It's The Doc!

In my day to day life I do very few things that make me feel genuinely "cool" or "awesome". I'll have someone laugh at a joke and someone else be impressed with something I know or do; but that doesn't mean I get a feeling of being genuine. With this being true, the little "awesomes" I can manage to grab hold of feel doubly cool.

One of those such "moments" Is the phone conversations between vee and myself. Normally when we use our phones we just txt each other. The things we are saying aren't of much importance, and we usually respond back pretty quick anyways. There are a few times however, we do need to call each other, and that signals that it's kind of "important", be that a loose term for it. More oft than not it's me calling vee for something I need to know pretty much at this moment so he picks up.

But this is a rare moment, someone who is in need of something "important" is calling someone for help, how can we best exploit this situation for the most dork power.

Every time one of us picks up the first line out of our mouth is, "Operator." The person on the other line then responds, "I need an exit" and continues on with the conversation as needed.

Vee and Coon both have a few of theses little nerd moments, like AI scripts we trigger on each other when we have the chance. Every time one of them happens, especially the phone one with vee, I get a super :cool: feeling,

Posted by Doc at 1:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hello, my name is Gordon and I've recently bought Grand Theft Auto 4 for the 360. I am utterly amazed at everything this game has to offer - it's one of the deepest and biggest games I've played in quite some time now. Everything has been expertly crafted, even down to the achievements. Things you might have missed in the game are highlighted, such as doing as wheelie, stealing 20 cars through text messages, or even topping the leaderboards in QUB3D.

Oh QUB3D...

I know this is a game inside of a game so it is most likely nowhere near the top of the list of important things to consider for tweaking or fixing via a patch or update but please hear me out. I really like QUB3D. After a long day of doing missions, races, and bank heists - I like to stop in at the local pool hall or wherever I can find this machine and play - always attempting to get that achievement, to get first place.

But herein lies my dilemma - I am colorblind.

I can see color, yes. I can make it through 99% of life no problems, but the 1% of those problems I happen to run into really stop my life and remind me this is literally impossible. I started to play QUB3D and found the puzzle game quite interesting and quirky. I progressed through the levels and somewhere around either level 5 or 6 (hard to tell as you'll figure out), I noticed the "green" blocks no longer disappear after you match up a group of 4. This quickly lead to my failure in the game and I was left wondering what was wrong.

Piece after piece, block after block, I toiled away at this machine - my highest score still 3 thousand away from where I needed to get. "Why do they make these blocks impossible to break, except by random chance?" I would ask myself. I called my roommate in to have a look, perhaps both of us could figure this out. As I got to that magical level again I showed him the "green" pieces no longer match.

The look he gave me told more than any words could - a look of humor, and a sort of sad pity.

"Well those ones," he walks up and points at the screen, "are yellow. THESE ones are green."

I stare dumbfounded at the screen, there is no way I could have forgotten I was colorblind - there was no way this game would fall into that niche of puzzle games I have categorized in my mind. The niche of games that, while very fun, are close to impossible for me to play because of my less than stellar color acuity.

So I write to you today not so much for tech support (I apologize for wasting your time but this is the most relevant email address I could find) but to ask if you could possibly just forward this to someone who is open for suggestions or bug fixes. Many puzzle games put a little icon or symbol on the pieces for just this reason. I really do want to beat this game, I want to get 100% in it - I want to scour every part of Liberty City myself, down to the very gristle on the bone.

But for now the meat I can eat off that bone looks a bit too similar in color to the meat that is inedible.

Thank you for your time.

Hungrily Blind,
Gordon R.

Posted by Doc at 1:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

These past few days have been a bit harrowing. Perhaps not that bad, but very annoying at least. Saturday morning my roommate Alex flew off for a week again, getting me back home around 11am. I looked outside and just like any other winter day in Washington - it looked like crap outside. I shut the blinds and plopped down at my computer. It wasn't until around 4pm or so that a friend asked me if I was snowed in or not yet. Thinking it was a joke I opened the blinds to see... nothing. Well actually it took a moment to realize the construct-eque kind of whiteness I was seeing everywhere was snow. It was snowing hard.

:(

Go ahead and check back to last year, I think I babbled about the black out weekend. Anyways the snow thankfully came and went without much ruckus - in it's wake leaving a lot of rain.

At first the rain was cool, it was the huge fat rain and it was melting the snow away quick. But then after a few hours it was still coming down. The next day, still coming down. That night... still coming down. It was as if Bothell was transported to the final fight in The Matrix: Revolutions. That night we went out drinking and then hit Denny's - still raining.

Leaving Denny's around 4am or so I cruised back toward my house, having to pass under a little underpass, my friend in tow. I get close to it and I see there is a huge pool of water. It was quite odd looking so I slowed to a stop, noticing a car on my right who was stopped, the driver doing something or another. I figured the guy would flag me down and go "gtfo noob" if I was about to make a grave mistake. Clenching my wheel I floored it, pegging my Honda out at 5 miles an hour. Deeper and deeper it went, not too bad so far. Then I got to the middle, and my headlights went out. Or... they didn't so much go out as they were completely UNDER water.

