Day Eighty-Two: Snoopy's Strangulation

9/5/15, 10:58 PM PDT

Today, Kayla, Christina and I traveled to the mythical world of Dungeons and Dragons.

Hell yeah.

Or, rather, preparing for the mythical world of Dungeons and Dragons. Basically, we scoured Kayla's room for figurines we could use, a grid map we can use, and dice.

Dice seems to be the biggest problem right now, since all we could find were two metal D6 that Kayla had, but we had no problem looking for miniatures to use.

Granted, they weren't exactly the uniform-looking D&D miniatures you normally see, but a figurine is a figurine. Instead of knights exploring a large medieval landscape, we'll instead be little jaundiced Lego people aimlessly roaming a world of Pokémon and multicolored frogs and whatever the fuck this guy is:

I'm not kidding. We really have one of these guys.

My sister and I also went to Daiso to buy some college dorm stuff, specifically a coin bank for me to put the loose change that I will inevitably gather in LA. They had a few interesting looking ones, especially this one that I really liked but thought would be a little too intimidating for my roommates.

Because nothing...

says badass...

Quite like a can designed to prevent you from spending your change recklessly.

So I opted for this neutral looking yet still aesthetically-pleasing blue can.

I have no idea what it says.

Later, we went to Target and discovered what it sounded like to strangle Snoopy.

RFotD: While I was filming this, a man was apparently laughing behind me and staring while I was mercilessly shaking Snoopy. He started cackling right after I saw him.

Day Sixty-Five: Motion Graphics With Video Games

8/19/15, 11:30 PM PDT

Hey! So remember that motion graphic thing I talked about yesterday? Well I finished it today, check it out:

And yes, I know it says "August 20" in the video, but that's because I finished and uploaded this thing at like... 1 AM on August 20. Whatever.

Oh, and as a little behind-the-scenes treat for you blog readers, LOOK AT HOW MANY LAYERS WENT INTO THIS ANIMATION:

Yeah, this was NOT an easy project.

It took me a little over a week to finish this one, which is probably something I should fix since I'm making this a weekly series and all.

RFotD: Based on results from a test by Creative Cow, After Effects can handle up to 1,918 visible layers at the same time. When using AE's "shy" toggle and making some of those layers invisible, however, the number basically becomes infinite.

Day Sixty-Four: Animation

8/18/15, 4:13 PM PDT

Today was a very work-intensive day. The bulk of it was editing a little motion graphic video I'm doing. Something sort of like this:

Obviously nothing of that caliber, but you get the idea.

It's very difficult, let me tell you. So much shape manipulation, so many layers, and then after that there's a lot of secondary animation to add to make it pretty to look at.

But yeah, that's how I spent today. Huh.

RFotD: Not every day can be interesting.

Day Thirty-Five: Where Is Everyone?

7/20/15, 1:50 PM CET

Amsterdam is beautiful.

"Aww thanks Michael, so are you."

We landed here in the afternoon today, and since we were too tired to do anything major, we largely spent today around our hotel area, just relaxing and seeing the sort of stuff our hotel had to offer. Conveniently, we were right next to the metro station. And I mean LITERALLY right next to the station. It's a two minute walk from the hotel to the train station, and that's accounting for the time it takes for me to walk down the stairs.

So for the most part of today, we were looking at the shops and food places in the station. We ate at a pasta shop called Julia's.

Based on how the ravioli they served scalded my tongue
twice when I ate it, "Julia's" probably means
"burn in hell" in Dutch or something.

Apparently, tea is free here, all you have to do is get a cup of boiling water, which is basically free anywhere.

So since it's free, I plan on raiding every single location of it's free tea packets, starting with Julia's.

At least, I think it's free. It was on the condiments rack, so I just took them.

Afterwards, we looked around and took pictures of the area around the train station.

Man, I just got here and already, Amsterdam wants to Sloter my Dijk.

Sorry, train station, but I'm in a committed relationship.

Mama and papa Evangelista.

Notice something about the pictures yet? I took these pictures at around 7PM. San Diego at that time would still be in full swing, with hobos roaming free, Chipotles being eaten, and boba being drank, but in Amsterdam?

