Nine Sackboys Don't Kick Like This!!!

For those who use notebook computers and want to make their lives using trackpads/touchpads a thousand times easier, read down!!!

I saw the preview for 9...I'm loading it again on my computer since I missed the first half while paying attention to my girlfriend (more on her later) thinking it was just some stupid viral vid or Youtube crap since they said it was like Matrix, Hellboy, and a few other things together, but I turned around (probably when the kicking music started) and saw something...totally different.

http://9themovie.com/splash/

This is NOT Little Big Planet! This is NOT Sackboy! This is 9!!!

I keep watching the first half (that's all I have loaded for now) of the preview and I see...that this is a very dark movie. They were right about Matrix in it, but it's not The Matrix as far as I've seen, it's 9. It's...bliss.

I like serious movies. I like movies that are dark, hardcore, and the like. Basically...I like everything I see in the preview from post-apocalyptic and techno-industrial environments and the cyber-skeletal monsters to the soul-sucking psycho-tentacles and possessed, soulless zombie ragdoll.

...This is going to be an IMAX movie hands down...

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Mahkayla...ohhh Mahkayla. I met her a month and a half ago, and no we're not...officially dating. Not yet at least. I want to take this slow and savor it because at this point, we live at opposite ends of the country and she's two years save eleven days younger than me, which means I have two years to wait before...well, the obvious. And yes, we're that serious. I love her like mad and she says she loves me, though not as much if you were to actually consider a four or five foot arm-span versus a thirteen foot wingspan on messenger, lol. You know...the whole stretch out your arms (or wings in my case) and say "I love you this much!" bit. ...Cheesy, I know.

We have similar interests, she's smart (Gets good grades despite skipping school all the time), though she's not a geek and doesn't really speak geek nor Trekkie, but she's not clueless like some people I've met...she'll get it if you actually explain it well.

A few days after we met, she was playing Resident Evil 5 with a friend who she claimed sucked and kept dying, so that gives you a clue as to how close our interests come.

She's a Christian "though [she doesn't] act like it much". I could say the same for myself, quote and all. She's an absolute sweetheart, but portrays herself as being very mischevious, like a cat. And she's beautiful...absolutely gorgeous. Just thinking about her face sends a buzz echoing through my veins like the soft caress of a 9Volt battery spread out across the body.

I have one year to prepare to go live near her...and another year to wait and prepare for her coming of age. And say what you may about the age, it's not that big a difference. I'm not jumping into bed with a sixteen year old and the gap between eighteen and twenty is negligible. A kiss and embrace and the platonic companionship of someone I know loves me and wants to be with me is all I want for now...and everything I need. Someone to watch these lonely movies with who I can give a glance and know she's watching. Someone who's not my mother; restless and won't put down a bolt of fabric or her stupid computer to watch a good movie, jumping to every worst conclusion as if I'm stupid, impossible to go to for any shred of comfort for anything at all, and won't even look at me when I'm talking because she's too busy chatting. My mom is a great woman of God, but she is not a woman of family.

I love Mahkayla in every way with every fiber of my being. Every part of her and more because of her flaws than in spite of them. Some things she does and is willing to do I find rather questionable, like skipping school, and I've told her that sneaking into movies is unacceptable, but they're both just teenage silliness. No one's getting hurt, she's not doing it out of angst, sadism, or revenge to the world for screwing her over; she's just being a normal teenage girl...something I've had a severe lack of...normal. The rest of her, as I see it, is absolutely perfect and utterly radiant in my eyes.

I love this young woman with all of my heart...I very much intend to marry her once we're both capable (legally and, to an even greater extent, financially). I'm...at a loss for words though I want to keep talking about her so much.

I'll wrap this section up with this. For a while now, I might have been actually afraid to be happy, but definitely afraid to express it because so many out there aren't happy. I'm done with that. This is what blogs are for, I see. I'm paying for this website...I'll say what I like, and if you have some problem with it because you're spiteful and depressed, then I really don't want to care.

I'm happy and in love...I'll scream it to the full moon if I have to.

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Now for my remedy to notebook touchpads. Parental supervision is strongly advised and I give you no guarantee or warranty as to whether or not this will work. This has been tested and proven only on the Sony VAIO VGN-NR220E notebook computer. Here's what you need:

• Slick, glossy, wide scotch-tape (the kind they use for cardboard boxes) in the color of your choice.
• A very sharp razor/box-cutter/knife.
• Any form of petrolatum/petrolium jelly (I used the cheap knock-off for Vicks® VapoRub that I use as lip-balm).
• Alchohol prep-pad.
• Paper towel, napkin, or toilet paper of some sort.
• Parental supervision!!!

