Cleansing Discoveries

So I cleaned my room today. As much as I loathed it, it feels good.
It's good that I did that, because a few discoveries were made over the course of the time spent...

1.) I have a floor.
No, seriously. I'm such a packrat that most people who venture into my room think it's a quagmire.

2.) Ferrero Rondnoir candies taste good.
Prior to today, I've only had the Ferrero Rocher candies. I think I have a new favorite now...

3.) I have an HTML book?
Hey, didn't I say earlier that I was planning on making this place look better? I think this book oughta help!

4.) There were Lego pieces I found that I thought were missing.
Which is great - I used it to modify one of my fighters. Now it's gone from a dual propeller engine fighter-bomber to a dual jet engine interceptor with a pseudo-bubble canopy.

5.) ...I don't think there was a "5."
So why am I continuing with this list, then?

Well, I think I'm done for the night, so I'll see you all mañana.

A Plan to... Not Do Stuff?

Well, I think I figured out what I could do over the course of this "vacation" of sorts...

I can totally edit the look of this blog!
I mean, I haven't toyed around with HTML in a while, and by doing that (and editing the look), I can make this thing look more attractive and not-so-bland.

That, and watch episodes of things I haven't finished or seen in a while (i.e.: Burn Notice and Hayate the Combat Butler).

Oh, and I can clean up my room! *insert Psycho theme here*

Well, it all starts tomorrow!

Impending Motivation

With the recent cuts in hours most everyone in the retail world have been experiencing, it's led me to wonder what my next week (with practically zero hours) has in store for my side-projects.
I mean, sure - I can hang out with friends and catch up on old times. However, at the same time I think I can get something jump-started...



Current Music:
Joe Hisaishi - "The Girl Who Fell from the Sky"
Laputa: Castle in the Sky Original Soundtrack

The orchestrated piece played during the opening credits of Laputa: Castle in the Sky.
It's one of my favorite Miyazaki films, and... well, if you know me, you know two things are central for me to look at: the story, and the music.
Obviously, the music delivered - otherwise I wouldn't have the soundtrack.


Frank Klepacki - "Hell March 3"
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 Original Soundtrack

Anyone who's ever played any old school Command & Conquer game knows Frank Klepacki.
Back when the franchise was owned by Westwood Studios, Klepacki was the sole music guy responsible for every game's soundtrack, and he delivered.
But since EA took control of the franchise... eh. I like the music still, but it's just not the same.
Anyway, back to "Hell March 3."
This track takes the epic invasion-esque, guitar-pumped feel of "Hell March 2" and darkens the sound of it in a fashion that musically tells the Russians "Look what you just unleashed, you dolt."
If you didn't play any of the Command & Conquer: Red Alert games, I'll explain:
The original Red Alert explored the notion of time travel and alternate history. Albert Einstein creates a time machine and uses it to go back and kill Adolf Hitler. While this prevents the creation of Nazi Germany, it also allows the Soviet Union to become a powerhouse that isn't stalled by the Germans and lets them take over the whole of mainland Europe.
Red Alert 2 continues the story with an initially-successful Soviet invasion of the United States mainland and an Allied counteroffensive that ends up at the heart of Moscow.
At the start of Red Alert 3, the Soviets are revealed to possess their own time machine, which is used to go back and eliminate Einstein. This changes the alternate history so that Russia is once again able to conquer Europe. However, with the elimination of Einstein comes the elimination of technology derived from his research (i.e.: nukes), which means the Allies never drop atomic weapons on Japan... which lets the island nation (now called the "Empire of the Rising Sun") to become a rivaling powerhouse of its own and launch an invasion campaign on Russia.
Hence the "Look what you just unleashed, you dolt" sound. And the sound of awesome.


Gustav Mahler - "Quartet for Strings and Piano in A Minor"

(Oh, yes, I did just say I was listening to classical music. Awesome stuff, BTW.)
Quite a melancholic-sounding piece, but maybe that's why I was drawn to it.
While it possessed that depression-inducing feeling I recognize it for, it also carries with it an ambient, almost meditative sound.
I can draw some concentration power from this... so maybe I'll have this on the playlist as I type this out.
The fact that it has two of my favorite instruments (piano and violin) is a nice touch, as well.
OH. And to those of you who are wondering why I listen to classical music... or wondering if you'd ever listen to this... those questions will be answered somewhere down the road.
But if you've watched Shutter Island, you've heard this classical piece already - the scene where Marshal Teddy Daniels meets Doctor Jeremiah Naehring and first reflects on Daniels' experience at Dachau (that story involving the SS commandant's botched suicide) has this playing.





I wonder what the next six days after tonight will bring me.
The last time I had such an extended length of time off work, it was voluntary and in the form of my 21st birthday-slash-vacation.
During that time, I didn't really do much. I just relaxed, relaxed, slept, relaxed, had some alcohol (hey, it was my 21st), relaxed, and... well, that about wraps it up.

Now, while that sounds just wonderful in terms of getting away from work, it also means that I don't remember what I did when it comes to my side-projects.
Which probably translates into "I did jack squat for those things."
Project-wise, it was a stagnant vacation.

Ew. I hate stagnancy.

So I figured, hey - I'll try to work on something*. Been a while since I have, anyway, right?
Six days... enough time for me to make one major impact on something...

* = "Wait," you ask. "Didn't you say you were going to work on something of yours earlier this month?" Yes, I did. I probably spent a good five hours tops on stuff between then and now. Shame, huh?

...but what to work on?
I could work on sorting my music archives and getting myself to 10,000 songs (yes, I have enough music to do just that).
I could revise and work on one of my fan fiction stories (Unincorporated seems like my first choice for this one).
I could look up my old work for Shock Squad BETA and see if I can improve the characters any more than I already have (characters make the story, IMO).
I could find my old screenplay for that Screenwriting class I took and keep adding on to it (last I saw, I was roughly at 40 pages).
OR I could start something totally new - break out an idea, choose a medium to present it in, and add something different to my list of unfinished stuff.

The possibilities are quite endless, but unfortunately, six days... aren't.

Well, I'll probably come up with something while I'm at work. We'll see what tonight has in store for me...

Pay Day!

There's a certain eloquence that permeates my life every two weeks that brings sheer joy to my heart.

