Taren's Journal

Happy birthday Suwabo!

tarennauxen@gmail.com — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 13:50:40 GMT

Last night when I was resetting the clock in the bedroom, I noticed it was 7/7. I just KNEW there was something special about that day, but I couldn't figure out what. When I opened up my email this morning, it dawned on me that superwailingbonus.com is four years old today, because I now owe nearly $200 for hosting fees for the next two years.

ding ding! AC is done!

tarennauxen@gmail.com — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 07:55:03 GMT

Best con experience ever for me.
Score: 9,000,000 awesomes on a scale of 0 to 1.

Pictures, videos, and highlights montage coming soon.

Returning to full-time employment in 3, 2, 1...

Arrived!

tarennauxen@gmail.com — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 00:07:11 GMT

We made it safe and sound to the hotel. This morning we got confirmation that our package of merchandise also made it safely. Now back to your regularly scheduled Cubs game!

bonus nerd points for writing this on my phone but minus points for not bringing the shamwows we packed to dry off the seats. This con is going to be so much fun!

Bye, suckers!

tarennauxen@gmail.com — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 12:05:32 GMT

See you at AC. Leaving shortly

What a strange week

tarennauxen@gmail.com — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 17:44:06 GMT

Ed McMahon
Michael Jackson
Farrah Fawcett
and introducing
Billy Mays

Wow. So much for that "celebrities die in threes" theory, unless this is the start of another set. Funny how I was JUST watching the FA link of the day last night, with Mays ordering through a McDonald's drive thru, and then this happens. Coincidence? I think not!

We were joking around at VI last night that if Chuck Norris dies, then the internet will stop. But since that can't happen, there's nothing to worry about.

Who will fill Billy Mays's shoes? Certainly not Vince.

YOU GOTTA BE SHITTIN' ME

fuck, summer's ending

tarennauxen@gmail.com — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 07:50:07 GMT

It just sunk in today that I'm going to be starting a "real" full-time job on Monday. I've been in a funk all day because of it. It doesn't help that they want me to show up an hour early for no reason. And I'll have to start packing lunches again I think. I never know what to pack. Will there be a fridge? See what happens when I get anxious?

I'm also getting into this habit of forgetting if I've done routine things, and then becoming paranoid I didn't do them. Did I lock the car? Did I turn off the stove? Is the door locked? It's very annoying, because it's all stuff I've done, but don't remember doing.

I work for two days and then leave for AC, hah. I'm sort of excited, but I hate hate hate anticipation. Can we just cut to it? Fast forward like in Click or whatever. I'll be excited when we arrive at the airport, but not a moment sooner. Not the night before, not on the way there, not even at the gate. I wanna feel that carpet, dammit.

Better get to sleep now before I start seeing 2's and 3's on the clock again.

DDR X debacle, cont'd.

tarennauxen@gmail.com — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 01:17:15 GMT

XPOSTED TO AIJ but they're down right now so enjoy this here:

I just got back from GW Tempe, and here's what I got.

Gameplay changes, fun facts:
-Pluto Relinquish has "fixed" steps at the end. No more of that stupid gallop bullshit at the end, it's all quantized to 8ths. Somehow I cleared this on Heavy on these shitty pads, and I feel that is worthy of bragging about.
-Dynamite Rave Air Special does have new lyrics. They're pretty neat. It's a nice change of pace. The chart has a slightly modified ending (and they STILL managed to fuck up the syncopated steps!) See video.
-Tsugaru's 12th notes are FUN to roll through. HDV-H's triplets are hard to get used to when you're accustomed to the wonky SN version.
-Paranoia/180 has a new banner.
-Pads still suck. They're almost designed for playing on your toes (Kobayan).

And the kicker:
-Betson to release SD card slots on later machines, and/or upgrades to existing USB cabinets?!

