicated and traumatic lives than we'd ever imagine. The characters were complex, rather than just cookie-cutter stereotypes. While we had plenty of heart-warming moments and such, we also saw some real problems. And not the kind of "problems" that we usually see on a teen drama show. In this case, it was a level of rawness and realism that we don't usually see. Broken and dysfunctional families, alcohol and drug abuse, and etc. But even in that, the show wasn't some dark melodrama. We had mounds of brilliant and quirky humor to keep it balanced. The kind of blend that people love on those Joss Whedon programs. Not to mention all the Judaic-related facets of the show, which personally made me very happy.

The show's ratings had been slipping as time went on. For this fourth and final season, FOX only ordered 16 episodes to be produced (rather than the usual 25 or so). As with many shows nowadays, their condition was, "If you can get your ratings up high enough by January, we will consider renewing the show. If not, then we will cancel it." And they did. The show was on Thursdays, and was facing "Gray's Anatomy." It was pretty much dead in the water -_- The last episode was pretty good, and took place six months after the previous one. It also did a good job of summing up the plotlines that we woulda missed in that six months, at least.

It's somewhat a sign of the times, how networks are too strict on ratings nowadays. A lot of times, shows won't even get to finish their last season properly... they just get axed midway through. (The networks would rather spend that money on making another half-dozen garbage reality shows). Although I do realize that ratings have always been the factor in a show dying too soon, don't get me wrong. There have been plenty of shows which abruptly ended after three seasons or so, even despite critical acclaim. Look at Arrested Development, for one. Or the WB show, Jack & Bobby, which was another favorite of mine. It went from being the highest-rated WB show in its first season... to being cancelled shortly into season two. And then the above-mentioned shows from the late 1990's, that Schwartz found inspiration in, all died after a few seasons.

This being the case, I'm enraged by shows like The Simpsons (which are in no fear of being cancelled). Despite the fact... THE FACT... that The Simpsons has not been good since maybe 1999. The show is utter garbage now, and possibly the worst sitcom on the five free TV networks. If there were ever a case of a show "jumping the shark," then this is it. This autumn will begin the 19th season of that now-horrible show, while FOX continues to cancel countless good series on their network each year. Typically the first-season shows that never even get a chance to find their stride. The usual ones we rant about, like John Doe, Wonderfalls, Justice, etc. Or sometimes it's shows like The O.C., which could have remained strong for at least a couple more years if given the chance.

If only all shows could be like Seinfeld. That was a rare case.
Where they get to end by their own choice, and at the perfect time:
After fully realizing themself, but before they start to get tedious.

Current Music: Dion - Abraham, Martin, and John

another year, another livejournal post
Today is my birthday, so I thought I'd make my usual post in honor of it. I only update this thing six times a year at best, so may as well tie one of those posts to an important date like this. Life is going pretty well... can't really complain at all. I'm still working fulltime at Meijer, and the job is actually really easy compared to most of my past jobs. Sure, it pays less money, but that also means a lot less stress. And it still affords enough money to pay the bills and whatnot. The scheduling is extremely flexible, and I actually have a SET schedule every week (the same two days off, and the same shift hours on the days that I do work).

Still hanging out with friends about four or five days each week, which keeps things interesting. I can never put into words how much I love you guys and gals, you all mean the world to me. Even on the days where we just go to dinner, or sit around and talk for hours... those little things mean more than we all consciously realize. As for family, my mom is stressed out as hell from work (as usual). But otherwise, she's doing well. My grandmother is having vision issues, related to age. But regardless, she's trucking along, and still one of the most vital and beautiful ladies out there. I love both of them with all my heart, and am fortunate to have them in my life.

I want to have a birthday dinner sometime soon; maybe on Saturday, March 3rd.
Let me know, on here, how that would work for people. We can accomodate if not.

And now, on a related note:

I had an interesting dream a few nights ago, and it's one of the few times that I've actually remembered one in detail. I did one of those things where a group of friends go in together on buying a batch of lottery tickets. If one of the tickets wins, then they split the prize evenly between them. In this case, I went in with two other people... Dave Kitsberg and Andrew Soep. Too much Jew for one room, eh? But anyhow, we won the lottery, and it was a sensible prize of about ten-million dollars. So after taxes, we each got around two-million bucks as a lump sum.

My reaction was pretty realistic, actually. At first it didn't really "hit me," as with any big news a person receives in life. Then at a later point in the dream, I remember the absolute feeling of bliss that overcame me when I realized I was rich. The only issue was, I started to realize (even in my unconscious mind) that it was too good to be true... and that it was probably a dream. Similarly to when I have dreams where my dad is still alive, I actually realize (within the dream itself) that this can't really be happening. The more powerful moments in your real life tend to stick with you, and even the euphoria of dream world can't deceive you into thinking they happened otherwise.

But yeah, shortly after my realization over the money, I woke up. It makes me wonder, what would I have done with all that cash? This is something I want to ask you guys, too (the few people with enough patience to read this far, I mean). What would you do with the money if you won a lottery prize of a couple million bucks? Not the Powerball or something, just a more sensible prize. I've always had a pretty set plan in my head for what I'd do. I would buy myself a house, paid off in full, for starters. And not a mansion, just a sensible house in a good area around here. Then of course, I would help my mom finish paying off her condo (or move her into a bigger place, if it was her wish)...

I'd get brand new cars for the both of us, paid in full. I would put away a nice chunk of money for both my mom and grandma. Then of course there's a hundred grand I could blow on luxuries and/or gifts for friends. The rest of the money, about half of it, would go into the bank. I'm sure of one thing, I wouldn't go blow it on stupid stuff like many lottery winners do. As much as I love splurging on my music and such, I'm far more sensible than it would indicate.

If anything, I'm good with money because I've lived through both sides of things. When I was a young kid, I was spoiled to death. Money was no issue. Then once I hit my late teens, I would experience the opposite. Having to do things for myself, losing a parent, being dirt broke and having no reliable financial backing. I guess the duality of things helped keep me balanced and grounded. Nowadays I manage to budget like a pro, while still being able to buy the material items that really matter to me. Even with as much as I spend on music and such, I'm currently in zero debt. Aside from the car payments I guess. But... yeah... shut up :P

Current Music: Abe Natsumi - Yannacchau

Parker Lewis Can't Lose
So yeah, wow, I'm alive. Just barely, in some respects. I've just gotten over a bad cold... one which began right after an even worse cold ended a few weeks ago. Two sicknesses in a row, which kept me ruined for at least a month. And all while working fulltime, and still hanging out with folks all the time. Not to mention I got a partially-impacted wisdom tooth pulled, just before the first sickness, which put me out of it doubletime for a bit. And since I had to call-off work for two days due to the tooth thing, I've made sure NOT to call-off for being sick (no matter how bad it gets). Not just because I can't afford losing the money, but also since it's a new job and I want to make a good impression.

Speaking of which, I've been working at Meijer for the past few months. You local folks know this already, since I've seen all of you plenty. That and I've brought it up on 7th Step before. For those who aren't part of the local group, I use 7th Step to make quick or joking posts that won't go in my normal journal. It's been pretty dead there lately, mostly just announcing plans for gatherings, but it never hurts to check. And as far as Meijer, for those who're wondering, it's a "big-box store" like Target or Wal*Mart (but much better). However, since it began as a grocery store, the grocery section is actually enormous (just as big as any mega grocer). It's a great environment, nice store, and I've always loved shopping there.

Thanks to work, dental surgery, and being sick... I haven't really been online. Not that I ever come online often enough, but this just made it impossible -_- I'm so behind on MMBBS, which I should be back to before the new year (god willing). The one thing I've actually been able to do, in the brief bits of freetime I get at home, is play the new Castlevania for DS. And keep in mind, I pretty much stopped playing video games at home back in 2002. Only very rarely does one come along that is important enough to me. And I mean like, going from never playing games at all... to playing this game every waking chance I get. It could very well be the best game ever made, as far as I'm concerned. In competition with Symphony Of the Night, of course.

Holiday time has been busy, with Steve and Chris' parties one day after another last weekend. Then came the two days of Jewish Christmas. Thankfully Nick Randall is back in town, so I've seen him as much as possible. Malcolm's coming in this weekend, which will be even better. And then comes Steph's birthday, then Dan White's for New Year's. A bunch of us are going to Columbus the weekend of the 5th, after which Pernell is coming back with us and staying in town for a few weeks. Combine all this stuff with work, and you see why I don't get online lately. Today I'm going down to Indiana to see Steve, who's back home on winter break. He's been coughing and congested lately, oy. He says it's allergies, but I swear to god... if I get sick from him, I'm just giving up on life ^_^;

Current Music: R.E.M. - Stand

the best night on television is back
With tonight's season premiere, the best night on television is officially complete once again. House on FOX, and Boston Legal on ABC. Much like last year, it's the reason I try to stay home on Tuesday nights. Although I was home today mostly thanks to a family member's crisis, but that is calmed down for now. And thankfully so, because both shows were in perfect form. And with shows like this on free TV, I don't even mind the fact that I don't have cable. House has a painfully gorgeous seventeen-year-old stalking him, for one. Once he had that line about the voicemails from her, around the middle of the episode, I knew this was gonna be a recurring plotline. I'm glad that the show always has those little side-stories to detract from the "patient of the week" scenario.

I also thought it was very interesting how they handled the issue in this season's first episode, of the "teaching him humility" dealie. It makes you wonder if his supposed failure in that case is what ultimately drove him back to the drugs, to make up for the high he gets from solving cases. Or if the return to the drugs was inevitable, and how long it mighta taken otherwise. And then there's the typical brilliant humor and timing, in this episode relating mostly to the teenage girl. Like when House bumped his cane in the clinic, dropping his papers. The teenage girl bent down to help pick them up, putting the two of them in one of those awkward/romantic face-to-face moments. Cameron then busted in on the two of them, saying, "He's too old and weak." (actually referring to their patient, and not to House... genius timing). They also seem to be harking back to the first season's methods, of the symptoms/actions of the moronic clinic patients actually being the inspiration for solving his big case of the week. This time it was a little too random, with the thong, but I don't think they intend to be that goofy every time.

And then Boston Legal, what can you say? David E. Kelly never fails to impress me. This show is so brilliant that it defies explanation. It definitely falls along the patterns of his past shows, though... such as The Practice, Ally McBeal, Picket Fences, Boston Public, etc. All of which were among my favorite shows of their time. He has a rigid enough style, which hasn't changed much from show to show. But he still manages to do it better than most anyone in television. Along with a stellar cast, he's writing some of his best stuff in years. A great blend of comedy and seriousness, and of course his usual strong opinions on actual news issues of the moment (vocalized in this case by Allan Shore, most of the time). It also seems that he's fallen out of his revolving-cast pattern (which was blatantly obvious in the first season) and actually found a cast he wants to stick with. Although if next week's preview says anything, it appears we may be getting some new youngins in the mix -_-

Current Music: Madness - Our House

a fond farewell to The WB and UPN
I'd been bringing this up to people over the past few months, while hanging out, and I'm surprised at how few of you had actually heard the news. Since the network is about to launch in a few days, I thought I'd finally get around to explaining it to folks. At the beginning of 2006, it was announced that the two networks "The WB" and "UPN" would be merging into one channel. The new network will be known as "The CW," and it launches on Monday September 18th. The name comes from the first initial of the two parent companies that are merging their networks. "C" is for CBS/Paramount, owner of UPN. And "W" is of course for Warner Brothers, owner of The WB. For my Jpop friends, it's always gonna be a funny name, since we've known what "c/w" has really meant for years ^_^;

This was the biggest industry shocker in ages. It'd be the first time that a broadcast television network would cease operations, let alone two of them at once. (Or I mean, "Aside from the DuMont Network in 1955." But only TV geeks like me would know what the hell that means). In the case of WB and UPN, their ratings were never able to hold up to the four major networks. They've both had moderate hits here and there, but by the end of 2005 they had failed to be profitable for quite a while. So in merging, they decided to salvage the more popular shows from each network and make a fresh start. Particularly the ones with a cool and youthful image, which they would be asserting more strongly from now on.

The CW will be taking over the channel that currently hosts The WB in most markets (since that is the most-watched of the two merging channels). In the case of us in Chicago, that's WGN channel nine. As for UPN, their affiliates in most areas are actually owned by FOX (like in Chicago, with WPWR channel 50). At the announcement of The CW merger, FOX was angry that most of its affiliates hosting UPN would now be left without a network. In this, FOX created their own new network, called "My Network TV." The channel would build its prime-time programming around two telenovelas (daily soap operas) that were originally created by FOX for syndication. In most markets, including ours in Chicago, "MYTV" has already taken over UPN's old channel, and can be seen since two weeks ago.

UPN didn't get a send-off of any sort, since FOX started replacing its banners with "MYTV" ones earlier in the year. And while UPN shows have been airing all summer, MYTV actually premiered two weeks before The CW did. So UPN just sorta died in limbo, a few weeks back. However, with The WB, we're apparently getting a cool "network farewell" this Sunday. They are airing the pilot episodes from The WB's biggest hits over the years. Felicity, Angel, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Dawson's Creek. Starting at 5/4c, a nice five-hour block. During the commercial breaks, they will air all of the old WB ad campaigns, as well as commercials for the DVD or syndicated releases of old WB shows. It's the end of an era, with the next day seeing the launch of The CW. I wish I could be home to watch it, I guess I'll set up a tape to record -_-

People seem to be scared of actually reading anything anymore, but here's some fascinating stuff from Wikipedia. There's some TV geek lingo here and there, but don't let it scare you. It's a fascinating history lesson, and it had me enthralled. Plus, it tells a great deal more than I personally have patience to type:

Wikipedia - The CW
Wikipedia - The WB
Wikipedia - UPN
Wikipedia - DuMont

Current Music: Paula Cole - I Don't Wanna Wait

for the wrestling fans, flash back four or five years
A couple Mondays ago, I was at Rich Ramillosa's house for his birthday. More like late Sunday night, but it was past midnight so we got to be the firsts to officially ring in the day. We started off by watching a tape of the most recent RAW with folks. It was a real treat for me, since I don't have cable at home (and so I can't watch RAW, ECW, and stuff like that). Then afterwards, he realized he wasn't gonna be home that night to watch the new episode of RAW. He asked his friend to tape it for him, which he agreed to. But having no new VHS tapes, he went to dig through his old tapes and see if there was something he could record over.

Since they're not labeled, we popped in each tape to see what was on it. Turned out they were all old wrestling tapes, and so we started on a nostalgia trip. The real standout, and the one which we watched in full, was an episode of RAW from the first months of 2002. This episode was from back when I was staying in Baltimore (and was watching both of the wrestling shows each week with my friends out there). A very memorable and cool time in wrestling, and a moment in time just before (and after) a lot of major changes in the format.

