Joshvanhalteren's Blog

Stupidity Strikes!

09.21.07 (6:59 pm)   [edit]
Have you ever done anything stupid? I mean, REALLY stupid? Like so stupid that you want to punch yourself in the face repeatedly and then kick yourself in the nuts for being so stupid, stupid?

Neither have I, Until last night.

Last night I was chilling at my place with my beautiful and ever awesome girlfriend Megz, it was getting late and we figured we shoul get some sleep, she didn't bring any of her stuff for class though and we both had class at nine in the morning the next day, so I figured what the hell, I'll drive us both back to your place and we'll spend the night there.

Now an important point to note is that I've been sick the last few days, a very painful thing where the throat is basically basted with pain every time you try to swallow anything solid or liuid, Whenever I was outside I would spit my excess saliva out instead of swallowing it, before getting into the car I moved over to the lawn to do just that.

So once I had made my mouth a little more comfortable I got in the car, put on my seatbelt, turned it on, and backed out of the drive way.

I drove to the end of the block. Turned left.I drove to the end of the block. Turned right. Then I drove aaaaall the way down this winding road until I hit a set of lights. I stopped at the lights because they were red.

Then my laptop bag slid onto the hood of my car.

followed by my backpack.

Before I went to clear my mouth of saliva earlier I had set both of those items on the roof of my car with the intention of putting them in the back seat before getting in. But I instead decided to spit first and in that period of time while spitting, I completely forgot that I had not yet put my stuff in the car.

and I'm a college student... a very poor one... and that laptop cost me over $3000.

So there you have it internet folks. That is the stupidest thing I have ever done in my life.

Can anyone really top that?

Question to Parents

06.12.07 (10:54 am)   [edit]
I have a question to all you parents out there, the adults with children. When the child, teen, or young adult isn't doing something you want them to, or isn't doing something they should be doing as fast as you want them to do it, what do you do?

Do you yell at and/or nag them? Y/N

? If you picked yes then let me ask another question.

Has yelling at and/or nagging them ever worked? Think back? When you start yelling do they drop everything and do as they're told with a smile on their face? When you nag do they listen intently to every word you say and take it as sage words of advise?

Or did they yell back? Or stop paying attention to you? Or get angry? Or upset?

Seriously, it doesn't work.

So why do parents do it? I'm curious. I just had a fight with my mother, because I need a job and haven't quite gotten one yet, and I've been looking for over a month now. It hasn't been from a complete lack of trying no, and my mom has certainly been a help at times in the matter, but... as soon as she sees me doing anything like, relaxing, or watching my favourite cartoon, or drawing or chatting online... she starts nagging, and then I ignore her because it's crap I've already heard a hundred times, and then she yells and I get angry and yell back.

I know that I need to find a job.

Finding a job can sometimes be very difficult.

Sometimes I have other stuff to do as well.

Get over it. I'm a pretty responsible kid, easily in the top two ranking of all my four siblings when it comes to responsibility, and I always get to the things I need to do, when I can, I know I need the job, I'll get the job. I just quit/got fired from my last job because it made me miserable(though neither parent thinks that's a good reason to quit for some weird reason) and I have to get all my resume shit back together and find places that are hiring, and send resumes.

It takes time. Why do most parents not understand this?

See I took a shower after the argument with my mom and took some time to reflect on the argument, you know what I realized? Nothing was accomplished, at all. It was a complete waste of both our times. I got angry, she got angry, and then because she was being so rude about the issue, I wanted to go job hunting even less. So instead I'm mowing the lawn for my dad?

You'll never guess why I decided to do that for him?

Because he ordered you to?

Nope.

Because it needed to be done and he nagged you until you did it?

Nope.

Because he yelled at you?

Nope.

Because he asked nicely?

Bingo!

Who would have thought that that would have wokred huh? Asking your kids nicely to do something... Gee, why didn't my Mom think of that?

Seriously though, parents. Ask your kids nicely to do something for you if you want it done. nagging and yelling and being rude about it is just going to get the opposite effect of what it is you're trying to accomplish.

Well, I better go do the lawn now.

300 Review

03.10.07 (9:58 pm)   [edit]
I just saw 300 yesterday at the five o-clock show. (get there early, less people, less traffic, lews hassle, less noise during movie, y'know) I probably should have skipped the movie and ust worked on school stuffs, but I've been waiting quite a while to see this movie, every trailer I've seen for it just gets me totally pumped, and makes it look so fantastic, and you know what?

It is. 300 it absolutely fantastic. Now I'm not going to reveal any details of the movie at all, because I wouldn't want to spoil anything, but if you REALLY want spoilers before you go to see it, just pick up the Frank Millar graphic novel on which it is based on.

Now, I read Sin City before I went to see the movie and it was almost a prefect adaptation, it was like they used the comic panels as storyboards, and it worked, it was awesome. 300 however is an entirely different look, 300 is a little more realistic looking, and it is gorgesou. It is one of the most visually beautiful movies I've seen in a long time, you forget most of the time that most everything in it is CG.

The fights are brutal and gory, the drama is intense and engaging, the characters are believable and identifiable, and it's pretty much everything you expected to see from watching the trailer.

Who would have thought that a bunch of dudes in underwear and red capes could look so bad ass. seriously, this movie makes me want to take a 10 year hiatus to do nothing but train in martial arts, weapon combat, and body building. If I could look half as bad ass as these guys do my life would be complete... and I would totally get the babes... lord knows those spartans certainly do.

All in all, 300 is the best movie I have seen this year, now theres a lot of stiff competition in the coming months for movie of the year, but I think that 30 is a serious contender.

if you haven't already, GO SEE 300!

Yo will not regret it.

Jack Thompson. You Are A Douche.

03.05.07 (4:15 am)   [edit]
I'd like to vote this guy as biggest asshole in North America. In fact, he's such an ass hole that I think that this award should be created just so that he could recieve it.

I'm a gamer. In fact I play some of the most violent games on the market, GTA, God of War, Resident Evil 4, you name it. And I've been playing games like this as long as I can remember, way back to Splatterhouse for the older 80's consoles. I am living proof that video games have nothing to do with violence in real people. I'm as much of a pacifist as one can get. I haven's gotten into a fight since grade school.

Grade school Jacko.

Now I'm 22. I aloso just read an article on Kotaku.com about some new douche trying to blame video games for people's lack ofo interest in math and science...

You're kidding right?

You have to be kidding.

This shouldn't be a news flash to anyone but I'll just throw it out there anyway. This just in North America! People don't like math and science because they're BORING SUBJECTS! I've never encountered a teacher that teaches either of these subjects in a way that makes them seem exciting, or even interesting. My memories of math and science were a dull old man or woman with a Ben Stein like voice, droning on for and hour, and then giving us multiple choice and short answer tests.

Excitment excitment.

Seriously though. You want kids to learn? Teach them in a way that doesn't just put them to sleep.

I'm sick of the senseless scapegoats that video games have been getting over the years from jerk offs who have never played them. The stupid part is, this has been happening for at least the last like.... 50 years. First is was radio, then is was rock music, then television, now video games. It's like humanity needs to focus all the blame for violence on some sort of form of entertainment every 20 years.

Here's an idea. Blame the thing that is REALLY responsible for the crime and the drugs and the murders and beatings... PEOPLE. I don't know how they could have missed the obvious culprit so easily. It's people. I'm telling you right now Jack Thompson. If a kid commits a murder anywhere, no matter how much video games he or she plays, it's not the game that made them do it. It's because that kid was not raised with any moral fiber, it's because that kid was not taught properly the difference between right and wrong. It's because that kid decided, of their own free will, that they WANTED to kill someone. Video games do not flash crazy subliminal messages that tell people to go out and murder someone.

Uh oh! That kid just played Katamari Damacy! Better keep an eye on him, or he just might roll up a major city into a ball!

Ghost Rider Reviewed

02.18.07 (4:52 pm)   [edit]
I'm a comic book fan, I'm a movie fan and so when the two come together as one I'm downright stoked. Ghost Rider was no exception. I was really looking forward to this movie, I was thinking that this will be one of the greats in regards to comic book movies. Why? Because of the trailers. The trailers looked awesome. Ghost Rider looks awesome, the special effects are amazing, and they have some pretty damn good actors in it. I won't lie. I think Nick Cage is a great guy to play GR.