USB's do not work. See video. The Cruzer blinked on the first time but then shut off. After that, it lit up briefly and then stayed off.

oh happy day.

tarennauxen@gmail.com — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 17:20:10 GMT

Here's what happened yesterday on my birthday, the greatest day of the year:

Slept in until 10 or 11. It felt pretty good.
Went to get a pedicure with Sema. It was nice even though it tickled a lot. Sema wouldn't let me get my toenails painted :< maybe next time
Burned my mouth on Chinese food for lunch (my bad, should have let it cool). What is it with ~~Mexicans~~ non-Asians making delicious Chinese food around here? It's so crazy to walk into a shop with the usual kitsch all over the walls and see Carlos, Manuel, and Enrique working there instead of Ding, Dong, and Dang. I'm actually exited about leftovers. It reminded me of Happy Wok in Rockford and I got a little sad inside.
Went over to Bad Dragon central for party time!
We went to Hooters for dinner. The irony is that the majority of the group was gay guys. katsuri was disturbed by the bikini picture wallpaper in the men's room.
I was thoroughly embarrassed by the staff by means of a birthday celebration. We're not going to talk about it but there are pictures
Hung out at the BD house until 2am and then somehow managed to drive home again, passed out around 4am.

Birthday spoils:
Art from Sema!
Icon from Sophie!
Art from Mary-san!
~~The death of Michael Jackson~~ RETURNED FOR STORE CREDIT >:(
A cool picture from space of a volcano erupting
A dozen Krispy Kreme donuts
Narse let me borrow his Wacom tablet
Badger gave us his old carving knife
A ton of well-wishes from people <3
THANKS GUYS~~~~~~~~~~~~

Seriously everyone was giving me a hard time last night about MJ. "Happy birthday/MJ,FF death day" "Why'd you kill MJ?" "Birthday ruined"

noooo it are my burfday

tarennauxen@gmail.com — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 21:06:23 GMT

Plates, pt. 1

tarennauxen@gmail.com — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 01:29:41 GMT

Just got back from the DMV MVD whatever it's called, and I'm now an official Arizona resident! I got my license and registration taken care of, and I applied for customized plates! It cost me a grand total of just under $200 for two years (reg + custom plates).

Man that felt GOOD. I was at the counter and I had EVERY single paper the clerk asked for. Birth certificate, social (in)security card, title, previous registration, emissions test, OH YEAH. I even got a GREAT license photo.

The only bad part was that the DMV was full of some rather interesting characters. And I thought AZ Mills was bad. Why do people insist on playing music/ringtones aloud on their phones in crowded waiting rooms? Sema thought the DMV smelled like a used diaper, but it reminded me of a retirement home. And then it started to smell like Subway. I don't know.

Now I gotta get my insurance switched over. The guy on the phone really wanted to cut down my policy limits to "save money" but I reeeeally don't think it's a good idea to skimp on coverage. Bad news is that keeping the same coverage HERE will nearly double my rates, partly because of ~~Mexicans~~ higher car theft rates, and because I was on my parents' account which gave me tons of discounts.

more fun

tarennauxen@gmail.com — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 07:07:32 GMT

Ronny and Annee went to the v-e-t today for general maintenance stuff. Ronny is very good at applying the "brakes", but he is still very small. Almost 20 pounds! I remember when he weighed 1 popcan (355g).

I got an email from GD, and they want to start me on 6/29 instead of 7/13 now. Cool! They're perfectly fine with me being gone for 6 days. Hell, I'll even get paid for 7/3 when I'm on the other side of the country.

I think I'm going to need to get my lic/reg changed over tomorrow then. It's as good of a time as ever. Then I can become a "citizen" of Arizona and pay higher car insurance! FUCK THAT MEANS I NEED TO PICK A CUSTOM PLATE NOW D:

Fullsize because you need to see this. Who can guess what that logo is on the guy's window? :DDDDDD I know what it is. I never really got into that game, though. I almost didn't get a shot of it from two lanes over because I had to: turn off flash, adjust the white balance, and wait for the damn autofocus, all while driving through a busy intersection. Safe!

I got to go shopping today, and got chocolate milk eeeeeeeee. I need some now.

Played IIDX again today. FINALLY managed to at least Easy-Clear Sense2007[h]. I EC'd Fatal Attack[a] somehow a couple of days ago, too. It was a pretty sweet random. Still can't touch Vox Up. I've noticed my play style is changing a lot, for the better. Once I figured out to use my left hand for 4/5, it made it SO much easier. Before, my right hand had to cover 4-5-6-7-TT, which was proving to be too much. I'm also using lots of Random because I'm getting tired of predictable charts. Really helps with learning new combos, especially chords, and breaks up annoying features in charts like 1/2 rolls or bass on 1 and hihat on 7. Hate.

Fixed that issue with my phone where it was playing the wrong rings. In addition to deleting all my contact-specific rings, it also nuked my ringtones. Fortunately, they were backed up on the other drive in my phone, so I copied them over and now it all works again.

Sema and I went to go see Monsters vs. Aliens in THREEDEEEE at the IMAX at AZ Mills Mall brought to you by Carl's Jr. It worked great for me! I'm glad they didn't go overboard with the 3D gimmicks. There was that paddleball in the beginning, but that was really it. (I have too many bad experiences where I'd go to a 3D movie and they would intentionally have shit flying at the screen to make you flinch.) The rest of the 3D stuff was amazing. My only beef is that it's so realistic that you expect there to be some physics involved with the movement. When you're flying through space and don't feel the turns and acceleration, it's a little disorienting.

As far as the movie, I enjoyed it. There were some subtle allusions in there I picked up on, like the Al Gore snark and other movie refrences like 50' Tall Woman. The giant insectosaurus was weird but still hilarious. It's like a 200-foot-tall retard that loves everybody. HURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

BB Storm bug

tarennauxen@gmail.com — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 06:58:08 GMT

I found a bug with the new OS software, woo

When I receive an MMS, it plays the wrong ringtone. The only place in Sounds that even references that ringtone is for BB Messages. I changed it but it still plays the stupid xylophone sound instead of my badass samurai howl.

Any advice on how to fix this? I hate hate hate hate stuff that breaks when you upgrade software.

Day 8766 on Earth

tarennauxen@gmail.com — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 06:23:53 GMT

Apparently yesterday I was 8765 days old. That's pretty cool. My birthday is Thursday YOU ALL BETTER BE GETTING ME COOL STUFF. Although I don't know what I want. I don't really want anything in particular. Do they sell canned dignity in a jar yet?

I have successfully reverse engineered the DJ Troopers PS2 memory card save format. It's... exactly the same as Gold, except there's an extra 2 bytes per entry, probably for ranking/normalized score, but it doesn't match up. Whatever, not useful. Oh shoot, I forgot to check to see if/where the Hazard mod saves. (Not to mention there are 8 sets of song scores instead of 6, because of the Black Anothers.)

I also wrote a little script on my website so that I can upload pictures directly from my phone to my website, either to be added to my gallery or to /stuff/. It's pretty neat!

Sema and I went to see The Proposal and play Didders. I didn't really want to see the movie and she never wants to play didders, so it was a fair trade.

Arizona Mills mall used to be cool but in the last 2 years or so it just seems like it's turned into one giant shithole. I don't know where all these rednecks and beaners come from in Tempe/Mesa/Guadalupe (read: everywhere) but the mall is just crawling with... yuck. Sema describes the mall as "IQ-minus-fifteen" where the median IQ of the mall is about 85 as opposed to 100-ish.

I tried to get Panda Express, but some b* kid was SITTING where the trays were supposed to go typing on a phone, and the trays were scattered around the countertop. I had to reach over through their rap concert or whatever to get a god damn tray. "Oh I'm getting heat from the gang for that one!" I said. The kid's mom was shouting f-bombs at the manager because of something the cashier did, so the cashier wasn't even paying attention to us. The worst part of all was that the orange chicken wasn't even that good.

We got our table directly underneath TWO of the big, flat TV's surrounding the perimeter of the seating area. All of the TV's were in pairs, and playing music videos on one screen, and flashing ads and text-numbers for ringtones and shitty phone media on the other. And it wasn't even good music. N'Sync's Dirty Pop? Where do they get this crap? And the BEST part was that ALL of the tables have advertisements that take up the whole tabletop. Gee, desperate much? They're ugly, and probably are really good at camoflaging food crumbs and spills. As I looked out over the sea of peasants, nearly all of their faces were pointed up, glued to the loud, distracting TV's. It SERIOUSLY looked exactly like something out of Idiocracy. IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN IDIOCRACY YOU ARE REQUIRED TO IMMEDIATELY!!

Sooo off to the theaters. No big deal, the usual Harkins up-selling and OCD counter wiping (seriously cut it out- it bugs me), and off to the Proposal. But wait, this is AZ Mills, so the rows in the theater are about 3-4 inches narrower than Tempe Marketplace. I'm 6'1" barefoot, so sitting comfortably means my knee is jabbing the seat in front of me. And that's not all! About four rows back there was a Screaming Kid (TM)! About 15-20 minutes into the movie the management ejected them (lol). I turned to Sema and whispered "I was about thiiis close from starting a Slow Clap." S- "Lol me too!" I was like that when I was little, I'll be honest, but who takes their toddler kid to see The Proposal?

The movie was okay. I'm not big on romance movies. The plot seemed okay. Betty White is such a badass. It took me a while to figure out why the characters were going to bed while the sun was still out. It took the audience even longer (hint: they were in Alaska). I just wish there was more of a resolution to the plot. If they had cut some of the slower scenes (you can drag out bed-talk only so far) they might have been able to tell more about what happened after the climax. Or maybe they intentionally left it open for a $equel. But still a good time.

(We also saw Year One on Friday. My short review: wait for the DVD, possibly when it goes in the bargain bin. Funny and worth a watch, but Family Guy-ish and very ADD. If you have to see it in the theater, make sure you get drunk/stoned before you go, because it's pretty much a celebrity vehicle. The Biblical references were a nice touch, though.)

Afterwards, off to ~~Gay-works~~ Gameworks for some overpriced DDR! It was 8 credits ($2) per play, but with Joint Premium (2nd player plays free) it's an all right price. I only went because I heard they got the new shit-tastic DDR X. Otherwise I'd never go other than for abusing the time-cards on Sundays. So yeah, DDR X is horrrrrible. Even Sema says so and she's a casual player! The HD lag (was HD even really necessary? come on) wasn't too bad, but the pads were absolute shit. It felt like playing Gambol every song because the sensors were not responsive at all and caused all sorts of judging errors. Take a read here on how this game got butchered: http://aij.ddruk.com/boards/viewtopic.php?t=4889&start=640

The Crazy Mexican Pump-playing Dude was there. It should be pretty obvious that if that guy can nearly full-combo LIADZ NM on an NX machine, but can't AA Jane Jana Heavy on DDR X, it's probably not the player's fault.

I don't know if it's grounds for a class-action lawsuit for false advertising (see first post on that page) but that'd be AWESOME if it were. It would be nice to see some evidence that free-market competition is still alive (haha yeah right).

More adventures tomorrow BYE

updates

tarennauxen@gmail.com — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 17:02:06 GMT

Ronny update!
Status: 'dopted

We are 'fficially keeping this asshole.
"Makes a great addition to any decor!"

I think our bearded dragon is brumating (aka hibernating). He's been hiding under the newspaper for at least a week, doesn't move much, doesn't eat much, and sometimes hides out there for days at a time. It's kind of scary, but I check on him and he looks fine. No baggy eyes, etc.

Also, this is the shenanigans we have to put up with at Village Inn...

Here's Mandarax being a complete retard in Fry's. We somehow found Slap Chops for sale, so he posed with it. I call it "You're gonna love my nuts". Watch this. Watch this. Watch this. Watch this. Watch this. Watch this. Watch this.

He got a LOT of weird looks, but it was totally awesome. One little kid pointed and said "Mommy look, he's in disguise!" and another fellow insisted on taking his picture in the checkout line.

On the way back we got to ride in Narse's new car (hotttt) and eat random impulse-buy candy. Delicious. (Fun fact: the car was full of dragons! Athus, Narse, Mandarax, me)

And I'm thinking about starting a contest to see who can guess the amount of money sitting on my computer desk. But I don't have any prizes to give away!

(click for larger version)

Other than that, there's not a lot else going on for me. The job thing's taken care of, no commissions this month... so all I have to do is make hats and write code. I bet I'm up to 40 hats so far.

In the next couple of days we're going to have to ship out the "materials" box. Since we're taking two pieces of luggage already, there's no sense in taking a third, when we can ship it there. Unfortunately, they're charging ridiculous storage fees and prohibiting any packages from arriving before 6/29. (Just in case I haven't made my point clear, I despise union labor. Not sure if it's relevant, but it's still important.) I wonder if UPS has ever had customers request a "Guaranteed AFTER" arrival time? Heh. We'll just ship Ground on Tuesday or Wednesday, that way it shouldn't get there before 6/29.

I'm writing code for Solid State Squad, the next primary vivid IIDX score tracking site/community, and the successor to VJ Army. I'm pretty much focusing on improving the IIDX side of the site, while the rest of the team (Xythar and jammitch!?) are focusing on getting the PNM side up and running. I've got course session, XML export, and Sync (upload scores from memory card) all working, subject to testing. It's a lot of fun, but it'd be nice if more people were testers so that these changes could go live sooner.

