joshamp

Poohbear

2005-10-08T03:07:15Z

Poohbear: April 15, 1989 - October 7, 2005. It has been a really tough day.

TV!

2005-09-24T00:23:24Z

"ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT" AND "MY NAME IS EARL" ARE BOTH VERY VERY FUNNY!!!

A++++++++++++++++ WOULD DO BUSINESS WITH THEM AGAIN!

HA HA!

...

2005-08-31T20:36:02Z

This whole hurricane katrina thing is just so surreal and horrifying. There is an article up on foxnews about economic impact of Katrina only being limited, but what the fuck, New Orleans looks like its been completely destroyed???

Sweet!!!

2005-08-30T16:29:54Z

I just noticed that Undeclared was released as a DVD box set!!!

Update DS

2005-08-30T00:12:29Z

I am now free of dead pixels. In fact, all my pixels are alive and well. The folks at Target we're very helpful about the whole thing.

Dusk asked in comments in the last post, and the answer is "No, I did not buy Nintendogs." The DS-straw-that -broke-the-camel's-back for me was Advance Wars DS. And I have spent the entire day thinking about when I can get home and continue playing it. It's digital crack in it's purest form. Pure fun.

This week's Netflix Queue:

Sahara, Seed of Chucky, The Jacket. Based on what I've read, The Jacket might be good (I'm a fan of 12 Monkeys and Jacob's Ladder), and I'm hoping the first two can at least be fun although I expect both to be pure crap. I guess it's good my expectations are set low?

Nintendo DS

2005-08-28T18:21:56Z

I'm only going to buy one Nintendo DS in my lifetime, and the one I buy has a dead pixel. :\

Hope I can return it.

Netflix

2005-08-26T16:46:13Z

Last few Netflix choices:

The Ring Two - This is a sequel that definitely did not need to be made. Given how stuck up Naomi Watts tends to sound in interviews with "finding the right script" and not "compromising her integrity as an actor" I'm surprised she returned to make this one. It must have been the money. The reason I liked the first movie so much is because it wasn't quite like those other retarded "J-Horror" flicks that are just so stupid and baffling. It had a mystery, it was almost part-detective flick with a false sense of satisfaction that the mystery was solved. The second film was like, "Hey we should do more of that!" while letting Hideo Nakata do some of his crappy un-suspenseful sequences. The "detective film" part of this movie, the unveiling of the mystery of Samara, it all seemed like it was pulled out of thin air.

Control Room - Documentary about Al Jazeera. Awesome flick!!! If you need more reasons to hate the American government's current administration, go no further!

Hero - I put this in, saw the opening monologue of Jet Li about being "Nameless" and shit and ejected it and put it back in my mailbox. If I wanted to read for 2 hours I'd buy a book. No idea why I added this to my queue, but wish I had taken it off before they mailed this out to me.

Thanks Nodachi!!!

2005-08-25T17:43:40Z

Thanks to that game you linked me to, every time I hear galvanize I now have a visual of ultraman marching in place and that dinosaur DJ flinging records at me!!!

Radiata Stories

2005-08-25T15:56:26Z

Should I buy Radiata Stories or no?

Google Talk

2005-08-24T14:58:56Z

Google just released instant messaging client. Is anyone using the new service yet? I want to get you on my friend list!

Impressive Weekend So Far

2005-07-24T01:01:39Z

1 x Fafnir (1 x Ridill)
4 x Alastor Antlion (4 x Rostrum Pumps)
1 x Failed DL Attempt (40 x dead people)

We got DL to 50% health though ^^

Poohbear

2005-07-21T05:39:57Z

Any dog that has lived 16 years has had a good run. For that dog to be a part of my life since I was 8 years old, I honestly can't imagine life without him.

Over the last few years, he's gotten slower, he's lost his vision, he's had his fights with a few odd infections and diseases. But he was OK. In retrospect, he was just growing older. It finally hit me tonight that over the last few weeks, this is no longer the case - he's not growing older any more, he's fading away. He's losing interest, he's not standing up anymore, he doesn't even care where he's going to the bathroom. I'm now worrying myself silly with the idea that I might have to make a difficult decision - as opposed to my once-dreamed upon hope that he would pass away quietly in his sleep 2-3 years from now and I wouldn't have any psychological issues from it.

