A Day in the Life of Joe

10:00am

   Hey everybody. So today isn't off to a great start. Didn't get out of bed until 8:45 because my damn alarm was on silent. This is the third time this has happened and I'm seriously getting sick of it.
   Anyway, I've decided that today, for a change of pace, I'm going to do a throughout the day series of posts, each with their own timestamps, and then I'll post the whole thing as one conglomerate post (I think this will be a little neater than 5 mini posts clogging up the site).
   Right now I'm suffering through culture presentations in sociology. This is incredibly boring. I did finish the Day 1 drawing for the 40 Day Pokemon Challenge. I'll throw it up as soon as I get a chance. For those who don't know, the first challenge was "Draw a Pokemon that makes you smile." Cute way to start.


12:15pm

   Sitting down to lunch now. I could really use some coffee, but I don't feel like walking all the damn way to Dunkin Donuts. I just finished the first sketch, so without further ado, I give you...

   Yes, I went with Politoed. I've always thought he was kinda cute. Pretty useless competitively, but I dunno. I've just always liked him. Anyway, this is my first even remotely successful attempt at hatching/cross hatching so I'm fairly proud of myself, as simple as it is. The next challenge is "Draw your favorite regional bird." I've already got one in mind.


4:00pm

   Geez, it sure is raining out. I had to cross the street to get to my car and I nearly drowned. It was crazy out there.
   Back inside, now, thankfully. Pretty soon here I have to be at a college thing. I guess there's going to be a ton of colleges showcasing their curricula, so Tiana and I are going to go check it out. I especially want to check out RIT and Alfred University. I've heard they have good computer science programs.


8:45pm

   Just got home from the college information night. It was actually fairly informative. I'm still flip-flopping a bit between music education and game design as a major, though. The good news, is I have a pretty good idea of where I want to go for these majors. If I stick with music it's between Fredonia and Potsdam. If I decide to go into game design, I really like Alfred State and RIT. So I'm making at least a tiny bit of headway.
   Tiana and my mom got along really well, which is good, seeing as they haven't met before. Tiana was a bit nervous, but she warmed up fast. All in all it was a pretty good night. Not a bad day, actually.
   I also really liked this throughout the day blogging style. Maybe not enough to do it regularly, but perhaps every once in a while it could be a nice way to mix things up. We'll see.

Tacos,
Gladdstone

Convenient Connections

   Lately, I have found myself thinking about how I make connections between things like objects or thoughts.
   This seems weird and tangent-y but I've always found it very easy to make huge leaps in logic very quickly. This has helped me a lot, actually. Especially when I'm writing code. I see somethings not working, and it's just incredibly easy for me to pick out the error and either find a way to fix it, or circumvent it.
   I'm finding it a little difficult to think of a decent example, but for the life of me I just can't. It's something like...everything in my mind is connected. There really aren't any individual thoughts, it's more of a giant web with everything interconnected. No real center, and nothing really hangs out on its own. In some crazy way, remembering that I need to walk the dog is connected to my preferred method for solving basic vector problems.
   Does anyone else experience this? Or am I just totally insane? Maybe both. Either way, it's both insanely ridiculous, and incredibly convenient because it's really easy for me to solve logical problems.
   Anyway, I've spent the past week playing the new Super Smash Bros like a freaking madman. In the first day I unlocked Falco, Ness, and Dark Pit. Now I also have Duck Hunt Dog, Jigglypuff, and a couple others I can't seem to think of at the moment.
   My only real complaint about the game is the lack of some sort of story mode like subspace emissary like in Super Smash Bros Brawl. This is replaced in the 3DS version by Smash Run mode, which is okay, but really just not that interesting. I tend to think that there will be a story mode thing in the Wii U version though, but we'll just have to wait and see.
   Pokecast is still going strong and doing fairly well in the numbers. To be honest, it isn't really the numbers that matter to me though. Even if everything I did got precisely zero hits I would still probably do it. Because why not? I do this because it's what I enjoy. Knowing people care to listen to my insane babbling is just a pretty awesome perk. I don't need to be Scott Johnson to feel fulfilled.
   While I'm on the subject of podcasts, I should say some about Geek Council. For those who have been following, you undoubtedly noticed it never actually premiered. Well, fear not my friends! Starting in November it will premier-this I promise. I look forward to launching this with all of you. It should be quite the adventure.
   If you'd like to be the first to know when all this goes down, by the way, make sure that you regularly check www.nerdsunderfire.com. It's always the first place I update.
   Okay, plug over. I've got quite a weekend ahead of me, so I'll see you all on Monday for another blog post.

Tacos,
Gladdstone

Not Even Wednesday Anymore

   Happy Wednesday, everybody. Hope you're all having a great week so far.
   My week so far has been completely insane. After Sunday, which really wasn't all that relaxing, I had school followed immediately by work Monday, robotics and band Tuesday, and work tonight. Tomorrow I have a hair cut and band, and then work Friday, and finally more band on Saturday. So quite the week ahead, still.
   Work was pretty easy Monday night, but on Tuesday Nik and I found out that the new robotics website (which we're in charge of) needs to be live ASAP (as in that day). So, after coding our asses off until midnight, it still isn't totally completed, but it's going live anyway. What we have will have to be good enough, because the website that currently exists is just an absolute disaster. There so many pages that neither Nik, nor I have seen all of them (it was created before either of us joined), and just about every single one of those pages has some sort of bug, ranging from a minor thing you may not even notice to a massive, site-breaking problem. So our director's decision was to nuke the whole thing and start from scratch.
   After robotics, Nik and I went to marching band rehearsal, which was really, really boring for some reason. I don't usually think the repetition is boring. It probably has something to do with the fact that I am just totally exhausted.
   Speaking of which, it's already not Wednesday anymore, so I should probably cut this post short. Be sure to check out the Nerds Under Fire website, we just updated our art page with some new work, and new artists. Also be sure to find my podcast Pokecast.
   Plug plug plug plug plug.
   I think that's about it. See you all on Friday!