My entire vehicular life flashed before my eyes. This is how my car was going to die, not with a bang - but with a slow bubbling whimper. I keep the gas going and through some amazing stroke of luck I pull out of it, and continue driving as if nothing had happened. It really was one of the scariest moments driving I've ever felt.

And the rain never stopped.

The next day I woke up and got a call from my friend Aimee, she said she was flooded in - and how were we going to get to work. Calling work, Aimee, and texting others back and forth the only help I got from my manager was "walk" ;|.

So I did walk, I walked down and decided to find out how bad the damage was. The first thing I notice is that the street right after mine, on the northern (not sure which but I'll call it north to sound intelligent) side there is a huge field of grass. I'm not sure exactly what it's for, perhaps it IS a flood plane of sorts. Whatever it was it is now under water. It's a "huge fucking lake and the apartments near it are now probably beach side property. It's not as if it's a few inches all over, here you can see there is a fence, that's a full size fence that's pretty under water.

Walking down a bit further I get to the underpass where I made my little submarine car earlier. The water is a bit lower than it was last night but at least they got some cops out here to physically block it off. It's hard to make out with my shitty camera but there are barriers on either side of the pool, and as you can see they are about half way under water. Those are the standard concrete barriers you find on highways and the likes.

It wasn't until we turned down the cul-de-sac(??) that we found out just how bad the flooding has gotten. Down here there is a small (small) river that runs under the road and comes up at certain areas. It was literally overflowing over the sidewalk and just feeding the new river (was: road) with fresh water constantly. Even on the sidewalk the water was coming up to and going over the curb. The entire road was filled this high, deeper in some spots. It's just odd to think about the roads you drive on every day suddenly becoming some kind of archaic water canal system. Flowing over the edges of everything, blocking entire communities out of the rest of the roads - it was pretty intense. Some houses had to resort to sandbagging their driveways just in case. I couldn't imagine having to do that again :(

There is one "house" that got it pretty bad. I call it a house with a loose definition of such because I'm not entirely sure if anyone lives there. I see things that people might use if they lived there decorating the "lawn" and "yard", but I don't know how to get to this house and I don't know where it goes or does. Whatever it was, it was in low ground and at the time experiencing a good foot of water flowing through it. I hope whatever lives there is alright - as well as all their shit.

All in all it was a crappy few days and a crappy day at work. Apparently a state of emergency was declared - but nothing cool came of it :(

Posted by Doc at 3:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Upon checking the schedule for this week and last week I found out I'm not the second on bartender - as thought and told. Apparently the manager wants to spread these shifts out between three people. This means I get the best of the two shifts our main bartender doesn't work, and back him up on Saturday. This is ok but I was under the impression I was now a bartender with one day on the floor. I now have 2/3 days on the floor and 3 days bartending.

Oh well - I guess it's experience, so that's all I can really hope for at this point.

Also I picked up Rock Band. Actually I had that shit pre-ordered and the first minute second I could get my hands on it. And jesus christ. To say this game is fun is an understatement. It does for console gaming what TF2 has done for PC gaming and me.

(HD Link)

That is the opening (and only really) CG bit in the game and it's really all you need to KNOW about the game. Everything you do in the game is designed to make you feel like the most kick ass rock star imaginable. I've even had bunches of fun singing, and I know I'm horribly tone deaf!

In the game you can create your own band, so our apartment's band will be called "Go Team Venture" which has me on Lead Guitar, and Bryan on Vocals. Alex might to Bass, but he might also do Drums - still trying to get that one down. What really blows is my guitar already broke, so I have a replacement coming for me tomorrow or the day after.

And speaking of the day after every Tuesday I'm thinking of hosting "Wannabe Rock Star" nights. I'll get a few friends over and shit and we'll just drink a bit and play Rock Band until we are all thoroughly rocked-out. Should be great fun!

Posted by Doc at 3:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm happy right now. I am every time during these moods. I have just gotten off of work for the night, came home - have someone here waiting for me, a lover in bed. I take a shower, change into some lounge clothes and sit here in front of my computer. I pour myself a simple drink, get some good music going and relax.

Life just stops right now. I'm not thinking of how much I owe to people, my schedule tomorrow, what I'm making for dinner next week - I'm just enjoying my time, here, with myself.

It's an amazing feeling and I hope everyone I know has a feeling like this. No matter how my day has been I know that these moments right here will make up for anything I will have gone through prior till now.

I'm happy, plain and simple.

([secret message] also: despite the giant bugs crawling on your neck it is kind of nice to see them, at least lets me know you were happy for a short time)

Posted by Doc at 12:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

After getting down here I find out my dad volunteered us to watch his friend's miniature pincer puppy. Sure this thing is cute but FUCK is it annoying. If you fail to give it even one minute second of your full attention it starts to whine. I don't know why. Just sits there and whines - it's super depressing. Ugh. I can't even type a lot right now because it's whining at me.

[also I'm not at home so I cannot upload normally, sorry for free image host site]

edit: about 10 seconds after I put it down it dropped a nice fucking shit on my floor

OH MAN I LOVE PUPPIES I WANT LIKE 10 OF THEM YEAH AND SOME KIDS TOO

Posted by Doc at 1:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

My legs after my workout hurt, a lot. Mostly my quads and I thought that was because of my squats - I haven't done them in forever. I then read up on squats, because those are HARD, and found out I was doing them really - really wrong.