When I finished taking him outside tonight I gave him a new chew toy and he actually attempted to wrestle it away from me playfully in a bit of tug of war. He even stayed standing. It was this little puppy-like act that has depressed me so much. I can hear him in the other room munching on it while I'm writing this.

So here is the dog of the hour in all his glory. A set of pictures from late 2002.

Poohbear getting tacklehugged by me:

"bah where are all those flashes coming from?":

Tug of war:

Poohbear ready for his closeup:

I still don't think I'm going to be prepared for the day he disappears.

Nine Inch Nails "Only" Video

2005-07-07T01:13:35Z

The "Only" video for Nine Inch Nails is out.

To watch:

- Go to http://video.msn.com/
- Click on Movies - Music on left hand side
- Click on Music: Rock
- It should be on the page a couple rows down

The video was directed by David Fincher of Fight Club and Se7en fame, so it's pretty fucking genius.

NIN Rankings

2005-07-05T06:59:36Z

How I would rate Nine Inch Nails albums amongst each other:

1. The Downward Spiral
2. The Fragile
3. With_teeth
4. Pretty Hate Machine
5. Broken

I really like his latest album, in fact I really like them all, just not as significant to my life as TDS and The Fragile were when they were first released. I'm eager to see him perform in the stadium tour this fall.

The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap

2005-07-01T16:28:54Z

128 Figurines out of a total of 130 so far.

And only 21 more people to fuse kinstones with.

I'll update with a final progress and a review when I wrap everything up :x

Hello

2005-06-07T03:47:33Z

I finished Haunted last night. The ending wasn't particularly fantastic... but the stories as stand alone entities were. I was still impressed though with the way the short stories were threaded together by a main storyline.

My favorite stories were....

Dissertation by the Missing Link (probably my favorite, love the x-files shit)
The Nightmare Box by Mrs. Clark
Slumming by Lady Baglady
and Foot Work by Mother Nature

Thoughts:
I would have to say that Exodus by Director Deniel was _the_ most fucked up story, as well as the grossest, in the entire collection.

Punch Drink was such an unofficial continuation of Fight Club, I loved it.

And BTW - what exactly was stomping people in Civil Twilight?

All Palahniuk books are great, some better than others. Here is the obligatory Joshamp personal ranking now (1 being my favorite):

1. Survivor
2. Lullaby
3. Fight Club
4. Diary/Haunted
5. Invisible Monsters
6. Choke (which I coincidentally could never finish reading but really should).

Great Week of FFXI

2005-05-31T16:41:22Z

The last week on FFXI has been great and exciting. Killed a lot of various Notorious Monsters this week including Jormungand, Tyrannic Tunnok, Ungur, Lindwurm, Pelican, and Xolotl.

Also squeezed in Dynamis-Beaucedine, 2 merits, and a CN escort run for giving some EXP to my SMN.

Cliffhangers

2005-05-26T17:11:52Z

There were two shows last night that I was looking forward to seeing. One I am super-hyped about (Lost), and the other I was just at a regular level of hype about (Alias).

In the end, the Lost finale managed to really disappoint me. They promised to answer some old questions why opening the doors to new one. Last night - only new doors were opened - nothing was resolved. It's like a half undressed hot girl rubbing against your crotch for 45 minutes then she's like "I'll come back in 4 months, maybe."

Alias on the other hand. Like... Wow. Total fucking wow. I guess by the end of the episode I figured they had wrapped up and solved everything and wasn't expecting the last 60 seconds to go down like they did.

If you want to know... *SPOILER ALERT*
.

.
.

....

......

OK so... Sydney and Michael are driving down a road. Usual gushing "I love yous" and Michael then says "Which is why I need to tell you this"

"Do you think it's a coincidence that I was the one you met when you came into the CIA to tell us about SD-6?", Sydney with a brainless "Well what do you mean? What are you trying to tell me?" He then says "Well, first off, my name isn't really Michael Vaughn."