My first inkling of doubt happened as soon as I got to the theater and saw "PG" beside the title. For those of you who aren't avid comic book readers, this is an automatically bad thing for a Ghost Rider movie. If there's ANY Marvel movie that deserves an R rating it's Ghost Rider. Here's why:

(COMIC) Ghost Rider is the story of Johnny Blaze, a Circus Motorcycle stunt rider, who sells his soul to the devil: "Mephisto". Mephisto forces the essence of a powerful demon named "Zarathos" also known as the spirit of vengeance, into Johnny's body and forces him to become the Ghost Rider. Johnny refuses to work for Mephisto and turns against him, using his hell born powers to fight against the forces of hell and any who would do evil.

Sounds pretty cool, and it is, because as the Ghost Rider he kicks some serious ass in a seriously brutal way. and goes against all sorts of villains who are hell bent, pardon the pun, on doing as much damage to as much people as possible. In the comics Johnny absolutely hates becoming the Ghost Rider and is constantly searching for ways to get rid of the demon within him and get his soul back.

(MOVIE) Johnny Blaze is a headstrong young boy in love. He works at the circus as a motorcycle stunt rider with his Dad Barton Blaze. However After finding out that his father has cancer a strange man offers a way to cure him of the cancer. Johnny makes a deal with him and the next day his dad is cured. however on that same day his dad dies in a accident. Johnny runs away from home leaving his girlfriend behind in grief and becomes a professional motorcycle stunt driver. When Mephistopheles's son Blackheart escapes hell looking for a means to gain ultimate power to overthrow his father and take over hell, Mephistopheles turns Johnny into the Ghost Rider to hunt him down. Johnny does this, and gains control of his powers and saves the girl and they get together.

Sound good? Well... it would if the movie was called Spider Man.

And when watching this movie that's exactly how it plays out, just like the first Spider Man movie. The movie looked great, the cinematography was excellent and the whole ride, another pun sorry, was very visually appealling, there were a lot of funny parts in it that I really genuinely laughed at, and the Ghost Rider looked exactly like his comic book counter part. The problem is that it does not have the spirit of Ghost Rider.

It was far too light hearted to be a TRUE Ghost Rider movie and I should know I grew up with the comics. Hell, my MOM grew up with the comics and she completely agrees that it should be darker and more for adult audiences. My MOM!

Not only that but the script had some lines that were so bad, so horribly bad that I almost couldn't believe that they were even in the movie. like: "He may have my soul, but he doesn't have my spirit." Seriously? They got away with putting that in this movie?

Now correct me if I'm wrong, but when you adapt something into a movie, you normally don't try to mess everything up on purpose, like Silence of the lambs. They kept true to it's roots, they made it R, they made it scary, and it's a horror classic now because of it. Sin City was based of a comicbook/graphic novel, and they used the exact dialogue that was used in the comic, they used the panels in the comic as storyboards for the movie and it was a huge success, it had the right rating, it was entertaining, and it made it's money back in ticket sales. So Why... do they feel the need to do this to Ghost Rider?

Here's a short list of things that are needed to make Ghost Rider a truly great film.

1. Remove love interest.
2. Focus on internal struggle of Johnny Blaze with Zarathos.
3. make it rated R.
4. If you want to put a love interest in it, have her die at the end.
5. Don't use ANY one liners. Ghost Rider doesn't NEED one liners.
6. Use VERY little to NO comedy, this is a movie about kicking ass.

To be honest, I wouldn't even put up with this movie as it is if I were the producers. I would demand that re-writes be made, and reshoots be made to make it darker, as it should be.

My score for Ghost Rider the Movie: 5/10

(Got points for): For great CG and action sequences and sticking with the original design of the main character, and because Mephisto(pheles) was really well played.

(Lost points for): Poor script, unfaithful mood, too much comedy, endlessly bad one liners, no mention of Zarathos, trying to be Spider Man, and giving Ghost Rider a signature pose... this is not an anime.

No more petty complaints about the Wii!

02.14.07 (4:26 pm)   [edit]
Yeah petty. I'm sick and tired about all the bitching. If the things that people WERE bitching about had merit then I wouldn't mind. but they don't have merit. Every thing that people have been bitching about with this system I have a perfect solution too. These solutions work and I stand by them, why? Because they work for me. Here they are:

#1: Not able to transfer Virtual Console(VC) title from one Wii to another.

Okay this is just stupid. For one, it'd be way too easy to just steal VC games from Nintendo if they allowed this, now I know there's about a billion people out there saying: "But I wouldn't do that!" but the truth is, they would. I can guarantee it. Even I would not be able to risk the temptation. Why would I pay for something when I could just get it for free? Also, considering how many hours of play I'm getting on my Wii just on VC titles, I'd say I'm getting my 5 bucks worth.

#2: No wired internet.

Cry me a freaking river you big babies. So you don't have wireless no big deal, you can get a Wireless USB thingy from nintendo plug it into your computer with wired internet and use that. problem solved, and it's not a very expensive solution.

#3: No online games.

They're coming. Be patient. Devlopers have only JUST received online development kits RECENTLY from the big N. These things take time.

#4: 20 hour battery life.

Are you serious? 20 freaking hours isn't enough for you? Here's an idea, shell out a few extra dollars, buy yourself a battery charger and some rechargable batteries. most of them only take 15 minutes or so to charge said power capsules. I don't have any problems with batteries. Why do you?

#5: Component cables.

Shut up about them already. They're not that important, I'm not using them and everything looks fine. Ive seen the comparison and it doesn't make a whole helluva lot of difference. If you wanted super realism buy a 360. The Wii's all about the fun .

#6: Short sensor bar cord.

This is really dumb. That thing is freaking LONG. Where are some of these people trying to put their Wii? on a whole seperate floor from the TV?

#7: Not region free.

Now this one's while not being a major thing I CAN actually agree with on some level, I would have liked to been able to play Japanese games and such on my Wii since I plan on moving to Japan at some point, and I would have liked to put my Wii's language on Japanese for the language practice... but alas I can't but it's not that big a deal, so I won't complain. It would have been nice is all.

#8: Weak Wrist strap.

Now this... this I REALLY wish people would shut the fuck up about. I am so sick of hearing about these dumb fucks that feel the need the whip game controllers through their TVs. Here's and excellent solution to the property damage problem that I find works great for me. Hold the fuck onto the thing. Just don't let go of it when you're swinging it. I've never even fumbled my Wiimote, hell I actually find the wrist strap to be more of a burden than anything.

All in all the Wii is a great console. It's got backwardscompatibility with all Gamecube games with controller ports and save card slots, it's got a great controller that screams inovation, different unique channels with more being added in the future, and the ability to go back and get all your old favourite NES, SNES. Genesis, Turbografx16, and N64 games, and much more.

Wii rocks and it's more than likely only going to get better with each update. Stop throwing controllers people. just stop.

Belts

01.22.07 (7:31 pm)   [edit]
I went to buy a belt today, I couldn't find a decent one for under forty dollars...

Yeah.. .Forty dollars... For a strip of leather with holes punched in it.

Fuck. That.

I think there's something seriously wrong with the world when belts of all things are priced at forty freaking dollars.

Back in the Media Arts

01.15.07 (6:48 pm)   [edit]
I'm back. and boy does it kick aSS, with two capital snakes on a plane! I love Writing class, I love Film and Video Class, I love Japanese Culture class, and I love TV Studio class. Basically all the classes where I get to do stuff.

I've got some sweet ideaas in the works for my writing and my film and video class, so I'm super stoked about the upcoming projects. I love school. I highly recommend it.

Lefty's fine, Christmas blew chunks though.

12.25.06 (12:30 pm)   [edit]
Lets start this off by clearing one thing up: I'm not a greedy guy, I'm not selfish, but sometimes one likes to know that they're actually being heard and appreciated, especially during the holidays, so when I get really shitty gifts, it hurts, especially considering that I'm not a hard person to shop for.

For instance, when I go shopping for my family members I put a lot of thought into what "THEY" want, and what would make "THEM" happy, not what I think is appropriate or what I think is useful to them, that always beghets disappointment. To put things into perspective, here's what I got for presents this year.

