Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Jedi Kuonji's LiveJournal:

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Saturday, June 29th, 2002
6:42 pm	People who deserve to die... People who back into your car while you are not in it and then drive off without leaving any note as to who the are and how to get ahold of them are people who deserve to die. I hate people. (Comment on this)
12:15 am	I know, I know, I need to write more I don't update nearly often enough. I'd love to claim that my research into and constant battle against the vicious cow death squads has taken up most of my time but sadly that is not the case. Actually I have fallen far behind current cow events and this is very bad considering I am one of very few people who know about and believe in the danger that the cows represent. Perhaps over the 4th of July weekend I will have some spare time to devote to halting the cow menace. Anyway, the things that have been sucking up all my time lately are school and work. I recently took up a part time job to help offset some of the college expenses and so far it's going well. The down side to this is I will be mostly working the 11pm to 7am shift and will then have to go to class from 9am to noon. Sigh. Taking two classes in the summer is rougher then I had originally anticipated. I mean I knew I would have to spend more time outside of class working on projects and such but it never really dawned on me that between class, work, and study the some days would disappear before I really even noticed. Lately I have felt like I may have bitten off more than I can chew but I guess one rough summer isn't so bad. As far as class goes I am taking Calculus I and Computer Science II at the University of Iowa. Calc is interesting so far and I am very pleased that after a 8 year break from math I am finding it interesting again. CS2 is mostly dedicated to using java and focuses on program design and development. Keeping up with the pace of the class is kinda difficult because the professor teaching it sets a very fast pace and assumes that we sometimes know more then we really do. The rather disappointing CS1 class I had in the spring was a poor prepatory class for this one and I am having to spend much more time on assignments and reading texts then I really want to. Hopefully the code will become more familiar as time passes. Well on to more entertaining things. Movies I suggest seeing: The New Guy: This movie won't be one you treasure for years, in fact, you'll probably forget about it shortly after watching it. I feel it's worth a view though because it IS just a movie, nothing special. It's cute, the plot isn't anything unique but it is funny, and for anyone who has ever felt out of place in high school (either now or in the past) and dreamed of being "cool" it should put a smile on your face for a little while atleast. Vanilla Sky: Yes, I know it's been out for awhile but I have to admit the previews didn't do this one justice for me. I rented this a week or so ago and was very surprised at the quality of the plot, which for once, is the main driving force of the movie instead of special effects. Good acting and some off the wall twists will keep you guessing till the very end. Anime: Excel Saga: Insane doesn't even begin to describe this series. The first DVD is packed with five episodes and each is a mix of different humor types blended together to create one big joke. Even the packaging and FBI warning are not safe from the ravages of humor on the DVD. Since I never officially posted it before, here is my official "Must see" anime for anyone I indoctrinate into the anime universe: Akira Appleseed Ghost in the Shell Fist of the North Star Princess Mononoke Don't ask me about the origins of the list. Some are early ones I watched, some left me with a feeling of awe that returns whenever I think about them, only one really stands out over the others and that's Akira. I hate Aikra. I loathe Akira. I think Akira sucks. There, I said it. Yes, that's right, I dare to blaspheme the anime of all anime!!! I'm surely doomed for all eternity now. But, it IS Akira, and that is enough reason for anyone to watch it at least once. Anyway that's enough for now. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, May 28th, 2002
12:44 am	But wait there's more...maybe Is is Sunday? I think so. The days don't seem to matter much anymore. That thought came to me this last Sunday for no particular reason. The words jumped into my mind just before I went to bed. For some reason they stuck though and some part of my mind spoke up and said "write this down, you will need it eventually." I still don't quite know what to do with them but I was rather surprised when I saw the title I gave to the MS Word document I saved them as: A Beginning. A Beginning to what I wonder? What story is hiding away in my head waiting to be triggered by these words? As I read them over again I feel a strange depression settle over me. It is as if somewhere within these words there is a hidden meaning waiting for me to discover. I can see it at the edge of my vision taunting me. It is not a hostile taunt or a frustrating taunt just a slight tickle sitting there in the back of my mind calling out "come find me." Somehow it is peaceful and comforting in addition to being depressing and elusive. I finished that last sentence and sat for nearly five minutes just staring at my monitor and thinking if I had anything more to say. But I don't think I do right now. I will sit and ponder some more and perhaps a few more words will reveal themselves to me. Is it Sunday? I think so. The days don't seem to matter much anymore. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, April 23rd, 2002
