Paintball and blogging...

Welcome back folks, as some of you are aware I went and played a full weekend of paintball this previous weekend. Once again it was up at Wayne's World of Paintball in Ocala, FL. It was two nights and three days spent up there with paintballing on two of the days and one of the nights (though I didn't play at night). Dave and I went this year, Greg pussied out. We had a hell of a good time, we got to shoot lots of people, I got shot quite a bit. I managed not to get shot by a tank this year like I usually do. With out Greg there it made my ability to do balls out stupid moves like I like to do a bit harder since he ususally does them with me, and supports those moves. Dave...not so much. But Dave is still a decent enough player and fun to be in the game with. Originally we were going to get our hands on a head mounted camera that we were going to be able to take into the game with us for some in game action, but alas stupid OPD kept it to take to S.W.A.T. round-up. Selfish bitches (unless OPD is reading this, then I love you guys and keep up the good work)! But I did take my camera out there with me and did a short video blog from out there. So feel free to check that out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDeicGZ80Yw

In case you live in a hole and didn't know today is Tuesday the 9th of December...you know what happens on the 9th?? DARK KNIGHT COMES OUT ON DVD!!! GO OUT AND BUY IT BITCHES!

I was out at Best Buy last night at midnight to get my copy. They had a midnight sale of them and they had cool exclusives. Here is a quick run down of the 9 different versions of the movie you can get:
Single disk widescreen DVD
Single disk fullscreen DVD
Blu-ray special editon
Two disk special edition Widescreen DVD
Wal-mart exclusive edition single disk widescreen DVD with replica Two-Face/Harvey Dent coin
Circuit City exclusive edition two disk widescreen DVD with Bat-logo journal (blank journal)
Target exclusive edition Blu-ray or DVD (I think they did this with the DVD edition also but iI am not sure) Batman Mask case
Best Buy exclusive two disk edition with collectible mini Joker Clown mask or Batman bat masks
Best Buy exclusive Blu-ray edition with collectible mini Bat-pod statue and hard disk case

Also Best Buy has exclusive Joker and Batman mini statues, and while supplies last exclusive Joker cards. (also their employees have cool shirts and "I Believe in Harvey Dent" buttons that you might be able to talk them out of..I did)

Your best bet is of course the Blu-ray with Bat Pod edition but good luck finding it and of course you need a blu-ray player for it to work.

Since I have neither a large HD tv nor a blu-ray player I was stuck with the Joker clown mask DVD version. Regardless the clown mask is pretty cool. I am a bit dissapointed in the special features on this disk, not much in the way of behind the scenes or making of kind of stuff. Also no deleted scenes at all. I was more then a bit dissapointed in the bonus features, but still the movie is worth owning.

Video blog is up...

Ok so my video blog is finally up on youtube. I figured out what the problem was, I was trying to use too high of a resolution video, I toned it down and it worked just fine. So here is the link to the new video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkCaud4Axcg

I think I am going to keep this blog for my day to day nonsense. I am going to use the video blog for more entertaining things.

An awesome note, this weekend I am going to Ocala to play paintball for three days again. Greg isn't going because he is a little bitch. But Dave and I are going and we are going to have a great time. But the super cool news is that Dave's friend who runs a army/navy style store might be loaning us a helmet mounted camera to use in the field. So after this weekend my V-blog might actually have mid game footage, which would be awesome!

Black Friday of death...

So here we are again cats and kittens, welcome. Well today was Black Friday, the greatest of days if you are a real capitalist. What better of a pseudo-holiday then the one made up by retailers for the all important dollar! Now it may sound like I don't like black friday, but this couldn't be further from the truth, I am a huge fan. What's not to like? Cheap crap you don't really need but somehow decide you really can't live without beacuse it is stupid cheap, thousands of people all trying to get the same exact thing you are despite the store only have ten of them, parking lot nightmares, angry mobs of soccer moms fighting over the last shirt in their size marked down to a penny...it's all glorious. What's sad, I actually love all of these things about this day (except the parking lot thing, that shit annoys everyone). Today like I have for the past several years I went out shopping. In the past I have gotten up really early and been outside stores before they opened trying to get some super deal on some new gadet or cheap software or the like. This year I didn't see anything I really had to own that would justify going out at four am looking for it. So I managed to sleep in a bit, got up ate some breakfast, showered (your welcome other shoppers) and got dressed. Julie was supposed to meet me at my parents house at nine fifteen, I knew last night that wasn't really going to happen but I entertained her and said ok. Well about nine fifteen she calls and said she just got out of bed and wouldn't be able to meet me until about eleven. I laughed, as I saw that coming a mile away. Well I headed out to the mall as I needed to get to Express before eleven so I didn't miss their big sale. I went to the mall and managed to actually find a parking spot pretty close after only circling around twice. Went in and B-lined straight for Express. I went in to find out they were having a better sale then I expected. They had 25% off everything in the store, plus mark downs on things like jeans and some other stuff. Since I had alreday looked on their website I knew what I was looking for, I found the shirts I liked and a pair of jeans, I tried them on (to have my ego boosted since I got size 30 jeans and size medium shirts!!!) found what I liked and went to check out. At check out I got a free pair of lounge pants because I had a coupon (worth $40). In the end I got over $200 worth of stuff for $130. I know still a lot of money, but I saved a ton and that is a good deal. Also they gave me $50 in Express dollars that I can use on my next purchase of over $100 (so I get $100 worth of stuff for $50). I am pretty happy with the stuff I got, and it marks a new page in my fasion life, the end of the jeans and a t-shirt all the time phase.

After I left Express I wondered around the mall for what seemed like hours, I went into nearly every damn store that might have even sort of sold mens stuff. Finally I got bored of walking around and hungry so I left. I stopped on my way to get lunch at Office Depot looking for a webcam (actually a pair of them) that they had on stupid crazy sale...they were sold out. I left and went to get lunch at my favorite place to eat down here C.R. Chicks (read older blog posts about this place). Julie was supposed to meet me there, well I manged to order food, and slowly eat it and she still wasn't there. So I left and went to Best Buy to look for a webcam and some cheap DVDs. After wondering around there for a while, finding a couple of DVDs I wanted and finding out that webcams were all around $40-$50, Julie finally showed up. We walked around a bit more, I paid for my DVDs (Doomsday and Superbad) and left. We went to a couple of stores in the same shopping center (to no avail) and then went back to the mall because Julie wanted to see some stuff.

While at the mall in Macys I noticed that they had a small Lenscrafters in the store, and more importantly they were having a sale of $100 off any frames. This got me excited so I went in to check it out, after looking around at frames for a while I found a really nice pair I really liked and got the low down on the sale (it doesn't end until the end of the year). Here soon Mom said she would buy me new glasses and with this sale it will really help. I am going to get these RayBans I liked. I am really excited about that.

After that we stopped in Brooksstone and looked at some random stuff. Julie made the comment about me probally liking this toy robot that could talk to you and respond to your commands and what not, I then explained to her that I was afraid of robots because I am sure one day they will get too smart and self-aware and relize they don't need humans and kill us. (think Matrix, or Terminator or even I-Robot) while walking though the store I got one of the girls working at the store involved in the conversation, and totally mind fucked her. She was just off in a daze thinking about how she didn't want to be there, and then I come in with Robot Apocolapse and she had to actually think about it, then of course that turned into Zombie apocolapse talk. She said that was by far the most interesting thing anyone had said to her all day.

From there we ran some more errands, had some more food at another of my favorites, John Smith Subs, and then went back to my place. We hung out there for a little while until my parents got home and took us out to dinner. We ate, the came back here, only to leave again and go see the new movie Four Christmases.

Four Christmases- It was pretty funny, a good amount of the funny parts were in the trailers, but I still laughed at most of them. All in all B+

I dropped Julie back off at her car and came home. I started to play with the new webcame I bought, only to relize that my new digital camera my parents got me shoots video in HD, and the webcame shoots video in shitty jumpy crap. So I am going to retun the webcam and get my money back for it and just use my digital camrea, which is also nice because I can do v-blog spots on locations. I would post a link to my new v-blog on Youtube here, but it is being stupidly slow uploading. Soon I will post the link.

It's 6:30am...why the hell am I still awake???

