Where did your mind go?

Hey Psych, hows college? Well...actually I know but for the sake of the blog I'll ask again. My entrance exams are coming up soon but I won't fret over it. 

Recently a few people, and even myself, have made me question where in the world did their mind just wander off to. Some of it I can't even explain. Like asking a clearly painful question to someone and expecting them to fully understand and answer rationally. Or stopping to think for a few minutes and realizing it's been a few hours. 

My nightly walks have given me plenty of time alone and time to think....and recently they've gotten more lonely for no reason that I can explain. Occasionally I'll see a few of the kids from the summer program and stop to see how they're doing, but even at those times my mind is somewhere else entirely. Often I wonder what's going on in someone else's head, whether that be one of my friends, a family member, or some random person I spot on the street. Where are their minds, what are they thinking?  Though, maybe knowing that would be a bad thing...

Ah, the human mind, so difficult to explain because each is so different. So Psych, where has your mind been today?

Confusion about Hospitals

Not sure if you know Psych....but I'm terrified of hospitals. I get shaky, silent, and I'm pretty sure my entire body temperature drops a few degrees.

 I can't see any reason for me to fear them. I've only gone into the ER twice in my lifetime and only once was remotely life-threatening. I don't even go into hospitals very often. No matter what causes it, when I go to visit someone in a hospital, I usually end up sitting in one of those painfully straight-backed chairs with my hands gripping onto my upper arms as if they're keeping my heart firmly locked inside my chest. The nurses usually stare at me like I'm some kind of science experiment in fear. 

What I really don't understand is...I'm not afraid of hospitals in games such as Silent Hill. In those hospitals, with their rusty walls and oozing ceilings, I'm as happy as a horrible motivational poster with a couple skipping through a field of flowers. Even in Silent Hill: Origins, when I went through the hospital with only breakable melee weapons and fists, I was more calm than when I venture into a brightly lit hospital during the middle of the day. 

Maybe it's my brain going "Well..Silent Hill isn't real so there's nothing to fear! Oh...wait....real hospital...they're going to dissect you now.."

Oh well, enough of that, back to gaming.

Cause ya know...this is soooo safe.

It's Strange...

As the end of summer nears and faint sign of fall is in the air, it has really struck me that I will not be going back to the school I had been going to for the last 6 years. Many (most actually) of my friends were younger than I am by 1 or 2 years. A few of them even have noted that if they didn't know better, they would have mistaken me for either younger or much older. I suppose it just ties back to that I'm strange, I have no set age for my personality, serious when needed, but can be coaxed into being childish.

To ease my...uncertainty about all the recent changes in my life, I've started taking walks as soon as, or slightly before, the sun goes down. Well...there's that reason and the fact that I need more muscle for this frail gamer body. A few odd looks and a few people following you randomly, and you have yourself in my shoes during these walks. Mainly I walk around the local park, up almost into the next down and then walk around in the forest a bit (which, let me tell you, is a grand time after playing Slender). 

Life is changing, there' no doubt about it, but for now I'll take my quiet little walks as my mind journeys elsewhere.

A look from the top of the hill.

Band camp finale (and woes)

Wooooo I got a camera today! Took for fricken ever, but now I has it so soon enough there'll be videos going up on our channel!
Anyway...

Today is the final day of band camp. I got my Drumline>Marching Band shirt on and am excited to see how the band pulls together to show off their halftime show to the parents and friends.
This year the band's doing a Beatles halftime show. I've never really liked the Beatles, but I'm assuming it's better than the music you're stuck with Frost. You coming to the show?
It's raining so the field's going to be sloppy and the stands soaked. Woohoo!
Truthfully, most of the "fans" at the football games are there to see/hear the marching band. We were told more than once that we were the reason the people showed up, many leaving after halftime.
The seventh graders don't seem to understand that.
These past two weeks I've been mainly in charge of the cymbals, all of whom are seventh graders, rookies, stupid seventh graders.
Two of them listen. One is lost in his own little world. And that drives me up a wall.
They all complain.