Or not wrong, just the wrong KIND of squats. I was doing deep squats. Normally when you squat you stop at about 90 degrees of leg bendature. I was going until my ass was inches from the ground. This made getting back up hard as hell and I started to hurt my ankle as I pushed up improperly.

Yesterday when I worked out I did it how I should and it went a lot better - it was a little sore before hand but after the biking and some stretching I was able to do a shorter rep of all my sets.

While at the gym there was only one other guy with me (it being after 2am now, went after work) and he was one of those guys that are there just to say he was at the gym. He came in and sat down at a machine and did three motions then got up and started to text on his phone. He walked over to the mirrors and then took a picture of himself (he wasn't built or anything) before sitting back down and doing another set of 2 motions.

The weight was on the lowest setting and he seemed to just be bored. I swear he was on the phone 80% of the time I was there with him. That at least made me feel better about myself.

-- side note --
Right after typing that paragraph I tabbed out and put my leg up, and got a fat fucking cramp. I think. I don't know what that was but my hamstring just said no and contracted hard, causing a nice splitting pain up and down my entire leg. I had to walk it off and stretch or whatever ended up fixing it.
--side note--

I've been trying to eat more in the morning but I need to go the store and do some shopping. I'd like to munch on some fruits or yogurt or something other than oatmeal but I'm not ever really that hungry when I wake up - food is the last thing on my mind at that time.

Posted by Doc at 1:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

My brother is a personal trainer for 24hr fitness so when I told him I was working out he got all into it. After a few weeks of talking he sent over some books for me to read, which is weird because I was still under the impression he didn't know how. Anyways one of the books has broken down a system how to get "huge". While I don't want to get "huge" (those people look creepy), I will follow it to get some results.

My workouts (three days a week) now go like this:

10 minutes on bike/eliptical
2 minutes stretching

Forward Crunches 3 x 15
Hyperextensions* 3 x 15
Barbell Squats 4 x 15
Barbell Bench Presses 4 x 15
Barbell Rows 4 x 15
Chins / Front Lat Pulldowns 4 x 15
Seated Military Press 4 x 15
Close-Grip Bench Presses 4 x 15
Barbell Curls 4 x 15

I start the first set (other than crunches/hyper/chins) with a warm-up set, usually 50% less than I'm going to lift the remainder of the sets. This does also mean sometimes I'm just benching the bar, which is sad and silly looking :P

* I can't do these right now because I'm not sure exactly where to do them, I can't find a bench I can rig :( I'll have to ask my brother.

After that workout however I started to feel like I did after the first days of summer training before my short lived football career during highschool. Feel like crap but I know it's because I really worked my body. That is good. I will continue this workout for 4 weeks before I switch it up and continue with the program.

Hopefully by the end of these 4 weeks I can up some weight, I feel so puny there, :P

Also I go after work so my hair is still spiked/gelled back, so I'm sure that just looks a little odd.

You also may have noticed that I have added a "Free Burma" tag to my blog. This is because I've been listening to this story on NPR and the news and it really does touch on humanity at such a basic level it hurts.

This (badly paraphrased) is the current state of events, please feel free to correct me: Burma right now has a military regime that nobody really seems to like, it's a police state. To finally protest the regime the monks (thousands of them) started to "protest", walking down the street and praying - holding their begging bowls upside down. By holding them upside down they are sending a message they do not want any donations from the military, kind of an ex-communication for them. Once they were starting to be stopped from gathering ordinary civilians joined hands and started to create human chains around the monks - protecting them.

This went on for a few weeks, peaceful protests, no calling for a regime change, nothing. Just monks showing themselves with civilians. Then the word came down - stop them at all costs. The military has been opening fire on anyone protesting. Men, women, monks, even children. There are stories of their bodies dumped into swamps and burned - even still alive.

To make this all worse the U.N. can do little about it right now because of China. China has monetary ties to Burma and outing the current regime will disrupt a lot of those plans. This means their veto vote is allowing the Burmese to suffer this horrible inhumanity week after week. There is a movement to boycott the 2008 Olympics in China if they do not change their ways.

To switch gears to a bit more humane and happy note however I will be back in the California Bay Area visiting my parents from the 19th to the 25th. I have a lot of catching up to do so if you want me to come over and party hearty then make sure you talk to me in advance so I can plan this all out.

Posted by Doc at 11:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I play World of Warcraft: The Trading Card Game. It's like Magic: The Gathering, but way more stupid and nerdy. I have been collecting since the beginning and I'm really excited that I think I'm good at the game, and because of that I decided I should go to a regional qualifier to see if I can actually go to nationals.

I hop on UDE's website and get the date, 15th of September there is one in Seattle. Alright awesome, like a month ago I requested this day off work. Now that it's here I've really started to crack down and work on my deck and get all nervous.

Looking for last minute tips I head over to the forums and try to get a feel for how many are going. Then I run across this post. Apparently because of a failed event earlier this month they have been canceling WA state events left and right, leaving the only regional left happening NEXT Saturday - a day I'm already scheduled to work and cannot get off.

Fuck.

I'm really angry right now - I can't work, they've already filled my shifts, and now I can't go play cards. So I miss out on money AND fun today. Complete waste of my time, and my friend's (who requested off work as well to come with me).

