JAMCO.BIZ Blog

2012-02-15T22:29:00.001-06:00

I was asked what my gripes were with Skyim a while ago. Here's what I said,

Well, for one, the fact that they decided to exclude roads from the maps on Skyrim is very annoying, and forces me to miss out on half the game. Most caves, houses, and other locations are built along the roads in Skyrim, but I never use them because there's no way of telling where the roads go, besides the signs which are placed so intermittently, they're almost unusable. The fact that they had roads on the map in Oblivion, but not in Skyrim, makes me curious as to why the excluded it.

Also, in general, the game is very gray and physically painful to look at. There have been many times where my eyes sort of glaze over as I play the game, and I suddenly realize that I've been staring at a grey mass for the past minute or two. Bethesda seems to have a history of this (as that's how Fallout 3 and New Vegas seem to look), but, again, this issue pains me more because Oblivion had a much larger color pallet, and Skyrim, for some reason, does not. I've been told that this makes the game seem more serious, and although that may be true, I think that could have easily been done without making the game just so... dark.

While most will disagree with me on this one, I kind of miss having to repair my items. I do think the way it worked in Oblivion was stupid, but, without it, I feel no connection to my weapons, otherwise. Improving weapons seems to have been implemented to replace this, but because you can only improve weapons depending on your skill level, it really only happens once or twice, and requires a very small amount of resources to do so. In my opinion, I would have liked to see it work more like in Fallout, where you can repair certain weapons by having other weapons of its type. This is also skill-based, but you can still repair weapons when they become close to breaking, no matter how low your skill is.

Additionally, the textures (originally) were pretty low quality, in my taste. The kind where, up close, they're terribly pixilated (although the HD texture pack they released seems to have fixed that, now), but, far away, they look fine. Also, the game uses up a lot of RAM sometimes (normally when in large environments). Because Skyrim is a 32-bit program, it's limited to only using 4 GBs (I have 8 GBs), meaning, after it reaches that limit, the game starts to slow up. Hopefully this is just a minor bug that will be fixed soon.

Again, these are pretty minor gripes, but, still, add them all up, and it makes the game a pain to play, sometimes. Like I said however, I really do like the game and suggest it to anyone who's considering it, because it's very well put together. I'm just annoyed that many people seem to overlook the many flaws it has for reasons I've previously stated.

Game of the Year 2011

2012-01-27T22:53:00.004-06:00

I've been going on and on about this just about every day, so, I figured I'd just toss out my thoughts here, and not bug everyone about it like I have been. (Sorry, Josh.) So, I'm going to list all of the games that either I or others would consider Game of the Year, and talk about each of them. So, here goes. (Oh, and, obvious spoiler alert.)

Portal 2
I loved Portal. It was the first real PC game I ever played, and probably a good one to start on. It was just so... different, and I'm a big fan of black comedy. So, when Portal 2 came out, I was very excited. I was one of the people that did both ARGs, and, thanks to my help, I helped Portal 2 launch two hours early. The night that I played it for the first time (of course, as soon as it had released), I was very, very excited. The opening scene made it that much more awesome. So, needless to say, I might be a bit biased when it comes to Portal 2.

The plot was really good, especially the underground '50s-esque puzzles. I loved the dynamic music, which I've seen much more games start using recently. The characters and overall writing in general was fantastic as always, so, that's a huge plus. I could go on and on about what I loved about it, but, essentially, when it comes down to it, single player was almost perfect. The only things I didn't like was the absence of the Borealis (or any Half-Life tie-ins), and the ending. Having recently beat Episode 2 before Portal 2 came out, I was really expecting at least some sort of hint at the game's relationship, but, instead, all I got was really just an easter egg that was like, "This ship exists!". Not really all that interesting.

The finale was very energizing, and I loved how you ended up going to the moon (it just fit the game really well), but I didn't really like how you ended up being released. I feel like, now, any sequel to Portal will be more of a spin-off, unless they have Chell run around outside of the lab (although, that would change the game dramatically). Also, the end song wasn't as good as Still Alive, but, honestly, how can you live up to that kind of expectation?

Those minor things pale in comparison to co-op's flaws, however. Ultimately, co-op was fun, but just very stale. After you complete the campaign, there's really no reason to play anymore, and the campaign only lasts a couple hours. Plus, the "story" was pretty dull. Also, P-Body.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution
I had never heard of Deus Ex, or its sequels, until I saw there was a TF2 promotion for the game (classy, right?). But, when I saw the trailer, I knew the game would be fun, right off the bat. Unfortunately, that's not how I felt when I actually bought it.

Deus Ex's biggest feature is the plot. It's very original, and opens itself up to tons of gameplay options. The leveling up in the game just makes sense, which is neat, because, otherwise, that kind of thing is hard to justify plot-wise. The gameplay itself is also fun. I love sneaky kinds of games, and Deus Ex is able to pull it off very well.

Unfortunately, that's where the pros stop. The game forces you to choose whether or not you'll play as one who just rushes in and kills everyone, or one who sneaks around. However, if you sneak around, and you get caught, you're basically screwed, which really sucks when you get into the longer missions and you have to start over from the beginning. Also, while the color scheme of the game looks really cool, the textures (for the PC, at least) are terrible. And, this is coming from someone who can run it on highest settings. People just look so plasticy, and looking out into the horizon, you can easily see that... there is no horizon. It's just a wall that's painted to look like a city. I feel like I'm play Truman Show: The Game.

Eventually, I just quit playing, because I could stand constantly being beat up after sneaking around for an hour. The game's really good, but it's that one major flaw that makes it almost unplayable.

L.A. Noire
When I first saw L.A. Noire, I said to myself, "I want this game." But, then I saw it was console only, so I became sad. Then they made a PC port. I was happy. Then it was on sale for $11 during Christmas. I was elated. Overall, L.A. Noire is a very, very underrated game, that deserves much more praise than it got.

L. A. Noire differs from most mystery games in that it's actually good. From the mystery games I've played, most of them have about four cases, they're all stupid, and they all hold your hand the whole time. Team Bondi is able to essentially recreate all of Los Angeles, and toss cases all throughout the city, all of which are different (yes, they are), and yet fulfilling at the same time. To keep things from being monotonous, they have you move up (from playing in Traffic, to Homicide, to Vice, etc.), and also have little mini-missions (like random shoot-outs and hostage situations), which really help make the game something you won't mind coming back to.

Overall, the game is just really huge, and really well put together, except for the fact that the PC port is just awful. Well, not awful, but, very flawed. There's plenty of texture and model popping, and the menus and everything could use a little more tweaking to work well on PC. Plus, the car AI sucks. They all just try to migrate to the right lane, and people just jump right in front of your car, instead of getting out of your way. It's annoying. But, other than that, L.A. Noire is awesome.

Minecraft
I love Minecraft. It's one of the few games I've played more than a couple months. Multiplayer just works so well, and gives it so much longevity. It's very unique, and also full of features. It's also one of the first really successful indie games, and I hope that there's more to come after it. Minecraft is so simple, but, as you get into it, it's really in depth... I dunno, I can't explain the game very well. Just go buy it.

Terraria
Meh.

Batman: Arkham City
I got this game for free with my video card. I had heard that Arkham Asylum was a good game, but didn't ever really consider buy it or Arkham City. This was a mistake. Arkham City, along with L.A. Noire, is very overlooked. I'm not sure what else was carried over from Arkham Asylum, but, it's a very good game, nonetheless. The controls are very fluid; They just work, and that's a very nice aspect of the game. It's difficult, but easy, at the same time. There's plenty to do, and the plot seems relativity long. The biggest flaw of the game is that the plot is pretty stupid. (Who thought it would be a good idea to round up all the criminals in the city and just toss them altogether, just to see what happens? Am I missing something?) Also, the color theme is too... grey. I haven't played the game enough to say much else, but I still highly suggest it to anyone who's considering it.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Oh, Skyrim. I originally saw the game and said, "Okay." I had bought Oblivion months before, played it for a bit, then said, "Eww, fantasy", and quit. I hate fantasy. But, with games like The Elder Scrolls, I decided to push past it, because the games are pretty good. When Skyrim came out, I started playing Oblivion more, because I was like, "Maybe I should see what this is all about." Needless to say, I loved Oblivion, and I could see why people liked Skyrim. So, I bought it when it was on sale on Steam. I liked it, too.

Unfortunately, for me, Skyrim did not live up to the potential I thought it would. Skyrim is huge. Skyrim is fun. Skyrim is awesome. Don't get me wrong; I love this game. But, Skyrim also has a lot of issues that people tend to overlook. The plot(s) suck(s), game is grey, THERE ARE NO ROADS ON THE MAP, and I personally kinda miss repairing weapons. I don't really want to rant on about Skyrim (unless asked), but, ultimately, I feel like Oblivion is a better game.

But, Skyrim also has tons of fun parts too. I can't really name them all, because the game is so big, but, there's plenty to do, and a lot more to offer. It's certainly not a terrible game. It's a very great game. But, it gets more praise than it deserves.

So, Mark, what's your GAME OF THE YEAR!?
I dunno. I'm not one to pick favorites. I can say that Terraria and Deus Ex: HR certainly don't meet my GotY expectations, and I haven't played Arkham City enough to say it's that good either. Overall, I guess I would say it's probably Portal 2, but that's only because I've played Minecraft so much, it doesn't seem new to me. I dunno. All of these games are really good, so you should go buy them and see for yourself whether you like them or not. Let me know if you've got any comments on what I have to say; I'd be happy to discuss any of my opinions with you.

Why People Should Stop Hating Valve

2011-12-15T22:47:00.001-06:00

Ever since Team Fortress 2 went free-to-play, people have been bashing Valve for ruining a game. This is a completely false statement. Let me explain why:

First, of course, are the hats. I will say, I can see where people are coming from. Some people make their characters looks so unrecognizably ugly, that people don't even know what class is heading towards them. I get that. Team Fortress 2 was developed with class silhouettes in mind, and hats completely ruin them. That's why I think Valve should let users disable viewing custom class content like that.

At the same time, however, people seem to hate Valve for creating the Mann Co. Store. They say that Valve is greedy, and that they are letting people buy their way into being good. This makes absolutely no sense. The Mann Co. Store is a completely optional shop in Team Fortress 2 where you can buy weapons and hats for a price. Are the prices high? Yes. Would I ever buy something from there? No. But do I whine and complain about how others can? No, because it doesn't matter. You don't have to buy stuff from the store, and it doesn't affect the way you play. All items are balanced, and while some might be more overpowered than others, in the long run, Valve eventually ends up nerfing them anyway, and the problem is easily taken care of. The Mann Co. Store is simply a way for Valve to make money off of a game after they made it free. And you call them greedy? Sure, they might give you crates you can't open without purchasing keys. Sure, they might have exclusive hats or paints that aren't found through random drops. But, in the end, it doesn't really affect how you play, and it certainly doesn't make Valve greedy for earning money off of the stupid people that buy items from them.

Second is the fact that the game is free. I apparently was the only person that thought this was cool. I could finally get all my cheap friends to play this great game! Plus, it was an easy way to earn free points! But no one else saw it that way. They all though that the Team Fortress 2 fanbase would just become a mass of unknowledgeable stupid people, who would not know how to play the game, and never learn. This is another point I don't understand. I can see why, in the short term, making a game free-to-play would be devastating to the original fans of the game, especially when Valve decided to only compensate by giving us an exclusive hat (which, in the end, is probably not worth the $20 everyone paid for the game). But, in the long term, doesn't this just mean more stuff? More fans means more servers, more players, more community items, along with more support from Valve. It's not like these people will stay stupid for forever. They'll learn how to play like everyone else, and eventually become good at it.

So, yeah. "You think you're cool? Well, guess what, you're not. Do not make fun of, uh, Team Fortress 2."

Gizmodo

2011-11-10T13:00:00.001-06:00

Alright, I've said this at least thirty times, but I really need to explain myself here. I hate Gizmodo. I used to love them. I read their articles all the time. And they do post useful information. But I hate how many of their articles are don't even try to avoid bias from the article. It's stupid, and annoying.

Take this one (watch for language), about Ashton Kutcher "leaving Twitter". The news here isn't much more than a blip. Ashton Kutcher is leaving Twitter, explain why, the end. Now, sure, they add in how stupid it is. And while I agree with them on that point, the main problem is that they make it the main point of the article. Sure, Ashton Kutcher is leaving Twitter, but he's a coward! Omg! News news news! I bet viewers will flock to this article because of how interesting the title is! I understand there needs to be appeal to draw viewers in. I get that. But the article itself doesn't have to be filled with the same stuff the title implies. But this article goes even further.

They go on to talk about their opinion on Joe Paterno, someone who's only indirectly related to this article. I myself disagree with their opinion on what happened, but, still. It's stupid. No one wants to read an article about Ashton Kutcher, only to learn that the author of the article, Mat Honan, thinks that Paterno got what he deserved. That's not something that makes people intrigued to read the piece, or like the article. It's irrelevant and annoying.

And that's why I stopped reading Gizmodo.

Make Your Crap-Phone Like a Smartphone

2011-10-16T23:07:00.000-05:00

Smartphones have access to a lot of helpful tools that can be really useful, especially when traveling abroad. Unfortunately they also come with the requirement of paying for a data package, which is an extra cost most people don't appreciate. While you can't get your phone to do everything a smartphone can, there are a lot of helpful tools out there that can make your phone more powerful than it currently is. Here's a couple of those tools:

Bing 411:
Normally, I'd suggest a Google service, like GOOG-411, but, as of November last year, the project has been discontinued. Bing 411 works almost exactly the same, and just as well. Simply call the number (1-800-246-4411), and tell it what you want it to do. It essentially gives you access to the powerful tools Bing offers online, all over voice instead. Some of the services it offers are:

Find local shops and restaurants

Get directions to said locations
Find phone numbers to call buisnesses

Get local traffic reports
Find movie theater showtimes and ticket information
Find the current weather and future forecasts

Another feature Bing 411 offers is the ability to send you text messages with some of the provided information. This is useful if you don't want to rack up more and more minutes forcing Bing to repeat driving directions for you. Click here to try out Bing 411.

