| Shocking... just shocking... |
[Dec. 9th, 2008|06:27 pm] |
| [ | Injury |
| | ELECTROCUTION | ] |
| [ | Mood |
| |  shocked | ] |
| [ | Music |
| | Electric Bugaloo | ] |
I was helping my dad pull a cord out of the attic... I was standing outside, pulling the cord from a hole above me. The end of it, wider than the rest, got caught, so I gave it a little tug... it came free and whipped out at me. It barely missed my eye, grazing my cheek... it didn't do much damage, but as you know by now, it did give me a bit of a shock. My vision went a whitish blue, my jaw locked up, my skin tingled, and I had a strange taste in my mouth. I want to say that it was metallic, but that wasn't quite it.
I'm going to go lie down now... |
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| Contestactular! |
[Oct. 28th, 2008|04:12 pm] |
It's been well documented that I like contests. Naturally, I've entered a few since then.
The first was a contest on Kotaku, the prize for which was the XBox 360 game Tales of Vesperia. I don't have a 360, but not wanting the prize has never stopped me before, and I could always sell it or give it away. To win, entrants had to make the box art for an imaginary Tales game. Everyone had viking fever after I won the last contest, so I figured that may as well be where I started.
( Five stories of contest failure and success ) |
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| Chesu fails at gardening, part 247 |
[Oct. 9th, 2008|11:04 pm] |
Sometime before I woke up yesterday, my ears were no longer messed up, which is awesome. Then, bad things happened. Dad bought a bunch of mulch so we could re-mulch our flower beds and such, so I spent a few hours doing that. The bad part came when we tried to move the trailer of mulch to the other side of the house... Dad thought we would be able to push it uphill and onto the street if we had enough momentum and kept the leading end high... yeah, that didn't really work. While pushing it as fast as we could, the leading end dug into the ground, the trailer stopped... and I kept moving. My right hand, abdomen, and right thigh are covered in bruises.. -_-
We decided to go across the lawn to where the hill isn't as steep, and to the other side of the house from there... As we were pulling the trailer from the road to the north garden, I stepped on a cactus! It was the kind that have tiny, hair-like spines... so, that was fun. I really should have worn shoes. After removing the spines from my foot, I went out to re-mulch the bogenvias... which happen to have half-inch-long thorns. I didn't get stuck during that part, but a bit later we were setting the huge mess of rose vines Dad had cut down earlier (seen here) in the trailer, and.. Well, it was half-wrapped in a small tarp, and there was only a small flap of tarp I could hold onto on my end... My right arm got caught on the bogenvia, I lost my grip on the tarp, and my left hand was pinned between the interior of the trailer and the rose vines. I just never get a break when it comes to yard work... but on the bright side, there weren't any ants!
I've been having some really, REALLY unusual dreams lately... which is weird, because I don't normally remember dreams. My cousin Cody was in the one I had last night, as well as one I had last week. I remember both dreams surprisingly vividly, but I'd rather not have to explain all of the things necessary for it to make sense to someone else.
The summer stormy season is finally over... and now we're into the autumn stormy season! We lost power a few times today, and there was a ton of lightning. Lightning even struck a beacon tower thing within sight of our house! It stopped before driving class, and my drive was... pretty great. A major improvement. Not really a lot to say about that.. I think I only have two more classes, next Tuesday and the Tuesday after that. Then, I need to schedule a driving test... yikes. |
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| GWAUGH!! |
[Oct. 3rd, 2008|09:49 pm] |
My ears... they hurt so bad... x_x
I don't know what's wrong with them... They both hurt and feel a little swollen on the inside, and the right one feels like there's some sort of obstruction in it. There isn't, though.. there's nothing unusual in there. My neck, jaw, and the areas all around my ears are aching. It feels kind of like there's a wet sponge in my ear as well.. it's driving me crazy!
Speaking of driving, I had my second drive yesterday.. it was a lot easier and more relaxed than the first one, and I handled turns much better.
Now if you'll excuse me, "I Was Bitten: Intense bites and their gory aftermath; the devastating effects of venom on the human body" is on. |
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| Driving |
[Oct. 1st, 2008|01:47 pm] |
| [ | Mood |
| |  hungry | ] |
| [ | Music |
| | Monk on tv | ] |
I had my first (of six, I believe) driving classes on Monday. It was somehow different than I was expecting. Well, it wasn't really the class... we went to a residential area to practice turning and such, then around to more busy places, with more traffic and higher speed limits. No, I suppose what was different than what I was expecting was that... I could drive.. and fairly easily!
I wasn't particularly good at it, though... I seem to have trouble making right turns. The instructor kept saying that if there were a curb I would be hitting it, despite my turning exactly when he said to. I also had trouble backing up, but we only tried it twice, and I didn't really do anything wrong.
Most of my problems during the two hour drive were caused by the car. It's small, I'm tall... I was only able to see traffic lights by leaning forward. It won't be a problem from now on, though, as it turns out the base of the seat tilts in a way that I'll be able to recline enough to see everything I need to. Another problem was the rear view mirror... it's about twice the size of the standard issue, I guess to give drivers in training a wider view.. for some reason. Anyway, this thing was huge, and created a blind to the front-right of the car for me. I guess the instructor isn't used to students who have to look down to see the rear view mirror. Yet another problem was perspective... The instructor told me that when stopping behind another car, I must be able to see the other car's tires, and some pavement. He didn't specify how MUCH pavement, but I assumed an amount of pavement equal to how tall the tires look should be fine. I think that left five or six feet between us. The problem is, the instructor is a lot shorter than I am, so he kept freaking out. While I saw plenty of pavement, he probably didn't see any.
