Nothing shrinks a scrotum quite like sitting in a bathtub full of cold water, because it's 90°F in your apartment because the air conditioning for the complex isn't turned on until some time in March, writing a paper on Wittgenstein.
Seriously...I think they've gone into hibernation...
EDIT: I got it!
Clothes -> Freezer = Auto-AC!
Oh man, this is gonna be so awesome...
EDIT 2: It was awesome for about 5 seconds, before they immediately returned to room temperature. Wonder if heavier material will hold its chill longer...
Google says it's supposed to get down to 54 tonight, and that the high for tomorrow is only 56. Somehow I doubt it'll get quite that cold, but whatever. Just hurry up already. (Surprised I wasn't exaggerating about the heat?)
In any case, finished my paper on ol' Vitty-shtein, which makes 3/3 philosophy papers due in three consecutive days. I've got a seat reserved for the Brubeck show tomorrow night. Life is good...or will at least be much gooder tomorrow
Now if you'll excuse me, I think I'm gonna go stuff some denim shorts in the freezer and turn the tub into a swimming pool again...
I address this to you, O, reader who has yet to discover this secret shame of a blog, dedicated to nothing but talking about myself: Sorry about the massive number of posts on day #1, followed by zero on day #2. I'm not sure what finally put the fire in my belly to go ahead and make this stupid thing. Probably the need to bitch about my supposed "usurpation," without having a place to do so. Anyhow, I picked a silly time to start, because I have three papers due this week. The first, as you can see, is on ol' Thomas Hobbes and his wacky textual adventure: Leviathan. Maybe I'll post the finished paper; you'd like that wouldn't you? Of course you wouldn't, what the fuck are you smoking. Anyway, after Hobbes, due on Wednesday, I've got another on Descartes due Thursday, and finally one on Wittgenstein due Friday. A bit of advice: if you don't like writing, stay the fuck away from philosophy.
Cool thing I found out last night: the Dave BrubeckQuartet is in town playing at the school's big auditorium Thursday and Friday. The Thursday show, which will arguably be the better, as it features the Quartet playing with the One O'clock Band, was already sold out by the time I learned of this whole affair. However, they held the group over for another night as a result of the overwhelming ticket sales. Regrettably the Friday show is just the Quartet, but hey, that's still pretty God damn awesome, especially considering UNT students get in for free. Should be a nice way to relax at the end of a long, essay-infested week. Also found the date for this year's annual Lab Band Madness performance. Went to the show last year, and it was un-fucking-believably awesome. The show features all 9 of the UNT Lab Bands, playing some of the most ass-kickin' Big Band tunes you can imagine. What really amazes me is that they try to play as many original compositions by UNT students and alumni as possible. Thinking about this, I made another effort to try and track down the tunes of a Bob Curnow work called Suite Seasonings last night. One of the lab bands played the third movement, Cayenne, at last year's show, and I was absolutely mesmerized. I actually ended up finding some free demo versions with Curnow talking a little bit over them, but more than adequate considering the tunes don't exist on any officially released album.
On a similar note, I was recently introduce to Pandora Radio by a friend of mine who is equally audiophillic. I've been spending a lot of time searching through torrentsites and whatnot (omgpiracy) to find some of the better artists I've been exposed to through the Music Genome Project. I'm finding (unsurprisingly) that my stations all seem to drift toward a Jazz-Funk type orientation. I've loved Big Band since about the first time I ever heard a Glenn Miller tune, and years of forcing myself deeper and deeper into the larger Jazz niche has really yielded some excellent listening material. Of course, the unforeseen consequence was that I now have absolutely no concept of popular music of the day. I guess some of us are just doomed to live in another generation's pop culture, never in our own.
One of the bands that's really struck me as having an excellent sound is the Mitchell and Dewbury Band. Regrettably, they're so obscure that there's only one tune they've produced that can be found in torrents anywhere. I did find a site that was selling the particular album I'm after for $.15 a track, and I must admit I was really tempted to just fork over $1.50 for some great music. However, just before completing the registration form, I had a crisis of conscience (my conscience apparently working in the opposite direction of normal people). The course of action I eventually settled on (and I'm sure this completely defeats the purpose of Pandora), was just to use a trick I utilized for the making of the Cloud WIP video, which is to split the line out on my PC, sending the normal line to the stereo, and using a male-male line to run the other half right back into the line-in port. From there I can record anything I'm hearing in Audacity, with the precise level of quality originally used. In the case of Pandora, despite being a streaming source, that quality is excellent. I'm beginning to think it I should just keep a running recording any time I listen to Pandora, and just split the tracks up later. I'm always willing to go searching around for a band that seems good, but when I can't find them, this is a really nifty method for playback "on demand," as they say.
