Badass Knitting with Llamas

I'VE MOVED

2010-05-31T00:03:00.000-04:00

I moved to Wordpress because I heard it's better. New blog is located at

http://ohhiblog.wordpress.com

Check it.

Post-Graduation Boredom.

2010-05-30T17:29:00.001-04:00

Seriously, I thought this whole, “WOOO NOT HAVING TO GO BACK TO SCHOOL EVAAARRRR” thing would be fun. It’s not. It’s boring and lame. Also still looking for a real job. Freelance writing isn’t really cutting it right now. The economy does seem to be improving, so that’s a plus. However, I doubt I’ll be able to move up to Northern Virginia as I wanted to, at least until I can afford it. Housing up there is fucking expensive. So I’m thinking of going back to Fred Vegas, because it’s a bit cheaper and at least it’s closer to NoVA than I am here. Again though, a job is needed. FFFFFFUUUUU adulthood is lame.

My Bachelor of Arts is pretty awesome though. I mean, it’s just sitting in a box right now, but some day I’ll display it or something. Even if a history degree is borderline worthless.

I went on this quest to listen to every song in my iTunes library and I sort of hate myself for being such a music nerd now. Seriously, I have over 12,000 songs. On the other hand, I previously had 14,000 and this exercise is helping me to clean out my iTunes. I had a lot of shit that people gave me, I listened to once, and then promptly forgot about it. Honestly, if it doesn’t hold my attention enough for me to listen to it at least a few times or even simply remembering what the hell it is, there’s really no point in me keeping it. I’m like a music hoarder, damn.

I really need to get back into playing guitar, because I sort of miss it. As of right now XBox and job hunting are sort of ruling my life. However there was something really pleasing about playing random Radiohead songs and the Super Mario Bros. theme. Yeah, definitely need to pick one of my 3 guitars that are just sitting there back up. Seriously even just typing that makes me sad.

Anyway. Time to go back to doing…nothing.

Red Dead Redemption (Single Player) Review: Holy Shit, I Feel Like John Wayne

2010-05-30T17:12:00.001-04:00

It’s no secret to anyone around me that I was stoked about Red Dead Redemption for months. My friends and I had a posse formed a solid month before it came out. I’m happy to say that the game lived up to my expectations.

You play as John Marsden, a reformed outlaw who is now trying to live a quiet life as a rancher with his wife Abigail and his son Jack. However, he hasn’t quite been able to escape his criminal past, and now is on a mission to hunt down his former partners-in-crime. Basically, it’s a typical Western genre storyline. It could have gotten boring, but because it’s Rockstar Games making a sandbox game set at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, it’s pretty impossible that this game wouldn’t be at least somewhat enjoyable.

There is plenty to do around the large map. You can hunt wild animals, search for treasure, capture outlaws, kill innocents, help out random strangers, play poker, blackjack, or horseshoes; patrol towns and ranches for crimes, duel at high noon, and clear out gang hideouts. Oh yeah, and you can do the storyline missions as well. Seriously, there is so much you can do in this game that it’s almost overwhelming, but it’s good for someone like me who gets ADD after about 20 minutes of gaming. Any game that can hold my attention for 6 hours in a row like RDR has is a good game in my book.

The game itself is also very, very well designed. The graphics are absolutely gorgeous, even on the XBox 360. I once rode my horse Dusty Butt off a cliff because I was staring at how fantastically rendered a mountain was in the background. There were only a few moments where the frame rate dropped, which is astounding due to the sheer amount of shit happening in the open world. I never experienced some of the weird glitches that some people did, such as humans accidentally being coded as animals (flying people and cougar dudes). The two glitches I experienced were close to the end and at the very, very end of the game, and I’m not even entirely sure whether one of those was a legit glitch or it was supposed to be like that. I’d explain it more, but I’d spoil the end of the game if I tried to. Graphics aside, voice acting was also pretty good. There wasn’t any dialogue where I was like “LOLWUT,” but then again I often space out during cutscenes so it’s entirely possible, even probable, that I missed something.

I kind of have to pull at straws to find any negatives in RDR. A few of the missions were a bit confusing as to what I was supposed to be doing. In the game’s defense however, as I previously stated I often don’t watch cutscenes and I’m also a bit of a dumbass. It was never anything that took me more than a couple of tries to figure out, however, so it’s not a major issue. There were also a lot of scenes of nothing but riding a horse or driving a wagon and chatting with an NPC. They are basically there simply for the sake of the plot, but at times they were a bit tedious and too fucking long. Some of these you could skip, but that’s only if you were the passenger on a wagon. Again, I’m really grasping at straws here to find negatives.

RDR is probably my second favorite game of the year so far, after Mass Effect 2. The only reason it’s not my absolute favorite is because I’m a Mass Effect fangirl. It definitely has the feel of GTA, from the save system to the map. If you like GTA, westerns, sandbox games, or shooters, I can’t imagine you not getting at least some enjoyment out of RDR.

9.7/10

Good News, Bad News

2010-04-07T18:24:00.001-04:00

Good News: I graduate in about a month.

Bad News: WTF am I going to do after that? I have to go out and be a real person now. I’m not sure I can handle that.

Good News: Finished my thesis.

Bad News: My advisor hates it. My meeting with him on Friday may end in tears for me. Dread central.

Good News: Things with Potential Love Interest appear to be moving in the right direction.

Bad News: Suddenly everyone else has a crush on me, too. Dammit you guys, why do you wait until there’s someone I’m interested in? Seriously.

Good News/Bad News: Donovan McNabb was traded to my beloved Redskins. Seriously, WTF. I spent years hating this guy, and now I’ll be rooting for him. I was pissed for a while, but after watching McNabb’s press conference yesterday, I feel much better about the situation. I think we may start looking like a team instead of perplexed five-year-olds. Who knows though; the Redskins never fail at being the Offseason Champions, so we’ll have to see what happens in the fall.

Good News: Summer seems to have arrived. It’s 90 degrees outside. It’s also April 7. WHAT.

Bad News: I’ve had a fever yesterday and part of today, so I haven’t even been able to enjoy it.

Good News: Have weened myself off of caffeine, so I can actually function without coffee or Pepsi.

Bad News: I am now addicted to Gatorade, which probably isn’t much better.

Good News: REC 2 is out somewhere. I need to hunt it down and watch it. The first REC is easily one of my favorite horror movies ever.

Bad News: Watched Paranormal Activity. Did people really find it that scary? All I got out of it was a lot of time watching people sleeping, listening to a woman drop f-bombs on her dumbass boyfriend who keeps saying “dude,” listening to random banging that was probably supposed to make me jump, and failing to feel any sympathy for the absolutely stupid and arrogant assholes who were the main characters. TL;DR Very underwhelming for all the hype that surrounded it.

Good News: Started getting frighteningly good at Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer. Like, my kill-death ratio was actually going positive. Once I had the most kills on my team. WHAT.

Bad News: Now all I want to do is play MW2.

Good News: I’ll probably be keeping the rats after graduation. SWEET.

Bad News: It would be sweeter if I had a job and a place to live.

Good News: Looking into freelance writing and blogging as a career option. It sounds like something I would absolutely love doing.

Bad News: I have to look at options like that because there’s absolutely nothing out there for history majors. Worst major ever. I should’ve stuck to something practical instead of something I just “liked.”

Good News: I’ve made some new friends.

Bad News: One of said “friends” is my ex’s new girlfriend. I’m pretty sure she’s trying to validate that she is the better option for him. She’s probably also threatened because he still talks to me and IMs me a lot. I always try to blow him off, because A) half the shit he says is ridiculous conspiracy theory bullshit, and B) I stopped caring about him quite a while ago. She should be concerned with him, not me. Potential Love Interest >>>> Conspiracy Theorist Ex.

So yeah, that’s my life in a nutshell right now. Pretty average, yet aggravating. Growing up sucks, I’m going back to 3rd grade.

OKCupid.com: An Experiment in Hilarity

2010-03-06T20:58:00.001-05:00

Why oh why do I listen to dares? This time it has landed me into OKCupid.com, one of those online dating sites. While I have met one guy who seems somewhat cool (I’m not going to say anything about him, though, because 1. he’s a cool kid, 2. he has since deleted his OKC profile and we talk on AIM now so he doesn’t count anymore, and 3. there’s nothing to make fun of about him), the vast majority of dudes I’ve run into have been a bit weird.

Literally 30 minutes after I signed up, some guy IMed me. He was quite odd. He seemed cool at first, he lives in Fred Vegas, Redskins fan, personal trainer…but after a while the constant “watre u doing” got really annoying and creepy. I wish I were joking. I am glad he seemed to get the hint I was no longer interested and stopped contacting me the next day.

Next guy has family in Greece. I should mention that on my profile I talk about how ancient Greece is my focus in my history degree. For some reason, people with Greek heritage think I will throw myself at them because of that simple fact. No. Also, that was pretty much the only thing I had in common with this kid. Plus he started getting creepy. That was the end of that.

Next Greek guy was actually from Greece. I saved his message for future giggles. The subject line is, “DiD YOU EVER COME GREECE?” Instant lulz. The actual message reads, “HELLO,I AM [deleted] FROM ATHENS.DO YOU EVER VISIT GREECE?” This guy is also 46. I didn’t even reply.

After that comes Strange Broken Hearted Guy. This is his message: “Hello.. I hope I'm not bothering u at this time.. My name is [deleted] and after looking at your profile.. It would be an honor to chat with you sometime.. I'm 22 and I'm an aspiring artist. I like games (board, card, video, and sports of course lol) I've had much bad experiences with women and I think I deserve someone sensible. So I hope you consider this note and reply as soon as you can. Take care :)” Honestly, this doesn’t seem like a bad kid but you shouldn’t just come right out and mention your past relationship issues. Or maybe that’s just something that bothers me. Anyway.

Facepalm Guy 1: “I had to actually google your religious view lol "Agnosticism" very interesting but I totally get it.
What are the qualifications for being a nerd ?” First of all, this has to be the only person I’ve ever met in my life that didn’t at least know the basic idea of agnosticism, and I’m including a couple of 12 year olds in that pool. Secondly, if you have to ask about nerd qualifications, you are not one, sorry.

HOLY SHIT WHAT THE FUCK Guy: I saw that this guy had viewed my profile one day, but I couldn’t tell what the hell was going on in his profile picture. So I looked at his profile, and lo and behold, it’s a 45 year old guy wearing a banana hammock, a collar and a leash. Then he imed me. I panicked and not only closed Firefox, but shut down my entire computer. Just……no.

Facepalm Guy 2: (Sidenote: I mention my hydrophobia somewhere on my profile just for lulz) “are you seriously afraid of water? Out of everything there is you are afraid of water? or is it just large bodies of water...” After I stopped laughing, I had to reply to this guy. As with my religious beliefs or lack thereof, I usually don’t have to explain it to people; it’s pretty obvious what I mean by it. I love chugging water and soaking in bath tubs, I’m not going to run screaming in the other direction because someone’s holding a bottle of Aquafina. I mean, honestly, guy.

Those are all the funny ones so far. I have learned some shit about myself in the process, which I guess makes this a worthwhile experiment. Firstly, I have some ridiculously high standards. I mean, goddamn. I seriously need to chill out. It is next to impossible that I will find a guy who is like Thom Yorke, Joel Hodgson, and Eli Manning all wrapped up into one person. Secondly, I have a severe aversion to replying to people unless I really have something to talk about with them. I’m fine in real life, which is strange because you’d think talking over the Interwebs would be easier. Not for this weirdo, apparently. I suck. Also, I should be less self-deprecating. Actually, fuck that, it’s fun and I will never, ever be accused of having a huge ego.

So anyway. I was totally going to delete this shit after a month or so but I’m receiving so much entertainment from it that I’ll hang around a little longer. There doesn’t seem to be too many creepers on there, and the matching system seems pretty decent, so why the hell not? Though I’m not really concerned about relationships at this point (especially because I’m preoccupied with graduating college and actually becoming an adult and shit) I figure what the hell, it’s there. Hopefully I’ll get some more funny shit soon.

An Open Letter to Justin Bieber Fans

2010-02-22T14:55:00.001-05:00

Dear Bielebers or whatever you kids call yourselves,

You know, one day I was just like you guys. Except back in my day, we had *NSYNC, the Backstreet Boys, 98 Degrees, BBMak and O-Town.

Yes, back 13 years ago, when many of you were still but a wee infant, or even a fetus or a zygote, I was a squealing fan girl. I had t-shirts, posters, CDs, the fucking *NSYNC marionettes and fruit snacks (oh yeah, they existed, my friends), everything. I fought tooth and nail with bitches who dared to make fun of them. Shit got real more than once, let me tell you. Sure, I enjoyed some Radiohead or Incubus, but at that age I was far too young to fully appreciate their musicianship and it was usually placed in the “things I’ll put in my 3-CD stereo whilst I sleep” category. Besides, did Thom Yorke or Brandon Boyd ever bust out some slick dance moves? Well, Thom does some crazy ass dancing but that is beside my point.

I even had an *NSYNC fan site! Friends, I’m telling you, it was fucking LEGIT. Number 8 on a fan site listing on Geocities. I was on like 5 webrings (do those even exist anymore?). I learned guitar so I could learn to play these boy band songs and tabbed them out to put onto my website. INTENSITY. I breathed, ate, pissed, spat, cried boy bands, *NSYNC in particular.

Now you may ask, “But what did you do about the jerks on the Internet who were mean to them?” Oh, I flamed. I ranted. I unleashed the fury of caps lock. I compared them to the great men of decades and centuries past. If I had known about my senior thesis topic back then, I would have compared them to Leonidas and his 300 Spartans without hesitation.

Then, something strange happened. Radiohead and Incubus and others started to sound more appealing to me. Perhaps I was turning into an emo kid (read: I was) or my music lessons were allowing me to hear the more intricate aspects of musicians who played actual instruments (not to diss people who don’t, because I listen to plenty who use primarily computer generated music). I started listening to less and less boy band music until one day it appealed to me no more. The marionettes were packed away into a box, the shirts were jammed into a far corner of my closet, posters were taken down, Geocities account was deleted (BTW, RIP Geocities, you were a great friend).

Looking back, it was strange to recall myself arguing that I would love *NSYNC “4EVA” and that I’d never stop liking their music. I remembered talking about how they were the greatest people ever and how talented they were, and was a bit surprised that I had changed. Now I was one of those people making fun of them, rolling my eyes at my past exploits or pretending that it had never happened at all.

So what does this have to do with Justin Bieber and you? Well, I’m telling you all this because it will happen to you. Believe it or not, 97% of you will cease to care about Justin in 5 years. I say this as someone who has been there. All of these attempts to keep Justin on Twitter’s trending topics, to flame anyone who insults him, to declare yourself as his #1 fan will all be completely forgotten.

Am I saying you should stop being Justin Bieber fans? Hell no, go and have your fun, be young and enjoy whatever you enjoy, and don’t let people take that away from you. However, if you can, learn to not take everything so seriously. Honestly, life is much more fun when you can poke fun at yourself and the things you enjoy. I mean, I told my friend Em we should have a Radiohead party since we’re both big fans. She replied, “Yeah! We’ll sit in opposite corners of the room, and avoid making eye contact while Thom Yorke moans about how unloved he is.” That’s fucking brilliant, my friends, brilliant. I laughed so hard my ribs ached. Poking fun at everyone and everything, particularly yourself and things that pertain to yourself, is so much less stressful than fighting everyone. If you like it, fuck what everyone else thinks.

Hell, I still have my boy band albums on my iPod. I still listen to it occasionally, mostly to reminisce and to laugh. BBMak’s CD is still really good, in my opinion. I mean, you can’t devote a good chunk of your adolescence to something and not still have a soft spot for it later on in life. But understand that these pop star phenomena happen seemingly every 10 years. Before *NSYNC and BSB, it was New Kids on the Block. Before them, it was New Edition. Before them, Jackson 5. Before them, The Beatles. Anyone who was an intense fan girl over these pop stars can probably attest to most of what I write in this post.

However, don’t become like the Claymates or Glamberts (Clay Aiken and Adam Lambert fans, respectively). These groups harm the object of their affection far more than they help. The difference between them and you guys is that you guys are mostly young girls, and therefore it’s much more acceptable for you to lose your shit over a pop star. No offense, but at the age most of you are it’s not like you have a hell of a lot of other stuff you have to think about and take care of. You can afford to spend your time on it. However, if you’re over 30 and dressing up like your favorite star, making t-shirts, arguing over the Internet about them, etc., that’s when it becomes very troublesome. Please don’t become Frau fans.

Seriously, friends, enjoy it while it lasts. Just don’t go overboard with it.

Yours,

Tinnerz

Mass Effect 2 Review: I Wish to Marry this Game

2010-02-04T17:26:00.001-05:00

Anyone who knows me well knows I’m a total Mass Effect fangirl. Like, seriously hardcore. I own the soundtrack(s). And actually listen to them. I have serious issues.

My game arrived last Friday, just in time for a gaming weekend since both of my roomies were gone. I finished it Tuesday. About 36 hours of playtime, over 5 days. When I realized this I cried a little bit, but wiped away my tears and vowed not to turn on my XBox until this weekend’s Snowpocalypse (seriously, we’re getting 2-4 inches of ice in addition to 20 inches of snow. Virginia suddenly became Minnesota or something).

I don’t want to say Mass Effect 2 is better than the first, but I’m thinking it might be. It’s definitely (and understandably) darker than the first, but I also found it much more humorous. The story feels a bit weaker than the first, but it’s sort of understandable because the player already knows about the goings on in the Milky Way, granted they played the first one. There’s less to flesh out, so the story is more driven by the characters themselves. The characters are once again well developed and I found myself getting rather attached to my team. It gives you more impetus to complete everything before your “suicide mission” in order to ensure everyone’s survival.

Upgrading is definitely different this time around. You don’t have to worry about an inventory limit because you don’t have an inventory. Instead, upgrades are received by doing missions, scanning planets for minerals and using said minerals to research new technologies. I liked this system much better, if only because I spent an awful amount of time in ME1 sorting through my inventory.

Weapons are pretty badass. My infiltrator owned with heavy weapons, but even the pistols aren’t too shabby. Because I’m me, however, I mostly stuck to the Sniper and assault rifles. I fucking love sniping, and the sniper upgrade is absolute love. I do have one warning: for heavy weapons, be careful with the M-920 Cain. Make sure you aim at enemies who are far, far away from you. First time I tried it out I killed everyone, myself and my team included.

I really didn’t mind scanning planets for resources or side missions, but I know many people who absolutely despise it. The annoyance factor of planet exploration really depends on the player; instead of the Mako you scan planets, which I personally like because the Mako makes me so angry it’s not even funny. The cursor is rather slow at first, but there is an upgrade that makes it faster.

The romance scene remains awkward and creepy. My (male) Shepard hooked up with Tali. It was bizarre. It wasn’t explicit at all, even less so than the creeptastic romance scene in the first one, but there’s something really, really strange about it. That’s all I’m going to say about it.

There were some graphical issues, but no game busting ones that I found. Sometimes teammates would climb over an obstruction and suddenly be 20 feet above me. Also, for some reason husks kept falling through the floor when they died and ended up just sticking out of the ground like daisies. It was confusing, but my room mates and I lol’d pretty hard. Otherwise the graphics definitely looked better than ME1, and it’s still an absolutely gorgeous game to look at.

Basically, I love this game. I enjoyed every minute I played it, and my room mates enjoyed watching me play it (seriously, they gathered around like it was Project Runway). BioWare has never failed me yet, and I hope they never will. I do recommend playing ME1 first, though, if only for the starting bonuses and to get a feel for the Mass Effect universe. I definitely, definitely give this game an A.

I love bullet points.

2010-01-28T20:33:00.001-05:00

I totally won State of the Union bingo last night. It excites me because I rarely win anything/do anything right. A “close up of John McCain” sealed my victory. Totally hung that shit up on my wall.
Tomorrow afternoon/evening I am going to go help my friends remove a virus/malware from their computer. This is how we nerds spend our Fridays. It’s apparently the Malware Defense one, which seems pretty nasty. We may lose the battle, but fuck we’re going to throw everything at it.
I really hate myself for not telling Amazon to ship my Mass Effect 2 on release day. Right now I’m dying over it. I WANT IT SO BAD. I hope I get it tomorrow, because then I can spend all weekend playing that shit. I am such a total Mass Effect fan girl it’s not even funny. I squeal and flail every time I see an ad for it. I realize that I need help, and lots of it.
My thesis advisor ended his email to me about my paper proposal with, “Charge on!” I am rather inspired now, and also filled with mirth. He’s probably one of my favorite people in the history department.
Some friends and I are doing a fun social experiment with OKCupid. I’ll probably dedicate an entire post to it soon, because there is some serious hilarity.
Pretty much everyone hates my room mate’s boyfriend. This is the same one from my last entry. That entry was on a Friday; he was at our apartment from Thursday to Tuesday. It would be less obnoxious if she was the one that had her own room, but they sleep out in the middle of the living room on an air mattress. Meaning, a huge chunk of our gathering space is gone. So we were rather annoyed by that.

Then this week, he fucking comes back again. She said, “He’ll only be here one night.” He stayed for three. Now I would have less of a problem if a) she had asked us first, and b) he wasn’t a fucking douchebag creeper.

Need examples? No problem. Firstly, he barely acknowledges anyone. If you’re in our apartment for five straight days, I would expect to at least have some meaningful exchange of dialogue once. Secondly, there was a commercial for Yaz (the birth control pill) on TV and he openly said to my roomie, “Should we try that one?” Holy fuck, keep that shit under wraps. Third, he’s supposedly going down to NC to live with his grandfather who has cancer. It sounds honorable at first, but it gets weird when you take into account the fact that my roomie doesn’t know what type of cancer it is. As someone whose dad had a cancerous colonic tumor removed (and luckily it was caught before it spread – btw this happened when I was in 4th grade and back then my mom told me it was just a simple removal, but I found out this summer that it was fucking serious and I seriously almost lost my father – but I digress), and my other roomie’s mom is a breast cancer survivor, I know that when you say “cancer” it’s almost always specified due to the sheer amount of types there are. Fourth, I noticed the infantile, speaking-down-to that my other roomie noticed before. And it is seriously disgusting. I mean, I’m far from an ultra feminist (my main goal in life is to be a stay/work at home mom, for fuck’s sake), but seriously, this guy isn’t even going to college and is basically just bumming around. He’s the last person that should be talking down to her.

Seriously, I think all of her friends hate him. Even our friend Anthony, who likes everyone regardless, despises him. I usually get along well with people and can become friends with practically anyone, but this guy totally turned me off. Not to mention she gets totally weird when he’s around. Also, I share a room with her and if they’re both back here, I can’t sit back here in my Awesome Space (tm). I usually have to bring my laptop out there and just wait until they get bored or whatever the fuck. I’ve had many offers to come over and stay at other friends’ apartments, and if this trend of him appearing randomly for days on end continues I may have to take them up on him.
Our rats continue to provide some awesome entertainment. I was talking to my dad on the phone, and Bella climbed up onto my shoulder and started nibbling my hand and my phone. They really don’t like it if you don’t pay enough attention to them, hahaha.

As if that weren’t enough, when I finally got Bella to stop messing around, my troublemaker Chryseis jumped up my leg and climbed up to my arm and then clicked a lot at me, which means she’s happy from what I’ve read. Well that’s nice and all, but goddamn I’m on the phone!

Later that same evening, the last one, the runt of the litter Buffy who has finally realized that our hands do not mean insta-doom for her, followed me all the way down the hall to my room. I usually don’t like to let them in our room because one of them (probably Bella) decided to chew through one of my power cords. However, Buffy was too cute and she was looking at me with those little eyes and I gave in and let her in. I was about to take a shower, so I picked up Buffy and put her back into the living room. Lo and behold, she ran after me again and followed me into the bathroom with her little nose conveying “HI WHAT’S GOIN ON IN HERE?” It took several minutes and a piece of a tortilla chip for me to get her out. I’m flattered she likes me so much, but shit. It’s like having mini dogs.
Anyway. I want to read ahead for one of my classes, then I have to watch Project Runway with my roomie. IT IS ESSENTIAL. I am seriously losing a lot of my tomboyishness and I’m actually not that sad. Fuck yeah, estrogen!

WRRRRYYYYYYYYYY

2010-01-15T21:00:00.001-05:00

So much to bitch about.

So my favoritist band in the world besides Radiohead, The Receiving End of Sirens, are reuniting, hopefully for good. I was pumped and ready to go up to Mass. on May 8th, until I realized it’s my graduation day. FFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU…I seriously hope they’re reforming for good, because goddamn. Fucking love those bitches. When they broke up/went on indefinite hiatus I was depressed for an entire week.

I have the virus from hell right now. Kinda feel like my head is about to explode. I spent all of yesterday evening, last night, and the better part of today in bed drifting in and out of consciousness. I hate getting sick because when I do get sick it’s fucking bad. My immune system is good until something actually gets in, then it just creates a giant clusterfuck with my antibodies and white blood cells and they’re all like “OH GOD WHAT IS THIS FALL BACK!”

Also, it’s weird how my sister and I both always get sick at the same time. ALWAYS. We don’t even see each other that often. I saw something on her status about being ill this morning, and I was like, “WTF I’m sick too!” She apparently has the full-blown flu, I just have some nondescript shit that has the possibility of turning into a sinus infection. Still weird though.

My roommate’s boyfriend is spending the weekend here. Because of my current condition I actually haven’t met him, but my other roomie was kind of turned off by him. Apparently he kinda talks down to roomie #1, which if that’s true, I don’t feel comfortable with that. I mean, I gave him my seal of approval because he likes the same type of music as I do and roomie #1 seems to be crazy about him. And roomie #2 really isn’t one to make something like that up, or see something that isn’t there. I dunno. If I feel better tomorrow I’ll see if I can gauge him a little better. I really have problems with guys who do that sort of thing. Sure, roomie #1 is rather innocent and sheltered, but seriously, that talking down shit is not cool at all.

First week of my last semester of college actually went by well. It shouldn’t be too bad, except for my big thesis that I have to do. 30+ pages about the battle of Thermopylae pass during the Greco-Persian wars. I can do it easily, it’s just that it’s going to be a lot of work. Will be starting on that probably this weekend.

Buffy, the rat that used to freak out whenever you tried to pick her up, has finally learned that doom will not befall her if a hand comes near. She still sort of seizes up, and she let out a tiny squeak when I picked her up one day, but she no longer bites and is pretty calm as you hold her. This is great, because she’s actually rather cuddly when she realizes she’ll be alright. A couple of days ago she stole a wrapped piece of chocolate from one of my roommates and then scampered away. I nearly died laughing. Rats apparently do laugh, it’s just that it’s beyond the range of sound humans can hear. I’m sure Buffy was giggling while running around trying to dodge my roommate. Hilarity and a half.

Anyway, time to eat some vitamin c tablets, listen to Iron Maiden, and play Modern Warfare 2. It was what one of my friends told me to do to get over this illness. Might as well give it a shot!

Sims 3 - World Adventures EP

2010-01-12T19:38:00.000-05:00

I broke down and bought the Sims 3 expansion pack, even I didn’t think it looked all that great and, as previously demonstrated, I’m not crazy about the base game. However, I am the master of impulse buys and later deep regrets. The deep regret of this purchase hasn’t quite hit, or at least not yet.