Posted by Doc at 2:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I have a belly. It's not big or unsightly. Without my shirt on I'm not ugly, but I'm definitely not what a guy my age should look like. I'm in my 20s - I should be cut and lean for no real reason. Right now I'm clocking in at just over 190, when I moved up here I used to be 180. Granted that's only adding 10 pounds a year but at this rate when I die I'll be over 700 pounds!! (that is far too many pounds per me)

I've decided to start going to the gym here that my apartments have. I'll actually call it a "gym". There isn't anything really there. There is one weight machine, a few treadmills, and a couple other aerobic machines. The weight machine however allows me to work out my upper body which is what I'm trying to get cut first. My little "regimen" is to do a few reps on the machine, switching between whatever I can workout at the time and then finish up with a 20 minute run on the treadmill.

My overall goal (obtainable in the next year or so) is to be 210 pounds with most of this belly fat gone. I know belly fat takes the absolute longest to get rid of but at the same time I would be able to slim down my other areas that have been putting on some fat. I'm not sure what these other areas are but I'm sure I have them and they are fuckers for being there D:<

I might be getting a little ahead of myself - I've only gone to the gym two times in a row but it's better than nothing I believe. I'm posting it here and I've already told my roommates; just so I can't back out easily. Bryan's parents offered to buy him a membership at a gym and have me tag along if I can and we have taken them up on this offer. Hopefully if I can get myself into the system of going to the gym then I will be able to take them up on that offer and start to do something good for my body.

Here also are the rules I'm compiling for myself to follow for as long as I can.

1. No eating before bed.
2. No fast food*.
3. No non-diet sodas.
4. Actually get some protein into my body.

(*Subway and stuff not included)

Like I've told myself I'm really not sure how long I'll be able to do this. I also have close to no idea on how to work out. My brother is big into working out so I'm sure he'll give me some pointers when I ask but other than that I don't know. My worst fear is going to a gym, working up a sweat for 40 minutes only to find out I've been doing pushups on a stairmaster or something retarded like that.

Also I tried to grow a goatee, but because I can't get the mustache to connect with the beard part I might just stick with the one little small beard. I don't know. I guess I'm just trying to change myself a bit.

Yeah. Look like a total fag in this pic~

Who the hell is that in my SHOT?!

Oh, it's just Alex <3

Posted by Doc at 1:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So around 1pm or so an alarm goes off. For the entire building. My first response is "kitchen's on fire". Jumping up I check it out and soon find out the entire BUILDING is blaring with alarms and lights and shit.

Everyone from our building is outside trying to figure out wtf is happening and after a good 10 minutes we find it was a stupid kid who pulled our fire alarm. I found out the fire department takes about 15 minutes to arrive - which is good information.

Also I got my treasure chest!

Posted by Doc at 6:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Got my packaged today. Or, I got my empty box today in which I'll send my xbox away to be "repaired" and sent back probably in a month or something lame.

I also can't think of a whole lot that has happened in the past two days. Alex pointed out that I had messed up my card arrangement, meaning I had to move the remainer 45 pages of cards (9 pockets each) back by one. Which sucked :(

Also it has come to my attention many nerds out there don't know what nerdcore is. This saddens me. It's nerd rap and it's fucking awesome. YTcracker is my favorite so far, mainly because he is a big poster over at the forums I always hang out at. He releases most (I think all) of his work for free (as do most nerdcore artists) and it's worth taking a glance at even if you think you don't like rap.

MP3 Time!

YTcracker - Meganerd

If you enjoy it then you can find the full album for free over at his site: http://www.ytcracker.com/free-music/

Posted by Doc at 1:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last night I tried to update my iTunes. Not for any reason - I was just getting tired of it asking me to update. So I download and tear into the installer only to find out that the "Windows Installer Service" wasn't working - which is odd.

Also for the past few weeks 2 windows updates would fail every time - and I'm still not even sure why. So after getting home last night around 2am I decided I'll just spend a quick hour or two working out the problem so the next day won't be plagued by any craptastic errors.

2 hours pass quickly and I'm NO closer to figuring out what the hell went wrong. Retiring to bed I awake the next morning (today) and try to fix it. I find many errors and ways to fix it, each one leaving me no answers and nothing happening. So I decide I'll just reinstall windows. I do this every few months - and I have my important stuff split off onto my other drives just for this occasion.

I get the installer going and head off to play some Xbox 360, Guilty Gear XX #Reload was recently updated to play on the 360 - meaning I can FINALLY play it on my big screen in all it's pretty glory. I get into the game and the first attack I throw gets countered, making this cool explosion which seems to freeze the game up and mess up my TV.

Then a second passes and I realize it's not the game - my Xbox is borked. I get up and restart the thing, watching the little circle around the power button - I like it's power on dance.

But instead of the fun little circle of green I'm met with something much worse. After calling up tech support and giving them my info and whatnot they agree to send me the shipping box to send it back in.

Upside: New Xbox. Free month of live. No cost to me.
Downside: Fucking broken Xbox.

So up until about 30 minutes ago when Windows FINALLY finished installing I was just sitting around watching the installer screen tick by, and staring at my dead xbox. I tried playing a few emulated games on the old xbox, but nothing was doing it for me.

