Journal Entries
Current Dilemmas
Posted Aug 2, 2000
Hey there, anonymous voyeurs;
James here once more. I'm writing this while listening to a stream from the official Orbital site: http://www.loopz.com . Check them out if you're oblivious to the wonderment that is P+P Hartnoll.
I'm in a dilemma of sorts. I've recently come to the conclusion that I need to do something worth remembering when I'm on my deathbed. Floating from one job to another, knowing when payday is because that's when I'll be able to buy some stuff I need or want just plain old sucks.
I've decided I need to go back to school and this time, actually go to class and not drink & smoke my afternoons away.
I am thinking that I will go to medical school. I want to do my part to prevent the sort of stupid senseless deaths that my mother succumbed to. She died a couple of years ago after stressing herself just one time too many. My Stepdad couldn't take care of her and work a full-time job anymore. He was driving her around to several nursing homes to see what they could do and which one my mother "approved" of. My mother was only 51 and simply couldn't fathom 20 or 30 more years of life spent entirely in a nursing home with only 25% mobility. She'd spent the previous five years in bed due to complications stemming from her diabetes and a series of strokes. The strokes cost her the use of the left side of her body. The diabetes cost her her feet. She despised being what she called a "gimp". She had to wear diapers and bathe herself with a rag and a bowl. When she finally knew that she wasn't going to be able to keep living in her own house anymore, that the stays in the hospital and recovery homes were no longer going to be transitional, she gave up.
That didn't surprise me. What surprised me was that she lasted so long. Five years of invalidity, starting at age 46. I'm 29 now and it apalls me to think what it would be like to have only 16 more years to truly live. If I had a child now, I would even get to see him or her graduate from high-school. I am still amazed by her defiance of it all.
It's time that I do what I can to keep that from happening again.
So I'm going to take this next year to prepare myself, mostly in financial means, to go to medical school. I plan to focus on genetics, specifically on the causes and mechanics of aging and the deteriation (sp?) of our bodies.
I hadn't planned to go into that much detail about my mother. Now that I have, I'm all depressed. Good thing I've still got that Orbital stream going on. The sheer beauty of their music just entrances everybody who truly listens to them.
I'm thinking of quitting my current phone-jockey job with PrimeCo and trying to get back in with Texas Instruments. My boss back there, Susan and I are still on quite good terms. I should never have quit that job. It was kinda cool being surrounded by all those chips and disks and wafers and substrates and junk. I only quit because I was feeling antsy, which I do about once a year, after I've grown accustomed to my current surroundings. I hope I can outgrow that urge soon.
If you read this Yoli, let me know some feedback, ok?
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Latest reply: Aug 2, 2000
Beast Machines
Posted Jul 28, 2000
Man o Man! Do you watch this show?
I love this show. Yeah, yeah, I know it's a cartoon. I know it's really just a commercial for a toyline. I know all this and still I support it because they actually give me something for my entertainment buck!
A spinoff / continuation of the Beast Wars show, Beast machines far surpasses anything dreamt of by that precursor.
So far there have been (I think) 13 episodes shown in the USA on FoxKids (see local listings). The new season starts on Saturday August 5, 2K. I haven't seen every episode, but I know enough to say many things with authority. My VCR is on the fritz and records just snow when I program it, but will record fine if I'm watching at the same time. I'm hoping that Hasbro / MainFrame will release the show on DVD sometime around Christmas. That would be boss!
At the start, we find Optimus Primal being chased by these tanks that seek to to kill him. He remembers nothing of how he got here or how to transform into a more combat-ready form. He is stuck in his Gorilla beast mode. He finds that trying to transform just causes him pain as electrical shorts course across his form. He runs.
He comes across some of his compatriots from the Beast Wars fought on primeval Earth. Optimus finds he is pulled to the others by a shining in his eyes and a mysterious voice. He finds RatTrap, Cheetor, and BlackArachnia Following the voice, he commands his team to go down. Descending through archeological layers of time, we see the Maximals pass earlier ages of Transformer history. Weakening from the malady that freezes their servomotors and circuitry, BlackArachnia can't continue making her webline and it breaks. She falls first into the blackness below, then Optimus (who carries Cheetor on his shoulders), and then RatTrap each fall in turn.
Landing on a black surface surrounded by blackness on all sides, the team feels their end coming. Power fading, systems seizing, each Maximal expresses disgust with their fate. Optimus, however, refuses to give up. He picks up a chunk of debris and hurls it, filled with his fury, into the sky.
