Eh about GaGa

(It’s been entirely too long I’ve talked about music, and perhaps even longer since I ranted about it, so…here we go…)

I read many gay related things, follow a bunch of blogs, etc., and over the past year or two I keep seeing mentions of some artist called ‘Lady GaGa’. I shrugged it off, figuring she must be the new Britney, therefore, she’s not worth the trouble of checking out. However as time has passed, I can’t get away from the references as apparently this person has hit superstar status so…

I took it upon myself to…look…and…I’ve reached what I feel is a pretty accurate conclusion…can you handle the truth?

At some point during the 80’s, Madonna and David Bowie had a love child which at some point stole Barbra Streisand’s nose and decided to rip off a Queen song and refer to herself as Lady GaGa. (The Queen song part is honestly true)

Seriously people, SHE is the current greatest in the music biz?? Really??

Okay, I will agree that she is better than Taylor Swift…and she can actually sing but…eh.

I don’t like her music, it’s a mash-up of pop and euro club music. She wants to revolutionize pop music, then WHY is she continuing the music trends from the 80’s, 90’s, and the 00’s? I’ve heard it before, I danced to it before, I don’t want more of the same. If she’s gonna reach back for inspiration, she needs to go FURTHER than 90’s music and stay the hell away from anything resembling club. I won’t lie, I do like some electronica and club but…it’s been done to death. Club music is the new disco, over the top, obnoxious, annoying, and needs to die.

She’s playing the bi card…and she might actually be bi, but…I must err on the side of caution and call shenanigans because it’s not the first time an artist has claimed they were bi, especially of late and a majority of them only did so for press purposes. Not that I am slamming bi people, far from it, but I don’t think she is because it always makes for good press. People’s careers can and have taken upturns by “revealing” that they’re bi as evidenced by entirely too many people having done so, only to turn around many years afterward and go “Oh yeaaaaaaah, the bi thing…um…I lied, sorry!!” As I’m prone to say, SS or it didn’t happen. (If I am wrong, believe me, I actually hope that I am wrong but my instinct can’t help but think she’s fake, then I have absolutely no qualms of apologizing…regarding her orientation, I’m never apologizing for disliking her.)

I don’t get her whole appeal, but then I remember that this current generation didn’t grow up with David Bowie and/or Madonna, hence why they’re flocking to her. Doesn’t hurt either that she sounds a bit like Christina Aquileria (although I swear she’s mixed to sound like Madonna on “Bad Romance”), and Christina seems to have faded into the background, so…I guess I can understand…to a degree, a rather small one I might add.

Seriously though, if you’re into that kind of music, fer the love of all that is good, go listen to David Bowie and don’t waste money or energy acquiring GaGa’s music.

I’m back with things on my brain

Due to technical difficulties (read below) I accidentally took a vacation from the blog without meaning to.

Around the 29th of last month, I had to reboot my computer due to an update. After the reboot, I tried to log in and it wouldn’t recognize my password, despite typing it correctly. I spent two hours experiencing pure unbridled rage, wanting to throw my new computer across the room. Luckily Aimee’s computer is next to mine and after a couple minutes of googling my problem…I discovered that Windows 7 has an interesting flaw that causes the above problem.

So…not seeing a solution I could actually execute without doing something extreme (all but two solutions I saw involved “logging into the computer and changing X”, the other one involved hacking and…I’m not that fluent in nerd and geek to do that), I went with the extreme option of doing a system restore…

Which of course meant I lost everything that I had on my computer to that date. I still haven’t gotten all of my bookmarks back, I guess this will teach me to save those…or not, but because of that, I lost the link to my own blog and kinda forgot to go hunting for it until recently. Also, I got sidetracked by playing Sims 3.

So what’s been going on since I took my accidental mini break?

1) Christmas was awesome. I had never spent Christmas with people outside of my own flesh and blood family before, and I have to say…I loved every minute of it. Aimee’s nieces and nephew got a Wii for Christmas and Aimee and I spent most of the morning helping them get accustomed to it. Aimee’s nephew Jude gave me a hug for teaching him how to pitch curveballs in Wii Sports. We got a ton of phat loot for Christmas, including some really nice stuff for when we get our future place together.

2) Part of that phat loot included a gift card to Best Buy which was used to purchase more phat loot. We bought Sims 3, a new gaming mouse for Aimee, Punch Out, and Super Mario Bros.. We’ve spent a LOT of time playing those games…which leads to…

3) Sims 3 is possibly one of the best games of the year for me. I have one or two nitpicks with it but on a whole, I love it more than Sims 2 and 1.

4) WoW. Aimee and I did the unthinkable. We transferred to a new server…which is an RP server. We also…went Horde…and…we’re both loving it. Yes I know that I said in the past that I couldn’t see myself playing Horde seriously and various other things to that effect but other than having some nitpicks about the way Tauren females look, I love it on my new server and so does Aimee. (A note to the Blizz graphics department: Many, MANY models in WoW need a revamp in a bad way…not counting tauren females. Please get on this STAT. Starting with tauren females. That is all!)

