Logical Thoughts

I figured I’d start doing some art features, and what better way to start then this magnificent piece?
This image, made by Ryo80 of Deviantart with Daz Studio and Photoshop 7, depicts a lady reaching into water (the darkness) and, in contrast, an evil looking hand reaching out of the water (into the light).
The artist’s comment on the photo is

Do the lost souls beckon us into the darkness or do we beckon them into the light?

I think it’s a clever picture, and it definitely looks great.
Check it out here, or click the thumbnail to the right.

All too often, I see “intelligent individuals” who are, in essence, ignorant sheep. They claim to be different, to be of their own herd, apart from the rest, yet I see them walking around with their Hollister shirt, Van sneakers, and army bracelet. An exact replica of the sheep 5 feet behind him.
They’re all sheep; unknowingly, they follow the trends, follow the herd, and try to “fit in.” They live their life for others, not for themselves. They seek to be accepted rather than understood. They think they stick out, but I couldn’t pick one out from a line up.

They roam the streets filled with self-respect, which in their case translates to self-deceit. They are fooling nobody but themselves. Because of how they dress or how they do their hair, they have “friends.” But do not be fooled, these “friends” are conditional, because as soon as the sheep starts to stray from the herd and finds a little bit of individuality, those “friends” become nonexistent; a fading memory of “good times” that were actually meaningless — of countless opportunities lost due to their needy peers. They leech off of you until you are of no use to them.
And yet they continue to jump from stupid trend to stupid trend, clique to clique, turning friends into enemies. This world will be a better one when these psychic vampires learn to have a little self-respect and sense of individuality instead of following what is instilled in them as “good.”
All these trends manifest themselves into corporate and social society, leading to income for some and false pride for others. These trends destroy friendships and drive possible comrades apart. We need to do away with these.
Express yourself for yourself, not for the audience that watches you change yourself for their benifit day after day, quietly chuckling about their control over your being.
Live your life, not theirs.

Well, it’s storming like hell here. Heat and storms aren’t the best combination, but the storm alone is freaking amazing.
The lightning show is spectacular. One of the best this year.
Pretty close, too, so I’ve been getting some good looks at the lightning.

Anyone else enjoy storms so much?
For some reason, I find lightning incredibly amazing.
I can just look at pictures of lightning fore– well, not forever, my attention span is not that developed. But for a good amount of time.

Timelines always seem to sum up important events in history or in one’s life.
Well, I’ve decided that I’m going to do my own timeline, but of unimportant, meaningless things…
Let’s se… What’s the furthest back I can remember?

Age
4 - Got in trouble for mimicking Beavis in Beavis and Butthead saying “boobies.”

5 - Started getting interested in the girl across the street. She was the same age, and we hung out all the time. Whenever my mom came over to pick me up, I hid under the little play table they had in the living room, hoping she wouldn’t find me and just leave without me.

6 - Started really getting into videogames. A lot of great memories come from this time up until I was 10. Lots of music reminds me of this time in my life, as my brother and I sat there listening to those tunes while kicking some ass in Mortal Kombat or wreaking havoc in Twisted Metal.

7 - Said my first curse word. Was repeating after Stan in South Park (god, TV has done horrible things to me, eh?), and he said “ass” in the sentence I was repeating. Not really a big curse, but still… I was 7, after all. I said it at least 10 times without realizing it, but my brother (10 at the time) kept telling me to stop. I eventually realized what I was saying. My mom happened to be standing outside the door the whole time. She wasn’t too pissed.

8 - By this time, my brother and I had made a pact not to rat each other out for cursing. While it wasn’t very often, we did occasionally curse from that point on (it’s just normal fucking language now). Also at this age, my cousin Paul and my brother gave me a bunch of like… Well, they were like those jesus crackers you eat at church, but in an army ration pack (Paul’s dad was in the army). After a while, my mouth got dry. They had a seemingly normal cup of water sitting on a shelf behind them. After taking a swag, I realized that it was a concoction. There was water, hot sauce, cheese, more hot sauce, and many other things. It wasn’t too good.
Also, somewhere around this time my best friend Fabio moved acrossed the country (although we’re still in close contact, and last summer he came to my house for a few days, and this summer we’re hanging out for a few weeks).

