BLEH… A DAY

My commitments for the day ended around 1pm. I was available for my own work right after that. Somewhere along the way, I took a long nap, heard about someone’s med school interview (at length I might add), took a shower, and cleaned my toilet. Before I knew it, it was 6pm.

I really needed to do some work. I sat down and decided I had to put some effort into my presentation that I’m giving next Tuesday. I managed to finish writing my material and then I gave Powerpoint a whirl. Keep in mind, I’ve never written a PP presentation before. After a little tinkering, I got a pretty good template up. By midnight, I had 38 slides written up. I’m a little concerned I might have too many slides. I need to time my presentation still. I also have a few demos outside of the slides which will take some time. I’m starting to get a good vibe out of this. I really want to make a kick-ass presentation. I hate making poor presentations. I want people to actually enjoy what I have to say. I’ll need to put a little more effort into it and I’m sure everything will be where I want it to be.

I’m happy the bulk of it is done. I’ve got a lot more things to do this weekend.

I don’t know if you realize this, but two guys have been in my room for about four hours now. They’re not even talking with me, they’re talking with each other. Now, they’re begging me to turn on my TV app so they can watch soft-core porn. Great, they’re crowded around my monitor now, trying to watch soft-core while I write to my blog. One guy is way too close to the monitor now. I’m going to have to ask him to back the f off. These guys are really into this porno. A says the women are really hot, that’s why he’s so into this movie. Um, ok.

I think I’m about to ask them to leave. One of them is lying on my bed and eating chocolates. I think he’s putting the wrappers and chucking them on my bed sheets. This is getting out of hand. This guy behind me is starting to get on my nerves. I’m almost a mushroom cloud laying mofo right now.

Ok, I need to end this post and kick these guys out of my room.

PICKY THE FISH

For my birthday, my neighbour down the hall, Carolyn gave me a fish bowl and a single Betta fish.

I was really busy at the time, and my first reaction was like, oh… ok. I was thankful but I felt like I was in one of those movies where the gross, slobby bachelor suddenly gets custody of a precocious child. Then, through the course of caring for the child (with many hilarious incidents), s/he breaks through my gruff exterior, and I eventually learn the value of love and how to love another human being. Actually, I didn’t really think a single fish was going to do that.

Anyways, for several weeks I didn’t name my fish because I just didn’t have the time nor a good reason to name him something. As I got used to my fish and observed his behaviour, I noticed something really odd about him. Most fish that I’ve had all exhibited similar feeding patterns. You’d drop the flakes into the water and they’d eat every flake they could see. They wouldn’t stop until they had nothing left to eat.

My fish, on the other hand, would only eat like the first two flakes or so it saw. It would not eat any more than that. The rest of the flakes would go untouched. I wasted a lot of food at first. Now, I have to feed him flake by flake, or else the rest goes to waste. Since he eats so little at a time, I have to constantly feed him.

Thus, I came up with the perfect name for him. Picky.

SWIFFER FRESH!

I’ve been in my room doing work for about six hours now. Not surprisingly, I only have a small amount of tangible proof that I have been doing work.

I did some reading to understand how to do a question for an assignment. I wrote some code for another class that may or may not work. I loosely formulated a test plan for the software engineering project I’m doing. Currently, I am working on the outline of my lecture that I’m giving next Tuesday. It’s the one on video game testing. I’m finding more and more things to talk about. I am worried these details might get boring. We will see.

Earlier in the day, I bought some new Swiffer wet cloths. These ones have a citrus scent to them. This evening, I started Swiffering my floor. My room smells like an orchard full of oranges and lemons now!

I have been in my room too long tonight.

LET’S PLAY A GAME

This started out as a game I played with my sister when we were younger and we actually still participate. To my delight, my friends have also picked up on the game. Basically, you use movie quotes or descriptions of movie situations to let people know how you’re feeling. Let’s try one:

“That was very interesting music Marty.”

This is from Back to the Future when Lorraine meets Marty after he plays some electric guitar. She’s being polite, but it’s clear she found his music a bit odd. My sister and I use this when we’re trying to be polite about something that we’re not too keen on. Sample usage: I try drawing my sister’s portrait and I show it to her… “That was very interesting music Marty.”

Let’s try another…

“Bacon tastes guuuud…”

This is from Pulp Fiction. John Travolta’s character is digging into some breakfast at a coffee shop when he says this. The way he says guuuuud is the key here. Sample usage: To be said before or during consumption of any tasty food item, does not have to be bacon. Can also be followed up with “Pork chops tastes guuuud…”

Now here’s a variation, it’s not a movie quote per se, but a description of movie situation…

I think I was moving in bullet-time…

This refers to the Matrix movies where bullet-time was a special effect that was used to a great degree of success. Here, one might say this if they thought they were moving with a great deal of speed, but at the same time, retaining great clarity and vision of the situation, eg. during a dodge ball game.

Ok, that one was really easy, but let’s try another one and this time, you try to figure out the movie and the context…

I’m about ready to chop my father’s hand off…

This one isn’t a direct movie quote, but certainly refers to a situation in a movie. If you can, name the movie and the general emotion one might be feeling if they were saying this.

THE BEST FAN FILM

Star Wars fans are an active group of people. Some of them express their love of the SW universe by collecting toys, others make what are called fan films. These are home-made movies that attempt to explore an aspect of the movies that hasn’t been seen before. Fan films are usually share three common things:

1. Horrible visual and sound effects

2. Cheezy dialogue and acting

3. An impression that the budget was around $0.05

A while back I discovered a fan film that had none of the three things above. Quite simply, it is the most impressive home made Star Wars film I’ve ever seen. It was made primarily by a gentleman of the name Ryan Wieber. I believe he was only a teenager at the time of filming. His visual effects work eventually got himself a job at LucasArts. The fight choreography is excellent, but what really stands out are the visual and sound effects. It’s amazing what a lot of talent and some hardware/software can do for you.

Wieber’s site can be found here. The link to the film is here. Get the large version of the movie if you can.

AS HEARD ON LETTERMAN

“The answer is… A-Rod.”

“And the question Paul?”

“The question is: what is the difference between a-man and a-woman?.“

DADDY IS HUNGRY

I have not bought groceries for over a week. This is not a good thing. I’m hungry right now. We had some awesome fried chicken and coleslaw for dinner tonight. I wish I had more of it.

There’s the vending machine, but I’m sick of chips and chocolate bars right now. You know what I wish they put in vending machines? Cans of soup. I’d put in $3 worth of quarters for a can of Campbell’s Chunky Soup, preferably chicken noodle. I’d crumble a bunch of saltines that I have into the soup. Damn, that’s good eating!

Aw crap, this looks good too. Ok, I’m going to post this and do some rummaging.