Sunday, October 31, 2010

Happy Halloween!

I hope everyone had a fun Halloween!

I managed to toss a costume together at the last moment. Here it is:


I was a Lemming! If you don't know what Lemmings are, Google it. It's an awesome game that's been around for a long time. My dress is too short to be exactly accurate, but I did the best I could with my limited time. If I ever decide to dress as a Lemming again, I'll be sure to sew an outfit that's perfectly accurate to their classic designs!

I wore this costume to a Halloween party on Saturday night, and I also wore it to work today. Since it's a gaming-related costume, I was allowed. :D It was fun! A few people recognized what I was, so I'm pleased.

After work, I went to my aunt's house and spent some time with my family. We gave out candy to the kids that were trick-or-treating. Then, we went to my grandma's and I watched Evil Dead with my parents. Overall, it was a nice and relaxing Halloween.

So, tell me! What did you folks do for Halloween?

Friday, October 29, 2010

National Reptile Breeders' Expo 2010

You probably already saw the video on youtube, but here it is if you missed it:



This is a reptile show I went to back in August. I've actually had the video ready to upload for about two months! The only reason why I waited this long is because I was trying to find some good music I could use for the background audio. I didn't really like the background noise, but I finally decided to just use it anyway since I never found music that fits.

I decided to go to this show when I met a person who offered to carpool with me. I'm so happy I went! I was super excited to see the albino iguanas in person, because I've been wanting one for a long time now. I hope to buy one some day, but they are super duper expensive. I was also really happy to see all the different kinds of blue tongue skinks. The only kind that I ever saw in person before was....well, Kai! I pretty much recorded every single skink I saw.

I recorded so much footage at the show that I couldn't fit it all into the 15 minute time limit. I had to cut out a lot of it. I think I kept in the best stuff, though. Kai sure did love those worms I brought home for him! He would go nuts whenever I gave him one. I had to clean up a lot of worm guts!

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Thanks everyone

Thank you so much for all the kind comments on my previous post. It means so much to me. I'm going to be calling a doctor tomorrow morning to make an appointment, so I guess we'll see how things go from there.

I forgot to mention that I went to see Back to the Future on Monday! AMC theaters had a couple of screenings of the movie in honor of its 25th anniversary, and I caught one of them. It was so awesome to see it on the big screen! It was originally released before I was even born, so it was really neat to have the opportunity. I was supposed to get a commemorative poster after the movie, but they had handed them all out before I got mine. That's what I get for being nice and sitting through the credits! :<

So I apparently just got accepted into Youtube's partnership program! This is very unexpected! I really didn't think they were going to approve my application, but I did it anyway for the heck of it. I guess I should try to upload videos more regularly now. I need to create an alternate account to upload videos with copyrighted content. Hmmm, I'll have to try to think of a good name to use for it.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Life is hard sometimes

I'll try not to make this too depressing, but I'm so bored right now that I don't know what else to do. Before I get into my present situation, here's a little back story to put it all into context:

When I was about 11 or 12 years old, I developed back problems. No one has ever been able to determine the cause of them. I certainly don't recall ever doing anything to injure my back, and neither do my parents. The only possible cause was something I may have done to it while studying martial arts, but once again, I don't remember a specific event that triggered it. I've seen many doctors, and after getting an MRI done, it was shown that I have two herniated discs in my lower back. I've tried many different treatments over the years, and not a single one has helped. These herniated discs cause a constant pain that is only relieved when I'm laying down.



In the beginning, it wasn't all that bad. It hurt all the time, but I could still live a pretty normal life. I would occasionally have flare-ups that required me to rest it here and there, but it was more of an inconvenience than anything. It did make it very hard for me to exercise, and I had to quit martial arts because it was too painful to continue. The lack of exercise resulted in my weight fluctuating a lot during my teenage years.

As time went on, it got worse and worse. By the time I was in college, it was very difficult for me to sit up. I could walk okay, but sitting upright was very painful. Standing still also caused me pain, and it became difficult for me to attend any events that require a person to stand still in long lines and such. Whenever I went to see movies, I would have to lean against the person next to me (usually my mom or my then-boyfriend) because I wasn't able to sit up. In school, I had to slump down in my chair and lean back as far as I could, and it usually didn't help much. I spent a lot of time in my classes doing nothing besides groaning in pain. After my classes, I usually just went back to my dorm room and laid down for the rest of the day. A good majority of my time was spent laying in bed.