Basically, if you’ve played Sims 1 or 2 and know of Bon Voyage and Vacation/On Holiday, you know what to expect with World Adventures. You can take your pixel dolls to China, France, or Egypt and immerse them into a very watered down version of the actual countries. It would have been sweet if your sims had to learn the languages and were standing there holding a translation book mispronouncing everything with the sims who live there just stand there and laugh, but hey, I’m a history major, not a game designer. Whilst there, the sims can go on these crazy adventures that lead them into tombs and such. They can also steal precious artifacts so they won’t be taken care of properly and future generations will not understand past cultures and humans and therefore will be doomed to make similar mistakes or just being rock stupid in general. /historymajor

I actually found these little quests quite fucking tedious. Maybe I’m just lazy (80% possibility), but it’s not like Fallout 3 or Borderlands where you just point the analogue stick/mouse while holding down WASD to get through one area. You have to click around each maze to keep the sims from killing themselves.

Like Jimbob McGee here. First time he was going through a tomb in China I was like, “Oh, he’s probably smart enough not to walk through fucking fire.” When the Grim Reaper showed up to take away the now toasty Jimbob, I realized I was putting too much faith in the programming. Sorry, Jimbob. Again though, tons of clicking. And if you want more than one person to go through a tomb, expect even more.
The visa system is an interesting new twist, though. All sims start off with a level 1 visa for each location, and must acquire points through adventuring in order to gain a higher visa level. On visa level 1, they can only spend three days on location before getting booted into a loading screen regardless of what they were previously doing. Because I’ve been playing an epic amount of Red Faction:Guerrilla and I’m now back at school, I haven’t managed to get anyone past level 1 yet. I’m also not trying very hard, so there’s that.

Sims can also enjoy the new hobbies photography and martial arts. Martial arts is hilarious because they start off fighting with the sissiest half-hearted slapping you’ve ever seen. Photography is sort of silly because the challenges are pretty weird. One of them is to take a picture of a tissue box. Yeah.

With every expansion, of course, there’s new shit to pimp your sims out with. Such as this hairstyle, and this eyeliner that looks like an earthquake hit in the middle of the application process.

Seriously, what the fuck.

There isn’t a ton of new shit, which is understandable given that there are basically 3 more neighborhoods instead. In general, it’s a few new Create-A-Sim shit like hair and clothing (men are once again largely overlooked unless you want like 12 new hats), as well as some nice Chinese, French, and Egyptian styled furniture and decor. There’s also a totally bitching moped that made me giggle furiously. Other than that, gameplay back in the normal neighborhood is pretty much untouched.

Of course, because this is EAxis we’re talking about, there’s some pretty gnarly bugs in this expansion. The biggest one is the fact that the launcher refuses to install a bunch of custom content, even if it’s content from the Sims Store. That’s right, if you were willing to pay money for some little pixel furniture, guess what? You can’t even use it unless you use some insane fix that involves converting files or sacrificing to Odin or something ludicrous. Great job, EAxis! Further, I personally have had weird shit like sims not going to school or work and therefore performance slips to ridiculously bad levels, an issue that I’ve only been able to solve by using the Awesomemod’s “backtowork” command at 9 AM, 3 PM, and 8 PM. That or just letting everyone fail and then sitting back and laughing, but usually I actually want to play the game as they meant for it to be played. Another weird glitch is that sometimes inventory objects will just vanish. Shit sucks if it’s an adventuring item that you need in order to get more visa points. I never thought I would ever actually say “FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUU…” in real life, but I did that day.

Honestly I don’t understand EAxis’ bug fixing policy. Some of the issues people have been having have been around since the base game. Half the bugs EAxis doesn’t fix are fixed by fan-made mods like the Awesomemod. I understand the economy sucks and they may not want to hire a whole bunch of testers, but if some regular guy can fix this shit for free and do it within a couple of days, what’s EAxis doing?
I feel like I rant about EAxis every time, but sweet Jesus, I don’t think I’ve ever played a game this buggy that doesn’t get a patch within a few days. Hell, wasn’t Modern Warfare 2 patched like the day after it was released because there were issues with multiplayer? Infinity Ward, go help EAxis or something. Damn.

Anyway. It’s hard for me to recommend this expansion pack, but I feel like that’s probably because of who I am. Currently I’m having a ton of fun beating dudes with a sledgehammer in Red Faction. World Adventures, by comparison, is kinda boring. If you enjoyed the other “journey to another land” expansion packs of Sims 1 and 2, you’ll probably enjoy this one. It’s a good expansion, but I wouldn’t have used it as the first one. I think they should’ve done something like Nightlife/Hot Date and mix up everyday gameplay a bit. Again though, I study ancient Greece so my opinion is moot, really.

Final verdict: meh. Hold your money until a patch is released.

Why Can’t We All Get Along?

2009-12-30T23:58:00.001-05:00

I started another (YES ANOTHER) blog. This is the first post on it. I really just can’t sit still anymore. Also, behold the first blog post I’ve ever written that contains no profanity. Now you know I mean serious business.

*********

I guess the reason I started this blog comes from the news that Rush Limbaugh was rushed to the hospital tonight with chest pains. I found this out on Twitter, which as you can imagine, is an infestation of everything wrong with the way we as humans think. I was rather horrified to see people actually hopeful that this man would die. Further, those who label themselves as conservatives or right-wing are taking the opportunity to generalize all those who may consider themselves liberals or left-wing. WHY?

Because human beings, I have determined from 21 years of first hand research, are disgusting.

Seriously, let's all take a look at ourselves. First we must categorize ourselves into completely ridiculous and arbitrary groups (conservative, liberal, religious, atheist, gay, straight, poor, rich). Next, hate everyone who does not have the same views, ideas, and/or experiences as we do. Bash the "other side" relentlessly. And what does this accomplish? Absolutely nothing. This "us-against-them" game never ends. Neither side will ever be able to get ahead, which in turn makes nothing change.

This is why I created this new blog. I may only be 21, but I'm already sick of the way we think, particularly in America. Seriously, try watching Congress or even one of the 24 hour news networks. It's so reminiscent of high school it's not even funny. Some of these people are 3 times older than I am and yet act less than half my age. What happened to calmly discussing things like adults? Cooperation? Compromise? Working together? Respecting everyone around you just for being human, even if you didn't quite see eye to eye? Maybe this never happened and I'm just ridiculously optimistic.

I honestly think we could change though. With work and patience maybe we can start fixing things. At this point, it's just me and a blog I've started out of anguish and frustration with the world, but I do hope there are others out there just as optimistic as I am.

The world just sucks right now. I just see all of this fighting and bickering...and for what? Nothing gets accomplished with screaming contests, insults, and violence. At least, that's what I was taught in third grade. However, I don't see why that wouldn't work in the real world as well. I have hope that we humans still have enough good in us to start viewing things in a different way. Perhaps we'll learn that what we're doing isn't working. Perhaps not.

For now, all I can change is myself. I'll be taking on the world though, one person at a time. It's my 2010 resolution. Game on.

The Sims 3 Review: 5 Months Later

2009-12-20T20:07:00.001-05:00

Okay, so it’s been about 5 months since I last played TS3. Has my opinion changed?

The answer is: slightly.

Seamless neighborhood: still yay.
Traits: yay, sometimes to a loltastic extent.
Voice customization: has grown on me.
Graphic effects: good, but I’m getting some really weird looking glitches this time around. More on that later.
Moodlets: yay, but like the graphics I think something is fucked up.
Jobs: still enjoying them and the opportunities. However, it still seems too easy, and I’d enjoy more careers. Maybe that’s in the World Adventures expansion, I honestly have no fucking idea.
Base items: less issues with the lack of content with Mod The Sims and other custom content sites. Current problems with custom content will be discussed later as well.
Lack of Body Shop: given the amount of custom content, people have obviously found some other method of making their own shit. So this is no longer an issue, especially since I don’t even play this game anymore.
Faces: Less strange looking to me. Then again I’ve been melting my mind playing Fallout 3, and the dead-shark eyes, stiff movements, and lack of facial expressions of those characters make most anything better.
Motive system: can’t really tell because I don’t even pay that much attention to them. Also, I don’t remember what the Sims 2 system was like at all.
Behavior: nothing the Awesomemod couldn’t solve.
Community rabbit holes: meh.
Stand-alone game: I s’pose. Again, it’s been so long since I’ve played Sims 2, and fucking ages since I’ve played Sims 1, that I barely even remember what they entail.
One neighborhood: I think they’re fixing that with a Create-A-World program I just saw literally an hour ago.
Storytelling mode: again, Awesomemod (and probably some of the patches, too) solved everything. The shit that happens when I’m not watching makes sense now.
Sims 3 Store: still a bunch of bullshit. The uploads on Mod The Sims are better than anything I’ve seen in the store.

My main problem this go around is mainly with EAxis and the developers of the game. Why? This time around, there seem to be a shitton more glitches and issues. From the quick searching I did, it seems like they’re more related to the patches. Basically, their patches screwed up more shit than they fixed, or at least created more issues. Then the guy who makes Awesomemod has to fix their mistakes, because he actually fixes shit in a timely manner and releases the mod for free, unlike the multi-million dollar company who just say they’ve identified the problem and are working on it. Great.

First problem, I can’t install 90% of the custom content I downloaded. I didn’t have this problem before. It will say that the items have installed, but it will have lied to me. Seriously, fuck you too, Sims 3 Launcher. And others are having the same issues. It’s not like I can’t play without custom shoes, but goddamn I would hope that a game I paid $50 for would what it’s supposed to.

Graphics issues are also quite apparent. One of my pixel dudes was teaching his toddler how to walk, and he helped the child stand up from a good sim-meter away, not even touching the child. Either that’s a graphical error or my sim is a jedi. Their pixel lady neighbor also read a book but it was levitating a few sim-inches away from her hands. Seriously, if the goal was to make all Sims jedi then that’s great. Otherwise, I am concerned.

There are also some gameplay glitches. Some of the moodlets’ influence on mood seems completely borked. Teen!Mortimer Goth had the “Anxious to Advance” moodlet, which is something like –15 on mood. He also had the Honor Roll and Beautiful Vista moodlets, which I don’t remember exactly what their influence is but I’m positive they would outweigh the negative one. All of his motives were in the green. Yet, his mood was down in the red. WAT. I exited the house, switched to a different household and back, and it seemed to be fixed. Huh.

Look, I understand that this is a ridiculously fucking complex game. I think most people understand that. However, it’s still a product that you want consumers to buy. Consumers aren’t going to buy or want to play a screwy product. I would be willing to wait longer to get something if I knew that most of the bugs would be worked out. But it seems that EAxis just sort of throws patches together, puts them up and then walks away. Even some of the Sims 2 patches were pretty fucking awful. Seriously, they should just do more testing. It’s definitely worthwhile in the end. Or hire some of these modders, because they’re making EAxis look pretty bad.

Basically my point is, decent game, shitty development. EAxis definitely needs to pay more attention to their consumers, or at least spend more time testing their shit to make sure what should be functional actually is. Even if there are bugs, they get them fixed in a timely manner so that their consumers aren’t saying, “Well they’re not going to fix it anytime soon, so let’s see what we can do.” Creates a nice comradery between them, but again, it makes EAxis look shitty and almost like a joke.

Time to go see if I can edit some files and get this shit working.

INTERNET ARGUMENT

2009-12-15T00:10:00.002-05:00

On VFTW, I’m usually known as the person who will throw this image up whenever necessary:

It’s the truest damn image macro ever.

Take Twitter for example. Chris Brown deleted his account. People of course are making fun of that fact. This girl is arguing with fucking everyone about Chris Brown. I tweeted, “Chris Brown deleted his twitter? Nothing of value has been lost.” She tweeted, “So delete yours so we can make space for someone important.”

Now admittedly this is a very good point. However, I was commenting on the fact that people are acting like Chris Brown deleted himself instead of his twitter.

Me: I chose to comment on people taking a twitter account way too seriously. Yet somehow I offended you...?

Her (I’m assuming it’s a she): No. I'm Sorry.

This is my best aspect. I can make people who for whatever reason don’t like me, like me in seconds. My diplomacy skills are fucking legendary. Shit, some of my best friends used to think I was a total bitch. And I am, but I am a lovable bitch. Anyway, the tweets continued.

Me: Seriously, though, calm down. You can't change people's minds. Just enjoy your life.

Her: People are confused. They follow the trend of "Lets Hate this Celebrity". You can't change a mind that doesn't think for itself.

Me: (Ignoring the fact that I completely disagree with her, because that is beside the point) Then why argue? Especially online, nothing will be accomplished. You will never see eye to eye. Don't waste the time.

Her: Because I'm a Moron who argues with Morons... But you're 1 of the smartest ppl I met all night.

Me: Thank you. I don't know, I just don't see the point of endless arguments...but have a good night.

And then the other person who she’s been arguing with says, “@tinnerz10 is right. We won't solve anything. Wanna just agree to disagree and call it a night? My old ass is tired sweety.”

I am telling you, I should be a diplomat. No telling if their argument is going to stop, but hey, at least I put the point out there. Seriously, there is no point in arguing over the Internet. Hell, even some of this shit I wouldn’t waste my time in real life on. Stooping down into name-calling and insults because someone has a different viewpoint than you do is just fucking stupid. You’re not going to change anything unless both sides are open to the other’s ideas and you can discuss it with some civility.

Even on VFTW, I find that arguing with the Idol fans is just pointless. We will never agree. Sure, when they go through the entire registration process simply to tell us we’re lame, mean, ugly, fat assholes, they open themselves up to some flaming. But does that mean we have to give them that attention? All it does is start a huge circular argument that never ends until everyone moves to a different comments section and it all begins anew. If they want to come on and say shit, well fine, that’s their right. We don’t go to their sites and start flaming them (or at least I hope not…).

I just don’t understand arguing about shit that has little to no affect on the world as a whole. Does what people say about Chris Brown or Adam Lambert affect the economy, health care, the wars we’re currently fighting, poverty issues, the education system, or the environment? Fuck no. If you’re going to start ridiculous battles about shit, at least argue over something that affects more than your own self esteem and/or psyche.

Besides, IT’S THE FUCKING INTERNET. I mean, if you tried to argue with everyone on the web that you disagreed with, you would die of starvation for sitting in front of the computer for days on end. Not only that, but you could totally hate someone on the Internet, then meet them in real life without even knowing it and think they were a totally awesome person. You’re only meeting a small part of someone’s personality on the Internet. There are things we all love and hate about the people in our lives. Having a limited perspective of a person skews how you think of that person. But overall, as I’ve said numerous times before, if you’re that bothered by something you read on the Internet, you should probably use it as little as possible. People in real life are stupid enough that they should fill your daily quota of annoyance nicely.

I’ve learned that there are some battles you just have to drop before they’ve begun. Made my life a hell of a lot more enjoyable. It’s probably why my depression shit was so awful. I was more concerned with being right about everything than my own wellbeing. It’s just not healthy. I just hope others, such as this girl on Twitter, are able to learn that sooner than I did.

University of Mary Washington: Yeah, We're Pretty Awesome

2009-12-12T20:40:00.003-05:00

FUCKIN RAVE PARTY BITCHES.

All videos by yours truly.

Basically, this was a test of school pride because, since we don’t have a football team, we barely have any. Surprisingly, a lot more people showed up than I imagined. Trinkle Hall’s rotunda was pretty packed. It was also insane. Crowd-surfing, people throwing toilet paper and their class notes, hardcore dancing…seriously, something this crazy never happens at Mary Wash. It was so great. We need to have one every week, pretty much.And as an example of our awesomeness, a bunch of people, including my roomie and I, stayed after to help clean up. Also, the security guard enjoyed it as much as we did. That’s just how we are. You stay fly, Mary Wash.

Of course, the semester ended yesterday so now I’m home. And already bored. I’m listening to Sigur Ros and knitting. GOD I RULE. I was going to play Fallout 3, but it had some random update and then I forgot to reboot it until just now. Oh well. Also may play Sims 3 just to see how I feel about it after not playing it for 6 months.

Did some Christmas/me shopping. Got some speakers for my laptop and a few sweaters. Nothing too big. Christmas is coming soon enough, and AFTER CHRISTMAS SALES HELL YEAH.

Anyway. Just wanted to boast about flash raves. Back to being ridiculously boring.

2009: A Review in Music

2009-12-10T18:36:00.001-05:00

Basically because I want to procrastinate from packing and finishing my 10 page paper. I’m just going down my list of music in my “2009” iTunes playlist.

Amanda Overmyer – Solidify

I love Amanda, like most people on VFTW do. She has that great blues rock sound that my parents listen to all the time. This is a solid album, and really shows how watered down she was on American Idol. Unfortunately I doubt many people who mostly listen to mainstream music would fully appreciate the talent she has. Fucking shame.

Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion

Keeping in line with my vaguely-hipster cred, I fucking love Animal Collective. This isn’t my favorite album by them, though, and that title easily goes to “Sung Tongs.” I think this one comes in a close third following “Strawberry Jam.” MPP is a bit less out there than some of their other albums and slightly more mainstream friendly. Still good, but I want another “We Tigers” esque song.

Architects – Hollow Crown

I have listened to “In Elegance” far too much this year. Yeah, it’s metalcore, but this album is fucking fun. Best listened to walking through campus or something else that’s mundane, Expecting to hear more from these guys, they’ve got some talent in them.

As Tall As Lions – You Can’t Take It With You

I pre-ordered this shit. I don’t pre-order often. I love ATAL. They are one of the few bands worthy of me actually having one of their t-shirts. Sounds mundane, but seriously I don’t buy band merchandise usually. This is indie shit out the wazoo, but I love it. Very talented guys, chill sound, beautiful music. Probably up in the top 3 for me.

Children of Nova – The Complexity of Light

A friend randomly recommended this band for me. That person is my new best friend. These guys are pretty much (and criminally) unknown. They have won a ton of local awards in San Diego, where they’re based. Excellent concept EP. I’d describe them as hard progressive rock. Great set of guys, I definitely recommend checking this shit out ASAP.

The Dear Hunter – Act III: Life and Death

TDH lets me hang on to the fond memories of The Receiving End of Sirens. Of course, TDH is nothing like TREOS. This is definitely indie prog, and is fantastic and epic. If the “Act III” in the title doesn’t give it away, there are two other acts in this series of concept albums. I wouldn’t say this is the best, I think I love Act II more. However, this is a solid album nevertheless and Casey’s voice still makes me melt.

Dethklok – The Dethalbum II

The greatest thing about Dethklok is that despite the fact that it’s a cartoon band that is supposed to be making fun of metal music and it’s fans, it’s legitimately great music. The lyrics are absurd and fucking hilarious, but the musicality is fucking amazing. Most of all, it’s just fucking fun. I can do two of my favorite things at once: headbang and laugh. I think I like this one more than the first, too.

Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest

Keeping in line with hipsterness. Grizzly Bear, like Animal Collective, probably won’t be famous anytime soon because they’re so far out there from where mainstream music currently sits. This is still fucking great. Although I still like “Yellow House” the best, Veckatimest is pretty legit. Great chillout and study music. Always puts me in a calm, peaceful mood.

HORSE the Band – Desperate Living

I had nearly forgotten how great this band was. I hadn’t listened to them in a long time until this album came out, then I remembered why I used to love them so much in sophomore year. It’s fucking brilliant. Mixing experimental metal-esque prog shit with Nintendo sounds? FUCKING LEGIT. This album is by far my favorite of the year, I’m not even kidding. It’s fantastic. It’s just so much fun to listen to, and the talent is just outstanding. Fucking brilliant, I love it.

Kris Allen – Live Like We’re Dying

I’ve only listened to this once because I just obtained it like a week ago. Unfortunately, I can’t even remember the songs except “Live Like We’re Dying” (which is obnoxiously catchy and has been the Earworm of Doom for a while) and of course the “Heartless” cover. From what I remember thinking, it’s not bad. Given that 90% of pop music makes me want to strangle someone and I did not experience such anger, I can safely say this sits in the 10% of pop that I can stand. Not that it’s anything new or interesting, but it’s pleasant white noise. Sorry, Kris.

MSTRKRFT – Fist of God

This shit is also legit. Great fucking electronic/dance music. I dare you not to at least bop your head to this shit. I feel like one issue they suffer from is that some of the songs sound quite similar to each other, and it start to sound like one song after a while. However, I’m usually dancing so I don’t usually give a fuck. Fun, funky, energetic. Fine by me.

Mute Math – Armistice

If it hadn’t been for The Receiving End of Sirens, Mute Math would have dominated my freshman year of college. Their first album is pretty spectacular, but this one kicks it to a whole different level. Funky, energetic dance rock. I in particular dance a whole fucking lot to these guys. And Paul Meany sometimes rocks a keytar. That alone should make you want to listen to this shit. Very legit, another one in my top 3 of the year.

Portugal. The Man – The Satanic Satanist

I feel like I’ve used this word way too much in this post but LEGIT. P.TM never fails to impress me. Not only do these guys pop out a new album every year, each album is great and their sound evolves with every one of them. Creativity abound, seriously. I’d say this album is a bit more chill than the others, but it’s still great. I also wish I could sing like John Gourley. So. Fucking. Much.

Rx Bandits – Mandala

I just got into these guys this year, but they’re quickly becoming one of my favorites. Great ska-esque rock. Don’t have as much to say about them as the others since I haven’t been listening to them for as long, but they are a pretty sweet band. I especially love that they use horns, rock music needs more trumpets and shit. IMHO.

Saosin – In Search of Solid Ground

Unfortunately, I am not as impressed with Saosin as I was with their self-titled debut. That shit right there was some legit screamo. This one just feels like they’re becoming another mainstream band. Less intense, somewhat formulaic. A bit of a letdown, for me at least. Still love these guys, but I don’t see myself listening to this album on repeat like I did the debut.

Tokio Hotel – Humanoid

Tokio Hotel would be my guilty pleasure if I ever actually felt guilty about anything I like. Suck it, bitches. Seriously, this is a pretty decent record. I like the electro pop direction they’re going in. “Love and Death” is a pretty kickass song, and I had no fucking idea Bill had that kind of range. You go, Bill. It’ll be interesting to see where they go after this one. I wouldn’t mind even more electronic in their sound, it works pretty well for them actually.

Shit I have but I haven’t listened to enough to form an opinion

A Storm of Light – Primitive North
Amesoeurs – S/T
Olafur Arnalds – Found Songs
The Asteroids Galaxy Tour – Fruit
Bon Iver – Blood Bank
Cage the Elephant – S/T
Clark – Growls Garden
Converge – Axe to Fall
The Fall of Troy – In the Unlikely Event
Faunts – Feel.Love.Thinking.Of
The Flaming Lips – Embryonic
Isis – Wavering Radiant
Just Went Black – Crossroads
Lacuna Coil – Shallow Life
Mastodon – Crack the Skye
Maybeshewill – Sing the Word Hope in Four-Part Harmony
MONO – Hymn to the Immortal World
Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
Patrick Wolf – The Bachelor

Expect those reviews to come later. Time to stop procrastinating.

Soooooo.

2009-12-05T16:29:00.001-05:00

First off, I’d like to say that I really, really wish VFTW would stop talking about Adam Lambert on the front page. He’s not interesting, and it’s not even funny to laugh at his “failures” anymore, it’s just boring. Still love the site and the people on it, but it’s like reverse tarding sometimes.

It’s snowing pretty good outside here, the first snow of the season. It looks pretty. Of course, I’m stuck in here finishing up finals. We’re supposed to go downtown to the Christmas parade, but I’m wondering if it’s still on for tonight. The sidewalks don’t look too bad, but it could be icing up. Who knows.

Modern Warfare 2 is pretty fun. Not quite worth all the hype, but whatever. I haven’t played online multiplayer since the whole Javelin glitch thing. Basically, the Javelin is a grenade launcher, and when people shoot you it explodes, killing you and the person/people shooting you as well as everyone around you. It’s a way for really shitty people to get kills when they can’t get them through not cheating. Hate to make wide sweeping generalizations but given my experiences on Xbox Live I wouldn’t be surprised if the majority of the glitchers are the 13 year olds who are probably too immature to be online. I mean, I suck ass at multiplayer, partially because I don’t sit around and play video games for more than 2 hours at a time and thus don’t get in valuable practice. However, I’m not going to cheat just so I can rank up or some shit. Fuck that, I’m not that much of a douchebag. Until the glitch gets fixed they’re starting to ban people for 24 hours, which for some of these kids will feel like an eternity. So at least they’re doing something, but it’s still fucktarded for those of us who play fairly.

Brutal Legend is also pretty good. The problem I had with it was that there seemed to be a lot of graphical issues. A few times textures would just drop the fuck out. More often, I’d be in these epic battles and the frame rate would just fucking plummet. It was quite obnoxious and several times I was concerned about the safety of my console. Otherwise fun game. Haven’t tried multiplayer yet.

We got some Neti pots. Sinus irrigation FTW. I was quite unsure about it because I have hydrophobia (not like, ZOMG A GLASS A WATER, I mean I don’t like large, open bodies of water) which stems from a fear of drowning, and as you can imagine pouring water into your nose kinda makes you feel like you’re drowning for a bit. After I quelled the onset of a panic attack it wasn’t that bad. My sinuses have been giving me issues for almost a month now, so I’m kinda worried that I’m getting an infection. The neti pot doesn’t seem to be doing too much for me, so I’ll probably need to talk to my doctor. Fuck.

Also I wish my roommate would let us know long beforehand when the Christmas parade is. Apparently she wants to leave at 5. Which is in half an hour. We were both thinking it would be closer to 7. LIKE FUCK. I’m still sitting here in pajamas and I haven’t eaten since breakfast. Goddamn. Love people sometimes, but come on…

I guess I’ll get my ass up.

I am ridiculously sick of papers, so I’m writing about AI fans.

2009-11-17T13:14:00.001-05:00

No seriously. I feel like I’ve done nothing but write papers for the past two weeks. I’m burned out. My Anglo-Saxon art paper is total shit right now just because I cannot get it going, or get myself to care. This is terrible. Luckily these are only supposed to be rough drafts, because this shit is certainly rough.

Also, the posts on TopIdol about this woman named Holly (latest post here) are really fucking disturbing. I know people, including myself, enjoy learning about the insane things people do and getting a good laugh out of it (because if I didn’t laugh I’d probably curl up into a ball in a corner and cry that people like this exist). However, when you think about it, and read about women like this who are even more unstable than most, it really is cause for concern.

For instance, this Holly stalks every woman seen with David Cook, calling them a bitch, whore, skank, etc. Just because they are seen with him and happen to have a vagina. Seriously, what the fuck. Furthermore, this woman uses a shit ton of sockpuppet accounts to make it seem like there are more people involved in these shenanigans other than just her. It’s obvious that they’re sockpuppets too, because the writing style is the same, the same spelling errors are made, and when she posts of TopIdol she doesn’t bother to change her IP address. So basically it’s a woman, a ton of accounts on a message board she started, and a helluva lot of free time.

BUT WHY? Does she think she’s trying to protect David Cook? This is what it sounds like from one of her comments on TopIdol. Can’t remember the exact quote, but it was something to the extent of “we’re trying to protect him from himself.” That just raises more questions for me. Why does this woman think that David Cook needs protection? (She’s probably insane.) What is he doing that is hurting himself? (Nothing.) Does she really think there’s a “we” involved in this? (I wouldn’t be surprised.)

This brings up more points about rabid fans, not just Holly. Why do so many people get so emotionally attached to celebrities? They don’t know them personally. Do they just need something to latch onto, and something about a particular person appeals to them? Are there issues in their own lives that they’re trying to escape from, and therefore try to live their lives vicariously through these stars? I really just don’t understand. Hell, even at my lowest point I was never like, “I MUST MAKE SURE RADIOHEAD IS SUCCESSFUL IN EVERYTHING THEY ARE REMOTELY INVOLVED IN.” (Nevermind the fact that they’ve been successful for like, 17 years now with little help from me.) Fuck, the only Radiohead merch I have other than their music is a poster. I see pictures of women with every magazine Adam Lambert or Clay Aiken or David Cook ever appeared on, dolls they’ve made, t-shirts they’ve bought or made themselves, etc. You can be a legit fan without completely losing your shit and dignity, people.

