Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Fourth Winter (Working title)

The engines on the Alexandria roared to life as it prepared to take off one last time on its annual voyage. The Alexandria was a luxury ship, used by the elite class, that once a year traveled the world "seeing the sights" and reminding the elite why they were there.

There was a steady drop in education, which stemmed from a steep rise in poverty. The "elite" class, as they referred to themselves, had managed to pool enough money to keep their city and the surrounding areas unaffected, while the rest of the world crumbled.

A few of the "sights" the Alexandria flew to were once the World's greatest monuments. The first stop was always the Great Wall of China. It landed on its own special landing strip, and allowed its occupants to walk along the wall. Not much was left of the "Once Great Wall", a nickname they had given the wall for its current state, but they all knew, and talked of, the stories of this magnificent wall that spanned 8,851.8 kilometers, and was visible from the moon. From there they made their way down to the Great Pyramid of Giza. The years had been cruel to the pyramid, the continental plates had shifted and caused the pyramid to split in half, which was followed by a flock of looters, hoping to get their hands on the lost wonders of the pyramid. The Alexandria then traveled to Alexandria in Egypt to visit the site of the Lighthouse of Alexandria. The elite had decided to restore the Lighthouse to the state it had been in before all the earthquakes and its ultimate disappearance by 1480. The investors, who had payed to restore the Lighthouse, liked the idea of having the Wonder that was the inspiration for the ship on the stop, to inspire those who made the journey to strive for the greatness that Alexander himself achieved. The final stop was the Leaning Tower of Pisa. There was only a monument for the Leaning Tower now, since it had fallen many centuries earlier. It is ironically fitting that after the stories of Alexander the Great they were treated to the rubble of the Leaning Tower, a fallen Wonder.

A teenage boy stirred in the hold. A look of fear crossed his face, and he jumped up, looking around the room in a panic. Nothing but luggage surrounded him, and he let out a sigh of relief as he slid back down to the ground. His hair was black, and his eyes were a bright brown. His clothes indicated he was from the "middle" class, which was barely a step up from the lower class in the eyes of the elite. They were able to sustain themselves with housing, and a decent job, but weren't able to afford any sort of education, only learning what was passed down through the generations. On occasion a book would make its way into the world of the lower classes and those who could made an effort to spread it to as many people as they could. The boy showed signs of nourishment, which was rare among any of the lower classes, and pointed to his higher status among them. His name was Shiro Winters, and this is his journey.

Next Part

Friday, November 25, 2011

A Phoenix Rises

Hey guys, I'm back! Sorry I didn't post there for like... Ever. Life gets awesome sometimes and when it does I get wrapped up in it. I almost came here and posted a few times, but each time I had too much to say, so I got scared away by the idea of having to write everything.

I'm actually planning on taking this blog in a different direction. If anything super exciting life changing happens I might still update about life, and what is currently going on, but the majority of the time will be fun blog posting.

I used to write a lot, constantly coming up with stories about these characters I based on myself and people I knew. There were some really great ones in there. One that very loosely followed the "Game" my friends and I created when we were younger, one that involved super powers and a super powered bad guy attacking a school, and one that took a fun new look at the whole Merlin/Morganna thing. I only ever finished writing the one with super powers, although never really edited it. The "Game" one was more of me learning how I write, and so it changed a lot through the 20-30 chapters I wrote. It would have been too much of a hassle to finish and edit it. The Merlin one just kinda ran out of my hands, I was trying to do a lot with it, and I like what I have, it's just more than I was capable of writing at the time.

SO, how exactly does my past writing have anything to do with my new blogging style? Well, I plan to write on here. Snippets of story, creating characters, maybe even a story that connects throughout the posts.

I was going to put something here, but I don't have anything in mind right now, so now I can just pop in and write randomly when I feel the need. Hope I get lots of good ideas, and that you guys enjoy whatever it is I do here. =D

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Kingdom Hearts!!! =D

Recently, I had a friend buy me Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep, which is on the PSP. While I don't own a PSP, I have a friend who does and he let me borrow it since he never uses it. That's a reason why I haven't been on here, because since Thursday I've been playing it when I'm not hanging out with people.

