Almost 10 years later...

I found one of my earliest internet web pages. It's still up. This is like finding a dinosaur foot print on a dry river bed.

I can't log in anymore even though I have the login and pass. I think this was when Napster recently went down and I was new and exploring the wilds of IRC.

Which reminds me, the client I used to connect to IRC is outdated. I haven't logged on to that network in ages because, well, bit torrent essentially made it easier to download anime. There was no need for me to lurk in the rooms.

When bit torrent exploded into the scene it essentially changed how you shared anime. Everyone just came in or found the torrent and downloaded. Conversation waned and became scarce.

Even if I downloaded a new client to access IRC I am pressed hard to remember how to configure the client, find the servers and initiate the downloads. Plus I would have to re-configure my PC's security.  I mean, it's a lot of effort. I don't think I'll ever go there again. Unless I really had to.

But I learned a lot about things in there. Things I still implement today in regards to where to find what I need and settings I still use today for music. I had friends in there too.

So yeah I remember IRC with great affection. That was the early days of social networking. I am honored to have had some experience with it. I have fond memories of that time.

Oh and here's the link for the site. It is SeskaFuze's OST Master List. On Angelfire even. LOL

I do recall hours of painstaking html coding for the simplest things when I built it too.

I think I'll put a link for it on our site so I can keep tabs on it. Who knows how much longer it will be on the net?

Minor Site Face Lift

I am not sure how long it has been since I updated the aesthetic features of our site. Long enough I suppose that I had to do some minor re-designing. I don't want a flash driven, seizure inducing site with bells and whistles on. No music either. Not ever. 

I like the simple kind. With just a tad personal touches here and there. 

Of course this would have gone easier if blogger's design page was functioning properly. I have had to do this the hard way just so the changes I have made will take. 

Either way, I like the way it looks and my husband approves. So no more tweaking until blogger fixes the issue with their design template. It seems to work sporadically from what I read on the net. 

Feed the Mind = Feed the Soul

“Do not read, as children do, to amuse yourself, or like the ambitious, for the purpose of instruction. No, read in order to live.” - Gustave Flaubert

I don't know why I stopped. For a few years, I put my books down and got on with everyday things. Although I was no less happy the world was less...colorful.

I started reading again. My husband gave me the best present last Christmas. A Kindle Fire. Now my mind wanders the forests of Osten Ard, the damp streets of Ankh-Morpork and I am looking forward to exploring Middle Earth once again.

I read voraciously as a child. It was a wonderful time in my childhood. A bed, a good book and fan. It's still one of the main things I need to completely enjoy myself. Oh and a big cold soda with a straw. Perfection.

It's a great stress reliever too. It helps me re-center myself and renews my soul to better handle the cloud of unpleasantness that likes to rear its head occassionally in daily life.

I am glad I am reading again.

Dollar Bill Project

This always happen after SDCC. Somehow the practical side of me looks back at the unadulterated spending of Comic-Con and cringe. I am not feeling buyers remorse, far from it. It's more like, I need to make up for what was spent.

So now I have started the Dollar Bill Project. Anytime I get change in dollar bills, it goes into a container. To deposit into my savings account when the container is full. People do this with change. I up the ante with bills. Wish me luck!

Random Quotes

“I was glad my father was an eye-smiler. It meant he never gave me a fake smile because it's impossible to make your eyes twinkle if you aren't feeling twinkly yourself. 

A mouth-smile is different. You can fake a mouth-smile any time you want, simply by moving your lips. I've also learned that a real mouth-smile always has an eye-smile to go with it. 

So watch out, I say, when someone smiles at you but his eyes stay the same. It's sure to be a phony.” - Roald Dahl, Danny the Champion of the World

SDCC 2012 - Wishlist

San Diego Comic Con is right around the corner and normally Nate and I are usually frothing at the mouth with anticipation of the exclusives but there's not a lot that's blowing our skirt up so to speak.

So far there's three things Nate and I will definitely be wanting.

