tolitz.com

So I found this nifty little app that allows me to post to my weblog using my iPhone. Looks like a decent app, even though it has a tendency to crash. But I guess nothing’s perfect, eh?

Anyway, this means I can now post my disturbing thoughts anywhere, which is pretty convenient for me. Many times I had some nasty little things between my ears that I wanted to share, but they always had a tendency to fizzle by the time I get home and sit in front of my computer. Not anymore

I’m just on my way back from the bank right now… Hmm… banks… I got a shitload to say about banks, but I guess I’ll save that for a later posting…

So, does the app work? Well, I’m posting this entry from my iPhone right now, so if you can see this, you got your answer…

Technorati: app, iphone, mobile, wordpress

Interesting little article… got it from the usual “spam” I get from LegalZoom, but this one bears some reading, especially in my profession right now…

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Blogger Busted by Courts
Author:  Michelle Fabio, Esq 

While we can be thankful that the right to freedom of speech allows us to share our opinions through blogging, we may not have the luxury of doing so anonymously. Until recently, many bloggers and blog commenters assumed that if they wrote under an alias or anonymity, their comments couldn’t be traced to them. In light of recent court rulings though, bloggers should think twice about how they exercise their perceived freedom of speech.

As with many developing areas of law, there is no consensus on how anonymous bloggers should be treated in the legal system. Up until a few months ago, though, most requests to reveal sources of anonymous online writings were denied. Indeed, the Supreme Court had ruled that the right to anonymous free speech was squarely protected by the First Amendment, namely in the 1995 McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Commission decision:

“Protections for anonymous speech are vital to democratic discourse. Allowing dissenters to shield their identities frees them to express critical, minority views…Anonymity is a shield from the tyranny of the majority…It thus exemplifies the purpose behind the Bill of Rights, and of the First Amendment in particular: to protect unpopular individuals from retaliation…at the hand of an intolerant society..”

Blogger Unmasked in Model Case

Despite the 1995 ruling, two recent cases show courts will not always defer to anonymity regarding online communications. In August 2009, we saw the case of Liskula Cohen, a 37-year-old model who found herself being called “skank” and “ho,” among other derogatory descriptions, in anonymous blog posts. Cohen decided to sue the blogger for defamation, but before she could do so, she needed to know who to sue. So her attorneys filed a motion to compel Google, operator of the Blogger.com site that housed the blog in question, to reveal the identity of the blog author.

The New York Supreme Court found that Cohen had indeed “established the merits” of a defamation action in that the statements on the blog contained assertions of objective fact, in particular suggesting Cohen was sexually promiscuous, that could form the basis of a defamation claim.

Regarding the balancing of First Amendment rights with the importance of anonymity in the exercise of the freedom of speech, the court quoted a 2001 Virginia Circuit Court case:

“In that the Internet provides a virtually unlimited, inexpensive, and almost immediate means of communication with tens, if not hundreds, of millions of people, the dangers of its misuse cannot be ignored. The protection of the right to communicate anonymously must be balanced against the need to assure that those persons who choose to abuse the opportunities presented by this medium can be made to answer for such transgressions. Those who suffer damages as a result of tortious or other actionable communications on the Internet should be able to seek appropriate redress by preventing the wrongdoers from hiding behind an illusory shield of purported First Amendment rights.”

The New York Supreme Court explicitly rejected the argument that the Internet should be judged as a place where statements “cannot be reasonably understood as factual assertions.” That is, the court declared that users should face legal consequences for defamatory statements and ordered Google to reveal the identity of the blogger to Cohen.

Nuanced Approach in Chang case

A California Superior Court judge took a slightly different approach to a similar question in the case of Calvin Chang, a former police officer who had sued the University of California on various claims, including breach of a settlement agreement. When the case was discussed on the Google-hosted blog People’s Vanguard of Davis, seven comments (five anonymous, two under a screen name) appeared, which Chang believed were made by university managers-in violation of the settlement agreement.

Accordingly, Chang subpoenaed Google to produce the IP addresses of those commenters; the People’s Vanguard of Davis and its owner moved to quash the records subpoena. On that motion, the judge accepted Chang’s assertion that the revelation of the names “appears reasonably calculated to lead to admissible evidence.”

Also weighing in Chang’s favor was that he had offered specific reasons as to why he thought the posts had been made by university managers.

