Yes, it is I Marx, ironically enough the second person to do a Blog. Ironic in the sense that I don't have that much of a life so there isn't that much point in me having a Blog. Honestly, it's pretty repetitive. I go to class, work on computers, do cool animations and models and whatnot, come home, talk to the peeps and watch wrestling or movies depending on the day. Which is why I probably won't be posting here on a daily basis because that would just get boring after awhile, but I will from time to time when things out of the ordinary happen. Like today for instance.

Basically I usually have my class schedule down, but since I was off on Monday because of Labor day it totally messed up my sense of time. Not that I'm complaining because that Monday was the first day I've had off from both school in work in about 9 weeks. But basically I thought today was one of the days that my first class was 10:00 but it turned out to be one of the days where my first and only class starts at 8:00, so if I would have went all the way there(I live in Annapolis, MD and the school's in Rosslyn, VA) the class would have been halfway over and I'd be marked absent anyway. So I thought, what the Hell, I'll just get right back on the bus and go home. Which would suck slightly because I'd be paying busfare for two trips and I really didn't go anywhere, I basically be paying $7 to sit on a bus and read my comics. But luckily, the bus driver was cool and didn't charge me again so here I am at home with my second straight day off.

Sure there's only 2 more weeks of class, which equals 3 more animation classes but it's all good, the animation I'm working on's about halfway done. It has ninjas! Well...a ninja, but he's so cool! After I finish it I'll try to get it in a Flash file so you guys can all see it and be all, Oooooo ninja. Same with my other two projects. Basically the three classes I have this quarter are 3D modelling, 3D animation, and a class where I learn more about Flash so at the end I'll have a cool 3D Wraith model(which is almost done, just have to finish her weapons), a 3D animation(one word...NINJA!) and a flash animation(Five words...The Kids Aren't Al-Right) So anyway, that'll be all for today, probably do some postage in one of the solo or Elseworlds stories today if I don't do another microhero. Meh, it depends.

Nothing much of interest really happened today. Though I did more or less finish the 3D model of Wraith. I still have to do the UV mapping and materials but I only have a week to do it so I probably won't be able to finish that. And if you're wondering what the heck I'm talking about basically UV mapping makes it so you can put the materials on the model without them getting all stretchy. And materials are the colors and textures and whatnot that you put on the model so it has...well..colors and texture. :P But here's what I've gotten so far.

Okay, so today's the last weekend I'll be working for like, 3 weeks right? So I'm hoping that today's going to be pretty slow. But is it? Noooooo! I always say that you can tell how good a party is by the mess they leave behind and I can tell you yesterday's wedding reception was one Hell of a party. But it's not too bad, I've seen worse, even played with some of the matches they left behind (word of caution, setting an entire pack of matches on fire is not quite as easy to blow out as you'd think so it's wise to have a cup of water, or in this case, beer to throw the thing in before it sets off the fire alarm).

So I went back to working and I picked up these two tables and ZING! a splinter went right in my finger. So I had to take it out...with my nail clippers. "But Mark..." you ask, "wouldn't that mean you'd be basically cutting at your skin until you got lucky and pulled out the splinter?" Yes, my dear reader you are right, though it was the inside of my hand so it didn't hurt quite that much. Anyway after like 5-10 minutes I got it out and went back to take the tables again but they tipped over and KA-POW! All the beer and Sprite, pretzels and a couple of glasses went flying onto the floor. But after the internal swearing I was actually laughing because I won't have to deal with this crap for 3 weeks! The rest of the day at work was pretty good I guess, I had a little help. But near the end we had a room completely set and then the boss of my boss said that I used the wrong glasses. Apparently the big glasses that we've been using on the tables for years (and I would know) we're not supposed to use anymore, now we're using the small glasses. But the guy I was working with helped me take them down and said he'd put them back up so that was cool.

After I finally got out of the Hell that is my job, did I get to relax? Nooooo. My mom's putting up a closet and she needed my help with it. I'm so friggin tired right now. But it was a good thing I helped because there were parts that she wasn't doing right which I could see and I wouldn't exactly call myself and engineeer. The only cool thing was I got to use the electric drill. *does the "Tool Time" bark* So this would definitely count as one of those different than the ordinary days. Gonna be so sore tomorrow...