- A microphone(without the proper plugs)
- socks
- a mug and keychain with a bad picture of me.
- Rampage World Tour for Wii (Older brother's gift)
- Battle Royale volume one (Sisters gift)
- Cel phone clip.... that I probably won't use.

Here's what I asked for in order of importance.

-Xbox 360 (Best for them to buy it for me cause as soon as Resident Evil 5 comes out I'm buying one no matter what. Not good for me because I'm a poor college student, damned Nintendo and giving up the rights to REs exclusivity) - Wii points - Extra Wii controllers - Wii games (Not picky which ones they all look pretty fun) - Gears of War(360) - Dead Rising(360) - Dead Like me season 2 on DVD - Ranma 1/2 Manga volumes 2 and up. - Batle Royale Manga volume 1 and up. - Exiles comics #81 and up - Microphone - socks - clothes. - Pro tools(This was later edited out)

So basically I got the bottom of my list. They said there was another present coming that wasn't under the tree, and I was thinking 360, hooray they DO love me. but it ended up being pro tools... which was at the very bottom.... Luckily they didn't actually buy it yet, thank god. After audio class I don't think I could handle getting that piece of shit program for christmas. Seriously though. It's the most infuriating program on the planet, even when it decides to work on occasion.

So you can see why I would be a little upset then.

I mean. I give hundreds of hints as to things that I would want for Chritmas or my birthday... but they just don't pay attention. Some times I don't even drop hints. Sometimes I will say right out: "This is the one thing I want most for christmas." That's what I did with the XBOX 360 this year. I told her flat out. I want this most, more than anything.

You know what the worst part is though? What REALLY grinds my Gears? My little brother got an XBOX 360 for Christmas/birthday... I offered up 2 birthdays worth to get my hands on a flippin XBOX 360 and I still didn't get one.

What really pisses me off most though... is that this is the second console they've bought my little brother. They bought him an original XBOX when it came out as well. So what, the hell, am not good enough? Do I not matter as much to them? I'm seriously starting to wonder if I even mean anything to my parents. They drag me to church every Christmas, even though I'd rather be pummelled by a giant minotaur, then they ignore my hints, blunt comments, AND Christmas lists, while my little brother gets the numero uno prize the creme de la crop, while I'm stuck with a microphone I can't use.

Not only that but I didn't get a single coming this year from my folks. That has NEVER happened. I can not even remember a Christmas where I didn't get a comics or five. It's just unnatural.

Why did I even bother coming home for Christmas? This was the worst Christmas ever. Hands down. I know I sound selfish and greedy right now... but I am mostly sick of not being heard. I have a voice. Why can't they hear it?

I mean... I'm a good kid. I work hard at school, I have big dreams that I'm always working towards, I'm friendly, likeable... I mean CHRIST! Even my failure of an older brother, who is 23 and still living at home got a freaking digital camera! MY sister got a sweet DVD boxed set, and a massive DVD rack(Something I could have used), and a freaking ipod. I got a microphone I can't use..... frowny face, angry face, infuriated face. WTF. I have never felt so... unwanted.

Bah humbug.

LEFTY NOOOOOOOO!!!!

12.18.06 (7:22 pm)   [edit]
Well... It seems there's a chance I'm going to lose my left testicle. The last couple of months my left nut has been hurting a little and I checked it out and the it's huge and there's wierd lumps around it. So my deduction it that I've got either a Burts testicle or testicular cancer. More likely a burst testicle though. I can't see the cancer path being very likely. But still. I might have to lose the ball, so it could suck. There is of course the chance that It's nothing too, I got a doctors appointment tomorrow so we'll see.

If I do have to lose lefty I definitely want to keep it. Maybe put it in a jar of Formaldahyde or whatever it is they put stuff in. Maybe put a smiley face on it. heh heh... could always trick John into eating it. Man. That would be priceless: "How was your omlette?" "Good." "Guess what." "What?" "You just ate my left testicle."

He wouldn't appreciate it, and would probably hate me after... but it's funny to think about it. I know what most of you are thinking now though. "How can he joke so jovially about losing his testicle?" And I get where you're coming from, but... I'm not really using it and probably won't be for at least a good 5 years. I figure as long as I've got one of em, I'm good. That's why we were born with two of almost everything, so that if we lose one, we've still got another to pick up the slack.

Well. here's hoping I don't actually lose it, but hey, whatever happens happens.

The Wii and Me.

11.22.06 (8:11 pm)   [edit]
Okay, so I got my Wii on Sunday, along with Red Steel, Zelda: Twilight Princess, and Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, I figure it's mandatory for me to do a bit of a review on the thing.

THE WII
This system is awesome. I have never had this much fun just setting a system up. It was stupidly easy to do so, and even the online capabilities were easy, it took a total of three clicks and I was on Wiiconnect24 downloading things off the virtual console. Everything about this console is so easy it's nothing but fun.
MII CHANNEL: This channel is awesome. While it's not flawless for making characters that look like people, it's pretty darn good. It would definitely be nice to see some more options added to it at a later date, thankfully with the Wii's online functions this IS a possibility.
PHOTO CHANNEL: Wow. I'm impressed by how easy this thing was to work, and how smooth and fast it loaded and displayed everything. It took about half a minute, maybe less, from me clicking on the photo channel icon to having all 100 or so photos displayed in surprisingly detailed resolution.
DISC CHANNEL: Not much to say about this. It loads discs, bu for some reason I can't help but waiting until after I've clicked on the icon to put the disc in. I just love watching that little load screen.
SHOPPING CHANNEL: Easy to use, quick to download from (Even the N64 games) and just plain old school cool. I love this channel more than any of the others. I check it every freaking day. Why? Because it comes chock full of nintendo band elevator music that's why. It's just addictive.
NEWS AND FORCAST: I hate news and weather... but for some reason I found myself even looking forward o these channels. Unfortunately they haven't been released yet, so We'll have to wait a little bit more to check those out.

GAMES

RED STEEL:8.5/10
I've been playing this game more than any other so far. It's fun. Really fun. I haven't had this much fun playing an FPS on a console since Goldeneye. and Yes I played Halo and Halo 2. This game is just non-stop action, from beginning to middle (Haven't reached the end yet). The NPCs have few skins so everyone ends up looking like everyone else after a while, and they're constantly screaming threats and insults at you that are repettative, but that just makes you want to kill the bastards even more. The controls are great, not perfectly acurate like a mouse and keyboard, but that kind of adds to the gameplay I find. Normally I'm a rush in, shoot everything, ask questions never kind of guy, but in this game I have to take cover where I can, I have to think about how I'm going to go about my battles, it's great. The graphics are good. the lighting and atmospherics look beautiful and the destructable stuf looks awesome with stuf flying everywhere. The story is simple, which is nice because it really allows you to just jump right in and start shooting and hacking bad guys. Speaking of hacking, he sword fighting is fun. It's not like actual sword fighting, but it's fun so I don't care.

Zelda: Twilight Princess: ?
Haven't played it yet. too busy with Red Steel, and I still haven't finished Ocarina Of time. OOT is flippin hard. It's constantl pissing me off.

Marvel: ltimate Alliance: 5/10
This mark is only partial. I haven't had near enouh time with this game to give it a full and fair mark. So far from what I've sen, it's got the largest learning curve of al the games I currently have for the Wii, I still don't have it down pat. It does look gorgeous though, and graphically is probably the best looking game I have.

Wii Sports: 9/10
Fun. Brainless fun.

That's all for now. As you can read. I am infinitely happy with he Wii and all he games I got for it. If you've got the money, get one. now. So good.

Zelda Fans Will Hate Me For This one.

11.18.06 (4:34 pm)   [edit]
Okay. I just finished watching a segment on Gametrailers.com about the best and worst games of all time. I'm happy that Resident Evil 4 is on the best list because I truly believe it IS one of the best games of all time, if not the very best. However I'm absolutely pissed that Legend Of Zelda: The Ocarina Of Time is number one on that list of best games.

I truly believe that LOZ:OOT should ber on the worst list. I know all of you are already thinking of the heading for your hate mail directed at me for that sentence, but hear me out. I think some of you will agree with me on this.

