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regret every single day
2003-07-25 14:03:24
Life sucks. I have a rash all over my hands from not having steroids to go with my antibiotics any more, I'm missing Lacuna Coil and Type O at the Palladium tonight, and club is showing boring stuff even if I'm medically cleared to go in (I suspect this will be a 'yes').
I'm going to be working on the video on Saturday and probably most of Sunday as well, though there's going to have to be some time for me to run The Princess and The Warrior off onto VHS for Meg before I go see her Sunday night. It may be done Monday, then I'll be working on the intro for my Masters entry and casting about for a good candidate for video #80 (something I can finish before going to school). Right now I'm thinking "Lewis & Clark" by CW McCall to the YUA mini-specials, but I have to hear the song first...and get the DVD, but that I can get done tonight...if FMP, X 6, or Jing doesn't jump off the shelves and yell BUY ME ASSHAT!
As if I wasn't going to be dumping enough cash on the first Raijin collections this week...
--Kai out
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by a mad | magician
2003-07-24 10:53:09
So Meg came up yesterday and ended up staying over (unintentionally). Some stuff is pushed back due to this, but it'll all be ok.
First, we go driving north and east along the coast, and see a lot of pretty country, even though I got a little lost. Ofcourse, you're only lost when you admit you are, and I found roads that would get me where I needed to go before that happpened. So after about an hour and a half we get back, and I notice that Meg's left front tire is a little low. However, her car is beat up in general, so I don't say anything. Mistake!
We go inside and watch Der Krieger und die Kaiserin (The Princess and The Warrior for nicht-Deutsch-sprechende)...or at least the first part before we end up distracting each other too much. After the film is over, it's time for Meg to go home before her family keelhauls her. I walk her out to the car, goodbye for a couple minutes, promise to call tonight to plan for the weekend, and go back inside as she prepares to take off.
Five minutes later, while I'm rummaging for some stuff to eat or drink, there's a knock on the front door. Someone got a flat tire and needs a flashlight to help her see to change it.
So I go out front with a flashlight, and we quickly discover that the nuts that are holding Meg's spare on the back of her vehicle are a tad larger than the aperture on a standard tire iron. It's a no go. I go get some pliers and manage to wrench one of the nuts off using my ridiculous arm strength, but the other two are just rusted on too tight, and the automotive wrench set is up in New Hampshire. Around 11:30 we give up, and Meg calls her family to say she's staying over. I go sleep in my brother's room for the sake of propriety.
This morning Meg arranges to get picked up by someone with either another spare or the tools to get hers off. I enlist the skills of my brother Jake as soon as he gets up, since he removes nuts from tough bolts for a living. He finds the other socket wrench set, and together we are able to bust off the last two nuts holding the spare tire on. All it took was 380 pounds of force at excessively close range. Meg calls her uncle to call off the pickup, but it turns out he had a flat as well. hehe.
After that everything goes fine. The normal tire is held on by normal nuts, which can be handled with a normal tire iron. Ofcourse this means changing the tire in the rain before breakfast, but somehow we manage to muddle through. Meg fastens the spare (full-size, not some wimpy donut) onto the wheel, and I secure the squashed-looking flat to the spare rack with the socket wrench. But everyone ends up good to go, which is what matters.
The new Iron Maiden ("Wildest Dreams") is cool. It rocks at the start, gets contemplative in the middle, then rocks metal-jam-style (a la "The Wicker Man") going away. I can't fucking wait for _Dance of Death_, though the new Nevermore next week will probably help ease the pain. Metallica take heed: this is what it sounds like when *grown-ups* have a metal band. Some of the guys in Maiden are looking at fifty from the wrong side, but they still manage to sound rocking and relevant. There's no need to kick everybody's ass on the planet when you're at an age where you could have grandchildren; it's okay to just make cool music.
And CoB/Nevermore/Hypocrisy is playing fucking Harpos! I don't even live in Michigan yet and I already hate that fucking venue. Screw it, I'll drag my brother to the Albany show in December instead...or maybe go to both, and possibly the Cleveland date if I'm going to be driving back. If only I was staying in New England I could go see them at the Palladium. Instead I get to see them in the only club that has been dissed by name in Infernal Combustion. What the fuck, can't Nevermore and Dimmu Borgir get the fucking State Theater in Detroit??
Fuckers.
--Kai out
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now be unveiled
2003-07-23 10:33:17
I talk all big about taking better care of myself, and then something like this comes along. I sweat off buckets beating Raptor last night (gotta find somewhere to pirate the other three missions from), then come into work and drive myself into speedfreak mode with more drugs (don't know why the antibiotics get me frenetic, it's just amoxycillin) and a nearly critical overdose of DragonForce. I swear this album should come with federal warnings on it or something: drums at near-blastbeat pace thoughout, similarly high-velocity bass, and more faster better guitar than the entire alt-rock world has ever produced EVER. Herman Li must be some kind of crazy Hong Kong mutant with seven extra fingers to play like that -- except that I've seen him on video and the only thing freakish about the guy is his mile-long hair, and Sam the drunk is playing half of those goddamned leads.
