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August 31, 2004
It's About Time
I haven't posted much in a while because I've been too busy. So here's what's been going on:
The drive down on the 20th was a disaster. I was exhausted from work, so we didn't even get to leave until about 8:00 after picking Pushpita up from the bus stop, eating dinner, and taking a short rest. I had been hoping to leave around 5... silly me. >_< Anyway, that morning my car broke down so I was stressed about whether or not it'd make it to Florida in one piece. It didn't. We broke down in Virginia after only about 1/5 of the trip was behind us. Ugh! Luckily we died in the best possible spot, since it was at a well-lit gas station. Unfortunately at 2 am, we couldn't get the car fixed. We decided to check into a hotel until Triplle A could come, but the nearby hotel was booked. When Triple A came, the man said we'd have to wait at least until 8 am to get it fixed. Oh yea, and that there was a shooting at this station the previous night. Wonderful. To top it off, I then locked my keys in the car. Basically everything that could go wrong went wrong. But the man was very very nice and helpful, and took the car to a good shop "operated by a good and honest Christian man" who only charged me $20 to fix the problem. We stayed in a Super 8 for the tiny portion of the night that remained and only woke up even more tired than when we went to bed. I was mostly worried about Igor (the parakeet) for the whole trip, since he was not enjoying the drive one bit. I guess the worst part of the entire ordeal was that I had to eat my words about Virginia, since we were helped by some very good people who did not meet my usually description of its residents. :-P
Anyway, we got to Florida the next day at around 3:30 am. The new house down here is utterly dirty. Seriously, its disgusting. We cleaned it a little bit, but even still it is filthy and cluttered, since Dave, Pushpita, and I have all been too busy with school to spend a good amount of time cleaning it. Hopefully this week I will find some free time to at least make it livable. I'll go over some of the other details of this house in a later post, as there is definitely stuff you should not miss reading about.
School so far has been pretty tough, but still fun. We had the big Gaming Club shindig the other night, which was successful (a little *too* successful actually -- we had way too many new members interested only in DDR). Classes this year seem like they will be very fun, but also very challenging. My Computer Illustration class assigns a new project every week (OY!) and I always end up biting off more than I can chew. Luckily class was cancelled today so I have a bit more time to work on my current digital painting (which you will see soon, I guess).
Anyway, I'm back at my job in the ARC, with more hours this year. Since this is the primary place where I write to my blog from, I guess you'll be seeing more posts from me... But for now, I have a lot of things I still need to catch up on.
Posted by dminky at 12:38 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 29, 2004
Another For The F-List
I can't believe I forgot to add "The Mothman Prophecies" to that list. I won't redo the list, but this movie goes somewhere really close to number 1. Oh man... it was so bad that I forgot that it even existed until last night someone mentioned it. I guess that is what makes an F-List movie though.
Posted by dminky at 11:42 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 15, 2004
The F-List
I saw AVP today, and boy did I overestimate that movie. And my estimate was that it was going to royally suck...
Now, I'm not one who only enjoys the best of the best movies. I have great love for many movies that are so bad they have camp value. Many movies are so bad that they are enjoyable. For instance, I thoroughly laughed at Jason X. I love the Beastmaster and Krull. I'd even be glad to watch Conan the Destroyer any time. But there are some movies that are so bad that they suck, but not bad enough that they can be enjoyed for their awfulness. You know, those movies that bad enough not to like, but not so bad that you'll never forget them. These movies rate at "2" instead of "1" on the scale of 1-10. That's worse than a "1" because it's not even all the way bad!
Anyway, here is my list of "2's". Of course this list is based solely on my opinions right now, as it is hard for me to recall these stinkers. Some of them I know that I've seen, but were so unmemorable that that's all I can remember -- that I've seen them.
9. Turkish Star Wars
8. Legally Blonde 2
7. Spice World
6. Along Came A Spider
5. Tomb Raider
4. AVP
3. Dungeons and Dragons
2. Vidocq
1. Vidocq*
* This movie was so bad that it deserves 2 spots on the worst movies ever list.
