All of the Blog

In Which I Have Excellent Timing

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 28 Jan 2014 16:12:00 +0000

January is almost over, so naturally I think I'll write about stuff that happened almost a month ago! Guys, writing is difficult, I swear. Well, it's not so much the actual act of writing so much as it is coming up with things to write about, and then finding the motivation to do so. Thus my nigh yearly post of "Bla bla bla I suck at self motivation bla bla bla I'll write more" AND THEN I DON'T. Fool you once internet, shame on you, fool you twice internet, shame on me (yesIknowthat'swrongshutup). Fool you three times and I'm devoured by the Nidhogg (which is a neat game by the way), or something like that. I'm bad at this, sue me (please don't I have no money oh god).

Anyway! My holidays went well, and save for a (in hindsight) rather silly, drunken walk through the back roads of Westford at 3AM it was relatively uneventful. As in really uneventful. After about the first or second week of January I was bored stiff, as most of my friends were either already back at school or back at work. As (I think?) I mentioned previously, I'm back at UML, and classes for this semester only started a week ago. I did jack shit between those two points, and hated it. But! I have something a bit more interesting to write about today, and that was the Secret Santa I did with strangers over the internet.

I don't know if you are aware, but there are quite a few "sites" on the so called "web," and one of my favorites is Reddit. Every year Reddit is host to a gift exchange of record-breaking proportions, with over 120,000 people participating in this year's exchange, and I decided to be one of them. The matching process itself wasn't that interesting; after signing up, you put as much or as little information as you want your internet gifting stranger to know, and then wait for matching day to get your internet stranger's info. Then you have to make sure you have your gift shipped by a certain date at the very latest, and eventually everyone gets their gift. Easy, right?

Having seen a few of the gifts people had done in years past, I had high expectations for what I would do. I really wanted my gift to be something interesting and creative, so I hoped to find something useful in the information I was given about my giftee. Unfortunately for me, between my high hopes and the relatively plain information given I wasn't really able to come up with much. It wasn't really the guy's fault, he probably would have been fine with just about anything. But after seeing stuff like a multiple stuffed animal dissection in order to find the real present, it was hard to not want to do something awesome. Ultimately I ended up floundering and tried to come up with something cool, only to mess up one of my purchases, and had to just send the guy something off of Amazon. Hopefully I can do something better next year.

One of the most striking things about the whole exchange was how surreal it felt at parts. I know we're in an age of information and buzzwords like "social media" and "globalization," but it's hard not to feel a little weirded out when I'm looking at some random person's house in Texas on Google Streetview, trying to glean as much information as possible from what I was given, all in the hopes of coming up with a cool gift for the stranger that lives in that house. It was kind of odd. I'm not a very good internet sleuth (read:stalker) though, as that was about as far as I got. I'm sure others did the same thing, and I'm sure others were able to find much more about their matches. I very quickly made sure to update my privacy settings on the various sites I use after that.

I'll continue this story later, in another post, as apparently I've written quite a little bit, and this is only about half of my thoughts! Apparently when I actually do things, I have interesting things I can write about. Who knew?

It's Been A While, Internet

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 02 Dec 2013 03:32:00 +0000

Picture not really related? Maybe?

So. Here I am again, writing on this here blog, something I've historically been excellent at. Looking at my front page, four out of the five displayed posts are in some way related to why I haven't been posting, and promising to post more. The fifth is a post I made almost exactly a year ago, saying I was going to start posting again.....almost a year after the post before it.

Consistency!

Rather than try to make some sort of promise that I'll post more (which, as usual, I'll probably fail to keep), I think I'll just start slow and talk about what's happened in my life since I began this blog. It's kind of hard to believe I started writing on this blog almost four years ago, and kind of sad that I've written so little in that span of time. But a lot has changed in my life, which is plain to see should one check the "About" page at the top up thar.

For starters, I am no longer 19 (soon to be 20) years old, and am instead 22 (soon to be 23) years old. I no longer attend Keene State College, and instead am going to UMass Lowell. I'm still in school for theatre, but UML's program is not nearly established as Keene's, so I'm more of an English major with a focus on Theatre Arts. I still play a lot of video games, but I am happy to say that I have actually been doing a lot more reading than I used to. I am single for the first time since high school, and I am hopelessly incompetent at being so. It often feels like I do very little with my life, but apparently that's not the case, as a lot has happened to me in the past few years.

Despite how much of a bummer that last paragraph is (seriously, just rereading it makes me feel a little bit down), I'm actually doing really well! I feel much more confident in who I am and what I want to do. I had to transfer out of Keene due to a combination of poor grades and expensive out of state tuition, and after a miserable, depressed year at UML I was put on academic suspension, which was probably the best thing that could have ever happened to me. I then spent the latter half of the year working at the North Shore Music Theater, which, even though the pay wasn't the best, was such an incredible experience for me. I was basically as bottom rung as I could get, but there I was, working in a theater, doing something I actually wanted to do as a job. It was eye opening, and a wonderful opportunity.

Mind you, I could never make an actual living off of the pay I was getting there, at least not for the distance I had to commute, but it was a great start to actually working in a theater. I also probably couldn't physically do that type of work for too long either; I was on run crew, moving set pieces and props around and flying various things, usually different types of chandeliers, in and out from the rail. I really enjoy that type of work and it can be a lot of fun, but it definitely can be physically taxing. I had to see a chiropractor for a few months this summer from hurting my back doing just that at the same theater, and it still kind of hurts even now, several months later. But having the chance to work in such a welcoming environment, in the type of professional setting I so very much want to be a part of, is well worth the time and injuries.

And all of that is just one part of my life that I feel has changed moving forward. Apparently I actually have life experiences I can share rather than writing about whatever random drivel I can think of (though to be fair, I am especially fond of some of the drivel I've written, like the Kingdom for Kieflings post, or FORT CHAMPIONSHIP YEAHHHH). Maybe if I find the time and motivation I can write and share some more. Until then, I wish you a good day, and thanks for reading, assuming you've made it this far.

