Keiran Darkstripe

Wow! (again)

2009-09-28T15:16:47Z

Those that are paying attention to the news about the new Magic: the Gathering set, Zendikar, know that about one booster pack in 720 have a really old card from the game put into the pack in place of the land. The big tagline for the set is "Deadly Perils, Priceless Treasures," and these cards are part of their Priceless Treasures promotion for the set.

I went to a Prerelease for Zendikar yesterday and found out that this promotion was being done and shrugged. I was only getting six packs, and these cards came up once in twenty boxes. Lo and behold, in my final pack I got a Serendib Efreet from the Arabian Nights set. Happy Birthday indeed!

ACen report, part one.

2009-05-14T00:18:13Z

The entire weekend was definitely lots of fun, but I ate at some really good places on Monday and I had six hours to explore downtown after everybody else caught their planes.

First off was lunch at a Chipotle's. Had the chicken fajita burrito, and really got my money's worth, as the burrito was HUGE!

After that was the Chicago Public Library, which was really cool. Nine stories tall, very nice inside. Lots of extra things on display, and really cool exhibits on the 9th floor on Howard Washington and Abraham Lincoln. I spent almost an hour there.

Next, I made my way to the Navy Pier by route of Millenium Park. I'll have to upload pictures soon as it was very pretty.

As for Navy Pier itself... Obviously a tourist site, though the Stained-Glass museum was very cool. There was a ferris wheel, boat tours, and mini-golf! I look forward to going with other people, maybe, next year!

On the way back to the station, I ate at a Potbelly Sandwich place. Had the Pizza Sub with hot peppers, it was quite satisfying.

Back from Anime Central

2009-05-13T12:49:00Z

It was a blast, though I'm at home now instead of at work because of con crud. x.x
That, and exhaustion. Lesson learned: I can't sleep on trains.

But it was great to see friends again, and meet a few more. I'll see about pictures and a detailed report soon, possibly today.

keirancoon @ 2009-05-05T01:13:00

2009-05-05T05:18:09Z

One more work shift before I leave for ACen. Came close to not having to do that one either, but alas, it's not to be. Just need to go to the mall to have my phone looked at, and pick up the air mattress from my friend.

Wow.

2009-01-15T06:08:25Z

It's amazing what a little luck can do sometimes.

keirancoon @ 2008-07-02T00:16:00

2008-07-02T04:35:36Z

Basically you BOLD books you've read. Underline those of the bolded you LOVE. Italics are for the books you plan to read.

They say the average adult's only read what... six of these? Prove them wrong...

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - C.S. Lewis (Yes, I know this is the first book of the Chronicles of Narnia)
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones' Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte's Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Writer's Block:

2008-02-28T06:43:34Z

What is the most common compliment you receive?

View 500 Answers

By far, the most common compliments I get is that I'm a nice or reliable person.

ACen! (finally)

2006-05-15T14:46:04Z

Because I'm lazy, this is copied over from an email...

First, Pictures: http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v481/keirancoon/ACen%202006/

Lessee, Thursday I flew into Chicago, and took an hour and a half to get from midway to the hotel, as I had to shuttle from midway to O'hare and then from O'hare to my hotel. Next year I'm gonna try my hardest to see if I can fly into O'hare. This year I took Southwest, so I had to fly into Midway. Got to my hotel room, found out the accomodations were for a single King bed. The problem, there was four people rooming there, including myself. I was hoping at least for two doubles, and that's what I set my preference as, but I guess I booked too late. Even on Thursday night, the day before the convention, the line for those that pre-registered was quite long, and I was in it for over an hour. Friday the line was probably worse. Went to play some magic afterwards, but there was a problem with the keys to the room, and I was the only name linked to it, so I had to go back to the Hotel. Second lesson: book early enough to get a room at the Hyatt itself next year.

Friday: Woke up nice and early, thanks to my habitual wakeup time and slight time zone difference. Would have been fine if it weren't for the fact that I just stayed up over twenty-four hours straight the day before due to leaving for Chicago right after an overnight shift. But I couldn't fall back asleep, so I stayed up, talked with the other two roomies that were awake, and eventually woke up Xai in the process. Oops...

Here's where it starts to get blurry. I can tell you that I hung out with Napping Cat's Dream people on Friday, including most of the first half of it. I participated in a Magic Type 2 tourney, placed 3rd out of 17 people, got two boosters out of it. Not bad, as it was a free tourney. Made my way over to the dealer's hall afterwards, snagging the complete Kino's Journey anime (4 DVDs) for only $40, as well as Hinata Girls Sing Best 1 and 2 (yay Love Hina!). Caught dinner in the same area and headed back to spend more time with the Dreamers, taking pictures occasionally throughout, mostly of cosplayers. I went and watched most of AMV Hell 3, then switched over to Grenadier when it started in the viewing rooms. After only two episodes, I was getting pretty tired (It was about 10:30 by then) so I wandered out and tracked down the dreamers again, they were watching the voice actors' improv, so I joined them until it ended, and went back to my room around 11:30 or midnight after hanging with some artists, most of which did art that shows up on the Dream site. (One in particular, Nyu, is taller than I figured she'd be.)

