Osup

Been a while (again).

I am currently in Mod B at the Guildhall and I have an uphill climb ahead of me this week. I procrastinated last week, and I am way behind where I should be at the moment.

I think I have been relapsing into the ADHD with which I was diagnosed back when I was 8. I have been getting distracted too often and for too long. However, after a talk with my dad and some refocusing, I believe I am getting back on track. I have worked by butt off this weekend and am on the way towards catching up with my work. I still have a long way to go, though, and I'm looking at about 20 hours of work to do before Wednesday.

Right now I have three main projects going on.

The biggest one by far is our Team Game Project (TGP). We are creating a 2D game demo in Torque in small teams. I am the team lead for this project making a game we call T&H Delivery Service. We are doing well so far, though I have had some problems managing the team. We have some ongoing personality issues, but generally everyone on the team works hard and gets their stuff done.

We have hit some major snags, though. Our game will not port over to the Xbox 360 like it is supposed to due to some old placeholder art that breaks the 360 naming conventions. I am looking at either finding a way to remove this art without breaking Torque (no easy feat), or rebuilding the entire project. Rebuilding the project will not be as difficult or time consuming as it was to figure everything out the first time, but I still predict it to take close to 14 hours by the time it is all said and done. I also need to completely redesign my levels, as the current level has a ridiculously steep learning curve. I lost track of the game's difficulty because I have played the game so much while building and testing. I have already planned out the level redesign, though. I just need to implement the changes. Lots of work ahead on this one.

The next most important project is my Fallout 3 mod for Level Design II. We are currently building the "whitebox" for the mod. Basically we make a very basic rendition of what our level will be. No clutter, nothing special. Just the bare bones of the level layout and flow. We also have to build the our "quest" within the level using the Fallout 3 scripting language. For the whitebox, this is just the bare bones. Conversations have to be marginally functional, but not completely written yet, and the quest objectives have to advance in some way. The finished whitebox is due Tuesday and I've already built my playspace. I just need to add the basic talking characters and build the quest skeleton. This should take about 4-5 hours.

Finally I have a portrait due on Wednesday in my Art for Level Design class. The portrait, unfortunately, has fallen and will continue to fall by the wayside during my work crunch. Believe me, I would LOVE to finish working on and detailing out the portrait I've been working on, but it is the lowest priority item on my list. I have already gotten the eyes looking good, and I have detailed out parts of the nose and mouth, but to properly finish this portrait would take more time than I am willing or capable of giving. I will try to get the portrait looking decent enough, but it will not be the quality I nor the professor would want.

So, that is where I stand. I am picking up the pieces of my poor decisions and plowing ahead. I am confident that I can keep up my pace and complete my projects, but it will take a lot of determination and discipline on my part. I just hope that I can keep up the pace that I will be working at this week on into the following weeks. If I do, the quality of the work I turn in will be much higher and overall my stress level will go down. I just have to keep focused, but then again, that has always been the hard part for me.

Since my last post, Barack Obama won the presidential election, the world finished another lap around the sun, I graduated from ACU with a degree in English, and I was accepted into a graduate-level game design program with the Guildhall at SMU. There are volumes I could write about any one of these subjects, but I'll save that for another time (maybe).

My most recent piece of news is that I was appointed lead for our first team game project. It's an exciting opportunity, and I'm looking forward to working with the two other people in my group. Already our discussions on what we want our game to be have been promising, and I'm thoroughly excited with the game concept we've come up with. We now have one week to create a concept document and present our idea to the class. As is the norm with the Guildhall, we've been given a task and told to complete it in about half the time the task should normally take...which means this'll be fun! ^^ (I'm not even joking. This pace is challenging and fun.)

Also on my list of stuff to do: write a 500-word paper on the significance of Metroid on the gaming industry (much harder than it sounds), program basic movement between rooms for a text adventure (also harder than it sounds), and create a 2 scene level in the Torque X Builder (so much harder than it sounds that it makes my brain bleed). The first two are due in two days, while the Torque level is due by the end of the term. I already have 350 words on the paper--I just need to finalize my sources and make sure my logic is clear-- and my framework is almost all set up for my text adventure.

So far this whole Guildhall experience has been a blast. I always knew I wanted to create videogames, and now I'm learning all the skills I'll need to do so. It's difficult, the hours are long, and the payoff will be immense. Not necessarily in the way of finances--I'll be looking at something like $30k-$60k/year for my first position from what I understand--but more in the way of getting to live the life I've wanted for nearly a decade. I've got a long road ahead of me, and that's gonna have to start with me getting off and finishing these assignments.

Until next time,
~Ozyda

If John McCain wins the upcoming Presidential election, I will have officially lost faith in America. John McCain represents to me everything that is wrong with today's America. He represents a stagnation and even a backwards step to the progress America has had in the past hundred years, especially when contrasted with Sen. Obama. America is viewed abroad as an overly capitalistic war-mongering state run and comprised almost solely of rich white men, and McCain fits that mold to a T.

