News & Updates in November 2006

Posted the anime profile of Maple Colors.

Posted my review of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! Volume 2.

Treese and I both wanted to see that new James Bond movie, Casino Royale, so when Victor gave us a call on Friday night asking if we wanted to go see it that evening, we jumped at the chance. I didn't bring any snacks with me... er... I mean "buy" any snacks, as I had just finished dinner not too long before Victor arrived to pick us up. That was a mistake. A BIG mistake! The movie, although only 2 hours and 14 minutes long, felt like it went on for 5 hours! I was starving by the time the end credits finally rolled. And poor Treese, she didn't even eat before we left! She used her time to take a power nap, so she was even more famished than I was.

I did love the action scenes, as they were exciting, plausible, and just overall fantastically done, especially the foot chase at the beginning. It's just that getting to them took forever. There were a bunch of talky-talky scenes that seemed completely unnecessary, and I think really could have been cut out without much loss of story. Plus, there were multiple layers of bad guys, so every time one got killed and you start to think the movie is just about over, the movie goes "Psych!" and moves on to foiling the next bad guy. Still, strange as it may sound, I thought it was better than all the other Bond movies from recent memory. Just don't go see it in the theater; wait for DVD, you butt will thank you.

Oh, I went back to the dentist last Friday, and this time I actually got my teeth cleaned before leaving! I didn't see the same dentist dude from last time; this time it was some lady. I explained my medical history to her, and thankfully she trusted that I knew what I was talking about, so she went ahead with the cleaning. There was a little plaque, which I'd like to believe is unavoidable, but apparently I'm doing a great job on keeping my teeth in shape. It was finally great to hear that! Wanna know my secret? Brush and mouthwash in the morning, then brush pick, floss, and mouthwash at night. Yeah, it sucks, but not as much as getting fillings or root canals!

Posted the anime profile of Ghost Talker's Daydream. Posted the character profiles of Misaki Saiki (from Ghost Talker's Daydream), Karin Kurosaki (from Bleach).

Today I had my first dentist appointment since switching insurance policies, and that meant a new dentist! I was scheduled for a cleaning, but I arrived about 10 minutes early so I busted out my trusty old Game Boy Advance and started up Astro Boy Omega Factor. And guess what? I was totally wrong about that one-hit-kills bad guy being the last boss. Yeah, I totally laid the smackdown on him, and found there was still more to come. After some story, I then fought another dude, and after I kicked his butt there was even more story, then a whole another level, and even more after that! And I still haven't reached the end! Have I mentioned recently how much this game rocks?

Anyways, so before the cleaning they wanted to get some X-Rays of my teeth. That was big fun. "Open"... "bite down"... *beeeeep*... repeat 40 or 50 times. After that, I was asked by the nice nurse lady if I had to take antibiotics before any dental procedures (due to one of the checkboxes I marked under medical history). I told her no. She asked if I had some paperwork that stated as such. I told her no. Then the doc came in and asked, and I told him no. I explained about checkbox I marked and told him that the condition no longer applies and I am in perfect health. Then the bastard tried to scare me into taking them, for "just in case", like I was lying to him or something. Too bad for him, I already knew all about the taking-antibiotics-before-dentist-visits thing because my sister has to do that, so his tactic failed.

He then asked if I was absolutely sure and tried to scare me some more. YES DOCTOR DUDE, I AM ABSOLUTELY 100% WITHOUT A DOUBT SURE THAT I DO NOT NEED TO TAKE ANY ANTIBIOTICS. Then came the WTF question... how do you know that you don't need to take them? Uh... what? Well, how about because I'm in perfect health, and have been for every physical I have ever taken... ever? Or how about because I have never needed to take them, not before my sister was born and not after when they told her she needed to take them? Hey, what about you, doc? Do you need to take them? No? Well how do you know? Dumbass. I'm aware of the reasons why some people need to take them, and I know that I do not need to take them, so can we just move on please? Then he asked if there was anyone like a physician that they could contact...

What could I do at this point but sigh. I understand that they want to be careful, but now they are just being stupid. If I was going to lie in order to get out of taking antibiotics, I wouldn't have MARKED THE DAMN CHECKBOX IN THE FIRST PLACE! But now because I told the truth and marked the checkbox they think I'm lying about being in perfect health and not needing antibiotics? Anyway, I told them the name of the doctor that did my last physical, even though he is no longer practicing. I had already written the name on the paperwork that they gave me to fill out earlier, but I guess they don't know how to read over there either because they needed me to not only tell them the name, but spell it as well. And then they sent me home. With no cleaning. Because they're morons. Truly, this doc does not instill me with confidence.

Posted the character profile of Trisha Elric (from Fullmetal Alchemist). Added an e-mail link to the floating navigation menu.

Victor, Chad, and I all went to see the midnight showing of Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan on Thursday (or technically Friday I suppose) down at the nice theater in Anderson, not those crappy ones they got here in Redding. Unfortunately, Treese had to work the next morning so couldn't do it this time. We arrived a bit early, so we played a few rounds of Need For Speed Underground.

Psst... you know what? Need For Speed Underground is a blast! A seat with speakers behind your head, floor pedals, force-feedback steering wheel, and the ability to play with friends all adds up to an immersive racing experience. Though at $1.00 per race, that experience gets limited very quickly. There were only two machines, so only two of us could play at a time. First I went head-to-head with Victor, then when Chad showed up I took him on... and I lost every single race. Yeah, I suck at driving, but at least I go to play the most number of games!

Anyway, after that we did a game of Lord of the Rings pinball. One of the switches was busted, which meant that every time the ball got into that spot we had to wait for the machine to cycle through everything before it would pop the ball out. We ended up getting 2 extra games during play, though they were pointless since we didn't even have time to finish our first game. After all, we did have a movie to go see!

