Fail...

Hahaha, today has been epic when it comes to failing.

On my way to History of Graphic Design class this morning with my model building, I fell partially asleep while I was walking and walked into a fire hydrant and smashed part of the building off.  Fail.  In class we covered websites looking at sites with good design and one of the sites was www.todaysbigfail.com which happens o be the most amazing website ever created.  If you know about it, well, then you already know, if not - check it out...you will feel pain.  Then later I was walking and overheard some guy on campus trying to be "manly".  Some guy was talking with a girl, and another guy, who was apparently her boyfriend (although, at this point I don't know any more), walks up and in a very conceited, brutish way puts his arm around the girl's neck and asks the other guy loudly, "what are you doing with my girlfriend?"  Her look was AWESOME!!!!  She just turned to him, and gave him a look that said VERY clearly, "you do not own me".   The guy saw it, shut his mouth, removed his arm, and just stood there not looking at her.  Fail boyfriend.  It was EPIC! ^_^

In other news, I got the latest and final Neuoticfish album, A Greater Good, and I'm loving it!  I've heard the new songs on Pandora, but I like having the control over listening to 'Can't Stop A Riot' on repeat.  I'm hoping to get one of the Melotron albums as well, because every now and then I need to hear hauntingly beautiful female vocals.  Up until now, Moonbeam has been my favourite, but I'm impressed with the vocals in 'Folge Mir Ins Licht'.  German can sound very guttural to a lot of people, and I've heard a lot of comments against it the past few years, but really, and that's fine - freedom of thought.  Listen to the song, hear the chorus, and let me know what you think.

The last and final thing - today the APU servers blocked my blog on the school's servers for "containing pornography".  A round of applause for our I.T. department, truly well done.

Cheers!

-Shadow of Light

Remember When...

I've been awake for a few days now, like two or three.  I can't sleep because of the heat so I've just been lying awake in bed the last two nights and shifting around making attempts to get an hour or so of sleep, but just waiting for dawn.  This last night was different, I still felt the same, so I decided to try watching a episode or two of something on Hulu after finishing my paper due in a few hours.  I made a choice this last week based on things that I'd talked about and said/heard to/from someone, and after getting a few great nights of sleep, things started to fall apart.  I'm not waking up every five minutes, and I'm not lying in a daze at least resting - I'm wide awake, because thanks to a conversation I had with someone last week I've been stuck trying to get a whole bunch of unwanted old memories out of my head.  Good news is, once I forget everything again, I won't ever be having the same conversation again, and I hopefully won't be back in this state - I'd need sleep.

Anyways, I ended up watching more than just one episode.  I watched all five current episodes of Psych, and loved them all.  And then came the last bit of the last episode, and I just got pissed off.  One of those moments when tv is too reflective of life and it gets under your skin and gnaws at you.

And now I'm trying to kill time while I wait for the day to go by.  Not that I could have slept with my roommate's psp playing music all night.  I'm really not in the mood to be understanding and forgiving right now.  But hey, I can at least look forward to my continued efforts of looking, "terrible" I think the word was?

Cheers,

-Shadow of Light

You Can't Stop the Riot

Oh my goodness!  A couple things: first, it's WAYY too hot today/this week.  I don't do heat.  The fact that I put up with sunlight is sacrifice enough, heat is too much.  Second, I'm soooo drained.  I got three full real nights of sleep this weekend/previous week, and then I got a spell of not being able to fall asleep for two more nights.  I'm used to not sleeping, but mix that with the heat, and I barely made it out of my room to get water, and then barely made it back.  Been having a TON of trouble trying to walk around.  I'm finally moderately awake, and have been for about three hours, and four cups of tea.

So now that I'm awake, I of course am doing what every college student has to do at some point - homework.  I don't mind homework, but I do mind busy work.  Guess what I have - busy work.  Ughh.  So I'm writing this, and taking a break from outlining chapters of Acts and answering questions that I don't really care about.  However!  There is clearly a higher power at work.  My proof?  As I'm typing this and moaning about stuff I need to do/am doing, Pandora radio just decided to play 'Around the World' by A Touch of Class - one of my all time favourite songs!!  AAAAND, I haven't heard it in forever!  I heard it, and it was good, and night went on - the first day.  Ahhh, I'm seriously in love with Pandora right now, it's been playing such good music lately.  Like I posted a while ago, the station I have is made of a ton of artists and songs all similar genres, but ranging from soft to heavy.  And yet, when I turn on Pandora on a day like today, when I'm really in the mood for beautiful female vocals and songs that get me moving, it plays all the perfect songs.  To me, that's love.

If yo haven't heard the song, here's a link - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zv_mv5TkrOY - although, I'm pretty sure you probably have if you listened to the radio in the last 18 years.

Alright, that's it, I'm going back to work, which is probably smart considering I just remembered a paper I have due on Wed.  Grr.

