Cin's little rant space

You know what?.......

2009-11-17T21:08:38Z

At some point in life I'm actually going to go into a crowded area in the middle of a Saturday afternoon, point at the sky and then shout out aloud, "HOLY SHIT! There's a BALL OF FUCKING FIRE 1,300,000 time the size of Earth, RIGHT THERE!!!" and then see what happens. I mean yeah, we just label it 'The Sun' and then carry on with our lives but when you think about it, it is pretty amazing that something like that exists so close you and pretty much everyone just seems to phase it out.

Sometimes when life is down, I feel a lot of frustration, anger or disappointment and curse the world and its inhabitants (9:30 - 18:00, Monday to Friday and sometimes on weekends) it's kind of a nice to look at things from another perspective. I mean for a different perspective watch this:

When you realise something like VV CEPHEI according to astronomers you come to the conclusion either science is bullshit or that things are so vast it can only be quantified by the existence of celestial beings or that things are so things are so grand in the scale of things that nothing really matters. I know you could choose to think of that statement that life is pretty pointless but then by that same token all the negative things in life are pretty pointless as well so you might as ride neutral wave it creates and enjoy it. I mean no matter how big celestial bodies within the heavens are, it doesn’t change the fact I’m still big enough to take candy away from small children.

The penny FINALLY drops

2009-11-09T22:28:52Z

I Know I sometimes make the most random posts about the most mundane topics but I felt this revelation was actually worth highlighting because of its history.

I’ll start at the beginning, (a very good place to start). Back before Sweatdrop, before MUJS, before anime cons and hell even before the Super Nintendo there was one anime in 1992 that pretty much pulled me into the scene I live by today. I know Thundercats, Cities of Gold and a English dubbed Laputa came before it, but there this series so ground breaking, its influence pretty much directly lead to my current state in life. The anime in question was Ranma ½, it was the first series I ever saw and was so good I started looking for more anime afterwards. However it wasn’t the characters, the humour or the animation that drew me in at first. There was one 1:32 segment I saw midway through a 4 hour VHS that made me want to watch the rest of the series and it was this:

Equal Romace - Coco

This was by the standards at the time unreal, I had no idea what Japanese music as the bastard who taped this series basically cut out the opening and ending songs except for this one song. After hearing it this I rewound that tape again and again to hear it. Now keep in mind I watched the whole thing in Chinese in 1992 and chances are my understanding of the Japanese written language was about as good as your Latin (except for those of you who actually speak it) but I came to understand that Doco was a group made up of 5 of the female voice actors from the series. That the group was responsible for a number of themes with Ranma ½ (mostly the OAV’S) but Equal romance was still my fav song. However here's what I heard sometime later.

The above video was a few years later when there was an OAV which basically had the Doco girls singing the same song within the actually show. Now I never figured this out, but when they sang it there was something slightly amiss which I couldn’t put my finger on. It was basically slight worse than I remember but I choked that down to it maybe being recorded differently or the girls singing alone as opposed to a group. As time past I forgot about it but whenever I heard the song (and it was quite frequently since it’s still on my playlist) that feeling would always come back but I never took time to look into it. Whenever I looked at sound tracks some would label the artists as ‘Doco’ and some ‘Coco’ so I just assumed it was a translation error.

16 years, 4 videos on youtube and a wiki search later I finally figured it out.

THEY ARE TWO DIFFERENT GROUPS! Coco and Doco are actually two different Japanese girl groups and Coco was actually the first Japanese group that I ever heard.... I had no idea they even existed before today! This is one of my most fav and most memorial songs, how the hell did I not figure this out sooner?!?! this is the paranoia and nagging feeling I’ve had that for 17 fucking years >_<. I know this post isn’t as relevant to life and good reading as normal but dear god I’m an fucking idiot somtimes.

Oh well while I’m here may was well do the whole life update. Life sucks, jobs sucks, very tired and my goals in life are still a) return to Japan with the ability to speak Japanese and b) Drink coffee until I obtain super human powers.

Breaking the Habit

2009-10-08T23:41:41Z

In the last few years I have to admit my life was kinda static. I had a good circle of friends, did pretty much what I wanted, was clear of debt and had a stable job. Although life is good it always seemed a bit lacking. I remember it was a year a so ago I had a on-line converation with Faye where I pretty much outlined that I didn't really have that spark for life anymore and wanted it back. Although i had no idea how to get it and in short life seemed for lack of a better term, a bit pointless.

I went to Japan and found it. I found that there was a better way of life, that I could find happiness from things like looking at mountains or playing around in the sea. Basically I enjoyed Japan so much that my overall goal for now is to go back and for the last 6 months that has pretty much been the supporting factor in my life.

Tonight however I have to say was awesome. It was the first time in maybe a few years where I met up with strangers and hung out with them (via bob's birthday bash). I met people I knew and people I didn't know and actually had a chance to talk with them, find out that we have common interests and basically make an ass of myself in front of people with a mircophone and backing track. I think tonight really showed me that although life was good it can be better and I honestly think the whole concept of meeting new people, chatting and just having fun in absurd ways with other people having fun in absurd ways is something that I left behind. it was a feeling I had when I first joined the soceity or when I went to cons and everything seems to be interesting. I actually want to go and meet the new people in the anime soceity now, get to know people I don't know better and generally see if there is further enjoyment I can squeeze out of life.

