Complete and Utter Randomness

=)

2006-04-27T12:34:00.000-04:00

So there are some new and exciting developments in my life.

Almost a year ago, I had a trainee in my New Hire Orientation class that I knew I would become fast friends with. Sure enough, Tina and I started spending time together not long after she finished training, and we became very good friends. For months after that we would spend time together here and there, and it was great.

Cut to a few weeks ago.

Every once in a while, Tina would make some allusion to her feelings about me, which were perhaps, a little more than friendly. I always avoided the situation.

Why? Basically I was dumb.

And afraid. To be perfectly honest, I'd never really been in a serious relationship before. I shut that part of me off, and didn't think I wanted it back. Lucky for me, Tina is persistant. A few weeks ago, she came right out and told me over the phone that she had feelings for me. In the course of four hours on the phone over two days, I told her that I was not looking for a relationship at the moment.

Big mistake.

Over the coming days, before my major epiphany, I would say some things that I will always regret. There was no malicious intent obviously, but what I said hurt her nonetheless. One conversation in particular, last Friday night, comes to mind.

However, after spending time with Tina that night at an Audiocentrix show, and later that night with her and her mom, I went home with mixed feelings.

I was still afraid of what would happen if I allowed myself to feel what I knew was there, under the surface. But I had really enjoyed spending time with her. So that night I thought for a long time. I thought about how nice it would be to take our relationship to the next level. It was a thought process that lead eventually to where we are now.

The next day I went to Tina's thesis presentation at Salve Regina University (she did an incredible job, by the way). Later, we had an early dinner with her mom before she left for home in New Hampshire. After Mrs. Anderson left, we went back to Tina's and looking at her, I made my final decision. It was time to jump.

This past week has been a whirlwind. We have spent vast amounts of time together, which still doesn't seem like enough. She has met my parents, step parents, and siblings, who all adore her already.

Every day is new and exciting. Tina is one of the most amazing people I've ever had the pleasure of spending time with. She is so intelligent, sensitive, and beautiful, that looking at her fills me with exhilaration thinking of what our time together will bring...

Oblivion

2006-03-28T14:29:00.000-05:00

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion for XBox 360 (and PC) came out last week and I'm definitely obsessed. I've put in over 56 hours since it's release a week ago today. I'm pretty sure that already beats out any game I've played to date, as I usually don't get that immersed. The only possible exception is the original Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. That one I beat after about 40 hours, and I started another character that probably made it about halfway through.

Anyways, obviously I've accomplished quite a bit at this point. I've become Arch-Mage (leader) of the Mages Guild, I've earned the highest rank in the Arena too (Grand Champion). I haven't done a whole lot of the main quest line, so that will probably be my next thing. I dabbled in the Dark Brotherhood, but it just doesn't fit for my character. My next one will be involved in that business, and probably the Thieves Guild as well. Then a whole different character will be the dumb fighter sort of fellow. In fact, that one might be next, I'll save the evil thief/assassin for my third foray into Cyrodiil.

There is so much to this game, I can't even begin to say. Just get an XBox 360 and pick it up... Or, I guess you could go over to the Official site, that might be cheaper.

XBox 360

2006-03-20T10:03:00.000-05:00

Alright, so we're now one day away from the release of Oblivion. I'm pretty excited about it. I plan to be unreachable for the rest of the week after tomorrow. In fact, I took Wednesday through Friday off from work so that I would have five full days of immersion. Yikes.

I've put some of my character creation ideas up on my website, where I'll also keep a sort of diary/journal of my activities in the game.

I beat The Outfit in single player, I thought it was better than the reviews it got. I'd say multiplayer is more fun though. I don't play much on XBox Live, so it would be nice if you could get achievements by playing split-screen multiplayer, like you can with Perfect Dark Zero. Oh well. I'm working now on getting all of the medals, but I'm not sure what they all are.

Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter is really good. For some reason, I haven't been that into the first person shooters lately. So that's why I haven't finished Call of Duty 2 on Veteran yet, and why I haven't played much GRAW. I'm sure I'll get into an FPS kick at some point and play more, but at this point my attention is focused on Oblivion.

I didn't really play Morrowind that much, I think I was thrown off by the lack of direction. I know, people say that is the whole point of open-ended games like the Elder Scrolls series, but to be honest I never really sat down and tried to get into it. I'm sure if I had, I would have obsessed over it as much as I have the latest installment.

I downloaded Feeding Frenzy from XBL, it's pretty good. I've played it on the internet before, there's a Flash version on the web somewhere. I don't think they call it Feeding Frenzy, but it's almost exactly the same. That reminds me, I have to add it to my list of XBox 360 games.

Good times at the Flanvention

2006-03-05T23:06:00.000-05:00

Alright, I know this has been a long time coming, but here are some of the highlights from the first Flanvention in Burbank back in December...

