RPG Palace is holding a contest where you can win a free copy of Final Fantasy XII.

Go check it out.

Our goal is to have a 12-player Team Deathmatch on Saturday, October 28th. The current game time is set at 1:00 PM MST (GMT -7). If you don’t think you can make this time, but can make another, please make sure you suggest it, so we can see what adjustments can be made! Register by commenting on this entry or e-mailing me!

Tournament Page

Fragfest Tournament Information Page

I have to admit, I’ve got mixed feelings about IE7. Aesthetically, it’s much nicer-looking than IE6 was. The tabs are definitely a welcome addition. Support of standards? Increased … Kinda. IE7 has just been released, and it’s already going to cause issues for us, at work. Some things that render beautifully in every browser from IE6, to Firefox 1.5.x, to Opera 9, are breaking in IE7. So, we’re going to have to see what’s causing the issues. It looks like we may have to go as far as to implement some server-side code changes to make the client-side UI render properly in both IE6 and 7.

*sigh* Why am I not surprised?

Update: Looks like our kickass designer fixed the problem without breaking it in other browsers. Go dude.

Will this release make me change my primary browser? Definitely not. I’m currently using Firefox 2.0 RC 3, and loving it.

The rebirth of Games Unlimited is just around the corner. For those of you oldbies who’ve kept up with me since the beginning… Yes, I do plan to revive Games Unlimited in early 2007. But, to kick off its new revision, I’d like to start up what I like to call the “GU Fragfest” …

Due to complications with regards to work and lack of time, I’ve decided to go work at RPG Palace and manage Fragfest as an official RPG Palace Sanctioned activity. Head over to RPG Palace. Fragfest will be announced with more details available, soon.

Visit the Fragfest Tournament Page

I’ve officially been pampered by subbed animes. If I had watched Full Metal Panic dubbed, from the beginning, I doubt I would’ve liked it as much …

I found the dubbed versions of the first few episodes on YouTube, last night, and watched them to see what the voice acting was like. It doesn’t do the anime justice. If you’re looking for a good laugh, it’s great, because the voice overs are so horrible that it’s hilarious. And whoever keeps writing the translations for the voice actors needs to stop trying to directly translate Japanese name suffixes. I’ll have to stop watching the dubbed versions, just because of that. If I hear Tessa call Souske “Mr. Sagara” again, I’m going to scream.

The name reversal irks me a bit, too. If I was to watch the last episode of The Second Raid and hear Souske shout “I am Souske Sagara!” — I think that would be enough for me to hit the stop button immediately. It just doesn’t sound right … But, that’s probably more the being pampered by subs, than anything.

When my DVDs arrive, I don’t think I’ll be using the English audio … Unless I need some humor in my day. I’m actually considering learning Japanese, now … So, I can enjoy the experience better without having to read the subtitles.

For those of you who know me, you should know by now that I’m an Anime Freak. I’m in love with Japanese Animation, and have bought numerous DVDs in support of that love. Recent purchases include the Cowboy Bebop Box Set, the Samurai Champloo Box Set, the Cowboy Bebop Movie (Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door), the Mezzo Box Set, Robotech: The Macross Saga (Harmony Gold version), Robotech: The Complete Collection (Mega-Pack of all three sagas — This is not the remastered version, although I may buy it too), etc … The list goes on and on.

A series that I’ve taken a special interest to, thanks to Winamp and Shoutcast, is Full Metal Panic. If you could see my desktop background … wait, wait, wait … Give me a moment … Okay, it’s uploading. Here it is.

Anyway, as I was saying … Full Metal Panic is my current anime obsession. The original series box set and the box set of The Second Raid sequel to the original were added to my purchases this morning. The wonderful people over at Anime Streams maintain the stream of The Second Raid, and I’ve watched some of the original series over at YouTube. I recommend at least watching some of that, even if you don’t intend to buy for yourself. They’re all subbed, just to let you know. The anime is beyond remarkable, though … Definitely worth a watch.

Details on the original show can be obtained through this Full Metal Panic website, and details on the entire series can be obtained through Wikipedia.

… it’s been a day. Work stuff went nuts, today. Life is better and there’s less moaning and complaining from both sides. Family is currently upset, but they’ll get over it. I’m coming home for Christmas, relax already.

Sorry for the small update, but I’ve got to get back at it. Articles to appear soonish.

… My give a damn just broke.

Letting any of the stupid crap get to me, at this point, would be just that. Stupid. So, that’s it. I just don’t give a damn. I made the effort, I reached out, and I got smacked in the face. So, that’s the end of that. Against my better judgement, I tried to salvage something from nothing. So, I’m resuming the original plan, with a slight modification… The modification being that I don’t hate Jason. In case I forget, which is very likely, because I know I’m going to be busy, I’m going to extend an early “Happy Birthday” to Jason. He’ll be turning twenty in a little under two weeks.

I just snipped out a huge paragraph that I was writing, because I’m not taking the low road. I’ll let Jason know what his present is in private, seeing as it would be childish to post what I was originally going to … And no, to anyone who may be curious, it’s nothing bad about him.

For those of you who want to know, I’ve resumed writing. Expect another addition to the articles to be made public in a couple days.

Goodnight.

