Continuing...

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Merry Christmas to all who may read this.

I'm currently sick, and have crashed repeatedly before posting here, so that explains a lot of my recent no-shows.

For Christmas, I received a bunch of clothes, mostly, and The Dark Knight on DVD. I went out and bought a Nerf gun (N-Strike Maverick, to be exact), so that's basically it.

My life is boring. Back to bed.

Awesomeness. Contained.

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to I/O Nightly News.

I did my best on the AP Calc test. Not good enough.

Here's hoping on the re-test.

WINDY

IT'S REALLY WINDY RIGHT NOW SO I'M TYPING LOUD SO YOU CAN HEAR ME.

I'M TYPING SOFTLY IN CASE MY PARENTS ARE STILL UP.

I'M STUDYING FOR MY TEST SO I CAN ACE IT.

I'M DOING MY BEST, ONE MINUTE AT A TIME.

Sick People

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I hate sick people. Hate them. Get them the fuck away from me. NOW. Getting all close with your germs and expecting me to stand next to you in church. What's all that. And then pulling out your tissues like you own the joint, rubbing your face and just...ew.

I swear, if I'm sick at all this week, I'll probably kill someone. Hate being sick.

Disease is the nature's ace in the hole against man.

Talk // It's Over

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Well, it's over, or halfway there, at least. I've gotten most of the math test done, it's just ridiculously tough -- tougher than expected. I'm studying most of this weekend.

AP Lit test went okay.

On the news side, CNN reports that the Milgram experiment holds true, almost fifty years after the original test. Interesting, indeed.

Here we go, again.

Ladies and Gentlemen, it's almost over.

I'm rushing into Friday with a clear mind and two tests to take care of. This might not be pretty, but I'm hoping that I'll be set for both, especially the AP Calc portion.

AP Chem quiz was easy today, strangely enough.

Incoming

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to I/O Nightly News.

Tomorrow and Friday are huge -- the AP Chem quiz was postponed.

I hope I'm ready. Make or break time.

Also: I've tacked the official Star Wars death date at May 19th, 2005. The Force Unleashed would be it, but I'd like the series to die on a high note.



Game wasn't half bad. Good use of force powers.

The Shot

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to I/O Nightly News.

Today, tomorrow, Thursday, and Friday may well be the most important days of my high school career.

I've got a 74.4 in AP Chem with a quiz tomorrow and test next Tuesday with a lab due Friday.

AP Calc, however, is a one-shot deal.

90% or higher on Friday's test, all homework in on-time, full credit.

All or nothing. Here we go...

Depressed Comics and Crunch Time

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I was redirected to this comic today by an online acquaintance. Depressing, but funny. Erasing Garfield and Odie makes Jon look all the more insane.

Also: AP Calc is screwing up, AP Chem's in the toilet, and term ends in 12 school days.

Fuck.

Polar Express

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Went to a party last night, got back late after talking with a close friend for an hour afterward in the freezing cold until midnight. Came back and found some stuff out on a forum, and pissed some people off because of it.

Also: Shoes.

Acceptable

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Today was the best day I've had all week, barring Wednesday. I think I aced a math quiz, oddly enough.

I also started The Wire, a series about Baltimore life, the drug trade, sea ports, education systems, the works. Very intriguing, very intense. Very interesting. I'm looking forward to more.

Today was Not.

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Chem Test was pitiful, I'll be lucky to get a C on the Calculus test, and I got a 5/9 (average, really) on an AP Lit paper. Thank god it's Friday.

Yeah, pretty much.

Today Was Great

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Song applicable -- I'm wary of the rest of the week. AP Chem and Calculus tests tomorrow.

FreeLiving

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You've heard about FreeRunning and Parkour, doing urbanized stunts in concrete jungles, but what about FreeLiving? FreeRunning through life? A great idea in and of itself.

Continuing Awesomeness

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Daily theme song. I might also be trending back towards actual news, rather than follow the crowd and blog about my pitiful life. :-D

Was he looking for a doughnut?

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See Friday evening's post and it'll apply here.

Also: Mr. Lunt, of Veggie Tales fame, is awesome.

SHAZAM

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I saw "Annie" tonight. Good show, but I'm glad I didn't do it. Might do "The Wiz" though, but I think I'll pull for a scarecrow-or-nothing mantra.

Also: In my Place remains my theme.

In My Place

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Go listen to "In My Place" by Coldplay. That's all for tonight.

Literacy

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I found this on 4chan's /wg/ (commonly known as /weegee/ to its frequenters) board this evening. Inexplicably, I thought of literacy as a save file.

I'm Here.

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I'm here. Not much else to report -- crashed pretty hard this afternoon though.

That was really fun.

Refreshment

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Four years ago, I saw the Polar Express with the rest of my family. It may well be one of the best movies I've ever seen.

Who wants REFRESHMENTS?

Back on the Block

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Here we go again. 3-week rush to Christmas.

I'm back on the Block.

Violence

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I've killed more than 100 people in GTA:SA now.

And it's fun. Maybe Jack Thompson was right.

Wait, what the hell am I saying?

"Fuck Shit Damn Nigga"

Bitches and Pussies, get the fuck in here.

Gran' Theft Auto. Bangin' game. One of the best I've ever played, yo.

Okay, this accent fails hard, but you get the picture, right, bitch?

Black Friday

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to I/O Nightly News.

Black Friday, an "American holiday" (one of the many), is traditionally the day after Thanksgiving.

Well, I went.

And I'm set for the next five years or so. I bought Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, and The Ship, both superb games, for a total of $15. What a bargain. :-D

Unfortunately, tragedy struck at two stores across the nation today, one in a Wal-Mart when a temporary worker was trampled to death, and two in a Toys R' Us, where shoppers were shot to death.

CNN's Story.

Thanksgiving

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Two turkeys, two boats of gravy, two bowls of mashed potatoes, creamed onions, stuffed mushrooms, stuffing, cranberry jelly and sauce, butter, cornbread.

The works.

The parade also got Rick-Rolled.

Thanksgiving

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to I/O Nightly News.

I'd like to take this opportunity to bring about a moment of silence in this dark corner of the 'net.

Thank you. At this moment, roughly one in ten Americans will not be planning anything special for Thanksgiving, mostly because they can't. They can't put gifts under the tree, light the Menorah, or stuff turkeys and have pineapples with ham.

I'd love to change it. It would bring about fulfillment to myself in more ways than one.

But where to start is the problem. Corrupt charities, tacky donations, the whole nine yards. Giving just doesn't have a clean feeling to it.

