Enough?

Time to see just how many people I can scrounge up for this.

This D&D thing is keeping me pretty excited. I went way too fast and already mapped out one and a half maps (one of which is a full scale city), and I'm now coming to the very sad realiziation that there is a high chance that no one would be able to show up for this.

As fun as it would be to put together a D&D thing online, and do it once a week casually, I'm super duper afraid that somehow or another, I'm not going to be able to grab enough people (3 people is "enough") to actually make it happen.

Here's hopping that I can find 3 people on my friends list that are willing to give D&D through an online program a shot.

The More I Think About It. . .

The more I want to DM.

Seriously, it's a way for me to wind down after a crazy week of school and work. It always has been, and it's a great way for me to get the nerdy out of the way so that it doesn't get put into my story or my school work.

With that in mind, here are a few tools that I'm looking at, while at work. I don't have enough time to go through all of them and make sure there are ones that I like and what is going on with them, so we're going to stick with putting them on here, and slowly going through them while at work so that I can figure out the rest of my campaign and what I want to do with it.

http://roll20.net/
http://www.rpgtableonline.com/welcome.php
http://www.rptools.net/

We'll see how well those work for online map tools, and we'll work from there. Hopefully one of them works smoothly but is able to get the job done of putting pictures on a grid with some bold lines around them so that we know where the walls are.

Munchies

It's official, I think I might be feeling better because I want to eat everything in sight. First on the list? I want to get a bag of Chex Mix and down the entire thing.

Then there's the idea of cookies from the bakery. That also sounds delicious.

Yup, I'm pretty sure I'm going to have a super healthy lunch today.

Busy

Today I realized that I haven't eaten anything worth mentioning that you would call a meal since Friday. I had a PB&J last night at midnight if that counts, but I realized other than that I have come to the very real realization that if I do not cook it, there will be zero chance that I will eat.

I should go eat something. . . .
or I could keep working on my thesis.

Thesis wins.

Try Not To Overreact

In my education class that's supposed to teach me all about being a teacher, I had some questions. I was feeling a bit behind schedule, and a bit behind the ball, and I was wondering if I needed to have all of the education vocabulary under my belt, and understand everything about things like "best practices" and what not. Some people in the class know it, the teacher uses it in her lessons but never explains it, and I was just wondering if it was something that I needed to know.

IDIOT from class responded with this-

Hi Adam,

    It’s easy to feel overwhelmed when first sticking your toes in unfamiliar water.  I suggest that you don’t begin by comparing yourself to others.  The difference between you and them may simply be the amount of practice put into understanding a particular topic.  In other words, if you allow yourself to become discouraged before you’ve even tried you may consider yourself to be a failure in something that you really have the potential for becoming a master in. 

I believe the purpose of this ‘rough draft’ is to allow those of us who are new to this subject to stick our toes in the water so we can better prepare ourselves to dive in. 

I just concluded my research and reaching a full understanding of the subject, and need to get some shut eye, but I saw your distress and wanted to help.

I personally believe that our brain delivers the most useful results after we have asked it specific and well-designed questions.  Below are the questions that I recommend you answer in detail before you begin writing your paper.  After you have sufficiently answered these questions read through your answers and extract the best of what you have written and try to make it as succinct as possible (in other words, summarize it).  Also, it is important to keep in mind that no matter how brilliant or creative your ideas are you need to support them with either logic, confirmable examples, and/or quoted research. 

After you have your answers- lay them out and compare them with each other.  See if you can order them, “scaffold them”, in a way in which they build off of one another.  Then simply write them down in paragraph form, with a topic sentence at the beginning of each paragraph. 

Now, the rest of the class will probably attack me on this, but, as you appear to me to be new to writing papers I recommend saving writing the intro-paragraph, thesis, and conclusion paragraph until last.  While you should have a ‘working thesis’ to begin with I recommend cutting out all of your topic sentences and looking at them closely prior to crafting your thesis.  What is it EXACTLY that all of these paragraphs are arguing?  Formulate this into a concise and articulate sentence….Put more simply, how could you summarize them all in one sentence.  This should be good enough for a thesis for a rough draft. 