And another thing: why come the really off the wall people seem to be older women attached to American Idol contestants? WTF. In high school, and even now as a college senior, I only know a few people who actually give a shit about this show. And those few usually forget about the show once it’s over, though they may still enjoy the music of one or two of the contestants. Is it the personal light that the show puts on the contestants? Does that make them more relatable to people who may need a connection such as that? Still though, it’s not healthy. This phenomenon also seems to have become more rampant in the past few years, with the exception of Clay Aiken. Or maybe I just haven’t been paying attention. I mean, I do feel like there is something happening culturally that affects this, because you can find insane fans of about anyone, but those that stick out the most seem to be AI fans.

But the age thing. Completely baffling to me. Why the fuck are so many of these women grown and often with families of their own? And why are they spending so much time and energy on a celebrity instead of their families, who are right there and may actually need them? I remember reading on VFTW or Idletard about a woman whose son who was becoming an alcoholic among other problems, blew up at her over her intense Clay Aiken fandom. She seemed baffled as to why in her post. It makes me wonder if his problems could have been amplified by the fact that she wasn’t paying much attention to him because she was busy scouring the Internet about Clay. And many of the husbands have to feel like shit if they don’t like the same person or want to join the fandom. How many more families are screwed up by this? I tend to give younger fans a break, because we do tend to latch onto things more as we’re younger, but these obsessive like states usually don’t last too long. Also, many of them become busy with school or other activities. They don’t have families to support. These older women should know better.

If I were a psychology major, this would be the most epic senior thesis ever. There’s so much weird shit within these fandoms that it’s just mind-boggling. I’ll probably never be able to understand. I’ve never known anyone to be so obsessed with something (except maybe Ben and Halo, but he grew out of that 2 years ago because he finally realized that there are much better FPSs out there, thank God). It’s like a whole different dimension of people for whom these activities are normal, and they cross over into whatever the fuck dimension I’m living in like some Stargate shit and give me epic mind fucks. That is the only explanation I can come up with. Stargate.

Damn my mom completely ruined me for life with the Star Trek/Stargate/MST3K triforce. Time for class.

Ah fuck.

2009-10-30T23:29:00.004-04:00

Eye strain. Fuck.

Yeah, and I'm blogging. It's seriously from my laptop though. I was reading that monitor refresh rates below 70 Hertz or so causes a lot of eye strain. So I'm like, oh great, I'll just change it to 70 or 75 or something. BUT NO. My laptop does not allow me to change it to anything other than 60. FFFFFFFFUUUU... Hence, I am on my desktop with my 75 Hertz of refreshment. I hadn't booted this shit up in a good 3 weeks, and I forgot how awesome desktops are. It's over 3 yrs old now, but good ol' Spartacus has done well. Other than sometimes refusing to communicate with the monitor properly, but even then it will reboot itself and start functioning again. I know, weird.

I know there's got to be a way to tweak my refresh rate on the laptop. The problem is, I really don't want to fuck it up. It's already been through some shit (HP's shitty hard drive exploding randomly one day. I'd only had it for 2 months, too). Plus that's $1200 of beastly hardware and if I somehow screw it up (which is inevitable if I try something like this) I will probably cry a bit.

Also, I'm sick. Not swine flu though, which is always a plus. It's a head cold, basically. Actually it's starting to feel like a sinus infection. Lovely, but I'll take it over any flu variant anyday. My head sort of feels like a balloon right now.

I'm also keeping track on Ghost Adventures Live. My mom always watches shit like this because she's a sci-fi nerd like that, and passed along that trait to her kids. One of my roommates and I were watching one of the episodes before the live one, and basically just making fun of it. Not because we're skeptics, but because the guys on the show are such bros. Seriously, they are just a few popped collars away from true bro-dom. We are now going to call each other "bro" all the time, and utilize phrases such as "Dude, bro...." "Oh, bro...dude..." "BRO...DUDE, BRO!" Excellent.

I love how my parents still hone in on every health issue of mine. I can't really blame them, with all the shit that happened a few years ago, but the amazing speed at which they respond to Facebook status changes is legendary.

Speaking of which, I've never really understood why some people are so afraid of their parents on Facebook. I think it's a combination of 1) my mom's fuckin cool and wouldn't really give a shit, 2) my sisters and I don't do anything that would be embarrassing, 3) I don't have to worry about friends putting up anything stupid. I just don't do stupid shit. Hell, I can't get drunk for medical reasons (1 oz. of wine every week really doesn't do anything, lol), and it's not like I'm sleeping around with tons of dudes. There's really nothing I need to keep secret from my parents. And hell, a good chunk of my family is on Facebook as well. Again though, I think it's just the situation I'm in. I'm sure if I were in someone else's shoes I'd feel much differently.

Sleepytime tea fuckin rules, too. Just throwing that out there.

So I found this website, King.com, through StumbleUpon (which is my new addiction, BTW). I don't know if it was intentional, but if you say "king-dot-com" out loud it sort of sounds like "kingdom come." This is the sort of thing I figure out when I can't sleep at 3 AM. Anyway, it's actually pretty shitty, but oddly addictive. As a free member you pretty much are just doomed to mediocrity, because they only let you play a few levels/minutes of each game, therefore there's only so many points you can get. Excellent strategy though: have addicting games like BeJeweled, give incentives to play such as "building a castle" and "earning jewels," tell people they have to pay for moar awsum features, ????, PROFIT!!! I refuse to give in, though, because I'm already paying $50 a year for XBox Live and that's way cooler.

My other roommate is on a night hike. My maternal instincts are freaking. Especially because there are only four people, apparently. I am not okay with this. I probably won't be able to sleep until she gets back.

I am still highly confused about Adam Lambert. Do people really freak out over him? I don't know anyone who actually knows who he is. The few friends who do watch American Idol are like, "which one is he?" Then I go online and see all these women going apeshit over him. I do not understand. He's not bad, but he seriously sounds like a million other artists out there. And he has a ridiculous album cover that reminds me of the Lisa Frank backpack I had in Kindergarten. It had baby seals on it, along with rainbows and stars and other Lisa Frank goodness. I digress. His "glam" also fails pretty hard. He should get lessons from Dir En Grey or one of those other Japanese visual kei bands. That right there is some serious modern glam. The lead singer of Dir en Grey also mutilates himself onstage, and I can't decide whether that's fucking awesome or fucking worrisome. Adam can leave that aspect to him.

But seriously, it's like there's an entirely different world out there of pop stars and actors and whatever, along with their rabid fanbases. Actually, now that I've mentioned Adam Lambert, I wonder if some random fan is going to come here. Then again, why the fuck would they, because like, this is a clearly insignificant blog and probably more of a waste of bandwidth than a lot of things. YET I KEEP TYPING.

Also, I have gotten so many messages about the Sims 3 blog post I did in June. This is another thing I don't understand. How are these people finding my blog? Why are they all Sims 3 fans? Honestly I forget the game even exists sometimes. Pretty sure I haven't played it since July at the latest. Console gaming is just way more fun. I like talking to and playing with my friends. And I've become an achievements whore. Maybe Sims 3 people are looking for stuff on the expansion that's supposed to come out and looks sort of lame. No seriously, I used to get so fucking excited about Sims expansion packs, but now it just feels like they're pumping out the same shit. What is this one, "World Adventures" or something like that? I liked it better when it was called Bon Voyage/Vacation. I'm sure there's something that differentiates it from the other two but I still just can't get excited over it. They should've made a Nightlife/Hot Date type expansion instead. I'd much rather they give you more options in the current neighborhood.

Odd as it sounds, I think I'm going to do some homework. I AM THAT BORED. And hell, might as well utilize this time.

Random thoughts of the day.

2009-10-08T16:35:00.002-04:00

Some guy was singing Bel Biv DeVoe's "Poison" outside of my window five minutes ago. And very well, I have to add. I am confused, intrigued, and a bit in love. Thank you, neighbor.
Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 on Legendary was not nearly as difficult as I thought it would be. I feel slightly disappointed. Or maybe I'm just intensely skilled. Doubtful.
John Winthrop made me want to pull my eyes out. I had to read a biography of him for one of my classes and holy sweet Moses, that was the most dry, grating thing I've ever experienced. Now the next time I hear someone say "a city on a hill" I'm going to become blind with rage.
Took a test for my American South class. My test had 40 questions. There were supposed to be 50. My awesome professor, who I've had for 3 classes now, just graded what I had, so I got an A anyway. BOOSH.
Found that everything is better if you listen to Dethklok whilst doing it. "Duncan Hills Coffee Jingle" is my normal coffee run song, but I didn't recognize the power of the Dethklok. Took the most brutal shower ever last night. Sort of hard to headbang while shaving my legs, and I can't recommend that part.
A friend from high school committed suicide on Monday. Very, very strange. Definitely the last person I'd expect to do that. Hadn't talked to him in at least 3 years, but apparently it went downhill pretty fast. I've not been feeling very well for the past few days, and the emotions that it brought up just made it much worse. Right now I'm just depressed and ill. So many questions that no one can answer. Way too many emotions right now.
Fall break starts tomorrow, which is good. However, I will be spending most of my time working on assignments so I don't even consider it a break. More like, "extended weekend."
Reading around Idletard/Vote for the Worst, astounded that fantards still care about any of these contestants, especially Adam Lambert. I never hear a thing about American Idol anymore except when I go on those sites. It's a relief, but it's weird that people think he's a household name and going to be super successful or something. He probably has a better chance than most, but I wouldn't hold my breath. His rabidly insane fans will ruin whatever success he has anyway. The one person I know that actually keeps up with that shit was turned off of Lambert because some frauen kept harassing her about not being a "real fan" because she can maintain an objective view whilst liking someone. A slow clap to you, ladies.
Apple tech support is awesome and it makes me angry that more companies do not have the same emphasis on customer service.
Redskins didn't lose on Sunday. I wouldn't call what they did "winning." Jason Campbell made me sad that I own his jersey. Very close to selling it, because he looked fucking terrible. They apparently hired someone to help out the offense, but this guy also calls bingo, so I don't even know. Dan Snyder, I'm looking for employment opportunities when I graduate in May...
Attempting to watch the news makes me angry and depressed. Already have clinical depression and a short temper, so I read HappyNews.com instead. Because fuck you, mass media.
Speaking of which, I tried to take a survey about television the other day. It asked me what shows I'd watched in the past week. The only time I turned on the TV was to play video games. The 'x' in the corner of the window was clicked. I don't know if I've watched any TV in the past month.
Trying to catch up with my friend Ben in Xbox Live gamerscore. Gamerscore gets you nothing, but I like swinging my e-penis around. Speaking of Ben, I need a power hug, stat.
About to make myself filet mignon for dinner. Because fuck you, campus dining service. I actually eat healthier now that I make most of my own meals because I know that the meat will be properly cooked and the vegetables won't be smothered in fucking lard. Only in the south...
Didn't realize how happy MST3K makes me until I watched it for the first time in a few weeks yesterday. Instantly brought my mood up. Thanks guys.
iTunes is getting a major cleanup over break. I have 13,994 songs. This is a bit insane, and I bet a good bit of those are duplicates. Also I need to stop being a music whore.
Dear God I really want that filet mignon. Bye.

Hail to the Redskins? No, go fuck yourselves you guys.

2009-09-28T11:47:00.004-04:00

Someone on the official message board had the best response to someone who was bitching at all of us Redskins who are fed up with this franchise: "I didn't leave the Redskins, they left me."

It's strange for me to get so emotionally invested in football, though it has been a major part of my life. However, when your team plays that badly against a team who hadn't won a game in nearly two years, it's upsetting. Yes, the Redskins haven't been that good since the 80s, but at least they tried, and at least it was still entertaining, even if in a MST3K-way. Right now it's just painful to watch. Seriously, save for a few players, they gave up in the 2nd quarter, and I followed suit soon after.

Skins fans are all trying to point fingers right now. It's not a clear-cut issue, but it's quite clear that there are some major issues up at the top. Dan Snyder has no fucking idea how to manage a football team, and needs a general manager who actually knows football to make the big decisions like drafting players and picking coaches. Snyder runs this shit like a Madden 2010 fanboy and just buys the most expensive players because he can, regardless of whether or not they are actually worth that (I'm looking at you, Haynesworth). It'd be a dream come true if Snyder sold the team, but it's his cash cow so I sort of doubt he will unless something drastic happens.

It's pretty clear that Jim Zorn is not head coach material, and I figured that when they first announced that he'd gotten the job. Again, his hiring goes back to Snyder. Why hire someone who has had never been a head coach or even had experience as a coordinator? Who fucking does that, other than a goddamned idiot? Zorn also has had a lobotomy or something, because he runs the same play every fucking time they get near the endzone. Run the ball to the left. Unfortunately the other teams aren't as fucking retarded and know that we're going to that side, thus they defend accordingly. Yet in the post-game conference Zorn said, "It was a very solid play." Fuck you in the neck, sir.

There's also some guy named Vinny Cerrato who has the completely bullshit title of "Executive Vice President of Football Operations." He was hired because he was one of Snyder's racquetball buddies. I'm only semi-joking. He was also the star of some 1994 movie called "Kindergarten Ninja." Basically, dude is a fucking joke. After yesterday's shitfest , a journalist wrote: "As soon as we made eye contact, Cerrato said, 'No comment.' It was the first time in 20 years as a journalist someone declined to answer a question before I even had the opportunity to ask one." He's a useless bitch who should go do something he'd actually be good at, like flipping burgers.

Player wise it's a bit better, but there are some clear weak links. A good chunk of the defense needs to GTFO. London Fletcher is actually my favorite person right now (other than Hunter Smith, who is actually the punter but scored the first touchdown with a fake field goal that made everyone shit bricks and gave me some faith). Fletcher brusied his rib, yet continued playing and played harder than fucking anyone else even when the rest of his team gave up. He is the top player in the NFL for tackles right now. He also just admitted this morning on TV that they're a shit team and haven't been since the late 80s. So yay, Fletcher, for acknowledging that fact (though it's obvious, it's nice to see that they recognize it so they'll hopefully get their shit together) and for being awesome.

Jason Campbell is looking steadily worse as a quarterback, dropping the ball and taking way too fucking long to throw the damn thing. I have a jersey of his, but it's at my parents house in a box somewhere, so that tells you how I feel about him at this point. I also have Clinton Portis' jersey, but he's looking totally worn out these days. They run him entirely too much, and it's showing now. Chris Cooley is another bright spot on the team, but amidst the sea of suck that is the offense he can't really shine like he should. Everyone else just ranges from shit to mediocrity and don't stand out in any way.

It's clear that the team has completely lost heart. They've had some low points, but this is probably the lowest ever. Redskins used to be one of the best and most respected teams out there, now they're a laughing stock and an embarrassment to those of us who still root for them. They play like they don't care anymore. Whatever is happening behind the scenes, in the locker room, or at practice is really doing a number on these guys and it's rather disturbing and upsetting to watch. They have as much ability as other teams, and if they don't want to give it their all...what can you do? I don't want to root for a team that just goes through the motions. I've always been a self-deprecating fan (and person in general), but even I have my limits. They're not even a football team right now, as I see it.

At least I'll have 3 more hours on Sundays to get things done now.

Show Choir: Part of a Series on Bad Ideas

2009-09-27T00:42:00.003-04:00

No, I'm not in a show choir. And if I had any desire to be in one, it would have died quickly tonight.

It's Family Weekend here, which means a bunch of performances and exhibitions of "OH LOOK, WE'RE TOTALLY NOT WASTING YOUR MONEY." My roomie from last year and another friend of ours are in orchestra and jazz band, respectively, and both were part of the big musical shindig tonight. I always go to these things because I am a former band geek, I support my friends, and I enjoy live music and I've never seen a bad concert from these guys. So I call up some more of our friends and we get ready to go.

"You realize that between the two, you'll have to sit through show choir, right?" I was told as we headed out into the rain.

A bit of background here: Last year, near the beginning of the term and when my roomie and I were still somewhat awkward around each other, she came in totally ROFL (she was actually on the floor at one point) about show choir. Whatever event she had gone to, she had experienced show choir and it was totally horrendous. According to eyewitness reports the men had on bright blue sparkly shirts and were trying to act ridiculously cool. Roomie and her friend had made the mistake of sitting in the front row and had to hide their faces in their programs because they were laughing so hard.

This year they're supposedly better than the trainwreck last year, but seeing how bad they were tonight I can't imagine it being worse. There were no bright blue sparkly shirts, which was thoroughly disappointing. The ladies had on shirts that had a bit of sequin action around the collar, but nothing completely absurd. The men were boring and just wearing all black. Wardrobe aside, the singing and dancing was absolutely god-awful.

First they did "I Believe" from Spring Awakening. The program said the song was written by Duncan Sheik and as a result I have "Barely Breathing" stuck in my head. Spring Awakening is actually supposed to be a pretty good show, but you wouldn't know it from this performance. It began with them just walking out, but doing what I call the Dance Walk where you step toe-first instead of heel-first. This went on for an entire minute. Then they stood there, with some people in the front sitting down and totally rocking some arm-shelves. Then a jazz box. Then some rainbow arm movements. What I'm getting at is that visually they might as well have just sat the fuck down because watching them wander around seemingly aimlessly was not doing it for me. It would have been nice if, since the dance aspect wasn't there, the singing was good, but it was not. The ladies weren't too bad, and only had a few times when they sounded off. The men, however, were a hot mess. I kept wishing they'd find a key and stick to it, because it sounded like a bunch of cows in a field. But the key was never found, to my bemusement. Finally the song was over, which was good because my ribs were aching already.

Next, "Sing, Sing, Sing." They tried to do swing moves. I was sitting with other swing kids. We cried together. It was an affront to all that is swing. Swing is supposed to be goofy, I know, but goddamn there's a difference between hamming it up and throwing away your dignity. Fuck, you guys. I cut them a bit of slack on the singing, seeing as to how they actually were moving in this song. They of course sounded winded and were dropping out all over the place, which I sort of expect, but you would think that with practice they'd get a bit more used to it. Again, I was too dismayed at the dancing to really pay attention to the singing.

Finally, "I Move On" from Chicago. Oddly enough I've never seen Chicago, and I've done two routines to music from it. Probably should fix that at some point. Anyway, the solo girl was clearly the glue that held this whole thing together. She was this tiny little black girl that had a surprisingly good voice. It was clear why she got the solo. However, some guy also got a solo, but it took me quite some time to figure out who the fuck was singing, since he wasn't prominently displayed like she was. Bad choreography, I think. He sounded like shit compared to her. The dancing was still terrible, so I started looking at the individual performers.

There were a few people who were seriously fucking into it, and then others who looked like they lost a bet and as a result had to join show choir. There was this really tall girl who already stood out, but insisted on making her moves really fucking huge. Close to her was this really short guy who looked like a creeper and threw his whole body into the routine like it was a life or death situation. Looking totally bored was a really tall, lanky black guy, and several brunette girls. Oddly enough, most of the people who were really into it were guys. You'd think that they'd be really concerned about their masculinity with something like this, because there is no way you can look cool doing this shit. I respect that they are comfortable with themselves enough to do this, because I am not.

I half expected some of the older people in the audience to enjoy some cheesy shit like this. However, the group of parents in front of me were laughing as hard as I was. Looking around I saw a healthy mixture of facial expressions: bemused confusion, straight up confusion, incredulous, horrified, totally bemused, laughter, and blank stares. I have never experienced that in any audience before. So I didn't feel so bad giggling uncontrollably, but I still tried to suppress it, just out of respect.

This being my first experience with a show choir of any sort, I had no idea what I was about to watch. I really cannot believe how haughty and arrogant they sounded after the show when we were waiting for our friends to meet up with us. I don't think it's possible to look good while doing that shit. Hell, in swing we know we look retarded and don't even try to pretend that shit is cool. And for the first time ever I honestly have to say that someone else is worse than us. Show choir is just a terrible idea in general. It's awkward to take songs that belong in the context of a full-blown theater show and just throwing in some random choreography. It's also pretty clear that the majority of these people are not dancers, and a good many aren't doing so great as singers either. Putting all of it together, it's only entertaining to the audience for all the wrong reasons.

Random thoughts that I have, and thinking doesn't occur too often for me.

2009-09-22T22:58:00.003-04:00

Writing a screening report for the film "Double Indemnity." Good movie, but I had to watch it about 4 times just now to analyze the mise en scene, cinematography, editing, etc. for my film studies course. Fun class because my friends Tommy, Brian and I just sit in a row and MST3K everything. I am Tom Servo, albeit less red and my head isn't transparent. But it does take the fun out of film watching, because I was watching Kill Bill this weekend and I was like, "HOLY SHIT MEDIUM CLOSE UP REVERSE SHOT."
Chris Sligh's blog post that people are losing their shit about right now is totally the truth and people just want to see everything with rose-colored lenses. Unfortunately, the world sucks and when you accept that fact things seem easier. What I'm trying to say is, if you're offended by anything that he says you should probably just kill yourself.
Fuck. I've spent too much time on the Internet. Don't kill yourself. However, do feel free to sit down and shut the fuck up, or at least read the entire thing and understand it before you launch into a half-informed fury.
The dance we are doing for my modern dance class is fucking ridiculous. It's set to Owl City's "Fireflies," which is a totally shitty yet fucking addictive song (I've listened to it way more than I'd like to admit). At one point I have to pick another girl up and swing her around. I'm glad I worked out this summer and thus have some upper body strength, otherwise it'd be bad for her. We also have to run around with our arms stretched out like we're catching fireflies. I feel so retarded.
In other dance news, swing dance is fucking retarded too. I'm the treasurer this year, but it's shitty when no one else does what they need to so I can beg for money from the school for it. The president wants a budget tomorrow but no one else has given me figures, which they were supposed to give me by Saturday. Thanks, guys. Also, the president is pissing me off, from general disorganization and fucktardery. I mean, she acts like the newbies are in kindergarten and can barely walk. Basic swing dancing is not fucking hard, I taught my dance-retarded roommate swing in about 45 minutes and my bitch looks pro (not really, but still pretty fucking good.) Yet the prez goes through about 3 dance moves in each hour-long lesson and the kids get fucking bored. I'm doubly bored because I've been doing this shit for 3-4 years. And they've all got the moves down, it's just that the prez has no fucking idea what she's doing. I've brought this up to her, and she gave me some half-ass answer. I figure I'm the treasurer so I should focus on money-grabbing/managing and just let the shit fly, but if she doesn't pick up the pace people aren't going to stick around long.
We got pet rats for our apartment. BITCHES ARE CRAZY. Mine is fucking out of control. She must see everything up close, and learn what it is and if she can eat it. We let them out last night, and while her two sisters wandered around but stayed close to the cage and us, she was all over the living room. I do not know what is wrong with her, but I guess that's a rat for you. I'm so used to reptiles (I haven't had a mammal as a pet since I was six) that I'm like "WHAT IS THIS WARM BLOODED CONTRAPTION WITH FUR?" I really do prefer my reptiles, I have learned that about myself.
I've also learned that I am a total fucktard. I mean, I had my suspicions before, but now it's just fact. I seriously just do shit that screws myself over all the fucking time. And I never hurt anyone else, because if anyone else is involved it'll be done right. If it's just me, I will fuck myself over. I think I have deeprooted loathing of myself.
I walked to my Medieval Europe class listening to "Flashdance" the other day. Felt so badass, yet really fucking strange. "What a FEEEELIIINNG...to talk about the Lombard laws!"
There's a new place in downtown called University Cafe that's sort of an offcampus dining place for students. The first time I walked in I was like, "HOLY SHIT THEY'RE PLAYING RADIOHEAD!" Radiohead played the entire time I was there. I was so fucking happy. A+++ will dine again.
I think I've just consumed half my body weight in M&Ms. Wait that'd be like 60 pounds of chocolate. Okay, no.
Speaking of my weight, I lost 10 pounds this summer due to switching my medication. Shitsux because I don't really have that much weight to begin with, and now a good bit of my clothing doesn't fit anymore. Fuck. And I've probably lost more because I haven't weighed myself in a while, and I eat considerably less when I'm at college than at home. I don't look anorexic but I am apparently noticeably thinner. FFFFFFUUUUU...
I hate being a Redskins fan. Why am I such a diehard fan/masochist? Bitches suck right now.
And I really, really need to go to bed. My eyes are starting to cross.

So. New pets.

2009-09-01T22:39:00.003-04:00

I don't know if I mentioned this, but my gecko Draco died in May. Infection. He was badass about everything, but was finally brought down. My entire family was sad. I fucking cried for two days straight. Over a gecko. But I'd had him for seven years, so we'd all gotten pretty attached.

So. Here at MDub. My roommates and I were like, we should really get something, pet-wise. And I mentioned how my best friend owns three, and how awesome they are. Their reactions were "HOLY SHIT YESSSS." And this was all yesterday.

Today, we actually went out and bought them, one for each of them. Talk about an impulse buy. We spent the afternoon reading up on care, and the lady at the store was very knowledgeable and helpful in answering the rest of our questions, and picking out necessities.

So yeah. In less than 24 hours, the population of our apartment doubled.

Mine is named Chryseis. Because, fuck yeah, Homer's Iliad. There's no other reason, really, I just wanted to be really fucking nerdy, as a wanna-be Ancient Greek historian. She is ridiculously curious about fucking everything. My laptop just got a full scan: every key was examined. I too received a very thorough look over. Her little nose goes crazy sniffing everything. It's hilarious to watch. Chryseis also enjoys crawling under my hair and licking my neck, which is awful because I'm am ridiculously ticklish on my neck. She must like me as much as I like her, because when I tried to put her back into the cage she fucking freaked. Like, clinging to me and squeaking. I felt bad, but I wanted to fucking eat and she needs to be with her sisters anyway. I finally got her in, but she gave me this look like, "You bitch."

Pictures coming tomorrow, I suppose. I have a fairly busy day, with our first swing dance meeting of the year (and there are always tons of people for the first couple of weeks, until we weed out the ones that aren't as serious). I also need to go to the lady in charge of club finances to beg for money, and fill out a fuckload of forms. The joy of being treasurer.

More shit later.

Senior Year Already?

2009-08-31T22:42:00.003-04:00

Fuck this shit.

Seriously, I feel like I should still be a sophomore. What the fuck, where did my life go, Mary Wash? I just turned 21, and I cannot believe it.

With the economy like it is, I'm probably fucking screwed out of a job, or one that's any good. FFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUU...

Anyway.

It's the second week of senior year (ugggghhh). It shouldn't be a lot of work, which is good. I just have a shitton of papers to write. It's what I get for being a history major. No labs or equations to memorize, just tons of writing and reading. I don't mind it too much, depending on the topic.

I'm also in an apartment this year. It's a complex owned by the school, so I just pay standard room and board. My roomie from last year and our friends live across the hall from me, and it's really nice. I'm happy with my roommates, even if they 'sploded the dishwasher.

No seriously, second night here, we had just cooked a meal and were starting to clean up. I have my Film Studies class at 6, so I was heading out of the door. I saw Leila putting stuff in the dishwasher, and I fleetingly thought about the fact that we didn't have detergent for the dishwasher, but it didn't really register in my mind until the damage was done. So I come back to a kitchen full of suds and water.

"What the fuck. Did you guys put dish soap in there?" I asked.

"...Oh, you're not supposed to?" Leila replied.

I literally facepalmed.

"Oh fuck, that didn't even register that she put it in there," Kristen moaned.

So basically, we all failed hard that evening. Kristen and I failed twice, because not only did our brains not catch the impending doom, but we later suggested, "Let's run it again and clear out the soap!"

THIS DOES NOT WORK.