Tacos,
Gladdstone

Don't Forget Your Filters

   Happy Monday, I guess. I hope you all had a nice weekend. I certainly did.
   Saturday we went to the New England Six Flags. Personally, I'm not a big fan of amusement parks, but it was nice to hang out with the guys. We did a vlog from Nik's phone (seeing as my phone was broken by someone in the marching band who will go unnamed...), but I haven't received the edited edition as of yet, so we'll see if that ever gets done.
   Speaking of the Nerds Under Fire crew, I'm working on putting together a new art page composed of stuff not only from Nik, but also myself, and my girlfriend Tiana (mostly her). Many of you have seen both Nik's and my own work, but Tiana is in her own league, so she will definitely dominate the page.
   You'll also be able to buy Tiana's prints on an Etsy store that is currently in the works. This is unaffiliated with Nerds Under Fire, but I thought I would give her a plug, anyway. She's an incredible artist, and I'll be sure to post a link to her store as soon as I can. Definitely something to check out. She's amazingly creative and does some incredible stuff.
   Anyway, back to Six Flags, we had a pretty good time. The park wasn't anything super special, but the rides were pretty good. Although I must say, I spent a long time looking for a decent souvenir and I could not find anything. I didn't expect much, but come on. Just incredibly stupid stuff. Granted they had awesome DC merchandise, because they have a deal with DC Comics, but what I wanted was something from Six Flags, which was weird. However, if you want to buy cool DC superhero stuff, Six Flags is the place to go.
   The only real disappointment of the trip was that most of the pictures I took didn't come out as well as I'd hoped. There are one or two decent ones, but of three rolls of film that's not very good. This is mostly because I kept putting off putting on the UV filter, or the 80b. Either of those would have helped a lot, and I'm really irritated that I wasted $30 on those prints.
   The moral of the story is, I really freaking need a digital camera because I simply do not have the money to be developing film all the time. Hahaha.
   Hope you guys have a great start of the week. I'll check back in with you on Wednesday.

Tacos,
Gladdstone

I'm Shipping Up To Boston

   Hi guys! Joe, here. Checking in from the Marriot just outside Boston, Massachussets. I'm sitting in my hotel room right now, we just got back from The Blue Man Group (more on them later).

   Thursday was fairly uneventful. Boring, even. Made better by the fact that I was leaving the next day for our band trip. We left at 7:30 this morning and got in around 2ish, maybe? I'm not totally sure. After hanging out for a bit, we went on one of the famous Boston Duck Tours. Other than some great photo ops, though, it wasn't super interesting. I did get some fantastic water shots, so all in all worth it. 

   I'm going to take a tangent here and say I hate cynics who have to lump all of humanity together. I won't name any names, but a certain person I'm sharing a hotel room with feels it nescessary to mention that he has no faith in humanity at least three times every day and I swear I am this close to throwing him out our third story window.

   Anyway, after the duck tours we went to a "hibachi" restaurant called Fire and Ice. The idea is, you og up to this buffet style area and pick out your food (all raw) and take it over to be cooked. An interesting idea, but it's pretty unsanitary. The food was okay, not the best hibachi I've ever had by a long shot. The shrimp particularly was quite mediocre. Regardless, I wouldsay that it was fairly decent meal that wasn't too expensive. 

   After Fire and Ice we went to see the Blue Man Group perform. Which was...interesting. Fairly funny and entertaining, but I really didn't see the huge appeal of it. It was really just a lot of random stuff. Lots of three guys in blue suits throwing food. The little music that there was was extremely good, but I expected more. I think if they had more of that and less of the weird skits I may have enjoyed it a bit more. 

   Tomorrow we're off to Six Flags. Personally, I would rather walk the city and get more pictures,but it should be a fun time. I have to remember to buy something for Tiana there. Hopefully writing it down will help me remember. 

Tacos,

Gladdstone

The Closest Shave You'll Ever Know

   Wednesday is here, and that means just one more day until I'm off to Boston for my last marching band trip ever. Sad, but I can't wait.
   As I write this, I've finally sat down to watch Johny Depp's Sweeney Todd and I must say,I had no ideaeither he nor Alan Rickman had the voices they do. They really are fabulous together. It's an excellent movie. I've never completely figured it out, but I absolutely adore dark characters. The Phantom, Dr. Horrible, Sweeney Todd, they are all some of my absolute favorite characters in all of fiction. Interestingly, they're all from musicals, which probably helps seeing as the villains/dark protagonists always have the absolute best songs (come on, do you mean to tell me that Music of the Night or My Friends aren't a couple of the best songs ever written?). Although, I must say, Jamie Bower is the real vocal star in this film. What a voice on that one. Absolutely astounding.
   Anyway, I'm about an hour in, and the chemistry between Depp and Carter is absolutely incredible. I will absolutely have to look for more with the two of them working together. One thing I don't understand, though, is whether or not he's killing everyone? It seems like that, but that would be stupid.
   I'll be singing these songs for weeks-I'm certain to sound like a bloody psychopath, Although, to be completely honest, that won't be a huge change from what I usually sound like.
   Before I change gears, when the homeless woman called Mrs. Lovett a witch, I about died. Greatest happy accident ever.
   In other news, I caught wind of an incredible opportunity today. Tiana told me about a Europe trip run by teachers at the school. It's not through the school, but the teachers run it still. The only issue, is it cost about $3,000.
   On the bright side, I think that if I pick up a few more hours at the restaurant, I shold be able to afford it, although I may have to cut out buying the new Super Smash Bros for a while. Completely worth it, though. We fly into Milan, and visit several villages in Italy and the French Riviera before going to Madrid, which we fly out of. Granted, it's only 9 days, but I've always wanted to go to Europe, so I'm incredibly excited-especially to be able to go with Tiana. It will be an amazing chance.
   I think that's all for now. I'll check back in on Friday (from Boston!).
   Oh, also-I will never trust a barber again.

Tacos,
Gladdstone

A Little Sore

   Hi everybody. So I've been gone for a couple weeks, and if you follow www.nerdunderfire.com you know it's because my computer sort of wet the bed. Luckily, I've gotten my old one fixed and tuned up so you can expect everything to slide back into place.
   I had a bit of an experience yesterday. Not only was I in a car crash, I walked away unscathed. My friends and I were on a road trip up to some waterfalls to go hiking and do some photography shots, when my friend made a left turn, not seeing the oncoming car.
   I was lucky enough to be in the passenger seat.
   Thank God, I saw the car coming and unleashed a string of obscenities the likes of which have never been heard on this earth just in time to make my friend stop the car. Both airbags deployed, but thankfully the most severe injury was my friend who was driving who got his hand on what we think were his keys. Even my iPad was okay.
   To be honest, I feel like I should be a bit more worried. I could have died if we hadn't stopped quickly. At the very least I would have been injured pretty badly. But I'm not. In fact, I shook the whole thing off pretty fast. Which is more than I can say for the guy in the other car. Man, he was livid. I understand that he might be a bit mad, it was our fault, and we did damage his car, but they're called accidents for a reason, right? There really is no reason to be cursing me out while I just try to make sure everyone's okay.
   His friend was funny (in the way giant dicks can be). He seemed to have it in his head that we were gonna run away or something. He kept yelling at us not to move and to stay next to the car. Like we're just gonna run off into the woods or something. What a dumbass.
   Anyway, it's time to move on. I'm just glad the whole thing is over. The car is probably totaled, but my friend is only getting a few points on his license, and he's going to appear in court and see if he can't get the charge reduced a bit. I think everyone should just be thankful no one was hurt and move on. I got a few pictures after the fact so maybe I'll put those up one of these days.
   On a slightly happier tone, we had our first marching band competition of the season last Saturday in Corning. Our visual was absolute shit, but the music was fantastic. I mean, we just sounded great, and I loved every second of it. We took first place in our division (Small School 3) with a score of 69. That's 3 or 4 higher than the second place band, if I remember correctly.
   Glad to see we're starting my last year off on the right note (get it? Huh? Get it?). It really bodes well for Dome this year.
   See you all on Wednesday.

