Merry Christmas to everyone! I hope everyone's day is going well. With so many reasons to be joyful, there shouldn't be a reason why no one is having a bad day.

Anyway, happy birthday to Jesus too!

The Real Christian...Please Stand Up

This was written by my friend and it resonates strong with me. This too bugs me about Christians who call themselves Christians but don't act like it. Same with someone who would call themselves a basketabll player and doesn't even play the game.

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Kinda of tired of everyone calling themselves a christian, yet not really being Christ-like. Just wrote down my thoughts I was feeling at 11pm.


Would the real Christian....Please stand up. not the Sunday Christian, not the Jesus is my homeboy Christian, not the Christian who thinks God is fine with all their sin Christian. I'm talking about the Sold out Christian who live a life of Purity, Holiness, and Righteousness. A Christian who deny their flesh daily, who picks up there cross and follow Jesus type of Christian. Not the closet Christian, the Humanist Christian, the Relativism Christian, but the Christian who READS and LIVES by the BIBLE type of Christian. The Christian who does the will of my father in Heaven. Not the homosexual Christian, not the Adulterous cheat on my Wife/Husband kind of Christian. I'm talking about the faithful to my vows type of Christian. The no sex before marriage kind of Christian. the Christian who repents and turns from there wicked ways Christian. Would the real Christian please Stand up. if that’s you please stand up.

This weekend was very busy. There was so much that went on and I don't even remember it at all.

I do know one thing, today is my girlfriend's birthday and so all weekend we have been celebrating it. Saturday, she wanted to get all our core friends together and watch Dumb & Dumber--one of the funniest movies of all time by the way. She got a good portion of gifts one being a Michael Jackson glove. There were a lot of gag gifts but she just likes to laugh so if it's funny, she doesn't care.

Sunday night she had a shindig with her some of her master's program classmates which she invited me to go to. It was actually really, really fun. For a group of master students, they were really funny. It was nice too as we got to think about the birth of Christ and meditate on that which I have actually never done. After that, we went to Mt. Soledad and watch the meteor shower--the clouds didn't help the situation but it was still nice. She had a great time doing that.

Tonight? I'm taking her to BJ's with a select few of other friends. It should be a great night. I think all the friends that are going are girls so it's just going to be one of those nights I don't really get to do anything except watch all of them have fun but I wanted to treat her to a pazookie (a large cookie with ice cream. So good). I already know this night is going to be fun.

It's amazing what sleep depravity does to you. There are a lot of details in my head but my lack of sleep is preventing me from going deep into descriptions. This is all I can offer. On that note, I am going to take a nap.

OST's at their Prime

Butterflies of excitement flutter around in my stomach when I listen to the Metroid Prime: Corruption soundtrack. There is a unique joy that comes from listening to this soundtrack and as I think about it more, all the Metroid Prime soundtracks do the same thing to me. I am never dissatisfied with these soundtracks.

Metroid Prime put a new age twist onto some of the series staple sounds; thumping drum effects on the original Metroid theme mixing it with strange cackling noises and eerie pitches; the Space Pirate theme with its warped synths to punch its theme home; and of course, the battle with Metroid Prime--powerful rhythms in keeping with the over-spacey aesthetic and long notations.



Metroid Prime: Echoes was a drastic turn on the original direction from Metroid Prime. It reflected the games atmosphere to a tee however and though most people would not consider its ambient tracks music, what it was supposed to do--set the mood--it did with perfection. From the memorable tunes like Torvus Bog which continued the ambient movement of Echoes to the best rehash of the Escape Theme, I believe, Kenji Yamamoto kept true to his style while providing what the game needed.



Then there's the world of Corruption. Yamamoto took what he learned from both of these games and combined them into, what I think is the most complete compilations in the Prime series. A blend of ambient like in Echoes, punchy rhythms like in Prime now became fused with the orchestral aesthetic in Corruption. The Defense Drone track, Bryyo and SkyTown all bring out some of the styles that Yamamoto implemented.

These soundtracks always wake me up when I'm at work. They are so pleasing to my ears! AHH! Good stuff. If you haven't really listened to these soundtracks, and you like video game music, then I would suggest nabbing these somewhere quickly. Your ears will not be disappointed.

Bye...?

My assistant quit today.

At work, my boss and my supervisor decided that I could use help from at least one more person. We decided to hire a friend I recommended who was interested in working doing camera work and such.

Four months later, she became jaded, selfish and unappreciative of the job because she felt like she was doing too much and not getting paid enough. Her job was a minimum wage job, working as a student assistant doing something most students wouldn't be doing. In fact, I was doing what she was doing, and more, before they hired me as staff.

What was so funny about her though process behind it was that she wants to be a producer or a director, if anything. The things she was doing, pre-production, post-production type of stuff, which is what I do too, was not in her "job description," which she doesn't have one anyway. She told me she was hired to do camera work--true. When I was hired, I was hired to video editing. The job required more. But pre-production and post-production is her world. I'm not even trying to get into Hollywood film or indie film. I just like doing trailers and promotional stuff, which is what I do. This is her world and she just through it all away because she wasn't getting paid enough.

