Real Men Don’t Wear Small update: The Arizona Fall League

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‘Tis an odd time of the year for me to be making an update to this ongoing project, but the Arizona Fall League doesn’t operate on the same timeline as the rest of Major League Baseball.

Having never been to the state of Arizona in my entire life previously, the Arizona Fall League was a perfect excuse to go out there for a visit for the first time.  A glorified exhibition league of minor league all-stars, championing the notion of “tomorrow’s superstars,” the AFL is a mini league consisting of six teams spread out throughout the remote Phoenix area.  In my first ever visit out to Arizona, I managed to find time to visit five of the six parks, and subsequently write entries into my ongoing project of the pursuit of visiting ballparks across America.

As far as pure baseball trip experiences go, as I’m sure I’ve said it before, I’m pretty much ruined.  The cost-effectiveness, quality of baseball and relaxing nature are second to absolutely nothing else, and it’s going to be something, when I’m forking over fifty bucks to sit way far from the field at some Major League ballpark in future years.

Mixed feelings for American Horror Story

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Alexandra Breckenridge as young Moira O’Hara = Stupid hot

Nine episodes in, and I can’t really put my finger on it.  I’m continuing to put forth effort into watching American Horror Story, but I can’t honestly say that I’m really a gigantic fan of it.  Not like how I feel about Dexter, or The Walking Dead, and not even close.  I was never really captivated, and I feel as if I’m more fascinated with the fact that it’s the same people who did Nip/Tuck that created AHS, and I’m often curious to see how far they push the envelope of cable television, more than I am of the story.

Like Nip/Tuck, every character is deeply flawed, and they all do some immoral things on a fairly regular basis.  Men are made to look like bigger villains than women are, and there’s no shortage of gore, sexual situations and brutal violence in each episode.  Now I dig all of the above, but I’m not finding myself obsessively restructuring my schedule in order to watch AHS; Jen and I are watching it when it’s convenient for us.  But the core characters are put through so much torment on such a regular basis, it goes beyond the realm of reality of just how much bullshit a fictitious family can endure before everyone ends up dead, or the family runs away without any fear of the consequences.  Seriously, story or not, the family probably should have gone insane and left six episodes ago.

Alexandra Breckenridge on the other hand; I’ve had a thing for her since I saw her on Dirt, and it’s like she’s fulfilling all sorts of sordid fantasies for the male (and some female) worlds with the way she prances around as young Moira.  This, I cannot get enough of, and without any hint of lying, is a key reason for me to actually tune in.

Gripping. Absolutely gripping.

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That’s pretty much all I can really say about The Walking Dead mid-season finale.  I haven’t felt this hooked into a television show since the fourth season of Dexter.  But I don’t think even Dexter could pull at the heart strings like The Walking Dead does.

I really can’t think of anything that disappoints me about the show, other than the fact that it’s not on more.  I’ve more or less developed at least one emotion to pretty much every character to this point, and I feel my entire body going tense while watching each episode.  There are parts where I can’t even sit down, I’m so far beyond the edge of my seat.  The zombies themselves are an afterthought for the most part, it’s the constant threat of them being around that is enough to create the necessary tension.

A long, long time ago, I read the first few issues of the comic book, so beyond the first season, this is all more or less new territory for me, beyond the few differences and wrenches the television storyline has embarked on.  Now, I dare not even think about delving into the comic books just yet, for fear of ruining the suspense and anticipation that I’ve created for myself in regards to the series.  Maybe later, in the future I will, but certainly not now.

I love where how the show is progressing with my boy Glenn, and it always rules to me when a male protagonist can have an emotional monologue, and get good results out of the words.  Vicariously, I want to be Glenn, with the opportunity to kill zombies and pursue a relationship with the hot farmer’s daughter.

I’m not even upset with the whole mid-season finale thing they’re doing.  I’m more in admiration for AMC’s intelligent decision to not bother competing with the stretch run of football, as well as the coming bowl season, and I’m guessing they’ll re-air the first seven episodes again, and try to snare some more loyal viewers, right before restarting the season in February, with hopefully a bigger following.

50,712 words later

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Another year attempted, another year succeeded.  In spite of hiatuses such as NekoCon and a lengthy trip out to Arizona, I still managed to get my 50,000 words done, for another year.