Posted by dminky at 12:06 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 07, 2004
Skull Monopoly
Here's another sketch I did at camp while teaching another life-drawing lesson. I guess there's not much more explanation necessary:
So I'm thinking of either doing some kind of childrens book with illustrations of animals like this. Maybe a WW1-style dossier of criminals or something...
Posted by dminky at 10:32 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 01, 2004
What's New, Blue Shoe?
So it's been a while since I've written anything... except for that last post. So what's been going on? Well, I bought a cell phone. Truly, only my wonderful cell phone experience in Japan could have brought this about. I think I elaborated on that earlier... And I saw The Village last night, which I enjoyed very much. Lots of people complained about that movie, but I thought it was very well done. I've been having lots of political discussions, unfortunately. I'm so sick of it all; it's a shame things are in such a bad state here that people are having these hateful heated arguments that are so nonsensicalto begin with (at the risk of ranting, let me just say that nobody should have the right to control someone else's choices just because their religions says the country will collapse if some people don't follow all of God's laws). Talking to Frances every day pretty much keeps me moving through this otherwise life-draining post-Japan summer. I'm still hoping to bring her down to Florida once work ends, but her mother is resistant to that idea, so it may be some time before we can see eachother again. Le sigh...
There's only 3 weeks of camp left, which I'm especially glad to hear! I can't wait to go back to school and get this year started! Now I've even come up with one idea for my senior thesis that should've been obvious to me: animals in top hats! You see, ever since I was little I've always finished most of my pictures either by popping a cigar into the mouth of whatever I was drawing, or putting a top hat and monocle on it to make it look like a 19th-century business tycoon. Well, I was drawing a pheasant during Visual Arts at camp, and this is what I drew:
So one (very tempting) idea is for me to do a whole series of paintings like this drawing. Should be cool, eh? Nice and nonsensical, like I like 'em!
Well now you know the two reasons why I'm super-ready to get out of this dump and back to my other dump. Not that I'm looking forward to the long and painful drive down to Florida... but I can't wait!
Posted by dminky at 06:20 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Chinese Chess
Don't you love the feeling when you get a new piece of merchandise that has instructions printed in China? So do I. I've got a handful of quality packets of disposable chopsticks that I've saved up over the years, each with its own unique typos. Recently, in a new box of Chess, I found this new gem. It was so wonderful I decided to share it with you!
Locs are drawn to estaohsh who has the while chessmen and thus . who can move first. This player is then allowed the 16 black chess pieces. The board is positioned so that each player has a dark corner square on his left. The rooks are positioned on the two corner square to the left and right. Next to these come the two corner square to the left and right. Next to these come the two knights. One on the left and one of the right. Next to these. the two bis hops and in the center. The queen and king. the white queen is always positioned on a light square the black queen on a dark square. The eight pawns are then placed adjacently in the second row in frond of these chess pieces. The pawns are then placed adjacently in the vance from its initial square on the second rank. the pawn has the option of moving one or Two-squa res. The rook moves cnly on the ranks and files any distance and the bishop only on the diagonals. The queen can move in any direction The knights are the only pieces which are able to change direction during the course of a move and " jump over " one's own or one's opponent's pieces: a knight takes one step of one single square along the file or rank and then. still moving many from the square that it has left. takes one step along the diagonal. The king may move in any direction. one step at a time.
All pieces start from the pawns capture in the normal direction of movement describled above. However. the pawns which normally only move in a straight line may only capture diagonally to the left or right and only forwards. It is not obligatory to capture your opponent. If the king is threatened, check must be.given(the player must declare check) The opponet is then obliged to protect his king by moving the king to another square or moving one of his own pieces between it and the threatening piece or capturing the opposing attacker. If he is unable to make any of the above moves. the king is said to be checkmarked and the game ends in favor of the opponent.
We must dtill miention one pecuharly -castling. Casthng is a compound move of the king and one rook(formally called"castle" ) that may be made. If at all, only once in a hame. It is legal if neither the king nor the rook has yet moved. If all the squares between them on the rank are vacant and no adverse piece commands two squares nearest the king on the side on which castling is to be carred out and if the king is not in chect. The move is excecuted by moving the king two squares towards the rook and then placing the rook on the square passed over by the king.
PRINTED IN CHINA
Posted by dminky at 05:48 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack