Stars Into Darkness

Episode 26: Recent Tragedies
So I used to watch a lot of TV, and my mom being into those magazines like "Star" and "In Touch Weekly" (lol, Rag-Mags as she calls them) kept me up to date with what all the celebrities are up too. In the last few years however, I've almost watched no TV or Movies and don't read those trashy magazines. But there are a few celebrities I still like, and it's really upset me that all these actors and actresses deaths from shows I actually do watch have been happening this year. It has also shown me how diverse(and maybe weird XD) my TV/Movie watching habits are. I really like the picture post I had last week, so I'm going to give a little shout out to a few of the recent unfortunate deaths to the stars.


Bernie Mac: Died August 9th, 2008 at age 50


My Favorite: Oceans 11
Bernie Mac is hilarious! He was an actor in my favorite movie Oceans Eleven, as Frank. A really successful actor who even later got his own show, and was pretty much respected by all. R.I.P Bernie.

[During a con, pretending the Nevada Gaming Commission is racist]
"They might as well call it WhiteJack!"
~Bernie Mac, as Frank from Oceans 11

Isaac Hayes: Died August 10th, 2008 at age 65


My Favorite: South Park
An extremely talented soul singer. He also believed in Scientology. Took up a really unusual role and became South Park's "Chef." In SP, Hayes played as the kids elementary school chef. He was like the only "normal" citizen in the town and even busted out a few soul songs(about women usually). His song from an episode of SP "Chocolate Salty Balls" reached number 1 on the UK singles chart. A great and Singer/Actor, R.I.P. Isaac.

[Singing while trying to sell his Fudge and Chocolate Balls at a Sundance Festival at South Park]
"Say everybody, have you seen my balls? They're big and salty and brown."
~Isaac Hayes as South Park's Chef

Estelle Getty: Died July 22, 2008 at age 84


My Favorite: The Golden Girls
Somehow, someway, my mom got me into the Golden Girls. Estelle Getty played Sophia, the mother of Dorothy(Bea Arthur). She was so funny, always talking about her home town of Cicily or all the Havoc she caused while she was in her Nursing Home. She always had amazing delivery with her one liners. For this role, she was nominated for 7 Emmys(and won one) and 3 Golden Globes(she won one of those also). R.I.P Estelle!

"[Dorothy]: Hey ma. Where are you going?
[Sophia]: To the Boardwalk. I like to see the old guys rearrange themselves when they come out of the water."
~Estelle Getty as Sophia from the Golden Girls


LOL. She also won a Golden Raspberry award for "Worst Supporting Actress" in the 1992 comedy "Stop! Or my mom will shoot!" With another one of my heroes, Sylvester Stallone.
~Andy

Room Search

Episode 25: Finding the Past

So in my bit of boredom this morning waiting for a call to chill with people, I decided to take a look around my room. In the back left of my closet, I found a purple crate. Once I moved the various Teddy Bears and footballs and such, I found a Herndon High carrying bag.

Much to my surprise, I opened it, and there were a ton of different things inside. And the weird thing was, they were all interesting parts of my past at Herndon!

1. Well, maybe except for the coffee mug. For now, I'll just say that the mug represents HHS as a whole, and can be a good memory of the cool time I had there.

2. Ahh the dead flower. This is from prom 2006, where I went with my friend Maggie Osburn. I didn't know if she was going to get me a flower or not to pin on my suit, so I went ahead and got her one to give me. She ended up surprising me and getting one that better matched with her dress, so my mom said she was just going to keep this one. Now I know where! XD Sadly, our time was ruined because Maggie got food poisoning from the place we ate at!

3. The Box. Inside was a clock from prom 2007. I think it's ironic that was a clock; because my date was so boring I couldn't wait to get out of there. She was just talking to friends and ignoring me at after grad; so I hit up the Texas Hold Em' table for two hours and CRUSHED. Everyone.

That ended up being the highlight of prom!

4. This robotics button. I have no idea who made this button, or who gave it to me, but it was in the bag! But I feel like this represents my friends, as I had many who were in robotics. It also represents the running joke where I was "in robotics." I would show up and crash all the team parties, and well as other robotics events and even wear team apparel. I've had parents at the team party apologize for not recognizing me. :P

5. The paper plates! These represent so much to me. These were paper plates for chorus, but we also got them at the end of the drama musical(which I did Junior/Senior year). It became such a fad that one time, my drama friends and I just made them for each other. They we're funny. XD

I didn't have the lowest note of the guys nor was I even close to being the best sight singer, but it was cool to get these anyways.