Wow, this is long already. I'll get around to typing part two later
this week.

Woo!

2005-09-12T15:11:07Z

*dancedances*

I love it! The artists' artlog: sketchlog
There's a deviantart account too. http://hmo.deviantart.com
If you'd like to commission a badge, icon, picture, etc.: hmo
Be warned, she is in high demand, and I don't think she's taking any more at the moment.

[edit]Thanks muchly, Caesar.[/edit]

Learning...

2004-12-14T00:23:42Z

Well, hopefully. I am currently in month two of my first real job, and I've learned a few things.

1. Working on an all-shift schedule can be aggravating. Five shifts a week, and each week I have at least one each of day, swing and graveyard. o.o Luckily, I haven't had to work more than one shift on any given day, so at least I have that.

2. I seem to have a debilitating fear of making mistakes, followed by a bad reaction when I do inevitably make one. Ideally, when I make a mistake, my mentality should be that of "Oh, I made a mistake. I see my error, I'll do my best to learn and to not repeat the mistake." Rather, it has been that of "Augh! A mistake! I suck, I'm worthless, What's wrong with me? I'm a loser, etc." So, there's room for improvement in that area.

Things have been rough recently, between work, trying (unsuccessfully) to manage my time well, and struggles with some personal issues. In some ways, I'm grateful that I'm struggling, rather than folding, giving up, and not giving a rip about it, as I tend to do.

Birthday

2004-09-28T20:51:34Z

Birthday time...

Things have been pretty good today. Some books were received, and I spent a decent amount of time planning out goals and in introspection in regards to personal matters and what to work on in myself for the next year.

Progress? Hopefully.

2004-06-16T21:52:50Z

Sometimes I amaze myself by how frustrated I get with a lack of improvement in myself and how I continue to do the same stupid stuff, yet at the same time I'm forgetting a simle reality: "If you always do what you always did, you'll always get what you always got." I guess you could call it a personal-level application of "Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it." So, pray for me, or, alternatively, wish me luck, depending on your personal beliefs, as I set out to stop lazing around and complain about lack of chang and start actually doing something about it.

In other news, I share an interesting link with a girl that is interning here at the City Mission for the summer: she and I have the same last name. This wouldn't be such a big deal if it wasn't for the fact that it isn't very common. The name, Frueh, is German; its Americanized pronunciation is "free". Also of interest is the fact that this is the first time either of us has met anyone outside our own families with the name.

And finally, I want to go to ACen in the future. It's probably not gonna happen for me next year, but maybe a couple years down the road. Anybody wanna help out my planning in what to expect in total cost and what that breaks down into?

Musings. An experiment. Entry one.

2004-06-13T20:11:54Z

Note: This is an experiment. I'm deciding to periodically take a glance at my overall current situation, collect my thoughts, and put them on my journal. The idea being that it provides a chance for me to reflect and also allows others to find out more about me. Even if no one reads this, the chance for me to reflect and type up what's going on is worth it.

Entry one.

This was thought upon Saturday, June 12th, sporadically from 7:00 PM to 11:10 PM, and composed on paper the same night, 10:10 PM to 11:10 PM.

Today, I couldn't help but htink about my present state and the events in my life since the beginning of last year. You see, the library closed at 5 PM today, and I've exhausted the entertainment of what I possess. So, after dinner I didn't have much to do. I walked around town a bit, but eventually stopped at a park close to where I am staying. Of course, my current residence and how I had ended up there was one of the things I thought about.

I'm currently interning and residng at a rescue mission in Schenectady, NY. (Specifically, the City Mission of Schenectady.) Though various circumstances and personal choices, I've ended up with very little money (Well, actually, none.) and only about four suitcases of stuff out of my orignal things. I'm apart from every friend I had ever made before I arrived here two moths ago so I get a bit homesick at times. I would occasionally get depressed at this particular turn of events, but usually soon after I consider how many people have it worse off than I do, and I feel guilty for my bout of self pity.

I'm treated, more or less, privilege- and duty-wise, like a graduate of the mission's recovery program. This means, among other things, that I get a small stipend each week ($11). If I had any pressing costs, I'd be worried, but, aside from a small school loan, I have none. The monthly payments on the loan are more than what I currently get, but I'm sure I'll figure something out. Another thing to be grateful for, I guess.

Of course, not knowing many people here (and none that aren't associated with the mission), having no money, and few possessions, it can get boring easily. I vaguely remember finding out about Dreams that live in this, New York's capital district, but I'm a bit fuzzy on that and could be wrong. I fthere are in fact Dreams close by, I'd love to hear from or even possibly meet you.

Well, I've been writing for about an hour now, and it's getting late, so I guess I'll finish this up for now. For those that have read this all the way through, I offer thanks for bearing with me.

Promise Keepers

2004-06-06T18:25:58Z

(Warning: "Religious" content ahead.)

I went to the Promise Keepers Conference in Albany on Friday and Saturday, and it was simply amazing. The speakers were fantastic, everybody had a great time, and Sonicflood performed to kick it off. It's very hard to describe what it was like, apart from that. To see that many Christian men gathered together was awesome, and a huge boost.

Related links:
www.promisekeepers.org
www.sonicflood.com