Google SMS:

The downside to Bing 411 is that it's fully automated; So, if you can't get it to comprehend your voice commands, you're out of luck. Fortunately, Google runs a service that lets you text it commands, while it replies with the information you request. Google SMS is also more feature rich than Bing 411, with features like:

Flight information
Calculator/converter
Driving directions
World clock
Weather
Shopping information
Translations
Web snippets
Zip code locations
Stocks
Sports scores
Dictionary definitions
Movie theater times
Local business locations and information

Unfortunately, from experience, sometimes the 160 character limit hinders results (Like when asking for Cardinal game scores, it will provide scores from the Arizona Cardinals), and, sometimes, the features don't work at all. More often than not, though, the service works as-advertised. Additionally, Google provides SMS access to Google Calendar (allowing you to send yourself event reminders, and view upcoming events), and create blog posts for Blogger by sending texts. Click here to try out any of these services.

Facebook Text Messages:
If you're an avid Facebook user, you probably find times where you want to socialize on-the-go. Fortunately, Facebook runs a service that lets you send commands via SMS to perform the following actions:

Update your status
Send friend requests
Subscribe to people
Receive notifications

Many people find the last feature annoying, others find it useful. Whatever the case, you can sign up to use Facebook Text Messages, and turn notifications off. It's up to you. Visit this link to start using Facebook Text Messages.

Additionally, Facebook runs a service that lets you upload pictures and videos via MMS. Simply access the Facebook Mobile page to obtain your secret photo/video uploading email address, and add it as a contact in your phone. The next time you have a photo to upload, send it via that email, with the caption as the subject of the message. It will automatically upload to a special Mobile Uploads album on Facebook, and appear in your friends' news feeds. This feature does not cost any money, as long as you pay your mobile carrier for MMS uploads.

Google+ via SMS:

Just like Facebook, Googly+ also allows you to access your account through text messages. However, Google's service allows you to have much more control over what you do. Some provided features are:

Update your status

Specify privacy settings for status update

Use Messenger via SMS

Unfortunately, Google+'s SMS service does not allow you to upload images and videos via MMS yet. If you're still interested, however, head to this link to start using Google+ via SMS.

Twitter Mobile:

Twitter, being designed to be used via text messages, has built in capabilities to let you tweet, follow, and message others on Twitter. Some features are:

Send tweets
Follow/unfollow users
View a user's latest tweet

Retweet or favorite said tweet

Send a direct message to a user
Notifications of tweets from specific users
Notifications of direct messages and replies

Just like Facebook, Twitter allows you to turn off mobile notifications if you find it annoying. To set up Twitter for your phone, click here.

YouTube Upload from Mobile:

YouTube allows you to upload videos from your phone via SMS. To do this, you'll have to set it up first, by getting a unique email address, similar to Facebook's photo/video upload. Add the email as a contact, and send your video to the email address, with the title of the video located in the subject of the message. YouTube will then automatically upload the video to your account.

Windows Live Messenger via Mobile:

This is probably one of my favorite mobile "apps". This one lets you IM friends on Windows Live Messenger via your phone. It also allows you to update your WLM status. Although it's not feature rich, the lone feature it supports works and is very powerful on its own. To set up Windows Live Messenger via Mobile, simply click here.

There's plenty more mobile services out there that I haven't covered, but these are by far the most useful, and, personally, my favorite. None of these use data, and some don't even use text messaging, if you don't pay for either of those. It's a good backup to have in case you find yourself roaming on another network, or maybe even on a network without data. Even then, these are all very powerful tools that allow you to access more of the internet from simply sending a text or speaking a command.

Facebook Phone Numbers

2011-08-11T23:19:00.000-05:00

Once again, Gizmodo has blown everything out of proportion, this time with Facebook's contact sync feature. So, here's a short blog post to explain things a bit.

If you have Facebook for your iPhone, it has a feature that lets you sync your phone contacts and Facebook contacts. I've had mine replace pictures on my phone with pictures of people on Facebook; That way, I don't have to take new ones each time someone gets a haircut or something like that. It's not really all that important, but it's nifty, so I have it turned on. This feature is OFF by default. I had to turn it on to get it to do anything.

On another note, if you were stupid enough to give Facebook your phone number, and set it public for all to see, then, on Facebook, you can access a list of your Facebook contacts who have shared their phone numbers online. They also add your synced phone contacts to that list, if you have that turned on.

Facebook is not stealing your phone number and handing it out to people. Facebook is not taking your contacts and publishing them to the internet, or putting them in a database. It is highly unlikely Facebook would ever make such information public in the first place. What benefit would that be to anyone?

Final E3 Impressions

2011-06-07T16:11:00.000-05:00

So, E3's major conferences just finished today, and here's what I have to say:

Microsoft: Waaaayy too much about the Kinect. People go to E3 to see the latest and greatest, and if all you have to talk about is a bunch of casual titles, then I'm kind of concerned. On another topic of discussion, why on earth is Minecraft coming to the Xbox 360? Developed by another company? Being developed despite the fact that you have two other versions not even finished? Kinect support? Possibly a Kinect-only title? Who thought that was a good idea?

Sony: Even though there weren't very many surprises here, the PSV looks delicious, especially for the price. I just hope all the developers have the same idea as Naughty Dog does (about the touchscreen). The one bad thing is that you chose AT&T for the 3G service. Did you do any research about this decision?

Nintendo: The Wii U is what the Wii should have been. Unfortunately, it looks like you'll just be playing catch-up until you decide to beef up your console, and not try and make it like last generation's. The controller seems pretty uncomfortable, and although having a screen does have its pros, it overall makes the controller way too big. However, it looks like third-party developers are on-board with this console, with big names like Assassin's Creed coming to the platform. As for the 3DS, I'm glad to see you finally announced some titles, not to mention that they look really good. I'm not sure about the whole flying thing for Mario Kart, but StarFox, Super Mario, and... Super Smash Bros.!? I kind of want a 3DS now.

Programs you need to download.

2011-03-15T20:24:00.000-05:00

These are all programs you should have installed on your computer (for anyone and everyone). I suggest you at least read this, as you probably have some of these already.

1. (Free) Virus protection software
This is one thing pretty much everyone should have. What most people don't know is that free virus protection is actually better than the stuff you pay for. Software like Norton or McAfee normally give you more protection than you need (or want), slows your computer down, and can be really annoying when it asks for updates and stuff like that. I would suggest installing AVG Free, Microsoft Security Essentials, or Avast!.

2. A better internet browser
Time to face the truth: Internet Explorer is the worst browser out there. Because it is used by a TON of people, it's the most targeted for virus attacks and, therefore, the most exploited. It also is missing support for a lot of standardized web features and, as such, makes web developers' jobs a nightmare. Plus, other browsers have lots of great features that Internet Explorer doesn't have, a better design, and are faster by far. I suggest either Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox. (If you're still unsure why you should switch, or which one to choose, take a look at these pages.

(If you, for whatever reason, feel like you must use Internet Explorer, I urge you to at least download the new Internet Explorer 9. While still not the best choice out of all the browsers available, it's much better [and much more web-standards-compliant] than Internet Explorer 7 or 8.)

3. Some sort of office suite
Unfortunately, unlike the other two applications I suggested you download here, this one more than likely costs you money, but, trust me, it's worth it. Almost everyone one (Friends, family, work, school, etc.) uses Microsoft Office, and, if you don't, it's kind of hard to get around. I suggest Home and Studen t (or Professional, if you'd like Outlook, Publisher, or Access.)

Of course, if you really need to, there are some free alternatives. Google Docs, Open Office, and Microsoft Office Web Apps all offer about the same functionality (which is to say, not much). They all also let you read Office documents. Open Office is downloadable, if you'd like an offline client as well. I honestly would suggest actually buying Microsoft Office, but, if you're really that frugal, these are your best options.

That's all for now. I might add more later.

BEST. DAY. EVER.

2011-02-18T14:47:00.000-06:00

So it's a halfday, and an upcoming three day weekend. Pretty excited. Then this happened.

BEST. DAY. EVER.

LEAVE NOTCH ALONE

2011-02-06T23:11:00.000-06:00

I can't stand to hear people whine about how bad of a job Notch is doing. Seriously, he's one of, like, five programmers in a tiny little company. He made a fun game that a bunch of people bought, but you can't expect him to be some sort of EA CEO or something like that. He's doing his job, and a fine one at that. The game works well, apart from a few small bugs, and those bugs have never caused any serious damage. So leave the porr guy alone. He's got a great beard and an awesome hat. That's reason alone to love him.

Video Games and Violence, Fast Food, and Obscene Music

2011-01-24T23:36:00.000-06:00

I know, I know. It's the same old song and dance. Blah blah blah.

But, I found out today, fast food and video games and violence are very closely related. I'm sure you've heard of both of the "controversial issues.""Violent video games influence kids to make bad decisions." "Fast food makes you fat." "Today's rap is disgusting and infecting our kids minds." The list goes on and on. But these are all very closely related.

We are putting the blame on the wrong people.

Society today has some sort of issue with putting the blame on themselves. It is not video game companies' fault for infecting the minds of children. It's not fast food companies' fault for making kids fat. It's not rap artists' fault for giving teenagers bad ideas. It's the people that buy them.

Does the ESRB not do enough for you? They rate every game, give you reasons why, and even offer details about each specific game to those who want them. (They're free, online!) Does the news about fast food resturants not tell you enough? How it isn't real meat, how it's all bad for you? Do you not see the "EXPLICIT" marking on iTunes, or the "Parental Advisory" sticker on the album cover? These are all the precautions made for people that don't seem to understand why exactly something is bad.

And yet, somehow, people seem to make it "not their fault." How do you "unknowingly" show your ID when buying Grand Theft Auto for your kid, then find out it's obscene, then decide to blame the developer of the game, and not yourself?

This is what has made me so mad about the whole argument on video games and violence today, along with obscene lyrics and fast food. If you don't like it, don't buy it! You can talk about how horrible it is that other kids are getting their hands on some of this stuff when they really shouldn't be (and, heck, I agree with you), but you can't say that it's anyone else's fault but their own. There are already precautions in place to keep people from doing said things, and it's best to let those people be.

Video Game Review: Viewtiful Joe: Double Trouble

2011-01-19T00:06:00.001-06:00

I decided I might start doing things like this more often. Here goes.

Viewtiful Joe: Double Trouble is a successor to the supposedly amazing game, Viewtiful Joe on the GameCube. It was highly praised and is considered one of the best GameCube games of all time. This DS "sequel" is not.

To be honest, I've never played Viewtiful Joe before, so I was a bit confused when I started the game. Why did this guy just wander on to some movie set to try and beat an actor up, only to realize he can't use his powers outside of "movie world (whatever that is)?" What kind of superhero doesn't already know his weaknesses? This is how the first sequence takes placed. I figured that this guy only has real super powers in movies, but not off the set (or something like that), and now he wants to save the world from crime, but he can't for obvious reasons. Ok, makes sense to me. I guess.

Then we're told that some guy who Joe knows has this camera that lets him use his powers in the real world. It's never explained where this camera comes from or how it does what it does, it just appears with this old guy and he tells him to shout the magic words and power up. This is where I realized the story in this game probably isn't that great.

The game is your average beat-em-up side-scroller. You find robots (who's appearance are also unexplained) using your "V-Power." V-Power gives Joe special abilities, such as the ability to slow down time, or the ability to... scratch enemies? What?

Yes, you're supposed to scratch enemies, and it's treated like kicking or punching someone. It's supposed to be for enemies that are, in a sense, blocking your attacks by attacking you. The problem with this is that it's out of the way. It's hard to pull out your stylus and start scratching the enemy in the alloted time, and you can't see anything if you stab your finger around on the screen.

At this point, I stopped playing the game.

I will commend Capcom for making a game that, aside from the touchscreen aspects, didn't use the DS's gimmicks. The top screen shows you fighting, the bottom screen just shows a more zoomed in view. The microphone, to my knowledge, is never used. This is surprising for a game released fairly early in the DS's lifecycle, when features like these were abused to no end.

Capcom also did a good job with the graphics. They pushed the limits of the DS by making pretty big levels with a bunch of moving, 3D objects. They also utilized "cell shading," something the DS excells at. So, all in all, the graphics aren't that bad either.

So,what's the problem?

Double Trouble has controls that work, apart from the touchscreen aspect, which is a pretty hard concept to grasp. The graphics aren't that bad, and it doesn't abuse the DS's features. The real issue is that that's about it. There's nothing very interesting about this game. You beat up bad guys and move on. The story is barely a story at all, as things just seem to happen with no explanation. There is no online or multiplayer, there's no cool feature that changes the game at all. It's just a regular beat-em-up.

I'd give this game a 7/10. It's not horrible by any means, but there's nothing to keep you interested, and the touch screen thing just doesn't work. If you want a regular beat-em-up, this game is what you want, but it doesn't seem to change a whole lot as nothing seems to happen ever.

Album Update

2010-12-08T23:13:00.000-06:00

Yeah, so, a lot of you are probably wondering if this album is coming out or not. It is... Just not now. The long standing problem is that we need a way to make beats and music, but I've been too lazy to do that. However, after some of my friends from school found out that I'm an amazing album, they're just desperate to have this released. So, no turning back now... Hopefully I'll get FL Studio for Christmas. If not, I'll just buy it myself. We'll see.

