when Ritsuko times out

I chose the name when Ritsuko times out because I felt rather techy at the time. When EFx2 had just gotten an influx of refugees from Moblog who all knew each other, I felt really weird. EFx2 was being taken over! And sure enough, it was. There was all this talk of ‘better designs’. And suddenly, we had forums. And all of a sudden, my favourite theme was labeled ‘The Legacy Design’ and suddenly everybody was using these new fangled image-heavy layouts, with some obnoxious enough to put animated GIFs everywhere on her blog. Everybody knew each other, except for me. I continued blogging, getting around 80-100 hits a day from my friends, which is more than I can say for this blog (50 a day, anybody?), in my own little secluded space and two other cobloggers Alex and Tiffany, whom I knew IRL.

And suddenly, the legacy design was just gone. In its place was some shitty online thing that required me to edit HTML and CSS. That wasn’t too bad, but the fact is that I needed to use a web browser to edit that. And that was when I realized EFx2 had already been taken over by the aliens. All of a sudden, my techy looking blog with my system’s specs in the sidebar, my current screenshot from Imageshack, and a flashy 3D render as my banner was replaced with some ‘minimalist’ bullshit, with larger fonts and less text per square inch. On top of that, we were now allowed to upload stuff, but only 10MBs per account. Very funny, Keith.

I’m a tech-savvy person, as you may know by now. I’m sure Akagi Ritsuko was tech-savvy. But what goes on in that little blonde head of hers when she’s not typing and impressing Maya (or whatever her name was)? What if she was spacing (timing) out, like some overloaded server with too many MySQL requests backlogged due to slow disks? What if her brains were buzzing with something totally different from the matter at hand? I needed Ritsuko as a persona. She knew stuff. She was friends with the hottest girl on NERV. And most of all, she was cool. And that’s when I decided that my persona would not be Kudo Shinichi, but Akagi Ritsuko.

Akagi Ritsuko doesn’t scream for help on the EFx2 forums on how to do so and so with CSS2. No, she reads a fucking manpage. She doesn’t get impressed with flashy designs or irritating GIFs or scrolling marquees. In fact, she loves to read. Anything, everything. From the Greek tragedians to H. Rider Haggard to the intricacies of making find search directories recursively in its manpage. She is not intimidated by text, nor sticking a needle into her mother’s brain. Most of all, Akagi Ritsuko wants her fucking legacy theme back.

Incredibly enough, this blog feels new. It feels unclunky, unencumbered by tradition, even though I’ve been hosted here for a year+ already. Is it my theme? Since I’ve discovered the joy of writing my own Wordpress themes, I haven’t actually settled down with one theme for more than 3 months. This theme still feels fresh, I can breathe life into it, although it seems that it might be reaching puberty quite soon.

I had a vision when I first left my old blog for this one. Yet I sometimes feel that I’m not worthy of having such a great hosting service. I now have total freedom over what my blog looks like. I can post as many images as I want, and have them hosted on the same site. Heck, I can post anything I want, as long as Randall doesn’t see it as some pirated ISO, like songs, patches, you name it. I love hosting on dasaku/ikimashou.

But when I read my old posts, I find that they’re not so much about what I did, than what was actually happening when I did one certain thing.

At the new site (which is a Wordpress blog), I get my own FTP account, and I can upload and determine the structure of my website, where I want my images to be placed, and so on. And the best thing is there isn’t any space limit for now – not that I’m using much space, anyway. My pictures take up about 2-3MBs currently.
So:

1. Image hosting reasons.
Lately I wanted to post something about what I was thinking, but I couldn’t do so, because too many people know of this blog already. Specifically, the people who know me. I’d rather arguments arise as a result of our daily interaction and not because of a simple post on a blog; I also would like it if those people would complain and rant at me personally instead of posting a poisonous message on my blog for all to see. It does your comment no amount of credibility whatsoever – I get the feeling that you’re trying to be annoying on the same level as spam – but at the same time, I would not like our relationship to be disturbed. That is why I even bother acting upon them.
A blog is not meant to have private posts. What’s the point of making a post that only you can read when it’s on the internet? The blog is not a diary. At the same time, I would rather the people I know not read my blog.
To the people who said that my ‘I Have a Life’ posts were interesting, thank you very much for your support. I’m glad at least something on this site entertained you.