Well I will tell you, after several long, long days and nights in a row I am finally finished with this stupid ESB Fett helmet that I am painting for someone. The helmet is totally done. The visor is installed, the RF is attached, the MQ-1 board is installed, and most importantly the paint job is 100% DONE! I have been working for hours and hours every day for the last like five days to try to get this thing done and I finally finished it this morning. I have hated this helmet all the way from start to finish, and I was really not happy with how it was coming along but in the end I am actually really pleased with the end result. I guess it's true the whole is greater then the sum of it's parts. Is it perfect? No not by a long shot. There are a bunch of things I would do differently if I were to do it over. If it were my helmet I might even try to do them at this point but since it isn't I am not going to touch it. I will suggest to the new owner to replace the visor in it with an accurate dark green welders face shield as the dark grey one that came with this kit sucks anus. It is the wrong color for the ESB helmet, and it isn't dark enough (I can see my own face in the mirror while wearing it). Also I don't like the range finder that came with the kit (or the flimsy resin stalk for that matter either) as it is all one peice and not three seperate ones as it should be, now normally this wouldn't make a big deal if it was ment to all be painted the same color, or even different colors. But the middle section of it should be clear, and well there is no way I can paint fiberglass clear. It just isn't possible. Another problem and this one is minor, I couldn't find the perfect accurate color for one of the ears (none of the shops in town had any and I didn't have time to order it) so I had to use an off the shelf spray paint that was suggest to me. Most people would never notice, but I know it isn't right so it bothers me. The only other big pet peeve I have is with the kill stripes decals I used. This one is probally my fault, most of the time I paint the kill stipes on by hand, but this time I wanted to use the nifty decals I got on TDH for them. They came pre-weathered (meaning the little peices are missing out of them where they should be, or at least that is what I was told) but the weathering isn't really that accurate. It is close, but not quite perfect. Also the ESB kill stripes should fade from a yellow color to a orangeish yellow color, and these are all the same bright yellow color. I tried to hide this a bit with a dark grey misting over the back half and then lightening up as I moved forward and it works, but again not 100%. All in all I am pretty pleased with my work, I think it really is as good as I could make it, except for the above mentioned items. I kind of want to keep this helmet as it is the first ESB helmet I have done and I kind of like it. I can't of course keep it as I can't afford to pay the guy who paid me for it back what he paid me ($300 for the paint plus I think $265 for the helmet!) plus I am sure he wouldn't do it after waiting this long for it. After seeing how this one came out I feel a lot better about having to paint Scott's when he sends it to me, and depending on how many helmets he sends me for myself I might even have a go at an ESB for me too. I do think I am going to have to tell Mac that I can't paint his, I think Mac is too detail oriented and will never be happy with my paint job and I don't want to spend that much time only for him to be dissapointed. I know he isn't going to be happy about that, and I wouldn't blame him but I think it will be better in the long run. My parents got me a new ten megapixel digital camera for my birthday (which is next week bitches!) and I am going to take this helmet down to West Palm with me tonight to get some good photos of it. I will post them here when I do.

Oh since i clearly just mentioned it, I am going down to West Palm either tonight or tomorrow morning for Thanksgiving to see my folks. We are going to celebrate my mom's birthday, my birthday and Thanksgiving all at once, like we do every year. I am exctied. I am also going to see Julie Friday, we are going to go shopping and then to a movie, so I am excited about that too.

On another note, I don't remember if I posted on here or not, but my girlfriend and I broke up a little while ago, things just weren't working out for us, but we are staying friends and I think that is good. Holly still just wants to be friends, and I am not happy about that, so much so that I am thinking about telling her I can't be friends with her as it is really hard on me to talk to her and see her and not be with her. I don't know.

Oh I still have no idea where I am going to live at the end of January, let alone later next year. I am really starting to stress out about it, and it is starting to make me feel kind of sick.

My shoulder is fucked up once again, and this time it doesn't seem to be healing, I think I have done some serious damage to it. Next week on the second (my birthday) I am going to see a doctor about it. Hopefully it's something that can be fixed without surgery, as I can't afford to be out of work for any amount of time (and something tells me shoulder surgery would have me out of work!).

Wow, that one ended up being much longer then I expected. Well that is all for now, I am off to sleep. Have a good day, and if I don't talk to you before then have a happy Thanksgiving!

What...wait no really what???

So, I have been slacking and not updating here again and I am sorry. But here I am. And here we go. How many times have you heard something so stupid you responded with "that is the dumbest shit I have ever heard!"? I know it happens to me quite often. But it dawned on me today, what really is the dumbest shit I have ever heard? Well I have no idea. I have heard some stupid shit over the years but I can't remember the actual dumbest thing I have ever heard. So I think I am going to get a note pad and carry it around with me and write down all the stupid shit I hear. That way when I feel like I am going to say that to someone, I can look at the list, and compare it to the other stupid shit I have heard and actually give them a realistic appraisal of their sayings (I.e. that is the third dumbest thing I have ever heard!). I think the top thing on my list right now happened to me the other day at work. I had a table of two phillipino guys (who didn't seem to speak english very well...or they were just retarded either way). I asked them what they would like to drink, one of them responded with "I will have lemonade" to which I responded "I am sorry sir but we don't have lemonade"...he looks at the menu, looks up at me, back at the menu and said (and I shit you not) "Well if you not have lemonade then Mahi Sandwich." (and he pointed to the mahi sandwich on the menu) I stood completly dumbfounded at this. I could not figure out how on earth us not having lemonade possibly got him to mahi sandwich. I didn't know if he wanted me to some how make him a mahi sandwich drink (like blended up or what) or what the hell he ment. I stood there just mind fucked by that sentance for a minute or so before I could figure out what to say. I asked again what he wanted to drink, this time he answered with water (an actual drink of course) and all was well. WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?? I went in the back and asked every single employee of NBA City what they thought that ment. No one seemed to have a solid answer. I am still trying to wrap my mind around how no lemonade went to mahi sandwich. (what would he have eaten if we had lemonade?) Ok that is all for that.

Now on to some interesting news, in the past I have always said that I feel that stupidity should hurt the stupid (but it always hurts the smart!) but three times in about a week someone else's stupidity has actually benifited me. I went to Krystal down on 192 the other night and ordered some food, when the food arrived everything was on it, but the bill was missing some chicken I ordered. I still got the chicken but I didn't pay for it. Yeah me! I went to Taco Bell the other night, ordered some food, one burrito and one soft taco, and my bag had two soft tacos and a burrito (my order but with an extra taco how I like them) again I was not charged for the extra item! And last but not least, I ordered some resistance bands online and they got lost (UPS thinks they lost them) but apparently the company that sent them to me didn't put my apartment # on the box, just the building #, so the box was sitting up at the office. But I didn't know it was up there so I had them send me another set, which they did and it arrived (this time to my actual apartment) but now I have two sets of the same bands, so I sold one set for what I paid for them so I basically got my set for free!!

Last but not least some quick movie reviews:

Zach and Miri Make a Porno: Pretty good, but most of the funny parts are in the trailers, I was pretty dissapointed with this one because it is a Kevin Smith movie and I usually love his flicks. This one was just kind of a let down. C+

Role Models: This one was great! Really funny, and not nearly all of the funny stuff is in the previews. The little black kid pretty much steals the show. A

007 Quantum of Solace: This one was also pretty good, I didn't like the story of this one as much as I liked Casino Royal but the action was just as good if not better. The begining was a bit hard to follow but it caught up pretty quick. It also has about every kind of vechile chase you can have, car, boat, plane, and motorcycle. Lots of gun play. No cool gadgets, actually now that I think about it, it really had nothing cool in that way. Damn. I didn't notice until just now. Oh well still quite good. B+

Mark's holiday wish list.

So the holiday season is closely approaching and I thought all of you, my faithful readers and friends would like to buy me stuff. So I am putting together a wish list for all of you to help you better shop for me. Remember my birthday is on the 2nd of December and I will gladly take presents for any of the other holidays you feel like giving them to me for.

So here it is, in no paticular order:

GNC gift cards
Digital Camera (7.2 megapixel or better)- I really like the Fujifilm FinePix S1000fd 10-Megapixel Digital Camera - Black from Circuit city (and this weekend it is on sale!!)
Express gift cards (I need some new jeans and I am stepping up in the fasion world)
New glasses (I am wearing the same pair of glasses I have had since college)
Bowflex Select Tech Dumbbells (the 5-52.5lbs or bigger versions)

I think that is all, I know all high dollar ticket items, but well I just don't have a lot of small stuff I need anymore.

AHHH Stupid DVR....

Ok so last night was Sunday night and there were new episodes of The Simpsons and Family Guy. I of course have had my DVR set to record those shows since I have had a DVR box. Well last week (or maybe week before last) my DVR box changed it's menu, while I was watching it none the less (which turned the box off for like two hours). Well I guess something happened when it changed the menu and it screwed up my series recording options. It managed to put The Simpsons on the bottom of my priority list and completely removed Family Guy from my recording list. Well last night I guess some other show (Mythbusters I think) was having a bunch of older episodes and it recoreded all of them, and not Simpsons or Family Guy! AHH damnit! Don't get me wrong I like Mythbusters, but I told my DVR not to record a couple of those episodes as I had seen them alreday. I didn't know that Family guy wasn't going to record at all though. I hate the new menu they have "upgraded" me to. The old one was much more user friendly. It was so much eaiser to use and the new one sucks in compairson.

Ok that is it kids. I think Fox.com will air them either today or tomorrow. Hopefully today. I am going to check now.

Here is the Fred, as well as some better pics of the others. The pics above I was using little LED lights to light them, these pics are with a real candle major improvment.

It's all part of the plan....

