House Style. Or a lack thereof.
For the first time ever, I present to you a short tour of my place here. And yes, I made it before I cleaned.
This podcast episode is 2 minutes 44 seconds and weighs around 9 MB.
"VidioPod 5" can be downloaded here (or watch it on your iPhone).
For those who didn't know, my visa was approved last Friday. In fact, Monday I get to head to immigration to get the label put in my passport which is only good until the end of next year. So there we go, a major hurdle done. Next, I really, really need to get stuff together as far as going back to the university goes.
I don't have much time to chat so I'm gonna go.
I won't be doing a new podcast episode for Tuesday, instead I'll release one of my new short videos. Nothing magical, mystical or anything like that. Just something to amuse you until later this week.
How do you depress depression? Communication.
I decided to take a moment to cover a serious topic that will affect us in one form or another in our lives. That is depression and I know that I suffer from it (of course undiagnosed). I took a depression quiz, went over the results, the symptoms of depression, suggestions on how to deal with it and why I can't seem to move forward. I also made comparisons with idioPod 61 so if you haven't listened to that one, you might want to.
Expressing my feelings isn't easy for me to do but I tried to do that in this podcast episode. It's a good step forward.
Remember: I am not a doctor and only a doctor can diagnose depression!
This podcast episode is 28 minutes 40 seconds and weighs around 13.1 MB.
Comment with a question or two! "idioPod 64: Depressing the Depression" can be downloaded here (or to listen to on your iPhone) or listen below.
First off, I don't know why every time I post a podcast episode, I feel like doing a regular weblog post. But I'll go ahead and do it because I have to tell you what I did:
While watching "The Biggest Loser", I ate a whole bacon and cheese pizza, 2 little apple pies and 4 scoops of ice cream. I feel like absolute crap! But the pizza was so good. I HAD to eat it. :) I also ate a lot of chocolate too. So "Oink, oink."
Next I wanted to tell you that I plan to release idioPod 64 on Friday. It's about depression in general. I wrote it tonight and just finished it because I have to come to terms with myself on a few things. I realized that through #61 and #63 have a lot of unresolved conflicts that I need to tackle. But at the same time, it will be one of my more informative ones because I think it's something that needs to be talked about... really.
Thirdly, I wanted you to know that I have scheduled a new vidioPod next Tuesday instead of a regular podcast. It's basically a house tour that lasts about 3 minutes. Nothing major. If you don't download it, that's fine with me. (If you don't know what vidoPod is, it's a video podcast episode. They're usually very short, sweet and to the point. I haven't posted a new one for several months.)
I also still have a major announcement that will probably be attached to the video. Not 100% sure how I'm going to handle it.
I've been playing with Windows Vista. I can kinda see why people hate it. Considering switching back to PCs with all the issues I'm having with Apple products lately.
With that said, I probably should head to bed. I did find my favorite Windows 95 background though:
OK, that did it. I'm going to sleep now.
What qualifies as relationship-wise and relationship-stupid?
Here I am sitting down again with no topic but then in the 2nd half I finally get one. This podcast was recorded in two separate days since I wasn't able to post one last Friday. My podcast this time deals with dating preferences (like it matters anymore), questions regarding my relationship and some relationship advice.
1st Part
2nd Part (starts at about 8:20)
This podcast episode is 28 minutes 6 seconds and weighs around 13.3 MB.
Comment with a question or two! "idioPod 63: Relationship-wise, Relationship-stupid" can be downloaded here (or to listen to on your iPhone) or listen below.
Well as promised, here I am again. Saturday night and I'm not incredibly tired. In fact, my ass is about to go to bed a bit early. So anyway, I am trying to get the Medicare stuff together but haven't been successful just yet. The conditions of my last visa (which are officially still in effect) are still in effect and one of them states that while I'm here I must have overseas health cover which is more or less a replacement for it so someone is going to assess my case early next week they say. So yeah we'll see...