Although now I have to master the fine art of remembering people's names now instead of saying "hey!.... it's ....er....you!". Also I want to sing more.

Today....

2009-09-28T22:56:18Z

Ok this morning I woke up late for work from around 3:40 hours of sleep. My hair was a mess, I didn't have time shave or shower and my office clothes were kinda thrown together from a collection of items which barely escaped the laundry basket. Work was pretty dire and soul destroying and I found out I have slightly less money than I had thought with more things to pay for that I planned. Zombied my way through the day with lack of energy, food and a slight cold. Got to briefly meet up with MUJS friends, had a meal which left me wanting more and ended up leaving the J-pop night in the club slightly earlier than I had really wanted. I did however manage to talk in brief with a few friends.

All in all today was pretty awesome and made me smile ^_^.

Tokyo Magnitude 8.0

2009-09-20T01:46:19Z

I can't even remember who is was now but I'm sure I read a friends' LJ post advising that they had started watching this series and out of curiosity I looked up the first 11 episodes I could find..... turns out there were only 11 in total anyway. I have to admit I had downloaded the first 9 with no clue as to what the series was about except a spalsh advertisement screen and the title, so my guess of the story was 'Big earthquake hits Tokyo'. I guess I don't know what I was expecting but guess it was something along the lines of Resident evil.... but without the zombies. I wasn't even sure if there would be guns and any form of combat in it.

To cut a long story short I made it to episode 8 and there were no guns, no high speed rescues or major death defying moments. It was mainly just 3 characters who were barely likeable walking alot. That's it. I'll admit the art style isn't something I'd normally go for and episodes 1-6 were watched mainly just to pass the time without impressing too much but I decided to carry on watching. There are series which start off slow and pretty uninteresting but thent end up being amazing, One Piece did it, Last Exile did it and I'm glad to say this did it.

The characters start off almost unrealistically set in there ways. There's the miserable character, the chirpy one and the protective mother/big sister type and for a while it's pretty annoying to see them act this way. But I think the turning point is when they finally break out of that mould. The character they put up finally collapses and they more or less break down. You find that that attitude and character is just something they put on show while in fact they are pretty real and scared to death. The climax of the series is simple touching. No special powers or crazy events, no characters that are special/gifted and no fantastic subplot. I don't think I even laughed once during this whole series. At the heart of this show is just a really good story about real people, not just characters made up to entertain.

I can’t say this is the best series I’ve ever seen, I can’t even say as a whole it was that exciting or entertaining, but I can say it was worth it. Sometimes you just need a story to remind you about the merits and challenges of life as opposed to fantasy. I do highly reccomend this series just to remind you about the world and people around you above all else.

Life Lessons (Warning: wall of text ahead)

2009-09-13T02:42:09Z

You know, I never really considered myself the smartest person in the world (no this is not another post about the woes of IT support) but at the same time I think for a good deal of my life I have known people I would classify as stupid, so I at least know I'm not on their level. That said life is about experiences and experience is about learning new things, learning from your own mistakes and even the mistakes of others. I’m going to focus on the aspect of learning from your own mistakes. It’s only after you make mistakes and realize things that you understand what you are capable of or in some of my cases what complete reject I was before. I felt like making another post to try and recapture my memories so one day I can look back on these and remember me remembering stuff, point at my old self and laugh.

Back in primary school I reached the age of 7 and still had not grasped the simple concept of reading, writing, grammar and spelling. I think my main problem with this was I brought up from the age of 0-5 on basic Chinese and no exposure to anything else. So while I had a superb grasp of maths, could play the piano and identify around 50 Kanji I couldn’t tell you where I lived or spell my own surname. This concerned teachers but not my parents as they believed they were raising a normal Chinese kid. It actually took two months of being sent to ‘special classes’ for them to prove I wasn’t actually retarded. That’s not the slang term, that was an actually a test they put me through to see if I was mentally retarded or not. Although it was over 20 years I still clearly remember those tests and they went along the lines of “this is a picture of a dog” with the word dog underneath it, they then show me the same picture with the words removed and asked if I knew what it was. Other tests included giving me square blocks and square holes and seeing if I could figure out the realtionship of the two, I was done in Iike 2 seconds while other people in the room were there for over 3 mins still trying to figure it out. I was 7 but I think at that point even I figured out what condescending was and spent 90% of my time there trying to get the hell out. Once I got out and got put back into normal school it was only after that I realized how bad my language skills were and that if my performance didn’t improve or if it even degraded then I might be sent back there. So from that point on I studied like hell to get my English to the level of normal 7 year old and crammed what should have been a 7 year education into the space of 4 months. .

The same thing happened at high school. The first year was fine but at the start of the 2^nd year they split classes up into set 1, set 2 and set 3 for the topics science, maths and English. Set 1 being those who performed best and set 3 for those who couldn’t tell the difference between Copper and Iron. Yours truly was one of those people. I have to be honest as say I was a bit of a lazy student then and core of my problem was I never understood the questions, how could I answer questions on Photosynthesis when I didn’t know the meaning of the word? Again it took the humiliation of being stuck in 3^rd set for everything for me to knuckle down and start reading textbooks, dictionaries and a thesaurus each night to not only get me up to speed but to actually let me finish in the top 5% of the school when GCSE results came in.

These are just two of my early memories where self improvement came from humiliation but you think I would have learned my lesson right? Looking over my life it doesn’t seem so.

