Um....

www.roosack.com

I cannot think of anything to say here.

It's the Gawd's honest truth. My friend Forrest Oates just got his in the mail. I held it. No joke, just a... wow... yeah. Nuff said.

It's the small things...

So many smallm things have been happening as of late.

First and foremost I have officially purchased "www.Jojopedia.com" for my fansite's new home for the next five years. The official 'GRAND OPENING' will be on August 1st and will feature a new front page and a spiffy new area for Jojo #7 (Steel Ball Run) that i'm working very hard on completing.

Next, MY COMPUTER SHAT ON ME! Yes, I got a virus. I hate those things. This made everything become overclocked and melted my system. Thank you to the turd who sent it to me or put it up for me to download (probably was at a porn site I visited... did I say that with my outside voice?). So I have no computer to finish my site. I may have to ask someone to help me. Click on the link below to pound your computer into the ground!

Continuing in the reign of disaster I fried my wife's computer. This time I wasn't looking for porn (did I say that again out-loud?) but trying to clean her system from viruses and infectuous beasties. Luckilly my friend Brad fixed it all by "wiping it clean by the wrath of Gawd" and having us start from square-one with a computer with nothing on it. WOW! It runs fast now!

I'm thinking of getting a Mac. It was actually the second computer I ever owned (a Mac IISI... my first was a Commidore 64), and I kinda' miss the simplicity. However they are expensive at $500 for a base mini mac... and that doesn't even come with monitor, keyboard or mouse! Whereas a new Dell PC is $299 with everything. Very difficult to decide.

Breaking the 'losing streak', I celebrated my one-year anniversary last night! Wow. Married one year. Time flies.

And lastly, I have found another artist that I like. His name is Kurt Halsey. Check him out. It's interesting... very nice.

Real quick today

Lots to do at work today so i'll just post this PG-13 game.

PG-13 GAME

Spank the Booty.

Ok, a bit tasteless, but gimme a break! I've been gone for 2 weeks! I'll post better things tomorrow.

My wife muses on Chicago with this poem:

This is Chicago


This is Chicago…I’ve never been. Colorado girl I can drink the air here. Came into Illinois and my first thought was Bradbury’s happiness machine. Pay the tolls and here we are.

This is Chicago…the traffic like hotwheels zipping by, people step off the curbs and into the street without looking, taxi cabs look like police cars and police cars look like taxi cabs. Lincoln Park, the birds aren’t afraid, ducks and geese and pigeons and finches, they take the bread from your hand. Like the people with the cars, they’re not afraid. Zoo where the seals swim upside down and have Mad Hatter eyes. Exotic birds flying overhead whistling to you and names to match their beauty: bleeding heart pigeon, blue fairy, emerald jewel bird. Alien looking plants in the conservatory. And the people: slender boys, a cop with tattoos all down his arms, and a girl on a yellow bicycle with a brown ribbon around her neck, so beautiful I wanted to take her picture, wanted to be her and ride a yellow bicycle all over the city. Crowded into the back of Second City with two women from Oregon, laughter, pictures of comedians on the walls, know-who-this-is?

This is Chicago…in the Museum of Science and Industry we watched chicks hatch, I’d never. There was blood in the egg, not what I’d expected. I was a child in awe. Giant train models, a video game exhibition, pong, asteroids, pac-man, current games and new ones. My husband in rapture. A giant heart, the most magnificent doll house in the world, Buster Keaton movies, so much more. Navy Pier. Parking costs atrocious. The stained glass gallery, my favorite the angel at the gates of heaven. Walking through Old Town for supper and you can have any type of food you want, omg the food!

This is Chicago…we’ve wised up and left the car at the hotel. Free admission to the Art Institute on Tuesdays, paintings I’ve stared at in books I stare at now in person, the books did them no justice, only gave an inkling. In the gift shop I buy post cards of our favorites, some we’d never seen before, I want to put them in a shadow box at home and have my own miniature museum. In Chinatown we have wonderful dim sum, lotus root buns, sesame and red bean rolls, gooey dumplings, delicious. Wrigley at 7:00. You BET I made sure we brought the tickets with us, nice people scoot over so we can sit together and won’t let us buy them a drink, insisting it’s a “common courtesy”. And what a game, Cubs 14-0. Felt bad for Florida, zero and zero until the 4th then Lee hits it just short of a homer in right field, so Ramirez gets the first homerun and it’s 3 runs that inning, then Lee nails that homerun in the 6th, Ramirez too, and the 8th is amazing. Lee two homeruns, Ramirez two homeruns, and number 8 (forgot his name) also got one. Eee!

