Friday, March 16, 2012

Alwayse an experience when I get free tickets

Hey everyone, I have been to 3 different plays this year; one great, one horrible, and now another great. I'll get to that in a minute, but first I need to tell how I got there. See as part of the honors college, I have the opportunity to see plays and musicals here for free, just so long as I pick-up a ticket at the honors college, and I got one for the show tonight. The show started at 8, and I left at 7:50. I was planning on 7:45, but got caught up in an episode of storage wars. I realize it's 7:50, and now I need to walk across campus to get to the theatre complex. Last time, when I didn't know exactly where I was going, I took the long way. I go outside and think "I bet I could take a short cut. This campus is very walking friendly." I never walked that way before, but theorized it based on a map and some experience with location relative to each other. I will not be taking rout again. Here's what happened.

At first, it was nice. There was a clear path, through some walk ways around some buildings. It was all down hill so not super tiring. Then it starts to go south, literally in that the theatre is to the south of my dorm, and figuratively in that it starts to not be pleasant. The cement walkways end, so now I'm walking behind buildings. The ground is firm, so no real complaints, but now it's 5 minutes till show and I can't help but think I'm still quite far. I pick up the speed a little, and now I'm down in the on-campus apartments. I'm not to far I think, but it's just, uggg. Some sections of my journey are paved, some aren't, and those not paved areas are in a valley, so it's kind of wet. I get a little turned around, trying to think of the path of shortest distance, with the minimal knowledge that I have of this area. I'm right there, I can see it. I'm cutting through this picnic area in the on campus apartments area, and I find this rinkey little play area. It had a little slide and a way up. I would have taken a picture, but I have to get to the theatre because it's in sight and I have 1 minute. It was up hill, and I'm a little late. I had to get late seating and missed the first few minutes, but that's for the review. Please take a moment to read it now.

[Read Review Here]

Hope you enjoyed my review. I stayed around after the show for the cabalre performance, but mostly to get the actors' autographs. I was able to get 5 of the 7. I'm slipping I know, but the outfits they wore during the show made it a little hard to make them out in streets. Still happy none the less, and I helped boost their ego by asking for autographs, like in big time performances. I also ran into an old friend from high school. It was cool to see him again. After that, I walked back to my dorm, it's 10:30 at night, 70 or so degrees, and I'm just enjoying the temp. As I'm walking back on the long, well lit, not wet and through the apartments, way. Then I guess that that spring brings out the humans and zombies.

At my college, we have a thing called Zombies Vs. Humans, where these people act as either zombies or humans. The humans shoot the zombies with Nerf guns, and the zombies tag the humans and turn them into zombies. They have arm bands to signal who's playing and who isn't. I guess it's a real life left for dead. It started at the beginning of the year and gets super intense at the end of the year, so I'm told. Never played, and not to much my thing. Well I see these people gathered together, and it's late on a Friday night, not prime traffic time here on campus in the middle of the education section of campus. Then I see the Nerf guns, the big many dart guns. Then I see a clip sitting on the lamp post. I had my suspicions that this is zombies vs humans, but that theory was solidified when I heard this guy yelling pep talks to the "humans." I'm just walking by minding my own business. They won't shoot unless you got the arm band. One guy sees me and takes aim, then notices I'm not playing. He yells "oh you're not playing. sorry." He didn't shoot me, just took aim. It was interesting. Now for some real fun.

Our dorm had this highlighter party, where we would bring a t-shirt to highlight and then there would be a black light. I planned on going, and was really looking forward to it, but then I realized the play. Luckily I got there for the last 15 minutes or so. I didn't have my t-shirt to highlight, but I had my safety vest. Here's a pic I took.
My camera on my phone isn't the best, so you can't really see my face, but can definitely see the vest. There was music and pop. I had about half a cup of coke, and it was a bit flat. I did some "dancing." I use quotes because I'm not sure if you could call it dancing. I got to put on a song I wanted. Those of you who know me know what it is. The only dance I can actually do. For those of you who don't know me, it's the Macarena. I put it on and started macarenaing. Some people joined in and we partied like it was 1997, or whatever year the macarena hit it's highest popularity. Afterwards it was dovestep, or however it's spelled. I'm shaking my arms in time, at least I think it was in time. Oh well. Now I'm here writing. Well this has been Pokematic signing off and bu-bye.