The instructor is an old guy named Len, probably in his sixties. He and his wife had been doing... something, before our appointment, so she was with us the entire time, just sitting in the back seat, hands folded in her lap, huge sunglasses covering any parts of her face she could be identified by. She didn't say anything or move for the entire two hour lesson.. I'm afraid some sort of Weekend at Bernie's thing may have been going on there. I wonder if she'll be there every time...
It also turns out that my original driving instructor in Idaho, Mr. Hillier, was an idiot. I mean, he was well-known (to the students) for napping during drives, but it seems that he was also just wrong. His policy for changing lanes was "mirror signal blind spot go".. Len says to signal first, because you don't know how long the rest of the procedure could take, and you want to make everyone else aware of what you're doing. Makes sense to me! Mr. Hillier also said to never cross your wrists while turning ("when you cross your wrists, you cross the line!"), but Len says that you have more control over the car when you do that.
I have another class tomorrow, so I'll update with how that went. Again, it should go better, as the seat can be adjusted (which wasn't brought to my attention until the lesson was over...)
In other news, I perfected my carrot soup recipe!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erD8600zwTI
It's so good... @_@ |
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| Stuff what happened |
[Sep. 25th, 2008|07:23 pm] |
So, last week was my sister Shae's best friend's birthday. As always, she wanted to make a cake, so did. Unfortunately, Shae happens to be terrible at cooking. I don't know what it is, she's just cartoonishly bad. This time, she somehow missed the part of the directions that said that one box of cake mix was enough for two pans, so filled each pan with one box's worth of cake batter. Yes, she messed up BOXED cake. The result?
She ended up paying me to make the cakes for her (whenever she doesn't want to do something, she pays me to do it for her), and with the money I bought NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams, the Wii sequel to NiGHTS Into Dreams, one of my favorite Dreamcast games. There are some new level types, but in general it's the same awesome gameplay.
After I uploaded the above video, I saw another "chocolate cake failure" type of thing in the related videos... Some kid from the UK making cake in a coffee cup, in the microwave, substituting ingredients, to humorous effect. He used a soup spoon instead of a proper measuring tablespoon (precise measurement is, of course, vital in baking), used brown sugar instead of sugar, used Ovaltine instead of cocoa powder, and used an uncertain amount of olive oil salad spray instead of vegetable oil. Also, yeah, he mixed it all together in a coffee cup and microwaved it. I decided to see how the recipe would have gone with proper baking procedures.
It was... okay. Not something I'd make again. Next time, I'll find a real cake recipe. Anyway, the next day was Heather's birthday (Shae's friend, remember?), so we all went down to Tampa to The Florida Aquarium. The section with the big sharks and such was closed off, but it was still cool... though, pretty much unchanged from our last visit three years ago.
While we were there, a "robotic" (remote-controller) garbage can promoting recycling showed up. Yeah, it was kind of weird.
So, that's pretty much all that's happened lately. I took on a new roll with ChaCha.. instead of answering questions, I now take them, make sure they fit a certain format, put them in the appropriate categories, and send them off to be answered. It's faster, easier, and more enjoyable.
Oh, and a new game store opened about two miles away, right next to our usual Chinese takeout place. I've befriended one of the co-owners of the place... apparently, whenever they start doing well enough to hire employees, I have a job. Huh.
Oh, and one last thing... I start driving school on Monday. o_o |
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| Stuff |
[Sep. 22nd, 2008|03:39 am] |
Yeah.. see, this is why I don't blog. I rarely feel like things are worth posting about. Even when they are... eh. Since I last posted, my grandfather died, my uncle got out of prison and came to live with us... a bunch of stuff. I got hurt a lot, of course... spilled boiling water on one hand, tried to pick up a large piece of iron I didn't realize was incredibly hot with the other, hit my head so hard that I had a headache for about twenty hours... but again, posting regularly just isn't my thing. Maybe I'll try posting things over the next few days. |
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| Sites I frequent |
[Jul. 29th, 2008|10:35 pm] |
Here are a few sites I frequent. Some are online games, some are interesting reading material, some are just internet time-wasters.
http://www2.kingdomofloathing.com/main.html
The Kingdom of Loathing is an browser-based online game that focuses heavily on humor and obscure (and not-so-obscure) references.
http://www.evilmadscientist.com/
Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories is... well, exactly what it sounds like.
http://frostfirezoo.com/
Funny/interesting pictures.
http://club.live.com/
Play word games, get tickets, get prizes! Whoo!
http://kotaku.com/
Kotaku is a gaming blog... mostly game industry news and such.
http://i-mockery.com/
I-Mockery is... well, it's hard to explain. The short version is, the writers just don't want to grow up.
http://www.damninteresting.com/
Quite possibly the most interesting site, EVER.
...Looking over my bookmarks, most of the rest of the sites I visit on a regular basis are too specialized to be of interest to... anybody. So, instead.. more quizzes!!
28Created by OnePlusYou - Free Online Dating
Good to know if I happen to be at an elementary school when the zombie apocalypse comes...
Now, this is an interesting one. I answered with the equivalent of "yes/a little" A LOT.. like.. A LOT. At least eight times... so how did I do in The Dirty Mind Test?
Your result for The Dirty Mind Test...
The Pure of Mind
You scored 18% Dirtiness!
Compared to other takers
You scored 18% on Dirtiness, higher than 1% of your peers.
Judging by your score, your mind is not very dirty. You spend little, if any, time thinking about sexual things, and you don't make associations between sex and things that have nothing to do with sex. You probably get very easily offended at sexual innuendo. You'd make a lovely treat for someone who likes to corrupt the innocent. If you like your purity, stay away from movies rated higher than PG and don't associate with people who make jokes you don't understand.
