Understanding

I don't understand people. I've spent my entire life being different. I was never able to fit into the perfect little box where I supposedly belonged, not like my sister. People often picked on me, but I never understood why. Well, I knew why. Knowing is not the same as understanding. I know many things. I understand very few of them. For example, I know that people often say the opposite of what they mean. I know the applications of such a tactic. I've used it many times myself. I just don't understand why people, myself included do it.

I don't know what brought that on. It's just been bugging me. Heh. I know that I'm bothered. I don't understand why.

Do you know what the worst part about it is? Nobody seems to know why things happen either. Maybe no one else understands either? I wonder.

Interesting

Something Stormy said has been bothering me. That thing about Norse mythology she said. So, I went to a bookstore today. My original intent was to do further research on that Kuk thing Ava mentioned. I still haven't found anything too useful, but a nice girl at the store gave me a tip about the mythology changing along with the pharos. Looks like I'll have a lot more work cut out for me on that front.

Anyway, on a whim I picked up a book about Norse mythology, and opened it to the chapter about the runes. I've always loved Norse runes. Back when I went through my wiccan phase in high school I used to use them as a divination tool. Of course, that was a few years ago, I've forgotten most of their meanings and the like. I did bring them with me, figured they could prove useful. Anyway I noticed something. The rune Gar.

It might be just me, but it looks an awful lot like the operator symbol. It could be a coincidence. Gar has a few meanings. One of them is it being one of the symbols of Odin. I wonder if there's a connection. What do you guys think?

Also, didn't see our friends today. Somehow I find this more troubling than I did when they were around.

New York

Now that I've managed to wrestle Lord Lappington the Second away from Stormy, I get to post on my own blog. Yaaaaaay. This has got to be my favorite city ever in the history of ever. Stormy's nice. I'm glad I managed to get to her in time. To be honest, I'm not sure what we're supposed to do now. Can't stay in one place for too long, too dangerous.

Speaking of, I noticed two guys. Possible proxies. I noticed them on the train back in... I forget. A few cities back. I was super tired, and ended up making up the difference in caffeine. Fucking train-a-thons. Anyway, so I notice these guys, hanging back. I could feel them watching me, but I thought nothing of it. I figure

Caffeine induced paranoia(Normal paranoia + Running paranoia) != Hyper sensitivity

So, I ignored them. Met up with Stormy. Had a pretty epic caffeine crash. I saw them earlier today, when I went out to get some breakfast. Lord Grumbles demanded a muffin tribute. They're definitely following us. I wonder what we're going to do about that. Violence I would imagine. Whatever. We'll deal with that when the time comes.

To those it may concern

So, last night I got into contact with Stormy. Ended up making plans to turn around and head to New York. Left last night, spent all day on a train. It's not so bad, I slept most of the way. With any luck I'll make it in time to meet her. I won't tell ya'll where. Don't really have time to make this a long one. Just found a place to kill time until the next train comes. Maybe I should grab some food while I wait. Apparently you need to do that eating thing every day. Who knew?

Also, guess where I wasn't today! COMP. Best day ever.

Holy Smokes

I've been gone what? A few days? I missed so much. This Delta guy, Ava's mom being alive, Inky...

Anyway, as I said I headed out to Seattle. I'm in big trouble at home. After I left, my mom called me. She was super mad, and I couldn't really explain why I left. What was I going to say? "Don't worry. I'm running off to Seattle to see if I can help fight a horrible child-eating monster." Hah. She'd find that very funny. No. She wouldn't ever believe me. Ah well. Not important. She was pissed, but it's better than her becoming like us.

Note, I can say us now. For better or worse. I saw Him. Yesterday. I was wandering around, trying to find a place with food and wifi, when I came across a playground. I love playgrounds. There were kids runnin' around, playin' and stuff. I guess they were all enjoying the first nice day in a while. I miss being that age sometimes. Playgrounds are the best. That and tag. Do you all remember tag? We should get together and play sometime. Tag is awesome. I digress. Well, one of them broke away from the others. This little boy, couldn't have been more than four. Reminded me of my baby cousin. Cute kid. Well, he wandered off, looked odd. Like he was in a daze. I was understandably puzzled. I mean, it had swings. I love swings. Sorry.

