Liz.... would you care to repeat that into the microphone?

I don't really have much to say. Lets put it this way. I absolutely hate a little fat bitch that runs a certain internet company who has no business saavy what-so-ever. Who needs to try to pressure you by staying with their company. But in order to pressure you he has to play stupid high school guilt trip games. I wish that some freak accident would occur and all the little shitty bastards that can't seem to pass the age of 14 would all just disappear. *sigh*

Well now... over a week since I made a post to The Touched... that has to be some kind of first, I guess. So maybe I get to ramble on for a while about what's been going on in the Land of Cliff. It's been insane the last few weeks, honestly it has.

Reno was reasonably fun and interesting, even if I was the only one of the four of us to lose money. I felt so close to breaking even (or getting ahead) but I never could seem to get to that point, despite generous gifts from Greg and Christy to help me try and get out of the hole. In the end, I came out about $60 down. Not all THAT bad, I guess, but considering Liz and Christy both did very well, it was tough to take. Still, good for them. I'm glad to see my friends do well. I just would like to do well on my own from time to time. We met up with Cindy, one of Greg's fans, in Reno and she hung out with us for the day. Christy took off early in the morning for her soccer game and Greg and Liz drove me back to Sac, where we all met up again and Christy and I headed back to Pleasanton.

I got an email on Monday from a company here in the Bay that said they'd like to do a phone interview, but I haven't heard back from them since. I may give them a call today and see what's up. Not knowing bugs me. I didn't want to say anything on here for fear of jinxing it, but the fact that they haven't sent me an email back yet bothers me a bit. We'll see what they say when I call them. I won't say with who yet or doing what, but it would be a very cool job to have and I'd be very keen to give it a shot. Now I just need to convince them that I'm worth it.

The Jason Mraz concert was fun. He's got a good stage presence and he's playful in concert, which is good. Hearing "Our House" slipped into the middle of a song was a trip, especially when he could sing it in Spanish. I didn't care much for the opening act -- Tristan Prettyman. It wasn't that she was bad, but she desperately needed a backing band and she was incredibly nervous in front of everyone. With a drummer, a lead guitarist and a bass player, I think she could be pretty good. As a standalone? Just didn't cut it. But Mraz was fun and so that made up for everything. Christy and I enjoyed the show from about 1/2 way back, where we could sit and listen. It was a little like when Joe and I saw DJ Shadow at the Warfield -- I'd forgotten how much I appreciate being able to sit down and listen to live music. It lets me get lost in the music a bit more without worrying about people shoving me around. It was a relatively small turnout (200-400 people) which made for a nice intimate show.

I've been a bit meloncholy lately, for deeply personal reasons. I'm doing okay, I guess, but the whole unemployed thing thrown into the rest of my troubles doesn't make for me being giddy and happy 100% of the time. It comes and goes, like the tides, I suppose. I'm trying not to dwell, but it's not completely within my realm of control, really. Who knows... we'll see how shit turns out.

Anyhow, I don't want to ramble on too long, because apparently I do that all the time. And in retrospect, I've probably already rambled too much here... but that's me for you.

Whoo!!! Just what I need!!! A fawking speeding ticket for FIVE MILES OVER in an area that needs to be 10 miles faster!!! Good god the cops are out today. Saw 8 or 9 during the 10 mile drive to work (and thats no exaduration)!

Found this lil tidbit earlier in a post while reading /. earlier today...found it in all posts of one that says that companies are looking for Mainframe Operators again by some weird, screwed up, twist of fate...guess what...the world is going crazy!!!

"You know the world is going crazy when the best rapper in the world is a white guy, the best golfer in the world is a black guy, France is accusing the US of arrogance and Germany doesn't want to go to war."

If anyone sees Greg or Liz OR if they read this before I talk to them please do send me at least Greg's buisness card for Real Life...I need it for the E3 crap and I'm too lazy today to make buisness cards when I know they exist allready. Ya know my E-mail so no reason to post it I say =P

So last night was a lot of fun. Sherrie, Christy, Cliff, and I went to go see Jason Mraz in concert at a small theater in Santa Cruz called the Rio. This would be the second concert I've ever attended in my entire life. I was surprised when I got tickets the week before, at the stack of tickets that were still available, since I know he's pretty popular. And I was even more surprised when we got there at the vew people there.

