I had about two weeks to think up of a costume. There were no events to attend or contests, but I like to dress up when handing out candy to "trick or treat-ers. I still have my blond wiga nd 80s getup from past Otakon conventions. I thought about combining the two. I went for the Zack Morris look (Saved by the Bell). I wished I had the giant cellphones from that era. My siblings and I did have that toy when we were little.

I also had a thought about dressing up as Finn from Adventure Time. I bought the costume on sale for half-off. Shopping around for the items and props to build, I decided I would use this costume for Otakon next year. There are some props that I'd like to try out to make this into a crossover character with another series. It should be a nice project to keep me occupied.

I also had my Drive jacket (the one worn by Ryan Gosling) and the prop hammer. Those came into the mix along with LED light up goggles and gloves. Needless to say, kids loved the costume. One little girl in a witch outfit said to her mom: "I wish I was him." LOL. Another kid had trouble finding the palm of my hand because of the LED light up gloves. He ended up high-fiving the back of my hand.

Our neighbors gather around the cul de sac every Halloween for kids to grab their candy from each bowl that the neighbor brought.  It was my first time going there. Spoke with some of the neighbors. I ended up bringing what's left of our candy into the pile. It was a good night.

I'm done.

I was at Toys R Us last weekend and found this Nanoblock - Hello Kitty. Created this video. Epic timelapse music video is epic.

Just for some added luls, here are superheroes/villains getting the kawaii treatment.

I'm done.

I've been thinking about the 6 month free subscription that the Xanga team is extending to those who paid. After looking at this for a while, I can't justify the $48/yr subscription anymore. Most people just want to blog for free like before. Yes, helping and supporting the site will get you a free subscription, but not everyone can do that.

Old Xanga premiums were $25 per year. $48 is pretty steep, no matter how you spin, even if you say that's just $4 per month (a cup of coffee per month). The difference between what we have in old xanga is that when I chose to get premium, all the premium functionality, as promised, are already there. All we have right now is a bare bones version of WordPress. A year went by and the only updates I saw were so minimal and barely noticeable.

I also understand that they don't have ads for 2.0 this time around. That means subscription money is the only thing keeping them afloat. If they must put ads, I don't really mind it. If it helps to drive down the costs of servers and website upkeep, I don't mind. But that's another problem that I think the Xanga team don't want to have to worry about, especially when they only have 4-6 people managing the site (that's just my estimate, give or take 2 people).

Because of my background in IT (and my current job, and the many roles I've been a part of for the past 5 years), I can say with a degree of certainty that the Xanga Team is practically doing all of this for free. Most of the cost from the subscriptions go to server upkeep and the developer(s) they hired. Whatever's left is not enough to make a living, especially in New York City. (Note: Just don't take my word from it, but know that I have no intention or stake in this to deceive).

I am disappointed by what we have right now. However, rather than bitch about it, I have some compromises that would help the site and keep the cost lower for the users (possibly free).

First off, let's just get one thing straight: NOTHING WAS EVER FREE!!! This was always true with Old Xanga. Xanga Classic Users were limited to 200MB of free space to upload pictures. They get a maximum of three profile pictures. Premium allows 99 profile pictures and 2GB of photo storage. Premium Plus gets you unlimited photo storage.

Well, it's 2014. Storage is relatively cheaper than they were before. There are many free-picture hosting websites like IMGUR, FLICKR and storing your photos in Facebook or Google account (Picasa, etc). Excluding Facebook, these services have tiered services that increase storage capacity with a subscription. And if you like videos, there's YouTube, Vimeo and others. Right now, those who paid $48 have 10GB of storage. You know how much I've used so far? 11.56MB.

I also have a WordPress.com blog as a free user. I've had it for year (around the same time My Xanga 2.0 blog went live). Free users at WordPress get 3GB (3,072MB) of storage. I've only used 14.36MB. Storage is almost a non-issue. HOWEVER, if you must store your photos/videos in Xanga and you take lots of photos, you have to pay extra to be able to store more media (photos, videos, etc).

I understand that allowing free blogs leaves room for spam and double accounts to troll people (you know who you are, you fuckers). That's why I understand the need for a yearly subscription. However, $48 is really steep. So here are my first two proposals to keep cost down.

Proposal #1: For the time being, give every user who didn't pay $48 the ability to blog with less functionality and limited storage for a small fee.

Let's only keep the existing users. We'll worry about allowing new users when we're already at a stable and manageable circumstance. To stay for an additional year, let's drop the yearly subscription fee to same fee we used to pay in Old Xanga Premiums ($25).

The text that users generate is so small that it doesn't even cost most websites. If users really need additional storage, this gives us the next proposal.

Proposal #2: Have users pay for storage and/or a monthly premium for additional storage, increase their monthly upload cap and others.

This requires that premium features are in place. This better be worth it.

To keep the cost down, I think ads on Xanga is unavoidable. I think if the Xanga Team really pleaded their case and circumstance with the user community, they will understand and keep ads in place. So here's my next proposal.

Proposal #3: Have the users agree to allow non-invasive ads on the website. (ONLY NON-INVASIVE ADS)

That means users shouldn't have ad-blockers installed in their browsers. If they do, they won't be able to view their blogs. This is one of those things that are just unavoidable. If users must use ad-blockers, make an exception and disable it for Xanga.

Some will say "Well, on WordPress I can blog for free and they don't block my blog if I have ad-blocker." The thing is, WordPress.com is a huge website that allows individuals and companies to market their website on the Internet for a monthly fee. Many websites on the Internet are powered by WordPress (.org) and WordPress.com. The money that WordPress.com has generated from these websites is used to subsidize and allow free blogging with 3GB free storage. Xanga is not at that level. Maybe back then, but not right now. The Xanga Team's objective is to keep the existing community.