Flocked Treesons 

I have always been a Treeson collector so of course I'll be heading for these. My only concern is it's flocked and my room gets so dusty. I'll have to troop over to that toy display booth and see if there's something I can put these in.

Gears of War 3 - Elite Theron 

I collect the Locusts only and I'll be grabbing this guy. Contemplating the Portal Gun but I don't know yet. Still waffling over it.

Monster Worship -Rottweiler Herpes

Nate ordered the books by Johnny Ryan. I saw Nate laughing a lot while reading them and he doesn't read often so I picked up the first volume. At first I was taken back by it. It was gory and violent. But as I read more I was surprised to find myself enjoying the over the top violence.

UPDATE 07/04/2012: Oh dear! The figure is actually Rottweiler Herpes! I like.

Max Toy Co - Negora

I love this but it's been almost impossible to get. Maybe I'll be able to score one on SDCC. We'll see though as this figure is very popular.

Altar Beat - KLUH Colorway

Really excited with the offerings of Monster Worship! Looking forward to the releases!

We're glad to hear Gargamel is coming along with my usual favorites i.e. Bwana Spoons and Paul Kaiju. Other than that I really wish there's more to be excited about at the Toy Garden.

I think I need to look at the schedules. I mean there's more to Comic Con than the Garden and maybe this year I can enjoy the rest of the Convention.

Purchases of the Week - June 9, 2012

I managed to have a little bit of spare change so I decided to work on our blu-ray collection. Nate advised me that I need to replace instead of adding onto our blu-rays. Even though there are ton of recently lowered movies we don't have yet, I have decided to take his advice and do some replacing.

So I grabbed a handful of DVDs and just waited out the prices until they fell to our level of cheapness.

Don't Be A Menace In South Central While Drinking Your Juice In The Hood - In order to fully appreciate this movie, you have to have watched all the movies it was spoofing. I have not, but I still find the parts I do understand funny. Nate has I think, seen all the movies so he has a deeper understanding of this movie than I do. 

Face/Off - Two over-acting actors in one movie equals not a bad movie. I don't care for John Travolta honestly. I don't seek out his movies. My feelings for him are prior to the recent accusations that have been plaguing him lately. I just don't find him interesting. Nicolas Cage on the other hand is a very interesting actor and I enjoy watching him. Except for Ghost Rider. My tolerance was at it's limit for that one. 

 
Hustle & Flow - I have issues with drama movies. I get caught up into it too much and I always feel drained after watching one. Albeit, this is a really good movie though so I watched it completely. Terrence Howard plays a charismatic character with a dream. I still believe he would have made a better War Machine in Iron Man 2. 

Dragon Ball Z Kai #7 & #8 - Apparently #8 ends the series. I have read that they wont even go to the Majin Buu Saga. Which sucks. With all these different sets of Dragon Ball out I still have yet to finish watching the whole series. It's just hard to set aside the time to do so considering how lengthy this series is. 

 
Forrest Gump - Is a modern classic. I didn't want the special edition of the set. I just wanted the regular edition. Like Shawshank Redemption I tend to watch this movie if it's on TV.
Twister - Is by all means not a "deep" movie. It's fun to watch though. This movie falls under the category of mindless entertainment. 

 
Maverick - Ahhh Mel Gibson at his most charming. This was before the world found out he was a bitter, violent and terribly unhappy man. I love this movie. Everything works so well together. I miss this version of Mel Gibson but then again, he may have never existed at all. 

 
Unbreakable - Yes, most of M. Knight's Shalashaska, as Nate and I call him, most of his movies are caca. But not this one. I like this one a lot. It worked well with his style, you know, "With a twist!" type of shit. Alas, I don't plan on getting anymore from this director. Except maybe Lady in the Water. Nate said it was not bad and he liked it. I have yet to see it.

That's about it for purchases of the week. Trying to watch out for deals and maybe upgrade our couch to improve our living room. But that will be after SDCC. So I am officially on savings lock down until after July.

