Grey Shadows

Out of here

2009-12-24T10:13:00.003-06:00

I've moved my blog to Wordpress.com. It was inevitable, really...

If anyone out there still checks (even though it's been a couple years), then good on you for being crazy dedicated, and you might want to change your bookmark to:

http://greyshadows.wordpress.com

No Contest

2008-01-20T13:18:00.000-06:00

Actually, it is a contest...but still... The decision is no contest for me. Nero or Dante? Don't make me laugh. Check out the widget above for more info.

And I have to share that Vergil has arrived at long last and is guarding my office with his cold-hearted stare. He is all of ten inches tall, but intimidating nonetheless (not to mention pretty). Ouch. No need to poke me with your little pointy plastic katana, Vergil. I didn't mean it. Really. You're a very manly miniature plastic man. Ah! Is that blood?

'Tis But a Scratch

2007-10-21T15:14:00.000-05:00

...though it still hurts.

My poor car got a nasty dent in it's front driver's side wheel well. It was not my fault, but that doesn't make it any less frustrating. I was turning right out of a parking lot while the person in front of me was turning left. He headed out into the street without looking too closely and had to stop because there was traffic coming. That would have been fine because I was going by him to the right turn lane except he thought he was too far out in the street and decided to back up--without looking to see if someone was behind him. Crunch.

No one was injured--in fact, he wouldn't have even known he hit me if I hadn't hit my horn to get his attention. Still, now I have to deal with insurance. The most annoying part about it was waiting around for an hour for the cop to arrive and fill out paperwork. What a pain. Even though it's not my fault my insurance will probably go up. Grr...

And now my poor Quetzacoatl has a bad side. There were already two nasty door dings on the driver's side, so I guess this is just one more scar. Oh well. At least it's only superficial and didn't do any serious damage that impairs its ability to drive me where I need to go. The other driver was very nice as well and kept apologizing. I felt kind of bad for him because I know he got ticketed and he seemed like a very nice person who already has a lot of problems in his life--his wife has cancer, etc. Poor guy. Car accidents suck no matter what end you're on.

Thanks to you!

2007-09-30T19:18:00.000-05:00

Just wanted to thank any of you who voted for my fanfiction in the UFO awards. I actually won something. Lookie here! A major award! Even better than a leg lamp.

Disappointment

2007-09-20T12:45:00.000-05:00

My week has been pretty disappointing at nearly every turn--starting with my eye doctor's appointment on Monday. Luckily, it seems to be improving somewhat, though the seminar I had really been looking forward to yesterday turned out to be a major waste of time.

I was supposed to leave the training a Photoshop guru. Instead, I found that--judging by the super useful tips our facilitator was sharing with us--I'm already practically a guru. I know how to use the pen tool and everything. That's right. I can make a COB. Aren't you jealous? Apparently there was more than one person present at the seminar who would have been because they asked the facilitator to go into greater detail about this tool. I mean really...how much is there to learn? And he literally talked us through every step: click, drag, opt+click, drag.

What a drag. On top of that, many of the "techniques" taught in the seminar that weren't simply shameless self promotion on the part of the facilitator verged on offensively cheesey and not the kind of design I would care to pursue. You can call me a snob if you like. It's probably true.

Yes, I now know how to create a fake 3d lamp from scratch and make lightning with five filters or less. Because I'm going to use crap like that every day. And, if I"m "retouching" a photo I run into situations all the time when I feel the need to light the unlit candle in the room or open the wine bottle that the idiot photography failed to notice was still sealed. Even if I did encounter such a circumstance, I think I could probably figure out how to fix it on my own. To his credit, the facilitator was an amazing digital illustrator--if you're into hyper realism--but considering the majority of his audience were either photographers or designers and not illustrators, he could have improved his subject matter.

At least the day wrapped up nicely last night. I met some friends at AMC 29--just sounds weird with one less theater--to watch the Robotech movie on a bigger screen. It was overpriced, but fun and we all had a good time laughing at the cheese and ridiculous dailog. Ah, thank God for Robotech. And Flight of the Conchords. Listening to their goofy music in my car has saved my brain this week.

Devil May Cry 4 Lookalikes

2007-09-15T16:04:00.001-05:00

While I have been whining about this game for some time, some of my frustrations have lessened due to certain improvements in character design. I'm still frustrated that Dante is not the main character, and the trailer video posted on the official website is painful to watch since it mostly involves Nero (the main character who supposedly has nothing to do with Dante despite the fact that he looks an awful lot like him and his name is even part of Vergil's title from the first game) beating the shit out of him. It's rather sad.

