The Top Ten: Relaxing Video Game Music Pieces

"Ah, music! A magic beyond all we do here!"
- Albus Dumbledore
(Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone)

Music truly is magical. There's not that many art mediums that can transcend the senses and become something more than it is. Anyone who cares to disagree should just leave right now, because this post is going to contain a lot of it.

Like a Xatu

Good night, everyone. As the second-to-last day of September begins to give way to the last day of September, let us take a look at some of the things that I want to take a look at. Are they interesting? Possibly. Do I want you to pay attention? Uh, yeah. Do I like asking you questions we all know the answers to?

*sips some water* What do you think? =P

And what's with the title, you ask? Well, if you paid any attention to my Top Ten Pokémon list, you'd know that Xatu are capable of viewing the past and the future. I'm doing that in this entry, so I figured it'd work as a title.





Gazing at My Dreamt-Up Self-Reflection
(Now possible without mirrors!)

With this month drawing to a close I felt that I should do a little bit of self-reflecting on what's happened and what I've accomplished on here. It could be said that I've done that already, but that was more of a teaser... if it could be called that.

Thus far I've succeeded in getting one thousand words on each of this month's entries, and when you count tonight's and tomorrow's entries, you will most definitely find more than thirty thousand words amassed for September. Someone remind me to get a total word count. I want to see how much I've typed up here.

This month has garnered new records for me and this website. I've gotten more hits on here than I've ever had before in past months. This can probably be attributed with the many advertisements I've placed on Facebook - it helps when people see something by me and click because I made it sound intriguing. I've slowly been garnering more readers, even if they won't openly admit it via telling me or slapping a comment on to something. And while it may seem like I'm still getting nowhere both with this and my life, I can still say this blog's gotten me farther than I've gotten before.

As noted earlier, I didn't succeed in Operation: DREAM EATER, but that shouldn't be surprising to anyone - especially me. I'm used to setting up giant challenges that I end up failing miserably at. Most times when failure bites me I end up kicking my psychological self around like a soccer ball in a FIFA game.

Deep down, I kind of knew I wasn't going to succeed. I didn't want to admit it to myself - last thing I'd want to do is break my optimism apart when I've been doing so well with keeping my morale at higher levels than I've seen all my life. So, when last Friday rolled around and I ended up failing to meet deadline, I sat there going "Huh. I failed." Instead of mindless self-torture with worthless comments such as "Nice going, screw-up," I instead shrugged, said "Okay. It happens. I screw up. We all do."

It seems like I'm just throwing a cop-out excuse here for everyone when I shrug off the failure of a campaign that could've propelled me to some higher place. Imagine, however, if I did achieve the goals I set for myself with Operation: DREAM EATER. I'd be working non-stop on getting everything done, and I'd throw away anything resembling imperfection and distraction. I have the feeling that I would lose myself somewhere in the process. It's happened before when I lock myself into some kind of work. While dedication like that is amazing, it often comes with a high cost, and aggression and a zombified personality are not worth getting things done. In the end, I would end up soulless, and the work that stripped me of my essence would also be soulless.

Of course, that's not the case now - I got other things on my plate that seem to be revitalizing my life, so it's all good there. I know that I'll have to revisit these tasks sometime soon, reanalyze their priorities and continue working on them, but when there's a lax deadline... well, that just means I can enjoy life more.

So, what have I taken out of this? Start small, and then eventually down the line, work my way up to bigger, better, more badass challenges. Greatness, while an epic and important goal to accomplish, can wait, especially if I put life on hold.

Yes, I'm aware if this sounded like a tangent. To excuse myself, look at the tags again. =P





A Prelude to War
(Cue war-sounding music. Preferably anything composed by Bear McCreary.)

In other, more awesome news, I started season two of Battlestar Galactica today. This past week was spent watching season one from a DVD collection I borrowed from a friend.

Now, what do I have to say about this military sci-fi space opera? Holy fraking shit. How I never got into this show before still baffles me. All my friends who've seen this show have always told me how much I'd love it. Here I am now... and I'm loving it.

Unfortunately (both for myself and the BSG fans out there who read this), I'm afraid I don't have much to say about it at this rate other than the fact that it's epic. I don't want to discuss anything without accidentally revealing major spoilers, and I most certainly don't want to receive any spoilers, either. So, until I finish the show, I think the most you'll probably see out of me in regards to this is stuff related to "OMG BSG EPIC O.O" statements. I promise you though that I will get to talking about it in great detail once I finish. Hell, maybe I'll even get someone I know who hasn't seen this show to watch it.

Thing is, if I do get around to doing stuff like that, I'll have to be careful with whoever reads the posts or watches the show - they could be Cylons. As you know, "the Cylons were created by man. They rebelled. They evolved. They look and feel human. Some are programmed to think they are human. There are many copies. And they have a plan."





Ten Reasons on Why Tomorrow's Entry Will Be Awesome
(Oh, yeah. Lots of reasons. No more, no less.)

So, tomorrow's entry will be important for a myriad of reasons. Why's that, you ask? Well...

1. I'm writing it.
   Well, obviously. But then again, that should make it more exciting for you, no? No? Well... sucks for you, then.
2. It's going to have a Top Ten list on it.
   Oh, yeah. That means it'll be fun to read and insightful to my personality! And you stalkers can get more crazy ideas to stalk me with. You creepy punks.
3. The entry will feature music in the pre-blog opening.
   Yeah, it's been a while since I've actually listed lots of music down, hasn't it?
4. It's completely safe.
   Tomorrow's entry is unsappable by enemy Spies, 100% contagion-free, and has been tested and revealed to totally not be a frakkin' toaster Cylon.
5. It's the last entry that will entail over one thousand words as a requirement.
   More of a breather for you than me, perhaps. =P
6. Pictures!
   Because you bastards can never get tired of pictures, can you? Nope. That's why it's got the highest tag number to this day.
7. It will be tagged as a "milestone" entry.
   Yes, it's that important. Why? I'm not exactly sure, but I got that gut feeling that it will be. And I like important things. Makes me look important.
8. It's a post... made on a Friday.
   Fridays are lots of fun. The start of the weekend, of life, of fun. Before certain people ruined it with things like "working on the weekend" and that dreadful song I'm refusing to link to.
9. [insert some "reason" here]
   [insert some one-liner related to the just-mentioned "reason" here]
10. Music. Enough said.
    I mentioned music already? Well, I guess it's important enough to warrant it being mentioned twice. MUSIC!

Yeah. So, keep your eyes peeled.





Well, ladies and gentlemen, I'll bid you adieu for now. Got some sleep and Battlestar Galactica to watch. Until the 'morrow, everyone. SO SAY WE ALL!

Internet Spammage Whoo

Another day, another blog entry totaling one thousand words. This particular post warrants a bit more notice than before because it's the last post of the month that requires me to squeeze something out within a limited time frame - and I hate things like that.

If anything, going through this month has proven to me that while I'm capable of meeting deadline when put to the challenge, it may not always be quality work. That scares me, because (let's face it:) I strive to be the best and nothing but.

So, in an attempt on filling today's requirements before I head out for work, here's a little random something I decided to write up one day years ago about spam. Not the tasty food, mind you - but the actions of spamming. For some reason I found this to be a bit amusing, so here's some insight on my past thought processes.

Until the 'morrow.

---------- ---------- ----------

The act of spamming is defined by Wikipedia as "the abuse of electronic messaging systems to send unsolicited bulk messages."

The term itself gets its roots from a well-known sketch from the famed Monty Python comedy team. In it, a couple is seen in a typical British greasy spoon trying to order a meal off the menu. At first, it appears quite ordinary (with a starter suggestion such as "egg, sausage and bacon"), but as the list goes down it ends up being laden with entrées relating to Hormel Spam – so far as to even have dishes like "spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, baked beans, spam, spam, spam, and spam" or even the lavish "lobster thermidor aux crevettes with a Mornay sauce garnished with truffle paté, brandy and with a fried egg on top and spam." Years later, in the infancy of the online sector, people would actually continuously quote the sketch over and over (or at least put down "Spam" repeatedly) to drive out newbies in the chat room or message board. Hence, the word and practice that would later be christened as "spamming" was born.

