A New Year

The new year is quickly approaching, and we have but a few hours left to spend in 2008.
Have I made any New Year's Resolutions? Indeed I have.
First, I will do my absolute best to attend all my classes, study hard in them, and go for that 4.0
Second, I will try to procrastinate less and do more productive things. I'm looking for a job or internship, and I want to practice all those things that I want to be good at, such as digital art, guitar, and other stuff.
Last, I will try to be more social within Buffalo and meet new people.

I hope everyone has a great New Year. Study hard, have fun, and don't forget to keep in touch.

This year, in conjunction with resolution #2, I will be reformatting my laptop, and reinstalling only the things I really need. This is also to help clean out my registry, as my system has been running rather sluggishly as of late.

Kannagi 13

KANNAGI 13
An absolutely wonderful ending to a season that struggled in the middle. Kannagi 13 definitely managed to deliver the spectacular episode that Kannagi 12 was suggesting. With this episode however, Season 1 of Kannagi was unfortunately come to an end. Filled with heart-warming, awe-inspiring, hilarious, and suggestive scenes, this was an episode and ending to remember.
However, the entirety of season 1 felt more like an introduction than an actual series, though I am not dissatisfied. Overall Kannagi has been more than thoroughly enjoyable, and I hope for the best with all upcoming seasons.

On another note, another anime I've been following finished the season recently. Akane-iro ni Somaru Saka ended on episode 12, and has been producing highly entertaining episodes. Based on the visual novel by Feng, Akane-iro ni Somaru Saka has many themes commonly found in visual novel turned animes. To be fair, it is yet another school romance comedy harem, of which there are plenty of. However, the series has been fun, albeit awkward at times, to watch. I am not too sure about how much I'm looking forward to the next season. I'll be sure to follow it, but it will be hard to take my focus off of Kannagi.

Note:
Torrenting many things at once on an unstable wireless connection sucks. Especially when it corrupts your files.

Toradora 13

This week seems to be the week of redemption. With Kannagi's return to amazingness, Toradora followed suit after 2 episodes of awkward anger and sadness. Ryuuji and Minorin made up, and may have even managed to further their relationship, and Taiga was finally able to talk to Kitamura without stuttering or being completely embarassed. A little about Taiga's past and family was revealed, and the overall atmosphere of the episode was sheer awe.
Toradora nailed it this week, and I can only look forward to next week.

Holiday Season and The Year Beyond

I love Christmas, the holiday spirit, the cheer, and the warmth of my blankets.
Merry Christmas everyone. Best wishes to you all, and I hope you all have a wonderful day.
I'm sure many of you will be busy with family today.

Listening to Christmas music makes me feel happy :D
Listening it in surround sound would probably be better. I'll make sure to get that going in my future house.

Of course, as soon as Christmas comes, New Year's is right around the corner. In exactly one week, 2008 will have ended, and a new year will begin. A new year, a new semester, and new ways to waste my time. Once I leave again for the dark depths of Buffalo, I will not see anyone until my annual Cornell Spring break, and then a few more weeks until school ends.
In an attempt to better myself, I have prepared a few New Years Resolutions that I will try my best to uphold this year, for I have not done so ever before.
- GO TO CLASS
- DO YOUR DAMN WORK
- Find a job/internship
- Be more social in Buffalo
- Practice things I want to get better at (Photoshop, programming)
- Complete SSBM combo video
- Learn piano and guitar
- Continue doing what I love (this one will be easy, and may interfere with my other resolutions :D)

Kannagi 12

After 8 disappointing and uneventful episodes of Kannagi, 12 really brought the series back to the standards we expected after the first 4 episodes. No spoilers, I guess, but things are happening in 12 that will carry through for several more episodes. Zange-chan is super manipulative as usual, but still incredibly hot. I really hope for the best for Jin, Nagi, and the rest of the Nagi-sama fanclub.

On an unrelated note, I really hate when subbers that I've been getting anime from for the first few episodes suddenly drop the work, or become really slow with the subbing. Mixing subbers is annoying.

