Gee. Hell doesn't look like such a bad place.

Are the Thousands Well-Spent?

Five minutes ago I failed my socialogy course. There are three exams for the course, and the oh-so-just instructor stated on the first day that if we recieve a grade less than 40 on any one of the exams that we would not be eligable for a passing grade in the course. I just took the first midterm. The first two pages I left a couple answers blank, the next page I left half blank and half with guesses, and the last page or two are almost completely blank because he said "Time's up. Turn them in" after 50 minutes. It wasn't multiple choice; we were expected to write in "complete sentences, and give examples- who, what, when, where, why examples." I guess that a half inch for every question is enough to write such an essay, but strangely enough, I had some trouble.

So it looks like I failed the course. I used to have an interest in sociology, but that doesn't matter now because I failed. I was seriously considering majoring in sociology, but so much for that because I failed. It doesn't matter that I attended every class, because I failed. It doesn't matter that I spent 2 hours on Monday and 3-4 hours last night studying sociology, because I failed. It doesn't matter that the oh-so-just intructor stated "3/4 of the class usually does fine on the exams," because I failed. Apparently, in spite of the reading, the studying, the listening, and the silly thoughts like "huh, this is interesting," I really know nothing about sociology. Wow. I just love the education system, because one finds out so much about himself. And it is oh-so-just. Oh-so-just. Oh-so-just. Oh-so-just. Oh-so-just. Oh-so-just. Oh-so-just. Oh-so-just. Oh-so-just. Oh-so-just. Oh-so-just. Oh-so-just. Oh-so-just. Oh-so-just. Oh-so-just. Oh-so-just. Oh-so-just. Oh-so-just. Oh-so-just. Oh-so-just. Oh-so-just. Oh-so-just. Oh-so-just. Oh-so-just.

An Important Lesson to be Learned

Poor Apollo. So righteous, so wise, so handsome, and yet so unlucky with his loves. His first interest ran from him and prayed for her virginity to be kept, so she was transformed into a bush. His second love was good for a while, but then she started going with some mortal dogg, so Apollo had to send some hard, pipe-hittin' niggas to bust a cap in her skanky ass. His third is my favorite; he fell for a dude, and things were working out as well as something like that can, but then one day they were playing frisbee in a happy queer fashion when Apollo threw the disc a little too hard and busted the guy's brains out. Haw! Isn't that something? He killed the poor bastard!

Ah, classic Myth. I just know this information will prove invaluable someday. It's got to.

I Fear Zed and his Manliness

In a way, the world in this movie is a MIRROR IMAGE of our own.

Press Start for Art pt. 3

In these past few entries I have been trying to show you how video games can be used as an artistic media. I could continue searching the internet forever and linking to examples of how this is coming to realization, but I won't, because there are other things I want to touch on. So I guess this will be the last entry on the video-game-art-thing.

But that's okay, because I found the site. When I first considered writing this little series, and anytime I think of video games as a potential art form, there is one game that consistently comes to mind. An weird game. A fabulous, crabulous, zip zoop zabulous game. This game has the most creative premise and design as I've ever seen on a console. It's the only game for which you could say "I think the hardest level is 'Metal Machine Music pt. 2' by Lou Reed." It's a fantastically minimal piece of work, both visually and dynamically. It's a combination of the visual, the musical, and the interactive like you've never seen before, a game where the music is the antagonist, taking the form of a shifting, physical landscape. You just gotta see it to know what I'm talking about. It is called Vib Ribbon.

(Just a few notes on the site, if you're not using a fast computer, you might want to skip the intro. Also, you MUST have sound, because the music is FUCKING AWESOME.)

And my face is red

Before I continue with my usual rantings there is something I feel I should touch on. A couple posts back I featured some links to other blogs and my own comments of what I thought of them, be them interesting, strange, decent, or...boring. Well, apparently the owner of the (ahem) "boring" site somehow read my less-than-flattering critique and had a few things to say about it on her website. While I'm still unsure as to how she found out about my cruel musing, I offer the following message in case she regularly reads my posts, or is at least reading this one:

I apologize if you took my smart-assiness too personally. I suppose it's pretty obvious that I didn't intend for any of the site holders to read what I wrote, but somehow you did, so now I feel a bit sheepish. I was in no way attacking you personally, but what I said is what I said, and I won't go back on it, because that would be stupid of me; I did find your website boring. That's just me. That was just the nature of that episode. As for those last couple lines about you having a boring life, well, heh heh, that was just my stupid sense of humor, not to be taken to heart (you should have seen what I said about my writing instructor a while back). Hey, at least you have a life to write about. I take up space wondering about stuff like what would happen if I could eat money. But anyway, after reading what you posted on your site, it looks like you've been through a hell of a lot in your lifetime. So...Oh, shit, I gotta go. Anyway, sorry for being an asshole.