Nowadays, it no longer pertains to chat rooms. E-mail accounts are flooded everyday with countless amounts of junk e-mail – now also colloquially known as "spam." Public social networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace, and online message boards end up becoming infested with a bunch of immature (and possibly unintelligent) Internet users who for some reason love to waste their lives by copying and pasting numerous facsimiles of the same image, word, clause, sentence, and/or paragraph over and over and over and over (and yeah... I’ll stop now...), either making one ginormous post that takes three hours to scroll through, or multiple posts at one time. (In my view, higher numbers of duplicate objects or spam posts usually equal a higher amount of stupidity – and thus, a higher chance of dying as a lonely virgin.) Of course, this practice exists outside of the digital word – most notably with little kids (or people who act like such) who keep pestering us with the annoying and repetitive "Why?" and the even more intolerable and infamous "Are we there yet?"

If you’re reading this, chances are you’re one of the many people who’ve encountered spam and hated every bit of it. I’ve had more than my fair share of it. Seems that every day when I check my e-mail, I get anywhere from 25 – 50 new e-mails – all of it spam. Then we have more spam – when I check my Facebook every once in a while (I'll admit, I used to be hooked), I look at the many things people post. Some are funny comments that I just laugh at (but I don’t call that spam). A couple more (usually ones I post) are either meaningful or inform friends that a new blog is up for others to read.

But then there's that idiot who keeps putting down "New pictures! Comment please kthx" over and over. (If you have a profile on a social networking site, you probably have a friend who spams like this.) Like, one bulletin every hour or so. Heaven forbid, maybe even within a lesser timeframe. Then they go off on a tangent and whine about how nobody cares because they didn’t get a comment, ending their tirade with a "COMMENT MEH PLEASE!!!" or something similar.

Or here's another great example. Once I was on this forum where people are commenting on random crap. (And by that, I mean random. People just jumped topics every two posts.) And then some nutjob (who probably isn’t that bright) decides to go make a post. What makes this post stand out was the fact that it was in bold and (the kicker:) he deliberately copy-and-pasted two hundred and twenty-one lines' worth of "~CHOCOLATE IS THE BEST~" – enough chocolate to make even chocoholics puke.

What makes forum spamming even worse is the fact that it (like all immature actions) incites more immature actions. A few hours later some other kid responds with 92 lines of "~WAFFLES ARE BETTER~" – not enough to match the first dolt but still enough to take the role of the shot that was fired back. And then a spam war ensued, with worthless lines of responses and half-witted people throwing more fuel to the fire.

(Author’s Note: As a lil' piece of trivia, here’s further proof of my theory that spammers probably have no lives: A response in this war was the sentence "BUT THIS IS BETTER." This line was repeated 10,383 times. I really wish I was kidding about that number. Well, anyway, after MS Word did some statistics, it reported that whole entire meaningless post of spam had 155,760 letters and 41,536 words. What caught me off-guard was the fact that each sentence was bolded in Times New Roman typeface and the font size was 24. Which meant that if this were to be printed off of MS Word with regular 1" margins, it’d waste 452 pages.)

The worst thing about forum spamming (or any kind of spamming, really, but this kind is prevalent in message boards the most) is the fact that very offensive comments may be repeated throughout various threads over and over and over. Yes, administrators can ban the user in various ways, but that's one huge mess they'll have to clean up in the end. Of course, we knew that. What we didn't know was the fact that it cost business associations all across the United States over $10 billion USD back in 2004.

Spam sucks. Period. It’s an annoying, memory/time-wasting device that
Honestly, whoever created it should DIEEEE. If you’re like me, and you just HATE it... we should do something. If you're a spammer, kindly stop your immature and annoying ways. If you fail to do so, then may God have mercy on your soul. But if you're agnostic or not of a monotheistic religion, then... just die.

Conflicting Muse

"Write." That demand seemed like it was going to make today a bad one.

I looked up at the message board I had taped to my wall. On it: a single Post-It note with the word "Write" written in black permanent marker. Yeah, I thought to myself, this is going to turn out well. I had work today, and I had no idea what I could compose and place on my blog.

Two hours remaining.

I had to write something. Anything. Whatever came to mind... all so I could meet my deadline for today. But what? Nothing came to mind. I stared at the screen for what seemed like an eternity, and I looked at the clock.

One hour remaining. Jesus Christ; what have I been doing?

"Wasting time, apparently."

I looked around to see who could've spoken to me (and somehow answer my internally-spoken question). No one. It was just me. ...was it?

A sigh sounded off, then: "Inside you, doof."

I scoffed. Closing my eyes, I took in a deep breath, and when I opened them, there on my desk sat The Unnamed Muse. I stared at her. She stared back with an almost-icy glare.

"Now, really, was that scoff necessary, Josh? Or are you just annoyed that you're failing yourself yet again?"

I rolled my eyes. The hell was I failing myself on today, you crazy representation of my inner thoughts? Like hell I'm failing right now.

She shook her head and looked at my blank laptop screen. "Huh. Seems like you don't have anything written on here. You got..." She looked across the room and spotted a clock. "...58 minutes left before your self-imposed deadline's up. And nothing is on your screen." She smirked as she looked back at me and finished her train of thought: "'Like hell you're failing right now,' huh?"

I let out a sigh of defeat. Damn her.

"So, what seems to be your problem? Oh, let me guess: another supposed artist's block?"

I looked at my screen. I didn't think there'd be anything magically appearing on it any time soon to alleviate me of my problem, so I figured I could spend a few minutes of my time amusing one of my muses.

"What's the matter? You not going to tell me?"

I took in a sharp breath and looked at her. "No; I am. I think it's a block. I'm not quite sure, actually."

"Since when have you ever been sure of anything? Self-doubt's always been tacked on to you, following you like the shadow you can never get rid of."

"Yeah, but that's not what we're talking about. I just can't think of what to write for today's entry." I turned away from The Nameless Muse and looked back at the laptop. I placed my hands on the keyboard and waited for them to start drumming on the keys, but...

"Nothing, huh, Josh?" She blinked at me as if she was expecting me to look at her and give the obvious answer sitting in front of us.

"...yeah. Nothing." I sighed. What was I to do?

Thirty minutes. Thirty minutes!? How the frak did time fly that fast?

"Well," she began. "I think it has to do with the fact that nothing interesting and fun to write about is coming to mind. Your muse well's dried up and you've no source of inspiration for the time being."

"Oh, that's bullshit if I ever heard it," I spat back. "Coming up with something for me to write is your job! I didn't appoint you as my Head Muse just so you could sit there and state to me the obvious facts lying before us here!"

She seemed to be taken aback, as if I just insulted her. Come to think of it, I think I might have accidentally just done that. "Excuse me? I'm not doing my job?"

"Apparently not," I growled. "I'm still stuck here with naught but a blank page on this entry for today! Now you show up, but instead of giving me some kind of inspiration you're just prattling on about everything but inspiration!"

"Yeah. And you want to know why, you thick-headed bastard? Sometimes inspiration has to come from the artist alone! We muses can't help you all twenty-four hours of the day! We might be linked to your soul and be summoned every time you want us to show up, but we're not your goddamn mind-slaves! What, you can't think for yourself?"

"Of course I can. I can't think of everything in the whole world!"

"Neither can we, Josh! We're not the omniscient beings you artists envision us to be. We have flaws just like you, and we have limits as well. I cannot be your melting pot of inspiration every time you ask me to be!"

"Yeah; I know!" I let off a very terse breath, regained my composure, and looked back at my muse. "I know." I looked back at the screen, expecting something... anything. But of course, I'm not that lucky - and as such, there on the screen stood nothing.

And here I was with nothing. What was I supposed to post? And with - Oh, geez; what was the time left?

No time remaining. The deadline had just passed.

The Unnamed Muse placed a hand on my shoulder and tilted her head, giving me a curious look. "Tell me something: why are you so sure that you couldn't come up with anything?"

I didn't answer.

"Josh... are you absolutely positive that you have no idea as to what to write for today? What you could use to meet your one-thousand-word quota for today?"

"...yes. I... I have nothing. I'm mentally exhausted."

"Really?" My muse just stared at me in disbelief. "'Nothing.'"

I nodded.

"Well, then... take a look at your screen."

As I did, I saw a story form up on the text box. As I read along with the phantom typing, I realized something... "Wait, this... this was our argument! W-Why - !?"

She casually grabbed a bottle of Guinness and opened the bottle. After drinking some of it, she responded, "You said you wanted an idea, right?"

