Disorientated, but still in action (66/90)

Heh, I'm surprised how busy I am even when I haven't had any homework this past day or so. I've gotten so far behind in my personal list of things to get done that I have started to stress out over it. Immediately after I came home from work, I fired up Google Reader and looked through about 1000 pages before getting bored. After that, I listened to music through my headphones (Apparently, music bothers Shaun when he's watching Cartoon Network XD) while building the Lego Star Wars set I bought yesterday. Then I proceeded to watching the Nostalgia critic as I have not had a chance these past couple of weeks... 

Oh yeah, I've recently subscribed to The Brick Show which is a blog where a guy reviews new and upcoming Lego sets. His way of reviewing sets begins with him comparing the price of the Lego set with the number of pieces the set comes with. AFOL (Adult Fans of Lego) usually look at the piece to price ratio to justify if they are putting their money into each Lego set wisely. Also, AFOLs look for unique pieces when buying their Lego. I know, it's weird thinking about that, but apparently there is a whole community of people over the age of ...let's say 20... that like to buy sets just so that they can get more pieces for their grand projects. So yeah, back to talking about The Brick Show. The guy goes into detail about the intended use of the Lego set and talks about each minifigure. The reviews end with three overall ratings of the set according to three different age groups: young kids, older kids, and adults. 

On a side note, I think I've been a little less responsive these past two days. I think this is due to the past weeks where I got 4-5 hours of sleep daily (maybe it was 3-4). I seemed to keep a good streak going, but now, my body and mind have worn out. But I'll recover. I have this weekend plus Monday.  O-o Wait, I take that back. I have Sunday and Monday to rest. Fridays and Saturdays are always hectic. 

Happy Free Time (65/90)

Wow, I have not had a day as relaxed as this one in such a long time. All of the burden from my seemingly never ending homework is now gone. I can now focus on the simple things in life. Like going to Wal-mart to buy food that's supposed to last me until the end of the semester. :)

Today started out pretty crappy, actually. I woke up at 9am, but could not bring myself to get out of bed because my room was soo cold. I even missed my 10am class just because I couldn't bring my dead beat self to challenge the cold. Eventually, I managed to get out, put clothes on, and leave for my 11am class.

That stupid AC.

The rest of the day was pretty awesome though. Besides being tired from the day before, I managed to do what I consider my carefree activities. When I came home from my single class (damnit), I decided to do a small update to my website (fully functional now). I also decided to mess around with some Lego bricks before realizing that Toys R Us is having a sale this week. That's when I started talking to Lou and then asked him if he wanted to tag along. He was willing so I asked Eric if he could give us a ride.

At Toys R Us, Lou and I went straight to the Lego section. We had such a hard time deciding which sets we wanted to buy and how much we should spend (because we're poor college kids). After much debate, we made our decision and walked around aimlessly around Toys R Us holding our boxes containing our Lego sets (dorks). We met this guy who, for some odd reason, was really into collecting Nerf Guns. He did not specify why he wanted a Nerf Gun so badly other than he just wanted to shoot people. Lou and I asked him if he played HvZ (Humans versus Zombie, bitches) but he declined. Instead, he told us what would seem like an awful representation of a Human/Zombie taking all enemy zerg.

After that small fiasco, we (I mean I) payed for the Lego sets and walked down to Wal-mart. I was in dire need of food and did not have anything to drink in my fridge. I also bought food for the "End of the Year BBQ." I hope the people like the food when they come out to eat on Friday. I spent $40.73 on the peoples.

Eric came (once again) to pick us up. He had to go to a counseling meeting (don't ask) to take a personality/IQ test so he couldn't be there with Lou and me to Toys R Us and Wal-mart. But whatever...

At 6:30pm, my friends and I had a meeting that involved us clearing up a certain debate we've been having about housing during the summer. To my surprise, the meeting was really short so we mostly socialized with one another :D An hour later, I attended the last official meeting of Club Japan. The meeting was also brief and someone put up a PowerPoint that highlighted a few activities Club Japan did over our two-semester-long timespan as an organization.

When Club Japan ended, I immediately left towards home. On the way, I saw a couple of people (whom I'm not too familiar yet) playing soccer in front of the Village Green. I waved Hi to them and they asked me if I would join them. I did. We had a couple of laughs and had fun playing around for a bit. One of them asked me if I wanted to go see his band practice for a bit. I totally accepted and he took me down to the basement of the VGR to hang out for a bit while the band attempted to remember how the parts of the songs went. I think the band was trying to teach their new guitarist how each part of the song went. I gotta say, it was pretty cool, but I had to leave early so I would attempt to get some more stuff done tonight (like this post).

Oh geez. This blog is becoming a narrative again...

Success!! part 2 (64/90)

Alright. So, I'm starting this post where I left off in the previous post as I did not want the post to be too long. Plus, I thought I wouldn't have anything to write today anyways. Turns out, this was true.

I set up the forum on my website and then had to leave Evie because she was tired and I had to go to another meeting at the student center. Before I left, I realized I was hungry so I decided to grab pizza on my way out from Woodworth. I got some Hawaiian pizza which turned out to be way better than I expected. Awesome!

My next destination was the Fashion Show rehearsal which started at 4pm so I was a little late. Not that it mattered. Nobody had made any progress except setting up the stage. I was really impressed with how the stage was set up. City lights, buildings, christmas lights? Oh yeah!