5) I got Photoshop again!!!! Also, I have a NEW FREAKIN’ WACOM TABLET. (ahem) I’ve been getting used to drawing on the computer again, and trying to find new things to do with it that I haven’t already done, learning all I can in the hopes of getting better.

So that’s most of what’s been going on. I will be better about updating this, as I have everything relatively back to “normal”.

I dun seen about ever’thin…but I never…

…seen someone take their whole DESKTOP system to a Panera Bread and proceeded to play WoW.

/boggle

Things too cool for school

Okay while looking for an image to go with my TMD post…I uncovered some really amazing things on the internet.

Are you ready for the awesome?

First, there’s this.

This wins hands down because legos will always be great and secondly, most importantly, this is actually something I could do myself.

Second, there’s this.

It wins for looking cool, and boggling my brain on how they managed to get all the system pieces inside that wooden box, plus THE BUTTONS!!! It has BUTTONS on the front that work!!

Third, there’s this.

I would so buy a Nii…especially if I could still play my Wii games on it.

Fourth, just…wow.

That’s alot of games. Is it sad that I recognize soooo many of the titles?

Fifth…

I remember seeing those!!! And remember my mom having to almost drag me away when she was ready to leave a store once.

Sixth

OMG…I wish I had that much patience and talent with paper folding.

And lastly…

Oh how I loved that controller so much. It was everything the NES one lacked and more comfortable on my hands. And someone else loved it so much they made a GIANT one!

Tuesday Maitenance Downtime

Since I haven’t done one recently, I’m gonna make up for it…

Time for a TMD post!

This Tuesday…it’s the Super Nintendo System, commonly and lovingly referred to as the SNES.

I remember when that system came out better than I remember any other system coming out…with the exception of the game cube and Wii (The cube I remember because of the big debate as to whether it, the PS2, and the xbox were the must have system at the time and the Wii because it’s recent and I had such a mixed response about it until I finally played it).

This was the system everyone talked about at school and everyone wanted one. Nobody I knew then cared a flying flip about Sega, it was all about the SNES, Super Mario World, etc.. I had pretty much come to the conclusion that me and my siblings were never going to own one, forever destined to be on the second rung of coolness with our NES, never knowing the sweet joy of awesome that the SNES would without a doubt be.

Then Christmas of 92 rolled around, and there’s a rather large box under the tree from my grandparents addressed to all three of us. We tore into the wrapping and stood on the spot stunned at what we had unveiled in our living room. A freakin’ SNES box.  I couldn’t believe it, we didn’t even ask for one that year because we thought we wouldn’t get one anyway…and yet, there it was.

A moment of silence was had, then the shrieking and glomping of grandparents took place. We immediately forgot about the rest of the presents under the tree and hauled our newly acquired hotness upstairs for it to be hooked up…only to be called back down our mother to finish opening presents. Which we did because 1) you did not argue with my mother when she made a summons and 2) to see if perhaps we might find some games for our new system under tree.

We found the latter to be true. We walked away from the tree that year with Super Mario World (which came with the system. Yoshi ftw!), Final Fantasy Mystic Quest (Yes…it sucked but this is what brought me into playing RPG games in the first place), Super Star Wars, and Super Mario Kart.

After present opening time was over, we immediately gathered up our respective loot, took it to our bedrooms and waited for our father to hook up the new system. Once it was hooked up, we did nothing that day except play on the SNES, relegating our once cherished NES to the far, dusty corner of the room. We had to be dragged away for Christmas dinner, and forced to go to bed that night, we were that enthralled with the SNES. Although, that didn’t stop my brother from getting up that night at 2am to sneak some play time.

We loved that system so much, we didn’t even look into information regarding the N64 when news of it coming out was making the rounds. We didn’t upgrade to the N64 until after our mom died, and while I liked Super Mario Kart 64 and Super Mario 64, it didn’t grab me like the SNES did. It wasn’t until the Gamecube and Wii came out until I found that matching  joy again.

The Beast…and other news.

First, I have the most amazing friends ever.

Second, I have a new computer.

Third, said computer is exceedingly awesome. I can actually play on Facebook faster (except when it’s being laggy) and walk around in Dalaran like it’s nothing. I can’t wait to try out drawing on it.

Fourth, I’m having my monthly bout of nostalgia and I’m fighting a losing battle of not giving into it and searching Facebook endlessly.

Fifth, did I say I have the most amazing friends ever already? I really do though.

Sixth, I have the hiccups…again.

…seriously, Blizz??

The core hound puppy pet became available this patch. The problem? It’s for authenticator users only, meaning people who have gone out and bought an account authenticator get this pet.

I don’t own an authenticator because 1) I’m really careful about how and where I browse the net and 2) I’ve never been paranoid about my account’s safety to buy one.

I kinda feel like I’m being manipulated into buying something I don’t “technically”  need, only because my hunter would look pretty freakin’ awesome with both the puppy and the Beast walking beside her.

