Thursday, October 14, 2010

So about this scientist thing. . .

. . .it's starting to get a little rickety.

I got my first Bio test back of the year and I didn't do too well at all. It's actually the lowest I ever got on a Bio exam. This breaks my string of uprising grades in Bio since the beginning of last year. I really thought I was going to nail this one, but I missed the mark real bad. It's times like these one has to stop, make a "status report", reorganize everything, pick your targets and then dive in again. You never should lose sight of your objectives, or else you end up doing nothing playing with your dick all day.

But the more I'm progressing through college the more I've realized that I need to improvise my plans. Such is the way with all things. It's never good to have a strict plan. I think you should have only a vague outline with room for improvisation.

Ever since high school I've felt thrown into a Cold War against the smarter kids, the elite. Whether they be hipsters good at English or Asian kids in the science classes. Actually, since middle school to be exact. This is no different in college. Some teachers are secretly biased. But then I realized that's how everything is. That's how they want it to work. I've long since pushed away that glorious desire to be up there. To keep up with the clubs and groups - to do what? So I can have some mark on something, to be in some prestigious group picture and shake hands, so that grad schools can be impressed?

No, sorry. I don't feel like playing clubhouse. I just want to do my work, pursue my interests. I don't care if I get a medal for it.

I have a greater desire to just get my hands dirty, go rogue. I wish we really just came out of the Dark Ages and science began to rise. Those early days were fun. Guys would just look at things, stroke their beards and murmur, "I wonder. . ." and then just play around with stuff. Their labs would be a mess, with tubes and contraptions lying around. There were no boards or members or rules and regulations. There were just pioneers paving through the unknown.

I want to go rogue with a lot of things. I have no passion at the moment because everything around me is works so slow and obscure. So much red tape to weave through. If only I had a secret lab somewhere and I would just experiment on whatever I wanted.

At least I'm going to do the radio show legit from now on.

I thought this was interesting: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101013/wl_asia_afp/sciencespecieswhales

Sunday, October 10, 2010

NYC COMIC CON!!!!!!!11111oneoneone

ZOMFGWTFBBBQSAUCE!!!!


Amazing time yesterday at the NYC Comic Con. First of all I went as Big Boss from MGS. The old school Big Boss though, in the trenchcoat and with white hair. It was impossible to get from point A to point B without being stopped by someone shouting, "BIG BOSS! IT'S BIG BOSS! CAN WE TAKE A PICTURE?"

I was surprised how some girls knew who Big Boss was. I was surprised in general that a lot of people recognized him. Then again I don't think it was that a lot of people knew him. It's more that hardly anyone dresses up as him, so the people that DO know him go all out. I ran into a lot of young Big Bosses and had my picture taken with them - the young and the old.

I got interviewed too, but I didn't bother to ask by whom because I was in a rush to meet a friend.

"Who are you?"
"I'm Big Boss."
"And what makes you the Big Boss?"
"I was the greatest soldier of the 20th Century."

After that things got blurry because the interviewer started asking weird questions/saying weird things. I wasn't sure if she was making fun of me or making jokes. Whatever. Bitch.

So I jumped from friend to friend who went to Comic Con too, but I spent most of my time in the end with Brian and three other guys. Brian and I were trying to find the group when we ran into a fat guy wearing a Rebel spacesuit. The first thing we thought was that he was trying to be Porkins from the original Star Wars. Porkins became a cult favorite because he was this fat guy in the movie who got his ship blown up. People photoshopped McDonalds in his cockpit.
So we were like, "PORKINS! NOOOO!"
The guy looks at us like, "lolwut?"
And then Brian and I realize, "Oh, shit, maybe he's not pretending to be Porkins. Maybe he's just fat!"
Brian felt horrible afterward. I just laughed my ass off. The guy was probably trying to be Luke.

That's the thing at Comic Con. There are always two extremes. The immensely nerdy fat guys who fail to dress up and then the hot chicks who are there only to dress up as the scantily-clad women from video games and comics. And then they attract all those fat people. So it's like a food chain of sorts.

I'm that troll who goes around trying to find rare stuff like a rat trying to find cheese.

Like this samurai sword. I've been meaning to buy a samurai sword because I know Kendo, and I want to know how it feels like to really have a sword. I saw this stand and I practically jizzed in my pants and took a picture.
The Asian guy who ran the stand saw me and started shouting, "NO PEEEEKKKTURRRESSS! NO! NO! PUT CAMERA AWAY!"
I was like, "Uh--ah...right, ok."

Then there was this retro video game stand that was there two years ago when I went. I was hoping they'd have Final Fantasy 7. They did - but it's some Japanese import. I mean, that's cool and all - but I'M NOT FUCKING JAPANESE!