Obama represents a very positive direction for this country, and one that I in every way support. His views and policies on every major issue are a progressive and positive change to the failed (pardon my language) bullshit coming from our government in the past decade.

My pledge:

If Sen. John McCain wins the upcoming Presidential election, I hereby officially quit America. I will no longer support this country by either living in or doing business with American businesses. I will, as soon as is feasible, fly to Montevideo, Uruguay and begin looking to start a new life there most likely as either an English teacher or working in tech support. I will, as much as is possible, refuse to do business with American businesses, preferring local (to Uruguay) or other international businesses. I will keep contact with close friends and family in the States, but other than these obligations I will cease all contact with those in the United States.



That is all,
~Mike Brannan

Imma just ignore the gap in posts...

So I went to the Austin Game Developer's Conference yesterday. Was lots of cool stuff to see and do there. What's really exciting is that Bioware, White Wolf/CCP, and several other developers were there, and I got to talk to some reps from each place and found that what I was planning on doing to build my portfolio is exactly what they weigh the majority of their hiring decisions on: a short demo mod of a game. This is especially true of Bioware, who suggests that prospective writers design a short section for NeverWinter Nights. I've been planning on writing a mod for this game for a while, and hearing that that is exactly what they're looking for is very affirming.

One other thing that the trip finally made me realize is that my usual mode of just doing what I'm doing for class isn't going to cut it. I can't just read for class and play videogames, I need to start making mods, planning stories, and generally putting pen to paper (to write I actually have to write!? How novel!!). So that's what I'm going to do. I gotta start taking my own time to be creative instead of waiting for class projects to force me into that mode. In the past it's always seemed like such a duanting idea, but for some reason I feel that it won't be much of a switch anymore.

There's more that I can say, but that's all that's on my mind at the moment. Time for more studies.

I've been in a bit of a funk recently, and understandably so I believe, considering the emotional roller coaster that was Wednesday. I've been wanting to work harder than normal, which is good both because I'm working harder, and because it's helped keep my mind off the whole situation with the Porsche. I really want to get that thing up and running, and I'm sure I'll feel better once I get everything taken care of there. However, despite my recent work dedication, I'm also feeling more tired than usual and actually took off from work early yesterday. I'm sure it'll all get sorted out soon, though.

On a very positive note, I think I may have a place to stay this coming semester. The guys who are living in Charlie Wadley's old house are going to need a new roomie for the next few semesters, and I already talked with Clint about the possibility of living there. It's looking pretty good, and the rent will only be $180, which is absolutely freakin' amazing. At least that's one item off my plate. Now I just need to keep an eye out for a good grad school, car insurance, TTL for the Porsche, and continuing to juggle two jobs. Despite all appearances, I'm actually not too worried about it all.

Well, yesterday was eventful to say the least. My mom and I had been planning on heading to Dallas to check out some cars I had found during my long aforementioned car search (me to check out cars, my mom so we could get the van back home in case I found something). Unfortunately I misunderstood the time mom wanted to leave the house, so we left about 30 minutes after she was wanting too (still about an hour earlier than I was originally planning). We grabbed breakfast and got onto the highway, only to notice that, despite the best laid plans, I had gotten everything ready and in the car...except the $$ with which to buy a car. One quick jaunt home later, we were rolling right.

The next mishap was because either their site, google maps, or something else had gone haywire and I had the wrong address for the place with the 300zx I was going to look at. It was apparently East Division street and not West Division street. We eventually found the place (I had the guy's phone number and we sorted it out that-a-way), and I got to test drive a 1990 Nissan 300zx...that absolutely sucked. I'll be the first to admit that that car could move, and move fast, but there were a lot of things wrong with it that did not show up in his online description. The windshield was cracked, there were quite a few more bumps on it than showed in the pictures, there were several bad spots in the interior, the A/C didn't even freaking work (apparently it exploded on him 2 days earlier), and the syncros for third and fourth gears were in bad shape. Test driving the car was a trial, and I actually had to stop to grab something to eat because of the toll it took on me (and also to get directions. Test driving a car on streets you're unfamiliar with can get you turned around quick). The guy had listed the car at $4995,  but I wouldn't have paid even a cent over $2.5k to fix the thing up.

After that, we had a bit of an adventure in the Six Flags Mall looking for something to eat. The place is apparently a ghost mall with I kid you not something like 3 stores, and only two places to eat, both of which are both sketchy beyond all get-out. We decided to roll on towards Randy's house and ate at a Jack-in-the-Box just up the road from him instead. This was probably the best part of the day to be honest. That whole e.coli scare back in the 90's really helped the quality of that place's food. That was an excellent hamburger, and mom and I had a good conversation.

After that, I got a hold of Randy and he brought the Porsche up to the Jack-in-the-Box. That car was amazing. Everything on it looked crisp and pristine, and it even still had the original spare, toolkit, owner's manual, etc. The only faults with it were 2 spots in the upholstry that have come loose, small chips in the paint, a slight yellowing on the hood and roof, and the clearguard strips on the lower body panels were a little cracked. The car was excellent to drive. It shifted smoothly, the sound of the engine is amazing, and it moved like nothing I've ever driving. I must clarify just a little. I have driven fast cars, and I've driven cars that were both quicker off the line and hit higher speeds than that Porsche, but I have NEVER taken a car as fast through a corner as I have with that Porsche. That car will take you as hard through a turn as you're willing to throw it, no doubt.

I was convinced. We exchanged $$ and title right there, and I am now the owner of a 1985 Porsche 944. Randy was a good guy, too. He really knew the car, and had obviously taken good care of it.

After a quick bout with the insurance company to make sure we were actually covered for the trip home, mom and I were back on the road heading to Abilene. Everything went pretty smoothly (well, I didn't notice a taxi early in the drive which scared the bajeezus out of everyone involved, including my mother in the van up ahead) until a small stretch of highway between Weatherford and Ranger. Apparently tires don't do so well sitting for several years in a garage, and the heat from the 5:00 highway took its toll on my right rear tire. I had a blowout right there and limped to the side of the road. Mom circled back and called AAA while I started trying to work out how I was going to get the spare on the Porsche. Unfortunately the side of that highway isn't nearly big or level enough to be able to safely put on a spare, and we were basically just stranded there until the tow truck came along. We were fighting with AAA to find us a tow truck, and had been for about an hour and a half when an old, beat up school bus pulled up behind us.

To tell you the truth, I had no idea what the hell a school bus was doing pulling up behind us, and my thoughts immediately strayed to some pretty horrific scenarios. However, the man who came out of that bus wasn't a serial killer or rapist as my overactive imagination had suggested. He was, in fact, a major blessing, and in no small way our savior that day. Apparently this man by the name of John Bonner had gotten stranded himself some 8 years ago and had to sit there helplessly as people sped by on the highway for several hours. He was a mechanic himself, but as it was he was completely unable to get help that day. Ever since he's vowed to help people in exactly the same situation he had been in, and travels coast to coast in his bus (which was donated to him by a woman he had helped just like us) helping people stranded on the highway. He had all the tools we could need, including an excellent shop jack and air compressor. We shortly thereafter had the small spare the Porsche came with inflated and on the car, and I was able to limp, slowly, to the Texaco station about a mile and a half ahead of where I blew out.

The only thing we had smaller than a $100 to give him was just a small $20, and I don't think this was nearly enough to repay him the help he gave us that day. I got his contact information, though, and he agreed to do an interview with me sometime. Hopefully I can get this man's story out there, because this man has a story to tell. I fully support this man's efforts, as his is definitely a cause worth supporting. It's simply incredible.

Well, about 15 minutes later, the tow truck finally arrived, and we strapped the Porsche to the truck and got it pulled to my mechanic, Big John. Thankfully we had been able to catch his wife at the shop (via phone) earlier, and she agreed to open the lot for us when we got there. We arrived at about 10PM, unloaded the car, locked everything up, and mom and I finally headed home after one of the longest days I've ever had.

All in all, yesterday was an adventure I'm not likely to forget. Despite the difficulties and setbacks, some very good things happened yesterday, and I'm hopeful that even more good will come from yesterday's ordeal. In the end, I am still the proud owner of a 1985 Porsche 944, and I'm looking forward to getting it fixed and ready to go.

Well, the car search continues, which is really about the only real news with me right now. If life were an MMO, I'd just be grinding money, sleep, and pages of car research atm.

There was a gaming competition hosted by TSTC yesterday, apparently. I heard about it on the radio (98.1FM just in case it matters to anyone) and tried to catch the last hour or so of it after work. All that was left was the Guitar Hero competition at that time, so I figured it wasn't even really worth watching. Don't get me wrong, GHIII is a great game, but it's not really that fun to watch. There were some guys there with a 360 and Halo 3, so I decided to get my butt kicked for a while before going home.

On my obligatory emo note, I need to find some friends in town and start getting out. Now that I'm more or less stable in terms of finances and time, I need to start meeting my next level of Maslovic needs as it were. It was suggested to me that I check out the ISA (International Students' Association) on campus. I think I'll also go watch movies at the Cukrowski house tonight, as well.

