I just sent a text message to a buddy of mine who's at MFF, who says he's staying one more day, and I asked "Is there a Dead Dog?" He says yes.

But I started thinking... I remember YEARS ago, I was like 16, and looking up furry conventions online, wishing I could go to one, but thinking I'd never be able to go until I move out... but I remember reading the words "Dead Dog" while looking up information on conventions, and I remember being SO confused for like an hour or so.

At first, I'm thinking, "Dead Dog?.... That sounds awful! Did something horrible happen to somebody or somebody's dog at a recent con?"... Eventually, I realized it wasn't something awful, and that it was something good... and then eventually, I found out it was just a party, and I was relieved... but I still thought it sounded weird.

So it's funny how these days, the term is familiar enough for me to say, without a second thought, and that the person I'm talking to knows exactly what I'm talking about... whereas if an outsider heard the conversation out of context, it would be confusing to them, like it was to me at first.

I am amused. :)

---

Today I have a shitload of errands, to prepare for my wisdom teeth removal tomorrow.

I just finished a commission, which you can check out by clicking the thumbnail below. WARNING! NSFW



I'm trying to do as many things as I can today to make sure I'm comfortable for the next week. So I'm gonna get a haircut, clean my room, wash my sheets, start another commission, get some new music, and so on.

I can't have food or water 8 hours prior to the surgery, so here's to gorging on a huge dinner tonight! Had a great italian dinner lastnight, so that was a good start!

My gums are gonna be bleeding. With excessive blood, I was thinking of doing a painting with the blood. It's been done before (ie: David Choe), but I miss traditional mediums so much, and I think it'd be one of the few moments I'll have spare blood exiting my body. So why not put it to good use and paint a picture with it?

Plus I'll be on vicodin, and if I feel goofy, hell yeah I wanna strip down to my underoos, blast my music, and try to paint with my blood in a bowl, and food beside me (that I can't eat) just for moral support. *sniffle*

Wisdom Teeth: I have 3 wisdom teeth, officially scheduled to be pulled from my gums this Monday. Talking to friends has definitely helped calm me down, but I'm still also trying not to think too much about it. I'm passing the gas (lol), passing the local anesthetics, and taking on the "Twilight Sedation IV". I better wake up (at all), with JUST my mouth sore, and not other parts of my body. ;)

9:20am, Monday morning, I'm going in alone. My older brother was suppose to go with me and get his surgery done with mine, but he had to reschedule, and I won't lie, I felt a little more comfortable when he was suppose to go with me.

Plus I gotta make sure I don't eat OR drink 8 hours prior to the surgery. SUCKS. ;)

Comssions: So I'm planning to finish up my current commission before I get my wisdom teeth pulled on Monday. Then before this Monday, OR a week after Monday (after recovery), I'm considering doing a couple of ArtRage commissions. When I'm officially open for those, I'll announce it on FA, and do another number-guessing slot thing.

I'm thinking of charging around $60. An example of the commission types, check this out:
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/801807/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/2166714/

Vacation: I've got a month long vacation coming up, from December 28th through late January, after FC2010. This is the longest time I'll be on vacation, and AWAY from the family. It's mind-blowing. I have to keep a straight face and hide my excitement, every time my mom talks about the Philippines, and how I'm not going with them. I can't wait. I'm just trying to pay off my damn credit card as soon as possible so I can start saving up for the trip!

I got 2 plane tickets paid for, and I need just one more. So I jut need to save money for that one plane ticket, for food, FC Registration, and my share of the hotel for FC, and a (non snowboarding) thick sweater. :)

Holidays: I'll be recovering from my wisdom teeth during Thanksgiving which sucks, but it's okay, because I'm glad to just have it out of the way so I'm all good to go for Christmas (only the best holiday in the world)! Unfortunately, I'm low on money, trying to pay my card and save up for my vacation, because I really wanted to try sending out cards and packages this year and crap... but I guess I'll have to wait for next year to do that.

I wanna spend Christmas up in Big Bear this year, but the parents are hesitating because they're saving up for the Philippines. I'm glad they're going, because I get a month of vacation NOT in the Philippines, but on the same time... the Philippines interfering with Big Bear is NOT cool. Big Bear is a million times cooler than the Philippines (literally too!).

