500

Today's a very special day for me you this blog! You wanna know why? Well, that's because

THIS IS POST NUMBER FIVE HUNDRED *ROAR*

and as such, I think it's time for an awesome entry to notarize an awesome day (assuming the weather where you live is making it awesome) so that you can have some more awesome while experiencing plenty of awesome.

Oh, and while we're ready to celebrate, here's a birthday cookie plate with... one cookie on it. And a candle.

Awesomeness aside, let's go ahead and see what I have to say to you today on the big five-zero-zero. There's a lot, so be prepared for plenty of awesomeness words and plenty of fun! (And pictures. And other things. You'll just have to keep reading on to find out what's here.)

But while you go on and read, preparations must be made. For that, I need to dive in to the crazy for a bit and make sure that this fictitious party is prepared correctly. Hit it, Pinkie Pie!

The "Party Cannon." Never leave home without one. *presses the fuse*

Sooooo... ignore the explosions and confetti that may be going around while I prepare for all this.





CURRENT MUSIC:
Hideki Okugawa - "Dudley Stage ~ You Blow My Mind"
Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike Original Soundtrack

There's something about this track that makes it almost party-worthy. It's also good for background music during a montage for a tournament (whether the participants featured win or lose is another matter), background music for a fight between gentlemen, and background music for a lively night on the town.

Today's feeling casual, so I felt that this track was perfect to emphasize that demeanor.


John Williams and the London Symphony Orchestra - "The Throne Room / End Title"
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

While there is a great deal of music that could express the emotions of a triumphant victory, perhaps this is the most iconic of the bunch I have set on here today. I mean, considering how posting this feels like a triumph in itself, it's only the most fitting track I could have backing this entry. DUH!

Plus, it's Star Wars. How can you say no to Star Wars? (Oh, right - if it's the prequels.)





Well, well, well! Good evening, everyone, and welcome to a very special episode entry on The White Knight Chronicles!

In case you're skimming and somehow decided to read this sentence, I KNOW WHO YOU ARE THIS IS POST NUMBER FIVE HUNDRED! *cheers* As such, it has to be marked with something special and epic, but seeing as how most projects I work on get stuck in some kind of development hell, I'm afraid you'll have to settle with my incessant prattling and seemingly-endless typing. Not like it matters - this is my blog, and none of you like reading anyway. Right? Wrong? What?

*clears throat*

Well, let's get myself started up. I'm sure you've got things to do, so I'll try to stay brief. I have work later on today (at night... wat), so I'm also in a bit of a bind. Let's get scratchin'!





Ramped-Up Difficulty
(Why I'm not sure this "Thirty Thousand Trial" was a good idea this time.)

Let's face it - lately, my entries haven't been as great as I'd hoped they would be. Sure, there were a few hits here and there, but overall it doesn't seem to be strong like the entries I had in September when I held the first "Thirty Thousand Trial."

Whether it's due to poor time-management or a severe lack of inspiration to do things, I'm not sure. All I can say is that it's been a genuine challenge to post each of this month's entries. It sounds both good and bad for me to admit that, but hey - sometimes you just have to come clean.

Regardless, having to somehow pull a thousand words out of my brain does give me something to do, and that helps quite a bit with keeping me entertained. Sometimes I wonder what there is to do... and because of this project-of-sorts, I have an answer. (Great; I'm starting to sound like the Prince of Junes...)





Choosing a Focus
(Because blogs that are only personal online journals/diaries are boring... unless you're famous.)

Something clicked in my mind the other day. I began thinking about ways to improve the viewership of my blog. Now, multiple things have come up, but not all of them are... how to put it gently... sane. I narrowed down the list and now have the following ideas contending for a topic for my blog to focus on.

Food

Honestly, I think that trip to Umami Burger on Thursday changed my outlook on dining out like crazy. I tried having another burger back on Sunday (a cheeseburger from In-N-Out without tomatoes), but it definitely wasn't the same kind of experience that Umami provided. Now, for those of you not (re-)reading that entry, I said the following:

Every once in a while whenever I partake in the consumption of something very delectable, I get a short-lived dream of becoming a foodie and amateur critic. While that seems pretty reasonable of a goal, the reason I don't go along with it is the high cost of pursuing this particular line of hobby Let's face it: you need lots of money to enjoy all that food, and you can't really get this food if you have no money to begin with.