On Dungeons and Dragons, Part I

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 18:01:00 +0000

And now, to ramble about something completely different

I've been a nerd for practically the entirety of my life. One of the earliest Christmas gifts I can remember getting, besides some sort of mechanized construction yard playset type thing, was my first Game Boy. I still own it in fact, though it doesn't work anymore, sadly. Since then my interest in gaming has only grown. Despite this, I have always tried not to become some sort of "super nerd," or basically what everyone thought a nerd or geek actually looked or behaved like, at least during the 90s and early 2000s. Super socially awkward, not that good looking, didn't use deodorant, and so on. Mind you, I didn't particularly care about cultivating some sort of social image; I just really didn't want to be one of those kinds of geeks. And more often than not, partaking in table top role playing games such as Dungeons and Dragons put you squarely into the center of such a group. Even daring to whisper the cursed letters "DnD" together at the lunch tables for ever doomed one to be ostracized from any socially progressive groups for the rest of your life! Or at least that's how younger me felt. Younger me was also not the brightest, though I personally feel there was at least some semblance of actual truth to that thought, at least for a person at that age.

Basically middle school and high school are bitches.

These bastards cost an arm and a leg

When I wasn't working on one of my high school's theater productions, I would often hang out after school anyway, mostly because going home meant doing homework. Every so often during these afternoons of procrastination, I would find myself sitting in on a Dungeons and Dragons campaign a few of my friends (plus one teacher) were running. I feared no social ramifications here, for the majority of the school had long since gone home or moved outside for other activities. Besides, I had to take the late bus home, which left only an hour after the actual buses did, and therefore could not stay longer to actually partake in the rolling of dice. When I would later hang out with said friends, they would laugh and retell stories and moments from their adventures together, and share their inside jokes. At first I was indifferent, but over time I grew more and more curious. I wanted to know the context to their discussions. I had some rudimentary knowledge on the basics of the game, but beyond that I had no idea of any of the meaning behind a lot of the numbers. Like I mentioned, I lacked context, and eventually that's truly got me to desire a taste of the forbidden nerd fruit. And after taking my first bite, I only wanted more.

I barely remember the majority of the first campaign I participated in, one of many, many unfinished campaigns I've participated in (I envy my cousin and the game he plays in, which has been consistently running for something like 5 years now). However, the few moments I do remember are quite telling, I feel, of one of the greatest strengths of any game of Dungeons and Dragons, the ability to be personally involved with the narrative. My party was on some sort of journey, and we were travelling along a mountain path. It was getting late and, if I remember correctly, the weather was turning nasty, so we quickly sought out the refuge of a nearby cave. But, much to our dismay, a troll had already taken up the cave as it's own residence! Now, obviously this was meant to be a simple encounter of "we fight monster, we kill monster." However, I, in one of many moments of "how can I disrupt the DM's plans (that's dungeon master for you uninformed folks)," managed to be very lucky with some dice rolls and somehow used one of my bullshit powers the DM had given me to convince the troll to be my personal bodyguard. Seeing the frown on my friend the DM's face and the laughter and smiles coming from my other friends with me in our party, I truly felt not just my character's victory, but my own victory.

It is because of that very feeling that Dungeons and Dragons excels as a storytelling experience. In most any other medium you are only a passive observer, seeing, reading, or hearing about things other people are doing or have done. The closest form when done right, in my opinion, is videogames, but even then you're experiencing the whole story vicariously. With the right amount of creativity and imagination, along with a group of similarly like-minded individuals, you get to experience the story of your DnD game first hand. And I think that's something truly unique about the game. It's no different than stepping into a role from a play, only instead of having to memorize lines and blocking, you create your own as you go. Which is exactly what you do with a "role playing game," though most people can't seem to get past the details and stats of being a level 12 wizard and using your +2 Axe of Chopping to see the much more interesting innards.

Time to Get Serious

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 18:10:00 +0000

Of course I still took time to beat Portal 2 beforehand

Hello once again folks, it's me, your humble and ever subservient writer person thing. It's been a little bit since I last wrote and a fair amount has happened since then! Well, not really. I went to PAX for a day and had fun and got some new music and games, but that's basically your typical week for me, save for the whole PAX thing. But no! No! I'm here to talk about none of that! I'm here to talk about....me being a good student for maybe the first time since sixth grade!

That's right, I'm actually going to try harder than I have in a long time at school. I've made this promise at the beginning of every year since high school, but now I need to be a good student more than ever. I wouldn't say I'm in trouble with any of my classes, but the focus definitely needs to be there, now more than ever. And as such, I shall be giving up gaming until the end of the semester.

I know right?

It wasn't a decision made easily, but I feel it's a necessary one. Gaming has been a part of my life for a very very long time, but as of late I feel I've let it take far too much priority in my life than it should. I've reached the point where I will play games over doing the necessary reading for classes, and then staying up far too late or getting up extra early to get the work done, which is completely unnecessary. And when I say staying up late, I mean like 4 AM and 5 AM, on a consistent basis, with a 10 AM class every day but Friday. It's not exactly healthy. It may even be safe to say I've become overly addicted to gaming, and I say overly because let's face it, I'm already in over my head in this addiction as is. I just can't let it control me is all.

Gaming serves as a catharsis of sorts for me, a way to relax and enjoy myself, and to just escape for a while. Unfortunately, that kind of escapism can't fly when I have only about two and a half weeks of school left and a hell of a lot on the line. As such, I'm distancing myself from all such potential sources of distraction for the remainder of the school year, in order to get my shit in line. And I mean literally no games at all; I've "cut back" in the past but I think that won't help at this point. I need to stifle my obsession in order to come out a stronger person and student. I'm also going to try to limit pointless internet browsing for this period, and instead funnel all my energy and focus towards my studies. And when I just can't do that anymore, I think I'll write here more often. It's a win win! I get good grades, and you guys get to read more of my rambling.

I think this is something everyone can get behind.

Wish me luck.