I guess it's back to Fallout.

Posted by Doc at 3:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I just finished Fallout 2 about a week ago. I really can't imagine why such a good game never got another sequel. I know Fallout 3 is on it's way, but after seeing the way the new company dealt with Oblivion I'm very afraid for how Fallout 3 will play.

I also just bought a little device that allows me to hook up my xbox 360 controller to my computer, so I've been trying to find new games I can play using only my controller.

First one up is a little Geometry Wars remake called Grid Wars 2. I'm still trying to figure out if I can fix the deadzone on my second analog to not be so hairtrigger but other than that the game looks pretty and is a pretty fun game. Think of it as asteroids on speed with the controls of SmashTV.

Grid Wars 2

A friend from around the area came over and showed me Ragnarok Battle Offline. At first I was a little skeptical because of how horrible RO sounded. Once I actually started to play the game however it was a blast. You get to pick from 10 different classes and go through a side scrolling almost double dragon style beat-em-up game. The fun part is you still level, get to pick special moves, "spec" yourself many different ways. And with the controller it plays like a cool arcade game.

The only "downside" is that it's completely in a foreign language so you'll need to either get certain patches to get it to work or just learn what it does. (Also it doesn't work for me while I have my SLI enabled - odd)

Ragnarok Battle Offline

The last game I've tried with a controller so far is Psychonauts. I haven't played a lot of it yet but so far it's a really really solid platformer with awesome design behind it. You're just small kid trying to become a "Psychonaut" - a psychic soldier of sorts. It's one of those rave sleeper hits that's amazingly fun but the critics and the world just passed over it. Like ICO or Shadow of the Colossus.

It's available on steam if you wanna find it easy.

Psychonauts

We are also looking into finding another roommate. Alex has met a friend he seems to "really" (see: gaaaay) like and wants him to move in. Right now it's months off but hopefully we will get his ass in here - it's more fun with more people in here, and the added bonus of making HIM pay for some stuff is always awesome. I don't know him much and I think Bryan knows him even less but I trust Alex wouldn't bring in a loser to live with us.

I'm not exactly sure where he'll sleep and stuff (Alex assures me his room) but what I'm most worried about is finding places for his computer and stuff - even though it is a laptop. I don't think it will be too crowded, and if all continues to go to plan we should be getting a bigger place / our own condo next year around this time. Hard to tell though.

Posted by Doc at 1:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Rent is due.

I have the money for rent, but I also don't have much other money right now. This last month I had to spend a lot of money. Between buying clothes for the wedding, to the presents for all the occasions it was just a messy month. I lost a good $500 to stuff I didn't want to spend money on, and because of that I didn't get to save anything other than my normal $200.

Our rent is a little over a grand, and I have about $1.4k right now. We also do not have ANY food here. None. It's kind of sad to think I cannot go shopping at this moment because I need to work a bit more. It wouldn't be so bad except for the fact that my friend Eevee is gone off to work in Pittsburgh again for a few more weeks. This means I can't split bills 3 ways while he's gone. I do have Bryan here but he's still trying to pay me back for stuff he owes me. He's picked up 7 days of work next week - I hope those work out because if they don't then I'm just going to have to pick up a second job as a bar back somewhere, his isn't cutting it.

I don't think my money problems are AS bad as I'm making them out to be. I do have some tips from the last two nights in my wallet and I do work tonight which is another hundred bucks - which covers the comcast bill that should be coming soon.

I just cannot wait for July to get here because there are NO stupid holidays, NO birthdays I need to worry about. I can just work and build up my cash reserves again and get this money train back on track.

Speaking of money I have been thinking about stand up comedy for a while. I don't think I'd be any good at it but I always have idolized comedians and I've wanted to do stand up since I was younger. I don't know what I would do because I don't have any jokes, I just happen to have a great sense of timing. I guess it would be better on a improv team but that humor never is as cool as stand up's build up and callback type of humor.

Also we got a propane grill from Bryan's parents. I haven't put it together yet because I have nothing to cook but I'm very excited that I can actually GRILL stuff now!

Posted by Doc at 1:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Just so I have this written down somewhere.

Booze:

* Crown Royal
* Kahlúa
* Bombay Dry Gin
* 1800 Reposado
* Cherry Brandy
* Bacardi 151
* Bacardi Limon
* Bacardi Superior
* Meyer's Dark Rum
* Parrot Bay Mango rum
* Parrot Bay Coconut rum
* Captain Barbossa Spiced Rum
* Jägermeister
* Whiskey
* Hpnotiq
* Vodka
* Orange Vodka
* Goldshlager
* Southern Comfort
* Christian Brothers
* Rumple Minze
* Bailey's Irish Cream
* Disarono
* Midori
* Cointreau
* Triple Sec
* Peach Schnapps
* Sour Apple Pucker

Mixers/Others:

* Bitters
* Milk
* Sweet & Sour
* Orange / Cranberry / Pineapple / Apple Juice
* Coke / Sprite / Mountain Dew
* Grednadine
* Sweetened Lime Juice
* Lime / Lemon Juice
* Ginger Ale
* Tonic
* Club Soda
* Vanilla Ice Cream
* Chocolate Syrup
* Margarita Mix
* V8 / Bloody Mary Mix
* Coconut Cream

Posted by Doc at 12:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I guess I should update something so my blog doesn't look like I've been binge drinking since the jell-o shots like a month ago.