The brick shatters the black dome encircling them, and the sky floods with light. The Maximals see they stand on a bridge running through a tunnel. At then end of this tunnel, a great ring circumferences the bridge. Emanating from the ring is a scene of stars and worlds and large amorphous bubbles stream into the tunnel. Optimus hears the voice speaking to him again. It welcomes him and tells him it is the great Oracle computer of legend, it foretold the coming of the first Transformers to Cybertron. It wishes to restore Cybertrons organic origins to the world, to no longer be layer upon layer of machine and circuit.
It welcomes Optimus into its' folds, it remakes him into an new form, and cures him of the virus infecting his systems. It does the same for the others. Their new bodies are sleeker, more designed. They give impressions of great strength for Optimus, great speed for Cheetor, great sneakiness for RatTrap, and filled with more lurking menace for BlackArachnia.
They soon have to put these bodies to the test as they are attacked by a squadron of Vehicon cycles. These cycles attack with a speed that would think it surprising that they stay on the ground. They then transform into a uni-cyclic robot form and start firing.
The Maximals expect no problems and call out their transformation activation sequence code . . .to no effect. Having to resolve the conflict in their Beast modes, presents the Maximals with frustration as they have typically given their Beast modes short shrift. They split up and handle a cycle apiece. Cornered, BlackArachnia raises her fangs and awaits her attacker. The cycle speeds down the tunnel only to be ensnared in the web that BlackArachnia had spun and lain in the shadows. Cheetor runs. The cycle chasing him speeds up, Cheetor only snickers and speeds up into a blur. The blur bounces from wall to wall keeping the cycle's attention away from the boulder blocking it's path. RatTrap needs nothing special. He hides in the shadows until his pursuer passes by unwittingly. he then leaps and starts gnawing at the struts and suspension on the cycles' rear wheel. This obviously causes his cycle to crash into the wall, with RatTrap leaping to safety just in time, of course.
Optimus doesn't fare as well however. He gets the rest of the squadron attacking him. They gang up on him, rushing by firing their cannons causing Optimus to stumble and stagger. He comes perilously close to the edge as three cycles assault him in row and he falls. He is entangled with a cycle-warrior, Optimus screams at him to tell him why they are attacking, why the Maximals can't remember anything, and why they couldn't transform. The Cycle-warrior stares mute and fires his cannon. Optimus wrenches the cannon into the Cycle-warrior's own face causing him to explode.
Screaming, Optimus continues his plummet into the abyss. Then, his eyes glow as the Oracle computer speaks to him. It tells him that the seeds of the future lay in the past, that to control the beast without, he must control the Beast within. Optimus focuses his mind and emotion, he seeks his center of being.
He finds he is Transformed.
His new form has jets sprouting from his lower back and Optimus rockets back to his team. He finds them surrounded by Cycle-warriors. The cycles turn to see the new Maximal hovering above their heads and as one, they fire!
They blasts are dead on target, but Optimus absorbs the blasts through his forearms and returns the fire from his palms.
With the Cycles cleared and scattered, the remaining Maximals take time to admire Optimus' new form. He tells them the secret of Transformation lies within. It must be learned.
He begins their training.
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Latest reply: Jul 28, 2000
My First One
Posted Jul 28, 2000
Oi, Humans!
Actually, I'm rather unprepared for anything so majestic and grand as setting up my very own H2G2 entry site. I was surfing along trying to translate some French comix I like (Schuiten & Peeters stuff found at http://www.casterman.com) when my buddy told me about the babel fish site where you...aaaah, you know all how it works. Then I got sucked into this part and I figured "The hell with it, let's do it!"
I'm all tired right now and will come back at some future point to make this into something worth perusing and less self-indulgent.
Anyway, I went to go see My Life WIth The Thrill Kill Kult last night at #'s (pronounced "Number's") in Houston, TX. Ah, Houston; God's own septic tank. TKK had a local band called Bozo Porno Circus open up for them; they were cool. They're one of those bands where you have no memory of what they actually sound like (except this vague aural image of construction vehicle orgies) but rather, you remember the stage show. There were five dudes playing instruments and singing and stuff, but man-o-man, the girls! They had four girls up on the stage doing these freaky dom-sub acts. This one chick had taken the top off of one of the subs and then started smearing that magicians' flame gunk all over her boobs and then set her goodies on fire! Nothing really special, but public nudity always gets me really worked up!
But then on the way home, I got snagged by a cop who ticketed me for no insurance or registration. B*****d. I know I deserve it, but it totally fouls up my plans for the next two months.
I had invited an old friend on mine to come visit. We worked together while we were in the Navy. We've got that wierd thing going on where you start out as friends and then you start getting so comfortable with each other where you start fooling around. If we lived in the same city, we'd either be dating steady or enemies by now. Oh yeah, my friend's a she and I'm a he. Thought I should get that cleared up right away. I'm not gay.
Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Wow, that's a lot of meandering drivel that is, innit?
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Latest reply: Jul 28, 2000
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