Cedar Point

   Hi all. So tomorrow, a bunch of friends/coworkers and I are going to spend the entire day at Cedar Point, so naturally, I won't be posting anything tomorrow, because I'll be too busy getting sunburned, looking at women in swimsuits (namely, my fiancee. But others too! lol), and riding lots and lots of rides... or mainly standing in line for lots and lots of rides.
     For those of you who have no idea what Cedar Point is, it is one of the largest amusement parks in the world. One of them, anyway.

Here's a view from across the lake:

And here's an aerial view:

Fun facts about Cedar Point:

1. Its in Sandusky, Ohio, and it's located on a peninsula jutting out into Lake Erie. 
2. At 75 rides, it's has more rides than any other amusement park. 
3. It's been voted best amusement park in the world for the past 13 yrs by Amusement Today. 
4. It has 17 roller coasters, more than any other park out there. 
5. Its most recent coaster, built in 2007, is called The Maverick. It's not the fastest, nor the tallest ride there, but it is arguably one of the best. The first drop is 95 degrees... for those of you who don't know, that's more than vertical, you actually dip in before coming vertical again. Preeetty intense.
6. This year, 2011, they unveiled their brand-new ride, Windseeker, which is like the chain swing ride, where you sit in a swing and it twirls you around gently, except its 301 FEET IN THE AIR. Aaand, it twirls you at about 30 mph. Pretty decent clip.

     So yeah. My buddy and I are heading out tonight to sleep at my parents' place, because we don't want to have to get up by 530 in get there when it opens. They only live about 30 min away. Much better.  So that's why I'm typin this earlier in the day than usual. Maybe I'll put up a pic of our trip. If I feel like it.

Umm, in other news, for those of you who might actually pay attention to some of this, since my 360 is going in for repairs, I'm forced to find other game outlets, and so far, its been Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D. I gotta say, I was very skeptical of the 3DS when it first debuted, but as my DSLite had just broken, I figured, the worst that would happen is I would leave the 3D feature off. But I'll admit, I was genuinely shocked when I put in OoT3D. Very nicely remastered. Everything the way I remembered it, and more. And the 3D is very nice. The only downside, is that you have to have the 3DS situated at a certain distance from you, or you'll be seeing double. And you have to look directly at it, or you'll see double. Because the way the 3D system works, is instead of overlapping the same image and having you wear glasses to combine the image to give a 3D effect, the screen sends light to each eye individually, so that when your eyes perceive it, your brain interprets it as 3D. But, when only one eye is getting the light properly, it messes up the effect.


Tl;dr - 3DS is nice, just make sure you're using it properly.

Now for my only regular segment on this blog:

What I'm Listening to Right Now!!
     Today's is a great song: Voodoo by Godsmack off their self-titled album. Now, if you're more familiar with recent Godsmack, like their recent hit, Crying Like A Bitch or anything else off of their album, The Oracle, you'll likely not recognize this song as them. This is a much more... idk, mellow beat. Its a very vocal piece, and most of the instrumentals are dominated by the bass, and most of the drum beat is played on the toms. I instantly fell in love with this song the first time I heard it, and I still love listening to it, when I just wanna chill out and listen to some grooves. There's no real big guitar solo, or drum solo, or anything like that. Its kind of hard to describe the whole experience, so you should probably just listen to it... maybe this is a good time to start including the music video in my posts... Check it out. Enjoy.

What do you think? Like? No? Whatever. I do. So, I'll be taking the rest of the day off and tomorrow as well, so I'll be back Sunday, probably more sunburned and sore than ever before.

Jacqueline Carey Book Signing and Stuff.

     So today Jacqueline Carey was in Lansing doing a general Q&A and book signing. For those of you who don't know her, or are too lazy to Google her name, she is the author of a few different book series, more notably, 3 trilogies: Kushiel's Legacy: which actually includes two trilogies. The 3rd trilogy is set in the same universe, only about a century after the events of the first two trilogies and instead of the Kushiel's surname, they take on the Naamah's name.
      So anyway, the series takes place centuries before present day, in and around Europe, and follows the story of Phedre, who is to make a long story short, is/becomes the foremost courtesan in the realm. It's a sci-fi series with multiple deities (Kushiel is the god of punishment, and Naamah is the goddess of desire), and a very strong emphasis on sex, in all its forms.  I read them and thoroughly enjoyed them all. Its not for everyone, but I thought it was a good read.
  