We enjoyed the opening act (Tristan Prettyman, a girl, don't let the name fool you) from some seats in the middle. But Sherrie and I didn't feel right enjoying a concert from a seat in the back, so we made our way up front with the crowd (which wasn't much of a crowd, by comparison of what I've seen on tv concerts...) and hung out until Jason showed up. Which was actually kind of funny, since he walked in from the theater entrance, rather than the stage entrance. He walked through the crowd to get to the stage, which I thought was fun. The hang out time is where I found out that Jason had been sold out in Australia, and in many other venues in the U.S., so I realized how lucky we were to get such a personal concert, and I was right up front for it all. ^^

Anyway, it was a great concert, Jason and his band were a lot of fun, and played really, really well. They were joking around onstage, and switching around the setlist. The sound guy was probably getting a headache trying to keep up. ^^ Jokes were told. Pot was smoked (not by us, but you could smell it wafting around). Bad puns were thrown around. All in all it was a good evening. The band were going to go to a bar across the street after the show, and I was tempted to join them, but the rest of the group was tired, so we headed home. I'm really glad Cliff found out about the show, and I'm glad I convinced Sherrie and Christy to join us. It was a lot of fun. Now I'm really looking forward to the Good Charlotte concert in May. ^^

I guess I should mention that we're back from Reno.


We're back from Reno.


Send money to Cliff.

Haha!!! I survived my trip to California NOBODY knew about except for like 4 or 5 people (hell my parents barely knew about the damn thing since it was so short notice). Basically what happened was I took a "Cliff" vacation from reality, but I actually LEFT everything that was pissing me off and annoying me here along with everything associated with "The Wired" (If you really have to ask why I call it that you may, but everyone should have "some" understanding why I call it that now). But anyways I went up to Buena Park and stayed at a friend’s house and basically mocked them continually saying "my families not rich!" Because a good chunk of the time we were there their mom was buying $300 and $100 purses, $300 19" monitors that'd make me drool, red LED fans GALORE, USB network connector, and other various stuff at Comp USA just to go over their $600 mark so they could take 6 months at paying off the charges. Of which I ended up installing for the most part everything since I pretty much do that stuff to my PC daily. Plus they bought one of the nicer serialized MOD cases b/c their Sony Viao case ran out of slots (at my high recommendation which I did most the work again). But otherwise it was a good stress free trip (oh, btw the friend payed for my gas "my families not rich") =P

But all of that aside it was a pretty stress-relieving trip in more ways that one and it was well needed. But as my closing bit before I sink further into the insanity of delirium from lack of sleep I certainly wish allot of work I did before the trip and a little I did during the trip would have paid off...instead as usual someone else is getting the fruits of my labor (what else is new I guess? *sigh*).

AND ONE MORE THING!!! What’s with this crazy talk about being drafted Cliff? Of all people to know it's not gona happen. You of all people should know the draft an't gona happen...were probably more likely to see Bio-Warfare weapons unleashed on the US before the draft could POSSIBLY be instated at which point I dun think they'd want you in the draft, but maybe that’s just me (plus the government seems petrified as usual to committing troops to anything ferociously fearful of troops actually getting hurt which is just lame since foot troops are needed period). And I miaswell chime in my thoughts on the "occupation" (Iraq will be an occupation...now Vietnam was a WAR even though it was declared an "occupation"). We need this eventually, but now just seems like bad timing to me since big oil has us literally by the balls. Hookist me up with a Hydrogen car any day so I can stop pumping $$$ into some fat basturds pockets who wants more (I've been saying the Hydrogen bit since Gas was $1 a gallon so this is nothing new) and even have a Hydrogen producing system in my house for an extra 6K and pay the power company which I'm sure costs much less to pay, but that’s just my worthless 2 cents.

"The Green One" out...*stumble, stumble, THUD!!!*

Today, I have touched squishy things...

So I was supposed to start my new job today. But then my boss to be tells me late last week that I can't start until April 12th. Which sucks. I missed out on Reno because of this, and I was miffed. But to make up for it, Erich (said boss-to-be, and also a friend) made up for it by taking Sherrie and me (Sherrie is my housemate) on a Nation Science Foundation oceanic reseach vessel today, the Point Sur, to basically tag along and learn stuff.

So we were on the 140ft reseach boat, zipping through 10ft swells, and I was laughing as most of the students on the ship went running for the sides of the boat. Yes, ladies and gentleman, seasickness and its affects on the human stomach. I shouldn't be talking though. I was pretty quesy for the first couple of hours or so, but then I "found my sea legs" as people put it, and was quickly running around the boat making a nuisance of myself.

We basically did two things on the boat (besides feed the fish with our breakfasts), we took deep water samples at 3000ft (and attached decorated styreofoam cups to the equipment so we could see what happens to stuff at the water pressure of 3000 ft. Results: A 6 inch tall cup became 1 inch tall. Fun stuff ^^), and we did some trawling. Trawling is basically dragging a net behind you and seeing what you catch (it's more humane than it sounds, we have special nets). The first time around, we got a ton of krill (the stuff whales eat, basically tiny shrimp), lots of lantern fish, an few little jellyfish of the cute variety, a really random jellyfish that no one recognized, a few squid, and some other goodies. I suprised myself by jumping right in with the scientists, scooping up fish out of the buckets and oogling them before sorting them into water filled beakers. The second time we trawled, it was a different area. We ended up with about 6 or 7 big medua jellyfish (I mean these suckers were about 6 ft long), and a bunch of other random fish, and some shrimp. The fun thing about the medusa jellyfish, was that since we couldn't do anything with them in terms of samples, the scientist just grabbed them out of the pool we had the trawl catch in and tossed them off the side of the boat! They used their bare hands! That made me brave, so I touched one. It's odd, they feel like really soft, smooth plastic. Like a plastic grocery bag filled with water. Lots of fun. ^^

But as usual, the day ended, so now I'm back home, utterly exhausted. We spent 6 or 7 hours in the bay, and it was exciting, wet, and exhausting. So I think I'm going to become a blob and watch tv now...

But I touched squishy things. ^^

We're off to Reno!

Well, Liz Greg Cliff and myself anyway. Leave messages of luck or send money. I think we could use both.

We're at war.

Shit, that scares the fuck out of me. I felt like someone should make some kind of honest statement about the fact that we're at war, and I felt like it should be me. I'm the oldest and I probably have the best memory of anyone on the site of what it was like when we went to war last time. And I studied the Vietnam war for a while in college. So I guess it falls on me on making the first statement about us being at war.

Do I support the war? I don't know. I'm honestly not sure. The reasons are ... complex. On one hand, I feel like it is our obligation to protect freedom worldwide, as well as keep America safe. On the other hand, it's a foreign country and a long way away from home.

What am I thinking right now? I'm thinking about a lot of things. I'm thinking how scared I am that they might reinstate the draft and that I could be called off to war. I'm thinking of how I have no desire to die in a foreign land. I'm thinking of how much there is left in the world I want to do, how much there is left to say, how little I feel like I've accomplished, how insignificant I feel right now. I'm thinking of the people that I love, the people that I care for and how I might not ever see them again. I'm thinking about how I investigated becoming a foreign correspondant for a while, and how foreign correspondants who are remaining in Iraq are being told to arm themselves so that they won't be used as "human shields" by desperate Iraqi officials, and how that could've been me. I'm thinking about how long this war will go on. I'm thinking about what the chances are that we could be attacked are. I'm thinking about how much the very idea that we're at war scares me. I'm thinking about how Bush said this war will take longer than expected, will be more difficult than expected and will require a lot of effort on our part. I know it's selfish to be thinking about my own ass at a time when we're at war, when there are people who are out on the front lines right now, who are out flying the planes, driving the tanks, carrying the rifles, broadcasting the stories, but I'm scared, and there's no rationale in the world that can take that away.