What's Currently Distracting Me

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 06:46:00 +0000

Where? Oh, never mind, it's just Rebecca Black again

Two posts in as many days? Blasphemy! But yes, it is true. I have decided to write yet another post, and in a short period of time no less. Clearly the world is ending. But in making this bold decision I have come to the realization (again) that I'm just not good at coming up with topics to write about. Every time I write, I want it to be some sweeping digression and or introspection, but can never come up with something interesting enough for me to write about. So today, I'm just going to write about a whole bunch of things! Specifically, the things that I've been doing lately in my free time.

And of course by that I mean primarily what video games I'm playing.

Bit Trip Runner

A friend of mine, as well as a fellow blogger, listed this in his top 10 of 2010, and rightfully so. Unlike him, I only just picked it up, and off of Steam instead of WiiWare. Though I'm sure it feels a little different in terms of controls, it's still the same, really fun game. It's a demanding and very much reflex based piece of entertainment, one where I often found myself repeating a level over and over in order to perfect a maneuver, only to find myself promptly being sent back to start by the very next obstacle. One of the reasons why the game is so demanding is that there are no save points or checkpoints in the level; it's just a straight shot from the left side of the world to the right, and if you mess up you start over from the beginning. Luckily, most of the levels are fairly short, only lasting a minute or two tops. However, there was one level in the first world that was easily close to five minutes long, and that long a level so early in the game was devastating. Regardless, it's a very fun and rewarding game, and with fantastic music from Anamanaguchi. At a very cheap $10, it's definitely been worth the price.

Fallout 3

Yes, yes, I know, I'm only a few years late on this one. But seriously, I picked the game up when it came out back in 2008, but just like with Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, I kinda just lost interest over time. I did what I felt like doing, but eventually something else called to me, and the game kinda just got put on the back burner. After getting my Xbox back into my room after a certain incident in the first semester of this year involving my very unhygienic original roommate, I decided it'd be fun to play this game a little bit again. There isn't much to talk about here as most people who read this already know most of what there is to know about Fallout; that it's Oblivion with guns, that I'm a loser who didn't blow up Megaton, and that Bloody Mess is a perk that's just plain fun in a very childish way. You shoot things, things go boom, and then body parts everywhere! Yay! Though I do find that I kinda suck at this game. Within each quest, specifically in dialogue portions, I try to do too many options at once, sometimes screwing things up big time, like making the Underworld completely inaccessible. Woops.

League of Legends

Right now I'm kind of on a WoW hiatus. I'm trying not to admit that I've gotten a little bit of burn out from that game, but I think that might be the case. Right now it's simply on again off again, and usually only log on for raids, if that. That leaves only League of Legends as my primary go to game for free time. League of Legends, also rather cleverly known as LoL, fulfills a rather niche genre of video games, that of the Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA). In fact, it's so niche that there's only really three games of it's kind; Defense of the Ancients, or DoTA, Heroes of Newarth, and League of Legends. DoTA is the original MOBA; basically you play as a unique character on a team with other players. You and the NPCs on your team need to push to the enemy's base and destroy it in order to win. DoTA was originally just a custom map for Warcraft 3, but gained some major notoriety, including tournaments for just that map, and eventually the development teams moved on to work on what is today HoN and LoL. Though the community at times is less than ideal, LoL is a very fun and enjoyable game, and is free to play. You earn points from playing which you use to permanently unlock the champions you can play as or to unlock runes, items that you apply outside of the actual game in order to boost your stats in game. You also earn experience in order to level up your account in a sort of meta game. Leveling up your account grants you access to masteries and rune slots; masteries act as talent points of sorts that are applied in game, and you can unlock up to 30 different rune slots to use. You can also spend money to unlock champions and buy skins for them, or to purchase boosts to earned experience and influence points, the currency earned from playing games regularly. Though not exactly the easiest game to pick up, LoL has proved to me at least that I can keep coming back to it again and again and enjoy it.

Also, AAAAAAGHHH ACRONYMS AAAAAAHHH

Monday Night Combat

Another console market game turned PC game, Monday Night Combat is a game I only recently picked up. It's 3rd person shooter, but sort of in the same goofy mindset as Team Fortress. It's basically a mix between a DoTA styled game (aren't you glad I taught you that earlier?), a shooter, and a tower defense game. It features two modes, Crossfire and Blitz. Crossfire is a 6v6 match where the two opposing teams are trying to destroy the enemy team's Moneyball. Both teams have AI controlled bots that will move towards the enemy team's base and attack their bots, towers, players, and ultimately, their Moneyball. Players have access to six different classes, each unique enough to be interesting, with a few different skills as well as the ability to spawn bots and create and upgrade turrets. Blitz basically plays out as a tower defense, where instead of an enemy team four players face off against waves of bots. Oh, and the whole thing is set in the future, where arena combat has replaced traditional sports. All the different maps take place in stadiums, with obnoxious announcer and all, and a very strange tradition where attacking the mascot as he leaps onto the field is actually very beneficial. It's a bizarre and hilarious game, but in the short time I've owned it I've been greatly entertained.

Pokemon: White Version

Last on this list is Pokemon, and really, what kind of a nerd would I be if I didn't include it? I got a copy of White, and I've really been enjoying this newest version of Darwin meets cockfighting. Though some Pokemon feel a little lacking in the creativity department, overall they're not too bad. The new Pokemon that don't suck are actually pretty cool, and the new features added are pretty nice, like having different music in battle depending on how it's going, and having different 3-D effects to really flesh out the world. There isn't much to say about Pokemon that really needs to be said, as most people at this point either will keep buying new Pokemon games or have stopped after the first generation. Also, I'm getting tired and running out of things to say. Pokemon fun, game good. Ooogh ugh.

Honorable Mentions

World of Warcraft

Like I said earlier, kinda burned out of WoW for now. I really love the changes they've done with Cataclysm, but it's rare for me to have played a game for coming on close to five, maybe six, years at this point, let alone nearly continuously for two years of that. An expensive hobby over time to be sure, but a lot of fun, and I've made many really good friends through it, people I play other games online with, such as...

Minecraft

Minecraft is where I go when I'm feeling particularly creative (almost never) or when I feel like riding on an infinitely looping roller coaster for an undefined period of time (almost always). I used to play a lot more, but primarily on shared online servers. Each server has in turn been wiped, as has all my progress on each server. It was pretty crushing the first time, losing an underground arena I'd been working on for practically two weeks, and each time after that only further rubbed sulfur into my wounds. I really only play this of and on at this point.

