Work Typos Part 2...

supporta: (1) bad Italian for support; (2) the act of supposing that you are supporting an option, person, or idea.

clikc: the sound digital cameras make since they don't have an exact click-button that goes up and down.

regardsm: the act of regarding regards

What I Wish People Would Understand...

I have come to a new understanding recently with Nicole and I decided it's something other people might want/need to hear. I've grown up with a lot of mixed media ranging from music to TV shows and movies to video games. Let me just quote some of the words of my professor, Arlen Card, who taught my Digital Audio Essentials Class at UVU. Even though he was referring to music I think it applies to more than that.

"You should just learn to like a little bit of everything. It will just make your world that much richer and larger."

We're so eager to limit ourselves sometimes. We instantly close our minds to anything that seems strange to us. We'll write off something just because we're not familiar with it. That makes our world smaller people. Much too small. There are so many good stories out there and sometimes the best or most interesting stories are only found in particular mediums because there weren't any other options that could properly tell the story.

Maybe you don't like Japanese cartoons but I promise you that I've been through emotional and intellectual roller coaster rides by watching some of the shows I've seen. Maybe you think video games are dumb, too complicated, or a waste of time but in truth, if you really examine it, video games can be the ultimate medium to entertainment* because instead of just watching and/or listening you are involved. Whether it's just you or a character you control there is something incredible waiting for the player if they will just keep going! (just please don't waste your life away playing a game that has no story to tell)

Just open your minds people and explore a world just waiting to be touched! Granted, that doesn't mean you should go watch objectionable movies, play bad video games, or listen to awful music.

*Note: Skylee brought up a good point and she's right (though I didn't understand what she meant at first). She said that plays/musicals were the ultimate medium. I agree if you are in the play/musical and you are performing and playing an active role on the stage. It doesn't get more involved than that! No video game can or ever will truly replicate that kind of an experience. Thanks Skylee!

Traits, Talents, and Characteristics...

I was talking about this the other day with Nicole, Mom and Dad and they helped me recognize that I had something worth blogging about. We were talking about the differences between Kevin and I and I've always explained that we're different for the following reason:

When Kevin and I were in the womb (being twins and such) a trait would drop down and Kevin and I would have to fight for it. Sometimes we'd tear the trait into equal parts or sometimes one would get the majority and the other got what was left. Example: One of the biggest differences between Kevin and I is how much patience we have for things. I probably took about 75% and Kevin was left with 25%. But Kevin got bigger portions of singing talent, drawing skills, and good looks. He'll argue with a couple of those but hey, I think it's true.

Yup, Kevin rocks.

Work Typos...

I type a lot of the same words over and over again at work. Here are some common typos that make me crazy and their being-made-up-by-me-on-the-spot definitions:

Mondary - The worst day of the year.

trasnferred - Transcending the term "nerfed"; to make a stronger character/item suddenly weaker than ever thought possible.

complaince - often misunderstood for a toddler saying "come play in"; to be utterly wasted and end up sitting on garbage because off constant complaining.

acconut - a rare nut to which every person and animal is allergic.

resplying - (1) trying to combine respond and reply into one word; (2) resplying occurs when one jumps out of a flying plane in order to respond to someone's message.

Stay tuned... there might be more to come!

An Interesting Observation...

So I've been going to UVU for a while now and I've noticed something very odd about the institute. First of all there are a lot of people who are absurdly good at Ping Pong. Second of all the kids who play the most are ridiculously rip. Seriously, why bother being all muscley if they're playing sports that don't require big muscles? Weird.

Some of those same guys play Pool too. If I had big muscles, I'd play football or wrestle. You know... put them to use.

Double-U Or Double-V?...

Do you write double-u's or double-v's?

uu

vv

I am definitely a double-v kind of guy when it comes to writing.

Now I Know My ABC's...

Eh. Bee. See. Dee. Ee. Eff. Gee. Eche. Eye. Jay. Kay. El. Em. En. Oh. Pee. Cue. Are. Es. Tee. You. Vee. Double-You. Ex. Why. Zee.

And thus we see that “e” is the most common letter in the alphabet.

May I Have A Word With You Time?...

For the love of Pete, Time, when I'm in a big hurry in the morning you don't have to try to keep up with me!

