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
Showing posts with label Geek Council. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Geek Council. Show all posts
Friday, October 10, 2014
Monday, June 23, 2014
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
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.
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
Friday, June 20, 2014
Netflix Screws Me Again
First week of summer down, several more to go.
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.
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!
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| 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
Friday, June 6, 2014
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
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.
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
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 |
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| Truly the face of evil |
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
Monday, June 2, 2014
Just Checking In
My weekend was pretty quiet. I got some yard work down, I sat around, finished off the ice cream in the freezer, and, oh yeah, I recorded the pilot for a brand new podcast!
That's right, Geek Council recorded it's first ever episode was recorded on Saturday with my dear friend Nik. We discussed several things, including a fascinating Florida Man story (for those unfamiliar with the meme, Florida is a really messed up place. Let's just leave it at that). It also features a review segment as well as a segment designed by Nik that he will do each time he's on the show. It should be up on her, and the Nerds Under Fire website soon. Keep checking back!
No school for this guy tomorrow, thanks to the Common Core testing. If one good thing that comes out of it, it's that AP students don't have to take the test. So, yeah! Whoo! Day off! We're going to go see Maleficient in the afternoon. I really love these kinds of stories that take a look at a villain, and really sort of humanize them, for lack of a better word. Can you guess what my favorite musical is?
Duh, West Side Story.
Hahaha, just kidding. It's Wicked, obviously. As you know, I just went to see it in NYC last week and the music is still stuck in my head. Not a bad thing, though. That music is the shit.
So it should be a good day. Not much else to report on.
I'll see you all Wednesday.
Tacos,
Gladdstone
Friday, May 30, 2014
Geek Council
Ah, what a week. Busy, busy, busy. But here we are at long last, the promised day-Friday. And what a glorious Friday it is, because I am here to announce my latest project, several weeks in the making.
But first, let's get y'all caught up with what I've been doing since Wednesday. Thursday was an exciting day, although not much went on during the day itself. I went to school, went to work, blah, blah, blah. But later that night I was invited to join some of my guildies in Reported For Awesome in some flex raids. I had never healed with my shaman anywhere but LFR, but I decided, why the hell not? And all in all, I think it went pretty well. We did it a bit backwards, but we ended up clearing about half the raid (we actually started with Garrosh) and I got two 540 drops, which were pretty good upgrades for my shaman, seeing as he's only existed for a few weeks. Either way, it was a ton of fun, so shout out to them, and I hope I get invited back soon.
Today wasn't the best day ever, at first, but it got better. I got woken up by the sound of my mother barreling into my room. Apparently she had been locked out of the house for a half hour, and her knocking had not awoken me. She was therefore forced to call my grandfather to get her in. So that was fun.
As you might imagine, I was pretty irritable all morning, until I got my hands on a computer to do some work on this blog. As you may have noticed, I have a new page up called Overheard Poetry. Essentially, what I intend to do with this is take little snippets of conversation I hear going about my own life, and sew them together to form brief poems. I find it fairly exciting, and a fun way to get myself more into people watching. That page won't have set update days, though so be sure to check back often to see what I've overheard. Could be profound, could be poop jokes. Most likely the latter.
That was basically the highlight of my day until I went over to Nate's house to hang with the group for a while. I got there as they were finishing a Halo match (Charlie proved quite proficient at this, surprisingly, despite lack of experience) and we decided to play Cards Against Humanity. You can imagine how that went.
We were also gonna play Munchkin, but it got late and we decided to call it a night. We may do that tomorrow night, actually, but we'll have to wait and see. Either way, it was a really great night, and I enjoyed getting to spend some time with my friends who, because of my schedule, I don't get to see very often.
Well, now that you're all caught up, I think it's time for the big unveiling. Airing tomorrw will be the first ever episode of my new podcast, called Geek Council.
I'll break it down for you. It's going to be a rotation-based podcast in which I will act as the host. Every week we will rotate in a new guest from the usual suspects, possibly with the occasional guest you may not have heard of on here before. The podcast will feature some really excellent news, and geek related topics, as well as spoiler-free (mainly) reviews of all the things you hold near and dear! Also featured will be a segment that will change depending on our guest that week. I'll leak one now, as it is participation based. We will have an advice segment, so what we want you to do is send us questions, and my guest and I will do our very best to try and not make it worse. Pretty sweet deal, right? Yeah it is!
That's all I'm telling for now, so you'll have to check it out tomorrow night to see more!
Tacos!
Gladdstone
But first, let's get y'all caught up with what I've been doing since Wednesday. Thursday was an exciting day, although not much went on during the day itself. I went to school, went to work, blah, blah, blah. But later that night I was invited to join some of my guildies in Reported For Awesome in some flex raids. I had never healed with my shaman anywhere but LFR, but I decided, why the hell not? And all in all, I think it went pretty well. We did it a bit backwards, but we ended up clearing about half the raid (we actually started with Garrosh) and I got two 540 drops, which were pretty good upgrades for my shaman, seeing as he's only existed for a few weeks. Either way, it was a ton of fun, so shout out to them, and I hope I get invited back soon.
Today wasn't the best day ever, at first, but it got better. I got woken up by the sound of my mother barreling into my room. Apparently she had been locked out of the house for a half hour, and her knocking had not awoken me. She was therefore forced to call my grandfather to get her in. So that was fun.
As you might imagine, I was pretty irritable all morning, until I got my hands on a computer to do some work on this blog. As you may have noticed, I have a new page up called Overheard Poetry. Essentially, what I intend to do with this is take little snippets of conversation I hear going about my own life, and sew them together to form brief poems. I find it fairly exciting, and a fun way to get myself more into people watching. That page won't have set update days, though so be sure to check back often to see what I've overheard. Could be profound, could be poop jokes. Most likely the latter.
That was basically the highlight of my day until I went over to Nate's house to hang with the group for a while. I got there as they were finishing a Halo match (Charlie proved quite proficient at this, surprisingly, despite lack of experience) and we decided to play Cards Against Humanity. You can imagine how that went.
We were also gonna play Munchkin, but it got late and we decided to call it a night. We may do that tomorrow night, actually, but we'll have to wait and see. Either way, it was a really great night, and I enjoyed getting to spend some time with my friends who, because of my schedule, I don't get to see very often.
Well, now that you're all caught up, I think it's time for the big unveiling. Airing tomorrw will be the first ever episode of my new podcast, called Geek Council.
I'll break it down for you. It's going to be a rotation-based podcast in which I will act as the host. Every week we will rotate in a new guest from the usual suspects, possibly with the occasional guest you may not have heard of on here before. The podcast will feature some really excellent news, and geek related topics, as well as spoiler-free (mainly) reviews of all the things you hold near and dear! Also featured will be a segment that will change depending on our guest that week. I'll leak one now, as it is participation based. We will have an advice segment, so what we want you to do is send us questions, and my guest and I will do our very best to try and not make it worse. Pretty sweet deal, right? Yeah it is!
That's all I'm telling for now, so you'll have to check it out tomorrow night to see more!
Tacos!
Gladdstone
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