This was shortly after Vince McMahon had purchased WCW, and would purchase ECW as well. We were delighted by the people who had been brought over, both superstars and lower-key folks. And then of course Stacy Kiebler and Torrie Wilson, who were far more talented and attractive than any WWF women of the time. It was when they shocked us by bringing back nWo, to lead into Wrestlemania 18. And crazier still, it was when they were still called WWF. The name change to WWE would occur later that year. Similarly, this was back when the entire WWF roster was still united. The whole "split" between rosters of RAW and Smackdown would not occur until later that year as well. So in many ways, this was the end of an era.

Steve Austin's "WHAT?!" gimmick was still going strong. Kurt Angle was doing promos for "800-CALL-ATT" and their Wrestlemania X8 contest. DDP was everyone's favorite motivational speaker, with that creepy leather grin. The Hardy Boys were together, and still in prime condition. Ric Flair had a majority share in WWF, and wouldn't sell it to Vince. In return, Vince brought back nWo! An inconsistency in story, since I seem to recall Hogan going back to a face (and his yellow/red) just before WCW ended. But I couldn't help but mark out anyhow, as this was big stuff.

And then Wrestlemania 18 was coming, which would have two big matches in relation. Steve Austin vs. Scott Hall, which was okay. But then there was the expected "clash of legends" between The Rock and Hulk Hogan. That was an interesting match, because even though Hogan was the heel... he still got lots of cheers from people who were just glad to see him back. It was a nice show of mutual respect, and at least The Rock didn't hafta jobber to Hogan as badly as RKO needed to (in their match at Summerslam THIS year) ^_^

The other tape we ended up watching was an even older one, the WCW pay-per-view "New Blood Rising." Again, so many cherished memories and things we missed. There was a fantastic match between 3Count and the Jung Dragons. We had Kanyon, of course, who betta? Not to mention Buff Bagwell's mom on a forklift. And then the mud wrestling match, with a young Stacy Kiebler (back when she was still Miss Hancock). Further testimony as to why no woman in wrestling will ever usurp her as my favorite. This was when they kicked off the baby storyline, and she was still with David Flair.

We need to watch old Wrestling shit more often. In this day and age, you can prolly download any past PPV on Bittorrent or IRC. Prolly even RAW and other shows. I tried to find the 800-CALL-ATT Wrestlemania X8 commcercial on YouTube and Google Video, to share with you guys, but no luck -_- I did manage to find another clip, though, related to this time period. Absolutely hilarious, so well-done with the music. You guys should remember it. We even get a "Space Austin" as the last note of the song:

EDIT: The clip was removed from YouTube a couple days after I linked to it -_- The usual excuse, "copyright reasons." It's a shame, too, because it was just a short segment from an ancient RAW episode. It's not like WWE stands to lose anything from people sharing that particular clip, seeing as that footage is not commercially available. It's not like someone had uploaded a PPV, or a DVD rip, or something you can actually purchase from them. Yay for unfair policy.

Current Music: Lillian Garcia - Shout

chothena wedding weekend, complete with pictures!

For those with ADD, you can cut right to the pictures via the lj-cut on the bottom. ^_^

This past weekend, I took a trip down to Omaha along with Dave Kitsberg. We were attending the wedding of our dear friends Cho and Athena, and we spent a little over three days there. It was good times, and I wish them a great time on the honeymoon! Major thanks to Scott, for being a wonderful and gracious host. Many thanks also to Justin Richardson, who co-hosted us and was our means of transportation on numerous occassions. It was so nice to see ALL the Omaha people for once, rather than only a couple of you at a time (like at cons). The last time I was in Omaha myself, before this, was a couple years ago. I love you guys to death, and I already miss you again! I need to make my next trip back there a lot sooner this time! Anyhow, onto the story:

FRIDAY

I headed down to pick up Dave at his place on Friday afternoon. I was already exhausted, as I had only slept for maybe an hour the night before (like before any trip outta town, haha). We had some awesome sandwiches at a shop right by him, before heading back to prep. We got directions to Scott's house, burned some MP3 CD's, and were finally ready to go. We ended up leaving a couple hours later than we'd wanted, and got caught in evening rush hour -_-; I was driving my own car on this trip, since Dave usually drives his car on our long roadtrips together (and I definitely owed him). It was interesting driving my own car for such a long distance. Usually when I'M the driver on a long roadtrip, it's been in Nick's or someone else's car (because everyone but me usually falls asleep haha).

We stopped numerous times during the latter part of the trip trying to find food. It seems like every time we pulled off the highway and got to a place, they had closed their indoor dining room not more than fifteen minutes before we got there. In the end, we got to Omaha around 3:00am, and just drove through Burger King so we could eat it at Scott's. Dave fell asleep soon after getting there, but Justin (Richardson) had just recently woken up (thanks to his goofy work/sleep schedule lately). Since we were both pretty well awake, I decided to join him for some shopping at Wal-Mart (theirs are all 24 hour ones over there). After that, we stopped by IHOP and chatted about con matters a bit. I just had a ton of coffee, no food yet (since I had recently eaten).

SATURDAY

Got back to Scott's at around maybe 8:00am. Dave was just waking up, so we sat down and gabbed with him about industry work and stuff for a while. I was surprisingly not very tired, even after two straight days awake. Maybe it was the pot and a half of coffee that I had at IHOP ^_^;; Before it was too late, we walked over to McDonalds to get some breakfast. Man was it hot out, even walking down a few blocks was killer. Sometime later in the afternoon, I decided to get a nap in for an hour or two. Dave and Justin headed out to have lunch, and to visit Scott at his work.

Just before 5:00pm, and after us three had gotten ready, we headed to the wedding. We ended up getting there like ten minutes late, but it wasn't too bad. Lots of relatives were getting there at the same time we did, haha. The ceremony was short but sweet, Athena and Cho both looked amazing! This was one of the first non-Jewish weddings for both Dave and Me, and when everyone recited the lord's prayer at the end (from memory), we both just sorta nodded along ^_^;; I took lotsa pictures outside while we hung out, and got to meet up with everyone else. Danye, Gabe, Emily, Jesse, Jon, Randy, Pillow, Ashley, Grono, and etc. After the bride and groom made their exit, we all headed out to drive to the reception.

At the reception, we tried to fit all of us at the same table. There were so many of us friends there, that we ended up having to split into two. But people kept wandering over to our main table, as it was like "the cool kids spot" haha. Lotsa good food, good drinks, fun dancing, and great random pictures. Later on in the night, some folks turned in early. Dave, Scott, Justin, Gabe, and Danye all decided to head back home. I was still up for doing stuff, so I joined all the remaining people (along with Cho and Athena) at the cool bar across the street from the hotel.

I had to pay a couple bucks as an entry fee, but that was okay (even for a broke person like me). And thankfully, both Pillow and Grodo bought numerous rounds of shots for whomever wanted them. So in that, I was able to get nicely toasted at the bar ^_^ After they closed, we headed back to Cho and Athena's suite at the hotel. It wasn't the honeymoon suite, since their actual honeymoon was going to be in Scotland. They just got the suite for free, because of the reception, which was awesome! Hours and hours of crazy drunken hijinks, some of which we photographed. We were out pretty late, I didn't get back and finally to sleep until maybe 7:00am.