… That’s completely relative. Different people see different sides of me. Some think I’m childish (i.e. don’t know me at all). Others (most) think I’ve grown up way too fast.

I think it’s really great when people are seriously honest about things. I don’t like to lie. I hate lying. I don’t even like this whole “lying by omission” bullcrap where you just don’t tell someone what’s going on. Case in point, today we were cleaning up the old place and became really strapped for time due to really messed up scheduling. So, Jason and I decided we would have a cleaning service take care of the rest of the house, seeing as it was getting really close to the time I was due in at the office for a meeting. We originally weren’t going to tell John, but I typically don’t like to keep anything from him, so I just told him when I got to the office.

… But, I digress.

The point I’m really trying to make is that honesty can be painful, at times. And it’s a balancing act that I’m struggling to pull off, which is why when I see what is really thought about what I’m doing, it really pisses me off.

In any case, I’m going to take this time to pat myself on the back for actually putting forth the effort to salvage what’s left of my friendship with Jason. We have a history. A long one, by my standards. We’ve seen each other do some really stupid stuff, and to let something like this ruin our friendship after all we’ve been through would just be stupid. I doubt we’ll be near as close as we were before, mainly because there’s this wall there, now… But, that’s not going to stop me from at least associating with him at a level that’s not necessarily professional.

It’s obvious who’s having to be the adult in this situation. Had I not stepped up and taken on the burden of actually trying to spend time with the two of them (if nothing else than to prove to myself that I’m really better now), we would’ve taken care of that place and gone our separate ways, and that would’ve been the end of it. For the record, tolerating and actually being friends/friendly are two completely different dimensions. I would’ve been able to tolerate the two of them, a couple of days after whatever it was inside me that snapped. It’s taken a lot more self-growth and serious thought and effort to get to the point where I am now.

I invited them over for dinner and cards and such. Unfortunately, it’ll probably have to fall on a Monday, due to my and Jason’s work schedules. That’s the only day where he doesn’t have to work nights and I don’t have to be in the office really late. [Sidenote to Jennifer: It’s only as awkward as you make it. Surprisingly, I was perfectly comfortable over at you guys’ place, today.] Hopefully, that goes well. Such a process should be taken in baby steps, probably. Don’t have time for that. It’s all or nothing, for me. I’ve opened the door to my home with the intention of still being friends and keeping in touch. It’s up to you, whether you walk in or not.

During the spat of anger, I “filled” the spots for the two Blind Guardian tickets that were supposed to go to Jason and Jennifer. I was so pissed off that I was originally going to just snatch the tickets and tell them to screw off, but again, the whole “doing the mature thing” kicked in. So, I talked to Jason about it. Seeing as I currently don’t have a way to purchase more tickets (and he does), I told him I’d buy their tickets off of him. I don’t want to deprive them of the chance of going to the concert, hence the reason I was willing to give money for their tickets, so I wouldn’t have to disappoint the people that I told could go. [Sidenote to Jennifer: That is why it’s more convenient this way. Please make sure you have the whole story and not just a partial or fabricated version before you go on a tirade, next time. I’d also appreciate it if you’d stop making things out as if I was specifically trying to screw you over, when that’s obviously not the case. Thanks.]

Anyway … It’s really late … Meeting lasted a lot longer than I expected, and I have to be up in the morning to go back to the other place one last time to pickup a few things and take care of the last minute stuff. Goodnight.

… Bachelor Pad. No, seriously. The kitchen and living rooms have track lighting.

So, I got most of my stuff moved into the apartment, yesterday. Bed is constructed and in the appropriate place, and the living/dining room is setup the way I want it (bar the empty boxes sitting in the center). I need to go through these dishes and re-wash a lot of them, before putting them away. Only one glass broke on the way over here, so that’s comforting. Considering I didn’t have that many to begin with. Seeing as I’m only one person, I don’t see it to be a problem.

The place is (thankfully) no smoking. Whether that’s in the agreement or not, I don’t know. I only read the important parts of that thing. And I don’t have a problem with telling anyone (friend or otherwise) to take it outside if they’re going to be here for any length of time. I spent most of the morning unpacking the things that are here, re-arranging furniture, and getting things into the kitchen to prepare for washing. The place has a dishwasher (for $800/month it better have a dishwasher), but for the going-over that I’m going to give this batch of dishes, the dishwasher would be overkill, so I think I’m just going to handwash everything the first time, and then use the dishwasher from then on.

Hopefully, I’ll be going today to get internet and such setup. I went ahead and jumped ahead of John, as far as the car goes. I’ve already got what I think is a reasonable quote for car insurance, so that’ll make tomorrow’s process easier. I’m currently sitting here waiting on Jason to show up, so we can go pick up the rest of the little things, clean that old place up and get it inspection-worthy. Not to mention that he’s extremely late, and I don’t have all day to sit around waiting on him. There’s too much I need to do, considering I can’t work from home at the moment, except for local programming work, and I won’t get the car until (hopefully) tomorrow.

I’m almost at the point where I’m willing to sacrafice whatever’s left in that place and just move on, because this is taking too long. I’ve got the necessities out, already. I can just go buy anything else that I need.

More updates, when I’m not leeching off of open wireless (shh! ;)) …