Yes, I am back and posting! I know you all must have missed me. ;) I'm keeping myself busy at the moment so while I watch TNA (wrestling) I figured I'd write a little something in here. Sadly Lani's on the plane home right now. I told her that I could kidnap her and have Jake hack into the computers and falsify her information, but she didn't want to take the chance. *sigh* But anyway it was great having her here again. All the money that we've saved up we were able to spend and get soooo much stuff! At the moment on the file cabinet that I keep my comics in there's a small figure army at the top. It's led by Sephiroth (my biggest one), with the second in command of Batgirl (Cassandra of course) with the henchmen of Miroku, Sango, Kilala, Kikyo(From Inuyasha), Naru, Shinobu, Motoko, Kanako, and Kitsune (from Love Hina). Though I'm thinking of moving Sephiroth on my printer between Inuyasha and my other Kikyo.

I also got a good bit of manga and comics, including the last Batgirl (sniff sniff WHYYYYYYYYY? It was a cool ending and all but why does it have to end?), Supergirl, Teen Titans (which was kinda redundant if you're following IC), and Lady D. I also read some of Lani's Livewire comics (Gothic Lolita roooocks!), which I'll probably get into.

The only sucky thing about her visit was that it wasn't like the first time and it was in the middle of a term so I still had to go to class and my internship. Though luckily my portfolio review(the other reason I've been so busy lately) was just a little after she got here. I don't know exactly how well I did on it, but they said nobody failed so I apparently passed. Though what sucks is that the only two classes I have left so I can graduate are only night classes next quarter. Which wouldn't be a problem if I wasn't so far away from the school. Since the bus would stop running in the middle of the class, I'd have no way to get home. So unless they add more classes I'll either have to stay at my bro's or take a cab home (which would be about $50 each time)...so that sucks, but there's no point in worrying about that now I guess.

This post is pretty much all over the place isn't it? Ah well it's my blog so fear my randomness! *shakes fist* Feeeeeeear iiiiiiiit! ....What do you want from me? Me and Lani watched all 6 DVDs of Zim episodes so we'll probably both be overloading...with mission gooo! Hmmm... what else? Well...nothing else comes to mind, I might post later if something does, but until then you'll be forced to wait! :P

And now it's time for more boredness! But this time I have pictures! :D

Here are some of my room.

My newest two posters courtesy of Lani! How awesome are they!





Yes, yes I do have a shizzette load of posters! They are so awesome! And if you look at that last one you'll be able to see the Sephiroth army!


...I didn't have the flash on too high...the army's...eh...divine! Yeah! Anyway you get the point. <.<


Sephiroth's new position!


The most awesome wallet ever! Which Lani got me, btw.


And who wouldn't want that ring? Really.

Well that's all for now. The camera's pretty drained at the mo and it powers off everytime I use the flash so if I am going to take anymore pictures you'll have to wait. :P

Okay...I don't know why I posted as Lani...I'm quite sure I was logged in as myself...my comp's spazzing out at the mo...gimme a sec...

Okay...I think it's fixed. Somehow I was logged in as me and Lani at the same time...trippy...

Okay, been really busy lately, so I figured I'd actually post in my blog since this is such a rarity. Where should I start? Well, let's start from when Lani came over which out of the three trips was in my opinion the best one ever! Though normally Lani tends to come during my school break, but the trip was planned when I should have graduated(I ended up going to school an extra quarter). So Lani was here my last two weeks at school, which is why I was so busy before she came over since I was in uber cram mode. Though I found something very important out...

PRINT SHOPS SUCK! Really! Kinkos, Staples, Office Depot, they all suck! It's better to just buy print cartriges and paper and do the damn things yourself. My school was pretty cool about it though. Basically for my portfolio show I needed 22 DVDs of my Demo Reel(which is like a 2 minute thing of my best work since I've been at the school), I needed 10 for Career Services, 10 for the Portfolio show, and 2 for the teacher. And each one I needed to look professional and all so I needed a lot of prints for the labels. Anyway, lets get to Lani's visit.

