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

Where's Curaga when I need it?

"If only we'd stop trying to be happy we could have a pretty good time."

Hey all.

In reference to the post title, I am quite sick today. I was most sick last night, when I went to bed at 7:00 PM, shivering like mad as I had two blankets wrapped around me, and my mom begging me to open a window or something because the room itself was super hot. Throughout the night was the scariest, as I tried to break the fever; I couldn't get to sleep, and I was hallucinating until I took a shower the following morning. One of my more amusing hallucinations was a nonexistant black spot about the size of a half-dollar on my wall. I called it Tom, and starting reciting poems to Tom, and tried to give Tom some water. It was really quite frightening; I still can't walk straight, and my head is in constant pain.
But let's forget about that.
Pre-mind-decimating illness, I went to orientation at Elgin Community College. Four hours of boring pain. I have to have my classes paid by the eleventh, and I can't register all of my classes yet because some of them require consent/audition from instructor. My english class is on waitlist. Looking at my schedule, it seems like I have very few classes in comparison to a normally full day of high school, so I have to switch my mindset to that college isn't supposed to be about discipline and obedience. Still, it's gonna be quite a push to get those classes registered; I was supposed to visit my grandma today with the costs of classes (it's the magical Full Ride Grandma scholarship, no application necessary!) but she's in therapy rehab right now after a particularly bad fall due to failure of her legs, and the weak paper-thin barrier known as her immune system wouldn't be able to handle my sickness. So now I'm kinda in a bind.

I watched the final episode of D. Gray Man at last, episode 103. W. T. F. It ends so badly. Now, in theory, there is supposed to be a season three, reason for break is that they're waiting for the ongoing manga to catch up, and rumors are that it will start back up in December. But they had a 'Fin' at the end of the episode, which I saw as a very bad omen.

Canadian gamers, rejoice, as the web series Pure Pwnage just announced that they will be starting a T.V show on The Showcase network in 2010. For those who have never watched Pure Pwnage, I recommend you do so. It is a very funny, satirical, and slightly fantastical series that revolves around gaming. Don't be discouraged about the crapiness of the first couple of episodes, it gets very funny. View the episodes and the announcement about TV series here at their website.

Tomorrow, I leave for Pennsylvania. I really hope I get better overnight, because I'm going there for USCA Nationals, where I should be able to win a few golds this year. From the looks of it, I'll be competing in four sprints, three marathons, and one race before the Nationals, and perhaps a biathlon. I really, really hope I feel better. It's a long car ride, and I don't want to get my partner sick either.

Very funny Monty Python-styled video.

My favorite bit:
"The only things out there are a sea, birds, and fish."
"And?"
"And twenty thousand tons of crude oil."
"And?"
"And a fire."

-Ryu

Say this five times fast: Death in Hi-Def.

Anecdote day! So, a friend of a friend walks into my room and sees a well known document replica framed on my wall that starts with the words, "We the People". He asks, "Why do you have the Declaration of Independence in your room?"
"...
...you are a dumbass. That's the U.S Constitution, dingleberry."
"Well how was I supposed to know that?"
"..."
"Is it authentic?"
o. m. g.
"QUIT FUCKING MY BRAIN WITH YOUR COCK OF STUPIDITY!!"

Hey all.
So Wednesday, was a really, really good day. I sold my dirtbike in the morning for 500 bucks, 250 of that went to me, other half went to my brother. I decided to splurge a little bit and get myself a much needed graphics card. I was able to find a really nice one (Nvidia 9600 GSO 768mb) for only 75 bucks on Tigerdirect.com, so I thought that was the best bet. I drove over to CompUSA/Tigerdirect (they're one and the same) and picked it up, as well as a 4gig flash drive for only 10 bucks. Me and my friend's McDonalds lunch cost more than a 4gig. CompUSA is my new favorite store. (they have 16gig for just over fifty! But I didn't want to get too crazy...) So we got home, installed it, and ran Unreal Tournament 3, since it was the newest and most graphical game I had. Previously, it ran laggy and terrible, and I had a bad time playing it. But, with shiny new graph card, I ran it at full settings, and it looked as smooth as glass. I had to cut my gaming time short, and go paddling. On my way back, I HAD to get Cod4, now that my pc could run it. Installed, switched the settings to highest, and played. MY PC CAN RUN COD4 AT FULL SETTINGS! HELL YEA! So that's the reason why I didn't post on Wednesday, I've been too busy gaming to function anywhere else.

Got to episode 90 on D. Gray Man. ALMOST THERE!