Call of Duty 2: Modern Warfare

I do succumb to the mindless shooter disease every once in a while. I am only human, believe it or not (shocking, I know).

GTA IV

Because who doesn't enjoy running over crowds of pedestrians and then gunning down the cops that try to come after you for running over said crowds of pedestrians, and then going home to play a video game where you get to kill people and steal cars? I mean, what?

Soul Calibur IV

Only really play this game with one person, and right now our match record from last week over three different sessions is 60 to 6 (bet you can't guess who has the 60, oh wait it's me). Mitsurugi > Siegfried

~~Amnesia: The Dark Descent~~

Dear god, no. Never again. A fantastic game by all means, but my testicles quite simply aren't large enough for this game. Way too scary. It's taken me a week and a half to stop thinking about it and get back to mental normalcy. Cannot praise it enough for being a brilliantly executed game, but also cannot stay far enough way from it for fear of never being able to sleep or be in dark spaces ever again Though this video sure makes me feel much better about my own terror from this game. Also, I highly recommend Tobuscus' Let's Play series of the game, for those who want to see the game but not actually witness the terror first hand or alone.

I think that more or less covers everything I've been doing that doesn't actually impact my life (save for that last unspeakable game) of late. A brief list, that I somehow managed to extend as long as I have. Actual informative and interesting blog post, or large collection of bullshit?

You be the judge.

Though not gonna lie, probably the second choice.

It's So Pretty

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 05:14:00 +0000

Fucking flowers, who asked you anyway?

Yay! Except that flower's a goddamn liar. This isn't the same old bullshit! This is brand spanking new bullshit! And it's shiny bullshit to boot!

So in case you're blind or something and don't regularly check my blog (and who honestly doesn't have this site bookmarked by now?), then you may have noticed something somewhat different as you desperately smashed F5 hoping for a new update. The whole site got updated! I was previously using a pretty cool template I got off of this site, but decided with a change in my own attitude in order to post more often that a change in the site itself was in order. I found a pretty neat new template, and after about 2 hours now of fiddling with the coding to make things the way I want them to be, I can proudly say that this site hopefully doesn't look like shit! Not that it necessarily looked like shit before, mind you. And here is a brief list of some of these new features that hopefully don't suck!

Shiny new web page design, including a new background and other stuff!
All the header links should actually work now!
Did away with the comments RSS feed (because no one comments here anyway)!
Fun new sidebar tabs!
A comment counter to the side of each post (to further emotionally kick myself in the groin about no one reading my shit)!
A renewed interest in writing (yeah right)!
Probably tons of bugs I'll find about and cry over later because I don't know how to fix them!

So go forth, my four or five readers! Go forth, and enjoy, for you have been blessed with a gift, a particularly rare one indeed.

That gift, is the gift of a new, shinier, internet me.

You're welcome.

I'm Good at This Whole Blogging Thing

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 07:50:00 +0000

So yeah, self explanatory post. It's well over a year since I've last written here. Kinda seems like a waste of space when I put it like that, doesn't it?

Basically I want to start trying to actively write on this site again. Same rules apply as when I first set up this blog; I write about what I want, when I want. It can be sheer and utter nonsense, or some sort of deeply thought out philosophical discussion. All depends on what mood I'm in! I would write something now but it's getting close to 3 in the morning and I have work from 9 AM until God knows when tomorrow. And by that I mean 5 PM. But still!

We'll see how long this goes before I fail again. For those college friends that I decide to link this to for some reason, you should probably go back a page or two to learn about why this thing's even titled what it is, if you don't already know. Not to blow my own horn or anything (or blow anything at all, for that matter; I don't usually roll that way), but I kinda enjoy reading some of my older posts. I mean seriously, I relate playing a video game to Valhalla or some shit in one of them. Classy stuff.

Before I go, I leave you with one fun little side story. During my writing hiatus, Blogger added some cool features to its site, including the ability to track information regarding your page views. Though my blog has a pathetically and not at all unexpected low view count, reaching a grand total of 39 views over its lifetime, it's the location of 10 of these views that's most interesting. Apparently 10 people in Russia found my discussion about speaking like Shatner and my digression on ramen appealing.

(P.S. Normally I would totally put in links to everything I talk about in this page but I'm lazy and tired)

(P.P.S. Only caught two glaring grammar mistakes in this post, even at quarter to three in the morning! Go me!)

In His House, He Waits Dreaming

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 15:00:00 +0000

To me, dreams are interesting things. I took a course in psychology once in high school and dreams were briefly touched upon in one unit, but we never really got to explore what exactly makes up these mystifying and fantastic movies in our unconscious brains. I gained a basic grasp of a few things from that class, however, such as part of why one can remember dreams more easily at some times rather than others.

Now, my memory isn't the best, so forgive me if this isn't entirely accurate, but basically sleep is divided into several different stages. You cycle into each of the different stages, in which your brain relaxes and works less and less, until you reach a point known as REM sleep, which is short for Rapid Eye Movement. It is during this time that one begins to dream, and is identified by sudden spikes of brain activity. If a normal night's sleep is to take it's fullest course, one is steadily eased out of sleep by going in reverse through each of the stages of sleep, until you are once again awake.

However, most people aren't allowed the luxury of sleeping until they naturally wake up on any form of a regular basis. People have to get up and go to work or school or what have you. Once again, if I remember correctly, it is when one is awoken from REM sleep or one of the nearby stages of sleep that the person remembers the most of their dream. I would fact check this shit but this is really more of an exercise in getting into a habit of writing than anything, so I'm just going to write this anyways and damn the facts to all hell. I'm getting to the good part soon enough anyways.

