Books are better

I didn't even finish the second Harry Potter movie. I got tired of watching it about half way through. I'll still finish tomorrow, but watching it felt like reading Cliff Notes missing all the good parts. There are still cool parts in the movie and the movie great for visuals but I'd choose the book over the movie any day of the week.

Ragnarok Online just finished downloading all of updates while I was typing this. I'll be checking it out shortly. That's all for now.

My first Dvorak post

I have all of the keys memorized, now I just need to practice. It took less then 24 hours to learn. So far I like it a lot.

I don't have much to talk about right now. School was good this morning. I'm downloading the free Ragnarok Online game that rcebrnr told me about and I'll check that out later. I'm about to eat some cold pizza and watch the Harry Potter movie.

Dvorakian Style

I guess I'll have to wait for a day or 2 before I start writing blogs with the Dvorak key setup. Surprisingly I'm having no trouble switching from one style to the other. The program I posted about in my previous post keeps a log of how long you've spent practicing and I haven't even logged an hour yet. I think after about two or three hours of use I'll be able to use it casually. When typing in the program I was getting about 20 WPM, but it is a lot more comfortable typing with it (from my limited use).

I haven't blogged about this, but I've been seeing a blind accupuncturist. Today I had my last visit with him, he said I'm back to be healthy again. I just need to continue doing the exercises he taught me. I also got to see him use his computer today. I was suprised that the monitor was on while he was using it. When you looked at the monitor it just had a bunch of garbled text. He had one of those little braille pad things that I first saw on Sneakers. It was pretty neat seeing him use it (but for what I didn't know).

I had a pizza from Paizza hut for dinner today and I realized I eat those just for filler. They don't really taste good (or bad). They just make you not hungry.

Finished Harry Potter book 2, started book 3 and will watch the movie tomorrow (part 2).

On to dreamland.

First day of school

The first day of school went quite well. I got there about a half hour early, a head teacher (or something) gave me the books I'll be using, then over an hour and a half went by before I started teaching. I got lucky, no kids crying, throwing up or anything like that. Their level of English is very basic right now and for some it was the first time learning English so I'm started with the "What's your name"'s and "My name is"'s plus some other simple vocabulary. I think this should turn out being a really nice job. I have to be there at 8, start teaching at 9, take a break or 2 (I thought 2 was 1 too many, but I won't complain) and finish at 11. Pretty nice hours I say.

This might be my last qwerty blog. From reading other people's experiences I think I'm making the switch to Dvorak. I'll probably use both for a little while, but I'll struggle through my blogs with Dvorak from now on. I've actually gotten ok using qwerty too. Hmmm... Maybe I'll do a speed test to see where I stand now. Then I can compare it to Dvorak when I get comfortable with it.

[imagine a pause while I find a website to check my Words Per Minute]

I found a crappy one and looked for something better but didn't find anything. The score I got was a little over 30 WPM (BLAZIN'!!)

I'll be posting again tonight so I'll finish here.

The Scrable Master

We played two games of Scrabble at game club today and I think won both (official rules need to be checked). In the first I was helped by my miltown spelling of acquited (notice the missing T for those whose spelling matches my own). By the time someone noticed we were too far into the game to change it. We also played Clue. That was the time I've played that game and I'm really impressed at how fun it is. I think if I played it a couple more times I'd have a full proof system worked out for beating it, but it'd still be fun.

I start the new job tomorrow, I'll post about how that goes tomorrow. This morning I had to help I Ping move some stuff from her companies office to a warehouse. After I did that I chilled at home for a spell and went to game club. I want to get to bed early tonight, so I'll finish off here.

'Till tomorrow.

I just threw my digital camera batteries on the charger (after many a month of non-use), so fresh pic's should be on the way.

I saw that Daft Punk movie Intersella 5555 and it was quite nice. You might have been like me and saw a few animated music videos that were suppose to get linked together into a whole movie some years back and it never happened. Well it did. If you like their music you should enjoy this movie. It's almost like an hour long music video (it plays the whole Discovery album from front to back) but it has a keen story to go along with it. I say CHECK IT!

I saw my (step?) niece today and I've been upgraded from being called Ko to Unko (Uncle). It's really cute when she says it and she gets all excited about it. I'll have to post a picture of her one of these days. I hung out at I Ping's brother's house all day for ghost month stuff. All I did is sleep and read me Harry Potter book (and play with the kiddy of course). I was suppose to eat dinner, but I had to beat feet over to Alleycat's (the Pizza place) to work.

Today was a really busy day at Alleycat's. There was a business type meeting going on where people were bouncing ideas around about English teaching, plus all the regular Saturday night customers. I served many a beer, soda, juice, ice tea and ice coffee. I was kept thoroughly busy the whole night. While I was working a guy (James) offered to buy me a beer (so I had one) and when things settled down someone else (that I helped out a bit ago, MapoSquid) also offered to buy me one (so I had two), then I wanted another one (so I had three) and all was well. Alleycat said tonight was one of (if not thee) busiest nights he's had. When it was time to go home, me and Mapo shared a taxi to Yonghe. We live pretty close to each other so that worked out nicely.

Before I forget, this morning before my day began I went over to Ax's place to pick up his Chinese Squabble Cards. Since he's going to Japan he wants me to sell the rest of them for him. So if you're looking for Chinese Squabble Cards, I'm your man.

