FIVE WEEK PROBATION!
No blog posts for five whole weeks. No design tweaks. No nothing. I’ll start up again if I have above a 3.2 on my report card at the end of the semester. If not, you’ll see me at the end of the year.
Woo change!
EDIT: You know what, screw that. 3.8. It’s completely plausible.
Music a really strange thing. More for me than most, I’ve realized, because I don’t listen to what’s good, I listen to what I feel like. Most of the time, that’s techno, but it took me about an hour to figure out what to listen to just now.
Music is one of those things that can really boost my mood. I’ve come to kind of depend on it while at home, but it’s a big distraction if I don’t make the right choice. I can’t focus while I’m reading if I enjoy the music too much, or if it’s too varied in tone. Like just now, I’ve been reading Catcher in the Rye. Music for the mood? Classical. I don’t often pick up the classical stream, but it’s pretty nice for times like this. Soothing.
And, in honor of the sign above my monitor that states “I SHALL NOT BE LAZY. 🙂“, I return to my reading.
EDIT:
New pair of glasses: ~$200.
New copy of Starcraft: ~$10.
This:
LazyAmy77: at least you didn’t have OWL glasses for six years
LazyAmy77: erg
salandarin: i did, actually
salandarin: but you’ll never know that
LazyAmy77: sure I won’t
salandarin: dude
salandarin: those pictures
salandarin: top secret
LazyAmy77: mine are in yearbooks all over Ithaca
LazyAmy77: and embarassing
LazyAmy77: ugh
salandarin: mine…aren’t!
salandarin: haha
LazyAmy77: rawr
LazyAmy77: i look like a librarian midget on crack
salandarin: right, but what did you look like THEN?
LazyAmy77: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
salandarin: OH NO HE DIDN’T!
LazyAmy77: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Totally, totally priceless. I found that super amusing, anyways.
The Olympics this year have not been of Olympic quality. The figure skating is outright boring. Whatever controversy spawned this new scoring system has created a demon child that’s definitely not worth watching on TV. I had high hopes that NBC would do a good job of not flooding the television with biographies and whatnot, but nay, they’ve done just that. Don’t get me wrong – I like a few now and then, of interesting people that have interesting lives. But I honestly do not care about the life of every single American athlete. I really don’t. I absolutely HATE how EVERY reporter asks an athlete for their favorite olympic moment, or what it feels like to win. All of this reminds me of college mail.
This college mail is insane. Tons of it, all over the place. I’ve gotten at least thirty letters, and the last time I checked my inbox I had sixty-two unread emails (fifty were colleges). It angers me. What’s that, Baldwin-Wallace? You have lots of stories to share with me? Well, I have lots of I-Don’t-Care to share with you! No, really. All of these emails and letters are EXACTLY the same. These can’t seriously actually be effective tools. Maybe it’s a lot less exciting since I’m going to TC3, but, honestly, this stuff is exactly like the Junk Mail program I wrote not a month ago.
So, I hate defending my choice to go to TC3, but I had to do it again.
I had a little argument with Matt and John over TC3 versus Cornell. I stand by my choice not because it’s my only choice in the first place, but because I think it’s the right one anwyays. Both of them projected the idea that Cornell somehow gives a better education. Define “better”, please. Brilliant professors that are only at Cornell for research purposes, and not to teach? Honestly, when I look at some guys, I see people who are working themselves to death. Yes, they’re smart. But are they taking three APs (pretty much the max for junior year, unless you’re Ryan) because they’re that interested in US history, chem/physics, and computer science? Chances are, they want the college credit.
EDIT: as i read the above paragraph over, i kind of noticed i forgot that whole “two years” bit. i meant to imply that the education at TC3 for the first two years is almost as good as Cornell’s. hah. whoops.
I have nothing against making life easier, but seriously. Some people take college WAY too seriously. Maybe I don’t take it seriously enough. And if I don’t, that’s my loss.
New design should be done before break is over.
I bring to you another creation in my Blendventures (get it? Blender + adventures = Blendventures!). I had meant to put our little friend amongst his colleagues in the ocean, with a real ocean floor, maybe seaweed, and realistic water. But then, I figured, let’s just go with Seaworld. So, here’s our friend, in Seaworld.
As I’ve told a few of you, I got this new chair yesterday. As all of you should know, my previous chair was, in fact, not a chair. The back had broken off and left what was, essentially, an adjustable stool with arms. I shudder to think of what four months of sitting on that thing has done to my posture.