Here's what you do...

1. Clean off the touchpad with the prep-pad and dry it off using the tissue paper. Get it as clean as possible. A little dust and whatnot won't do any harm, but it's tacky, unsightly, and absolutely amateur. You want this to look like a factory job so your friends will ask where you got the awesome trackpad.
2. Apply the tape squarely (Both for fit and aesthetic effect, as there are minute tell-tale lines that will give away the angle of the tape; again...you want this to look professional) and smooth it down. No bubbles, and this time we're aiming for function rather than frill; bubbles are likely to mess with the contact.
3. Cut away excess as close to the edge and as cleanly as possible, both for function and aesthetics, since leaving some of the pad exposed to moisture would be just a tad unwise.
4. Apply a small amount of lubricant in the form of petrolatum/petrolium jelly to smooth things up. You'll notice that your finger now glides across like an oil-slick in comparison to the friction you likely felt before. You'll probably want to use unscented petrol versus mentholated rub, but use whatever you have on-hand.

Q. How does tape work?

A. Beats me. Contrary to what you'll read (what I've read) on Wikipedia, at least some trackpads are virtually unimpeded by things suck as plastic tape, rubber or nitrile gloves, and, ironically enough, electrical tape.

Q. Why use the tape?

A. A bare trackpad becomes ineffective when wet. Water, saliva (such as attempts to wet the finger to lubricate and make better contact), and especially oils from greasy foods all cause a bare trackpad to become very erratic. In a case like this, it is completely and utterly useless and must be dried off prior to further use. The tape appears to somehow remove this obstacle.

Q. Why use petrol?

A. Simply put, it's an effective lubricant. It doesn't dry out, unlike water-based lubricants, and it's relatively inexpensive. Also, it's an insane multitasker when bought in the form of menthol rub.

Q. What about residue?

A. Negligible entirely. If there's enough on the pad to bother you, then you're using way too much. Take a dry cloth and wipe most of it off, then work it around to spread it back out.

Q. Regular, VICKS, or cheap knock-off?

A. Depends on what you'll use it for. All three are completely different animals. A tube of petrol is okay, but it's probably harder to find (maybe at your local drug store, but I've only ever seen it while I was in the hospital) and it's largely useless for multi-tasking. To paraphrase Alton Brown, my culinary idol, single-taskers are useless. You pay more money for less function (i.e. it's less expensive to get a 10-in-1 for five dollars than to get ten one-trick-ponies for one dollar each) and they're just a waste of extra ten-piece space.

A cheap jar of menthol rub from Dollar General is very impotent, so it's good as an alternative to lip balm, which is far more expensive pound for pound (One tiny tube of ChapStick for a buck-fifty versus a jar about eight times the size for maybe two or three dollars. It's obvious who wins) and usually doesn't contain the spice of life we call menthol, which appears to serve the nice purpose of stimulating the healing process. The taste isn't that great, but licking your lips isn't good anyway, the petrolatum doesn't dry out for a very long time (Whereas saliva dries out in seconds and leaves a damaging crust) making lip-licking pointless in the first place, and the taste comes in when you really lube up and add a nice, thick layer. If that happens (like it does for me at times when I just slap it on senselessly) you can wipe most or all of it off, and if it doesn't, you have no problem.

I run out of lip-balm sticks within the month, yet I've had the same jar of menthol rub for nearly a year and I still haven't run out, though I don't use it as often as I used to, which is nicely countered by the fact that I've multiple times used large gobs of it for lacerations and abrasions.

VICKS, on the other hand, is completely different. The taste is the same, but extremely potent, as is the smell. While third-party chest rub from a store like Dollar General is just potent enough to serve as mild medication to soft tissue, VICKS will knock you flat on your back, slap your eyes shut, open your sinuses, make you regret licking your lips, and cure nearly any wound above or below the skin with regular use. True story: I dropped a curling iron slam on my face by tugging on the cord as a baby. I had a rather harrowing burn and my mom had to hide me from grandpa for a week or more. If you've seen my pictures, you know I didn't retain a scar. The answer is VICKS. One or two treatments is probably not going to do it, but it's amazing stuff.

