Blissfully Hooked, my wedding site, has officially moved to its own site rather than being kept as a subsidiary (or something like that…) of loadofcarp.
And while we’re at it, Fish never got around to posting about our trip to Nashville the weekend before last, so I suppose I get to! Valentine’s Day was approaching, and we had decided to make it a couple’s weekend in Tennessee, between Fish and myself, two of his frat brothers and their girlfriends — one of whom goes to school at Vanderbilt.
That Friday after classes and all we got together for a long car ride (five hours or so, but exacerbated by idiots and gridlock on the road) across the Appalachian foothills in the snow, the first time I’d gotten to see the mountains of the eastern US (nothing in size compared to the Cascades or the Rockies, but still very majestic) and tucked in at a Doubletree in a pillowtop king sized bed with a warm complimentary chocolate chip cookie. At the time we saw the footage of that luger at the Olympics who crashed head first into the steel bars beside the track at 80+ mph. Second time an Olympian has died, from what the News said, and plenty gory — showing the actual hit and then the effects of internal bleeding as paramedics attempted to resuscitate him. I can only assume the poor guy didn’t even see or feel it. Some folks said it was because at age 21, it was his first Olympics, but even veterans often get injured on that particular track. At least the nation of Georgia continued in the Olympics in his honor.
Speaking of all of this, it’s a shame I can’t be on the west side of the nation, as my friend Katie and her brother drove up to Vancouver to participate in the fandom. They were able to attend several events such as hockey and curling (which is apparently way more interesting than you’d ever suspect!), and both were interviewed by Portland’s KGW tv news.
Anyway, that Saturday we spent perusing the main strip of Nashville’s Broadway, packed with record stores, poster shops, places to buy custom cowboy boots and hats, and dozens of bars, saloons, clubs (Coyote Ugly, B.B. King’s Blues Club, etc…), and taverns out of which live music filtered out through the doors to beckon us. There was even a box on a street corner that from afar looked like it should control the street lights, until you got too close and realized it was pumping out country music.
We ate at Big River Brewery, Olive Garden, and Cheesecake Factory over the weekend, and despite the cold we kept ourselves moving and had a fantastic time. Happy Valentine’s Day for us, indeed!
As I’ve not had the greatest number of work hours at GameStop (hinthint, if anyone knows of any job openings decently within the Perimeter for someplace other than McDonalds…. ;_;), I’ve been tinkering with Loadofcarp via a new little tab you can see at the top of the page, titled “Blissfully Hooked.” Although there isn’t much to it yet, it’s my little personal project of creating a wedding website for Fish and I.
Right now I’m mostly creating the skeleton of it, including page titles as placeholders, general outlines of what will go on them, and links to related pages so it’s easy to get around. Sorry I don’t have buttons set up, though maybe I can create some by using Gimp, a free Photoshop-style picture editing program.
Of course, the only pages that have any meat to them yet are those for places to visit in Atlanta and eateries I thought of to mention. Because I obsess over being entertained and fed. Not sure if I have enough there yet to ask for constructive criticism…but I at least want visitors to be aware that it exists!
Okay. I’ve stared at this blog long enough. I never set aside time to specifically write in it, so screw it, I’m writing now. x_x Long overdue anyway.
First up: I’m engaged. Yeah that’s right. You guys have no idea how hard it is to write here over the last few months and try to say something meaningful without talking about the only freaking thing I want to talk about. Here’s how it went down.
So I planned way earlier this year to pop the question. Reason being that we’ve been going out for almost 3 years now, been friends for about 7, and I knew that living together wouldn’t be an issue. Surprise – it’s been awesome. Considering I uprooted this poor girl from everything she knew in Oregon to come live in the Dirty South, I figured I’d better keep her close and let her know that I’m serious about us. :)
With my job from over the summer, I had more than enough money to get a ring. The original plan was to go to Walt Disney World, be at the World Showcase Lagoon on New Year’s Eve, wait for the kiss at the new year and, amidst the fireworks, ask on a bended knee. The only way I could pull this off (and afford this), though, was bringing friends – preferably a couple. Kiki and Patches, ok.
