|
giggas
|
read my profile
sign my guestbook
Name: giggas
Birthday: 2/25/1982
Gender: Male
Interests: Who Cares
Expertise: Blah Blah Blah
Occupation: Artist
Industry: Entertainment
Message: message meEmail: email me
Jabber: What in Blazes is a Jabber
Member Since:
9/14/2004
|
|
| For those wondering about the Shamoozal, heres the rub.
On Monday our host pulled the plug on the Shamoozal. They gave us a month to either decide to stay with them and pay a ridiculous amount of money or leave. I did not tell them my plans and they decided to lock our site and take it down. At that moment I already had the new host set up and ready. Most of the files were already moved there, but Steve was moving the Nerdlog and the boards. For some strange reason, our provider put our site back up later that night, no idea why they did. However we already changed the domain to point to the new place where we have the splash page of the new logo and a note that we're moving. Domain changes take time to kick in, so it didn't do that until early this morning.
Now we're having problems getting the smorg to work properly. This new host has all sorts of ridiculous and stupid security issues and hurdles they force you to jump through to get anything to work. I haven't spoken to Steve yet, but chances are we might end up going with a different host than the new one I just got.
So yes, if it can go wrong, is has. Sorry.
| | |
| I haven't written in this blog in forever, especially since I'm now writing in the Shamoozal blog all the time. BUt the subject matter is different here, so I should still keep up with it here and there.
So my birthday was this weekend and I suppose I celebrated it all weekend, something I normally don't do. Friday night Demi and I went to Filomina's in Deptford. It's a little pricier then say Applebees, but we didn't go out for her Birthday or Valentines Day, so we decided to spend a little more than usual. Anyway, it was really good, and we ate so much damn food it was ridiculous. I had an amazing filet, and enjoyed every bite. After that we went home and put on The Officer from the night before since Dem has school Thursday nights.
Saturday I did a bunch of chores, some Shamoozal work, and went to Target with Dem. Of course I bought another video game I don't need, but it was 7 bucks so whatever. I played some Wii and at night I hit up Scott and Ryans house. There was all sorts of gaming going on. John and Scott beat the XMen Arcade game, then we fired up awful Time Killers, Street Fighter: The Movie: The Game, SF Alpha 3, and Goldenaxe 2. Then we moved onto the Wii, played a little DKC, Dungeon Explorer, Excite Truck and Wii Sports. Then they cranked out Guitar Hero and I aced a song on expert, leading me to believe it's an easier game than GH2, because I can't do anything on expert in that game. I only had a few beers because I'm an old man these days, but hey, I still had a lot of fun.
Sunday was my actual birthday. My Mom gave me some money to help me buy a new chair for my computer, to help my back pain. I got ready for the day and headed out to Office Depot to check out chairs. I sat in all of them, and none of them really stood out. There was this one for 300 dollars that was "supposed" to be good for lumbar support, but it didn't feel that much better to me. It was basically 100 dollars more then the other ones because you can adjust it in a million ways. I decided I didn't want to get a new chair because a chair will not cure my back. I just need to start going to the doctors again and see if there is anything else I can try. Since Office Depot is next to Toys R Us I figured I'd take a stroll over and check some stuff out. They had these Rocky figures but there was no Rocky! I was dissapointed to say the least. Of course I did what I shouldn't have done and looked at video games.
I was on my way out and I spotted a clearance table and everything on it was 10 dollars.. Not good. I mulled over the table and the only thing I thought was a good deal was Gunstar Heros for GBA, but I already own that. Then I spotted Metroid Prime Pinball. I have never owned a Pinball game in my life, and but it was only 10 bucks. I thought "I just bought a game yesterday and have a million others to play." I was about to put it back then I saw "Rumble Pack included." That's where I couldn't control myself. Ever since I saw Elite Beat Agents sported rumble support I've wanted to try it out. However, buying a rumble pak alone is 10 bucks, and I refuse to spend 10 dollars on a rumble pack that probably sucks and I'll end up never using. However, that AND a game... even if it's pinball it's still Metroid... well, it was worth it. Anyway I was ashamed of myself and I hid it in my car so Demi wouldn't see that I bought another game. I'll just slip it into my collection and pretend like I always owned it.
So I went home chairless, and spent the day being rather lazy. My sister bought me some new tshirts (sort of as a joke) and the movie Groundhog Day, which I was just saying I wanted to buy. My brothers got Dem and I a gift certificate to some resturant in Washington Township. I never heard of it but I hear it's fancy, so I'm looking forward to that. Demi didn't give me anything this year. Well, she ordered me stuff but it hasn't come in yet, so it'll be cool to have a few goodies roll in whenever. I enjoyed a great dinner that night and had some cake, and that was basically that.
And now, it's time for work.
| | |
| Obviously one of my biggest passions in life is a love for video games. Today it dawned on me that the one thing I really want to do in some form is work in the field, but I probably never will. I went to school for 3D Animation, with the goal of trying to work at a game studio. I didn't enjoy 3D animation like I thought I would and that's why I stuck with traditional animation. As it turns out, I never really went with my original goal.