I'm also thinking about not doing a remake and just making a new album entirely. I have so many good ideas for songs that I originally just wanted to be bonus tracks on the new album. But now I think I have more bonus tracks than albums.

I've actually written a whole rap, all from scratch. I wrote it to rap at Cross Country practice, and expanded it to a full-length song. In my opinion, it reads better as a poem than a rap, but I'm sure I can make some modifications.

If you guys are really desperate, I'll post the rap here. But it is pretty gruesome, so. Yeah. I got a reputation to keep. :P

Things that irritate me about Facebook

2010-11-08T19:07:00.001-06:00

1. When your profile picture is not a portrait of you. It's not as bad when it's a group shot or something with you at least in it, but when you post, then you get some closeup of three people or something like that and you can't tell who the heck it's supposed to be.
Then there are the people too lazy to even upload a profile picture. Come on, you have to have one of you SOMEWHERE.
Then there are the people who upload some "funny" image as their profile picture. No. That's not you. I don't care if it's on your wall or whatever, but the profile picture helps people identify who you are. And you are not a dancing cat.
Then there are the people who take a picture of something else (like, an object) and set it as their profile picture. I've seen this only once, but it's still there. Seriously. What the heck.

2. When someone talks in chatspeak on Facebook. This is not Twitter or a text message. You don't have a character limit. In fact, most people get on Facebook out of boredom. So you basically have all the time you want. So you don't need to spend less time typing (and therefore making yourself look stupid), when you could make yourself seem somewhat smart. (This is worse with some people than others)

3. When you don't understand the difference between private and public. Nobody wants to see you talking to your boyfriend about how hot he is on his wall. That's what a private message is for.

4. When someone likes 800 pages in one day. We get an update in our newsfeed when that happens, so everyone can see that you liked 147 pages today. Go spend your time doing something else.

5. When you accept anyone's friend request. What's the point of making your profile private when you accept a friend request from anyone?

6. When you take a picture of yourself in the mirror while holding a camera. Sure, it's easy, but you look like an idiot. Just point the lens at your face and shoot.

7. When someone uses a Facebook application that posts on their wall or someone else's. I don't want to get an update that tells me you're 23% Asian, or that you need me to help you find your dog on Farmville. Nobody else does, either.

These are just a few of the many things. I don't expect any of these to change, but I'll use these as a list of things I won't do on Facebook.

Facebook

2010-11-06T18:09:00.000-05:00

I gots a Facebook. You can friend me or whatever here.

Mark Farmer

Create Your Badge

To be honest, if you're reading this, I've probably already friended you (because I think only Micheal, Josh, and Jared read this anymore), but, hey, doesn't hurt.

Why?

2010-09-19T18:38:00.000-05:00

Why?

Team Fortress 2 Theme

2010-09-18T10:57:00.005-05:00

I've always wanted to do something like this, and last night, we finally did.

Ian's on bass, Josh is on guitar, Josh is on cello, and I'm on Violin. This take doesn't sound as great, but below, you can find our edited one (where we each recorded individually), and we fixed a few mistakes we made in the above video.

Fred

2010-09-14T21:48:00.000-05:00

Recently, I noticed the extreme love or hatred the world has with Fred.

If you don't already know, Fred is one of the biggest internet stars. He has the most subscribers on YouTube, and has one of the most-watched videos online as well. His videos are about a supposed kindergartner that is normally picked on in and outside of school. Here's one of his most famous videos:

But only until now did I realize how much people hate Fred. Before, it was really simple: Either you thought his videos were funny or you didn't. But now, it runs much deeper. Ex-fans are freaking out because of his most recent videos, which, in my opinion, are much high quality than the "original" ones show above. The fact that he's making a movie about his character also just adds to the fire.

Some people are rabid fans of Fred, and it's understandable as to why. His videos (at the time) were very original, and were directed towards the audience of girls that liked completely random stuff happening repeatedly, and also made the "high-pitched voices are funny" concept more popular. Again, he's the most subscribed person on YouTube, with close to 2 million subscribers. In fact, in a recent interview with Lucas Cruikshank (Fred), he said one fan came to two of his merchandise signings, 8 hours away from each other.

But then there are those who hate Fred. Some merely dislike his videos. Others don't like his high-pitched scream. But recently, there have been those who dislike his recent advancements. Just a year or two ago, large media corporations picked up on Fred's popularity, and has since used it to their advantage. He's been the subject of dozens of sponsorships, and his fans have defiantly noticed.

On one of his videos, lolaloveable260 made this comment:

"Dude, these videos are getting so lame... they used to be funny. Then you signed up with Nick and it's like, **** dude, just stop. This isn't funny and soon enough you'll have more dislikes than likes. You're too old for this ****, aren't you sick of this yet?

Come up with something new, dude. You had fame and now you're falling to the bottom, just like every other celebrity who didn't play their cards right."

And now, it's time for my opinion.

I do not like Fred's videos, but that doesn't mean I hate Fred or Lucas Cruikshank. In fact, the one thing I hate about Fred is the general population's outright disgust for Fred and his works. Comments like the one above make me think, "How can you hate someone this much?" And then there are the videos of "Fred gets shot!" "Fred gets blended!" and so on.

First of all, Fred is a star, and his fans have to come to terms with that. Fred is not just some YouTube celebrity anymore. His new movie shows that he is an actor, not just some kid messing around with his mom's camera. People like lolaloveable260 don't seem to understand that one of the worst things Fred could do is to keep doing the same old stuff over and over. If anything, his new videos are an improvement. There's much more quality, content, and actual humor in them. They've made me laugh a few times, whereas his older videos didn't.

So, basically, in conclusion, people that hate Fred need to have an honest legitimate reason, and people that are "ex-fans" need to realize who Fred is now, and his current potential.

That is all.

Supa Cool Stuff - 7/22/2010

2010-07-22T15:12:00.001-05:00

Here's some neat news of the now. Maybe I'll do this more often. I dunno.

Telltale Games is attending the Comic Con, and in honor of the event, they've put pretty much all their games on sale. Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People is only $5, and seasons one and two of Sam & Max are only $10 as well. Check it out!

Speaking of money-spending opportunities, Lemon Demon has put their greatest hit, The Ultimate Showdown, up for download on the Rock Band Network! It's $2, but is only available to those who own Rock Band 2 on the Xbox 360 (for now...).

For those who don't already know, Valve has created a free co-op alien shooter called Alien Swarm, and released it a few days ago. It's free, so why not download it?

So, yeah, that's about it for today. Oh, here's a cool picture.

Awesome Sbarro Cash Register

2010-06-22T23:43:00.000-05:00

Next time you have a chance to go the Sbarro (the one at the Chesterfield Mall, obviously), make sure you take a look at the unused cash register. You'll find that it will occasionally show the message "c-c-c-combo BREAKER". It's a video game reference only some people will get, but I thought it was awesome.

Auto-Tune

2010-06-21T13:54:00.001-05:00

I've been reading about peoples opinions of Auto-Tune, and figured I'd throw in my own two cents on it.

In case you don't know, Auto-Tune is a program used to alter the pitch in peoples music. It was originally only used sparingly, to fix small mistakes in music. However, in 1998, Cher released her hit single, Believe, which introduced the world to what is now know as the "T-Pain Effe ct" (as Cher used it in one song, however, T-Pain used the effect in all of his songs). You can especially hear it when they hold long notes.

Apparently, some people hate this with a passion, (such as Jay-Z, who wrote an entire song about how much he hates Auto-Tune) and I have no idea why. Some say that if an artist uses it, they aren't a true artist. But, to be honest, I don't think any of their fans care. I mean, as long as they come out and sat, "Hey guys, I'm not a pitch-perfect robot, I use Auto-Tune," then I don't see why you would hate them for using it. All of their fans know he/she uses Auto-Tune, and they're still their fans, so I don't think it makes them any less of an artist.

Others stereotype the artists and say that anyone that uses Auto-Tune sucks. Not because they could be considered "fake" artists, but because, apparently, using Auto-Tune can somehow contribute as a factor of why you hate an artist. For example, some people say that Justin Bieber is a bad artist because his lyrics are repetative, he sounds/looks like a girl, and seems like he's 10 years old. These people would also say that he "uses Auto-Tune," as if that makes him seem any worse, when it doesn't. (Although I do dislike him and his works)

Please comment with your opinions.

Michael Playing Kirby

2010-06-04T23:10:00.002-05:00

A while back, after summer camp I believe, my friend Michael and I were on our way back home, and I decided to record him playing Kirby Super Star Ultra. Here's what happened:

Cool Things Google Can Do

2010-05-14T21:36:00.000-05:00

So, we all know Google is awesome, and about all of the neat services it provides. However, he's some cool things you can do just by searching specific terms into the search bar:

Weather: Search "weather [city, state]"
Stocks: Search the ticker symbol for the stock
Time: Search "time [city]"
Calculator: Search the math equation. (You can use ^ for exponents and "sqrt" for the square root). You can also use the calculator to convert measurements.
Earthquakes: Search "earthquake [city, state]" or "earthquake"
Population/Unemployment rate: Search "population [state]" or "unemployment rate [state]"
Dictionary: Search "define [word]"
Local search: Search "[general category] [ZIP code]" (For example, "itallian food 63011")
Movies: Search "movies [ZIP code]" or "[movie title] [ZIP code]" for showtimes
Health: Search a health term (Ex. "asthma")
Poison control: Search "poison control" to find the Poison Control Hotline
Suicide prevention: Search "suicide" to find the Suicide Prevention Hotline
Flu shots: Search "flu" to find locations in your area that give flu shots during flu season
Arline information: Search "[airline] [flight number]" or [city/airport code] airport" for flight delays and current arrival/departure times
Map: Search "[city/state] map"
Related sites: Search "related:[website address]" to find sites related to that website
Package tracking: Search any tracking number for a USPS, FedEx, or UPS package to track its current location
Patents: Search "patent [patent number]"
Area code locations: Search an area code to find where it is located

That's not to mention the other countless services Google runs. Check them all out. They're all really great.

Spring 2010 Orchestra Concert

2010-05-12T21:47:00.001-05:00

Here's us playing at our orchestra concert that we had today!

Also, I got a rose. :D

Prepositional Music

2010-04-14T22:53:00.000-05:00

Our class needed to memorize some prepositions for an upcoming test. This proved to be a difficult task, so my friend created a song of the prepositions. He just recorded himself saying them and then set it to some music. As he said himself, it sucked.

Preposition Song sound bite

Sound bits

2010-04-11T17:53:00.002-05:00

I found these sound bits, so I figured I'd upload them to share with you guys.

After a long practice hike for Philmont, Jared and I recorded these in the car on the way home. They're really boring. But, here they are.

Me Talking in the Car sound bite

Jared Talking in the Car sound bite

Edumacational Filmature

2010-04-04T23:23:00.003-05:00

New videro:

Pretty funny. Seriously, sit through it all. It's good. Here's the bloopers:

BONUS:Want in on those totally scientific drawings? Get high-res pics here!

Orchestra Concert, Comin' Right Up!

2010-03-31T22:23:00.001-05:00

Here's teh music I'm playing at my upcoming orchestra concert. In order from favorite to least favorite:

Toccatina - William Hofeldt
Dance of the Tumblers (from Snow Maiden) - Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakoff (Arr. by Sandra Dackow)
Korean Folk Song Variants - Arirang (Arr. by Elliot Del Borgo)

So, yeah. There you go. More coming up... later, or something like that.

Confirmation Fun!!11!1!!

2010-03-30T21:46:00.009-05:00

So, yeah, I'm offically confirmed now. Here's me giving my testimony.

Here's my testimony. FUN STUFF. LEIK IT? POST COMMENTS.

Also, check out my new subdomains!
aba.jamco.biz
videos.jamco.biz
jmmc.jamco.biz
blog.jamco.biz

AWESUM.

Psst. Check out this website. This guy makes some cool music.

2012 Review

2010-03-13T20:39:00.001-06:00

Ok, so, I just saw 2012, and, to be honest, it wasn't all that good. To say the least, it was very predictable, very unrealistic, and was full of cheesy "comedy."

*SPOILER ALERT*

Essentially, this movie is about destruction. The core of the Earth is really hot for some reason, and it's making everything move and burst into flames. I will say, visually, the movie was great. Everything looked realistic. However, some parts were way too generic. Here are a few scenes:

The Earth is falling just behind the group of escaping main characters, as we see the landscape lowering just behind them. (This happens more than once)
Two buildings are falling vertically into each other. The main characters in the plane fly right between them.
Main character falls into bottomless pit. Just as the other characters are getting ready to leave, the main character comes out of the pit and makes it back to the rest of the characters

As you can see, these scenes were easy to predict and were expected in a movie like this.

The unrealistic comes into play just a few minutes into the movie. Although movies like this tend to not be as realistic as normal, even meaningless events made no sense. In one scene, we find out that, two days before the Earth "explodes" or whatever, the Chinese have already built gigantic ships to carry away the wealthiest and richest people. This happens in mere weeks of finding the exact date of destruction. The characters say a generic racist joke and move on. I, on the other hand, and wondering how anyone could draw up these plans and still have time to make the ships.

And, finally, the comedy. You'd think that, in a time of an international crisis such as this, that there'd be no time for laughing, much less bad jokes. Unfortunately, that's not the case, as characters crack jokes like "we lost it all in Vegas" and "we're going to need a bigger plane," along with (harmless) racist jokes, potty jokes, and more.

*END SPOILER*

So, overall, it was ok. At least the movie made sense. I was able to follow along well, and got to know each of the characters. And, as I said, the visuals were good. However, I think this sums the movie up; Here were the last two lines:

Little Girl: I'm not scared. No more Pull-Ups.
Main Character: Nice.