..Wait... whaaat? I could have sworn that I scored higher (dirtier?) than that... Maybe the type of question, or particular questions, have more impact on the score than I thought? Maybe there were more questions than I realized? Huh... moving on, it's the Why Are You Single Test! Couldn't they have called it The "Why Are You Single?" Test, or The Why You Are Single Test? Oh well...
Your result for The Why Are You Single Test...
Male Best Friend
You scored 41 despair, 25 relationship potential, 75 feelings, and 100 patience
You're always there, you're nice, you're the shoulder to cry on, you get along just fine, why won't she/he date you? you're the "male best friend"
DragonflyBlade21: A woman has a close male friend. This means that he is probably interested in her, which is why he hangs around so much. She sees him strictly as a friend. This always starts out with, you're a great guy, but I don't like you in that way. This is roughly the equivalent for the guy of going to a job interview and the company saying, You have a great resume, you have all the qualifications we are looking for, but we're not going to hire you. We will, however, use your resume as the basis for comparison for all other applicants. But, we're going to hire somebody who is far less qualified and is probably an alcoholic. And if he doesn't work out, we'll hire somebody else, but still not you. In fact, we will never hire you. But we will call you from time to time to complain about the person that we hired.
Well... That.. I guess that sounds like me? I recognize the bulk of that text, though... maybe from bash.org... Ooohh! The What SHOULD you look like Test! ...Will not be seen today, because I couldn't connect for an hour, and now the site won't load... boo. It's just as well, I suppose. I have kind of an unhealthy addiction to those things...
On the life side, not much has been happening lately. Papaw is in the hospital again.. this time he thinks he's close to dying, so has signed a DNR and refused mechanical life support other than oxygen. :/
You may be wondering about today's injury... I'm constantly at war with the ants. Even after putting down a new floor, they're still able to find their way into my room. They must constantly have scouts patrolling, because if I leave a food item sitting for more than a few minutes, it will attract ants. Last night was one such case... but I didn't notice until it was too late.
I was eating Chinese food, and took slightly too long between bites of my egg roll... so yeah, I got a mouth full of ant stings. It's not like the egg roll was completely covered in ants.. there were five or six. However, when you're being eaten, you'll sting whatever you can reach, as many times as you can. I didn't notice them on there because the sun had set, and I hadn't yet turned on my ceiling lights. So, that was a little adventure, I guess. I'm going to be doing yard work tomorrow, so I'll probably have an interesting new injury the next time you see me.
Ugh.. connection is failing again. Guess I'll post this in the morning... |
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| The Dark Knight |
[Jul. 26th, 2008|12:51 am] |
Shae and I went to see The Dark Knight today. Anyone who knows me well enough can tell you that I'm a bit of a Batman fanboy... When Batman Begins was announced, I was interested. When the Tumbler (Batmobile Zero) was shown, I lost interest. When I heard Ra's al Ghul was in it, I was incredibly excited, blind with fanboy joy. When I actually saw it... well, it was one of those "why does nothing good come out of Hollywood anymore?" moments. Really, I wasn't impressed at all.
The Dark Knight? I had big expectations. I usually go into things with the lowest expectations I can muster, but I just couldn't help it. So, did it live up to expectations? ABSOLUTELY!!
Seriously, it was an incredible movie! It features the most human depiction of The Joker to date, and possibly because of this, the most insane. The way the story is presented is brilliant, and the story itself is something that just needed to be told. It's such a deep, character-driven story, with strong themes that I can't even begin to describe. If you already know who Harvey Dent is, you'll go into the movie with a bias against him, but as with his two-faced coin, that bias will disappear. You'll come to actually like Harvey, and hate what you know will happen to him. By the end of the movie, you'll legitimately be thinking, "why did it have to be like this?". The movie ends so well, too... certain points aside, it could easily lead into any Batman continuity, and fits BTAS especially well.
I'd have to say The Dark Knight is an improvement over Batman Begins in every feasible way. I can't think of a single point while watching during which I felt that it was anything but completely faithful, if not to a specific source than to what we all wanted. Seriously, they did everything right. I guess that somewhere in Hollywood, someone still knows how to make a great movie.
Oh, and they blew up the Tumbler.
On an unrelated front, someone at ZFGC did this:
Very sloppy work, they couldn't have spent more than a few minutes on it... I don't know why, but I find this fairly creepy... Oh, and another thing about The Dark Knight... when they were lowering the dead Batman impersonator from the building and The Joker's calling cards fell off of him... was one of them a Harley Quinn card?? Maybe it's just wishful thinking.. a cameo existing only in my mind. |
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| More Internet Quiz Things! |
[Jul. 24th, 2008|01:00 am] |
I finally got around to posting my picture in the "Mug Shots" topic of a forum I belong to... and everyone went wild! Here are a few actual comments.
" D: HOLY !@#$% FACIAL HAIR *bows before you*
I'm only like a year younger than you and theres no chance in HELL my facial hair would grow in that long and thick o.o... Granted I do look pretty rugged and manly, but good god nothing like that D:!
*bows before your facial hair greatness* "
"Holy !@#$%! You look like you could be a !@#$% Viking and that's awesome!"
"The second pic made me think "gladiator" or "viking"... :0"
"You get my vote for ZFGC's Manliest Beard."
"Chesu...or shall I say...CHESUS, my lord and saviour.
Source, get off your throne. We have the manliest man on ZFGC."
"Beat me to it. Move aside Source! Chesu>You!"
"Whoah. Chesu = epic win!"
So, yeah, there are some beard fans. One of them made this:
The scary thing is, these guys all make games for fun, so it's possible one of them could actually make this...