My thoughts and hopes are with the people over there and even though I'm not a religious man, I am wishing for them to come back safely. All of them. But I'm also scared about what this means for me. Or for us. All of us. It's a little ... scratch that. It's a LOT terrifying. Terrorism, war, the draft, the planes, the bombs ... will this be another Gulf War? Or another Vietnam? Or, shit I hope not, another World War? I'm sure I'm overreacting a little. I'm sure that fear is just getting a bit of a grip on me, but I'm just another young man who's scared about what this means to the future, not just the country's, but my own.

I admit it. I'm scared, okay? Yes, I'm scared. This scares me more than 9/11 did, because that was a single action, a single moment in time. And while we felt the ramifications of it for a long time (and still are feeling them), it faded at least a little. This is war. Even when we sleep, it goes on. Even when we're clinging to whatever loved ones we may or may not have, it goes on. It goes on, whether we're surrounded by thousands of people or alone to our thoughts. Night and day, day and night ... it goes on.

Reports, last I heard about twenty minutes ago, were that we made a surgical strike intended to get Saddam Hussein. We do not yet know if he was hit. And even if he was, military actions will continue. This is only the beginning.

I'm sure I'll be writing a lot more about this over the coming months, but for right now, I honestly don't want to write about it anymore. I don't want to think about it anymore. But I need to go watch more CNN. Because if I'm going to get roped into this thing, I want to know as much as possible about it.

...

I'm not a religious man, but I don't want to die with so much in my life left undone.

Ahhhh...it's soooo much fun not being able to tell people something no matter how much you want to...So goes the saga of this great life!!!

So, here I am. Well, not here, per se, because I've been kidnapped. Not kidnapped per se, but abducted more like. Or stolen. Maybe just borrowed. Yes, yes that's it. I've been borrowed. So I'm not at home. I'm down in Santa Cruz with Erin and Christy (who has hereby insisted she get editorial commentary after her name once more) and Sherrie. So if my typing isn't pitch perfect, it's because Erin has one of these wacky split keyboards that fucks up my typing. I can't type on a split board anywhere near as fast as I usually do.

I spent much of today aiding and abetting with light setup/design. Loads of fun. Haven't done stuff like that in ages. Shortly we will go and post posters (as opposed to doing something else with posters ... okay, just go with me on this, alright, before I beat you senseless... ) and then eventually, I will watch Children of Dune, that Erin is taping for me. We probably need to watch the Dune miniseries again first (because Erin's never seen it, and it's wonderful...) and then we'll sit down and watch all of Children of Dune. Ahhh.. the good Frank Herbert stuff, as opposed to the crap he wrote later in life. Oh well, can't do miraculous stuff forever...

That should be enough of a field report to entertain you now. I could tell you about watching Christy (who is no longer watching over my shoulder as I type so I can say whatever I want to about .... muhahahaha! I get to pick on my little sister and she's not gonna know! Hee hee! This is my revenge for a few things she's done over the last few days, so nyah nyah nyah nyah!) play soccer in the rain, or seeing Memento finally, or having dinner with Vader, but really, I don't have that much energy right now and I could be called to post... posters.... (I need a better way of saying that) ... at any minute.

That is all for now...

End of line.

Heh...someone tell Liz pls that HDs crashing is part of my life (yes...yes I'm THAT sad). Just usualy everything else lately has been too gaw damn boring to post outside of the fact that I got a job 3 weeks ago that I "think" I posted. =P

I tried to post this earlier on in the week, but as I did so, Blogger went down... so here it is now. BTW... its a joke.

I have to say that this blog is probably the farthest thing from reality there is. There are some people who don't talk about certain things at certain times because it might upset this certain person. Or a certain person doesn't like to post what shit is happening in this certain person's life because it might sound whiney and annoying. So instead this group of people post about nonsensical things such as Jokes Of The Day and Music, and hard drives crashing.... I hate to break it to everyone.. this isn't our lives. Its MUCH more complicated that it ever seems.

