What does one do on a half day?

(click to enlarge)

What does one do on a half day? There are so many options. All true, and you can thank our friend Assailant for the last one. I'll note that he is someone that you want on your side.

Hope everyone has a great New Year. I enjoyed my dabbling in the Webcomic world. I wish I had better skills, as you can probably tell. I'll probably try a couple more strips out here and there, if anyone thinks they have any material or a topic for another comic let me know.

Listening to: Fuck It by Seether

Turtle-Power!

Merry Xmas! Quick mobile holiday update. Recently, I seem to have been blogging about the past, and, well, it feels sort of like therapy. I arrived home for the holidays and I find myself asking my parents to fill in the gaps and holes in my newly re-hashed memories.

It's a great conversation piece, and even better when your Mom quickly goes downstairs and brings up a junk box of my old stuff and pops out the old Mikey plush I mentioned in TMNT. Guess I was wrong about him losing an eye. rofl.

Have a fun and safe holiday break everyone!

Rebel through Nerdiness?

I wanted to post this in my last Evolution of Music post, but I found I was running out of space and decided it would make a good separate post.

I was at the tip of my rebellious stage late into my high school career. Looking back it's more amusing then anything. Sadly I don't remember many of the details. I actually completely forgot about how I used to blare Mario Bros. music out of my car until an old friend reminded me at my 5 year highschool reunion. I left this out when I went through all of those music phases as mentioned in the previous post. The extreme nerd phase. I would go and download all the Mario or Nintendo related mp3's I could and burn them onto a CD mix. I would then pass out the nintendo mix to my Cross Country friends. I would also put one of the cd's into my camaro, every morning, turn the music up, and roll down the windows as I rolled into the school parking lot.

Hell, I would have kicked my own ass.

I also dyed my hair red, and had 2 eyebrow piercings, no real reason. (top picture)I didn't really hang out with any punks, or goths, or emos or anything. I was just a computer nerd and Cross Country runner. I guess I was defining the clique in Freedom because we were the first. I am glad I did it now though because odds are I will never have the job or security to do stuff like that until I am retired, by which point it would probably raise a red flag to my sanity instead of just being "rebelious" or "a kid".

Merry Christmas, you filthy animals.

And a happy New Year.

Evolution of Music

Music has always been a big part of my life. It is a time to just sit and let your emotions free while letting the artist speak to you, through you, in your own world. (It's also the reason I always try to put what I am listening to below my posts. I find I am almost always listening to some form of music)

As mentioned here, I actually did purchase one of the first MP3 players on Ebay my freshman year in highschool. Before Cody, one of my first close friends at a new Highschool, I had no musical thumbprint. I just played what I heard on the local pop station (101 WIXX). I still hear some songs, Rockafeller Skank, and remember them as being on my first ever playlist. Regardless, I met Cody, talked to him, he was also pretty tech savvy and really enjoyed the mp3 player. We would split the ear buds during studyhall. He suggested I go home and download Sugar, by System of a Down, and Open Your Eyes, by Guano Apes. I did, and my life has forever been affected by that choice.

My highschool days were strong with actions to prove my freedom and to appear to rebel(Let's face it, in reality I was still growing a backbone). This new metal, hardcore and aggressive, would fit my appetite for an adrenaline rush, and also tell the general public I was my own individual capable of enjoying music that wasn't hand fed to me. I think the foundation of my love for hard music started then, and continued, because in its raw form it is the release of all your stress, anger, and emotion. That is if your looking for a release, if you just want an adrenaline rush while working out, it can be that too. I moved on from System of a Down to Slipknot, Static-x, Mudvayne, etc..

A lot of my friends listened to Eminem in highschool, so my second genre of music switched to him, (I don't know if I can say rap, in general it was strictly Eminem). My Eminem phase hit its climax with "The Eminem Show". I remember listening to it, mostly Till I Collapse, to pump me up for Cross Country meets. Shortly after this phase I ventured into Ludacris, DMX, etc, but it was short lived and I eventually went back to Hard rock/ heavy metal.

I went to college where music is often a easy topic of conversation. I found myself saying "I like everything but country." I said it with a smile and enjoyed saying it because I hated country music people. My uncle started listening to it around '03, '04, and he told me you just need to start listening and you will be hooked. I disagreed. I became friends with Evan and Luke, 2 avid outdoorsmen and country music enthusiast. They were able to download the new country that was popping up that sounded like Rock, none of this twangy blues crap I had grown to hate. They showed me that country represents being against the hustle and bustle of corporate america just as much as the hard rock. It is about pride of being from a small town and being close to the land. I found myself turning over to the dark side. With that transition I moved into a time in my life where I could now say I listen to everything. (And yes, I do mean everything, my mom has been an avid musical Soundtrack enthusiast, so I have learned to enjoy albums such as Jesus Christ Superstar, Cats, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Phantom, etc)

I recently somehow jumped into a club/pop phase. I think it's because of listening to 102.1. I may go through phases but I always come back to my roots which is the heavy stuff.

