robotic by design

a feeble attempt to explain the epic that is minecraft

2010-10-12T15:51:00.000-07:00

ah yes, the notorious underground video game that is sweeping the nations. many of you may have heard of it. many of you may have played it, are playing it right now, are curious about it, or, like myself, have purchased it.

for just €9.95, minecraft is a steal. why?

first off, minecraft is still in a stage, called "alpha". this is a stage of sorts that is close to a beta stage (meaning "near completion"). once minecraft hits its final "beta" stage, the price will go to a final €19.99.

after reading about all of the hype, i was a little more than curious as to what exactly minecraft was. was it just a trend in gaming? was it on the xbox or ps3? come to find out, minecraft is only for your pc, mac, or linux machine. video gaming pioneers for non-console machines ring through my head, a la valve / blizzard. they match each other in style, competition, and respect. but the creators of minecraft?

one man.

THE MAN, THE LEGEND

this is notch.

at least that is what he goes by, a pseudonym for the gaming community. his real name is markus persson. minecraft has completely originated from a one-man band, so to speak, and the benefits from this fact should not go unnoticed.

by september 25th, 2010, notchs' paypal account had been frozen, accumulating over $763,000 and refusing to let him touch it (escapist). upon further reading, one will find out that notch clears out his account weekly. which is a very good thing. i am sure he is happy about his income and secure for the years to come.

an article written on october 10th, 2010 had some news to tell; notch has began looking for "about six" employees total, and "doesn't dare guess" when minecraft will be completed (joystiq).

sounds like to me, this guy has got it made! so who is notch exactly? apart from his success, who is the man behind the madness?

taken from the minecraft website, notch used to be a programmer (no surprise there). here is what follows;

"I started Minecraft after playing some Infiniminer with a couple of people from TigSource. I realized that a game that simple yet that dynamic had a lot of potential to turn into a really great game, and kept coming up with things I wanted to change and stuff I wanted to add. I had recently quit my job as a game developer to be able to focus more on indie game dev during my free time, and I was looking for a new game to develop. I had a few ideas floating around, but most required really long development times.

These two factors led to Minecraft."

(more words from notch here)

GEEKDOM

after reading the success and little story behind minecraft, i started looking up youtube videos without hesitation. surely someone would upload a walkthrough or gameplay video, right?

what i found took me hours to sift through. countless and countless amounts of videos, from silly to serious, monumental to fun. after days of roaming through fan videos of check out what i made, the most notable were;

i began to understand that the very word minecraft itself, embodied a certain cherishable pride among geekdom. everyone was playing minecraft. and for all kinds of reasons, some were ignoring the normal "single player" type of gameplay, and opting for pure-building schemes, multiplayer madness, and of course, destruction.

i was immediately hooked. minecraft's visuals immediately reminded me of tomb raiders' lara croft, and her push/pull boxes and crates that would help her get to certain goals

THE GAME ITSELF

going onto notch's website for minecraft, you will see two different types of online gameplay; single player and multiplayer. these options are free, but i have found to be relatively slow (remember, minecraft is still in alpha). i didn't even want to hesitate with the slowness of any server, so i spent the near-ten euro's and downloaded the game.

the benefits of downloading this game is several reasons;

1. it's yours to keep

2. all upgrades in the future are free

3. you just saved 50% on the final version (instead of buying it when it would be released)

4. single player is played right on your computer, files are saved locally

5. you can mod the game to how you see fit

6. the best geek-benefit; install minecraft on a usb stick!

downloading took less than a minute for my speedy internet, and once finished, i installed to my mac's applications folder. and without further ado, here are my screenshots for my beginning;

the start-up screen

notch's company logo

menu screen

options for single player & multiplayer

after clicking "single player", you get your "select worlds" screen

minecraft is building its random terrain

simulation of all cubes

after loading, this is the first thing i happen to see

walking for a few minutes, i see this

and just beyond a rise in terrain, i come to this

here is a distant view of some strange, alien landscape

and here it is from the highest point in the level

one look into the game after it generates it's own random level, and you'll find that everything is exactly as the fan-made youtube videos are; everything is cubic, bright, and expansive. you can walk anywhere, dig as deep as you want, and build as high as you want.

if you would like to figure out exactly "how to begin", i suggest this video:

for me, i started out on the easiest difficulty, known as peaceful. peaceful mode illustrates fun and easy gameplay, with no mobs.