Of Winter and The Responsibilities of a Host

12/21/08, the official start of Winter. What do I like about Winter, and what do I hate about it? First, the cold. I like warmth and hate the cold. I like waking up and settling deeper into my warm sheets instead of getting up and walking around a cold room. I like hot baths in which I can just soak in for a while. I like watching snow fall through my window. I like walking through the fresh snowfall. I hate shoveling the crap after it's been stepped on. I like sitting on my couch with a blanket wrapped around me while sipping some hot tea. I like hibernating and sleeping most of the day. I hate not being able to go out as much because no one else wants to hang out in the cold.
Cold or not, there's always a feeling of refreshment when you step out and feel the the brisk winter air. Perhaps it's only until Christmas that this feeling lasts, because I certainly start to despise the cold from January onwards.
It's been about a week since Winter break started, and so far it has been quite an uneventful break indeed. Of course, I know that many people are busy with studying and work and family, and that I should be as well, but being how I am, I always make it out as a procrastinator. My first big event for this Winter is Winter Potluck which will take place on Tuesday the 23rd. Once again, I have invited a bit too much people, and think I might have some trouble accommodating them all. 25 people is quite a bit to feed. Of course, this is a potluck so hopefully enough people can bring enough food to make this event successful.
The menu that myself and several guests have prepared consists of:
Egg Salad + Bread "Chips"
Shrimp Tempura
Spring Rolls courtesy of Andrew Hua
Fried Rice or some sort of Asian noodles
Fried Chicken, Biscuits, and Sides courtesy of KFC
Cream Puffs courtesy of Petra
Assorted Baked Goods courtesy of Sutin

Return to Easier Times (or is it)

Fall semester for 2008 has ended, and now I'm back home in NYC. After an uneventful semester with poor performances across several subjects, academic and otherwise, I looked forward to coming home once again. Although I realize my priorities may not be completely straight, I would still much rather hang out with my friends than do anything else.
Now with this one month vacation, I can do many things to prepare for what's coming next. Spring semester is only 4 weeks away, and considering the amount of things I have to do, and the extra things I want to do, that really isn't a lot of time. These 4 weeks must be spent wisely improving my self. Of course, I will continue to write in this blog, in an attempt to better my writing skills. I think that being able to write well is a measure of intelligence, though not by any means the only measure of intelligence. I also feel that being able to write well means that you will be able to see the world in a different manner, and you'll be able to get further in life than you would otherwise. Also, I just want to be able to get my thoughts down. I often cannot manage to write down everything I'm currently thinking of, and then I forget the rest, which makes me sad. I think being able to express yourself in a wonderful thing, and to be able to do it eloquently is even better.
Looking at my Spring schedule, there are some things that I will need to review, and some things that I might need to start learning on my own now to be able to better grasp the material once classes begin.
I don't mind that I'm doing work over a vacation. I've already wasted plenty of time and rested well enough during the school year.
I do look forward to having fun with everyone over this vacation and our last month together before 2009.

Settling Down and a Fascination for Tea

I've recently begun to consider how it would be like once I move out and live on my own. Maybe I've been watching a bit too much anime, but I thought it would be great to live in a temple with friends. Realistically, an in America, I'd like to live in my own house, though a good cozy apartment would nice fine as well. Of course there's all those plans I listed in my other post that I would carry out in my house, but living on my own made me realize how much responsibility a homeowner has. There's paying for the bills and utilities, and repairs if stuff breaks. There's having to clean and cook (which I don't mind) and having to get a job (though I would love to work out of my house, so that way I can take care of all the stuff I have planned)

I've recently grown quite fond of tea. I've been brewing tea and drinking it all the time. I could imagine having some sort of tea ceremony room in my house as well. Ah, tea is just so refreshing and calming.

My ideal house probably does not exist in the city, and would cost millions of dollars (not surprising considering how expensive homes are nowadays. My current house is already close to a million dollars in value)
I've really thought about it a lot, and have imagined the most trivial details, even what I would have in my refrigerator lol.

I wonder where I'll move to. Hopefully somewhere where I can still keep in touch with all my friends.
Where will life take me mmm...

Preparation Now

In light of my revelations mentioned in previous post, I decided to pretty much finalize some plans and goals that I suppose I've always had, and that I need to do.

First of foremost, I've pretty much decided to major in computer science and engineering. Although I was listed as that major, I didn't really take any courses in it. Starting that on my 3rd year will be tough, but hey, that's what I get and now I gotta do what I gotta do. I don't plan on double majoring in media studies or minoring in it. I consider that to be more of a hobby I may be interested in pursuing a career in, but trade schools for media studies and the like are quite common, so I can always get into one of those.

In college, aside from computer science I want to focus in psychology, economics, and english/literature/writing. I feel that understanding economics is a must in order to get by in this day and age. Being able to manage your money well is a good thing. As for literature and writing, I've always felt that a well-read person can do a lot, and that being able to write well will get you far in life. My writing has always been quite weak, which is one of the reasons I decided to make this blog. I think if I read and write more, I'll be able to express myself better, and that would be good. Psychology is just for fun I suppose. Of course I won't just be taking courses in university. I'll need to do lots of independent studying myself, which could be fun. As Kotomi would say, if I don't study a lot, I can't become a splendid person. Well I don't know about splendid, but I'll settle for well-established at least.

