I've cranked out my first application to vet school, with my GRE tests left to be taken in the next month or so. I missed the deadline to apply for graduation for this semester by 2 months, so next semester will be my last. I started P90X and nearly tore my hip flexors after the first 2 days. I haven't been in that much pain since I tore my groin muscle running my sophomore year at Clemson. Fortunately, it healed in 2 days. My head is swimming with apologetic and theological arguements, as I'm trying to grow in my knowledge of the faith I profess and refine and challenge my personal beliefs. I've disappointed myself with my first test grades in two of my classes and have jeaopardized my A's in both (which are needed to get into vet school most likely). The GRE Biology is going to be a little difficult, not because I don't understand the concepts but because I don't know their vernacular. I've got a lot of studying to do, and not shown the discipline necessary to keep me from failing it all. I've always considered myself to be moderately proficient at many things, but that also means you screw up a lot of things when you're tested. The games are over, the gloves are off. Time to make a scholar out of this lazy punk. Hopefully, all of this cognitive disequillibrium will bring about a constructive paradigm shift.
On another note:
Here's some new music I'm into, plus some concert dates.
Russian Circles, playing October 29th @ The Earl
Song: Carpe
Mastodon, playing November 5th @ The Tabernacle
Song: Sleeping Giant (this vid is crazy!)
Pelican, playing December 7th @ The Earl
Song: Dead Between the Walls
I've got some others but, I haven't felt much incentive to post for a long time. I'll save something so I care enough to post something later.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Unforseen consquences
Well, now I'm a tech assistant at two animal hospitals, learning more and getting more confident in the job each day I work. I've got one day off a week though and the hours have been wearing on me, but it's more fun and more profitable this way. I'll be preparing my application to vet school soon and see where it gets me. I still have to take the GRE again and the GRE Biology subject test, but I don't know where I'm going to fit it in the schedule since I haven't even had time to get a haircut lately. It's a bit convenient that I haven't gotten the scoping stuff together because I simply don't have time for it now.
BTW- the techs at Fayette scrapped up an extra pouch and hemostats, forcepts, etc for me to walk around with. This was the card that came with the pouch, which fits into a pocket in your scrubs.
Which one of these is not like the others?
Recently I've gotten into a band called Silversun Pickups, which everyone has probably heard about already except me. That's probably because it's not really a category of music I usually listen to. I was listening to the indie station on the satellite radio in Dad's car and heard a live acoustic version of their song "Growing Old is Getting Old." It was great so I went looking for more. My favorite songs off of Carnavas:
Rusted Wheel
Future Foe Scenarios - the best on the CD in my opinion!
I've got Swoon on order but I used the free shipping. It might be a while yet until I get that one in the mail.
BTW- the techs at Fayette scrapped up an extra pouch and hemostats, forcepts, etc for me to walk around with. This was the card that came with the pouch, which fits into a pocket in your scrubs.
Which one of these is not like the others?
Recently I've gotten into a band called Silversun Pickups, which everyone has probably heard about already except me. That's probably because it's not really a category of music I usually listen to. I was listening to the indie station on the satellite radio in Dad's car and heard a live acoustic version of their song "Growing Old is Getting Old." It was great so I went looking for more. My favorite songs off of Carnavas:
Rusted Wheel
Future Foe Scenarios - the best on the CD in my opinion!
I've got Swoon on order but I used the free shipping. It might be a while yet until I get that one in the mail.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Intermission continued (Kairos)
I've been searching around for a bit and found a new favorite band, but it looks like I've come on the scene about 2 years too late. The band Kairos has apparently been inactive for a while with the members having gone different ways. It's a bit disappointing. What little I've heard sounds GREAT!! They are a local prog rock band out of Pittsburg, sounding a bit like Tool, led by frontman Joshua Sturm. Updates have been so unfrequent on their website, I'm not even sure if I can order their music anymore. I'll probably shoot an email over and see what's up, but I'll wait until the end of the summer when I'm more likely to have expendable income. Stupid me saw on the website that they were going to be in Jonesboro (which is 20 minutes away) in June, and I was REALLY disappointed when I found I'd had a round of dyslexia or something. That show was back in 2006. Yeah... I'm really late on to this one. That makes me a sad panda. Here's some live footage:
Kairos - Saturate
More live footage ------> HERE
Links:
Kairos Official Website
Kairos MySpace (w/mp3's)
Kairos PureVolume (ditto)
PS: There's another band that's out of the UK called Kairos that's more of a pop-rock, "hook driven" style... this ain't that one!! I'm more interested in riff driven, not hook driven.