At one point, I had a series of epidurals injected into my back. They completely removed my pain for a short time, and it was incredible. With the freedom to move without pain, I worked very hard to shed my excess weight and get myself into shape. It was a success, and I managed to get nice and thin before the pain returned. I've been in good shape ever since. However, once the pain came back, my life returned exactly to the way it was before.

When I was 19, I moved to another city in order to attend a different college. Right around the time I moved, my back miraculously stopped hurting! It happened out of nowhere, with no explanation whatsoever. For the first time in my adult life, I could live like a completely normal, healthy person. It was absolutely amazing. I loved the freedom I had, to do anything without fear of needing to nurse my sore back. There was a fear in the back of my mind that the pain would return some day, though. I expected it to happen when I was older, but after two and a half amazing years, the dreaded day arrived.

That day was three days ago. On Sunday, the 24th of October, 2010, I woke up with the familiar pain in my back once again. Just as it went away, it returned out of nowhere. I don't remember doing anything to strain it. It's just there. When I first woke up that morning, the pain wasn't too bad. It was annoying, but I figured I had just slept on it weird and it would go away. It didn't. As the day continued, the pain increased more and more. By the time I got home from work, I could barely walk. I stumbled around my apartment, wondering what on earth had made this happen again.

I got myself set up in my bed once again, the familiar place I used to spend most of my free time. I've been spending as much time as possible laying in either my bed or on the floor. I'm on the floor at the moment. It's been only three days, and I can already barely take any more of this constant laying down. I want so badly to get in my car and drive somewhere, but it's too painful to drive. I'm hoping and praying with everything I have that this isn't the end, that this is only temporary and I'll have my freedom back again soon. Realistically thinking, though, I doubt it will happen.

Before this happened, I was making plans to move into my own apartment very soon. I already have the place picked out, and I was hoping to move in the next couple months. If this back problem has returned permanently, though, then that is no longer an option for me. I'm unable to work and support myself when I'm like this. I'm thinking that I'll probably have to move back in with my parents. With them, I'll have more of a life than I could possibly have anywhere else. I'm going to give it a few more days, and if there's no improvement, then I'll most likely be putting in my two weeks notice at work.

I'm so very thankful for the last two and a half years of my life. It was an incredible experience, and I'll never forget it. Despite how depressing this blog entry sounds, I'm not unhappy right now. I just felt like sharing my story. It's nearly impossible for anything to bring down my spirit. No matter what ends up happening to me, I'll be okay.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Game streamin'

I'll stream games here from time to time.


Watch live streaming video from skinkcam at livestream.com

Monday, October 18, 2010

Nerdy Show episode is up

Well, for anyone interested in listening to that podcast I'm a host on, you can find it here. I feel embarrassed all of a sudden! This was supposed to be 15-30 minutes long, but since we couldn't shut up, it's over an hour. I hope you enjoy it!

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Mama's birthday/ Art show

Today was my mom's birthday! Happy birthday Mamaaaaaaa! I love you!

I had another long day at work. It was a better day than usual, though. We had a gaming-themed art show tonight, featuring art by the store owner's cousin. We had a ton of people show up, and it was a lot of fun. There was free pizza and cupcakes, and the cupcakes were so awesome! They were all Mario themed. Here are some pictures:
Yoshi and mushrooms!

Goombas! They even had feet!
These piranha plants were so cool!

They had red velvet cake inside. Delicious!

It's fun when I basically get paid to eat pizza, eat cupcakes, and mingle with people. My job rocks.

Nerdy Show

I just got back from recording a podcast! This group of folks in my area has a podcast called the Nerdy Show, and they recently invited me to be a part of it. Tonight, we recorded the first episode that I'm in. It sounds like they mainly want me around for the gaming-related episodes, which makes sense, considering that's my area of expertise. The main focus of this episode is Castlevania, but we touched on some other topics as well. It was a blast! I'll definitely link to the episode here as soon as it's available online.