As for the rest of you, I'll continue with the video-game-art-stuff later.

Press Start for Art pt. 2

I've mentioned them in the past, and...now I am mentioning them again. The Super Madrigal Brothers is a duo of two fine young men who produce 8-bit Nintendo-inspired music. Their album, Shakestation, a collection of 8-bit 15-17th century madrigals and remixes, was completed without the two ever meeting face to face. Oliver composed the songs and sent them over the internet to John, who in turn made mad-crazy remixed versions of each song. In case you can't imagine it for yourself, the album is rad. Also, check out their versions of Donovan's "Sunshine Superman", downloadable on their website.

These guys both played video games as kids, and the simple 8-bit musical scores made such an impact that here they are emulating them in the new milennium (as Oliver says, "Nobuyuki Shioda's electro-ragtime-calypso-gameshowmusic soundtrack to the second Mario game for NES is a gift from heaven"). They absorbed the accompanying music to electronic logic-puzzles so long ago, and now they are channeling the sound and feeling of this "video-game music" into their art. It's kind of lke a young boy who goes to a bunch of silent films throughout his childhood and has the accompanying functional piano music burned into his brain, only to recreate that music years later with a sense of artistic respect after silent movies have gone extinct. Art that was not necessarily produced as art is being revived through the expression of a new artist. And thus, video games get a little more artistic props.

Press Start for Art pt. 1

For a while I have had a theory that the next artistic frontier will be video games, as pop art is moving more and more into electronic media. We've already seen feats of downright great storytelling in games such as Final Fantasy(the recent ones) and other RPGs, and a few others (Parappa the Rapper, Rez, Jet Set Radio) have really started breaking the grounds of "interactive electronic visual art". I was going to try to confine all that I want to say into one entry, but I thought I'd break it up into a series of entries looking at different artists and websites that I feel have something to do with this whole idea.

eBoy uses Adobe Photoshop to create pixelated people, buildings, entire fuckin' cities, portraits, and a bunch of other stuff. PC game designers and programmers have been doing this for years, but this guy is doing it just for the art of it. And he's got a book, too.

Touring Blogsville

I know I haven't posted in a while, and I've been kind of lazy at doing that lately. I will try to get back to my daily postings, even if I have nothing to talk about. Funk dat.

The host site I use, for those of you that don't know, is blogger.com which supposedly has over 1 million users. So I thought this episode I would check out some other "blogs" and see what people are doing with them. Of course, you are invited to join me:

Blue Eyed Soul - This is just boring. This makes me feel good about my site; usually I try to make my entries somewhat entertaining. I s'pose she is writing it as a actual diary, like some kind of therapy. My only hope is that she will one day read it and realize how boring her life is, and how boring her thought process is for feeling the need to write all those boring entries in the first place. Then maybe she will go become an astronaut or something.

Heyliz.com - This one's more creative, albeit a site for some goth-nerd-girl. I'm sure her friends think it's great. But I 'm not really into goth-nerd-girls, so I don't find it all that interesting.

Games*Design*Art*Culture - Don't be fooled; this site is prety much all about games, games AS art, games IN culture, and design OF games. Nonetheless, this is a pretty well made site. Makes my site seem a little more pointless, and makes me a little more conscious of my ignorance of web-design, but at least it's not about what he did with his kids on a rainy day. This guy knows his shit.

Happy Deflationist! - Here's a helpful one. This guy posts links to good online deals that he finds. Need a cheap printer or camera? ...I don't. But...maybe you do...or somebody else.

I guess this post was a little boring. I was trying to talk to someone on the messenger so I was a little distracted. Anyhoo, those are a couple examples of what you can do with this whole "blog" concept. Have a good one.

