Kick-Ass

218.4! I'm heading back down. It's about time.

I wrote a letter to Gillis as requested by Mike and Alex. In the letter, I told him that I was mostly finished with the two spots that were do by Friday and would wait for him to have any suggestions.

I lied. I finished both spots last night before emailing him and have absolutely no desire to hear his opinion, since he shoots down all of my ideas. However, I'm the only one who has been doing the work, so I really don't care if he likes or dislikes my ideas.

I bought Kick-Ass on Blu-Ray last night, and I am extremely excited to watch it. I need to get a party together to watch it with some friends. It is a film that will become a cult classic. It was awesome in theaters, and I am very pleased to now own it!

MAG

A couple of days ago, my mother pressured me into having a single slice of blueberry bunt cake, and I've been regretting it since!

220.4! In the two days it's been since eating the cake, I have not been able to lose weight. Still, I am on the downward run.

The food is still fantastic. I don't know if Chelsy knows it or not, but she is an amazing cook. I am always so impressed by the food she cooks for me. I would like to cook for her, but she thinks I only cook spicy food. So, meh!

In other news, I'm sick of Gillis! All summer long, I've been doing all the production work for KWCR FM Ogden. When told that I would be Assistant Production Director, it was under the assumption that I would be able to help Gillis get twice the amount of work done. Unfortunately, we've done half of our expected work, because I'm doing all of it alone! How am I supposed to have faith in his ability if he refused to do any work with me?

I've gotten back into MAG after a while of avoiding it. I really enjoy the game, but I do not like the other people who play. People love being dicks when they have complete anonymity. For some reason, I was kicked out of one game without any of my team telling me why they felt compelled to remove me. Who knows, maybe I shot one of their friends. Or maybe they just wanted me out of the game. Any way it goes, I wish them ill.

Boston Legal

218.4! That's very near a four pound loss! I have to be honest: I don't understand this diet. I feel like I'm pigging out. Sure, I'm eating actual portions instead of buffets, but the food is still fattening and greasy.

I tried to talk to Chelsy about this diet, but she disagreed with my rationality of the diet. I explained what I wrote previously, about carbs being fuel for the brain. She said that I was wrong, that carbs are a completely unnecessary energy source for our bodies.

And I have no way of knowing who's right or wrong. I nearly failed my nutrition class as a freshman, and she's read the Atkin's book.

In other news, Boston Legal is one of the worst shows I think I've ever seen. It is a show where the viewer genuinely has to shut down his or her brain to get any enjoyment out of if. In other words, it's a show that forces stupidity. Shatner's character is pretty great, but the camera angles are amateur and comical, and the story lines are dull and mindless. It's amazing that the show has gotten off the air.

I really hope to keep losing weight. At 190, I enter Phase II of the diet.

Critter Crunch

222.2. I should be excited at losing two pounds on this new diet, except that I have a long way to go. In 50 pounds, I will be happy with myself.

When Chelsy and I met, I weighed about 170, and despite being incredibly thin, I still felt fat. And now, I'm eating a high-fat diet and somehow losing weight.

Chelsy tells me that by eating a lot of fattening food and no carbohydrates, my body is fooled into converting the fat I'm eating, plus the fat I've stored, into fuel for my brain. As stated before, the brain needs the abundance of healthy energy that carbohydrates provide. If they are completely removed from a person's diet, his body must turn to stored energy to continue to feed the brain.

In addition to eating mostly animals in real life, I am playing Critter Crunch, a game featuring a cute little gerbil-like creature that forces other creatures to cannibalize each other until they explode, leaving their crystalline insides for me to devour!

Now, I'm hungry.

Pushing Daisies

I had my first fan letter yesterday...from a virus website trying to lure me into their link by saying that I have a great blog about fashion.

I wonder how people can be so foolish. On the PlayStation Network (my ID is BenTheWicked), I always get forwarded letters from people I play online, usually saying the same thing: "Hello, I am some ranking executive for PlayStation Network. We are having trouble with something that causes us to send you free money if you send this email to all your friends. Don't worry, we'll break our privacy policy and the law and track your emails."

Naturally, I respond to these emails with several insults to the sender and then my own sob story about my African prince cousin who is wealthy and in need of sending all of his money out of the country to the person willing to give me his banking information, social security number, and the name of his first girlfriend's pet dog. Nobody has replied.

At 224 pounds, Chelsy decided I need to go on a diet. I won't disclose her weight, but I will say that this is the FATTEST I HAVE EVER BEEN! Unfortunately, the answer is the Atkins Diet. On the negative, people have died from this diet; carbohydrates are the most important fuel for the brain, and without them, the brain slowly dies. Great news for a college student, eh?

On the other hand, the food tastes REALLY good. More so than any other diet, the food with this one is filling and delicious! For breakfast, Chelsy cooked southwestern scrambled eggs (because we don't know how to make omelets), and before deciding to write this, I had an Atkins Advantage shake, the best diet shake I've ever had in my life. For lunch, I'm going to have grilled salmon on a salad with Caesar dressing and Parmesan cheese.

I'm watching the first episode of Pushing Daisies, the best show that should not have failed. As soon as I'm finished, I go back to work on the second bedroom. Illness put a dent in our labors. I need to patch the walls and get to painting.

It would be nice to get a real fan letter, but the point of a blog is not to become famous, although some idiots have). It is important to view a blog as a journal that you leave on your nightstand or take with you to school or work. While it is personal, there is a chance that someone will find and read the journal. And if there is something there you don't want to be public, then maybe you should not have written it to begin with.

As for me, I am a passive-aggressive person with little concern for people viewing my mind. If I write about someone I don't like and they read it, I am ready and willing to defend myself. I have the right to say whatever the hell I want to, and if I'm not friendly with someone, whatever the hell I want to say will appear here.

House Work

Chelsy and I have decided to renovate the second bedroom. It's intense. It hurts to think. It will rock.

And That's How It Goes

As I feared, I took the weekend off from blogging. I wish I could blame the Republican religion of ethnocentric patriotism, but laziness is the guilty party.

This weekend, Shiny-New-Bride and I went to the Huntsville firework show. There we listened to the bastard child of Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity talk about the writing of the National Anthem to music from Patton. It was a trip!

Then, on the actual Fourth, which Utah couldn't celebrate because Mormons own the state and never celebrate national holidays on Sundays, we went to my parents' house and lit some boring legal fireworks for my nephews and sister-in-law.

Unfortunately, after the fireworks, my sister decided to make things awkward for Shiny-New-Bride and me by showing us how brainwashed my nephews are. Everything was about showing God's love to the less fortunate, going to periods of time to thank past presidents and warn of trouble, or protecting the persecuted Christians in other countries. There is no better proof of the failure of home schooling than those kids.

Don't get me wrong, they are much smarter than public school kids. However, their intellect doesn't help them in their social aspirations. When I have kids, I hope that I can get very involved in my children's education. School is really no better than babysitting, but kids need to learn how to be social, and church does not facilitate the freedom for a child to learn through trial and error.

In the future, I will be more involved with this blog. The key is to remember to write before I am suffering from insomnia.

Up All Night

I don't know why it happens, but sometimes, I just cannot fall asleep. Like last night.

I slept in until 9 in the morning. Then, I got ready and drove to the studio to work on the Future Method spot that Gillis probably should have had finished before he left for his trip to Desert Rocks. Still, I like it, and if anyone has complaints, they can blow me.

After leaving the studio, Chelsy and I drove to some place to pick up our elliptical (which I am getting ready to use). Then, we went to Target and I bought Kirby: Super Star Ultra for the DS. It's pretty sweet to play old-school Kirby games again. I can't wait for Kirby's Epic Yarn! That game looks awesome, in a Little Big Planet kind of way.

When I went to bed at 10 (after getting the news and new releases ready for tomorrow's show), I just tossed and turned for two hours. Finally, I decided that four hours of sleep would not be enough and decided to stay up playing WipEout HD. Yeah, that game is still sick.

I don't know what I'll do with myself today. I'm going to probably pass out once the show is over. I need some sleep!

That's Pretty Much the Size of It

I'm staring at the downloading bar for the Fat Princess v. 2.00 update, and I realized that I haven't written anything today. Woops.

I just signed up for PlayStation Plus, the upgraded version of PSN. So far, it's pretty sweet. I just wonder if past free and discounted crap will stay that way for PSN Plus users, or if I need to take advantage of the downloads and discounts this month, even if I don't own the games. Example: War Hawk, one of the launch titles for the PS3, has DLC available for free this month, but I don't own the full game.

However, I did get the PS game Rally Cross (free) for Chelsy, some "premium" Fat Princess avatars (free), the Fat Princess DLC (free), and WipEout HD (free). WipEout HD rocks so hard! The graphics are beautiful, and the rocket ships handle far better than any other WipEout I've played to date. I even won some trophies. Go me!

Work was slow today, so I started watching Super News on Hulu.com. That show rocks! I can't believe I've never heard of it. Oh, wait. I live in Utah, where satire is sin.

Chelsy and I bought an elliptical to try to get back into shape. She's hoping to lose 20 pounds, and while I haven't weighed myself to see the damage of the wedding and the binging before and after, I'm thinking I want to get into the 170-180 range. I hate being over 200 pounds! I have fat rolls and boobs! That sucks!