Purchases of the Week - June 2, 2012

I didn't realize how caca our internet was until Nate and I tried to play Borderlands together today. I don't know why we are having such an issue now but I think Nate's Xbox doesn't connect as well wirelessly as mine did and he gets disconnected all the time.

I did a speed test and we came up with pathetic numbers: 3.20 mbps download and a sad 0.67 mbps upload. It's not even meeting the standard speed my internet connection is supposed to allow for.

I guess this was fast ten years ago. But with today's wireless gadgets and streaming services galore, this speed is now outdated. So I cracked open my SDCC fund and bought new gear. I told my husband I want this project completed in June. He has concurred.

Oh yeah, we got married two weeks ago and had our first official husband and wife argument today. He said I "rage quitted" because we couldn't play together. I said, "No I didn't!" We then proceeded to argue about upgrading our internet and why we haven't done so. I huffed it up and went to our room.

Half hour later as I stomped to the kitchen, he was making his toasted peanut butter and strawberry jelly sammiches. He offered me one. Fight over.

The twelve years Nate and I have been together, 90% of our fights are like this. Minor quibbles. That's a source of pride for us compared to other marriages we've seen. But I digress.

Motorola SB6121 SURFboard DOCSIS 3.0 Cable Modem - Time Warner offers four tiers in their internet service. Standard, which we are on, Turbo, Extreme and Ultimate. In order to take full advantage of their upper level services you need a modem that has DOCSIS 3.0 capabilities. They don't provide the modem to their customers. Which is dumb. But it works out. If you buy your own modem you get rid of that stupid rental fee. This one has good reviews and is on their recommended list. I am hoping for a painless install but nothing ever goes easy with these things. So we'll see when I get the modem. 

HALO Liv-a-Littles - It's like crack to my cats. Well to Nodame and Pickles. They literally bat the container in my hand and meow plaintively when they want some. I give this to them sparingly or sprinkled crushed on their food. Dhani and Marley Fat don't care for it. 

Fight Club - A great movie! First time I saw it, I was confused but I enjoyed it. Sometimes, movies like these are hard for me to watch so I don't watch it often. But since this is one of Nate's favorites I got it for him.

Prince of Persia - We had high hopes for this movie. We did. Once again, Hollywood disappoints. But not so badly. Nate and I enjoy playing Prince of Persia games. Sure they threw in the game elements here but I don't know. Maybe we were expecting too much.

Mawwiage

"Mawwiage. Mawwiage is what bwings us togethew today. Mawwiage, that bwessed awwangement, that dweam within a dweam. And wove, twue wove, wiww fowwow you fowevah and evah… So tweasuwe youw wove..." ~Impressive Clergyman (Princess Bride)

Nate and I are finally making it official. Eleven years we have been together. Six of those years living under the same roof. We've been talking about it for a while and we finally settled on a date.

This Friday we can finally refer to each other as husband and wife. We opted for a simple civil ceremony surrounded by our immediate family. I had thoughts about an elaborate wedding when we started thinking seriously about this but the longer we thought about it, it just didn't feel right with either of us. It was meh.

Its our wedding and we will marry on our terms. A simple and practical celebration surrounded by our loved ones.

We're both looking forward to it but at the same time we want to get it over with. Nate and I enjoy the simple things. A day together doing nothing is just as good as a day out doing something.

So hell yes I will take his name and we will be the Hernandez;sz;s;z;s;zs. =D

FIZZY Boss Carrion by Paul Kaiju

Our newest Boss Carrion brings refreshing colors to our Paul Kaiju collection!

Y U No Love Meme?!

Actually, we do. We love the humor of the internets. So does Gallery1988. So much so that they had a show called Memes!

Back in our gallery hopping hay day, we would have been all over this. Unfortunately, due to our work schedule and traffic, we no longer have the the time and strength to make the trek to the art shows.

I couldn't help myself though. I bought prints from this show.

 
Benjie "Prowlin'" Print

Glen Brogan "I Can Has Meme Cards?" Print

Ivan Minsloff "Raptor Jesus Savior of Man" Print

We'll be picking these up tomorrow at the gallery. I'll see if I can take pics of the artwork as well. Check out G88 for other Meme related works! If I had the cash to do so I would have bought Augie Pagan's "I Love Turtles." piece. So awesome!

