The Devil's Lab

I've been working on taking down ideas, and writing scripts for The Devil's Lab, in the mean time, with Austin already making video posts to his blog, and Scott planning on following, it's probably for the best that I actually work on a personal vlog, as well as the hopefully funny and informative Devil's Lab.

In other news, I suck at making actual blog posts, so all those "micro-blogging" alternatives are probably best if you want to actually follow anything I say, check out my twitter page, and facebook page for more up to date information on what's up, and when I have witty or informative things to say of my own accord.

Thought of the Moment, a short consideration of Reality and Perception

I have many pages of notes taken on this subject, and many hours of thought, logged throughout my thinking life. Is there such a thing as a pure reality?  Unbiased, uninterpreted, pure.  So far as I can tell, no.  What we call reality, is in fact, specifically relative to each human being, with perhaps a broader sense of reality able to be applied to more instinctual creatures per each societal group.

Our perceptions are the filters through which our reality must flow.  Indeed, there is no method of intake, which I'm aware of, through which we can purely capture the world around us.  Our five physical senses are not filters, the abilities to feel, see, hear, taste, and smell, but are our primary intakes of the world, and all it has to offer.  Our experiences, our memories, thought processes, likes, dislikes, mental state, et cetera, all of things are filters. If we accept that these several things filter our intake, that no two people can share exactly the same filters, though many are similar, and that the combination of intake and filter create our reality, no two realities are the same.

What I've referred to as filters, can also be regarded as the building blocks of individuality, and more specifically personality.

So I decided...

I decided to write today, here, on this very blog in fact.  Reasons?  None really, boredom most likely.  Today I decided not to bring my computer with me to work, the primary reason for this decision is that with my new room layout, getting my computer untangled from the web of wiring that it resides in, a web which, as my mother so aptly noted, would make even Donald Duck cringe.  It's probably true.  I'm an electronics junky.  The Playstation, my laptop, and the stereo are now all on the same wall, that alone spells hazard, and there's more junk connected over there to boot.

The reason for the change?  New bed, futon to be exact.  It's nice to finally have a bed that lets me lie down without hanging off the edge, heck, I could very nearly turn sideways comfortable.  Albeit, it is just a full size bed when folded out, it's awesome to me, and rearranging my room is a hobby of mine.  Every six months or so.  Though this time, the actual rearrangement, from first piece of garbage picked up, to floor vacuumed and everything, sans a single bookshelf, moved at least once.  Thanks must go out to Jacob, my younger brother, and to my Dad, for helping out with the moving of things, it would have been possible without them, just a ton more difficult.

Seems that's it.  For those who haven't before, check out Lifehacker.com, it's pretty much full of awesome information.

In honor of Scott

A
- Available: Nope, not even close.
- Age: 24
- Annoyance: People who think potted plants double as trash bins.
- Animal: Grey Fox, Black Hawk

B
- Beer: Stinks, really.  How do people drink it?
- Birthday: 13 June 1986
- Best Friend: Scott
- Blind or Deaf: um... is this asking me to choose?  Or asking if either is true?
- Best weather: Jacket weather, no doubt.  Rain if you've got it.
- Been in Love: Yep.
- Believe in Santa: Always.

C
- Candy: Not a big fan of it, but I do like the occasional Bit o' Honey or Starburst.
- Color: Grey Blue.
- Chocolate/Vanilla: Chocolate
- Chinese/Mexican Food: Mexican by far.
- Cake or pie: Cake?  I guess?
- Continent to visit: Europe probably.
- Cheese: Pepper Jack

D
- Day or Night: Night
- Dancing in the rain: I'd be too afraid of slipping and breaking something.  Besides, rain is for sitting in, not dancing in.

E
- Eyes: Light Brown
- Everyone's got: Snot
- Ever failed a class: Yep, a few, though they may have counted as Incomplete...

F
- First thoughts waking up: Must... urinate...
- Food: Can't say no to eggs.