Allowing for the possibility, though, that the posts were not made by university employees, the judge crafted a unique compromise in Internet anonymity law: the identities of the commenters would be revealed to an independent third-party investigator, privately retained by Chang. If shown that the commenters were indeed university employees, their names would be revealed; otherwise, they would remain unnamed.

Matt Zimmerman of the Electronic Frontier Foundation says this nuanced approach has a better result than if the judge had simply ordered the information turned over. “The court was willing to think of the big picture here,” he says.

Looking Toward the Future

So what is the future of anonymous blogging? Well, if these two decisions mark the beginning of a new trend regarding anonymous Internet communications, the overriding rule must be “Blogger Beware.”

You’ll still be free to express your opinions on blogs and through online communications, but remember that just because the medium has changed doesn’t mean the laws of defamation have. Or, in other words, don’t post things that could be actionable in a court of law-because even if you think you’re writing anonymously, they still may be actionable.

And by the way, the unmasked blogger in the Cohen case, Rosemary Port, has now sued Google for $15 million for revealing her identity, so it seems like this issue is far from settled. Stay tuned.

For more information visit:
“Court Compromises on Request to Unmask Blogger” by Wendy Davis, September 16, 2009
Citizen Media Law Project
Electronic Frontier Foundation

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Technorati: article, blogger, busted, court, free, google, legalzoom, of, speech

Well, it’s about damn time, Netflix…  I hope it’s better and smoother than the PlayOn app I am using right now to stream Netflix on my PS3.  I guess we’ll find out in a few weeks… below are the details, shamelessly lifted from HighDef Digest:

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Sony Adds Netflix Streaming to Playstation 3

 
Sony has announced that PS3 users will soon have access to the popular Netflix streaming service through the use of BD-Live.

Playstation 3

Fans of the PlayStation 3 just got another bragging point, as Sony has announced that Netflix will be available as soon as next month.  There’s a bit of a catch though.  Rather than being able to access the service through the systems menu thanks to a system update like the rival Xbox 360, PlayStation owners will need to access the service through BD-Live.

Netflix will provide Blu-ray discs free to subscribers who can reserve the discs now at Netflix.com/PS3.  Streaming will be available at the standard $8.99 price.  Netflix is hoping to echo the surge in memberships seen after the addition of the service to the Xbox, but with a few extra dollars tacked on to each one for Blu-ray rentals.

Sony’s press release states “Initially, watching movies instantly streamed from Netflix via the PS3 system will be enabled by a free, instant streaming Blu-ray disc that is being made available to all Netflix members.” This wording may indicate that a firmware update or installation disc may be in the works and that the BD Live streaming may only be a temporary solution.

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Technorati: 3, content, netflix, playon, playstation, ps3, sony, streaming

Wow, when my friend told me she was doing an article on bloggers, I thought she was compiling a list of responses from bloggers she interviewed… I had no idea that it was gonna end up as an article about myself as a blogger, haha… not that I mind, it’s actually a pleasant surprise

For those who didn’t get or don’t have access to last weekend’s Sunday Inquirer, here’s the link to the online version:
http://showbizandstyle.inquirer.net/sim/sim/view/20081116-172496/The-Blogging-Life

And just in case the article gets nuked in the future, I’m posting the entire content here:

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The Blogging Life 
By Marlet D. Salazar
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 06:58:00 11/16/2008

MANILA, Philippines – From Pinoy Angst to Astigmachism: That’s how Roselito “Tolitz” Rosel’s blog has evolved—and so has his life. Rosel, 35, is one of the early netizens who discovered that writing your life and thoughts online, when blogging was still insipidly called “online journal,” can be entertaining as well as a good communication tool for readers.

A Filipino based in Los Angeles, California, he started blogging in 1999 with an online journal he called Pinoy Angst, which basically contains, well, his angst during his early life in the United States. He moved to the US in 1997, and has changed blog providers quite a number of times. He began with Blogger, moved to Wordpress, to Friendster, and finally he settled on Multiply. Rosel’s blog is wittily called Astigmachism, (www.astigmachism.com) a contraction of “Astig na, Macho Pa.”

Having taken up communication arts at De La Salle University-Dasmariñas, Rosel took a special interest in computers and taught himself web design. He is now a freelance web designer and a financial adviser. The time spent in front of the computer has enabled him to go online 24/7. He practically lives in a virtual world where most of his “close friends” are members of online communities, websites, and true-blue netizens.

