я вернулся

Договорились. I shall add posts to here when I am able to, I'm at work right now, I returned from Rzhev this morning at 915am, ran from the train station to my classes, then to work. It was simply awesome. Cept for some of the drama that happened. I post pics soon. I cant really be here while i'm at work, and this is the only place i really have access to the net. i think i can go to my friend's workplace and use the net there without any restrictions, which means i'll be watching lots of you know what when i go there *hint hint wink wink*.

I now have a guitar, because my awesome friend in Rzhev gave me one of his guitars. its pretty crappy and it only has 12 easily reachable frets which means i cant play my favorite song by red hot chili peppers anymore. But nonetheless its awesome to have a guitar and i have access to a piano at my girlfriend's place. Cept my girlfriend's roommate's she-devil mom is currently staying there as well, for an unknown amount of time. So, I havent been able to go there for the past 10 days or so cause i know the mother will poison my soul or something voodoo-like.

Right now I have no access to my money because i lost my friggin debit card and i havent found anywhere that i can use my credit cards at yet. So, i'm flat broke. Which reminds me, i lost my debit card cause i'm friggin stupid and left it in the atm machine at the train station, but my american friend here is retarded because he lost his debit card too, but because he got really drunk over the weekend and gave a piggyback ride to a homeless guy without legs and the homeless guy apparently stole the american's wallet when the american was putting the homeless guy down. So, if the american ever sees that guy again hes going to take his lil wagon and throw it in the river so that he can't move anywhere ever again. However, that american was smart enough to bring 2 debit cards and keep them in seperate places. So point is, if you travel abroad you too should bring 2 debit cards with you. However, if you want to lose weight, just bring one and lose it, so you are forced to starve. I've apparently gotten skinnier, and therefore prettier. Mama would be proud and no longer ashamed.

I'm goingto join a gym here, they are ridiculously expensive. For 6 months at one gym it was over 800 dollars, but it was really nice and had a pool. At another it was over 600 dollars, and it had no pool. Then finally we found one thats just 300 bucks and it only has the strength training equipment, but its where all the crazy buff hardcore russians go. Its like an arnold scwarzenagger clone factory. I'm afraid to speak english there at all, or to even speak at all since my russian capabilities suck and give away my nationality immediately. Oh which reminds me, but i'll tell about it later, i was on a russian military base, holy hell was that scary. I was hesitant to say or do anything as to not spark off the next cold war. Okay I must get some work done now, and by work i mean stare blankly at everyone giving me orders in russian until they get irritated and leave.

Edit: I just read Aldana's last post and his reference to me in liking Jem. F you aldana, F you in the A

Feeling like some more music videos

Well it's that time of day again, I'm at work and I'm bored stupid. So I'm going to go and find music videos that are awesome and post them for no good reason. Gonna be a rather eclectic mix today because I can't think of a good enough central theme to top Bryan Adams.


First up is MCR's I Don't Love You Video. A lot of people bash MCR but mostly everybody that goes around the internet saying all this crap about this and that are a bunch of losers with no self-esteem. Pretty cool video and a great song.





Couldn't really decide which Linkin Park video to post. I was inclined to post their new video Bleed it Out from their new album. But I decided on Breaking the Habit. This was the first time I've seen this video and I really love the animation style. Plus this is probably my favorite LP song, the lyrics are very emotional and Chester really sings it with passion.





Gonna switch it up with They by Jem. Video is a little corny but Jem is actually pretty attractive and not at all what I had pictured her to look like in my mind. Plus this song is a favorite of the Bald One.






Finally we have hear Rodrigo y Gabriela. They are a classical guitar duet of awesomeness. This song, Diablo Rojo, is from their first North American album which I highly recommend if you enjoy guitar music at all.

News about future updates

Until I receive an email from Potter stating the contrary, I will assume that I'm going to be exclusively updating this blog. In light of that fact, I will probably be posting a lot of video game stuff and/or music videos. I like how I actually write these posts as if people other than me or potter will read them from now on. Anywho, I'm going to try to post at least once a night, probably more.


~Aldana

Online video services are meh at best

So if for some reason there is somebody actually looking at our archive of posts...he/she might notice that a number of our embedded videos no longer work. Do not fret, I am in the process of finding new, working links...if for no other reason than I am completely and utterly bored when I work here at Information Technology Services - PC Maintenance at Trinity University.

*Picture via Destructoid

~Aldana

The Day is Mine!

Decided to switch up the title due to my cohort being in Russia, probably making babies with his Russian sweetheart but thats just a guesstamation on my part. It's also a clever play on words...since Potter is in Russia and From Russia with Love is a James Bond movie staring Sean Connery. Get it? See Sean Connery is famous for being a promiscuous Hollywood star, so I comparing potter to him, whilst at the same time using the fact that potter is actually in Russia as a double twist. Yes I know that I'm clever. In honor of Sean Connery I'm going to put up two videos of the hilarious SNL celebrity Jeopardy with Will Ferrel, there is some overlapping but between the two they cover the best of the best. Enjoy.

*Some offensive language*













~Aldana

Back in Business

So it has been an eternity since we last updated this site and I have a strong urge to post videos now...so without further a due I give you Bryan Adams, raspy-voiced god.