Anyhow, I've got a paper to get back (three, actually). Once I finish those, I really need to get to work on build the Cloud model, because I think Ninjatoes is really starting to pick up his pace. So if you don't hear from me for a bit (and it's not like you would, no one's even found this ridiculous web-log yet), don't worry. I'm just busy composing bullshit for anotherpurpose.
(Did you catch the Half-Life reference? No? Go back, you'll see it.)
160GB iPod Video - Classic? I don't know what they call the different versions. Apparently they don't make the version I have anymore. Yes I feel like a tool owning an iPod, but no one else makes them as big. I would've gotten a Zune, but i was at the 75GB mark when I was considering it, and I knew I'd be going over the line soon.
Samsung Instinct - I'd been carrying an old clamshell hand-me-down phone for literally 10 years. People used to look at me funny when I said, "That strange ring can't be my phone, my phone doesn't do ringtones." Anyway, it's sort of an iPhone knockoff, I guess? It suits me just fine, I just wish it cooperated better with my~
Sony DR-BT21G Bluetooth Headset - God dammit I love these headphones. I refuse to leave my apartment without them. I think I was about 15 years old when I first saw a concept image for a pair of wireless portable headphones in some tech magazine. I'd been wanting a pair ever since, and for my last birthday, the combined efforts of my mother and sister, via Amazon gift certificates, yielded me the most awesome headphones I've ever owned. For nearly a decade I was a stubborn mule about my portable audio, and refused to use anything but Sony MDR-G42s. They had been getting harder and harder to find each time I wanted to get a new pair, and this last year Sony finally stopped manufacturing them. In a panic, I decided it was time to take a leap of faith and hope the Bluetooth technology didn't need any more tweaking to be viable. Thankfully they sound just as good as my old G42s, and they're wireless. Grab a Sony iPod Bluetooth adapter, a Bluetooth dongle for my PC, and I've got a pair of headphones, with a built in mic and playback controls, which function with my iPod, PC, PS3, and phone. Good motherfucking times.
Sony PS3 Dualshock 3 controller - Obviously for the PS3, for which I am something of a fanboy. I am a self-proclaimed Sony whore. If I could afford a new laptop, I'd get a Vaio, All my headphones are sony, I tend to buy other products from companies who do business with some branch of Sony (Samsung, Pioneer, etc.). Don't get me wrong. If I could afford a Wii and a 360, and all the games I'd want for them, I'd totally go for it. I'm not so stupid as to turn away something good. But the ever present existence of scarcity means we have to choose sides, and I side with Sony (actually I side with Squaresoft, but they're still sort of allied with Sony, so it's appropriate that my fanboyish ties are slowly wearing.) I actually got my Dualshock 3 when it first came out in Japan. Ordered it off of Divineo for like $80. Pricey, yes, but it arrived amazingly fast considering it had to travel accross the Pacific.
Gingher Scissors - My mom got me these for Christmas this last year. Apparently Gingher is quite a fancy brand of scissors? My mom still has a pair of all-metal Ginghers which are older than I am. They're designed for fabric, so they kind of wear out up against paper. Either all my paper is super-abrasive, or paper just wreaks havoc on scissors in general. A run through a cheap sharpener keeps them working smoothly. Probably killing the blades, but whatever. Scissors are obviously a necessity in the papercraftings.
Olevia TV Remote - Okay, this is kind of symbolic. Nothing too amazing about the remote itself. It goes to a 27" Olevia I got two summers ago for surprisingly cheap. I actually decided I wouldn't buy a PS3 until I had an HDTV as well, and I was lucky enough to find this one on Newegg. Anyway, remote, general media-phile. Very deep metaphor there...