Speaking of the community, I know that many of them are entrepreneurs or want to market their website online. They could use Xanga to advertise for a small fee.

Proposal #4: Have users advertise their store, product, etc throughout Xanga users' pages.

This is another way of helping keep the cost down.

I can't think of anything else right now, but these are just the ones I have. From a blogger's perspective, besides the people who always start shit, you know who you are (Malaysian Mafia, etc), there was nothing wrong with Old Xanga. The thing is, it was already dying out. Only a very small number of people still continued to blog and have made online friendships. Others were blogging away in their own groups outside the Top Blogs crowd. Others used it as their sanctuary in their lonesome. It's really unfair for them and they will be left out.

I feel that my proposal should be taken into consideration. It's part rambling, but I made them with the best of intentions.

I'm done.

LYRICS:
We’re all the same
No matter how we’ve grown
Colors of our skin
Defections in our bones

There's one we share
Everyone everywhere
We're all alone
We're all alone.

Everyone is fundamentally lonely
Whether you trust science or a church
Because we’re scared
Some of us make pairs
And some of us are still on the search

But everyone is fundamentally lonely
So here’s daily advice
You’re in pain
And everyone feels the same
So just be ..... nice.

What do you lose
When life’s already the worst
Leave a bigger tip
Let that guy in line first

We’re all lonely
Pay for their coffee
Pick up that trash
I know it’s not your trash.

Everyone is fundamentally lonely
Sometimes it comes out as rage
Screaming in a store
Cause they’re lonely at the core
So be calm when you engage

Everyone is fundamentally lonely
And I’m not saying to sacrifice
Lend some support
At the airport
It won’t kill you to be nice.

Everything is stupid
Success is a projection
We’re all quietly helpless
Being nice is a connection

Blaring your car horn
Won’t make you feel tremendous
But picking up something someone dropped
Will make this whole thing less horrendous

Everyone is fundamentally lonely
Even the ones who pretend they’re not
Be nice today
It’ll make things just slightly ok
On this lonely, little blue dot.

I'm done.

This game is the gaming world equivalent of fan service. Hot on the heels of the wildly successful crossover fighting game, Super Smash Bros. franchise, Sony developed PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale and released it in November 2012. It follows the same concept as Smash Bros.: Characters that made their name on PlayStation consoles are drawn to various "time holes" scattering everyone across different points in history of PlayStation. Parappa the Rapper, Kratos from God of War, Heihachi from Tekken, good and evil Cole from inFAMOUS, and many more battle it out among the who's who of PlayStation games.

Colonel Radec (Killzone), Jak and Daxter (Jak and Daxter), Heihachi (Tekken), Nathan Drake (Uncharted), Kratos (God of War), Cole MacGrath (inFAMOUS), Sweet Tooth (Twisted Metal), Big Daddy (Bioshock), Sly Cooper (Sly Cooper), Fat Princess (Fat Princess), Parappa (Parappa the Rapper), Toro Inoue (Doko Demo Issyo)

Up to four players can battle each other using characters from various Sony franchises, as well as third-party franchises. There are, however, differences in how opponents are defeated. During the game, players damage other players to receive "AP" orbs that build up a power meter at the bottom of the screen (These orbs can also be found on the stage over the course of the match). Earning enough power allows players to use one of three levels of special attacks named "Super Moves" which can be used to defeat opponents and earn points. The game features cross-platform play between the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita versions.

The game features a traditional single-player arcade mode, in which players must defeat several randomly selected opponents, followed by a character-specific rival battle and, ultimately, a battle against the game's main antagonist and final boss, Polygon Man. Multiplayer modes include time-based matches, where players compete to achieve the most kills within a time limit, stock based matches, where players attempt to be the last one standing, and kill-limit matches, where players compete to be the first to reach a certain number of kills. The game also features a single-player challenge mode, in which players attempt to complete specific objectives. [1]

First half of the Hades stage based on God of War.

Along with the host of varying playable characters, All-Stars also comes with a range of items and levels influenced by various PlayStation franchises. The game features 14 different arenas for battle, with elements in each one that can damage characters and cause them to lose AP. Each stage is based on a combination of two games, such as "Sandover Village" (based on Jak and Daxter and Hot Shots Golf), "Dreamscape" (based on LittleBigPlanet and Buzz!), "Stowaways" (based on Uncharted and BioShock Infinite), and "Hades" (based on God of War and Patapon). As time passes, a stage's second representation takes hold, usually introducing a map hazard into the level. In addition, there are several item pick-ups that can be utilized by players, such as the Hedgehog Grenade from Resistance, the Gravity Shield from Wipeout, Baumusu's Axe from Rise of the Kasai, and Razor Claws from Ratchet & Clank. These items can be used to augment a player or do damage to an opponent. [2]

This can be a fun casual game and be treated as a serious fighting game. There are a few downsides. Players can only win a match if they have the most points based on number of kills (+2) and deaths (-1). The only way to kill opponents is by using your Super Moves. On time-limited matches, players can just make the first kill and avoid being killed for the duration of the match. This requires a different strategy compared to most fighting games. Single-player mode uses still images in both the character intros and endings, only using in-game graphics of the characters having a pre-match conversation with their sub-boss before fighting Polygon Man.

Overall, it's a good game. The controls are easy to pick up. No long string of character-specific button combinations to memorize. The story is cheesy and just what you'd expect in a crossover game. It's currently free for PlayStation Plus subscribers on the PlayStation Network for September.

I'm done.