Thursday, October 11, 2018

Just so you know...

TRENCH IS SOOOO GOOD

and I might love twenty one pilots a little too much, but that's okay

Cowboy Bebop and Ping Pong The Animation (Podcast)

Didn't have any time/forgot to post about it here. Eric and I put up a podcast episode yesterday about Cowboy Bebop and Ping Pong The Animation.
Eric tries to sell me on Cowboy Bebop and I try to sell him on Ping Pong The Animation
Spoiler: We're both successful because they're both awesome anime.

Check it out here

Friday, October 5, 2018

Trench First Impressions Podcast Episode

We (and Ben for a few seconds at the beginning) talk about our first impressions of the new twenty one pilots album "Trench". We go through each song and give our thoughts about the lyrics and the sound. If you wish to know 100% what is going on, listening to the songs as we bring them up is probably a good idea. Listening to the songs will be worth it, I promise. We apologize if we got any information about the album or its meaning incorrect.

(That's also the description on the podcast itself)

Check it out here



You should, like, go listen to Trench. Right now. It's so good.

Tuesday, October 2, 2018

Pilot Episode Be Up

It's a thing. I think we're funny. I hope we're decently enjoyable to listen to.

It was a rough run-through (but, as I said, I still think we're hilarious), but hopefully our quality etc. gets better over time. (For example, having an intro and outro amongst other things)

One random note: apparently I like saying things are true a lot. Which is interesting.

Podcast be here

Sunday, September 30, 2018

Alternative Creative Outlet: Podcasts

Eric and I are starting a podcast?
I guess it's, like, actually a thing. And I'm super excited.

So you'll be getting content from me again. Just in a different way.
And I'm planning on making blog posts about the podcast episodes, so you'll get content from me in that way as well. I'm also planning on making blog posts again, with the release of Trench and all. They won't necessarily all deal with twenty one pilots, of course, but will often be related to how I feel about the different lyrics and songs. So some will be subjects spawned by twenty one pilots, but not focused on twenty one pilots, if that makes sense.
Plus that'll hopefully inspire me to write other stuff. We'll have to wait and see.

So watch out for those in the upcoming days/weeks/whatever. Our first episode will be a pilot episode talking about what the podcast is all about etc.

Tuesday, August 28, 2018

Tuesday, August 21, 2018

Healing Hands

I haven't been feeling motivated to make blog posts for various different reasons lately. And that's okay, I guess?
If I find it a burden to sit down a create a blog post then I will not do so. That is not the point of these.
I have been wanting to make blog posts, however. Which is one major step towards motivation.

Healing Hands
Target player gains 4 life.
Draw a card.

That's a random Magic card that's in front of me. Cycle (referring to the 'draw a card' part) is pretty good in battle card games such as Magic.

That was completely random and not needed, but that's okay.
I was going to try and tie the title of the card into the topic somehow, but I couldn't really think of anything, so that's how it came out.

I guess I'll just make the title of the blog post "Healing Hands" since I have no better ideas.

Yep.

Friday, August 17, 2018

Learning Levitate

Eric and I sat down with one of the "Learn to rap Levitate" videos and started the process of learning the whole rap. We got the first part down pretty well, so now we need to start expanding onto other parts of the rap. I'm excited for when we have the whole thing down.

I think minigolf is freaking awesome. I've been watching a lot of Vlogbrothers recently, and in one of their videos Hank and John were playing minigolf and I'm like, "Man, minigolf is freaking awesome. I wanna play some minigolf right now." And that was the moment I realized that I think minigolf is freaking awesome.

Fun Fact of the Day: This is my 300th published blog post. It feels like so little. But at the same time I'm proud of how much stuff I've been able to write over the years.

Hannah and Kaellen got married two days ago!! I'm happy for them. I suppose I could make a separate blog post about them getting married like I did for Ryan. I don't know, we'll see.

Monday, August 13, 2018

Pens (NYLT)

Note: Some of these seem to be referring to older things I wrote. (Probably) none of us have read the older NYLT readings recently, so it's a little weird. Anyway, here's the next section from NYLT:



5
My pen runs dry at random times, which is annoying. I just mess with it and it starts writing again, though. Writing with a pen is so much more satisfying than a pencil. I wish I had a better pen than a ballpoint. I feel like I would invest into a really nice pen, but I would be super afraid of losing it. Maybe I should invest into a great pen, but not necessarily a fantastic one. But, like, also, when do I even use a pen? I feel like the only times I do is 1. Official documents 2. When I'm writing something for myself, such as this or a journal or whatever 3. I feel like there was something else, but I'm writing #3 a little later and I forgot.
I just realized/figured out that the back of these Fast Glass papers are entirely blank, so that's convenient. I should be good. I'm glad I've been numbering the pages because it might get a little confusing without them. I've already written quite a bit. I already said this, but I'm curious on how this'll be when in typed form. And I'm curious on how much more I'll write over the course of this week.
6
See/ like right then. My arm was on my arm rest and a spider semi-crawled onto my hand and I just calmly got it off and killed it. But I actually think that's because I was tired and so I just didn't react, but whatever.

My Own Rap (WIP)

So I've been thinking about making my own rap or something recently. I've always wanted to make music, but I find that I'm horrible at creating original content. I always slip into other tunes. But a rap would be different for a couple reasons. 1. I've only heard twenty one pilots raps, which means I don't have as many ideas to block my way from being original, if that makes any sense whatsoever. 2. The songs beat and flow would spawn off of the lyrics. That means all I would have to do is come up with original lyrics (which I can do) in order to create an original beat/flow.

I kind of really like the idea.

And one thing I've always loved about raps (well, ever since I started liking raps) is the amount of content I would get to talk about. It reminds me of an AJR lyric. From Three-Thirty,
"If I ever started rapping
They’d be laughing, they won’t believe me
But I got so much I wanna say so
I’m thinkin’ rappers, they got it easy"
I would get to say so much in a short period of time. And it can be whatever I want it to be about. And that makes me excited.

Granted, any of my starting material would probably be trash, but that's the same with anything. But in this case it wouldn't really matter. It would only be for me and my close friends/family. The message would be the important part. The beat and the fact that it's a rap is only a cover-up, in a way, to allow me to say things I wouldn't be able to say in other circumstances. Tyler Joseph talks about this sometimes. One of the reasons why he makes music is that he can talk about things in a song that he wouldn't be comfortable talking about in other scenarios. So genuine lyrics is what I would be aiming for, which I think is achievable.

Plus, I know, like, I'm not bad at rapping. I've got Migraine, Forest, and Message Man (plus many others, but those are the harder ones that are worth mentioning) all down. I really want to learn Levitate, but that might be a while before I get the chance too.

Wednesday, August 8, 2018

A Variety of Things

Welp, the song came out officially. It's just so different. I'm still adjusting.

Also, the Smash Direct was pretty hype. I want that game. But you already knew that.

I've been playing some League of Legends recently, which has been a good time. I'm actually pretty good, which makes me happy.

I've also been reading Planet Mercenary role-playing game handbook. I really want to do a campaign of it. It seems super cool. RPG's in general are super cool. The system seems really fluid and nice. Hopefully, if I do end up running a campaign, it can run well and be enjoyable.

Eric talked about this in his blog post. We finished Pandemic Legacy: Season 2 yesterday! It was pretty awesome. I liked it less than both SeaFall and Season 1 for me, though. Which wasn't all too unexpected. We got 706 points and delivered the cure (I don't know if saying we delivered the cure counts as spoilers or not, but whatever), which was in the second highest category, so I would say we did pretty well. I'm happy with our result.

Ben is writing up a guest post, so we'll see how that turns out. I might have to go through and correct some things, but maybe I should just leave it in its natural state. It's an interesting guest post because he doesn't have a blog of his own. So he's basically just writing his first ever blog post.

Tennis Try-Outs are this Saturday. The season is officially starting and I'm excited. I feel like I've been playing very well and if I can keep my head then it's going to be interesting to see who I can beat this year. We have a new team in our division this year (North Valley), so it's going to be super interesting to play against brand new players. I want to preform well. And I know I can, if I play like I know I can.

Leaked Track List, Leaked Song

So, the twenty one pilots new album's tracklist has been leaked and I guessed it correctly! There are exactly 14 songs *party popper emoji*
There are a couple song names that look particularly interesting. The Hype being one. Pet Cheetah being my favorite. All the others are really interesting and it gets me even more excited than I have been to listen to the rest of the album.

I have yet to listen to the entirety of Levitate, the new leaked song. I have listened to about a minute of it (which is actually about half the length of the song) and I'm really really excited to listen to the rest of it. It sounds so different. In a good refreshing way. I don't even know. Ugh, I want them to officially release it before I listen to it, though.

Happy Birthday Thomas! And I suppose Roger Federer too!

I'll (hopefully) talk about the Smash Direct after it's over.

Tuesday, August 7, 2018

Smash Bros. Direct

There's a Smash Brothers Direct on the 8th (tomorrow), which is pretty exciting. It's a pretty good birthday thing for Thomas. I have some hopes, but I'm pretty sure I'll be super happy with whatever they show off.

Saturday, August 4, 2018

Friday, August 3, 2018

30 Days of TØP in a Couple Days Pt 2

16. Song I wished was played on the radio.
I don't know all the songs that are played on the radio since I don't listen to the radio a whole bunch, but I guess Migraine simply because it's my favorite.

17. Least favorite song?
House of Gold

18. Have you seen them live?
No :( But it's not like I've tried too hard to do so. I know a couple people who have. And I have in one of my dreams.