I have a soft spot for online quizzes... always have. So, naturally, I'm going to do some more. I probably won't post the majority of them here, but the one I just did flattered me (it called me a genius!), so you can find it ( after the cut. ) |
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| Awake |
[Jul. 23rd, 2008|12:47 am] |
| [ | Mood |
| |  annoyed | ] |
| [ | Music |
| | Silence | ] |
So! I was awake for over thirty hours, and, unable to stay awake any longer, I fell asleep. If only I'd been able to stay awake for a few hours longer, I could have kept to my normal schedule and had a restful night. Now, it's one a.m., I'm awake, and I need to make myself tired. I happened across a "what type of humor do you have" online quiz... thought I would share the results.
the Wit
(52% dark, 23% spontaneous, 11% vulgar)
your humor style:
CLEAN | COMPLEX | DARK
You like things edgy, subtle, and smart. I guess that means you're probably an intellectual, but don't take that to mean pretentious. You realize 'dumb' can be witty--after all isn't that the Simpsons' philosophy?--but rudeness for its own sake, 'gross-out' humor and most other things found in a fraternity leave you totally flat.
I guess you just have a more cerebral approach than most. You have the perfect mindset for a joke writer or staff writer.
Your sense of humor takes the most thought to appreciate, but it's also the best, in my opinion.
You probably loved the Office. If you don't know what I'm talking about, check it out here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/theoffice/.
PEOPLE LIKE YOU: Jon Stewart - Woody Allen - Ricky Gervais
So, there's that. I'm still not tired enough, so I'm going to take a few more, and put them ( after the cut. )
Well, that's all for now. It's 2:24 a.m., and I need sleep. |
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| Movie Meme |
[Jul. 20th, 2008|12:35 am] |
| [ | Injury |
| | Blood blister | ] |
| [ | Mood |
| |  blah | ] |
| [ | Music |
| | Mind of Mencia on tv | ] |
Hurt myself while doing yard work today.. I wore ear and eye protection, but naturally I didn't wear shoes. Of course. It wasn't ants this time, believe it or not, but another pebble flung at my right foot. This time it left a huge blood blister... Fortunately, it's no longer painful.
On the gym front... we haven't been going. All of Shae's time has been spent preparing for a conference in Chicago. So, not much to post about. Well, I have some interesting spriting stuff, but I'll do that later. In the meantime, here's a meme that Shae posted. It relates to movies.
1. What movie have you seen the most time in the theater? How many times?
Wow, off to a bad start. I really didn't think this movie meme thing through... because I can't think of a single movie that I've seen in theatres more than once.
2. What was the last movie you walked out of in the theater?
I'm pretty sure the last movie I walked out of was Revenge of the Sith.
3. What is the first movie you remember seeing in a theater?
Possibly TMNT2 or Jurassic Park. That's a pretty big gap between the two...
4. What is your favorite movie soundtrack?
Wow... yeah, this is NOT the meme for me. Uhh, Back to the Future? Yeah, I'm not really a movie soundtrack person...
5. Have you ever dressed up as a movie character for Halloween? If so, who?
Not that I can recall.
6. What was the first R-rated movie you ever saw? Were you allowed or did you sneak?
Child's Play 2. I remember I sat at the top of the stairs and watched it through the banisters... Even the beginning scene with the factory was (and still is! I'm a wimp) terrifying.
7. Star Wars (orig. trilogy) or Lord of the Rings?
Star Wars all the way. Seriously, I like the LotR books, but... three movies about a traditional-style fantasy series? That's seven hours of walking.
8. Pacino or DeNiro?
Pacino! 100%, a thousand times Pacino!!
9. Titanic...did it suck or was it great?
Know those movies that start with some event, you have no idea what's going on, then it says, "Three days earlier..."? Titanic is like that, but you know exactly what happened, why, how, and... well, ALL of the details. Except, they integrate a fictional story about a working-class stowaway trying to impress a high-class lady or something. Then the ship goes down and a Plank of Carneades situation happens, and Rose kills Jack to save herself. That's how I remember it happening, anyway.
10. What's your take on Cassavetes?
Which one? The dull actor, or his son, the dull director?
11. Favorite John Hughes character?
...Gotta be Ferris Bueller.
12. What movie gives you a boner (or makes you tingle)?
..Uhh... I like Ghostbusters?
13. What movie always makes you cry like the big puss you are?
Pretty much anything with something unfair. (Oddly enough, death isn't usually that unfair to me...)
14. What's the furthest you've ever gotten in a movie theater? (i.e, second base...)
I usually go to the movies with my little sister...
15. Speaking of sports metaphors, what's your favorite sports movie?
The Running Man is a sport, right?
16. (a) Favorite... teen movie?
..Does... does this meme have an ejector seat?
(b)...Quentin Tarantino movie?
Reservoir Dogs. Reservoir Dogs. Reservoir Dogs.
(c)...Bill Murray movie?
Groundhog Day. No, wait! Ghostbusters! Oh.. ohhh.... can I pick both?
(d)...romantic comedy?
...Kiki's Delivery Service?
(e)...gangster movie?
Goodfellas. The Godfather? Pah, with your Godfather! Oh, wait, does Scarface count?
(f)...horror movie?
Evil Dead 2
(g)...made for TV movie?
Um, no. Also, no. Oh, and... NO.
(h)...director?
Sam Raimi. Okay, so Spider-Man 3 wasn't great, but he's still a good director.
(i)...drug movie?
Pulp Fiction
17. What movie have you seen already but will never, ever, ever watch again?
Any The Land Before Time movie other than the original.
18. What movie are you embarrassed to really like?
Logan's Run. Shh, don't tell anybody.
19. What movie should be remade asap?
Tron.
There seems to be no question number twenty...