6. My Pitch pipe! I was so glad I found this, I thought I had lost it! It represents the singing part of my time at HHS. I received it when I was elected as Vice President of the Madrigals my senior year. I must admit... I felt cool carrying it around and using it in my regular classes. XD

So I thought I'd just share this because I found it really interesting to find all of these things. Not only did I find them, but in one bag, and it carried things that expanded across my adventures at Herndon. I don't know why, but I am interested in the past. If you guys found any memorabilia about your/our past, that would be awesome. XD

~Andy

Test of Friendship

Episode 24: Better Left Unsaid(aka the beach trip from hell)
So this past week has really been quite a test of our friendship. But if you think about it, friendships are being tested all the time, we're no different then anyone else. I could list a number of examples, but this one for our beach trip is most fresh in my memory. One thing I've always wondered though, do friends benifit from talking behind each others back and/or keeping things that need to be said to themselves?

I think it would be interesting, after something happened with a group of friends, to find out what would change if they knew everything that happened and everything that was said. Although I'm far from not talking trash myself, I would still like to know. I would probably laugh off the insults and still be friends with everyone because it happens. I just think it would be interesting to hear what is said. It would be an interesting social experiment.

So, I'm going to show you guys how much of a mess this little 1.5day has caused us. It has stressed the hell out of me, that's for sure. I don't have any insults against myself if there have been any, because they would go behind my back of course xD I really enjoy analysing situations, and I'm hoping this will prove how ridiculous this has been. But yeah, it's on a person by person basis. Enjoy!

Key:
--: Minor Event
**: Major Event
?: Opinion/Trash Talking

Andrew/Parents:
--: Andrew likes Loris idea and takes control of the planning for the trip.
--: Andrews parents don't like the idea; Daniel gets mad he can't come. Andrew can still go.
**: Andrew books 2 rooms instead of one since Lori's mom is coming.
--: Andrew figures how much it is going to cost for everyone.
**: Andrew is upset that the "Cancel Reservation" deadline has passed; Loris mom left them with an extra room.
?: Andrew asks Andy if he thinks Lori has been Dan the appropriate space or not. Andrew says: "I think she's giving him too much space actually, we don't really see her anymore."
**: Andrew asks Andy to lie to his mom and say "Someone dropped out" so we can use the van.
**: Andrew doesn't want to ask him mom if he can drive people because "There's a 75% chance they would say I couldn't go on the trip."

Dan:
?: "I want Joe and I to ride in the Van because I really want him to meet those people." (This is around what he when he didn't want to be in the car with Lori's mom)
--: Dan and Lori talk, he apologizes, agrees to ride with Loris mom.
--: Dan tries to obtain one of his parents cars for the trip. He hopes it will be easier with his mom not being there. The party agrees to pay for Gas and even put a deposit on the car if necessary in order to get the car.

Lori/Parents:
--: Lori comes up with the idea of going to the beach.
**: Lori doesn't think she can come; Mom isn't down for an overnight trip.
--: Lori and Andy agree a day trip couldn't be done
**: Lori's mom is concerned I might be the only driver, so she decides to come with us.
**: Lori's mom is under the impression that the girls will be in there own room, so we have to buy another room.
?: Lori gets angry at Dan for ditching her on the ride down; because Dan doesn't want to ride with Loris mom.
**: Lori's mom cancels and isn't paying her share. It's too late to cancel the reservations, so she effectively doubled the cost of the trip for everyone. But Lori can still go.
**: Lori's mom canceling means Andy is the only one driving.