At least Dante no longer looks like Bill Pullman as he did in the picture below:

He now looks a lot more like Josh Holloway, which is exactly as things should be:

But while we're talking lookalikes, Nero is looking more an more like Tidus. Though I've seen very little of him in action (other than him ridiculously handing Dante's ass to him) I just know that he's going to be a huge whiner. This is his story after all. Grrr...

Update 1: New Job

2007-07-25T12:37:00.000-05:00

I changed jobs near the beginning of this month. While I hadn't been actively searching for a job, I happened to find a listing for a job that really interested me at UMKC. I had been thinking more and more that I wanted to work in a University setting, and UMKC had been on my list of choices. When I saw the listing I kind of freaked out because I couldn't believe it. From the job description to the benefits and everything else it was exactly what I had been looking for. But the job had been posted for several weeks already. I was afraid I was too late to apply. I got my application and resume together that night and got it in the mail the next day. Whether I had already missed the opportunity or not, I knew wouldn't feel right about it if I didn't at least try.

The next week I got an email from UMKC. They wanted to see some samples of my work. A spark of hope ignited inside me, but I tried not to fan it into a flame. I didn't want to get disappointed. I hate sending samples without being able to explain my work, but I sent them off anyway and crossed my fingers. I got a phone call asking for an interview the next day. I couldn't believe it.

While I was excited about the possibility of a new job, I hadn't gotten it yet and I didn't want to lose my current job. Because of they way my bosses had immediately figured out about the last interview I had gone on a few years ago, I knew that they would be extremely suspicious of any out of the ordinary behavior. I was very careful about not telling my coworkers anything about the job and I found a way to ask for time off without drawing too much attention to it. I spent that weekend getting my portfolio updated, but my current job unwittingly managed to make my life as difficult as possible that weekend. A project that had already caused much strife in my emotional and creative stability several times reared its extraordinarily ugly head again.

It was a project I had never wanted to think about again. A project that had prompted a "pep talk" with my bosses that was anything but and had nearly led me to a mental breakdown (and an emotional breakdown that actually happened). A project that had put me in such a state of extreme stress that I could barely eat and often threw up in the mornings because I was dreading going into work. Ironically, it was a project aimed at university students--the very audience I was wanting to find a job working for. But in the end it wasn't the project itself that had stressed me out. It was my frustration with the fact that no matter how hard I tried to do the best work I absolutely could--it never satisfied my bosses. They would censor my ideas and restrain me at every turn, and yet they had the gall to tell me that I was not being crazy enough and not taking enough risks. Why would I even consider taking a risk with something when it would only result in them forcing me to dumb it down before the client even saw it?

I managed to survive the weekend, working feverishly on my portfolio and leave behinds while trying to work in a photo shoot for that project (on the weekend, mind you, and Father's Day to boot). By the time the interview finally happened, I was simply ready for it to be over. It went really well--but once again, I was unwilling to get my hopes up. I had made it through without losing my current job, so I was satisfied.

The next morning I was on my way to work and got a phone call. I thought it was my mom. It was UMKC calling to ask me to come in for a second interview that morning. I obviously couldn't make it then, but I scheduled the meeting for Friday morning instead. I was elated. I knew it was too soon to assume anything, but I felt encouraged by the fact that I had gone as far as I had if nothing else. After several years of verbal abuse and constant disparagement my self esteem was dangerously low. I had begun to wonder if it would even be possible to find another job.

My interview on Friday was with the Vice Chancellor. It was informal and very relaxed. I was more excited than ever about the job when I heard about the structure of the department and where it was headed. I was so excited I could hardly stand it, but I somehow survived the rest of the day at work.

That afternoon I got a phone call. I got the job. Squeals of ecstatic job erupted in my apartment the moment I hung up the phone. I had done it. I was afraid of delivering my notice at work, but compared to the hell I had been going through it was easy--and sadly predictable... Lies about how insignificant I had been to them. Lies about how they had known for some time I was looking for a new job (which was really a joke considering I had gotten the first job I looked for). Abuse about how I belonged at a University because the work load was so much lighter and I would get six months to do a project. Looking back on that last one really makes me laugh. It's definitely not true--and I knew it even at the time. I felt no regrets. I had given them enough of my time. It was time to move on.

