dmxrated

It should say even more when, originally, I actually included tidbits that most people would consider too trivial to read without any bearing on subsequent events, such as one scene I randomly noticed on TV shortly before Dad took us to see A Bug's Life, that I would eventually filter out one day in December 2003.

That said, I noticed this on Wikipedia yesterday while verifying that movie's title:

5-year-old twins Sarah and Julie (Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Olsen) are sweet but naughty, to the frustration of their single mother, Rhonda (Cynthia Geary). After overhearing her say she needs a break from them, they decide to run away to great-grandmother's house in Edgemont for Christmas.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Grandmother%27s_House_We_Go

The line I heard was about how Rhonda needed a break from her kids and stuff.

https://youtu.be/B-3apzeH0PA?si=vU8R-I6dXHDshGTR&t=86

So it was the scene that kickstarts the plot of the same movie Marie and I would see a later scene of, where the twins ride in Santa's sleigh and command two "reindeer" to fly, only for the nose and antlers to fall off and reveal them as horses when they run through a roadblock or something.

Well, most importantly in any case, here's how I started to keep track of day-by-day events in the first place, as I would describe more than a year after hosting Chronicles of 7th Grade:

https://dmxrated.dreamwidth.org/337690.html

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Brian came over unexpectedly last night, and specified when I asked, that he will likely be here until Sunday. Good thing yesterday was my last day working for this week, with my next one on Monday.

Marie had wound up sick two nights ago, chalking it up to some reuben sandwiches Mom had made for dinner that night, that didn't agree with her stomach. Too bad yesterday was my only other day besides Thursday, during her stay (not counting her departure on Friday), that I didn't have work.

We were planning to eat out somewhere, and I had a gift card from Aunt Marie for Buffalo Wild Wings, but obviously, we had to call that off.

I did watch some TV with her and Dad, though. At some point, Dad put on The Wrecking Crew, and we watched that almost halfway through before Marie needed a break.

Early on, someone in the film mentioned how he does not talk about his dreams at night, and Marie related to that, saying that she refrains from that as per some advice Dad once gave her. Not sure why Dad would dispense a piece like that, because among other things, I do remember that time months ago when Mom told me her dream where I started a kitchen fire and how, and I also recall Dad himself mentioning way back in '07, some dream he had where I had a bottle of whiskey.

When Dad paused the film, he took then to look for some ginger ale, but must not have looked specifically where I've already known it to reside. She brought up some Coca-Cola instead, but I went down there and spotted four cans of Canada Dry still bundled together, and brought those up.

-

Shortly after I went upstairs, Marie called me down to fix lunch for Dad. She managed to put an English muffin in the toaster oven, but didn't feel well enough to do more than that, and I had to ensure that the two halves get nice and toasty before applying some tuna.

I then put some of that same tuna on some rye bread for my own lunch, and followed that up with that taco for a snack.

As it turns out, the shell is the same kind of thin cardboard used for compact packaging, and you're supposed to open it to eat what's inside, which includes gummy bears, gummy raspberries, gummy greenbeans or something, and this great long gummy noodle comprising the "salsa". (Mom later told me I could've taken a picture, and I thought she had a good point there.)

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Yesterday afternoon was when we'd rewatch episode 6 of How Heavy are the Dumbells You Lift?, after I had been busy with stuff long enough for Crunchyroll to sign me out.

After it ended, I brought something up with her that I had found myself thinking about after yesterday's entry.

Basically, it's funny how selective memory can be, even between similar events. Along with that second viewing of Straight At Ya, there were a bunch of other films me and my classmates had seen across several different classes, but I never memorized the dates of even during 7th itself. I recall Mrs. Alfieri putting part of some movie on for us that I don't remember the title or premise of (English), several documentaries we saw in biology during the fourth quarter (one of which at one point listed a bunch of things like a pair of tennis shoes and a suit of armor, probably in a comparison to something), a few videos in health covering things like fitness and puberty, and another covering some post-accident operation very late in the year. Another near-end video we saw in health was this 1973 Disney short called VD: Attack Plan. And in history, I recall Mrs. Darson showing us this film about the Sand Creek Massacre (never got the title; could've been Soldier Blue, but I can't seem to find anything I remember specifically, such as someone shooting four tea cups or something) over a few days, and then Roots weeks later (yes, for some reason, we covered slavery and the Civil War, when the country was about half its size today, at some point after the Indian Wars).