Weeeeeee~ D:<

That is NOT something you do when you're on cymbals. I told them that the first day. Do not complain to me, do not complain to the drum instructor, do not complain to the band director, do not complain to the other drummers. They do not care. Especially me and the other drummers. I played snare drum for 5 years. Bass drum for one. I never got to hold the cymbals on the field, but I know that they're lighter than the bass drum and the snare drum. Even baby bass.
They also got new extremely comfortable wrist straps, with a cushion around the bell so that they don't cut their fingers on the what used to be metal pieces there. All of the cymbals prior cut their fingers up on that. And they still complain.
It's not like I'm not sympathetic. I just can't stand it. The drumline is a very tight nit section, we're more of a family than any other section, heck, we even call our drum instructor daddy. I know other cymbal players who are on snare and bass now who literally look like they want to kill the cymbals when they complain or say they can't play because they hurt. That's when the yelling kicks in. "Do you see the giant pieces of metal we're holding up with our body? You're using your *#@$ing arms! We use our goddamn shoulders our chest our hips and we play more than you do! Suck it the *$#@ up!"
One of them had that yelled at them yesterday. The one that's in his own little world. I've come to call him seaweed because that's what he looks like. Drifting back and forth wiggling, he's not marking time, he's not watching the drum major, he's off in la la land, population seaweed. He's his own problem.
There's one thing none of them seem to understand though.
Watch the drum major.
Simple? Watch the drum major and you'll stay on time. You won't get lost. You won't get out of step. Easy? Yes!
They just won't do it.
In our band the drumline seems to be the most... antagonizing section. At least, if there's a problem with tempo or talking or something and it's not us, it suddenly is. It's always our fault even when it's others. Just cause, it seems. Yesterday the quad player and I proved to the band director that indeed it wasn't the drummers slowing down the band but instead the trumpets! He didn't apologize for yelling at us multiple times to stay on beat. We're used to it, the small children don't seem to get the memo.
The goal is for us NOT to be the reason even if he thinks we are. So don't screw up. Don't screw around.
Because if it is you... not only are you going to get in trouble, the entire section is. They aren't going to call out Molly cymbal player for not watching or not playing in time, it's going to be the drumline's fault. Entirely.
And you don't want your own section against you. Nor do you want to be that one person in the drumline everyone hates. Or that one person in the band everyone hates. There's always one, let's not make it you.
And I really hate the lack of respect many children these days seem to have. Me and another drummer Nick were trying to get Seaweed to pay attention and to do the steps right and to mark time and to hold the cymbals correctly and to guide center and to stay in line with the bass drummers because they're walking sideways and you're not.
Needless to say there were far too many problems for this being the 9th day of band camp.
Yet, every time we'd tell him he was doing something wrong, he'd give a face and roll his eyes. Kid, there are far better things I could be doing now, but instead I'm helping you. Don't be a dick about it.
At the end of one song the band is in lines and they go down in increments, 1 2 3 4. The drumline goes down on 4, by just taking a step forward and then snapping back up. The rest of the able band goes with their left knee down and right leg out and bent. Like a lunge. The tubas, snares, quads, and bass drums do a little less exaggerated version due to things being in their way when trying to stand back up. No one needs to fall on the field, especially with a big instrument.
Cymbals:

Pictured with the wrist strap they get too! Lucky gits...

Are not a big instrument. If a trombone player can do the big step and get back up, so can you. Now the key phrase there is step. Seaweed was jumping in place and dropping to the ground. Interesting, but wrong.
We kept telling him, take a step, and he kept giving a face and then doing the weird jump thing. So we did it with him. He did it fine with us standing next to him. We take a few steps back and he's jumping again. So we go "it's a step forward! Take a step forward!" And he pulls a face again. I almost had to hold Nick back from socking the kid in the face.
The other two cymbals got it. They were taking a step. He was just lost in Seaweed world and didn't seem to understand the concept of take a step.
So we had to threaten him.
Take the step or you'll have to do ten push ups.
After the obvious groan and complain, he started doing it correctly. Why? Why did we have to threaten him? Why did the threat of push ups make him do it correctly?
Then there's the difficulty of keeping hold of their instruments.
Cymbals...

Not that heavy!

Are not that difficult to continue to hold. Snare drums are. Bass drums are. Quads are. They hurt your entire body, not just your arms. And the longer you hold them, the more resistance you'll build up. Yet it seems that every time we looked over at them, they weren't holding them. They were sitting in the grass, the cymbal players looking around aimlessly as if they're waiting in line. Looking at the snares, bass, quads, they were still holding them. Stretching and shifting their harnesses around, but still holding them.
So we went out there and told them to pick them up. They groaned and complained, but listened. Pulling faces. Being general babies about it.
I've never seen this much disrespect from stupid seventh graders. When I was in seventh grade, there was a reason we were called stupid seventh graders. We were rookies, we were new, inexperienced, and generally uneducated about what was going on. We weren't jerks. The seniors were.
And if you think I might be being biased given I was a seventh grader at the time, we were chased out of the band room by the seniors who were screaming "If I catch you, I'm going to rape you!" with bats and other large metal equipment. They did that at band camp. Just imagine the rest of the year.