It's great though, because if I'm going to fail, I want to fail so gloriously that I win. And we totally achieved that, according to my main dudes Chris and Matt. So shit, I'm happy. We learned an important lesson and definitely won the Fail of the Month award. Possibly Fail of the Year.

The apartment is sweet though. I will have to post pictures one day. For some reason ours is much, much nicer than some that my other friends live in. It's really odd, and you really wouldn't think that they'd all be so much different. For instance, our living room, bedrooms, and kitchen are way bigger than all the other ones I've been in. Considering the fact that Kristen and I just chose something random and close to my old roomie, that's fucking luck.

School is otherwise fine. The workload doesn't seem like it will be too bad. I'm sad that my academic building is renovated, so I get to spend my senior year classes in the old health center, the drama building, and a trailer. Then again, the building was the oldest on campus (which makes it 101 years old), and when you walked through the halls it felt like you were about to crash through. Also it still had asbestos. So maybe this is a good thing, but still, I loved my historical history building. Bitches.

All in all, I think this will be a good year.

Other Blog.

2009-07-26T21:58:00.002-04:00

So I'm starting another blog that will be solely based on reviews. Two reasons for that: 1) I want to keep this one more geared toward knitting/life, and 2) I am thinking about doing reviews as a career, and I need to build up a good portfolio of sorts.

Read it, bookmark it, flame it, curse me out, whatever.

http://elitistreviews.blogspot.com

Sims 3 Updated Review.

2009-07-23T20:20:00.002-04:00

So I've been playing Sims 3 for over a month, and the discussion in the comments in the other post (HOLY SHIT why do people read this shittastic "blog") compelled me to do a slight makeover of my viewpoints.

First off, I still don't like the game that much.

However, I think that's due more to the fact that I've gotten into shit like Fallout 3 and Prototype. Also I now have my XBox 360 so I hardly ever use my PC for games anymore. And even with that, I don't have the fucking time or money to really spend a lot of time with video games. For instance, I got the Broken Steel DLC for Fallout 3 when it came out, like 2 months ago, and I just picked it up and finished the first level two days ago. And I'm a total Fallout fangirl.

Anyway, Sims 3. I'll just go through all the previous points.

The Good

Seamless neighborhood is still nice.
Traits are enjoyable.
Voice customization is...a bit pointless, but fun nevertheless. Create a style is still meh.
Graphic effects are nice, especially now that I can fucking see them on my new laptop.
Moodlets still fine.
Jobs and the new interactivity is still a good change.

The Bad

Still could have done with more base items. However, the modding community is starting to figure out how to create their own objects (EA made it fucking difficult this time) so I doubt I'll care anymore. Not that I really give a shit because as I've said before, I rarely play.
Lack of body shop goes somewhat with the above bullet. EA really wanted to curb people making their own free items and force them to buy from their damn store.
I still hate their faces, even if I can get them to look less round. Also, they did something with the facial structure models or something because you have to fiddle a lot to make a Sim that looks vastly different than everyone else. Or just download a slider hack.
Motive system was off until I discovered mods for it.
Behavior is still ridiculous sometimes, but again, MODS.
Community lots still rabbit holes. I hope this will change in an EP or something, especially the way people are bitching about "OMG I CAN'T TAKE MY SIMS TO THE NIGHTCLUB AND PICK UP CHICKS."
I stand by my statement that this is really not a sequel to the other two. It really stands alone as a game.

The WTF EA?

One neighborhood shit is still stupid, but that's been fixed by hackers, so no more complaints from me.
Storytelling mode was fixed by the Awesomemod, and then 3 weeks later EA shat out a patch. What happened was that when you tried to disable storytelling mode, it really didn't disable and therefore caused the random Sim disappearances.
The store still pisses me off, but people started pirating that shit almost immediately. Unfortunately, none of it even looks good enough to illegally download. Again, the modders will step in and create free shit. I mean, why would anyone pay $20 for a damn set of pixel-furniture? Binary dolls are not worth that, unless they can come to life and fix me dinner.

My main problem is simply this: the game really doesn't seem like it's worth the amount I paid for it. I'm probably (fangirl alert) spoiled from Fallout 3, where you can easily spend 100+ hours wreaking havoc in the post-apocalyptic D.C. area with good replay value. Plus, the DLCs for that have all been spectacular, and add on even more playtime, objects, and people to interact with/kill. Even games like Mass Effect, where you can play once through, then play again as the same character without losing anything and with the ability to kick way more ass.

Also, my other problem is that I'm having way more fun with my own life than with a binary doll's life. I've started to feel sort of weird watching Sims interact with other people while I sit somewhere alone, staring at a screen. Changing interests. If I want to play a video game, I want complete "this is so implausible" escapism. Again, this is all my own fucking opinion, and based on an activity I spend <5 hours a week on.

Anyway.

Basically what I've been doing with my life is knitting, reading, working, watching random movies, and sleeping. Doesn't sound like fun, but I'm an extremely boring person and therefore enjoy such things.

I have knitting patterns and other reviews to do, but they're for other posts. I basically just wanted to get that Sims 3 shit out of my system, even though the game itself is collecting dust right now.

Double Review: Prototype and The Room Rifftrax

2009-06-21T21:15:00.003-04:00

Prototype

If this game were a man, I'd marry him and bear him at least 3 children. He's only mildly attractive but when you get into him you're like OH HOLY SHIT.

What I mean by that is, the graphics aren't that great, but the gameplay makes up for it and more. You play as Alex Mercer, who wakes up on a morgue slab just as he's about to get autopsied. He has no memory of who he is or what happened to him, so you're figuring this out as the game goes on. Also, Manhattan is being overrun with a virus that is turning people into zombies. FUCK YES ZOMBIES. Also you have a shitton of kickass powers. You can shoot a blade tipped tendril out of your arm (or shoot a whole bunch out and destroy everything within radius of you), run up fucking buildings, glide through the air like a sugarglider, consume people and become them whilst gaining their knowledge and energy, and TURN YOUR WHOLE FUCKING ARM INTO A GIANT DOUBLE-EDGED BLADE. HOW CAN YOU NOT LOVE THIS?!

I'm only about halfway through right now, because A) I like having a life, and B) shit is fucking hard at some parts. Seriously, there have been times when I just have to turn off the Ecks Bawks and meditate so I don't explode. Even though you have all these kickass powers, each enemy has a different weakness, so you're constantly changing which power/move to use depending on what you're fighting. Also, you're often fighting both the (virus) infected and the military, sometimes simultaneously. Because of this I normally use a hit and run tactic like the chickenshit I am. Jump from a high area, kill some dudes, then run away and let my health regen/consume bitches. It's how I roll.

Seriously, a kickass game. There are some people who bawl about it not looking great or being too similar to other games or not having a deep storyline, but they can go fuck themselves. I game to fuckin' destroy shit, not to get Schindler's List in high-quality game format.

The Room (2003) + the Rifftrax of it

Oh hi, Danny. I'd heard someone mention The Room about a year ago, but I never thought to look it up until about 2 months ago. Sweet Jesus. This movie may be worse than Manos: The Hands of Fate and Plan 9 From Outer Space. Seriously. The writing is atrocious, the acting is stroke-inducing, and you can FEEL the incompetence surging through your screen as you watch it. It garnered MST3K + Rocky Horror midnight viewings in which people throw spoons whenever the mindboggling framed picture of a spoon appears on screen, shout "FOCUS" when the film goes out of focus (and this happens quite frequently), reenact scenes at the front of the theater in costume, and fake walking out of the movie. I really need to attend one of these.

The plot...is nonsensical. The main plot appears to be a San Francisico-set love triangle between Johnny (Tommy Wiseau), a banker of indeterminate foreign origin (I think it's Latin Amerifrenchkoreansomalian), his future wife (NOT FIANCE) Lisa (Juliette Danielle), who is BEAUTIFUL (not), and Mark (Greg Sestero), who we know through at least 3000 lines of dialogue is Johnny's best friend. Then we have Lisa's mother, who comes in for 3 minute visits, introduces a whole slew of possible subplots that never get mentioned again (Lisa's mom: "I got the test results back today. I DEFINITELY have breast cancer." Lisa: "Don't worry about it. They're curing stuff like that every day.") There is also Johnny and Lisa's college-aged neighbor/surrogate son Danny, who seems like he's supposed to be slightly mentally challenged but no one ever says so, and who for five minutes is a drug dealer. Oh, and he has a crush on Lisa for the first half of the movie then just gets over it, I guess. There are also some other characters who do absolutely nothing and do not further the plot at all. Other than the main characters, I mean.

There are so many notable, shitastic things in this movie I don't even know where to begin. It's clearly not much more than Wiseau (who, as well as starring, directed and wrote this shit) masturbating over himself. The way he protrays his character as an innocent victim leads me and pretty much everyone else to believe that this is autobiographical. I'd love to know what this real life woman thinks now, if she does exist. The best part of it all is that he clearly made it to be a completely serious drama. When he found out that people were laughing at it, he did a 180 and claimed that it was intentional, and that the film was meant to be a black comedy. And thus thousands of Bullshit Detectors sounded.

From the games of football, which consist of tossing a football back and forth whilst standing 3 feet from each other, the laughable dialogue including "YOU AH TEARING ME APAAAAAHT, LISAAA" and "It feels like I'm sitting on an atom bomb that is going to explode," and the characters that come from fucking nowhere, this film is unintentionally a masterpiece. I'd heard that you should first watch this movie with others, but I watched it by myself when I was sick and STILL had a blast. I laughed so hard I vomitted.

The worst thing about this movie are the sex scenes. There are 3 in the first half hour. Now you may be thinking, "FUCK YES, SEX!" but I assure you, watching these scenes will make you wish your genitalia would cease to function. There is NOTHING remotely sexy about any of it. And the shitty softcore R&B music just makes it all even more vomit inducing. I don't want to think about it anymore.

So, the Rifftrax. I was super stoked when I saw on Bill Corbett's facebook that they were doing this movie. And in my very biased opinion, they did a fucking superb job. The movie makes me laugh just by itself, but there were moments when I was literally crying with laughter with the Rifftrax. They completely nail Johnny's ridiculous accent and the constant "Oh hi, *insert character's name*" greetings. When Bill compares Lisa to "the bloated corpse of Britney Spears" I was immediately sold. The one thing I wasn't very fond of was that they do little sketches during the sex scenes so that they didn't have to try to riff that shit. I completely understand that, but the sketches aren't that great. The rest of the riffing is so good that this becomes a mootpoint, however.

So if you want to buy The Room, guess what! It's only $8.99 on Amazon (or free if you're a pirate)! Then buy the accompanying Rifftrax for $3.99. If you're not convinced of the sheer greatest of this shit, here is some YouTubage.

Sims 3 Review

2009-06-06T16:46:00.002-04:00

So, being a Sims fan since it first came out, I was pretty damned stoked for the third installment of the series. Okay, I was fucking ecstatic. When I sat down to play for the first time, I was giddy with joy and the excitement of something new. However, over time that has mellowed out to "meh" and in some cases, outright disgust. There are great new aspects, but the cost of new things seems to be some of the old that were loved by the gamers and part of the reason why so it grew so huge. Without further ado, the super awesome review.

The Good

Seamless neighborhood. Seriously, anyone who doesn't like this is a fucking fool. Those goddamn loading screens everytime I wanted to go to the park...grr.
Traits. I enjoy my excitable, kleptomaniac, inappropriate, friendly vegetarian.
SOME customization. You can change the Sims' voices, and create a style for interior decorating has killed many hours for me. I'll explain why I say "some" later.
Some cool graphic effects. The light changes gradually throughout the day, instead of "Hey, it's 6 PM! BAM PITCH BLACK OUTSIDE." Also, plants move and sway, and according to some people you can see birds, but I'm not that observant and/or my comp sucks too bad for that.
Moodlets. Again, just adds a sense of realism. Watching a good movie does make you happier, for at least a while.
Jobs. I like the opportunities, or little projects that your sim can accomplish outside of work like reading a book, giving a speech, or delivering something to city hall. They boost job performance. While working, you can also choose how your sim spends their time. They can meet their coworkers, hang out and socialize, work hard, or slack off. Pretty nice.

The Bad

Hardly any base game items. The ones that they have either don't look good or are obvious rehashes of those in Sims 2. But the obvious reason for this will be discussed later.
No Body Shop. Yeah, you can't make your own clothes, hair, skintone, eyes, etc. without going in some roundabout way. Excuse me if I'm wrong, but I thought that was the reason why Sims 2 did so well--the vast options to customize our pixel people. But that just gets ripped away.
Round pudding faces. Everyone has the same damn facial structure and double chins, even if they're the thinnest sims you can make. I readily acknowledge, however, that this may just be because I'm so used to Sims "You can make the eyes bigger than your goddamn head" 2 and I'll get used to it.
Motive system seems off. While Sims sleep for fucking ever and are hungry all the goddamn time, I've only had to tell mine to pee twice. Um...if that happens to someone in real life they should probably see a doctor/drink way more water.
Ridiculous behavior at times. After Woo-hoo (sex) they just go back to their "relaxing position" (stretched out on the bed with their arms folded over their torsos calmly) and chat. At least in Sims 2 they cuddled, and in some instances congratulated their partner (I'm not kidding). When feeding babies or toddlers, the bottle is pulled out of thin air, and when finished, vaporizes again. Also, all it takes to change a diaper is to toss the child up in the air spinning like a fucking top and they are instantly clean. I WISH THIS SHIT WERE POSSIBLE IN REAL LIFE. But since it's not, and this game prides itself on realism, and the other two were more realistic in this aspect, I don't understand why it would be so hard to put it in this game. Again, I readily accept that this is just something I'm being picky about and may get used to.
Community lots. All of them, save for parks, are "rabbit holes" (meaning you can't actually see the interior. This makes since for workplaces and schools, but restaurants and stores? Honestly? Part of the fun of them was seeing your other Sims dining or shopping and having them interact together. I guess this means no hilarious shenanigans at nightclubs anymore, either.
It's a whole different game. Fuck all this "it's simply a more realistic Sims 2!" Most of the features from Sims 2 ( and by that I mean "all of the good ones") are gone. It plays nothing like it. Playing feels like playing a game that was meant to be on a console ported to PC.

The What the Fuck, EA?

Only one neighborhood and no option to make your own. In Sims 2 I never played the pre-made 'hoods except when I was learning how to play and trying out the new features. Why? Because I like creating ridiculous neighborhoods filled with mentally unstable pixel people and seeing the binary sparks fly. Shit is awesome. Plus I hate pre-existing storylines. I want my Sims to be the most ridiculous soap opera ever. Like Twilight but without all the suck and fail.
Storytelling mode. This is the thing that has made me rage the hardest. In previous Sims games, you played one family at a time and all the other families were stuck in time, or limbo you might say. You would go back to them later and they'd be doing the exact same things as when you left. Now, however, they all continue living. Meaning they'll grow up, die, get jobs, meet new people, fall in love, wed, AND EVEN FUCKING MOVE OUT when you're not paying attention. No, seriously. I started a nice, charming little family and moved them into a house. After getting them accustomed I switched to another house. The Sim there was reading a newspaper that popped up saying that the other family had moved away. I went to view the neighborhood, and sure enough, the family's house was now occupied by a random family that I did not create nor put there. Needless to say, I was pretty fucking livid. If I create a damn family it's because I want to play them, fuckers. Further, I've also left a sim in a nice, stable spot, and returned later to find her pregnant and nearly broke. She'd apparently gotten knocked up some random townie and went on a book shopping spree.
The Sims 3 Store. This is just fucking hateful, and what I think is clearly the reason why there's hardly any objects in this thing. They want you to pay more money for their crap! Yes, in this economy with a nearly 10% unemployment rate in this country, they expect you to pay $20 for a fucking binary code furniture set that still looks like shit, on top of a $50 base game. YOU HAVE TO BE KIDDING ME, EA. How fucking greedy are you shitheads? Not to mention a high number of Sims players are teens and young adults, meaning we don't have that much money to spend. We got you to the point where you can boast that you have the highest selling video game. You should be paying us, because without us you'd still be making Sim Ant or whatever the fuck, you fucking twats.

Going off of that last statement, I think EA is just treating their customers like shit in general. When they started putting SecuRom on their disks, which is a copy-protection program that has been sued numerous times for being potentially harmful malware, they tried to silence anyone who lodged a complaint on their forum. They had also started the Sims store shit then, which was not popular, especially since regular players always had better looking stuff, and for free. So it seems like they're trying to force it by making customization much harder and not putting a lot of material in there. And I understand it's a business and they want a profit, but dammit, they've never had a problem before and they seemed to be doing as well as ever before they started this. After...I don't know.

I know I'm not the only person pretty disappointed. Just taking a cursory glance at some forums I see that many people have the same complaints. Many more people are just not buying it. EA clearly didn't understand the concept of "ain't broke, don't fix it." I think I'm going back to Sims 2.

OWWIE.

2009-03-25T01:14:00.003-04:00

Dance shit is going to kill me over the next few weeks. In addition to my modern jazz class, which leaves my body aching like I got hit by a truck and my knees looking like this:

swing dance is getting fucking dangerous. Seriously, there are about 30 ways for me to die in this next routine we're doing. First I'm flying through the air, then I'm fucking plummeting to the floor and hoping my partner catches me by the hands or--in one really scary instance--my fucking neck. OH GOD. I may be agnostic but I have prayed more times this week to not die just yet.

So, Ben Folds concert next monday, the 30th. Expect my full review/fantardgasm sometime soon after. I gave roomie a few songs of his so that she'd get a feel for what to expect, and like I thought she would, she didn't get half of his lyrics. When I explained them, she was like "HOLY SHIT THAT'S CLEVER." Pretty much. Ben Folds is a clever motherfucker.

In Greek we're translating Homer's Iliad from the original Greek and SHIT'S SO FUCKING COOL. I don't think I've ever gotten this excited to do work. What can I say, it's a classic fucking text and I get to do my own translation. Goddamn it's so awesome. Except that Achilles and Agammemnon just need to stop bitching at each other and get shit done. Like some goddamn middle schoolers. And the gods fucking suck. Besides the storyline, the Greek language is just so fucking cool. There's a lot of stuff that doesn't translate well into English, so reading the original text is sometimes just mindblowing.

Enough of my nerdism. It's 1:30 AM and I'm getting silly-minded. Or even more so than usual.

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Now playing: Motörhead - Damage Case

MY LIFE.

2009-03-23T19:39:00.002-04:00

My life is fuckwads of crazy at the moment. I'm surprised I have time to piss and eat, much less be on the Interwebs. I have about 10 minutes before I have to roll out for 2 hours of swing dancing.

It's Junior Ring Week at the Mdub, which basically means, "HAHA, YOU HAVE TO GO OUT THERE IN THAT JOB ECONOMY IN ONE YEAR, SUCKERS! Oh, and here's your class ring." So they're having all of these activities for us. Yesterday there was a concert, today there was an easter egg hunt in which SHIT GOT REAL, and lots of other bullshit. By "shitting getting real," I mean roomie and I were fucking hardcore about it. We ran like idiots all over campus, climbing trees for better scouting, etc. Egg hunts are serious business.

So to be uber-nerd and combine my two loves of video games and knitting, and because I'm moving into one of the university-owned apartments next year, I'm making some kickass video game themed placemats. Gears of War, Assassin's Creed, Fallout 3, etc. 'Course I have no time for this shit now, so it's a summer project. I did get the patterns worked out one weekend so I got the worst part over with.

Annnnnndd it's already time for me to go dance. I gotta get my shoes and get to swingin'.

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Now playing: SOIL&"PIMP"SESSIONS - Ha Hen

The Most TMI Post You'll Ever See From Me.

2009-02-17T14:10:00.003-05:00

No seriously.

If you're a guy, you probably don't want to read about this. Actually, some chicks may want to avoid this post too.

I'm writing to throw in my outstanding review of the Diva Cup. It's a menstrual cup.

*Waits for people to get grossed out and stop reading*

I heard about it a few weeks ago from my roomie, who saw someone gloating about their DC on Ye Ole Book of Faces. We were like, "WTF" and immediately did intensive Internet research. The more we read about it and the glowing reviews, the more we both wanted them. I mean, eco-friendly, reusable, money saving, and AWESOME? It's like win molded into a cup.

So last week roomie got her dot and traversed 45 minutes to the nearest Whole Foods store (nearer to her home in Northern Virginia) to get hers. We oohed and ahhed. Roomie ran to the bathroom to try it out. 20 minutes later she came back looking rather bleak. "I got it in, but then I freaked out while pulling it out and IT FEELS LIKE I JUST GAVE BIRTH," she told me, curling up onto her bed in anguish. This did not dampen either of our spirits, and I went ahead and ordered mine, along with the Diva Wash, from southcoastshopping.com. Later, roomie was successful and there was much rejoicing.

Today, my DC came. I nearly ran to the post office in excitement, cursing Tampax and Always on the way. Back in my room I read through the directions with glee, giggling like a fool. When I was ready, I went into the bathroom and tried the folding technique in the handy instruction sheet. Except that MOTHERFUCKER, it hurt like a bitch. After nearly destroying my vagina I went back onto the Internets to get some better folding techniques. Success! The 7-fold is definitely doable, and my vagina isn't as angry at me. Best of all, that fucker popped right open with little turning.

So I'm quite pleased. The only thing that confuses me is why the DC has measuring lines on it. I really don't need to know how many ounces of old uterine wall comes out of me.

And there it is. My new love, the awesome Diva Cup. Oh, and you get a kickass lapel pin too. Like wtf that shit's badass.

Music Quest!

2009-02-15T19:35:00.004-05:00

----------------
Now playing: Animal Collective - Hey LightSo this summer I decided that I didn't like the fact that one band I listened to, The Receiving End of Sirens, had over 6,000 plays, far beyond the #2 Radiohead with about 3,000. (This was because TREOS' first album was the only thing that calmed me down in my 5-panic-attack-a-day era, and I listened to it anytime I had one and while I slept.) So I deleted all the play counts in my iTunage and my last.fm and just started the fuck over.

Well, a couple of weeks ago, my iTunes library file decided to suicide by corrupting its data. Thus I had to start it over AGAIN, but this time all my quirkily-named playlists were gone as well. I stared blankly at the lifeless library, with over 8,000 songs, and realized I had to listen to EVERY SINGLE TRACK. Well, I didn't have to, but I'm going to. Also because some shit just got lost and I didn't realize I still had it, so it was a nice surprise. I've deleted some stuff, so I'm down to 7773 tracks, but I've got folders of stuff I haven't added yet because I want to get through some of the older shit first.

How much older shit? 6567 tracks, 21.7 days, 45.58 GB.

Ah, fuck.

Right now I'm getting through all my Animal Collective because I'm in that mood. Then maybe I'll tackle the 181 Radiohead songs. Or 198 Bjork songs. I also just go through shit by shuffling. But goddamn, this sucks. Why did my file have to annhilate itself? I had everything laid out so perfectly! At least my last.fm didn't die too, but shit still sucks.

If this happened to my OCD friend Ben, I can't even imagine the hilarity. He absolutely will not let me change tags on his iTunes, even if it's something like adding the second 'r' to "Blurry." He has a playlist for fucking everything. It is the most intense thing I've experienced, second only to Mark Gormley. THAT'S FUCKING INTENSE.

As I sit here thinking (and procrastinating from reading) I probably should go ahead and add all of that music just sitting there waiting for me and deal with it. I need to stop fucking downloading everything that peaks my interest anyway. It's what I get for being an elitist musical bastard, I suppose.

Good fucking night.

EDIT: Only added about 300 songs. I was expecting much worse.
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Now playing: animal collective - banshee beat

Party central...not.

2009-02-14T00:58:00.003-05:00

College parties. HOW I LOATHE THEM. Awful music, drunk people that I already don't like to begin with, sketchy houses. So I was glad that I had the opportunity to back out of the party I'd promised my roomie I'd go to. It was a kegger to help orphans in Honduras. I mean, I'm all about helping kids, but a fucking kegger? I just gave my roomie money, she's the club treasurer anyway, I mean goddamn. And she sent me a text that said the party got busted 5 minutes after she got there. Seriously, Fredericksburg po-po don't fuck around. Especially when you advertise your damn kegger on Facebook, you fucktards. I stayed in my dorm and watched Shawshank Redemption with Ben, which was much more fun for me. Morgan Freeman >>>>>>keggers.

Classes are going well so far. The only class that's really giving me trouble is my dance class, amazingly, and that's just because I'm not used to that style of dance. Ballroom, latin, swing? I got that shit in the bag. Flailing around on the floor to Justin Timberlake? My body hates me, especially my knees. Poor things, which are already bad to begin with, had huge fucking bruises on them last night like I'd been repeatedly beat in the kneecaps with hockey sticks. I'm probably going to have to start wrapping them or something, just so I can fucking walk the next day.

Friend Who Acts Weird and Seemingly Hates Everyone For No Apparent Reason (FWAWSHEFNAR) asked Christine and I to go downtown with her last weekend. We agreed, it had been ages since the three of us, who used to be quite close in freshman and sophmore years, had gotten together. The day started out fine with brunch, but as we went downtown she got weird again. Christine and I wanted to look in the bridal shop just for shits and giggles and she adamantly refused like Satan was in the window ready to take our measurements. The rest of the day she just got quieter and quieter. Christine and I kept what little conversation we had going, and chose what stores we went into because FWAWSHEFNAR didn't seem to care. I was like, "WTF, you arranged this, have some input." Of course, I didn't say this out loud because this inevitably would have been misconstrued.

When we got back to campus, she just said, "See you guys later" and walked back into her dorm. Christine and I had no idea what had just happened. Neither of us said or did anything wrong, at least not intentionally. Even as I sit here thinking about it I can't remember anything that would have upset her. Hell, Christine and I enjoyed ourselves. It was just weird and awkward. Again, it's weird things that I just can't deal with at this point in my life. There's something wrong, but until she's willing to stop bottling it up inside her and deal with what's bothering her, I can't do anything.

I feel like she creates a lot of drama in her mind that doesn't actually exist. For instance, she told Christine that she thought I hated her because she saw me on campus and all I said was "hi." LIEK WTF M8, I was going to fucking class. If I stopped and talked to everyone I wanted to I'd never actually get to class. If I hadn't had said anything at all, then I could see how she'd think something was up. But I acknowledge her and THAT'S weird?

But what can you do?

Other than that, social life is good. Got asked out a second time by Awkward Kid. He asked me out last semester, but me being a complete idiot, didn't realize that it was a serious date until the day of. Then I flipped a shit. I went anyway, but it was by far the strangest experience I've ever gone through. It was like a job interview. "What are your hobbies?" "What do your parents do?" "I saw on your Facebook..." There was no actual conversation, just Q&A. So when he asked me out this time, I was careful to construct a vague "no." It's a fun date horror story to tell to friends over a cup of coffee, but not something I'd want to go through again. If I can't hold a convo with you, it's not going to work, because I'm a chatty fucker.

So Valentine's Day will come and go. And who fucking cares, it's a stupid fakey holiday constructed by money-hungry fucktards at Hallmark. Fuck that shit. My ex boyfriend exchanged MST3K and the video game F.E.A.R. for VD. THAT'S how you rock that shit. Blowin' bitches' heads off and making fun of godawful movies. So fuck you Valentine's/Aw Fuck I'm Still Single Awareness Day. I'm out.

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Now playing: Mute Math - Noticed

COFFEE OVERLOAD.

2009-01-31T15:03:00.002-05:00

I just consumed four cups of coffee. Holy shit I think I might explode. Especially since I'm not supposed to drink a lot of caffeine because of my anxiety disorder. I'm twitching uncontrollably. On the bright side, I've gotten almost all my homework for Monday done because I'm so fucking wired. And now I'm listening to SOIL&"PIMP"SESSIONS so there's no way I'm going to stop bouncing my head. FWEEE.