Well, I guess it shouldn't surprise me, since I didn't describe the events of every episode we kids saw of a given TV show, even if I did remember them personally. I also mentioned before, not remembering what day our whole grade was called to the activity court to see a play of Oliver Twist when I covered that of one about the Holocaust, and a few real-life things I never committed to memory (comment was Mom's). Having been thinking about these things, I also suddenly remembered this morning, such events as Mr. Westberg sharing some kind of cake with all of us, and Mrs. Bandows stopping to chat briefly with someone carrying a baby on our way back to House 1N near the end of the school year (before the end-of-period bell (actually a 5-second electronic bloop) actually went off; I stopped with her, but didn't talk).

Anyway, I showed Mom the entry, along with the two things I linked to, before she headed downstairs.

(While reading the Co7G entries in that back-entry from LiveJournal, she asked me what I meant about how Mrs. Bonnie "would look good" with a big nose. Chalk that up to Snowboard Kids, from when Brian rented that game months earlier, although this was also just over one before his friend James would get his own copy for Christmas to share with us.)

Created two new tags, for Getter Love!! and Chronicles of 7th Grade. Spent this past week combing through this blog to apply them, so that I can compile key entries to show Ozzy.

Recently, Ozzy promised to send me a copy of his translation patch if he is somehow unable to complete that before December. With the above task out of the way, I asked him for that, and he told me not only is there a crash bug to iron out, but it's actually nearing completion now that he's past an especially troublesome task involving two 3D graphics. I told him I'll request an update on Halloween, and he assured me that he should be done before then.

Well, I guess having had my playthrough series for that game delayed from my previous computer breaking down might've actually paid off in one way. This should also free me up to focus on what needs to be done next with Starbound.

Went to Bobbique with Brian, Janine, and Marie last night. On the way there, we passed right by Dad, who was obviously coming home from work for the night.

We also noticed these color-changing lights on the front of the Jesus Is Lord Church, indicating some kind of party going on there. We then remembered the days when we used to go to Sunday school at the Yaphank Presbyterian Church every week, throughout the year I had been in 7th grade. Brian remembered when I used to emphasize the words "Hell" and "ass" while we were reciting something. I asked if he or Marie remembered that Christmas pageant that we had been part of (December 20, 1998), in which my part was explaining the tale of Babushka, the Russian equivalent to Santa Claus.

Brian also remembered a bunch of jokes that Pastor Ralph used to tell, but I told him that all I remember (aside from summer camp and Bible school, which took place at the same place) was watching him drone on and on for an hour each Sunday, and then staying upstairs with a few of the older kids to listen to him some more. All the little kids went into the basement to do arts and crafts, but I mentioned that even that wouldn't have been much better, seeing that video games were the only thing I really cared about at the time. Brian then replied that he was the same way as a kid, and that he used to feel the same way about soccer. I then mentioned that both of us used to play piano as well, but neither of us had any passion for it, and we both stopped at different points in life.

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Ordered a burger with bacon, lettuce, tomatoes, and a pickle, with a side dish of macaroni and cheese. Not much to say about our time actually there. Brian, Marie, and Janine just kinda talked amongst one another about stuff, while I couldn't help but pay attention to some lady playing various songs on an acoustic guitar.

Last night, Dad was watching TV, and he came across the movie My Dog Skip on channel 3. Mom asked if it was that while she was making dinner, and I came out to watch it with him. He soon left, and I turned it off to go back to something I was doing on the computer, but then Mom finished making me dinner and turned it back on. I decided to watch the rest of it from there on, although Mom couldn't bear to watch the part where ( spoilers )

Mom also noticed that the main character was played by Frankie Muniz, the same person who played the titular character of Malcolm in the Middle. While we were watching, there was also a commercial for My Name Is Earl, which only specified it to air on "weekends". It didn't specify the time.