Now, there is a great debate on correct opening paragraphs and conclusion paragraphs.  You are welcome to review what others have done and decide for yourself which tactics are best.  Also, I’m sure our generous professor will give us very useful advice.  Anyway, as I can only speak for myself, I think the key of the opening paragraph is to grab the reader’s attention.  This isn’t to say your first word needs to be a swear word.  But, you need to set yourself apart from the rest.  Be creative.  Think, would this grab MY (meaning Adam's) attention.  If not, try again.  Then simply write a few sentences that build up (or lead) to your thesis statement.

Again, controversy, blah blah, your conclusion paragraph shouldn’t say “in conclusion,” or “in this paper I have shown,” nor should it summarize.  It should take the reader to the next step.  They should walk away from your paper feeling as if they have a clear understanding of your supported argument. BUT. You need to leave them with something that keeps them thinking about what you have written after they have read your final paragraph.  Sometimes ending with a question is okay.  Your last sentence should be designed to leave the reader feeling inspired, curios to learn more, or some other sensation that stirs up desirable emotions as it relates to the topic at hand.

 

That’s just my two cents.  I could be very wrong in my advice, but I thought I should offer suggestions as to what I would do in your case. 

I hope I understood your questions…I am very tired and may have simply misunderstood you.

Again, this is only a rough draft.  So remain calm.  “Inch by Inch everything is a cinch,” just take it one step at a time.

Best of luck!   

  Invention and Research

What is my strategy for instruction as it relates to invention and research?

What are my goals for my strategy of instruction as it relates to invention and research?

How are students assessed and why this way?

How is this strategy ‘learner-centered’?

How are the students engaged through active learning?

How is this strategy supported by valid and citable research?

Have I summarized my cited resources?

I wouldn’t worry about educationally specific vocabulary at this stage.  It is more important for you to get your thoughts together and organized for the rough draft.  The three words you need to concentrate attention on are Strategy, Invention, and Research. 

Yeah, can you not?

I'm new to writing papers? I'm just going to let that slide, and try not to rip his head off and eat it for breakfast. 

I hate stupid students that think they're the teachers. 

To Be A Main Character

There are some days that even the darkest of main characters strike my fancy, and I see great things about being them. Today is Jack from Bioshock.

Now, my reasoning is off tilt, just a bit here, so hear me out. Storyline, telepathic and telekenetic abilities aside, I just want the phrase conditioning of Jack's. It seems like a horrible thing to want, to be brainwashed that way, but at least if I had that, then when people wanted to push me around, they'd at least have to be polite. Is that so hard? If you're going to give me directions and tell me what to do, at least be classy and say it like you would to Jack Wynand.*

*Results may vary.

The Joys of PS3

It's one of those things that at first you think is a good thing. You think that it's a good idea that whenever you start up your console, that you can see exactly who is on.

The down side to this is that you can see exactly who is on, and how much they don't want to play with you. Nothing quite like being snuffed for games and getting told that you're not cool enough to play with, long distance, by your friends who are rarely on, or who are always doing something like watching Netflix.

I keep an eye out for the list I have, I know when people are on, what they're doing, and just how much they're never going to play a game with me. It's not so much a friends list, as it is an anti-social gathering club worth of names. Just remember though, if you're on my list, chances are I know exactly what you're doing, but then again you've most likely noticed my addiction to Netflix as well, so I can't say much.

Campaign

I was bored at work today (two people got fired yesterday so it's really quiet at work today) so I was watching random streams on Twitch. One of them was a D&D campaign that was being streamed, and instantly I missed playing D&D.

It's SUPER nerdy. It's one of those things that get looked down on from 90% of everyone that ever hears about it, but it is honestly really, really fun. I can think back to absolutely zero D&D sessions where I walked away thinking it was stupid, lame, annoying, frustrating, or anything else like that. I honestly enjoy playing that game, and as much as I might complain ever so slightly about being the GM all the time, I don't care at all and think that it's actually really fun to create worlds and story lines.

The bad part about thinking about D&D is knowing that I'm stuck with ps3 games. I'm sorry to game developers out there, but nothing, and I do mean NOTHING can ever match up to the absolute freedom and insanity that is created from a good game of D&D.