So my boss did something I'm a little annoyed with yesterday. I stupidly left the keys in one of our Focuses (Foci?) right at the end of the day when I needed to leave and meet some friends. I told him as I was leaving about this, but instead of helping out and covering for me, he said something to the effect of, "I need you to fulfill your obligations here." So I went out, got the keys, and returned them to an apparently empty counter since he had apparently stepped away for a bit. Well, on my way back out to head home, I happened to meet my boss...out in the parking lot...where he could have picked up the keys for me anyways without losing even 2 minutes. I don't appreciate this. I'll work hard and do what I need to get my job done, but I refuse to be a doormat. I plan on confronting him about this later on. If he is unrepentant or God forbid he resorts to threats, well, let's just say I don't need the job THAT badly. And personally, I think having an employee quit on him in his first week will reflect more poorly on him in his job at Enterprise than having less than a week at a location will on my future job applications.

I started working for Enterprise this past weekend  as a car prep out at the airport. The job hasn't been too bad so far. Basically I take the returned cars from the airport to another Enterprise location, clean the car, and return it. I'll also occasionally shuttle cars to and from other Enterprise locations or service shops. Even when I'm at my busiest I'm driving maybe 50% of the time, so the job has been pretty chill so far.

It's been great seeing all the different types of car they have, too. It's helping me get ideas as to what I want in a car for my ongoing car search, as well as just get a feel for how different cars feel. I already have some favorites, as well as some that I'd rather see crushed. So far the ones I've liked the most are our Mitsubishi Galant, our red Chevy Impala, and our Mazda 6. They all have nicely made interiors (the Impala especially), are fun to drive, and are very clean throughout. I'm still looking for something a little more sporty than these for my own car, but I'd recommend these to anyone searching for a good mid-size car.

Speaking of my car search, I found a car that matches all my criteria. It's a 2001 BMW Z3 with under 70k miles and priced at $6200. I'm just afraid now that the listing is a hoax. I emailed the guy twice and haven't gotten a response. I then tried calling the number provided, but it comes up as a "cannot be completed as dialed," so I'm becoming increasingly convinced the deal is bogus. With that in mind, I broadened my search a little bit and have found some possible deals I'd like to go with. There's a slightly beat up 2000 miata for $6k, and a 300zx for about 2k and under 80k miles. Hopefully something will come from one of these.

I keep complaining about not updating this thing as often as I should, and yet I found myself kind of wanting to post but also feeling that it was too early after my last post. This post, then, is a rejection of that idea.

So just some thoughts I've had since the last post:

I've been testing out he iPod touch for my Team55 job. Basically they just gave me one of them to mess around with for about a week. So far it's been really fun, actually. The Touch had several movies on it that I hadn't seen before, so that was definitely a bonus. For some reason sitting at the same desk doing basically nothing for 5 hours goes by quicker when I have a movie to watch. The Touch also has wireless with a web browser, instant e-mail checkage, calendars, weather info, maps, and a bunch of other neat stuff. Surfing the web on the 3" screen isn't all that bad, either. The touch interface is pretty intuitive, and it detects the iPod's orientation and automatically shifts the view to fit landscape or portrait. Really cool. About the only beef I have with the thing is that because it is a touch interface, you get your fingerprints all over the screen, and to watch anything with a lot of dark colors on it you have to wipe the screen a lot. Other than that, though, it's a pretty cool little device. If it didn't cost $400, I'd consider getting one of my own.

Of course, I'm also still thinking about cars. My CD doesn't mature until the 20th, so I can't really make any decisions yet, but I've continued to search. I had planned out what it would cost to finance up to $8k from my $6.2k I'll be getting, as well as vehicle insurance based on my current jobs, but it slipped my mind that I would be moving, possibly to another state for Grad School, and possibly wouldn't have a viable job for much of that time. That puts a bit of a wrench in the spokes of montly payments. With that in mind, I've started to broaden my search to include decent cars under $6200. There are a few hits so far, but nothing that's standing out. I've been really excited about the possibility of getting a Z3, but I may just have to settle for something I can buy outright. So, the search continues.

Eh. A lot of stuff to think about and a lot of stuff coming up to deal with. New job, moving out, vehicle purchase, Grad school, building my portfolio, etc. /grindstone

Well I start working at Enterprise tomorrow, which coupled with my Team55 job should provide me plenty of $s to do what I need...such as move out. Luckily, this arrangement should also continue through the school year, though I can't confirm that quite yet.

I talked with Jake the other day, and I've decided to seriously get down to business about writing my mod and basically taking the next step I need to take in terms of my goal of working in the gaming industry. I originally planned to do my mod in Neverwinter Nights 2, but I think it might be easier to plan out and implement if I made it into a WarCraft III mod. My only problem there is that I realized my story is rather similar to that of Arthas. "The Cursed Paladin" is my working title, which hints at the gist of the story. From there it's not too hard to see the similarities. Either way, I'm going to start seriously working on this project.

I've also identified a recurring setting for some of my dreams recently. I'm not usually a big dream interpretation guy, but this one intrigued me. It's some kind of large missile silo with catwalks and stairs and such running along the walls, spiraling down into the ground. The walls are generally white, and there are alcoves with doors every so often along the catwalks. I also vaguely remember some kind of control room. It's actually very similar to the missile silo in the old Goldeneye game only larger, brighter, and much more realistic. I can remember at least two dreams that have used this setting now. In the first I was escaping from the silo, but the one I had last night I was actually entering the silo with a small and rather heavily armed force.