Yeah, that didn’t work out for obvious reasons. And of course I don’t blame either of them. So, new plan – owaitwheredidtheymoneygo. New Macbook was needed. Crapcrap.
The my monetary savior came in the form of a Marta bus. A bump to my car inflated my bank account by almost $800, and I was back in the game. A call to my aunt, and I had a ring. More on that later. Now how do I propose?
Well, I still wanted New Year’s Eve. Tricia is addicted to food, so I had to bring her out for dinner. Then what? Began to go through ideas online… and then it hit me. Online. We met online, we cultured our relationship online, and I am an online freak. Why not draw upon that? I love to share funny videos off of Youtube. I had my answer. Make a video! Rather than try to describe it, I’ll share it:
Tada. :) So obvious, I have a moment there to present the ring. And here it is:
Now for why I called my wonderful aunt. She has connections and really knows this stuff. Through her and her expertise, I ended up purchasing this ring. White gold, with a .47 carat centerpiece diamond, 2 sapphires, and a slew of smaller diamonds, this ring is over 1 carat, yet I paid $1050, tax included. But. My aunt, being as smart as she is, bought it at the New York Diamond Exchange for wholesale. The ring itself is appraised for $1700, and I’m told such a ring would sell here in Atlanta for about $3000. I’m pleased. :)
Oh, and she said yes. Hyperventilating and excited, after a great meal at Stonecrest Steakhouse in Augusta, resting at home alongside me on the sofa, Tricia said yes. And best of all, she had no idea. :)
Well! I’ve babbled on enough about romance stuff. In the last month, my Xbox red-ringed and was returned yesterday, much to the pleasure of my brother and I (Modern Warfare 2 ahoy!), and I’ve been played far too much Maplestory with my friends, see? Yep. I’ve reformatted Tricia’s Macbook so it will run better, and I got a 3.75 GPA last semester.
Life has been pretty good.
And I’m done for now. Perhaps I’ll write later about stuff that everyone else hasn’t seen already. XD
Well, here I sit with OmmWriter again. I can certainly grow accustomed to using this program for blogging consistently, though this time I may have to take River’s advice and run it through a spellcheck, heh.
I don’t know if there’s much I have time to say this entry. It’s roughly 3AM. I spent the evening at a dear friend’s house, having fun and watching stuff online and generally keeping her company. Hope she enjoys the season DVDs of How I Met Your Mother that I left her for her viewing pleasure.
I’m not too concerned about the current time, though, for my sake. I am concerned for the girlfriend’s sake… You see, I am DONE with exams. Yeah, just like that. Feels pretty good, knowing that for this short span between now and next semester… I’m free. It’s almost a curse; now I’ve no idea what to do with my time. There’s been this accumulation of hobbies and activities I’ve wanted to undertake for the longest time, and I’ve had no time or energy to squeeze them in. Want to try knitting (gift making is fun), learning the bass guitar more solidly… Learn more photography techniques and basics…
Speaking of photography, I migrated my entire freaking iPhoto library over to Aperture the other day. I may have to legitimately purchase Aperture sometime soon… This is a niiiice program. Took me forever to migrate and get everything squared away, but now all my photos are organized nicely within projects and albums in this professional organization/touch-up software. I feel accomplished. But, even though they are there, I need to touch a few up before I go showing them to the world here. Sorry guys – do keep up though, I’ll have some soon!
While I did mention being done with school, I did get a surprise email from a professor, D. Fox Harrell, Ph.D, informing me and 3 others that he’d like at least one of us to demo our Project 1 (play with it!) for Digital Media Winter Demo Day 2009 – which is traditionally grad students only. Nerve-wracking, but I’ll see if I can make it!
