Confession Time...

Okay everyone, guess what.

That title up there? Not totally random.

The fact of the matter is... I haven't really updated this blog at all recently for one reason and one reason alone. Girls.

How's that you ask? Well, since you totally just took my bait and asked that, let me tell you. I started this blog for one reason and one reason alone. To pick up chicks. My standard attempted pick-up before this blog would go something like this: "Hey babe, occasionally I write stuff on Facebook when I want to post stuff online." Believe it or not, this line is not that effective. For some reason girls just didn't find that attractive.

But then I discovered the secret. Blogging. My line went from that up there to "Hey babe, occasionally I update my blog when I feel like talking about video games or music or my feelings or something." IT WORKED SO WELL. All of a sudden I was a complex individual with a cool opinion and deep emotions! What kind of girl doesn't want to read about me ramble on randomly about video games without really knowing what it is that I'm going to say? I even had a few guys hit on me when they heard about my blog!

Now that I had a few posts and my "blog" looked legitimate enough, I just had to wait, and I would be the most popular person EVER.
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If you are still reading, the above was totally true. And by that I mean that was totally not true.

The real confession is much less exciting. I spend time wasting my time, which leads to cycle of procrastination and self-hatred. Typical teenage things. I just figured that others would appreciate being used as a means to get girls, rather than being put off by boring teenage laziness.

Plus I have no clue what to post here. Possibly stuff about Tv shows. I like those. Since you are looking at this, you are both on a computer and on the internet. That bodes well for you; even if you're one of those weirdoes without a Tv, you can still watch Tv shows.

Now to a part where I tell you what you should like.

Avatar: The Last Airbender/Legend of Korra:
OMG OMGOMGOMGOOMODMGSOIJSDOPFJi;ldskfoaj. Sorry. These shows are hilarious and amazing and awesome and you should watch them all like 50 times. They have stuff for everyone!

Cute animals

Funny moments...

Just watch the shows! They are fantastic!

Community:

Okay, so this a show that I only just recently started watching last week, but due to a long weekend have seen approximately 30 episodes of. I honestly don't know how to describe it... Okay, so it's a show that takes place at a community college, and revolves around a group of wacky people of all types! One of the greatest aspects of the show is the way that it takes tropes of all sorts of things, and manipulates them in hilarious ways. The writing is also fantastic. As is the music.

Just look at these wacky misfits!

While there are some issues with the show, overall I think it is definitely worth your checking out...

Okay, lets be honest. I watch way more than just 2-3 Tv shows. I just don't have the time or energy to demand you watch them all. These are just the ones I have most recently been obsessed with.

I hope I just wasted your time. That would be nice.

Bye bye!

Video Games Againnnnnnnn?

Yes. Shut up. Video Games rule.

Anyways, OMYGOD GUYS OMYGOD MASS EFFECT 3 CAME OUT TODAY!

What is this bizarre thing that I am referring to? Quite possibly an awesome video game, and according to this lengthy post "the Most Important Science Fiction Universe of Our Generation". I know. That's some crazy hype and shit.

Also, if you don't actually want to know anything, just skip to the end of this post. It's worth it. Trust me.

But anyways, this series is a HUUUUUUGE block-buster series, and for good reason. It's an awesome RPG/Third-Person Shooter series that has been continually improved over time. It play's amazingly (though the first one's interface left much to be desired, as a link in the previous post mentioned), the story is awesome, and to be honest it is one of the prettiest games out there. I kid you not, some of the back-drops in just the second game blew my freaking mind.

What else does this game series have going for it? How about the ability to truly create your own character? Male or Female, Ethnicity, Sexual Orientation, Good Person or Asshole... All of these choices are available to you, and while they may not change 100% your interactions with others, they can change your experience. It's a game that lets you create a character that is, for the most part, truly who you want it to be. I mean, you'll always wind up killing things, but that's not the point.

Another groundbreaking aspect of these games is the way they work. Choices you make in the first game transfer to the next, and same with the second game. It all winds up affecting your overall experience, as the stories don't just tell the story of Commander Shepard, but of YOUR Commander Shepard. Tons of different variables of what your Shepard is like, and what they did, transfer from one game to the next. This is actually incredibly cool, and also groundbreaking.

Finally, one other major aspect leading to it's amazingness are the characters. The way this game works is you have "squadmates" who you take with you on missions. While some of these squadmates are human, most of them are actually aliens. While in some respects scientifically improbable, this does not matter because the alien characters are soooooo much better than the humans. How so? The two top fan love interests for male and female Commander Shepards are Tali and Garrus respectively. Neither of these two are human.