Leaving for a race in Wisconsin tomorrow evening. This will only be a practice race for Nationals, only seven miles, no big whoop.

Heh, Germany sang the Hetalia song....funny.

I watched this video, as favorited by Redjacketalchemis, so that's how I came across it. I don't know why I listened to all of it, I just did.

-Ryu

If at first you don't suceed, repeat failing process until the rest of the world adjusts to you.

"What is defeat? Nothing but education; nothing but the first step to something better."

Despite my extreme confidence in winning the race down in Arkansas, we lost and came in second. Behind by about ten minutes in a 120 relay race over three days.
I've long since gotten over the frustration of being beaten; in fact, I may have never had it in the first place, since I lost so many races in my first racing season. The way I figured it, I lost because I wasn't a good enough paddler as those that beat me, and that I can improve myself. Unfortunately, this race consisted of a four person team, and I'm afraid that I'm having a hard time blaming myself, like I usually do.
Hopefully, my confidence in my paddling partner will be restored in a few weeks, because we are racing together at Nationals for the C-2 Junior Mens race, and this will be our last year as 'Juniors' (I actually race Mens everywhere else; in fact, I'm the only junior to win the Illinois Mens C-2 Champion thingymajig). This really is our year; if all goes well, I could win most of the races I enter. Only thing I can do is keep training like I have been all year and improving more, and just hope that the other guy figures out that a shitty workout like paddling two times a week, only six miles each time, with a long rest in between, and only practicing sprints, won't do anything (minimum for us is 9 miles each workout, with little or no rest).

Sorry to bitch. I just took a 20 hour round trip, and paddle my brains out three exhausting days, to lose a race that we could have won.

Anywho.
Meant to finish up D. Gray Man before I went to Camp, but that didn't happen. I wanna wrap it up as soon as I can so I can get started on The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. There's also another anime that I have to find; I saw a web-based cartoon series based after it, but I can't remember what it is, and will have to go look back at the videos to find out. It's supposed to be really geeky, even to the point of D&D geek, so I might not even like it.

Still have to beat Persona 4. Blegh.

Played much Unreal Tournament 3. My crap PC can't really handle it to the potential I'd like it to be, but it's still sweeeeeeet.

Youmacon sent me back an email saying that I've been processed, and ready to ship to outer Detroit in late October. Somehow, that gave me the mental image of me cosplaying as a giant cheese roll. I don't know why.


We actually passed through a town called Oil Trough, Arkansas. With it's own Oil Trough watertower, Oil Trough Elementary, Church of Oil Trough. They seemed to be very proud of the Oil Trough name.

Wishing he had the fun of putting "Graduate of Oil Trough Elementary" on his resume,
-Ryu

Good morning, good morning!

"Cabbage: A familiar kitchen-garden vegetable about as large and wise as a man's head."

Hey all.
Long post comin your way...

So, for the past week, I was in Camp Michigania. I'm kinda in a time crunch right now, so I'll try to whiz through this as fast as possible.

Saturday- Got in the truck, left. Arrived, unpacked, ate dinner, when to the evening teens program, introduced myself under the alias of "Poptarts" (few learned my actual name) and went to bed to get ready for the first real day of Camp.

Sunday- Ate bacon. Lots of bacon. Proceeded down to boating (which is where I spent the majority of my time) and stayed there all day to get my sailing ratings (Butterfly, Skipper, Admiral, Hobie) as well as kayak a little bit (couldn't bring my canoes up, my aunt who was going to had to stay and look after my grandma who was hospitalized).

Monday- Boating. All day. My cousin finally came up, and suprised me by riding a Whaler out in the lake to me, where I was sailing a Hobie Cat. Winds were super high, I had already capsized once, and we flipped in again right before we were to go in. It took the staffers forever to get it back in (it turtled). The wind blew it a good mile across the lake while we tried to get it upright. I was kinda ashamed of my supposed incompetencey at sailing, and once I saw that they got the boat upright, wished that they would capsize trying to get it back to shore. They did, so I fealt bad, but satisfied. By this time, I was flying the Dai Gurren Brigade flag, and let me tell you, that thing was the worst luck in the world. If I didn't capsize (only 3 times) the wind would be moody or just sucky. It would look like I would win a regatta, then the wind would shift and I'd come in third. The. Worst. Luck. Ever. But it was worth it, all the way. Only one person came up to me, asking if I was the one with the Gurren Lagann flag. Nobody else got it, so I just introduced it as a pirate flag.

