It's been a while since my last blog, so I've got quite a few things to talk about. This particular blog will not be so focused on me though, so hopefully it will be more enjoyable.

Update

I guess I should first start off with an update on how my "self-improvement" is going. You may remember (Who am I kidding? Nobody pays that much attention to my inane ramblings) that in my second-to-last blog, I set a list of goals for myself. It's been about a month since then, and here's my list of goals and my progress in each:

-Finish my schoolwork before a week from today, and after that, really concentrate on doing the extra that I need to do for school

Well, the second part of this goal cannot be fully completed until I start my cIasses this fall, so now I'll talk about the first part. I failed miserably on this one, but it's a work-in-progress and I am improving. I have still been finding it hard to concentrate on my online course (why I have not finished it yet), but as I said, I can feel myself already getting better in this respect. I just really need to learn to crack down on myself more to overcome this hurdle.

-Exercise at least every other day from now on

I started out failing this one too, but thanks to my newfound interest in parkour/free running (more on this later), I have been getting out and exercising every day! So as long as I keep up the exercising, this goal will remain complete.

-Get my priorities straight, meaning work first, play later

This one I'm still having trouble with. I still have the same procrastination habits where I will wake up and say, "I should go do some schoolwork, but I just want to get on GameSpot real quick..." Again, I need to crack down on myself harder.

-Put my all into school; I'm at a very deciding time in my life, so I need to concentrate on school for the sake of my future

I'm considering this one complete. I have been really focusing on doing my best on tests (so far I've been getting all 100's on my online course), and have actually been planning out my last years of high school. Proof of this is that I took the entrance test at my local community college and I did so well on the math section that it made me take the college math test too! When the lady at the desk printed out my results, she took a look and said, "Wow! Those are some nice scores!" So now this upcoming semester, I will be taking a chemistry cIass with a homeschool group, a college Intermediate Algebra/Algebra 2 math cIass and an Analytic and Argumentative Writing english cIass. The score that I got on the college math test was actually really close to letting me into the College Algebra cIass (the next cIass after Intermediate Algebra/Algebra 2), I was only like 5 points away from the required score.

-Try to get out a bit more since my friends are so used to me declining social invitations, they've stopped inviting me :X

I am going to go ahead and say that I've completed this one. While I still have a lot of friends that I haven't seen in a long time, I have been getting into contact with some of my friends a lot more than usual in the last couple of weeks.

-Take the initiative on seeking out the costs of driving school, insurance rates, etc.

This one is complete. I finally talked to my mom and we went to the MVD and got all the necessary info on learning to drive. Unfortunately I have to be 18 to learn from a parent though, so I will still have to check and see if paying for driving lessons are worth the insurance bonus and the ability to drive before turning 18.

-Clean my room!

Complete! My room is nice and tidy now. When my mom walked into my "new and improved" room for the first time, she said, "Wow now I can actually walk across your floor! Good job!" Mothers... haha.

So there you have it. While it is nowhere near a complete success, I think I'm definitely making some good progress and heading in the right direction.

New Avatar

In case you're wondering what exactly my new avatar is, it's the logo for my one of my favorite bands, Kataklysm.

The original picture was this:

And I tweaked it a bit in photoshop to make it look like this:

Music

I saw one of smokeydabear's blogs and how he had a "song of the week" thing going, and I thought that was pretty cool. While I do not intend to make a feature like that a regular thing in my blog (especially for fear of being accused of plagiarism), I figured that you guys may be curious as to what kind of music I listen to. In light of that thought, here is the song that has been floating around in my head the most lately:

Kataklysm - Caged In

*Note: The song, "Caged In" that I own is only 3:35, but the youtube video is 7:26. It is also labeled as, "Portraits of Anger" which would lead me to believe that somehow they melded the two songs together. In any case, the beginning at least is definitely, "Caged In," so go check it out*

To further satisfy your presumed curiosity, I'll list some of my favorite artists/bands:

Bring Me The Horizon

Bullet For My Valentine

Children Of Bodom --- My favorite band

ChthoniC

Daft Punk

Dethklok

Dimmu Borgir

Kalmah

Kataklysm

Lamb Of God

Megadeth

Metallica

Oingo Boingo

Slayer

Sublime

The Jimi Hendrix Experience

The Black Dahlia Murder

Parkour & Free Running

One of the main things that stopped me from being an avid athlete is that I do not really care for exercising by myself. It's just hard to look forward to it. I used to skateboard a LOT, and that was mainly by myself, but my friend also skated so I at least could look forward to skating with someone once in a while. Now he has pretty much quit and so I started looking for something else that's atheletic, yet fun and even perhaps social so that I can get some friends to do it too. I think I've found what I was looking for: Parkour/Free Running

Now most of you are probably thinking, "WTF is that?"

So I will give you the definition for each (since Parkour and Free Running are actually two different things), and a video showcasing them.

What is Parkour?

Parkour is the art of moving through your environment using only your body and the surroundings to propel yourself. It can include running, jumping, climbing, even crawling, if that is the most suitable movement for the situation. Parkour could be grasped by imagining a race through an obstacle course, the goal is to overcome obstacles quickly and efficiently, without using extraneous movement. Apply this line of thought to an urban environment, or even a run through the woods, and you're on the right path. Because individual movements could vary so greatly by the situation, it is better to consider Parkour as defined by the intention instead of the movements themselves. If the intention is to get somewhere using the most effective movements with the least loss of momentum, then it could probably be considered Parkour.

What is Free Running?

Free running was meant to start out an anglicized term for Parkour. It was first suggested to Sebastien Foucan during the filming of Jump London.Free Runninghas grown to be descriptive of a sort of "cousin" activity to Parkour - Free Runningis more expressive and creative in nature, with moves such as acrobatics, flips, and spinsadded for flair, creativity, or just because someone wants to. The main difference then between Parkour and Free Running is that Parkour is defined by purpose "get somewhere quickly and efficiently using the human body", and Free Running is defined by the activity or art of moving through your environment however you want, moving your way, following your own path.

Parkour & Free Running in action

Games

It's now time for the, "Rate My Purchases" game! These are the results of me browsing Amazon and my local Target:

Company of Heroes Gold Edition

Baldur's Gate 2: The Collection

Star Wars The Best Of PC

Finally, I'll wrap up this blog with a list of games that I am excited for and plan to buy when they come out later this year, and also a list of games that have not quite made it on that first list, but still have me interested enough to keep an eye on and maybe consider buying

Definite purchases:

Left 4 Dead

Far Cry 2

Spore

Mirror's Edge

Possible purchases:

Mercenaries 2

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky

Project Origin

Red Alert 3

Fallout 3

Going To National Chess Championship!

Oh I forgot! Tomorrow I leave with my dad to go to Dallas, Texas for a national chess tournament that I qualified for earlier this year! It's called the "Denker Tournament of State Champions." Basically, each state has a K-12 Chess Championship, and the winner of that is of course crowned the *insert state here* State K-12 Chess Champion. But they also are then qualified to go to the Denker national tournament. So I will be competing with approximately 49 other state champions from all across the country for some pretty big prizes, the biggest being a scholarship to University of Texas at Dallas (UTD)!

I will be back on Wednesday, so make sure you guys leave me plenty of comments to read when I get back! (I'm talking to you, my 2 or 3 blog-readers! )

That is all, keep it metal! /,,/

Well today I start my self-improvement that I talked about in my last blog. That means that I won't be gaming in the next week (or however long it takes me to get my schoolwork done), but I have decided that I'll use GameSpot as a reward of sorts where I can also test my willpower. For example, after making a certain amount of progress in school, I can get on GameSpot and post a bit or whatever, but limit myself to a certain amount of time.

Now some fun stuff before I go for a while! As I also stated in my previous blog, I've finished HL2 and MP2. Since then, I've also completed HL2:Ep1 and started on HL2:Ep2 (guess I won't get to see what happens there for about a week ). I've recently discovered that you can actually take in-game screenshots (yea I never really noticed the option in HL games before), so I've been going all out taking all kinds of weird screenies. I've posted below some of my favorites for your enjoyment! So... enjoy!

