Ultra Rainbow Death Star

Ok, so I was just in Bungie and there was a thread made concerning public bathrooms. Great idea. Figure I'll put my musings here.

First off, how many of you all reading this actually use public restrooms? Whether in school or otherwise?

I myself almost NEVER use public bathrooms. When I'm in school and really need to, I skip the bathrooms lining the hall and head straight for the somewhat "cleansier" bathrooms in our gym. No ones ever in there. I'm sure that whenever I do this, I get some strange looks from people, because I always do it during lunch when there are students and teachers in the gym playing basketball, but I just walk right past them, onto the stage, and into the locker room. Even once I'm there, I proceed to wipe down the seat before even touching it. I'll stop there.

Now that I've told you what I personally do, comes this question. Are these people who use public restrooms nowadays fucking idiots?

I swear that every time I walk into a public bathroom and see one of those stalls, I just lose my appetite. First, there are the walls. What mentally challenged men have been writing poetry on these walls? "Eat shit you fuck face cum-dumpster"? Who are they writing to? "Call 555-6792 for a blowjob"? Yeah, I'll make sure to call this other probable male who is in no way affiliated with this bathroom stall for a BJ. There are all of these tastless and humourless remarks written in sharpie on the walls that just make you wonder: Why the fuck did they bring a sharpie into the stall with them??? I guess public bathrooms aren't exactly 'No-blogging zones'.

And then the dirty-dirty. The toilets themselves. Okay, question:
After millions of years of evolution, don't you think that we as human beings should have learned by now how to keep our dick on crosshairs with our target?

You see these toilets, and apparently someone has pissed all over the seat, they left some dingleberries on the floor around it, there's a huge piece of crap just floating there, some piss on the floor, and occasionally some feces smeared all over the walls. What do you have to be doing in the first place in order to turn your surroundings into a shit-covered canvas, anyways? Are they playing Mario-Kart in there off-hand or something? I mean, geez, even if they do decide to cover the place in piss, they can at least take the time to clean up their mess off of the toilet.

/End rant.

Posted by echo630 at 7:05 PM | Permalink | Comments

I'm great in school. I usually get all As and maybe one B, but this year I have a feeling it'll be vice versa. I'm rather depressed for various reasons, so all of those just seem to pile on top of eachother and weigh me down. I have a ton of work I need to do, and I'm pressed on all sides. I'm having money problems, as well, and I can't even get a job where I'm at for another year. Everything that I once did for fun is nothing to me now because of time and limits. I haven't been to jujitsu in three weeks because of car troubles, I have a lot of homework, no Xbox, playstation, gamecube, or anything else. I just spent two months for WoW, and can't even play it anymore because my computer isn't built for games, so instead I have to go to friend's pcs to play, or other computers in my house. I have a horrible school schedule this semester, and next semester will be only slightly better. I can never seem to get anything done, and really, I guess, my life is sort of in a stump. This is bound to be a crappy year for me, and the only thing I have to keep me occupied is my friends, the Autumn weather has finally arrived, long walks, working out, and a bunch of random arts and hobbies.

Posted by echo630 at 11:28 AM | Permalink | Comments

Ok . . . I'm currently in a state of reflection . . . mind the title.

Alright, now, warning to anyone who may not like indie-soft rock: Go away. You'll meet some in this thread . . . K . . .

The reason for this is because of a great song I just downloaded. I first heard it about 3 months ago, and am just now getting around to listening to it again. I thought I'd share it with you.

The song is titled 'Penelope' and is by the band Pinback. I heard this first off the podcast 'Hi my name is Mark' (which is GREAT, by the way). The song, or at least how I interpret it to be, is about exactly what I'm doing. Reflecting. Looking at yourself and looking through and into others and just thinking.

The reason I like it is not just because of the lyrics (which I'm about to post), but also because of the melody. It's absolutely entrancing. I'll post that as well.

If anyone is currently going through any troubles in which they need something to listen to to keep them thinking about whatever is going on, then please take your time to listen to this. I love it, myself. Lyrics ahoy.

http://www.sing365.com/music/Lyric.nsf/Penelope-lyrics-Pinback/9D2199896E5DBFFB48256DD600297931

And to make the experience a billion times greater while reading the lyrics, then you might as well listen to them as well.

Posted by echo630 at 7:23 PM | Permalink | Comments

I want to take a short moment to go ahead and address my background music that you should hear playing in loop right now.

The song is by the band Brand New, but does not yet have a name. It's one of the 9 untitled demos that were leaked over the internet. This one song happens to be known as 'Untitled 07'.

Brand New is an ever changing band in lieu with their albums, which is one of the reasons why I love them. They're about to come out with their third, also untitled, album, and I'm praying that this song comes with the CD. I love it!

The piano vs drumline in this song is amazing, and the lyrics are linear and some of Brand NEw's finest poetry. Music to my ears. Literally, I guess. For more insight as to what the lyrics are, go here:

http://www.songmeanings.net/lyric.php?lid=3530822107858570260

Posted by echo630 at 8:52 PM | Permalink | Comments

Before I Begin.

I ordered the book off Amazon on June 9th. After a long wait (and a near mental breakdown), I got the message that it was delivered on th 21st, and I finally recived it on the 28th. The second I got the book, I opened it and began reading the foreword, but not before I caressed the cover. It's so beautiful. The entire thing is. After the cross-species/object intercourse, I got to reading it, which leads me to the first review . . . .

The Last Voyage of the Infinite Succor

Written and illustrated by Lee Hammock and Simon Bisely, this is my second favorite story in the novel. The Infinite Succor tells the story of Rtas 'Vadumee, also known largely in the Halo unverse as 'Half-Jaw', he Special Ops Commander, and how he came to lose both his lower left mandibles and his suicidal tendencies. The story starts with the Master chief being dropped off in the swamps of Halo in order to give the player a more familiar feel of the setting. The table quickly turns to the Infinite Succor, a Covenant agricultural ship. A lone Covenant dropship is headed to dock in the Succor. Though the Succor hails the incoming dropshp, it stays on course, and crashes itself in the launch bay. The grnts, thinking it's a human attack at first, contact the the rest of the crew with cries of help to escape the bay, but are killed before they can let them know who the real attackers are. The Flood.

The rest of the story explains how the Legate of Etiology aboard the Succor beaconed the rest of the Fleet of Particular Justice for extraction. The Special Ops Commander, Rtas, is selected to lead a search and rescue party through the Succor to secure the Legate. While aboard the flagship, the story also shows how Rtas lost part of his jaw in a taining exercise.

When aboard the ship, it becomes clear to the Commander that the Demon, Master Chief, was not involved with this particular attack. instead, it was something far more brutal. When the Legate is finally secured, the purpose of the flood taking over this ship becomes clear: To actiate the Succors slipspace drive and jump out of the system. Rtas sends half of his squad to beacon a dropship with plasma grenades, while the other half (his half) accesses the engineering room and sets the coordinates for the slipspace jump for the nearest star (since the ships self destruct sequence is offline).

Through his conflict with the Flood aboard the ship, Rtas loses his suicidal tendencies like so many other Elites.

The artwork here, like the rest of the stories, are amazing. Tight, creepy, and dangerous setting make this so much more Covenant like. The story is amazing, and so I give this a 5 out of 5.

Armor Testing

Written and illustrated by Jay Faerber, Ed Lee. and Andrew Hammock. A short story, Armor Testing explains who tested the MJOLNIR Mark VI before the Master Chief received it aboard the Cairo. The story is centered around the retired SPARTAN Maria -062, who settled down on Earth to start a family instead of staying in the armed forces.

While it mainly goes into details of how the Mark VI was tested over a few pages, and then on who the masked donner was in the end, there is nothing to really hate about ths story and everything to like, though it is rather short and vague. I give it a 4 out of 5.

Breaking Quarantine

Illustrated (sorry, no 'written') by Tsutomu Nihei. In this story, we learn about how Sergeant Johnson escaped the Flood in the level 343 Guilty Spark . . . . He ran. 7 pages of him running and fighting the Flood. That's it for the in depth review of this story. Its by far the shortest story of the novel.

This is a 12 page story with absolutely no dialogue. While the artwork is gorgeous, there is that feeling after reading it that you really didn't learn that much from it. But, then again, what would you really have expected to happen, huh? For Johnson to have met up with some friendly Forerunner guards who escorted him to the entrance of the structure? No. He really had nothing else to do but run, so I guess this story (along with all that we learned from the halo books) gives us a pretty lucid description on Johnsons involving with the Flood. I give it a 4 out of 5.

Second Sunrise Over New Mombasa

Written and illustrated by Brett Lewis and the legendary Moebius. The second longest story, Second Sunrise, gives us a look at a completely different view of th war than we've seen before: the civilians view. It explains a day in the life of an anonymous photographer who is employed by O.N.I. to edit and censor all media on the war to make it seem as if humanity is winning. This gives us, also, a new look at O.N.I., as more of a lying disutopian, propagandaish branch. The day is normal for the man, explaining his job, and how he keeps a secret from everyone around hm, and goes into detail about the other civilians of New Mombasa. Then, midday, 3 objects are seen falling from the sky. The news reports that the explosion in space was accidental, but that everyone should go inside immediately. the grim truth of the matter is revealed when the Covenant attack the city, intent on destroying everything living. The photographer is taking cover with a squad what seems to be soldiers when he recieves a translation on his pc from one of the nearby elites. "We need to clear this area before we can secure access to the Ark". The commanding officer in the group orders him to get the recording out of the city, obviously sensing that that something said was something big. The photographer escapes to the docs only to find a near full lifeboat about to leave. He hands his laptop to a little girl, and she boards the lifeboat and leaves the city. Whether they survived is unknown. The last screen of this story is of an unknown man sitting in a dark, empty room, with a dialogue box at the bottom reading [--This is the first day of the end of the world.]

Second Sunrise is the second longest and my favourite story the four. It has great dialogue (more like monologue, actually). great art, and a great story, plus, it leaves more wanting to know actuallywhat happened through the rest of this story. Did the girl live? Did she get the recording to safety? What did they learn? What happened to the photographer? Like I said, this is my favourite story, and I give it a 5 out of 5.

And, then, the rest of the book is a gallery section with some really nice artwork by various artists, including a super special Mister Chief.

Closing Note

So, to end this review, I guess I have to rate the book entire. The artwork throughout was amazing. some good stories, yes, but not all of them being entirely as much as I expected. In fact, I didn't learn all that much that I didn't already know, though I may just need to look a tad bit closer.

So, with Halo being my favourite fictional universe, though that shalln't sway my opinion either way, I guess I'm obliged to give this novel the score it deserves . . . . . A full 5 out of 5.

I said 'Good day, Sir!'

Posted by echo630 at 5:05 PM | Permalink | Comments

It's by Remedy and the Wu Tang Clan, though I believe it might've only been produced by the RZA. I'm not a huge fan of rap, but a few years back my stepbrothers listened to the Wu Tang Clan a lot, and now they're one of the few rap bands still making music that I can listen to, since they're not half bad.Well, the song was 'Never Again'. I'm not able to get it on putfile or anything, but I could at least grab the lyrics from the site. The song is about the 6 million who died in the Holocaust, and how never again Israel would give in to another country. Ok, I'll shutup, here's the link to the lyrics.

http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/wutangclan/neveragain.html

Posted by echo630 at 4:58 PM | Permalink | Comments

So, who is echo630? I'll tell you.

He's a dashing young man of about 15 years. He's 5'10" and is in excellent physical and supreme mental condition.

He hails from the capital city of Charleston, West Virginia, but now resides in Buffalo, West Virginia. He takes jujitsu under Sensei Ernie Boggs in Nitro, and studies many other martial arts to intertwine within his own style.

As well, he definitely loves the regular teenage expected things. Music, movies, and the less expected 'reading'. That's right. He reads.

For his music, he prefers artists such as *erhrm*:

BRAND NEW, AFI, Angels and Airwaves, Aqualung, Armor for Sleep, At the Drive-In, blink-182, Bloodhound Gang, Bob Marley, Boxcar Racer, Bright Eyes, Burt Bacharach, Coldplay, Damien Rice, Dave Matthews Band, Death Cab for Cutie, Elvis Costello, Everclear, OLDE Greenday, Hollywood Undead, Incubus, James Blunt, Jason Mraz, John Mayer, Linkin Park, Maroon 5, Matisyahu, Nine Inch Nails, Nirvana, Oasis, Pink Floyd, Pluss 44, Puddle of Mud, Rage Against the Machine, Sorry About Dresden, Steven Lynch, Streetlight Manifesto, Taking Back Sunday, Tenacious D, Third Eye Blind, Thursday, Queen, Catch-22, Jimmy Eat World, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Halifax, Sunny Day Real Estate, Reel big Fish, Rites of Spring, The Get up Kids, Texas is the Reason, Bon Jovi, Flogging Molly, White Stripes, Decemberists, Nightmare of You, Alkaline Trio, Anti Flag, etc etc. Just to name a few.

And then there is my extensive liking of movies! Let's see what we've got here . . . .

Cidade De Deus, Dogma, Dream with the Fishes, Ferris Bueller's day Off, Requiem for a Dream, The Silence of the Lambs, Toy Soldiers (Not 'Small Soldiers'. This movie is different.), A Clockwork Orange, American Beauty, Closer, American History X, Fight Club, Kill Bill, Pulp Fiction, Sin City, Butterfly Effect, Donnie Darko, Shawshank Redemption, Scarface, The Usual Suspects, Trainspotting, A Beautiful Mind, Good Will Hunting, Dazed and Confused.

As for books? The Giver, A Clockwork Orange, Harry Potters, The Hobbit, Aikido and the dynamic Sphere, Kung Fu Elements, Catch-22, The Art of War, Castro!, Artemis Fowls, Halo books, Salamandastron, White Fang, Call of the Wild, Brave New World, many others.

So, I'm a linear man. I love psychology, good plot, good beats, and great books.

That's a basic 'About Me' section. Sorry I didn't get to delve deeper, but that's all you need to know about me for now.

Posted by echo630 at 3:41 PM | Permalink | Comments

It's not like this is my first blog or anything, but this is the first blog that I actually plan on doing something with.

My reason for making this is to record my thoughts, which come numerous and close between. I'm a member on a site called http://www.bungie.net, and it's sort of looked down upon by the mods if you go around posting your long, boring blogs in their forums. For that reason, I needed another dump zone to pour my blogs into, and basically keep my emotions organized and in line.

So, I present to you: Ultra Rainbow Death Star! Probably my fifth blog I've ever had, but this one, I promise, will be good. For the next few posts I make on here, I'll be introducing myself to you all, and then, I'll begin making my more . . . artistic posts.

Ciao!

Posted by echo630 at 11:24 AM | Permalink | Comments