Saturday, March 10, 2012

My First College Spring Break

Hey everyone, I just got back from spring break and man was it awesome. The hotel, the partying, the girls. I got photos.

Now that you clicked on the page from the google search and the first couple of lines of text, time to get into what really happened over spring break. If I did fool you into clicking, joke's on you.

OK so I pack up and get ready for the train ride back home. Taking the train works really well because I get on a city bus, get on the train, and then my brother comes and picks me up 4 1/2 hours later. Here's a "just my luck" incident; I get to the station, I'm sitting and waiting, reading my newspaper comics. 5 minutes before the train gets here, and I realize I forgot my laptop charger. I had the feeling that I was forgetting something but couldn't place my finger on it until it was to late. I read my newspaper comics on the train as well as played my DS until the battery died. I didn't want to use my laptop because my battery only lasts 4 hours on a single charge. I watched some TV shows I got off Zune for the last hour of the ride home. Yeah I use Zune. Zune doesn't ask me to update every week and I can get free Microsoft credits by searching with Bing. Never seen apple or google do that. Anyway back to the train.

Most of the time I'm lucky and can get a set of seats to myself. This wasn't the case this time. I sat next to a gentleman and there was no issues. I didn't get to spread out like I like to but oh well. Still more room than on an air plane, plus I didn't have the same amount of crap that I brought home last time. Last time I had 2 weeks worth of laundry, my SNES games, and other things I'm forgetting. This time it was only a couple days of laundry, my suggie, and toiletries. Still brought all my electronics but that all fits in this shoulder sack my grandpa got from Sports Illustrated and gave it to me. I was wearing my safety yellow hoodie like normal and this time around my brother was out waiting for me at the station and not in the car. He was able to pick me out easy. Then again not many people wear safety yellow, at least not yet.

I get home and say hi to my parents and such. I try to see f maybe, by chance, my dad's laptop charger would fit mine. Maybe if he had HP as well or if I had Toshiba as well, but no. Crap. That meant I was going to need to use the family computers, and I've really come to like mine. I don't have to share mine, and it's more portable. I haven't destroyed my laptop battery like my dad intentionally did his. And while I can make mine just as connected as a desk top, it's not like the one upstairs. Plus I was going to move my videos off my hard drive and put them on the data hard drive with all my other videos. I keep the masters in case something goes wrong. I managed, like a wizard with someone else's wand, or a teen with someone else's phone.

When I got home, I enjoyed the comforts of home; dark quiet sleeping space, Disney XD, Nicktoons, our leather couch, SOFT toilet paper, a shower I don't need to wear shower shoes into, everything except home cooked meal, because it was a lent Friday. Home cooked meal, and Costco muffins came the next day. Saturday wasn't much. Just relax and work out plans for the coming week.

Sunday was a nice day. It was the 2 year anniversary of my uncles death. We had a mass for him and then went out to the cemetery. I won't forget you Mike, I miss you. Afterwards we went to the Golden Corral, where I had about 3 servings of steak, a cup of chicken noodle soup, and some chocolate fountain desert. It is funny, they have Golden Coral commercials playing on these big screen TVs while we wait in line, and it's the same 2 commercials over and over. Last time I told my grandpa to bring his TV remote because it's the same brand as his home TV so we could see what else is on. I asked him where the remote was, but he didn't remember. Oh well, they would have frowned upon it and might have banned us.

Monday was fun. My grandpa and I went to see The Artist, which you can read my review here. I'm just gonna say, great movie. My grandpa liked it. It wasn't really a blast from the past for him since he grew up with talkies, but he liked it either way. I also brought over my new to me copy of Robot Gyromite for the NES. They have a NES and I don't. I tried to play it, and it worked fine to my surprise. No Nintendo blow, wiggle around, or blinking red light. Maybe I just need to clean the games that don't like working all the time. I wish I had a R.O.B. because it's really awkward trying to hold 2 controllers at the same time, using the player 1 controller for moving Dr. Gyro, at least I think that's his name, and then the second controller to move the pillars. Oh well I bought it for fun.

Tuesday I hung out with my boys, Zeldamaster93 and Max. ZM93 recorded Bad Teacher on Starzsummer here. Afterwards we watched South Park Cartoon wars parts 1and 2. ZM93's parents got us all pizza. Max had to leave soon after that, but I was able to stay. We watched an episode of Super Mario's Super Show just for some fun and to make fun of it. It used a lot of the sound effects and music from the games so I was impressed some. Then at the credits, because we're nerds, we were "doing the Mario" with the instructions. It's this dance thing that the Mario guy does during the credits and they say "do the Mario do do the Mario," and tell us how to do it. We're nerds. When I got home I watched the movies my brother and I rented Saturday. It was Iron Man 2 and Thor. Good movies.

On Wednesday, I ate 3 plumbs, but I was still hungry. Hungry Hungry Caterpillar joke, sorry if that's a bit to obscure. I returned the movies to Family video, and asked for an application for work. They said it was online, so I did it. I forgot how much work goes into filling in an application. Spent the better part of Wednesday working on that. I did get to see my best teacher from high school, whom I'll refer to as Mr. G. I had hi for American History, Web Design, and the Web Design class I helped in. He's a great man. He wrote some recommendation letters for me for eagle, scholarships, and college. We went out to lunch at a local, not gourmet but high quality, burger place. We talked and ate, Mr. G's treat. Great seeing him again.

Thursday I got applications to other places around my home town. I got them from our local toy store, local bowling ally, local grocery store, and local hardware store. They seemed promising enough, except for the bowling ally who said that I probably wouldn't get hired. So when I was about to fill that one out, I decided against it and put it in the shredder, because I already put some important info in. I got the hardware application only after I got the proper nut and bolt for the pair of scissors I was fixing. The plastic hut thing holding the 2 pieces together broke but that was all, an easy fix. Mom said just throw it out, but for 64 cents, I saved a perfectly good pair of scissors, with just a minor ghetto factor. While I was there, I thought "hey, I'll get an app here too." Filled out the applications for the rest of the day. This was also the day my grandparents took me to Logan's Road House. Had the steak and ribs combo, and because it was that, they didn't bug me about "you don't want that get this instead." It was a nice sampling of steak and ribs, and fries, and chips. I also went over to the high school because my brother needed his Saxophone. While I was over there, I thought "hey I'll go visit." There were a few minutes of class left, so I thought, "who can I interrupt to say hi?" I chose my old AP Calc teacher, A, because he was closest, B, because he knew and liked me well, and C, it was individual work time. He showed me off to his class and it was fun. I saw other teachers and some friends I know that are still there. The Jazz Band guys wanted me to stay and play with them, but I told them "when I'm home in May." Fun Fun.

