Wednesday, March 24

LAN ETS 2004

So I ended up getting to the LAN at 11 on Saturday and let me tell you the wait was worth it. Over at the gallery you can check out some pictures they have, and I may upload mine soon. The place was 100% full to the brim with people (443 in total) and everything went great. I got myself a new mousepad as well as won a new fan controller, fans, neon lights, fan grills, thumbscrews and a car lighter adapter for my PC through the random giveaways. Now my PC is green and blue inside with a fancy prancy knob panel for adjusting the lights and fan speeds. GO USA!

Friday, March 19

Heffed

So I'm supposed to get a ride to this LAN party tonight, right? The guy tells me 5:00pm LATEST is possible for him. So I cancel plans to get home early so I can unplug and pack my PC. This is at around 4:30pm. The time is now 11:50. My PC has been plugged back in since 10:00pm so I could check where my ride is. See, almost seven hours have passed since the LATEST possible time he was supposed to be here... not an e-mail, instant message or phone call to let me know he wouldn't show. And now at the last minute Stoney invites me to her house except I waste too much time trying to get a hold of my ride to make sure he doesn't show up at my house at 12:30 with me in LaSalle, and it's too late to do anything but go to bed now.

If I had known I would only be going to the LAN tomorrow, I could have gone to see Dawn of the Dead with an assload of friends then slept over somewhere. I wouldn't be replugging my PC in just to check on the status of my ride.

Let's just say I'm not in a particularily good mood.

Monday, March 15

By the way, I don't miss TV

Has anyone seen those Tropicana orange juice commercials? Where some random person sees someone else drinking orange juice, they are overcome by jealousy and steal the juice using a hilariously* long straw? The few shows I watch a week are constantly interrupted by this shitty ad. Doesn't anyone ever notice that it's amazingly unrealistic and unlogical?

First off, if I turned around and someone was drinking my orange juice I wouldn't look up and smile at them like I had just won the lottery or something. I would probably bitchslap them like the woman in the commercial should. When someone steals your stereo do you see them in court and smile at them as if you were best buddies? Even if it was my friend who was swiping my juice I'd bitch at them. Second, why is the girl that steals the juice on a cruise if she can't afford to buy herself a damn glass or orange juice? Either Tropicana is trying to say that women or cheap or their product is expensive. I hope somebody got fired for that one. And third, the whole concept of sucking juice up through a straw that's 6 feet long it pretty stupid. If you didn't pass out first, the juice would mostly leak out through the gaps in the places that the straws are stuck together. And don't even try to say that it's just one big long straw because who the hell brings a 6 foot long straw on vacation?

It's a shame, too. I still like their orange juice.


* Not hilarious.

Saturday, March 13

A Modern Hero

I have pretty much stopped watching TV for the past year or so now. Of course there is still the occasional show when I'm bored, and I watch movies on my computer a lot, plus watching TV while at a friend's house... but that's pretty much it. Then how is it that I know who William Hung is?

First, about American Idol and why I don't like it. Every single show (besides the last few which I can't force myself to watch, mainly because Jenny Gear destroyed my eyes last time) can be predicted with the following layout:

Random singer tries, sucks badly. Simon shows disrespect and elitism by laughing while the person is singing, and looking away in boredom. Paula Abdul smiles and sometimes dances along with the singer, even if they are terrible. Hey, at least she tries not to hurt their feelings. Randy is kind of neutral between nodding his head to the music, looking away if the person is really bad or just sitting there being fat, which is what he seems to be best at. Then, Simon will say "You're terrible, thank you for coming.", Randy will say a sentence containing no less than three occurences of the word "dude", and Paula breaks the news that the person has potential but just isn't what they're looking for. Occasionally, someone good will come on and everything will be different (Randy still says dude a lot) but it happens so little that I don't even care anymore. And don't you dare forget about the end credits where the worst singers from the show rant into the camera about how Simon is a bitch and that they're really good and nothing can convince them that they suck. Including the fact that everybody thinks they suck. 90% of the time, the person who is whining will be black, gay, or both.

BONUS: Oh, and sometimes the judges convince each other to give the guy a chance because he looks like he has talent, and then one of the judges will change their decision and the singer goes "OH MY GOD THANK YOU SO MUCH" and cries. Randy says "Good luck, dude" and the show goes on.

Now, back to William. This guy sucks. But in the good way. Instead of trying to defend himself in front of the judges at American Idol and making an idiot of himself (for an example type "black girl on american idol" into Google) or verbally attacking them, he admitted his defeat with the simple line "You know, I have no professional training in singing." Thanks for the news flash. Of course, now he has a record deal, his own website and thousands of fans.

Maybe I should give Canadian Idol a try.

Tuesday, March 9

Sorry, piggies

I've always wondered what it must be like to be a vegetarian. Do you get some kind of a membership card? Do you get 15% off on video rentals? Where do I sign up? But I think the biggest thing I wonder about is: How on Earth do you do it?

I don't think I could go without meat for one week. I find meals start to taste pretty average without a big hunk of meat in my mouth every once in a while. Sure, I've had vegetarian meals before... vegetarian lasagna, soups, pastas and a few other pretty tasty dishes but I don't think it would always be that easy. For example, I couldn't just make a sandwich when I get hungry. Of course, I could make peanut butter sandwiches but I'm honestly not too fond of them anymore. Being a high school student, the very few vegetarian meals they offer in the cafeteria every once in a while look pretty scary (even moreso than the other food-like substances they serve there). Another big factor is that I don't really like cheese. I can stand it on pizza, or a little bit on a salad or Subway submarine or something like that, but in general I don't want a big lump of rubbery cheese in my mouth. This leaves me with very few options if I were a vegetarian.

Oh, and did I forget to mention just how good meat tastes? Give me a good old-fashioned hamburger over a tofu salad any day.
My vegetarian friend once told me she had a BBQ with her family during which she ate hamburger buns with mustard on them and not much more. First of all, that sounds so boring. Knowing I could be chowing down on steak instead of a plain old BUN would be torture for me. Second, those buns probably contain minimal amounts of the recommended daily intake of... oh, I don't know... EVERYTHING? Even for a small guy, I like to eat a lot, so I would probably have to eat like five or six hamburger buns just to satisfy my hunger. That's a lot of buns.

You may have seen the videos at the PETA website protesting the meat industry and whatnot. I have and let me tell you right now that they're not friendly suggestions anymore. Slaughterhouse footage, debeaking videos, throat-slitting... they send a strong message. It's a shame these things are happening, but I just don't think I have the willpower to be a vegetarian right now. Maybe in a few years. So for now, it's "Sorry, piggies. Sorry cows, chickens and turkeys. Sorry pigeons, rats and old newspaper shreddings (I enjoy the occasional hotdog now and then). You just taste too good."

My name is Jake, and I am a Wannabe Vegetarian.

Welcome to nothing.

Some of you may know me as that crazy nutjob from Absolut Blog and some of you may not. This blog was started to serve as a little more serious weblog that some people may find just as interesting as my other one. In short, there is going to be less "HOLY SHIT NINJAS ARE COOL" on this blog*. Oh, and I'm the only poster here (for now anyway).

I 100% coded this site myself so it should stay like this for quite some time. I may change the color scheme if I get bored, though. Now, stick around and the fun will begin.

* Ninjas are still cool, though.