So, it's a quarter to 1AM and I feel like talking. Blogging. Writing. There's a lot that's on my mind and a bit that I'd care to share. It's always nice to know more about someone, yeah? This will most likely be a lot of random thoughts. Have fun reading.

First thing's first: A&E. What the hell is up with them having the best programming of any channel here?Mindfreak, Paranormal State, Family Jewels, all great shows. My favorite of the bunch most likely being Paranormal State. I'm 2 episodes shy of finishing the first season and it's jaw-dropping. Now, I've really tried to think as hard as I can about what I really think of the show and mentioning it to a few of my friends, I've been told I should take most of the stuff aired on the show with a grain of salt. Criticisms for having poor production values (Untrue) and lack of A/V evidence regarding some of their cases; I think they're all ridiculous. I mean, you can only fit so much into a 30-minute show and most people expect the most out of a team of paranormal investigators. People who bitch about how they probably stage some of it must have difficulty understanding what must really go on. Their mission isn't to put on a good show, they've been doing it way before it aired. It's to help people and that some call bullshit on that is really weird. Granted, this might just be me being biased because I like the show. Whatever the case, fans of the occult and the paranormal should watch it. Mondays at 10 eastern, 9 central. 2 back to back episodes. It's brilliant. Just don't watch it before going to bed. I couldn't sleep for hours. :c

So, Paranormal State has gotten me back to this stage where I'm thinking "Do I believe in this or not?". As most of you know, I'm not religious. At all. I was baptized and raised with christian values and stuff but I've since grown out of it and I've accepted my own belief on what the world is and what the spiritual realm, if there is one, is. That being said, I've gotten a whole different view on most of that watching Paranormal State. I'm not saying it's completely changed my mind but it's certainly given me a much bigger understanding on what religion is and what the spiritual realm can be. I do think that spirits exists. Maybe not in the form of ghosts but most certainly have their own way of manifesting. Whether or not that is related to religion, I don't know and most likely never will. You need to take this stuff with a grain of salt as none of it can be proved with absolutely concrete evidence. However, I choose to believe. I choose to believe that paranormal phenomena can happen. Maybe not in the most extreme of manners but certainly that people can experience things that aren't right. I've had my cousins' house come under some weird shit happening and I've been through weird stuff myself. None that would indicate that my house is haunted (Certainly not to the level of my cousins' old house) but definitely some stuff that has given me the fascination for the paranormal. It's inexplicable and that's what I love about it. How religion fits into it, I don't know and I don't think I want to know. I think demons and such can exist but I don't think they necessarily have to be a part of the Bible or another scripture to be true. A "demon" is simply an evil spirit, one that has much more power than a trivial harmful spirit. There are so many variants of the Christian and Catholic faith that you can't really attribute happenings of spiritual nature to one faction but you can certainly generalize it. I think religion plays a very important part of spiritual phenomena, I just don't think it's the reason for most of it and not the solution to some of it. I choose to believe in spirits, in the paranormal and I have certainly turned a new light to religion. I'm not accepting a religious faith but I am certainly more accepting of how people can turn to one. With that said, if any spirits are reading this, I like to sleep. Please don't disturb me when that's happening. kthxbye 

I'd also like to touch upon the Olympics for a bit. I get the impression not many people care anymore. Back in the Sydney-Salt Lake-Athens era, everyone I knew gathered around the TV to watch. My friends and I were at a bar last Friday and we were trying to remember where the 2006 winter Olympics were held. We all agreed every Olympiad before the 2006 ones were either in a memorable location or had one memorable event that made us remember. Heck, we listed them until 1996. Yet we couldn't remember 2006. It took us almost an hour to remember it was in Torino. Why? I don't know. I watched the Olympics earlier and was very much pleased with what I was watching. Yet as soon as my sister saw, she questioned "The Olympics? Really?" and not many people around me seem to care either. It boggles my mind. Even if you're not a fan of sports, the Olympics is like, one of the most entertaining events to watch on TV simply because it's humanity at it's finest. (And hey, no 'humanity in China' jokes.)

I would also care to raise a point of contention against Nintendo. I'm going to stick this in as obvious a statement as I can make it. FUCK NINTENDO OF JAPAN, FUCK NINTENDO OF EUROPE AND FUCK NINTENDO OF AMERICA. That being said, the division that is in control of Pokémon, please never die. Game Freak, you are my saviors. Now that that's out of the way, Nintendo is everything that is wrong with the videogame industry right now. Because they've been accepted by the media as being the obliterator of competition, what appears on their console is being held as the standard for gaming to the mass market. Of course, only E10+ and T titles appear on the Wii, making it difficult for gaming to be accepted as a mature medium of entertainment. The casual market will see brilliant games like No More Heroes, Okami and GrimGrimoire and dismiss them because "They don't got Mario in it". Nintendo has pretty much decided what the gaming market should be and we're suffering for it. You almost need a spam-blocker to look at a Wii game shelf and they still sell because for some reason, people do not understand that you shouldn't give in to shovelware. It's like going to the grocery store and looking at the Honey-Nut Cheerios and then looking over at the store's brand and buying the store's brand because you assume it tastes the same. You think it does and you try to convince yourself that it does, but it so doesn't. When Nintendo can realize that they're killing the industry they pioneered, I think we'll be able to finally see gaming become accepted by the older generation. See that we too can deliver experiences that emotionally affect the player, just like a good movie.