It's called pay day. And that day is today.
Doesn't everyone enjoy pay day?
That feeling of looking at their bank account and seeing that there's money in it... refreshing.
A brief feeling that lets people have a reprieve from their debt problems.

Well, after a short amount of time relaxing and sorting my music some more, I have to prepare for work.
I have to get money for my next paycheck, right?




Yes. I have to.
Words aside, I have a non sequitur thing to say: MONIES!
(Okay, so maybe that wasn't much of a non sequitur...)

Josh Blanco vs. the IRS

It's that time of year... the time where we adults have to file taxes with the government.
And I can actually say that I don't mind it so much.

To be honest, I have no idea how people stress out so much over this stuff.
Assuming you have all your documentation and what have you filed away properly, doing your taxes should be a breeze.

Of course... I didn't have much paperwork to burn through, so maybe it's just my situation right now.
Either way, though, I'm grateful for only having to use up an hour of my life filing this stuff.



Not much happening over here - but then again, that seems to be my trend these days.
Enjoying a much-needed day off and just killing time by sorting music I haven't had the time to go through.
Of course, the morning didn't look so neat.
Couldn't find my old paperwork and had to tear my storage unit up to find my old tax forms.

So, technically, it didn't take me an hour. Probably about one hour and 40 minutes... but it was worth it.

I'll leave the rest of you to relax or panic over your taxes. (Or worse: worry more if you don't have your W-2 yet...)

Something Tells Me Tonight Will Be...

...oh, I don't know. Interesting, that's for sure.
Seems that interesting things happen when I'm not supposed to be working...
...and I'm not supposed to be working tonight. Had it off, but I took a shift.

So, what does chaos* have in store for me...?



* = Now, by "chaos" I'm actually using the original definition. Not the "something bad's happening" one that present-day stigma has stuck on the term, no... but the "anything's possible" one that it should be used as.

The Master Manipulator

I had a weird day.
I woke up to a phone call saying I was covering a mid-shift.

On a Tuesday. On my day off.

Yeah, I'm probably over-exaggerating (yeah, I'm not), but that's not the point.
After I came home, I felt... compelled to look through some of my old things since I had the time.
So I stopped by my storage unit, grabbed a box of old papers dating back from God-knows-when, went home, popped in some old episodes of How I Met Your Mother and leafed through said box's contents with ambient, laughable background noise*.

And during that time, I came across an old poem I wrote back in high school. Granted, it's not my best work**, but... eh.
If anything, anything I post that dates back to this year can be used as a reference guide to show how I've either improved or stayed on the same plane between then and now.

It was a light poetry project where we had to throw up a poem. And I delivered. (I hope.)



* = And it's not just any background noise. It's totally legend-WAIT FOR IT.***
** = They say that an artist is their own worst critic. I subscribe to that theory.





"Life - The Master Manipulator"
By Josh D. "Whitey" Blanco


Life is the King of Dreams
pleasant, playful, perfect.
All about fun, success
faultlessness, friends,
love, contentment, power,
a care-free life.
We adore the King of Dreams,
for he rules us with
happiness, the light.

Life, however, is also the Queen of Nightmares
chaotic, cunning, confusing.
She makes you feel
worthless, alone, depressed.
She forces you to see
despair, destruction, death.
And darkness and dreariness
are what the Queen of Nightmares
rules this kingdom with.

I guess it could be said that
Life is nothing but a master manipulator
and we are nothing but mere marionettes.
Life tugs on our pull strings, lets us
achieve goals, find happiness, bring about peace.
But then Life pulls the other way
creating failure, grief, and bringing about war.
Life should just cut our strings and set us free...





Heh... well... I'll see you tomorrow.

Oh, wait; almost forgot...!

*** = -dary. LEGENDARY.

Watching Your Backs

Planning a game that will take place over several days... or weeks... or even months... can take some time.
But I can tell that it'll be a great thing once its managed and executed...

Anyway, onto the title and its meaning... and what this blog is about.

Assassin. It's a game. Look it up on Wikipedia if you're sounding paranoid.

And as I study the rules and figure out the rules and everything... anyone who intends to play (I'll be asking people soon) might want to start watching their backs... especially when it's game time.

Scheduling a Schedule

Trying to make plans with people when your schedule is horrible is like... well, ridiculous.
Doesn't matter. I'll come up with something somehow.

Maybe next week when I have zero hours.

We'll see, but due to my procrastination, I'll just... *goes off to watch How I Met Your Mother*

So... There's This Procrastinating Guy Named Josh...

...and he procrastinates on just about everything...
...including posting on a blog where he vowed to write things that people would love reading.

Of course, most of the time, he didn't have a legitimate reason, but today, he did.
And no, it's not related to work.

Oh, and in other news.. there will be something tomorrow.
Until then, expect me at work. Toodles.

A Useless Nighttime Revelation (or Two)

So I found out something interesting. I'm running out of computer memory for my stuff.

My laptop has a 500GB hard drive, and I have two external hard drives at 750GB and 1TB respectively.
Do the math, and you have 2250GB altogether
And the sad part is that between the three of them, I have about 200GB remaining. Less than a tenth.

TL;DR: I don't have enough memory left for stuff.*

* = What stuff? ...eh. I'll let you decide. And if you start diverting your mind to the gutter, you're way off.

This sucks. I need more... like an addict looking for another fix, I want to fill the remaining gigs of memory and grab another external.

...what? I could use some backup memory.





Oh, and another thing: nighttime shaving. It's a weird feeling.

Lazy Thursday

After spending all day in vain to figure out what to type for today, I realized I spent it relaxing and doing nothing.
Sure, I got nothing done (as per usual when one does nothing), but... it felt great.
No restraints, no pressures... just that feeling of peace and calm one rarely gets in life.

Unfortunately, having such a blank-slated day usually also calls for an equally blank-slated mind.
As I have nothing really big to say (apart from the fact that I somewhat meditated myself into a state of relaxation), I'll just leave and relax some more, wondering what tomorrow has in store for me.

We'll find out, right?

