Are You a Follower?

Nope. Not a deep question about whether you view yourself as a natural leader, follower, or a mix of the two. This is another kind of following I have in mind.

Twitter following.

Are you on Twitter?

I've been on it for a while, but I never really thought much of it. I'd just post random things every now and then for a few of my friends to see if they were bored or whatever.

Then I listened to an episode of Robin Walker's men's style/image podcast wherein she talked about Twitter and online presence. Then it hit me: "Twitter is a means to free advertising!"

It's true. Random people will follow you on Twitter if your account is set to public. Sure, you'll get plenty of random followers just wanting to have their names show up on your list in order to push links for their webcam sites or whatever, but you'll also get real people.

And if you're like me, creating things you want other people to see, then a shot at that kind of free advertising can't really be passed up on. If I post a link to a new song or article I've written, and even one random follower listens to it, then that's one more person exposed to my work than I would have otherwise had.

And that, to me, is totally worth it.

Oh, and check out Robin Walker's podcast, Tailored Edges.

Branching Out

So... as I hope all of you know, I write music. I love music. It's my favorite.

I'm finding that my music is getting bigger than me. By that, I mean that my songs are starting to need more than just my vocals and acoustic guitar.

So, I hit up Craigslist tonight. I found two postings in my little part of the world that seemed particularly interesting to me.

The first is for a "post-hardcore" band looking for bass and vocals. I sent them a message to see if I could sit in on a practice, meet the band, and give vocals a whirl. Could be sweet. I love bands like recent Haste the Day (which sounds like the other bands they pointed to... whether or not that's "post-hardcore" is beyond me), so that could be really cool.

The other message was to a guy who... if I didn't know better... I would think was me writing the post. A guitarist up for anything, just wanting to be in a band that makes music and performs it.

Gonna see if I can meet up with him and jam a bit. If things look good, a band may start with the two of us. Then we'd just need drums, bass, and fans.

Oh... and keys would be sweet.

I've got hype. I need a band. It's been far too long since I was last in one that wasn't a church worship band.

Reimagining

So... my good buddy Ben... whose blog needs a link somewhere around here... is letting me borrow a song he wrote. It's a pretty sweet song. Somewhere in the contemplative side of things... and suitable for church time music.

I really liked it. A lot. So much so that I wanted to give it a spin while adding in my own personal touch.

I gotta say, I really like the result of his original song writing with my reimagining. It's catchy and moving and has all the things it needs to get air time.

I don't have the song 100% complete yet... then comes the fun task of recording... but I can point you to the good sir's original version.

Give it a shot... then send him money for good measure.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Y5h93q_BYA

I Love Firefly

So, I'm chilling here at the computer while a couple people from the fam are watching Firefly in the other room. I can hear it well.

I don't even have to be in the room watching it to be moved emotionally by some of the things going on. I've seen the whole series a couple of times (a benefit of sorts of short series, I guess).

It's crazy... how much more significant things are after the first time around. Once the characters find their way into your heart... the things that happen in the earlier episodes are suddenly way more impacting.

Take, for instance, Kaylee getting shot. The show is good about getting you to care early on... but not early enough for that to really hit in the first viewing as in later viewings after watching the series.

It's crazy. I guess some things in life take more than a single examination to really understand, appreciate, and enjoy.

See also: Call of Duty 4.

Continued Revelations

I swear... when you keep your eyes open... there's no end to the things you can see... even in unexpected places.

I wrote about that last night... regarding the X-Men cartoon.

I watched another episode this evening, and more stuff stood out. Then I realized I was out of episodes to watch on Marvel.com, so I switched over to the first issue of the current Captain America run... where I'm hit with more stuff.

I'm not sure if this ability is a blessing or a curse. I suppose if I'm looking to explain ideas and realities through analogy, then it's a great blessing. How many people do you know that can explain more than one or two theological concepts using comic books as the illustrations?

But it's a curse... because I could go on and on about the things I'm seeing, but if the people I'm talking with are predisposed to blowing things off based on their source material, then it's not really that helpful.

Doesn't really help me that superheroes/comics are generally considered the epitome nerdiness. I mean, I'm not particularly worried about being branded as a nerd so long as that isn't my only branding.

I'm rambling. The moral of this story is that I recorded my first YouTube video of an acoustic pop song I wrote. The recording quality sucks. I was on extremely limited equipment options, but it's close to serviceable. The song itself? Not shabby. Check it out.

"The Stolen Heart"

The Things You See

I've gotta say, it's pretty crazy to me to realize what things you can see when you know what to look for.

I refer to the effect my ethics class is having on my viewing of movies, TV, etc..

Right now, I'm watching the X-Men cartoon that started in 1992. "A cartoon? Aren't those made for kids?"