Where to begin is a problem unto itself. I give thanks that I'm not alone in my want to solve global problems. That my father has a secure, well-paying job. That I'm educated. That I can post here every night while hostages in hotels are mercilessly gunned down. That I can be one of the people to help solve these problems, not be a victim to them.

I am thankful that I have things to be thankful for.

Happy Thanksgiving.

LOST!

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Let's complicate matters a bit, shall we?

Remember your first kiss? How sweet it was? I do.

It was with this girl that I had slowly become friends with since roughly ninth grade. Then, one day during play practice, she texts me out of the blue and asks me when my break was. As I was already on my way out to get a breath of fresh air, I naturally text her back, romantic SOB that I am, and say "Now."

So she asks me to take a walk with her. So we take a walk.

Little do I know she'll stop next to a set of lockers, and ask for a kiss. Of course, me being the elegant man that I am, proudly accept, and we kiss.

Twice.

So anyway, I ask her to prom. So do two other guys on the same day, one right in front of me. She claims she won't go to prom, with or without anyone because her parent's won't let her, as they are muslims and it's against custom.

But she goes anyway.

And then she tells the world she's going to Palestine for senior year. Over the summer, my friend and I both realize we got our first kisses from her. Not that we particularly care or anything.

And she shows up today, proudly proclaiming that sh'e's coming back to this very high school on Dec 4th.

That's. Fucked. Up.

Now what?

A letter to Roswell

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to I/O Nightly News.

I sent the following to a Mr. Roswell for his column at The Escapist this week.





Hi there, I'm a 17-year old American gamer, and I read your editorial, "Pixels and Picket Lines" this week. I must say that although I agree with your writing wholeheartedly, there are a few points that stand out to me.

I think that one of the main reasons that games haven't gone political yet is that the focus of games are just that -- games. The typical Halo player probably isn't thinking about the plausibility of having humanity united under a single banner, and the average Portal player isn't considering the ramifications of mass-producing the Handheld Portal Device. Gamers, casual and hard-core alike, are just worried about getting to the end of the level, around the corner, or just behind the next barricade to avoid that chainsaw.

Politics in games haven't gone mainstream yet because few people know how to handle and represent politics correctly, with a controller or not.

That may also be why RTS games may be the starting point, as they're more relaxed than music, RPG, or FPS games. Each iteration of Civilization, as you well know, all allow you to handle your citizens, government, economics, etc, on a scale and with such subtlety that most gamers don't notice. Retrospectively, (having first played Civilization II at the age of nine), RTS games like Civilization and Rise of Nations have shown me personally what governments and political decisions (such as putting everything into science, for example), can affect.

But this is too grand a scale. We need games that can simulate the effects of decisions you make as a Prime Minister, President, Senator, or even Mayor on other NPC (or real player) politicians. Sandbox games have come a long way since the likes of the first Grand Theft Auto, but they have a long way to go. Real, up-close-and-personal political simulators, ones in which you run your own campaign, hold rallies, conventions, debates, form a platform, etc, are a long way off, if we ever see them.

Games have no PR director or company. They have simple TV spots and demos stored away on servers and discs. The industry is still in its infancy. While some die-hards claim that 1998 was the golden age of gaming, we need to look to the future. There is nobody on the front lines for gamers. We take our punishment, apologize for our coffee being too hot, and call it a day. We don't push ourselves out there to be accepted. We sit back and build a massive industry worth billions in any currency, and play. We can't get political because we aren't center stage.

Games have long been the subject of the outside media of being for children, or making men into boys, (and, more increasingly, women into girls) again. They're the on-weekends treat. Four-song sets of Guitar Hero have become a staple of after-dinner entertainment for my 8-year old brother and my dad, both of whom enjoy the classic rock numbers. But so long as the stigma of games being violent sex simulators for immature adolescents remains, politics will not enter the games industry, no matter how old the average gamer gets.

Thanks for your time!

Cooliris

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Cooliris may be the best thing to happen to image browsing outside of Flickr.

Here's the link to it -- FireFox 3 extension.

L@TE

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Late, again. D-:

Continuing

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Yep. Still here. Might make the "Yellow" music video over the weekend or something.

I'm really bored.

Progress

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Today could be defined as simply "progress". Not much else to report. A double chemistry test today, lab due tomorrow.

I'm already starting on my Media Lit semester project -- hopefully, I'll finish the script and record over Christmas. Might get some imaging done over Thanksgiving break. I'm finding that audience interaction is sort of critical to the whole process. If the audience can get a good laugh and interact with the presenter or video, then the presentation will be successful. Obvious as it is, I've never really put forth much effort into it, and mostly because I didn't know how.

I'd like to close this evening by thanking Gordon Freeman for living through the test chamber incident and resonance cascade. Without him, my life would be a hell of a lot more boring.

Half-Life is Ten.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the headline is our story this evening.

Half-Life, one of the greatest games of all time, which single-handedly created one of the greatest video-game series of all time, turns ten today.

Long live the games.

Warning Sign.

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to I/O Nightly News.

Dropped Packets has been made obsolete by Google Notebook, but I won't start using it yet. Perhaps when I feel comfortable letting my parents know about this blog and my other online activities, I'll use it. IE: When I start going to college.

Other notable happenings:

Music video concepts plugging along.
Scholarship research.
Chem test tomorrow.
Google Notebook.
Interview earlier today.
Half-Life at CWAL II.
Hanging out with a friend.
Homework.
Dad in NYC.

This post is a warning sign to take it slow. No, I did not construct this post to...well, maybe I did. I still need to heed the Warning Sign.

v(t) > Infinity

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Things are moving very quickly in my world lately. Tomorrow, all of the school's seniors have to do a mock interview with business professionals. Should be easy, considering that I've done a 13-on-1 interview before.

And that was my first interview ever.

I've, again, two tests this week, and one next week. That AP Calc test I blanked on? 63. Higher than expected, but still not great. Report cards in, and my English teacher loves me.

How expected. :-P

Acceleration, or f''(s(t))

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Here we go, staring down another week. I'm still revolving around the Coldplay scene, so here's my latest favorite, defined as contemporary.

To me, anything defined as contemporary is something that's more recent than 1995, and just has that feel.



I'm also working on videos, but more concepts than product at this point. One's mandatory and for Media Lit, which will be done in a Zero Punctuation style video and presented to the class, and the others are music videos for Coldplay songs, centered around good video game footage.

That's right, good footage. The Onion recently ran a story that YouTube was challenging people to come up with a good YouTube video. Pretty funny.