Not a Morning Meal Advertisement

Current Music:
Saki Kabata - "Lonely Rolling Star"
Katamari Fortissimo Damacy
Oddly enough, the Katamari series' music seems like a jack-of-all-trades when it comes to timed tasks - from missions in-game to typing a blog entry with as little time as possible, it does the trick.
Plus, it seems... calming. As if something wasn't breathing down your neck, watching as you finish your task - or else.





Every once in a while I wake up with an urge to cook myself breakfast. The need starts small when I wake up, and as I'm slowly getting started with my day, the idea of a home-cooked, hearty first meal of the day sounds enticing enough that it's worth slaving over the stove for.

And usually, whenever I have a decently delectable dish like that... the day has its ways of being more tolerable.



So far, today's one of those days.
Woke up and stared at my laptop, trying to figure out what to do before -
*phone rings*
Oh. Got called in to work early. It's a double-edged sword, but eh - money's needed, and since it's one of the things that makes the world go 'round*... yeah.

* = Yeah, I know. It's not money. Actually, it's not just money. But we'll save opinionated beliefs of the world for a later post, m'kay?

So I got out the frying pan and made me a hearty brunch (I say brunch because it was about 1300 when I started cooking.) - eggs, ham, and re-fried rice (remember the abnormally large batch I made on Monday?)
De-lish.

Now I have the energy to get myself propelled through the course of the evening. Such a shame it's going to be exerted at work... but that's how life works, right? Disappointment all around?

Not if you have a solid meal fueling you for when you need it, though.



Which brings us to the conclusion and (more importantly,) today's "lesson:"

Eat breakfast. You won't regret it.

Leggo my Lego!

So I went rifling through my storage unit today and I found my old Legos.
I was so ecstatic, I brought them home with me and I currently have them set up across the room.

Something tells me I'm going to start another war between my fictional factions.
Which would be great - a war economy can be created.

It's funny - some of the most random stories I've created were based off of the stories I did while I played with my toys.

I'd say it proves that Legos are some of the greatest toys on this planet. And I wholly intend on making sure my future children know this fact.



Now, if you'll excuse me... *runs to his current Lego warzone*

Kitchen Katamari

As I prep myself for the savory task that awaits me, I realized that the music from the Katamari games works perfectly with working.

Current Music:
Masayuki Tanaka - "Katamari on the Rocks (Main Theme)"
Katamari Fortissimo Damacy
The title song of the first Katamari game has been associated with the series as lighthearted... silliness.
Now, if you're not the type that pays attention to video game music (which is a lot of you), then you're missing out.
Next time you get a grueling task that'll take you a while, pop this in and watch and see how well it helps you work.
I figured, if it helps you roll up a Katamari faster* then it oughta help you work faster.

* = It doesn't, really, but if you apply to the Placebo effect, then it will.



FOOD! Fried rice of tasty, delectable goodness!
And I'll be cooking up a huge batch today! Mmm, deliciousness awaits!

So, before I go to my job and "work," I'll stay here and actually work on this stuff.

And by "stuff," I mean "cook fried rice." (As if you haven't heard enough of me saying that.)

Roll on, Katamari frying pan!

Your skill in Cooking has increased to 4!

I can smell the tasty delectable that is fried rice cooking...
...why, you ask? Well, I'm cooking a whole lot tomorrow before I head off to work!

...what's with that look? Just because I've been making a gazillion World of Warcraft references lately does NOT mean tha-

*blinks*

...oh. OH. You're staring at me because I said I was cooking. TOMORROW.
Well, stop looking at me like that and let me explain myself.



I'll be honest: I'm not that good of a cook yet. So far, the only real things I know to cook are breakfast and... well, breakfast.
In further honesty, tomorrow will be the fourth time ever that I've cooked fried rice.

Now I'm willing to bet one of you out there's wondering how those first three batches were.

The first? Made the mistake of throwing in green beans. Yeah, sure; veggies; they're decently good. But they offed the flavor - gave the rice a more bitter feel.

Try two was a bit more successful, and my friends thought it was decent, but I lacked onions and used onion powder in place of it. Not as crunchy and zesty as I'd hoped, either.

The third batch was my most successful - I brought a platter of it to my job during New Year's Eve, and it was completely scarfed within minutes.
From the reviews, it was filling, had a flavorful kick (thank you, spices) that also didn't linger, and was just... MMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!
Amazingly satisfactory, but also depressing - people went in for seconds and nobody else present at the time got to have a few bites.



Which is where Batch #4 will come in.
Honestly, I can't call it fried rice if there's not a heaping bowl or platter's worth of it - because the stuff is almost inhaled. Nobody can deny that once they have a bite.

Now, if you work with me, I'm gonna say right now: if you're not closing tomorrow night, you're missing out.
To everyone else: Batch #5 will probably be the one you'll want, because by the time you find what's left of Batch #4, you'll... oh, who am I kidding? It'll be gone long before you arrive and the only thing I have left to offer is the wafting aroma of freshly-cooked goodness.




...great. Now I'm starving for some already. Karma...

S

Shortest title for ANY of my blog posts. EVER.


Current Music:
Men Without Hats - "The Safety Dance"
Rhythm of Youth
S
A
F
E
T
Y
Safety. This song will save your life. Trust me on this.



Well, decent day so far. Woke up rather late and felt refreshed, so I'm happy about that.
Work tonight, but... I'm somehow not dreading it.
Possibly because I'm going to have "The Safety Dance" blaring through my mind all throughout the night.

Which is good - music helps keep people happy.
And in this case, safe.

Stay safe until tomorrow, everyone.

Brains Suck.

(Author's Note: Warning: contains strong language. Read at your own risk. =P)

Currently, I'm doing Ulduar right now in World of Warcraft, and I'm typing up a post in the downtime between fights.
I have to say, this is probably the most fun I've had in a while* when it comes to this game.

(* = Dying, however, is NOT fun. I've died a few times already...)



To anyone that plays, I currently play a Blood Elf Protection Paladin, and apparently I'm one hell of a tank thus far.*
Despite all that, I get scared easily, and my morale is somewhat easily deterred when it comes to my tanking confidence.
But I think everyone needs to start learning and earning their self-respect and morale at some point, right?
Only way to learn is to play, and the only way to play... is to be awesome.
Which... Paladins happen to be.

(* = TL;DR: I protect my friends from damage. And I'm good at it.)


