Skate the Pit now has deck designs. The boards are sold through Zazzle, and the designs are all original Skate the Pit designs. All the boards are available through the Skate the Pit Store.

Remember to go to the Skate the Pit site regularly to check the new videos that go up at regular intervals.

Just kidding, but I thought this thing was worth showing. Complete with a solar-powered flatscreen TV, satellite, DVD and 24 karat gold rims…this thing has it all and will feed up to 350 people!  This bad boy was built by David Klose whom I hope to build a custom smoker with one day. On that note, I am still struggling to find a mobile smoker for under 1k. I have seen a few on Craigslist but the good stuff seems to be coming from Dallas or Houston and won’t be able to hit the road until after the new year. Until then, still looking!

.i heard this group perform on the Euro MTV music awards (def wasn’t there) so i looked them up, and became a huge fan… the track below is one of my favorites and the video is pretty tight too… so press play Listen and enjoy the updates below…

passion PIT – reeling

While I own a variety of grills and smokers, I am going to need something that’s bigger…and it needs to be mobile. I’ve spent several months researching pits and never realized what a variety there is, how many features can be integrated into the design and even worse, how expensive they can get! For now, I am going to keep it basic with something similar to this one that I found on Craigslist:

This puppy has a multi-point heat control fire box, built-in water pan, holds about 1/2 cord of wood, a decent sized pipe, butane attachment (to help get the fire started) and of course is mounted to a trailer. I am not too crazy about the size of the lid though. It only opens about 3/4 of the way and would prefer something with two lids to minimize the amount of heat you would loose when opening one or the other. I am also looking for something with a minimum of 3/16″ in thickness in the main pipe area and no less that 1/4″ for fire box.

Some of my favorite pits are made by David Klose out of Houston, Texas. He makes some of the most amazing pits I have ever seen and will customize them to your exact requirements. Check out his website…it is in desperate need of a redesign but click around and you’ll see what I am talking about. I wish I could work with him on a custom pit but for now I think I am going to have to settle for something that is used…my budget is limited. Wish me luck.

So as many people know, The Big Bop is shutting down for good.
This is terrible terrible news because it’s a second home to Pookie and I.
We used to– and still– pop up there every single week for a show or three!
Now that we know it’s a goner, where will the Big Bop shows be held at?
Please don’t say Opera House or the Mod Club.
They’re going to want to steal double amount of the ticket prices.
Tragic, isn’t it?
First the Adrift Clubhouse and now The Big Bop.
What’s next?
Nothing because they already stole every place we go to!

They really did go.
They left even!
So I guess DIRTY MONEY are no more.
It’s really disappointing because I’ve only been to one show where they played with TRAPPED UNDER ICE and REIGN SUPREME earlier this year.
Worst of all that was the first time I’ve ever heard of them and fell in love with them since.
I was looking forward to seeing their shows in Toronto again to sing along for the first time but I guess not anymore.
This is truly sad news.

Speaking of TRAPPED UNDER ICE, last night’s show was spectacularly funny, brutal, and just plain spectacular.
I wish TUI would double their set.
It felt like it was too short.
Or maybe it’s because I had way too much fun, ahhaha.

To break it down, it was funny because people who acted like douchebags around us started shit with the regulars and lost; the core kids versus the moshers; more douchery; core kids fucked up the moshers; people doing stupid shit; Justice Tripp from TUI came on stage late looking like a super motherfucking t[h]ug– I think THIS was the highlight of the show last night!

The pit, for TUI especially and THE ACACIA STRAIN, got pretty fucked up brutal.
Of course, knowing that it’s TUI, their pits are ALWAYS like that.
Pookie got a light punch in the eye once during TUI and a massive painful one for TAS.
He bruised his arm and all of his knuckles from swinging his arms in the pit.
As for me, I got sucker punched in the nose.
I thought either my nose bled or got dislocated.
I heard this little “bop” sound.
What’s fucked up was that these two chicks beside me heard it, too.
All three of us froze and looked at each other, hahaha.
Thankfully, it didn’t bleed or dislocate but I’m left with a sort of visible purple-ish bruise.
What did kind of freaked me out a bit was that I saw a gunk of dark red blood when I blew my nose.
I guess it was supposed to bleed but it… didn’t?
Hhahaa, strange.
In the photo above it’s pretty hard to see it but it’s there.