[After an hour of hanging out with some people later]
Oh no. Dress rehearsal. This is the part where we actually walked with the outfits we put together before the show starts! Whatever shall we do about this horrifying nightmare? Damn, you could totally tell I was faking, didn't you. This was the part of the night where I swear to you that I wore what felt like the most comfortable clothes ever. Thanks to Mo. He let me borrow a sweater for an outfit I put together. After wearing that sweater, I'm definitely considering in getting my share of the same type of sweater. In another hour, the Fashion show starts..

And now, the time has come to test our hard work. We have been meeting weekly since the semester started trying to get this show put together. This last week, we met 4 times because we felt a little crunched in the amount of time we had to prepare for this show. To be honest, most of the final touches were done at the last minute. We had so many people stressing out even right before the show. (Did we get the lights right? Do we have all of the outfits? Is everyone here? Will we be able to keep the show running long enough?) But in the end, the show was a huge success! So many people applauded. We got so much praise. We all felt so awesome!

My little thoughts of walking on stage:
I was so concerned with my facial expression throughout the whole thing. Chris had told me not make any weird expressions (which I always seem to do). He told me to look a little annoyed and to squint my eyes a little. When I walked on stage, I felt really uncomfortable because I was told to stand at the very front of the stage for 2-3 seconds while all of these people took pictures of me. Every time I walked, I kept thinking that I turned too fast because people were still taking pictures while I was walking away from them. Another thing that made me really uncomfortable. I walked multiple times so after the first time, I kept seeing the same people look at me. Each time, it became harder and harder to not make eye contact with the audience. Oh well, I'm sure the audience enjoyed seeing the same person multiple times (XD Sam). I'm sure seeing people they recognized kept their attention.

Success! (63/90)

This week has started out great so far. Sure, I may have overslept and almost missed my Japanese oral proficiency exam (I was pretty scared about that). But there was too much greatness in the air to say that today was "just good."

I am pretty confident I got a good score on the Japanese oral proficiency exam. I hesitated on a few sentences, but I think my speech was very clear and I used the right particles in the right places. Nothing I said came off as sounding awkward to Ishiyama (I won't do it this time) so I'll just take that as an indicator that I did well.

After the oral exam, I headed into the Atrium as I wanted to finish of the Pita I had gotten yesterday and didn't have enough time to eat before the oral exam. I sat with my Pita near the stairs for about two minutes when a couple of my friends from anime club came to say hi. We had a little conversation which lasted quite longer than I had expected as they said that they were waiting for someone. Feeling obligated to stay and keep them company, I stayed at the table for about 10 more minutes before finally deciding to head off to class. Turns out, I was late, but I didn't care. Intro to Art is so boring that if I had gotten to the class 10 minutes earlier, I may have slept towards the end of the class.

After Intro to Art, I had Social Media which is probably my most exciting class this semester. I don't know why, but I never feel the urge to fall asleep or take a nap in that class. Even if I hadn't slept for the last two days, Intro to Social Media class will keep me awake. After class was over, I headed to Woodworth with Ambria who was getting food to take back to her dorm. We talked a little bit and I told her a few secrets on how to get food cheaper by ordering things individually instead of in a package. All said while I was sipping on a clear cup that contained fruit punch and vault. Also, FYI, I got that drink for "free" if you know what I'm mean. After Ambria was done with her food, we both went our separate ways (She went to Park Hall. I went home).

When I got home, I decided that I was going to work on my website and get more content posted. I managed to create a horrible audio recording of my attempts to explain a few updates that I had done to the website over the last couple of days. After that, I created a video that consisted of a small tour around the Lego sets I had bought this semester. I kid you not, I probably spent around $200-$300 on Lego sets this semester. The video also showed how messy my room has been (to your amusement, I suppose).....

I went back to Woodworth a few hours later. I had to meet with someone who wanted to teach me how I could install a forum onto my website. After about an hour of trial and error with her method, we gave up. I think the problem was that the software was  incompatible with Wordpress. Wordpress just didn't have anything configured in its system to allow that so I ended up searching on google for a plugin that worked as a forum. And &*%(&^, I managed to find a plugin that worked...and that only took about 4 minutes to do.....

Can I say TO BE CONTINUED?

Until we win (62/90)

I want to recall a little event that occurred yesterday as I have realized that I forgot to mention it in the previous post. Lego Wars! The little event wasn't actually a war, I'd call it more of a social gathering.

I want to say, that I was kind of worried at first as I was not expecting the girls to be enthusiastic about the gathering. I didn't even tell them exactly what I planned to do with them. I just said something like "So.... tomorrow at uh... 7pm, you guys wanna hang out at my house?"

Sam had a little setback, but Marlee and Evie managed to be at our meeting place on time. I was a little late, though, as I wanted to eat beforehand so that my random hunger moments wouldn't disturb our play time. When I got there, we had a little conversation and blah blah blah (random laughter and all that stuff). Then we decided to finally go to my house, but to our luck, the rain came and poured hard. Marlee and Evie didn't have a problem as they both had sweaters, but me. Oh me. I only had a T-shirt (and shorts) on. Goddess dammit. Oh well, we made our way home and took that little bitch (rain) on like bad asses.

When we came to my house and into my room, their purpose became obvious as they saw all of the scattered Lego bricks on my bedroom floor. "So yeah, let's play with Lego!" I don't know why, but I think I came off as being a creeper as I immediately started up my ustream and set up my laptop to do some audio recording. To my dismay, the stupid thing didn't want to work. I kept fidgeting with the tool trying to get it to work, but failed in the end. So my plans of doing a podcast audio recording failed miserably. Phoooey.