The only down side? There's not a chance in the world that right now I'd be able to find a group of people to play with, even if it was online through skype and we were using some map program. Oh well, I guess I just have to work on what I actually need to work on and graduate.

Page 64

It's not out yet, but I'm already starting to get people writing emails about seeing what I wrote for BYU magazine on page 64.

It was less than a few hundred words, it's hardly anything great, it was my mom who told me about it and thought I should submit to it, it's for a school that in the best of times I'm apathetic towards, but deep down inside, in that little corner that I don't let out that much, I'm doing this-

Today

How I feel-

What I want to do-

What I will actually do-

What I want to do after that-

What will actually happen tonight-

*Insert some witty comment here about being sick, school, or something like that*

I-95 Southbound from Pleasant Grove to Spanish Fork

At roughly 73 miles per hour, while driving on the above mentioned road, while listening to -

creates a very funny, yet entirely amazing event.

What is that event?

The dashes in the road pass by your car at the EXACT speed of the beat of the song.

Give it a try, you'll have to play around with the mph a bit to make it match, but it's a little over 70, but not quite to 75.

Enjoy

Time to Turn This In

Whew, without even realizing it, I logged on to play the ps3 tonight, and I checked the last save date. I went five days sober from gaming! It was a scary thing, school, work, and life has kept me sober from gaming for five whole days. That's like a work week! That's how long a package takes from Amazon to get to my doorstep! Luckily I changed that and managed to squeeze in a bit Ni No Kuni before writing this up, so that streak doesn't have to keep on going.

I knew it had been a while, but five days!? I was even using the ps3 to watch Netflix and do other things, but apparently I never got around to playing a game because I was too busy "being an adult" whatever that's about.

The highlight though that I forgot to put on here, was that Alicia was talking about how I can (and should) spend more money on things like video games. Then I showed her the bookshelf. Her exact quote was, "Wow, that really IS a bookshelf." That's right, when I talk about my bookshelf worth of games, and how half of it are things that I have not touched in any way shape or form, it is in fact an entire bookshelf worth of video games.

Spin Class?

I got bored tonight, while "doing homework" and started to youtube things.

I'm going to be honest. I would never ever join a spin class at a gym or anything like that. However; if there was EVER a cardio class that looked ANYTHING remotely like this- I would sign up in a heartbeat.

Seriously, just try to listen to this song (starting around :55 or so) and try not to start jumping around like an idiot.

Sign me up for the class, and sit back and laugh as I would ever try to do something like this -

Little Known Fact

Apparently I'm missing a few Clubland Extreme Hardcores. Did you know there's 9 of them now? I only have two. TIME TO FIX THAT WHILE AT WORK!

Snarky Tendancies

I saw a glowsticking video today and gave a quick paragraph response. Compared to some of the huge responses that I've put together before, it wasn't much. An other person responded to it and said something along the lines of, "Wow, writing him a book are you?"

I restrained myself, but I can rant about it here.

No, it's not a book.
I write books. One paragraph does not a book make.
As a person who is currently writing a book, trust me when I say, that if I was going to write you a book it would be at least a few hundred pages longer than the paragraph that I just wrote in full and complete sentences. Using proper English on the internet seems to make me be a rarity. And the worst part is, it's not even truly proper English because I write sentences like that, that start with 'and'.

Next one-
A person on facebook wrote-

Cribs are cages. Let's be honest. We just don't put a top on it to make ourselves feel better.

Let's note that first, he's not married. He doesn't have kids. He has about zero say about what happens with children so I restrained myself as I plan in five years to laugh at him while he tries to raise an infant without making them sleep in a cage/crib.

My first reaction was to respond with - I would like to hear your thoughts about cubicles.

Second reaction- Dang straight! My daughter is charged with being fussy every night at 7:00 which then leads to a quick hearing from a jury of her peers, where she is then sentenced to 6-8 hours in the cage with no possibility for time off for good behavior.

Final reaction- delete, delete, delete, don't make fun of people that you hardly know and never talk to, go rant about it someplace else.

They know!

