Archive for July, 2005

QSK's posts

Week 2 Complete!

2:52 PM - July 31st, 2005

The message of my previous post wasn’t that the actual work sucks, but that the way work takes over your life leaves you feeling confused and lost. As far as the work goes, right now it’s just like school. I have assignments, reading, and lectures. I need to learn how the product works before I can contribute anything.

Money
Thinking about my financial future has me afraid of spending money. It makes me more than willing to cook myself if it means saving $20+ a day. I feel like I should be saving as much as possible because so much of my income goes to taxes and rent. (Income taxes are seriously out of hand).

And money no longer comes from a seemingly bottomless well (parents =)), but from hours at work. $20 no longer registers in my mind as $20, but as X hours of work or—more accurately— as 2X hours of work after taxes+rent.

Beatmania
It’s coming to the U.S. and no one told me? Found out about it last week through—of all places—Wikipedia. =(

The First Five

2:37 AM - July 24th, 2005

(Five thoughts gathered during my first week of working full-time and living on my own.)

Ordeal
Nothing in school can prepare you for the 8-to-5. Maybe your worst schedule was 8 AM to 5 PM, but no one said you had to stay awake for the whole nine hours. No one said you even had to show up. The challenge of work is not just staying awake, but staying functional throughout the day. Each day in the past week, there was always some point where my brain would crash and I’d sit in front of my computer like a zombie, randomly clicking around.

Needless to say, the day is long—very long. By the end of the day, all I want to do is eat then sleep. Don’t want to pick up anything from the store; don’t want to go anywhere; don’t want to take care of any business. Eat. Sleep. That’s it.

Timeless
But it’s not that simple. I need to wash dishes (from lunch), “cook” (boil and microwave, hah), and wash dishes (from cooking and eating). And then shower, maybe. And then sleep, preferably before 11 PM. It doesn’t sound like much, but it’s amazing how fast time slips away.

I finally understand why people stop playing games when they get older: they just don’t have the time. In the past week, the only “me” time I had was the hour-and-half at Milpitas Golfland ($6 unlimited play at the arcade Wednesday nights) on Wednesday. And I had to sacrifice a couple hours of sleep and the chance to shower for that. I remember talking with Bigi a couple weeks ago about how we’ll have so much free time after we start working. Leave at 5 PM and the rest of the night is mine, right? I can’t believe how wrong we were.

Prospect
The transition felt so abrupt. One day I was still a student slacking at home during the summer. The next, I was working the 8-to-5 and living on my own. Like a high-school player drafted into the NBA. That’s basically what I am.

I am expected to eventually contribute to my group—a group which currently consists of my manager and a senior-level designer (Masters + 5 years experience, but way ahead of his time). My cubicle is in a high-traffic area. I overhear conversations all day and don’t understand any of it. There’s so much for me to learn, I wonder if I’ll ever be good enough.

Do you understand my fear? They spent their first pick in five years on me. I don’t want to turn out to be the next Kwame Brown.

Escape
I left the TV, games, and internet at home because I didn’t want any distractions. How ironic that having nothing with me has become the biggest distraction of all.

I was wrong to leave everything from my world behind. With a transition as big as this one has been for me, I need all the familiar faces I can get. Even if they cause me to stay up late. Even if they cause me to sleep in. I’ve realized that I can’t relax without them. I feel anxious, worried, and lonely. My mind jumps from one to-do to another. Make sure to cook the leftover vegetables. Forward mail to landlord. Fill out forms for work. No escape.

Endgame
I worry that my life will be like this from now on. Work, cook, clean. Day in, day out. In my mind, I see this endless expanse. Flat, monotone. How does it all end? Does it end at all? It’s like a MMORPG. There are no rounds, no stages, not even a destination. It continues forever.

And you can play the rest of your life and not get anywhere. That’s what scares me. School was so guaranteed. Survive and you reach the next level. Survive X levels and you reach the end. It was easy to focus on a goal like that.

