Blather, rinse, repeat

Last night I found out from a Hula sister out west that my favorite Hawaiian band--Makaha Sons--is finally coming out to do a show in NY. I know those gentlemen very well, and I shot off an email to Uncle Moon in hopes that he will be home in time to get it, to let them know that we'll be there. I've got to grab some tickets today if I can. The only downside to this is that it's the same date as the Wong Fei Hung tourney, and I really, really wanted to go to that. Sifu wanted me to compete in it. I told him I didn't think I was ready. But I still really wanted to go. I haven't been to a tournament since last December, and I had a total blast that time.

Today is a fine and lovely thing. Went to Hula early this morning, roads wet and skies grey, listening to songs on my iPod connected to my tapedeck. Hula was a little slow today. After warmups we talked, well, about Hula and the halau, and eventually we did strength excersizes and ran the Wedding Song again. Why, I don't know, since the wedding was two weeks ago.

Then it was off to Kung Fu even though the school is closed. Lee was already there and we had decided the night before to run our sword form, just the two of us, and then go to lunch. It started to rain really hard, so I unlocked and we went inside on the mats and did broadsword for over an hour. I was sweating by the time we were done, and it was pretty chilly, actually. Afterwards, we went to the Chinese place that Sifu and the students always go to when we want to get something to eat after class. There we talked to the manager about hiring the place for a night this month to hold a benefit for our good friend who is in the hospital. The manager was SUPER sweet and helpful (he always appreciates that we're proponents of Kung Fu, which he knows because we usually come in wearing our shirts with the school's kanji on them,) and we got the date, price, and even our menu all figured out. The food there is the absolute BOMB and they gave us free ice cream afterwards, which was seriously some of the best ice cream I've ever had.

Came home and took the boydogs out for a romp in this crazy weather. Trisky took one look at the sogginess and went right back to bed, like, "Screw that."

Then I took a shower, and now I am happily and shamelessly already in my pajamas, getting ready to feed the dogs and then fire up PS2 and see if I can't retrace my steps in Dirge of Cerberus and find what I lost. I must have saved wrong at some point, because first I had all 3 G reports, and then one got stolen by the stupid, hateful gargoyles. Then I had two. Then I tried to play again, and they stole the G report again. I figured I'd be down to 2 again, but guess what? Now I am down to ONE. In order to get all three, I would have to go all the way back to the last section. And even though it's the only way to watch the OMG SUPER ULTRA MEGA SECRET EXTRA ENDING!! I might have to forego that. It's too much work. Maybe I'll just download said SUMSE ending. Video games are supposed to be fun, damnit.

Someday, someone has to figure out why people are so hungry an hour after stuffing themselves with Chinese food.

People out here like to call Memorial Day weekend "the unofficial beginning of summer" and I've always objected to that, because you know, summer begins when it begins. Yet today it was around 81 or 82. It felt like summer. The closed pool is depressing me. (What MDW really is though, is the beginning of tourist season. And that's never a good thing.)

Yesterday Haku was really sick. I was at work, and my Mom ran him down to the hospital on an emergency basis. He had a fever and just wasn't himself. He felt better when I took him home, but then was sick again at night. I'm pretty sure it was the Booda bone I gave him. Which, my bad, I knew he was allergic to wheat and Booda bones are made pretty much of wheat. But I had hoped maybe he would have grown out of his sensitivity. Guess not. He crapped everything out today and he is himself again.

Today I planted some stuff outside, like my banana tree and maypop. I also put my plumeria outside, probably for the season. Here's hoping it will bloom this year.

There's a strange, loud, swishing noise outside once in a while. WTF? Clearly my a-hole neighbors are doing something stupid, as usual. Ahh, okay, it's firecrackers. Dumbasses.

Speaking of WTF, check out this news article about this weird disease.

( Cut for posterity, as links don't last. )

In short: it causes people to not only feel things crawling under their skin, but to develop lesions with what seems to be plant fibers growing out of them. God, this is like a staple of sci-fi horror writers everywhere. Stephen King did it for sure, and J. Timothy Hunt did it beautifully in the short story "Moonflower". (I linked to it once in an entry, but the link seems to be dead now. Shame, because it is an excellent story.) Anyway, god, how freaking weird. How much would you bet that we don't ever hear very much about this disease anymore?

Speaking of writing, I guess I should get back to my own. But here is Kingdom Hearts II on pause, waiting for me. I'm on my second visit to the Underworld, going to help Auron. Pretty interesting, I think. I should have been finished by now. I am really enjoying the game, but it's not grabbing me by the throat the way some games have done in the past. Well, the way LOZ: OoT, FF7, and FF8 did, anyway.