On top of that, my iMac is acting absolutely crazy. I've been having issues with these red and blue pixels flashing everywhere so I am thinking there's a problem with the display stuff. And on top of that, there are some random things jumping around the screen when I type. Not very fun. I just played Spore so I am not sure if that has anything to do with it, but it's pissing me off. A lot. It really makes me wish I would have gotten AppleCare. Now if something's wrong, then I'm better off getting a new computer.
I guess I should go shower. It was way too hot today. My back is stuck to the back of the chair. So yeah... I'm out of here.
If any of you have been looking at the calendar the day I posted it, you should check again. Originally I had planned to post a new podcast episode this Friday but I have changed my mind due to horrible time constraints. I'm going to do two next week, for sure. And I'm not that mean to do two per week every week.
Why? Well, if you're anything like me, you stop listening for 2 or 3 days and you start to fall behind. You go back to the podcast and see two were released before that, so you have three to listen to. And I can't imagine anybody wanting to sit down for an hour and a half to catch up on my nonsense. So I'll be doing my usual staggered-releases where I do two the first week and one the next.
I planned on starting at number 54 for this year and doing up to around 75. Guess what, I am already at 63. 10 more podcast episodes for the year is like doing one every month (almost). I'm not the kind of person who thinks highly of podcasters who do one show per month. And I don't particularly care for long podcasts that have 40 MB download sizes. But that's just me.
Since I'm on a podcast-themed weblog entry, I wanted to say that I have some really exciting news coming next week. And thought it's the best for me, it might not be the best for you guys. Because changing things constantly isn't really the way to go.
Ah yes, and also, this is important. I'm going to make another starting place with my podcast which I think is something I think every podcaster should also do. I mean, honestly, who wants to download something 2 years old to read the basics? I don't. I'll tell you that. So that's what I'm gonna do for #65 or #70.
So I think that's it... I think. Well for this entry, I HAVE to make another one. HAVE to.
Alright everybody, how are we all doing? I hope that you're doing peachy. Just this morning I posted the disaster of what is called idioPod 62 so if somehow you missed that, then just follow the link. You might want to miss it anyway, who knows. I guess there are good days and bad days.
I wanted to take a moment of your time to tell you that I have a calendar up and ready to go. I've had a calendar ready for probably a year but didn't do anything with it. I didn't want to give people the link to the calendar and it not open and there's a big chance of that happening. So, together with Google Calendars, I managed to post the tentative release schedule for the podcast episodes and any other special events there might be. Like if I am on any other podcasts and such. That kind of thing.
So I present to you probably the last thing I'll add to my site this month, the official calendar:
Did you know that if you're in the USA or across Europe, you can SMS for prizes? Yeah, pretty cool, I'd say. How does it work? To enter a sweepstakes, all you have to do is send a initial message and a second conformation message. You can win some pretty cool prizes such as a Nintendo Wii, Nokia N96 or you can win an iPhone.
The contests basically say if you're the 100th or 250th SMS, you'll win that prize.
You can send a text message to any sweepstake you want to and you'll get a message back letting you know that you are the XXth person. You can send again and have a higher chance to win that prize. I'd say it would be pretty nice to get a nice new toy for a really low cost to send an SMS, right? With lots of people playing, you shouldn't have to text for your prize a thousand times. Let's hope not anyway! But the notification is pretty cool to stop you from going a bit overboard. heh heh
So what are you waiting for, head over to SMSnia.com and win a nice prize for yourself. Or me. I'm hoping it's me because I definitely need some love from technology.
Why is it that Tuesdays are the hardest days to record on?
I took a look at my calendar which told me that I needed to do #62 today. I have a goal to do up to 65 by the end of the month.
BUT there were so many disruptions dduring recording this podcast, I had to cut it short. The lawn people decided to be a day late, cut the grass in the rain, my neighbors started arguing again, the dog was barking and the smell of grass was making me sick. Not a good time for me to record and I was getting so pissed off.