We only had two of these my rookie year. The last "cymbal" player was on plastic woodblock.

Now, stupid seventh grader stands for these immature idiots who don't seem to care about anything and are absolutely clueless. I've never seen more disrespectful and clueless children in my life, more than just from the cymbals. They all seem to be. There're a few that are better, like the few bass drummers, but even they have their stupid seventh grader happening every once in a while. But their happenings are more like mine. Checking the music and accidentally slowing down since I'm not watching the drum major, they do that a good amount of times and I know I did. Staring straight ahead at the field goal instead of at the drum major. I would do that to glare at the one snare senior I hated who hated me too. I mean, earlier I dug up my Universal Studios Hollywood t-shirt that I refused to wear and ended up hiding because that senior had the same shirt. I never saw him wear it again after I did either.
These kids just don't like to listen. They don't like to think. Another example, we were going to play the finale and the band was warming up with breathing and chord exercises. The drumline didn't have to do anything for it. So, what do the experienced players do? Get their music out and sit there patiently, every once in a while chatting quietly with each other and joking around, but thinking ahead. There're two experienced players on bass drum, and I saw the three rookies watch them get out their music before doing so themselves. They were thinking. They were paying attention. The cymbals? Sitting in chairs or on the ground just looking bored. Warm up finishes. Director gets ready to play. Everyone else is ready except for them. They miss the beginning and half-heartedly  pick up their cymbals, playing on 1 and 3 instead of 2 and 4.

Picture to show the old straps. And quell my rage.

Cymbals always play on 2 and 4. So do snare drums. Bass is on 1 and 3. Always. I've never seen alternating parts with something different. Never.

The plastic woodblock. Because, literally, this next part made me want to destroy them.

They're looking around aimlessly. Listening to the music, enjoying the band playing, every once in a while watching the director. One who's fairly competent but somewhat air headed, is staring directly at me, as if I have the answers. I did, but they should've thought of this on their own.
The conversation went something along the lines of this:

Where's your music?
I couldn't find it.
Did you look?
Yeah.
Did you look hard?
Uhh...
Did you ask either of them if they had music?
They said they didn't.

Of bloody course.

Now, you know that there's extra music in those slots over there?
*notices* Oh.
Go get some.
*goes*
*turns to Seaweed* Why don't you go get a stand for the music?
*pulls a face* K...
-_-"
*turns to final cymbal player* 1 TWO 3 FOUR! *claps on 2 and 4* Where's your music?
At home?
Why?
I was practicing.
Really?
Yeah!
Why didn't you bring it back?
I dunno.

A flexatone. Because.... AHHGGHH.

*returns with music* *puts on floor*

............Why...?!!?!?!

*returns with stand* *puts stand up*
(By the way, the band has cut by now, director fixing problems)
*music remains on floor*
*picks up music* *pushes up stand* There! Now you can see the music and the director!
Quad player: Whooaaaaaahhhhh! It's like maaaaggiiiccc!
We're bloody Harry fricken Potter!

*End*

sarcasm is never a good way to end a conversation like that. Plus, I was actually setting up a drumset during that time, assisting the percussion instructor with that. Cymbal player was lucky I noticed his stare for help otherwise the drumline would've gotten in trouble.
Can you guess which color was Seaweed?
Literally, they just need to think. All of those children need to think. That was yesterday the 9th day of band camp. Two of the three went to rookie camp (3 days of basics the week prior to the first day of band camp) and can you guess which one didn't? Seaweed! :D 
:I

I've run out of marching drums now... but there are far more drums I could post for my rage....

Rookie camp's a requirement. How did they let Seaweed slide?
Slippery mother hubbin' Seaweed....

Best bass drum ever... if you're wondering.

I've put 10 days of my summer aside for these small children and I don't get paid for it. I did it because I wanted to. Now I need them to want to. Their first show is in 7 hours and they still don't know cadence. It's cadence. 
What's cadence for--? EVERYTHING. 
literally.

So Frost, you've got small children music problems and I've got small children music rage. Let's just make a band.

A marching band! :D

"But it has a cool beat!"

As the day nears for the summer program I work at, the "Talent Show" is rapidly approaching. Our Talent Show invites all friends and family of the kids to come watch as they show a special dance, a special skill, or just something they like to do and want to show. 

As usual, I was placed in charge of making the CD that acts as the soundtrack to the routines the kids do. Unlike years past, I had....trouble..finding clean versions of the songs they choose. Some of them, of course, did not require me to find a clean version (most of these were music artists that associate with a kid friendly company, such as Disney). Yet...most of them were...things even I feel uncomfortable listening to. 

