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GalaxySong9's Livejournal
Below are the 25 most recent journal entries.
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2011.10.13 18.45
For my personal edification. FYI, I was so drunk I couldn't see when I wrote this.
It's not what I would call great. Getting 4 in 2 isn't the worst. It's just this trend of OT wins that worries me. We have won in OT against both the Hurricanes and the Lightning, at least one of whom we should've crushed.
A nice win by Game Over Green, except asking him to do the offensive heavy lifting undoes all that work into making him a responsible defenseman rather than
And against the Lightning -- geez. I, and I'm sure most of the Capitals community, was not satisfied with that win. Yes, a vic. But we let the Lightning run rampant over us for a great deal of time, and it was only thanks to the auspices of Jason Chimera that we managed to pull out a win at all. Two goals in one game is basically unprecedented for the Mythical Beast, yet we all were overjoyed when GMGM re-signed him. Or at least I was. I've always been a proponent of the lower line virtuosos, though. It's pretty telling -- and a fortuitous omen -- that if this game is won only under the auspices of the lower lines, they are the one's we are going to depend on come playoffs. Ovechkin was not the one to score in the shoot-out; it was instead "Contract-Year" Semin and perhaps miracle-worker Chimera that kept us in the early-season race.
It's still obviously early to make any sort of significant predictions, but though the Capitals are not perhaps showing the strongest start out of the gate, they are still 2-0 and they are still a force to be reckoned with, going to the OT twice perhaps does not instill confidence in team as league competitors. Our next game is against the Penguins, and we certainly have a chip on our shoulder regarding them.
A first line of Ovechkin-Backstrom-Knuble is certainly my favourite, but if they prove ineffectual, whether due to overexposure or unanticipated defence, depends entirely on Boudreau's offense. I personally am an advocate of a defensively-oriented style, so I would prefer Vokoun to be a last resort (who instead got a lackluster defemstve effort
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2011.09.26 10.34
silicon chip inside her head is set to overload
So I'm not gonna bother trying to catch up, just a few more today.
Day 3 - A Pokemon that makes you happy.
I'm trying to not just put Magmar for every question that's about ~*~*~LOVELY POKEMON~*~*~ so while Magmar obviously makes me happy, I'm going to go with Snakely. Er. Serpifeu?
Apparently they are called Snivy. Lame. I also think Serpiroyal are outlandishly pretty. So beautiful and graceful. And I love snakes. :3 Anyway, this is the first starter that I really felt attached to. I guess I liked Chikorita and Feurigal okay, but I named this guy Snakely and I LOVE HIM.
Day 4 - A Pokemon that makes you sad.
I think I touched on this in another entry or something, but when you run into Gary in Lavender Town (yeah, I named my rival Gary, what of it), he is in the ghost tower, he doesn't fight you, and then the next time you fight him, he's missing a Pokemon. I think it's a Rattata or Raticate, so I can't be too torn up about it, but the point is, the game very subtly tells you that his Pokemon died. Like, real dying is still a thing in the Pokemon world, and it's still a big deal when it happens to a creature that is your friend and companion.
Of course that all went way over my head when I played Blue version in elementary school. I was just happy he didn't fight me at the time, because I was crazy fearful of losing. I would save before fights and if I lost them, I would restart, even though having your team black out was no big deal. I was also crazy frugal with my money. I was basically a hoarder. I almost never bought or used items... WHAT IF I NEEDED THEM LATER?!?!? So yeah, the subtle parts of the game got by me. But now that I know, it really tears me up.
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2011.09.10 16.34
PokeMeme Day 2
This is gonna be annoying as fuck, ain't it?
Day 2 - Your least favorite Pokemon.
I once had a public discussion about sucky-ass Pokemon that culminated in me shouting "I just hate Normal types!" in a Walgreens. I don't hate all Normals. What I do hate is the trash Normals, the ones you catch and very reluctantly use for the first hour of the game because you're at least marginally devoted to the Gotta Catch 'Em All ethos and your Pokedex needs Rattata/Sentret/Bidoof. I wish Bidoof would fall off the planet. I really fucking hate Bidoof. I think they look like Mini Coopers. Or maybe it's the other way around. I don't like Minis either though.
It might as well have a caption saying "HERP DERP."
I also hate a lot of Water types because I love Fire. Any Water type that's totally stacked (which is like, most) and just fucks you up. Argh. There are SO MANY goddamn Waters and they all seem SUPER. Like Starmie. Starmie can go fuck a duck.
Then there are just the bitches like Whitney's Miltank, which has ten million defence and so much HP (Chansey is a candidate too) whom I fucking hate to fight, but don't have any ill will towards outside the arena.
Pokemon makes me outrageously foul-mouthed. And unaware of my surroundings. I have been in a public place and shouted "FUCK YOU COCKGOBBLER, IF YOU USE RECOVER ONE MORE GODDAMN TIME I WILL SKULLFUCK YOU." Also my team in Schwarz features a Karadonis named FUCKFACE because he was such a dick to catch. I love him, I swear! But he was a fuckface.
It might be time to tone down the vitriol.
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2011.09.09 19.54
PokeMeme Day 1
Nicked a Pokemon meme from ![[info]](http://l-files.livejournal.net/userhead/76?v=1320914333) the_laarc! So I will probably be clogging your flist for a month.
Day 1 - Your favorite Pokemon.
This is so easy. :3 I adore Magmar with every inch of my soul. No idea why, besides my affinity for fire types. I think they are outrageously adorable and want one to just hug and cuddle and pet. THEY ARE AGRESSIVELY CUTE. My Japanese friend in elementary school got me a Magmar postage stamp, which I kept for YEARS. THERE IS NOTHING I DON'T LOVE ABOUT MAGMAR.
Well, okay, yes there is. The Japanese name is Boober, which is :/. And Magmortar is very silly. But Magmortar is not my favourite! Magmar is! Also, Magby more than makes up for Magmortar because OH MY GOD SO CUTE.
Apparently in Chinese their name translates to "Duck-billed fiery dragon" which D'AWW.
We were reading a quiz bowl pop culture packet, and one bonus was "Name the Pkmn: in Pokemon Snap, you could throw an apple at two of these Pokemon, who would fight over itm knock each other out, then shake hands. Getting a picture of this was worth extra points." My reaction was simply DID I WRITE THAT QUESTION? That was my favourite moment in all of Pokemon Snap. You just have to be careful with your aim, and basically disregard Moltres, or else you wouldn't have enough time to let the whole thing play out. The picture of the two doing Flamethrower on each other was pretty good too though.
I remember the first time I figured out you could have a little mini-drama between the Magmars VERY vividly. Like, more vividly than I remember most of high school. Magmar is a significant part of my childhood!