In this episode, I talk about the financial inequalities that exist between my partner and me (from Mark's question) and a dream I had last night about stopping these cult members from marrying ugly women. Oh and also my beautiful Keynote presentations. Then of course all the noise came at one time and I had to stop. And they're STILL continuing 20 minutes after I stopped recording.
This podcast episode is 19 minutes 6 seconds and weighs around 8.8 MB.
Comment with a question or two! "idioPod 62: All the Noise!" can be downloaded here (or to listen to on your iPhone) or listen below.
So far this year has been absolute hell for me and my health. I was telling my friend yesterday that it felt like I was getting sick and sure enough, today I feel like complete crap. Over the past few days, it's been raining a lot and lord knows we need the rain. But with rain usually brings wind and wetness. And such a shift in weather brings changes. Those changes usually mean that I feel OK one day and the next I have the flu or something.
So yeah, I am not feeling well.
I hope that it's temporary. I really can't afford to get another week-long sickness. I've been getting sick a lot more often since I've been back. But anyway...
You remember how the wind totally destroyed the gazebo? My dog Felix didn't have any shelter really (not any that was OBVIOUS) so I took the remains of the gazebo and made him a really long doghouse. Curious to know what it looks like? OK, here:
How's that for trailer trash ingenuity? Yeah that's what I thought but that's what happens when people won't listen to you! Of course something like this by a pool or something would be pretty darn awesome. Now if I can add a dog shower with a piece of water hose and a funnel, I'll be happier than a jackrabbit in a tomato garden. (I wouldn't say that normally, folks. Honestly.)
I'm gonna go add Brandi to my Animal Crossing friend list so we can play for a bit. So I'm leaving. Have fun.
How do I handle major life events? Especially when they haven't really happened yet?
In this podcast episode, I talk mostly about death. Yeah, not such a sweet topic is it? I just don't know how I'm going to handle any deaths in my family or close friends. That's because I haven't really lost anybody very close to me. And you know what? I'm a bit afraid. I also discuss other things like my disconnection from reality lately, my frustration with my shaky muscles and a few other things.
This would classify as one of my more emotional podcasts that I've done and really, I was going to put all of this as a weblog entry. The thoughts are coming at me a million times per second so I'll sound very inconsistent and scatter-brained. So just hang in there while you listen to this. :)
I didn't really "plan" on doing this. I just sat down and recorded my thoughts.
This podcast episode is 23 minutes and weighs around 10.5 MB.
Comment with a question or two! "idioPod 61: Can I Accept Death?" can by downloaded here (or to listen to on your iPhone) or listen below.
Originally I made a weblog about not being able to accept death in the future, but I chose to put it in a podcast. I'll release it tomorrow.
What made me think of this? Well, lately things are a bit strange for me. I kind of disconnected from the people who care about me. Don't get me wrong though. I am not disconnected to the point where I can't function or like that. I have unintentionally ignored people because of thoughts swirling around in my head. Mostly my thoughts are about missing my family (as crazy and Southern they are).
Yesterday, one of my close friends here lost one of his friends in an accident and I've been making an attempt to comfort him. I hope I'm doing a good job. I don't want to reveal too much about him but he lost her at what I perceive is supposed to be a very happy time of the year. His family is also affected too which brings a bit of a downer to a usually happy time of the year. So I feel for him and my heart goes out to his family, her family and him. It just made me think: what am I going to do when something like that happens to me?
So that brought on "idioPod 61: Can I Accept Death?" which is scheduled for tomorrow. The first time around I was making a post saying not to expect a new episode tomorrow, but I thought some things are better said than read. THAT is why it's 'unscheduled'.
You guys and girls take care of yourselves, yeah?
As you may have noticed, Animal Crossing is one of my favorite games. I'm not really sure why it's one of my favorite games, but it is. Don't worry, I'm not going to devote a whole part of my website dedicated to Animal Crossing. So don't be scared but because I do like to play this game every once in a while, I thought I'd share my Friend Code (Wii only, thought I do have the DS version):
My Name: Ben
My Town: Realtown
Friend Code: 0689-0391-7197
Of course, if you add me, I'll have to add you too. So send me a message if you add me to your Friends List on Animal Crossing. I took a few screen shots and stuck them in my gallery here at idiologic. Here's just one of them:
(Yeah, Sterling just came out. But I love him anyway. So, what is a sauna? Look no further than here.)
