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Sunday, May 3rd, 2009
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12:33 pm - bruce lee's big book of hurt
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We had a VCR, and after hijacking a TV lounge in West Wing, a few of us decided to see what Bruce Lee's Big Book of Hurt Volume 2 was all about. It turned out to have nothing to do with Bruce Lee but a lot do with hurt.
It was a compilation tape of several anime movies. The first three things on the tape were Dragonball Z movies 5, 10, and 11, and I was apparently the only person in the room who'd actually watched all of those ridiculous things. It's been years since I'd seen any of them... in fact, I'd seen movie 5 as a terrible RealMedia fandub... but I was able to identify them from just a few scenes. Once we did that, we'd fast forward to the next thing, because we really wanted to know what the hell was on this tape.
After that, we found Fatal Fury: The Motion Picture, which turned out to be the only thing on the tape I hadn't seen. Next up was the first OVA episode of Macross Plus, dubbed no less. I like Plus. It's a good show. It's one of the few Macross shows which made it over (and we have Robotech to thank for that nonsense). The interesting thing was that only the first episode was attached to the tape, and given the age of the other stuff on it so far, we determined this was because the tape was made at a time when the rest of Macross Plus hadn't been released yet. Now we knew we had a relic.
That was made clear by the final thing on the tape, Street Fighter II: The Movie. Now, that's seen an official dub release, which I remember watching rented from Blockbuster many years ago. I still remembered the opening scene where Cammy does a handstand on this one guy's head and twists his neck, then does a partial dismount while bending the guy's body backwards as she lands. But what was most notable about this thing is that it was subtitled by S. Baldric, one of the earliest fansubbers from the early and mid 90s. This makes the tape an instant classic.
All it all, even with the lack of Bruce Lee, that was totally worth it.
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| Thursday, April 30th, 2009
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5:55 pm - stupid CIC
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What the hell, I opened the floor vent and the temperature went *up* to 82. Apparently CIC is tartanspeak for FAIL.
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| Thursday, April 16th, 2009
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11:17 am - jogging
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I was thinking the other day, you know, now that the weather is nice again, I should take advantage of working next to Schenley Park instead of using "blaugh, it's a mile away from my house" as an excuse to not go outside and do stuff. So I went out an exercised after work yesterday by running on the path that circles Flagstaff Hill. It's not very long, but man, the delta Y sucks. My legs are feeling the burn now, but that's probably good, and I should keep doing it on the days I don't play soccer or basketball.
I just have to keep telling myself - it's all for the sake of getting back in shape so I can fit in the red Kouji pants! Now that there's new a Mazinger series out, that costume is very relevant!
In other completely unrelated news, fencepost errors suck.
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| Thursday, April 9th, 2009
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6:25 pm - i usually hate books, but......
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9:52 am - w-w-w-world cup?!
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The United States is bidding for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups and just released their "short" list of ~70 stadiums to consider for their bid. They should have a decent shot at 2022. And the nice thing about it being in South Africa next year is that we won't have to be afraid of being the first hosts to not advance out of the group stage. (Yes, I'm calling it now before we even know who's qualified.)
Pittsburgh and Heinz Field are indeed on the list. It would be cool to have World Cup games in Pittsburgh, but let's be honest. Does this region have the kind of infrastructure needed to support the sudden crush of around a hundred thousand (and likely more) random overseas fans? No. Not now, not in a thousand years. How many people in the area would be willing to drop a few hundred dollars for tickets that are sold well in advance of knowing what teams they'll be watching? Not many. I wouldn't. I'm not paying FIFA's insane prices when I can watch the game on ESPN2. So Pittsburgh should do everyone a favor and respectfully decline.
And there are a lot of stadiums that just make no sense for international soccer. Happy Valley? Really? Camp Randall, no; Notre Dame, no; Spartan Sta... wait, Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa? The hell?! If we're bringing the world to the United States, Alabama is the last place we want them to see. I guess part of the problem is that the soccer-specific stadiums in this country are all too small, while we have an infinite number of huge gridiron fields, most of which are old and fugly. Ick. I just look at this list and none of them really make me happy.
In other news, the Puerto Rico Islanders who I ridiculed so much at the beginning of the CONCACAF Champions' League months ago were bounced from the semifinals on penalty kicks, despite having an away goals advantage after overtime against Cruz Azul. Apparently there's some weird rule that says away goals don't apply if you go into overtime in the second leg of a home-and-away, which is about as convoluted as it is contrived. Not that Puerto Rico deserved to win, anyway, after playing one of the ugliest, least ambitious games I've seen in a while. The Cementeros ("Cement Mixers", and I can't decide if this is stupider than "Boilermakers" or not) will take part in an all-Mexican final, so I can safely turn my attention to Europe and see how Liverpool are going to dig out of a 3-1 deficit at Stamford Bridge.