Up until the age of 22 I was on a strict diet of coke or a fizzy drink with pretty much every meal and regular sessions of sugary treats. It took wailing in pain on the bathroom floor and going maybe 6 days without sleep due to toothache for me to realize I need to take better care of my teeth, visit the dentist and cut down on sugar.

It took a family meal of relatives I hadn’t seen in a good decade with 12 different people all saying ‘wow, you’ve gotten fat!” for me to realize I might be on the chubby side and that I should probably be working out and actually exercising.

It took a pretty heartbreaking dump for me to realize that I ‘m probably not the most appealing person in the world so need to stop acting so childish, stop spending money on crap and actually take some responsibility for my life.

It took me going flat broke and being in debt to realize I need to plan a budget, never go over my limits or take out payments I can’t pay

It took being stranded alone in Japan, on my own, in the middle of the night for me to realize I want to be able to learn another language properly (specifically Japanese)

It took the death of someone close for me to realize that life does kind of suck but we should still keep plodding on and making the most of it.

The list goes on and while I agree the results are generally positive and life is learned through lessons, I rather have learned something (or learned to do something) without some kind of traumatic event. The train of thought of these is they are mostly reactive actions as opposed to proactive ones, so I decided for once I’m going to change my life for the better with the follow method. Cut down (or even cut out) salty products and fatty meals. I have a almost scary relationship with KFC, McDonalds and Take Out Food (and I add salt to pretty much everything not sweet) and figure it’s probably a good plan to cut down on these before the heart attack as opposed to after. This means I have a stack of carrots in my fridge, some oranges on the desk and my last meal consisted of carrots and Homus. While the future doesn’t look bright, it does look orange. I know I’m not perfect, I know I never will be and I’m certainly not aiming to be but think in the grand scheme of things I made it out of special school so I’m going to do everything I can and work hard to make sure I’m not sent back.

I’m aware this post might not have been as amusing or joke ridden as I would have liked but hope to those who read this look take away this lesson, think about something you could improve and do it proactively as opposed going though humliation or pain first.

Y'know what?

2009-09-12T20:07:36Z

I don't care, I still want to go a PAX one day.

Ramblings of a Madman

2009-09-09T16:29:12Z

Greetings fellow Interneticans,

Welcome to another addition of Cin’s Good idea’s, bad ideas. Today we look into the wonderful World of Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games or “Warcraft” for short, ((Editor- Don’t you mean MMORPG’s) (Cin – No)). As you may know, the internet will allow you to browse numerous websites, shop for items on Ebay and hack Faye’s website, but did you also know it can be used to play games? That’s right, you can play games online with all your friends where you can be a brave hero, explore forgotten realms or simply run around in small circles screaming ‘oh god oh god, we’re all going to die’. There are a number of uses for these games, chief among them being procrastination. So without further ado here’s today’s Good idea, bad idea!

Good idea: Playing an on-line game with friends in moderation to improve your social skills, team building ability, hand eye co-ordination and keyboard skills.

Bad idea: Obsessively playing WoW, communicating using fragmented mutations of the English language and refusing to log off until the till server kicks you off at 2am in the morning for a server reboot. Then proceeding to watch two 45 min long episodes of Firefly and the Serenity movie.

Seriously, what the hell was I thinking? It was a time of the night where cats and party goers would be passed out and yet I thought it would be a good idea to sit through 4 hours of sci-fi footage. I’m now in work muddling my way though the day in a zombified state looking for brains. Specifically mine, as it seems to be missing. Plans for tonight include a) finding my bed b)collasping and c) making sure I haven't collapsed on the cat, although at this point I'd settle for just B. On the plus side I had to deal with a user with the name of Dickon Love, this should be added to the case why some parents shouldn’t be allow to name children.

The reason people jump off buildings

2009-09-03T17:46:39Z

This is a modern age we live in. It is an age of World Wide Web Networks, digital medium and social sites. We use the wonders of GPS, real time conversations and the youth of today can type as fast as they talk. In fact this very post is brought you by a combination of the above. It is truly an age of information.

That said, some people do not deserve to be here and should be released back into the wild to hunt wild boars, graze on grass and maybe get mauled by a bear. I admit I’m not the smartest person in the world, make mistakes or have an off day, but seriously the number of people I honestly think don’t deserve to part of society is steadily growing. The reason for this post is to enlighten you dear friends out there of the type of people I have to deal with. Yes these are comical situations but they honestly come from personal experience which I now wish to share with you. These are not exaggerations, these are actual human responses. Please enjoy the list of reasons why a small number of you make sure IT support hate you all.

**************

Me: Can I take your Roll number?

User: Where can I find that?

Me: It should be on your account book or statement

User: I don’t see it

Me: Do you have a Sort code and Account number then?

User: Where’s that?

Me: Top left of your statement

User: Sort code? Is that the one next to the Roll number?

**************

User: My PC’s not working, it’s just has no power

Me: What happens when you press the power button?

User: Is that button on the front?

Me: yes

User: Oh! I pressed it and it just started working!

**************

User: I’ve forgotten what my username is

Me: What’s your name?

User: Where can I find that?

**************

User: Can you help? we’re got a problem with the mouse

Me: What’s the problem?

User: We can’t catch it.

Me: ….. why are you calling IT support?

