Congratulations on making entry to Behind the Mixer, the main world of Ryu, the aspiring recording engineer.
Age: 19
Location: Illinois, near Kat and Carney, south of Schultzie.
Aliases: Tycho, g4me_h1ro, bloodyshnozz, DERP, ryu6fw
Vertical Status: Pretty up there
Most Associated Color: Brown
Occupation: Driving Pizzas/College Student
Time Consumers: Video Games, anime, racing canoes, music, being an anime club president, traveling
Money Consumers: Video Games, manga, traveling, collecting vinyl records, expanding selection of musical instruments, Pop-tarts and Mountain Dew, conventions
"You were probably the last person I'd expect to be a dumbass." -Katana
"That's OK, I'm not too attached to my beard, despite it being on my face." -Ryu
"Because he is the Tycho, that's why." -Hider
"MUUUUNNNGERRRRRRRR!!" -Old Proverb
"Believe in me who believes in you."
Gee, I wonder where that came from...
Hey all.
Let me try to remember what has happened sine the last post...
Mmk.
With my birthday money, I was able to pay back my aunt for my own birthday presents to me. I had gotten three music books at a sheet music store in downtown Chicago, next to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, which we had just went to to see a Dvořák concert. I got Rachmaninoff's Prelude in C sharp minor for piano, Debussy's Suite Bergamasque for piano, and the Charlie Parker Omnibook for saxophone, which will be beastly. I already had copies of the Rach piece and Clair de Lune from the Suite, but there's something about holding real sheet music that makes it so much better, and more learnable.
I indulged myself further a few days later by getting myself the Razer Deathadder computer mouse, which is beautiful. I also bought my friend a Saitek Cyborg keyboard, since we had a deal. His birthday was a few months ago, and I got him a keyboard for his birthday (finally), so he now owes me a Razer Lycosa for mine.
Rifftakus on Thursday went great, as all of you have probably already acknowlegded by now...
I downloaded the entirety of Gurren Lagann. The initial reason was because I noticed that there were no Gurren Lagann AMV's with the Row Row Fight the Power song, or at least none that I could find. So with said download, I would contribute an AMV that should already be out by now...however, it would be the first time making this kind of thing, so I doubt it will be as epic as it ought to be. We'll see. However, as it turns out, I am going through a Gurren Lagann relapse. I started watching the episodes again, and it looks like I'll be going through the whole series again. Not to mention, today, I went to the bookstore and saw Gurren Lagann Vol. 1 for sale. Must...resist...manly...literature...it's...eleven USD....purchase...ILLOGICAL!
Unfortunately, the whole series is illogical, and sucks its fans in through emotion, so I ended up buying that and the complete series volume of Samurai Champloo. That racks up my manga count to 101, 103 if you split up Samurai Champloo into all three volumes.
Over the weekend, I went to two grad parties, and one of them had very few people my age, and was mostly older people giving my friend lots of checks and money and stuff. However, there was one guy there that I had actually liked (the rest of them are pretty much pricks.) He was really eccentric, had the whole wacko scientist frizz hair, and could not stop talking about this cloud he had seen. A cloud discovery, as odd as that sounds, possibly the first since 1951. Scientists in Geneva are discussing the viability of whether it's a legitimate discovery and if it deserves it's own cloud class. Anyway, Buddy, the cool guy at the party, was walking his dog and saw the cloud for about a good hour, and kept his mouth shut about it or else people would think he was crazy (if you looked at the guy, crazy would be in the top five things that came to mind), until he saw the news stories popping up. He gave the whole science behind it, and I could not even try to repeat it to you. However, I'll supply a few pictures of this wonderful new cloud, so far known as Asperatus.
Whatever it is, Buddy was pretty sure that it did not mean good things for the future. Then from the future tangent, we went on discussing the Chinese invading U.S, and other unimportant stuff.
Today, in addition to getting two (or four, whatever) new manga, I also got a checking account. The minimum deposit for said account is one hundred dollars. I now have one hundred dollars at my disposal on the internet. My mind is imploding through purchase possibilities that were previously limited. I could pay for Youmacon registration, bid on a broken 360, buy a shirt, buy cool impulse stuff...and if I was really high on weed, I could even get a WoW account...or worse...Final Fantasy XI. Or CoD4. Or L4D. Or ANYTHING. I need to plan this carefully...