It's hard. Stupidly hard, toatlly unnecesarily hard. I'm playing it right now and I never have a clue where to go. I'm in the belly of this Jabu Jabu fish and I'm supposed to carry this fish girl out of it... but there's nowhere to go. Each direction that I can take her is a dead freaking end.

Now since I could generally get myself bak in the right direction again by going online and reading part of a walkthrough, I looked one up, and another, and another, and another, and another, and another.... but none of them was any help. Why? You might ask. Because every single one I found keeps talking about shooting cows. That's right. Cows. And guess what? There isn't a single fucking cow insie that fish. Not one. So I just spent a good 2 hours or so running around in circles, looking for a fucking cow.

I want those two hours of my life back.

Now correct me if I'm wrong, but when this game was released originally it was intended for children right? Well how the fuck did these kids find these fucking cows when a full grown adult couldn't? Do children have some sort of super cow vision? Do we lose the cow vision and forget about the mysterious invisible cows ever existing when we grow up? Seriously. where are the cows?

And yet this game is being hailed as the greatest game of all time? That's fucking shit. I've got Zelda Twilight Princess on Pre-order right now, and I had high hopes for that game, but after playing this messed up mind fuck of a game I'm having some serious doubts.

I mean, most of the puzzles up til this point haven't been that bad, fairly difficult, but not to the point that I couldn't figure them out even with a strategy guide like this one. I mean if I was Link, I'd just bust out my swrod and start gutting that fucking fish until the fish gil just fell out of itts carcass.

Fuck Ocarina Of Time. Fuck it in it's stupid ass. Fuck Link. Fuck Zelda. Fuck Jabu Jabu. Fuck fish girl.

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11.12.06 (5:30 pm)   [edit]
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I have secured my Wii. on November 19th, my life will be complete.

10.16.06 (10:30 pm)   [edit]
That's right. I've gotten my pre-order for the Nintendo Wii. I was planning on going to the EB Games up on Dundas at 3:00 AM figuring that it would get me the first spot, but my room mate pat told me that he already saw, like, six people camping out at the EB Games so I rushed over there at 12:00, arriving at 12:30(it's a long walk. Boy was I surprised.

Not surprised that there were poeple there, no. I was surprised at when they got there. They'd been waiting since 5:00 PM. the store didn't even open until 8:30 AM. Wow. They were even more dedicated about it than I was. and I'm pretty hardcore for this system.

Here's the other surprising thing. I was heading over there expecting, rigid, stoic people, standing in a straight line, fervently protecting their positions, but, that was nowhere near the case. In fact, they were all just kind of lounging around, hanging out, and just having fun. Not really what I expected at a pre-order for a system that has been generating record amounts of hype in the media. But it was definitely a good thing, because I ended up getting to be pretty good friends with all of them by the end of the night. We ate dohnuts, dranks hot chocolate, played hacky sack, all sorts of things. We even started a small fire.

Don't worry though. nothing was damaged in said fire. It was small and superficial. Just a couple of timmy's boxes.

Seriously though, I never thought that camping out for one of these types of events would be so much fun. It was like a party, I made tons of new friends, got a Wii pre-order, and managed to weasel my way out of boring old class... well... less fun than the Wii line was.

So now all that's left, is to sit back, relax, and wait for the 19th of November. I'll let you all know how fun it is when I get it.

Clothes, and why we should do away with them.

10.06.06 (6:14 pm)   [edit]
Seriously? What a pain in the flippin ass! I'm sick of clothes. I mean, if I could just wear the same damn jeans and t-shirt for eternity I'd love them, but society frowns on that. They frown on the whole wearing the same pair of clothes for eternity thing. They also frown on nudity.

Come ON people! Who doesn't like naked!?

I mean besides when it's fat people... They just shouldn't be allowed to ever be naked. Ever.

Getting off topic though. As I was saying. clothes are nothing but hastle. and I've compiled a list of reasons why clothes are bad, and bad for you.

#1 - Zippers:Okay, now zippers on mens jackets are fine, but zippers on pants, and on shirts for women are nothing but trouble. Especially for the guys. Seriously though. How many of you out there can honestly say that you've never clipped your wang while closing the front door? I know I have... and it hurts like a bitch. As for the female shirts thing.... I'm just guessing that they probably get their hair caught in it sometimes... That could also hurt, though not as badly, it would still hurt, and don't even bother pointing out that some men also have long hair. That's just unnatural. Men with long hair, are actually deep rooted closet transsexuals. It's just not manly.

#2 - Confinment: Those of us with penises hate tight pants. I hate tight pants with a passion, and if you sit the wrong way in baggy pants you get the same problem. I call is CTS Crushed Testicle Syndrome. This also hurts a lot. Sometimes it can hurt a lot worse than the dreaded and evil zipper. Beware the tight pants.

#3 - Walking: Ever walked for three hours in pants? Ever walked three hours without pants? I have. Let me tell you, there is a major difference. That difference is that no pants = no pain. I'm talking about chaffing people. Chaffing. When your lower body starts to sweat a lot and then the sweat dries while you're still walking you chaff. A lot. And it hurts. A lot. Sometimes you could be chaffing and hurting so much that if you have low pain tollerance, you'll end up walking funny, leading to embarrassment. I prefer to just tough it out... but god damn it still flippin hurts!

#4 - Comfort: Lets face it. It's WAY more comfortable lounging around in your birthday suit than it is in (shudder) pants.

#5 - Price: Been out to buy pants lately? They cost a LOT! One pair of jeans is like... 70 bucks! I could feed myself for a month with a hundred bucks! I could buy a crapload of things that I actually like! It's not just pants for this one either though. All clothes cost a freakin arm and a leg. If I ever get rich and famous like I intend to, I'll never buy a pair of jeans over 70 dollars. That's just... rediculous.

#6 - Maintenance: Lets face it, doing laundry sucks ass. It's boring, and takes a lot of knowledge of laundry stuff, and a lot of time. Time I could spend better doing other things. Things that don't suck half as much. Plus I still can't figure out how to get a washing machine to do what I want it to.

So there it is, six reasons, good reasons too, of why pants suck. Down with pants people. They are t3h evil!

Play! Our adventure in Toronto.

09.30.06 (11:35 pm)   [edit]
Okay. This weekend has been great. My good buddy John came down for the weekend, so we've been hanging out lots, having good times. We watched the season premiere for "Smallville", which was very cool, then we watched the movie "Slither". We ate cookies and chips while doing so. After that we crashed because Saturday, was going to be a big day. Yes it was the day of Play! A Video Game Symphony.

Well Saturday arrived, we ate breakfast, woke up relatively early, and set out for Toronto. A half hour walk and two tickets later and we were on our way. Well when we got there we had a little over six hours to kill, so, we went browsing. We stopped in at the Silver Snail, as I am an avid comic book collector, but they didn't have anything that I was looking for. After that we went down to China town and looked around. We were getting fairlyu hungry by this point so we scoped out a restaurant. We ended up going to a Thai place called: The Merlion. We were starving so we kind of went all out. ($59 between the two of us) We got two orders of spring rolls, Pad thai, Mango salad, Spicy shrimp, and spicy Stingray. Let me tell you, the food was fantastic, and the service was excellent. The food was on the table in less than five minutes from us ordering it. I'd say that's pretty quick eh?

So afterwards we walked around some more and we found an anime store. I went in, looked around, and picked up three more GTO(Great Teacher Onizuka) books, I had bought one from the Silver Snail while we were there. So after loopking around for a massage parlor(John's idea, not mine) and not finding one, we headed back. Well on the way we decided to stop off at a few hotels to see if we could get to the top floors to check out the view. We went up the Sheraton, the Royal York, and the King Edward. Did a little exploring in the King Edward, and found some restricted areas, we decided not to go though cause we didn't want to get into trouble, we had a show we had to go to that night.