So enjoy our little escape from reality. Its the only thing we have. The answer to the question, "How do you become a poster instead of a replyer?", is.... How the fuck am I supposed to know? I suppose prove that you are worthy and go forth.

So that is all for my angst this evening. If you would like more of my fucking crap then e-mail ME or go ahead and mail that touched bachelor thing... 'cuz Cliff needs to get laid.

So all I want to do today is stay in bed and cuddle. Two problems:

1. I don't really have a bed. I sleep on a futon in the living room.

2. Lack of anyone to cuddle with.


But on the up side, I got to go into the city and see Margaret Cho last night.
And thanks for the encouragement people. It actually made my day.

Some days the shit just doesn't stop coming. Someone slashed one of my fucking tires!

Seriously, just put me out of my fucking misery. I SO didn't need this right now...

Right now, I'm just sitting here listening to the sounds of rain and my own fingers typing, bathing in the low level wash of my monitor's glow, feeling the wind blow over me through the partly open window. Cars are driving by, cutting wakes in the water that's settled on the ground. There's that familiar smell of rain in the air. The chilled breeze is almost comforting, although it reminds me of other people. I can hear the people downstairs, listening to their music quietly, trying not to make too much noise. Darkness has fallen and it doesn't appear the moon will grace us with its presence tonight. Last night, there were moonshadows around. Tonight, only rain and solitude. And for just a second, the cars stop, the rain stops, the music stops, my typing stops, and I'm alone with the silence, sitting in the dark, kept company by a computer, and nothing more.

Seven responses in less than 24 hours? I'd say you have fans aplenty.

It's Friday. It's amazing how much effort it takes to remember that right now.

It occurs to me that I have no fans on this site, that is, no one wants to comment to my witty repartee. I guess I'm OK with that....

*walks off into the sunset, alone*

Oh, and winner of the Best Album Title I've Heard In A Long Time? Midtown's last album.... "Save The World, Lose The Girl." They're catchy... gotta give'em that.

Thank you, Kris Roe. Thank you, The Ataris. These lyrics were... well-recieved.

P.S. If you don't have The Ataris new album, "So Long Astoria" go buy yourself a goddamn copy. I saw it at Walmart for like $6 last week. And it's worth at least three times that.

NOW PLAYING: The Ataris - "My Reply"
Lyrics: "I wish there was something I could say / To erase each and every page that you've been through / Even though it's not my place to save you. / I appreciate but can't accept this / thank you note that's sealed with your last breath. / I won't stand aside and listen to you give up. / If you just hold on for one more second. / Just hold on to what you have. / If you'll just hold on, just hold on. / You will wake up tomorrow. / Wake up, wake up you've gotta believe. / Wake up, wake up you can't give up. / Time keeps going on without us / long after we're dead and gone..."

w00t! I've burned another piece of hardware out on my system long before it's warranty is up...This will be what...my 5th, maybe 6th hard drive I've burned out now (this one is clicking loudly periodically and last night Windows told me not to unplug the drive when the PC was on o_0)? I've burned out many a videocard, a soundcard, an extremely expensive 19" monitor (plus the next 3 or 4 they sent me in the mail to replace the burned out one all within a week of each other), 2 motherboards, 2 processors, a CD-RW, and a partige in a pear tree. So now the question is...shouldn't manufacturers be sending me their stuff to stress test their hardware for free (nearly 24/7 operation baby!!!)? Anymore I'm burning out a piece of hardware every 3 months anymore and I have yet to have a piece of hardware besides cheap CD-Roms, Floppy Drives, and Power Supplies (who the hell would be dumb enough to give me a warranty on a Power Supply? :)) burn out on me within their warranty period *nock on wood* (and I still think theres more stuff I've burned out in the alloted warranty time, but it's not coming to mind) :)

On that note, relationships suck horribly...why can't I get a warranty on those (especially when I'm not the one causing the malfunction)? =P

So I was going through the archives (yes I was that involved in a conversation with Cliff) and noticed that the first mention of moi was on October 12 (Enter your own Miss Piggy joke here, my fat ass can take it). Although I had appeared as a day player in such previous episodes such as the Ren Faire, and the fact that my birthday occurred somewhere between the launching of this site and the aforementioned October 12. No, I'm not telling you when, you'll have to steal my wallet to find out that info. Hell, E didn't even know it and I've known her for four years now. Such is friendship. I had a point.

