[PP] I'M ALIVE!!!

It's my baby!!

Hello everyone, I'm back to the blog!
Before I go into anything else, I would like to tell you all about why I was gone, if you care please read on, otherwise just skip this paragraph.
Anyway, I was in college back then and I was taking a Robotics class. In addition I am also the new stage manager for my college Glee Club and a college tour guide as well. These three things have single-handily kept me busy the whole 4 quarter, known as d term in my college (we do a quarter system NOT a semester system). First things first we were given a gigantic final project in robotics, where we had to design, build, and control a robot that would compete in a class competition. Although it was a lot of fun, I missed so many meals and hours of sleep over this. I was literally in the RBE lab all the time. The project itself went well, our first round in the competition went amazingly, but then one of our motors overheated (we think so at least) and then things went for the worse. O well it was only a fun competition, no grading occurred during then. Thank goodness.  But that's only a third of what I have been doing. Tour guiding is fun, but takes up a lot of time. When I wasn't in the lab, most of the time I was giving tours to prospective students. Sometimes you meet crazy parents (its never the students themselves xD) but that only makes the tours interesting lol. And finally, being stage manager is a lot of work. Now the stage manager position works a little differently than what you would think. Instead of running the stage and lighting and whatnot, I'm mostly in charge of just concert stuff in general. Therefore I am ordering all the buses, I make sure that the concerts we do generally go smoothly, I keep the tuxes in order, and a bunch of other random stuff as well. It's a lot of fun, even if its a bunch of work.
However, that all finished (mostly) when summer started. My business has turned from that to other things.

I've gotten myself into a tizzy with fan-fiction. I am working hardcore on all my stuff and people are liking it a lot! It's awesome to write up a work and have people love it. My first fan-fic, A Little Ship Lost in Space, is a Mass Effect 3 ending story that simply picks up the pieces that was the ME3 ending and goes from there (indoctrination theory FTW!!!!). The fan-fic itself has 3 chapters and sets me up for other fan-fics. It is my most popular of most viewed of my fan-fics.
My second most popular is Memory Eternal, a fan-fic (that I need to tweak a little) about Thane and his last moments. It won second place in the Retake Mass Effect fiction contest, I was very happy. There are other Mass Effect fan-fictions, but those are the biggest ones.
My newest Mass Effect fan-fic, From the Ashes, picks up immediately after A Little Ship in Space and concerns the reconstruction of Earth, which Shepard gets dragged into. I just posted it today on fanfiction, soon I will get it up on deviant art as well.
Just recently I also went down the Avatar route, submitting No is for Naga, a story about how Korra met and befriended Naga. Although a tiny bit sad, people are loving it!!

My stuff can be found on my profiles on these sites: Fanfiction.net and Deviantart.com. (the links go straight to my profile btw)

Now before I go, there is one last thing I want to go over. I'm going to attempt to change the structure of the blog around a little bit to make it easier to read and more fun (sort of). If you look at the title you can see that two letters, P and U, are bracketed before the actual title. Those are what I will call reference tags, and they denote the subject matter (to a degree) that the post will be going into. So far the reference tags are as follows:

[PP] = Personal post. These posts will be about me, myself, and I. I am shooting for one a week, and anyone who is interested in what's going on in my life can read them!!

[FP] = Feature post. These posts will be anything cool that I find on the web, or to showcase anything awesome that I have done. Look out for these for the cool stuff!

[AN] = Author's note. I used to do my author's notes in the descriptions of all my poems, fan-fics, and art. Since I put the fan-fictions on two sites, I don't want to have to write the author's notes again, plus they take up space and some people don't like to read them at all. That is why I will be moving them all onto the blog, so in the description I can just link them over to here. I also will have the time and space to put in EVERYTHING that I want to say about the piece. The title of the piece will immediately follow this tag, so keep an eye out for these ones.

[EP] = Editorial Post. These posts are ones where I argue my opinion for a certain side, and make an attempt for people actually discussing it on the site (but we will see how that goes).

[IP] = Important Post. Finally, this last post is for anything very important related to the blog or any other announcements. When I have this tag there is something big going on.

I have been debating whether or not to have multiple tags in one post, but we will see how it goes I guess.
Anyway, I have a lot of stuff that I want to put up on the blog, so I'll be busy with that, and of course with fan-fics as well!

NotCras

Double Feature!

