We’ve Moved!

It’s official, we have our own website now!

Check us out right away at http://www.weaselreport.com !!

Thanks for sticking with us everyone!

Welcome to the next step!!

Life 2009

One thing I hate to do the most nowadays is to Blog about my life. I feel that my life and my writing are two separate entities. The biggest problem with that thought process is that when my life isn’t going quite the way that it should be, I tend to not have the drive to write as much. Writing is one of my favorite things to do, because it pushes me to do research on something I may not have much knowledge about, or has me talking about something that I DO know a lot about, and helps inform others. Sitting here unable to write a true entry, though, has me down. Let me explain, briefly.

I, as you know, enjoy video games a lot. But, I will admit right now, I haven’t played a video game since the start of 2009. Many of you may be thinking, “Hey, that’s great, you’re breaking the addiction!”. That’s exactly what I’m NOT thinking. Video games are my leisure fun activity. Everyone has them, that one is mine. To have not played any in a week is killer. Basically because it means I haven’t had much time to actually enjoy the last of my time off.

Then, yesterday, I woke up after a terrible, short night of sleep to find myself dizzy as all hell, and throwing up. So I was forced to call in sick to work. I slept 18 hours yesterday, and then woke up today ready to take on the world. I start up my truck, and find that there is a layer of ice thicker than anything I’ve ever had before on it, and my defroster isn’t working properly. Scraping it did no good whatsoever. So I, once again, had to call in to work. That’s two days in a row. If they don’t kill me the next time I work, it’ll be a miracle. Plus, I now have to bring my truck in to get it fixed, which, I will bet, will cost me a pretty penny.

There’s a saying: “People who are always upbeat have more friends. Be depressed, and you lose them all.” I heard it not more than a week ago, and I hated to hear it, because I seem to be more downbeat in my life than anything. I know that I’m paying for it, but, I see life differently than others. I see it for what it is, not what it should be. And I will always pay for that.

Give me a day or two. I have the next two days off from work, since I have school again (and I’m not sure if being off from work is exactly the best thing to happen right now). Just bear with me a little bit longer.

Community Activity: 20 Questions

Happy New Year everyone! Yes yes, I did already say that, but it really is 2009 now, so don’t forget to date everything with “09″ now instead, okay? Actually, I’m posting today to try something a little new, something to get the community more involved in the Blog process. While page views of Weasel’s Weblog aren’t terrible, comments and such are lacking a bit. I would love to see a bit more from the community with my Weblog here. I feel that it has so much potential, yet is just untapped still. And so, I present to you the first Community Activity: 20 Questions!

As you know, I like video games. A lot. So if you like video games as well, post anywhere from 1 to 10 questions in the comment you leave on this entry. Out of everyone’s questions, I’ll choose 10 to answer, and post them up here on Monday, January 5, 2009. If you want an idea of some questions that are, well, OKAY to use, check out my old entry, 10 Questions, 10 Opinions, 1 Blog.

Now there are still a lot of you out there who may read this who could care less about video games. In that case, post 1 to 10 questions about anything else, and I’ll pick 10 to answer on Monday as well! They can be anything from anime, movies, music, my opinion, etc. Just pick a handful of things that interest you that you’d like me to answer, and I’ll get right on that!

Again, the deadline for this is Sunday at Midnight, obviously, so that I have time to answer them. The response Blog will be up on Monday, January 5, 2009, so check back then! I really hope this works to get some of you more involved in my Blogging process. Also, I’ve added a new page where you can submit ideas for new entries in case you want to hear a review for a certain video game, know my opinion on something, or just want to hear about something that’s going on. Please don’t hesitate to contribute, it’s just on the Blog Ideas page! Hopefully I get a handful of you to participate a little more so that I can get this up by Monday! Thanks for reading!

Christmas Thoughts

With Christmas literally right around the corner, many people are getting pumped up for the onslaught of gifts that they’re about to receive from their friends and family. I, of course, am excited as well, although, I’m a little more excited that I get these days off from work. I’m not trying to be a Scrooge or anything, but to me, Christmas isn’t the same anymore. I don’t get as excited for it as I used to around this time of the year. Gifts and presents just don’t interest me like they used to. I still get into the spirit and everything though, I have Christmas music on right now, and we’ve got the tree lit.

Most of the reason that I think I’m not in to Christmas as much as I used to it the fact that Christmas has become so much of a retail holiday. Then again, which holiday isn’t these days, but that’s not my point. When asked what I wanted for Christmas this year by my parents, I literally told them “nothing”. While I enjoy giving gifts for the holiday, and have spent a small fortune on gifts for my family, I just can’t think of anything that I would want in return. I would rather that they save their money for something more important, something more that we, as a family, needs to live, instead of some “want” that I may have. This usually doesn’t end with a good response.