G
- Greatest Fear: um... can't think of it right now.
- Goals: I believe the correct term is "Go-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-al!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
- Gum: Polar Ice or its equivalent
- Get along with your parents: Mostly

H
- Hair Color: Dark Brown/Black/Red
- Height: 6'3"
- Happy: Well enough off.
- Holiday: Halloween
- How do you want to die: As an old man underneath a tipped over vending machine.
- Ice Cream: Chocolate, just chocolate.
- Instrument: Started many, mastered none.

J
- Jewelry: At any given time, generally one paracord bracelet, sometimes two, a black beaded necklace, and a ring.
- Job: Front Desk Clerk and Weekend Auditor at a hotel.

K
- Kids: Sometimes need a glare, sometimes need to practice somersaults and learn the finer points of hopping like a frog
- Kick boxing or karate: hmm... karate, figure it's a more balanced martial art.  Am I wrong?
- Keep a journal:  Have a few, they all end about halfway through.  Like most of my fiction writing.

L
- Love: Believe in it.
- Laughed so hard you cried: Nah, I prefer to be on the other side of the laughing.

M
- Milk flavor: Plain ol' milk 2% if you would, Vitamin D is a bonus.
- Movies: meh.  I watch the ones I want to.
- Motion sickness: On occasion, more from video games than from moving vehicles.
- McD’s or BK: McDonalds, I like to occasionally go back for the spicy chicken sandwich, though it's been a while.

N
- Number: XIII

O
- One wish: Peace of mind.

P
- Pepsi/Coke: Coke, Classic or Zero, either is fine.
- Perfect Pizza: Pepperoni, Italian Sausage, and Jalepeno
- Piercings: None

Q
- Quail: is the only thing somebody could come up with for the Q section.

R
- Reality T.V.: Don't watch enough actual tv to consider reality tv
- Radio Station: Whatever is playing a good song at the moment.
- Roll your tongue in a circle: Okay, now what?
- Ring size: twelve?  eleven?  can't remember...

S
- Song: None stand out at the moment
- Shoe size: 13
- Salad Dressing: Bleu Cheese or Honey Mustard
- Sushi: Haven't found a style I don't like
- In the shower: There's never enough Hot Water to go around
- Strawberries/Blueberries: Strawberries

T
- Tattoos: Nah, I prefer plain clean skin
- Time for bed: is a matter of opinion
- Thunderstorms: Are alright, but I prefer just the rain

U
- Unpredictable: ?

V
- Vacation spot(s): Disney Land, happiest place on earth

W
- Weakness: hmm
- Which one of your friends acts the most like you: None really, should they?
- Worst feeling: Splinters, I hate that feeling.
- Worst Weather: Hot

X
- X-rays: I have had many.  Hope there's no negative effect because of them.

Y
-Year it is now: 2010
-Yellow: um... yeah... Yellow.

Z
- Zoo animal: The desert section is always fun.

Only a Mark

It's the small things that hit home.  That get under the skin, give you the creeps.  The little connections that you never see until you're not looking for them.

It's late, and I'm reading a book.  House of Leaves.  An excellent read, non-standard by all definitions.  Never read a book like it.  Probably never will again, unless it ends up changing the way people write, and read, the way I hope it does, but know it never will.

VIII, the heading to the page, the beginning of a new section.  No title, though Webster's definition of SOS does lend a vague insight to the following pages.  Pages which cover a lot of ground.  That distance isn't important though.  Not tonight.  Not right now.  How do we know that even Johnny and his footnotes lend insight to something we can't see. 

There's more.  Something I notice early on, but don't comprehend until the end of the chapter, nudged slowly to understanding by the torrent of words and images, all of which gathers together, puddling at the edges of my mind.  Everything means something.  There is no accident, no whim.  Not here, not in this world, this realm, which as I read, I find cannot be confined to a page.  No, refuses to be.  Opening eyes to something which was always there, but which I did not see.  Like the house, ever growing, changing.