User: Someone said to call if we have a problem with mice

Me: Call pest control.

**********

Me: Ok to test this I need you to unplug the phone from the line

User: Ok I’ve done it

Me: No, I need you to unplug the phone from the line

User: I told you! I just did it!

Me: ……….. what am I talking to you on?

User: Oh! You mean you want me to unplug the phone from the line.

*click*

**********

User: I just unplugged my PC (Desktop, not laptop) and it turned itself off!

(…and you decided this was a problem IT support could fix?)

**********

Me: Can you try pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del

User: Which button is that?

Me: No, the Ctrl, Alt and Del keys at the same time

User: Oh OK, which one is the Alt Key?

Me: The one with ‘Alt’ on it.

**********

Me: Have you tried turning it off and on?

User: Of course I have!

//Run command /Uptime SYSTEMNAME

SYSTEMNAME has been up for: 42 day(s), 8 hour(s), 22 minute(s), 22 second(s)

(No, no you haven’t.)

********

Me: ok the PIN is 4758

User: 4578?

Me: No, 4758

User: Oh… 4857?

Me: I’ll it say again, 4.. 7 ..5 ..8

User: So that’s 4418?

(Screw it)

(Logs on the User’s PC and types PIN myself)

*********

User: The printer’s leaving ink marks on the paper

Me: Yeah it could be broken

User: I don’t think so. It’s never done that before.

(User logic: It’s never been broken, so therefore it will never break)

*********

And finally the Golden star for Fail. The user has failed to remember their password so I reset it and give her a default one.

Me: Ok if you enter that new Password, that should allow you to change it

User: OK, I’m on the screen now…. What do I put in for the username:

Me: Your username

User: Ok… and what do I put in for the password?

Me: That password I just gave you

User: OK, now it’s asking me for a new password. Where can I find that?

Me: You just choose what you want to the new password to be and enter that.

User: You can’t tell me what the new password is?

Me: No, you have to choose one yourself and enter it.

User: That’s not very helpful, I don’t know what the new password is.

Me: It can be anything you want it to be that no-one else knows, that’s how passwords work.

User: One sec, I’ll ask the person next to me if they know (over the call) Hey Mike, what’s should I put for my password?

Mike: Not sure, call IT support and get them to help you

User: He says you should know it

Me: Look, just put in “Password1234” for your new password

User: How do you spell Password?

Me: P-a-s-s-w-o-r-d

User: OK, how do you spell 1234?

Me: 1, then 2, then 3 and then 4.

User: oh, you mean the numbers 1234?

Me: Yes

User: Oh finally it’s let me in! You guys should do something about these difficult systems.

*this ACTUALLY happened*

There are many more examples but these are some of the more memorable ones that make me lose faith in humanity. Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to go cry myself to sleep.

...expanded

2009-08-17T22:12:03Z

Ok now I'm back and have had a chance to sleep I should expand on ‘meh’ with the good and the bad

Awesome:
Hanging out with friends like Jon (both of them) and Dave, trying DDR, Domino's Pizza and late night parties. This is about the only event in the entire year where they can play music on a dance floor and I actually have a clue what it is. Having a chat with long time net friends and SDers and being entertained for my entire time there. Making Dave's wrap into a limbo line was best I did there.

Good:
Nice venue, lots of things to do and see and was nice to bump into a few people who still remembered me even though I haven't spoken to them for a good year. Pub quiz was excellent but brought down by maybe being a bit too popular and having to share seats, sit on the floor and tell people in front to sit the fuck down.

Not great:
Not having enough time to sit and chat. Seemed like I was always moving around so even when I did see people I wanted to chat with I would say a few things and then get dragged off for the next event. Need to skip more events and make time for idle chatting. The events themselves were pretty good and hosted by Rob which is always a plus but think after this many years of it it's hard to get excited about people walking down a stage. The live performance and drums did brighten it up a bit but miss the AMV'S from last time.

I guess while the con was pretty good the main issue was it was very similar to previous cons but without the 'wow this is awesome' factor. The only thing new I did try was fucking terrifying but glad my friends where there for that.. I think I crave new things and meeting new people but think it was pointed out in the weekeend that cons are different now. People show up in groups, hang out in groups and leave in groups and I don’t think I have the will or energy to make new friends with random people. I have a good time with my friends but think it's really getting to the point where it's just quite fun and doing it more will just hamper the joy I have already..... and considering this is like the best aspect of my life that realization is fucking depressing. Hence meh.

Ayacon 2009 report

2009-08-16T23:12:10Z

Muju people + spikes were stars (as always).
Everything else, Meh.

Cin's good idea, bad ideas

2009-08-12T22:56:53Z

Greetings and welcome to another edition of "Cin's Good Ideas, Bad ideas". Toady's topic is Ayacon 2009 Cosplay ideas, lets hope you too have some interesting things to show. Without further ado let’s get started!

Good idea!: "Thinking of a an original cosplay idea which will wow fans and be fun to show off at a con!"
Bad idea! "Trying to bring the fucking thing into existence"

..... seriously, what the hell was I thinking. I am now 92% done on my cosplay idea which will be unveiled at the weekend but man I really did not think this though. My room looks like a bomb shelter.... well like a failed bomb shelter that didn't work and just kinda exploded when the bomb actually hit. My room is seriously a mess and at this time of writing I can not find my bed. So far I have been cut with plastic, paper, scissors, carving knives, a spoon (I don't understand that one myself), a long piece of metal and my Cat. I pretty sure with the amount of times I cut myself on this project I now qualify as emo.