An Attempt to Catch Up

2007-07-25T12:27:00.000-05:00

Has it really only been a month since I posted anything? It feels like a year. And enough has happened since then that I feel like I could have written a years worth of posts about everything as well. I'm going to do my best to catch my blog up with summaries of what happened--for my future reference if for nothing else. To keep things organized, I'll try to make separate posts about each particular crazy event or issue going on in my life recently.

It's an ironic fact that most of the time my life is boring enough that I have to struggle to find things to post about. But when significant things actually do happen to me, I'm usually so busy that I don't have time to post anything at all. That's how it has been for me lately. It actually got to the point where I was wishing my life would be a little less interesting because every day it seemed like I encountered something new or bizarre.

Only within the last few days do I feel like I'm starting to find a routine again and catch my breath. Can you tell I'm an introvert? I get overwhelmed with too much new input and life becomes nothing more than pure survival. While I don't want to be bored, I don't want to live me life in constant flux either. I'm ready to be bored.

A Temporary Change

2007-06-24T15:03:00.000-05:00

My old template is gone...and instead I put up this standard template. What is going on? Well, let's just say that I was ready for a change. More on that later. But at the moment, all I'll say is that I hope to put up something new sometime soon. For now though, at least all the content is still here...

The Sky is Falling Part 2

2007-06-22T17:30:00.000-05:00

Working in this crappy old building at 6th and Walnut is a continual adventure. This morning, I was frantically working on a hot project (what else is new?) when I heard what sounded like rain coming from the other room. The younger pterodactyl--as we've taken to calling her--who works there shrieked, but at least she had a good reason to do so this time, at least. A whooshing sound and the crash of more water sent my coworker and I running into the other room. Water was pouring from the ceiling and cascading down the wall. We quickly rushed to get the computer and valuable equipment out of the way and I was pretty wet by the time we finally got a chance to step back and stare dumbly at the surreal scene.

The whole office was crowded around surveying the mess (made aware of the situation by Miss Calm in a Calamity herself: the elder pterodactyl who had gone running down the hall screaming "All hands on deck" at the top of her lungs). It was bizarre to say the least. Then the maintenance man showed up in the doorway looking harried.

"I cut the water pipe! I just didn't think!" he exclaimed.

No shit.

We then went back to work to the occasional slap and squelch of ceiling tiles collapsing and crumbling on the damp carpeting. At least most of us went back to work. The younger pterodactyl--her workspace destroyed--managed to get off work and go home. Again.

Take the Challenge

2007-02-26T21:40:00.000-06:00

This one's for you, lizalou. Yeah, your quiz was challenging enough for neowolf and I (I retook it with her tonight to try and improve our score), so we decided to create a challenge of our own. So, get prepared to face the fury of...a crazy-ass quiz we just made up.

Create your own Friend Test here

Don't think you will actually know any of the answers just because you know us. This is a true test of logic and a mind-bending cloister of trials. Are you ready? Then get going!

“I Love Technology...

2007-02-25T21:47:00.000-06:00

...but not as much as you, you see, but still I love technology, always and forever...”

I'm finally getting settled into my apartment. I have all the amenities like a microwave that pops popcorn, blazing fast internet, and a shower head that's high enough that it doesn't force me to do squats in order to wash my hair. I even have curtains up in my office now. Yay! It's like I really live here now.

This afternoon my parents came over for a little while and I fixed them dinner (a rather complicated meal for someone who hasn't done a lot of cooking in her life beyond box meals and simple recipes) and it turned out well, even though I couldn't find my measuring spoons anywhere. (I still can't figure out where they went...) It was an accomplishment and made me feel really good (and I'm excited for leftovers for lunch tomorrow).

My parents also brought over my mom's old computer. She recently upgraded to one that wasn't so crappy, but I have fond memories of this old, glitch-prone PC. It was my computer originally and it got me through my first several rough semesters of college, even though I eventually had to buy a Mac so my teachers would actually help me on my projects. Still, this antique running Windows 98 still plays a mad DVD (once I figured out a way around its inability to see a DVD in the correct drive on its own). The ol' compy completes my media center in the living room, allowing me to play DVDs with higher quality than my PS2 (which has issues with subtitles and sound to video syncing). It also allows me to play music through my higher quality surround sound speakers that got relocated from my Mac since I wanted to use them for the TV and all my games and movies.