Anyway, I remember seeing that movie during Spring Break of 2000. Mom took me, Matthew, and Marie out to see it, at the theater that used to be just down the road (now gone), exactly 72 weeks and five days after Dad took us to see A Bug's Life. (Brian was on a Boy Scouts trip at the time, so he couldn't come with us.)

(I did read the book as well, two years earlier, but there's not much to say about that.)

That virus we just had seems to have resolved itself just last night. That'll be one less task for Brian to take care of when he comes home for the holidays.

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Just completed my second copy of Pokemon Ranger: Guardian Signs yesterday, and got my Action Replay. Still have yet to try out my A.R., and I decided to first take care of the Darkrai mission in Pokemon Ranger: Shadows of Almia. As it turns out, though, someone started over in that game, and now I have yet to complete that game too, before I can play the mission.

In any case, I just completed five missions in the main game, and Melissa said that she probably won't be able to meet up with me anytime before Christmas. Plus, we are supposedly going to meet Mom's family in New Jersey the day after Christmas, so if I can get Cousin Adam to bring his DS with him, I should be able to take care of everything then, which would negate any need to meet up with Melissa for the time being.

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Got a bunch of Christmas cards from people over the past week. Just last night, I noticed two photographs on the kitchen counter, one of the grandchildren of Grandpa Bob's friend Elaine; and the other of the Mandery kids, David, Steven, and Dana (the last of whom Marie used to be friends with), now grown up. We never met Elaine, and haven't had contact with the Mandery family in years, but Mom told me that it's just a way to keep in touch.

Kinda like if I were to send a card to Matthew. Then something dawned on me. We recently got a card from the Bandows family as well, and just a year ago, I had meant to send a copy of Chronicles of 7th Grade to them as a gift. While I'm at it, I might as well print a copy for Matthew as well, seeing how much of a role he played in my life back then.

Mom told me that we didn't have enough stationery, though. Also, she tried looking up his current address, and failed. Even the WhitePages website is out for some reason, but I'm gonna have to make my own attempt to find his address this morning.

Got to Stonybrook early yesterday, but Natsue still had to make some preparations outside her classroom. We only had time to attempt a translation of my fourth MMZ clip before getting started with the regular stuff. She was able to help me surmise what most of what Saya said translated into, but she was unable to figure out what the line "Yuuhou, bouzou, munemune!" would mean. She assumed that one would have to know what's going on in the game to figure it out. (All the more reason to create new, more complete footage of the game.)

I brought up Mom's suggestion of paying someone to translate the entire game for me at the end of class, and Natsue suggested that I come up with some kind of plan to show Sato-sensei next week. She has a very busy lifestyle, and most likely, so does everyone else at Stonybrook who gives Japanese lessons.

In any case, I have made good use of the translations and applied annotations to the first half of the clip (same one that Chelle helped me with the second half of half a year ago).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vi3nFZqbE6I

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Brian brought home some bagels two days ago on the way home from somewhere, but Mom told me that they were raisin and pumpernickel. I only like salt and sesame, so she drove me to a bagel deli on the way home from Japanese. I got a salt one (which I had them put cream cheese on) and a Yoohoo (since I still had a few singles already on me). It all came out to $3.96.

On the way home from there, Mom asked me why I couldn't just put the cream cheese on it at home. (Didn't really think of that, or whether or not we still had any.) She also commented that food must be such a highlight of my life, and I responded that that's exactly why I have Kagami as an userpic for it. She asked me what "a Kagami" is, and I told her that it's actually one of the girls' names from Lucky Star.

Ate my lunch when we got home, and then pulled up the entry where I listed my userpics. She had a look at them, and commented that she never saw me use Link's pic. True, Link is one of my lesser-used pics among others, but I actually did use him once recently (September 24, to be exact, and not the first time either. Besides, Chelle also has some pics that she doesn't use nearly as often as others, such as Shiru/Zaha).

