candy...

as much as i adore savory foods, i still have a lingering sweet tooth form my childhood. in particular, i still enjoy the things i ate then, but it gets difficult with the passage of time to find some of those things. sure, you can go online to special order many of them or even go to specialty shops, but some things are no longer regularly accessible (which i suppose defines these rarities a "treat" more so than other sweets). ive also discovered geography also plays a part in where you can find things- even within your own country, state, or town.

recently, my mother went out of town for astronomical observation and while she was a away, she happened across a specialty shop dealing in retro merchandise- including candy! it was a great surprise to get a massive bag of goodies full of retro candies including tootsie rolls, unicorn pops, zotz, hard candy sticks, nonpareils, and more. a lot of these candies are associated with fond childhood memories which make them all the more special to me. i love the sensation of nostalgia and when i have something tangibly associative, it gives me a very happy feeling. i even considered pulling out ma camera to photograph some of the packages not knowing when i might see them again, if at all, but i resisted the urge. maybe i might some other time- documenting for posterity isnt such a bad thing after all...

to be or not to be...

...is often a pretty common question in regards to various things in our lives. recently i deliberated whether or not i would pursue further work on 1974central.com or not. the only real reason i see do do it is that it is somewhat enjoyable; i like learning and sharing. however as i believe i mentioned before the site is fairly dead, the only traffic has been spam, the only contributor has been me, and the admin never replies to anything i write (or at least thats the way things have seemed). i just wrote the admin again after spending the better part of 12 hours working on the site today. i did some good things, but i messed up a bit as well and then couldnt correct my mistakes. i think part of that is that i suspect that i dont have full control over things as she does. im hoping that the good i have done will be taken into consideration. i would like to see the site take off and do well, but it needs a lot of work and it needs serious contributors who are willing to put in some time to make it nice. its all about personal passion driving this site to better places. i think it could happen. however, i also kind of doubt that it will because the odds are so highly against its success as things stand now. im actually a little surprised i did bother to accomplish what i did with that site today considering i have nothing concrete to base my work upon; i have no guarantees. it was more of an act of self-indulgence. go figure...

being productive, sort of...

something i have been wanting to do for a while is make a banner for my myspace pages to direct profile viewers to come here for my blogs since everything will be posted here first from now on if not exclusively. i had already saved and edited a screen capture of this blog's banner which i had made. the only thing left was to make it a convenient size to fit within my myspace layouts that would still be legible. for that all i did was drop my banner into photoshop, drag the text in to more appropriate positions, adjust the banner frame, and save it. after that, i uploaded the newly saved banner to an image host that i typically use for such things, copied the hyperlink text, and popped on over to myspace to drop it into each of my accounts (remember, i have two?). The hyperlink text is never exactly what i need but it gives me the structure so i dont have to type everything from scratch, since im a tad lazy in that department. since i still remember oldskool web lingo, i was able to modify the code in a short amount of time. after previewing and double-checking my work, i felt it was spiffy enough to add to my flickr account, a link which you may find in my "Check It Out..." section, and added a little blurb about it while i was there. in retrospect, i almost never supplement my photos/work with text, but perhaps with some of the more technical things it might be useful if i added some detail so the viewer might understand more about what they are looking at. otherwise sometimes things might seem less intriguing to some who dont understand what efforts went into something or simply the purpose behind sharing such an image.

radio stations i enjoy online...

itunes supplies me with some pretty fantastic internet radio stations to tune in to, but sometimes it would like to listen to something else. perhaps my tastes in music are more eclectic or diverse- or maybe as large as the itunes offering may be, it just isn't large enough. who knows?
subjection aside, i thought i would share the stations which i like to occasionally listen to (which are not offered on itunes, or that i know of as of yet). i will try to group them since my list is alphabetical, that way you can peruse by grouping. i hope you find some enjoyable stations in my list. since some of these sites offer more than one listening link and/or server, i will simply post the main page for you. by the way, i will post some pertinent links in my "Check It Out..." section on my main page here.

anime soundtrack, j-pop, j-rock, edm, etc.
these stations are basically anime related. some focus on one genre more than another. that being said, the majority of the music will be in japanese. the remainder will be either english or instrumental.

anime seed radio
http://www.animeseed.com/

animeamaze radio
http://www.animeamaze.net/

animenfo radio
http://www.animenfo.com/

armitage's dimension
http://www.armitunes.com/

kawaii-radio
http://www.kawaii-radio.net/

keiichi.net ex² extreme anime radio
http://www.radio.keiichi.net/index2.php

shinsen radio
http://www.shinsen-radio.org/

toon radio
http://www.toonradio.net/

aznv.tv radio
http://aznv.tv/?p=home


edm, alternative, etc.
the main reason i tune into these stations is for some excellent edm (electronic dance music) broadcasts. a few of these stations also broadcast non-edm-related programs, which aren't so bad if i happen to be curious enough to catch them.

lowercasesounds radio
http://www.lowercasesounds.com/

lunacast radio
http://www.lunacast.com/

wfmu
http://www.wfmu.org/

wmbc
http://www.wmbc.umbc.edu/

wmuc
http://www.wmucradio.com/

wber
http://www.wber.monroe.edu/site/html/index.php

poem...

