A Day In The Life Of A Peanut Butter Cup

Listen Up!
So let's get the bad stuff out of the way. I'm out of a job. I got layed off from Spencers thanks to downsizing and other random happenings. So I'm back on the hunt for a job. Right now I'm looking at my local Walgreens because one of my longtime friends works there, and I'm also looking at a newly opening Staples down Route 1. We'll see what happens, but for right now, all I can say is that I've put out applications, but haven't gotten anything back yet. :: So now that the bad news is out of the way, I had a great spring break playing Smash Brothers Brawl. That and going to a juggling convention from the 7th to the 9th that strangely has the same name as one of my blog sections. The main New York City juggling festival of awesome, was exactly that. What could be better? :: OH! I've just put up a new batch of photography to DeviantART. Check them out, it's pretty good. :: Besides that, nothing else has really happened at all. I redesigned and got a new supply of business cards, but that's about it.

And lastly, it's explanation time! I missed last weeks post for a bunch or reasons, so here's a short list:
1. I was at Juggle This all weekend and didn't get back until Monday.
2. I got Smash Brothers Brawl as soon as I got back from Juggle This.
3. It was spring break all week, and I was too busy doing stuff, and nothing.
4. I had a podcast episode to edit.
5. I had homework to be done.
6. I have a job to find.

-- Music Release --
The Verve vs Rob D - Bittersweet Death
This is an interesting track. To be honest, I really haven't done a single mashup in about 3 weeks, but I'd whipped up enough beforehand that I was able to keep posting old ones for a while. I think it was a good thing, because one thing I realized about generating content, is that if you force it, the quality goes down by leaps and bounds. So I took the past 2 weeks and didn't even think about opening virtual DJ. Then I came back and started thinking as to what I could do, and this popped into my head to do something with The Verve, and I got the idea to mix it with another pure instrumental track, and this mix just kinda happened by itself, I didn't really do that much to force it together or overdo it. Very simply just play the 2 tracks over each other and control the levels as they're playing. It worked better than I thought it would. The Verve vs Rob D - Bittersweet Death

R2150's Reviews for the Intelligent Human:Smash Brothers Brawl. Worth the wait, worth the hype, worth every two dollar bill you will ever encounter. This is the best game I've played since, well, since Super Smash Brothers Melee. The level to which you will be unlocking things in this game is about as close to endless as you want it to be. I've been playing it every spare minute I got over spring break and after six days, I'm only about 40% if that, to collecting everything in the game. That says a lot, because I usually, when I get a new game, take two days to play it constantly and 100% it, but I just can't do that in Brawl. You'll be playing it for at least a few weeks if you want to get EVERYTHING in the game. I gaurentee it, so already it's payed for itself in play time.

Another great thing about it is that you can play it using the Gamecube controller, so all us Nintendo-heads can jump straight in without needing to lose ANY of our skills and abilities fro Melee. Though, that doesn't take into account how rusty you are after not playing it for a while. It's taken me a few days to get back to what I was, and I'm still not as good as I was in Melee, but hey, I haven't played it for more than 2 rounds in over two years. That being said, it still feels like your old ugly girlfriend from early high school just came back home after a five year trip around the world, and she got a makeover and plastic surgery along the way, and is now the equivalent of Pamela Anderson and is more into you than ever.

Now, it's my rule in reviews to have to point out at least one negative thing about everything I like. So if I had to choose something to knock down it would be Nintendo's servers. Good God. After 6 days of trying continuously, I still can't even CONNECT to the Nintendo WFC to play online. Error code 61070 has become expected, and it translates to "Server problems on Nintendo's End". Literally, did they not realize how many people were expecting to pick up Brawl on day one and immediately jump online? I'm about ready to call and complain to Nintendo, which is something I have yet to do in my life is directly complain to a company about a product I've bought. Even the power cable for my Kodak Camera, which for some reason doesn't connect properly to my camera and causes my camera to turn off at random intervals while it's plugged in. I haven't complained about THAT, and I'm ready to complain to Nintendo about WFC. That's how frustrating it is to not be able to play against my friends online, or even get to the WFC menu screen and get my friend code so I could post it online.

So all things aside, the combat system is as awesome as ever, more characters than you can think of all at once, more stages by far than any other fighter you've seen, and more awesomeness than you can possibly handle. GO BUY THIS GAME WHILE YOU STILL CAN.

Juggle This:
Time for an HLGCB for Juggle This!
Highs:
Juggling with Emman, Mike Karas, Laura Ernst, Lindsay Spurka, and Paris.
Having the guy who's couch I was sleeping on call me "famous" when I first
showed up. (He's a JoJ fan)
Winning a game of combat.
Doing surprisingly well in 3 ball Sky Sez.
Finally learning some Devil Stick stuff, even if it's only basic patterns.

