Happy Halloween.

Somewhere, Chandra's already wolfing-down her gummies...

I spent last night watching Reservoir Dogs while my sister hung out with some fifteen people in the house. I was thankful that the few who had migrated from her little congregation to sit around me were kind of squeemish, and left when Mister Blonde lops Nash's ear off, and douses 'em in Gasoline.

Truth be told, though, Nice Guy Eddie was one of my favorites. As for everyone else, I'm tied between Mister Orange and Mister Pink...

"Wait, wait. Why do I have to be Mister Pink?"
"Because you're a Faggot."
"No way - can't we pick our own colors?"
"No - tried that before. I don't want four guys arguing over who gets to be Mister Black, and nobody backing down because they don't know eachother."
"...Can't I be Mister Purple? Mister Purple sounds good."
"Look, just shut up."
"That's easy for you to say! You're Mister White, you have a cool-sounding name!"
"...Mister Purple is a different guy, in a different mission. You're Mister Pink."

Oh man, and Nice Guy Eddie...

"Vick, you sick bastard! You just tried to fuck me in my Father's Office!"
"...You wish."
"Don't get me wrong, Vick, I like you, but I just don't think of you that way."
"Look - if I were a butt-cowboy? I wouldn't throw you to my posse."
"'Course not! You'd keep me for yourself! I know how it is - four years fucking punks up the ass and you can appreciate a cut of prime rib..."
"...I might break you in, Nice Guy...But you can be my dog's bitch."

I loved those awkward exchanges between everyone.

As opposed to last year's Halloween, where Godfather Mike took everyone out to get plastered, and I played Venetian Snares out the window while pretending to be a miner, I've prepared something more than an impromptu costume this year.



























For the first time in Cobuniji's History, a picture of your host.
Happy Halloween, readers.
Buddha Loves you.
Jesus Saves.

"Sorry, Wrong Number".

Okay, it looks good, the fact you have CCleaner.
Thanks, it came with the computer, or at least, I think it did.
Have you used it before?
Yes - it's really reliable stuff.
What about defragging the hard drive? My
I'm still rather fond of Defraggler - could I run it? It might optimize a bit worse than MyDefrag, but sure. I wanna
check some stuff, still, in CCleaner.
Understood. Feel free.
I suggest limiting internet explorer's cache to like, 50MB. You rarely if ever need more than that.
Say - real fast:
How was your day? I've been meaning to ask, but I've been a bit tired and slow...I actually forgot my phone-number. These Meds are kicking the crap out me.
Ehhhh. Let'see... I got approached to cyber a bunch of times. Once by some russian dude on Negroserver, which I'm unbanned from now. I got to add mcfool and we talked about Deus Ex, so it's cool.
"Listen, Stalker, I want to feel your ass..."
Not even a chuckle? Damned. Tough crowd. Your edge is off when you're drugged up, nun.
Hoh. Perhaps.
Forty-five minutes? No joke, or is it bullshitting?
It is clearing 140 gigs of space... Holy crap, this craptop has more hard drive space than my heap here. I'm jealous. :
...It was like, $50 on Black Friday last year...I've been keeping it under my bed, saving it for when I go to college, so I don't have to rent one...
You can rent laptops? Huh. Yeah, they take it out your student fees, but they charge you out the ass for it.
It looks like a small price, but when you consider they're charging you periodically, it really adds up, and they're strongarming you for every bill so that you can get your assignments donne.
Yeah, it makes sense to make you want to make the most of your time, but it still doesn't change the fact that college time still seems to be party time.
Have you gotten my soap yet...? I'm eager for that to get there already.
No, but I did get the cats everywhere postcard yesterday.
I seriously imagine your house like that, sometimes...
I only have two cats.
Still, there was petfood beneath your...
...Nevermind.
I know what you mean, but that's where we keep the dog's dishes. To distract it before it eats the used pads from the bathroom garbage.
...I still have those pictures. They're good pictures.
I may have played too much fdghlsdfjsdfh deus ex recently if I hear Denton's voice in that.
I don't even know what to say to that. I'm just smiling, but I think that's bad...
It depends on what you think J.C. Denton is like.
A guido with super-bots and a police badge.
Not quite. He's like Neo without the faggotry and scrawny.
You know, I loved The Matrix when I was eight. I could sit back and enjoy that shit for hours, but I recently saw it was airing on late night TV, and rewatched the first two?
Dear God, they were awful.
I still like the first one. When it splits into three, you know it's crap and you should abandon any hope of it ever being good again.
Sounds just like 4chan.
I admit to checking /v/ now again due to Fistbeard.
Say, my tea's done give me a second. I'm
gIsure. Giving you free reign.
I've returned with tea. And I have to go. I downloaded the latest drivers. I think they'll do you a whole lot of good and MAYBE make something or other playable. I'll be back in... half an hour, probably.
Hey, thanks for everything, Chief.
It means a lot, because I tried my hand at it and failed miserably to find new drivers.
I guess Intel didn't have any on their site?
I thought John had them on a disc, even.
Oh.. It looks like they're the same. Fff... well... I dunno. I still gotta do stuff
Thanks for everything, though.
I feel bad, because the best I can do is wait for you to get soap, and feel rewarded in the slightest.
I wanna get you on TF2 even a little somehow. We'll have to figure tht out.
I wanna trade you shit. I'll see what I can do. ASAP. The 2010 halloween stuff gjust got lined up. What is it? Mann Manor. Apparently, random free stuff on the halloween version.
fUCK YmYMy capslock is right next to my shift, and my keys are tiny...
Thanks for everything, go take care of what you need to.