I returned to the beginning, placing a flag, a reminder of things I can't, or won't, discover now.  Cut short in my idle wondering, doubting of my future fidelity to my desire.  Cut short by a simple check-mark, nothing too large or too small, nothing of consequence, a simple check-mark made purposely as it was, not to be noticed.  I can only exist, a remembrance somehow of the reason I once feared the dark.  That which seemed so infinite, so intimidating, and most importantly, so unknown.

All stops as I see it, many precious seconds are lost, minutes for all I know.  My lungs remind me with a searing pain that I must breath. This because of simple mark, though more.  The reassurance of a scarred, embittered, and lonely boy to his mother.  Reassurance that he had received her letter.  The question laps 'round my thoughts though, was the mark meant for her? or for me?  If for me, did it know I would find it?  Not in a search, but by accident, out of the periphery of my sight.

The mark frightens me.  Like all unknown.  Simply because it's a way for the book, taking cues from the house, to assert that it cannot be limited, and that all beyond is unknown.

Against reason, I'm jumping at shadows.  Shadows of what will be found as I delve deeper into this ever shifting realm.


SOS

Thought you should know

Got invited to a new blog as a contributing editor, check it out at http://editedworksunlimited.blogspot.com/.  That's all, my main duty is editing some of the stories that go through, writing some of my own as well.

Kenjiro wished that he had his sword.

It wasn't that his sword was really special in any way, it wasn't magical, and it wasn't forged by a legendary master sword smith, but it was sharp, and pointy, and long enough to keep a couple of undead from eating your face off if you happened to be hanging upside-down from a well hidden trap in a forbidden castle.

A right and a wrong way

So, something that keeps on coming back to me, and that I feel like putting down here for all to read.  One day I was happily dishing up my dinner, when in horror I looked at my plate and thought aloud, "Gosh, I didn't put my food on my plate right, all the white is right next to each other, there's no color to make it interesting." To which my mother, who for a lot of her life has worked as a food stylist, responded, "Oh no... I've raised my children in a way that makes them think there's a right and a wrong way to put your food on your plate."

The only way I could respond to that was, "Isn't there?" as I rearranged my food to include some nice grated red ginger and green onion slices to the mass of white, and some vegetables between. My mother, after some thought, and a bit resignedly, responded, "Yeah, I guess so..."

Nope, not a moral to this story, just a bit of maybe-interesting insight.

Feeling the Love

It's been funny to see over the past month and a half or so, as long as I've been working at my new job as the Front Desk Clerk at a local hotel, how a lot of the time, even the smallest kind gesture, or minuscule task performed, can make somebody's day.  Alright, maybe it has a bit to do with the fact that I'm a front desk clerk, and that people don't expect anything at all from me when they arrive, but it's so easy to make somebody smile, or become a grateful friend rather than just a worn and weary traveler passing through, or a family traveling for a hospital stay with each other. 


Here's an example, two days ago I fixed the bolts in a toilet seat, which, admittedly, did take a while to work out, but figuring that a toilet just isn't a toilet without a toilet seat, it had to be done, and may as well be done with a smile.  The smile and the helpfulness earned the trust and confidence of a family staying for several days.  Getting somebody a wheelchair for their wife and helping get them settled in a room, fetching plates or plastic eating utensils, helping older people with getting luggage from place to place, and making sure that general problems that pop up, just the things that need to be done anyway, sometimes things that people wouldn't have brought up without previous confidence, or knowledge that they had an actual friend at the front desk to help out.


It's a small thing, but do your job, do it with a smile as best you can, do it not for the paycheck, but for the people you serve, and the coworkers you serve with.   Do the small things, the things that aren't in the technical job description, make friends, do your best.  It makes work, though it's still work, a much happier place for all.

Yeah, I'm Back

So, I'm thinking that the last blog attempt that I had, at the exit13 address, wasn't the right way to go, so I'm back here, probably to stay, maybe with something interesting to comment on or write about from time to time.  As always, I promise nothing (unfortunate as that may be), but I'll do what I can to keep things updated, this isn't my online journal after all.

