Quick post...

Spemt the day with Erin yesterday. I went to her doctor's appointment with her, then to Northeast State. Afterwards we went to State Street in Bristol. I finally got her to eat at the Burger Bar =). I hadn't been in awhile, but not to fear they still make the best burgers around. We checked out some of the local antique shops afterwards, and then walked around Steele's Creek Park for awhile before we decided it was too f'ing hot.

I talked her into going to my parents afterwards. They hadn't met her yet. She was kind of nervous until we got htere, and everything went smoothly. They liked her, of course. We ended up going swimming there, and my parents got us all pizza afterwards. Swimming is fun ;). Good times...

I've always been a person who's had alot of ideas, for different types of things. I'm trying really hard to finally capitalize on some of those ideas for a change, with the help of some friends. Mainly, My, Wes, and Garrett's CCG project, in which progress can be followed at my development blog (link on the right) and also my long-running desire to make some kind of movies, which I think will finally come to fruition through this website, and with the help of Will, his laptop and video camera, and just about anyone else who wants to help out.

Picture Time

Erin got a couple rolls of film developed recently, alot of the pictures were of our trip to Ashville/Gatlinburg a few weekends ago, as well as some odds and ends. I thought I'd post some on here:


We stopped at alot of overlooks like this one. It was a really clear day and the views were beautiful, but for whatever reason most of these pictures are hazy. It was incredibly humid that day, so I figured that might be why...



Another overlook.



One of like a hundred tunnels while traversing the Blue Ridge Parkway.



This was a river by this little trail that was behind a Welcome Center to the Smokey Mountains.



I like the shadow of the clouds on the mountain in this one.



Erin =)



The Little Pigeon River in Gatlinburg.



The cool little shop-village place where we got rained on (as mentioned in a previous post).



Me trying to exit the Matrix in an english phone booth--or at least that what it looks like.



This is the river behind the Mast General Store in Boone, NC. We actually went, and made it to Boone the weekend following our other trip.



This is Tank. And me looking like a corpse on my bed. I'm going to try and get some better pictures of him. He doesn't look very ferocious here...and that won't do. That won't do at all.

Empty Hearts

I've watched them build
Upon these empty hearts
False hope of the lossless paradise
Gathering together
The dead hearts beat as one
Stillborn comfort feeding lies
Through the answer of self denial
Divided between a dissolute self
And the sorrow of sincere devotion
What is it that you find peace in now
Where is your hope in this dark night

The Warm n' Fuzzies

I've been cleaning my room for the past few minutes. I picked up my blanket off of the couch and thought I caught a brief whiff of Erin (or 'Sweat Pea,' rather). Upon further inspection my blanket does, in fact, smell of my girlfriend. It should...she steals it everytime she's here. I put the blanket to my face and took a deep breath. I'm not sure if "happiness" is a scent. If not, then it should be.

She was off work today... I had to work until 5. Hopefully she's having a good day.

"Structural Defect"

I don't care what you say and
I don't care what you see and
There's still a better way a
Structual defect
I don't care what you do and
I see the real you and
There's nothing here to stay
A structual defect

Crowbar to force the hold
Drill into it drill into it
Eat, all the problems leave
Bleeding from it

Commiserate me and
Try to elate me and
It liberates me and
Structual defect
Commiserate you and
Try to elate you and
It liberates you and
Structual defect

Explode reloading and
Coerce controlling and
I'm overdosing
Expose it forcibly and
Escape emergency and
The inconsitency

Pixelation

I really want to start doing some pixel art again. I'll post everything I make here. And if I stick with it, I may even make a DeviantArt page.

Weekend Update, w/ James Mountain

I'm late making a real post (like always) and catching up on stuff...