So apparently I missed the memo about FurtherConfusion asking Fairmont to take a $150 deposit this early from people....

I've been trying to pay off my credit card, and as soon as I think I'm just about to be able to pay it all off, I'm charged a $150 deposit (one night's stay). Now this despoit will go into the final charge at the end, so it's not TOO big of a deal, but it IS a bit annoying for me personally.

I'm sure if I had a job, this would be a less of an issue.

Though I guess it's not even a real issue right now anyway, it just really catches me off guard.

But god, with all you folks at MFF right now, I'm so pumped for my furry convention time in January. :)

It was amusing, because one of the first thing the girl says is, "Are you staying with us in January for a convention?" And I was like, "Uh... yeah."

And so basically it's a common complaint, which makes sense, as they never had the Double Tree do this, at least not to my recollection.

Juanldw was awesome enough to take the jack-o-lantern pattern I made for Halloween of Keto, and created a wooden carved lantern out of it, and I must say he did a kickass job! I absolutely love it, and thought I'd share it with you guys.

I'm sure this lasts longer than a pumpkin. ;)

I just put on my shorts that I've owned for a couple months now, and they actually felt a little tighter to button up than usual.

This is the first time I felt slightly bad about it....but not bad enough to n ot want a tasty lunch. :9 I'm hunnnngry!

This IS indeed safe for work.

Click for the Full-View.

This music video is HILARIOUSLY awful.

What makes it funny is I believe it's suppose to be serious... but it seems like a fobbish black guy who barely speaks English, saw a couple music videos on MTV, grabbed a camera, copied some of the clothes and dances and even poses and crap, and made some crappy rap with barely any knowledge of the English language. He even did the typical black-rapper laugh a couple times, as well as ending the video with a typical rapper hat tilt.

My favorite part is at the end when he says, "Yeah girl... you can go to the movie anytime you like, you know I mean? But guess who you gonna call? Your baby boy, Bangs...cause he still got chance... know what I mean?... *laugh*"

It's all just too cheesy and awful.... it's gold!

EDIT: So I went through his other videos... and yeah, this guy is totally serious.



This video is him with his friends, and my goodness, these are the wannabe gangster types I hated in high school.... except they're adults (I think).

They're all trying to act "gangsta" and what they're saying barely makes sense if it makes sense at all, and there's a filipino too.... Ugh. They're throwin up hand signs that don't even match what they're saying, they're saying things like "Keepin in gangsta" and tossing in a few "That's how we do" and "keepin it real"'s here and there.... then they censor the filipino guy cussing the first time, but then they DON'T censor him the second time... so they were censoring him the first time simply to make them look cool... to which the black guy replies with "Yeah that's right, we don't give a DAMN!" He also has a damn stupid artificial laugh that he's almost pulled right out of another (cr)rap song.

This video makes me cringe. I can't believe it. I really can't.

Taken from Twitch.

So I've been listening to country radio a bit more lately, and been picking up some awesome songs by awesome bands like Montgomery Gentry, Love and Theft, and Zac Brown Band.

Zac Brown Band has some awesome songs, like "Toes" which I can't help but (attempt) to sing along with... (part of it is in spanish), "Whatever It Is", and "Chicken Fried Rice".

Also nice to see an attractive lead singer (the green jacket in front the front in the picture above)... You're probably rolling your eyes but it's weird because I use to ASSUME that country music would have a ton of big hefty hairy guys... but my personal observations have contradicted that thought.

Stolen from Rikoshi:



Hahahahaha. Love it.

The guy's voice reminds me of the Snorlax video....

So I'm considering checking out the Prancing Skiltaire Party this month (Nov. 14th, Saturday).

It'll be the first time I attend, and so if I go, I'd like to know if anybody I know will be attending this month?

Anybody?

So it was a busy day, and I'm pretty tired....

I lost 60 dollars somehow at the Asian market (I bet a filipino pick-pocketed me! D: ), not by choice, but my mom wanted me to pick stuff up. I remember putting it in my pocket as I was walking into the store....