SUNDAY

Dave and Scott got up pretty early, around 10:00am. I was crashed on the love seat, and dozing off for short bits here and there during the day. Too uncomfortable to properly sleep, though. They went out to eat breakfast at Village Inn, and I was still dead when they got back. I finally got up and active in the late afternoon. We watched some Fist Of the North Star, played some games, and etc. Randy and Ashley would both eventually come by in the afternoon, and then Jesse and Emily came by in the evening. After lots of doddling, we all finally headed out to Family Fun Center. We stopped at Taco Bell first, though, to get a nice dinner. We ended up making it to FFC with only about an hour before they closed. It was Dave's first time there, and my third time. We definitely had fun, even if our time was limited.

Afterwards, we stopped by the HyVee (the local grocery store chain). Jesse, Emily, and I all grabbed some various boozes to drink back at Scotts, and again took some funny pictures. We headed back, and ensued to hang out with everyone. Dave and Scott fell asleep eventually, but the rest of us stayed up. Had some drinks, and played Pocket Fighter and even SonicR! (on the Gems Collection). It had been like eight years since I'd played that game! Great music, aweful play control. ^_^ We realized that it was now past 3:00am, and that I would hafta be up by 6:00am to drive home. With so little time left, I decided to just skip sleeping altogether. I'm a machine, and have a higher sleep tolerance than anyone we know... so I knew I could handle it.

MONDAY

Before leaving, I figured we should get some breakfast. Cho and Jesse were still there, as they had stayed up with me all night playing games. We woke up Dave since it was now time to go. Since we had been playing a Sonic game all night, I realized, "Wait, we never got to eat at Sonic Burger while we were here! Do they serve breakfast?!" It turns out they do, and so we decided to eat there before Dave and I headed out. As with their lunch items, their breakfast food is heaven on earth. Cho was nice enough to treat us all, and one of the items we got was the "breakfast sandwich on toast." That reminds me of a certain fast food restaurant in our area, and so I told Cho that I owe him a breakfast at White Castle next time he comes to Chicago.

We said our goodbyes, hopped on I-80, and headed home. Dave fell asleep for most of the trip, but that was fine since he had to take a test at school that evening. He needed the rest, and I was fine to stay awake anyhow. I've driven much further (and on even less sleep) without anyone else in the car being awake, so it wasn't too tough. The trip back home was much faster, barely over six hours the whole way! I dropped Dave at home, and then headed home myself. Got home around maybe 4:00pm, and shortly after that I crashed hard. I had basically gone the last four or five days straight with only a couple hours of sleep the whole time. So I was more than ready for sleep. Ended up sleeping for about twenty hours straight ^_^

And now, without further adieu, I present the pictures!
There's parts to the story that I left out, to save for the pics!

( LJ-CUT, CLICK HERE FOR THE NARRATED PICTURES )

lord i miss roy orbison
PBS just re-aired the old concert "Roy Orbison and Friends: Black & White Night" taped back in 1987. I haven't seen it in years, although I have the old VHS and have watched it countless times during my life. But damn if I could resist watching the entire thing again tonight on television. It's such an important part of who I am, in so many ways. Roy Orbison was one of my dad's favorite singers, and he became one of mine as well. He was one of the first artists that I fell for in my life; we used to listen to his music all the time when I was a young kid (along with people like Dion, Gene Pitney, etc). And then this concert, which we watched for the first time when I was only six years old, was likely what spawned my lifelong love for watching concert videos.

Roy Orbison, for those unfamiliar, was a singer-songwriter from Texas. He became incredibly famous by the early 1960's for pioneering a type of operatic rock that broke from convention (although he'd started singing a good many years before that, and originally was known for more rockabilly type stuff). His voice has an absolutely amazing range and sound, and he could have been a professional tenor if he'd decided to go that route. Orbison wrote songs that were melodically and structurally sophisticated... yet his voice was still the strong focal point of the recordings (like you hear in vastly different forms of music, such as "folk"). This is my absolute favorite kind of music, and something that very few artists have done.

But back to the concert, it was a true achievement. It was filmed in black and white, and had a look that harked back almost half a century. Despite this, it had a film quality that was so amazingly sharp and clear. I still can't believe the footage is almost twenty years old. It was filmed only about a year before his death in 1988, and crazy enough it's the only concert video he ever released. He was backed up by a band that was a dream-team of stars at the time. Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello, Tom Waits, Jackson Browne, T-Bone Burnett, Bonnie Raitt, Jennifer Warnes, K.D. Lang, and the list goes on.

He performed his hit songs, along with the standards he had written for other big stars. Favorites like Only The Lonely, Cryin, In Dreams, Running Scared, Blue Bayou, etc. He sounded amazing, and it seemed as effortless for him as it always did. The guests at the show were not actually there to sing on their own, they only performed as an actual backup band to him. They were there to pay homage to someone they respected and grew up listening to. And of course, many of these stars at the time would eventually become the legends of today.

Orbison was actually in the middle of a career resurgence, releasing lots of successful music in the 1980's after more than a decade-long slump. His last album would be released after his death, and contained one of his bigger singles "You Got It." Around this same time, Orbison had been working as a member of the Traveling Wilburys... a supergroup which also consisted of members George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Bob Dylan, and Tom Petty. A fact that made it even sadder when he passed away, their first album was released only a couple months before his death.

Then a few years later, in 1990, the film "Pretty Woman" would bring a lot of attention back to Orbison (thanks to his old single of the same name being used as the title track). That song, "Oh, Pretty Woman," was one of the most successful singles of all time when it was released in the 1960's. One of the few American artists to have a true hit during the reign of The Beatles. On a related note, Orbison was also a huge success in England (and had toured with The Beatles, becoming friends with them). There would also be a movie made about his life, although nowhere near as successful as the recent one about Johnny Cash (a person with whom he shared a lot of traits, and had worked with).

Current Music: Roy Orbison - In Dreams

in loving memory of ray strauss
My grandfather just recently passed away; I'm finally getting around to writing about it. A lot of my time has involved being there for family, so I apologize to various people that I've been out of contact with for the past week or so. With him gone, and having already lost my dad, I now have only TWO direct relatives left: my mom, and my grandmother. I have no siblings, of course. I have some aunts, uncles, and cousins... but none of them live locally nor do I see or talk to them very often. So for me, mom and grandma mean the world... and it makes me appreciate them all that much more.

He was 88 years old, we had celebrated his birthday only a couple months ago. He had been unable to talk since a few weeks before his birthday, though, and had eventually gone into a coma. He left peacefully, and we knew his time had come. It was strange to see him so quiet, since he was always such a fighter in life. He'd been through countless surgeries and medical hardships in the past decade, but he always pulled through in nearly full health afterwards. It was as if he were invincible, sometimes. He has some good genes in him, and I can only hope to personally live anywhere near as long as he did.

Speaking of genes, something I forgot to mention before: he was not technically my biological grandfather. When my father and aunt were very young, still toddlers, their birth father passed away. His name was Leonard Blumberg, and that was originally our family name. He passed away over a half century ago, while only in his fourties. Far too young; his kids never really got to know him. Similarly with my own father, he died in his fifties. Far too young; but thank god I was blessed with almost twenty years of having my dad in my life. I'm just praying, personally, that I can break this chain and live a lot longer than they did. Having heart conditions and diabetes in your family history is not a good thing, and you hafta make lifestyle changes to try and combat it.

But anyhow, back to grandpa, to Ray Strauss. He was in the Air Force in World War II, and was the lone survivor when his plane went down in an enemy attack. A few years later, he would meet a woman named Miriam Blumberg, my grandmother. They were later married, and he legally adopted my father and aunt. They would be married for 55 long years, until death they did part. They had plenty of rough times, as any married couple will. But they stuck together, through thick and thin, and their love sustained. Even when he had to be put in a nursing home, a couple years ago, she went to visit him as often as she could (numerous times per week).

