Thursday, October 30, 2008

Back by popular demand.

So I received an anonymous tip today that certain unnamed people have actually been checking on my blog from time to time, and were upset that I haven't updated it for several months. Quite a bit has happened this last little while, so I'll try to bring those interested parties up to date on current events.

I'm currently sitting in the front of my Ford Explorer, parked outside my friend's house to get wireless internet so as to be able to complete this blog. Now before you all start jumping to conclusions and marking me as the creepy stalker type, you're too late, I've already be named thus. But perhaps an explanation as to my current situation would help reduce the calls to the police on my behalf. I'm currently living with a friend's family. They have a large shop on their property, and were kind enough to let me clean up one of the upstairs rooms in the shop to live in. While this may seem like a small step above being born in a barn, it is actually quite warm and comfortable. For those of you able to look at my facebook, there are pictures of the place. I have basically everything I need right in one room, (namely my fridge and xbox, obviously).

I'm still working at Melaleuca, and despite the rather long unpleasant last couple of days, I quiet enjoy my work and co workers. Each team at the call center had to decorate their areas for Halloween. The theme this year was Disneyland Rides. Our team was assigned "Tarzan's Treehouse" So we made up the colums to look like palm trees, slapped on some cardboard made to look like a treehouse, and a girl on our team drew a life size caricature of Tarzan and cut him out of cardboard. His manly physique did make me a little uncomfortable, but I delt with it as best I could. We were planning on putting a loincloth made from fabric on him to finish the setup. However there was a delay in getting the fabric, so we had a few comments from other employees about the nude man standing by our team. (He wasn't actually drawn, but from a distance it did look a little sketchy). Today at work employees with children brought their kids around for a call center trick or treat, and would stop at each team to beg for candy. Most of the kids were very polite and only took a piece or two. There were however, a select few children who when offered the candy bowl, tried to take enough candy to put Willy Wonka to shame. One little two year old girl even went so far as to try to boost my candy bucket when I wasn't looking. Fortunately I was able to subdue her hand hand her over to the proper authorities, with only a few minor injuries.

In other news, I've been in and out of the doctor's office more than I care to admit these past few weeks. During the past few month's I've passed out in the shower a few times, and hit my head pretty hard in the process, so they've been doing tests to make sure I haven't given myself any serious brain injuries....what was my name again?... and to make sure I wasn't having seizures. And lastly they checked to make sure my heart was functioning properly. As it turns out I have a resting heart rate of around 95 bmp. Live fast and die young right? Oh, and I also had what Ithought to be a kidney stone, but it just turned out to be an incredibly painful intestinal infection. Which is good news I guess. Aside from that I'm doing provisionally okay in a physical sense.

Aside from all of that, there's really not much going on with me right now. I've been doing alot of reading, I'm actually reading three books at the same time. (Sherlock Holmes stories, a History of Ireland, and a programming book.) Given that I'm a computer science major, and it's every computer science major's secret wish to end up making video games, I've come up with what I think is a pretty cool idea for a video game. A big problem I see with video games today is that there is usually nothing even close to a good plot, just big explosions and women dressed to evidence that their creator is very lonely. I want to make a video game that has a plot that reads like a book, so I thought to myself, hey, write the plot in a book! So I've been working on the story here and there when I can. I've got a million different ideas, I'm just having a bit of a hard time focusing it on a single line of thought, but so far I like where it's going. And in the most likely event this thing never actually becomes a video game, I'll still have a cool story. Given my weakness in writing, I'll have to pass it by my more talented siblings and let them tear it apart. I'm also working on a concept for a movie that we're hoping to be able to start filming next summer, and maybe enter it into a film festival if it turns out how I'd like it to.

Well, I'm wasting gas, I'm tired, and really cramped from the awkward position I'm sitting in, so I'll end with a funny thought I read from that book on Ireland. As the story goes, a priest by the name of Columcille(I think that's how it's spelled) is approached by two men begging for money. The first is a poor and poverty stricken beggar, the other is a chronic gambler down on his luck. The the beggar he gives one gold coin, to the gambler he gives two. When asked by his peers why he would make such a seemingly unwise decision, Columcille leads his peers to a tavern where they find the gambler, who has treated his friends with his newfound money to drinks, and lost the rest gambling, walking a little farther on they find the beggar lying dead on the side of the road. To their question he replies that the two coins given to the gambler have been spread around to several people, and have helped them with food and the like. The coin given to the beggar they find sewn inside his clothing, and as such as completely gone to waste.

I thought that was an interesting little story. And with that, cheers!

~roO