Hope that all is well with all of you out there in internet land, those I know and don't, local or abroad.  Talk to you all as time goes on.

Living the Imperial Life is Evolving!

Yes, you all know that I don't update this thing, so it may come as a surprise to learn that I'm actually moving to a new blog... why? I don't really know... other than the fact that I knew I had lots of webspace sitting and doing nothing, just waiting to be exploited for the common good... or... something like that anyway.

Check out the new blog, Subtle Misdirection, you can even subscribe to it right here on blogger by adding http://www.exit13productions.com/blackhawk to your subscription list. I'm also still on the lookout for content and editors for the Subtle Misdirection blog, any who are interested, or have a specialized interest or hobby that they would like to add to the new site, all you have to do is let me know, and we can make it work. Thanks for the patience with this tortoise of a blog, here's to a better tomorrow with Subtle Misdirection.

A New Home for Exit13

For those who read this... I'm going to make this short, because that's really all I have the energy for... I'm just trying to get this info out to everybody that I can.  

Thursday the 19th forumarena had some trouble with server maintainance and ened up killing the forums that they were hosting... the exit13 forum was hosted by them... it was free... and a sweet deal... rather than trying for another free place with the same risk I've bought a domain name and have set up a forum on the space I'm renting from a new host... the url for the new place is as follows http://www.exit13productions.com and the forum can be found at http://www.exit13productions.com/forum. 

There's not a lot to look at as of right now, I'm still learning, but the forum is functional, and the home page is... bearable to look at for the moment... though all sub pages are... well... in latin... so I'm working on it all.  Long story shorter, if you were a member of the forum before, or are interested in becoming one now, please do so.  Also, if you know anybody who was a member of the old place, let them know about the new one, I'd appreciate it.  Thanks everybody, and now, I'm off to pass out.

No Such Thing as a Free Lunch

So, I checked Jaycey's Blog and found this, it took me a bit to decide, but then I thought, yeah, sure, I think I can do this, so here it is.

Here's how it works...The first three people to comment on this post will get something from me, possibly made by me. My choice--but just for you. This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I give!
2. What I create or give will be just for you.
3. It will be done this year (sometime, I don't know when)
4. You will have no clue what it is going to be.
5. I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.

The catch? Oh, the catch is that you must re-post this on your blog. The first 3 people to do so and leave a comment telling me you did, will win a marvelous homemade gift or handpicked gift by me! Let the games begin! Oh, and I have to be able to contact you with mailing information! I promise it will be something good! Good Luck to all!

Seems interesting, at least, something to make me think a bit if people join up for it,  my addition to the rule is that you really don't have to post this again to get something... I really don't like the posty againy things that make you propogate the thingy to benefit from it...

I think it may be a rant

You won't get the title... you would if you had seen the multi sentence title I had typed in before I finished the post.  Use your imagination.

Ever been so frustratingly bored that you find yourself checking the same static web page every five or so minutes hoping that the sheer magnitude of your boredom can will something new and exciting into existence?  I've been sitting in this state for the past few weeks.  At this point, what I've been up to (work, cub scouts, planning the perfect speech to chew out the bishopric this Sunday) isn't really important, because it's become boring.  Perhaps a definition of boring is in order, maybe in conjunction with how exactly I'm feeling at the moment, and have been for a while.

First, boring, what is it.  When something becomes uninteresting to the point that I can hardly make myself think about doing it let alone do it, when I've done something so many times that it's lost it's novelty.  My boring life has in the past few weeks simmered to the point that existing is like a continual wait at the DMV, a wait in which you've picked your number only to look up at the now serving sign and notice that while you have number three, they are now serving number four, and won't let you take another number even though you're the only person in sight.  It's knowing that you're sitting around and waiting for something that you're not quite sure you're excited about, but that's likely going to happen anyway, whether you're liable to notice it or not.