Cheers,

-Shadow of Light

Your Eyes Got Me Thinking

Ok, well I picked tonight's title from the chorus of 4 Strings' 'Colorblind'.  Good song.  Good music.  If you haven't heard 4 Strings, it's nice dance/trance music, easy to move to, reminiscent of bands like iiO or Cascada.  Ahh, classics.  I've found that it's really difficult to find people on this campus who are into the same music as I am.  Even in high school it was difficult, but there were people who were into it, and therefore I had people to talk to.  Here: no one!  When I tell people that the usual answer is "well, it's a Christian school".  And it's sort of true.  But! my high school was Christian too.  I know the answer - SoCal.  I'm not trying to generalize, I'm not saying all SoCal people aren't into it, I just can't find the ones that are.  And by the way, if you are from SoCal or APU, please add me on Facebook (Joe Maximus - San Francisco network)), or email me, or something - we need to talk. 

That being said - I love Pandora.  It fills in all the blanks in my iTunes library.  Here's the thing, I don't ever want to have 'enough' music.  Life is perpetual, and so should it be.  I watched the music video for Hot 'N Cold (ya, ya, I know...), and I seriously crack up at the actions of the groomsmen and the vicar.  I got into Katy Perry on my senior trip in high school, when our class went to San Diego.  It was the second-to-last night of the trip (for those who thought this was going to be a short post...sorry >.<), and there were four other guys in my room, one guy was crashing with us so he wouldn't have to be in his room.  I was on the floor between the two twin beds, not really sure what the situation was with everyone else, but I do know that VH1 was on - and it was terrible!  I wasn't into the music that everyone else was, especially when it's pop/emo/grunge/punk boy-bands...*shudder*.  Anyways, I was trying to fall asleep and not have an aneurysm with what the broadcast was playing.  After agonizing minutes of nothing but crap, I heard something that sounded promising, so I jumped up and shouted for them to leave it on and not channel surf, and lucky me - it was the music video for 'I Kissed a Girl'.  The beat was something I liked, and the video didn't raise any objections from the other guys (why I rarely defend the actions of men - including myself).  Well, I spent the next day and the day after with the song stuck in my head, and I thought I needed to hear it once more to get it out of my head.  So I got it, I put it on my iPod, I listened to it to and from graduation the next day, and it's been on my iPod ever since.

Oh!  Today I hung out with a guy I know.  It was cool, we played a few games, watched an episode of Heroes, got Chinese food, and watched 'The Machinist' a good Christian Bale movie.  Trippy movie, and I figured it out about 80% of the way through, but still worth the watch.

And back on topic - or back off topic if you will - I'd like to take a scholarly approach to my music.  Regardless of the emotional level of the song playing, if it gets you moving, you're getting exercise.  We need more exercise in corporate America today, and music that gets you moving is a perfect solution, hence the creation of Jazz-ercise, although it's not really my thing.  If you listen to artists like Depeche Mode and VNV Nation, you're exposing your mind to some deep philosophical topics, and you stand a good chance of learning something or forming an opinion (which, by the way, is totally cool in society right now).  And then of course there's the aspect of ingenuity that can only come from a dance music video.  Example - Cascada's "Every Time We Touch": rave in a library!!!! Admit it, if you haven't already thought of it, you are now.  It'd be AWESOME!  Honestly, that's something I plan on doing someday - hosting a rave.  Maybe even in a library.  Hahaha, and a darkwave rave in a morgue! ^_^  Now would be a great time to say that Pauly Perrette's 'Abby' of NCIS is my favourite character of all time.  I mean, seriously?  Pauly Perrette is just waaaaay too cute in general, but as Abby...well, ^_^ there's really no words.  Honestly, time slows down, and DJ Mangoo's 'Eurodancer' plays in the background.  I'm kidding *_^  But really, her character blows my mind.  Especially with her choice of tats, to put a lemniscate on your inner arm, you've got to be inherently awesome, or a poser.

Anyways, that's it, I could go on forever about Pauly Perrette and my music.

Cheers,

-Shadow of Light

I Don't Need To Tell You...

Tonight's title is for a friend who keeps sending me these lyrics via email, chat, and Facebook.  Seriously...although, I will admit that it's a good song: Free Me From My Demons - Pride and Fall.  Not either his or my favourite song on the album, but one of the better ones.  It's kind of dark like the rest of them, but that's kind of the theme of the album - In My Time of Dying.  The album Elements of Silence is much lighter, with songs like Retrospect and Border.