However, I have one thing to say about this place...

Yogg-Saron... is the DEVIL.

Okay, here's a quick synopsis of this fight for those of you who don't play.

Picture a massive brain with tentacles that's both figuratively AND literally mind-fucking you.

At the start of this, you're given a sanity meter of sorts that reports you as completely sane.
All the while, a bunch of things happen that slowly force your character's mind to descend into madness.
Things like LOOKING AT SKULLS or smacking tentacles or LOOKING AT NOTHING.
Now, should your sanity drop to zero, Yogg-Saron possesses you until he dies... or your team does.





A lot to take in... because it's fucked with your mind.
He's killed us twice, and I'm scared now...

Old Habits Die Hard

I would've posted something, but I was too busy tanking Naxxramas and trying to kill Kel'Thuzad.

Which is why I should highlight the word "trying."

He's wiped us three times and he somehow glitched and reset himself on the fourth attempt...

Which brings up a quote...



"Quitters never win, and winners never quit. But those who never win and never quit are idiots."

So That's Why We Do That...

The following is a little blurb that I took from my DSi. It made me think, and that's probably why I'm rewriting it.



I worry about my future. I think about it too much.
All the things I do with my life have led me to ask myself if I'll make it out there like I hope for.
I mean, look at me.
Look at what I've been doing lately...
Am I just in a bad mental rut?
Or am I trudging towards something worse...?



I think in all our low points in life we start thinking like this. It's not a happy place to be in, and as much as I find myself down here I can't help but feel somewhat comfortable.

A sickening feeling, yes, but... it could be worse.

Besides, it's good to fall, in my opinion.
Yeah, give me that crazy look, but here's my reason why...



"Why do we fall...? So that we might better learn to pick ourselves up."
       - Alfred Pennyworth
       (Batman Begins)

A quick update on why there's no blog today (even though this counts)...

So I'm playing World of Warcraft and doing Ulduar right now.
First time. It's fun... why didn't I do this before?

Hehe. I'll post something MUCH better than this tomor-

*sees himself get killed*

Jesus! See y'all later!

The Tenth BETA

In today's entry, the title's meaning is quite simple to figure out:

• "Tenth" would refer to the tenth blog on this New Year's resolution. Ten for ten! Yay!
• "BETA" refers to the second revived project I said I'd talk about today, Shock Squad BETA.

And yes, the "the" doesn't really refer to anything. Herp.





Current Movie:
The Karate Kid [1984]
Such a good movie. Enough said.



Current Music:

Journey - "Don't Stop Believin'"
Escape
When someone starts belting this song out, I can't help but join along.
Screw my untrained vocal chords; I'll sing about that "small town / girl living in a lonely world" and that "city boy / born and raised in south Detroit" any day*!

(* = Unless I'm sad. No Journey song should be sung when you're sad.)


Hiroyuki Nakayama - "Memory of the Wind / Legend of the Eternal Wind"
Final Fantasy III Original Soundtrack
The opening cinematic music for Final Fantasy III really caught my ears when I heard it.
Blissful.



"Wherever we want to go, we'll go. That's what a ship is, you know. It's not just a keel and a hull and a deck and sails - that's what a ship needs. But what a ship is - what the Black Pearl REALLY is - is freedom."
       - Captain Jack Sparrow
       (Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl)

Quite an interesting quote by an equally-interesting pirate. Despite all his piracy and... let's call it eccentricity... Sparrow is one of those outlaw-styled antiheroes who knows what they're doing.

Now, as Sparrow (sorry; "Captain" Sparrow) refers to his ship, the Black Pearl, as a means to freedom, so too will I proclaim something as a vehicle to freedom.
Right now, the only escape I'd say I have would be my writing, but it's done a heck of a job thus far. I don't think it'll let me down just yet.

Okay, I'm wrong. There IS a second thing I have at the moment that can act as a vehicle to freedom - my car.





Now, on to the two important things this blog will cover. First things first, though - I have to cover the second project. Those of you expecting a "10th Blog Speech" will have to wait.



Shock Squad BETA

Back in early 2006 (my Junior year in high school) I was heavily interested in the media form known as "machinima."
To those who don't know (or are just too lazy to look it up on Google), machinima is  "the use of real-time graphics-rendering engines to generate computer animation" (retrieved from Wikipedia on 10 Jan 2011).
Usually, said graphics engines are usually video game ones (such as Halo: Combat Evolved, Quake, and The Sims), and the game itself is used to act out scenes for whatever purpose.

One of the biggest hits at that time (and one of my big inspirations) was Rooster Teeth's famous series Red vs. Blue: The Blood Gulch Chronicles, a Halo comedy series that told the story of two squads of combat-inept soldiers and the madness they experienced during their "conflict" with each other.

I wanted to create my own machinima series, and so I began writing out the script to a series that would come to be known as Shock Squad BETA. Originally, it was going to be a Halo 2 machinima that showed the tale of "the worst special forces team in history" and their hilarious combat operations while working with another, better special forces team.
(Looking back, I think I found it to be quite similar to Red vs. Blue, but to be honest, a LOT of Halo-based machinima at the time felt like a Red vs. Blue clone anyway...)

As time progressed, however, I came to realize that the original concept was too slapstick and mundane to grab the focus of the audience - the characters felt one-dimensional and fresh off the stock character shelves, and the story line I contrived threw suspension of disbelief out the window.

So, a bit after my 19th birthday, I scrapped the original concepts and plot and began anew. At the time, I was experimenting with more dramatic elements of writing and decided to weave in some of that into BETA.
"The worst special forces team in history" became a squad in a special forces unit that would end up becoming a group of unsung heroes in the Halo timeline.
"Hilarious combat operations" transformed into a campaign so twisted and controversial (story-wise) that the audience would be biting their nails with each passing minute.
The one-dimensional characters were replaced with a cast that felt more... human. They weren't just any ordinary "antihero" or "damsel in distress" or "straight man and foil comedy duo" that would say completely cheesy lines and be forgotten afterward. They became people that the viewers would care for - be cheered for when something good happened, and become empathized when the opposite occurred.