It's a round about way of saying it, but nothing is happening that hasn't happened before, and very generally something that happens consistenly daily or weekly.  The easy answer is to go out and find something new to do, or to meet somebody interesting or exciting, but the fact of the matter is that I'm really so disinterested in anything of the sort that I really can't be bothered, which is a shame really.  It's a frustratingly frustrating conundrum.

If only it was easier to shut down the brain, when I can't figure out anything for my mind to latch on to it likes to come up with things for itself, which is not a good thing.  Really, the worst part is that it seems to have made itself up which subject it would like to think about, one that I tend to make an active effort to not think about (which really destroys the point, the point being not thinking about it), and which is fairly depressing with no immediate or near future solution in sight, none that are plausible anyway.  Coincidentally experience shows that solving the problem my brain won't let me drop will also fix the boredom thing, ideally anyway.  

With luck (which I'm not surprisingly lacking in) this will all wash over, though after weeks of boredom it's hard to imagine that it will either just go away, or that a remedy will magically appear.  Personally I think I'll be crossing my fingers for door number two, as at this point it seems infinitely more likely to actually happen, though I won't be holding my breath for either.

Blogging in 2009

I've realized over the past year that writing up interesting little stories from my life for all the world (or a few friends) to look over isn't really my greatest strength, thus crossing another profession off of my list of things to make money doing.  Of course, there could be other reasons for this, such as not finding the right things to write about, or for that matter, being interested in almost anything enough to bother wanting to write about it.  With that of course, it's expected, I'm sure, as this is titled blogging in 2009, that I'm about to make an amazing resolution to blog more for your reading pleasure this year, that's where anybody reading this would be wrong.

After several botched attempts at making resolutions between the years 1986 and 2002 I realized that resolutions are a joke, and one easily forgotten between the months of January and February, so obviously they're not very funny jokes either.  That being said, this is a fairly dreary place, with very few articles, and fewer readers, though I do appreciate those who do check in from time to time.  With 2009 however, comes my continued mission here, to write when I feel like it, and try to make quality posts from time to time, punctuated by the odd game of blog tag.  

Also, before I forget, I'd recommend everyone forget about making resolutions, the new year isn't a good excuse to try and kick yourself in the butt.  My advice, if you know there's something you need to do, or which you'd like to improve about yourself, make the decision every day you're alive, so long as the goal is important to you.  New Year's Resolutions fade and die, with little meaning once the Martinelli's induced stupor fades off.  Having an every day personal goal though, that's something that can stick with you, because it's something you mean, it's real and personal, not just some annual exersice in your procrastination abilities.

Merry Christmas!

Lucky Number Four

Because lately it seems like I only post if somebody tags me to on their blog.

This one is Scott in my backyard, drinking a soda, with Jacob's Airsoft Shotgun.  I think that day we were taking pictures of a new costume that I'd put together.  I also think we only saved those to Scott and My phones, so tough luck finding them again.  Coincidentally, the picture comes out of the folder I'm storing all of Kim's Happy Birthday footage in.

Just Because I Can

I know I shouldn't, but here it is, a post for the sake of a post.

7 Things to do be before I die-

• Beat Super Mario Brothers
• Visit Japan
• Find meaningful motivation
• Find a line of work/study that I can actually enjoy
• Get Married
• Raise a Family
• Live

7 Things I Cannot Do

• Find a line of work/study that I can actually enjoy
• Get through the second level of Metal Slug without dying
• Sleep
• Manage to wake up early enough to go for breakfast on the weekend
• Remember to read/watch the things Scott is lending me
• Take down more of my posters
• Remember who has my copy of Cowboy Bebop

7 Things I say most often

• Fair enough
• What?
• Okay
• Why?
• Maybe
• Really?
• Crap

7 Books I love

• The Phantom of the Opera
• Night Watch
• Good Omens
• Crime and Punishment
• Wuthering Heights
• Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
• Through the Looking Glass and what Alice saw there

7 Movies I could watch over and over again

• Shaun of the Dead
• 5 Centimeters per Second
• Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence
• Kung Fu Hustle
• Spaced (tv series)
• Dead Like Me (tv series)
• Some other movie

The Trench Coat...

