Too Angry to Fall Asleep

Despite my efforts to fall asleep before midnight, my annoyance with my mom got the best of me.  It almost feels like I’m going to be staying up late tonight.  Now, she’s trying to kiss my ass by making me a bean, cheese, and chorizo burrito.  I’m pretty famished, and I’m not a jackass, so despite telling her repeatedly that I didn’t want anything to eat, I’m powerless to stop her, and I’ll probably give in once she puts the damn thing in front of me.  Ugh…

I finished reading Batman: Cataclysm today.  I really enjoyed the story, and I can’t wait to read No Man’s Land.  Unfortunately, I probably won’t have the necessary funds to get that series until a few months from now.  Who knows, now that I’ve gotten back into reading comic books, I’ll probably add No Man’s Land to my Christmas/birthday wishlist.

I only went running at the park once this week.  Last week was nice; cloudy in the morning and average temperature in the day.  This week has been way too hot for me to even feel like going running.  I think today was the hottest day all summer.  Hopefully it gets cooler tomorrow.  Anyway, despite not going running at the park, I still work out at home, so everything’s still cool, and I still feel healthy.  Once the weather starts getting fresh, I’ll probably feel like going running again.

I did a fair amount of catching up on GameTrailers today.  I read a good handful of blogs and commented on most of them.  I like seeing my updates go down to zero.  It’s just somewhat…comforting.  I wanted to read one or two more blogs a while ago, but damn GT is acting up.  I can’t even sign into my account!  Oh, well.  Maybe tomorrow I’ll get through the rest of those updates.

Well, I guess I should go eat now.  I have two burritos with my name on them.  I lose yet another battle…

Cataclysmic Productivity

I took Mary to the dentist this morning.  While in the waiting room, I read a good chunk of Batman: Cataclysm.  Since I spent an hour there, I ended up reading more than I had planned.    I’m done with more than half of the graphic novel; I’ll have to get to Borders one of these days and pick up No Man’s Land.  I really want to read the continuation of that story arc.

I finally made an appointment with a counselor.  I had been meaning to do that for some time now, but like always, I put it off until the very last minute.  I guess that’s something that I’ll never be able to change about myself.  I’m doomed to live the life of a procrastinator.  To be honest, though, I’m quite comfortable with that.  I know no other way of getting things done than at the last minute.  Anyways, I’ll be seeing a counselor on September 1st.  Hopefully I can get some insight on my choice of major and finally get the heck out of Mount SAC.

I got a call from Josh today.  It turns out Brian is “considering” me for Barcelona, this lounge in Pasadena that Global just started doing business with.  Despite my complaints and wanting to get away from that damned company, I really hope they start staffing me on a weekly basis for the new joint.  It would be nice to make at least some weekly money, and I could use $400 a month.  I’ve got my fingers crossed…

I’m almost done with Starfox Adventures.  My plan of beating the game for the fourth time before I start school may actually come to fruition.  Here’s hoping!  Considering I don’t have much else going on, that shouldn’t be too much of a problem.  I actually started playing when I was supposed to write an article, so I really thought I was going to let another day slip me by.  Luckily, I played enough to be fully satisfied, and then I got to some writing.

And that’s when I get to the part where I actually felt accomplished by the end of the day.  I set a 45-minute time limit for myself before writing my first article.  It took me about 55 minutes to write the entire thing, proofread and edit it, and add images.  Overall, not too shabby.  I wrote a preview article for Mini Ninjas, this upcoming game that actually looks pretty cool despite its overly family-friendly style.  The demo is officially out as of half an hour ago, and I’m going to download it in the morning so I can post an article regarding the demo.  Here’s hoping the Arkham Asylum fiasco doesn’t repeat itself.  Although I highly doubt this game requires high end hardware.

I posted a second article besides the Mini Ninjas preview.  I had just found out that Sony had plans of releasing a 250 GB PS3.  Considering the fact that the news was pretty hot (important) and fresh (new), I decided to post an article before someone else had the chance to.  Speaking of the PS3, I can almost taste my shiny new console!  Sony just revealed the price drop to $299 for the upcoming Slim, and I really want to get my greedy hands on one.  I currently have about 150 bucks in my PS3 fund, so I’m just about halfway there.  My goal is to get a PS3 before the end of the year.  Maybe I’ll get to play Fairytale Fights when it’s released after all.

Productive Days

Before I mention anything, I’d just like to say that one of my parakeets died today.  The poor little guy looked really healthy, but I guess some insect must have bitten him.  R.I.P. Atticus.

I woke up earlier than usual this morning.  I decided to continue with my fifth playthrough of Starfox Adventures.  How I love that game.  To this day, that game stands as one of my top GameCube games.  The music and graphics are beautiful, and despite garnering some criticism due to its similarities to the Zelda series, I absolutely love the gameplay.  I should be done with that game in a matter of days if I am free of distractions.