Kairos - Saturate
More live footage ------> HERE
Links:
Kairos Official Website
Kairos MySpace (w/mp3's)
Kairos PureVolume (ditto)
PS: There's another band that's out of the UK called Kairos that's more of a pop-rock, "hook driven" style... this ain't that one!! I'm more interested in riff driven, not hook driven.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Crunch time
I'm headed into the end to the semester crunch, and unfortunately, it's not my fault this time. With the classes I'm taking, that's the way the workload panned out either by the syllabus or because of the professor. I've got probably 75% of all the work for this semester to do over the next couple weeks. Then after the semester is out, it's back to finding as much work as I can until the end of the summer. I'll just update here while I can.
My mom finally got the IV out of her arm and is finished with the infusions of antibiotics and other doctors' appointments associated with it. I didn't realize until she told me, but I guess I should have known that she's had an appointment for wound care, infusion, or to see a doctor every day for 7 weeks. At least the problem is finally over. She's scheduled to have surgery to replace her knee on June 2nd. I drove her to some of her appointments recently, and she's certainly been blessed to have such good doctors.
If everything works out, I may be able to work some nights at the emergency animal clinic in the area. Not sure if I'll be able to, since I haven't heard back yet. If that happens, I'll get some really good experience doing tech work. Hopefully they'll have some literature I can read so I'm a little more qualified and not completely useless as soon as I walk through the door. I've also been brought into the firm that employs the scopist that I've been working with vicariously. I've gotten so much feedback and information, I can't imagine what it must have been like to start out doing this on her own three years ago. It's slow going and I haven't finished the coursework yet either. I don't have to have my certificate to work though, so I'll be faxing my paperwork this weekend.
If you'd like a chuckle, Blizzard put up a few April fool's jokes that are still on the site:
Starcraft 2 New Unit: Terra-tron (this was HILARIOUS!!)
Diablo 3 New Character Class: The Archivist
There was also a "Dance Battle System" for World of Warcraft. I get the joke, but didn't think it was as funny as the other two. They probably put more effort into that one though.
Been through a different music phase here recently. I came across a guy named Rei Harakami on YouTube and watched several of the music videos. He does electronica that I like. It's interesting to hear all the things he does with the sounds, rather than playing the same loops over and over for 8 minutes straight. I watched some live Daft Punk videos a while ago and those guys have to mix 3 or 4 songs together for it to even interest me. Not this guy. I've put his song "June" on the music selections for this month, but you might also like "Nijizou" which has a pretty trippy (and retro in parts) video too.
For an interesting browser game head over to aM Laboratory - ToneMatrix. The program plays music coinciding with the blocks on the screen that you light up by clicking with the mouse. It's interesting. I also tried the demo for a game called Brainpipe last week, and this thing in wild! I don't have epillepsy, but this game kind of had me worried of going into a seizure! The new Monster Hunter game for PSP is supposed to come out sometime soon, but there've been rumors of new PSP hardware coming out late this year so I think the release date has been pushed back. That kind of works for me because that way I might have the money and time to play it. I'm still using a 1000 model so I might need to upgrade that when it comes out. I just keep reminding myself that a character trait of maturity (and millionaires) is delayed gratification.
Another task for the summer is to retake the GRE and take the GRE Biology if it's offered. I'm not sure I'll be able to raise my scores, but It's worth a shot. Also, the vet school at UGA requires the Biology subject test. The general test is offered all the time just about everywhere, but the Biology test isn't offered as often, so hopefully it's offered some time over the summer.
That's all I got. Posts have been coming about a month apart here for a while, so I guess I'll stick with that. I may just leave the blog in aestivation for the summer. We'll see. Don't really have that much to say right now.
"He who conquers the left side conquers the world, chief. Setting the parameters, that's really the hard part."
My mom finally got the IV out of her arm and is finished with the infusions of antibiotics and other doctors' appointments associated with it. I didn't realize until she told me, but I guess I should have known that she's had an appointment for wound care, infusion, or to see a doctor every day for 7 weeks. At least the problem is finally over. She's scheduled to have surgery to replace her knee on June 2nd. I drove her to some of her appointments recently, and she's certainly been blessed to have such good doctors.
