"4chan vs. Tumblr" and Hatsune Miku

Web Wednesday? It’s only still Wednesday in certain time zones (including Chicago) so I’m still in the clear. ;)

“4chan vs. Tumblr” is in quotes in the title for a reason. Sunday’s battle between 4chan (the “bane of humanity” according to a friend of mine) and Tumblr (the site of “hipsters” and “all girls,” the internet’s words, not mine) was more hilarious than it was an actual war. Both sites were up and down all day after 5pm EST and, honestly, I was on Twitter watching the chaos from the comfort of my couch. Oh, and Gawker may have hyped the shit out of it and I was promised fucking DDoS attacks. What gives, 4chan? If you’re gonna start throwing Molotov cocktails into someone’s window, make sure you set their entire place of residence on fire. Tumblr should have been done for a few hours, not a few seconds!

But that’s just me. I’m obviously very Team 4chan this war if you hadn’t noticed.

Now, meet Hatsune Miku. Trust me, it’s extremely rare that I’ll reference Ryan Seacrest’s blog in my Web Wednesday posts, but I actually found this to be amazingly awesome. The following video is of Hatsune Miku, she’s performing in front of a sold out crowd, and she’s not even real. SHE’S NOT EVEN REAL. I’m so moving to Japan if I ever get the chance to.




[Twitter: @LeetAmerico]

OTM: Week of November 14, 2010 – Let's go change the world… WITH A STORY!

What I find hilarious about my blog, and it might just be me that finds this funny, is that I started getting a fuckload of traffic after I stopped writing last month. I’ve had a steady stream of traffic coming in over the last seven days but nothing new for people to read. Well that changes today, for the most part.

I can’t write long winded rants about how much Monday’s episode of Gossip Girl sucked or else sites like Gawker.tv would be out of business. But I’ll be here, filling this blog with nonsense like the short story that I’ve supposed to have been posting up since October. Guess what happens when you run on Mico Time?

Haha, but in all seriousness now, I’d decided against posting “1441” a few weeks back. (I think that’s pretty obvious considering I haven’t posted anything from it recently.) I felt like it got off to a bad start. I mean, even though I have the ending written already, starting from the beginning of a story like this one is bound to have a few bumps in the road. I think I’ve managed to even out the bumps, pave over some potholes, and added a couple of speed humps to prevent it from speeding out of control.

And guess what! Two chapters for you next week for being so awesomely patient with me! (I smiled as I typed that. It made me feel like Oprah.)

I’m starting off slow this week. I gotta get the train rolling extra, EXTRA slow. I’ve figured out a perfect schedule to work on my blog, so here’s what’s getting posted this week, come Hell or Baby Jesus.

•    Web Wednesday // “4chan vs. Tumblr” and Hatsune Miku
•    Free Friday // One of the Worst Weekends of My Life, Part I of I

[Twitter: @LeetAmerico]

On the Menu: Week of October 10, 2010 – I started writing this on October 4th

Today is October 4th, 2010. It is for me, not you. You’ll be read this on October 10th.  I’m only here to add a plus to Media Monday. Today was interesting as I was on Facebook, Mashable, Gawker TV, and watching my younger nephew for a majority of the day. I hope you enjoyed the first chapter of “1441” (I laughed as I typed that seeing as I haven’t posted it yet as of 10/04, let alone finished writing it).

Writing five days ahead is hilarious, I’m sorry. It’s also scary seeing as I don’t know what will happen in the world between then (October 10th) and now (October 4th). I’ll make a few predictions of what will happen between now (October 4th) and then (October 10th).

•    Paris Hilton runs for mayor of Chicago
•    Lindsay Lohan stays in rehab for more than a week
•    I’ll get retweeted by Ray William Johnson again.

I DO have a plausible list of predictions, and it’s the menu for the week! It is as follows:

•    On the Menu: October 10, 2010 – I started writing this on October 4th
•    Media Monday // 2010: The Rise and Fall of Great TV [++]
•    Transit Tuesday // A True CTA “Ay” Story [++]
•    Web Wednesday // TMoIB, Part III
•    Wednesday Writing // “1441” #02
•    Throwback Thursday // Grand Theft Auto IV [++]
•    Free Friday // One of the Worst Weekends of My Life, Part I of I [+++]

10/11/10 Addition: For some stupid reason, I didn’t post this up on yesterday so all those references to October 10th and 5 days are just one digit off. It’s Monday now, but enjoy!

10/11/10 Addition 2: There’s a nifty tweet button on the right column at the very top. Do us all a favor and use it. You know you want to. ;)

[Twitter: @LeetAmerico; Formspring: LeetAmerico]

"1441" #01

I do quite a bit of talking before these kinds of things now, don’t I? Unfortunately for you (unless you like my pre-body ranting), you get me introducing you every week to “1441’s” “chapters!”

This week you’ll be meeting someone new, and he is the narrator. I’m honestly not good at introducing introductions, so enjoy:

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My Room // Today, 5:26am

Holy fucking hell, I keep forgetting to turn off my alarm clock. Three weeks of it waking me up at 5:26am for a job I don’t even have anymore is bound to drive me insane. That’s not just a random time I pulled out of my ass and my clock isn’t just messing with me by choosing an obscure time on its own.

I’m fascinated by numbers and I could live just trying to figure out patterns, but I’m especially fascinated by the number 13. For some reason, the number is closely associated with bad luck, but for me it has been the one number I can count on. 5:26 is simply five plus two plus six, which equals 13. It’s been called my favorite number by my friends, though I wouldn’t personally call it that myself.