Our first venture into Mr. Adams' repertoire of amazing is from the Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves soundtrack, which stared the equally amazing Kevin Costner, the song is entitled Everything I Do, I Do It For You.




Next up is my personal favorite Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman? With its exquisite blend of Spanish guitar and Bryan's raspy-ness at its finest, it is an instant classic.




Summer of '69. Instantly recognizable.




Gonna end it with one of the best. This song touches the soul...your lyrics are deep Bryan. Heaven.







~Aldana

trying out various html coding that i am currently learning

Is this working?

why yes it
is.

I want             to 
    write a    po-
                  em.right nowno, later

Okay?

lets try a table, okay? and some separate frames.

My First Table

People on my Slist
John Malkovich	Josh Aldana	Shaka Zulu

Why is there no border? I am enfuriated. Nevermind, i can see it when i publish it, but not when i preview it. All is well then.

Heres a website i like.



Most excellent movie

No yes Yes No	This must work
Yes No	No Yes

Tonight...You

So this episode of ATHF is freakin hilarious. Watch it.




~Aldana

Book of the month

So i've got a goal to read at least one fictional book every month. I shall list them on the blog for future reference.

January - russian fairy tales
February - Flow my tears, the policeman said by Philip K. Dick
A good, quick read. Skip the epilogue, it ruins the rest of the book.
March - Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
Good book with some very interesting concepts and themes, but the movie did a way better job at exploring the whole empathy theme.
April - Currently reading the Road.

I'm just on my way to the library to pick up another book, Con$umed, about how the current state of capitalism is detrimental to society. READ THAT TOO. Maybe we can start a bookclub, and within a year or so you'll start seeing "Potdana Approved" stickers on books, signifying they are of value to society. The Potdana logo will probably be a giddy panda high on drugs. I mean, that'd be the somewhat transparent picture for the background of the stickers.

Modest Mouse - Dashboard

I love this song and video. Almost as much as I love seeing a weiner dog fall off the roof.

Fischerspooner - Never Win

~Aldana

Alex Guardino

Hilarity Ensues

~Aldana (Picture from Destructoid)

How 300 would look if it were rated PG

FROSTINGGGG!

Impressive

So if you ever watched the Animaniacs, this is the guy that did Yakko's voice, and if you watched a lot of Animaniacs then this is the song that goes through every nation in the world. It is pretty amazing that he has that memorized and i bet it would be a ridiculous little trick at a cocktail party.





~Aldana

Weird Al is still really funny

So I used to listen to Weird Al back when I was like 10...but he is still really really funny and probably the best parody-er ever. The song is Trapped in the Drive Thru which is a parody of R. Kelly's Trapped in the Closet. As you may or may not know, R. Kelly's Trapped in the Closet is a 5-part "epic" "song" which is really spoken melodically. Weird Al's parodies the first 3 parts so this video is almost 11 minutes long but as I said...it's really funny because if you've ever listened to the R. Kelly song, Weird Al parodies it perfectly.




~Aldana

This guy plays violin like Potter wishes he could

Watch the whole thing.



In case you aren't familiar with 80's music, the two songs he plays are Owner of a Lonely Heart by Yes and Smooth Criminal by MJ.

~Aldana

Riposte to the rebuttal

Yes.




~Aldana

Rebuttal

No. No Aldana, no.

300 was a better movie than zodiac could ever wish to be in its wildest fantasies

So Potter, being the confused,balding,slightly retarded mormon that he is, decided to change his feelings on 300 on a couple days of reflection. I'm here to tell you he is a little female dog. While 300 does have some shortcomings in terms of character development and the story isn't super intricate or complex. But you have to realize it was taken from a graphic novel that is about a hundred pages long...that isn't exactly the best source material to start with. I think you have to look at 300 for what it is and not compare it to other movies, which sounds stupid but it really was made to try and be as faithful as possible to the Frank Miller novel. And in that goal it was a brilliant success. I had the chance to glimpse over the actual graphic novel ( our school bookstore randomly had a copy of it) and the movie recreates it almost frame for frame. 300 was also made to be completely stunning visually, and it most definitely was...from the first battle to the last rain of arrows, 300 is a graphical epic. I disagree with Potter 100 percent. I would gladly pay to see 300 again and again.

~Aldana

Zodiac is an awesome movie

I saw Zodiac tonight, and it was really friggin' awesome. The plot development, acting, dialog, directing and everything else was spot on in this movie. My only gripe is it is really long, at 2 hours and 40 minutes, and it feels that long, but not in a bad way like the last 30 minutes of Return of the King. It didn't drag at all, it just had a lot to get across, and probably to convey the long passage of time from where it starts to where it ends. Se7en, Zodiac, and Silence of the Lambs are the only serial killer movies I've seen and liked. And each of those movies I liked a lot, cause they were so well done with amazing character and plot development. All other serial killer movies I've seen I thought were pretty crappy. I can't think of any examples. Oh yeah, the bone collector, all the Saw movies, some weird one with Christopher Lambert, and that one with that one guy.

