Older "Daily Rossman" Readings: At the ARCHIVEs

Note to self 51: 05/19/1999
  The Phantom Adventure
  After last night's Star Wars fiasco I had to type down everything that happened right away so that I wouldn't forget any of it. First of all, the movie was not at all what we were really hoping for, but I'll get to that later. The dark side tried hard to interfere with our viewing enjoyment, but Yoda and the light side were triumphant in the end.
  It all started with the Wolfman getting tickets for the Mega Playboy and I for the first showing of The Phantom Menace (Midnight early on the 19th) in Athens early on the 18th (the new theater that was showing it refused to advance sell any tickets -_-). Well, we got 'em and we prepared to meet in front of the movie theater at 11pm to make sure that we got good seats.... Later that day, I thought that it might be better to get there earlier still, so I left with ticket in hand at around ten, expecting a big line. The line was fairly short at that time but it soon grew rather large (there were two lines actually, one for each screen that would show it). Soon the Playboy showed up and then right before we were let into the theater (at 11!) the Wolfman appeared. We got great seats and talked for an hour anxiously waiting for that famous trumpet blast and those scrolling letters of gold. Finally, at midnight the lights dimmed and it began. The first 15 minutes were extremely fast paced and they felt a little rushed, but it soon settled into a comfortable speed.... and then, it happened. The film went all wacky on us!! The audience was pissed but patient and we waited for the projector people to try again... Ten minutes later they did, but it was still massively screwed up.

  That was about the time that the manager came in and explained that the showing was cancelled and that we would get passes to see it again (and wait in line again, and have to make time to see it again). Needless to say not everybody was pleased. About 2/3 of the audience left taking the passes the manager handed out, but the rest of us wouldn't budge. A few idiots started to yell at the theater people (interestingly enough, Harry Knowles was among them) which seemed to put everybody on edge and some cops were called in. Luckily though, an arbitrator stood forth and asked if it would be possible to show us the other print that they had when it was done showing on the other screen. After some diliberation, we were told that if we didn't mind waiting that it would be possible ^_^ They even said that they would refill any soda and popcorn cups and bags for free to try and make the wait up to us (a mad rush to collect disgarded cups and popcorn bags ensued in which I got a jumbo large of both :p). Later, at around 1:30am, they also told us that they would give us a free pass to any other movie that was playing in addition to watching The Phantom Menace that morning. Not bad at all.
  After talking and debating many things including video games, light sabers and high school freaks until 2:40am, they finally got it rolling! And boy did it roll! We were probably the first people ever to be able to quote the first 25 minutes of the movie as it played in front of us! Well, we watched it all the way through this time and all I can say is, well, those Gungans make the Ewoks appear to be Shakespearean actors of Patrick Stewart callibre. The special effects are of course the main draw and they do their best to dazzle (there are a few times when things are obviously CGI, but not too many). Jar-Jar is unfortunately one of the biggest mistakes in filmdom since the previously mentioned dreaded Ewoks (everybody in the theater wanted him dead two seconds after he first opened his mouth), but you can kinda forget about him as the story unfolds. Well, no, not really.
  Darth Maul is one bad mutha, but unfortunately (again that word!) he's only on the screen for about 6-7 minutes of the film's 2 hour and 12 minute running time. The pod race was unbelievably rugged and the Queen's makeup and dresses were really weird (but neat :). And the final lightsaber duel (set to Williams' "Duel of the Fates") was an overcharged rush of pure adrenaline. Forget Luke and Vader's wussy fights, THIS is how it's done! Anyway, at a little after 5 in the morning we got out and we left for our seperate destinations. By the time I got home (5:40) I debated if it would really be better to just get an hour shut eye before work or none at all (I must've zonked out somewhere around then) and I found myself waking up to my alarm before I knew what had happened. Then I went to work and I'm sooooooo out of it... Ugh... But what an experience! I just want to laugh at the people who left as soon as things got farged up! ... And I still can't believe that I spent 7 hours at a movie theater just to see one movie.

Note to self 49: 05/09/1999
  Well, what can I say @_@  It's been quite a week for this Rossman! First, I reread the Nausicaa graphic novels (with Enya and Loreena McKinnett constantly playing on my stereo:) early in the week and refreshed my memory on why I love that story so damn much! Then on Friday I went to the club president's House Warming Party at his new digs. Now this was quite a night, so I'll try to recall everything that happened, but my mental recall facilities aren't their best when trying to look through the haze that surrounds that night -_-.