Sketch Comedy

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I've stumbled across the following video on the 'net while looking for some good comedy. It's a goldmine of hilarity.

Not much else to report.

Crashing, So Hard It Hurts (Not Really)

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I came home and crashed like a plane flying into a mountain.

I'm pretty sure I'm awesome at english and failed hard at a math test.

No further updates. Instead, a partially-related music video.

I might make one for Coldplay's "Yellow" or "Trouble" or "Daylight" or "Speed of Sound" or something else soon.

Crash Into Me, A Dave Mathews Band work.

Re-Acclimated

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After trying out VistaMizer and disliking it, I've re-installed my original theme and re-tweaked it. I'm still working on fonts.



Video unrelated, as usual.

Trouble

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The next 48 hours are stressful. I may not post tomorrow or Thursday evening.

Song/Video/Blog unrelated.

One Hundred!

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An historic event this evening, as we celebrate our 100th posting here on Blogspot. I am still considering a move to WordPress, Twitter, and recently, Facebook.

But I'll still be here, roughly one post per day. Plugging along. Same as ever, be it in college, wherever I may end up, in school, anything, really.

I never thought I would make it this far, actually.

One thing I'm hoping to improve at some point (maybe when school dies down a bit) is the length of my posts.

Still though, it's great to have this sort of geeky, manly journal that I can write things down in without being criticized by people I know, like my parents or friends. Just me and the internet, sitting together, discussing current events of the day, adding more and more into the back of this loaded truck we call a series of tubes.

Failing Harder Than Usual

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Pride and Prejudice fails. So hard it hurts.

Hours melt away under its steely black lettering of 19th-century high-class gloom and despair.

Ugh. Page 177/292 with a test on Thursday.

This is not fun, Ladies and Gentlemen.

Pride and Prejudice

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Remember Anna Karenina from this past summer?

I'm reading the novel's dastardly cousin, Pride and Prejudice.

I utterly detest these novels.

The World According to Psychonauts

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to I/O Nightly News.

A curious thought recently came to me. What if the world was like Psychonauts, where certain people could travel into others' minds at will?

That would be fascinating? What would mine look like? Or yours? Or your parents'? Or Barack Obama's? Incredible.

Day Three

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Today was Day Two.

Tomorrow is Day Three.

Each day is another day towards hope.

Each day, I realize, little by little how truly proud I am of America.

Day One.

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to I/O Nightly News.

Well, here we are, November 5th. It took us damn long enough, but we did it. Barack Obama is the president-elect for a 2009-2013 term of office. And look how far we've come.

Twenty-one months ago, on February 10, 2007, a rising senator from Illinois took the main political stage and never let go. I remember it clearly, sitting in a parking lot to a strip mall, listening to the announcement on the radio, about to have lunch in an Italian restaurant.

Months later, on April 25, 2007, John McCain announced his candidacy.

And then the primaries began.

And they ran.

And ran.

And ran.

Until finally, six months ago this past Monday, Obama pulled out enough delegates to secure a nomination. John McCain had received enough delegates weeks ago, even after being behind, and in some cases, dead last, in the polls.

So then the presidential campaign was run. Mud was flung. Insults were hurled. Debates held, excitement brewed.

Until we arrive at last night. Anyone who cares enough about the election knows how it went. Obama blockaded the northeast and around the great lakes, picking up western liberal strongholds, pushing south in a few battlegrounds. McCain held many solid red states in the midwest and north, holding a solid line of red in the deep south.

And finally, at 11:00 PM Eastern Standard Time, the polls in the west closed. And every major network called for Barack Obama as the next president. In almost every major city in the US and all over suburbia, people cheered. People rejoiced. People cried. The world changed. For better or worse, there is no denial that something awe-inspiring happened.



This election has been history. Not the basic "oh-he-did-this-and-he-did-that-on-this-day", but the true kind of history. The kind that people can look back on, wether they voted for Obama or McCain, and say "Yeah, I was there". It's like when Apollo 11 landed and Armstrong got out of the landing craft. Everyone remembers where they were, what they were doing.

But even more importantly, people will remember the emotions that that passed through them. The relief, hapiness, anger, sadness, or just plain hope is what people will pass down to their grandkids, decades from now.

I think that this election was, indeed about race, it was about sex, and it was undoubtedly, about the issues. But it was something more. More than change, more than socialism, more than lipstick on a pig. This election was about having hope.

Hope for a new day. A new world. A new beginning. I don't care who you voted for. I don't care if you voted or not, if you're a US citizen or not, or if you put down a vote for Cthulu and called it a day. One way or another, you can't help but recognize that people have hope.

"Change has come to America."

And that change is here to stay.

A New Reality

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I am crying right now, on my hands and knees, crying tears of joy.

I have never cried for happiness before.

God bless America.

Finish the Fight

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We are now under 24 hours away from the first close of the polls in Indiana and Virginia. This is truly a historic day tomorrow. We will either have the first Black president or the first Woman vice-president. Either way, it's history.

A "cheat sheet" is being sent around the senate as you read this, detailing what may very well happen. It all starts with Virginia. If Obama takes VA, then his victory is almost assured, assuming he also takes Colorado. If he takes Ohio or Florida or Pennsylvania, the same is true. If he doesn't take Virginia, the evening may drag on for a little while until we determine a victor, either by "Bradley effect" or real voting. One way or another, 7-9 PM EST is crucial.

Let's get this over with. Let's finish the fight.

Crunch Time.

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to I/O Nightly News.

We are now just over 48 hours away from one of the biggest election days in our history. This is shaping up to be an intense battle of politics unlike any ever seen.

Thousands of people across America are crunching numbers and figures like mad. I wish I could vote. I am only seven months under the age limit.

I wish it was just a simple test you had to take with randomized questions and then you could vote. Simple as that.

Oh well.

Back to our numbers and figures, if McCain loses VA, then he loses the election. Simulations run at fivethrityeight.com point to a 72-3 percent of an Obama win, even if the Dems do not carry Ohio and Florida. John McCain, however, only landed a 6/8000 chance of winning without just Ohio.

That number shrunk to zero once Pennsylvania and Florida were thrown in.

Square One

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Strange shit happened just recently.

Long day, to say the least.

Best friend and I had a little chat. No further.

[/Diary post]

Classic.

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I've recently picked up Starfox 64 again. Classic game.

Alternatively, I've got a 78.6 in AP Chemistry. Working on it. This is serious business.

Daylight

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Life, thoughts, happenings. All in this nutshell here.