First some pics that I just found really pleasing to the eyes:

http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii109/Nomad-117/ep1_citadel_030009.jpg

http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii109/Nomad-117/ep1_citadel_030005.jpg

http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii109/Nomad-117/ep1_citadel_030003.jpg

http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii109/Nomad-117/ep1_citadel_030001.jpg

http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii109/Nomad-117/ep2_outland_040013.jpg

Now for the ones that I found cool/funny:

http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii109/Nomad-117/ep2_outland_060049.jpg

http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii109/Nomad-117/ep2_outland_060047.jpg

http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii109/Nomad-117/ep2_outland_050044.jpg

http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii109/Nomad-117/ep2_outland_050045.jpg

http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii109/Nomad-117/ep2_outland_040020.jpg

http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii109/Nomad-117/ep2_outland_040019.jpg

http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii109/Nomad-117/ep2_outland_020036.jpg

http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii109/Nomad-117/ep2_outland_020026.jpg

http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii109/Nomad-117/ep2_outland_020000.jpg

http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii109/Nomad-117/ep2_outland_030005.jpg

http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii109/Nomad-117/CharlieBrown.jpg

Heh, look who I found in the credits!

http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii109/Nomad-117/CheckOut.jpg

I swear the Vort is ogling Alyx!

And finally, a really random one from Max Payne 2

http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii109/Nomad-117/T-bag.jpg

Anyway, I've got to go start my self-improvement, so I'll see you guys later!

Well, I finally did it. Last night I finally finished the game that is widely considered the best PC game of all time: Half-Life 2

Boy was that one hell of a ride! Now I finally see what all the talk was about! I'm sure that by now most (if not all) of you have already played it, so I don't think an explanation is really necessary.

I also finished Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne about 2 days ago. I was a little lost at the beginning of the game seeing as how I never played a whole lot of the first Max Payne, but everything came together quite nicely in the end. It's a very dark game with lots of blood and violence and all that good stuff, but comic-relief is found throughout the game, and it just really makes you feel that much more immersed. The story is moved along nicely by some really great comic-$tyle art that is a refreshing change from the standard cut-scenes seen in most games. I'm still not really sure what to think of the very last line in the game though!

Now I have something to say that is not game-related. I'm always struggling to find the right words in times like this, so bear with me.

My lack of time-management and responsibility has really been my bane in the past, and just as I thought that I was overcoming it, it seems to have struck again. I'm behind in school (not grade-wise, I'm doing fine in that respect with all A's, but progress-wise I'm far, far behind) and in the last like month, have not done hardly anything to better my situation (read: haven't done any schoolwork). Now let me explain for a minute. I'm a sophomore (going to be a junior) in high school, and I go to a charter school that is computer-based, and self-paced. Now when I started at this school as a freshman, I thought both those aspects would be great for me, but unfortunately, it has turned out that both those aspects are just not for me at all. Having no set time to take tests, do lessons, etc. just really invites the procrastinator side of me to have throw a party so-to-speak, and it being computer-based is making it incredibly hard for me to try to retain important information and actually care about what I'm doing (no live teacher to answer your questions, lectures that are supposed to give you the information for a lesson that don't tell you jack ****, etc.), especially when Google and my notes are at my fingertips for all quizzes and tests.

Now let me just say that I am in no way blaming the school for my situation (although the staff there sucks ass, but that's a whole other story). I admit that it's completely my fault. But as I said, the shocking thing is that even though I am completely aware that it's my fault, and I realize that I seriously need to get my act together, I have done nothing to remedy the situation. In fact, my life has been somewhat of a downward spiral in the last year. I spend long hours on Gamespot and other video game sites during the day (I don't risk playing video games when my parents are home because of course I'm not supposed to be playing when I have so much schoolwork to do, so I get on video game sites/forums to pass the time because it's easier to minimize Mozilla than it is to alt-tab out of a game) and at night when my parents go to bed, then I deem it safe to break out the video games and game until late at night (sometimes early in the morning). That's not all though. I haven't exercised since God-knows-when (though I'm still thin because of genes I guess haha), and I haven't been studying/working on any chess in the last couple of months either, which is kind of a big deal because I won my state's K-12 championship earlier this year and thus will be my state's representative in the annual Denker national chess tournament where the representatives from all the states play for scholarships and the like.

