Day Twenty-Six: I Meet With A Terrible(?) Fate

7/11/15, 11:29 PM PDT

Today, I finally visit Comic Con! Or technically, the stuff outside of Comic Con, since I didn't have a badge. But hell, Lawn Con is cool too.

I took the trolley to get here. Unsurprisingly, it was packed.

I had about three inches of air between me and that glasses girl on the
bottom of the frame. Half an inch more, and Sam would've teleported
between us with a taser, so thank god she didn't.

Immediately, the first thing I saw was this huge skyscraper cling of Conan O' Brien.

Fun fact, I actually meet the guy that designed all the clings in San Diego
later today, but keep on reading to find out how.

And the second thing I see were the infamous Jesus protesters.

I think these guys are actually Satan protesters, but same thing, right?

The third thing? Cosplayers.

This guy was Peter Parker. He looked better in real life,
when you could see his super blue eyes and the fact that
he looks exactly like Tobey Maguire.

Deadpool and... Deadpoolette? Not sure but it was pimp.

Hey, that's my main in Melee!

A beggar asking for change A Master Assassin!

And after that I didn't really see anything because my eyes immediately honed into this thing:

Yes, the obstacle course from last year was BACK. And this time, I could actually run it! I waited in line...

My view, after the first 20 minute wait.

And waited...

My view, an hour into the line.

And waited some more...

My view, two and a half hours into the line.

Until I finally went inside. Here's how this year's course looked!

Bruce Lee not included.

They added a Ninja Warrior-esque warped wall and a cargo net! Was I excited to finally run, after a year of sadness and regret that manifested itself into physical injuries? 

HELL YEAH I WAS. So I ran it. No, I didn't run it. I sprinted it.

...And after the cargo net, I tripped on grass, fell, and hyperextended my elbow.

The first thing I saw when I fell, except much, much worse.

The crowd made a HUGE "OHHHH!" of disgust when they saw me fall. And medics IMMEDIATELY rushed over to me.

And you know what? I ignored them. And I ran across that rolling log thing, and I finished the course anyway.

And then I immediately got my arm wrapped because having your arm flop around was definitely not a good thing. They anticipated that this sort of stuff would happen, so they had an ambulance waiting outside. Which I got to sit in.

The nice paramedics actually took my picture while I was there.

Ignore the dark, bottomless chasm in my shorts. It's nothing.

Since it was just my arm that was mangled, as opposed to, you know, my head, I was pretty fine after that fall. I got to talk with CJ, one of the paramedics, on my way to the hospital and I told him I wanted to be a VFX artist. Surprisingly, he said he knew a guy that did that sort of stuff and gave me his number to contact him for an internship! Funny how that sort of thing works, huh?

I eventually arrived at the hospital, got a bunch of paperwork and stuff to fill out, and had my arm X-rayed. On the way to the X-ray room, while I was holding my limp, dead, shriveled-up left arm in my right hand, I heard a guy behind me call out to me.

I turned around, and I see some guy in a hospital gurney, his left shoulder wrapped up, but otherwise looking totally fine. I never met this guy in my life, so I actually thought he wasn't talking to me. But then he asked,

"Are you from Comic Con too?"

Holy shit. THIS GUY GOT HURT ON THE OBSTACLE COURSE TOO. We shared stories about how we both messed up on the course (the paramedics listening in thought it was hilarious that the guy dislocated his shoulder on the Leap of Faith), and we had a good laugh because we both said the same thing.

"Totally worth it."

So yes, there's my experience of Lawn Con. And even though I did get to miss out on going inside with my friends and seeing the Adam Savage panels and celebrities and exclusive merchandise and all, I still stand by the words I said to my friend with the dislocated shoulder in the hospital.

Today was totally worth it.

RFotD: While in the waiting room, I met the guy who designed the building/trolley clings for Comic Con. He was a pretty large but short guy with a slight Spanish accent and he called me crazy for going on the obstacle course. He's a pretty cool guy.

Day Four: Parkour Flow and Mario Kart

6/17/14, 10:30 AM PDT

Woke up at 7:10 to drop my sister off at school because I'm a wonderful, caring brother that values my sister's education.

Just kidding, my parents had to practically drag me out of bed because I really wanted to sleep in today.

But I guess it's a pretty good thing that I have to drop my sister off at school every day for the rest of the month. Waking up before 10 AM means that I actually get a chance to run and/or do parkour in the morning, which I did.

A big thing I've always wanted to try with parkour was flow outside of a gym. Stuff like this video. See how they do everything without slowing down? Yeah, that's flow. Up until today, all of the parkour stuff I've done outside of a gym were single tricks that I practiced in a drill-like fashion. Even though that sort of repetitive, single-task oriented exercise helps me learn the movements, it's... well, it's pretty boring.

Yeah, this looks fun now, but it won't be after the first 30 minutes.

So today, I decided to change that and practice some real flow. Living in suburbia, I don't really have many obstacles to utilize, but the park and the front of Ericson Elementary had some pretty okay stuff. So I went crazy (or, as crazy as intermediate parkour skills would let me).

And you know what? I actually had a LOT of fun. Even though I was doing really simple stuff (pretty much just vaults and precisions), the fact that I could connect those moves smoothly just made the entire workout so much more awesome. I mean not to brag, but I was pretty amazed at myself for doing some of the things I did there.

It's a really strange feeling to describe, but at some point during the exercise, it almost felt like my body was running on autopilot. Usually when I do parkour I have to meticulously plan out every movement that I'll make, but when I practiced flow earlier today, I didn't even have to think about what I was going to do, I just ran towards an obstacle and trusted myself that I would somehow find a way through it. It didn't require any conscious decisions on my part, it just felt so fluid and natural. Even when I stumbled and fell at one point (got my foot caught on a fence while I speed vaulted over it), I just automatically saved myself by rolling and kept on running, which I thought was incredible. God, this probably sounds super cheesy, but in that hour or so that I was doing parkour, I felt really free.

Hopefully that entire paragraph sort of made sense. I might have been rambling, but really, that sort of feeling is difficult to transcribe through words. In short, I'll be practicing flow again very soon. Heck, maybe I'll even film myself with my GoPro so I can show you guys.

Oh, scratch that. Before I work on flow again, gotta work on long distance running. I got really tired out after the just 10 minutes of flow, which is AWFUL, so I'll definitely work on building up that endurance over summer. Landing could use a bit of work too, my legs hurt like CRAZY after the fifth precision or so. A few hundred more squats should solve that problem.

Same day, 11:46 PM PDT

Went to Angela's house, along with Nick and Kayla. When I got there, they were watching some weird (and frankly, kinda crappy) WWII movie. It had special effects that I could probably pull off if you gave me enough time and the dialogue was really weird. I wasn't really paying attention when it happened in the movie because I was playing Temple Run on Kayla's Kindle, but a character in the movie said the words "Yankee Doodle" or something and it made everyone watching the movie laugh? I don't know. Angela said it sucked, so I'll take her word for it.

Anyway, Angela got a WiiU a few days before school ended, so she invited us over to play Mario Kart 8. And HOLY CRAP IS IT AWESOME. It's got flying sections, it's got drifting, it's got awesome new (and ridiculously overpowered) items, it's got catchy as hell music, it's got an EPIC antigravity mode, and it's got HIGHLIGHT REELS THAT CAN BE PLAYED IN SLOW MOTION AFTER EVERY RACE.

Look at it. Just look at it.

JESUS, I am SO IMPRESSED with how amazing Mario Kart 8 is. I mean I loved Mario Kart Wii, but this just BLOWS EVERYTHING OUT OF THE WATER. Seriously, they added SO MANY MORE AWESOME THINGS, I can't even BELIEVE IT.

I want it. I want it now.





RFotD: Mario Kart 8 is the first game in the series to use a sexy, sexy 60 FPS frame rate.

SGAT: Worked on the anniversary story a bit. And by "a bit," I mean two lines. I suck at this.

Day Three: The Minecraft Space Mission

6/14/13, 10:39 AM PDT

Dropped my sister off really early again. I think I'm getting used to getting up at 7 AM.

Actually, no. No I'm not. My mom practically had to drag me out of my bed to drop my sister off.

Then, went to go watch Harold and Kumar go to White Castle. I never knew that movie could be so ridiculously funny, I thought it would just be a stupid, vulgar film. Well, it was pretty vulgar, but still very funny. I'd recommend watching it, but it's pretty inappropriate in a lot of parts, so I can't do that.