"Well, yeah, but... but not this!"

"And why not? They're not going to think you're crazy. (Much.) They already know of my existence. You used well over a thousand words by now. You see that, don't you?"

"I do. But why?"

She took another pull from her bottle. "Because not all strife and struggle results in bloodshed and madness. Sometimes it gives way to inspiration and hope. And in this case: your quota." Using the half-full bottle, she gestured at the laptop screen. "Happy, now?"

I looked between my drinking muse and the now-filled screen in disbelief. Then something dawned on me. I looked back at her and smirked. "So, that whole argument... it was both real and fake at the same time, wasn't it?"

She finished her Guinness, set the empty bottle down, and smirked back at me. "Yeah. It got you to meet your ridiculous self-imposed deadline, and I got to voice out against you and get away with it at the same time. Win-win." Smiling, she grabbed two more bottles of Guinness, opened both of them, and held out one of the beer bottles towards me, silently asking if I wanted some.

"Yeah... a win-win. Thanks." I grabbed the offered bottle, and my muse and I raised our beers to a toast before we downed our drinks, content that I had met today's one-thousand words. I guess today wasn't going to be such a bad day, after all.

...

Her smile was replaced by a look of concern. "Josh, don't you have work in an hour?"

...frak.

Josh Blanco's Lottery Plan

The age-old question: "What would you do if you won the lottery?"

My response to said age-old question? Read on below.





CURRENT MUSIC:
Barenaked Ladies - "If I Had $1,000,000"
Gordon

Quite fitting for today's entry, if I may say so myself. As one of the most-known songs by the Barenaked Ladies, their silly song on what they'd get with a million dollars is a staple at their live performances.

But what would I do with a million dollars... or more...?



"If you think you can win, you can win. Faith is necessary to victory."
William Hazlitt
(Table Talk: Essays On Men And Manners - "On Great and Little Things")

Hehehehe... that, it does. That, it does. Maybe that's why the ones who achieve the greatest of victories usually have some kind of high-spirited determination. Be it originating from religion or iron will or what have you, it doesn't matter - the fact that they had it in the first place makes them stronger than most others.

FRAK!

(Author's Note: Just a few things you should know. One: beer. Two: Battlestar Galactica. Three: excessive "language." Four (and most importantly of all): everything in-between these lines is a live "mind streaming" session, where I just let go of my inhibitions and just type stuff. If you found any of this to be stupid and/or offensive, then go frak yourself. =3)

---------- ---------- ----------

It's 11 P.M. and I have less than an hour to get one thousand words gathered into a semi-cohesive blog entry posted on the Internet. If I don't, I miss my deadline and this year's only New Year's resolution will have failed before my friends could actually attempt to botch it for me. I have a splitting headache that makes me want to just go to sleep, but at the same time I have this to take care of. The fact that I'm currently nursing down a fresh-out-of-the-refrigerator Guinness and have the biggest temptation to keep watching Battlestar Galactica doesn't help me in this quest one bit. I think it's sheer iron will (backed by that adrenaline rush you get from procrastination) that's getting me to type.

Aw, frak! I don't even have a title for this entry! (Yes, I said "frak." Galactica has already influenced me that much. =3)

Anyway, as far as you can tell, this is a live stream of my thoughts and what not. Currently I don't believe I have an entry that's like this - where I just type what I think right away without a second thought or care as to if it's of any good content. With me, I'm only backtracking for grammar, spelling, and punctuation, so this is quite interesting. As a writer, it's always a blessing when moments like this show up - it automatically cancels out any self-doubts we have for as long as it lasts, and at the same time we're just furiously writing so that we can look at it later and go "What the frak did I just write!?"

Oh, maaaaaaaaaan, is this Guinness tasty. I'm not sure if it's helping with this migraine (my headache evolved somehow - I wasn't even training it!), but you know what? I don't care! Maybe I should get a second bottle. Naaah - don't need it. Yet. When I'm watching Battlestar Galactica, maybe. Other than that, no. Don't need it. Don't need it.

Yep, I don't need it. Moving on somewhat (if you can call it "moving on").

Why I allowed myself to procrastinate this long is beyond me. I mean, there's no reason I could've just posted something before I went it to work -

Oh, wait. WORK. Yeah. After five straight days of vacationing, I went back to work. Now, most people who return to work from an awesome vacation seem to have a case of the "frak its," where the person in question just doesn't really care. They zombify themselves to the point where they're almost in autopilot, and their apathy levels skyrocket when it isn't necessary to care.

Not me. Apparently people were surprised that I was happy coming in to work. Mind you, they're surprised when I'm happy in the first place, but for me to be happy coming in from what sounded to be an awesome vacation? What the frak is that all about? It was a great day with only one downing moment (some lady confused me for a woman... *tears*) and work was busy enough and entertaining enough for me not to think about anything negative (minus the "Excuse me, Ma'am" moment). Maybe I'm just lucky, or maybe my morale and overall happiness is improving. Maybe this vacation is what I needed to get myself recharged and ready to fight this week. Maybe I'm just having a random happy moment which coincidentally coincided with the first day back on the job. I just don't know. I just don't frakking know.

And yes; I'm using "frak" a lot. It's partially because it's awesome and partially because to everyone else I'm not technically cursing. Of course, if I say "frak" to someone who knows Battlestar Galactica, then I have to be careful (especially if they get angered easily and believe that I just told 'em to frak off). It's also because I'm cursing like crazy and getting away with murder it at the same time. Insert evil laugh here. Muahahahaha.

Oh, maaaan. I'm starting to think I might just need that second Guinness - this one's going pretty fast. Normally I take my time and nurse my beer, and that's for a number of reasons.

1. I enjoy savoring flavor.
   I'm a bit of a food connoisseur. I enjoy things that taste good and will savor every moment I get to have that flavor make contact with my taste buds. The better it tastes, the more likely I'm going to sit there and be mesmerized with its flavor. Same goes with drinks, and by that extension: beer. Pardon the potential foodgasms that may be experienced by yours truly.
2. I like taking my time with my food.
   With exception to the times where I'm starving and haven't eaten anything yet, I'll take my time. Hey, you don't want to get all bloated and feel all sick afterwards, do you? No? Good - then let me take my frakking time. Plus, I'm probably exploiting Reason One listed above as well. *takes another sip*
3. I have yet to get my tolerance levels tested.
   Yeah. Hey, friends of mine! When the hell you going to "volunteer" me for this procedure?

I don't care if you say I'm a wuss for this or anything. I'll just list these reasons. Plus, it's a good beer, and I'm sure as hell not going to waste all the flavor by chugging it like some college fraternity/sorority barbarian. Yeah - I went there.

Man, what's with WinAmp? I put it on random and opened up my "working music" playlist, and the majority of the songs that it belted out were from Ocarina of Time. Don't get me wrong; it's a great game - but... really? On random? There's seventy-nine songs and pieces of music on this playlist, and only nine of them are from Ocarina's soundtrack. Huh.

And now WinAmp must've saw the draft of this entry - Shoji Meguro's "Iwato Dormitory" from the Persona 3 Original Soundtrack. Oh, well - can't complain.

PLEASE tell me this is one thousand words already. I want this live mind stream to end already!

---------- ---------- ----------

Holy crap. One thousand and twenty words all above this line here, excluding the Author's Note. Not bad for my first time just mindlessly typing anything that comes into mind, eh?

Well, I'm going to go ahead and warm up some pizza rolls and get myself another Guiness - Battlestar Galactica time! Frak, yeah! "But what about sleeping that migraine off, Josh?" Eh, I can do that some other time. That's Future Josh's problem. *smirks*

...

FRAK! Almost forgot the title! Uh... *looks at his blatant over-(mis)use of the Battlestar Galactica expletive and smirks evilly*

Omens of Awesome

Evening, everybody! How's everyone doing this fine night? I myself am doing pretty okay - it's the last day of my vacation and I'm feeling absolutely refreshed and ready to tackle whatever comes my way (minus anything that's pointy). I like good feelings like this - y'all should, too - it keeps me alive, allows me to be all super-fun-happy, and lets me catch up on something I wanted to get myself caught up with.

Well, then... let's begin.

A Defeated Response Spells Victory

Sometimes things fall through for a reason. Some don't.





CURRENT MUSIC:
Asian Kung-Fu Generation - "Rewrite"
Sol-fa

Anime fans will probably know this song best as the fourth and final opening theme to the original Fullmetal Alchemist.