Aside from school work, I need to find some sort of job and/or internship. A job provides extra pocket money, which I could always use, and an internship provides many opportunities for the future.

As for personal issues, I decided that I want to learn to play guitar. I wish I could play many instruments actually, but I realize that that's simply asking a bit too much. I think guitar suits my taste best anyways. This will have to wait til summer, unfortunately.
I also need to find a way to become more outgoing and social, and less shy. High school was the best time of my life, because of all the times I was able to spend with my friends. They know how social I can be when I'm with them, but I'm usually very introverted and shy when meeting new people. I wish I were at Cornell because that's where the majority of my high school friend's are, and they seem to be having great times there. I need to do my best to do so here at Buffalo as well, instead of sticking to my past. Besides, the more people you get to know and care about, the more you'll be able to look out for each other. Sometimes you just need to know the right people and good things will happen.

And of course, I still have those plans for that amazing server and blog that would cover pretty much everything I have envisioned, such as me and MXu's amazing clothing line, MXu's music, our Smash vids, art, reviews on movies, TV shows, current events, etc.
It all seems a bit much to manage, and most of it won't be done soon, but maybe as early as when I get out of college, I want to get that well and rolling. Also, a server would be quite a hassle to transport back and forth between college and home, especially since I fly and it's simply too heavy and fragile to place in a suitcase.

Fight, Eric.

College, and the life after.

I've never really given thought to my future. I've never really imagined how I would be like in those years to come. I always figured that I'd just be the same forever.
Well maybe somewhere inside me I knew that my future was always drawing closer, always becoming the present, and that I couldn't be the same forever, but I much preferred the way things were as they were. With that in mind, I didn't take many things seriously; many important things that would affect my future. I didn't focus on school, or extracurriculars, or on a career. I just thought, that when the time comes, I'll handle it then.
Eventually I came to realize the naivety of my mindset, that I've just been screwing myself and my future over with my immature attitude. I'm so behind in college that I may need another few semesters to graduate, and I'm doing so poorly in what I did that after I graduate there might be nothing for me.
Will there be time for change? Will change make a difference?
I suppose we'll just have to wait and see. That's what I might have said in the past, but now I realize that I can't just wait. I need to be proactive, and make the changes I need to make. I need to make the changes affect my future, not wait to see if my changes will.

Brawl is a Terrible Game

Super Smash Brothers Brawl. I hate it. Why am I the Vice President of UB's Smash Club then? Because I became Vice President before Brawl came out, and at the time people were still hoping Brawl would be a good game.
I won't go too much into detail about how bad this game is, but yea, it's bad. Today we had a Winter Tournament. Nine entrants. Nine lol. Because of the way brackets are set up, any number of entrants that's not an exponent of 2 forces byes. There were 7 byes T_T.
I tried my best to arrange the tournament properly, with random stage selection, stage strikes, bans, counterpicking rules, Dave's stupid rule, etc., but this game is just not fun to play.
Long story short, I won, game sucks, wasn't fun.
Afterwards, me and some friends hung out in the club office, playing Mario Party 2 for the N64.
Now that was 2 hours of hilarity and greatness. It's been a while since I've laughed so much.

My Xbox 360 red ringed on me after a week, which I suppose I deserve for a) buying used b)modding it to play bootleg games c) playing on it for over 8 hours straight 4 days in a row, when everybody knows how shittily made Xbox's are, and how easy it is to fuck one up.
I'll get it fixed over Winter break, which I'm leaving for on the 16th. One month of... who knows, but it's a break and I'll try to do some productive stuff over it.

RE: Sexbox 360

"Gears of War 2
Fable 2
Mirror's Edge
Left 4 Dead
Tales of Vesperia

Life could not get much better."

Until that shit red rings on you and you already voided the warranty.
GG microsoft on having the best console for video games, but making it a piece of shit failure.

Sexbox 360

Gears of War 2
Fable 2
Mirror's Edge
Left 4 Dead
Tales of Vesperia

Life could not get much better.
Still need to download:
Gears of War 1
Fallout 3
Elder Scrolls IV
Halo 3
Forza Motorsport 2
Deadspace
Assassin's Creed
Burnout Paradise
Bioshock
Perfect Dark Zero
Mass Effect
Eternal Sonata

The 360 rivals the PS2 for amount of great games

There go my promises of studying hard this year.