This is Chicago…the Field Museum has a door to take you to ancient Egypt, mummies of people, cats, and falcons, the book of the dead on papyrus. We don’t shop much, the stores are expensive, even so-called discount stores. In Greektown though, oh…lamb and grape leaves and spinach-feta pie, beautiful triptychs and diptychs in the windows, pastries with chocolate and cream and honey and cinnamon. Anywhere you look, all over the city, there are pieces of art in the stained glass windows and carved into the buildings. People really like their dogs here and walk them down the crowded streets.

This is Chicago…the last day. I make a sand angel on the beach. Lake Michigan much too cold to swim in, colder even than the mountain lakes in Colorado. The Billy Goat Tavern where it’s no glam, no souvenirs, just cheezborger, cheezborger, you want hamburger? no single, double, we do double today, and old articles on the walls of the sweet man that started it. Magnificent Mile where the prices are more what you’d expect and I take a picture of a girl working as a living statue, give her a buck, she gives me a fortune and a wink. I wonder how people get that occupation, seriously. Hershey’s and the Downtown Dog for a bite to eat. My husband goes back to the hotel, he doesn’t like it much. So I wander on my own in Lincoln Park, discover the lily pond like a Monet painting, decide which building I’d like to live in if I could afford it (2120 Lincoln Avenue West), and say goodbye to Olivia’s bench by the Shakespeare Garden where I spent the most time here just hanging out.

This is Chicago…my husband says he’s glad he saw some things here, but he’ll never come back, that I can come back on my own if I want to…and I want to.

I hate it there...

I'm back from my trip to Chicago. I am still taking another week off so I can do some real relaxing because, DAMN, I really didn't like Chicago.

Greektown was nice as was Chinatown, some of the restaurants were nice (extremely overpriced, but nice), and we saw a lot of cool things that you could only find in Chicago.

BUT... the stuff in-between (75% of Chicago) just put me ill at ease. Let me describe it by paraphrasing the words of a one Spider Jerusalem:

"I hate it here.

I hate the way it smells(go to a McDonalds on a summer day and poke your nose into their dumpster at 3:00pm and take a whiff... that's almost all of Chicago). I hate the way it looks. I hate the way it thinks. I hate the things it does to itself. I hate the way it loves me and I hate the way it makes me feel. I hate it here."

I liked some people I met and some of the places I went... but the town as a whole? They can have it! Give me the Springs any day.

I'll post more as the week gets on.

Like Bob and Bing, we're off...

Well, we're off to Chicago. We leave tomorrow (the 11th) and get back on the 19th.

Weekend links

Every Friday Heather and Derek post pics... although Derek is off this week... I post links I found/had forwarded to me. I get quite a few, but I post my favorites. And all the links are work safe.

How to dress EMO - Girls (actually, I think emo, goth lolita, and raver girls are pretty hot).

Cockeyed.com. I always think of Collin when I read about his pranks. He has some good pranks. And he's famous for his How Much Is Inside articles.

SPACE TREE!

Flash cartoon of stick figures getting beat up JOJO's BIZARRE ADVENTURE style! The characters and sounds are from the Jojo video games (the CHEET museum has them if you want to try them next time we have a meeting).

Great online comic about DDR kids.

What do you do when you're in martial arts and you want to show off what you have learned in class... and your friend works at the college art studio? You make a series of short movies! SOCK BABY!
HELLO! The fight scenes are better than those in movies! Hello!

For Heather a-la today's blog.

Been Caught Stealing - The JC mix

Heather got this, and she stole it... and I want you all to see what a bad bad person I am... and I think i'll answer this honestly but give few details to make you all wonder... (grin)(grin)(evil grin). In fact I think i'll add some things at the end.