The best part was the fun part.
There were several.
First of all, the most important one of all, Justice Tripp came on stage for TUI’s set with one of those big thick ass gangsta jacket, those gym bags high school soon-to-be high school drop outs wear (at least they did at my high school), and FUCKING bling!
The bling ain’t that huge, though.
Still, no matter what size the bling is, it’s still motherfucking bling.

Here’s the best I got from the video I recorded of last night’s show.
I’m curious to find out about his next appearance.
What else would he add to his thug profile?
Pook thought of a durag and a sweet set of grillz.
How I hope he’ll be right on that, hahaha.

I got the mic for Half a Person!
It was pretty hard getting the mic up front, especially when people stage dived and crowd surfed.
I fucking drowned in the crowd; thankfully, Thug Life saw me trying to reach the mic and handed it over to me during “Trying to be myself but I guess I wasn’t good enough”.
Sick!
Yup, I did the entire thing under everybody.
Mind you, this was right before I got my nose fucked up.
After I finished with the mic, I had to find a fairly big gap to pass the mic back to TL.
I returned to the back of the pit.
Next thing I know– BAM!
My nose died for five seconds.

During our smoke break, I noticed a smear of blood on Koo’s right hand.
We thought he got injured but it happened to be the blood of someone else’, hahaha.
Possibly from someone he smacked in the pit, eh~
Might belong to a random scene dick.
You never know because those are the type of people he aims for, hehehe.

Lastly, we’ve seen someone we haven’t seen for a LOOONG time.
Johnny OC from ex-LIFERUINER came by to lard up the pit.
I hate to say this but I have more respect for him because he and some metalhead stirred some beef with each other in the pit.
And that will be the ONLY respect I have for him.
Other than that, he’s a fat piece of shit who should just fuck off.
Doesn’t make sense but whatever, heheh.

Hopefully photos from last night will be posted soon.
I want to see them!
What I want to see the most are the photos of Thug Life to prove how thugged up he was.

From what I can remember, here’s what TRAPPED UNDER ICE played.
It’s not in sequence, again:

*See God (first)
*Skeleton Heads
TUI (Pook HAAATES this song, ahhaha)
*Half a Person (got the mic before the breakdown)
*Stay Cold
*Believe (should have the the very end in the actual track, too)
*Street Lights
*Reality Unfolds
*Soul Vice
… Eye Hand(?) (forgot if they did but that would have been sick)

Amazing.
Simply amazing!
They played ALL the songs I like besides TUI.
What I really hoped they would play is Unfinished Business.
Sickest two step part!
Please come back soon, TUI!
And try to look more of a thug next time to make Pookie happy, Thug Life.

Besides bringing home the swollen bruise on my nose, I came back with a TRAPPED UNDER ICE shirt!

That’s right, stay cold.
Not a very good idea wearing this during winter, right?

I’ll be posting up videos I took from last night’s show and STICK TO YOUR GUNS‘ on Youtube for those who are interested.

So the next show Pook and I are looking forward to is NORMA JEAN and HORSE THE BAND’s.
I already know NJ’s setlist and I guarantee you it WILL NOT be a disappointment.
I can’t wait for it!
I think Umar is making it to this show as well, but I don’t know about Peter.
For one thing Roma isn’t and he’ll definitely regret missing out on HORSE.
Too bad, ahhaha.

The Idea for this map came from a simple suggestion that was a reply to a thread I made in the Halo 3 Forum on B.net. For some reason, they seemed set on giving me vehicle ideas as opposed to weapon ideas to put on maps… I suppose it is easier to conceive that than decide that a weapon would work well on the map because of its scenery/layout. Anyways, someone said “Put a Ghost on The Pit”. I immediately pictured a ghost doing some hardcore splattering on runway and reaping some major damage on the pits. Of course, on a map like this, it would have to be countered with some good vehicle-control weapons.. In the end I believe I mostly kept the same weaponset for power weapons, as a spartan laser (my only other real choice for anti-vehicle) would be too devastating. To me it seemed like The Pit had sufficient vehicle-control weapons, but lacked a chance to use them. Now is the time.

