November 2009 Archives

anime musings, part three.  i've found anime to be a nice weekly distraction now...as long as i watch the episodes in a timely matter that is.  most of the time i don't, so they gather in my "to sort" folder until i watch them all in bulk.  still fills a nice niche however for those rainy/cold/shitty/fuck i need to get out more but just can't be bothered days.

you know what today is?  it's the 5th anniversary of me having sold my soul to the dark overlord of world of warcraft.  ya, it's been 5 years since i started this cocaine of mmo's.  i'm not sure who could've guessed back then how big it would get.  people anticipated the game to be a massive success...but, yea...i'm not sure they knew just how massive.  prior to wow coming out, everquest was considered a success at a "whopping" 400,000+ subscribers.  wow currently sits at over 11 million subscribers and counting.  and given that it's shown no signs of letting up, i thought it'd be fun to celebrate this 5th anniversary by giving a thorough historical recap of my time with the game, for all two of you out there who give a fucking shit.

VANILLA WOW
so the year was 2004, and the world was different.  the "horseless carriage" had just been introduced, and there were talks of "flying contraptions"....just kidding.  it was a different world tho.  the economy didn't suck, but we did have a halfwit for president. as a result, the world was pretty bleh, so it was the perfect time to introduce an mmo where people could escape to.  fonz, mike, and i jumped on board on launch day, along with a few bajillion people around the country.  we were tossed onto the realm "khadgar", where i rolled a perky human mage and went about toasting hapless sheep with fireballs.  then the server (along with a couple others) promptly shit itself under the strain of a thousand nerds.  damnit.  we got a message saying that the server would most likely be "shit" for a while, so we headed to another server, "llane".  this was a brand new "second day" east coast server, one of a couple they brought online to handle the crush of people apparently trying to escape the real world.  i rolled a night elf hunter this time, slapped on the name "moya" (my last character in morrowind was moya, hence i reused it as legacy), and off i went.

i'm taking full advantage of my relax-iness.  i was sifting thru older posts and came across one that listed my past places of residence.  i think it's time to update the list.  not that there's not much to add, given that i lived at my last apartment for the better part of 5 years.  but heh, i threw amsterdam in there.  4 or so months of living off albert heijn has to count for something...

TW	- kaohsiung, taiwan (born)
TW	- kuang fu, taiwan (pre-school)
TX	- point comfort > guest house
TX	- point comfort > 223 wood st. > 3 years
TX	- port lavaca > 137 seascape dr. > 1 year
NJ	- lake hiawatha > knoll gardens > 3 years
NJ	- montville > 5 crane dr. > home
NY	- cornell u. > class of '22 dorms, 2nd flr > 1 year
NY	- cornell u. > eddygate (2nd flr) > 1 year
NY	- cornell u. > eddygate (4th flr?) > 1 year
JP	- kyoto, japan > new miyako hotel > 1 month (does this count?)
IT	- roma, italia > sant'anna 6 > 1 semester
NY	- cornell u. > college ave. > 1 semester
NY	- cornell u. > eddy st. > 1 year
NY	- manhattan > 137 e.13th st. > 5 months
NY	- manhattan > 342 e.8th st. > 5 years
NL	- amsterdam > 357 keizersgracht > 4 months
NY	- manhattan > e.110th st. > current

hoo fucker it's been a long couple weeks.  work has been...interesting, and play has been equally so.  i had written up a post pertaining to last friday's face-first run-in with religious types, but i'm still finessing that entry.  these situations usually help me to add solidity to my foundation of ideals...conflict usually makes my brain fire on all cylinders.  i'll just leave that post for another day.  in the meantime, i finally find myself with a brief respite. 

i tossed this trailer on my facebook a while back, but meant to post it here too.  facebook makes me lazy...especially with movie trailer posts since it's so easy to just press the little "share" button.  blah.  i still dig the trailer tho.  the cast is pretty boss too...sam worthington, liam neeson, and ralph feinnes.  and unlike alot of the comments i've seen out there, i think the soundtrack that goes with the trailer is spot on...

i sort of just upgraded mt, and then neglected to take it for a spin until now.  i have however since tweaked the design and layout to a point that i'm fairly happy with.  it's a 'variation' on what the old journal used to look like, which i suppose is moot considering i didn't even keep copies of the old layout files.  oops.  anyhoo...its purty enough for me at this point.  the ajax script was a wee annoying to incorporate when combined with how the archive pages are stored (had a hiccup in the coding for a few days)...but even that's sorted out.  go me!  and i say that with the knowledge that my web skills are pretty shit these days, compared to my more outgoing days in the distant past.

GENERIC JOURNAL ENTRY
huh, and i noticed that while i was posting up my journal entries for prague, i didn't even bother to log into my journal my social shenanigans.  so in turn, i have to dial the journal all the way back to the beginning of october.  gar. 

WILLIAMSBURG!
well...sometime in the not-so-distant past, i made it a point to hang out in williamsburg with kayako.  it was a dinner meet-up, with neither really deciding where to go til i made it a point to say "i'm down for anywhere really...even your neighborhood...hint hint".  i just felt the need to get out of manhattan and away from my usual watering holes that weekend.  so we ended up at dumont burger...i think it was.  it was good stuff, tho at that point i was feeling a little under the weather (sickness possibly).  we hung out later at k's place mixing fancy drinks and then imbibing the aforementioned fancy drinks.

i met my family for brunch the next morning so i could give my niece her gift i got in prague.  she sort of tossed it aside and then sat on it.  adorable.  on the bright side tho, she calls me uncle now and is growing up frighteningly fast.  ohny was that weekend too, but i wasn't feeling so hot and ended up holing away in my apartment the rest of the weekend (sorry margie!)

FRIED CHICKEN HUNTING
the following weekend was a group trip with hosan and company to congee village to check out their chinese version of fried chicken...called garlic chicken.  that was all kinds of awesome.  sadly, that was the highlight of that weekend, as i spent the rest of it staring at my apartment ceiling.  k, big stretches of time doing nothing...super.  oh here we go...we had our second dinner with building-mates at el paso on 104th.  it was good eating...drinking too. we've been trying to do it every other month, but this is obviously easier said than done.  still fun tho to eat around the neighborhood, because god knows i wouldn't bother if left to my own devices.  the following friday was also dinner at max and patsy's.  we were expecting frightening scottish fare, but instead got pretty rockin' lasagna.  thumbs up.  and finally...yesterday was a small get-together with cornell aap alumns in dumbo at rebar.  that was fun...and a first.  they got some feedback from us about what to do and what not to do.  do's included short surveys, more meet-ups (preferably with liquor), and more often...because its too easy to lose touch with people.  don'ts included long surveys...and no liquor.  or something.  yea.  k...this post took too long, blah.  stupid fancy formatting.

this weekend is a photoshoot for a yoga studio.  at 7:30 in the morning.  yea, it'll suck  massive.