In-de-structible.

Moment when I realised I was addicted to Street Fighter IV: this morning, while I was on the train on the way to Uni. I was trying to get some shuteye, and for a little while, I was doing okay. Then, out of nowhere, I just shot awake and stayed that way. Why?

Because I was trying to figure out whether Sakura's Sakura Otoshi was an EX move, and whether the EX part was for the kick or the punches.

Umm. Yes. After everyone left tonight, I played it for a good...five hours or so? Indestructible, indeed.

- marty..

P.S. Seth can fornicate himself with an iron stick. Cheap bastard.

END COMMUNICATION.

...Cincuenta?

I don't think twentyfive is enough. I'm gonna see if I can bump that list up to fifty. I'll probably pick and choose the twentyfive best/most interesting to post on Facebook, if I ever do decide to post it there. Also, still undecided on who exactly I'm gonna choose to tag.

1. I hate gossip magazines/websites. My bathroom's full of the magazines, thanks to my brother's girlfriend's affinity for them. I'll read 'em when I'm in there, but only as a last resort, if I don't have any issues of SLAM or Complex lying around. And only because I NEED to read something while I'm in there. I just don't see the point in the whole celebrity gossip scene, personally.
2. Speaking of things I need to have, I dislike showering in silence. I always blast music while I'm in there. I used to have a CD player in the shower, but my mum got this iPod player for free, so now I have my whole music library to choose from. It. Is. Awesome.
3. When I was younger, I used to be obsessed with making sure everything in my room was synchronised, time-wise. So, I used to pull out my Digimon (...ahem), set the time on my stereo and press the "Finalise" button at the exact moment that the second timer moved from :59 to :00. Y'know. Synchronicity.
4. Speaking of obsessive habits, I always used to set the time on my VCR clock (the most prominent source of time in my room, seeing as it's in HUGE neon green digits, right at the foot of my bed) and on my G-Shock SEVEN minutes early. Why seven, I don't know. But having it early always gave me a sense of reassurance. Like, "Dude, you're not that late. Chillax. The clock's fast."
5. I can't remember when this started (probably sometime around Year Seven?), but everytime I see a set of numbers, I'm compelled to add them together and see if they add up to five. I also feel a weird sense of satisfaction when I see numbers that do add up to five. I think I've memorised the different combinations of numbers that add up to five. (Like, 77 would add up to five, seeing as 7 + 7 = 14, and 1 + 4 = 5. I'm weird like that. Don't mind me.)
6. I love roller-coasters. I never used to, but the feeling of going ridonculously fast while still being completely secure is just hard to beat. Sadly, I haven't been on a good roller-coaster in God knows how long.
7. I love isolation. I hate isolation. It goes back and forth.
8. Speaking of which, my mood can swing back and forth pretty quickly. It doesn't take a lot to push me to the extreme in either direction.
9. I've been blogging for four years now. Four years. In blog form. That's like, a fifth of my life. Insanity.
10. I love making lists. Possible byproduct of slight OCD.
11. i used 2 type lyk dis on MSN...full shorthand n evrythin... But nowadays, it gives me the shits. I don't know why, it just does. Personal pet peeve.
12. I've seen my favourite band perform my favourite song in person twice in my life. Thrice, if they play it again on the 26th of Feb. The first time I heard it in person, I felt like all my birthdays had an orgy and produced a super birthday. True story.
13. I have a habit of appropriating mannerisms/behaviours/speech patterns from my favourite characters. It's been mentioned more than once before that I pretty much bogarted Chandler Bing's personality.
14. I love The Wire. But I can't bring myself to watch the last season. Not because I don't want the show to end, but just because Sidereel loads too slow whenever I try to watch it. Annoying.
15. I spent almost the first ten years of my life in the Phils. So, whenever my mates talk about typical Sydney childhood staples, I'm pretty much out of the convo by default. But I'm not mad; I loved growing up in the Phils.
16. I have a very simple diet. It consists of pork/chicken, rice and orange juice. Noodles get thrown in there every once in a while. Same with fruits and water. But for the most part, I stick to what I love.
17. I have a love/hate relationship with epic games. I love the sense of grandeur that comes with a long game (like Final Fantasy or GTA), but at the same time, I find it so much harder to get immersed in a storyline nowadays, compared to when I was growing up. As much as I love a long game, I only really enjoy it once I'm close to finishing everything. On the other hand, I can play sports games (okay, just NBA 2K9) all day long. No story, aside from trying to replicate whatever crazy feat Kobe pulled off that day.
18. My favourite colour's always been blue. In recent years, yellow has made its way up the list, too. Green's at a close third.
19. Growing up, I always wanted to be a chef. Then I realised I'd rather eat than cook. So I settled for having a chef as one of my best friends.
20. I used to commonly experience sleep paralysis, sans the hallucinations. It used to scare the shit out of me. But since I haven't felt it in a while, I kinda miss it.
21. I used to drink a lot, and always for a reason. But after seeing and feeling way too many hangovers, I've decided to avoid crossing that line from "buzzing" to "I'M NOT A FUCKING DOG, I'M A FUCKING MAN!" Moderation, what up!
22. I like being out of the house, if only for the fact that it means I get to dress up and change out of my home clothes.
23. I personally reckon that Rachel Bilson is one of the most beautiful women alive. But that's just me. It's a subjective thing. Also, Natalie Portman and Stacy Keibler are right up there.
24. I've watched every episode of Friends at least ten times over. Sometimes I'll watch an episode just to see how many lines I can quote. Also, The One With the Embryos is still the best episode ever.
25. I almost always have a song in my head. If I could have a soundtrack playing in the background while I went on with my life, that would definitely be on my list of "Best Things Ever."