You know what'd be fun, doing Gameworksss'ss's'sss Sunday special today. I heard they got DDR X and I want to see if the new cabinet/pad design really as bad as people are saying. I'm interested in playing the new songs and seeing the interface and getting to use Screen Filter (~gasm). Worst-case scenario, I'll probably just load up IIDX/Pop'n with credits and play nothing but Virtual Mind and Jive Into The Night.

Blah blah words words here's a puppy.

look for the silver lining

tarennauxen@gmail.com — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 22:53:12 GMT

I called up GD today to ask about my start date. My background check is taking super-long, so I won't be starting Monday. I could have started 6/15 if it weren't for them. They have a policy that people can't start mid-week, so that means I'll start 6/29, right? No. I'm going to AC 7/1-7/6 inclusive. That means I'll start 7/6, right? No, I'll flying home in the evening. So that means I'll start 7/13, right? Yep.

THANKS A TON BACKGROUND CHECK COMPANY FOR PUSHING MY START DATE BACK FOUR WEEKS

really, come on now. There's only ONE other person in the US with my same first and last name and he's in his 40's. (Fun fact: he has a brother that has the same name as my brother! twilight zooooone)

Now that kinda sucks, but here's the cool part:
-I got my birthday off now (6/25). I have this feeling I'm going to be exploited for free swag by Certain Locals.
-No having to worry about unpaid time off for AC
-More time to prep for AC (and fuck around in general)
-I'm still hired by bozojob as 1099, so they're still going to pay me until I start at GD

It's kinda like a mini Summer Vacation (CU Mix)
Time to bust out 6th style

I'm NOT crazy! Lazy musicians at work!

tarennauxen@gmail.com — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 07:59:41 GMT

Listen to the first 5 seconds of the Rio Salado ad, and then the first 10 or so of the second video. BUSTED.

Thanks bloogryffe Dari for helping me with the college name. I knew there was a movie nut around here that knew didders songs!

I had a day

tarennauxen@gmail.com — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 07:49:47 GMT

Well I guess it's over now, seeing as it's 00:01.

Since "graduating" (again), I've slipped into this bad habit of not going to bed until 2-3 am. Whoops. Today I woke up around 8 am because something was irritating my eye. I went into the bathroom and SOMEHOW I had managed to get two eyelashes lodged in my eye, and while I slept they rubbed on my eye until it looked like I was stoned or had pink eye. At that point I figured ah fuck it I'll just get up.

Unpacked my new "backup" sewing machine (Brother LX-3125) to practice with it before AC, and wound up passing out on the couch in the living room. I had a dream I was driving home from somewhere, and it was taking a really long time because of the dense urban area. Intersections and stoplights and traffic everywhere. Somehow I thought it would be a good idea to get out and walk, so I parked it. I distinctly remember seeing a Do Not Enter sign with text beneath it, only the text had been defaced to read "GO THRU OR GO HOME". Interesting. As I began to walk down the street in my dream city, I was hounded by tons of homeless people (must be somewhere local, har-har).

Suddenly the doorbell rang! Holy shit that's disorienting. I rolled off/over the couch and answered it, it was Fedex! I wonder what the dude thought of me. It was pretty obvious I just woke up, and it was NOON.

My sleeping habits will change soon becauuuuse guess what came in the mail! I got my new hire packet from GD today. I still haven't heard when I'm starting (Monday?) but I got to fill out a W-4, other tax forms, direct deposit forms, ethics guideline forms...

That's even better than the HUGE check I got in the mail from bozojob today (hint: there was a comma). I do almost nothing for them, but I'm hired as 1099 until I find a new job, so they send me checks. And occasionally an email that says "hey could you make the program you're working on display text on the screen?" okay done, back to sleep.

This morning I also upgraded my Blackberry Storm to 4.7.0.148. The download stalled the first time, so I had to pop the battery, and then it kicked in. Installed smoothly. The UI does feel more responsive, but just as I suspected, there were some minor side effects:
- I have two custom sound profiles, "normal" and "vibrate", and do what you would expect. Normal was now missing. An attempts to recreate "normal" would not work. I bet it was because there already was a "Normal" profile in the default list. How come that worked before and doesn't now? I just named it "standard", whatever.
- All of my custom alerts were gone. My ringtones and settings were still intact, but I have it set up to play special rings for certain people so I know who it is. All gone. I probably could have restored this from my computer's backup file, but since there were only five, I redid them manually.
- The default/sans-serif font looks taller and/or skinnier now. There's just something "different" about certain pages like Gmail. It's not BAD, it's just something that sticks out to me. Whatever, I'll just get used to it. No big deal.

