Getting to Watch More Anime

Ok after having gotten a tablet, I've spent time watching anime comfortably.  Netflix has very few on streaming and I can't just buy all there is, so on my tablet I'd at least watch 2 episodes of something almost everyday.

Here's what I've been watching:
Oreimo:  About a young girl that models as her job, is good at sports, and is very popular in her school.  Her secret though is that she is a closet Otaku.  Even into sister x brother anime games on her computer. O.o  Her brother finds this out on accident one day and she has to show him her stash behind a bookshelf in a closet.  Her brother gets closer to her.  (No!  Not that way!)  And tries to help her find others with her interest, although she stereotypes her own kind.  Stereotypes are dropped throughout the series.  A great series so far.  I'm half way into it already.  12 episodes.

Monster:  I started this on Netflix, but stupid them, they dropped it off streaming and the dvds only are out through season 1.  I am 48 episodes in to this 73 episode monster.  It's intriguing and a highly regarded anime.  A doctor saves a child's life after he was shot him in the head.  Years later murders are being commited and the doctor knows it's the kid he saved and he's the only one who knows.  He is framed for murder and on the run in search of a way to prove his innocense.  There are so many twists and turns in this series.  Johhan, the murderer, is very clever and smart, dodging all of Doctor Tenma's efforts.  There are many shocking moments.  This is one to check out.

K-On:  This is a very simple anime about a girl named Yui who looks for a club to join and discovers the lite music club.  Thing is is that she knows nothing about playing an instrument.  The characters are cute, especially Mio, the bass player.

These are just a few.  I thought I'd pick my top 3 to talk about.  Happy anime watching everyone!  :)

Tell It Like It Is, But Be Careful How

I was a tell it like it is, when it is, kind of person.  When I was mad, I let you know.
I made a video a while back that I eventually had to erase.  Why, because it targeted a place and people.  More specifically the school I went to and the people in it.  I told it like it was.  The bullies in the school treated me like crap.  I was punished for telling it like it was to the bullies.  I was punished for speaking my mind.  Dammit!  I was mad.  I've learned to forgive since then, but it doesn't change the horrible mistakes they made in treating me like the criminal, when I was trying to survive the jungle that it was.
Here's the thing.  When you're mad, your tone of voice and the words you use to convey your hurt, that's all they hear.  They feel attacked.  They don't care what your message is.  They could give two craps what your problem is.  It's kind of selfish not to think of you, but that's human nature.  You're attacked, don't expect your message to get across to people.  It won't happen.  They're too much inside themselves to care that you're hurt, because you're hurting them in retaliation.
Use "I" messages.  "I feel hurt that you didn't stand up to me.  And because you're the principal, it is my personal belief that the victim (being me) should receive help.  Not punishment."  "I feel I was violated." 
Now being a person with mild autism, and at the time I did not know this either, I didn't know how to control my rage.  I didn't know how to react.  Or maybe I didn't, but felt no control over it, because I was hurt so much.  Ignoring them only built up my rage.  I felt that their advice and their actions or inactions were inadequate.  They needed a better way to handle me.  They attacked me like I was the bad guy.  They were mad at me.  What right did they have to be mad at me?  If only they could see through my eyes.
But I must let that go.  They were totally clueless and inadequately prepped for someone like me, that just couldn't handle my issues.  So knowing now what they didn't then, I can only wonder what they would do.  I can only hope that future generations have it better.

My Life Isn't Exactly Eventful...

but I love it for the most part anyway.  Sure I don't get out much.  Sure I don't get laid.  Sure I don't got to bars or dance clubs.  I don't do sports.  I don't go to crazy parties. 

I don't have a job.  Jobs are hard to come by.  Bosses have been known to kick me out.  I don't go out to lift weights.  I don't exercise enough, which I will be working on. 

Before I moved out of town there wasn't much drama as there is now, which shouldn't involve me.  I stay out of it.  I have my opinions.  I get scared.  No wonder I don't get out to meet new people.  It can be a whole lot of drama.  You don't know what you're getting into.  I'm glad I'm missing out sometimes.  I can't handle all that drama.  All the gossip.  All the crack headedness that goes on out in the real world.

I like peace in my life.  I like the friends I do have and I slowly find more.  I know what to stay away from and sure I can do better at meeting people, but I'm fine.  I like my video games.  I like the drama to stay on my tv screen where it belongs.

So in closing, I know what I like and I have what I like.  I'm no greedy corporate head that wants profits to go up.  And if I was a big boss of a company, I wouldn't know what to do with all that money.  I don't want a stupid mansion.  An apartment would suit me fine.  Art hanging on my wall.  Anime wallscrolls.  I don't want Picasso.  My computer?  If it plays Skyrim at the time of this writing, then it's perfect.  I don't need a $2,000 rig to play games.  A pool?  They're nice, but why not the creek?  Or better yet friends with pools or a public pool.  If I owned a pool, it'd be boring being the only one in it.  And then I'd have to maintain it.  ugh.  A car?  If I can borrow one to get someone once a month, fine.  Otherwise I can walk to where I need to go to buy the necessities. 