In Which I Celebrate Birthdays, and Dream of Gifts.

Today's a two-pronged affair. Sparrow's birthday is today, but so is my mother's. My father has a terrible habit of bringing fruit and champagne, and as such, I've decided that I'm going to take my mother out for Sushi - something she enjoys and my father will not eat. We spent the evening discussing what we'll order, and budgeting everything so that it's not a financial issue. After the number-crunching, we got to the fun part: working our heads around our impending delicacies:

We're not ordering the Hatate-roll again. Hatate tastes like her articles.

The New York Roll, in the spirit of where we'll be living, is on the menu - but only perhaps.

Ikura, with it's eyeball-looking caviar, is omitted. It tastes okay, but that texture...

Urchin is never in stock. Ever. I've been trying to order it for months.

I'm considering ordering Yellowtail so I can chant Buri-! Hamachi-!

Straying from the topic of fish, let's talk about birds.
Sparrow's gotten older today as well.
Happy Birthday, stranger. You are adored.

I've send an odd package: Dress-socks, oatmeal soap, a labcoat, a compass.
I don't have as much confidence as I did in it, before I listed it all here.
I really hope that it winds up well-used...

I considered staying home, so I could rest and thoroughly celebrate both birthdays, but I have to evaluate Court Cases for College Government. That seemed so threatening that I didn't want to fall back an inch on it...

Narrowing the scope on myself, I've recently laid-out five dollars to buy a powder blue Shemagh - an Arabic headscarf. I spent the weekend wearing my nun's coif for Halloween, and found it very comfortable, so I reluctantly went out of pocket for something a little more discerning.
I also found a delightful thing - a Rearden Steel keychain.
I was sitting there, staring at it and not knowing if I could ever purchase it, or it's brothers: Wyatt Oil and Danagger Coal.

Some day, I'll buy those. And I'll parade them around like the filthy capitalist I am.

I'll go at my own Pace, because I-Own-A College.

So, I don't have any witty picture, crude depiction or title-related item to chuck in right now, rather, I'm mooching off my school's wireless network to write, because the connection is doubtlessly faster than what I've got at home - I hope to fix that tonight, finally. I know I've said I'd fix it quite a few times, but I just haven't been able to get ahold of the Drivers I need yet - I can't get John to help, but I think I can get someone else. We'll pour over my saved boxes and system requirements and what-not tonight, provided I can kind of strong-arm him into not watching a movie like he usually does in the evenings.

