So here’s life in a nutshell – I make tentative plans to go up to Virginia this weekend; see my sister, nephew and brother-in-law, and then go up to NOVA to see my family, and some friends. Elapsed timeframe, would have been three full, maybe four full days, since I wasn’t technically slated to be working anywhere at the time. Apparently, somewhere along the line I forgot that when I make travel plans, work opportunities spring up out of the blue like mummies popping out of sarcophagi, and now my travel plans have been slightly derailed, slightly modified, to mostly omit the whole Richmond part entirely. There will be other opportunities. All this being said, it’s back to WCW for a few more days, and a potential, slightly lengthier opportunity starting next week, if I’m lucky. I’d post the Bret Hart image again, but I didn’t like the overall load time of the animated GIF on my brog.
Since Thanksgiving, I haven’t played Left 4 Dead, or even rogged into my XBOX account. I literally have been playing Final Fantasy Tactics on a regular basis since, and have since gotten my core group of characters to level 99, and am slowly gradually making my way through the storyline, all while completing as many side-quests and missions as possible and growing frustrated with the now-unnecessary random encounters that take no less than 5-15 minutes a piece.
While I’m waiting for my laundry to dry, since if I go downstairs, the Piss1 will inevitably be fired up, and my ass will be planted playing more FFT, I’ve opted to stay up here and actually write; I had some sparks of inspiration over the weekend, stemming from the surprising actual victory of Virginia Tech over Florida State for the ACC championship, but that fizzled out quickly, and I might be a tad burnt out on writing about sports for the interim. So, the topic of the day is that I want to get a gelaskin for my netbook, so that everyone who sees me on it can get an idea of how to prematurely judge me based on my choice of hardware artwork. That being said, it’s been a little more difficult of a selection process than I had imagined; I had almost considered going with one of the pre-made skins, but leave it to me to not be contented by what’s readily available, and desire my own. Although there was a pretty snazzy skin of Vincent Van Gogh’s Starry Night that I’m quite keen on, but that sets me up to be an “artsy” type of person that would likely run into a person who knows way more art history than I ever cared to have paid attention to in school.
Option #1: Juice box sucking the juice straight from the orange.
If I had to submit a picture right now, this would probably be the winner. Minimalist, kind of cute, kind of ironic, a little morbid, and fairly humorously amusing. My parents wouldn’t get it, it could potentially resonate to those random strangers somewhat similar to my age who would get a chuckle maybe, and I like the charcoal gray background of it. Has a hint of nerdiness to it, gives off the slight impression that I am the weirdo I know I am, but nothing overblown.
Option #2: MAASSSSS EFFECTTTT
I really like the style in which Tali, Garrus, and what I’m really wondering is a Commander Shepard or if it’s the artist’s rendition of himself in ME style, but for my sake I’m saying it’s a Shepard. The white and red is a good contrast from the general blackness of my netbook. To those who don’t know what it is, it could be something that looks cool, slightly nerdy, and get me into some really interesting conversations if I cared to hang out in Little Five Points or anywhere near Georgia Tech. But to anyone who knows exactly that this is Mass Effect, it screams NERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRD!!!
Option #3: Cheddar versus Calamari
When I stumbled upon this one, my first thought was WTF. But the more I stared at this, the more I liked it. I liked the random puzzling impression this gives off. Furthermore, I like the dynamic and vibrant background of it in general, and I could picture this on my cover. It’s sort of cute, certainly interesting, and as mentioned, very, very random. I’m afraid others wouldn’t be able to tell that the orange wedge is a piece of cheese, and I’d probably receive many questions to why a wedge of cheese and a squid would be dueling with katanas in the first place. It’s not so much nerdy as it is just completely random, and that’s not a bad thing in my opinion.
Option #4: Jill Valentine playing the piano
There’s no secret that Jill Valentine is like my favorite video game chick in the world. And this image from the DLC, Lost in Nightmares is one of my favorites. As an image, it’s slightly eloquent due to the detailed nature of the piano, the painting in the background, the rustic setting. Jill in recon gear kind of throws it off and makes it obviously an image from a nerdy video game, and to anyone who knew exactly what it was, it also screams out NERRRRRRDDD!!! But the more I look at this image as I’m typing, the less I can actually picture it on the cover of my netbook.
Option #5: Louis versus Witch
This has no chance of actually being the winner, but it’s worth mentioning that this is like one of the best screen grabs from L4D out there. It was momentarily my netbook’s wallpaper before I decided to go Silent Hill 2 route. This would also scream NERRRRRDDD as well, and just in general, I guess I’d prefer to not have a image of obvious violence being endorsed on the cover of my netbook.
So in the end, it boils down to the first three options. I like the neutrality of the first and third options, but when I first saw the Mass Effect image, my first thought was “that would make a good netbook skin.” #3 would require some touching up for me probably, and any additional work is a little bit of a turnoff, but I wouldn’t have it any other way if I decide to go that route.
Who would have guessed so much self-inflicted work and difficulty would be applied to just a fucking netbook skin?