A girlfriend?  I'd love one.  Can I handle one at the moment?  Who knows.  Relationships take work.  Do I have the time for it?  Sure.  But life says I'm not ready and I better take it as it is.  Move along.  I'll get there.

Is my life perfect?  No.  But everything is fine the way it is.

Bring Back AMC, Dish Network!

I want some Zombie action/drama and when I want it is when it comes back to AMC.  June 30th AMC was dropped from Dish Network, because of some petty negotiations between them and the owners of AMC.  Thus some other channels that are packed with it; ie WE and IFC.  Now I used to love IFC, so that doesn't make me happy either.

Here was my reply as I really love "The Walking Dead."

"Ok, I just heard you dropped AMC. Now there really isn't anything on there I watch. But there is one program that I'm a huge fan of The Walking Dead and I'm telling you now, that if AMC isn't put back on by Season 3, I will go nuclear! Bring back AMC and resolve this petty money dispute."


They replied back with this full length e-mail.

"Dear Valued DISH customer,

Thank you for your e-mail.  

The channels AMC Networks forces us to deliver -- WE, IFC and AMC -- do not give our customers the best content at the best value.  We have permanently removed them from the DISH line up as of June 30. 

AMC Networks has further devalued its programming by making its handful of popular shows available to consumers via iTunes, Netflix and Amazon.com. This means that AMC Networks wants us to pay many millions of dollars for content that is available to our subscribers the next day for just a couple of dollars.

Among DISH viewers, movies on AMC are substantially more popular than its few original series. But customers have better choices than AMC as DISH offers Blockbuster @Home, dozens of movie channels from partners like HBO, Showtime, Starz, EPIX, HD Net, MGM HD, IndiePlex, RetroPlex, PixL and the latest new releases on DISH Cinema.

People don’t want to and shouldn’t have to watch their movies interrupted with commercials.  The movies shown on AMC are not commercial-free.  DISH is proud to offer customers alternative programming options that deliver great movies, un-interrupted. 

DISH is providing more movie content to its customers. We will offer top quality, commercial-free HDNet Movies at channel 130 to replace AMC.  HDNet, soon to become AXS.TV, will be at channel 131 to replace IFC.  Style will replace WE at channel 128.  Additionally, we are providing all of our customers with a free preview of great independent films on IndiePlex and to dozens of top movies on Encore for the month of July. This will give our customers a taste of the thousands of movies on demand as part of Blockbuster @Home.

At DISH, we stand up for our customers every day to deliver more than just the best in entertainment.  We have remained in contact with AMC throughout this situation.  Should AMC choose to change their position, we remain open to a proposal that would resolve this issue.

Thank you for being a valued and loyal customer.

Sincerely,
DISH"

Now I may only watch "The Walking Dead" on that channel, but some other shows people will miss are "Breaking Bad," "Mad Men," "The Killing," and "Hell on Wheels."

They claim to be looking after the customer, because there are alternative channels with free movies without commercials, some of which are also old movies.  AMC, of course, does have commercials and I'm sure they edit them.  But there's really no excuse here.  It's really all about the green.

The way I see it we have two options.  Dish customers mass e-mailing them on why they don't want to lose the channels or mass mailing AMC to get them to change a proposal to Dish Network.

A New Job?

So, I've been through job assessment for OVR and part of it had me working or rather taking a look into a call center that receives calls for parts for appliances.  Namely washers, dryers, microwaves.  Basically kitchen and cleaning appliances.  And I think Air conditioners.

The woman doing the assessment has said that I may actually end up working  part-time there.  Finally, more income aside from the little SSDI.  I would have been okay, living on my own with it, but I don't think I'd like it near as much.  At this point I'm unsure about the job.  The phone used to scare me a little, but I do have experience working with customers, bu that was a flop, because most of the time, face-to-face with a customer is draining and sometimes downright nerve wracking.  When I'm on the phone I would imagine that much of the stress will be gone, so we'll see.  If not this place, than I'm sure there's got to be another office job that will hire me.

I've been told it's rather easy, once you get into it.  Do a lot of Google searches for part numbers or gather information from the customer on where it is or what it looks like and as long as they have the model number, I should be able to find the part.  That is, of course, if it's discontinued.  Then it's tough luck for the caller.  =/  Unless of course they can get a used one off the internet.  Even if something is discontinued, that doesn't necessarily mean there's no way of getting it ever.

It's a small place and that's just as well.  Training goes on.  A manager is there, just in case I need help.

I'll let you know how it goes when it happens.

Please Excuse My Tardiness...

in posting to my blog.  I haven't been feeling myself lately.  Well, that and I haven't done any real thinking on what to post as of late.