All in all, we had fun playing with Lego. Sam came an hour late, but the group and I actually upheld a meaningful conversation just like I wanted to (too bad I couldn't record it). I really liked their creations. Even the two that were not finished (Don't give up guys). After our little attempts to create stuff out of Lego bricks, I realized that people do in fact have slightly different perceptions of this world. The images we create reflect the person we really are. Some of us do need a little more time to get this image out of our heads, but those ideas can be equally as good, if not better than others. You never know until you finish.

Talking dirty (61/90)

Watch it. You'll never see this coming. You'll never believe it. You'll never comprehend it. OH MY GODDESS!! It's coming!!! Are you ready!? AHH!!! I can't keep it bottled inside any longer!!! FFFFFFFF!!

It's just another blog post. Ha, you thought I was going to share some awesome, didn't you? Or maybe a deep dark secret.. No? You have already learned to expect nothing awesome from me? D'awwww. You're so sweet.

Okay, let me get down to business. Dirty dirty business. The type where you shouldn't bring your kids to. Or your wife. Or your grandma. Heck, you shouldn't be here either.

So, I was getting my haircut today and Jackie was kind enough to volunteer. Do you see where this is going? Well, yer wrong. Let me finish. Gah. Just thinking about it just sickens me. During the process of cutting my hair, she made this comment. She told me I was hairy. Given the context, you'd think this comment was appropriate. But I made the mistake of saying, "yeah, check out my chest hair" (I was getting a haircut and hair was all over me). Well, apparently, Jackie took this the wrong way (or a way that I did not intent her to take). She started talking about how she likes hairy guys and then said something about how she (liked?) her boyfriends hairy butt. Ewww... Oh wait, I think I just gagged or something. Yuck. So yeah, disgusting. Way to go Jackie. Way to keep this horrifying image of your boyfriend's monsterously bushy buttocks.

In any case, you should definitely check out this link http://is.gd/bH0pW
You'll thank me later ;)

Something you don't care about (60/90)

Alright. I thought I'd never get through this week. My head has been hurting all day. I should have probably gone to bed early today, but I couldn't help it. My brother was playing TF2 and I had things to discuss with someone.

So, I'm trying to get people to buy the Left 4 Dead 2 - four pack that's supposed to be on sale this weekend. You should too! It's only $60 for 4 copies of the game which comes out to $15 per game. Who wouldn't want that?

 Hmm.. oh yeah, if you read this and want to hang out tomorrow (Saturday) at my place, please give me a call at around 6pm. A little heads up tho, I don't have food. I haven't gotten around to buying groceries this week. But, I'll probably get something special if enough people show up.

I know some of these posts have been really short, but let's face it, I am in dire need of sleep. I've slept an average of 3-4 hours everyday this week. Naps included. So yeah. Sleep. I need as much as I can get right now.

Must. Sleep. (59/90)

Oh man, I've stayed up too late. I can feel my thoughts slowing down and becoming less concentrated. I'm debating whether or not I should skip my only class tomorrow considering that I haven't gotten enough sleep everyday this week. I still won't be able to meet the 6-8 ideal hours of sleep, but it's better than nothing. Or maybe I should get this paper done and sleep early tomorrow. I don't know, maybe I'll toss a coin or something....

What do you think the title for this post should be? (58/90)

Today was somewhat interesting. One of my classes had a very interesting conversation, a took a long needed nap, I got to see the awesomeness that was David Choi, and got a cool new T-shirt.

Okay, let me start off with the discussion from our Social Media class. I'm kinda blurry on the details considering that I'm horrible at remembering things and that I was really tired when I attended that class. We basically discussed about how media is affecting our culture and how the internet is allowing us to gain so much information that it may become too much for people to handle. The media has become such a big part of entertainment. What's happening is that people are starting to participate even more in the media to the point where you aren't aware who is an amateur and who is not. Fame through the internet can now be achieved because you are allowed to publicize your work online. Also, this participatory culture has led for more content to be published on the web which leads us to the problem of how are we going to find enough time to go through all of this data? How will we be able to tell what's real and what's fake?

And what is this upgrade to the internet going to do to our web browsing experience? I left class with more questions than answers, it seems.

Moving on to David Choi. David Choi is an Asian American musician and he happened to be part of AASA's (Asian American Student Association) week of events. David Choi came all the way from California to do this set so we were all excited. I really enjoyed his music. Not gonna go too much into detail. He mostly sung love songs. His work is definitely worth checking out, though. Yes. Go to youtube and type "David Choi" in the search bar. Do it right now, you can come back after you've seen a video or two..... I can wait.... Go on..... Seriously, I'm not going anywhere. Fine have it your way.

Well anyways, he was awesome and a very nice person. I really liked how he took the time to answer all of our questions. He made us take little pieces of paper and write down any question that you wanted him to answer. And you know what he did? He answered every single one of them. That's how awesome he is. Afterwards, we invited him to have dinner with us at Scotty's. I've never eaten there, but after today, I really want to go back there again sometime. It's like Chili's only next to campus :)

Sooooo.... David Choi and Wong Fu. Youtube. Go!!!!

(Thumbs up) (57/90)

=O__O=

Sitting here in the 2nd floor of library.......

Much Mountain Dew consumed......

Headphones have attached themselves to ears.....

Eyes trained to stare at screen for long periods of time...