(x) snuck out of the house
(x) gotten lost in your city
(x) seen a shooting star
( ) been to any other countries besides Canada
( ) had a serious surgery
(x) gone out in public in your pajamas
(x) kissed a stranger
(x) hugged a stranger
(x) been in a fist fight
( ) been arrested
(x) laughed and had milk/coke come out of your nose
(x) pushed all the buttons on an elevator
(x) swore at your parents
(x) been in love
(x) been close to love
( ) been to a casino
( ) been skydiving
(x) skinny dipped
(x) skipped school
(x) seen a therapist
(x) done the splits - Actually 8" from it when I was doing karate... but i'll count it.
(x) played spin the bottle
(x) gotten stitches
( ) drank a whole gallon of milk in one hour
(x) bitten someone
( ) been to Niagara Falls
(x) gotten the chicken pox - twice
(x) kissed a member of the opposite sex
(x) kissed a member of the same sex
(x) crashed into a friend's car
( ) been to Japan
(x) ridden in a taxi
(x) been dumped
(x) shoplifted
( ) been fired
(x) had a crush on someone of the same sex
(x) had feelings for someone who didn't have them back
(x) gone on a blind date
(x) lied to a friend
(x) had a crush on a teacher
( ) celebrated Mardi-Gras in new Orleans
( ) been to Europe
(x) slept with a co-worker
(x) been married
( ) gotten divorced
( ) had children
( ) seen someone die
(x) had a close friend die
( ) been to Africa
(x) driven over 400 miles in one day
(x) been to US
( ) been to Mexico
( ) been to India
(x) been on a plane
(x) seen the Rocky Horror Picture Show
(x) thrown up in a bar
(x) purposely set a part of myself on fire
(x) eaten sushi
(x) been skiing/snowboarding
(x) met someone in person from the internet
( ) lost a child
(x) gone to college/university
( ) graduated college/university
(x) fired a gun
(x) purposely hurt yourself
(x) taken painkillers
(x) been intimate with someone of the same gender - We didn't have sex... just making out. I was in college! I was young!

***These I added***

( ) gone out naked in public for longer than 5 minutes
( ) fallen in love on the first date
( ) gone to a wrestling show (WCW/WWE/ECW, etc)
( ) been engaged but didn't get married
( ) had a long-distance relationship
( ) had your electricity turned off because of a late bill
( ) had to pawn something to pay something/someone off
( ) owned a leather jacket
( ) ridden a motorcycle
( ) given a backrub
( ) given a backrub with alterior motives
( ) given a backrub with alterior motives and had it pay off
( ) gone to see live comedy at a comedy place
( ) found a mouse in your house by the smell of it being dead and decaying
( ) met a celebrity
( ) met a celebrity that you wanted to meet
( ) had a pet die
( ) had a crush on someone much younger than you (10 yrs and younger)
( ) had a crush on someone much older than you (10 yrs and older)

I think that's enough to add for this quiz. And, I didn't mark them because they all have happened and this way you have a clean slate to copy and mark for yourselves.

EDIT: 6/10/2005
Grace added these:
(x)ever downloaded music
(x)speak a language other than your own (Japanese)
(x)speak 3+ languages (French from High school)
(x)love to sing
( )love horror
(x)love comedy
( )love drama
(x)love action
(x)loves occult/dark stuff
(x)hopeless romantic
(x)owns 1000 or less songs (on CD)
( ) owns 1000-4000 songs (once again on CD)
(x) owns 4000+ songs (well, now we're getting into the vinal and cassette tapes)
( )spends 15 hrs or less on the computer every week
(x)spends 15 hrs or more on the computer every week
( ) spends 24/7 on computer (nah, see... I have a life)
(x) had(s) emotional problems (I have anxiety attacks in crowded rooms and i'm bi-polar: super highs... and bad bad lows. About once a month I get a bad attack)
(x) have survived on 3hrs or less of sleep for more than one day in a row (it's called 'college', kids...)

Karaoke dreams

Let me fill you in on a bit of background:

When I decided that I would become a Japanese Language major in college my aunt Ronda gave me some very good advice that I took to heart. It was this: "If you set out to learn something... learn everything you can relating to that subject." So I did. I not only took the classes and got into the history of Japan and took many culture classes, but I hung out at a Japanese video store called MINOWA (it's no longer there at the corner of Murray and Galley). The ladies there were wonderful and helped me learn a lot. They introduced me to games, tv shows, colloquialisms, and (most importantly) music.

I listened to many groups now considered J-Pop and many of the classics. I bought lots of CDs and have my favorites. I dreamt of singing them at karaoke someday.

NOW TO THE PRESENT

My friend Derek owns his own karaoke set-up and, as I mentioned last week, I love karaoke. So he sent me a website to visit that I can buy Japanese karaoke disks from.

I am writing because almost every single song I loved is at this store. Anzen Chitai, Lindberg, Chage & Aska, The Boom, Kome Kome Club, X-Japan, and Koji Tamaki, Spitz... they're all there and so much more.

Derek, thank you SO much. In a few months when you have karaoke night again I will be armed!

Flash Gear

http://www.flash-gear.com/

Very cool stuff. You can make flash puzzles to send to friends and loved ones.