And that's where I am currently - the eight main characters of BETA, a story that would grab the audience, and no urge to continue nurturing them.
Granted, to even begin filming any of this would be costly* and time-consuming, but I've realized that I'm nowhere close to the production stage.
It's a good thing, too - in my opinion, the characters are the most important part of the story. I'd rather they get fully fleshed out before I even begin filming.

All I know is I'm definitely going to have a lot of fun going over the stuff I have again. I always dreamed of BETA being a sort-of magnum opus, and... well, that kind of importance always made it interesting for me.

(* = I'm not kidding. If I were to start filming right now, I'd need three to four XBox 360s, multiple controllers and copies of Halo 3, three to four televisions or monitors, a video capture card, video editing software, and the willpower of everyone involved with the project. Yipes.)





And now, the celebratory part of the blog... because, y'know... this is the tenth blog!

YAY! (Yes, that's it. What, you expected some crazy Java applet that threw confetti all across your screen?)

I'd like to thank people, but it's only been ten days. That, and nobody's really been on this site commenting or whatever...
...maybe that means I have to advertise some more.





Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some writing to do before work tonight! I will see everyone later!

Well, I Delivered... Somewhat...

...but it's not DiGiorno. (Yeah; t'was lame. Sue me.)

Yesterday, I promised whoever reads this little (and hopefully bigger) blog of mine that I'd explain the two projects I planned on resuscitating.
And that's what I intend to do tonight. And tomorrow.



Current Music:
Robin Williams - "Prince Ali"
Aladdin: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

After we closed, I decided to break out the music. And after a few requests (consisting of various Disney songs and a certain aquatic song by The Lonely Island), I played this.
Fun-sounding song. Now to learn the lyrics so I can belt them randomly.


The Lonely Island - "I'm On a Boat (f. T-Pain)"
Incredibad

Now, if "a certain aquatic song" wasn't enough of a clue for you, you either live under a bigger rock than I do, or you just don't care for comedy hip hop.
Anyway, it's such a fun song to blare while going down the highway. It's even better if you got a friend singing with you.
Quick note: if you're caught in the open and you decide to sing with me, I call dibs on T-Pain's lyrics. =P





Now, on to the explanations on the first of the two writing projects I intend on reviving...



Unincorporated

When I tried to revive my fan-fiction writing over a year ago, I decided to work on a game franchise I was just learning about and beginning to enjoy: Street Fighter. (Yeah, I know; very late of me - most everyone else here's probably done their fair share of Hadouken-spamming* long before I even started using the famed "Killer Bee" Cammy...)

Anyway, I always enjoyed reading comedic pieces - every so often I'd find something that would just make my day and brighten the world somehow.
So it was decided that I'd write a comedy piece on the famed series...

...but what to write?
I looked back at the stories that drove me to become a fan-fiction writer in the first place, and I remembered an old favorite of mine - a Metal Gear fan-fic called Isolation Will Do That to You by an author named LadyCroft (I'd link it, but sadly, it's no longer on FF.net anymore), where the cast of the game Metal Gear Solid were living together in some Alaskan town in the middle of nowhere.

So I decided to follow a similar route and chucked the Street Fighter characters I knew of (take the playable characters of Street Fighter IV and remove the new ones - Abel, C. Viper, El Fuerte, Rufus, Gouken and Seth - and that's who I tossed in) into an unincorporated part of California.

Havoc would ensue and the townsfolk would've gone nuts... had I continued writing, at least.
But maybe there's redemption for me and this story just yet...
(Besides, I still have to add MORE characters, right?)

(* = If you played mainly as Ken, then it was probably more like "Shoryuken-spam" instead, wasn't it? lol)





Well, that's the explanation for Unincorporated.
Tune in tomorrow for the summary and revival of Shock Squad BETA and the celebration of my 10th blog here!

You'd Think He'd Take That Last Blog to Heart...

I think I got an idea on what projects I'm going to (attempt to) revive...
...some of my fan-fiction, and my machinima project.

Now, if I had more time on my hands (looks like yesterday's blog about time management hasn't kicked in yet...), I'd totally tell you in full, excruciating detail what they were...



...but I don't. I'll at least tell the names of what they are...

Unincorporated (Street Fighter fan-fic - comedy)

Shock Squad BETA (my Halo 3 machinima... that's been in the works for OVER FIVE YEARS)





I need to really set up more time for myself and this blog. Perhaps tomorrow I'll explain it all, huh?

Time Manag- LOOK AT THE TIME!

"In every job that must be done, there is an element of fun. You find the fun, and snap - the job's a game!"
       - Mary Poppins
       (Mary Poppins)

While this is true, I'm not sure if this applies to the wonderful world of retail. Then again, maybe I just need to look at it in a different perspective. I mean, Mary Poppins certainly couldn't have lied to me or anyone else...





Well, not much to report on today. Late wake-up, some time on WoW, and now I have to take off for work.
Now I know this seems to be just a skim of what I could, I think it's a measurement of my current lack of time-management.

Hehe... maybe I can look back on this later on and measure how better I am than now...

...time management. Wow. Maybe I should go before I end up being late.
For food. And work. But mainly food - lunch calls.

But we'll see what happens at work. Time to find some fun!

The Nameless Angel

I leafed through some of my old stuff again today, and I found a poem I felt compelled to share.
That, and I wanted to archive it on the Internet for all eternity (or until the servers crash and lose all the data ever archived).

So, yeah. Here...



"The Nameless Angel" (working title)
Josh Blanco

Another chaotic day
becomes my history as I come home
I see the gateway to relief: my bed
dive into the cold pool of sheets
and begin to relive the day

A melody of words emanates the air
asking if I was alright
I face the open door
see a glowing golden seraph
gazing back at me

She stands in the doorway
erenely cute as ever
curtly smiles my troubles away
becomes my true confidante
as I rant life's problems away.

As I vent her petite form sits next to me
becomes my ever-longed voice of reason
guides my thoughts
with her cotton-soft hands
and an invigorating smile of hope

She sings a bright future into my heart
as velvet curls intoxicate my psyche
until the lines of reality and fantasy blur into one
her ethereal kiss
and the aftertaste of hope

She is an angel in my mind
formless in reality
a representation
of what I look for in love
my soulmate's spirit wandering free






I'm such a sap, aren't I? *sighs*

Amusing the Muses' Muse

Yeah, the title seems to cover the two things I wanted y'all to know:

• I've been thinking too much about something. (People who know me: you know this isn't a good thing. =P)
• I was listening to Muse for the majority of this entry.