5:26am gave me the amount of time I needed to get ready for work, browse the internet, eat breakfast with my mom, and pick up some coffee if I chose to before I arrived at work or school with a few minutes to spare. Seeing as it’s summer, my alarm clock’s sole purpose was to wake me up for work.

But I really don’t want to think about that job anymore. It just angers me. I’m trying to be zen again, so this is the last of it that you’ll be hearing from me.

Because I could always sit in my room alone after I came home from school, I essentially had a life of solitude. I’d just do my homework, watch TV, play videogames, surf the internet, and read some books; really anything that would keep me from making any actual face-to-face contact with people.

I mean, yeah, I’d go outside and play soccer with the other boys on the block when I was younger and friends would come over to my house just as often as I would go over to theirs, but I’ve found some kind of strange comfort in having my own place in the world where I could be alone when I wanted to be.

And honestly, this has been a nice week, a nice month, and a nice life at certain moments.

Going back to that last thought, that seemed like the end of a suicide note. I’m not suicidal at all, not even depressed really. I’m just a quiet, reserved observer.

But truthfully, leading up to high school, even I begin to think of myself as a shut in. I’m just not that much of a people person. It wasn’t until a few years ago that I came out of the shell that was my room that I met some of the most important people of my life. I was exposed to a word of new things including books, music, and movies.

I’d like to think of myself as a reliable person, always going out of my way to help anyone that needed help, especially my friends and family. Eventually I began to take notice to the fact that people were taking advantage of my instinctive need to help.

Once people caught word that I was leaving Chicago to go to school elsewhere, they started being nice and wanted to help me out with everything. And it wasn’t the sick kind where you’re checking in on someone to make sure they didn’t vomit facedown into their pillow while they’re sleeping, but the kind of nice that usually results in knowing someone has a couple of months left on Earth.

Honestly, I got fed up with it. All I did was send off that Intent to Enroll Form, not find out that my kidneys had shut down and needed a transplant. I don’t get it, really. I never turned heads, no one paid much attention to me, and that’s the way I expected it to always be. I let all the attention get to me and I just exploded. Just as easy as it was to walk around the corner to mail that form, I pissed off a lot of friends.

Nothing in my life is as expected and never can be anticipated. Leaving somewhere else is my chance to take control of my own life. I’m going to have to go downstairs and cook one last breakfast for my mom before I leave to the east coast tomorrow morning. One last day to actually fix the bonds I’ve broken with amazing people.

Besides, I don’t like loose ends or cliffhangers.

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Ooh, isn’t he mysterious? He apparently has quite the history that keeps chasing him. “1441” #2 will be up next week, October 13th!

[Twitter: @LeetAmerico; Formspring: LeetAmerico]

TMoIB, Part II: Loveline, Comcast: America’s Worst Company, Obama in NBA Shorts

I’m doing it again. I swear I’ll cut back on playing Halo: Reach as it’s affecting my blogging. I have an idea! I should write about Reach just to get it out of my system. That sounds like a good idea. That is almost asking for a “future blogging ideas” tag, but I’m [currently] too lazy to even tag this post at all.

Time be wastin’ on Web Wednesday so let’s start this shit! Two Months of Internet Business, Part II!

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Loveline and the After Disaster: I can’t even describe Loveline because words can’t do this radio show justice. Listeners from the United States and some parts of Canada call in to Dr. Drew, Psycho Mike, and the guest(s) of the night with their problems and questions about their sex lives, receiving advice and tips from the show’s hosts and guests. For the After Disaster, Dr. Drew and Psycho Mike sit out the weekly after show which is essentially Loveline with more stories and some occasional swears but also highly recommend, btw.

Check out the Loveline live stream (or the alternate stream if the main one doesn’t work) from Sunday nights to Thursday nights at roughly 12:50am ET/9:50pm PT for the preshow discussions with the main show starting 10 minutes later on the hour for two hours, with the Loveline After Disaster post show going on for an hour afterwards on Thursday nights at 3:05am ET/12:05am PT.

Comcast and the Golden Poo: Though I would argue that AT&T is the worst company out there, apparently people think Comcast is even worse than AT&T. Too bad, considering AT&T likes to give non-golden poo to its customers.

Obama …in shorts? President Obamarama and Joe Biden are going to be playable characters latest NBA Jam along with their competition in the 2008 Presidential Election, Sarah Palin and John McCain, buuuuuut NBA Jam also includes a few others that will help settle almost 20 years of political rivalries… through basketball.

...

I wonder how long I can go calling this “Two Months of Internet Business” because it’ll become three months once we hit November. Gotta sleep on that.

Coming up next is the first “1441” chapter. After reading this and that, you can contact me @LeetAmerico or drop a question for me in the Formspring box to the right.

On the Menu: Week of October 03, 2010 – Using that indie program called Microsoft Word

Well, that was a very productive first week back. Thank you, Halo: Reach and primetime television.

For laughs, I have a little game that I’ll play …with myself. Every time I decide to skip something that I said I’ll post, I’ll add a plus sign to the end of it. Publicly exposing my failure is bound to motive me to post something up eventually.

My Formspring box in right pane is now public, meaning you don’t have to log in to ask me a question. Fancy shmancy!

Something I forgot to mention last week about that Disqus comment box is that it’s practically just a one click log-in if you frequent Yahoo, Twitter, or OpenID. If you’re logged in to any of those three sites that are linked to your Disqus account, bam, you’re logged in. Good for lazy people like me.

Other than my OTM post, I made an astonishing one post and said something about happenings on the internet.

