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

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

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

One Short Day

   Welcome back, friends. I hope you all had an excellent Memorial Day. For those of you outside the United States who don't celebrate, I hope you had a great...Monday. Anyway, here is my delayed post, as I promised, and I have been waiting so long to finally get this out here. Exciting things. Let's jump in, shall we?
   So, Saturday morning I rose (reluctantly) at 7am to get in the car and drive the four hours to New York
City where I had the distinct privelege of seeing my all-time favorite musical, Wicked.

source: milwaukee.broadway.com

   Now let me just say, the first few times I went to the city, I was distinctly unimpressed. It always just sort of came off as crowded, and dirty, and smelly. But every time I go, I find I like it a little more, and this past time I thought maybe, just maybe I could even live there someday.

source: my iPhone

   We got into the city around 11:30. The show wasn't until two, so after getting lost briefly, we found the theatre, parked and found a restaurant (Applebees). We finished eating around 1:00, and my sister wanted to go to the Hershey store that was a few blocks down. It's a cute little store, but I didn't find anything particularly exciting about it. By the time we got out of there, it was 1:30 so we headed back to Gershwin Theater, got in and found our seats. I did manage to get a few crappy pictures of the set before the show started. It was really quite awe-inspiring to see. Everything was very steampunk, and the way the dragon at the top moved (yes it moves) was just so smooth you would never think it was attached to ropes.
   The show itself was absolutely stunning. Christine Dwyer as Elphaba was absolutely incredible, and she just meshed so well with Glinda. We sat up at towards the top of the theatre. The seats weren't great, but there really didn't seem to be any bad seats. If I had to make one complaint, it's that the audio wasn't quite up to par with Phantom. Now that may be a little much to ask, because no  one had a mic in this show, and everyone can't be expected to project the way that the Phantom did in that show (he just filled the entire theatre with sound. You could practically feel him singing. Oh, to have that kind of voice).
   Despite the sound being a little less than ideal, it was an incredible show. I expected to tear up during Defying Gravity, but there were just so many other little moments that really, really moved me. Moments where the audience laughed, I saw something completely different. I feel like people thought that the show was funnier than it was meant to be. To me, it's a tragedy. To most other people, they seem to think it's a cute little show that gives a new spin on an old story (trying to remain spoiler-free. It's an old show/book, but still).
   All in all, it certainly lived up to everything I hoped it would be, and honestly, may have been even better than I even could have thought. If you ever have the chance to go see a Broadway show, this is an absolute must-see.
   Looking ahead, Friday you can all expect an announcement regarding my new major project. I am currently getting together plans, and people, and the like. We're looking to launch in mid-June, but the official unveiling is scheduled for Friday, so stay tuned!
   I'll talk to you all tomorrow!

Tacos,
Gladdstone