Today - I finally had a relatively full night of sleep, which was great, and seriously needed; but I also slept through my class, which pissed me off a great deal.  'Hell hath no fury'...so to speak.  After that (45 min. after the end of class), I started an assignment for another art class - Intro to Art.  I had the joy of  filling in a color wheel, using only three colors.  Here's the thing, the teacher informed us that we can't use the red, yellow, and blue, paints that came in the required pack for our primary colours, because...well, they aren't the appropriate colors.  So i had to use the primary colors I had to make other primary colors to work with the ENTIRE time.  So sucks.  And by the way, what the heck is 'phthalo blue'?  I've never seen a 'phthalo' before, but apparently it's some offshoot of blue.  Oh, and 'Mars' black?  Mars is RED!  I went through the rest of the colours, and guess what: they're ALL wrong!  If the names aren't bad enough, the names that are normal don't match the color.  Lemon yellow.  You would expect it to be the same yellow as a lemon, right?  Wrong.  I've seen lemons.  I've picked lemons straight from the tree, seen them in stores, the fact is - LEMONS AREN'T THIS COLOUR!!!  Lemons are lemon yellow.  This was neon yellow, but more matte.  In other classes there is discussion of the depravity of mankind, or the loss of morality and growth on insanity in the world.  After seeing how my acrylic paints are labeled, I can see what's going on in the world.  It's the paint labelers and manufacturers that are bringing us down.  All I want is a red that's red, a blue that's blue, and a yellow, white, and black, that are actually what they say they are.  I'm tired of this 'fire engine blue' crap.  Children's crayons are labeled more appropriately then the paints I buy at the college store and the professional art store near by.  It's RIDICULOUS!  I talked about it with my mom today, and we both got a few good laughs from it, but the truly sad part about it: it's TRUE!

After doing the majority of the wheel, I got too mentally damaged and went to my friend's and got to relax and get the caffeine out of my system (7 cups of tea).  Then I took a little nap, came back to the crypt, and finished the apple pie I had in my tiny fridge.  And now, I'm typing this, and going to bed with hopes of sleep again.  But probably won't get much.  I can hope.

In other news: when I was angry with myself for missing my class today, I vented by covering a bunch of my roommate's things in plastic wrap and foil.  I also put plastic wrap in front of the door so he'd walk into it..but he saw it because the lighting was against me.  However, we're leaving it up to see who forgets and walks into it first.  There have been a couple close encounters so far tonight, and honestly, it's brought us a little closer.  Obviously we both want to see the other make a complete fool out himself and relish in the joy of winning the challenge - so it's not like we're doing this in a friendly, brotherly way.  It's all about watching the other fail.

I'm going to win. ^_^

That's it.  No question tonight, I'm running out.  Although, if you happen to be a new found PF fan, feel free to finish this (ya M, a place just for you) - 

It's in your eyes I see the longing you have
It's in your eyes I've seen hate grow old

It's in the way we are

Cheers,

-Shadow of Light

Every Now and Then...

Alas, today is the last day of spring break.  Oh well, I can play again later.

News of the week, I finished construction on the building for my graphic design class.  Hopefully I'll have some time to paint the thing before Thursday when I turn it in.  I'm happy with it, even if it isn't a 'real' scale model.  It's built on a scale though.  It's, oh idk, 6 inches by 14 inches by 14.5 inches.  Actually that's correct; considering I could never remember the measurements when I was working on it, I'm impressed.  It wasn't what I had wanted to do originally, but it works.  The first concept was a building made with different sections in different architectural styles.  But I gave up quickly when I started working on stuff, and just stuck with the International Style.  You should look it up.  Everything would have gone much smoother if I'd had a Dremmel to use, and good news, I'm getting one soon.  Kind of late for this project though.

In other news: I've listened to more music.  I know, you probably don't want to read another rant on music; but that's why I'm mentioning it: so you can go do something more worthwhile.  Homework, taxes, laundry, whatever.  But if you're staying on the page to read about it, you'll still get what you want.

I was talking with one of my friends, and one of the things we talk about almost every time we have a long conversation is music.  A while ago I mixed my entire library with his so that I would know some of what he had in his library and so I could play my music if I didn't have anything of my own.  Anyways, most of my library was built off of what he had to begin with, so adding to it wasn't a huge deal, and thanks to Pandora, most of what I added fits his style.  But that was a while ago, and I've added music since then, so I update him when we talk with music he should get and listen to.  The most recent one that he's added is Pride and Fall.  I like the heavy beats of their songs, the decent lyrics, and the original beats.  The shared favourite seems to fall onto the song My Little.  Maybe it's the events of the past that make the main verses stand out to us, maybe it's the beat, or maybe it's the haunting chorus that speaks to the truths people don't like to face.  My opinion?  It's a combination of all of the above.  I like to mix it with a strong, dark tea and sit in darkness.  I like to approach music with more than just my mind or my emotions.  I like to use both.

Here's a link to the song: http://twiturm.com/e5xc

You can go through the other songs I have posted too, feel free to comment or to just enjoy them.

And that's about it.  It's not all that long tonight.  Interesting.

So I'll end with two things:

1. I know most people who see this blog are already friends with me on Facebook, but if you're not, and you want to contact me with questions or comments or just want a friend, I'm on under the name Joe Maximus.  If you're going to add me, or send a message though, putting 'blog' in he topic will keep me from deleting it outright.  And if you do all that and then suddenly can't find me in your friend list online, well, you were probably bothering me and I probably deleted you.

