Real Simple Syndication (6/90)

I started using Google Reader a couple of weeks ago and it has greatly reduced the amount of time I spend on the internet. Well, only by a little, but that's because I'm an internet addict. The day my dad cancelled our internet service at home, I hacked someone else's line. The connection wasn't as good, but it kept me sane for a couple of days until our new internet service came into place.

What is Google Reader?

Oh goddess! You gotta be kidding me. You don't know what Google Reader is!? You poor person. How can you live with yourself? I'm sorry (pat pat). Not! Actually, I just learned about it too. So you know, we can be n00bs together. Google Reader is the new way of browsing the internet. Just like how blogs are the 2.o of the internet, RSS (Real Simple Syndication) readers are the 2.0 in internet browsing.

Using RSS readers real easy. You just go to any website and click the little (sometimes huge) icon that looks like this. Then you copy the link to your RSS feed. Whoa. Am I going a little too fast? I guess I am. First you have to go create an account. I use Google Reader. Go here to get your account. It's the best thing ever, I promise.

After you create your account (and log in, of course), you can collect feeds (as shown above) or can search for stuff using the add subscription button. It's real easy and you'll get used to it in no time. Oh, I almost forgot. You can also categorize your feeds and create folders to make things a little simpler and cleaner.

Here's a video explaining the use of RSS readers (I can't possibly explain it the way he does).

Street Fighter D10 and inflatable houses (5/90)

FUCK YES! I went inside one of those inflatable jumping houses. (And I'm glad it wasn't a pikachu)

I was hoping to write about our amazing Street Fighter session today, but alas, we didn't have one. Street Fighter is an RPG table top game (like D&D, but with ten-sided-dice.) that my friends James, Eric, and I play once a week. James is the guy who runs it and he's not really reliable, apparently. It seems like he cancels our sessions way too many times mostly due to the fact that he's too lazy or that he has a minor cold. Eric and I don't really complain anyways. It's always best to play when the guy running it is in his best condition.

I was going to mention the story, but I just remembered that we're supposed to write in a separate blog about it. The least I can do is to introduce the characters, I guess. First of, we have Eric's character whose name is Eddy. Eddy is a former famous TV star in a show called "Eddy Kicks Everyone." And he basically did just that. Heck, the only reason he's a Street Fighter is so that it can look good in his resume. Eddy's martial arts style is Wu Shu. Some of his special moves include (but are not limited to) walljumping, roundhouse kicking, using his gun, and almost anything involving him having to kick things.

Then we have my character. His name is Anthony Hiker (XD I stole that from pokemon). Anthony (or Ant) is an animal hybrid with body parts of a crocodile (right arm), a bear (head, body, left arm), and a tiger (legs). Ant became a Street Fighter because he is unable to get a job, due to him being an animal hybrid. He used to be a pokemon trainer in Japan, but after a horrible incident, he left Japan in order to live in Brazil, away from civilization. His martial arts style of Ant is Kung Fu. Some of his special attacks are: Kung Chi healing, Tail Slash, Throwing, and Kneeing terrorists in the face.

If you want to know more about our Street Fighter sessions and characters, I suggest going to our Street Fighter blog. Coming SOON!

I hope...

My name tag at work was "I'm just some random DUDE" (4/90)

Whoa. I was working at Woodworth and I had a weird conversation with a chinese student by the name of Yongxi Xue. Initially, we started talking about our usual topic: video games (Goddess, I miss playing video games. Too bad I haven't the time). For some reason, that topic didn't seem to last very long. "What? No more new video games?" "Uh....." Well, anyways, we continued our normal routine at Dellacasa on a Friday afternoon: make pizzas. After a while, I heard one of the lesser coworkers (sorry guy, but you don't get special mentions here.) started talking about how good deer meat was.

[WARNING! THE FOLLOWING PARAGRAPH MAY LEAVE YOU SICK TO YOUR STOMACH]

I turned to Yongxi. "Dude, have you ever tried deer meat?" "No," he said, "but I have tried donkey meat. It tastes kinda like beef, but sweeter." O_o is as close as I can describe the expression I made. Yongxi continues, "Yeah, I've had monkey too. You'd be surprised what they cook in China. Scorpions, snakes, dogs, rats..." (I know he said more, but I forgot.) "Wow," I said, "that's kinda awesome. In america, people only seem to eat beef and chicken. That's pretty boring. In Mexico, people eat what they call cabeza and lengua, which literally means head and tongue. (Yes. Mexicans eat the heads of cows and their tongues as well.) I don't particularly like them, but it's pretty popular down there. " Yongxi's response, :O Whoa. That's weird. In China, some people eat the eyes of pigs and fish eggs. Yeah, asians eat a huge variety of things. In Japan, they eat almost all sea creatures." And our conversation went on and on......