Factual and scientific shit aside, it's the actual ongoings in dreams that fascinate me the most; why people dream what they do. I have fucked up dreams, and I mean that in the most, well, I don't know what kind of way but let me tell you they are weird. For example, I dreamt three times last night, mostly because it was really really warm in my bed despite it being really really cold at night; I blame the additional 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit or so of body heat occupying the same space. I would wake up from one dream, mentally sputter out a "What is this I don't even," roll over, and fitfully fall back asleep. One dream involved me somehow becoming a bike, and another featured me bouncing an egg back and forth with a friend as if it were a bouncy ball, only for it to hatch into my very own duck pet friend oh yay, and yet another dream featured my house falling down somehow, so my father built an extension onto it...on the same side of the house that was falling over. It worked somehow. And these are relatively tame dreams in comparison to what I normally dream of...such as what I dreamt of earlier today, when I woke up and then fell back asleep about an hour later. I like to sleep a lot by the way.

Though I won't go into full detail about what happened, the dream basically comprised of a war between me and my forces of people and animals against the evil armies of something or rather robots. I don't know, I think they looked sorta like a mix between the ghouls in WoW and some sort small rabid animal, like a beaver or a squirrel, only it was like five or six feet tall. Oh yeah, and I was Jimmy Neutron, only not an idiot despite my genius capabilities.

So yeah. With dreams like these, it's hard not to wonder why exactly my sleeping mind is so fucked up. People talk of having recurring dreams of falling or being chased by something or flying. I fight Godzilla in a soccer tournament and throw porcupines at houses in an act of arson or something and then escape into a hole the porcupine dug into the ground. And don't even get me started on lucid dreams; I've wanted to have one of those for the longest time. Though considering what my dreams normally involve, I doubt there'd ever be a situation where I'd be like "Hey, I must be dreaming!" and then be able to control the dream. I buy into the weirdest shit too easily I guess.

The Intrinsic Properties of Ramen: A Digression

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:45:00 +0000

Ramen is delicious and not exactly nutritious, and I love it. It's the stereotypical poor apartment dweller and or college student staple meal. It's simple and quick to make, tastes great, and costs like a dollar for twenty of the things. You can get them in styrofoam cups or packages of the noodles and flavoring. You can get them in all kinds of flavors, each unique (sort of) and wonderfully tasty for some incredible reason. My two personal favorite brands are Maruchan and Cup Noodle, with the former making primarily the packaged noodles and well, if you can't guess what Cup Noodle does I might as well just stop writing this now. But since I'm writing this in real time and not actually talking to anyone I'm going to assume you're not an idiot and continue anyways!

In all reality ramen is great pretty much any time of the year, though for me it is particularly great in winter. It's for the same reason one doesn't really have hot chocolate all that often in the summertime, or hot soup for that matter, which is a much more valid comparison I guess seeing as how they're practically the same thing BUT WHATEVER. I was cold, so I turned on the heat in the room (which I'm still not entirely sure if it actually works or not) and heated up a cup of noodles and am as of this writing enjoying it. I might make more after, I might not. You never know with these kind of things.

The thing about ramen, or at least store-bought ramen, is that it doesn't seem fully realized. What I mean to say is that, yes, it says "Chicken/Roast Beef/etc. Flavoring", and it smells like chicken/roast beef/etc., but it doesn't quite actually reach the taste of said flavor(s). It's probably to be expected from a mass produced form of meal for those with low budgets, but the true issue I find with the taste is actually the smell. The companies manage to get the smell so perfectly tuned that you are in fact excited to eat your bowl or cup of noodles. You are temporarily fooled into actually believing what you're eating is a heaping helping of wonderfully cheap sustenance that tastes fantastic, but it is instead a heaping helping of wonderfully cheap noodles that almost tastes fantastic. Note that I left out the sustenance part, because living off of ramen is just plain unhealthy, especially if you're one of those types (like me!) who's daring (read: stupid) enough to drink the broth afterwards. All the sodium I'd ever need ever has never tasted so good or been in liquid form.

Taking a quick jaunt over to Wikipedia reveals images of what looks to be legitimate and incredibly good ramen, the kind of ramen I'd love to actually partake in. The real deal. The stuff that I wish I could have on a regular basis but can't because I don't live anywhere even remotely close to China or Japan and don't have infinity dollars. For now I'll just have to settle on my Roast Beef flavored Maruchan cup of Instant Lunch and be satisfied, dreaming of what I could be having instead of what I have.

It's 3 AM. And. I want to go to bed.

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 19:00:00 +0000

Some call it evoking William Shatner, I call it having a damn good time. For whatever inane reason I find it particularly amusing to quote music in speech rather than in any lyrical fashion. Most would agree with me when I say it is almost never acceptable to burst into song when that song is anything by Linkin Park, though to be honest unless you happen to be living in a musical most people find it completely unacceptable to burst into any song anywhere. However, more than once have I been able to get away with simply uttering the words "I tried so hard and got so far, but in the end, it doesn't even matter" in some sort of social situation. Most often people look at me and either groan or grin, as these are my peers and they know exactly what I'm saying, for better or for worse. The real fun is when there are also those of the second party, the ones that have no clue what the hell I'm saying, are also present.

In a way it's almost meant to mock whatever we're saying; a way to laugh at the things we grew up with and how silly and inane all of it really is. People saying how good they want to get at something, and retorting with the phrase that you, quite simply, "want to be the very best, like no one ever was." (guitar riffs following said phrase are optional) At the same time it's a way to embrace that which was our youth; how many children of the current generation can honestly say that they've seen shows like Doug, or have ever seen Fred back when he actually thought neckerchiefs were cool? These are dying breeds, though to be fair not all of them actually deserve to live. I wish I had something to link to that sentence, but even though this post will be going up sometime this afternoon I really am writing this at 3 in the morning.

Regardless, it's something I've been doing for a while now, and you should too, even if you don't believe the bullshit I came up with to justify doing it. Or you should at least try it once, decide if you like it or not. Take it out on a nice date, maybe see a movie or something. From there you can decide if you truly want to pursue a relationship with this joke, or if perhaps you simply want to be friends, even though your true intent is to slowly drop out of this joke's life for good, realizing that that you weren't meant to be, you're not each other's type, or simply that you were obviously really really drunk when asked it out and it was one of those mistakes you hope to never make again only realize when you're 50 and alone that your whole life was spent repeating that process until you were simply a shell of yourself who never truly made a connection with a joke either because none could ever match up in your mind to that one joke that got away or because you were too afraid of opening yourself up to the possibility of sharing your life with a joke and instead simply used them once for your own personal pleasure and then threw it away, just like those crappy toys that come with the kids meals at fast food restaurants.