Andy/Parents:
--: Andy agrees with Lori that a daytrip isn't happening.
?: Andy is annoyed that Loris parents are putting a burden on the trip, considers going around the "it was her idea" problem and considers asking her to sit this one out.
--: Andy's mom doesn't really like the 8 people in one room idea, but still lets him go.
**: Andy finds a hotel that allows 18+ to book a room. (All the others are 21+)
?: Agrees with a few statements J9 and Sean have made about the trip and the people on it while shopping with them for a bathing suit.
?: Andrew asks Andy if he thinks Lori is giving Dan enough space or not. "I still don't think she's giving him enough. I don't think we've seen her enough lately, but she still ruins our evening plans sometimes." (Talks about examples where Dan has planned to chill with us and then ditches us to chill with her, and how he wishes Dan would say "I can't, I'm doing something with Lori" instead of ditching us.)
**: Andys mom says there's no way I can use the van unless we get another driver or have a seatbelt for everyone. (8 people, 7 seatbelts) So we have no car to get to the beach.
**: Andy refuses to lie to his mom about how many people he would be driving; is frustrated that everyone is putting pressure on him to drive 8 people(1 with no seatbelt) 3.5hrs to the beach, when no one else would be willing to do the same, let alone drive 4 people.

J9/Parents:
--: J9 gets put in charge of finding a hotel.
--: J9's parents wont let her use her car to take people to the beach.
?: "The only reason Dan is mad [that Lori's mom is coming] is because he can't bang her on the beach now.(jokingly)"
**: J9 attempts to ask her parents to drive her car again. "My parents wont let me take it now because there concerned I would get to tired so my driving wouldn't be as good. But it's the opposite, I get upbeat and awake when I drive; I hope we can convince them."


Sean G:
?: "Dan only used that Joe excuse because he can't grow a pair and ride with Lori's mom. We have the beach and the rest of the week to meet Joe."
?: "We should make Lori's mom pay her damn share. She has effectively doubled the cost of the trip for everyone."
?: "If we have to lose someone for the trip, it should be Lori or Kit."
?: Sean explodes on Andrew about how everyone would have to throw 50 bucks away on the hotel if the trip is canceled.

So that's all I could think of for now. It's shocking to see that people would even go as far as to almost suggest we kick someone out to go isn't it? I know this has been quite a week of hell, but we will make it through this, and we will go to the beach, and we will have fun; even though this has definitely become more trouble then it's worth. Sheesh I have been stressed this week. :P
~Andy

My Favorite Game Story...

Episode 23: E-102 Gamma
So I had to write this post eventually. E-102 Gamma is a robot from the game Sonic Adventure. Not only is he my favorite video game character of all time, but he also as an amazing story and has led me to the only time I have ever cried during a video game. Sonic Team has not had a really good Sonic game since this one and it's obvious why; they are not bringing E-102 back. This post is a tribute to the best video game character ever with a pictures, music, cutscenes, and a typed retelling of his story. R.I.P. E-102! :(

This is E-102. The music is this game is so good, and E-102 is no exception.

Here is his theme song.

The final battle against his Brother, E-101 Beta, also has an excellent Jazz style boss battle song.

(That I listen too on a regular basis! XD)

But here is his story.

His story starts out as being a robot working for Dr. Robotnik, which Robotnik created. E-102 is powered inside by a bird with an amulet containing some power of a Chaos Emerald. E-102 is put to the test by Eggman, having to fight his older brother, E-101 Beta.

Robotnik puts his money on E-102's brother Beta, the older more advanced robot, but gives E-102 a chance. He says whoever wins gets to serve him aboard his giant ship, the Egg Carrier. E-102 actually wins. His brother, E-101 Beta, wants to come along too, so instead of throwing him away, he agrees to use Beta for spare parts.....

E-102 then meets up with the other robots on Eggmans crew: E-103, E-104, and E-105. Eggman explains there mission: Obtain this special frog owned by Big the Cat, which has a chaos emerald inside.

*Watch It*

E-102 then steals the frog from Big. After that... a strange Aura surrounds him and he is teleported to the past. He can't figure out where he is and walks the shrine in front of him. There are a bunch of Chao(little guys you can take care of and grow in the game) singing. He meets Tikal, who tries to stop him from getting near the Chao. Once Tikal realizes he isn't going to hurt them, she explains that there Guardian, Chaos, is so nice and protects the Chao, but that her father wants to take there scared land(which explains why Chaos takes rampage over the world later). After that, he is teleported back. Confused, he just decides to go back to the Egg Carrier with the frog. All of the Robots are there, but they all got the wrong frog, except for Gamma. Gamma then has to watch as Robitnik calls his friends useless and teleports them all away. So he praises Gamma and gives him another mission. He's got a girl, Amy Rose, in a Jail cell. She has a bird, and he just has to take it from her. However, he goes into the wrong door.....