My updates just installed, so I am going to get to gettin'. I know it's way too late to eat after writing about wanting to lose weight, but I am sta-arving!

I would love to find a diet that works for me, a college student with a shifting schedule. For now, it's fruit for breakfast.

A Long Day

Not that I'm complaining, but today was a long day.

My day began very late last night when Chelsy woke me up from being sick. Fortunately, she called in sick, so she was able to get a lot better by tonight. Still, I felt guilty leaving my Shiny-New-Bride at home. Thank god we have cats to take care of her!

At work, I tutored person after person. Again, this isn't a problem; I get paid to do it. It just sucks to work alone for several hours. Laikwan came in at 11 and saved the day, somewhat. He mostly helped the Writing Center, but I was able to call on him while doing an online appointment and staring at a walk-in student.

I've fallen out of love with tutoring. It's very rewarding and all, and I do get a lot of people calling on me to help them with far more than classes. I just don't love it anymore. I'm glad I did this before diving head first into the teaching program, like Shiny-New-Bride did.

When I finished at work, I went over to the radio station to work on the new Future Method spot that should have been done last month. Fortunately, I had already recorded most of the vocals and all of the sounds, but I relied too heavily on my co-workers to get the job done. I've learned my lesson, and by the end of the week, this spot will be finished. It has a Dating Game theme. I know it's not the most original thing in the world, but I'm still learning how to do all this stuff. Give a guy a break, dammit!

I got home and was ready to veg out. Fortunately, Shiny-New-Bride needed a root beer for her stomach, and I got off my ass. I say "Fortunately" because when I got back, I decided to get ready for tomorrow's show (The Late, Late, Late, Late LATE Show! every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 7-9am on 88.1 Weber FM and WeberFM.org). I still had to organize the new releases and news for the show, and boy am I glad I got to work on it! If I hadn't, I'd be up all night working on getting everything. It takes longer than you'd think to prepare a half an hour of the news from various news sources. I do not envy journalists.

Well, maybe Fox News journalists, since all they have to do is make up the news. Since most of America is watching them, who is going to call them on their make-believe news stories?

Woah! I'm Married

So Chelsy and I got married June 26, 2010. I've got to say, it was the best party I've ever been to. The alcohol flowed, the food rocked, and the people were kind. I'm trying to talk Chelsy into figuring out what we spent on the wedding and what we got from the guests. Who knows? Weddings may be a very lucrative event!

As a pre-honeymoon, Chelsy and I went to a private cabin at the Alaskan Inn and had a very good time! We watched Bewitched, Julie & Julia, and The Men Who Stare at Goats. The first two were cute, but I really enjoyed The Men Who Stare at Goats. As far as Bewitched goes, it is better than I ever expected.

But on to the sex!

It's all about pleasuring her, and even though Chelsy and I have lived together and have been sexual active for three years, last night, I wanted her to remember why she loves me. It started with her tying me up and going down on me for a minute. Then, she freed me and let me return the favor. As a Pro Tip for men, when giving a woman head, find the clit with your tongue, the wrap your lips around it and suck. Once it's yours, you'll have her blasting again and again. After that, we hopped in the jacuzzi and finished off.

Needless to say, all this great sex made me miss the Late, Late, Late, Late, LATE Show! on KWCR 88.1 Weber FM (Ogden's Radio Station). I caught the podcast by searching "KWCR" on iTunes and Nick did all right. It's clear that this show works best with Jim Powers (me), Dylan Allred, and Nick Smith. Chelsy was good on Friday, and Alex was fine today, but this show works best with the three of us.

A Flash Fiction: "Jeremy Has Become Bored"

Jeremy has become bored. every day, he wakes at 6:47 in the morning, showers, toasts a bagel, and rushes down the street to catch the 7:27 bus at 7:28. On the musty and crowded bus, he desperately tries to find a seat free of snoozing office rats, chattering students, or fetid pariahs hiching a ride to some nameless place for some nameless purpose. Promptly, at 8:13, the bus releases Jeremy to the Starbucks around the corner from his office for caffeine and a false sense of superiority: "I want a tall toffee nut macchiato, no whip, soy!" After sipping his coffee and reading a free City Weekly, he glances at his watch to see that it is 8:53, and he has seven minutes to rush down the street to his office, hop on the elevator, and get into his cubicle.

If he is late, Jeremy is called into his manager's office for a lecture on the importance of every member being on time: "This company is only as strong as its weakest link." Then, the manager assures Jeremy that although he is late, his work quality is still better than most.