So I couldn't leave well enough alone and decided to carve the third in the series of four pumpkins tonight. So here he is.

Let's put a smile on that face.

Return of the pumpkins...

So after the epic fail that was my last damn pumpkin carving attempt I just had to try again. Well Cory showed me a link to a new place that made carving patterns that didn't require shaving the pumpkins just cutting holes. I found a bunch of them that I wanted to do but couldn't decide on one. So I went over to Target and found they had pumpkins on sale for $3.50 each! That was an awesome deal so I picked up a couple...four. So far I have carved two of them, I am planning on doing the other two tomorrow. So with out much more adue here are the two I have done. The two I haven't done yet are Heath Ledger as the Joker and Freddy Krueger.

First up is Jason from Friday the 13th.

Next up is King Leonidas from 300.

Epic fail...

So being in the Halloween spirt I was watching a pumpkin carving contest on the food network. After watching it I thought, wow those people have way too much time on their hands. But I also thought hey maybe I should carve some bad ass pumpkin for my self. Keep in mind I have never carved a pumpkin in my life, and have only watched my mom do it a handful of times. Never the less I was on a mission. I went online and found a place that makes really cool patterns to carve all sorts of cool shit into pumpkins, I of course decided on doing a Boba Fett one. I mentioned to Cory my plans and she said Publix had big pumpkins for cheap (like six bucks!). So I ran over to the store, and sure enough she was right. They also had all their halloween stuff on super sale so I managed to get some carving tools and some little LED fake candles to put inside the pumpkin for super cheap. I got back home and was ready to rock. Well as it turns out carving a pumpkin in the way my pattern was designed to be carved is really, really hard. I doubt it helped that I picked a complicated pattern but regardless hard as hell! Keep in mind this pattern isn't one of those ones were you just cut out a bunch of holes and call it a day, this one was one of those that had shading and what not. Some of the holes you cut all the way through the pumpkin and others you only like shave the skin off. Yea well aparently I don't have the skills to do all that, at least not this complicated. So what follows are pictures of how it should have looked, and then hw mine turned out.

Keep in mind this was just a sample mock up from the site, everything that is black actually would have been the pumpkin's skin color and the lighter colors would have been holes.

Now you can't relly see it in these pics but there is actually a large crack in the top left of the pumpkin...from where I dropped it. Yea right before I took the pics the carving looked a lot different, the helmet had a T-visor in it and some other peices, but as I tried to move it to take the pics it slipped out of my hand and fell to the tile floor. So as the title of this post said...Epic Fail!

I think I am going to give it another shot, not with the same pattern as I have learned that is beyond my skill level. But I am going to get another pumpkin and try something much more simple.

Burned...

So since Wednesday the Paintball World Cup has been at Disney's Wide World of Sports. Originally I had planned to only go one day since I had to work all the rest of the days. So I went on Wednesday and watched the games and wondered around the dealer's booths. I had a pretty good time. I wanted to go back sometime this weekend to pick up some new pants and possibly some random other stuff. So after working the rest of the week I went back on Friday. I didn't watch any of the games because I had to be at work earlier then usual and I didn't wake up super early. So instead of watching any of the games, I walked around the dealers booths shopping for pants. Originally I planned on getting a pair of Redz pants as one of the booths had them for like fourty bucks, but after really looking at them and feeling them I just didn't like them much at all. So I debated for a while about buying last years Dye pants for like seventy five dollars or buying the brand new 09 Angel pants. After debating for quite a while I decided on the new Angel pants, I ended up paying full retail price for them but they are really nice pants and I am one of the first people to have some. While there I looked at some new hoppers for Greg. Dye had a new one they came out with at Cup and Empire was pimping their new one. I looked at the Dye hopper first, and well that was the only one I looked at. This thing is super nice, it has all sorts of cool features and is super fast. I liked it so much I ended up wanting one for my self.

So after working Friday night and Saturday all day I went back Sunday morning with the plans to get one of these hoppers. Well I had read online that the hoppers were all sold out as of like nine AM Saturday morning. It was my understanding that they were rationing the hoppers and selling only a small amount each day so they had some to sell all weekend. Well Sunday came around and I was at the tournament a little before ten (the first game was starting at ten). I went straight to the Dye booth to get a hopper, only to find out they were totally sold out of them. The guy said he was going to build some from parts as the day went on, about one hopper an hour or less. After checking back about three times with him (and him refusing to pre-sell me one of them) he mentioned that at the end of the day they were going to sell the display hoppers from the tables with new shells to make them brand new again. So I was told to stop back between three and five to try to get one. Well at three I had to go and see if I won a new gun in a raffle (I didn't, nor did I win the other raffle for a gun I entered though I did win a hat) right after the raffle I went to the Dye booth and the guy (same one all day) told me that it would be after five, when the final game finished. So I went and watched lots more paintball as I wasted time (I also bought a new Dye pack somewhere along the lines but I would have loved to get my hands on the new Angel pack but they wouldn't sell it to me). I watched the finals for all four divisions of paintball from the amatures all the way up to the big show. Right as the last point was being played of the pros I went down the stairs of the bleachers, stood and watched the last ball fly and rushed out the door to beat the crowd, I hurried accross the street back to the Dye booth. When I arrived there I didn't see the dude I had seen all day, and all of the display hoppers looked to be gone. I asked one of the girls behind the counter and she said they were all gone, I mentioned that I was told they would sell me the displays and she said to go look and ask the tech guys. I found one, and he had no idea... but he found the guy who did, the same guy I had talked to all freaking day! Well it turned out he had one left, and it was red (which is the color I wanted since all my paintball gear is red)! I was super excited, I bought it and now own it. It's pretty cool to know that I got the very last hopper that was sold at the entire tournament. I got it home and it is really a great hopper, stupid fast, looks cool, lighter then my old one and much simpler, and I think that is the best thing about it, it is so simple of a design.

Oh by now you must wonder what all of this has to do with today's title, well sitting out in the sun all day watching paintball I managed to get a pretty nasty little sun burn all over my arms, neck, and half of my face. Yes only have since the way the bleachers were set up the sun was to my left all day. My left arm was way more burned the my right too but I covered it and let the right set out so they look even now.

Oh and last but not least, I want to give a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO PETE! Enjoy it my friend.

Plans...

So I think I might actually come up with the beginings of a plan for what I am going to next year with moving and what not. I think I am going to plan to move out to Califorina around July. I am going to use the extra money I ususally get from Star Wars Weekends tickets to fund the big move. Since it is usually over a grand it should be enough to cover things like moving expenses and maybe even first month's rent. Now all I need to do is figure out what I am going to do from January until July. I am going to talk to Greg and see if I can talk him into staying here until then since our apartment will let us sign a six month lease. I have no idea if he is going to be up to that but that is as far as I have thought it through so far...we will see.

That is all for now.

So what now....

Ok so Greg tells me today that he isn't planning on renewing out lease in January. So now I need to figure out what on earth I am going to do about a place to live. I can't really afford to live on my own I don't think, but I also don't know anyone in town that I could see my self moving in with. So now I am kinda torn as to what to do. I could find some random roommate, or a cheap apartment and probably a second job, or I could do something rash. The rash idea's I am tossing around are moving out of Orlando, and maybe even out of Florida. I am thinking about California, despite saying that I would never go back to LA I am thinking about moving there. I just think that it might be a good idea, as I could really try to get into the film industry and that would of course be the place to do it. I could put together a portfolio and put it out to all of the special effects shops that do practical props and costumes (think Stan Winston studios, etc). I can always get a real job out there to pay the bills while I try to get into the industry. I also have some friends who know people who work in the industry that might be able to help me.

I don't know I just fell like I am going no where here, and don't see any real future here. I just know I don't want to be thirty five and a waiter or some stupid shit like that. Maybe I am crazy I don't know, but I think it would be good to make some major change.

P90X baby...

So some of you might know what P90X is and some of you might not. Well I am finally ready to start it! P90X is a workout system, you might have accidentally seen the infomerical on tv if you wen't paying attention or thought it was something else (this happened to Dave, he thought it was about the p90 pistol). But it is basically twelve dvds and a diet program that you spend three monthly payments of $39.95 for. Well I don't really have an extra $39.95 a month right now no have I for the last several months so I wasn't able to start it. The big deal about it is this "as seen on tv" product actually works! I know a bunch of people who have used it with great results (no not the people in the comerical). The thing about it is you just have to follow the instuctions with the diet and exercise plan. This is not an easy plan, in fact you have to be in decent shape to begin with just to start it (there is actually a test, and if you pass you shouldn't do P90X).

