Out and About

Happy Thursday!  What a cool week I've been having.  Cool as in, incredibly warm out.  The internet tells me I can look forward to this summery weather for at least a little while longer.  I can't imagine living in a place where I could count on summer weather all summer long.  That's a dream I will continue to chase.

Got another chunk of The Man's monies comin my way, so watch out baby, Imma buy me a tank 'o gas.  Bwahahaha.  Actually, I want to be more environmentally aware.  Any ideas?  I already recycle cardboard boxes and Dr Pepper cans.

All this week I seem to have been out having adventures.  Dawn to dusk out of the house, kinda different.  The other day me and Carolyn and Jacqi and Alex went hiking up at Arroyo Verde.  It could have been better planned, but impromptu things always come across that way.  But we got to the top of the hill and it was just so magical.  Like two hours before sunset, all this wavy golden grass and the shine of the sun just sitting a little farther up on the ridge, everyone in front and above me just mysterious silhouetted pathfinders. 

It was a very "why don't we do this every day??" moment.

We were going to go again but we didn't.  I need better shoes for it, anyway.  And some new pants, I broke a pair.  :/  Maybe gas can wait.

But me and Carolyn got started on our AX costumes, which are a secret.  I can tell you we're going from video games.  And it's going to be so so cute.  I have ALL NEXT WEEK OFF so probably try to get it done then, you know, before the day before comes and it's not done.  O-ho-ho what wacky dreams I have.

Yeah, so between school, Carolyn's house, Green Forest, Carolyn's house, Starbucks, and the park, and shopping for the AX I feel like I've hardly been home.  I just sleep here.  And play video games.  OH ACTUALLY.

All Sunday I watched this:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxIQiCAvnko&feature=plcp which is a Minecraft map designed to be played as a team deathmatch in the manner of the Hunger Games.  I mean, the video is of the Yogscast hosting said deathmatch on this map that somebody else made.  But the magical part is that each team has their own video of events (since everyone pretty much split up at the word Go in order to not be instantly slaughtered by a rival team) and you can watch them also on Youtube.  And each time through you learn something different about reality, but it's a totally organic, non-scripted adventure.  I'd recommend it just as a psychological experiment, really. 

(One of the underlying themes is that of paranoia.  Of course everyone knows this is a team deathmatch and that anybody you come across is likely to want to kill you.  So the perception is that everyone else, out of sight, is constantly and aggressively plotting your destruction.  Only the thing is, that's what every single player is perceiving, meaning that every single player is, in fact, not plotting anybody's destruction.  Rather, they are just running fearfully away from anybody else.)

The other great thing about is is the chat in Minecraft automatically logs such information as player name and manner of death, so if you're watching Simon and Lewis play first, at some point you see "hybridpanda45 hit the ground too hard."  And then when you finally get around to HybridPanda's video of the event, and he starts climbing up the side of the tallest building on the map....it almost feels like dramatic irony.  Totally fun.  Intense map, too, must have taken ages to design and construct.  Check out the video just for that, if you have to.

On the other end of the visual media spectrum (the humdrum side) we also saw Snow White and the Huntsman.  That's all.

-Steph