I'm currently knitting a nice t-shirt, which can be found HERE. I've run out of yarn though, so I need to get to Michael's at some point. I should probably actually start buying enough yarn at one time when I start a project, but that would make too much sense for me. I enjoy making things difficult for myself.

It also occurred to me that I need to post my altered pattern of Knitty's Roam, which I've been wearing for the past 3 months. The jacket looks sort of retarded in some areas, but since it was my first foray into something above the beginner level of knitting, I think I did pretty good for myself. My friends say "ZOMG IT LOOKS LIKE SOMETHING YOU COULD BUY IN A STORE!!1!!1!!" but I know they are exaggerating greatly. Love them, but I know it's not that great. So that will be a separate post sometime soon.

In other fuckawesome news, I now own every episode of MST3K, other than the Minneapolis public television episodes, on my computer or DVD. MST3K WIN. Took ages to rip shit from 10+ year old VHS tapes. BUT SO WORTH IT. Tomorrow before the Super Bowl we are having a Super Awesome MST3K Pajama Party at my friend's house. I expect copious amounts of win and good times.

My dance class is fucking awesome too. My core kills me, but I feel great. Plus it's a shitton of fun and my teacher's awesome. Definitely my favorite class this semester.

But in sadder news, I'm sad that Smartie's Idletard Flat Idol contest has to be "Idol" related. Flat Thom Yorke was so primed and ready to go. This is what I get for not paying attention to Idletard for about a month. I can't even remember half of the Idols because I simply don't care that much. Oh well.

Anyway. It is time for me to embark on my quest to watch all of the movies nominated for the best picture Oscar. Thoughts on that later.

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Now playing: SOIL&"PIMP"SESSIONS - AVALANCHE

Animal Collective. Or as I know them, Holy Shit, This Is Awesome.

2009-01-20T19:11:00.004-05:00

On this day of a new political era in the U.S., one needs the perfect new music to set the mood. My audio drug of choice? The new Animal Collective album, Merriweather Post Pavillion. Just stare at the artwork.

Have your eyes melted yet?

Regardless, I'm already calling this one of the best albums of 2009. Because I mean, who else is putting out an album that I care about? No one that I know of off the top of my head. And it's a proven fact* that the vast majority of the mainstream music is utter shit.

Anyway. "Brothersport," "My Girls," and "Summertime Clothes" are early favorites. This album also seems more accessible, and by that I mean it's not as far out there as some of the others. Sung Tongs is still my favorite album by Animal Collective, but I'd say MPP is a close second at the moment. Also, I will be playing nothing but these dudes all week. They just put a smile on my face everytime I hear them.

Work time. It's only the second week of school, I can't slack off this early in the semester.

*Fact proven by ME. Suck on it, fuckers.

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Now playing: Animal Collective - Slippi

End of 2008 Blog

2008-12-31T20:06:00.006-05:00

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Now playing: Jeff Buckley - Eternal Life (Road Version)With only 4 more hours EST to go in 2008, a year that can bite me, why not a fun meme?

1. What did you do in 2008 that you’d never done before?
Stood out in the elements for 7 hours waiting for a famous person, who is now our President-Elect.

2. Did you keep your New Year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I never make resolutions because I live on a week-by-week basis. Besides, I know I wouldn't keep them anyway.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
No.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
No, thankfully.

5. What countries did you visit?
Didn't travel outside of the country.

6. What would you like to have in 2009 which you lacked in 2008?
Spontaneity, focus, less OCD, more control over my spending habits.

7. What date from 2008 will remain etched in your memory, and why?
Obama rally, I suppose. But I already forget the exact date, LOL.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Doing well in classes.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Oh God, I could write a novel on my failures. LOL.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Nothing serious this year, and let's hope it continues.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
Fallout 3, MST3K 20th Anniversary Edition, a bunch of music

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
Not mine, that's for damn sure. Actually, I don't think there are a lot of people that deserve too much, and I mean that in the nicest way possible. Let's face it, we've all turned into self-absorbed fucktards, and I'm including myself in that group.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Mostly my own, but basically just look at the news and that pretty much sums it up.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Video games, unfortunately. Something which needs to change immediately.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
I'm a very excitable person, and I can't name everything. Probably the MST3K 20th AE. I skipped class to watch it, LOL.

16. What song will always remind you of 2008?
"Gobbledigook" by Sigur Ros. Because I listened to it every day before going to class.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you: Happier or sadder? Thinner or fatter? Richer or poorer?
Happier, the same weight, richer.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Spend more time with old friends than with the new.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Dick around on the Internet and on video games.

20. How will you be spending New Year’s?
With my family and a bottle of sparkling grape juice. Can't drink alcohol because of meds and it's fuckin' illegal.

21. Who did you spend the most time on the phone with?
Probably my mom, as loserish as that sounds, but my mom can really go on for AGES.

22. Did you fall in love in 2008?
No.

23. How many one night stands in this last year?
None, because I'm not that easy.

24. What was your favorite TV program?
MST3K. Like that will ever change.

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
I'm not one for hating people. Hate takes up too much time.

26. What was the best book(s) you read?
The Kite Runner, Middlesex. They're not new, but holy fuck, both made me bawl like a baby.

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
SOIL&"PIMP" Sessions. FUCK that's some good shit.

28. What did you want and get?
An XBox for Xmas.

29. What did you want and not get?
More time.

30. What was your favorite film of this year?
Wall-E.

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old did you turn?
20, and I worked on my birthday.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
More love and peace in the world. But like THAT'S ever going to happen.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?
The same as it's always been. Whatever the fuck I feel like wearing that is flattering and yet cozy.

34. What kept you sane?
Music, friends.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Thom Yorke.

36. What political issue stirred you the most?
Environmental issues.

37. Whom did you miss?
Old friends.

38. Who was the best new person you met?
My roomie.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008.
People suck, but they can't help it, so accept them how they are. Oh, and to lighten the fuck up; life needs to be enjoyed and appreciated because there's more good than bad, surprisingly.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
"If you try the best you can
The best you can is good enough"
~Radiohead - "Optimistic"

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Now playing: The Sound of Animals Fighting - The Heretic

A break from finals.

2008-12-08T13:56:00.002-05:00

Dear god, I need a break. It's only Monday and this week has already kicked my ass. After tomorrow things should be a lot better though. I will have had my final project for my Museums class done (I had to create a museum and all its inner workings, which is surprisingly fun), and my U.S. Labor History final out of the way. The Labor History one and my Greek one were the only ones that were actually exams, the rest are projects or papers. I guess it makes it rather nice, because I really hate studying.

I called my work this morning to ask them if I could come back to work when I get home. They sounded ecstatic to get me back, and relieved. I saw they had posted ads for hiring, so I figure they really need the help over the holidays. I could've worked over my Thanksgiving break, but I said to myself, "FUCK THAT." It was awful enough on Virginia's tax free day, I don't even want to know what that place looked like on Black Friday. So at least I know I'll be earning some cash over my break, which I desperately need.

After a few of my friends have had troubles with their ex boyfriends, I feel I need to thank my ex for being awesome about things. He's still one of my good, close friends, and he really showed maturity which he needs to teach a few other guys. I swear, sometimes guys create more drama than girls do.

I also think it's great that when I'm pissy, the only person I'm not angry at is my roommate and vice versa. It's like, "I HATE EVERYOOOONNNNEEEE. Except for you ! :D"

I actually physically hurt myself while playing Rock Band 2 last night. My friends and I created ourselves and our awesome band, BROWN THUNDER. We saw Disturbed's "Down With the Sickness" and just had to play that shit. If you haven't heard that song, go find it on last.fm or somewhere. At the beginning, the guy does all this really strange gutteral screaming, which as the lyrics say, "OOH AH AH AH AH....AWK AWK....AWK AWK." I did this quite accurately, but my throat still hurts. I need to work on my screamo yells.

Anyway. Break time is OVER. I've got to get this shit done and stop being a slacker kid.
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Now playing: Astronautalis - The Wondersmith and His Sons

Grammies.

2008-12-04T13:18:00.007-05:00

The Grammy categories this year are shit. Therefore, I'm doing it MY way, using my handy iTunes.

Category 1- Record Of The Year
House of Cards - Radiohead
Smoke and Mirrors - The Receiving End of Sirens
Lay Me Back Down - Portugal. The Man
I, The Swan - The Sound of Animals Fighting
Gobbledigook - Sigur Rós

Category 2 - Album Of The Year
In Rainbows - Radiohead
The Earth Sings Mi Fa Mi - The Receiving End of Sirens
Censored Colors - Portugal. The Man
Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust - Sigur Rós
Third - Portishead

Category 3 - Song Of The Year
Gobbledigook - Sigur Rós
Mercy - Duffy
I'm Yours - Jason Mraz
Ilyena - The Mars Volta
House of Cards - Radiohead

Category 4 - Best New Artist
Duffy
Anthony Green
Black Tide
Danger Radio
Chris Sligh

Category 5 - Best Female Pop Vocal Performance
Mercy - Duffy
And no one else.

Category 6 - Best Male Pop Vocal Performance
I'm Yours - Jason Mraz
Free Coffee - Ben Folds

Category 7 - Best Pop Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals
Party Foul - Danger Radio
Ready, Set, Go - Tokio Hotel

Category 8 - Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals
You Don't Know Me - Ben Folds with Regina Spektor
And nothing else.

Category 11 - Best Pop Vocal Album
Rockferry - Duffy
We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things - Jason Mraz
Way to Normal - Ben Folds

Category 12 - Best Dance Recording
Harder Better Faster Stronger - Daft Punk (THIS WASN'T FROM THIS YEAR, IT'S FROM 2001, GRAMMY FUCKS, but Daft Punk is awesome so I'll leave it)
Black & Gold - Sam Sparro
Creator - Santogold

Category 15 - Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance
The entirety of Way to Normal - Ben Folds
Babygirl - Anthony Green
Theysay - Josiah Lemming

Category 16 - Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals
House Of Cards - Radiohead
Lay Me Back Down - Portugal. The Man
Smoke and Mirrors - The Receiving End of Sirens

Category 20 - Best Rock Song
House Of Cards - Radiohead
Shockwave - Black Tide

Category 21 - Best Rock Album
The Earth Sings Mi Fa Mi - The Receiving End of Sirens
Censored Colors - Portugal. The Man
The Phantom on the Horizon - The Fall of Troy
The Bedlam in Goliath - The Mars Volta

Category 22 - Best Alternative Music Album
The Hawk is Howling - Mogwai
Attack & Release - The Black Keys
In Rainbows - Radiohead
Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust - Sigur Rós
The Ocean and the Sun - The Sound of Animals Fighting

Category 109 - Best Short Form Music Video
House Of Cards - Radiohead
Gobbledigook - Sigur Ros

Category 110 - Best Male Artist Tinnerz Would Totally Do
Thom Yorke (Radiohead)
Rufus Wainwright (if he were straight)
Anthony Green (Circa Survive, The Sound of Animals Fighting)
John Gourley (Portugal. The Man)
Jason Mraz

Category 111 - Worst Thing to Happen to Music
American Idol
Lil' Wayne
Camp Rock
The Jonas Fuckers--I mean, Brothers
Hannah Montana

Category 112 - Best Japanese Album
Zazen Boys 4 - Zazen Boys
Little Grace - Yasushi Yoshida
Uroboros - Dir en grey
Planet Pimp - SOIL&"PIMP"SESSIONS

Category 113 - Best Group Guaranteed to Confuse Anyone Within Earshot
SOIL&"PIMP"SESSIONS
Portugal. The Man
Flica
Yasushi Yoshida
The Sound of Animals Fighting

Category 114 - Best Album Cover
Way to Normal - Ben Folds
Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust - Sigur Rós
Zazen Boys 4 - Zazen Boys
Planet Pimp - SOIL&"PIMP"SESSIONS

Category 115 - Lifetime Holy Shit, You're Awesome Award
Radiohead
Bjork
Ben Folds
Dir en grey

In attempting to put this list together, I've realized I've listened to very few albums from this year. I fail, and I apologize.

My Brain Died.

2008-12-03T18:20:00.002-05:00

Although it can be argued that I've been braindead for some time, I actually now am starting to feel it. Probably because this is the last week of classes, next week are finals, and then the semester's over. HOH SHIT. Luckily I only have 2 actual exams, the other 3 are papers, and one of those papers I've already done. So it shouldn't be too bad.

However, this week just fucking kicked my ass. I had an Ancient Greek grammar handbook to write (SERIOUS amounts of fun, dead languages are), a 10 minute presentation and an 8 page paper for my History seminar (about the battle of Thermopylae pass - the reason why my "OMG I'M GOING TO BLOG ABOUT THE PERSIAN WARS LOL" kick died quickly), another presentation about the future of labor union healthcare under President-Elect Obama (a group project, so it wasn't too bad), and readings about museums that I didn't give a shit about. Basically, this week sucked. I came in from class today and just collapsed into bed with a humongous cup of coffee and a sugar cookie, turned on MST3K and died. AND I HAVEN'T THOUGHT SINCE.

*Five minutes later*

A mini Nerf gun war just occurred between roomie and I. We called it a draw. Clearly, nothing will be accomplished in this room tonight.

I feel like playing Fallout 3 and killing mutants. Also, it will be a good way to not be productive.

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Now playing: Radiohead - Pyramid Song

Fuck yes, we can!

2008-11-08T17:38:00.010-05:00

So there's this crazy rumor going around that Barack Obama got elected for President. It's almost like my friends threw an election party in their apartment during which we made delicious cakes,

then when the winner was announced we shrieked like fire ants were in our panties and jumped around like kangaroos on goofballs. Arriving back to campus at about 12:20, there was a mini parade going down campus walk.

I screamed "FUCK YEAH, OBAMA!" and received many a high five for my awesomeness. What a great time to be in college.

Roomie and I also kick ass at playing Damien Rice's "Coconut Skins" on guitar, and disturbed several neighbors who peeked out of their windows to see what herd of cattle were getting mutilated with out of tune guitars.

Sweater #2 is 1/4 done. And I realize now that I never posted pictures/pattern of the other one I made, but you shall have to wait.

Fallout 3 might be my new favorite game. Out of the way, Gears of War. Marcus Fenix, I know you and I have had some good times killing the Locusts. And I apologize for laughing when I allow you to take a missle to the chest and explode into chunks. But Fallout 3 lets me create my own badass character, Sunny, who looks sort of like me and is also severely badass. I've had good times consorting with ghouls, Wastelanders, and those kooky folk in Rivet City. My karma is so good my Pip Boy 3000 makes me look like Jesus. I've got to find my father, you understand. So until GoW 2 comes out on PC or I get an XBox, I think we need to take a break, Marcus.

I need to lay off the Mountain Dew. Anyway, it's 1940's Dance tonight, hosted by my Swing Dance club, so I'm stoked. I will party it down and probably get twirled around like a top, possibly thrown up in the air. Supposedly there will be people from the armed forces there. YAY! I love troops. The proceeds also go to Veterans of Foreign Wars, so it's a good thing we're doing.

So I'm gonna go get ready to get my groove on.

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Now playing: Dir en grey - 24ko Cylinder

Greatest waste of money ever.

2008-10-28T18:48:00.008-04:00

I had preordered the Mystery Science Theater 3000 20th Anniversary Edition a couple of weeks ago, but Amazon had told me, "LOL YOU'RE NOT GETTING IT UNTIL NOVEMBER 3RD, SUCKA!" So what a surprise when I checked the status of my lovely set and found that it arrived today! The day it was released! I love you, Amazon! You facilitate my MST3K infatuation so nicely.

I already had all of the episodes, but I wanted the high quality versions(in other words, not ripped off of VHS tapes that were recorded from the TV, and in some cases still had some hilariously awesome mid 1990s commercials) and to free up some hard drive space. The package was ripped open immediately and I took pictures to taunt my friends who thought there were better ways to spend $50 or some nonsense.

Awesome tin box that will be used for non-MST3K item storage.

CROOOOOOOOOOOOOOW. It bothers me that they made his eyes too small.

Dear God, my nails look awful. Oh, and the front cover.

Back cover, featuring Gypsy.

I put the lobby cards beside my other loves.

Closeup of the lobby cards. And there's something yellow and gross on my wall.

Now I have to go work on a speech. Fun time is over.
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Now playing: Björk - Unison

Gears of War: A Declaration of Love

2008-10-27T15:54:00.002-04:00

Dear God, I love Gears of War. I might even like it better than Crysis. Oh shit. Any game in which your standard gun comes equipped with a chainsaw is immediate win in my book. The first time I chopped up a bitch I nearly cried in gamer nerd joy.

But I digress.

In Gears of War, you play as Marcus Fenix, a hardcore, ex-con, brutish looking fellow who could totally wreck your shit if he wasn't, you know, a bunch of pixels and computer code. Anyway, Fenix has been in jail but is busted out by his former squadmates to help fight the Locusts, an underground civilization that's trying to kill humans. And as most video games, that's really the entire plot right there. Run off and shoot bitches to save the world. WOO!

I've had entirely too much fun shooting and squealing in terror as deformed creatures pop out of nowhere to kill me. One of my favorite parts is the vast amounts of gore in this game. There are guns that literally cut bitches into pieces. But it's not like this exploding-into-chunks is a one sided thing. Many times I was annihalated by getting hit in the chest with grenade launchers. I still giggled way more than I should have.

So do you like excessive violence and shooting things? Then Gears of War is right for you! And GoW2 comes out November 7! WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!

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Now playing: Lacuna Coil - Purify

Oh, Mary Wash...

2008-10-15T14:18:00.004-04:00

University of Mary Washington! My home! How I missed your leaf blowers at 8 in the morning! How I missed the maintenance trucks that creep along behind you when you're trying to go to class with your headphones on, and look behind you to suddenly realize HOLY SHIT THERE'S A TRUCK 2 FEET BEHIND YOUR ASS! How I missed the rabid squirrels that will sit on brick walls and make threatening noises at you, although a swift kick would kill them! How I missed the brick walkways that will trip you and totally wreck your shit if you're not careful!

Yeah, fuck that.

So my sweater is 99% done. I still have to weave in some yarn ends. But that's for a super special blog post, which will include my modified pattern. Fuck yes.

So I was on break. I had planned to do all this shit and get ahead in my classes, but I got home and said "FUCK THAT." I slept the entirety of the first day (I'm not even kidding), watched MST3K the entirety of the second day, and shopped the entirety of the third day. That third day was really productive though. I was probably the reason the economy did better that day.

Also, while I was home, I listened to entirely too much Jeff Buckley and The Who (200 and 169 plays, respectively). They teamed up and kicked Radiohead out of my number 1 on last.fm, when Radiohead was about 200 plays above both of them before break. Obsessive music listening. I am guilty.

I'm wearing a dress today and I realized why I never wear dresses. Because I can't sit in them. I mean, I can, but not in a ladylike manner. I usually sit with one leg tucked under me, and I can't do that in this dress. It's a good thing I'm wearing leggings because I'd be Lohaning everyone in my classes.

In preparation of the last debates tonight, Cracked.com had this article on what would make the debates more interesting. I, in my MST3K fantard biased opinion, think #2 should have totally won. But that's just me and my tardism. I want a Rifftrax and a Cinematic Titanic episode for the debates. Also, if I get back from swing dancing tonight in time, I may do a kooky live blogging thing for the debates. If I decide I care enough. And I don't forget its on. And I don't decide to go play Halo 3 instead.

Time for work that I totally neglected over break.

A Collection of Post-Literary Review Thoughts.

2008-10-09T23:59:00.004-04:00

It's always entertaining to see how the Internet turns perfectly acceptable people into complete fucktards.
Swing dancing performances at the end of this month. I get to be the lead female. We are dancing to "Ain't To Proud to Beg." It should be hilarious, and will undoubtedly be on Youtube at some point.
Literary reviews are fucking awful to write. Holy goddamn.
I get to go home tomorrow for fall break. I could've worked and earned some cash, but I didn't want to go from one hell hole to another. I need a serious mental health vacation.
I've have listened to more In Flames and Coheed & Cambria than I ever thought possible today.
My generation is seriously fucked for the future. Thanks guys. Oh, and fuck you. Hard. With something sandpapery and rather pointy. You cuntbags.
Netflix is the greatest creation since MST3K.
The weather can't decide whether to be hot or cold. It was 60 yesterday, 80 today. Fuck you too, Virginia weather.
Having Radiohead's "Idioteque" as my alarm clock on my cell phone is the greatest thing ever. I wake up and immediately bust a move. And my elbow.
Apparently roomie's friends think I'm the coolest person ever. I apologize for being so misleading.
Wall-E is such an adorably cute movie I almost exploded into candy and syrup. And it has good underlying messages as well.
The movie 300 actually really kind of sucks.

Random.

2008-10-02T11:48:00.007-04:00

Today I feel random. I'm still sick, and the health center did absolutely nothing for me when I went yesterday. They were like "GOLLY GEE WILLACKERS, IT SEEMS LIKE YOU'RE SICK!" No shit! I've only been coughing, sneezing, losing my voice, and headachey, I was sure I was just imagining things. Then my roomie and some of our friends were telling me horror stories of the health center. For instance, they told one girl she needed her tonsils removed. SHE DIDN'T HAVE TONSILS. In another case, our friend had been throwing up for three days and was unable to keep anything down. They asked her if she wanted an antacid.

College healthcare. Not worth a damn thing.

In other news, RADIOHEAD. New video for my favorite song off of In Rainbows.

hello my mind is not functioning at the correct speed at the moment thanks to being in Tokyo but however and here is one of my favourite video things that has ever happened for Reckoner it is, the result of somebody entering a competition to make an animation to one of the tunes on IN RAINbows. on aniboom. you can scroll down dead air space and find all about it.. but anyway

so we asked them whether it was ok to make it the official one we use as it goes with the song so well. they said yes.

and if you're like me and find it hard to find videos on televsion any more, or even turn on the television you can watch right here.

ok now im going to fold some clothes.

Thom

Check out this video: Radiohead - Reckoner - by Clement Picon

That Thom Yorke is a silly bitch.

Also, I found some other hilarity on the Intarwebs yesterday while I was moping around feeling sorry for my fail self and eating Wheat Thins (those fuckers are addictive, and they may help reduce the risk of heart disease, FUCK YEAH EVEN THOUGH THAT'S PROBABLY NOT TRUE).

The last one made me laugh so hard sent myself into a coughing fit and nearly vomited. I loved Pinky and the Brain during elementary school, and they were one of the best parts of the Animaniacs, which remains one of my favorite shows. But that's for another post.

And my last exciting news: I'm almost finished with my sweater! YAAAAYY! Except that I'm totally about to run out of yarn. Booooo. It's retarded too, because I only have 11 more rows to do. And I'm going to have to buy an entire skein for (my estimate) 6 rows. Shitsux.

Oh, and our school is having Rocktoberfest again this year. Last year they had illScarlett (whom I love dearly, and I got their autographs and photos taken with them. I also haven't listened to them in months. LOL), The Hint (cliche pop-rock, but not too bad, got pictures with the lead singer who looks freakishly like a friend of mine), and Plain White T's (who I liked before anyone else had heard of them, and then when I forgot about them they suddenly became famous). This year they have The Spill Canvas and The Cab, neither of whom I've heard of but I'm going anyway. The Spill Canvas sounds like it may be some whiny emo shit. Anyone heard of either band?

I'm going to go dance to The Who. Because I have nothing better to do at the moment. I haven't been in the mood for Persian War research, and I apologize.

When Obama and Biden Came to Mary Washington.

2008-09-28T15:45:00.012-04:00

Roomie, roomie's friend, and I notice at about 1 PM that the line is getting really fucking long, so we scoot outside. The end of the line can't even be seen.

We find out later that there are 26,000 people lined up. This is how long the line was. It starts at the X, where the rally was held.

So we cut in line. Yes, we are severe assholes. But seriously, we stood beside people we knew, and there was no one there to tell us not to. Normally I would feel bad but in this case I didn't care. Again, asshole here. Anyway, we got in at about 3 PM (waiting for about 2 hrs in the sun), and got a good spot about 30 ft away from the stage. Awesome. Now all we had to do was wait.

And wait.

And wait.

Remember that it's hot in the middle of the field, and we had to give up our water at the gates. Then the fucktards didn't even bring enough water. So people were passing out, complaining about water, and the idiots running this thing only threw out about 6 bottles every 10 minutes. Because 6 bottles are really going to satiate 26,000 people. A friend finally just stole one from the press, who had cases upon cases of fucking water. We shared that bottle between six people, which didn't last at all, but dammit, it was the best 2 sips of water ever.

Then it started fucking raining. We had one poncho between the three of us, because in addition to being assholes, we are rock stupid. So we held the poncho over us, which did absolutely nothing, and I eventually just said "Fuck this shit" and stood out in the rain. Now of course I regret this decision, as now I am sick as hell. However, the poncho made a great water collection device, and we, being desperate, earned 2 more sips of water. Delicious acid rain water, but H2O nevertheless.

Then there was more waiting. We had also been standing in the best part of Ball Circle where it always floods and gets muddy whenever it rains, so this is what I had to stand in for about 3 hours:
My feet kept on getting stuck in the mud, and if I didn't keep moving my feet I'd have a hard time getting my shoes out. One cannot even convey to anyone who wasn't there how absolutely miserable everyone was. Whomever was running this thing had no fucking idea what they were doing.

It's now about 6 PM. The thing was supposed to start at 5:15. Needless to say, everyone is getting more pissed off by the minute. Although everyone had known that he would be late, it was obnoxious to continue hearing the same 10 songs over and over again, and without someone entertaining the crowd or at least giving us updates. Finally, some guy comes out.
It's a goddamned minister. Excuse my heathen mouth, but the last thing I wanted to hear was some bullshit prayer with clear political overtones. Thanks for combining the two things that annoy me the most. Also note the rain coming down.

There are a few other guys, but I put my iPod on because I didn't fucking care. Also, it was vastly entertaining to watch people try to energize a crowd whose energy was long gone while listening to Ben Folds. Ben Folds definitely boosted my spirits, though, so thanks Ben.

Then some people come out and start fiddling with the monitors and podium for 45 fucking minutes. At this point everyone's pissed, because these people are so concerned about getting the right angle for the monitor that they fool with that shit for nearly an hour. The audience finally starts booing. Can you blame us? It's about 7 PM, some people have been standing in line since 9 AM, and these fuckers are going to stand there and get frazzled over the damned monitor? Hell no! The only funny part was the state trooper, who I guess they got because he was the right height.
Finally. FINALLY. HOLY SWEET JESUS, SOMETHING IS ACTUALLY HAPPENING. Then suddenly...
AND the crowd goes wild. Yaaaaaay. So there's Joe. He was pretty awesome. He mostly did a lot of praise of Obama, cracked a few jokes, and called Mary Wash a great school (KISS ASS).
I hated the fucktards who kept putting their children on their shoulders. Not only are you blocking the view of people behind you, but the kids are too young to even give a shit anyway. I definitely heard the kid in the above picture whine, "Mommy, I want to go home."

Then the showstopper came on. And again, the crowd went wild. Yaaaaay.
He was as good as you'd expect. He did a bit more McCain bashing than I hoped he would, but he did talk about his own policies and plans about 50-50. And while I don't agree with everything he says, Obama definitely would be the better President.
It started to rain again, but Obama kept right own going. He even took off his coat and handed it to Biden, who was giggling because we were all like "OOOOOOHHHHHHHHHH" when Obama took it off. It was hilarity. Biden asked him if he wanted a hat, to which Obama replied, "I don't need a hat!" Again, everyone thought it was great. I was laughing my ass off.
Biden with his hat. You can't see it, but he's striking the most awesome Captain Morgan pose ever, with one leg up on a stool. He should totally win that pose-off contest, if it's still going.