Also on the subject of Wii's and communication, about a month ago I had an idea to send messages from my website directly to my wii, regardless of a person's email address and that's what I did yesterday. I implemented a CONCEPT (which means that it serves no real purpose except to show that I can do it) to do exactly just that.
So I am presenting a new project called "WiiMail" (thought you might find the words Wii Send lingering around). It's a good idea but after I did it, I realized there were some serious issues:
Privacy: Anybody can turn on my Wii and check and/or read my messages.
Limited Storage Space: The Wii can only hold 512 MB of data so messages would have to be deleted. (And similar methods have caused peoples' Wii to totally brick.)
Time Sent: Messages sent to Wii's can take a lot longer than regular email.
So if you're still interested, go ahead and head over to my projects page.
Cell phones can be very irritating. Even imaginary ones.
I recorded this podcast episode over two days and the first part is just full of interruptions only to find that my inner child is calling again. And of course, as always, my inner child tries to have phone sex yet throw in some pretty good advice. I was considering editing it out, but as usual, I don't believe in editing podcast episodes so it's there.
I talk about lots of random things like:
This podcast episode is 26 minutes 58 seconds and weighs around 12.4 MB.
Comment with a question or two! "idioPod 60: Phone Interrupted" can by downloaded here to listen on your iPhone or listen below.
Hey, I know you're gonna be thrilled about this but I updated my website a bit. I sat down yesterday to make a completely new website because the layout for this one wasn't up to my standards. After about an hour, I realized that it was going to be a ton of work and that I should just improve on what I already had. So that's what I did. If you head over to idiologic.com, you'll see a menu that's been rebuilt, remodeled and repainted.
I made changing color themes a lot easier and accessible from any part of a page you may be on. So now you won't have to scroll to the bottom of the page to find it. (And if you didn't know, when you pick a color, it stays for 180 days, that is unless you don't have cookies enabled.)
You are still able to see when I am online at my webcam but it's a lot more compact now. All you have to do is look next to the webcam link for the words "offline" or "online". And of course, if you see ERROR then that's definitely no good. But I think that won't happen. I'm about 99.843% sure of that.
I did add a "Donate" link though I'm not a huge fan of that. You'll notice I've stuck a few around. I don't keep them around because I think they're gorgeous, but I keep them up just in case.
So what am I going to be working on next? (Not today though.) I'll be tackling the Podcast page which has not been finished officially. I'll get on that ASAP. Then I'll have the daunting task of redoing the weblog which I am dreading.
I'm beginning to think the world is against me. I have decided reluctantly to delay getting an iPhone for 2 months. I am still stuck with the same shitty-ass phone that has no battery life left, is full of static and pulls my facial hair.
And anybody who feels like I am ignoring them: I apologize. I'm not entirely sure why I've tuned everybody out over the last few weeks. It's not intentional. And I am sorry, really.
I am running into quite a few issues dealing with my visa and personal life so yeah. I'll hang in there.
My eyes are burning so I will go to bed. Good night or morning. However you want to put it.
Probably one of the weirdest things I've experienced is earthquake tremors. I was thinking that there was a plane crash or something nearby or a really bad car wreck. Anyway, it's just a bit weird. I logged into Facebook (the BEST source for news) and saw that there was a 4.7 magnitude earthquake about 95 km (60 miles) away and the tremors made the house shake for a few seconds. I could really hear it and feel it. I thought it was my lovely neighbors fighting again and throwing each other against the wall. I really felt like calling the police to report them, but I guess it is better that I didn't. I walked outside and heard them arguing really loud and I was like "Christ, give me one night of peach, come on."
So that's all for me now. IdioPod 60 is half-done and half-baked. It's a bit silly but I'll post it anyway on Tuesday.
Have a wonderful weekend.
The time comes again when I have to budget for the next 6 months. And of course that results in lots of changes to my lifestyle.
Saying Goodbye to World of Warcraft, Again: I've never really been a hardcore player. I don't understand the abbreviations. I don't know what DPS is and why everybody turns into a giggle Japanese school girl when it gets mentioned. I'm not going to work a raid into my schedule on Friday night. I'm not going to waste my time making new "friends" because I absolutely don't care. So why pay $12/month for it for a year? Sure, I like to play. There's nothing wrong with that but sometimes I feel like there are other things for me to do and another ways to spend my money.
Going out to eat is overrated: One of the contributing factors of my weight gain is the fact that I absolutely love KFC. And honestly, it's just cheaper and healthier to cook something myself. It is hard though when the person you live with dictates what you can and can't buy. Like "Oh you don't need bananas to make a strawberry-banana smoothie. You can just use potatoes. They're cheaper and we have some of those." I did buy a food processor so I am hoping that I can use that more often and make soups.
Website Scale-backs: This is where it gets very interesting. At the end of March, I go from paying yearly to paying monthly. That will carry some extra costs (per year) but it will give me the flexibility of paying as I go. It will also give me the flexibility to stop it when I want to. Something tells me I wouldn't be able to stop anyway so why try to? I won't be disappearing anytime in the very near future.
Work more, work often: I need to ramp up the number of hours I work per week by at least 50% until I go back to school.
So why, this time, do I have to cut costs? I'll be spending an extra $15,000 USD per year, plus I have student loans to pay off and an almost maxed credit card bill to pay off in the USA. With the exchange rate being so bad, this is going to make me pay about 1.61 times as much money here. That adds up quickly. Very quickly. I mean honestly, I could save considerable money but dumping these websites, but I won't do that just yet.
So those are some ideas of mine. And I also forgot that I'm going to have a phone bill on top of everything else soon. Fun.
My dreams are weird, period.
I'm back but my voice still isn't 100%. A lot of this episode deals with the dreams I had last night. Unfortunately, this one is longer than I really wanted it to be. I'm sorry for that. I hope that you're at least partially amused.
I talk about these things:
This podcast episode is 28 minutes 54 seconds and weighs around 13.2 MB.
Easter Egg: Listen between 26:45 and 26:50 and you'll hear my dog yawn. It sounded just as scary in person... That was what the long silence was there. I was like "WTF" but didn't comment about it.
Comment with a question or two! Download "idioPod 59: Dry Dream" here or listen below.
As promised, I'm going to make the top 10 list of my favorite video games. This list is mostly new games for some reason, I guess with improved graphics and gameplay, they deserve it. You'll see a lot of game updates (ones that were released for earlier systems but with "updates").
If you haven't read the first part of this, my numbers 20 to 11 and you want to, you can go do that now.
So without further ado, here is the list:
10. Kirby's Adventure (NES)
Probably the last NES game I played or owned, Kirby's Adventure to me was a lot of fun because I really liked Kirby for some reason. He's just so Japanese. And this tree? Precious. I've mostly liked a lot of the games but since this one's currently on my Wii, I thought I'd say this is my favorite one. (Though I admit "Canvas Curse" was pretty awesome.)
9. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
It's hard to put this game at #9 because Twilight Princess is one of my all-time favorite Zelda games. But, I also found it incredibly easy. It was probably one of the easiest Zelda games I've played but still, it has that talking imp that rides on your back as a wolf. Yeah and if you haven't played it, your reaction most likely is "WTF?" This, folks, is one of the main reasons I got a Wii though this bad boy comes in two flavors: "The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess" (for Wii) and "The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess" (for Gamecube). Basically great gameplay, memorable characters, lots to do and all the good things that make a good game.