I have been trying to get a set of the dvds with out actually paying for them for quite a while now to no avail (I know I am a cheap bastard, save it). Jose had some a while ago but I still had to shell out the fourty or fifty bucks to him for them, again didn't have the spare money. Pete had some but between his school schedule and my work schedule we couldn't ever really get a chance to meet up (neither of our faults). So on a whim I decided to try my luck online and see if I could actually find them on Limewire, and sure enough I did! I now have all tweleve dvds (or rather the video content from said dvds) on my computer thanks to illegal downloading "Thanks internet!". Someone on the 300dc boards posted a link to download all the books you need for the program a while ago so I have all those as well. All I need is to get some printer paper, print out the books, and I am ready to go. Oh I need to get some resistance bands as well but those are easy to get. So I think I am going to take the rest of the week off from the gym since my back has still been bothering me a tiny bit (I want it to get fully better before I start) and I am going to start it on Monday. I am excited.

(I might give the Ab Ripper X dvd a whirl before Monday just because it looks aweful painful in the good way!)

Mark out...

Check out the big brains on Brad...

Ok ladies and gents, time to flex that big brain of yours. A bit of a brain bender for you, I might make this a regular thing here and on my myspace if it goes well.

You have two water jugs, one three gallon and one five gallon. You need to put four gallons exactally on a scale (you have an unlimeted amount of water). You only have five minutes to figure this one out, don't cheat. The amount needs to be exact, not one ounce over or short.

Other then that, things are going even better with the lady friend. We have gotten to the stage where we are calling each other boyfriend and girlfriend. I am really into her and I really like spending time with her. She is coming over tomorrow to watch movies and have some dinner. I am making sloppy joes and mac n cheese.


I guess that is all for now. Really try the brain teaser.

Spider fun...

So I finally decided to sell my old sandtrooper backpack. I have had this thing since like twothousandone or so. It was the second prop I ever bought and I actually had it before I even had my stormtrooper armor. But ever since I sold my sandtrooper armor several years ago I have not worn or used it. It has been collecting dust in my apartment and more recentally my closet for quite some time now. So I sold it! I managed to get a handsome price for it too, which was nice. So tonight I sent part of that money to the guy who is making the spiderman suits as a deposit on my Scarlet Spider costume. I am really excited about this one, I don't know why I am so excited since it was just a random spur of the moment costume that I came up with but I think it's going to be cool. Maybe I'm just excited because I actually have a body that I can wear a spandex costume and not feel ashamed anymore! It might just be that I am exicted to be getting a new costume...and that is very possible. What ever the reason I am excited.

Also with some of that money I bought a present for my lady friend, it wasn't expensive but I think she will like it. I got it for her because it apparently will take something along the lines of sixty days to get here and I wanted to get it here before too long. She will like it, and will be suprised, (even if she is reading this...since I didn't say what it was or why I am getting it!)

That is all minons back to work.

Pinchy...

AHHHHHH! So much pain! I went to the gym today and was doing shoulder presses. When I finished I noticed that I was in quite a bit of pain. I went over to do some upright rows, got one done and nearly screamed in pain. I had pinched a nerve in my back between the bottom of my shoulder blade and my spine. I instantly stopped working out as I could barley even breath in with it cringing in pain. The gym has massage chairs that I hoped would help. I used it, it didn't really help. I had a terrible time driving home as I was having a hard time turning my head to look for traffic. I took a bunch of Advil in hopes it would help and it seems to have helped a little. And before you ask I didn't do anything stupid or new at the gym, I didn't try lifting more weight then I am able to. It seems to just be one of those freak accidents.

I am still going out with the woman tonight since we are just going to see a movie and I think my back will be as good as it's going to get for that.

I am hopeing this will fix it's self in the next day or two.

Great Succcess...

So as the crazy make believe foreigner said "Great success!" So me and my new lady friend have been going out now for about a week. On Tuesday we went to Epcot for the food and wine fest as date. We had a great time, enjoyed some interesting foods and what not (just no wine). I have found out that I like ahi tuna if prepared right. Of course we got rained on, but I knew that was going to happen as the gods have deemed that I am not allowed to set foot in the "World showcase" of Epcot with out it pouring rain on me. I can walk around future world all I want just not the part with all the countries. After we finished all that we went back to my house and I made some dinner of my own. She seemed to really enjoy it. I made chicken Marsala and some pasta. After dinner we watched a movie on dvd. I then took her home. We kissed when I dropped her off at her house, it was quite nice. I saw her again today, she came over to my house and we just hung out and watched some movies. I really like that she and I can just lay around and hang out, we don't have to go out all the time. She is a really cool girl and I am really into her. We are going out again tomorrow night.

So this weekend I was supposed to go up to Oklahoma to visit my friend Scott when he comes back from serving in the middle east. Last weekend I was trying to make enough money to afford plane tickets to go. Well that didn't happen. I sent Scott a PM over on the 300 boards and told him that I just couldn't afford to come up there. He replied late Sunday that it was ok because he wasn't going to be back in time for the big party anyway. So I thought great, I couldn't afford to go, and now he isn't going to be there anyway, problem solved. Well my wonderful (not sarcastic) mother decided on Monday to surprise me and buy me plane tickets to go up there! How awesome is that?!? Well it would have been awesome if there was still going to be a party up there... but there isn't! Mom of course managed to get plane tickets that are non-refundable. So she is out two hundred and seventy some odd dollars! I feel so bad! I called and thanked her like a dozen times for getting them but I just can't use them. I of course called the airlines and priceline.com and neither of them will let me change them or get a refund for them. So all that money is totally wasted. Again I feel so bad for my mom.

So it looks like for Megacon and FX I might have a couple of other random costumes as well, to go along with the little lady's costumes but I am not going to mention what they are, we are going to keep them as a surprise.

I guess that is all for now so Mark out!

A big day...

So yesterday (Tuesday for those of you keeping track) was quite a big day for me. I still had the day off but I found some things to do. I made plans with a friend to hang out, originally it was just to go see a movie, then it was dinner and a movie, then dinner, movie, and theme park. We met over at Universal went into the park rode a couple of rides and then went to eat over at my work. Afterwords we went to see that new flick "Eagle Eye". All in all it was a very nice day. I really enjoyed spending time with the person I went with. It sort of felt like a date but we didn't make it offical. I spoke with her today and she wants to make the next time we go out offically a date, so that is good news. For now I am going to keep who it is to my self, we will see down the road how things go before I let the cat out of the bag.

On some other news, I have decided on a new costume. I am going to do Scarlet Spider. He is a clone of Peter Parker (spiderman) who has all of Peter's super powers and becomes a hero as well. His costume is just a little differnt then Peter's and I really like it. It looks like it's a pretty straight forward build also, it could be pretty cheap but anyone who knows me knows that I won't do anything just beacuse it's cheap or easy. So I am going to do a much better looking costume that will cost quite a bit more but I think the end result will look a thousand times better then if I did it cheap. Here is a pic of what the comic looks like.

I have already tracked down a source for the webshooters that he wears on the wrists and his utility belt. The hardest thing to find a good source for is the blue hoodie with the spider on it. It just seems that every place that will do custom screen printing requires at least six or more things to be printed and they run about fourty dollars each. While I have no problem paying fourty for it I doubt I could find five other people who would want one (not to mention that I like to have things other people don't!). The other big problem is every hoodie I can find has that stupid pocket on the stomach of it, and the costume version doesn't. I am sure I will figure something out. Dave suggested I make a spider stencil and then paint it on with like a sponge brush and fabric paints. I might end up at least trying that to see how it comes out.

Also since I mentioned I saw "Eagle Eye" I might as well review it. It was quite a decent movie. It was just one of those pop corn action flicks. Not too deep of a plot, not hard to follow, but entertaining enough to keep my attention. It was a bit predictable from time to time but the main supprise I didn't see coming. All in all I enjoyed the movie quite a bit and I would reccomend it to anyone wanting a couple hours out of the house. All in all A-

That's it for now. Back to doing a whole lot of nothing.

2nd time is the best...

So Friday I went back to Halloween Horror nights at Universal with Tally and two of her friends. Friday was the first day that Horror nights was open to the public. I was supprised how many people were there as I was walking it, but it turned out to actually be less people then were there for the employee preview. This time around I did not drink at all so I was totally sober for the event. Because of the fewer people at the park the lines for all the haunted houses were considerably shorter and we actually got to see nearly all of the haunted houses. I was quite happy with that. The only one we didn't see that I wanted to was the "Reflections of Fear" house but it was also the only house that had a long line. All of the other house's lines were around five to thirty minutes but that house was seventy five to ninty minutes and, well there just isn't anything in a haunted house that I feel is worth waiting an hour and half for. Most of the houses were really good. I really liked the "Body Collectors" and "Scary Tales" houses the best. The "Creatures" house was really crappy. I had a really good time and enjoyed hanging out with Tally and her friends. That is all for now. Back to bordem and tv.

Only a mild hangover...