What the hell is wrong with me.

Where I've Been

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 17:00:00 +0000

So once again I've failed to keep myself writing and updating the blog, which is upsetting because I love to write about whatever. Lately I've been suffering from the potent combination of writer's block, lack of time, and a general proclivity towards laziness. Believe it or not, the writer's block is the biggest killer out of the three for me. I talk with friends all the time, saying "Give me a topic! I need to write! Anything! Please!", begging for any sort of topic they can throw at me, only to receive relatively shitty ones anyways because when you tell a friend to tell you to write about quite literally anything some of the worst ideas often come to mind.

Despite all this, I've actually got quite a few good ideas that I want to write about, such as that short story I mentioned on my Facebook status a while back, things I really want to write about. This is where the three plagues to my writing start to intertwine into a devious concoction of creative-thought-process sedative. I may have a good idea, but often I can't come up with a good way to word my thoughts, or I may not have taken any notes down when the topic was fresh in my mind and I have since forgotten what I wanted to say. Half the time I lack the time to actually pursue these ideas and really get to work on them, and the other half I'm simply too lazy for said pursuits.

Basically I'm shitty at being consistent, even with myself.

(Be warned, ye who enter here, for thar be a horrible beast known to some as a "wall 'o text" lurking behind this here jump, possessed by the wretched musings and whining of the one known as "The Grand Warlock of the Intertubes" "the author,")

Degradation and prose aside, I have actually been up to a few things in my time of not writing, believe it or not. Though this really stretches back to as far as the beginning of the semester, I've been continuing to expand my musical interest and picked up a few CDs. The first is both noteworthy and simply not worth talking about, which is a Rolling Stones singles anthology. The stuff is awesome, which is already known, and as such it's simply not worth expounding on. They already stand astride the world, sitting upon their marbled and gilded throne of success. There is simply no use in trying to say anything about their work, and so I won't.

I'm going out of order on stuff I've gotten but I'm instead going by order of likelihood that you've actually heard of the band. So even though I didn't get the Stones CDs until a little after a few other mentioned CDs, they're already so thoroughly ingrained in music that I don't need to talk about them.

Probably one of the bands I've been enjoying the most out of all the music I've gotten lately is Gorillaz. Even their existence as a "band" is interesting, because truthfully Gorillaz is only a couple people with a handful of people working in collaboration. They currently have two albums out, the self-titled album Gorillaz and Demon Days, as well as a couple B-Sides albums. Gorillaz is particularly interesting and enjoyable because they don't have any particular "genre" of music they're dedicated to. They have songs rooted in hip hop, punk, all kinds of alternative, and shades of pretty much everything else. Each of the animated band members are very realized as well; Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett (co-creators of the virtual band) didn't halfass anything when it came to creating these individual personas. They even have a band biography in which the "story" of the band is woven together seemingly out of the nether, and the fact that the band itself is fictional makes this piece of fiction under the facade of a biography seem entirely alright and suitable. Everything about this band is just plain interesting.

I've also picked up a CD from the band The Airborne Toxic Event and the Welsh band the Super Furry Animals. I'll talk about these later, as I'm already bored of talking about music, and the two of those could probably warrant their own piece later anyways, or at least a joint post involving those and some new game or whatever I may have latched onto by then.

No, instead of writing about those, I am instead going to turn to you, the reader, in order for some feedback, and sort of come full circle with the start of the post.

At this point I've come to terms with the fact that probably no one actually reads these pots on the blog itself, with the majority of my readership instead coming from the Facebook notes that are posted in accordance with my RSS feed. I don't really care about that, so much as the fact that these posts are actually read. I've said before that this blog is supposed to basically be a journal for myself in that I'll write about whatever I damn well please, but obviously that can never truly be the case if I'm to maintain a readership of any kind.

I am also quite pleased with my own writing style; I'm sure there are many things about it I could tweak so it could actually be considered proper writing and not some drivel out of some college freshman's mouth (hands?), but overall I feel like I get my point across and that the way I write truly contains my "voice," that I write in a method that is humorous enough to be enjoyable to read, sophisticated enough to stroke my word-enjoying ego, and simple enough that any plebeian can read it and understand what I'm trying to say (see what I did thar?)

Because of the way I write, I feel like I could make a discussion about most anything at least worth a look at, though not necessarily high-class in any way. I'd find a way to carry it, and make it interesting for myself along the way. Whether or not the audience decides it was at all a good read wouldn't matter to me while I wrote it because in the end I want to enjoy writing my posts, or at least not have it feel like work. If I'm writing about spaghetti you can be damn sure I'm going to be writing about how there could be tiny universes hidden among the molecules within the meat sauce instead of it's origins or how to properly serve it.

However, I won't do that, simply because I don't feel like it. I don't want to write about that, so I won't.

This is the part where I turn to you, my audience, and ask "What the hell man?" But seriously, I want to hear from you. I want to know what you think about what I write about, the good, the bad, what I've written that you've enjoyed, what I've written that you haven't enjoyed, what you'd like to hear about from me, questions, comments, all that kind of thing! I want to truly hear from you. I want guidance, or at least some friendly advice.

And to those on Facebook that will ultimately read this and decide to make a comment at the bottom, when I say advice, I mean real advice. Like something that I'd actually give a fuck about. I may act out and be noisy and an attention whore and all of that when I'm dicking around with friends, but when I'm in a real conversation with real comments, if I have nothing to constructive or actually helpful to contribute to the conversation, I quite simply don't. I request that you keep that in mind before you comment.

Before I end this post, I'd like to make a disclaimer. Chances are tomorrow I'll reread this post and think to myself "What was I on while I was writing this? I whined way too much in all parts but the tiny little middle part." I even know this right now while I'm writing it! But I plan on posting this anyways, and I want you to comment in the context of the post and not the particular mood I may or may not be in in the future.

