Happy Birthday Mom!

Let's see what did I do today (I guess yesterday now since its almost 4am, yikes)... went with my brother to the mall to get mom a birthday card and we both also settled on getting her a gift card since we both know how hard it is to shop for her even though I always think gift cards are a bad idea since they lack original thought but we didn't have any this year! We're both just lazy when it comes to these kind of things. We ask for money every year and then when its the parents turn we get them stuff that they never use so gift card it was was what we both thought.

Then at 7pm I went to Shenanigans to play some tourney poker and I did pretty good in the first one but played a little sloppy in the second game at 9pm but I overall liked how I did--I just need to get more aggressive in these shallow tournaments more often. Can't sit back and expect cards in these bar games.

Did some much needed laundry awhile ago and played several SNG's that went 0-6 which is a rarity but I wasn't on my A-game...I played too fast, chased too much and well that's what happens in those things. I never did go on tilt though, everytime I'd start to like when my 2-pair would lose to some guy's better 2pair or whatever I'd just look to the right and see my Hannah there sleeping upside down and moving her cute little paws--looked so cute how could I get upset! ^_^

I better get to bed soon...have to get up and head to the house by 3pm...

Bored @ Work

3:30 AM, at work, bored as hell (i doubt hell's actually boring)

Surf'n the net, looking at apartments for vegas and albuquerque, and ABQ is looking a lot better by the minute...

Sandia Resort and Casino in Albuquerque just posted an opening for a "Front Office Agent" FT, $10.55/hr salary, with benefits...everything I'm doing now but w/ way better pay/hrs/benefits. I should be jumping through flaming hoops to try and get this position but how serious would they take an applicant who doesn't even live in their state? ARGHGHGHGHGHGh.

**EDIT**

Fuck it, I went and registered just so I could apply for it. If I get a call asking to come down for an interview I'm fucking going. Yeah, I think I'm drinking too much coffee right now but I'm definitely going for it. Can't hurt to try right.

Happy 4th Everyone!

This is the monster 4th of July dinner I made for myself.

Yup, hot dogs! Hey, its tradition right?

Anniversary Lunch

Billy's eggrolls
Yoshio Tatsuo Special
Crystal Shrimp Roll, Unagi, Tuna, Salmon, Yellowtail
Sparkling Sake (I've wanted to try this for a long time)

Spring Roll, MUCH better than the eggrolls here

Happy Anniversary Honey!

Yesterday marked four full years of Billy and I putting up with each other. It blows my mind that four years have already passed, it really doesn't feel like it was all that long ago when I met Billy while living at the Crestwood Terrace apartments but I guess that really was four years ago now...

A lot has happened, and a lot has changed over the years and through all the great times and all the very memorably bad times--we've managed to stay together somehow and that has to count for something! I think that for every year a gay couple is together, it counts double to that of any hetero-relationship so if my strange math is correct, Billy and I have actually been together for EIGHT years now...gay years that is. ^_^

I had to work unfortunately but we had time to have a great lunch at Nakamura and I have pictures for tomorrow!

Nite.

Hotel Reservations 101

I will never understand why certain people reserve rooms with empty credit or debit cards and then somehow expect to have their room still waiting for them when they get to their hotel.

Fifteen minutes ago I had to tell this poor family who had a reservation in place since January to find someplace else to stay and why? Well, the card that they used to reserve with back in January had declined today when I did my credit card pre-authorization checks! Hotels do these things people!

One thing you MUST do when booking a room is to make sure that your credit card can handle the room charge plus something like an incidental charge of say around $50 to $100 extra just in case because some hotels do put in hidden incidental charge just in case you take something from the mini-bar or start watching a pay-per-view channel or make use of the hotel's dry cleaning service. That stuff is always extra and your card better be able to handle the extra charges even if you don't plan on using them.

That unfortunate family that I had to turn away probably won't be able to find another place in town either since its the weekend of the 4th and NOBODY has rooms today. So while I feel bad for them, I also know that they'll have learned something about this give and take business called the hospitality industry and hopefully they can come back next time smarter about these things...

**I wasn't a total ass about it either. Even though our policy was to cancel said room at 4pm I held off until 8pm before I finally had to do it. Reason being, if I kept the room for them and they never show--its lost money for us and a possibly empty room for the night which is very unacceptable on a weekend like this one. I called them twice and they never answered and after that there's really nothing we can do for them anymore.

Working...

I just checked in a very large man who's last name was Hunger. Not even joking.