It is obvious that my schedule is known by whoever it is that's reading this, because on my days at work, I get a rediculous amount of views, and the days that I'm not at work 0.

I'm thinking that you people are starting to know that I work Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. It's okay, it's just funny for me to look at my stats and to know that on work days there's going to be lots of views (I made it so that my own views don't count for the count) and then the days that I'm with my daughter, no one will be here.

But the good news is this- tomorrow, not only am I going to go to work, which means that you'll all be here to read my ramblings, but I'm going to get me a car!

Not the actual car, but the same make, model, year, and color.

The best part, it's cheaper than it should be, and it's from a mechanic that we trust who has replaced a bunch of the parts in the engine to make sure that it works. Yay for not having to walk in the cold all the time, and plan 30 minutes just to make it to work! Not only that, but I'll be able to put the seat back so it fits my legs, the mirrors in places where I can see, and the radio to my stations! Finally I won't feel like I'm driving in a car like this-

Google Maps

I stumbled my way onto google maps, and I ran into a weird situation.

I served in some areas of my mission only during the winter, and not to mention I only walked and never drove a car in most of them as well. I went back to some of my old areas, and I couldn't navigate the cities any more from memory.

It's a good thing because it's meaning I'm starting to forget, but at the same time it's a little weird thinking that I can't navigate around a city that ate me alive.

Slightly Insulted

The teacher for my thesis course has finally opened up the pace that he wants us to write at. It's week two, and he's expecting (at most) 3,000 words. It's sad, because I'm already at four times that in my draft. I don't know if I should be insulted at how little that is, or happy that my plan is working out, and that I'm not going to have to worry about stressing out with that class, either way, that class is starting to look up even though I'm a little hurt by such a small word count.

The other classes though. . . those are going to be headaches.

I'm going to have to do a lot of reading, on top of what I'm writing, and I don't know where I'm going to get the time to do it all. Saturdays are going to be spent with my nose in books, and I can garuntee that there's going to be at least one night a week that I'm going to have to go to the library and hang out there as long as I can to keep up with those classes.

The teaching class, although about teaching writing, is something that I've never ever studied, so there's so many vocabulary words that I don't even know, so I feel like I'm starting in a 100 level course, but then I see that it's a 600 level course and realize that it's about to speed up to a level that I'm not ready for. I can use Alicia for all of the information, but really, have I learned anything if I do that? I just hope that Alicia is okay with me going missing some nights to hide in the library.

Made it Work

My work has a strict no youtube policy, to the point that it (and a few other sites) are blocked. This makes for a boring work day, but at the same time makes sense because if youtube was allowed in all of it's glory, we all know that people would abuse it, and just destroy the bandwidth and no work would be able to get done.

However, I found an odd glitch. The videos that I put up yesterday I seem to be able to access, which means that as long as I can put videos up here, I can then turn around and watch them. I don't know what I'm going to do with this information, but for now, I'm just going to do this-

Cardio

I don't need a gym, I need to go to a rave. Get all of my cardio in, and actually love it-

I just wish I had an MP3 player. Seriously, I could go running and work out for hours with some hard style songs. Just because I was listening to his songs, this one. Yes, not only to the message, but to the beat and how much I just want to start jumping and running when listening to it.

Now I just need to find me a gym, get a membership, and an mp3 player. PS- I'm 99% sure that after that song I would run to this song for the next 3 minutes (or however long it is).  

Story Mode

With limited time to play games now days, I do a lot of research at work on GameFAQs and other sites about the games so that I know what I need to do when I get home and start playing because wasting time just is not an option.

Disgaea and other games have ruined me. I'm so used to grinding things out, trying to work things out so I can progress and do well the rest of the game, ni No Kuni is a weird thing to me because apparently I just need to play the story line. As much as I want to grind through the game there's no need for it, and I just need to make it to the end of the game, and then do post-game grinding that will be faster than doing any grinding in normal story.

I always just assume that with role playing games that you're going to want to grind. If you can get exp from it, you should get as much exp as possible from it, but then I read guides like the ones that I've been reading today, and I realize that it's better to just finish the game, and then do the nasty things in order. Who would have thought to play a game in order and trying not to brerak it as soon as possible would ever be a good idea?