Though, I had to ask myself a simple question; Do they know what the song is saying, or do they just like the sound of it?

I think the latter is more likely. One of the songs, Chris Browns " I can Transform ya" , is...totally out of the question for what I think these kids (ages 5-11) should be listening to. The entire song is about some cocky guy trying to pick up some girl he meets, he promise her anything she wants. That's not even to mention a few of the lines later on in the song ( "I transform smaller and she puts me in her pants, swiss on the beat, Chris move your feet, and we can transform a good girl into a freak"), Grudgingly, I found the cleanest version I could, and put it on the CD, but I'm still not happy about it. 

Maybe I'm just odd and old fashioned for my age, but I grew up listening to songs that had meaning about life, not just sex.

Please make this bad music stop, Psych!

Apocraftlypse

A common craft stick activity is to make houses. Fueling not only the creativity of the mind but the ability to think and plan ahead. It's an activity I think most ages enjoy. With enough craft sticks and glue, an entire neighborhood of houses can pop up. 

This year at the summer program, we had plenty of craft sticks but a very limited supply of hot glue ( a must for perfectly sturdy craftstick-house production. To cope with this issue, I made my "house" mini. Being about 3 inches in height (at its tallest point), and about 2 inches wide, the other craft houses towered over my creation...yet...mine cut out an image for itself that met with various reactions. 

I made a zombie apocalypse shelter.

I say shelter loosely here, for as you will see...this house won't be protecting any survivors. Perhaps at one point it had, but the windows are missing, the door was ripped off,and the roof is beyond repair. Not to mention the rather gruesome scene that suggests its past inhabitants met a drastic end. 

Perhaps I'll make a few clay zombies, a little scene to set it on, my very own rundown apocalypse home.

Marching band

I love marching band. It's always fun, if I'm playing an instrument or not. I've been helping out the drumline for the past week, specifically the cymbals and the bass drums. I'm really really tired right now.
I've always been a person to notice slight issues and slight problems for the drumline. I'm somewhat of a silent voice for them. Small problems and issues I notice and am able to relay them to our drum instructor.
Like today the bass drums were having trouble knowing when to turn forward (since they normally face towards the fifty) for dances and for stepping parts. They were all turning willy nilly not really understanding when or where to turn. I noticed the dance problem late, but the turn forward for a part where the entire band steps out leans away from the fifty, I noticed that they were all having trouble with turning and stepping fast and weren't doing it at the same time. Our drum instructor was... tired to say the least, so he relayed a few things he wanted to change to me and I went out to help them.
That's sort of the best thing about no longer being in the drumline. I loved helping the drummers out when I was in the drumline, but it was sort of hard to when I was supposed to be in line and since our director doesn't really... like the drumline so much I got in trouble often when trying to assist. Now I can just wander around the back of the band and notice things that are off and help out the rookies. I can tell that one of the drummers (who relied a lot on me over the years and is now trying to be that one to rely on) is a bit frustrated that I'm helping out, but it's better than having problems, and I've been told my help's appreciated. He's very cocky, but I don't mind.
I really really enjoy helping out though. With anything along those lines. Drumming is something that has given me loads of awesome memories that I'll never forget and that I love telling people about.
Mleh, that's short and sweet. I'm really tired though. Always tired after band camp. Still got wonderballs stuck in my head. Day 9! Yippee~