Another game I played today was SmackDown: Here Comes the Pain.  Along with No Mercy and Day of Reckoning, HCTP is one of the best wrestling games I’ve ever played.  It helps that that game was released during the start of my favorite era in the WWE too.  (Unlike most people that cherish the Attitude Era, I’m a huge fan of the 2002-2005 years.)  I only played a few matches, and the reason is because I’m going to join an E-Fed on GameTrailers that uses HCTP to sim the matches, and I wanted to collect some information for my custom superstar.  It should be fun, and I’m really looking forward to joining the E-Fed.

While I’m on the subject of wrestling, I should mention that I recently bought the three-volume collection of The Best of CM Punk.  The DVDs chronicle Punk’s best matches from his days in Ring of Honor.  I watched the first DVD today, and I thought it was really good.  It’s insane how far ROH has come in just six short years.  Anyways, the matches in the first volume were definitely something else.  Tomorrow I’ll be watching volume two.

I am currently registering all of my Wii and DS games at Club Nintendo so that I can score myself a free gift.  At first, the DS Lite carrying cases caught my eye, and then I started gaining interest in the Super Mario Hanafuda cards.  I think I’ll be going for the Game & Watch Collection, though, simply because I’d rather add a rare game to my collection than a carrying case or some playing cards.  Then again, it is a Game & Watch set with only three games.  Decisions, decisions…

I read three chapters in Batman: Cataclysm today.  So far, the comic is rich in story.  There’s not a whole lot of action, but it’s enjoyable nonetheless. To be honest, the subject matter of this story arc doesn’t seem to need action sequences.  Since this collection chronicles Gotham City in a state of despair due to a natural disaster, intense action sequences would only take away from the plot.  Once I finish this collection, I plan on going to Borders and getting the next storyline in this particluar story arc, No Man’s Land.

Gotta Catch ‘em All? More Like Goddamn ‘em All! (Not a Pokemon Rant)

Annoyances, annoyances.  It’s insane how so many things can be going right, yet the slightest annoyances can instantaneaously set someone off. Keep those words in mind for the rest of this blog…

Last blog, I mentioned my love for Watchmen.  After posting that blog, I took the liberty of finishing the final chapter in the highly acclaimed graphic novel.  I loved it.  Beautiful storytelling, amazing imagery, an overall excellent package.  This morning, I read Brian Azzarello’s Joker from start to finish for the very first time.  Though not as dark as I had imagined, the tone of the comic was still very brooding, and I enjoyed it 100%.  The ending left me completely satisfied.  Now, I can look forward to reading Batman: Cataclysm.

Last night, I was working on another article for GamerSyndrome.  For a major portion of the day, I focused on the upcoming Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver titles for the DS.  I was finishing up my article a little past midnight when I discovered that someone had already written two articles about the same topic…sort of.  Neither article was over 100 hundred words, while mine exceeded the 250-word minimum.  I was convinced that I wasn’t going to post the article anymore.  But the more I thought about it, the more I thought that I should.  I mean, my single article was more informative than the other two articles combined.  That alone made me feel that my article was worth posting.  I was further convinced by Mary and Stephanie to post it, so I did just that.  That’s something I need to work on: I need to be confident and make decisions on my own more often.

As I sit here and type up this masterpiece, I’m listening to Silence Is Sexy, an amazing band that I was introduced to by a friend who I know only as AlchemyOfSin.  Great person, wonderful artist.  I honestly feel that, along with my sister, this girl is the most impressive artists I personally know.  No one was as bummed out about me switching majors as her.  (By the way, today’s entry was actually supposed to be solely about that, but I’ve decided to make it a future post.)  Last night, at around 3 in the morning, I saw that she had posted a blog on GameTrailers.  Apparently, she will be spending some time away from the site to focus on her academics.  It was sad to find out that she won’t be around on GT for a while, but it’s for something much more significant than an online community.  That girl is going to go far.

Mary’s Lovebird, Dr. Seuss, died this morning.  It was definitely sad as he had been with the family for eight years.  The thing that gets to me the most is that that bird always lived in fear.  Despite that, I still think he was happy.  It was somewhat of a relief when he died; birds suffer for a really long time before they finally die.  The only comfort I have is that all of the pain that that innocent bird was feeling is now gone.

I just got a call from a coworker/friend, and he told me that he has my last check which is only roughly $50.  Considering that this stupid security gig is currently my only source of income, not getting more hours and in turn not making more money really stresses me out.  In addition to finding out about my really small check, it turns out the crappy company I work for has switched banks, which means I opened an account at Bank of America for nothing!  Yes, I saved five bucks everytime I cashed a check, but with the company account now within another bank, I find that my efforts were for naught.  I can’t wait for the day when I get a job elsewhere.  That will be the day I walk away completely from Global Event Staffing.  I will walk away, with my head held high, and I will never turn back.