Nobody's out. It's incredible. Seriously, it looks like a ghost town in some places, take a look.

If you squint...

You might be able to see...

Will Smith walking a dog and killing zombies.

I could seriously get used to this. No people. No stress. So calm.



Oh, and I don't know if I've introduced this little guy before, but meet Joby:

Hello, Amsterdam smokestack!

He's the stuffed monkey that I've decided to bring along for my trip. Have you guys seen Amélie? If not, there's a part where she steals her father's garden gnome and gives it to a friend to travel with it and take pictures of the gnome in front of famous landmarks to try and persuade her dad to travel the world.

I'll be doing something similar, but instead of persuading my dad to travel the world (he already is), I'll be doing it to make sure a certain someone gets to see the places I see via proxy.

So yeah, you'll be seeing more of Joby as my trip progresses. See you guys soon!

RFotD: Stuffed monkeys gain a surprisingly large amount of curious glances from passerbys.

Day Twenty-Eight: A Taste Of Sweden

7/13/15, 11:10 PM PDT

If there's anything that makes up for the ridiculous cost of an American college, it's the fact that you get a ton of free stuff just by having a .edu email address. One of the best deals that I've found so far was the Autodesk Suite, free for students for 3 years, but for everyone else, costs 2,100 dollars a year.

So a large chunk of today was following Brandon Laatsch's tutorials on 3DS Max. Here's what I made so far:

Beautiful, huh?

Obviously, it's nothing fantastic, but hey, small steps. Small, small steps, because there are SO MANY TOGGLES in this software that I'm scared if I hit the wrong keystrokes or do something wrong, the software will blow up.

Seriously

We also went to the Swedish Embassy today.

It stands for "International Koalition of swEden
in America"

We bought a neat little backpack for my college purposes, and I LOVE IT.

They even stole an airplane seatbelt buckle for it!

It's got a ton of pockets, adjustable straps (in the sense that you can wear it as a backpack AND a manpurse), and it's the perfect size to fit my behemoth of a laptop. But you know the biggest reason why I like this backpack?

Because the main compartment had this in it:

And it was still hot too, can you believe it?

RFotD: I'm just kidding, we bought the meatballs separate. But a backpack that could make that on demand would be amazing.

Day Nineteen: Shaved Dogs and Windmills

7/4/15, 10:42 PM PDT

Do you guys remember Marlo from last year's post?

I'm surprised that the lady hasn't died yet from how fluffy Marlo is.

Well, we visited my dad's friend's house for the 4th of July today. And we saw Marlo again. Except I think he must not have eaten in the long time or something, because he looks famished.

"Please sir, may I have some more?"

THEY SHAVED HIM UP. And now he's all thin and stuff and he does NOT look like how I remember him to look.

Add caption

Yeah, my 4th of July was largely uneventful. At one point, we went to Tutti Frutti and got some free frozen yogurt courtesy of my dad's friend's son, who hooked us up because he used to work there. Except mine ended up looking more like soup when I finished since I put a TON of popping bubbles in it.

If you squint, it kinda looks like a duck is turning its head
and looking at you.

Tutti Frutti's spoons are really cute too.

Thank you, SCOTUS!

We actually did NOT watch the fireworks today, despite it being the birthday of this great goddamn nation. Which I mean, I guess is kind of a bummer, but honestly, I've seen fireworks a bunch of times, and they're all the same, so I don't think I missed out on very much. Unless this year's Mira Mesa Fireworks actually incorporated live Bald Eagles in their fireworks displays, then I regret nothing.

Especially when missing the fireworks means that I got to FINALLY PLAY WITH MY NEW COPY OF 3DS MAX. So now that I'm a student, with a .edu email, I could FINALLY sign up for Autodesk's FREE SOFTWARE DOWNLOADS. So I got 3DS Max and made this beauty:

Hell. Yeah.

RFotD: That animation took me a good hour to make. And yes, it is the tutorial animation.

Day Eighteen: Societal Collapse, We Design Costumes

7/3/15, 11:38 PM PDT

If you want evidence that our society is slowly degrading, I believe that you need not look further than your local mall. I mean how else could you explain thrift shops, 99 cent stores, and Hot Topic?

