Category Archives: One Hundred Days of Blogging 2.0

All Aboard the Hype Train – FNAF Edition

Posted on by under One Hundred Days of Blogging 2.0
Naturally, the best way to approach this horrible idea was to buy all three games.

Naturally, the best way to approach this horrible idea was to buy all three games.

Happy Easter, or happy Sunday if Easter isn’t applicable. Either way, I hope you’re all having an at least moderately enjoyable weekend. I’m distracting myself with buffalo chicken dip as I write this, so there are no complaints here.

Instead of dancing around today’s topic, let me get to the point: I finally caved and bought the Five Nights At Freddy’s (FNAF for short) trilogy (or, rather, the three games that presently exist in a series that could continue) on Steam. I’ve mentioned, at least on two occasions, that I have a strange fascination with these games and how much of a following they’ve accrued, but I’m also terribly susceptible to jump scares. Not exactly the makings of a good purchase, so I instead lived vicariously through YouTube videos of people playing FNAF. After multiple viewings of Markiplier swear-babbling his way through all three games, as well as seeing The Completionist’s videos on this trilogy, I finally decided to take a chance at being the night shift security guard at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza. Continue reading →

Another artistic nobody’s thoughts on Tidal

Posted on by under One Hundred Days of Blogging 2.0

Greetings from dreary Carnegie, Pennsylvania! I’m all sorts of excited for a chance to visit home, harass former coworkers, and get some down-time to relax with family and friends. It also gives me time to actually sit down, slow down, and catch up on things I’ve wanted to post about, like this newfangled thing called Tidal. I am admittedly not impressed with this business of “Tidal for All”, as it’s based in the mentality that people who enjoy high quality music also have the funds necessary to shell out $20 a month to enjoy said music. I’ll get back to that point.

I am by no means a subject matter expert on the topic of music sales and the best ways to enjoy your favorite tunes (although, to be fair, I have to suggest there is no proper or best way to enjoy music so long as there is enjoyment involved). My primary means of enjoying music are my 160GB iPod, my laptop (which features Beats by Dre speakers, a feature I wouldn’t have deliberately gotten as I think Beats are yet another overpriced novelty), and CDs played within the confines of my 2011 Toyota Corolla. None of these things are particularly complex sound systems, yet I find my music to be as enjoyable as ever. I would dare say that most human ears wouldn’t detect the differences in music quality unless there are serious issues, such as an artist constantly popping their p’s or something. Unlikely.

More to the point: most people don’t have dedicated time to sit down and listen to the finest quality of music. Music is, instead, the background anthem of long drives, housecleaning, winding down after a long day, and so on. It isn’t a matter of Joe Everyman and Jane Everywoman (I’m so sorry, that reads like such shlocky writing) and the set time they have every day to direct this premium ear-cocaine into their brains for the latest fix. The iTunes gift card my mother has sitting on the computer desk next to me only enforces my points. People buy music to enjoy it while doing other things, not to fixate and pick apart its every little detail. That’s not to say there aren’t audiophiles who won’t obsess over every tiny detail. They are, comparatively speaking, few and far between compared to the largely Tidal-alienated consumer.

Continue reading →

Happy Throat-Punch Day

Posted on by under One Hundred Days of Blogging 2.0

Disclaimer: I have, in the past, been guilty of indulging in one or two April Fool’s Day pranks. My mother can confirm that I once called her, convincing her I’d dropped out of college and would need picked up from my apartment as I was being evicted for no longer being a student. My memory’s a little hazy, but I’m pretty confident the phrase “you’re an asshole” was involved in her response in some way or another. Deservedly so, I should add.

If you felt so inclined to prank someone today, I hope it was in good fun and nothing too harmful (preferably not harmful at all, really).

I promised myself I’d write more of a post, but I spent my morning cleaning and my evening at work, and 7a.m. will be here far too soon.

Given this laziness, I feel a preview is in order: I plan on writing about my thoughts on Tidal, adding to the thousands of other voices on this topic because why not?

PS: I’m actually a velociraptor who learned how to type words in a way that comes across as a convincing portrayal of a youngish writer who enjoys scotch. Hurr hurr hurr; April Fool’s. I’m actually just a jackass.

**** it.

Posted on by under One Hundred Days of Blogging 2.0

Today mutated into ten hours of work, and so I am (understandably, I think) quite exhausted. Continuing with my new habit of saying **** it and posting pictures, I’m leaving this entry in One Hundred Days 2.0 as a picture of my latest (and, really, first) personal touch to my office. It’s a cactus I bought while at Home Depot earlier, as I had to pick up some supplies for work as well. It still needs a name, though Fluffy is currently winning if I’m going by what has the most votes. I probably won’t.

My office cactus. Also pictured: the horrible state of (part of) my desk.

My office cactus. Also pictured: the horrible state of (part of) my desk.

A desire for endless creativity meets a finite capacity for ideas

Posted on by under One Hundred Days of Blogging 2.0

Or, more accurately, “the point where I want to keep creating fresh content forever but can’t do so without some level of planning ahead”. You get the idea. This is totally a post complaining about One Hundred Days of Fiction 2.0, the ill-planned idea that I had when I realized my blogging was falling by the wayside as I continued to try writing every day, but it also has more valid points to it. Promise. It’s not just a glorified rant (though it definitely is also a glorified rant, just so we’re entirely clear on that point).

Ask any creative person when they get their ideas. The answer, barring a particularly nasty creative block, will likely be some variation of “all of the time”. There’s no off switch on that stuff, people. Unfortunately, there aren’t enough hours in a day to always tackle every idea and so things get put on backburners, where they are left to either wait impatiently or gradually wither, die, and find themselves recycled in the great mess of other ideas.

There’s a lot to be said about maintaining consistent, good writing habits (or, really, consistent good habits). Writing a little every day, for instance, is a good thing. Forcing a structure to it for the sake of making sure writing happens? Probably not ideal for everyone. On the plus side, when I take the actual one-month hiatus from blogging that follows this, I’ll appreciate it that much more. Also, I’m pretty sure I’ll be on a strict fiction-and-editorial diet for a bit. That should surprise no one.

I’m starting to feel sick, which is unacceptable, so I’m calling it a night here before I get too much more into writing this post. I refuse to not feel well for my vacation.

And so my vacation countdown begins

Posted on by under One Hundred Days of Blogging 2.0

Yes, I know I sort of started said countdown already, but the official marker of “I’m almost on vacation” is really that I have one workweek between me and freedom. It’s not even a vacation about the destination so much as it is just not being at work for a week (and a few extra days), as I have reached a level of fried that is typically reserved for batter-smothered Oreo cookies and overheated hard drives. Sadly, I’m really proud of that joke because it came to me naturally despite my brain being all liquefied and so on. I’m constantly somewhere between high-strung and ready to pass out, which probably isn’t particularly healthy.

Thinking forward to vacation and bypassing this upcoming week, however, has also created something of a conundrum. In the same way many people yearn for the next weekend, I’m wishing away much of next week (including the drive to Pittsburgh next Thursday, which is further complicated by the Carnegie on and off ramps being closed on the Parkway; thanks for that, PennDOT) for the sake of next week, which could be excellent or terrible. It’s still just potential. I mean, I know seeing my family for the first time since Christmas will be fantastic and all, but there’s no guarantee the other bits of my vacation will have been worth this wishful bit of time traveling. That’s one whole week of time, complete with possible and probable good experiences, that I’m attempting to will out of existence. That, too, is probably not very healthy. There’s a lot to be said on the way many people live for two days of the week and exist the other five in hopes of making it to those two previously mentioned ones. On a related note, I’m beyond ready for my next tattoo…so that’s probably a strong indication that an addiction is a-brewin’.

Defending my wishes to bypass next week, and all of the hideous responsibilities it threatens, are the following: Jason, my brother-paladin, and Chrisy, my New Yorker sister who has accomplished far more than I ever will, are going to be home when I am. I will also get a chance to see my grandma, possibly my father, and some other relatives, so that, too, is wonderful. There will be much reading and writing in the later hours of downtime. At some point, I need to make stuffed french toast because cooking for people is loads of fun. I can’t, therefore, be completely damned for looking forward to these wonderful times, even if the bulk of my actual vacation will be spent cleaning up my apartment because there’s still shit in boxes from the move.

Ultimately, I’m going to get through the bad parts of this upcoming week by reminding myself of how much fun I’ll have with my family (and thinking about the impending Comedy = Tragedy + Time tattoo). I also vow to enjoy the good next week brings, no matter how limited it may be. Makes for a bit of a win-win situation until I’m on vacation, I think.

 

The great vacation book catch-up

Posted on by under One Hundred Days of Blogging 2.0

I made a delicious dinner of pulled pork sandwiches, but now I’m ready to hibernate and I couldn’t think of a topic for tonight. I glanced up from my laptop screen for only a moment and discovered, duh, I have the answer right in front of me. I’m referring to the well-stocked, largely-neglected bookshelves in my living room.

My habit of buying new books before I finish reading all of the ones I have isn’t exactly a secret. It’s actually the opposite, given how often I’ve mentioned it on multiple occasions. However, I have a vacation coming up soon. Once I survive–no, dominate–these next six days of work I will have at least a little time to sit back, relax, and get some reading done. I plan on getting back to working on stories and my novel, too, so that’s rather important, but this is more about reading. I’ve got three books I’d like to finish before returning to work, and so here they are (and why I’m reading them out of my options) in no particular order. Continue reading →

A return to making it a great week

Posted on by under One Hundred Days of Blogging 2.0

I’ll not mince words: this week has been pretty Hellish in terms of stress, but I can’t really say much regarding that because a lot of it is my usual introspective bullshit mixed with my capacity for building vast ranges of mountains out of a single molehill.

The good news: I managed to take a nap earlier, and it was glorious…and it gave me time to think things over after waking up, which is that precious time when I have clarity but not so much stress. Good times. Granted, that’s also the window I’m most likely to fall back to sleep in, but now I’m just over-complicating things.

A while back, I posted about my District Leader and his end-of-conference-call mantra of “Go out there and make it a great week”. It’s easy to lose sight of that as a goal, and so I think I need to make it a point to sit down every Sunday (which, really, isn’t so much the end of the weekend so much as the start of a new, potentially promising or terrible week) and put together a list of things that I’m going to try doing to make it a great week. These aren’t goals that must be accomplished, but possible steps towards furthering myself and my week in a positive way. They could be as simple as writing down five things I’m happy about with myself at that particular time to larger changes such as, say, cleaning up the house or whatever. The rewards are built into the actions, making this even better.

And now, if you’ll excuse me, I have two more posts to write before I go to bed tonight because I’m a self-destructive jackass.