joe randel's art dump

I can’t stand’em.  I know lots of people that do but I just can’t take them.  I feel all kinds of nauseous afterwards and they scare the crap out of me (actually, that’s pretty much all canival type rides).  Oh sure, they look really cool, I see people having lots of fun on them and to be honest, I wish I did like them… but I just can’t make it happen.  From time to time I’ll get brave and try one out only to remember “oh yeah, that’s why I don’t like them”.  I’ve even tried some large water slides.  Nope, can’t do those ether.  I guess it doesn’t help that I hate swimming, so really it’s my own damn fault right there.  I’ve had friends tell me that it’s okay and I should just keep riding them until I’m use to it.  Ugh… I think it’s the adrenalin rush that I get… or just plain fear.  The only roller coaster I can do is Thunder Run at Canada’s Wonderland.  It goes in the mountain and it’s pretty fun and short.  Most of the people I know won’t go on it though because it’s pretty tame.  Well, screw those guys!  I guess I just prefer my roller coasters in tycoon form.

Do you like roller coasters or try and pressure your non coaster friends to ride them?

The other day I picked up Space Invaders Extreme 2 on DS for $6 bucks!  I’ve heard good things about it and so when I found it I thought… why not?  After a few plays, it’s safe to say I like it.  It’s fun, easy to pick up and play but, there seems to be some depth to it.  If you dig old school games with a modern twist I say pick it up.

What’s the best game deal you’ve found?

Only in Japan would a company make, not only a fleshlight type toy that can plug in to your computer, but it can also tweet how much you use it.  Adult game studio Tech Arts 3D has developed what they call the Onacon and it can apparently keep track of how much you use it, how long you use it for and your average speed.  Then if you want, it can post your “play stats” on to your twitter a social networking site.  I wonder if you can get achievements when you use it?

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My son celebrated his birthday this weekend.  It was lots of fun and he got some pretty cool gifts.  I always find it interesting to think that, my kids are building memories at every turn.  Years from now my son may remember this birthday because it was his first time bowling or because he got some cool Pokemon toys and got to go to Mc Donalds.  Or he might not remember it at all.  Lost in the sea of thoughts and experiences that we all store in our heads.

I’d like to think that I can remember quite a lot of my time as a kid.  Not everything of course.  My earliest memories are playing with my Spider-Man toy in the living room of our town house, touching the base of a hot iron and putting on finger puppet plays with my Mom.  I think I was about 3 or 4.  The collection of memories seems pretty good from when I was young.  As I get older though I find that I can’t remember the day to day stuff as well as I used to.  It’s kind of scary to think that there are events in your life that as just gone.  I do suppose that something could trigger them as they’re still in your head somewhere.  Never truly forgotten… just sort of lost.

How far back can you remember?

I wear glasses.  I’m very happy with them.  I think I look quite nice in the ones I have and I wouldn’t do anything to change that.  Like have corrective laser eye surgery.  I know three people out of my collection of friends that have had the procedure done.  One of them I used to work with and he gave everyone in the studio the low down on what happens during the surgery.  You’re not put under.  It’s not covered under any health plan.  They cut the top layer of your eyeball open like a soup can and correct the lens in your eye with a laser and then close the eyeball back up and it heals it’s self.  Oh, and if any thing goes wrong, they can’t fix it.  So you basically just paid someone to screw with your eyes because there are no refunds.  He had it done and loves it.  Totally worth the money he said.  The other two people I know did not have the same results.

One now has (as I understand it) one blurry vision eye.  One is perfect and the other is out of focus permanently.  I heard that she was told hat they might be able to correct that, but I never heard the result.  It might still be that way.  The other story is where the eyeball lid didn’t heal properly back on to the eye.  Her eye was constantly watering and she couldn’t really see out if it.  This was recently (last week) and I guess she has to go back in next week to see what can be done about that.

God grief, I would never have this done to my eyes.  No way!  Forget it!  Stay the hell away from my eyes!  These are the only ones I have and I will not be having mess with them.  It also makes me kind of sad when I hear that people hate their glasses so much.  I’ve had them since I was 8 and I’m totally fine with them.  On top of that, I think that girls are super cute with glasses.  Thumbs up for geeky girls with glasses!  Hmmm… I just realized that I don’t have any drawing of girls with glasses…

Do you wear glasses and if you do would you have this done to your eyes?

I finished Aliens: Infestation for the DS the other day and I thought I’d share my experience with the game.  I’ll start things off with saying that my opinion on the game tips one way and then the other.  How so?  Let me explain.

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