/thisclose to commissioning one from Etsy
( Full meme )
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2011.05.04 20.52
we're princes who'd rather dine with thieves
Finally finally FINALLY got a schedule for this semester. Yeah. It's the summer semester, but it started this Monday and I didn't actually have all my classes for it yet. In contrast, I had all my courses picked out for Fall 2011 at W&M like a month ago.
( So really I'll spend most of my time writing about the IIHF WM )
I didn't get into California in Fiction after 1950, which is a damn shame because a) I could've written a paper on Blade Runner and given an oral presentation on Ellroy and b) it would be sweet fucking revenge to watch a classful of Germans give oral presentations in Englisch. God I would've enjoyed that. I tried to argue my way in -- my "I'm an exchange student who doesn't know anything" tack didn't work as well as "James Ellroy is my favourite living author" as it turns out the prof had done her dissertation on Ellroy. AND I WAS DENIED THIS CLASS. I was not a happy camper.
At least my semester looks to be easy. Quick too. 13 weeks total, with this one nearly done anyway. I'll be back in the States at the very end of July, three weeks before the Fall semester starts. I would say I only get 3 weeks vacation, but I think you can make a pretty solid argument for the entire past year having been a vacation, so I won't bitch.
Really want to do Assassin's Creed Big Bang but I have literally NO IDEAS. I have to sign up by May 8th but don't have to submit anything til June 1. Seeing as how I will have PLENTY OF TIME TO DO JACK SHIT ONCE THE CAPITALS ARE SWEPT BY THE LIGHTNING I guess I have a few days to think it over. Time to start spitballin'!
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2011.04.15 12.28
shipping up to boston, ohhhhh
Just told my mother I wasn't looking forward to flying to Boston, flying back from Boston, then two days later flying back to Munich. She then flipped out, asking why I couldn't just enjoy a family trip and why I always had to have a bad attitude about it and why was I ruining her weekend and most kids would be glad to have a chance to go to Boston with their family.
Yeah, the Boston Marathon's a big deal. But this is the 5th time she's run it, and it's just going to be a weekend of the runner people 20 years older than me getting hammered at bars I'm not allowed to enter in this country while I sit around in a hotel room and think about Ezio Auditore and weep.
(Sidenote: I hate almost everything I know about Boston. Why the hell would I want to go somewhere where literally everything about it fills me with contempt?)
Look: I didn't want to leave Munich at all. But I was forced to, so I wanted to make the best of it by doing things I can't do in Germany, such as playing the latest entry in my favourite game franchise of this generation. Of course if I play video games, my father asks if I've done anything useful (what the fuck does he expect me to do? taxes?) and then gets furious that I waste all my time on it (regardless of my response). I guess this isn't socially acceptable, but I would rather spend time with Assassin's Creed than my family.
Also, when I go back to Munich on the 21st, I then spend the next week with my liberal aunt and uncle and my crazy grandmother. I really really REALLY would rather see Prague on my own.
Flying is miserable, people. I don't want to do it three times in six days. Sorry.
"You cop an attitude on every single family trip!!" MAYBE IT'S BECAUSE I FUCKING HATE TAKING FAMILY TRIPS.
Argleblarglejargle just sent my mother an apology text, now to see if I can beat AssCreeBro in the essentially 2 days I have left to play it. Story, maybe, I'm in Seq 6 right now, but I'm also a completionist when it comes to this series and I'm taking massive amounts of time to raise my Assassin babies. Plus the Cristina missions and destroying Leonardo machines and renovating the city and dicking around. I LOVE DICKING AROUND.
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2011.02.15 19.17
i ain't got shit to do in the morning
Tentative vacation plans (those set in stone are marked with an asterisk):
*Feb. 19 - Feb. 22: Amsterdam with Yelena
Sometime between Feb. 23 and Feb. 26: Ski trip of unknown duration (possibly with Lauren)
*Feb. 26 - Mar. 5: Hosting a foreign exchange student
*Mar. 4: Release of Pokemon Schwarze (already pre-ordered!)
Mar. 6 - Mar. 20: Some random assortment few days in this time frame visiting relatives in Switzerland, possibly skiing
*Mar. 21: Return to US (sigh)
*Mar. 26: Running Charlottesville 10 Miler (argh)
Some day between Mar. 29 - Apr. 6: Attending a Capitals regular season home game
Some day between Apr. 11 - Apr. 21: Attending a Capitals playoff home game
Either games 1&2 or 3&4: Spent in Williamsburg so I can watch them with Dan and Katherine and party hard with the Russian house and fulfil other such promises I made while drunk (uh oh)
Some few days between Mar. 21 - Apr. 21: Spent in NJ with Cat
*Apr. 21: Return to Europe with aunt, uncle, and grandmother
*Apr. 21 - Apr. 30: Prague, Vienna, Salzburg, and possible Budapest with aforementioned relatives
*May 1: MAY DAY!!!!
*May 2: Start of classes of SoSe
Basically: trying to go to Amsterdam with friends, trying to ski just AT ALL, want to see one reg season and one playoff game at the VC, want to watch the playoff away games with Dan and KK, and trying to visit Cat at some point when I am back in the States.
Other things I intend to do in this time frame include purchasing and beating Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood and OH SHIT Portal 2 comes out April 18... no way I can beat it before I have to return to Europe. D: Anyway before then I also need to purchase Heavy Rain in German so I can play it back in the US as well. :3 Luckily it and MGS2 are so familiar to me that I can beat them extremely quickly regardless of what language they're in. LA Noire won't bbe out by then and I'm still on the fence about getting Nier.
Coming soon to this space is some Edgeworth-ramble now that I've made significant progress into Investigations. It essentially boils down to AAI is an avenue for nostalgia and an attempt to humanize Edgeworth (and to some extent Franziska).
Post Script: REALLY want to go to Blue Jackets game. YESSSSS
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2011.01.24 20.45
was willst du denn?
You know I'm a language geek, right? Some idle thoughts:
-Playing softball (and more importantly, going out to dinner) with a bunch of Bavarians has really helped me understand German accents. Also the casual use of regionalisms: "It's Hendel Week!" "...What is Hendel?" "(confused) It's chicken... ah, it's Bayerisch for chicken!" (Which I had rather guessed: chicken is Hühn, and the Bayerisch diminutive is "-(e)l" rather than "-chen," but I wasn't totally sure about the vowel corruption.)
-"ein Bisschen" = "ein Bissel" ADORBS.