As I said, though, I'm not usually big into the whole dream interpretation thing, so I'm not going to try to say what the silo "means" or anything. It was just something interesting I noticed about the weird ways my brain works.

I've finally had some breakthroughs in my recent downswing.

I've all but completed my paper. I just need to fill out one more page. The whole writing by hand and retyping thing seems to be working, so I'll continue doing it that way. I plan on poring through my previous LJ posts to find some material for my missing page, and I'm rather confident I can get it worked to a point that  I'd be willing to submit it finally to Kevin Kehl.

I've also finally gotten a job. Well, technically they need to run a background check, but the interview I had with Enterprise went extremely well and I should have a good 30 hr/week job about the time I get back from my upcoming backpacking trip.

It seems that once I'm actually working, things stabilize for me. This past week I've been working just a few hours a day at my Team55 job, but having something to be even quasi responsible about seems to make so many of my other behaviors fall in line.

Until next time,
~Mike

P.S. -- For all the cliche usually reserved for this site, I do find it funny that I'm listening to Evanescence while writing this post, due to the characteristically emo nature of site and song.

It's a little hard to describe these last few weeks. They've been at once uneventful and full of activity. My job hunt remains fruitless, and I've been bumming around the house for the greater part of this last month, but I somehow feel like I've been active the entire time. I've gone to test drive some cars, picked up applications, dropped off applications, etc. I seem to be in a kind of apathetic funk at the moment, though, since I can't seem to follow through with any of these activities. I've also gotten off exercising, which I really need to pick back up considering my backpacking trip next week.

The biggest thing is I still haven't finished my paper for my 1 hour INTS class. I did, however, finally make a start on it I feel confident in. It seems that if I try to write something in a word processor I become mired with the infinite possibilities of what I could be doing wrong, but if I sit down with paper and pen, my thoughts flow much more freely. I think I already have about 5 pages on this new start, but I'm not done writing yet, so Imma go some more. It just hacks me that a one hour course that I really had no interest in is shaping up to be a black mark on my transcript. While I recognize the importance of a reflection paper, the fact that we had no other coursework and that the course was primarily designed as a prep course to get you ready for the trip overseas gives me great qualms as to the seriousness that the course's papers have attained. I'm strongly reminded of U100, for any of you who have had experience with over-hyped joke classes.

In other news, I test drove the Honda S2000 recently. That car was an absolute dream to drive. It was nice and responsive, the looks are right along the lines of what I'm looking for, and it houses one of the best engineered 4 cylinder engines I've ever seen. If I had enough money to, I'd definitely consider buying it. However, since I'm nowhere near being able to afford a $31k car, I think I'm SOL on the S2000 for the moment. The staff at the Honda dealership here in town were very agreeable. However, while they were very helpful, I did get the distinct impression that I was being humored while making small talk.  It seemed there was a line in there where I crossed over from "friendly person to talk to" back to "potential commission." I'm not too worried about it, though. I've come to expect it from the world of car dealerships.

I've been looking for a job recently, after turning down the position at Camp Tonkawa. I love CT and all, but with the offered $150/week deal, I think I can easily do better working for Team 55 and find another job that will do even better. Right now I've been talking with the people from a local antique shop named Relics, who are looking for a furniture painter/finisher. As an art minor, I've done some minor carpentry and have some experience staining and finishing a wood piece, so this job sounds like a great fit for me. However, their owner's been out of town for a bit, so I'm still waiting to talk with them to finalize decisions, etc. I really would like the job: it'd be an opportunity to be creative, be employed, and learn some new skills while doing so.

I've looked at other jobs, as well: mainly working wait staff at one of the various restaurants around town. I've just either not gotten calls, they're not hiring, or some other lame corporate excuse. What I'd really want to do at a restaurant, though, is work the bar. Bartending has always had an appeal to me. It seems like it'd be a good job to me. Serving drinks, chatting with customers. It's a good bit of responsibility and seems like a good fit for me. We'll see how it goes, though.

I've also been looking at cars for when my CD matures and I have some cash to spend on a car. Hopefully by that time I'll have a steady job (*crosses fingers for Relics*),  and will be able to finance on top of the $6200 down payment. I'm mainly looking at a used BMW Z3, but I'm also on the lookout for a good two-seater from some other marque. The two-seater roadster seems like the best fit for me so far. They're small, get good gas mileage, are fun to drive, and for the most part relatively cheap. Some of the other models I've looked at have been the MX-5 Miata, Pontiac Solstice, and Saturn Sky. I actually test drove the Solstice and the Sky today. I test drove a BMW Z3 about this time last year, but wasn't able to buy at that time.