Tacos,
Gladdstone

Misleading Assignments

   That's it! Here we are, Friday has come at last, and that means I have officially survived my first week as a senior! Crazy to think how far I've come.
   The past two days have been pretty busy. It was all standard stuff during the day Thursday (except for AP Physics, but I'll get to that in a minute), however, I had to work that night-sadly missing marching band practice the night before our first football game.
   Now as I may or may not have stated before, I recently left my job as a grocery store clerk to be a busser at an upper class restaurant a little farther from my house. It's fairly easy work, and both the tips and hours are fabulous, so I'm loving it so far. Anyway, I was working last night, and we close at 9:30 on Thursday nights (or at least we stop accepting walk ins). I'm in the back cleaning the bread station and my manager is up front about to lock the doors when these door ginormous assholes walk in.
   I would like to take this moment to clarify, yes, they were huge asses. And yes, like that South Park episode.
   Anyway, they sat down and of course got appetizers, then entrees, and then OF COURSE they had to have desert. Long story short, it turns out they've done this more than once (most likely so they can have the restaurant to themselves) and I didn't get home until 11:30. Then I still had to do my homework.
   And while we're on the subject of homework, let me say that the AP Physics homework is SUPER misleading. He assigned two problems the first night. Just two. It took an hour. Why, you ask? Because they are then further divided int 1a, 1b, 1c, 1d, 1e, etc. It was insane. So my brain was pretty much fried by the time I finally went to bed.
   Today was a bit better just in general. Most of my classes are fairly easy, and with the exception of physics, they haven't really assigned much homework tonight.
   I went to the football game with the marching band tonight, and we did fairly well, it being our first public performance. Not great, mind you, but good enough. I think with a little work we could really polish this turd up and make 'er shine!
   And now it is the late so I am the sleep.

Tacos,
Gladdstone

Back to Work

   Okay guys, here's the deal. New school year, new me. I'm going to get back on track with this blog. That means updates three times a week for the foreseeable future. Senior year is going to be a ufn one and I really want this documented.
   As I said, it's my last year of high school, and I'm feeling pretty good. I'm talking all APs this year which means I don't have to deal with as many morons, and the classes I'm taking are pretty great. I think I'm probably most excited about taking AP Computer Science. Most of my friends have it with me, so I think we'll have a good time in there.
   In some other news, the marching band show is really starting to come together. If we can pull off the music, I think we have a real shot at taking home the championship title this year, which would be really great for my senior year. Also on the marching front, I have officially applied to be a baritone in the White Sabers Drum and Bugle Corps. They're located in Dansville, NY, which is a bit of a drive, but they are an excellent DCA corps. Long term, of course, I want to audition for the Cadets, but this will be a good opportunity for me to better learn my instrument, seeing as I've never really played brass before.
   I recently ordered Ni No Kuni for the DS from Amazon. I found myself with a hankering for a good JRPG, and there just isn't any good ones out in the US so I was forced to turn my head over to the Promised Land of role playing games where I found this little gem for somewhere around $20 (that's including shipping, so pretty low for an import game). That won't be here until October or so (thanks, Amazon), so I'll have to report back when I finally get it.
   For those of you who haven't been watching the new season of Doctor Who as it premiers YOU NEED TO BE DOING THAT. So far, Peter Capaldi has completely blown me away as the Doctor. They've done a complete 180 with the character and I couldn't be more pleased with the results. The only thing missing now is the classic "I am the Doctor" monologue, which doesn't seem to be quite Capaldi's style, but damn it, I have got to have it at least once. I don't want to take the time to review each individual episode, however so my plan is to do a full season review once it's completed, so watch out for that,
   Finally, don't forget to check out my new Pokemon podcast-Pokecast. This week I was joined by Nik Walz, and it was a really great show. You can find us on iTunes, Stitcher Radio, the Xbox Podcast Directory, and of course, nerdsunderfire.com
   Stay nerdy, my friends.

Tacos,
Gladdstone

Home Sweet Home

   Here we are, at long last the long awaited day is upon us-the very first day of band camp. The beginning of the end for me. For others, it's the beginning of a truly great journey, although they may not know it yet. I truly envy the rookies this year. They're starting off with a great group, and they'll go really far together.
   As for my own personal journey with the band, it is coming to a close, but not just yet. I still have one final season with the Tigers Pride Marching Band and I intend to make it count.

   Although I do talk about it being the end a lot, I'm trying not to focus on it. I really just want to enjoy this year and not worry about it being the end.
   So, with that in mind, I'm going to talk about the first day of band camp for the 2014-2015 season! It's a bit weird with all of the older students gone-we ARE the older students and that's a huge perspective change. Even after the first day, I can tell that it's going to be an excellent year. We really have a shot at the championships this year. Despite the fact that we lost plenty of really fabulous musicians last year, we got a lot of great rookies in return. Not to criticize last year's batch, but they still struggle a lot with the fundamentals. This year, the rookies are picking up everything very quickly and already showing signs of great potential. As long as we can keep up this level of focus, no one will be able to stand in our way!
   Today, being the first day was actually fairly uneventful. We introduced ourselves to the rookies and went over a lot of fundamentals. Our director Mr. Bill also handed out most of the music-a shock, I really didn't think that he would have it done in time. Hahaha.
   The show is going to be really great this year. It's also very well suited to my situation. Home Sweet Home. After all this fun going through Haunted Carnival, New York, For The Birds, and Tonight, it's nice to be reminded of what marching band is. Home. The marching band has been my home for a long time now, and that's what it will always be.
   To quote the Doctor-I have a new destination. My journey is the same as yours, the same as anyone's. It's taken me so many years, so many lifetimes, but at last I know where I'm going, where I've always been going. Home. The long way 'round.
   And that's exactly where my journey with the band has taken me-it's taken me home, and I couldn't be happier.

Pride.
Gladdstone


   

O Captain! My Captain!

   Before I begin tonight's post, I'd like to dedicate it to a great man, Robin Williams, who tragically took his own life today. The joy you brought to our lives will never be forgotten.

O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done,

The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won,

The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,

While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;

                         But O heart! heart! heart!

                            O the bleeding drops of red,

                               Where on the deck my Captain lies,

                                  Fallen cold and dead.

O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;

Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills,

For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths—for you the shores a-crowding,

For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;

                         Here Captain! dear father!

                            The arm beneath your head!

                               It is some dream that on the deck,

                                 You’ve fallen cold and dead.