1:41 pm	I've finally figured it out, TV sucks Television dating shows and reality type shows in general are amazing things. No matter how stupid the concept for a show, no matter how extreme the torture will be from the show, there is always an abundance of people ready to put themselves on show for the nations amusement. As my friend John put it: “I don’t care who wins on the show, I just want to see how stupid these people are for doing all this crap.” I think that sums it up rather well. I know it is why I watch shows like Elimidate, Survivor, and even Temptation Island. These shows are not my favorites or even close to being in the top fifty favorites of mine yet I am still fascinated enough by them to tune in regularly. Even though I enjoy watching these shows I can’t help but think how it is kind of pathetic that some of the most popular entertainment in America is watching people compete to make the biggest asses out of themselves. Have we so exhausted every other form of television entertainment that we are left with only this? Yes. Sitcoms have become bland and humorless. ’s wildest videos shows are on a dozen channels and endlessly repeat the same style of events. Hell, the ideas for shows are so short that I have half a dozen channels devoted to nothing but reruns. Maybe the problem isn’t in what television is putting out but rather what we, the audience, are doing. I have a satellite dish the receives around 170 different channels yet I have, on more then one occasion, found myself passing through all the channels and finding “nothing on”. So what do I do? I bitch about how no one has any good ideas for shows. Next time I find that happening I am going to get up and get out and do something instead of just sitting there watching a show I could care less about. Perhaps I will read a book, maybe I will go ride my new bike around just for the fun of it, or maybe I will take up some kind of hobby that involves more than just vacantly staring at my computer screen or TV. It is my hope that doing this will breathe a little life back into me and maybe prod my mind out of the stupor it has been in for the last seven years. Plus maybe if I stop watching the crap shows on television and just focus on the one or two shows I truly enjoy I will find watching TV an entertaining undertaking again instead of a form of self inflicted torture. If watching Temptation Island isn’t torture then I don’t know what is. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, April 13th, 2002
12:36 am	Ni! which "monty python and the holy grail" character are you? this quiz was made by colleen (Comment on this)
Tuesday, April 2nd, 2002
2:03 pm	EverCrack Kills http://www.jsonline.com/news/state/mar02/31536.asp This is why I hate the world sometimes. Yes the game is addicting but it isn't the game developers fault if people play it too much to the exclusion of everything else. This is just another example of people trying to place the blame of a tragedy on anything but the people involved. It is a tragedy that someone took their own life over EverQuest, but face facts, the person in the news story also had many other problems in their life, any or all of which could have contributed to the suicide. The game could have been the catalyst, sure, but maybe it was a movie he just saw or a tv show, or the color of the paint on the wall, or anything. In this case it was most likely the game, but that still doesn't change the fact that the game didn't pull the trigger. Is it really so bad that people have an escape that they enjoy? What is so great about interacting with the "real" world anyway? I really like playing everquest, it keeps me from getting bored, it helps me save money because I don't have to go out all the time, and I have made several friends in the game. What? Friends online? That is nothing new, for years people have used chat rooms and message programs to meet people online and make friends. I have several friends online that I have never met in person but would gladly help out (and have in some cases) just because I have known them for so long. Lets look at news on chat rooms, when did they make headlines? When a few people started getting others to meet them in real life and caused those people harm. This everquest debacle is another example of a harmless media provided for peoples entertainment getting a bad rep because of some negative event. If you can't tell I have no patience for this sort of thing. If you play a game for 36 straight hours (longest I have gone is around 30 myself, lol) you should expect to have some problems, especially if that binge is on the end of a several week, many hours a day playing fest. It has happened to me before, I played so much eq all I wanted to do was play, I would lose sleep just to