19. Which rap verse is my favorite?
The Holding On To You rap I mentioned yesterday.

20. Favorite chorus?
I have no idea

21. Favorite album?
Regional at Best

22. Least favorite album?
Blurryface

23. Most emotional album?
Self-Titled

24. Own any of the albums?
All that are accessible. So, Vessel and Blurryface

25. Song I want them to cover?
Something by Bastille simply because they're my second favorite artist

26. Song you listen to the most?
Probably The Pantaloon

27. Own any merch?
Nope, because I rarely wear any clothing with words/pictures on them. That's an entirely different discussion

28. Favorite Lyrics?
That Holding On To You rap

29. Truce or Goner?
Goner

30. Ode to Sleep or Heavydirtysoul?
Ode to Sleep

Thursday, August 2, 2018

30 Days of TØP in a Couple Days Pt 1

I found this thing on this thing and I went, "Sure, why not", so I'm doing it. All of the answers/questions deal with TØP, hence the title. Some of the answers may not correspond with my list because my list is semi-outdated

1. Favorite Song
Migraine

2. First song I heard
I have no idea since Hannah listened to them before I got into them, so I was exposed to songs, but I have no idea which one was first. I feel like my earliest memory is of A Car, A Torch, A Death. The ringing noise of the song stuck with me.

3. Last song I listened to
Taken by Sleep, although I shut it off quickly for personal reasons

4. Are you a fan?
Yes? I am confused by the intent of this question. Anyone who actually does this is probably a fan.

5. Favorite song off Blurryface
Not Today

6. Favorite song off Vessel
Migraine

7. Favorite song off Regional at Best
Kitchen Sink

8. Favorite song off Self-Titled
Friend, Please

9. Favorite song off No Phun Intended
Blasphemy

10. Underrated song?
The Pantaloon? I'm not quite sure

11. Overrated song?
House of Gold
I love the song and I've been liking it more recently and it may climb up the ranks (when I get to redoing those), but I still think people like it too much. Ex. Ben and Thomas have it in their top 5/10

12. Song that has the most meaning to me?
This question is brutal. I feel like Holding On To You? Simply because of that one rap that's my favorite rap of all time and it means so much to me
"Remember the moment
You know exactly where you're going,
'Cause the next moment,
Before you know it, time is slowing
And it's frozen still,
And the window sill looks really nice, right?
You think twice about your life,
It probably happens at night,
Right?

Fight it,
Take the pain, ignite it,
Tie a noose around your mind
Loose enough to breathe fine and tie it
To a tree. Tell it, "You belong to me.
This ain't a noose, this is a leash.
And I have news for you: you must obey me."

13. Do you know when Tyler's birthday is?
Yes, December 1st.

14. Do you know when Josh's birthday is?
I'm pretty sure it's in June. The 27th? 17th?
I looked it up and it's on June 18th, so I was close. I got the month right, at least.

15. Favorite TØP cover?
Cancer

Tuesday, July 31, 2018

Two New Games

Eric kindly explained the alternative means I was talking about in his post that you can check out.
I think it's super cool how we can have a conversation of sorts over our blogs (this is also referring to Andrew's blog). Being able to talk about the same subjects as each other and respond to what the others have posted. I think it's awesome.

Currently writing this in between games of Paladins because the loading/matchmaking time is kind of annoyingly long.


So, Eric got 2 new games in the mail from kickstarter that are pretty tight. Anansi is this cool trick taking game that I really enjoy. I have no real desire to play a game of pinochle; I would much rather play this. I'm not sure how long I'll try to avoid Pinochle over this, but this is definitely more enjoyable for me. And it's for 3-8 players, so getting exactly four people isn't a problem.

Temporal Odyssey is the other game. It's a battle-esque type game where your goal is to beat up your opponent. There are several different super cool elements going on that are kind of tough to explain. You draft cards out of the past/present/future to get you cool units and effects that also get you symbols. These symbols drastically increase the power of the starting spells you had. There seems to be a lot of variety and replay-ability with all of the different decks you can mix into the past/present/future and with all the different Travelers you can play as.

I still haven't posted all my writings from NYLT. I should do that.

Monday, July 30, 2018

Alternative Means

Ayyy, we got the computer working. Kind of. The desktop still doesn't exist, but we got other things up and running through alternative means. It be so cool. We somehow continue to make this computer function as it's dying.

Thursday, July 26, 2018

A little bit of Paladins and Skyrim

Paladins is pretty great, and it runs great. Now Eric won't necessarily need to fix the computer to play some video games. I mean, that was true beforehand in regards to Breath of the Wild etc., but now he can get his hero shooter.
The card system is freaking cool.

So, in Skyrim, I find it really really enjoyable until I finish a quest line. Then I just don't know what to do. I have to pick another quest line, which is pretty hard to do, and start focusing on that. Idk, it's this weird thing that I don't know quite how to describe. Game is still wonderful, of course.

That's all that's on my mind right now. I might post later depending on if I find a time to sit down.
I do want to type more, but I don't know what about and that's okay. I have several other ideas for their own posts that you'll get later.

Wednesday, July 25, 2018

Kingdom Builder Rules Mishap

Paladins is now free to play on the Switch, so that's downloading. Meanwhile, my mom and I played two games of Kingdom Builder and learned about a pretty big rules mishap we've been playing with. You know those bonus extra action tiles that you get by building adjacent next to those buildings? Turns out they're not a one time effect. You get to use them every single turn, if you want to.
I really like this change. It makes it much more tactical and you can do different cool things with the powers before or after you place to get places you want to. It also makes the game go a lot quicker since you're playing way more buildings out there each turn.

This is honestly game altering for me. It's a lot more enjoyable now.

I also recently organized the stuff we own for it making it easier to set up. Before you had to look through a whole bunch of tiles to find the correct ones, but now that I've separated them by expansion, it's a lot quicker to find the tiles you need.

Computer Problems, Waiting for Eric

I saw Eric's post and it's like, "Hey, no blogs have been updating" and I'm like, "Ay, yeah, that's my bad. The break was nice, but I did want to write some more posts". But, then wait... here's the twist... I try to get on the computer and it has the audacity to say, "Ay, we've got some updates for you." I just got super motivated to write several blog posts when it's almost midnight and you do this to me? The betrayal is real. So I'm writing this on my notes on my phone and I'll transcribe it later.

Scythe gets me abnormally invested. I care so much more about winning/losing that game than so many others. It pains me so much when I lose an important battle etc. This can be a good thing, a fantastic thing, even. But I also don't want to play it a whole bunch right now because of it. Playing so much in a row was rather emotionally draining, to be honest.

I'm excited to play it with you, though, Eric. And, yeah, I got Isle of Dogs. Some friends are actually coming over to watch it tomorrow and I'm excited. Which means I should probably head to bed. It looks like the computer doesn't want to cooperate with me tonight. I'm also excited to play Coup with you again.

I'm going to sleep now, so I might add on to this later or just post it as is, idk.



That was a couple days ago. The night that Eric originally posted his post. I didn't get around to posting it because I the computer isn't working. I decided to switch over to the new computer, so I can type it up and finally post it. Hopefully Eric will be able to fix the other computer once he gets back. It has Overwatch and such on it, so he'll need to do so before he gets to play it.

We have been playing a ridiculous amount of Pinochle. It's crazy.
Also, Eric, you said it would be nice to play video games again, but I'm kind of on a board game craze right now, so I'm forcing you to play board games with me a lot right when you get back home. Aka, you won't have much time to play video games.
Games to play when you get home (not all on the same day, and not in order):
Coup
Scythe
Pandemic Legacy: Season 2
Eldritch Horror
Dead of Winter with Thomas and Ben
Shadows over Camelot perhaps?
Summoner Wars
Alhambra
Small World
Oltre Mare
Kingdom Builder

Yep.

Tuesday, July 17, 2018

Why I Hate the Question "How are you?"

NYLT Writings Pt. 4

Have I told you guys about why I hate the question "How are you?" 85% of the time? There's no point to it. You might as well have said "Marco" and then "polo" (I stole that from a video somewhere). The other 15%, in my mind
4
comprises of 10% an actual decent conversation starter where the person that is being asked is willing/comfortable/isn't the type of person to freeze in conversation and can instantly start talking about reasons why they're good. Such as things they did on the weekend etc. But some of the time even then other questions would be more effective. Such as "What did you do on your weekend?" or something else.
The other 5% is when the question actually means something. When you're in a personal conversation with someone and they're gueinally asking about the person's mental health/mental state.
It reminds me of a comic strip that went something like this:
*Psychologist and patient (named, idk, let's say John) outside of psychologist's room*
Psychologist: "How are you doing, John?"
John: "Good."
*Psychologist and John walk into the psychologist's room*
Psychologist: "How are you doing, John?"
John: "I've been doing really bad, man."
I'm sure I could talk more about any of these topics, but I'm not writing this all at the same time, so I lose my train of thought, so I just move on. I might add to stuff in post, though (and I'll distinguish that in some way).



Edit: I know I could talk a lot more about this subject. I may or may not sometime in the unknown future. For example: I forgot to mention how the most common response "Good" isn't even proper grammar.

After 6 Games of Scythe

We (Becky and I) didn't have work yesterday, so we played 3 more games. That's quite a bit, but it was a lot of fun.
Becky and I played in the first game. I won.
Becky, my mom, and I played. Becky was playing Saxony (the faction that can get any number of stars from combat) and attacked me several times and I was suffering. I ended the game quickly as I knew that it was my best chance before they got further and further ahead of me. Becky and my mom ended up tying, but my mom won the tiebreaker! Good job, Mom. I was trailing by 6 coins or so, but not too bad.
Becky game back over after a lunch break and us two played another game. I ended up winning. I believe this was the game were right at the end I spread out and attacked her two times, winning both combats to get my last two starts to end it. It was pretty cool.

Monday, July 16, 2018

Scared of Spiders

NYLT Writing Pt. 3

Next day: Ho, man. I just saw a giganic beetle and I thought it was a spider and almost really freaked out. I'm more afraid of spiders than I think I think I am. I mean, sometimes I'm super ok with them and can causually get a tissue or two and kill them, but other times, especially when they catch me by surprise, I freak out. Not as bad as Hannah, of course, but still pretty bad.
The beetle's my friend, now. He's walking near my shoe and is now under my chair.

Sunday, July 15, 2018

3 Games of Scythe

Whoops, just realized I accidentally posted under my mom's name last post. It doesn't really matter.

Scythe is tons of fun. But I get so invested. I crushed the first game (practically doubling the opposing score), but I lost the last two games by two points and by one point respectively. And it was so sad.

Ugh, I want to play again, but win this time. I think I need to wait a little longer to trigger the end of the game. I try to rush it too much.

I really want to play it with Eric.
And once we get Eric, we can play with Eric, Becky, my mom, and me and we'll get to have a 4 player game, which will be sweet.

I kind of already want the expansion because having the extra two factions would just feel right.

Saturday, July 14, 2018

Coup Expansion, Scythe (is almost here)

So we didn't want to drop 28 dollars on the full-box expansion for Coup (Coup Rebellion), so we just made some of our own cards for it. We took a Pinochle deck and wrote names and such on the cards. There's not enough cards in the deck to make all of the new roles, so we chose what we thought would be the most interesting and fun. Since we only wrote a small amount and not all over the place, the deck is still perfectly usable as a pinochle deck.

I'm excited to use it.

Scythe is coming today and I'm excited for that too. I checked the package tracking thing and it's in town, so we just have to wait for it to travel around. I wish there was a way that I could just have them hold it in the post office and then I could just pick it up right when they open. I would get it super early and it would be great. But that's fine, I have tons of other stuff that needs to be done besides playing games.

TØPTidbit: The drums in both songs are super sweet.

Friday, July 13, 2018

Coup

I love Coup so much. Yesterday I got an app (ScorePal) that can log all of my game plays and such. I played 64 games of Coup yesterday. 52 of those games were two player. The two player game isn't nearly as good as 3-6, but it has its fun own meta that was enjoyable to explore.


Anyway, point of the post: Coup is a blast.
I'll need to add it to my list sometime.


TØP Tidbit: The way the rap enters at the end of Nico and The Niners is crazy beautiful and the beat of it is sick as frick.

Wednesday, July 11, 2018

Loving vs Hating a Game

3 posts in one day? I don't see why not.

It's weird how this is the same day that the new twenty one pilots music came out. It feels like I've had it for a couple days now. My opinions on both songs continue to evolve. I think I like Jumpsuit more than Nico and The Niners, but I still don't like the ending. Everything else, though, I really like. It gets me going and my energy level up.

More twenty one pilots stuff wasn't the original intent for this post. Or for many upcoming posts either. But I'm sure you'll see small updates/tidbits like that a whole bunch in the upcoming while. I'm going to label them TOP Tidbits because I like the sound of that.


I finally decided to buy Scythe. I'm always super hesitant before a purchase, but now that I've spent the money, I'm super excited for it to arrive. I really wish I had bought it a few hours earlier than I did because that way it would come on Friday instead of its current ETA of Saturday.

It's weird how people can have such diverse opinions about games. I have read several reviews/comments about Scythe mentioning how they felt like it was incredibly boring and they wanted to fall asleep during it. I'm sure those are the same people who feel like Terra Mystica is bad and boring. And yet I find Terra Mystica exciting and thought-provoking and it grabs my attention. I'm sure I'll love Scythe; I just hope I have enough other people in my available group who will also really like it.

I think I heard this thought originally at The Dice Tower? Something like, "Think of your absolute favorite game. How many hours you've poured into it and all your memorable experiences. Think about your passion towards it.    Somebody else hates that game to its core. That can't even bear the thought of that game without being a little disgusted."
It's just amazingly weird how it works that way.

So, how wrong was I?

We actually don't know all too much about the album, so we can't see right now how many of my predictions were right and how many were wrong, but there are a couple.
I'm referring to this. This blog post might be semi-confusing because it's referring to a blog post that's referring to a blog post. The next "How many predictions did I get wrong" post I'll make sure to make it easier to comprehend instead of having to transfer between several blog posts.


0. Nope, I was wrong. It's called "Trench", which makes sense and I'm cool with. I think I like that more than the two I predicted.

1. Nope, the main color is Yellow. Which I'm not too big a fan of since yellow is my least favorite color (I like/love all colors, but yellow just happens to be worse than the rest *shrugging shoulders emoji*)

2. This is probably true from what we've seen so far.

3, 4. We don't know yet.

5. Nope, it's this: ||-// I like it.

6-10. We don't know yet.

11. We don't know yet. There was an image floating around that showed the album only having 11 songs on it, but that was proven fake. And I'm glad it was because 11 didn't feel like enough.

12, 13. Oh, yeah, update on Echoes: Turns out it is still kind of a thing. Wasn't proven false. There was a thing that referenced Echoes a lot that was proven false, but the original idea of Echoes is still a thing.
Anyway, we don't know yet.

14. This is true, assuming the red-cloaked figure is blurryface. Which it seems highly likely that it is. So, yay!! I actually got one right.

New Music

New music is finally here. The more I listen to it the more I like it. I'm not sure if I liked it at first, but it has definitely grown on me.
Although I will say that I don't like the screaming at the end of Jumpsuit. I wouldn't be surprised if it grew on me, too, though. Like Goner's screaming did. But right now I'm not a fan of it. 
I currently like Nico and The Niners more than Jumpsuit.
Like, as I listen to them right now my love them more and more. I was super afraid after my initial impressions that I wouldn't like them, but that doesn't seem to be a problem anymore.

EDIT: Because of the screaming at the end of Jumpsuit (and other things) it's probably "the heavier heavydirtysoul", which we heard from somewhere. Which makes sense. Which I wasn't too excited for because heavydirtysoul is a little heavy for me, if that makes any sense. I have a vague idea of where I was going with that, but I don't know how to put it into words, so I'll explain it later, I suppose.

I woke up (well, my mom woke me up) right before 5am so I could be there at the moment when the new music was released. I really need a full night's rest. I'm tired. But I'm not going to say it wasn't worth it.

Still don't know if I'm going to get Scythe. Now that I think about it, I shouldn't have mentioned it. That way, if I do get it, it would be a complete surprise for Eric when he comes home and it would be great. It would still be great.


I'll talk about which of my predictions were correct/incorrect in a later blog post.

||-//

Tuesday, July 10, 2018

Things I Like/Dislike to see in Board Games

So, to be perfectly honest, I've stayed up past midnight for the past maybe about a week or so. Both for twenty one pilots reasons and staying up playing board games a lot. I've been wanting to continue posting on my blog since I've been doing so well with the one post a day thing, but I've been exhausted and I got a kind of job that takes up time (It's a 'kind of job' because I'm not officially employed, but I get payed). I may or may not post a couple posts a day in the following days to make up for it, but that's greatly dependent on my energy levels and how much time I have. We'll see what happens.

Anyway, I didn't really know what the topic of this post was going to be (I had several in mind, I just hadn't picked one yet) when I started typing, but now I know that I want to talk about my favorite board game mechanics/things I like to see in board games. Also things I dislike to see. Similar to my brother Andrew's post.

I'm just going to type about the different things and see what comes out. There is no particular order, although I am numbering them for easiness's sake.

1. I really really like resource management, as it turns out. Fiddling with my resources and calculating how much I need to do certain things. Terra Mystica is a prime example of this. I love Terra Mystica because it revolves around resource management. You have to be very careful with what you do with your resources. You never have extra, and so you have to be extremely precise about your plan of action. Caverna also has resource management, although it is not nearly as tight as Terra Mystica. Which sometimes I like and other times I'd rather have it be tighter. That's one reason why sometimes I prefer Agricola over Caverna; because Agricola is a lot tighter (perhaps too tight at times (especially when dealing with food)). Viticulture even uses this, in a way, with money. Money is really tight in that game. That example doesn't fully count, but it is there.

My next 3 actually match up with 3 of Andrew's. But they all tie into a bigger idea that I'll get to later.

2. Variable Player Powers
I love being able to do something other people can't. It makes me feel powerful and cool. It also adds a lot of variety and replayability to the game too. This also deals with Asymmetrical Player Powers, which I also really like. Andrew had a good summary, so I'll just quote him, "I love it when games have variable player powers, or something that you can do that the other players can't. It feels as if you are better at something or more powerful at something." (I do disagree with you on the co-op thing, though. When I have a variable power in that it doesn't really feel like I'm special since the whole group is using it collectively. I guess that's just a weird thing that I feel with co-op games. I don't really feel like I have control over a specific character. I feel like everyone has control over all the characters; there's just a designated person to move the piece and make the final say. That may or may not make sense)
Variable Player Powers is one thing Agricola has over Caverna.

3. Worker Placement
I just seem to love every worker placement game we own. Idk. There's just something about them that I love. It's one reason why I'm excited to get Charterstone (if we ever do end up doing so).

4. Multiple Paths to Victory
But more than that. They have to be balanced and interesting. This is one thing that I've found Caverna does extremely well (and one thing Caverna has over Agricola. Agricola does have, so to speak, multiple paths to victory, but Caverna has sooo many paths to victory; all of which are interesting and fun to use). There are so many directions to go and I don't feel like one is overpowered.

This all ties into one thing that I hate to see in any game.
5. When the Meta Grows Stale/There is little replayability
('Meta' is referring to the basic overall strategy of each game. I can explain more in detail if you want to know, so feel free to ask)
Kingsburg is a main main example of this, to me. I felt like I was doing the same thing every game. Everything was the same. There was no new interesting paths to take.
Powergrid also suffers from this problem. It seemed as though there were multiple paths to victory, but they all felt exactly the same.
Dominion, in certain set-ups. These are the set-ups when the kingdom cards aren't all that great or fun to play with. This makes Big Money a very powerful way to go. It makes the meta instantly become stale. This also happens when there are very powerful card combos out. That is the only effective way to go. It makes the meta become instantly stale. All you have to do is have interesting set-ups to avoid this problem, however, so it's not that hard to dodge.

I am not saying that I will not play Kingsburg or Powergrid. I would be more than willing to sit down a play a game of them right now. I just don't want to play a lot of it over a period of time. A couple games here and there are fun. Any more than that and I will probably find the gameplay tedious. (Random note: I'm not currently feeling like my words are flowing exactly how I want them to and that things are coming out differently than intended in some cases. So sorry for that)


One of Andrew's favorite mechanics is "Little to No Downtime (such as Simultaneous Action Selection)". I'm going to explain my thoughts on it because why the heck not.
I do want to be engaged for a large portion of the game. If I can step away from the table for 5 or more minutes at a time and then come back with little to no consequences, I don't like that. I do not necessarily care about having it get back to my turn quickly or having simultaneous actions. I just want to be involve in the game a lot of the time. This can come through various different ways. One major way is having turns to think through. Aka, being able to plan. Another way is through attacks of some form. Another way is through trading or interacting with players in some other way.
Example of being able to plan that therefore eliminates downtime: Terra Mystica. A large majority of the game I'm not just sitting bored. This is because I'm planning and thinking, even when it's not my turn.
Dominion does not have this. In Dominion you can't plan your turn (later in the game when you have card draw and such, at least). You can only play your turn on your turn.
Example of attacks of some form: Dominion, War games. You're interacting with another player even when it's not their turn. This keeps players engaged.
Examples of trading or interacting in some other way: Settlers of Catan. Terra Mystica. Coup. (Probably tons of others). In settlers you trade with people and ask for trades keeping people engaged. In Terra Mystica, you can interact with people by building next to them. They then have to choose if they want the magic or not. In Coup you can almost always challenge anyone's actions, which keeps you constantly involved and paying attention to what the people are doing around you. (Plus you can always think about how/if you'll bluff)


That was a random side thing.
Another thing that I don't like in games.

6. Lots of luck.
Especially when it acts as though it doesn't have a lot of luck. When it feels like it shouldn't have lots of luck, but you simply find you don't really get to decide if you end up winning or not. I'm specifically referencing Betrayal at House on the Hill. I don't like that game because I feel like I have no control on what happens. I'm just sitting there letting things happen to me until the game is over. Sarah, Ben, and Michael love the game, which is fine; the story-telling aspect can be cool sometimes. But it turns out I'm not alone in disliking it. I listened to a Shut up and Sit down podcast today and they don't like it either. So, yay, I'm not alone. They didn't really mention the luck as the reason they didn't like it, but whatever.
Cover Your Assests. There's enough decision making in the game that you feel like you're doing something, but it mostly just comes down to the cards.
Pinochle is definitely my favorite luck-based game. And Yahtzee. I'll play both of them when I'm in the mood to play risky and hopefully get lucky.

They can be enjoyable (except Betrayal. Sorry.) (especially Pinochle and Yahtzee), but when I lose or win, most of the time I don't feel like it was necessarily because of me.
I guess I like Pinochle and Yahtzee because each and hand and each roll have to potential to be really cool. It's exciting. It's fun to debate how high you should bid etc.



This ties into the fact that, man, I want Scythe. It has variable player powers. It deals with resource management. It's very methodical. The turns don't take forever and it's complex enough where I'll spend my 'downtime' planning my next move. Combat cuts away more 'downtime'. There are multiple paths to victory. And the art work is stunning. It hits so many things that I'm looking for in a game. I'm highly considering buying it, but I guess we'll just have to wait and see.
But it's also annoying because I have to consider the other people in my game group. I'm sure my mom would play it, and she seems to like a lot of the games we play, so hopefully that'll apply to this one too. Maybe the theme would throw her off? Or the combat? Idk, I think she'll like it.
I doubt Ben would like it since he doesn't really like methodical euro games at all. But maybe the artwork would draw him in? But I still don't he would end up liking it. Thomas wouldn't like it because the turns would probably take too long, plus he pretty much just dislikes a majority of board games.
Would Becky like it? It is euro-based, so maybe? Maybe even probably? Would Sarah like it? I could see Sarah going either way, Idk.
I know Eric would like it. I know Andrew would like it (although, sadly, he isn't part of my available game group and I would only be able to play with him during holidays). I'm pretty dang sure Joseph would like it (although he still has a little bit until he comes home).
Is that enough potential players? It has a single player variant, which is nice. But being afraid of not having the group to play it with has always kept me at bay.


I'm not bothering to read over it and instead am just posting it, but, like I said earlier, in a few of the spots, my words didn't flow quite like I wanted to, but I think overall it's good.

Friday, July 6, 2018

Nothing Yet, and Random Board Game Things

They didn't do anything in the middle of the night, which I am thankful for. I want to be awake whenever whatever happens. We just have to wait and see what and when that is.


I forgotten how much I loved Terra Mystica. We played it 3 times over the past two days and it's been great (and winning all three of those games is pretty great). I really do enjoy resource management, and Terra Mystica is our game with the most of it.
Terra Mystica is actually why I posted so late last night. Becky and I wanted to play, so we started a 11pm game and finished at 12:30am.
We're considering getting the expansion pack. I've always wanted it. I know I've talked in the past (especially around the time when Terra Mystica was my number 1 favorite game) about how I really wanted it. But the price has kept driving me off. I feel like I would rather invest 10-20 more dollars to get a brand new game instead of just an expansion. I guess we'll just have to wait and see what we do.
I am planning on talking about board game mechanics/the things I like/dislike in a game soon. Andrew would probably be the one most interested in that, so, yeah.

We played a couple dominion games as well. One semi-random set was pretty crazy and awesome. There were Hirelings and Artificers, so I went for that and it was great. I ended up winning that first game. We wanted to play the set again and this time I went for the Grand Markets and Conspirators. Sarah did it better than I, though, so I ended up losing that second game. She had 4 two province turns in a row. I had two province turns in a row. Becky was sitting in the corner doing her own thing with Distant Lands, but that didn't ultimately work out so well.
It was great.

I've been really enjoying card games again recently. Pinochle, when I want a luck-based team game. Hearts when I want a solid amount of strategy no team game. Rook when I want a solid amount of strategy team player game. And Spades when I want a decently large amount of strategy team-based game. They're all a lot of fun. Pinochle is still my least favorite simply because of how luck-based it is, but I can still enjoy it. Yahtzee is now my go to luck-based no team game.

#TOPISBACK

They're coming back. Probably within the next 5-7 hours. I don't even know how to feel. I may or may not cry. I don't think I'm ready for this, but it's happening anyway.

I might wake up to their music being available. That is crazy.

I don't know what else to say.

I'll see you in the morning |-/

Wednesday, July 4, 2018

The 4th

Happy 4th of July! I'll probably be doing things all day, so this is all you're getting unless I get a chance to do more. I'm scheduling this for 11:26 am tomorrow (exactly 12 hours from now).

Also, happy birthday to Jane!

Tuesday, July 3, 2018

Sharing my Blog/Piece of my Soul with People

NYLT writings pt. 2

Pg 1 [of the Fast Glass paper (edits (other than minor grammar errors etc.) will be done in brackets. I don't know how often I'll make them)]
Fast Glass Paper. I already knew that, but it's worth noting to whoever's reading. I'm kind of curious if this is at all going to be interesting to read. That's not really the point of writing these, but that doesn't mean I don't want them to be interesting to read. If I didn't care about people reading these than I wouldn't post them. But maybe it's about the idea of people being able to read them. Anyone can, as long as they know how to get here. Which is mildly exciting.
I grabbed several of these Fast Glass papers, but they're smaller than I thought and now I wish I had grabbed more. This is only Day 1 and if I continue to write at the pace I am, the other few papers might not even last the rest of the day/night. I'll need to find some more.
2
I'm probably going to break these into several blog posts just because of how much I'm writing (which could be simply because I'm writing; it would be a lot quicker to type it all) and because they're about random subjects that should be split up.
I think an interesting idea behind my blog as a whole is that if I share it with someone, Idk, I'm trying to restrain from terms I have used in the past (although I'm not sure exactly why I feel the need to do so), but I feel like they accurately describe it. I feel as though I'm sharing a piece of my soul.
It's an interesting piece of my soul. Because my thoughts continue to evolve and change. You can't take a specific post of my thoughts and assume I still feel the same way. But you can know that those thoughts/whatever were part of me in the past and that they were a part of the evolution that is my thought processes. They could still very well be true in my current thoughts; that's another possibility. But assuming that they still apply may be assuming incorrectly.
3
So it's an interesting part of my soul because a lot of them might not still apply to me word for word, but they're still certainly a part of me. It's definitely a fun way to get to know me. Especially my younger self. My younger self had some awesome blog posts. I love so many of them so much. Maybe I'll provide links to a couple of them? We'll see. [I might do this in a later post, Idk]

Monday, July 2, 2018

Holy Cuss, Yet Another Leak (OK, BUT, LIKE, FOR REAL)

Image result for leaky pipe
(I'm sorry. I swear I normally don't like puns this much.)


OKAY BUT ACTUALLY I WAS ORIGINALLY JUST GOING TO POST THAT BUT THERE WAS ACTUALLY A LEAK (it was kind of a leak. Not sure if leak is the right word for it) AND WE HAVE ANOTHER NO PHUN INTENDED SONG. WE FOUND ANOTHER FREAKING NO PHUN INTENDED SONG. THIS IS AMAZING. THE SONG IS AMAZING. I AM SO HAPPY. AND THERE MIGHT BE ANOTHER SONG THAT WILL BE SHOWN LATER TONIGHT

DSJFKL:JEOJKLSVJIOES:JLKNXCOPE (those are just random letters to show my excitement)

You best be listening to it.