I've found that a lot of times people mistake the trench coat as a Matrix thing when they see you wearing one, that or they think you're going to break out in shooting things with the gun you have hidden. Some people might want to go for this kind of image when they where one, but the reason I wear one goes a bit further back into my childhood than that.

Truth is, as soon as I realized that I could wear one, I was, which was before any of these silly things (Matrix, shootings) had really come around. My first was the classic tan trench coat (if I can find pictures I'll post them later), which I don't think are really in style anymore somehow, but which I still see every now and again during the winter. I would guess either late elementary or early Junior High as the time that I started wearing it, and why? What would make me think (and still think) that the trench coat is so great. It all goes back to one of my ultimate, and original heroes, one that had actually slipped my mind for a while, but may help explain a few things.

This right here, the picture to the left, this is probably the earliest I can remember ever having a hero from a movie, Dick Tracy, he was just plain awesome to me when the movie came out back in 1990. The toy Dick Tracy watch that doubled as a light (but which in the movie, and in my mind, doubled as a radio) was probably my first piece of gear, the coat didn't follow for quite a few years, but Dick Tracy is still the reason that I got it, yeah, he stuck with me that long.

Now, isn't that just so much cooler? Dick Tracy will probably always be the penultimate detective and police officer in my mind, a really good guy who knew what was right and what was wrong, but who was still human, he had his strengths and weaknesses, wasn't perfect, but did his best. I can honestly say he was a role model for me back then, and actually kind of helped to form who I am today, from what I wear and what I'm interested in, all the way to my personality and sense of justice.

Of course, not all credit goes here, without the myriad of other influences in my life this would have just been another movie to me. After all, if the seed hadn't already been planted in me, how would I ever have even taken note of this fictional detective? Anyway, in a round about way, that's the story of my trench coat, I graduated from the tan, to the a gray blue coat that I wore through high school and up until I served a mission, from my mission on I've worn the black coat that most of you probably recognize the best. It's just a part of my life now, and represents to me, something more than what it does to most people today. It's right and wrong, justice, it's being imperfect, but doing your best. Besides the fact that, well, it's just plain cool.

The Force Unleashed

As a lot of you may know, I'm a big fan of the Star Wars universe, movies, books, movies, and of course, games (though there is an unfortunate number of just okay Star Wars games out there...). This last Tuesday the newest entry into the Star Wars Universe was released, under the title, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. Now, normally I wouldn't recommend Star Wars games to just anybody, but for everybody who's ever seen the series of movies (aka everybody) this game is a must, as it fills in the gap that's left between Episodes III and IV... officially... as in, this is an official George Lucas approved episode of the Star Wars Saga, which is saying a lot.

[tangent] *warning... you can skip this if you'd like...
See, a lot of things come out as far as Star Wars is concerned, like I said, games, books, etc. and not all of those things are considered official. Yes, everything is 'approved' by Lucas, but it tends to be approved into the "Expanded Universe" category, which means, yeah, it's Star Wars, yeah, Lucas approved it, but if he ever decides to write anything new, it might end up changing something that happened in a book or game. Not so in this case, The Force Unleashed is Official, see with a capital "O" that means it's important.
[/tangent]

To keep this from running too long, Scott, James, Raiden, and I, all went to the release from Monday to Tuesday, it was fun. We learned that there's a difference between Star Wars Geeks (James, Raiden, and I) and Nerds (just about everybody else there, with a few exceptions) if you want more details, I'll fill you in later, just an observation. Anyway, Raiden didn't make it the whole night, being just a padawan, he got to about then thirty and was ready to be done, James rejoined us later. It was a long wait, but worth it, the game is great, and I'm not one to spoil it, but trust me when I say it's important, and full of revelations you won't see coming. If you're a Star Wars fan, like I know some of you are, get your hands on this game, one way or another, the only thing you'll regret is that you weren't at the midnight release to get the sweet Storm Trooper Commander action figure that came with being there. Better luck next time.