-Our coach doesn't seem to have an obvious Bayerisch accent (at least none that I can differentiate, but since I can UNDERSTAND HIM WHEN HE TALKS I figure it can't be that overt) except when he says the number two (which in softball is fairly often). It's "zwei" but in Bayerisch it's "zwoa" and it's kind of weird to suddenly hear a huge and notable regionalism busted out. A few other guys do it too, and none of them say "oens" which is Bayerisch for "eins." It's like someone with no real American accent consistently referring to a group of people as "y'all." Slightly jarring.
-The last time I went to a club with some dudes I spent literally the whole time either making fun of or asking questions about their accents, my accent, German accents, etc. (I only do this with people who I figure I'll never see again, since I don't care if I annoy them...) "Your German accent is almost passable... but your German accent in English is flawless!" Ja, ze Americans vill sink I am Cherman ven I return to my natif land.
-Incidentally, their names were Florian and Andreas, and at one point Florian, completely unironically, called Andreas "Anni." No D. Remember how Col. Landa reacted when von Hammersmark said she broke her leg mountain climbing? That's exactly what my reaction was. (Berg steigen?!)
-I am obsessed as hell with that movie, FYI. I made Nico let me watch the German version, which handles some scenes differently. In the beginning they switch from French to German (and Christoph Waltz dubs his own lines); in a Basterds scene where Lt. Raine needs a German translator, he instead has his "translator" ask the questions while he just heckles the soldier; a reference to Dr. Livingstone is changed to Dante; maddeningly, because Lt. Hicox has a whole scene in English that needs to be dubbed, they had to dub his German lines with the voice they chose, which makes the parts about his unusual accent make less sense. Why couldn't they just have Michael Fassbender dub his goddamn lines? ARGH.
-A few scenes were slightly longer, which confused me and I just assumed I had gone crazy or something -- but it turns out, yes, the German version is slightly extended. Notable is when they're playing the card game and the character is "Winnetou" which is a German pop culture thing that no one in America knows about -- QT extended that scene because it would mean more to German audiences.
-Also watched a few episodes of German 30 Rock. The stream I use has up to s4e8, which is incidentally my FAVOURITE episode. :D :D Most annoying thing was how FAST the dubbers have to speak because German is a longer language than English. Probably would not understood more than 65% if I didn't uh have the episode mostly memorized. Same goes with Arrested Development. Either way it's delightful to revisit the eps I haven't seen in a while.
-Trying to be a Real Person and am going to make actual dinner tonight that doesn't involve instant noodles in any way. Of course the ingredients for "Salsa Rice Enchiladas" are ludicrously expensive in Germany because salsa, tortillas, black beans, and chili powder are "ethnic." Dammit.
-Beat Typing of the Dead. I'm awesome at typing. Can't decide how I feel about the horrible, horrible voice acting. Some of it is delightful, and some crosses over and is just... horrible. Goldman in particular. Still, I now badly want to play House of the Dead: Overkill because I WANT G TO BE ALIVE. D: "The G stands for genocide, motherfucker!"
-Multi-language drunk dials are awesome. Expect that shit when I return to America. (Incidentally, whenever I dream about the US, I'm always OVERJOYED to havemy phone back. What an unhealthy relationship.)
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2011.01.13 21.41
and i've been putting out fire
So yeah, been a long time Snake. What can I say? Things have not been going particularly well for the Adams faithful.
-Spent the majority of Nov and Dez sick in bed. As in, can't get out of bed. As in, missed a class because the effort exerted in putting on my shirt forced me to sit down and therefore almost immediately fall asleep. Turns out I had mono for at least one of those months, which means I'm pretty sure I'm damn near super-human, considering I only missed 2 classes the whole time. And sorry to anyone who caught mono because I opted to go to class when I had it.
-Die Hauptstädte The Capitals. Hoo boy. My last post said something like "they fucked a duck on that one" and it really hasn't gotten better. They have done precisely one thing right, and that's win the Winter Classic. And that doesn't even matter, because their away invitation to the WC guaranteed their trip to the Finals. Also guaranteed a loss, but hell, that would still be a feather in our caps.
-Seriously though. They suck to the tune of 55 pts.
-Went to Sweden. That was pretty cool. I have Stockholm Syndrome for the city of Stockholm... and I'm going to write a German paper to that effect. Hope HP understands that by inviting me to a Danielewski forum, I have carte blanche to write screwed-up papers for his class. :P
-Finally saw Die Fledermaus (my favourite opera) live. Ran into a softball teammate (who is late 20s, early 30s) when I was there, which was surreal. He is gonna think I'm WAY more cultured than I am.
-Speaking of softball teammates, I... kind of have a German boyfriend? I'm hesitant to say boyfriend or the like but he cooked me dinner. That's a wooing move!
-Being sick means I've watched a shit-ton of TV (downgeloaded on my computer). I have season 4 of 30 Rock completely memorized. Also watched all of Community. Best part? When Dan Harmon said that 30 Rock was the best show on TV and he couldn't hope to live up to it. Way to know your limits, Dan.
-Thought to myself, "I should watch Iglourious Basterds again. After all, I did have a poster of it on my wall (that is illegal to have in Germany)." In 4 days I think I watched it 8 times. What a great fucking flick. Expect muchos palabras (palabras muchos?) about that.
-Should I expand on my Brooks Laich would be a great Nazi theory? No? Probably the right move.
-Really want to take next semester: a language class (Swedish or Finnish or Czech) and a film class. Neither of those credits would count for anything, I believe. NERDS.
-Been to a bunch of Euro-hockey games. My scarf collection is growing exponentially. Also picked up a set of EHC München Weißbiergläser for €12. NOT BAD.
-Also on sale is an adorable netbook for €249 that is German, meaning it will plug into outlets here, it's small enough to carry around, it will confuse the shit out of Americans when they ask if they can look something up and I say "sure, to start it hit anmelden", and it has UMLAUT KEYS. This is a much much much bigger deal than you can imagine. Look at that word up there, Weißbiergläser. That word is actually spelled "Weialt+0223bierglalt+0228ser" and that is a son of a bitch when you're writing multiple multi-page papers and the word for "for" is "für" or "falt+0252r". Did I mention it's adorable?
-Feel like I had some writer's block and it's gone away. Spent Lit writing Filmanalyse and Goethe writing about Stockholm in German. Maybe I'll write about Ovechkin's shot chart soon. God that must be depressing to look at.
-Ravens kicked the Chiefs' ass, now onto Pitt. :< FUCK THE STILLERS.
-I feel like I've turned into Drew Magary. A BAD THING?
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2010.11.20 15.59
das wär' doch sonderbar!
Man, that Caps game was a stinker. After the first goal, seeing the Caps being relatively listless and unengaged, I tweeted: "This is going to be one of Those Games, isn't it?" After the second arrived soon after I had typed "Yeah. This is one of Those Games," which might have been unduly pessimistic... if the Thrashers hadn't scored for a third time before I could hit Tweet.