Nintendo DS Lite - Onyx. Fancier than black. I had actually been holding out on getting a DS for quite some time. I knew there were plenty of Square titles on the system, but I didn't want to spend the money, and I kept telling myself a viable DS emulator was just around the corner. Well I got my 11-year-old niece Final Fantasy Tactics A2 for her birthday this last summer (I've managed to get her a Final Fantasy title every gift giving occasion for the last two or three years, gotta get 'em started young), and the back of the box totally sold me. Finally caved and got a DS and an R4 card. Figure it was a reasonable purchase. the DS isn't an incredibly expensive console, and with the R4 card and (omfg super) cheapMicro SD card only costing about the price of a new game, I have zero upkeep cost for the system. Hey-ho piracy ahoy~
Sony PSPPhat - This is actually my...third PSP. I got one back when I first started college. See, I've actually been living on money left to me via insurance from my uncle who died the year before I started school. He was always the avid gamer of the family, and the one who usually brought the latest console at Christmas. Most of my apartment is full of his old furniture, and I take after him character-wise in a lot of ways. Anyway, I rationalized that getting a PSP, which already had a very healthy homebrew scene by then, would be a good way to honor his memory, playing the games he played on an emulator. Well I also thought it would be fun to install the first TV-Out mod. Failed. Hard. Ended up getting a new PSP the same week. Some time later, I bought a third because I thought the second one was dying. Turns out it was just the battery, which I turned into a Pandora battery after realizing the problem (and purchasing the third console). The Pandora has been pretty handy really. A friend of mine, Ian, has brought at least five PSPs to me to mod (always with some unknown acquaintance attached), and I'm happy to oblige. Gotta help the gamer 'cause, you know. I always make sure they have a look through my ISO library before they scamper off. What's the use in keeping the stuff if you don't share it, right? I like the Phat, because it retains the iR port, which makes a nifty universal remote with the right homebrew apps. However, I've modded a few of the new slim & lites. They're quite nice. I wouldn't mind getting one for the TV out capability. Crisis Core on the big screen would be quite fun.
And everything is seated atop a Ginger Self-Healing Cutting Mat - Another Christmas gift from dear-old mum. I'd been using a little paper-sized cutting mat I got from, well, not the school store, but a third party school store that's been on campus for ages. Served me well for six months. Still perfectly viable, but the new mat is hueg liek xbox. It's also reversible, which is kinda cool. Until I got this mat, I'd been using an old drawing board. It belonged to my brother in ages past, and he had scribbled the names of a plethora of shitty early-90s bands all over it. I inherited it, covered it in some more pointless tripe, then eventually pried of the clip at the top, and the bizarre plastic bar covering over the little recessed area (no idea what that was for...it's too small to hold writing utensils...). I spray painted it black to cover all the garbage, and drew a big target on the back with a silver sharpie, for use with my Nerf gun (I've got that same 6-shooter everyonealwaysmods). Used it as a cutting board for papercraft on its own for a while, then started using it with the smaller cutting mat on top. The recessed area makes a nice little receptacle for paper scraps.
Take some time to ponder the symbology in this image. Maybe like, the fact that all the items are black is like...meaningful in that...my soul is like...dark and brooding and like...English majors all read way the fuck too far into things. And like, there's no symbolism in any of this, it's just fucking toys I play with. You know, dude? Wow dude, trippy. For real...Anyway...
One wonders why I would choose to stay up writing all this nonsense rather than enjoy some unconsciousness...
Hey, here's a thought: I'll go do that now.
(Did you get the Boondock Saints reference? Yeah? Good times)
Rant #1, let's dive right in (this should give you some idea of just how petty I really am).
Okaci, a new papercraft designer, has lifted my method down to the last detail. Now let me make it abundantly clear: I am upset about the fact that I wasn't mentioned in any way. I posted the video, I explained what I could, obviously it was meant to be utilized. However, when you produce shitty layouts for models I've announced I'm going to build (and in the same order as I've listed them), without even mentioning something like "oh and you should check out this guy Kaizo's blog, it's where I picked up all this shit," you display an utter lack of tact. He even has some kind of abortion-doppel-ganger version of my coversheet, for God's sake. I would be happy if my blog were linked in some list of other blogs. That would be enough. Go check out my papercraft blog right now. Look at the list of related links. He's there, "Okaci Papercraft."
Now, in a way, I'm happy that someone immediately put my effort to use (two days after the video went up, he released his abomination-Tifa). But what bothers me is he didn't listen to the whole thing. Maybe he doesn't speak English very well? Clearly he understands enough to have gotten the whole method for fixing the eyes. I'm glad for that, because Jamis and Sane Person ended up with insane looking eyes, and I'm pleased I've made some kind of lasting contribution. But he clearly didn't pay attention to shit in the rest of the model editing process, nor the layout process. He seems to have a learning curve, as the Yuffie (notice the "i"?) layout looks strikingly similar to my own models, at least in the face. And the coversheet, wow. But you can't just leave these models as composed of blocks. It looks like shit, and you have intersecting faces. I'd like to see a finished version of one of these, because I'm quite sure it's impossible to mimic the PDO's pose exactly.