Man I had a long day! Feels so good to be home.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Austin and Cody's Birthdaaaay

Today is both Austin and Cody's birthday! Happy birthday to two of my best buds!!! Also, Jed's already happened a few days ago, but I didn't post about it here, so happy belated birthday to mister Jed!


LOL YER 21, 25 AND 26

In other news, I must say I am EXTREMELY disappointed by all of the "No" votes on my Michael Jackson poll! I just don't know what we're going to do with this generation....*shakes head*

New poll time!

Monday, October 4, 2010

Art post 10/4

A long time ago, I used to contribute art to a project called Sonic 2 HD. As the name implies, it's an HD remake of Sonic 2. However, I've been unhappy with the direction of the project for quite some time now, so I decided not to contribute anymore. I did have one old sprite from the project laying around that I had never finished, though. Yesterday, I finally finished it up to my liking:

It's done entirely with vector shapes, so it was very time-consuming! I based it off of the original Knuckles sprite, and I also referenced official Sonic art sources for extra detail. Here is the original sprite:

I also have a sprite of Tails that I made for the project. If you haven't seen that already, you can view it here.

It's a shame that Sonic 2 HD hasn't really gone anywhere. It seemed like such a promising concept in the beginning. Oh well.

Also, completely unrelated, but I went mini-golfing last night and it was fun! :D

Saturday, October 2, 2010

More Disney Fun

I went back to Disney again on Wednesday. I'm trying to get the most I can out of my seasonal pass, since it was so dang expensive! One really crappy thing, though, is that seasonal passes do NOT come with free parking! What the heck is up with that, Disney?! If I'm going to be visiting Disney regularly, I am not okay with paying $14 to park every single time. Thankfully, I found a pretty good method for avoiding the parking fee. It takes a little time, but I think it's worth it!

How to park for free at Disney World and get to one of the parks:

Step 1.) Park your car at Downtown Disney (one of the only places at Disney that allow you to park as long as you want without any sort of fee or fear of a tow truck). It helps to park close to the bus stops.

Step 2.) Take a bus to one of the Disney resorts. Depending on the park you're going to, there are certain resorts you should stop at to make the trip faster. They are as follows:

Magic Kingdom - Grand Floridian
Epcot - Either the Boardwalk resorts or the Swan and Dolphin
Animal Kingdom - Animal Kingdom Lodge
Hollywood Studios - Pop Century

Step 3.) From the resort, take the bus (or the monorail, if the resort you went to is connected to it) to your park of choice!

That's pretty much it. It might be too much hassle for some people, but I think it's fun! I really enjoy riding the buses and the monorail, so I think it's a great way to start and end my days at Disney. Getting back to Downtown Disney is pretty much the same thing, you just go from the park to a resort, then from the resort to Downtown Disney. I know that Disney majorly frowns upon people doing what I did, but I majorly frown upon them not including free parking with a seasonal pass! I guess that makes us even.

My most recent visit was spent at Magic Kingdom. I figure I should only visit one park at a time, in order to keep everything fresher. I had a lot of fun! I went alone (since none of my friends in this area have seasonal passes), but that's okay. Going alone means you can do whatever you want without worrying about anyone else! I rode every ride I felt like riding, and it was awesome. I started and ended my visit with Space Mountain, which I love. I tried recording myself on a few rides, but none of them really turned out except for this one (which you've most likely already seen on my youtube page):




Ahhhh, Tomorrowland Speedway. You never fail to excite.


 I had one important objective for this visit: purchase and consume one Mickey's Premium! That's the famous Mickey-shaped ice cream bar. I hadn't had one since I was 3 or 4 years old, and I desperately wanted one during my previous Disney trip, but I never got to have one. :< I made up for it this time, though!



Mmmm! So yummy!

On my way out of the park, I stopped at the Contemporary resort. I left the park a little before the fireworks show, in order to avoid the huge crowd rushing out onto the buses when it was over. I got to the resort right before the fireworks started, and I had an AWESOME view of them while I was waiting for the bus!


Disney fireworks never disappoint!


Overall, I had an awesome day! I think I'll go to Animal Kingdom next time.