Laser Tag, Baby Aliens, and Club Penguin

2010-02-28T01:36:00.000-06:00

Today, we had an outreach event for our youth group, where we played laser tag and ate pizza. We were supposed to invite someone that didn't go to church, so I invited Josh. During the laser tag, we had the greatest time.

If you've ever been to Sports Fusion, and played a game of laser tag, you'll know that the most sought-after area during the game is the "sniping spot." If your team can take over that one small location, you will dominate. Naturally, Josh and I went for this spot. When we got up there, a few kids had already "claimed it." So, we though, "Eh, we can take them." Then we ran into this 5-6 year old. He apparently was supposed to stand guard. However, instead of "shooting people to make them leave" he "pushed people out of the area." Obviously, this kid was way too young to have any strength to push us out. He was strong, I will admit, but all he really did was push you around. You could easily just walk away from him. This is where I did my favorite thing I like to do in this situation, which is to be calm and do absolutely nothing. While this kid pushed me around and started shouting "GET OUT. YOU'RE OUT," I talked to him, and said things like, "Is this how you normally handle situations? Do you just push people around?"

Josh, on the other hand, outsmarted him. This kid was about to charge at Josh, when Josh stepped out of the way. This caused the kid to crash into the wall, which caused him to get angry. Then he decided to literally pistol whip us, because pushing wasn't working. I kept talking to him the whole time, getting absolutely no response. After a while, some other kids came and realized what was happening, and told some of the "referees." Apparently, this kid was running away from them at that point. When the game was over, we came out and the kid tried to get us to not say anything to the staff. How stupid does he think we are?

Afterwords, we signed up for another game of laser tag. In this game, we did the same thing: Went for the sniping spot. Once we got there, a bunch of other kids came. Instead of fighting them, we told them to stay up there with us. This formed an alliance, which meant that out of the 4-5 times there, three of them were on our side. We owned.

After we came home, we watched a show called Nanalan'. This is a show for preschoolers that teaches them things, like about butterflies, or cleaning. This show was prime game for Josh and I to make fun of. The website has clips of the show, so you can see just how weird it is. We have a lot of fun making fun of it.

Then, we went on and poked at some people on Club Penguin. It was tons of fun, because these people figured that, instead of going to their "igloo" (which is a private home only certain people can enter) or change servers so I can't find them, they just run around the map, in hopes we will leave them alone. To be honest, we didn't do much. We merely shouted odd things in their presence. (I would write more, but I am tired.)

So, yeah . That was my day. Good stuff.

Orchestra Concert

2010-02-24T22:33:00.002-06:00

We had our orchestra concert today. It went pretty well. My favorite piece we played was Allegro, but I think we played One-Bow Concerto better than any of our other pieces.

Anyway, I've already uploaded all of our concert videos, so, here they are (in order from my favorite to... not so favorite)

Now,I know a lot of you (or at least Brandon Powers) are probably wondering where the aforementioned "One-Bow Concerto" is. Well, conveniently, the camera batteries died at the start of that piece, and, coincidentally, my dad decided to put the other batteries in the camera AFTER that piece.

I am also planning on uploading last years concert videos soon. (I have no idea why I haven't already). We might also have some exclusive high-quality recording done the day of the concert. (However, it is unknown WHEN we will get said recording)

Speaking of high quality, on my website, I made the latest video downloads conversions of the raw video file (in other words, the downloads are higher quality than the YouTube video, although it's usually the other way around) If you have iTunes or Windows Media Player, you can actually stream these downloads without downloading them, instead of watching the YouTube video, which is, again, lower quality. (Although, I'm not sure if streaming with WMP works. I tried it, and it buffered A LOT.)

So, yeah. Any questions or comments, leave a, well, comment. I love to hear from your guyz.

To "Jack Prouty"

2010-02-22T18:52:00.002-06:00

Mark Farmer

c/o Cheap As Free Inc.
2976 Mishler Road

Mio, MI 48647

February 22, 2010

Jack Prouty

4719 Cole Avenue, Room 12

Dallas, TX 75205-3516

Dear Mr. Prouty:

We regret to inform you that your order of "#8187 Tranquilizer Darts (10)" and "#8191 Tranquilizer Gun, Silver" are out of stock at the time, as we no longer carry these items, as the law prohibits us from selling them any longer. Enclosed is a full refund of your order, including shipping and handling. (Please contact the Internal Revenue Service [IRS] for your tax refund)

As per request, we also have an update on your order of "#6773 Plug & Play 'Robo Robby: Ultimate Destroyer' Lifelike Robot (1/2 size)." We at Cheap As Free Inc. rely on only the best materials from the most suspicious companies, and are taking great care in creating your robot. However, being a commercial business, our need for human organs (which are required to build your order) is small in comparison to humans. We have recently been informed that we are number 36 on the "Heart Donor" list and number 47 on the "Kidney Donor" list at at Mercy Hospital. If requested, we can contact anyone on our list of available "organ harvesters," although partially illegal and whose work are of diminished quality. This would be a secret "under-the-table" operation, and only between you and one of our reliable businessmen here at Cheap As Free Inc.

If you need to, contact us by phone at (800)CHEAP-CO or (800)243-2726, or online at CheapAsFree.com. If needed, personal contact can be provided by giving the order number "88616" when asked. Please do not reply to this address.

Sincerely,

Mark Farmer

Concert Preview

2010-02-17T19:56:00.002-06:00

I should be uploading a concert preview to my website sooner or later. It will be unfinalized recordings of our class playing our concert pieces. Hope you enjoy them!

EDIT: Turns out I am not able to get ahold of the require materials to provide this entertainment. Hope to see you at the concert!

Musings...

2010-02-12T23:16:00.000-06:00

I'm bored. I have a lot on my mind right now...

First of all, I'm disappointed in whoever created the Ocean's Eleven soundtrack. I've just recently saw the movie, and have been listening to jazz music lately, and loved the music. I went to buy it, and hated the album. It contains all the music from the movie, but they took the time to interrupt the music with dialog from the movie. At the beginning and end of the song, they insert unrelated dialog for no reason whatsoever. Now I'm angry that I can't enjoy the music, if I chose to buy the album.

Next up on my mind is the Star Wars Holiday Special. I saw someone essentially summarize the "movie" with clips and such. It was, by far, the worst film I had ever seen. Unlike my previous worst movie (Manos the Hands of Fate), where the plotline made no sense, and it seemed like the cast/crew didn't even try, this film contained all the cast from the movie, good effects, crew, etc. Which is exactly why it beats Manos the Hands of Fate. Instead of just being a bad movie, this film seemed like someone actually tried and failed at creating it.

The plotline revolves around the fact that Chewbacca and Han Solo are in space, being attacked by the evil guys, and are running late for the "Life Day" celebration. This makes Chewbacca's family depressed and anxious. Instead of anyone going on some sort of quest to help them out, they wait around in their house doing pointless crap, and forcing the viewers to watch it too. Full instructions for putting together a transmitter, how to make some worthless recipe, what goes on in the mind of the "grandpa" Chewbacca, and other pointless stuff. It's hard to explain without actually seeing the film, but, just remember, if you choose to watch it, you will DEFINATLY regret it.

Also on my mind was this picture I helped Josh Photoshop. I essentially gathered and cropped the images, he added all the cool effects. Check it out:

Awesome, right? I know, I know.

I have other things I COULD say, but I guess I'd rather keep them to myself for now. Maybe later I'll talk about them. Until then... Here's a quote:

"Be polite. Be efficient. Have a plan to kill everyone you meet."
-The Sniper, Team Fortress 2

Well, here you go.

2010-02-04T22:13:00.000-06:00

My blog is now on Blogger, and hopefully safe from being moved around all over the place. Hope it works. :D

Mah Blog!

2010-01-27T22:47:00.003-06:00

Some of the pictures aren't working. I tried fixing them, but to no avail. I'll work on it later. :P

JAMCO.BIZ

2010-01-13T17:22:00.001-06:00

I just finished up the website a few days ago. I would have told you, but I accidentally deleted the blog. I still have all the old posts, and it's all fixed now, so it's ok. Hope you like it! Give me feedback in the comments or send me an email at webmaster@jamco.biz.

Abducted By Some More Aliens!

2009-11-15T21:21:00.002-06:00

Sorry for the lack of posts latly. I've been pretty busy with homework and Windows 7.

Anyway, most of my work is now being focused here. Follow. Subscribe. Become blinded with awesomeness. This is Abducted By Aliens: Collectors Edition.

An Unveiling

2009-10-11T17:44:00.003-05:00

Ok, let's make this short: When I was little, I ~~wrote~~ ad-libbed and recording songs and distributed them to... others. These songs made no sense, included nonsense words, were ~~written~~ ad-libbed within hours, and included fake "features."

Well, for those of you that didn't pick up your copy, too bad. BUT, I can compensate by creating a Collector's Edition with remixes and bonus songs, right?

Yes, Abducted By Aliens: Collector's Edition is currently in production. I suspect it will be ready by this holiday season, but seeing as I just got this idea this morning, that could just as easily change. However, to prove to you guys that this isn't CSM 3, or George and Tom, or any other project I backed out of, Josh and I have created some album art. FUN STUFFZ.

Adobe Fun!

2009-08-23T16:58:00.004-05:00

I finally got Adobe Master CS3 thing. I got all the awesome products. Photoshop, Flash, Dreamweaver... Expect awesomeness in the next few months.

Here is our first Photoshop picture. Josh made this one.

Video Games and Violence

2009-08-12T14:15:00.002-05:00

Want to know how bored I got? So bored I wrote something. Check it out. Discuss in the comments.

Computer Time

2009-08-12T09:05:00.002-05:00

This summer, I've been on the computer. A lot. After I combined my two computers, I was able to play Team Fortress 2, and that game is awesome. Josh and I keep on playing it. Over. And over. And over.

Apparently, my parents have been concerned about this, saying it has caused me loss of sleep, grumpiness, and lack of activity. This morning, I was told I'm going to have a limit of 6 hours on the computer. Great.

However, that's just in the summer. During school (which starts in, like, a week) I get 4 hours. Whoopie. I realized that that's just 3 hours until after school, and an hour after dinner. But that's when I use the computer the most. No body's outside, no one's willing to do any physical activity... The only people around are the ones on Team Fortress 2. No, I'm not about to go on and say, "My only friends are virtual friends..." I'm not friends with any of these people (half of them curse all the time). I'm just saying that that's what I do at night.

Still, if I don't use any of my "hours" after school, that leaves me to 10:00 PM, which is when I go to sleep on a school night. So, I'm kind of mad right now, but I'm sure I'll get over it. :P

8th Grade Orientation Is Tomorrow.

2009-08-03T20:54:00.004-05:00

No no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no.

Spore

2009-07-31T10:10:00.004-05:00

GameStop is having a FREAKING HUGE SALE that only lasts until the second! Buy buy buy! Hundreds of games under $20!!!!

Today, I'm going to get Spore. In case you didn't know, Spore is one of the biggest games ever. It allows you to create and run a whole entire species. It's like the ultimate life simulator. It will be awesome.

EDIT: Never mind. I found out it's $40, which is still pretty expensive. Now I'm passing the time playing demos of World of Goo and Wallace and Gromit: Fright of the Bumble Bees and the full episode of Sam & Max: Abe Lincoln Must Die! Fun, huh? :P

Walmart Neighborhood Market

2009-07-30T13:12:00.004-05:00

I just remembered something from my trip to Dallas I thought I might show you.
Did anyone know there was such a thing as the Walmart Neighborhood Market? I had never heard of them before, until we went there at our trip to Dallas. It's apparently a Walmart Supercenter with all the Walmart stuff taken out. So, really, it's just a grocery store. I had never seen these before, and I thought it was so interesting that Walmart, which is really just a generic department store, is making money off of a branch off a branch. Walmart never intended to sell food at the Walmart, but that's what they do at the Supercenters, just because it could make more money. Now, they're rolling out something that, if the Supercenters weren't even made, would have nothing to do with Walmart.

And get this: They're making something else that's the same thing! The new "Marketside" is the same thing as the Walmart Neighborhood Market, but it doesn't carry the Walmart label. Weird, huh?

Bored again!?!

2009-07-29T18:14:00.004-05:00

Obama will save our country. Literally.

Today's REAL Blog Post - Belated Anniversary

2009-07-27T22:34:00.002-05:00

First of all, I just wanted to say happy vera belated birthday to my blog. A couple years ago, I made four posts. One told readers that Wal★Mart sucked, and tried to explain why. Now, I explain further...

The year was... Uh... 2007... I was in the grade of the fifths. *coughcough* Ok, so, in 5th grade, for our "learn-how-to-type" class, we had to make a newsletter about something interesting. Or... Some interesting things. So, I wrote about a TV show I had seen on PBS, showing how Wal★Mart killed off the Rubbermaid brand. I thought the topic was controversial, yet sense-makeable, so I picked it as my topic. Now, around that same time, I probably made this blog... Or, at least its counterpart. So, I decided to try and post my views there. Unfortunatly, the post wasn't being graded, so I made little effort to explain my opinion. Evenually, the post got smothered with other classics, such as the "It Stink's To Grow Up!" and "It's The End of the Blog As We Know It..." Anyway, there you go.

Another post was about how video game companies should all exchange positions every few years, and we could vote on top dog. This post just showed how broken my imagination was, and how freakin' bored I was at the time. It only exemplified the fact that my life was really mundane, and my only hope was this small blog. My first post wasn't really attracting readers either, but I was impatient to see it go down. In other word, this was just another failed attempt at at least 3.5 seconds of fame.

My third post of the day tried to throw a celebrity into the mix, and hope that some viewership came out of it. All it did was show that I really didn't know the celebrity (or how to speel) all that much either.

