Journal Post for Sunday, February 7th!

February 8, 2010 – 12:20 pm

Hey all! Just a quick journal update…..no particular topic this time, just figured I’d talk about my day!

My Mom and I (I did that right this time…..but only cause I felt like it!) went out shopping today! We started off at the flea market, which was a blast, as usual. I’m not so much into antiques, but there is some FUN stuff to be found there…..mostly used toys (yeah, I’m predictable that way). I found an AWESOME booth selling rocks and crystals…..I was tempted by these smooth meditation stones, but I wasn’t paying 30 dollars for a rock, so I bought a small piece of (I THINK this is right) peacock pyrite. Very pretty! It looks like a rock someone covered in glitter! Same colors as the bracelet and necklace my Mom bought in another booth, coincidentally enough. At the toy booth, I spotted what I THOUGHT was a used repaint of Armada Jetfire in perfect condiotion. I have a trailerless Armade Prime repaint, and I thought, SWEET I CAN COMBINE THEM INTO THAT COOL JETFIRE PRIME DUDE!!! Bought him, figured out how to transform him in the car, got him home, used my five minute net check to find the instructions for Armada Jetfire online…..and realized that he wasn’t Armada Jetfire. He’s CYBERTRON Jetfire. Which means no combining with my Prime. Also learned he was missing two missile launchers and a cyberkey at that point. Still, he looks neat enough, but it WAS disappointing.

Oh, and while I was at the flea market, I spotted a GORGIOUS porcelain adult Nala (from the Lion King) for about 8 dollars. Serious temptation, but I was forced to realize that I had no place for her. I pointed it out to my Mom though, and mentioned that she was one of my FAVORITE Disney Heroines. We got to the car….and my Mom pulled out a cute little toy Nala she found at another booth for a dollar when I wasn’t looking. She saw it, thought “hey, B just told me how much he loves that character”, and BOUGHT HER FOR ME! I thought it was really sweet of her! My Mom is really thoughtful. It’s cub Nala, not adult Nala, but this one is smaller, plastic, and has posable legs, so I can actually fiddle with her. Right now Snarl (my Transformers lion) seems to be taking a liking to her. I’m gonna have to go with “Big Brother” or “Adoptive Father” with him though…..he’s an adult lion, and if I hooked them up romantically, he’d be a pedophile…….I’m WAY overthinking this, aren’t I? Still, they look cute together, so I’m keeping them next to eachother for now. ^_^

After that was an antique show (boring, they didn’t have much that appealed to my tastes), and the mall (I read on my kindle for most of that part…..Suncoast was officially closed down for good, and the Apple store isn’t open yet). Did grab some Chinese though, which was delicious!

Last, I went out by myself later to Walmart to get milk, eggs, and water…..couldn’t find the eggs, but I DID find a Transformers Animated Snarl (a toy which is several waves old, and hard to find now……picking him up means that I’ve finally completed my Dinobot collection!), and a lovely fairy book for my Mom (which she loved!)

Anyways, that’s pretty much my report for the day. Wouldn’t think it worth writing down, but I want to remember and share the bit with the Nala figure…..that was just so SWEET of my Mom, I had to gush about how awesome she is. XD Love you Mom!

By branden | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (0)

New Journal Entry!

February 3, 2010 – 11:34 am

Haven’t written one of these in a while, but I find I’ve got a bit of free time on my hands today! See, me and my Mom (screw you, I’m not saying “my Mother and I”…… I can use grammar the way I want!) agreed (after a bit of arguing on my part) that I need to cut back on net time. While I still think I should be granted a quick 5 minutes or so in the morning to check for important messages, we’ll have to hash that bit out later. For now, I’m limited to around 7-11 PM…..which is actually a bit better than our original time-limit, so I can’t really complain. Point is, this means that I’ll have more time on my hands where I won’t be distracted by the Internet and such……so I’m thinking of getting back into journal writing! Might be a tad difficult without my trusty wikipedia to back up my info with, but I’ll make do. Now all that remains is to decide what to talk about!

I know! How about that little bit where I lashed out at grammar earlier in this entry? I’ll talk about my thoughts on writing!