Listening to: Have It Your Way by Mudvayne

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Pt. 2

(Greg had the great idea to do a sort of duel blog post. The last couple of days we have been going back and forth between topics regarding the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. He posted the first half his site, and the second half can be read below. To stay consistent, I will be talking in italics.)

Ok, great movies, and also a good way to see how our culture has evolved in the rearing of children. (ha). From what I remember the first TMNT movie had all the original weapons and a darker premise. Actual fights took place with swords, staffs, nunchucks etc. In the second movie I remember the first of the bigger fights being with food items, sausages as nunchucks, etc. Regardless, these were things I didn’t pick up on directly, I remember enjoying the first, I remember some scenes, but I LOVED the second movie. The secret of the ooze, I don’t know what it was but it seemed to have a funner, more comedic atmosphere. Turtles rapping with Vanilla Ice at a concert would have been unheard of in the first movie, as a wee chap I gobbled that shit up. Go ninja Go ninja Go!! I am pretty sure I still quote “I made a funny” quite often from the first movie too. As for the third movie, I don’t think I have even watched the whole thing. I can’t really explain it, because by the math it was 2 years later, I was only 9, had I grown out of my turtle ways? Had my parents been killed by turtles? Who knows…. I should mention that my tightest memory bound to TMNT is the Burger King Kids Club TMNT VHS that my cousin and I had. We watched that thing religiously. “The Great Boldini” was the name and I can still remember the quotes in the movie like I watched it yesterday. I guess we watched it so much because we had it on demand at our fingertips. Ahh, I really need to watch these movies over and just bring in the good times…

Haha, I just got one of those Burger King VHS tapes a few years back as a gag gift. My strongest memory of the show comes from the two part episode “PLANET OF THE TURTLEOIDS.” The Turtles get recruited to another planet (that’s full of turtle creatures) to help protect them from two-headed buzzard creature called Herman the Horrible. Yes, this all sounds insane, but it was one of the few episodes I had taped off of tv, so I watched it whenever I had a jonesing for the Turtles. While the cartoon was cool, and it introduced some of the other mutated characters that showed up in the toyline, I was a HUGE fan of the movies. I saw all 3 in the theatre, from what I can remember, and watched them all the time when I was a kid. I mean, Raphael says “damn” in the first movie! Twice! And those suits, they looked so real (done by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, natch). The great part of the first movie is that they still hold up incredibly well. Sure, some of the clothing styles are very 90s-esque (April has got some big ol’ hair, to boot), but it’s a great movie nonetheless. I’d have to watch the next 2 movies again to see how they were, but I bet they’re still good stuff.

To wrap this up I think we need a shout out to the turtle events and items which did not fit under our themed paragraphs. I must share this quick story: I got a painted turtle sometime Pre-2nd grade, as a pet, on one of my birthdays. As you can see, painted turtles have orange bands that stretch back from their eyes…. Exactly. It was Michelangelo. I was so excited I begin playing with it, holding it, watching it, looking at it. I went too far though, when I was looking at him inches in front of my face, and I turned him upside down. He was not impressed and quickly snapped out and bit on to my lower lip. Notice that this was not a snapping turtle or things could have been worse. It did take my dad and a flathead screwdriver to pry the turtle from my crying sobbing face. I remember I still loved the turtle after that point, but I was definitely slower to hold him in front of my face or even think of holding it upside down.

Alas, the closest I came to that was having TMNT pajamas and going as Leonardo for Halloween one year, complete with gigantic head and wood sword my dad made. And even though some people might scoff at the idea of the CGI Turtles movie from a few years back, or the new animated series, I highly suggestion giving both of them a try. The CGI movie is a sequel to the live action ones, and does a good job in that regard, while the new animated series reboots the characters, but does a better job sticking to the original comics, with more violence and seriousness than you’d expect in a Saturday morning cartoon.

Anyways, thanks for joining us for this very special tag team blog. Cowabunga!

That Xmas Spirit

Well, as a person who jumps at the opportunity to not be doing work, I volunteered to help decorate a small xmas tree for work. (With a team of 4 other people) Overall there were 5 trees, 1 from each team, competing for extra door prize tickets. Ours is not a first place contender, but a lot of time was put in and it may have received as much tender love and care as the other cleaner, prettier trees.