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My last post was still pretty vague as to what I was getting at but essentially what I want to do is be out of this town by July of next year. If I can accomplish that then and only then can I over-look my own laziness that was the past couple years...

July 1st - Still Here.

I can't believe it's July already and that we're already past that half-way point for 2008. This year has moved much too quickly, but as I've come to realize over the past several years, the older you get, the faster the days just seem to go by. School was always something that made the days go by slower for some reason. Once you're done though, days go by like weeks, and weeks like months. It's something that most kids can't grasp until they grow up and realize how life really is out in the real world.

Am I 'grown up' yet?

To be honest, I really don't think so. I won't be able to convince myself of that until I move away. To me, that will be my barometer, my true test. When I can move away and not have that safety net at my back to easily pull me out of a bad situation, that will be when I know what I'm made of. I just don't feel like I am now. I still owe my parents for favors they've pulled for me over the past couple years and for those things to have even happened kind of tells me I'm not ready. I turn 25 this month. From as far back as I can remember I had always sworn that by that age I wouldn't be here anymore. Where am I supposed to be then you may be thinking?

Thousand Miles West...

Gurren Lagann is coming! July 28th...

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann is coming to stateside television! Sci-Fi Channel is picking it up to be put on their Ani-Monday block of TV programming and what's even better news is that it will be shown in a subbed format which will be quite refreshing to see especially compared to all the butchery and recycled cast dubbing of what Adult Swim generally does with their properties (*cough, Bleach) so finally, there's going to be something worth watching on that channel again besides Enterprise/Battlestar reruns...

I have to thank my friend Carey for suggesting such an awesome series a couple months ago because this is a really good anime and I think having this put on american TV will give it the much bigger audience and a hopefully larger fanbase because this show definitely deserves it. It's from GAINAX, the creators of such great shows like Neon Genesis Evangelion and FLCL so if you liked those shows you should like this one too.

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I wish I had my own mighty Gurren Lagann,

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sigh.

A-kon 19 - 2008

I never did get to write about my first time ever trip to A-kon this year on my livejournal last month so I guess this space will have to do...

On second thought, I'm too lazy to write about everything that happened so instead I'll leave a link to a site that did a damn good job covering one of this year's best anime conventions. (at least their photos are nice)

http://www.japanator.com/elephant/index.phtml?t=cosplay

Samurai 7 Part 2

What happens when you combine a show like Gundam and Samurai X together? Samurai 7 comes out of course. It took me a few days but I just finished watching the 26 episode series and it was well worth the time spent and a great interpretation of the original story with some interesting twists thrown in there with the last few episodes. You know your watching a good show when you start to mentally root for the well being of certain characters to make it through alright and boo the bad guys. This show felt more like a really long movie than a TV series and the quality except for one "recap" episode really shined with good quality animation throughout and the only bad news I have about this series is that I'm gonna have to add this to my list of must-have shows to own and I really can't afford it right now!

Hysterically Cute

Lolcats have been around for quite some time now but I've just now started to look through some of the entries that gets posted to the icanhazcheezburger blogsite and this one (above) in particular almost killed me. Its one of those that when you look even harder at the picture you just keep laughing even more. It really reminded me of Cowcat and made me want to do one so here's my thrown together five minute version of one of these just for Hannah...

Samurai 7

I always did like the Akira Kurosawa classic (and even the Magnificent Seven version) so I don't know what took me so long to find and start watching this anime version of the story but I'm very glad I did! They went and sci-fi'ed it up a bit but kept the old samurai type traditions and added cool badass-ness all over the place. I've seen six episodes so far of the about 26 available but it already oozes with some of the coolest sword fighting scenes this side of Samurai Champloo. You can't really compare the two shows that much though since this one takes its fights much more seriously but there is plenty of humor as well from a certain 'machine samurai' as they call him. I definitely recommend watching this series if you have the time to kill...(chop chop)

http://watchanimenow.com/video/category/samurai-7-episodes/page/3/

Bodog Beta

Wow, Bodog's new user app is so much better than their usual setup. You can finally change the size of the screens, 'bout time! I think it's still limited to just three games at a time though, haven't tested that part out yet...

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I kinda swore to myself that I wouldn't join any other poker site until I got my act together with Bodog but I gave in and downloaded Pokerstars last week. Their graphics are nicer but there's hardly any sound! I guess you have to upload your own but I'm too lazy right now. Still haven't made a deposit yet...just poking my head around.

Hannah Pictures!