The thing is, I don't think I really want to work for a game studio anyway. All I hear are horror stories, which is another thing that helped turn me away from that field. But I still have this strong desire and passion for them.
I basically read about video games all day. I follow all the major platforms and frequent about 6 different game sites daily. I love to write about video games as well. Last night on the Smorg, a user named Dante claimed he didn't dig the Wii to much anymore. Before I knew it, there was like a 2 page essay on why he should enjoy his purchase. Even our podcasts, I would say are 50% video game related. Two of my Shamoozal cartoons are video game related.
A few months ago I thought about taking the Shamoozal in a different dirrection. Sometimes, I still think about it. Guitar Zero was our biggest success, bigger than Ninja. Stroopid Test was succesful in a way through word of mouth. It was scattered across many different message boards and is like a "secret hit" of the site. I'm not a very strong writer, but I do know video games really well.
I know that for a fact, if I decided to make Shamoozal a video game related site, it would be five times more popular within a three month span. I can't seem to find a core audience with the current content, and it's just not updated enough to really keep people coming back. I even ran this thought by Frank before, and he kind of seemed against it. The thing is, that's where my stregnth lies.
Who knows, there could be a major restructuring in the future. I just know I want to somehow write about video games.
| | |
| So this morning I woke up at 5 with a pounding head ache. I tried to go back to sleep for another hour and a half (I usually wake up at 6:30) but my head hurt to bad. I got out of bed at 5:30 and decided to get to work earlier then normal so I could come home earlier. I leave the house at 6:30 and I get here at flipping 8. There was a huge accident and I was going nuts. Why is it the day I actually come in early I get here late? Bullshit. I was seriously flipping out, then I saw what was left of the wreckage and realized that someone probably died, and I felt pretty bad about going ape. There was a huge pool of blood in the middle of the street... real thick and chunky blood. I imagine a head landed there. Poor soul. So... yeah, I felt bad.
Anyway, switching gears completely, Demi and I had a really good time in Japan. I didn't think I was going to, but I actually kind of miss it already, and I generally hate the city. I'm sure most of you already read what I had to say about Tokyo over at the smorg, so I'll try not to repeat myself to much here.
After the insane plane ride we arrived at the hotel and basically crashed for the night. It was the first time I slept in about a day, since I didn't sleep on the plane ride. Our room was nice, we had a huge king size bed, and a decent amount of space. The toilet was crazy to, with all sorts of different options to spray your ass... I kind of liked those functions and will miss them. Hahaha. Our tiny fridge was stocked with drinks, but it was basically 5 bucks for anything you drank, and they would refill it the next morning. Needless to say, we didn't drink a lot from the fridge, but it came in handy a few times. We had an amazing view of Tokyo from our room, with Tokyo Tower in the distance. It was really cool.
The next morning we decided to figure out how to use the subway system. The map of the subway is insane, and at first glance your brain basically falls out of your head. Demi didn't know where to go in particular, but I knew I wanted to check out Akihabara, aka Electric Town. So we plotted our course for Akihabara and after the help of an American local, we were on our way. We walked around for a while and wondered into this one building that looked kind of cool. Before I knew it, we had spent well over 3 hours in the one building. It was basically a mega Best Buy. The first flood was all computers, the second camera equipment and printers, the third TVs, and so on and so forth. The coolest floor was the 6th, which was their video game, DVD, CD and collectible toy floor. Basically, it was a nerd paradise. It blows that everything cost so much money, because I would have bought a lot of stuff. It's probably better that I didn't. We wandered the city until around 5 that night, and finally called it quits. We were so beat, and screwed up from the time change we were in bed by 8.
Tuesday we wanted to speak with Guest Relation people in the hotel about possible tours we could take. We did that first thing in the morning and the dude gave us info on this all day tour of Tokyo. We booked the tour for the next day. In the meantime, we didn't really know what to do. Demi wanted to check out a district called Ueno, which was next to Akihabara. We found out there was a zoo there, along with a few museums. After the train ride, we walked Ueno for an hour or so trying to find the zoo. The zoo was located in Ueno park, which was really awesome to walk around in. When we finally found the zoo, we found out it was closed for the day. We headed to an art museum which was only a few minutes away. At the museum, you paid per gallery. We went to the gallery that caught our interest and paid a few dollars. It was kind of beat, so we didn't look at any other galleries. Then we tried to go to a National Museum, and it turned out that was closed for the day as well. We walked the park a bit more, and then headed to the streets of Ueno. By the days end we somehow managed to wander back to Akihabara by mistake, and ended up spending another hour or so there. Once again we were so beat we ended up going to sleep really early.
Wednesday was probably the best day of the trip. It was an all day tour from 8 - 6. The first stop was Tokyo Tower, which was awesome. You could see Mt. Fuji in the distance. According to the tour guide, this is the only time of year you can see Mt. Fuju from the tower. After that we headed to a Shinto Shrine, Japans main religion. The walk to the shrine was awesome, with huge torris (the red things from Ninja if you don't know) and all sorts of new years decorations. There was a huge wall of barrels filled with saki that were donated to the temple. I don't know who is going to drink that shit when they take it down, but it looked like enough booze to get the whole city smashed.