I'm keeping a bunch of educational opportunities open in New York. Pace has a Bachelor's in Nursing, which is relevant to what I'd like to study, but they're largely business and management oriented, so I believe I'd be attending solely for my core-materials, and then Nursing. There's Iona, but their site's a bit convoluted, so I'm kind of toying around with it - I was supposed to have a Counsellor help me navigate through all the ribbon-covered garbage and get down to what they offer and how much it costs, but she kind of cancelled, and now my hands are proverbially tied - I need those statistics before I can start applying for Scholarships, because each and every institution wants to make certain I'm not going to make them pay out the rear to educate me. I hope I can get that taken care of soon - I'll come in after-hours or something. If Iona, which I like because it sounds like "I-Own-A", offers anything more-extensive than Nursing, I think I may tail them more than Pace, but if they're narrowed down to Psychology or something, I'll walk.

I took an ACT not two days ago, and I realized that I had no way of getting home from the Test-Center, so I started walking one direction - it proved for a very interesting evening. Wandering, I found myself in front of the Spanish Church of God, Iglesia de Dios where I paused. I'm not particularly religious, but I decided to pray in front of an Icon of Our Lady of Guadalupe. I prayed for Sparrow, Liam, Aaron and my friends; my ACT Score; and finally for the unfortunate and sickly of the world. That's how it's all stratified in importance for me, kind of. It felt really good, even though it's not the kind of thing I put a lot of stock into. Refreshing.

Hopping out from in front Iglesia de Dios, I walked to this place that had one of those classic-style signs that said, "Vintage Jukebox Display!", and went in. The curator was this hurried woman who apologized for not having turned on her lights. She showed me around, and we talked about one of her displays of Moxie: about how neither of us has tried it, but that it supposedly tastes like root-beer. About how it's the state-beverage of Maine, and how it's really hard to find nowadays.
She also had these odd bottles of some sort of seasoning made here in town once upon a time, called "Sunspot". It was apparently made of horseradish and vinegar - I bet you could strip paint with the stuff; horseradish alone will have you make funny facial expressions as your nostrils flare, but with vinegar, I bet it's sitting on a whole 'nother level.

I left, and continued my inspections of odd stores: Atherson's Furniture Outlet, a local one made of bright blue bricks with a faded sign that proclaimed "Mattresses, Half Price!" had these odd, spindly birds spray-painted where its hedges were, so the graffiti looks like it's peering over them. I also found a condemned "Oratory Club", and an "Industrial Supermarket" in the same shape. I passed the Saint Peter's Lutheran Church, where I saw a child had written "FUCK YOUTHAIS" in the cement - I promptly Holden Caulfield'd.

Passing this big field full of grasshoppers, which was for sale, I wound up at this Auto-Scrapyard, where a guy who looked kind of like a friend of mine told me that I had left town, and that home was way behind me. I turned around, and got directions from a woman who was unloading plastic yard-toys from the bed of a truck for her kids, and then walked home after some bumbling-around.

I've dressed as a Nun for Halloween. It's...I'm not certain.
There was some concern that I might be a gross neckbeard, but when I put on the rosaries, I think I won a bit of attention.
Steve joked that, though he's straight, me in a nun's habit is really cute.
Maybe there's hope for me?
Last year, I was passing out candy while trying to beat Quake 1 in one sitting. This couple seemed offended that I wasn't in costume, so I threw one of my nightshirts into the fireplace, and tossed my suspenders over it, so I could say I was a Miner when people asked what I was.
We never get a lot of people, because our side of the street lacks sidewalks, but I'd like to do something good this year, rather than playing Venetian Snares out my window while pretending to have a costume.

I ran into Jen while buying post-its and notecards. She offered me a job at the local Michael's, and I think I'm going to try and take her up on it. She said I'll be a "Standard Retail Drone", but that I'll be one of two males working there. She proceeded to explain that the only other guy there is "A hipster; one so bad that eventually, the irony will accumulate and he'll die of irony poisoning". Somewhere, Matt's about to crack a joke and tell me I'll fit right in - he loves to tease me about my fondness for bad cars and my duct-tape wallet.

