Nine Whole Years

So, today marks our nine year anniversary of being together. Nine whole years, and we're still not married! :D In all seriousness, it doesn't feel that long, but that's a very large chunk of our lives that we've shared. I feel that I have become a better man for it.

But, naturally, she completely forgot. I had anticipated this and didn't say anything leading up to today. I had an off-site meeting today, and knew I would get home early, thinking that I would be able to cook up something fancy and surprise her. Sure enough, despite having gotten home early, the moment I opened up my email, I got lassoed into putting out 3,000 different fires. By the time I managed to get out of the house to go shopping for ingredients, the lady was already on her way home.

We ended up eating at around nine o'clock, so it was a little late, but still managed to cook a decent meal. I had hoped to be able to do a nice presentation, but gave up on that idea. Since we had gotten started fairly late and she had realized why I was cooking so much food, she decided to come and help me prepare the meal. We ended up having a clam and 4-mushroom pasta with homemade cream sauce for the main dish. On the side, I made a simple stewed pork dish that Emeril made (we didn't have enough time to really let it soften up, so we ate it as a sort of hearty soup-y thing), and a simple salad with a balsamic/olive oil dressing. For drinks, I picked up a nice bottle of Stag's Leap chardonnay. While not the fanciest or prettiest meal I've ever cooked, it was tasty and very satisfying.

Nerdier than thou

So, my brother and I got into a virtual pissing contest to see who could dig up the most obscure/awesome clips from various Japanese anime/sentai shows that we used to watch as kids. The deeper I went down that rabbit hole, the more memories crept into my mind. Images of my childhood spent playing with mountains of Japanese robots and action figures, hours spent in front of the TV watching awesomely-cheesy shows, playing Nintendo years before it came out in America...

Although pretty much nobody who reads this blog will recognize *any* of these, I felt that I needed to post them for my own sake. Here they are in all their cheesy glory:

Sentai Smrogasborg:
Space Detective Gaban
Electric Warriors Denji-man
(Denji-man version 2)
Goggle 5

Goggle 5 and Denji-man were the predecessors to the Power Rangers. There was also Sanbarukan, Bio-man, Change-man, etc. All awesome stuff. Gaban was part of a different series that was more similar to VR Troopers. It was more about single transforming badass - Shariban, Gekkou Kamen, etc. There's plenty of Ultraman and Kamen Rider stuff I could post, but there'd be no end to it.

Robots!!!
Voltes 5
Gatcha-man (aka Battle of the Planets)
Dagram
Space Warrior Baldeos

Voltes 5 (also spelled Voltes V) was one of my favorites as a kid. It didn't really have an ending, since I think the series stopped at episode 40 with a cliffhanger ending... I think the series was cancelled, so they decided to end it on that note. But still, I had the series all on VHS, and watched it over and over. Was most impressed back in high school when I found out that the girl I had a crush on (2 years older, captain of the dance team...) could sing the theme song in Japanese. Melted my geeky little heart :)

And here's a random video that has nothing to do with anything else on this post, and serves only to annoy you.

Montgomery! Flea Market!

Meme-y

From Seppo and eingy...

RULES: Each player of this game starts off with 10 weird things/habits/little known facts about yourself. People who get tagged need to write a blog of their own 10 weird habits/things/little known facts as well as state this rule clearly. At the end you need to choose 10 people to be tagged and list their names. No tag backs.


10) Nothing stresses me out more than thinking/knowing that there is friction between me and someone else. I don't actively think that I need everyone to love me, but I like things being in harmony (perhaps because of having such turbulence in my life in my younger years?). Knowing that I've pissed someone off or have caused someone to think ill of me leaves me all out of whack.

9) I talk to myself in the car. But not really myself... I have conversations with people I know, but just by myself. I think maybe it's how I sort out issues in my head; sort of like using other people's personalities as a soundboard to bounce ideas and thoughts off of. Sort of like how in Star Trek, they conjure up Einstein in the Holodeck, only not nearly as cool.

8) I'm a horrible public speaker when I'm speaking as myself. Give me a character to act as, and all the fear and anxiety goes away. I think it gives me a mask to hide behind, but when it comes to presenting data and whatnot, I can get the job done, but I don't really know how to make it interesting. Considering my current position, that's probably a bad thing :P

7) There are quite a few really minor, inconsequential things that I have said and done that I remember, and for some reason, they bother me. Like one time in 7th grade, a friend of mine was claiming that he could only cut his toenails after taking a shower because they were too hard otherwise, and I said, "Me, too." That was, of course, not true, but I just felt like agreeing with him. And for no goddamn reason, it still bothers me to this day that I said that. I have issues :D

6) My personality changes fairly drastically, depending on who I am talking to/hanging out with. Well, that's not 100% accurate - the parts of my personality that show greatly depend on who I'm with at that moment. I'm very sensitive to other people's personalities, so depending on how they act and/or what they expect of me, I become more aggressive/passive, extroverted/introverted, etc. Around family and some work people, I'm the happy-go-lucky clown. Around some friends, I'm the snarky, cocky guy. Around others, I become really shy.