So a few things to tidy up loose ends before I run off and sleep (getting drowsy eyed here…):
So this is unique. I downloaded a beta of a program called OmmWriter, and that’s what I’m using to compose this blog post. The idea appears to be that with this absorbing the screen, I can concentrate on writing to my heart’s content. Seems to be working. I’m writing, after all, aren’t I? The program takes up the whole screen with a serene snowy minimalist scene, and also advises I put on headphones to complete the experience. In my ears is a very ethereal tune, also quite minimalist. I could grow used to using this software for creative writing (certainly can’t use it for school – I need my resources in front of me!).
Moving on… I seem to say this with every post, but I should be writing more often. It’s a release, if nothing else. But with school and schoolwork and fraternal obligations, family obligations, girlfriend obligations… my own obligations take the backburner. So here I am. Over a month later than when I last wrote. A lot has happened since then, I assure you, dear reader. To wrap up my entry from last time, FYE did evntually call me, but their offerings were too little too late. I’ve since given up on them and botcotted the franchise.
Halloween was pretty grea. I want was Frank West, photographer from Dead Rising, complete with my Canon T1i. :3 Yep, I bought the thing, and consequently went so poor the only idea I had for a cheap Halloween involved making the camera part of the outfit. Came off rather well, though, and I got to play with my new toy all that night.
As a sidenote, maybe this program is -too- peaceful. I just conked out for about 30 minutes. @_@ Now my eyes are all out of focus and fuzzy. :S
I’ve been hard at work on project after project. Everything is finished now, and I have a few grades back too. Remember the Star Wars/Romeo+Juliet mashup I posted back then? 96%. I couldn’t be more proud. That class is going spectacularly. Tomorrow I share my final project in that class, which I will stick here, too:
Done in Second Life (blegh), we did an adaptation of a scene from Troilus and Cressida, a lesser-known Shakespeare play. Since Cressida is a bit of a whore, we decided to exaggerate her elements and adapt the pivotal scene to a club, with Cressida in a skimpy outfit, and Diomedes as a pimp. Completing the scene with some popular dance music and voiceovers, we had a blast, and the prof seems to like it. I’m hoping for another A – this class should be a shoe-in for an A. :)
Who saw UP? I bought the Blu-ray when it came out on November 10th, and after waiting a week (fraternity initation), I was finally able to watch it. Wouldn’t ya know, I cried. Dammit all to hell, Pixar has me. How can a single movie studio have EVERY. SINGLE. MOVIE. they make be so original and emotional? Fuck, I get teary-eyed at the short “Partly Cloudy” that came before UP (it’s just that perfect. I know exactly how that cloud felt…):
So after Thanksgiving, on November 4th, I was on the way to the fraternity for our Wednesday night meeting when my car was hit by a MARTA Moblility bus. x___x This was awful – held me up for the meeting, damaged my car a bit, and mostly pissed me off. I lost my temper, but mostly at the world than anyone in particular. Thankfully I didn’t scream at the MARTA driver, his supervisor who showed up, or the cop (who was very helpful). The car is still in perfect working condition, but now has a dent on the back left side where the bus merged without looking into me. Because they were at fault, MARTA had a 3rd party insurance claims adjuster come look at my car, and “assess” it. Days later, I recieved the assessment in the mail: $742.60. For a dent to be fixed, and the car to be painted. @.@ Fuck. It’s like the money fairy just came in a dive bombed my wallet! I still have no intention on getting the dent fixed right away – it’s not hurting me or anything, and getting the car repainted means I have to actually CARE about scratches and whatnot. AND remove my bumper stickers? No way. I’ll just keep the money. Wooooo! Plans are already underway for my newfound wealth… Big ones. But little things include The Beatles Rock Band (waaaaant), a new telephoto lens for my beautiful camera, and I might be getting a used DS Lite for Pokemon-ing. >.> And maybe, finally, that bass guitar. But big plans first.