Thankful.

Much reading done......

Much thinking done......

Much writing done.....

Butt engraved impression on seat.....

....Thankful. :)

What's really going on? (56/90)

So here I am, watching yet some more people play a video game that I do not have time for. I know video games distract me too much when I'm doing homework, but at least it's better than me sitting in the library trying to stay awake as I try to focus on my homework.

When I think about it, I start to realize that many of my friends have become bad influences for me. I'm not trying to say that they are bad friends, what I want to say is that I don't want their bad habits rubbing off on me. I always try to do my best to see the best in them and I know that they have taught me a few things here and there. But every once in a while, I start to think that my friends are dragging me down. Sometimes, I wish they wouldn't try to keep me away from my goals in life. Or maybe It's my fault. Maybe I've created an expectation from them that causes them to think that I would rather procrastinate on my homework or even pass on doing it. Heck, maybe I'm just "wrong." Wrong in every way possible and my interpretation of life is so skewed that I'm just having a rough time trying to conform to a right way of living life.

Am I the one who is a bad influence on them? I always try to maintain a positive attitude with my friends and I know that some of them do respect me, at least when I'm present. But what do they say when I'm not there? Are they talking behind my back cracking jokes and making me look like a fool? Do they see me as a horrible human being corrupted by my own self indulgence? Sometimes I wonder....

Ze Fashions! (55/90)

So it has come to my attention that these last weeks are adding up in the difficulty department according to the tightness of my schedule. I'm starting to feel like this little fragile body of mine will finally fall victim to fatigue as there is way too much stuff for me to do before I can finally enter the paradise known as summer vacation.

One thing I haven't mentioned in this blog yet is the fashion show I'm going to be a part of in like next week. Throughout this whole semester, I've been attending meetings every Tuesday in order to help out with the show we are planning to put out a week from now. I've been trying my best to do my part to each meeting by giving out suggestions and by trying to get other people to take an interest in fashion. I even made one of the flyers for our show!

Until about a year ago, I wouldn't have been able to tell you that I even had a slight interest in fashion culture. I mostly only looked at fashion as a way to categorize people based around their social interests (music, archetypes, etc). The two main factors of this newfound interest in fashion for me were 4chan and the twee subculture. And then the website that kept my interest intact was lookbook.nu which you should totally check out right now. Seriously, it's good! I'm jealous of those people.

I will say this. Ever since I started looking through all of these fashion websites, I've started judging people based on their taste in clothing. Appearance goes a long way. To me, the effort people put into "their look" reflects their personality and image; and not so much as to the occasion. I know. I'm weird. 

......o_O

National Record Store Day (54/90)

I don't know if you guys heard, but April 17th was National Record Store day. What does this mean? Well, It's the one day of the year where we get to honor our local record stores. In other words, SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL RECORD STORES! The one here next to Ball State, the Village Green Record Store, is by far my favorite record store ever. Travis knows just about every type of music out there. He's addicted to music (or so he claims). He's the guy to go to when you want to find new music to listen to.

Well anyways, on to the bands that played on National Record Store Day..

I think I'll just start out by saying that I did not see every band that played. In fact, I missed some of the best ones (Bonesetters). Gosh darn, I missed the Bonesetters. FUUUUUUUUUUCK. Okay, let's move on...

Osteoferocious:
These guys are one of my favorite acts at the VGR. Their songs are so energetic and fast, it's crazy. From what I've heard online, their songs are a mixture of reggae and punk rock, but live their sound is completely punk rock fast. I find it so awesome how two people (guitarist and drummer) can create so much energy together. Usually, bands have more people playing than that.

P.O.N.S.:
At least I think that's what they were called. Their music was pretty much indescribable. That dude wasn't joking. All I remember hearing was some guy shouting as loud as he could and playing the loudest guitar I've ever heard. And the band did not disappoint.

The Seedy Seeds:
They were a band I really got into after seeing them for the first time a year ago. They have some really catchy folk pop songs mixed in with a computer generated synth beats in the background. My favorite part about the band is the freaking banjo. It's just so awesome!

Those three bands stuck out for me the most. I know this is a weird combination, but whatever. Don't question it.

I'm cutting this post here. Cheese. Out.

Just one of those days... (53/90)

is the little slogan for my website 6sideddice.com. I'm thinking of changing it. Especially the title of the website. Blog? That doesn't mean anything! Or does it? Hmm...

Well anyways, I'm still going to change the title and the slogan. Also, this is very important! I need people to start contributing to my website. I've decided to consult with 4chan on this matter. I hope I get some results. Actually, even trolls would be welcome as it would make the whole website that much more awesome. Are you a troll? You're welcome! :)

But seriously, go check the site out! I don't really have much, but you'll probably get a few laughs here and there.
FUCK YEAH!

If you don't already know what my website is supposed to be about, then (sigh) I guess I can give you a little intro if you're interested.

My website is about lego and people sharing stories they have written with their lego through pictures, videos, or audio, or text. I know, the concept is really weird, but if you're interested, please check out the website. I've tried to explain as many things as I could on the site, but if there's anything more you want to know, please ask or comment.

Peace. And giggles.... and pie :D

D.I.Y. Culture (52/90)

DIY culture has always been around, it's not anything new. But recently, I feel like this is a topic worth talking about.

I'm sure you've seen or heard of this ever expanding self taught ethic that has now been incorporated into modern culture. And maybe you've been part of this culture. Maybe you know about this more than me. 

