Friday, October 28, 2011

Song of the Week #4 and Update

Queen - Somebody to Love
Great song. One of Freddie Mercury's best in my opinion and definately my favorite song by Queen. Check it out, you will not be disappointed.

Damn I would have loved to have seen them live. RIP Freddie.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRt2jX1kaYo

~~~~~ Announcements!!!!! ~~~~~

I've been slacking on the updates for this Blog :/ The past week has been super busy what with school, work, and DM stuff. And this weekend is going to be exaustive in that i'll be working everyday/running the copy shop I work at while the owners are out of town, helping host a halloween party Saturday, and studying for a calc exam Sunday and Monday thats on Tuesday all along with proofs homework due and a stat exam on thursday. If I'm not dead by the end of the week, I'll get back to regular updates then hopefully.

I'm going to try to record tonight/tomorrow a deck building tips video for DM and have that up on the Youtube tomorrow, barring nothing ridiculous happens, so stay on the look out for that. Other than that you guys can expect a guest upload from a good friend of mine on Wednesday and I'll hopefully be back to regular updates on the channell and here by Friday. Love you guys!!!

Friday, October 21, 2011

Song of the Week(s) 1 - 3

Well, I'm just gonna post all the Song of the Week's up here in post, there's only been 3 so far, but I can't see another way to do this (and I really don't feel like trying to find the way if there actually is a way). In the future, Song of the Week (SotW) will be updated every Friday. I also take suggestions for SotW's. So if there's a song you really like that means something to you, let me know and most likely I'll post it for the SotW.

Alrighty, here you go. Enjoy.

SotW 1: Owl City - On the Wing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbSvs8VZStE

SotW 2: John Mayer - Daughters

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmNbC89yhWY

SotW 3: Pokemon - Johto Journeys Theme (remix from 3rd movie)
I gotta say, of all the pokemon movies, at least the older ones (haven't seen anything past the latios/latias movie), this is the best theme to spawn out of them. Its a remixed version of the original which is also really good. I don't watch pokemon (the cartoon or the movies) anymore, but following it when i was younger was just too awesome, and pokemon will always hold a special place in my heart. And the music from what i've heard is all pure gold.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBhaVmwgA_4


In the future, i'll post why the song was chosen, but I'm to lazy to redo it for the first two... but expect descriptions for the rest moving forward.

Announcements!!!!

First of all, I have the Youtube channel updated with a few of the older Duel Master’s videos myself and a few friends took about a year or two ago. I’ll be updating pretty regularly from this point forward until I can get some actual duel videos with strategy videos, single card and deck discussions, as well as Question and Answer segments if you guys want to throw me some questions you have about DM, ideas for the channel, or life or whatever. I’m here for you all.
Second, I’m going to start posting the Song of the Weeks up here too if I can find a way to organize them and have it make sense here on the blog. I’m still learning how to manage this thing, so bear with me while I figure stuff out…
Finally, I’ll have an actual blog post written up tonight when I have a little more time to write, it’s gonna be about friends and family, so you guys can look forward to that J
I’ll be posting links for the Youtube channel in my profile description as well as posting video updates here on the main pages via updates with links. Here’s the link for the update I made earlier this week.
See ya later guys!
Carl

Friday, October 14, 2011

Duel Masters

If I could sum up my life from the summer of 2004 to December of 2006 in a few words, it would be Duel Masters. This doopy little card game helped me make some of the strongest friendships I have today and really helped me get to know myself as well as who I wanted to be thanks to all the bonds I forged. I had always been fond of card games since I was little and still am today, but there was something special about Duel Masters that just made it stand out from everything else. Maybe it’s because it was during a time in my life when I was truly growing up or maybe it was the short-livedness of the whole experience (looking back it never felt like it was only two and a half years). Regardless, I miss DM and the fun I had being a competitor in the vastness of it all. I’m thankful I still have the friends I had then who are still just as enthusiastic as I am about DM and still want to play whenever the chance presents itself. The game truly was magic and the people and bonds grown throughout the whole experience were even more so. Thanks to DM, I found a brother and second parents that I wouldn’t trade for anything in the world, and though the game has faded away and the community it once held has dispersed, the connections can still be felt and whenever one of us contacts another, you can feel the enthusiasm and magic return. It really was/is something special.
Some of you may be wondering “What is Duel Masters?” … Well let me try to explain.
Duel Masters is a trading card game (TCG) developed by Wizards of the Coast (The same guys who do Magic) and released in America in March of 2004. The game focuses on “mana” as a way to summon monsters and cast spells to break through the opponents shields in order to land a finishing blow to the opposing player him/herself to win. I’ll post some links below to help better explain the gameplay and some videos on the game actually being played by myself and friends too!! Anyways, the game quickly became popular, had its own cartoon, hosted regional qualifiers, and had two Continental Championships before heading south in the late fall of 2006. Some people credit DM’s fall to poor support by Wizards of the Coast in order to push Magic more, while some credit it to the cartoon being terrible and wacky (I liked it), as well as other various reasons. DM is still the largest and most popular game in Asia/Japan.
Here’s the old Youtube account that I posted a few videos on:
The Wiki Page (Learn Something!!):
The main Website (Surprised this still exists J). There’s a tutorial here as well…
