Pez, A Love Story

Pez Candy is one of my favorite things. I love the Dispensers, I love the flavors, and I love the portability. Pez collecting is something I've done since I was very young, and will hopefully be something I do until I'm very old.

The concept of Pez is something that appeals to several aspects of my personality. For one thing, I love candy. Sure, everybody loves candy, but I have an emotional attachment to it. It's sort of a wonder that I haven't developed type 2 diabetes, between my love of soda and my love of candy. No reason to look a gift horse in the mouth I suppose.

Another thing is that I am absolutely a collector at heart. And Pez Dispensers are literally made to be collected. My collection of Pez Dispensers exceeds 600 at this point. Part of me hopes that my collection will one day be worth something, but that has never and will never be why I collect. Sure the vague notion that I'm stockpiling something financially valuable exists, but the real reason would have to be my child-like attraction to things that are colorful and full of candy. It's something that I'll hopefully never grow out of.

I'm up late because I can't get to sleep. I'm starting to realize that I'm kind of a total wuss when it comes to illness. I have a pretty minor head cold but the stuffiness is keeping me from laying down, so awake I shall stay. It's times like this that I'm glad I work the night shift.

If Wendy's has given me nothing else, it's given me like half a dozen great songs that I probably would never have heard if I didn't hear them on the Wendy's speakers as I mop, vacuum, dust, scrub, and polish. A perfect example of this is the song "My Finest Hour" by The Sundays. I have never heard of The Sundays, but I freaking love this song. At first I couldn't figure out the name of this song, and could only make out the lyrics "We are who we are." While usually that would be enough to feed into Google search to get the song name, a drunken Jezebel who goes by the inexplicable moniker Ke$ha (sic) apparently has a "song" with that as the title, so no dice. Also, the lead singer of The Sundays sounds alot like the lead singer of the Bangles, so I thought it was a Bangles song.

On a side note, I beat Kingdom Hearts and am now (re)playing Chrono Trigger on the DS.

Social Networking

 "My name is Braff Zacklin. I was an international race car driver. One day, a baby carriage rolled out onto the track. I swerved into the retaining wall to avoid it. The car burst into flames but the baby miraculously survived. I WAS that baby." -Roger the Alien

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I'm really lukewarm about this whole Google Plus thing. I don't even know if you're supposed to spell out the "plus" or just put "+."

The problem with social networking sites is that to get the most out of them, you wanna use the one with the most people. And to do that, you have to follow the herd from one trendy site to the next. Myspace to Facebook, Facebook to Google Plus, and then off to the latest super hip site 3 or 4 years from  now.

On one hand, I'm tired of drifting from site to site. When I first heard about Google Plus, my gut reaction was to say "Fuck it I'm ending the cycle here." But then what do I do? Stay on Facebook and watch as everybody I would be interacting with disappear? being alone on a Social Networking Site is pretty pointless.

So despite my misgivings, I'll probably end up joining Google Plus. And people will post statuses (Or whatever the Google Plus version of Statuses are) that read "Hey remember when we were all on Facebook? LOLOLOL"

This summer has been pretty uneventful video game wise. I've picked up a few choice SNES games from that vintage game store in the Wellington Mall, like Lufia 2 and Secret of Evermore (Google it, I don't care). And I got Ocarina of Time 3DS. But otherwise not much, which is fine I suppose. I should be saving my money, and I'm so over keeping up with gaming at this point. I don't know what it is, but I just don't get psyched about new game stuff like I used to.

I've been looking through my games for something to play in these last few weeks until School starts back up. Obvious choices were Megaman X, Mario 3, Marvel VS. Capcom 2 blah blah blah. I realized I really wanted something I could commit to, not just play for a half an hour a couple of times. An RPG would work, and I hadn't really played one since Dragon Quest 9.

 It's funny to think back to how people initially reacted to Kingdom Hearts when it first came out. I remember being 12 and not knowing what to make of it. The Action RPG genre is so played out at this point that it's hard to imagine a time when it wasn't. The first thing I noticed is how much easier it is than I remember, even on difficult mode. My first thought is "Well, yeah, I was fucking 12." But the more I thought about it, the more I think the reason Kingdom Hearts felt so difficult back then was because it was so unique. Squaresoft probably realized that making it too hard would have overwhelmed alot of people. I mean, if Kingdom hearts were released, say, last year it would have been universally considered the easiest game ever. But in 2002, it was a real toughie.

That is not to say games have gotten harder. But in the 9 years since KH was first released, genre straddling games have become the rule rather than the exception.

So a little while back I got that Dunkin' Donuts triple flavor Captain America Coolatta. The cup is reusable, but it's divided into three parts so it's pretty impractical.....