My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still,

My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will,

The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done,

From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won;

                         Exult O shores, and ring O bells!

                            But I with mournful tread,

                               Walk the deck my Captain lies,

                                  Fallen cold and dead.

~Walt Whitman

    After missing another week, I'm back. That's the thing about summer. Time tends to get a little weird and scheduled things start to get away from you. At least, that's the way it is for me.
   Regardless, I am enjoying my last few official days of summer. Thursday is "vet day" for the marching band, and then band camp starts in earnest next Monday, so we're basically closing the book on the summer of 2014, here. I'd say it was a good one.
   Last week I went to see Guardians of the Galaxy and I cannot stress how great this movie is. As far as superhero movies go these past several years, I wouldn't quite call it Avengers level, but far, far better than Thor or even Captain American. Absolutely a new favorite. I found it to be a perfect blend of comedy and action-personally I prefer a little more drama/seriousness, but I couldn't help but fall in love with this movie. I won't spoil anything, of course, as it just came out. Suffice it to say, that line at the end needs to be a movie. If they can pull off the Guardians of the Galaxy, I think they might just be able to get away with it. Besides, it happened in the 80's, let's see history repeat itself!

   In other fairly big news, today I launched my first solo podcast Pokecast-a podcast focusing on news from the popular Pokemon series of anime, video games, and TCG. Episode 1-Bulbasaur is up on the RSS feed. You can listen to it now on the Nerds Under Fire site, or wait and subscribe when it is approved by iTunes. During our first episode, I discuss the new mega-evolutions announced for Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire as well as the new Pokemon Center website, and more! Be sure to check it out and leave feedback at nerdsunderfire@gmail.com.
   I think that will about do it for this post. When we next meet, we will have both a trailer and launch date for Warlords of Draenor, so stay tuned for that. Have a great week!

Tacos,
Gladdstone

Reporting Live From Not-San Diego!

   Hey, all! Gladdstone here reporting to you live from the hustle and bustle of the desk in my bedroom. The energy in the room is practically tangible, and the costumes are absolutely incredible. I'm currently cosplaying as Exhausted Blogger With a Hint of BO and Maybe He Should Take a Shower Tonight Man.
   Bitter jokes aside, I'm not in San Diego, and am in fact on the opposite side of the country in a god forsaken town in upstate New York. Lots of corn, some drugs, and plenty of rain. Don't get me wrong, living in upstate New York isn't all bad-it makes you appreciate going on vacation all the more.
   Joking aside, some really cool stuff has come out of the San Diego Comic Con this year, nothing earth shattering, but some interesting stuff nonetheless. My personal favorite, of course being the release of the trailer for The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies.

   Now, if you'll excuse me. I need to change my pants and clean up the blood because that trailer made me shit bricks.
   Something has always really struck a chord with me throughout every Lord of the Rings movei, and that's the soundtrack. And the music in the new Hobbit trailer is no exception. Absolutely fantastic as always. Martin Freeman is, of course, brilliant in the few lines he delivers in the teaser.
   My only complaint about the trailer is the same complaint I've been giving for the past two Hobbit movies and that is there is way too much CGI and I absolutely can't stand it. The original trilogy did so well balancing real effects with CGI, but with the hobbit, it's almost like they just decided to film the whole thing in a warehouse with 15 actors. All the orcs look essentially the same, and all but featureless, and the "cool stunts" just look stupid. The barrel scene in the last movie had me shaking with rage for a solid 20 minutes.
   Despite all this, I still manage to love the movies with every fiber of my being. Maybe it's just because I grew up on Tolkien, and nothing could keep me from loving what he does. Then there's the fact that Martin Freeman and Sir Ian McKellan are two of my all-time favorite actors.
   One of the most fascinating stories to come out of San Diego this year, however was the cease and desist letter sent by Comic-Con International to the Salt Lake City Comic Con over the usage of the phrase "Comic Con." Now, I'm no lawyer, but that seems to be a giant load of crap to me.
   Now, several people have speculated (and I agree) that this was sent mainly due to the fact that SLCC is quickly threatening to overtake San Diego as the largest comic book convention, right in their own backyard. Although it is still the third largest convention (New York Comic Con is the second largest, and guess who's going this year?), the San Diego convention is limited to 150,000 people due to size constraints. The convention has, in fact threatened to move if this isn't changed, but we'll have to wait and see. Part of me doubts they'll move, as they seem to be a pretty permanent fixture to me.
   The last story I want to briefly touch on is Comixology now offering many comics DRM-free from their site. As always since Amazon purchased it, there are still no in-app purchases rendering the whole thing a pain in the ass, but this is certainly a good thing. Notably, neither Marvel or DC have gotten in on this deal as of yet, although if we see some bigger names such as Dark Horse hopping on the band wagon, they may be forced to follow suit.
   To be honest, however, I haven't even opened the app since they got rid of in-app purchases. I tried the website and the whole thing was just a pain in the ass. Not only did you pretty much have to know exactly what you want, but this prevents you from stumbling on those little indie companies that the app was really for to begin with.
   As it stands, I still won't be using the app until they bring back the in-app purchases, and frankly, I don't see it happening anytime soon, if ever. So, screw you, Amazon.

Tacos,
Gladdstone

Return of the Gladdstone

   Hey guys! Wow, it's been a while since I posted. I'm really sorry about that, things have been simultaneously super busy and insanely boring at the same time here, and it's killing me. But now with things winding down a bit, I have a little more time to be posting.
   So to get you all caught up on what I've been doing the past two weeks, we'll start in WoW (because Blizzard). Monday or Tuesday of last week, I got an email in my inbox from Blizzard. I think to myself "Oh, a newsletter or something, let's see what they have to say..." WRONG.
   Guess who got their WoD beta invite?
   Awwww yeeeaaaahhhh.

BOOM

   So anyway, after completing the obligatory flipping of shit I immediately logged onto Battle Net and downloaded all the extra crap I needed (leaving less than 4gb of memory on my hard drive. I guess it's about time to do some spring cleaning). Several hours later, because my internet connection is terrible, I was logging into the WoD beta, and then promptly booted out. I struggled with that for about two days before finally getting in. I decided, because my main is on the Alliance side, I would check everything out on the Horde side so as to preserve the fun on my mains a little bit more (not like it won't be fun on my troll shaman still, but ya know). I chose to roll myself a level 90 orc warlock, because I've always wanted a warlock but never really put in the work for one. I figured maybe if I played a level 90 one in the beta that would give me the kick in the pants I needed to finally level one. Which it did, and I am now leveling Finwik, the gnome warlock.
   Anyway, after dealing with all that "how the hell do I play this class?" shit and getting a bit settled, I wandered around for a while trying to figure out how to get to the new content. About an hour later, I finally thought to turn around from the Warchief's Command board and noticed two gargantuan NPCs. Yeah. So I got the quest and went into Draenor and let me just say, everything about this shit is awesome. Everything looks fantastic, you can search your bags now and that is the absolute greatest thing ever, and the new quest log is just fantastic beyond words. I can finally look at the map and keep an eye on what's going on around me. The only thing I would still like to see with the interface is the ability to drag the windows around the screen so I can see certain areas and have more windows open.

