New Kid On The Block!

Over the weekend my brother and I were looking at the insanity caused by the recent X-Box 360 launch (or as we like to call it... Microsoft milking a dead cow). And after reading about some moron in Virginia holding up an EB Games for two of the systems, and an article about one of those Anti-Grand Theft Auto lawyers, he found his breaking point.

Kind of like how I found mine back when Pat Robertson got on television and called for the direct assassination of the president of that country. Yeah, you know what I'm talking about...

Well, he started his blog, trying to get his thoughts out there and bring a little sense and order back into this chaotic world in which we live.

So without further adieu, because I'm all out of adieu, allow me to present you...

Blind Patriot!

S'Been A While...

I'm back again. Sorry about the protracted vacation. School's been busy what with this quarter coming to a close and trying to get crap ready for the next one. Looks like after the next one, I should only have one quarter left.

Then I'll have my Networking Admin Diploma! KA-WOOT!

Hopefully now I'll have time to get back to regular posting, and soon I'll have a colored pic to post as part of my portfolio. Its one I downloaded and hope to turn into a studio as one of their audition pieces. I'll let you all know how that's gonna go.

So for now it's good to be back, and I'll catch you later.

Odd Proficiency With Comic-Coloring

All right, if you know me (or have at least been reading the blog for a while) then you know that I'm an aspiring penciler. However, thanks to a friend of mine, since last week I've had a unique opportunity and a few unique experiences.

I was getting ready to go lunch with a friend of mine on the school faculty, and I noticed he had a Wacom board laying around his office. *DROOL* I asked him if he used it any, he said no, I asked if I could borrow it, he said "Sure, knock yerself out," and I thought "F***ING SWEET!"

For those of you with no clue what a Wacom board, basically its a nice electronic mousepad/mouse/pen setused for electronic illustrating. To me, and most people in the biz, its much easier to use than the traditional mouse or touchpad, especially if you have some degree of proficiency or training in drawing by hand.

So I got to mess around with it and Adobe Photoshop and... I think I'm in love! I downloaded some blank lineart and went to town and found out I'm a little more proficient with coloring in the old-school than I would have thought, so I might have to add "colorist" to my potential talents. Now if only I could work on that damn "inking" thing...

Second Episode Boondocks Post: My Sides Still Hurt!!!

No joke. I still ache a little from how hard I was laughing last night. In under thirty minutes we have again been offended, enlightened, and entertained. And I still have to say its better at its job than South Park is. Sorry Comedy Central, you're still my boys, but Boondocks just does it right with anthropological and pop-culture jabs all across the board, leaving no group out of the side-splitting hilarity.

So that's that for now. I'd just like to reiterate to those Fox tv executives out there: you screwed the pooch by passing up on this one.

When this does come out in season compilations, I WILL BE THE FIRST ONE IN MY AREA IN LINE FOR IT! So boo-yah and catch ya' all later.

Did You Catch "The Boondocks" This Past Sunday on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim?

It was a brilliant masterpiece that should go down in the annals of animated history as one of the best cartoons of all time. But fair warning, it is most assuredly not for the culturaly faint-of-heart. Especially if you're not a fan of the "N"-word (and I'm not talking "neocon here").

Hailed as one of the most consistently funny and intelligent comics ever, Fox missed the boat on this one. Picked up by Adult Swim , this will most likely be its newest and best hit ever (hey, I'm an Aquateen fan too, but c'mon, that show's about as smart as a sack of rusted hammers thrown into the bottom of the Marianas Trench). If you caught it, or at least read the strip from time to time, you can tell it was likely too racy for Fox and therefore right at home on Adult Swim .

There is a lot of racial humor, and like I said the "N"-word got threw around quite a bit (probably enough for some kind of TV record, but I digress), but it really goes waaaaay beyond that and appeals to a much broader audience because its not all just black people poking fun at financially well-off white people being stupid, arrogant and easily scared (allthough that is pretty funny, especially in the opening dream-sequence for the first episode).

I'm telling you. White guys and black guys both get together and watch this show. It's a thought-provoking laugh riot that stimulates the mind and crosses racial boundaries like nothing before in the history of television, in my honest opinion.

