Spirited Away

The movie "Spirited Away" is supposed to start today at Stadium 16. However, the showtimes do not reflect this. This movie broke many records in Japan (including Titanic's record if I'm not mistaken) at the box office. Evidently, it is going to be dubbed for all the people who cannot stand subtitles (the good news is that US companies give Hayao Miyazaki's movies the best treatment possible, so the dub should be decent). It should be a lot of fun though, as it's from the director of other such greats as Castle of Cagliostro, My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service, Laputa, Porco Rosso, Princess Mononoke, and the list literally goes on and on. Support anime on the big screen!

Tooth Pulled

Last night at 6:30pm I had one of my wisdoms removed. The process itself did not hurt, but I was not mentally prepared to deal with all of the extra care that was required afterwards. I didn't know that I'd be chomping down on a piece of gauze for a day or so, or that I couldn't use a straw for a while. Evidently, the suction required to use a straw can cause the opening to start bleeding again. Oh yeah, and then there's the "soft-food only" thing. At this point, the only thing I think I could eat is some pancakes and a milkshake. Sounds healthy, eh? I've been through worse I suppose. On another note, Andrew is coming back this weekend. Unfortunately, it's because his grandfather died. He did mention doing some catching up though, so maybe we can put a positive spin on something bad. Out.

Playstation Nostalgia

Just for fun, here is a list of websites that gave proper credit to me and my friend Tony for discovering many codes for the game Assault Rigs. I honestly believe we were the very first people to find these codes! ^_^ I remember buying that game way back in 1995 or early 1996. Boy, I thought I was cool, because I paid $299 for my Playstation the day it came out (September 9, 1995)! Who'da thunk that the PSX would be alive and kicking still here in the year 2002, almost 2003! 7 years is a hella-long time to be a heavyweight game system contender! I miss my late-night hack sessions with Tony, where we changed in-game messages like "Press Start Button" to say things like "Press Fart Button". And of course, we took screenshots too, but several HD reformats later, alas none have survived. Perhaps I'll dig out the ol' Caetla tools and Pro-Action Replay for a last-ditch at some fun. *fond memories fading*

Miserable. For the past 2 days, I've been feeling like I'm on my deathbed. Puking, sweating, trying not to think about food (it will make me puke if I think about it) are the problems I've been battling. The only thing I've eaten in the past 2 days is one McDonald's hamburger (with no pickles), and it took me about 4 hours to eat it. I just want to die.

The topic today? Gifts. Today I'm going to share my personal insight about gift-giving. Feel free to share your comments below. I guess there are 2 types of gifts that I give. The unexpected gift (where the receiving party didn't even know to expect a gift) normally gets the best response, because regardless of what the gift was, the person is surprised by the thoughtfulness. It can be a small thoughtful gift, or just a fun gag gift. The second (and more difficult to choose) is the expected gift. Very careful consideration is needed when someone is counting on receiving a gift from you. My biggest folly in the past was not even considering price, and as nice as that sounds, it can set you up for financial ruin in the months to come. The expected gift doesn't have to be expensive, but if it's cheap, it had better be really damn thoughtful. When my money stash is low (when isn't it?) and all I can afford are low-budget gifts, I will usually try to add meaning to the gift with a personal note, letter, card, or any other meaningful accentuation I can think up. I think the reason I normally get really stressed out about gift procurement is that I try to choose the absolute BEST gift I can that money will allow. This is probably how most people feel, but when you buy for 12 or more people, that's an awful lot of thought and consideration which can quickly become quite a daunting task. Let me elaborate a little bit... if I think of a really good gift idea, instead of going with that, I'll get too hung up on what would be even better, and discard my original idea. This year, I started my brainstorming before Thanksgiving. That helped a lot, because instead of changing my mind 100 times before Christmas arrives, I already knew pretty much what I was getting for everyone. For new people on my Christmas list, a little research was needed, so I visited them frequently talking about things like favorite restaurants, music, movies, etc. That gets all kind of ideas going. Also, paying special attention to someone's "collections" or things they collect can make the deciding a little easier. By looking at my aunt's collection of elephants, I had some great ideas for gifts even though I may opt against an elephant-themed gift. Well, there you have it, it being my $10 about gifts, gift-giving, and research. I'm not an expert (obviously), but remember this... if the gift is something that the person needs (i.e. toilet paper, socks, new vacuum cleaner), it probably isn't going to be a very memorable gift.