It came up, while I was discussing my lament with friends, that I should be happy that someone is clearly following an example I chose to lay down. A friend of mine, Ian, even went so far as to cite the old "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery" line (well actually I said it, but I was filling in the blanks he didn't really know to fill). It's almost comically appropriate that a quote on Google's /ig homepage right now is, "Listening, not imitation, may be the sincerest form of flattery - Dr. Joyce Brothers." If he'd listened to everything I had to say, the models would be much better as a result. Another friend, Byron, said I should look at it this way: "you have a disciple now." I took immediate issue with this, primarily because I already have disciples. The difference between a disciple and a copycat? The disciple acknowledges his master. I don't want to sound like some pompous fucker (though I am), but I have kids who have actually referred to me as mentor in regards to this shit. That's fine...I don't really want to be anyone's mentor, but I won't fight it. Why? Because they also tell other people I'm the one responsible for their learning. If you refuse to acknowledge your influences, you're just a fucking asshole plagiarist. When I started doing coversheets and photo-instruction guides, I credited Ninjatoes before I even started. I began using coversheets and instructions in an effort to be more like Ninjatoes, and I informed everyone as such. Every step of the way in papercraft design, I've made mention of the papercrafting pantheonm, for whom I have great admiration: Ninjatoes, Urashiman, Chamoo, and Billybob. Go look at the Final Fantasy Papercraft Compilation in my Mediafire account. Look at that readme and tell me what it says next to Goblinguy's name. "Thanks for getting me started with design." Every God damn step of the way I've thanked everyone who helped me.
I think the worst part is, if you have a look at the selected items in the Tifa PDO, you'll see exactly the thing I mentioned as an example of how to fuck up a model: internal polygons. Little white triangles, set off to the side, because they don't fit anywhere. Why don't they fit anywhere? You carelessly edited the model, and didn't bother checking your work. When you discovered your failure, you just brushed it to the side, literally, and kept not altering the default layout. You're even using Pepakura 3 for Christ's sake. I made specific mention of how great 3 is, because you can reload the model after editing it further in Sketchup.
Sigh...
On the walk home from the second of my two exams this afternoon, I decided it wasn't worth fretting about. I've clearly opened up a Pandora's Box of inadequate copycats. I should just make videos detailing the extraction and editing process for all the model types I know and just retire. It'd certainly give me less bullshit to worry about. I wonder if anyone would remember my short run in papercraft design as a boon to the community...
I guess what it boils down to is, I can try to give them every drop of knowledge I have, but if they won't open up their God damn mouths and drink it all, they're always going to wind up dehydrated (man, look at all those water metaphors...brilliant, no?). This Okaci character clearly took about the first 10 minutes of the video, jumped ahead to like three points along the way, then just ran along to release two models in about a week. Have I done the same? Yes, I've done two models in two days. And they were excellent. But come on...pace yourself kid. You've got a long way to go before you can pull off the same shit I can.
And with that bit of boastful, self-indulgent assholery, I say good day to you, copycats of the world.
Edit: ARGH! He's already started on the child version of Cloud. Jesus fucking Christ, kid, try getting a model right before starting on another one.
This blog is, as the name implies, an exercise in digital narcissism. I could lie (to you and to myself) and claim I'm doing this because I'd like to keep up some regular schedule of writing, so as to advance my skills in that field, but let's not bullshit ourselves here. I'm doing this because I'm deluded enough to think someone out there actually wants to read what I have to say, and I'm a big enough asshole to give said imaginary character exactly what he or she wants.
As I write this, I've been...doing? Hosting? Managing? Whateverthefucking Kaizo Papercraft for about nine months (hey that's long enough to gestate some kind of horrible papercraft abomination baby), and I often find myself posting things, wanting to say more than I do. Believe it or not, I actually make a concerted effort (only because I refer to myself as the royal We...get it? Because concerted means more than one person? Maybe a little joke about multiple personalities? No? Ah, well fuck you, buddy, you wouldn't know comedy if it slept with your mother and claimed to be your long lost daddy) to censor myself. As you may have already (read "just now") realized, I have the mouth of a filthy fucking sailor (i~rony~) when I'm not actively trying to keep it PC for the kiddies. But I don't just mean censor in the omgfoullanguage department, but also in keeping unrelated comments to a minimum (that rant about the Golden Compass was a rare lapse in judgement...what can I say, I was upset).