Char came over last week or something sometime to spend a week with us. I do have to admit we drank a lot. Mostly because he's never been drunk so I wanted to let him at least enjoy that. During the time here we went and saw Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. The critics are a bit harsh on this movie but they do make a few good points - it's just a LOT of stuff crammed into this last episode. During the movie I did get to see a few previews including Ratatouille, a new pixar movie. It looks good because it has a mouse. Yeah.

Work has been going pretty slow, other than Father's Day coming up it should be getting pretty stagnant. They put me back on Sunday morning on-call, which is funny because... I don't call in nor care about missing work then. I close the night before (out of there at 2am) and they want me to call in at 9am to see if I have to work that morning. To be honest I've only been called in like twice but still they are kind of pulling a douche move keeping me on like that - it's a waste of my "talent".

Last night I went to my first bar after work. Nothing special, just headed off with Nicole to have a few beers. We had a good long talk about everything, I think either A) she wants to sleep with me or B) she wants to mold me into a better fag so she can become a fag hag and add me to her collection. I got a lot of juicy gossip I'm not at liberty to share (not as if anyone cares).

Also at work we switched the channel (radio) to some dance station or what not and the Napolean Dynamite dance song came on. I'm pretty sure if it wasn't because of that movie I wouldn't like the song as much but as soon as I hear it I want to dance just like he did D:

So whenever I hear it I need to share it. Canned Heat by Jamiroquai

Posted by Doc at 3:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So I have some booze and I have some jell-o and I don't work for two days.

What am I supposed to do with all of this? Make jell-o shots of course! I've been mixing drinks for about a month now and I'm still pretty horrible so I have a good idea on how epically bad this will go down.

Oh well - here it goes.

Step 1
Find the flavor of jell-o you'd like to prepare. I'm preparing something that my boyfriend will drink without complaint so I am making a type of fuzzy navel. Peach schnapps and orange jell-o/juice. There wont be any lemonade but I don't think it would be that big a difference in such a small bit of jell-o.

Step 2
Make it stupid difficult to actually make. I decided to go with a jell-o mold that isn't a bowl, not a cup, not even a shot glass. I will be using orange rinds for my jell-o.

Step 3
Carve out the orange pulp and fruit, leaving the rinds in tact. Keep the actual orange fruit and stuff separate, you will want their sweet supple juice for later on. Make sure when you scoop it out with a spoon or whatever you keep as much as the rind as possible, you'll want a thick skin on the orange.

Step 4
Prepare the jell-o according to the directions, make sure that water is boiling HOT and you dissolve the powder 100% completely. If you do not then the liquor will collaborate with some enzymes and shit and it will not set. After you dissolve the powder remove the liquid from the source of heat.
The next part is important: let the liquid cool to room temperature. The reason is that the next step involves putting in the booze. And if you put it in too quickly then you will lose all the alcohol in the booze and be left with not much of anything except normal expensive jell-o.

So while you're waiting go over to that pulp, blend it up and then push it through a strainer and enjoy some 100% fresh squeezed orange juice. Don't drink all of it however!

Step 5
Mix the booze into the jell-o. Check the back of the jell-o box and see how much cold water they want you to mix into the mixture. Replace that number with some cold booze. I chose some cheap ass Peach schnapps as said earlier.

Measure it out.

You know schnapps taste pretty good.

Damn good.

I don't remember much about the next four hours.

At all.

After you get all that measured out collect yourself and add it to the now room temperature mixture behind you.

Step 5
Mix a bit of the OJ into the booze into the jell-o mixture, stirring while doing this all.

Step 6
Set up your oranges for liquid holding. This seems to be the easiest way, the muffin tray so far has been used 0 times in my house so I don't care if I spill all around it or catch it on fire.

Step 7
Pour. No really just pour.

Step 8
Refridgerate the jell-o for a few hours.

Also it may help to have some room before you do this.

INTERLUDE!
While I was waiting for the jell-o to settle I realized I cut 2 and a half 2 many oranges for the small 3oz box I bought. This left me with nothing to do with the rinds, and time to kill.

But I'm sure I'll find a way to pass the time.

I mean what CAN'T you do with 2 orange rinds?

INTERLUDE OVER!

Step 9
Cut the fuckers up! After a few hours they should be set. Because of the alcohol and orange juice added they are cloudy and opaque but they will still taste delicious!

Soon become!

Aren't they pretty?

Now the hard part. Finding some way to justify having these with nobody here here but myself, my boyfriend, and a roomie who doesn't drink a whole lot :(

Continue reading "Doc Makes Jell-O Shots!" »

Posted by Doc at 5:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So we've now landed at our new apartment. The only thing we have left to do at our old place is get a few car trips of miscellaneous shit out of there and wipe everything down. The new place we are at now is a bit smaller but it feels a lot nicer. Maybe because it's new right now. This place however has given us a year long lease - so we won't be moving anywhere soon. It also has a nicer complex - finally off the highway and includes things like a pool we can USE and a weight room which probably wont see much use.