the will of love

when we pass on,
time goes on.
would you still love me
from where we lie?
will our souls entwine;
would our essence combine
for one last time?
there's a chance
we might dance
on the leaves of trees,
waltzing in the breeze
in love, endlessly;
you and i, eternally,
in dust and snow
as seasons come and go...
would you be mine
til the end of time?

valentine's day...

or should i say, "meh..."

i've never really been one to favor this day since my early elementary school days. back then it was really fun. every one passed out really cool valentines and candy. in fact, it was about as fun as easter in terms of candy factor. i also enjoyed creating hand-made valentines in class for friends and family. however, all that stopped after the second grade. the next school i went to, didn't do that sort of thing, neither did the school after that, which was also boy's only. i was in yet another school during grades 7-8, but by that point you didn't have valentines, you had dances and most everyone sat in opposite corners or in small groups until at least the first hour of the dance had crawled by. ah yes, teens and their hormones. i didn't see girls again until my last two years of high school, and by that point it certainly wouldn't have been cool to do valentines then, if you dig my lingo. not only that but socialization with the opposite sex was a real issue for a lot of kids, including yours truly.

ever since my late teens/early twenties when i finally got into relationships i've seem to have nothing but bad luck around valentine's day, usually taking the form of girls girls dumping/breaking up with me. i've also found myself alone while other family members have had plans or other spontaneous activities. then there's also finding out the hard way that an ex of mine was married whom i had pledged my love two shortly before valentine's day. frankly i'm tired of the day.

one should express their love all year long and not just one day of the year. to focus such strong feelings of togetherness on one day of the year is very harsh for those who are alone. even worse if you actually feel alone; loneliness can be a real killer-even worse if someone suffers from depression. there are already other holidays that focus on togetherness without having to drag love into the whole thing. when i am alone such holidays are cruddy. when i am with someone, its fine, but i still feel empathy for those who aren't.

the commercialization of the holiday is a real kicker, too. restaurants tend to be booked solid and they are too noisy. sometimes their planned valentine meals are price higher than normal. it's exploitation at its finest. it makes me tired...

networking is nice...

Last month, I was contacted by another website. They wanted to know if they could make a link to my blog because they thought it was something that would interest their customers. I gave it some thought and looked at their site. They sell shoes, Nike's to be specific. They also have a page full of links to sites that they think their customers might enjoy, not to mention other cool pages to browse through. Ironically, another sneaker site specializing in custom kicks recently wrote to conduct the same sort of exchange of links. I think this is great; it allows a mutually beneficial exposure to each party- something that everyone wants. You will notice I have posted the links as "Nike Shoes" and "Paint or Thread." Hey, everyone needs some new sneakers to kick around in at some point. Why not do it with a little flair...

commentary...

*** this is probably the only other time i have made any attempt at international socio-political commentary. it is a reply to something posted in the china digital times (http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2008/04/my-friends-what-do-you-want-from-us/#comment-1354). i would rather not be in a position to speak of things particularly close to my heart as i don't like getting involved in situations where i have to defend those beliefs from those who disagree. i should also add that this probably should have been posted with the back-words series, but it slipped through the cracks as it is nor a blog, but rather a public posting.


i personally do not make any demands nor have any expectations of china or its people. however, it seems to me this is a world of extremes and china is living those extremes to one degree or the other. one does not need to live life to an extreme in order to be happy or successful. one can truly find contentment balanced within a happy medium. somewhere in the middle, most people, businesses, and countries find a mutually beneficial success.
i think china is a wondrous land, full of beauty. years ago, i was lucky to find friendship in a chinese girl. we have been pen pals on and off the internet for over five years and she is a very special person to me. if i could choose a future with someone, it would be with her. unfortunately, she lives in china and i live in the usa and aside from the physical distance between us, i do not feel i would have the same opportunities and freedom in china if i were to live there. unfortunately, she does not want to leave china, as she is already a long way from her family and does not want to be any further from them. i cannot blame her for feeling that way; family is very important and i have similar concerns.
is it possible china could change enough for a person such as myself to feel comfortable with living there? would i ever feel comfortable expressing my thoughts and living a life the way i choose under such a tightly controlled superpower? anything is possible, but such a change from china is not probable and it disheartens me. however, one can only hope that some day, all nations can see a little more eye to eye on level ground.
By djsquelch | April 14th, 2008 at 4:37 pm

poem...

my good wish

my good wish reaches out
from the ether to touch my heart.
the feeling, profound as always,
sends my emotions soaring.
sometimes i wish that good wish
was for me and me alone,
but i know that wish is selfish
and is easier said than done.
my good wish is adoring,
kind, gentle, and searches for ways
to bring happiness while we're apart.
my good wish is special, without a doubt.

old friends...

recently i've been in search mode for old friends again after having a few find me. some of my results have been wonderful and some have been quite sad, but today it's left me smiling as i stumbled across a particular group of friends i held dear to my heart for many years, and still do. just because i haven't been in touch with them doesn't mean they've been forgotten and it seems i've been remembered as well. life pulls people in different directions and after 20 years, it's understandable when you realize your only method for keeping up to date recently was a school mailer. that's wen you start reaching out on your own for something more substantial. fortunately there are places like facebook and myspace which help facilitate that endeavor. i guess most of the time i've only used those sites for networking and keeping up with a few current friends, but i'm glad to have awakened to the notion that i can find some very special people from my past on there as well. it's my hope that i will be a better friend and maintain somewhat more regular contact with the people who still are important to me.