I'm trying to think of the best order to go in here, and I'm probably just going to jump around with anything that I have to say, because I don't exactly have an overarching thing I want to talk about.

I'm not exactly the sportsy type, so this next bit may seem a bit strange, but I joined my friend Gerardo's Intramural Soccer team. It was mainly because he needed people, and I didn't think it would be a bad idea to be a bit physical for once in my life. It's actually turned out to be a lot of fun, and we even decided that after this league is over we should continue practicing just for the fun/exercise. I went out and bought myself some green Puma cleats, shorts, and shirts to play in. So far, I've met a ton of cool people through the soccer team, and lost two games, one of which we actually scored in. It's been a ton of fun, and even with all the soreness that comes with working out, I'm loving every moment of it.

Today I actually went out and attended GDC Online. It was like a career fair for video game companies, which was super awesome and I got to talk to a lot of people in the industry, and heard a lot about what will help with the future. First step, learn C++. Second step, work with friends to make any sort of video game prototype. Tons of lots of fun! I ended up getting a ton of free stuff, like a LucasArts shirt, and a poster for Knights of the Old Republic (which will be given away at some point), and a ton of free pins and such. At one point, while we were wandering, I noticed a guy approaching us who was about to take a picture, and I smiled for the camera. I told Ricky, Ann, and Corey that I wanted that picture, and then we went back to gathering free things. Before lunch I bought a messenger bag, and then we went to eat at a crepe restaurant. It was super duper delicious, and we split up meal crepes and desert crepes, and it was super amazing! When we got back to the center, we went to grab our free water bottles, which allowed for us to reach into a grab bag that had several prizes in it. Ricky, Ann, and Corey got posters, and I got a free pass to one of the sessions. I'm planning on attending a 2-hour session on developing characters. Also, I found the picture the guy took of us, and already saved it. =D

The last few weeks have also been full of the whole super awesome frustration of work, and dealing with people, and struggling to keep stuff from falling apart. The things that messed with people the most aren't even things that... I'm being mean, and I don't like it. I just think if people would sit down and look at themselves for a moment before flying off the handle at someone else things would work out a whole lot better. I could do this better too, trust me, I just think some people could just put some sort of effort into it. I'm also horrible, because there's something inside of me that constantly judges the character of people. Generally, when I meet someone, I can tell whether they're the type of person I'd want to hang out with, or if they're someone I would rather only see every once in a while. This leads me to build connections with people without any effort on their part, because through this strange judging thing I latch on to the people whose character seems the purest, not in the sense of never done anything bad pure, but the sense of this person's character is true, and I know without a shadow of a doubt that they will never let me down. I probably expect a lot of people as is, but I sort of expect more from these people, and awesomely enough they've never let me down. I can think of only a few people who I have managed to build up this way, which might give a sense as to why they mean so much to me.

Umm... That was kind of welling inside me for a while, and it felt good to write it all out.

Lastly, on a good note, because I need that too right now, next week I get to go with Chelsea to the Panic at the Disco concert here in Austin. I'm pretty excited about that, but the super duper great news...

Which I don't think I've shared yet on here, is that I'm going to be an Uncle!! Woot! It's super exciting, and the idea of a little kid running around that belongs to my Brother that I'll be able to spoil and take care of and watch grow is super exciting! Ahh! =D

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Friendship is Magic

This has always been one of those truths that I've lived my life by.

There are times when it rings louder than others, and this is one of those times. I was going to say it rang louder now than ever before, but that isn't true, although it's true that it rings louder now than it has for a while. I spend a lot of time on here talking about people, and how grateful I am to have them in my life, but it really is true.

As of this moment, I am super duper at home. Here's the layout of the current room in counterclockwise order. To my right you've got Ann, working on homework, or just browsing the interwebs. Ricky is laying in the bed next to her in a constant state of half sleep. Cathy is full blown passed out on the other bed. Eric is sitting at the other end of that bed. To my left is Corey finishing up his program and running the music. Gerardo just walked in, throwing all of this off, not that I mind in the least.

On occasion, after a long day, I might start to feel like I want some time alone, but when it all comes down to it I can't imagine spending time away from these guys. They're my life, and everyday they mean more and more.

We're headed to eat now, and I won't be back for a long period of time. Love ya guys!

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Hispanic Pony Newspaper

Weirdest stand alone title ever, haha.

So, my friends and I do some pretty crazy things. We've recently taken to doing this thing where if we miss something we say, "Rewind." and everyone pretends to go back and repeat whatever just happened. It was first used to see who said something first, which turned us all into mind readers because we started answering questions before they were answered.

We've also started watching My Little Pony a lot. When I say "a lot" I really mean we've watched the first two episodes and fallen in love with the show. It's definitely my type of show, and we're all awesome enough to obsess over it, in a good way. After watching the first two episodes we started claiming which ponies were us. It came out to:
Cathy - Twilight Sparkle
Eric - Applejack
William - Pinkie Pie
Corey - Rarity
Ricky - Rainbow Dash
Ann - Fluttershy
Gerardo - Spike

Later, Ricky was applying for a position at the newspaper. We decided that if he didn't get it we would start our own newspaper. Everyone has their own section as follows:
Gerardo is in charge of Soccer, and it will only be written in Spanish.
Sara is in charge of Music and Arts, basically all things Indie.
Eric is in charge of Nintendo.
Ricky runs the Opinion section.
Eric W. writes about whatever sports news tickles his fancy, minus the soccer bits.
Daniel does an Ask Daniel column.
Corey is in charge of the Social Matters.
Cathy does Literature.
William is writing the Foreign news part.
Jacob has a Minecraft/Technology section.
Ann does the crafts section.
Lynn draws the comics.
I write about video games, mainly RPGs.

And finally, we've sort of recieved/given Hispanic names to everyone.
I'm Eduardo.
Gerardo is Antonio.
Ricky is Enrique.
Corey is Maria.
Jacob is Alejandro.
Enrique is Jose.
Pedro is Pablo.
Cathy is Catalina, I think.
Eric is Roberto.
Ann is Guadalupe.

There's really no point to any of this, I've just been trying to find the time to post it for a while now. Boo college being super duper busy!

Really though, it's pretty great, college that is. My classes are interesting, with the most interesting definitely being Python. I'm also getting to spend a lot more time with people this year than I did in previous semesters, which is making all of this a lot nicer.

I have found though, again, that I find myself attached to people super easily. This is a problem when I feel my super attachedness might be a bit overbearing for some people, that or they might get tired of it after a while.

I dunno, I would talk more, but I really want to sleep since I can, and post this thing, finally.

Till next time,
=D

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

The Difference

So, I always mention my friends, and always try to specify which friends I'm talking about. I've always wondered why I felt it so important to specify which friends I'm talking about, and I've recently discovered it's more for myself.

Each set of friends is different, but each set of friends has been made at a separate point in my life. Since I've formed the bases for each relationship at different points, I don't feel the same about any two groups.

You've got the group I've known the shortest. The UT crowd. I met them after a semester of college, and have only known them for 9 months or so. I honestly don't feel like I've got that super close friendship, where I can talk whenever I need to, but it's growing. It took very little time to get comfortable around them, enough so that I was willing to drive 5 ish hours to Dallas to meet up with them for a midnight release of Harry Potter. I drove back the next day. Totally worth it, and it wasn't awkward sleeping in the living room with Eric and Cathy, which if you know me make since because I've always found it awkward to even think about sleeping in the same room as someone with the opposite gender, but I'm weird like that. I've grown a lot with these people, and in such a super short period of time I've gotten to know them quite well and couldn't ask for better. I basically met them after a semester of needing someone to hang out with, that social interaction, and their arrival in my life was more than I though possible.