2.  Question (as always): Post a short phrase that means something to you, BUT, don't explain why.  Sometimes things need to be explained for clarity, other times it's better to let people think for themselves, and not care what their opinion is.  Maybe their opinion has value to you, maybe not, leave it for the human mind to sort out.  Oh, and make it something good, after a conversation earlier tonight, I'm in the mood for something deep.  For the record I read all your comments - seeing as I have to moderate them. *_^

Mine - "Every now and then your soul will tell you lies to bring you down."

Cheers,

-Shadow of Light

"He is war hero! He needs rest!"

So...today.  I worked a bit on my project.  Actually I worked a lot, but not much got done.  I think I underestimated the level of work that architects have to do.  It's intense.  But I'm doing more tomorrow, waking up, showering, turning on and up my music, and just WORKING.  Forever.  I bought the supplies, I want to do something with it.  Then I had lunch, sammich again, and got to spend some time online with my best friend of nearly five years - and it was EPIC.  We played Left 4 Dead for a few hours, got disconnected trying to play Tiberian Sun online (the servers don't run very well any more, it's really sad), and then played two really great matches on Red Alert 2 and Yuri's Revenge.

Game 1: Great Britain (me) vs. Iraq (Alex) on a bunch of bridge-connected islands in the snow.  I built a big navy of about 20ish ships and spread little outposts all over kingdom come for resources and in the hopes that ungodly army he was making wouldn't find them all right away.  Well, I managed to find an island in the middle of the map with only two bridges and I destroyed them so I'd be cut off from the mainlands, aaaand he proceeded to send the previously mentioned unholy and gigantic army across the ENTIRE bloody map and wiped everything else clean in about two minutes. Two words - Apocalypse Tanks >.<  Considering game speed - two minutes is basically instantaneous. But, I got SUPER lucky and had enough aircraft carriers and warships to get his base from the sea, and the only thing he hadn't thought of was a naval attack (otherwise I would be super destroyed) so we basically watched as I destroyed everything of his over the course of five minutes.  I'm what you would call a turtle player, I play slow and defensively.  Alex is, and probably always will be better than me, because he's a heavy attacker, with amazing speed.  He builds the same size armies as I would, but three times as fast, and sends them in to wipe me off the map.  Unless we're playing TS, which is an amazing game for people like me.  Two more words - Banshee Assault ^_^ Anyways, I won the first match with a TON of luck, at one point he had two of the Apocalypse tanks on my little private island, but he was destroying other things so he didn't wipe out my at the time PUNY base while it was there, and I got rid of the tanks with my navy.

Game 2: Yuri (me) vs. Great Britain (Alex) on an all water map with three big islands, one completely barren (wth?).  Again due to the map, we both went heavy with navy, I build the epic boomers (aiming for about 25) while Alex built anti-sub ships and aircraft carriers, and then we each spent most of the game building god-knows-what just because we could.  The first twenty minutes were spent running hovercraft over the map, and chasing them with sniper teams and a Yuri prime.  End result: my hovercraft ran his sniper team over (I know, it hovers, how can it? go figure), and his sniper teams chased my floating Yuri around the shores of his island as I tried to capture it or them or whatever I could.  I built floating disks (flying saucer's if you're unfamiliar with the game) and chased his hovercraft and mobile construction vehicle around my island where he was trying to build ANOTHER base...for more income.  Demolished both.  Then I captured and sold one of his ore refineries with Yuri out of revenge.  But I got greedy and went for a rocket trooper with Yuri and go sniped.  Fail.  He made up for it by building an over sized squad of rocketeers to take out my disks, it worked, and then they got picked off in the process of taking out my machine guns...by my machine guns.  We sent taunts of British and Russian psychic laughing back and forth, news of our lack f money, threats to attack, and cries for help via the taunt menu, and then he sent in his navy to wipe out half my base including my submarine factory, while I moved my boomers to defend, wipe out his fleet, and destroy his island base.  It took forever.  And again, he really had me, actually, maybe a little less, I did have seventeen boomers, so that counts as a good defense and offense.  While we played we discussed the game over xbox live, and one of the things that came up was that Yuri's army in the right hands (mine), has AMAZING defense (true), and actually, really decent offense if you know how to use it.  Boomers are sort of cheap because they attack air, ground, and sea, and stay cloaked when using torpedoes, but their cost makes up for it.  I built maybe ten disks and only seventeen boomers by the time he wiped out every usable building in my base, (if the boomers had failed, I would have also, I didn't have anything major left), and two Yuri Primes, one to make up for the one that got sniped.