I figured I would share the picture of ours for the world to see, and maybe later on and I will go take a snapshot of the tree I believe to be the winner. 2-3 of my blog readers can actually be spotted within the pictures on it. Which means they STOLE MY IDEA, as I have cut snowflakes out and placed the pictures from my team on our tree.

Oh well, it was great fun and a break from the mundane to put this together. Merry soon-to-be-xmas!

PS, I went xmas shopping for the first time yesterday, looking for a 4GB USB storage drive for my cousin. I had a $10 officemax coupon for >$20 purchase. I was blown away when I saw 4-8 gb’s going for $60-$100. Then I saw the promotional for Verbatim USB drives… 4gb for $12, 8gb for $20, and 16gb for $40. GREAT! But alas, they were all sold out except the 16gb. Sorry cousin, your super deal almost happened… But now, what about me? I could use this coupon and end up with 16gigs on my keychain for only $30. After a quick call to Gregor I was easily convince I was not experiencing shoppers paranoia and that this was in fact a good deal. Purchase made. Woohoo, who says xmas shopping isn’t fun!?

I'm listening to: Waitin' on a Women by Brad Paisley

TMNT post! Before Greg!

Ok, that was more or less to worry him. He chose my main childhood squeeze, the turtles, and claims to soon post about them in all their glory. Upon reading this I of course felt like the neglected younger brother jumping up and down wanting to show mommy and daddy that I did it too! Only to be upstaged and left behind.

So, with that, I wonder what would be my next obsession that I can post about? When asked, the first thing that jumps out is Goldeneye 007 for the N64. I can go back beyond TMNT, but those memories often get blurry. Entering middle school and leaving my childish ways behind, I moved on to, that's right! Video games! My sega saturn went out of business and stopped making games. I was lost and looking for a soulmate. I remember standing at Target and playing the Goldeneye demo on the N64 for hours on end. Goldeneye was the one and only reason I begged and pleaded and eventually received my new gaming console. I was officially back to the NES platform.

It was also the first point in my life where my obsessive compulsive competitive nature began to show light. I don't remember too much of running through campaign the first couple times. I do, however, remember the repeated speed runs I ran for hours at a time trying to get the fastest record time or to achieve a "cheat". A small group of 3-4 friends were equally obsessed with the game and getting faster and faster times. I had to be the best of these friends so I played and played. We eventually collected 100% cheats, and had gotten pretty good at multiplayer too. I can't brag much for other gametypes, but if you picked Power weapons, Control, and License to kill, oh Boy! I think it may be why I enjoy instagib so much with Quake. 1 hit kills, with a RCP-90. I don't know why we loved those settings so much,(I guess we were fed up with armor hogs and pistol fights ending in someone running away) We would all side-ways strafe-run around the levels perfectly cutting each corner. One eye watching your screen, the other watching your opponents screen as you sped towards each other, milliseconds before the moment of collision you would both stop, choose your angles, and the showdown would begin. Spray some corners to see if someone stuck out too far. Then zoom-aim and hit your right or left bumper to quickly peek. Fake someone out, wait for a slip up or a reload. Then, quicker then a blink of an eye you would tap the peek and fire simultaneously and you would be back behind cover before your opponent's body hit the floor.

And no, I don't think I can actually brag and say that we were the best, with no online opportunity to prove ourselves. But I will share a quick story to gauge how obsessed we were. Our Biggest, Greatest, Discovery. A discovery which ultimately ruined and ended our playing together. I still remember the day Scott, my best friend and only real competition to be the best, invited me over for something big he found in the game. Something he didn't necessarily want to let me in on, but didn't want to keep to himself. Long story short, he cracked the spawn pattern. Each level has a series of spawn points for everyone, once you die, you get placed in the next spawn point, as long as there isn't someone within 10 yards of it. If someone is too close, you get moved to the next spawn point that is open. With this knowledge we soon went to memorizing the pattern for our level, Control. V, Bridge, Ramp, Red, Bottom. Each word symbolized some defining point of the area. Now with this memorized, and the 5-10 second respawn timer, one could get a kill, sprint to the next spawn, stand within eyesight but far enough away, and spam your RPC-90. The player would spawn seeing red and hearing the Duh-duh-duhhhnahhhh.

As you can imagine, our fun, competitive games of playing together soon turned to "Are you counting spawn points!? You said you wouldnt! YOUR CHEATING!" We stopped trusting each other and it was the ultimate downfall of the game. That was years after its purchase and I have honestly played 007 longer then any other single video game (halo actually may have surpassed if you count its whole franchise as 1 game).

Even though it ended on a bad note I think some of my greatest gaming moments, friendships, and memories are bound forever to this game.