But now, the solution has arrived, in the form of a giant leather managerial chair that my dad found on super sale at Staples.
“Sometimes, all one can do is step back and laugh at the absurdity of it all. However, the jury will note that a fire extinguisher was within easy reach.”
I’d really like to go to Italy some time. Ancient Rome is possibly one of my favorite subjects in history, and the terrain is exactly what I go for – hilly, lush, diverse. It’s really the only European country (with the Scandanavians – Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and Norway – as the exceptions) that interests me. Not that I would want to live there, but some day, when I’m rich and famous, I could go for it.
I’m really enjoying The Catcher in the Rye. I didn’t like it at first, because it was just the monologue of an angsty teenager. As I’ve read on, however, I realize there’s a lot in Holden that’s extremely easy to relate to, but there’s a complexity to the character that makes it hard to interpret. I had this really interesting discussion with a girl in my English class (as the rest of the class sort of sat there and said nothing) about whether or not Holden is, at heart, untrue to himself and just a coward, or whether he’s really emotional/opinionated but unable to express himself in a way that others understand, and is thus forced to comply with the social norms to function. I argued for the latter.
The real point is, this is really the first book I’ve come across in the high school curriculum that approaches any level of intellectual complexity. Maybe I was just encouraged more by the fact that another person exists that even has the desire to discuss this kind of stuff in detail. I don’t mean to say that we actually bothered to continue talking about it after our 45 minutes of class ended; Lord knows that will never happen. Only politics and religion could pull enough interest out of any given acquaintence to permit prolonged discussion.
Things have been very surreal. I’ve been watching people around me grow up – I’ve been carefully marking the point at which the line between us and Joe “sixpack” Smith on TV is blurred. I don’t doubt my own maturity, but it is strange to watch everything around me continue to grow, but in a very, very demoralizing sense, not change. To illustrate what I mean, look at American histroy. We’re discussing the “growth” of industry in the late 19th century in US History, the same “ideas” of the time are inescapably true today. We are owned by “the man”, the corporations, “the system”, as it were (this is so cliche). I understand why this is, and why this will never change, despite what illusions we may create. The knowledge that humanity is no different than it was at any point in time is very demoralizing, especially in the sense that I will not live to see “better days”. Days with less blatant acts of sexism, racism, homophobia, or whatever discrimination of your choice, I will probably see. It will simply be traded off for another culturally acceptable evil that, in time, will morph from the norm to teh ev0l.
Those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it. Those who do, are doomed to watch as it is repeated by those who do not know it.
I could end the post here for dramatic effect, but I feel like noting the fact that nobody will comment on this post – whenever I make these type of posts, the numbers are very low, possibly because nobody can find anything funny to say to break the mood of the post, or because nobody feels like debating whatever I’ve said. Please, though, I do enjoy discussion. Write thoughts, if nothing else.
[geek]
Benjamin informed me of the possible malcomparison of IIS to Apache. For those offended, I partially defend my comparison. It’s not entirely unfair. I don’t know squat about IIS, just what I saw as I cruised for the solution to my Apache problem.
And for those questioning the artistic talent behind my render, I want you to note that it is neither a depiction of anyone’s obscenities, nor is it just a pentagon with cones. Please, if you will, note the following:
The actual objects weren’t super hard to make, although that hole for the door took me a while to figure out.
And yes, I do realize it’s still not good, but there’s no reason to be mean (COUGHZACHCOUGH).
[/geek]
Another topic I have not yet covered is the Gumball 3000. I’ve told a few of you about this event, but not most of you. Most of you probably don’t care, but, it’s this super awesome annual rally in Europe. The group that runs the Gumball 3000 works out deals with the local law and government to allow the cars enrolled in the rally to forgoe any traffic laws of the given country. The only country to deny this thus far is Hungary (the beauty of that one is that it was the first result from “dancing hungarians”), throughout 7 years of this rally. So, people fly in from all over with their street-illegal cars, and race 3000 miles across Europe. It’s so much cooler than the crap you might see in movies such as “2 Fast 2 Furious”.
Speaking of competitions, there’s these Olympics. As you should all know, I dearly love the Olympics. Dearly. I enjoy the winter competition a lot as there’s lots of skiing, which I’m actually good at, and can appreciate the skillz that I don’t have.