I am ecstatic
(if you couldn't tell)

I was just planning on ranking my favorite No Phun Intended songs, too and now there's another one and it's majestic. And we might even get another one after that. And it just might be Chords (that doesn't mean anything to you (probably), but it would be the flippin' coolest thing if it was).
EDIT: There's also a new untitled demo, which is freaking cool. You can check out the new untitled demo here.

ASVAB and AP Tests and another twenty one pilots update

So that ASVAB was pretty useless. I'm mean, I guess it was just cool to do just to see how well I did. I got a 97, so yay, I guess. Not that enthused by that score. It's kind of expected. I did get 99s on all the math stuff, which was cool (the scores are based on percentiles with 99 being the highest. So a 99 means that I did beat on those portions than 99 percent of the other people who took the test). It was easier than ACT math, which I got in the 99 percentile of, so it wasn't all to surprising. I feel like I'm bragging here, but, guys, trust me, I'm not.
Anyway, I'm not going into the military, so it was pointless in that region.
The job interest thing was vaguely interesting, but when I looked at it again today, I realized that I wasn't interested in any of the main jobs they were pointing me towards. The only ones that I was semi-interested in were ones I've always known I was semi-interested in. So it was basically pointless in that area too.

In conclusion, in the end, there was no real point in me taking it, but that's fine, I guess. I'm glad I did it regardless.

In exciting news: We get to see our AP test scores in 4 days! I'm really hoping I did well and can see myself doing well, but I also would be surprised if I got 2's. I fully expect to pass Stats, and hopefully I got a 4. Physics and Calc I could see myself getting 2's or 3's. Calc is going to be broken down into Calc AB and Calc BC, so I could see myself getting a 3 in Calc AB, but getting a 2 in BC. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Also: Happy Observed Canada Day!!


Also, I've been doing some more research on twenty one pilots stuff, and it looks like we still have to get through the last 3 phases of the eye. We don't know how long that'll take since the progression of them is rather random. You (probably) don't know what this means, but that doesn't really matter. Point being: 3 phases in the next 11 days seems rather fast, so I now predict later in the month. Instead of the 13th maybe the 27th, but hopefully the 20th. We just have to wait a little longer.
EDIT NIGHT OF WHEN I ORIGINALLY WROTE THIS (7/1/18): They just posted more stuff onto their website and aaaaaaaahhhhhhh, I am so excited. Things are crazy and it's all crazy and it's great. I didn't expect them to post again so soon. We are now 5 (or potentially 6) sections out of the 7 sections of the eye complete. I rerechange my prediction. My official prediction is that the new album will be released on the 6th or 13th. I am so happy about this all. There may be another update tonight, so I'm going to stay up until midnight to see (it's currently 11:15).

Also: You might be getting a dual post today because I feel like it.

Another random thing: I'm going to start labeling things because I want to. I don't know why you needed to know that. I'm slowly going back and labeling tons of my old posts too, but it's going to take a while to do them all.

Sunday, July 1, 2018

New twenty one pilots Predictions

The title yesterday was semi-misleading due to the fact that there wasn't another leek since there wasn't a leek in the first place. Just a leak. Therefore it wasn't 'another leek'. But I suppose the whole idea behind it was to be a pun, so I suppose it works.

So. Twenty one pilots is allegedly coming back soon. As in, like, 12 days. Wow, that's soon. That's the date I'm predicting at least. Could be later in the month who knows. (since that's a rhetorical question I think it's correct to use a period? I'm not sure) And, I mean, the real answer to that question is that nobody knows. We've (the 'we' is referring to fans) have been predicting things for a long while. But guys. Things seem like for real this time. If not this month then next.

Point of that being, before the album/any songs/any info drops, I want to redo my prediction thing. I posted that post over a year ago. Wow, it's been so long. The hiatus has been so long. It's ending, though.
You can check out my previous album predictions from over a year ago here, if you want to compare them. I will be referencing different things from that post, so it may be useful to have it on hand so you can look at both.

Predictions:

0. So the rumor forever ago was that the album was going to be called "Echo" or "Echoes" or something to that effect. I believe that the original source of that rumor has been proven to be fake, though? Maybe not, Idk. But, point being, I don't think it will be called that anymore. If I had to guess what it's name would be I would probably say "Dema" or "Towers of Silence". I could be way off, but those seem like two logical guesses.

1. (I labeled the previous prediction 0 and this one 1 that way they are lined up with my predictions from my previous post. As in, this prediction deals with the stuff I talked about in my first prediction in the other post. The above prediction didn't originally have a number, so in this post I'm just labeling it 0) I do still think that the main color of the album will be blue (instead of red, like in blurryface)

2. I still think the album will revolve around the defeat of blurryface. Or the defeat of some other bad thing.

3. I do still think that a few lyrics will be about their new fame. To be more specific, I think it will be in one song decently heavily and at maximum one or two other songs that get a line or two about it.

4. Mmmm, I disagree with my previous self on this one. I said it would double or triple the amount of backing vocals Josh Dun has had. I'm thinking one or two songs with his backing vocals, max. I wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't any, but my official prediction is one or two.

5. I don't think it will be that symbol. I have two guesses on what I think it might be, though. These are just guesses, though. First guess: Same symbol, of course, but the middle dash line is blue and the other two lines are black. Second guess: Same symbol, of course, but the left straight line is blue and the other two lines are black. I'm leaning towards my second guess because in the original symbol (I suppose I can just put it below) during the Vessel era, the left straight line was blue. It became black during the blurryface era, while the red stayed. So now I believe that the blue line will be blue while the red line will be black.


6. I honestly don't know. But for prediction purposes, I'll predict that there will be a song that is either a remastered version of Whisper or heavily influenced by Whisper, either musically or lyrically. I don't think there will be any other remastered No Phun Intended songs, although I do think one or two of them will have connections to a couple No Phun Intended songs. Most likely reused lyrics.

7. I don't think this'll happen. And I'm not sure if I would want it to happen. Back then it appears that I was excited at the prospect of having a RAB song be in the new album, but I kind of want them to stay there own separate gems.

8. I now think that it will be slightly above Vessel. Maybe my hype is biasing my answer, but that's my prediction.
On another note, I now rank the albums as such: 1. RAB 2. Vessel 3. Self-Titled 4. Blurryface

9. I still fully agree with that statement. That or the album after that. One of those two depending on certain things that I can explain some other time, if I remember. But one of those two albums is going to be so good. The best. My all time favorite.

10. I can agree with that.

11. I now think that there will be exactly 14 songs.

12. I don't think Echoes is a thing anymore, so I do not think that prediction is true whatsoever.

13. Same as 12

14. Yes. I think that Blurryface will still be around. He'll still be a thing. It's not like he's dead. Traces of him will appear and his effects will exist.


I'll never know what that first thing of the two other things was.


Happy Canada Day!!

Saturday, June 30, 2018

Holy Cuss, Another Leek

Image result for leek
(sorry, I found the idea of posting a picture of a leek with that title really funny, so I did it)

Friday, June 29, 2018

Holy Cuss, A Leak

Getting back to camp posts some other time. They won't necessarily be back to back at all.

So, there's been a twenty one pilots leak. You can check out gingersheep's video about it here. There are other great videos about it, but I really like gingersheep and I want to support him, so I'm only sharing his video.

I don't really think that my mind has really quite grasped the concept of a new twenty one pilots album. I've been thinking about it for, like, a long long while now, but I don't think I've actually gotten my head around it.
I might have said this in the past but, I've never been around for the release of a new twenty one pilots album. I've never experienced it. I don't know what it's like to sit down with new music from my favorite artists ever and listen to it.
I was exposed to twenty one pilots through my sister (big thanks for that Hannah) back in the Vessel era, but I didn't listen to them actively. I heard songs from Self-Titled, Vessel and probably RAB too. I remember when they released their new album Hannah was super excited and forced me to listen to a few of the new songs. She was jamming out and I was sitting there. She said something about how "I don't really know the songs yet, so that's why I'm not jamming out" (which makes sense; you don't just start rocking out to a brand new song you've never heard (unless it's in a different language or something, idk. Maybe that's just my experience)). I have a couple other twenty one pilots specific memories, but I can talk about them some other time. A little after that was when I started getting into them and Hannah started moving on to other bands.
Whole point of that story being: I got into twenty one pilots right after blurryface was released. I didn't get to experience the release of blurryface as a fan.

But soon I will get to experience the release of a new album and I'm so excited. You already knew I was excited, but still. Gotta say it at least 10 times.

Thursday, June 28, 2018

Writing at Camp and Apples

I'm breaking each all the stuff I wrote at camp into different posts. The title will be the topics that I wrote about. So this is the stuff I wrote at NYLT pt. 1.

Around Noon
I found this random page in a handbook they gave us, so I'm writing a blog post on it. The first day has been... interesting so far. I'm curious on how much I'll actually get out of this experience. Hopefully it'll be good. I won't talk about specifics or else it'll become way more like a journal. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing.
What else did I want to talk about?
I want to play SSBU. Ness's up-air is different, which I'm excited to use. Hopefully it'll still have kill power. I'm curious on how his combos will be affected by the faster gameplay.
I've noticed that I've just been wanting to write a lot, recently. I'm so glad I have a blog to publish things onto. Hopefully I'll be able to continue to push out posts. I don't see why I wouldn't be.
Currently eating an apple. It's a blew average fruit, I believe. But that's uncut. Why do apples taste so much better when cut into slices? I don't know where they rank when they are cut, but it's certainly higher.
Later: There isn't enough space on this page to write too much more, so I'll have to find other random pages to write on.

I found another half page. I want to talk about the program and such, but I don't want to put that on my blog. I could write in my journal again. When I get back home, at least. 'Tis a good idea.
Still need to look up if 'swell' is a contraction for 'so well'. That randomly popped into my head. I'll probably look it up as I transcribe these writings into typed form.
I'm about out of space on this half-a-page. It wasn't quite half-a-page. I found some blank paper, though, so it's good.

Wednesday, June 27, 2018

The Other Half-.5 Things About Me; More In-Depth

Have I ever worn braces? Nope.
My front two teeth are slightly crooked, but not enough to warrant using braces. Which I'm thankful for. I do get self-conscious about my front two teeth sometimes, but whatever. It doesn't really matter.

How am I feeling right now? Pretty good, but tired.
Right now I'm feeling pretty great. Micheal is going to come over for his lunch break soon and play some Mario Kart, so that's going to be fun. Adding these commentaries on my post has been fulfilling and enjoyable.

Height: 5' 8"
Which is one inch taller than when I got my driver's (is that where the apostrophe goes?) license, so I'm still growing. Although I don't really expect to grow more; another inch max, probably.

If I could live anywhere, where would it be? This is too hard of a question to answer right now.
Welp, my previous self didn't answer the question, so I guess I have to now. I feel like the answer is just Fallon? Pretty much all my family is here, so that's the main draw. If I lived somewhere where it would be super awesome to live (Europe etc.) then I would be super far from my family and I wouldn't like that.

What did I last eat? Corn.
A bowl of Frosted Mini-wheats (off-brand, though (not sure what the off-brand is called)). Two or three bowls in-a-row, in fact. Although each one was an hour or two apart.

What did I want to be when I was younger? Artist.
Too bad I suck at it. I'm starting to add to my paint collection, though. I really do love and enjoy art.

Typical Friday night: Depends on the time of year.
And pretty much the same as every other night. They're all practically the same in reference to what I spend my time doing.

Foods I won't eat: Some fish. Probably something else. Foods against the Word of Wisdom, of course.
Human. Wouldn't eat that. 'Won't' feels like a strong word to use there. I'll eat a lot of foods. I'll avoid Zucchini amongst other foods, but I'll still eat them.

Bucket list item: Buy a bag of milk (Ryan came up with this bucket list item originally, so I give him the credit)
Canada has bags of milk, which is super cool.

Item I can't live without: Water, Food. I don't think that's what this question is going for, but whatever.
I actually remember what I was originally going to put for this until I forgot and ended up putting water and food. I was going to saw my family and friends.

Movie I have watched repeatably: The Giver, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Ender's Game
Aka, my favorite movies of all time. I really need to make an official list. I've had a list in my head for a while, but it keeps getting mixed around and it doesn't include The Princess Bride yet, which is a fault, so I need to write it down and fix it up and then present it to you guys soon.

Apple or Android: No preference.
Yep.

What should I be doing right now? Sleeping.
Maybe working on my last merit badge or getting more ready for the 4th of July thing, but writing this is a perfectly fine thing to be doing.

One goal this year: Finish my Eagle Scout
Two more goals this year: Figure out what college I want to go to. Finish and submit my mission papers.

Pet peeve: Uneducated people talking about something I'm passionate about
I feel like I could give a specific example of this, but meh, I don't feel like thinking about a memory of a person annoying me.

Last song I listened to: March to the Sea non-lyrical version.
Ruby by twenty one pilots

Most expensive item of clothing: Shoes, probably.
Actually, my necklace that I won for the Seneca Run.

Can't leave house without: Phone
Sad, but pretty much true. It's on me constantly.

Dream car: An expensive one so I can sell it.
Preferably a Tesla just so I can say I owned a Tesla (before I sold it, of course).

Favorite animal: Monkey
It's always been mine and Thomas's favorite animal. I'm not sure why.

Favorite book: Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson
Scriptures don't count, in case you were wondering. I love Hero of Ages more than a normal person by quite a bit. Scadrial is my favorite world; it has my favorite magic system, my favorite characters, my favorite ending, my favorite almost everything.

Favorite color: Blue. Typically of the darker variety.
Blue is the best color, after all. It just is.

Favorite dessert: Ice Cream. Pretty sure Ice Cream is just the best food.
Yep. Ice Cream be the best. I actually think I'll go get myself some right now.

Favorite drink: Water and milk. Apple juice and Orange juice are also wonderful. When I think about it Orange juice might be my favorite? I'm not sure, milk and water are just awesome.
Water and Milk are my favorite. Orange juice, I have decided, is definitely my 3rd favorite drink, though.

Favorite food: Pizza, I guess. But that's probably not true if I think about it more.
Not Pizza, Ice Cream. I can't believe I forgot about a Ice Cream (I don't know why I'm capitalizing Ice Cream) right after the question about my favorite dessert. Ice Cream is both my favorite dessert and favorite food.

Favorite gadget: Nintendo Switch, if phones and computers don't count.
Although the 2ds is probably a close second. I've gotten a lot of play hours through that with Smash and Fire Emblem and Pokemon and Legend of Zelda Games. Still have a lot of potential gameplay hours through it, too, because I have yet to finish two Zelda games (Ocarina of Time 3D and Majora's Mask 3D) and Fire Emblem: Fates. Plus Smash is still on there, of course.

Favorite movie: The Giver
Fantastic Mr. Fox is a close second, but The Giver was just the best. For me specifically. I'm definitely not arguing that The Giver is the best movie of all time. It's just my favorite. It has such emotional weight in it that hit me in all the right places. I love it so much.

Favorite restaurant: Don't have one.
Maybe Don Julio's? That is a really good restaurant. I should go there on my own sometime (or with a date or something).

Favorite sandwich: Spicy Italian footlong from Subway with the toppings of my choice.
Mmm, so good.

Favorite season: Fall. Autumn. I should use the word Autumn more. It's cool.
Partially because my birthday, but I also like the weather the most.

Favorite series: The Mistborn series
*insert what I said about Hero of Ages here*

Favorite snack: Cereal
Cereal is fantastic. I don't know what else to say.

Favorite sport to watch: Basketball, but tennis is pretty hype too.
I think what tips basketball over tennis is the team-aspect. People working together makes it extremely interesting instead of just one or two people doing stuff.

Favorite breakfast food: Cereal?
I mean, probably. Simply because of how simple it is to make. A good piece of french toast or a good waffle do beat out cereal pretty easily taste wise, but cereal is so quick that it gives it the edge. Probably. I don't like sausage, so that eliminates a lot of breakfast food, but french toast, waffles, pancakes, and cereal are all good. (Waffles are better than pancakes, btw. The only advantage pancakes have are its ability to mass produce them. It's a lot harder to mass produce waffles.)

Lucky number: 27
This came about when Ryan chose the name "Chosen27" for our minecraft username. He made that from the fact that he was the 27th person to get his Pat. Blessing from our patriarch (fun fact: I was the 224th (another fun fact: Orin was the 223rd and Thomas was the 225th)). I didn't know that at the time and grew a liking towards the number 27 and it is now my lucky and favorite number. I still use the username "Chosen27" in most of my online games.

Favorite fictional character: Kaladin Stormblessed. Spook is a close second.
I don't know exactly why I love Spook so much, but he is so cool. I love him so much. Kaladin is Kaladin, though, so.

Tuesday, June 26, 2018

Half+.5 of the 67 Things About Me; More In-Depth

Aka, I'm going to go through the first 37 things and talk more in depth about each thing. I'm more awake now, so I'm now capable. I'll do the other 36 in a another blog post that'll be up tomorrow. I'm going to be using a different color for my commentary and such and hopefully it looks good.

Am I a morning or a night person? I can be both. Sometimes I stay up way later than I should, which sides with being a night person. But I can also wake up early without too much trouble and I enjoy it. So Idk.
Yep, basically want I said previously. I can be both.

Am I afraid of the dark? Not really. Used to be, though.
Most of the time (now-a-days, that is. As I said previously, I used to be scared of the dark) I find being outside in the dark super peaceful. Inside in the dark I don't necessarily care or don't care for. But being outside in the dark is peaceful. Most of the time. Sometimes it is freaky.

Am I an introvert or extrovert? Introvert.
Always have been (although I'm pretty sure I was more extroverted when I was younger. Probably still introverted overall, but more towards the extroverted side than I am now). Don't see this changing anytime soon.

Am I double jointed? In my right thumb, I think?
Meant to say my left thumb, whoops. But, yeah, it can go back and forth in a slightly strange way which may or may not be double jointed. I'm also double jointed in my left ring finger. Forgot about that one.

Right or left handed: Right
Yep.

Tidy or messy person: Messy, but not so messy that I can't be productive. I keep my messiness under control.
Ex. My backpack basically the entirety of this year. It was incredibly messy, but sort of had an organization and I never lost my stuff (maybe I shouldn't have said never, but most of the time I didn't lose my stuff). My room is also messy (although I'm slowly fixing that).

Am I on time or late to things? On time.
Depends on the importance too. But most of the time I'm there within 5 minutes of when I need to be. 

Ticklish: Probably? I definitely was in the past, but I haven't been tickled recently so it could have changed.
When we were younger, Thomas knew that I was ticklish, so for whatever reason he would tickle me, but I knew that he really didn't like germs and saliva, so I would lick my hand to keep him at bay. It was a good time.

Can I curl my tongue? Yes, in several ways.
Without needing the assistance of my mouth to keep it in shape either. I can do the typical U-shape. I can also do the U-shape, but tilted 90 degrees clockwise. I trained myself to do that working on it a lot. I can also do the w-shaped waffle one.

Can I ice skate? Poorly.
I can also roller blade poorly. I dislike both. It just feels like faster, granted also more enjoyable, walking/jogging but with the constant fear of tripping and face-planting it. I don't enjoy that fear and the mild enjoyableness of skating itself is not enough to combat it.
It's also partly why I don't like swimming. It's like walking/jogging except with the constant fear of struggling for your life. It's just not a good time.

Can I wiggle my ears? Yes.
It was pretty cool when I found this out. I then started moving them more to get better at it.

Cookies, Cake, or Donuts: Donuts then cookies then cake. Cake is overrated. I'm also in the club that cookies are overrated, but cake is most definitely overrated.
This doesn't exactly apply to the question, but cronuts are super good. But every time I eat one I feel like I would rather just have a croissant and a donut separately. So Idk.

Have I ever participated in a talent show? Not that I'm aware of
Although if I were to, I would probably just juggle. Although if I wanted to be super fancy, we get Ryan in on it and then (my family and I have thought about this in the past) I juggle 4 rubix cubes. I chuck one out to Ryan and transfer from juggling 4 to 3. Then he solves in a he chucks it back in. I throw him another unsolved one. We repeat this process until all 4 are solved. It's a really cool idea, I think. It would require a lot of practice, though. Especially to transfer from 4 to 3 to 4 etc.

Do you like school? Sometimes. I enjoy the social aspect. I enjoy learning. But boy does it suck a lot of the time.
For some reason I put this question in second person. Weird. But, yeah, school and I have a love-hate relationship. Often it's a specific class or two that I hate, but the others I enjoy.

Do I believe in ghosts? Only the holy one.
But I also suppose there's things like the veil becoming thin and seeing spirits and such, but I wouldn't consider them ghosts.

Do I bite my nails? No.
Never have.

Do I consider myself a good cook? I'm good enough to be content with my cooking ability.
I change my mind. I do want to become better and obtain more cooking knowledge. Culinary Arts would be my next choice of elective after Video Production and Spanish.

Do I enjoy dancing? Depends on the scenario, but overall, yes. I am an introvert, so if it's too social of a situation, dancing would probably make me uncomfortable. But even then, I sometimes enjoy dancing.
I do really enjoy dancing when I'm alone or with a couple people I feel 100 percent comfortable with (most often mi familia). When an awesome song comes on and I just get really into it. It's definitely fun.

Do I enjoy DIY crafts? I've never really tried them, but I feel like I would.
Although I do feel like I would get frustrated with them easily or would want them to be too perfect. So maybe I wouldn't like them.

Do I forgive easily: Yes.
I've always been good at this and I'm glad I am. I can remember a couple times when Ryan was being his teenager self (aka, he was a jerk sometimes when he was a teenager (he agrees with this fact, so it's fine that I say it)) and afterwards he was the coolest guy and came up to me to personally apologize for his actions. (Honestly, shout out to Ryan for being humble and awesome enough to do that on several occasions.) I remember being slightly confused on how to respond because I felt like he didn't necessarily need to apologize. I had already forgiven him in my heart and so it didn't matter. At least that's what I remember. I could be off; memories are that way.

Nickname: Alex. P-razz. Theodore. Zander. Al (Joseph called me this sometimes). Probably a couple others I'm missing.
Smart guy is another one. I think Theodore is my favorite one. I don't know why, but I really like my middle name.

Allergies: None
I am allergic to a certain type of medicine. Giant rashes across my body. It was interesting.

Phobias: I feel like I have some, but I don't have time right now to think about it super hard.
I'm kind of afraid of the ocean. I used to be afraid of heights (and am sometimes still), but my friend Lindsay helped me overcome a large part of that when my friend group went zip-lining.

Pets: I have none, but I love pets and will probably get them in the future.
Having a domestic pet fox sounds awesome. I feel like it would be a mixture of having a cat and a dog. Not as clingy as a dog and not as skittish as a cat. It would be great.

Siblings: 3 brothers, 1 sister.
They're all incredible and I'm so blessed to be in such an awesome family.

Dogs or Cats: I love both, but if forced to choose, I would pick cats. Although I think I'm slightly allergic to them. Semi-itchy throat. Some cats don't make this happen, but others do.
Ex. Smokey (Smokey is the cat's name (Milana's family's cat))

Mac or PC: Probably PC, although I don't have much data.
When I reread the statement I read daata and not dayta. Interesting. (The way I pronounce it often changes)

Beach or Mountains: Mountains? Idk.
I like both. No real preference.

Bath or Shower: Shower
Definitely shower. Baths take far to long and get cold and they're semi-uncomfortable.

Languages? I can understand basic spanish, although I can't speak it.
I can read and speak English. Forgot to mention that.

Do I still watch cartoons? Not often, but yes. If anime counts then when I have time, yes.
Granted, my anime watching has decreased significantly over the past 6 months or so.

Do I play any sports? Tennis. Did Track and Field for one year.
I'm absolute trash at basketball. The only thing I'm good at in basketball is running. I'm kind of convinced I should never touch the ball if I'm ever playing.
I'm pretty good at tennis, though. I'm about average in Track and Field. And when I saw Track and Field, I really just mean Track since I never did any field events.

Does my name have a special meaning? Not that I'm aware of.
"Defender of men", apparently. My parents just chose it because they both like it. Although my mom did just comment that if the name meant something dumb then they probably wouldn't have gone with it.

Have I been to a concert? Nope.
But I would really really love to go to a twenty one pilots concert in the future. That's probably super obvious, though.

Do I enjoy camping? Yep.
After the week long camping trip I can report that I still do enjoy camping.

Have I skipped class? Around finals week when we're doing nothing important, I have, yes. I was excused by my parents, but I still think it counts as skipping.
So nothing illegal, is the main point there. But, yeah, ex. we were only working on our projects in AP Physics and I figured I would be more productive at home, so I just asked my mom if I could leave and be excused and she said sure.

Have you won something? Yes.
Math competitions, Seneca Run, Races back in elementary school, Smash 4 high school tournament (did I ever report on winning that? If I haven't, I should. It was a good time), various other things.

Single Day's Break (on accident)

Welp, accidentally took a day's break, but that's fine, I can just post twice today.

I'm so glad that our NAT type is good now. Splatoon 2 is tons of fun. I kind of regret pitching in for the new singleplayer because I never really find the urge to play it. I'd rather just play online. But I'm sure I'll get around to it and enjoy it.

Thomas recently got a laptop he's planning on using for college. He's planning on doing some gaming too, of course. The plan is to get Don't Starve Together, which is on sale right now and you get two copies when you purchase it. I'm kind of excited. I've always been intrigued by that game ever since I saw Etho play it originally.

Finally went back to Breath of the Wild and finished up finding the remaining memories and then decided to beat the boss again. The ending was nice. I did have to look online to find where the remaining memories were, but that's fine; I'm not a stranger to using online resources to semi-spoil games (ex. I use a lot of online resources to play Stardew Valley. Looking up the best crops, when things happen, what happens when things happen etc.) I am planning on replaying the game at some point. The world is so vast that I'm probably going to run into a lot more stuff that I haven't seen before. Plus it's been so long since I played it last that I probably forgot a lot of things and a large majority of the experience will be fresh.

Sunday, June 24, 2018

Wrote Lots of Stuff at NYLT, but not Posting it yet

I finally typed up all the stuff that I wrote while at camp, but I'm planning on splitting it into different posts and fixing it up before posting any of it, so that'll take more time. I'm tired of that project now, though, so that's why I'm moving on to this post, whatever it may turn out to be.

Eric is up at Scout Camp for the next 5 weeks, which means a lot less board game playing to go around. Still need to finish Pandemic Legacy: Season 2. We've been doing super well, but I'm still kind of worried that we won't be able to do that one thing you need to do near the end (using vague terms on purpose to make a spoiler-free environment). 

Currently rocking out to different remixes of Mii Channel Theme music because why the heck not; it's good stuff.

A few things from NYLT:
"Yeet!" ~Everyone except Joanna
"Shalom, my froiend." ~Gabe  (not sure how to spell the way he said 'friend')
"Don't T-pose next to the lake while singing the Halo theme or else you'll fall in." ~Xavier (he speaks from experience)
*insert beat of Salvation Army into your heads progressively getting louder while someone who actually knows the lyrics starts singing them*
*insert basically the entirety of Bohemian Rhapsody into your heads*

Saturday, June 23, 2018

Ok, ok, ok, ok

It's not going to happen, but if it does I'll flippidy the flip out. I just had the thought of twenty one pilots coming back during the middle of this week and then I get back home and learn that they did and I would be so happy. Too bad the chances of that are so slim. Today might be the day I'm coming back home (referring to the 'today' of the day that this goes up)? I'm not sure. It might be tomorrow (referring to the 24th of June).

Friday, June 22, 2018

Packing?

I'm semi-burnt out on ideas tonight and I'm tired, so I guess I'm going to write about what I have to pack? I mean, I have ideas for the future on what to write, but I'm not going to write them tonight. I need semi-interesting pack-filler blog posts. So, yeah. Talking about packing, I guess.

Most of the stuff I have to pack is the tiny things. Flashlight, Sunscreen, Pens/Pencils, Hat, Water bottle etc. That's probably why I continue to procrastinate packing them. I feel like I could just rush getting them all together. I should probably do that.

Talking about packing was less interesting than I thought it would be. And I didn't have very high expectations. I'm sure I could make it interesting somehow? Probably? Not right now, though.

Yep.

Wednesday, June 20, 2018

Wanting to do all the Things (Pt 1?)