I learned a lot from my grandpa, things for which I'll always be grateful. Most of all, I learned that the word "family" doesn't just mean someone with whom you share a bloodline. He was as loving of a husband, father, and grandfather as we could have ever hoped for in life. He was there for us all, through good times and bad. Even when he would often act cranky or stubborn, his love for his family always shined through. He was so proud when I was born, to finally have a grandson. He posed for a picture with me, in my little baby yamulcha (a picture which my grandma always hung in the kitchen). They would always reiterate what he said when I was born, "I'm gonna be there for you, kid. Right from the start." And since my aunt Janna never had a kid of her own, I remain as the "only Strauss to carry on the bloodline" as they say. As much as I may fight it, I may feel compelled to have a kid some day.

I hadn't seen my grandparents as much as we would have liked over the past five or six years. Whether it was due to fulltime work, having moved away, or etc. Regardless, my love for them has never wavered. It was never anything personal, and I always had lots of fun when I would visit them. They are more important to me than I could ever convey, and I think my grandpa knows this as he enters the life beyond. Something he said to me, a while back, was how, "People don't care if you say nice things about them after they're already dead. Or if you treat them nicely in their final days only because they're on their death bed. It's about how you treat them through the entirety of their life... while they're still alive."

He said this to my grandma and me when my dad passed away, almost five years ago. It helped me realize how it's useless to feel bad, dwelling on the missed times you could have spent together in those last few years they were alive. Or to feel bad that you didn't get to say goodbye. Instead, I feel blessed for all the times we DID have together, since the day I was born. I had the most loving father in the world, for two decades. Many people go through life without ever even knowing their dad, and would envy that. The same applies to my grandpa, and my life is all the better because he was a part of it. I love you grandpa, always, and I will miss you...

i think i'll get the flu shot next year
I'm just starting to get over the flu, after being struck with it for almost a week now. I'm not quite better yet, still pretty weak. But I'm nowhere near contagious anymore, and I finally have the strength to do something besides lay down or sleep. It was definitely the worst flu I can remember having, at least in terms of the first few days' intensity. It makes me actually consider getting the flu shot later this year, at even the remote possibility of getting it again next winter. Especially since, this time, I got it directly from my mom. She'd picked it up from a patient at work, a couple days before I got hit. And since we're in such a confined space, there was no way to stop it from spreading to me. We share the same bathroom and kitchen, and I don't even have a bedroom to go hide away in. So even though she was very careful with hand-washing, Lysol, bleach, and whatnot... it was of no use.

It hit me fully this past Sunday morning, after leaving Chris' house. I knew I was going to be sick, as the nausea had been building all night long. And once it was inevitable, I made sure to rush home as quick as I could. Shortly after getting home, it began, and I was vomiting on and off for almost TEN STRAIGHT HOURS -_- I can't tell you how horrible that was. It wasn't like the usual times when someone vomits, where they tend to feel a lot better after they are done. Or in the worst case, sometimes people need to have two or three vomiting "sessions." But after those, then, the nausea tends to go away and then they can finally sleep. But for me, no matter how many times it happened, the nausea would NOT go away. I musta run back to the bathroom on seven separate occassions to puke, and in-between each one I felt painfully nauseated. Even after the last time, I still felt terrible, it was just some miracle that it stopped.

The misery had finally ended, and I was at the point of being able to actually lay down. Still had stomach pain, headaches, diarrhea, dehydration, and whatnot. It also became tough to actually sleep for more than ten minutes at a time, and I couldn't do that properly until maybe the third day. And then slowly I was able to eat again, and today it seems I might almost have a proper appetite back. I'm still not anxious to eat any sorts of complex foods yet, the most varied thing I've had was a turkey and swiss sandwich today. And for that matter, I'm not sure if I ever want to eat White Castle again. Having that stuff come BACK UP on you, it leaves emotional scars that will take time to heal. Don't get me wrong, I'm still always down for their breakfast foods. But as far as actual White Castle burgers, chicken, etc... I dunno if I can stomach the stuff at this point.

Or for that matter, anything that I ate on the vomiting day is gonna be tough to ever wanna eat again. It doesn't help, of course, that the stuff I ate on that particular day was White Castle (crappy quality meat) and Red Lobster (seafood and spices). Neither of those is good for someone who is becoming nauseated, and I regret eating them now. It makes me wanna change my eating habits in general, something I've been meaning to do for a while now anyway. It relates to something I was told long ago, "If something grosses you out when it comes back out of your mouth, you shouldn't be putting it into your mouth." In other words, if you chewed something up for half a minute... and then spit it back out... will you be completely grossed out by what you see? In the case of stuff like vegetables, fruit, pasta, and such... it will look pretty much the same as it did before you chewed it up. But try the same thing with greasy fast food, and you'll be revolted by how much it changes. I think they used this tactic on some dieting reality show, too, to try and stop them from eating junk food. Can't remember ^^;

As of now, just planning to finally go out tomorrow and see friends. I went out today for a short time, only out of necessity (to get groceries, and renew my license plate sticker... which had expired last week). Sorry for being out of contact all week but, as you can see, I had reasons. I sadly had to miss Wrestlemania on Sunday, which sucks since it's one of the funnest gatherings of the year. Also missed going with Scott up to JT's house on Monday, hopefully I can make it there next week. And then catching up with online stuff, oy.

Current Mood: exhausted

birthday flashback to... a couple of days ago
It was my birthday a couple days ago, on the 15th. I was gonna post something then, but various things have prevented it from happening. Lots of stuff has been going wrong in the past week, it's almost like bad karma for it to happen around my birthday -_-; But if anything, I'm always the last one to get depressed or moody about something. Like with all things in life, worrying or feeling bad isn't gonna solve the problem. Those are just self-induced things that end up ultimately making it worse. The only way to make stuff better is to take action or to wait it out.

I've been really sick since this past Sunday night... with a fever, congestion, and the whole works. Thank god for DayQuil and NyQuil, as they have made it much easier to suffer through ^_^ On Wednesday, since it was my birthday, I felt like trying to go out finally. JT was in town for his Japan interview, and it also happened that Brunswick Zone in Naperville received their "DDR SuperNova" location test machine the night before. So we met up with Nick and Ben, and we made our pilgrimage down to BZ. As logic would dictate, we also ran into Darkism (Tim) there. Makes sense, since he lives like what... five minutes away?

The game is really cool, and has a ton of great songs. There's an endless supply of great BeForU and other Bemani music that has never appeared in DDR before, for one. And unlike "In The Groove," which to me always seems like a great arcade port of Stepmania... SuperNova actually feels like that true DDR game we've all been waiting for since 2003. I didn't play it myself, mind you, since I was still sick. That and, of course, I'm in no physical shape to play the game very intensively anymore. But next time we go, I'm gonna be ready.

My other major problem this past week, and the one that truly prevented me from posting, is that my computer has been on the fritz. I had decided to upgrade a lot of my PC's programs last Thursday, the first of which was Internet Explorer. The install went fine, and it rebooted like usual. But after the reboot, it froze during the "updating system settings" dialog. I had to physically reset the computer itself, so I was worried. It did manage to pick up where it left off, though, and so my system settings seemed safe. However, ever since that occured, my display had been totally messed up. There were these gray lines going all across the screen, layed over any images or text you would see...