Okay, first off, YES, I know I can write rather well. I have a decent grasp of the English language, and I’m pretty good at using it to get my points across (in type at least, not so much face-to-face). But I’ll be the first to admit that I’m lacking in several areas! I have atrocious spelling, for starters. I make good use of the spell-check system when writing these things up! You’d think I’d get better over time, but the more times you type a word wrong, the harder it is to figure out how to write it CORRECTLY. And I’ve been typing words wrong my whole life, so I’m kinda in a rut now.

More important than my lack of proper spelling, however, is the fact that my writing style is kinda unique. It would SERIOUSLY piss off any English teacher, believe me! Where to start? Okay, first, I have a tendency to ramble. I can’t properly structure paragraphs for the life of me, and my narrative flow lacks any sort of pre-set route. I write as the words come from me, only pausing to try and come up with the right word to express a thought now and then. I start a new paragraph when I feel like it, not when proper grammar dictates. And I will go ON AND ON AND ON AND ON AND ON till I run out of steam, or someone interrupts. You’ve all probably noticed this already. ( ;

What else? How about them pauses? I use ellipses (however they’re spelled) in a quantity that SERIOUSLY irked my writing teachers back in college…..and if anything I’ve only come to rely on them more since then, especially in fictional work. Whenever I feel that two thoughts require a pause of some sort, or some kind of vague connection, I’ll tie them together with dots…….sorta like this. In fictional writing, I use them even more, as I feel that characters aren’t limited to proper grammar when they speak, and will frequently pause and stumble trying to find the right words to say….a few dots to show these pauses always seems a bit more natural than breaking away from the speech to say “s/he paused for a moment” or something like that. It’s become a signature part of my writing style, and while I do feel I overuse the technique, forcing myself to AVOID it would mean that I would no longer be writing as myself…..if I’m gonna write, it’s gonna be in MY style, not someone else’s idea of how it SHOULD be done, you know?

Here’s a newer one…..the capitalization. This is a trick I started using while talking through AIM or YIM. The key is SPEED in these talks….you want to keep of the flow of conversation, without having to pause for silly things like FORMATING. Normally I’d use italics to stress a word, but since I started using AIM, YIM, and Twitter (which doesn’t even have the option of italics), I’ve fallen back on the habit of just capitalizing all the letters in the words I want people to pay special attention to. It’s just FASTER, and I don’t have to pause for stupid stuff like reformatting stuff before submitting it. I’ve noticed that I’ve been using the trick in E-mails and journal entries now too, as you’ve no doubt noticed. Again, this would piss off any English teacher, but it works for me.

So yeah……long story short, I respect the English language, I enjoy proper grammar and spelling, and I tend to jump on anyone who throws such things out the window (I HATE net-speak…..USE REAL WORDS PEOPLE!!!). But that doesn’t mean I’m a stickler for the rules either! I’m happy to twist English to fit my needs…..let’s face it, our language is already full of holes and misused by just about everybody, so me tweaking it to fit my own particular style isn’t all that big a deal. XD If I ever wrote professionally, I’d have to make some DRASTIC changes to the way I write, which would be a hard hurtle to jump. That’s part of the reason I’ve given up on ever doing the writing thing for a living (the other is the fact that I hate deadlines, and don’t like being pushed to do things). Still, I enjoy being able to chat with friends online, roleplay, write journals, and maybe the occasional short-story (though I have to push myself for that last one). So what if not everyone approves of my style? It’s me, and that’s what counts, wouldn’t you agree? XD

P.S. For those not into net talk, “XD” is an emoticon of a big, satisfied grin. The X is the eyes squinted closed, and the D is a big-ass smile. I know people don’t usually make that expression……it’s more of an anime thing. XD

By branden | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (0)