He walks in, and sees parts of his brother on the floor. He then looks up... and sees his brother being picked apart and rebuilt as something else.

"BETA?!" he exclaims. Terrified, he walks out.

*Watch It*

E-102 goes to get the bird from Amy... but she wont give it too him. She asks him why he wants it, but he doesn't even know. She asks him to help them instead. He is shaking, confused. He can't understand why she would want to keep the bird when it is of no use to her. The bird then flies out of Amy's hands right to E-102. He looks at it, and Amy says she feels sorry for E-102, then Robotnik didn't program E-102 with feelings. Confused but beginning to understand, he brakes starts to brake free of Eggmans programming, lets Amy go, and warns her to escape as soon as possible. Surprised, Amy tells him that he's not like the other Robots, is nice inside, and promises to be his friend. This is such a good scene.

*Watch It*

After Amy slips away, E-102 goes back to the main room of the ship. The Egg Carrier is losing altitude and Eggman tells E-102 to grab some upgraded parts for battle and meet him outside on the deck of the ship. Sonic is out there, and Robotnik commands E-102 to destroy Sonic. They fight, and getting ready to blow Sonic away, Amy stops him. She asks him to stop, and tells him how awful Eggman is and to join up with them. She tells him it's dangerous here and to escape. "Why do you help me?" He says confused. She reminded him that they are friends now. They parts ways to escape the ship. E-102 pictures Eggman, Beta, and his other E-Series friends. He realizes that Eggman is the Enemy, Beta, Amy, and the E-Series are his friends and deletes his master registry to start thinking on his own instead of for Eggman. He then decides that he must save E-103-105. But due to there programming, the only way he can save them from being Dr. Robotnik's slave is by destroying them.

*Watch It*

After "saving" E-103 and 104, he realizes 105 is probably aboard Eggmans rebuilt Egg Carrier. After saving him, he pictures his brother being destroyed from when he saw him in that room earlier, so E-102 thinks he's the only one left. All of a sudden though, he sees his brother fly over him, huge, and rebuilt. "Beta..." he says.

*Watch It*

He runs to his brother hoping to save him as well. But the brother, sadly, wants to destroy E-102 just as badly. He wants revenge for being destroyed and used as spare parts! They fight and E-102 defeats his brother. Upset, he goes to take a final look at his fallen brother, who gets up and blasts E-102 back before finally dying himself. The father bird (of the one Amy has) is release from Beta. E-102 was happy now though, putting his mission before his life and being successful. He is hurt so badly from his brothers final blast, and realizes he is going to die. He somehow gets a mysterious picture in his head of the family of birds together. After that final picture, he kneels down and dies, releasing the mother bird from himself so that the family can be together again.....

*Watch It!*

The End.

~Andy

Catch Phrase

Episode 21: My Sayings
Haha this is just gonna be a quick but hopefully informative and insightful post :P
But basically, I have a lot of little sayings, and I just wanted to write down and explain them so I can look at them years in the future. I know that you guys have them too, so comment and add them to the list, and then maybe I can append them to this post so we can remember all of our little sayings XD
~Andy

"LTD" - An Acronym I invented which stands for "learn to deal". This has spread a bit in the crew, and both Dan and I got our college friends saying it.

"Whhhaaaatttt!" - A kiddy whine version of the word "what". Used to describe displeasure in something that just happened, usually in a video game. Used a lot in college, and is starting to die out now.

"To Legit to Quit!" - Something I've been saying a lot, and have got a lot of people saying XD It's pretty self-explanatory, describes a noun. Ex) "That chick is to legit to quit!"; "Brawl is to legit to quit man." I also just discovered that it's also a song by MC Hammer. My mom said it one time before knowing I said it, and my boss also sang it when I said "that's legit" one time; unfortunately meaning I didn't invent it :P

"...is the best, DJ Khaled." - Something I've started using to describe a noun that is in merit of being "the best." Can also be used to describe a group of people or things. Ex) "Our crew is the best, DJ Khaled."

"Yeahhh, dude." - I have been using this so so much recently. It's kind of a bad habit. XD
Usually used when I am in agreement with what someone has said.