It's one of my favorite Japanese rock songs not just because of it's use with Fullmetal Alchemist. It possesses a more aggressive tone than what is normally heard with most other J-Rock pieces.


Naoko Mitome, Atsushi Yoshida & Kanako Teramae - "Bittersweet Victory"
Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance Original Game Audio

Path of Radiance was my first Fire Emblem game. Introduced to me by a friend when I was going through a craze of strategy games, I ended up becoming hooked, playing the game over and over because... well, I like being a tactician. I wish I had my save files for it, still (the memory card I had it all in got lost) because I'm itching to play it again.

Anyway, to the music. Just as the title indicates, the song is usually heard during moments where our protagonists' triumphs came with a rather heavy cost of some kind. It a way, it matches the feeling I have today - while I have to admit defeat somewhere, I can still say that I pulled something victorious out of this.


Michiru Oshima - "Reminiscence"
Fullmetal Alchemist Original Soundtrack 3

A rather short piece, "Reminiscence" is a nice little background track usable for brief and insightful self-reflection. In Fullmetal Alchemist it's also used to look back upon the happier times of the Elric brothers' lives.



"Paradoxically, the man who has failed and one who is at the peak of success are in exactly the same position. Each must decide what he will do next, choose the course that will lead him to the future."
- Jigoro Kano

Surprisingly, this little paradox makes a lot of sense. Most people would refute the truth of this statement, but to those that do, let me let you in on a little something: when someone fails something and that someone succeeds in something else, one of the most common responses after the stress and/or euphoria fades away is asking themselves some form of the question, "Now what?" Artists usually ask themselves this during every phase each one of their little projects go through, and big-shots and impulsive failures end up asking this whenever something goes right/wrong.

Doesn't this just apply to today, I asked? Why, yes; it does. *nods sagely*





Evening, everybody. How's your Friday treating you so far? Hopefully it's going just as great as mine!

As the fourth day of my vacation begins to come to a close, I figured I'd blog on the more... "important" things going on in my life right now.





Responding Response
(Or: responding to the (few) commenters who said something to me.)

You know, I owe it to the readers to show them that I actually care about what they think and say even though I say I don't. It's been a while since I've responded to people, so let's change that by throwing some responses on here. Yaaaaaay for my responses! Right?



(Author's Note: When necessary, all comments have been edited for grammar and spelling as per my Nazi Germany Grammar upbringing in my high school and college classes. Yay for my perfectionist streak. -_-;;)

"One of my brothers has just recently started dating a Filipino woman and I am going to send him the link to this so he can cook it as part of a romantic dinner. It will either make them or break them!"

- Amateur Cook
(from "Spaghetti ng Pilipinas")

Wow, I'd never expect anyone to actually take my recipes into consideration. Thanks for suggesting that to your brother! I sure hope it made them (because if it broke them, that'd just be sad).

Oh, and I'm not sure if you saw, but there was a technical problem with the recipe I posted. Hopefully you didn't use that one. As of 16 September it's been rectified, so please use what I tossed on the page.

Han shot first. On a side note, ever see The Star Wars Holiday Special? It's like... the most AWESOME THING EVER.

- せしゃ
(from "A Great Disturbance in the Force")

Damn right he shot first! Sure, having Greedo pop off a shot makes the situation seem a bit more tense and dramatic, but it also kills the bit of thought processes that made you think, "Wow. Han Solo's a jackass."

As to your side note... to be honest, I haven't seen The Star Wars Holiday Special, and I personally would like to keep it that way. From what I heard and read about it I've rated the aired-once special somewhere between "so bad it's good" and "so bad it's bad." George Lucas regrets allowing television to make it; Harrison Ford is deeply embarrassed by it; Carrie Fisher uses it to shoo away people after a party ends.

So, unless I'm knocked unconscious and come to tied up with The Star Wars Holiday Special playing on a television in front of me, I'm not going to watch it... though I wouldn't mind seeing that section that introduces Boba Fett.

"No Vaporeon?"

- n8navarro
(from "The Top Ten: Pokémon")

Nope, no Vaporeon. There was a reason for that.

When I was in the middle of making the Top Ten list, I knew right away that at least one Eeveelution would make it on here. They were a popular set of Pokémon since the beginning. They were made even more popular when the fourth generation answered every trainer's dream of possessing a Grass-type Eevee (in the form of Leafeon).

As a Pokémon veteran, I've been pretty fond of the Eeveelutions - even more so since the fourth generation, which aided the quirky family in two ways:

1. Leafeon and Glaceon.
   Adding Grass and Ice to the mix brought the potential Eevee army count to eight (assuming you're like me and you count Eevee - otherwise it's seven). Plus, it was now officially possible to have a six-man Eeveelution army.
2. The physical/special attack split.
   This changed gameplay tactics drastically for most Pokémon, but it didn't faze the Eeveelution army any - except for Flareon. Poor Flareon had been suffering in the first three generations because of its ridiculously-high attack stat, which did no good for a Fire-type. The split made Flareon a more worthy contender, and the fifth generation helped even more by bolstering its physical Fire attack capability.

Historically, I've actually used Vaporeon at least thrice in my gaming history:

• my third-generation Eevee Army
• my fourth-generation Eevee Army, dubbed "Roman Eevees" due to their naming
• my primary Platinum Version team (named "Rhine")

Not counting the Eevee Armies, this places Vaporeon as the most-employed in my unit, and it's a great Eeveelution. However, as true as that may be, I'm just more of a Psychic-type fan. Thus, Espeon. I know - I'm biased, but what can I say?

*shrugs*





A Dream Shattered
(A dream restored.)

If you remember, back in the beginning of June I posted a series of challenges that I wanted to complete by today. I called it "Operation: DREAM EATER." The list was as follows:

• find the "perfect" look for this blog
• get Gefallen (US-Tichondrius - Human Rogue) to Lv85 and figure out a workable Combat PvP spec
• get Chariselle (US-Ravenholdt - Blood Elf Paladin) geared for end-game PvE raiding
• finish the first 30 pages of a new screenplay
• work on and complete the next chapter of my Street Fighter fanfic Unincorporated
• begin and complete Radiant Historia (NDS)
• lose some weight / get more fit
• write a poem
• work out and organize the rough basics of an epic roadtrip I want to take next year
• clean my room and maintain its cleanliness
• complete at least 50% of a cosplay outfit of my choice

I failed miserably. And I mean miserably. While it will be said that I've failed Operation: DREAM EATER quite horribly, I can't say that I didn't escape with some kind of victory.

I've gotten into work with projects - some on this list, and some placed elsewhere. I'm not beating myself over the head with this failure like I normally would in the past. It's kind of hard to explain, but I don't have the time to do so. I'll save that for tomorrow - for now, just know that while this could be considered a giant failure, there is a glimmer of hope and success. It might be a cliché, but it's true. Know it.





Yeah, I'm cutting myself short. I'm going to blame two of my friends who decided to show me (the guy with the addictive personality) the wonder that is Battlestar Galactica. Damn them. Damn them, because now I'm hooked. =D

I'll post more on things tomorrow. Until then, stay frosty.

Fifteen Years

When a man is put into a chair and told to type up one thousand words within an hour, it makes for an interesting challenge. What will they say? What will they think of? Will they become crazy when time runs out and they haven't met their deadline?

Well, I don't know what would happen to any other person, but for me... well, that makes things interesting. I'm the kind of guy who makes things interesting by asking, "What am I to talk about?"

Normally, I end up throwing something together out of a topic that was either premeditated or just created at random, but today is not one of those days. Some things came up that I have to attend to, and I must get going immediately.

Huh - that would suck for me this month, considering that I need to post one thousand words on each entry I make. Fortunately for me, I have my emergency folders on my computer for when a situation like this arises.



Now, with this document... it was an assignment I got from one of my college classes back in 2008. It was a classic "where you see yourself in fifteen years" paper - a cliché assignment normally seen in grade school. I took one look at the thing and laughed, because I saw the words of a liar and a guy who just wanted to get the assignment done.

Or, that's how it was meant to be read as. I've often said that I'm both a simple and complex individual, and I think this proves it. If anyone knows me, the ironies are quite clear once this is read.