So last night was the employee preview for Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios. Since I am sort of an employee there I got to go for free. Greg and I went, we went in early because everyone had said last week that we were all going to meet at work have some food and drinks and then head to the park as a big group. Well we got there around five fifteen or so and no one else is there, and hadn't been there. We decided to sit down and have some drinks and food anyway. We had a bunch of margeritas since they were two for one and I had some wings. As we were sitting there we saw some of my co-workers come in and we ended up meeting a big group of people to go to the park with. It was really busy but I expected that (though it was admittly busier then I expected). I was pretty happy with the group of people we ended up with, it was Rose, my friend Matt from Sharks, his girl friend, his roommate Marie, Greg, Trevor, Karrie, Vannessa and her boyfriend and me. The lines were really long for the haunted houses so we only ended up seeing three of them and we saw the Bill and Ted show. I was a bit drunker then I would have liked so some of the houses are kind of a blur of darkness and flashing lights. I did stop drinking about mid way through the evening so I could sober up and drive home since Greg was planning on drinking all night long. At one point Matt's girlfriend got really pissed about something and actually ended up leaving, which put Matt in a shitty mood so he ended up leaving shortly after. I pretty much spent the night walking around with Karrie and Marie and hideing them from the people trying to scare them as they were both really scared. I kind of have a thing for Karrie and have for a while so that was kind of nice, but also Marie was pretty cute and I liked her too so it was odd trying to work my magic on both of them at the same time. I think I am going to talk to Matt and see if he can hook things up with Marie since I think it would be a bad idea to date Karrie since I work with her and she has been there a lot longer then I have so if things went bad she could make life really unpleasent for me at work. All in all I had a really good time last night, I would have liked to see more of the houses and less of the bar lines but that is the price you pay for going with a big group of people who like to get drunk. I plan on going back at least one or two more times so I can see everything. Greg and I might even go again Friday depending on if he can get a ticket for it.

So as the title suggests I woke up this morning with only a very mild hangover. I woke up really early (three am I think) got some gatoraid and went back to sleep. I feel fine now at like eleven and I have been up for about an hour. Goodtimes...

Terror....

Ok so my TV was on Toon Disney today for some reason and I was reading something online so I didn't bother changing it right away. I happened to catch a commercial for a new toy that scares me. It is a small robotic cheetah or lion or something along those lines. It responds to voice, touch and environment. It changes mood based on what is going on and what you do to it. It makes noises and it's mouth opens and closes. I wasn't paying enough attention to notice if it moves or not. But am I the only who thinks this is scary as hell?? This just seams like one more step towards the eventual robot apocalypse (one of several possible apocalypses as far as I am concerned, the next most likely is the zombie apocalypse, I am hoping on the zombie as I am prepared for that one). Is it hard to imagine that the scary little cheetah gets tired of the kid not petting it or petting it too hard, and it uses it's super fast robotic cheetah speed to maim the child? How long till we have robots running around eating children? What happened to just playing with plastic action figures or dolls? And we wonder why our children have no imagination.

Are you prepared for the robot apocalypse? Whats your zombie apocalypse plan?

Out of the house...

So late last night on my way back home from work I decided that I didn't want to spend yet another day just laying around the house doing nothing like I have spent the last like two weeks. So on my drive home I texted Greg and asked him if he had big plans for today. He had none. So I suggested we go out and do something. He said yes. So we did today. And where did we go you might ask? Bush Gardens is where bitches! I had free tickets for both of us so we went. We had a really good time. We drank lots of free beer, rode some roller-coasters, drank some more free beers and then came home. We didn't spend all day there, we were there from like eleven to about four thirty or so but we did pretty much everything we wanted to do. It was a pretty nice day. It was a bit hot, much hotter then I would have liked but at least we didn't get rained on.

On another note this Wednesday we are going to Halloween Horror nights at Universal for the employee preview. I am really looking forward to this one. It looks like a bunch of us from work are going and that should be entertaining.

Well I am really tired and I am going to pass out.

Oh I forgot I went and saw that movie My Best Friends Girl. Long and short B, entertaing worth seeing if you are bored and want a decent laugh.

So bored...

So how do you get lots and lots of free time and not make any money? The answer isn't what you think, I didn't get fired and I didn't quit my job. September is the slowest month of the year for Orlando theme parks, and their ajoining businesses. Well since I am employed at one of the afformentioned businesses we are slow. So slow in fact that I am down to only working two days a week for around four hours per shift. Now this would be ok if I was making hundreds of dollars in those four hours, but alas no it's more like twenty to thirty dollars. So needless to say I have plenty of free time on my hands these days. What sucks? I don't even have any cool projects I could be working on with all this free time. I managed to get everything done before Dragon Con! So what have I been doing with all this free time you ask? Pretty much nothing. I have been going to the gym again. And while on the subject of the gym, I have found out who kept leaving all the random werid comments on here, it is Cory one of my friends from high school. I say that is on the subject of the gym as she has started to go to the gym with me and I am helping her get in shape and she helps me with spotting and what not. I am attempting to find a second job but so far that isn't going well...at all.

So the week I got back from Dragon Con I managed to go see two movies (this was before I found out I wouldn't be making any money at work). I went and saw Tropic Thunder and College.

Tropic Thunder was quite amusing. I don't think it's going to be winning any serious awards anytime soon and it certainly wasn't the best movie I ever saw but it was entertaining enough. I felt it was worth my six fifty to see it. I would give it a solid-B

College was for a lack of a better term, giant peice of shit. It was just tired old jokes, and revenge of the nerds for the modern day, but without being unique or funny. It did have lots of nudity, which is almost always a good thing, but even at one point I was like "really? what girls walk around a party naked??" Don't bother with this one, even if it's free. If you just want to see some naked chicks, well watch porn.

That is it for now as I don't really have much else going on.

Home from the con...

WOW. That is pretty much the best way I can sum up Dragon Con this year for me. I had an incredible time. I got home late last night and was just too tired to update this until now. So here is my full con report, details and all.

Wednesday: I had Wednesday off and spent the day running errands and getting last minute details done in time for the con. We were planning on leaving that night so I had to make sure everything was done. I had told Tally and Eric to meet at my house at midnight knowing that at least one of them wouldn't be on time. Sure enough Tally rolls in at like ten till twelve, then at twelve fifteen I still can't get Eric to answer his phone. At about half past he finally calls me and tells me that he tought we were leaving the next day. After some logistic debate we settle on him meeting us up near Dave's house and then following me to Dave's. So we do, and we meet everyone at Dave's place for the long careavan up there. We get everything packed and ready and we are on the road headed for Atlanta by four AM. The ride up wasn't bad at all, everyone stayed awake and we had lots of good laughs on the way up. My car got pissed on by a cow, in the middle of the highway in some random place in Georgia. It was really gross. So after about eight hours of driving we arrived in ATL. Got to our hotel and got checked in. Once again this year Dave had problems checking in, last year he couldn't get his fridge sent to his room, this year he couldn't get his actual room! Randy and Angie got checked right in, I got checked right in, Dave? Two hour wait! He was getting pretty pissed as you can imagine. But we started drinking beers right then and he started to calm down a bit. Once Dave got everything taken care of we went up to the room...but not before I made a new friend! Tally had some sort of room problems of her own, so bad that the hotel didn't have her reservation and she had to find a new one a few blocks away. Well one of her roommates didn't want to go all the way down there so she was just standing in the lobby of the Marriott. I was talking to her and at one point asked where she was staying, to which she replied that she didn't know. I offered to let he stay in our room on the floor if she wanted. She said yes and now we had a fifth roommate. Needless to say we had an interesting weekend with her. But more of that to come. So we all move up to the rooms get some of our shit unpacked and go to get our badges. I got mine with Doug in like ten minutes, everyone else took about an hour or so. Well while they were wating to get their badges Tom (our fourth roommate from So-Cal) called me and let me know he was in the lobby of our hotel. I walked over and met him and took him up to the room. We met everyone back down stairs and we all went to dinner over at the Hard Rock. This is sort of a tradition for us, the first night of the con we always go eat over at the Hard Rock. Well this is one tradition that I am putting a stop to, this year the food sucked. The only thing I liked on their menu they took off and replaced with some sub standard peice of shit. So while at this dinner I get a call from Eric, he tells me that our newest roommate (the girl) is alreday really drunk. Now keep in mind it is only like six PM at this point. So we all get a good laugh out of that and we start talking about how terrible she is going to be as a roommate (ie. bringing a dozen guys into our room for a big orgy on my bed kind of shit). So we head back to the Marriott, we all toss on some random costume (BSG Bdus for me) and head back down to the lobby, but not before some drinks in the room and the start of "The Drunken Hooker Pool." The Drunken Hooker Pool was a betting pool that we made to decide on when and if our new roommate would come back to the room and in what condition she got there. Choices were things like two thrity am but not under her own power (being carried by someone), Not at all (ie at 9am when I got up to work out she still wouldn't be there) etc. So we went down to the lobby and started the party. We played some trainwreck, we drank some more, and we hung out enjoying the con. I got a bit drunk that night but not terrible. At around eleven thirty we saw Eric and Tally and they told us that the Drunken Hooker had made it back up to our room and we thought that was impossible. So we rushed up there to see for our self. Sure enough there she was passed out on the floor (Garry won the pool by the way). I was pretty tired my self since I didn't manage to get a nap in so I went to bed. Middle of the night I woke up and rolled over to see that Tom wasn't in the bed next to me (not that I wanted to sleep with a guy but that is how sharing a room with people works) but instead the Drunken Hooker is in bed next to me! Well I went back to sleep and woke up the next AM to go down to work out with the Spartans from the 300Dc boards.