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| Thursday, April 2nd, 2009
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11:25 am - fence and car fail
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I helped Greg take the fence last night, which is probably the first time I've actually taken it. After I've graduated, of course, since it seems like the less of a student I am, the more student activities I do :-P We put an additional coat of white on the one that was already there and then Greg did some lettering in green for Alan. I left before it was done because it was after 2 by then and I had work, but it was looking pretty good.
Although what was even more exciting was when some guy decided to drive his car under the yellow barricade to the Tepper/CFA parking lot and then around another layer to get onto the sidewalk. He proceeded at a crawl towards Doherty and passed us at the fence, which greatly confused us. I was later told he continued down towards Hamerschlag and then UP THE STAIRS along Baker/Porter. The first set started to tear off pieces but left it workable enough for him to get a running start for the second set, which resulted in the car getting airborne and totaled on the way down.
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| Sunday, March 29th, 2009
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8:17 pm - gundam 00 is over
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Gundam 00 did a lot of things in season two that I don't agree with. There were times when I was frustrated, annoyed, and even angered by the show's direction. But when it came down to crunch time and they had to come up with an ending... for Sunrise, they did a pretty good job. I mean, yeah, we got a pretty awesome final battle between Setsuna and Ribbon's Guncannon which turns into a Gundam (definitely buying this kit when it exists), but then when the battle itself was over, they devoted enough time to actually show what happened to everybody. Good call, Sunrise, you learned something from Turn A!
I loved the homage to the Amuro/Ramba Ral fight when Setsuna and Ribbons cut through each other's cockpits and they stared each other down when they did their charge.
Oh man, teaser for a 00 movie next year that involves Jupiter. I am intrigued. Although if really they want to animate some Gundam that happens at Jupiter, they should man up and do Crossbone, because then we also get pirate Gundams. And the story is actually really good from what I hear, plus they'd get to sell more kits! They love that, right?
I know that the rules of the game state that you can't win the game. But Patrick... Patrick just won the game.
In other news, my entire Final Four disappeared except for Connecticut. This really sucks. More importantly, it's almost time for Basquatch to happen, and it's going to rock.
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| Friday, March 27th, 2009
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12:28 am - maybe next year
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And the bracket has imploded. Villanova beat Duke, so there goes half of my final. Pitt outlasted Xavier in yet another ugly basketball game, but they keep winning. And Memphis went out to Missouri. The only game I got right was Connecticut. Ick.
Although since this usually happens one or two rounds ago, I'm happy that this year I made it to the second weekend.
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| Sunday, March 22nd, 2009
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8:05 pm - second round ovah!
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I think it's about safe to call this one in my favor. I lead Mars with 37 correct picks to 25 after 48 games, and with weighted scoring, I'm up 48-32. I consider this lead safe because while all of my Elite Eight candidates are still alive, Mars only has three more games where she can get points.
My only real whiff today was Michigan State against USC. I had the Trojans pulling the upset, and they took it down to the wire. I don't give the Big Ten enough credit, I guess. (Arizona and Cleveland State's game I had no chance to get right to begin with, since I had Wake over Utah there.)
Also, sign I watch too much TV: a commercial came on for Pirates tickets, and I was able to identify it as a parody of the ShamWow commercials. Fail.
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2:07 am - second round continues!
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I've widened the lead some more to 31-22 on correct picks, 36-26 on weighted points. Mars' bracket is mostly shot at this point. My worst pick of the day was UCLA over Villanova - yeah, that was smart. Washington bowed out to Purdue, where I originally had Washington over Northern Iowa. And Gonzaga beat Western Kentucky when it was "supposed" to be Illinois over the Zags. The ones and twos that played today all went through, but as expected, by Sweet Sixteen is getting chipped away slowly. I also dropped from Yahoo's 97th percentile to the 53rd, so that was awesome.
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| Saturday, March 21st, 2009
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1:12 am - first round is ovah!
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The first round of the NCAA tournament is over and I'm ahead of Mars 26-18. The eight games that tipped off this evening were less kind to us - I dropped three more and Mars' Midwest bracket basically disintegrated. Cleveland State over Wake Forrest? Are you kidding me? That's the second Sweet Sixteen candidate to drop out, but fortunately, but other misses haven't impacted my later brackets since the winners of those games had all been marked as sacrifices to higher seeds.
Looking at it again, I'm surprised that I managed to miss every single 5-vs-12 game. Northern Iowa failed to get the upset, while Utah, Illinois, and Florida State all faltered. My other two miscues were both in the midwest, with Dayton topping West Virginia and Cleveland State being ridiculous. And Siena came perilously close to being another miss, but they managed to squeak past Ohio State in double overtime. That's okay, though, because Louisville and Kansas will fix my bracket, right? RIGHT?!
We'll see if I can keep my string going as we enter the second round, as this is where things get tricky.