Boy. That was one of Those Games.
And I didn't even get the pleasure of hearing Joe B and Locker call it, with the ESPNPlayer deciding to gift me the Thrashers feed. With the exception of a very clear "FUCK OFF!" in the middle of the first (audible because the announcers had paused and the crowd did not make enough noise to drown it out) it was completely without merit. I muted the second and put on Die Fledermaus in the background instead, which made for some very amusing contrast, such as Tyler Sloan hooking a guy while apparently singing that he was not a chambermaid, thank you very much. And as is usually the case, if there's nothing excessively compelling about the game I retreat during the third, at about 3 am.
I finished watching the game this morning, which was mostly pointless, except Burmistrov had a BEAUTY of a goal late in the third. Dear Lord. Biggest problem with it: the announcers calling him Burmy. I know this is a nickname that is both obvious and becoming more widespread but it would be like calling Backstrom "Pikachu." And this isn't some abstract metaphor; BURMY IS LITERALLY THE NAME OF A POKEMON.
This is Burmy. He changes coat depending on where he last battled. Unfortunately there does not seem to be an Ice Coat.
Attendance was up to Thrashers standard. It seemed to fill up more during the third - did locals who were watching the game on TV think, "Oh, this is a cracker, I wonder if I could get a seat during the third?" Because they could. For probably about ten bucks.
The ice appeared to be an absolute mess. The puck was bouncing every which way. It looked like a pinball. Guess it comes with the Southeast Division, eh? Not like VC ice is anything to proud of. Shots from ice level also seemed to display a certain level of fog. What was the temperature in Atlanta like yesterday?
I can really only imagine two outcomes to tonight's game: angry, chip-on-our-shoulder domination of the Flyers, or rolling over and proffering our belly. The Flyers are going to have a certain amount of bitterness against what is now, thanks to us and Stamkos, the SouthBeast after the gongshow that was their game versus the Lightning.
Slightly related, here are the pictures I've taken of Munich (links to Facebook albums). I hate taking pictures. These are to appease my relatives. There are roughly three hundred each of Benjamin Conz and Uwe Krupp.
Deutschland Cup
Neuschwanstein (aka, sigh, the Disney Castle)
Englischer Garten (many ducks)
Random Munich (including Oktoberfest)
Playing Pokemon Kristall, which as you may have guessed is Crystal version, AUF DEUTSCH. It is delightful. My part right now is a Tauboga, an Igelavar, a Pikachu, a Machollo, a Kadabra, and a Quaputzi. Also in the middle of FireRed, LeafGreen, and Blue. I play and watch QI on Youtube at the same time. So in that way is this semester identical to one spent at William and Mary.
Going to attempt to make an omelette tomorrow, so I'm spending the rest of the afternoon meandering around Marienplatz and Theatinerkirche before hitting a grocery store. This is the way my semester is NOT identical to one spent at William and Mary. :)
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2010.11.02 03.56
GIANTS!!!!!
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2010.10.13 01.55
and you leave on your own
I've been doing it on my own lately, because I can't for the life of me figure out how to be sociable correctly. Finally went out and got a cell phone but I don't think that will change whether or not I get invited to go clubbing on the weekends. I'd take the chance to quote my favourite Smiths song-that-was-covered-by-a-Russian-faux-lesbian-duo but I'm not that bent out of shape about it (yet). I ended up playing foosball (aka Kicker) in a bar with some German girls, one of whom looked almost exactly like Lady Gaga.
( A quick vent before we move onto the truly important parts of life )
Normally I can just shake it off, but it happened so consistently that I'm starting to wonder if something's up. And semi-related, what is it about me that makes people try to end a conversation as quickly as possible and walk away? I realize this post has basically been a pity party so far, but there must be something legitimately repulsive about me.
In happier news, it looks like I actually will get to take Swedish! And my advisor asked me if I had Swedish ancestry and told me I looked Swedish, so I could "go to Stockholm and talk to people and they will think you're Swedish." Awesome. Hopefully that will pan out into me marrying a Dressmann model.
Found a Mexican place where you can get a burrito. Don't worry, an extensive breakdown of this is forthcoming. Also: *$.
On a test in which the highest score is C1 and goes down B2, B1, A2, A1 (lol @AndrewGordon10), I scored B2 on Listening, B1+ on Reading, and B1 each on Writing and Grammar. (Incidentally I snuck a look at some of the other scores and the girl explaining gyros to me scored the lowest of everyone, all A1s and A2s. SUCK IT.) They want me to be able to get the C1 certification by the end of the year b/c it proves you have proficiency enough to study at the uni level and hold a job in Germany.
"And if you don't, you'll have to go to Chicago or Washington to take it again," Hans-Peter told me. "To the Goethe-Institut."
The DC Goethe-Institut is about a block and a half away from the Phone Booth. I walk by it every time I go to a Caps game. Sorry Hans-Peter: distance is not an issue.
Giants make it to the NLCS. Unfortunately now they play the Phillies. :< I'm gonna go ahead and say they haven't got a chance. GO BIG TIME TIMMY JIMS! And then I spent the last 45 minutes watching Sportscenter commercials.
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2010.10.03 22.56
i never find out til i'm head over heels
Today I went to a German hockey game. Do you know what the Germans aren't so good at? It's hockey.
So Munich's team is EHC München. They weren't in the DEL last year. Like in football, the shitty teams get relegated, and the winner of the shitty league gets to join the majors. It's basically as if the Hershey Bears and the Oilers had switched places last year. Of course, had the Bears tried to play an even okay-ish team, they would have gotten slaughtered. And such as it was with EHC München. They lost 3-1 to... Grizzly Adams Wolfsburg. Not making that up.
They play much, much more defensive hockey here. On the PP they continually cycle cycle cycle until they have a clear shot, and they don't play a man in the crease to pick up garbage goals. They don't shoot. It's ridiculous. They really, really don't shoot. I saw them get a 2-on-2 and instead of just SHOOTING they hung back and waited for another guy to join them, when they had a clear opportunity. They play close to the goal on the PK. I saw a guy drop to his knees in the neutral zone. Overall they just play defensive hockey in a big way. Both goaltenders looked kind of sucky. München's was obviously worse - first two goals were kind of sloppy, third was from a slap shot from the point that I don't think he was screened on. Not impressed at all.
Not only are there fewer big hits, but nobody seems to care about them. A Münchner SMASHED a Wolfsburger and I was the only one cheering. There was actually one fight in the first period - I thought the rule was fight = ejection, but the refs must have looked the other way as it were because both players got 2 minutes, and that was it. Also, they use a 3 ref setup, like the AHL.