---------- ----------

To think and plan ahead for fifteen years into the future seems to be one of the key methods of success a lot of people follow. It allows them to create a considerable number of goals – and in the process, they develop a road map for them to follow so they arrive at their desired destination. For me, the plan for me is a long, hard journey – one that kicks back Fate and says to the world, "I was here and I made a difference." This journey gets me to an elevated position of both success and power while retaining the hobbies and mindsets that keep me me. Of course, this is just the best-case scenario ending – if the technology from Back to the Future existed, and I possessed a flux capacitor and a De Lorean DMC-12, then I would shoot myself to 2023, check how my 33-year-old self is doing and write this paper based on that. But since that just sounds silly, I have no choice but to merely speculate on where I will be in 15 years and what paths I take to get there.

In regards to my education and learning career, the boulevard to success seems to be a lengthy one. I assume that it will be another year or two until I knock out my general education requirements and collect enough credits to transfer into a good university with a program in either English or education (hopefully both). I would later graduate with a master’s or higher in either of those two subjects (maybe even both if possible). When it comes to my minor, I have no clue as to what I should do there. It is possible that I could minor in something regarding the media department (be it movie-making, web design, or the like), but time has its ways – something that I have overlooked might show up that I might develop an interest in.

During my tenure as a high school student, most people expected me to work somewhere in the video game industry when I got older. However, what few people saw was my passion and desire for knowledge and an education, which blossomed into my desire to become a teacher (and an English one at that – which earned a few light-hearted insults from my teachers at the time). Working with that drive (along with the master’s I would get at college), I would end up becoming an English teacher at my alma mater, Adolfo Camarillo High School.

I would love to have traveled to a lot of places by the time fifteen years pass. There are so many locations I want to visit – places in Europe such as Germany, Great Britain, France, Italy, Greece, and Belgium; places in Asia such as the Philippines and Japan; places elsewhere such as Australia, Canada, and Argentina. (The beauty of being a teacher is that since they get summers off, getting time to go to these places just might be possible.) All of these countries offer sights, tastes and sounds I’ve yet to experience firsthand. What better way to learn than immersing oneself into the country’s culture?

There is also one other thing which I will do in regards to traveling: the memorable cross-country road trip. One day, when gas prices no longer make our wallets cry and/or we become richer, my closest friends and I will trek across the entire United States of America. Since a large number of us want to do this, we’d have to travel via car convoy, stopping at various places across the continent for photo opportunities and other reasons. True: road trips are cliché, but fun clichés nonetheless.

Family seems to be another major topic to cover. I consider a lot of people to be my actual family. Throughout the later years of high school and beyond, the ones I associated with the most have (in essence) become my surrogate family, and I intend to keep those close bonds held together as long as possible – which would mean that we would still be great friends 15 years from now.

I would love to get married someday. In fifteen years I picture myself with a somewhat-nuclear family – wife, kid(s), possibly a family pet or two, nice house in a great neighborhood, and the like. I assume that during these fifteen years, I will have met a girl and befriended her before asking her out (assuming that whoever I end up marrying is someone I currently do not know). The relationship will have its ups and downs – there will be the occasional argument (with the guy typically on the losing side) – but it will be a strong and caring relationship. One day I would probably pop the question of engagement and she will say yes (on the presumption that the girl I am with at the time is the girl I marry). After marriage and after setting the financial anchors down, we would have a kid or two or three (genetics are highly unpredictable, so for all I know, we might have one child or we might end up with a quintuplet).

Fifteen years really is too far away to see where one would end up. To quote Yoda: "Hard to see, the future is." Indeed, this is true. The events in the future are constantly in flux, changing according to the decisions everyone makes right now in the present. This means that if I have any hope of achieving this best-case scenario of my outlook on my future life, I will have to have made it possible myself.

---------- ----------

...uhm... I typed all this? I kinda want to question my past self here...

Anyway, I gotta go. Until the 'morrow. *jets out*

The Top Ten: Pokémon

Time for me to introduce something new for this blog: a random list of random things that you (may not) care for! I decided to make this list the ever-clichéd "Top Ten" - a list of favorites (for the most part) and an explanation on why they're my favorites. You may choose to (dis)agree at any time with this list because it's a personal one - meaning that your Top Ten can (and probably will) differ.

Blame it on random topic generation or a lack of creativity on my part, but hey - you still get your (entertaining) blog entry for today; I get my word quota matched as well; there's a new tag for you to look at in bewilderment!

Right-o! Let's get a move on this blog!





CURRENT MUSIC:
Soichi Terada - "Crumbling Castle"
Ape Escape Originape Soundtracks

Ape Escape was influential in the PlayStation years - notably because it was one of the first games (if not the first) that required the DualShock analog controller. Plus, it was a great game, to boot - it's one of my favorite games from that console.

Anyway, I love the soundtrack to this game - partially because it differed from level to level (little to no recycling was used for stage music - which impressed me off the bat), and mostly because the tracks are specially designed so that when using a simple audio editor, you can loop them as much as you want without having to cut anything from the data streams.

"Crumbling Castle" is played in one of the later stages of the game, taking place in a crumbling castle (gee, I couldn't tell) that Specter, the primary antagonist, has set up as one of his bases in his attempt to alter history so that monkeys are the dominant primate. Between how precarious the stage was set up (traps and holes everywhere) and the tone the music sets up for you (a sort of "cautious blitz," if you'll pardon the oxymoron), it fits the situation quite well.


Hans Zimmer - "Show Me Your Firetruck"
Backdraft: Music from the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Not many people have seen Backdraft (I'm amongst those people), but from what I've heard from the soundtrack, it's gotta be pretty good. I mean, it has to be - everyone who's seen Iron Chef (the original one) knows the music from this movie. The opening title sequence for the Japanese cooking show? "Show Me Your Firetruck."

Insert Silly Photo Montage Here

Evening, everyone. Wondering why it took me so long to get my butt on here and type stuff? I spent the day going through my computer and cleaning things out. As I did that, I encountered a folder containing a gazillion pictures that I've acquired over the years.

They say that "a picture is worth a thousand words." I sure hope they're right, because I couldn't think of anything to talk about for today's entry. So, without further ado: a bunch of pictures I found while compy-cleaning (some mine, some from the Internets) and a silly commentary-slash-pseudo-story to go along with all of it!

...euhm... ...well, let's retry this! *reloads*

It's a bad sign whenever you see something like this at work. The fact that I actually saw this pop up at one of my store's registers just blew my mind. I mean, you'd have to screw up really bad - and I mean really bad - for something like this to show up.

Either way, I found it to be funny. Now, uhm... let's start over properly. *clears throat*

Non Sequitur 6: All For a Monday

Afternoon. In this last day of work for a while, it's surprisingly difficult to come up with something for me to type up on here for you to read. On any other month I'd say that and call it a day, but this is September - the month where I said I'd give you 1,000+ words an entry. Ultimately I have to drive myself to perfection and achieve this (lest I be unable to achieve anything else), so as you can tell, this entry seems... almost forced. I'll do what I can to make this entry entertaining, though. I think.

Well, here goes, everyone.





Monday, MONDAY, MONDAY!!!
(Josh Blanco presents: "WORK" - Live, at the local Target store!)

...yeaaah, I got carried away with the sub-title there. Tried going for a cheesy monster truck rally announcer thing, but it's just so hard to convey tone with text. *shrugs*

Moving on.

Usually I view Mondays as a Friday. I know, I know - Like Garfield, I hate the day in question, but at the same time I kind of look forward to it. Monday generally means the weekend rush is over and store workers can relax a bit. Strangely enough, I'm happy for that. Generally a Monday spent at work is more than likely to be followed by a day off on Tuesday to recuperate from working the weekend, so it gives me a little something to look forward to when the weekend begins to feel like utter crap.

I don't know why, but for some odd reason I feel almost at peace knowing that Tuesday is coming. (And to those who are going to ask me: yes, I did bring my coat.) I can't really describe it - it's one of those feelings you can't really describe because you lose all sense of reality and discomfort and find yourself just... well, I don't want to say "floating" because then it sounds like an awesome acid trip... so let's just go with that feeling you get when you lie back on a grassy hill on a nice, sunny day, close your eyes, inhale deeply and a brief smile etches itself on your face. Something like that, I guess.





Time-Traveling With a Razor
(Going back, like, six years... in a matter of minutes.)