In the old days, before the common person was able to publish content on the web, this Do-It-Yourself ethic was almost unheard of. DIY only really existed among poor communities who could not afford new items or amongst individuals who did not want to partake in consumerism. The punk subculture was one of the most influential groups to promote and incorporate DIY into everyday lives aspiring to think for themselves and to self produce content. They had a saying that goes, "Don't hate the media, become the media."

Then web 2.0 came along and changed everything we knew about DIY culture. Web 2.0 (an upgrade to our internet experience) allowed user generated content to be published and became the cornerstone for the new DIY culture we see today.

This upgrade to the internet planted seeds to some websites like Youtube, Facebook, and Blogger that let the common people broadcast themselves through spoken text, innovative pictures, and self published videos. This has led a rise to this Do-It-Yourself ethic through these interconnected communities born from the web. 

You now have these communities on the web that devote themselves to publishing their own news zines, videos, and stories; promoting their own bands, products, and ideas. So basically, the web is creating this incentive to go out and do something yourself. To try and do something new. To be an amateur.

And one day (just maybe), everyone will be able to participate in this culture...

Here's a list of a few topics I found interesting to go along with the do-it-yourself ethic.

Anti-consumerism

D.I.Y. culture

Edupunk

Punk idealogies

Thrifting
Web 2.0

Would you believe me if I lied to you? Let's find out. (51/90)

You know what's strange? Someone handing out a flyer to you that you made and saying "Dude, you should totally go to this event!" That happened to me today. I thought it was hilarious. I was all "AHAHAHA! Do you know who made that flyer!? It was MEE!! AHAHAHA!!" Ok, maybe it wasn't like that, but I like to think it was.

Oh. Something horrible happened on this day of Thursday, April 15th 2010. My camera died. It's officially dead now. It's been kinda broken these past couple of months, but now that I've taken the time to take it apart and tinker with it, I've found it to be irreparable. I'm sorry Samsung Digimax S85, but it's time for me to move on. I hope you have a better life as recycled materials. I'll be sure to love my next camera as much as I loved you... :(

So yeah, because of that little incident, I was unable to finish up on the little project I was going to work on today. Hopefully, I'll finish tomorrow. Wait. Fuck that. I'll just stay up and do it. There's plenty of other cameras I can use right here in my current location (Botswin). I'll just ask some lucky stranger...

Yeah, I totally asked some random stranger. Now that I have the pictures, I just need to write the script. Awesome. I'll see ya tomorrow. There's no time to waste!

I lied. There is time to waste. There's always time to waste. Especially when you're at your friend's dormitory. I'm way too distracted right now. But hey, at least I'm getting all of these random ideas from the people here.

T__Tuesdays... (50/90)

Ugh. I hate myself for not writing sooner. I'm starting not to like these late posts as they keep making me stay up for an hour longer than usual. But why am I complaining? This is supposed to help me become a better writer, right?

I'm trying to think of a nice moment I could talk about that happened earlier, but to my disbelief, not one thing comes to mind. I've spent too much of my day just "doing" and not "reflecting" on anything. As you may not already know, Tuesdays are usually my busiest days as I am up and about from 8:10AM to 4:30PM. And again from 7:40PM to 10:00PM. As you can see, I only have 3 hours in between which only gives me enough time to cook food, catch up on the web, and maybe put some things together for later. After I get home at around 10:00PM, you'll usually find me doing some homework and then blogging. So as you can see, I get almost no time to myself.

I feel like seeing my friends now has become "awkward." It's not that I don't like them, it's just that I don't get to see them all that often anymore because my classes have kept me busy for too long. Hopefully, this will remedy itself eventually, but for now, I'll just try and get my work done on time.

Almost over (49/90)

Oh man. I heard someone talking earlier about how we only have about 3 weeks left of the semester before our summer vacation. Has it really been that long since we came back from winter break? Geez. One of my friends said that about half of our total grade is determined on the last month of classes. This kind of puts me in a pickle. I've been trying really hard in my classes and it doesn't seem like I'm doing as well as I would've liked to. I am hoping that my efforts get me through this last month in hopes of raising my GPA to reasonable standards (according to the Program of Architecture).

With that said, I hope that this summer turns out to be better than the previous one. I cannot begin to describe the hardships that I faced because of money issues the previous year. Let's just say, I had to ask for help to keep myself from dying.

Other than that hardship, summers here at White Mesa are pretty awesome. It's basically us college kids hanging out all of the time minus all of the campus events and minus a job (for me, at least). There's also a record store nearby that hosts many concerts during the summer which really did a lot for me because it was hard to leave the house with nothing much going on around campus.

This summer, I'm hoping to have a full house for maximum fun (and cheaper monthly bills). There's also the fact that my friend Kyle is staying in Muncie over the summer so maybe we can have bread and ice cream parties XDDDD (inside joke).

I have no more to say so peace out.... dudes

Social Gaming (48/90)

Ah, Sundays. The one day of the week where I get to sleep past noon. Sundays are also the one day of the week that I get to play my role playing games with my friends. To be honest, Sundays are  usually the most laid back days for me. I usually stay home and wait for people to come over to play. Then we all leave together to go to anime club. After anime club, we all go back home.

Well now that you know what I do on Sundays, I want to focus on a couple of video games I've been playing. The first game being The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures which is a fun little game. I'm not really a fan of this whole series because I usually only like 3D Zelda games, but if you play it with your insane friends, this game becomes a little more interesting. The one thing I think this game could improve on though is that it needs more puzzles. I mean, I'm a fan of huge maps and running around cutting grass, but this is a multiplayer game. You want more cooperation among your players and less dickish shenanigans.