I grabbed Eevee's camera, because mine is broken for flash and snapped a couple photos. In our little hallway there are only two doors, which is nice. Cuts down on the amount of people that will be walking around, just like the last place. Our "welcome" mat has followed us through times and is actually the coolest one I've ever seen.

In our front room the first thing you're greeted with is our same couch and crappy dumpster recliner. Over to the right is our "dining room" which isn't used for much other than holding crap or playing some cards on. Speaking of which playing cards on a circle table is pretty retarded, just a little FYI.

The view from our kitchen actually is a good view, it almost looks like a real living room. It also leaves plenty of space for playing the Wii and taking in the full cinematic awesomeness of our speakers. I wouldn't have believed it until I saw it myself, but I think we need a bigger shelving unit to hold all our video games and movies.

Down the hallway there are 4 doors, a 5th one at the end that leads into the closet. There is the smallest room, which Eevee took because he knew most of this time wouldn't be spent there.

There is also the master bedroom, which has a bathroom and giant walk-in closet inside of it. The closet is a good size. Such a good size I could afford to put my dresser in there and have it not be seen when you look straight into it. Just like the life-sized nerd in our hallway this room seems to come with a life-sized bed dweller. I want to get a real bedset soon, the boxspring on the ground like that isn't the most attractive looking piece of furniture we have - despite the bed being kind of expensive. The master bathroom is actually pretty big. The fan is a bit loud but unlike the last place it's just loud - not loud AND broken.

To top it all off there is the best room in the house: the computer room. In here we have set up our x-box set up as our media center. Because there is no cable box in here we cannot watch live TV, which means we will probably go back to torrenting a lot more stuff to watch in here. There of course is my computer and vee's computer.

All and all it's a pretty spiffy place. We're on the ground floor like I stated so we can DDR and stuff without too much worry - and I can turn up the base on my speakers just a small bit.

And no place is complete without the resident headcrab hanging around.

Posted by Doc at 8:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So that card I was selling on ebay actually did sell, for about $53, which is pretty nice for one measly card. I then got out a checklist of my current cards and started to check off what I do and do not have.

I found out that I am missing about 109 or so cards (all rares and epics) as well as a few oversized cards. So with a good pocket of ebay cashes in my paypal I started to go on a rare and epic buying "spree". It was cut short however at about 20 or so cards, but it's a good start.

Chibimon was over with Kupok this past week and we played a lot of cards, I seemed to have gotten Chibimon hooked on the game, which is nice because it would give me someone other than my roomies to play with.

Eventually I'd love to go to some kind of contest or weekly play or something - just ANYTHING to meet new people and get out of the house. Sadly though I am too scared to go talk to people I've never talked to before so I haven't gone to any of them.

I don't think anyone cares but the list of cards I have left to buy are listed somewhere within this underlined mystery link!

I know there is a new set out "Through the Dark Portal", but I'll wait for it to be out as long as the first set before I try to collect them all.

Cards I bought after the break so as not to spam my front page.

Continue reading "MIMO" »

Posted by Doc at 9:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So I got back home from California, nothing amazing or spectacular really. Alex and Bryan had my present ready for me though. I had to chose. I could either pick 4 WoW Dark Portal boosters (card game I really wanted to get more of) or their mystery box.

I chose the boosters because I knew they wanted me to pick the box. Well inside the box (which I got instead anyways) was like 4500 more cards or something stupid awesome. So now I have a little collection of cards for the second set, hopefully they will start playing me again, or at least Bryan might.

Anyways in this set there are three cards that give you exclusive in-game items. The items don't do anything but they look cool and are very hard to find. In my first booster I pulled a King Mukla with the special loot scratch off code at the bottom.

Tasty, tasty, loot card.

So of course I threw it up on ebay real quick. I wanna get some cash off this card so I can buy MORE cards and continue the cycle.

Posted by Doc at 12:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I turned 21 today, as of 5:06am. For my birthday (and any other excuse my parents have to get me to visit) I went down to California, where I am right now watching American Idol D:

It's with the family though so it's alright.

The day started off a bit weird. My brother woke me up telling me to tell goodbye to our one cat Corky because she was going to the vet, she was wheezing and didn't seem to good. $500 and a lot of prodding later we find out it's a cold :|

If she died today I'd be pissed off, for raining on my parade! (Also the vet's name was Dr.Freeman, there was NOBODY dying today)

I went out to lunch with my mom and brother and later on we had some prime rib at home, my grand-pa came over. I got a really sexy looking watch, I'll take pictures of it later. I mean it's really fucking nice.

Other than that I hope to steal away this laptop I'm on now but it doesn't look too good - my dad has actually started to use it for work or something. He checks email on it at least, that much I know.

Posted by Doc at 8:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We got our couch (finally), and life was good.

My camera is still broken (no flash) so the pictures have to be artifically lit - and the lighting situation in this apartment leaves much to be desired you could say. But anyways might as well show the pictures.

(My apartment is... well it's messy to say the very least.)

This is the couch - it is comfy and easy to wear.

This is how it looks in the main part of the room. Notice the copious amount of shit thrown randomly about. I say it adds to the "character".

I'm actually going to clean it after I post this - seeing it in picture still format is pretty horrendous. Before you ask yourself "what is that cord going up the wall?" Well that is the 360's little camera to watch me play video games and stuff. I have it there so they get a cool shot of my mug when I'm owning them at Uno.