Pictured: Tali (Not Human, Still Awesome)

Pictured: Garrus (Also Not Human, Still FUCKINGAMAZINGLYCOOL)

These two aren't just loved because you can make sexytimes with them (yes you can, shut up you stupid xenophobes). The aliens in these games wind up being much more well written and interesting characters than the humans. Many of the humans are very drab in comparison to the godliness of beings such as Tali, Garrus and more.

Speaking of humans, lets get back to Commander Shepard, and fans. Much like many games in our male-dominant society, originally all of the promotional stuff for the Mass Effect games was a male, despite the ability to choose between male or female in game. Despite this, the overall fan-base agrees in enormous proportions that Fem-Shep (female Shepard) is significantly better, as her voice actor does a much better job than her male counterpart. The fan love for Fem-Shep was so substantial that the company actually made a Fem-Shep trailer for Mass Effect 3, despite the fact that they had not done so before. So yeah. Fans love Fem-Shep.

Finally, lets get to the best stuff, the fans. Seriously, all sorts of stuff has been done to profess love for Mass Effect. There are a number of online memes based off of it, somewhat decently compiled here.

That being said, ya'll are probably sick of reading. So I will show something else off instead. Fan-made music. It's amazing. The first one is by far the best though, so feel free to listen to that alone.

Here we have a brilliant 80's vibe, showing off his amazingness.

Here is a british fellow rapping, telling us the story of the game. Also pretty sweet.

This isn't fan-made. This is in game. One of the characters sings a brief piece. You know you're jealous.

Anyways, there is Mass Effect 3 to be played!!!!!

I should go.

Video Game Design and English

Hey everybody.

I want to talk about something called the nit-picking. Recently, in my effort to waste as much time as possible on the internet, I found myself examining a couple different things that were evaluations of video game mechanics. Not necessarily the programming aspect; rather, the overall design, taking notice of inconsistencies, superfluous elements and more. This may sound incredibly boring to you, but I when I discovered these, I thought to myself "OMYGODDDDDD I LOVE THIS!"

Why? Because I am a prick about that sort of thing when it comes to everything, and these were evaluations of the design aspects of the games, while at the same time focusing on nit-picky little details! I found myself enchanted!

Admittedly, it's nearly 20 minutes long, but that fits in well with my afore-mentioned goal! Also, he says "fuck" a lot. Seriously. Not just a shit-ton. Like 10 shit-tons.

In contrast to that glowing praise of Megaman X, I read myself an article criticizing one of my favorite video game series, and more specifically a game that I have played through numerous times, on interface flaws present almost in every aspect of the game. I am going to use this entire sentence to link to that article, because I loved it lots.

Why did I love this? Because it's interesting! It's not talking about the jargon, it's talking about how stuff should be according to these basic rules of design!

All this being said, I have no intention of becoming a designer.

But this same sort of system, of having "proper rules", also extends to the English language. I am an absolute asshole about this sort of thing. Recently I was reading an essay my younger brother wrote, and it basically took all of my creative writing abilities, threw them on the ground, and stomped on them a bunch. What did I say while reading it though? "You spelled assistant wrong. You spelled it "assisstant"." That's right. I criticized his English.

This relates to the video game stuff above because it's those little things, those errors of the basic rules, that get to me more than anything else. To some extent it's an annoyance, but to be honest I actually love correcting other's stuff as well. I'm fairly terrible at evaluation when it comes to emotional or creative quality in works, but goddammit I am going to make some comments about your English, or little inconsistencies. Wanna know another thing I noticed in his paper? One word, just one out of the who knows how many, was a different font.

Dammit, Janet, this post sort of went off on a tangent and stuff. Oh well. I'm a judgmental person, and I will rant and rave about it.

I hope you all don't mind.

Some Nights

Okay, so this post is totally going to be about music.

You know how like, last post, I was all "OMG NEW ISLANDS SINGLE!!!!!"? Well that album came out this week, and is one of the few albums I actually own! I pre-ordered it and it came with a sweet card signed by the lead singer! If I had a camera, I would post some pictures of it, because it's actually pretty funny.

That being said, in less than a week, another of my favorite bands is releasing a new album! It's fantastic, though admittedly I may not buy it, if only due to lack of cash moneys. Anyways, the band is called Fun. and the album, Some Nights, is their second one.

Now, I absolutely LOVED the first album, called Aim and Ignite. The songs on it are incredibly pop-y, and it is one of my most listened to albums, with songs that almost always can cheer me up.

This song, The Gambler, is almost definitely my favorite song on this first album. While I suggest you listen to all of the songs on it, as this one was not initially my favorite, the more I listened to it the more I loved it. I mean, it's cheerful but at the same time full of emotion. I don't really know how to explain it better than that. I just really like this song.