My iTunes

December 21, 2008 – 3:41 pm

Okay, so I’m working on the title. icon_rolleyes.gif Anyways, it’s no secret that I have some weird tastes in music. I like specific songs, and I can hardly stand most anything else. There are bands I love and hate at the same time (Linkin Park has some great songs, but also a ton which I can’t stand). My i-Pod consists of Japanese songs from various animes (mostly Slayers, Gundam Wing, Mermaid Melody, and Inuyasha), a few love songs, a few songs by Linkin Park, Three Doors Down, Nickelback, a large selection of songs from Sonic the Hedgehog games, some Kingdom hearts, various Disney songs, a bit of Christmas music, some songs from the animated Transformers movie, and a few other odds and ends. Weird collection, huh? Well, thanks to the wonderful power of Youtube, I thought I’d share a few of my favorite tunes with you folks! And sense it is December, I think that I’ll start off with some of my favorite Christmas themed music! Today I’m doing “Carol of the Bells” as performed by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. This is a heavy rock band/orchestra that specializes in rock/metal versions of Christmas music. This rendition of Carol of the Bells has no singers or vocalists; it’s pure heavy rock! Carol of the Bells is already pretty badass for a Christmas song, but this right here takes it to a whole new level. It’s not for everybody, but I like it, so I’m sharing it. icon_xd.gif As an added bonus, this video has the Mannheim Steamroller version of the song as well. Sort of a weird techno rendition. I don’t like it quite as much, but still kind of interesting. Hope you like them!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neZ_JPU2Wl8

 

By branden | Posted in Branden, Music, Videos | Tagged , , | Comments (1)

Important Announcement plus Cracked 14

November 25, 2008 – 9:50 am

In case any of you are wondering why I haven’t written in a while, it’s because I’ve been procrastinating on writing this entry. Why? Because admitting one’s faults isn’t easy, nor is making heartfelt apologies. Well, here it goes.

Looking back on my journal entries, I’ve discovered that I haven’t been living up to my “nice guy” reputation. In fact, I’ve been downright rude and insulting! Did I seriously call more than half the population of California “bigots”? O_O Yikes. That’s not like me at all! Those of you who know me personally should know that normally, I’m a very nice fellow. I try my best to avoid hurting anybody’s feelings, I go out of my way to help my family, and I’m just generally an all around polite and nice individual. From my journals though, I can see that I’ve been seriously lacking in many of those qualities in print. I’ve been trying to figure out how I could be so callus and rude here, and I think I’ve finally found the answer….oddly enough, on cracked.com! It’s a serious article called “What is the Monkeysphere?”, and I recommend that everybody should at least skim it. Basically, it explains how the human brain shares a lot with monkeys, and one such similarity is our inability to truly register people outside of our “Monkeysphere”. That is to say, other than the few people we’re close to or care about, it’s mentally impossible for our brains to see rest of humanity as people with the same thoughts and feelings as everyone else. We can take consideration for about 100 people that we know tops, and the rest just sort of fade into the background. This article made me realize just how unacceptably small my Monkeysphere is. I register myself, my Mom, my little brother, and at times a few other people, but the rest I just don’t think about! When I’m talking with people, sure, I’ll be polite, but when I’m not around them I hardly even think about anyone else. Well that’s just not right! My brain may be hardwired so in such a way that it’s unable to comprehend the scope of human existence, but damn it, the least I can do is try to expand my sphere! I’m going to make an effort to consider the feelings of more people. For starters, I’ve taken a close look at my relationship with my father, realized that I’ve been keeping the man firmly outside of my sphere for the past three years, and that this just wasn’t fair to him. I know, guilt isn’t the best of reasons to start a relationship, but if I truly want to open my mind and try considering the feelings of others, it only makes sense that I should start with those people who care about me the most. My next step is going to be to try and regain contact with a few of my family and friends. For instance, I haven’t really logged onto AIM or E-mailed any of my closest friends in weeks! My Monkeysphere has been slowly contracting, and I’m going to have to push hard to try and break down the walls I’ve been building around myself. I can’t promise that change will be immediate (or even if I’ll succeed at all), but I can at least try, right?

The most immediate change you might notice will be in these journal entries. I’m going to try and be more considerate of other people’s feelings. All of them. I don’t want to offend anyone anymore! I may still have the occasional biased rant or two, but I’ll be sure to express them as personal thoughts and beliefs, and not as “facts” the way I did before.

Anyways, I’m aware that I’ve started rambling, so I think I’ll cut myself off here. I’ll just finish up by saying that I’m deeply sorry for my inconsiderate behavior in that past, and that I’m going to try to avoid those mistake in the future. I’ll leave you with the link to the Monkeysphere article, in case you missed it the first time. I really do recommend giving it a look! Goodness knows it’s given me a lot to think about. http://www.cracked.com/article_14990_what-monkeysphere.html

By branden | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (0)

Gay Marriage Revisited

November 11, 2008 – 9:37 am

 

I’ve already made my stance on this matter pretty clear; gays deserve the same rights and privileges as the rest of us, and that includes marriage. 

 

Most of you who watch or read the news are probably aware of one of the recent issues on the California ballot.  It was called Proposition 8, and if put into effect, it would revoke the recent legalization of gay marriage, and amend the California constitution to keep it that way.  To my continued horror, it passed.  Let me repeat that.  Gay marriage was legal in the state of California……and most of the state just voted to have the right stripped away.  We VOTED to rescind a basic human right from a group of people…and succeeded.  It’s a blow I wasn’t prepared to deal with, and I’m still having trouble grasping it.  All these people want is the right to marry, and we just denied them that.  Why?  Doesn’t anyone remember it was only around 50 years ago that it was illegal for a black person to marry a white person?  You know, like the parents of the leader of our whole freaking country!?!?  I ask you, what is the difference here?  What makes this any different?  It’s prejudice, plain and simple.  I don’t care if you don’t agree with gay marriage.  That’s your opinion (though I think it’s a stupid one), and you can feel free to go on thinking that way.  But what right have you to tell anybody “no, you can’t marry, because I say so”?   These people have done nothing to hurt you.  All they want is the same rights you have.  Can you honestly hate them that much?  Do you think they are so inferior to you that they don’t deserve the rights and privileges you were born with?  Are you going to tell them they can’t vote next?  Or are you going to go after the Jews and revoke some of their rights as well?  Or maybe take a stab at the Asians?  They’re different then a lot of you, so that must mean that they’re inferior sub-humans who should bow before your obvious superiority.  Those who voted yes on 8 need to take a serious look at themselves and rethink their priorities.  They are bigots, and in my opinion no better than the white folks who forced black people to leave their seat and move to the back of the bus, or told women that they were too stupid to vote.  Congratulations.  You just set human-rights back 50 years.  I hope you all feel very proud of your accomplishment.

 

 

I’m going to end this rant with a video that was recently E-mailed to me.  If you haven’t seen it already, I recommend you watch this.  It will certainly give you all something to think about.

 

 

P.S.  I wasn’t ranting at anyone in general here….just the majority of the population of California.

 

By branden | Posted in Branden, Politics, Rants, Videos | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Cool Video #5

November 10, 2008 – 2:27 pm

A while ago I stumbled across a very interesting user on Youtube. Among other things (such as making surprisingly professional amateur horror movies), the guy hosts a segment called “Cinemassacre”. Basically, he reviews movies, using footage from the film to go with his commentary. He also does a load of research for each of his reviews, and often crams a lot of interesting facts in with them! Most notably (by me anyways) is the reviews he put together last month. The guy went through and did a separate review for each and every one of the Godzilla films! If you checked my website, you probably saw the link to one of them in my last article. Today though, I’d like to the review of the first movie. That’s right, the original “Godzilla” (or “Gojira” if you want to stick with the original Japanese name). Lots of interesting facts in there for those of you unfamiliar with the universe, and even if you’re not a daikaiju fan I think you’ll find it interesting. Hopefully you’ll come away from this vid with a better understanding of the franchise, and why so many people are fascinated by these movies. Here’s the vid!

Hope you all find this video as interesting as I did! icon_xd.gif

By branden | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (0)

Story Time: “Godzilla vs. Biollante”

November 7, 2008 – 4:47 pm

You can probably guess from the title where this scene comes from. Yup, it’s from the movie “Godzilla vs. Biollante”! icon_4laugh.gif I’ve been an avid daikaiju (Japanese term for giant monsters) fan since I was a little kid. I checked the TV guide the moment it came in the mail to look for giant monster movies playing on TV that week, and I recorded tons of them (I think I still have “Rodan” and “War of the Gargantuas” somewhere). My favorite monster movie of all time though is most defiantly “Godzilla vs. Biollante”. icon_heart.gif The plot is amazingly creative and complex (especially for a Godzilla movie), the special effects are still impressive by today’s standards, and the cinematography is some of the best I’ve seen! Still, enough ranting. Time to lay out my favorite scene for you folks! icon_wink.gif