So uh, on a completely unrelated note, Leslie told Liz that I crossdressed while I was in Japan. I figure I might as well tell you too. It can't possibly get any worse. Seriously, it can't. Liz has been trying to get me to crossdress for a very long time. She mentions it almost every time I see her. Yesterday, she called me the 'lil puppy of the group.' FUUUUUUUUUCK. DDDDDDDDDDD:

I hope you're reading this Yogurt. You must know how much this bothers me. You know I don't have to be nice all the time. I can be mean. I can ruin people. Just watch me.

Cereal kept me alive all day :D (3/90)

I only got 3 hours of sleep.... AGAIN! I seriously don't know what's wrong with me this week. My body hasn't been functioning well at all. I haven't been able to think clearly as of late and haven't gotten much done this week. I've decided to do the blog a little earlier this time so that I can at least try to get a decent amount of sleep for tomorrow....

Today wasn't that bad. I was actually more productive than yesterday, but I'm still wayyy behind schedule (Yes. I actually keep a schedule. It's the only way I know when shit's due and when to start preparing for it.). I still haven't finished the report for my Social Media class (the one I mentioned on the first post) and I only got halfway done with my powerpoint for the presentation I'm supposed to do next week.

Today's Thursday, right? Good. I think I remember what went on today. Let's see.....

Today is the day that we had our dialogue check in my Japanese class. I was somewhat nervous because I wasn't sure I would be able to recite my lines, but I did ok.... well... I did great. Ishiyama, aka 'rock mountain' (that's seriously what his name means XD), made it so easy for us. We went through the dialogue slowly three times before the class had to present. By then, the whole thing was stuck in my head clearly. After the dialogue, we proceeded to a listening comprehension in our textbook. The last two lines of the listening comprehension made me laugh so hard.

A: Arigatoo!

B: No.

That was totally random. I cannot explain the intensity of how funny I thought that was. What was also really funny was that Ishiyama, aka 'rock mountain,' didn't really explain it. He was like "Uh.... yeah. Moving on."

After my Japanese class, I had to do the lil' old routine at Woodworth. I was working with Liz (Yogurt), the VP of anime club and she told me what she had planned out for the anime showing next Tuesday. I'm not gonna spoil anything, but I am going to say that something totally awesome is happening that night. Muahahaha! I can't wait to see the look on people's faces on Tuesday. :3

After work, I had to go to my computer science class. I swear, that class is so easy, it kinda makes me wonder why I decided to take it. I spent the whole class period listening to music while watching the professor move his lips and do odd gestures. We had to do an in-class-pay-attention-to-my-lecture type quiz and I knew most of the answers anyways (that's why I didn't bother paying attention). After class, I just walked up to him and asked him what the last answer was and he gave it to me.

During the 4 hours I had to myself after my classes (There was a comic book club meeting at 8), I spent most of it looking up lego sets online and bidding on legos on ebay (I'm such a nerd DX). Did you know that lego.com let's you download software that let's you build lego models via your computer? Well now you know. And knowing is.... yeah, you get it, but what's even more awesome is that you can send your work to the lego company and they can make a physical copy of your work and send it to you! Tell me that's not awesome! Come on. Say it with a straight face... I thought so.

So Comic Book club. It's an awesome club that nobody goes to, but me obviously. Me and 4 other people (who are real comic book geeks. I'm just a geek in training.). It always feels so awesome to hang out with people with such random knowledge about things that don't even matter in life. I especially like how the club gets together and trade comic books for 30 minutes. I can only imagine some random person walking in in the middle of this and having this what-the-fuck-is-going-on-here kind of look.

Oh! I almost forgot to say. We watched Mystery Men. AHA. AHAHA! XDDDDDDDDDDDDD

That movie was so horrible! Kel from Keenan and Kel was in that movie. Ben Stiller was a superhero. And apparently, being invisible only when people look away is a superpower.

.... Heh, today I found out that I have two more friends dating asians. What does that make now? 6? 7?

Freezepop and Video Blogging (2/90)

I am a robot. Robotron. Robotron 2002....

I listened to Freezepop's album called Fashion Impression Function today. I must say, I was really impressed with this album. My three favorite songs on the album were Manipulate, Starlight, and the remix for Science Genius Girl (this song reminded me of 8-bit music). The quality was amazing and each song stood out so well. This album had what you would expect from a techno CD. Catchy rhythms, syntho-like pop voice overs, and a good driving beat. I was kind of displeased that almost half of the songs in the album were remixes, though. But they were good remixes. I could even say that I preferred them over the originals, but I'm not sure. I'll have to double check. Overall, I would probably give this album a 7/10.

So.... about today. I went to the library in an attempt that I would actually feel more compelled to get some research done. I managed to read articles about video blogging which apparently is starting to turn into an 'internet fad.' It is starting to become the alternative to television programming as it is way cheaper to produce. What's more, is that people are more engaged in conversations because of these video blogs. I've recently subscribed to a couple of video bloggers out there and it's just amazing how they convey messages in a very entertaining way. It's like a "I can't believe I'm actually learning something" kinda feeling.