The first week she was here we didn't do a lot. We went to malls and bought manga and comics and stuff, the usual. And Lani bought me a Vincent from FF7: Advent Children! Which was pretty cool since she bought me a Sephiroth on her last trip. They have joined my army of figures which I'll take a picture of in a bit. But it was pretty cool and mellow and we saw movies! Oh the movies! The first week we saw "Snakes on a Plane"(awesome movie, definitely the kind to take a girlfriend to since there are a lot of jumpy bits ;) ), "Superman Returns"(not the best movie actionwise but I still like it, but I do agree with Lani that they should have started it over from the beginning like "Batman Begins"), and "The Covenant"(Awesome movie, though I do get the feeling there'll be a Convenant 2).

And on Saturday we went to the Baltimore Comicon, which was pretty interesting. We were there like...10 minutes, enough time to eat a hot dog and look at a few vendors and the fire alarm went off and we all had to leave. Though we did get to see Lou Ferigno(sp? like whoa!), the Incredible Hulk guy! It was so cool, though Lani didn't know who he was, but did agree he was big enough to be a Hulk. But anyway, we all had to leave and wait for the fire department, but while we waited, Lani used her camcorder to catch the people who had cool shirts on, speaking of which I had a newly bought Venom/Black Spiderman one, and Lani had a newly bought Superboy one. Anyway, we waited awhile and eventually were let back in. We actually didn't get that much comics, Lani forgot her comic book list and I just didn't get that many, but it was still really cool though. Oh! And I got an Invader Zim keychain...a $6.50 Invader Zim keychain... I got it more out of shock than anything else, it was kinda like..."I'll get the Zim keychain." "Okay that'll be $6.50." "...6 wha....huh? Um...Okay?" I so wanted to get some of the shirts and stuff, but I wanted to save the money for Florida.

Speaking of which that's where we went on the next day! Woooo! Was my first time on a plane actually, wasn't too bad. I pretty much read my "The Darkness" comics(just need to get about 20 more and I'll have the whole first volume and I'm pretty sure they have those in tpb) and Lani played Sudoku and read the Darkness comics. I'll take this short intermission to say...THE DARKNESS ROCKS! WOOO! GO JACKIE! Anyway, we landed, got to the hotel and went practically straight for the pool...which was totally fun since Lani was teaching me how to swim...then I almost drowned. Well...not really I could stand in the pool on the deep end and all...but I breathed in enough water that my lungs closed up...
<.<
>.>
DON'T JUDGE ME!
Anyway...we ordered some Pizza Hut pizza! And stocked up on stuff at the 7-11! It was awesome, though funny because I've never had stuffed crust pizza and I've always wanted it, and the conversation went as follows.
Me: Woooo! I can get stuffed crust pizza!
Lani: EEEEEEW! No!
Me: ....really?
Lani: It's icky!
Me: *pouts*

It was pretty funny, though I ended up eating like 3/4 of the pizza. Then we watched "Fantastic Four" on cable, or most of it anyway. And the next day we went to Universal Studios, which both of us agree was our favorite park of the three. The rides were awesome even if you didn't watch the shows they were based on, and most of there weren't even really rides. They were like...moving seats while you watched a 3D movie which was totally awesome! I don't even like Jimmy Neutron(well...I've never really watched it) but the ride rocked. We thought that, that and the Shrek ride were our faves at that park and they were the first ones we went on. We also loved the Men In Black one...*sigh* which Lani beat me in 3 straight times, one of which was even after I got the 1000 point bonus. I swear if we're attacked by aliens give Lani a gun, she just rocks, though I would like to point out that I don't suck, she's just better than me. And the two of us combined got a higher score than the five people next to us.

The Back to the Future ride was totally awesome as well, but Lani didn't really like it because it jerked us around a lot and kept making her bump her head. And the Return of the Mummy ride broke down on us. But they gave us an express pass so it was cool(and wouldn't be the first time something messed up on us and we got a pass for it). Um, the Jaws ride was pretty kickass as well. I think...those are the main ones that stand out to me but the whole park was awesome(I will use "awesome" a lot in this blog, deal with it!) And while there I bought Lani a bear that has a hoodie that says "I wish you were here", and Lani got me a Spiderman shirt. After that we went back to the hotel and got some chinese food and watched "Unleashed", which was also a pretty cool movie. Wooo! Go Jet Li!

Moving along! The next day we went to Island of Adventure. One of the first things we did was...run inside because it started pouring down rain! But while in the arcade we played a few games, mainly Tekken 5 and Marvel vs. Capcom 2. After we got out we went on a couple of rides and stuff. But we offer you this piece of advice. DO NOT get on rides that say "possiblity of getting wet, possibly soaked" until the end unless you're dressed to get wet. Ya know why? Because those rides soak you! And then you have to walk around the park all squishy! But the rides are really fun though, they just really do get you soaked. Though it was so hot that by the end of the day, we were completely dry, jeans and all. The other ones that stand out would be the Spiderman 3D ride(possibly the best use of 3D in the parks) and the Storm ride(which was basically the teacups). We went on the log flume ride too (which terrified me since drops are the main thing I don't like about roller coasters and Lani made me go on twice >.<) and then the dreaded Dueling Dragons! Which for those who don't know are two roller coasters in one, there's the red dragon and the blue dragon and they "fight" but if you're not a roller coaster rider both are really intimidating but the blue one looks more mellow. And even the mellower of the two coasters took us three times before I'd actually gone on it, and it turned out to not have any big drops so I totally liked it. The Dr. Seuss part was pretty cool as well, (oddly enough my favorite one there was the "Red Fish, Blue fish, One fish, Two fish") and there was a big candy shop so some areas just smelled like candy which was cool because you'd kind of think that if Dr. Seuss places were real they'd smell like candy.

After that we went on a few rides again, most noted was the Storm teacup ride because I was spinning it so fast that the announcer lady was showering me with praise as the "guy in the Spiderman shirt" who was "really bookin'." Oh and buyingwise, I got Lani a unicorn, that she aptly named Bribey(because he was a bribe so that I didn't have to get on "The Flying Unicorn" ride that looked like it had a big drop) and I got a Punisher shirt. After that we went to the hotel again and ate the leftover Chinese and pizza. And the third park we went to was of course! The Magical Kingdom.

One of the first things you see when you go in are a lot of shops and we ended up getting some last minute giftages, such as a Stich plushie for Lani and a "Bone Daddy" Nightmare before Christmas shirt with Jack on it. Oh! Lani also bought me some pirate boxers, we originally were looking for Spiderman ones but we couldn't find any in either Universal or Island of Adventure. The rides in Magical Kingdom were cool but most of them you had to be fans of the theme to find it cool, unlike the ones in Universal Studios, but there were some that were cool regardless like the Haunted Mansion (Lani got possessed!) and the 3D Mickey orchestra movie-thing. Lani wanted to go on Thunder and Splash Mountain but I pointed out that if the drop on either scared me witless we wouldn't be able to go to Space Mountain which she wanted to go on the most. Space Mountain was awesome though, there weren't any big drops on that one either and I was still kinda confident from how much I liked the Blue Dragon ride in Island of Adventure(we never went on the red one, I promised that I'd really try to go on that next time) that Lani didn't have to practically drag me on this one. That was another one that we went on twice. We also found out that Lani's deadly MIB aim didn't just go away as she was trying to throw some bread at one of the birds and clocked the poor bird right in the chest, but it just took it like it was Superman standing up to a bullet, it was freakin hilarious. And in the Stitch ride, they had this huge beach ball that you could play with while you waited, and Lani accidentally plowed this girl in the face and both of us ran into the ride, it was so awesomely funny!(I bet she still doesn't know who clocked her)