In the movie proceeding this one (”Godzilla 1985″), Godzilla was lured to the mouth of a volcano, and explosives were used to trigger an eruption. Godzilla fell in, everyone pretty much assumes he died. “Godzilla vs. Biollante” takes place five years later. Again, most people pretty much assume that Godzilla has been melted into a sticky pile of goo thanks to his five year long dip in molten freakin lava, though the Japanese government has still been taking precautions in case he should ever miraculously show up again. Anyways, my favorite scene of the movie takes place in a learning center for psychic children (yes, you read that right icon_lol.gif ). Turns out all the kids have been having the same dream every night for the past week, and every night the image in the dream becomes clearer. So the children are all instructed to draw a picture of what they dreamed. The teachers enter the room. “Alright everyone, have you finished your drawings?” icon_smile.gif The children all shout “Hai!” icon_blaugh.gif (Japanese for “yes”, I believe) with enthusiasm. “Alright kids, show us what you dreamed last night.” With another enthusiastic “Hai!” icon_blaugh.gif , the children raise their drawings all at once……..and every damn one of them is a dark silhouette of the King of the Monsters, Godzilla, surrounded by flames. BOOM!! Cue the Godzilla theme music. icon_xd.gif The look of shock and barely restrained horror on the teachers’ faces is simply priceless, as they realize that the greatest force of destruction the world has ever known might not be as dead as they would like to have believed. icon_twisted.gif This is an awesome scene, and whoever thought this up deserves a freaking award. Each of the 50 or so drawings is unique, but any one of them could send a shiver of dread up your spine….and this is just a movie! The sudden, perfectly timed cuing of the Godzilla theme music was a brilliant touch as well, and it really adds an emotional punch to the scene. This is quite possibly my absolute favorite Godzilla scene of all time…which is surprising, considering there aren’t even any monsters in it!

Well, hope you enjoyed this first addition of “Story Time”. I’ll end things with a video-review of the movie I found on Youtube. Lots of juicy clips from the film in there! icon_wink.gif See you next time! icon_4laugh.gif

P.S. Seriously, “Story Time”? If any of you have a suggestion for a better name for these segments, let me know. I suck at names! icon_gonk.gif

By branden | Posted in Branden, Movies, Videos | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Apology

November 7, 2008 – 4:00 pm

First, I’d like to apologize for taking so long with updating. To tell the truth, I’ve been a bit out of it and distracted lately (the past several weeks, actually icon_sweatdrop.gif ). I’ve bailed out on a lot of obligations, one of which I like to think is this journal. I know, not everything I write about is stuff you want to hear. The upcoming “Story Time” segment (if you think up a better name for it, let me know!) will be about things that most people won’t get. Trust me, it takes a total nerd like me to love these sort of things (thankfully, most of my friends are at least semi-geeks, and I know that at least my brother will find the stuff I’m going to talk about nearly as awesome as I do!). Again, sorry for the delay folks. I can’t promise that I’ll be updating as often as I used to, but I’ll try to get at least something written down in here once every few days. icon_3nodding.gif Writing in this journal and sharing it with all of you is important to me, and it’s something that gives me great pleasure. I’d hate to stop now, when there’s still so much to talk about! icon_4laugh.gif

P.S. DUDE!!! OBAMA WON!!!!! LONG LIVE DEMOCRACY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! icon_blaugh.gif icon_blaugh.gif icon_blaugh.gif

By branden | Posted in Branden | Tagged | Comments (0)

Blogging Course

November 1, 2008 – 1:45 pm

Well lookie here…and online course on blogging!  I’ve been recommended to it by my Uncle, so I’m pretty sure it’s legit.  Evidently, they’re letting people take the course for free as long as they post about it in their blog and copy and paste a message.  Well, worth a shot I suppose.  Could be fun!  Here’s the message:

I’m evaluating a multi-media course on blogging from the folks at Simpleology. For a while, they’re letting you snag it for free if you post about it on your blog.