I guess the rant was inspired by the sick. The sick also inspired the purging of Cliff's bathroom, so I guess some good comes out of me feeling bad. I'm going to go hack somewhere else now.

*cough*

Blah. The job I saw on the Lucasfilm page that I would have been a perfect fit for... is no longer listed. Damn it all to hell.

So I've realized once again how cyclical life can be. I spent the beginning of last week dying on Cliff's couch in Pleasanton, and he was here on our couch in Santa Cruz dying yesterday. Irony. We don't get that around here.

So ladies, email TheTouchedBachelor@hotmail.com because Cliff needs chicken soup, and I as the Joan Cusack figure in our Romantic comedy of Life am unable to give it to him. Plus, his voice at this particular moment is really gravelly and sexy.

Hey! I just noticed that I've become a major player. That explains the death scene on the couch last week.

Yes, I've been kind of AWOL for a while, I realize. Life hasn't exactly been putting two and two together lately into four... (more like 2.75 or 3 if I'm lucky). After GDC (which went... well, it went, I guess) I fell victim to the black plague, and have since died several times and resurrected myself, much to my own dismay. I have an interview on Tuesday... no no, don't get excited. It's for a possible job selling insurance. I'm humoring them, really, and finding out what the pay is like, but I highly doubt I'll do it. It sounds like one of those venture capital scams where I have to put money down to start making money, and that's not really my deal. We'll see what they say, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

So, what is The Touched? Erin pegged a lot of it on the head. We're mostly sort of random commentary on life, liberty and the persuit of a better life. What's the point? There is no point. What's the reason? There is no reason? Why do we do it? To entertain ourselves and others. The Touched was founded in the middle of last year post a very interesting E3, which was then followed by a more interesting birthday party where I was flown up to Reno and flown out of San Jose on a few days notice. From there, it sort of merged into a group of people with common interests and a similiar surreal sense of humor. Over time, the group has grown and shrunk. Greg used to post a lot, now he posts very little. We brought Christy into the fold after she moved up from bit part to recurring character (and since to major player). She was posting so much in the comments and showing up at so many parties and events, it just seemed like The Right Thing To Do. Lara joined in a few posts and then lost interest. Fair enough. So the regular posters from the beginning, i.e. myself, Erin, Liz and Dave, are still mostly around. And we post whatever happens to be on our mind -- humor, insights, depression, life in general or life in specific. There are no rules about what you can and can't post on The Touched. Profanity? Shit yeah! Sex? If you wanna talk about it, by all means, we won't tell you no (although we may be a little amazed/shocked/horrified/impressed, depending on how well you write about it and who you are (yes, Dave, I mean YOU so just... don't okay? Please...)) and I'm sure the readers will love it. Chaos? Shit we write about chaos all the time! Badgers? Okay, okay, maybe we don't need no stinkin' badgers, but you can still write about them if you want...

Some people asked how they get elevated into the community of people who post ON The Touched instead of the people who make comments. Well, you sniveling little maggots should be content we even gave you a comments section to post in! Why, when I was a kid on the Internet... Ahem. So, how does one get into The Touched? Well, it's hard to say, really. Of the initial group, Erin, Greg, Dave and I all shared a hotel room together at E3. From there, I was flown up for Erin's birthday by Liz, and that was where I met Liz (Okay, so it wasn't directly from there... I went back to Vegas after E3 and it was a week or two later). I then met Christy through Erin. So really, the group sort of hangs out, and by sort of hangs out, I mean I see just about everyone regularly and they all intermingle semi-regularly to occasionally (except for Dave, who was last physically seen at New Year's, because, well, he's still in the middle of the fucking desert!)