  I showed up at around 6 (one of the co-founders told me earlier that it would be starting at around 5.... it didn't) and woke the club presidente and his chickie up from a nap...... That was the first pre- or regular party foul I've ever been guilty of *sigh*. I apologized for a bit, but since I brought some beer they didn't seem to mind all that much. We talked for a bit and a little while later the rest of the party pals started to show up, including some Greenwood folks. By 8, I was feeling a little tipsy and then the MegaPlayboy showed up (who was already in the same buzzed state as I was) and we somehow decided to begin a "Shooters" contest with the little green vials of yumminess (Melonball Shooters!) that someone graciously provided us with. After around 4-5 of those and a few more apple cider mixes we thought it would be best if we went out on the pizza run, with Robert driving, and stopped off at the liquor store for some more heavy stuff. Well, long story short, we met Lurch, discussed how much we hated fanboys and found ourselves with several arm-fulls each of some tasty bottles 0_o At around 11:50, I decided to stop drinking as I had to drive the Playboy back to his place later on and I only had a few scant memories of lip-synshing the whole Transformers the Movie album, drawing Mulder backdooring it to a happy mule on the house's "To do List", caught the Playboy with his beer goggles on doing- ummmmm, er, nothing (^_^)on the back porch, tried to break into the President's old apartment thinking he was hiding some Vodka there, and finally watching Ken-boy commit the ultimate party foul after a few drinks. He passed out on the floor in the TV room while around 20 of us watched the subbed Totoro and then he started spewing like a garden hose all over the carpet!!! Then he was helped into the bathroom cause he thought he might do it again, but instead he pulled his pants down, took off his shirt and sat on the can where he soon after passed out, tipped over and puked all over himself again!!! We all laughed our asses off (sorry, Ken^o^), especially after they took his pants off to wash them and let him crash (almost naked) on the kitchen floor.

  After that I remember them splitting the Totoro cake's head open and his brains gushing out (the chicks' screams didn't even wake Ken up!), and the Playboy telling DS to his face how much everybody hates him (and DS still not getting the clue). Anywho, at around 2:40 I finally drove him to his house and crashed in a free guestroom myself. The next day (after no real sleep) we drove back to the party house to return the pres' hat that the MPB took the previous night, I drew Chujo backdooring it to a donkey on their marker board, and we got some left over pizza for breakfast. When we walked in we found that Ken was the only one still there (besides those who lived there) and he was watching the president's private collection of Kenshin tapes while the pres himself and his chickie were still asleep!!!! I couldn't believe it! You don't "party foul" that raunchily and then stay the latest the next day ^o^!!! That's just wrong, Ken :)... After that I went back to my place and took a shower and then fell asleep for a few hours.

  Later that night I went to see the Mummy and had another great time! That was a fun movie!! A little too light in tone, but really cool! The special effects were amazing! Can't wait for the Phantom Menace in a few days now (to which the Wolfman and/or the MegaPlayboy better get tickets to)!! Anyway, that's about it, except that I'm going to E3 in LA next week!! Yahoo!!!!!!! I'll tell you all about that in the next Daily Rossman. Jaa!

Note to self 48: 05/03/1999
  Nothing really going on. No good movies began this past weekend and I'm just holding out until The Mummy this Friday. I came up with a few designs for that T-Shirt company in Texas and I plan to replace the Terrible Trio pic on the main Chronicle page soon with a new one of me and my gals :)
  I've also been reading a bunch of synopses of the KOR manga on-line this past week! They read like screenplays with all the settings, action and facial expressions written out along with the characters' lines! I don't remember the site's address, but it should be easy enough to look up yourself (lazy bast*rd!). Let me tell you something, the Madoka in the manga is 10Xs better than the anime version (and you all know how much I love her!)!!!! She's a hundred times more understanding than her anime counterpart and it is crystal clear, perfectly obvious that both she and Kyousuke are in love. If there's ever a choice that needs to be made between Hikaru and Madoka, without a second thought Kyousuke goes with Ayukawa! And Kazuya and Akane show up a lot more (Akane isn't the lesbian she is in the anime, she's just got a Noriko-style crush on her love-interest, Ayukawa) and Kyousuke switches bodies with his mini-cousin lots more times than in the show. This is just the tip of the ice-berg of the differences between the two, and I wish to God that somebody would translate the manga and release it all in the States sometime soon (and I mean ALL of it! What would be the point if they never translated the end of this incredible series!?!?!?!). Oh yeah, and although Ayukawa kind of "cops out" in the finale, I still prefer the manga ending to the first movie's ending! Mucho prefiero!!