So that brings us to the highlight of the night. Play! A Video Game Symphony. Well we got in early, and I was the first person through the doors at the Hummingbird Centre. I was the first one into the theatre, and I was the first one to find my seat and place myself in it. I felt special. The show started and wow! What a great show. This was my first time seeing the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and they were great. The musicians were all top notch, save for one, and the show was light hearted, fun, and even a little inspiring. They played Final Fantasy, Chrono Cross/Trigger, Metal Gear Solid, Halo, Sonic the Hedgehog, Shenmue, Legend Of Zelda, Daytona USA, World Of Warcraft, Castlevania, and of course, Super Mario Bros. There were some others as well, but I can't recall right now cause it's late, I got a headache, and I've been on my feet for ten hours.

There were a few things about the show that bugged me a bit despite it being awesome. Number one and most important was the levels. The levels were all off. in some songs you couldn't hear the strings sections, or the choir section, which really bugged me cause they were always unheard when they needed to be heard most. Secondly was the right speaker. It popped a few times, really loudly, and the first time it actually visibly startled the conductor. It was probably an old piece of shit speaker or something, but I still think that it shouldn't have happened at all. Third and final reason, was the guy who was on the snare drum, it might not have been his fault, maybe someone changed things around a bit, but he kept doing this one part on "One Winged Angel" wrong. There was supposed to be a drum roll, but he just kind of hit it normally... like: instead of "t-t-ta-t-t-tap." he just went "Tap tap tap" I've been listening to that particular song three times a day for the last three weeks or more, so this really stood out and bothered me, as well the levels on said snare drummist were turned up way louder than was necessary. For the most part, whoever was doing the mixing for this concert was totally n00b.

After Play! John and I went walking around, intent on getting into those restricted areas at the King Edward, hoping to find the long lost Chrystal ballroom. We stopped off at another hotell, that was about 51 stories high. We had to see the view from there. So we went up to the 49th floor. When we got there, we noticed that a door at the end of the hall was open. We went to cehck it out. it was an unfinished room. a room that took up three floor, with it's own private, mini stairwell in it. We took that stairwell up to the 50th floor, and then looked around at all of Toronto below us. We then went up the striawell to the 51st floor, where we found another exact same room above that, which connected to the other two lower ones, but the private stirway was blocked off. John took some pictures, and we headed back, met a cute girl on the elevator on the way down and shared a few words, then left to return to Oakville. Well when we got there, it was raining... hard...

shit.

So here we are... another half hour walk back to my place... and now we're soaking wet. But, no regrets. it was a great day.

Hot Damn!

09.26.06 (4:56 pm)   [edit]
Good god. I have got to stop leaving things to the last minute. I'm horrible for this. I left my reading of the first two text book chapters today and class is tomorrow. I never thought to check and see how long the chapters were either, so here I am on the day before , with like... 50 pages of very small text to read. I'm doomed. Further more, It's 8:00 and I have to go out right in a few mionutes anyway to go find props for one of my other projects.

Sigh... It must be a genetic thing. Lateness is a family trait it seems. Mind you when it comes to projects and stuffd I tend to do okay, cause I like doing that stuff with short notice. Makes me feel like I'm actually working. Have an essay due tomorrow, started it after school today. lol. Got it done though. It was a movie review. I had to do a review of a Canadian movie so I found one called "Truth", starring Dean Cain(Y'know, Superman from Lois and Clark). It sucked. Sorry Dean Cain fans, but this is one that must be avoided... Unless of course you need a good long nap. I almost fell asleep at least eight or nine time. It was almost as bad as Koyonisquatsi, and those who know me at all KNOW how much I hate that movie. It was bad, stay away.

Oh, I had a scare today. I have two tickets to "PLAY! A Video Game Symphony" which is this Saturday(September 30th) At the Humingbird Center, and my teacher told us in class today that we were supposed to meet somewhere on Saturday to go on our "Kinsington market trip". Holy shit, I thought. These tickets were $110 each and I'm going to miss out because of school! But alas, luck was still on my side and the trip isn't until next Saturday(October 6th). LUCKY!

Still no sign of Wii preorders down here either. I'm starting to get a little pissed. I want my guarantee that I'll have my Wii on launch day. I wanna shake my Wii at launch damnit! ... Y'know after I wrote that I got this strange image in my head of myself standing in front of EB Games with my pants down, shaking my wang at people, with said wang tattooed to look like a Wii controller. Bizarre visual there.

No I'm not gay. It's okay if it's yourself that you're thinking of... wait a minute... that doesn't sound right either... I should stop writing things as I think them. Probably not a good idea. Maybe I should start proofreading my blogs or something.

Nah. Proofreading is for important things. BEHOLD!

More stuff. Ha! I got the most amazing idea the other day. I went down to the HMV... Took notes on all the stuff I wanted to watch... then I basically turned that list into a download list. Good idea for a college student with a media addiction eh? I thought so. I'm currently watching three animes: Cowboy Bebop, Karin, and Yakitake Japan, and a wicked cool alien show called Invasion. I highly recommend invasion... and Karin, and the others... Good stuff there. Karin's about a Vampire who is born as the reverse version of classical vampires(Like the rest of her family). She builds up blood in her system, and has to release that into other people by biting them, wheras her family has to suck the blood because tey're deficient of it(Is that grammatically correct?(Shrug)).

Today seems to be rantin day for me. It's been a while since I've updated this blog. AH! GOOD NEWS! FRANK MILLER'S NEW MOVIE 300 LOOKS AWESOME! Gotta see that one. anyone who hasn't seen the trailer, seriously look it up, it's totally crazy. It's like... just... so fucking PRETTY! That's the kind of movie I'm going to make someday.
Also started my fanfiction again. Anyone who reads Ranma fanfics can check them out at: http://mordennight.tripod.com...

It's pover.

Fast Times at Sheridan College

09.21.06 (4:09 am)   [edit]
By this, I mean that the days go by very fast. I haven't even thought to write a post on here in the last few days cause I've just been so damned busy. Me and my roommates just set up the pool table, the extra cabinet for the kitchen, and the entertainment center, my mom's coming on Friday to help me paint my room, get groceries, and bring me much needed things for school, and school has been very busy as well, but despite being so busy my days have never flown by so fast. I feel like I've barely been in this new place three days, yet it's almost been two weeks now.

Crazy!

So anyway, I decided to start doing some fanfiction again on my fleeting spare time. I've let those things lie dead for too long, it's time to ressurect and quite possibly finish them. Or at least one or two of them before I start another one or two fics. My main reason for starting back up is because of a sudden jump in fanfiction ideas. It happens.

Whelp... I better get going to school, I got class at 8:00(JOY!). Catch you all on the flip flop.

Wii sure are busy.

09.18.06 (6:33 pm)   [edit]
Yeah I spely it wrong on purpose. Cause that's the cool thing these days right?

Yeah it's been busy. I was going to write some more on Saturday, but I've been busy, with housework, school work, and reading. Ever since this "No watching TV project" I've been reading a lot of fanfiction. I need something to entertain me and without movies, or TV, or video games... I need the written word. Thus, I've fallen back into my very bad habit of spending hours on end reading Ranma 1/2 fanfiction. I never read any other kind either for some reason. Occasionally I do, but that is a VERY loose occasionally, like... once every two years. I dunno what it is, the whole cast of Ranma 1/2 is just so... lovable. Every fic I read, whether good, bad or terrible manages to entertain me on some level. It's like reading several potential scripts for episodes of sliders, where it's the same people, and the same general setting, but everything is different. I dunno, I dig all that alternate reality stuff.

There is one thing that manages to calm my calm my cravings for audio-video entertainment and that is that There are exceptions for homework, and school related stuff. So far that consists of one Canadian film, and the news... but it's enough to tide me over until week three. I rented the latest Dean Cain movie(That's right, The Lois and Clark Superman) and I've been watching all the news segments about video games and whatever other video news will work on my pirated internets.

Speaking of video game news... Wii. My god, every time Nintendo reveals something new about this console gaming system the more I want it. I'm definitely buying one when it comes out, expenses be damned! That is the one thing I desperately want to own this year, more than anyhting else. I'm especially loving this Wii channels idea. News, weather, Your own Mii characters that are totally customizable, Picture and video organizer, flash card drive, $10.00 tops for any virtual console game, AND internet browser. It's like a gaming console/computer/photo album/TV/Retro arcade... I wouldn't be surprised if they actually added television channels onto it as well. According to some of the Nintendo guys on the videos, there's even MORE news to come regarding this beauty of a system before the November 19th launch.