There's nothing in the world like a fresh shave. For a brief period of time you look a year younger (maybe more if you're Asian) and there's a soft innocence to your look. Okay, maybe I'm just being all wishy-washy or what not - but anyone who grows facial hair and shaves regularly can probably agree with me on what I said.

Obviously I've taken the time today and shaved - and maaaaaan, it feels good. I feel like I'm younger (some people have joked that - if my hair was the right length at the time I shaved - I'd look like a sixteen-year-old... and that's both cool and disturbing at once.) and have a bit more of a desire to take on the world. Muahahahaha.

To my readers out there who can't grow facial hair: I feel both envious and pitiful at the same time. While we shavers have to maintain a look and be careful not to nick ourselves, we get to be awesome with things like handlebar 'staches, fu manchus and not appearing like a six-foot-tall child.





A Numbered Challenge
(Proving how smart dorky I am... 151 species at a time.)

For lack of anything better to put on here so I get my 1,000 words, I decided that I'd announce a mini-challenge I'm casting upon myself.

While I'm at work today, I'm going to attempt to write down the original 151 Pokémon down by order of their PokéDex number. WITHOUT looking up any of the information.

Like I said, I have nothing better to put on here today, so... yeah.

Why am I doing this, you ask? Well, I can tell you right now that it wasn't because I was challenged or anything like that - I'm the go-to guy for anything related to Pokémon. It's also not because a new challenger came to town and is "threatening" me. It's also not because I'm trying to save face on today's entry (honest!).

It's because I want to better myself. Rather, I want to better my geekness. Yeah, Josh, I hear some of you saying. So how exactly is doing this and making yourself seem more like a (pompous) nerd going to help you land a girlfriend? Uhm, I'm not quite sure if any of this qualifies as attempts to "land a girlfriend." Hell, that's not even my intention.

I just wanna be the very best. Y'know... like no one ever was. *snerk*

*grabs a piece of paper* Bulbasaur... Ivysaur... Venusaur...





The Totally Not-Random Part To (Not) Save My Hide
(What's that on the ground over there? Is that the script?)

Sometimes I wonder aloud at night whether or not I'll make it out there. I lie on my bed, wondering if I'm doing anything with myself that'll benefit me in the long run. I've always been more of a fan of the short-term - mostly due to the fact that I have control over the short-term. The long-term is like the future - hard to see.

Sometimes I want pizza rolls. Granted, I won't accept them if I were to get any in the mail, but generally speaking, I'll eat 'em.

Sometimes I just want to debate important things. You know the things - what kind of pizza is the greatest (some kind of supreme with a stuffed crust, by the way); why guns are awesome; why I collect odd trinkets; why Hot Fuzz is epic - those kinds of things.

Sometimes I wonder what my top favorite Pokémon are. I've been fond of Psychic- and Dark-types, but I do have my favorites. Who are they? Why do I like them? Are they actually powerful in-game?

Sometimes I tell myself that I think too much. My friends say this to me quite often, and I believe them. I've got a feeling that if I think too much, they'll find a way to temporarily make me not think too much. Alcohol or codeine or mindless first-person shooter game sprees or something.

Sometimes I wonder if I procrastinate because I want to.

Sometimes I ask myself whether or not it's a good idea to listen to adrenaline-pumping music while driving down an isolated road or a long stretch of freeway. The music just makes me want to speed up and rocket down the asphalt at a gazillion miles an hour (or, according to my car, 125). I can't help it - it's awesome music that I listen to.

Sometimes I wonder if I'm long overdue for a vacation. When I ask myself this, I always say "YES."

Sometimes I get the feeling that I'm being watched. *looks around nervously* ...aaaand now I'm going to leave.





Alright. I'm done. I gotta go to work, so I'll see y'all tomorrow!

...Charmander... Charmeleon... Charizard...

A Great Disturbance in the Force

Good night, everyone. How goes this fine Sunday of yours? I hope you enjoyed it - as today's the last Sunday (and therefor the last weekend) of summer, it'd be sad if you foolishly decided to be like me and miss out on a nice and sunny day (at least it's sunny here in my part of California) by spending it at work and making less-than-living wage. Of course, that's not the only thing depressing about this weekend...



Now, as most of you are already aware, the Star Wars saga is now available on Blu-Ray at retailers across the galaxy. Each trilogy (I-III; IV-VI) is priced at $44.99 each, but there's a special collector's pack as well. At a suggested retail price of $89.99 USD, the six-pack also contains three bonus discs filled to the brim with additional bonus content - documentaries, outtakes, deleted scenes from the original trilogy (something rarely seen), and the like.

The question that has been asked by fans across the galaxy is this:
Is the Star Wars Blu-Ray release worth it?

Lunar Experimentation

As I sat here typing, I wondered... what is today? What is this blog? What... *points behind you* ...w-what the hell is that giant arachnid behind you!? I'll save you! *charges out of the camera's view, armed with his Nerf Vulcan*





CURRENT MUSIC:
Dali - "Moonlight Densetsu"
Sailor Moon & the Scouts: Lunarock

Yeah. You read that right. For those of you who wouldn't know (read: most guys and most girls who watched the dubbed version), this is the opening song used throughout most of Sailor Moon's run. Dali just happened to sing the one used for the first two seasons (because the song was a smash hit in Japan).

I'm currently working on finishing the first season, so it would make sense that this song would have some airtime on my laptop.


Hirokazu Tanaka - "Brinstar Depths"
Super Smash Bros. Melee Soundtrack

One of my favorite themes from the GameCube hit Super Smash Bros. Melee. Metroid fans probably know this one best as Kraid's original theme from the NES game (which I'm trying so very hard to beat - and sucking miserably at, by the way). There's a bit of loneliness and mystery infused in this song, which matches the desolate lair quite well, if I may say so.



"As for the future: your task is not to forsee it, but to enable it."
- Antoine de Saint Exupery

There is a point to this quote. Far too many people out there dream of a brighter future in their own personal worlds of (often self-created) misery. Only those who realize that they're in the rut they're in because of themselves can begin to climb up. They'll find their own way and ensure that they attain the happiness they want.

Stagnancy Building

Evening, everyone. Here's me attempting to type something for today, but before we begin, let's welcome back something I haven't done in a while: my pre-blog things!





CURRENT MUSIC:
Nobuo Uematsu - "Fragments of Memories"
Final Fantasy VIII Original Soundtrack

Part of me wanted to just sleep all day. I think it has to do with the fact that this was on for a bit of time while I stared at this screen asking myself, "What to type?"

Anyway, it's a nice and peaceful track, perfect for relaxation and recovery. Just close your eyes and listen along... you'll find yourself... nodding... your...self... to... *ZZZ*



"It seems to me that the problem with diaries - and the reason that most of them are so boring - is that every day we vacillate between examining our hangnails and speculating on cosmic order."
- Ann Beattie
(Picturing Will)

This brings up a major point that can be used to argue why blogs aren't popular like most people (such as myself) would hope them to be. On one hand, I'll be inspired to write something involving a researched and collected view on topics like love, information control, and politics. The next day I end up ranting about something inane and trivial, like my discovery of Five Guys or the announcement of an archive nobody will ever want to access. Between the things we writers write that people want to read and the things we write that just seem almost unnecessary, we'll write. It's up to our viewers whether or not they want to read, much like it's your choice whether or not you want to continue reading on for this entry.

Shortcutting

You know, I almost forgot to post something on here for today. I've been spending it kicking back and relaxing with not a care in the world.

Okay, that's a lie. I haven't spent the day kicking it back and relaxing. Mind you, what I did probably wouldn't be considered as "relaxing."

I've been cleaning up my laptop in an attempt to keep internal things organized and just plain simpler to navigate. Take my desktop and taskbar, for instance:

What my laptop's desktop looks like @ a 1440x900 resolution.
The picture? My current Lego avatar of me - on horseback. With an M-1 Garand. Looking epic.
And yes, you're reading WinAmp right - I was listening to the music from Beauty and the Beast. I love that movie.

If you're going to bash me on using Vista, go ahead - I welcome it. I'm not a fan, either, but that's what my laptop came installed with. If I had the money, I'd buy Seven. I'm digressing here; let's move on.

This is quite an interesting way of organizing a desktop. Like I said, it makes it much more easier to navigate, and it lets people know you mean business. Also, it leaves your background easy to be viewed. But what about the taskbar? How everything's there with a few moments of mouse-hovering and maybe two simple clicks? I personally love it.