With that, I leave you to celebrate.
And that is, what ‘chu gonna do with all that junk? All that junk up in yo’ trunk?
In the time I’ve spent vacationing away from you rainbow sloths, I’ve picked up some mad 3D-modeling skills. My first creation worthy of releasing into the public? Just look.
I did this using Blender, a masterful FOSS project to behold. If you venture towards using Blender, I’d strongly suggest starting with the tutorials. Note the word “strongly” in bold.
That said, other things must be done.
I’m so white I can’t even see.
I demand money. Lots, and lots.
I can’t believe I do this for free.
[geek]
For those interested in what went wrong, it was in fact Windows’ fault. Apparantly something I installed triggered the desire for Windows to start the IIS services (Microsoft’s version of Apache), which are highly magical and almost virus-like in the way they operate. They do not show up in the Task Manager’s process list, nor do they display as using any ports in the command prompt. Yet, in fact, they were hogging up port 80, Apache’s default port. After turning off the services and dozens of installs and uninstalls of Apache 1.3 and 2.0.55 (2.2 has no .exe available yet), Apache wouldn’t add itself to Window’s service list, probably after its run in with IIS.
I’m working on a bug with the PHP at the moment, but otherwise, things are just dandy. I may redo the graphicals over the break next week, but that is a mere pondering. Yes, a mere pondering.
[/geek]
Just like your mom.
EDIT: Just so none of you get this crazy idea that I like you fools, I didn’t read anyone’s blog unless they had an RSS feed. And even those times were sparing, as my lacking presence over at the place that’s serving the roast duck, with the mango salsa, for those silly cavemen.
SIlly, silly cavemen.
That is the question.
I have spent the last three days in utter misery, with some kind of viral agent coursing through my veins. I cough so much that I can now no longer play Ninja Gaiden Black, because it excites me too much; I start coughing too much and subsequently can’t concentrate. The only time I’m not coughing is when I’m eating, and that’s right now. To think I’m missing Ski Club and Robotics for this.
I fear my return to school, with the piles of work I’ll surely have to do. More importantly is the ferocious and possibly hurtful words I will receive from teachers, concerning being absent for three days. You can take this to mean I will not be there tomorrow.
A few various things you should all know, via a bulleted list:
If this thing doesn’t get any better tomorrow, I’m seeing the doctor on Saturday. Ugh.
everyone is doing it.
Does that make it cool?
Magic 8-ball knows,
and perhaps your mom does too
I am redundant.
I ask the question:
“8-ball, why are haikus cool?”
“My sources say no.”
An absurd response.
I am left with no answer.
I must do homework.
I’ve had the feeling again.
The feeling where my heart sags and beats irregularly, where I can think of nothing but gloom and doom. It spews this angst, this attitude that eats humor and joy for lunch, and occasionally brunch. I’ve spent all of today complaining to my dad about how much I hate school and generally saying anything I can that will distance myself from my inability to be responsible for my work. Whether anything I said is true is unquestionably irrelevant. Joe Wilson and Judith Pastel’s shortcomings as leaders of my educational system are not an excuse for my failures.
Tonight, I did my generic, meaningless plea to God. Something about me, a little more about my selfish needs, what I need, what I want, what must happen to me, complete with a delicious topping of insecerity and laziness. I knew I was wasting my breath, and I knew exactly what I needed to do. So I spent three hours not doing it. And I felt miserable for the whole three hours.
Once I finally got around to opening up my Bible, I read the last two chapters of Ecclesiastes. As I run across verse 8 through 10, I finally get the entire point of Ecclesiastes.
“However many years a man may live, let him enjoy them all. But let him remember the days of darkness, for they will be many. Everything to come is meaningless. Be happy, young man, while you are young, and let your heart give you joy in the days of your youth. Follow the ways of your heart and whatever your eyes see, but know that for all these things God will bring you to judgment. So then, banish anxiety from your heart and cast off the troubles of your body, for youth and vigor are meaningless.”