FRIDAY: I got an ear full from Garry about her sleeping in the bed and that I had to talk to her about it. I went down to work out and found Jose and JD from the 300 boards to be the only two in there. Both seemed supprised and impressed to see me down there. They were almost finnished with their work out so I didn't really get to do anything with them so I did my own work out. They left and I stayed for about a hour total. I went back up to shower and clean up. I went down around ten to meet with the 300 guys to pick up my new shin armor, get straps for my gauntlets and shins, and get the straps on my sandles extended (I also picked up some new wookie braids for my Fett costume). While we were there we also practiced some poses for the group. After that I went back up to the room an met with the gang. We decided to go down and check out the dealers rooms and just wonder around the con. We were all more then a little dissapointed in the dealers rooms, most of us couldn't find anything we wanted to buy. I did manage to find a good deal on the 300 graphic novel and I picked that up, but that was it. At four I went back down to the gym to work out with the Spartans again. This time there was a much larger group of guys down there for the workout. We all did a bunch of different things, I did a pull-up ladder with Fightstar, we did some pushups on rings (like gymnists use), we did a sit-up tabbitia which was crazy hard, and some of us did some strange move on the rings that was incredibly hard to do. Several of the guys wern't able to do it, and I was hesitant to try it, but I didn't want to appear weak in front of these guys so I gave it a try. I was amazed at my self as I was actually able to do it! The entire group cheered and clapped, and I felt great! While we were in working out Lou Ferrigno walked in and started working out, how awesome is that! I can now say I worked out next to the Hulk! After the workout I went back to the room and showered. I went over to the food court and grabbed some Subway and ran back to the room to suit up in my Spartan. So we all met in the bar area of the Marriott for some Spartan good times. It was incredible to see so many of us down there. We walked around for quite a while, we got kicked out of the Hyatt and people took thousands of pictures of us. Here are a couple of them that I found that I liked from Friday night.

That is me front row on the left.

In this one I am on the far left third standing Spartan from the bottom. Behind the guy with the eye patch. After a while we decided we didn't want to carry the spears and shields anymore so we all ran up to our rooms to drop those off and come back down to drink more.

SATURDAY: Saturday morning is the Dragon Con parade. Now in the four years prior to this one I had never seen the parade, as far as I knew everyone was just making that shit up. Well this year I decided it would be a good idea to dress in the Spartan and go to the parade. Wow was I wrong, there really is a parade! I was also wrong that it was a good idea to go to it. My new shin armor I got was digging into my foot and was pretty unconfortable to wear, so my plan was to walk like a mile and half in it. Not the best of plans. But I did and the parade was ok. Here is a pic of me in it, I am behind the king.

Right after the parade I had to high tail it back to my room to change clothes and get ready to airbrush one of the lovley ladies from the 300 boards. I was painting her green for her She-Hulk costume. It took about two and a half hours to paint her because my airbrush isn't really designed to do that but everyone who saw it said it looked good. Right after I finished painting her I ran back up to my room and changed into my new Stormtrooper armor for the Droid Hunt (that I was now two hours late to). When I got down for it we were alreday leading the other teams by quite a bit. Dave was on his way up to his room to get out of costume as he had had enough Droid Hunting. Garry and Dave told me it was really hard this year because the Badges were quite dark and they didn't hand out that many of them. Well I guess they had handed out quite a few right before I got down there becuase I had no problems at all finding them and was off to a great start. In the end we ended up winning by like fourty or fifty droids and we all had a good time. This is our fifth Droid Hunt win and fourth Dragon Con (all four in a row). I think I am done droid hunting until the next Celebration convention. That night the 300Dc folks met for a dinner at Bennihanas, we had a huge turn out for it and the dinner was great. Natalie bought me dinner as a thank you for painting her (and I didn't know she was going to do it) so big thank you to her for that! We had a great time at the dinner and fun was had by all. I decided I was going to put my Spartan back on that night to walk around and drink in. Thankfully Jose, Mike, and Fightstar all had the same idea. We met down in the lobby and started drinking. I left my shins, shield and spear all in the room so I was a bit more confortable. We were also planning on going to the BSG party that night so I threw on my BSG dogtags with my Spartan.

Wow this night was crazy, I spent the entire night drinking with the Spartans. Mike had some Makers Mark mixed with something in a bottle tied to his waist that I kept taking shots out of, plus I started the night with a handfull of Jager shots, and Jose kept giving me beers. I got plenty drunk! We showed up to the BSG party right as it was ending, but despite security trying to get us to leave it didn't stop us from bringing some Spartan culture to the party. Mike got in a push-up challange with one of the BSG girls but to make it more fair Mike had a Cylon girl sitting on his back for them. He still owned her. Fightstar got in a situp challange with another one and he beat her silly. I had a bite of cake, and paid for it in push-ups myself, it was worth it, it was good cake. We headed back with the BSG folks to the Marriott to keep the party going. At one point Jose needed some more beers so we went up to his room and had some more beers. I am alreday pretty drunk at the time of this pic. That is my roommate sitting on the bed in front of me by the way. Apparently she spent a couple of nights in this room.

After a while down at the BSG party I noticed it was like four am and I needed some sleep so I went back to my room and passed out.

SUNDAY: Sunday was much more of a chill day...HA no it wasn't. It started off with some breakfast with the gang. Then we all got into our GI Joe costumes and went down to the big GI Joe Vs. Cobra picture. It was pretty awesome. I had a blast at it. I was also happy because Chris and Angie and I finally seem to be cool again. Which is nice as I like hanging out with them, they are some funny ass mother-fuckers. After the GI-Joe pics I went up and took off the jacket and backpack, gun all that sort of shit. I just walked around in my green GI Joe shirt and the camo pants from the costume. I was pretty chill for a while just hanging out and doing nothing. At some point during the day Dave and I decided to try out Beereal (beer and cereal mixed) we got the idea from the TV show Reaper. In the show Sam and company get a new apartment and the previous owner has a supscribtion to beers of the world sent to him (and he never changed the address when he moved) one morning he gets up and Sock is having Beereal and asks Sam if he wants some, Sam replies with yes, Guiness and Lucky Charms for me, Sock makes you think that is a great choice. Well we thought it sounded good so we tried it. Boy was it the worst shit ever! It was so bad. Of course we still ate it (at least I ate some of it and Dave ate all of it) I of course had to get someone else to try it, and who better then the Drunken Hooker! I told her it was great and I ate a bite in front of her, I scooped her some and she tried it, only to spit it right back out. We all laughed really hard. Needless to say I am going to write a letter to the writers of that show and tell them what a terrible idea that really was. Around seven or eight I decided to put my Spartan back on for one last night. I put the full costume on this time (I figured out how to fix my shins so they didn't hurt so much) and went down stairs. I walked around for a little bit and then saw the 300DC guys, alreday in our seceret drinking costumes. So I went over said hey and went up to change into mine. Our secret costumes were luchadors (Mexican masked wrestlers). These were the most fun costumes I have ever worn. They were so stupid and random! After I came back down I walked away from the group at one point to say hey to Dave and Garry and to get a pic with a couple of girls in female Hellboy costumes (Hellboy and Abe Sapain), when I came back to the Luchas one of them starts squaring off with me like we are in a wrestling match! I of course came right at him and we locked up, I got the take down then I did my signature move...the tea bag. Yep you read that right. Really what happend is when he went down I wasn't really sure where to go from there, so I just started to stand up but I guess I kind of put my crotch right in his face and someone else said it looked like I tea-bagged him. So I said I did, it was my signature move. We went downstairs and had some photos taken of us in the costume as a group. I forgot to mention that the girls of the 300 boards did ring girls for us, which was great! I am the one in the back with the black and white mask with the hood.

At this point I was alreday fairly drunk as I had several Jager shots, and some beers and a super strong Margherita. After the pics we made our way over to the Wolf Pack Elite party, where we had VIP bands for. We got there got in and went to the VIP area, only to find...more booze! I started really pounding it back there. And I got wasted. (this of course was the plan for the evening, to drink till wasted)

I don't remember all of this evening, I remember dancing with some girls, dancing on stage on a stripper pole and drinking a lot. But I had a hell of a good time. I guess Tally nearly punched me in the face because I went up to her and started dancing with her (at Eric's request) and I was wearing the mask and she didn't reconigize me. I guess I took the mask off at just the right moment before she was going to hit me. At some point I staggered back to my room, and found Dave and everyone else. I then got all the way back upstairs and had to puke, I threw up in Dave's toliet (not like last year where it was Randy's tub!) then I went back to my room and just passed out. I woke up in the morning to find my self laying face down on top of the bed still wearing all the clothes I had on the night before (not the mask or hand wrapps as those came off for the puking). I changed clothes and went to breakfast with the gang, I was going to sleep in but relized it was the last breakfast of the con so I had to go. After that I went back upstairs and went back to sleep. I checked out, drove home and all was well.