No national anthem before the game. I guess that's to be expected. There are two seating options - Sitzplatz and Stehplatz (sitting and standing). Turns out Stehplatz Nord is the home team rabid fan side, and Stehplatz Süd is the away fans side. It was very football-esque: they had extremely organized cheers and specific songs and chants and they kept it up the ENTIRE time. Instead of booing, they whistled (of course). We were standing by a British dude with a South African chick - he said he was a hockey fan because it was faster and more exciting. He was also a Lightning fan. How random. Then he asked us how the atmosphere here compared to the atmosphere at an NHL game - which I thought was an interesting question, and made me feel GREAT that I had been to NHL games. He told us that the British hockey league sucked even worse than the German one. Ouch.
Bryan Adams was apparently traded from the Haie to EHC München and he wears number 9 which means I can get an Adams 9 jersey for 30 euros which will very probably happen this season. :) Also, beer is 3,50 and you get a euro back for returning the cup, so it's more like 2,50. All they sold was Löwenbräu, which is piss beer by German standards and yet still far better than what you get at an American sporting event. Also still twice as strong.
I asked for the cheapest tickets in the Sitzplatz and they were 24 euros each. Apparently a student ticket in the Stehplatz is 10 euros - about the cost of a meal in a cheap restaurant. I think I'll be back.
Non-hockey: my internet seems to randomly work or not work. The best way to contact me is either through my Twitter or my email/gchat. My skype is akadams19 but I'm not supposed to be able to skype until I pay some sort of fee that I can't pay until the semester starts (?). I have managed to log on and use it so I don't know what's up with that. The time difference is 6 hours later than the east coast.
Finally: Pokemon HeartGold or Phoenix Wright: Trials and Tribulations: which do I buy in German? xD
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2010.09.13 22.10
i wanna get down to the point that i need you
John Erskine made me happy. JOHN ERSKINE
Rookie camp. Awesome. I fucked up and didn't realize that it met twice, so I only saw the first part, which was skating drills. They set up the little tripods that measure speed when the dudes skate by. Flemming hauled ASS, he was fast as fuck. Finley, not so much. Galiev had a really odd stride -- it seemed choppy and weird to me. Johansson is a gorgeous skater, beautifully fluid and graceful, but he didn't seem particularly fast. But I really understand what people were saying about his skating, he is a wonderful skater.
Miskovic took warmups but didn't skate the speed tests. I missed the second half because I was skating myself -- I thought camp was over and there was enough time to get a skate in before the vets' skate. Turns out it was just a mini-break. Oh well. It was pretty barren and I got some solid practice in. Ate ice hard and my knee is black and blue, and my driving shoulder is completely fucked. Ah well.
I went to watch the rookies, but the highlight was unquestionably the veterans. I didn't realize just how wonderful it would be to see them. Tmas Fleischmann skated by and I couldn't stop grinning like a fucking moron. I adore Fleischmann on a purely personal level -- I know he's awful and terrible and only not cut because he's one of Boudreau's pets but he has the loveliest smile in the world and he always, always looks happy. I was thisclose to buying a Flash shirt-jersey which we all know would be a ludicrous mistake.
Seeing Backstrom and Varlamov made me unbelievably happy. You would think that being utterly in love with someone who will never know you exist would be terrible. False.
After a brief warmup they basically played shinny for an hour, which was tremendously fun to watch. There were no coaches out and instead Mike Knuble commanded everything, which was delightful. The Caps truly are Knuble and Bitches. Knuble also smashed at least 3 people. He looked like he was having a blast out there. I love this man.
As far as I could tell, nobody scored on Varly. ♥ Took me awhile to recognise some of the invites - couldn't figure out Andrew Gordon for about five-ten minutes before I recognised him by his nose. He has a very specific kind of nose. Knuble and Chris Pronger have the same thing going on. Didn't recognise Brian Willsie until I saw a guy with a Willsie jersey. Willsie also got 3 breakaways and failed to score on any of them. Tremendous.
Afterwards Varly was standing around by his net and Carlson went up to have a nice chat with him, and a bunch of the other guys were jokingly trying to score on him. Varly casually chats with Carlson and utterly ignores them, except he moves his feet and stick just enough to prevent anyone scoring. At one point Laich tried to smash him into the net. After everyone left Varly did some crease footwork that reminded me really strongly of kendo footwork drills. Very cool. I could watch goalies all day. The noblest position in all of sport, as Tretiak said.
I don't think I stopped grinning for two straight hours. Sometimes I can't believe how much I love this team.
Found the remnants of a drunk post I tried to make last night. Apparently my left hand types faster than my right, because I wrote "NAts" every single time, which was at least 6. Choice quotes:
"Admittedly the Leafs have some prspies theat I fucking love like MArcel Mueelr and Jermoe Faalke."
"I also like teve Navesh."
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2010.08.31 22.37
oh shit she's a gold digger
I got roped into the GDS/W&M Fantasy Football League, called La Liga. In the spirit of multiculturalism I named my team "Diese Mannschaft" which means "This Team" in German. As in "CHECK OUT DIESE MANNSCHAFT" or "SUCK ON DIESE MANNSCHAFT" or "LECK DEN ARSCHLOCH DIESER MANNSCHAFT." Alright so the last one needs some work.
But it really wouldn't be fantasy season if I didn't post a posish-by-posish rundown of my team along with the half-baked plans for an epic fanfiction based on the extremely arbitrary drafting, taking into account such factors as a) how much I like their face, b) kharacter recognition based on Kissing Suzy Kolber and c) sharing the name of a Real American Hero. There are I believe 7 white guys and 1 White guy. There are 2 players each from San Diego, San Francisco, and Oakland (despite SF-Oakland actually being a huge interconference rivalry... at a meaningless Niners-Lions game when both teams were out of the playoffs I still saw a few "RAIDERS SUCK" jerseys and the Anti-Raiders guy who wears facepaint and costume and shit). But much like my fantasy hockey team was a Canadiens-free zone, this is a Steelers-free zone!*
*...I did bid on Roethlisberger though. :( Worth it for Jon's comment "annie what are you doing?!"