On a side note, I've come to the conclusion that 300 wasn't a very good movie. Too many contrived ultra lame scenes like the queen stabbing the guy and the persian coins falling all over the place and everyone screaming traitor or the scene where the son gets his head cut off as he looks admiringly at his father. This critic from the website deep-focus.com where I found many good foreign films at over the years said my thoughts exactly "Some of Snyder’s shot-for-shot recreations of Miller’s panels are admittedly arresting, but they feel more like graphic art writ large, splendid in their isolation from one another, than like elements of cinematic grammar. (While it was much more lively, Sin City suffered from the same formal problem, which it seems the filmmakers should have anticipated — why would you expect a string of images that are designed to work as narrative on a comic-book page to perform the same function on a movie screen?)". I don't think I could watch 300 in its entirety ever again, as theres just snippets of it that are visually dazzling, but nothing in the means of an engaging storyline.

Movie quick ratings

I need to make a list of movies that i love, i will rate them on a 0 - 10 scale, and i'll put in some movies i thought sucked, as reference points. This is just done for my own reference. Some movies i saw years ago, and upon a second viewing, i'd probably rate them differently. Anything over a 5, is worth watching, below a 5, I think its total crap. I only gave movies a 10 that I absolutely loved for whatever reason, and the movies are rated in accordance to their genre, not in accordance to all movies collectively judged.

Sci-fi
Blade Runner - 10/10
Alien 10/10
Terminator 2 10/10
Solaris(original) - 10/10
Gattaca 9/10
Dark City 9/10
Serenity 8/10
The Fountain - 7/10
Aliens 6/10
Event Horizon 6/10

Comedy
The Big Lebowski 10/10
Airplane 10/10
Theres Something about Mary 9/10
Dumb and Dumber 8/10
Four Rooms 7/10(the first 2 stories suck, the last 2 stories are hilarious)
Snakes on a Plane 1/10

Action
Predator 10/10
The Rock 8/10
X-Men 2 8/10
Spider Man 2 8/10
300 6/10
Incredible Hulk 6/10
Sin City 6/10
X Men 3 2/10

Drama
Children of Men 10/10
The Thin Red Line 10/10
Adaptation 10/10
Zodiac 9/10
American Beauty 9/10
Heat 9/10
The Prestige 9/10
The Queen 9/10
Y Tu Mama También 8/10
Amorres Perros 8/10
Open Water 7/10
Last King of Scotland 4/10

Youtube = Suck

So Potter discovered that over half of our ridiculously awesome music videos went down because they were pulled from youtube...so over my Spring Break I will be replacing as many videos as I can with videos from dailymotion, except for Potter's videos, he will have to do his videos on his own. Just a heads up for all our dedicated readers. I'm talking to you cristybu and you sparks...i mean anonymous person.

~Aldana

Ulysses

STFUAJPG!!!!!

So over at Destructoid.com, a professional gaming blog, they are having this contest called the STFUAJPG contest. Basically you photoshop the little acronym STFUAJPG into any picture in some funny way and the top 3 winners get a free game. So i decided to try my hand at it and here is my inital result.


STFUAJPG = Shut The F**k Up And Just Play Games

~Aldana

Muses of the world

Beautiful women are the greatest things on earth. Maybe its because they possess that born into royalty trait, where because they're so gorgeous they can get whatever they want with minimal effort. And minimal effort with huge payoffs is a dream we all have. Especially me.

Anna Falchi, ah yes...my first international love. Born in Italy in 1972, making her only 13 years my elder, well within range. She starred in a great zombie film called Cemetery Man, aka Dellmorte Dellamore. Through this movie I discovered Anna Falchi, and this discovery led to a wild obsession to never be tamed. Man, would you just look at her profile, her long slender neckline and her subtlety pronounced jawline, those soft curves of her nose and chin and cheekbones and those full lips...so diligently and passionately sculpted she was.



Well, I planned on adding a few more girls, but I don't have time right now. So I'm gonna make this an ongoing series - aptly named - Muses of the World.

edit- The layout of this post is not the way it looked in the preview. What the crap.

I like to yell at mice with my shirt off

This short little clip from family guy is really funnny.




~Aldana

Great not-so-well-known bands

I love these bands, especially TV on the Radio. These songs are very nice for mellow times.

These Things - She Wants Revenge

Wolf Like Me - TV on the Radio

Girl and the Sea - The Presets

Dreams - TV on the Radio(had to add this one as well, as its got such great lyrics)

Squirrels are the coolest common animals

Everyday I walk about 2 miles to my classes and everyday I see many many squirrels. To add excitement to my walk, I'm going to place fermented pumpkins along my regular path early one morning so a few hours later when I'm walking to class, I'll be seeing all these drunkard squirrels roaming around, not knowing what the crap is going on. It will be oh so joyous.

Rejected

Don Hertzfeldt's hilarious short cartoon about rejected commercials is finally on youtube. The transfer is pretty good but there are some scenes with slowdown but not enough to ruin the overall experience. One of the most disturbingly hilarious videos you will ever watch.

Rejected by Don Hertzfeldt
Uploaded by free-minded

~Aldana

The Mars Volta

So Potter's last post inspired me to go on youtube and look up the video for another The Mars Volta song that I love. The song is The Widow...the video kinda sucks but this song is pretty amazing. Lets have a listen.




~Aldana

Mars Volta = Pink Floyd of the 21st century

Shredded wings of angels,
remorsefully fall to earth,
to cover the seeping filth,
that breeds insidious contempt.
Shredded wings of angels,
their sacrifice to provide,
a tangible sight of dreams lost,
if just but for a day.

Sometimes I like to lay naked in the snow, writhing around in it and making chirping sounds to the birds at the bird feeder, birds that in any other situation would fly away immediately but due to the snow they need to stay there and gather food, so they are essentially a captive audience of mine, like passengers on an airplane to an evangelical pilot who recently returned from a mission trip and wants to share his thoughts on life and redemption with his passengers, who in turn fear for their lives as they believe the pilot to be a religious fanatic with the belief the secular population need be taught a lesson by crashing his fully loaded plane into San Francisco, the symbolic city of all thats wrong with the world.

I like to wither around in the snow till I lose all sensation and then run inside into a hot tub of aromatic water, creating a feeling of my physical body falling into the earth, and my spiritual form rising up into a higher plane of existence, full of sweet, harmonious music that is edible by the mind and people of all shapes and sizes from the pro-bono lawyer in the shape of a 20 ft. Keebler elf cookie with the voice of a singing George Michaels to the bookkeeper the size of an atom but with the strength of Atlas, who quietly sneaks up underneath the sole of your right foot and unexpectedly propels you thousands of feet into the air, as you scream for your dear life wondering if this is really happening or if you're experiencing the delayed effects of that drop of acid you took in the morning with your cup of coffee, but then laugh giddily when you realize it was that li'l ol' rascal bookkeeper who did this, and then quickly rehearse the Prayer to the Almighty Bookkeeper* so that he selflessly catches you before you fall to your death.

*The Prayer to the Almighty Bookkeeper
Almighty Bookkeeper,
you rock my world,
you rock my socks off,
you rock the kasbah,
you rock all that is dear to me.
Almighty Bookkeeper,
You truly are the supreme rocker,
of all that is rockery.

Televators - Mars Volta

Some funny clips from the old movie UHF

UHF was a movie by Weird Al Yankovic. From what i remember of it, it was a pretty crappy movie overall. But it did have some choice moments in it, such as the ones below. The best part is generally towards the end of each clip.

Rockafeller skank = 1/2 the reason for my love of techno

Ah yes, I think this song, along with the Mortal Kombat theme song, is what most turned me on to techno music back when I was just a wee' lad. The soundtrack to the mortal kombat movie was the first cd I ever bought, excluding Shaq Fu, Shaquille O'Neal's rap album that came with every copy of his karate fighting game of the same name(needless to say, it was Shaqtacular). But anyway, this video is a classic, for its randomness and abstractness.



And this is the best clip from the fresh prince of bel-air. I don't know why I'm posting it here.


and heres a fan-made video for Lost. I've never watched that show and never will as 24 is the only tv show worth watching, but this video is somewhat mesmirizing and I like the song. The shots of the hobbit guy dancing by himself are hilarious to me for some reason. I must try this ballroom dancing to techno music, it looks rather satisfying in its inherent idiosyncrasy.

Euro Techno Music Videos

So while I was stumbling around the internet(using StumbleUpon, the greatest procrastination tool of all time, if you use Firefox get the extension StumbleUpon), when i stumbled upon some sort of blog that had the top 10 sexiest videos. There were a bunch of techno songs with the predictable Satisfaction and Call on Me and some other techno videos...one involving skydiving babies whose target was a mountain size, lingerie-wearing supermodel. So one of the videos was this song My My My by Armand Van Helden. It is a techno/dance song and the girls are pretty attractive but its also the bit of humor he uses that really sells the video for me. The song is also addicting with a pretty awesome beat.

Armand Van Helden - My My My
Uploaded by mistereko

So I youtubed Armand Van Helden and he has a couple other videos i really liked.


This one is called Into Your Eyes...this video also has a subtle humor to it and more sexy girls. Plus the guys haircut is ridiculous. The song is again pretty awesome.

Armand Van Helden - Into Your Eyes
Uploaded by DaGra2F

The last one is called Hear My Name...and i gotta say its probably the strangest of the three. Im not going to spoil what goes on. The song is also probably the weakest of the three but its still not bad.

Armand Van Helden - Hear My Name
Uploaded by auntyagony

Enjoy!

~Aldana

New Life Goal: Join NBA solely to do a danceoff

My new goal in life, that I intend to see through to its completion, is to get into the NBA so I may participate in a totally random, and therefore awesome, danceoff. Such a danceoff can be seen below. The dance moves aren't incredible, but thats beside the point, its the fact there was a danceoff at all is what makes it so incredibly awesome. And because Shaq and Dwight Howard are huge.



On a side note, the all star shootout back on saturday night was awesome, I personally thought michael jordan and Dr. J were inconsistent with their ratings for the slam dunk contest.

Video first seen on WithLeater.com

-potter(i remembered this time)

ice storms rule supreme

So last night me and a friend decided to do some midnight sledding...on our backs or in plastic bins. Conventional sleds were used as well, and were the most thrilling, as they'd launch those brave enough to use 'em across the street at the bottom of my hill(seriously wouldn't hit the street at all) and into the next yard, into a stupid pole thats randomly in the middle of the yard...or an even stupider golfball-shaped mailbox.



We'd race sometimes, and like all races I've been in, I won 'em.