In the end, they were both good games, they didn't take forever, and there were epic casualties on both sides.  The first time, I got really lucky, the second time, luck helped, but looking back, so did a fleet of boomers.  And I also notice now that even in Tiberian Sun, I'm all about defense and air power, and have always been navy heavy in Red Alert.  Alex is killer in both those and land assault, which I'm really rather pitiful at.  When it comes to Red Alert, he is still the master, I concede that, but with TS...well, we're sort of tied with wins I think, or at least the scale of wins.  But it's the way we play - build for like an hour and do epic things and then wage war and see who wears out first.  I'm heavy on defense anyways so that helps, and a group of 40 or so banshees and a cyborg commando make for a really good attacking front.  Plus I always play as the Brotherhood of Nod, so I have God, Kane, and Tiberium on my side.  How there not be a win?  Oh, that's the other thing we do when we play TS, we each give the other our own technology so that we have the best of both worlds.  It's epic.  Two Mammoth Mk. 2's alongside a cyborg commando and a mutant hijacker with a horde of banshees overhead raining down Tiberium plasma on each other...ahhh, ^_^

So ya, tomorrow I'm going to do more work.

Question: Best drink?

Me?  I'll tell you when telling you is legal.

Cheers,

-Shadow of Light

Tale From the Crypt

So, today is my second day of my Spring break, and so far, it's been nice.  As mentioned before, I'm not going anywhere, just staying in my dorm room at school, affectionately nick-named "the Crypt".

Friday, I finished my class, then walked to Michael's so I could buy some supplies for my project for History of Graphic Design.  I bought a multi pack of all the different blades for my Exacto knife and a saw.  I bought two packs of the sticks I needed, because that was all they had...so I bought a couple sheets of balsa wood.  Anyways, I'm looking forward to starting building tomorrow.  Then I set up the 360 back in my room because it's been on loan at my friend's place most of the semester so her roommate can play it.  And then I did what any tired gamer college guy would do if he haven't already - I played Mass Effect.  OH, did I play, 8 hours and 15 minutes straight.

Saturday, I stayed in bed a little bit longer to see if I could get extra rest. Nope. Then I did what any gamer college student guy would do if he already hasn't - I finished Mass Effect.  I love this game.  I know I'm going to go through again to do more, but I was debating waiting. I think I'm going to start tonight. Wait over. Then I ate some Satay from Trader Joe's - delicious - and played the two new expansion packs to Tomb Raider: Underworld.  Here's something I've noticed: an article in a game mag said that the new look for Lara Croft was supposed to be a attempt to make her look more realistic and feminine.  Ok, my personality doesn't disagree with the thought.  You want to try and add to your audience by making the game less sexist, that's fine.  However, there still isn't a huge difference between the original Lara and the new one, except better graphics.  So, way to fail.  Plus, I honestly don't see the point in trying to make her more realistic when she spends the entire game, sorry, SERIES, running around accomplishing huge feats of gymnastics while finding non-existent artifacts and fighting creatures that come from poor interpretations of mythology.  And the two arguments are that she needs to be more realistic (right, to fit in with everything else?), and that her figure should be less exaggerated to appeal to women.  I may be wrong, but I don't think many women can do what Lara does.  I'm willing to accept that some might, but I'm not an idiot; not many humans can do what Lara does.  So why should it matter if Lara has an hourglass figure if the game industry feels that most women don't actually have one?  I thought I had a point, but I sort of forgot what I was arguing...so nvm, sorry.  But back on topic, one of the new levels lets you play as the Shadow Lara from the main game - if you played, you know how epic she was.  I wish you got to play as her FOREVER!!  I honestly like Tomb Raider, it's fun; but adding shadow powers into it!!  OMG!!!!  EPIC.  Plus, the shadow Lara has a personality that I really like - she's not as wimpy as Lara can seem in the new series.

Today, I was on the phone for an hour with family.  Then I played Ninety Nine Nights - fun game.  Harder than it looks too, you really have to think and strategize while you're playing or things just don't go in your favor.  Got some chips at the store and a sandwich for dinner - club w/tomatoes and jalapenos, nom nom nom.  Not my favourite, or as good as a well made sandwich (it was Subway), but it was food.  Watched Shaun of the Dead, and started writing this - off to play more Mass Effect.

Question: What is a good deli sandwich meat/cheese/topping combination?

I'd really like a crunchy sourdough baguette with some Capicola and Calabrazi salami, ham, and maybe Provolone cheese with some thin sliced jalapenos on top, and then toast the entire thing.  Then add some tomato and lettuce.  It's sooooo good. ^_^

Cheers,

-Shadow of Light

Galleries and Grace Juice

Alright, for people who don't like reading a ton of stuff - this bit is for you:

"Today was AWESOME."

You may now go about your business, back to work you know you don't really want to do, or whatever you were doing before you decided to link to this blog, which you then found too still not fit your tastes.

This is where the post begins for everyone else:

"Today was AWESOME."