This past weekend was absolutely awesome. Erin called me after work Saturday and wanted to know if I wanted to go to Boone, NC with her. For no particular reason. She likes it there because its pretty, and I've never been so of course I went with her. During the first part of the trip she kept saying things like, "I hope we're going the right way" and "I'm don't exactly remember how to get there, but I'm pretty sure this is the right way," lol. About 2 hours after leaving here, we decided that in fact we had gone the wrong way, because Boone nor any signs for Boone were anywehre to be found. Neither one of us really cared because the drive so far had been incredibly scenic, and we weren't really going to Boone for any particular reason other than to get away from here. We kept driving until we ended up in some town called Marion that conveniently had a Wal-Mart. A normal Wal-Mart. I didn't know they even exsisted anymore--it was like taking a time-warp back to 1995. Anyway, we got a road atlas there and found out we were like an hour and a half south of Boone. We were actually alot closer to Asheville, and at this point decided to just make a trip out of the whole ordeal. We'd go on to Asheville and explore a bit before finding a hotel, and then go to Gatlinburg on Sunday and drive around there some before coming back home. And thats exactly what we did.

We got a coupon for a Days Inn in Asheville out of a travel booklet that made the room pretty cheap. It wasn't really nice, but it wasn't a dump either. While in Asheville we checked out both malls there (OMFG they have a Suncoast!) as well as downtown, which was beautiful. I neglected to point out that I was broke and Erin didn't have much money for the trip, so we couldn't really do much...which didn't really matter. However, because of this we did forego a trip to the Biltmore Estate, which neither of us have seen. Next time, for sure. Erin had never gotten a hotel without her parents before. So I guess that was pretty interesting for her.

The next day we drove down the Blue Ridge Parkway and into the Smokey Mountains. I took a ton of pictures with her camera, lol. It was beautiful. As much as I love the outdoors, I don't really do much about it. Erin seems to enjoy it as much as I do, which is great, and we've already done a few things like this already =). Once in Gatlinburg, we parked and walked around for a few hours. My God, it was hot... Almost 100 degrees I think. I scoped out all the local arcades, and found not 1, but 2 Emergency Firefighters cabinets! On the way back to the car it started pouring, and Erin and I took refuge under a tree in some nice little shop-village place. We just sat there, leaning on one another, for probably like 10 or 15 minutes while the rain fell around us. Probably my favorite moment of the 2 days we were away together... We left once it cleared up, both exhausted from the heat I think. It was really miserable out until it rained. So we left Gatlinburg, drove through Pigeon Forge, and then came back home. A nice little mini-vacation, for sure. We're going to go back pretty soon I think...with more money and time, and we're going to go to Dollywood next time.

I started K-Mart yesterday. I worked 1:30-9:30 today. I mainly took alot of stupid new-hire tests on the computer, and then they trained me on the register and had me work on front on my own register for most of the day. It was a long day..mainly because it was boring. Tomorrow I'm supposed to actually be in my department training, so it should be better. It's actually pretty cool there. Everyone seems really nice. There's alot of college kids there. I guess I'll try to be really good at whatever it is I'll actually be doing, actually come to work on time, and hopefully get bumped up to full-time. I got 29 hours this week though, which isn't too bad. Feels nice to be off the damn telephone for a change...

Static-X's new CD finally leaked. It's all I've listened to the past 2 days. It's probably their best CD so far, but I'll give a few more days to sink in before I make that statement. It's definately an improvement over Shadow Zone. Conversely, As I Lay Dying's new CD has me kind of disappointed. I think they got some unexpected popularity with Frail Words Collapse, and it kind of shows on Shadows Are Security, and there's alot more melody, and alot more singing. Not that it sounds bad, just not really what I was looking for from this band. Certain songs on their last CD were absolutely brutal, and I was hoping for a whole CD of that this time around, but oh well. Both CDs are on my "list" until I get some $$$.