Ideology
As I previously mentioned, I felt that The Pit has sufficient vehicle control, but never had a chance to utilize it, as it didn’t actually have any vehicles. Now, the map not being play-tested, I could easily be wrong, but I think that the map will play something like so:

Game starts, one team gets ghost, if lucky they get rockets as well, so the Ghost doesn’t go bye-bye in the first minute of the game. In social/low level ranked play, a smart team with the ghost will follow the ghost guy around as he racks up some kills before nade spamming eventually takes him down. On a higher level of play, though, things would get more interesting. Seeing as The Pit’s easily accessible drivable area is in a kind of horseshoe shape, taking the ghost onto the opposite team’s side is suicide, unless a game of CTF is being played, then it can make for quite the effective push. I think the Ghost will become more of a defensive weapon that kind of lurks around corners to splatter unsuspecting/unawares/out in the open players. Eventually, it is taken down by rockets, grenades, an invisible hijacker, brute shot, or a well placed plasma pistol.

The point of the Ghost is not to make the map central on it, but implement it well enough that it is a much contended for target.

*Interesting/Helpful fact: The Ghost’s run time maximum is set to 2. This means that if a team plays the Ghost smartly and keeps it alive, a second ghost will spawn on time with its spawn timer (150 Seconds, I believe), leading to even more interesting matchups where each team has a ghost, or one team totally dominates and the other team is forced to sit back. This could become a problem in the game, creating an over-dominance such as in Standoff. After playtesting, things like this will be determined I guess…

Pictures

Many small implementations were made to map to make it play better with a Ghost, as well as when the Ghost is not present… Without further ado:

A distant Ghost...

1. Why the heck is the Plasma Pistol circled? It’s always been there! I’ll bet 2 out of the 3 people that actually read this post totally disregard that weapon and barely realize it exists while playing. Well, with a vehicle on the map now, people need to realize a potential weapon when they see one. I have moved the Pistol further from the wall so it is now nearer to where one’s walking path would be. (Might have changed spawn timer on it)
2. Ah, the Ghost. The reason this map was made so. Most of it has already been described, but there it is. You now have something new to rush for at the beginning of the game.

Yup.. lots of stuff to see.

1. 5 Things in this picture. lets start with the Plasma Pistol. Yup, you now have a reason to go to these two weapons. Hopefully a weapon such as this at your base should help you survive if you are being ravaged by a Ghost.
2. Hmm.. What is this? Could be just some added scenery to the map, but this offers a simple jump up to Platform for those of you willing to take the time to jump onto the locker. Watch out, it tips!
3. Hard to see, but here we have a brand new BR. Think about it, your only other BR spawns occur near the shotgun corners and at the beginning of Runway. I felt like there was definitely a BR needed somewhere, and this compliments the tower nicely.
4. Idea copied from MLG. Why have this? A couple reasons, starting with the fact of the Ghost. If you are down in the pit between greenbox and platform, you are basically dead to a ghost. This gives you an option/place to go if you know there is a man waiting for you at greenbox or training. Also, the way The Pit works, you really have to be filtered and bottlenecked to get into their base… Probably a good thing, but this gives more strategic advantage.
5. This was only added to this side of the map, seeing as there is already one on the other side. Why? Cover, mainly. It simply isn’t fair that one team can duck behind a crate while the other ducks behind a locker and a barrel..?

One last thing is Overshield. This spawns at what was previously the Sword spawn.

1. No picture because suddenly my computer won’t upload. not much to see anyways. Overshield is now in Sword spawn, there is no longer a sword.
2. This does a few things… One, it alleviates the camping problem in sword room. With one less close ranged power weapon (and in my opinion the most powerful), people will be less tempted to venture in there and stay. The OS gives yet another fighting chance against the Ghost.

Comcluding

This map has also not been play-tested. I need to do so, but as my mic is broken, I can’t (until Christmas, a friend of mine is getting me one ). I feel like this map is not totally balanced, and the only way to figure it out is to actaully play test it.

Map created by Knight Kninja.

Links

Bungie.net

Bungie Halo 3 Forums

Download Pitted

In anticipation of the February arrival of the all-time Gods of Metal, Slayer, I present to you a poem I wrote following their concert in June of 2006.  Enjoy.