If everything works out, I may be able to work some nights at the emergency animal clinic in the area. Not sure if I'll be able to, since I haven't heard back yet. If that happens, I'll get some really good experience doing tech work. Hopefully they'll have some literature I can read so I'm a little more qualified and not completely useless as soon as I walk through the door. I've also been brought into the firm that employs the scopist that I've been working with vicariously. I've gotten so much feedback and information, I can't imagine what it must have been like to start out doing this on her own three years ago. It's slow going and I haven't finished the coursework yet either. I don't have to have my certificate to work though, so I'll be faxing my paperwork this weekend.
If you'd like a chuckle, Blizzard put up a few April fool's jokes that are still on the site:
Starcraft 2 New Unit: Terra-tron (this was HILARIOUS!!)
Diablo 3 New Character Class: The Archivist
There was also a "Dance Battle System" for World of Warcraft. I get the joke, but didn't think it was as funny as the other two. They probably put more effort into that one though.
Been through a different music phase here recently. I came across a guy named Rei Harakami on YouTube and watched several of the music videos. He does electronica that I like. It's interesting to hear all the things he does with the sounds, rather than playing the same loops over and over for 8 minutes straight. I watched some live Daft Punk videos a while ago and those guys have to mix 3 or 4 songs together for it to even interest me. Not this guy. I've put his song "June" on the music selections for this month, but you might also like "Nijizou" which has a pretty trippy (and retro in parts) video too.
For an interesting browser game head over to aM Laboratory - ToneMatrix. The program plays music coinciding with the blocks on the screen that you light up by clicking with the mouse. It's interesting. I also tried the demo for a game called Brainpipe last week, and this thing in wild! I don't have epillepsy, but this game kind of had me worried of going into a seizure! The new Monster Hunter game for PSP is supposed to come out sometime soon, but there've been rumors of new PSP hardware coming out late this year so I think the release date has been pushed back. That kind of works for me because that way I might have the money and time to play it. I'm still using a 1000 model so I might need to upgrade that when it comes out. I just keep reminding myself that a character trait of maturity (and millionaires) is delayed gratification.
Another task for the summer is to retake the GRE and take the GRE Biology if it's offered. I'm not sure I'll be able to raise my scores, but It's worth a shot. Also, the vet school at UGA requires the Biology subject test. The general test is offered all the time just about everywhere, but the Biology test isn't offered as often, so hopefully it's offered some time over the summer.
That's all I got. Posts have been coming about a month apart here for a while, so I guess I'll stick with that. I may just leave the blog in aestivation for the summer. We'll see. Don't really have that much to say right now.
"He who conquers the left side conquers the world, chief. Setting the parameters, that's really the hard part."
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Speak of the devil...
... Ok, that's a really bad overused pun. Blizzard just updated the bestiary on their official Diablo 3 page with this pleasant specimen of demonic incarnation:
Nice huh? I can't wait to kill it!! This game's gonna be great!
Links: Diablo 3 (official), Kotaku post
Nice huh? I can't wait to kill it!! This game's gonna be great!
Links: Diablo 3 (official), Kotaku post
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Well...
... It's been almost 2 months now since my last post. Missed a month, you missed a lot, I guess. But that's abnormal for me. Most of my pseudo-resolutions I've been keeping up with. I picked up my guitar again and am back to previous proficiency (which was nil). Got a few resources in the shopping cart for purchase later and a few cd's for inspiration. John Petrucci has a dvd that I want, but it'll be a good while (or eternity) before I get to the level to I came across Paul Gilbert's work today and don't know why I haven't heard this before! It's INCREDIBLE!! Working on improving. I've been running more. I've got my drawing supplies and a cartooning book by Preston Blair that was recommended by John K. Along with the drawing stuff, I picked up some graph paper and will start playing with drawing things and scaling them down for use in a game or something. I've read a few tutorials and worked through one or two of them for Mark Overmar's Game Maker. It's a little wierd though because all the dimensions with pixels and everything are not accurate to scale in either inches or centimeters. A typical resolution is 72 pixels per inch, but most everything I'll be working with is in multiples or tiles of 32 or 64 pixels. I've got 1/4 inch graph paper and I'll just mark off everything at inches and see what happens when I scale it down. But that's a project for later when I happen across some free time.