So that is my full con report, with pics this time. I hope if you went you had as good of a time as I did and if you didn't go you enjoyed my play by play. I had a blast, it was probally the most fun I have had at a Dragon Con as long as I can remember. It could have been a bit better if Bob was there to enjoy the trainwrecks with me but other then that it was amazing.

Vacation!

So as of 11pm tonight I am offically on vacation. I have been mentally checked out of work for like two days but now it's offical. In twenty-four hours I will be packing my truck to get on the road. I am actually pretty tired right now, so I am going to try to get some sleep. I have a handfull of things to get done tomorrow so I plan to get those things done and then take a nap then get up and get packing for the road. I am offically just excited!

It's 5am...why the hell am I still awake???

So as the title says, it's five am... and I am still awake! What the fuck? I can tell I am tired, and I have to be at work seven hours but yet here I am sitting in my bed, typing on my damn computer not sleeping. I want to sleep, I even put a solid effort into sleeping but alas awake I sit. Perhaps it is the nervous excitment of the impending convention that looms. Or the fact that I am pretty sure I am at least a couple of hundered dollars short of what would be a called a reasonable budget for such a trek. Maybe it's just because I ate several hours ago...and then just a few minutes ago. I ate a few minutes ago since I couldn't sleep and I was hungry I figured I might as well eat. I think I might need to get my self some sleeping pills just for such nights as this happens pretty regularly.

Since I am awake I am taking the time to watch Die Hard 2, because I relized a few weeks ago that I have never seen any of these movies except the last two. Something tells me I don't need to watch them in order since I doubt they are really plot thick. Wow you can really tell this was made in the nintys guys just wonder into an airport with guns and enter restricted areas with no problems. The didn't get on planes or anything but still try that shit today and you will be stopped before you pass the skycaps. Also a little old lady had a stun gun in her purse on the plane.

Also on tonight's list of shit I got done, I re-painted my Spartan helmet, not the one I sold but the one I actually plan on wearing. One of the guys on the 300DC boards had a screen used helmet and painted his helmet to look about as close to the real deal as possible. So I asked for some tips, he gave them to me, and I painted the helmet using them. Let me tell you it was one of the worst paint jobs to put on, the whole time it looked like shit. Then when I did the very last step all of a sudden it stopped looking like shit and bam there it was a perfect looking paint job. So a big thanks to Justin from the 300DC boards for that.

I guess that is all I have to say since I should be sleeping anyway...

3 days left....

So Wednesday night is almost upon us, and that means Dragon Con is nearly upon us! So today I went and picked up my holster from the shoe repair store that I took it to to get sewn up. It came out really nice. I know you all know it but I am going to say it any way...those little asians can sew like no one else! They did such a nice job on this holster. I picked it up, brough it home and my blaster fits in it no problem. So with that done, I am 100% done for Dragon Con. I have nothing else to do prop wise between now and then. I still have to go get spray tanned on Wednesday but that is pretty much it.

I found out today that Garry wasn't able to get my white cape done in time. Needless to say I am dissapointed but there really isn't anything I can do about it. He was concerned he couldn't get it up to my standards and he didn't want to just throw it together. I guess I understand that, doesn't mean I am happy about it but oh well. I am certainly not going to let it ruin my trip. I still plan to have a great time. I asked him to bring me the materials and harness for it and I am going to see if one of the 300DC guys can sew it up for me for like Halloween or Megacon.

Well it's almost time to go to work to make that money for DC!

Mark out.

5 days left....

So as the title says we are down to five days until I will be in Atlanta for Dragon Con. I am starting to calm down about money and what not, I sold my Spartan helmet, I finished the At-AT helmet I was painting and will be paid for it plus I have three other things up for sale and at least one of them might actually sell. I also might have found a fouth roommate for our hotel room which will save us some money.

My workouts are going well, I am down to 151lbs and ten percent body fat and I will probally lose a few more pounds and body fat between now and Friday. Pretty much everything is going well. The only thing I am worried about is my white Spartan cape that Garry is supposed to be doing for me. He keeps telling me that it might not be done, or he hasn't done anything on it. I think if he doesn't get it done I am going to be really, really pissed. After all I got his clone armor done in an amazingly short amount of time, (so short I told him it wasn't possible to get done) in time for the "big" premire for the Clone Wars movie that was so important to him. He has had the cape and fabric and what not since Star Wars weekends and he has had the harness for like a month or so which is plenty of time to make one cape. The problem is I can't quite figure out how to tell him how important it is to me and how upset I am going to be if it isn't done. I mean I don't want to be an ass about it but I really want it done.

So that is it, I am about to go to the gym to run on the treadmil or one of the other cardio things. Mark out.

Eight Days and counting....

Welcome back kids. So as I am sure some of you are aware, there are only eight days until Dragon Con. While I am excited I am freaking out, I need to make about a thousdand dollars between now and then, and I just don't see anyway of that happening. Work has been incredibly slow and I haven't really made much money latley. The last two days, I made nothing. I went to work Monday and I was there for two hours doing nothing so I got sent home. Well today the stupid hurricane came and runied any chance of going to work. I did get some work done on some props that needed to be worked on which was nice but only one of them MIGHT make me some money. I haven't been able to sleep worth a shit because I am stressing about about the money. I just have so much to do and so little time to do it. If anyone reading this wants a 300 Spartan helmet or a Clone long rifle e-mail me and we can work out a deal!

I am also cranking hard to lose some extra fat for Dragon Con. I am in decent shape right now and could easily wear my spartan and look fine but of course I could always look better. Well I guess I am going to go work out or something since I won't be sleeping anytime soon.

Mark out.

What a peice of junk...

So tonight I went out to Universal to the movie theater there to troop for the new Star Wars Clone Wars movie. I kind of got roped into going because Christine (Dave's wife) really wanted to go but Dave couldn't go and he didn't want her to go alone. I also needed to test fit my stormtrooper armor before Dragon Con. So I went and wore my new stormtrooper armor. Well the trooping was so so, it was pretty boring and we couldn't really go very far as we wern't allowed to leave the inside of the movie theater building. It seemed to last for ever. Then the worst part came, we saw the movie! The new Star Wars Clone Wars movie is total shit! Don't see this movie. Now since I am a huge Star Wars fan I would hope that these words carry some weight, I want the two hours of my life back that this peice of shit stole from me. Had I have paid for this movie I would want my damn money back. The animation is so so, far from good, the acting is terrible, the dialouge is aweful, and the new characters are really annoying, the story sucks, even the new music is bad! I should have figured it out as soon as the movie started and it didn't even have the traditional yellow text crawl that every other Star Wars movie has had, instead it had a cheesy announcer. SAVE YOUR TIME AND MONEY PEOPLE!!! Just because it had some decent clone action I will give this flick a solid D

Even more impuslive then the last one...

Ok so like several people predicted I wanted to get another tattoo...and I did. This one I really didn't put much thought into at all. I knew I wasn't really into getting any sort of picture or words or anything like that so I wanted to get another odd symbol. This one just popped into my head and I liked the idea a lot. This one I am just going to post and let you guess what it is.

I got it on the inside of my left bicept. I will give you a hint it is from a sci-fi movie also and in the movie this symbol actually ends up in this exact spot on a guy. The colors are actually brighter in person my cell phone just takes shitty pics. Also it doesn't actually have any black in it, it is all shades of red. I am once again really happy with out this one came out. If I decide to get another I know one thing, I will not put it on my other bicept, this one hurt like hell!

So who's up for impulsive decisions?

So welcome back B's & G's, Mark here. So for quite some time in my life I have wanted a tattoo. I have always been afraid to get one because me and needles don't go well together. I wasn't worried so much about getting the tattoo as I was making a fool of myself and making the artist not want to do the work on me. So one of my co-workers had a friend in town who is a tattoo artist and was over at his house doing tats and on the cheap. So Robby (the co-worker) asked me to come over and get a tat a couple of nights ago. I was all jazzed to go but then at the last minute it got canceled. So last night right as I am about to leave work Robby mentions his friend is over at his place and I should come. Well after a little persuading on his part I went. After sitting around at Robby's place for several hours watching other people get tats it was finally my turn. I got the design I wanted and we got started. I was pretty calm considering I had no idea what I was in for only the horror stories people told me about how much it hurt and bleed and what not. So he gets started doing the outline, and yea it hurts, not terrible but pretty bad. There wasn't any blood though and I was really supprised about that. After about a third of the outline was done I started to feel light headed and dizzy. I knew this was nerves acting up like every time I have to get shots or blood drawn. I asked for a break for a second and went to the bathroom, I had to pee, while I was in there I sat down caught my breath and splashed some cold water on my face and neck. After a minute or so I felt better and went back in to get back to it. I got a glass of water and we went back to it. A few minutes later I needed to get some more water on my face and neck and to drink and I went to the kitchen and did that. I also grabbed a wet paper towl so I wouldn't have to get up again. So from there on the rest of the tat wen't really well. I didn't need any more breaks but I got a couple of short ones anyway while the artist rested or changed needles or what not. All in all it took about fourty five minutes to get it done. So here is the end result.