Now for a list of what I’ll probably fail at posting this week:

•    On the Menu: Week of October 03, 2010 – Using that indie program called Microsoft Word
•    Media Monday // 2010: The Rise and Fall of Great TV [+]
•    Transit Tuesday // A True CTA “Ay” Story [+]
•    Web Wednesday // TMoIB, Part II
•    Wednesday Writing // “1441” #01 [+]
•    Throwback Thursday // Grand Theft Auto IV [+]
•    Free Friday // One of the Worst Weekends of My Life, Part I of I [++]

And that’s what’s supposed to happen this week. Tweet me @LeetAmerico, drop me a line on Formspring or in the Formspring box on the right pane if you need anything.

P.S. I’ve been using Microsoft Word from post number one of this blog, I just needed a title.

TMoIB, Part I: Settlers of Catan, the Bed Intruder Song, Pokémon Movie!

Busy, BUSY day so this one is going up a little bit late… I’m going to spend a few weeks trying to catch up with all the interesting things I found around the internet that I’ve missed in the past two months during my hiatus WHILE continuing to share new things I’ve found.

I’m also trying to see if I can write this in 15 minutes. (I’m trying to refrain from breaking into the Pokémon theme song…)

Here we go! Two Months of Internet Business, Part I!

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Surface Catan: Remember how I was talking about ideas for a Settlers of Catan movie a couple of months back? Sure you do. Well, a version of the game using a Microsoft Surface has been in development and should be ready for the public (that can afford to have a Surface) sometime soon! I really wanted a Microsoft Surface before, and I definitely want one now.




Hide your kids, hide your wife: This is oooooold now, but so was me waiting to post this up. It needs no introduction really. Ladies and gents, The Bed Intruder song:





I wanna be the best, like no one ever was: Dammit, I did it. I posted a line from the Pokémon theme song. I was soooo close to not doing it but before I knew it, I was already typing it. Oh well. A live action trailer to a fan-made Pokémon movie was posted onto YouTube on Monday of last week and honestly, as a fan of the first couple of Pokémon generations as a kid, I loved this trailer. I thought it was very loyal to the original story while taking a darker look at the world of Pokémon. Here’s an interview with the cast/crew if you get interested in the trailer.

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Well, that took exactly 20 minutes. Not bad. Expect more old stuff with new stuff next Wednesday, along with “1441,” because I’m generous like that.

Two interesting things happened during the writing of this blog: 1) I added "Pokémon" to Microsoft Word's dictionary because that red squiggly line annoys me and 2) my friend found out I have a blog and asked if I have a hit list with him on it. Not yet, Bootl3g (or Bootles), but I'll create the tags just for you. :P

Other than that, you know the drill: Tweet me @LeetAmerico or drop a question for me in the Formspring box to the right.

On the Menu: Week of September 26, 2010 – Disqus this Fall Blog Catalog!

lul, apparently I was planning to blog the week of August 8th (the week after my last CTA story), but we were having rolling blackouts as I was trying to post anything up so I ended up giving up. It’s a cute little post. I still have it lying around and I totally forgot about it. Good ol’ Chicago summer. Never disappoints … Oh, wait, it does. Maybe I’ll post it up someday so I don’t feel like it was written for nothing.

But, over time with a bit of trial and error, I managed to get us a Disqus comment box because, really, I love feedback. I like knowing how I’m doing (or not doing) with anything. So go ahead and use it, no registration for Disqus required, though it would be a perk for you because other websites around the internets (like Mashable) also use Disqus, and you’re able to share a single account to comment on them. What scares me is that you have a thumb down button to mindfuck me with. I feel like I opened Pandora’s Box with this addition. The huge perk is that I’ll be more able to keep track of your comments more efficiently instead of backtracking to each post one by one.

By the way, for the next 14 weeks there WILL be at least one blog post because I will be posting up a little something that I’m writing. “1441” will be posted up from October 6th to December 29th of this year. 13 weeks, 13 chapters, 3 complete months. I’m not at liberty to disclose the meaning of the number 1441, but you’re going to have to check it out 9 days from now if you want to know more about it.

And now what’s on the menu for the week:

•    On the Menu: Week of September 26, 2010 – Disqus this Fall Blog Catalog!
•    Transit Tuesday // A True CTA “Ay” Story
•    Web Wednesday // Settlers of Catan, the Bed Intruder, Two Months of Internet Business
•    Throwback Thursday // Grand Theft Auto IV
•    Free Friday // One of the Worst Weekends of My Life, Part I of I

There you go. That’s what’s happening this week. Now let’s see how many of those I actually do end up posting. You’re free to make estimates in the Disqus comment section below. (Shyeah, I’m still pimping that awesome new Disqus box.)

As I’m posting this up, I just realized I hadn’t tagged my posts in a while. I’ll get on that… eventually.

CTA Story: The $2 Dolla Rida

Man, oh man. This only happened two weeks ago but it’s already one of my favorite CTA stories to tell. This particular day was nothing close to normal as it actually happens to take place during the first day of my upcoming “The Worst Weekend of My Life, Part I” post, but this occurrence deserved a post of its own accord.

For roughly five weeks, I’d pick up my nephew from summer school, Tuesdays-Thursdays and a couple of Mondays. After him hanging at my house for a bit, he’d leave to his house on the bus, either with me or without me if I wasn’t going to stay at his house that day.

We were standing at the bus stop and making comments to each other whenever one started a conversation to stop talking because it’s too hot to talk or listen, and that happened every day we were together. (What? Summer in Chicago brings out the worst in us, ‘specially during heat waves and when the CTA buses decide to run late.)

What appeared to be normal was a woman with her two children waiting for the bus along with us and they were hot from the blazing sun. She kept looking at me, and I’d look back whenever I had that feeling that I was being watched. From what I could tell, she was in her early twenties to mid-twenties.

The bus finally came rolling along and stopped to pick us up at our stop. My nephew got on first, and then I allowed the woman and her two children to get on before me as I always do. What happened next made me A) seriously give that look of astonishment and B) wish I had gotten on before her.

The lady paid only $2 and had the nerve to tell the bus driver while holding up a third dollar bill that she didn’t have a quarter to complete her fare. The bus driver looked at her from head to toe, then toe to head and told her that she also had to pay for one of her children that was over the age of seven. She then quickly inserted the last dollar into the fare box, told the bus driver, and I’m paraphrasing here, “Okay, but I don’t have more money so I’m gonna go sit down,” and she did just that.

That’s when my jaw dropped and I looked at her up and down. She was definitely attractive and well dressed for someone that didn’t have money. I was seriously just flabbergasted. There isn’t much out there that leaves me speechless, and this definitely just did it. What sealed the deal and made me shake my head was the fact that the bus driver just shrugged it off.

And you must also know that it’s serious business when I tweet about it.

I don’t know, people really get me when they think they deserve special treatment, especially when it comes to not paying the full fare on the CTA for their self and their children.

On the Menu: Week of August 01, 2010 – Social Security Number Giveaway!

So because today is Tuesday, not the Monday that it feels like, that means you get a CTA Story! Well, not quite yet. First, here’s what’s planned for the week: a whopping 7 blog entries! I’m actually working on them all at once so I don’t get lazy and skip one. Here they are, general times of the day they’ll be up*, and my Social Security Number**!

•    On the Menu: Week of August 01, 2010 – Social Security Number Giveaway! (You are here!)
•    Transit Tuesday: The $2 Dolla Rida
•    Web Wednesday: Settlers of Catan and the Bed Intruder
•    Wednesday Writing: 1440, Chapter 1
•    Throwback Thursday: Rock Band
•    Free Friday***: One of the Worst Weekends of My Life, Part I: Thursday-Friday
•    Free Friday: One of the Worst Weekends of My Life, Part II: Saturday-Sunday

* I’m trying this consistency thing that I keep hearing about.
** I’m seriously not giving my SSN. That would be mighty irresponsible.
*** I forgot to mention Free Fridays. Friday Finals seemed like a strange name considering the possibility of Saturday posts from me. Still, Free Fridays will be the same as Friday Finals, just a random collection of thoughts by yours truly.

Uhn Tiss Uhn Tiss Uhn Tiss + Pew Pew = Rez

Project-K is a system created to resolve the situation of rising crime rates and handle the heavy flow of information in an overpopulated world. Deep down in Project-K is Eden, an advanced A.I. that can process a great amount of information and can create its own thoughts from that very same information. Eden began to question its own existence due to the vast amount of information it was processing and eventually decided to just shut itself down.

You’re tasked with hacking into Project-K to restart Eden, destroying viruses and firewalls along the way that will try to prevent you from reaching Eden and restoring it to its normal self. Getting in to the system was easy but can you avoid getting blocked to restore Eden?

While originally released as Rez globally between late 2001 and early 2002 for the PlayStation 2 and Dreamcast, it was released for the Xbox Live Arcade as Rez HD on January 30, 2008. I didn’t get any hands on time with it until September 2008 while I was at a friend’s house and I was hooked.

I enjoyed playing through the first two areas but decided to hold off on playing the rest of it until I bought it myself. I managed to pick it up on the Qubed compilation disc [Wiki/Metacritic] which also contains Lumines and Every Extend Extra Extreme (both of which I plan to write about down the line) last month at Toys “R” US for $8. I’ve been playing Rez HD most of all, mainly because I’ve had that itch to finish it for almost two years now.

Rez HD is hybrid music game/rail shooter where, like all other Q Entertainment games, gameplay is dependent on the music. You don’t control your path to the bosses as your avatar travels along a set path. Your avatar can also “evolve” based on certain blue powerups that are collected by defeating enemies. You can change the direction you are facing and shoot down passing enemies with your lasers, varying from one to eight shots, that fire based on the beat of the background music. The controls couldn’t have been any simpler with only having to use two buttons, one for your lasers and one for overdrive (a last resort “bomb” of sorts that shoot down enemies faster and more efficiently than the player can), and a thumbstick to aim. The mechanics are simple, and the difficulty of the bosses vary depending on how well (or bad) you do defeating enemies before you reach the boss.

The main game can be beaten in about an hour, but the game has a good amount of modes to unlock in Beyond mode including Boss Rush (going up against the five final bosses back to back), Direct Assault (playing through the game with no breaks and no saving in between), and two lost areas (one that functions like the main five areas of the game but lacking a boss of its own, and a level that loops and serves as a “chill out” area). What’s great about Beyond is that most of your playthroughs of the game reward you with something that helps you greatly when going through these extra modes. There is also a Score Attack mode (where players compete as efficiently as possible for points), but you don’t get any of the perks that you unlocked for Score Attack that you earned for Beyond.

I should really stop worshipping this game but it’s just stunning to all the senses but taste, because DVDs simply just taste bad. Beyond being superficial, there are few things I love in my games: great music, great gameplay, a story or idea that will captivate me, and lots of pew pew.

My 6,000th tweet is dedicated to this blog post about Battleship, Blogger, Big Booty Bitches

Honestly, I never would have dreamed that people would actually ask me if I was going to continue working on my blog. It’s actually quite humbling, so first off I would like to thank the people that have been asking me for a new post. This one is for you.

...

Before my break from blogging, I mentioned that I was going to add a Facebook and Twitter sharing option, but it appears that Blogger did that for me already. That was very nice of them. It’ll be at the end of the post, but before the tags (when I eventually add them). Blogger also added a template designer while I was gone. I might mess that for a bit after this is posted is up.

Recently I discovered Ray William Johnson on YouTube. My friend apparently had me watch one of his videos a while back and I just don’t remember it, so by my book I can consider him rediscovered. Since we’re all fans of “Big Booty Bitches,” here’s a song for you to enjoy.



And here’s the original video, just in case you couldn’t get enough of it:



Also doing rounds around the internet is news that Hollywood is actually allowing THE CREATION OF A FUCKING BATTLESHIP MOVIE. Really? I think there are way more deserving card and board games that should  get the Hollywood treatment more than FUCKING BATTLESHIP:

•    Monopoly: Based on a true story, the story unfolds in the 1970s with the filing of United States v. AT&T and tells the tale of corporation getting broken down into smaller “Baby Bells.” The years following that event became years of competing against one another and buying each other out while also offering excellent customer service. Since the dissolution of the original AT&T and the rise of other competors, which phone company will come out on top?
•    The Settlers of Catan: In a distant dystopian future where corporations have bought out a majority of the world’s governments, a group of settlers make a break for the undeveloped island of Catan in an attempt to start a new, free life. But as the years go on, can they learn to work together and create a true utopia or will the island of Catan become another corporate entity run by the very people that settled it?
•    Magic: The Gathering: What began as battles involving mere mortals evolved as beings realized their potential to become mages, travel between the planes of existence, and to control powerful creatures and wield unrelenting spells. After hundreds of years of war, who will come out on top as the mightiest Planeswalker?
•    Chutes and Ladders: A survival horror film from the demented-slash-creative mind of Tim Burton, eight random people taken from around the world are placed in a complex of interconnected buildings with ladders to the top of one building rewarding the players of this game for their working together as a team and punishing players with chutes down to torture chambers for their lack of teamwork and looking after oneself. How many of the eight will make it to the top to the awaiting helicopters and return home?

Actually, I think I’d pay see that Chutes and Ladders adaption. I’m going to tuck that idea away for myself.

In other monumental news (well, maybe in my mind), my 6,000th tweet is about this here blog post! This calls for nice, cold cup of anything that’ll make this Chicago heat a little more bearable. And I think this is also the first post I’m actually sharing on Facebook. Baby steps.

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Next week there will be a something in the form of a Writing Wednesday. It’ll be the beginning of a short story I’m writing dealing with memories and the character attempting to leave his comfort zone. So bear with me as I try to make it a unique experience.

Sunday we’re going to try to get @notlilo’s post up. We’d been trying to get it done for a while before my hiatus but for some reason it won’t work. We’ll get on that ASAP.

One more thing. Don’t be afraid to ask me questions or suggest things! Tweet me @LeetAmerico or drop a question for me at Formspring! (I also have a question box on the side for your convenience.)

Hello, I’m still alive, but…

Hallo there, Bloggy. I’m ALIVE! Well, kind of.

I only say kind of because I feel like I’m missing something essential to my life. Honestly, I don’t know what the hell I’m missing because it makes no sense to me.

I came back to blogging because I have more free time since I graduated on the 14th. But I’ve also been playing Final Fantasy XIII (on top of some of other games I’m still trying to get through), which is an amazing by the way. But even through that, I still feel like something’s missing.

Last night, at my friend’s place we started off talking about relationships (mainly what we did and didn’t like about them, plus problems we’ve all had in common during them), but the subject drifted towards sexuality. We don’t even know how the conversation got there, because we had a discussion after the sexuality discussion about how we even got on the topic of sexuality.

Anyway, we talked about whether there was such a thing as bisexual, with one gay man believing there is no such thing, and that there is only gay and straight. It’s his opinion of course, so I’m not judging him. Another guy, whom is also gay, thought I was gay the whole night until I joined in on the discussion and mentioned that I was bi and continued on about whatever the hell I felt needed to be contributed to the conversation. He said that he still thinks I’m gay and will continue to think of me as gay because of what I said in the conversation. I don’t mind that, really. I’ll admit that there are just some days where I feel gayer than normal.

I don’t like putting anyone’s business out there, which is way I’m leaving out names, but one female friend has been in a relationship with two girls and one guy and the first guy I mentioned in this post called her a lesbian, but more in a tongue-in-cheek kind of way. That also leads to a nice double standard. I’ve never been in an actual relationship with a guy, just girls. Wouldn’t that qualify me as straight?

But it made me wonder about myself. I can honestly say that I’ve truly and completely fallen for three people. They were actually all back in high school now that I think about it: two girls and one guy whom I actually confessed my feelings to near the end of senior year in the middle of the school’s hallway. Let’s just say that telling him my feelings was possibly the single most embarrassing moment in my life. Not only did I get rejected by him, but I also sat across the table from him in art class, so we basically had to make eye contact every day and have that awkward aversion of gaze every few minutes.

We talk now because we got over the awkwardness, and the three years since high school have been good. And as I typed this entire post, I figured out what I’m missing. I just miss having actual discussions from middle school (in the “Sacred Circle”) and high school with friends that included @notlilo, not just small tales of Chicago and one-lining quips. Looks like I’m going to have to round up the old crew so we could all feel old together.

Well, that’s where the mind of Mico is at the moment. Now that I got my lady issues out of the way (shit, someone is bound to find that offensive), it’s time to talk blog business.

I had a whole week planned out, but alas, Mico failed at his own schedule. See, the original plan for the week was:

•    Monday: We lost a few good shows this year.
•    Tuesday: CTA, step it up, pl0x.
•    Wednesday: –
•    Thursday: Thank you, Hum. I’d prefer an astronaut.
•    Friday: The First 3-Part Blog Story, Part III: Friday, April 23, 2010
•    Saturday: My name is Michael and I have a problem: The Squeakquel

But you know why that didn’t pan out? Reason the first: I can’t work when I’m hot. Chicago was unbearably hot this week and all our fans are missing. Cause deux (French): I have Final Fantasy XIII now. JRPGs (Japanese Role-playing games) require lots of time and are a bit slower passed than their western counterparts. Oh God, this game is so good. I can’t stop. I’m already on disc 3 of 3! When I’m done, I’ll give you a rundown of all the things I love about the game. I’ll search for the fans so I can work on my brand new posts for the week, which plan to be:

•    Sunday: [Possible special contribution by my friend @notlilo.]
•    Monday: We lost a few good shows this year.
•    Tuesday: CTA, step it up, pl0x.
•    Wednesday: Crater Face, meet Cat Face.
•    Thursday: Dark, perfectly.
•    Friday: The First 3-Part Blog Story, Part III: Friday, April 23, 2010
•    Saturday: My name is Michael and I have a problem: The Squeakquel

I know there isn’t much of a difference between the two lists, just Wednesday and Thursday, but still. I also plan on implementing the Facebook “Like” button on my blog somewhere, simplifying the name of the blog to “Mind of Mico,” going back to the last four or five posts to add all the missing tags, and… there was something else that I can’t quite remember at the moment. Unless, of course, the Chicago heat kills me.

Thank you, Hum. I will be an astronaut.

You’d Prefer an Astronaut was originally released in 1995, and I was only seven years old for most of that year. Sometime between ’95 and ’06, I’d heard the song and it was eternally tucked away in my head. It was one of those small memories that you have no recollection of until someone triggers it.

One day in 2006 I heard “Stars” on the radio and I instantly recognized the song, but I still don’t know why to this day. All I know is that I’ve been obsessed with listening to “Stars” and the album it came from since then. I’d heard Space rock before, but it was Hum that captured me and held me hostage. I believe that it has something for everyone, vocally and through guitars and drums.

Here I am a few years later and I’m still an avid Hum fan. They broke up around the year 2000, but they’ve gotten back together a few times every now and then to perform shows. I’m actually going to see them perform this coming Monday at Millennium Park here in Chicago. After all the shows I’ve missed, this one is a no brainer. In a true throwback sense, I’m going to give you a simple rundown of why I love this album so much without giving too much away so you can experience the music for yourself.

“Little Dipper” – An amazing opening, giving a taste of what the next 40+ minutes of the album will sound like. “We won’t let them take you, we won’t let you die.”

“The Pod” – I simply love the drumming, guitars, and vocals in this song. There is really no other for me to say it.

“Stars” – My favorite song on one my favorite albums by my favorite band. The solo is to die for. For emphasis, THE SOLO IS TO DIE FOR.

“Suicide Machine” – “I’m lonelier than God.” That’s one of the few lyrics of the word that actually gives me the chills along with a line in “Truly Madly Deeply” by Savage Garden. Also, there’s mention of the zebra that’s on the album cover.

“The Very Old Man” – A guitar, the non-electric kind, and vocals. Very soothing, very summer night.

“Why I Like the Robins” – This feels very green and earthy to me. I always think of trees and how they can see more in their lifetimes than we possibly will.

“I’d Like Your Hair Long” – This is the track that the album get its title from, and I don’t at all think that this is “a waste of a song.”

“I Hate it Too” – Starting of slowly, “tidal waves of love” are sent your way after about two peaceful minutes.

“Songs of Farewell and Departure” – I’m just going to say “holy shit” still, after all these years. There’s one line in the song that simply blew me away. I’m definitely not going to spoil it, but you’d have to listen to the entire album for it to have the same effect on you that it did on me.

You don’t have to be an astronaut, you just need an open ear or two and Hum does the work when it comes to taking you to space. Give the album a chance. You won’t regret it any time soon, I promise.

Rock Band 3 Watch, 002: Swapping Vocalists, Freezepop, Queen, Joe Cocker

Rock Band is an amazing game. I love it, but there are small things I notice while playing the game that I shouldn’t see while I’m trying to hit notes. Something I’ve noticed from the transition to Rock Band 1 to Rock Band 2 is how weird it is to see a male avatar singing female lead vocals. When I played Rock Band 1’s vocal tour, I would just start at my avatar jump around as he lip-synced to Flyleaf and Yeah Yeah Yeahs and wince ever so slightly. I notice little things like that. In Rock Band 2, my vocalist is a girl, but I still have those moments where I stare at her when she’s jamming out to Disturbed and Metallica. I’ve been wondering how cool it would be for band members (just the avatars, not the players) to have the ability to swap instruments mid-setlist to get rid of this awkwardness, and that way my female singer can switch positions with my male drummer.

On the music front, since nothing has been confirmed (that I know of), I think that it’s time to start compiling my “dream setlist” that I mentioned in the first Rock Band 3 Watch post.

First (and I feel this HAS to be first) is Freezepop. Harmonix has had Freezepop as a featured artist in all of their main games, excluding the Karaoke Revolution games, since as far back as Frequency in 2001. I was actually somewhat shocked that there was no Freezepop in Rock Band 2 on disc or as one off the 20 bonus tracks available later, but I accepted Freezepop always be hogging the spotlight from other artists. But still, a part of me really wants “Frontload” from Future Future Future Perfect, the band’s 2007 album that also has “Less Talk More Rokk,” one of the five Freezepop songs available in Rock Band. The song wouldn’t exactly be rolling in the vocal harmonies that we could hope for, but it would still be nice to have nonetheless. Also, we’d get a kickass keytar solo at the end of the song. Everyone loves kickass keytar solos.

Next would be “With a Little Help from My Friends,” but Joe Cocker’s version. I know it would be blasphemy to have this version considering the original is in The Beatles: Rock Band, but this version would work wonders with vocal harmonies. Also, the song is from the 1960s, meaning that if Rock Band 3 is still planning to range from the classics of the 1960s to contemporary music from the 2000s and 2010s, this Joe Cocker track is almost a shoo-in considering the small percentage of songs from the 1960s available for the game. I tried to resist mentioning it but WONDER YEARS. WONDER YEARS. There. It's out of my system.

Last is actually the more obvious one: “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen. Back in October of last year, we got 10 tracks by Queen as DLC for Rock Band 1 + 2, plus “We Will Rock You” and “We Are the Champion” in Lego Rock Band, which could be exported into Rock Band 1 + 2. The most notable song missing was “Bohemian Rhapsody,” and I’m pretty damn sure this song will be included in Rock Band 3. How can Rock Band 3 be big without one of the biggest rock anthems of time?
   
Rock Band 3 tracks:
•    Stone Temple Pilots – [track(s) not known]

New Features:
•    Harmonies

My “Dream Setlist”:
•    Joe Cocker – With a Little Help from My Friends
•    Freezepop – Frontload
•    Queen – Bohemian Rhapsody

Dream features:
•    The ability for two Rock Band characters (male and female specifically) to change instruments (from vocals to something else) mid-setlist.

The First 3-Part Blog Story, Part II: Thursday, April 22, 2010

Looks like it’s time to continue this train wreck of a story.

…

So it was midnight. I was nodding off while watching Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. I’d already been awake since roughly 8am on Wednesday morning. I was lying down in bed, still just staring at my Social Science quiz, wondering why we were getting a quiz on Economics of all things.

I blinked. It was almost 1:30am. I looked around and wondered how the fuck did an hour fly by. I’d fallen asleep and hadn’t realized it yet. I buckled down and worked on the quiz while chatting with editor Yvette and looking up random things online. Yvette went to sleep at around 5am and I was almost done at 6am as I’d planned, but then I got stuck on two questions that made absolutely no sense to me. So there I was, skimming through my textbook and the two PowerPoints she uses in class before I just gave up at 7am chose the answers to the best of my ability. I then spent the next 20 minutes or so updating my iPod, because I needed something to make me feel completely bored, thus helping knock me out.

11:30am. Oldies and classic rock blaring. I’d almost forgotten my mom was off during my few hours of sleep. So I woke up, said good morning in a very zombified groan, dragged my feet to my TV, turned it on with my Xbox 360, and started up Fallout 3. The whole time I was playing it, I was thinking about the French quiz that was given to us on Tuesday night. Every half hour or so I’d look tell myself, “Okay, this is it. 30 more minutes.” That went on for almost four hours. I really didn’t want to do it. I didn’t even explain why I had a take home from French quiz, did I?

On Tuesday night, I was actually 20 minutes early to class. That’s a real accomplishment considering I stopped caring and started showing up just in time for class or 20 minutes late. Our French professor walked in 15 minutes before class was scheduled with tissue hanging out of her right nostril and told us that she was giving us the quiz to take home because she wasn’t feeling well. She also mentioned that she felt hot or light-headed (I forget which) and that she was going to the hospital.

Moving on, I did my quiz on my way to school on the CTA and while waiting for the classroom to get unlocked. I even worked on it while everyone was presenting the paragraphs we wrote on our families, which was the most important part of the quiz. I had a few mistakes, including one where a sentence had a Spanish-like structure, and that’s about it. I did fine on the oral portion. Other than being exhausted from only having three hours of sleep and not being able to keep up with the classwork because of the aforementioned fatigue, the rest of French class was dandy.

I took a very unpopular way home in an attempt to get home before The Office started. I forgot the CTA doesn’t like when you’re trying to get somewhere on time. I’d taken a different way that required me to walk an extra two blocks home. When I got off the bus, I ran home as fast as I could. I think it’s funny how I can’t run when I want to do it for enjoyment but I can run home to watch TV.

The Office? Totally worth it. 30 Rock was DEFINITELY worth it. 30 Rock poked a great amount of fun at the Tonight Show fiasco NBC caused way back in January. What I love most about 30 Rock is how they always include whatever happens to NBC in real life as part of the storylines that revolve around the pseudo-NBC that’s in show. That’s some good TV watching.

…

Friday, Friday, FRIDAY is next. I can’t wait. That should be up late tonight.

Also, if you giggled at “oral portion” like I did, get out of my head.

The First 3-Part Blog Story, Part I: Wednesday, April 21, 2010

At the start of the week I claimed that I would write all week. Monday went well and Tuesday was awesome, but Wednesday, Thursday, and my very late Throwback Thursday post for today didn’t happen. You know why? School. Wednesday afternoons, Thursday nights, Friday mornings. School. I decided to write about my very fun week. You know, just for fun.

…

I’m one of the few people in the world that loves school, but I also loathe it at the very same time. There’s always something wrong with it. Group assignments, randomly assigned assignments, and magic shows.

The city colleges system, consisting of like seven colleges and a few of satellites, somehow got viruses. I got a nice mass email and phone call telling me so. On presentation day, nonetheless. Our Social Science professor has been freaking out about viruses for a few weeks, so when she heard what we heard, she didn’t bother putting her flash drive into the school’s computers. So surprise, she told us she was posting them online and that she’d want them emailed to her by 9am. See? Magic show.

As much as I was told to be prepared by a teammate for our presentation, which I was for the most part, two of my teammates were a little over prepared in terms of collecting information. I didn’t get nervous like I always do, but I did speed through a brief two pages of Chinese history that I’d written, one of our teammates was also very brief with her geography part of the presentation. Two others kind of went over the top and, well, our 30 minute presentation was an hour long. I don’t blame them though. There was a lot of information on China.

We’re assigned to give scores to everyone on a scale from 1 to 10 because on Presentation, Interest, one other category that I don’t give enough a shit about to even remember, and the choice of leaving a comment or not. Long story short, people gave us scores that were generally in the 0-5 range for Interest. Two things I’d like to point out. The scale was supposed to be from 1 to 10. How the fuck did someone give us a zero? Also, some asshat was nice enough to write in “OK” as one of the ratings. WHEN DID “OK” BECOME A NUMBER? /caps

There were two comments in particular that I’d like to point out. One person, most likely a female that doesn’t sit in the back of the class based on the handwriting, said she learned a lot about China.  It was either sarcasm or a genuine comment, and I’ll take it as the latter. Someone else, a male that likely sits in the front of the class, possibly two seats away from me, wrote “DEATH BY POWERPOINT!” I really hope his flash drive combusts before he gets to present next week.

Because it was Wednesday, I went to my older sister’s after class because Friday nights became out of question due to my having a Saturday morning History class. We watched HGTV (Google it if you don’t know what it is, too lazy this post) and Animal Planet. It was fun.

Getting home, I opened up the Word document that our professor was nice enough to upload onto Blackboard. (Google that, too). I sat there staring at it for quite a long time -slash- looking at other things on the internet instead of working on my quiz, exam, or whatever the hell I was taking. Next thing I know, its past midnight and it was Thursday, meaning that’s the end of this part of the story.

…

So I’m since I don’t do anything in History class, I’ll be seeing you in the morning, bright and early. On a Saturday.

Well, maybe I won’t be seeing you, but you know what I mean.

An Open Letter to the CTA on the New 5000 Series Trains

Dearest CTA,

I’m quite pleased with the changes you’re making to your great citywide transit city by putting put some of the much older rail cars out of their misery and retiring them behind the shed. In their old age, they began to spell like piss. Like, year-round.

The new cars are amazing. They tell time so you know how late your train is. They tell you where you currently are on the Red Line so that you can figure out where you would be given the trains were running on schedule. They also have seats where people can sit and face each other for more awkward or casual moments.

I only really have one complaint about the new cars. If you’re going to give the new rail cars to the Red Line, why don’t you save some people the trouble and just pour buckets of piss on the floor yourself so that someone else won’t feel the need to. I mean, it’s not like we want to have nice things or anything. That’s just a silly idea.

Sincerely,            

LeetAmerico

P.S. Make way for shinys!

I loved Sorority Row. Sue me.

The plot of Sorority Row is relatively simple: A guy is getting pranked by his sister’s sorority sisters with one of them (played by Audrina Patridge of The Hills fame/infamy, if that sort of thing matters to you) faking her death. The brother, thinking that Audrina Patridge’s character was dead, decided to be hardcore and impale her with a tire iron to the chest to make sure she was double dead or some shit. (Because if someone is dead, you totally need to go for the overkill and just fucking impale a damn corpse.) Anyway, they pretend like nothing happened for about eight months when they all start dying. Of course, they think its zombie Audrina running around and killing the idiots even though their asses totally deserved to die.

I accepted it early on during the first five minutes of the movie that I was either going to want to step on kittens or really enjoy myself. I’m glad to say that it was the latter. As clichéd as the storyline was, the film actually had some amazing comedy in it. I mean to the point where I had to resist tears.

That’s right, even though the reviews for this movie aren’t remotely good (like, at all), I enjoyed myself. It might be because I was watching it with the right person, but I was laughing my ass off the entire way through the movie. What can I say? I’m a fan of movies with a lot of sass and terribly great dialogue. I definitely think you should see it. Yes, seriously.

But, again, this could be because I saw it with the right person.

And this might be the first post where I wasn’t conservative with words like shit, fuck, and ass. Sorry.

NEXT UP: Jennifer’s Body; a horror movie that was actually meant to be hilarious.

Just a quickie!

Hello there!

Apparently I've been knighted as OCD Grammar chief by the un-reputable Holy Bread of Scientology. I would like to say that it is an honor to be editing such an interesting body of work.

And since it is Media Monday[well when I wrote this it was, it is now Web Wednesday so I guess the label still applies], I thought I would share one of my newest guilty pleasures here. And it is...

*Drum roll please*

I [<3] Vampires

Yes folks, you heard right. I less than three vampires. No this is not a fluke to get you reading another glittery-vampire, pre-pubescent book.

This is fanfiction come to life.

YOU pick the fate of the characters

YOU write the next plot twist

YOU can be in control

And it's all brought to life [youtube life that is]

Every "Team Jacob" girl who wished Bella would have picked werewolf over vampire and ranted and raved and wrote her own ending on the http://www.twilighted.net/ site now has a chance to see her monster- *cough cough* I mean creation come to life, internet life that is.

The premise is strikingly similar to a true-life event that happened in the life of Twilight author Stephenie Meyer. A pair of best friends bond over a Twilight-esque vampire series and create a blog about their devotion. After leaking chapters from the last book online and finding out that their author has decided to stop writing, the girls decide to go on an adventure to apologize and get the last book written. This leads to some vampire ass kicking sprinkled with the usual teen drama but exemplified at all the right moments because it IS created by fans.

So click on the name, check out the site, and "get sucked in."

Cheers,

Galleta.