rorschach

Rorschach's Journal - September 2010 Hiatus edition

smell ya later

Sorry folks but RL issues and problems are calling...I won't be on SG much. Right now I need a lot of personal energy and need to better utilize the spare time that I have. SG, while being fun sometimes, is a large drain on my time and more importantly, is currently a huge drain on my energy.

I've been away a bit already and I apologize that I haven't been able to do much in terms of answering journal stuff. I'm already concentrating on my new "ventures."

I have several personal issues/problems (mainly 3...it's two issues and one major problem...a problem is something I can't fix easily myself without doing something very drastic and even then it's just to cut losses) that cause me to need to leave and hunker down more and execute.

The company I work for recently got bought by a huge corporation. While that's not the end of the world (actually it's a good thing) but to be real, to be really real, I can't count on employment next year (it's one of the main 3...it's an issue, meaning it's something I need to fix but I think I can fix it myself, the other two are private...I won't mention them here). That's great as I hate working here and was stuck in this job due to a honor thing...but now maybe I'm free. Either way this company as it was will be dead. And that's worth rejoicing.

I'm taking the "escape from this horrible company" opportunity and the pending doom as big-time motivation to finally pursue some of the stuff I've always wanted to do, things that would hopefully make me independently "wealthy."

If any of you want to contact me, feel free to use the RL methods you already have. The people here who have in the past, each time I hear from you, it's a nice small jolt/influx of exactly the type of energy I'm looking to conserve right now. I'll be checking my Yahoo email all of the time. I won't be on IM or SG much. My email address should be on my profile under the IM section, Yahoo chat. (Even if you've never contacted me that way, if we chatted on SG messages, please feel free to hit me up on yahoo.)



Presents!

I got two presents for my b-day from SG members, yay! That's two more than the last like 18+ years, lol. Careful, ladies, you're in danger of leading me to think that my birthdays are supposed to be happy or something...

The first one I got right before and was what made me so happy the last two journals, from Chrysis:



That's almost all of the stuff there...there was one other item that is more private (nothing dirty, just something very sweet, tender and personal). She got my address by asking for it as I had sent her stuff in the past as we had met on SG before her b-day but after my last one.



And then I got this from _smurfzilla_



This one came a bit after as she was shopping for me at the recent east coast comic convention and it was after my b-day...also she gave me her personal copy of that comic in the pic that has the original sticker on it. I think personal copies are extra special as I often tell people when I give them my copy as well. This sneaky girl got my address from the return address on another box of geeky goodness I sent her earlier!



Strategicon, LAX
I went to the local quarterly gaming convention...lots of uber-nerdy gaming, not very much MTG. I guess MTG has matured in this area and LA is now just another MTG place, not like the old days where the Magic tables and players took up half the con.

I was going to take some pics at the con but overall the games were kinda...I dunno, boring to me...plus I got food poisoning, haha.
Instead, I met this tiny lil dog and took pics of her. She was smaller than my foot. I could trap this dog with two fingers. We had to be careful where we stepped as my shoe would have squished her like a fist pounding a marshmallow. In other words, she was SO adorable!



(Ignore the creepy-looking but perfectly harmless MTG organizer/dog holder in the background.)



Other Stuff

While in Vegas, my plane was delayed...this caused me to play the slots when I normally don't gamble like that...I won like 150 bucks on a slot machine and then went shopping for a little while. I bought this "cactus in an egg" thing where you grow your own succulents. I decided to buy this along with some other stuff.

After three days, they sprouted:



Man they grew after just one more day, you see a lot more green:



And after another week, as you can see, it's growing a lot. There's some sort of weird feeling, a good one, that I get from watching this even though I have no idea what I will do with these plants later:



Also the other day, I caught a lil baby lizard. My co-worker, a devout Christian haha, told me to just step on it. That didn't make me too happy so I caught it:



(The camera was able to focus on the subject in this case.)

Then I set it outside:



(Now the camera focuses on the background, grrr...ironically the background greenery looks really good, way better than it does IRL, lol. )

This happens about once every six months or so here at work...I catch a critter and then take it outside...this is the third lizard...but this time I had camera! There has also been a giant praying mantis and some other insects as well...no mammals or birds yet.

And as I'm writing this a few days later after these pics were taken, I saw my lil pal again and he had grown by a centimeter...glad to see he's doing well!