21. For the love of everything that's sacred, please someone stop (insert answer) from making another movie!
UWE BOLL
22. What movie do all your friends love but you think is whatevs?
I actually surround myself with like-minded people, so there really aren't any that I can think of.
23. What movie do you love but all your friends think is whatevs?
Probably Groundhog Day.
24. If you could hump/date/marry any movie character, who would it be?
That cute shy librarian girl from that one movie with the guy with the hair. (Yeah, I've got nothing.)
25. Best...movie....ever?
Back to the Future.
26. Book you wish would be made into a movie, and who would direct it?
Either On A Pale Horse, or Prostho Plus (adventures in alien dentistry!). Either way, directed by Spielberg.
Whoo! Finally done! |
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| So this is luck |
[Jul. 11th, 2008|10:05 pm] |
| [ | Injury |
| | SO MANY ANT STINGS | ] |
| [ | Mood |
| |  accomplished | ] |
| [ | Music |
| | Yamashita Tatsurou - Lucky Girl ni Hanataba Wo | ] |
Anyone who knows me can tell you that I have a very special kind of luck. The other day I tripped and fell face-first into my cat's litter box. Luckily, it was less than ten minutes after I washed the box and changed the litter, and my cat hadn't used it yet. Of course, I also have the bad luck of constantly hurting myself somehow, like the day before yesterday when I stepped into an anthill barefoot, then when recoiling in pain stepped in another with my other foot. I do this fairly often. Offsetting that is how fast I heal.. and offsetting my bad luck is, believe it or not, my good luck!
My good luck usually manifests as me being in the right place at the right time, having just the right obscure skill/knowledge for a certain situation, or having a perfect idea. Here are a few recent examples.
Around this time last year, Kotaku was having a contest in which you had to paint your face to win a copy of the new Wii version of Scarface: The World is Yours. Eventually, I got the idea to paint my face like Manny Calavera from Grim Fandango, with paper teeth (held in place by my real teeth) completing the look. I made it to the finals (I was finalist 7), where it came down to a vote. It was incredibly close, but I managed to win one of the two copies that were up for grabs!
http://youtube.com/watch?v=nPA4xPJhPZ4
Shortly after, it was time for ZeldaBlog Puzzle Hunt 1: The Road to Ganon. ZeldaBlog had recently closed its doors, but The Missing Link, the guy behind the site, was still an active member of the Zelda fan community. I participated in the Puzzle Hunt, which was filled with insanely difficult puzzles, ranging from something as simple as knowing the names of a few Zelda dungeons to the challenge of discerning the hidden meaning of a circle with triangles in it. The final puzzle was kind of a scavenger hunt. You were given a clue, and you would type in guesses. Correct guesses were rewarded with the next clue, but you only had a certain number of guesses per day. I managed to finish in second place, but I was given a prize of my choosing anyway because of a technicality.
I forget what the clue was, but I was convinced that the answer was the cover of the fiftieth issue of Nintendo Power, as it had an owl and sword in it. I entered "fifty", the last wrong guess I could get that day... and it was wrong. The next day I tried "50", it was right, and I moved on. Right before the two guys working as a team that came in first and I solved the final puzzle, it occurred to The Missing Link that he hadn't logged "fifty" as a correct guess, and checked to see if anyone had tried it. I imagine he was horrified to find that such a small oversight had such a big impact on the contest, but it was too late- the tandem Australians finished the final puzzle, and I did the same a few minutes later. By way of apology, he offered me the same thing as first prize- a Gamecube or Wii game of my choosing, or a Wii Point Card. I chose Super Paper Mario.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=vDRFzxJztZA
A few months later, in October, Kotaku was running two more contests. They almost always do two or more at the same time. The first was to make paper airplanes in order to win a copy of Ace Combat 6. While my entry wasn't a finalist, it did get an honorable mention, and was used to promote the contest. Which, really, is all that should have been done with it- just look at those amazing finalists!
The second content was to wrap yourself into a toilet paper mummy in order to win a copy of Dementium: The Ward. Not only was my entry used to promote the contest, I was a finalist as well. I didn't win, but again, look at some of those finalists. The dress is hilarious, and the big toilet paper head is just awesome.
So, why am I bringing up all of this contest stuff now? Well, Kotaku recently had another contest, the results of which were announced today. Since Wimbledon just ended, and Top Spin 3 came out last month (on my birthday, in fact), Kotaku was giving away a copy of the game. In order to win, you had to put on your best tennis attire in what they called the Kotaku Open. You could either take a picture of yourself dressed for the courts, or photoshop your face onto a tennis player. I, of course, entered, and was pleased to find that I had made it into the finals. As the only entry that wasn't photoshopped, I was guaranteed to get a few votes, and I knew the fact that I was playing Wii Sports Tennis would get a few as well. My main weapon was my facial expression, which made it clear how dedicated I was to the virtual sport. What I hadn't anticipated was the response to my beard. Here are a few comments from people who voted for me:
"I vote for this. That truly is a magnificent beard and if there's on thing tennis needs it's more beards."
"Holy shit, is that Tim Harrington?"
"I vote for this. Mainly cause of the beard.... that beard is awesome :P"
"Vote. for sure. I can only hope my humble beard can come anywhere near this one day. Hats off to you sir. Wear that beard proudly."
"I vote for this. Cause he's the only REAL man in the group."
"I vote for 'Gief... What? That's not 'Gief? Hmm.."
Regarding that last one, this post was immediately before the contest voting, so quite a few people went in with Zangief on their minds. My closest competition was Trunks, the explosion guy, but in the end the beard proved to be mightier than the photoshop. I won! I actually won! There followed many more beard comments, comparisons to Tim Harrison, and people completely convinced that I was RawMeat Cowboy, the guy who runs the site GoNintendo. Here are some of my favorite comments:
"His face is beard!"
