well, i’m glad to be back in Illinois again.

for those of you who didn’t know, i was down in St. Louis celebrating jwang07‘s birthday. happy birthday, jwang07.

one thing that i’ve learned on this trip is that casinos are broke, broke places. whenever i see one, i’m instantly reminded of the evil carnival in “Pinocchio.” a place where people willingly go and let others take their money, crush their egos and make asses of them. as if life didn’t do enough of that already.

and yes, i was scarred by “Pinocchio” as a child. i loathe that wretched story.

in St. Louis right now. it wasn’t what i remembered it to be. nothing but ten buildings and an arch. broke.

on the plus side, East St. Louis (right across the Mississippi) is one of the worst places to live in the states.

hoo-rah!

if you’re into dark/Japanese/zombie things, go check out Forbidden Siren for PS2. although i’m not terribly interested in the game itself, the site is well made and has a really eerie feel. it focuses on the lives of four individuals and their relation to the “Hanuda Incident” (which, unsurprisingly, involves zombies).

anyway, at one point in the site, this guy “IM’s” you (it’s an applet of some sort) and you can chat with “him.” it’s kinda cool, i guess. i wasn’t expecting it. anyway, here’s the conversation i had with it. (they gave me the name “shadowe.” for some reason.)

(for best viewing results, set language encoding to japanese (shift-JIS) and shake well.)

*** “kyoyaSuda” signed on at Tue Feb 24 14:1:47 2004.
kyoyaSuda: ƒA?A‚¿‚å‚Á‚Æ?A‚ ‚È‚½‚ÌEƒ??(ƒ‹ƒAƒhƒŒƒX‚͉½‚Å‚·‚©?B
shadowe.: hi
kyoyaSuda: Oh. Sorry.. Can I have your email address?
shadowe.: no
kyoyaSuda: I want to show you some of the stuff I found
shadowe.: booo
kyoyaSuda: You won’t receive any junk mail from me
shadowe.: uh huh
kyoyaSuda: If you give me your address, you can see for yourself
shadowe.: waaaakka
kyoyaSuda: I’m also not sure if the lengend is real
shadowe.: it’s spelled “legend”
kyoyaSuda: Hrmph. -_-;;
shadowe.: hrmph this
shadowe.: what a fobby chatbot
kyoyaSuda: If you’re not giving me your email, I’m going to leave now
shadowe.: foo!
kyoyaSuda: Well, you’re obviously not interested in what I have to show.
kyoyaSuda: Ja.
shadowe.: *shakes fist*
*** “kyoyaSuda” signed off at Tue Feb 24 14:4:35 2004.

man, i hate it when people look at my computer when i’m using it in a public area. mind your own freaking business! why you gotta be looking at my screen? is your food not interesting enough? yeah. i’m talking to YOU, mr. staring-at-my-monitor-while-half-heartedly-eating-chicken-wings. jeez.

by the way, i touched one of these last night. drool…

“ads that rock” #003

“make a new friend this year,” it says. most people who use online personals probably don’t have that many to begin with so the prospect of having a new friend within a year is probably pretty exciting. okay. i’ll give them that.

but wait! i spy another line of text! one that’s semi-transparent and partially obscured by George and Sylvia’s greasy and bulbous (respectively) heads. “online dating.” why are you hiding it?! isn’t dating the whole point of using personals? are you…ashamed?

take a close look at the lovely couple pictured. Sylvia seems to be your average american 20-something. but uh…if you look closely, she’s apparently wearing a wedding ring. uh…okay. whatever. she’s pretty buff, fairly attractive (besides what appear to be hairy forearms) and confident. George, on the other hand, looks like a cross between Gary Sinise and Grima Wormtongue from “The Lord of the Rings.” not exactly the prettiest combination in the world, but hey…love is blind, right?

so this is the message i get from the ad: there is a possibility that you can date a fairly attractive, confident, married, 20-something girl with hairy forearms who’s stronger than you even if you look like the offspring of Lieutenant Dan and an obscenely pale quasi-villain.

well, i’m sold.

have you guys ever tried Golden Delicious apples? if not, give ‘em a whirl. now i’m not a big apple fan by any means, but i was blown away when i tried it. it’s that good. er, at least i thought it was.

anyway, here are some suggestions for the next time you find yourself legally obtaining music.

Talib Kweli – get by
Binary Star – masters of the universe
Jurassic 5 – action satisfaction
The Herbaliser – when i shine

i wanna make a batch of “misfortune cookies” someday and distribute them to americanized Chinese restaurants. so after the Johnsons finish their authentic sweet’n'sour chicken and egg foo young, they can crack open their authentic fortune cookies and read some authentically bad fortunes. take that, Johnson.

it’s not even 10:30 yet and i’m already dead tired. my eyes are shot and my brain is numb. it’s cold outside. it’s pretty cold inside too. i’m going to drown myself in sleep. maybe i’ll feel better in the morning. or with any luck, i’ll wake up and not be here.

snore