Slowly breaking through to daylight...

Continuing Epicity of Myself

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I'm still single for homecoming. I'm taking my brother. We'll take it on, Mario Bros style.

Also, the friend I mentioned last night (not the girlfriend) has a new curfew on his cell phone. 9 PM. I'd feel sympathy if he didn't own a Voyager (Verizon-distributed touchscreen, a real iPhone competitor).

I'm at an 81.6 in AP Chem right now. Test tomorrow. Hope I'm ready.

Cultural Impact of Powerleveling

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to I/O Nightly News.

After staying up until roughly 2 AM this morning, I presented my project to the class today. It worked out pretty well, but I didn't finish in time.

Oh well. I've got a good starting place for tomorrow.

Oddly enough, everyone was very impressed with it, even with video gaming as the subject. Everyone was telling me how awesome it was and that's just great. Everyone needs a little confidence booster.

Video Production

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I'm doing a project for Media Lit similar to Zero Punctuation.

That man is crazy. I've been working on this for nine hours now and I'm still not done.

Law and Order

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I'm watching Law and Order which won't end until 12, so I'm typing this during a commercial. Intense episode.

McCain's numbers continue to slide as his campaign implodes. Good news for liberals, starting the week off on the right foot.

Moving Down the Alphabet.

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Plan B failed. I've been superseded. Disappointing. Very shocking, too.

I need to create and implement a Plan C in roughly 48 hours, maybe less.

I'm also watching Michael Moore's SiCKO right now. Great documentary. Might want to watch Bowling for Columbine next. These are so interesting.

The Video.

Plan B, But Maybe Plan A, Too.

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Well, nothing happened. I didn't do it. So, plan B.

Girlfriend.

Turned out to be plan A in the first place.

Next topic, please.

Under the Radar

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It's looming, and I can't put it off any longer.

Homecoming.

I've got to do it. Consequences be damned. Tomorrow will be the day.

I let it go today because I wasn't looking my best. Zit on my chin, hair wasn't gelled or combed.

Here we go...



Yeah, the original.

Adrenaline Rush

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I love adrenaline. I hate adrenaline.

On the one hand, it is insurmountably fun to do a 72-hydra zerg rush in Starcraft and get a great feeling that you're commanding thousands of units and conquering entire continents and worlds.

On the other hand, it is terrible to have that sinking feeling one one of your parents shouts your name. Who knows what they might tell you off for.

Remember the intellectual? I might be asking her to homecomign tomorrow. Adrenaline is already working overtime. It's not helping that it's being augmented by two packs of M&M's and a bottle of Gatorade.

Oh, look at the time.

Here's a song from our new album, er, game: F-Zero classics.



It's awesome. One of the few F-Zero tracks worth listening to. The guitar is awesome here, but is too over-done in other themes. Great soundtrack, great game. Wish my parents would let me play consoles on the weekdays. It'd be so fun.


I'm nervous about this.

Overthinking Thoughts

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I overthink things. Way. Too Much.

And it's starting to get on my nerves. I can't even write a paper properly without getting caught up on what will sound/be good for the paper.

Remember the intellectual girl I wrote about earlier? I might ask her to homecoming.

SPEEEEDDD

SPEEEEEDDDD

LATEST EVER

The Girl on Bus 79.

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to I/O Nightly News.

Remember the time when I went to New York? I got back and talked all about it? I met a girl on bus 79 coming back from Avenue Q. She was Russian. Outright beautiful. Looked to be about my brother's age (14). If my uncle and her grandfather weren't there, I'd have asked her if she'd have liked to grab some coffee.

I wonder how she's doing. She was so pretty, and so smart.



British music videos on YouTube are awesome. No embed failures.

Internal Failure

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My internet failed last night (insert a "Your Mom" joke here), so that explains that. Internal router error. I'll leave it at that.

I really have no idea what happened. It was down yesterday and fine this morning when I fired up my box.

I believe my mother also thinks I'm depressed and/or crazy. My aunt/grandmother both have some sort of mental disorder in one way or another, so I think that that's made her defensive against the root of all evils, a chemical imbalance. God forbid if I happen to think negatively because she yells at me.

I'm fine. I just don't like getting pushed around every minute because I didn't (or couldn't, as in yesterday) do one little thing. Would you like that?

Working on YouTube

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to I/O Nightly News.

I'm starting to hate this box I'm on. It's five years outdated, and slows down games that had relatively low requirements five years ago, when they were launched. It's not a five-year-old budget PC, as far as I can tell.

And it has trouble recording movies for YouTube with ten-year-old games.

This is saddening. I'm working on it.



Maybe not to this level of awesome computing power, but something where I'm able to create a good-looking video that isn't a forty-second, two gig one would be nice.

Waiting and Grandparents

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I love my grandparents -- who doesn't? They're nice, understanding, loving, wise, generally everything that a grandparent should be.

Except, they're getting up there in years, which saddens me.

I remember when my grandfather was more rosy-cheeked, a little heavier, and always up for some kind of physical activity, or maybe even a quick analysis of the day's political happenings.

But now, he's (my grandmother, too) a little slower. It's really a shame. But I still love them. They are great people, and I hope they'll be with me for many years to come.



Unrelated: UTXMP is 30% done. I'm looking for good vehicular combat. Hopefully the bots will work.

Art Deco in Gaming

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to I/O Nightly News.

Art Deco is a tremendous art style that was popularized during the great depression. I personally think it's my favorite art style, even above contemporary (which is really interior design, but okay, whatever).

BioShock, a game I've never sat for more than a half hour with, is the only game that I know of with this art style incorporated in a big way. The Ship, a GoldSrc and Source modification/game, is heavily reliant on it as well.

We need more of that. It's just that jazzy, classy style. Might look good in a mafia game, or a 30's style game, where everything is in art deco.

That would be completely insane. I would shell out full price for it, which is much more than I would for SCII.

Pushing it, Again.

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to I/O Nightly News.

Twilight Princess is a fun game. Makes you think, on more ways than one, including philosophically.

In other news, skateboarding and toy tops collide in an epic mode of transportation.

Sensory Overload.

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to I/O Nightly News.

Are high school football games supposed to be fun?

I can't figure it out. Me, being in the boonies where I am, am expectant of this.

But every part about it was just...too much.

The cheerleaders, while pretty, weren't very interesting, having a ban imposed on them (I believe) to stop them from doing gymnastics. The football game itself was hard to see, and the band was right next to us.

Like, vibrations-meant-for-the-drums-are-really-going-through-you-you-pathetic-sack-of-flesh.