While that's still true, I can't help but think about trying to go for it anyway. I enjoy food, and I enjoy a great dining experience. Since there's nothing here in the 805 (whoo), I figure I could help out my fellows living here with me and find the good places to eat here and have a decent time. Plus, everyone likes good food!

Video Games

Choosing video games as a primary focus seems to be the obvious choice for me - I am a gamer, after all. Thing is, selecting this as a topic is pretty much in the same vein as selecting food, because it costs money for me to afford both the systems and the games for me to try out the games and try to enjoy them. That, and my focus isn't that great, so knowing me, I'll end up getting distracted and swaying away to a different thing. Still, though, it'd be interesting - I could even review games (although it's not like I'd get anywhere by doing that when there's a bazillion video game reviewers out there on the Internet) and make recommendations. It is a possibility.

Writing

I could just abandon all my other hobbies and just focus on my writing. While that would be very beneficial to me and my writing talents, I'm afraid that by narrowing my focus, I'll also narrow the readership on here. Right now, since there's a little bit of everything for everyone, viewing this blog isn't such a bad thing. If I were to restrict what they had to look at (let's face it: writing will probably just turn each entry into a wall of text), they'd get disinterested and leave. I don't want that.

Some Other Topic

There could be something I missed. Then again, there may not be anything.

While these are viable options, I'm wondering if I should even consider doing this to begin with. I think the charm with my blog was that people who are actually interested in the blog read it because they found something for them to enjoy. If I risk taking that away, then they may not show up here anymore. That would be a shame.

At the same time, I need to find a niche for me to focus on. How do I do this...?





Pre-Quadruple Objectives
(or: "Things I'd Like On Here Before Post #1000.")

As usual for me, there comes a time where I announce my desire to do stuff. This is fun, mostly because I can totally see myself doing these things and I've got all the time in the world to accomplish them. Now, most of these are somewhat long-term, but I've been thinking about them for some time now and finally decided to go give a green light - both in taking care of the objective in question and with telling you about it.

Since 500 days seems to be such a long segment of days, it would seem (somewhat) sensible to announce that I have some things I'd like myself to do before this second batch of 500 days goes through. "But... don't you have your resolutions for this year to go through first?" I hear some of you asking that question, and my reply is "Yes." But what's the fun in only having to do ten things over the course of the next seven months when I can have more things to burden myself with? (Ladies and gentlemen: this is how overambitious people end up crashing horribly. Try not to mimic this for your own sake.) Listed below are the projects and/or objectives that sound like interesting things to do sometime during these next 500 days.


Get a video blog up and maintain it enough so that it could be considered a partnered vlog to this site.

While I've already said that there's going to be a vlog up by the end of the month (first time in a while, really), I don't want it to be a one-time thing. Most of my projects seem to have this knack where they do okay for the first few runs and then go on a permanent trip to the backburner almost right away. It's a horrible loop that I haven't been able to break myself out of, but with sheer stubbornness determination I think I oughta be about to do just that.

So, aside from getting the vlog video up on YouTube by the end of May (I'm debating on whether to put it on my YouTube account or on an auxiliary), the main goal for this objective is to be (semi-)consistent with vlog updates. Considering that I live in the armpit of the 805 (at least in terms of how to entertain yourself without getting slaughtered by gangs or boredom), there may or may not be interesting things on the videos, but it'll be something nonetheless.

Heck - maybe I should work on this after this.


Publish that dissertation I said I wanted to publish.

I said I was going to write something, and I'm telling myself that I meant it. So far, not much has been done apart from about 5 hours of research and another 80+ hours of "research" - that needs to change. Maybe I'll start working on it after I'm done with this entry. Eh, I said I'd work on the vlog first (read above), but once that's done, this gets top priority. Besides, I'm starting to feel something from within call to me. Could it be my own Persona...?


Whatever other project I come up with that suddenly warranted priority from me.

Knowing me, there's just bound to be something new, recycled, or fresh off the backburner that I want to get done. This spot's reserved for them, because it wouldn't be fair to me to focus only on these two things.





Well, that's it for today. Coming up on the next 500 days: more posts! More fun! More silly things! Maybe some kind of increased viewership! We'll just have to see what happens, won't we? Until then, ladies and gentlemen!

Thank you for staying with me through these last 500 days! Let's see if we can make the next 500 look better than these ones!