Smell that? That's me soiling myself.

   I won't ramble on anymore about that because there is other big news to get to, which is the launch of the new Hearthstone adventure Curse of Naxxramas on Tuesday of this week. I nearly shit my pants in excitement and proceeded to complete all three bosses in just under 2 hours (I'm not very good). I still have both class challenges and the Heroic to do, but I've been saving those for this weekend. To be honest, I may not even be able to do the Heroics because I've been watching streamers like Amaz do them, and it took even him a solid 2 hours to beat Maexxna on Heroic, so we'll see if I can nail down that cardback ever. Suffice it to say, though, Curse of Naxxramas felt absolutely incredible to go through, and if Team 5 keeps up this quality of work for the (long) life of this game, I will be playing this game until the day they shut down the servers and the zombies take over the world.


   San Diego Comic Con is going on this weekend, so you can probably expect a giant news roundup on Monday from all of that, hopefully including some video clips and whatnot. I've never gotten to go, personally, but maybe one of these years that will change.
   I think that about covers everything I wanted to talk about for now, so I'll just leave you all with one last note for Java. Fuck you guys, I do not, nor will I ever want your goddamn Ask toolbar. No one wants it, no one uses Ask, just stop trying. All you're doing is inconveniencing your customers for a few dollars. #rantover.

Tacos,
Gladdstone

WoW and Tchaikovsky

   So I've determined there is just too little going on during the summer, and I am going to cut out Wednesday posts until mid-August when marching band starts-then who knows? I might need to add a fourth post on Saturday just to cover everything.
   It's been an exciting week in World of Warcraft for the newly sprouted Nerds Under Fire guild on Blackwater-Raiders. We just hit level 4 the other day and we say a big uptick in recruitment. With any luck, we'll be pulling together some raiders for a 10-man team soon. The goal is to have everything in place for the release of WoD, however.
   Big news coming out of Hearthstone as well, as the Curse of Naxxramas pricing has been announced. The expansion will be available in five parts with a new wing costing either $6.99 or 700 gold per wing. In addition, for the the first month or so, there will be a launch event during which the first wing will be unlockable for free, after which players can purchase the other four, either individually, or as a package. A guide to the bundle is posted right here.

   To break it down even simpler, all five wings will cost $24.99 for those who don't take advantage of the launch event. For the rest of us it will cost $19.99, $14.99, $9.99, or less depending on if you choose to use gold or not.
   It is important to note that although you may buy all five wings at launch, you will not receive them all immediately. Rather, they will be rolling out at the rate of one wing per week. Upon completion of the the normal tier raid, the Heroic tier will be unlocked for free.
   Back here in the real world, Tiana just returned from her week long art camp up at Pratt University. It sounded pretty amazing. I, on the other hand, have sat home playing WoW, and practicing violin. I'm not even kidding. That has been basically my entire life this week.
   Seriously, that's all I've got to say about that.
   ...
   Well, bye.

Tacos,
Gladdstone

Relatives Gone, Back to the Blog!

   Hey, everybody. After a brief hiatus for having family in town, I'm back with plenty to talk about. I've actually considered cutting these back to just Friday updates for the summer, seeing as there isn't too much going on, but I'm going to give it another week or so before I do anything.
   Having forgotten to announce it in my last post on Friday the week before last, I had family in town all last week, hence no blog posts. I just didn't have the time. They're gone now, though, so finally back to my regular posting schedule.
   So recently, I've really been hankering for a good JRPG. The bad news, however, is that I have approximately $0. Since it's launch, Square Enix's new game Bravely Default has been a grandslam among fans of the genre, but I still have yet to pick it up. Recently in Japan, however they released a demo which includes the first four chapters of gameplay. That is one hell of a demo. The demo then has an upgrade fee of what converts to about twenty dollars American. No news on whether or not this demo will be available in the US (please, please, please!) yet. As of right now, the Nintendo E-Shop is undergoing maintenance, unconnected to this, of course, but preventing me from attempting to see if this demo is available. Hopefully by Wednesday I will know, and possibly be playing the demo.
   Speaking of games I can't play because I don't have the right system, as of 17 July, 2014 Playstation owners who preordered Bungie's Destiny will be able to join the beta testing. You lucky bastards. I still don't own the Playstation 4, and I just can't justify buying the PS3 when the next gen console is only a hundred or so more. However, for those of you who are lucky enough to have a PS4 and have preordered this seriously kickass looking game, you will be able to begin killing things at 10:00pm PT. For those of you with the Xbone, you will be able to join the beta on 23 July, at 10:00pm PT. The beta will be offline July 21 and 22 for "scheduled maintenance" and then it will end on 27 July at 11:59pm PT. However, it does appear as though Bungie intends to do multiple phases of beta, akin to the Wildstar model, so you should be able to get in plenty of buggy gameplay before the game officially launches on 9 September.
   Moving onto something I haven't talked about in a fair amount of time-Hearthstone. The July Season began 7 days ago (duh) with it's featured Curse of Naxxramas cardback. Even without the announcement from Team 5, it's pretty obvious that they are pushing to have Adventure Mode out at some point this month, and not a moment too soon, I say. I've been getting my ass handed to me in ranked play for long enough and I can't even look at the arena button at this point. I think we're due for something new to come along and shake things up.
   Personally, I'm still running my budget Zoolock deck, but I also threw together a little aggro mage. The trouble is, I can't seem to get out of the control mindset when I play mage decks, so I don't think it will work out in the long run. I'm also still on a quest to make a viable priest deck (Amaz is my hero). I don't know why I love that hero class so much-I don't even have a priest in WoW-but I really love the way it plays and I'm dying to be able to play it well.
   I've also been practicing my violin a lot recentyl, I finally memorized Beethoven's 5th Sonata Op 24. My left arm is absolutely killing me, though. Everything below the elbow is just really sore, and I can't figure out why. I really don't think I've been pushing myself all that hard this week. Regardless, I think I'll lay off for a day and play some more of dem vidya games.

Tacos,
Gladdstone

I Don't Get Paid Enough For This

   We've looped around to yet another Monday-not that it really matters to me, I'm on summer break. Saturday was fairly uneventful, but Sunday was amazing.
   On Sunday, I took a day trip with Nik, Tiana, and Amanda W. went to Dorney Park (an amusement park in Pennsylvania). It was about a three hour ride, and it was so much fun. Tiana's mother drove us down, which was better than me driving because:

          a.) My car doesn't even work.

          b.) That's a damn long drive.