9th grade year marching band, I love the 80s show. :D

Musical Memories

You know what's weird? Waking up singing a song you recognize from band but not knowing what the song is. Yesterday I woke up singing the song A La Lune from Cirque du Soleil. We played that song when I was in 7th grade, in marching band.
For some reason or another my brain doesn't enjoy forgetting music. It's fine with forgetting the names (it took me until about 6pm yesterday to finally figure out the name A La Lune), but not the music behind it. The only reason I even brought myself to Cirque du Soleil and A La Lune was due to attempting to hum another part and part of Distorted coming out. That was a name I never forgot, because I really liked how it sounded and it had a really fun drum part in it. All of the songs did (well besides Reve Rouge). And now I remember all of the names of the songs that we played in marching band my 7th grade year: Distorted, A La Lune, Urban, Reve Rouge, all of these songs from their La Nouba show. That was the only different marching band year I ever had in the 6 years I was in the marching band. The majorettes had interesting costumes and flags based off of Cirque du Soleil designs. The drumline stood at the front of the band, not even on the field, just beneath the drum majors. Our band director was different from the one who is the band director now, one who joined the band when I was in 8th grade. My 7th grade band is a completely different band compared to what it is now. Now the drumline is on the field, moving apart from each other, dancing, trusted to move more than just forwards and backwards. The majorettes now have worse costumes than what they had before and only use poms instead of flags and poms. The drumline has a drum instructor who didn't vanish before the first game to go build planes in Mississippi. Everything's just... different.
I've been able to see the somewhat "evolution" of the drumline due to being in it. Going from standing on the side of the field beneath the drum major to having our own solos and dances different from any other section as we play. Yet why do songs where I stood as the  second smallest bass drum beneath the senior drum major stick in my head? I try to think of songs from my 8th grade year and have to be reminded of them, through memories that don't include the music. My 9th grade year I remember Thriller, because that was a stand tune, and slowly the others drift in. My 10th grade year... I can't even remember. My 11th grade year is the same, but I remember that being the first year I was finally able to teach the drumline Silky, a long lost drum cadence again from my 7th grade year. Now they love it and they can't get enough of it. My senior year... I remember a few songs, but they don't stick as much as my 7th grade year ones do. I also remember a cadence, one of three, that we played my 7th grade year. It was a bass drum cadence. I loved it so much I taught it to my friend and am still trying to convince the drum instructor to let me teach the drumline it. All of the cadences I've had since then haven't stuck as well. It might be because they always have the same beginning and same ending (the ending actually based off of a part we have in Thriller--9th grade was the year that we gained a new drum instructor, the one they have now, so he just copied it off of there) or just because I don't have as many memories with that said cadence drumming through my head. Big memories that kept Silky and the bass drum cadence in my head were how they sounded. Or them being played over a scene, like when the quad player broke his stick in a Homecoming parade, the front of the stick flying up into the air, all of the drumline watching it. We had to switch over to just playing the bass drum cadence since he was the only quad player and now was one stick short. As we neared the park we played in I recall him taking my bass drum stick to play with, leaving me with half of a wooden quad stick and a bass drum stick. I kept playing though and we kept playing the same cadence. It was one of my favorites too. The band had a dance to it as well. Same with Silky. They dance to it now.
It's weird how my memory works with music. I'm lucky that I have friends that can recognize the tune and give me the title. You can't sing to Google. It's neat though, the memories that hide behind those tunes, the pictures I see playing along with them. I have the clearest memories of my first 7th grade night game in the park, the park that has no actual lights in so normally we'd play in the daytime, midday, roasting our butts off. These memories might be why I like the drums so much, I got to have the best bass drum year, learned parts of the snare drum music while even forgetting some of mine that I played and memorized, remembering each individual part to the bass drum cadence, even the cymbals. I have no favorite drum due to that. If I had to write a cadence it wouldn't sound horrible missing one part, like theirs do now. If they're missing the quads it sounds horrid and empty. That's probably because our drum instructor played quads when he was in marching band. He favors them and the sounds they can make. Doesn't help there's a cocky kid on them either.

This isn't my marching band, but the music is A La Lune and what I woke up with. It's fun to listen to. There should be a marching band rendition radio station I think. 
And yet, as I listen to this again while typing, it doesn't sound as exciting as the band did when we played it. I can even see the people marching around on the field. So weird.
I've also still got Wonderballs stuck in my head. Day 6 now. My friend and I are  going to sing it today at band camp. :D

Death...Smiles ?

During a recent Skyrim rage quit, I decided to pop in a game that I had been given randomly awhile back. 

The game was DeathSmiles.

Quite simply, this is a side-scrolling shooter.
You play as one of the 4 "Angels" available, and along with her familiar (some sort of small being matching the girls theme) you defeat several worlds in hopes to find the wicked witch Sakura and her father Jitterbug. These two shady characters seem to know the way back to the real world and out of the odd world the Angels were trapped in.

Now...It took me a few times of playing through the first part of the story, and reading the handbook to understand what's going on.

The tale of Lost Children says that everyday children go missing, and several of these missing girls were transported into another world known as Gilverado. The "Angels" as the missing girls became known as, found mysterious magical powers within themselves and used such powers to protect the king. Soon enough, monsters begin popping up out of everywhere and the Angels must go defeat them and save Gilverado and possibly return home.

For a side-scrolling shooter game with magical girls and gothic anime style...I'd say the story behind it isn't too bad.


The art is why I found this game interesting, and it does well to deliver that. 
The controls are simple and work effectively.
The soundtrack is beautiful.

...But that's about it.
The voice acting can get a bit annoying when it's your 2nd or 3rd play-through.
The levels go quickly and are at times too easy. 
If you're playing on Xbox 360, expect several achievements just for playing through each different girls stories. There's even an achievement for dying and clicking continue. Yeah, this game is pretty simple. 