However! I feel as though it's my intarweb and I can blog about anything if I want to (I can't believe I just used blog as a verb). So here we'll engage in some self-indulgent clap-trap, and I'll bite and spit and curse and be my natural self (I wonder if that's at all surprising). If that's not your thing, please feel free to press the little X in the upper right of your screen and kindly fuck off. If you are willing to tag along, feel free to throw in your two cents at will. If you think I'm an asshole, by all means, scream at me. If you think I'm awesome, that's nice to hear too (I expect to hear much less of the latter). I fancy myself something of a hermit-nerd-gamer-weaboo-condescending-high-IQ-sarcastic-asshole cliche, so it wouldn't surprise me if my opinions are embodied in many other individuals. Individuals just like you! So let's get moving onto some content, shall we? We shall.
As for what I plan to actually discuss here...well that's up for grabs. I wanted to do this second blog to just babble, endlessly, about all my petty little shit. I do like to believe (perhaps somewhat misguidedly...perhaps very misguidedly) that I'm something of a writer, and this is going to be an outlet for anything I'd like to get feedback on, or just give to the world (is present, yes?). I'll likely post with much greater frequency here than on the papercraft blog (I know a lot of my fellowcrafters started blogs around the time I did with the intent of giving development updates, but they all had externalhosting and I do not, so the blog is my homebase for releases; need to keep it professionalish, yeah?). I'll probably actually do something like developmental updates (should be read as "bullshit pictures of half finished models") here, just to post something for the sake of posting something. If you did read my rant about the movie adaptation of the Golden Compass (and I was surprised to see that all the replies to that post were about the rant, not the model update), you'll know that I'm prone to freak-outs regarding subject material for which I care. As a result, you're gonna see plenty of that nonsense here.
If you're curious as to who the fuck I (think I) am, you should continue on with the primer to my working character bio. Enjoy. It's narcissistic to the ultra-super-max-extreme.
So, a few notes to end on:
Shoutmix only lets you have the one chat window, so we're going to be sharing it with the papercraft blog. Oh woes is us, what a horrible tragedy.
I signed up for Last.fm last night (as of writing this) and I'm still playing around with it. Is it unfathomably self-indulgent to think you want to know what I'm listening to? Fuck yes it is. Doing it anyway. Feel free to ask me anything about any of the music you see. Some of the tunes don't have previews, which is a shame because, obviously, my taste in music is pre-approved as awesome by me (little modified Mitch Hedberg joke there, did you catch it?). I also upgraded to Vista a little while back, which scrapped any play history I had going in Winamp/iTunes, so my Last.fm account shows some really narrow stuff concerning my library/listening history. Yes, there is a lot of weabooy stuff in my library, but it's less prominent than Last.fm makes it look (library's actually around 90GB at the moment (mine iz biger than urs im not compensating lolz)). The problem is I tend to pick one song (or maybe a handful, maybe one little playlist) and listen to it on repeat for-e-vur (God damn Sandlot was an awesome movie). So if you see the same thing like fifteen times on my "recently listened to" list...yeah...that's...whatever that is.
I uploaded that Cloud WIP video to MegaVideo recently, and I wanted to keep running with the idea, make a little channel like on the Yoo-Toobs, but linking to my profile there shows me as having no videos. Alas, all videos will likely be embeded. Tragedy?...Not really, no.
I also thieved the "Bonus Questions" directly off of the papercraft blog. This actually seems like a more appropriate place to house them, so maybe I'll get rid of the dual-instance. Maybe not, whatever. I'd really like to see someone get it right.
So in conclusion, that's why I should be class president. No wait...What were we talking about?
This page is dedicated to questions to which I know the answers, but I believe are so obscure that no one else can answer them correctly. It's an exercise in personal amusement, because I'm quite sure no one can provide the esoteric solutions to these problems.
If you cananswer them correctly, however, I'm obliged to award some kind of prize (maybe a release of your choosing? I don't know, we'll work it out if and when someone gets a question right). Beyond that, I'll probably bug you to talk to me about all the ridiculous ways in which our tastes coincide. There's no reason to sugarcoat this: I'm looking for friends as eccentric (scratch that, crazy) as I am.