“I have always actively participated in online bulletin boards, sharing my thoughts with other people,” he says. “While searching the Internet for a specific topic one day, I stumbled upon a couple of online journals. I found the idea very interesting, and being that I had a lot of things between my ears that I wanted to put into writing, I went ahead and started my own.”

Adjusting to a new life with no friends but only families to interact with had never been easy, and this was reflected in his posts. Later, he realized that relatives and friends back home are always curious to know about how and what he has been doing. “It’s a cheap and convenient way to keep in touch, so to speak,” he adds.

His posts can go from a two-paragraph note to a 15-paragraph narrative. For Rosel, writing a blog could take as short as five minutes or as long as five hours. “It really depends on the subject matter, but normally it would take me 30-45 minutes to write a blog entry.”

“For a long time it was random musings about everything ranging from music, movies, and games to politics, current events and even psychology. Sort of like an online diary of what I see and what’s going on inside my head,” he explains. In previous blogs, he detailed his growing up years with pictures from childhood to high school. He now posts his current pictures with family, friends, and bandmates. “My friends liked my blog,” he says. “They appreciated the dry humor in it, and enthusiastically respond to the issues I raised. It’s a great ego-feeder too.”

When he has free time on his hands, he posts once a day, just before midnight. On weekends he is able to post as often as five times a day. The interaction with readers reacting to what they’ve read or inviting a discussion on a specific topic makes blogs not just a fun way to communicate. Rosel realizes that he has somehow grown closer to friends that he left in the country. There is no specific sense of urgency, but it does create a healthier avenue for discussion. “It sometimes comes to a point where you forget that they are thousands of miles away, on a different continent, and in a different time zone. It’s surreal to say the least,” he says.

Through almost 10 years of maintaining an online journal, Rosel has witnessed the evolution of blogs. Blogs are now multipurpose tools of content dissemination, he explains. Gone are the days when blogs were used by people only to write about how their day had been. Hundreds of commercial blogs have sprouted, and even news sites now have blog editorials and blog columns. It has become an indispensable tool for publishing content and encouraging feedback.

A natural comic, Rosel usually injects humor in his blog. He believes that a blog with a sense of humor would be a good place to start. “A blog that actually asks questions that visitors can reply to would also motivate people to participate,” he says.

And Rosel intends to keep blogging forever. “As long as the Internet is still around, and as long as I still have thoughts I may want to share with my friends, family, and anyone else who gets lost on the Internet and stumbles into my little piece of cyberspace, I will continue to post blog entries and share my thoughts, my musings, and my personality to anyone who likes to take the time to listen to other people talk about themselves.”

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Thanks to Marlet Salazar for the article, and for giving me this brief 15 kilobytes of fame, haha

Technorati: blogging, daily, inquirer, life, marlet, philippine, rosel, salazar, sunday, tolitz

If you’re a gamer like me, then this is probably the biggest news you’ll hear this year… Finally, a sequel to one of my fave RTS games of all time, Starcraft.

Blizzard Entertainment announced this sequel just now, although they’ve been hinting at it for almost a year. And the game’s slated to come out in 2008 – almost ten years after the original Starcraft was unveiled. Wow, that’s a long time to wait for a sequel, man

Just saw the cinematic trailer for Starcraft 2… kinda boring but it somewhat picks up near the end when they showed that montage before the marine says “Hell, it’s about time!”

Apt words, indeed. Can’t wait to get my gnarled, quivering hands on a copy of the game, bub…

The screenshots look sweet:
http://www.starcraft2.com/screenshots.xml

If you wanna see the cinematic, you can also download it from there:
http://www.starcraft2.com/movies.xml

(I would’ve uploaded it here on Multiply but the video player doesn’t know how to handle widescreen videos… kinda looks like those old chinese movies where they try to fit a widescreen film into a 4:3 ratio TV… )

Anyway, more details at http://www.starcraft2.com

Technorati: 2, announcement, blizzard, entertainment, starcraft

Random shit that I think about as I sit here at the office waiting for something to happen…

I would have to say that this recent episode of Southpark’s 10th season was one of the best and funniest episodes I’ve ever watched… well, not mainly coz of the sick humor, but rather due to the subject matter they tackled – which was the wildly popular MMORPG World of Warcraft.