So I was bummed out for a while----UNTIL I FOUND ANOTHER RETRO GAME STAND! *GASP*
This was really retro this time. I'm talking NES AND SNES. I jizzed in my pants again and scoured through what they had. The best part was my SNES still worked perfectly.
I thought to myself, "Oh, man, this is so cool. Look at all the SNES games they have!"
They had Lufia, with a subtitle I can't remember. It looked like a great RPG and I always wanted to try Lufia.
"How much is this?"
"Two-hundred."
....
"Uh...what?"
"It's two-hundred."
. . . .
"Wait----how much is this?"
(in a more irate tone after asking a third time) "It's. . . two-hundred."

What the fuck is this shit? Is there like some nuclear device in this cartridge? Is the secret to life embedded in its chips? What the hell, man?

If there weren't so many people, I'd have totally just swiped it off.

And I saved the picture anyway of the samurai stand. In the picture the Asian guy is still shouting at me.

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Book of the Day:The Scarlet Pimpernel

Video Game of the Day:Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater

Hero of the Day:Big Boss

Villain of the Day: (technically) Big Boss

Movie of the Day:Goldeneye

Monday, October 4, 2010

Interferons!

I don't know why I made that the title. If you know what those are then kudos to you. And no, looking it up doesn't count.

I really need to make a clear, concise list of things I should do in order and strictly follow them. There's school stuff and then outside school stuff. Ugh. I need to straighten out all these tangled cords in life.

Have any of you played Final Fantasy IX? That game is so fun and yet remarkably easy. I've gotten so far in such a short amount of time. I think that game must have been made for beginners or something. But the story is so enjoyable. Some old critics complained about the story, but I think it's far from cliche.

Here are elements I consider cliche in any RPG:

1 - Evil empire with uprising rebellion
2 - Nameless evil that was only mentioned as a cute passing backstory throughout the game but then *gasp* guess what? That nameless evil turns out to be the one behind everything and was banished and is now trying to break free!
3 - Main character was the victim of evil experiments that he/she can't remember.
4 - Chosen ones/sacred lineages

Final Fantasy IX twists them here and there though. Tales of the Abyss is another odd, unique RPG. But the terminology is so fucking confusing.

"We must obtain the Fon fon hyperressonance of Fon Master Fon Man Fonstone while resonating a fon effect on the Fonstone--"

The player is left as confused as Luke, the main character, who suffers amnesia after being kidnapped, and so his parents locked him in his room for years. So he has no idea about how the world works, which really reflects on how the player has no fucking clue why everything is preceded by the word "fon." The story itself is interesting. A little confusing but reading Luke's journals straighten things up if you're ever lost on what's going on.

I don't feel like writing the whole "Blah blah blah of the Day" thing because I've got lots of studying to do for Immunology.

After Wednesday, there are things I have/want to do right away. And I'm more so writing this for myself as a checklist to strictly follow.

1. Create Secrets of the Scene: Raiders of the Lost Ark Pt. 3
2. Write up the script for my first radio show episode (after I harangue the managers about why it's taking so long for my show to start)
3. Perform miraculous acts of cooking (yay, more experience points!)
4. Start drafting first episode of sitcom-like series for youtube
5. All while reviving my writing

I was going to perform this unofficial experiment on people who stuttered, but that failed because there was a lack of significant patients. I want to think of something else to experiment on, unofficially.

The sitcom idea I had is awkwardly dying, but I'm pushing it in another direction. It won't be some grand, comical set of characters like most shows out there, but it'll still be fun. I don't know, after school started some of my friends just didn't express any interest in it at all, despite how much we talked about it over the summer. Bummer.


And for the record, Final Fantasy XII is completely unbearable. I hate that game. It's one of those games I pretend never happened. They've yet to make Final Fantasy XII.

Monday, September 27, 2010

It was a dark and rainy morning. . .

. . .and I felt good.

Ok, maybe I'm sick. I haven't blogged in a while because I was super-busy and then got a case of the sniffles with a sore throat over the weekend. But now I'm recovering. Still, I'm taking it easy so nothing I do will exacerbate it. At least it doesn't feel like a cheese grater is grinding against my throat anymore.

I've had the sudden inspiration again for my fantasy writing. This past summer I was hitting my head on the keyboard over the myriad revision/editing I've done. These critics of mine were constantly nagging me. I became exhausted after the endless critiquing and arguments, leading me into a slump with my writing.

But I recently saw Pulp Fiction for the first time, and I love Tarantino movies. And then the gloomy weather always makes me excited about life. And then I looked up this dude named Lord Dunsany, who inspired Tolkien.

I sort of put together these elements and said to myself, "I have an idea."

I looked to my critics and pretty much thought, "Screw you. I'll write what I want and how I want."