My fourth, and quite honestly first, post told all 'yalls to come here, where teh REAL partyz at! *coughcough*

So anyway, there's another insight to my dull life. Hoping for some more blog action tomorrow.

boredom

2009-07-27T22:29:00.003-05:00

See, this is what happens when you lurk around the internet. You find pictures like this.

Today's slow progress and Dallas.

2009-07-21T21:58:00.003-05:00

Don't you hate it when you think of something to do when it's late at night? Last night, I thought, "Tomorrow, I'm going to do so much stuff!" But I woke up today having no idea what that stuff was. So, I wasted away my day getting my iTunes Library ready. Then, right now, I remember that I was going to post my new bathroom blogs. At 10:00. Oh well. Look for those tomorrow. (Hopefully)

Anyway, today, after I had gotten all the music I wanted into my library, I started converting them into AACs. (For those that don't know, AAC is slowly becoming the preferred music codec over MP3s.) I thought iTunes was smart, but alas, no. It started converting of my music into AACs, regardless of weather or not they already were, which erases some somewhat important content, which I would rather have if I didn't need to get rid of it. It also converted the file, but kept the old one in the library, requiring me to delete the old files. This makes the process much harder. But it will get done sometime sooner or later.

Also, in case you were wondering, yes, Dallas was awesome, and I can't wait to go again. And trust me, we WILL be going again.

Team Fortress 2

2009-07-14T17:37:00.000-05:00

(For some reason, I couldn't add any more text to my lat post...)

Anyway, my computer is fast enough that I can start playing TF2! I love the game, it's a lot of fun. Josh and I are going to be playing it all night!

Biking and Team Fortress 2

2009-07-14T17:08:00.001-05:00

Today, Karen and Sarah, Josh's sister, wanted to go on a bike ride to Planet Smoothie. Josh and I went with them, but told them to hang on, because we just ate.

After 20 or 30 minutes, they started continualy bugging us on leaving. After a while, we left.

Now, Karen's a bit slow. That's understandable. But these two kept stopping and slowing down for no reason. We told them that they need to pick it up a bit, and left it. But then, as we ride up a hill, they start yelling, "Slow down!" We slow down and wait for them, but as soon as they gut up the hill, they start going, "Come on! Let's go!" O_o

We stop, and say, "Look, we don't care if you're slow, just don't tell US to speed up." "Why?" I then explain what just happened. "So?" Sarah says, with a smile on her face. Josh says, "Sarah, stop."

Everything was fine until we got ready to leave Planet Smoothie. I say, "Ok, let's go." "No, we're not done yet!" "Karen, we've beenhere for 45 minutes. I just went into Dierbergs, bought something, and came back." "So? We haven't finished yet!" "So throw it away." "But I want to finish it!" "So take it with you." "I can't do that!" Now, Karen poked a hole through her's, so she thre her's away. But Sarah wouldn't give her's up. We finally convinced her to bring it. But as soon as we leave, "I can't take this! I'm just going to throw it away." *FACEPALM*

Also, we went down a hill, and saw them breaking the entire way down. We tell them, "Look, you're far away enough as it is. You can't be braking down the hill." "But we're scared!" *sigh*

On the way back, Sarah keeps stopping. We stop, and see what's up. She said something keps falling off her bike. I look, and it's just the cap covering a screw. I just took it and gave it to her afterwards. So yeah, we won't be doing THAT any time soon.

But, in other news, I've started combining my two computers! I'm almost done, I just need to put in a video card and do some cleanup.

But now, my computer is fast enough

Twilight

2009-07-08T22:35:00.002-05:00

No, this isn't going to be a rant on Twilight. Just a run-in I had today. I was up at Josh's, and so was Karen. She was watching Twilight with Sarah. Josh and I were going downstairs, when we see the girls watching the movie. We race downstairs and slam the door. We then discussed plans on grabbing our electronics and foodstuffs as fast as we could. As we got the food, the girls didn't understand that Twilight was a chick flick.

We tried explaining to them that it was a gender issue, and that the movie wasn't for guys. They still didn't understand. Then we said, "How about Alien VS. Predator. The movie is for guys, not girls. It's more mature." They respond, "But it has cussing and blood!" I said, "We're talking about a gender issue here, not a parental view. Guys like more 'mature' titles." Still, no idea. We gave up and left.

Please tell me that this isn't just me, and that you agree that some movies, such as Twilight, are for girls, and some movies, like Alien VS. Predator, are for guys.

More Than Harrasment

2009-07-07T09:22:00.003-05:00

A few days ago, I posted on here about EnzoLegend. Well, guess what? He's not done yet. He's continued with his shenanigans, what with the lying, and the making everything a big deal, especially when he is involved?

Well, we took another look at his profile the other day, and something scared us. He signed up with Josh's junk e-mail address. We quickly created a UT against him, telling the moderators just that. They too seemed confused. Investigating, they told us something even more shocking: This person signs on with Josh's IP address.

Which begs the question: Who is this person? He's either a great hacker, or someone we know. Could it be a family member? A neighbor? Josh himself?

YOU DECIDE
2009

Fourth of July at Innsbrook

2009-07-04T22:54:00.002-05:00

As some of you may know, our family goesout to a chalet owned by our grandparents every Fourth of July and Memorial Day. At least, we try to. On Memoial Day, there's a big party thing with free food, live music, and children attractions. On the Fourth of July, there's a big fireworks show. So we cameout here on Thursday, both because of the fireworks show and because my dad loves the place, and gets Friday off. Really, I wasn't up to it. I thought we were leaving on Friday afternoon, and I would much rather be with Josh checking out the only two Bugatti Veyron Grand Sports in the Western hemisphere.

However, once I got out here, I realised that I was just really tired from staying up until two-thirty the night before, and had forgotten how much I loved this place. Wow, has time flew. Here I am, writing this in the last few minutes before the end of the day, and I can't believe the weekend is almost over. But anyway, that's not why I'm writing you.

The real reason I'm writing is because of the fireworks show. I was so settled in that I hadn't gotten out of my pajamas, and it was 6:00. We ate, layed around some more, knowing that sooner or later, we would all leave to see the fireworks show. Well, we left unprepared. We just got up, grabbed a bunchof stuff, and left. Bad idea.

We forgot the fact that it looked like it was going to rain. Sort of. We had some umbrellas and stuff, but really, if it rained, we wouldn't really be prepared. So we got out there, set up, waited, and it rained. We alljust picked up everything and ran back to the car. Then is started pouring. We all just sat there and wondered if it was still on or not. We watched others. Some were leaving. Some were moving. Some were staying. What were we going to do? Mom and Karen decided it was too wet, and they weren't getting out again. Should we leave as well, and find a better place to park and watch? Would it matter if the show was canceled? If we can't park there, could we get our spot back? We weren't sure. So, instead of deciding, we just sat there. We rolled down the window to see if the music was still playing. It was.

Then, the rain stopped. Dad and I got out, to hear what they were saying over the speakers. We were going to grab the chairs, just in case, when we heard someone say it was officaly canceled. We looked at each other, and told mom and Karen. But, we still wanted to hear, so we left the chairs and went anyway. Good idea! It was either canceled, then started, or started, but it was on.

It was so cool. As cool as it always is, of cource. :P I ran back and grabbed the tripod to take some great pictures, which turned out really well. I also took a few on my phone. But when I turned around, I saw something really cool, and also a little sad.

A van had driven off the side of the road, and needed the assistance of a tow truck to drag it out. This stopped all the trafic of people coming and going. But as the fireworks started, everyone got out of their cars and stood on the side of the road and watched. It was just like one of those movies, where two people go do something, and the whole community gets involved, and then there's a street party.

Now, I wrote this post and hour ago, and the internet connection out here is so intermetient, that I took me an hour to post this blog. So you better like it.

(SIDE NOTE: As I ran to and from the car to grab the tripod, I felt like I was running from a bombing. What with all of the lights, the booms, the people trying to leave as fast as they could, me running as fast as I could... Or maybe I just have mental issues.)

Billy Mays

2009-06-28T15:55:00.001-05:00

Ah, yes, I almost forgot...

REST IN PEACE

BILLY MAYS

JULY 20, 1958 - JUNE 28, 2009

ACC and EnzoLegend

2009-06-28T15:28:00.004-05:00

Many of you may know that I hang out on a website called Animal Crossing Community, or ACC for short. It's a forum where I can talk to other people about video games and stuff like that.

So, the other day, I got a private message titled "U R wrong." This person told me that I was "retarted" and that the Nintendo DS Browser didn't exist. I OWN the Nintendo DS Browser. We went back and forth until I couldn't bear it anymore and said that it doesn't make any sense to argue with a loser, and I left.

Well today, he expanded, and let his stupidity go public. For more of EnzoLegend's antics, please, read below.

EnzoLegend Lies About the DS (in Private)
EnzoLegend Lies About the DS (in Public)
EnzoLegend Lies About Cars

(For a better viewing experience, please read posts regarding what EnzoLegend says. His avatar is the large bear with a purple background.)

Also, some more information about this person. Here is his profile. Points of interest are the "Currently Playing" section, the "Signature" section, and the "Other Stuff About Me" section.

Currently Playing: With my girlfriend
Signature: IT amazes me how stupid some people r...
Other Stuff About Me: I like cars and stuff like that. If you disagree with me, you will get owned by my superior smartness. I play DS and Animal Crossing all the time. I kind of consider myself a video game genius. I know tons about video games. So you will see me around on the boards and remember, stay out of my way.

Previously, his signature read "It doesn't matter how rich you are or where you've been, it matters how many girls you have following you around." (Something like that.) He also previously stated that he had "a lot of girls" and continued to rate them all on a scale of one to ten, with "7/10, 6/10, 8/10, 9/10, and 7/10." He has removed those things in favor for showing how stupid he thinks I am.

Please also note that this icon:...means that he is new to the site, which sheds some light on as to why he thinks he is suddenly the best on this site.

UPDATE: He has recently erased his signature.

Scout Camp Issues

2009-06-24T22:59:00.007-05:00

I lost the e-mail Pete gave me from Scout Camp so I could finish a requirement and send it to him to finish a merit badge. I thought I knew it, but woe is me. So, I decided to scout the internet because, as I learned from my Internet Safety class that I also took at Scout Camp, small traces of information can lead to big things.

So, I searched his name, which is very unique (and by that, I mean his last name). I found out that he has a Facebook account. I don't have a Facebook account, but from what it could show me was his picture and his location. His picture showed it was obviously him...

(IMAGE DELETED)

and his location showed a small city in Illinois, which is where Camp Bunn was.

Thanks to some good work by my dad, we found out he had a Steam account. Thanks to us goofing off a little at camp, I found that he had Steam games (Portal, Left 4 Dead, etc.), so it made sense. Unfortunately, he had to be my friend to send him a message, and he disabled being able to leave comments on his profile. And begin inactive for the past 2 weeks didn't help either. But, there was still some small light of hope.

I searched up his username and found that it too was unique. The only places I could find his username were on technology-related sites, so I knew it was probably him. However, in each of his profiles, he didn't give away any of his personal information. (Good for him.) The only way I could find his email address with my information was to pay some money to some service, which I was not doing.

Or, I could just email the camp director Miss Lisa, whose email was provided on the Camp Bunn website, and ask her for Pete's email.

So sure, I didn't get as far as I planned, but think about how close I got, and how easy it was to get the information. Plus, if I just continued to refresh his Facebook page, I could probably see all his friends. But then again, I did have some previous experience with this guy, so I knew what he looked like, what his interests were, and where he lived. But, still...

UPDATE: She has e-mailed me back, and said she'd be happy to help. Yay!

Back from the Scouters

2009-06-21T20:21:00.005-05:00

Back from camp. Lots of stuff to say. But, I'll keep it short.

There was this German exchange scout, Alex, that got to go to camp for free. The first-year boys would not stop gawking over her. (She taught Cooking)

Me: "What's your favorite merit badge?"
Some kid: "Cooookkkiinnggg...." *slobbers*
Me: *SMACK*

Me: *eating lunch*
Some other kid: "See Alex?"
Me: "Yeah?"
Some other kid: "She's getting fruit. She always does."
Me: *SMACK*

But that wasn't the end of it. What was such a funny, disturbingly strange coincidence was that during the Family Night Skit Night, he pants sagged, and showed her underwear. Of course, I'm sure this was on accident, because as soon as she stood up, it fixed itself.

Also, for those that care, here are my three favorite counselors from Camp Bunn this year:
1. Pete (Computers, Climbing)
2. Booger (Was at Climbing)
3. OopieDoopie (Backpacking)

It was fun. By far, better than S-F. Highly reccomended.

Boy Scout Camp

2009-06-14T08:08:00.001-05:00

I'm leaving today to go to Boy Scout Camp. I won't be back until Saturday.

One More Thing...

2009-06-04T21:16:00.002-05:00

Ah, almost forgot. Well, I forgot. But, here it is:

Check out my brand new blog: the Projects Blog. Here, I'll post any of our plans or goings on related to our YouTube channels, websites, or my podcast. Check it out.

A Job?!?

2009-06-04T20:40:00.002-05:00

Let's face it: Everyone texts. No matter how old you are, everyone texts. I would much rather text some people than talk to them. Many other people feel the same way.

Today, I tried to just get my dad to think about getting a texting plan. However, instead, my dad told me I needed a source of steady income. All I get is $5 a week, and that isn't enough. So, what's his idea? A job. Yes, a job. I don't think he understands that, even though I only need 3 hours at minimum wage to pay for texting, that no one would give me a job for three hours, more or less pay minimum wage. And besides, do you know how much time it would take out of my day if I got a regular job?