/target Blizz

/shakes fist

/grrrrr

Diamonds are so cliché…

As I said in my previous post, I asked Aimee to marry me in my grandparents’ old dusty garage…here’s the story:

If you had asked either of us before the trip who was going to propose first, we both would have said Aimee would be the one. The ring you see in the pic was one I acquired before leaving Tulsa to be with Aimee, with the idea of giving it to her sometime in the future after she proposed to me. The only problem was, I wanted to bring it with me to Grand Rapids when I first left but the night I was to leave, I couldn’t find it. I searched the entire house for it and turned up nothing. I sighed heavily, told my brother if he somehow found it to let me know and hold onto it until I came back to get the rest of my things.

2 months pass, Aimee and I make the road trip…

We’re in the garage one night, sorting through boxes to figure out what exactly is mine and what’s my brother’s so I don’t wind up accidently taking back something that’s not mine when Aimee found an open box with a large pile of papers sitting right on top. She picked them up and started reading through them…they were printed out conversations we both had during the really, REALLY early years, poems she had written for me, emails from her just telling me she loved me, etc.

She couldn’t believe I had saved them. Admittedly, I was surprised to see them too, I had forgotten about the printed stuff I had saved. I’ve got a small box full of diskettes that have old conversations of ours in another box somewhere. Meanwhile, she’s reading old mushy stuff of ours while I poke through some more boxes and find a small Hot Topic gift bag at the bottom of one. Aimee walks over to show me a poem she wrote for me that she didn’t remember while I dump the bag’s contents out into my hand. I smile and read the poem, then turn back to see what I had just put into my hand as Aimee and I both get more emotional over things.

I notice that in the bag were the little WoW buttons I had bought awhile back for us, a hunter and paladin button, Alliance patches, and…the ring. I gasped quietly and showed Aimee (who didn’t know that the ring was intended for her). Aimee went “Oooooh, that’s a really pretty ring…” then turned back around to read through more things.

In a split second I processed and made a very important decision that I had already made a long time ago. This was it, she was the one. After all, where else was I going to find someone with the same tastes in things, the same sense of humor I had (True story: I once broke up with someone on the spot when they announced that they thought British comedy “sucked balls”), liked much of the same music I do, yet is completely different from me and complements me entirely too well. We’d been through so much the past seven, almost eight years…if we could survive all of that, we could survive anything…

I got down on one knee while Aimee had her back to me. She turned back around and saw me, with the ring extended towards her. Her eyes welled up, she gasped and asked me, “Are you being serious?” (We’ve both often jokingly asked the other to marry each other over the years)

I nodded and she chokingly said yes, slipping the ring onto her hand. I stood back up and held her in my arms and we both cried for a bit…

I’ve loved seeing the reaction of Aimee’s best friend and on Aimee’s facebook after she announced it there. It makes me happy to see so many people in support and happy for us, although I can’t help but feel in the back of mind a bit bitter about the whole thing, given that my own family would never accept what I’ve done and Aimee as a member. However, that’s fine by me…I’ve found something better.

Great Cross-Country Road Trip of ‘09

We left this week on Monday to get the last of my stuff still in Tulsa and for Aimee to meet my brother, the only non sucky member of my family. We’re now home, and I’ll be writing about what happened on the trip later…for now, here’s some highlights of what happened:

1. Missouri is a very smutty state, I lost count of how many adverts I saw for adult “bookstores and arcades” on 1-44. (Sorry to anyone who might live in Missouri)

2. Illinois is a very annoying state to drive through due to length. “Are we OUT of Illinois YET?” became a very repeated phrase.

3. Cleanest rest stop restroom award goes to Missouri (oh the irony)

4. Illinois had the worst rest stop restrooms.

5. I noticed people went from being nonchalant about Aimee and I being a couple to getting weird, confused and hostile looks from people the further south we went.

6. People in Oklahoma still can’t drive for beans.

7. We saw popos at the Best Buy in Tulsa, busting perps and shit.

8. We found Moose Drool and G’vine Gin at a gay owned liquor store in Tulsa, neither of which can be found in Grand Rapids. /cheer

9. Don’t. Ever. Eat. At. Jack in the Box. Jack in the Box wins the worst fast food place award on the trip back for serving icky tasting french fries and for not giving me the sammich I ordered. Also for having REALLY bad sliders.

10. We got a Wii for Christmas from my brother. /hugs

11. The bigger gas stations on I-44 sell every kind of redneck cliche ever conceived by mankind.

12. Freeway Cafe is still the best place for breakfast in the Tulsa area.

13. I proposed to The Girfriend while we were going through my stuff in my grandparents’ dusty old garage. (It was alot more romantic than it sounds)

14. While we had a lot of fun on our trip, we’re glad to be back home.

False alarm

After…I think a two month break, we’re back to playing WoW. Fallen Earth is nice, the newbie area is awesome but…it’s not gonna replace WoW for either of us. I left my old guild (not that they noticed *cough*), and I think I’m gonna stay away from raids for the time being. We’ll see, it’s hard to predict how things go in WoW. At any rate, if anyone knows of a decent guild with little to no a$$hats, lemme know.

*dusts off her lifebloom button*