Cheating

Whatever happened to it?

Remember back in the day when you were playing your favorite video game, and you could do a special input and get something totally awesome? Anyone remember playing the Sims and typing in !,!,!,!,!,!,!,!,!,!,!,!,!,!,!,!,!,!,!,!,!,!,!,!,!,!,!,!,!,!,!,!,!,!,!,!,!,!,! after doing a rosebud cheat?

There used to be games where you could input things and help yourself cheat your way through the game. What ever happened to those. Zero, exactly zero, of the games on my shelf have this. I know that it could be for honrst reasons or whatever the rationality might be about not putting cheats into a game, but at the same time, come on! Some of us want to use the cheats and stomp on everything that moves. That's part of the fun of the cheats, they let you do things that you'd normally do, just faster or better.

Correction, one of my games has this. I lied. But it's a game that I hardly played and wanted to get out of my life so GTA doesn't count. The idea is still there though, why aren't there cheats any more in games?

HoN

I used to casually play HoN. I watch it at work, and know enough about the game that I can tell what to do, but my technical skill just isn't there. Last night, in a fit of confusion, I decided to pick it back up after not playing a single match in quite some time.

I quickly remembered why I stopped playing.

First there is the fact that I enjoy playing support. My job isn't to kill, my job is to make sure that the people who can kill get the best game possible so that they can do some serious work. My goal isn't to have the highest kill ratio, my goal is to put down a lot of wards, make sure that my carry gets 500+ gpm, and the world starts to burn when they attack. The problem with this? Because I'm not the main damage dealer, my ability to take over a game and start putting out the hurt is really really low, which means that I have to trust random strangers that say they can get the job done. The most of the time, they don't. For those games that I get a person that knows what they're doing, I enjoy the game, and we have fun. Even if we loose, it's fun to have a player know what to do. For the rest of the time, I'm stuck with people that don't know what they're doing and they just yell at everyone else for loosing the game instead of looking at themselves and realizing what they were doing wrong.

Needless to say, I most likely won't be playing again any time soon. Getting yelled at and told about how much I should go and kill myself isn't my idea of fun. I don't know why I ever thought it was a good idea.

Preach!

As a part time stay at home dad, I laugh at people that have eight hour work days. My day starts when I wake up, and it doesn't stop until I sleep. I'm always doing something. I'm either taking care of my daughter, cooking dinner, cleaning clothes, cleaning the house, doing homework, or making sure that my wife is doing good, that there are some days when my job is from the moment I'm up to the moment I'm down, and then even stretches into when I'm down because it's 'my turn' to be with the baby.

I'm not complaining, but what I am doing is saying, stay at home moms, suck it up. I can do it. I know what you're going through, and it's a job. You knew what you were getting yourself into. You have a partner that can help. And if he's not willing to help, yell at him. Tears work wonders on us. Two tears and at least some sobbing and you can get us to do whatever you want. If we don't do it, then get rid of that idiot, and find a guy who cares enough that he will do what you want after two tears and some sobs.

As for other stay at home dads out there- keep rocking!

Kick butt, have happy kids, enjoy being with them, and take them out in public and rub it in the faces of sad, depressed, stay at home moms who have nothing in their lives that you're playing with your kids and you love it. Nothing quite makes my day quite like going to the post office and seeing a tired, stressed out, frazzled mom with a kid close to the same age as my daughter, and the two of us are giggling and laughing. You want a death stare? Play a game of peek-a-boo with your kid (or any other fun game depending on their age) in a line of cranky house wives who gave up all of their hopes and dreams to stay at home and have kids.

When in doubt just remember this- kids are bullet proof. As long as you feed them and nap them, they're pretty indestructible. Enjoy being with them, because there's some idiot out there that's working 12 hour shifts, breaking his back, and gets to see nothing more than his kids asleep when he leaves the house in the morning, and go to sleep once he gets home.

Seriously can't wait until it gets warmer so I can start making park mom's angry with playing with my daughter. Death stares from the gossip bench, can hardly wait.