That all said this is without a doubt one of the most simplest cosplays I will ever do (besides ‘L’) and just hope this added touch is worth it for all the actually fans of the show. To everyone else I’m pretty sure you’ll look at me and stare blankly for a few moments before you pretend not to remember me and then head for the nearest exit.

anyway 2 days to go and I shall rant some more tomorrow!

Save draft? (Y/N)

2009-06-20T23:01:14Z

======================================================

Dear Michael Bay,

Pleas stop making movies. Please.

Reguards - Ken Hoang

======================================================

Just got back from seeing Transformer and have to say it wasn't too bad, I'd say 3.4/10.

Lots of issues with the movie the main ones being what the fuck are you army characters thinking. There's a 3 story transforming robot made of solid metal and you stand there firing a gun at it. What the fuck. Why not just just throw rocks huh? Use flame throwers, use shells which explode on impact, use missles or even use a tank but for god's sake use your freaking common sense. Serioulsy take a peice of advice from the main character and just run, that's all you're good for, leave the action to the proud warrior autobots.

On that note, Autobots, where the fuck were you? There's a battle going on and there's like 2 of you on screen. Seriously I know we're in the middle of financial crisis but come on, you can afford to have a few more of you guys on the battle field. You kick ass, I know you do but come on.

Finally, Egyptian arcaeologists and people who work with metal detection in Egypt.... god damn you guys suck.

Again, overall a few transformers, lots of speed chases and lots of things blowing up with people slowing down while diving through the air. I think the writers guild strike really affected this movie, it's like they just ignored the strike and just went ahead and made the movie filling up part where there should of been story with huge explosions....... not that it's a bad thing mind you. Like a bland tasting stew lacking in taste (and I fucking love stew) It could have used more meaty plot, more juicy developing story and get this.... MORE FUCKING TRANSFORMERS!!.....(and less humans)

Currently watching..... "K-ON!"

2009-05-16T12:15:55Z

Y'know I always wondered along with a lot of people what makes a popular anime series. I mean a lot of the time a series becomes popular while a lot of people don't get the series, don't rate it that highly or find it a bit meh. I guess to be fair a lot of success is based on getting lucky breaks and marketing, but one thing did occur to me while in Japan, do series become popular because of early marketing?

The reason I asked this was because while walking around Akihabara I found a lot of anime stores advertising a single new series. By advertising I mean I found models, posters, T-shirts and Two single CDs currently 4th AND 2nd in the charts. It also had posters and features in Newtype and Animage, The series of course was K-on. Now to be fair I have to say I like the style of drawing and animation and the basic storyline from what I could see was about 4 girls in a high school club that revolves around music, think the closest description I can come up with is this a mix between Beck (Mongolian chop squad) and Lucky star.

I have to say on the same night I was lucky enough to actually catch an episode (on TV at 2am) but the thing that surprised me was the fact it was only up to episode 6. For something still in the early stages of broadcasting, how on earth did they already have stores upon stores of merchandising? It then occurred to me that people might not be buying the merchandise because of the show, but watching the show because of the merchandise.

Looking into this further I found out that although there are no major Seiyu backing the series, this is produced by the same company that made Air, Kanon, Full Metal Panic, Haruhi and Lucky star which in their own right have all gone on to be big successes with the anime scene. After getting back and watching episodes 1-6 the series in my own opinion it isn't bad at all, nice characters, funny scenes, catchy tunes and lovely animation.However no-one said a word about the series before I left or a word about it since I got back. I guess only time will tell if this is a show I'll be seeing cosplays of at Aya or beyond, but if this is a huge hit in future I've think will have gotten a better idea of how this whole anime scene works. Anyway to judge for yourselves here's the opening and closing theme tunes:

けいおん！[K-ON!] ED - Don't say "lazy"

けいおん！[K-ON!] OP - Cagayake! Girls

Ken Hoang's (A.k.a Cinadarian skywind) in depth reveiw of Japan, Japanese life and it's culture

2009-05-08T06:49:43Z

.....tis awesome.

The end.

Revelations

2009-04-11T01:47:00Z

Ok, well if I don’t respond in the next 24 hours it means I freaking died.

Yeah that was an extreme statement and clearly over-reacting to simple case but this has been an interesting night. First of all met up with Harry, played some SF4 and good times overall, then met up with my friends and watched Fast and the Furious (which was ok, better than 3^rd but behind the other two). After that, we decided on a lovely meal at a Chinese restaurant and since it was Friday night and drinks were in order, so I reluctantly followed.

Let me point out at this stage that anyone who knows me knows I seem pretty fucking weak at handling my alcohol, I’ve never been drunk in my life but will go bright red to the amusement of all around after just one drink. I mean I start talking louder but feel perfectly lucid no matter what stage of drinking I reach.

Anyway, this night we went for a few drinks and for the record I had two vodka and orange. The unit content of which must have been like 2 or something and I’ve certainly surpassed this before without any trouble. So I guess after a while I need the bathroom, head into there and then BAM, next thing I know I have a crowd of 3 people and my two friends saying they should probably call an ambulance. I seriously have no fucking clue and even worse no fucking memory of what happened. The story I’m told was that I suddenly passed out fell backwards and slammed my head against the wall (enough to make a dent in the tile) started shaking on the floor and then lay unconscious for 3-5 seconds. What ..... the ......fuck? I’d like to think this was a isolated and/or alcohol related issue but I seemed perfectly fine on recovery and if anything was confused as hell as to what happened.