First off I have GERD or Acid Reflux and it's gotten so bad as of late that they had to bump up my appointment with the Gastroenterologist.  For quite some time I've been having chest pain and before that I was taking Aciphex, which is like Prilosec or Prevacid, to stop heartburn.  The heartburn had gone for the most part and I've been fine until the chest pains.  All signs pointed to my stomach.  My heart is perfectly fine.  I had a scope done down my throat and all to find I have moderate esophagitis.  Which is the wearing away of my esophagus.  Yesterday was when I had my appointment bumped up.  I call, because I was complaining of a soar throat and various worsening of my symptoms.  Last night I had the worst pain since my kidney stone.  I hurt so bad, I could barely stand it.  As it was close to my time to take my stomach medicine, I took that and several minutes later was much better.  I may fill in what happens next later.

I must warn anyone that is addicted to Mountain Dew or any soda with caffeine that drinks as much of it as I used to.  Try switching to Kool-Ade.  I know water isn't the same thing and it can taste quite bad to many people, especially after drinking it for so long.  Caffeinated soda is really a bad thing for your stomach.  I have finally got off of it completely now.  I may have one when I go out once in a while, but I will not buy them by the case anymore.  This stuff can lead to some serious complications.  GERD is not a good thing at all.  Don't just deal with the pain.  Untreated GERD can even lead to cancer.  But of course I'm being currently treated for this.  I do have some worries, though.  I plan on trying to find alternate things to eat, too.  The biggest culprits in my previous diet included tomato based products, spicy foods, and things that contain a lot of grease or fat, which is ground hamburger or any fried foods.  Also citrus is one of the biggest no-nos of all.  I stopped drinking orange juice many years ago, because it gave me mad heartburn.  Funny how Mountain Dew(just one bottle)didn't bother me as much as it contained orange juice.

E3 '12

It seems everyone is into Halo 4, but as I am not a big Halo fan I won't talk about it here.  It's a sequel.  It's another cool shooter and the fans are talking.  That's it.

What grabbed my attention?  Assassin's Creed III.  Sure it's another sequel, but I saw things in that that make it much more unique than previous sequels.  It does take place during the Revolutionary War in our country, The U.S.  What makes this unique as far as gameplay?  Wilderness travel.  All the games before featured anything outside cities as waypoints to other areas of the games.  There is fighting of bears.  There's hiding and running along the narrow branches of trees.  Unique assassinations.  If you watched the demo on E3, note the way Conner hangs the red coat from the tree.

One of the biggest presentations on E3 was brought to you by Ubisoft.  They started out with a presentation on a world wide OS that runs everything in all cities and town, like electricity, street lights, etc and EVERYTHING has the potential to be hacked in reality, so the idea of one OS controlling everything is dangerous.  When I saw this video presentation, I wondered where they were going with it.  The next part was a description and title of a new IP called Watch_Dogs.  This game is simply amazing.  The character you play can hack into phones and spy on conversations.  He can trap people with anything and everything that is controlled by this OS.  For instance, the street lights, which he used to create an accident to get to his target.  Truly a unique game.

Lollipop Chainsaw.  First glance at this title screams bargain bin garbage.  And at this point even with the show gameplay, I'm still skeptical, but they are really pushing this game, so there must be something to it.  We'll see when the game comes out and is reviewed.  Right now it looks like a flashy, gorey, and rainbowy  action zombie brawler.

The Last of Us.  This game looks simply amazing.  Explore a world where a fungus has taken over people's brains and turned the into zombies.  But what's a zombie world without renegades who are violently trying to survive by killing anyone that is barely a threat.  Beware when you run into them.  The action in the game isn't too simple.  There's a lot of stealth like in many games now.  Hold a man hostage.  Use him as a shield.  Gorgeous graphics.  Can't wait to see this one.

So, what can I say about the Wii U.  Well, like the original Wii, I'm initially skeptical.  Wii won me over late in the game, but the only problem was the lack of 3rd party support.  Hopefully that changes with the Wii U as this is much more like a ps3 or Xbox 360 and then some.  Nintendo doesn't disappoint.  It's been taking people by surprise and it probably will again.

No announcement of a new PS or XBox.  Rumors people.  Rumors.  They mean nothing to me.

Oh, another game that has me intrigued is the new Dragon Ball Z game that uses the Kinect.  Just make the motions for a kah may ah may ah and so on.  A fighting game that uses motion control?  Nice.  Prepare to get tired.  That is, of course, if this even works as it should.

Take note of another game.  The new Tomb Raider.  Gameplay looks superb.  Can't wait to play.

So, are you an Elder Scrolls fan?  Skyrim is the first one for me to actually be playable.  I love it.  Now, I'm not going to be play a subscription based MMO again, but it will be truly interesting how this will translate into an MMO next year when it comes out.

By now everyone knows that Ghibli studios made a game called Ni No Kuni:  Wrath of the White Witch.  It seems like another J-RPG, so if you're a fan of Miyazaki and JRPGs this is a game to look into and Ghibli being known for it's stories will not fail us.  This comes out early next year.  It has taken a long time to localize this game as they try hard to make the dialog and story fit English speaking countries such as ours.