Alternatively: Cow manure, hot nachos, and rednecks. The works.

Even further in depth: http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/10/palin.investigation/index.html

Interviews and Funny Things Vitrual Tour Guides Do

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to I/O Nightly News.

No, the topics are not related this evening. I had my Georgetown U interview today, and I'm pretty sure it went well. I'm not expecting to get in, by any means, but it would be incredible if I did.

From a gaming topic of discussion, I've been playign Descent 3 a lot recently.

A whole lot.

I still have to use the Guide-Bot though, a little friend you begin every mission with. He is a moving volumetric buddy in Descent II, but in Descent 3, things are radically different. He's tangible.

The fun part? Send him out, he's all polite, but then when you call him back, he bumps into you.

He's cute, in a manly way.

Origin One.

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to I/O Nightly News.

Well, everything went smoothly today.

Maybe a little bit too smoothly. Nothing was said on it, nobody hinted at it, and I heard literally nothing about yesterday.

She was a hell of a lot happier and nicer to me today though.

I want out. Now. College girls are, 9/10th's law (see Dropped Packets), exceptionally better than at any other stage of life.



Oh wait...spoilers.

Not that it's been 354 days since release, or anything.

Origin Zero.

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to I/O Nightly News.

So, remember that girl I had talked about earlier, the one I liked from drama, not the intellectual, (and not the girlfriend, who I spoke to just this evening in a miraculous turn events to clear the air and exchange e-mail addresses)?

I asked her to homecoming today. She happened to say yes.

And then no.

At the dinner table this evening, my parents and I happened to be discussing my new homecoming situation, when, text of all texts, she happens to write me with:

"Hey Idk if u were serious earlier but (friends) and i are going out that night cus none of us enjoy homecoming...so i kinda already have plans..."

Tell. Me. In. Person.

Seriously. Grow a spine and do it. Texting is no way to say no, that's just being a jerk. If you have a doubt about it, say no. If you're convinced otherwise by someone, go with your gut, and not theirs. Even a call would have worked.

Then, I decide to write back, nice, recently heartbroken guy that I am, and say, in the nicest possible way, "Shut the fuck up now, tomorrow there'll be hell to pay!"

But I'm a good guy, so I really write:

"Oh...well okay. See you tomorrow then."

...Well, everything's fine and dandy now. Fine and dan-dee.

She writes back just before the end of dinner saying:

"Ok cya.Sorry again if u were srious but in all sincerity if im single for prom im hitting u up lol"

Wonderful. Love you too, honey. "If I'm single". What the hell is this? Some sort of teaser? A joke? I'm on the back-burner?

And to think I liked her. The more I write, the more it disgusts me. I know I'm not the brightest of the bunch, maybe kind of awkward, a little geeky, maybe, but I've been told that I'm a really awesome guy.

Was it all a sham? A lie? For that long? Hell, even for years now?

I'm paranoid, maybe, but I've got a soft spot, socially. Perhaps that compliment was a lie. Perhaps I'm not that awesome. Perhaps that sarcasm wasn't really sarcasm.

Perhaps, just perhaps, it's all a lie. But perhaps it isn't.

But at six o' two tomorrow morning, when that alarm clock rings, I'm going to wake up, and I'll still be here. Intact. I'll still be loved and hated, thought of and forgotten, a hero or a villain.

I'll still be here, like it or not.

And that, my friends, is not a lie.



Title based off of Descent 3, secret level 1, Origin Zero.

The Collapse.

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to I/O Nightly News.

Well, Wall Street doesn't seem to be doing to well. It did the exact same thing now as in the 80's and 20's. This is going to be huge. European markets are collapsing, with German banks starting to fall left and right. Even the Nikkei index is feeling it hard. I fear for my post-college situation, or even my in-college situation. This is not going to be a fun ride down.

It'll be a smoother ride up or perhaps even a sideways ride with Barack Obama.

Five Sixths

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to I/O Nightly News.

Almost there. I am almost done with my applications! I have just Georgetown University to do, with the interview coming up this week.

..And that's about it. Not much happening here.



Obama. '08.

The Return of the King

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to I/O Nightly News.

Went to a party this evening, and it was quite fun. I can't really explain the details too well, so we'll stop there.

Descent 3, once a favorite for years, has re-made its debut as multiplayer game of the month, according to myself. I scratched the outer ring of the CD earlier this summer, but I finally foudn a no-CD patch and applied it. Now, for the first time ever, I'm Descent-ing online! It's a wonderful experience!

Don't Vote.

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to I/O Nightly News.

Tomorrow, five states will close their doors to new voters to register. This marks the thirty-day mark to November Fourth, voting day. Let the races begin.

I may be at a party tomorrow, so I might break this serious posting streak I have going.

Oh well. Don't vote.

Palin Comparison

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to I/O Nightly News.

Biden won that debate. Palin simply parroted anything and everything she heard, onstage or off. She was completely mechanical.

Her voice needs to change, as does her wig. Her hair seemed totally fake. The crinkling nose I could also do without, and her own ruleset.

Biden performed above expectations, addressing McCain's policies over Palin. He was pretty casual, cool, and collected -- and he kept it that way.

+1 to Joe.



A sample of an earlier speech/rally.

So Much to Say

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to I/O Nightly News.



Not much this evening. Test tomorrow in chemistry, which I'm half-ready for. I get most of it, but there's abotu a third of it I'm totally in the dark with.

Alternatively, people are pretty impressed with my Georgetown interview. We'll see how it goes.

Total Comeback

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to I/O Nightly News.

The Dow averages pulled back up almost 500 points today. So it's not a total loss, as I said in yesterday's topic.

I'm also talking with an old moderator of a forum I frequent. This is interesting. Old times on high-speed.

Alternatively: My day off ends in one hour and six minutes. I plan to make the most of it.

Not a Total Loss

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to I/O Nightly News.

We begin this evening on a rather grim note. Global economies are reeling from an economic collapse, costing the US economy roughly 1.2 Trillion dollars at the time of this writing.

That's just under two Iraq wars. Two.

This is incredible. Perhaps it's an iceberg, but it could also be just the tip of a massive economic crisis. Millions will lose money, retirements, college and savings funds, lifestyles.

I hope and pray that this will righten itself. People are losing their whole lives, and Washington sits and does nothing, pointing fingers at nobody but themselves.

Always Someone Else

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to I/O Nightly News.

Well, there's always someone else in the picture. Someone you don't know very well, but when you get to know them, it's like electricity.