This message is for Go players in the Springs

Ok. So my friend who plays 'Go' as religiously as I do (Karen) and I went to the Go club meeting in Denver last night and I came to the following conclusion: she was right and I was wrong. THERE! I said it!

I played some of the players there and did amazingly well. But it really wasn't any luck or problems with their play. It really was the skill I have from playing in the Springs.

My first game was against a player pushing shodan at nine stones and lost by only 12 points. It was a very good game. My next was against an 8k player at 4 stones who resigned after around 90 plays (He ((Adam)) told me that if I come up to Denver and declare myself as anything less than 12k he'll call me a 'dirty sandbagger' out loud). The shodan pusher agreed that, from our game, 12k was a good rank. Lastly I played another 8-10k player at 4 stones and won by 40+ stones. She completely agreed that I was either 13 or 12k.

It seemed they all talked (during their cigarette break) about the skills of 'the Springs people', how we under-rate ourselves too much, and how strong we really are (I sensed a bit of fear in their voices YAY S.G.C.!). I chatted with them a short time and we all agree:

Tom is 5k at the very least. (I am struggling in our games at 5 stones where I did not get the same 'presence' from the 4 stone games in Denver)
Brad is 13k easily.
Karen is a 13k.
Max is 13k.

Now, you may be asking yourselves "What drugs is he taking and how much did they pay him to say these things?" But I assure you all that I say this honestly and with much thought (and thin pocket-book). You all know that I have been the strictest of proponents of staying in my league and not saying I'm something I'm not. Also, my '15k by congress' goal is important that I don't skip ranks just because... so I watch my rank carefully and judge appropriately.

But I also know that they have several Dan masters (most of whom have been playing this game literally all their lives) who rank them in personal games according to their skills... so they really do know what their strengths are. We only play each other and so grow at the same rates, for the most part, and so don't see any progression when, in fact, we grow by leaps and bounds.

I would encourage you all to come with us next time we go up. It would be a nice change of pace to play people you are not used to and, the first Tuesday of every month, Master Lee gives a 30 stone opening lecture that is incredibly useful for kyu and Dan players alike.

Hopefully this report will encourage some of you Max to come more often and stay a while. You really do have skills and are growing in rank... it's just that we don't see it in our small club on Thursdays.

See you all Thursday at the Pikes Perk.

Justin 12-kyu

Gvie bolod, slpel porloy

Wow. My arm hurts. Each time I give blood I remember why I am not an introvenious drug user. OUCH!

I'm type O negative and have given 3 times before so this time my blood will go to babies who need it. Very cool. The rest of my family is type O positive.

TYPE O NEGATIVE ROOOOCKS THE HOOOOUSE!

(faints)

We gonna dance all night to this DJ

On Japanese TV whenever they have a commercial with a song, they have a small blurb somewhere on the screen of the song and the artist who does it.

Well, there have been some groovy songs that have been on TV commercials lately and I feel that my wife is getting sick of me saying "Wow. I really like that song!"

Today I found one I was looking for. It's from a recent Diet Coke commercial and i'm diggin' it!

Starry Eyed Surprise by Paul Oakenfold

You can watch the video for free from the above link. What commercials have songs that you wanna groove to but don't know the name of?

In search of Jojopedia.com

As stated previously I am searching for a decent and inexpensive domain site to send people to for my Jojo's Bizarre Adventure fansite. I have been mulling over 2Ya.com for a week now, but my friend Collin just sent me a new possibility: Yahoo Small Business.

The email he sent me stated a $4.95 per year special offer from their normal $9.95 per year offer. And, this offer extends for up to 5 years if you want. Meaning that you can choose to do a shorter time and still pay $4.95 per year. When I looked at the 'fine print' it only stated that this offer was for new customers and that a waived sign-up fee is also applicable. The only 'catch' is that you have to pay for your year(s) when you sign up. Not bad. That means that I could pay $24.90 immediately for 5 years of service and not have to pay again for another 5 years. Pretty sweet.

They even got a 4.5 rating on PC Magazine's online customer report page. Not bad. So far this is the best offer I have seen... and it doesn't expire until September. I think this is the plan I will go with.

Collin, HAIL 2 U!

****************

On a side note, my wife writes poetry. I don't "get" a lot of poetry and it is very difficult for me to appreciate what she writes. But she's good. She was part of a NATIONAL poetry thing when she was in High School. The only way to get into it was to be invited. VERY AWESOME.

Well, she wrote a new one on her blog and I really dig it. It's one of the few poems that I think is something I enjoy. I would encourage you all to go to her site and check it out. It's titled 'Fallen'.