Even if you’re not into WoW, I am sure you would appreciate the sick satire portrayed in that episode. I myself have been playing WoW on and off since late 2004, and the inside jokes really had me rolling on the floor. Granted some of the game elements they portrayed were flawed – Stan’s dad said he was a “hunter”, but his character had a “shield”? Or how just killing boars in Elwynn Forest for a few weeks will get you up by fifty levels? Or how a seemingly legendary weapon isn’t “bind on pickup” or “bind on equip”? And they conveniently left out the idea of “respawning” after a character death…

Meh…

But really, flawed facts aside, it was a very funny episode. Kinda gives creedence to how World of Warcraft has now become well-known even in showbiz – it’s no longer just a geek thing! (I think)

The three best lines in the episode:

“Mom! More HOT-POCKETS!”
“Mom! BATHROOOM!!!”
“Oh no, not the Sword of a Thousand Truths?!”

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Speaking of World of Warcraft, I think I may have fallen back into that obsessive game once again… As Al Pacino would say, “Just when I thought that I was out they pull me back in!”

For those who are reading this (the three of you, haha!), I am currently playing on the Executus PvP (US) server, for the Horde. I currently have a level 49 Tauren warrior there named Aethercharge. I would’ve probably been level 55 by now, but I’ve been spending most of my time there doing Battlegrounds to up my rank (my primary objective is to reach rank 11 and get my sweet Black War Kodo!).

My other characters are scattered in the other realms – I have one level 60 Tauren warrior in Mal’Ganis, and one level 60 Night Elf priest in Bonechewer. It’s been ages since I touched those characters and I found that it gets really boring after you reach 60, unless you’re one of those who enjoy a 4-8 hour session with a raid group of 40+ people trying to kill one bigass, badass dragon…

The damn game is a time sink, but I keep getting sucked back in… maybe it’s high time I uninstall the game from my computer. Easier said than done, of course.

So if you are bored with your level 60 character as well, join me in Executus. I’ll twink ya. I’ll run you through quests. I’ll even dance for you, the way only a Tauren can… Peanut butter jelly time…

FOR THE HORDE!!!

Technorati: bonechewer, executus, love, make, mal'ganis, mmorpg, not, of, realm, server, southpark, warcraft, world

Man, it’s been a long time since I’ve done something with this place. The virtual cobwebs are almost alive in here. But so far, the move back here is going along smoothly, but there’s a lot of work that still needs to be done.

It’s ironic that, even though I can do an extreme exercise in elaborate site layouts, I choose a minimalist approach. This theme was called Hemmingway, and it really suits my simple and straightforward approach to weblogging right now.

The weblog software I’m using right now is Wordpress. I debated for some time whether I would continue using Moveable Type (which was the weblog script I’ve been using for a long time, and one that was compatible with the Friendster blogs’ Typepad service), or try to use new weblog script that was “supposed” to be better. But after a good deal of googling and research, I decided on going with the latter.

I think the biggest thing that won me over to Wordpress was my inclination to try something new. And the fact that Wordpress is actually free and open source didn’t hurt either. There was a huge community following for it, and I think I’d be more comfortable using an industry favorite with a ton of support and user-created goodies.

So here I am, playing around with this shiny new script, and I find it really enjoyable. There are some things I miss from MT, but the customizability and features of WP more than make up for it. And it actually has easier-to-edit themes than MT. And, yeah, it’s free…

I’m still trying to decide what else to incorporate here. Sometimes I get obsessed about starting a whole site from scratch that I try to put as much scripts and goodies I can find. But years of experience in this thing has taught me to just keep it simple. In the land of blogs, content is king.

This is gonna be so much fun, man…

Technorati: blog, friendster, moveable, type, typepad, wordpress

Don’t you just love these melodramatic, angsty, brooding and pseudo-mysterious appellations that pretentious webloggers like me splatter over their latest post for the day?

But in a way of speaking, the title is apt.

As very few of you know, my Friendster blog “began” a year ago, September 4th to be exact.  It had a dinky name called “Tatak Tolitz” for about two weeks or so, before I changed it to its current name…   But if you notice, I have posts that go as way back as 2002… which would be impossible since I just started the blog at Friendster last year, right?