But most importantly, the old computer plays my old video games--games my laptop refuses to play because they're just too old. Ah, Unreal... The cheesy gore and polygonish graphics. The kick-ass techno music and freakish alien grunts. I have missed you. Truly.

Between these newly rediscovered old favorites and the other revitalized virtual console games on my Wii, I'm resurrecting all kinds of fond memories from my past. Kirby's Dreamland... (I think you bought this for me on the Nintendo, didn't you, Brandi?) So much fun! I can't wait until Super Mario Bros. 3 comes out. It will so be mine all over again. Oh yes, it will.

I am such a techno-geek.

Robotech Lives

2007-02-19T23:10:00.000-06:00

I experienced an incredibly geeky moment this evening with neowolf when we finally watched Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles. We've been anticipating it for months, but I wasn't about to let myself get my hopes up too much. I have been disappointed too many times by crappy sequels to beloved shows.

To my great surprise, Robotech: SC exceeded my expectations. They actually listened to what fans wanted and hired people to work on it who were talented but were also fans themselves. They did everything right, including hiring the orginal voice actors to play roles from the original series. And all of this for something that started out as little more than a rip off version of a Japanese anime. Despite all the ways in which anime has been dumbed down and demeaned in this country by its new breed of fans who only enjoy mangled, cheesey dubs and watered down characters, I have pride in the fact that there are still fans who give a damn about the consistency of what they're watching. Robotech is cheesey and dorky, but it started out that way and that's part of what makes it awesome. At least it doesn't pretend to be something it's not. And yet, despite its faults, it has a certain undeniable charm, and always manages to tell an epic story that keeps me hooked to the end.

But when you come down to it, what makes Robotech truly great is the characters. That's why I was so relieved to find all the familiar voice actors popping up througout the movie. They're the ones who really brought those characters to life in the first place, and they were excited to be a part of them again. The only one missing was Cam Clarke (Max or Lancer/YellowDancer), but everyone else played at least one role. And to Mark Hamil--who even admitted that he was actually playing only a guest role in the already complete cast--I can only say that I have your OPF right here, jackass. It really ticks me off when arrogant actors belittle their fans. On the other hand, kudos to Dan Woren who said he wanted to be there when they make a sequel in another twenty years--and actually pleaded that the writers not kill his character this time around. (Poor Roy Fokker...)

Congratulations, Harmony Gold. You've sold your product to me all over again. Even with bad singing and an even worse song. We have won, I think.

Look Up, the Sky is Falling

2007-02-07T19:19:00.000-06:00

Around 2:00 today, our lights in the office flickered and the power surged. Since power outages and failing machinery are not an uncommon occurance in our ancient building, we initially wrote it off as another reason to whine to our landlord. But then we saw the thick, towering plume of black smoke billowing up from a spot in the distance toward the northeast--directly in my line of sight from my workstation. Of course, I spend most of my time watching my computer monitor, so I hadn't noticed the smoke before then.

We watched, mesmerized as flames leapt up through the smoke, high above the buildings in the foreground obscuring our view. The column of smoke rose thousands of feet into the sky before it fanned out, covering downtown in an eerie umbrella, and the flames continued to grow in intensity.

We quickly began searching for news about the fire and finally found out that there had been an explosion at a chemical plant two miles away from us. The chemicals burned like gasoline, fueling the fire to such an extent that the firefighters could only try to keep the fire contained because they had no hope of putting it out. They immediately called in Hazmat teams because of the threat of dangerous chemicals, and area schools, businesses and homes were evacuated. They closed several of the bridges, and we watched through our window as traffic on I-70 became more and more congested.

Then we noticed sporatic chunks of ash falling from the sky and blowing through the streets. I even collected a couple from our parking lot on the way out (wearing gloves, of course). It was very light and spongey and crumbled easily in my fingers. Hope it isn't radioactive.

Luckily, no one was injured in the fire--which is truly amazing considering the impact it has had on the community already. Not to be paranoid or anything, but it does make you realize how many dangers we have around us all the time, how many potential disasters we survive every day--like driving home from work. We tell ourselves we're safe because we couldn't possibly deal with the fact that we are really fragile creatures.

Internet Enabled

2007-02-06T17:45:00.000-06:00

I'm back on the internet, baby. Just thought I'd give a shout out to anyone who's listening before I curl back up and try to let my body fight the virus wreaking havoc in my bloodstream.