play a few more minutes, hell, I was playing it in my sleep too! But, I also realized that my work was suffering because of it so I did the smart thing, I took a break, in this case it was a six month break. Now that I know how bad it can get I know how to recognize the signs that say I am playing too much. I don't blame the game for making me stay up late, have some weird dreams, or makeing some of my work a little slow, I blame myself for letting myself get so involved in a game that I let it effect my "real" life. That is my point. People need to accept responsibility for their actions and deal with any consequences from those actions. Yes, it is possible to be addicted to the internet or a game. I think there is enough evidence to support that fact. So is a warning label on a game going to do any good? No. Think about it, there are warning labels on cigaretts and how many people still smoke in spite of the warning? The warning label will help one group of people only: the game makers. It's as good as any other disclaimer. If something like this were to happen again and the game had a warning, then the company would be totally free because they warned people that addiction was possible. I don't think any kind of warning is necessary but maybe there should be one just to cut down on some of this negativity about addictiveness. But if eq gets a warning what next? Should every chat program have a warning on it? Should internet explorer get a warning that says too much net browsing could potentially be bad for you? Maybe we should just put the warning on the computer and save everyone else the trouble. Here is something you won't see in the news about everquest: I know several families that play everquest together. They are all hanging out in the same room talking while they play and online they group their characters together and have a great time. Why won't you see that, because it isn't negative. So what is eq? It is a game that effects everyone differently, in one case it probably helped someone decide to kill themself, in another case it gave a family something fun to do together. I think the important point to this whole rant is that the game is not the cause of whatever happens, it is the people playing the game who made the choices; the game is the linking factor but not the ultimate decision maker. On a side note, I find it amusing but not surprising to see DnD mentioned in the article. Of course they couldn't resist to tie DnD to some crazy roleplaying game tragedy. In this case though should DnD be praised for promoting people to interact with other people "in real life" or is DnD still the cause of all roleplaying game evil? I hate people. (Comment on this)
12:19 pm	Pre-Qualified to kiss my @$$ Sears. The last time I tried to apply for a Sears cars was a few years back, before I had real credit cards. I thought it would be nice to get one so I could buy a few things with it from their electronics dept. Anyway, I think over the years I applied for and was turned down around six times. Now, today, I receive a notice that I am among a select group (outstanding credit) that has been pre-qualified for a Sears card. I find that to be terribly amusing, when I could use a card they turn me down and now that I have absolutely no desire at all to have one they will give me one. I should send Sears a letter thanking them for making my day a little brighter with their comedic letter. (Comment on this)
Friday, March 29th, 2002
9:25 pm	Easy to confuse I just saw a comercial for a home pregnancy test, Clear Blue Easy, that was based on the idea that the test now had even easier little lines to read. Now I may be insane, but if the companies really wanted to make the test easy to read why wouldn't just use the word yes? I don't think anyone would be confused by that, or I would hope not anyway. "Honey, it says yes...does that mean yes I am pregnant or yes I am not pregnant?" Sometimes I really wonder if the people who design products like those actually think about what they are trying to sell before they make it. (Comment on this)
Friday, March 8th, 2002
12:59 pm	Another scam in action and the phone company still sucks Today I found out that the visa card I have from Providian will never be the good credit card I was hoping it would. Last year I had called to have my annual fee removed from the card and, after explaining to the rep I spoke to my reason (which was that other cards did not require a fee), my fee was gone. Or so I thought. Turns out that Providian will not make changes to their annual fee policy once it is set. The rep I spoke to today told me that they "cannot change the original annual fee agreement". The fee waiver I got last year was a one time only deal; something that the person I spoke to at the time conveniently didn't mention to me. This kinda pisses me off because I remember telling the guy that if my fee wasn't taken away I would get another card. So for any of you looking to get a credit card, avoid Providian. For those of us for which it is too late, my advice is this: go get a new card. That is what I will be doing. I guess the only upside to this is that I have a year to find a better card company since the fee is already applied. Speaking of large companies sucking, Qwest (still my phone company but not for much longer) left me a message to call them. Turns out I didn't pay my phone bill last month. That isn't very surprising to me considering they didn't bother sending me a bill. Again. The rep I spoke to earlier assured me that I would be getting my next bill very soon and that I would have until April 1 to pay it so there will be no problem. Well I think there is a problem. This is the second month of service with Qwest and it is also the second month I have had problems getting my bill. It's okay though, because once I pay off this next bill I am going to close out my Qwest account and switch to whatever the other phone provider in the area is. (Comment on this)