Well, maybe that’s because I’ve been weblogging since 2002 at my own personal site, Tolitz.Com, which had been in development limbo constantly.  If you visited that site, you’ll see the words there that say:

“Don’t worry, once Tolitz finds the time for himself and his site, this site will be up once again.”

Well, my friends, that time is almost here…  Yeah, I’m gonna be moving my weblog back to my site in a couple weeks, and I’m gonna be resurrecting my little corner in cyberspace once more.

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What does that mean for my Friendster blog right now?  Well, I’ll still be using it, of course, but I will slowly wean myself off it week by week.  Does that mean I’ll be abandoning my Friendster blog after I get my site back up?  Hell no! I met most of my good friends in this place, so it won’t be going away soon.  But the posts will not be as regular or as constant as it will be on my own site when I move my weblog there.

What prompted me to make this move?  A lotta things, really. Friendster blogs, specifically the Typepad service, limits me in some way…  The fact that only Friendster members can reply to my posts is also a small part of it, and the pains I have to do in order to get around the pre-formatted design can be very unnerving at times.  I wanted more freedom – not just in content, but in aesthetics.

Of course, that would mean the people who visit my weblog would once again dwindle or start from scratch once again, but I was already used to that.  I’ve been weblogging since 2002 until 2005 with only a handful of people reading what I write, so it won’t be a shock to me

I do have to hand it to Friendster, though… the blogs here increased my readership by 500% from the time I started writing… no doubt thanks to the blog email notification spam, hahaha!

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So expect an announcement from me, here, on when my site will re-launch itself. It might come in a couple of weeks. Maybe a month. But it will come. And then the hour of the wolf will be upon this little room I have in Friendster, where I share the dark, funny, often confusing thoughts that play around in the dark recesses of this thing I call a brain.

Will you miss me? I dunno. I sure will miss you guys, though

Technorati: astigmachism, friendster, tatak, tolitz

Stupid name? Well… you’re stupider! In fact, you’re the stupidest of the stupid! Spongklong! Get out of my sight!

Well, not really… just thought I’d show some fake angst to start off this blog entry… how did I do? What, not convincing enough? What do you want from me? Get off my case, damnit! Don’t ever visit this blog again!

Actually, I don’t mean it… I’m glad you took the time out of your hectic schedule to revisit this little corner of mine in cyberspace. If you’re a return visitor, the better – although I would have to suggest getting your head examined if you actually like going back to a place like this.

Anyway, why the change in name? I dunno, after a couple weeks I felt the name “Tatak Tolitz” felt a little too serious or formal. Someone who sees the name would assume it has content that is actually useful, or something respectable, or something pertaining to Filipino values, culture and documentary-type posts… of course, I’d probably die of boredom if I went that route.

So I changed it into something a little more… err… apt. Something that matches the content of this blog. In other words, something silly, contemporaneous, and one whose very existence doesn’t make sense at all. Something that will make you say “what the fuck does that mean? It’s so stupid!”

Yep, that’s this blog folks. Sometimes you think it makes sense and has something of value to offer. But underneath you just notice how utterly stupid it all is.

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So what does Astigmachism mean? Well, it’s the combination of Astig and Machismo. Astig is slang for tigas, meaning “hard” – or colloquially meaning “badass” and “tough” … Machismo is, well, machismo. And after the trip to Cerritos to get new eyeglasses, I just thought it was a nice play on words for someone like me who has high astigmatism.

I know you’re thinking that a word that means “hard” and “macho” would have some pornographic references. Not that I’m complaining, or anything. In fact, please go ahead and think so, especially the girls. My phone number is…

Anyway, that’s the reason for the name change. Will the content of this blog also change? Hmmm… Is Puff Daddy white? Uh huh, didn’t think so

So thanks for visiting this blog, and for those who have been here before and have religiously followed it day by day, I apologize for being incognito for the past few days. But if you’re in my friends list, isn’t it a nice break from the usual “Your Friend has Updated His Blog” emails you get?

What, you still think it’s a stupid name for a blog? Well… you’re stupider! You’re the stupidest of the stupid and…

Yeah… anyway… back to work…

Technorati: astigmachism, friendster, tatak, tolitz

Sometimes they come back… (Imagine me saying this in a low, raspy voice with a faint hint of phlegm dribbling around in my throat, with the cold wind blowing outside, and a faint wolf howl in the distance, while…)

Okay, maybe that’s going a little overboard

Anyway, are you prepared for one of the looooongest weblog entries I have ever made? Are you prepared to be overcome by an onslaught of incoherent musings while being drowned in a deluge of half-pondered thoughts that would violate your virginal sensibilities?