Right well, I couldn't figure out why until I saw Him. Standin' there, arms wide open like he was gonna give the kid a hug. Well, I ran over and grabbed the kid. Once I stopped him he seemed to come to his senses. Took one look at Slenderp and started sobbing. He ran back to his mother, she gave me this stink eye. Like I had done something wrong. That bitch. Anywho, He was not happy with me. Gave me a nice black eye, and I'm pretty sure I've got some sort of fracture in my skull. Definitely concussed. Luckily, he wandered off before he did too much damage. I wonder why. Maybe something distracted Him?

Well, if so. Thanks for the distraction, whoever needs to be thanked. I owe you a nice dinner. I've been doing my best to follow the rules. Stayin' up high. Keepin' on the move. All that jazz. Oh man. I'm so... hyper? Afraid? Hungry. Little hungry I suppose. Yeah. I could do with some food. I'll do that after I post this. And I'm rambling aren't I? I've spent about an hour trying to organize this post. Keep having to backspace and revise. I'm still shaking. I'm sure it'll pass. Timezone difference is strange. Like two hours earlier than my body thinks it is. Oh well. Whatever. Guess I'll keep ya'll posted. Hope I can keep ya'll posted.

Fuck all of this.

I'm in a foul mood.

Anyone who's reading this probably already knows about Sammie.

Shitshitshitshitshit. Not Sammie. I've had enough of all of this. Sitting by and watching. I joined this fight to fight, and thus far I've done nothing. (I say joined this fight, but all I've been is a cheerleader pretending I'm playing the game.) I don't know what I can do, but I can't idle my time away any longer. I've had a bag packed since I started this blog. Don't know where I'm going, but I'm leaving tonight. Seattle seems as good a destination as any. Maybe I'll be able to finally do some good.

Don't know how often I'll be able to post from here on out. Wish me luck guys.

V-Day

How's everyone's Single's Inadequacy Day going? I know Ava has her date with Redlight today. But what about the rest of you?

I myself am going to hang out with the rest of my pathetic single friends, because girls are stupid. Who needs them? Maybe I'll play some videogames, or even (Shock and awe!) do homework! I dunno. I ended up skipping my Composition for Functional Retards class today, because I didn't feel like being talked down to on top of Hallmark reminding me how sad my life is without a significant other to complete me.  Don't mind me. I'm just a bit bitter about this whole thing.

Have a fun and stay safe guys.

That reminds me.

Remember the nice guy? Well, since he's the nicest guy ever here's a link to his photo gallery. Be sure to give him lots of hits for me! Because he's super nice, unlike that stupid guy who called me boring.

Ou est l'autre pour cent?

Ou L'est Blogspot? OU L'EST?

In other news, I'm sore and tired. The nice man from yesterday gave me a cd of pictures he took. He is such a nice man. There's actually a pretty nice shot of me with a Dunkin Donuts cup on my head. Heh. Ah well, I'll probably finish looking at the pictures tonight. Maybe sometime tomorrow. Except I'm going out tomorrow. what's with all of this "having a life" nonsense? I'm sore and tired from carrying shit through the snow all day. Oh well. [/whine]

In other other news, new follower? Wow, ya'll are just comin out of the woodwork ain't ya?

Ah man.

I know, what with all the excitement and all my fairly mundane day isn't all that noteworthy, but I had the best and coldest day of my life!

So, my friend calls me up the other day and says, "Shit! Echo, we're down a cameraman! You took a film class, can you fill in?" so I says, "Hell yeah! When and where?" And so he gave me an address. What I didn't realize at the time was, we were not shooting inside the house. We were shooting in the woods behind the house. In the freezing cold. For eight hours. I did not dress warmly.

But, it was all good. A nice man gave me an extra shirt to wear, and his card. He says he'll pay me for lessons in Final Cut. Sigh. I don't know how much money it would take for me to willfully use that program again, but he was a nice old man and he did give me a new shirt. Seriously, he told me it's mine forever. How awesome is that? He also gave me his card, if I do well tomorrow and do a good job with the Final Cut thing I may even be able to make a steady job out of this. Wouldn't that be awesome?