So that was fun.

Other than that, today was unproductive. So let's move on to....

What's On My Media Player?!? (Does that title work better?)

Today, it's Prayer of the Refugee by Rise Against. This is one of the many bands I got turned onto by Guitar Hero. This song was on the bonus songlist from Guitar Hero 3, and a great song in my humble opinion. Actually, I really just like a lot of Rise Against. They're mostly loud and fast, and yet they have some good melodies, nice and meaningful lyrics. And F you ppl who have some problem with your emotions and don't like feeling the music you're listening to or thinking that heavier bands can't sing about love or some BS like that. I think a song with real heart in the lyrics and a rocking beat, nice sick riffs, and a good flow that really makes me feel the band's mood is a great song.

But I digress.

Anyway, Prayer of the Refugee. Starts out with a few simple guitar chords, starts to build, adding bass, drums, and soft lyrics, then really kicks it into gear, like many other Rise Against songs. And I think the lead singer said it well in their concert:

"This song goes out to anybody here who believes that maybe, just maybe, we were all born with a moral obligation to leave this world a better place, then the world that we found."

That speaks to me. Sooo, on that note. I'm signin off. Deuces!

RRoD

Sooo.... I like to hunt achievements. A game isn't completed to me until I have every last achievement. Maybe its a slight case of OCD, but there you have it. So I pop in Rock Band 2 this afternoon, with the one achievement left, and easy enough to obtain: Finish the Impossible Vocal Challenge. Fine. No biggie. Power button.

                                              *poke* 

                                     .....Red Ring of Death....

                                       NOOOOOOoooooooo

So, in very related news, I was productive for the first time in almost a month. Now before you get all judgemental about how messy my place must be, its really not. My fiancee is out of town for the summer, so I don't need to cook/provide for anyone but myself, so 90 perce--- aww who am I kidding? 99.5% of dinner goes on paper plates, and isn't cooked, but ordered. I mean, I cook 45+ hrs a week! Why would I want to come home and cook MORE if it's just me waitin for food???  So anyway, did some dishes, did some laundry, and started generally cleaning before I have to go to work.... and.... clean.... Awww crap!! Oh well, at least there's a noticeable difference in my kitchen and bedroom. 

Time for a segment I call:

What's Playing in the Background? (it's a work in progress...)

This is where I hit shuffle in my Media Player and share with you my sometimes pathetic taste in music, lol.

...Ooh! Today, its Money by Mindless Self Indulgence off the album, If. 

First off, I like this band. Some ppl may disagree, saying MSI is vulgar (which is true), or that you can't understand half of their lyrics (also true), etc. But that's what I like about them I think. They have an uncanny ability to make music about nearly any topic under the sun (listen to Two Hookers and an Eight Ball).  Secondly, I like this album. If is quite possibly my favorite album by MSI, and I like more than 75% of the songs on it. But I haven't listened to any of the albums after this one. This song may not have any meaning other than the fact that he thinks he's so money and he'll conform and play ball to make sure he gets what he wants. Other than that. Random at its best I think. Disagree? Let me know.

Well, I'm signin off for the time being. Work and whatnot. Lemme know how this all sits on your palette so far. 

First Post!!!

Well, hey. What's up? Here's me. I'm 24, I'm an aspiring chef, and love a lot of different things! It's gettin a little late right now, so this won't be very long, as I must be up for inventory tomorrow morning at 5 am! Yessss... So, this is a little taste of what will be coming: Music, Movies, Video Games, Random Pics/Vids from the internets, etc, etc, etc... Things I found funny on Stumbleupon, if I can't get a song out of my head at all the entire day, I'll write some lyrics here and discuss until its out of my head. If I think up of a wonderfully awesome new recipe, I'll put pics of the final product here, but I won't share ALL my secret recipes!! Mwahahaaa! A guy's gotta have his secret recipes, right? So I work at an undisclosed restaurant here in Lansing, MI. Yup, right smack dab in The Palm, pretty much. So, expect to hear from me, and click on some of those banners whenever they decide to show up! It helps me out, and lets me know you care! Allright, I'm signin off for now, expect more tomorrow between my shifts. Workin 6-9 a.m. and then 4-close. Maybe if I'm motivated enough, I'll make it a decent length. G'night!