Friday was great. I finished up the applications, took them back to toe stores, and hung out with my friend Mskate. She's great, but we are just friends, regardless of what anyone may tell you. We just sat and caught up for an hour and 40 minutes. Talked about life. She then gave me a ride to the high school so I could pick up the car. That's when I dropped off the applications. Once my brother got home we went to the salvation Army. I think now would be a good time to mention that we got a new HD TV earlier in the week and I connected the Xbox 360 via HDMI midway through. I didn't say earlier because I don't remember which days those were. We're also going to set up the old TV, and my old school video games in the basement. At the salvation army, I was looking to see if they had a TV stand, because sometimes they have what you need, but most of the time they don't, at least in my cases. I did find Xbox 360 component cables, and since we got the lower model or something, our 360 only came with standard def AV cables. Even though I got the 360 connected with HDMI, giving us the best picture available, I still got the component cables, because they were $3, much cheaper than retail, and because I want a complete set. Call me weird, but I couldn't pass it up. No stand unfortunately, but we wouldn't have had time to set up anyways. We moved the old TV down to the basement, and while we were doing that, I kept having visions of "smash! Noooooooooooooooo!" Thank god that didn't happen, because quality tube TVs are kind of hard to find for sale. We also went out for dinner because it was the last time we'll all be together for a while and it's close to my brother's birthday. Even though it was Friday and lent, I had meat and we all agreed that because it was the last celebration, I can give up meat for dinner tomorrow.

Now for today, Saturday. I had my last Costco muffin for a while. I did my last minute packing and got on the train. I read my volume 1 of Pokemon Adventures Diamond and Pearl Platinum. Based on the characters on the cover, and the title, I thought it might be a continuation of DP Adventures, the series I read for an English project. Unfortunately it's not, but still good in it's own right. After reading that, I watched some promos and extras I got off PSN on my PSP. That lasted me an hour or so. After that I watched Rocco's Modern Life that I got off Zune. After 1 episode, next stop my stop. Packed up and got ready to get back to my dorm. We made sure I got back on Saturday this time because no buses on Sunday and don't like taking the cab. Got back, unloaded my stuff, got my back week of Wall Street Journals, watched some TV, and went to eat dinner. I got down the steps and realized I didn't have my vest. No one was really there, but I couldn't help but feel that some people didn't recognize me without my safety yellow. I did have the sacrifice of no meat because tonight was good burger with bacon. It was a sacrifice because all I had was a slice of cheese pizza and toast. It was food for survival, like dorm food is. Well this has been Pokematic signing off and bu-bye.

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Nastalgia with a cold drink

Hey everyone, I just had a pouch of nostalgia. At finals last semester, I got this care package thing from my church. There were snacks and a CapriSun. I used to have one every lunch when I was in elementary school. Lo and behold, it was the flavor I had every day. I wanted to save it for the right time. I was really thirsty right now, and I decided now was as good a time as any.

Before I drank it, all these fond memories of it's artificial greatness. Then came time to stick the straw in. Now for those of you who aren't familiar with CapriSuns, the straw doesn't go in the top or anything easy like that. It goes in on the side. When I was little, I was a master of putting the straw in properly. I did it right all those many years all those years ago, and I wasn't about to take the easy, just jam it in the top, way. I was going to do it right. Turns out CapriSun straw sticking is a skill that gets weak over time if it is not exercised. I think I fidgeted with it for a good minute before I got the straw in. When I was a kid I was like one of those old blood drawing nurse. Here's the patch, get the proper angle, and put the straw right in no issues. Now I was like anew nurse. "OK get the angle right, hmmm, here's how the straw goes in, up I guess not. I think I got it, up nope. How's it look on the other side? A little ding but nothing to terrible. Ah her we go, all in right." I can imagine 7 year old Pokematic, "just like a grown up, can't put it in right. Here I can do it." Oh well the straw was in and I was ready for memories.

I took my first suck, and over these many years, it still tastes the same. Wild cherry still has that weird flavor. The next suck, memories of the lunch room. Next, now I'm sitting at the white tables they had us sit at. And after that, I'm eating a lunchable. I took my last swig, and it's just like the old days.

The flavor is still the same. I started hating it near the end of my elementary days, and while it was a nice burst of nostalgia, still don't like the flavor. It was kind of weird with "I don't like it, but I like it at the same time." Now I'm getting that feeling of "I'm still really thirsty," same as all those years ago. Ahh memories of running around on the playground with the sugar rush but still thirsty.

Well this has been Pokematic signing off and bu-bye. It'll probably be another 10 years before I have another CapriSun.