( Highlight: getting called a bro! )
When I was filling up my bench spots with players who I liked for the reasons mentioned above, I had an amusing encounter with a GDS alum. It was an auction draft and I had significantly more money left, so he was either getting outbid or afraid to fight me for the mediocre tight ends that we both desired.
sheriff gonna getcha: dude what is this guys deal?
sheriff gonna getcha: seriously bro keep laoding up on 1 and 2 dollar TEs
sheriff gonna getcha: killin me!
sheriff gonna getcha: ugh who knwos or cares i just gonna get the fuck outta here before diese buys another middle of the road TE
Big Fat Wildcats: always a charmer dickson
sheriff gonna getcha: i feel like im being pretty reasonable here
Fuamatu-Ma'afala added Mike Wallace (PIT) for $2
Fuamatu-Ma'afala added Mike Wallace (PIT) for $2
sheriff gonna getcha: suuuch a better 2 dollar buy
Big Fat Wildcats: you're right, it's totally necessary that we all read your mockery of someone's chris cooley purchase when they already had todd heap
sheriff gonna getcha: and zach miller...
[john carlson nominated]
sheriff gonna getcha: you aholes forced my hand, damn you all
sheriff gonna getcha: hahahah
sheriff gonna getcha: ok now i get it
Diese Mannschaft added John Carlson (SEA) for $3
sheriff gonna getcha: its now funny
Big Fat Wildcats: excellent buy annie
Robin and Batman: love it
Big Fat Wildcats: it's going to be such a dilemma every week
Big Fat Wildcats: who to start
sheriff gonna getcha: admittadly, that is hilarious, touche
sheriff gonna getcha: ugh but i want the 3 mediocre TEs that u have
sheriff gonna getcha: i gotta admit its a pretty big gamechanger to have someone picking up a 4th TE not based even loosely on nfl stats
In the end I got 4 TE vying for the 1 space available every week. Will probably offer sheriff either Miller or Cooley. Whoever is worse.
In non-fantasy football news (but still perhaps fantasy news), the Caps' first preseason home game is September 28... aka the day I leave for Germany. On the other hand, they have a preseason game at Columbus on the 22nd and at Nashville on the 25th. Now, Nashville is rather far away from both DC and Williamsburg. On the other hand...
According to Mapquest, if I leave Wednesday morning, say 10 o'clock, I should get to Nationwide Arena by 4 or 5. Assuming I can leave C-bus by sometime around 11 (taking into account post-game traffic and food/gas), the worst-case scenario of 7 hours back to Pville is 6am. I would estimate that with the likely zero traffic it wouldn't be absurd to get back before 5. If I take the van, it would be simple to sleep for an hour if I get direly tired.
Of course, this would be much easier if I were not alone.
To wit: Katherine and/or Dan come up to P-ville Tuesday night (post-classes), stay over, get up earlyish to get en route to C-bus, stop at a T-Hos for sustenance (yes, they have them in Columbus!!), catch a cheap and empty game and acquire Blue Jackets swag (such as my shot glass) plus check off an arena from your bucket list, and be back in time for Thursday classes.
I've calculated that it is possible to acheive this missing only Wednesday, but of course you are free to stay the night Thursday if you don't care about missing those classes either. From personal experience I know that the drive down to W-burg after 3am is miserable but doable even if you have to write a paper at the same time. However, I will certainly drive the second half of the leg back in order to let the W-burg parties sleep. If you leave P-ville at 6 you can catch your 10am class. 9 would be a maybe.
I know this is an Ian-calibre plan, but Ian has made it to Massachusetts twice.
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2010.08.26 01.33
the way you play your game ain't fair
-Football: pumped. Apparently T-Sizzle has a shirt that says "You Bet Your Sweet Ass I Hate the Steelers." I think that says enough. I hate the Steelers more than I hate any other sports team besides the Montreal Canadiens. In fact, both inspire the same kind of loathing in me.
-My phone is pissing me off in just the biggest way. I've had to hard reset it twice in two weeks, meaning all my apps get uninstalled every time. Luckily the MotoBlur service remembers my contacts and for some reason my pics and music (that is, one sound clip) are still there, but this is frustrating. And terrifying.
-Sometimes I spend three hours just playing Solitaire, or reorganizing files on my zip drive. And then on Thursday at 2 my boss finds a shit ton of work for me to do and asks if I can come in on Friday and possibly the weekend. I'm a fucking intern. ARGH.
-On the other hand, if I end up working Fri+weekend then I will probably end up making about $150 more and will DEFINITELY spend it on a jersey.
-Well, fuck. The girl who makes dresses out of hockey jerseys isn't on Etsy anymore. FUCK. Hmmph. Looks like I'd actually have to get a player.
-And shop.nhl.com hasn't updated Varly's jersey. Well, I'm getting his in WC version anyway.
-A Kurt Rambis jersey is still only about $80. Look at this fuckin hoopster.
-I really think if I got an authentic jersey I might have to get another Backstrom. My favourite skater who is definitely going to be around for a long time. Too bad they are all comically too large for me. :/
-Picked up Tales of Symphonia again. Spent 20+ hours on a file trying to get 100% completion. Unfortunately there's like 1 monster and a few titles that require a whole nother playthrough, but eh. :) Also started another file in order to play some sort of drinking game, but that's fallen through what with the whole WORKING ON FRIDAY bullshit. Anyway I've got all the dungeons/monsters/chests memorized.
-Drinking game rules:
+one sip for Colette being ditzy/klutzy
+one sip for an amusing battle quote that I can recite perfectly from memory
+one shot for Lloyd's name bullshit ("Who are you to ask my name?!")
+one shot per Dwarven Vow (include the post-battle quote if you dare)
+one sip for "MARVELLOUS!" and other Ruin Mode
+one sip for use of the phrase "non-aggression treaty"
This is for the beginning of the game -- the first five hours or so? I played 2:45 from the beginning and if I had followed these rules I would be fucking trashed right now.
-An authentic jersey with customization is less than one minor league paycheck... with these extra days my upcoming paycheck is gonna be bigger...
-"Don't you already HAVE a Backstrom jersey?" I don't really see why that would be a problem. This one would be red. Also, I could use white Backstrom for when I hit Wachovia and get drenched in beer after fifteen minutes. "OH YEAH WELL YOU SUCK! *hit with batteries*"
-Sorry Cat, if I hit up a Flyers game I'm gonna get my ass beat by angry Philadelphians. :( That's why I'm gonna do it when I still have my youth!
-So uh no one would be willing to hit a Steelers/Ravens game at Heinz with me, would they? I promise that you wouldn't have to wear Ravens colours. I would take all the abuse.
-Considering picking up the Canucks while in Germany. The time difference would mean that I could catch their games at about 5am rather than 2 for the Caps. But please don't misinterpret "pick up." I would be rooting for whoever was playing them.
-I have a weird thing with the Canucks. I adore the brothers Sedin and I loathe Luongo. I adore Trevor Linden and I hate Pavel Bure. I adore Burkie and I... well, I don't give a shit about Mike Gillis. I guess he's kind of a bitch. Still. Very hit or miss.