However, today he is on time, and at 8:59, Jeremy logs onto his computer for eight hours of repetitive memos, phone calls, copies, meetings, and water cooler breaks. Although repetitive, Jeremy knows that not everything about his day is boring: the water cooler is the one place he looks forward to finding himself, especially when Eliza is there.

Since meeting Eliza, Jeremy has been enraptured with the eccentric, jovial beauty. When she guffaws, because she always and only guffaws, her curly red hair springs across her head, tagging her shoulders and escaping into the air. her topics are always about far-off lands, obscure conventions for any kind of enthusiast imaginable (like the Convention for Environmentally-Minded Firefighters), and philosophical essays found in academic journals for psychology professors. How could anyone not be fascinated by Eliza?

At 1:38, after hours of repetition and boredom, Eliza's guffaw flits into Jeremy's ears. He saves his work and hustles towards the break room. Once near the door, he slows to a trudge and pretends to be uninterested in all around him.

"Hiya, Jer," Eliza calls.

"Hello," he returns.

The other employee grabs his coffee and excuses himself, leaving the two alone (at last).

"What did you read about yesterday, Eliza?" Jeremy inquires.

"Peru!"

"Peru, eh?"

"Yeah! I'm going tomorrow," Eliza's voice drops to a whisper. "Come with me!"

"To Peru? Tomorrow?"

"Yeah! Why not?"

Jeremy ponders, but no excuse appeals to him. "OK!"

At 1:43, Jeremy and Eliza leave the office for good, and the next day at 8:25 in the morning, they watch the ground slip away from them. A week later, Jeremy wakes, stretches, and realizes he has lost his watch. But he doesn't care.

And (coincidentally) at 9:15 in the morning, Jeremy and Eliza marched into the forest to study plants and animals for no other reason than they wanted to.

Elysium Is a Wrap!

Yesterday, we finished regular filming of Elysium, the first Solar Shock Pictures full-length film! As Danny Carlson, I play a man who has allowed himself to fall into binge drinking and druging. On one occasion, he overdoses and finds himself exploring the Elysian Fields. Enjoy this fantastic drama from writer/director/producer Brandon Young.

With any luck, we can get some great music (from Brett Moran, if he's available) and prepare for the premier this December. Also, I'm hoping to lose 20 pounds before this showing. I'm sick of seeing my fat ass on screen, and the only way to respect myself again is to lose a lot of this flubber!

Finally, I'm hoping that I can get some biters for my editing and ghostwriting freelance work. I need to get some real money one of these days, and I'm sick of working for a paranoid and dillusional idiot.

Back in the Swing of Things

School officially started on Monday, the 24th, and I'm ready for an easier semester than what I've been subjecting myself to. I was extremely excited to have low book prices for my classes; then, I discovered that I would have to buy an external/portable harddrive (I got the external because it was $50 cheaper.), some studio headphones, and all sorts of disks. Including the printing of the first draft of Nomad (hit me up if you would like to edit), I spent over $200 on school supplies so far, and I still need to get a backpack and some subject dividers.

I think the lady at Printing Services thinks I have a crush on her! With my printing and buying course packets, I went into her cave four times throughout the day. It will be a long time before she sees me again, but it's pretty hillarious to flirt with people, especially those who would never have a chance with me. I don't do it to be mean; I just like to see men and women come out of their shells after watching them shy away from others. It's cute, fascinating, and (quite frankly) inspiring.

School beginning has not been all good, though. I am fully convinced that Claire is trying to fire me. Our bitter relationship began when I spoke to one of the professors, a former boss of mine. Claire has convinced herself that my old boss wants her job back (despite the fact that becoming a full-time professor is a huge promotion with a much better paygrade than a tutor manager) and believes that I am helping this woman take her job back. From there, Claire began calling me an outsider and started telling other tutors that I am not to be trusted. I've tried to keep my energy through all of this; I started tutoring for the students, not the paycheck. It's becoming harder and harder to keep that love, though. Call me paranoid, but it's pretty easy to believe someone is out to get me when she tells the tutoring staff that homework is not allowed when I am not around and then tells me that homework is fine as long as I greet the students. She's out to get me! Fortunately, her boss has agreed to meet with me to discuss my options. If I truly am at fault for speaking to the professors whose class I tutor, then I will never speak to another English 955 instructor again, but I thought knowing the professors helps me to know how to help the students.

As a bit of good news, I had many takers from my CraigsList.org advertisement for editors. It always amazes me to see and meet people willing to help just because. I can't pay these people, but since they are helping me, I will help them if they need it.