Also, never use petrolatum on any burn while it's hot. As an insulator, it'll lock the heat in and cause even more damage. Flush out the heat with water and/or ice first, then once it's lost its heat, apply VICKS...real VICKS and nothing but.

I do hope this has been an effective investment of your time. Don't be afraid to comment! I'd love to hear how my advice worked out for you and I know others want to know too.

That's all for now,

~White Fox Takō "TK" Kisaragi~

Rifts and Ripples

Well, it's been another nearly two months since I've updated. Sorry to my readers and sorry to my mom's bank card... Just haven't really had that much go on that inspired me enough to write while I was free enough of distractions.

A lot's gone on. I've had new ideas, I've amended my plans for moving, and I've changed my room around a bit (yeah, that's actually a big change). Oh, and I recently bought a new book.

First, I should speak of the room changes. See...I sleep in the bed portion of a transforming couch. Not a good sleep, though I now have a second mattress laying on top of the old one and a board underneath that to suppliment the breaking and broken net system underneath.

My grandmother died a couple years ago and we inherited some of her furniture. Two twin chairs: five wheels, free rotating, adjustable height, comfortable and does not make my butt fall asleep like most. One of these got tossed in the vacant/storage portion of our house (actually, a separate trailer that was spliced to the main house with a foyer built in between as a junction) and I recently went and dug it out. That was hell for wheels (Har har) but I tell you it was worth it. I've been feeling more energetic and antsy (That is good) since I dragged it in.

More recently, I moved the existing furniture, putting the television on the coffee table I was using for a rather short computer desk (actually, the laptop was on the box to my Wii console...) and my computer on the smaller, but much taller table the television was on. Now the Wii is next to the TV, the TV is turned a bit so I can actually play the Wii a bit better (you have to be direct center or plenty far away for that blasted Wii Remote to aim straight, and even then it's not the best. I demand reprogramming!!!), and I actually have a decent table, plus my little night-stand thing is now next to my door for dishes and my cell. My rediculous five gallon waste basket - which I never really dumped thanks to the dumb thing having no bag - has now been replaced with a fully functional, fully bagged kitchen-grade trash can that I salvaged out of my old room (in the aforementioned storage trailer), meaning less clutter.

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Now, as for my plans to move, my mom dumped the joker she was with before (and speaking of, I'm now rid of my Joker-obsessed, mentally ill, roleplay junkie ex-girlfriend whose antics I have been tolerating as a 'friend' for months now, and I feel so free without her constant obsessing and nagging!) so we're not moving to North Carolina. He was a jerk anyway and also had some brain damage.

---And don't try and tell me to tolerate people with mental problems as if I haven't already heard it before. I can try all I like, I have tried with both my ex and mom's, and we both managed to reach the end of our rope. You should take a look at how long I stuck around her desperately trying to sustain our so-called 'friendship' if only because she was ill and depressed and I didn't want to just hurt her more. As for him... his teasing presence just rubbed salt in an old wound of mine. I'm not happy, but I don't hate either of them.

Now that that is over with, let me return by saying that I now intend to move in with my friend Dylan from Minnesota. I've located a good college in Minneapolis and now all I need to do is get my GED and find a starter job.

I returned to deviantART at the end of March, though, and met a girl under the screen-name, EmoSock. As you can guess, we somehow just...fell in place and now I have a girlfriend-to-be. ...Yes, "to-be". Unfortunately, I'm still not emotionally fit for anything such as internet dating, and she lives in Oregon. She'll be sixteen in June, but that's no more a problem than the distance, since two years from approximately now is about when I assume I'll be in Minnesota. At that point, she'll be of legal age save for strong drink and she can come down to MN, something she seems to have no problem with.

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As for the book, which is actually my whole reason for coming on here to blog again, I bought the Rifts Adventure Guide by Palladium Books this past Saturday. It came yesterday and I love it. The main writer is quite poetic and, in my opinion, wise when it comes to the delights of Role-playing, making such statements as the art being like sitting around a campfire and telling ghost stories or telling stories (I assume he meant gossip and more ghost stories) at a sleep-over in that both "are done in the company of friends and both create a building sense of discovery, camaraderie and exitement." and sparking such questions as 'why do humans love stories?'.