I've known this girl (different than the ones previously mentioned) since seventh grade now. She's been sort of an academic rival for me, although it's sort of a no-contest. She's incredibly smart, and has held a 4.0 GPA for years now.

We've been friends on and off for a while now, but now...I really don't know. She was my crush in middle school, so that may be it.

"I'll get back to you", to quote John McCain. I'll leave that there, just because it's so funny in any sort of meaningful context.



I need some better thinkin' music.

I'm working on it. See Dropped Packets for my new YouTube account. But since nobody visits or comments on this blog anyway, who cares?

Continuing Application Failure

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to I/O Nightly News.

It's just one thing after another with college applications.

First the printer wouldn't print. Then we needed to pay. Then we needed to fill out and submit a supplement. Yesterday, I find out that my guidance counselor can't access the recommendation forms. Today, I forgot to fill in that I was a member of the National Honor Society on my PSU application.

It's all too much sometimes. I just want it to be done with. With achievement comes the task of remembering what you've done to get there.


I was also told today that I usually don't appreciate how on top of things I am. I was yelled at not a half hour later for not doing a few essays yet. That's why I don't appreciate it, Mom. Thanks. Whenever I do complete something, I'm always starting or in the middle of something else.

This is a terrible process, and costly too. I want out of it. Just get it done. Get me in.

Now.

The Fight Continues

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to I/O Nightly News.

Tomorrow, I'll be heading to PSU to apply for their meteorology program.

More later. This rain gets me jittery. I'm not supposed to be up this late, ever.

See my other blog, Dropped Packets, for a neat bit of Mac software for Windows.

It's Really Loud in Here...

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to I/O Nightly News.

I'm wiriting an essay for Media Lit at the moment.

Not that there was much to say anyway, except that I'm conscientous of my sound pollution at night, especially with my loud keyboard and sick motherboard fan.

I just want a quiet evening alone with the games.

Is that so much to ask?



Funny, if you can stand dropping your IQ about ten points.

HERE COMES THE WIND.

Congratulations, You're Average!

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to I/O Nightly News.

I received a 5/9 on a timed writing in AP Lit today. Not a great score, but acceptable, as far as an AP test goes. The average is 5/9, or 4.98. I can't remember the exact statistics.

Really though, I don't think a 5 is average in the least. More like 6. Or 7.

It really annoyed me. I was doing so well, but not I've got this fluke of a paper. Too bad.

In other news, I've sent in applications to Villanova University, Boston College, and Ithaca College just tonight. This is very exciting, as I'm halfway done with college applications, but only 1/4 of the way done with the college application experience. The other quarter is the other half of the applications, and then scholarships. Fun, fun, fun.

I'd also like to take the time and state that I'm still considering a move to WordPress, but for now, I'm advertising. One post on the "Next Blog" button per night. We'll see how it does for a week.



I honestly can't watch music videos. "Clocks" by Coldplay is an awesome song. What a great piano riff. Everyone's using it in ads though, as Coldplay won't liscence their music to companies for usage. 1/7 of their profits go to charities, or some similar ratio. I love Coldplay, manly as that isn't.

On Educations, Wasted and Bragged Upon

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to I/O Nightly News.

I went to an academic excellence ceremony this evening, commemorating my wonderful grades last year. Alternatively: Let's worship the Seniors with 4-oh GPAs. That's all it is. They're having wads of cash and awards thrust into their hands by trying that extra little bit harder. What do we get? Pity applause, a cheer for the cool kids, (I happened to get a few, much to my surprise), and small-as-in-really-microscopic pins to put on our graduation gowns.

But what's there to gain? Another building block to get smarter? When will you need Calculus IV? AP European History? Furthermore, where did the fun go?

I also do not understand why most of them are staying in-state for college. I could get a full ride on a 3.55 -- why aren't they doing something with their grades? There's one person I know who's going out of state with it, and she's going to Brown, or something related.

I just don't get it. It saddens me to think that great minds are being squandered in the redneck good-ole-boys-who-also-happened-to-graduate-here-in-nineteen-fifty-five parts of America.

I cannot wait until I go to college. I'd like to get away from where I am. I'd like to see the world. I'd like to live a full life, unhindered by seeing those same uppity I-have-a-4-oh-and-you-don't-you-under-achieveing-snot students over and over again.

Furthermore, where's the love for the 3.5s? It's a pity party. We're great kids, but under appreciated nine times out of ten. We're like the 7.5 out of 10 games that people love for ten minutes and move onto Halo 4.

Games that you grew up on or have come to love, along with the four or five online forum buddies you have. Games like...Descent.




Open Source cannot be beat.

Oh, the Continued Humanity!

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to I/O Nightly News.

Recently, I've been poking around 4chan, an imageboard that has been deemed by some to be a veritable "cesspool" of the internet. Naturally, I wanted to see what all of the fuss was about.

It's interesting, really. It's like the internet, which is fast anyway, moving at around four times as fast. A whole lot of memes have generated here.

They also post some sweet desktops.

But I'm made to wonder, why? Why do what they do?

They make some sweet desktops though.



Maybe I'll check DeviantArt next. Heard they're good for desktops.

Non-Player Compassion

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to I/O Nightly News.

I've been reading To Kill a Mockingbird for AP Lit this weekend, and it's a fine book, but I've read it before. The name stems from Atticus, the fatherly figure in the story, who gives the children air rifles to play with but tells them to "shoot all the bluejays you want, but remember that it's a sin to kill a mockingbird."

Mockingbirds make beautiful music, as the novel later explains.

And how does this relate?

NPC's. The objects players love to hate. Be it major characters, backup squadrons, or teammates for entire storylines, these characters make up the bulk of a player's friendly experience, unless they play team deathmatch, trying to get as good as Fatal1ty.

Why hate them? They do no harm to you, unless you're dumb enough to get caught in a crossfire. People kill them for fun, people kill them for supplies, people kill them just to see what happens. But really, why do it? I try to preserve my NPC's. You never know when you might need one.

Here's a little theory, we'll call it the Sandbox Theory (I have an editorial that I'm going to start at somepoint entitled The Sandbox Effect, which may include this or something like it).

People kill NPC's because they can. The freedom, the joy, the experience, the...anything. People kill NPC's simply because they can.

My, my, isn't that something.


I'm also considering a move to WordPress, or at least an import/export job that I'll try to update simultaneously. The internet makes everything a moot point. I'll still be here, just at another IP address.

Killing off the Protagonist.

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to I/O Nightly News.