Purchases of the Week - 04/22/2012

I got a few more blu-rays and items for our fur kids. Lots of sales lately that we've been taking advantage of as well.

Conan the Barbarian - Classic Arnold. " To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women." 

Dead Space: Aftermath - Horribly executed. The graphics should be considered an embarrassment to the digital movie community. It looked like they found their talent from the desperate digital amateur artists pool in youtube. I am just very disappointed in how this was produced. The first Dead Space was good. Anyways I liked the converging stores to make a whole and it's always nice to know what happened afterwards. Only a true Dead Space fan should buy this and buy it cheap. Like I did.
50 First Dates - Is a charming movie. I like Drew Barrymore. Concept is unlikely, like a sugar coated version of Memento with rainbows and unicorns. It works for me. 

The Fifth Element - Classic campy sc-fi. Leeloo Dallas multipass! Chicken gooooood! I could go on on. 

 
Bridget Jones's Diary - Sure she makes that siopao face expressions but if you can get past her muddy British accent there's a cute story here. 

 
The Scorpion King - I like to think this is the movie that made The Rock a movie star. He makes a great action star. I wish he would return to doing such films again. Not really feeling the Disneyfied Dwayne Johnson. 

Four Brothers - I like Mark Walhberg. Even though he has a habit of putting both feet in his mouth sometimes. He's a much better actor than a singer that's for sure.

 

Liv-a-Littles Chicken - I am running out of this already so I re-supplied. I like to add it to their meals so that they'll finish their food entirely. Nodame and Pickles love this the most.

 
Petmate Top Loading Carrier - This carrier is Marley's. Their last vet visit was traumatic for them and us. They fought going into the traditional carrier we had. Nodame actually clawed me in his displeasure at being put into one of these. Marley and Dhani can deal with this design. I already am eyeing another top loading one for Nodame. 

Ugroom Rubber Brush - My cats love to be scratched and petted. The traditional brushes I have for them don't have the massaging option and de-shedding capabilities this one has. I can also use it during bath time for them so the shampoo will go deep.

Oatmeal Dog and Cat Shampoo - Yeah. That's a gallon size. When you have four cats that are bathed monthly, you quickly run out of shampoo if it's in a regular shampoo bottle. I got the Oatmeal one as my cats don't really have fleas and I suspect Nodame has sensitive skin. The oatmeal always did a wonderful job with P-Chan. I expect the same results for the cats. 

 
Gallon Dispensing Pump - I'm going to be attaching that sucker on the gallon. That's about it. Oh. Nate got his suit and I got two choices for shoes for our wedding. =)

Purchases of the Week - 04/15/2012

Damn, it's been that long since I did one. I have been purchasing quite a bit lately but I decided to once again re-start with blu-ray purchases.

First off, our Sony blu-ray player was having issues. We were getting the error "Unable to play disc." It was very frustrating as we thought we had defective discs. Six of our movies were coming up this way. We ended up returning some of our movies but then a week later, Sony released a software update and all was well again. Ugh.

So I am back to scouring the net for cheap blu-ray! Here's this week's loot.

 

 

Nacho Libre - I had to return, then buy then return and finally buy it back now that the software issue has been fixed. 

Shaun of the Dead - I have only seen the end of this movie. Even with what little I saw I was laughing. I can't really say much because I still need to see it. 

The Frighteners - I love this movie. I've been patiently waiting for it to come to blu-ray. It has a lot of the charm of his Back to the Future performance but as a burnt out version. I can't tell you how many times Nate and I have quoted, "My body is road map of pain." 

 
The Fly - I have seen this movie in bits and pieces. I've also heard that bits and pieces tend to be "collected" in this movie. I've been warned not to watch after eating. I have always wanted to watch it but I suspect every time this is shown on TV it might be edited.

Elizabeth - I've seen this movie and I liked it. I love historical/period movies. I love Cate Blanchett. A snow queen best admired from afar.