Another comment he made within the pages was the following- and I'm aware of copyright and end-user-agreement statements being made, and the Palladium Books website requesting that only short quotes and, preferably, paraphrasing be utilized as 'reproduction' of printed material, but I feel this needs to be quoted in its entirety:

"People sometimes ask me if there is "real magic" in my role-playing games. Of course, they are wondering if there is anything evil, satanic, or untoward they need to worry about for their kids' sake. I always say no. Everything in Palladium's games are fictional flights of fancy. I wouldn't know a so-called "real magic spell" if it jumped up and bit me. But as I sit down to write my half of this book, I realize I'm wrong. There is real magic in these books. In all role-playing games. The magic of imagination. Because the imagination can ... well, imagine anything. And it's a wonderful and good magic that each and every one of us can unleash if we try. ..."

-Kevin Siembieda, 2002

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I think I'm going to thoroughly enjoy this book and resulting games. As I presented it to my parents when I asked them to buy it for me, it not only gives 'examples' and 'ideas' for role-playing adventures, but teaches how to find inspiration and put it together for your own adventure ideas. Pikmin, Metroid, and Resident Evil give you a just one story, and limited at that, and Guitar Hero is repetitive action; this truly is infinity times imagination.

~White Fox Takō "TK" Kisaragi~

Boring...

Well, I've gone another month and a half - if not longer - without updating. Yes, some things have happened, but I've had little motivation to update, unfortunately.

At the beginning of every year, my uncle holds a Nascar Daytona party at a hunt-club a few miles away. Plenty of people, plenty of food to bust my gut on (I always hit up the junk food, unfortunately!), and a nice little spot in one of the rooms to pound away at the keys. I hit up the sushi the moment I noticed it, but stuck some wasabi (second or third time trying, but I never got enough to burn before), a dab about the size of my pinky nail, on a rice roll (Actually, it was a disassembled piece of sushi...oy). Literally felt like someone lit a match in my mouth! It seered my tongue, I could feel the heat like stinging smoke on the roof of my mouth. Tried it again after I recovered, less this time, and it felt like a cat dug its claws into the peak of my upper lip! It never even touched the skin outside my mouth!

Do not play with wasabi!

My god, I swear they should make non-lethal weapons out of the stuff...

-

Last month, I got a call from Verizon. I picked up the phone and it was a machine, but it mentioned that we were going to recieve fiber optic service, so I hit the "1" key and it transferred me to one of their techies. ..."Hello ma'am"? Excuse me?! ...I hate my voice! *Sigh*

Anyway, he told me that they'd be stuffing some fiber optic cables in our lap in upcoming May. They didn't ask us if we wanted it and they didn't mention a price. It seems they're installing it for free. According to my dad, we're apparently on a waiting list. Verizon FiOS (Fiber Optic Service) will mean that our phone bill will actually be less than it is...for a quality that exceeds what we have!

There's more, such as my mom and I not moving to North Carolina, myself planning to move to Minnesota, my falling in love with a new computer that I won't be able to afford for another year or few, and probably a couple other things, but I'll post that as a follow-up...maybe.

~White Fox Takō "TK" Kisaragi~

Summer in December

Sorry I haven't updated in over a frigging month...I've had Blogger's Block.

I've been having my ups and downs of late. Before Christmas, my computer went out because one of Sony's techies told me my OS was corrupt and when he got me to fix it, the drive corrupted itself so bad it wouldn't even turn on. I finally got that fixed with the recovery disks I bought, but what a trip that was! And now I've lost all the data - some of which was irreplaceable - due to the fact that Norton 360 either burnt me a bad backup disk or won't read it as-is and I need to buy it. Either way, they WILL hear from me. But aside from that panic reducing me to tears of rage and hopeless defeat, I had a good Christmas (oh yes..my pants were too tight Christmas Eve... ...I think "they shrunk in the wash" if you know what I mean...)

For Christmas, I got a few good things. A new encrypted flash drive, some cooking material from my brother and his girlfriend, some cologne from mom's boyfriend...and as good as they smell, I'm much happier to have the stress-grips since after discovering the British Power Metal band known as DragonForce, I've been very interested in learning the electric guitar.

But by far the biggest material gift I got...a brand new (NOT a hand-me-down or pre-owned!!!) Wii Console from my dad and Guitar Hero III and a dual charging station from Nyko. I'll tell you, after getting Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, I finally discovered just how smart it was for her to get me rechargeables...I've probably gone through four charges by now...which would mean four sets of fresh batteries...which would mean lots of money in the long run.