I was watching Law and Order this evening, and I came upon an interesting idea:

Kill the protagonists.

I'm dead serious, no pun intended. Why do they never die? Or even take a bullet? I find that interesting. They're always in danger, but never get hit. Sure, there's a few melees here and there, but no blood, outside of the victims.

But that's a given.

The closest we have is video games, where death is common and respawn points come pre-packaged with a strategy in mind. Death is to be expected in a game, but not in its plot.

The villain always dies. Even the Master Chief survives the destruction of the new Halo in Halo 3. Gordon Freeman survives just about everything, from repeated headcrabbings to striders to trans-galaxy teleportation.

Not that they should all die, I'm just suggesting that it'd be nice to see some of them die at the end of their games/movies/serials.

The only TV show I know of that removes their characters regularly is LOST.



No, he lives. In Descent 3, you never find the aliens. It's all a sham.

That's FreeSpace, the game with no clear protagonist. Everyone else is nameless and faceless.

I like it that way. I never die. I do on occasion, but I like to consider myself a great pilot. Descent, Descent II, Descent 3, Descent: FreeSpace, FreeSpace: Silent Threat, and the FS2_Open project. I've been playing them for years, and those protagonists don't die for a reason.

Because the protagonist is me.

On Schedules, Slightly Ahead Of.

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to I/O Nightly News.

After spending hours working on college applications, I now have two ready to be submitted, and a third on the way. I just have to get teacher recommendations in, along with transcripts.

Georgetown has you under a microscope, though. Paper applications, mid-year reports, the works. I'm doubting if I'll get in.

Oh well. I'm ahead of schedule, this week only. We'll see how long it lasts.

Number Fifty, Triple Dose.

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to I/O Nightly News.

Well, things are not great for me physically. I'm sick, of course. It all moved into a head cold with remnants of a sore throat.

So of course, I triple-dose on Tylenol (3 instead of two), assuming that this would work better overnight.

I'm hoping it is. Everything is a little fuzzy right now. I'm never doing this again.

As a side note, this happens to be my fiftieth post on this Blog.

I'll be here for 100, don't worry.



That man's hair is fake, I'm guessing. Mus tbe the Tylenol.

Sore Throats, Cause Unknown.

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to I/O Nightly News.

It started with the Flu Mist, a new spray-in-nasal-cavities alternative to the shot. The bad taste, watering eyes, and worst of all, the tingle in the throat.

Urgh.

Not it feels like strep. It took six hours to get to this point, maybe less. This isn't good. I'm about to head into a long weekend, and now I've got a sore throat.

I can't stand this.

In other news, Anonymous strikes again, this time on Sarah Palin's Yahoo account, which is good news for everyone involved, except the Conservatives.

I'd also like to, on a totally unrelated note, get into Kinetic Typography. It's pretty incredible. Seems pretty tough though. Alternative was dropped in the stream. See my other blog.

Place Your Bets.

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to I/O Nightly News.

This evening, I went to a lecture with none other than Chris Mathews, host of Hardball on MSNBC.

An excellent lecture, and a total liberal fest. A few facts:

--The Dow, having lost 500 points yesterday bled off more than $700 billion.

--Any uninsured bank accounts are in jeopardy of being lost. Insure them. Put them under the bed - at least you'll know it's there.

Just a few quick figures. Some RNC delegate from a neighboring town asked a stupid question about security at the RNC. She got grilled repeatedly, and Chris Mathews was finally like "Are you attacking me?" "You're attacking me, that's right!". People finally shouted at the woman to sit down and let other people take a turn with questioning.

But there were some great moments, and the lecture ended with "At the end of the day, you're deciding our future here; Obama or McCain? Place your bets."

The conservative shredding was similar to this:

On Schedules, Keeping, Falling Behind, and not Having.

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to I/O Nightly News.

I hate schedules sometimes. They're so stressful, considering how big of a procrastinator I am. I always fall behind, and then get lazy and don't do what I'm supposed to.

It's the ultimate pitfall of homework, in particular.

So now I'm not doing my Calculus homework tonight. I might pick it up and do it though, if boredom sets in again.

Oh well.

I really wish I didn't have a schedule, and I could just be lazy and have fun every day. But that's not life, is it? There has to be some sort of balance.



On an unrelated note, I can make my YouTube video border purple.

Work Work Work Work Work...

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to I/O Nightly News.

It's not that I procrastinate, it's just that I find better things to do. Like watch a YouTube video. Or play a game. Or Blog.

I wrote about four college essays yesterday, and I still have one to do at some yet-to-be-determined point in the future. I've also been doing homework all day today. I really want to play Rise of Nations or TrackMania or AudioSurf (demo, but you can play the tutorial over and over with whatever song you want).

I just get bored, and I know there's always something more interesting on the 'net.

I also finished A Prayer for Owen Meany tonight. Enlightening book, and it all ties in together at the end, but the cause of the climax is totally random. It's a well-written story, but I don't see the deeper meaning yet. It's still a pretty touching novel.

If you'll excuse me, I've got an idea for Dropped Packets. And math homework.

AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to I/O Nightly News.

Record-breaking lateness.

AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

No, For Srs.

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to I/O Nightly News.

The fan is still having problems. Turns out I wasn't having HDD problems at all.

Go figure.

I got a 188 of 200 on my college essay in AP Lit, which classifies it as "college-ready". Awesome.

I've also gotten an e-mail, although I suspect that it's a spam bot, regarding my blog here. Makes me think about advertising this sucker a little more.

But yes, it's the fan. Seriously.

Rise of Nations is my latest game, as can be seen by the image at right.



ROW ROW FIGHT DA POWAH.

Or however it goes.

Intermittent Outbursts, and other Strange Happenings.

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to I/O Nightly News.

My dad and I seems to have fixed the issue, somehow. My HDD's are still very loud at times, but seem to be quieting down. If I drop the system into standby and quickly pull it back out, I can usually get it to a point where it won't make any noise at all -- just like before.

But it's still loud at times.

Anyway, I lost my calculator today, and didn't notice until I was half-way through an essay for AP Lit, of all things. It being timed, I hurriedly finished up, and panicked. I spent the better part of the day wondering where it was, and checking all over my AP Chem class. I finally was informed of its whereabouts by an acquaintance of mine, and I was able to recover it by the end of the day.

Seriously though -- I'm not that nerdy. I was worried about it simply because I was afraid of what my parents would do -- this has happened before, and I was told off pretty harshly.

I try, I really do.

I think I'm afraid of my parents in some respect. Oh well. They have taught me well.