It is the imperial cog from Star Wars but weathered up a bit. It is on the inside of my right forearm. I am really happy with how it came out. Originally I wanted the white parts above filled in but he did it reversed and I realy like how it came out. So what does every one think? It hurts a bit today but it isn't oozing or bleeding or anything. I know a lot of people say that the first one you get is the bridge to a bunch of other ones but I really can't think of any other tats I would get. The best part about this whole thing, it didn't cost me a dollar! The artist mentioned he had kids and was going to some of the parks and what not. I mentioned I had a bunch of tickets to a bunch of the parks so he and I worked out a deal where I traded him some of my SeaWorld tickets for the tat even trade. I was really happy about that since I am broke as shit.

Can you hear me now? No, no you can't...

Ok, so it seems as though I have gotten sick some how. I have a sore throat and I can't talk. Like I have no voice I can only wisper. I have been coughing a lot and I am a bit congested. I also have no energy. I have spent all of today in bed. I got up only long enough to get food, drinks, and I took a shower. I have been feeling kind of shitty the last couple of days but it got pretty bad yesterday and stayed bad all day today. I hope I feel better tomorrow as I have to go to work at noon, if I am not feeling better I won't be able to go and I really need the money.

So on to other things, Greg took the entire week off and went down to West Palm. That means I have the entire apartment to my self all day and night. So today I walked around for a few minutes naked just because I could. Also the living room is a disaster since he isn't here to see it. He won't be back until Sunday so I have plenty of time to clean it up but right now it is covered in stormtrooper armor parts.

Speaking of that, my new stormtrooper armor came in last week or so. It's really nice and I like it a lot. I got a great deal on it and it came mostly trimmed and had all the straps done on it. I had to go back and re-do most of the straps and clean up some of the trimming but it saved me hours of trimming time.

Also in new news, I went and saw the new movie Step Brothers. It was really funny. It's really crude and stupid humor but it was great. I can't remember the last time I laughed that hard or that often in a movie. If you want to laugh hard and often too then go see it. But if you are content with your life with no laughs wait till dvd.

And last on the woman front, I went to see Dark Knight again, but this time with Holly. I enjoyed being with her, but we aren't dating. As it stands right now we are just friends, but I think that it is possible that could change.

Oh I know often I will recommend a product I like but I feel it is also my duty to warn people of a product I hate. I tried out Rustoleum Painter's Touch clear coat. Let me tell you, I couldn't be less happy with that paint if I wanted to be unless it actually dissolved the thing it was painted on. It wen't on really thin and runny (which of couse means it put runs all over it), it dried anything but smooth, and it made my project less shiny then it started. As if all that wasn't bad enough when I went to sand it off I noticed it doesn't sand at all. It just peels off, so much so that I could actually peel it off like a sunburn. It peels off like it's a thin clear sheet of plastic or something. So because of it I ended up having to sand the entire helmet down to the base and start all over. I will never ever EVER buy anything that is under the Painter's Touch name. I can't say I won't buy Rustoleum's products because I really like their Proffisonal grade products but they didn't seem to make a clear coat in that line.

Oh well I am off to watch some more TV until I sleep.

Let's put a smile on that face...

So last night I went and saw The Dark Knight. Now as I am sure some of you are aware I was really really excited for this flick. So much so that I was trying to figure out how to justify spending four thousand five hundered dollars on a Joker costume. Needless to say that didn't happen. But regardless of my costume choices the movie was AMAZING! Everything I wanted and more. The Joker was incredible! Heath did such a good job I think he will always be remembered as the dark clown. The Joker in this one is so dark and creepy it's scary. Forget days past of funny, and stupid Jokers, this one is crazy and evil. He doesn't want anything like money or power, he just thinks it's fun to hurt people. His jokes aren't funny, well unless your like me and think they are so bad they are funny. In one scene he does the best magic trick I have ever seen, I won't tell you what it is because I don't want to ruin it for you. I will ruin some stuff for you. Rachel dies, thankfully. Harvey Dent becomes Two-face, and then dies. Joker lives!! But of course he won't be in another movie since Heath died.

For those of you who are debating seeing it STOP...GO SEE IT NOW!!! If you have the option, see it in IMAX as I am sure it will be awesome. I am going to try to see it in IMAX this weekend.

Also I think I am going to do a Nurse Joker costume from the movie as it won't cost me but maybe a hundred bucks.

All in all A+++

Damn bugs...

So my dog has managed to bring in fleas from outside. And of course they are on the cat, and me, and Greg and all over the house. Well if that has never happend to you, well I hate you. But it sucks. I have tried and tried to get rid of the damn things to no avail. So last week I went to the office and asked them to do something about it, both in our house and the grass outside. The moron that was working there said she was going to have the pest control people come the next day (last Wednesday). Well mid-day Wednesday I went to the office wondering where the pest control people were since they wern't here yet. Now a different woman was there and she of course had no idea what I was talking about. She told me she would call the pest people and try to get them out there the next day. Later I get a call from her telling her that the pest control people only come on Tuesdays. WHY THE FUCK COULDN'T THEY HAVE JUST TOLD ME THAT IN THE FIRST PLACE??? God I hate stupid people.

So today got to be the fun fun day where I got to give the cat and dog a bath and then take them out of the house for two hours. Let me tell you, the cat really did not enjoy any part of that. The bath part was only mildly painful for me, but getting the cat into the box to carry her to the car was a different story. It looks like I am trying to kill my self but not only am I failing at that but I am incompentant as to how to do it. My arms and hands are all cut up from that stupid cat.

Well I finally got that all done and the house aired out but as soon as I came back in and sat down fleas jumped on me. I don't know what to do about this.

Fight night...

So tonight is UFC fight night. I was going to go out to Wild Wings but relized that it was probally going to cost me about the same amount to go there and sit alone as it would to get it on pay per view and get a sixer of beer and watch it at home. Plus here at home I don't have to yell at anyone to get the hell out of my way so I can actually watch the fight. Oh, and here I don't have to wear pants.

My shoulder seems to have stopped hurting. I got back in the gym today and it was more or less fine. I tried doing Arnold presses and it hurt so I stopped and changed to abs. (if you don't know what Arnold presses are look it up)

I bought my ticket to Dark Knight last night. Midnight plus one on Thursday night. I can't wait to see this flick. I watched a bunch of clips someone on the RPF posted and I got even more excited.

Speaking of last night it was the fouth, and in the past years Universal has done amazing fireworks displays. This year, when I was there working, NOTHING! What the fuck?!?! I was actually looking forward to it and they didn't do shit. I guess they did a small show in the park it's self but what the hell is that shit. I was pissed, well clealy I am still pissed about it.

So that's about it cats and kittens. I am going to go jump in the shower and then run to the store.

Owe damn it...

Here again kids...welcome back.

So I am doing something wrong in the gym. I keep hurting my shoulder. It happens like once a month or so. I can't figure out what it is I am doing wrong but it sucks something fierce. Yesterday I couldn't even lift my arm over my shoulder it hurt so bad. Today it hurts a lot less but I had to take the day off from the gym. I am going to try to hit it tomorrow and see how it feels. Hopefully it's healed.

So I went and saw Wall*E. It was pretty good. It wasn't the best Pixar movie ever but it was pretty good. Most adults are going to be annoyed with the fact that there is almost no talking in the movie since the main character is a robot that only makes little emotion noises. The humans in the movie are all super fat and morons. It has some cute moments, funny stuff and some emotional parts. All in all B+

I don't really have much else to say.. Oh I forgot I won $100 in the lottery which was nice. When was the last time you can say you won the lottery? NEVER BITCHES!

OUT.

Witty title....

So someone asked for a picture of Ashley. Well someone a while ago asked for a picture of my Spartan, well I found a picture of both in one. So here it is.

Ha fooled you! Well it's both but I am sure it's not what you are looking for. Too bad suckers.

Nothing is new here, just working and Star Wars Weekends. This is the last weekend for that and I am pretty happy it's over. I think I am going to sell my Tusken Raider costume, I am just not enjoying wearing it. It's just too damn hot. I am going to be ordering a new Stormtrooper cosutme this weekend or next so that excites me in ways that should only be reserved for women. I know I am a nerd but I am willing to bet so are you.

I did go see the new movie Wanted today. It was pretty decent. It is pretty plotless, and very predictable but it has good action and loads of gun fights and well...who doesn't like that. It was worth seeing in the theater for the sounds and action. Oh it was also nice to see Jolie's ass twelve feet tall on the big screen. Let me tell you for having a kid an being a bit older she still has a banging ass. So for the action, and ass I give it a B...Ass A.

I am going to go see Wall *E in the next couple of days. I will report back on it. High hopes here.