Heavenly Stars Above

I had a really great moment with my mom today.  The doctors recently told her that she needs to gain 30 pounds as she’s underweight, so my sister and I have been making sure she eats right and stays healthy.  Today, I did something I had never done before: I prepared a meal for my mom.  Despite the fact that it was a simple egg and cheese English muffin, it was still really nice and really rewarding for me.  She seemed to really like it, so I was proud of myself.  We ate together, and she talked to me about my uncle Rafa (sp?).  She’ll probably never know how meaningful that moment was for me, and I’d rather it stay that way, as she can be over-emotional sometimes.

I spent a good chunk of my day on GameTrailers, trying to catch up on all the updates that have piled up on me lately.  I set a goal for myself to bring the number of updates down from nearly 40 to 15, and I did just that.  (Although I just checked and I now have 16.)  The people I talk to on that site are great, and it’s nice hearing from them as well as sharing with them.  I never really thought I’d be into the whole “online community” thing, but it’s a lot of fun, and it’s nice to talk to different people.

Speaking of people in my life, I’m really looking forward to hanging out with Matthew somewhere along the line.  It’s crazy, sometimes I won’t talk to him for months, but when I finally do, it’s like I just stayed over at his house the night before.  Not only is he my oldest friend, but he’s also one of the greatest people I know.  He also introduced me to Chipotle and their awesome burritos, which I will always be grateful for.

I’m still reading Watchmen, and I have no doubt in my mind that I’ll finish it tomorrow.  I’ve got one chapter left to go, and I’m excited to finally finish the graphic novel.  I peaked at the first two pages in the final chapter, and it looks really good.  I’ll probably read it tomorrow morning before taking my sister to work.

Last summer, my oldest sister got me No More Heroes, and I was instantly hooked.  Not only that, but I immediately fell in love with “Heavenly Star,” the song that plays whenever you enter a shop and during various cutscenes.  I found out through either Youtube or Wikipedia that the song was a real track by a real band by the name of Genki Rockets.  I heard another one of their tracks at some point, and then I never bothered to listen to the rest of their music until a few weeks ago.  I had the night off from work, and I was pretty much alone at home, and I decided to listen to the entire CD (on Youtube, of course), and I was won over by every single track.  The band is really “poppy,” but that didn’t stop me from appreciating the beauty of their craft.  I’ve been listening to the CD since, and I don’t tire of it.  Despite being classified as electronic and J-Pop, I find that there’s nothing overly Japanese about the band, except for the few times where Lumi sings in Japanese (which sounds awesome, by the way).  I’ve heard a brief 15 seconds from another song that is supposedly from their next album, but there is no word on when they’ll release a follow-up to their debut album.  Hopefully it comes sooner than later.

Doodlenauts

Today marks the first day since Saturday that I go the entire day without playing Mario Superstar Baseball.  Considering that the night’s still young, I may get in a quick game (or three) before going to bed.  I opted out of going running this morning due to an annoying soreness near my left shoulder.  I still worked out, but I didn’t do my fairly new 40-minute run.  I’ll start up again tomorrow, though.  I feel so accomplished after my 50 minutes of cardio, and I plan on continuing the routine for a long time.

I read chapter 10 in Watchmen this morning, and I really enjoyed it.  I can’t believe I put off reading that book for so long.  I should be done with the entire thing within the next two days, and then I’m getting started on Brian Azzarello’s Joker which, by the way, I’m really excited about reading.

Right now, I’m uber excited for Scribblenauts.  I wrote an article for GamerSyndrome today describing some of the game’s details, and the more I did research and watched trailers, the more excited I got.  It’s just such a brilliant idea for a game.  Judging by all the time the developers have put into the game, I doubt it will fall short of greatness.  I’m definitely going to be at GameStop on the morning of the game’s release.  (I really want that Maxwell hat!)

Speaking of my Scribblenauts article, I have to admit that was both the toughest article I’ve written to date as well as the funnest.  I did a fair amount of research on the game, and it was a little on the tough side deciding what to write about.  I finally decided to just give some details on the game and its development.  I plan on writing a review for the game once I get it and spend enough time with it.  That will most likely be my first review for the site.

Despite the fact that things are going well with the site and my writing, my financial situation still blows.  Not only have I not gotten any calls back from the places I applied at, but I’ve been getting less hours with Global.  Two weeks ago I only worked six hours (the NERD concert, which was pretty cool), and I didn’t work the club afterwards, so there went three or four extra hours I could have benefitted from.  Then, I didn’t work last week, and to make things worse, it doesn’t look like I’ll be working this weekend.  I need a steady job so bad.  Argh!  Argh, I say!

Hopefully the money thing isn’t an issue for too much longer.  At least everything else is going smoothly.