And finally, for the downside of today, I went to register for the GED. Looking at the dates online, it seemed that I would be able to take it this Wednesday and Thursday. When we get to the registering facility, it turns out that they're booked until SEPTEMBER. HOLY SHIT. This will require creative negotiation with the people at ECC...meh, it's all good.
Anyway, I spent a moderate amount of time looking at random Failblog videos. So far, this is my favorite.
"He learned almost too late that man is a feeling creature, and because of it, the greatest in the universe. He learned too late for himself that men have to find their own way, to make their own mistakes. There can't be any gift of perfection from outside ourselves. When men seek such perfection they find only death, fire, loss, disillusionment and the end of everything that's gone forward. Men have always sought an end to our misery but it can't be given, it has to be achieved. There is hope, but it has to come from inside, from Man himself."
-Sent to me by AAA, for the umpteenth time.
Hey all.
Well, as some of you have already acknoledged, it is my eighteenth birthday today, and thank you to all the people who sent me those Otakupresents, I appreciate it. Schultzie, next time I see Adam, I'll petition a poptart gift. I think that would be rather popular. I know I'd use up all of my month limit sending them to myself. *shot*
Anywho, here are my birthday winnings thus far, in chronocological order. Ryu's Birthday Winnings in Chronocological Order Thus Far
-$100 American dollars from my Grandpa, so as not to confuse our Canadian friends with inferior currencies. *waves American flag*
-Two Jazz CD's from my Grandma, Branford Marsalis and David Sanchez. I'm listening to Mr. Marsalis now.
-A box of bunny dessert thingies from my aunt, quickly eaten by everybody around the table.
-A $50 American dollar check, also from my aunt. Because she loves me. :)
-A bag of Peanut Butter M&M's from my mom.
-A fancy watch from my dad, because it seems to be a tradition in the family to give the son a watch for their eighteenth birthday. Which is fine by me, I've been meaning to get a new watch for a while now ever since mine broke. I kinda wish he got me my old watch which I was really fond of, only twenty bucks from Target. Instead, he got me something really elegant, and I looked up the suggested retail price on the Bulova website...wow...dang...
-A small talk conversation from a friend from school, Jaz, who worked at the resturaunt I had the dinner at, which I had no idea she worked at. She keeps up the image at school that she despises me, so it was a fun change when my family saw her yell my name and give the rock on devil horn sign with her hand. She talked to me later when she wasn't so busy.
-Paid entry fee to the Mid-American race I went to today from my paddling partner Gareth.
-A insult from my friend Gerrit in the form of "douchebag", a 1liter Mountain Dew (measurement friendly to our Canadian Allies) and $20 American dollars.
What better way to have a birthday than to go to a canoe race, right? I went to the Mid-American race, which is a ten mile race from St. Charles to Aurora IL for those who are googlemaps curious. The race was all fine and good, we were in the last heat because we didn't preregister. Boat number 200, ripping across the waters. Because the heats were not ordered by class, we didn't really have anybody to race with because it was a mostly recreational event, and we're what can arguably be considered pro. But anyway, we had a good race, passing up all the stock boats and fun kayaks, and crossed the finish line strong, thinking that we may have even beaten a team we don't think we could beat. Well, we would never know, because all of the times got fracked. Hard. The race was very disorganized, and when the final times came in, I could not believe that we had gotten eighth in our class. Not being a sore loser, because there was undeniable proof all across the board that times were messed up. A team that I can beat by myself came in third, and a boat that had started two heats (eight minutes) ahead of us that we had caught and passed got a better time than us. Still, despite the minor frustration of not knowing the actual time, it was still a fun race, and not meant to be taken seriously in the first place anyway.
I had an idea in the chat room about an hour ago.