I’ve always had a history of staying the fuck out of hospitals and haven’t had a medical check up since I was a kid but since the bang to the head sounded pretty bad my friends decided to take me the A&E just in case. The whole time I was perfectly fine and left the place with a warning that if it gets worse or I feel dizzy I should come back asap. The one note of interest from all of this though was while they were checking me I seemed to break out in quite a severe rash while they ran tests, I always assumed I was just a weak drinker but guess after 2-3 hours of testing they confirmed that the sudden rash and extreme red skin was an allergic reaction to the alcohol. I admit I never really connected the dots but that would explain why every drink and every small amount of alcohol sends me bright red, my throat feels swollen and I have to start shouting in order talk. So yeah they have confirmed I’m allergic the alcohol which is going to make me the drunken life of the party eh?

Back to the opening post they admitted the slam to the head wasn’t that bad but the fact I still feel a little dizzy and my head kinda hurts might be cause for concern so to keep an eye on that if gets worse over night, which makes going to sleep a new daring adventure for me. I seem perfectly fine now but guess it's best to keep an eye on these things.

In conclusion, fuck you genetics. I still have no explanation for why I blacked out and now I have medical reason for staying the fuck away from alcohol, fun times for the cinster >_<.

Are you fucking kidding me?

2009-02-01T12:33:08Z

Yesterday was wintereemas where we celebrate video games by watcing Raiden kick the shit out of superman, see random people fail hard on Rock Band and play Pong on a projected screen. Now, I know it's old, like really old, like older than me.... by like, a decade, but still despite that I like to think that everyone at the very least knows of Pong. I'd like to think it extends to that which mirrors the likes of space invaders and Pacman in simple game play.

That said I present you with following, I don't think this person reads my JL's but becuase I'm a kind hearted person who takes no joy in pointing out the small flaws of my friends I'll keep his name anonaymous.

Me: hey, it's free! Want a game of Pong?
Mr X: Sure! what are the controls?
Me: ...................

It might have been a reflex question, but seriously, What - The - Fuck.

Not the smartest thing to do

2009-01-17T06:41:27Z

Well inspired by Kate's last posts on comics I decided to re-read ultimate spiderman........ all of it. God I need sleep

lastest news!

2009-01-14T16:08:42Z

According to an article in today's Metro, people who drink too much caffeine tend to suffer from lucid hallucinations, start hearing voices and in some cases believe that they can converse with the dead.

Sounds like fun. *continues drinking his free coffee*.

The epic adventures of the Skywind clan continues

2009-01-09T05:42:22Z

Well it's 4am (again) and I'll explain in a sec why I'm posting at 4 am.

It's safe to say my life is funny in that it's full of strange relationships. My realtionship with my family, my relationships with my friends, my realtionship with workmates, my non existant relationship with a life partner and of course my realtionship with milk. But of all of these, there is one that seems more predominant than the rest and that's my relationship with the internet. Seriously, I can't go more than a week without seeking it and when it suddenly vanishes without a trace I get very worried, stop whatever I'm doing and then go on epic quest to bring it back. I went through basic checks, replacing wires, making sure all the internet settings were correct, swapping out routers and finally discovered the cuase of the problem using 26 years of technical knowledge..... I forgot to pay the bill. Yeah, in order for people to give me goods and services I need to give them money and seems that direct debit I set up didn't actually work so now I have to wait till 8am to speak with someone in India (which is ironic becuase they are wide awake NOW) before getting my net back.

In a desperate attempt to rejoin civlisation I'm now currently running off my laptop and logged on to someone's wireless network which they forgot to put a password on. For the record, Adamus of the sweatdrop forums, THIS IS NOT FUCKING HACKING!!

I guess while I'm here and bored out of my mind I might as well talk about the current state of my life and the world so one day when I look back over these posts again I'll remember all the good times, the bad times, long lost friends and where I put my keys (Cin, your keys are next to your fish). At the moment life is stable, nothing has really changed. There's no major event oncoming and for the most part it's a pretty meek life I live without the problems of war, starvation, struggling debt or fending off tigers with a stick that some other people out there have to face. There's always a desire for more no matter what we do or have but I guess one thing I really seem to be lacking is drive and a goal. I guess life can be as good or bad as you want but it seems without any clear path or goals in life I'm simply wondering aimless from one day to the next. I think the thing that really worries me is that nothing is happening, I have no clear path but one thing is certainly making it's self clear.....time is running out. I'm really starting to feel that if I don't do something soon, either find out what I want, chase my goals or start looking for that perfect partner then I might miss out on the best things that life can offer. I guess life was alot easier as a child or teenager when people just told me what to do but now I have responsiabilities to face up to I'm having a hard time finding my own answers.

One thing I do want to do is to draw, I think the fact that I already convinced myself that I'm not going to make a life through drawing has dragged me down alot but I can honestly say I don't have the capacity or nature to survive in a competative art world. This might sound like a very greedy and tainted comment but making just enough to surive isn't good enough for me. I already know, not guessed, but know at some point in life someone close to me like parents, wife, kids or even myself is going to need money to survive and if I can't help them when that time comes then I really will feel like a failure. Ok, they might not even exist yet but like I said earning enough to survive isn't good enough, I have to earn enough to make sure they survive as well. I guess if I have to choose a goal in life it would be that, in which case I better keep going to work.

I had no idea when I started writing this where it would end up, but guess just typing it up here has given me something to smile about.

Thanks for listening internet, this is why I love you.

Happy Birthday Jesus

2008-12-25T05:10:10Z

well another year over with ...almost anyway

1. What did you do in 2008 that you'd never done before?
Attend an anime con with actual money to spend, lots of other things.

2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
Can’t remember making new years one, but kept my Birthday resolution (so far) and certainly going to be making a big time sink investment for 2009

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Nope

4. Did anyone close to you die?
Yeah

5. What countries did you visit?
Scotland

6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?
Purpose and direction

7. What date from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
This is one year I’d like to forget

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Staying put in my current job. Making a few close friends happy with birthday presents I sent

9. What was your biggest failure?
Too many to name

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Yeah

11. What was the best thing you bought?
Amecon Auction Cel

12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?
Lots of local friends for reminding me I’m welcome, Faye for helping me out when I really needed it

13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?
Ex-friends

14. Where did most of your money go?
Food, travel and rent. Nothing glamorous.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Hard to say, Auchinawa maybe? Eyeshield 21?

16. What song will always remind you of 2008?
Happy working song - enchanted

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder? Sadder. Currently mellow
ii. richer or poorer? Much Richer, this is the only year out of the 26 so far where money wasn’t a major problem.

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Drawing, socializing and smart investments

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Spending money on items or trips, sitting around achieving nothing

20. How will you be spending Christmas?
At home catching up sleep after meeting family for food

22. Did you fall in love in 2008?
No

23. How many one-night stands?
0

24. What was your favourite TV program?
Gundam 00 season 2 /Deep space 9

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
Yes

26. What was the best book you read?
Eyeshield 21 (although that’s not really a book)

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Chiaki Ishikawa

28. What did you want and get?
Pretty good times with friends, more money and confidence

29. What did you want and not get?
lots of little things and moments

30. What was your favourite film of this year?
Wall-E / Ironman / Enchanted / Dark knight

30a. What was your favourite theatrical production of this year?
For our countries good

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
Met up with friends had a meal and got reminded of why my life is pretty awesome sometimes. Older than I’d like to be

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
The trip to Japan, more money, someone to spend time with

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?
developing

34. What kept you sane?
Hel, World of Warcraft, the ability to buy what I wanted and eat what I wanted

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

Amy Adams

36. What political issue stirred you the most?
Obama’s elections. I normally don’t care about them but this one really expanded beyond it’s shores and give me a glimpse of what may be.

37. Who did you miss?
A friend

38. Who was the best new person(s) you met?
Jim (Destraudo), think I already knew everyone else

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008.
People are sometimes idiots, it doesn’t matter what they think. What matters is that I have faith, belief and confidence in myself. Life does not reward the timid nor kindness and the only path in life worth taking is the one you make yourself.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:

It’s the end of the world as we know it,
It’s the end of the world as we know it,
It’s the end of the world as we know it,
…..and I feel fine.

that time again

2008-12-23T23:27:51Z

Right, time to start doing my chirstmas shopping. I still have like a week right?

cinskywind @ 2008-12-21T18:41:00

2008-12-21T18:59:19Z

You know, there's a little game in life which I like to play. No, bad way to phrase that, let me start again. There is a RULE in life which I MUST follow, it's a very simple code of conduct and I do think that if more people followed it, their life and life of everyone else they come in contact with would be much better.

It goes something like this. In 1994 some people in suits thought it would be a good idea to make a live action hollywood version of Street Fighter (the one with Mr Van Damme and Ms Minogue). The rule which I follow states that after watching this movie you must then go away and find a way to kill yourself. I mean given the options of living with the memory of watching this or taking your own life the course of action is pretty clear.

With this rule firm in place can someone, anyone out there tell me why on EARTH this is getting a blue ray release? I shit you not.

cinskywind @ 2008-12-12T16:27:00

2008-12-12T16:30:08Z

I found this beautiful winter poem and thought it might be a comfort to you out there. It was to me and it's very well written. I felt it really captured my own feelings about the season and hope you feel the same.

'WINTER'
a poem by
Abigail Elizabeth McIntyre

......
Fuck, It's Cold!

The End

Auchinawa

2008-11-17T17:50:32Z

“Wow“. It’s a word to describe surprise, unexpectedly pleasant or unpleasant as well as a acronym for World of Warcraft. It’s probably the best word I can use to describe the last 4 days at Auchinawa. Now I’m well aware that this is just a blog in a LJ and chances are people won’t care what I have to say, but one day I’m going to read through this and I’ll remember why exactly I remembered Auachinawa 08 the way I do.

As always I’ll start with highlights. To everyone from MUJS who came, they were awesome. I really dread to think what on earth this would have been like if they weren’t there and they are about the great saving grace of the trip. No fault with any of them and much appreciated company. It was presently nice to run into (Irish) Dave, Penfy, Tasha and Colin. These guys are class acts and although I didn’t see them much it was fantastic to see a familiar face and just chat with them no matter how briefly about how things that were going in their lives. I also picked up a pretty cool and sporty Luffy bag which is following me from now till the day it dies and it was nice to get some drawing done.