So far, here's some links to some of my favorite video blogs and bloggers:

Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog - Act 1 part 1

Wong Fu Production - Good Hygiene Gets Girls

That Guy With the Glasses - Check out the website. It's full of awesome stuff.

Meekakitty - Get Down

Why was I looking at these videos? Well, for my Intro to Social Media class, we are supposed to create a website where we start a conversation based on what interests us. Since we are using a software called Wordpress (which is similar to a blog website), I feel that it is necessary to do a few video entries to get my message across to other people so that I can start conversing with them. So far, I'm really excited to see where I will get with my website, but I know it'll be a lot of work. And with that said, I do hope that you (YES. YOU! THE READER!) will get involved with my website when it goes "online."

First Post! (1/90)

So it's ten minutes before midnight and I have to write a paper for my social media class. Fun fun, huh? Well, it's technically not due tomorrow, but I want to finish it sometime in the next day or two....

Ok. Introductions. My name is Abraham Falcon and this is the first post of what some call "the writer's challenge." Basically, that is where you have to make 90 blog entries in 90 days. If you miss a day, you have to start over. I'm mostly doing this to improve my writing skills (which really do need improvement).

Today was one of those days that got better as the day went on, I guess. I really had trouble waking up at 8 o'clock in the morning due to the fact that I only got 3 hours of sleep (college life =/= high school). Here's the order of my first 1 minute of consciousness:

1. Jump off my bed.

2. The pants. They went on.

3. The jacket. Armor get.

4. The backpack. Over my shoulders and on my back.

5. It's go time! Off to my Japanese class.

I got there just in time. Ishiyama (my japanese professor. more details about him later) started the class the second I sat down in my seat. I won't bore you about what happened in class, so let's get on to the part where I start my (almost) daily shifts at woodworth (Woodworth is an all girls dormitory. It has a dining hall where I work at.).

I have to admit, work is pretty boring most of the time. This was one of those times. I was catching myself drift from time to time. So, in order to keep myself from falling asleep, I started to flirt with some of the costumers (heh, all girls dorm). Don't worry, I make sure not to offend people XD

So after a while, Stella comes in. Stella is one of the full time employees at Woodworth and always works at the Italian section of the dining hall called Dellacasa. Remember these terms guys.

Woodworth - all girls dorm. Has one of the best dining halls on campus.

Dellacasa - The place in Woodworth that serves spaghetti, lasagna, pizza, and pasta.

Stella - She is a full time employee that works in Dellacasa.

Got it? Good, I'll be using these alot.

Ok, so Stella comes in and says "Abraham, why aren't you making pizzas?" I turn to her and say "I don't know, I'm lazy?" (Fun time with the customers goes bye bye D:) Stella is always telling me to make pizzas. I really don't mind actually. I'm the only one she really trusts when making pizzas. Not because everyone else can't use the oven, but because she thinks I make the best pizzas. She always compliments me on my pizzas saying they look nice or they look delicious. It's kind of embarrassing..

Shift ends at 12:30pm.......... Skipping all the way to about 8:30pm. Seriously, nothing interesting happened in between that gap. (Boring lecture, consumption of vegetables, the washing of dishes, internet research, etc.)

I was in the library talking to Jim about our plans to go to Ihop since it was free pancake day. He told me to call Sam so that I could get a ride as she had stated the previous day that she would drive me there. Well, it turns out that Sam had already eaten and wasn't hungry. She was still willing to drive me but I figured that it was pointless for her to drive me if she wasn't going to stick around so I called Jim (That bastard was in the restroom at the time so I had to try three times). I asked him if his gf would take me with them instead.

Meanwhile..... at Ihop.

It was packed. There were no parking spaces available. Luckily, there was a Super 8 nearby that did have parking spaces available. There were no complaints about the walk to the Ihop, but we did have to climb a hill of snow (which left my socks wet later).

So we walk into Ihop and "NASTY DANCER!" Yes, this is college. People like that are common here (that was an actual name someone used for their waiting group at Ihop). Not gonna lie, but waiting to be seated was the best part about being at Ihop that day. There were so many people I recognized, that I had to keep turning and going like "Hey. What's up?" "Dude, how's it going?" "Holy shit, I know you!"

Once we got seated, everyone got real quiet. It's like we had this secret mindset of having a formal dinner. The pancakes were awesome by the way. AND FREE! Yeppers. I think we all left on a happy, full stomach.

On the way back, we listened to Linkin Park, which used to be one of my favorite bands. To be honest, I kind of 'outgrew' them just like a lot of other bands I used to listen to in high school. I guess it's just part of moving on to better, more mature stuff.

So now the time is a little after after 11pm. I will begin this blog in 45 minutes.