Same day, 2:03 PM PDT

Had a pretty successful server run today. Eight entire players online at once, which made for lots of pretty awesome assassinations, especially since I modified the Assassin kit to have a HIDDEN GUN. It's pretty much an instant kill that has infinite range and takes a minute to reload, but oh my GOD, did it spice up the PVP on the server. I actually think it's kind of overpowered now. Considering either nerfing it or buffing the other kits.

Then, I picked up my sister from school and saw the MOST ADORABLE PAIR OF POMERANIAN PUPPIES AT THE PARK. Oh my GOD, they were so tiny and SO FRICKING CUTE.

LOOK AT IT. OH MY GOD, IT'S SO CUTE.

I WANT IT. NO, I NEED IT.

They remind me of the pomeranians in the story I wrote awhile back. They'll probably grow up to destroy the world. But I don't care, they're adorable.

Same day, 7:06 PM PDT

JESUS CHRIST. FIVE HOURS OF MINECRAFT STRAIGHT. MY EYES BURN WITH THE FIRE OF A THOUSAND SUNS.

Did a LOT in Minecraft. Played the "Dropper" map on Brandon's server, which was pretty easy since I had optifine and could see infinitely. After Brandon logged out and left his server on, we decided to push the limits on his server by causing AS MUCH LAG AS WE COULD. First, Ivan spammed bats EVERYWHERE.

And I do mean EVERYWHERE. This is barely a fraction of the total bat
density in the server.

Then, Christina put out a bunch of chickens, which made me crash a few times. To which I retaliated by pulling out my autoclicker and summoning a MILLION BOTTLES OF EXPERIENCE.

Everyone was blinded by the sheer XP volume.

Then, when most of the people left, Ivan and I decided to make a player cannon made out of TNT. We started this quest at around 3:00.

WE DID NOT FINISH UNTIL 7. FOUR HOURS OF ENGINEERING, REDSTONE CIRCUITRY, PISTONS, AND DISPENSERS. At times we wanted to stop. At times, it felt like our eyes would burn out and our brains would be come cube-shaped like the blocks that filled them.

Mark 1. Spectacular failure.

Mark 2. Getting better, but failed roughly 70% of the time.

Mark 3. Launched us HIGH, but broke half of the time due to its
design.

But at long last, our efforts culminated into the GREATEST PLAYER CANNON EVER BUILT.

Mark 4. Pure perfection.

This behemoth right here could launch me 1,400 BLOCKS STRAIGHT INTO THE AIR AND IT CAN GO HIGHER. I was launched so high in the air that even with OptiFine and render distance set to max, I could NOT see the ground. I WENT SO HIGH THAT I COULD SEE THE MOON WHERE THE GROUND WAS SUPPOSED TO BE. AND IT WAS DAYTIME.

I only got this screenshot from my second time in the cannon. Still
ridiculously high, no?

The cannon worked for Kayla too, but for some reason, Ivan's launch height was capped at 500 blocks. Probably because I programmed the cannon to be racist and Ivan's Mexican.

My eyes hurt and I almost completely forgot about parkour that's about to happen in about an hour, so see you until then!

Same day, 11:32 PM PDT

Aww yeah, great day of parkour. Brought my camera out to take pictures and videos, but because my camera's not exactly fantastic, I couldn't get very good shots at all. Got some pretty awesome videos, but I don't really want to upload them here since I'd like to keep this blog strictly photos and stories. But since half of my audience is from Facebook, you can check the videos out there if you'd like!

Did some pretty crazy stuff. Made a few pretty far double kongs and equally far dive kongs. Also tried my hand at precisions, wall ups and worked a bit on my wall spins.

...This terminology's just flying over your head, huh? Well, I did cool stuff.

Oh, Seth brought a few of his friends from tennis along too. One of them was in my math class, the rest of them I vaguely remember from various Facebook posts that lie in my subconscious. They didn't really do much, but they did give an honest effort, which was pretty great. Especially Andy, he was AWESOME. He did pretty much all of the vaults and managed to do a BACKFLIP into the foam pit, something that even I can't do in my three or four years of parkour.

After gym hours, had some pretty awkward conversation with one of the coaches and recycled a joke that I heard literally a few minutes before I talked to him. Recited some SpongeBob lines with my sister on the drive home. Eventually, my dad got in it too and we sang the song Sandy wrote when she was homesick for Texas.

My family's awesome.

RFotD: Vacuum cleaners in the early 20th century were large, powered by coal, and required three people to operate.

SGAT: Exercised a lot.