When we actually got into the temple, the guide showed us how the Japanese throw money into this donation box and how they pray. Everyone in the tour group took part in it, but I felt a little strange about doing it. Afterall, it's not my faith and I felt as if I was making a mockery of their religion by being some stupid tourist pretending to do what they do. There was a huge taiko drum in the building and once in a while someone from the shrine would come out and pound on it, which was really cool.
Then we headed to the Imperial Palace, which is only opened 2 days out of the year, but you're allowed to walk the grounds and one of the gardens. It was amazing, I never saw anything like it. When we were done that we went some place and had a "traditional' Japanese style lunch. This was the hardest part of the day. I didn't want to offend them, so I tried to stomach as much of it as I could. I seriously thought I was about to throw up on the table... I tried my hardest to like the food but I couldn't. Demi loved it though, so that was good. Then I got yelled at for the whole chop sticks thing... so by that point I just wanted to leave. It was the worst meal I had there the entire time. But at least I gave it a fair shot.
After the meal we went to some demonstration about how some place cultivates pearls... I didn't really care about that part to much. Then we took a boat ride through Tokyo bay, which was really cool. Finally we ended up at a Budist Temple in Asakusa. Once again we were shown how they pray and what to do, but because of how I felt in the Shinto Shrine, I decided not to take part in it, and I felt better about it. The temple was awesome though, and it was surrounded by what seemed like hundreds of tiny shops. It was busy as hell, but really awesome. We actually decided to leave the tour at that time (it was basically over anyway) and stick around in that area. We got in at around 7 that night and actually went to bed a little later then previous nights.
The next day we had the tour of the Ghibli Museum planned out. That wasn't until 12:40, so we had the morning opened. We ate breakfast at our hotel, and explored the hotel a little bit. They had a small art gallery and a huge garden to walk through. The Ghibli Museum was the only thing we did where we had to leave Tokyo, but we had a guide who did everything for us so it was easy. I don't think I would have been able to get there on my own. The museum was awesome, and easily one of the highlights of the trip. The building looked like something out of one of their movies. There were rooms done up to look like Miyazaki's working spaces, filled with original boards and illustrations from his films. There was one room full of just backgrounds from some of the newer films, and they were amazing. It's crazy how every background is a work of art, even if you only see it for half a second. Miyazaki apparently refuses to go digital, so all the work is still hand painted and the animation still done on cells. It's such a hardcore and awesome work ethic, these guys are masters of their craft, without a doubt. I was totally blown away. We even got to watch two exclusive shorts made just for museum goers. Usually you only get to see one, but we were lucky enough to see two for some reason. I heard it was a New Year special. All in all, it was amazing.
Friday was our last full day, we decided to hit up the zoo again. This time it was open, and it was cheap! Only 6 dollars to get in... we were expecting it to suck, but it was really cool. It wasn't as big as the Philly zoo, but it was different enough, and had animals I never saw in my life. I swear they created them just for the zoo, hahaha. You could get really close to a lot of the animals, some animals weren't even caged! There was just this owl flying around at one point. Then there was this insane bird creature that we didn't think was real until it flipped out on some dude. It seriously looked like a raptor. After the zoo, we discovered another shrine right next to it and spent some time exploring there. Around 5ish, we hit up Akihabara one last time. We did really good with money for the week and I didn't buy anything for myself. I didn't go crazy, but I bought a handful of things that caught my eye. That was the night I discovered Super Potato, the best video game store in the world. I wish I video taped it, because even if I go back to Japan, I highly doubt I'll be able to find it again. It was just tucked away in some busy alley.
And that was basically our trip. My feet are so damn tired, I never walked that much in my life. I could have sworn I lost weight, so I came home and weighed myself. Turns out, I didn't lose any weight at all.
| | |
| I can't believe today is my last day in America for a week. I have never traveled outside of the country before. Heck, I barely have traveled anywhere before!
I'm not looking forward to tomorrow. Demi told me last night that the plane ride is 18 hours long. That's insane! I thought it was 14 hours! Once we get off the plane, we have to find the bus and have a two hour ride into Tokyo. So it'll probably be about 3 hours before we get to the hotel, check in, and all that jazz. I'm kind of scared, I have no idea what is going to happen. I haven't learned enough Japanese! Anyway our weekend is basically shot, because when we arrived in Japan it'll be 5 oclock on Sunday, so by the time we get to the hotel it'll be 8pm. I'm hoping that we'll sleep correctly so that when we get to the hotel we won't have a problem going to sleep and we'll fall right into the time change. But basically my weekend turned into one day and it's spent on a plane.
I think once I get over the whole culture shock and figure out a few key things (and get to the hotel) we'll have a good time. Apparently we can plan tours at our hotel, at least, that is what the website said. I'm going to have a survival kit on me at all times when we leave the building. It'll contain maps, and guide books.
This is going to be an adventure. Wish us luck.
| | |
|