It was her $60 too.... I searched the entire market twice, and checked the lost and found twice... so I was pretty upset. But I took the responsibility, as it was lost in my care, so I simply apologized to my mom, and told her I'll reimburse the lost money.

Went to a small Farmer's Market nearby... I wasn't excited at first, but once I was there, I wanted to pretty much buy everything... fresh vegetables, fresh flavored olive oils and bread that tasted wonderful, fresh Italian ice, and everyone pretty much handed out samples. :)

I actually want to go back with money so I can buy some stuff, like this awesome garlic olive oil and some strawberries and stuff...

I ended up snagging some fresh peppers (green bell, yellow, red, etc.), avocados, guavas, annnd freakin kettle corn.

My goodness, this kettle corn is delicious. :) It was only 2 bucks for the small bag.

I stopped by the indian booth and it was delicious, but so over-priced. I got to taste the mint-yogurt though, and it was a small container, for $5..... overpriced for just freakin yogurt. But I bought it anyway, because I wanted some. Now I gotta buy nan. He was charging like $4 for like 2 nans.... I've never shopped for nan, but that sounds expensive.

I'm gonna visit the Indian groccery places nearby and just buy nan there, then I'll try cooking Chicken Tiki Masala....

Food. <3

:) Fun times.

Hope you critters had a good and safe Halloween!

I'm not sure if it's actually funny or if I'm just easily amused.

EAT IT! EAT THE PEANUT!!!!!!! EAT IT!!!!!

---

My personal favorite Halloween treat choices, from most to least preferred:
1) Kit-Kat
2) Snickers
3) Caprisun (It's wonderful to have a drink to wash down all the candy during trick-or-treating)
4) Peanut / Peanut Butter M&Ms
Honorably Mentioned) Reese's Peanut Butter Cups

My personal hated Halloween treat choices:
1) No-Name candies
2) Tootsie Rolls
3) Raisins
4) Circus Peanuts (related video above)

My goodness, this man is attractive. And I don't just mean sexually, but just as a whole package. Awesome.

He has good taste in food, he likes rock music (telling from his Chiodos shirt in the above video), he's a handsome, thick, and heavy-set fella, has good humor, seems like an ambitious and competitive guy (doing good so far on Top Chef!), and comes off as a nice guy. Easily one of the most attractive "celebrities" in my book.

God, chubby food-guys are so awesome. And I'm not here jerking my meat staring at them, I'm more sitting here, just IMPRESSED by how simply attractive overall these kind of men are. Kevin especially.

I would love to hang out with Kevin, go to a concert with him, have him cook for me, kiss hi-... okay yes.

Plus I like his humor. :)

mmmmm, the above video is full of yum, both from the bacon, to the man cooking it.

This month has been awesome so far.

Friends, movies, traveling....

Where The Wild Things Are was awesome. It wasn't perfect, but with my anticipation being about a year long, and my expectations set high, I wasn't disappointed, and it was pretty much what I expected. That's a good and rare thing.

Awesome movie. :)

My two favorite things about the movie:

1) The authentic feel of how kids act, think, and deal with their emotions, anger, fear, sadness, and so on. Everything from body language to dialogue of Max felt so spot-on. Some of the things I could personally relate to.

2) The Wild things themselves were stunning both visually and audiovisually. I also loved how the Wild Things were portrayed and represented in the film. The metaphors were simple and obvious enough, but executed incredibly great.

The movie made JUST enough direct references to the book, and every time it did, it executed it pretty perfectly. Hell, there were 3 parts of the book that were pretty much quoted in the movie. The movie felt familiar enough to where it FELT like Where The Wild Things Are, but felt fresh enough on the same time to feel like its own movie.

The book and movie were both about children, and how children deal with their emotions and troubles. The movie elaborated on this 'journey' of dealing with the emotions in life. The movie respected children, in the sense that it didn't simply write off kids as stupid retards, and instead broke it down to the basic psychology of children, while it tried not to sugarcoat anything.

It was deeper and darker than what you'd expect from a typical children's movie...

Though...

After discussion with friends, I agree with a conclusion that was brought up: This movie is less for kids, and more for adults who remember being a kid.

The ending was pretty much what I wanted too. Very effective and sincere, without being cliche.