   Now the only trouble was I am not a ride person, and neither is Nik. It's less that I'm afraid, and more that I just don't get anything at all out of them (although I am also scared). In the end, they made a deal with us. We would each get to give the two of them a dare if we went on any non-roller coaster ride they picked having two vetoes. It was difficult at times, because I don't cope too well with things like g-force. The last one was this massive freaking swing. I almost backed out, but I did it and it was awful. Tiana actually ended up feeling pretty guilty afterwards because I had a minor panic attack on the ride. Although, I only hyperventilated twice, and it was fun to spend time with my friends. We had a really great time.

   The only thing I had to do today was pull a four-hour shift at work. That was pretty easy, though other than one douche.

He does not get paid to deal with your shit.

   First of all, let me point out that every store has different policies, and every state has different laws. In New York, you cannot sell alcohol to anyone without an ID regardless of their apparent age. That being said, most of the time, I will just ask people their date of birth as long as their obviously over 40 or so. The date of birth is just because I have to punch it into the computer.
   So basically what happened is this guy came in to buy some sort of beer or something and I asked his his age. He wasn't from New York, and for some reason he got really pissed off. He stared at me for a good 10 seconds, glaring at me before saying "are you fucking kidding me? I'm 55, idiot." Thanks, bro. Thanks. That's a totally reasonable reaction you gigantic, self-centered douche.

Want want want want

   Seriously, people. We cashiers get paid minimum wage, which by the way is not even remotely close to what we get to put up with every single damn day-also not even close to livable. So please, if you can't be nice, at least try to be a little polite to your cashiers, and your baristas, and all the other poor shits that have to put up with this stuff.
   All right, now that I've vented a bit, it's time to move into a little bit of news. Still waiting on my Warlords of Draenor beta invite, and actually, while I'm on the subject, I still don't have my Heroes of the Storm beta key, either. To be honest, I think I'd rather get the latter. Odds are I wouldn't play a ton of the WoD beta, probably just enough to report some bugs. I would really prefer to wait to experience it for the first time when it launches. But with Heroes, it's more skill than seeing things, and I'd like to be at least fairly decent at it when we finally get the full game. But no, apparently I'm not allowed to have either of them. Curse you, Blizzard! Although, to be fair, I did get into the Hearthstone beta as soon as it started, which was pretty great.
   Thanks for tuning in and listening to my griping for another week.

Gimme My Key!

   We have once again reached the greatest day of the week-the promised land of the calendar, Friday! And that means...time for a blog post!
   Truth be told, I really kind of miss being busy with school. I don't like sitting around all day, and it seems like my friends are never available. I sat around all day Thursday contemplating getting in the car and driving off a bridge. So. Boring. Luckily, tomorrow is graduation, and I'm performing at that with the band. Do you know what that means? Pomp and Circumstance, Pomp and Circumstance, Pomp and goddamn Circumstance. Over and over until one by one, the entire band hangs themselves. So, yeah. Good time.
   Then Sunday I'm going with a group to an amusement park for the day. I'm not usually one for rides, but I do enjoy getting out of the house for the day, so it will certainly be a fun time.
   Speaking of fun, the Warlords of Draenor Beta went live today! This is a big step in the right direction. IT could mean that we may get the actual expansion within a fairly reasonable amount of time, possibly even in time for Christmas, which seems to be their goal.
   I'm signed up for the beta on Battle Net and I've put in for just about every beta key I could get, so with a little luck, there will be a review up within the next month or so.
   Not so much fun would be my car breaking down today. I was supposed to go up to Charlie's after work, and I ended up having to get a ride from a relative because there is something seriously wrong with my car. It sounded like it might explode, and it wouldn't start.
   As such,  have to be up early tomorrow so I'm afraid I'm going to have to cut this entry a bit short. I'm going to have to be up trying to fix my car so I can get to graduation on time.
   Until Monday!

Tacos,
Gladdstone

Thanks, Geico

   Happy Wednesday, everybody. I was going to say happy hump day, but that stupid damn insurance commercial has pretty much made it a crime to use the phrase "hump day." Thanks, Geico.

The true face of evil.

   Today was my first official day of summer break and it felt pretty good. It was nice, although I did have to work. They haven't scheduled me to work a Wednesday night in a while, and I forgot how freaking busy it is. I go from work, to my violin lesson, then I come home, write this blog, then there's usually an update to be done on the Nerds Under Fire site, and then there's audio editing to be done, and then I get to go to bed. Today was made even busier because I had a rehearsal before I went to work. So as you might imagine, I'm a bit drained at this point. 

   Regardless, I'm feeling pretty good. If you've been on the site during the day this week, you'll notice things will start to move around every couple minutes, and don't stop for two to three hours. I've been trying to find a layout I like, but I just can't quite seem to nail it down. I've been trying to set up a slider to show my recent posts, but Blogger has been thwarting my every attempt. So if anyone has some helpful tips, or just the code that would be great. 

   In light of the recent lull in Azeroth, I've found myself in Telara in the past few days. For those not familiar, that would be the supposed "WoW killer" Rift which went free to play within a year. 

   Now don't think that I'm slamming the game. It's an excellent game, but I don't like the term "WoW killer." At this point, I really think the only thing that will kill WoW is itself. From my point of view, the only way it will ever die is it will just slowly dwindle out over the course of the next decade or two. Moral of the story-WoW is here to stay for a long, long time.

   Back to Rift, I must say it's really quite good, and they really have an excellent free-to-play model from what I've seen so far. You can pick between two factions, each with three races. From there you can pick from the four base classes-warrior, cleric, mage, and rogue. Now that seems like a small amount to choose from, but from there you can select your "soul." This essentially determines how you play the game. There are four roles in the game-tank, DPS, healer, and support. What's really fascinating about this game, however, is any class can be any role (that is, if you purchase the expansion). Without the expansion, for example, mages can support, DPS, and heal. However, if you purchase their expansion you can tank. 

   Now I'm just going to take a break here to let that sit in.

   Yeah, you read that right.

   Mage.

   Tank.

Remember what happened last time?

   I nearly purchased the expansion right there and I hadn't even gotten into the game yet. 

   Once I was in the game, itself I was quite impressed. Everything runs very smoothly, and the art style, while a little darker than WoW's, it's quite pleasing, and the graphics are extremely good looking, even on the lower settings. 

   I haven't even leveled beyond the starting zone yet, so you can expect a lot more to come, but I certainly expect to play a lot more of this game over the summer, especially seeing as it's more accessible to my friends that can't afford the $15 a month to play WoW. I highly recommend this game.

   Hope to see everyone back for Friday!

