Things I do/like

I don't know what to write about, it's just too much. Instead, I've updated my list of interests.

Video games, drawing, painting, reading books that aren't about people in the mid 1800s, horticulture, sociology, psychology, photography, card games like Magic, music, anime, zombies, sarcasm, superheroes, entertaining propaganda, reading movie reviews, tea, listening, origami, mythology, traveling, folklore, bubblegum, trying to roll my "r", playing the saxophone, jazz, small containers, dark humor, large mugs, trying new food/things, meeting new people, eating with chopsticks, service organizations, wearing jeans, monocles, antiquing, people that paint on shoes, passing important things down through generations, supernatural/ghost stories, warm rain, nostalgia, eye colors, obscure words, slang in other languages, sleeping, shirts with cool designs, palindromes, weird facts/books of random facts, vampire squids, tesseracts, sonic weaponry, speaking in Spanish, secret government projects (shh), lemon cupcakes, staying up late, watching bad or obscure movies with friends, Hayao Miyazaki, 2D fighting games, savants, Great Pandas, measuring things in cups, quotations, being confused, walking quickly, candy sculptures, chainsaw sculpting, physiological psychology and neuroscience, robots, crunchy peanut butter, personal customization, stickers, secret rooms, famous sociopaths, losing my keys, recycling, yo-yos, taboo, windy days, exorcisms, documenting things that happen in my life, comic books, Dungeons & Dragons, pop culture references, art deco, taping things to my walls, not being lonely, birds (especially weird ones like quails), racquetball, wearing suits, nicknames, writing down things I have to do and crossing them off in lists, color-coded highlighting, human sexuality, gender studies, not being an early adapter, not being frugal, handcrafted wooden things, cuddling, baking - but even more so cooking (especially for others), trees – including but not limited to giant ones, people who like to do things and have interests, midday naps on really nice days where I open my window and listen to people outside, hookah, understanding attraction, glasses, internet memes, trying to be a good big brother, learning, kitsch, plaid, gardening, the Discovery channel, snowslides and sledding, having a goofy grin, laughing a lot, having an appropriate level of mystery, nachos, curly hair, hairstyles, coffee, the electromagnetic spectrum, LGBT rights, activism, minimalist German movie posters, attractive men, sharing things that I think are cool with others (especially if they find it cool), improv comedy, looking at stars, farmers’ markets, public transportation, the internet, poetry, juices, Nikola Tesla, steampunk art, retrotronics, crocheting, making things myself, yogurt

This is, apparently, a real thing

Smarties

Apparently there are two different kinds of Smarties. In the US, we generally think of these:


You know, those chalky little disks you got from your teacher in second grade for doing well on your spelling tests. Link here:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smarties_(Ce_De_Candy)

In most European countries and Canada Smarties refer to these:


Interestingly enough, the original blue Smartie (European) was discontinued because of unsure effects of the blue coloring used. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smarties
Additionally, the original name of "Smarties Chocolate Beans" was discontinued in 1977 because they thought the term "beans" was misleading. You'd think that with a name like Smarties they'd give their consumers a bit more credit.

http://instantrimshot.com/

What not to do with your Children

A) Do not use your children as free weights. This is a BAD idea. The '90s were full of bad ideas: boy bands, fanny packs, and now this.

In other news, Sam and I are working on our combination Arnold Schwarzenegger/ Christopher Walken impression.

The best way to describe it is to say "Hasta la vista, baby" in halting Walkenese. If you manage this first step you are on the right path.

Personal news: Rush is finally coming to a close, which means I will have a lot more time to relax and concentrate on my research. Not to mention all of the catching up I have to do with reading assignments... The rest of the school week will be really stressful so I'm definitely looking forward to the weekend as a respite from some anxiety. But then that brings up an important question, what am I going to do this weekend - relax and unwind, or catch up on my reading? A decision for another time - now I need to stop procrastinating and finish this last part of my homework for tomorrow.

To Be a Renaissance Man

My mind has been buzzing lately. Important but currently unanswerable questions have been lingering at the edges: What am I going to do for a living? What do I really want to have as my career? Is it time to distance myself from people I don't really like, the wheat from the chaff? Why does it always seem like I don't know anything? The answer to the last one is simple, at least. I don't know anything. There's just too much information in the world. There's so much information, I just want to absorb it.

Not the first time these thoughts have crossed my mind, of course.

More and more I just want to get up and leave - go somewhere I've never been before with no friendly faces to greet me. More and more I don't care about the answers to the career-related questions, they seem so trivial . . . Many people believe in heaven, reincarnation, something that makes it feel like what they're currently doing isn't completely useless in the end-run. I am unfortunately not one of these people, although sometimes I wish I were. From my perspective, I've only got one shot at this whole life thing - I'm not going to come back to Earth to try again or live in a plane where I can do anything my heart desires. I've been contemplating traveling for a while now, seeing what everything in the world is about from my own perspective. I think I'd definitely benefit from traveling, but the costs seem to put me out of range for most of it. I want to know things, mostly for my own personal benefit. I want to learn how to juggle, to understand how to buy an Italian suit, write books, learn how to cook and bake really well, be completely fluent in Spanish, sew clothes and people back together . . . there's just so much to learn.