Now, the new album takes a slightly different tone. I mean, it's still good, but the first album had a sort of sincerity in it's music. When hearing it, the songs seem like when heard live they could only sound better.
In the new one, it seems less so, considering LIKE HALF OF THE SONGS HAVE SIGNIFICANT AUTOTUNE USAGE.

That being said, I can't hate them. I actually quite like the new album - not as much as the original, but is good individually. So yes, I do dislike the autotune, but thats just me being a crotchety 17 year old. You should listen to them, and love them anyways.

Also, I realize that I have been a terrible blogger, as to be honest, this is my 4th post within like 6 weeks or something and I'm already running out of ideas. I mean, look at this! The past two have been about music coming out within the next few weeks! ERGH.

But I shall persevere, as I like to think that you people actually enjoy reading these posts.

P.S. Here's a link a Some Nights stream: http://soundcloud.com/fueled_by_ramen/sets/fun-some-nights

(Mew)Sic

Hey people!

You may be hoping this post to be about a variety of things. It could be about Mew, the Pokemon, and how Sic it is. It could be about the music of Pokemon. It could be about cats, and music. It could be about cats playing music. It could be about a cat playing music for other cats. The possibilities are ENDLESS!

In some respects, it is all of those. And by all of those, I mean none of those. This is just a post about music.

Though of course I wasn't going to turn psychedelic Mew down.

So, the timing of this post is mainly because my favorite band just released a new single, and that made me so freakishly hyper and excited that I felt the need to make a blog post, and share it with you!

You may or may not deduce from that video that the band's name is Islands. That is their new single. From their new album A Sleep & A Forgetting, coming out on Valentine's Day (also coming out Valentine's Day? Mass Effect 3 demo!). Basically, despite my being aloooooooone on Valentine's Day, I will be very satisfied.

Anyways, so as part of the release of A Sleep & A Forgetting, Islands is going on tour. Typically, they are just up in Canada for most of the time, so when I heard this I rushed to find out where they were going. So I go to the website, and there I see it. THEY ARE COMING TO THE TWIN CITIES AS:LKFJS:DLKJF:LKJSD!!!!!... was my initial reaction. Then, I saw that the concert was $10, and start flipping out some more, because I like to spend my money on stuff like video games, not concerts. I was soooooooooo crazy duper excited that I freaked out about it all over Facebook... Only to have someone say to me "It's an 18+ show". I am 17. Islands comes to the Twin Cities in March. I turn 18 in April. I want to cry...

Nevertheless, their music is fantastic, and I suggest you buy it, then listen to it, they buy it again BECAUSE I LOVE THEM SO MUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

Okay? Good.

Farewell until next time my faithful readers!

P.S. I am instead planning/hoping to spend that $10, plus an additional $30-some, going to see Florence + the Machine with my best friend. Worth it? Yes. A butt-load more money than I would otherwise want to spend? Also yes.

Hrmblgrumblegrumble

So were back here again...

Before we get started, let me just point out that the above "Hrmblgrumblegrumble" is NOT a negative one! Its my second post, there is no way I am going to lay my stresses all over you yet!

Anyways, over the past week or so that has passed, I have had like, an almost in-contabulatable number of ideas to post about, but in that time I have also had a number realizations that you may not actually care about what I have to say. I have come to the perfect solution...

Following this post, in a manner that is actually rather intuitive as it is, I will be titling my posts something that has to do with the actual content. Why am I doing this you ask? Basically, its in case I post something like "OMG GOAT-KOALA LOVE CONQUERS ALL", you go there expecting some hot interspecies lovin', rather than me raving about my favorite video game... Unless that game happens to be about exciting interspecies relationships...

In case you haven't noticed, I really like linking stuff. I hope you open it, its some fantastic stuff. Anyways, now that I've started telling you stuff I like, I'm going to tell you more stuff I like!

• Awful Sci-Fi: Ever since I was young, I have been watching old cheesy sci-fi movies, and frankly I love em. That feeling you get when you see something that is so bad that it is good is nigh unbeatable(not true actually. I like the word nigh though.) A perfect combination of bad old movies and making fun of them is Mystery Science Theatre 3000 (MST3K for you savvy few!) In fact, the very first time I hung out with one of my best friends, we just headed on over to my house and watched one of the greatest MST3Ks I have ever seen. It was amazing.

LASERBLAST! You can find the full MST3K version here!

• Video Games: In case you may not know, I love playing video games. Admittedly, some I prefer over others, but I am a firm believer in the artistic power of video games. Also, they are crap-loads of fun. Some, like one of my personal favorites Borderlands, combine some of my most favoritest aspects ever. Expect some later post or more of me raving about this game. I have spent way too much time playing it.

