poiuyt man

I never conquered, rarely came
Tomorrow holds such better days
Days when I can still feel alive
When I can't wait to get outside...

First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out—
because I was not a communist;

Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—
because I was not a socialist;

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
because I was not a trade unionist;

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
because I was not a Jew;

Then they came for me —
and there was no one left to speak out for me.

-Martin Niemöller

I took suggestions from a few online friends and decided to use my hobby of recreating 8-bit graphics to make my mom a Christmas present. She's a big Ms. Pac-Man fan.

Note that several pictures were taken while the glue was still wet (it dries clear).























The size inside the border is 8.125 x 6.125 inches, an approximation of a 65 x 49 pixel scene, each pixel blown up to 0.125 (1/8th) inch square.

The squares aren't perfectly consistent, as the foam is rather stretchy and I had some difficulty cutting it into such small shapes. I'm going to spray it with a clear matte topcoat to protect it from discoloration and help with structural integrity in case the glue weakens. I'll be framing the final product once it's dry.

Special thanks to Travis W. for spurring my interest in The Shins. Amazing band. 

I finished watching every single episode of ST:TNG in order, as well as movies 7-10. First Contact and Insurrection (the Frakes-directed ones) were the best. I hadn't seen Nemesis before; it wasn't very good overall, but the ending definitely had an effect on me. Sigh.

On to Deep Space Nine...

I practiced with Joey, Jessie, and Chris again last night — the second time since they parted with their last drummer. I've gotten over the initial self-consciousness I had when playing with other people, and managed to have a lot of fun. We figured out how to play "Is This It" by The Strokes in less than an hour after listening to it a few times on my iPod. It's not a complex song by any means, but it feels like a big accomplishment to me. I've also got Fortunate Son down (one of my all-time favorites), and was able to improvise my way through the rest of the songs pretty well. Playing in a band is fun. :-)

One more reason to go see Quantum of Solace: the trailer for the new Star Trek film is showing with it. *excited*

I started keeping an offline journal recently. There's a certain appeal to recording my thoughts on paper — it just feels more personal to me. My writing also seems to flows more naturally when I don't have to worry about anyone else reading it. My tools of choice are the Pilot G-2 0.5mm Extra Fine Gel Ink Pen, and the Moleskine Ruled Notebook, Large. $12 ($17 at the local Borders) may seem a bit pricey for a bunch of blank pages, but it's well worth it in my opinion — it has a solid, simple, exquisite feel to it that makes me want to write.

Have I ever mentioned I <3 em dashes?

the goal is tangible
it is reachable
it is doable
my current existence is what erodes my mental state
the dullness which I must endure to reach my goal
mundane and routine
it is excruciating
but it will be worth it

Quit smoking (again).

Start eating richer foods to increase body fat.

Go to court for my traffic tickets before they escalate to arrest warrants.

Pay off personal debts.

Every day without her hurts.

Megan's here!

<3

The T-Mobile G1, formerly known as the HTC Dream, was released today. It's the first phone to run Android, Google's ambitious open-source mobile operating system.

T-Mobile's online advertisement
Google's information page

I think this quote from "Clay" sums it up nicely:


Myself? I'm still partial to the iPhone's stunningly beautiful interface, but Android looks like it has a lot of potential. Unless my Pearl decides to crap out anytime soon, I'm gonna wait a while and see how both platforms pan out.

“Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?
Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing?
Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing?
Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing?
Then why call him God?”

-Epicurus

curiosity
happiness
longingness
lust
anticipation
frustration
anger
uncertainty

new favorite music artist:
Ratatat
simplicity
guitar, bass, and synthesizer
no words
an occasional vocal sample (rare)
similar qualities to Daft Punk
but less dance
more emotion
raw emotion

gonna try out this stream-of-consciousness thing out for a while
maybe I'll update more
never been easy for me to form coherent structured paragraphs
I write and then I go back and edit it a million times
fuck that
PAX was awesome, check out the pictures on MySpace
I love my Mac
Chris Mobbs is a douche that owes me $400
<3 Megan
<3<3<3 Megan
sigh...
need to replace my lost/stolen iPod Nano
the Nano 4G is beautiful
I'm thinking red
smoking way too much lately
my job rocks

so what the fuck happened here?
about six months ago I had my genres in iTunes consolidated to around 20
and now it's ballooned to 63 somehow
this is fucking stupid
fuck
they need the ability to support multiple overlapping genres
a tagging system
fuck this
fuck
Breakbeat, Electro, House are all going back into Electronic
goddamn
I fucking hate this

<3 Genius

<3 Grid view

<3 New equalizer

<3<3<3 iTunes 8

Storing fat is our body's way of sustaining us during long periods of time where little or no food is available. This was especially important during prehistoric times, when human existence was primarily nomadic. Would people with naturally high metabolisms (like myself) survived in such times? Would my inability to store fat lead to my demise?

Travis and I leave for Penny Arcade Expo after I get off work at midnight. 16-hour drive, woo!

Somehow I went from no jobs to two jobs in two days.

Well, looks like I can't sell my car unless I pay off the entire loan or if I can get someone to get it financed for the outrageous amount of money I owe (both extremely unlikely). Repossessed tomorrow.