“Yeah, there are a couple of things about the movie that I would f***in’ change.” – Ron Glass after being asked if there was anything he would want to have seen done differently in the film. Nathan responded quickly with “Look, we had a meeting. We voted. Two people didn’t show up!”

The guys were asked what was their favorite episode.
Nathan: “Anything but Jaynestown. Which, by the way, I phoned in.” Then, in response to fake horrified gasps from Alan, he said “You know you did the same thing.”

“I only showed up to school so that I could perform at night. Wait, that didn’t sound good.” Sean

Ron explained that when he was in school, he was picked on, but once he DID stand up to the bullies.
Nathan: “Did you fight dirty?”
Ron: “No!”
Nathan: “You fight me, you’re gonna get kicked in the balls.”
Adam: “That ain’t dirty.”

While Ron was talking about when he was in middle school, Nathan says, "So you get to school, tie up your horse, and go talk to your friends."

Alan: "When I was in high school, I used to always wear this big sombrero. And when I got to class the teacher would make me take it off, but it was so big, it wouldn't fit under my desk. So they'd put it on the teacher's desk. So every class, there was my big sombrero up in the front of the room."

“Great, now I have a f***ing unicorn on my back” Jewel on what she thinks now about the tattoo she got when she was 18.

Alan on set having to do a wild line over and over: “Sweet barbecued crap!” And Nathan, holding his script like a menu, saying “I’ll have the same.”

“It’s the Morena Baccarin show!” What Morena calls the deleted scenes on the “Serenity” DVD because it was mostly her scenes that were cut.

“Oh, I heard how you peed on it, yeah” Morena on Jewel’s difficulties with the pink fluffy dress in “Shindig”
Jewel: “I thought I had the whole dress up around me, and I didn’t!”
Morena: “And I’m in there with her, and I hear ‘Shit, I peed on my dress’, although when I first heard ‘Shit’, I thought ‘Uh-oh….’”

“We’re NOT doing “Objects In Space”; I slept through that whole f***in’ episode!” Adam on his choice for which ep we should watch with cast commentary.

Alan: “If we're all family, does that make what me and Zoe do incest?”
Morena: “Well, you know what they say, if you can’t keep it in your pants, keep it in the family.”
Alan: “Who says that?!”

“Why didn’t you just kiss him? Stupid bitch.” Jewel to Morena as we watched the scene where Inara and Mal say good bye in “Out of Gas”

“Got wood?” or “Honey, get me a needle, I got a splinter.” Alan fooling around during the filming of his death scene.

“I made sure to get my mouth and tongue all over that bottle.” Adam on what he did to the bottle of booze right before he slid it over to Sean in the “I aim to misbehave” scene.

The male BDH’s were asked what kind of part they would want to play if they could choose. Nathan’s answer was a superhero, which elicited laughter, of course. Adam and Ron started making jokes about Nathan’s answer and Alan asked: “And what would your special power be if you were a superhero?”
Nathan: “Uh, to get Ron and Adam to shut up when I’m doing a panel.”
Later, on another panel, Adam was getting carried away and Alan says, "Nathan, use your powers!"

“The hardest part about throwing people on cables is stopping your face from doing this: (makes an amazed and impressed with himself face). Nathan on how cool it was to do Caleb on “Buffy”.
Adam: "Yeah, I got to do that to Boreanaz, that was great." (Referrring to his time on Angel as Hamilton.
“And not making the punching noise when you hit people. Dzzzh! Dzzh! Dzzh!” Adam as he throws fake punches.
Nathan talking about how he felt bad throwing around the Potentials, "Take this girl and you... throw her over there! This girl, she's maybe... 90 pounds?"

“Maybe he was a celebrity!” Nathan speculating on why the Alliance treated Book at their medical center.

“You could bench press me. And probably my house.” Nathan to Ron on why he wouldn’t want to cross him.

Ron: “Well, it’s difficult to address that question because…”
Nathan: “….you can’t remember all the roles you’ve had. You don’t have a grip on yesterday. I’m Nathan.”

“I said you were a good kisser. I wasn’t telling the truth.” Jewel to Sean
“No, Nathan’s the best. Right, Summer?” Sean

“I had a real bad experience on CSI Miami and I’ll just leave it at that.” Sean, on his worst job.
Jewel: “Note to self: Don’t do CSI Miami.”

Jewel: “I know Sean actually performed brain surgery to research his part.”
Sean: “On Summer. That’s why she’s crazy.”
Jewel: “Nathan would shake a pretend bag of marbles when Summer had to act crazy. It was really funny.”
Summer: “It wasn’t that funny.”

“No, he’s an asshole.” Sean responding to a question about whether Nathan crosses the line with his joking around or if the rest of the cast really enjoys it.

“Not enough room for the twins, huh? We only need one!” Nathan when it was discovered there weren’t enough chairs for the twins at the panel.