I still don't know how to caption videos, but this video is one the creators of Borderlands made for one of their fans. Crude yet hilarious!

• Scarves: Scarves. I love scarves. This is a relatively recent obsession, but my oh my do I love scarves. Recently for Christmas, that terrible consumerist holiday that I absolutely adore, I got two scarves, and I jump at the opportunities to wear them. Fashionable, soft and warm? Incredible! If I had the camera, and the photogenicosity, this blog could possibly consist entirely of me wearing my scarves, and not necessarily even with different outfits. Though on the topic of outfits, I also really like sweaters, and I got one for Christmas that matches one of my scarves PERFECTLY, and it was a complete coincidence!
• Carrots: Seriously. I have been known to give monologues about the different ways to eat carrots, both full sized and baby (full sized are sooooo much better). I have also been known to bring full bags of full sized carrots to school, and pull them out during class. They are a comfort food of mine, don't judge!

Okay, I will probably have to continue these sorts of things at some later date, because I am unfortunately a student at a school that likes giving out homework. I am forcing myself short here.

Anyways, sorry if my blog is getting listy, this is only the second post so I'll work on different sorts of structures later! Also, if people do want to see me post about something, let me know, because I am not sure how much people want to hear me talk about some of my stuff. Not to say I won't post my stuff. I will. Your suggestions will just be cream spacing out my Oreo cookie posts!

Later people!

P.S. You guys should click on my links! I promise that they will usually be pretty great!

Get to know me!

Well hey there folks!

This blog shall be a blog of my thoughts, as if you couldn't get enough of random people's thoughts. Never fear however! I promise mine will be slightly interesting, if not engaging enough to make you abandon your pets, desperately refreshing the page for every new post.

On this blog, pictures will occasionally be posted. These pictures will be helpful to all you, except those who are blind, though I doubt pictures would be the least of your worries on this blog should you just happen to be blind.

But I digress! My name is Ben, I am 17 years old, and to get you readers to know me, I think I will begin this blog by sharing a few of the hopes for the future I have had at some point or another.

• When I was younger, I had bizarrely morbid thoughts about my own death. Anyone else? No? Oh well. Anyways, way back when I was like, 5 or 6 years old, I had an ideal way to die once I was older. Have I mentioned I was a strange child? My dream death was to, at an old, old age, die from an overdose of chloroform. In my young head, it seemed like the best way to go. I would have lived a long life, and it would be just like falling asleep!

• When I was the tender age of young, I also happened to be a dinosaur expert. Admittedly, almost every single child is a dinosaur expert at one point another, just because dinosaurs are the shit, but way back then I lived and breathed dinosaurs. Unfortunately I did not eat them as well, as my parents found dinosaur shaped frozen chicken nuggets disgusting, but overall I was quite the dinosaur person. There was this one chain Greek restaurant, Dino's, and while they still exist, they used to have this dinosaur focus for kids, which always seemed strange to me, because really, dinosaurs and Greek food have little to nothing in common. Now that they have moved past that stage though, I kind of miss those plastic dinosaur cups. Anyways, long story short, dinosaurs had me totally sold on Paleontology, a word which my 6 year old self could in fact pronounce. Unfortunately, that dream diminished over the years.

Me as a child, but female... (Sorry about the awkward embedding, I'm new at this!)

• This skips way forward into one of my relatively consistent dreams for the past few years. I love seeing strange facial hair. The other day I spent over an hour looking at the best in the world. Unfortunately, at the moment I am unable to grow anything anywhere near as magnificent. Instead, my dream is to have an incredibly array of disguises at my disposal. I mean serious shit here too. I want fake mustaches, fake beards, fake glasses, wigs, fake facial features, maybe even some makeup? This must seem creepy, and I honestly have no clue why I want this stuff. But I do.

You can hardly tell its me...

• Upon retrospect, this dream seems very, very suspicious when combined with that last one, but at some point in my life, I want a legit set of lock-picks. Not for any particular purpose mind you, but just as a sort of puzzle to do in my free time. Although really, it would definitely help if I were locked out of anywhere...

Anyways, those have been a few of my life's goals throughout the years. Nothing special, and I really have quite a few more, but really, who hasn't wanted to be a kick-ass harmonica player at some point or another in their life?

Sorry for the long first post, but I figured you might as well know about me! If you have read this far, you are my new favorite person ever!

Ill post more shortly! Ta ta for now!

Ben I.

P.S. That Rainbow Dash image is merely for lack of a better recent image. I enjoy the MLP:FiM show, not the internet culture around it.