So I had some free time on my hands, so I figured I would send out a post that was more about other things than Mass Effect 3. Now ME3 is not the only thing I think about or want to put up on this blog, I have other post drafts not involving ME3 that I want to touch up on and send out later. But if you want to see a Mass Effect 3 related post, check the rest of the blog. xD
As I have stated before, I am studying to be a Robotics Engineer at the only college that offers such a degree, Worcester Polytechnic Institute.  Its pretty awesome, I am a tour guide here so if you do end up checking this place out, I could possibly give you a tour O.o.  Also, I sing and am in the Glee Club here, WHICH IS TOTALLY AWESOME.
I am white if any of you were wondering, and no I am not racist. I am religious, but I will never expunge my religion on anyone, unless one would want me to, but then again who would want that? (that is a joke :P)
I also enjoy writing, be it poetry, or just a good old adventure or fan fiction.  I have a deviant art account for that, even though I should have another account being deviant art is well, art, but then I can see totally awesome artwork, AND i made that account first and don't want billions of others out there. I also like to draw comics, but we shall see where that goes. I have a bunch of stuff in the tubes so there will be more writing.
Lets see, one last fact: If you are ever on campus and hear a very loud screeching, yelling, or random sound, there's a 50% chance that its me.  Its my nerd call you see. Anyway that's about it I think... Let me see if there's a draft I can merge with this one to add to it, I feel so weird shooting out a small update.

Well then, it seems that I have found something! Its music related, and its a band that I feel that is under-appreciated by the masses. They are called The Features. This indie band hails from Tennessee, and was started when the guys were merely in middle school.  Now they only did covers then, but they stuck together and kept working at the music. This band quickly became their life, with several of them (dont know if all of them did) dropping out of college to pursue what they love. Of course the band could make enough money to make ends meet, so they had to take side jobs.
Now every song that they make sounds unique and has awesome and heartfelt lyrics that go along with them.  Lets look at the beginning of their song, Temporary Blues:

Traded in my tennis shoes
For steel-toed rubber boots
I've got my own uniform to wear
They've given me a plastic hat,
Ear plugs and a funny net for my head
I'm well prepared.

 

Now that sounds like someone's going to work! And you would be right there. This song is about the terrible working conditions that the song writer, Matthew Pelham, experienced as a Pillsbury factory worker. It also serves as a song of hope. Take a listen, and you'll see, their song sounds genuine, full of life, and totally heartfelt.  I absolutely love their music. Similarly from the same album, their song. Wooden Heart is another perfect song.      

  

Its about a man having his heart broken, only to try to make a new heart.  However his heart is never the same because of this.  This was also my first song that I heard of them, back in the days where I played Tap Tap Revolution like a boss. I would also like to point out how the songs sound so different, and yet they are clearly the same band.  Not that many bands can do that, and I say that its a testament to how awesome the Features are. The features have 3 major albums out right now: Exhibit A, Some Kind of Salvation, and Wilderness. Again, the variety that exists in each album is huge but the difference between each album itself is incredible.  Exhibit A has one of my personal favorite songs,The Idea of Growing Old.  Its a song about the singer wanting to grow old together with his love. (here are two links one has a wedding video in it, so if that feels awkward, this recording is worse but not as awkward xD) Ive already talked about some songs on the Some Kind of Salvation album, so you can look up the rest of the album later. Finally, Wilderness is the newest album.  It has some great songs like How it Starts, Golden Comb, and Rambo.
I also wanted to add another for those that enjoy rap. My opinion on rap is that I enjoy it, but the lyrics really do matter to me.  If they are explicit, I just don't see any point in it, and I feel that we are just above the thought that we need to bang every chick we see. There is one rapper that I thoroughly enjoy. And that rapper is Trace Blam and his DJ Soul Chef. Just like The Features, he has awesome lyrics and songs as well. Now I first came to hear of them through a parkour montage, Double White Power (which is totally awesome and I think you should see it). I would also like to mention that they are from Eastern Europe, so they dont understand racism like we do (probably for the better too).  Anyway, the song that plays during the montage is one of my favorites of his: Success.

Now do you know of a song that talks about trying your hardest and being successful, but also having the swag that he has.  Now there are other songs, like From A Far, and All That I Do that have less lame lyrics if that's what you feel, to me its all awesome.  O and did I mention that his site gives away the album, Bottles, for free? BONUS AWESOMENESS!!
Anyway, those are only two of the bands/artists that I listen to, if you guys like my suggestions here, please tell me it would make my day!! Furthermore, if there are any requests on topics or ideas to make this blog better just tell me, I'm an easy going guy and will certainly take a look at least. Finally, to the people that have already seen my blog and commented, thank you and please keep checking on the blog, as I've said before, I watch my view counter like a hawk xD.
Well guess I have to get to working, expect more posts on the way (ME3 related and others!).

And if anyone subscribes to me, it would make my life. Just my two cents... :P

NotCras