The Baseball Gods Must Be Crazy, a story about Texas Rangers manager Ron Washington, the agony of defeat, torment from the intangible Pressure, and the pursuit of Salvation; from a highly unexpected and ambitious source.  I’m not going to lie, much of this is putrid, so I won’t be bothering to share it with the rest of the world.  But I’m still pleased, nonetheless, at my ability to actually put forth the effort and get 50,000 words out in the allotted time span, despite my hurky-jerky schedule these days.

So with this literary challenge successfully traversed for another year, I’m free to pursue other things again, like writing on my brog, updating my baseball park site and reading books and works of far talented, successful and legitimate authors, instead of hacking away at my own swill.  Also, I’ll be delving into Dead Island.  That is, when I can wrest Xbox time away from Jen, who’s playing Skyrim.

So you want to be a graphic designer 101

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Where’d you go to school?  Savannah?  Parsons?  Ringling?  The Art Institutes of Blank?  Awesome, that’s a great start.  I assume you have mastery of one or several Adobe programs?  Excellent, that’s good to know.

Well guess what?  None of that means absolutely shit when you’re in the REAL working world, because 90% of the jobs you’ll be doing on a regular basis in working America will involve you primarily working with Microsoft Office products!  The holy grail of computer software, that can do absolutely nothing everything for absolutely nobody everyone!!!!!!!

Adobe InDesign may have trounced Quark as the standard within the Creative class when it comes to layout and publishing, but in the Corporate class, InDesign isn’t even worthy enough to take the soiled tissues that the almighty POWERPOINT uses to wipe its ass, and drop it into the toilet for it.  I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it’s the sad and unfortunate truth.  PowerPoint is the crown jewel of software greatness, as it’s WAY “easier” than Flash at embedding/playing video files, and so MUCH more “efficient” when it comes to creating forms and performing layout tasks!!

Adobe Photoshop may be an efficient tool amongst you nerds for making your memes and cheezeburgers, editing pictures of cats and putting esoteric jokes on top of existing graphics, but when it comes to true graphic design excellence, look no further than MICROSOFT WORD as the gold standard when it comes to getting shit done.  It only takes a genius level intellect to realize that none of the functions are decipherable without the assistance of Google to look up how the most logical of ideas are executed.  Word does everything.  Photoshop can only crank out lame jokes, while Word CAN WRITE.  Not only can it write, it comes with a library of pre-existing CLIP ART which are fail-proof when it comes to accentuating points and messages.  And you can drag and drop graphics from the internet RIGHT INTO Word, without needing to concern yourself about copyrights and photographic rights!

It’s cute that you guys went to art school or have a wealth of experience when it comes to using “design pro-grams,” but let’s get real, you guys.  If you want to make it in the real world, you got to be able to use the almighty Microsoft products in order to get there.

Photos: Thanksgiving for the wayward

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Blue Steel says it all.

Thanksgivings have been great since I started staying home for them, instead of traveling.  This year was no exception.  The destrucity of a 27 lb. turkey, successful Black Friday shopping, and the near completion of my Nanowrimo for the fourth time, all while sleeping in gratuitous amounts.  My kind of weekend.

Continue reading “Photos: Thanksgiving for the wayward” →

Another successful Black Friday

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Too easy.  It’s like being pitched a grapefruit to hit.

Although, it was something that kept me laughing for the better part of the day.

I don’t know why I’m writing about Black Friday first, when I’ve got other things that I should be writing first, like my Nanowrimo story that I’m falling behind the pace with, or the baseball column I write every week, but here we stand.

I’ve been awake since 3:00 a.m., and I’ve probably spent around $600 over the last 24 hours.  Some of it is for gift purposes, some of it is for personal indulgence, and some for simply house or useful purposes.  But the good news is that the whole Black Friday experience, which naturally has a very high chance of disappointment, was once again fortuitous for me this year, as it was the last few years I’ve spent Thanksgiving at home, and not traveling.

I bought a new home theater system, since my previous one crapped out on me; note to all, it was a RCA unit, meaning all RCA products are now dead to me.  And the verdict is instantaneously an improvement, as the surround sound on this Panasonic unit is exquisite.  The rest of the stuff I spent money on were mostly clothing, housewares, and miscellaneous things needed around the house, but all in all, I feel good about this Black Friday, and felt an impulse to write about it.  It’s nice to be one not seeking a new television, video game console, computer, tablet or three-item Crock pot, because then the chances of landing what you really want seem slightly better.

Although I thought there would be more for me to write about, apparently there isn’t.  Either fatigue is fucking with my head, or really beyond the ironically humorous visual provided, there really wasn’t that much for me to have written about when I should be saving these words for Nanowrimo instead.