It's Loud in Here.

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to I/O Nightly News.

My hard drive is on speed. I'm working on fixing it.

That is all.

Launch.

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to I/O Nightly News.

Big news tonight, I've expanded.

No, not in that sense.

I've launched my next blog, Dropped Packets. As was stated last night, I'll still be keeping this one alive and well, no need to worry. Dropped Packets are just for simple musings and streams of consciousness.

Here's the link: http://dropped-packets.blogspot.com/

Feel free to drop a comment or follow it if you feel inclined to do so. I'll also respond to comments, so just drop me a line and I'll gladly reply!

Coming Soon?

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to I/O Nightly News.

Well, I'm starting another blog. I'm still keeping this one, not to worry. I/O Nightly will be my main one, but I will be starting that one as a slightly more intelligent version of Twitter. I refuse to be a Twit, as Washington Post columnist Gene Weingarten so lightly put it. Hats off to him for coming up with, or at least publishing, the term.

The name? Dropped Packets. A short-and-sweet, clear-and-concise version of whatever I feel like saying or doing. Sure, I'll have to log in, but I'm hoping to make it a much more clear and entertaining version of Twitter.

Or at least not as...Twitchy.

I may also be putting up another blog, Installations Weekly (or, more simply, The Installer), where I'll possibly be putting up video game reviews on a weekly or bi-weekly basis.

These are new and exciting times, so, again, in the words of Deckard Cain, as I so humbly put them forth on July 22nd, "Stay a while and listen!"



Lead on, Freeman, lead on.

Your Fault?

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to I/O Nightly News.

For some time now, a friend and I have been on non-speaking terms for no real reason -- we simply dislike each other. He moved in on what I had going with my social group and after-school stuff, and I didn't like that.

Now I'm one-upping him in places such as AP Lit, Church, and in some cases, friends. He doesn't like that.

I've always been jealous of his possessions, although I've gotten better at this in recent years. He's always been jealous of what I'm simply doing, so he follows suit, and then tries to get the better of me.

And we've been friends since the third grade.

But whose fault is this really? All the lies, the missed calls, the uncaring attitudes, the competition? Ours?

I don't think so. I personally think it's my parents' fault, and his parents' fault. They're extremely competitive themselves, trying to get the best of even the neighbors, and my family, (mainly my mother, who got it from my grandmother) likes to talk smack about people, whether they be well-intentioned or not.

Who put these lies in our heads to make us hate each other? Who has carried out these falsehoods to destroy our friendship?

It does remind me of the ever-raging Sarah Kerrigan debate in the Starcraft community. Who created the Queen of Blades? The man who left her to die? The man who couldn't save her? Or the Confederacy, making her into a psionics-powered killing machine?

Who's responsible? Who's the one to blame? It's whose fault?



I played the kid in the blue last spring during the school musical, by the way.

Saturday Night Live

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to I/O Nightly News.

Usually, on Saturday nights, I'm off playing some variation of game online, nine times out of ten, on a friend's XBox 360. But not tonight.

How interesting, you say. I'd agree. There's nothing better than kicking back, relaxing, and playing your own games, without sharing a screen with someone else, without the pressure of winning or losing, two-man killing sprees, and deathmatches for hours on end.

So I'm going to go play Team Fortress 2. A satisfying experience and a good break from the usual.

Rainy (Fri?)days

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to I/O Nightly News.

It's Friday, hooray. I'm pretty sure I did poorly on a Chemistry exam, but made up for it in AP Lit, by being one of three people to get a 7/9 on an essay we wrote yesterday. The top score was 8, with one person achieving it.

But it's after school that I look forward to. My best friend and I usually hang out for a few hours, sometimes going for as many as six or eight hours. We have a blast.

But, you see, me being the PC gamer I am, I have very few friends to get achievements in, say Team Fortress 2. Sure, my old clanmates are on my friends list, but they've moved on from Team Fortress, and not to TF2.

Too bad. Sounds like it'll be a long time coming for Medic Milestone 3.

And here's Tropical Storm Hannah. Time for TF2.

Repeat, Ad Infinitium.

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to I/O Nightly News.

So, aside from the tumults of vacations here and there, I've been pretty consistent with this blog, actually. I can't say I'm perfect, but I'm pretty consistent about updates. Nightly means what it says, to I try to keep true to it.

A friend and I had a "srsly bsns" discussion today after school. We have these, and they're pretty interesting, to say the least. We learn a lot about each other, really. He's also single now (see the post I created earlier about being a third wheel), and he's loving it. I think both parties involved were sick of the drama (at least, he was, anyway), and they both were on the rocks for a while.

Now I just have to figure out my situation, and I'll be all set.

In other news, news will be streaming in on a daily basis, unless something major happens. I'm here, and here to stay. Feel free, again, to comment, visit my profile (boring as it is), and e-mail me at Mister.Necktie@gmail.com . I'll be here until Blogger is no more, at the rate I'm going.

And I just started in July -- some of my counterparts have been here for months even years!

Thank you!

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to I/O Nightly News.

This is just a quick thank you to all fifteen of you who've visited my profile. I can't get a hit counter to work, so profile views are the only way I know this is being read. This officially means that either Google's finally picked me up, or this blog is not a failure. Either way, that's a good thing. I'm on my way to internet-celebrity-dom!

So, thanks!

Now, if you don't mind, leave a comment before you go. :-P

Missed Opportunities

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to I/O Nightly News.

Recently, a forum that I frequent has had a major staff change. I'm a pretty solid user there, and I've been vying for a position for months now. Unfortunately, I was passed over.

This is the fourth time it's happened, and it's really disappointing.

The upside? A new site // affiliate is launching, so I may be getting a position there, where one of the recently-departed staff members has told me the positions will be better. We'll see what happens.

My RP is also being overshadowed by some other RP that launched just earlier. Oh well. It's progressing, slowly.

This just in: Don LaFontaine, the voice from the movie trailers, has died. The cause was from pneumothorax, a lung collapse brought on by a clot earlier this week. The world has lost a great voice actor. He was 68.

Speed Enhancement

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to I/O Nightly News.

My computer can't capture video properly, or I don't know how to work the program's I'm using too well.

I'll work on it. School tomorrow. Day six of one hundred something. Here we go again.

In other news, I've launched a Team Fortress 2 forum role-play thread. We'll see how it goes, but it looks promising, as this is my first RP!

YouTube Account

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to I/O Nightly News.

I'm working on getting a YouTube account set up at the moment, so I can't say much right now and meet the deadline. More to come later.