“I’m gonna guess life after death. Tell me I’m wrong, Ron, tell me I’m wrong.” Nathan after a fan asked Ron what spiritual influence he would’ve wanted his character to have in the future.

Fan - "Caleb and Hamilton. Who would win in a fight?"
Joss - "Lets find out!"

When asked who their favorite woman on the cast was:
Alan: "Gina. Not many people got Wash and Zoe, but it worked for me and Gina because we got along so well."
Sean: "I'm not going to answer that!"
Ron: "Morena. I always gave her a hard time, especially about her costumes. One time she came out from wardrobe, and I looked at her and said 'What is this, a f***ing carnival?'"
Adam: "Summer, because she was the set scapegoat. Anything that went wrong, lighting, someone missing a line, whatever, we'd blame on Summer."
Nathan: Unbuttons his outer shirt and has a Kaylee t-shirt on that says "Shiny."

Jewel: (about Nathan above) "Wait, what? He's wearing me on his chest?" (to Morena) "I wonder if he's secretly in love with me? One time we were doing a panel and he says 'Have you ever had a dream about me?'"
Morena: "I think at this point, we've all probably had dreams about each other."
Jewel tells Morena to share a particular story, she refuses, laughing, at first, then caves, saying "You guys CAN'T tell Sean Maher this... he's gonna kill me. Okay, I had this dream that we were in my car, and I was making out with Sean! He was trying to talk me into it!"
Jewel: "The best part was, they had their pants off! It gives me the willies..."
Morena: "He gave ME the 'willies' too!"
Jewel: "Well that didn't take long..."
Sean (later, on another panel, after hearing that Morena told the dream story):
"You betrayed me!"

When asked about if there was anything they were obsessive about:
Nathan - Harry Potter
Alan - Halo for XBox
Adam - Mountain bikes
Sean - Lord of the Rings
Ron - Golf
Jewel - Lost (and the cooking channel, she loves Rachel Ray, but Morena isn't a fan)
Morena - Shakespeare
Summer - Her evil dog
Joss - Veronica Mars and Little Women "One day I was talking about it so in depth with Tim Minear, that the other guys at the table had to start talking about football."

Different ways that Jewel and Nathan give each other the finger. Nathan's magic trick, and his Caleb doll at the end of the outtakes. Jewel getting 3000 people to do it to him at a con.

Alan talking about meeting the cast for the first time: "I met the captain, and remember thinking, this isn't going to work at all. This guy is no good as the captain, etc." Later, he made a reference to this to someone and they said "No, he's the doctor!"

A fan said that they heard Summer was really good with accents, so they asked her to do some for us, and Jewel says, "In other words, dance, monkey, dance!

Summer, tired of being the set scapegoat, saying on set "I'm just trying to do my job!"
A fan asked why she was the scapegoat, and Summer says "Probably because I was the youngest, least experienced..."
Morena and Jewel are both shaking their heads. Jewel: "That's not why. It's because you're perfect! You never make mistakes!"

Morena: "I remember this one time on Firefly, we were on set, and Nathan comes over to me and says, 'I just want to let you know that you were spectacular today, you did a really good job, your acting was just incredible... if you like eating horseshit!"
Jewel: "Yeah, one day he came up to me to give me this beautiful jewelry box. He said 'You're so great, you bring so much to the show, etc.' Then I opened the box and he had cut out the bottom and put his middle finger in there!"
After we watched Out of Gas, Morena saying "Wow, Nathan, your performance in that episode was really great."
Nathan: "Thanks."
Morena: "If you like eating horseshit."

At the banquet, someone asked Jewel about the strawberry scene in Firefly. She said the script only said "Kaylee enjoys a strawberry." That was her take on it, the rest of the cast gave her a hard time. Joss was like "Umm... okay." She said she doesn't even really like strawberries that much.

During BDP autograph signing:
Nathan asks what the hold up in the line is, Jewel laughs. Nathan yells "J-E-W-E-L, it's not that hard!"
Nathan yells Sean's name a few times to get his attention.
Sean: "What?!"
Nathan: "Are yuo writing 'Stay Shiny?' You don't get that, that's what I write, that's MINE."
Someone points out that Alan is using it too.
Nathan: "Alan, are you writing 'Stay Shiny' too?"
Alan: "No, I'm just writing 'Shiny.' 'Stay Shiny' is lame."

The other actor reading for Mal was Neal McDonough and that when they finally called Nathan back in, Joss joked that he got the role of Inara and Nathan said, "I can do that." When he was told he got the part, he didn't want to have to tell Neal that he got the part over him, so he tried to sneak out, but Neal saw him. So Nathan started running like he had to be somewhere and Neal shouted towards him, "Nathan you forgot your coat." and Nathan says, "Just keep it!" as he kept running.