In closing, I was reading about this guy, Tucker Max. He goes out and buys this Megaphone with the sole purpose of being a jerk while waiting for this game to start. Waiting outside a port-a-potty, he surprises this guy who walks out by screaming:

"OH GROSS, YOU JUST USED A PORT-A-POTTY. I THOUGHT YOU'D DO SOMETHING NORMAL, BUT YOU VIOLATED THAT POOR THING. GO BACK IN THERE RIGHT NOW, AND APOLOGIZE."

A kind of portly blonde guy with glasses turns to defend the guy from Tucker, who proceeds to say:

"IF THIS WAS LORD OF THE FLIES, YOU'D ALREADY BE DEAD, BUDDY."

The blonde guy opens his mouth to say something, and Tucker counters before he can, with:

"SILENCE, PIGGY. I HAVE THE CONCH NOW.

I was hopelessly amused by Tucker's douchebaggery.
That's going to be my new remark when people interrupt me, as they often do.
"Silence, Piggy. I have the conch now".

Business Cuts in Triplicate.

So, quite a bit has transpired since I've last written, and that's likely the reason it's taken me so long to put up another update.

There's some discrepancy with Syracuse - it's no longer one-hundred percent solid, because they're attempting to strongarm my father into some rather steep years of service in return for keeping their word and my education. Frankly, they hold all the cards - my Old Man's choices are narrowly eaten down to "Leave" and "Stay Forever", neither of which are particularly appetizing to us.

As such, I've sold my computer, and am in the process of parting with my consoles.
I have a small Laptop purchased last Black Friday - it was bought in anticipation for college, but now, I find it's a much easier way to keep in touch with you all, while still netting a tidy sum by selling all my excess.

Without my computer, some odd things have come into my notice - I can hear my belly grumble in the morning as I have my coffee and sandwich. In the evening, I can hear the traincars sounding their horns. The rain's loud against my window. It's all rather beautiful - like I've been running at half-capacity on my hearing and I've somehow managed to turn it up back to one-hundred.

I'm caring for Paulie. He's an Old English Bulldog that was slated for Euthanasia. He's a little sick since being neutered, but once his meds wear off and he heals-up, he'll be running around and evermore attractive to adoptees, who relish the opportunity to skip-out on paying for the neutering themselves. The medication hasn't been particularly kind to him - he has been emptying his belly frequently, but I'm keeping him stocked on food and water. He'll be better, God willing, soon.

A friend's birthday is just around the corner - I've prepared them a small box filled with a compass, lovely socks, and a neatly folded labcoat. I've been a little Glass-Half-Empty as of late, so I suddenly got the idea to buy several other oddities. I've mailed two dear friends soap - I don't particularly know why. I'm extremely excited to see how a Sunflower-Scented bar goes over; the entire brick of it smells sweet and dusty, like sugared sawdust or something.

I've been pouring over the designs for a crater-terraced manor of sorts.
I've meticulously drawn-out a blueprint of sorts for it, in anticipation of the day I get to join Kogasa and Parsee for a bit of Minecraft. The idea of the Floating Island is proving to be frustrating, after several repetitions and the laying of the island portion. My inspiration for the Manor came from these pictures - I'm currently in the process of scaling everything, and drawing out small blueprints for some of the trickier parts:

















I'd also like to include some Ladder-and-Beam centric stuff, and perhaps a windmill, for the sake of Ico, who's faint and somber style was very much something I loved.
This is all a bit premature though - I don't actually have a connection stable enough to play Minecraft as of yet, but I'm working on it - I believe I need a registry CD, which I may have to bum off John.

I've been on a Russia-kick thanks to Hjalmar. Proshanie Slavyanki and Krokodil Gena have been looping within my room for days, muted and quiet behind the sound of whatever is going on outside. Another thing that's been heavily-present in my room is the ideas of this speaker I heard last Sunday: he was sort of advocating Socialism on a Person-to-Person level. He preached that the world rotates on an "axis of violence" - the threat of being hurt or impovrished if you do something wrong keeps society in work - he painted the idea of this utopian society where nobody is ever threatened because everyone is forgiving of eachother and considers eachother equal. Man is a Selfish Creature, and I know it can't really happen - Utopia literally means "Not-a-Place" for a reason - but I think can make the world a better place if I erase the lines I've drawn between "Me" and "Them", so to speak.