Speaking of games, I’ve been playing more and more of them recently. An unexpected gem for me, personally, is how much fun I’ve been having with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. I honestly didn’t expect to enjoy this title THIS much! A short single player campaign experience, but it’s brutal yet beautiful in how it’s presented. Imagine a game so compelling that it makes you actually consider the damage and violence you propogate. It’s how I felt, and how my stomach churned uncomfortably as I watched terrorists mow down civilians in an airport in MW2.
And when Russia brought the war to Virginia suburbs and bombed Washington DC… this game is amazing. Not to mention the actual combat itself is spot on, and the multiplayer is so much fun. I want to have a LAN party with my Xbox 360 in Augusta as soon as I possibly can. Anyway, please, guys, watch this trailer if you’ve seen nothing else about this game:
Another fun game (this time, wholly expected as such) is Brutal Legend. This game is the epitome of METAL, and I loved the environment it set up. With the handpicked metal soundtrack, this game screamed epic, and it was. While I’m showing things off here, I have to link to a recent discovery I’ve had many a lulz at: KnowYourMemes.com. Take a gander at some of their informative material:
…Why not speak about me a bit more here? I don’t know what the purpose of this blog is, yet. Sadly, you think I would. I share some vague thoughts, some vague feelings, and youtubes of far too much stuff I find entertaining.
Something about me: I have found that, almost against my own will, I really enjoy Twitter. Why is completely beyond me. I wish my friends would use it, or if they have one, used it more often. It’s a short blurb into the insight of their mind that I wish I had, I guess. I try to contribute enough, but I suppose I could be doing better with it. I could say some things that are more insightful. I think I’ll try this.
Sometimes I don’t feel I’m creative enough on my own. I’d love to actually go somewhere when I have time, take pictures and video to my heart’s content, come back to my Mac and MAKE something with them. I think I’ll make this my goal for the month. I don’t know if I can accomplish it, but I’ll try nonetheless. Wish me luck.
I wish I had a more skilled hand at poetry.
I wish I had access to materials like a pottery wheel and clay. Lately I’ve wanted to try my hands at throwing clay again.
Maybe I just want to THROW the clay.
Maybe I’m beginning to ramble.
Maybe I need to ramble.
… Maybe I need to go to bed. :) More coming soon. Just… remind me.
… And if you read this, a comment would really make my day. <3
My name is Clinton. I visited FYE store branch #1029 in Lenox Square Mall on September 14th, 2009, to pre-order 4 Blu-ray films (Wizard of Oz, Snow White, How I Met Your Mother Season 4, and Transformers 2) and renew my soon-to-expire FYE Backstage Pass card. I visited again on September 29th, 2009, to pick up my copies of Wizard of Oz and How I Met Your Mother. No problems so far.
I returned exactly ONE week later, on October 6th, 2009, to pick up my reserved copy (read: I placed money on this movie at this specific location, FYE #1029), to find an empty storefront, missing signs, and no lights whatsoever. FYE #1029 has completely disappeared without any warning whatsoever. There was no posted contact information. I still, at this point, had $10 in reservations on Snow White and Transformers 2 at this location, and now a useless Backstage Pass membership, as I refuse to travel outside the city for over an hour in one direction to use your shady company’s card.
I’ll repeat myself. I now am missing $10 in reservations at this location for reservations that cannot be fulfilled. I HAVE BEEN ROBBED. This is entirely unacceptable, and furthermore, completely ILLEGAL. I have attempted to contact the company via the phone number provided on my receipt, and it is disconnected. I have attempted to call the 1(800)-818-1941, and, to no avail, have left messages with contact information to a generic machine recording. There was no option to talk to a real person here.
It is here that I extend my efforts before I bring this to the Better Business Bureau. I demand that my money be returned to me, and I also demand that my money be refunded for a now defunct Backstage Pass card #466715671599, as this ordeal is, again, entirely unacceptable. In addition to the card refund, I also demand my personal information deleted from your systems.