I hadn't had much of a desire to see Borat, but the reviews were all positive, WAY positive, so that got me mildly interested. Still, whenever reviews are that good the movie never lives up to the hype, so I wasn't expecting all that much. And wouldn't you know it, this movie actually DID live up to the hype! It was hilarious, pure laugh-out-loud funny. I can't remember a single movie that made me laugh that much. The only real disappointment is that there's pretty much no way that he could do a sequel.

Posted the character profile of Creed Diskenth (from Black Cat).

Posted my review of Saturday Night Live- The Best of Saturday TV Funhouse. Created the Ken's Personal Photo Galleries page to make finding my various photo galleries a little easier.

On Saturday, Treese and I took a little road trip to Lassen National Park. We had driven up there once before, but we didn't make it very far on account of snowy roads. This time there was no snow, but it was still pretty dang cold! We drove around and got out at a few places to snap some photos. You can view the image gallery listed on My Personal Photo Galleries page, along with various other photo galleries I've posted. It was an enjoyable litte excursion, though we scrapped the whole picnic idea when we realized how cold it actually was.

On Thursday, I took my car in to Lithia Toyota of Redding for an oil change (I have that free lifetime oil change thing). No big deal, I've done it plenty of times before. Typically, this is not newsworthy information, but I'm mentioning this time for two reasons. First, it gave me a little time to continue playing Astro Boy Omega Factor (for Game Boy Advance), and I was finally able to get to the last boss (at least, I think he's the last boss). Even on easy mode, this is a one-hit-and-you're-dead bad guy. I planned on playing the game over on normal once I had beaten it on easy, and then on hard mode after that, but man, after facing this guy I think I'm gonna have to re-ponder that plan.

The second reason I mention the oil change is because later that night, as my wife and I were pulling into the garage after returning from grocery shopping (in her vehicle), I noticed that my front passenger side tire was completely flat. Now, I had only driven it straight home from the oil change, and didn't notice running over anything, so I figured the valve probably got stuck leaking air after they did the air pressure check on the tires. Either that, or it was just and extremely big coincidence. So I wrote the service center an e-mail (since it was late at night, and they actually had an e-mail as a contact option) and explained the situation.

The next morning they called me up. They wanted to send someone out to my house to inflate the tire, and then bring it into the shop so they could test it out. They even offered to have someone bring it in for me... now how's that for service! So the dude came out and inflated the tire, and when he removed the hose we could actually hear the valve leaking. Tapping the little metal thing inside the valve stopped the obvious noise, but it was still audible by leaning in real close. So it looked like my assumption was right. I drove it into the shop myself, and they proceeded to replace the valve and check all the other tires (including checking for punctures). I'd say it didn't take more than twenty minutes, though it's hard to say, as I was pretty focused on trying to beat that final Astro Boy boss.

I don't know if any of you have tried those trading websites out there, such as Game TZ and ZunaFish, but so far I've completed several successful trades and am really liking them. Unfortunately, it seems like there's always gotta be one person out there that just screws everything up, and yes, I've encountered this person. Her name is Carrie Hortt, though she goes by the handle blacksash5. On September 18, 2006, we entered into a videogame trade, my Siren PlayStation 2 game for her God of War PlayStation 2 game. Well, she never sent the game.

Delivery confirmation confirmed that on September 27th she had received what I had sent, so I contacted her on October 4th and she said that she would be sending it within the week. I waited until October 23, then contacted ZunaFish... and learned that she had been reported by several other people. They said that they had contacted her and that she agreed to fulfill all trades. After a week went by with still nothing, I informed ZunaFish and they let me know that they were handing the case over to the Postal Inspector. Since my father happens to be a retired Postal Inspector, I'm going to check with him to see what the whole process is.

In the meantime, make sure you do NOT trade with a user called blacksash5. In addition to ZunaFish, she also has a Game TZ profile (with a trade pending since September 24th), and doing a quick Google search for blacksash5 shows accounts at a few other places as well. Her e-mail is blacksash5@aol.com and blacksash5@aim.com, so also avoid any accounts using those e-mail address. You have been warned!

In other news, I received a MySpace Add Friend Request on Saturday from someone named Chris who was specified as residing in Bartlett, TN. I sent him a message asking if we knew each other, since I had known a few people named Chris while living there. When I received a reply the following day, I was excited to learn that he was in fact Chris Bailey, one of my long lost best friends. We had lost touch pretty much from the time I moved away, so I really had no idea what had become of him since I left. So now I finally get the chance to find out. Turns out he's married, as is his younger brother, Collin, and they are both fathers now.

Apparently, his wife stumbled across my website upon searching for his name. Talk about luck... some might say, but in truth I had the whole thing planned all along! It's pretty much the main reason I put the names of my friends, my schools, and the places I lived all on a single page. I figured sooner or later someone would go searching for their own name, and if they happened to add in some other search term like a place or school, then they would come across my site... and hopefully remember me. I am so smart! I am so smart! S-M-R-T! (audio clip).

The strategy also worked with my old friend William Ivan Jackson, whom I met in Aurora, Colorado. He searched for his name, found my website, and sent me an e-mail. Unfortunately, my reply bounced. After a little trial and error, I finally figured out his proper e-mail address, and was able to get a message through. It was just a short one, though, as I was only trying to find the right address. Once it went through and I received a reply, I wrote a much longer message... unfortunately, that was on September 9th, and I have yet to receive a reply. This makes me nervous, because the last message I got from him said that he was in Iraq, serving in the U.S Army, and that he would be back in Colorado in a month. So I really hope he's okay....