May 25, 2012

The Devil

So I guess there's no official topic for this week because Kris didn't pick one but she told me to blog about Diablo 3.  She can't blog about it because she doesn't have it cause her computer isn't awesome.  Mine isn't either but luckily John's computer is so I just steal it from him and play on his account. 

However, I'm not going to subject you to actual game-play talk because I'm not a gamer so the only thing I would really say is "I get to shot things and then pick up gold" and that would be the end of my blog.  Instead I'm going to talk about non-game play, as in when I'm trying to play the game and then suddenly I find myself not playing the game. 

How is this possible?  John's computer kept over heating.  There I was playing the game for only the second time ever and I was in the middle of some field killing things or picking up loot or something and suddenly THERE WAS NO GAME!  Its like Johns computer suddenly decided it didn't want me to play anymore.  It was like "you don't know how to touch me like John does, why don't you go back to typing on your inferior little laptop" and then it tossed its hair at me like a snotty little girl (cause his computer is totally a jealous female).  Then I was like "AT LEAST MY SHITTY LITTLE LAPTOP DOESN'T SHUT DOWN ON ME WHILE I'M WRITING MY BLOG!!!"  and then I bitch slapped the computer and we haven't talked since. 

Just kidding.  I totally fired the computer right back up and tried to play the game again but she was STILL having none of that so it shut down on me again.  She's such a bitch.  She must have been on her period.  Not to worry though, John now has a giant fan pointing directly into the interior of the computer so it doesn't overheat again.  So, I've had many chances to play the game and right now I'm even 2 whole levels above John!  That's wont last long though.  As I'm writing this, he's wandering through a dungeon killing things. 

And that is the joy of playing Diablo 3.  John and I fight over the one computer that runs the game and I get a taste of what it feels like to be on the other side of video game playing when I'm the one who wants to play and John is whining at me in the background to get off the computer... the only difference being he wants me off so he can play, not so he can spend time with me. 

May 23, 2012

Adventure Log

I have decided to try to have a weekly adventure and to chronicle my adventures in this blog.  There may even be pictures if I remember to grab my camera.  This week, I did not remember to grab my camera.  But that's ok.  My adventure was sort of a non-adventure except for the drive to my designated adventure spot and home.

I decided to go to a forest preserve this week to try to have an adventure.  On my way there, an enormous spider the size of my thumbnail tried to kill me by running me off the road.  I ended up pulling over in time not to have an accident and bolstered my courage to thwart my little enemy.  He did not survive.

The particular forest preserve I chose was a little disappointing.  I had the trails all to myself mostly, but the influx of people had driven a lot of the wildlife away.  I walked along side of a squirrel for a while and I happened to see a few birds, but otherwise the entire experience was relatively uneventful.  I did manage to detox myself from being in populated areas, so that was good, but I didn't have much in the way of 'adventure' happen while I was there.  Later on, when I was a block away from my house, I did have a car turn into my line and almost hit me head on, followed by a bicycalist almost crashing into my car when I slammed to a halt to not get hit head on.  Exciting!

This was kind of a lame adventure.  I shall have to plan my adventures to be less lame in the future!  But still...it was the first weekly adventure.  Wooooooo!

EDIT:  I worked it out.  If I have just one adventure a week for a year, that's 52 adventures.  I think I can do this!

May 19, 2012

WT: The Stress Monster

You may be wondering why Kris has been carrying this blog single handedly for the past few weeks.  The answer just so happens to be the topic of this weeks weekly topic: stress.  Stress is why I neglected to post by thoughts on cinco de mayo and why I asked Kris to skip last weeks posting cause I didn't want to spare 5 minutes to come up with some bullshit CAUSE I WORK AT HIGHER QUALITY THAN THAT!  At least I like to think I do.  But now I'm finished with school for an entire summer so the blog can go back to business as usual.  Actually, I'll probably be posting more often cause I have all this extra time now.  Meanwhile, Kris is still working her ass off and somehow managing to keep up with weekly topic AND making extra posts when I was MIA.  She must be some kind of super human.

So, for this post, I thought I'd walk you through my typical paper writing process.  Here is a step by step of practically every paper I've ever written. 

1. Initial encounter of assigned paper (for this example, lets say 15 pages) in syllabus. 

2. "I have 3 whole months to do this!"

3. Forget about paper

4. Half way through semester, remember I have a paper

5. "I should pick a topic"

6. Think about picking a topic for 5 minutes

7. Forget about paper

8. 4 weeks left in class, remember paper

9. "Oh shit!  Only 4 weeks left! I need to do some research!"

10. Pick paper topic

11. Put off research till 3 weeks left

12. Pick up 5 books from the library

13. Find 4 articles on Ebsco host

14. Put off reading until 2 weeks left

15. Read a few chapters

16. Make a super vague outline

17. Feel huge sense of accomplishment, take a few days off

18. "Oh shit! I only have 10 days to finish this!"

19. Panic

20. Decide to write 2 pages a day until its finished

21. End up spending 7 days reading and get 1 page written

22. Panic!

23. Write 3 pages

24. Panic!!!

25. 2 days left, write 5 pages

26. "OMG I STILL HAVE 7 PAGES AND I HAVE BEEN WORKING ON THIS FOREVER!"