I anticipate a response to this email that is not a generic, computer-generated response.
…Pay no mind to the title, simply a lyric from Placebo’s “Pure Morning” from their debut album “Without You I’m Nothing”. Picked it up last night from iTunes, and I’m enjoying it so far.
A number of times I load my blog and contemplate what to say. A number less I close it with far more work ahead of me. These past few weeks have been exactly that. What with Tricia moving in, fraternal obligations, but mostly class and project obligations… I’m been a busy fish. Working on a sonification project for Interactive Narrative/Fiction, our UI Design project, and just finished our Shakespeare Star Wars mashup, which I’d like to share here.
And opinions are more than welcome, either commented here or on the actual YouTube. :) I’m pleased with the outcome, especially Yoda’s bits and the Viceroy’s bits. :P
So I’m now sitting in UI Design and my weekend plans have been canceled. I’m okay with it – I understand why. I think I’ll end up sleeping when I get back to the apartment, but I’m unsure. I don’t know what else I can do – I’m actually more interested in doing nothing this weekend. :P
And suddenly it smells strongly of cut grass in here. Not the good kind of smell either, though I’ve never been a fan of the scent, but the sweaty gardener cut grass smell, and I’m getting a headache from this crap. I’ve actually been paying attention in this class now, but there’s only 10 minutes left. Maybe my next paragraph will be for the next class, but I feel like wrapping this up sooner than later.
I want, badly, some money. More and more often I find myself pining after something I can’t have, even though I would really like it. Even though I have the money for it, too, I can’t bring myself to buy it… like that Canon T1i. So… an alumnus emailed the fraternity with a job opening for a data entry specialist, and I emailed back my resume. 15 hours a week at $10 an hour? I hope they are okay with me. I’d love some spending money. I would buy that Canon T1i so fast. And… save for lenses. Like a Telephoto Zoom lense… or a tilt-shift lense. I had never seen or heard of tilt-shift before seeing this video last night. I am now fascinated with this, as this video is beautiful and perplexing at the same time.
This is Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom. Yes. The actual thing. The lense changes perspective so strongly you think you’re looking at a miniature model. I. Want. To. Do. This. x.x Also, the music is so soothing.
Not to mention a plethora of other little doodads I could use, like an external harddrive or a new router. I just ordered a new thumbdrive from Amazon that’s the same size and shape as a key, so it will fit with my keychain a lot easier. Y’know, stuff like that. >.>
It’s 9:15AM, and I have Eleanor Rigby stuck in my head, and it’s the only thing keeping me going.
I got 1 (one) hour of sleep last night. One as in singular, solitary, alone. It burns my eyes to keep them this wide. The fruits of my insomnia are a mere project. I wish more had come of it. I’ve spent my time unwisely. Scripting, cleaning, coding, so tired.
Nonsense I will write if nothing else comes to mind. I am tickled with this and intend to abuse it in the future. Who knows what for. I got the Beatles discography, and have been enjoying it. I really think I would have loved to live in that time era. I know I’m a bit of a technology whore, but I would have enjoyed it nonetheless.
I wish I had some extra cash for all the crap that keeps cropping up. Meh.
…I don’t know why I opened this window. I’d best stop this before I go off the deep end.
Tricia arrived safe and sound Saturday evening when her flight landed a few minutes earlier than scheduled. I picked her up from the airport as soon as she landed, and we went to Taco Mac for burgers and beers and slept soundly that night.
Giving a slight synopsis here, the weekend was pretty pleasant, what with visiting Augusta for my grandmother’s birthday, but there was a slight hiccup with my car that delayed our return Monday and cost quite a few bills to fix. =/ Such is life.