9 - Got scared as HELL of Bat Boy from World Weekly News. (Weekly World News? I forget.) If you didn’t know, World Weekly News (or whatever) was (or still is? Dunno) a magazine type thing that was like, a fake newspaper.

There were a bunch of humorous fake stories contained between the covers, but they started using a character called Bat Boy (who was well enough photo manipulated to scare the shit out of me) regularly, and I was so scared I coudln’t even go to the bathroom by myself at night.

10 - I was getting mroe interested in music at this point, specifically Eminem.

My brother had just purchased his new CD, and I wanted to listen to it, but wasn’t allowed. My mom let me purchase an edited CD of his from Wal-Mart, and I loved every single song to death. After a while, I started listening to Kenny’s CD with him, and I loved that as well. It was freaking great. And after being sheltered from so much stuff for so long (I wasn’t supposed to be watching the TV shows mentioned up there ^^ ), it was absolutely amazing for me (the forbidden fruit is always the sweetest). Ever since then, my brother has greatly influenced my taste in music.

11 - My brother and I become friends. Before this point, we hung out occasionally to play videogames or whatever, but now we weren’t constantly fighting and all that. The similar tastes in music probably had a lot to do with this, and we began bonding. We’re now really good friends, and I don’t know what I would do without him. Also, this is when we moved to our current location.

12 - I have some friends… No great friends, but some people to talk to at school and one or two people to hang out with. It was nice to have some people to talk to, being new in the area. It seemed everyone had memories from third grade and such with each other other then myself, but I dealt with it and made witty comments on all their stories and tried to be a part of all of it. Also got my first girlfriend at this age. This was also the age that I started getting more interested in computers.

13 - I started to turn into something that I hate less today. Got more friends, met more people, started getting involved with more shit. Music started playing a large role in my life at this point. I had a bulky CD player that I lugged around with me everywhere I went. Still listened to Eminem, but at this point I was also interested in System of a Down, Black Sabbath, and other stuff like that. I also started getting into web design and coding/some programming at this age. This was also when my brother got our drumset (the one I use all the time… We still have it. It’s a peice of shit. I need to buy a new one when I have money).

14 - Great year. Made a few great friends who I couldn’t live without. Had a web site up and running for a pretty long time (this goes back into age 13, too), and although it didn’t have many visitors it was a lot of fun and gave me a lot of experience with that world. A friend provided free web hosting, which was amazing of him, and I think my FTP account is still open on his server (not used it in forever, though).
(stupid face in picture… I guess I used to tend to make stupid faces while I drummed. I no longer do that)
Also started getting much more into music around this time. And gaming. Lots of stuff happened this year. I got more into PHP, dabbled in 3D design (didn’t work out… plan to try it again sometime), got into some online communities, got into Flash animation, video making (actually, that started at 13, when I got my video camera, but I started getting more organized with it at this point), got more into drumming (had been through a few bands, all with Kenny, and one is still active [just started up again recently]).

15 - Good year so far. Just turned 15 7 months ago, so not a full year yet, but still some shit happened. Failed relationships lead to horrible times, but I got through that shit and into the better times.
I’m so into music now… I don’t know what I would possibly do if I couldn’t listen to music for a few days.
I have giant headphones that I bring with me wherever I go (if I plan to listen to my ipod during the time out), and they’re amazing.

I’m much more open-minded with just about everything now, but specifically music. I’m into a lot of genres, ranging from metal to folk indie pop to ska (amazing shit) to reggae, and so forth. A lot of this is, again, thanks to my brother. I don’t listen to everything he does, but without him I wouldn’t be introduced to a bunch of shit, so I’d never have a chance to have an opinion about it.
He’s introduced me to just about everything I listen to today, and I am very grateful for this, as it helps me get through the days (hell, I’m listening to music right now).
So besides that, I’ve been getting much more into drumming lately, I’m trying to learn how to play the piano, I’m much more into gaming, and I’m trying to get back into programming (specifically desktop programming with Python).