Hmmm… (checking thesaurus to see if I used any words out of context)

Anyway (again), I guess you’re probably wondering what the hell happened to this site after November of last year? I would have been glad to say that the new world order – I mean – the Bush government ordered me to do it because of potential sedition and insurrection, but sometimes you can’t have what you wish for. For those who have seen this site before, you know my weblog habit by now – prolific posting for about a couple of weeks, then drop out of the face of the planet for a few months. That’s coz I’m a chronic dilettante – someone who obsesses over an activity for a specified amount of time, and when something else catches his fancy, pursues it and drops whatever he is doing… finished or not finished. A quick way to become a jack of all trades but master of none. Almost like having Attention Deficit Disorder. Always finding something else interesting in mid-thought as I…

… oh hey, I just noticed my keyboard letters are starting to be worn off… I can’t even see the letter A in the keyboard anymore…

*cough* Anyway (third time), what have I been doing in the last seven or so months since I wrote my last entry? All kinds of things, I guess. And I’m gonna write a synopsis of several hundred words to let you know. And wouldn’t it be funny if there was a blackout just before I finish… (feels a cold shiver down my back) Well, I guess it can’t be helped. No one ever reads these things anyway (except a person or two who is still interested at what I’m doing, or the occasional stalker who thinks I’m worthy).

Honestly, I have sorta lost faith in the American system after that idiot got reelected. Who ever thought that religion would be the deciding factor. I didn’t see it coming – I thought this country was more intelligent than that. Unpleasant surprise for me. The angst has become real. I don’t know how the fuck I’m gonna be able to think of this country the same. Maybe I should go ahead and rethink my earlier decision to move to Canada. But then I have to learn French. Damn.

Anyway (fourth time), I’ll split the recaps into easy, understandable parts, and use very small words. I’ll even pitch in a few visual aids. Make sure to keep up…

Recap One: The Lord of Terror

So late last year I finished the game module I was working on for Neverwinter Nights. It was a remake of one of my favorite games, Diablo, and it was intuitively titled “The Lord of Terror”. I had been working on the damn thing for almost 8 months, starting January last year. I finally finished it in September, and submitted it at the Neverwinter Vault.

And yeah, it was a hit. I knew it was gonna be popular, but I never thought it’d get to the Hall of Fame in so short a time. In less than three months it got more than 20,000 downloads, and to this day it still has a pretty high 9.72 average rating. Damn, I guess I’m good, having my very first module get to Hall of Fame. Now, excuse me while I fondle myself…

Recap Two: The World of Warcraft

A few weeks after I finished working on my NWN module, the long-awaited MMORPG World of Warcraft came out. I initially planned to just play a couple of hours a day on it, but the game sucked me in, and there were times when I was playing it for more than 8-10 hours, often extending into the early morning hours.

I eventually started a guild consisting of people who visit my tech support site, plus other people who just wanted a guild to be in. My race of choice was Tauren, and I got my druid to level 30 in just over a week. Afterwards I started a Tauren warrior, and got him to level 58 in less than a couple months, two levels shy of the threshold level 60.

But as usual, it was a doomed cause as well, as another adjacent interest started to sprout on the side, and some responsibilities in real life began to surface. So my prolific WoW slid down the totem pole and thus another addiction began to rear its ugly head…

Recap Three: The Anime Attack

I have been using the Netflix online DVD rental service for more than two years now, and up to a certain point, I was content with renting 2 DVDs at a time, except when I wanted to finish some TV series like 24, The West Wing and the Star Trek series DS-9 and Voyager. But when I ran out of TV series to rent, and new movies to watch, I had to look at other genres. I came upon an anime site, AnimeOnDVD, that had detailed reviews of tons of anime DVDs. Until that point, the last anime DVD I had watched was the Tenchi in Tokyo series, which was middle of last year. Having found an interest in romance comedies (eww, don’t tell other people about this, okay!), I began searching for similar genres, and found a good review/recommendation for a series called Kareshi Kanojo no Jijou (His and Her Circumstances, to the Japanese-challenged folks out there). So I queued it up on Netflix and when they arrived, watched it with no high expectations.