That was pretty much it. It was an entertaining night, and worth the waiting and misery, but I'm not doing that again. As I mentioned before, I feel like shit right now. Not to mention I drank about half my weight in water when I got home. Ew.

Obama/Biden Rally: Serious Business

2008-09-25T17:45:00.004-04:00

So Obama and Biden are coming to my campus on Saturday. YAAAAAYYYY! However, check out all of the restrictions we will be under, and keep in mind our campus isn't big. It's going to be bananas.

The gates to the rally area - Ball Circle - will open at 3:00 p.m. on Saturday. Everyone entering the area will have to pass through metal detectors. No drink or food may be brought into Ball Circle. There will be water available, supplied by the Obama campaign, for those inside Ball Circle.

This is a rain or shine event and will NOT move inside in the case of rain. Umbrellas are not allowed through security so please plan to wear/bring rain gear if the weather forecasts call for inclement weather.

UMW will observe liberal parking on Saturday from 8:00 a.m. until 10:00 p.m. By 10:00 p.m., all security barriers will have been removed and campus restored to ‘normal.’

Special requests or needs must be addressed directly to the Obama campaign through their website: www.barackobama.com. UMW staff is not in the position to offer or arrange for special requests.

1. Lot 3 (Chandler) and Lot 16 (Monroe small lot) will close at 5:00 p.m. on Friday, 9/26 and remain closed until the event ends on Saturday evening at approximately 7:30 p.m.

2. At approximately 5:00 p.m. on Friday, 9/26, College Avenue between Brent and Rowe Streets will be closed for parking. No parking may take place and any vehicle violating the City’s no parking signs will be towed.

3. Chandler Hall will close at 8:00 a.m. on Saturday, 9/27, and not be accessible until the event is over. This means no access to offices, classrooms, or labs. All meetings that were scheduled to take place in Chandler Hall on Saturday have been relocated. Kaplan’s GRE/GMAT practice tests will take place in Trinkle Hall.

4. College Avenue will be closed to vehicular and foot traffic, between Brent and Rowe Streets, on Saturday from 1:00 p.m. until the end of the event.

5. Access to Double Drive off College Avenue from William Street WILL be possible throughout the day. Exit from Double Drive will be straight, along Brent Street, and then left or right on Stafford Ave to access William Street or Route 1.

6. Campus walk proper, running from George Washington Hall to Goolrick will remain open to foot traffic throughout the entire day/evening with the following exception: the portions of campus sidewalks running along Ball Circle at Virginia Hall, along Chandler Hall from Ball Circle toward Seacobeck, and along Virginia Hall from Palmieri Plaza toward Ball Circle will be closed from 1:00 p.m. until the end of the event. Please see the following schematic.

7. From 1:00 p.m until the end of the event:
- Virginia Hall will be accessed/exited from the Palmieri end of the building
- Ball Hall will be accessed/exited from the ‘rear’ door toward the Westmoreland lawn area
- Madison Hall will be accessed/exited from the ‘end’ door emptying onto Campus Walk

8. All windows facing Ball Circle must be closed and blinds/shades drawn by 2:00 p.m.

9. From 5:00 p.m. until the end of the event on Saturday evening, there will be no access into or out of Custis Hall unless an emergency situation exists and then will be done so under Police escort.

Basically, the entire midsection of campus is blocked off. I'm glad I don't live in Virginia anymore. It also sucks for the people in Custis Hall, which is a dorm. That must be where the dudes are staying before the rally.

But I shall bring the tale and related pictures after it happens on Saturday. Unfortunately it's supposed to rain so it'll be gross, but I'm going regardless.

EDIT: I just realized none of this makes sense to people not at Mary Wash. So here's a map, with my edits.

A Peek Inside the Life of Tinnerz.

2008-09-23T15:49:00.011-04:00

Or, I got really bored last night and started taking pictures of my dorm room. They say you can judge someone based on their living quarters, so judge away.

My feet. And my ridiculously long and baggy, yet most comfortable pair of jeans. And they actually fit my delicious black girl hips! YAY!

Flamingo my roomie and I definitely stole from a luau thrown by one of the clubs on campus.

Monkey stolen from the same event, with a fucked up leg. We'll have to perform surgery on him one day.

The workspace, complete with attack llama to ward off crazies. Also, more MST3K then you can shake a stick at. And my beloved iPod Bartholemew.

My guitar <3. It is delicious. I've had it for about 5 years. I have 2 acoustics but given the space limitations at college I always choose to bring my electric axe. Its name is Pepper. Yeah, I name all of my gadgets for maximum confusion of others.

TV and window. Also notice what DVD is sitting on the dressers. If you can't read it, it's MST3K. I'm such a tard.

Remember the fail knitting I displayed earlier? Well look at that shit now! All I have left to do is finish the left sleeve, knit the hood, and sew in the zipper. Hot damn I'm good. Also notice how Herodotus sneaks his way into the picture.

TARD WALL!!! This picture was actually taken today because I just bought the Monty Python and Radiohead OK Computer posters this morning. So this is what it currently looks like. Last night it was bare and no one wants to see that sadness. Now it is pretty and filled with...holy shit that's a lot of testosterone on my wall. In my defense, I was actually looking for a poster of Janis Joplin this morning but ultimately failed. The search will continue.

The best thing about my dorm room is that the building is 101 years old, so it has these awesome high ceilings, walk in closets, and pipes that are perfect for hanging shit. Roomie and I keep coming up with new ideas on how to decorate, and especially given the fact that our room is one of the largest ones in the building (being in a corner) we have a lot to work with. I'm quite pleased with us.

Music that is severely underrated.

2008-09-22T17:54:00.003-04:00

I was thinking about this topic earlier today when I was supposed to be reading Herodotus, and now that I need something to procrastinate from US labor history reading, I'm going to provide all 4 of my loyal readers with...

TINNERZ' ULTRA-AWESOME AND SOMEWHAT BAFFLING MUSIC LIST!!!!!!1!!1!!11
Anyway.

Blues Creation

70's Japanese hard blues rock? FUCK YEAH. This shit makes me dance like my inner whore. Besides, look at how fucking gnarly these dudes look. They could kick your ass and you'd be like, "Holy shit, I got my ass handed to me by some somewhat effeminate 70's Japanese blues rockers." And I have no idea what I'm talking about, so let's move on.

SOIL&"PIMP" SESSIONS

Sticking with Japan, we have these dudes. They're a jazz band. And they wail. One of their last.fm tags is "death jazz." Fuck yes. My fucking face melted the first time I heard them. Besides, when they have albums entitled "Pimpin" and "Pimp Master," you know you're in for some fucking awesome shit. And check out the cat in the middle. He's like an Asian Don Corleone. He'd wreck your shit.

The Black Keys

And now back to the grand ol' US of A. To Ohio, to be exact, where these two dudes are making the blues hot and spicy, Texas...no wait, I mean, Ohio style. At first I was like, "Wow, this black guy from the south is really good!" Then I realized it was two white guys from Ohio, and was even more impressed. I have serenaded my room mate more songs by The Black Keys than should ever be allowed. But that's what she gets for her goddamn Coldplay.

Portugal. The Man

HOLY GODDAMN I love me some P.TM. Every single album they've put out sounds different, but they still manage to be amazing. They can be all ambient and light, then sound slightly Motown-ish, then go electronic, then go folky AND IT ALL ROCKS MY FACE. It's like sex for the ears.

Free The Robots

Now I normally don't listen to rap or hip-hop. But this shit is good. The samples are amazing and totally unexpected. I swing dance to "Jazzhole" with my friends. It's so damn addictive and definitely gets my blood going. And because it's instrumental, I can study or read without stopping to sing along. I do, however, have to bust a move. Again, I apologize to my room mate.

Part 2 coming soon, as well as more Persian Wars battle history. It's time for work.

Two album reviews.

2008-09-19T15:38:00.002-04:00

Portugal. The Man - Uncensored Colors
Best album of 2008.

The Sound of Animals Fighting - The Ocean and the Sun
Second best album of 2008.

Discuss.

I rawk at MS Paint.

2008-09-18T22:58:00.003-04:00

Okay, so it was actually Paint Shop Pro. Same damn thing though.

This is what reading nothing but shit about the Greco-Persian wars for about a month will do to you.

And I can't believe Smartie put them on Idletard. Though I do need to get ready for my exhibit at the Louvre.

The Battle of Marathon, OH SHI-

2008-09-17T21:29:00.003-04:00

^That's actually how I titled it in my notes, too.

So when we last left our Greeks, the Ionian city-states had just gotten their shit wrecked by the Persians while the mainland Greeks sat back hiding under their blankies. Dareios in 491 decided it was high time those mainland pussies got theirs, too. So he sent some messengers to the major cities, such as Athens and Sparta, to demand them pay homage to him in the form of earth and water. (Well played, Frank Miller.) Most of the Greeks (Athens and Sparta, most notably) finally grew some balls and were like "NO U," and executed the poor messengers who were simply doing their job (those messengers had families to feed, you animals!). And yes, Sparta really did throw the messengers in a well. No idea if "THIS. IS. SPARTAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH" was shouted though. Probably not because they, you know, spoke Greek.

But I digress.

So King Dareios was like, "Oh you fuckers." He gathered up an army of about 25,000 soldiers and put them under the command of his nephew Datis and his son-in-law Artaphernes. Tweedledee and tweedledum take their army to try to establish a bridgehead on Greek's eastern coast. They also got naval help from the Ionian Greeks, who knew better than to fuck with the Persians again. Datis and Artaphernes took their dudes over to Euboia, where the Eretrians, who had helped their Ionic kinsmen, lived. At this point the Eretrians were probably thinking, "Oh shit, we're are so fucked." And they would be correct. Although they were able to resist the Persians for nearly 7 days, not everyone was against the Persians. In fact, on the 7th day of fighting, Persian sympathizers opened the gates of the city for the Persians. Seriously. Needless to say, the Eretrians got their asses handed to them, especially after getting involved in the Ionian revolts. Most of the citizens were enslaved while the city itself was burned down. That's why you didn't fuck with Dareios, bitches.

Feeling pretty damn good about themselves, the Persians split up, Artaphernes staying behind in whatever's left of Eretria, and Datis taking Hippias, a tyrant they wanted to restore to power in Athens, and less than 20,000 me toward Athens. Hippias, thinking he would have some sympathizers in Marathon, told them to land there. Of course, the Athenians figured the Persians would pull this shit after Eretria's battle. So the Athenian army of about 9000, plus about 600 from the nearby town of Plataia, gathered on high ground to decide how to make their move. They also figured, "Hey, let's get some help from those kooky Spartans." Sparta agreed to help, but were in the middle of a religious festival and couldn't send anyone until the next full moon. Thanks, Sparta!

After a few days of arguing amongst themselves about what to do, the Athenians decide to go on the offensive, maybe because the Persian disposition was shifting. The Persians were like, "Oh, what the shit?" as the Greeks suddenly start attacking after not doing anything for several days. Or maybe the Greek strategy was to confuse the hell out of the Persians by sitting there staring at them from a mile away doing jack shit. Regardless, the wings of the Greek assault were able to push the Persians back across the plains, while the middle, well, not so much. Because the sides were getting closed in, the Persians realized that the Greeks could easily surround them and totally wreck their shit. They had to choice but to retreat back to their camp, getting chopped up by Greeks on their way.

All in all, the Persians finally got theirs. They lost 6,400 in comparison to only 192 on the Athenian side. Datis was forced to report his Blake Lewis-level of failure to Dareios, who probably handed him his ass in a handbasket.

Meanwhile, back at Marathon, the Spartans finally arrive. WAY TO GO, SPARTA! They are impressed with their fellow Greeks and praise their victory, the first a Greek force has seen against a Persian army. Then the Spartans probably went back to their festival.

The score was now tied, 1-1.

The Ionic Revolts: Epic Failure

2008-09-16T10:24:00.004-04:00

Though Herodotus claims the hostilities between Greece and Persia started with a series of woman snatching, which then evolved into a bunch of "NO U STARTED IT U POOPIEHEAD!" whiny crap, the first fighting started around 499 B.C. These were the Ionic revolts, in which the Greek city-states currently under Persian rule tried to throw off the tyrants. Sounds really cool, but in actuality, it was a pretty epic failure.

So the king of Persia at this time was Dareios, presumably a kooky bastard, whose father had previously conquered the Greek city-states on the Ionian peninsula. The Persians had installed tyrants who answered to Persian governors, or satraps, and collected tributes to the citizens. These tributes were usually used for things that didn't help the conquered Greeks at all, so needless to say the Greeks were like, "Dudes, WTF."

In 499 Aristagoras, the tyrant of Miletos, caused some aristocrats to BAWWWWW when he exiled them (possibly for being cuntbags, but I dunno). The Persians sent some of their navy over to lay the smackdown on Aristagoras, but Naxos, the island on which Miletos was located, sucessfully held off the Persians and forced them to retreat due to lack of good l00t. Thus, Aristagoras was like, "Holy shit, I'm AWESOME!" and gave up his position as tyrant to help his citizens throw off Persian rule and install a government based on isonomia, or equal rights for all citizens. Soon other Ionian city-states were throwing off their tyrants as well, but knew that they would be pwned out of existence without some aid.

Aristagoras, being totally awesome, travelled to mainland Greece to appeal to the city-states there for help. Unfortunately, most of them were fucktards and refused to help because they were preoccupied being douchebags to other city-states (I'm looking at YOU, Sparta and Argos), warned by the Oracles that it was a bad idea (the Oracles should've seen that they possibly could've stopped Persia from invading the mainland, but noooooooooo), or other equally pansy excuses. Only Athens and Eretria agreed to send some troops, out of diplomatic, cultural, and economic ties, or they had nothing better to do.

So in 498 Athenians and Eretrians joined with the mostly Milesian army at Ephesos, and attacked the Persian strong-hold of Sardis. They threwdown pretty good on the Persians until Dareios sent some reinforcements their way. The Greeks were utterly defeated, and the mainland Greeks, being bitches, ran home bawwing to their mommies about how the Persians were mean and they didn't want to play with them anymore. Now the Ionian city-states have to rely on each other.

King Dareios was getting tired of these whiny Greeks at this point. Because I mean, tyranny is totally awesome, why couldn't they understand that? Bastards. Anyway, Dareios decided it was time to show these bitches some tough-love oppression, and launched a massive land and sea campaign against the stronghold of the revolt, Miletos. The Ionians, now all alone in the world, only had 353 warships and their awesomesauce leader Aristagoras had been killed by political rivals, and zombification had not worked out well.

So there were 353 Ionian ships against 600 Persian ships. Herodotus says the Ionians let out a collective "Oh shit, we are FUCKED." (Okay, so I definitely made that up.) Samos and Lesbos (tee hee hee...the Lesbians. BAWAHAHAHHA) deserted first, knowing that there was no way in hell they would see victory. That pretty much ended the battle right there. Miletos was pretty much anihilated, and the other city-states were forced into submission and punished severely for their backtalk. We're talking killing men, forcing women into harems, castrating boys...Dareios didn't fuck around.

However, the Persians felt kind of bad for all of this after the raping and pillaging was finished. In 493 the Persians reaccessed the amount of tribute the city-states had to pay, mediated any inter-city disputes, and removed tyrants and allowed the Greeks to install democratic governments. So in a nutshell, Persia cooperated with the Greeks, but they wanted to kill a few bitches first, just to show how awesome they were.

But then Dareios saw all these other nice Greek city-states on the mainland, and got to thinking...

Oh, come on now.

2008-09-12T19:09:00.002-04:00

So aforementioned antisocial friend is now ignoring me. WAT. Like I haven't even seen her in over a week. I was smuggling a cat into my dorm this afternoon (more on that in a moment) and I saw her on campus walk. She looked right at me and didn't say a damned thing. Like, seriously?! I haven't heard or seen anything from her in ages, it's not like I've done anything to her.

And I just got a text message back from her saying she's stressed about a research project. Sure, because that always makes me look right through people. Oh well.

I've got a fucking cat in my dorm. Like, who fuckin cares about people, cats are far superior. A friend of a friend is letting my friend down the hall take care of her 19 week old kitten. His name is Peking and he's pretty awesome. I gave him a ball of yarn to play with and he is having a grand time. We're actually not supposed to have any kind of animal other than fish in the dorms, but somehow these people are keeping this cat. LOL. So that's the excitement of my weekend.

Nothing else going on. Room mate's gone home so I can walk around naked now. YAY. I think I'll watch 300 for lulz.

Ready for 300 to be ruined for you?

2008-09-11T23:12:00.001-04:00

As a nerd for Ancient Greece, and a history major to boot, I am writing my History 299 (seminar) and my 485 (senior thesis) papers on the Greco-Persian Wars. Exciting? FUCK YEAH, if you're me at any rate. I also find great bemusement in the movie 300, partially because of how hilariously unrealistic it is. (But I honestly can't watch it anymore without the Rifftrax. I guess that's the MST3K-tard in me.)

So since this is my blog and I can do whatever I want, and there's nothing else of great excitement in my life ever, I'm going to report my findings as they come. Not to mention it will probably help me organize my thoughts.

Basically all this post is saying is, enjoy the new tag!

"Pulling a Tina"

2008-09-07T15:05:00.002-04:00

Last night I was re-introduced to an interesting phrase.

My good friend Christine came to me last night upset with her boyfriend and his insecurities. She had walked out of his room because he had ruined a perfectly good night with sudden moping. (And they say girls are the only ones with mood issues. Like HELL.) As this wasn't the first time it had happened, Christine just got sick of it and told him she was tired and going to bed. Instead she came to me and cried, upset with him.

When she felt better she felt proud of herself for "pulling a Tina," or standing up for herself. This isn't the first time I've heard this phrase, and it confuses me every time. How did I become associated with sticking up for oneself and not taking bullshit from other people?

So I was pondering this last night. I guess it all starts, as most things with me do, during senior year of high school when my mental and physical wellbeing were taking a nosedive. Being diagnosed with panic/anxiety disorder and having to go to therapy is really where I started to grow into who I am now. I'm glad I went through that hell, because it made me stronger as a person and I get way more respect for it now. Fuck the one or two people who think I'm a major bitch nowadays, because I'm actually happier and feeling better than I ever have before.

But being through all that bullshit really made me realize I have to look after myself first and foremost. Yeah, people used to love me before for being so selfless, so caring, so motherly, but doing that also made me ignore warning signs that I needed help. I was so busy trying to take care of everyone and make everyone else happy that I forgot about myself. And seriously, I don't ever want to do that again. If someone really needs it, like Christine last night, I'll help, but people have to be self-reliant as well. I push them in the right direction instead of trying to solve their problems for them, letting them figure out things themselves. I had to stop trying to live other peoples' lives for them, and enjoy my own. Selfishness is not entirely a bad thing.

It still disturbs me when people say they want to be just like me. I still kind of fail as a person, honestly. Aside from all the health issues, I'm pessimistic, bitter, foul-mouthed, psychotic, lazy, and occasionally mean. I can hardly stand myself sometimes, I don't want to be around other people just like me! I guess I have more good qualities than bad, but still. I'm far from the most outstanding role model one could chose.

So don't pull a Tina. Do whatever the fuck you have to do to take care of yourself. You can't make everyone happy, and you'll only destroy yourself if you try.

Perfection.

2008-09-05T15:43:00.003-04:00

So I love the band Portugal. The Man really hardcore. So when the lead singer John Gourley posted this on their Myspace, that love increased exponentially. A view of Sarah Palin from Alaskans. I'm reposting the blog in its entirety because it's just so gorgeous. Whether a blog post or a song, these dudes have a way with words.

Palin, Because We Don’t Need It

Here is a story from the younger pages of John Gourley (going by Johnny at the time)…
My first hunting trip.

All through my smaller years, from a boy through to a man, I have known true Alaskans. People who hunted for a living. By "a living" I should be sure to mean "for survival" or "as a necessity… Something along those lines… It was just a part of life growing up here in Alaska. People hunt, people work, people live, and fish and sleep and work and work and work and so on.

One of my earliest memories is also one of the most influential lessons of life in my later years. My first hunting trip.

I must have been around 6 or 7 at the time and the setting is Alaskan winter at my childhood home in the small town of Knik. My parents were both dogsled mushers* and we lived in a house powered by generator alone. (*purely out of the adventure and experience. Not necessarily our main form of travel… though there were some points in my life where it became our most available source of transportation.) Our nearest neighbors were a couple of miles away, give or take. This, again, is not needed in this story but only here for you to understand the place in which the story is set… We happened to be sitting in our living room when, outside our massive picture windows, we spot a moose. I will say, to a young boy, this animal was a giant. I can't honestly tell you in any way how large it actually was, but to my eyes there was and will be nothing bigger. My family and I were sitting around watching it mill about minding its nature and peeling bark from the young birch trees. After a few moments my father turns to me "Hey Johnny, you want to go hunting? You want to go get a moose?" My mind went running. I had never been hunting before. EVERYONE I knew had been hunting and hunted. They had gone out with their fathers and now it was my turn. I nodded my little head and ran to throw on my snowsuit while my dad went to get his gun.

We walked outside in the cold and the snow, him in his bunny boots and winter coat and myself waddling out like a small scale Michelin man to meet our Moose and our dinner for the next few months. I remember the snow being very deep. Realistically, a foot of snow was deep to a small child. For effect and in the spirit of adventure and Alaskan winters I will say it must've been the wildest winter I can remember. Meter upon meter of snow. The naked birch trees blending with the white now, leaving little blotches of black and grey at the knots and branches. There was our moose. We had run right into its path. Right where we wanted to be. My father crouches down to my already shrunken size "Are you ready Johnny? Should we get it?" I again nod my head. My father raises the barrel and looks through the scope. We were less than 20 yards away, if that. He pulls his head away from the scope and looks to me again. "Are you sure? Do you want me to shoot it?" This time I am confused. In my mind I am thinking, "Of course I want you to shoot it! We are hunting! This is what we do, isn't it? My friends have done it and I know you have as well! What are we waiting for?" But again, I nod. The nod was more out of fear of the moose hearing me. Normally I would have spoken my thoughts out loud. At the very least I would have questioned the hesitance. My dad looks through the barrel one last time. He turns off the safety and readies the rifle. He sights the moose and sits there for a moment. All the while I am looking from him to the moose then back to him then back to the moose. I hear the safety come back on and a turn back to see my father lowering the gun and resting it by his side. At this point I am about as confused as a small boy can be. Dad is looking at me and he says, "We're not going to get it." I ask him why. What he said has stuck with me throughout my entire life. "Because we don't need it." We simply stood up and walked back to the house, leaving the moose to its dinner of baby birch.
"Because we don't need it." Possibly the best lesson a man like this could have taught me. He moved up to Alaska in 1970, 2 years after he graduated. He lived in the deep woods in the mountains of Chase. He has run one of the most intense races in the world, The Iditarod, he worked as a potato farmer, lived off of 300$ for an entire year out in these woods… This man is as Alaskan as anyone I know. The lesson he handed to me was a respect of the world we live in. A respect for the animals we live with and the people we deal with. He has traveled around the state working in construction. Building homes for the people and buildings for companies and upon entering these small towns for work always insisted we hire within the community and support their way of life and living, despite what these companies felt to be the most economical. He has handed me so much, all of my family, really.

"Because we don't need it." My mother, Jennifer Gourley, is much the same. While my father was away working she would take care of our dogs and run the house. She would fix the generator when it would break down. She took us to baseball and hockey and gymnastics. She took on foster kids that needed help. Gave them good meals and a family setting. She volunteered as a firefighter when there were forest fires threatening the areas. When Big Lake and Knik were being evacuated. She has since, in the most recent years become a fire fighter, an ambulance driver, a rescue technician, part of the dive rescue team, and Willows firefighter of the year. She is a part of her community.

"Because we don't need it" was something that has been taught to me every day of my life through these amazing people and to watch Sarah Palin get so much attention based on what? 2 years as Governor of the State of Alaska? Or is it based on her time as the mayor of Wasilla? The town of 5,000 at the time.
"Because we don't need it."
We don't need drilling in some of our most beautiful and untouched land. We need to work towards options. We should be investing and working towards clean fuels. We don't need to be draining our planet of every last drop before moving on to the next. Sarah Palin disagrees
We needed votes to add the polar bear to the endangered species list. (I know, I know, that polar bear rug would really bring the room together!). Sarah Palin disagreed
We don't need aerial hunting… Again. We do NOT need this. I don't know of any true Alaskan that feels it is good sport to shoot an animal from a plane. Sarah Palin disagrees
We don't need book burners and censors. Sarah Palin pushed to get the librarian of Wasilla fired when certain books were not removed from the public library. Who else in history has banned books? Not very good company is it?
We don't need more debts. Palin spent 15 million on a new sports center in the valley, leaving the small town of Wasilla, Alaska in debt to the amount of 22 million. (That's 22 million more than the debt she took on when taking on this lovely playtime as mayor.) 15 million just for a new sports center.
We don't need family feuds interfering with duties. I know you feel your ex-brother-in-law was a dick… but trying to get him fired based on this may cause a little trouble. Sarah?
We don't need another vote against gay marriage. This is just standard every day equal rights being overlooked. Sarah Palin disagrees.

We don't need to overlook global warming. Science can now tell us "Yup. That is happening." Not my words, that is science speak. Sarah Palin disagrees.
We don't need a wolf in sheep's clothing… or a sheep in wolves clothing, depending on how you look at it. She has billed her self as this overly average "hockey mom" and it is just not what I see. I see the sport hunter, the censor, choice taker, the revelations reader, and the high school cheerleader. It is endlessly embarrassing to watch people fall all over this idea. This is not my Alaska. The Alaska I know.

What we do need is love and respect for one another and respect for the world we live in.

Srsly u guise. Srsly.

2008-08-31T17:05:00.002-04:00

I'm starting to realize that no matter where you are or what you're doing in life, you will come into contact with people who don't know how to deal with others, get problems solved and have a better life because of it.

So one of my chick friends for some reason, seemingly all of the sudden has this issue with one of my guy friends. Completely out of the blue, in my eyes. On Friday she said she wouldn't come to brunch with us because she didn't want to be around him. Note: I'd never heard her voice any issue with him until then, and we've all known each other for 2 years now. Later on she texted me saying that she would be at brunch because she didn't want her feelings to interfere with her friendship with the rest of us. But at this point I'm still like, WTF.

Yesterday I asked her to go into more detail about her problems with this guy. She said that she didn't like the way he "looks through you" while talking, like "he's better than you." This just made me even more confused, as in my opinion this is far from the truth. Dude also had a bad summer, and even if he did that shit before, he sure as hell isn't doing it anymore.

And this morning I was talking to him, and he mentioned that he saw her in the dining hall one day and she tried to avoid eye contact with him. He said, "I don't understand, it's not like I did anything to her, did I?" And from what she tells me, I don't think he did anything but be himself.

So I'm sitting here just shaking my head. I mean, I'm good friends with this girl and I know she had a tough time last year with a half-psychotic roommate, but why is she all of the sudden offended with this guy, whom I don't think she's even talked to since we got back?

To further the weirdness of it all, this girl continues to avoid my other guy friend, who I'll call B for ease. Last year and the year before she had a crush on him, but then hastily deleted him from her Facebook for some dumb reason (I know I shouldn't, but I still LOL to myself about the absurdity of this). Now she feels bad about it and thinks things are awkward between them, though I don't think they are. I think she's seeing things that aren't there. I also think she's jealous because B and I are quite close, so close in fact that multiple people thought we were dating, but we are not. Our close relationship probably gives her more stress, but I try to include her whenever we hang out. Then if we do hang out she claims it's "too awkward" though I doubt B has even realized the whole Facebook shit. So I mean, what am I supposed to do, stop being friends with B? I've told her multiple times just to add him back with a message like "OOPS LOL WRONG DELETION LOLOLOLOLOL" or something, and B won't know the difference because he's too concerned about XBox and whatnot. BUT NO. I guess that would be entirely too easy and much less fun than worrying about it.