The 3rd topic I'd like to take on is image. Now, this will most likely fly my face considering the last journal I posted was about how fat people should be seen as, well, fat people. How being abnormally obese is not 'normal'. But this topic is, I feel, different. Ever seen TLC's "What Not to Wear"? That show makes me so god damned angry that I want to shove Clinton on a better show and take Stacy's head and put it in a McDonald's french-fry-frier. They're starting to do the show on people who look perfectly normal. Who can find clothes that look pretty cool yet are immediately dismissed by 'fashion professionals' because it's not "à-la-mode" or current with the times. They give them 5000$ to buy a new wardrobe. 5. Fucking. Thousand. Dollars. With that money I could buy myself a completely new wardrobe and have enough left for 2 50" HDTVs. And I don't dress terribly. I might not look "Professional". I might not look "Classy". But I like how I look. My girlfriend, my friends, my family and the general public does. Oh, and they bombard their face with makeup. "Now you look pretty!". Bullfuck. I've dated a girl who woke up at 6am every morning to start putting makeup on and was ready to leave for school at 8h40 in the morning. It took her over two hours to put make up on and do her hair. That's 2 hours and 40 minutes more than anyone who's comfortable with themselves should take. Of course, I'm not dismissing make up. I mean, Nicole has slight makeup on for Prom and she looked so damn gorgeous I could dedicated the next hour of text to talk about it. That being said, most of my girl friends don't wear make up and they're all remarkably good looking. A friend of mine recently decided to try a new look which was a load of mascara, eye-shadow, eye-liner and lipstick and all in the darkest shade possible. She went from near-model material to looking completely atrocious. It was terrible and I never hope to see it again and it made me realize that there's got to be some dominating force, be it on the net or on TV, that's forcing people to do this to themselves. It's really, really sad. I hope that someday, I'll have a collective group of friends that will not give a shit about what they "should" like. It's old, it's cheezy, but dammit people, just be yourself. No one is an image of what they're told they should be. If you buy outfits every 4 months, that isn't you no matter what you say.

The last subject I'm going to touch upon is relationships. I mentioned earlier that I had gone to a bar with my friends and like it usually turns out, some of my friends were completely sloshed. A specific friend of mine mentioned in the car something about "marriage" when talking to his girlfriend. You see, he's been with his girlfriend for over a year now and she feels she's met the perfect boyfriend. We never really know how he feels since he's been acting odd at certain stages of the relationship, but anyways. Her idea was to start wearing a ring on their ring fingers. She did it and he refuses to do it. He was so wasted that out came "I'm not ready for marriage, who wants to be tied down to one girl" or something like that. I don't speak "Wasted". On some level, you've got to agree. I mean, the joy of short-term relationships are awesome. Just like it's awesome to drive a new car every year or buy a new game every month. However, for every statement like his that comes out, I take a step back because I feel that I'm in the other camp. It's taken me 5 relationships to realize that I've finally met the perfect woman. She's everything I could ask for in a girlfriend and yeah, I guess we're eventually going to get married. It's something I've always been kind of weary about but I've opened up to recently because you never really get the meaning of it until you find the right person. That, and it kinda is my best option in becoming a US resident (Shut up, I do want to. I don't care. No, seriously. Yeah. ... well maybe. ... you think? Well... Well yeah but... okay, but see... right. Well, I still want to, but I know.) seeing as how the government likes to play games with me. Anyways, getting back on track, this is just to say that I think for everything that can be said about a relationship, it never really gets to you until you meet the right person. If there's any sort of "advice" I can give, it's always be open. My relationship started through emails with a customer of all people. We talked, talked and talked. We became -very- quick friends and within a week's worth of time, grew to trust each other in a way I've never felt about anyone else. Meeting was the exact thing I needed to know what I kind of was already thinking. She was so beautiful. So kind. So funny. I never wanted the moment to end. From us talking to the faux-hug we did. Of course, we met shortly there-after again and stuff progressed there as well. My point is that I never would of expected that I'd meet my girlfriend the way I did and I don't regret it one bit. You need to be patient. You're going to go through a lot of shit and you shouldn't expect a girl who loves EVERYTHING you do too to be the perfect one. That's going to start so many god-damn arguments, you can't imagine. I'm not trying to speak like I'm the master with this and that I know what I'm talking about 100% but take everything I've said from someone who believes he's found the perfect woman and that I got to this point by taking what I've learned from failed relationships. It sure payed out for me.