Goddamn that was way too long an ending. Note to self, try to be a bit more concise on thought processes and inner monologues from now on.

(The Awakening of) Fort Champion

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 03:00:00 +0000

Anyone that knows me and has stayed up to any particularly late hour of the night knows I go through a few phases as the morning creeps ever so slowly closer towards the unconscious world. I have a cynical phase, a barely awake phase, and then right between the hours of three and five past midnight I become really really goofy. It was during such a time that a grand idea emerged, a plan for a visionary new developmental project that would shock the whole world to it's very core, only with no negative repercussions on the actual earth's core so we don't have to go and make another shitty movie like The Core. No....no, this, this would be better than all that. This would be a modern marvel of engineering and architecture and would most likely get it's own episode on the History Channel show Modern Marvels.

We would build a fort.
Funny enough though totally par for the course when it comes to me, the idea for this fort stemmed from me basically acting like a total fucktard with my sweatshirt. From there a masterpiece was born. I hadn't built an actual fort in ages, but skills like that never get rusty. Every person who has ever truly been a child always remembers that the floor could in fact be lava at any moment and exactly how to build a fort using anything and everything available in the room.

I happened to be staying over a friend's house that night and upon realizing what my fucktardery had inspired we both set to work immediately. We pillaged chairs, pillows, blankets, everything and anything that could have been used to reinforce ourselves in some manner from the unseen enemies lurking at every corner, able to fell everything that isn't made out of sheets and furniture. We toiled endlessly, making it more and more elaborate over the course of about an hour and a half. In the end we had an absolute masterpiece.

The whole living room area had sheets draped across it, save for one area designated as a court yard nearest to Pete's section. My area was split into the upper ramparts and the lower formation grounds, barricaded off through indestructible pillows and a few of the computer chairs. Access was nigh on impossible for an intruder, as they would have to pass through the entirety of the fort's inner walkway and then cross around the back underneath another flap. I ended up passing out on the ramparts, standing vigilant against the foes of my own personal nation of win.

Of course, there was one being that could somehow penetrate our walls, despite my every effort...Omen, Pete's doom cat. I swear that thing will be the death of us all.

A Kingdom for Kieflings

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 02:00:00 +0000

I've been playing a lot of Magic lately, and have only recently gotten back into the swing of things in WoW, so naturally my gaming schedule was starting to get pretty limited what with the whole being in college business. Then I have a little conversation with a friend of mine about getting a game called A Kingdom for Keflings, some sort of Xbox Live Arcade game or something. He told me that the game was absolutely astounding, equivalent to reaching the highest echelons of Valhalla and drinking the finest ambrosia mead out of the skulls of your fallen enemies. Well, not really, but he did say it was so good I probably wouldn't even have time to play Magic anymore because I was too busy playing this game. I have never had any form of mead and I figure something that is supposedly the drink of the gods would be enough to convince anyone.

I decided to make the purchase and quickly hopped onto Xbox Live to do so. After much confusion and many attempts to figure out exactly how to get things set up (why oh why do I always forget to bring my Xbox headset from home!), I had the game downloaded and ready to play. At least, if I knew what the hell I was doing.

The basic premise of the game is to make a "kingdom" for your "keflings." Keflings are essentially tiny people that you control by picking them up and putting them down in places. Want that kefling to mine ore? Throw the guy at some rocks and he'll get to work. Unlike most RTS games though your keflings are pretty stupid. If you tell him to mine, oh he'll mine alright, but he will simply drop all the rocks he heaves from the earth onto the ground immediately next to him, becoming not so much a mining operation but something more akin to digging a whole to China, except for the fact that that is impossible in any realm of reality and that the ground doesn't actually get dug into goddamn you. You actually have to throw the guys at the resource and then the building before they choose to actually think about what the hell they're doing. And this is the easy part!

As soon as the game get's going things quickly spiral into ridiculousness. You use the resources to build more buildings, which allow you to make more buildings, which allow you to use more resources, which allows you to make more buildings, which allows you to make your keflings into educators and guild members which allows further use of more buildings and so on and so forth seemingly into infinity. You toil endlessly on progression progression progression, and strangely enough you have a damn fun time along the way. Somewhere between two to three hours passed while me and my bud played this game and never once did I question exactly how long we played....until! (cue dramatic music)

The important thing to remember here is that me and my friend are both big fancy college kids and whatnot, going down to the quad and popping our collars and calling each other brosky and wearing our foam visors and whatnot. College internet, for lack of a more eloquent way to put it, blows. The connection is mostly iffy to begin with, but at certain prime hours your connection goes from about three to four "bars" to "oh my god what have you done to me." By this point the time was about half past say-goodbye-to-your-internet-suckers and my friend promptly got disconnected. This had happened once before to him, so we were like "No worries, I'll just reinvite you to the game." I try to do this, and then as sudden as most onomatopoeia tend to sneak up on you I too was disconnected. The camera of my life did that distorted zoom in on my face, the creepy and frantic music played, and I screamed to the heavens as the kingdom we had slaved over for hours was cast into the dark maw of oblivion, returning to the ether stream from which it was borne.

The moral of the story here is always remember to save your game kids!

Why I Can't Update the Blog Regularly, or I Can Summarize My Thoughts in a Single Facebook Update

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 22:00:00 +0000

So. I really like writing for my blog, I really do. It's sort of like a journal that I never kept, only I'm older and can speak (type?) a bit more eloquently and I would have more to write about than my favorite Pokemon card (probably either my holographic Charizard or that Japanese Arcanine my older brother gave me) or all the different spells of Harry Potter, not that I wouldn't write about those either here, mind you.

The only real problem here is that, while I have a ton of ideas for things to write about, most of it I can sum up by updating my Facebook status. It might just be because I've grown accustomed to using status updates more and more like what Twitter is used for, though I still refuse to get a Twitter. No matter the cause, though, I've found myself attempting to write a post for about a half hour only to realize I could more appropriately convey my thoughts and opinions on said topic in about a sentence or two on Facebook.

Whoa man. Jump break button? Really? That's BADASS. Before I had to go to all this ridiculous extra formatting to make that work on the other blog, but now they're just handing me a button to do it. Awesome.