Thank you.

Another Curse...

Every time I eat at Subway and get a foot long the first half always tastes better than the second.

Shirt Tags...

Who thought that putting rough, hard, irritating tags on the back of shirts was a good idea?

I will so bop them on the head.

Maybe.

Or I'll just keep cutting off those kind of tags and not worry about it.

Chess The Musical...

I'm about 90% convinced that Chess the Musical was written by way of a dare. I honestly don't believe anyone likes chess so much that they would write a whole musical about it.

At least it has some cool songs, right? Right!

This Morning While Eating Breakfast...

I was eating some Raisin Bran Crunch this morning and in my head I was playing out an absolutely lame commercial where some guy was talking about how much better Raisin Bran Crunch was compared to regular Raisin Bran.

I'll let you know right now-- that commercial would be super lame.

Dreams...

So, sometimes I have pretty unique dreams and I'm just wondering if anyone else has ever had a dream:

• that you aren't even in, nor do you know anyone else
• that is essentially a movie (including an opening credits sequence) and you're just watching it
• where your subconscious instantly comes up with an entire book, movie or song that you have seen/heard before that doesn't really exist
• that has made you feel actual pain (I got shot with an arrow in a Hunger Games dream)
• where you are watching yourself (as in, you are not seeing what's going on from your own eyes).

Just curious.

Dan is Right!..

For those who read the post about "Power Up the Power Bots" I have news for you! My brother Dan made the comment that he thought it was "Power Up the Power Block" and so I looked that up on youtube and lo and behold I found this:

So I guess in the end, I was just remembering it wrong (yet better than I thought-- the melody in my head is spot on!) and at the same time dreading the fact that I still have parts of the opening to Captain Simian and the Space Monkeys memorized even though I never watched a single episode of that show in its entirety.

The Word of The Day...

The word of the day is always...

 

BAOU ZAKERUGA!!

A Best Moment of My Life...

So, this morning I had the theme song to SuperHuman Samurai Syber-Squad stuck in my head (insomuch that I looked up the intro on youtube [and I was very surprised to see that Tim Curry was the voice of Kilokahn]) and it reminded me of an event that happened back in 3rd grade that I'll never forget.

I was small and scrawny back in the day and I liked to play sports but I wasn't particularly good at any of them (meaning that I wasn't a first pick when picking teams) and the new sport that was introduced to us in 3rd grade known as Kickball was no exception. There was this one kid who was pretty popular named Colton who was always one of the team captains and so there was a time when I brought my SuperHuman Samurai Syber-Squad toys to school and he was also a huge fan so he asked to borrow them and I told him I would let him if he let me be on his team in Kickball. He said he would... and didn't.

I was obviously furious and upset. We had played this sport more than a dozen times so far so I knew his team's starting lineup preferences and where they like to kick the ball. First up was Colton, and he always kicked the ball between 1st and 2nd base. I caught it immediately and he was out and my team was pretty happy that one of the best players the other team had was already out. Next up was Jaymin and he always kicked it between 2nd and 3rd base so I changed positions and sure enough I caught it. He was also out just like that and there were some impressed fellows on my team. I can't remember who was third but I knew where he was going to kick it: a fast ball at an almost 15 degree angle towards second base. I was in the right spot, and I almost didn't catch it-- it was going so fast it hit me in the face but I caught it as it was about to hit the ground and he was out. Three outs in a row and an enormous cheer from my team.

We switched up and my team was going wild and for that day I might as well have been a celebrity-- they wanted me to go first. Colton was pitching the ball and I slammed that thing above and past every head out there and ran all the way to home base. Three outs in a row and a homerun to boot? Yup. That was a good day. I can't remember if Colton apologized but frankly I don't care because I wouldn't trade that moment for being on his crummy team anyway. The other funny thing about all this is that I can't remember the rest of that game-- only the first five minutes of awesome.

Where I Feel Empathy...

When I see something painful I feel a major surge of discomfort in my lower back.

Especially when I see little kids running across the street barefoot on a hot summer day.

Powerbots...

Every once in a while I get this little ditty stuck in my head that goes like this...

"Power up the Powerbots! Roh roh- roh roh!"