E3 2009

2009-06-02T13:29:00.003-05:00

Anyone else know that E3 was this week? The Electronic Entertainment Expo? It sure is. Here's what caught my eye so far:

Ubisoft:
Assassin's Creed 2 out in November

Microsoft:
Project Natal
Facebook and Twitter coming to Xbox 360
Games on Demand

Bungie:
Halo 3: ODST
Halo Reach

Valve:
Left 4 Dead 2

Konami:
Metal Gear Solid: Rising

Nintendo:
Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story
Metroid Other M
Wii Vitality Sensor?!?
Super Mario Galaxy 2
New Super Mario Bros. for Wii
Wii Fit Plus

Telltale Games:
The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition

Find more information on these and more at Kotaku.com

Schools' Out.

2009-05-28T16:05:00.000-05:00

'Nuff Said.

Video Game "Deaths"

2009-05-25T21:15:00.003-05:00

Here I go, expressing my views again. Today, I read this article. I was mad. Almost as mad as the person that wrote the article. Yet another suicide, related to video games, blamed on the creators.

There are so many other stories like this. A kid hanging himself because he couldn't play his Wii, now a kid jumping off a building... And these are blamed on the creators of the games?

A somewhat similar occurrence is seen in mass shootings. The Columbine shootings, the teenager in Germany... Blamed on video games.

Ever heard of Jack Thompson? The lawyer who will blame whatever he can on video games? Sad, sad stuff.

Here's the truth. The kid that jumped off the building didn't do it because of something in the game... He did it because his dad wouldn't let him play it anymore. The same with the kid and the Wii.

The Columbine and German teenager are different stories. Sure, the game could have taught them how to shoot a gun, but you learn the same thing in Boy Scouts. Are we going to start blaming them for random deaths too? I hope not.

Disturbing Bus Happenings

2009-05-19T15:27:00.003-05:00

I'm not sure if you know this or not, but strange, disturbing things happen on my bus. If I explained here, I'm sure I'd be breaking some social laws, but it's weird.

The part I hate most, however, is when the 6th graders "fight back." Not in a revolt sort of way, but they actually try to intervene in some of the activities the 8th graders participate in, like cussing each other out. All they end up doing is messing with the wrong people, who are just too... old, I suppose, to even mess with them.

Today was one of those days. I was listing to my iPod, when I saw everyone laughing. I stopped the music and listened to hear that these kids had somehow, with the permission of the bus driver, got a hold of the intercom so they could talk to the whole us... Specifically the 8th graders. Here is a short summary of what I heard. [Names replaced for personal reasons]

*laugh laugh*
"And Mitch, pull your pants up!"
"I don't give a **** about what the **** you say! I don't care if my ****** is hanging out!"
"Sara's eating my granola bar..."
*feed back*
*everyone overreacts and quickly puts their hands over their ears*
*purposefully creates feedback*

Then the bus driver took the intercom away from them. While I'm sure the 8th graders deserved it, the 6th graders shouldn't have bothered, since the 8th graders didn't seem to care anyway.

RSS, Music, and YouTube

2009-05-11T21:33:00.006-05:00

As a quick update to all my "palz" out there, just wanted to let you know that our RSS feed is acting up. I'll be on it later.

Also, don't forget to check out my Spring Concert videos (for those who care) on my YouTube Channel.

I also have uploaded a new, less disturbing episode of Deciphering the Song, with the subject being "Every Breath You Take" by the Police. Sorry for the horrible lighting.

Bias Kickball

2009-05-11T21:27:00.002-05:00

Today, my sister, her three friends, Josh, and I all played kickball. Karen was the referee. We hated the game.

Josh and I thought the rules were totally unfair. You can't throw the ball at people, you can only kick it so far, etc. And to make matters worse, she was bias. Then, we got to kick. We were leading by, like, 3 points, but Karen said it was by 1. So, by this time, I had had enough.

I told her that, just like in real games, the referee is switched out, to make sure that this kind of thing doesn't happen. I suggested that we do the same. She totally took this the wrong was (as an insult) and decided to let Kelly be the referee.

At the end of the inning, I say that Josh should be the referee, because, even if he is bias, it would be one bias referee for one team, and one bias referee for the other, making it even. Of couce, this idea only lasted a few minutes, before the Jacksons had to go in, at which Karen and Sarah quit.

So my point is this: If you're going to play a game, play it right. Don't become bias, then hate other bias people, then quit when you're behind anyway. That right there: That makes no sense.

Fever 1793

2009-04-30T17:01:00.002-05:00

Ok, so, today, I finished my acrostic project. Basically, I had to make an acrostic and then plaster it on some poster board related to the topic. So, I finally finished that at home today, the day before it's due. However, this reminds me of a past project. One that will haunt me for the rest of my life...

*cut to wavy flashback*

Ok, so, in 6th grade, I had to do a project. It was based on the book Fever: 1793. Basicly, I had to do a bunch of stuff: Write out summaries of the chapters, do some little character thing, fill out a packet... All that stuff.

However, thanks to Ian and his antics, I could never get any of it done. So I ended shoving it all off to the day before it was due. Pretty much ALL OF IT.

So I spent the whole day working on it. I HATED IT. It was the worst- well, not the worst. One of the worst days of my life. I think I got a 73% on it. Oh well. Better than a 0%.

*cut back to real life*

So please, PLEASE listen to this plea: Don't wait until the day before for ANYTHING! Even homework! I do my homework the day it's assigned, in case I have any questions! I was talking to someone who had to start and finish their acrostic today, and I felt so sorry for him. He didn't know what he was walking into.

So be forewarned, my friends. [INSERT GOOD ENDING HERE.]

New Computer!

2009-04-26T21:47:00.002-05:00

Ian's giving me his old computer. He just recently built a new one, with separate parts ordered from different places, all high-tech stuff. He's giving me the computer with everything in it. Memory, video card... All that stuff. Can't wait to get it tomorrow.

Gnite, Mark.

Twitter!

2009-04-24T16:05:00.001-05:00

Follow me on Twitter! I need some friends! The only person I'm following is Weird Al. So, come on. Join.

Technology Is Your Friend

2009-04-22T16:59:00.002-05:00

I recently just uploaded my new podcast, Technolgy Is Your Friend, onto iTunes. (If you don't know what a podcast is, watch this.) If you don't want to download iTunes, you can use any RSS reader, like Google Reader, to be alterted when a new podcast has been added. However, you'll still have to download the video. (Here's the RSS feed.)

The podcast informs people on how to do realitvily easy stuff on the computer. The first podcast is "How to Add Subtitles to Your YouTube Videos." The other videos may be "How to Understand Chatspeak" or "How to Use RSS Feeds."

Thanks a lot for your support!

Xbox 360 or DSi?

2009-04-18T00:04:00.003-05:00

I saw 17 Again tonight. I'll let you guys know how it went tomorrow, but I'm really tired right now.

I just want to ask you guys: Should I get an Xbox 360 or a DSi? The Xbox can do more, but costs more. The DSi is cheap, but doesn't do as much. Not that it's some cheap thing I want to get just because I can afford it. I want both.

So, go ahead and leave me some comments on what you think. Thanks.

EDIT: Sorry, this was supposed to be posted on Friday. My computer has been really slow lately.

DSi and Acolyting

2009-04-10T22:17:00.006-05:00

For those that care: I have made a playlist of videos on YouTube that explain almost every feature on the DSi. As is says in the description, I will only list videos that AREN'T about the Japanese version. Not only can you not read it, but the DSi has been in Japan since October of last year, so it's a lot more different than the one here. See my DSi post for more new information.

Ok, so, yesterday, I acolyte for my church. Now, I acolyte a lot. It's easy. Get up, light the candles, leave. But that's a the contemporary service. And the one I acolyted at was a traditional service.

Now, I had done this before. Once. And that was a total breakdown for me. I bawled at the realization that I had to acolyte then and had no idea how. This might have also happened because I had a test in confirmation that night. Or so I thought.

My pastors were nice enough to give me a run down of what I had to do, but that doesn't mean there weren't problems. Because it was a Lent service, people were allowed to request opening hymns, so they weren't in the bulletin. Well, I had no idea, and by the time they started singing, I realized that my hymnal was lodged between my seat the the brick wall behind me. That was really the only problem.

But this past service was a Maundy Thursday service, meaning there was communion. I had no idea what I had to do. I knew that I had communion at a different time than the rest of the congregation, but I didn't know when or how. Even after I got that figured out, I still didn't know what to do. One of our church staff came out, dressed just like me, and had communion with us. I figured I should do whatever he did, so he got up, stood behind the altar, and watched. Was I supposed to stand there? Well, it wouldn't hurt. Then he got up, bowed, and entered the altar, and I knew I should have just sat down. So I did.

Now, honestly, this doesn't sound as interesting as it was. If you went to my church, it probably would have made more sense. Or maybe if you were me. But, you aren't really either or those. So, good night.

April Fools Day

2009-04-02T17:33:00.005-05:00

Yeah, I know, I'm a day late. I was thinking about how I missed out on all the great April Fools jokes on the internet yesterday, and I thought I might tell others some of the one's I've heard of.

Homestar Runner: Following a previous video, where they told viewers jokingly that they would redo all of their videos and feature the main character, Strong Bad, the site intro was edited just like that, where Strong Bad greeted the viewers with an e-mail instead of the site's normal intro. Check it out .

Smosh: Uploaded a video, telling viewers that LeVar Burton from Roots, Star Trek, and Reading Rainbow, had bought the "company," promising to redo the website and videos so they featured him. Check out what their site used to look like on April Fools day. Watch the video.

Google: This year, as a tradition, Google announced Gmail Autopilot, where Gmail would automaticly respond to emails. You could adjust the amount of typos, capitalization, brevity, and emoticon use in the message. Check it out.

The Guardian: Announced yesterday that it would now be a "Twitter only service," forcing all articles to be 140 characters or less. "Twittered" articles includes "OMG first successful transatlantic air flight wow, pretty cool! Boring day otherwise *sigh*" from 1927, "W Churchill giving speech NOW - 'we shall fight on the beaches ... we shall never surrender' check YouTube later for the rest" from 1940, "Listening 2 new band 'The Beatles'" from 1961, "Berlin Wall falls! Majority view of Twitterers = it's a historic moment! What do you think??? Have your say" from 1989, and "RT@mohammedalfayed: FYI NeilHamilton, Harrods boss offering [$$$] 4 questions in House of Commons! Check it out" from 1991. Check it out.

Yahoo!: Released a new search option on their website, where you can search topics based on your political party. Try it out. Check it out.

Monetate: Invented Smellr: ads you smell. "It's like Flickr, but for your nose." Check it out.

YouTube: Fliped the whole site upside down and backwards, including the videos. Even though it's gone now, you can still enjoy their instructions on how to view the videos.

Amazon: Launched their new "cloud computers." Cloud computing was a metahpor meaning computers you can't see, but now, they've taken it to the skies, and sent up blimps with computers in them. Check it out.

Expedia: Now sells flights to Mars for only $99. "Save $3 trillion!" Check it out.

Microsoft: Announced their new game for the Xbox 360: Alpine Legend! Based off of Rock Band and Guitar Hero: World Tour, yodel and blow through countless hours of fun! Check it out!

Economist: Opens its new theme park: Econoland, litteraly applying the term "roller coaster ride" for the US economy. Check it out.

HowStuffWorks: Told the world what "rechargable gum" is really made of. Check it out.

Hope that's enough laughs to bust your gut... Or, maybe not.

Running Errands/iPod Dock/Geomerty Wars: Galaxies

2009-03-21T20:16:00.005-05:00

Today was pretty boring. All I really did was run a bunch of errands. We had to go get a present for my mom's birthday, and I wanted to get a dock for my iPod. So, we left early in the morning to- wait, I'm wrong. I forgot to mention, our car battery was dead.

See, because my mom had surgery, we hadn't been driving "her" car around lately. When we realized it might be dead, it was too late. So we called to AAA man to come down and take care of it. Well, he jumped the car, it worked fine, and we were happy. Until today. It died again. So, we jumped it, and went on our way.

We couldn't really find what we were looking for (in terms of Mom's birthday present) so we headed on down to Best Buy and got me a docking station for my iPod. While we were there, Karen looked at cameras. Most were out of her price range, and I had found my dock, so we left.

And what do you know? The car died. Again. After realizing the battery had died, we looked for a police officer that could help us jump our car. One pulled up in front of Bed Bath & Beyond, so dad went for him. We kept telling him to run, but he didn't care. And he gets there and just stands there. So I call him on his cell phone, and he says he lost him. So we sat there for, like, an hour, and the police officer came out and jumped our car.

So, we get out of there, and go home. We wait a little, then dad leaves to take the car to National Tire and Battery with my grandpa, and he comes back. He picks us up to go to Steak N' Shake, and then, we go to the other Best Buy, hoping Karen can find a good enough camera there. As I walk around, I go through a bargain bin and find a game that I had been thinking about getting for a while. So I decide with my left over money I could get the game for cheap.

Well, Karen of course find a camera she thinks is adequate, and so she tries to convince dad that she should get it. Well, dad said it's cheap looking, and she doesn't have the money. Well, she wants to go home and look and see if she can find any money laying around. I had to go home and get my gift card anyway, so we left.

On the way, dad brings up the option of selling some stuff on eBay that Karen doesn't use anymore in order to get the money. She thinks it's a great idea, and decides that when she gets home, she should find some stuff to sell in her room.

Well, dad drops us off, goes back to get the car with my grandpa, and comes back for dinner. After a wonderful dinner, thanks to the Palazzolas, dad and Karen and I leave to drop Karen off at her friend's house for a sleepover, then we go to Best Buy and get my game.

So, today was really busy. Here's some reviews.

Apple Universal Dock:
It's sweet. Besides the price tag ($60??) and my stupid computer, it works really well. The remote is cool, too.