Or is it!

I have Chocolate and Strawberry syrup. I have Milk. So now I'm drinking chocolate milk, strawberry milk and (ugh) regular milk simultaneously.

So that's how MY summer's going.

I've been up all night thinking. Sometimes I have nights like this where my brain just can't shut off, and no matter how sleepy I might be, or what I have to do in the morning, I just lie awake. Luckily I work a night shift tomorrow so I'm not in too much trouble.

I worry sometimes that I'm too self-involved. It's a real catch 22, because on one hand I embrace the imperative of self-examination and improvement. But on the other hand spending all day looking inward to see what need's fixing leaves little opportunity for helping others, and that's no good. So what do you do?

Maybe self betterment can happen organically as a result of focusing on the needs of others. Maybe the very act of moving past yourself is enough.

I should go to bed.

The Got Milk company had an ad about how Milk apparently alleviates the symptoms of PMS, and it featured a picture of a hapless looking man with the caption: "When Everything I do is Wrong." They had to change it because a bunch of women complained that PMS is nothing to joke about. Probably because they were on their period or something.

 You see ladies, this is why men think you're not funny. PMS happens to every woman, and for the most part it's not that serious a medical problem. I mean, it happens every month. It's not like they made a breast cancer ad with the caption "When your own boobies turn on you."

It would be like if they made a joke about how men go bald, but then men everywhere got all pissed off and demanded they change it.

Going to PAX in a month

My brother has an extra ticket to PAX, and he's buying me a plane ticket to Seattle. I've never been to either, so I'm looking forward to it.

Wisdom Teeth yanked.

 I had four wisdom teeth pulled this morning. The timing is pretty lame, considering that my dad also recently had a procedure done. He says they had to stick him 11 times with the needle before they could find a vein. Nonetheless, my dad is being very helpful. The two of us are home from work, and he's taken the liberty of getting me smoothies and milkshakes. 

Apparently, once you have teeth pulled your mouth becomes a gusher of blood that cannot be stemmed. Soreness is a non-issue due to the painkillers, but it's kind of surreal to be bleeding like some kind of hellish fire hydrant with no corresponding pain.

 My dad is watching some awful show about Alligator hunters. But I just took two Oxycodone so everything is kind of awesome.

According to Yahoo, Kim Kardashian is suing Old Navy because they're using a model in their ads who she claims resembles her. So by Kim's logic, nobody that looks like her should ever be in commercials. That's very similar to an  argument I once had with my little brother. I was playing with my Power Ranger toys, so he started playing with HIS Power Ranger toys, and I said he couldn't because he was copying me.

The thing is, I was five. Kim is an adult. At the risk of echoing my last post, I can't help but think that Kim Kardashian needs something to do during the day, because she obviously has way too much time on her hands.

Watched a few episodes of Hoarders on Netflix. I spent the next two hours cleaning my room.

I've noticed that a lot of the people featured on the show are either retired or on disability. And from what I gather they also spend most of their time on the internet or watching TV. It makes me wonder how many people would become hoarders if it weren't for their jobs, or hobbies, or whatever they do to occupy their time.


It also makes me think that Hoarding is largely the result of people having nothing to do all day.

My new Yugioh project.

Last week's 4-2 not top 8 performance at PPF with Amazons was kind of a bummer, so I've started gathering the cards for a Gravekeeper deck. I haven't played to the meta since Glad Beasts so this should be interesting. Also, Pojo is full of cheapskates.

The image that comes to mind when I consider my summer to this point is somewhat blurry. As the days run together everything melds into an distinguishable blob of Wendy's, Netflix, and bike rides, with two freeze frames in the form of visits with Brianna.

Family Guy is a ripoff of the Simpsons, this much is understood. The only real difference between the two is that it took the Simpsons fifteen years to stop being funny, whereas Family Guy only really had about three good years. As King of the Hill ends, my incessant need to watch an animated TV family has caused me to turn to American Dad. While most viewers know this show as "Seth Mcfarlanes other show," American Dad is clearly superior. Unlike Family Guy, cutaway humor is extremely minimal, and pop culture references are actually clever rather than scattered carelessly as a way of disguising the fact that there are no actual jokes at any point in the episode. In fact, the vast majority of pop culture references come from a single character: Roger The Alien. This is a brilliant move on the writer's part. In Family Guy, every family member, and even the supporting cast, constantly make the kind of remarks that only a TV junkie who does nothing all day but sit on the couch and flip back and forth between Nick at Nite and TMC would make. Roger the Alien is exactly this kind of person, and that's his whole shtick.

First Post

My first blog post! I can't wait to write all about my day to life! Wow, I'm already boring myself.