I totally deserved it. I forgot all about what moot said until this friendly reminder popped up. I could just change my IP address, but I’d like to see how long I can last. I’ve been going to 4Chan since its birth; more than 5 years ago. I’ve never missed more than 3 days in a row. Can I last? Only time will tell!

       On June 6th at 9am, I headed out to Tokyo Game Action arcade for the last time. For those of you who may not know. Tokyo Game Action was a Japanese arcade, café, import store, and bowling alley, based in Winchendon Massachusetts. Last December a large snow storm took out the power at TGA for two days while the owner, Andy, was in Tokyo completing contracts for brand new arcade machines. Unfortunately since the power was out, so was the heat, and for the third time, TGA was flooded by a natural cause; this time by frozen pipes. The damage was so great that the insurance company could not cover the damage and TGA was forced to close its doors forever.

       The auction began at 10am and ended roughly around 6pm. The place was packed, and so were the parking lots, filled with large SUV’s and U-Haul trucks which will carry away all the arcade machines. The arcade machines were surprisingly all in working order, but the arcade room itself was completely gutted and dried to prevent any mold. It was very eerie to see the arcade in such a way.

       Literally everything was sold, from the arcade machines, tables, kitchen equipment, office supplies, to the building itself. I don’t think we even came close to breaking the $500,000 goal that needed to be achieved, but it was still very profitable. I was amazed how much the arcade machine posters and fabric scrolls went for. The cheapest was Pop’n Music Fever for $75 (which I wanted), and the highest was beatmaniaIIDX Happy Sky for a staggering $400; the average went for roughly $150 to $200. People bought up all the memorabilia for ridiculous prices, and I’m glad that it did. The most expensive arcade machine and the highest auctioned off was the beatmaniaIIDX DJ Troopers machine for $7,500. Piano Man bought it; not only was I relieved but so was everyone else, especially Andy; he was almost on the verge of vomiting. No one wanted to see the machine be bought by some stranger or idiot arcade owner who would mistreat the machine. I should be hearing from Piano Man soon, if we wish for me to help maintain the machine and repair any damages. I myself bought about $355 worth of stuff from the auction; TGA’s entire PS2 collection (see below), a token bag labeled #1 filled with TGA logoed tokens, a wireless router, two Pop’n music pins, and my most treasured item… Andy’s very first cash tray that he has used for the past six years. <3

       Everyone I ever meet at TGA for the past six years was there supporting Andy and his arcade. It was very nostalgic too see everyone together again after such a long time. It was even more nostalgic when we followed up with our ritualistic gathering at Denny’s at around 10pm. I was fortunate enough to sit next to Andy at Denny’s and have a nice long chat with him. All the questions that have been bothering me since the bad news was given in December were finally answered, and I even found out what his future plans are; I was so relieved. Once this last hurdle is finished, Andy will be back on track and doing well again. Unfortunately I can’t give out any information about Andy and his future; you’ll just have to wait until he tells you himself. The next time I will see him will be at a gathering in July, after which, I will not see him again until I’m in Japan in the summer of 2010.

Best wishes Andy!

       Ten weeks have passed since I’ve made a real post and it’s about due time. If I can, I’ll try to recollect everything that has happened thus far in no particular order.

       After spring break I received my midterm grade for Japanese class. I was very enthralled with my grade of 82.3%, I didn’t think I was doing that well personally. Only later did this pleasure drop again and I was back to a panic state to do well. Just before my final, I was given my grade again and my concerns melted away when it increased to 83.4%. About a week ago I received my final grade for the spring semester; B-, this I expected. Next semester I will be moving on to the 400 level courses including taking one literature class in Buddhism. I am excited to take these classes for a few reasons which I will mention later in this post.

       Straying from academics for the moment, I like to mention the status of my many vehicles. My moped has finally been fully restored, but it was a little troublesome at first. I sort of accidentally or intentionally red lined the moped going down a mountain at 40mph, causing serious damage to the piston and cylinder. Fortunately these parts were already damaged before, and needed replacement. I just happen to finish them off. After purchasing a new piston and having the cylinder honed and cleaned, it is now running great. My sports bike has also been completed as of last week. Just before finals I sent my bike to a Kawasaki dealer to have the carburetor cleaned and recalibrated. I didn’t realized how bad it needed to be serviced until after I drove it out of the dealerships parking lot. The bike runs very smooth now and the throttle is much more responsive. Not only does it go faster, but its acceleration speed has increased by nearly 50%. Now when I open to full throttle I literally hang on for dear life. It’s a refreshing adrenalin rush. I have also repaired the cracks in the front fairing and replaced the pink pin line with red; the bike looks beautiful now. Lastly, there is my Honda Civic. It just reached its 200K mark on the odometer, so I performed a full inspection and replacement of all wearable parts and fluids. The list as followed: Replaced – distributor, rotor, spark plugs, coolant, brake pads and shoes, oil flush with change and filter, rear bumper replacement, repaired under dash foot lights, repaired front bumper, inspected all rubbers and tubes, tire check, replaced broken dip stick and front hood emblem, and inspection sticker. I also gave it a good vacuum and wash since it needed it desperately. Later I plan to remove the laptop table mount on the passenger side seat.