Billy Madison - Nate's always singing the song and every time it pops up on TV, he will watch. So this is for him.

 
Basic Instinct - I do like this movie. Sharon Stone played a psychopathic sex fiend perfectly. I am not gonna lie. I did squint and pause the film when she crossed her legs. LOL 

Alien vs Predator - A concept that would have ruled. The first film was OK. I liked it. The film following it sucked so much donkey balls. I had to quell my anger and sit through Requiem on Netflix. Time I cannot get back. But at least I didn't turn it off like Collateral Damage. Which is the first time I stopped watching a movie halfway.

 
Harry Potter 2: Chamber of Secrets (Ultimate Edition) - Why am I buying these instead of the conveniently packed 8 movie edition? The Ultimate Editions are loaded with a ton of extras. I am aware of the planned special collector's edition packed as a trunk but I am hearing rumblings that it's not as comprehensive as these Ultimate Editions. Since we love Harry Potter, I prefer to get these versions instead. I have the first one and these are not cheap. This one happened to be 44% off and met my requirement for cheapness.

That's it for now. We're still trying to replace our DVDs but that's a slow process as the DVD movies we have are still at unacceptable pricing in their blu-ray versions. But glacial patience always wins out.

Purchases of the Week - 02/04/2012

Cat Dishes - One of the cat's dishes broke and Mom bought these clunky ceramic ones that I do not like. These are a little better designed and will give them a bit of height when they are eating. I bought for my cats only. Marley gets the pink one, Dhani gets the blue one and Nodame gets the green one. Pickles' Mom, (my sister), will have to buy him his own dish or he can use the old orange one that is Nodame's. 

Natural Soaps - Bought some awesome soaps and facial scrub from my favorite soap seller from Etsy. 

 
Wooden Soap Dish - Handmade. Needed one for my special soaps! Bought from etsy as well.

That's about it. I am hankering for another book for my Kindle Fire as I am close to finishing Anvil Gate. Not sure if I should get into the Game of Thrones series just yet. That's a lot of reading. @___@

Valentine's Day 2012

Nate and I normally don't put too much emphasis on commercialized holidays. The whole point of having a "special day" to celebrate one's love is just meh. That should be an everyday occurrence. Express your love in as many different ways to your mate as possible every single day.

I digress for I am soap boxing. =D

Anyway, Nate knows I have been dealing with a lot of things and this is a very thoughtful gesture.

 

A bouquet of tulips and a large chocolate heart box

We are spending a quiet day today. More resting for me and and watching Nate play Batman: Arkham Asylum.

Normally, movie to game adaptions suck ass but Rock Steady paid attention to all the flaws from this genre, made sure not to repeat them and gave us a stellar gaming experience. I am enjoying watching the story unfold.

A nice, typical day. For us at least! ^_____^

Living Room Project - Progress

Our living room is slowly starting to take shape. This has been a work in progress for almost two years now.

Definitely a new couch is needed as the cats, not just Nodame, have essentially flattened down the back rests of the couches that we currently have. Plus, that couch is circa apartment era so a new set is long overdue.

It's got to be hardy to survive four cats and comfortable enough for our family and friends.

Purchases of the Week - 02/01/2012

 

Eraser - I wouldn't say classic Arnold with this one. Standard Arnold is more like it. It's not unbearable like Collateral Damage. That movie is fucked up plot-wise, but this one is enjoyable. 

Coming to America - Nate quotes this movie a lot and I don't blame him. It is funny. I haven't sat through the whole movie but I do distinctly remember a whole family with jheri curls and a moist couch. 

 
Nacho Libre - I cannot believe this was out of print and ridiculously priced. So when I saw it available again at Amazon for $8.99 I pounced on it. I love this movie! Stretchy pants and corn! 

Amadeus - Classic movie. Not historically accurate but enjoyable drama. The music is amazing.

That's it for now. A lot of movies I have been wanting to replace are dropping slowly in price. We're at 197 in blu-rays and counting!