There are so many things I want to do. Like, the Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn rulebook is sitting right next to me and it really makes me want to get back into the competitive scene, or at least play games online with decks of my creation. To deck build again. To join the community again. All the things. It would be awesome. There are so many new cards out that I haven't tried out at all. It would just take a lot of time. Everything takes a lot of time.
I want to watch anime and play board games and play video games and read books and write books and get another job and so many other things that I'm just going to stop listing them.
It's wonderful, but also horrible on how much stuff I want to do. It's definitely better than having no stuff I want to do; that's for sure.

I also want to sleep, so I think I'm going to go do that now. I have no idea if I'm actually ending with this or if I'll come back and write more. I'll probably write more. If there's more stuff beneath this paragraph, that means I wrote more. If there's not and this is the final sentence, that means I didn't.

There is definitely more on this topic to talk about. A large off-branch that deals with it, as well. I'll make those separate posts some other time.

Monday, June 18, 2018

Job, Eagle, Gamecube Controller Adapter

I hate making titles for these blog posts. You probably already knew that. They feel so bland. I need to find a cleverer way to make them.


I'm currently on a "as-needed" basis for my job, so I really need to find another one. I don't really care about amount of pay, just hours. I mean, it won't actually be that difficult to find a job. I just kind of have to do it. But I'm going of to the camp thing this week (well, I suppose I'm going to schedule this post, so I'm actually already at it), so I'm not currently looking. And I probably won't look for another week after that. I really want to focus on finishing Personal Management (which should only take a day or so) and finding/doing some paper work for a Eagle Scout Project.

Go Nathaniel!! Yes, he procrastinated a whole bunch, just like Thomas did, but it looks like he'll get his Eagle. His birthday is on the 26th of this month, I believe? I should know people's birthdays better.
I don't want to do it all at the last moment; I would really like to get it out before the summer's over. That's the goal. And it's easily obtainable if I put in a little work. Which is what I plan to do.


Off-topic: The gamecube controller adapter came in today (6/16/18)! It works great. I wish the cord was a little longer, but whatever. We now have 4 great controllers to use on the Switch, which means awesome games of Mario Kart. Plus two more if we use two of the more beat up gamecube controllers. The wavebirds, if still functional, will be nice since they're wireless. We'll still need two more controllers in the future if we ever want to play a full 8-player Smash on Smash Ultimate. But maybe Smash Ultimate will be 3DS compatible? Then we could just use our 2DS and 3DS as the other two controllers. That would be nice.

Saturday, June 16, 2018

Dash Dancing, more wavedashing, and Posting Schedule

There is dash dancing, which I forgot to mention. It's weaker than its melee counter part, which is good. I'm liking the melee mechanics in the game, but they aren't so strong that they'll dominate the game. At least that's my impression.

And, allegedly, there actually is wavedashing, but it's just super sloppy and slow.

I still have the majority of my packing to do. I should do that. I also want to make some more posts to schedule. Maybe while I'm away I'll just have a post every other day instead of every day. We'll see how inspired I am to write stuff. But I'm really enjoying writing these each day, so I'm going to continue to do so. Hopefully you guys are enjoying them too.

Friday, June 15, 2018

More Smash and other things and titles continue to be hard to come up with

Turns out there is not wavedashing, I was incorrect. Although there is wavelanding, which is interesting. It apparently has tons of lag, though, so it isn't very useful. I could see it having less lag in the final version of the game, however. Idk, I just feel like it won't have tons of lag like it does right now.
Bayo might not be as OP as we thought. Apparently there was a couple bugs with her that allowed her to jump four times, which is crazy. Plus the ladder combo we saw was with a low ceiling against a large opponent (Ridley) and was played by someone who plays melee, not a lot of Smash 4, meaning he doesn't know how to effectively DI against Bayo. But still, I really hope Bayo isn't so good as she was in Smash 4.

Smash Ultimate looks more and more awesome the more I watch it. ZeRo (the best Smash 4 player ever) says it's, like, super crazy good. Almost strictly more fun than Smash 4. I want to play it. I want to be competitive. I'm planning on going on my mission a couple-few months after it releases, which means I'll only have a short time with it, but it's going to be great.

Mario Kart continues to be awesome. And addictive. It continues to beat my expectations. I was holding off on it because we didn't have a good enough NAT type to play online, but there is so much content without online anyway. But when we get through most of that, it will be nice to face people online.

Currently waiting for halftime in the Overwatch League game to get over. ESports is pretty great.

In a sudden turn of events I'm going on a week leadership trip thingy, which I'm kind of excited for. It'll be a good experience. I don't know what that will mean about my daily blog posts. Maybe I'll schedule some; I'm not sure.

Thursday, June 14, 2018

Super Smash Brothers Ultimate

I'm mildly disappointed in Nintendo's direct. They showed Smash, some Fire Emblem, and that's basically it.

But holy guacamole does Smash look awesome. All the characters. I'll get to play as Pichu. That's kind of crazy. And Young Link. And Snake. And Ridley? Ridley still looks super weird in the game to me, but I'll get used to it.
The gameplay in sped up a little compared to Smash 4, which I think is awesome. There is wavedashing, but it's not as strong as it was in Melee, which I think is great.
The more you dodge, the more and more vulnerable you'll be, which I think is a great way to make spam rolling not as effective.
Bayonetta still looks OP, which is no bueno. But I have faith they'll nerf her before the release.
The entire art aesthetic and the graphic design and the intuitiveness is freaking amazing.
I want the game now. It releases, sadly, later than most people thought (it's releasing in December compared to September/October being what most people thought). But you can expect me to have that day set aside to play Smash.

And our NAT type randomly jumped up to a B, which is awesome because now we can play Splatoon 2 online. Plus Mario Kart 8 Deluxe online, which I bought today (it's super great, btw). And Smash online, when the time comes.
I also bought a gamecube adapter that works with the Switch (it'll be arriving on Saturday (I bought this online. I bought Mario Kart in a store)), which means we'll get to play with nice gamecube controllers. And we'll finally have a full set of controllers (before we were surviving off the two Joycon and one wired controller).

Wednesday, June 13, 2018

Quick Review of Reality Talent Shows

(Referring to shows such as America's Got Talent, American Idol, The Voice etc.)

I don't like them. They're somewhere between hate and dislike. Yep.

(although World of Dance (which I've never seen) looks decently interesting. It might not suck)

Tuesday, June 12, 2018

E3 Hype

Super Smash Bros on the Nintendo Switch is being shown off for the first time today in a couple hours. I am so hyped. I decided not to go into work today (we can go into work whenever we won't; there is no schedule (aka, I'm not skipping my shift or anything)) just so I can watch Nintendo's direct thingy live. We've been waiting so long for this and I am pumped. Today would be one of the greatest days ever if twenty one pilots randomly decided to end their hiatus. That would be cool. It's not going to happen, though.

I'll definitely make sure to report on my thoughts about Nintendo's direct afterwards. Either later today or tomorrow.

Monday, June 11, 2018

Ain't Been Posting Much

I haven't been-- urgh, this is weird, with the formatting not being the formatting I'm used to with my own blog-- a nice large Verdana. Look at that x-height! So this is, I'm not used to the default font here. It's fine though, we're all fine everybody's fine.

But I haven't been posting much anywhere lately, mostly for paranoia reasons regarding my computer crashing, and--

oh hi I'm Eric, this is a guest post. I suppose I should say that first off. Alex has been posting every day these past few, and I've been posting once every, what, few weeks? So it looks like our places have swapped; with Alex trying today to list every twenty one pilots song from memory, instead of blogging, he's asked me to post for him, and so I thought I'd take the opportunity to ~explain~ I guess, because what else would I post as a guest post on somebody else's blog when I'm barely posting on my own?

There was a Youth thing with President Nelson a week ago where they advised a challenge, which many took, to give up social media for 7 consecutive days, but even if I were a youth I wouldn't have had a problem with that. My problem is the opposite. My challenge is, or (if I were challenged as a challenge) would be, I should post on social media for seven consecutive days.

THE SEVEN PLACES I SHOULD POST BUT DON'T

  • I've got three blogs:
    • dielikeadisneyvillain.blogspot.com
    • thingsthatdontevencomebackaround.blogspot.com
    • pretzelizemecapn.wordpress.com
  • Two instagram accounts
    • @e.c.perazzo
    • theprancingprinter
  • like a facebook presence I gueeesss
  • oh yeah that YouTube channel

The YouTube thing, well that's fun and complicated and hey I could post on my own blog 'bout that today about it, because I should post there today, and cycle on through on a seven-day, thing...

But we're leaving for scout camp on Saturday thereabouts, and I'm going to be without social media till we get back when that's over (not that I'm not used to that.) So I'm going to get as far as, my art IG account, before having to stop the cycle again. Not get to the YouTube thing, which is fine, and complicated.

Even if I post right when we get back, it would still have been longer between when I posted last and if I post now, than when I post now and when I post next. So.

WHY I'M NOT POSTING AND WHY MAYBE I SHOULD

~For some reason~ it's taken for granted that artists should "get their name out there" or whatever? And so the implication is that others' vice in using social media would be an artist's virtue. I'm like waaay bad at social media, and that'd be great if I'd been... actually, being bad at social media/publicizing is a bad thing no matter your occupation. I'm bad at advertising myself, outside of the social media thing; I've never been very good at even pricing my own work.

Also, like I made the promise to start making more visual art, so I could post it on my blog, and I haven't been doing that? Bad of me, bad of me. Although now that I've got a bedroom to myself again and can move my art supplies back in, it'll be easier to start making more arts. Although although, the reason I said to make those arts for my blog was so I could cross-post with Instagram, and this seven-day thing goes against that. Just, make a plan and stick to it?

WHAT I'VE BEEN WORKING ON INSTEAD

Mostly writing projects. I know I always say I'm getting close with this one or that one, but really we may actually see the creation of these within my lifetime. I'm close enough now to start worrying about production costs. Which. Why must everything be so expensive?