I have..."acquired"...Sims 3, and am having more than moderate enjoyment turning Ryu into a rockstar. With money cheats, course...I could never tolerate that game playing a broke Ryu. That's what real life is for. Anyway. After I get done advancing Ryu as far as I want, and decide I'm no longer interested in his family line, I would initiate my idea. My idea is to make an Otaku family, whose pictures and videos can be broadcasted through an unmade world called Sims 3: The Otaku Expansion. It's already gotten good reception in the chat room, so I'll go ahead and make the world sometime, requesting in the first post that people send me their inclination to be a OtakuSim, as well as a small SimBio; what they like, what they want to achieve in life, signature personality traits, and if desired, a picture of what they want to look like, whether they really look like what they submit or not. I won't start the actual family for a while, but I'll probably make the world tomorrow or so. I think Adam will automatically be in there, but not part of the main house. He'll be in a small shack, writing fanwords and hacking for money all day, whether he likes it or not. *sets Adam's role in stone*
Best Buy update: I went through two interviews, both went very well. I'm supposed to get a call confirming my employement any time now, but I'm very confident that I'll be getting the job. Score.
Damn, long post...now, for a little coincidence...my Sim also had a birthday recently, so enjoy my very fictionaly appearance in The Sims 3.
*EDIT*
AnimeArchAngel went through the great effort of making me this wonderful birthday video.
"All I ever need to do is be to true to myself. Then, I will be happy."
Ooh, uber-late night post...
A few good things happened today (May 27th). First good thing: I got a job interview at Best Buy on Saturday!! Moses passes to Ryu, Ryu shoots, HE SCOOOOOORRREESSSSSS!!!! Jesus didn't save after all.
...wow...
Anyway, really excited for that. I have a really good feeling about this, and I think I'll be able to advance myself a little further now that I can finally get things that I want.
Second thing was awards night. I sat next to Kat the entire time, so although it was long, we were able to entertain ourselves easily. There was an award called the Daughters of the American Revolution Award, and a boy won it. :O Kat won various good student high grades awards (and a cool sash), and I got the Louis Armstrong Award, which is given to aspiring jazz musicians. I'm not really much for awards, but it was still kinda neat. Another amusement game was randomly announcing myself for awards I didn't win in a Mexican soccer announcer voice.
"And the suprise third winner for Best Student Ever award goes to.....RODRIGOOOOOO.....GONNNNNNZALAAAAAAAAAAAZZZZZZ!!!!!!!!!"
That's a sweet name.
And onto anime...
I watched the eighteenth episode of Axis Power Hetalia, which is very funny, so I'm up to date on that. However, what really caught me off guard was this strange urge to watch Gravitation. I watched one episode on Tuesday, and I just finished the last episode. I know I wasn't sucked in for the romance, and I definitely know I wasn't sucked in by the gayness; I think I just really liked the music portion of it. Especially the first couple of episodes, where he does some really embarassing things onstage, things that made me wanna curl into a ball and die. It reminded me of my share of stage embarrasements...*shudder*
But what I think I really liked about it was that no matter how fucked up the love relationship got, everything still seemed to revolve around the music (thus the name Gravitation?) It made me really look forward to the new people I will meet when I go to college, the new musicians I'll play with, being part of something where I'll be able to play things how I want to play them, without it being some scheduled class that I don't really care about. To make it short, since this probably doesn't make a whole lot of sense, (it's late) it made me excited. Just watching it made me wanna lay down some new grooves on the bass, or just pick up my sax and start blowing. During high school, there were only a few moments where I felt that I was truly making music, and soon, it's gonna be a full time thing. I want to be ready. I wanna blow.
I can't wait.
Hey all.
I saw Star Trek yesterday. I thought it was alright, nothing life changing. They did a really great job with the special effects, and they actually obeyed some rules of space that Star Wars liked to break (no sound in space, stuff can't fall down in space, etc.) They had the usual pop up of lines and references to the television show, such as the random red shirt ensign dying immediately, catchphrases, as well as Spock. Spock from the television show came back as an older Spock from the future, and had a fun little conversation with Kirk when he met him the first time.
"You're not the captain in this time continuum?"
"No, you are."
I half expected Spock to say, "Now that's fucked up." His face kinda said it though. Later in the movie Future Spock talks to present Spock, and says, "I'd say my normal farewell (Live long and prosper) but I would find that to be oddly self-serving."
I handed in my application to Maciano's today, which is an Italian sit-down resturaunt not too far from my house. I asked if they actually had positions open, and suprisingly, she said yes. I got a good feeling from this. I have a number of things where money would come in handy, so I'd really appreciate this job.