Surprisingly, it's not that hard to do. Anyone with basic computer knowledge (read: "anyone who doesn't use a Mac" =P) is capable of organizing their desktop and taskbar like this. To those of you who don't know (or would rather be told), here's how:



DISCLAIMER: Some of you will have different operating systems, layouts, icons, folder view options and other miscellaneous things that will differ than mine. That's okay. Generally speaking, though, most Windows operating systems are the same, so these directions should work for those who don't have a crap-ass thing like Vista. *shrugs*



1.) Create a new folder in a convenient location.
For those of you who are computer-illiterate, this is done by bashing your head in with a soldering iron right-clicking anywhere on the Desktop and then navigating the menu like the picture below. I prefer the Desktop itself, and as such, I called it "DESKTOP." Call it what you want, though - this ain't my computer we're organizing here.

Here's a snapshot for you visual learners.
For the sake of brevity, my folder is already up - that lone icon in the top-left corner named "EXAMPLE LOL" is it.

Got it? Good.

2.) Open your desktop folder and create any necessary sub-folders.
Again, this isn't my computer, so I don't know what you'll be using. Here's a list of starter categories of things I'd expect random people to find significant enough to warrant a shortcut:

• Various (High-Traffic) Folders in the Computer
  Navigating through certain parts of the computer almost every time you're on it? This'll come in handy.
• Priority Files
  Working on a term paper? Tracking your finances on a spreadsheet? Editing a huge block of HTML?This is the folder for you.
• Computer Games
  Although the average PC gamer has one or two of their most favorite games on the Quick Launch bar, there's still other games they'll visit occasionally. This is for those games.
• Programs
  Same concept as the games folder - college students don't use just Microsoft Office applications. Visual artists don't just use Photoshop and aspiring movie makers don't use only CeltX or Sony Vegas - there's other apps they'll use for that random non-profession-related task they have to take care of.
• PC Maintenance Software
  All technology requires occasional maintenance lest it suddenly break down on its user(s). Computers are the same way. If you possess any anti-virus software or defragmentation programs (because Lord knows Vista's defragger sucks), it's a good idea to throw them here.

Yeah, I got carried away - I made up a bunch of silly example folders.
Pay close attention to the one I have highlighted...

Create them until you're satisfied with what you got.

3.) For each folder, create shortcuts for all things necessary.
Pretty simple, but I know some of you out there still need me to hold your hand. Don't be embarrassed - we all had to learn sometime, didn't we? As an example, we'll go ahead and put something in the "~ NOT the Nuclear Button ~" folder.

- Find whatever it is you're gonna stick into whatever folder you're working on. Right-click it and hit "Copy" (or for you savvy folks: "Ctrl+C").

Nuclear launch detected. Oh, and can anyone guess where the background here is from?

In this case, we'll be using this random picture of a nuclear fireball here.

- Open the folder you're working on. Right-click it and hit "Paste Shortcut."

Things like this are so simple, it makes me wonder why my computer decides to facepalm itself as I explain it...

- Voila!

And your actions are blessed by Jesus Optimus Prime, as this alternate mural demonstrates. Yeaaaaah, boi.

See? Not so difficult. If necessary, you can rename the shortcuts so you can spot them easier or ID them more quickly. Can... can you let go of my hand now? I think you're cutting off the blood flow...

4.) Repeat Step 3 until all desired shortcuts are in all desired folders.
For the sake of brevity, I decided against making a gazillion fake shortcuts. The only other folder I'll toy with is the "1337" one.

In Soviet Russia, mouse click YOU!!

5.) Create the new Toolbar. Right-click the taskbar and navigate "Toolbars ==> New Toolbar..."

This part may be tricky depending on your operating system...

Simply navigate your way to your folder and select it. If done correctly, it should show up on the right-most side of your taskbar.

Oh, just look at that almost-finished shortcut bar. Ain't it pretty?

6.) Move your new fancy toolbar until it's in the desired location. Stare at yourself in awesomeness when done.

PACQUIAO PAUNCH! You're done!

Your toolbar may be locked, preventing you from moving it around. Simply right-click the taskbar and uncheck "Lock the Taskbar."

A WORD OF CAUTION: If your hand isn't steady when dragging these menus around, you MIIIIGHT accidentally alter your taskbar's appearance. Don't ask me for help on that; I'm too lazy (and somewhat mean =P) to help you.





Yes, I'm aware of the fact that you've noticed that my desktop wallpaper kept changing in each picture. I have horrible ADD with the thing - I change it almost daily. Maybe it's 'cause I like seeing different things every day? I 'unno.

Well, that'll be it for today. Hopefully your shortcut bar turns out as cool as mine. Until the 'morrow, everyone!

Spaghetti ng Pilipinas

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ALERT: CORRECTION (Alert Posted: FRI 16 SEP 2011 - 0216 hrs.)
There was an error with the recipe on this page. Originally, I listed that "Spaghetti ng Pilipinas" required "20 oz of tomato sauce" and "20 oz of banana ketchup." I actually meant to say "10-15 oz" for each of the two ingredients.

At the time I wrote this entry, I was cooking roughly two batches' worth of pasta. While I was careful in re-tuning the ingredients list so that it made the 4-6 servings I said it would make, I failed to correct the amount of sauce necessary. This has now been rectified so that the numbers are correct.

Thus said, I sincerely apologize for anyone who attempted to make this awesome dish only to find that their sauce seemed to be lacking meat and/or seemed too... runny. Then again, some of you like your sauce runny. o.O

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GOOOOD DAY, READERS! Josh here with a mountain of text and flavorful pictures, built so it'll last for years and years to come!





Music to Cook By
(Why I (don't) trust the shuffle option at times.)

Just to set the mood (sort of), I decided to list all the pieces of music I went through in order of when they were played. This list tracks everything from the very moment the knife in cooking started chopping up onions today... as well as how bad my ADD is.

Songs marked with an asterisk portray anything that didn't get fully played (i.e.: musical ADD kicked in. An asterisk by itself means I swapped playlists or songs after the song finished.

Alizée - "J'en ai marre!"
deadmau5 - "Cthulu Sleeps"
System of a Down - "Forest"
Incubus - "Take Me to Your Leader
Eiffel 65 - "Another Race"
Barenaked Ladies - "Be My Yoko Ono"
Incubus - "Idiot Box"
Evanescence - "Sweet Sacrifice"
*
Eun Ji Won - "Adios (f. Mr. Tyfoon)"
Journey - "I'm Cryin'"
Offspring - "Session"
Fatboy Slim - "Sunset (Bird of Prey)"
Acid Black Cherry - "SPELL MAGIC"
Halestorm - "Bad Romance (Lady Gaga Cover)"
*
Lady Gaga - "Bad Romance"
Killers - "For Reasons Unknown"
Gorillaz - "Welcome to the World of the Plastic Beach (f. Snoop Dogg)"
Futuristic Sex Robotz - "Back in the Day"
Darude - "Let the Music Take Control"
All-American Rejects - "It Ends Tonight"
Daft Punk - "Television Rules the Nation"
Red Hot Chili Peppers - "If"
*
Bon Jovi - "You Give Love a Bad Name"
Van Halen - "Jump"
Nirvana - "Smells Like Teen Spirit"
Journey - "Don't Stop Believin'"
Queen - "Bohemian Rhapsody"
The Lonely Island - "I'm On a Boat (f. T-Pain)"
*
30 Seconds to Mars - "Closer to the Edge"
OneRepublic - "Come Home"
Lazlo Bane - "Sleep"
Hoobastank - "Lucky"
Queen - "Save Me"
Led Zeppelin - "Wearing and Tearing"
Flipsyde - "Friends"
Santana - "No One to Depend On"
Killers - "Why Do I Keep Counting?"
Atreyu - "My Fork in the Road (Your Knife in My Back) (Instrumental)"
Halestorm - "Better Sorry Than Safe (Live)"
Ozzy Osbourne - "Life Won't Wait"
Rihanna - "If It's Lovin' That You Want (Part 2)"
Lady Gaga - "Born This Way (Jost & Naff Remix)"
Atreyu - "Doomsday"
deadmau5 - "Overdraft"
Def Leppard - "Don't Shoot Shotgun"
Boston - "Stare Out Your Window"
Journey - "Wheel in the Sky"
Saliva - "Rest in Pieces"

And then I finished. But enough on my musical tastes - let's cook!



