Well my last post ended with me looking forward to a great Sunday this past weekend.
What happened?
Sunday morning, 5:30am I wake in my bedroom, barely lit by the creeping morning sun, and was immediately sick. What a stinker. 5:30am turned into 7am, then 9am, then noon, and before I knew it, it was 3:00pm, a bright sun blinding my vision, teasing me to go outside and enjoy a wonderful day. I just could not do it, however.
I drifted in and out of sleep the rest of the day, occasionally getting enough energy to sit up and realize how much of my day was passing me by. Next thing I knew, it was Monday: back to work. It is quite surreal to lose more than half of my weekend by barely blinking an eye, but that's what happened, and it sucks.
I can't wait to get my week back. Oh look, a three-day weekend coming up. Badass.
B3 out.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Sunday, June 28, 2009
No More Stress, 40 Pounds Down, and All the News Fit to Print
Sometimes I just need to get away from my current situation. Sometimes it is work, sometimes my family or house, and sometimes just my current life in general. For whatever various reasons, escaping is the right thing to do, the easy answer to short-term stress. I can not be allowed to experience stress - both my doctor and cardiologist have told me repeatedly that stress is very like the cause of my nerve-based heart condition. Zero stress = healthy Brandon, and I'm putting a lot on the line to reduce my stress - I'm making lots of changes in all aspects of my life.
I'm learning to deal with immediate stress. I cannot avoid all stress throughout my day, but what I can do is remove myself from a stressful situation to allow time to process my thoughts. Almost 100% of the time I find a combination of self-isolation and my favorite music to be a great way to get away. I have a long list of songs from my high school days that seem to effortlessly carry my mind away to another place, and I do not hesitate to revisit this music when necessary. Tantric, Saliva, Lostprophets, Creed, Alanis Morissette, Matchbox Twenty, and many others are at the top of my lists. It does work for me. What works for you?
Changing gears quickly, I will briefly introduce the 40 Pounds Down program that I will be starting on July 1st. My physical health has become a major focus for me in the past few months, and this program is designed to address this fact as well as address several upcoming needs relating to my goals for 2010. 40 Pounds Down (40PD) is a rigidly-defined diet and exercise program that I have spent nearly a month designing. After two weeks of silent testing, I am now in a position to follow my plan and without much hesitation, see success. I will be posting lots of information and stats about the program on Critically Correct, including my personal progress update. The eventual goal of the program is to lose 40 pounds of unnecessary body fat, build strength for both lifting and running, and increase my overall stamina, mainly in an effort to counter the fatigue brought on by my current heart medication.
Finally, a few tidbits.
B3 out.
I'm learning to deal with immediate stress. I cannot avoid all stress throughout my day, but what I can do is remove myself from a stressful situation to allow time to process my thoughts. Almost 100% of the time I find a combination of self-isolation and my favorite music to be a great way to get away. I have a long list of songs from my high school days that seem to effortlessly carry my mind away to another place, and I do not hesitate to revisit this music when necessary. Tantric, Saliva, Lostprophets, Creed, Alanis Morissette, Matchbox Twenty, and many others are at the top of my lists. It does work for me. What works for you?
Changing gears quickly, I will briefly introduce the 40 Pounds Down program that I will be starting on July 1st. My physical health has become a major focus for me in the past few months, and this program is designed to address this fact as well as address several upcoming needs relating to my goals for 2010. 40 Pounds Down (40PD) is a rigidly-defined diet and exercise program that I have spent nearly a month designing. After two weeks of silent testing, I am now in a position to follow my plan and without much hesitation, see success. I will be posting lots of information and stats about the program on Critically Correct, including my personal progress update. The eventual goal of the program is to lose 40 pounds of unnecessary body fat, build strength for both lifting and running, and increase my overall stamina, mainly in an effort to counter the fatigue brought on by my current heart medication.
Finally, a few tidbits.
- I accidentally busted the battery latch on my phone tonight, which I'm trying to set in place with glue. I will be out of a phone unless I manually hold my battery in or the glue holds. Convenient timing for this too, since it was my own rage and anger that threw my phone out my bedroom window in the first place. See what I mean about avoiding stress?
- I have a new event going up on Facebook soon, called "The March to Maumee." Keep an eye out for this open-invite event that should take place sometime in late July.
B3 out.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Summer Is Here, and So Are the Ghostbusters
Summer is here... about time.
This year's seasons have been rather odd. We had a mildly late winter bolt almost directly into spring and summer: March was rather chili, April warmed out of the 30's finally, but May landed Northwest Ohio in plenty of sunny, 80-degree weather. It's been up and down through June, but now we are expecting at least seven days - and probably more - of 80 to 90-degree temperatures. Scorching almost, with constant sun. A beautiful week, no doubt, and I'm looking forward to it.