It’s only been a week, but it felt so long. Will I make it past one month? Six months? One year? Two years? This is an awful lot of worrying for such a short time, isn’t it? Maybe sitting on the bench has given me too much time to think.

(sorta) On My Own

12:52 PM - July 16th, 2005

I’m home again. Found out that I’ll need two forms of identification to be put on the payroll and I only had one with me, so I figured that I might as well go home for a day or two. I didn’t expect to be home again so soon, but I must say it’s nice to be back.

My apartment is an utter void. 552 square feet (I think?) with only a, two folding chairs, and cooking stuffs. Yeah, Office Depot held out on me because the billing and shipping addresses were different. And even though I called them several times, I didn’t find out until Friday night. Now that’s taking care of business.

So there isn’t much to do at my apartment—and with no desk, I can’t move any entertainment items into my apartment (though I might not move much anyway; more on that another time). Prepare food (read: microwave / rice cooker, for now), eat, wash dishes. That’s it. Thursday wasn’t that bad because I had dinner with friends and I was tired from the 15 or so trips it took me to move all the stuff from the car to the apartment by myself. Friday was when the boredom really set in. Lots of calling Office Depot and waiting followed by more calling Office Depot.

I was bored out of my mind. Seeing the terrible condition of the games at EHGL/BHGL/SJGL didn’t help. beatmania CORE REMIX with a turntable that felt like raking muck and drummania V with broken sticks tied to the machine. That’s the stuff that makes grown men cry.

Is driving 20 miles to MGL or SVGL worth it?

It’s time

8:05 AM - July 14th, 2005

If you’re reading this, I’m already on my way to San Jose. If you’re reading this from TVA, I’m already there.

The next few weeks will be interesting: working, living on my own, and “cooking”—cooking in quotes because I’ll basically boil or microwave everything. My meals will probably suck for awhile. But I will have good rice. My parents got me a sweet Zojirushi rice cooker (the Micom fuzzy one).

Ah, I’d write more but it’s time to go. I need to beat the Office Depot delivery guys to my apartment. Don’t want anyone running off with my desk, drawers, and chair!

Xero will be holding down the fort until I start working (and can get online from the office). Be nice. =)

“hard to stay awake”

12:02 PM - July 7th, 2005

Yesterday was Jay and Alan’s first day at work (Linear Technology). “How was day 1?” I asked Jay on AIM.

“hard to stay awake”

- - - - -

Edit: Jay’s thoughts after day 2…

“you’re gonna love waking up early
i’m glad it’s friday tomorrow”

This and That

11:00 PM - July 2nd, 2005

I’ve been gearing up to start work lately. Got the keys to my apartment a few days ago. Bought a new jacket and a set of dress shirts. Almost got a new pair of shoes (the store didn’t have my size). Slowly learning how to cook; still at the chopping and washing part.

New design has taken another few days off because of the above and because of all the games I’ve been playing lately. Maybe tomorrow off too? It’s the first (and most-important) day of Circuit City’s $10 video game clearance. Baten Kaitos for $10! Check your favorite deals site for more details.

Xero's posts

For the rich nerd in us all…

2:35 AM - July 29th, 2005

Got a few hundred thousand dollars just lying around and no idea what to spend it on? Well, today eBay will be auctioning off some of the most sought after and prized movie memorabilia of all time. Mainly, several recently released pieces from the Star Wars collection. For example, starting at only 60 thousand dollars you can own Luke Skywalker’s original lightsaber from A New Hope. 60 sounding a bit too high? Well for a starting bid of only 40 thousand dollars you could own Darth Vader’s lightsaber from The Empire Strikes Back. Oh, and one of my favorites, for only 20 thousand dollars, you could own Luke Skywalker’s severed hand from The Empire Strikes Back.

Other items can be found at their listing on eBay. Happy Bidding! ;)

Welcome to the world of tommorow!

11:41 AM - July 19th, 2005

Good news, everyone! In a recent interview at Comic-Con with Billy West, voice actor extraordinare, he had this to say:
There’s going to be a Futurama movie coming out on DVD. I think we’re gonna start doing it soon. There were talks and I guess they’re really happy about moving forward with it ’cause the DVDs of Futurama sold really well. And then with the possibility of a second one.