Then there's the Google group, err groups. There's the whole group I met in California, and then all the people I met in New York who get added to the category. Mainly, for this post though I want to talk about the people I met in California, because those are the ones I got closest to. I'm so lucky I got to go California with Google in the first place, and after meeting everyone there I realized just how lucky I really was. Meeting these people was a whole new experience for me since I usually meet people through people. Here it was a blank start, a clean slate where no one had anything to go on except a picture that we submitted and the knowledge that this was a Google CS camp thing. Since there was the added magic of Google I was way more lenient on judging people than I usually am (My judging is more so a pre-screening of people and knowng fast whether they're the type of person I would hang out with). I don't always feel comfortable with them, but when I do it's the type of comfortable where I could literally just fall asleep lying on their shoulder and there would be absolutely nothing wrong with that. The type of comfortable where staying the night in a hotel room with 2 guys and 3 girls wasn't weird at all, it just felt like another normal thing. It may be the extraordinary circumstances surrounding our meeting, but I feel like I met them with a more open mind than I met most my friends, and because of that there's that whole new layer of emotions that I feel around them.

Then there's the last group. The Amarillo group. I met these guys when I was most sheltered, most awkward, least sure of who I was. They've been there through every one of my stupidest moments, and for some reason found something worth waiting for. These are the guys I know I can talk to things about, and yet the ones I have an irrational fear of pushing away somehow. There's years worth of eggshells lying around, and I'm scared one of these days I'll stumble onto the right one that pulls everything apart somehow. It doesn't make any sense when I talk about it, but it's how I feel. There's so much that gets left unsaid on my part because it sounds too whiny, or mushy, which shouldn't bother me after all this time, yet I feel it gets bothersome after a while. I've gotten more comfortable around them over the years though, and now sleeping in a mixed gender room doesn't bother me, but it never would have happened more than a year ago. Since I've known these guys the longest they've also gotten accustomed to me. This includes them telling me when I shouldn't listen in a song, or knowing that their cursing doesn't bother me like it did. I'm now privy to less, and at the same time more, than I would have liked, but I've grown to accept it. This group is responsible for my applying to UT and the Google program. This is the group that breaks my heart every single time I have to drive away, knowing I won't see them for a while. They're responsible for my turning out the way I did, with pushes here and there in a better direction. They're my life, and even though sometimes I feel like I don't belong or that I'd rather be somewhere else, I wouldn't trade a single one for anything on this planet. They're all greater than I could ever explain if given all the time in the world, and they will never be anything less to me.

This blog started three or four days ago, and as such has gone through several different sittings. I feel like I continued with how I had planned on doing this, but overall I feel like that should give you a good picture of what I mean when I specify my different friends. None of them is worse, or better. They all mean something to me, and I wouldn't be the same without them. They're just different.

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Flashback to Charles

Ok, so this isn't going to be a super long post, I just want to get a few things in real quick before I hit the hay.

As far as what I ended the last post on, it's still up in the air. I'm super fickle sometimes.

Anyway, classes started today, yesterday. They're going to be fun. Linear Algebra should be somewhat easy, Physics will get hard, and Python will be time consuming.

I'm irked that in Physics we have to pay money to be able to do the homework. That's super silly.

Python is going to be a blast though. The professor, Julian, seems super awesome, and if you were at CSSI, or know Charles he reminded Sara and I of him. It's going to be worth the effort.

Tuesday Eric started playing Kingdom Hearts for the first time. I'm loving seeing it all again. Absolute favorite game of all time ever right there.

I have more to say, but Jacob is sleeping, and I feel super bad for still being awake blogging.

I'll post more later! =D

Oh and be jealous, because I got to Hangout with Emily today! Boo-yah world! =D

Love you guys, and night.