5) Speaking of which - I think most people know me as an all-out extrovert. However, what a lot of people don't know is that I actually lack confidence. It's fairly masked because of my usually-over-the-top personality, but I often doubt myself to a fault. Which also affects my ability to be assertive at work when I need to be.

4) I'm selectively OCD. Once I notice something, it bothers me until I fix it. For example, a pillow that's not arranged right, a stack of papers that isn't lined up properly. But, it's not always "on." Like my desk at work - utter chaos. Most of my house is fairly messy. It's just some things that I happen to notice. I've never been able to figure out what triggers it.

3) My armpits caused my brother's girlfriend back in high school to have a pregnancy scare. Seriously. She stopped by the dojo one Saturday morning to say hi, and she started being "saucy" (she was my classmate, and we were friends before she started dating my brother, so we were close). Being all sweaty and smelly, I decided to get her in a headlock and sweat on her... I guess the hormones/pheromones/whatever in my armpit sweat caused her hormones to go all out of whack, and she missed a period. They ended up telling her parents and my parents and got a pregnancy test and everything... and the doctor started asking questions, and it got narrowed down to the most likely culprit being my armpit sweat. Recognize.

2) I hate creepy-crawlies. It's not like I can't look at them or that I cringe if I see a picture of a spider, for example... I just hate touching them. Maybe it comes from the fact that my dad used to have a pet tarantula that he used to try to get me to hold when I was like 2 or 3 years old. Thing was bigger than my hand (I don't really remember, but we have plenty of pictures). So, when I have to get rid of a big spider in the house, I get a tissue and kill it/grab it as quickly as possible. Caterpillars, ladybugs, etc don't bother me. It's primarily spiders or anything similar.

1) I have a scent fetish. Nothing gets to me more than the way a girl smells. I used to sit next to this girl I had a huge crush on back in school, and she smelled *wonderful*. Except, it was always a dilemma: do I take in the scent full on, knowing that I'd grow acclimated to it more quickly? Or do I only try to smell it a little at a time? Oh my god, I'm a pervert. :D

Horrid Discovery

Just got back from going shopping with the lady, and during the course of our meandering, I came across what is possibly the most horrid thing I have ever seen: the man-thong. We were walking through the men's section at Macy's when we came across a thong. "Huh... This must be in the wrong section," she said to me. Then, I noticed an entire row of them. And another... yes, ladies and gentlemen, they have an entire section for man-thongs. When did this happen? Who are these for? Why do they exist?!? These questions are entirely rhetorical, as I'm not sure I really want to know.


On a completely different note, I'm usually not that picky about book-to-movie translations. I ignore a lot of the changes (both minor and major) that the movie undergoes, but there's been a recent trailer playing over and over on the TV lately that just annoys the hell out of me. Since when was "Bridge to Terrabithia" an epic fantasy adventure? And why are critics calling it a"heart-warming" movie? The writers/producers/etc for the movie have taken all the meaning and impact out of the book, and replaced it with some generic attempt at cashing in on the fantasy movie craze (or so it seems). I'm tempted to go see the movie just to see how much they butchered it, but then again, I don't want to give them any money.

Speaking of movies, though, just went to see Children of Men last night. Intense, intense movie. Alfonso Cuaron is quickly becoming one of my favorite directors. He has a great feeling for pacing, and the movie keeps you on edge both emotionally and with all the action. Though some may have differing opinions of the abrupt ending, I found it satisfying overall. I think it's doubly enjoyable if you're a gamer, as the similarities in the setting to Half-Life 2 will be immediately apparent.

Not much going on

Made little progress on the weight loss thing this week... Only lost a little over 1 pound this week. Which is still good, but progress definitely feels like it's slowing.

Starting weight: 211.3
Current weight: 197.6
7-day average: 198.8
Goal: 191.3

Spending next week in Japan, which may put a bit of a dent in my overall plans, but during the last trip to Japan, I still managed to lose 2 lbs. We'll see.

Last week, I missed my little cousin's birthday. She turned 6. She had told me that I better be there, and I told her I didn't think I'd be able to make it... but I actually had a trip to Japan planned for business then, so was hoping that I would. Turns out I'm lucky I didn't make any promises, as the trip was delayed to next week.

Not much else going on... Bacon jumped into the toilet again last weekend. Have no idea what that cat's obsession with the toilet is. Also realized that Butter looks like he's constantly wearing a giant furry helmet. Overall, he's a long-haired cat. Except his shoulders. For some reason, the fur all around his shoulders is really short, making him look like Darth Helmet from Space Balls. My brother says my cats are defective. I prefer to call them "special."