Can anyone say TV show comeback? Well, we can all dream…

Score! I was sooooo right!!

10:22 AM - July 19th, 2005

Recent interview with Paul Dini at Comic-Con 2005:
…keeping you updated on what I’m doing lately. Still working on the next season of Lost, and wrote some Justice Leagues coming out for next season.

Damn, I’m good. ;)

Anime Expo 2005

10:39 AM - July 6th, 2005

This last weekend, my roommate Porfirio (you may know him as prez2401) got to go down to the annual Anime Expo in Anaheim. While there, he took a ton of pictures with his camera-phone and asked if I would post some of them and I was happy to oblige. I wish I could put them all up, considering this is only a third of all the pictures he took, but here are some of the cool things that he saw (and a lot of cosplay).

Individual Cosplaying:
Porfirio with Alphonse Elric from Full Metal Alchemist
Bender from Futurama
M. Bison from the Street Fighter series
Boba Fett from Star Wars
Cloud from Final Fantasy VII
Some random girl that Porf thought was hot
Koenma from Yu-Yu Hakusho
Link from The Legend of Zelda series
The Merchant from Resident Evil 4
Jin from Samurai Champloo
Mugen from Samurai Champloo
Solid Snake with a snake…and a beer belly from Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
Vivi from Final Fantasy IX

Group Cosplaying:
Battle Royal
Bleach
Chrno Crusade
Dante vs. Solid Snake, Resident Evil, and a Ninja
.hack
Inuyasha
Rurouni Kenshin
Kingdom Hearts
Naruto
Resident Evil
Tetris Blocks!
Trigun
Irvine and Selphie from Final Fantasy VIII
An awesome lightsaber battle

Voice Actors:
RyĆ“ Horikawa - Japanese voice actor who’s done Vegeta from DragonBall Z, and has also worked on several Japanese video games playing such characters as Capt. Falcon from Super Smash Brothers Melee.
Vic Mignogna - Voice of Broly from DragonBall Z and Edward Elric from Full Metal Alchemist, as well as many other animes including Neon Genesis Evangelion and DNAngel.
Mike McFarland - Voice of Master Roshi, Yajirobe, and others from DragonBall Z. Also does the voice for Jean Havoc on Full Metal Alchemist.

Random Shots:
Awesome Yoda Origami
The entrance to the convention center (5:00 in the morning!)
The Fantastic Four Logo

Welcome to my life

1:49 AM - July 5th, 2005

Over the years, I’ve come to understand the fact that in a sleep deprived situation, I tend to become a bit more emotional than I normally am. In other words, when I’m tired, I seem to contemplate my life and what is wrong with it. So, running on little sleep and exhausted from a long day, I am going to attempt to write something. It will most likely include a lot of admissions that most people wouldn’t want to make public. It may be profound, it may be crap, but you’ve been warned.

So…yeah. There’s been a lot of things going through my head lately and I’m going to get some of them out right now. Tonight I went back home to the Bay Area to spend the Fourth with my folks. And while I love going back home, the hour drive each way can get boring. So I start to think. And me thinking is never a good idea. Occasionally I make the trip with a passenger and tonight was such an occasion. Emily is one of my closest friends and I tend to feel that I can tell her pretty much anything. She’s a good listener. So tonight’s car ride got to a point where a mixture of sleepiness and boredom caused my brain to get all mushy.

I started thinking about this site. And when I think about this site, a lot of things come to mind. Firstly, and I state this first because it is the reason why so many other things are wrong, I don’t know you. I’m not trying to be mean or sassy or anything. It’s just a fact. I don’t know you. Ok, I don’t know most of you. Aside from Jon I know like two and a half people. Everyone else, I know nothing about you. For most of you, I don’t even know your real name. And I do understand that we’ve got a bit of a limited audience, but there’s still like 5 people that are unknown to me, and that’s a majority. So, to try and rectify this situation, I’d like to start from the beginning.

