All Hallows' Eve, what's everyone up to this year?

For me, not too much. Last year I went and did stuff for the holiday of Halloween, trick or treating, all that fun stuff, but this year I don't seem to be into it.

From what I've gathered, a lot of college students are taking it as dress up, but instead of candy replace that with alcohol, and you got your college halloween party.

About the only things I will be doing are helping hand out candy to the kids, maybe a pumpkin carving, and possibly watching Nightmare Before Christmas (sort of a tradition..sort of). I really enjoy the sound track from the movie, especially "Nightmare Revisited", made a couple of years ago.



(Above: Kidnap the Sandy Claws from The Nightmare Before Christmas, cover by KoЯn from the Nightmare Revisted soundtrack)

What sort of activities are you up to this year?

Open Mic @ The Monopole: a short summary.

For the past couple weeks now, I have attended the Open Mic events on Wednesday nights at the Monopole. I'm usually not the sort of person to go to things like that but a couple friends who play locally (look up Maps of Cartographers!) asked if I wanted to go and I figured, what the heck, I could use some different music.

The first thing I liked about the Monopole before the music even started was the atmosphere. It is a little cramped, and definitely one of the older buildings in Plattsburgh, but it has a nice, homey feel to it. I feel I could just hang out there for a while and not feel like I would have to leave. The bar was neatly set up, the food I tried there was good, and the prices were not bad at all.

But onto the music. The music, for the most part, I really enjoyed. There have been quite a few talented people I watched play the past couple times. The couple that stood out to me where the group I mainly went to see (Doomfuck) and another crazy couple of guys by the name of Niel Young and Crazy Hoss (I hope I spelled those correctly). Doomfuck had an epic set both times they played, with a great guitarist, bassist, violinist, drummer, and on the second night, even a guy on a synthesizer. The name fits them; the music had a very deep sound and a "doom" like feel.

Niel Young and Crazy Hoss, also having great music, put together a hilarious stage show with antics I would never have the guts to try myself. Getting "stabbed" on stage and taking and opening a banana out of your pants will be good memories.

Among Doomfuck and Niel Young/Crazy Hoss there were also many other talented people there on both nights, I thoroughly enjoyed my time at both, and I highly recommended attending Open Mic to everyone at least once (especially if you enjoy loud music!)

Drinking and getting drunk; have I missed out on much?

So up until recently in life, I really was not a person who alcohol pretty much at all. I suppose it could be considered pretty damn weird, since I've been 21 for a while now and I've been in college for almost 3 and a 1/2 years, you would think I would have gotten smashed a few times already. But I guess that wasn't for me.

Now I know some people who may come across this post have indeed probably gotten really smashed themselves. What I am asking here is; what is the appeal of it? I notice alcohol definitely puts me in a better attitude, makes everything seem a little less problematic/things more funny than they probably are, etc. But I haven't found myself really wanting to get stupid drunk. Have I been missing out?

A blizzard during winter; using templates in Flash.

The image below, created in Flash, was done during our midterm exam on Monday, October 17th. We all learned how to use a background image correctly, and how to give it a good message and even add some filters to it (such as the drop shadow below).

Here is the SWF Version of the file at this link.

Running from your problems; is there ever a best way?

The past..3 weeks to almost a month or so, I've dealt with shit I never saw coming anytime soon. To cut things short and not make this a huge myspace/facebook rant, the relationship I was in for 3 years came to an abrupt stop, and I was dropped in favor of somebody else. I've been through, excuse the cliche phrase, what feels like hell and back. So what have I been doing? Running.

Unfortunately, at this time, my living situation permits me to be living next to my now ex, and that's just no good. Running away from the place has been probably not the best idea, but finding new friends to hang out with and things to do has also not been such a bad experience in it self. I've been big into listening lots of music again (thank you Korn for always relating with my anger), and either being distracted by homework, video games, or friends has been allowing me to forget.



*Above: Second released song from Korn's next album The Path of Totality, Narcissistic Cannibal (featuring Skrillex and Kill the Noise).

The is the first big break up I've ever had to experience, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who has had to deal with stuff like this. What do you find your best escape to me? Not even just anything like this, but for any sort of problems.

Getting fired for trying to do my job?

So I've been talking with some friends since I've been back home for Columbus Break about the company we work for (GameStop). Apparently, as of recent, the company has started what they call "The 8 Week Plan". For 8 weeks, as an employee of the retailer, you MUST improve your numbers for sales (selling our discount card, etc.) or else you will get fired.