Spaghetti ng Pilipinas
("This ain't spaghetti. This is Army noodles with ketchup.")

Yesterday I made a beeline to the grocery store and nabbed me a bunch of ingredients. Today, their reasons for their purchase become quite clear: I am cooking. When most of my friends from work heard about this, they were confused. Normally, when I decide to pull off some crazy cooking project, it involves fried rice and a lot of man-hours spent cooking all of it. This time, however... I'm cooking pasta. And not just any pasta: Filipino-style spaghetti.

Today, as we stare at the kitchen I will be doing battle in, we're -

...h-hold on a second. *steps off-camera* Where the hell is my music? I have this eloquent speech about passionate cooking and you're not giving me backing music that fits the theme? The hell do I pay you fo-

*the music from Backdraft (and by extension, the theme song from the original Iron Chef) begins playing*

...better. *walks back on-camera* A-Anyway... *clears throat*

Today, as we stare at the kitchen I will be doing battle in, we're sure to encounter trial after trial of imperfections in this amazing quest to cook a large amount of spaghetti. And why are we allowing me to do this? For freedom! For justice! For shutting up all those people who keep complaining about how I don't do anything for people for no reason! And most importantly: for the knowledge of knowing if what is desired can be achieved!

I am not an Iron Chef, but I can sure as hell go above the traditional chef and their stone-rigid ways to create some good-ol' home cooking. I will triumph over this adversary that is hunger and its malicious partner named negativity. I will go over the top, point my spatula at the enemy, stare deep into their souls and yell:

Allez cuisine! *charges into the kitchen*

Josh Blanco's "Spaghetti ng Pilipinas"
("Spaghetti of the Philippines" roughly translated to Tagalog.)

Now, I'm slapping my name onto the recipe for a reason. Mind you, it's not so I can gain some credit or anything. (I technically can't - this is more of a cultural recipe.) It's because I took the most common form of Filipino-styled spaghetti and modified it - because I could. I'll slap on the traditional version onto this blog some other time. For now, however - it's MIIIINE.

EQUIPMENT:

• oven
• pot
• large sauce pan OR wok
• spatula
• that thing you use to serve cooked stringy noodles

MATS:
Traditionally, the classic Filipino-style of spaghetti requires the following (at least by majority rule - I looked up, like, 15 different variants):

• 16 oz package spaghetti-style noodles
• water
• salt
• 1/2 lb ground meat (any combination of ground beef and/or pork will do... and the leaner, the better - 85/15's the lowest you'll probably want to go)
• 4 hot dogs
• 1 can of Vienna Sausage
• 10-15 oz tomato sauce
• 10-15 oz banana ketchup (REQUIRED)
• 1 onion, chopped (white for a sweeter flavor; yellow for more kick)
• 1 head of garlic, minced
• 3-6 bay leaves (also REQUIRED; do NOT substitute!)
• 1/4 cup brown sugar (I wasn't kidding when I said Filipino cuisine likes being sweet...)
• 1/2 cup green/red bell peppers, chopped (OPTIONAL)
• 1/2 cup carrots, shredded (OPTIONAL; if used, use sparingly)
• various herbs & spices (what you use and how much is up to you)
• olive oil (use enough to facilitate cooking and no more)

HOWEVER, since I'm just psychotic crazy creative enough to attempt to make my own style of pasta, I went my own route. Keep in mind that the above recipe generally serves 4-6 people. THIS is what I went for instead:

• spaghetti-style noodles
• water
• salt
• 1 lb ground meat (any combination of ground beef and/or pork will do... and the leaner, the better - 85/15's the lowest you'll probably want to go)
• 1/2 package kielbasa-style sausage
• 1/2 lb bacon (OPTIONAL; totally blaming Epic Meal Time for this one)
• 15-20 oz tomato sauce
• 15-20 oz banana ketchup (this CANNOT be substituted by any means)
• 1 chopped onion (white for a sweeter flavor; yellow for more kick)
• 1 head garlic, minced
• 6 bay leaves (also required; do NOT substitute!)
• 1/4 cup brown sugar (I wasn't kidding when I said Filipino cuisine likes being sweet...)
• 2 tsp Sriracha hot sauce
• various herbs & spices (what you use and how much is up to you)
• olive oil (use enough to facilitate cooking and no more)

Since I'm kinda bringing this to work (as well as keeping plenty for myself and what not), I doubled the amount of things I threw in. What I used (keeping in mind the same 4-6 servings mindset) differs - I threw in more sauce, ketchup and meat. Muahahaha.

DIRECTIONS:
1.) Cook Noodles to Preference
Easy enough here - just follow the directions on the box. Adjust things as necessary (e.g. you're feeding people who prefer their noodles al dente).

2.) Sauté Garlic & Onions with Olive Oil
Just keep stirring... just keep stirring...! Just keep stirring, stirring, stirring!
What do we do? We stir, stir...

3.) Combine Ground Meat, (Bacon,) Bay Leaves, Remaining Veggies & 1 Cup Water;
Bring to a Boil and Allow to Simmer for 10+ Minutes, Stirring Occasionally
Do NOT be afraid to accidentally crush the bay leaves. If anything it helps infuse the flavor even more.

If you're asking why I said "ten plus," it's because some people like making spaghetti sauce all day (the longer the cook time, the more the flavors infuse). How much time you decide upon is up to you and your current circumstances.

While it's on high heat, it's important to stir. Don't you worry about the meat burning or "overcooking."

4.) Add in Tomato Sauce, Banana Ketchup and Herbs & Spices;
Bring to a Near-Boil and Allow to Simmer for 10+ Minutes
Alternate between what you're adding and stirring - maybe half of the sauce and half of the ketchup and some of the spice before you begin stirring, and when it's fully mixed in, add the rest.

As you mix the sauces in, you'll probably get a strong whiff of the spice. This is natural.

While you're stirring all of this in, don't be alarmed if you smell nothing but cooking meat infused with spice. This doesn't mean it's going to be super-spicy or anything. We'll deal with that later as it simmers.

REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEED~

5.) Add in Brown Sugar and All Remaining Meat;
Bring to a High Heat for 3 Minutes then Allow to Simmer for 5-10+ Minutes
Stir immediately after adding the brown sugar. Last thing you want to do is allow the sugar to clump up and have only pockets of sweetness.

See what happens when you let the sugar clump up? See how pretty it is?
DO NOT LET THIS HAPPEN.

As you stir the sugar and meat it, you'll know if things are going well if the sauce begins to turn a reddish-brown. Keep stirring until you believe everything is mixed, and then let it go back to simmering mode.

...REEEEEEEEEED? Nah - just awesome.

6.) Mix Pasta & Sauce As You See Fit
This will depend upon personal preferences. Are you someone who likes being light on sauce and adds a little? Or are you like me and you drown your noodles with tons of meaty and saucy awesomeness?

Of course, just to warn you: this sauce is very potent when it comes to flavor. Even a little will flavor a lot of noodles.

7.) ENJOY!

Mmm...! Itadakimasu!

I'll be frank: it's been so long since I've had this kind of spaghetti - probably around two years - I literally began foodgasming between bites one and three. If you were cooking along as well, your nose was probably going the same way.

Now, a word of caution - depending on how much spice you used (and whether or not you used a hot and spicy variant of tomato sauce and/or banana ketchup), the sauce will hover somewhere on a two-way "Spicy/Sweet" scale. Something like...

0 (Super-Sweet and Super-Delicious... and to some: Super-Pansy)
1
2
3
4
5 (The PERFECT Sauce - the right amount of sweetness and kick)
6
7
8
9
10 (White-Hot Intensity of a Thousand Suns)
11 (Some Rocker Hacked This Scale)

As I held back on the spices here (and used regular banana ketchup as opposed to the spicy kinds that exist), my finished produced ended up rating at a 1.5 on the above scale. While that made it tasty to everyone who tried it, I don't think they got the full experience. *marks on a notepad: "MOAR SRIRACHA"*

Also, as said already, the sauce will be very rich - you probably won't need that much to flavor the noodles, but if you're like me and you just love drenching you noodles, then by all means: go for it! Do what you will! (Cheese optional.)





Well, I sure hope you enjoy this. I sure know that my friends at work will. And I most definitely know that I will!

Until the 'morrow! *leaves for work*