The second game I played on this fine Sunday was none other than Diablo II. It seems that my friend James wants to revive those days of playing Diablo II on a weekly basis. We did that last year and I have to say, that that was about the most fun I've ever had playing a multiplayer LAN game. The Diablo games are just so awesome. They involve each player controlling a character in an adventure/RPG based setting. You can play by yourself or with friends. The more people you get playing, the tougher the enemies become so you can imagine how ridiculous the game play gets and the amount of teamwork you have to do to survive.

Anyways, question of the day.
What "social" games do you guys play?

What's to come? (47/90)

I tend to think back sometimes to a time when I see myself as more of a boring, uninteresting, isolated figure. That I truly was. I never knew anything. I never bothered to talk to anyone. I never bothered to try anything new. I was always "invisible." It was until about when I finally decided that I was truly unhappy with myself that I began to make an effort to strive for a way of looking at this world in a different way.

It began when I started feeling so aggravated and so depressed with my uninteresting life, so I began to look for a new way to enjoy this world that I had come to loathe. So I started listening to music for the first time in my life. And I think I picked wrong for some reason. I picked punk rock. A style of music that would forever stray me away from the world that is pop culture in this stereotypical American way of life...... And now that I look back to that moment, I don't find it strange at all. My father's side of the family has always been so liberal, so artistic, so passionate about something and I guess it was finally my time to fit into their circle.

((((Me and my brother Erick were born with something "special" as my family likes to call it. At an early age, we exhibited signs of ingeniousness which lead to our family having high expectations for us in our lives. And yet to me, I never really seemed smart. In fact, I still don't think I'm smart at all. But in our family's eyes, Erick and I are the best. To quote simply, "Erick and I are expected to surpass all of those before us."))))

Recently, I've found myself being more appreciative of the fine arts.What started out with an interest in music has now flowed into the paths of photography, films, fashion, and even writing (my worst subject in grade school). I still believe I have so much change ahead of me.

I like to think that I'm still at that stage where I'm starting to come out of my shell. I'm a caged animal with limited mobility right now. I feel like I've gained too many interests in life that I can never find the time to do everything I want to do, but I still want to keep trying.

 I'll make it out eventually....

The PARASITE (46/90)

So... Tomorrow, I'm going to go take my driver's test (finally). I know it seems weird considering that I'm 20 years old, but hey, my parents raised me wrong.

I'm really grateful for my friend Eric who is letting me borrow his car for the test. He never lets anyone drive his car, but I guess he made an exception.

Sam told me to write about parasites. So I must. Here goes. Ok. Inhale. Exhale.....

The Parasites are a pop punk band that originated in the mid-eighties and they recently released an album last year (2009) that got good reviews. I picked up that album called Solitary because I'm a punk rock nerd and felt like I needed to expand my knowledge on the amateurish sounds that come from the punk subculture. I listened to the album and thought "Hey, this is catchy. The lyrics are so simple and incorporate to real life so well!" It's a shame that I haven't listened to any of their other stuff because I can totally relate to the teenage angst that are expressed through their lyrics.

Also, I really need to share this lego model I found done by Ted

http://www.mocpages.com/moc.php/196815

It's awesome isn't it? I liked how the model was constructed using mostly Lego Technic pieces. After I got into Bionicle, most of my lego collections started becoming more centered around Technic pieces so I would probably have to say that I feel more comfortable constructing with Technic pieces than with Lego bricks. It's a shame that I didn't get to keep most of them after my mom gave them away to my little cousins.

So Sam, am I doing it right? XD

Let's talk about nothing (45/90)

I've spent all day studying for my Intro to Art Exam tomorrow so nothing exciting has come up today. AT ALL. So I'm just going to write about random things. I know I've done this before, but this is a different day of randomness.

I was going to do that ONE DAY WITHOUT SHOES event, but they scheduled that in the worst day possible. Seriously. It rained extremely hard last night so the morning consisted of a cold chill air combined with the wetness of everything from the night before. What's worse is that the day didn't get any better. The weather got colder and more windy in the afternoon. Even though all of the rain water dried away, it didn't feel any better because I had to wear a jacket outside and even gloves because I couldn't stand the cold.

For some reason, my stomach turned into a black hole today. It seemed like my hunger was endless. I couldn't stop eating or my stomach would groan and make hunger sounds. Maybe I need to start incorporating larger meals every day.

Hmm.... Oh! Steve Jobs got interviewed, I guess and one of the things he said was that he didn't like styluses or task managers. "If you see a stylus or a task manager, 'they blew it'." Jobs says that these two things in technological devices are useless and that people shouldn't have to think about these things. I can agree with him on one point, but disagree on another. I think that devices should be so simple that you shouldn't have to think about the limitations of the device, but at the same time, I'm an analytical person when it comes to how many programs I can run at once on my laptop. I don't know. I guess I'll have to say that the aspect of having a stylus or a task manager completely depends on the device.

Yep. Nothing at all.

It's LEGO not LEGOS (44/90)

I was studying for my CS104 exam today, but I couldn't keep myself concentrated for very long. I kept drifting off into facebook/twitter. I know. I know, it's a stupid cliche of a habit and I've recently become one of those people. But whatever. Something good came out of it.