On a completely un-related note, Tank, my cat, rules. He is quite possibly the coolest cat ever. And just about everyone who has come in contact with him agrees. I'm going to try to get some pictures of him to put on here pretty soon. I mean c'mon, he has motherfucking vampire teeth. His fangs are so long that they always stick out over his bottom lip, even when his mouth is shut and he's just sitting on the bed, or when he's sleeping. It's cool as hell. Like some kind minature saber-tooth tiger or something. He's pretty muscular, and being black with green eyes, he actually looks more like a minature Puma. Thing is, he's a fucking baby. He's scared of everything, has to sit in my lap anytime I'm on the computer, and meows like a child when I come home after being gone for awhile until I pay attention to him. Yeah...I'm pretty attatched to him. I tell him we're "roommates," and its his duty to make sure nothing bad happens to our room/stuff when I'm gone. He does a pretty good job. And he also does an impressive job of hunting moths and flies that stray in here. And then eating them.

I <3 Tony Stewart

Man, I love Tony Stewart. If Dave Blaney eventually gets screwed out of NASCAR all together, because of al his bad luck, I believe I'll be a Tony Stewart fan. Reason being, no one speaks their mind like Tony Stewart. I just read his post-race comments, mostly answers to questions about getting into the back of Jeff Gordon on lap 41...subsequently putting Gordon in the outside wall and ending his day.



What happened with the #24?

"I got into the back of him. It doesn't take much of a rocket scientist to figure that out, now does it?"


Was he in the way? Should he have moved?

"Everybody else was doing a pretty good job of give-and-take. It's just when you get around Jeff (Gordon) I guess the rules are different with him. He does more taking than he does giving. But the intention wasn't to knock him up out of the way. I just wanted to get behind him close enough that he knew I was there to say, 'Hey, you know, let us go and if you're faster we'll let you go.' And we've always done that with him. I don't know why it is with him and Jimmie (Johnson) and Ryan (Newman), but it's a group of them that think that the roads are named after them - one way."



Jeff said the next time your in the way you'll get the same thing.

"That's fine. Jeff's always whining like that. If somebody does something to Jeff it's always their fault. That's just Jeff Gordon. That's the way he's been ever since he's been down here. So, that's fine. We can get into a car crash. It really doesn't matter to me."


Are all of these incidents happening week to week with various people because it's so tight and competitive on the race track?

"No, it's happening week to week because people are forgetting how to… you know they were talking about it today on the pre-race show about people being respectful. I remember when I started, I mean the best thing that could happen to NASCAR racing is Mark Martin give a seminar on give-and-take, because it didn't used to be like this. Now guys… I mean, you've got to race them to the death just to get by them, and if you have to do that then that's what you're going to have to do. You're going to have to get behind guys like that and then when Jeff (Gordon) checks up like that and I run into him, then it's his fault and not ours. All he had to do was move up and let us go and 20 laps later if he was faster we would've let him go right back by."


He said that he had a slower car.

"Then why didn't he move?"


He said he expected more patience.

"Yeah, he expects more patience on everybody else, not himself. Instead of him doing it he expects us just to let him go and wait until his car gets better."


Kevin Lepage said this week just what you said, that NASCAR should call all the drivers together and just talk to them about being respectful.

"Yeah, I mean, I didn't have any problems with Mark Martin. I didn't have any problems with Jeff Burton. The only guys I had problems with were Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson and Ryan Newman. It's the same guys every week. Eventually, you finally got to stand up for yourself. You give so much that they expect you to just give it to them all the time. Well, by gosh, if I got a fast race car they're going to have to start giving me some now."



Ouch. You won't hear stuff like that from any of the other sponsor-happy, politically correct drivers. What he says is true, too. And he's the only one with the balls to say it.

The Empire Strikes Back

Let it be noted that the Nintendo DS is absolutely destroying the PSP in Japan right now, and has been for the past few months. Looking at the release schedule for both systems, it looks like a fact that isn't going to change anytime soon. Between that Brain Training application and Nintendogs, Sony has taken one right in the nuts.