Thesis

I've been cautiously, working my way through my story. I've been trying to make sure that I don't just go full steam and forget about what I'm writing, who I'm writing as, or anything that I did during the prewriting process.

I've been writing it in google docs, and that means that I don't have page numbers. I keep typing, and thinking that I'm going no where because it feels like I constantly have half a page filled and can't get the next page.

I just checked the page number, and I'm up to page 33! Not too shabby! If I keep up this pace (which I won't because school is going to start kicking in and murdering me) I might actually reach my goal.

Enough is Enough

I know that Christmas time with me is hard. I'm not an easy person to shop for. The good part about this is that I'm pretty forgiving on what gifts I get. Knife set? Sure, I'll take that, I'll use it all the time and chop up some stuff in the kitchen. Pajamas? I love those. Socks? Yeah, I'll rock those, I can use that.

But when I give you a clear heads up, MONTHS (yes, that's right, more than one month) ahead of time about what I want, and then you get me an accessory for something that I don't even own, I just don't know.

I'm trying to keep this as innocent and as non-angry as possible, but it just hit me today. My 'big' gift for Christmas was an accessory for something that I don't even own. I do not own an ipad, a stand that has fancy arcade buttons and joystick for an ipad seems a little . . . off.

I like the idea. Mentally I understand where they were coming from. I like video games. This gift was supposed to let me be able to play video games, so it was win/win. But the reality of it is that I'm never going to use it. It's a little bulky, awkward to use on my lap, and not to mention I don't even know the password for the apps store to download any of the programs to use with it. Let's also talk about the games, I don't like arcade games. I'm always down for a quick game of DDR or something like that, but to think that I'm just itching to play some ripped off 8 bit old school arcade game, is a bit off. I just don't like old arcade games.

The person gave it to me with the best of intentions and I really like where they were coming from, and it's super thoughtful, but the sad reality of it is that it's a gift for something that I don't own, which allows me to do something that I'm not a huge fan of. The best way I can explain it for those that don't understand is that it's like getting a person who loves romance novels, a dragon breathing fire as a book lamp. It's dealing with books, and you know that the person you are buying it for loves books, and it'll help them read more books, it's just a little off. The intentions behind it are pure and you absolutely love the person who gets it for you because you know that they are trying, but at the same time you just sort of shake your head and smile because you know that you're never going to use it.

For future reference-
-I don't enjoy casual games. I play them only when there's nothing else going on, and can steal someone else's phone because my phone can do just about nothing on it.

-For the most part, I don't like old games. Unless I played it while growing up and want to go back and revisit it, I do not have the desire to deal with old games.

-I like getting a story from my game. Role playing games are the typical response to this, and if a game has a good story, I will sit through anything. I can forgive bad graphics, bad gameplay, and even play a first person shooter, as long as there's a good story to go along with it. This is why I don't like playing fighters, straight platformers, first person shooters, and most action games. However, I'll willingly break into any of those genre's if there's a good story attached. If the game doesn't tell a story, chances are I'm not touching it.

-I have a bookshelf of games that I want to work through, adding to that list is a dangerous if you do not talk to me first. You go crazy and grab something that I'm not even interested in, that means that your game goes to the end of the list, after the first playthrough games, and sometimes even after the revisit list. Chances are if you just randomly pick a game to throw onto my bookshelf, it's not going to end well for that game. If you go with the clearance rack, random game just because it was cheep, there's almost a guarantee  that it will drop so low on the list that you'll be lucky in two years if I had played it.

-I don't need, or want, most peripherals.

-If it has the number three, or higher on it, and I do not have one and two, don't get it. I'm not about to start a series midway. If I do have one and two, and three has been out for quite some time, ask me what I think about three before getting three. I either like the series but haven't hunted down three yet, or I heard such bad things about three, I'm not going to worry about it unless it's a gift, or so cheap that it turns into a 'meh, might as well' sort of purchase.

My Shelf

My shelf is going to be collecting some serious dust over the next 24 weeks.

^Not my actual shelf, just a picture I googled.

Last night I stayed awake because I needed to get stuff ready for school. Order books, start conversations online, you know, the basic first day/first week of school stuff. I was up until 2:30 almost 3:00 working on my story, writing introductions in class, and doing school work. I had exactly zero minutes to work on Ni No Kuni.