The Solstice was decent, I guess. They only had automatic versions at the dealership I went to, and I'm really looking for a manual. The car itself is decent. It's a manual top, but it's not hard to figure out, and the build quality is decent. Unfortunately the power just isn't there, and the manual gearbox lags like crazy. When accelerating, it seems like the little four they had in that thing had to labor and would hit these little plateaus in power that were really kind of annoying. If I do look further at the Solstice, it'll be their higher-end version with a proper manual gearbox in it.

The Sky was a much better ride. It's actually basically the same thing as the Solstice (they're made by the same company, same plant, and share most of the same internals). However, the version I drove was the Sky Redline with a good manual gearbox. The Sky Redline has plenty of power - 260hp to be exact, and is a very quick little car. I'm not complaining too much, but the visibility in both the Solstice and Redline leaves something to be desired, but with the amount of pick-up-and-go that car has, I'm not sure I'd be too worried about that. It also handled nicely, and was very fun to drive. My only complaint is that the clutch isn't what I'm used to. I've driven manual my entire time driving cars, and I killed the Sky starting off like 3 times. It also felt a little odd while shifting in some corners, but I think it may just be me needing to learn how that clutch works.

Either way, though, my main focus is on the older BMW Z3 models. They discontinued in 2001, replaced by the Z4, but I don't like the way the Z4's lines go nowhere. The Z3 is generally within my price range and has everything I'm looking for. That and my test drive last year was great. That car moves like a dream and was pretty comfortable to drive, despite my 6'4" frame. I'm also looking in the direction of the Miata, but I have yet to test drive that. It'll probably be an older model, though. Again, we'll see how it goes.

So I went car shopping with my mom and sister this morning, looking for a car for the youngest sibling. It was an interesting experience. The sooner you realize that everybody in the car sales world is out to screw you out of money, the better you are. No car presented at-price on the lot is a good deal. Period. We finally met someone who actually went to a computer program and pulled out issues of Consumer Reports and found that everybody we had talked to had marked their cars up $4-7k. We'll still be looking, and I'm going to be buying a car myself sometime in July, but hopefully I'll be wiser for the wear by that time.

This is a strange feeling. I'm now completely packed, my room is completely cleaned out, and right now I'm just kind of waiting around until we go get on the plane at about 1:00, about two and a half hours from now. I imagine that this feels similar to the dead time between the trial and the execution. I can't really do anything else to prepare now, so I'm in a strange sort of limbo state.

Uruguay has been a fun and exciting adventure, and though I miss my family, friends, and some of the small perks of living in Abilene (Sharkie's, Little Panda, etc.), well, the best way to say it is, "I don't wanna go." Montevideo is great, and I feel like I've still only scratched the surface of this wonderful city. I've sat on the beach during sunrise, run the length of the Rambla, strolled down Dieciocho, gone to the Big Game between Nacional and Peñarol, stared wonderously at the Entrevero Statue, danced the night away at Ola Montevideo and Kalú, gone climbing in Minas and surfing in La Paloma, dined in Piriápolis, lazed on the beach of Isla Gorriti, walked the walls of Fort Teresa, and eaten at least 50lbs worth of Chivitos, and these are just the beginning of the list.

I will miss my Uruguayan friends, what unfortunately few of them I made. The guys at the ACJ were great, and I enjoyed immensely climbing with them. I will also miss Emanuel, with whom I've shared more than a drink, a conversation, and a few virtual bullets on CoD 4. Pilar, Paula, Nando, Marcos, and the rest were great, and I will always remember our crazy night at Azabache. Todos son buenos. I wish all my Uruguayan friends the best. I will always remember them.

I could go on and on listing all the small things I've experienced and enjoyed during my short 4-month layover in Montevideo, but I think it best to go ahead and begin thinking of them as ghosts of a wonderful chapter in my life that is already closing and pointing toward what is to come. I can feel myself already becoming nostalgic for the things that are in actuality still around me.  And I can feel myself already forming the tears of fond memories in the corners of my eyes.

Salúd, Montevideo. May you and all your people have a bright and glorious future.

~Mike

My LJ friend Gekko's page says at the top, "I'm downright amazed at what I can destroy with just a hammer." Well, sometimes I'm amazed at how little I can get done in so much time. After my afternoon of accomplishment on Friday, it seems like I got absolutely nothing done for the entire rest of the weekend. I swear I hardly even talked to anyone during that time. Most of it was spent sleeping, but for those times I was awake, I was usually either eating, on the internet, or doing something else of similar non-import. I had three pages to write for Convo, and I needed to catch up on some stuff for Luke and my INTS class. While I have planned out the pages for Convo, I still need to translate them, and I've only read for Luke, not written.