YAAAY!

Great cartoon! YAAAY! PG-13! YAAAY!

Or HERE to download! YAAAY!

Jojo on the brain/10 things

Man, I have just been eating, breathing, and sleeping Jojo as of late.

For those of you who don't know, 'Jojo's Bizarre Adventure' is a Japanese comic/manga that I got into in 1989 when I first started reading weekly Japanese manga before it hit big-time in the mid-90's. I have been passionate about it for quite some time and had a geocities fan-site since 2001 that shut down every day because so many people were visiting it. It even got translated into Italian by an Italian Jojo fan who contacted me.

Now that I have a good job and some tech-know information I transferred my main site to a free.pgs cite with unlimited bandwidth... and i'm updating the heck out of it.

This is really happening because Jojo is FINALLY getting translated into english by VIZ (I think I wrote about this). But I have also been getting offers and offering to host fan translated stuff for the new story (Steel Ball Run) on my new site.

I'm also looking at getting the domain name 'www.jojopedia.com'. There's a domain place that offers names for $20 a year... and it looks pretty sweet.

I'm such a Jojo geek at this very moment that I have all my Jojo figures (sigh) at work sitting on the shelf... I feel so much like Napoleon Dynamite right now... GAW! (head turns quickly)
***********
And stealing from Heather is '10 Things you did not know about me'

10)I hate pickled beets. Yes, that red-juiced beet stuff... hate it.

9)I am privaledged enough to have seen all 6 Star Wars movies in the theatre when they first were released.

8)When I write I spell the words colour and armour like this and I cross my 7s and Zs.

7)When I was in 2nd grade I gave a speech on Egyptology to my 2nd grade class (had slides and everything). It went off so well I was asked to give it to the 6th grade class at my elementary school later that week. My mom was going to school for Egyptology and just got back from the Tutankhamun exhibit.

6)I got into anime and manga in 1988.

5)Since I was 16, I have always had a summer job.

4)I have always been the runt of my school. Not a class... the SCHOOL! I had my first 'fight' when I was in 9th grade. I lost, but I fought back (hence it being a 'fight' and not a 'beating' which I am all too familiar with). It was the first time I ever fought back. He was suspended for the rest of the school year (2 weeks) and I wasn't.

3)I was the 'Chaplain' of my troop in my Boy Scout days. I also held the post of 'Scribe', 'Assistant Troop Leader', and 'Troop Leader'. I also got my 'God and Country' award, yet I never achieved rank higher than 'Second Class'.

2)I used to bartend (for 3 months) at Deja Vu in 1994. My grandparents thought I worked at 7-11.

1)I'm pretty honest and open about my past and so it was difficult to find '10 things' to talk about.

My wife got me an early Anniversary gift...

I got a Kilt this weekend!

Jen has been asking me what I would like for an anniversary gift, and I haden't a clue. Then, last week (Thursday I think), I had a dream.

I deamt that I wore kilts other than jeans. I had 4 sports kilts (lighter weight kilts), one nice dress kilt (like I got married in), and 1 pair of levis and 1 dress slacks. And I wore kilts all the time.

I woke up and told her that I wanted a sports kilt for our anniversary.

So, we were walking at Territory Days on Sunday and we happened by the Celtic Broker booth. He had sports kilts for $89 and $99. I thought about how much I could spend, and I thought that I had enough. So I start to get my wallet out and then Jen gets out her credit card and tells me "Happy early anniversary". I LOVE THIS WOMAN!

So I have been wearing it everywhere. I wore it all Saturday, Memorial day, and I wore it today to work. It's been very awesome and I will get more and wear them more. Dunno if i'll wear them like I did in the dream (all the time)... we'll see...
***********
Also, my friend Josh is going to California to live for a while and is going to have a Karaoke night on Saturday evening at a bar on Academy and Dublin. I love karaoke.

Normal songs I sing at karaoke bars:
Mac The Knife (always start with this), China Girl, I'm Too Sexy (in a Scottish-accent), Short Skirt/Long Jacket... wow.

I need to get new songs in my repitoire! I would L-O-V-E to find someone who does 'Under Pressure' well enough to do a duet... like David Bowie and Annie Lennox did at the Freddie Mercury benefit concert. AH! I'll never forget the way they did it. Wow.
***********
And congratulations to my good friend Trevor for graduating High-School. I didn't make the ceremony, but I have a graduation gift for him when we have a new CHEET night. He got me the 'Kingdom Hearts' soundtrack for the hollidays... VERY cool. Collin and Trev always get me such nice gifts.