Games are easily beatable when you can put in 10-20 hours a week. It takes an 80 hour game (impressively long games hit around this mark, I'm pretty sure even my 100% Skyrim wasn't a full 80) and breaks it down to a few months. You get a spare night here and there to do a 6 hour marathon or something like that, and it just starts clearing weeks off of that time.

What does this mean? It means that Ni No Kuni is going to be in the ps3 for a long time and the following games are just going to have to wait-
Resistance 2
Resistance 3
Ratchet and Clank
Ratchet and Clank 2
Ratchet and Clank 3
Bioshock 2
Batman Arkham Asylum
Batman Arkham City
Tales of Zillia
Dragon age Origins
Dragon Age II
Mass Effect
Mass Effect 2
Mass Effect 3
Disgaea D2
Final Fantasy X
Final Fantasy X-2
Tales of Symphonia
Tales of Symphonia 2

Needless to say, I'm going to put off buying FFXIII-3 until it's been out for a while and is much, MUCH cheaper.

Stupid being an adult and trying to do something with my life. Lame.

No Pressure

I just had this as an introduction to a classmate of mine in my teaching class-

" I work for the Federal government for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. I work in communications, and I spend most of time editing and writing for websites. I’m one of the lead writers on both Medicare.gov and HealthCare.gov"

Yeah, no pressure trying to deal with a person who writes for THOSE websites. It only got worse from there. There are some times that I wonder what in the world I'm doing in these classes trying to act like an adult, and this is one of those times. 

Oh my, in my thesis class this is a direct copy and paste from the 'icebreaker' assignment. Typically written super informally, and not graded in any way shape or form.

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George Michael-Philip Zegalia

Professor Joe Fassler

ENG 549 – X2826

December 31, 2013

                                                                 ICEBREAKER

     My name as stated above is George Michael-Philip Zegalia.   I’m primarily working on a historical novel that was titled: Legend of Karen-Bluejeans,  or:  Legends of Karen- Bluejeans; but with this class I’ll probably simply call it: Karen Bluejeans.  The sub-title or part of the complete title will be: Maker of _____.  Maker of what?  I don’t know yet.  The story tells how the fourteen-years old Native American girl was very important to British General Wolfe’s victory over the French forces in Canada and the capture of Quebec City, which resulted in the dominance of the English language in the New World.  I’d welcome suggestions; so far the best that I’ve come up with is:  Maker of Nations.

     My chief KB influences have been American Heritage history books, Harvard’s Francis Parkman’s book about the French & Indian War, and the painting from Painter to King George III of England, Benjamin West’s:  Death of Wolfe (1770).  Influential too were other books on the subject and the Bi-Centennial celebrations of 1976 (the year I graduated with a Bachelor Degree from the University of California, Irvine).  [I was an English major.]  Oh, and also of considerable sustaining influence is the memory of a girl not greatly unlike Karen Bluejeans,  with whom,  I had experienced inchoate feelings of love.

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       Among general literary influences I’ll name three:  Hermann Hesse (1877-1962)’ German Swiss author of several mystical novels’, such as Siddhartha (1922);  Ernest Hemmingway (1899-1961) and the writings of his sojourn in Paris, France, (where I have dwelt in rapturous bliss); and, either the Welsh  poet, Dylan Thomas (1914-53):

“In my craft or sullen art. .,”

or the Montreal Jew, Leonard Cohen (1934-20- -): Suzanne, Famous Blue Raincoat, Joan of Arc.

     The last book that I’ve read is the Harvard Lampoon parody, The Wobbit.  At present though I’m reading the second book of the Bounty Trilogy,  Men Against the Sea, by Charles Nordhoff & James Norman Hall; and I’ve read the Introduction to start The Oresteia by Aeschylus.