My USB-Powered Christmas Tree!

In my opinion, I just want a Christmas where I’m home with the family, spending time together, and then we have an excellent home cooked Christmas dinner. If that were all my holiday was, I’d be happier than a clam, or so the saying goes. Heck, to offset what they may have been thinking about getting me, I actually asked for clothes. Yes, you heard me right, I actually asked for my parents to get me clothes, both everyday and work clothes. I don’t expect that I’m going to get any of those homemade Christmas sweaters or anything, because my parents don’t do that, but I’m hoping and expecting more of my gifts to be that, if they listened to my request of course.

I love Christmas, I’m not going to say that I don’t. But, I just never get the excitement that I used to when I was younger over it now. To me, it’s just another holiday, where you’re expected to go out and spend your hard earned money on everyone that you know. While I am okay with that, getting something back for that isn’t something that I like seeing. I’d be more than happy seeing a smile on the person’s face, and hearing how happy they are to have gotten the gift, more than I would want something back from them which cost them who knows how much. I know, I’m an odd duck, you don’t have to tell me twice, but, that’s just the way that I am!

Happy Merry Chrismahanakwanzika!

Fifth of November

Remember, remember the Fifth of November,
The Gunpowder Treason and Plot,
I can think of no reason
Why the Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot.

Election Day 08

It’s a special day today, as most people should know, especially those who have a connection to the internet. While I am definately not one to preach anything that has to do with politics, nor do I enjoy the fact that there are billions and billions of ads that play on the television and radio daily, it’s still an important day. I’ll admit, there are hundreds of people today who are asking me if I voted, or reminding me to vote, or telling me who to vote for. I remind everyone just this once that if you’re old enough, don’t forget to vote, but also, don’t go around and ask every single person you know if they voted yet. There are some people that may be okay with telling you who they voted for, but out of respect, please don’t go around and ask people who they voted for. I, personally, won’t be telling anyone, because it’s none of their business.

But… in an exclusive to my Weblog, I will be showing you who I’m voting for:

Bigfoot Nessie 08 - Change You Can BELIEVE In!

I’ve gotten some GREAT comments for this shirt, and I’ve just been at school for the day for about an hour. Can’t wait to see if I can show this shirt off as much as possible at work. None the less, some comedy on a day where everyone in the country is so serious is a good thing, so please, don’t go wild over all of today’s hullabalu, just take it easy and enjoy a history making day for the U.S.

Happy Halloween

Oh yes yes, I know, it’s the day AFTER Halloween and I’m posting about it. I just wanted to say a few things though. I hope everyone had a fun and enjoyable Halloween evening last night. Hope you all didn’t get into too much trouble, didn’t eat too much candy, and didn’t party ’til you passed out. If you DID do any of those… how was it? I was at work all night, as I will be tonight, so my Halloween was pretty “eh”. But anyways. I wanted to share with you a few pictures actually. My pumpkins tend to try and be something fun and cool that I can relate to. Last year’s pumpkin was the following:

Wolf Guild Cape Emblem Design

But this year, I decided to stick with the same theme, in case you hadn’t noticed, which most of you won’t, is the CORPG by NCsoft, Guild Wars, and use my newest guild cape emblem. Both of these pumpkins are my guild cape emblems at the time. I think this year’s was a BIT more elaborate, but it turned out beautifully. Check it out:

Phoenix Guild Cape Emblem Design

Hope you all had a good one, and hope to hear from ya soon! I’ll just be in my little corner of the internet here, so keep watching for more soon. :)

Good Advice

Yesterday I had a nice, relaxing day off, and I enjoyed it. Got a few video games in here and there, began work on an old project made anew, and talked with some good friends of mine from the wide world of the internet. Overall, things went well. There are a few things, though, that I still need to work on, but after a conversation that I had today with one of those aforementioned friends, I’ve been given a new outlook on how I’m planning on working on my life from here on. First, allow me to quote my friend for a moment, because I believe his words are something that everyone should ponder when you aren’t feeling 100%.

Leo: some people need to be reminded that life is short, because they put off having fun.
Leo: some people need to be reminded that life is long, so they don’t try to pack it all in today.