Last year we all got kind of screwed up with a big breakup, with Crazy Psychotic Room Mate wanting everyone to choose sides. This girl claims she doesn't want that to happen, and instead is just isolating herself from the rest of us because she doesn't want to face her own issues. I guess I don't understand this, because I'm one to find solutions to problems before they escalate or I freak about about them, like this girl. Seriously, I think the only reason I see this girl as often as I do is because I call her multiple times in a day to get her out of her room. And I can't keep doing that shit, my AT&T plan is not fit to handle that. So as much as I hate to say it, I may end up having to cut this girl off too. I can't help someone who doesn't want to help herself.

TL;DR Crazy chick is pushing away everyone that likes her for stupid reasons.

Back at UMW.

2008-08-28T22:03:00.003-04:00

And the place still fucking sucks. Seriously. The wonderful idiots at my college thought that, instead of using $5 million that was apparently just lying around for something that would actually help the university, its shittastic internet and barely edible food service, it buys a villa in Italy. SERIOUSLY, WHAT THE FUCK AM I PAYING FOR?! Clearly it's not for anything that's going to make my college experience better. Goddamn.

Regardless, my dorm and my room mate are awesome. Central air conditioning FTW. Plus my building is 100 years old. Living history, bitches. And my room is pretty big with lovely high ceilings.

So now I'm watching the Democratic convention, listening to Janis Joplin and procrastinating doing work (already, LOL). Basically I'm just waiting for Obama to speak, since I've missed every other part of the convention due to work. Might as well watch the last bit of it.

That's pretty much it. I'm too tired to write anything fascinating. LOL.

Bigfoot and other bullshit.

2008-08-15T18:02:00.005-04:00

Bigfoot found?

LOL DOUBTFUL. From the Youtube videos of the press conference I've seen, they have some grainy images of something that looks like a Halloween costume. OH WOW! If these people had really found something, you'd think they'd take many more pictures and make sure they were of higher quality. Then again, these dudes seem to be some grade-A hicks, so who knows. And I could be wrong, it really could be bigfoot, and I'll own up to my mistake. But seriously, after all I've been through and seen of people through my worst of times, I've become ridiculously pessimistic and bitchy. So no bigfoot.

So this past weekend was my family reunion, mother's side. It was fun. I babysat infants and tiny dogs. LOL. I also had to watch my grandmother, who has Alzheimer's and can't be left alone anymore. It's so weird to see someone who was once so full of life and energy and love just sit around like an empty shell. My other grandmother had Alzheimer's as well before she died a few years back, and it's not as hard to say goodbye when they die as it normally is. The way I see it, with this disease, you're dead long before your heart stops beating. It sucks.

Work has been, well, busy. Luckily I get to stop before I go back, but my last day of work is my fucking birthday! WAT. And I don't feel like trying to get someone to switch shifts with me, so whatevs. It'll be my last day, so it won't be that bad. Next Sunday I get to go back to school, which I'm quite ecstatic for. My hometown sucks, and brings back memories I'd rather not remember. Which is why I'm moving to Boston when I get out of school. Just like the Augustana song.

I'm going to finish my knitting. I've got the back piece of my sweater done (FINALLY). Pictures soon. Right now I'm working on the left front piece which hopefully won't take too much longer. It's already going faster than the back. Thank God.

Later.

Holy God what is wrong with American Idol fans?

2008-07-22T13:25:00.002-04:00

Read here, here, here, and here. Or just check out Smartie's entire site.

Do you feel ill yet?

Yes, these people are obsessing over people they have never (and most likely will never) know. Just because some people showed up on their TV for a few months, they feel as if they are these Idol contestants' BFFs. Seriously, writing Mary Sue fan fiction? Stalking on contestants' Myspace pages and even stalking them in their hotels? Barricading the fucking hotel so the AI winner can't get past them? Then trying to justify their pathetic actions and arguing with anyone who points out that they are a waste of humanity?

WHAT. THE. FUCK.

I fully and readily admit that I was a huge NSYNC and Backstreet Boys fan back in the day. But I was like, 10. Some of these fuckers are 40. Besides, I never even saw either band live, nor did I ever sit down and write a bunch of tard letters or fan fiction. Why? Because even as a tween, I had a life. Hell, I ran a *NSYNC fan site, but even that was mostly for the music, not for the members themselves. Plus, that was strictly a weekend activity. I can't even imagine sitting on these message boards for hours on end talking to other people about what the object of our affection is doing at that very moment. Even when I was little that seemed like a pointless waste of time when I had music lessons, homework, and chores to do.

Fast forward to when I was about 15. I can't even remember what I was really digging then. Probably because again, I had a life. I was more concerned with my music lessons, school, friends, and home life. Yet some of these teenaged idoltards waste hours of valuable time online making ridiculous and embarassing Youtube videos that make no damn sense, arguing with other fans, and/or making the same fucking message board posts over and over. What the hell? If my kids ever start that shit I'm going to smack them. It makes you wonder if these kids are even having normal social interactions with others. It can't be healthy to do nothing but sit in front of a computer chatting about the same subject day in and day out. And these kids' grades must be plummetting.

But what about those old bags, the 30+ crowd fawning over people who are in some cases young enough to be their children? Absolutely disgusting. At least with the younger ones there's a chance they will grow out of it. These women should fucking know better. They have their own families, their own spouses, but apparently not their own lives. It also shows the double entendre in this society, because a man their age lusting after a young female in the same manner would automatically be accused of being a pedo. Yet, these women are simply "COUGARS LOLOLOLOL." No, these women are just as creepy as the men. We shouldn't let these stupid excuses go idly by.

But these people would argue until blue in the face that their obsessions are harmless. Bullshit. When it gets to the point where people are running down the halls of the hotel where the idol contestants are staying, banging on the doors so they can't sleep, and barricading the hotel so they can't get past them, it has become VERY serious and potentially dangerous. Just ask the family of Selena how far crazed fans can go. Not to mention that you can't know who's on the other side of the screen. These people are giving out entirely too much information about themselves, and it's very easy to find people from just a bit of information.

Looking back at everything, I kinda hope the world will end in 2012. If this is the way our society's going, we just need to end it now.

WAT

2008-07-20T20:50:00.002-04:00

Not working is boring. I've been playing Spider Solitaire all day, just waiting for tomorrow. Sucks that I'm actually anxious to go work in a retail store whose managers are completely useless. Anyway, moar useless memes that are inaccurate and no one cares about.

What Your Taste in Music Says About You

Your musical tastes are intense and rebellious.

You are intelligent... but in a very unconventional way.

You are curious about the world. You love doing something new.

In fact, you enjoy taking risks and doing things most people would shy away from.

You are very physical. It's likely that you're athletic, but not into team sports.

You have the soul of an artist. Beauty and harmony are important to you.

What Does Your Taste in Music Say About You?

Athletic? I dance and jump arounda lot, does that count?

You Should Play the Accordion

You are eccentric, funky, wacky... definitely one of a kind.

People have trouble putting you in any one particular category. You definitely have your own thing going on.

You are a born entertainer. No wonder you'd be perfect as an one man (or one woman) band.

Your musical influences likely cross all genres - and blend together in a very unusual way.

While you are definitely offbeat, you also enjoy tradition and influences from the past.

It's just your style to take an old fashioned instrument like the accordion and make it uniquely yours.

Your dominant personality characteristic: your total inhibition

Your secondary personality characteristic: your interest in obscure activities and subjects

What Musical Instrument Should You Play?

That's my true calling in life. The accordion. I'm going to play metal though. \m/

You Are Punk Music

You've thought long and hard about what mainstream society has to offer...

And you've pretty much decided that most normal things aren't for you.

You're creative, expressive, and likely to do things yourself.

You are a rebel and a fighter. You'll defend your point of view to anyone.

What Kind of Music Are You?

Uh huh.

So anyway. Next weekend I get to go to NC for my cousin's wedding, then to the boonies of Southwestern VA for a family reunion the following weekend. So basically, I'll be seeing both sides of my family in two weeks. Kind of odd, seeing as to how I hardly ever see either side of my family, then suddenly everyone has something going on. It's funny too, because my dad's side and my mom's side are so vastly different from each other. I'm always surprised that my parents have lasted this long without killing each other yet. LOL.

Last.fm changed its look this week, much to the dismay of thousands of whiny users. I myself don't like it that much, but then again, I don't subscribe (in other words, pay for a few extra services that I would never utilize), nor do I actually sit there and stare at the website for hours on in, so I don't really care. But DAMN are some people bitching. It just kind of makes you wonder. People freak out over the oddest things and I ask myself, "Does the new layout of a website really affect people's lives in the long run?" Probably not. So why worry? I can semi understand the subscribers bitching, since all of them were in the beta and there was much dislike even then. But oh well. As I said before, it's a website. There are much more important things in the world, or at least there should be something more important in their personal lives. I hope.

I've almost completely given up on my sweater. Though I'm sure the conversions are correct this time, the pattern itself keeps fucking things up. Instead of just straight knitting, I'm supposed to work in seed stitch. But I may have to try it in regular stockinette so that the pattern doesn't keep getting fucked. ARGH. I should picked a less frustrating hobby, like scrapbooking or gardening or watching paint dry.

Whatevs.

SERIOUSLY?!

2008-07-18T23:22:00.003-04:00

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/afp/20080718/tuk-britain-police-crime-a7ad41d.html

Okay, seriously people. As a black person this absolutely disgusts me. If we want to get ahead and stop being seen as subhuman, STOP FUCKING ACTING LIKE A BUNCH OF ANIMALS. What the fuck is wrong with the black culture that makes this acceptable? Biting and attacking police officers because your fucktard ass didn't want to pick up your damn trash? You've got to be fucking kidding me. What the hell did MLK fight for and die for if this is how you're going to act?

It's upsetting for me because I try so hard to defeat these stereotypes and show that not all blacks are like that, and I know many other people who do the same. Then some group of fucktards comes along and pulls some shit like that, then wonder why racism is still so prevalent and holler about stereotyping. Act like the fucking human beings you're supposed to be and we might have a chance of getting rid of most of it. Goddamn.

And yes, I know part of it's the pack mentality mindset that all humans have, but seriously, this violent shit happens way too often in black communities. What is wrong with us?

Shit I'm bored.

2008-07-16T13:49:00.002-04:00

I'm just sitting here listening to Opeth and waiting to go to work. I hate working closing in retail. You would never believe how messy people are in stores. You really wouldn't think it'd be that hard to move a shirt that's medium 1 foot to the left or right to place it with the other mediums, so that a store associate such as yours truly doesn't spend an extra hour at the store putting everything back where it's supposed to go. What the fuck is wrong with people? Are they just that fucking lazy or retarded? FUCKHEADS. I swear, if I see someone I know doing that shit they're going to feel my wrath.

Anyway. Fun meme time.

9 Layers

A meme to peel aways the layers of you.

LAYER ONE:
-- Name: Tina/Tinnerz/Tibbz/T/Dumb Bitch
-- Birth date: August 21, 1988
-- Birthplace: Shenandoah Valley, Virginia
-- Current Location: Still there sometimes, otherwise at the University of Mary Washington

-- Eye Color: Brown
-- Hair Color: Blackbrown. Yes that's a color. LOL.
-- Height: 5'7"
-- Righty or Lefty: Righty
-- Zodiac Sign: Supposedly a Leo, but I think that's wrong.

LAYER TWO:
-- Your heritage: New Guinese/Irish/Native American/African/English/everything under the sun
-- The shoes you wore today: Chuck Taylors
-- Your weakness: Animals of any kind
-- Your fears: Spiders, death, clowns to an extent
-- Your perfect pizza: Every type of meat available
-- Goal you'd like to achieve: Long marriage with a bunch of kids and pets, hopefully be a stay at home mom

LAYER THREE:
-- Your most overused phrase on AIM: "LOL"
-- Your first waking thoughts: "AHHH FUCKK"
-- Your best physical feature: My physical features are all awesome.
-- Your most missed memory: Thanksgivings at my grandparents house, down in the boonies of southwestern VA

LAYER FOUR:
-- Pepsi or Coke: Pepsi
-- McDonald's or Burger King: BK
-- Single or group dates: Single
-- Adidas or Nike: Converse
-- Lipton Ice Tea or Nestea: Whatever's there
-- Chocolate or vanilla: Chocolate
-- Cappuccino or coffee: Cappuccino

LAYER FIVE:
-- Smoke: No
-- Cuss: Like a motherfuckin sailor
-- Sing: All the time
-- Take a shower everyday: Yes
-- Do you think you've been in love: Probably
-- Want to go to college: Already there
-- Liked high school: Only the last year or so
-- Want to get married: God yes
-- Believe in yourself: Sure do
-- Get motion sickness: No
-- Think you're attractive: I'm the hottest bitch around
-- Think you're a health freak: HELL no
-- Get along with your parent(s): Now I do, lol
-- Like thunderstorms: Sometimes
-- Play an instrument: Four of 'em

LAYER SIX: In the past month...
-- Drank alcohol: No
-- Smoked: No
-- Done a drug: No
-- Made Out: No
-- Gone on a date: No
-- Gone to the mall?: Yes
-- Eaten an entire box of Oreos?: No
-- Eaten sushi: No
-- Been on stage: No
-- Been dumped: No
-- Gone skating: No
-- Made homemade cookies: No
-- Gone skinny dipping: No (GOD, I FAIL AT LIFE!)
-- Dyed your hair: NO
-- Stolen Anything: NO

LAYER SEVEN: Ever...
-- Played a game that required removal of clothing: No
-- Been trashed or extremely intoxicated: No
-- Been caught "doing something": No
-- Been called a tease: Haha, I plead the fifth
-- Gotten beaten up: No
-- Shoplifted: No
-- Changed who you were to fit in: Briefly in the oh so malleable days of middle school

LAYER EIGHT:
-- Age you hope to be married: 25
-- Numbers and Names of Children: We'll figure that out when we get there
-- Describe your Dream Wedding: Not something I'm concerned with yet
-- How do you want to die: In my sleep, or in some awesomely brutal yet quick way such as an explosion
-- Where you want to go to college: Well I'm already at Mary Wash...
-- What do you want to be when you grow up: A mom
-- What country would you most like to visit: Greece

LAYER NINE:
-- Number of drugs taken illegally: None, because I'm not stupid
-- Number of people I could trust with my life: 7
-- Number of CDs that I own: Too many
-- Number of piercings: None, so far
-- Number of tattoos: None, so far
-- Number of times my name has appeared in the newspaper?: Possibly once
-- Number of scars on my body: At least 20
-- Number of things in my past that I regret: Absolutely nothing

Because baby birds are awesome.

2008-07-13T22:13:00.008-04:00

I was supposed to be helping my father put a new screen door up a few days ago, but how could I resist this little bundle of cute? This is the one closest to me, and the only one I could ever get a decent picture of. It looks like it's giving me the stink eye. Probably is.

You can see the others' mouths in this one. My tiny friend is like, "Oh shut up and get that camera out of my face, I'm trying to sleep, dammit."

"MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMM!!! The human won't get out of my face!"

FYI, these are baby robins. Mama Robin didn't seem to mind me at all. She kept a close eye on me, but as soon as I backed about 5 feet away from the nest she returned to her youngins. I'm glad I didn't get my brains pecked out.

A pictoral adventure in knitting successes and epic failures

2008-07-09T15:58:00.011-04:00

I, being the knitting fiend that I am, love trying some new things every once in a while. Sometimes these new endeavors turn out astoundingly awesome, boosting my ego to new heights, while other times...well...I'm reminded about how much fail still exists within me. Let's start with the good, shall we?

This of course isn't my first hat, but it is my first working from the top down. It was an easy knit too. I probably knocked this bitch out in a couple of days. You can't see it well in this picture, but it has a nice rib along the bottom that I quite like. Plus it fits snug (because I mean...it's a beanie) which I love. I'll definitely probably be using this pattern again, but hopefully using some different colors so I don't look like such a goth all the time. It's the one problem I have with my knitting: I'm always using dark colored yarn, which of course allows for more fuckuppery by me. The original pattern also had some stripes, but I wasn't feeling quite daring enough to attempt them. Onward...

Arm/wrist warmers. Yes, so I can be a scene kid when I'm not being goth. LOL. I'd always liked the look of these things, but I never found any that really fit my fancy. So when I found this pattern during the last few months of the last semester I knew I had make some. These were also very quick to make; I knocked out the long warmers in about 3 days, the shorter ones in about 2. The yarn is 100% wool so that shit is warm, much too warm to wear here in the summer but when fall and winter roll around you can bet I'll be rocking these bitches.

And now...all aboard the fail boat.

This is supposed to be the back section of a jacket/sweater I'm attempting. I had to convert the original pattern due to my needles and yarn choice, but sweet Jesus did I fuck that shit up. The thing that sucks the hardest is that I've ripped out and restarted this fucker at least 10 times by now. Which is why it is currently sitting on a pile of books and DVDs, looking sad and like a 5 year old with ADHD made it. I'm waiting until I can think clearly about it without wondering why I'm such a fuckhead. It's obvious it has something to do with my gauge conversions and my general knitting abilities. And I mean, look at the top part:

SRSLY WTF DID I DO? I must have forgotten to take my meds that day, or something. And I remember thinking, "Oh I'll just finish it, maybe it'll look right when I'm done." FALSE. It looks more retarded finished than it did while I was working. So soon I need to sit down and go over the original pattern and my converted pattern to figure out what I'm doing wrong. I think the main problem is that I have to do a shitton of math for it. And it's a well known fact that math and I just don't get along. I think I chose the wrong fucking hobby. LOL.

But see, the left front piece doesn't look as bad. The main problem I have with it is that it looks so damn small. I mean, I'm not a big girl, but I'm not anorexic either. Again, something with my math was way the hell off, causing everything to look either extremely retarded or as if it were made for someone half my size. This piece can probably easily be salvaged and fixed. Plus this would only be the third time redoing it, not the eleventh, and my patience hasn't completely worn out with it yet. YET.

And those are my current adventures. Hopefully, I'll get this shit worked out and I can say that I'm fabulous again.

All faith is gone in humanity.

2008-07-08T00:56:00.003-04:00

Basically, over the past few months or so, my faith in humanity has declined at an astonishing rate. Finally, it hit rock bottom. In my eyes, humans officially suck. I include myself in this group, being human of course, and having severe moments of fucktardism. But Christ on a bike, I'm not the only one being a fuckup.

Idletard.com: If you don't hate middle-aged American Idol fanatics who have long lost grip on reality already, you sure as hell will now.
A girl (name withheld) with whom I used to be best friends with in elementary and middle school, sent me a Myspace message out of the blue to call me, among other things, a "butch dyke" because I had apparently said something not-so flattering about her. In all honesty, I don't even remember thinking about her since I left high school. So I figure, it's some shit from high school that this chick is bringing up. But no, I apparently said this about a month ago. I'm thinking, "Who the hell have I even talked to that she talks to? No one." So bitch is crazy. And I laugh. Yet I have to wonder, why is it that she was so bothered by the idea of me saying something when we haven't spoken to each other in years? Hell, if it'd been the other way around I probably would have forgotten it within the hour. I was done caring what other people thought or said about me quite some time ago. If you live life constantly concerned about what other people think of you and fighting unnecessary battles, you're never going to get anywhere in life.
SecuROM. This shit royally fucked up my computer, part of the reason why I haven't been online as much. EA Games maintains that this shit isn't malware, yet TWO of my anti-malware programs caught it as a rootkit. Shit started screwing up my CD and DVD drives, my anti-virus, and even caused some memory leakage. Furthermore, Sony, the company who makes SecuROM, got into trouble a few years back because they were putting anti-piracy software that fucked up computers on music CDs. I had to send several CDs back to them so they could be replaced. So I've been buying EA's games, mostly Sim games, since the mid 90s and what I get for my years of support and money is a nearly ruined computer? Fuck you, Maxis. The bitch of it all is that SecuROM is hacked as easily as any other anti-piracy software, and with pirated games you don't get malware shit on your computer. So EA Games can suck my ass, I'm pirating games from now on. ARR.
Youtube comments. Seriously, have you ever tried to read them? It's like jamming an icepick into your urethra whilst having lemon juice squeezed into your eyes. I've never seen such idiocy nor raping of the English language in one place. What is it about the Internet that turns so many people into total fucktards?
This dumbass kid. Or, Darwinism at its finest. At 17 years old, he should've known better than to scale 2 safety fences for a fucking hat. The funniest part for me, morbidly of course, is the fact that my friends and I have an ongoing joke using the phrase, "Oops, I forgot my hat." This is said when we say goodbye, but are still present 5 minutes later and/or had to come back for some reason. Thus, when this first hit the press, my inbox was filled with links to the above and "FORGOT MY HAT." Morbid humor. Always grand.
The fact that someone felt this needed to be studied. I hate the prejudice, racism, sexism and homophobia that still proliferates in the world. People are people, and when people get over petty differences and trying to label everyone things could be much better.

Rant over. I need to sleep.

Long ass week.

2008-03-21T16:27:00.002-04:00

So much to say!

Tuesday, my favorite band, The Receiving End of Sirens, broke up. I'm still in a state of shock and depression. Bitches were my anti-anxiety and anti-depressants when I needed them the most. I feel like their music was such a big part of my life, especially the last half of high school when I was really going downhill mentally, and while I was learning to deal with my anxiety problems. So while I'll still love them in whatever they do next, it feels sort of like a chapter of my life is over.

Wednesday, VFTW lost our awesome pick, Amanda Overmeyer. She seemed happy about it though, which is why I wasn't too upset. Plus I know she'll be fine with whatever she decides to do. However, American Idol totally blows now. Best season ever my ass.

I found out today that LiveJournal users are striking for some ridiculously retarded reasons. It reminds me once again of why I got rid of my LJ and the ridiculously stupid drama that the users create. "OH NOES I'M REMOVING U FROM MAH FRIENDS LIST BC U DON'T UPDATE ENOUGH." Seriously, I had that happen at least three times before I decided "screw all of them." Now they're all up in arms because of a technical difficulty ("oh noes I can't have 'slashfic' as one of my interests, PROTEST") and because they decided to get rid of basic accounts, which if I remember correctly were the free accounts without banner ads. Seriously though, LJ users are some of the biggest drama-llamas I've ever seen in my life.

People protested outside of my class last night, which was a lecture about Margaret Sanger, the woman who advocated birth control. These crazy douchebag Christian fundies tried to say that Sanger was a racist. The speaker completely shot down all of their statements, showing how most of the statements they were using were taken completely out of context or simply completely fabricated, and it was beautiful and completely epic. I lol'd so hard. After the lectures they allow the audience to ask questions, and the protestors had nothing to say. Absolutely hilarious.

I met my room mate for next year today and it's definitely going to work out really well. We like a lot of the same things and agree on pretty much everything, so it's going to be a fun year. I was a bit worried at first, but now I think it's pretty fantastic. So yay for that.

MST3K has really brought out the bad movie lover in me, so I'm on a quest to watch some of the most awful movies ever made. The hardest part is finding free copies of them online so I don't have to pay for that shit! Just a few of the movies I need to see: The Blob, Plan 9 From Outer Space, and Starcrash. Starcrash basically because apparently it has David Hasslehoff IN SPACE. Like, holy shit. That has to be absolutely amazing.

So I just got caught up on LOST and holy shit, the Jin/Sun episode made me cry so hard. I partially blame PMS, but goddamn what a sad episode. Tore my ass up. It was beautifully done though, and I seriously loved it. That one and the Michael episode restored my love of this show, which you have to admit kind of went downhill in season 3. I'm glad it's picking back up and once again reminding me of how much I love this show and why I was so obsessive over it during the first 2 seasons.

I've decided that I need to order pizza online. LOL. I'm on my period and I really feel like just relaxing this weekend, as this week has been very long and very stressful for me. And I want to try out the online ordering, and I haven't consumed an entire pizza by myself in a long time. It's a good feeling. Haha.

Anyway. I really need to lay down, or something. Cramps really suck. I'm also going to watch some movies tonight, as my roommate is home this week for Easter. Violent movies can now commence! Later.

I am having a shitty day.

2008-02-13T14:09:00.003-05:00

So it's rainy and nasty outside, and I used to have 2 umbrellas. One got stolen at the dining hall, and another was snapped by a mean gust one wind. Therefore I trek to the bookstore this morning to pay TWENTY FUCKING DOLLARS FOR A GODDAMN UMBRELLA THAT FUCKING BREAKS 4 HOURS LATER.

I AM STEAMED.

I'm going back tomorrow and getting them to give me a new one or give me my money back. Goddamn thing broke when I was simply closing it! I mean, what the fuck?!

I guess I'm more pissed about my old one being stolen a couple of weeks ago, because that thing was awesome. And now I just have shittastic overpriced bullshit umbrellas that are broken. Ugh. I need to go to Target this weekend and get a new one.

And...I still forget I have a blog.

2008-02-12T00:09:00.000-05:00

So Valentine's Day is coming soon, which means old memories will be brought up. Ugh. You know how there are times that you forget 50 weeks out of the year, but then for about two weeks it hangs on you like a damn monkey on a tree? Yeah, that's my life right now. Not going into details, though.

Still playing on Vote for the Worst. I finally got a t-shirt too, but my timing was maybe not the best with all the election stuff happening now, haha. It's been sort of annoying trying to explain to people what VFTW really is.

Speaking of election shit, Bill Clinton visited my college today to campaign for his cyborg wife. I had the option of skipping class and going, but I really fucking hate Hillary. Bill, didn't mind too much. But her, GOD I hate her. Also, there's a cutie in my Greek class and I like my eye candy. So screw the Clintons, I'm waiting for Obama.

Also, Crysis is a fantastic game. I bought a new video card simply for that game. That's how much I love it.

Saturday night I went to this place in Maryland called Glen Echo with my swing dance club. It was a fucking blast, but my legs still ache. Hey, you try dancing in heels for 4 hours straight. However, my legs will look great if I continue such a workout. Basically in swing dancing, as the female, you are thrown all over the dance floor and have to stay on your feet and, if your lead sucks ass, figure out what the hell your partner is doing. Some of the guys were really fucking good, and for some odd reason the Asian men in particular. Dudes know how to get their swing on. On the way back we got coffee and chips, and listened to the Beatles. I can't wait to go again, it was so fucking awesome. I'm such a swing nerd, LOL.

Anyway, my typing is probably annoying my room mate who is trying to sleep, haha, so I'd better get off here. Adios.

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Now playing: Jeff Buckley - Dream Brother
via FoxyTunes

I'm not dead!

2007-12-14T20:18:00.000-05:00

Yeah so I completely forgot I have a blog until this morning. Go me. Unfortunately I have nothing exciting to report, other than I'm done with final exams and I never have to see Computer Science again! LOVE IT. So anyway, I'm going to meme-spam. Because I've been home for 8 hours and I'm already bored to death, and I can't decide which MST3K to watch. So until then...

23

Looking for payday loans?

This cracked me up when I saw it on the first page of Digg. I HAD to take the quiz.

You Were Nice This Year

You Were 35% Naughty, 65% Nice

Okay, so you weren't *entirely* nice this year
But Santa doesn't expect a modern girl to be perfect
You were good enough - and you'll be rewarded for it

Were You a Naughty Girl or Nice Girl this Year?