Heavy Metal Poetry

I went last night
To a heavy metal show
The last one I’d been to
Was quite a while ago

I feared that I would be
The oldest one there
But I found many others
Like me, with thinning hair

The seats were vibrating
From the thumping bass drum
It wasn’t too long
Before my ears started to go numb

The mosh pits were thrashing
With shirtless sweaty men
Somebody remind me
How’s that not gay again?

We all came to see Slayer
But four bands played prior
The first three weren’t memorable
But Lamb Of God nearly stole Slayer’s fire

Then Slayer hit the stage
At about a quarter to ten
From the first notes of “South Of Heaven”
I was 21 years old again

I jumped around and head-banged
For over an hour
When I got home my wife opined
That I really needed a shower

Today my neck is sore
And my head is still ringing
But last night was so fun
With all my air-guitar and singing

So thanks to you Slayer
For kicking my ass last night
Right now I don’t regret it
But later when I can’t move my neck, I might

I hope that all of you
In some way, shape, or form
Can share the same joy as I did
And have a piece of your youth reborn

SLAY-ER! SLAY-ER! SLAY-ER! SLAY-ER! SLAY-ER! SLAY-ER! SLAY-ER!

This is probably the last wristband from The Big Bop I’ll ever wear this year.
Funny how the security dudes still remember Koo and I.
Hahaha, Asians stick out more there I guess.

So after three days of STICK TO YOUR GUNS, I’m still a bit worn out from it.
Instead of being entertained by STYG, the only band we were there for, Pookie was hooked to SLEEPING GIANT because of their religious views.
The speech did not ring a bell to me at all but his stage presence was… QUITE interesting.
Unlike most of the shows we go to, we hardly even went into the pit.
No, we didn’t even go inside.
It was a good change and well worth it because we got to see evety stupid thing happening there (i.e bad dancers), ahhaha.
Anyway, I only recorded Enough is Enough, the first track to STYG’s set, but couldn’t do the rest because I thought of going into the pit but decided not to.
So I just watched without taping it.
Kind of a disappointment but it’s best to watch them on stage with your own pair of eyes instead of through the camera.
I can’t recall their set list in sequence, but here is what I remembered.
Again, the asterisks represent my favourites:

*Enough is Enough
Part of Me
*This is More (thought of piling up for the chant, but decided to stay at the back with Pook)
*Impact
*Tonight’s Entertainment
*We’re What Separates the Heart From the Heartless (last song of the set and quite obvious that it was, ehhee)

If I had posted this right away after I got home that night, I would have been able to write down the entire set.
This is the best I can remember, hahaha.
Surely they had a longer set– they did!

The crowd for WINDS OF PLAGUE was hilarious!
So many funny shit happened which made it a wild night.
There were kids who fell off the stage as they dove into the crowd, prostitots grinding everywhere, and fights broke out.
The band’s music is definitely not my type, yet it was a fun night!

Tonight will be even better.
I mean, come on, who the fuck is more Baltimore thug life than TRAPPED UNDER ICE?
Really!
Hahhaha, I love poking fun at those guys.
Thankfully I have Fridays off since my photo styling class was over by the week of mid-term.
Besides, Pookie’s paying for my ticket!
Trying to rub the money off of his mama.
Not cool, Pook, not cool.

This week has really been one hell of a birthday treat.
My schedule of going to shows with Pookie’s back to normal.
Esther and mama will be treating me to dinner sometime next week when our schedule is more flexible.

Plus, I got a quarter of my early birthday money.
Not so fast, though.
The birthday money will not be personal spending money but it’ll be college spending money.
I need to finish the rest of my payment for the program’s stupid lab fees.
In other words, it’s all going down the drain.
This has go to be my worst way to treat my birthday money ever.
Hey, Pookie said it’s for the best and it really is.
I can’t complain.

Hell, I don’t even want to think of college.
My final assignments of the semester and exams are coming up in less than two weeks.
There is WAY to much pressure.
If anybody can purchase my venti cup of extra caffeinated Starbucks coffee everyday of my study days, I will LOVE you to death!

Peachpit publishes books on the latest in graphic design, desktop publishing, multimedia, Web design and development, & digital video. Peachpit also has several digital product offerings, such as eBooks and online video.

http://www.peachpit.com

(CFD.net.au – Contract for Difference, Share, Forex, ETFs, Commodities Traders) –

The clock is ticking. Each day that passes without Japan’s officials hunkering down to boost growth, halt deflation, prepare for an aging population and increase competitiveness is a blow to the nation’s 126 million people.