The Buzz Lightyear ride was okay (since it was a shooting game Lani beat me like whoa of course) but it wasn't as cool as the MIB one. Oh! The Pirates of the Carribean ride was kinda cool as well, but if you go on it don't really expect it to follow the movie since the movie was made from the ride. It's not really a flowing story as much as random pirate oriented...stuff...but it's cool stuff and it's where I got the pirate boxers. Oh!(reading the Disney site so I don't forget any rides) You know in Lion King where Scar wants Zazu to sing a song and he starts singing "It's a small world after all" and Scar's all "Gah! Anything but that!"
...
We soooooo get the joke now. We went on the It's a Small World World After All ride and it plays that song the entire friggin ride! At first it's cool because they do it in different languages throughout the ride, but there was someone in a wheelchair about 2 or 3 cars up from us and it took them awhile to get out, meanwhile all we're listening to is "Iiiiits a small world aaaaaaaaaaaaaaafter aaaaaaaaaaaaall!" The entire time! The original plan was to go on it again, because I missed the England puppets and Lani caught them, but we both agreed to not go on that ride again for fear that the song would forever latch onto our brain! After that, we went around awhile because it'd be a good bit before the bus would take us back to the hotel, but that was good because we were able to catch the fireworks which was pretty cool. lol Also while we waited for the bus, me and Lani ended up dancing around the parking lot and I tried to dip her (we randomly danced in the other parks too but she never would let me dip her because she thought I'd drop her), she was too tired to stop me this time but she was also too tired to help me get her back up(and apparently I kept lifting her shirt without realizing it) and I ended up very softly...well...dropping her.
<.< It wasn't my fault!

It was funny though, the old ladies next to us were all "You're not supposed to drop her!" and Lani was saying that's it, she's going to call her agent. It was pretty funny. But anyway, we were exhausted when we got home and ended up just getting some food from the other Mickey, good ol' Mickey D's. And the following morning we went back in the pool(I insisted since I didn't want our last memory of the pool being me almost drowning...kinda) where we had a lot of fun and I could swim better than I could to begin with. Oh! I almost forgot! The geccos! Sweet mercy the geccos! There were so many of those little things. Though we asked the hotel lady and she said some were geccos, some were salamanders and others were...other weird throat dangly lizards... But in short we had a really good time and were sad to go back. We only had like, one full day after we got back before Lani had to go back to England so we went to another mall and saw "The Black Dahlia". Which was also a pretty good movie...when it actually played! Remember earlier when I said The Mummy ride wasn't the only thing that broke down and gave us free passes? We were watching the previews and one of the previews was like...upside down and the audio was playing backwards(still have no clue what the preview was). Finally that stopped and we had to wait about 20 minutes for them to fix it and play the movie. But we did get two free passes for another movie which is cool I guess.

Of course the following day Lani had to go back home and we were sad. But is that the end of the story? No! Because I still had to get ready for my portfolio show. Basically they give us two tables and a black cloth and we have to make it look all 'perdy' because there'll be job people at the show who'll be looking at our stuff. So I'm thinking, 'Okay Mark, since printing shops are so obviously stupid, instead of bringing the file for them to blow up poster size, why don't you just print it out and actually bring the picture you want them to blow up.' Sounds easy right? Well, Staples' poster printing machine was broken so I couldn't use them, Office Depot didn't blow things up and Kinkos wanted $60 for both ones on their smallest poster size. So you know what I did? You guessed it! Bought a cartridge and printed them out myself. Basically I printed out sections of the picture on regular paper and made it kinda like a puzzle with the pieces slightly separated. It looked kinda cool though. As for the show, I was nervous and all but most people liked my display and with the exception of having to stand for about 7 hours in basically the same small area it was pretty fun. I got a couple of business cards of some places and whatnot and a few people took my demo reel so it's all good.

But the point is...I am officially no longer a student as I have graduated (though I won't be able to go to the actual ceremony until December). Go me! *does a little dance* Of course that means now I have to look for a job and after I find it, in 6 month's time, dun dun dunnnnnnnnnnnnnnn! I'll have to pay back my student loans! *random girl shrieks in horror* Very long story short though, been a really busy last couple of weeks for the God of Cram lately but I have lived up to my title and victory is mine!

Oh and for those reading this who want to see some of my stuff, check out my other website.