Yet what else could you expect from a side-scrolling shooter? You get what you pay for there, and with the addition of the wacky bosses and amazing music you could easily find yourself forgetting you've played the same level 4 times already. 

A simple scrolling shooter, mindless and repetitive...but hey...at least they're pretty?

I HAVE HAD THE SONG WONDERBALLS STUCK IN MY HEAD FOR THE PAST 4 DAYS.
PLEASE SOMEONE MAKE IT STOP.

I SAID MAYBEEEEEEEEEEE

MOST NORMAL GUYS ARE DATING A LADAYYYYYYY

BUT AFTER ALLLLL

I'M SICK OF SINGING THIS SOOONNGGGG

MineCraft VS. Terraria

Yep, You knew it was coming sooner or later, and here it is; yet another Minecraft VS Terraria rant.

Personally, I don't have a favorite between the two but I do feel the need to point out some flaws with how some people view these  games.

The thing I see most is this:
"They're both the same game!"

Really? The same game? That's like saying Skyrim and The Ledgend of Zelda are the same because you can wield a sword. I'll give it to you though, they're a bit similar, but they are very much so not the same game.

Similarities: 

1. Mining for materials or "farming" them.
2. Building a shelter to hide from baddies
3. Different biomes ( ranging from easy to explore to more dangerous)
4. A range of enemies
5. The ability to craft (make) various objects, tools and equipment
6. Available online adventure maps to download

Differences:

1. Boss battles -Terraria
2. More crafting materials/ more things you can make - Minecraft
3. Combat based- Terraria
4. Building Based - Minecraft
5. Different perspectives ( 2D- Terraira, 3D- Minecraft
6. Number of Mods available ( Who knows how many there are for Minecraft, I've seen only few for Terraira)
7. Multiplayer online ( Minecraft - similar to single player, Terraria- PVP)
8. Price ( changes for both over time, but Minecraft is more expensive on average)

Both are good games and promote creativity while spending mindless hours in front of a glowing computer monitor, It's up to personal preferance to decide which is better.

Did I mention they both have slimes?

Pros and Cons of a Zombie Apocalypse

DayZ is a game that's flooded my subscription box, with many of the people I'm subscribed to on YouTube playing that game. Suffice to say I've seen loads of different ways people play the game: some going to murder everyone, some playing it safe, others panicked and paranoid.So today I thought about what were the good/bad things about being in a zombie apocalypse.



Good:
You get to murder, often.
A lot of people are crazy.on the inside. Some people just get angry easily.  Others cant handle their anger. Either way, gaining the ability to take out your anger/frustration on zombies without it being looked down on or frowned upon makes life just a little bit easier.
Bad:
You get bit, you're screwed.
Most zombie folklore state that once you're bit you're infected and slowly whatever made that zombie a zombie will start to make you a zombie. So if you get bit or get sick/wounded easily, you're not going to be around for long... as yourself that is.
Good:
You can kill people you hate.
Everyone has someone/something they hate. Let's say that someone happens to turn into a zombie? Given they're brainless/mindless, you could easily outwit them, capture them, and kill them in any way you see fit. Or you could just put a shotgun to their head a bunch of times. Whichever makes you feel better~
Bad:
Paranoia.
Loads of people are not good at handling paranoia. Get them too paranoid, they're gonna kill you or get themselves killed. They will slowly but surely drive themselves (and possibly you) insane. You might either end up killing them or they kill you. they could also be so paranoid that they start hallucinating or cause a rukus that'll get zombie's attention.
Good:
Zombies are stupid.
In most modern zombie myths the zombies are dumber than dumb, meaning you could probably do whatever you really wanted if the apocalypse happened, given you don't get overwhelmed. Check out how a movie theater works, let the polar bears out, break into a store... you could do loads.
Bad:
Zombies can be smart/hybrid.
Since a zombie has never existed, people don't know what to expect from a zombie. They might be stupid... or they might be like the zombies in say left for dead. Leaping on your head, choking you from afar, charging you into a wall and slamming you into the ground... you won't be able to survive most of those. And if those are the zombies you get stuck with... godspeed.

There're bound to be more, but these were the ones I came up with/feel like writing. Personally I wouldn't want a zombie apocalypse. I don't really want any apocalypse. A brainless mob of creatures that drift around dumbly looking confused and barely taking notice in you? I already got that in high school. 

Odd feelings~

I feel this needs no picture.