Blast You, Accursed Oversleeping

Today I had a Japanese oral exam at 8:45 AM.
I was supposed to get there 10 minutes earlier.
I wake up at 8:35. EIGHT fucking THIRTY FIVE.
There could not have been a worse time to wake up. Any earlier and I would have been fine. Any later and I would have been too late. But for some reason, I just had to wake up at that exact moment. I contemplated my choices, and eventually decided that, yea I probably do need to take this exam. So I jumped out of bed, threw on yesterday's clothes (luckily my jeans still had my wallet and keys in them,) ran out the door, down the stairs, and into the wonderful freezing rain.
Not only is it bad enough to have to walk facing the wind, but when you throw in some frozen rain that pelts your face, neck, and eyes, it really starts to annoy me.
Why couldn't I have woken up at 8 AM like my alarm suggested me to.
Dicks. My left eye is so bloodshot that it is quite literally, a red eye. I've also got a cut on my eyelid from rubbing it so much. That'll start to sting later, and get puffy and make it hard to see out of that eye, therefore leaving me blind because my hair covers my right eye. Nice.

I'm going back to sleep.

A Reference Note for the Future

Although blogspot provides the basics needed to host a blog, it's not quite up to par with my needs. Once I get my server fully up and running, I will most likely migrate to whatever host I use, or maybe I'll decide to fork out some more cash a month and get my own domain.
Or maybe I'll be a lazy ass and use wordpress and let them do everything for me.
I'm mainly looking for a better way of organizing posts, and a way to categorize them. As I've mentioned before, I plan on covering quite a wide range of subjects, and to make them easier to find and sort through, some sort of post categorization would be indispensable.
Of course, in the end it comes down to money as usual, and that's something I'm lacking. Job hunting we go.

Convenience; it's killing society.

A Lack of Foresight

So now that I'm nearly done splurging, I've found myself in quite a predicament.
I have no method of bringing all my stuff home O_O
Most airlines only allow 2 bags to be checked in for a fair price. Any bags after that will be ridiculously expensive (not to mention I only have 2 bags.)
Now how do I find a way to bring home my:
Server
7 External Hard Drives
Laptop
Printer/Scanner/Copier
XBox 360
Gamecube
Speakers
Camcorder (including tripod)

And that's not to mention clothes, books, smaller electronics (camera, mp3 player, etc.) and many more miscellaneous odds and ends that you don't realize take up so much damn space until you have to move them somewhere else.
The tech itself will easily bring me over the weight limit for both my check in bags, if I were to check them in. Obviously I won't because I can't expect the airline to treat my bags with care, even if I did tell them several thousands of dollars worth of tech were in those bags.
Then there's the trouble of bringing them BACK to Buffalo when I return.
Oh well, I'm sure things will work out.

Still buying:
22" LCD TV/Monitor
4x6 Wacom Intuos3
New digital camera (for point and shoots)
DSLR (for the big stuff)
Several more internal HDDs so I can get my hard drives in a RAID 5 array
Router to turn my server into a server
Logitech G9 (because if I'm going to go this far, might as well do it with a mouse as well)

Then there's the things you need to constantly replenish, such as DVD+Rs, random components that you might need one day, food, clothes, other necessities, and eventually replacements for all of the above (because things break, and get replaced by newer versions)

Good luck Eric.

Step 1

Step one of my plans to make a server in order to support my blog. I recently purchased a 3TiB server for 200 bucks, and I hope to get that running soon. I need to consolidate my hardware, or I won't be able to bring it back home at the end of school haha.
Eventually I'm hoping to move out of blogspot and find some nice host where I can get some file transfers going, for like anime, music, etc.
Store some photos, whatever.
Maybe I'll try to get some streams of videos I make, like SSBM vids.
That'll eat up a shitload of bandwidth lol.

Oh well, it should be fun and worthwhile.

Ushering in a New Year

The day is December 1, 2008. A blog begins, to record my experiences in this passing world. After all, everything that happens to us is an experience, and life is but a collection of experiences and how we have changed through them. This blog will document what happens in this world as I see it, hear it, smell it, taste it, and feel it, and what happens to me from that.

Perhaps one day in a not so distant future, I'll be able to look back upon this blog and cherish what experiences I've been fortunate enough to have.

The name Perpetual Beholder is but a fleeting dream, for we all wish to be able to eternally observe how the world progresses, and our lives with it. But for now, and for as long as I can, I will be that beholder, and my world I will watch.

I find most things in this world rather interesting, and worth learning or at least experiencing. I may cover a wide range of subjects as I ramble. I will talk about many trivial matters, and some consequential ones. I hope I can express my experiences through this blog.

Enjoy.