So because of WHEN it happened, right after an install, I'd assumed that something was messed up with the system settings or drivers. I even switched out the monitor, to be sure that it wasn't the problem either. No luck. But upon doing some research, and after many days, I found a message board with lots of people that'd had the same problem. Turned out that my graphics card had just died out. It was five years old, and apparently this was a common issue for the one I had (an NVIDIA TNT2). I just got a replacement card today, I went with an ATI Radeon this time. Something cheap, since I don't do any gaming on here. That and, god willing, I'll finally get my new PC sometime in the next year -_-;

As if nothing else could go wrong, I had problems with getting the new card to work. After installing the drivers disc, it was to the point where Windows wouldn't even load up. After many uninstalls, safe modes, and crashes... I decided to get drivers from ATI's website instead. While not completely perfect, that seems to have solved the problem for now. I've had plenty of near-heart-attacks this week, mind you, as I'm not used to my computer crashing. I normally get maybe FOUR computer crashes in a single year. It's an amazing feat, especially as I'm using WinME (which is said to be the least-stable operating system Microsoft ever made).

And so, with my PC basically back in working condition...
and my flu almost gone... I can try to resume life as usual.
And if my most recent interview means anything...
looks like I might be working at Meijer soon ^^;

P.S. Thank you to all the people who called or sent text messages to wish me a happy birthday. And thank you JT for the Gargoyles Season 1 boxset! It was the perfect thing for me right now. Normally I'm not big on giving or receiving gifts, unless they're some really inexpensive thing that's random or quirky. But this year it means a lot to get something from someone, seeing as I can't afford to buy much lately. This is the first time in the past eight or nine years where I haven't been employed on my birthday, it's weird.

Current Mood: relieved
Current Music: 下川みくに『Ｓｕｒｒｅｎｄｅｒ』

celebrities who skate, dance, and do other things...
Wow, two updates in the same month! I haven't done that since, well, one year ago it seems. It still won't beat the record from my first month on livejournal, back in August of 2003, where I actually posted seven times in one month! ^^; I don't think I even had seven posts in the entirety of 2005. Yeesh. But anyhoo, back on the subject. I've been watching the FOX show "Skating With Celebrities" lately, and been trying to catch up with ABC's "Dancing With the Stars." Both of these shows are right up my alley, just like that "Celebrity Spelling Bee," or shows like "The Surreal Life," etc...

I'm a huge TV and movie nut, not to mention a nostalgic bastard. So shows like this are such a godsend, for one thing, cause they give the "B-list" celebs a chance to shine again. In most of their cases, these are supposedly "washed up" people that are actually just as talented or funny as they ever were. Or in other cases, they're current stars who just aren't in the spotlight enough. In this modern pop culture world, there's so much emphasis thrown on the couple biggest stars of the moment. Once stars grow out of that phase, they seem to get tossed aside even quicker than in past decades. It's so nice to look back at the varied past we have, once in a while, and realize how fun it was.

The other thing that makes these kind of shows so fun, for a majority of people watching, is that you get to see celebrities who don't mind embarassing themselves. They'll act goofy or stupid, and they'll do things that most stars wouldn't touch. It helps us realize that these are normal people, and it endears them to us. In America, this isn't something that we get to see very often. At least not with our current "A-list" celebrities. There seems to be this understanding that they're too good for us, and must be put on a pedestal. The only time we get to see those huge/current stars acting this way, if anything, is on late-night television. Shows like "The Tonight Show," "Conan," or "Saturday Night Live." But even there, it's mostly just funny interview segments.

That's a big reason that a lot of people are so drawn to Japanese music and variety shows. They still air the kinda shows that WE haven't had in America since the 1970's. Shows where you can see the current stars of music and television, even the insanely popular ones, just acting goofy. Acting in skits, playing physically-intensive and weird games, taking quizzes, traveling to various places, etc. And on a regular basis, not just on rare occassions. It's something that makes it easier to associate with a celebrity, rather than seeing them as some kind of demigod. Not to mention it's a lot more entertaining than the context in which we usually see them on TV or news shows. Especially for the musical stars, since their appearances on American television are usually just limited to singing a few songs or doing a very short and boring interview (if even).

Current Mood: impressed

fickle music tastes, an international thing
This is actually a copy of a response message I'd posted a week ago, over at MM-BBS. It was a long post, and it came late in a thread that had already exhausted its discussion. In that, it got no replies, go figure -_- So since I'd taken a nice fifteen minutes originally writing the thing, I figured it may as well go on livejournal. At least on here it's a more varied audience, and so maybe it'll get more of a response. Or if not, oh well, at least it tried.

The main idea was that most people at large have very picky taste in music. The only ones who tend to have a broader musical taste tend to be the music buffs among us. That and, how the language of music really isn't a huge determining factor in whether most people will like it in the end. So when people aren't suseptable to music in a language other than their own, it doesn't necessarily make them "ignorant." Maybe they're just naturally fickle.

A post made earlier in the thread, which I had quoted, was from

fujieda
She had made an excellent point, one which I'd wanted to further. She said:

"You can't say people are being narrow-minded if they don't like MM by assuming it's "Japanese" -- that sounds like the same old excuse people pull all the time just because they can't get their friends to start listening to jpop. C'mon now."

To which my response was:

Very good point. It's definitely not something that's unique to just Hellopro, or even to Jpop. Lotsa people in general just tend to be very selective when it comes to musical tastes. The language itself won't change that greatly; they tend to act exactly the same in relation to lots of American or European music. Moreover, keep in mind that for most people... music is simply a distraction in the grand scheme of things. Not everyone is gonna actively persue music as a true passion of their life. And in that, the closed-minded thing isn't always about age or upbringing. As with anything in life, it's up to the specific person involved.

Throughout my entire life, I've been avid about various kinds of music that almost none of my friends were into. It's weird, too, since there were always plenty of people who shared my love for other things that related to pop culture. Movies, television, video games, etc. Even for the most obscure stuff in those fields, many of my friends most always knew what I was talking about. But moving into music, I could barely find a soul to share my passion with. And funny enough, most of this has been in relation to fairly accessible American music.

I was a huge fan of jazz when I was younger, but try and find other grade-school kids to gab about it with. I was also a big classical fan. But again, same problem. One of my biggest alltime loves, of course, has been pop music from past decades. It wasn't as tough to find people who knew the biggest pop songs from the 60's and such, because those are kept alive in the media. But when I'd try and talk about some of the more specific songs or artists that weren't just among those "top ten songs of each year," I'd again find no one in my peer group to discuss it with. A lot of the time, I'd only have the good conversations about pop music with people who were more than three times my age.

And then yeah, same went for Japanese music. I was exposed to it since the day I was born, so it's always been a part of normal life. Partially because my mother's side had Japanese blood in it, yet my mother (and her mom, as well) had never really learned much of the culture. So as a child, trying to learn about this bit of my past, music was the biggest part of it that really clicked with me. It makes sense, anyhow, coming from a very musical family on my dad's side. But as you'd expect, this was just as hard to share with friends (and remains so, to this day)...

I used to think that the biggest factor in the "not finding many other fans of Jpop thing" was my being born and raised in America. And by gum, it was. But later in life, I'd come to have a bunch of friends who lived in Japan (and were born/raised there). When discussing Jpop with them, I noticed something very interesting. While a lot of them knew all the hot current musical acts, and even tended to know the most popular stuff from yesteryear as well... in the end their behaviors were just the same as American kids listening to American music. They would tend to have very distinguishing tastes, and would dislike many of the artists that I'd been in love with for years. And a lot of them didn't know the old music, so again a lot of my deep music conversations would only be with people over fourty years old.