Random Current Happenings
As I walked in to work, someone left these in the kitchen for anyone to take...

All I could think of was "leave it there, this is food for the kappa." If you have an inkling of what I'm talking about without looking it up, megaprops to you!

Actually this happens days after I took the other pics in this journal, same day I wrote the journal. And then I'm posting the journal over four days later...that's how busy I've been...9 days to post a written journal...


Things About Me...

I read someone else's journal and am swiping their idea for this section. Maybe she'll recognize it... Normally I like to show who I am and what I'm about through a multitude of long journals about all sorts of nonsense. Often times my journals are not about me but about some other topic but by writing about said topic, I'm also showing a bit of who I am. But since I'm not writing any journals for a while...

I'm an expert in several major geeky subjects including:
Magic: The Gathering
Comics (US)
Comics (Japanese, English translated)
All trading cards, sports and non-sport, especially baseball and hockey
Trading card games in general
Hockey
MMORPGs (especially Ultima Online and WoW)
Pro Wrestling (not sure if I'm really an expert but I seem to know a lot)
US Coinage and currency
Conventions, especially geek-related ones
The Amusement Park industry
8 and 16 bit Emulators and Emulator games


I also know way, way more about these subjects than a normal person should:
Economics, world-wide and US
Online Economics (like in MMORPGs)
Biology, especially microbiology
Sciences in general (but I'm really bad at physics)
Geology
Geography
History (US)
History (Chinese)
History (World)


I also know quite a bit about:
Movies, especially indie ones
Music (I own several thousand CDs...lost count) this could be like five other topics
80's Music (punk and post-punk, pop and alt, freestyle, metal, hair metal, thrash metal, and all crossovers)
Porn industry
SQL-based relational databases
The Corporate Game, especially with regards to the stock market


I am expert in these uncommon topics:
PC-based computers, especially Windows
The Medical Industry in the US (Doctors used to hire me to fix up their business)
The Biometric (fingerprinting) Industry as pertains to Law Enforcement (this one's still growing)


I'm an expert in these books:
The Art Of War by Sun Tzu
The Romance Of Three Kingdoms attributed to Luo Guangzhou
The Chronicles Of Narnia by CS Lewis (ironically I'm an atheist)


I wish I knew more about these subjects as I know some but want to know more:
Politics
The Law, (especially corporate and financial law)
Dance Music
Cooking (although I can hold my own in a kitchen)
BDSM lifestyle


Some random stuff about me, some geeky, some not:
My favorite Pokemon is...Lapras
My favorite color is black, especially for clothes
My favorite comic book and character of all time are both from manga
Manga: Sanctuary
Character: Toru Naruse (Nate Torres) of Harlem Beat/Rebound
My favorite Anime of all time is Kimagure Orange Road...still
My favorite artists are:
US comic artist: Joe Sacco
Manga artist: Yukito Kishiro
Anime artist: Haruhiku Mikimoto (Macross)
US manga-influenced comic artist: Adam Warren
Writer: Andi Watson

My favorite video games of all time are:
Starflight (Electronic Arts on PC),
Virtual On: Cybertroopers (Sega on Arcade),
Ultima Online (Origin Systems on PC),
Deadly Discs Of Tron (Mattel on Mattel's Intellivision),
the NHL Hockey series (Electronic Arts on Sega Genesis) and
Herzog Zwei (Technosoft on Sega Genesis)
Fave vegetable...gotta be garlic, onions a close second if they're grilled
Fave modern writer...Richelle Mead
Some fave foods - meatballs, In-N-Out protein-style burgers, black pepper sauce (for steaks), half the frozen stuff from Stouffers, Boston Market meatloaf and the hickory ketchup, garlic mashed potates, beef bourignon or stroganoff with no mushrooms, mozzarella cheese, the noodles from mongolian bbq places, garlic seasoned soy sauce, chinese-style fried turnip cake, tofu, teriyaki sauce...
Least favorite foods...seafood, olives, mushrooms, strange cuts or meats...
...ok I'm cutting this off here before it becomes a damn book.

I'm sure I'm missing a ton more but maybe that's enough for now.

There's a very good chance my SG account will run out. I'll be back later when things are more settled.

Thanks!

- Ror
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