Archive for the ‘Literature’ Category

February Wrap Up

Friends, Games, Geeklog, Literature | Posted by PantslessJedi
Mar 01 2009

I can’t believe it’s been such a long time since my last blog post. There’s going to be TONS to write about! Holy crap. :)

First, let’s talk about the boring web changes. I got a new theme! I know, I never settle on anything. With the Mario theme, I didn’t feel like it was a place I wanted to go and write updates..so I stayed away from it. I did other things, and ignored my blog. I feel that this new theme will be more conducive to writing.

I’ve also changed Image Galleries.. mostly because I was tired of the way coppermine works. I’m now using Gallery2, so we’ll see how it works out. As I write this, I’m uploading a TON of photos to it. Lots of new pics of me, as well as old work photos.

As far as work goes, I’m still employed. That’s always a good thing, right? I’d like to think so. I’ve been making a stern effort to cut down on my ‘non work activities’ at work. That means, no websurfing. :P I’ve been pretty good about it, and have noticed a bit of an increase in my production. At the same time,I’ve noticed an increase in my want to SLEEP, and my anxiousness to leave at the end of the day. That’s to be expected, I guess. No more slacking off.

martinI’m on book 4 of A Song of Ice and Fire. I’ve read all the books, and now I’m listening to them in audiobook format. It’s such an awesome series! It has all the trimmings of fantasy, but it’s a lot grittier and more grown up. The cast of characters is quite HUGE, which makes for an interesting method of storytelling. You feel like you get all aspects of the war that is going on, and at times, it’s hard to remember which faction is supposed to be the ‘bad guys’:)

Dragons and magic is such a small part of the world, it’s almost not needed. The story is character driven, rather than event driven. Oddly enough, it feels more “real” this way.

I’ve taken to trying out various internet radio stations. I was left unimpressed. I gave each station 3 chances… Once per “DJ”. each shot was a 20 minute chunk.. or more if I liked what I was hearing. Needless to say, it was crap.

Maybe I’ve turned into a crabby old DJ Hermit, but if you’re not putting out quality, I’m not going to spend time listening to you. Jarring music genre switches are unforgivable, as is a DJ who recovers from a momentary stumble with “Anyway…here’s some music”. Alas, back to my own music.

fragSpeaking of… PowerFrag.FM is going to be reborn, and it’s coming along quite nicely. I’m doing my part, which is applying my limited photoshop skills where they’re needed. I helped re-color the theme, and made some SPIFFY wallpapers for it. :D I’ll add those to the gallery, some day. (Speaking of..it’s currently uploading 200 pictures from the Christmas Party. Woo. don’t worry, all the ones with ME in them have been copied over to my own gallery.)

This is the transition into GADGETS!

I decided to get a new sound card, because onboard sound really sucks. I’ve become an Asus whore. My card is an Asus Xonar DX. It makes things sound soooo pretty. I love it.

I decided it was time for a monitor upgrade as well. I am now the proud owner of an Asus VK246H HDMI Widescreen monitor. This friggin’ thing is like a TV. it’s 24 inches long, and it’s max resolution is 1920×1080. that’s right, this thing is Hi-Def compatible. :D It’s FRICKIN HUGE. Like.. How could I ever go back to a normal screen monitor? Seriously. If I didn’t have 2 monitors at work, I would cry. O.o

motoI picked up a new phone as well. It’s a Motorola Moto Z6C. It flaunts such things as “Best connection world-wide” and bluetooth and all sorts of features I’ll never use. I wanted it for 2 things: Custom Ringtones, and a kickass camera. Seriously, this thing comes with a 2 megapixel camera built into the PHONE. I love this thing so much. <3

Last weekend, I bought some rollerblades. David, B33J and I are going to make it a regular thing, to go out and have some fun..and exercise. David kicked it off by getting a Trike. It’s..crazy, to say the least. I’ll likely take some video and put it up on youtube, so you can see this thing in action. I’d love to go out and rollerblade, but the weather has been CRAZY all week. Too cold, too windy..and the day it warms up? It rains.

As for Anime, I finished watching Ranma 1/2. I liked it well enough, but the ending was crap. The final season didn’t build towards anything, and it didn’t end with anything more than a generic double-episode. >_< Afterwards, I watched Trigun from start to finish. It still holds up as one of my favorite animes. ^_^ Bubblegum Crisis was next. Damned good stuff all around.

I’m debating between several different animes to start.. Honestly, I dunno which to start on. I could grab FullMetal Alchemist, but I’ve been wanting to grab Tenchi Muyo! as well. I’m also open to suggestions.

Cripes, wordpress just told me I’ve used 878 words. For a guy who hates talking about himself, I sure can ramble a lot.

Blogworthy?

Friends, Games, Literature | Posted by PantslessJedi
Oct 15 2008

B33J helped me realize something today. The reason I don’t update as often as I should, is because I don’t feel like my updates are blogworthy. I feel like my posts should be the kind where you have to sit down for a while, and invest some time in what I’ve written.

“One thing I’ve thought about. Who cares if it’s “blog worthy”? It’s *content*. :) Even if it’s a post that merely has “Hi, how is everyone?”, I’m sure you’d get some comments. And it’d be *something* to let us [non-local people] know you’re not dead.” -B33J

He’s right. Who cares if it’s blogworthy? Hey! I’m here. WoW is sucking up a lot of my late-night time. Soon, I’ll write up my impressions of Zul’Aman, which is hands down my favorite instance EVER.

I’m finally normalizing after dealing with the latest bit of tragedy. Sparks helped a lot. He drove up from Florida to stay for a few days. We didn’t do much, by comparison, but I had a blast. He got me addicted to Arrested Development (via Hulu), and I’ve since watched all 3 seasons.