Thanks to everybody who I got to hang out with. There were a lot of good people to spend time with, so it was a challenge to portion out quality time. But I had a great weekend. :)

Next up for October awesomeness:
- Horror Movies
- Halloween
- Good food

This is easily the best part of the year for me. It's when the weather gets cooler and when all the holidays start coming in in turn making me feel all warm inside. :)

And surprisingly, the weather here in San Diego, actually HAS gotten cooler. Usually, Summer is like "You know what? I don't feel like going away. I think I'll stay here until spring!" So I'm happy that Fall reminded Summer that he's being a hog.

I made some halloween decorations with my sister last night... she really enjoyed it. So much that, afterwords, she got herself a piece of spam, got me a piece of spam, and she made a toast with me using the spam, saying, "To Halloween and the best brother ever!" It made me "dawwww". ;p

These were the things we made:


Saw paranormal activity for a second time, and the audience was HUGELY smaller than the first time I saw it... and it WAS quieter, but there was still a group of girls in the back being annoying. I wanted to "SHHH!!" them, but I let Radjin do that for me.

So two times in a row, watching this movie, I feel like it's NOT just a coincidence, that it's the women who really ARE the most annoying in movies like this. Because just like last time, the most annoying people in the theater, were the girls, who love to scream, giggle, and talk (loudly). I'm starting to feel like girls shouldn't be allowed into horror movies, or have to sign a promise that says they'll behave, or they immediately get kicked out or something.

But anyways, I wasn't nearly as upset this time.

I feel like buying pumpkin spice candles for my room to enhance the autumn feeling, and buying some hot cocoa.

I went to Best Buy 2 days ago to play DJ Hero for 2.5 hours... also went yesterday for 2 hours to play it again, and I'm probably going again today to play. :) It's pretty fun, but not nearly as intuitive as it should be, and there's a bit of lag on the demo... the demo is too limiting also.

So many things awesome things coming up; Where The Wild Things Are (I've already got plans), Halloween, more Horror Movies to rent, Pumpkin Pie and Pumpkin Seed baking, Thanksgiving, then the holy grail of holidays, Christmas and snowboarding and big bear... then my month-long vacation without my family, traveling to Michigan, seeing brunt down houses at Detroit, and FC2010, then possible trip to Tahoe for snowboarding and hanging out.... I mean this is all going to be amazing.

To all those going to FurFright, hope you all have fun. :)

DJ Hero


Scratch: The Ultimate DJ


---------------

So let me just say, after watching these two previews for the games, neither of them fully excite me, as stand-alone games/peripherals.

Just a little bit of background, back in middle school and highschool, my brothers and I had a pair of turntables (meant for scratching) and mixer with a feather-touch crossfader, and scratching needles. We started practicing.

I was less into mixing and beat making, and more into specifically scratching. We had had tutorial videos, we'd practice often, we built up a collection of vinyl music and breaks, and we had fun with it all. We kept this up for a couple years. So by saying this, I'm not claiming to be a pro or anything with real real life scratching, but I'm saying I DO have some experience.

That being said, they really need to COMBINE DJ Hero and Scratch: The Ultimate DJ.

I think Scratch: The Ultimate DJ has the better system, to be honest. It's more authentic to the real-life thing, and yet it's simplified enough in the gameplay to make it a bit more accessible I think.

DJ Hero is less authentic, but more accessible. The peripheral for it is awkward as well, because the buttons on the record doesn't really make sense, but I think they did this to make the game more user-friendly to anybody... but they compromise authenticity.

When you scratch, yes you've got a hand on the vinyl, but a lot of your actual scratching patterns come from the crossfader on the mixer, which Scratch: The Ultimate DJ, seems to acknowledge.

With DJ Hero, they still have a cross-fader, and they use it decently appropriately, by saying if you have it set to the left, the left record's audio plays, if you have it set to the right, the right record's audio plays, and if it's in the middle, both record's audio will play. But the problem is, in the game, the actual scratching parts are NOT primarily done with the crossfader... they're primarily done with the pattern you slide the fake vinyl, instead of using the crossfader.