I had some emotional issues revolving around my parents a few days ago...a cascading depression that started with the fact that my mom took the only webcam that worked on my computer and gave it away after I told her the other one should suffice...I've needed that camera and the person she gave it to...well, she hasn't seen them since, last I heard. ...The camera she as now is this junky little thing that no longer has a disk since she lost it...and try as I might I can't find the drivers - or anything that even partly matches it - online. There is no FCC mark on the back, bottom, front, side, or top...nor are there any other markers aside from the company name: Labtec. This does not bode well for my standing with my mother. She inconsiderately deprived me in an attempt to overprovide for someone from another country who - last I heard - she has not seen since she came back to the States. I don't mean to sound selfish, but I have seen no one gain anything from this transaction, only lose things, and she had another one to give them! (And I guarantee you they had a desktop computer...even if I can find Vista drivers for the one I still have, it's made specifically for desktops...it has no physical compatibility with a notebook like I have)

Now that I've finished that little rant, I will now begin the search for Sony Clie drivers for Vista.

~White Fox Takō "TK" Kisaragi~

Update on Friday, January 9, 2009 at 4:36AM by Takō Kisaragi

As a side-note, there were three webcams.

Veo Stingray - Works on Windows XP; packed software is incompatible with Vista. Physical design is specifically for flat surfaces and it is rather low quality.

Creative - Not sure of the model. Not only was it made for Vista notebooks, it had some pretty fancy software.

Labtec - I have NO idea what this thing is, it's not even listed on their website! It is completely useless without the disk, as it's unmarked entirely, thus I won't be able to find drivers. I've already tried plug'n'play and my operating system is Vista Home Premium; unlike my experience with Basic, all plug'n'play devices (save one Kensington mouse that has a very specific, spontaneous, and enigmatic compatibility issue with the Sony VAIO VGN-NR220E notebook. It used to work, but now it won't...even after the reinstallation) on Home Premium seem to work as-is with no questions asked.

The Creative was purchased due to the Veo's incompatibility and the Labtec was purchased after the Creative was given away. I'm very confident that the person it was given to would have been VERY happy with the Veo...it would have sufficed. ...And now she owes me a new webcam.

Update? Again? THIRD TRY! Nice...

Okay! THIS TIME IT WILL POST AND IT WILL LIKE IT! *Twitch* Now if I could simply remember what I typed the last two times, I'd be in the green.

First, I'd like to thank the acade- oh, wait...wrong speech. I finally have a shoutbox (From ShoutMix, the same used by the KitsuneJewel webcomic site) up and running, and yes that was me yelling FIRST like a leetspeek noobot (No, that's not Noob Saibot's nickname, it's a portmanteau of NOOB and BOT).

I found out yesterday about Gibson Guitars' rediculous assault on the Guitar Hero and Rock Band franchises and I'll tell you now, I was hot! I don't know if it's still happening or not, but the latest updates I've found - I already linked you to my most trusted source - claim that they're suing six of the world's largest retailers for selling the games. They claim to do this reluctantly, which I can assure you is hogwash and nothing but, and they did it only after Activision expressed a lack of interest in continuing business with them. Frank Meyer speculates they were waiting until GH and RB got big enough to give them huge sums of money in a lawsuit, but I still say it's breakup vengeance (though Meyer is probably right too... one doesn't have to be without the other).

Sorry to those who noticed I was gone Tuesday through Thursday and missed me; mom stole my computer to make me clean my room and I came down with a suckish little cold (both on Tuesday). I have a great immune system - and apparently a good resistance to urushiol (A very toxic chemical in poison ivy and cashew shells that causes those nice little itchy rashes you get when you wipe with the 'wrong' leaf) - but I have a horrid constitution, so on the almost anual event that I do get sick, I suffer.

In other news: As much as I despise Gibson, I love Guitar Hero and Rock Band and can only hope and pray that the new GH World Tour controller works on older GH games as well as the Rock Band games; not only is it the only Guitar Hero controller so far to not be a Gibson, but it's the first and currently only to have that special slide bar along the neck. I doubt it'll work with Rock Band, though...the drums are different enough to prevent it in their own case.

~White Fox Takō "TK" Kisaragi~

P.S.: I have one last thing to say: FLYING WHAMMY!!!