Bad side is, I think I failed a spot check and got the boom in a shot. And by think, I mean know. I feel just awful about it too. The director is totally gonna be pissed tomorrow. Maybe I should call him and warn him. Might take a bit of the heat off.

Just did just that. He said he had another camera working a different angle and if worst came to worst he could just use that shot. Well, that's a load off my mind. And I remember that shot. We did it over like four times from eight different angles. If there was one shot I had to screw up on, I'm fairly glad it was that one. Also, he said he was impressed that I could remember that. How could I not, it was eating away at me.

All in all, a pretty good day. Tomorrow I'll be sure to bundle up, so I don't freeze to death out there. Heh.

I concede to the point.

Alright, so Robert managed to pull of his crazy scheme. I still maintain that it was rash and stupid and would have gotten both him and Reach killed if it weren't for his stupidly powerful dumb luck. However, that kind of luck seems to be kicking in just when we need it. Still, we can't count on it. Luck is fleeting and as likely as not to betray you when you need it most. Ah well, I did concede. I won't raise objections next time one of you slenderbloggers goes and does something stupid. There may be some gloating and I-told-you-so-ing however.

I know you don't read this, but way to go Robert.

Edit: Another follower? Yay. Hello there.

Oh my...

This whole Redlight business is getting out of hand. I wish there was something, anything I could do to help. I still think we should have been more prudent before voting like that. First rule of a hostage negotiation is to receive proof that the hostages are indeed alive and well. Oh well, no point in worrying about that. What's done is done.

I just hope he does let that woman go.

A Letter to my College

Dear College,

I am very glad that I can attend you. You of all people things should understand how important a college degree is to succeeding in the real world. I am very grateful for the opportunity to better myself through the acquisition of knowledge and the life skills that will allow me to survive in the real world.

However, I have noticed an alarming trend. Don't take this the wrong way; I'm totally grateful for the opportunities you've given me. It's just, do I really need to learn how to use the library again? I mean, I am a college student now. I can understand teaching us how to use the school's library in Comp 110. It's a first year course, and many of the students who take it are new to the school and system. One would think that by the time I've reached Creative Writing II, I would understand how the system works. I mean, the prerequisites for that class are a C or better in both Comp 110 and Creative Writing I.

As for Comp 111, my goodness. That class doesn't seem to take us seriously at all does it? This is the third hour-and-a-half long class we've spent going over the syllabus. That's four and a half hours, wasted on a three page packet. Do you really think that we all made it through K-12, past your placement tests and through the various Comp classes before this one without learning how to read?

Do you really think I've gotten this far with only the vaguest of understandings of what a research paper is? This may come to a shock to you, but I've written research papers before. Longer papers than the "big final project" the professor has been yammering on about for the past three classes. Seriously, I've gotten more than enough practice writing research papers. I've even written some lit papers before, having had lit classes before this. I think I can handle your silly ten page paper.

You see, when I came to college, I expected to do college level work. Instead I've assigned work that is less difficult than the work I was doing in middle school. I've literally had eighth-grade classes harder than some of your courses. I understand that you're a community college, and that you have to pander to the lowest common denominator. However, if you can't take me and the work you're assigning me seriously I'll just have to go find another college that can.


-Echo

Bleh

You've met with a terrible fate haven't you?

Yes, yes I have. Another cold. Dammit. All winter I've been shambling from one cold to the next. And once the spring comes I get to look forward to allergies. [/whine]

In other news, there isn't really any other news. Oh! I'm making myself a pair of thigh-high socks, and that's about it. Maybe I'll post a picture when I'm all done.

Ben Drowned

Have you guys read that? The short of it is guy buys haunted Majora's Mask cartridge. Ghost fucks with him a bit, and then takes over the internet. Or something. It's better than it sounds.

Anyway, there's this one bit where he talks to BEN on Cleverbot. So, I of course went to play with Cleverbot myself. We exchanged catchphrases from the series until I ran out, and got bored. I exited out of the tab and went to do other things for a few hours. Also, just so you all know my beloved Legend of Legaia disk appears to be damaged. Saddest day ever. :'(

Anywho, I got bored with trying to force my LoL disk to let me play the stupid game and figured I should have a regular conversation with Cleverbot. It might be fun, I guess.