Every so often I just get these weird feelings. A clench in my chest that tells me... something's up. It's sticking with me right now, just as I recall many times that this happened before.
The feeling is new yet familiar. New because I seem to have predicted a storm, familiar because I've felt it before.
The feeling I can relate it to is that something bad is going to happen.
My senses also get hyped. Don't know why. I watched a few scary videos and wasn't getting scared, which is the exact opposite of who I am. I get freaked out by simulated horror so easily, but with this feeling, I don't know what I'm feeling. I'm just ready... for something.
Laughing makes the feeling go away for a short time, but it quickly returns. For a bit it goes away with breathing out, just normally breathing out. Vanishes for a bit and then crescendos back up.
It's somewhat like I'm nervous. My nerves are telling me not to laugh. Sort of like if you're losing control of a situation or you're in a situation in which you have no control. More so the latter. I've got quite the neat picture in my head. Weird what it is too... given I normally feel safe in that place.
I love forests, they're a place that I just feel... different in. A good different. But the forest I appear to be in is a different forest. And it's sort of... not me there. It is but isn't me. A... younger me.
It's my fifth grade me.
I'm wearing a blue sweater I recognize, one that I loved. It was an old navy hoodie, one with a small zipper at the neckline, an old navy emblem with a soccer ball above it on the left breast, and a big front pocket. The cuffs at the end of the arms were torn and falling off, but I still wore it cause I loved it. Also wearing sweatpants and holding a flashlight I... somewhat recognize. I don't look like I feel... safe.
You know how in the game Slender you're just sort of alone in a forest with a flashlight? That's sort of where 5th grade me is. Except it's not slenderman that's after me. Like... the forest's safe but... I'm not.
Weird thing is, I always want to go outside when I get this feeling. And I always do. This feeling shows up at a time where I can see better outside at night, better than what I normally see, since I can see really well in the dark compared to the average person. It always happens at night too. And I can never be alone.
There's always something that comes along with me. Normally it's my cat, Kitten, whose real name is Tiger but I refuse to call him that until he gets his big cat meow.
Today, I walked outside and decided I wanted to turn off the motion sensor lights before I walked further so I went back and lo and behold he was at the door. He immediately came outside with me and came right with me as I walked out. I have a quite large backyard, deemed "the field" by myself and my friends. I was walking in it and he'd come trotting up from behind me and I'd pause, he stopping in front of me and hugging my legs. He always did that. Halfway through my yard, I stopped the pausing in my walks and would actually end up accidentally kicking him. He kept getting under my feet.
I walked out to the fence on the far side of my yard and stopped and he was at my feet again. I looked down at him, smiled lightly and told him, "You don't need to worry, there aren't any forests around here."
I started walking back, drifting around my yard, giving no obvious signs that I was returning inside, and when I looked back I could see the white tuft on Kit's chest, just sitting exactly where I had told him that.
It's weird, but now I understand why in games and stories the people feel that they need to go exactly to where the "evil" thing appears to be. Yes, you could easily just not go there, but with this feeling, there's no way.
Well, all I know is that there's a point in time that I will be alone and will be able to go to the forest and only then will this feeling leave me and I find out what is really causing this. Be it good or bad, I'll take it head on. If I come back I may tell my story. If I don't... well... so it goes.
You can't tell through text, but I'm smiling. That sort of smile a big hero does just before they sacrifice themselves. I'm no sacrificial lamb... but this is intriguing.
Brace yourself. :D

YES

What are we doing Saturday you ask Frost? 

YES.

Silent Hill...Origins

A while ago I had gained the game Silent Hill: Origins and haven't given it much thought again until recently. When I had first gotten it, I played it a bit and then set it down. Going for a second, full play-through was....bitterly disappointing.


For those out there not familiar with the game, Silent Hill :Origins is the 5th game in the series but takes place before the original Silent Hill. 


I'll just take a moment to say: SPOILERS AHEAD!
So, now that you've been warned...


Origins follows Travis Grady, who is a trucker and currently the oldest Silent hill Protagonist( according to several fan websites and game websites). He saves a girl (Allesa Gillespie) and begins his struggle in the world of Silent Hill. 
Full story here: Click



Frosts review:
Let's start out with the good shall we? It's an okay game...for the PSP (or PS2). Silent Hill sticks with what it knows and gives us it.


With that said...compared to most other Silent Hill games (namely Silent Hill 2), Origins just isn't as scary. I found myself more growing angry at most of the monsters than being scared of them. The sheer number of monsters as you reach the latter half of the game is so irritating I just stopped killing them. 


The story line is okay, it being too thin in some places and nearly too thick in others. 