-Ugh, 1 am. I feel gross. I have work tomorrow. Also in the summer I hate staying up late. What do you mean I shouldn't drink Red Bull at 9 pm?
-I am fucking running train on ToS, by the way. I'm just amazingly awesome with Lloyd at this point. I remember when it took me like 800 tries to beat the first real dungeon boss, Ktugach. I power-levelled until Genis got Aqua Blade. I fucked his shit up on the first go, didn't even use Genis, and he ended up learning Aqua Blade when he levelled up at the end of the boss battle. :) In my super-everything file I power-levelled Presea to lvl 80 (when she gets a bitching weapon) and as a lark entered in the Advanced Coliseum.
-Advanced Coliseum is a joke when you're a lvl 80 tank with a shit ton of HP. :) So I ended up using her new weapon for about 6 battles before I got an even better one. Now basically I have to grind some more until I feel comfortable trying to beat the AdvCol with the mages. Blurgh. :/
-Other big hurdle: Niflheim. It's the randomly-generated dungeon where you have to go through 15 floors and fight two bosses and you can't save at any point. The most annoying thing is it would otherwise be HANDS DOWN the greatest place to level up. Nothing more frustrating than getting to the 3rd tier of floors, gained a shit ton of items and exp, and then die and have to start over. :( But I need it to finish the Monster Book and Collector's Book. I've done it before on another file but... it's a bitch. :(
-So yeah this is what I've been doing. Everyone's gone to school. I don't leave the country until September 28th-ish and orientation starts pretty soon after that. Classes on October 17th. If you are going to Europe to see an NHL opener, feel free to swing by Munich and we'll chill. :P *WANTS TO GO TO THE PRAGUE OPENER*
-Oh yeah, books. Le Carre = overrated. I read one Smiley and half of another and GOD returning to Chandler is simply amazing. A slumming angel indeed.
Ellroy > Chandler > Nesbo > Hammett > Larssen > French > Le Carre > Mankell
is how I'd rank the DF authors I've read this summer. Mankell was dull. Part of me wants to say some of it was lost in translation, but I did not find his prose engaging at all. Chandler's prose is fantastic. Ellroy's prose is great and his psycho element is fucking masterful. Nesbo writes beautifully and Harry Hole is probably my second favourite after Philip Marlowe.
-Also read another translation of Dangerous Liaisons. Great as ever.
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2010.07.14 21.14
the goodness gets her down
Everything I tried got this at least once:
Although my LJ (and final Philosophy paper) did get James Joyce twice, and my prose leapt all over the place, I consistently got DFW. Which is cool, because everyone I know hates him. I've personally never read anything by either of them, so that's neat. I always thought I was more Stephen King-ly... but I guess Wallace is more ~*~impressive~*~. The only other one I got more than once was Chuck Palahniuk, which I'm also fine with. We have Infinite Jest in the basement and I have literally 0 urge to read it.
Going to be in VT this weekend as my mother runs a 100 miler. A guy in the running club said he would post updates "as long as the crew is sober enough to send text messages" which he anticipates will be until 10 am (race starts at 4). So well done Adams family reputation.
Finished A Confederacy of Dunces which I enjoyed very much. It's very much a masculine book for sure, and I can tell why the people who recommended it did so, but it seems clear that it would not be everyone's cup of tea. With a piece of legitimate literature knocked out, it's back to mystery novels! Reading Out by Natsuo Kirino, which was an Edgar Award Finalist, then gonna hit The Girl who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson, and if I have that knocked out when I get back from VT I'll probably pick up another Chandler. *swoons* Really wish I could get my head around my own writing again, but eh. David Foster Wallace! That gives me 6 more years than anticipated!
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2010.07.12 22.31
i know you like to keep an eye on me
I feel sort of obliged to say something about dev camp. Highlights, I guess. Links are to info on FA invites not listed on the official roster.
-WYYYYYYYYYSH I fucking love the Puck Daddy. It's embarrassing. And if I looked behind me at any point I saw Nate Ewell, Brett Leonhardt, Mike Vogel, Dan Steinberg, Tarik el-Bashir, and Greg Wyshynski. I fucking love the hockey media. It's embarrassing.
-Braden Holtby put up a great performance. Joe Finley played strong, like he wanted to impress. Evgeni Kuznetsov is SO. GOOD. He and Dmitri Orlov are also adorable BFFs. Marcus Johansson played well but maybe a little sloppy/cocky: he was on a line with Stanislav Galiev and Cameron Burt (an invite from RIT) that started out VERY strong and then seemed to get sloppy. Burt was a surprise, very cool -- strong skater and a solid puck mover. Andrew Cherniwchan is a good stick-handler but he lost control of the puck very easily when he did sick dangles. Also, a goalie with typical Latvian vigour (?) Nauris Enkuzens was an invite that was pretty darn neat. I'd say he looked better than Dan Dunn or Taylor Nelson.
-Saw a handful of propsects and all the coaches (sans BB) at Panera. Bob Woods walked by our table like 80 times. Surreal. xD
-Bought a Tim Lincecum action figure.
-Marcus Johansson kept leaning against the glass in front of me in a very amusing way. He was getting fresh with me.
-Apparently the (20-yo) Braden Holtby is going out for drinks with Stretch and Vogel tonight. xD (Also, he's crazy. Not just "neurotic goalie" crazy, but "one day he's gonna snap and murder all of his teammates" crazy. So I hear.)
-Also, Stretch and Wysh spent like 10 minutes chatting and laughing hysterically. I LOVE THEM GUYSSSS WHY DO I LOVE THE MEDIA MEMBERS SO MUCH :( :( :(
-Seriously, like every 10 minutes I'd turn around, stare at Wysh, and get this huge goofy grin on my face. It honestly started to creep me out.
-Apparently Brian Pothier was a HUGE stoner when he was on the Orlando Solar Bears. His nickname was Brian Pothead. Hockey players are clever.
-Speaking of "clever", there was both an Orlov and Cullen invited to camp. I guess hockey is the ideal sport for vampires.
-Patrick Cullen is from the "Northern Virginia Hockey Machine" that I'm hearing so much about (?), which is actually really cool. He led the Washington Junior Nationals in points in 2007, so the management must have taken notice. Then again, I don't want to be all "we don't draft guys who can help win games/we do draft guys who have got French names" like Montreal. Hometown drafting is LAME. On the other hand, let's just assume he'd be overlooked/unfairly pigeonholed for being from the SOUTH.
-Dude, Adam Oates, Darren Puppa, and Joe Juneau all once went to RPI. Neato!
-Varly was sitting way up top scouting the baby goalies. Maybe he was the one watching MTV?
