That's my ebay listings for today. I'm liquidating a bunch of crap that's been laying around, either untouched or unwanted junk I've managed to accumulate through time that I don't want to just toss out. There's probably tons more, and I'll sell more stuff through Craigslist when I got done with my videography business, but it's a start. The older I get, the less crap I'd like to gather.

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Have a job interview tomorrow at a cinema, have absolutely no idea if they need a popcorn sweeper, a toilet cleaner, or a shift manager. Absolutely no idea what the pay would be. I guess I'll find out tomorrow if it's worth the time. Scary thing is that if no one replies to my resumes, I might have to take the job.

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Kids are sick. Not terribly sick, but they're coughing and they're sniffling. Blame it on the stupid weather I suppose, but my allergies have been going haywire as well. They have slight temperatures and intially, Alex tossed some cookies as well. I told my wife that my allergies were so bad that I didn't even smell the mess I was cleaning up. Whoopee!

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Having a rather blah Sunday - it's Summer but you couldn't tell from looking outside - seems like October with the blustery winds and the chilly temps. We're just staying indoors because of the weather and they're sick.

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Resident Evil 4 is cool.

Cross Crunch

That's the ad on TV.

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So I've gotten desperate about the job hunting, pretty much hanging a sign around my neck, flashing some thigh, and hoping that someone will at least pay not to have sex with me. But nobody's really biting. I don't think I've applied to this many positions - last week was about 6, this week about the same. 2 on Monday, and 4 today. This wouldn't be a big deal except I practically rewrite every resume and cover letter for each position, mostly because I am applying for different sorts of jobs. Hopefully one of the ones today will click, at least for an interview. Haven't even gotten to second base for most of these guys.

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So I got Resident Evil 4 couple days ago, and have been playing it intermittedly because of kids/wife seeing material that's a bit much for them. For the most part, it isn't exactly super scary, but certainly scary enough. I play with the volume lower than usual, and I take cautious steps in the game.

And what do I think of the game? Fantastic. It's a tough game - some stages, especially the initial surge of villagers (they're not zombies, but infected people who just want to kill you), are really quite tough. It's not a cakewalk, and it's not so difficult that one would just throw the controller down in frustration. The controls took a bit of getting used to, but now it's a cinch.

The game does everything just right - just the right amount of bullets, the right amount of difficulty, and the right amount of challenge to keep things interesting. The enemies aren't a one shot kill, often taking several hits before going down. Glitches are few and far between - the one time when I shot a leg and the head exploded was pretty funny.

But yeah, really having fun with the game.

Desperate Measures

Well, our dwindling funds and my slow spiral into insanity made me do the unthinkable today. I applied for two walking distance jobs, at a video store and at a movie theater. I know I'm over-qualified - I knew that when one of the questions were, "Are you over 16?" and they didn't really bother to list if there were any colleges attended. But I figure if nothing else pans out, I'll still have something embarrassingly minimum wage to tide me over while I look for something more substantial. I would at least give them six months or something. And free movies can be a perk anyway.

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To much of my chagrin, I went to Game Crazy today to pay for my pre-order of Resident Evil 4 for the Wii, and they gave me the dumbest excuse - That the vendor ships the game on the day it is released and they won't get it till tomorrow. Yes, that completely betrays the point of actually having a release date for a product. So I called Fred Meyer because I thought they might have it, and they don't. C'mon, guys. It's a release date! Next thing you know, I'll go to see Transformers on the 4th of July and they'll say it'll be the next day - they're shipping it from L.A. Silly. I gave up because I didn't want to run all over town looking for a copy. Looks like I'll just have to wait till tomorrow for a copy of this AWESOME game.

I'd admit, in the last week or so a couple of my friends have expressed interest in getting a Wii for the exercise, and to tell everyone the truth right now - I don't get that much exercise from the Wii. The excellent "Wii Sports" is a blast - but it's much more fun as a group activity. Doing it yourself seems like, well, doing it yourself. Much like playing a fighting game by yourself - it ain't bad, but you feel like there's something missing.

