My Nerdy, Guilty Pleasures.

So lately I have been questing for new music on Pandora and have found some pretty good bands.

Edenbridge.

They have a unique feel to their music. It's ethereal with shifting rhythms and quite a bit of electric guitar. It's very pleasant to listen to if your in a upbeat mood. One drawback I found, however, is that some of their melodies are so strange that they can throw off one's feng shui, as it were.

Luca Turilli's Dreamquest.

This music can be summed up in one word. Epic. It's like every medieval fantasy climax put into music. I will admit, as much as I like it, it makes me feel super nerdy listening to and enjoying it. The main reason being that nothing that they sing about is based on this reality. It reminds me of all those card games where you can buy sets and expansions that have various monsters, spells, wizards, warlocks, witches and creatures from, or based on a fantasy universe. I can just see myself one of these days putting tape around the bridge of my glasses, tucking in my shirt and debating someone on whether or not a Nagual could beat a Warlock with a fully imbued Dragonsword and Deathstaff. I'm such a nerd. That being said, I would suggest giving Luca Turilli a listen to and see if you like that style of music. If you do, please comment and I can tell you more good groups to look for with that same or similar style.

Another reason I feel like a nerd on occasion is because just the other day I was trying to figure out how to get my computer to receive a wireless signal and then pipe that out to a router to wire the signal into my PS3 and wondering if I actually did that if I would loose too much bandwidth to play (and have the connection speed advantage on) Modern Warfare 2.

Even though that last paragraph is Greek to most people, I forget that a lot. When my parents bought a new computer the other day, I asked to look at the specs to tell if it was a good computer or not. When I looked at the page-and-a-half readout of the specs I was disappointed to find some of them missing. Like it didn't have the motherboard socket type or the processor series name or what level of cache it had or how many pins the RAM had. I was also disappointed to find no listing of all the ports and slots on the motherboard. I could go on but I don't want to bore you. My point is, that I pointed this out to my mom and dad and they just gave me a blank stare like I was speaking Martian.

My future wife is going to have to be good at smiling and nodding when I'm talking about computers or else actually understand what I'm saying but that's like Shallow Hal's level of pickyness. Any girl that can speak Nerd, Geek or anything like it is almost always hot in my opinion. Wow, I'm rambling now. I should stop. Don't forget to comment!

Peace.

Mid-Semester Crisis

So for desperate want of change in my life I decided that I would change that layout of my room to something that I have always wanted to try since I saw someone with this layout. To be honest, I like it better except for the fact that I can no longer put my feet up while I'm on my computer. This simple annoyance is almost enough to change it back right now, but I like the bed so much better where it is minus the footrest feature. Other than that one quibble, it's better. I have less floor space but that doesn't matter because I never use my floor for anything anyway. So, time for the pictures.

Before:

Please note: These pictures where taken at the beginning of the school year and do not accurately depict how my room looked before I changed it. The only thing I changed was the placement of my bed, drawers and DVD tower.

And After:

I hope you enjoyed the tour of my room. I know it looks like a prison cell in these pictures but that's just because I had to use the flash so you can't see that warm light from all of my Christmas lights that I have strewn throughout my room.

Don't forget to comment!

Peace.

So Yet Again I'm Waiting . . . .

On a sunny Friday afternoon I find myself, once again, sitting here waiting for my virtual machine to update at a snail's pace at the computer lab. So I figured that I would update my blog again and take advantage of the spare time I have.

Today has been . . . interesting. I found out last night that my CS 1400 class had been cancelled because the Dr. Nadauld gave his Inauguration speech and they wanted to give the students a chance to go if they wanted to. Even though it was cancelled, I still went to my friend's class this morning at 9 AM because I can't afford to fall behind in that class. The homework is over my head as it is. I will be extremely happy if I can pull out anything above a B out of that class, and if you know me, and I assume that most of my three readers do, you know that I take well to anything less than an A in any class. It kind of upsets me that I'm stooping so low with this class when it's a class that I should like and have a predisposition to excel at. *sigh* I guess I just can't win everything . . . or anything. Well, I guess I shouldn't be so hard on myself, I am in college with a scholarship and good enough grades to keep it as of right now. College isn't a piece of cake like some would think.

I guess I would just like to have perfect grades, have the women love me, have a Lamborghini Diablo GT, know 10 different languages fluently, be able to run a marathon and be able to understand the mysteries of the universe. But I guess that life isn't perfect for a reason. But that reason is escaping me at the moment, is always escaping me . . . . Maybe one day everything will be perfect, maybe. It's so hard to see it now though.