Tacos,

Gladdstone

Time to Pull the Trigger

   Here we find ourselves at yet another Monday. These damn things seem to come around once every seven days or so.
   In all honesty, I do look forward to these posts every Monday. Even when I have a bad day, they're a great way to get me out of my slump. These past couple days have actually been really great. I had my AP English final today, and it was pretty easy. That leaves just one more final-Chemistry. And that one will be super easy. So all I have to do is get up tomorrow, nail that, and then I am officially on summer break! And judging by what we've been planning, it's going to be a good summer.Unfortunately, this will have to wait at least another week, because I'm going to have family in starting Friday or Saturday. Hopefully we'll be launching Geek Council in the next few weeks here, so keep an eye for that on iTunes.
   Now onto some some interesting news, Nintendo recently lost a lawsuit in the U.K. involving a company called Philips, a company making the claim that the company infringed on several of its patents. The judge ruled that Nintendo's Wii, Wii Remote, Nunchuk, Wii Motion Plus remote, Balance Board, and the Wii U console and Gamepad all violated patents held by the Philips company. Philips also filed lawsuits in France and Germany, making the same claims. Nintendo has gone on record as saying that it has every intention appealing the decision, as they believe the patents are invalid.
   As someone with a fairly limited knowledge of even my own country's patent laws, much less those of the international community, I'm not certain of the implications a loss has for Nintendo, although it seems they will most likely end up making some sort of monetary payment to the company. While Nintendo has been having a rough time lately, I hardly seeing this proving to be a killing blow for the company. At the same time, it can hardly be good, so we'll just have to see how this plays out.
   On another note, there's the game No Man's Sky that was recently announced at E3 so far just for the PS4. At this point I'm having a really difficult time picking between the Wii U and the PS4. But, given that I have the 3DS, I think I'm going to have to spring for the PS4 first, just to mix things up. Anyway, if you didn't see it already, here's the trailer for the new sci-fi sandbox game.

   If that doesn't make you want a Playstation 4, I don't think anything ever will. Each player will start on their very own unique, and undiscovered planet. From there you can discover and scan new forms of planets and life throughout this universe, along with the other players.
   This sounds incredibly fun to me, as I love exploration in games, and yet, this has been described by the game's creator as "the most boring way to play the game." What it seems to be, is that enemies will randomly appear throughout the game, and you can either stay and fight, or make an attempt to outrun them. Very little seems to be known about most of the features of the game, as it's team seems fairly intent on keeping most of the features hidden. This mystery is a pretty big draw, and even with the Hoen remakes announced for the 3DS, this is quite easily my most anticipated game from this year's E3. No release date has been pinned down as of this moment.
   That's a lot to look forward to, on top of all the other amazing games that came out of this year's conference.
   Until Wednesday.


Tacos,
Gladdstone

Netflix Screws Me Again

   First week of summer down, several more to go. 

   To be honest, I'm not super big on summer break. I just don't have a lot of stuff to do. Today I went for a walk with a girl I know from school. We did about four miles, which is pretty good. It was a fun time, my dog got some exercise, and she's fun to spend time with. Tomorrow, my copy of Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog is supposed to come in the mail from Amazon, at long last. Take that, Netflix! Take my Joss Whedon away from me, will you? Well I'll just take my business elsewhere!

Aw, yeah.

   While we're on the subject of Netflix, I want to vent a little about their new UI. It. Is. Disgusting. First of all, I don't see what was wrong with the old red and black motif. It was sleek, modern, and functional. The new interface didn't lose any functionality, but what it did lose was the sleek, modern look of the old Netflix. 

   The red and black had a very modern, polished look to it. This new white/red style basically just looks like some 7th grader learned the basics of CSS and pissed all over their website. And the new logo is just weird. Something about it is just generally off-putting. Maybe if they put it back with the old color-scheme it would look decent, but I really don't like it as is. Now that I think of it, that old interface was still worse than the one from even earlier. I don't like the self scrolling bits. It feels really slow. So, I guess the moral of the story here is that every time Netflix updates, they get a little bit worse. Pretty soon, they'll be the Myspace of video streaming. Or maybe a better allusion would be just another Daily Motion or Vimeo. Basically, all right, but no one really cares. 

   I finished season one of Once Upon a Time and I'm closing in on the halfway mark in season two. Seeing as season three isn't due on Netflix until September, I may have to bite the bullet for a while on Hulu Plus, which I personally despise because of the ads, but I think it's worth it for the third season. If I don't, then you can probably expect a review of the series up through season two to be up on here by Monday. I'll do what I can to avoid spoilers, but as always, I'm not perfect, so if you absolutely do not want any spoilers, I recommend you don't read on Monday. 

   This weekend, I'll be recording the third episode of Geek Council, this time featuring my friend Nate as co-host, so watch for that. Be sure to check out last week's episode with my friend Tiana as we discuss the possibility of a real-life USS Enterprise, the new Legend of Zelda game Hyrule Warriors, and dissect-can you guess? That's right-Joss Whedon's Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.

   Enjoy your weekend!

Tacos,

Gladdstone

Because I Can

   So summer is more or less here for me. I'm halfway through my finals-I've only got AP English and Chemistry left to take next week and then I'm a full-fledged senior.

Break out the allergy nasal-spray, bitches!

   This should be a fun summer for me. Nik and I both have cars and licenses now so we can take the whole group basically wherever we want. I'm thinking of getting everyone up to Ithaca to do some hiking. If you aren't familiar with the area, it's a town in upstate New York with some of the most beautiful waterfalls and hiking trails within reasonable distance of where I live. Of course, we also have the Adirondacks and Catskills, but those are a bit out of our way.
   Just yesterday we got out of our AP United States History exam and ended up spending the rest of the day up at the mall-because we're apparently stereotypical 90's teens now. Regardless, I may or may not have purchased a belt featuring the three Kanto starters and a Pokeball on the buckle. Spoilers: I totally did. And it is totally. Freaking. Awesome.

Aw, yeah.

   If I'm being completely honest though, it doesn't really feel like summer. More of like a spring break. Seems like this year totally flew by, despite being completely awful. I can't help but think things like "better not sleep in too late tomorrow, you don't want to start a bad habit for when you have to go back to school mon-oh wait." I'ts kind of nice at the same time though, because then I get to remember I have the next couple of months to do basically whatever I like, such as drag my friends out to go hiking for no good reason other than I can.
   In other news, tragedy struck the other day when I turned on Netflix only to find that one of Joss Whedon's greatest masterpieces-Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog-had been removed from the site. Words cannot express the fury I feel at this both loss and betrayal. Anyway, the moral of the story is, after a long and fruitless hunt at the stores in my area (always try to buy local first, folks!) I found it on Amazon. Unsurprisingly, those geniuses had it on sale for $5.00. Now that is knowing the market. They knew people would want to go buy it now that Netflix dumped it. Well played, Amazon. Well played.
   I'll see you lot Friday. Your mother was a hamster, and your father smelt of elder berries. Now go away before I taunt you a second time!

Tacos,
Gladdstone

That's a Wrap!