       Another interesting item I could mention is my new Linux server with over 2TBs of hard drive space. It gave me a little trouble recently when the main board crashed, but fortunately it has a built in BIOS backup for recovery. I’ve needed this server for awhile now; I can finally run really heavy processing jobs simultaneously without slowdown or crashes. I have big plans for it this summer in setting up network security and data encryption.

       On more personal news, the last of my potential love interests have just fell through, and again I’m back to square one. In an attempt to bring the light of hope back, I created a new OkCupid account where I can get creepy messages from strangers. I’m not too concerned about this anymore, but I still think it would be nice to at least have some consistent dating before I leave states forever. I got one year left to try, heh. On a darker note, my favorite uncle recently passed away, and I attended his wake and funeral during Memorial weekend. He died at age fifty all thanks to cancer which consumed a large portion of his abdominal organs. I’m bummed out, but I have yet to shed a single tear. I don’t think I ever will either, due to my views on life, death, and possibly my detached/solitary personality which I struggle with. I’d go into detail on my views, but it would be far too long winded and difficult to put into words.

       Moving back into a positive light again, I’ve obtained two jobs for this summer. In the morning I work at the UMass Library and in the afternoon at the Five Colleges Library Depository. I was able to cram both jobs into a short time period (Mon. – Wed. & Thur. morning) giving me a long weekend; almost four full days. The jobs are great; I’m able to study the entire time in both jobs without being disturbed much. I’m very excited about this, because I’m now able to reach my study goals this summer, and still have plenty of free time to have fun and travel. Not only that, but I have enough time to get ahead in my fall semester classes. As I said earlier, I had a few reasons as to why I was excited for my future courses; getting ahead was one of them. Another reason is, my Japanese 400 level classes will finally be breaking off from the standardized academic books, and I begin to read and translate legitimate articles and literatures in Japanese. My last reason is Buddhism. I’ve wanted to take a class in this for some time now. I’m very curious to learn what Buddhism really is, especially since it holds an influence in Japan. Thankfully, my Buddhism professor gave me a copy of his syllabus, and I am already half way through one of the required books for his class.

       Now that I’ve summarized most of the key points during these past ten weeks, I’ll try to be more frequent in posts again over this summer. I have a lot on my plate for things I can discuss; Buddhism, Montreal, Maine, Tokyo Game Action, my job at the Five Colleges Library Depository, etc. I hope to make another post again this week, so stop by again soon.

       Well it’s been a while since I posted last, I promise an update once summer vacation starts.

       For the mean time, if you are looking for epic lulz, or wish to know more about me, or even ask me a question yourself. Head on down to my friends site, R21 Freak.com. Currently I’m in a thread event called “The Truth Hurts!” where anyone can ask me anything for three whole days and I have to answer them truthfuly. Day one is almost over, so don’t miss your chance if you wish to ask me a question. Be sure to read the rules first though!

My thread: “The Truth Hurts, Edo!”

       Today is the last day for spring break, and it should end nicely with hanging out at my friend’s house playing ITG. This is probably the first official vacation I had in over four years. I say official, because it’s the first time in years that I didn’t have that anxiety feeling that nagged me to be doing something super productive that I could never live up to. I still worked for three days and completed important tasks this break, but it was very lax, and it felt AMAZING! I have been in bliss for eight straight days now.

       A lot has happened this past week. I visited my parent’s house on Friday, and visited my friend Tim in the nearby area. Saturday morning I meet up with Tim again before I left for home in Amherst. We had the best damn Portuguese breakfast I ever had; beer, fries, eggs on top of steak and rice covered in garlic gravy. Breakfast of champs! On Sunday I was finally able to take my moped out for a spin in the warm weather. I spent the whole day just driving around, and I only spent $1.75 on gas. LOL. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I worked in the afternoon; very laid back working environment. The library was like a ghost town, so I just sat there and browsed the web and considered making a new theme for my website. Wednesday evening I spent building my new 2.4TB server I bought on Newegg.com for $380. Thursday I drove around some more on my moped, along with mailing the dead motherboard from my new server. Apparently it fried itself out from a well known defect on my particular model. After I shipped the motherboard, I decided to go on an ADVENTURE! I took my moped off road and down a trench to where a fast moving river was and followed the trail along side it. By the time I reached the end of the trail I was plastered in mud and ice. You could barely tell my moped was the color red.

       Yesterday, WAS THE BEST DAY EVAAARRR! My friend Scott and I went to New York City to shop at Bookoff ^wiki and Kinokuniya for the day. We spent hours in those two stores; searching, and reading graphic and light novels. Later in the day, Scott and I were both surprised when our friend Chris decided to visit us. He went an hour and $25 out of his way to hang with us for about three hours! Around seven o’clock Chris left and we decided to go home. I ended up spending about $200 in books; all which are all epic win. Check them out yo!

       Lastly I should note that the trip to and from NYC was interesting in itself. The trip takes about three hours each way, both were filled with listening to TONS of Perfume music, avoiding exit only lanes, and dodging and cutting in front of cars in the city. The coolest part of the trip besides listening to Perfume and random doujin music was having internet capability on my laptop. Yes, that’s right. As in, watching YouTube videos, Facebook, instant messenger, Skype, and using Google Maps for navigation. Thanks to the cool hacks I did on my iPhone, I was able to get my laptop to use the phone’s internet capabilities. It was probably the pinnacle of geek coolness for me.

       That about sums up my vacation. Tomorrow I begin to cram for Japanese again and pray that my next vacation is less than four years from now.