During one of my "breaks," I decided to log onto Flickr, which is this awesome photo sharing website by the way, to look at the pictures other people have posted with "LEGO" as their tag. Well, I found a few contributors that I really liked and added them as one of my contacts on Flickr. I was kind of amazed how easily I was able to find people who were so interested in LEGO. I mean, my Social Media professor told me to check out twitter and find people there who tweet about LEGO, but I couldn't find a single person who was a real LEGO maniac. Those people mostly just tweeted about some random thing that they did and the LEGO bricks involved were secondary.

Well, anyways, after adding some people as contacts on Flickr, I decided to send two of them messages asking them a few questions and giving them a few compliments on their works. Both of them sent messages back and I learned that they both worked for LEGO companies. At first, I was a little disappointed because I was aiming for more amateurish LEGO designers, but then I thought "Wait, this is amazing! Who am I kidding?" The one who sent me a more in depth message goes by the name of Bricktrix and he linked me to an interview he had with the people who work at The Brothers Brick, which is a website that blogs about Lego designs and news.

In the interview, he revealed that his name was Carl Greatrix (age 41) and that he worked for the TT Games Lego model designer for the official Lego digital games. He talked about being an AFOL which stands for Adult Fan Of Lego and how he got the job at TT Games by seeing an ad on TBB. He also talked about his typical work schedule, the special requirements companies look for, and the process he goes through to create this models for each game. Just recently, he started posting pictures of the lego models he created for the LEGO Indiana Jones 2 video game.

I'm planning on messaging him tomorrow as I need to think carefully about what I want to say to this person.

Here's the interview, btw. (For my reference)

http://www.brothers-brick.com/2009/12/21/interview-with-carl-greatrix/

Bonus Points (43/90)

Today I started what I like to call a "point system" which allows me to look at things as more of a way of making progress in life. Actually, I've been keeping this system secretly for months now, but I've never told anyone or haven't really applied it to my everyday life. To tell you the truth, I'm probably not going to, but this will probably give me a reason to stay entertained when life doesn't look all that great.

Basically, the way this point system works is that every accomplishment I (or you, if you want to get involved) make gives me (or you) "experience points." The amount of experience points you get is completely dependent on you according to your judgement. Maybe an example would be more appropriate to explain this system....

Let's say, I'm working at my part time job and IT'S SLOW. Well, I could stand and do nothing, OR I could make things exciting by bringing up random conversations with my fellow coworkers. If I do decide to go the route that allows me to converse with my fellow coworkers and does make things interesting, I get plus (whatever number of) points.

This point system is purely imaginary and usually I decide to split my points into categories. Some random categories I came up with: awesomeness, charismatic, kindness, stylishness, friendship, lameness, health, dangerous, etc. (Make them up as you go!)

Another example. Let's make this simple this time.

I make someone laugh. +10 points to charisma! Yay. (It's more interesting when things start stacking up)

Oh. And anything that you get for "free" as in without effort counts as "bonus points" because why wouldn't you appreciate the things you get for free? :D

(Man, I'm so silly sometimes....)

Peace to ya, kids.

Jumpman (42/90)

I'm totally depressed. Now I'm not. I'm totally calm. No, I'm really hyped up.

I've been all jumpy today. So many ideas and emotions flowing past me. Yet I can't talk about it. Why? Because there's nothing to focus on. Today can only be described as metaphorically being a roller coaster with many ups and downs and turn arounds (lol, LTJ reference).

Japanese. Fun. Great learning experience.
Intro to Art. UGH! Shut up and let us leave!
Intro to Social Media. Whoa, cool dude.

Reading. @_@ Please let this chapter be over with
Music. Fuck yeah!
AASA club. Uh. Get out.
Dinner with friends. So. Much. To. Talk. About.
All That Comedy show. LAME.

Running around in the rain. Meh.
Hanging out with JP. Dude. Sweet.
Homework. Too lazy. Must get act together.
Blog. I don't feel like being serious today.

So today has been a freaking thrill of a ride. Now it's time to get off and go to sleep.

A tickle in my brain (41/90)

Today was pretty laid back which was really good for me because Friday and Saturday were full of so much insanity that I probably wouldn't have been able to deal with a third day of crazy shit going on.

I realized something. I've always been a dude who has always hated the "most popular" stuff. I would always look the other way whenever something became the means of "pop culture" in America. I just never wanted to give into "conformity." But then I realized that I have been buying into the same stuff as many other people have (like pokemon) and I feel like I've been "conforming" to this ever evolving society..... damnit.

With that said, I now bring you to this -->While I do value my "indie cred" XD, I have to admit that in terms of technology, conforming to the most popular technology is a good thing. Why? Well, for simple reasons:

1. Price

When a huge company (like sony or apple) makes a product that is targeted toward every home having one, they purposefully target their price to be at a reasonable amount. This is good since you know you won't be tricked into paying more for the product than what it's worth.

2. Service

Companies that sell popular products don't want their costumers giving their products bad reviews. They want you to keep the product and enjoy it, so they will make an effort to make sure you are using it properly and even replace it if the product isn't working like it should.