I wonder if it's possible to have amotivational syndrome without the weed, cuz sometimes it seems like that's what's going on (I don't do weed, so don't worry, parents, grandparents, and friends). It's like I know what I need to be doing, but I can't make myself do what I need to do, or even want to do what I need to do. I'm not even sure a SKITA (Swift Kick...you get the rest) machine would accomplish much outside of making my bum sore.

I really gotta nip this one, though, cuz I'm running out of time when this whole doing nothing thing is going to even be possible without dire consequences. It may already be past time...
*cough* I have almost no material for my portfolio for gradschool *cough*

Ha! Emo negative self-assessment...HOOOOOO!

~Ozyda

So I'm just chillaxin' in my room after first exercising at the Y and taking a shower, figured I'm not doing anything else productive atm, so I may as well get to writing.

Speaking of productivity, I was especially good today about getting schtuff done. I hadn't been getting around to doing my necessary tasks as Team 55 rep down here for a while, but I went in swinging this afternoon. I finally got around to working with the two Toshiba laptops that are having problems with wireless access (that situation isn't quite solved yet, but I'm at least a step closer, I think), and I updated all 10 lab computers. That part was fun, too. I was multitasking like some kind of...multitasking...octopus mutant thing with 8 arms and stuff...or something. Either way I was multitasking to a crazy extent, keeping 10 computers working at all times in different stages of both Microsoft updates, Firefox downloads, installations, and restarts. It took me some 4.5 hours to get all the computers through their various glitches and get the two laptops up and running with their new drivers, but it was totally worth it.

Then I took a nap. Sleeping is always productive in my opinion.

Dinner was fun, and I kicked back with some of the other Casa ACUians in watching the Office. Then it was off to the Y for some exercise and a shower. Then I figured I wasn't doing anything else productive, so I should get to writing...but you already knew that.

So one thing I really enjoyed from Brazil? Guaraná. It's like an apple soda mixed with ginger ale, and it is quite possibly the best drink I've ever had. I know, I know; where does Dr Pepper, and especially Dublin Dr Pepper fit in? How does the sweet, sultry flavor of that most delicious of Texan drinks fit in with this veritable jewel of Brazilian drinkage? Surprisingly, in a close second (or actually third, since a perfectly prepared cherry limeade IBC soda from Eric's fridge [and it must be Eric's fridge. No other fridge does it quite right] has actually already usurped Dr Pepper's number 1 status for me). It's hard to admit it, but if this Guaraná stuff was easily obtainable in the States, it would easily replace Dr Pepper as my default drink of choice. Apparently even here in South America it's rather rare, though. You can't even get it outside of Brazil, so I had to grab two 12 packs to tide myself over until I got back home and might be able to wean myself back onto Dr Pepper again.

I was told by Ken Cukrowski, however, that that World Food Market thing over in Ft. Worth sells Guaraná. So be afraid, Dr Pepper. Be very afraid...

~Ozyda

Thurs April 10 9:42
I’m currently sitting on the bus back to Montevideo from our Brazil trip. I’ve read through about ¾ of the second novel I brought with me, and have somehow grown bored of reading (I’ve been doing it for the past 5 hours, so forgive me if you will). I figure since I already have my laptop out in order to charge my red-zoned iPod, I may as well write something ^^

I’ve been hearing about other people’s blogs and the things that they have been putting in them. Thoughts on some interesting action in the day or some kind of interesting observation and I realize that I’ve mainly been doing just a basic recounting of the happenings of the day. Sometimes some humor or insight slips into the recounting of the day’s events, but I feel that I have been somewhat lacking. I have always considered myself a thoughtful person, so the fact that I can’t seem to come up with any poignant observations frustrates me. I’m also afraid of just posting up self-centered introspective thoughts of the day, and turning this blog into some kind of emo wall of (often) negative self-assessments. Therefore, I think for the time being I will write about music.

Personally, I love music. I think it’s one of the most emotionally powerful things man has ever created. Right now I’m listening to one of DJ Doboy’s hour+ long soft trance mixes, and I have to stop periodically to simply close my eyes and let myself get absorbed by the music. I know a lot of people cast a disdainful eye on techno (there’s a lot of unclarity when it comes to the naming conventions of electronic music, but techno is a term most people know and is usually how they classify the general type of music I’m referring to, so we’ll go with that)—I know I did at first—but I’ve found it to be one of the most interesting and enjoyable types of music out there. It’s also a lot easier to listen to for long periods of time, both because of the way the music works and sounds, and because I don’t have to flip open my iPod case every five minutes to keep the music coming. Most people seem to focus on the constant beat of techno; becoming quickly wearied of what they think is just mindless repetition. I feel sorry for them. “Techno” only begins with the beat, and in the end the beat is simply used to help mesh the multiple tracks in a mix, providing a basic and bass-ic (ha! I made a funny!) unity to the whole thing. To anyone who has come to appreciate any one of the many styles (and there are a LOT of them) within the general heading of techno, the real power and craft within a mix, they know, comes from just about everything BUT the repetitive beat.