December marks the 20th anniversary of the Nikkei 225 Stock tock Average’s bubble-years peak of 38,915. Japan’s “Lost decade” began soon after. In some ways, it has been two decades. The first – 1990 to 2000 – was a crisis-filled one. The second, which is still playing out, has been more stable, yet not without its own perils.

Even after Japan began growing around 2002, it was only because of the economic equivalent of steroids. If you took away near-zero interest rates and massive fiscal pump-priming, growth would have fizzled. So, in a sense, Japan’s longest postwar recovery was a mirage. Japan has yet to find the exit strategy the US is now beginning to search for.

Getting a handle on political obstacles is an obvious first step toward ending Japan’s funk. The next is keeping balkanised infighting between factions from scuttling economic change. Two decades really should be long enough.

As Japanese finance ministers go, Hirohisa Fujii is setting a speed record for trashing his credibility.

Policy Dearth

Fujii’s yen policy, or lack thereof, tells the story. One day, traders think he’s fine with the yen’s 13 per cent gain versus the dollar over the last 12 months. The next, they are bracing for massive intervention in markets. Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama’s goal of wowing Investors in his first five weeks in office isn’t succeeding.

Worse, strategists already sense a kind of “balkanized gridlock” seeping into a government charged with keeping Japan relevant as China becomes more powerful. If so, Investors will be no happier with Japan’s new leaders than the old ones.

“When Japan awakes this New Year’s Day, it will wake to two utterly unpalatable new realities: Its economy will have been elbowed into third place by China and the ‘Lost Decade’ will have expanded past the two-decade mark,” says Nicholas Smith of MF Global FXA Securities in Tokyo.

Investors are counting on Smith being wrong. The trouble is, Fujii isn’t even Japan’s weakest economic link. That would be Financial Services Minister Shizuka Kamei.

Out of Control

The man is clearly out of control and Hatoyama’s inability to rein him in speaks to the factional nature of Japanese politics. It’s not the political parties that matter, so much as the competing interests under their banners. How Hatoyama’s Democratic Party of Japan ended up with an anti-reform firebrand is a case in point. Last month, his administration took over from the Liberal Democratic Party, which ruled Japan for all but 10 months since 1955.

“Many foreign investors see Kamei’s appointment as a victory for old-guard LDP hardliners,” says Naomi Fink, Tokyo- based strategist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ.

Kamei has already managed to spook stock investors with a plan for a moratorium on loan repayments for small companies that would harm banks’ profitability, asset quality and risk management. He is set on halting the privatisation of Japan’s sprawling postal system to the dismay of investors awaiting its initial public offering.

Japan’s new government deserves more time to fix an economy suffering from decades of neglect. It’s also worth pointing out some early Hatoyama successes.

One is the zeal with which his team is scaling back on wasteful public-works projects such as unnecessary dams and bridges. Concrete Economics are a major reason Japan is shackled with the biggest public debt in the developed world: almost twice the size of its economy. The Democratic Party of Japan aims to channel those vast funds to more productive pursuits.

New Energy

Another is accelerating the process of pulling power away from bureaucrats and putting it in the hands of elected officials. It’s the key to reducing corruption in an economic system in dire need of new Energy and dynamism.

Hatoyama also made an impression in Pittsburgh last month at the Group of 20 summit. Let’s face it, the world didn’t much care about Japan’s last three premiers. The one that people overseas may remember most out of Japan’s last 10 leaders was Junichiro Koizumi. Who can forget his 2006 air-guitar performance at Elvis Presley’s home in Memphis, Tennessee, as an amused President George W Bush looked on?

It’s this Global-recognition vacuum that made Hatoyama’s US trip so significant. The Stanford University PhD even delivered a speech to the United Nations General Assembly in English — quite a novelty. There, he spelled out Japan’s commitment to retool its economy and create an East Asian community similar to the European Union. The UN crowd isn’t accustomed to big thoughts from a Japanese leader.

The question, of course, is whether Hatoyama’s party can do more than talk about change. His economic team is proving to be a disheartening liability. Fujii’s yen flip-flops are part of the problem. The bigger one is Kamei. Time is marching on.