Now right now (assuming you've read up everything up to this point), you're probably thinking, "Well Forerunner, thanks for *****ing about your life problems and inequities. What was the point?" Well my friends, as they say, "admitting that you have a problem is the first step in solving that problem," or something to that extent. Surprisingly, it has taken me this long to actually realize how much of a problem I have! I had a nice long discussion with fireandcloud about this very subject, and it was very refreshing to see that I was not the only one with a problem (no offense meant, fireandcloud). After a couple hours of talking, I think we both felt much better and more confident about doing something about our problems. Now I'm sure that if you're reading my blog post now, you have read his about his summer self-improvement plan. I haven't spoken with him yet on how that's going, but I'm assuming that it's going well. But back to me, so I can show just how bad my problem is. After this very helpful talk with fireandcloud, I was thinking, "Yeah alright I'm gonna do this! I'm gonna focus on school first and fun later, and exercise more etc. etc." Well here I am something like 2 months later, and I'm sitting at the bottom of my hole, no progress made.

As I said before, even though I realized that I had a problem, I just couldn't combat it! I let distractions such as video games and GameSpot get the best of me due to my extreme laziness and procrastination. You know how I said I spend hours on video game forums every day? Well that's mainly due to the fact that I just don't feel like working on my schoolwork! I mean, I've woken up in the morning thinking, "Yeah I'm going to get a lot accomplished today!... but first I'm just gonna get on GameSpot for like a couple of minutes you know, not too long." 5 hours later, and I'm still on the forums. I've gotten so bad in fact that I've been resorting to all kinds of things just to avoid doing schoolwork.

So I'm sick of it. I've finally had the last straw. I realized that not only do I need to do something about this situation, but deep down I also want to do something about it, but I just haven't had the willpower to make any progress. As I said though, I've had enough of it. I'm no longer thinking about taking action, I am taking action! I refuse to let procrastination control me, and I refuse to (as fireandcloud put it) be a lazy bastard!

So with that being said, I have decided that I should set some goals for myself, both short-term and somewhat long-term. My list is as follows:

-Finish my schoolwork before a week from today, and after that, really concentrate on doing the extra that I need to do for school

-Exercise at least every other day from now on

-Get my priorities straight, meaning work first, play later

-Put my all into school; I'm at a very deciding time in my life, so I need to concentrate on school for the sake of my future

-Try to get out a bit more since my friends are so used to me declining social invititations, they've stopped inviting me :X

-Take the initiative (since my parents haven't in this topic ) on seeking out the costs of driving school, insurance rates, etc.

-Clean my room!

So today I've been thinking about how I should start to pursue my goals that I've set for myself, and unfortunately, I have decided that right now I have two very big enemies to my reform: Video games and the internet

I have decided that I will ban myself (again! ) from video games until I finish my last school course (my first goal on the list). This will hopefully squelch those thoughts of, "Oh hey I should go exercise!... after I play some video games!"

Now we come to GameSpot and the internet in general. This has actually been the biggest deterrent to my productivity, and so has thus earned a harsher "punishment" than video games. In my frustration at my failings, and in disgust at what I've become, I was actually contemplating (and still am contemplating) account-suiciding my GameSpot account to completely eliminate any distractions from that source. I'm very hesistant to do so, because that would mean that even when I get my act together and solve my problems (see what I did there? ), my GameSpot account will be lost forever because of my decision. So as I said, I'm still contemplating this one. I know account-suicide probably seems extremely drastic to you guys, but I have a really weird psychological quirk that makes my mind think "it's either all or nothing!" in almost all aspects of life, so there's my explanation for that. (Speaking of self-improvement, I really ought to get these odd psychological quirks checked out, I think I have obsessive-compulsive disorder to be honest )

Well, there you have it! My life story! If you've made it this far, I salute you! I look forward to any scrutinizing comments that my 2 or 3 blog readers can give me!

By the way, mad props go to the first one to figure out what I'm referencing with the blog title, "Dark Energy"!