Where does it go? What will happen to our cast of characters? Is this really as dramatic as I'm making it sound?! ... Yes and no. It's life, or something like it. It's reality, or a close approximation. It's what happens when real people stop being polite and start writing what they're thinking. I can't make it any clearer than that, because it isn't any clearer to me.

But what the hell. It's fun and it's something to do.

P.S. Still unemployed. Send more money.

So, there was a comment made, wondering what the hell this site is.

Damned if I know, I just type stuff. ^^

But in all honesty, it's a blog. We're non-average people, who do fun/wierd/odd/crazy things, and then sometimes write about them. There about 6 of us who post here: Cliff Hicks (resident journalist), Christy Moore (cool techie person), Greg Dean (fueler of planes and writer of comics), Elizabeth Van Buskirk (Actress #1, and all around lovely woman and artist), Dave L. (he whose last name I cannot spell), and myself (Erin Frost, actress #2, and crasher of many systems). We post random comments about life, the universe, and everything, and our opinions on such, which range from blassie (did I spell that right? Does anyone care?) to completely random, to offensive. There is no real point to us, except to entertain ourselves, and possibly earn a chuckle or two from a few passersby.

If you like us, please, keep coming back. And talk to us, dammit, we're all like having our ego's stroked once in awhile, and you guys saying stuff is better than crack for us.

If you don't like us, well... don't read. Or read, and cuss at us, we don't care. ^^

Back to the war zone.

Okay, the damn blog is posting the last post twice, because it got screwy on me. If someone can fix it, that'd be cool, but otherwise, you guys can ignore one of them, since they're pretty much the same.

Sorry for the inconvience...

Y'all get another pasty post, since it's funny, and I hate typing things twice. ^^

*start paste*
I forgot to mention the really funny thing that happened yesterday at the GDC. I was at this one booth, for a company called Semi Logic, and they were handing out these quizzes. If you did one, you'd get a free t-shirt. They had an artist's quiz, and one for programmers. They offered me one, and I figured, what the hell, I'll try. So I take the artists quiz, since my programming knowledge will fit comfortably inside an electron, with room for a new couch. Anyway, I take this quiz, thinking it'll have just general art questions ("what's a 2b pencil?").

God, I was soooo wrong. When they say "art" they mean "3-D rendering art master of all knowledge in this field". The quiz is all based on a familiarity with 3-d rendering. So I'm screwed, right? Nope, cause they say you can draw a picture on the back. ^^ So I did, but then I decided to take the quiz anyway, because I like inflicting pain on myself like that. There were about 15 questions or so, and I guessed on all but 2. Well, I guessed on those 2 as well, but they were more educated guesses. ^^

So I give the quiz back, and the guys giggle because a)I'm an actress and I took the quiz, and b)I actually drew something for them, and only 3 other people had done that. But then we all were surprised. Out of the 15 questions on the quiz, guess how many I got wrong.

4. That's right. Only 4 wrong. In a field I know nothing about. The booth guys were impressed. They accused me of knowing test takeing techniques, to which I replied that since I was a Theater Arts major, I don't take tests. ^^ They were impressed, I was impressed, and I got a free t-shirt (and the guy asked for my business card, too. ^^).

I just thought that was funny. ^^ I guess I'm smarter than I look.
*end paste*

All you people from Nekobox hate me, I know. The other couple thousand of you that I *know* visit here, for god sakes, post a comment!! ^^

Okay, usually I copy whatever I type here, then paste it to Nekobox, cause I'm lazy like that. But today, it is the reverse.

Just deal with it, okay? No bitching. ^^

*start pasting*
So I thought I'd write about my experience at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) today, just 'cause I can. ^^ I have to say, it wasn't a lot of fun, but it was interesting. It's not a big party like E3 can be, it was a lot more serious, with the focus on (duh) game developement software. There was also a small section that focused on hiring and recruiting, which I spent a little more time at. ^^ In terms of software, I saw a lot of amazing stuff being done with really interesting systems. The two major ones (that I remember) were the Maya software, and nVidia. Both had extensive booths, and some beautiful examples of work, especially nVidia. They had a rendering of a fairy girl that was so detailed, you could actually zoom in into her eye, and see the tiny pores and skin flaws, and even how her makeup wasn't perfectly even. ^^

In other nifty stuff, Nokia had displays of their new phone/game system, the N-Gage (no relation to N'Sync). I had the chance to fiddle with one (miracle of miracles, I didn't crash it... though I did crash one I was watching for awhile). It's a tiny little game system, but it's a pretty big phone. The little backlit LCD screen was pretty small, but very clear, and it was easy to play Sonic. The controls weren't very straight forward, so I had to tinker a bit to get to a regular screen, but it was still pretty fun, and interesting. I'm not sure it will do well here, but it is a neat little toy. ^^

I grabbed a lot of schwag(tm), which I didn't mean to do, but heck, it was there. ^^ I also gave out a few copies of my resume and demo cd, which I hope will be put to good use. ^^ Wish me luck. ^^
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Yeah, so that's about it. I wouldn't call it *major* schwaggage, but I did okay. ^^

Okay, bedtime. Wish the guys good luck tomorrow. ^^

I am exhausted. It took me another hour to get my car and a better part of an hour to get out of traffic and out of the city. My body is weary, from shaking hands, passing out resumes, talking about myself, making small chit chat about every thing and anything, wandering around looking for Michael, trying not to go crazy as I heard about how little openings people had... *sigh*

Still, I'm alive, which says something. My feet hurt like hell and I'm tired, so I'll sleep soon. But if I get a job, then it's all worth it.

Update from the front: Passed out some resumes, shook some hands. Not feeling the best about it, but not feeling awful either. Better report later tonight. Still haven't found Shelling. And yes, Erin picked up some major swaggage (I too obtained the swag, but not as much.)

So, I'm off to GDC. Greg Underwood, one of my cohorts from Las Vegas (he's one of the people affected by the Westwood shutdown), has invited me to attend, and I invited Erin, so there'll be a bunch of us there. We're meeting up with my friend Michael Shelling for lunch (another ex-Westwoodian) and hopefully someone will be interested in my resume. I'll post some kind of story about it all tonight. GU and I will be there tomorrow as well.

Well, after almost three days of residing on Cliff's couch coughing my lungs out and sneezing like there's no tomorrow, interlaced with comments from Cliff such as "don't die", the time has come for me to rejoin the human race. Having the flu sucks. As does taking Robutussin syrup. Blech.

So for those of you who are curious, yes I am on the job hunt right now, and if you know anyone who might have a job opening I'd be a good fit for, don't hesitate to email.

It's amazing how one random little event can really mess with you all day.

So I got a text message on my phone this afternoon. This is odd because I *never* get txt messages. It was a 6 digit number, and the phrase "PLEASE CALL". I was confused. Who would send me this kind of message? But it became a puzzle I spent the whole freaking afternoon trying to figure out. Yes, I have no life, get over it. ^^

Anyway, so during class, my friend and I tried to see if the 6 digit number was a code of some kind, you know, a number for a letter. It wasn't. It wasn't one of those "flip the numbers over and they spell words" thingies either.

So when I got home, I started digging on the internet, trying to find something... anything.

But then I looked at a note I'd written yesterday, with the phone number of someone I needed to call. Remove the first number from the phone #, and tada! The number from my text message. Turns out, if you page my cell phone and enter the phone number, the number with the message "PLEASE CALL" shows up on my phone. She just hadn't hit the 2 all the way, leaving me with a wierd phone number.

I just wrote the word 'number' waaaay too many times. Sorry...

But the puzzle was solved. Not the exciting solution I was hoping for, but hey, resolution is good. ^^

Depends on how one defines "good". If good means not being able to lift oneself off of one's floor, then yes, it was good. Quite entertaining to witness actually.

While I don't intend to make a habit of it, being rather roaringly drunk last night was a good thing.