The truth is there is no such thing as Powerbots and they certainly didn't have their own late 80's early 90's cartoon on TV. And then I realized the tune to this little ditty actually came from Captain Simian and the Space Monkeys; a show I never watched but had seen the first couple of seconds to several times.

The Ongoing Yet Solved Dilemma...

I really like my hair when it's longer. The curls look really nice and I love feeling the wind blowing through my hair. But when it gets too long I can only style it in the one way that I like which is straightforward and curly-- poofy even. Should I keep growing it for another week or two? Some people tell me they really like it when my hair is long.

But I also look pretty good with short hair. Though all I ever do is the missionary part and then gently pull a towel over the top to give it an interesting crisscross texture.  Other people tell me that they really like my hair when it's shorter. It grows back fast enough so I guess it's not too bad.

Then again if I'm going to be in the General Conference Priesthood Choir I need to get a hair cut. So I guess it was time to get a haircut anyway.

The Cool Thing About This Song...

So the other day Kevin and I were once again trying to finish the 13 floor dungeon in Eternal Sonata which means that you hear the same music over and over. So we decided to start listening to other soundtracks and we came across this song called "Pain the Universe" from one of my favorite video game music composers and one of my favorite games: Legend of Mana. This is a boss theme, so get ready to rock!

While we were listening to this song I kept telling Kevin "this is my favorite part of the song!" . . . and then another part would come up and I told him "this is also my favorite part of the song." . . . and then it happened again; the song continued and I said "this is my favorite part of the song!" . . . and then I just summed it up.

"Every part of this song is my favorite part."

One of the best boss themes ever made.

Things That Make Me Cringe...

I'm only going to mention two things here that make me cringe so bad I want to chuck something across the room.

When people end a phone conversation with "mmmmmm bye!" BLARGH that drives me crazy.

When girls slightly stick their tongue out right when they say the "th" part of "thank you." If you don't know what I'm talking about just look for the next high school graduation ceremony. You'll see over a hundred examples.

Valentine's Day Cards of 2012!

This is a video of all the Valentine's Day cards I made this year. Enjoy!

How I View Daughters of God...

Every girl is a Princess, and I am always the knight that serves and protects her.

When I was young (around second grade) I became very fascinated with the Medieval era. I remember that I would check out this one book on a regular basis that was all about knights, their armor and weapons and the lifestyle that they lived in the dark ages. Granted, fantasy novels have made that time period much cooler than it actually was. Let's not go into how they didn't have take baths and they were constantly at war and yadda yadda.

I would also like to mention that even when I am married, that special girl will still be my Princess and I her knight. She will always be someone I want to protect and serve with all my might and heart.

After all, girls are beautifully divine daughters of God, and I will never forget that.

Kevin...

So recently Kevin wrote a very touching blog post about me for our birthday. I'm a little behind in writing my post about him and I will apologize that it probably won't be as well written as his was. Nevertheless, let's begin!

So, Kevin always responds to the question: "What's it like to have a twin?" with "What's it like to not have a twin?" which is a pretty good response. When people ask me what it's like to have a twin I tell them this:

"It's like constantly having a best friend who you can talk to, play with, and likes all the same things you do."

No really, Kevin has been that for me all my life. There has never been a time that we weren't on good terms. That's not to say that sometimes he doesn't drive me slightly bonkers or that he's the perfect brother but that's what makes him not me, which is a very good thing.

I often tell people that Kevin and I differ because while we were both in the womb certain traits or talents would drop down and we wrestled for every single one often tearing the trait into (usually) two uneven proportions. Let me tell you about the things I admire about Kevin!

First of all, Kevin speaks his mind and he's very open about things. He'll frequently open his heart to people early on with any kind of relationship. Second, Kevin is so much more social than I am. It is true that Kevin and I act totally different at social outings and people who know us well come to expect that Kevin will say a lot and I'll say hardly anything. I wish I was good at conversations. I always try to do double dates with Kevin because he's so good at coming up with questions. Seriously, the last time I dated a girl for a prolonged period of time (even to this day) I never even found out what her favorite color was. I mean, that's like Stake Dance basics!! Speaking of dancing, Kevin definitely has better moves than I do. He's a much better dancer and he remembers a lot of the moves and steps that I forget too quickly. And he can shimmy!