Peace.

- marty..

END COMMUNICATION.

Veinticinco.

So, my cousin tagged me on Facebook with one of those "Write 25 Random Things About Yourself" notes. This sounds like a good way to kill some time before the Lakers-Celtics game, so I'm gonna give it a shot. And since I don't really know who to tag yet, I'll put it on this first, then copy-paste it onto a note later.

1. I'm a neat freak. I can't function properly when disorder's afoot. It's too distracting.
2. Speaking of which, I'm very easily distracted. Case in point: I'll open up all the files I need to get through, tell myself "Oh, I haven't checked the scores today," which leads to "Oh, I wonder who's online?" and eventually "Oh shit, it's 3AM. Why the hell haven't I started?"
3. I'm a Psychology major. I chose it because it has NOTHING to do with any of the subjects I did in the HSC.
4. Then again, I read more about basketball than I do about Psych. SLAM, ESPN, random NBA blogs, you name it.
5. I think I lie too much. But then again, much to my chagrin, I'm pretty easy to read. So I'd say I'm pretty easy to catch out when I do lie.
6. I told my cousin that I considered myself introverted, and she laughed in my face. I can be, though, when I first meet people.
7. I hate the heat. I hate summer weather. I like summer because it's time away from Uni and everything, but I'd much rather be rugged up on a nice, cool Autumn day. Plus, my birthday and the NBA Playoffs are in Autumn, so it wins.
8. I have a pet labrador, named LeBron. I love him. But I wish he was smaller so he'd be easier to play with inside the house.
9. I have a bad habit of starting things and not finishing them. It bugs me that I do this. So I make it a point to try and finish what I start, even though it takes me eons to do so.
10. I treat my shoes like they're my kids. My brother and I both started early; one of the best things about my life is how I've spent three quarters of it immersed in shoes.
11. My family is very important to me. No matter how anti-social I can get when I'm at home.
12. My list of favourite people that I don't personally know: Shawn Carter, Kanye West, Kobe Bryant, Chandler Bing, Eminem, Shawn Michaels.
13. I have pride issues. I'm very stubborn. And I hate being wrong.
14. Also, I can get very competitive. It's not as bad as other people, but damnit, if I get riled up, I'll go right back at someone. I've been known to throw things around the room in a screaming fit if things don't go my way.
15. I try to stick to what I know how to do (not necessarily what I'm good at). So basketball is the only sport I actually play. I have too much pride to play other sports.
16. There are too many songs on my iPod. I think I've only listened to a good 75% or so. Ouch. But the songs that I have listened to, I actually really like.
17. It takes me ages to like artists/albums. I hardly ever like something right away. I usually need a good three or four listens before I start really digging the music.
18. This theory, of course, does not apply to girls. KidSlowMover.
19. I have a routine for the summer. I wake up fairly early, pull my laptop into bed, check the NBA scores, read basketball blogs, go through other miscellaneous blogs, then clothes/shoe sites, then my e-mail, and then I eventually get out of bed and blast some music while I clean the house. THEN I'm ready to start my day.
20. I've still never had a job. There's a good reason for this. If you know me, you'd know it.
21. I would appreciate a job though. If only because it'd ease some of the financial stress around the house...and I can get new shoes.
22. For someone without a job and on Uni holidays, I still don't get THAT bored. Well, for a couple of weeks I did. Then, Honours readings hit. POW!
23. I miss my cousins. You know who you are!
24. My dream job, even though I have no journalistic experience whatsoever, would be writing for SLAM. I don't care if it's just answering Trash Talk or one-liners for NOYZ. That magazine is my bible.
25. I'm gonna go outside in the 40-degree heat and play some basketball. Yes. The lengths I will go to just to get a run nowadays.