3. Updates

Most modern technology nowadays (that uses the internet in some way or another) include software that allows for people to communicate with other people. If a technological device (like the zune) does become popular, companies realize that people want to keep their products even though new versions of the devices have been released. Since companies still want you to get your money's worth of the product, they release updates which allow your device to keep up with the newer models. (so they won't suck as much in comparison)

Conclusion? No, you are not getting one. I hate writing conclusions. They basically involve me writing the same shit twice. Corporate America: "Tell them, tell them what you told 'em, and then tell them again." You're hearing the same thing multiple times! DX

Happy Zombie Jesus day

That one pad of Apple (40/90)

The Apple Ipad

I know. I know. You're probably thinking that this is just another rant about how awful the ipad is, right? Am I right? That's exactly what you're thinking aren't you? Well, your dead wrong. I personally think that the ipad will revolutionize the way we use technology. It's gonna pave the way for future models of handheld computers. It's gonna replace your television. It's going to replace your Nintendo DS. You will never buy another portable dvd player ever again. You will never have to use paper again. It'll replace your best friend. Nah, just kidding. But the ipad will provide what I would like to call a more 'casual experience' when it comes to using a computer.

See what I mean by 'casual experience' is that the ipad will minimize loading times and will only work on one task at a time. While this may piss a lot of people out there, it's necessary for the device to run smoothly and quickly. Also, the restriction to single tasking allows the device to be more stable and thus minimize system crashes and all that other stuff.

Also, Apple is said to be expanding on the whole idea of "apps" specifically for the ipad. While I'm not entirely sure what this means, I have seen that people will be able to read and/or subscribe to magazines/comics through the ipad. If that's the case, I fully support this feature. For me, the whole concept of 'being home' to get my magazines isn't working out to well. I kinda live in different locations depending on the time of the year and I can't possibly read every issue right away. I dig the fact that I'll be able to get my comics straight to my ipad and not have to worry about getting my comics through the mail.

Actually, the whole reason why I'm writing about the ipad is because I think that this device will be very beneficial to my mom (I do not plan on getting one for me). In case you don't already know, my mom is practically computer illiterate and believe me, she has never touched a computer before. I've been wanting her to be able to experience the awesome world that is the web, but every time I try to get her to learn, she's been unwilling to learn. In my honest opinion, the only way I may get her to learn how to use technology is through something that makes it totally easy like the ipad.

So let this be the device that saves my mom from total illiteracy....

Randomness ( 39/90)

I learned a new trick. I learned how to make people laugh like idiots. It's a very simple process. You just act like an idiot. And that's just what we're doing right now. Being idiots. And laughing like idiots. It's so awesome!

We're at a LAN party right now and we're playing the most social game here. It's not a video game, but who cares. LAN parties are more of a social event. And everyone I see playing a video game isn't being social at all. They're just staring at a screen with a blank face. Ha ha. I may just join them soon.

(turtlesturtlesturtlesturtlesturtlesturtlesturtlesturtlesturtlesturtlesturtlesturtlesturtlesturtlesturtlesturtlesturtlesturtlesturtlesturtlesturtlesturtlesturtlesturtlesturtlesturtlesturtlesturtlesturtlesturtles)

I don't know why, but turtles are the funniest thing today. Ask me why!

Fsh. Fsh. Fsh. I learned some terrible secrets today which I'm not revealing. O_O I'm not gonna say anything. Not one bit. Nope.

(pyramidheadpyramidheadpyramidheadpyramidheadpyramidheadpyramidheadpyramidheadpyramidheadpyramidheadpyramidheadpyramidheadpyramidheadpyramidheadpyramidhead)

It's the rape that gets me.....

Oh, and zero punctuation. You should look that up. Or not. Depending if you like video games or not. That and a person who doesn't pause in between his sentences.

That's it, peeps.
Until next time.

I'm missing out, man (38/90)

Today was pretty uneventful. I lost so many opportunities because I had homework that I had to get done instead T__T. There was that anime night at Josh's house. There was comic book club that I could've gone to. There was also a concert at the VGR. But no, I decided to get my homework done instead. :/ sigh.

Oh well, I'm kind of glad I decided to skip those, because I got to talk to my parents for the first time since Spring Break. It was then that I realized how horrible my spanish has gotten. I was barely able to hold a conversation with them. I also talked with my brother on skype and he said that he's coming over to visit pretty much all weekend! How awesome is that! I'm thinking of calling off work Saturday now :)

So you know what? Ever since it started getting warm outside, I started missing something. I've started to miss playing my bass guitar. I know that sounds weird and all considering that I never really played for long anyways. The only thing I hated about playing was that I had to do it by myself. I joined the acoustic guitar club for a little while because I wanted to play with other musicians, but that didn't turn out all that well. I just want one other person to practice with, so that we could have fun while playing together. Playing solo isn't fun.

Lego and flickr (37/90)

I've never done a post on 4am in the morning so I'll keep this short once again since I have to go to sleep ASAP. I need sleep! I think today was a sign. I woke up at 4pm. That's right. 4pm. I forgot to set my alarm so I missed all of my classes. I feel really bad since I'm not the type of student who likes to skip class. I like to get the most out of my classes even if it means that I don't get good grades.

Today, I went to Toys R Us because they were having a sale on legos. Buy one lego set and get the second one 50% off (Excluding lego mindstorms, lego star wars, and lego toy story, unfortunately). I decided to buy these two Lego Creator sets of two houses. I also went to Best Buy to help Eric buy a TV. Turns out that he is going to wait until they have a sale on TV's (he found out how expensive they were XD).

I decided to try Flicker for the first time today. Flicker's become like the most common way people share photos around the web so I decided to fire up my camera and take some pics of the two lego sets I got at Toys R Us. Click the link below to see the gallery I have on flickr.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/48914541@N03/