There's obviously different TYPES of scratching.... and scratching without using the crossfader, where you just move the vinyl back and fourth, IS a kind of scratch (called a "scribble"), but it's only one type of scratch out of many. In the Scratch: The Ultimate DJ video preview, they show plenty examples of ACTUAL scratching, which actually DOES depend heavily on the cross fader (at 0:39, you can see a "crab" scratch).

Scratch: The Ultimate DJ, also has an mpc, which is impressive, and again, pretty authentic.

So as far as authenticity goes, for scratching/mixing/beat making goes, Scratch: The Ultimate DJ seems to have the better concept. DJ Hero, the only "scratching" you're doing are "scribbles", and they almost completely ignore the cross-fader's role in scratching (they KIND of utilize it, but only in small ways).

DJ Hero, has the bigger budget though, and for a music game, what this means is better music. DJ Hero will probably kick Scratch: The Ultimate DJ's ass as far as music goes. And after checking out the tracklist, I'm excited. So I'll probably get DJ Hero, more for the tracklist, and knowing it'll still probably be fun, but not for a good "dj experience".

Hell, they got a bunch of famous DJ's to help out with it, like DJ Shadow and Q-tip, and got some great music from artists like Jackson 5, even Jurassic 5 and Daft Punk and Marvin Gaye and Gorillaz....

So I'm excited for DJ Hero, and will still get it, but DJ Hero and Scratch: The Ultimate DJ, should've merged for one better product. ;3

I saw the movie with Radjin_Wolf and Rudder, and I enjoyed the movie overall, but I would've enjoyed it a LOT more if the audience wasn't full of obnoxious high school kids.

Now, I'm usually a peaceful, forgiving guy... I also love my horror movies, and I was really looking forward to Paranormal Activity, and my goodness, I can't remember the last time I left an event, feeling as LIVID and UPSET as I was. There were annoying people in front of me, on my right side, and behind me. All of them talking louder than whispers, talking about stupid shit when the movie was SUPPOSE to be quiet and tense, people traveled in large packs, so their energy levels were up, and they were sustaining their yells and screams, and screaming and stupid parts, JUST for the sake of being noisy. People kept shouting things, hoping it'd be funny, and...

Needless to say, as we were walking out the theater, I found myself complaining outloud as we were passing the crowd of people who were waiting to watch the next showing.

Not to sound sexist, but it was mostly the girls/women being irritating. Screaming from being startles is fine in a horror movie... but when you scream and SUSTAIN it, especially during a part where ALL that's happening is a door is ever-so-slowly moving, then that's not you screaming because you're startled, that's you screaming because you're with a bunch of your friends, and want to have fun by being obnoxious. Then there's the people, mostly women, TALKING loudly to the characters on screen, and making comments and guesses about the ending, and saying crap like, "Ew look at his foot, he has ugly feet" or "I hate this movie" are all immature comments that you shoudn't be saying loudly, or outloud at all.

Paranormal Activity has NO MUSIC at all, and so there were suppose to be PLENTY of moments where the silence was suppose to be the creep factor... but there really wasn't much silence throughout the entire movie.

If your girlfriend doesn't like scary movies, DON'T TAKE HER, and leave her at home with the noisy baby.

This is me being bitter. ;3 I'm usually able to ignore audiences like this, but for a horror movie where silence was crucial and I've looked forward to the movie, the audience upset me, and I've never wanted to hit so many people in my life. ;p

Naturally I didn't hit anybody. And my goodness, it reminded me how much I prefer hanging out with other guys. If I were str8, and had a GF, I would hate taking her to the movie theater with me, especially for horror movies.

Screaming from surprise is fine, or even during a really intense part, a bit of a sustained scream is fine, but when it's suppose to be quiet, you should be quiet too.

But I enjoyed the movie. It made me feel all paranoid at night, which is a good sign. As much as I love horror movies, I'm such a pansy. ;p

And no, I'm not usually this irritable when I watch movies. This was a rare occasion, and the audience was more noisy and obnoxious than any other audience I can even remember being in.

Happy (Early) Halloween everybody. :)

Yes, it is indeed safe for work.

I needed in on this zombie mayhem. I NEEDED it. SWEEEET RELEEEEAAAASE!

Reminds me of when I use to be very active on a few forums... :)

I believe Wolfblade showed this to me.