This is the end.
(via shopinternationalplaza.com)

I decided to embark upon a quest to investigate America's slow but tenacious societal decline, aided by my confederates, Angela, Christina, and Kayla. Here are some of the things we found.


Exhibit A: The tote bag designed to convert people into sexual deviants.

They're not even concerned about the spread of STIs that could result
from kissing random strangers. Awful, awful.

Exhibit B: The expletive shirt obviously marketed towards small children.

They're trying to get the kids to use improper language
at an early age. Disgusting.

Exhibit C: The baby bib designed to brainwash children into objectifying women at an early age.

Spencer's one goal in life is to ensure every baby in the US
becomes a walking, ticking sexual assault waiting to happen.

Exhibit D: The complete inability of the American Education System to teach our students basic astronomy.

Does this "Paper Towns" person not know that
galaxies are smaller than universes?

Exhibit E: The complete inability of the American Education System to teach our students basic English.

Either that or they're encouraging statutory rape. America makes me sick.

Exhibit F: This thing.

I actually don't know how this is indicative of societal decline, but god
damn is this purse ugly.

There may be some hope, however. Because in the midst of all the horrible noise, we managed to unearth at least some promise.

We found cool Pokémon hats.

I would have bought one, but then I realized that
I'm too big of a loser to wear Snapbacks in public.

And a nice little BMO backpack.

It's reversible too!

And THIS AWESOME THING.

HYAAAAH!

It's a shield, but it's ALSO A BACKPACK.

WOW! INCREDIBLE!

A cute little Pokéball pendant...

I like the little jagged cut in the middle, it looks nice.

...That's actually designed for you and your significant other.

I think the one Sam and I have is way better though.

And, of course, this thing. Parmesan and garlic giga fries

I was completely wrong. America is totally fine.

At some point, while waiting in line at H&M we got to talking about dressing up for Comic Con. One thing led to another and now, we're making SUPER AWESOME last-minute costumes. 

Try and guess what we are based on the following pictures.

You know, I doubted it, but leggings are actually
really damn comfortable.

Some sort of gang that rivals the American Red Cross?

A really crappy picture frame.

Representatives for Google Plus?

Christina? Or another clue to the puzzle?

A fake nose ring..? What could it be?

I'm just kidding, those last two pictures aren't part of our costume. I just wanted to put them in today's entry to spite Christina and Kayla.

This next one's gonna be a dead giveaway though.

Just wait for the answer to come crashing down.

Tell me what you think we are in the comments!

RFotD: I'm thinking of starting a new revolution to make men wearing tights acceptable again. Seriously, it's that damn comfortable.

Day of Immaturity: Incorrect Integration

8/21/14, 6:30 AM PDT

We didn't really know what to do today. We're planning on leaving for Baguio in a few days and we didn't really have any plans...

So we just went back to SM Aura. Where I got even more pictures of their beautiful, beautiful rooftop terrace.

Love the skyline.

Now comes with Selfie-Taking Girl™!

Yeah, every shot of this place looks amazing, I swear.

Inside of the actual mall is pretty cool too. I found an integral in one of those sheets of paper that they have near pens so you can sample them if they work.

Love the handwriting, anonymous math geek.

So of course, I solved it.

QED, bitch.

...Of course, I just now realized that I made a mistake by multiplying two by three instead of finding two to the third power. So here's the revised solution.

...Now QED. Riiiight?

Not to be outdone, Megan also showed off a little. Her drawing skills, not her math skills.

Autographed too. Someday, this will be worth millions.

Bought me two books too. "Perks of Being a Wallflower" and "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time." Impulse buys, for the most part, but I mean how could you resist when one of the books looks like this:

The prospect of a dead poodle was the only
reason why I bought this book.

OH, we ended up sticking around the mall pretty late today. We actually got to stay after it closed because my family got lost trying to look for a way out. And let me tell you, when malls are completely dark and empty, they are SUPER creepy. Here's the only decent picture I got:

If this doesn't scream "Silent Hill Hospital Level," I'm not sure what does.

But on the bright side, I did find this picture.

Sorry, Samantha.

RFotD: YES, I KNOW THIS IS UNBELIEVABLY LATE. I'M SORRY.

SGAT: None really.