Today has been a really, really good day. First off, I finally figured out this whole deal with Tripod, NameZero, and Active Web Hosting. The winners? Why, the sleaziest - Tripod and NameZero. My dad convinced me that I don't really need what Active Web Hosting offers, and seeing that my website would be down until May, when the whole thing would be set in stone, I've decided to be impatient and stay with what I have. The deal is, since I just recently re-signed up with NameZero, I have to stay with them for at least 60 days until I can transfer my domain to the other registrar, Active Web Hosting. This means 60 days of paying for Active Web Hosting, which no one will be able to access in that time. Then I thought: why do I need a different host than Tripod, which I've trusted since 1996? Active Web Hosting offers "unlimited" space and bandwidth, along with a free domain. But they don't allow ZIP files or MP3s, of which I have many. Their services are $10/month, or $120/year. Tripod doesn't offer a domain name, but they do offer a plus plan, along with 25 MB (adequate), more bandwidth, and no ads, for $5/month, and then I can team it up with NameZero, which costs $20/year. This Tripod-NameZero team would bring me to $80/year, which is $40 less than Active Web Hosting's plan. And I also wouldn't have to bother moving all my files over and changing all the link names. So I said, hey, I'll sign up with Tripod instead! Well, Tripod screwed me. Tripod has increased their free space from 200 KB up to 50 MB, and recently, because of the bad economy, they lowered it down to 20 MB. It would be unfair to take space away from people who already had this 50 MB, so they left their accounts the way they were. Tripod also has a Plus plan. The Plus plan, of course, offers more space, no ads, and so forth. But when the economy slowed, Tripod changed its Plus offering from 50 MB to 25 MB. I thought, hey, since I already have 50 MB, signing up for the Plus service shouldn't do anything to my space. Well guess what... it did! The moment I made a transaction with Tripod, my account was LOWERED by 25 MB! And this was for GIVING them money! Now just think of this. We're talking about Tripod. If you have a problem with Tripod, consult the FAQ. If the FAQ can't answer your question... pray. Well, I chose a third option - to fill out a complaint. I said to myself, they'll never listen to my complaint! I probably only deserve 25 MB anyway! Here's the amazing part: THEY ACTUALLY LISTENED. The people there actually read my complaint, and do you know what they did? This is the unbelievable part... THEY RESTORED MY ACCOUNT TO 50 MB. All of a sudden, I really love Tripod. In other news, I have almost no homework over the weekend, and I get to hang out with Joel and Elliot, two kids I usually babysit - this time just as a friend. That's fine with me, not getting paid - I really like those kids. And Joel aims to become a Final Fantasy freak once his parents think he's old enough for a PS2. Hee. 3/22/2002 03:13:08 PM

I finished a new MIDI, God of Emptiness. Next on the list is the Golden Sun World Map theme. Boy, do I have a lot of requests. Fortunately, I currently don't have a lot of homework, so I've been working quickly. This homework situation might change very quickly, though... My summer's work finally paid off! Ben Parker, this artist from Mill Valley, hired me over the summer for $40/hour to make a computer animation with Flash. Although it was a VERY, VERY simple animation, the way it was animated consumed memory like a bitch, and I had to move it across Windows and Mac many times. It wasn't pretty. But I got around $1000 for it, so that's nice. Anyway, Ben finally sent over a copy of the final version, complete with music and all. I showed it to the people in my club, and while a bit confused, they seemed to enjoy it. The animation consists of this white line being drawn around a blue screen, accompanied by music. It forms lots of different shapes, like waves, Greek tilings, the Taj Mahal, Australia, etc. Pretty fun stuff. 3/21/2002 11:33:09 PM

Even though I'm the president of the Japanese Animated Movie club (JAM) at my school, I'm a real newbie when it comes to anime. I had only two videos at the start of the year, so whenever I showed an anime at school, it was one I had just bought the day before and hadn't seen myself. Now I've got about 15 videos. But my vice president, Shane, isn't new to the field. He's seen almost everything there is to see. And that's why he never comes to the club to watch anything. But Shane brought an anime of his own in this past week - the first three episodes of the 1984 classic series, Fist of the North Star. This series must have been the funniest thing that anyone in the whole room had ever seen (and turnout was really good, because Shane advertised around). It is so goddamn AWFUL that there was not one scene that did not make us crack up. Fist of the North star, as far as I can tell, is about this REALLY MUSCULAR guy named Kenshiro, who regrows shirts faster than they're ripped off. His eyebrows take up about half of his head, and his pectorial muscles are about five times bigger than his head. Kenshiro just appears one day and starts killing bad guys, and starts getting followed by this REALLY annoying theif named Butz or something. This really handsome man (VA'd by this guy who's probably in every anime I own) starts sending these big thugs to kill Kenshiro, and they all die horrible deaths by having their heads explode, through a mystical power known only as Hotto Shinken. It's pretty hard to explain how horrible this anime is. For one thing, Manga Video made it worse (if possible) by making a new intro (consisting of exploding heads), a new soundtrack (by "underground" euro drum 'n' bass pieces of shit), and a terrible translation of a probably terrible original Japanese script. Next, in every episode, Kenshiro does the same thing - fights a giant thug with a mohawk and easily kills him with "FIVE FINGERED COW FLOP OF FINGERS!" or "SCREAMING AND YELLING DEATH EJACULATION!" (which is typed and screamed after the move is executed), and then walks off, forgetting that his sidekick Butz has this ATV thingy for him that he built himself. The dialogue pretty much goes like this: Kenshiro has just performed a Hotto Shinken move, and his jacket and shirt are torn off from his pulasting chest. Kenshiro: You know, I just performed a "WILD BIRDO MOTHER EATING HOO-HAH" which pokes your pressure points, and you are going to die in 28.462 seconds. Spade: What? No I'm not! *digital countdown timer appears on screen* Spade: UWAAAA!!! *head bubbles and explodes* Butz: Ken, you did it! Yay! I'm so happy! Kenshiro: ... A few minutes later, Kenshiro's shirt has returned. Oh yeah... and the animation? Well, cut the quality of Dragonball Z's animation in half (it is produced by Toei Animation, BTW), make the characters look different (and very silly) in each scene, and use the same scenes in every episode. That's pretty much it. On a final note, I've heard there's a FILMED, BRITISH MOVIE based on this show, and a video game too, where you CAN'T LOSE. I don't think I need to elaborate. 3/19/2002 06:56:05 PM

Four new fun pictures of me doing certain things. #1: Me next to my flag. #2: Me in goofy attire, about to go snowblading. #3: My mom forced me to wear a turtleneck. #4: My beard shows itself off in this picture taken in Yosemite National Park. 3/17/2002 08:25:34 PM

Notice anything different about the site? That's right, I submitted to the masses and got myself a really cheap but really good webcam. It's a CompUSA generic camera, and I got it for only $20 (after returning a costlier Intel one since it had an incorrect USB version, or something). Well, there's not much to say about it, despite the fact that it works like a charm. Just don't watch it late at night. Who KNOWS what goes on here then... 3/17/2002 07:50:45 PM