Words of wisdom from my friend Leo, who I’ve come to know and trust over time. He reads my Blog on a regular basis, so he was made aware of my situation based off of my last entry, and came to talk to me earlier this evening about it. I appriciate his words greatly, as I am always looking for advice. He brings up excellent points though. I have a lot going on in my life, but I still can find time to have fun in between that. And reguarding my projects, my life won’t be over, or at least, one would hope not, in a few days, so I don’t have to try and do everything all at once. It’s all amazingly good things to think about.

A few weeks ago, I purchased myself a small calendar book, in order to help me organize my life a little better. Starting in November, I plan on using it more often to help keep myself in order. I think it’s a good start into making sure my life is on the right track, and that I’m getting the most out of my life. It’s not really to schedule my whole life, because that’s impossible even if I wanted to, which I don’t. Rather, I just want to make sure I know how much time I have to be able to do whatever whenever. I always seem to lose track of the time when I’m trying to accomplish something before I have to go to work, or whatever it may be, so I’m hoping this will help me out so that I’m not running around frantically because I’m almost late.

In reguards to my Blog here, I’m hoping to make this the center of my life, or something along those lines. I’m going to begin customizing this thing so that it houses as much information about my projects that I can. I have a lot of ideas, and really would love to share them, so I’m going to attempt to do that in the next few months. If you’re more interested in reading media reviews and such instead of my personal life, I’m hoping to add more of that back as soon as possible. Oh, and expect possibly more than one Blog a day. I’m always watching for things that interest me on the internet, so expect some opinions on stuff around the world.

By the way, I think I’ve finally gotten sick for the first time in a long time. Not terribly sick, just woke up with a stuffy nose and a sore throat. I’m gonna lie low until tomorrow, just to make sure that I can hopefully get better, since I work in the morning. I don’t like being sick, but then again, who does? So, without further ado, I will leave you. Oh, and if you read this, because I know more than a few do, please leave a comment here, just so I know who of you are who are reading these. Sometimes I wonder, and it’s just nice to know. Thanks everyone.

Chasing Dreams

I’m not one to usually enjoy Blogging about my life and such. Back in the day, at a website I used to use daily, I used to Blog about my life all the time, telling people all of the latest updates. I’ve realized though that personal Blogs tend to go more or less unnoticed to the general public. In fact, when it comes to the whole idea of this Blog that I’m writing in altogether, while I have some great media reviews and such, many of them have seemingly gone unnoticed to the best of my knowledge. None the less, I continue to update this page as if maybe one day some sort of miracle would happen, or something along those lines. Regarding this website and such, no such miracle has come about, and that doesn’t bother me, but at the same time, I feel the urge tonight to write down somewhere as evidence all of the things that are changing in my life. In a few weeks, my lifestyle altogether will be changing, and I wonder if it’ll be a good thing, or if it will provide another set of challenges that will tear me down like the current ones are. The more I sit here writing this, the more I begin to slump down in my chair and get a little more depressed, which I dislike being immensely. But as I sit here, listening to the song Mad World by Gary Jules on loop, with a massive headache, and thinking about my life, I find myself thinking how much is going on right now, and how much I can’t seem to deal with at the moment, or so it seems from a broad point of view.

Work seems to be the biggest change in my life. Well, for the most part at least. I’ve become so frustrated with the team that I work with in the Electronics department of the Target I am employed at, that I finally had to take my Store Team Lead aside and sit down with her to explain why I was so upset. While she, unlike the other Team Leads closer to me, tried to provide help and assistance to help remedy the problems, I fear that they just are too little, too late. What the department needs is order, and someone to keep them in line. And while I have complete faith in our current Team Lead, she just isn’t doing anything about it in a timely manner. I’ve been told before, of course, that any kind of changes take time, and I understand that, but with morale dropping heavily in the department, and the store, time is not of the essence. So, in lieu of everything going on, I have accepted a position as a member of the Flow team which I was offered recently. I worry greatly about this decision that I have made, but I hope this was a step in the right direction. The Flow team is basically the team that comes in at four AM to help get the store fully stocked for the day’s shopping ahead. Usually they leave by 12:30 PM, which gives a nice, open day ahead to actually live, unlike what I am given now. The downfalls are that I have to go to bed much much earlier than I am used to, and I have to be awake by 2:30 in the morning. A very interesting lifestyle change indeed, but I do get paid a dollar more an hour for this position, so I am hoping that it turns out to be the right decision.