You Should Be a Social Worker

You are deeply caring and empathetic.
You are able to take on other people's problems as if they were your own.
Sensitive and intuitive, you understand human emotions well.
Helping others gives you the most joy in life. You feel like it's your purpose in life.

You do best when you:

- Have a lot of responsibility
- Greatly impact someone's life with your work

You would also be a good philanthropist or stay at home parent.

What Should You Be When You Grow Up?

Works for me, I want to be a stay at home mom.

Yeah whatever. LOL. Hopefully this break will be very relaxing and stress free. I've already broken the towel rod in the bathroom twice, and I'm hoping that's not a sign.

----------------
Now playing: Jeff Buckley - Lover, You Should've Come Over
via FoxyTunes

Radiohead fucking kicks ass.

2007-10-10T23:24:00.000-04:00

So, my fandom for Radiohead increases everytime I listen to them now. I just got their new album (and yes I did buy it, giving them 7 U.S. dollars, although I would've given them more if I knew it would be this fucking gnarly) and I love it. Seriously, it's fantastic. I encourage everyone to buy it, or at least download it for free because it's amazing.

Someone on Digg.com gave this astoundingly awesome comment about Radiohead:

This is how I interpret Radiohead's albums and what they've meant with each release.

Pablo Honey - "Hello. We're Radiohead. This song is called Creep"
The Bends - "FUCK OFF, critics. We're not a one hit wonder, assholes. This album proves we're a million times better than that yet-to-come faggot Chris Martin"
Ok Computer - "FUCK OFF, mainstream rock. We're going to produce an electro-computerized-guitar-rock album that blows your fucking mind and sets off the alternative craze for generations to come."
Kid A - "FUCK OFF, commercial success and radio/mtv outlets. We're sick and tired of being so damn glamorized that this album will be so experimental and radio-unfriendly that we're hoping to shed off a bulk of our bullshit fans, and yet it will still kick major fucking ass."
Amensiac - (same as "Kid A" but part 2)
Hail to the Thief - "FUCK OFF, George Bush for stealing the elections. And fuck you if you thought we didn't have it in us to produce a more commercially sound album, again."
In Rainbows - "FUCK OFF, RIAA! This album kicks insane amounts of ass and you will not make a penny off of it, you dirty money-hording grimy lil' bastards."

And THAT, my friends, is why I have so much damn respect for Radiohead.

Pretty much sums up my feelings as well.

Anyway, I only have one class tomorrow, but I need to read a bit before then. Fall break is on Friday, and I'm stoked to go home and play with my gecko. Later.

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Now playing: Radiohead - House Of Cards
via FoxyTunes

Memes make me feel good.

2007-09-29T11:00:00.000-04:00

You Scored an A

You got 10/10 questions correct.

It's pretty obvious that you don't make basic grammatical errors.
If anything, you're annoyed when people make simple mistakes on their blogs.
As far as people with bad grammar go, you know they're only human.
And it's humanity and its current condition that truly disturb you sometimes.

The It's Its There Their They're Quiz

So I'm a grammar nazi. Bite me! Both of my parents were teachers, so it comes naturally.

Your Halloween Costume Should Be

A Bumble Bee

What Should You Be For Halloween?

Except that I'm going as a football player. 48 37 8 HUT HUT HUUUUUTTTT!

What Your Favorite Color Pink Says About You:

Blissful --- Content --- Romantic
Idealistic --- Expressive --- Artistic
Funny --- Quirky --- Individualistic

What Does Your Favorite Color Say About You?

You Are 16% Emo

You're the furthest thing from emo. Sensitivity is not something you exactly cultivate... and you can't imagine weeping over song lyrics.

Are You Emo?

But I HAVE wept over song lyrics...many a time. Stupid BlogThings.

You Are a Smart American

You know a lot about US history, and you're opinions are probably well informed.
Congratulations on bucking stereotypes. Now go show some foreigners how smart Americans can be.

Are You a Dumb American?

I'm also a History major. LOL.

Anyway. It's Family Weekend here at the university so I'm just waiting for my parents to come. I'm fucking hungry and I hope they take me out to lunch. Haha. Yay for blogs to kill time with.
----------------
Now playing: Alexisonfire - Mailbox Arson
via FoxyTunes

My friends suck.

2007-09-27T18:29:00.000-04:00

So. My personal life just took a turn for the shitastic.

Okay, so keeping people's names private, let's have Girl A and Girl B, and Guy. Guy and Girl A dated for quite some time. Guy dumped Girl A over the summer, for reasons she didn't understand, and has been upset over for a while now. She was finally starting to move on when it comes out that Guy cheated on Girl A with Girl B a week before he dumped her, and he and Girl B have been dating secretly ever since. Shit hit the fan yesterday when Girl A saw Guy rub Girl B's leg at dinner, and then she asked someone else after she'd left, and it was confirmed.

Right now I'm just pissed at the whole lot of them, and at those who are taking sides. It is not our battle to fight. I'm just annoyed because I've been in Girl A's place, and it seriously sucks balls, so I'm naturally going to be more sympathetic toward her, but I'm trying my best not to take sides. I'm just disgusted at everyone because those of us trying to remain neutral are stuck in a bad place, and those parties involved need to act like their fucking age and talk this shit out, because all it's doing is ruining the peace and calm that we've always had. We're fucking 19 and 20 years old, not 9 and 10 years old. Why can't we discuss things like the adults we are, figure this shit out like human beings so that we can get on with life? Is that so fucking hard to ask for? Apparently to the people I know, yes.

So yeah. I'm just a wreck right now because I'm sick as a dog, my period is particularly obnoxious this month (Tuesday I had cramps so bad I couldn't move), and I have multiple exams in my classes. I really didn't need this now. None of us did. And neither Jeff Buckley nor MST3K is making me feel better. Red alert, call in the troops...

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Now playing: Jeff Buckley - Mojo Pin
via FoxyTunes

Oh, God...

2007-09-07T09:18:00.000-04:00

So I just found out a couple of minutes ago that my best friend Tara was in a car accident last night. Apparently she was also flown to UVA Medical Center, which translates to, "she was really fucked up." Now I feel like I'm on the verge of a panic attack.

When I got the voicemail from Alissa this morning somehow I knew it had to do with Tara. Maybe because we're so close. Seriously, Tara's like my blood, my twin, and if anything happens to her I feel like I'll lose my other half.

Basically now it's just a waiting game, and trying to find people who know anything. I don't know a lot of the kids she hangs out with in the hometown, and apparently there were some others in the car too. Edits as news comes...

EDIT: Okay, so Alissa found out that Tara's in ICU. Since she's not family, she can't find out much more than that. She called the waiting room to see if Tara's parents were there yet and they weren't. I also got a hold of my Dad and he said he's going to try to find out what he can.

EDIT2: Tara's going to be fine, thank God or whomever you believe in. She broke her neck and fucked up her arm pretty badly, but she'll be coming back to the Burg on Monday. She'll have to go through multiple surgeries, but at least she's alive.

First week back

2007-09-01T14:02:00.000-04:00

First of all, Angels in the Outfield is on TV right now and I used to watch this movie religiously when I was younger. I'm having serious nostalgia right now, but kind of laughing at how bad the special effects are and some of the lines are just cheesy as fuck. But I still fucking love this movie. It also begs the question, whatever happened to Christopher Lloyd?!

Anyway, the first week of classes are going well. I was mostly worried about my Ancient Greek class but I'm actually picking it up pretty quickly. I do have a speaking intensive class, and I was freaked out about that because I'm shy and whatever. But actually I talk in that class because no one else does and I just get fed up with the awkward silences. LOL. So yeah, I have a good feeling about this year and I think I'll definitely give my GPA a nice boost as long as I stay on top of things.

My roomie's cool too. She's RA so there are times when she disappears for a while so I get to play honorary RA. LOL. We like a lot of the same things and our roommate agreement contract was a breeze. So basically I have no complaints about anything as of now, and I'm quite happy about that.

Let's also talk about how Blockbuster's 3 movies for $20 deal kicks vast amounts of ass. I bought The Illusionist, The Departed, and Children of Men. Basically, I am quite happy and I probably am satiated in the movie department for 2007. Unless you count MST3K as movies. In that case I won't be satiated until I have all 10 seasons. LOL.

Anyway. I told some of the girls that I'd go visit them this afternoon so I'll try to pull myself away from my beloved Angels in the Outfield and be social or something. Hahaha.

Um, ouch?

2007-08-17T13:13:00.000-04:00

So something bit my foot about 5 times last night. Seriously, what the fuck? Once is enough, maybe twice if you really hate me. But five freaking times on the same foot? Oh, great, and there's one on my other foot too. I am not tasty or nutritious! Stop trying to eat me! Probably a spider. Ew. (PROTIP: Tinnerz has arachnophobia.)

ANYWAY. This summer I've been reading a lot. So it's time for book reviews! Da da da DAAAA!

Jeffrey Eugenides: Middlesex
Okay, this book is the perfect book to read when I'm PMSing. It has love, family, self-discovery, everything a hormonal lady such as myself could want. It tells the story of the Stephanides family, narrated by Cal, who is a hermaphrodite and used to be known as Callie. It covers three generations of the family and explains how he came to be who he is now, and it's just absolutely beautiful. I was crying, laughing, scared, surprised...I think I went through every human emotion while reading this book. No wonder it won a Pulitzer Prize, it's fucking amazing. Easily one of the best books I've ever read, and quite possibly my new favorite.

Khaled Hosseini: The Kite Runner
Another new favorite. It's about Amir, an Afghani who grew up wealthy, and his friendship with his servant, Hassan. The story, told over a quarter century, is so powerful that after I finished reading I could only sit there, staring at the wall and thinking to myself, "Motherfucker that was a good ass book." And I don't think that very often. I expected the political aspect of this book to get preachy (with the Taliban and the invading Russian forces and whatnot) but I was pleasantly surprised that it took a backseat to the real story, that of an undying friendship and redemption. Fucking excellent book.

Anyway.

I fixed an old laptop this week, GO ME. I fixed it really ghetto-like with scotch tape and cursing, but fixed it is. Basically I just wanted to get my SimCity 3000 disc out of it and read some of the hilarious Harry Potter fan fiction I had stored on there. It's awesomely bad. However, no one else will ever see that shit, because its just embarrassing. My stories are much better nowadays. Mostly because it's not Harry Potter fan fic. LOL. I can forgive myself though, I was only about 13.

Let's also talk about how Jeff Buckley is God. Call me blasphemous if you please, but Mr. Buckley was fucking awesome. How can you deny the brilliance of "So Real" or "Lover, You Should've Come Over" or "Grace" or his version of "Hallelujiah?" YOU CAN'T. BECAUSE HE'S GOD. If he were still alive today I'd be a total fantard. Hell, he'd probably rule over the known universe. He's that great.

Anyway. I'm going to finish eating my artery-clogging meal from Wendy's and play with people on VFTW. Adios.

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Now playing: Jeff Buckley - Je n'en connais pas la fin
via FoxyTunes

Holy God I'm a nerd.

2007-08-14T19:11:00.000-04:00

YES! Live long and prosper, motherfuckers. Just because I know the symbol for Manganese, sometimes do homework on Fridays, and know my current IP address doesn't mean I'm a nerd. /denial
----------------
Now playing: Jeff Buckley - Alligator Wine
via FoxyTunes

New TREOS CD!!!!!!!

2007-08-05T12:22:00.000-04:00

So...I got back from my tax-free shopping (THANKS, VIRGINIA LEGISLATURE!) yesterday to find that I had a package sitting on my desk. What was it? The brand new CD by The Receiving End of Sirens, my favorite band EVAR, three whole days before it actually is released. SCORE. So here is my review, and feel free to listen on their Myspace, since they put the whole album up there.

The Receiving End of Sirens: The Earth Sings Mi Fa Mi
Well, I must first state that I have an emotional attachment to their first album, Between the Heart and the Synapse, because it is my musical Xanax. So it's hard to live up to that, and I'm not sure at the moment that I like this one as much as BTHATS. Regardless, it's a solid album, and sorta reminds me of Circa Survive and Saosin. They still have that TREOS sound, but it's only vaguely there, probably because Casey left and has his own band (The Dear Hunter) now. I think at the moment I'm still expecting to hear Casey's voice somewhere, but I just have to listen to TDH now. :( Anyway, I do like the sequencing on this album a lot. Also they use glockenspiels. Like, holy shit. Fuck the cowbell, MOAR GLOCKENSPIEL. Favorite songs so far are "Swallow People Whole," "The Salesman, The Husband, The Lover," "Saturnus" (which I had on my iPod and used to know as "Hemi"), "Wanderers," "The Heir of Empty Breath," and "Pale Blue Dot." Okay, so that's most of the album. So fuck it, I like this shit. LOL. GO BUY IT NOW. Or when it comes out on Tuesday.

And now, photographic love of this CD. Please ignore the Leopard Gecko who refused to move out of the way because he is a camera hog and for some reason likes TREOS.

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Now playing: Alexisonfire - A Dagger Through the Heart of St. Angeles
via FoxyTunes

Quite possibly the best statement on Lindsay Lohan

2007-07-30T15:51:00.000-04:00

From PerezHilton.com:

“When Mrs. Lohan stops partying with her child, then I’ll have an ounce of respect for her. I don’t care if her parents are both crummy – you cannot blame your parents anymore. She’s not a kid. Lindsay, get it together, America will forgive you but you gotta do something positive with your life. I hope she does okay but at a certain point, there’s so many bigger problems in the world than Lindsay Lohan. I hope she gets her head out of her nice, cute little rear end and finds a life for herself. She’s very talented, and a special little actress but there are so many people out there who’d trade positions with her in a heartbeat and use it better than she is.”

And guess who said that?

No really, guess.

ROB FUCKING SCHNEIDER.

I SHIT YOU NOT.

Who knew he was actually quite intelligent and has the balls to say what everyone wants to but doesn't, and manages to say it so eloquently that he doesn't look like a douchebag? Fucking outstanding, Mr. Schneider. Now if you put as much into your movies as you did in this paragraph, I'd actually watch them. 10,000 bonus points.

I'm really fucking bored.

2007-07-29T23:07:00.000-04:00

So I'm posting memes. Because I can. :)

You Are 16% Girly

Um... you're a guy, right? If not, you're the most boyish girl in the world.
And for you, that's probably the ultimate compliment.

How Girly Are You?

Your Ideal Pet is a Cat

You're both aloof, introverted, and moody.
And your friends secretly wish that you were declawed!

What's Your Ideal Pet?

I resent that, BlogThings. *shakes fist*

You Are 68% A Child of the 90s

Wassup!?! You remember the 90s like they were yesterday.
And you're ready to open up a can of whoop-ass on any other decade.

Are You a Child of an 90s?

Speaking of the 90s, my Furby is still sitting on top of my stereo. LOL.

That's enough for now. I'm going to see what's on TV and make myself some tea. Night.

Moar music reviews!

2007-07-28T22:29:00.000-04:00

Bittorrent has been running madly this summer, and now I bring new music reviews! WOO.

Mika: Life In Cartoon Motion
I consider myself to be pretty open when it comes to music. I mean, let's take a gander at my iTunes library: I have everything from Tupac to The Fall of Troy to Kelly Clarkson to Igor Stravinsky. I cover it all, pretty much. So I figured, "Hey, this Mika guy sure is getting a lot of attention. Let's check it out." That decision was probably one of the worst in my life. Honestly, about 10 minutes into the album I wanted to throw myself into traffic. I like happy music, but not this fucking happy. My God, it was horrible. The best way I can convey the horrific sounds I experienced is by mentioning the fact that I had to switch quickly to The Receiving End of Sirens, which as I have mentioned before, is my anti-panic attack drug. Even the mere thought of this shit makes me feel nauseated. So I'm going to move on. If you want to try to listen to that shit, go ahead, but be warned. Mika should be sued for damages.

Portugal. The Man: Church Mouth
Ahhhhh...good music. Portugal The Man is one of those bands I wish I'd discovered sooner. I mean, damn, they're good. I compare it to waking up in the morning and finding that your significant other has made you breakfast in bed. Then you win the lottery. Then a chocolate truck overturns in front of your house and you get all the free chocolate you want. Then you have amazing sex with your significant other. THAT IS WHAT IT IS LIKE LISTENING TO THIS BAND. I can't even chose a favorite song because I've had it on repeat and I don't even know what each song is. I keep on saying, "DAMN this song is AWWWWSUMMM" but I think I'm said that about every song. LOL. So just buy it dammit.

And uh...yeah that's it. LOL. I wish I were less boring.

More badassery on a stick.

2007-07-11T16:31:00.000-04:00

Well, the funeral was like I'd expected, sad, and a bit strange. My grandmother has Alzheimer's and hadn't been able to recognize my grandfather for quite some time. She suddenly recognized him at the viewing. That pretty much tore my insides up. On the other hand, I got to see some family I hadn't seen in ages, and that was nice. I also got to play with my cousin Tristan, who will be 6 tomorrow and who's a riot.

But now it is time for me to gloat some more about how fucking awesome I am with knitting. Check this shit out:

I mean, am I awesome or what? It's kinda tacky, but it's my tacky blanket goddammit. Special thanks goes to Wikipedia for teaching me how to crochet, LOL.

So I've been hearing that the new Harry Potter movie sucks ass. So I dunno whether to go see it or just wait until it comes out on DVD. Might be the latter. I want to see Transformers as well. I mean, Optimus Prime, dammit. You can't get any cooler than him. Unless you're Chuck Norris, but that goes without saying.

Anyway. I'd better be off. I've got other things to attend to.

This blog is rated R.

2007-07-03T16:22:00.000-04:00

Mingle² - Online Dating

This rating was determined based on the presence of the following words:

hell (4x)
shit (2x)
shitty (1x)

LOL. This is great. My life is pretty rated R though, hahaha.

My grandfather died this morning so my life is a bit hectic right now. I'll be going out of town, probably tomorrow. I'm not really sad though, probably because my grandfather's health has been declining for some time now. He'd been in and out of the hospital for a month and so it was just a matter of time. It'll be nice to get out of H'burg but it would've been nicer if I could've gone for a happier reason.

I promised knitting shit so I'm gonna post stuff. There I go with the cursing again, hahaha.

That there is my at-the-moment-strapless handbag. It didn't take me too long to make, probably only a couple of weeks, and that was because it was during the school year and I had other stuff to do. It was made using US size 7 needles. I alternated 10 rows of navy and 8 rows of white. The difference is because the white was a different weight than the navy, so I had to compromise in order to get the stripes as even as possible. I think it looks pretty good though. One day I'll actually make a strap so it can be functional, lol.

Ahh, my awesome-ass Slytherin scarf. I wanted to make one ever since I started knitting, and I was happy with how well it turned out. Using my trusty US size 7 needles (can you tell they're my favorite?) I whipped this shit up in about a week and a half. I have to finish weaving in the ends, but I should have that finished in no time. And then I'll wear it to the Harry Potter movie on July 11. \O/ Score, man.

At some point I'll figure out how to crochet my knitted squares together and my tacky technicolor blanket will be done, and I can boast about how much ass I kick. LOL. Anyway. I gotta go find out what's going on with the family and finish converting my MST3K to my iPod. Hells yes.

Summer is borrringggg.

2007-07-02T20:32:00.000-04:00

The stuff from the last entry has cleared up a bit. It got worse before it got better but...I guess that's how things go in life sometimes.

Basically all I'm doing at the moment is listening to some iTunes and waiting for the videos of this week's Canadian Idol to go online. CI is so shittastic, it's amazing. In case anyone cares, this person uploads every episode of CI and posts it here. Be warned, it's addicting. Plus me and the other Worsters of Vote for the Worst have to decide who's the worst.

In other news, I've been downloading a shitton of MST3K torrents this summer. Basically because there's nothing better to do. And I love me some MST3K. Anyone who doesn't fails at life and I cannot be associated with failures of life. :)

And I know I need to post pictures and possibly instructions of my knitting projects, and I shall do that at some point. I'm just awfully fucking lazy.

I have this continual feeling that something's missing this week, and I figured out why just a few minutes ago: no PostSecret this week. I am a PostSecret whore, seriously. I love that site, and I also have one of the books. But this week, a comments section was added and there were no new secrets. It leads me to think that it's some sort of experiment, especially since some of the secrets were a bit controversial as well. The comments section is quite interesting at the moment; it seems that the longer it goes with no new secrets, the more people are just posting their own secrets and interacting with each other. It's fascinating, like a psychology experiment or something. I might head over there in a few minutes and post a secret of my own. The problem would be, "Which one?!" :)

Anyway. Yet another boring post from me. Once school starts again I promise I won't be so dull. Haha.

Jesus.

2007-06-19T13:56:00.000-04:00

And by saying Jesus I mean, "Jesus keep me out of trouble." Because my Dad is getting on my last fucking nerves.

So, last night, as we were preparing to settle down for dinner, my mom and I were discussing how during the summer I'm hardly ever hungry. My dad takes the opportunity to say, "You should teach your mother that." Now, this doesn't seem too bad out of context, but you have to understand the situation in my household: My mother has been battling weight issues (and depression) for years. My dad, being the wonderful piece of work he is, has to remind my mom of her weight constantly. It is a tender subject for her, but he has to make comments about it pretty much every chance he gets.

So after over 18 years of it, I'm tired of him being so disrespectful to my mother. I tell him to stop making cheap shots on her. This erupts into an entire fight, in which my dad can't understand why my mother and I are so "oversensitive" and why what he's been saying to her is so wrong. Seriously. It's getting to be emotional abuse. You just don't pick on someone relentlessly about something like that. He wouldn't do it to his coworkers or anything like that, so why is he doing it to the woman he's been married to for 30 fucking years?!

I took my plate and ate my dinner in my room, mostly because if I stayed back there I was going to lob my plate in his face. Later, he came to give a half-assed apology and then said, "I don't like people telling me to shut up." Well, I don't like you, but I have to deal with you. o_O

Today, I'm still reeling from it. Just a few minutes ago, he acted like it's my fault the whole incident happened, like I'm just supposed to sit back and go, "Oh, it's normal for my father to pretty much abuse my mother with words! Pass the bread, please!" I've done that for too long. Honestly, he sat back there and told me that "If something's wrong you should say something to people before it explodes." Well, motherfucker, I fucking did you son-of-a-bitch. If there's one vital lesson I've learned at college, it's to fight as soon as I see something I think is wrong. And I'm sure as hell not going to let someone take cheap shots at the woman who lugged me around for 9 months before bringing me into this world.

Music Reviews!

2007-06-16T13:24:00.000-04:00

It's been a while since my last post, but not much has been going on. Basically, since I'm not working this summer, I've just been hanging out and doing menial things. I did make a Slytherin scarf because I am a serious nerd, and I wanted something to wear for the last book and the fifth movie in about a month, LOL. Hopefully I'll have pictures and stuff in a couple of days.

Since summer is usually when music I love comes out, and I've bought four albums since I've been home, I want to do a review of them. Drumroll please! First up...

Circa Survive - On Letting Go
Now, I don't think I can explain how much I love Circa Survive. I mean, good God. Don't be fooled by my last.fm charts, because I listen to the CDs, not necessarily on my computer. I think in actuality they overtook TREOS a long time ago! I was ecstatic to walk into Target one day with my mom and see it sitting on one of the music racks. My mother, being the loving mom she is and understanding how much of an audiophile I am (and also seeing that it was only $10, haha) got it for me. It was instantly love. Anthony Green's voice continues to be a gold mine, and yet again proves how much of a beast he is. I think some people will disagree with me, but I think that the band sounds fuller and more melodic than they did on "Juturna," and I like that. My personal favorites are "The Greatest Lie," "The Difference Between Medicine and Poison is in The Dose," "On Letting Go," and "Your Friends Are Gone." But those will probably change in a few days, because that's what usually happens to me.

The Fall of Troy - Manipulator
If possible, I love The Fall of Troy nearly as much as Circa Survive. They're probably the most metal band I listen to, and will probably be one of the few ones I can actually get into. They're so good at combining screaming with melodic choruses and intricate playing. This album is another "OMG it's at my local Target!" CD, and I'm sure glad that I decided to wait before ordering the CD online. The first thing I noticed about this album was that the guys seemed to have calmed down, or something. Amazingly, two of the songs, "Quarter Past" and "Caught Up" almost sound like a different band. They're hardly metal. And they're some of my favorite songs. It just shows that these guys are so versatile and can pull off basically anything they damn well please, and still sound kick ass while doing it. Favorites are "The Dark Trail," "Quarter Past," "Semi-Fiction," "Seattlantis," and "Caught Up."

Maroon 5 - It Won't Be Soon Before Long
Ahh, Maroon 5 takes me back to the days of eighth grade, when September 11th occurred, I was confused and even more of an obnoxious bitch than I am now. (Honestly, I don't understand why people put up with me back then. I was an atrocious 13 year old!) It was also the year when Maroon 5 started appearing on the scene, and I was one of the first to hear of them, thanks to my Internet music finding skills. I think they were the ones to help pull me out of the meaningless sludge that were boy bands. (I would credit Incubus, since I was a fan of theirs since about 6th grade, but I didn't completely let go of my teenybopperness until about 8th grade.) Then again, if you think about it, Maroon 5 is kinda like a boy band. Shit. Anyway, here I am 5 years later, about to be a sophmore in college, and a much kinder person, throwing back to the 80s with Maroon 5. Seriously, some of this sounds like late 80s-early 90s stuff. I mean, I was expecting a throwback to 2002, not to 1992. Regardless, it's still a fun album. Given that my musical tastes have changed so much over the 5 years that I started being a fan, I can't expect to like this album but so much. It's funny to me that I've had a demo version of "Can't Stop" on my iPod for about 3 years now. The newer version is a tad different, but I still like it. I think that song, along with "Makes Me Wonder," "Little of Your Time," and "Kiwi" are my favorites.

The Dear Hunter - Act II: The Meaning of, & All Things Regarding Ms. Leading
Anyone who knows me knows the passion and the fierceness of my love for The Receiving End of Sirens. Their debut album, "Between the Heart and the Synapse" got me through heartbreak, the onset of my anxiety/panic disorder, and the pains of leaving high school and becoming an adult--all in the first year I had the album. Not to mention that when I sent them a heartfelt message on Myspace, they replied back. So when Casey left the band, I was devastated for a while. However, he continues making music with his new band The Dear Hunter, and dear GOD is it worth it. I think I'll always kind of think of TDH as an offshoot of TREOS though, since Casey's voice has always been the one that can move me the most. And on this album, it's definitely moving. The five songs that were on the demo album and redone on this one are still golden. The sad thing is, I can't choose favorites for this album because it's so amazing. I'm listening to it right now, and as I start to say, "I like this song" the next one comes on and I'm like, "Dammit I like this one too!" So I love the whole damn thing. It's a wonderful second part to "Act I," which even my parents liked, and that's saying a lot when my parents admit that they like something I listen to.

Well, now that I've gotten that out of the way, and also now that I have wireless Internet so I can use my computer and not my parents' shitty one, I'll probably be blogging more throughout the summer. WOO. Check y'all later.

Seduction Style

2007-05-14T23:03:00.000-04:00

I am one cuddly motherfucker. :)

The day Digg.com went berserk.

2007-05-02T15:07:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was a fun day as a member of Digg. 80% of the site had been reduced to the HD-DVD code so famous today. In a way it was silly, but in another way it was quite heartwarming. By the end of the night I found myself digging stories of the code. Mainly because I think the MPAA and the RIAA are turning into rights-stealing mafias.

So I'm done with final exams and now I'm just waiting for Friday so I can go home and not have to think about school for a while. My roommate already moved out today so now my room looks bare and empty. I might cry tonight, LOL. Seriously, it's kinda sad. My poor room looks like a prison cell now!

Byah. I'm gonna go harass Ben and Chris.