Also, if everything works as I want them to, you should be seeing this post at exactly 6 PM today, despite the fact I'm currently writing this at 5:21. Scheduled posting? Sweetness. If only I had enough topics to write about in a single day, I'd write like 6 different posts all at once and space 'em out during the day for your reading pleasure. Hot damn.

Anyways, my point is that in a world where we're always taught to summarize, simplify, and outline, I sometimes feel like I've lost my ability to rant about things and not feel like I'm running the topic against the wall over and over. Ironically enough I'm finding it relatively easy to rant about not being able to rant.

So before I end this post, I'd like to extend an open invitation to you, the reader, to present any topic to me you feel like you'd enjoy hearing me rant about. Go ahead and throw me any sort of topic, be it something simple that I could write about like kittens or something or even a crazy curveball like topiaries. Go ahead! Let your mind wander, but then catch it on the side of the street and be all like "Hey Mind, what's up? I hear you're into the wandering biz now, you oughta go check out this guy I know over there, have a jam sesh with him and just sorta let it all out and share your ideas and stuff, man," only in a way that doesn't imply you're on pretty much all of the drugs.

Also, the picture I used? Totally irrelevant to anything, I just sorta thought it was funny to see a bagel labeled as having "everything." Until I see that said bagel has a Busch Gardens and a moai head statue then I refuse to believe it has everything.

I Love Taking All of the Naps

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 16:50:00 +0000

There's nothing quite like a nice long nap that makes you feel soo good (and in the case of anyone with medium to long hair, mess it up soo bad). Being a college student now, I'm beginning to attempt to master the art of napping at available times. Today I had my first class at 8 A.M, which all things considered really shouldn't be too bad. Many working adults have to wake up earlier, and I had to wake up waaaay earlier to get to high school on time. And yet, there's something about waking up at 8 that's truly devastating. The fact that I regularly stay up until 12 or 1 and that my other day in my two day rotation of classes doesn't start until noon probably doesn't help either.

I barely managed to stay awake in class, but that's completely alright because I know most of the stuff we were discussing today anyways. I came back to my room, opened the window to let some air in, dropped my stuff and jumped on the bed and never looked back. Here I am a bit more than two hours later, feeling awesome, and having another hour before I have to head to class.

Glorious.

(Also, I promise I'm not trying to have a naming scheme or anything, these things just keep popping into my head like that)

All of the Origins

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 22:14:00 +0000

For my first post I think I'll do a little bit of explaining, namely the title of the blog. If any of you are still following me at this point, you may be wondering "What exactly does 'All of the Blog' mean? 'Cos I'm pretty sure you can't have only 'some' of a blog. That'd just be silly." Now I know none of you are actually thinking that, but if you were, that'd be freaking awesome! That would either make me a mind reader, or a person that can instill thoughts into your brain ala Broseph Stalin or something. Either way! I am now here to explain this mystery to you!

As best I can remember the first instance of the "all of the" happenings was this year around March, during the Massachusetts High School Drama Guild Festival. Our school, Westford Acadamy (which is a PUBLIC school, by the way), was hosting this particular round, meaning it could have been prelims or semis, I really don't know. I was being a goofball in general and was having people write on my arm in sharpie, which is usually not a good idea, but I thought it was fantastic anyways. I told one of my friends to draw and or write something awesome, but she was distraught and didn't know what to do, so naturally I had to come up with something. In the end I told her to draw one of our other friends, one such dubious character known only as "Craig," taking ALL of the naps.

And so she did.

From there on in it was and shall forever remain a rolling joke, the "all of the jokes" joke. Whenever you have to go do something, or go drink something, or go win something, bear in mind that forever you won't simply be doing SOME of the stuff or drinking SOME of the drink or even winning SOME of the game, but instead ALL of it.

Now go forth readers, and make ALL of the jokes!

ED: After consulting with THE Craig from the sacred "all of the jokes" origin story, I was actually completely wrong! Go figure. The actual "all of the jokes" joke started about a month prior to the story I told, in New York City, on a bus. A parent commented on how she had way more trash bags than could be imagined, to which Craig replied "I dunno, I can imagine a LOT of trash bags." Being the person that I am, I naturally had to butt in with the comment "ALL the trashbags," after which I assume many "all of the jokes" jokes were made. So in truth the origin story I originally wrote was in fact simply one of the first spreadings of the "all of the jokes" joke. Carry on!

Here We Make All of the Posts

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 21:14:00 +0000

Hello everyone, and welcome to All of the Blog! Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Joe Alden, and I'm a freshman at Keene State College and I plan to major in Tech Theatre. I managed to net a scholarship for it (and now that I mention it I totally forgot to bring my portfolio back from home to show the tech director) so I guess I'm pretty good at it! I'm you're pretty average geek and or nerd or what have you; I enjoy video games, play some Magic when I get the chance, make stupid internet meme jokes, and so on. I enjoy all sorts of music, love the outdoors, and I like to play frisbee a lot. Most people (and usually animals too) seem to like me instinctively, but I absolutely hate people. Not like people I know or chances are anyone that would actually read this, but people. You know who I'm talking about. But that's more about me that you never cared to hear, so let's move on!

All of the Blog is the successor to my previous blog, The Edge of Insanity. I was absolutely lousy at updating that blog since I never really found time to make any posts, and I never had an interesting enough life to post about. But then I thought "Wait a second, I'm a college kid now!" and foolishly went along and made this travesty. Here's to hoping this one sucks a bit less!

Like my last blog, All of the Blog is about pretty much anything I want to post about. It is purely for my entertainment, and if anyone else should find some amusement in reading this, well props to them. Because it is for me and me exclusively (but open to the gaping maw that is the internet) it won't be updated at all periodically, but instead, *gasp* sporadically! I'll post anything I damn well please, but you're welcome to comment on it all and tell me how much I suck and that I should stop writing. It won't work of course but I'll be glad to hear from you regardless!

And so here we go, onward to great, or maybe even terrible, horrible, things! Welcome to both you and I to All of the Blog, and don't let the door hit you on the way out!