Procrastination

So Sunday is again upon us and I should be doing homework right now....but instead I'm going to post. Last night I was playing with these magnets my girlfriend has and I found out my magnetic powers are on the same scale as Magneto's. Look below and be amazed:





Now I know what you are asking yourself, "Is that all your powers can do?" And of course the answer is no. Behold greatness:





~Aldana

Our Economy

minus



Equilibrium

~Aldana (Both images via Kotaku.com)

long sequences galore

These scenes are probably boring when they're isolated from the movie they're from, but I think they're extremely effective in immersing the audience when apart of the movie as a whole.







One of the all time greatest single take scenes ever in cinematic history, so inspiring to me.

Federico Fellini's 8 1/2 = cinematic genius

"Accept me as I am. Only then can we discover each other."

Another great old foreign movie, this one is widely regarded as one of the greatest movies ever made, and I agree. After watching this, the similarities between this and Adaptation are insane. 8 1/2 was basically an autobiography of Federico Fellini, the director, and Adaptation was basically an autobiography of Charlie Kaufman, the screenwriter. Each movie mixed together the past, present, and fantasy seamlessly and dealt with their shortcomings as human beings and their regrets, of course both ending with a revelatory message as how to come to terms with themselves and live a fulfilling life.

This is one of the few movies that stands the test of time, I think it will forever be applicable to whoever watches it. But, it is a poetic movie, and as Tarkovsky said, "the film for the large audience cannot be poetical", so only if your artsy fartsy in the least bit should you try watching this movie(or Solaris).

In closing, heres a creepy clip of a midget laughing maniacally for 3 minutes, and a great scene from the movie "Oldboy" demonstrating the sculpting in time theory.

Solyaris(Солярис) = cinematic genius

"We don't want to conquer space at all. We want to expand Earth endlessly. We don't want other worlds; we want a mirror. We seek contact and will never achieve it. We are in the foolish position of a man striving for a goal he fears and doesn't want. Man needs man!"

A while ago I made a list of my top ten sci-fi movies, one of them was the american version of Solaris. I said I never watched the original version because it looked like a boring 60s experimental movie. But then I learned of Andrei Tarkovsky's genius, and decided to see what his movies are like. This movie is a near masterpiece, and among the greatest movies made, making the american remake look superfluous and shallow.

What this movie does so well and so poetically, is present such themes as the inadequacies of human kind to comprehend the universe or the heart...human fraility, through its fundamental weaknesses of sentimentality and guilt...dependency. The alien in this movie is a planet comprised entirely of water, with which the humans try to communicate with. The planet, which is basically a perfect entity, tries to communicate with the humans by materializing people or things from the humans' memories or fantasies, in an attempt to understand them better. For the main character, it was his deceased wife. There is so much that could be said about this movie, perhaps another time I will exercise my philosophical thoughts in another post, but not this one, maybe never...as its better to destroy whats unnecessary than to create it, does it really matter what any of us has to say? Man generally writes to affirm his existence, to feel of some worth.

I would like to point out a cinematic theory that I love, that Tarkovsky created. He created the theory known as "sculpting in time", using long takes and few cuts to give the viewers a sense of time passing, time lost, and the relationship of one moment in time to another. I think, a movie like Children of Men is probably a good contemporary example of this idea(from my understanding of it), where there were several great long sequences with minimal or no cuts - the first car chase where Julianne Moore gets shot, Clive Owen escaping the safe house with the pregnant girl, just about the entire final 20 minutes in the refugee city. A long uncut sequence in a movie is more memorable than any other technique, in my opinion...leaves a more lasting impression as it is transcribes time in real time. It is this unique trait of the cinematic medium that should be better utilized. "The speedy jump-cutting style that is prevalent in music videos and many Hollywood movies, by contrast, overrides any sense of time by imposing the editor's viewpoint." Some music videos that I love that follow this theory are below, 2 for radiohead songs, the other for the old 90s band Wax, directed by the great spike jonez(Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, Eternal Sunshine on the spotless mind).

More Scorched3D

So I had to make this a separate post because I have a nice little series of screen shots that will depict, in a different way, the destructiveness of the weapons.

So this is the map at the start, still with 10 players, again thats me in the white circle:





This next one shows all the missiles, in flight. It's hard to see, but I just launched the most destructive nuclear warhead in the game at that little city:






This is the resulting mushroom cloud from said nuclear device:




This is the final aftermath of everything, only the huge, water-filled crater is the result of my nuke, the other smaller crater was caused by the United Kingdom:





~Aldana

Addicted to Scorched3D

So I've been playing a lot of this simple little game called Scorched3D. It's free for any OS and has some pretty incredible graphics made entirely out of OpenGL. So I took some screen shots of the game in action.


Here is a snapshot of the land as it started...before I used the most devastating weapon in the game. Thats me in the middle with the big, white circle around me.




Here is the same piece of land after I used the weapon called Dr. Strangelove. If you look carefully you can see the tiny strip of land that was left in left corner area. There were originally 10 players, 9 bots plus me, afterwards there were only two.




~Aldana

The Chicago Bears Will Win the Super Bowl!

So says Tecmo Super Bowl. Gotta love that 8-bit music.




