one more time! lets try and see if this works eh?
- AbsoluteZERO

J-Pop Invasion Desu Ka!?

Well its a gosh darn Japanese invasion we got on our hands!

and i couldnt be more happy!

first off we have the second foray into the american music arena by Utada Hikaru, or as her loyal fans know her, Hikki

her first american album (circa 2003) was met with... risistance... even from loyal fans

the album itself was very experimental and i definatly think that her albu. producers at the time didnt take it very seriously

even timbaland who was credited as a producer threw her a pretty whack beat

she coulda done better by herself, and well, she did

her second release is not only what her first shouldve been but it holds its own against even her best work from japan

the second is a first american release for the now officially fluent tri-lingual J and K-pop singer BoA (Kwon)

selt titled, BoA is another great album, and i will venture to say should find its way into american hearts and mp3s players very easily

ive listened to it about 5 times through today and i can say with no b

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OH YEAH!

We all remember this guy! for something like 40 years (im just guessing)  hes been a pretty big part of american culture

to hell with Tang, Sunny D can go suck an egg, and Hawaiian punch can stay on the island for all i care, i was raised with this stuff ever since i was a little kid

even today you can find some of this stuff in my fridge

and of course everyone knows the best part about it was the points.

unfortunatly the kool-aid points order forms started becoming harder to find, they used to be in the grocery stores but became scarce.

then about 5 years ago i stopped being able to find them all together. 

so that left me and my family who had saved our kool-aid points for the better part of 20 years (not joking) and all of a sudden we had nothing to do with them.

it was a blow to the spirit

for 5 years i cursed them, encouraging me to be more of a pack rat and now, having nothing to gain for my meticulous snipping and saving of thousands of tiny squares.

well i may have spoke too soon and at the request of my mom i looked on the internet. 

(why didnt that occur to me earlier >.>)

i found this:

http://brands.kraftfoods.com/koolaid/KoolSpace/KoolPoints/KoolPointsForm.pdf

i am so glad they are still doing this! 

i guess this means i gotta take back all the bad things i said about them for no longer featuring the kool-aid point redemption thing

so i guess i can really only express my relief and hapiness in one way, a bellowing OH YEAH! and a cold tall glass of Kool-Aid! (black cherry ftw!)

Confffffuuuuuuuuuucccccccccckkkkkkkkk

Ok well i havent been playing Magic:tG for awhile and i decided to wait for the lorwyn block to move out of tournys 

but since theyre on the shards block i figure i might as well build up some cards while waiting
so as per the usual i bought myself a fat pack to sample the set

this has always been a good idea because for 25-30 bucks you can get some packs, some storage boxes, the new magic novel, a 20 sided die, some card organizers, and most importantly a little booklet that shows all the cards in the set

its an invaluable deck building resource in hardcopy

well so anwyays i bought a Conflux fat pack and cracked it open

immediatly i notice somethings amiss

where there should have been 2 boxes there was only 1

not to mention there were no card index tab things

and where there should have been a book there was a sample chapter

oh, but there were 2 more packs than normal

so ok correct me if im wrong here but if i wanted more packs doesnt it make sense to buy packs?

but im not buying packs

im buying a fat pack

if i wanted more cards for my money id've just bought packs in the first place!

so yeah needless to say i was a little dissapointed.

One Righteous Song

i've long said that RHCP were awesome, and this song is by no means new to me, but listening to it again for the first time in awhile has made me remember just how awesome this song is, as is the whole album.

just thought i'd mention that >.>

Viewer Discretion Advised

well we threw dude a early surprise birthday party on saturday

herein lies the true account of the events that occured

of course we spent all day sat running around like chickens with our heads cut off

juli and i, i mean

the cake itself (pic so very related) took alot longer than juli expected

she baked at my parents house, who thought it was a riot, and oddly enough everyone got involved

i mean everyone, the skin colored frosting was courtesy of one of josh's friends who happens to be an artist as i understand

everyone else helped prepare it in someway he loved the cake and after egging him on he even motorboated it lol

a good time was had by all and apart from me realizing i had left my 12 pack of Mountain Dew Voltage in the shopping cart at target it was a good night

then around midnight the blackout happened

pretty much any resident of el paso knows what im talking about

the whole eastside which is the cities second largest area was entirely blacked out
for us, it lasted about 3 hours

we had fun though, we hung out and chatted by candal light for 3 hours before finally deciding to pack it up and head home

at first the street lights and traffic lights were actually off but then they were starting to be switched on, one by one as we were driving home

pretty soon they were all on and power was restored to our apt by the time we got home.

all in all a good day

i still miss those Mountain Dews though >.>

More things i wont be getting...

Well lookie here. isnt this just fancy?

its an extended art promo card based on the character Rehgar from the WildStorm World of Warcraft comics illustrated by Jim Lee, one of todays top 5 best comic book illustrators (still always second to the late, great Michael Turner though)

it and several other very cool promos from the upcomming WoW TCG expansion Blood of Gladiators will never see my hands

why? because El Paso isnt the best city for hobby gaming, thats why

it used to be that a big city meant more gamers but apparently mexicans arent big on card games

in fact most of my ita's business (at Sunrise Games and Comics) comes from soldiers at Fort Bliss
what hobby gamers i do see either play Magic or some kind of tabletop miniatures game like Warhammer or Heroclix

i hold out hope that one day we can actually have events for other games too, the WoW TCG is actually very cool in tournament format and Decipher's new tcg, Fight Klub is coming out soon so i really hope to see some organized play for that

heres to hoping eh?

well just to round off the day heres some more of those ultra pretty cards i wont be getting XD