So I have been playing American McGee's Alice I have come to hold in high regard for its originality and gameplay. It takes a darker look at Wonderland but there is a reason behind it. The game takes place years after the two books when she a teenager. In the beginning cut scene there is a fire in her house and she is the only survivor of the fire, but because of this she is riddled with guilt and is unable to deal with life. She tries committing suicide and is prevented and admitted into a mental institution on suicide watch. But while in this variable hell, she is given a stuffed bunny that survived the fire. This awakens all sorts of memories within her sending her spinning into Wonderland. But when she arrives, she realizes that Wonderland is "broken" because her mind is "broken." It suggests very interesting parallels.

So though out the game she is trying to come to grips with the fact that she isn't guilty by rescuing Wonderland from the evil that engulfs it. So the game is really a journey of the mind, a very interesting concept, indeed. I guess that some would find the game disturbing, but I on the other hand, think it fits the idea superbly. In a way, it brings Alice to the same level as the rest of the world be having something bad happen to her. You can relate to her in a way that is unattainable in the fairy tale. Overall, it is a very well designed game with depth to the story. The controls, especially the jump action could have used work, but besides that I don't have many complaints.

I also helped out with the Institute's food day today. I helped clean and put away tables, wash dishes and just help clean up. It felt good to do some service. And although I didn't come as early as I could have, I stayed until everything was done.

Wow, this Malicious Software Removal Tool is taking forever, it probably has been going for a good 45 minutes. So even though it's not done yet, my patience is. So I will sign off and hope that my select group of readers will comment.

Peace.

So While I'm Waiting . . . .

While I'm waiting for my Windows virtual machine to finish installing and updating I decided that I will use the time to update my blog . . .

I went and saw Alice in Wonderland in 3D last night. The 3D was cool but I don't know if it was worth $9 a pop. My 3D glasses were not worth $1.50 when the movie is already $1.50 over priced. If I went again I wouldn't go to the 3D showing if I had the option. The other problem was that took a date and so I almost spent $20 on just tickets. Thankfully, neither she nor I wanted snacks for I saved x amount of dollars there. But the movie itself was impressive from a visual technologies student's stand point. Thousands of dollars must have went into the Cheshire cat alone. And he was barely in any of the movie (one of my quibbles, because he is my favorite character in the Alice in Wonderland story). The main problem with the movie was the lack of plot. It stole elements from the two books and the original movie but it have been better off copying one of the story completely. There was one central problem and that was it. Nothing really made you feel tense or on edge because none of scenes or the story suggested or eluded to any such suspense. It irked me. Furthermore, the central problem of the plot was already decided and the outcome was set in stone at the very beginning of the movie, removing any tense aspect.

Another problem with the movie was a disturbing lack of character development. The characters just seemed like whimsical shells walking around, doing certain things for reasons beyond the knowledge and scope of the viewer. Too much was also unsaid and unexplained in the movie. Like in one scene Alice falls asleep when the viewer would assume that it was an intense situation, and when she wakes up, things take a turn for the better. That's poor story telling in my opinion.

People say it was too weird, but I say it wasn't weird enough. They didn't finish the idea make it their own. They should have thought up a COMPLETELY new plot or left an original one alone. The acting was pretty good, but like I said before, you didn't know the reasons behind any of it, except the vague references to the original movie. They tried and miserably failed at introducing back stories for The Mad Hatter and The White Queen. Also, the White Queen's makeup was . . . terrible. Not only did it make her look evil, it made her look goth.

Those things being said, the movie had some definite good points. Visually, it was amazing. Between the 3D and the millions of dollars that went into the effects it was amazing. It all had a legit feel to it. The second to last scene was amazing even though it had a predictable outcome.

But movie aside, the date itself was . . . I dunno. I guess I will have to see where it goes. I have my doubts though. : ( It was terribly hard to tell what she was thinking, or feeling. And I felt like I was getting mixed signals . . . . Well, anyway, I need to ask her out on a real date instead of like a more of a hang out, but I still am apprehensive about the possible outcome. I'm not out to just get some or anything, but I'm tired of people going on one date with me and then giving me some excuse about why they can't go on any other dates with me and then not too long after that they are either engaged or have a boyfriend, because that proves that they lied to me and they just didn't like me or think I wasn't a good enough person. I'm sick of being judged by people, I thought if I got out of Sanpete I could escape some of it but I was wrong. I wish I was the way I used to be. When everyone trusted me and thought I was nice. I must have lost something along the way and now give off the vibe of being out to swindle people. I don't feel different on the inside but something must have changed. *sigh* I can't win. And I have to go to class. *sigh* Wish me luck.

peace.