I've also been using some the free resources at the website for the Institute for Christian Resources. They have free audio, videos, and course material notebooks available for you to use in conjuntion with Bible college courses. I'm watched the videos through about half of the first semster of Acts, but I'm going to go back and take notes. I printed out the notebooks today. Great resources!! In the series on Acts, Mark Moore has an awesome way of disarming the historical arguements that have split churches for decades. I'm enjoying it and it carries my highest recommendation! Mark Moore also has numerous sermons and essays on numerous topics. This guy's been busy!!
24 has been ROCKIN' this season!! I've also been watching Lost on ABC's website, with their free episode player. I like it. I'm about halfway through season 3, right now and still can't figure out what's going on. Maybe that's what they want. I think Locke is my favorite character. Hurley is a close second.
If you haven't heard about the movie Coraline, watch the trailer HERE. This movie is fantastic and amazing to watch. It's in 3D and I'm surprised I didn't get a headache from it. It's all stop animation puppets and claymation. It's great!! ... and creepy.
Gaming News:
On the gaming front, not much to say here. I haven't been in the market for a while. I've been following Blizzard's updates for Diablo 3 and Starcraft 2. Blizzard is notoriously secretive, but extremely professional and perfectionist. Everything they produce is top-notch, but you have to wait forever for it and they WILL NOT release it until it is perfect! Both games look stunning! American McGee is working on a sequel to Alice, which put a smile on my face! The PSP has the new Prinny game out. I'd like to play it, but Monster Hunter Freedom Unite is supposed to come out some time soon. I'm holding out for that one. Patapon 2 is on the way. There are pre-orders available at Gamestop with a free demo, but the demo won't be available until March 13th.
Indie Game Rundown:
Derek Yu made a game called Spelunky. It's an Indiana Jones spoof in a way where you run through caves filled with treasure. You're equipped with a whip, ropes, and bombs, plus whatever you happen to buy from the random cave-dwelling merchants. Each dungeon is randomly generated, which can sometimes make finding the exit and getting out impossible since ropes and bombs are in limited supply. Great game none-the-less! Get it HERE!! (gameplay video HERE)
Typomagia is a typing game where you battle it out with a computer opponent or go through story mode. You type the words in the center of the screen to boost your power level and then type the spell that you want to cast to summon monsters or make them stronger/faster/etc. It's fun! I just suck at it.
Das Uberleben is a multiplayer game by Beau Blyth at Teknogames where you basically skydive through a cavern filled with obstacles. Recently updated, there are four levels: snow, tree, molten, and death star. It rocks!! (Link is to Indiegames Blog post, sometimes the Uberleben website is temporarily down. Keep trying! It's worth it!!)
White Butterfly is a new shooter by Linley Henzell (creator of Garden of Coloured Lights). The game is a scrolling shooter (like Gradius or R-Type). It has multiple ships to choose from. I do best with the "spinneret," and my next best is the "white butterfly." This game is hard as crap. I highly recommend it, but only if don't run around screaming and breaking things while playing rediculously hard and unfair games (like Contra, Double Dragon, any game by messhof, any game by Capcom... I'll just stop the list there).
There's probably a few others, but this is turning out to be a pretty long post. I'll do it later, maybe.
In other news:
Also on the list, my mom has had surgery to remove an absess on her shoulder twice. Hopefully 3 weeks of IV antibiotics will get rid of it this time. I about freaked out when they said it could be MRSA, but the culture said it wasn't.
I quit my job doing kennels. Got my first transcript, eventhough I haven't finished the coursework yet. The file was AWFUL!!! HORRIBLE!!! [insert adjective for something REALLY REALLY BAD]!!! Oh, and excruciating, too. There were dozens of parts where I had to listen to the same phrase (and I mean phrase, NOT sentence) repeatedly to try and figure out what to type in its place. The urge almost irrisitible to beat my head to pulp against the floor. But that's what I get for not spreading it out over more than one day. Good thing I was working with someone who actually knows what she's doing. I'm getting a lot of help from her! I'm still trying to learn the software, so the file I started on was basically a trial by fire. I guess that's a good way to start. From what I've heard, it doesn't get worse than the file I just worked on and these are few and far between. THANK GOD!!
That's it! I quit! Hope you enjoyed the long and link heavy post. Enjoy the music too! Well, as much as you can. Most of what I post there is probably for me, not you.