Well, apparently exiting the tab isn't enough to clear the chat history. I said, "Hello" and it replied with, "The counter resets.". I clicked out of the tab before remembering to take a screen shot, which is a shame. Photographic evidence could have made it funnier. Anyway, I had a mini-heart attack before realizing what had happened.

Heh. Anything like that happen to you guys?

Addiction

Hello.

My name is Echo, and I'm a video gameaholic.

I first realized I had a problem this morning, while playing an old game of mine. Legends of Legaia. Despite owning this game since 2003, I have yet to beat it. Part of it is, the game is fucking hard. The other part is that every time I get close something tragic happens to my memory card. To be fair, something tragic always seems to happen to my memory card. I just have really bad luck with those.

I digress. The incident that caused this epiphany was simple. I was level grinding, as one is wont to do if they anticipate ever beating the game. However, grinding gets rather dull after a while, so while controlling the game with one hand, I found interesting things to read on my computer, using sound to navigate the game. I realized that I was beginning to guess the attacks my characters were using, solely from the sounds the hits were making.

Now, in order to understand the full impact of that statement, I'm going to have to bore you with some gameplay details. Legends of Legaia's greatest strength is it's unique battle system. It's a turn based battle system, like a lot of RPGs. At the start of each combat round you input commands for each character to carry out. Should you select attack you're given a choice between Auto which randomly selects the attacks your character will carry out and Command where you choose the combo your characters will use. Each character is given his or her own bar, the size of the bar decided by the speed of each character. Noa, who has the highest speed has the longest attack bar, while Gala has the shortest. If you choose Command you're given the option of how you want to fill up your character's bar, High, Low, Left and Right. Certain combinations will result in special attacks.

So, after several hours of having my party run around in little circles, and holding down the X button whenever they found themselves in a battle I can now, with an alarmingly high degree of accuracy determine which special attack, if any, each character is using. By the sounds that they make. Not just the special attacks either. I can also tell the individual punches and kicks from each other.

I'm both proud and ashamed to admit that this is not the first time I've learned to play a video game using sound alone. That dubious honor goes to Pokémon Gold. Back in my childhood, when the backlit screens of the Gameboy SP were nothing more than a madman's dream my parents would often take me for long car rides. Many of them were at night. Of course, I was a nine year old, who could not spend copious amounts of time locked in a car without something to amuse myself. I was also a nine year old, in the midst of the Pokémon craze. I was determined to raise my pokémon, and was not about to let a little thing like not being able to see stop me. So, I did what any bizarrely determined nine year old would do. I learned to play without.

I do not know if I still have this wonderful and terrible ability. My Gameboy Color is lost somewhere, having been passed down to my youngest sister when I finally caved in and bought an SP. However, it seems to have transferred itself to Legends of Legaia for now.

Sadly, Gold was not the first game I had memorized. Just the first game I had confirmation I could play blind. No, that title goes to Ocarina of Time. I loved that game; to be honest that love bordered on obsession. I played through that game, more times than I care to know as a child. It got to the point where I simply could not play it anymore. The dialogue had been burned into my brain. Each temple and sidequest was so ingrained into my muscle memory I no longer had to pay attention while playing it. I could just auto-pilot my way through the game. It stopped being fun.

I was still young, and had yet to consider playing the game in any way other than the way it was intended. I didn't think to try and see how many ways I could exploit glitches, and speed runs were a foreign concept to me. I was unable to play that game for several years, before nostalgia took over and I was able to play through again.

And before that it was the original Mario Kart.

And before that it was Super Mario Bros and Duck Hunt.

And before that it was the Power Rangers game.

Hell, when I was still in diapers I was watching my parents play video games. Watching them play Super Mario Bros 3 gave me an irrational fear of fish. To be fair, at three years old children have trouble distinguishing reality from television. So, from my terrified three year old perspective, the little man was just running along minding his own business, when GIANT FUCKING FISH appeared out of nowhere and murdered him.

So, as you can see I've had this addiction my entire life.

Now, if you'll excuse me I have to get my party up to level thirty before I take on the next dungeon.

And I'm feeling better again.