~Aldana

7-11 BROWNIES ARE VERY DISAPPOINTING

I'm never buying a baked good from 7 11 ever again. I wish I lived in NYC, they have great bakeries and delis everywhere. What made it so terrible was that it was missing a very important mixture of abstract ingredients, that mixture being a lil TLC+G, tender lovin' care + gluttony. 7-11 brownies only had the abstract ingredient of gluttony, thus making it suitable only for gluttonous coach potatoes whose most thrilling conversations involve daytime talk shows and what crazy things they say they're gonna do this weekend but never actually do em.

Now, the way brownies are to be made is with love and special attention paid to each individual ingredient and its mixture with the other ingredients. As you prepare the brownies you want to have constantly on your mind how you are going to overindulge each and every single bite with some milk, until half the pan is gone in a single sitting, hence the +G part. 7-11 is evil, their brownies are like something you'd see in the Matrix, except of instead of tricking your senses into thinking their the orgasmically delicious brownies you always dreamed about, they still just taste like slightly dry brownies that were poorly made by a disgruntled baker whose dreams of owning his own bakery shop named "Le C'etat Baker" on a cobblestone street in Paris never came true, and is now stuck with a nagging whale of a wife and two ungrateful bratty kids that suck at life and bring no hope or pride to the family.

Long distance relationships suck

Just a perfect day,
Problems all left alone,
Weekenders on our own.
It's such fun.
Just a perfect day,
You made me forget myself.
I thought I was someone else,
Someone good.

Oh it's such a perfect day,
I'm glad I spent it with you.
Oh such a perfect day,
You just keep me hanging on,
You just keep me hanging on.

Perfect Day - Lou Reed

I just wanna say, it sucks having such strong feelings for someone you knew so briefly, and lives on the other side of the world. What makes it suck even more, is our different schedules. When I'm busy and not able to write to her for a while is when shes got a lot of free time and thus thinks I've forgotten her...and when I've got a lot of free time and wanting letters from her is when shes busy with stuff and makes me think shes moved on. Basically, we never feel like we truly know what the other is thinking and feeling towards the other. We both realize a lot can change in a years time(but does true love ever change?), and leaves us questioning the others love. Being mildly sufficient in each others language doesn't help much either. It wasn't a problem when we were together, cause words aren't necessary in the language of love, mhm baby thats right. Thats all for now.

On a different note, I was informed today that its possible to go snowboarding/skiing at Liberty for just 20 bucks on wednesdays from 5 to 10pm. So, LETS DO ITTTTTTTTT..seriously..I'm going next wednseday for sure so tag along people.

And heres a couple techno videos, the first a benny benassi song(obviously due to the same beat he uses in half his songs) and the other a very seductive song by Chicane, its like a technofied enya song, which is pretty incredibly ultra awesome in my book. The video aint too great tho.

MUSIC VIDEOOOOOOOSSS!!!!!!

It's that time again for a macabre post of music videos. I'll start this one of with a little Billy Joel, I've never actually seen the video for Piano Man.





Now we're gonna switch it up with some Iron Man by Black Sabbath...mostly because this song is awesome to play on guitar hero. Okay so this music video isn't as good as the recording or the guitar hero version but it's still going up.





This music video to Black Hole Sun by Soundgarden is pretty weird but I like the song a lot.





Wow, Dream On by Aerosmith with some orchestral accompaniment. And lighters. Lots of lighters. And a gong





~Aldana

Music...on a scanner

This video made me giggle.





~Aldana

I'm a closet pothead

Ive come to the conclusion that if I wasn't raised the way I was raised, I'd be a drug addict at this point in my life. Why do I say this? Because how many people work out hardcore while listening to "riders of the storm" by the Doors, just to get that euphoric effect that happens immediately following an intense workout, and just lay on the floor vacantly staring at the ceiling, as Jim Morrison's voice takes me to another plane of existence. Oh my crap, I wonder what it'd be like, to keep everything the same, but next time, throw in a strobe light...So tonight I will see how the music of Massive Attack affects my adrenalin and if its conducive to the effects of when the endorphins hit.



And I just like this video.

Hamsters are stupid creatures

~Aldana

I'm A Pretty Pony

Disturbing. Hilarious.



~Aldana

It all makes sense now

So if you are like me and aren't that great with the chopsticks they give you in a Chinese restaurant, but you want to master them, then fear not....because I have found the ultimate guide.











And there you have it, go forth and conqueror.

~Aldana

The Pros and Cons of Texas

The Pros
1. The weather. Texas, as most people know, really doesn't have a winter. It does get mildly cold sometimes. Like right now it is about 45 degrees and raining, and it is supposed to get down into the 30's tonight...but by next week it will most likely be back in the 70's. So while those poor saps in the northeast freeze their asses off, I will be down here getting a tan...in January.
2. The Size. Texas is a big state. And all that land means lots of room to put stuff. The outlet center in San Marcos is the biggest outlet strip I've ever seen. It's literally miles long, you need a car to get from one end to the other.
3. The women. So much hotter than anywhere in Maryland or Russia. They are also more intelligent and 10x the fun.
4. The plethora of 24-hour fast food choices. In Maryland pretty much the only widely available late night food option is McDonalds. Not so down here in Texas. In addition to McDonalds, we have Taco Cabana, Whataburger, and Jack in the Box. Taco Cabana is like Taco Bell except a thousand times better in every respect, their quesadillas are heavenly. Whataburger is another excellent alternative, their are somewhat pricey but the food quality is much much higher than a place like McDonalds. Jack in the Box is another burger joint that is pretty much comparable to Mcdonalds, with a Texas twist, since they serve tacos and what not.