Note to self 47: 04/26/1999
  It's almost one week after that senseless massacre at Columbine H.S. in Littleton, Colorodo and I still feel incredibly sick just thinking about it. If I had a time machine the first place I would go back to is last Monday night, the day before it happened, and beat the living and total sh*t out of those satanic b*tches!!! They seriously needed an ass whooping. Then I'd call the cops and get them sent to some kind of Arkham Asylum where they'd become the prison beeyatch of some very large and angry fellow until they committed suicide.
  Other than that everything seems to be slowly starting to make some sort of sense again. I finally read all of Yukito Kishiro's incredible epic Battle Angel Gunnm this week. And I now have a new second favorite action/adventure manga (Nausicaa still rules that world with an iron fist though)! The story was very long and cool with lots of incredible battle sequences! What truly made it great, though, was how it changed tracks so many times from beginning to end! It started off as Gally (I refuse to call her "Alita", that's just not her real name) is discovered and becomes a Hunter Warrior. But soon enough we follow the cutie android as she takes over the violent sports world of Motorball (my favorite part of the story, fyi ;). Then she turns into the "Angel of Death" and travels the badlands as a "tuned agent" for Zalem (like Mel Gibson as Mad Max), and finally she ties up all the loose ends and has her final battle(s)! Although the final ending was a bit well, kooky-weird, it was still grand story telling. I really loved how Gally visually matured during the course of the story. She started off all wide eyed and almost naive to the world, but she ended up.... well, still kinda wide eyed, but she had the face of a toughened and wise woman in the end. The only thing that totally surprised me was that Lou handled the "truth about Bashtarlle, I mean Zalem (Tiphares)" 100Xs better than good old Doc Ido (who's ending was kinda necessary but sad in its own way)! Weird. Anyway, the only thing that truly bugged me 'bout this manga is the translation and why Viz thought they should change the names! Why is Alita better than "Gally" and "Tiphares" better than Zalem?!?! There was/is just no point to that at all. Oh well, at least maybe someday I can read Koyomi's documentary books ^_^ They've got to be great!... I just wish her dog didn't die -_-... he was cool.

Note to self 46: 04/19/1999
  Another relaxing, refreshing Georgia weekend^_^ Great weather (maybe a bit chilly) and I got a lot of fun things done. Hanged out with the Wolfman, got a new mini-stereo system for the apartment (my large surround sound unit won't fit -_-), gave the Wolfman my old mini system (poor guy needed one), took my car in for a recall notice on its cruise control, read some of my manga and a book that I just got, went to an amatuer playhouse and watched them do a funny "Whose Line is It Anyway" type show, got lost and ended up cruizin' Freaknic at midnight Sat. night for about forty minutes (@_@), put my parents' grill together (that my siblings and I got them for their anniversary) for a cookout on Sunday and then watched Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure on tape that night. Then today it was back to work. Oh well, E3 is coming up soon and that should be fun! Jaa!

Note to self 45: 04/16/1999
  It's been a while, but it's also been a fun two weeks^_^! Last weekend, the Wolfman lent me his Parasite Eve PSX game and I played that (disappointingly for only the 7 hours and 5 minutes it took to beat). It was fun, but I got no friggin' clue what the hell was up with the last seen and the glowing eyes. No idea.
  I finally got my Capcom Art Book and Giant Robo Symphonic cd in the mail last week! They both rock! Now I'm just waiting for my Battle Angel graphic novels and Star Wars I (to hit theaters). I just live from one "fun high" to the next I guess.
  Speaking of which, I also caught a lot of movies on video that I've been meaning to see (some again). Including: John Carpenter's Vampires, Cube, Platoon, Full Metal Jacket, A Chinese Ghost Story Live Action, Bottle Rocket, Time Bandits (always love that one:), Austin Powers, Dirty Work, ..... and a few others I can't remember. I also went to a lame conference in Atlanta for the past four days, but at least I met a lot of interesting people (including Homeless Joe, who proved to be a fun conversationalist :^) and made some contacts. I also got Chi-Chi to play hooky on Tuesday and we had fun getting some people together and watching war movies and the BET channel at the local Italian restaurant (.... guess you had to be there). Then I just bummed out at my parents' place and helped them do a bunch of stuff (like type up my mom's submission to the county Teacher of the Year contest [which she better win!]). Over all a busy yet fun week.... Too bad I have to go in to work on FRIDAY... That kinda sucks. Oh well, que sera sera.
  Oh yeah! I also got to drive the 'Vette! @_@  I want one!!!

Note to self 44: 04/01/1999
  Yet another April 1st. This year there really weren't as many good pranks on-line as I would have hoped for. The weird part was that the newsgroups had the best monkeyshines going on. They're usually the lamest part of my daily on-line life (or lack there of). Needless to say, General Chow had some great ones and the Bandai and DIVX rumor scared the pissola out of a few people (-_-).
  Anywho, I'm working my arse off at the office and my free time goes mainly into partying with some old friends and watching Giant Robo again (It just keeps getting better and better!!!). I'll finish up episodes 6 and 7 tonight. Then I'll go see my dad in another weightlifting competition this weekend. Nothing much planned beyond that besides Easter with my fam and catching the new Simpsons and Futurama on Sunday night:)
  Jaa!