-WYYYYYYYSSSSSSSSHHHYYYYYNNNSSSSSSSSSSKIIIIIIIIII ♥ ♥ ♥
Anyway it was a pretty good time.
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2010.06.25 23.25
don't you want me baby
Draft Day! Only one trade has gone down today: Keith Ballard for Steve Bernier, Michael Grabner, and 25th overall. Less interesting than Pronger, and less lip-licky. :( Also, I am stone-cold sober and will unfortunately remain that way. ( luckily the guys at TSN don't seem to be! )
Post draft, Philly deals Hamhuis' rights to Pitt, and apparently there's some Nabokov in the works... too bad I need to get some sleep. Peace out my brothers, chillin chillin in the capital of VA this weekend!
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2010.06.23 23.21
but don't forget it's me who put you where you are now
Oh NHL Awards. Last year I tried to predict what would happen. This year I didn't give a shit, choosing instead to focus my energies on something much much more difficult to prognosticate:
~*~*~THE 2010 NHL ENTRY DRAFT~*~*~
My summer job is as an intern at Cyberdata Technologies in Herndon. On Tues, Weds, and Thurs I drive down there, sit at a desk and play solitaire for 8 hours, then drive back home. In between these epic hard-fought battles of red and black, I found the time to read many blog posts, mock drafts, and rankings. Using this, plus some good ol' common sense and the fact that 4 of the top 10 picks are from the SE div which I am pretty darn familiar with, I have literally two pages smothered in messy writing, where names are scrawled and scratched out, surrounded by numbers, letters, question marks, and occasionally hearts. Point is, after three days serious contemplation, I picked a top ten.
( you are very excited! )
Anyway, there's my pretend-knowledgable approach. More importantly than my picks - unless someone wants to put money on them, which I am very happy to do - I will be getting utterly hammered while watching, which makes the entire thing amazingly fun. And I believe the TSN crew would agree, unless I was just so drunk I was slurring my hearing.
On a final note, does anyone make up stories about solitaire when they're playing it? Sometimes I pretend the Queen of Hearts is having an affari with the King of Spades, or that the kingdoms are at war with each other, and things like that. Sometimes my brain is a nice place to live.
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2010.06.09 17.38
guilty of being a red-neck, white-bread, chicken-shit motherfucker
Oh internets. For every instance in which you are a soothing balm to my soul, there exists another in which you make me angry and self-loathing and drenched in ennui. Ahhh~~
I read Gone with the Wind and purchased Fallout 3. These things were not connected, but it's interesting that they should have gone hand-in-hand in my life, because there are some interesting parallels between them. Lately I've been drawn to wastelands (and I was going to make a Maple Leafs joke, except that the setting of Fallout 3 is "the Capital Wastelands" which lends itself to a different joke). I also beat the shit out of Heavy Rain, which is a neat game that I highly suggest you pick up if you have a PS3, which is no one on my flist so forget I said it.
Watched Strasburg's debut. Yeah, so... how about that. Thank you DC media... I'm now SOLELY a Giants fan. Well... Blue Jays? I mean... Ugh.
HOWEVER the Nats might be able to win me back if Bryce Harper is every bit the despicable little shit people try to pretend it doesn't matter that he is. "Cocky" "arrogant" "just a bad, bad guy" "jerk"... all promising. And he's a catcher, right? Now that I can get behind. Problem is, there's a fine line between entertaining asshole and tremendously douchey knob-gobbler. And actually, now I kinda hope he falls on the wrong side of it so I can continue to call him a tremendously douchey knob-gobbler. And actually, now that I think about it most guys I would describe as tremendously douchey knob-gobblers are guys I like! Sean Avery, Dany Heatley, Chris Pronger... I guess I don't like Scottie Upshall very much?
The flip side is, Strasburg tearing his rotator cuff or whatever would probably make Jon want to kill himself, and that would make me happy, because his "hockey is an objectively inferior sport" thing is my least favourite thing in the entire world. Also, I learned after the fact that his father liked me less because my favourite sport is hockey. Who else earned the ire of a former member of Obama's cabinet?!
Whew, that was some bitterness. I don't usually like wishing injury on athletes: even Crosby I never wished to get hurt... I may have cheered AFTER he got hurt, but that's another thing entirely. The really annoying thing here is that I genuinely like watching baseball on TV... maybe only 4 innings at a time, but basketball is too samey and football is too unrhythmic, I guess. Ugh.
In real world terms, I was blown away by Strasburg. He is tremendous and amazing to watch. I guess ticket prices for the Caps will go back down.
(To be fair, it's not all Strasburg. I already hate Taylor Hall, too! And that Adam Larsson kid can go fuck himself!)
I feel really awful about my writing lately. I have a very self-conscious and scientific approach to it: that is, I feel I almost abide by a formula as to structure, length, word choice, level of difficulty as 'twere. There needs to be a standard amount of variation between sentences and they need to be hand-crafted artisanal quality. Then I read a metric fuckton of Chandler, Ellroy, and Hammett and I feel like my style has been all fucked up. My writing is boring and not compelling, not even to me, and generally even the cringe-worthy premises are compelling to me because I enjoy the way I wrote them. What I need to do right now is write some weird analytical stuff, but since the season's over even that's not interesting.
Whine whine bitch bitch moan moan. What I want to do is get high and watch hockey, but I'll probably settle for a beer and a Blackhawks game (hey-yo!). Go Flyers!!!1
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2010.05.16 23.16
ain't no way you can break down the door
I am, obviously, rooting for the Flyers in this series. Yes, it makes me feel dirty. ( However: )
That said, I still hate Danny Briere and Mike Richards with every ounce of my soul and I hope they get hit with cars right after edging out the Habs in 4 games. Preferably cars driven by Dany Heatley while they are in San Jose for the first game of the Finals. GO SHARKS.
( A few thoughts from watching tonight's game: )
-CAREY PRICE. That is all.
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2010.04.29 18.36
you'll never break my heart
How does one mend one's ways? I suppose one joins the League of Nations Union, and reads the Isis every week, and drinks coffee in the morning at the Cadena cafe, and smokes a great pipe and plays hockey and goes out to tea at Boar's Hill and lectures at Keble, and rides a bicycle with a little tray full of notebooks and drinks cocoa in the evening and discusses sex seriously.
--Brideshead Revisited
( it's understandable why this sport promotes dipsomania )
The Pensblog eulogy for the Capitals is going to be gut-wrenchingly painful to read, but I'll do it anyway.
...It wasn't. It wasn't funny. It wasn't painful. It was... devastatingly on the mark. Respectful even, especially by Pensblog standards. Please read it. It sums up how I feel about the series. Or the season. Slow clap.
Let the countdown to Canada Day commence. ;)
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galaxysong9's journal