Bloomberg

Source: William Pesek | Japan"s 20-year-long lost decade

The Pit

http://nextgenwalkthroughs….

Modern Warfare 2 Spec Ops guide to getting all 69 stars, veteran difficulty (when applicable)

Guide by Beer_Baron

Żeby móc prowadzić biuro rachunkowe, musimy oczywiście posiadać udokumentowane odpowiednie kwalifikacje.

Jeśli już spełniliśmy taki wymóg możemy spokojnie przystąpić do załatwiania niezbędnych formalności. Na początku trzeba zarejestrować działalność gospodarczą.

Potem otrzymujemy nr REGON, załatwiamy formalności w Urzędzie Skarbowym i ZUS. Wypadało by również założyć rachunek bankowy.

Biuro rachunkowe można prowadzić samodzielnie lub w spółce cywilnej. Warunki stawiane osobom prowadzącym usługowo księgi rachunkowe precyzuje ustawa o rachunkowości natomiast szczegółowe kwestie unormowane są rozporządzeniem ministra finansów z dnia 20 sierpnia 1998 roku.

December is my favourite month of this year.
Not only because it’s my twenty first birthday and Christmas, but Pookie Koo and I can go to shows worth going to again!
Starting with December 4th will be TRAPPED UNDER ICE at Opera House; then comes THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN’s on the 7th at the Mod Club, again just like their last one this year; following with NORMA JEAN and HORSE THE BAND the very next day at Opera House.
Unfortunately, because we want to save up our money for our Niagara Falls trip, which might be postponed to January, we won’t be attending the STICK TO YOUR GUNS show on December 1st.
That would have been such a badass way to start the month, ahhaha.
A bundle of money to save but it’s well worth it!

Speaking of my birthday, I get to pick up my free birthday gift from Sephora and Aerie.
Funny enough both of the presents include lip gloss, hahaha.
Hey, I don’t care as long as it’s cosmetics related, I’m good!

The gift card sent to me from Sephora.
As soon as the first day of December hits, I’m picking it up on the spot.
A set of three shades of lip gloss.
Nice!
By the looks of it I fell n love with the pink shade already, ahhaha.

Although the weather’s a bit gloomily shitty, I still have to attend the jeans photo shoot meeting with Marcus and the crew tonight.
Basically he wants to schedule a re-shoot because one of our models, Mike, left early for some troubles in his house.
Now that everything’s back to normal, or it SHOULD be, I’m confident that I can stay for this shoot unlike the last one.

On a different note… this is something i wrote about the person who broke my heart… its a song… its long but it needs to be posted… for me… Here it is!

How I still hate you
but I want you everyday,
my heart yearns for you
and it calls for you somehow,
wishing that I never met you
but I don’t know how to let you go,
how long will I sit
in this bottomless pit

how long how long how long will you keep me here
I want to change
I want to grow but
I’m afraid to let go
I want to be
I want to see
but I can’t let there be

how do you keep me bound
when you have no ground
to say anything at all
how do you keep me here
when there’s nothing left
I just want to be free
I want to run from you
I want to run from me
oh lover stay away
stay stay away
you say your gonna go one way
but you go in circles

how many times
how many times
how many times
do I have to fall for it over again
how many times will I think its the same
until I realize its a game

let me run cuz I want to stay
you’ve gone far away so far
yet my heart cries for you

how long how long how long will I ask for you
how long how long how long will I keep crying for you
how long how long how long till I break free from you
from this
from your constant battle
from your constant game
how long how long how long how long how long till I break free
leave me be
leave me be oh lover

BRIDGE
March in a different direction because this heart is breaking in pieces
March in another direction because your starting to change me to something I don’t want to be
stupid
broken
hearted
lover
I can’t
keep going on
there’s nothing left here all you see is rubble all you see is brokenness all you feel is ashes running through your hands ashes ashes ashes

how long how long how long till I’m sane again,
how long how long how long how long till I can walk tall
how long how long how long how long how long till I can look you in the eyes and not feel anything at all
look you in the eyes and tell you go away run away leave me be
how long how long how long till your touch is nothing to me
nothing to me
when your kisses feel like poison to my skin
when your gaze feels like its burning my flesh alive
how long how long how long how long how long till I feel sick of calling your name
calling your heart
crying out for you
running to you
and the smell of you
how long how long how long

So since the last times I blogged, I have done nothing. I was forced to eat the Beast Stew. It was horrible. I took a relaxing bath. I’ve been eating healthy or not at all, and I’ve lost like 5lbs already, not alot ALOT, but still…I was thinking about how there are kids in the world, not even kids, just people in general who wish that they were fat, people who wish their mother would tell them “you shouldn’t eat so much”, so that gives me a different perspective on my whole situation.