Oh, and really quickly, so that I can keep track: Here are the birds as of today. There's the grackle Mark that I got from Laura. There was a starling that came in Tuesday but no one called me, and neither was he fed, so he died of starvation today after two days of me struggling to get him to hold his weight. There is a dove I named Cathy who needs to grow her wing feathers back in, and a baby robin I call Mahana (that's Tahitian for "sun",) who has had a huge hole pecked in his back and apparently all of the pin feathers on his wings and back pulled out. My main worry is about his wing feathers, if they will grow back correclty, or at all. Hmm. So that's the group so far. That's not to mention Cassidy, Lil Jon, Ray, and Alex.

Ahhh, it smells warm outside, too. Let the summer come again!

The major painting is done. Tomorrow I have to run out to HD to get the paint for the trim and the window (I'm thinking metallic copper,) and that'll be that for the walls. Then I have to pick out some tiles, a cabinet, and maybe some lights if I can find some reasoably priced ones. So far it looks good. I like this color a lot better than what I had a few days ago.

So, every year I forget that it's E3, until I see something about it in the news. Check it out, there is a new Zelda trailer! It's not long, but it looks awesome. Can't freaking wait to play this game.

Also, hurray for Super Smash Brothers Brawl with LINK in it! And Samus without her suit? Jeremy is going to freak right on out. It looks awesome, I might end up liking it better than SCIII. But we'll see. Not sure how I feel about a character named "Pit" though. What is it with Nintendo and stupid names? I guess I will have to get damn stupid freaking Wii after all. "Wii." Jaysus. Umm, and is it me, or does a character named Wario fart fire and explode things at the end of this clip? I'm not convinced I'm awake as I watch this trailer.

So I'm sitting here thinking, "wow, next week I'll have my first birds. Starlings, probably." And making plans for that and all the stuff for the kitchen and then it hits me: I am going to Indiana next week, people. I absolutely, utterly, totally forgot. I'm leaving next Friday. WTF?

ETA And I completely effing forgot that Idol was on tonight and I missed it. I guess I missed a historical moment, too. Huh, it seems like the people at Idol were hearing the buzz that people were thinking the show was fixed and, well, fixed it.

Still, color me shocked. I only wish I had seen it.

Ahh, I am almost finished with Small Wheel in Kung Fu. Something about it clicked last night and I started hitting all my stances, or at least most of them, during the form. All of the moves seemed to just flow, and Sifu taught me a bunch more, so now I'm pretty close to the end. Also, it was pretty cool watching Chris K. attempt to land in a horse stance directly from a jump crescent. He almost had it a few times, too. Not to get all Napolean Dynamite or anything, but he must have gotten about three feet of air at one point. ;) He and gravity ignore each other.

This past three days was really nice, with the party at Lao Shir's on Saturday and then Uncle Don, Betsy and Meg coming by on Sunday. Jeremy was there, too, and we played SCIII most of the time.

Speaking of Soul Calibur III, it's kind of my new addiction. I can't seem to put the thing down. Today at work, I just couldn't wait to get home and play through Voldo's story to see what happens at the end. (If my typing is funny, it's because my hands are all cramped from playing so much.)

Character-wise, Kilik is my favorite of course, because he is the basic pretty hero with the tragic past, and I'm a simple creature. When it comes to gameplay, Kilik is also my favorite, because I find him incredibly easy to control and he's got great reach. I'm a defensive player and sometimes I like to whoop ass from a distance; Kilik is great for that. I even find him highly usable upclose, too, because he's so fast and light. But mostly I'm into the awesome reach of that great bo staff of his.

My second favorite, both character-wise and in gameplay, is Voldo, although I have to say I had a hell of a time winning with him today. Maybe I was off my game or maybe I'm just not as great a Voldo player as I thought I was. Usually I open up an entire can when I'm playing Voldo, but today Yoshimitsu kept handing me Voldo's ass on a plate. Against a human player, I play Voldo beautifully because his moves are so bizarre and unpredictable, and unless you really watch his every move, you never know what he's going to do next. (According to the SCII book, Voldo is also great for out-psyching your human opponent, because he's such a creepy monster climbing all over everyone, and no one wants to see that. Me, that's what I like about him.) Plus he's got that fantastic blind stance that is so smooth and versatile. Against the computer though, none of that matters. The bigger characters (Sigfried, Abyss,) just bury him with three hits.

I would read Voldo fanfic.

Plus, lest we forgot, no one dances like Voldo.

No one gets their freak on like Voldo.

Also: people should never cosplay Voldo. Because, come on.

Without getting into the entire story, which most of you probably know already as this is all over the news and stuff, I just want to go on record saying how much I absolutely effing adore the guys at Penny Arcade.

You guys rock, yo. I'm naming my firstborn son Gabe. [1]










[1]I was going to do that anyway, but still.