I dunno about you guys(and girls) but I am totally stokes about this upcoming Wiivolution. Wow... I can't believe I just used such an awful pun.

Well .I guess I better get to watching that Dean Cain movie now so I can get to writing that review for class. Hell I'll post the review here when I'm done. What the hell. See you then.

Auditory Orgasm's Galore

09.16.06 (11:28 am)   [edit]
Sorry I didn't write a post last night. I was so tired that I just came home and crashed almost immediately.

FRIDAY

Yesterday was writing class. That was a really fun class. We all wrote little ideas on cards, then brainstormed with other students to expand on the ideas, then brainstormed ways to mix our ideas. Then other people had to do the same with other peoples ideas. Very interesting process and a lot of people came up with some really good ideas. After that I went down to The Sou8rce and Sears and picked up some headphones for my Audio class, and a mouse for my Mac. I got a mini mouse with a retractable cord. That will definitely come in handy. After that I came home, got something to eat and then went to the Bedouin Soundclash concert. At first I thought I'd never heard them before, but the last song: "New Years Day" rang quite familiar.

The concert was AWESOME! Probably the best I've ever been to. The funny thing is, the headliners(Bedouin Soundclash) weren't the best part at all. The two bands before were MUCH better in my oppinion. They Were Ill Scarlet, and Wintersleep. Ill scarlet is like... a kind of rock/punk/ska band who kick SERIOUS amounts of ass and Wintersleep is what I like to call: "Coldplay without the suck". These two bands kciked so much ass I just wasn't able to resist buying their albums. Wintersleep's cost $15, and Ill Scarlet's was $5. So they were fairly cheap, but I am in college so anything over five takes serious contemplation before purchase.

That's not all either. Before the concert I met these two great people who I look forward to calling my friends. Marsha: a 2nd year Media Arts student(Can't remember if it was Marsha or Martha, sorry about that. I'm bad with names.), and her brother Juan: an animation student. They hail from Mexico and were really nice. So we hung out for a bit, got to know each other and then parted ways after the concert.

So my first friday in Media Arts rocked, completely, I mean, I can't think of a bad thing about my day. I had writing class, I met new friends, went to an awesome concert, was introduced to some great new bands and got some CD's, ate food, and went to sleep. Pretty close to what I'd call a perfect day.

SATURDAY

Not done yet. Will write tonight.

YAY! Good news!

09.13.06 (9:26 pm)   [edit]
I got a bursary for $1200. That's some welcome news eh? Basically pays for the money that I lost from staying at the crazy lady's house. Though my parents are still going to be trying to get the money back from ther through tribunal or something like that. Not sure how that stuff works really. But I deserve that money back. I was only there for a week and the entire time I was being tortured by a paranoid delusional. I'm guessing that's grounds for a refund.

I looked over the homework for Mondays class and I'm disappointed. It's like. 200 pages of textbook reading. Interesting stuff... but that's a lot of pages. I've only gotten one out of six chapters read. There's just so damned much material. I can't process it all in one night. Ha ha! Oh well. I've got a bit of time still until next Mondays class. Class's today were pretty long. It's wierd. I've got one class a day for four days and then on Wednesday I've got like... three. Wierd structure. It's going to take some getting used to, this whole film lifestyle.

I... am up to that challenge.

I just can't wait to actually start brainstorming ideas and filming with my colleagues. I can't wait!

Normality Has Been Restored.

09.12.06 (7:19 pm)   [edit]
I am now in my new place and man it rocks. It is so laid back here. I've never been so happy. The room is about a third of the size of the one at crazy Rachel's house but it's so much nicer. The two guys I'm living here with are great. We get along smashingly, I was allowed to install shelves so I actually have places to store all of my stuff. I have a decent kitchen downstairs, a lock on my door, which doesn't bother the others one bit, and most of all.

Peace of mind. It only took a day to relax and get settled in. I had my first class yesterday and that was awesome. We have TV Studio production first thing every week. Our first day was just playing around with all the equipment and getting used to it and then after that there waas a secondary orientation for the class. Aparantly there's only sixty five students that get in out of five thousand applicants. That made me feel special, the only downside so far that I can see to this class is that there are few women in it. My head count was six. Six out of sixty five.

But that's just minor. Now get this. our first assignment in that class is to NOT watch any TV, or movies, or play any video games for the next two weeks and then write a five hundred word essay about it. It's been one day, and I'm already finding this an extremely taxing task. I have a collection of over a hundred DVDs, many of which I still have yet to see, about thirty games, of which I still have yet to play through at least ten of them, and I download TV shows constantly so I have several SERIES of shows that I want to watch and can't even tap into.

The AGONY!!

I'll survive somehow though, It'll be hard.... but I'll make it. I would NOT have been able to make it if I was still at Crazy Rachel's though. Man... I still can't get over that psycho hose beast... Just... scary. Anyway todays class was Image production concepts... I think that's what it was called. We basically just sat around and talked and then watched a documentary about the history of film. I'd like to go and see some of these movies from the old old past. A lot of them looked pretty good. I just don't have the patience to track them down, nor do I have the finances to buy the DVDs.

My Dad came by today with a dresser, some shelves and a bed. So now I actually have proper storage, and sleeping... uh... stuff. Well. I think it's about time I got all my shit set up and stored away in m room now. I will be back tomorrow with more, from my no longer crazy life in Oakville. Now It's going to be just cool.

I want to give a wicked shout out to the Oakville Police department. You guys rock! Thank you so much for helping me escape that nuthouse. and to the one officer that I was conversing with about movies, I will definitely check out Romeo is Bleeding and Memento.

Sayonara.

The Fallout: Never thought it'd come to this.

09.11.06 (4:20 pm)   [edit]
The title pretty much says it all. The whole Landlady thing had a MASSIVE fallout yesterday. That's why I didn' write a post. To al who may be concerned, I'm okay, and much more relaxed. Why? Caus I got the hell outta dodge that's why, and BOY is it ever a story. Well I suppose I've kept you all in suspense long enough. Here it is.

Saturday, before I went to Dan's, I went around the entire school looking hunting adds for places to rent. We went o one place Saturday, but it sucked. The second appointment to see a place was not until Sunday. Sunday Afternoon Dan drove me over to the other place I had set up a meeting to see. This place was heaven compared to Crazy landlady's place and as soon as I was done looking at it I told them I'd take it. I gave them my contact information and went back to the "Psycho Hose Beast's" house to try and relax in my room a bit. It's not so bad when I was in my room, I could lock it, kep to myself and for the most part avoid the crazy lady as much as posible.

Not the case that day. No. She came up banging on my door, and called me out. This is where things got Really bad. With a capital R as you can see. She started going on about how he other ladies(yeah apparantly there were more now) where angry cause I gave Dan the combination to the lock(which I didn't, and assured them as such), and that my locking my door was worrying them. Well pointed out the obvious and then she went balistic. She told me that she moved al of my food o he upstairs fridge, which of course I never gave her permision to do, and told me that I could not go near the basement kitchen because it was near the other ladies rooms, THEN she told me that she was going to follow me around the house whenever I was out of my room to "Make sure that I didn't steal anything". I don't think I have o remind veryone that there's nothing worth stealing there.

Anyway. fter she told me that she'd be stalking me, which is harrassment by the way, I simply said: "I don't think that's legal.", entered my room, and closed and locked the door. Then of course she started yelling at me about how much of a "degenerate" I was and how I was so "deranged for feeling the need to lock my door."

Give me a break.

Anywho. Her ranting went on for quite a while, she yelled, and calledc me names and threatened me, you name it. She basically pulled all of her moves straight from the "Handyman's Guide o Harrassing people". I was absolutely terrified by this point and called my parents. I pretty much beged them to come down and pick me up and then they decided that a police escort would more than likely be needed.

It was. Anyway, I sat in my room watching Smallville for the next couple of hours waiting for them to come. My parents left as soon as they were off the phone with me and stopped off at the Lindsay police to se what they could do, after getting some advice they called the Oakvlle police and, get this, when he mentioned the address, the RECEPTIONIST, said: "Oh that one sounds familiar." So then my parents where just as worried for me as I was at that point. Anyway about an hour and a half before my parents arived two police officers did. They came in and came straight up to my room, with crazy landlady trying o get them to tk off their shoes at the door. Yeah I don't think that she can tell them what to do at this point.

