Rock Around the Clock - Bill Haley and the Comets

Music choice today has been determined by my current class, aptly named "The History of Rock." A 300-level class taught by Dr. Brewer, it seems extremely laid back and entertaining thus far. I feel a faint sense of repulsion due to the extreme saturation of 50's memorabilia and nostalgia in our culture, but that isn't the music's fault.

So, Anaheim. The drive through Colorado and Utah was quite nice, actually. We had an excellent cloud cover with occasional rain all the way through (both going and returning). Vegas traffic blew, and the Mojave is always a bitch, but those were expected. Traffic into Anaheim was slow, and locating the hotel took more effort than I would have liked, but we eventually made it to the Best Western Raffle Suites. After settling in, we wandered over to and around the Anaheim Convention Center for registration. After registering, we hung around the con center to enjoy the early cosplayers before returning to the hotel for the night.

Saturday was Day One, which consisted of dressing in costume (pictures will follow soon) and waiting in line for the AMV exhibition that night. Tori and I made a few Fatal Frame fans very happy, but we soon decided the costumes would give us heat stroke if we kept them on. So, after acquiring tickets, we went back and changed into street clothes. Regrettable, but unavoidable. The AMV's were top quality (as expected), and due to a technological error, we were treated to a kung fu dance troupe performance while the techies fixed the error.

Sunday, we went to the fabled Anime Expo Idol finalist competition. The singers were all ordinary and expected except for the champion, who was a cut above the standard pop anime singers. The voice acting competition was extremely disappointing, however. Again, none but the victor were worth noticing, but this was vexing to me. Had I known the competition was going to be so lax, I would have entered the competition myself. I'm not saying I'm professional caliber, but I could have at least offered the champion some real competition. That's what next year is for.

After AX Idol, we hit a Crispin Freeman (the esteemed voice of Alucard in Hellsing and Will Turner in Kingdom Hearts II) panel. A charming and witty individual, his panel was diseased with hordes of screaming fangirls. Fortunately, the rumors of a Hellsing OVA were confirmed with all of the original cast. w00t.

Monday was another day of waiting in line for the masquerade/costume contest that night. Unfortunately, whilst Tori and I were in line, Kayla and Lauren (our esteemed companion) witnessed a legendary event. They were returning to the con center after changing, when they witnessed a large group of people in a circle outside. What seemed like a ordinary group of otaku turned out to be a ritual circle. For what, you ask?

The summoning of Man-Faye.

Yes, the cosplay legend Man-Faye was summoned (successfully, I might add) on the stoop of AX 2006 by a crowd of devoted fans, a high priest, and an organ player. Kayla and Lauren witnessed the summoning ritual, then came back later to see Man-Faye himself in the center of the circle. They took pictures and got his autograph. Jealousy, green is thy sickly hue.

The masquerade itself was good, with Captain Planet winning the Best in Show award. Many fine costumes and many semi-fine ones paraded on the stage, and we were treated to yet another kung fu demonstration. As a result of those demonstrations, I've decided to study a weapon art, preferably kung fu, to supplement my shotokan.

Fin.

Two-Headed Boy Part II - Neutral Milk Hotel

I just got my two big term papers back: A- on both, which I'm content with. I hated both of them. While working on the big one (10-12 pages on literary criticism and theory), I began seriously toying with the idea of bringing a large back of garbage in on the due date just to make a statement. I wisely chickened out. Must save the GPA until graduation for the sake of the Honors Program, which actually makes life easier. Plus, I can "enrich" my fiction workshop next semester if I'm still an Honors student.

Victoria and I will most likely be falling prey to the MMO world once again in the form of World of Warcraft. I doubt it will become quite the obsession that EverQuest was for me, mostly because I still don't have Internet access at my place. Consequently, I will still spend the majority of my summer sitting in my place playing StarOcean, Vagrant Story, and possibly maybe working on some stories. It's my goal to sell a story to Apex before the summer is out, and you can keep hounding me until it's done. Like all of you.

I need a job this summer. Because I'm poor and a Caucasian heterosexual male. Maybe I could check out the indomitable B-Nob again. Or some other bookstore.

She will feed you tomatoes and radio wires.

Jeff Mangum is amazing.

On a completely unrelated sidenote, I'm very frustrated with Kingdom Hearts II. I have Jiminy's journal 99.7% complete, but for some reason the last two tournaments I need won't initialize. I'm so frustrated I'm actually considering looking up an online FAQ, which is unheard of for me in the first six months of a game's release. But I want the special ending, and I'm at a loss for how to achieve it outside of such a dastardly course of action.

I'm 22 years old now. And a senior in college. I don't know if that makes me happy or sad.

Next semester should be fun.

Passing Afternoon - Iron and Wine

So the meeting with the advisor went well. She said the honors courses wouldn't count toward my upper-division credits, but she's willing to play fast and free with fulfilling those requirements. As long as they relate to the humanities in some way, I'm good. As such, I registered for playwrighting next fall, a 400-level class with Dr. Eric Prince, the British Beckett scholar. An intimidating figure, but he's okay. If everything goes well, I'll also take intermediate and advanced acting, thus rounding out my upper-division credits admirably. We'll see how this goes, but as of right now, I'm staying in the university until graduation.

Just so you know.

Taisedou No Bosatsu - Hellsing OST

I just purchased new headphones on account of my old ones losing an accidental tug-of-war with their owner and a fire hydrant. The new ones are angular and awkward-looking, like they're trying to be futuristic. The sound quality isn't affected though, so I don't care if people think I'm a space-man from Mercury. Maybe I'll get to say "weather-balloon" on TV this way.