     Some of my personal goals for this class are to further my novel, and to get a toe-hole in the publishing edifice – at best, an agent or highly interested individual publisher.  I’d really appreciate a large advance that I could write and take care of an old polo pony whom I hold with deep affection.   Therefore, in the next eleven weeks, I hope to establish a rapport with professional people based upon my writings of Karen Bluejeans (Maker of _____).  And anything and everything in that direction is also desirable, and it will be gratefully accepted as a blessing.  -- GMZ

Let me be perfectly clear for anyone who doesn't understand what that says to everyone else in the class- "HELLO! I'm an overachiever that thinks they know everything, but doesn't even know basic MLA format! Don't help me out with anything, just give me the A+ and I'll be good to go!"

Seriously? Who uses the phrase "publishing edifice"?

School

Phew!

My scariest class- literary theory - I managed to pull out a B!

I don't know how I did it, I don't know what magic I managed to pull with that, but I managed to walk away once all of the dust settled with a solid B. I can't even start to complain, I would have been happy with a C, I'm just happy that I'm getting a B.

The best part about this? That means that my GPA as a masters student, is now 3.233. That's just about the best GPA I've ever had. I'm not even sure if my high school GPA was that high (unweighted, I'm thinking with weighing the grades, I did better than that, but a 3.23 is not too shabby).

The funny part about my final paper was that the first half of it, I just slaughtered with text citations. I'm talking reading through the book with a pen and underlining anything that could potentially be used in my paper, and then using it. I put so many citations in it that I thought that I'd be called out on putting too many in, turns out, that was the part that he liked the best. WIN!

Do Something!

Today at work there has been the pet peeve that just keeps going off, and it's a big one that people keep doing. If you ever want to send me into a fit, complain about something, and then do NOTHING about it.

I understand that there are some things that you can't control. The weather for one, you can't do anything about. There is the go to response that there is no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothes, but we're going to let some bigger things slide. However, for things that you can control, shut up and control it if oyu think it's that bad.

If you're sick, take medicine!
If you're wanting to go to school, go to school!
If you want to quit, QUIT!
If you want to work out more, shut up and start working out more!

I don't understand people sitting around, unhappy with their lives, and then doing nothing about it. Or saying that they really want something, and then doing nothing to achieve that goal.

I get the irony here is that I'm complaining about people who complain, but changing other people, or telling them to change is one of those things that I'm putting into things that I actively can not control. I wish I could just tell people to shut up and start doing things instead of complaining about them, but sadly I am not the ruler of the universe yet, so it's not going to happen . . . yet.

AGQD 2014

It's happening!

If you've never seen an AGDQ, or even know what it is, I strongly suggest you start watching and just enjoy the next few hours that disapear from your life.

http://www.twitch.tv/speeddemosarchivesda

It's a bunch of good ol' fashion nerds, doing something they like, and doing it for a ridiculous amount of money getting donated to a good cause.

Skeptical

At first go around Ni No Kuni was a little weird for me. It seemed a little too Freudian, and then there was a hint of it being too much for kids, didn't quite have the *umph* that you'd expect. But the more I play it, the more it grows on me and makes me want to keep on playing.

I can't quite put my finger on it, why I like it so much, but I just keep wanting to go back. It reminds me of a few of those early games that I've played. Those that I could just play, enjoying the story, grind a bit with minimal goals hanging around, difficult, but not too difficult. After 10 hours of gameplay, I'm starting to be convinced why people are starting to talk about it being game of the year.

The downer is that school is going to start back up, I need to start writing a bunch, and then my time being able to play is going to go down. Boo for not being able to dump hundreds of unadulterated hours into a game with no limitations.

FINALLY!

I've had a song stuck in my head for at least two or three weeks. The worst part, I only had the chorus stuck in my head, and the chorus isn't that recognizable. Good news, after scouring through the internets and listening to lots of 90's music. I found it.

Online Stupidity

Yet again, Facebook doesn't let me down and gives me this-

I didn't want to be THAT guy on Facebook, but here I can be.

You do realize that this post that's against bullying, IS BULLYING?

Can we all look at this, one step back, and realize that this post, or at least the last sentence of this creation, is bullying. It's saying that if you don't repost this, that you're supporting bullying, and then mocking 99% of the world who doesn't take that step. How do people not see this? That if you're going to start in about bullying, that you maybe shouldn't use the exact thing that you're fighting against as your motivation. It's like trying to stop fire with fire.