What can we take away from this?

-It's human nature to be fickle. surface issues like language/culture won't affect this

-Most people aren't big music buffs, so it's tougher to get them into music that's wholly new to them

-Liking something is mostly about intricate natural circumstance and accessibility

-Even among things in pop culture, having a truly deep passion for something is rare...
...in thus, you must accept that the average person won't relate to this passion

Current Mood: groggy

important to me
I was going to write something of this sort back on Thanksgiving. Something that described the things I'm thankful for in life, and what truly has meaning to me. Something to cut through the superficial trappings of the everyday, and to reflect on what actually matters. However, like most of the journal entries I've planned to write in the past, I never got around to it. So I figured, "Hey, if I'm still gonna write it at some ceremonious time, why not on Christmas then?" After all, it's my birthday too, so it's a double whammy in terms of meaning ^_^; And yes, I realize that it's now the day after the holiday. But I haven't gone to sleep yet, so let's count it. I'll try and keep it short. Short for me, anyhow. And with how rarely I update this thing, I hope people will read it all... and that they will take it to heart. In that, I give you the two things that mean more to me than anything in the world:

Family. The pure and unwavering love from your immediate family is, to me, perhaps the most important thing in life. My mother and father have nurtured my life in far too many ways to count. Even though I lost one of them to death more than four years ago, his love continues to give my life meaning to this very day. And when it comes down to it, your family loves you for reasons that can't be put into mere words. They don't love you because you own lots of cool stuff. They don't love you because you're smart or funny. They don't love you because you're physically attractive. They don't even care what other people think about you. They love you because they do, for anything but selfish reasons.

And don't get me wrong, your immediate family doesn't have to be the stereotypical configuration of "mom, dad, and/or siblings." For numerous people, those direct blood relatives are anything BUT loving to them. For others, their blood relatives were lost to death, or other circumstances. To me, I see family as more of "the people who truly facilitate your ability to live, both physically and spiritually, without asking something in return." For some people it's their grandparents, their aunt or uncle, their sibling or cousin. For some people it's their adoptive parents. For some people it may be someone who started off just as a friend, and whom you didn't even meet until later in your life.

Regardless of who they are, or how big of a group they compose, they are your family. We should never forget how important they are to us. People often take their family for granted, simply because they are so overexposed to them sometimes. I'm definitely guilty of this myself now and then. But as I grow older, it helps to put things into perspective. As much fun as you may have with your friends, or as exciting as the love of your boyfriend or girlfriend may be at the moment... don't let that diminish the true love that has stood by you for countless years. I love you Mom, more than I can say. I love you Dad, and I miss you. I love you Grandma and Grandpa.

Friends. The other part of life for which I'm eternally grateful. Much like family, your friends will ultimately shape both who you are and what you will become. Not only that, but they have a constant affect on the things you do and what you're exposed to. In a lot of ways, people don't give them enough credit either. Sure, some of your friendships are going to be superficial ones. Based on selfish things, or on acquaintances only. But then there's your dear friends, the ones who you can truly say you love. I feel blessed to have many of those, without whom life would have no meaning.

We're lucky to have such a large group of truly close friends here in Chicago. We came together almost six years ago, a time when a lot of us were ready to finish high school and start our adult lives. We came together because we were truly kindred spirits, not just due to circumstance or proximity. And over those years, our bonds have only grown stronger. We've shared some of the best and worst days together, but through it all our friendships have endured. Though we often take it for granted, again much like with family... we have something that is rare and worth cherishing. I love you all.

Over the years, we've also added people from numerous other states; showing again that proximity isn't the only thing keeping us together. And then not to mention many of my friends from out of state that I'd never have known if not for the internet. They shouldn't feel left out, and every single one of them is a vital part of my life. I won't start naming names, because it would just leave me babbling on even longer. But you know who you are, and there's no reason to hafta type it out. Above anything that could ever be said or done, I care about you deeply. Never lose sight of that.

Current Mood: thankful

peter jennings, and television
Tonight I was lucky enough to catch the Peter Jennings special on ABC. They opted to present the show without commercials, something we don't see very often. The bill was apparently carried by ABC themself (or by Disney, I should say, as it's their parent company). It was an amazing program, and one of the most brilliant things I've watched in years. People nowadays don't realize how important Jennings was to our media, to journalism, and to the country itself. In many ways, I can't imagine a world without him. "World News Tonight" was one of my favorite shows from the start, and now its theme music is more of an elegy to him (as they closed the show with it tonight, performed live).

In a modern world, where our standards seem to slip further and further each year... it's nice to see that America can really show respect for the important things once in a while. To stop taking things for granted for a moment, and to reflect on what really matters in life. If only they could keep that up... and not just slip back into the comfortable, sleezy rut that they are usually trapped in. They said numerous times throughout the show that, "There won't be someone who can replace him. We can perhaps, as a group, try to carry on the traditions he began. But no one person could do it." There is still some great news to be found on television, once in a rare while, don't get me wrong. But still, a sizeable part of that great tradition has died.

The whole "decline of television" was something on my mind a lot lately. Another thing that sparked it, has been watching those great classic shows on METV, Channel 23. It's a local channel, owned by Tribune (just like WGN and WCIU) that plays nothing but classic television shows. You can name any great show from the 1960's through the 1980's, and it's airing on that channel. In a day where "reality shows" rule the free television networks, it makes me miss stuff like that. It especially angers me when they defend reality TV with an excuse of "Reality shows are truer. You get to see real people living through real life." In essence, this is complete bullshit. They do it because reality shows cost millions of dollars LESS to produce than scripted television shows with actors do. And yet, they grab the ratings just as well. It's all about the money, as usual.

There have been a few select reality shows that have been truly great and innovative. And a majority of them are very addicting. But almost all of them that we see are derived from that same formula. A group of people, selected based on their supposed ability to entertain the TV audience, is put into contrived situations. They eliminate one member of the group each week, until we are left with someone who wins the grand prize. No matter what the overlying premise, that is always the core of it. The only part that tends to change is the specific subject. Becoming a music star. Losing weight. Becoming a chef. Becoming the next Donald Trump, or the next Hilton, or the next freaking Rick Dees.

Something I've been enjoying watching a lot again lately... is "Family Ties." The show was so brilliant, and doesn't get its due respect a lot of the time. It managed to be funny and hip, while also being a show about family values at heart. It sounds like a simple formula to follow, but it's really not. One episode in particular, an hour-long one, dealt with how Steven's father had died. (Steven is the dad on thw show). He flew back home to see his mother, and help her deal with the situation. Steven had never really gotten along with his father so well... while his brother, on the other hand, had been just about as close as possible to their pops. And Steven had always been the black sheep in many ways, the one who was free-thinking and didn't wanna do what he was told (which makes sense, as he would be a hippie one day). Steven had never been able to really resolve his feelings with his father, and so finding out he had died suddenly was going to wreak havoc on his mind.

The episode dealt with these conflicts in such a real way; demonstrating the psychological toll it takes, and how it affects everyone's lives, etc. The acting in the episode was so real and convincing, you almost forgot at some points that you were watching a scripted plot. They also managed to get those cute bits of humor in there, which the show was always good at. Also the fact that Alex Keaton (Michael J. Fox's character) was like a black sheep in his own family came into play. He finally realized where his own stricter and conservative side had stemmed from, from the rest of his father's family. You just don't see television like this anymore, and it saddens me. It's to the point where describing it through words just doesn't do it justice. How often can we say that about a sitcom nowadays. How many good sitcoms do we even have anymore?