And then *BAM*. Not *BAM* the credits roll, *BAM* like a SUV plows into the side of their car, then credits roll.

Guys...

2005-05-25T05:07:49Z

Jack Bauer is a fucking COWBOY.

Best 24 ending EVER.

OMG that was awesome.

Question

2005-05-17T17:50:37Z

FFXI demo video for Xbox 360 - Where is this place?

Click on "Gameplay Footage 2" here http://www.gamespot.com/x360/rpg/finalfantasy11/index.html

CDs That Are Good Start to Finish

2005-05-13T08:35:09Z

Not all CD's can be played from start to finish without the need to forward through one of the tracks.

This is the list of such CDs that have been released in the last 36 months or so:

The Postal Service - Give Up
ATB - No Silence
Ferry Corsten - Right of Way

And now - within the course of the last week, I found two more:

Nine Inch Nails - With Teeth
Kasabian

Hope these last two hold up well over time.

Wow....

2005-05-11T04:50:56Z

Another screenshot here, and here.

Joss Whedon Is Brilliant

2005-05-04T23:09:05Z

I finally picked up the Firefly DVD set and am in the process of watching through it. I'm a big fan of Joss's other two masterpieces, Buffy and Angel, and had never seen a single minute of this program before buying the DVD set.

Now that I'm watching it through, I'm very sad the show got cancelled, even though it was cancelled a good 2 years ago.

I think it all works out in the end though, when I'm done with the episodes on the DVD, it will be like going to summer TV hiatus break. When fall comes back, I'll have a fresh new "episode" to watch in the form of a big budget movie adaptation of the show.

Who would figure a tv show can get cancelled after airing 11 episodes, and then gets turned into a major movie 2 years later? It can only happen to a Fox show folks.

Events of the last week

2005-05-04T19:40:25Z

So the last week for me was interesting. I've been having headaches *every day* and my vision has gotten a bit blurry over a very short period of time (like 2 weeks).

So I go to see the doctor on Wednesday, doctor wants me to get a CT scan of my brain, I go to the CT scan people under the impression that I wouldn't get an appointment on the same day and they somehow rush me in for doing the scan a few hours later.

I come back at 3 p.m. do the CT scan, it was very quick (and noisy). Technician asks me "I need you to wait in the lobby." I ask back, "Why what's next?" and she responds "I don't know what's next" <--wtf kind of answer is that?

So I go in the lobby, pretty worried, and they call my name a few minutes later and are like "You need to go back to see your doctor immediately." Getting even more worried now.

Go back to my doctor's office, the lobby is packed now and you know how Doctor's visits are, tons of waiting. I tell them I'm back, was told to see my Dr. a second time unexpectedly, "Please have a seat." I'm sitting all of 3 minutes when they call my name again, wow they rushed me! That causes me to worry even more.

I go sit in the room, doctor shows up like 5 minutes later, and tells me "We found an abnormality on your CT scan results, and we'll need you to get an MRI so we can find out more" Ok, I'm FREAKED OUT right now. "Don't worry, it's not a brain tumor!" Whew, OK, still freaked but not as much. So i ask the obvious question, "What can be on my brain that's not a brain tumor?" Doctor replies with "Well it could be nothing, it could also be a blood vessel, but we just want to check to make sure you are alright." I think "blood vessel" is a Doctor's way of saying "aneurysm" without getting a patient freaked out. Again, still freaked out...

Anyhow, had my MRI's the next day, 24 hours of waiting hell. Had to wait 24 hours for my results, also hell. Got my results and they are like "We didn't find anything wrong with your brain". Whew, I'm relieved.

End of my story, everything is fine, and as the joke is now going they found "nothing" up there in my head :)

Strangely, after over 2 weeks of being there, the headaches have gone away.

So....

2005-04-26T06:33:33Z

What is my good friend Ikari supposed to do with this?