With all this nice weather I have plenty to get done outside (jogging, some minor photography, hiking, etc.), but it will be hard to stay outside and not be tempted by the lure of a great new game I got: Ghostbusters: The Video Game. I am a long-time fan of the Ghostbusters, and it is one of the few movies that has impacted my life multiple times in multiple ways. As a child I saw it with simple amazement: I did not fully understand the movie, but I saw it for what caught my attention at the time: cool guys using cool guns to capture neat ghosts. Years later I re-watched it with a bit of an education under my belt, and I understood the humor much better - and the everlasting impact of the movie was complete.
Like so many other people, I've really been looking forward to the new Ghostbusters game - the first in 20 years - and now that it is here... I'm torn. As a movie-licensed product, there is success to be found. The script is funny, classic Ghostbusters, following in the footsteps of the first two movies very well. The script does the movie one better, by delving much deeper into the mythology and history of the events at hand, something achievable thanks to the greater amounts of time available to a gamer - a ten-hour game allows for much more narrative freedom than a 90-minute movie. The full cast is here providing voicework and likenesses. For fans of the first film, this is the true sequel that the second movie should have been.
As a game, things take a tumble. I am explicitly focusing this commentary on the PC version of the game, so my views may not apply to the Xbox 360 / PS3 versions of the game. First of all, technical problems plague the game. My PC meets and exceeds the system requirements, and I run the game with modest settings (1280 x 720, all medium settings) and there are areas of extreme slow down... frame-chug not seen this bad in a long time. This is forgivable in short bursts, but there are some sections of the game where the framerate never recovers, forcing a restart of the application. This isn't an occasional annoyance, it is a problem that plagues every few levels.
Actual gameplay isn't half bad. The variety of weapons is nice, but outright proton streams are done so well it's hard to want to use anything else. What Ghostbusters does right is nail the imagined feeling of being a Ghostbuster. This is the game I wanted to play in my childhood. Encountering a ghost, weakening it, wrangling it, and trapping is feels real damn good, and thanks to a wide variety of ghosts, doesn't really get old. Team work is required for many ghosts, and the game's AI seems to do a decent job of providing that team work. This is a straight-up linear adventure on the PC, no multiplayer, so I'm glad it was only a $30 purchase. The experience of finally being a Ghostbuster is awesome the first few times around, but I can't see too much replay value coming out of this game in the long run.
For all I can complain about The Ghostbusters, I can't ignore the initial childhood glee that filled me the first time I blasted and caught my first ghost alongside the original team. This game is an experience more than a game, one that will probably have a short overall lifespan, but until it's over, it's quite a ride.
B3 out.
This year's seasons have been rather odd. We had a mildly late winter bolt almost directly into spring and summer: March was rather chili, April warmed out of the 30's finally, but May landed Northwest Ohio in plenty of sunny, 80-degree weather. It's been up and down through June, but now we are expecting at least seven days - and probably more - of 80 to 90-degree temperatures. Scorching almost, with constant sun. A beautiful week, no doubt, and I'm looking forward to it.
With all this nice weather I have plenty to get done outside (jogging, some minor photography, hiking, etc.), but it will be hard to stay outside and not be tempted by the lure of a great new game I got: Ghostbusters: The Video Game. I am a long-time fan of the Ghostbusters, and it is one of the few movies that has impacted my life multiple times in multiple ways. As a child I saw it with simple amazement: I did not fully understand the movie, but I saw it for what caught my attention at the time: cool guys using cool guns to capture neat ghosts. Years later I re-watched it with a bit of an education under my belt, and I understood the humor much better - and the everlasting impact of the movie was complete.
Like so many other people, I've really been looking forward to the new Ghostbusters game - the first in 20 years - and now that it is here... I'm torn. As a movie-licensed product, there is success to be found. The script is funny, classic Ghostbusters, following in the footsteps of the first two movies very well. The script does the movie one better, by delving much deeper into the mythology and history of the events at hand, something achievable thanks to the greater amounts of time available to a gamer - a ten-hour game allows for much more narrative freedom than a 90-minute movie. The full cast is here providing voicework and likenesses. For fans of the first film, this is the true sequel that the second movie should have been.
As a game, things take a tumble. I am explicitly focusing this commentary on the PC version of the game, so my views may not apply to the Xbox 360 / PS3 versions of the game. First of all, technical problems plague the game. My PC meets and exceeds the system requirements, and I run the game with modest settings (1280 x 720, all medium settings) and there are areas of extreme slow down... frame-chug not seen this bad in a long time. This is forgivable in short bursts, but there are some sections of the game where the framerate never recovers, forcing a restart of the application. This isn't an occasional annoyance, it is a problem that plagues every few levels.
