Phasing Moment

Today's August 9 - the eve of my vacation. With less than twelve hours to go before my vacation officially starts and a week before my 23^rd birthday, it's pretty much inevitable that things will fly out of left field.

Sometimes we just aren't prepared to face the present as it unfolds. Corporal Brigitte Stark would know that personally.

As these (fun) events inch closer and closer, they no longer float about as part of the future, but as the present we continually keep living out. As such, these left field things will keep being thrown my path, and I must adjust to the constant rain.

Cryptic and confusing chatter aside, let's just see what's got me shaken up as we inch closer to the future now.

Imprisoned Revelation

What happens when you get a day off and there's no one in range to hang out with? Well, you get a bored person (yourself) and absolutely nothing to do. It feels like a prison of sorts that you were thrown into against your will. As far as you recall, you've done nothing to deserve this fate. You spend a good while wondering how you got yourself into this predicament in the first place, lamenting and whining all the way.

And sometimes, you demonstrate your boredom in a physical way.

After coming to grips with things, you start taking action in some way. Now, one of three things can result because of this.

1.) You kill yourself out of sheer boredom.

Now, I don't mean like how George Sanders killed himself in 1972. I mean it in a metaphorical sense. You spend countless hours sitting there wishing for something - anything - to do. You'd even welcome death if it offered some kind of reprieve from not being able to do anything! (Not that you'd want to - in which case, you should probably seek out a hotline...) So you lie there in a cesspool of woe and complaints, wondering if you can break out of it within the next "X" minutes... every single second.

2.) You attempt to break out of your cell using your network of contacts.

This is where you call the friends you haven't run into in a while but still talk with. This is where you call people you like to hang out with, only to find that a majority of them either have their jobs to work at or already-made plans to enact. Someone's gotta be out there to save you... but do they? (In my experience, this route has offered a 15% chance of success - and that percentage lessens if the weather's not great or if it's the weekend.)

3.) You sit there and wait for an opportunity to present itself.

And when one does, you leap on it, not caring about how bad of a plan this Hobson's choice is. You pick up that dusty game in your closet that you said you'd play... six months ago. You take the time to thoroughly scan your pantry and closet, making an accurate shopping list. This is where you tell yourself at the mall, "Frak it; I'm visiting [insert store you haven't visited before]. Why not?"

While most people will end up choosing the second option and then fall back to the third one should nobody make contact, artists will invariably end up choosing #3 over #2 - only because they realize that a free day where they're bored doesn't come up all that often. (That, or they wanted some kind of "source" of inspiration and tried #2 anyway.)

But some artists come up with a third option of their own. They somehow milk the boredom and create something out of it.

Maybe that's why you're here. While on standby for #2 or #3, you saw that I posted today and figured, "Why the hell not? It's not like I've anything better to do."

And since I'm (sort of) on standby myself, I wrote this because "I've nothing better to do." I decided to see if I could write a grand entry like I said I would yesterday. In order to do that, I guess I needed a day of boredom to myself. Alone. Just me and nothing... and nopony... together... alone. So I can write. Alone. And in this state of being alone with boredom (...together), I composed this. *points below*

I honestly don't know whether to call it a creation fused out of boredom, or some twisted fabrication of half-truths and deception I'd expect a Leobin to spout off to me. Either way, it's something, and while it might throw most of you off... the attentive readers out there might be able to extract something out of this.

But what exactly, you ask? Well, let's get the show rockin' - if you're good enough, you just might find something you're not looking for that makes your unsure decision to read this entry worth it...

Motivationally Speaking: Leftovers

Three-Dimensional Moon Building

Today's title corresponds with the three things I'll be talking about in this entry. For once, it's also in consecutive order, as well. Enjoy that while it lasts.

I honestly don't have much to say today. It's just one of those days where I felt like relaxing before work. Sure enough, I did. So, to make up for today's apparent lack of text, here's some other text (and pictures!) to make up for it.

Sailor Sushi to A4!

Those who've followed my various "blogs" will have already noticed that with the long and (for once,) good entries, I've sort of brought back my old blog titling habits. It's a confusing metaphorical menagerie of wordplay that summarizes the contents of the entry and paradoxically leaves the reader in the dark at the same time.

Anyway, before your brain suffers an aneurysm, here's why this entry's named the way it is:

• chess
• food (namely: sushi)
• Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon*
• writing

And in case you still don't see it, "A4" refers to chess (both the grid and the "What the deuce?" opening move**) and A4 paper (please tell me you can see the relation between writers and paper...).