I'll attempt to update this page continuously with new questions, so check back often and try as many times as you like to speculate on these mysteries.
EDIT: You must supply a name with your answers. No prizes for Anonymous.
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Question One:
What is strange, interesting, or worthy-of-note in the beginning of the first track of the Disgaea 2 Arranged soundtrack?
Edit: Hint #1
You're going to need a pretty good grasp of modern Jazz to answer this question, particularly that of the Latin Jazz movement in the 1970s. I've left clues elsewhere. I admit they aren't the most obvious, but if you're looking, you'll spot them.
Edit: Hint #2
The first four seconds is really all you need to hear. ---------------------------------------------- Question Two: Answered
In my mind, this one is a lot easier. Any self-respecting nerd, well versed in our vibrant subculture should have a decent shot at answering this one. The prize for this won't be as big as if you can answer Question One, but all the same. Prizes abound.
What do these nine images have in common? And you're going to need to be very specific.
Correct Answer: All characters are voiced by John DiMaggio (fourth image). Winner: Kratos
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Question Three:
This one is definitely more obscure than identifying the representatives of John DiMaggio, but not quite as bad as figuring out the answer to Question One. It's worth a real prize though, I'd say anything short of Vrtra or the Celsius (though the Celsius is obviously on the project list).
...actually, having thought about it for a few minutes, answering this in full detail is just as difficult as answering Question One. Good luck >_>
I have a Pandora Radio station entitled "Peanuts for Goethe." Please explain the name as completely as possible (there are quite a few details that go into this, also you're going to want to have a listen to the station).
Be careful though, the peanuts may make Goethe a little dizzy.
(Sorry about the picture, anything more relevant would've given part of it away.)
I'll try to keep this short, as, in essence, this entire blog is about "who I am." I hate to go with the cliché list of items, but it really saves time, and considering I plan to go into much greater detail on matters of genuine importance (at least to me), it should suffice for the roughest estimate of kind of prick you're currently dealing with. (As I add more, I'll just keep tacking on parenthetical remarks...like this one!)
Name: Carlton Griffith Knowles II (named after my paternal grandfather)
Age: Twenty-two
Birth date: October 7th, 1986, approximately 10:55 AM (Had a friend born on the same day, we'd always argue about who was older, so I looked into it. My niece's birthday is the 5th, my dad's is the 6th. It's my understanding that the 6th is actually the most common birthday in America...fuckin' Valentine's babies.)
Sex: Male (therefore, yes please)
Orientation: I like the ladies. Very much so.
Marital Status: Can't remember the last time I had a conversation with a girl my age
Nationality: Caucasian Mutt (maternal grandfather was some degree of Irish, maternal grandmother was English Canadian, paternal grandmother was full-blooded German, paternal grandfather was a mix of British isles, mostly Scottish and Welsh (the name's Welsh (who I suspect are the basis for hobbits, as evidenced by the name (Knowles-knoll-Guy-who-lives-in-a-hill), my furry feet, and diminutive stature)))
I tend to think of myself mostly as the Scottish-Welsh part.
Height: 5' 7"ish
Weight: 'bout 155lb
Hair: Brown (shaved to an eighth-inch)
Eye: Brown (blind as a fucking bat)
Intelligence Quotient: 135~ (varies by test, never lower than 132, never higher than 138)(Yes, I'm a big enough dick to mention this, and no I'm not actually intelligent enough to know how pointless the IQ is, like every genuinely intelligent person I've ever met is)
Born: Dallas, TX
Hometown: Galveston, TX
Current Locale: Denton, TX
Education: Working on a bachelor's in Philosophy (ohh, so that's why he's such an asshole...), with a minor in Japanese (and a weaboo to boot) at the University of North Texas in Denton.
Political Leanings: Libertarian (I know some people think this is a fad, but I do adhere to a economically conservative, socially liberal viewpoint.)
Religious Leanings: Agnostic Philosopher (read: "asshole devil's advocate atheist who loves to argue with zealots")(I definitely lean toward atheist, but I'm open to less strict observations on deity)
Musical Preference: Mostly Classical (The kind with scary Latin choruses) Jazz ("If it ain't got that swing"), and Funk (The electric piano is the greatest instrument. Ever.). But like most, I'll listen to nearly anything. The Last.fm gadget in the sidebar to your left should give you some idea of what I listen to regularly (mostly soundtracks to various shit).