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| Friday, March 20th, 2009
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5:36 pm - afternoon bracket check
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Ugh, West Virginia went down to Dayton to hand the Big East its first tournament loss, and there were plenty of other nailbiters in the first half of today's action. But that was my only punt, so 7/8 compared to Mars' 4 widens my lead to 21-15. Luckily, whoever won the West Virginia game was getting sacrificed to Kansas, so I lost no more Sweet Sixteen candidates.
Mars had North Dakota State upsetting the Jayhawks and going to the Sweet Sixteen, and that's actually a pretty trendy pick to make. After all, this was their first full season of Division I basketball, making them Cinderella to the extreme, and they gave Kansas a run for their money. Two of her other misses were close calls, too, with Tennessee going down by two against Oklahoma State and Utah State were barely outlasted by Marquette. Madness, madness.
So far Mars is doing extremely well for having picked mostly at random. I'm going to need another good run tonight to widen the gap!
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9:06 am - bracket update!
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Sixteen games are in the books after last night's action, and with sixteen games in the books, I've taken the lead 14-11. Although the Bracket of IntegriFAIL is down one Sweet Sixteen pick, the Mars Non-Random Bracket is down two. We both whiffed on Illinois, and Mars lost Mississippi State ("I just like to say Mississippi"). Sixteen more first round games await us today, and we'll see where the brackets stand after that.
Of the picks I got right, I'm not happy about UCLA. I have them in the Sweet Sixteen, but they went down to the wire against VCU and survived a last-second shot that just hit the front of the rim. Then again, Villanova almost got blown out by American but clawed back thanks to their endurance more than anything. In what continues to be weirdly scary, Mars came dangerously close to nailing a pair of huge upsets. First was the Villanova-American game, and the other was Akron over Gonzaga. Gonzaga pulled away, but the Zips stayed dangerously close most of the game.
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| Thursday, March 19th, 2009
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5:27 pm - mars is always right?
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All right, so the first seven games of the day are in the books, and Mississippi State vs. Washington isn't going to finish until after I'm home. So I'll just tally up the brackets so far and... wait, Mars is beating me 7-6?!
Ah, I tried to get sneaky and put Northern Iowa as the 12-over-5 against Purdue. And they came really close, too. Two possession game late, but an offensive foul ended any chance they had of overcoming the deficit. And Memphis had to rally to beat Cal State Northridge, which was freaky, because I had to convince Mars to pick Memphis over Northridge and it was almost a colossal upset.
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| Saturday, March 7th, 2009
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12:39 am - puyo pop!
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The Virtual Console has an import version of Puyo Puyo 2 for Sega Master System complete with really bad digital speech from 1994. Bought! Man, I'm so out of practice, but the classic controller is so much easier than WASD.
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| Saturday, February 28th, 2009
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1:59 am - college lifestyle
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2 AM on a Friday night means cartoon time! And that means I can respond quickly to the sudden pager alert saying "OMIGOD YOUR SERVERS JUST WENT DOWN AAAAA AAAAAA AAAAA."
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| Friday, February 27th, 2009
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3:10 pm - stupid currencies
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Friggen' yen is still too strong. It's been almost two months since I ordered anything from Japan, although my preordered RVF-25 and a cosplay patch were just released so they'll be shipping soon.
But the pound is weak! Seventy pounds this year costs less than it did two years ago when I first bought a membership with MyFootballClub. We own Ebbsfleet United, who are currently in the middle of the Blue Square Premier, the fifth level of English soccer. One more promotion to and it's the League! Oh snap. They also won the FA Trophy in Wembley, which is kind of awesome. In any case, 70 pounds renews my membership for another year (and gives the club money it needs to, like, operate) plus I get a nifty home jersey.
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| Wednesday, February 25th, 2009
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11:05 pm - band win
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The University of Maryland is playing Duke on ESPN right now, and the Maryland pep band wins because they just played the Legend of Zelda theme during a timeout. This comes on top of their coolness points for being nicknamed the Terrapins, with "Fear the Turtle" pasted above the tunnel to the locker rooms.
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| Tuesday, February 24th, 2009
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11:08 am - my religion lesson for the day
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This is what 80s robot cartoons (Armored Trooper Votoms, 1982) taught me about God last night: he's some ancient technology that lives at the ends of the galaxy in a Death Star made out of cubes and communicating with him is like playing Simon. And he likes to mess with people.
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| Friday, February 20th, 2009
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7:12 pm - this is why ubuntu is superior
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So, I've finally set up my laptop to dual-boot Ubuntu and Vista, but I was silly and thought that 16 GB would be a large enough partition for any OS. Wrong! Vista ate up all of the disk space pretty much immediately after I started running it. I fired up the Ubuntu live CD and thought... you know... maybe I can just get away with resizing the partitions that stuff's already installed on. And that actually worked. It kept all my files where they were and even though Windows panicked and did a disk verification when I rebooted, everything still worked. Hooray!
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