Peace.

- marty..

END COMMUNICATION.

Of obsessions and irrational traditions

As the Playoffs came around last year, with my Los Angeles Lakers standing atop the Western Conference for the first time since I became a fan, I knew I needed to do something special, to represent on another level. Something to epitomize the deep-seeded obsession I've had since junior high, since Kobe hit those 12 3s against Seattle. An obsession that had spanned, up to that point:

• The Horry miss in Game 5 (2003)
• The Malone and Payton experiment (2003-04)
• The 0.4-second miracle (2004)
• The tragic Pistons series (2004)
• The Shaq trade (2004)
• The Tomjanovich/Hamblen year (2004-05)
• The return of the Zen (2005-06)
• The 62 in three against the Mavs (2005)
• The 81 (2006)
• The "Steve Nash AGAIN? F*CK OUTTA HERE!" fiasco (2006)
• The Suns series/collapse (2006)
• The switch to 24 (2006)
• The 30 in the 3rd against Utah (2006)
• The four straight 50s (2007)
• The Smush Parker experiment (2005-2007)
• The less dramatic, more predictable Suns series (2007)
• The "Ship his ass out!" tirade (2007)
• The return of Fish (2007)
• The emergence of Bynum (2007-08)
• The Gasol steal (2008)
• The MVP season (2007-08)

Since my fandom started after the Lakers kicked off the new millenium with a three-peat, it's been filled more with "Reasons why I drink" rather than "Reasons why I celebrate." So, since the future looked so bright for us that Autumn (Southern Hemisphere, what up!), I decided to start a new tradition for the Playoffs: wearing my old-school white KB8 jersey for every day that the Lakers had a Playoff game. Whether it was under a jacket/hoody, or out for everyone to see, I made sure I had that jersey on me for every single game. It worked, to an extent: we made the Finals. (Then I kinda blacked out, some things happened, and for some reason, the Celtics were celebrating. Those couple of weeks were a blur to me, really. *shrugs*)

Anywho, the whole point of this post is this: tomorrow, at 12PM Sydney time, the Lakers face off against Boston. And I know, it's 'just' a regular-season game. But at the same time, it's not just any game. It's against the Celtics. Those damn Leprechauns. The last time we were in the building, THIS happened (Okay, repressing those memories again in three...). I just hope we beat 'em just like we did on Christmas Day (well, Boxing Day down here. Again, Southern Hemisphere, WHAT UP!). As much as I celebrated that day, I'll be, like, thrice as randy should we pull out a victory at the Gahhhden.

So, tomorrow, at 12PM Sydney time, I'm gonna pull out the jersey. It may not be the Playoffs yet, but it'll damn sure feel like it. If I'm bleeding Forum Blue and Gold tomorrow afternoon, you'll know why.

- marty..

P.S. Totally neglected reading for my Honours project to write this entry. Umm. Priorities FAIL.

END COMMUNICATION.

Lykke + Quest = WIN.

It's simple maths, really. If I ever decide to compile a "Best Things Ever" list, seeing this performance in person would be right up there. Somewhere between "Spider-Man" and "Kobe's 81-point game."

...Okay, for some reason, Blogger's being really uncooperative and not letting me embed the YouTube clip. FAIL.

Here's the URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SE7amhcwEI

- marty..

END COMMUNICATION.

Not something you wanna wake up to.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3879472

If anybody needs me, I'll be drinking myself into a stupor, lamenting our lack of inside toughness and cursing the Celts/Cavs/Magic/Spurs(?). No matter how hopeful Kobe is.

- marty..

P.S. 2009-10 NBA Champions, here we come!

END COMMUNICATION.