Current Mood: thoughtful

freaky friday! bears, and dogs, and traylors, oh my!
This post is actually about one week ago, last Friday the 22nd. It had to be one of the most varied and interesting work days I've had in my entire life. We had random celebrities, pro athletes, drug sniffing dogs, and funny enough... a slow day as far as actual sales went. So here it goes, I'll try to keep the interesting bits in chronological order:

Early in the day... it was pretty slow. At one point this cool highschool kid came in, and we started talking about various stuff. I showed him the Sony PSP that we were using as a demo unit, to which he said, "Wow!" (as is the typical reaction to the screen/quality on the thing). He told me he was gonna go grab his mom, to bring her back and show her the PSP. This makes sense, cause any parent would wanna buy the thing after they saw how cool it was in person (it's happened before). At first, I didn't think he was coming back... as it had taken a few hours. But sure enough, he came back with mom in the afternoon.

They started looking at it, and then he went on to play the demo of Donkey Kong Jungle Beat. I was chit-chatting with them both, about various stuff. All of a sudden, his mom asks me, "Do you watch Malcolm In the Middle?" I replied, "Of course I do, great show." She then points to her son and says, "That's Stevie. You know, the kid in the wheelchair." I was of course in disbelief, at first. This kid who had been here all day, he definitely looked exactly like him. That part I wasn't doubting...

And of course, he's not actually in a wheelchair in real life, so he doesn't just blaringly stick out. So she tells him, "Do the voice." (something he must be sick of his mom saying, by this point). He says a few lines with the Stevie voice (the slow, athsmatic voice you will know if you've seen the show). But then I thought, "Well a lot of people can do a good Stevie voice." So I said, "Hey, do you have a photo I.D. on you or something?" So he busts out his school I.D., and sure enough... it says on it "Craig Lamar Traylor." (which yes, is infact the name of the actor who plays Stevie).

She explained that they live in California (which I knew), and that they were out here on a trip. I dunno if it was to visit family, or what. She also explained that there is an upcoming episode of Malcolm which Craig had written himself. She said it was a semi-spoof on Family Matters, where Stevie has a twin brother who is super cool and suave... the total opposite of geeky Stevie (think Steve/Stephan Urkel). So he has to play both characters in that episode, something we only see rarely in sitcoms. In the end, though, I was just thinking how funny it was that they'd come into the Vernon Hills GameStop, of all places.

They didn't stick around too long, but it was really cool to run into him. And the funny thing is, if not for his mom being so proud of him (or bragging about him, too)... I never woulda known. Funnier still because I actually ran across him before... at the NAACP Image Awards in 2001. But back then he was only twelve years old, so a lot has changed. And yes, I actually attended the NAACP Image Awards back in 2001... of all things. Back at the tail end of when I used to staff music/press events (and that show took place during a trip out there, I wasn't working at that show specifically). A story for another post, though.

Then we move on to the late afternoon. I had told a few people about Craig showing up earlier. Shawn had actually seen them, as they were leaving the store around the same time he came in to work. He didn't know until later who it actually was, though, so he was like, "No way!" Same response from Dave Briatta, our part-timer, who came to close later. And little did I know the drama that would captivate Dave later in the day...

There were a few customers in the store, and both Dave and I were helping them out. All of a sudden, these two guys (maybe in their early twenties) bust into the store and start yelling. They didn't know Dave, obviously, cause they kept asking him, "ARE YOU DAVE?! ARE YOU?! TELL ME!" He was smart, of course, and said, "No, man. Who wants to know." They were loud, violent, and actually threatening to KILL Dave. They said they were gonna come back after we closed at night (which dismayed me, too, as I was closing with him). When asked why they were so mad at Dave... they said that he had sold drugs to some little kid earlier in the day (and they were angry over this, I dunno if the kid was their sibling maybe). They said they were gonna call the cops, but of course WE had already called the cops by this point. They took off after realizing this, but thankfully a customer in the store was able to read their license plate number.

The police showed up a few minutes later, and took written statements from all of us. Funny enough, one of the customers there was Brett Groves (aka "Terminator," the person who TF's nickname comes from). He's a friend, and always around the store (since he lives nearby). So he said he's testify as to what happened, too. The cops left, but by that evening they were thankfully able to find the guys. They were charged with disorderly conduct or something, and told never to go near the store again. They also had told the cops about the drug thing, when confronted as to why they were so violent. So little did we know...

Later on in the day, the police came back. Shawn (our store manager) had also come back, after seeing a movie at Showplace8 (right down the street). He had come back to finish unpacking some shipments and etc that he'd left behind earlier (since he cut out early to see the movie). The police came into the store, and checked around for a while. They were looking to see if Dave was holding any drugs, basically, because the two guys from earlier had accused him of this. (not to mention that he had some priors, so they had reason to suspect it was true). Then, to our surprise, they have us all stand in a corner out front as they bring in the DRUG-SNIFFING DOG! They had him go around the entire front and back rooms of the store. Nothing was found, and so they headed out. Thankfully there were no customers here during this, cause they wouldn't have been allowed inside.

On their way out, one of our regular customers walks in at probably the exact moment the dog is walking out the door. He saw the dog, and said to him, "Not every day you see a big dog in GameStop, eh?" Funny enough, the customer was Ruben Brown (offensive guard from the Chicago Bears). There are a buncha players from The Bears who come into the store on a regular basis. The most frequent is prolly Joe Odom (linebacker) and his girlfriend (both of whom are really cool, and also big Zelda fans haha). But there's a few others who come in all the time. This was Ruben's first time here, though (and he's been back since a buncha times). He's a really cool guy, and he explained that he was living nearby in Mundelein during the season. He originally hails from New York, and left most of his games there. He wanted to pick up a copy of Madden to play with his buddies.

Back when I was working at Best Buy Deerfield, all the Chicago Bulls players used to stop by (especially Eddie Curry, etc). So now I guess it's The Bears players we'll get to know a little better haha. None of them are as big of spenders as Eddie used to be, though. ^^ Shawn also mentioned to me the next day, as we were discussing local celebs, that Richard Marx lives right nearby there! Yes, the singer/songwriter Richard Marx who was huge in the 80's and early 90's...

It's funny, too, because we have met his wife and kids on numerous occassions. They shop at the store on a regular basis, and they reserve games with us all the time. So I knew their last name was Marx. I had never made the connection, though. If I ever saw HIM in there, I'd definitely notice haha. Shawn explained that Richard never comes in himself... that only his family does. Maybe one day he'll decide to pop in. He's been an idol of mine forever (and I know Renee loves him, too).

So this ends the big events of the day. Better than the typical work day, I'd say. Ran into some athletes, some celebs, some intimidating dogs. It's cool too, cause it's been a while since fun stuff like that happened. Back when I was in highschool, and later when I was in the Journalism programs in college... I used to run into celebrities all the time. It got to the point where I took it for granted back then. (like my one friend used to crap herself that I knew Toni Braxton really well back in the day). But in the past four years or so, it's been pretty dead in that aspect. So if anything, it was a fun thrill and reminder of the good ol' days. Now back to the typical GameStop day... as I head off to close -_-

Current Mood: good
Current Music: Kawabe Chieko - I Can't Wait

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