My body is attempting to determine if it's falling ill or not. It started Monday morning, making me think I picked up a bug from Mark's lovely ice cream social/arm wrestling tournament. I'm trying to combat it with many herbs and vitamin C supplements, but such efforts seem to have only induced a stalemate. Hopefully, I can hold it off for another two days until the weekend so's I can lick it proper.

The sentence immediately preceding this one was heavily influenced by Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

After a long, convoluted journey, I have arrived at a decision gate regarding my academic career. I discovered Monday that my music minor is kaput because they won't transfer music history credits from Front Range as upper-division, and I refuse to take it at CSU on the simple principle of sanity. Three upper-division English classes + Music History for Masochistic Students = no time for work, and I must work. So I have to meet with my advisor (whom I've never met before, having just discovered her position as my advisor after meeting with the person I thought was my advisor) and attempt to assemble a coherent second field of study based on the 6 upper-division music credits I already have. If I can't, I will most likely drop out of school. I refuse to dig myself further into debt for a second minor I don't really want. Besides, it isn't like my career depends on a four-year degree, anyway. Publishers care about the quality of my work, not my schooling.

School is detrimental to my psychological well-being, anyway.

Ben's getting married in sixteen days.

Luke's having a kid.

I suddenly feel very juvenile.

Measuring Cups - Andrew Bird

Seth Studer (the premarital kind for your ex-Vagrants) received a full-ride-scholarship-plus-spending-money offer from Tufts University, a prestigious Boston college. He listed the figures, and they make my brain roll around in its sac of juicy fluid; the sum of money they want to give him per year exceeds the amount I've lived off of since moving out of my parents' house at 18. It's a crazy honor, but one he deserves.

Hi, my name is Peter. I am lazy and insignificant. I have no job and an irritating amount of excess body fat. School is draining the life force out of me, and the cosmic loads of cloud diarrhea (aka snow) streaming past the window are depressing. I write poetry and prose, or at least I try. However, I find other things like complaining about school or playing WarCraft III easier and less fulfilling. I anticipate my life to take a mundane course after college. I expect to work an hourly job with a nametag pinned to my uniform for several years until my first novel sells a modest amount of copies, enough to generate some income. From there, I will devote more time to writing until I can support myself with it. Surprisingly, none of that life plan includes anything learned while in college. I'm giving time, energy, and money (aka life) to the Academy of the Undead for no reward. At least most majors get something in exchange for their souls, but my particular concentration doesn't. That sounds like the title of a Books song: "Nothing for Something."

Now I have to go workshop poems from my Intermediate Creative Writing class. Most of them suck. It's difficult to critique bad poetry because poetry is an intensely personal art. How do you say, "Um, I'm not discrediting your heartache, but you suck at expressing it"? I don't know, either.

I should finish my laundry.

Setting Sun - The Chemical Brothers

Two weeks of class until spring break. Those two weeks will be a weighted uphill sprint, but the reward will compensate all energy lost.

I am the proud winner of an E-bay auction for the original Final Fantasy. ~$10 with shipping, which beats the hell out of the $50 GameForce wants for the same title. Within two hours, I may also own the NES Castlevania trilogy and StarTropics.

\/\/00+

The Good That Won't Come Out - Rilo Kiley

You scored as Bebop (Cowboy Bebop). Hope you donâ??t mind being anime. Your style just fits perfect with the crew of the Bebop. Life is tough and your crew knows it, but you will find a way to survive. You always do. Now if only Faye would quit gambling all your money away. Bebop (Cowboy Bebop) 88% Serenity (Firefly) 81% Deep Space Nine (Star Trek) 75% Babylon 5 (Babylon 5) 63% Nebuchadnezzar (The Matrix) 63% Moya (Farscape) 63% Millennium Falcon (Star Wars) 56% SG-1 (Stargate) 56% Galactica (Battlestar: Galactica) 56% Andromeda Ascendant (Andromeda) 50% Enterprise D (Star Trek) 38% FBI's X-Files Division (The X-Files) 31% Your Ultimate Sci-Fi Profile II: which sci-fi crew would you best fit in? (pics) created with QuizFarm.com

I had a rather bad dream last night. I was up at the House of Gyod which my parents were leasing for some reason. Some guy whose name I forget but whose office I used to clean at Stanford Real Estate came by to weightily remind my father that the loan my parents had taken out to finance my writing a musical (first time I'd heard of it) had yet to turn any profits. Dad took it in stride, but reminded me that I might want to get started on it. He also said I should move into that house and live there. I was kind of excited about the prospect, but not enough to commit. I agreed to make it an alternate house by bringing some of my clothes and toiletries over.

Scene shift: I'm doing my show on KCSU when the entire system reboots because of a power blink. Keenly aware of the dead air, I impatiently wait for the computers to come back on (the CD players had mysteriously vanished) so I could keep playing. Then out of nowhere, no less than a dozen people show up in the studio (not the station, but actually in the tiny room with me). Among them was Stefanie Berganini, the KCSU station manager. In real life, she's chill, but for some reason her presence in my dream put me under a lot more stress about the dead air. The auto-DJ came on and started playing some metal band. I scrambled for anything to play, but every CD I put in the player wanted me to input a CD key before I could play it. I woke (quite stressed and exhausted) before resolving the situation.

I think I'll go out and embarass myself by getting drunk and falling down in the street.

In real-world news, I feel like a techno-mage. I purchased enough equipment to enable Lappy to project itself onto my television screen, so you can say good-bye to PS2-Import Anime incompatibility. This means we can now watch Advent Children without any trouble.

I must needs read Michel Foucault now.