Meaningless. Life. Meaningless. Not pointless. Not worthless. Meaningless. This exact thing has been bugging me for two weeks straight. When I say bugging me, I really mean to say it’s been controlling my actions and thought processes to a very unhealthy level. I had this circular train of thought going. I was confused over the whole concept of enjoyment and despair. If I eat something and enjoy it now, it’s not making me happy later, so what’s the point? Every enjoyable thing is temporary; games don’t last forever, jokes stop being funny, movies get old. This is a basic fact that everyone knows but very few understand. These very few are what we call “content”. I understood this. But I wasn’t getting the “point” of enjoying anything at all because it’s so temporary. That’s where the answer comes in. They’re meaningless. They don’t provide meaning to my life. They don’t give it meat. They don’t give me any joy whatsoever. No material thing can do that (not even an HDTV). I’ve been relying on them for some kind of mental support so much these days.
I’ve got more on my mind, but some of it I can’t say. Or won’t, anyways. Good night, yon readers.
Is this a new fad, or something?
You suck.
All of you.
[edit]
It IS. I left my phone at Daniel’s the other day. I get it back? It tells me “pwnt n00b” when I turn it on. You are all sick, sick people. To quote another, you should be downtown, up at the local asylum.
[/edit]
I truly do hope you all had a merry Christmas. I am enjoying mine with a plate full of steak (cooked by yours truly). I have some crappy Christmas music going from a random stream on Winamp. Christmas spirit is abound.
This Christmas was far less magical than it usually is. I remember last year, with everyone going “I don’t have that Christmas spirit anymore.”, and me going “Woo, Christmas is teh woot!”. This year, I suppose, that feeling has struck me. Perhaps it’s been the abysmal school year thus far, or the fact that we had school on the 23rd (a sure-fire way to suck the Christmas spirit out of the world).
Anyways, a list. A bulleted list. Or perhaps a numbered list?
This post has actually be about half-done, sitting as a draft for about 4 days, but I figured I should post, to maintain these some form of contact with the readership until school starts again. I’ll rave about Call of Duty 2 and Far Cry: Instincts later, and complain about Spartan: Total Warrior too. I hope you all had a good Christmas.
[edit]
Thought this was a really cool quote, albeit random:
It is not bigotry to be certain we are right; but it is bigotry to be unable to imagine how we might possibly have gone wrong.
– GK Chesterton
[/edit]
I was gonna write something more than a paragraph, but I have to start the Physics soon to finish before midnight, and I want to get some F.E.A.R. in. Shut it.
I got home today and JonAthan (he’s back!) was downstairs with Brian. I wanted to play F.E.A.R., but the hockey would disturb my focus, so I pulled out the headphones, but when I handed them to JonAthan, he rebroke them (i glued the ears back to the frame, they’re so bootleg), and my already very tired mood was kind of sent further down. After giving him a “…” look, I went upstairs to find the superglue. I come back down, and Brian is doing his absolute best to break the headphones in more pieces, and was mostly succesful in doing so. I start glaring at him, but JonAthan starts prodding me with a wrapped present.
I now have a brand new pair of Altec Lansing (read: not Sony) headphones, very sturdy, with a mic (although at the moment I can’t get it to talk at any reasonable noise level). That kind of brought my day around. I have had an otherwise not good day.
Where should I work? I haven’t checked with Ian yet, ’cause I’m not sure I want a desk job (even if it’s better pay) after being in school for 6 or 7 hours. I mean, if nothing else comes around, I’ll go for it, but I was really up on the idea of being a busboy for Joe’s. Any ideas?
EDIT: I hear the school delay got approved. Hooray! Too bad I’ll only experience a year of it.
EDIT: Snap, today’s getting better. Pennsylvania judge owns ID!
I have never been more scared to play a game, ever. F.E.A.R. is just so scary. I’m not one for horror movies or games, ever. In fact, I really don’t like them (mostly because I don’t discount the existence of the unholy supernatural), not that I can’t sit through one without crying, but really. It probably stems from me picking up a copy of Resident Evil 2 my brother had brought home, and subsequently having nightmares for two weeks straight. I was seven years old, give me a break. It’s also why I won’t ordain my gamecube with a copy of Resident Evil 4.
[geek]
Like I was saying, F.E.A.R. is just insane. It’s scarier than Doom 3, but then again, Doom 3 wasn’t scary after an hour of playing it. I withstand the sheer fright that is this game because it’s just really fun and really cool. The gameplay is really good, it’s so satisfying, well balanced, plenty challenging, it’s just awesome. The literal pools of blood, exploding corpses, intermittent flashes of dead people and such are really scary, but the incredibly well done AI is so worth it. The AI, man. They run around you, they know the map, they hide behind stuff, they roll, they jump, they ambush, just so well designed. Wort.