The beginning connoisseur will at first begin to notice the main melodic lines of each track (usually in an alto-ish range), but that only really comes every couple minutes. It’s only after some time that you’ll begin to notice that there’s an actual craft to the music: the mix. This is especially apparent when you’ve heard the original production of a track. Every DJ messes with and plays with the music in different ways, sampling and replaying certain parts of a track, cycling different sections of a song, messing with the beat, and of course the transition between two different tracks, which of course can be handled in any number of ways. This, more than the repetitive beat or catchy tunes is the real artistry in Techno.

Eh, this is only really the beginning of my thoughts on music, but this seems as good a place as any to put a period to my thoughts, so…BAM!

~Ozyda

PS.—ha! it was actually an exclamation point.

So I’m pretty sure that our day today with Study Abroad Latin America dominated anything those saps over in Oxford are doing (or have done). First off, we went to an aviary…

I know what you’re thinking, right? An aviary. Birds. Yay. *little whoop-de-do flag”

Wrong. The aviary was awesome. I got to have a bird the size of a SMALL CHILD on my shoulder, and it was pretty to boot. Huge freaking blue-and-yellow macaws climbin up in hya. They were spectacular to see and it was one of the coolest experiences of my life being that close to so many large birds. Oh yeah, forgot to mention it wasn’t just one humongous, brightly-colored bird flapping about my head, but an entire cage full—a cage the size of my HOUSE—of blue-and-yellows, hyacinth, and scarlet macaws. Coolest. Cage. Ever.

And that’s not to mention the multitudinous variety of exquisitely colored parrots of other species that could talk in at least 3 different languages. I had a short “conversation” with a brightly colored green parrot in Portuguese, Spanish, and English, not to mention that the bird could say its scientific name.

Oh, and I got to pet a toucan. That’s right. I pet a freaking toucan. (We named it “Poder.” Ha! Bilingual joke.) I just can’t get over that fact. I pet a toucan. As in Toucan Sam. It was even the Toco Toucan: the toucan everyone thinks of when you mention toucans.

Petting a toucan is an experience in and of itself. They’re actually surprisingly friendly birds, and they apparently show affection by “biting” on you. You offer it your finger and it’ll just kind of hold onto your finger with that enormous beak of theirs. And they purr. It was the most bizarre thing I’ve seen in a long time, a bird purring. They make this strange hollow clicking sound whenever they’re content and at ease, which as far as we can tell is made by the toucan clicking its tongue against the top of its beak. So while allowing the toucan to “chew” on your finger and listening to the toucan purr, you can then stroke the toucan on the head, on the neck, on the back, etc. They apparently don’t like having their belly rubbed, though. Pretty awesome.

And a pretty bird, too. I can’t believe how beautiful these birds are up close. They have a deep, sapphire blue eye, surrounded by a rich orange area around their eyes, which is then surrounded by a kind of plate of white, and the rest of the bird’s plumage is a deep, rich black.

So after about three and a half hours exploring the aviary, we went on over to the Brazilian side of Iguaçu falls, which has some of the most spectacular views on this planet.

Now, I usually am pretty stingy about my photos. I don’t take tons of needless photos of random people doing random things in front of a pretty background like most tourists seem to do. I try to pick out a particularly interesting or beautiful angle on the subject, then I work with adjusting and perfecting all the settings on my camera to capture the image. That said, my memory card has enough space for 471 photos. Since I arrived at Brazil, I’ve not only overreached this limit, but I’ve deleted probably 80 or so copies or lackluster photos to free up space, and I still only have enough room for about 4 more photos. Without you being there or seeing the photos, that’s about the best I can describe the experience of being at Iguaçu.

We did some boring stuff after that, including taking a nap. Then we went to a dinner and dance show. The dinner was decent enough, and some of the show fell a little flat, but there were some really fun moments in the show. The tango was really high-energy, and some exciting Brazilian dances, but the real highlights were the capoeira and this woman who did this strange poi-type dance, but instead of simply swinging around the weighted lines, she had some weighted lines with elastic lines and she not only spun, but she created rhythms with the weights hitting the stage and her own boot heels clicking. It was really pretty amazing, but after her first little shpiel, she grabbed Alan from our group, had him stand still on the stage while she spun her weights around him. Then she even tousled his hair with her little spinny deals. Oh, she later did the full-on fire thing, but after Alan had left the stage.

Oh, and the capoiera. Not only was the dance/fight/play thing cool, but they did another one of the audience participation things with it. With me. That’s right. I got called up on stage by these dudes and they taught me some rudimentary capoiera on stage. Apparently the guys from Casa ACU got video footage of it, so I’ll post that when I can.

I honestly would have to count this day as one of the best I’ve had. I had a lot of new and interesting experiences, many of them turning out completely different from what I expected, but in every way incredible. Take that, Oxford.