Jewel is about to tell a story about a fan, and Sean says, "Wait, are you sure he's not in the room?" Then Joss pretends to pull a mask off as if he's the fan.

Nathan (about Joss): "He's not a nice man, he's not a kind man..."
Joss enters the room.
Nathan: "That's so weird, we were just talking about you."
Joss: "Well I've been talking about you guys too. (Pointing at someone in the audience) Specifically, you. Yeah, what was that? My wife was there. That was awkward."

Alright, if I think of anymore, I'll edit this post.

I'm going to post some pictures, on my site.

New Post

2005-12-28T14:30:00.000-05:00

This is a new post just for the sake of having a new post. I'm tired of looking at the old one, and I suppose no one can update it but me. So here it is.

Photos of the Serenity convention are coming, I promise. As it turns out, every time I post, my pictures are not in the vicinity. We'll get there.

It's a work most definitely in progress...

Some Neat Stuff

2005-12-16T14:34:00.000-05:00

I just took this little survey thing. It's pretty accurate, I think that's how I would probably describe myself. Being a Republican in general, I tend to not like the word "liberal" but it's probably true in some ways. There were a few questions that I was on the fence about, so I took it again leaning the other way and got "Capitalist Republican." So I guess it depends on my mood...

You Are a Liberal Republican

When you tell people that you're Republican, they rarely believe you.

That's because you're socially liberal - likely pro-choice and pro-gay rights.

You're also not so afraid of big goverment, as long as it benefits people and not politicians.

You are the most likely of any Republican type to swing over to the Democrat side sometimes.

What political persuasion are you?

You Should Vote For Bush

(You May Want to Hide This From Your Left-y Blogger Friends)

Which presidential candidate should you vote for?

This was cool too:

You Passed the US Citizenship Test

Congratulations - you got 8 out of 10 correct!

Could You Pass the US Citizenship Test?

The next one surprised me. I tend to think of myself as a logical person. I wonder what I got wrong to give me these results. You have no idea how much this is going to bother me... =)

Your IQ Is 130

Your Logical Intelligence is Below Average

Your Verbal Intelligence is Genius

Your Mathematical Intelligence is Genius

Your General Knowledge is Genius

A Quick and Dirty IQ Test

Oh well. I'm not sure how accurate these things are. I took another online one once and got a 136. I'm not nearly that bright... I think I just test well...

This site has this chart: Descriptive Classifications of Intelligence Quotients

IQ
Description
% of Population

130+
Very superior
2.2%

120-129
Superior
6.7%

110-119
High average
16.1%

90-109
Average
50%

80-89
Low average
16.1%

70-79
Borderline
6.7%

Below 70
Extremely low
2.2%

And, it says that scores of 130+ are in the 99th percentile. There's no way I'm more intelligent than 99% of the population. Don't think I'm not quite pleased that I scored so well, I am, I'm just doubting the results a tad. I always thought IQ tests were interesting though, so there you have it...

Back To Ten Degree Weather... Yay.

2005-12-14T09:45:00.000-05:00

Well, I'm back from my trip to southern California. I have to say: if you have a cold, the best way to recover is not traveling 2600 miles, three time zones, and 50 degrees difference in temperature and back again in four days. NOT recommended.

However, the Flanvention was incredible. It was such a good time. I got to meet all the Big Damn Heroes, Joss & Tim, and so many others. I'll put together a big post with all the details later, when I have my pictures handy to upload. Suffice to say for now, it was all I hoped it would be and more.

In other news, I got my XBox 360 last night! Very exciting. It's all hooked up, I was playing Perfect Dark Zero for a bit. I keep forgetting to place the sentry gun in the first level and failing that objective... yikes. I have so much going on though, that I've only played it twice.

What else... ah yes: My Dolphins beat the Chargers on Sunday, that was most excellent. And, I even got to watch most of the game. Since I was in Burbank still, San Diego is a regional team, so it was on local TV there. Very cool. I never get to watch my poor team unless they play the stinking Patriots. That's not usually a game I want to watch anyway, as the Pats usually give the 'Phins a solid pummeling.

Okay, I'll be back later with more on the Flan...

Hmm...

2005-12-07T10:45:00.000-05:00

Well, this is my first blog-type activity. After reading my friend Tina's blog, I decided to start my own. I could spend quite a long time ranting about the garbage passed off as Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, but you can just read my comments on Tina's site for that.

So what's going on...

Well, I'm getting ready for a trip. I'm flying out to California on Friday. They are having a convention for fans of the show Firefly, and its follow-up film, Serenity. I highly recommend both. The convention is a three-day event that will have most of the cast, and a bunch of guest stars, etc. I'm really looking forward to it. It's a nerd-fest, but then, I'm a wicked geek, so it fits. =)

I'll post more later this week, or when I get back. For now, back to work...