Anyways. As some of you know, I discovered Ruby on Rails the other day, and got all excited by their demos, thinking I could easily start running this here blog completely on my server without using WordPress. I spent three hours ripping my hair out trying to just figure out what the documentation wanted from me, then realizing it was five years out of date, and nothing they told me to do would work. Beyond that, I learned that Ruby is really not a good language anyways – it doesn’t do anything that Perl or PHP can’t easily do alone. I was displeased. I’m trying to learn another language in addition to Java – C++ is the obvious first choice, but I don’t want to run it through Cygwin, and the Eclipse plugin is finnicky, but we’ll see. I’m thinking Perl or Python would be good to learn, but it’s not real important.
[/geek]
That snow day was indeed a blessing. I used it well, I think. Ben, Zach, and I went downtown (with some intermittent snowball fights, and falling down stairs) to go present shopping with money I didn’t have, which was fun in its own right. That wasn’t before playing a rousing game of Rise of Nations in which I reasserted my authority over Paul (after a shameful loss). This also wasn’t after an interesting birthday party at Paul house, which there are pictures for.
In important news, the Patriot Act got owned! I am pleased about this. Something I’ve kind of noticed, is that the media spins everything into party politics. The loss of the Patriot Act is somehow a loss for Republicans. I don’t get it. It means people didn’t like it, and that the majority has won, nothing else. Then again, I don’t care about politics enough to sit down and try and reason through why there’s always been two parties in our political system, and I’m not getting a degree in Political Science to find out. At least the act got shot down.
I really, really, really, really, really want a snow day tomorrow. Like, man. Prospects are good – the weather seems to be quite right. But I don’t want to get my hopes up. Judith Pastel is a nasty woman.
The kind of woman that goes home to an unheated and unfurnished mansion at night. The kind that eats a bowl of gruel, and then sleeps on the cold floor. The kind that opens the closet to a dozen sets of the same black and white suit, with half a dozen pairs of the same black shoes, and a matching jacket and gloves for those days where the snow is colder than her icy heart. The kind that, on Thanksgiving, doesn’t eat turkey, but eats tofurkey, with unsalted, unbuttered, lumpy mashed potatoes. Judith Pastel never went to school, she never grew up. Her mother died in labor from expelling a full grown woman, and her father just said “omg” and promptly joined the local Communist party, never to be seen again. Truly, this woman can bring a tear to the eye of even the most stout hearted. The only man known to withstand the horror that is this woman? Jack Thompson.
*rolls d20 for snow day*
I completely lied about doing that monitor. In a timely manner, anyways. I lack the motivation to do it now, but I do have the motivation to go play Rise of Nations. Feel unloved.
So, things of importance! Martial arts. I believe I’ve decided on Judo and Taekwondo, which will result in 6 hours of training a week (2 on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday), which I look forward to starting in February. I hadn’t really considered it before, but I got thinking about it yesterday, and it seems to be quite a good idea. I may take Kendo (true swordmanship, not to ever be conufsed with the pansy art of fencing) over the summer, to add to the mix. This hasn’t been set in stone, but I’m really liking this idea, it’ll give me something to do, you know, that’s productive and healthy. I’ve had way too much free time, and I need to crack down on that to keep focus. I’m hoping to be pretty busy next semester, with Ski Club going on at the same time.
And then, just to mix things up ever more, I’m going to Joe’s tomorrow to pick up an application as a busboy (the dudes that clean tables). Supposedly the dude is pretty laid back, doesn’t overwork his employees. Minimum wage, plus a percentage on tips, results in a little less than fifty bucks a night. If I do that two nights a week (Friday and Saturday, maybe take a day out of Judo occasionally), that keeps a reasonable amount of cash around so that I don’t have to mooch off of people all the time. Maybe even pay people the money that I owe them. Ah, the dreams. If that doesn’t work out, I’ll check with Ian to see if anything is possible. The possibilities, though…
[edit: i was too late, it appears. time to check with Ian! if that doesn’t work out, i’ll figure something up.]
I could pay for things…
like haircuts.
Hey, speaking of haircuts, I just happened to get one of those today. I’m actually displeased with it. The woman was practically scraping my head raw, and cut it far shorter than I told her to. The result? Really short hair. It’ll grow to the desired length in like a week or two, but for now, it is not so great. It doesn’t look bad, necessarilly, just not good. Bad enough for Jen to bark at it, anyways. And yes, the sticky is back.