Japanese Software Sales, through 06/04:

1 DS Nou wo Kitaeru Otona no DS Training (Nintendo)
2 DS Jissen Pachi-Slot Hisshouhou! Hokuto no Ken DS (Sega)
3 PS2 Tear Ring Saga (Enterbrain)
4 PS2 Namco X Capcom (Namco)
5 DS Nintendogs: Shiba and Friends (Nintendo)
6 PS2 Racing Battle C1 Grand Prix (Genki)
7 DS SD Gundam G Generation DS (Bandai)
8 PSP Eiyuu Densetsu IV: Akai Shizuku (Bandai)
9 DS Nintendogs: Dachs and Friends (Nintendo)
10 DS Nintendogs: Chihuahua and Friends (Nintendo)
11 PS2 Romancing SaGa Minstrel Song (Square Enix)
12 DS Naruto: Saikyou Ninja Daikesshuu 3 (Tomy)
13 PS2 Semi- ripening hero 4 (Square Enix)
14 PS2 Yu Yu Hakusho Forever (Banpresto)
15 DS Touch! Kirby (Nintnedo)
16 GC Metroid Prime 2 (Nintendo)
17 PS2 World Soccer Winning Eleven 8 Liveware Evolution (Konami)
18 GBA Pokemon Emerald (Pokemon)
19 DS Sawaru Made in Wario (Nintendo)
20 PS2 Baseball Live 2005 (Namco)

So far I think this is a pretty big victory in Nintendo's whole "innovation over graphical superiority" crusade. Bring on the Revolution...


"We told you so, BITCHES!!!"

I still want a PSP, for Lumines, and because the system looks pretty, and for...eh...Lumines. And maybe Metal Gear Ac!d.

Fucking-a.

I originally got the news that Static-X was coming to Johnson City from Total Assault, but it seems as if the date is now listed on Static-X's offical site!

Yarrr...

Kind of a slow day. But a good day. Erin came over last night after work and spent the night...which was, *ahem*, fun. I helped E.J rearrange all of the crap that's just sitting around the living room/kitchen area so we could put together this corner-couch his friend gave him. At first, I honestly thought the thing was hideous, but now that it's put together its not bad at all. It'll be nice for whenever we have the next Halo 2 LAN party.

I've been downloading CDs most of the day, like the no-good broke ass pirate I am. As I was explaining to Erin earlier...I don't really like burning CDs and only do so when I can't afford to buy the actual CD. The burnt copy instead serves as a nice placeholder and reminds me to buy that particular album when I do have some money. No, really.

I watched some random VOD (Video on Demand) stuff earlier too. Mainly some documentaries on HBO. Documentaries are awesome. I watched one called "Autopsy: Sex Crimes" that was actually more about about using Forensic science to solve sex crimes rather than actual full-on autopsy footage as the description read. After that I watched part of this other one called "Flesh and Blood" which was about a year in the life of this woman who was a single-mother and who currently had under her care 13 adopted special-needs children including kids that had been severaly burnt, had no legs, were mentally retarded, and just about any other disability you could think of. It was actually very touching...except for the parts with the kid that had cystic fibrosis(sp?) as well as ADD who was always having these violent outbursts because he didn't get what he wanted and telling the other kids to "suck his dick" and stuff like that. I think he was 12, lol.

I start K-Mart Tuesday. I'm actually semi-excited.

I'm going to spend the rest of the day finishing my C++ book and working on some pixel-art.

\m/

Two new kick-ass metal albums I've been listening to:

The Agony Scene - The Darkest Red


Darkest Hour - Undoing Ruin


Also, Static-X is coming to Johnson City on July 17th! To the Sophisticated Otter, actually. So far, Garrett, Will, Erin and myself are all going. Also, Will, Garrett, Cecil, and me are going to try to go to the Sounds of the Underground Tour in Winston-Salem on June 30th. There's about 20 different bands on the tour, but I mainly want to see Lamb of God, Chimaira, Poison the Well, and Devildriver. Hopefully we're all able to follow through on this.