On the plus side,
+ Phone no longer takes a shit when I hit the green call button from any random screen. Before, the screen would turn into scrambled eggs and I'd have to shake it a couple of times for the keyboard to show up.
+ Portrait-mode full keyboard = win. It's hard enough to type in Landscape, haha. What is this, challenge mode?

After that I made some more hats. I still find it really hard to work for more than an hour at a time on hats. Eventually I got EIGHT black husky hats done today. They look awesome. I even used the new machine, just to get a feel for it before the con.

Here's my review of the LX-3125 after about 2-3 hours of use:
- Very stiff. Are all new machines like this? I remember the LS-2125i I bought for Rainfurrest being "stiff" too. Manually advancing the fabric with the wheel cramps up my hand quickly and I'm not even 80 years old yet! It's very easy to spin the wheel on my LS-2125, but it *is* about 3-4 years old.
- The renumbered stitches are kind of confusing, but they're all there, in the same order. I use 6e on the 2125/2125i but now it's #10.
- Same cheap plastic sewing-foot mechanism as the 2125i. The metal one on the 2125 is nicer quality but I tended to hit it with my thumbs a lot.

My BIGGEST GRIPE with this sewing machine so far is this:

I have this habit of working VERY close to the needle. That bolt sticking out is attached to the needle shaft and goes up and down with the needle. At its lowest point, there's exactly one finger's width of clearance between the sewing surface and the bolt. Guess how I found out?

I'm sure my opinions (and sewing habits) will change as I use this machine more. It got the job done, and that's all that matters I went from small-scale details to full-speed git-r-dun mode.. The stiff wheel will take some getting used to, as will the crazy flying finger-destroyer of doom.

So for supper, Sema helped make delicious baked potatoes! They were good. And even better was the fact that the potatoes cost under 30 cents a pound!

In closing, here's a dog. It is Qoppa.

Actually, this picture kinda scares me.

Upppppppp

tarennauxen@gmail.com — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 09:03:14 GMT

I saw Up with that troublemaker semjay today. I really enjoyed it! I have really seen a lot of good movies lately. The only caveat is that you kind of have to suspend your sense of physics. After watching an old man tug around a floating, single-family house like it was a kite, I reminded myself that it *was* a kids' movie after all.

I'll admit I got choked up a little bit during the film. Not quite as bad as Marley & Me. They didn't string it out as long, and frequently followed up the sad scenes with happy ones. Entertaining enough for kids and contains plenty of depth and symbolism for older watchers.

The one part I know that little kids aren't going to get was when the old man scolded the kid for referring to his mom by her first name, and the kid replied that that wasn't his mom. That one took me a while to figure out, "ohhhhhh sneaky". I'm proud of myself for figuring that one out.

What's in your book of adventures?

---

Other interesting things that happened...

In the previews, there was that same old annoying ad for some bogus online university. But in the quiet theater I actually heard the background music they used for their montage- I SWEAR they were using the opening to Ecstasy Remix from DDR 7th, only sped up about 20 BPM. Is it a generic sample/loop or did somebody totally rip that song off? This was at a Harkins, but maybe it'll show up at AMC or whatever. Opinions? (Augh I wish I could find this ad on YT or something because it's driving me nuts)

After that, a guy came up to me and asked if he could have my ticket stubs. He was trying to sneak buddies into the theater. I gave him one and held onto the other one, and he asked if it was paid for with cash or credit. I got a little worried there, just said I didn't have the other one. He proceeded to go around to everyone else in the theater asking for another ticket stub. At least he wasn't asking for money like every other bum around here.

And then on the way out of the building, the exit doors have handles only on the inside. Some unscrupulous fellows snagged the door before it closed while some other patrons were leaving, and entered, probably on their way to see some flicks without paying. What a bunch of up-standing people we have here!

There's a BIG difference between trying to pass people off as Students instead of paying Adult price (guilty), and sneaking in the exit door to bypass the ticket counter. These are probably the same people that think they're entitled to everything in life.
angry face.