Back to music now. Here are some of my favourite bands that you should definitely check out, as they are amazing.

- Streetlight Manifesto *
- The Decemberists *
- Westbound Train
- Sublime
- Reel Big Fish
- Catch 22
- Ben Folds
- Jonathan Coulton

You should check all of those out. Especially those starred ones. They’re the bestest.
A bunch of other stuff has already happened thus far this year, but my memory is shit so I can’t really chronicle it all up for ya there, champ.

So yeah. That’s my life so far.
Was really difficult remembering anything before age 13, but I pulled it off.

My friend, Fabio, has been making games for a while using GameMaker (not the gay click and drag part, he hand-codes all of it).

He recently finished a game (Mentamatical) and is working on another one (Wit Scurry).
They are both masterpieces.

Mentamatical is an illogical puzzle platformer that will make you wonder what’s next, what the next level will hold.
Believe me, it’s not normal. You will have to go through some pretty weird shit to beat it.

Wit Scurry is a community platformer.
It includes a level editor that you can use to create your own levels.
You can also download other people’s levels and put them into your folder to play through them.
The game only comes with one dungeon (level pack), but the link I will give you includes several (one by me [MegaChallenge]).
It’s very entertaining, and making your own dungeons is a blast.

Mentamatical
Wit Scurry + Dungeons
Wit Scurry Forums

(the picture is of a Wit Scurry level included in my dungeon)

With only 1 week left of school for me, summer is coming, and it’s coming fast.

Friday is my last day.
A lot of people are already out, and I envy you.

But, nonetheless I’m extremely excited. This summer is going to be absolutely amazing.

So, what are you guys up to this summer? When did/do you get out?

Ahh. How i do love Teriyaki Chicken.
It’s the only oriental food I’ve found that I enjoy thus far.
Whenever I hang out with my brother and we go to one of two malls (they’re both around 40 minutes away), we get teriyaki chicken (no veggies, extra chicken, extra teriyaki sauce), and we feast.
It comes with an abundance of white rice, as well.
Amazing, I say. Amazing.
I just got back from the mall with him… We feasted around 2-3 hours ago, and I’m still quite full.
I also just finished a Monster, the best drink in the world.
I love food. And stuff.

This is the first in a series of short stories that I’m working on called “A Different Outlook” following the main character and his… well, different outlook on everything.

This character is loosely based on me, and these stories are a way for me to creatively display how I think about things, in a fictional manner.

Of course, I don’t attend therapy, and I don’t have pointless walks, but that’s why it’s loose.

Please, give me critisism. I encourage it - I need it. I want to improve. This isn’t too good, and I definitely want to get better at writing, so please help me.
Warning: Strong language. Parental discretion not necessary, as a matter of fact, make sure they’re NOT nearby.

“7:00 AM, Thursday morning.

I hope next week goes just as well.”

Deviantart

Well, my grades are down.
I have 2 Fs as of now, but I know I can get them up. Pretty sure, anyway.
But until I do (which means probably until the school year ends, next Friday), I’m probably going to be grounded.
I’ll try and post if I can, but it’s a slim chance.
=[

Well, I’m currently running Linux Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron, but I’m about to switch to openSUSE + a 20 GB Windows partition for gaming (ONLY FOR GAMING!!).
In the process of downloading openSUSE right now.
It’ll probably be a bit before I’m up and running again, so I can’t guarantee another post tonight (plus, Jimmy and I are hanging out).
I made this decision based on wanting to expand my knowledge on Linux a bit more. I’ve been running Ubuntu for about 2 months now, and I’ve been absolutely fucking LOVING it, but with Linux distros, there are so many different possibilities… I’d like to give some a try.
I’ll see how openSUSE goes… If it doesn’t work out, I’ll probably give Fedora, Mandriva, and possibly Slackware a shot (not Mint because it’s basically Ubuntu with a bit more, and not Debian because… it’s basically Ubuntu, again [Ubuntu is based off Debian]).

So yeah.
My machine will be better then ever in a few hours, and it’s all thanks to ol’ Tux =]