Current Music:
Muse - "Undisclosed Desires"
Uprising
I'm going to be straightforward to you all about my thoughts on this song. I... feel as if I have an emotional connection with this one.
Granted, Muse is just bombtastic with a good amount of their music, but... for some reason this just hit me pretty hard when I analyzed the lyrics.
My take on the meaning? The singer is speaking to someone they care for. Said someone probably experienced some emotional trauma in their past and thus built up an array of defensive mechanisms - isolationism, sarcasm, iciness... perhaps even violence - all in the name of trauma prevention. The singer explains that they are willing to be with them... to heal them... to genuinely love them...

...a hero(ine) and his/her wounded prince(ss)...





So I was rifling through some old notebooks I found in my storage unit earlier today.
These originate from various eras of my life and have been used for multiple reasons - high school, post-high school, homework, random doodles and scribbles.
A lot of stories, scripts, comics, drabbles and what have you that I never got around to finishing.
Lots of lost memories and papers... surfacing through my brain and reminding me how crazy I was back then to think up all of these ideas...

It got me thinking... maybe I should go through my hard drive and dust off a few of my old projects.
Some were really great - I still believe they have the potential to become excellent stories or poems or movies.
And some... well, I think it's best if I leave them unmentioned.

So I tried counting each one of these written works-in-progress, and I lost track of it all somewhere at... oh, I'm gonna ballpark it at about 137 or so, spread out across nine composition/spiral notebooks.
Granted, I should've kept count somewhere, but I didn't, and I'm too lazy to recount.

In all this time, one of those 137+ projects could have been finished long before now... and I probably would've had a bit more pride and self-respect.
But as a man who has yet to follow through with any one of those written, undisclosed desires... well, here we are. *shrugs*

All this self-reflection is a dangerous thing for one person to handle by themselves. When the wrong kind of person (read: "the kind that thinks too much") gets this on his/her plate... it can do some damage.
But I'm doing what I can to just look at this all with stride... to not let it affect me and force me to realize how much of my life I've spent shooting the breeze and not pursuing the completion of at least one of these tiny pieces of work.





I got it. I think I'll start on something next week. A poem, a short story - something - and then I'll post it up here for the world to see.

Until then, I'll just keep posting each day like I've been doing so far. See y'all later.

I'll Type Up a Blog... AND POST IT!!!

To those who've never read any of my blogs before:
Since you're here this must mean you know of my... well, let's go ahead and call it "eccentricity."
Anyway, each post title (usually) had a cryptic, double-spoken meaning behind it, and I'd take this space to summarize the post's contents and explain the meaning.


But this one? Hehehe... I don't think an explanation's necessary.










Current Music:
Marco V - "Godd (f. Lesley Hendriks)"
Con:Fusion
Pretty aggressive trance piece (oxymoronic, ain't it?) here. Now, the fun part is that every gamer I know of that knows a bit of World of Warcraft-based humor (which is every gamer, really) actually KNOWS this song... and they don't know it.
Confused? I'd be, too, but ask me.

Raffi - "Bananaphone"
Bananaphone
Seeing as how this blog seems to be heavy on the silly side, I figured I could listen to something fun(ny).
This kids' song definitely works. =D


Sugar Ray - "Someday"
14:59
Speaking of silly, this mellow song works in increasing the silly factor.
I know - "...HOW, exactly?"
Well, picture the zombie apocalypse - a real-life Day of the Dead scenario or something.
Now, while imagining both the relentless slaughter of the living or the heroic annihilation of the undead, plaster "Someday" as background music to each scenario. (Better yet: if you have the song, play it.)
Bet you couldn't picture either scene without breaking out into some sort of laughter, right?


Yoshihisa Hirano and Hideki Taniuchi - "Low of Solipsism"
Death Note Original Soundtrack
From what I heard of the album, it's pretty good.
I'll be honest, anime fans - I have yet to watch Death Note, but I think I just might sometime soon...






"In dangerous testing environments, the Enrichment Center promises to always provide useful advice. For instance: the floor here will kill you; try to avoid it."
       - GLaDOS
       (Portal)


Deadpan, malevolent, and deceitful... I think that's plenty to describe Portal's cake-mentioning* antagonist.
I remember when I heard her say this the first time, I had to stop playing for a few seconds - I found it quite funny.

And then as I fell on the floor and watched it kill me, I remembered... she was right. Nerts.


* = Yes, unfortunately... the cake's still a lie.










So, in conjunction with how silly this blog has already started (as if the silly title, the silly songs, and the silly quote weren't enough of clues), I'd like to take the time to remind you that this is a blog of my life.


Which just so happens to reflect my overall mood from the day in general (or the part before I typed this post up).


Which just so happens to be on a positive note.


Which is weird, because I'm usually not like this.

Which is also scary, because I tend to get a bit... surrealistic.




Anyway, after a weird 1400-2200 shift I came home, realizing I had two off-days to spend shooting the breeze. Already have some plans made (friends visited me while I was working), and then some.


But for some reason, I'm craving sushi. Honest to God, I haven't had a good sushi fix in months. And as a confirmed sushiholic, I think I'm jonesing for some pretty bad.
I think I hear some salmon calling for my name already...


Oh, and breakfast, too... that's sounding REAL good now... no, no, a breakfast BUFFET! Yeah.




Seriously, though... sushi is starting to make my mouth water... I could use some, and I think I should go get some either tomorrow or Thursday with some friends.


And I haven't hung out with friends in a long time, either. More recently I've been more of a shut-in following the "food --> work --> games (usually WoW) --> sleep --> repeat" cycle, and it's got me in a bit of a rut.


I like breaking ruts.


And this pseudo-surreal blog broke the whole "95% serious" aspect of this blog, didn't it?
I'll leave you to judge.





Until mañana, everyone!

(P.S.: Don't judge me on the random gaps. Normally I have things uniformly spaced out, but... I think my HTML's off. Hrm...)