---

Doug from Up acts EXACTLY like Qoppa-Doppa. It would be so cool to have a translator collar for her. Point!

BB Storm Upgrade

tarennauxen@gmail.com — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 10:17:09 GMT

I got a message on my phone saying the Blackberry Storm OS upgrade to 4.7.0.148 is available. Is it worth getting? There's not really anything severely wrong with my phone (compared to other horror stories I've heard) and I'm afraid that updating the OS is going to break stuff that works fine now.

I wish the phone was a little faster and more responsive. I'm tired of it being an entire keystroke behind when I type. But I don't want this to be another example of why I refuse to 'update' things.

Any suggestions?

Round 2! Vote for me

tarennauxen@gmail.com — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 21:59:12 GMT

vote for me
or else
your FARank suffers.

http://community.livejournal.com/fursuittourney/54431.html
http://community.livejournal.com/fursuittourney/54431.html
http://community.livejournal.com/fursuittourney/54431.html
http://community.livejournal.com/fursuittourney/54431.html
http://community.livejournal.com/fursuittourney/54431.html

Awesome dream adventure!

tarennauxen@gmail.com — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 18:15:52 GMT

I had trouble sleeping last night, and I wound up getting a headache before I went to bed. Woke up a couple of times, had my alarm go off, fell back asleep. Anybody that knows dreaming knows this is the perfect recipe for... "totally screwed up dreams"

In this dream, the Bad Dragon gang (Narse, Athus, Raith, Streak?), Sema, and I all decided it'd be fun to take a trip to this scavenger-hunt/labyrinth.

I swear this dream was partially based on a strange barn my aunt took me to when I was younger. Does anybody in the WI/IL area know of a barn in a rural area that lets people do a scavenger hunt inside it? All I remember is that it's in boofoo-nowhere and that there was an "underwater" theme to the place. You went inside and the guy working gave you a checklist of things to spot along the walls and ceiling, and it was stuff like shells, seahorse, starfish, that sort of thing. I was definitely *not* on drugs. Does anybody know what I'm talking about?

Anyway, in this dream, the entrace had two lines. One for general admission, and the other for VIP members. I remember the price was quite high for the whole experience, but they had a lot to offer. At the entrance, you were given a colorful wrist band, a wrist chain, and a "jewel". The jewels were plastic and the perfect size to be a choking hazard to small children. They represented what "tickets" do at normal arcades, and had some sort of value. Different colors had different amounts associated with them. You were given a random one at the beginning, and collected more throughout the trip.

Everyone in our group dug through the jar of random jewels to find the ones that only VIP members had (indigo color), so we could bypass the ridiculous line. We grabbed whatever and just pretended to be seasoned veterans, and they bought it. Inside, they took our heavy winter coats and wristbands, and led us to the maze.

The inside looked like a TGI Friday's with all the junk on the tables and walls. Strangely, I already knew where some things were, like "the bathrooms by the tourist section". The maze was divided into little sections that had their own theme. For example, if you entered and immediately turned right, you'd go through the astronaut section first, which had things like moon rocks, space suits, space vehicles, and whatnot. If you continued around the corner there, it became a tourist area where you saw mannequins dressed up in tacky Hawaiian shirts holding obnoxious cameras, and standing near unnecessary beach paraphenalia. Somehow I knew the bathrooms were over there even though I don't think I've dreamed about this place before.

The group split up to look for things, and the place just got bigger and bigger. It was semi-crowded, like a mall would be on a weekday (not very), and it was just a maze of junk. Heck, at one point they even had escalators like a mall. Part of me wondered what would happen in the case of an emergency. How would people get out of a maze quickly?

I've been to SOS Labyrinthe in Montreal, which is about as close as anything in real life gets to what I saw.

That'd be a pretty kickass attraction if I do say so myself. Somebody should go make it now!

Bowling picturezzzzz

tarennauxen@gmail.com — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 17:13:57 GMT

http://superwailingbonus.com/passion06/folders/22622/20090613Bowling

214 out of suit, 166 in suit. I had the first 6 frames clean, and then I got three opens in a row for some dumb reasons. Just realized that I bowl like Jason Belmonte (two-handed release) in suit.