Ryu's List of Things Where Money Comes in Handy
-Youmacon. I'd really like to go to it. I have to options for cosplay narrowed down, either Akira from Higashi no Eden (basically L with a jacket, boots, and tricked out phone, sans makeup) or Solid Snake in a Box.
-Xbox 360. I would love to have a PS3, but those are harder to fix when bought as is, which is what I would be doing with the 360. I've fixed a few, and my friend used to have a pretty steady income buying as is xbox's and selling them fixed, so he'll come in handy.
-Tattoos. It'll be sweet. I'll have a treble clef on my right forearm, and a bass clef on my left forearm.
-Rent. I really don't want to be living in the house I'm in right now when I go to ECC. I need to find a friend to split the costs with, but a job kinda comes first.
-Better PC and music stuff. Long term savings go into this stuff, though the sooner the better.
Last night was interesting. It started with a torturing MST3K chat (shut up Kat, it was bad) and into Higashi no Eden, with a whopping four people. Still fun. Then, into the lobby where I got sucked into a government/political science philosophy discussion with Allamorph, Malkav, and Indi. That was the smartest I've ever seen the Otaku lobby (I doubt that sentence is grammatically correct.) I really hope I didn't embaress myself; these two seemed to really know what they were talking about, and I was kinda bullshitting my way through. Now, if they started talking about morality of various things...THEN I would have been in a comfort zone. I love debates that never seem to have right answers. You could go on forever. Until you get interrupted by random funny comment, like last night, where Adam said,
"But you're missing one of the reasons why communism failed..."
"Your face?"
And now, a little out-of-school rejoicing picture. So glad I'm out...
"Some days you're a bug, some days you're a windshield."
Hey all.
I've decided that I won't graduate high school.
Instead, I'll be taking a GED, go to ECC (Elgin Community College) for about a year or two, get an associate's degree in music, then move onto a better college. The way I figured it, I can either take five tests over seven and a half hours, or, finish up about four units of online work, two semesters worth of essays, an overdue CST project, and two finals...yeah, I think I'll go with the GED. I gave my guidance counselor a cookie before I brought this up so that she'll be in a better mood (I would have given her more, but the CAD class raided the bucket) and she told me everything about going through with the process, all the while telling me to try and do the most I can with the work. It mostly killed me to see that she was more let down and stuff, she said I put so much work into getting here, and now I was just gonna kick it all to the curb and not get an actual diploma. But that's okay. The way I see it, if I look back at those four years and regret it all with a GED, then I'll end up with a shitty life. If I keep trying to get a diploma without believing that I can, I'll end up with a shitty next month. If I stay who I am, which is what I'm good at, get the GED, and just move on doing what I love to do, then I can't imagine anything being a detriment to my future. And besides, if I stay in this area, that means two more years of Acen! SCORE! I'll try and get an apartment, maybe share it with another friend that goes to ECC. I do not want to live on the farm anymore...do not...
On another note...
I got skype yesterday. I started watching Higashi no Eden yesterday (also known as Eden of the East on kumby.com...not sure why) Played video games for the first time since before Acen yesterday...went to friend's house yesterday to help him with computer problems and got a 2liter of Mountain Dew as compensation...I was also very very tired yesterday. For those who I haven't told already, I had two races over the weekend. The Aluminum Nationals was on Saturday, and the course was 14.2 miles (22.8 km for our Canadian allies...) We got first in juniors, and fourth in our heat, which was the Men's race. We could have gotten third, but I kinda screwed over the portage. The next day was the Des Plaines Marathon, which was 18.5 miles (29.7 km) and we won again. There was actually a timing mishap, and we were given second place awards, but they fixed it up later. Whatever. Just as long as I know the times and stuff.
Later we went out for sushi, and although I've been there and done that, I still have no idea what I'm reading when I'm looking at the menu. Anybody feel at a loss when at these places? You want to have the delicacy of sushi, but you want something to fill you as well and want meat or something...but you can only have one...
Anyway.
I'll try to finish up the rest of the current episodes of Higashi no Eden today, because it looks rather intriguing. Very bizarre, and really cool art...I like it...
This is just a funny comic for Ctrl Alt Del. Those that have ever played WoW should get a kick out of it.