One Room at a Time

2007-02-05T12:42:00.000-06:00

Well, I'm moved in! Mostly. Everything is moved, but not necessarily all unpacked. I would have made a post earlier in the weekend, but I don't get internet until tomorrow. So, here's the sumup of what happened and how:

To my surprise, my parents had already made quite a lot of progress on getting stuff moved before I even got off work. They had already taken one load of stuff over and were packing up the second when I called them. I met them at my apartment and we unpacked my bed and a crapload of boxes. Then, back to the house for the dressers and couch. And a crapload of boxes. Did I mention I have a lot of stuff? Well, I was pretty much set up already since I had lived in an apartment in college and all...

Anyway, we got the majority of the big stuff moved on Thursday and I spent the night at my new place. M came over and helped my put together the TV stand (which I managed to almost destroy the next morning when I put the back on backwards...shouldn't work on such things when you're tired. Thank you, dad, for saving the day!). I slept well but woke up early. I was excited to get to work. Mom and I got to work on cleaning out the incredibly nasty cabinets in the kitchen, bathroom and closets. The shelf paper was ancient and had not been put down properly so it was curled up on the edges. I don't even want to think about what kind of grime and bacteria was running rampant through those shelves. Blech. But, we got it cleaned and heavily Lysoled and put down fresh, pretty shelf paper to cover up whatever else might have been left. Neowolf came by to help clean and organize and wash and all that good stuff--even though she was pretty sick. Poor girl. My mom also got sick during the move and ended up with a sinus infection.

Neowolf and I got a lot accomplished on Friday (even got my TV and game systems all set up), and dad built the other shelves I'd purchased for me since I couldn't be trusted. Saturday he brought my desk in pieces and we put it all together again (though I didn't get my computer set up until last night). Slowly, the place started to come together, and I even had Shivaindis and BBD over on Saturday night to enjoy my new TV with some Babylon 5 action.

Sunday was a shopping day. I went back to the house for the first time since Thursday and it was kind of strange. I packed up some other stuff and then mom and I went out grocery shopping so I could get my pantry stocked. Then, we went back to the house and dad went back to the apartment with me to help carry stuff in and we went over to Microcenter to pick up a few things. It was a lot of shopping, but I found some really good deals on things I needed.

All in all, everything went very smoothly. I'm tired, but satisfied, and I LOVE my new place. I can't wait to get it fixed up like I want to and get the last box put away. I'm definitely getting closer...one room at a time...

Official

2007-02-01T11:09:00.000-06:00

I have the keys to my new apartment on my keyring, but as of this moment it is echoingly empty. And it's supposed to snow tonight and tomorrow morning--again. But that's not enough to stop me. I've got everything packed and ready to go, so I'm going to get started anyway, despite the weather.

Is it five o'clock yet? I'm getting antsy.

Real Clients of Genius

2007-01-19T16:36:00.000-06:00

The saga continues... I won't go into detail because I might just become suicidal, but let's just say that I'm already three rounds of revisions farther than I was earlier today. And I've had to redraw the globe twice to make more and more continents fit on one side. I considered finding a picture of what scientists think pangea looked like, but what would be the point, really? And "can you make those crappy fonts we chose bolder so you can read them over the globe?" Well.... Hmm... Considering two of the fonts you chose only have one weight, the answer is no. But why don't I just add a stroke around it or fake bold it? Let's just break every rule in the book. And the best part of this is that it's not even a surprise. What did you expect when you asked me to put 10 point Times New Roman over a detailed map of the world?

Design Misadventures #2

2007-01-19T12:33:00.000-06:00

Two posts in one day. I know, it's aMAZing.

What isn't amazing is how as a Graphic Designer I get treated like a monkey at a computer. They say that everyone is a critic. Apparently, everyone is also a designer. Or so they think...

So, client A hires us to design a logo for them. He has already found the "perfect inspiration" for the his logo on one of his Christmas cards, which he kindly scans and sends to us for reference. We design six logo options, each carefully considered and tested for readability on different backgrounds and color combinations, though we are already restricted by the client's well thought out inspiration.

"None of these designs are what we're looking for exactly," says the client's assistant who knows her boss' mind. "Let's try combining two completely incompatible logos. Oh, and can we also steal the colors from this website we found and liked?" Sure. No problem. (Note: In case you hadn't noticed, her statements have been heavily paraphrased and run through the "I think I know what I'm talking about but I have no idea" filter.)