And that's why I've decided to make this blog a chronicle of my pursuit of knowledge - All I Need to Know. Hopefully in the future these small and random pieces of knowledge will help me answer the large and concrete questions I will eventually have to answer.

Amazing Sand Painting

A friend of mine sent this to me, and it's beautiful.

The Episode with The Clarks and Crazy Drunk People

To be completely honest, I haven't been to many concerts in my life. I really like music, but I never really get the urge to go and see people perform live. People that know me well know that I love trying new things, so when my friend asked me to go see The Clarks (and band that up until then I had never heard of) I of course said yes. Assuring me that he would get me some of their music before we left so that I could get a feel for it, he finally fulfilled his promise by playing parts of a few of their songs on the bus ride to the concert at the Grog Shop. The Grog Shop is a local bar/concert center and a bunch of indie and upcoming bands stop by on their way through Cleveland. As I soon learned, The Clarks are a regional band located mostly in the Pittsburgh PA area. This was reinforced when a chant for the Steelers was rallied in between a few songs. But now I'm getting ahead of myself. My friend and I actually made it there on time (new record) but we were a bit too early. We ended up waiting around for an hour and a half before their opening band even started. The opening band, Colin Gawel & The Lonely Bones was . . . decent. Their lead singer, who I assume is the titular "Colin Gawel" had a voice that cleaved my brain in twain. It was fine for a few songs, but in their approximately 12 song track list his voice turned into a weapon of my demise - both piercing and high. I was glad when The Clarks finally took the stage to much applause from the crowd. I actually liked them a good deal and a few of their songs were great. The songs I knew the words to (about 2 of 26+) were covers of Beatles' songs, and I think they did a pretty great job. While all of this music was playing, there were two incredibly drunk women who kept on getting in everyone's way. One woman was completely smashed, she pushed her way to the front of the crowd near the stage and just kept reaching for the lead singer. At one point she managed to creepily touch his hair when he leaned down to pick up something. She then proceeded to sit down/pass out on the ground and some of the guys in the bar tried to remove her from the main group. She latched herself onto one really drunk guy and just kept grabbing him and trying to get his attention by reaching over me to poke him in the back. This man, also completely drunk and wearing matching argyle sweaters with his (he told us) wife then attempted to give us advice on how to pick up girls (in so many words). We were the perfect distance from him to be in the splash zone of the "spit when I talk drunk" phase. Turning back from his wife, he then told us that his wife thought he was scaring us. Wiping the spit from my face I told him that we weren't that easily scared. He then proceeded to talk to us about "cougars" and other random shit I don't remember because I eventually started to annoy him. At one point near the end of the concert he just kept trying to get my attention when I was ignoring him and I finally just kind of yelled "What?!" through the loud music. He said something along the lines of "you should go for it", referencing the incredibly drunk woman he had helped before and kept telling us we should try to get with. I think I probably just rolled my eyes at that point. Other highlights include a woman dropping a Pabst Blue Ribbon on the ground that exploded onto my back (how?) and legs, and also another drunk middle-aged woman who started trying to grind with me while I didn't have any means of escape. I think that if I learned anything from all of this it's a) I still really like to try things because they make great stories and b) never wear matching clothing with your significant other.

Jack out

Things I learned from video games #1: Don't let Kanye choose your pokemon

Oh Kanye, the man who calls himself the voice of our generation. I hate him. Out of all personal traits, having too high an opinion of oneself is the least attractive to me. And Kanye doesn't just have an ego, he has a damn god complex. With quality quotes such as, "George Bush doesn't care about black people," "If I'm not the voice of this generation, who is?" and this recent stupid Taylor Swift thing I can't stand him. Granted, most of these are at least partially publicity stunts, I'm aware of that. Kanye is a incredibly shrewd businessman and he knows what he needs to do to get attention. Insult one of the most popular tween stars during her moment of glory? Touche'. But honestly, if he's"the voice of our generation" someone get me a revolver so I can end myself now.

http://kotaku.com/5360328/oh-kanye-youre-so-opinionated

Greetings and Opening Links

Hey there, and thanks for coming to visit my blog, All I Need to Know I Learned from Games! Or, in acronym form AINTKILFG. I'm working on that. The name itself I got from those kindergarten posters that posit "Everything I ever need to know I learned in kindergarten" - which, as I'm learning in my summer classes right now, is apparently not true. But enough about me for now, onto the good stuff.

For those of you who haven't heard of BlazBlue yet, it's a fighting game created as a spiritual successor to the Guilty Gear series. The game has some amazing and crazy character designs - in the following video you'll see Noel, who uses guns to attack almost exclusively in close range, and Ragna (who I think has the worst character design - He's viciously generic).



If you managed to preorder it before it was released on June 30th, you would've snagged a very nice soundtrack and DVD with tips to get started. In addition, Gamestop was giving out a nice art book if ordered online. All of theses for the regular retail price of $60. I should be getting my copy in a few days, and I'll keep ya updated. Available on both XBOX 360 and PS3.

(scores from wikipedia)

Playstation: The Official Magazine awarded the console version a 4.5/5 stars[5]

Game Informer awarded the console version a 7.75/10.[6]

OXM (Official Xbox Magazine) awarded the console version an 8.0/10.

Hardcore Gamer Magazine awarded the console version a 5/5. [7]

IGN awarded the console version a 9.4/10.