The puzzles, something every Silent Hill fan has a love/hate relationship with. The Hardest puzzle in this game, for me, was Flauros puzzle, The Iron Lung puzzle falling very far behind it as my second most difficult. 


The fighting mechanics are simple and at times glitchy, but nothing too bad here( but did I mention your melee weapon will break rather quickly, leaving you to fend off monsters with your bare fists until you find another television to smash over their heads)


This game was something I was severely disappointed with, when I think Silent Hill I think of getting scared out of my wits by the amazingly thought out monsters and infuriating puzzles that make me feel glorious upon solving. Silent Hill:Origins provided me with barely a taste of that. 

Ah, Travis Grady...In all his confused glory.

"It's not a lake. It's an ocean."

**This will contain spoiler-ish thoughts about the end of the game Alan Wake. If you have never played/seen it, you ought to maybe give it a go. If you don't want to play it, feel free to watch it from this guy which is what I did.**


It's thunder storming beautifully outside now. Wind blowing the rain smashing against the window, flashing and thundering setting quite the scene. The rain's even strong enough to set off the motion sensor lights. Man do I hope that that tree which is meant to fall will fall.

So I just finished watching Mr. Helloween4545's let's play of Alan Wake. He has this ability to make anything amusing and really seemed to enjoy critiquing the game. The thing that bothered me though was how dang cryptic the last lines were.
You got Alan, finally in the dang cabin where he lost his goblin typing the end to his newest book which was coming to life when he suddenly gets all weird eyed and goes, "It's not a lake. It's an ocean."
This perplexed and annoyed me. I was predicting the same thing Helloween was, that Alan would have had to sacrifice himself in some manner and there'd be a monologue saying how everything played out and what happened. Instead, the cut scene was just the beginning of the Deer Festival in Bright Falls, showing happy celebrating people. I only recognized the two old crazy rockers. Everyone else was just... people.
Alice (the goblin) had somehow made it out of the lake and was panting and practically dying on the edge of the old bridge to the cabin that was no longer there. Barry and Sarah were no where to be seen. I suppose the open-endedness is alright, but the lines left such a... confused as hell feeling inside of me that I just couldn't think.
The Darkness spawned from the lake, Cauldron Lake, where the now non-existent cabin was once in the middle of. And now he was saying it's an ocean? It seems like he went the opposite way of progress. He wanted to vanquish the Darkness and get the goblin back, if he made the Darkness an ocean, that would be the opposite of progress. Like stuffing kindling in water and trying to light it on fire. You're not getting far with that.
Or maybe it was just an epiphany. He had a sudden realization that this power was far beyond what he had just faced perhaps? That might explain the weird voice change in the end and the glazed over look on his sneery face. He also appears to put a period at the end, which might mean it's the ending to that story but the beginning of another... continuation of the story line. Maybe with this story he's trying to warn others that the threat is real and out there, something everyone has to watch out for. A giant metaphor for a giant unstoppable force that will never be gone.
I read a discussion on it and someone said that they thought it was a pun off of his name. "It's not a lake. It's an ocean." It's not Alan Wake. It's a...? It's bigger than him perhaps? Eluding back to the giant metaphor.
What I think, well, it's not a lake, it's not something small, it's an ocean, a large connected world-wide endless... problem? Makes me think of Zelda Skyward Sword and Demise, something that you can beat down many times again, but it will still continue to break from its bonds and escape, wanting to destroy all that is around it. You can kick a wave down all you want, another one's going to come right after. Maybe it's something you're just supposed to accept, you don't really have any control over this, you can just live along side it and put up a fight if it hits you down or flee to "dry land" and escape it for the time being. It could also mean that since a lake is normally still water and an ocean has choppy waters, it's not a calm force but a force that is constantly thrashing, fighting against itself and against the world around it. It could also mean the eroding power that an ocean has over a lake. A lake is a set area, slowly but surely eroding the land around it. With how much more energy the ocean possesses, it erodes at the ground around it easily and more often than a lake does. Even in seeming dormancy, it's still slowly encroaching on your land and in the end your safety. How Alan plans to deal with that is beyond me. With that sneer of his he's better off joining it.
I might just be looking too far into it, which, as long as I get a chance to think, I tend to do often. The pain of being an author~ :P I digress, lines like these tend to really get me thinking. So it goes.
Alan Wake really does leave you with more questions than answers (many questions about the game play especially), but does have a nice writing scheme to it. Feels a bit like it might have been a better point-and-click adventure maybe, but still a fairly good game. And as my terrified dog climbs down from my shoulder I will repeat the lovely line...

It's not a lake. It's an ocean.

Only you can sneer at forest fires!