College Aptitude testing, as well as the shipping-out of the aforementioned birthday gift is scheduled for the twenty-third. Or maybe the day before. I don't know - Isn't the twenty-third a Sunday? Also, there's the matter of Chandra - If I've not mentioned her, Chandra is the young niece of Dez, a friend of mine. Chandra is picked on by her sisters, and more or less everyone else, because she lost her front teeth and now "looks like Gollum", as Dez eloquently put it. She's also kind of an odd duck.

I looked like that when I was small, though, and I was certainly picked on.
For the past year or two, I've been giving Chandra a gift every Holiday; just small things - an Easter Bunny, a Valentine, a little Christmas gift, those sorts of things. She doesn't know me, personally, but apparently I'm this big, dashing secret hero to her. Dez said, "She asked me what you were like - I told her you wear blazers every day and you're way too old for her". I laughed. Worried that it may be the last holiday-gift I really get to spoil her with before Christmas or a Moving truck, I boxed up some gummy-bears and spooky jelly-eyes for her. I really took the time to wrap it up and even put a nice bow on it. With all these gifts being sent, I'd like to think I'm doing them justice when I wrap them, even if it's just newspaper...

We'll see if she writes me a cute farewell letter or something.
I've kept the two little letters she's written back to me tacked on my wall for the longest time.

My Weeklong Motivator.

Still feeling really sick.
It's also very late.
These are the motivators for my week.




















Also, I took this picture: My frame was recently broken by my cat, so I put my corkboard up.

Goodnight.

The Happy Backpacker.

There once a man who decided he would climb to the summit of a large mountain, so that he could fish from its peak.

Everyday, he climbs little by little, wondering if there's water up top.

He squashes down his hat and presumes with a smile.

Rotgut.

YOU'RE. MINE.

I'm home ill today.
I ate some food that had been baking on the roof in the sun for a day, the day after.
I followed it up with three-days-ago's coffee.
Need I explain?

Anyways, there's been a long going on, actually.
I'm preparing to take my ACTs again, which, provided I get around a thirty, will qualify me for "Bright-Flight", which I believe is only valid here in Missouri, but can nonetheless be listed on a College Application. It essentially allows me to attend free (Some more.)

I watch a huge tournament-game of Heroes of Newearth with a friend.
Devourer was definitely my favorite, though the guy playing him didn't build him well in the beginning and thus, didn't have money for items, and subsequently sucked horribly throughout the game. Even the commentators were complaining about him.

I have a tendency to like characters like that - the ones that you'd be better off not playing unless you know what you're doing? - only I never do, so I'm pretty hapless. But it's still fun because I get to be who I like, and I learn new tricks the whole time spent. I'm a Misao when it comes to games.

I got two nice lab-coats. One's for a friend.
They're very nice because they're so obnoxiously white.
I have a nicer, more-durable one, now, too, though they gave me a huge one...

Also, I burned-down my Palanquin Ship.
I'll be remaking it in Multiplayer, I think, out in the sea. This time, I'll put a huge hole in the bottom to pop in from under, and make it a bit deeper in the water, so it's not towering on the sea, hull and all.

I watched Blazing Saddles with Aaron a ways back?
Dear God.
I watched it when I was eight and didn't understand a lick of it,
now I'm laughing my ass off daily as I sing "I'm so Tired".
Are you in Showbiz, Tex-Ma'am? No? Then get your damned feet off my stage!

That said, I also slept in, and only caught the end-match of a Wrestling Pay-per-View that Utsuho was passing around. It would seem it was one of those "Good day to be a Heel" matches, because all the Bad-Guys won. It'll change, though. Revenge is always around the corner with those things, because if the crowds are pissed-off, then they don't cheer.

In closing, I've found this:














I'm not exactly sure what it is, but it's really cute, if you ask me.
Looks like a weird paper doll in an airport?
I wonder who took it, and what it means?