26. 1 days left, write 4 pages

27. Feel relieved that I only have 3 pages left. 

28. Next morning, wake up early

29. "Shit I need to finish this by 4 o'clock!"

30. Get mad at myself for not finishing sooner

31. Find the courage to finish paper

32. Turn it in

33. Life suddenly has new meaning and feels beautiful

34. 1 week later, write blog about it, get PTSD

And that is my process.  For smaller papers, its similar but toned down depending on the size of the paper.  If the assignment has anything to do with writing fiction or telling a story (which is NEVER), I actually enjoy doing it and none of this applies. 

Losing my Sanity

Angela picked the perfect topic this week:  Stress.

Boy am I under a lot of it.  A master's program is a lot of work and I am completely mentally drained on a daily basis.  This morning I woke up today with some great, creative ideas.  I haven't had that in a very long time.  I wanted to work on writing with them today, but I knew that I had a ton of reading to do and a couple of assignments to get done before I could.  As of right now, I have one more reading assignment left and haven't begun on the other assignments yet.  I no longer remember my ideas or care about writing creatively.

Stress sucks.  When there is no release to it, it feels like the world is a bleak and horrible place.  You feel sick and depressed.  But the worst thing about stress is when you know there's an end to it.  In a few weeks, I will be going to visit Angela in the strange state of California.  I am so excited that I simply don't care about school anymore.  There's an end in sight and it's a few weeks away, so the amount of work I am willing to put into any given assignment is minimal.  The irony is that this in turn creates more stress on me because if I don't do well, my grade will suffer, and I am desperately trying to maintain a high level GPA.

Clearly, my current method for handling school work loads is not working.  I am doing work at an unmanagable rate.  I am always doing school work...daily.  Whether I am also working at a school or not.  I never have a day that I can have a break because I tend to over tax myself and am never able to get on top of things.  Because of this, I think schools ought to include stress management as part of health classes.  I don't see a reason not to.  Especially since teachers have a tendency to overwork students with busy work bullcrap that has no real bearing on learning concepts.  It's micromanaging students, it puts more work on the instructor, and the quality of actual learning diminishes.  At least teach students how to deal with the stress they are being put under, that would be nice!

This rant has been brought to you by mathematics homework.  Thank you blog for stress relief!

May 11, 2012

Defying the Odds

So I got together with a couple of friends tonight and we decided to pick up some campy horror movies to make fun of and freak out to.  We rented "The Innkeepers", something about a derranged mortician, and "Don't be Afraid of the Dark".  With a movie about a haunted house, a movie about a derranged mortician, and a movie that looked like it was supposed to be about a haunted house, there wasn't a lot of room for error regarding campy horror flicks.  And yet, somehow, we defied the odds and none of the movies were particularly campy.  "The Innkeepers" was actually very well done, except the ending was weak and the storyline could have been built up more.  As far as acting and dialogue went, it was actually really good, though.  The mortician movie was basically a crappy Life Time movie which we shall never discuss again.  "Don't be Afraid of the Dark" turned out to not be a ghost horror movie at all, rather it was a dark fairy tale kind of vibe with not as much horror as one would like.  Although there were some intense moments which was pretty good and the child actor was really amazing.

Regardless, it boggles my mind how we could somehow be 0 in 3 for choosing campy horror movies.  I think we're losing out touch.  Normally we try to rent quality movies and get the campy ones...there must be some kind of reverse logic going on here.

May 8, 2012

Intermission

Angela and I are busy this week, so we didn't come up with a weekly topic.  In fact, Angela probably won't be posting at all.  Also she missed last week's topic.  Lame!

I saw this in my backyard a few months ago:



Majestic hawk is hungry.

May 5, 2012

El Burro

Cinco de Mayo, a traditional Mexican-American celebration, is being celebrated today.  According to the internets, it is not the celebration of the Mexican Independence day (which is apparently September 16th).  What is Cinco de Mayo then?  I have done some personal research and I can say from experience that Cinco de Mayo centers around the scrifice of the painted burro.


The burro is tied to a rope which is thrown over a tree and hauled high into the air, making it difficult for the creature to escape its fate.


The burro is swung upon its rope to disorient the creature while a group of people surround the burro.


The people are blindfolded one by one, reminiscent of the executioners of old, and given a stick to beat the burro with.


If the rope doesn't hold the burro, it must be restrung and the ritual begins again.


But even so, sometimes the burro wins.


Another person will come and take the place of the burro beater.  They too will be blindfolded, the burro will be swung, and they will take a wack at it with their stick.



Trophies are made out of the pieces of burro they manage to dislodge.




The innards of the burro will be consumed or given to children to play with.

The ritual of the burro sacrifice is a time honored tradition of Cinco de Mayo.  It must occur year after year in order to secure a favorable harvest in the coming fall.  I highly recommend everyone go out into the world and purchase the sacrifical burro today so that we might have a bountiful harvest this year.  Also it's fun to beat things with sticks!