Anyways, this weekend is going to be fun. My cousins are coming over and we’re all going to Disneyland for my cousin’s birthday. I’ve been to Disneyland 2 times since August, both with “GUY”, so this is going to be different. I really like Disneyland, its like a real life fantasy, or oxymoron. When I’m there all my troubles go away, I just forget about them. Hopefully I don’t get too depressed while there, the last time I was there was for his birthday and we had a really good time. I was so happy to see his eyes light up the way they did and see the smile on his face, and just knowing that I took a part in putting that there. It was one of the best weekends of my life, honestly. I also remember that Sunday night, when I broke down crying when I had to drop him off at the airport to go back to his house. I could barely get out of the airport drop off area. I was a mess. The way I see it, this can go one of two ways, I will either forget all about everything and just have fun with my family or I might get hung up on the time me and him spent there…Who knows.

Remember in elementary or even middle school when you liked someone and you told them and they told their friends and their friends laughed at you about it…? Well thats kind of what I feel like. I thought his friends liked me, but its like the teenage girl syndrome, one doesn’t like you, all turns against you. I remember all the times I had something to say in the middle to conversations with his friends, but I held back. I remember when I thought that I looked like shit, so I wouldn’t hang out with them…But now I realize they don’t care what I have to say, they don’t care if I look like shit, all they know is I hurt their friend, and that to them…I don’t know. I kind of feel like now, I don’t even want to go back into a relationship with him, because of the awkwardness of it all. I’m always around…on weekends, then for me to disappear for months, and then maybe, possibly reappear…its all a mess.

So I was watching Keeping Up With The Kardashians: The Wedding, and they did the peak&pit of their day, and I thought it was a cute concept that would come across particularly well on a blog. So here goes.

Peak: Going to Piano & drowning in the music
Pit: Roast Beast Stew.

Thanks for reading guys.

(CFD.net.au – Contract for Difference, Share, Forex, ETFs, Commodities Traders) –

By

William L. Watts

&

Deborah Levine

, MarketWatch

The dollar pared gains as the trading session wore on and U.S. equities backed away from the lows of the day.

/quotes/comstock/21o!x:seurusd

CUR_EURUSD

1.47

,

-0.01

,

-0.49%

“The tone appears to be one of conso …

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By

William L. Watts

&

Deborah Levine

, MarketWatch

The dollar pared gains as the trading session wore on and U.S. equities backed away from the lows of the day.

/quotes/comstock/21o!x:seurusd



cur_EURUSD



1.47


,

-0.01

,

-0.49%

“The tone appears to be one of consolidation as the market focuses on this week’s key events,” said currency strategists at Brown Brothers Harriman in a research note. “The U.S. dollar is continuing to gain ground as markets pare back ‘risk-on’ trades.”

The single currency changed hands at $1.4690, down from $1.4720 in North American trade late Friday.

The dollar rose to 92.09 Japanese yen, up from 91.43 yen Friday.

The dollar Index


/quotes/comstock/11j!i:dxy0

(

<A href="http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/index/DXY" title="US Dollar Index Future – Spot Price”>
DXY




76.35


,

+0.47

,

+0.61%

)

, a measure of the greenback against a trade-weighted basket of rival currencies, rose to 76.719, up from 76.446.

A holiday in Japan curtailed volume in Asia, while a lack of major economic data kept activity under wraps in Europe, strategists said.

The dollar remained higher after the Conference Board said the U.S. recession is bottoming out and a recovery is near. The private group’s Index of leading economic indicators rose 0.6% last month. Analysts surveyed by MarketWatch predicted the index would rise 0.7% in August.

See more on leading indicators.

Fed chatter

Meanwhile, ideas the Fed’s rate-setting Open Market Committee could opt Wednesday to signal it’s ready to begin outlining an exit strategy from its massive monetary-stimulus efforts helped pressure equity markets, spurring support for the dollar, analysts said.