"There is no way I was beating this guy. He's like a white Kimbo Slice." (This is the guy with the frog hat entry)
"This picture basically wins the internet."
" "There are two kinds of people in this world that go around beardless -boys and women- and I am neither one." " (He was already quoting, so I'm quoting him quoting)
"Reminds me of this picture XD" (If any picture wins the internet, it's this one)
"Could we get this in 1024 by 768. I need this as a wallpaper."
"Wonder how his tennis grunts sounds like..."
"He doesn't grunt...he roars like a thousand vikings storming a beach! Look at that fearsome face. In fact he maybe calling upon our honored bearded gods for ale, meat, and fine women once he has won that match he is in."
Trunks, the explosion guy, was a little bitter about having lost to a beard, but eventually got over it and threw together this little beauty:
Yes, that's me as a Wii Tennis-playing viking. Yes, it is awesome.
Anyway, before too long my copy of Top Spin 3 (Wii version) should arrive in the mail, so I'll look forward to that. I'm probably going to put up a YouTube video of this experience, which I'll put up here when it's ready.
Here's to the future, and to luck- good and bad!
Update: Here's the YouTube video!
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| Zelda WIP |
[Jun. 29th, 2008|06:44 pm] |
| [ | Injury |
| | Nothing new | ] |
| [ | Mood |
| |  contemplative | ] |
| [ | Music |
| | Queen - Killer Queen | ] |
Whoo! No new injuries! In fact, just the opposite; today I decided that my knee was finally healed enough, and went for a swim for the first time in three weeks! It was really nice! Anyway, on to what I wanted to talk about today.
I like starting projects. I quite enjoy working on projects... and I absolutely love finishing projects. Unfortunately, that last one doesn't always happen. The majority of projects I start just don't make it. It's not because they're over-ambitious or that I get bored with them. Even if I lose steam, before too long I can easily become pumped-up about it again. No, the problem is that I just don't have the means to accomplish what it is I want to do. Yes, I know that that sounds the same as the project being over-ambitious, but bear with me.
When creating an animation set to music, it's not unrealistic to want there to be music, is it? So, naturally, you hire people who are more musically-inclined than you are. Even for things like indie projects where there's little to no budget, they find like-minded people who are able to help. Well, similarly, when making a game it's not unrealistic to want there to be levels, right? The problem here is that when it comes to level design, I'm not very creative. There are of course talented level designers out there, and people willing to help with your stupid little project, but... these two groups rarely overlap.
Being unable to get even a single useful person to help out can kind of take the wind out of your sails, but there is a way to get more people interested. I decided to give this a try while in the process of scrapping an old project that was going nowhere and recycling what I could into a new one. The key, I think, is to plan as much as possible. To do everything that you can possibly do, everything BUT the what you need from other people, in excruciating detail, before seeking help. Of course, this may just be investing even more time in a project that's going nowhere, but you have to try, right?
My most recent project of this type is a Zelda fan game. I worked on a Zelda fan game once before, and while a lot of people were interested in helping, I was never able to attract anyone with the experience required to do the job... as I shouldn't have, considering how much of a mess the concept and scenario were. This time around, if anyone has a question about the game, no matter what it is, I will be able to answer it. I want there to be so much information, people will look at me ludicrously and ask how much time I've spent working on it.
Since it's kind of long-ish, I've put the scenario I've written so far, as well as sprites, after the cut. Any information in [brackets], usually things like names, is not yet set in stone, and is just what I'm going with for the time being. Due to some revisions I've made, there's a gap is the middle, which I've filled in with a short summary of what happens there until I get around to writing it all out.
( Read more... )
...and that's all I have so far. Obviously, every area would have a lot more to do than I've detailed, so it will be more interesting than I'm probably making it sound. There are a few rough areas, but.. I'm working on it. After the Goron Quarry are events at Lake Hylia and Zora's Domain, which is upriver and not on the map. Also, from this point on while you're in the future you'll get letters from the people of Kakariko. They're done rebuilding the windmill, but in order to live there they need to use the windmill to make flour, and to make flour they need wheat, and to grow wheat they need water flowing through the Lon Lon Wastes (the section of the river flowing from the east has dried up, a hint that something's wrong at Zora's Domain). Once there are people living in Kakariko, you can teach them the skills you learned at the temp agency. Oh, and I think I forgot to mention it, but any time you enter a new area in the past, Tingle will try to sell you a map of the area.
I think that's all I have to say for now. |
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| Just a Friday |
[Jun. 28th, 2008|02:19 am] |
| [ | Injury |
| | Bloody foot hole | ] |
| [ | Mood |
| | surprised | ] |
| [ | Music |
| | Super Smash Bros. Brawl - Mona Pizza (Japanese version) | ] |
Super Smash Bros. Brawl was recently released in PAL territories, so I'm going to be playing with my oft-tormented (by me) Australian friend, "Mike", a lot. In fact, I'm waiting for him to log on right now.
My newest injury, "bloody hole in foot", is unrelated to yesterday's mysteriously bleeding toe. I guess it's true what they say... when you start recording your injuries, you start noticing just how many you get. Well, nobody actually says that.. and it probably only applies to me... Either way, this is clearly The Almighty's revenge for stating that I had no injury the other day. "No injury? C'mere, you..."
Or maybe I'm just stupid. Today I did some yard work, and while using The Lawn Devastator, I managed to find a pointed pebble, which was flung directly into my right heel. I know, I know, I should have been wearing shoes. If it makes you feel any better, I wasn't wearing eye protection, either.