It covers:

  • The best blogging techniques.
  • How to get traffic to your blog.
  • How to turn your blog into money.

I’ll let you know what I think once I’ve had a chance to check it out. Meanwhile, go grab yours while it’s still free.

Well, time to give this a shot! I’ll let you guys know how it goes, k? :)

By branden | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (0)

Religion

October 31, 2008 – 3:16 pm

First off, I wanted to make a quick comment here. I got a response from my previous political oriented entry. This person had a different opinion on the topic of abortion, and made some excellent points (though I stand by my pro-abortion stance). The thing is, this person seemed afraid that somehow her comments might offend me. I’d just like to state for the record that, not only are the thoughts I express in these entries just my own personal opinions, I am by no means in any way offended to hear differing ones! If some of you disagree with what I say, I really don’t mind if you say so! Honestly, I believe everyone has a right to their own opinion, and I’m always glad to hear a different point of view on a subject. So don’t feel bad or reluctant to disagree with me. Heck, I’ll be more than happy to listen to your own thoughts on any one of these subjects! I might disagree with some of you, but that doesn’t mean I respect you any less. Just thought I’d make that clear before I dive into this newest journal entry.

Oh boy, this is a big one. The usual warnings apply to this entry.

Religion. Oh man, where should I start? Well first off, I’d like to say that religion is a damn good idea…in theory. I think that a lot of people truly do benefit from it. The world is a damn confusing place, and I think it helps to have a set of beliefs to help explain it all. Also, religions often set important guidelines; rules to live by that are often both smart and beneficial. Hell, I’m all for religion…..except for one tiny problem. A lot of people (both in the past and the present) take it way, way too far. They’ll pick and choose how to interpret their teachings, often in ways that frankly make no damn sense. A government official might stress the whole “thou shalt not kill” thing in order to convince people that abortion is wrong….while on the side they support the death penalty. What the hell? That makes no damn sense! Or they’ll pick certain parts out of the Bible and quote them in such a way to make it seem that homosexuals are “evil” and will go straight to hell! Worse, they’ll teach this belief in a damn church! How many young gay kids are there in the world that honestly believe that they’re “dirty” and are going to go to hell because of what some priest told them? Far too many. How many people out there have been convinced that some people are inherently inferior to them due to race, beliefs, or gender because of some story in a book? How many people have been killed because of this supposed “inferiority”? Religion gives people an excuse to practice and support intolerance, and to commit horrible acts all in the name of some God or another. People use religion to try and convince both themselves and others that they are somehow better than everyone else. That “God” gives them some right to force their personal opinions on the rest of the world. It pisses me off!

Personally, I don’t really believe in God. I believe something freakin weird is up with this Universe, and that there are certainly things beyond our understanding (what the hell is up with quantum physics?! It makes no God-damn sense!!!), but I don’t really believe in any “true” religion. But I won’t deny that everyone else is necessarily wrong either. Who knows? Maybe there is a God. Maybe He/She/It really will send me to some fiery place to suffer for all eternity because I don’t go to some church and pray. I’m not going to dwell on it though. I choose not to believe that, and that’s my choice. I choose to believe that there is not a single person on this planet that is automatically inferior to another simply because they’re different. Gender, race, sexual orientation, beliefs…..it doesn’t matter to me. As long as you make it a point to be nice to other people, you’re okay in my book. But when you let your personal beliefs blind you, let it guide your actions in ways that knowingly hurt other people…I can’t respect that.

Again, I’d like to say that religion is a good idea, and frankly a lot of people do need it. It helps them to cope with life, and gives them drive and focus. People shouldn’t stop believing in their faith….they just need to open up their minds a little. Believing in God/Gods/Spirits/Whatever isn’t wrong. I solute you for sticking to your beliefs! Just….try to keep a clear head, okay? Don’t use your faith as an excuse to hurt other people, and try not to let it alienate you from the rest of us. Everyone, no matter what they believe, deserves to be treated with respect. Try to keep that in mind.

P.S. I’ve got a lot more to say on the subject of religion, and its place in things like school and politics, but I’ll leave it at that for now.

By branden | Posted in Politics, Uncategorized | Comments (1)