Speaking of Kagami, I should also mention that I did show another clip to Mom weeks ago starring the same character. In that case, I was kinda comparing myself to her, in that neither of us take very kindly to teasing.

http://youtu.be/awK0PXup580?t=4m24s

(Miyuki in the next scenelet could be used to represent either Mom or Dr. Perret when either of them try to explain to me why Mom and Dad tease me the way they do. I usually tend to go along with it then.)

Wanna know what else is cute/funny? Two shots of her in episode 4. Just look at her mouth when she says:



"Yeah, see what I'm saying?", and

"...is exactly what I'd tell everyone!"

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Mom suggested that I have another day off from work yesterday, so I could be home with Brian.

Later on, Mom and Brian noticed Daniel and Peter Lupfer trick-or-treating with some girls down the opposite side of Long Island Avenue from us. I anticipated their arrival by getting an index card to write down the link to this blog and a promise of "something interesting" once they comment on it.

For Halloween, Mom had gotten some York's peppermint patties and some Reese's miniature peanut butter cups (milk and dark chocolate). She suggested that I get rid of the dark peanut butter cups first, because she and Dad don't really like those, but when the aforementioned trick-or-treaters came around, I ended up just giving each of them three pieces indiscriminately.

I never got the girls' names, but their mother, along with Daniel, came down our driveway just seconds after I gave them the candy. The mother (who told me she lives next door to the Lupfers) introduced herself as Cathy, and told me the names of two of her daughters (one was Emily; can't remember the other one).

Daniel then brought up that time just weeks ago that I chatted with his mom and gave her the link to my blog. He said that he still has yet to actually read Chronicles of 7th Grade and show her how to leave signed comments, but I gave him the index card anyway, just as a reminder.

In any case, here are some links to the same entries that I linked to before:

http://dmxrated.livejournal.com/2009/05/15/ (First day of school that year, which is where Co7G begins.)

And, since Halloween was just yesterday, here's the entry where I walked through Halloween of that year:

http://dmxrated.livejournal.com/2009/06/02/

(Those kids were the only batch of trick-or-treaters we got this year.)

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Brian finally got around to looking into that thing with my program. He claimed that EZ Grabber supposedly came with some kind of disk with the same title, and that Ulead Video Studio 10 SE was just a peripheral to it. He and I looked in all the computer drawers for the disk, but with no luck. While we ate dinner shortly afterwards, he suggested that he might've accidentally taken it with him back upstate after looking at it half a year ago.

This morning, though, I've just noticed a program titled EZ Grabber. Different from Ulead, but it does look familiar now that I've just seen it again. No disk in the drive, though, so I should probably ask Brian just to make sure that this is what we should have really been looking for in the first place.

Received yesterday: Kanon, disk 4

Received from Ebay: Makeruna! Makendou 2 (Playstation)

Anyway, today covers the very last entry of Chronicles of 7th Grade and the epilogue. For those of you who'd like to read (or re-read) Co7G from the very beginning, start from May 15, 2009.

( The last entry! )

And now it's time to play GETTER LOVE!!

This marks the first of three weeks that me and the other kids spent at summer camp, and also introduces cute girl Gretchen Theune. Co7G is rapidly dwindling to an end, and will end when the last day of Camp ended.

( Read more... )

Back to the present.

I've completed Super Mario RPG yesterday, so I won't be playing anything for today or the following three days. Instead, I will be doing the exercises that I skipped in Japanese in Mangaland volumes 2 and 3.

Mom took me and Marie to the beach yesterday afternoon. She was unable to find her bikini top, and I was unable to find my sandals. She had to go into the water with her blouse on, and I could see her bra through it. The waves were much calmer than they were the previous several visits.

Coming home, Mom noticed a round white rock on the sand, and I decided to take it home. Mom suggested I put it in her garden when we got home, and I did.