Last night was pretty… awful. After a relatively okay day, I got home to work on a paper that never seemed to end. Then I got the news that an old friend from TaeKwonDo, Conor Waters, a man who was a mere 7 years older than myself and whom I sparred with consistently back in the day, had… somehow passed away. It struck me pretty solidly – I had only spoken with him last about mid-summer when I ran into him at his job at the PeachMac Store in Augusta, and only Monday afternoon did I run across his business card in my wallet and I said “I should give that guy a call and see if we can play on Xbox Live”. I wish I had called, now. I’ll never get to do that. It’s a sobering, depressing thought. RIP, Conor, you’ll be sorely missed.
It could be that or because I am running off of 4 hours sleep (hardly enough), but I just feel strange and awful. I do not want anything to do with my next classes at all. I want to go home, sleep, play some Animal Crossing, and I don’t want to go to the Phi Kap meeting later tonight. Yuck.
Speaking of Animal Crossing, if anyone appreciates a very dark yet comedic satire based on Animal Crossing, you need to read The Terrible Secret of Animal Crossing. This is a dark, chilling tale. I. Love. It.
I don’t have much more to say right now. I feel pretty listless. Perhaps I’ll have more later. I’m looking forward to listening to some Beatles later and following the news of Apple’s “It’s Only Rock and Roll” Media Event today. Anyway, toodles.
And here’s the post where I just media whore myself out, because I have many videos and thoughts and happiness to share. ;D
Let’s see. I suggest if you want an idea of what the eff I’m enjoying, go subscribe to my favorites on YouTube.
First off – I wanted to share that Amazon is celebrating one million followers to their Amazon MP3 Twitter account by giving away $1.29 for use towards any MP3 in the Amazon MP3 store. I just downloaded Black Eyed Peas “Boom Boom Pow” for free because I couldn’t bring myself to spend money on it otherwise. XD Good song, though. To get it, just follow this link: http://snurl.com/firstmil, and there’s instructions on Amazon to redeem the value for the MP3.
Along the same lines, I am really, really enjoying the music video (and the song of course, too) for Lady GaGa’s “LoveGame”, which is just a catchy song. I don’t get it, man. Just… watch it here and tell me what you think. o.o Another great song, though completely different, is Owl City’s “Fireflies”, which you need to watch now. I would embed this one specifically but embedding is disabled for this video. Blah.
Now for funny crap. I enjoyed this video of the cast from Spongebob Squarepants dubbing over scenes from classic films:
Watching Half Life: Full Life Consequences NEVER gets old for me. This is the sequel, which is better than the first, hence why I’m embedding it, but you can find the first here to watch and make sense (as much as you can, at least) of this nonsense. :P
William Shatner “singing”. I wish I could go to Dragon*Con this weekend and meet him, but alas. Check it:
And, finally, “Inappropriate Soundtracks” is a fantastic series on YouTube, posted by the user “Boonehams“, and these videos are created under the premise of taking a scene from a film, an identifiable scene, and replacing the music with something that is ironic or amusing, yet wholly inappropriate. XD For instance, The Matrix: (also, here is a link to all of these on YouTube – don’t forget to check out the Banned Edition which has links outside of YouTube for ones that were removed from YouTube)
Okay, enough YouTubes for nows.
I’m looking entirely forward to some new video games coming out, but mostly for Brutal Legend and Grand Theft Auto 4’s latest expansion pack, The Ballad of Gay Tony. Mostly the GTA, but I cannot deny the fun of a hack n’ slash starring Jack Black. :P I’ve been playing so much of GTA’s last expansion, The Lost and Damned, to the point where I have 100% completion and a ton of weapons and vehicle to create carnage and mayhem. Worth it. :D
And then there are Blu-rays coming out! How I Met Your Mother Season 4 on blu-ray (a first for the series), Wizard of Oz (!!!), Snatch, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Transformers 2, Monsters Inc, UP, Star Trek, Fight Club…. I’m going to go so broke. :(
…I think that’s enough media whoring for now. Toodles!
So after toying with software, I've come up with some win. Chatroulette + "The Brave Little Toaster" = epic nostalgia reactions. Hell yes.03:54:31 AM March 11, 2010from web
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