Clarity

It felt like a dream, like I could see all that was happening and everything that I could make happen on my drive home tonight. When I got home it was like I woke up and the cloud of thoughts I had was dissipating and once I got to someplace where I could focus and organize my thoughts they were but a fading memory. It was a great feeling though, something that I will remember for some time.
My dad visited and talked to Pete and I about all sorts of things as fathers often do. He said that money would not make us happy. I believe this is true to an extent. If someone were to hand me a sack of cash tomorrow on my walk to work, I would have an instant sense of awesome, but those are simple, much the same as gathered from chewing a piece of gum. For money to make me happy I would need an amount that could ensure that I did not have to worry about it if I were to take an adventure to places unknown. Imagine the confidence you could have being anywhere knowing that someplace you were set, you could always go home and relax no matter what sort of expedition you crave.
If I had all the money I ever needed I'm quite sure I'd go around the world and learn whatever I could, research things that need solving, and build a school. I'd even want to help with the construction by picking up a hammer and making it happen.
Funny how that works, I need to work on a plan to make it so I don't have to work so I can work on what I feel I would want to work on...
I wonder what I will work on next.

Diet and exercise

Well I'm finally back to eating right. No more Ramen or macroni, I haven't even baked any bread in the past few weeks. All my meals and snacks have been fruit, vegetables, and chicken or beef. I always though packing lunch was a chore but I've been dicing up grilled chicken to mix with frozen veggies to take to work each day. Just a few min in the microwave and it's qutie a good lunch. I've been marinating my chicken rather spicy as well as to help keep my metabolism high.
I'm using almost the same steps I did ten years ago to lose weight to travel to Philmont, here's hoping for the same results!

Gamestop Vendetta

So I may have bitched about this before, but they just keep giving me reasons! So I went into this
GameStop or EBgames (whatever, they are the same company now anyway) just the other day at the mall because I want to buy Wii Fit. As you can see they had quite a few on display and about six more on another rack. Of course the boxes were empty so I requested a copy but the clerk said they were sold out. Having heard this answer a number of times before I staved off my usual desire to rant and rave at the clerk and got some fried rice happiness.
In case you don't know, these stores tout that Nintendo pays them to display those empty boxes. I just feel it's false advertisement to show a product that you cannot sell. If it is something you may sell in the future then it's understandable to have some type of advertisement. Something like this should be handled different to only display the item when you are able to purchase it. I think I might be a tad pissed from the fact I had to wait in line ten minutes just to find out I couldn't buy it.

What the health?

A very odd occurrence happened yesterday. I walked about four miles around Shelly Lake and then ate a healthy dinner. What's even more startling is that I walked again this morning, maybe two miles or so. I must be ill because I never exercise this much!










Maybe I should have typed more...

Little sick

I rolled a 3 on my post more fun stuff, with my health modifier at -2 I really am failboating. I've got something that's making me tired and giving me migranes, hopefully another few nights of sleep will knock it out. Will write more about Animazement after I recover...

Cheating

On my way back from the con I stopped at Burger King because I wanted one of those stacker burgers they have, was just craving it. And since Harold and Kumar can make it to White Castle I was sure I could take a 2 min side trip on the way home for burgers. So I went through the drive through, something I hardly ever do because I get the wrong things every time, and ordered a few burgers, large fries, and a strawberry milkshake. Don't ever get milkshakes from McDonalds or Burger King, they suck. The fries were not even warm either but I had driven a fair bit away and didn't care anymore. After I had munched all my fries down I noticed an extra box in my bag, it turns out they did screw up my order and gave me a bonus box of nuggets, they were yummy.

When I got home I found that they are having some Indiana Jones prizes on their drinks and fries. These are pretty cool since every game piece has the opportunity to give you a prize, basically you have two scratch off areas, one laughs mockingly at you and the other says free food blah blah blah. These are the best because you really cannot lose if you know how to pick the right area. Oh, and you don't know how? The way these are printed on their moisture resistant coated labels, they can only be so thick. So a nice flashlight can show you what is under each scratch off area before you chose. I simply saw the area that said "Try Again" and avoided it. On my two tickets I won a BK Double Stacker and an Apple Pie. Now I can sense a few of you thinking that I'm a rotten cheat. No doubt it is because I took the coin toss that you saw at the beginning and made sure it would land my way. The other 5% of you are just unhappy that I won free food and you didn't :P All of you probably said that I cheated, and you are right, in a sense.

This is where you can test your own moral flexibility. Two things determine how much we want to win something, be it Chutes and Ladders or a simple coin toss. Who we are competing against and what the reward is for winning. So ask yourself if the next few scenarios are cheating, getting what you deserve, or just having fun.
You and a good friend flip a coin to see who will stand first in a line, you aren't that hungry so when you friend calls it no matter what you see, you say they got it.
You and a nemesis have to decide who will be in a dunk tank for charity, someone will pull a name from a hat on who it will be, but you have made sure all the names in the hat are theirs.
You and a total stranger are offered a million dollars on a card guessing trick, you draw the card they need to guess and put it back in the deck. They manage to conjure up a card and show it to you, if you say that was your card then they will the million, if it isn't your card then you win. There is no way to split the money and you will never see each other ever again, just what would you do?

Some people would see those and say then cheating == lying, well what about the second scenario? Cheating == deception, so deception == lying as well? And we all know that lying is bad, but when isn't it? When nobody knows, when it saves a life, when it doesn't hurt anyone, when your benefit outweighs your guilt? These are all personal questions that we answer every day in our own ways, no two people are alike, and the same person may do one thing but say they support another.

So really, am I a "bad" man for using a flashlight to gain a free burger? If I gave that burger to someone who was homeless does it change anything?

週末

And what an exuberant weekend it was! We got a late start on Thursday to get there but after waiting in the registration line for maybe two hours I got in... My friends had made it there but then had run off to get more costume supplies, or fish, really we may never know.

At this time I can't clearly recall everything how it happened in any chronological order, but what I do know is that I went to a great number of little events in rooms to educate me on Japanese, parapara, traveling to Japan, taking voice acting lessons, Steampunk design, how to make an Anime Music Video (which no matter how well it's done will suck in some fashion), and other things that are still swirling about my mind ready to leap into a pensieve! The other two things of note were the 600 or some pictures I took, which I will link in a later post, and almost all night raving Friday and Saturday. What took up pretty much all my time was taking pictures of all the cosplay. Every ten feet I'd be asking another person if I may take their picture and they'd pose, give me a strange look, or both.

There was also a room filled with various vendors of rarities that me and anyone around would consider cool. Anime DVDs, figures, models to assemble, wall scrolls, traditional Japanese dress, small sharp pointy things, long sharp pointy things, wooden pointy things, stuffed animals, creature looking hats, slippers, and this list just won't end! Outside the "shop" were a row of artists who had printed works and were doing drawings right there. The skill these people had, wow. I even got a chibi made of me, which I really like and will scan and post after I get a full 12 hours of rest.

It all doesn't feel like a lot to write about right now, but I think that's just the tired talking. Every day was packed, all the events were fun, and all the people were cool. The level of talent, cute, and witty women I met really makes me want to bring a shirt with this on it next time: