chibiforte

I ordered the CD single for Individual-System and the mini-album for Supernova.  That was the other night.  Haven't shipped yet, but because CDJapan seems reliable, they'll probably be sent out soon.

...Which is why I completely prefer CDJapan over Play-Asia, anymore.  Play-Asia has been so unreliable for my last couple of orders.  These Haruhi CDs were supposed to be sent out by August 4th, if not way beforehand (I ordered them on the 19th of July).  They seem to be stuck in the "Preparing Order" loop that my H20 CD was in, which never actually got sent out and ended up with me cancelling my order.  I'll give it another week or so, and then I'm going to send them yet another e-mail.  But all they'll offer me is the chance to order something else from them, and I only bought these CDs from them because they're the only ones that have them, as far as I know.  I don't WANT anything else, and that's what gets me angry about Play-Asia.

I don't think I'm being impatient.  I need to get these CDs before I leave for college in a few weeks, and the shipping method I chose isn't exactly the quickest method.  This is just getting ridiculous.

 Reading:
Still Growing, by Kirk Cameron.
The Five Points of Calvinism, by Steele, Thomas, and Quinn.
"Triablogue" entries

Playing:
Geometry Wars Galaxies (Wii)
Ar Tonelico: Melody of Elemia (PS2)
Wild ARMs 4 (PS2)
Metal Saga (PS2)
Summon Night: Twin Age (DS)
Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (DS)
Trauma Center: Under the Knife 2 (DS)
Pokemon Pearl (DS)
Pokemon Ruby (GBA)
Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (GBA)
Brave Story: New Traveler (PSP)

Listening:
"Double Action" (all variations)
"Climax Jump" (all variations)
"Bouken Desho Desho" (and remixes)
"Hare Hare Yukai" (remixes + variations)
"Kentai Life Returns"
"God knows..." (and remixes)
The Narrow Mind Podcast (past archives)
The Way of the Master Radio

Watching:
Kamen Rider Kabuto
Kamen Rider Kiva
Engine Sentai Go-onger
Tokusou Sentai DekaRanger
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
Spice and Wolf
Kanokon
Lucky Star
Kanon
Clannad
Digimon Adventure

Just a single day left until my 19th birthday.  Very exciting...!  Like I said before, I don't really care what I get, as long as there's cake.  Chocolate cake.  With peppermint frosting.  And a bit of chocolate syrup mixed in.  Mmmmm...

I woke up at 4:00AM this morning since that's when my siblings and Mother had to leave to go finish up the last dance at Disneyland.  I can't believe they actually decided to wake up that early just to go to her last dance, but hey, that gave me a lot of spare time all by myself.  I've been up since then mostly watching Kamen Rider Kabuto and Kamen Rider Kiva.  I finally got around to watching the Kabuto movie, "God Speed Love", and it was quite interesting.  This is the prequel to the actual show, I believe?  With some stuff added in and taken out, obviously, but it's always fun exploring alternate dimensions with the characters you love.

I didn't mention this before, but I decided to buy (with help from my Mother) the Complete Collection of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya on DVD.  Quite snazzy, even if I didn't get the CD single pack-ins that the previous special editions got (but I ordered those online anyway, so it doesn't really matter).

It feels really nice actually purchasing music and DVDs, as opposed to illegally pirating them (with things domestically or readily available, at least; fansubs of shows you can't get I think is allowable).  So much more gratifying, and for good reason (considering it's the, y'know, right thing to do).  Sure, this means that I don't get to listen to as much music as I used to, but... so what?  Doing the right thing actually costs something, which it seems that I'm more than willing to do these days.

...and that also means I have free reign to take potshots at you dirty bootleggers out there. :P

I need to make that college decision quickly.  Time's running out...

I am pretty sure that's what she's saying.  You see, I picked up a Chinese Pop CD (I couldn't begin to figure out the name of the artist) along with the other import CDs that I found at that thrift store.  I don't know the artist at all, but it was an import CD and it was cheap, so I'd be a fool not to snag it.  And for some reason, it's a lot easier for me to hear and understand randomly inserted English phrases when they're sung with a Chinese accent as opposed to a Japanese accent.  Interesting.

I finished the Metal Gear Solid novel earlier today.  It was pretty good, and helped fill in all the holes of the video game that I simply never understood.  That's more due to the fact that I'm absolutely terrible at those games (and stealth games as a whole) rather than the fault of the game itself.  I really enjoyed it, minus the language issue (but that was also present in the game, so I can't really fault the book for it).  Why do these media items have to mess up good things with such abominable language?  At least the series has a pro-life theme surrounding it, even if Snake does have to kill armies of soldiers in order to realize that.

And yes, I did just end up watching the ending videos to Metal Gear Solid 4.  I figured that I wasn't going to be getting a PS3 anytime soon, and I certainly wouldn't be able to play that game in any capacity myself, so I just decided to watch it and hopefully play some years in the future.  Very intriguing ending for someone who knows the overall story, but not to the extent that hardcore players know it.

My Dad purchased my Uncle's old HDTV yesterday, and it seems to work decently.  We just need to get a converter for our analog cable, or just get a digital box of some sort (like DirecTV or something) that should automatically work with the TV.  The problem right now is that when I hook up our normal, analog cable to the TV, it zooms in on the center part of the image and cuts out a significant portion of the picture on all four sides (I guess that's called "overscan" or something?).  I mean, it was so bad when I hooked the Wii up to it, that when I tried to play the original Super Mario Bros., it literally cut out the ground from underneath Mario, making it so that I could not tell if Mario was going to fall into a pit or not.  Of course, that was more because I didn't have any component cables for the Wii, so once I get some of those cables, it should display everything properly.  The Xbox 360 came with HD cables for HDTVs, so it looked absolutely gorgeous hooked up to the TV (no overscan problems at all, thankfully).  It was nice playing Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix on a big TV.

I'm really likin' Kamen Rider Kabuto so far.  It's actually somewhat serious and sober, a bit of a far cry from Den-O at most times.  The main character is so intriguing, but I also enjoy the supporting cast.  I'm hoping that the inclusion of the future Riders won't mess up the flow of the series.  And that the two-parters don't run rampant through the season.  That's my biggest complaint about Kiva so far...

Climax Form is an awesome form change.  And he even used the Rider Kick!  First time this season, interestingly.  It's like the writers completely forgot about it, then realized that they haven't yet used one of the staple attacks in the series.  It's almost funny, if you think about it.

Well, here's my progress in each of the tokusatsu series I'm watching so far:

Episode #31 of Kamen Rider Den-O.
Episode #19 of Kamen Rider Kiva.
Episode #2 of Tokusou Sentai DekaRanger.
Episode #1 of Mahou Sentai MagiRanger.
Episode #24 of GouGou Sentai Boukenger.
Episode #10 of Engine Sentai Go-Onger.

Doing fairly well, but for some reason, it's been a bit difficult to watch Boukenger, lately.  I gotta get this idea that the entire series is just filled with mini-arcs out of my mind and just enjoy the season.  It's supposed to be one of the best that Toei's ever produced, from what I hear.

I'm also thinking of watching Kamen Rider Kabuto once I free up some space to watch it.  It sounds like a serious season, so I'm hoping it'll be good and interesting to watch.

And no, the college financial aid letters still haven't arrived.  And it makes me angry because I want to make a decision as soon as possible.  Sigh...

I've been doing pretty well on my Pokemon Pearl game, lately.  I finished the 7th Gym Leader just the other day, and I figured out that I actually CAN trade Pokemon between my Japanese copy of Diamond and my American Pearl, so I'm totally going to be getting all the Pokemon that can only be found in Diamond and trading them to Pearl.  I'll also probably restart Diamond and just trade over the starters that I do not yet have to Pearl just so I can have one of each.  I'm not regretting that Diamond purchase anymore, at least. :3

I'm also going to be purchasing a copy of Pokemon LeafGreen once I go down to Lancaster again.  I thought about picking it up last time, but I decided against it, much to my dismay because I've been having dreams about it since then. x_x

I rented Super Mario Galaxy the other day.  I've gotten twenty stars on it.  Seems like a fun game.  That's all I have to say about it.

Wii Fit is an excellent workout.  I've done 2 1/2 hours in total in workout time, and it is indeed difficult.  I haven't felt so much strain on my muscles in awhile.  I especially like the running sections that you have to do, since it actually requires you to run the entire portion of the workout.

I finished GekiRanger last night, finally.  It is SUCH a good series, and is actually the first Sentai season I've completed (if you don't count my sporadic viewing of Abaranger, that is).  Maybe I should count that one though, so GekiRanger is actually the second season I've completed.  Next, I'm probably going to tackle DekaRanger, which means that I will have that and Boukenger going on at the same time, along with Den-O, Kiva, and Go-Onger.  I've also got some Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh episodes to watch, and I think I might start MagiRanger sooner than I thought I would.

I'm actually going to take the plunge and watch the new Evangelion movie that came out not too long ago.  It's apparently a retelling of the first six or so episodes, so hopefully that will give me a good idea as to whether or not I should partake in the series or should just leave it alone.

Still haven't received the financial forms from the colleges, obviously.  What's taking them so long?

This whole "graduation" thing seems so lackluster and unnecessary for someone like me.  I can understand the majority of the students getting excited about it, but really, I can't seem to care very much.  It's not like I poured my heart and soul into school at any point in my 14-year career, since everything has just come so... easy to me.  I have no clear-cut ambitions for my future, nor am I terribly excited by the idea of attending college.  It seems that all I'm focusing on is just these issues that need to be dealt with, and which are vastly more important than wondering as to whether I should attend a Colorado or Redding college.

And that brings up another question: why have I NOT been challenged by these schools?  I'm learning far more from listening to podcasts and reading trustworthy sites and books created by seminary graduates and theology experts than I ever have in school.  I'm actually being CHALLENGED by these great men, and these schools are nothing more than mere stepping stones that need to be crossed.  I've always been bored of school since nothing I learned ever actually helped me as a person, nor did it ever raise deeply profound questions in my mind... am I just one of those types of people?

Simpson is offering about $4,000...
Cal Baptist is offering about $3,200 from the Dean's Scholarship...
Colorado is offering $8,000, if that message was correct...

And due to FAFSA, my Mother believes that the expected family contribution is about $6,000 to $8,000, but we are not certain of that, yet.  And the above offers are just the beginning, seeing as how each college will try to put more scholarship money and grants to pay for as much as they can.

Simpson's about 6-7 hours away in Redding, which is in Northern California.  That is close to where both my Brother and best friend is, or will be, stationed.
Cal Baptist is about 2.5 hours away in Riverside, which is to the South.  I know someone's who has been there, and I will eventually get to see someone I know attend.
Colorado is way far away, obviously, but it is near my other Brother and his two children, both of which I know would be fun to be near.  Plus, it is close to Colorado Springs, where I may be able to intern at AiO when it airs again.

And yet, my decision cannot be based on my family's location.

Simpson is in a nice area, with trees and grass and good weather.
Cal Baptist is in a place my Mother did not care for, but the man who went there said it was safe and interesting.
Colorado is in a cold place, which I enjoy far more than intense heat.

Simpson may or may not allow me to learn the languages I want.
Cal Baptist has clubs and activities that I highly enjoy.
Colorado has locations around it that offer sophisticated activities.

And yet, I have no idea how the spiritual component plays out in each place.  Expository sermons, or simply topical?  Exegetical teaching?  Bad theology, or just plain heresy?  Do they offer conferences for students to attend?  Will they allow me to play video games or watch shows I enjoy?  I'm pretty much finished with most movies and their blasphemy and cursing, not to mention other elements that just drive me to the brink of insanity.  Will I be able to use the internet freely (to a point, of course, while blocking out all the bad stuff)?  I cannot imagine them really blocking out Kiva or Go-Onger when viewing them on video sites... but then again, who knows?  Will I be able to get "fed" properly, with the ministry, fellowship, and everything related to that?  Can this properly convert and grow me as necessary to live?

Auuuhhhh... how many questions must be raised and answered before I can make a decision?

I've been accepted at all three of the above places, and yet I can't decide.

I just have to wait for the acceptance letters and financial aid award information before I can delve deeply into this...

CDs have been purchased, and will be sent out sometime this week.  I chose the 4-12 day shipping because I didn't really want to wait 1-3 weeks.  And yes, I did order the special CD+DVD bundles, since they ARE limited edition, after all.  Because really, what could be better than limited edition?

I've been watching a lot of Tokusatsu shows, lately.  I just started watching Den-O, tonight.  It seems interesting.  So, all the live-action superhero shows I'm watching are:

GouGou Sentai Boukenger
Juken Sentai Gekiranger
Engine Sentai Go-Onger
Kamen Rider Den-O
Kamen Rider Kiva

I also have the first episode of Kamen Rider Kuuga that was just subbed, as well as thenewly-subbed first episode of Gosei Sentai Dairanger, so I'll have to get around to watching them sometime soon.

Makes me want to buy the original seasons of Kamen Rider on DVD, seeing as how they are cheap with a good batch of episodes... no subtitles, but eh, I'm okay with RAWs.

That's actually a strange thing for me.  See, I do enjoy actually understanding what I'm watching, but I really have no problems with watching shows in another language without subtitles, both anime and live-action.  And yet, a lot of anime fans, even those far more hardcore than I, really don't like RAWs or watch them unless forced.  Maybe it's just because I like guessing at what they are saying, then coming back to the subbed version and figuring out how close I got?  That would certainly be consistent with my attitude...

I think I might be able to buy that new DS, tomorrow.  I have some cash, I can trade in my old one, and I have games to trade in along with it, so I should be able to afford it.  I'm really unsure as to what color I want, though.  Probably black or the red-black cross, or maybe the blue-black cross if I don't have any other choice.  I'm kind of leaning towards one of the cross-color ones, but I'll take a different one if need be.

Since I made some money from tutoring (and a $20 for no reason from my Uncle), I'm going to be ordering up at least two new CDs, surprise-surprise.

The first one will be the "Destiny's Play" single, which is the ED to Kamen Rider Kiva.  I didn't expect to actually enjoy the song the first time I heard it in the show, but it's grown on me since then.  And the PV was simply awesome.  I wish I wasn't so cheap as to not buy the DVD with it, but eh, it's more expensive and Region 2, so it wouldn't work on my computer anyway.  Not a big deal, really.  I'll just have to grab the lyrics from the video and not watch it again.

The second one will be, interestingly enough, the "Double-Action Climax Form" Movie ED theme song from Kamen Rider Den-O.  Now, I never watched that season, but at the end of Kiva episodes, you keep seeing these previews for the Kiva/Den-O team-up movie, and this song is playing in the background.  I also watched the PV for it, and I actually want the DVD to this one more, but again, unless I want to shell out another $6 each and try to get it to work somehow on this computer, it ain't gonna happen.  It's an interesting song, and is some kind of weird mixture of J-Pop, J-Rap, and other styles I don't know the name of but sound really interesting.

...You know what?  Maybe I will just grab the DVD versions... I do have some extra cash, so I'll just drop it all and hope for the best.  At the very least, I can snag the VOB off the disc and convert it to MP4 format and place it on my PSP.  Or just download the files, seeing as I will own the actual product.

I'll decide later.

...Why does it seem that all of my posts are about music these days?

Oh, I'm also watching Boukenger and Gekiranger, and making a steady run through them, I do say.  And I'm thinking of watching Den-O, but that remains to be seen.  And I'm going through Digimon Adventure as fast as I can.

Wii Fit's out next week.  On a Wednesday, strangely.  Oh well, at least there's no need to fight children off at GameStop, and there won't be large lines.

I received the two CD singles for my favorite Tokusatsu programs, today.  Yep, I got the CD single to Kamen Rider Kiva, which is called "Break the Chain", and the opening and ending theme single for Engine Sentai Go-onger.  I even got a neat poster and a single trading card for the "Break the Chain" CD, both of which feature Kiva in all his Fangire awesomeness.  I'm wondering as to whether or not I should hang the poster up now, or wait until I move so it's in pristine condition (and so my roommates can get a good laugh).

I also watched a new Toku last night, called Tomica Hero Rescue Force.  It's basically a Super Sentai-esque show, but it revolves more around actually saving people from natural disasters instead of fighting a rubber monster that can grow to gigantic sizes.  It was interesting, and while the budget for the show is obviously more than most Tokusatsu programs, something about it felt... strange.  I think it was the framerate that the show is broadcast in, as the camera seemed to look more like it was filmed by college students than professionals.  But that's just a minor gripe, because the special effects are fantastic.  I loved the police car's look, and I wouldn't mind having one, myself.

I think I understand my recent uncertainties about this whole novel deal.  I feel as if I need to know absolutely everything about the world in which these characters interact, and that I have to disclose so many unnecessary details about the characters and their families and school.  But I know that this isn't necessary, since even Haruhi Suzumiya didn't even name the teachers, or the main character's families, or even what they learn, really.  And look how great that series is doing in commercialization.  Surely nobody expects much from a random guy on the internet, right?

And yes, I still have writer's block, although the ideas are slowly coming together, piece by piece...

Also, does anybody have any ideas for new names?  I'm not sure if "Law/Grace" is going to cut it, given its source material... I mean, it's not copyrighted or anything, but I don't want the companies to be unknowingly affiliated with me because I use their terminology or anything.

I've been downloading sooo many Overclocked Remixes, lately.  I literally have about 1,139 remixes from their website, give or take.  I'm pretty sure this is legal, since they've become such a huge site and Nintendo/Sony/Microsoft would have shut them down a long time ago if this was illegal.  It's nice to hear all of those old songs I listened to in chiptune format as a child reimagined in ways I never thought possible.  It just gives me such a sense of nostalgia that's been unrivaled for years, now...

I've been playing Crisis Core, since I bought it the other day.  A very, very engaging game.  Makes me appreciate the FF7 series a bit more, since I didn't really care for it originally.  Hopefully I'll be able to actually finish it, given that I haven't been very dedicated to RPGs, as of late.

I'm not feeling very well, at the moment.  Kinda feeling... sickish...

 Still pondering that particular transition in the novels that I have to figure out.  Hopefully I'll be making some headway on that soon, since I want to finish up these summaries.

This upcoming Spring Anime Season doesn't look all that special.  Allison & Lillia looks really interesting, as well as Kyouran Kazoku Nikki, Nijuu Mensou no Musume, Itazura no Kiss, and especially kure-nai, but that's pretty much it.  I really doubt I'll even watch much else besides Allison & Lillia, but we'll see how it goes.

We forked Ben and Jay's yard, last week.  And just earlier tonight, my older brother and sister-in-law placed hundreds of post-it notes on both Gabe's and Jeremy's trucks.  It looked awesome.  This'll show everybody at the Youth Group that our family is not meant to be messed with. :3

I read today that the Ben Stein movie is going to definitely be airing at our local theater, which is a huge plus for me, seeing as how I didn't think the subject matter would be accepted by the theater's owner (seeing as how he aired the Al Gore movie thing), but it turns out that he's just in these things for the money, and if he can make money from a movie, it doesn't really matter what the subject matter is about.  And considering this is a small town, it'd probably be more accepted than all of these big cities.  I'm predicting that there will be at least one boycott of the movie in at least one state, probably here in California in certain cities.  It wouldn't surprise me in the least, considering the terribly hypocritical patrons of this state who think they're open-minded, but are far more bigoted than the things they fight against. xD

I haven't been playing as much Brawl, lately, but that's because there's not much more for me to do on it.  We've unlocked pretty much everything we can, except for the Boss Battle challenges, which are horrendously difficult and something that I don't want to partake in.  I want to try to get into some RPGs again, like Earthbound, but I just can't seem to find the time to sit down and play it.  If nothing else, then I'm certainly going to have a giant backlog of video games that will finally be completed once I'm in college with free time on my hands.  I predict weekend marathons will be taking place with my roommates.

Speaking of roommates, I'm really hoping that I get some cool ones.  I think the current allocationg per room is about four people, so I'll have three roommates.  I want at least one of them to be a chef of some sort, so they'll constantly make food and ask me to taste-test it.  I'm also hoping that another one of them is a computer genius who can help me with tech stuff.  And I hope the last one is an artist or musician of some sort, who can draw or help me with music stuff.  It'd be awesome if that happened.

I downloaded at least two gigabytes of OCRemixes, today.  I decided that it was time I go through what that website has and just enjoy what they put out.  So far, I'm impressed by these remixers.  They really know how to take chiptunes and rework them into a completely new creation.