But RE4 is exactly what I've been waiting for - even though it's technically a 2 year old game that's a port from Gamecube. But free-rein aiming, a bit of the old slashy-slashy with the Wii Remote... it's all good. I'm not a big horror-adventure guy, but that game sounds like it'll just cheer me up.

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Alex's got some sort of bug - his appetite isn't intact and he's got a little bit of a temperture. I've got the allergy headache, so my head's somewhere else. Seems like the guys are out of it in this house. Hopefully it'll go away soon.

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Finally watched "Pan's Labyrinth" after reading about all the acclaim, and I'd have to say that it was a really good movie, but was somehow marketed as something different. I think the fantasy part of it was played up a lot in the ads, and yeah, it's a big part of the movie, but the true essence of the movie is far less fantastical, and actually quite grim and dark. But definitely a good one to catch in your lifetime.

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June 29 is somewhat a big day. iPhone's coming out. Sicko is coming out. And Ratatouille is coming out. I'll only be able to indulge in one of those.

No Tattoo for You, Junior!

No Tattoo for You, Junior!, originally uploaded by nloi.

Zoe and Daddy's Hand

Zoe and Daddy's Hand, originally uploaded by nloi.

This was in a Toy Store.

This was in a Toy Store., originally uploaded by nloi.

I wonder how the employees "plan."

Squiggles

Squiggles, originally uploaded by nloi.

How many shapes can you find?

We Want the Funk

Well, it's been a while since I posted, mostly because I've been a bit down on myself. The old job opening closed down on me as fast as it opened - apparently I was passed over because someone had more call center experience. Which is fine. What I didn't care for was that it should've been apparent from the resumes that I was not as experienced. The one day they had me go in to sit in with a rep for half an hour plus the company tour was just mean. It brought my hopes up and made me think that I was a shoo-in. So. That's that.

I applied for a different position at Nintendo, and one at a film post-production place. Hopefully I'll hear from someone, because I'm starting to get nightmares about it. Well, not nightmares per se, but certainly bothersome dreams that plague my restfulness. I dreamt that my wife had to go into church to steal collections, it was that bad. I think last night I dreamt about skipping classes, or being late for them. Fairly popular recurring dream of mine, missing classes, forgetting where my classes are, forgetting to do homework. And its been 6 years since I've been out of school.

Father's Day was pretty good to me today - no big event, and my present was already in my hands. I got myself a cell phone with prepaid service from T-mobile, which is, you know, boring. But the phone is awesome. I'm dorking out on how awesome it is. It's not iPhone awesome, and it doesn't have anything really fancy - the photos are just VGA quality. video is choppy... but it is one skinny little phone. And it has bluetooth. I'm not one of them yuppies who want bluetooth for the stupid earpiece, but I've always been stuck with photos and videos on my phone that have nowhere to go. But not anymore! I just bluetooth the photos or video over to my ibook, and yay! I have it on my computer without racking up airtime costs!

But the superdork in me has me doing more than that. I've transferred my own ringtone and a dorktastic video onto the phone. I don't know why, but just having that makes me feel all powerful and almighty.

Anyway, the kids have been just good to me today, like Zoe giving me an envelope that has "H" scribbled on it, and in it, a magnetic letter "H"! And they've been pretty sweet too, just generally nice to me.

Watching Letterman with Michael Moore on DVR, so my mind's scattered. So I'm going to do that now.

Some old Videos

W.T.F.

Seriously, I rented Hello Kitty Animation Theater, and I think I'm watching the strangest episode ever.

There's this duck character, I'm sure he has a name and he's a nice tax-paying upstanding young duck, but he's just swallowed a fox, a ladder, a river, and wasps. Not violently, just told them it was more comfortable in their stomach, and they shrunk themselves, went into the duck's mouth, and the characters jumped into his mouth. Where they were lots of hearts, and it was, indeed, comfortable.

And of course, the best part was when the river went into the duck, kinda like a reverse throwing up deal whereby the whole river just got sucked into his mouth.

Oh my god, the guards just threw the duck into a freaking furnace. And the river came out his mouth and saved him.

And wasps just flew out of his mouth.

YEAH.