Hi! My name is Alexander, but everyone calls me Alexis. I’m 22 and am a senior, studying Dramatic Arts at UC Davis. My dream job is to do voice-over work and become a voice actor. I work at a gas station/repair shop and work on cars. I’m not really interested in cars, but it pays the bills. In my spare time I like to play video games. In fact, I play them quite often, probably more than I should. I’m not the smartest person in the world, but I’m knowledgeable about enough things to get me by. I would consider myself to be a bit of a geek and I think that’s ok in today’s world. I love cartoons almost as much as video games, and have an enormous amount of knowledge about them. Especially when it comes to the voices behind the cartoons. I can usually pick out a voice and say “That’s so and so, and you might recognize them from this other show.” And while I usually get blank stares in return, I still feel good about knowing. I also like to watch anime and listen to music. I prefer classical music and techno music. I’m from El Cerrito, a city near Berkeley and Richmond. I’ve got a younger sister who I love very much and try to talk to as much as possible, and my parents are celebrating their 32nd anniversary this week.

So, who are you?

Yeah, yeah. No one’s going to respond. No one ever does. I post and post and post and I’m lucky if anyone reads these things let alone comments on them. Of course, I’ll probably get sympathy comments now, but whatever. I’d like to make it clear that I am a very insecure person. I like to have encouragement and acknowledgment. When I post something here I like to know if people read it, liked it, hated it, whatever. Even a comment saying “read it. nice post” or something as equally mundane would mean so much to me. I don’t want to say that blogging here isn’t fun, because it is. However, if no one reads what is written, then there’s no point in doing it.

And this somehow leads me (not) to my next point. Four years ago, I was living in the dorms. A few months into the school year I realized that I wasn’t going out and meeting people. In fact I still don’t go out and meet people. Most of my friends today are people that I’ve known since high school. But anyway, I realized that I’m never going to actually go out to meet people, so why not let them get to know me in a way that spares me the fear of talking to strangers. I started writing down my thoughts and tacking them on to my door so that passersby could read them. I called it “Alexis’ Thought of the Day” (TOTD). And that’s exactly what it was. Every day I would write about what I had been doing, or what I was thinking about, or even what I had for lunch. Eventually an old friend of mine offered to host a website for me and I began to post my thoughts online as well as on my door. However, time went by, the school year ended, everyone moved out of the dorms, and I had a difficult decision to make. Do I continue my TOTD online or end it on the last day of school. I chose the latter.

Four years later, I start thinking about what it would be like to reopen my TOTD. To allow the world to reenter the haunted house that is my mind. That is when Quad approached me about doing this dual blog. I, all excited about the opportunity to make an ass of myself again, jumped at the opportunity. Fast forward a bit and the site is now up and running. Having the opportunity to speak about whatever I wanted to was a bit daunting at first. Ah, who am I kidding. It’s still scary as hell, and that’s half the reason I’m in this predicament. For inspiration, I went back and looked through all my old Thoughts. As I read, slowly but surely I came to a very simple, yet extremely true conclusion. Me writing about myself was boring. Not only that, it was damn uninteresting. I was reading about things that excited me four years ago and could not think of a single person who would have found that interesting to read. And that brings me to now.

The other day Quad and I were discussing my posts and he said “I want to encourage you to post about yourself.” I, of course responded by trying to explain that if I were just to talk about myself, I’d either scare or bore people to death. I felt that it was much more interesting to post about things that interested me. But thinking about it now, I’m not sure if any of this works. Writing about myself has bored people in the past. Writing about things that interest me is boring people now. What’s left? Nothing.

So what now? Am I leaving or something? No way. I’ll probably continue to do this for as long as were around. Am I going to be changing? Who knows. I guess I’ll wait and see what the reaction to this is. I guess I just needed an opportunity to get some of these things off my chest. But either way, you wanted me to post about myself? We’ll here ya go. This is probably more about me than any of you ever wanted to know.