MOBS

what are mobs? well, mobs are characters, so to speak. they can be cutesy-cuddly farm animals (believe me, the cows mooing get on your nerves after hours of playing), or they can be enemies out to kill you. here is how i break it down;

farm animals are composed of chickens, cows, pigs and sheep. if you slap at any animal while up close (fairly easy to do, as some animals walk up to you), they blurt out their cry of alarm, and with enough slaps with your hand, you can harvest what they leave you (or their bodies). chickens give you feathers, cows give you hide, pigs give you ham, and sheep give you wool.

each of these morsels give you items to store away in your inventory, or you can later combine them to create fun things that benefit your gameplay. for instance, enough cow hide will help you create your first level of armor. as you can imagine, their are more and more and more types of artifacts you can find, combine, harvest, and use to your wits end. it's all up to your amount of patience, and what you want out of the game. think of farm animals as a benefit for the protagonist.

typical "mobs" are these guys shown above. they're known as monsters, baddies, or whatever you'd like to call them. for now, in alpha stage, there are five different types of bad guys; creepers, skeletons, zombies, spiders, and slimes.

just like farm animals give you different things if you hit them enough, these type of enemies can you hit you or harm you with certain things. creepers explode when near you - if they're close enough they can kill you, and they most definitely leave a large crater for you to deal with. sometimes this can be a good thing, but most of the time, it's a negative. skeletons shoot arrows at you, zombies try to eat you, spiders can jump, and slimes can try to find you in the darkness.

the most important rule of minecraft while playing "survival" mode, is that once day turns into night, dusk will start to set, you'll hear some spine-tingling music chime that is basically warning you to stay back, take cover, and be ready for any bad guys coming your way.

for now in the alpha stage, these are the only bad guys that exist. however, notch has noted that on halloween of 2010, all minecraft players will get some special package, introducing some new themes to the game, and possibly some new bad guys as well.

some more bad guys that might happen in the future, are; ghasts, giants, dragons, prefix mobs, sea monsters, herobrines, fish, and wolves.

MORE ON MINECRAFT

to really start out on minecraft, you just need to dive in. that being said, any minecrafter starting out should really have a small list of links they can visit to frequently in case they need some help finding their way, or what to do next, or to just take a break. listed below are some of my favorites;

minecraft (the official minecraft website)

minecraft forums (the official minecraft forums)

minepedia (possibly the most helpful guide on every faction of minecraft)

minecraftr (yes, minecraft even has a social network!)

seananners

that last link is purely for enjoyment purposes only. i have thoroughly enjoyed this guys' video gameplay's of minecraft. he goes by "seananners" and is a joy to listen and watch. he doesn't go for feats such as star trek ships or huge mansions, but runs amuck in the world of minecraft and gives great insight on just how enjoyable a world of cubes can be!

just posted today, the infamous tech blog gizmodo has posted a lengthy article about minecraft and building a functional binary system within. a really brilliant read here.

CONCLUSION: OCD

in conclusion, minecraft is an ever-expanding world of cubic-pixel fun.

it goes without saying that, quite easily it's the most popular underground movement in gaming since valve's portal hit the shelves (what valve called "an accidental success").

thumbing his nose at the giants of video gaming, notch not only refuses to stand on the shoulder's of geniuses, he has taken the masses around a world that is constantly fun, persistent, and never-ending. he's brought on a near-perfect state of originality for everyone's enjoyment, for free, or for at a low-price. he, quite blatantly, has become the genius.

he's given society something to play with in their free time, and in the end, one heck of a ride for obsessive-compulsive players. minecraft couldn't be any better for me. i will await all of his updates with joy, and while i do, i'll continue to spread the news. with as much success as notch has gotten, it is apparent he is a giant in his own time.