Finding Answers

I'm learning that finding answers as a writer is the hardest aspect of life. I want to know the way to go for getting published, either for my Henry Tuesday short stories or Nomad, but no one will give me a straight answer. I'm almost considering changing my major back to Creative Writing just to get the English professors to give me answers.

I'm tired of being a chump. I hate working for an idiot, and I loathe giving my time and energy to a company only to get pennies for every dollar that the company makes. I just want to get some of my work published to make it easier to get a writing job.

Late Nights

I watched Coraline tonight with a bowl of popcorn and a glass of wine. I remember when I saw that in theaters, it was the first film I had ever watched in 3D, and I loved it! I didn't know what to think about the 3D gimmick, but unlike Up, this film made it vital and wonderful. From the beginning, the screen was right in my face. But beyond the 3D, the story was amazing. I was actually quite shocked that this was a kids' movie. In the theaters, it scared the shit out of me, and as I watch it at home, I still get a little nervous about what's about to happen. As far as criticism goes, I was not so hot on the DVD release; the 3D just could not hold up on my standard screen, even in a pitch-black room. One of these days, I'll buy the PS3 Slim (Hint: my birthday is on Tuesday the 15th!), and this may be one of the few films that I feel obligated to upgrade to BluRay.

As I watched this fantastic film, Mischief, my black Oriental Siamese, decided that my leg was a scratching post in his dream. Shadow, the grey tabby/Russian-blue mix, seems to be a little frightened these days. I wonder if he's feeling abandoned by Chelsy, who has had to work every day this week. The two kitties were in the cage together, so they know each other and their life here has been much easier with each other to go to.

Chelsy thought Shadow should originally be named Snowball, after the cat from The Simpsons, but he looks nothing like a snowanything. As we went through names, I suggested Shadow after the most awesome character from Final Fantasy VI. But if you ask Chelsy, she'll say he's named after his characteristic of stalking us in the shadows of the couch or dining room table before he jumps out to make his big entrance.

I love my cats. I love Coraline. And to be honest, I'm enjoying this web journal. Although no one is reading it, it feels nice to have a place to type my thoughts and feelings as they come to me.

1st Draft Finished!

Nomad's first draft is finished! At around 52K words, this is my first novel that I will work hard on getting published. But before I can get this short monster published, I need to get it thoroughly editted. That is the hard part...

I'm hoping to find several people to read and take notes on the story and content. If you happen to stumble upon this blog, please hit me up if you're interested in knowing more about Nomad.

In other news, I interviewed at TopTenReviews.com for a part-time writing position. I need to get out of the tutor center, and I'm willing to do some reviews to get away from Claire. One day, when Henry Tuesday's Shorts gets finished, she might read the second story, "Henry Finds a Job." There, she will see what I really feel about her.

But negative thoughts do not become a Taoist. Instead, I need to recognize that her paranoid dillusions and manic-depressive nature are just part of who she is. There is never anything wrong with being oneself. It's just hard to always be able to appreciate each others' differences.

Nomad Update!

Chapter 35 is finished at last! An epilogue is all this story needs, and it will be finished. I look forward to finally finishing this science fiction. I may not be the greatest writer of science fiction, but I have my story nearly completely told.

Once finished with this, I have a few scripts I'd like to try out and a bunch of Henry Tuesday short stories to write. I'm hoping "Henry's Pioneer Day Adventure" will be accepted to American Short Fiction, so I can call myself a published writer. However, I will be trying to get it into Weber State's Metaphor if I get denied.

My kitty Mischief stayed by my side for the whole writing of this last regular chapter, and I can't help but love him. His brother Shadow just stayed in the kitchen and napped on the herb window (I don't know if that's what it's called, but it's good enough a name for me).

Now, Chelsy is home, so we're going to say goodbye to my little brother.

Good nap!

I just woke up from my nap, and let me tell you: it was good!

I'm getting ready to finish Nomad, my first science fiction novel. Unfortunately, I just can't seem to find my voice long enough to finish the chapter. I get a page or so written and hit a wall. Don't worry, though; I will not force it out.

Now, I just need to find an editor.

Welcome to me!

Here I go with another place to put words in front of people. I don't know why I'm doing it, but if I learn a little more about blogging and writing, then I will have considered this experience a success.

I am a Toaist, an acoustic guitarist, and writer. So when I attack this blog, parts of who I am will become apparent. However, I'm sure readers can figure that out on their own as they read on.

On to the news! The PS3 Slim is coming out on September 1st. Also, my birthday is on September 15th. So check it out, if you want to make me the happiest prick on the planet, feel free to drop $300 on someone you may or may not know (me).

Woah! The allergy medicine is catching up with me, so I'm going to pass out. I'll just have to pick this up some other time.