Actual gameplay isn't half bad. The variety of weapons is nice, but outright proton streams are done so well it's hard to want to use anything else. What Ghostbusters does right is nail the imagined feeling of being a Ghostbuster. This is the game I wanted to play in my childhood. Encountering a ghost, weakening it, wrangling it, and trapping is feels real damn good, and thanks to a wide variety of ghosts, doesn't really get old. Team work is required for many ghosts, and the game's AI seems to do a decent job of providing that team work. This is a straight-up linear adventure on the PC, no multiplayer, so I'm glad it was only a $30 purchase. The experience of finally being a Ghostbuster is awesome the first few times around, but I can't see too much replay value coming out of this game in the long run.
For all I can complain about The Ghostbusters, I can't ignore the initial childhood glee that filled me the first time I blasted and caught my first ghost alongside the original team. This game is an experience more than a game, one that will probably have a short overall lifespan, but until it's over, it's quite a ride.
B3 out.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
"You Gotta Get Over It"
Instructions for how to get over someone
as written by Brandon Bruno (c. 2003)
as written by Brandon Bruno (c. 2003)
Warning: Do not skip steps or halve ingredients.
You will need:
- Several months of time (years if necessary, see Step 4)
- Something that annoys you about the person you like
- All your favorite music, or a suitable comfort substitute
- A life
- Take your life and determine what your strengths and interests are. You will need these for later.
- Build several dozen-sized playlist of your favorite music. Build groups: depressing music, cheery music, head-banging music, regret music, and balls-out rock music. Burn these to CDs and keep in your car. Keep the playlists near you on your MP3 player.
- Realize that you have more to accomplish than to vie for one person's attention.
- Step 1: Cry yourself to sleep for about a week. Assume the worst. The person you like is not there for you, and you have no chance at redeeming yourself at this point. There is no affection returned. Cut them out of your life slowly, let the pain go.
- Step 2: Now that you are distanced from this person, take every quirk they ever annoyed you with, no matter how large or small, and make them your anti-thesis. These quirks annoyed you for a reason, now is the time to acknowledge that reason.
- Step 3: Wallow in your music. If music is not your thing, do what is necessary to lose yourself in another place and time. Movies, video games, books. Get away, escape. Be comfortable in what you know and love and what makes you an individual.
- Step 4: Do what you love. Jogging, crafting, sports, gaming... Whatever makes you utterly unique and frees your mind, do it. For months. Get into new routines, put to rest old routines. If necessary, repeat this step until you evolve. New friends, new jobs, new places. This might take years.
- Step 5: Learn what hate feels like. Recall fond memories of this person. Cry a little. Cry a lot. Rummage through old pictures. Now recall all the great new things you have going for you. Hate this person, but hate them for all the right reasons (the "right reasons" will be left as an exercise for the student).
- Step 6: Months, years, or a decade may have passed by now. Seek out this person, say hello, and introduce yourself. Congratulations, you did it.
Monday, June 15, 2009
A Million Miles More
Wow, do I ever feel like a million dollars.
This week marks the first full week that I am following a tight exercise and partial diet routine that I have spent the past month slowly working towards. So far, on day two, I feel much better by physically and mentally than I did even a few weeks ago. The general goal of this program is multi-faceted: lose a little weight, strengthen up a bit, increase my stamina, and lessen my constant fatigue, especially now that my heart medication adds a considerable burden to my daily fatigue.
The core of my weekly exercise is based around jogging and push ups. I work on the HundredPushup Program three days a week, jog two of those evenings, then bike or hike on the weekends. Combined with a ton of perfect summer weather, 2009 is shaping up to be a huge year for me. Awesome so far, I say.
Time for sleep. B3 out.
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Ten Years Strong: True Love is Back
It's been ten years since I wrote the original "Just a Crush, or True Love?" essay for my freshman English class in high school. It was in 1999 that I simply tried to define what "true love" is: as a teenager I pieced together a rough academic definition of true love, a cold textbook definition if there ever was one: "True Love (n.) A consistent feeling towards someone else where they have the same feeling towards you in every possible way. Once you see and feel them, you NEVER want to be with anyone else." Suffice to say, I can now certainly argue with myself. "Never" want to be with anyone else? That was five girlfriends ago. I've loved before, for sure, but consider this: my average relationship lasts 8.2 months, and that average is heavily skewed upwards. An absolute condition such as "never" hardly applies to true love.
"Just a Crush, or True Love? 2" was a perfect, logical sequel. More of a personal reflection on my life at the time than an academic essay, I had begun to fall in love, and of course shared my enthusiasm with the written word, and that word was "Lacey." I came away from this second essay with high spirits and an expectations that anything could happen, because for me at the time, the impossible was certainly happening: the girl I dreamed about returned that affection, and nothing could get me down.
While I was supposed to let the "Just a Crush, or True Love?" essays die, I plodded onwards with a third installment. After taking the opinions and advice from my peers in high school on subjects relating to love, I compiled an essay that read like one giant snapshot of what love is like in high school: confounding, intriguing, interesting, and always entertaining. How could love be entertaining?