Thursday, March 7th, 2002
10:34 pm	I can't spell but pay pal still sucks I was having some problems making an address change to my pay pal accout. Every time I entered the address I recieved the error message about my city, state, and zip being invalid. I was getting quite angry about it until I realized that I have been spelling coralville as coarlville. Made me feel kind of dumb, but I won't forget how to spell it anytime soon. I am still pissed about it tho because I contacted pay pal's supposed customer service 3 times about the problem. On two of the occassions I supplied the address I wanted to add. I also asked the second and third times to please not send me a standard form responce email about how to change my address as that wasn't the problem. All three times I received the same email; this tells me pay pal doesn't actually read the content of the emails you send them, they just analyze the subject. I really hope I never have a real problem using their service because I will basicly be fucked. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, March 4th, 2002
5:29 pm	It's like a dream come true! http://homokaasu.org/killeveryone/ Thanks to slamm for this site. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
2:23 pm	Vampires for Dummies I once saw a book in B Dalton book store that was titled: Vampires for Dummies. Yea, I got a good laugh from the title too. I was looking for some books on amazon.com today and thought I'd do a search for that title just to see what people had to say about the book. I entered "vampires for dummies" into the amazon search tool and got the following disturbing results: Best Matches: (magazines) Sports Illustrated for Kids Feng Shui: For Modern Living Foreign Policy Close Matches: (books) Windows XP for Dummies Home Buying for Dummies Excel 2000 for Windows for Dummies Normally I would blame something like this on mankinds greatest enemy, the cow, but even cows aren't this messed up. I think I have come up with an analysis for each of these cases though. Sport Illustrated for Kids: Kids are vampires, they don't suck your blood but they do drain you of money, patience, time, sanity, etc. Feng Shui: Life without the balance and harmony of Feng Shui drains your soul just as the vampire drains your blood. Foreign Policy: The nations of the world drain the United States of resources very similiar to the way the vampire drains blood. It also wouldn't surprise me to learn that the makers of foreign policy are partners with vampires or are themselves vampires. Windows XP / Excel 2000 for Dummies: Bill Gates is a vampire. Home Buying for Dummies: Another reference to draining money like blood. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, February 25th, 2002
6:52 pm	Still alive It's been awhile since I last wrote here, not so much because I have been busy, mostly just lazy and distracted. College takes up quite a bit of my time now; I've almost survived the first essay for rheortic (final revision is due this Thursday), managed to get through the first test in computer science (though the results won't be up till next week), and I hope to do well on my first pre calc test this wednesday. I think I am pretty lucky, especially for my first semester, to have all classes I enjoy and teachers that I like too. I talk to others in my classes and hear all kinds of horror stories about the class material or how terrible the teacher is. My personal favorite so far is the english lit class that is taught by a teacher that can barely speak english. I think next semester I will hedge my bets by taking 15 or so credit hours of classes rather then the 12 I am required to have for full time status. That way if I have a class I truely hate then I can drop it and still be considered full time. Might be safest that way I think. The times I am not in class or doing homework is pretty much taken up with the game Everquest. I still enjoy it even after almost 2 and a half years of playing. Sure sometimes I really despise the game but over all it is pretty good, and lets face it, how many games can you name that have enough material to keep your interest for so long a time. I do need to cut back on playing so much though before it starts to effect my homework. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend the anime Trigun. I just finished watching it today (I have the dvd box set, 8 discs total, 26 episodes) and was very impressed with the animation and story lines. There are not many series that pack the kind of punch Trigun has; I can only think of one off the top of my head: Cowboy Bebop (another must see show). I'll try to get in here a little more often. Kinda pointless to have a journal and not use it, lol. (Comment on this)