It's late, the Carlsberg has me groggy and I'm tired. Time to hit the sac.

Well my interview went well, a big thank you to anyone that wished me luck. The school is only about a 10 minute walk from my apartment. I just showed up, goofed around with the kids for about 15 minutes and left. After chillin' in the crib for an hour or two I got a call saying I could have the job if I wanted it. I accepted. So I'll be entering the world of the working again on Monday.

I got to see Paul today, and that was real nice. I haven't seen him in a long time. We met up at Chili's near Warner Village. I had a Cajun Chicken Sandwich (that was seriously lacking in Cajuness). We exchanged conversation and jokes (I got to use that Pimp joke in person :) ).

Looks like I'm probably going to sign up for another semester of classes at Shida. The kindergarten I'll be working at is only in the mornings 8-11 (or 12), so I can still do school in the afternoon of I choose to.

I got a hold of Robonutz today. He's been busy with work and things (surprise surprise), but he seemed to be doing well. Well, it's kind of late and I don't really have much else to say. Keep an eye on www.miltownkids.com, I plan I putting something there (even better then what's already there if you can believe that!). OK, I'm going to do some reading and get some sleep.

Another day another A. Well I finished Harry Potter book 1 a few days ago and I must say, I liked it. So I gave the movie another look today and boy did I sleep through that one. They had the part with the unicorn and blood dripping just like I remember it from the book. But, like all book-to-movie movies (I assume, I haven't read many books) it was missing a lot of important and not so important details. I was going to get into details and talk about them, but why? If you wanted to know you could find out yourself.

Did I talk about the Pizza place I'm working at in my last post? Well even if I did I know I didn't provide a link. The name of the place is Alley Cat's and it's the best pizza I've had here. Is it better then Dave's back home (my mom's boyfriend)? Well, I'll just say it's different. His style of pizza is thin crust and Dave's is thick. I've give a report next time I'm in the US (next year?) and can try a Dave special.

I installed some new programs for the ol' PC yesterday and today. I set up a firewall (contact me if you want to know which one) and found out how often a computer is scanned by different worms floating around out there (every few seconds), I was a little shocked. I also installed AVG which comes highly recommended from people online. If you don't have antivirus software installed yet check it out. IT'S FREE! I ran a full scan and was clean. I'm saving what I think is the best for last. It's a little time saving program that I found on www.download.com on accident. It's called SlickRun and you know what? It's SLICK! Basically you can make these shortcuts for programs you like using. So instead of double clicking the email icon, you just type email hit enter and your email client opens. You can do it for webpages and other programs. I've only used it for a couple hours and I already like it.

Forgot to add one thing about that Harry Potter movie. It understand why I slep through it. It's boooooring. Even after reading the book and having a "deeper" understanding of it. This must be one of the few movie series where (IMHO) they get better and better. After I finish book 2 I'll watch the second one, and do the same for the third.

This is getting kind of long so I'll wrap things up. A friend (AX) told me to talk about my friends and family as well. Mom's good. Dave's good. Elliott (me bro) is enjoying his summer break from school (drinking beer and such). I haven't heard from Marcus (my old school friend) in a while, I'll have to give him a call. I haven't heard from Joe, but I bet he's still being DJ and a smooth playa. RCEBRNR is being rcebrnr. Will in Vegas (possibly laid up with a lady friend). Talked to Superman, I haven't heard from him in a long while. Jobnumber's situation is up for a change, we'll see how that pans out. Those are the people I've heard from recently. And I Ping is good. I'll get into more detail as time goes on.

I think I'm going to want to change the template soon, add a picture and stuff, but no need to rush things. I have an interview tomorrow, wish me luck.

A big hello to everyone out there in cyber space! This is my first blog posting (that you'll see, I actually posted some other stuff but it's since been deleted). If you're reading this I will assume you as I are on the path to being a crusty wizard so there is no explanation necessary. This first blog will be about a book I'm sure you've all heard of "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's (Philosopher's) Stone". You may be ask yourself why philosopher is in (). Well me being a lowly junior crusty wizard didn't know that in the UK it was originally titled philosophers stone (a level 63 ice maiden had to point that out to me). The version I have is the American English version, so it's been translated into a language us muggles can understand. So now I bestow this information on to you.

The philosophers stone is also related to alchemy (which the book briefly describes), but I won't dive into that subject as it has little to do with Crusty Wizardry.

Now I did see the movie of this before I read the it, but that was so long ago and I slept so much that I didn't recall much of what I read. I now have one chapter to go and I'm on the edge of my seat in suspense wondering if Harry Potter will save the day. I'll have to see the movie again but I do think it left out many cool and important parts of the story (as I'm sure many book to movie translation do). One of which that comes to mind is the part when Harry is in the forbidden forest looking for the unicorn. My mind painted a vivid mental picture of the cloaked monster with unicorn blood dripping from his face. And of the centaur that helped Harry. I also really liked the conversation the centaurs had with Hagrid.

Hagrid: You see anything strange lately?
Centaur: Mars is really bright today.
Hagrid: Yeah it is, but have seen anything?
Centaur: Mars sure is bright.

I like those spacey kind of answers they gave him. By the time I post again I'll have finished it and will be able to give it a well rounded review.

I think that's enough blogging for today.

P.S. I'll only be a crusty wizard until I'm tired of it, then the theme will change, change, change and change again.