And the last shot is what I normally see when I'm at my computer powergaming.

Ok enough whoring.

I signed up for Gamefly finally, I loved Netflicks and I love video games more than movies so I thought, what could I lose? I sign up and get a bunch of games added to my Queue, and they send me my first one: "Splinter Cell: Double Agent". A few days pass and I check my mail to get the bright orange envelope of a promise towards a wasted afternoon.

I get back in my home, open it up and smell the fresh scent o- wait. This is "Marvel: Ultimate Alliance", I didn't want this! I checked online and as far as they knew I had the Splinter Cell game. Oh well - I sent in a little email and they gave me five bucks as well as the next game on my Queue shipped immediately. The game is eh, not too boring and not too fun. I'll beat it and send it off.

Posted by Doc at 10:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Checked the mail today and I got something from Microsoft.

My very own diamond card. This is pretty cool figuring it has my XBL name on it (even thought it's not related to my first pick Doc/DrGamez - still don't know why I can't move my original xbox account over to the 360 one. Oh well.

I'm still not sure WHAT this card can do because on the website it says I'm not signed up - even though I have my card right in front of me. I'll give it a few more days before I call them up and ask what's going on.

I got a card from my parents on the 14th, they always send a cheesy little valentine's card and whatnot. This one however had a picture of my brother. On the back it says: "your brother loves you and looks up to you!"

I cried a little.

Let me catch everyone up.

I called my parents about a week ago to see what was up. See I have this mini SD card I sent my brother and nobody had called me back saying they recieved it. So to make sure it got there I was calling. I asked if he got it because he hasn't been picking up his phone. That's when I got the news.

Anthony no longer has a phone. In fact, Anthony no longer was living at my house.

He was back in juvi.

Apparently he robbed one of our neighbors and attacked him when he came back home and flipped out (for good damn reason). He was then on the run for a few weeks before being picked up. So they sent him back to jail. He has already fucked up. A lot. He's been in juvi more than three times now and has gone (and put US thorugh) about a year and a half of group therapy and bullshit counseling.

And and soon as he was out he pulled this. I found out my parents have been lying to me. They said he was doing good in school and was staying clean when they knew exactly the opposite was the true. He had failed out of his classes hard and was back to doing drugs and his old habits.

He's facing a strike. California has a very harsh penalty regarding strikes. You get three. On your third strike you are locked up in prison for life without parole. Doesn't matter what your third strike is, stealing a pack of gum can be a strike if you have a history of it - that could put you away forever. To get a strike before you're 18 is just scary. The fact that he has gone to a group therapy home and completed the program makes his felonies even more intense, it's like he was laughing in the court's faces.

I know every child lies to their parents to some degree, they have to - it's a part of growing up. Anthony never really lied to me. He hid stuff from me because he knew I wouldn't approve but he wouldn't ever lie because I wouldn't ever go out of my way to hang him.

What hurts is he lied to me. After all the tears and shit he put us all through in the past year he lied to us again and went out and said fuck the world and fuck this family. I don't understand why. We don't come from a broken home, hell we've been spoiled if anything - look at this fucking television I have.

So when he says things like he looks up to me it makes me sad. Not to put myself on a pedastool or anything but we are so different, I've never even drank in my life and he's doing cocaine while in jail. I don't know what to do, my parents are hiring a lawyer to try and reduce the sentance on him but it doesn't look good.

My worst fear is I won't have a brother when I'm in my 40s. I'm afraid he'll be killed on an OD, or mixed up in some gang stuff. I'm afraid he'll be on the run and I'll never hear from him again. I don't want to have to write letters to Cell Block C to talk to my brother. I love him too much to push him out of my life but at the same time I hate him more than anything right now - how could he do this to not only himself but to the family?

So yeah, I cried a little when I saw his picture. I don't want to lose my brother.

Posted by Doc at 2:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

So I saved a life today, what did you do?

Let me explain.

My first table of the night, this elderly (50ish) woman by herself orders a steak. Time passes and I get two more tables. As I am coming back with two lemonades she waddles up to me with panic in her eyes. I start telling her where the bathroom is and she just grabs her throat and barely squeaks out a "help me". I asked if she was choking (here's your sign) and she nodded.

Adrenaline. Panic. I don't know the Heimlich. Well. I don't know it more than reading stupid posters on how to do it and watching TV. I look at my other tables as they are watching but seem not to care or they are scared or something. So I get behind the woman and grab right where you should and start the maneuver. It takes a few times and after about 20 panicked seconds she coughs up a gross piece of steak into her hand.

Maybe she wouldn't have died. Maybe she would have just passed out or coughed it up her self. I can't say what was going to happen but at that moment I had to save her or she was going to die. That's what was going through my mind. I had to sit down for a moment after, I was so shaken up that my entire body was just pulsing with that kind of cold fear. I couldn't imagine what she was going through. So we took care of her meal (she didn't want to eat after that all, understandably) and she thanked me and said goodbye.

I'm not sure if I can put this on any resume or application but I know I feel better knowing someone out there owes me a lifesaving if I need it - I've just paid my dues.

"Happy" ending of it all: She didn't tip.

Posted by Doc at 12:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)