PSAT Scores:
I’m pretty happy, but my mom immediately felt the need to shoot me down. Recently, she’s started working for the Ithaca College admissions department, and she promptly informed me that those scores aren’t enough to get into Ithaca College. Not only do I not want to go to Ithaca College (i have several times informed her of this), but I’m going to TC3, where the SAT becomes null and void. I’m taking it because it’s fun, it’s a cool way to gague where I’m at. I think I did pretty well.
The Math portion I am disadvantaged as I’m not at the level needed to take the SAT (probably ended up in 4 or 5 questions wrong total), and I screwed up the Writing Skills by getting that last 7 or the last 9 questions wrong, due to being really rushed. I should have omitted them, but I think I did well anyways.
And courtesy of Daniel, I shall direct you to one of the funnier sites I’ve visited in my time, but a creepily accurate charge against Christendom in America. Meet Landover Baptist Church.
Finally, apparantly I’ve been tagged.
I don’t really want to tag anyone, but I guess I’ll tag Paul. Woo.
And now, to start this CS project.
I’m surprised that up to this point, not a single person has noted the lack of explanation of the asterisk lying in wait in the header. Once upon a time, before what I dub the “Great Harddrive Failure of 2005” and the resulting “Dark Age of the Internet”, I had utilized this asterisk to note something of extreme importance. The issue here is that I have absolutely no idea what I had noted. I had originally planned to make a footer (the things that go below everything, thus why they are called footers, unless you’re a CommuNazi). Nonetheless, I am nauseated and disgusted by your skills of examination. So much so that both my eyes are filled with angst, also known as blood.
So, I woke up this morning to my eyes telling me “we hate you”. The meaning of this I didn’t understand until I started experiencing exponentially increasing aches in the area of my head, and by third period, I had been informed that both of my eyes were completely bloodshot. After confirming this fact via a quick run to the mirror, I took my first visit to the nurse’s office of the year, and slept rather peacefully for thirty minutes until my dad got me. The ride home was rather painful as the sun was out, and light to my head was the equivelant of mating in the manner of moose and rams (that is, to repeatedly bash your head against a hard object…not…the other things rams do…). After decorating the house a bit (i now have my silly mini tree in my room, it emits about 25 or 30W of happy), I again went to sleep, but not before playing a rousing game of Age of Empires II, which I’m sure most of you are familiar with. For those of you who aren’t, skip this next part.
[geek]
It’s amazing how poorly memory serves to accurately define a staple of my youth. The game is ridiculously easy – I remember finding the computer insanely hard to beat even on the moderate setting, but using the Goths (whose special unit is the Huskarl, that has like 15 piercing armor, costs like nothing, and can be created in less than 3 seconds) I’ve managed to completely own without even a question of my authority. I generally just create my entire army of 100 in less than two minutes, and sweep the entire map in one or two runs. Before I have the resources for the massive recruitment, I create only enough to defend my base as well as my ally’s. Whether this strategy would work in a real game, I don’t know.
I now have the yearning to play Starcraft again – if I get any minor amounts of money this Christmas, I’ll be certain to get the combo. It’s probably down to ten bucks these days.
[/geek]
Various things (no bulleted list here, i’m afraid):
My parents somehow miraculously got me signed up for Ski Club, past the deadline. This is a highly good thing, as such a proliforous amount of people were going this year (as opposed to last year), missing out on the fun would just be no good.
I’ve finally, after like three months, gotten back in touch with a few of the people from camp. Christina and I have sent a few back and forth, and I got in touch with Zach, although I have still left the entirity of Ohio behind. With time, I’ll get there, but for now, I’m a bum.
Things of humor (sorry, no bulleted list again):
If you check out Colette’s Xanga, you’ll see a post concerncing some silly face recognition software that compares your face (hur, hur) to that of a bunch of celebrities. I am proof that this thing is entirely broken. Just look. (grumble)
Two or three posts ago, I gave a little plug for Facebook, encouraging people to sign up. So, they did. I friended these people. And you know what happens? A pentagram, apparantly. My network of friends is one step away from symbolizing the devil. Ryan is the only thing stopping this. Insert fear here.