"That is out of control, dude!" - One I often use frequently. It all started when describing Snakes side smash while Kit(aka Chris) was playing as him. Also used with a word such as "move" or "game" with "is" occasionally being replaced with "was". Ex) "That move is out of control!" "That game was out of control dude."

Daydreaming

Episode 20: In Need of Some Credit
So I would have to say that on my top 10 list of things to do, thinking is one of them. I hate how daydreaming seems to be shunned all around, especially in the field of education. One time I was taking a test in English class to determine what kind of learner I am(haptic, auditory, visual, etc.). And how this one works is, it gives you a choice between 2 words and you have to choose one. Each word is worth a different point value, and then your total points would determine your learning style. I had one where the 2 words were "Daydreamer" and "Logical". Basically, I felt it was directly implying that daydreamers were illogical. Although there are some downsides to daydreaming, I still don't understand why it is so looked down upon, and why people can't look at the good in daydreaming.

In all honestly, daydreaming IS a false reality. You can think about whatever you please. Which is why it can be such a drug for some people. They daydream about all these good things, and they can't wait to get out of real life to go back. It's great though, I think. It gives you a good feeling and can improve your relationships in real life, especially if you already daydreamed ahead of time how you'd like things to be; or just make you a happier person in general. Some people see this as a negative though, which is understandable. Because there are some people who dream about wanting they cant have. I do this all the time. But unlike me, instead of being happy they can dream about it, they dread it.

Even though I love daydreaming, it has costed me A LOT of sleep, because my brains favorite time to daydream seems to be when I go to bed. Even so, it has been a huge help. There are 3 things that usually keep me up at night.

1. Drama- Yes of course. In 10th grade, I had a lot of drama and it caused some sleeping issues XD However, I'm really glad my brain decided to daydream instead. My mind loves going through every possible scenario, and if I know the people involved decently well, I can plan out the safest option for every situation I can think of. This has saved me a lot of trouble and stopped me from just trying guess what to do to resolve problems quickly.

2. Girls- Of course again! Whenever I had a crush on a girl or a date with one or anything like that, it usually keeps me up. You often end up thinking about the girl all the time, creating more false realities and wishing you were with them, etc.

3. Life Problems- This is the only bad one that keeps me up longer. Whenever I'm having a huge problem, personal or family, or if I just make a poor decision, I tend to dread on it for a long time. It's unnecessary because its in the past when I daydream about it, but I still think about it, and it just brings me way way down. I just like thinking so much, and if it's the only thing to daydream about, then it's gonna happen!

But anyways, I hope some more daydreamers out there read this and feel the same way as me. Your not illogical, your still a smart and competent human being. To bad the schools don't know how to teach haptic learners like us!
~Andy

Growing Up

Episode 19: Must be Hard to Do
I don't want to sound like a jerk here but I might. After returning from college I felt that I had matured a lot. And coming back to some immature people has been a really hard pill to swallow for me. It has really shown who my true friends are and who aren't; and it's really obvious who's immature and who's not. I really hope they can grow up soon. Anyways, I'm not saying I'm flawless or anything like that, but I am a really chill person and don't understand why people are acting so High School(or even Middle School)! If they are interested, here are some grievances I have, and I wouldn't mind if they gave me some in return.
~Andy

I've changed quite a bit from college, in fact all of us who went did, but not for the negative. I'm still the same Andy Hulme I always was. I'm tired of the immatures saying "They're so different now" for the worse.

I'm tired of people saying that we don't chill like we used to anymore and that things are different: Then when when we do chill, the immatures act distant and awkward and then continue to bitch about how it's our fault.

I'm tried of people bitching about my and others relationships when I don't care to say mean things about them and their relationships anymore(unless they ask for my opinion).

I'm tired of people consistently asking me for advice and then consistently ignoring it.

I'm tired of trying help friends who apparently don't want to be helped, so I'm not going to help those friends anymore.

I'm tired of people who get mad at me for doing something, yet the immatures ignore the fact that they've done it to me, or just done it in the past.

I'm tired of people who are immature and just can't LTD with ANYTHING, and instead just turn these things into a big deal to cause problems for everyone.

(lol, this is the responce I was preparing for J9 and Kt's little video talking smack about us (as well as some other friends I had grivences against) before I learned it was a joke. I found it and posted it XD)