* = A good 83% of you are probably giving this entry some kind of "WTF!?" look upon reading that. 83% of the initial 83% realize what it is and are probably wondering if they should revoke my man card for even referencing this. 83% of that secondary 83% have now realized that these statistics are fictional. Finally, 83% of that tertiary 83% probably don't know that this footnote was a How I Met Your Mother reference.

** = Seriously... if you should be playing chess against someone and they do "1.a4," then I hope to God that you win. Why bother wasting time by "blitzing" the queenside rook out to an awkward location when you can gain tempo and fight for control of the center?





CURRENT MUSIC:
Robert Summers - "Moon Crystal Power"
Sailor Moon: The Full Moon Collection

Yeah. You're still reading this correctly. Music from Sailor Moon - and the dubbed version, of all things? *nods* Now, if you have a problem, just shaddap and skip the rest of the music section. =P

Everyone around my age who's seen the well-known magical girl anime when they were a child knows this. Okay, maybe only the girls, but those of us guys out there who either had nothing better to watch before Dragon Ball Z or lived in a house with girls who watched Sailor Moon probably know this, too. In the event that you don't know (which is probably true for just about everyone in my "fan base"), "Moon Crystal Power" is known as the theme music for Serena/Usagi Tsukino's transformation sequence into the title character. While a majority of the English adaptation barely holds a candle to the original Japanese audio, I have to admit that I believe this is one of the better music themes for a transformation sequence.

What amazed me about this piece was that despite the obvious attachment for magical girls, I was able to place it as suitable background music for other characters and scenarios - particularly that "last-second rescue by a cavalry-esque squad" scene in not-so-dark war-based TV shows... and for some reason, opening credits for a sports show.

In the event that nobody's done this (or anything else) using this piece: I CALL DIBS.


Nobuo Uematsu - "Shuffle or Boogie"
Final Fantasy VIII Original Soundtrack

Every main entry in the Final Fantasy series has had some kind of minigame, be it an Easter egg or something that actually helps benefit the storyline by strengthening your party. In the case of Final Fantasy VIII, that game would be Triple Triad, a card game played throughout the in-game world.

"Shuffle of Boogie" is the theme that plays whenever you engage in a Triple Triad game, and its lightheartedness complements the fun the game provides while creating that aura that just says, "Think about strategy while you're listening to me!" Obviously, this wouldn't sit well with a full-scale battlefield scenario, but for something like Triple Triad or any other children's card game, it works wonders.



"The chessboard is limited to an eight-by-eight grid. There is nothing beyond this little universe. No ninth rank. No green pieces that suddenly sweep onto the board to attack both black and white. ... [A pawn] doesn't suddenly blossom into a queen by its own volition. No, chess is nothing like war, which is one of the reasons I play it. It's so much simpler than real life."
- Arcturus Mengsk
(StarCraft: Liberty's Crusade)

I haven't read this book in ages. Loved it when I was younger (I was a bigger StarCraft nerd back then as compared to now), and now that I recently found the copy I had since 2002, I'm thinking of going through it again.

Anyway, Mengsk has a point. Maybe that's why everyone's so drawn to the game - unlike reality, the game's simplicity and complexities are much easier to handle and control.





Evening, readers. I honestly think it's about time to post a good entry for once. Fortunately, that's what y'all will be getting tonight, so celebrate.

Oh, and just for you skimmers: no TL;DR will be present for you. Please proceed to bludgeon yourself in the face with a sharpened shovel.





I woke up today feeling a huge surge of energy that for some reason has to be worked for whenever I'm working (ironic, ain't it?). This can be traced back to a few reasons:


I asked for today off.
Having a personally-scheduled personal day off to just kick back and relax is always a fun thing. Gives you time to recuperate from working your tail off so much and also lets you catch up on much-needed sleep. Plus, you can plan stuff with friends and everything.


Today is my "social sushi" day.
A few years ago my friends and I used to be big on getting sushi. We'd meet once a month, stuff our stomachs to the brim with the marvelous invention called sushi, have lots of talking and laughter shared amongst ourselves and then proceed back to our lives with a fat stomach and the most amazing food coma you can have... ever (until the next "social sushi" day, that is).

As the years have passed, the practice has dropped from most of my friends' schedules. I, however, seem to be a huge stickler for being conservative (in the non-political sense, mind you) and adhering to "tradition," so I revived the idea about ten months ago and have faithfully kept getting sushi with people who were free at that point in time. Nowadays, I'm still doing it (as today's entry will indicate).





So, if you like sushi, live near me, and wanna have a fun time eating, talking and what not, then bookmark every third Friday of the month off (or at least reserve lunch hours from 1200-1600).

Until the 'morrow, everyone!