And finally, let’s have some good times. The next gen is here, and everybody is celebrating. If you don’t get that, I suggest you go watch four hours of press conferences from E3. Like me! I’ve been listening to the song from that thing for at least an hour now, it’s so good.
Now, because cliches are in, I am creating a new status: the conventions of standard English in the titles. As long as cliches are in, there will be a conventions status monitor, which I will create for your pleasure tomorrow. Images shall be included! As soon as cliches are out, however, the status of the conventions will be neither in, nor out. As you can see, the conventions are obviously in (read: capitalization, grammar, punctuation). Dance Katuragi, DANCE!
To start us off, let’s have some humor. Speaking of a crowd of post-grad students visiting the tenant upstairs:
lemonadeyeti: go upstairs and throw bibles at them
salandarin: we’ve got at least ten in the house, i figure i can kill at least one, perhaps mame another
lemonadeyeti: maybe extra big bibles
salandarin: those are reserved for special times
salandarin: like for if jack thompson ever came over
lemonadeyeti: no, bad idea
lemonadeyeti: he absorbs bibles through his skin
lemonadeyeti: that’s how he gets nutrition
salandarin: hmm, along with a diet of american patriotism, it is a volatile combination
lemonadeyeti: and jesus
salandarin: perhaps a sony executive?
lemonadeyeti: same thing
salandarin: no, they just beat up children in the alley
salandarin: saying something like “the power of capitalism compels you!”
lemonadeyeti: like jesus
salandarin: i will not dignify this analogy with affirmation or rejection
lemonadeyeti: i have pictures
salandarin: sony executives do not speak in slang
salandarin: they speak in lawyer
lemonadeyeti: like jesus
lemonadeyeti: i asked 8 ball
lemonadeyeti: “Is Jesus a Sony executive?”
lemonadeyeti: “Without a doubt.”
lemonadeyeti: i am the winner
If you didn’t understand that, I suggest reading up on the Wikipedia and Uncyclopedia articles for Sony and Jack Thompson. Journalism at its best.
I think we can move on from what I dub the “Comment Wars”. I feel it was becoming so cliche, that it was hitting infinity, which is also a negative number, meaning it was both cliche and not cliche at the same time. This paradox is unacceptable, and not cliche.
And yes, I wrote the vast majority of that article on Jack Thompson. There was an article there before, but I just assimilated a large portion of it and rewrote every section, most from the ground up. It was fun – I think I’ll write articles like that more often. I felt it was funny, not hilarious, but amusing by some standard. I’m sure Gwen won’t agree, but Gwen was born in Outer Mongolia, I really doubt she’s prepared to discuss this topic thoroughly.
As Paul would say “continue padding”, and/or the lack thereof (note clever use of title – that’s cliche).
I love my complete inconsistency with capitalization in the titles. I can never decide when to capitalize and when not to. Woe.
I devote my time tonight to the abomination that has become Two Chains and a Beagle. Ladies and gentlemen, if ever there were a detriment to the cause, this would be it. Containing blatant obscenities where certain females flock to boost their meaningless rank, TC&B has sunk to a low that only Sony could match. Accepting over a hundred mostly useless and meaningless remarks from the mass, and yet taking no action? This is unacceptable!
Readers, I urge you to petition for a removal of the root of the problem. How you go about doing this I care not, but as tempting as it may be to rally my readers to buff my ego in the form of comments, I shall not sink to that low. I already unabashedly advertise myself and mock those inferior to me, I need not sink to a level that the free market demands. This may be capitalism at work, but I am no socialist!
Truly, any believer in a fair internet economy will support this campaign. If you don’t, then you may be a shameless groupie for a malevolent conglomoration. I challenge you, the reader, to fight tyranny in its most apparant form. Unite!
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Oh, and sorry I couldn’t fit you in there Zach. I considered putting you under “socialist” or “malevolent conglomeration”, but those weren’t insulting enough. I have to deprecate equally, you know.
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This calls for an entirely separate post. I’ve often wondered how Uwe Boll puts food on the table, but now there’s an answer.
Here’s what I’m gathering from what comments on the article. It’s a huge financial fiasco, that Hollywood pulls on almost every movie, through Germany. Basically, investors turn a huge profit by investing in doomed ventures (Uwe Boll’s movies). How does this work?
Say you’re a rich dude, and your net income (profit) is 10 million dollars per year. According to German law, you are taxed on that 10 million, not the rest of your income. You may make 50 million, but if 40 million of that is losses, you are only taxed for 10 million. So, you put this extra 10 million into a movie like Alone in the Dark.