Best Day I've Had In A Loooooong Time

I apologize for no post yesterday, but after I got home from work I had a few extra projects to catch up on for my dad, so I ended up missing the midnight deadline for Tuesday and Wednesday and decided, you guys needed a break as did I, but here's some good news. A first in the short history of this blog: Nothing to whine about today! Ka-Woot! Huzzah! And a nice How Do You Like Me NOW!!!

It started at 5:00 this morning. My brother and I got up, went to the gym for about an hour, and grabbed a bite on our way back. I came home, studied for a while, took a shower, scanned some stuff for EBay, left for school. And all this is by 10:00 in the A.M. Got there, studied and did some homework for my other class, went out to lunch at my favorite lil' seafood resteraunt in town, came back, took and passed a test in my first class of the day. I feel good.

Ain't nothin' gonna break my stride.
Nothing's gonna slow me down.
Oh no.
I got to keep on movin'.

I'm hoping for many days like this. So, for today at least, nothing to genuinely complain about, so to everyone, best wishes for you and yours from now 'till the end of time.

Thinking Back To The 2004 Election: The Concept of "Wasting Your Vote"

This afternoon I began thinking back to a conversation I had with a friend of mine a few weeks ago. I don't recall exactly how the conversation started. Most likely it was with some quip about "trimming the Bush" (my regretting his getting voted in for a second term and him not being impeached for criminal acts and whatnot) and lamenting his reelection. Now this friend in question is a National Guard recruiter and is a man I genuinely respect. I readily admit if I were going to be conned into military service, it'd take him to do it.

Anyway, he asked me who I voted for. I informed him that I voted for one of the independent candidates, Michael Badenarick (I'm sure I horribly butchered his name, but I will look it up and correct it soon), to which he responded"So, you wasted your vote?" I glanced at him, gave my usual arrogant grin and retorted "No, I voted for the man who I knew could do the job right." And I still stand by that decision.

But one thing I still think about in the back of our head is, when it really comes down to it, we both wasted our vote. And think about it for a second. To a certain extent, you likely did as well.

Consider for a moment what happened nationwide since the election debacle back in 2000. After all the hanging-chad bull, it was decided by the wisdom of our overlords that the wisest thing to do to prevent vote fraud and confusion was to place electronic voting machines all across the country. Personally, I would have just... oh, I don't know, put people with common sense and not criminal records and penchants for corruption in charge of voting, but that's neither here nor there. But if you voted on one of these machines like I did, and I am sure that my friend also did, then you also "wasted your vote."

It has been proven time and again since these devices were instated that they are easy to hack and manipulate. And then when you throw in that there are reputed computer criminals in high positions of these electronic voting machine companies, and also take into account that many of these companies have key political officials either directly owning or as key investors, the whole thing stinks to high-heaven of corruption. And before you say anything else, yes, all this can be proven.

But what can we do about this? Well, if you're paranoid to the extent that I am, we obviously can't just "vote the machines out" because if the system reaelly is just that corrupt, we cannot believe that the people really counting the votes will not rig things to ensure that these devices will not be removed. It will take more than that. I'm not calling for violence or riots in the streets. All that does is cause traffic jams, and the last thing you want is me mad behind the wheel. Or mad in general, but that's a story for another day. What it is going to take is a mass outcry to all your representatives at the state and national levels that you don't want these corrupt and infinitely fallible devices in place, and that they all need to be removed and scrapped. This needs to be done on such a scale that even the corrupt and biased mainstream media has no choice to accurately report the movement and ensure that America once again has a secure vote.

Weapons Of Mass Destruction In Iraq: Doing My Part To Stir The Pot

Okay. If you know me, you know that I support troops, I don't like Bush, and I know that we as a collective in this country have been mislead into thinking that this was has been just, and that nearly every reason we have been given to justify it is..., well, a lot of bull droppings.

I know some of you are saying "But Eric, how can you say you're for the troops but against the war? That's contradictory!" And I'd respond by saying that you're probably the shallow sort of thinker that believes John Kerry (and don't get me wrong, I hate this guy too) was flip-flopping when he said that he "voted for the war before he voted against it." I have friends and know people in the military and they're all good people. That's why it really tears me up inside to think that they're over fighting a battle that we've been mislead by the nose into fighting.

The country stays divided on this, due mainly to the contradictory stories released through most mainstream media sources. A lot of this comes through because of the network-in-question's particular slant on issues, and much of it comes through from White House press releases. Still, despite all this, even mainstream media screws up and lets some truth out from time to time.

To start with, let's go over a few of the base things that I take issues with concerning the war. We'll take a look at two issue a week for the next few weeks. Firstly, the issue of weapons of mass destruction. An article released through the Associated Press via MSNBC adresses this. Here's a link to the article here, and to preserve it for future posterity, I'll quote it below.

CIA’s final report: No WMD found in Iraq

Recommends freeing detainees held for weapons knowledge

Updated: 9:24 p.m. ET April 25, 2005

WASHINGTON - In his final word, the CIA’s top weapons inspector in Iraq said Monday that the hunt for weapons of mass destruction has “gone as far as feasible” and has found nothing, closing an investigation into the purported programs of Saddam Hussein that were used to justify the 2003 invasion.

“After more than 18 months, the WMD investigation and debriefing of the WMD-related detainees has been exhausted,” wrote Charles Duelfer, head of the Iraq Survey Group, in an addendum to the final report he issued last fall.

“As matters now stand, the WMD investigation has gone as far as feasible.”

In 92 pages posted online Monday evening, Duelfer provides a final look at an investigation that occupied over 1,000 military and civilian translators, weapons specialists and other experts at its peak. His latest addenda conclude a roughly 1,500-page report released last fall.

On Monday, Duelfer said there is no purpose in keeping many of the detainees who are in custody because of their knowledge on Iraq’s weapons, although he did not provide any details about the current number. A U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the ultimate decision on their release will be made by the Iraqi authorities.

Warnings about Saddam’s experts
The survey group also provided warnings.

The addenda conclude that Saddam’s programs created a pool of experts now available to develop and produce weapons and many will be seeking work. While most will probably turn to the “benign civil sector,” the danger remains that “hostile foreign governments, terrorists or insurgents may seek Iraqi expertise.”

“Because a single individual can advance certain WMD activities, it remains an important concern,” one addendum said.

Another addendum also noted that military forces in Iraq may continue to find small numbers of degraded chemical weapons — most likely misplaced or improperly destroyed before the 1991 Gulf War. In an insurgent’s hands, “the use of a single even ineffectual chemical weapon would likely cause more terror than deadlier conventional explosives,” another addendum said.

And still another said the survey group found some potential nuclear-related equipment was “missing from heavily damaged and looted sites.” Yet, because of the deteriorating security situation in Iraq, the survey group was unable to determine what happened to the equipment, which also had alternate civilian uses.

“Some of it probably has been sold for its scrap value. Other pieces might have been disassembled” and converted into motors or condensers, an addendum said. “Still others could have been taken intact to preserve their function.”

Small team still in place
Leaving the door to the investigation open just a crack, the U.S. official said a small team still operates under the U.S.-led multinational force in Iraq, although the survey group officially disbanded earlier this month. Those staying on continue to examine documents and follow up on any reports of weapons of mass destruction.

In a statement accompanying the final installment, Duelfer said a surprise discovery would most likely be in the biological weapons area because clues, such as the size of the facilities used to develop them, would be comparatively small.

Among unanswered questions, Duelfer said a group formed to investigate whether WMD-related material was shipped out of Iraq before the invasion wasn’t able to reach firm conclusions because the security situation limited and later halted their work. Investigators were focusing on transfers from Iraq to Syria.

No information gleaned from questioning Iraqis supported the possibility, one addendum said. The Iraq Survey Group believes “it was unlikely that an official transfer of WMD material from Iraq to Syria took place. However, ISG was unable to rule out unofficial movement of limited WMD-related materials.”

© 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

A Useful Post: Links To Sites About Good Study Habits

Time for a remotely useful post not at all related to my whininess or depression! Yay! KA-WOOT!!!

Okay. I lied.

A little.

In my research to change one of my biggest self-percieved flaws, I've done a good bit of research on solving one of them over the last few days: the development of good study habits. There's a lot of it out there. A good bit of it is crap, I won't lie. A lot of it is trying to sell you stuff. And let's be realistic about things for a second. If you're like me, a student who really needs this material, you probably can't afford to spend the $19.95, $29.95, and even $39.95 that a lot of people want for these materials.

That's why I'm presenting you this free material for the low, low price of $99.95!!!

HA! Just Kidding! You should have seen the look on your face!

Seriously, here are a few big ones you might be interested in.

First up are basic studying tips from Collegeboard.com . It'll take you a second to read through and they really make sense. The book they also sell is worth it (I have a friend who attests to this and he's an A+ STUDENT), but once again, that's if you have the money to spend on it.

Next is a short page from EHow.com . The site is short and repeats some of the information posted on the previous site. Its also geared more towards parents trying to encourage their teenagers to develop and maintain good study habits. Still, it is something good to look at and reinforce those core ideas about good studying.

Last is a site from Virginia Tech Division of Student Affairs . This is an extensive and well organized site, with detailed sections on time management, note-taking, and creating a study environment. This site is one that you definitely have to check out. If you take my word on nothing else, at least take my word on this.

I hope this has been some help to you. Let me know if it has been. See you all tommorrow.

Hitting On Old Chords: Pondering My Redescent Into Depression and Self-Perceived Flaws and Ideas For Cures

Things were really compounded yesterday. My average has dropped from 3.07 down to 2.87 and I have subsequently lost my "Good Student" discount for my car insurance, causing an approximate $40 per month increase.

Another brick in the wall, and another one against my head. For the last few weeks I've been unable to focus. My mind is constantly wandering. I can't really seem to get anything done. I can't relax. It feels like the walls are closing in sometimes. And the only thing really worse than all that: sometimes I genuinely DO NOT CARE! I never, even at my worst, was genuinely apathetic. But its hit that point: most of the times I don't really care about others or even myself. Sure, I don't think my friends are catching on that much because I usually feign it so well.

I can't even get distracted from the sinking feeling at all. Hanging out with my friends doesn't help. Drinking doesn't really do anything but dull my reflexes and I don't get any genuine sort of pleasure from it at all. I don't think I'm even going to drink on social occassions anymore. The drinking most certainly hasn't helped my climb out of the abyss of depression.

But why is it that I'm feeling this way? I think it really is that the handful of self-perceived flaws are holding me back from becoming that better person that I want to be. They hold me back from accomplshing the things that I want to do. But what are those flaws?

My apathy. It seems kind of circular, but my apathy seems to be fueled by this new level of depression which is itself only further aided by the aforementioned apathy.

My decline of discipline and routine. I used to lead a very regimented life, scheduled to get in the things I had to and a few things I wanted to with enough spare time to hang out and relax otherwise. I made myself study. I made myself work out. I made myself practice drawing. Now it seems the only thing I make myself do is wake up in the mornings, and some days that becomes a rather questionable persuit.

But what can I do about these things? It seems so hard to overcome sometimes, because when I ask for help from my family, I get ignored and my ideas pushed off completely; their apathy pushing my apathy further along. It would certainly be easier if I could move out and get away. Alas, I am not financially well-off enough to move out on my own at the moment. I guess I'm going to have to try and sit everyone down and talk to them. Throw it all out on the table, let the chips fall where they may, and shed whatever tears may arise. I mean, it really is not an environment conducive to positive attitudes and behaviors, and mine being the only apparent desire to change it ultimately seems to only continue farther down a vicious spiral of apathy and negativity. If they won't help me, I'll have to change the environment on my own, because if things are going to change, I am going to need a relatively stable and constant area to study and draw. And they are going to recognize that when I need to study and I say "tell them I'm not there" when someone calls on the phone that I probably do not want / need to be disturbed and that maybe they shouldn't shove the phone up to my ear or wake me up if I'm asleep.

Sorry, I had to vent again. I'm sure that this didn't do anything for you, but it was a much needed and clarifying experience for me. Thanks for the ear. I promise my next post will be a lot more informative than this one.