Next, the events. I liked the Auction, I liked the Hentai event and I liked parts of the disco, but all of those events (with maybe exception of the hentai panel because it‘s never been done before) never quite topped the chart as the best type of those events.

If you would like a rant free report, end here and let it be known that Auchi ranks a firm 7th in my list of events I’ve attended and I’ll still mostly likely try to attend the next one. Thanks for all the work of the people who made that happen and despite the below it was much appreciated.

Ok, now the rants. Please be warned this following contains offence language, wording and spiteful comments. It maybe offensive to those it may involve I hope that you understand the angle in which I approach this and if you respond, you do so with a greater degree of class and restraint that I am able to contain.

FUCKING Hell! Never before in my life have I paid SO much money to attend something where 80% of the time I just wanted to get the fuck out of there. I mean I said already that MUJS saved the day but if they weren’t there I would have been more than happy to go to sleep at 9pm everyday just so the fucking day would end. There was a horrible pattern of waiting for something, it coming along and a bit crap and then having nothing else to do. That was it, that was everything over with. It maybe coupled with the fact that I’m getting older, I didn’t have a significant other to share it with, I now compare it to other events and other factors but fuck man, what a complete waste of fucking time and money that was.

Everything that was good could have easily have been done in Manchester with my friends and wouldn’t have cost me over £300. There was no ’wow I’m at a con’ atmosphere, being awed by the enthusiasm of other people and their passions or generally anything that stood out at all. I’ll try and be more constructive by highlighting points.

The Venue: This stands as by far the worst venue I have ever been too. It was out of the way, isolated and ridiculously priced for everything. I mean FUCK, you know airports? You know how they are known for being overpriced and sometimes lacking in amenities? Yeah, well we went there in the airport to eat because the food and drink was fucking cheaper! I mean I’m glad I packed any food to take with me. The first night we tried to enjoy ourselves the hotel staff pretty much came to our room and told us to shut the fuck up which killed any enjoyment we might have had in the rooms and it was 9pm on Friday! I mean fuck? If it was 2am and we were smashing windows or some shit like that I can understand but if you can’t be loud and laugh on your holiday at 9pm on Friday night what the fuck can you do? You couldn’t go into town because it was a 15 mins bus journey and £6.20 return (only one trip, not day saver) and there was literally fuck all else to do in the hotel besides sit there. There wasn’t a feeling of freedom either, there were normal business people booked into the hotel ‘asking what’s going on’ giving cosplayers strange looks and asking us to be quiet. The only internet there was £15 per day, no cheaper option and no wifi in the airport. Throw in the fact they over charged me, cut off my hot water, made me stand in a fucking freezing car park because of their fucked up fire alarm and generally had shit for brains bastard staff gives me a very low opinion of this place. If it’s the same venue next time, I’m not fucking going. As I said before I've never been so eager to get the fuck out of anywhere than I was to get out of there.

The events: I understand these are based on what people provide and are willing to run, but honestly there was only maybe 1 per day that was any good. By 10pm everyone local had left so the only ones there were sometimes wondering why crowds were dwindling. Shortest, masquerade I have ever seen (although high quality) but to honestly there was no need to judge anything as a few more prizes and everyone who entered would have been a winner.

Friends: Xeion, Engel where the fuck were you? I mean if my Scottish based friends can’t even be bothered going then, fuck?!? Out of 320 people I knew like 5 people there not from Manchester and the rest were polite enough but never really crossed groups or already had their own little niche. I ended up speaking with the dealers I got my bag from and they sounded like they wanted to get the fuck out of there more I did. I can understand SD not being there but they were still missed. The one of exception of this was Chloe which honestly confused me more than anything else. I mean I got on fairly well with her at Amecon, consider her a friend and enjoy chatting with her. She looked like she had company most of the times I saw her so didn’t want to impose (sorry if that was the cause of any problems) but it got the 3rd day and I hadn’t even talked to her for more than 2 mins in total. I was afraid that I might have avoided her too much or something so I sent a text and actually stopped to ask if she would like to get a meal or something and catch up and her response was “oh, I don’t know what I’ll be doing” and then walked off. What the FUCK? I mean seriously I maybe misjudging this and there’s clearly a lot I don’t know but I’m glad Rowland was there to witness that as even he though that response was pretty fucking harsh.. That was the last time I spoke with her as well. I’m not sure what the next meeting is going to be like, but fuck if it’s anything like that last one I’m just staying the fuck away.

Money: Lacking. I did make a lot of stupid purchases and although I like to eat well there were far too many occasions here were I’m thinking, “yeah I shouldn’t have done that”. Poor choices, few options and a lot of regrets which are going to turn into the wisdom of me saying “how much!?! FUCK YOU!”

WOW: World of warcraft. I said before that I already looked forward to the new expansion and that I gave up a weekend of that without a second thought to attend Auchinawa. Looking back I know I would mostly likely would have enjoyed wow more if most of the people I play with was on. As solid proof of that I’m going to play Wow for the next 4 days straight and come back telling you how much better then last 4 days have been over Auchi 08.

There maybe good times to be had and you can’t judge something unless you try it but I think it’s safe to say you can judge an event on a very simple question, ‘Would you do it again?’. My answer, No. No I would not.