No... well yes, I suppose that was their original target audience, but there is surprising depth in this series.

From life experiences, themes of leadership and authority come through loud and clear to me, and the interactions that show these themes are just as real as any other would be (albeit not quite with the same phrasing as would be present in most conversations).

Because I'm looking for ideologies and messages, I can see all sorts of things that are far more mature in nature than the animated exterior would lead you to think.

Take, for example, the issue of self-defense. In this show, there are characters who want to attack others as preemptive self-defense. Then there are characters who think that, if being attacked, any action in self-defense is acceptable. There are then characters who constantly say that "no humans can be harmed" even in self-defense.

These views all make me think of the larger worldviews and values discussed in my ethics class. This show demonstrates various views in conflict with each other as each person tries to carry out his/her view.

It's pretty impressive. It just requires knowing what to look for.

Actually, it may require something much more basic. Seems to me that it requires learning to look beyond the surface. Even if you don't know what to look for, you may be surprised at the great host of things just out of plain sight in a lot of shows.

Even in animated series. (Don't get me started on Full Metal Alchemist tonight. I could go on for days about that show.)

Confessions

Yes. Come one. Come all. (It's a tragic affair.) Time me to reveal my darkest secrets to you, my loyal followers, for all to see on this thing they call the internet.

I watched Confessions of a Shopaholic tonight.

...What? You were expecting me to actually divulge the secrets of my "other, darker life" in which I am also awesome? Good luck with that one.

But seriously, Shopaholic was surprisingly enjoyable. I mean, I don't hide the fact that I enjoy romantic comedies and the like, so that shouldn't be surprising. Still, it was fun and charming even if it's a bit formulaic.

Plus its pretty obvious message about consumer debt being bad stuff was something I approve of.

Man I hate debt.

In other news, I started watching the 90s X-Men cartoon (didn't think I'd go a day without saying something nerdy, did you?). It's surprisingly good so far.

Disuse and Overuse

You ever tried to do a lot of muscle-heavy work in a short period of time after not really doing much of the muscle work?

Yeah... welcome to my today.

My family got a bunch of new furniture and I needed to move it all into place (after acquiring it, of course). No big deal. I like physical labor. Moving stuff around is easy street.

That is... until I somehow manage to mess up my arm.

Yep. A muscle in my left forearm is not happy with me right now. I lift stuff a bit... so I'm not sure what happened... but it seems a lack of use followed by sudden and prolonged heavy use is not my friend.

I can't ball a fist without a bit of discomfort... and typing isn't even my favorite thing right now.

Looks like no Street Fighter for me tonight. Sad times!

I Love Ikea

Have you heard? It's true.

I really do love Ikea.

And not in the "let's be friends" sort of way, either. More that passionate, deep love that says "not even the gates of hell cold stand between you and me."

...

Enjoying that melodrama?

In all seriousness, they have all kinds of crazy stuff that's cool to look at... and even buy if I actually have more than a buck to my name when I visit.

But the real gym is their food court.

For a buck, I got a "small breakfast." A scoop of scrambled eggs, two slices of bacon, and some rather tasty potatoes make up this meal in their cafeteria.

Then I went downstairs to their miniature version of their cafe to get a bottomless softdrink and large cinnamon roll for a buck-fifty.

But here's the greatest bit of all... their fountain drink machine has lingonberry on tap.

Make no mistake... lingonberry juice is dat fyre.

It even trumps fountain Mountain Dew in my book, and that is a very big feat.

If you haven't experienced Ikea yet, I recommend you do so immediately.

Right now.

Go go go go go!

It's Magic

Are you familiar with that card game that came out like... a decade or more ago? Y'know the one... that got countless people (be they students or business folk) to sit around tables... freaking out over pieces of paper with weird fantasy images and lore printed on them?

Yeah. That's the one. Magic: The Gathering.

I've never played the game. When I was younger, it was deemed a great evil by my parents (playing it now... I can see why people/Christians would say that, so I'm not complaining... and I was like... 13 at the time). Didn't really bother me any... I had other things to do... and none of my friends were into it.

Well... I've never played the game until today. See, the game was turned into a video game now on the Xbox. I said "what the heck?" and downloaded the demo and gave it a run.

I see why it would have hype. It's a lot of fun... even though it has to be the epitome of nerd-dom. A video game... based on a card game... revolving around pretty out there fantasy things. Yeah... pretty sure that's as nerdy as it gets.

But whatever. I've been a nerd most of my life. I try not to nerd out around people who have no interest in such things, but that hardly changes what I do and don't like.

This game... I like it a lot.

It feels oddly fast paced while maintaining good strategic depth.

The full version also promises great multiplayer components... a definite plus since my brother was getting all excited while watching me play the demo.

Time to go make a purchase.

Too Many Things

I realized something today.