2. Anonymity
What has randomshinichi been all about up until now, anyway? Worthless posts about what my computer is doing, except once in a while when I find something to post about in life. I bought a box of Triscuits today, and brought a cookie home from the Totem Park tent 3 days ago and never got around to eating it, I took a bite but then I thought I saw very slight green discolorations in the cookie so I threw it away. This shouldn’t be what a blog is about. This is not important. This is not even interesting! Heck, the truth is, I don’t even read my own blog. It’s simply not interesting for me, except for the few posts from my 2005 July trip to Japan, where I took a shitload of pictures and ranted non-stop excitedly about Japan. I love those posts. They make me smile, feel alive, interested. They are the only posts to do so.
Still, even if I start a new policy for posts from now on, all one has to do is just take a look at the old posts. With the new blog and the FTP and quite unlimited storage I can make an mp3 of the week feature! It’s not really new, but it is a start. It’s a way to expand beyond what little content I already have.

3. A New Start
And these are the three big reasons why I’ve switched blogs. It’s been fun with you, EFx2, Keith. I remember when I first encountered EFx2 through blog.efx2.com/user/elly from a link on the NGEmu forums. I remember those old comment edit forms juxtaposed with the new control panel that were never fixed. I remember when EFx2 was a small site with not many users on it – frankly, I liked it better that way. I remember the ModBlog users moving in – I wondered what would happen to EFx2 from then on. Lots of subsystem changes have occured, but really, not much has changed. I still love the good old EFx2 3-column layout with my black design and C4D render as the logo, with my snap font saying ‘randomshinichi’. It looks good in snap font. Sadly, I don’t think I’ll be using it again. Not if I care for point number 2. I have a new name – it doesn’t look good at all in snap or any other font, though.

Props go out to psyphen, CuMan, VegasMaleSlut, and Old Man Lincoln for their blogs which were actually interesting to read, unlike mine. I don’t even know if they’re on this new BlogHoster system any more.
Props go out to paradox and xcryonicsx. To me, you were always competing against each other in designs, always outwitting the other in each new design you made. Honestly, I just don’t see how you girls have the time.

See ya EFx2. I’ll be back to post once in a while, I suppose.
n.p. 24. Leningrad Philharmonic (Mariss Jansons), Mikhail Rudy – [Rachmaninov Orchestral Works CD4 #06] Piano Concerto No.1 Op.1: Andante

Looking back, this is the first time I’ve actually made a post on the special days of the year, Christmas and New Year’s Eve. I think in the past years, I was just too busy secluding myself in my room and playing Ever17/watching anime at the time, perhaps even, in my solidarity, thinking about her and regretting not having approached her. I’m sure most of my readers also have this self-imposed seclusion, to some extent. In fact, I thought I would do just that this Christmas break, which is why I downloaded a whole shitload of Planetes, Kare Kano, Infinite Ryvius, Tokyo Godfather, quite a few Ghibli movies etc. to pass the Christmas break. Who’d figure that I’d spend more time on Facebook and dating tips websites instead. That seems to be a kind of regression, but I hope to change that into something more social. Getting out with friends, getting asked out by friends, asking out friends, socializing with chicks. I did all of that yesterday night. It was fun, believe me. And unlike other things that I’m good at (like my incredible anime repertoire), this one activity is very beneficial, although I must say, it doesn’t come naturally for me.

So after 10 years of seclusion, I’m finally on the road to where I was. Namely, a pimp and the arch enemy of all the other guys in the class (as much as one could make another one’s enemy in primary school). Yes, I was a pimp until I was in Standard 3 (3rd Grade for you American schooled ppl). All because I knew how to play the piano. Now everybody and their dog knows how to play the piano, it’s just a matter of how well you play it. The rules of the game have changed. And I tell you, I miss being a pimp.

2009 is going to be one hell of a ride. And I’m driving.

EDIT2: Isn’t this a great place to put in some New Year’s resolutions? I’ve never made New Year’s resolutions before.

1. Improve my grades
I still don’t know shit about Coriolis forces. And that was on my previous exam, so as you can see, I’m pretty far behind!

2. Get a very active social life
I will meet friends of friends of friends. I will do my best to be engaging, warm and friendly in each conversation, with some teasing when females are involved, regardless of their looks. I will make friends of my own.

3. Improve my physique
No longer can I just play the piano and expect all the ladies to send me love letters. The problem is, I haven’t found a single gym in all of Oldenburg…

4. Attract girls
Agonizing over how I couldn’t approach her? Psshhhh… how about agonizing over which hot bitch to fuck tonight. I expect this to come relatively easily after I have achieved the above three goals.