So the Police come up o my room I let them in, and keep Rachel(The landlady) the fuck out. So the officers come in and I fill them in on what's ben going on the last seven days while Crazy Rachel starts screaming outsie the door about having guests in the house and questioning if they're real cops.

As if the cruisers with the flashing lights and the Uniforms, and sidearms, and radios weren't proof enough. Anyway. I get into a conversation with the officers, real nice guys by the way, about movies and stuff, which I admit, helped me to calm down a bit at the time. I needed it too, was a wreck looking back on it. So after a few minutes psycho hose beast bursts into the room and points at the officers from the dor way and demands their names. She said: "Who are you? What are your names?" The officer pleasantly replied. "Please shut the dor m'am, we'll be down to talk to you in a minute. Rachl of course wouldn't take tht. She moves in closer, with great hostility and demands. "No! I want your names right now! Who are you?" The officer repeats: "Ma'am, we'l be don to talk with you shortly, please close the door." Wel rachel doesn't close the dor, but she does storm off into the house ranting about how one of the cops is siting down in my chair, and the other one is standing up. The officer that told her to leave sighs and heads out the dor saying: "I better go talok to her now."

So he goes off to talk to her and I continue to talk with the other officer. Oh and we can also hear everything Rachel was yelling from downstairs. So anyway, during the course of the hour and a half tat me and the officers were waiting for my parents They caled in another oficer, then another after that, and another after that. That's right. I had five police officers over at that house by the time my parents arrived, who were scared to death for my safety at that point.

Can you blame 'em?

So me, my mom, and my dad started boxing my things up, and packing them into the truck. Crazy Rachel had decided for some reason that she needed to monitor us doing do so that we didn't, and I quote: "steal anything on the way out." She had one of her daughters checking all the vehicles in the front to make sure hat we didn't scratch them, and threw almost all of my food outside on he sidewalk. She claimed it was all of it, but I was missint 4 onions, 4 Green peppers, a Cantalope, a tub of Margarine, and think there was one more thing... but it eludes my thoughts at the moment. We didn't go bak for that stuff though cause we just wanted to get out of thee as fast as fucking possible.

We did, and after meeting up with one of the officers at a gas station to talk privately, we went to Wendy's, had something to eat, and then moved into the new place, which is AWESOME! There's two other students living here, that's it, and they sems like great guys. Awesome guys. Now I have no doubt in my mind that this is going to be a great year. I've got a good place, good roommates, and a great course.

Oh and get this. The officer who was talking to us at the gas station, old us that, Rachel's house had been visited on "NUMEROUS" occasions for simmilar reasons. Apparantly a lot of people have gone through the same thing with her. and let me tell you, this was no picnic. She was inflicting pschological torture on me in those seven days. by the seventh I was afraid for my very life. That's not a situation that anyone should have to be in, ever. As a human being feel that I should warn people about this lady and her crazy house...

If you are ever in need of housing in the Oakvile area, never, NEVER got near 200 Martindale Avenue, if you see that address or if you hear the name Rachel Arcuri, run. The. Fuck. Away.

As a human being, I feel that it is my moral obligation to warn you about this person and this location. So here ends. The Pschotic Landlady saga. Thank the stars it's over. More from me. Tomorrow.

Then It Exploded.

09.09.06 (11:01 pm)   [edit]
Okay. You thought what's been happening up til now was bad? It got worse this morning. Crazy Landlady didn't take kindly to my waiting for my garbage pail to be full before taking it out and when I basically told her that that was a stupid reason to get upset with anyone she blew up. She was yelling, at me the entire time, calling me names, belittling me, and when I tried to defend myself and point out the obvious flaws in her wierd rulings, she threatened me.

But that's not all folks. Oh no. I went out to chill with my good buddy Dan for a bit and we decided to drop by the house so I could pick up some books I'd promised to lend to him. He waited outside by the door, I went in and grabbed the books, and then we left. But of course I could never get away with such a heinous crime like that could I? No the landlady decided to give the other tennant there my phone number, without my permission and then she called me to bitch at me about having a friend "NEAR" the house.

Needless to say. I hung up on her. Well the mad rush to find a new place is on like Donkey Kong now cause everyone in that house hates me. Without even a half decent reason. I also think that the landlady was digging through the garbage pail in my room because she was also yelling at me about the contents of said garbage pail. Well I'm keeping this one short cause it's late and I'm over at Dan's house tonight but I will update tomorrow in a little more detail with the wacky, mind blisteringly crazy events of...

My everyday life.

I never thought I'd hate the weekend.

09.08.06 (5:47 pm)   [edit]
Well, that's mostly because of the fact that I'd of course have to spend more time at "Home"... ugh. Not looking forward to that. Must find some errands to run.

Luckilly I've already got a few in place. Starting with some meetings to see other possible places of houseing. Preferably a place without crazy landladies. About the landlady, I now also have reason to suspect that she's been rifling through my stuff. I don't have anything illegal or incriminating in any way... but that is still really friggin disconcerting.

Anyway I went through orientation today, not so much of a fuss there. Went in ewarly, walked around and found out where my classes were and then met up with Ania. We waited around a bit for Stefanie, but she didn't turn up, apparantly she had to fight traffic and was running a bit late so she went straight to the welcome meeting. We saw her just as she was on her way out. It's cool though. We shall do something another time. There's plenty of that.

I also played almost the entirety of Warrior within yesterday(had to start over) So that I could get the secret ending where you fight the Dahaka. That is one bad ass monster, but he's surprisingly the easiest boss in the game. It only took two tries to defeat him. But that's okay cause the ending after that fight is SO worth it. I have to hand it to Ubisoft. They really know how to make a good story. This is by far one of my favourites... and it's a game. This is saying a lot because I have read a lot of books, and watched a lot of Television and Movies. I've witnessed tons of good stories but the Prince of Persia has to be my favourite even above SLIDERS! And anyone who knows me knows how much I love Sliders.

But come on now. If anyone's ever played the Prince Of Persia series from Ubisoft would have to agree that it's probably the most amazingly written trilogies of all time. I mean... it keeps you hooked right to the end. Anyone who hasn't played these games I recommend you do, their order is: Sands Of Time, Warrior Within, and The Two Thrones. Even if you're not a gamer, this game has so many challenging environmental puzzles and such an amazing story that it is a must.

OH! I almost forgot. At orientation we were introduce to most of our teachers. The Documentary teacher was introduced as Dr. Documentary, followed by his real name and he was SO cool! He was this old dude with a can and a big grey bushy bear(think Santa) and he had this wicked accent like some kind of evil James Bond villain. I dunno why, but I just found that so cool, it was beyond cool. He also told us that we should watch as much news as possible in preparation. Guess I'm going to be hooking up the cable after all. Sigh... I hate commercials.

Well that's all from me for now. More tomorrow where we'll see what new adventures await the mighty Josh VanHalteren. Will he find a new place to stay? Will he be killed in his sleep by crazy landlady and fed to her dog like things? Tune in next time for more of my everyday life.

Moving Out ASAP

09.06.06 (8:22 pm)   [edit]
Wow. Never in my life have I ever been this creeped out. I've decided that I am going to move out as soon as possible. I'll be looking for a place tomorrow. I'm tired right now though so I'll keep it short. Today sucked. I had to spend money on new bedding, which was like 100 bucks. and new ink for my printer, which is about fifty, and slippers cause I don't want to tread on sticky floors. Here's hoping I can at least be out of here by november. I won't be able to survive such a crazy environment.

Good night.(passes out)

Sort Of First Day

09.05.06 (9:39 pm)   [edit]
Today was my first day of school... sort of. I was scheduled to attend this one time class on "Care and Feeding" of my computer; a required class for anyone taking a course that needs the use of a laptop. However The class went over some useful information... but only for Dell users. I have a Mac. Anyone with a Mac was basically there to pick their asses. There was nothing for us there.