Shae's feet were blistered and hurting from worn out tennis shoes, so we didn't go to the gym today. I was happy, as that meant more time to earn money on ChaCha... but I ended up doing other things. Actually, between that, the yard work, playing Brawl, and sweeping/mopping the main area of the house, I didn't get to be a search engine very much at all... but much to my surprise, I somehow managed to make $18.40! If you'll recall, I made $20.00 yesterday, during which I spent over twice the time ChaCha'ing. It took me a while to realize it, but the reason that I was able to make that much is because... it's Friday!! On the weekends, ChaCha gets a huge volume of questions, so you can earn money a lot faster.
Oh, "Mike" just showed up in Brawl, gotta go! |
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| Being a Search Engine |
[Jun. 26th, 2008|11:26 pm] |
I think it's about time to explain the whole search engine thing. I'm actually doing it right now, AND watching The Colbert Report, so this is going to take me a while. You, however, won't notice a difference, as you're not reading this live. If you ARE reading this live, please get out of my head, and don't open the gray cabinet.
So, what is it? What am I talking about? What's all this nonsense about becoming a search engine? The answer is ChaCha. ChaCha is kind of like a text message search engine. You ask a question via text message, phone, or on ChaCha.com, and within a few minutes you'll get an answer in the form of a text message. You can ask anything you want... just don't expect them to tell you how to make bombs. Oh, and did I mention it's free?
A friend of mine, who had recently started working for ChaCha, told me about it at the beginning of June. See, ChaCha has actual people, known as Guides for some reason (though, I can't think of a better name myself), doing the searching and answering the questions. To become a Guide, you just have to fill out some forms, give them the kind of information you'd give any job, pass a few tests meant to check your ability to look up answers, and you're in!
ChaCha Guides are paid twenty cents ($0.20) for every question they answer, which is one hundred dollars for every five hundred questions answered. The more dedicated to answering you are, the more you earn. Last week's top Guide answered around 1600 questions, earning over $320.00 (notice how I don't type out the bigger numbers? Huh). They don't do any of the tax stuff for you, though, so you're responsible for the taxes on every penny you make.
You're given two options for payment- you can either open a checking account with the First Internet Bank of Indiana, which ChaCha is affiliated with, and with the click of a button have all of the money in your ChaCha account (minus two dollar transaction fee) instantly deposited. The other option is to have the money directly deposited into your own bank account ever month, which has no transaction fee but requires you to have at least one hundred dollars in your ChaCha account.
ChaCha also has a great referral plan. If you refer a new Guide, for everything they make, ChaCh will give you ten percent! So while that's only two cents per twenty cent question they answer, it's a free ten dollars for every hundred they make. In the example of the top Guide listed above, whoever referred her got $32.00 in one week, and they didn't even have to do anything! You can have up to twenty minions earning pennies for you, and I just got my first one in Shae's friend Heather the other day. She's made me $1.62 already... that's almost enough for a funds transfer!
I have my preferred categories set to video games, consumer electronics, humor, language, etc., but I think the system must either be broken or hate me, because I get A LOT of questions of a sexual nature. I wouldn't say the majority of them are, but I get more of those than of any other one category.
How the system works is, when it receives a query it looks for keywords in the text, and then sends it to a few random Guides who are currently available. The first to respond gets to answer. Queries with no keywords in them are just sent to random guides. Once you accept the query (I typed that as 'quest' twice before getting it right, heh), you're shown what's being asked, and have ten minutes to research, secure a link to give to the InfoSeeker (the person who's asking the question.. and a way cooler term than Guide), and write an answer. On average, from getting the question to sending out the answer takes about two minutes.
Logs of every question an InfoSeeker has asked are kept, which really helps when you get a question like "the one in manhattan" that is obviously in response to something another Guide said. Below are some questions that I may or may not have gotten tonight. (I'm working for them on as an independent contractor and am under no liability to keep information from the InfoSeeker private, right? Right??)
( Possibly real ChaCha InfoSeeker questions )
Other common ones during the daytime are asking the addresses/phone numbers for businesses, usually restaurants, the score of sports games (usually baseball, as it's that season), show times for movies in local theaters, how many calories are in a fast food item, etc. Since one of my preferred categories is ChaCha Customer Service, I also get asked how much I get paid, and similar easy-to-answer, nothing-to-research questions. I'd like to end this post with the most bizarre question I've ever gotten.
Original Query: If a human is drowning is it true that the body will attempt to breath through every orface on the body Including the anus
It's annoying to be asked to predict the future, of if the InfoSeeker would be happier going out with Merrick or Daniel, but getting questions like that makes it all worth it. Go forward, you brave little psychopath.
PS - I went for two miles on the gym treadmill today, and for some reason found resisting the urge to run difficult. I then went four miles over an Alpine pass made of red LEDs. It's been so long, I forgot how great working out feels! Oh, and as for the injury... When I got home from the gym, I noticed there was blood on my sock. Apparently, my smallest left toe, which in the past has been brutally smashed, broken and shattered seven times, was bleeding. Mysterious! Oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention how much I made doing ChaCha today. Since I woke up late and went to the gym I didn't answer as many questions as I could have, but I did manage to go from last night's stopping point of $325.82 to tonight's of $345.82, somehow managing to make exactly twenty dollars. |
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| Being a Search Engine... is not what this post is about |
[Jun. 26th, 2008|01:41 am] |
My birthday was great. My parents got me Wii Fit (though it's not here yet), and Shae got me these cool etched glasses, one with a Super Mushroom, the other with the crest of the royal family of Hyrule. I have them on my Mario and Zelda shelves, respectively, but I'm afraid that they could break, given that I injure myself on those shelves more than anything else in my room. Speaking of injuries, my knee is almost healed! It still does a zombie flesh impersonation in the shower, so I don't want to risk swimming yet, but I'm close! A friend of mine, who we'll call Toshi, got me the Wii Virtual Console game Neutopia II for my birthday... great, now I have to finish playing the first one!