As previously mentioned, I had to go to a museum today, LACMA, for my History of Graphic Design class.  Note: even though I thought I was museum-ed out, I was wrong.  Here's why:

1 - I did in fact get a ride to the museum - with my professor for the class and a grad student he knows.  I know he's a cool teacher, but at the same time, I woke up, got the message, and thought, "aw man, I have to BEHAVE!" not that I'm really into causing problems - most of the time.  I was wrong.

2 - Jim Daichendt is officially B.A.  Easily ranks with my favourite two, Miguel Arciniega, and Jeff Boyd.  You have to know the other two men to know how HUGE of a compliment this is.  To put it mildly, and in terms you've probably heard, Chuck Norris would explode if he thought about them.  Being an art major, it's fun for me to look at interesting art.  Being an art major in a museum with awesome art AND a guy who actually knows about art - BEAST!

3 - After going through a museum you should seriously take a look at, and coming up with too many ideas for my Spring Break project, we ate, and went to a show with more awesome art work, and then - went to the Ace Gallery.  Here's the thing about the Ace Gallery, art work right now - interesting, makes you think, intense; gallery itself - OMG! HUGE!!!  I want this place as an apartment soooo bad!  The amount of rooms, placement of rooms, enormity of rooms, and sheer AWESOMENESS that was these rooms almost made my head esplode (again, not a real word, but I need something to define an explosion greater than an explosion).  ONE room, ONE, was about 51 feet by 23 feet.  It was one piece of one side of this gallery.  I have had several day dreams about this gallery already, imagine what you could do with a giant TV, some huge surround-sound sub woofers, and an xbox/computer/media system in a single room!!!!  PLUS, there would still be enough room to install some crazy light systems so you could have a rave or a seizure in what would be your closet.  One day....

I didn't realize how epic space truly was for my life until today.  Huge epiphany.  Then we went to a German book store, walked through the tar pits, and came back to APU.  There's also a story about something that happened with postcards in the gift shop, but even though I was involved, it's someone else's story - find their blog, you'll find your story.

So that was the DAY.  I went directly to do some shopping - need to go get a ton of craft sticks tomorrow (tongue depressors).  Then I got some more of the epic Sobe water, new flavors this time, although I did buy the one from last time to give to a friend as well as some gum for her.

This is where the night starts, much shorter, and epic to me, because friends like this are hard to come by.  Had tea (Mighty Leaf Orange Dulce w/ cream & sugar because I've had nothing but black for the last couple...erm...forever...except once before).  Got to crash on the floor, which is my favourite thing EVER, plus I got a free pillow...after it was torpedoed into my face.  Got walked on, also something I LOVE, my back is screwed up sooo much that stuff like that feels AWESOME!  Then we all watched The Hunchback of Notredam which I haven't seen in about...idk, 8-9 years?  Throw in a couple inside jokes, and it was epic.  Then I picked up my xbox and now I'm back in my room and somewhat not as happy as before...sort of wanted to fall asleep in a state of awesomeness...ahhh, on the floor.  I love sleeping on the floor.  Ha, said the insomniac with apnea (long story, but it's true).

So here I am.  That's the gallery part of the post title.  Now the grace juice part.  Because of my sleep issues, I read...a lot.  As birthday gifts I received Ted Dekker's Paradise trilogy (Showdown, Saint, Sinner), and so far I've finished reading Sinner, and am almost done with Showdown...again.  I can't decide which is my favourite.  Some of the very few books I re-read, I, Lucifer being the key other one.  So, intro to art tomorrow (eh, it seems so...well - eh), then I begin my Spring break! - by walking to Michael's and back.  Then I'm going to relax for a few hours with some tea and the 360.  And maybe some movies.  And a Sobe water.  And a bar of chocolate from Vampire.com.  And some music.  And maybe some work on my project.  But that in particular might need to wait a day.  I'm excited to work on it though, and excited to have some time to myself here...kind of.  Roommate won't leave.  Apparently Hawaii is too far away.  Go figure.  He's such a fake Hawaiian too, waaaaayy Americanized.

Question: You have a 100 foot square plot.  In it you can fill it with bamboo and create either a loose bamboo jungle or a tightly woven area with bamboo around it or w/e  fact is you get bamboo.  OR, you can fill it with California redwoods (you know, the awesome ones).  What do you pick?

Me? ^_^ A mixture of both in a very unique style.  Style isn't part of the equation, so I'm keeping it a secret.  Answers can be any length, no reason to say other wise.

Cheers,

-Shadow of Light

The Turntables Go 'Wiki Wiki'...

At least that's what a picture I found on the Backgrounds App for the iPod touch/iPhone says.  And it's true.

Ok, you got me, I'm still tripping on music.  I got the entire album of Go-The Best of Moby, even though it came out before some of his other albums, and I've been listening to Lift Me Up all day.  Really ALL DAY.  Woke up, played it.  Sung it in the shower. Listened to it on the way to class. Listened to it back from class. Hummed it in chapel. And I'm listening to it right now.  I truly love this song.

But I'm not going into a huge rant about music this time...I hope.  I think I'm getting a cold.  Or maybe it's just allergies.  I usually get either once or twice a semester, so it sort of makes sense, I've already had a bad cold once, so maybe this is just a weak version.  I'm taking care of it though - vitamin C, healthy food, and tea and water.  Speaking of water: Sobe has water out called Life Water, perhaps you've heard of it.  Anyways, I saw the bottles in the store and LOVED how cool they looked, and the flavors sounded awesome, so I picked up a bottle of Fuji Apple Pear.  It's fantastic.  If you like pears and fuji apples, you'll love this flavor.  I'm impressed, usually flavored water is, well, watered down - no real flavor.  Sobe was smart in picking things that are supposed to have subtle, crisp flavors, and it WORKS.  Definitely what you want to bring when you go to a club while dancing and singing "Lift me up. Lift me up. Higher now, up now."

Right now I'm waiting to see if there are any rides available to get to the museum I need to go to tomorrow.  I hope so.  It's not super critical that I go tomorrow, but if I don't I will have to go sometime this weekend, and I'd really rather not.  What sucks is I'm not really in the mood to go to a museum at the moment, which means if I get a random ride I'd prefer to go in, get what I need, and book it; but if I'm at someone else's mercy I will have to WAIT...I don't mind not being in control, I just know I have lots to do still.  *sigh*

Ok, so I just realized I'm not super quick on the uptake - just posted that request on Facebook, so MAYBE someone will either have time or want to get out of a class to go do something fun. Even though it probably won't be too much fun.  But they can make it fun.  Ya, have a positive attitude people - you will enjoy following an idiot through a museum for free.  Actually, phrased like that, it at least sounds amusing.  I love museums, I'm just not in the mood.  Maybe because I know I have stuff to do, or maybe because I know I have to be all adult and mature while I'm there.  The first museum I went to was the ExplOratorium in San Fransisco this last summer with John Roscigno - http://www.johnroscigno.com/ - and my friend Bunny.  It was SO MUCH FUN!!!! You could touch EVERYTHING!!!!  It was super uber cool.  And then I went to the Norton Simon museum a little while ago and the security 1 - STALKS YOU and 2 - yelled at me for touching the WALL!!!!  That's right, the effing STUCCO!!!!!  What the heck?  At the ElplOratorium, the most awkward thing that can happen is 1 - tripping into something, and 2 - being at an exhibit while a child comes up to you awkwardly and then runs away.  They were sort of like squirrels, you were totally ok with them being right there, and you sort of wanted to reach out and let them take a block or try the exhibit with you, but they just STARE.  And then their eyes get really BIG and they run away, leaving you there awkward and alone.  Then you explain it to the people around you, and they're like "ya, I know, one did that to me too!!" and you get this moment of group understanding, but at the same time are left with a little hole somewhere deep inside that gets buried into your subconscious about "what if that child hadn't run away?".  It adds a whole new aspect to going to museums.  Plus the ExplOratorium is LOUD!!  That's what museums should be like sometimes, you should be able to get EXCITED about the art!  instead of walking up to a painting and saying "oooh, I really love the brush strokes and the lighting that gets employed in this.  What a fantastic medium, it fits wonderfully into this frame and is such a great example of the International Style" you should be able to go up to a piece and take a minute to look at it and say, "THIS PIECE IS AWESOME!!!!!  I LOVE THE WAY THE WATER SEEMS TO MOVE!!!!! DECONSTRUCTIONISM ROCKS, FOR THE WIN!!!!!!  You see?  It would all the difference in the world.  Ok, so maybe not shouting, but at least a normal voice.  And you wonder why the Norton Simon is so bloody empty.  And security, they shouldn't be a bunch of old, vulture-esque people milling about in suits, staring at you from the corners and following you with their beady eyes, they should be middle-aged people in jeans and jackets with name tags strolling around and going up to people who look lost and saying, "You look awesome today, may I help you?" they'd be loved AND boost self esteem.  People would come back JUST for the security.  Oh, and if they really MUST tell people to not touch the wall, why not give me a good reason.  Don't just say, "Excuse me sir (where by sir they're really implying, Hey you inferior, uneducated, worthless person you, or just 'get bent'), don't touch the wall".  Not even a 'please'.  And calling me uneducated with his eyes, that's just low.  I can guarantee you I know more about walls than he does.  I've worked on construction sites, I've researched engineering, I've repaired walls of my own, how DARE he assume I'm some uneducated person inferior to him.  I could build walls around him in a cellar just like Amontillado.  Don't mess, fool.

But like I said, if they're going to tell you not to touch the wall, they need to go about it professionally, the middle-aged man in jeans comes up and says, "Why, hello sir, you seem to be quite awesome, and I don't want to detract from your experience, but the museum is built on an old burial ground, and I'd like to warn you that touching the walls may cause some of the more powerful and violent spirits to attach themselves to you and haunt you.  I'm only telling you for your safety and comfort and for liability reasons of the museum.  Thank you and have an awesome rest of your day here".  How you POSSIBLY be offended by that?!  I mean think about it, just the fact that he was completely open and honest with you, as well as humble, puts you in a much better mood, you understand that it was a mistake, and you don't do it again, but you don't feel like a child getting scolded.  You're an adult, you should get treated like one.  And the music in the Norton Simon...ughh, there WASN'T ANY!!!  I understand keeping it calm, but dead silence?  At least have The Girl From Ipanema playing low in the background.  I saw the speakers, they exist, they were designed with a purpose.  And security should actually know something about art too, instead of standing there in his under-sized suit, ogling people.  You should have that middle-aged security guard in jeans there, and when you ask him about the artwork, he should say, "why yes, this piece is one of this museum's finer works by this artist. As you can see, it is in act a replica, but also the closest thing to the original because as they were falling apart we replicated them directly and saved them from being lost forever" or "i don't know, but you're awesome enough I will go find out for you".  Either way, you feel important enough to know the info and the security becomes this representative for the benevolence of the museum.

It would be awesome.  I think if my art career ever gets to the point that I have exhibits, or a museum, I'm going to ensure that this is how people are treated.  You know, like HUMAN BEINGS!

Question:  Have you ever wanted to hug a Monkey Puzzle tree?  ONE WORD ANSWER.  If you don't know what it is - look it up.

Cheers,

-Shadow of Light

Just Dance.

Well, it's Tuesday night, I've done all the homework for this week except Friday's art stuff, and that's good.  Still a lot to do, have to magically appear at a museum in LA Thursday...ya.  And then Friday's hw of course.

Today was a music day.  I had a lot of work to do so I just plugged into Pandora and I must say, not only does it read my music, it reads my moods...mostly.  Although I'm sort of notorious for letting my music be my mood, and when you can't help but move, that's a good mood to be in.  Big favourite recently, well two actually, The Rejection by Dangerous Muse, and Lie to Me by Depeche Mode.  They're both sort of mellow, as you can tell by the titles, not necessarily the things dreams are made of but that's the thing about my music, it doesn't have to be happy if it connects, if it means something.  Today though my focus was with Dangerous Muse, specifically the bridge of the song, 

Arms up.

Just dance.

Arms out.

Just dance.

Arms up, just dance.

Arms out, just dance.

Arms up, just dance.

Arms out, just dance.

Just dance.

I mean really, just hearing that kind of attitude makes me happy.  What part of just give in to the music isn't understood?  I know that it isn't always about giving in, and that music isn't every one's answer, but imagine how this works for someone like me, say you're having a bad day, you find a song that reflects the day but still gets you to move, and as you're listening..."just dance".  Makes my day.  And then to just add to the awesomeness that is me on music, Pandora decided to play me Moby's "Lift Me Up".  OMG!!! First "just dance" then "lift me up! lift me up! oh la la la la!!!"  I encourage you to act foolish and act out the bridge above while listening to 'Lift Me Up'.  And if anyone ever tells you music can't be spiritual, send them to this post, and if that doesn't do it for them...well, at least you get it.  One can hope.  Actually, now that I'm listening to "Lift Me Up" in the background on youtube while I write this - this may be anthem for the week.  With the tips from Dangerous Muse of course.

Ahhh, this is what makes my day in life.  Music is something that you can control and something that can fix just about anything.  Sometimes it's the songs you wouldn't expect either.  Those pesky songs you hear on the radio that otherwise bug you because they're not your preferred genre, you never know.  And when my hair is finally long enough that I can donate it, I'm going to completely shave my head - start from the ground up.  I plan on looking like both Joe Kucan (C&C's Kane) and Moby.  And then go back to normal. It's been a plan of mine for several years.

Also, you know what goes great with music?  Tea.  Sipping hot tea or any kind and just sitting in a cool room letting sound wash over you, not moving much, but enough to be part of the music.  Iced tea in a tall glass sitting next to you while you dance to the music never stopping, just slowing down long enough to take a cool drink.  Drinking the moderately good Lipton green tea w/citrus out of a sake glass.  That's what I've been doing.  Got the little shot glass for two bucks from a Japanese store, and so far I've used it to do shots of Monster Energy (not a great idea for caffeine sensitive people) and now shots of green tea while moving to music and typing papers.

Question: (I've dropped the 'challenge' bit, they're not really challenges, more like "please comment on my thoughts" type things)  Post a song or two (no more than that) that make you move, get you going, or otherwise just do that thing that music does when it's really working.  You know ^_^

As always, here's my bit, the youtube video for Lift Me Up.  Don't forget to dance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dw17-BEFb3Y

Alright, I'm off to bed.  Lift me up! Lift me up! OH LA LA LA LA!!!

Cheers,

-Shadow of Light