Rundown on "Format" and That "Mandatory" Introductory Interview

Hello again, everyone. I figured the first post did not do me justice in terms of a proper introduction, so I figured I'd make up for it with a little "interview" of sorts so you can stalk know me better.

*cough*

But before I do that, I'm going to explain how I usually "format" my blogs (veteran followers of mine: y'all should know how this works, so scroll down until you see a line of words in all-caps*) just so everyone is on the same page.



Before I post the meat of the blog, I like to top it with current things (rather, things current at the time of the blog being typed) in my life and post a quip or 17 about it.
Such include music I'm listening to, movies I've recently watched, games I'm currently playing, a quote that caught my eye, and so on and so forth.
Some may view it as annoying filler to distract them from the real deal while others see it as a curious insight into my mind and my tastes of entertainment. A few have even garnered newfound likes from things I've listed on here!

In my view, it sets the mood and enhances the experience. Like the right wine with the right food, fitting music and other media can greatly influence a person if the time is right, and I'm one to share what has got me feeling elated or depressed or what have you.

I digress. For now, I'll just cite an actual example with this blog...




(* = I lied. There was no line of words in all-caps. Nice try attempting to pull a "TL;DR" on me.)



Current Music:
Martin O'Donnell and Michael Salvatori - "Unforgotten"
Halo 2 Original Soundtrack: Volume 2
Quiet, serene... what this morning is right now as I type these words.
What really registers with me is everything starting at 0:54... that piano and string combination are pretty powerful.


Shinedown - "Second Chance" 
The Sound of Madness

I thought this song to be rather fitting - new blog, new year, a refreshing start.
Only I'm not telling people "I've done the best I can." Heh.


"The good writing of any age has always been the product of someone's neurosis, and we'd have a mighty dull literature if all the writers that came along were a bunch of happy chuckleheads."
          - William Styron

Figures as much - I'm not THAT much of a happy person (as you may soon find out).
And strangely my work's always better if it's of a depressing demeanor or if I'm in a depressing demeanor when I write.



So my pre-blog things work something like that. A short summary or nonsequitur (usually an explanation of the blog's title) followed by the current stuff.

And now that we have that out of the way... let us conduct the interview I did... about me!





So, can you tell us who you are again?
Yes, I most certainly can. My name's Josh. I'm a twenty-something looking for his way in life.

What are you like in person?

I pretty much live in a somewhat carpe diem lifestyle, going about and just working with what the day throws at me. My day-to-day antics are somewhat on the hedonistic side, and my cheeky exterior hides a more sinister, more confused essence within.
Some say I'm a cynical jerk; others say I'm self-centered and heartless; still others label me as a virtuous soul who sacrifices it all for those he really cares for.
It's up to you to decide what I really am if you ever meet me (or if you already have) - this is only the Internet, and things like emotions and sincerity can't really be gauged here.

What do you do?
Aside from lounging around being a lazy bum? Nothing else, really. I mean... this IS a rather vague question, but I'll get the basics down.
I work with the Red and Khaki (read: "Target Corporation") as one of those sales floor guys who go around asking you if you need any help finding something, and on occasion train some of the newbies that head our way.
I write. A lot. From poetry to prose, stories to screenplays, I did it all. Or, at least I used to. Hopefully that's all to change (especially this year), and this blog is the key - my key.
I play lots and lots of video games. That's enough said. =)

Ah, video games. What got you started?
I've played my fair share of games ever since my dad hooked up a Nintendo Entertainment System to the TV when I was six. He loaded in Super Mario Brothers / Duck Hunt and let me marveled in the joy and happiness that was the NES as he defeated world after world.
Soon afterward I was handed the controller, and I quickly became adept at almost any game I touched.
However, I think the real trigger was... either my seventh or eighth birthday, where I got a (then-brand-new) Nintendo 64 and five games (Mario Kart 64, Star Fox 64, Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire, Super Mario 64, and Top Gear Rally).
During my middle school years, I (being the sheltered kid I was) was informally introduced to the world of real-time strategy games as I watched my babysitter play StarCraft. I quickly caught on after he let me try a few rounds against the AI, and - while I wasn't very good - I enjoyed being able to send squads of troops around and using tactics* to smother my opponents whenever I could.
Like most high school adolescents with a PC, I joined the first-person shooter community with games such as Counter-Strike and Halo: Combat Evolved. With it came a decent way to alleviate stress and a discovery that while I was an excellent sniper on PC shooters, I was a better close-quarters combatant on console shooters.
Recently (read: "nearly two years ago") I ended up being persuaded into joining the massively multiplayer online community and ended up getting World of Warcraft** and joined the might of the -
...well, I'm not going to say yet. With a new-born blog like this, most of my (potential) readers may be annoyed or elated with whatever faction I put down - or rather, the mere fact that I said I play WoW. While I don't honestly care about the views and opinions of my readership (hey, you're entitled to your thoughts so long as you don't act in a harmful manner due to them), it might deter the early growth of it.

* = I'm... pretty sure amassing a bunch of infantry and using human wave maneuvers can't be considered as "tactics," but my 12-year-old self did, apparently...
** = Oh, what the heck - I'll say it anyway. FOR THE ALLIANCE!

So, with that sort of history, what kinds of games do you play?
Well, let's take some of my favorite video game franchises into account here.
- Halo
- Mario
- Metal Gear Solid
- Pokémon
- Warcraft
I'm sure there's more, but those are the main five I thought of. So, by looking at that, it's almost as if I'll play 'em all.

As not to bore the non-gamers who are reading this blog for some reason, what kind of music do you like?
Ooh, music. Fun subject right here.
Generally, when it comes to the basic "Rock vs. Rap" scale, I tip towards rock. After that, I'd have to say I'm more inclined to alternative/post-grunge/progressive rock - good sound, great energy, and (depending on the artist/band in question,) mood-fitting to whatever I'm feeling like.
However, that doesn't mean I won't listen to anything else. I generally boast that my music library will have at least one artist from almost every genre that exists. While it's an exaggeration, it's definitely close - Japanese rock (L'Arc~en~Ciel), thrash metal (Metallica), Russian pop (t.A.T.u.), Neue Deutsche Härte (Rammstein), alternative hip hop (Jurassic 5), and symphonic metal (Within Temptation) are just a few genres I can associate to.
Oh, and I also listen to other things, too - things like classical music (I can honestly say I enjoyed my Music Appreciation class) and music from video games (oh, trust me, it's good - more on that later).