Of course, this position still has to work around my schooling that I am still taking. In December, I am planning on graduating for my first time with an Associates Degree in Multimedia. This should hopefully be a stepping stone into what should be my first job in the field that I want to work in for the rest of my life. Still though, I will be returning to ITT Technical Institute for another two years or so so that I can graduate a second time, that time with my Bachelors of Science Degree in Digital Entertainment and Game Design. A mouthful to say, I know, but a BS is an amazing thing to have, no matter what it’s in. Sadly, this also has it’s many drawbacks. Firstly, I am becoming more wary every day that this is really what I want to do, or rather, really what I will be able to do. My self-confidence level is still dangerously low, and I fear that I am making a very risky decision in my life. The second issue with this all, and it is one that anyone going to a college faces, but especially me due to the specialized field I am going into, is the cost of this education. This is costing me more money that I could ever even imagine earning. And if I, say, don’t make it into this field successfully, I am going to have more debt than I can ever even imagine trying to pay back. It’s a subject that’s had me on edge for quite some time, but is really coming into the limelight more and more the closer I get to the end of this trail. Getting older, while giving one more freedoms, is giving me more problems as well.

But what about time to myself? What about my time where I get to sit back, relax, and enjoy the day? Maybe with the new position at work I’ll be able to do more of that, but I still waste away too much of my days doing too many things that I regret. Obviously, I love video games, and getting a chance to just sit back and play them makes me very happy. But lately, I’ve been getting less and less time to catch up on all of the new, fun games that have been coming out, and it’s been making me sad. I’m trying to take on too many things at once, and trying to get in enjoyment as well has just been killing me from the inside out. At the same time as trying to play these video games, including two MMOs, which is a dangerous thing to be attempting, especially for one with little extra time in his life, I’m trying to create some projects that I’ve been keeping on the back burner for much more time than I ever should have. I love Role Playing, RPing for those who didn’t get it, and I’ve made many Forums in the past for them. But I’ve come up with so many ideas, that I want to centralize them. Unfortunately, this requires a lot of time and patience to come up with so much stuff, and it’s time that I just don’t have, so I’ve kept it so far behind. There’s another web related project that I’ve been putting off as well, one in a much more grand scale that I really need to think about more, but with so little time, and so few people around me interested in helping me out on a dedicated basis, it’s becoming a very big challenge.

And to top all of this off, as you may have read in a previous entry… I met someone. While I admit, I’ve only hung out with her for one full day, we really clicked, and decided to see where it went together. Sadly, our schedules conflict heavily, so I haven’t seen, nor barely even heard from her in almost a week. Now, let me back up here for a second. This girl, I like her a lot. She’s just my type in so many ways, and we have so many similar interests, that it’s great. I’ve noticed, though, that in the past week, I’ve come off as somewhat desperate, or at least that’s how I’ve viewed my actions. Honestly, when it comes to relationships, I feel that if I’m not giving it everything that I’ve got, then there’s just no point at all in being in a relationship. But I have fears that I’ve been giving off too much, and I just am scared to death that I’m going to chase her away from me. I have a terrible self-esteem, and I fear that it rubs off in such a bad way, that it’s causing people around me to turn away and abandon me. I feel, now that I’m reading back, I’m getting a bit off topic. There’s so much I want to say about this girl, but that I just can’t. I like her, a lot, and I really hope that I get to see her again soon. Right now, the thoughts of just seeing her again is what is keeping me from breaking down into a mess right now.

Honestly, I can’t even begin to tell you when the last time I’ve written this much is. Hell, who would have ever even believed that I could write this much just about my silly life. It’s a roller coaster, it really is. Having this past weekend off really opened my eyes that I need to organize my life so much more than I am right now, and get myself on track so that I don’t lose myself in everything that’s going on. It’s just a huge problem with me being a hopeless romantic, because my thoughts, hopes and dreams always keep falling on one thing, and we all know what happens when I get my hopes up. It’s troubling when you’re mind is this enigma that you’re reading right now. I’ve truly begun to lose my train of thought. I am very tired, as my schedule lately has been that of insanity, and as it is, I should be asleep instead of writing this right now. Due to my schedule of school and work, I have to be awake in a mear five hours so that I can, once again, go back to work, of which I just got off from about an hour ago. Right now, the only thing that I am looking forward to is hearing a special someones voice again, hopefully telling me a time sometime soon where I just can sit with her and forget the world. I just want to forget the world. It’s a very, very… mad world.

Still Alive… Redux

Well, hmmm.

So, speaking of work, I’m unable to go to it today due to the fact that my truck is in the shop, because it’s pretty much ripping up on the inside.

$750 worth of repairs to be exact. Yeah, it’s pretty rough in fact. So maybe I WON’T be updating as soon as I had originally hoped.

I have a lot of things that need to be done, and I don’t really have the time to sit around and write at the moment. Sucks, but I really don’t have any choice, you know?

Guess I’ll be seeing you around a little later!