Why is it that whenever it rains/storms I feel more alive than ever? Sure, sunny days are cool and all, but there's something epic about gloomy, dark days that make me excited. I'd be singing in the rain if it weren't for this damn cold.

In other news, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is an amazing book. I mean, AMAZING. There's something about it that's just really interesting. Stieg Larsson did an incredible amount of research on things. I found it rather mysterious that he died immediately after submitting the trilogy. My mother keeps saying he wrote hints and clues or something into his books and that fans are traveling to these places to find things out. Something like that. I have no idea what she was babbling about. Maybe someone else knows?

Anyway, I got some archaeology homework to do. 5 pages and an investigation report due Wednesday. W00t!

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Book of the Day: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Video Game of the Day: Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus
Video Clip of the Day: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__Co6GAaXFw
Song of the Day: Skinny Love by Bon Iver
Movie of the Day: 2001: A Space Odyssey
Hero of the Day: Edward Elric
Villain of the Day: Gideon (from Scott Pilgrim Series)

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Fuck bosses that have two forms. . .

. . .they're really a pain in the ass.

Dragon Quest VIII is a very mainstream RPG. And when I say mainstream I mean REALLY mainstream. Turn-based. Typical level ups. Got your knights and swords and sorcery.

And yet even in its mainstream it's such a fun game. INCREDIBLY fun. There's so much to do and the stories are so memorable.

I'm dying to play Dragon Quest IX for the DS.

In other news, my radio show was accepted at my school. Anyone can listen in as long as you have Internet and a computer. Just go to www.drew.edu/wmnj. My show is on Tuesdays from 7-8pm. HOWEVER, I am not starting immediately. I have to go through some "training" crap and then shadow two other shows. I know like everyone who does a show on WMNJ anyway.

Oh and btw, forgot the most important thing. The show is called "Night at the Lab". I'm going to talk about science, sort of like Bill Nye the Science Guy, except I'm actually a science guy and he was just an actor.

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Song of the Day: Fa, fa, fa by Datarock

Movie of the Day: Taken

Book of the Day: The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

Hero of the Day: Guy Montag

Villain of the Day: Legato Bluesummers

Sunday, September 19, 2010

So people take showers in the morning?

There are many things in life that people did a certain way and I never did. And it took me a heck of a long time to realize them.

I thought people took showers at night. It only made sense to me. I suddenly became mortified when I realized that everyone took showers in the morning. That meant they went to sleep sweaty and dirty from the day's work/adventures.

And then there's cereal. I never knew it was a regular thing for people to eat cereal with milk. I always ate it the way it was.

I just finished writing my first paper of the semester. There's a lot more to be done though, and this week is going to be a little hellish.

And there are acorns falling all around me. I'm currently outside typing, and because Fall's coming up all these fucking acorns are dropping like bombs all over campus. I always feel like I'm going to get hi---urrrk----

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Book of the Day: Counter-Clock World by Philip K. Dick

Movie of the Day: Pulp Fiction

Video Game of the Day: Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King

Hero of the Day: Squall Leonhart

Villain of the Day: Dormin (from Shadow of the Colossus)

Thursday, September 16, 2010

From afar the lightning strikes. . .

. . . a thunderstorm is here!

Joy, joy, joy! Thunderstorms! YES!

Today has been a very productive day, and still is. I'm typing a blog whilst also typing two papers, juggling all of them at intervals. How sexy is that?

I'm going to focus then on my youtube videos in the coming days. I hope some of you have seen my channel, because within this semester I'm planning to start a series.

But here's a lineup of things I've yet to post:

1. Secrets of the Scene: Raiders of the Lost Ark 3 - alas, the long-awaited third portion of my critique on that movie. The problem with its eventual production has been the lack of any good software to record or cut scenes from the DVDs. I used FRAPs but that became a pain in the ass and it got screwed up. But now I believe I found another program. So hang on to your fedoras!

2. Back to College, Scotty - just a short video about my new year and showing the room. Nothing big.

3. And finally, the first episode of my series. It's based off a short story I'm writing, and thus I'm going to adapt it to a college setting. The series follows the main character (me) and his internal musings about the world around him, no matter how irritating it may seem. It all begins when a terribly uncultured girl asks him for help on typing a book report. The episode itself is called "Bradbury for Sale", but the series title is still in the works.

I'm thinking of also posting fun stuff at the end of each blog from now on.
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Funny Video of the Day:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o50_ZlMnjqY
(WOW, you REALLY must have no life to buy that, or no friends at least)

Book of the Day: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
(Slow in the very beginning but then it gets REALLY intense. Highly recommend.)

Video Game of the Day: Metal Gear Solid (PSX)
(Officially my favorite video game of all time, so far that is. Think you can beat it on Extreme mode?)

Hero of the Day: Nicholas D. Wolfwood

Villain of the Day: Liquid Snake