While he was here, I got everyone together for a night of Apples to Apples. Epic fun, and he coined a new in-joke to boot.

Ender is currently borrowing my DS. She’s lovin’ it. :D It’s only fair. She’s letting me borrow 3 books of hers (book 2-4 of the Song of Fire and Ice series by George R.R. Martin) I LOVE IT SO MUCH. So much going on.. I can’t wait to finish the book. MUST DISCUSS.

I’ve been roped into setting up music for the office christmas party. Not exactly looking forward to it, but at least I’m competant at it. I don’t need to babysit it either..just set up a playlist or two, and go from there. I’m going stag, so I’ll likely chill with Packetloss and we’ll DS it up. ^_^

Speaking of holidays, Halloween is fast approaching. This year, I’ll be masquerading as Pugsley Addams. Anyone who doesn’t know who that is can bite me.

Next month is the Powerglove / Some Other Band / Dragonforce concert in Atlanta. Can’t wait. It will be GLORIOUS.

Also: I promise to update more often.

My friends suck.

Geeklog, Literature | Posted by PantslessJedi
Aug 29 2008

But not really.  Game night was last night, and we had some WICKED fun. BIG HUGE fun! *nods to B33J*

Everyone gathered at my place (Squee!  People actually come OVER, and I have a place to entertain! Happy Jedi.) to play Apples to Apples.  Now..when I say everyone, I mean B33J ‘n Ender, Chelle, Greg, and David.  Scott was not with us, as he’s in Atlanta for Dragon*Con.  This means, I’ve got the apartment to myself until tuesday. Woo!

Y’know, I’ve never really written a decent description of the game, so I’ll go ahead and assemble one now.   (Random:  I typed assembly, on my first try for that word.  Stupid work and typing a hundred of times a day..)

Apples to Apples is a party game.  Everyone is dealt seven Red Apples, on which a Noun (Mobsters, The Middle Ages, Ronald Reagan) is printed.  The judge picks up a Green Apple card, which an adjective (Smelly, Normal, Seductive) is printed.  The rest of the players put a card face down, which they think is a good match, or most humorous.  The judge then shuffles the cards given, and reads them aloud.  The judge picks whichever card (s)he thinks is best, and that person wins the round.

Now that you have the basic premise, you can appreciate the humor in a few of these winning combinations.

There were, of course, a few particularly EPIC rounds.  Mostly involving me as the judge.  I swear, they were saving their really good cards for me.  I put down “Hopeless”  and get back “My Bedroom”  O_o   *blush*  XD  That’s what really caused the title of the blog post.  It was too good a burn not to pass up, and we all had a good laugh.  It was.. glorious. :)

Not to mention my favorite round “Corrupt”  where I was given the choices of “Republicans” “My Family” “My Friends” and “Family Values”.  Truly, my friends know me too well.

Here’s a bunch of other winners of the night.  The flow will go: Adjective: Noun.

Harmful: Chimpanzees
Extreme: Bingo
Ordinary: Science Fiction
Pure: Cocaine
Glorious: Atomic Bombs
Charming: Boy Scouts
Fake: Telling the Truth
Nerdy: Watching Football
Intelligent: The Indy 500
Handsome: Barfing
Explosive: Japan
Shallow: Attack on Pearl Harbor
Misunderstood: My Body
Neat: Mad Cow Disease
Frivolous: California
Innocent: Terrorist Attack
Funky: A School Cafeteria
Flirtatious: Handcuffs
Stereotyped: Helen Keller
Neglected: HMOs
Sappy: A Crawl Space
Aged: Jackie Chan
Insane: Canadians
Zany: Rednecks
Offensive: Martha Stewart
Puffy: Jimmy Stewart

Feel free to add your own winning combinations. :)

Badger badger badger…

Friends, Literature | Posted by PantslessJedi
Aug 19 2008

As I write this, I’m in the recovery stages of a headcold. The worst seems to be over, at least. The weekend, I was nigh-bed ridden, and the only thing I did was laundry. =/ I was gonna majorly clean house..but no. I spent the weekend playing WoW, filling my trashcan with phlegm, and seeing how crazy I could get my voice to sound.

On the WoW front, Junnu dinged 65 last week. WOO! First ding in MONTHS. I’m running Moloth through Sunken Temple with her later tonight.. but other’n that, I’m going to quest and quest until she’s 66 this week. My goal is one level a week. When she’s not in use, she’s earning up a TON of rested EXP, which gives me time to work on my other characters.

Valeth hit 41 last night. Cortizoen and Moloth got on, and we did some grouping in Dustwallow Marsh. Good fun! I’m kinda holding back and only playing him when the group is on and able to do stuff. I’ve also started a rogue (Zultonka, a troll.) which just hit 22 last night. Stabby stabby stabby!

I’ve finally finished A Game of Thrones, by George R. R. Martin. I think I’ve found a new favorite fantasy author. The way he’s able to interweave a VAST number of characters into one all-encompassing story is just.. magnificent. Very dark, lots of plot twists.. a hell of a lot more adult than I’m used to reading. It’s not “Hey, we’re a group of heroes on an unlikely adventure to save the world”, but more like “Hey, we’re a TON of normal people in this fantasy world..and look at this stuff that is happening to us.”

Someone described it as “FantasyPunk” and I can’t help but agree. I can’t wait to read the next installment (which I’ll be getting..soon!)

One minor note: I’ve added a shoutbox, which B33J, Ender and I are using as a chat program. feel free to join in. :D