On the plus side, I did meet a few new poeple there. A couple of nice girls by the names of Stefanie, and Anya(not sure if that's spelt right). There was also a guy that I sort of half met. He was a little further down the table so I didn't really exchange many words with him, I think I caught his name in passing... but I'm not 100% sure if I heard right or wrong or what, for now I'll just call him, that guy. Anya's going into her first year of Interior design, and Stefani is going into Broadcast Journalism. Very nice girls, and cute too.

After that was over it was pretty much time to head home, where I sat down and played some Prince Of Persia: Warrior Within. Now a lot of people give this game a lot of guff because it's so different from Sands Of Time in both gameplay, mood, quality of voice acting, and music, but I think it's still right there beside Sands Of Time for quality gameplay and in the end, that's what really counts. I haven't really got a gripe about any of the other stuff either. I like Godsmack.

I got fairly far, saved it up, and then went and had something to eat(A heaping bowl of Captain Crunch). When I got back and loaded my saved game though a strange thing happened. I appeared where I saved from, as the Wraith version of the Prince, with the deteriorating life and everything... Can you say WTF? I can. And no matter what I did, every time I loaded it it was the same thing. AND, the part where I was supposed to first see the Dahaka, didn't happen. I just walked in, and the Dahaka never appeared, never smashed the wall, and then of course without the wall smashed in I couldn't progress past that room.

Weird stuff. I went back to the start though, rushed through, and now it seems to be just fine. Meh. Also, at about 12:00 tonight I went downstairs, got a glass, got a glass of water, washed the glass and put it away. Sound like trouble making to you? Well to the landlady it did. She gave me a stern talking to for being out and about past midnight... What... That... Fuck? Since when was a Landlord allowed to tell me when I could and couldn't be thirsty? I've only been at this place for two days and already it's just... rediculous. My mom has never given me even half the amount of trouble that this lady does. She's really overstepping her bounds. When I said that I wanted a lock on my door the other night she looked at me like I was from outer space and then gave me guilt trip lecture to try and change my mind.

I'm sorry... but I've only known you for less than the equivalent of 24 hours. Who the hell do you think you are? I'm just a tennant, who's taking up a little bit of space, until the semester's over. Needless to say, I am going to be doing my damndest to try and get my old pad from my prior college year back. This place is just rediculous. Never mind the fact that I can't have any friend over, ever, which limits my social life quite a bit, and all because she and the other lady living here are afraid that they'll steal something of theirs. HELLO! EARTH TO CRAZY OLD LADIES! NOTHING YOU OWN WOULD EVER APPEAL ENOUGH TO MY FRIENDS TO EVER WARRANT THEM WANTING TO STEAL THEM!

Never have I been so frustrated. I'm beginning to wonder if I'll even make it through the year alive with all these... limits. I don't do well with limits.

And you know. Pretty much every rule she's come up with is right fuckin batshit. Like this: Earlier today, she told me that I'm only allowed to sleep under the sheets on the bed, because her Duvet(doovay? Duvett?) is, like dry clean only. Well. I'm getting my own sheets and blankets tomorrow. Fuck your Duvet! I'll sleep however the fuck I want! And how the HELL do you know how I sleep? Thank god I installed that lock. She creeps the hell outta me.

Well I'm off to bed. It's 12:41, I'm tired, and I've got some walking to do tomorrow. More from the exciting life of Josh tomorrow.

The Impending Doom Of Oakville

09.03.06 (8:23 pm)   [edit]
Okay. I've just finished moving to Oakville. Wel wasn't that fun.

NOT!

I need not remind anyone that reads my blog that I had just finished helping a friend move just a few days ago to Oakville, for school. I am quite thoroughly pooped. Not to mention the house I have to live in this year has a bit too many rules, and the landlady is just a bit strange, nice... but strange. Lets see now.

Rule Number one: No people in the house, at all.
Rule Number two: Clean the bathtub and sink every time you use it.
Rule Number three: Clean all of your dishes immediately after you've dirtied them and put them away.

Now that third one I on't have any problem with. But the first two... that's a little bit... much, don't you think. Now onto the strangeness.

Strange thing number one: The decor of the house: This place is full of JUNK! The landlady's got everything from knick knacks to paddywacks to two tiny little dogs with squeeky toy bones. She's got shiny things, hanging things, and most importantly they are all ugly things. She has no taste, yet she claims to be an interior decorator. Weird eh?

Strange thing number two: The locks: The thing about the locks is... there are none. There are no locks on the interior of this house, not even on my room, and I've got to sleep in this place with four other strangers who I've only met briefly, in passing. I don't even know two of their names. Needless to say. The lock is going up first thing tomorrow whether she likes it or not.

Strange thing number three: The colour pink: Why is the colour pink strange? Well, it's not really the colour that's strange it's the placement of said colour that baffles me. It's on my bed. That's right, this so called interior decorator has given me a hot pink bed. Not just pink... HOT PINK, a very vibrant, quite obvious, HOT PINK. Now I ask you would a talented, or even mediocre interior decorator give a man a hot pink bed? The answer is quite obviously no.

Strange thing number four: Sticky floors: Okay. This is an obvious one. You walk into a house... the floors are sticky... Why? That is my first question... why? What is it that's making the floor sticky? Do the dogs piss on it regularly? Is it some strange cleaner tat's just a little tacky? Either way... sticky floors always make me uneasy because you don't know why they are like that...

Strange thing number five: The other tennants: Two girls, and a guy, the guy is creepy, never smiles and doesn't formally live here, the girls are older(not by much), but also hideous, nd never smile, and they all just sit around in the dark wathing TV, from what I've sen thus far, and I've been here for at least a few hours thus far. They're all kind of creepy. Locks are going up.

Strange thing number five: Pink bed: This one's just so fucked up I have to mention it again. I'm getting new sheets tomorrow.

Okay, so that's my new place...

...


...

Pray for me.

Moving Sucks.

09.01.06 (11:22 am)   [edit]
Okay so I'm getting ready for another year at Sheridan college and of course I've been diligently packing all of my things into nifty little cardboad boxes to make the move a little bit smoother. As a favor to mine and John's mutual friend Rob I decided to help him move into his new home.

That... was not so smooth an operation.

Not a lot of Rob's stuff was boxed up, the stuff that was boxed up, was not well boxed up, most of the boxes were falling apart, nothing was organized, or labeled, everything was either heavy, slippery, or oddly shaped and very very awkward to carry.

Now when I first agreed to help our friend Rob move I was under the impression that I was going to help him move a few heavy objects because he couldn't do so so well himself because he has a bad arm from an old accident, which make doing such things painful for him.

Not the case. No. We were actually inlisted to move...

Everything.

Absolutely everything. Seven and a Half hours of hard labour and we got... 4 slices of pizza. As much as I was happy to help him out. I feel just a lttle under paid for the trouble. and I still have to move all my stuff into my new place.

I would gladly accept payment in the form of those damned couches being burnt to a crip. That, would definitely put a smile on my face.

Fuckin' couches.

Blogging is HARD!

08.30.06 (5:40 pm)   [edit]
Okay, now a lot of you (and by a lot I mean both) may find the tile of my first blog a little confusing, but I can assure you it is not.

I decided on a whim to start a blog cause I like ranting and, well, cause John and Sara had blogs and I wanted one to damn it! But holy crap was it ever aq hassle starting it up. I started by signing up for some other blog site, but they never sent a confirmation e-mail, like they said they would. Then I decided to use Tblog, whih is the one that John was also using. Little did I know that I was in for even more hassle.

I started off by signing up under the name mordennight, which is my common, always used username. I set up a password, put in my zip code, typed the random letter and sent away. They said that a activation e-mail was sent to me, It wasn't in the inbox, no it was in the junk mail, but naturally I didn't think to check there. So next I started another one by the name of jspot, a delightful play on the rapper name that Ghandi used on an episode of clone high (Gspot), however the same thing happened, the next day had John come over to help me trouble shoot this tblog problem, but even he couldn't figure it out. So I signed up for another one under my real name joshvanhalteren, and lo and behold, I got an activation code.

Wow. What a pain in the ass. Thank you tblog, for making things needlessly difficult.

Putting the sign up hassle aside for a second though. It's not a bad site for doing a blog. Pretty easy to use actualy, but only once you've actualy got a working account.

Will write often.

-Josh