The Cons
1. The weather. Not ever seeing snow sucks. Really bad. The summer is also ungodly hot. Like 110+ every day of the week hot. And having to have track practice out in that heat is the worst.
2. The size. Texas is a big freakin state. San Antonio is about an hour away from Austin, 2 hours away from Houston, and a whopping 4 and a half hours away from Dallas. In fact most people fly from San Antonio when they wanna go to Dallas. Coming from a state as small as Maryland, just the thought of getting on a plane and not leaving the state seems pretty ridiculous.
3. No smell of fresh cow manure in the morning.


~Aldana

iPod Shuffle rocks...hardcore!

So my girfriend got me an iPod Shuffle for christmas...you know the new crazy small ones with a little clip. Well i gotta say its so amazing. Just the sheer smallness of it is so convenient and then on top of that it has a built it clip, pure genius. Another thing is that its memory is all flash, as opposed to a disk drive in regular ipods. That means no freezing or skipping or waiting for the hard drive to catch up with your fingers after you push the skip button 30 times in under a second. Everything is instant. One thing that is different is the lack of touch sensitivity. In a way its nice cause you can change the volume through your clothes or whatever fairly easy, just push the + or - button. On the other hand it takes a little to get used to after rotating for so long. You would think not having a screen would be a drawback...but I think it's nicer because its always a surprise whats next. And your playlist is never the same..ever. Here are some nice pictures i took with my new digital camera.







~Aldana

Inspiration through failure....and telepathic midgets

Failure is inevitable. Embrace it, learn from it, get past it. I'm going to sound like a motivational speaker, but to be a winner is to be unafraid of losing, to turn failure into inspiration, to strive to never let such a failure happen again.

With that in mind, this past semester went pretty bad, where the last month of the semester I was pretty sure I was going to fail every class. No exaggeration. Luckily, I somehow managed to come out with a 3.0 gpa for the semester, I seriously don't know how that happened, I guess talking to the professors throughout the semester and building a working relationship with them actually does influence what grade they give you. Nonetheless, from the week before thanksgiving up to new years day, my life was ruled by fear and "wtf am I gonna do now" type mentalities.

I digress tho, what I want to discuss here, is how motivating it would be to have a telepathic midget follow you around everywhere. His sole purpose would be to read your thoughts, and whenever he sensed fear or laziness clouding your judgment, he'd dragon kick you in the shins until you submit to his will, thus reminding and inspiring you to get back up and focus on the task at hand, and to not be bullied by life. I'd prefer my telepathic midget to look like Willow. He could switch up his attack routine every now and again by jabbing me in the gut with his lil wand stick thing, or throwing hardened brownies in the shape of Brownies at my throat. Instead of saying "thats not possible" or "that can't happen" you should say "How could I get my own telepathic midget?", such a train of thought opens the mind, instead of closing it, as the former statements would do.



The telepathic midget would be perfect for everything. For exercising, you could put the midget on your back, for a weighted run. You could use the midget as a weight or medicine ball, like mothers sometimes do with their newborns. For studying, he'd be a great help. A lot of people study by debating with their own mind a certain subject. With a telepathic midget on hand, you could bring such mental debates out into reality, where you'd act the one side of your brain, and the midget would read the other half of your mind and present its case. The auditory reception of your own thoughts would help you retain the information your learning, something you could never get from just mental debates.

You would not fear the midget, because hes just a midget. He'd just get annoying at most, to drive you past your fear and laziness towards greater things, as "discontent is the first step of man or nation towards greatness". The elimination of fear opens up so many possibilities for you. In apocalypto the guy was able to fight off the remaining evil mayans when he had no more fear. Its why Machiavelli says "since fear and love can hardly co-exist, it is better to be feared than loved" because fear paralyzes the people. Arnold Scrwenagger was only able to defeat the predator when he overcame his fear. Tom Cruise profoundly said "F it" when he overcame his fears of the risky business he was about to undertake, realizing win or lose he'd still have come out ahead of everyone else who never risked anything.

So take risks; smart, useful ones tho.

SOMETIMES I LIKE TO SIT DOWN ON COWS

COWS ARE THE GREATEST CREATURES IN THE UNIVERSE, THEY ARE THE PRINCES OF THE UNIVERSE, IF YOU WILL. WITHOUT COWS HOW COULD I EVER ENUOY ANY PASTRY AGAIN. PASTRIES ARE JUST TOO DRY BY THEMSELVES, LIKE THE PERSONALITY OF CARSON DALY. HE ALWAYS NEEDS THE RICH DISTINCT AND FUNNY PERSONALITIES OF INTERESTING PEOPLE TO MAKE HIMSELF APPEALING TO ANYONE. BUT STILL, THAT WAS A BAD ANALOGY, AS PASTRIES ARE DELICIOUS AND TAKE TRUE TALENT TO MAKE GOOD ONES, AND CARSON DALY WAS MOST LIKELY CONCEIVED WHEN THE RETARD JANITOR OF AN AIRPORT DRANK TO MUCH JET FUEL AND GOT OVERLY FRISKY WITH THE BROKEN X-RAY MACHINE. MMMM X RAY MACHINES MAKE ME RANDY.

