-=(Sagien)=-

The second annual...

Welcome to the second annual mincus xmas list.

I have a lot of fun compiling all year long the things that I feel would best be suited to you.

Although, i'm sure that the line between this being a thoughtful gesture which highlights and avoids the blatant commercialism + forced gift giving associated with xmas and an obvious ploy to not spend any money is a thin one.

Anyway, cheers and I wish you all the very best!

Ashbiter:
(You were always good at the shocker game on the boardwalk.)
http://www.iwantoneofthose.com/search.do?productCode=LIGREE

Blackjax:
http://www.inhabitat.com/entry_23.php

Clarus:
(Theoretically impossible, but hey, I'm not really buying any of this anyway)
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7373338380

Dino:
http://www.turbospoke.com/

Joe:
(really I already got him the present that gives forever, so this is just extra)
http://shopping.discovery.com/product-58997.html

Kudra:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1578601592/qid=1098201083/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/103-0459256-7791865?n=507846&s=books&v=glance
And the free copy: http://www.yarnivore.com/francis/Holy_Tango.htm

LittleEarthquakes:
(Yay IceCream!)
http://www.pocket-lint.co.uk/review.php?reviewId=1071

Sagien:
(he cheated and opened his before xmas)
http://www.cultureshiftclothing.com/mens/CUL062.html

Shft:
http://www.festivuspoles.com/pages/festivuspoles.htm

Wombat:
(Its a tshirt)
http://www.whiteninjacomics.com/images/merch/fish-large.gif

Two Posts, One after the Other

It might seem like overload, but I don't care. You guys miss me.

The Laptop by Michael Uy

It was given to me as a present. The laptop itself wasn’t the present in mind; it was the ability to have one. I've always wanted one. It took several meticulous hours of searching until I found the proper one. I had even picked one, and ordered it, and cancelled the order at the last minute. I needed the best one I can get for the amount of money that I had.

When it finally arrived, I set up it fresh. I reinstalled the operating system, and turned it into the laptop I wanted it to be. No wallpaper, minimal icons on the desktop, a blank load page for the browser, and minimal software installed and running at startup for efficiency. It was a blank canvas with which to paint my life with.

Into it, I placed the music that I like, bookmarked the websites that I liked, installed a word processor, and the most important aspect of all: an instant messenger. Everything was set. This was to be the platform with which to enter in new ideas, keep in contact with friends, and make new ones. A blank page to write my thoughts into.

The only thing left to do was to christen it with a name. Freya. My laptop was to be a girl. It sat on top of my body, mesmerizing me with its lapdance of new worlds from the Internet. It was a place to privately chat with people, to play games, to be part of communities online that only I knew of, and was master of.

It went through life in a household with my best friends, and went through the breakup of that place.

It saw the end of a two year relationship, one that eventually changes the heart and soul of its owner only a little too late.

It moved to Castle Splendor, and endured its harsh environments.

It saw the sands of the beaches of the Philippines, and consumed 240V power.

It saw the eyes of a girl I loved, that I trusted to have her rest itself on her lap.

It saw the apartment and the life that I built for myself.

Through it all, it battled through spyware, popups, virii, and 80 hours of pornography residing in its harddrive.

It created mix CDs from the stores of MP3s within its shell.

It lovingly kept a journal full of complaints and soul searching words created by its owner.

It helped maintain a blog, helping in a search for validation with his friends and complete strangers.

It saw through the eyes of a webcam as a girl two thousand miles away stripped on its screen while on the phone with the person whose lap it sat on.

It held on to hundreds of pictures, of people and places that the person who owned it captured and stored.

It triumphantly waved goodbye to one browser and happily embraced the next.

It endured the installation of several different IM clients so its owner can speak to girls from Myspace.

Logs of conversation resided in one of its folders, adding yet to the memories that it guarded.

Two days ago, after two and a half years of holding thoughts, dreams and memories, my laptop crashed. With it went the un-backed-up years that I’ve fought through. Now I stare at a new clean slate. I can’t help but wonder what I’ve neglected on this machine that is now forever gone.

Freya died. Long live Freya.

My Apartment Looks Upside Down From There

This morning I took my time with the route. I do love the way snow looks when it's untouched..

This is probably the sappiest post you're gonna find me write..

Unfortunately, I am using a crappy mail server to send these pictures to, and I am missing about half of what I took this morning. No worries, I'll put up more tomorrow.

You can see the light of day break as it got later and later during the route.

This one was taken while doing a three point turn in a trailer park. I bless this park with music at 300db at approximately 5am each day. Today was no different. It was Better Than Ezra, with the song Good.

Much of my route is in the middle of the woods(or it looks that way in the dark). I tried to capture the snow on the trees as I drove up to them, but I don't think I did that too well in this shot. There's another shot that illustrates them better, except I can't seem to download it right now because the server is slow, or non-functional. Whatever.

This is one of the many roads I encountered this morning. A lot of the time, I was the first to break the flat, white serenity of the snowfall. Also, it's getting late. It's around 6am when I took this picture. I was only about halfway done my route, and I was supposed to be finished by 6. That's okay, because it's snowing, and nobody would want me to hurry...

The shitty camera phone doesn't do this scene any justice at all. It was supposed to be my favorite shot, yet its all blurry and shitty. Oh well. You get the picture.

That was taken during the leg of my route where there are no houses for a good solid mile. At around 4am, about 100 feet from the spot where this was taken is consumed in darkness. I usually stop there, have a smoke, and look at the stars if they're visible. This is where the night sky looks like Star Trek. I'd tell you where it is, but you'd bring chicks there to try to make out with them, and what kind of picture would that leave me on my peaceful, scenic breaks?

That's right.. wombat with a fat chick. Gross.

Wide Awake

Rose courtesy of a secret admirer[nmg]

Let me tell you a story..

Awful Painful Miserable Hurt

A few of you have been wondering where the ISSF posts have gone to. While I cannot account for the other writers on ISSF, I can certainly recount where I have been.

It can all be easily summed up into a few words: drunk, sick, painful.

As much misery as those three words might illustrate, I can guarantee that there's only a minimal amount of it involved.

Currently, I am suffering from massive coughing fits, rising nausea, and near-unmanagable acid reflux. I have taken more over the counter medication over the last few hours than I have in the last five years. None of it is working.

So, what does a sun god do?

To "forget" the awful horrible evil that reigns in my body, I drink. When I am drunk, so's the virus.

To "calm" the cough, I dry it up with massive amounts of nicotine in smoke form. The mucus gets mixed in with the smoke and, in theory, coagulates in my throat. It makes my throat think that it is dry and that there is nothing there to expell.

One side effect of copious amounts of cigarette smoke is the acid reflux. It hurts like blazes these days. I end up clutching my chest in the classic heart attack maneuver. So far, Pepcid Complete is doing wonders in keeping it down. However, I just discovered this wonderful chemical this morning. Before that, to "calm" the pain, I'd go to the bathroom and induce vomiting.

You can see the acid bubble in the toilet water as it rushes out of my mouth.

I put roasted chicken salad in my stomach this morning. Hopefully that stays there.