8. Animal Crossing (for Gamecube, DS and Wii)
Essentially all the Animal Crossing games are the same besides some graphics and gameplay updates. And the main reason I got a DS (I only own two games and this is one of them) was "Animal Crossing: Wild World". A lot of the people who just don't "get" this game... like my partner... don't appreciate it. Shake fruit off trees. Sell it. Pick up seashells. Sell it. Pay off mortgage. Hit rocks with a shovel and watch money pop out. It's all good, non-bloody fun. Oh the screen shot is from the Wii version, "Animal Crossing: City Folk".
7. Final Fantasy (NES)
One of the old ones that I promised you was snuck in here. Final Fantasy was one of the first RPG games I played. I made the mistake of playing this prior to Dragon Warrior so I naturally really liked this one a lot more. I still play it time to time but sadly could finish it one day because I know where everything else even after 20 years. Geez, I know.
6. Zelda (NES)
The original Zelda is another one of my absolute favorites. I still play this and I'm still looking for secrets. I get a fuzzy feeling inside when I do find something though honestly I don't think there's much to find anymore. This game brings back memories of my whole family sitting around watching each other play games. My dad didn't. He never really got into it. But my mom would bite the controllers when she'd lose. There were teeth marks in our controllers. Always. I still hate the bastards who walk around with a shield and sword. You had to shoot them in the back. Bastards.
5. Super Mario Brothers 3
I didn't put the first one on here because it just wasn't as amusing as this one. And the second one. I loved it but didn't have room. SMB 3 is one of my favorites because it really wasn't that hard, there was a lot to do and I could dress up like a frog and swim around and stuff. It had a lot of the fun stuff from the first one... um, none really out of the second since it was just a totally different game with Mario characters swapped in. Still fun and still one of my favorites.
4. Zelda: The Ocarina of Time
One of the games that I love to this day is the Ocarina of Time which was available for the Nintendo 64. They re-released it into a collector's edition: "The Legend of Zelda: Collector's Edition". I had it for my Gamecube too and then downloaded it on my Wii in the USA. I fell in love with the sound effects and music really. The Temple of Time is one of my favorite musical compositions on this game if I had to only pick one. It's awesome. Plus playing bad music on my ocarina is always a plus.
3. Super Mario Galaxy
For a long, long time I was thinking the Mario games were getting a little too hard. So sometimes I wouldn't buy them for that reason. I got tired of wanting to put my fist through brick walls. But then "Super Mario Galaxy" came along for my Wii and I absolutely love it. I wouldn't own a Wii without it. Not only was it a lot easier but a lot more fun. Though I do miss some of the stuff from "Super Mario Sunshine". Oh, and this was the first Mario game I had finished in a LONG time.
2. Zelda: The Wind Waker (Gamecube)
I actually got to #2 and saw it was Animal Crossing for the Wii but realized I put that in all together with the other ones. And also realized that "Legend of Zelda The Wind Waker" is a lot more fun. A lot of people hated the cartoonish feel to this Zelda game but I really liked it. There was a lot of fun things to do like taking pictures of enemies and stuff. You could then have statues made of them and put them in a museum. That alone was enough to make me love this game. Plus riding the leaves was pretty damn fun. Awesome fun! (All this time I've been calling this game the Wind Maker... dumb me.)
1. Metroid Prime
This, ladies and gentlemen, is my favorite game ever. I absolutely love Metroid Prime. Right now I'm still playing Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. In fact I spent forever bitching about how hard it is and I played it yesterday and got past the part I was bitching about. I couldn't even get first the first major boss so I was stuck at 20% finished with the game. A whole lot of fun but I loved the first one for the Gamecube as well. The Metroid series rocks. :) Not only is it fun but there is a ton of stuff to find, tons of awards to get and junk and yeah, it's just an all around good game! (And as a side note, I remember someone telling me they were shocked that I loved this game so much... hmmmm.)
Conclusion
So it goes to show you that if you want to come to my house to play Metroid, then come over. And bring some chocolate cake or brownies. We'll have an awesome time.
I didn't think I'd finish this list and I really did. And as I said before, if you're missing 20 to 11, you can go here.