I can only realistically learn a few things at a time.

This came to my attention when I was looking at the summer fighting game release list (if you didn't see this coming, you really need to do a better job of stalking me online).

Seriously... BlazBlue, King of Fighters XII, Marvel vs Capcom 2... all come out in the next two months. Sometime... the US release of Tatsunoko vs Capcom is actually coming out. Oh... and I still have Street Fighter... IV, HD Remix, and Third Strike to learn and master.

I can't do it. I can't do everything... at least... I can't learn everything all at once. I don't think it's possible.

If I said this made me sad, you would laugh at me. Actually, you're probably alread laughing because I'm talking about fighting games again.

Thing is... this goes for more than fighting games. Trying to learn a number of varied skills at the same time is no easy task.

The things I have to deal with.

I Haven't Forgotten

It may be the late evening, but I haven't forgotten about you!

Let's see... what do I wanna ramble about?

Call of Duty 4? Hmm. Could rave about it, but I think I already have.

Street Fighter IV? Same story.

Oh! I know! My new job!

Well, I'm not sure that it technically counts as a job since I will be doing contract work instead of being a regular employee. Nevertheless, I'll be working with a significant magazine as a game researcher of sorts. I'll be getting paid to play through selected games and supplying thorough notes for the staff writers to use as a reference tool when putting together the actual review.

Bottom line: All those times I was told I would never make money playing video games? Yeah. So much for that.


Which leads me to an exhortation of sorts. If you love doing something... really love it... and if you want to make a living off of it...

First make sure that you won't end up hating the thing if it's your full-time vocation. That actually happens to people... and it sucks. Don't let that happen. (It's one of the reasons I'm no longer in the field of software development.)

But the more important thing... if you really want to do something... I really believe that working hard at it, accepting difficulty and failures along the way, getting to know the right people, and a little bit of luck will make it possible.


Ten years ago, who would have thought that I could become a professional gamer? Yet here I am. So... what do you want to do? Who do you want to become? What's standing in your way?

Don't give up. If you want it, get out there and get it.

Getting Gas from the Corner

Have you ever watched Corner Gas?

I think you should give it a shot if not.

Well... if you have a sense of humor, anyway.


I just watched a seven episode marathon earlier this evening to celebrate my ending of the school term.

Real talk: I was laughing the hardest I've laughed in quite a while.


On an unrelated note, I love the expressions "FYI" and "Real talk." I use them a lot right now.

As Promised

I said I would make it a point to blog regularly again, and I'm upholding that promise today.

Earlier this morning, a friend got me thinking about something. Riley, here's looking at you, punk. <3

Basically, I got to thinking about what makes a movie appeal to me. Yeah... sometimes... style does get to me. No way around it; I couldn't pass up watching The Spirit purely because of its style.

Lucky for me, I actually rather enjoyed it even beyond its style.

See, the thing that makes a movie click for me is its characters and the worldviews they present.

For example, I give you The International. A movie that isn't amazing in cinematic or writing terms, but I still really enjoyed it.

And not because Clive Owen shot at people.

When I watched the movie, the entire thing revolved around notions of justice and how to achieve it. When Clive Owen's character was challenged in his view of justice, effectively forced to rethink his ideals and how to bring them about, I understood it.

I related to it. And it's that, the connection with challenges to a given worldview that I hold, have held, or have failed to understand that makes a movie stand out to me.

The rest is nice and all, and I can appreciate good cinematics and the like, but my love for a movie is usually rooted in these notions.

Which is why I rarely refer to a movie in terms of quality ("this is a great movie," or "this movie sucks") since... even though I can measure things in those terms I hardly care to. The subjective impact of a movie is what interests me, and that is what I'll refer to when talking about movies.


In other news, I really, really, really love Coheed and Cambria. I cannot wait to see them in three months.


Also, my next post will be more casual and stuff.

That Was a Quick Month

So... I just realized that I... uh... I haven't updated my blog in a month... to the day.

My mistake. Got carried away with end of the term busyness and so on.

And mostly just forgot to update it.

Well... I'm back... again... I hope.


In recent news, I'm no longer planning on going to Florida. Tragic, huh? Not gonna lie, I'm pretty bummed about it, but I'm getting something really close to a full-ride at Multnomah between private school and public federal aid. Compared to the thousands of dollars of debt I would be racking up, I can't really pass this one up. It just means I gotta live in the eternal rains for another two years.

Also, tomorrow is my final final of the year... and my final final at Clark, barring a possible return for a PE credit for my own enjoyment. Can't complain about Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu on the cheap, after all.

Speaking of... I'm planning to start up Budoshin Jujitsu out on the east side of the county this Friday. Very exciting stuff.

I'll all this a post. I'll make it a point to post more often now that I'm done with school for the summer.

Go me.