Highlight of the evening was when I got hit on by a group of cougars. They started calling me Puff the Magic Dragon, and asked if I had "boobs or dick", and what I was doing, why I wasn't talking. It was pretty obvious they were shitfaced. And theeeeen SOMEBODY thought it'd be a good idea to send them my way AGAIN while I was settling the tab. "Were you the dragon bowling down there?" "Thank you for being so honest with me." "Was it hot in there?" "Who else is with you?" The dude behind the counter thought my wings were battery-operated. Nope! Coat hangers. Everybody luvs the Taren suit. (Vote for me in FFFF on Monday!)

FUN STORY about the tab... The staff required a 50% deposit when booking this event, so I gave them 100%. A few days before the event, I called the lower the confirmed head-count to 24 instead of 30, and they refunded me the difference. This was all noted in a contract sent to the house. When I went to check out, they charged me for the entire tab! Wait a second dude, I already put a deposit down! The cashier looked- oh shit, I didn't know anything about that. So he refunded the amount he just charged, and then charged the difference of the tab from the *original* deposit, not the reduced one. At this point I just said screw it, otherwise I would have come up short. All proceeds from this clerical error go to benefit Phoenix Furness. (Maybe it wasn't clear, but the event was for two games, not two hours. I saw people starting a 3rd game, and I was charged *full price* for those extra five games, which was incredibly steep!)

Thanks <3 to everyone that showed up. I think the event ran smoothly. There are some other pictures floating around, so let me know if you find 'em!

Dickswing Gets!

tarennauxen@gmail.com — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 00:44:17 GMT

Happy SIX THIRTEEN!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwaHg-IwlfU

Going to bowling now

Laser Tag!

tarennauxen@gmail.com — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 05:00:49 GMT

taren_ vs. semjay vs. mohrgears vs. tabbicus vs. khortlwolf vs. aiden_raccoon

Location: ~~Scrotum~~ Stratum Arena in Mesa

GO

Game 1: #1/12, 13000 pts
Game 2: #1/28, 14650 pts
Game 3: #1/29, 18000 pts
Game 4: #3/31, 11450 pts (mohrgears won wtf)
Game 5: #1/49, 23250 pts

Possible reasons for me winning:
1. Chuck Norris was not present
2. sophiecabra was not present
3. Fricken birthday party

Stratum's gimmick is that they have six "bases" hidden around the arena that are worth 2000 points each (they used to be 3001?). Four of them were disabled (read: broken) but they called them "decoys". And then halfway through the last game, they came back on. I was all like~ "yellow base destroyed? neither of those are working..." I wouldn't have gone after the other four but Tabbi blabbed his big ol' mouth (thanks babinz~~) giving me 8000 totally unnecessary points.

I leave you with this fun fact: Stratum's "code of conduct" is a total ripoff from Laser Quest's. When I started playing at LQ back in 97-98, it was something like:

i will not run climb or jump
i will not sit kneel or lie down
i will not make physical contact with other players
i will not cover any targets
i will not use offensive language
and i will play hard play smart and play to survive

Quotes of the day

tarennauxen@gmail.com — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 02:02:37 GMT

1.
At county clerk's office, filled with smelly Mexicans getting passports for some reason. Children running around and screaming everywhere, at least three per family.
Sema: Doesn't anyone here know how to bathe?
Me: Doesn't anyone here know how to use a condom?

2.
"Most people's pee is apple juice. No, mine is ORANGE FANTA because of these pills."
"I think I'm going to get a refill."
"What flavor?"
"Orange Fanta."

3.
"I should open up an arcade here."

Clarification on that last one...
The Borders bookstore on campus at ASU closed down months ago- the one at Brickyard. It's huge, and has a second story on the inside. I thought hey this might be an awesome spot for a little arcade or something. And then I could buy out that eyesore of an empty lot next to JITB/Ejoy and turn it into parking!

Besides finances, the only problems with it would be: parking, keeping the homeless people out, keeping the drunks in check from the nearby bars, making sure it would attract enough business, etc. I've watched independent businesses rise and fall at Brickyard in my two years there- a clothing store and a pharmacy/drugstore both opened up and shut down within that time, and both are still sitting empty.

How much money would be necessary to start something like that? Would it be a good idea to open an arcade like that right on the Mill Avenue strip? Is there any hope in competing against Dave & Busters or Gameworks-type mega-centers?

It's kinda always been a dream of mine to run an arcade. Obviously I wouldn't be able to do it for years. Any advice with that?