That's what "Just a Crush, or True Love? 4" looked to answer, and I took a break from writing a PG-themed essay series to dive into the naughty and necessary: sex. The fourth essay in the series focused heavily on what I considered to be useful sex techniques, and a modern view on the subject as seen from my teenager eyes at the time. My opinions and technique have certainly evolved since then.
I visited the series once more in 2003 - five years after the first essay - to wrap it up with a nostalgic tone, a reflection on all the growing up that I did throughout high school. I focused considerably on the girls that influenced my love life during those four years, but ultimately I brought the responsibility of maturing on myself: true love is not an easily definable thing, and I ultimately closed out the series with a new definition of true love: Any meaningful relationship that extends past the boundaries of two lovers, any relationship where two people don't just care about each other, but they care for each other.
My ideas on true love have changed quite a bit in the last six years. Welcome to 2009, and welcome to the rebirth of the Just a Crush, or True Love? series.
Just a Crush, or True Love? 6
Enjoy.
"Just a Crush, or True Love? 2" was a perfect, logical sequel. More of a personal reflection on my life at the time than an academic essay, I had begun to fall in love, and of course shared my enthusiasm with the written word, and that word was "Lacey." I came away from this second essay with high spirits and an expectations that anything could happen, because for me at the time, the impossible was certainly happening: the girl I dreamed about returned that affection, and nothing could get me down.
While I was supposed to let the "Just a Crush, or True Love?" essays die, I plodded onwards with a third installment. After taking the opinions and advice from my peers in high school on subjects relating to love, I compiled an essay that read like one giant snapshot of what love is like in high school: confounding, intriguing, interesting, and always entertaining. How could love be entertaining?
That's what "Just a Crush, or True Love? 4" looked to answer, and I took a break from writing a PG-themed essay series to dive into the naughty and necessary: sex. The fourth essay in the series focused heavily on what I considered to be useful sex techniques, and a modern view on the subject as seen from my teenager eyes at the time. My opinions and technique have certainly evolved since then.
I visited the series once more in 2003 - five years after the first essay - to wrap it up with a nostalgic tone, a reflection on all the growing up that I did throughout high school. I focused considerably on the girls that influenced my love life during those four years, but ultimately I brought the responsibility of maturing on myself: true love is not an easily definable thing, and I ultimately closed out the series with a new definition of true love: Any meaningful relationship that extends past the boundaries of two lovers, any relationship where two people don't just care about each other, but they care for each other.
My ideas on true love have changed quite a bit in the last six years. Welcome to 2009, and welcome to the rebirth of the Just a Crush, or True Love? series.
Just a Crush, or True Love? 6
Enjoy.
Monday, June 08, 2009
All the Cool New Stuff
Been a while, hasn't it? Time for a hit-list:
B3 out.
- I'm still tweaking Critically Correct a bit. I'm introducing new page graphics and a few features on the sidebar, so I apologize in advance if I break anything for an extended period of time.
- This week I'm starting the HundredPush-up program, a 6-week program with the goal of being able to perform 100 push-ups after 6 weeks. This is part of a larger overall plan that I began at the beginning of the summer to get in shape, which all relates to my eventual hiking trip in the Smokey Mountains next spring. I'm definitely getting excited about that.
- The "core" of my summer is upon me, and very shortly I will be non-stop busy: a trip to Soak City first, then a concert, then Bash '09, then more Soak City, Cedar Point, and a road trip in late July to round out the hottest months of the year (thus far). In addition to that, of course, I am busting my ass with weekly exercise, learning new technologies for work, and getting my act together to move out eventually before fall sets in.
- I have a writing project that kind of came out of left field for me and it should be done soon - and I will not hesitate to plaster it all over Critically Correct when I'm ready to publish.
B3 out.
Monday, June 01, 2009
Quizzes and More
Bored? With the recent surge of "How well do you know me?" quizzes on Facebook, I've taken the time to throw my own mini quiz together on Google Docs. I don't like installing an entire Facebook application just to take a quiz or two (especially since I found out my profile and friends data is being served out to a third-party website for advertising), so I used Google Docs' Form feature to produce a small, simple quiz that I can collect data from and report back at a later time.
The big disadvantage is that you can't see your results right away, but I will respond to everyone who takes it on a personal basis with your results the same day you take it. I'll eventually post the overall summary of answers and responses at the end of the week.
Enjoy.
What do you know about Brandon? Part I
B3 out.
The big disadvantage is that you can't see your results right away, but I will respond to everyone who takes it on a personal basis with your results the same day you take it. I'll eventually post the overall summary of answers and responses at the end of the week.
Enjoy.
What do you know about Brandon? Part I
B3 out.
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