While we are reworking the designs, the assistant of client A has a "brainstorm." "Why can't we just copy the logo from that website we liked too?" she wonders. We try this, grudgingly. But no, that's not quite right. It looks too original. She literally wants us to copy the logo style, colors, type treatment...everything. What a brainstorm.

We do it though it's obviously not going to look exactly the same. She shows her boss . He scraps everything and has his own brainstorm. What happens next makes my skin crawl. The "revisions" include taking a globe used on one of the logos from the first round, turning the earth so it shows more of Africa, and using the text verbatim that the assistant has created for us in Microsoft Word. The text (which is more of a paragraph than a business name and tagline) is to run OVER the globe. Brilliant. And here's the best part. The assistant, who is apparently well versed in typography, has chosen several truly distinguished and appropriate typefaces: Brush Script MT, Times New Roman and Imprint MT Shadow.

Why am I even here? What is the purpose of my job? Why did I spend all those years in school? I guess I did it so I can be a monkey. Where's my banana?

Ch-ch-ch-changes...

2007-01-19T12:14:00.000-06:00

The winds of change are blowing. I've been hearing them whisper in my ear for quite some time, but recently that whisper has turned into a howl. Unfortunately, the sound was so deafening I couldn't quite make out its meaning (but no, there were no sakura blossoms, so we needn't worry about poor little Subaru). Eventually the message became more clear. I knew I needed a change, but it took awhile for me to figure out which change to pursue first and how.

The conclusion I came to at long last was that I was ready to move out. I've been considering it for a long time, but there were a lot of reasons why a move didn't make logical sense. I debated over whether I wanted to buy a house or rent and apartment, and whether I could actually live alone since roommate opportunities were scarce. Then I got distracted by work and life in generally and time just kept moving while I kept standing still.

But I've been in a rut which has only grown deeper and wider during the last year. It's time for me to make a change. I made an arbitrary decision a long time ago, that if my life had not drastically changed and I still wasn't ready to buy a house, I would still move out when I was 25. Well, I've been 25 for half a year now, but I'm finally ready.

Many of you already know about this situation and how it all played out, but I thought I should make note of it on my blog regardless. And because (yes, I know BBD) I haven't written a post in a long time. But if you're wondering about my absence, this explains part of it at least. There's actually a lot more involved than that, but it's mostly the kind of emotionally exhausting stress and life/career/future decision making that you don't really want to think about too much until you have a little distance between you and the decisions.

Regardless, this decision has been made, and I will be moving into my new apartment on the first of February. Though I will be living alone, I have four friends already living in the apartment complex, so it shouldn't be too lonely.

Wii Waiting

2006-11-19T01:00:00.000-06:00

I was number 14.

Though I had only been planning on spending 6 hours waiting in line to get a Nintendo Wii, it turned into twelve. Neowolf, Dr Jones and I had decided to wait at the Walmart Supercenter near their house since it is open 24 hours and would therefore begin selling their Wiis at midnight. This sounded like a good plan, but a lot of other people had the same idea and the line began filling up very quickly--meaning I had to rush down there at noon. On top of this surprise, we found out that we were going to have to wait outside in the cold all day. The Playstation 3 campers got to wait in the warmth of the Walmart, but they made all of us Nintendo fans face the cold in a shady alcove outside the building. They were kind enough to bring us some free hot chocolate at one point though, and at least the wind was mostly blocked by the bushes.

The day was long, but the wait was worth it. My parents stopped by in the afternoon to deliver an extra layer of clothes for me and Big Bold D dropped by in the evening with dinner--soup from Panera's. We also made some friends in the line, discussed video games and Trogdor and debated whether an enemy in Zelda should be called "Iron Knuckles" or "Dark Nuts." In the end we settled for "Iron Nuts."

All was going well. We knew we were going to get a Wii.

Until 11:00. At that point, the night manager showed up and did a quick count of the waiters, only to find that there were more than 20. And the store only had 20 Wiis in stock. The day manager had counted us up three times before he left and there had been exactly 20 each time. Someone had snuck into line. Thus the drama began. Around 11:30 they finally moved us inside in groups of five (we decided to give our group a team name--Iron Nuts, of course). Along the way, one of the imposters must have ducked out because we were one less when we were counted inside.

We spent the next thirty minutes or so wishing that whoever had jumped in line would just give up and go home because the night manager had woken the day manager up and made him drive in (and he lives on the other side of town) and he was not a happy man. He made threats and said that if the person who had jumped in line did not fess up none of us were going to get a Wii. It was childish and ridiculous. And, in the end, we were starting to doubt the man's counting skills because he made a mistake counting us and the night manager had to correct him. I think that the extra person in the end was nothing more than a counting error from the beginning, but the manager wasn't going to admit his own mistake. And the fact remained that we only had 20 Wiis for 21 people.