Finished panicking. I even got some sleep last night. Still have to do my creative writing work. Heh.

Guess I should get workin on that then. Most annoying bit is I have to work in notepad, because I don't have word on my laptop. Or maybe I could go find someone to mooch a computer with word off of for a few hours. Meh.

Ok. Ok. Ok. Ok. Ok.

Alright, so I'm really fucking freaked out right now. Remember how I said I would be making that doctor's appointment? Well, it hasn't come yet, and I'm beginning to wonder if I can distinguish between the noises my mind is unable to immediately identify and the ones it just pulls out of thin air.

I'm seeing things now. Not with my eyes, but with my mind. Does that make any sense? Like, I'm looking at the computer screen now, but in my mind's eye I can see 

aterrifyingmonsterwithlargegnashingteethandshrivelledwrinkledskinthatwillneversitrightsilentlystalkingthesideofmybed  

waiting 

until the right time to strike. 

Or a horde of twisted masses of flesh that once resembled humans where my dirty laundry used to be. 

I know when I turn to look they won't be there. They aren't real you see, but I see them. I feel they're there, and maybe getting hopped up on caffeine to work on my creative writing project was an awful idea.

I want to go downstairs to smoke, it'll help me with my nerves. But I can't, every shadow movesdancesshifts, and I 

catch

the briefest of glances of what? 

Monsters? 

Regular human intruders?  

Ninjas? 

Him? 

All of the above? 

I don't know anymore. I'm not so sure I can trust myself. 

There's something waiting for me on the other side of my bedroom door. No there's not, but yes there is.

...

...

...

Am I going insane?

Sometimes I wonder about that child...

My eight year old sister likes to draw monsters. Most of the time, they're really adorable. In that ugly cute sort of way. You know, very much like a pug.

But sometimes I think she takes after me a bit too much. Her most recent drawing is of a girl who's missing an eye. I'm very curious as to why my eight year old sister has drawn somebody who's obviously had an extremely violent past. Maybe she really likes pirates? Or maybe she's been sneaking peaks at my very-much-not-for-an-eight-year-old collection of movies and tv shows.

If she starts adding "sees me" and operator symbols to her drawings, I will be very worried. Let's hope it doesn't come to that. I'm going to have to keep my eye on her.

It is a monumental day!

Stormy, Sammie I don't know if you two realize this, but it is Groundhog Day. An old Pennsylvanian tradition where a groundhog comes out of the ground. If it freaks out at the sight of it's own shadow, it is said that spring will come early this year.

He freaked out at his shadow!

The groundhog is almost never right, but as an icestorm took out my power (and thus my heat) this morning I'm just going to say this. Groundhog, if spring does not come early this year, next year you're going to be celebrating your holiday as my fucking hat. You got that?

Ah well. Stay safe you two.

Son of a bitch!

Boring? Boring!? How dare you call me boring Mr. I'll-call-you-on-Skype-with-no-warning-and-ramble-about-my-youtube-subscribers-pants. I was so not the boring one in that conversation. I was in the middle of important business when you randomly decided you wanted to talk to me and interrupt my movie and my pretending to be doing real things when I'm just making a hat so my ears don't freeze tomorrow.

You want boring? I will fucking show you boring!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IE3KdcTgrno

There! That's fucking boring, you boring piece of shit!

Stormy, Sammie ya'll can't click on that link because it'll get him views. And that is exactly what he wants! So don't do it. Because he's a meanie dummy face!

Dammit...

Man. This was a great way to start the week. I wasn't able to go to class because of this massive migraine I've got. Eyes, the light is your friend; it helps you do your damn job. Stop going all painy because you're just making my head and stomach angry. Ears, that goes double for you. And enough with the sound of blood rushing through you. That got old forever ago.

Worst part of all of this is the screaming is back. Everyone is asleep, I know it's all in my head. I'll have to set up a doctor's appointment to get myself checked out tomorrow. I'm not looking forward to this. Best case, it's nothing and is just stress as I thought. Worst case, I've got a lifetime of medicine, ostracism and hallucinations ahead of me. Pills. I fucking hate taking medicine. And I bet it's expensive too.

Ah well. No point in worrying about it until I'm sure what's going on.