I am upset because I put in quite some effort to get her the job and she just throws it away. What's worst, she never said thank you. I know you don't like the job and all but at least say thank you for looking out for you even though you didn't turn out to like it.

So my boss asked me if there were any other people that could replace her and I already had one in mind, just in case. Thankfully, he already knows what's up so any time he complains, I know it'll just because he wants excellence--not money.

I leave you with this picture. I saw this in the library and it was interesting how close all these green colors were. The colors are more in the background.

Arguably my craziest morning ever.

I haven't had a morning like this in a long time. This was easily one of my most ridiculous mornings. It might even make my top list because this is too memorable.

As you know, my car is in the shop. Well, I failed to remember this waking up in the morning. I woke up at 7 and while I was getting ready, the thought came to my head "Oh shoot. I have to walk to the trolley." At about 7:15, I make my way out of the house.

Walking down the street, I had another realization; my roommate Juan told me a while back that the trolley ticket boxes don't take card at our particular stop. Thankfully, I was still on my main street and a 7-11 was not far from there. I was just going to get cash back.

I walk into the 7-11 looking for something to get because it makes it easier on the cashier when you buy something to get cash back. I grab a Snickers, walk towards the register and on it I see a piece of paper with hand writing "No credit card." I've seen that before and it was only on one register like it was then. So I place the Snickers on the counter and I notify the guy that I have debit and he responds that are not taking any cards. I freeze for a moment and I reply "I can't pay for it then." I say "thank you" and walk off outside.

I have two options at this point. There is another 7-11 about 5-10 minutes up the street going away from the trolley. There is also a Starbucks 5-10 minutes up the street going towards the trolley. The dilemma became the distance. I could walk to the 7-11, which I knew had a cash back system and walk even further or go to Starbucks which I wasn't sure had a cash back system. Normally, I would just walk to the 7-11 and be good but this time, I took my chances.

I walked to the Starbucks and started looking at the menu. I felt really stupid doing that. Who goes into a Starbucks nowadays and looks at the menu? I stood there for a long minute before I decided on what I was going to buy. I felt really stupid. I chose to get an Apple Fritter and as the lady rings it up and I pull out my card, I ask "do y'all do cash back?" She shakes her head and somewhat shocked, I hand her my card and pay for the Fritter.

A little disturbed by the fact that I don't still have cash, I'm close to the trolley and I make the decision to walk over to the stop and see if they accept cards now. I step to the ticket machine and start going through the steps to pay for my ticket. When that screen popped up, all but the card were valid forms of payment. Now, I could either all the way back to the other 7-11 or go to Wal-Mart. I choose to go to Wal-Mart. Neither are really that close.

On my way there, I came across this woman who looked at me very strange. She seemed to look like a crackhead but I wasn't completely sure. She asks me "you a faggot brotha?" I wasn't sure if she had said what she said and I look at her confused. I said "what?" and she replied "Where you from?" I replied "LA."

"What?" she shouted back. At this point, I realize that she's a hard of hearing crackhead. So I replied in a loud, but as collected as I could be, "Los Angeles." She says, "That's a shame. That's a shame." Now I know she said what she said and I reply "What?" in total confusion. She keeps repeating her last words. The pedestrian man lights up so I walk away.

I finally reach Wal-Mart and to my joy, they have an ATM. Of course it charged me money to pull out the $5 I needed for the trolley but I don't care at this point. It's already 7:45.

8:25 is when I exhaustingly get to work. Easily, one of my craziest, if not the craziest, mornings ever.

Better than expected

I knew it was supposed to rain today but I didn't know that I was going to have get up at 6:30 in the morning to moderately hard poring rain. But that's how my day kicked off.

I took my car in this morning to get the check that I wanted on Saturday and the rain was not helping the situation since being without a car only means one thing--walking. Yes, I know busses exist but in Mission Valley, where the Chrysler dealership is, I don't know the bus routes go to and where the bus stops are. The bus stops I have seen don't even have any overheads for rainy situations so it would make more sense for me to walk to the trolley in the rain than to wait for a bus where I don't even know where it's going and don't know when it's coming.

Thankfully, they had a shuttle I could use to get to work--free. Their customer service was surprisingly good and although it wasn't the cheapest bill, I'm glad to get the kinks out of my car before something ridiculous happens to it.

On my way to work in the shuttle, I met a man who was a twenty-five year, now retired, library aid who has a family of Shelton's. The driver had a niece who got accepted to San Diego State, was number one in her class and also got accepted to Stanford. Both people were good guys and the small talk made my morning ride to work more enjoyable.

In other news, my awesome girlfriend finally finishes another quarter of school and hopefully I get to see her tonight even if it's just briefly. I'm really excited about it.