And here’s my current Youtube account. There’s nothing for DM on here now, but there will be in the next month or so when my friends and I can get together and create some footage. Subscribe to this account and let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions. Or if you’re just interested in supporting or learning about Duel Masters!!
Thanks guys. See you next post!
~Carl

Friday, October 7, 2011

Blog Post 1: Love

Welcome to my blog. I'm just going to dive right into my first post here. Please leave a comment at the end to let me know what you think. This ones a little heavy and the rest that follow will hopefully be a little lighter. Please enjoy and I look forward to your comments.

I’m going to discuss love… the word "love" … or the meaning of it to me at least. What a fake way to capture attention or to make another person feel like you care. We use it so carelessly in our day to day lives for such a powerful word. I wouldn't have said this in the past though.
The word most people mean when they say "love" is "invested" ... instead of, "I love her/him" most people are saying, "I'm invested in her/him." Granted, I'm not saying love doesn't exist, but when you see a couple walking down the street holding hands and being all lovey dovey, the off chance that they'll be together for the rest of their lives is slim. Consider a married couple; think of all the people each of the two individuals dated and had "serious" relationships with before finding each other and settling down. But even marriage doesn't guarantee that the relationship will last. So I ask myself, "What the hell is the point?" and that’s that everyone wants that warmth, no matter who you are, whether you tell yourself you don’t need anyone and life’s whatever, we all want to feel "loved."

I invested, though I called it love at the time, so deep in a girl that I began to lose who I was and even drift away from my family and friends (Family and friends being another subject that will be talked about deeply in the near future). It’s a terrible road to go down though anyone currently walking it will say otherwise. The fact is that when you’re young and invested, you don’t want to lose that investment because it feels like a freedom in a sense that it’s a decision you’ve had a chance to make on your own and you don’t want to say that it was a bad one. I call it “terrible” and nothing else because the opposite (the good road) is one that you’ll ride when you truly find the person who feels the same way you do. Someone who can see through your b.s. and you can see through theirs into the person you and your significant other really are. It’s easy to flirt and date people to find the warmth that we all like to feel once and a while, but when you find the person that does more than provide warmth, that’s when you find love, or at least what I feel love should actually be.
Love is being comfortable, confident, secure, happy, excited, undoubting, emotionally stable, relatable, smart, acceptable, as well as a multitude of other feelings with another person. You have to know the person, inside and out. To be able to call them out when something is wrong and have the ability to explain the way you feel about yourself and her/him at any time, and to be able to sense when this person is feeling different, awkward, scared, or just out of the normal so to speak. These feelings must be mutual. Now I’m not saying that when you meet someone, if it’s meant to be all these things will just “be” for the two of you… no. These things happen gradually, love is something that is built, by two people who enjoy being with each other, and in time come to find that a life with one another is their future. For most these feeling develop faster compared to the other significant other, but in time, if it’s meant to be, both parties will feel this way for each other.
Dating, though I hate to call it this, really is practice. The more you date, the stronger you build yourself up emotionally. Most of the times when you begin to date you find yourself on different levels than the other person. This provides great learning experiences for the both of you. The person more stable and experienced has a lot to offer the person with less experience and can probably grow that person to their level, while the person with less experience has just as much to offer the person with more experience in the way that they can grow a certain patients in him/her. Dating can teach commitment and loyalty and the more one dates, the more one learns about how important these things are. If you are dating someone that you tell others you care about, but you still flirt around and see other men/women as opportunities, you are not ready for love. And that’s why I call dating, practice. The more you see the person you’re dating as the person you want to spend the rest of your life with over anyone else, the more ready you are for love, but be careful for this is how hearts get “broken.”
Love should not make you blind. If you are unaware or ignorant of warning signs and little red flags, you are not in love, you are either obsessed or blind, or both. Be smart in your relationships and learn to know your limits as well as your significant other’s limits as well. Don’t ever be afraid to say that you want to see her/him more or that you need space or want to take it a little slower. If your other really does care about you, they will understand. Regardless, people will get hurt when it comes to dating, and break-ups will occur. Now it’s up to you whether you make this into a good or bad thing. Never put the fault of a relationship not working on either party. Instead, learn from the experience. Breaking up hurts, even more so for the person who didn’t want to, but this is something that always potentially comes with every relationship. Breaking up can be a good thing believe it or not. You can take it with a grain of salt and walk away with all you’ve learned so you can be more prepared for your next relationship. It sounds cheesy, but never lose who you are and always be yourself. People gravitate towards people who are transparent. Faking and lying does nothing but hurt you and cause skeletons to build up behind you. But to stay on topic, don’t change who you are because of a previous relationship. Stay true to yourself and others and you will find your special someone.
~Carl