   So today was my last day of school, and personally, I am so glad to finally be putting this year behind me. There were a lot of great things that happened this year (one of those being this blog), but all in all it was pretty crappy. Junior year is a really tough year. Will senior year be easier? I doubt it, but it will be a bit more relaxed, at least.
   I think all of the firsts this year was the problem. On top of some fairly difficult classes, I had no lunch most of the year, and then pair that with still getting used to balancing work and school,  add in the stress of having expenses (private lessons, insurance, gas) and buying my first car, it has been a tough year. Next year I will definitely be a little more used to all of this, and hopefully, a little bit better at balancing everything.
   If I could give some advice to people coming towards this age, I'd say be very careful about overloading yourself. I wasn't, and I spent most of the year just bairly keeping my head above water-financially, academically, and mentally. Keep in mind that if you want to get a job, it will interfere with your schoolwork, and if you're not prepared for this it will affect your grades. Also bear in mind that people are going to start hounding you about college and you have to be ready for it. Even if you don't know what you want to do when you graduate, you're going to need some sort of answer. Maybe you don't have a career in mind, but you know you're going to attend college? I'd say take the time to look at a few colleges, community colleges especially as they're just chock full of students trying to figure out where they want to go from here. Basically, it's cheap and it will buy you time.
   Have you ever sat at your keyboard, looking at that little blinking line, and it just taunts you? I'm not sure why, but I've got a thousand thoughtsa whirling through my head right now and I just can't seem to focus enough to write.
   I need a vacation.

Tacos,
Gladdstone

Socially Awkward

   Guess I missed my Monday post this week, all well. I was kinda busy, you guys understand, right? Life's gotta come first. As soon as I start making money from this, it can become first priority. Until then, we'll have to cope.

   I thought today I'd talk about one of my slightly more severe quirks, and I thought of this because I know of a lot of people that have the same issue. People familiar with me will know that I have fairly severe social anxiety. Sometimes, it makes me look like a bit of an ass, because someone I'm acquainted with will say hi to me when we pass on the street, or in the store, and I'll try to say something, but nothing comes out. It's a little hard to describe, but basically my mind starts to go a mile a minute as I try to figure out how a normal person would respond, and that results in either a really delayed response, or no response. Either way, I end up super embarrassed and walking in the opposite direction very fast.
   Recently-at least since I started working as a cashier-it has gotten slightly better because I'm interacting with a lot more people daily. What's odd, is I don't have a fear of public speaking (ie, to a group or crowd) but the idea of one-on-one conversation terrifies me. Does anyone else have this? I think what it is, is that when I'm presenting something to a crowd, I've got something prepared, or at the very least, I know what I need to mention., and I can work from there. In conversation, I tend to get jumbled and say things completely out of nowhere. And then while the other person responds, I'll be so wrapped up in figuring out what the next thing I'll say is, I completely miss their response. As you might imagine, the situation tends to dissolve from there.

Behold: the portal to hell

   I bring this up because earlier, I finally renounced public restrooms for good. This all came about because, as I do every 9th period, I mustered up the courage to use the school restrooms (actually one in particular, I use it exclusively), and after the bathroom was finally empty, I went to put toilet paper over the seat, only to find it damp.
   That's right. And yes, it was all of the toilet paper. After dry heaving a bit, I washed my hands three times, and then went home to take a shower and wash my hands again. Having had this experience, now coupled with a thousand other horror stories, I have chosen I will only use private bathrooms going forward, using public restrooms only in the most dire situations. As for how well this goes, I'm out of the house often.
   Wish me luck.

Tacos,
Gladdstone

Maleficient the Passable

   Whoops, guess I missed Wednesday again. Sorry everybody! My bad! Let's all just move along, nothing to see here.
   Moving on, it has been a pretty slow week in terms on interesting-ness, but it was still fairly busy. Like I said, I had Tuesday off and I went to see Maleficient with some friends. On the docket tonight will be a brief review (spoiler free, I promise). But first, let's get everybody caught up.
   Tuesday was a nice day off, and then Wednesday was fairly relaxed other than a practice Chemistry regents. Honestly, it wasn't too difficult. I really expected to do poorly and I did quite well. I didn't go to my lesson that night because of schedule conflicts, and I finished the office later that night (either then or

Pictured: the UEHS Orchestra 2014-15 year

Thursday night, I honestly can't remember). Either way, wow. Just a fantastic end to a fantastic show. If you read Monday's post, you'll see I was getting pissed off, but I love the direction they ended up taking it in the end. It really was perfect. Thursday night I had the end of the year concert for orchestra. That's always fun, but sad. Each senior picks a song for the group to play, and unfortunately, we had 16 seniors this year. So yeah, long concert. But anyway, it was sad to think of all the people I'll probably never have the opportunity to perform alongside again. Rivenburg cried, of course, and that just made it sadder. It's crazy to think I'll be sitting in the concert master seat next year. Horrifying thought. On the bright side, I got a chance to catch up with an old cellist friend of mine, Michelle, who told me to start an 11th Doctor roleplay blog on Tumblr. So that's a thing now. Anyone who is interested in reading or participating can find it at www.mybowtiebringsallthegirls.tumblr.com. Not much there, at the moment, but it should be getting off the ground in the next couple of days. Today was fairly dull, went to school, went to work, came home, blogged, and went to bed (not yet, but soon. Soon.). With that, I think we'll move on to my Maleficient review.

Truly the face of evil

   So, Maleficient. Have I ever said how horrifying Angelina Jolie is? Her face is a train wreck. Somewhere along the line she just ended up with so much plastic in her face that she no longer appeared alive. As of right now, she looks about 4 months dead, and I honestly just don't see how people find her attractive. But regardless of her nightmarish looks, she honestly did fairly well as Maleficient. Not the best performance I've seen recently, but it certainly could have been worse. The musical score was good, but again, nothing wholly remarkable. The only thing that really leapt out at me was the CGI, which I thought was extremely good, with some exceptions such as a couple parts of the flying scenes where it just looked awful. Honestly, the CGI either looked fabulous, or dreadful, with no in between. The story I found fairly lacking. It felt very dragged out in the beginning, when it discussed Maleficient's childhood (not a spoiler), and then rushed through the rest of the movie to get to the Sleeping Beauty crap. The actress who played Aurora was Ellie Fanning. She's a very cute girl, and she performed very well. I can't say it was the best performance I've ever seen, but it was certainly some of the best in the movie, and I really hope we get to see more of her as she grows up and matures. All in all, I'd give the movie 6.5/10. I wouldn't say not to go see it, but if you have to choose between this and, say Guardians of the Galaxy, pick Guardians. If you do happen to like the idea of this extra character development, this movie may be for you. There isn't a lot, but enough.
   Before I go, I should mention the Geek Council will be available on iTunes soon, I promise. We've hit some logistical problems, but the recordings are still happening. The episodes are being developed, we just need to get it up and running. Promise.

Tacos,
Gladdstone