It's Twelve Time (and Stress Time)

Got an email last night being informed that on Monday we have to turn in our twelve page first draft for the class paper and the regular three page assignment. I never realized it but we have our final papers due a few days before our actual final day (as in turn in final the week before and afterwards we no longer meet for that Monday night when we would've if we actually had a final). This is both stressing and alleviating. This means I won't have to worry about my paper the weekend of finals but that means I need to finish it ASAP as I still have a ten page papers to work on for my methods class, a five page paper (plus cumulative final) for Indigenous Cultures of South America and a six page paper for Urban Studies. The worse part is that I still don't even get my prompts for the second two papers until next week. I guess I wouldn't be as upset/stressed about this if it was myself procrastinating due to getting the prompts months ago and just getting lazy, but quite the opposite. Time to listen to some shitty music. Time to listen to some shitty music and not think about this for a few minutes before going back to my study guide for tomorrow's midterm. I'm barely even going to get to study today. Aunts are visiting and I have to take them to the mall. That's already a day lost.

Dennis

It's going to be nice to have Dennis back in the collective once again after finishing his insane mechanical engineering project. He built a Human Powered Vehicle (a giant bicycle in the shape of a car) along with some other mechanical engineers and competed at a competition along with about 30 other schools finishing 12th. On top of that, yesterday there was a convention like (or science-fair thing) that went down comprising of 18 different senior projects and Dennis' finished second with a prize money of $700 which is just awesome. But that's all over now and his time is freeing up, he can hang out with the collective once again and do his favorite activity, ride a bike. CicLAvia is coming up tomorrow and it's going to be super duper fun. Can't wait :)

Our Hearts Alive

I always love me some good old Mastodon, just like I do DevilDriver and Norma Jean. "Hearts Alive" is one of those Mastodon golden age songs (I consider Leviathan and Blood Mountain to be their golden age). Slow start but picks up with fast paced riffs and drums but never actually sounds as fast as the music is actually playing.

Contests

I believe this is the third or fourth time I've been featured on MetalSucks. I submitted a picture a few weeks ago from going to go see the Metal Alliance tour with America, Kim and Irving for the "Show Us Your MetalSucks" contest and after losing hope earlier this week, it was posted. Pretty awesome feeling. You can check it out here.

I fucked up. End of story

Never Miss A Beat

Taking a break from writing my paper. I'm currently a page into it and just gathering some info.

Probot was a really cool project that Nirvana drummer/ Foo Fighter's frontman Dave Grohl did a few years ago that kinda served as a reminder to the metal community that he's still got it. He played drums and guitar on the album and would bring in a singer for each song (King Diamond, Jack Black, Lemmy, just to name a few).  My favorite part in song is when it goes "All access, yeah but not quite." Check it out, really good punk song.

In my world you are not welcome

Woke up with a headache and currently have a stomach ache. Stupid headache

The Spectrum

For better or for worse, the range of music I listen to varies greatly. I'll admit at times I do have pretty shitty choices of music, but whatever. I enjoy both the structure, but also the chaos that can be found within music. I like listening to bands like Stryper, the Christian metal band. I don't really care about their message, agenda or personal beliefs. If the music is pretty good, then why steer away. One of my favorite songs by the band is "Eclipse of the Son" from Murder By Pride.

Sleepytime Gorilla Museum is another one of those random bands, but with no real structure. (Along with this you can align The Number Twelve Looks Like You and Heavy Heavy Low Low.) I don't mind being the only person who actually likes the music. I lost the appeal to show them to others many years ago as no one seemed to like them. It's ok, I still walk away as the beneficiary. "Helpless Corpus Enactment" is an exceptional song and I really love the vocals.

Speaking of The Number Twelve Looks Like You, they have a bunch of great songs from each album. "An Aptly Fictional Description" easily ranks as one of their finest achievements in great song writing. I would label it "controlled chaos." When the band was still together, they had a phrase (which I think is still awesome) that went "it's number twelve time."

Heavy Heavy Low Low is one of those bands that's just out there like #12. "Mall-Nutrition" is a great song by these kiddos, but nothing compares to "Inhalant Abuse is Illegal And Can Be Fatal." That song is easily a masterpiece that everyone scoffs at.

Veil of Maya uses a lot of breakdowns and what not. I'll admit it. I also like the guitar work in the songs and find it exceptionally well written. Their entire cd [id] is really good and I'm glad their starting to become a more well known band.

Born of Osiris is a product of the attempted mix of metal with electronic music. Most bands don't get it right (or even close) but I feel that these guys got it right, or at least pretty damn close to it. I really enjoyed A Higher Place. I don't really dig the sample guy, but whatever, it works and I'm not complaining.

This is my last one and it's no other than Disney's "Disneyland Fun" as part of Disney Sing-Along (I rewatched the video before posting it just to make sure it's the right one). The second song with the the Country Bears is just fucking ridiculous. The bear suits look like rapists and the song is so jolly that it's impossible to not smile each time.

FIFA Thought Process

I'm a heavy FIFA player. I play in increments: days and weeks, usually months too without pause. Then just as I begin to get frustrated and tired with the game, I leave it, go untouched for weeks, maybe months, just to keep the fire burning. The process repeats itself until the next edition of FIFA is released. Just for kicks, I thought it would be fun to attempt to explain my though process as a coach in the game with how I form the structure of my team. Here we go.

Formation

At its core (besides having a really good time with a team that is made of expensive but top notch players), FIFA is all about having the right formation that works for you. Regardless of the players on a team, everyone plays different and has a different view of how the team is built and should play. The most common formation is the Four-Four-Two: four defenders; two defensive midfielders; a right and left midfielder; a center forward (they stand behind the striker and work as a link between the midfield and the striker); a striker. Most coaches have small variations of this and almost every major team plays with it: Manchester United, Arsenal, Real Madrid, Barcelona (this is a kinda because they have a tendency to also play without forwards), AC Milan and the list continues. The reason why this is a popular formation is because it is heavy defensive minded. At any point in time, you can defend with six to eight players.

Me, I don't play those kind of games, I run what my best friend Gio calls "my funky formation." It's the goalkeeper; four defenders; a center defensive midfielder; a central attacking midfielder and left and right wingers; and finally two strikers. This is what it looks like:

The way I think it works is that the formation allows me to always defend with five players and always attack with five players. Lethal, but defensive minded. Sadly it never works against other people. Because I usually play FIFA by myself 95% of the time, my formation is built upon four years on minor modifications in creating the appropriate team in career mode that can fully exploit my formation. It works great against the computer and I usually have no problem being dangerous in the box,

Proof

 but when I get together and play FIFA with friends, I'm a total joke (except Ed cause he's just terrible). But anyways, that's my two cents.

If Time Were To Arrive

I believe that I have an interesting personality that stands out because of the randomness it encloses. When I grow old (if I ever get there by living that long) I believe I would turn out like George from The Aristocats. It's not a bad thing to aspire too. Smiles, laughs and still enjoying life at an old age.

Bioshock Infinite

I beat Bioshock Infinite yesterday after what feel like forever (game time wise). I think it took me a good fourteen or fifteen hours to beat the game on hard. The game is frustrating yet amazing. Beautiful scenery contrasted by blood and gore. For the most part, Infinite abandons the claustrophobic structure which made the first so enjoyable. Although not market as dark, a good portion of the game is in ill-illuminated spaces. I threw many fits, cursed at my tv and died a plethora of times that almost drove me to quitting the game. But now that it's over, I'm happy. I was tortured but also invited to be apart of the city that is called Colombia. The game has some great twists and that small part of "landing" (pass through a time tear) in Rapture was just fucking awesome. I'll probably replay the game in a few months or a year from now, but until then, I enjoyed the experience Irrational Games. Thanks for a great story and hectic but great gameplay. Until next time.

It may be spring break, but I still have papers and projects to work on. I have fun stuff planned in the middle so it should still be really fun.