A few of my fa-vor-ite things:
Color: Violet (if it wasn't screamingly obvious, and no I'm not gay, but I'd really like to smack the fucker who started the whole purple=gay thing.)
Food: Corndogs and/or Watermelon (what can I say, I'm a southern boy)
Beverages: Arizona Green Tea and/or Dr. Pepper (invented in Waco don'tcha know)
Movies: Big Trouble (I don't care what you think, Tim Allen is funny)
Pirates of the Caribbean Trilogy (soon to be quadriology, I believe)
Ocean's Trilogy (David Holmes rocks my proverbial socks)
Super Troopers (You are freaking out, man)
The Birdcage (Men smear)
Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children (ひさしぶりだな、クラウド)
National Lampoon's Animal House (They took the fucking bar!)
The Dark Knight (How about a magic trick?)
Television Programs: The Simpsons
Futurama
Family Guy
Good Eats
Spaced
Firefly
Cowboy Bebop
Mythbusters
Monty Python's Flying Circus
Fawlty Towers
Shin-chan (the Funimation version, of course)
South Park
Scrubs (Thank God they're finally gonna let the series die)
Books: I really don't read as much as I should (everyone says that), but I really dig the His Dark Materials trilogy, the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and yes, even the Harry Potter...septilogy?
Art Medium: Comic Strip (I've got a bunch of webcomics listed to your left, but I also love some of the classics: Calvin and Hobbes, Garfield, Foxtrot, and of course the Far Side)
Quote: Try to learn something about everything, and everything about something. - Thomas Henry Huxley
Games: the Final Fantasy series(hurr, and really most Squaresoft titles (I don't respect the Enix))
God of War series
Grand Theft Auto series
Katamari series
Soulcalibur series
Disgaea series
Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain Slick Precipice of Darkness series
Elder Scrolls series
Legaia series
Legacy of Kain series
Destroy All Humans series
Command & Conquer series
Croc: Legend of the Gobbos (PS1 classic with a fantastic soundtrack)
Okami
Shadow of the Colossus
Portal (had a hard time getting into the rest of the Orange Box, not sure why, as the plot of Half-Life is wildly interesting)
LocoRoco
Megaman Legends
Puzzle Quest.
(there are plenty more games I know are great, but I haven't played them...yet)
A Basic Summary: I'm a more-or-less average 20-something gamer-nerd. I'm inclined to be a hermit, for various reasons I'd rather discuss in an in-depth post. I play a lot of video games, do a lot of papercraft, and generally just soak up media through LCD screens and speakers. I'm told I'm smarter than the average bear, but I know I'm not smart enough to get over the childishness of being an asshole to be people less intelligent than I am. I enjoy philosophy, but hate other students of philosophy (self-centered assholes...oh wait). I enjoy British and Japanese humor, but have never been as into Anime as one might expect from a person in my position. I think cartoons and comic books should be regarded as serious media, but I've never really been an aficionado of either (well maybe not comics, I watch the shit out of some cartoons). I'm something of a voice acting buff, in that I know the extended works of most American voice actors (ironically my own voice is rather high and unpleasant...go watch that Cloud WIP video if you don't believe me). I tend to find myself alienated from most groups, being too nerdy (or just generally obstinate and proud of it, I don’t drink, smoke, or do any form of recreational drugs (in a word, I’m “straight-edge,” but I assure you the ‘no sex’ part isn’t on purpose)…I’m also generally a vegetarian, but not because I have some ideological issue…it’s just meat’s expensive and I’m fuckin’ broke) to blend with the average college age kid, but too self-loathing of my own nerdiness (and general habit of being out-of-touch) to just embrace it and roll with my fellow members of the subculture. I used to be a pretty good musician, but I slowly drifted away from it when I went off to school (which is ironic, because UNT has renowned jazz program), and have a tendency to be defeated by my own fear of failure (true of almost everyone, no?). I believe strongly in the power of fiction, and my only real goals at the moment are to develop the skills necessary to become an effective raconteur. My music and pornography libraries are disturbingly large (perhaps the latter more disturbingly than the former), and I refuse to leave my apartment without my headphones.
There's plenty more to say...but I'll save that for later posts. This should suffice to scare you off if you aren't ready to listen to my incoherent, self-centered babble.