SO RECENTLY I FELL DOWN THE STAIRS. I FOUND IT TO BE SYMBOLIC, AS EACH STEP MY SKULL VIOLENTLY SLAMMED INTO REPRESENTED THAT COWS ARE EVERYTHING TO ME. TOMMOROW I'M GOING TO BAKE A NEW AWESOME BAKED GOOD. I DON'T KNOW WHAT YET, BUT IT WILL BE SO GOOD, ILL PROBABLY END UP DYING WHEN I TRY TO EAT IT WHILE ITS STILL IN THE OVEN AND GET STUCK AND CATCH ON FIRE AND SPURT PRECIOUS CHOCOLATE BLOOD FROM MY HEART.

TIME TO SLEEP. OR WATCH BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, ONE OR THE OTHER.

WAIT, MUST WRITE ABOUT WHAT JUST HAPPENED. A MOUSE CREPT INTO MY ROOM, SHORTLY AFTER THE SONG "SAVEOURSOULLISA" BY DAMON ALBARN AND MICHAEL NYMAN CAME ON. THIS SONG IS THE EPITOME OF SONGS FOR EPIC HUNTS/FIGHTS TO THE DEATH. I QUIETLY HIT THE VOLUME BUTTON ON THE KEYBOARD TO TURN THE MUSIC UP, AND REACHED FOR MY PEN THAT DOUBLES AS A FLASHLIGHT AND LASER POINTER, AND CRAWLED TOWARDS THE CORNER THE MOUSE HAD RUN TO. THEN THE LIL FURRY HELLSPAWN RAN RIGHT AT ME, WHICH WAS UNEXPECTED AS MY PREVIOUS ENCOUNTERS WITH SUCH CREATURES LED ME TO BELIEVE THEY ARE SCARRED LIL BUGGERS THAT RUN AWAY FROM YOU, NOT AT YOU. ITS SPRINT TOWARDS ME CAUSED ME TO PANIC, BUT FOR SOME REASON I JUMPED AT IT AND MY GUT SMOTHERED IT, BUT I ALSO JABBED MYSELF IN THE FACE WITH THE PEN, BUT TOOK IN THE PAIN.

THE "SAVEYOURSOULLISA" SONG ENDED, AND THE SONG "WHEN OUR WINGS ARE CUT, CAN WE STILL FLY?" SONG CAME ON, AS PERFORMED BY THE KRONOS QUARTET. I FELT REMORSE, FOR SMOTHERING THE MOUSE, WE COULD HAVE BECOME MUTUAL MUSES TO EACH OTHER, I INSPIRE IT TO WALK ON ITS HIND LEGS, AND CHARM WOMEN, AND IT'D INSPIRE ME TO CRAP A LOT IN PEOPLES HOUSES AND RUN ALONGSIDE WALLS REALLY FAST AT NIGHT TIME, OCCASIONALLY IN THE DAYTIME. I ROLLED OVER TO TAKE THE MOUSE AND THROW IT OUT THE WINDOW FOR THE SQUIRRELS TO CARRY OFF INTO THE WOODS, AND PERFORM THEIR TYPICAL SQUIRREL SACRIFICIAL RITUALS OF MICE TO APPEASE THEIR ACORN GODS. IF I DON'T GIVE THEM SOMETHING TO SACRAFICE, THEY'LL WAIT PATIENTLY IN THE TREETOPS, FOR ME TO COME OUT TO GO TO MY CAR, AND WILL THROW THINGS AT MY HEAD WITH EXTREME ACCURACY AND FORCE, AND ONE WILL USUALLY DO A KAMIKAZE JUMP ONTO MY CRANIUM TO PERFORM THE 1000 SLASHES OF THE SQUIRREL TALONS, BEFORE I GRAB HOLD IF ITS TAIL, AND DRIVE OFF IN MY CAR HOLDING IT OUT THE WINDOW SO ITS BODY GETS RIPPED APART FROM BEING DRAGGED ALONG THE ROAD AT 60 MILES AN HOUR. IT DIDN'T HAVE TO BE THAT WAY, BUT THE SQUIRRELS ARE A PROUD SPECIES, AND DON'T RECOGNIZE THEIR PLACE IN NATURE.



SO THE MOUSE WASN'T ACTUALLY UNDER MY GUT, IT APPARENTLY ESCAPED. I LOOKED OVER TO THE HOLE IN THE WALL, AND SAW ITS GLEAMING EYES. "RACHEL'S SONG" PERFORMED BY VANGELIS WAS PLAYING. IT WAS DIVINE, THE MOUSE AND I MADE A CONNECTION AT THAT MOMENT, UNITED BY A BELIEF, THAT THE PEACEFUL CO-EXISTENCE OF MAN AND BEAST CAN AND WILL COME TO PASS, AND THAT MOUSE TRAPS REALLY HURT A LOT WHEN STEPPED ON. I THINK I WILL SET UP MOUSE TRAPS IN THE TREETOPS NEXT TIME I SENSE THE SQUIRRELS GETTING THEIR HEADS FULL OF IDEAS OF SUPERIORITY.