I've also been using some the free resources at the website for the Institute for Christian Resources. They have free audio, videos, and course material notebooks available for you to use in conjuntion with Bible college courses. I'm watched the videos through about half of the first semster of Acts, but I'm going to go back and take notes. I printed out the notebooks today. Great resources!! In the series on Acts, Mark Moore has an awesome way of disarming the historical arguements that have split churches for decades. I'm enjoying it and it carries my highest recommendation! Mark Moore also has numerous sermons and essays on numerous topics. This guy's been busy!!
24 has been ROCKIN' this season!! I've also been watching Lost on ABC's website, with their free episode player. I like it. I'm about halfway through season 3, right now and still can't figure out what's going on. Maybe that's what they want. I think Locke is my favorite character. Hurley is a close second.
If you haven't heard about the movie Coraline, watch the trailer HERE. This movie is fantastic and amazing to watch. It's in 3D and I'm surprised I didn't get a headache from it. It's all stop animation puppets and claymation. It's great!! ... and creepy.
Gaming News:
On the gaming front, not much to say here. I haven't been in the market for a while. I've been following Blizzard's updates for Diablo 3 and Starcraft 2. Blizzard is notoriously secretive, but extremely professional and perfectionist. Everything they produce is top-notch, but you have to wait forever for it and they WILL NOT release it until it is perfect! Both games look stunning! American McGee is working on a sequel to Alice, which put a smile on my face! The PSP has the new Prinny game out. I'd like to play it, but Monster Hunter Freedom Unite is supposed to come out some time soon. I'm holding out for that one. Patapon 2 is on the way. There are pre-orders available at Gamestop with a free demo, but the demo won't be available until March 13th.
Indie Game Rundown:
Derek Yu made a game called Spelunky. It's an Indiana Jones spoof in a way where you run through caves filled with treasure. You're equipped with a whip, ropes, and bombs, plus whatever you happen to buy from the random cave-dwelling merchants. Each dungeon is randomly generated, which can sometimes make finding the exit and getting out impossible since ropes and bombs are in limited supply. Great game none-the-less! Get it HERE!! (gameplay video HERE)
Typomagia is a typing game where you battle it out with a computer opponent or go through story mode. You type the words in the center of the screen to boost your power level and then type the spell that you want to cast to summon monsters or make them stronger/faster/etc. It's fun! I just suck at it.
Das Uberleben is a multiplayer game by Beau Blyth at Teknogames where you basically skydive through a cavern filled with obstacles. Recently updated, there are four levels: snow, tree, molten, and death star. It rocks!! (Link is to Indiegames Blog post, sometimes the Uberleben website is temporarily down. Keep trying! It's worth it!!)
White Butterfly is a new shooter by Linley Henzell (creator of Garden of Coloured Lights). The game is a scrolling shooter (like Gradius or R-Type). It has multiple ships to choose from. I do best with the "spinneret," and my next best is the "white butterfly." This game is hard as crap. I highly recommend it, but only if don't run around screaming and breaking things while playing rediculously hard and unfair games (like Contra, Double Dragon, any game by messhof, any game by Capcom... I'll just stop the list there).
There's probably a few others, but this is turning out to be a pretty long post. I'll do it later, maybe.
In other news:
Also on the list, my mom has had surgery to remove an absess on her shoulder twice. Hopefully 3 weeks of IV antibiotics will get rid of it this time. I about freaked out when they said it could be MRSA, but the culture said it wasn't.
I quit my job doing kennels. Got my first transcript, eventhough I haven't finished the coursework yet. The file was AWFUL!!! HORRIBLE!!! [insert adjective for something REALLY REALLY BAD]!!! Oh, and excruciating, too. There were dozens of parts where I had to listen to the same phrase (and I mean phrase, NOT sentence) repeatedly to try and figure out what to type in its place. The urge almost irrisitible to beat my head to pulp against the floor. But that's what I get for not spreading it out over more than one day. Good thing I was working with someone who actually knows what she's doing. I'm getting a lot of help from her! I'm still trying to learn the software, so the file I started on was basically a trial by fire. I guess that's a good way to start. From what I've heard, it doesn't get worse than the file I just worked on and these are few and far between. THANK GOD!!
That's it! I quit! Hope you enjoyed the long and link heavy post. Enjoy the music too! Well, as much as you can. Most of what I post there is probably for me, not you.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