It was either the best or worst mistake of the year, depending on how you looked at it. I was hooked – bigtime. After watching the first two DVDs, I returned them immediately and couldn’t wait to get the next few DVDs in the series – to the point that I increased my DVD rental limit to the “8 DVDs out at a time” plan… Goodbye $50…

From that point on, 99% of all my DVD rentals had been anime – and not just feature films, but most of them were full-blown series, from 10-episode ones to 26-episode ones. I’ve also started splurging on eBay for import anime DVDs (okay, maybe a few of em are bootlegs, but don’t sweat the little things, okay?). I think I’ve spent more than $300 in DVDs in the last couple of months. Damn.

So anyway (fifth time), I’ve developed a really annoying attachment to this genre that I have lost my taste for “regular” live action DVDs in my collection. The other day, I ran out of new anime to watch, so I popped in a Babylon 5 season 2 DVD into my PS2 and started to watch. I had to eject the DVD after less than 30 minutes because I couldn’t stand it anymore. So yeah, I replaced it with a DVD of Onegai Teacher (it’s anime, in case you didn’t get it), and was finally able to watch something that interested me.

So yeah, I sometimes have anime withdrawals on those boring nights when I run out of things to watch. I think I’ve watched the Love Hina series about 4 times already, and it isn’t even “that” good, either. Maybe it’s a new psychological sickness, enjoying moving artwork as opposed to moving pictures. Is there a psychiatrist out there who can comment on this? A comedian, maybe?

Recap Three Interlude: The Anime Fansub Torrent Syndrome

Did I mention that I run through anime DVDs like cigarettes? Well, that always leaves me with a day or two of “downtime” as I wait for my next rental DVDs to come to me. So what was my solution? Torrent files of Fansubbed anime. (I’d like to give a primer on what “torrent” and “fansub” means to those among you who are clueless, but I’ll let mister Google handle it)

Anyway (sixth time), I came across a huge variety of torrent files for various fansubbed anime – specifically, shows that just aired in Japan less than a year ago, and some ongoing ones as well. And here I am, with a broadband connection, actually salivating at the chance.

So what was a poor bored guy supposed to do?

Unfortunately, most of the fansubs I downloaded were anime versions of H-games. What’s an H-game? Well… most are adult games, and some are mere dating sims played on consoles like PS2. I was a bit intrigued coz I never played any game like that before (that is, if you don’t include the Leisure Suit Larry series). Most of them were surprisingly good, if not a tad ridiculous and out of this world.

But hey, whatever quenches my need for anime, right?

Right now, this is still my current obsession, until the dilettante in me decides to stalk some other hobby. I think I’ve been more exposed to anime in the last 2-3 months than I’ve been for my entire video viewing life. Does that mean I am on my way to be an otaku? I dunno. I don’t think so, but then again, who knows. Let me ask Pikachu…

(What’s otaku? Ask mister Google)

Recap Four: The Financial Services Surprise

Reading all this, do you think I’ve been wasting my time all day doing all sorts of lazy hobbies? Not exactly.

I’ve also began getting into financial services. What financial services? Insurance, annuities, securities, mortgages, etc. I have been hearing that financial services will be the next big thing in the next few years, what with the baby boomers fast reaching their compensation period.

So I’ve been trying to study for state exams and getting my license(s). I just recently passed the Life Agent exam, which means I can now legally sell life insurance in the state of California. Next thing I’m doing is studying for the Securities exam.

I heard a funny anecdote about people lambasting the insurance business. Someone even said “Are you that desperate for money that you wanna sell insurance?” I guess I wasn’t surprised that the someone” who said it was earning minimum wage.

Maybe later in my journal I’ll discuss why financial services is a very important business to get into nowadays. Then I’ll email it to that guy and attach a trojan virus in a file attachment that says “EARN MONEY WHILE YOU SLEEP”.

Final Recap

So, that’s basically what I’ve been doing since November last year. Lots of things have changed, but then lots of things also haven’t changed… I still smoke. I’m still a bit overweight. I still clean my room once in several months. I still haven’t gotten a haircut. I still don’t have a girlfriend. And I still don’t go to church.

So with all that, I guess I could say that … it’s the same old shit, only with newer nuggets… If you read this far, I guess you really like what I write…

…and I guess I should be afraid, or something…

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