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

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

Sharpie Face=Passing Grade?

   We've finally reached that blessed halfway point in the week where the weekend begins rapidly approaching. The only downside here, is my English AP Exam is scheduled for Friday. Kill me.

The man who I'm relying on to help me
pass APUSH

   The good news is Krieger says that you only need about a 6 on each exam to pass as well as roughly 46/55 multiple choices (subject to change depending on the number of questions and the curve). I feel pretty confident that I can nail this. As for the American history AP...well, you win some, you lose some, eh? I'm really banking on John Green to get me out of that one. For those who don't know, John Green has an entire video series out that covers the entire course and it is a truly beautiful thing.
   I thing it's only fair to warn you, this is gonna get a little personal for a paragraph or so, so feel free to skip over this bit. In fact, I even encourage it, because it's really more for me than you guys.
   Sometimes I just get sick of being single. And by sometimes, I mean all the time. For a while I just ignored the entire dating/crush thing, and it served me well. But after a while, I just started to get lonely, and it sort of makes me regret that I ever started dating in the first place because I know if I hadn't, I wouldn't have this unique sort of loneliness. I'm always surrounded by good friends, but now when I'm single, there's that little emotional void that nothing really seems to fill. Don't get me wrong, I don't totally regret ever having had a girlfriend because some wonderful things have come from my relationships, and they've caused me to grow as a person. But for several months (almost a year, I think) now, I've been consumed with this awful regret, and I can't seem to figure out how to approach it. i made a really terrible decision one day, just out of no where and I don't understand why I would do it, but I did, and I went with it without thinking and I've never hated myself more. It's just one of those things where you can't seem to find a way to broach the subject, and just spend your time desperately trying to build up to it even knowing that you'll probably never reach that point.
   Anyway. Let's pick the pace back up, shall we? In the world of music, I had a violin lesson tonight with my private teacher, and we discussed my college plans for most of the time I was there. But what's really interesting is I've finally gotten to pick up a brass instrument. Specifically, low brass. Specifically-er, euphonium. This is because, as a flute player, I can't continue in marching band without picking up a different instrument. Another factor, was that Mr. Bill had been pressuring me to do it for a while now. Apparently we'll be low in that section next year, so it's looking like that's where I'll be spending my senior year, which I find kind of exciting. I think it will be fun to relearn all the parts for those couple songs that pop up every year.
   Speaking of exciting, ho-boy did something exciting happen today. at long, long last...it has been announced...by Nintendo...that coming soon...in November 2014...is the long awaited Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire remakes! Words simply cannot express how excited I am about this. Along with the announcement came a short, 30 second video. There's nothing super exciting in the video itself, but this is incredibly exciting. I, personally have been waiting for this since Heartgold/Soulsilver and I could not be more excited that it will (most likely) be running in the new graphics engine-although I wouldn't say no to a return to the old style, either. For those who haven't seen it, here's the video.

   Beyond that, I don't have too much going on in my video game life. I should be wrapping up this crazy music writing stuff in the next week or two, and then I'll be back to screwing around.
   This site is looking pretty sparse, and that's something I plan to work on soon here. If you guys have any ideas of what might be cool, feel free to leave a comment below!

Tacos,
Gladdstone