All right, okay, you win

All right, here I am making a new post, finally. ARE YOU HAPPY NOW!!>!?!

Note: Teh New York post has been finished, so you may read it in its entirety. It is actually an interesting account of our pwnage trip to New York for the Essentially Ellington competition, so yeah.

Another note: For PAX 2008 information, please see David's blog post. Scroll to September 5.
When we were on the bus back from the last day of PAX (Sunday), two Korean guys (later revealed by Ben to be Japanese guys) got really excited when they saw my Link costume. When we got off, they asked to take a picture with me and of course I let them. I got 41 pictures taken throughout the whole show--I only wore my costume on the second and third day so who knows how many I missed out on during the first day--but no matter. The Japanese guys were super excited, smiling and exclaiming things like "most famous Nintendo CHARACTER!!!!" the whole time. It really made their day--and what's better, it wasn't explained to them why I was wearing the costume. So they must have had really great stories to tell their friends.

So, my summer has sucked a lot more than other summers before it. Since June 26 I have been employed at SEARS Aurora 15711. It is a horrifically boring job with minimum wage pay (don't get me started on the pay). But, it is (wow I almost said 'teaching me skills' there--I supposed somewhat, but not enough to justify the time commitment) giving me firsthand knowledge of retail corporations that I so hate. They mistreat their workers and take away all their time, have unreasonable expectations, pay minimum wage even to middle-aged workers who have worked there for a long time, and commit countless environmental atrocities (you know those display units they have, marked NOT FOR SALE? Those are thrown away at the end of the quarter and new ones are put up to be thrown away next quarter). Basically, this job reaffirms what I have always believed about corporations being evil. But!!! I have a job. And even though the pay is terrible and the work less stimulating than reading American Girl novels, I have learned some things and earned some money, even if came at a high cost of time vs money.

Mostly that is what I have been doing all summer. Also I have been practicing the piano, sometimes for several hours a day, and playing video games, also sometimes for several times a day. I have gotten through four or five novels and I have also made a lot of money doing physical labor (cutting lawns, building decks, odd jobs) at very efficient pay rates. I have made time to see my friends before they left for college, and some others that I would not see normally (like Nicole Kim, which is a shame because she is a BADASSS GANGSTA@). Tracy left on the 22nd of August and Orion left two days later on the 24th. The days in between Orion's return from China (August 14th) and his departure for New York (24th) were action-packed. We hung out, got late-night Taco Bell, beat Ultimate Alliance, watched 11 straight hours of Pokemon, played poker, and generally banged around (by which I mean meandered, not masturbated). It was great and it's a shame that it had to end. But EVERYTHING MUST CEASE-- am I right?

Now I await the beginning of college life at Central Washington university. I enrolled as a music major so I will play in the symphonic ensemble, marching band (both clarinet), jazz band and jazz combo, hopefully, (piano), and take piano lessons. I will have a lot of free time, hopefully not all of which is consumed be practicing, that I may have lots of time to play pingpong, ride bikes, learn French and Japanese, and learn martial arts. My roommate is an education major with a PS2 who is very laid back so that will be fun. I look forward to meeting other musicians and joining (or starting) the campus videogame cover band.

I have to pack up my whole room because Meredith will move into it after I am gone. This involved cleaning up and organizing 14 years' worth of junk so it is no small task. I boxed up the important things first (gameboy & N64, Magic & Pokemon & YuGiOh cards, GCN to come) but there is still a whole lot left to do. It's kind of neat to experience all the nostalgia associated with all of my things but it makes me sad that I have to destroy me Sanctuary of a decade and a half. But EVERYTHING MUST CEASE--am I right?

Something that probably will not cease is Starcraft for me--I won't be bringing my 'Cube to college, at least not initially, and I have recently gotten back into watching pro matches...so I will try to play a little (or a lot, I guess) more than I have been recently or at all.

I hope this has been enough for you. It has certainly been enough for me, at least until something more interesting happens (move to college, hot fling, death in the family, that sort of thing).