Thursday, February 7th, 2002
10:50 am	When did every phone company in America go to shit? I had hoped that when I escaped the evil empire of Verizon my phone troubles would be over, but no, now my current phone company, Qwest, is demonstrating they are retarded too. I received a notice in the mail today that I have a past due ammount of $78.29 and if I did not pay it by the 14th of Febuary my phone would be shut off. Considering that this is my first month of service and I was quoted a price of around $40 a month for the service I selected, I have a hard time believing that I owe 78 bucks. Also, I have not yet even received a bill yet so how the fuck am I supposed to know wether the charges are right or not or even that I was supposed pay by a certain date in the first place; maybe next month I will call Miss Cleo and ask her to find out. This is really how I wanted to start out service with a new phone company. The only thing I can say for Qwest is that they have customer service reps that know what they are doing, I spoke with one about the above situation and she had a copy of my current charges sent to me and made a note on the account explaining the situation. I get my cable modem on the 25th of this month, I am really considering dumping regular phone service completely and getting a cell phone. With a cell phone I could maybe get a plan that actually has a set monthly cost and could set up an auto pay plan so I wouldn't have to call Miss Cleo to find out my phone bill ammount. My mind is starting to wander into other areas of annoyance beyond shitty phone companies so I'd better go before this turns into "When did everything in America go to shit" (Comment on this)
Monday, February 4th, 2002
7:26 pm	More stupid business Mediacom. These people need some help. Mediacom is the local cable company and cable modem provider where I live. I have been trying to call them for several weeks now and every time I call I get a busy signal. Not a message saying there will be a loooooooong wait, just a good old fashioned busy signal. I have a problem with this. How can you run a business like a cable company and not have enough phone service to handle customer service calls? Worse yet, how is anyone supposed to get new service if they can't even get through? I am attempting to combat their evil though, I went out and bought a new speaker phone so I can just hang up and redial until I win, if that is even possible. I think the reason this bothers me so much is because I lived in San Diego, CA and we could always get through to the cable company, it might have taken a couple hours on hold but we did at least get to the being put on hold part. There are a hell of alot more people in San Diego then there are in Iowa City... (Comment on this)
Wednesday, January 30th, 2002
1:55 pm	The mac hates me I used a mac for the first time today to do my first project for computer science. It started off well enough, I got everything set up and things were progressing quite nicely until I went to run the program I had written. This is when the computer locked up. I think it could sense my dislike of it and was trying to torture me. I decided that the ammount of satisfaction I would get from smashing the computer wasn't worth the ammount of problems it would cause me, so I decided to ask how to reset the evil thing and try again. The second time through everything went well. I can't really say yet wether I really hate using it or not, I think it is still too new, but I can definately say that I am leaning toward strong dislike at this point. Maybe next time I will try to hold back the obvious dislike for the mac that I radiate and it won't lock up on me...or maybe I will just bring my baseball bat. (Comment on this)
1:42 pm	Weirdness Had an odd dream last night. I call it odd because I could remember it when I woke up, usually I forget anything I was dreaming about rather quickly after I am awake. Anyway the dream was of me and someone else, I couldn't tell who, walking around at my grandparents farm. It was night out yet everything was clear. We looked up and saw a huge meteor standing still in the night sky, not casting light or anything, but still visiable. Then smaller meteors started falling everywhere; the person and I began to run only everything seemed to be in slow motion and eventually we couldn't move foreward at all. The meteor was still hovering up in the sky and sending pieces raining down all around and I remember for some reason I pulled whoever it was with me to the ground and tried to shield them from the falling pieces even though I knew if one hit us it wouldn't do any good. Eventually the pieces got smaller and fewer until they stopped completely. The very last one crashed into the hood of a vehicle sitting in the driveway, leaving the hood with a huge dent in the center of it. My grandmother then showed up outside and asked if everything was okay, that's when I woke up. It was still about an hour before I had set my alarm but I couldn't get back to sleep so I just lay there thinking about how different the dream was. When my alarm went off and I got out of bed I realized that that was the best night of sleep I've had in months. I am not too sure what the dream meant, if anything, but I am curious why I remembered it in such detail; even now I can easily recall the whole thing. I am also curious if I will start remembering more dreams and if my remembering is because of my return to school and my return to using my mind on several different topics rather then just using enough to get through another monotonous day of work. I think I'd like that. (Comment on this)