Geometry Wars: Galaxies:
This game is ok. The game is fun, but it gets boring after a while. Though it's a quality brand, it seems kind of thrown together. But for $10, it's pretty good.

Songs...

2009-03-14T23:05:00.005-05:00

What is this, three posts in one day? I'm scared, this has never happened before...

Anyway, I just wanted to let you all know that I'm going to post a new video series on my account. It's about song meanings. It's the first one, about Crank That by Soulja Boy. It's a popular song with disturbing meanings. Please do not watch the video if you are under 13 or can refrain yourself from looking up terms used it the video. I've tried to make it clean, but it's hard to talk about "Health" related subjects without getting a stare.

Thanks for your support!

EDIT: Here's the video! Watch out for suggestive themes!

If you can't see the video, you can find it here on YouTube.

Angry and Scary Day

2009-03-14T20:31:00.002-05:00

Oh my gosh. Today was... Scary. But, we'll get to that later.

First off: Ball Tag. It's a game we made up that's like tag, but with a ball. You have to hit people with the ball, or they're not it. We play with 4 or 5 people and have a wide playing area across the neighborhood that we can play in, which makes the game a lot more fun. However, this game starts WAY to many arguments. It's normally about time-outs at "inappropriate times" (like if someone's running towards you with the ball, and you call a time out.) Not cool.

Yesterday, we played a fun game of ball tag, and Connor and Lexie got into a fight. It ended up being a "Lexie picks on me all the time and always tries to tag me" argument. Now, normally, I'm the moderator in these games, and I always keep my cool. I told Connor that it was his and Lexie's choice on who does what to each other, and that I don't want to be a part of it, sense it doesn't have anything to do with ball tag.

Well, today, the same kind of conversation came up again, this time with Connor and Conner. Again, Connor brought up that Conner has "hated him since first grade," and "I have a big grudge against him." Conner didn't do a good job of keeping his cool in this argument. In fact, it jumped right into it. So Connor tries to get me into it, and I bring it up again that I don't want to be a part of his relationships with others, and that he can do whatever he wants to do with Conner.

Well, Connor didn't like that very much, but we still tried to play. Eventually, Connor couldn't take it anymore and he quit. I hate to see games end up this way, because that's almost always what happens. But, we go on with the game until everyone else quits.

Now for the HORROR SESSION of the... blog... post... So, Josh and I came out to play with Clayton in Metroid Prime: Hunters. He eventually didn't show, making us think that he probably couldn't come out and play. So, we decided to bike around for a while. Then we saw this stray dog running around. We decided we probably shouldn't hang around it, so we biked back up to the end of the street. Well, the dog decided to tag along. So, we figure we should get inside as soon as possible, and so we get ready to head down to my house, and the dog just couldn't resist. I veer to the right, Josh to the left, and it chooses to follow him. He rides up down the street and up the hill, the dog right beside him. I call my dad, and tell him that this rabid dog is chasing us and to unlock the door so we can jump right inside.

So, Josh comes back up the hill, the dog STILL following him, and I tell him the plan. We run up the yard, jump off our bikes, run inside, and slam the door. We look outside, and sure enough: The dog's a robot. No, just kidding. But the dog was still there in our front yard, right next to our bikes, staring at the door.

Then we found another challenge: We left our DSs outside. We open the back door, and listen. Sure enough, the dog was smart enough to wander back there too. We waited about three minutes, then looked outside again. Still there. Eventually, it went away, and we grabed the stuff and ran inside.

But I still had to hang up the extension cord, and Karen had her flip-flops outside. So, we go out into the garage, I hang up the cord, and Josh goes to grab the flip-flops. And of cource- the dog is standing there in the Bruggemann's yard. At the sight of us, he dashes twords us and we run inside.

Eventually he disappeared, but man was it weird. Here to comment: Josh.

"Yeah, I was chased by a dog..."

Uh, ok. Bye, kids!

A Poor Argument

2009-03-14T12:16:00.001-05:00

Sometimes I get along with my sister. Sometimes I don't. Yesterday I didn't.

See, we play this game called "Country" or "Kingdom" where we pretend to own different parts of the neighborhood. We have war sometimes and we trade sometimes, and it's usually where Karen gets mad. However, it was different that day. We had this plan to take over another part of the neighborhood. It was a secluded place in the woods atop some common ground. This land had been part of many feuds in the past, none of which included me. But now we thought was a good time.

Normally, DJ, Max, and Jack are up there building something with all the wood up there. We thought we should spy on them and check out what they were building. Well, Karen and some of her friends wanted to help, so we let them. They walked back and forth, checking to see if the coast was clear. We set each other up with walkie-talkies and continued to spy on them. Eventually, everyone left but Karen, and then she left of bordum. This is where the argument began.

We kept trying to ask her where she was going and why she had left. Apparently the signal was really bad, because she kept trying to answer and we couldn't hear her. We'd repeat ourselves and we'd get no repsonse. We thought she as ignoring us. Eventually, we got through to her and she repeted to us for the fifth time that she was going to Hannah's. We apparently ticked her off so much that they got Hannah's dad to play a trick on us, saying "This is the Wildwood Police Department, who is using this frequency?" We completely fell for it, and tried to get them to get off of the channel. So, they explained to us that it was a joke. Not cool.

We then decied we had to get them back. So we kept double-pressing the talk button, making a paging noise that lasts for about five seconds. Josh and I would do that on and off, so the girls had no chance to speak. Then the argument began.

I really don't want to get into details because I'm sure I would hurt someone's feelings. It wasn't anything that was really that bad, but it's still some hurtful stuff. But we both got over it, and forgave each other for hurting each other's feelings. No damage done.

So, I thought I might tell you that before I head on out and leave for some outside activities. I guess. And Batman, if you're reading this, "Why so serious?"

What the...

2009-03-13T23:19:00.004-05:00

Today, I went to one of those Friday Night Teen Night things at this place called the Lodge. Just take Lifetime Fitness and cut it in half. I guess it's like the YMCA. Anyway, this place was scary. Not because it was big, or because it had weird food, but these people were... Blech.

I'm talking about the kids. It was weird. Basically, it was just at the pool. There were a BUNCH of girls running around, talking to each other about these cute boys. Now, I understand some girls talking about some kids pumping lead, but this was some kid with a white hoddie and skinny jeans. Like, skin tight jeans. On a guy. Awkward. And plus, it was like a huge clan of girls. Like, 20.

Speaking of "clans" there was also this... strange group of people. One of them kept flirting with Josh. It was just about the weirdest thing. This kid was, like, a 6th grader, and she kept telling Josh to "stay two inches away." First of all, she thought two inches was a foot. Second, she could not drop it. One minute, she's talking to what she calls her "committee" (AKA friends,) and the next she's yelling at Josh "TWO INCHES!" And he would just stand there and stare. So, we decided to see what would happen if I walked right up there and just stared them down.

So, I wade my way on over there, and do that creepy eyebrow thing, where I lower my eyelids so low, you can't see my pupils. One kid goes, "Don't gimme that look." Another says, "That's creepy," then another says "But no one cares. No one likes you." I just continue to stare them down. Then the "two-inches girl" comes up and says, "Hey, you're two-inches guy's friend! Why don't you tell him to-" Then she got whistled at by a life guard for hanging onto the rope in the middle of the pool. Apparently, they didn't care that I was there anymore and decided to go and start jumping off the edge of the pool like some other kids were doing. As they waded away, one of her friends gave me the, "I have no idea why she is doing this" look.

Then there's the locker room. Now, surprisingly, there wasn't any "inappropriate conduct" here, but there were these two kids hanging around by the swimsuit dryer, and trying to act "cool" by saying the word "gay" as much as possible. One says to the other, wrapped in a towel, "Hey, are you wearing anything under that?" He responds, but I kind of forget what he said. Then I hear "I'm not that gay," and "Dude, that's gay," and "That's so gay."

It got me thinking on a few points. One, I'm glad my school is not like this. At least, not this bad. Second, when did kids get this way? I mean, all there was was a lot of flirting and eating food and hanging with friends. I was happy to see I didn't really know anyone there and that I wasn't really involved with any of the stuff going on there.

So, to wash my brain out, I watched some "Monster Buster Club." Please, never watch this show. It's like Ghostbusters, but they replace everything with "kid-friendly humor" and "kid stars.' It's an animated show about some kids saving the world from aliens. It's also one of those shows with, "Hey everyone, let's get out our super-high-tech-awesome-wristwatch-communicator-computer-text-message-receiving-GPS-device!!!" And of course, all the same cliches repeat themselves. "Oh no, some snooty kid started lying about me!" "Oh no, these cool new massage chairs I bought for the school are attacking us all!" Oh no, because of my broken leg, I can't catch up to you guys! Go on without me!" "No, a team never leaves a friend behind!" And don't forget the all important weird jokes only 8-year olds would understand. "Let's go pour slime in his ears!" "Oh, that's not how you great a leader on your planet?" Yeah, because on their planet, everyone takes time out of their day to go buy some slime and pour it down some guy's ear canal.

And for my friend Josh out there, this is for you. "Accelaratronininators."

Clothes with Weird Names

2009-03-08T21:45:00.002-05:00

Here's something to think about. What's with boxer shorts? Do boxers really wear plaid pants that are paper thin? And tee shirts. I thought golfers wore polo shirts. And do polo players wear polo shirts or tee shirts? And jeans? Were they named after someone named Jean? And what is khaki, a Japanese word?

Super Bowl Sunday

2009-02-01T14:41:00.003-06:00

First of all, don't forget to read my first post on my Restroom Ratings blog.

Anyway, surprise, surprise, I'm blogging about the Super Bowl. Ha ha.

Super Bowl Sunday is a tradition in many households where we party, watch TV, and laugh.

Party:
Food. Food food food food food. One of my favorite aspects of the Super Bowl is that we get to eat a whole lot of greasy, fatty, favorite foods. Chips, soda, little wieners on toothpicks... Good stuff.

Watch TV:
The game, of course. Stealers or Cardinals? I choose Cardinals.

My mom would kill me otherwise.
Kurt Warner, who used to be one of the Rams, pwns.
The Cardinals used to be our football team, until we would build them a new stadium. So, after they packed up and left, we got the Rams and built them a new stadium. :P

I'm not much of a football person, so I don't have any favorites. I just choose Rams because they're our home team. So, yeah. Baseball's my fav.

Laugh:
No, none of that "get together, friends and family" stuff. I'm talking about commercial marketing. That's right, TV advertisements. No Ad on during the Super Bowl is every serious. They're always funny, or at least try to. I remember last year, the only time I would take a break from my homework was to watch the commercials. This year, thankfully, I have no homework. Yay!

So, that's about it. Anyone know who's playing at Halftime this year?

Bathrooms, Blogs, and Snow

2009-01-26T21:07:00.007-06:00

First off, I'm starting my Bathroom Blog again. With my new phone, it's easier to remember the pros and cons.

Also, I'd like to show off this blog. I love it.

Anyway, now onto our main topic: Snow and their Days... Get it, Snow Days? Ha ha hab bla blar blarhhg.gg...

Ok, so Snow Days. Everyone loves 'em, but I just want to share a few things for those who don't know. Too many snow days mean too many school days. See, the school sets a limit on how many snow days we have before they pool those over to the end of the year. If we have a cap of 5, and we get 7 snow days that year, then we would get +2 days of school.

Also, snow doesn't matter. Temperature doesn't matter. It's all about ice. No one cares if there's snow on the ground, we're still going to school. It doesn't matter all that much about the kids but the commute. If it's dangerous for the buses to leave the lot, let alone the kids leave their house, then let the fun begin. But just because you can see your breath or see snow on the ground doesn't mean you should stay home.

I know you're not stupid, but I just thought I might let you know.
Hey kids! Flush those ice cubes, wear those PJs backwards, and sleep on those spoons!

Cell Phone Features

2009-01-23T16:36:00.004-06:00

I'm getting a cell phone today, so I'm writing today about cell phones and their features.

Now, I understand, some parents are fond of all the features, but I like a lot of them...

Camera with flash
SMS/Texting
Full size keyboard
Not so cluttered menus
Good memory
Video capture support
Internet
Touch Screen

So, examples of a good phone? This one, and this one. Bad phones? This one and this one.

Why? Well, let's see.

So, the goods are that they're all touch screen. I've seen the interface on those, and they are amazing. Plus, camera? Check. Keyboard? Check. Internet? Check.

The bad ones? Look at the first one's screen. It's not touch, and the menu stretches throughout the whole page, making it look extremely awkward. As for the second one, it tries to fit a full size keyboard on a regular size phone. BIG no-no. I'm not a big fan of frontal keyboards.

(Don't even get me started on the Jitterbug...)

The other thing that freaks me out is the price. I know a lot of you guys that have the LG Rumor. If you didn't pay for service (which means you pay full price) the cost is $160.

EDIT: Just letting you know I got my phone. It's a Samsung Blackjack II smartphone. It was only $30, and is the same as my Dad's.

Presidential Inauguration and Obama - The Sensation That... Well...

2009-01-21T21:40:00.005-06:00

Don't call me racist. Don't call me mean. Don't call me stupid or ugly or republican just because of this post. I'm not a big politician, I'm just typing "What I Think..."

Ok, so, presidential inauguration. Traffic, do-overs, and Purple Tunnel survivors. People called, and still call, this the most inspiring moment of our nation's history. Why? Again, don't get me wrong, a black president is cool and all, but does it really mean that the country should go crazy over it? I mean, when George W. Bush or John F. Kennedy was inaugurated, were they over hyped?

And what about the whole election thing? I mean, now, you can buy Obama trading cards, Obama bobble heads, albums with 49 songs about Obama, even an Obama Chia Pet! I mean, seriously! This is just too overhyped!

(Comments, anyone?)

Sarcasm II - A Way to Show You Care minus the Actual Effort

2009-01-21T20:40:00.005-06:00

First of all, read the post about Sarcasm ("New Stuff and Sarcasm) before reading this (Part II)

My dad suggested there be an emoticon of some sort that show sarcasm, and I thought that was a great idea. There are some others, such as a :P, but there should be one directly related to sarcasm.

So, here's my challa- Sorry, let me start over.

ITLTDIMS CHALLENGE!!!
(I'm Too Lazy To Do It Myself Challenge)
BTW, you pronounce it "Ittle-T-Dims."

Anyway, I need you to come up with an acronym, emoticon, or keyboard art that symbolizes the use of sarcasm. And it can't just be your pet or something. It has to have an actual meaning or something along those line. Wanna give it a shot? Comment on this post, or e-mail me at rct2guy@hotmail.com

EDIT: Apparently, someone has the same idea. I'll convey some of their ideas.

" I’ve always been fond of the *snerk*. I picked it up years ago back in the days of fandom mailings lists, and it’s stuck ever since. I have been known to actually say “snerk” to people in real life.

For example: Man, Toby, the background to your website is so bright that I can’t read any of the text. *snerk*" -Johanna L. Gribble

"The most common one I’ve seen is /sarcasm at the end of the sarcastic remark. Similar to the /sarcasm/ tag, but without HTML problems." - Sarah Miller

"I’ve been thinking about this lately as well. Most of my comments are made with a smirky smile on my face, and I think that humor or jest is being lost in the reading. Most times I just use a smilie, to say I’m not being serious about this (but then I also use it to say I’m happy about something). Sometimes I use the wink smilie ;), or if it’s self deprecating, the off kilter smilie :\." - Steve Buchheit

"Sometimes people don’t pick up on my sarcasm in real life, either. I do like this idea though, and I hope we can find one and start spreading it through emails everywhere!

Does this mean anything yet? It looks kind of smug, but maybe it’ll do for sarcasm too:

:-\

Or perhaps this, which is a bit more deadpan, like my usual delivery:

But I bet those are taken already." -Eugene

"I mostly use the wink smile, too: As if I’m denoting a joke, see? But I also like *snerk*. I tend to be sarcastic almost all the time, though, so I really should have a tag that designates when I’m not *snerking*. That’d probably look like / which seems too complicated." - Rachel

"The smiley was intended to convey sarcasm. At least it was according to it’s inventor.

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~sef/sefSmiley.htm" - Chris

New Stuff and Sarcasm

2009-01-21T20:19:00.002-06:00

First, just wanted to say that I'm planning on making more frequent posts, probably every day. I'll try it out first, and see if I like it. Second, I'm thinking about making a podcast. I'm not exactly sure what it would be about (Reading the blog, an expanded blog, or video game reviews.) I'll let you know if I get around to anything.

Anyway, today's post is on Sarcasm and people that try to use it.

Today, I was on a forum, and I was on a thread, discussing how a game should be improved. In this game, called Animal Crossing: City Folk, you have a chance of getting stung by bees. Well, this person though the bees should talk to you to alert you that they are coming after you, so you could take cover or whatever. I thought this was just a horrible idea. So I told them no, and I told them why. Well, not to long after, they reply and tell me "Gosh, I was just being sarcastic!!!1!!"

Which brings us back to our main point here: There are people that can use sarcasm and people who can't. Let's discuss another example, my sister.

This is a common argumentative discussion I have with her a lot, and we never really get anywhere. Today, I came back from school, and she was on her computer, writing an e-mail. She let me read it. It basically said that she was moving to Dallas, Texas and that she would only come back for her birthday. About 7 lines down, however, she tells her friends that she was just kidding. And this isn't the first time.

Many times has she just told anyone, and I mean anyone, that she hates them. Then she just sits there. This is exactly what she did to my grandma. I mean, imagine telling your grandparents or aunt or something that you hate them, and then just stair at them for a few seconds before they say something. How bad is that?

That is an example of bad sarcasm. Now, for you people that ask, "Well stuck-up-so-and-so, how do you propose we use sarcasm, HMMM?" Well, my main point here is you have to make sure of two things: That you make it abundently clear that you are using sarcasm, and that you use it with the right people, just in case there is a misunderstanding.

So, there you have it. Two good examples on how not to use sarcasm, plus a guidline. Of cource, this is "What I think..." so take this all with a grain of salt, but just know that I told you next time you're yelled at. :P

Nintendo DSi

2009-01-13T20:47:00.010-06:00

(This post goes out to you Michael.)

For those of you not into the gaming industry, or tend to ignore facts stated by your friends, I'm here to help you learn about the Nintendo DSi.

Announced on October 1st, the DSi boasts many new features.

3.0 Megapixel camera on outside

0.3 Megapixel camera on inside hinge

Built-in web browser

Pictochat with more features

Nintendo DSi Shop

Better speakers

Power button

And probably some other stuff.

The DSi will have apps, kind of like how the Wii has channels. The Pictochat will also have enhanced features, such as rainbow drawing.

It's rumored (like, just today) that the DSi will ship June 17, and sell for $179.99. More information as I run across it.

(Sorry about the picture. I can't fix it, but if you click on it, it will send you to where I found the picture. You can also click on the link to the right that says "Nintendo DSi" to get a better view of the picture.)

Revised Information:
The DSi was released on November 1st in Japan, April 2nd in Australia, April 3rd in Europe, and April 5th in North America. It sells for $170 and comes in black or a baby blue in North America, and black and white in other areas. It includes a camera, SD card slot, power button, three lights (wireless communications, charging, and power,) volume buttons, and not a GBA slot. Built-in applications include Pictochat (which includes a rainbow color) image editing software, music editing software, DS Download Play, and access to the Nintendo DSi Shop, which lets you buy and download more applications for your DSi (such as a web browser or new WarioWare game.) If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment. If you need more information, check out this YouTube playlist I made.

iPod Nano

2008-12-01T15:36:00.002-06:00

This year, I got an iPod Nano for my birthday, the new one with the big screen. I'm telling you, I can't wait.

Ever since our family got their first iPod a few months ago, things have never been the same. It's so much easier to use then most other MP3 players, and can do so much more. I would take my dad's iPod to my friends house all the time, and slept with it on. And now I finaly have my own.

The funny part is I've been drawing pictures of it for some reason. Like, before I found out I was getting one. My church has these slips of paper called "Scribble Scrap for Little Lutherans," and beacuse I kept getting sent emails about Apple's new sales and prodcuts, I decied to draw it. It was simple, and pointed out the main details, but I never really expected to get one. And it wasn't my favorite iPod either. Of cource, it was the cheapest, and it's not like I'm not going to accept it because it wasn't what I wanted. It's just that I always liked the clasic the most because of it's big screen.

If you'd like to discuss birthday related thigs, go ahead in this post.

Direct E-Mail! Fun fun fun!!

2008-08-08T09:52:00.004-05:00

Hey, it's me. I'm not a scam artist. In fact, almost everyone here knows me in person. So trust me when I say this.

If you want to, you can have my blog e-mailed to you whenever I make a new post. This means that if I make a new post, it's e-mailed to you. Because, I confess, none of you probably read this more than you check your e-mail.

So, just e-mail me at rct2guy@hotmail.com your e-mail address, and I will put you on my list of people to e-mail.

Hurry! Only 10 positions can be used!

Also, you may have noticed a new little button next to the comment link. Click that to e-mail the post your your friends and/or family.

Thanks for reading, and have fun. I'm trying to throw up some other opinions and update this blog more.

Video Games - The Parent's Point of View

2008-08-07T21:18:00.003-05:00

NOTE: This does not apply to all parents. DO NOT tackle your mom or dad because of this post.

Why do video games alarm certain parents?

The Random House Unbridged Dictionary, published in 2006, states that a video game is "any of various games played using a microcomputer with a keyboard and often joysticks to manipulate changes or respond to the action or questions on the screen, " or "any of various games played using a microchip-controlled device, as an arcade machine or hand-held toy." In other words, a video game is playing a game on a TV. Then why do your parents tell you to play a board game when a video game is no different?

Parents generally have three problems with video games:

1. They encourage violence.
2. They hurt your eyes and melt your brain.
3. They prevent you from playing outside.

I'm here to tell you that these reasons, with sources, are worthless and stupid.

First off, video games do not encourage violence, no matter what Jack Thompson says. Source one: The ESA, or Entertainment Software Association, created the ESRB, who rates all of your games with an E or T or M. The ESA states on their website that "blaming video games for violence in the real world is no more productive than blaming the news media for bringing crimes of violence into our homes night after night." Reading this you can see the facts, such as that in 1990, the total number of crimes were 2 million. In 1999, that number decreased to a steady 1.5 million.

Second, some obscure Boy's Life magazine I own states that video games actually help your eyes, and we all know games like Brain Age can't hurt you. Plus, it's never bad to have great hand-eye coordination.

Third, my neighborhood is not active enough to have it so when I walk outside, someone is out there playing. I bet it is no different everywhere else. Video games help you play with people when there's no one to play with. As Nintendo sates with it's Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection slogan, "there's always someone to play with."

Hopefully, some parents will now shut up and let us play in peace.

NOTE: That did not apply to all parents. DO NOT tackle your mom or dad because of that post.

Club Penguin

2008-08-07T20:53:00.000-05:00

Ah, yes. The strange game of Club Penguin. The horror. The fun. The craziness.

In case you don't know, Club Penguin is a game where you go online and play with other friends while controlling a penguin. You can talk to them, play with them, or just follow them. There are parties, games, and places to go to. There are pets that look like you bought them from a Hallmark store. There are people that act like those jerks from high school. There is a paragraph following this one.

My sister is obsessed with this game. If she can't play with someone else, she plays this all day. She has a membership (which means you pay for more in the game.) It puzzles me how she can live with this game. It's really boring. Not entirely, but pretty much.

This is because without a membership, you basically can't do anything. I earned about 3000 coins, and I can't do anything with them. All the people on there either dance, play a game, or ask you "BOY OR GRL?" No one talks to you about how you are, what's up, or if you want to play a game. They all whine about how no one plays with them or how someone "broke up" with them on the game.

Now this doesn't necessarily mean that this game is all bad. The servers are good (with around 30-40 of them,) the games are repetitive but fun, the parties are fun as well, and the graphics aren't half bad. The game also has many secrets.

The question here is what is the popular vote? Do people in middle school think Club Penguin is cool? Do they think it's too much for kids or just don't plain care for it? As for adults, do you think the game is unsafe? Do you think kids spend too much time on it? Please answer in the box comments.

Also, I will take this time to tell everyone I will not be able to update the website because I have lost my CD for FrontPage. Until I get it, I will not be able to update the website.

Cardinals are Diggin' Their Grave

2008-01-02T12:38:00.000-06:00

Okay, Ive been a big fan of the Cards, and I do agree, that'07 wasn't their best season. But that doesn't mean that they should fire their best players and go on a big search for new ones! Have you seen what they have done to their lineup? Jim Edmonds? David Eckstein? So Taguchi? Where are they? Gone. Fired. And why? Because of a baseball player from Lafayette. How sad. All this because of one season... How sad...

GO CUBS!

Grand Theft Auto: San Andres

2007-11-15T19:59:00.001-06:00

Ok, so I was thinking about this, so I decided to argue about it here.

All these people are mad because there was some... "content" in Grand Theft Auto: San Andres. They raised the game up to a AO rating, and everyone is mad at Rockstar because they had that "locked" content in there.

Personally, I think it's not Rockstar's fault. They locked it out of the game, so no one could play that part in any NORMAL circumstances. But then some guy came in, messed around with the code, and hacked it so that the "minigame" was unlocked. I think that it is: A. NOT Rockstar's fault and B. The parents fault for letting them get a game that implies punching and killing and getting away from the police, but get all worked up over this thing. I think that Rockstar hid it away INTENTIONALY, but not well enough that someone found it.

All together, I think that it it is NOT Rockstar's fault that this happened.

Post it up!

Say no to rugs!

2007-05-19T18:51:00.000-05:00

What do you think? It's a pun on "Say no to drugs," you know? Ha ha? Or ha blah blah blarrgg...

Don't go anywhere!

2007-05-19T18:49:00.000-05:00

I just closed my old blog, the same thing only on blogger.com. So, don't go over there anymore. Nothing will be updated there anymore. But this one will!

It Stinks to Grow Up

2007-04-19T21:45:00.000-05:00

I'm so depleted! I wish I couldn't grow up! Does any one else feel this way?

Ex. I have more responsibilities, I can't stomp my foot when I'm mad, you can't play in the little kid house, and pretty much any thing that some one will tell you "Your not in kindergarten!" when told not to do something.

Special Chorus?

2007-04-10T15:54:00.000-05:00

Ok, if you go to my school, you probably know what Special Chorus is. I feel like there is no need to have one! I feel like all of us could have sung those songs in our musical! If ye need yet more information, post a comment!

Encouragement!

2007-04-04T21:05:00.000-05:00

Yo! I really want to encourage you on some things...

1. Check out the rest of my website! Its got a bunch of cool stuff on it, so look around!

2. Try not to be anonymous! I mean, if you REALLY REALLY have too, that's fine. But if you can type in a nickname, or your name, please do so! I would feel better knowing who you are!

३.Check weekly, and do not annoy me with a million posts saying "UPDATE THE SITE!!!!" or something like that.

Thanks!

Wal-Mart is EVIL! EVIL!! EEEV VIIIIIILLLLL!

2007-03-20T16:12:00.000-05:00

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/retail/2003-01-28-walmartnation_x.htm

Dude, everone thinks that Wal-Mart is evil. Everyone except for the 100,000,000 that go there every week. We can't stand up to this nonsense! SHUT WAL-MART DOWN! DOW!!!