Thankfully, one very nice, generous man who was actually an employee at that Walmart but had waited outside with us all day long offered to take a rain check so we could all get our Wiis. I guess he was going to be getting a discount too, so good for him. Whatever the case, we were majorly relieved to know that our 12 hours of waiting were not in vain.

Now it's time to play!

Busy Weekend

2006-10-23T12:30:00.000-05:00

It seems like I have been going non-stop since I got back from Japan, and this weekend was no different.

I played flute on Saturday at a parish that was having its 100 year anniversary celebration as well as its Oktoberfest celebration on the same day. It was a big deal, and the archbishop was there as well as a bunch of different priests and guys from the Knights of Columbus all dressed up in their outfits. It was a big deal. And I felt only somewhat prepared. I played something or sang something on every single song, and also played some solos mixed in. I haven't played that much flute in probably a year and it was a bit stressful as well with all the pomp and circumstance. But it went off without a hitch and I was really satisfied in the end. Not to mention relieved. Whew.

I spent most of the rest of the weekend finishing going through my pictures from Japan. I'm finally almost ready to get them printed! It's really time consuming to go through that many pictures, let me tell you. I'm probably going to only print about 200 of them, but that's still a LOT! When you start out with over a thousand though...

Now it's the work week again and I'm already tired. Not a good way to start the week.

Home Again

2006-10-09T23:16:00.000-05:00

I've actually been home over a week now, but between jet lag and emergency last-minute projects at work, I've barely had the time or energy to put away my suitcases, let alone post a blog entry.

I have finally managed to go through some of my pictures though and get a few teaser pics up on Flickr. (By the way, if you haven't noticed already, you can get to my Flickr page by clicking on the "LOOK" link above or the Flickr badge on the sidebar.) I have seven CDs worth of photos, so I'm going to have to be selective and upload a few at a time. I believe I managed to outdo any Japanese tourist with my 1,350 photos. Of course, I'm sure I'll end up deleting probably a third of them since many are repeats or different angles of the same thing. I plan on eventually making a slide show like I did for the last trip, but that took a long time when I had far fewer photos and fewer days in Japan, so I'm just putting some of my favorites up on Flickr for now.

Japan was awesome. It was hard to leave, but not as depressing as it was last time, partially, I think, because I felt so fulfilled on this trip. I saw everything I planned on seeing, I had a great time with my friends and experienced far more than I did the first time around. Overall, this trip was even better than the last by a substantial amount. Don't get me wrong. I loved the last trip. But this one was practically perfect. So many things could have gone wrong--such as the typhoon that only happened to veer away from Japan at the last minute--but everything seemed to go our way. Even the few rainy days we had turned out not to be so bad.

I'm not sure if it was because I was more familiar with Japan and the areas of Tokyo where we spent most of our time, or if it was because of my friend, Shivaindis, was always at hand to translate things for me, but I feel like I absorbed so much more this time. We went to some of the same places on this tour as I did before, but I never felt bored with the locations, perhaps because I didn't get the chance to fully explore them on the first trip. Everyone on the Pop Japan Travel staff was excellent as well, and I really enjoyed getting to know them all.

I can't wait to share more details of the trip, but it is getting late and I'm tired and I have the rest of the work week to get through yet... I hope you enjoy the morsels I put up on Flickr.

PS If you're here because you're a fan of my story, I apologize for not getting a new chapter posted yet. I promise that I'm working on it and hope to have it up soon!

One More Day

2006-09-20T07:45:00.000-05:00

By this time tomorrow I will be in the air on my way to LA, and from there I will be heading for Japan. I am so excited that I literally feel sick to my stomach. But its worth it. As I was telling the girls last night, by the time I finally get off work today I'm going to be certifiably crazy excited. I can't wait!

But 4:30 is going to come awful early tomorrow morning... groan...

Hopefully I will be able to make a blog entry while in Japan. If not, you'll be hearing from me when I get back with all kinds of news and pictures!

One Week and Counting

2006-09-14T17:05:00.000-05:00

Exactly one week from today, I will be in the air on my way to Japan. And I will be grinning like an idiot. Oh, wait. I'm already doing that just thinking about it.