Tuesday- More boating again. I went to Ceramaics and started making my vase, which turned out really pretty. Amy, one of the staffers, helped me a lot with it, and was really excited for it. One of the days I walked into Ceramics I was wearing my "Licensed Chocobo Inbreeder" shirt, and she recognized the Final Fantasy reference, although not the VGcats. Apparently, she loves Final Fantasy, so I showed her my bracelet, which had a Cloudy Wolf on it, and she went fangirl all over it. I told her that since I usually get a rope bracelet from Boating on Friday, she can have it. She was elated.
I also went to Rock Polishing, which may sound lame, but is actually kinda cool if you get good at it. I polished some good rocks in previous years, but this one sucked. So I left.

Wednesday- Teen Regatta at boating. The staff were very ambigous with the course, and three of the boats, myself included, were all calling to each other on the water, trying to figure out where to go. I would have won if it wasn't for the unclear course, as well as a very unfortunate and sudden wind shift. Some of the other boats agreed that I should have won, because I had a better line set up before the wind shift. To prove it, we had an unsanctioned do-over, and I won. Still got third in the actual regatta, but whatever.
Played Karaoke Dodgeball at Teens. Ended up singing "Not that Innocent" By Britney Spears, as well as a little bit of Dancing Queen and Summer Lovin'.

Thursday- Classic Regatta. This is the race with the most boat turnup, and had two heat, so that people can do different boats. First heat, two cousins and I sailed a Hobie Cat, third boat in, eigth overall due to handicap. 2nd heat, one cousin and I, in a dinghy, came in eight overall again due to handicap (don't remember the actual place. It wasn't good.) Still fun.
Took beautiful vase out of the kiln. Amy was extremely excited to show it to me after it was ready, and even had it on a seperate table where she was looking at it while helping other campers.
At Teens, we executed my canoe race idea. Most of the teens did it, and they all did three to a canoe. I decided to choose some tiny 11 year old boy as my only partner, and we won. :D The course was rather interesting: we were to do a three legged race from the long barn to the Boating area (I just picked up the kid and ran) get in the canoes, paddle down to north beach (about a fifth of a mile) get out, do the Macarena, get back in, paddle back to Boating, get out, run up a hill and touch a flagpole and then pencilroll back down said hill (some idiot left his sail out to dry, so I steamrolled it) get back in the boat, paddle over to the swimming area (another fifth of a mile) sing three nursery songs, paddle back, and finish. Little dude in front didn't really paddle or anything, he was just weight in front, while I paddled like a madman in back. So it's all good.

Friday- Last day. I went to riflery range and shot two rounds, getting First Class (score 66 or better) on both. Pretty good, since I haven't shot a gun in two years. Ate lunch, went to boating, did Fun Regatta (kinda like the canoe race, whoever thought it up was on weed.) We start at boating, run to the Dining Hall in a zigzag line while wearing our lifejackets as diapers, get a glass of water, run down to boating, splash water into a staffers face, get in boat, and do the course. Everynow and then, they'll yell 360! to make it interesting. Also, just about everybody but me had fruit and water balloons to throw at people, so that was...exciting. Came in third again, no real excuse, just had a slightly worse line than other boats.
Kinda bided my time going to different areas of the camp, lolligagging around, more or less just waiting for the day to end. I went to both Last Chance Teen Dance (totallly not my thing) for teens, as well as the Keg n' Coke, which is where the adults get drunk and do skits. A few were funny, not many though. Remember, they're overeducated pansies drinking alcohol. It's not gonna be that great.

Saturday- Went home, bought registration for Youmacon, bought Unreal Tournament 3, and suffered a severe headache.

Sunday- Went to a new race early in the morning. 10 miles, came in first, went home. Made crappy movie, and adjusted myself to normality.

Today- (Monday got SKIP'D!) Packed a bunch of clothes again. I'm going to Arkansas today, for about six days. The venture scout race on the White River is this week, so I'm off to win a 120 mile relay race. It won't be an easy victory, but we have, like, a 5 win streak or something. And last year we set a new record. So there's no way we'd allow ourselves to lose.

Started experimenting with various programs to make AMVs. Could be fun.
This is my inspiration to start making AMVs.

Really want to watch Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, but want to finish D. Gray Man first.

Be back in a few days,
-Ryu

Camp Michigania

Just the vid I made from my vacation. I'll write up an actual account of what I did up there while this one goes up. Sorry for crappy editing/lack of descriptive content, I really just made this for the flag.
Which was...EPIC!

-Ryu