“I’ll see you on the field.”

It is said by Tom Cruise in Last Samurai before the final battle when Algren talks to Bagley. Jason and I exchanged the quote before the Machine Lan of Doom 2004 Soul Calbur II tournament started. Four matches and a few hours later I was one win away from the finals. Jason’s path was more interesting.

After losing to Phil, he began his trek through the Loser’s bracket. I took Phil out and Jason stayed alive. Their paths met again. Jason fell quickly zero to three, but came back from the clutches of hell with five straight victories to avenge his loss. I defeated Gixxer and made it to the final round. Jason fought a long battle and beat Gixxer to win the losers bracket. Two Exile members were in the final match. I was five wins away from a new sword and a second championship. Mitsurugi versus Yoshimitsu. Samurai versus Ninja Robot Spirit Thing. The stage of history was set.

Think hard and recall what happens when Algren sees Bagley again. Someone gets a sword through the throat–it’s not the samurai.

Frank decided not to come out and congratulate Jason and me after our massive victory over their Sumo Burger Challenge. Louie was only three bites away, but the clock ticked down and hope was lost. Wally gave up after the burger, and with good reason. I knew there had to be some sort of catch. Four 1/3 pound patties make for a huge sandwich, but it’s nothing extremely difficult for half an hour. Fries are the hard part. It should be called the Bastardly Amount of Fries Challenge. Literally, our dome of fries was seven inches in diameter and three inches high. As we began, some jerk chef came out and piled some more fries on Wally’s plate.

I began feeling full near the end of my burger, and I really wasn’t sure if I could overcome the mountain of fried potatoes. They were completely tasteless and our water was running low. At this point I decided to just stuff my face and swallow without thinking. The plan worked and the fries dwindled down. Our confidence was high with ten minutes left, but the pickles posed a problem. It must have taken Jason two minutes to get those pickles down. Seeing how eating them one by one only takes longer, I manned up and ate them all at once. For a few moments I didn’t think I’d be able to hold it all down, but a good burp did the trick. I was revitalized and plowed through the rest of the fries. Victory was Jason’s a few moments earlier and now it was mine.

Frank walked around and looked pretty angry, but I’m sure we weren’t the reason. We might have been if we all won, but I don’t think we were his main concern. Jason and I wrote our names and “We Did It Frank!” messages on sheets of papers that will hang on the glorious wall of Frank’s Place for years to come.

We also made another ninja movie. I sequenced the clips but there isn’t any music yet. We’ll probably try again within the next two days, but today was a good warm up.

We did it! I just wanted to say congratulations to all my recently graduated peers. We have worked hard for twelve years and I am glad to have graduated with such a wonderful group of friends within a great high school class. Good luck in the future to everyone. Muster up everything we’ve got and I’m sure we will all find success in these last years of school.

The rest of our life begins now.

At the moment I sense a feeling comparable to the calm before a storm. After all the babble about updating three times a day I confused a few terms and am at the rate of three posts a month. Calculus, graduation, work, and college preparations have tangled me up well. Boringperson has not been up long enough to have anything expected, but here’s another update entry, complete with bolded titles.

School Our day approaches quickly. “Class of 2004, you have been dismissed.” But we have not walked the walk and we cannot truly relax for another forty hours. Paper Toss was fun. Under the right circumstances, throwing armfuls of paper into the air can be very entertaining. Thursday’s last bell rang and the funnest fifteen minutes of high school ensued. No pictures were taken, because I had my camcorder to capture the moment. I missed out on some tossing, but I’m glad I recorded the chaos. It’s ripped and now I have to flex any Premiere skills left from last spring.

NBA Finals I am no sports guy, so I won’t provide some sort of analysis and make a fool of myself. Regardless of my bandwagon support of the Pistons, I can’t imagine the Lakers losing three in a row and having the series end in a 4-1 Detroit victory. Taking one in Detroit sends everything back to LA, and I have faith that the Pistons can win a game six, but beating the Lakers at home in a game seven might be a bit difficult. Go Sheed go.

Computer My computer seems to grow slower by the day, and a reformat solves everything. Reformatting is always hard, because I can’t decide what to keep. Gilmore Girls is taking up thirty gigs, and I think I’ll delete seasons as I purchase the DVDs. Dan, please buy season one for me. For college, I decided to build another desktop. A laptop would be nice, but I can’t justify the price or find a balance between battery capacity and computing power. For my needs, a desktop seems to be the correct choice.

Books Bringing Down the House and Eats, Shoots, and Leaves are on the playlist right now, the former also residing on the overdue list. Both are very interesting. Bringing Down the House is definitely a page-turner, and I really want to read through it but haven’t been able to. I am somewhat hesitant to read Eats, Shoots, and Leaves because its a British book so some grammar rules don’t apply. Nearly every page contains something new interest, and I’m sure I won’t morph into a blabbering idiot by completing the book, so I’ll be sure to finish it when the time comes. Time previously spent reading has been consumed by a little Neo-Geo game that could.

Strikers 1945 Plus Greg kind of introduced me to this game. After a good old Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 battle, we played the orginal Strikers 1945 together. Is ‘unplus’ a word? When I got home I, well… Anyway, I have been playing at home and at Wal-Mart. Some stud has every score record at Wal-Mart, and I managed around seventh place to ruin the flawless list with his initials. My goal is to practice at home until I dream about airplanes that shoot energy blobs. When I am ready, I will play a single time at Wal-Mart to take the top spot with the initials HAH. It will be glorious.

That’s it for tonight. Sleep awaits me. Greg owned me pretty hard today in MvC2. Wally spoke garbage about his new secret character in Soul Calibur II. Wally is no liar. He talked trash and followed it up by playing like trash. I went 14-0 for matches, and I believe 70-6 in round total for the night. I don’t mean to brag.

Syke. Wally and Jason, enjoy the Xbox and I hope you provide a challenge by the end of the week.