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.