ULTIMATE CONTRIBUTION

after playing with minecraft for a few weeks now, i came up with a fun idea that i wanted to share with the minecraft community, or for anyone wanting to take on a challenge.

papercraft is a passion of mine, it is something that is always challenging - from silly figurines, or giant heads, papercraft is a never-ending style of art. papercraft in the minecraft community is nothing new, and i wanted to illustrate the most basic idea that i could come up with.

after taking screenshots of the generic grassy cube and looking at the minecraft application icon, i decided i wanted to create a full-scale (1:1) cube model of earth. after working in illustrator cs5, i finished a perfect six-sided cube that is exactly to scale. each cube in minecraft represents 1m x 1m x 1m. so, if you were to print this full-scale, it would be just under 40"x40". in other words; minecraft coffee table anyone?

this is a work in progress for me, as i will need to build the cube out of wood, and somehow get these printed sides safely glued and possibly lacquered. but for now, normal-size papercraft will do. for those of you who are wanting to do something smaller, i have provided free pdf's for you to download (links below).

enjoy!

~~~

still not convinced? don't tell me, try it for free here

if you can't wait to get your geek on, buy here

STILL NOT CONVINCED?! i will depart, with this amazing video!

~~~

the music network

2010-09-24T13:21:00.000-07:00

trent reznor (formerly of nin) has recently teamed up with atticus ross in a very ethereal experience known as "how to destroy angels". also known as hdta, how to destroy angels is fairly new, and started up offering free music as long as you subscribed to their website (which would then, send you a free download link).

as a former fan of nin and anything ambient, electronic, cryosleep, and ethereal music, i knew i would probably immediately fall in love with hdta. and indeed i have! i highly suggest checking them out if you get the chance.

three members make up hdta, trent reznor, atticus ross, as well as a third member, the female vocalist, marlqueen maandig (reznor's wife). formed in 2009, hdta joined up with rob sheridan, art director, to create some absolutely stunning sounds and imagery. they have released a six track ep (released june 1st, 2010) and included a music video (more like music experience), "the space in between" on pitchfork.com.

hdta offers a somber experience. the six tracks make you a bit curious for more. i am definitely wondering how far this will go, as it seems that atticus reznor (what i have dubbed them) make for an astounding team.

a little background on ross, in case you have not heard, he recently composed the 2010 bleak film, "the book of eli". i immediately gravitated towards the film as well as the music, and for any member of the audience that was not familiar with such pieces, were quick to talk about its "amazing soundtrack".

the success of hdta (and goes without saying, the mini-god of industrial mainstream music, reznor) has helped them take up larger projects. most recently, the increasingly popular film, "the social network".

"the social network" is about the past history of how now-behemoth social networking site, facebook, took off and destroyed some people in the process. the tagline is, "you don't get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies". i haven't gotten to see a screening of it, but i am very on the edge of my seat for this experience. background histories and faux-documentaries have always been an interest of mine, and i believe this will probably end up putting the ceo of facebook, mark zuckerberg, in a great deal of spotlight.

"the social network", in some ways, wouldn't work on your emotions very well if the score wasn't just right. after hearing the limited free-release of it's score, i would say that this movie will be an even better experience for curious audiences. which brings me to my point. i believe atticus reznor to be striving for a new goal in the music industry, one that gives back, and in return, bears fruit.

music such as this seems easy to any amateur listening. it's composed of relatively simple artifacts that have no seemingly ordered-array. but i am sure atticus reznor would tell you otherwise. the music has to not only push a progressive story, but it also has to work in the background of your mind. you could easily do your homework or study to this type of genre, and in the end, you'd probably feel better.

here is the poster for the social network:

here is my mockup:

the resemblance is just... uncanny.

regardless of the turnout of this film, i still think it'll be a good one for our generation. furthermore, i believe hdta will most likely impact a small niche in our music industry. it has to. the music industry has been dying, i feel, and what better way to start changing that through viral such as free give-aways, and spectacular marketing?

~~~

if you liked this post, please see the plethora of links below;

the music

get your free copy of hdta
want more hdta?
view "the space in between" video
atticus ross history

itunes: nin
itunes: hdta
itunes: atticus ross

the movie

view "the social network" trailer
ion's review of "the social network" script
parts of the script

~~~

welcoming in a new fall season

2010-09-22T11:12:00.000-07:00

fall is my favorite time of the year. depending if you're near some nice trees, you'll usually see orange, yellow, and red leaves... as they die off and their trees get ready for the winter months.

among a glorious spectacle of nature "hibernating", some of my favorite things about fall are included below;

the fall season gives you an excuse to dress up, put on a scarf, get outside and rake those leaves (if you have any), drink a warm latte, and appreciate the exhilarating breeze. i would never trade the fall season for a different one. for me, the fall brings the feelings of romance, but brought to you by nature. and even if you're alone and have no one to share it with, the romance doesn't just have to be with another person! just taking a walk through a colorful forest, or listening to the serenity of fall setting in can be the most peaceful atmosphere.

every year when this season rolls around, if i am not near an area that has these attributes (bright colored trees, cool breeze, etc), i end up traveling to a place that does.

i recently visited boston two years ago, during october, and took a "fall foliage tour" through new hampshire. that was one of the most memorable things. there were also events going on in salem, where everyone was getting ready for halloween and dressing up. in my opinion, the best thing is just being outside and feeling alive.

what will you do with your fall season?

~~~

images courtesy of publicdomainpictures.net, pachd.com, & gearpatrol.com, faqs.org, & esskay © 2010

mnmlist.

2010-09-16T12:28:00.000-07:00

quite possibly, the most brilliant thing i've read, dissected, and seen all year.

we could all learn something from clutches of materialism. i'm a victim of it. you are. we all are.
america, especially. or any culture or country with too much than we can handle.

i love products. and things. always things, things, things.

mnmlist strips all that away.
he even has a UI that i desire (over my own UI for his blog).

thanks for the enlightenment, mnmlist!
as for everyone else; want less, desire authenticity!

tron legacy... i'm sorry, were you saying something?

2010-09-13T11:31:00.000-07:00

TRON: legacy.

with the impatient anxiety-filled wait for tron legacy (releasing in late december, 2010)... one could wonder, how many more banners/posters could they release?

that question, doesn't matter anymore. there's only one poster that is of grand significance;

~~~

why so serious?

2008-07-17T14:34:00.000-07:00

anyone else freaking excited about the upcoming blockbuster [batman dos]: the dark knight?! i can barely contain myself. this is going to be nearly more exciting than the new ironman (which was brilliant). why?

a. we've seen the potential of the director for "batman begins"
b. seeing the debut, our tier of expectation is raised significantly
c. four men; christian bale, heath ledger, aaron eckhart, & michael caine

not to mention, a series of highly-equipped technology, new digital recording, imax recording, well-adapted screenplays, accurate plotting, and a scary as hell score.

all of these factors make this movie brilliant. some movie buffs argue over plot and possible plot holes. some argue over the criticism of acting. some even more argue over the comparison between past batman movies and their comic book predecessors.

whatever the argument may be, i'm willing to put my faith on the line for this movie. it looks brilliant. heath ledger's performance looks like a keeper; scary, disturbing, even sickening. and that's why this movie is going to rise to the top - mark my words!

let us not compare past movies with this one. jack nicholson was amazing as his part in the joker. but he also wanted a brainstorm/zany character. that "comic" feel that makes you laugh because he's just crazy. but i believe heath ledger will soil anyone's pants. one look at the grim -80% saturated face with the bright facade of cracked makeup.... would send a chill down any innocent bystander.

and that's what i hope "the dark knight" will make me feel. it would be great to see this movie just freak people out. beyond the amazing gadgets. the amazing vehicles. the techgasm that is batman and his suit. let us hope that the first batman in movie-history not to have the word "batman" in the titles makes people question the way we look at movies, our experience with them, and that deep down inside... movies are not only for entertainment - but to exceed our suspension of belief.

~~~

"in case of extinction" part II / wall-e

2008-07-02T10:41:00.000-07:00

this is the second installment. for my rant on the first, go here.

---

so by now, most of america has seen wall-e. i haven't seen it a second time since my last post about this, but this movie is by far amazing, and worth a thousand posts/blogs.

i'm not going to offer any spoilers, as that would just be lame. for spoilers and crude critical views over the movie, just go to imdb, lol.

the movie starts out the same way the teaser trailer starts out; wall-e is just chillin by himself after 700 years on a desolate, deserted, dusty, post-apocalyptic planet earth. i think planet earth is stretching it! you could call it mars dos, if you will.

for one, i was awestruck by pixar's diligent intilligence over detail, and even more spectactularly; the atmospheric lighting. it blows me away! even people not noticing this detail will be impacted by it. the landscape is full of dust, constant broken down buildings, and we immediately see these stacks or mounds of orangish-blockish mountains. we learn right away that this is because all the "wall-e" models by BNL (buy n' large, hahaha) have helped humans for probably several hundreds of years - while humans sit back and be lazy. the primary objective for the wall-e's is to basically crush junk into a block, spit it out, and organize. that is it's only priority. but what's great about pixar's sense of humor, is the fact that the only wall-e left in the world has a quirky personality and a cute demeanor.

i can't give you too much information regarding the plot, other than what is offered in the trailors. however, i can tell you that the "humans" in this movie is everything a human could be if said human had given up all forms of excersice. oh how pixar pummeled this point home! oh, man, i could not stop laughing when i saw that all humans were gelatinous forms of un-wrinkled blobs; drinking out of soda-shake cups that contained a futuristic mix of all the things they would need (except to lose weight). this was incredibly ballsy for pixar to do this. they must have been pushing this element for a few years before they finally agreed to do it! when my girlfriend and i were in the theatre that night, there were several overly obese people near us, and i'm not sure what they thought of this cute animated movie showing a dark side to obesity and where it could lead our country - but - i thought it was genius. movies should do this! we're so obsessed with gadgets, and i'll be the first one to admit that. i love my shiny toys, but i know the importance of excersize, and more importantly - how to excersize the mind.

all the characters in this movie [that were] human were dumb, ignorant, and just too round to even get up. i thought it was just perfect. if you click on the article i linked to "gelatinous forms of unwrinkled blobs".... you'll see that pixar is actually a little worried they may haved peeved audiences world-wide. but what's to be peeved about? obese people need to worry about themselves! if a movie company can make a documentary over global-warming, or a music video can sing about the ice caps, then america's favorite animation company can speak about something even more important. obesity sucks. and lets face it; it's our fault. it's america's fault to a great degree. it is of no surprise that obesity is quite large (haha) in the last few decades due to the common thing known as fast food. and gadgetry that promises robots that will automate our future only will result in the same thing.

unless.

humans can wake up and have priorities. and take responsibility. and more importantly; keep our self-respect. there was a reason gluttony was one of the top "seven deadly sins". and why not? look who it hurts first. look who it effects second. it's a chain reaction and it effects the mind, the mobility, how that person feels and how they react. we, as a society, need to not only beware of the dangers of pitying these people that have weight problems - but we need to encourage a healthier lifetsyle. it's not about the next organic food, or even the next best 5-step progress towards excersize (and a skinnier waist-line). it's a state of mentality.

if women continue to tell themselves "oh just this one more sandwhich, it won't hurt" - they might as well dig their grave now.

if men continue to tell themselves "just one more potato chip - no big deal!" - they might as well cut open their chest and eat their heart while they're at it.

their jelly-rolls aren't going anywhere.
people will never change. until they choose too.

and that's even worse than obesity.

shots fired

2008-07-01T14:07:00.000-07:00

i have a few pet peeves here and there. however, these are among the top ten.

1. you're driving in the fast lane, there's a full highway of cars so you stay in the fast lane (unable to change lanes right away...), and the retard afront you is going under the speed limit. you inch up a few, to give him a [hopefully perceived as this] polite nudge to speed up. but he doesn't. at all.

2. furthermore, you can't really change lanes because the freaking second you do, you'll be hit with a bad introduction to office space; changing lanes only to change back - and then back again. said retard is still going slow and not taking hints, so you put your blinker on (always a good thing) - signal to the right, and decide what the heck? why not? and change lanes anyways - anything, anythinggggg, to get past this guy. even if it means sitting in the other lane for awhile. so with your blinker on and checking your blind spot (always a better thing), you move over swiftly and calm. and just as you're doing that...

3. you come to duh, duh, duh, duuuuuhhhh!!!! - pet peeve #3. that's right, said retard ahead of you either a) took the clue to move over (and a little to late), or, b) is completely oblivious to reality. and moves over the exact same time, [or worse], just a smidgen too late - enough to make you feel awkward about the lane change - now that you have an open speeding-lane, AND awkward because you want to make the move again, but feel the prying eye-police behind you will point, stare, and mock your supposed *bad driving skills*. but, i digress; this pet peeve has nothing to even do with the awkwardness. it's the simple mistake that...

said retard DOES NOT USE HIS BLINKER.

am i the only one annoyed here?!

seriously. i think about this crap everytime this happens. must i quote the oh-so perfect clive owen about "one inch.... i move my finger one inch to drive a little safer on these roads, and the smug bast*rd can't even handle the decency....".

exactly.

at this point you've waited several moments, and perhaps most likely; minutes - to speed up through the freaking speeding lane... only to get some guy that slows your day down and annoy you a little. at this point you've gave him polite hints - no honking or stupid flashing of the lights, thank you (that would go on to pet peeve #4 - not kidding either) - but a simple nudging up to give him the bumper warning (but no actual "bumping"). at this point he doesn't relpy so you change lanes, but in doing so, you've spawned some cosmic notion in his/her mindset to change ironically the same time you choose to. at this point you notice his non-blinker usage and get enraged by his misstep with this universal idiosyncrasy.

at this point, you're just annoyed as heck - and you have arrived at your destination; a mile down to the nearest gas station...

1. the price is nearing 5 dollars a gallon
2. there's a line out the back alley
3. and said retard is just behind you; tailgating your vehicle

~~~

"in case of extinction" part I

2008-06-30T01:01:00.000-07:00

*update* - i'll be adding more to this later, as i want to discuss the amazing aspects of the animation, the story-line, and the fact that i wasn't trying to mock the woman that was crying. my girlfriend was pointing out a flaw in my reasoning and saying that my opinion did indeed sound harsh. i wanted to clear this part up! i didn't think it was really a bad thing she was crying, it was just the volume of her voice making comments and then the added volume to her tearing up. that was what irked me. i didn't mind the fact she felt moved by wall-e. heck; we all did :)

~~~

lately, i've been dying to see wall-e, and decided the opening day was a great time to see it. my girlfriend and i decided to head over to an amc theatres that had several showings, primarily one in the daytime - that way we could get out and still have a bit of time to do other things in the evening.

upon earlier experience, we've always known there would be children showing up in a daytime movie, but we were also crossing our fingers that we might get lucky. no such luck. the moment we walked in, there was an empty area - minus that of an older mother and her three children. however, a fourth rounded the corner behind me and was crying; apparently frightened. in the back of my mind i rolled my eyes, not because the child was scared, but because the mother seemed to be doing nothing about it - or even noticing that her child was several yards away (and in my mind, an easy child to kidnap if such a person were to be around the corner). i took my seating with my girlfriend, and we sat a few rows under them; in the middle. there were a good thirty minutes before the pre-shows would pop up, and the child began to make a bout of screaming and crying and carrying on about something with the theatre's lights. upon much discernment, we found out the little girl was terrified of the theatre. i talked with my significant other about this, and how i probably wouldn't blame her, and the other siblings were laughing - which added to the volume. the mother after awhile tried to calm her (getting up a few times, to have the little child run out), but after awhile she demanded that one of the siblings run after her (yelling several times). i was rolling my eyes at this point and trying to have a conversation to keep from getting annoyed, but it was no use. a good thirty minutes went by of this girl crying and crying and crying.

finally, the mother got up and left - several minutes later the lights came on full-bright, and burned my eyes (i don't think i realized lights in the theatre could go on that high!). so the girl was sniffling and had to be held, but to no avail; still crying and staring at me. i'm not sure i looked menacing, but to be sure i meant no harm i waved at her, but nothing helped. soon after this, more people came in with their children; mostly families. the children was something we expected but the crying child was not. i mean, it was wall-e! who wouldn't want to see a fun and quirky robot dance around by himself without humans? the cool thing was, as soon as the previews showed up and repeated "nickelodean shows for kids!" played over and over, the child had quieted down. the movie started and all was calm on the front-lines.

however, about half way into it, i noticed a woman a few seats down from my right yelling constant jokes, remarks, and what have you about the movie - as if she was the only one. this is probably my biggest pet-peave in a theatre. i always thought it was important to respect your elders, but more importantly respect others surroundings. talking or whispering here and there is excusable, but full out commentary by yourself (and no shame?!) is just downright ridiculous. my nerves were shot as this beautiful perfect animated sci-fi film (that, mind you; played an ode to 2001 - beautifully orchestrated!)... and i couldn't handle it anymore, so i decided to do a "shhhh!!!" towards her to give her a clue. i think some people may have been feeling the same way, but no one paid mind.

so i turn to my right to shush her a little, and i look over -- get this. she's freaking sobbing. i couldn't believe it. i'll admit it, i felt a few tears or tear, should i say, when wall-e was ________ (enter spoiler here!) - but wiping your eyes and heaving?!?!?! this was just minutes after making cutesy and foolish remarks that she apparently thought were funny. i just shook my head in disbelief. it's a animated cartoon that's supposed to tug at the heart strings, but not make you melt into a pile of unexcused embaressment.

i may sound a bit harsh on this woman, and it probably had to do a lot with the crying child. children's weird behavior is always something to try to predict... but in my point of view, a full grown woman yelling at the screen and making a fool of herself? that's more childish than that little girl that was scared of the dark theatre (and the lit-up theatre at that). how do you contain a situation like that? i am constantly amused at the behavior of others, even if it is annoying, foolish/childish, or just downright funny. it makes you wonder what that woman was going through this week to give her such a cry...

in the case of extinction, wall-e gave people hope.
in the case of sobbing out loud at 35 years old?

well - even wall-e won't go there.

steve ballmer drinks starbucks

2008-06-27T10:29:00.001-07:00

i had my second starbucks in a row today. since.... weeks? months? it's been more than a several months. and, sadly, it was highly dissapointing. working there has brought me forth-knowledge about the ins and outs and the evolution of their coffee, and the more people i know, the more i find out how much they passionately like other types of coffee, and how much the passionately starbucks. it's too convenient. they're a great business with some flaws, but they annoy me. thankfully they're picking up the pace with customer service, quality to the customers. but honestly, i wish they'd focus even more on higher quality for fair-trade customers. last time i remember, ethiopia was having severe problems getting paid. at .08 a dollar, you can bet someone complained. or worse; didn't complain. ethiopia would probably be happy with whatever money they got from the u.s. of a. - i just think starbucks has too many chips on their shoulders. shultz will be bringing back the "slam" in starbucks, and focusing on the quality for the consumer. whatever. i just hope they jolt things up. they've focused too much on money. but then again, that's exactly what a large corporation does. they take over the world. or at least want too.

on another note, bill gates retired last week. how crazy is that? maybe not so much, but it seems to be the downfall again for microsoft. steve ballmer will ruin their company. or maybe he'll make things better? he's insane, and quite frankly, kind of scares me. the way he slams the pedestal; spittle flying forth from his devilish mouth. haha. it's just hilarious. he's been screaming microsoft in his sleep since the 70's. it makes me curious to see if he'll bring their huge corporation out of the slums of the terrible that is vista.

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june bloom.

2008-06-27T10:26:00.000-07:00

i recently added a "deep + thoughtful" blog list to the right under the menu.

i've categorized them based on name and genre (kinda). a few are my friends blogs, an older blog site by myself ( livejournal), and also the more interesting blog sites by anon's (the last psychiatrist, and violent acres). i find myself disagreeing more with violent acres, as well as agreeing with the last psychiatrist more. violent acres is known to curse a lot and contain a hint of bitterness and narcissm about the world. what's ironic about my notion of narcissm with va is; the first blog i read on her site was a recommendation for the last psych. and a referral to a blog on narcissm. i don't necessarily think va is really narcissistic, it's just that she comes across a "know it all" with a chip on her shoulder. nonetheless, i feel she has a high intelligence and a wit for writing well. she's down to earth and goes on about day to day activity and problems that happen in her life. she's well spoken. more than that, the last psych. has a heavy heavy weight on intelligence! i am simply blown away by him! combining politics, family, life, topics on bipolar disorders, and medicine all in one. he has a several large degrees in medicine, psychiatry, and literature. he's well-versed and it's good food for thought - even if i don't understand all the big words. what's even better is, he apologizes when he has wrote about something that offended someone, and he speaks from his heart - and much of the time, in a professional third-point perspective view. that's important to all that read his entries (he's been on digg several times).

well i am off. have a blessed week, everyone.

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