Fortunately, today's my last day on steroids, so maybe some of the shakes will go away. Till then it helps with coding and working on the book, even if I "NEED FOOD BADLY". However, any improvement won't quite balance out the fact that Immortal DID break up after all. That's what I get for trusting Blabbermouth. They post a five-page story every time Fred Durst takes a dump, but they can't ever get anything right about the underground. They did post tour dates for the killer package of the end of this year, even though I'm going to have to hop a ride to Clevelend or Milwaukee by that time to catch any of the dates. Screw it though. Hypocrisy with Nevermore and Children of Bodom is worth driving five hours AND sitting through Dimmu Borgir for. There's also supposedly some new Norwegian band on The End describing themselves as a mix of Cynic, Arcturus, Death, and Borknagar. If Frantic Bleep hit even HALF those bases, they're going to be in serious contention for Album of the Year.
This is what drugs do to you when doctors hand them out. Imagine how fucked up you get when they're 'prescribed' by yourself and manufactured by dudes who don't have the feds looking over their shoulder saying hold on, let's make it not fuck people up too bad.
This record is supposed to be about AMV. I beat Raptor and am bad at Keen, so I should clip through that last bit of Peacock King on Thursday, provided that electrical storms don't come up again and make me take my box down for fear of frying the capture card like happened two years ago. Tonight Meg and I will watch New German Cinema or find tourists to make fun of. Again depending on weather. Or maybe she'll just read through Jake's book.
Awright, I'll quit while I'm still ahead [somewhat coherent].
--Kai out
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is filling me with pain
2003-07-22 10:25:02
No work on the video last night; I spent a lot of time doing 'character development' in the old Cygnus/Apogee shareware game Raptor, which as anyone familiar with the game knows, involves a lot of time spent on dupe exploits. It's not cheating if you take advantage of legitimate holes in the game to pump up your cash and turn it all into weapons so only half of it goes away. This is an entertaining and mildly challenging shooter, but I've already beaten it several times; it's just reinstalled for nostalgia purposes. Probably going to put a bunch more hours into it tonight.
As for Masters, I've swapped some ideas around so I don't have to bust my butt quite as hard. I have to get on the ball for Anime Next and the suchlike, and actually make some new videos, but the Masters entry now only requires an introduction sequence to be complete. And this was done because I believe in the videos involved, NOT to give me more time to play DOS games and hang with my girlfriend.
On the downside I did not go to see Iron Maiden last night, which sucked royally. I'm feeling better NOW, but I wasn't functional enough back when I would have made the decision to buy tickets. Hopefully the Dance of Death tour will include a date somewhere near somewhere I'm at when that finishes up the 'world' leg and takes a swing through the US. I'm glad I got to see them in an arena, though; as cool as the 'smaller venues, shorter tours' concept they're going to be going with in the future is, there's still just something too cool about seeing a really good band with 15,000 other people. I may have to get some plane tickets the next time they headline a major fest.
Good stuff: the drugs are working like gangbusters (except for a little fatigue, I'm fine) and Immortal didn't really break up. I'll forgive them for taking some time off if it means an even better record to follow _Sons of Northern Darkness_ with.
Maybe some work on the video tonight if I get bored. If not, I'll clear a few more stages in Raptor and Commander Keen.
--Kai out
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what is broken can't be whole
2003-07-21 11:50:19
sent off my Pro entry, which is a huge weight off both my mind and my wallet. I wasn't planning on USING those 56 bucks for anything, like supporting metal bands, or buying presents for my girlfriend, or paying basic expenses at college, or anything like that. This contest gets more expensive every year, probably due to my laziness and the increasing mendacity of high-speed carriers. The longer you wait, the faster it needs to go, and the more you have to spend. Vicious cycle.
I have something like 12 production days to do a doubleshot video for AWA Masters if I want to enter that contest with the current idea, but that will mean lots of work on #79 tonight and tomorrow while Meg is occupied, maybe even running to completing the video (or at least drafting). After that, two videos with a nearly unknown (okay, so probably more like entirely unknown) anime, which will both probably require Academy cropping and definitely grayscaling.
As for my health, the drugs are definitely working. I don't feel great, but I'm functioning, and that's all that counts. Perhaps I won't crash at 8:30 like I've been doing lately, and I'll actually be able to get some work done on the vid. Only 14-15 minutes left to cut through.....
--Kai out
JOURNAL: Kai Stromler (Kai Stromler)
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