Mars is the new magic.

Pub Crawl!

2010-05-14T15:12:00.003-04:00

As I started blogging again, I began to think to myself "where do I want this to take me?" Well, obviously I wanted other people to enjoy my writing.

All throughout my life, people have told me they enjoyed my writing. For whatever reason I saw it as very simple, but to get a point across. Perhaps that is actually a good thing.

So after resurrecting the blog recently, i got off my ass and applied as a writer to several nerd type websites with things pertaining to my interests.

Well it paid off, As I am now a writer for a website. www.RoboAwesome.com

I am very excited right now!

Late for the Party

2010-05-12T19:00:00.003-04:00

Well, my computer has been having issues as of late. Some weird restarting thing, but its on the mend. The big problem with this is that with my computer down, I cannot pump delicious World of Warcraft into my veins to get my fix. I'm shaking, I'm extremely violent, I'm experiencing hot and cold flashes.... What can I do?!

Well, lucky for me, I have some awesome friends... One of which gave me his Xbox 360 after ours was stolen on the account that he never plays it anymore. So it was time I paid some much needed attention to my console gaming needs.

I went to game stop and obtained some great deals. Burnout Paradise, Ghostbusters and Assassin's Creed.

Well Burnout was mainly for my Fiance who loved it. It was great to play together taking turns racing, and crashing.

Ghostbusters I gave a quick try. While I only played an Hour, I could see myself coming back to it..... But the whole time Assassin's Creed was calling my name.

I popped it in, and the intro movie made me OOH and AWW. Then starting it up, I lost a few hours of my life, but in a good way.

The graphics are very pretty overall, but there are a few hitches. Like stabbing someone with the sword is far too... not clean, but it looks really fake... Imagine taking a toothpick and stabbing into warm butter. It just goes in and comes out, no real evidence of an actual mortal wound. Sometimes when climbing up walls, what appears to be something to grab on, isn't.

The animations are pretty fluid. Combat is very fun, countering with the short blade has some great results! Though in the lab, everything seems a lil clunky...

The music fits the game and feels natural. The voice acting is decent, except for one area that is pretty annoying. When you are near a citizen that needs saving, you will often hear the same thing over and over about how the guards are going to kill them, or they can't believe someone would steal from them.

The story is pretty interesting so far. The main thing I am wanting to know is why these scientists have my character in this lab, and why this DNA memory of a possible relative assassinating people is going to help.

It seems this game can be played in a very linear fashion, but there is also enough to do that can keep you busy. I normally don't hop right to the next story bit. I find it very fun to get all the view points, save everyone, and cause random mischief.

All in all, its reminded me that I shouldn't ignore my Xbox... It needs love too.

Now back to my movie list...

Number 3 is the Ice Storm.

It features and all star cast including Christina Ricci, Tobey McGuire, Elijah Wood, and Sigourney Weaver to name a few.

The story is an interesting one. Basically its about families can forget what is truly important and how infidelity can tear it apart, as well as blind you from warning signs about your children.

It focuses on two families... and how they interact with each other and features a "Key-Party" at one point. To be honest, it is a little emotional, but it makes it feel more real. Now that I think about it, I have a feeling this movie was partial inspiration for American Beauty.

Hmmm, Interesting indeed.

Stay tuned for more!

Quick off topic, then to number four.

2010-05-07T09:27:00.002-04:00

Sorry for the brief inactivity, but i've been slightly busy adding to our family. Sunday we finished our fence. This made monday an exciting day (well after work anyways). We went to the Humane Society and picked out a dog. We saw a lot of dogs, but we narrowed our list down to three. One was already held for a family, so there was that idea. Another had terrible diarrhea, so we would have to wait a few weeks to get him... It was all down to a chow mix they had named Twilight(facepalm). We took her for a walk, and she was so sweet! We knew we had to get her... So we did. But the vets warned us saying "Oh, our records show she likes to chase cats, and outright hates them".
We thought for a moment, then shrugged and said "We will see how it goes"

Well we took her out to the car which she hopped right in and rode very well. Once we got home she seemed happy to be in a nice big yard. Malygos(our cat) was watching in the window with a look of disgust.