Another one of Kevin's talents is his ability to sing. Holy cow, I really wish I had a voice like Kevin's when it comes to singing. Sure, I like being a bass but whenever we're singing Broadway or movies around the piano or singing along with our CDs I have to keep dropping out because I can't sing as high and as well as he can. Kevin is simply awesome. Did I mention that he has always been able to draw better than I can? Now he'll argue that I'm the better artist but that's because I have the patience to make my drawings look really detailed and cool, but Kevin whips out this amazing creations so easily I sometimes get super jealous. He can draw and come up with original monster ideas, he can create new characters and put them into actions poses that actually look natural and excellent-- like the tiniest step below paid professionals.

Perhaps the greatest thing about Kevin is that he "gets it." There are so many people in this world that just don't get it. Kevin tries to understand people, Kevin understands how things work, how they should work and how to make things better. He's a really good guy. He's nice to everyone, he views and treats girl with so much respect and he's freaking hilarious! He can always make me smile (a certain segment of Goofy Movie works every time).

There's a lot more I could say about Kevin but my blogs are supposed to have short entries and this was one well worth writing and deserves to be as long as it is. Thanks Kevin for all you do for me! Love ya bro!

Favorite Character Names...

For all male characters I usually use the name Flare (and you should be able to figure out why).

For all female characters I usually use the name Jade (which is a shade of green which you should also understand why).

However, I don't think I would ever name any of my kids with these names though.

Maybe for middle names? . . . hmmm...

How I Determine Favorites...

So, I have a weird process to determine what my favorite things are. I make a highly unlikely scenario that goes a little something like this:

You are trapped in a room and a mysterious force will give you whatever you want but it only lets you have one item from every category.

Whatever I happen to pick must be my favorite because it was my first preference and it's something I would enjoy for a long time even in repetitious circumstances. I'll use my previous posts as an example:

What color do you want the room to be? Emerald Green.

What is your room number? 136.

What do you want to eat? Fruit Salad.

Now you are all probably thinking that since this scenario's conditions are infinite that I may alter my answers because while some things are considered favorites there are other items that perhaps I could tolerate for a longer period of time, but that's not the case. Even if I do become annoyed with something it will still be my favorite; that's why I picked it.

Favorite Color...

I also went through a phase of color favorites. Originally it was blue. Then it was red-orange because that was my favorite crayon-color to use. Then it became green around second grade due to a Sonic & Knuckles book I bought from the Scholastic Book Fair. The chaos emerald portrayed on the cover has always stuck out in my mind and I actually found a picture of the book!

So, I guess it's hard to pick out the exact shade of green I like from the picture, but to make it easy for everyone to understand it's the average color of the green lights found on Christmas lights, or that deep, rich, green ornament nearby.

I always say that my favorite color is Emerald Green because I like to be specific... and well, now you know my reference. Chaos Emerald Green!

Favorite Numbers...

So I have a favorite number... and I also have favorite numbers. When it comes to the guessing game of "pick a number between __ and __" I have a set of numbers I always use.

Between 1 and 10: 1. 1 is the common number in my four favorite numbers (including this one of course). Additionally, I like 1 because of a character named Taichi and his partner Zeromaru (making 100% [as they never lost, they always won, you can see that on the cover near the bottom-right corner]), the star of a Digimon manga. They were an awesome team.

Sorry, no Agumon here.

Between 1 and 20: 12. It used to be 15 but that was Kevin's favorite number too (this is back in the Junior Jazz days). So, I changed it to 12. That's really all there is to it. This was also my earliest favorite number. No picture here.

Between 1 and 100: 91. My favorite Gundam from the whole Mobile Suit Gundam universe is by far Gundam F91. I love everything about his design (even though I'm not a fan of his "human face" mode, but he's the only one who has something like that so that makes him even more unique... and he was trans-am-ing before it was cool). He has awesome equipment and features so enjoy the picture as much as I do.

I own three of him: Model, FIX, and Robot Spirits.

 Between 1 and anything above 100: 136. This is my favorite number above all the rest. And the reason for this is a simple one: Flareon. Flareon is just awesome! If I can I will always have him on my team. He was my fire type champ in Platinum, Soul Silver and will be on my team in Black once I get to the point where I can transfer previous generations.

You will always be my favorite!!