Super Mao Brothers

Figured I'd post something. I just got out of Japanese a few minutes ago, which is fast becoming difficult due to the ambiguity of the villians known as Ga, Wa and O. I have been trying to decipher their meanings and thus incorporate them into my foreign speech, but I can't figure out how they are to be correctly used. Bah!!

Yesterday I asked myself the question "What if money was edible?" That is, if money could be used as an immediately available, tasty food, would it cause financial problems? Would one be able to resist the temptation to devour the big juicy $20 bill in his pocket if he was hungry? I don't know...I wonder these things.

I want to record 2 electronic albums. One will be inspired by hunting in the early 20th century, and the other will be the soundtrack to a Restoration-era play entitled "Brother Ryan's Madness," which doesn't exist.

Across the street a fat woman just got out of her car. It's raining today. I don't have much to write about. There was a strange smell in the kitchen earlier, but now it seems to have gone. I'm a little worried. I think I'll draw some pictures. I have all these ideas lined up but I never get around to doing them. I should go try some things.

The Adventure of Link

Here are a couple more links to sites that you'd better enjoy:

fischerspooner.com - One of the coolest designed sites I've ever found. And I don't care if everybody else hates these guys.

thisisamagazine.com - A pretty funkycold online art magazine. I guess it sometimes features work by the guy at...

supermundane.com - Thanks to Joel for showing me the light of this site. It doesn't seem to get updated too often, which is a shame, but it's got loads of fantastic stuff.

"Oh no! I'm turning into a car again"

I haven't posted any links in a while, so I thought it about time to connect you to another amazing site.

It could be a coincidence that he shares 2/3 of my name, or it could be the key to my mysterious past... Anyway, check this out.

My new classes aren't too painful so far. My Sociology instructor made some comment about dogs having sex in the classroom, and I thought it was funny. I guess I don't have much to write about today. I went to work. I think I will again start trying to get a job in this library. I will never give up! Kyaaaa!!

I've begun writing the Great American Novel. I am considering starting up another Blogger site and periodically posting bits of the story as they are completed. If any of my readers(Joel) would like me to proceed with this, let me know and I'll get that started. Fiction-writing is one art form I can fuck with without having to pay for any tools.

I start Winter classes tomorrow. I will learn all about how snow is made, and why it gets temporarily cold every year.

If you are going to Cali-Francisco

Okay, I finally have time to put in a word or two. I start school on Monday, so I will probably be writing regularly again after then. There's more time to waste when I'm at school than when I'm on vacation.(?)

Christmas was fun. I saw my grandparents' chickens, I played with my young cousins, and I went to San Francisco. I returned home with some great gifts, including a t-shirt, some rad books, and a big ol' collection of Little Nemo comics that are so wierd and wonderful that you just love it. I also bought some pants, which are good.

I love San Francisco. Every time I go I feel like I'm spending the day with an old friend who I never get to see. I'd say the best part of this year's trip was my Chairman Mao hat, mainly because I found it in China Town in a box that said "Chariman Mao hats". Then there was my encounter with an old brotha just tryin to get by:

him: Spare some change, bro?
me: (pulls out a quarter) There ya go, man.
him: Hey, aiight. Man, I wish I had a million dollas, you know?
me: Heh. Yeah...
him: (pointing to a slightly plus-size woman on the street) Then maybe I could get me some fine piece of that, you know what I'm sayin??
me: Heh heh...uh, yeah...
him: Like butter, man, like butter!

Ah, the city. I noticed something else while in a giant Levi's store that made me think. Just inside each entrance to the store you are greeted by a couple manniquins and a living, breathing youth. These youths do nothing- they don't open doors, they only say hello if you say hello -but stand there and face the doors. I'm quite sure one girl wasn't even wearing Levi's clothes. But each one of these youths has a name tag. They are store employees, and as far as I could tell, they get paid to stand in front of the doors and project their youthful attractiveness. There are other people in the store that ask if you need help with anything, so that job is covered. So you might say these city youths actually have jobs being "human manniquins"! Oh, the macabre horror!!! Yeah, so anyway, I thought that was rather queer.

I might have more I want to talk about, but that's all for now. I'm gonna go do something constructive...in my Chairman Mao hat.