We decided to rename "Twilight" to Seven (after Seven of Nine from Star Trek: Voyager, yes we are nerds :P )
So we let Seven inside, on the leash just in case. She saw Malygos and wandered towards her, their noses met, and Malygos hissed. Seven just turned around and wagged her tail! So we unleashed her and she walked around the house looking. She met up with Malygos again. A sniff and a wag of the tail. Hates cats my butt!

Malygos was still put off by her, and has been hiding a lot... But she is slowly coming around and being more social.

Seven is such a good girl.

Ok, Back on Topic.

My fourth favorite movie is Clockwork Orange. Man, this movie is just filled with everything. The whole movie sets a mood for you, and you go from hating to loving Alex back and forth throughout. Malcolm McDowell does an excellent job portraying Alex. From the way he speaks, to the way he simply holds himself.

In my personal opinion this is one of Kubrick's finest works. Dr Strangelove is pretty good too... His version of the Shining is as well.

Stay tuned for 3!

Favorite movies

2010-04-27T17:34:00.000-04:00

Everyone has their favorite movies, but why are they your favorite? For me, its many things. I like most of the characters. The story is really good. Decent sound track can help. It isn't the same thing. It's something i can watch at any time and still enjoy it.

Most of the time, it can be quite troublesome making lists, especially for favorite things in some form of media. Tastes always eb and flow. I think that's why my top five is so special to me... They are all so solid I always come back to them. Sure there are great movies out there I can also see almost any time... but that's the thing... ALMOST. Lots of close contenders, like any of the Kevin Smith films. There's also when you see a movie in theaters and you want to see it again... But that's because its good and fresh, but will it last the test of time?

I'd like to go over in detail the top five movies that I believe outshine all my other favorites. (keep in mind, i hold the Star Wars series as much more then cinema, so it will not be featured in this blog.)

I will go ahead and give you number 5 to wet your appetite.

5. Battle Royale

This is a Japanese classic for me. It is a tale of a wacky government ploy to cut the population of rebelious youth.

Basically, every year schools send their graduating class to an island, where they are forced to kill eachother. (Brutal i know!) There can only be one survivor. It follows closely on two main characters who don't really want to kill...

I like to think of it as a Lord of the Flies EXTREME. There is plenty of dark humor to go around. The violence can be a little over the top, but its not gorey. For me, i find myself getting attatched to several of the characters for different reasons. The teacher i feel is a little misunderstood, but because of this the students hate him, therefor he ends up becoming bitter... but its also shown he has a terrible home life as well.

There was a sequal, but its nothing like the original and far too over the top.

stay tuned for 4-1

Will of One

2010-04-25T21:34:00.009-04:00

April 18th we went down to Gainesville to see the Protomen. You may remember them from an earlier blog post. Luckily for us, they decided to come close to my home town for a show. I thought for sure Nerdapalooza would have been the last time i would ever see them. So glad i was wrong.

We get there at a good time, and park really close! The bar was called 1982. It was a pretty small venue, but had TV's behind the bar with NES, Sega Genesis, SNES, and Dreamcast games going on. I remember watch someone beat Sonic 3 with all the Chaos Emeralds. Someone else was doing quite well in Megaman X.... well until he got to Sigma.

At first though, we had to sit through some unbearably bad music... but it was worth it. I kept thinking though, "This stage is awefully small for nine people!"

I watched them set up everything. A few of them looked annoyed, but i could have been wrong. It was cramped, but man, you would not have even noticed... From start to finish they never stopped with their energetic rock show. They had a story to tell they said... And they told one heck of a story...

Mostly promoting their newest album, Act II they played mostly songs off that. All very nice! They mixed in a few classics from Act I as well...They even did a cover of Total Eclipse of the Heart. It was one of the best shows i've seen to be honest.

A band that just gives back to the crowd their heart and soul.. Their sweat and tears! All of their energy! They deserve the best.

I feel bad i still don't know their individual names... but the lead guy after the show pointed at my shirt (The Megas) and said "Hey, we know those assholes!" and laughed. He then told me they would be playing with them on the west coast and that they were buddies.

Why The Protomen aren't world wide sucesses yet baffles me still. I really hope they come back. Maybe in July? A man can dream can't he!

Getting back into writing.

2010-04-25T16:29:00.002-04:00

Everyone knows times are tough right now. A month ago my fiance had her purse stolen which had car payment and rent money in it... which is not easy to get back. So we've been just chugging along and doing our best. We go to an amazing concert (which i will detail in another blog) only to come back to find our home broken into.
All was stolen was our Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, and our roommates laptop... We have some theories and the police took finger prints and what not. Also stole our sense of safety.

But that's not why I'm typing this right now. Basically it got me thinking, i need to do some other stuff with my time. Sure I will probably keep playing more than adequate amounts of World of Warcraft and whatever other various fly by night MMO's I decide i like for a week, But talking with a friend, i decided to resurect this blog. Whether people read it or not, maybe it will make me feel more productive.

So count on more rants, movie discussion, music stuff, and other ramblings.

Garage bands are better than garage pizza.

2009-07-14T16:53:00.002-04:00

I'd like to think being on vacation would be very enjoyable for the entire duration. A time to relax, have fun, and just generally avoid the normal grind. It is in fact usually never like that. For one, my dear fiance was home alone, and not only did I miss her, but I knew she missed me. Second of all, I discovered a bunch of dumb drama that occurred while I was gone that directly and indirectly affected me. All of it very uncalled for. Some of it from people I would actually expect it from, and some of it from people I would NEVER expect it from.

Then something else happened that afterward we kind of made into a sort of joke. We had this slip of paper in our hotel room for a Pizza Place. "Sal's Pizza". I joked that Sal did not sound like someone who should be making pizza, and if he did, he made it off of a truck radiator. We laughed and actually decided that the next day we'd get pizza from there.

We get hungry the next day and make the call. As we wait patiently in our room, I was flipping channels and stopped on the Tourist channel where in big red letters "Warning! Do not order pizza from anyone that leaves fliers under your door. These are often con artists, or if you do get pizza it is often low quality, possibly made in someone's garage"

We both sigh and look at each other quite annoyed. He calls them back, and they say to wait in the lobby. We go down stairs and someone actually does arrive. We get the pizza and wings... go back to our room where we see another flier on our floor for someone else.

We try the pizza... not the worst... but still meh.. The wings on the other hand, they were good, but I am still not sure what parts of the chicken were used...

Nerdapalooza day 2

2009-07-13T12:21:00.005-04:00

I am home from a trip involving things i thought could never happen. I saw The Megas and the Protomen.

You've heard me rave about The Megas already, and Currently I am uploading videos on Youtube. (scroll down for links!)

Before I get to the Protomen, I was quite surprised and impressed with Schaffer the Darklord. (www.schafferthedarklord.com/)

He was pretty cool.... I just noticed my font changed and cannot seem to changed it... Well, there we go, that was odd. ANYWAYS, He was pretty good.

Then came The Protomen... who tell a dark story of loss, revenge, redemption, tragedy, and violence. With wonderful stage presence and great energy. They work so hard on their craft, I am sure they love what they do. It just makes me sad that the general public is not ready for them, and our Radio influenced masters wish to keep our ears slaves to the same ten songs over and over.

http://www.youtube.com/user/arcaspiff

Enjoy!

Nerdapalooza Day 1

2009-07-12T11:31:00.005-04:00

Saturday was a blast as we dove deep into the world of Nerdcore music. We had listened to a few of the bands online, but live music is always different. We really came for 3 bands, but we found more to our liking. My Parents Favorite Music http://www.myspace.com/myparentsfavoritemusic surprised us a lot. As a very energetic Steffo and friend sang their hearts out, and put on quite a set. So much i bought their CD.

Next was quite surprising, and it made me scratch my head as to why these guys are not more popular. Captain Dan and his Scurvy Crew http://www.myspace.com/captaindan
Pirate themed hip hop with a great sound. Great energy, lyircs, and beat! Wonderful live! I bought their CD as well.

Then one of the acts I thought I would never see... The Megas http://www.myspace.com/themegas

These guys were freaking amazing! More energy than i thought possible. Such talent! They made my night. I even got to meet them! http://twitpic.com/a2m4w

It was so awesome to experience music you never hear, because the radio stations are all junk. Radio stations only play the same 10 songs all day, which is really unfair to the music world.... but thats another blog totally.

Ideas lost in confusion.

2009-07-10T16:51:00.003-04:00

I had a wonderful rant about radio I was going to blog about.... Unfortunately now I feel numb. Now I feel anger. Now I feel unspeakable anguish.

But I will not go into much detail, as I can't type in ultra mega scream mode.

People have problems.. Some of these people are your friends. Our natural response is to help your friends, because you wish not see them suffer. Some of these people when you reach out to them, they slap your hand.

Why is this?

I can't understand people generally speaking...

Other people tell you how unhappy they are, yet do nothing to change it. I guess I can understand it, because it makes them comfortable to stay in that place...

I guess... I dunno...

Was going to have a fun weekend, but now I have too much on my mind. Will the music help?

Time for Change!

2009-07-06T14:47:00.004-04:00

I have run into an annoying problem several times in my life. One that I cannot seem to wrap my head around... I know the reason, but the reason makes no freaking sense! It is all really just poor planning by businesses. What problem you ask? "Oh sorry, we don't have change for that hundred." Or even worse a lousy "fifty".

I understand, the whole "It's early and we have not made enough transactions to have change" thing... but honestly, that's just downright lazy! It must be such a terrible day where you have to turn down American currency... How about this little idea... Maybe you could make sure there is change! You know those things I hate, well turns out they are a necessary evil in some cases... Go to a freaking bank and make sure you can accept all forms of US currency.

Here is a list of the following denominations you will have to work with in case you have are unclear.

penny
nickle
dime
quarter
dollar
five
ten
twenty
fifty
hundred

So please take note.

As Americans, we use American currency. To be told "Oh, we can't take that" in reference to a type of money that has the US logo and such on it, just baffles me.

On a side note, ever been hanging out with friends and you say "hey lets order some food so we can keep hanging here and not drive 10 or so people out somewhere, we can just split the bill" And then the couple of guys say "Oh, we dont carry cash, we just have credit"

Thanks buzzkills! You guys need to take that plastic and eat it!

Deposit into Narnia

2009-07-03T08:38:00.003-04:00

Today is July third. As I drive around the city I notice many banks are closed. I scratch my head a little. They claim it is to celebrate July 4th. Interesting, I think. I look at the calender on my phone once again and notice it's July 3rd... Then I begin to think: "How does one celebrate July 4th on July 3rd?" Hmmm.... Well perhaps they are celebrating today, and coming in to work tomorrow. We all know that's wrong... This really annoys me for some reason. Why not just say "Sorry, we will be closed tomorrow because we are lazy". So because a holiday falls on a day which people normally do not work (well, saturdays banks are open HALF the day, so I guess taking half a day off does not count) they have to take full day off. So now as I think about it, they are taking a day and a half to celebrate July 4th.

I did notice not all banks are taking today off though, so some people are slightly less annoying today.

But Banks are still evil, in my eyes. Alright lets walk through a normal transaction in my daily life. I go to the bank and give them some of MY money and ask them to put it in MY account. It happens to be Friday at lets say, oh.... 3 or so. So they tell me the transaction is complete. Saturday rolls around and I need to write a check for something important, So I go online to make sure I have the right amount in my account... Then the madness begins. For some wacky reason my money is not in the account. WHERE THE HELL IS IT?! How come, if you make a deposit on a friday, chances are it wont be in your account till tuesday! Where is my damn money?! Narnia?! I did not give you money so you could let some half goat freak hang on to it. Ugh.... I hate banks....