Friday, January 25th, 2002
1:52 pm	Have mercy. I don't know what to do! It's so painful, but I have to touch it...have to use it for my computer science class. Just the thought of what it might do to me is enough to make me want to cower in terror under my bed. I can see it haunting my dreams and seeking a way into my thoughts, trying to corrupt me like it has so many others! The only consolation is that I only have to use it for one class and can do most of the work in safety, away from its evil presence. Pray for me, I need strength to get through this trial, strength to carry on and perhaps one day rid myself of its awful taint. Yes, that's right. I have to use a mac to do my computer science projects. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, January 22nd, 2002
1:26 pm	College Begins For those of you who don't know I started college at the University of Iowa today. Since the whole college thing is new to me I though I'd post up my day since I found it to be rather amusing. 6:00 AM: Alarm clock goes off, my brain flashes back to the terror of work but then I realize that I'm not going to work, just to school...I calm down and stagger up. 6:45 AM: Normal morning routine is done and it's time to go let the car warm up a little. What the hell? It's 37 degrees out...this is definately not normal but I'm not gonna complain. 6:55 AM: Time to head to school. 7:10 AM: Car is parked, plenty of time to get to my first class which starts at 7:30. 7:15 AM: I enter the classroom (after wandering a bit trying to find it) and discover someone actually got there before me. 7:30 AM: TA enters the class, at this point I'd like to note that the entire class has arrived and there are three whole people in it, myself included. TA starts telling us what to expect in Computer Science I (the class). To sum it up the class could be renamed All About JAVA. 7:37 AM: Class ends slightly early. The three of us in the class look at each other with some surprise and wonder what to do now. Jeremy (one of the other people in the class) and I decide to go camp out the local copy store where the text book for the class is being printed and buy our copies. 7:55 AM: After seeing Jeremy and I standing around outside for the last five minutes, the manager of the store takes pity on us and opens early. We buy our books. 8:00 AM: Jeremy and I part company, he heads to work, I head off to sit in the classroom for my next class: Elementary Functions (math). 8:20 AM: Other people start to arrive for the class, I am reassured that I am in the right place. 8:30 AM: The professor enters, class begins. During the class I learn that while the text being used is new, the prof knows the material well; he then demonstrates this by going over some stuff that I half remember from high school. My initial impression of the class is that it is exactly where I need to be, the first part seems to be alot of review of things I kinda recall knowing about which then rolls into some material that I don't remember ever knowing. 9:20 AM: Class ends. We are told there will be a quiz on friday but it will be on simple stuff...I got a bad feeling when he said that. 9:30 AM: After some confusion I find the room for my Rherotic class...or so I thought. My name wasn't on the roster. I go through class and once it was over the teacher and I figure out that the reason I wasn't on the roster is because I am not in the class. I was supposed to be across the hall. Today the most important thing I learned was the difference between 2 and 3. I am in room 3...if I had actually paid attention instead of assuming, I would have noticed that all the even numbered rooms are on one side with odd on the other; what I did was see the number 4 and then just went into the room next to it on the assumption that it would be 3. 10:30 AM: I go buy my books, lucky for me I find all of them used. 11:00 AM: Time to go home. (Comment on this)
Saturday, January 19th, 2002
4:04 pm	Chick-Fil-Evil "Starting with a new corporate site later this year, Chick-fil-A will launch an aggressive interactive strategy that brings cows online and leaves the competition, once again, wondering what just happened." Yea thats just what we need: cows online. Chick-fil-a is announcing to the world that they are pure evil. They have been corrupted by the cows. I am afraid that the only way to deal with them is their utter destruction. So for those of you who enjoy their food, although it's terrible, I suggest you get your last meal from them soon, before the end comes...either from those of us attempting to save the world from cow domination or from the cows when they are through using the company to further their evil plans. (Comment on this)