I don't have any injuries that come to mind... I have plenty of scabs, but those are previous injuries. My body is currently in a state of peace, its war with the world on hold. We'll see how long it lasts.
Shae and I went to the gym tonight.. I went 2.21 miles on the treadmill, and 2.26 on the... the.. stationary bike thing. I forget the name Shae used for it, but it gives you a serious cardio workout. It may have been on a tiny display made up of red LEDs, but I have biked through an Alpine pass, and I enjoyed it. I'm not sure why my legs aren't sore from walking for forty minutes and biking mostly uphill for twenty more, but if I'm lucky that will change after a good night's sleep.
I've made over three hundred dollars by being a search engine, and I now have a minion whose efforts get me free money! I'm not going to go into detail here, though. The explanation may come tomorrow, it may come next week. Whenever I'm up to writing a post of that size.
Well, I can barely keep my eyes open, and every time I reach for t I somehow hit 5, so I should sleep now. Until next time! |
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| Knee Injury |
[Jun. 22nd, 2008|03:47 pm] |
Ugh. I just woke up (it's 3:50 p.m.) to find that my biceps feel like they're made of lead (from the arm-exercising-machine) and that I'm a little sick (from licking every surface in the men's locker room). The fact that it's an overcast day almost definitely contributed to my sleeping for so long... rainy days always make me tired. The rain is seriously coming down now... we're in the middle of a huge thunderstorm, and the pool will probably overflow.
My arms are so sore... there's no position in which they don't hurt, and moving them from my sides (even to type) makes them feel like.. well, like they're in a lot of pain and I'm stretching them. The fact that I'm writing a journal entry while acting as a search engine doesn't help, either. I really am going to explain the search engine thing, eventually. Today, though, I'll be explaining my knee injury. The full story, along with gruesome-ish pictures, are behind the cut.
( Body fat, outside the body?! ) |
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| First day at the gym |
[Jun. 22nd, 2008|02:57 am] |
Right, so, journal entries. Going to be a challenge, remembering to do this...
I intended to write entries about becoming a search engine and injuring my knee before this one, but today was my first day working out at my new gym, so what better time to talk about it? Our story begins in early may, when I offhandedly mentioned to my sister Shae that I eventually planned to join a local gym. She was interested, but didn't think she would be able to exercise on a regular basis without someone to motivate her. She kind of has trouble sticking with that kind of thing... she owns a Gazelle exercise machine and a bass guitar, both of which she's spent less time using than our toaster oven.
Anyway, we finished talking about exercise, and that was that... until Thursday, when she emailed me a link to the site of a local gym chain called Too Your Health. She wanted to join the very next day. This was way earlier than I had planned on going, but she seemed excited about it, and knowing her exuberance wouldn't last, I caved in. So Friday afternoon we went down, got gym memberships, then went shopping for workout clothes. For her, not me... I the "always prepared" type, so I was already set. That evening we went in for a workout. I did about one hundred and thirty reps on the weight-lifting-arm-exercise machines, then right as I got on a treadmill an employee told us they were closing. Shae had mistaken the business hours of the gym we were at with one of the other locations... d'oh. After getting home, I turned into a search engine for a few hours, then went to bed. I'm not sure what I did, but I somehow managed to hurt my right elbow while sleeping. I think I had my arm extended (to accommodate my cat) for too long or something.
In the morning, Shae and I went back to the gym to work out. I went two miles on the treadmills, then did eighty or so reps on my favorite arm machine from last night. As a result, my left knee and right elbow really hurt.. bah. It turned out that Shae only wanted to exercise for an hour, so my workout was cut short. When we got home, I taught Shae how to make fried rice, which we had for lunch, and then I turned into a search engine for the rest of the day, up to right before I started writing this entry. My arms are a bit sore from the machines, but the reason my mood is set to 'exhausted' is because as of writing this, it's exactly 3:30 a.m.
So, with that, I bid you good night. Because I know that you're all reading this at nighttime. That's just how the kind of people who use LiveJournal (LiVEJOURNAL?) work. |
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| Let's Get Minty |
[Jun. 21st, 2008|02:21 am] |
| [ | Injury |
| | Knee | ] |
| [ | Mood |
| |  sleepy | ] |
| [ | Music |
| | Frou Frou - Let Go | ] |
Testing, testing... one, two.. check, check... Is this thing on?
WOW, has it been a long time since I've posted here. Almost two years! So, why am I posting now? Not much more is happening in my life than in the last two years, but some of the things that have happened in the last month or so are interesting. For example, I got a job as a search engine! Yes! I am now a search engine! I also injured my knee in a way that prevents me from running, jumping, and swimming! Yes! I am now a stiff-legged toy soldier! There are other things, but everything will get its own entry whenever I get around to it.
You know, this color scheme really isn't all that minty.. maybe I'll change that "Minty Gamer Goodness" thing up there. I'm not even certain what you're supposed to write there. That will come later, though... it took nearly an hour to get this journal looking right, and I need to get to sleep. I'm going to the gym early tomorrow, if I'm able to wake up. Oh yeah, that's another thing... I've joined a gym. More on that later, though. Now is time for the sleeping.
Oh, one last thing... no, you're not mistaken, I've replaced the 'location' thing with 'injury'. You may be thinking to yourself, "who would need a 'current injury' display?". If you are, you clearly don't know me that well. What are you even doing here?
...Whoo! Knee Street! |
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