What kind of movies and television shows do you enjoy watching?
Ooh, a decently tough question. Throughout my time on all those social networking sites filling out stupid surveys to pass the time, I found that my answer was both consistent and varied.
I have come to the conclusion that I like a mix of comedy and drama in my media - "dramedy," if you will.
It grips you enough so that you can feel a sense of attachment to the characters, and at the same time gives you a dose of [insert emotion here] when necessary to remind you that the characters in question are in fact human and flawed.
Truth be told, I haven't watched that much T.V. lately, so I can't really cite anything... but barring a horror movie*, I'll probably watch it at least once**.

* = I don't know why I'm disinclined to the horror genre... maybe it's the fact that I'm a tad frightful, or the fact that the near-constant factor of death just keeps reminding me of my own mortality... ...but despite all that, I can totally enjoy a zombie movie for some reason.

** = Except Twilight or any other unholy-spawned movie related to that fangirl-smothered trash. The only way I'll willingly watch that... DISTASTEFUL movie series is if a bunch of people and I decided to play the "Twilight Drinking Game***."

*** = What IS the "Twilight Drinking Game," you ask? Oh, simple. Pop in a copy of any of the Twilight movies (heaven help the sorry folks who have them readily on-hand) and before it starts, think of every single poster you've ever seen advertising the series. Remember that look that Bella has on every poster... seemingly without fail? Now, every time you see that look in the movie, take a shot of alcohol. Yeah, I see that look on your face; you know how this game is going to end...

Drinking? You're... endorsing drinking? You're 21, right?
Yes. I'm 21. Every once in a while I'll drink something. Hehehe... you should've seen me before I was 21 and I declared myself as a teetotaler.
Now, I'm not saying I endorse it - I'm just saying the clichéd line "Drink responsibly."
And... why are you asking about my age? What's next: you're going to ask about my ethnicity?

Why, yes, actually. What's your ethnicity?
*sigh* Why am I not surprised? Well, might as well answer that since we're on the subject.
I'm Filipino.

What do you intend on doing with yourself in the future?
Honestly, I don't know. As I stated before I'm a bit of a hedonist who lives in the "now." I'll tackle things one day at a time, but I know one thing is for certain: I will make it.

Well... that was rather... vague.
Yes, it was. Sometimes I'm rather vague; other times I'm completely in-depth about things. It's random with me, really.

So I take it we're done with this interview, then?
If you say we're done, we're done.

Okay, then. We're done.
Alright, then. Interview over.





Well... I sure hope that this interview was more informative about me than you expected.
Until tomorrow, everyone.

Haiku for Thought

A quick haiku for myself (and whoever already knows about this):

I have tasked myself
one query I seek answered:
"Who am I really?"

As this entire blog is an everlasting search for my identity, its meaning, and its purpose in this lot of life, I deemed this fitting enough to be its own entry for January 2.

Rebooting

Hello, everyone. I suppose there are a few questions that I should answer before we begin.

Questions such as "Why am I reading this?" or "Who is this pompous, haughty, self-righteous fool with a seemingly zealous name and title for a blog?"

(Or more importantly: "Can I go back to my regularly-scheduled life and stop reading?")

Rest assured, friends: the answers are coming relatively soon.

And by soon, I mean the next set of sentences. (I'd say paragraph, but technically my blogs don't follow standard layouts of English prose... but, uh... I digress.)

To answer the first question: you were probably bored, and by some stroke of luck, fate or what-have-you, you ended up here.

Or you could know me in real life and were given this link (through myself or another person) to sate your curiosity and/or have me stop yapping about it.

The second question will be answered after I am done dealing with the third question.

As for the answer for the third question? NO.

Well, technically, yes, you can... but if you end up reading this, then my "NO" would have been made valid by your actions. Hehehe.

Ahem.

Ladies and gentlemen, I bid you welcome to my blog. My name is Josh Blanco. I have had many nicknames bestowed upon me throughout my life so far, but the most prominent would be "Whitey," which stems from a high school hazing attempt centering upon my last name.

I am just an unfortunately-ordinary 21-year-old... person... trying to find their way in this world.
Now, I say "person" because I have no idea as to how to go about defining myself.
I've always wanted to be the important hero; some of my friends have labeled me as a misguided martyr-of-sorts; my actions have the knack of making me look like a fool going nowhere.


In essence: I don't know who I am. Maybe that's why I'm writing this whole spiel.


I've been a fan of writing since I was in middle school. Back then I took the anvil and hammer that were my computer and word processor and forge written works - poems, scripts, elaborate storylines, characters of... character (for lack of a better word) - but I was too much of a coward to express myself. In high school I caught on to the whole social networking scene and decided to use websites such as Xanga, MySpace and Facebook as an online journal to chronicle my daily life.
It was a twofer - I got to document my life, and I gave myself a chance to practice my writing skills.


I would have to say that that activity hit its stride sometime around my senior year of high school.
Since then I've tapered off on the whole "posting a blog" thing and eventually I stopped posting.

They say that one gets rusty after a period of inactivity, and I think I'm at that stage.



So, why did I start up a blog again? And to those that have known me for a while, why did I start fresh, on another website and on a brand-new e-mail address?

There's a few responses I can use, but I'll leave it simple and answer that first question.

About a week before New Year's Eve 2010 I read one of my old blogs on Facebook. In it, I wrote down a rather long list of New Year's Resolutions that I wanted to do.
I achieved less than a fourth of that list.
It got me thinking about resolutions and how I kept breaking all of mine - not just because of the improbability of it all, but also because I made some of them almost impossible to attain.

So it got me thinking... maybe I should start small; work on a resolution that requires not so much effort.
After a few minutes I came up with the idea that I should post a blog on a daily basis.

Now, that's not to say I'm going to outright abandon this after December 31 comes around, nor does it mean I'm quitting my old social networking sites' blogs.

So, I figured I would start fresh...



And that brings us to now... and I think I'm done with this introductory post. I thank you (whoever you are) for reading, and I certainly hope you will continue to do so.

Until the next blog...