Just to prove to Paul that people will still [inlink]paul,3796[/inlink] to other journal posts in spite of comments being enabled....

hehe

OK, the whole credit cards on campus thing is no joke. But that's the most expensive card table you ever saw, (e:Paul). Those folks pay SO much money to get into schools. When I was at Idaho I did a unit in my comp courses on the rhetorical tactics of college -- how people sold you credit cards and phone service etc. Those "Campus Life" packs... Some schools even co-brand the card and receive a fraction of a percent on EVERY PURCHASE YOU MAKE. Now, c'mon...

I remember one day I was so hungry coming home from class that I filled out a credit card app in exchange for a free sandwich and a pack of Twizzlers. I was weak. A few years later I had like four credit cards and owed some $8K in debt. I had mean people calling me on the phone followed up by "nice" people offering to help me dig myself deeper. It was nuts.

Sarah and I worked real hard, paid off all the debt, and got rid of credit cards for like 7 years. We got a credit card after we moved to Buffalo and had issue getting hotel rooms on the move because our bank debit card wouldn't work to secure the room. We have one card, which I found by looking at www.bizrate.com and other online credit card deal evaluation sites. It's got an 8.9% APR and NO ANNUAL FEE!!!!!!11!!!11 We pay it off every month, which puts us in the category of "freeloader" according to credit card company slang (and according to Ben Stein). Oh, and I get 1% of my purchases back for my car insurance. Now that's a perk -- I run everything I can through the card, pay it off within 30 days with no interest or fees, and get about $200 per year off my $600/year insurance. Not bad.

So, kids, don't get credit cards. And when you do, find a really actual good deal.

Wow, it's like some kind of nipponophile week for me on eStrip.

OK, so while playing Eye Toy at (e:Paul) (and (e:Terry) and (e:Matthew))'s house the other night, (e:Jesse) brought out his Japanese porno mag and hentai. It was a bit creepy because much of the mag was full of very young (and trying to look younger) girls just riding bikes or at the grocery, whose panties just happened to be poking out. It was total panty-flash porn mixed with some hardcore pix that were a little bizarre.

Anyway, that was fun. Way more fun than the fermented goat's milk liquor, which kept repeating on me thru yesterday.

Today I came across this blog posting ( )that details another guy's adventures in a Japanese pr0n shop. This image is of a high-larious product useful for inspecting one's innards (presumably in a highly erotic way)...





And just to sample the quality of Rob from Demonbaby's writing, check out this graph:

So of course we have to buy the beer can vagina, because we're drunk and it's funny, and we figure we'll find some entertaining unintended use for it. So we paid for it and continued on our merry way back to the hotel. Once there we said our goodbyes and retired to our rooms, and I realized that somehow I'd gotten stuck carrying the bag from the sex store. I set it down on the desk and didn't think much about it. That is, for a few minutes, until I found myself sitting on the bed in my hotel room, drunk and lonely and sexually frustrated, and I kept staring over at that stupid beer can vagina. "Maybe I should just try it. Just see what it feels like..." I mean, why not, right? You know. Just for kicks, right? So you know what? I fucked it. Yeah. I fucked a plastic beer can. I fucked the shit out of that can. And you know what? It felt alright. It did the trick. That is, until it was all over. Until the moment after, when I was hit by a sobering freight train of humility, looking down at my dick stuck inside a latex vagina housed in a plastic beer can. Moments like that you start to question everything - "How the hell did it come to this? Who am I? What am I doing with my life?" I probably sat there for an hour, silently with my plastic lover, pondering my existence.

check it out ( )

It's turned into a regular estrip eye toy party.

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Another angle of terry playing kung foo.

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Terry playing kung 2.

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Paul is an air guitar king of rock.

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Eating at charlie the butcher on cayuga

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I just watched the most bizarre segment on BBC World News: Online Suicide Clubs have been forming in Japan. What's even more bizarre is that the segment I saw tonight is a followup to this coverage from a year ago ( ). You can see the video from tonight on the BBC main page tonight. It's totally worth a watch. They even cover a story of a Japanese killer who has been stalking suicide websites -- he pretended he was a fellow suicidal guy and then slaughtered groups of people before they could kill themselves. Now that's a total head trip.

And there are lots more articles on BBC about it: , ,

Craziness.

Has anyone seen that Japanese horror flick, Suicide Club (aka Suicide Circle, )? I think about that opening scene far too often while waiting for the train -- man, that was creepy. But I love how the film tied together suicide pacts, the evils of pop music and subliminal messages, and the mobile TXT culture of teenage Japan. Definitely worth a watch.

Anyway, bizarre stuff. Catch the video while it's available on the BBC ( ) Look in the video and audio section. Sorry I can't find another, better link to it.

Wow, it's incredible how much work I've been putting into the new GamesFirst! (http://www.gamesfirst.com). (e:Paul) helped a bunch and gave up a few key scripts that made my life SO much easier. I definitely am grateful. But even so, it's been a long 3 weeks of insane development days.

I'm so excited about the results. I came here in large part to learn to make a better GF! I knew where we needed to be, but I hadn't been able to get anyone to get us there. I actually hoped I'd just find somebody to do the programming, but I think it's better that I've done it (mostly) myself. I don't mind having worked with (e:Paul) either -- because I am still fully aware of exactly how everything works. If I decide something isn't quite right, I can sink a few hours into reworking it.

Anyway, I don't know how many (e:strip)pers have checked out GF!, but the former version looked like some shitty ad company had puked all over a shitty website. And somewhere in there was buried some great articles. Nobody ever found them. The old hosting/design company (MediaPier, who thoroughly suXXor) responsible for the utterly crap design complained that they didn't make any money from GF!, which we told them would happen in the first place. But when they put those seizure-inducing flash ads on the site, it just got way out of hand. Nobody would read it. Friends and family said to me that they couldn't stand it. And it made me cry to look at it. Seriously. It's like as if I'd given my baby up to a baby-makeover place, and she came out looking like Joan Crawford. People instinctually fled from it. I contemplated shutting down the whole thing...

But I didn't. We've rebounded, as GamesFirst! always does. There's something about a dozen folks totally into the same thing that can produce amazing synergy. Or at least make me feel too guilty to pull the plug...

Anyway, I think I'm at a stopping point for the moment. It's time to get life in order for the school year to start again. We just launched our first podcast on GF!, so head over to (www.gamesfirst.com) and check it out. It should be listed in iTunes soon... And feel free to let me know if you have any comments about the site -- I'm back in the driver's seat.

Paul playing some more.

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