U.S. stock indexes stayed under pressure on Wall Street, with the Standard & Poor's 500 Index


/quotes/comstock/21z!i1:in\x

(


SPX




1,071


,

+6.01

,

+0.56%

)

off 0.4%, following lower markets in Europe. The greenback has tended to rally when economic fears are on the rise and to fall when investors are more inclined to take on risk.

See Europe Markets.


See Market Snapshot.

“Given the recent improvements in the housing and manufacturing sectors along with the rise in consumer spending and equity prices, the Fed has plenty of reasons to be upbeat,” Kathy Lien, director of currency research at Global Forex Trading, wrote in an email. “If they become more optimistic, it would initially help to drive the dollar higher but given the schizophrenic nature of the currency market, a rise in risk appetite may erase the dollar’s gains.”

Also under discussion is the central bank’s mortgage-debt buying programs, which many credit with keeping mortgage rates low for borrowers and supporting the struggling housing sector. Some analysts expect those purchases to be slowed down to last longer, much like the Fed declared for its Treasury-buying program last month.

Read more in Bond Report.

Still, dollar weakness has been exacerbated in recent weeks amid signs the greenback is taking on a role as a funding currency for carry trades, in which investors sell a low-yielding currency and purchase higher-yielding currencies.

Also this week is a summit of the leaders of the Group of 20 Global economic powers, which gets under way Thursday in Pittsburgh.

Nervousness before that meeting has also spurred traders to exit pro-risk trades, said Boris Schlossberg, director of currency research at GFT.

“If the talk out of the G20 actually turns into some concrete policy action, the news of further government regulation of capital markets could cast a pall over risk assets and precipitate a profit taking sell off that many analysts have been anticipating for weeks,” Schlossberg said.

William L. Watts is a Reporter for MarketWatch in London.


Deborah Levine is a MarketWatch Reporter, based in New York.

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Source: Dollar holds gains before Fed meeting – MarketWatch

Why not?
Besides, I’m using my birthday and Christmas money from my families anyway.
My old red tuque is getting kind of boring now.
It’s the only winter hat I have, too.
Instead of sticking to one thing, I want to branch out by buying something new at last, hahaha.

Since I’m in need of something more formal than Old Red, this is indeed the finest I want to get.
And get I will, heheh!

Alright, onto last night’s HOSHI★FURU show.
After jam at around 3PM, Roma and Tina headed straight to Four Points Sheraton Hotel in Mississauga while Umar went home to hitch a ride form his mama.
On the other hand, Pookie’s mama was supposed to arrive at Grant’s studio at 3:30PM.
Clumsy of her she forgot to print out the directions to get to the convention grounds.
While she took almost two hours with it, Poop, my future brother-in-law, and I headed over to Grand and Toy to print out flyers for our show.
Soon afterward we got picked up from Union Station.
More unfortunate things happened soon when Babywaby’s mama got lost.
Pretty much we gotten to the convention late.
With that said we started the show at 7:45PM while it was supposed to be 7PM.
Luckily we got a huge supporting crowd who patiently waited for us to finish sound check and our smoke break.
Came into Room A, the show room, and played our set without any mistakes.
All except for Pookie, who made a minor mistake on Prrreow!.
The rest was a-okay!
I know it’s a-okay when people move around and danced in a pit.
Total hilariousness, hahaha.
HOSHI★FURU also made a couple of new friends, who fell in love with us on the spot when we started.
It was SUCH a pleasure to autograph their demo CDs they bought from us, a sketchbook, some chick’s shoe, and a Nintendo DS.
Now that that’s done, I’m STILL waiting for Peter Fag to send me the videos he took of our set and the chat with our new friends.

Apparently, one of our new friends video taped our entire set but only uploaded Ne on Youtube.
Here it is for those who want to see a glimpse of one of our songs:

inviato da: Diego Crivellaro

“Next Stop” ed i “Midi Karaoke” hanno il piacere di presentarvi la novità del momento il ……

“SI LA SO ‘ L”

Gara musicale a premi…….LE SO TUTTE…….
Se è così hai VINTO

Inizio giovedì 19 novembre

Vi aspettiamo numerosi

A breve verrà pubblicato il regolamento completo

………VIENI A SCOPRIRE…….. NEXT STOP