Low:
On the last day, as I was about to leave for home, I locked my keys inside
my truck, and had to wait for my parents to drive back home, grab the keys
(they were in NYC at the time), drive to Brooklyn, and then I followed
them back. It's about 45 minutes minimum per trip. o I was going to
leave at 5, I got home at 11:00.
Forgetting to bring my extra 1 gig SD card for an extra half hour of
footage space.
Sleeping space being 20 minutes away.

Goal:
None really, just make sure that I got in some passing and a few games of
combat - Achieved
Not spend too much money on new props I don't need - Accomplished

Crush:
Tough choice. I'd have to say, man. I really don't know this time
around. I really can't think of anyone.

Bane:
I slept on my left hand the wrong way on Saturday night, so I couldn't do
anything with it on Sunday. It still hurts.
Sandals. In hindsight, maybe not the best idea, though they did keep me
from overheating, but I got blisters. I'll find a solution eventually.



Well, Juggle This! was awesome. SO awesome in fact, that I had to do an episode of JoJ covering it. That was one of the big things that I planned to do while I was there, was simply to produce an episode of JoJ like I did for Cornell, only better. I did that, and it's simple on paper and I'm making it sound simple right now, but it was anything but. First thing to happen was that I completely forgot to bring with me my 1 gig memory card for my camera (that equals an extra half hour of footage space), and thinking that I HAD brought it and that I LOST it for the entire convention. SO I had only an hours worth of footage space, minus picture space, for the entire three days. That was fun on the last day squeezing and editing footage ON the camera to make room for more.

Besides that though, I had something so awesome happen I couldn't believe it until after I left. A guy, that I met randomly while I was working at Spencer's Gifts, who happened to be a juggler and above average devil sticker, who happened to actually CONTACT me from one of the business cards I gave him, came to the festival on day two and hung out all day, AND taught me to do devil sticks. I returned the favor by getting him hooked on some Cigar Boxes. But just that entire sequence of vents was so awesome I still have a hard time believing it happened. I've been wanting to learn Devil Sticks since before I learned Diabolo, then all of the sudden, at work one day, I happen across a good devil sticker. He then actually contacts me, which has never happened with ANY random juggler I've ever met in real life that I didn't already know. Then he suddenly decides to show up to a festival that I said I was attending on my blog. He recognizes me at the convention, and later on between the Public show and Renegade show, he teaches me to do Devil Sticks. It's perfect. I'll definitely be keeping in contact with him later.

So what else happened, OH! Something that I found really awesome was how Adam, the guy who was letting me sleep on his couch, when I first arrived, saw me walking up the driveway to his house, greeted me, then immediately afterward said "Wow, I can't believe I'm meeting someone famous." That blew my mind. I'm not famous (yet), and to have someone think so highly of me simply for doing a podcast, I find that awesome, and it's reason enough to keep doing something. OH! While we're on the subject of podcasting, day one of the convention, Laura Ernst shows up. YAY! Less than an hour after I say hi to her, she asks me if it's ok to make fun of me for the Renegade show. This peaks my interest, and I definitely want to hear what she's come up with. So I say "Of Course, I mean I ENDORSED a guy who made an entire podcast PARODYING the one I made." (Which is something I want everyone to know right now. I have NO SHAME. If you EVER want to parody me or make fun of me, be my guest, I got enough of it in high school that I've developed a sort of appreciation for a good insult.) So of course, I'm sitting there the ENTIRE Renegade show waiting for her to go up, and it was part of a skit of "what guy jugglers say to girl jugglers, and what they actually mean", and it stole the skit. It was awesome.

As for the last big story that happened, on the last day of the convention, I still hadn't realized that I didn't lose my 1 gig card, and remembered that everyone went to a Diner (including myself) on Friday, and that I may have left it there. I realized this IN the truck, AS I was about to start it up and leave. I had the brain wave, immediately forgot about the keys being in the ignition, jumped out, locked the door, went inside and asked for directions to the diner. I locked the only set of keys within an hours driving distance, inside the truck, at the last possible second before I was going to leave, over something that turned out to be completely wrong. I've never felt like such an idiot in my life. What made it worse was that my parents, the only people with a spare set of keys, were in NYC (so they were essentially right next door), without the keys. SO, I waited until the were finished there, they drove BACK to NJ, grabbed the keys, drove BACK to Brooklyn, and then we drove BACK to NJ AGAIN. It was a most interesting way to end a convention.

A Day In The Life Of A Peanut Butter Cup ~ Reeses2150