Now, I have worked in the company for years, and to me, this sounded like another scare tactic. We have been told before we would get "coachings", lose our jobs, have 3 warnings, etc. I had heard it all before. Until now though; my friend mentioned that I guy I used to work with actually got fired from his job by this program. A guy that I knew always tried to do his job, and do it well, and was also apparently working a ton of overtime.

Now I know being in retail, you have to be good at selling stuff. It's the way the job is. I have always been great at selling video games (it's easy when your favorite hobby is what you sell) however, there is only so much customers really want to buy. We do not get any acknowledgement as employees for however much we manage to sell to the customer aside from 2 things (game reserves and discount card subscriptions).

So, even if I sold a customer 5 new games, AND they filled out the customer service survey and rated me as excellent, I would still be a bad employee if I did not get either of the above mentioned items. Especially in an area like Plattsburgh, were Canadian customers will not want an American subscription (you need a US address) and will not reserve games (again, they would reserve them in Canada).

I doubt much will happen, I have been doing better at my job since we last got warned to do better (pretty much the whole store did). However, knowing a guy I used to work with got fired for just trying to do his job, just sucks in my mind.

Have you worked in retail before? Anyone else in another type of job been in a similar situation?

Korn to release "The Path Of Totality" in December

In one of my other recent blog posts about music, I stated Korn as my number one band. Their next album, The Path of Totality, is slated to hit December 6th, and I could not be any happier at the news of this.


Recently, Korn did a collaboration with dubstep artist Skrillex. I heard about the pairing before the single came out (titled "Get Up") and at first, I was a little worried. Korn is a band who has always tried new things in the past, but never a full album collaboration, let alone with an artist from a whole different genre of music. However, after hearing Get Up, I cannot wait to hear the rest of the album.



Above: Korn & Skrillex, "Get Up"


I have never really heard dubstep before this. I know that it has gained a huge following the past couple years, especially from guys like Skrillex, so Korn will definitely be expanding their audience with this. Stuff like this is why I love Korn, every time they have done something new I have enjoyed it, from Untouchables to See You on the Other Side. I will await the albums next single (Narcissistic Cannibal) to be put on radio later this October, and I'm sure enjoy it just as much, if not more, than Get Up.

Anyone happen to be a fan of dubstep? I realize now how catchy it can be, and have been listening to some more of Skrillex's stuff lately.

Status Update

So today after another six hour shift at the ol' job, I'm pretty exhausted.

Do I get to relax for the rest of my Sunday however? Not even close. I suppose I ask for it, being a college student and having a part time job, I should try to get my homework done sooner or something, but it's definitely hard wanting to do homework after a busy day at work.

I guess this sounds more like something you would see on facebook, as I'm more complaining than talking about anything important, but I'm interested to see what you other guys and gals in the class think about having a job while going to college.

I know a couple friends over the years had full time jobs while taking a lot of credits, and I feel like I shouldn't even complain in comparison to them. However, I also noticed their overall ability to do well in college seemed to just drop; they could just not keep up. With my part-time job, sometimes it can be difficult to get homework done when you don't have those nice weekend days off to cram all the homework into (I miss that), but at the same time, it's definitely nice having a little extra change in my pocket.

How do you guys and gals feel about it? Do you have a part-time/full time job? Do you feel it affects your abilities to do well in school? Maybe I just need to balance my time better (something a procrastinator like me will probably never learn).

Cats vs Dogs; which side are you on?

Heres another story that begins with "when I was growing up" (or something similar).


Growing up, I never had many pets at all for a long time. My family apparently owned a couple cats when I was a wee child (2/3), and the home videos obviously show me there playing with them, but I don't remember them at all. The first pets I do remember having were fish, and while neat, they were also kinda boring, and the fish tank exploding all over the house wasn't all the great of an experience.

After moving into our current house, and being there for 11 years, we have acquired first a cat (Chloe) our black lab (Jackson) and another cat we adopted (Peanut). Each has been an amazing pet.

I find pets like cats and dogs to be an amazing thing to have, I would think that any family would want one around. They are great companions, never complain, will always have the time to listen to you, and all you gotta do is clean up after them and feed them. The rest is just play time, or for cats, sleep time.

I'm definitely a cat guy though. Don't get me wrong, I love my black lab more than anything, but cats are just something else. I like how calm and lazy they always are, how hyper they can be when they want to play, and just how fluffy they are.



Above: Maru, my favorite internet cat.


So, are you a dog or cat person? Do you like pets? Ever had any yourself?