Now say you’re the company producing this piece of crap. You now have 10 million dollars invested into your movie. If you’re doing the movie 100% legitimately, this basically means that at the end of the process, you’ll give the investors a certain percentage of their investment back, based on how much money the movie makes. But if you’re Hollywood, you aren’t doing this legitimately. What do you do? You set up a tax shelter in Germany, where German investors give you money, before your movie has even begun. The advantage of this is that the investors can put their money into something completely tax-deductable, meaning instead of taking 15% hits in income taxes, they will take 5%, which ends up being in the millions as far as how much is saved.
There are dozens of other spins to add to the ball here, such as filming in several locations throughout the world to utilize other tax flaws, selling distribution rights, and all that jazz. However, the end product is a huge profit for every party involved. Take Tomb Raider. Ever hear that the budget for that piece of crap was $90 million? Did you know that the actual money required to make the movie was somewhere between $7-9 million? This, my friends, is why Peter Jackson feels compelled to sue New Line Cinema, for this very process of ‘cooking the books’. Brought to you by your friendly neighborhood team of lawyers.
I can’t sleep.
I have recently been accused of shamelessely whoring myself for the chance of increasing the traffic this site sees. My response? You are 100%, absolutely, positively, without a doubt, correct.
With this fact established, I must move on. Right now, as I have told several of my colleagues, my body feels like nausea. My muscles refuse to cooperate. My head feels like a small child has just discovered the piano and has decided to attempt to play the Tocatta in D Minor with no formal training. My stomache? Let’s not go there. Long story short, I didn’t go to school today, with this being possibly the first day that I actually had a reason beyond hating school to stay home. I hadn’t eaten all day, until I just now ate 4 pieces of pizza, and yet I can estimate no measurable difference in feeling as far as my stomache is concerned.
As far as school is concerned, I face a crossroads of some level of importance. I have three options for physics. I can stay in AP Physics, which will require a bulleted list to explain the advantages and disadvantages.
Or, I can move to Honors Physics.
Or, I can move to Conceptual Physics.
What do you guys think? I’m willing to keep giving AP a chance, but basically whether I want to stay in or not is determined by the results of this next test. If I could go back, I would certainly do conceptual or normal honors, but having made the bad choice of AP, I have to either live with that or do something about it. Bleh.
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I encourage you all to go get a Facebook. Akin to MySpace, but far better, and a little more personal. An invitation is required, so let me know if you need one.
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[edit^2]
I just noticed there’s a link I can just supply you with to invite you.
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Thanksgiving calls for a bulleted list. So, I know what to be thankful for now.
Things are better. I’m not sure if I should explain, but things are better.
This Thanksgiving, I am unusually unthankful. I have plenty of things to be thankful for, but these seem very insignificant compared to the problem I am faced with right now.
That problem, I believe, is me.
I called Mr. semi-famous old guy twice yesterday. The first time, to say that I would be an hour late (mostly due to me not getting up soon enough). He hung up on me while I was talking. The second time, to say that I needed to cancel. I was told, in response, that this was goodbye, that I was completely unreliable.
My initial response was denial. I felt that the circumstances for which I could not work for him were out of my control, and that he had no right to disrespect me like that. Upon examining the situation, however, I realized he was right. The reason I had to cancel was so that I could rake leaves with my dad, which he had rather firmly insisted I do in exchange for staying home Monday. When it got dark before I got to it on Monday, and spent all of Tuesday at that Robotics LAN, it had to be Wednesday. While the timing for that was mostly out of my control, the whole reason I had to rake the leaves was because I stayed home. I stayed home because I failed to finish my work in a timely manner.
I’ve replayed the exact conversation in my head at least a few dozen times. It’s wrenching me. I feel like I should send an email apologizing, but I’m not sure he would even want that. I have never been this utterly lost and incapacitated. I was caught off guard.
I don’t get caught off guard. That’s not what I do. But that’s what the past three months have been for me, situations and people and challenges that are catching me off guard. Perhaps it’s because of the summer. Having a job that was generally fun, productive, AND pertained to what my aspirations for a career are, feeling like I was learning something every day, never feeling felt constricted or bored, it put me in my comfort zone, to say the least.
I’m really not sure what to be thankful for, these days.
