Karaoke, Laptops and Music Time

Hello internets. I’m back. I missed you.

Last weekend I took a trip up to Columbus to meet up with some old college friends. It was great, but now that I am back here I am more miserable than ever. It’s painfully clear that this place will destroy my soul if I let it. Enough with the mellow drama though, I’m sure you’re way more interested in the weekend!

I hopped on a Greyhound since I don’t have a car. It was kind of romantic and honestly was a great way to travel. Had way more room on the bus than I did on the plane I flew out to Dallas on. I read a large portion of Ender’s Game while I listened to the Tron Soundtrack. That sound track is so fucking awesome that it makes anything sci-fi related better. Don’t believe me? Try it yourself.

A couple hours of reading later, which only felt like fifteen minutes, I was in Columbus being picked up from the station by my friend James.

Let me tell you something about James. Him and I go way back. I’ve known him for over a decade. At times we have been really close, other times we have grown apart, but he has always been a great friend when I needed him to be. I also like to think I have been there for him during a couple of the rough times. He’s good people.

Anyways, we spent the whole weekend gaming. And I don’t mean sitting in front of a TV shooting each other in the imaginary head. I mean old school boardgames, card games and the like. Him and my other friends introduced me to some great new games. I finally got to play Settlers of Catan for the first time. I think we played it at least 3 or 4 times over the course of my stay. I got to try another variety of the Munchkin card games, this time Cthulhu. The best game of the weekend though, hands down, was Bang! I don’t want to talk too much about it because I am planning on writing an article about it for Guerrilla Geek.

On Saturday night, everyone humored me and we went to this place called Momo2. It’s kind of an Asian inspired club. They had a Hello Kitty gift shop, bowling alleys, pool tables and, most importantly, Karaoke rooms. Think “Lost in Translation” without the art department’s set budget. We got a room all to ourselves and got to pick whatever music we wanted to sing. The end result was this…

I really wish I had a video camera of some sort, because it was great and everyone had a great time. I sang a lot of ABBA, some Bee Gees and had pot stickers. I hope it becomes a tradition for us and we do it many more times.

That’s just a little of what we did, but it was awesome. I also got to see 4th Ed D&D being played for the first time, which made me rethink my judgement of it.

There were some negatives, like the fact I was sick the entire weekend or that I froze my ass off once I got home because of miscommunication, but what can you do? The positives greatly outweighed the negatives and I am looking forward to doing it again sometime soon.

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When I came home from work yesterday, there was a box on my front porch. I was afraid it was a package from my buddy Tim who had recently went to the Adult Film Expo. The reason I was afraid is that he mentioned something about a “surprise.” Not wanting to open a package that may or may not have the likeness of a man’s penis in it with my mother in the room, I hurriedly opened the package. It was then that I saw the hamster powered rocket diagram that I had seen before in dozens of unboxing videos online. I was now the proud owner of a CR-48 laptop running Google’s Chrome OS. I used it almost exclusively today, including writing an album review for Guerrilla Geek. I can’t lie, I like it. Will it replace the giant heater that’s currently lying on my chest? No way. Will it at least split the workload with my current laptop? I think it could.

The CR-48 is small, light, quiet and cool. Also, the battery lasts almost an entire day on a single charge. Once I can get it on a Virgin Mobile wireless data plan, it could easily be my go to computing device when things such as gaming, video editing and audio recording aren’t involved. I am sure there will be a complete write up at some point either on this page or over at Guerrilla Geek.

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Lastly, here’s some music since I subjected you to my horrible falsetto and lyrical failure from Karaoke night.

Music Time = Sexy Time

Tonight’s Music Time is super for super sexy time.

My name is Carl Watkins and I approve this Music Time.

Still alive

This is a post to inform you all that I am not dead. At no point did a supernatural life-form husk my body from my soul and then fill the empty flesh skin with it’s evil essence.

Seriously though… still alive.

In the meantime, here is something I drew on a box at work. Not bad for a guy that never draws…

Looking Forward

It’s been a little bit since I posted here. I have to say that I have been very busy. I am working more or less fulltime again at Gamestop. On top of that, I was made an editor over at the fine website Guerrilla Geek. I have been writing something over there at least once a week (click here to read my content) on top of heading up a couple projects. One is a year end awards presentation which will be going up next week! That’s right, the year is almost over!

I’m really excited about the end of the year. Despite being really rough, 2010 has been a very enlightening year for me. I have learned a lot and have really made a lot of progress in terms of my “career.” The next few months are going to be really big for me. Here are a couple highlights of what I have planned for the first half of 2011. For the sake of keeping things simple for tax purposes, I have been holding off on a couple important things. For example, the first thing on my list here;

A new website- Hopefully by the end of January Carlwatkins.com as it is today will be no more. I am going to be moving to a legit webhost. This will allow me to install my own themes, plugins and whatnot into the site. wordpress.com has been a great help, but it is a very limited service. Once I get the new site up and running, I will be able to host my own files and such, which will be a great help for the next item…

A new podcast- Yes, you read that correctly. I am making plans to start a new podcast. While I am keeping a lot of the details underwrap for the moment, I can tell you that old friends and new friends will be talking it up for your listening pleasure. I am hoping that this new show will be coming out every two weeks and will be a more polished show than Kneel Before Pod. KBP was literally unedited, freeform conversation. The new show will be shorter, edited and more traditional. This will in no way affect Kneel Before Pod.

KBP is more or less on indefinite hiatus. That is to say the show is on hiatus and we can’t define when it will be back. Ryan had a kid and has a lot going on at home. I’m busy with all that I’m working on. We have talked about doing more episodes, but it never really went beyond talk. As soon as I have news, I will pass it on.

More Guerrilla Geek- I have been really focusing a lot of energy into Guerrilla Geek. It’s a great bunch of people and it has a lot of potential. My experience there so far has just been amazing and I have really been enjoying myself. I plan on working with the other editors and contributors to get some great content setup. I hope to use my personal expertise to expand their scope and appeal. Keep checking over there, we have content five days a week!

More Fiction!- This year is my year as far as fiction goes. I am hoping to get some stuff published. I have a lot of ideas and once the new year rolls around, I will be re-dedicating myself to my fiction writing. Once I get a little bit of attention, I am hoping that I will be able to do a serial of sorts on carlwatkins.com for free. We’ll see what’s in the cards.

Just more Carl- With everything that’s in the works, all my plans and things I am doing to get myself even better connected I am hoping to achieve my goal of just turning myself into a brand. Someone that people can turn to for information and entertainment. I want to thank the people that support me and say I really appreciate how much faith some of you have in my talents. I hope to continue my professional growth, but at the same time remain the open and accessible person I have been for the past couple years. Ultimately, I want to just become one with the internet. I provided a visual aid below;

Anyways, I hope everyone is in good health and I hope everyone’s 2011 is the best year ever!

xoxo
Carl

Oh and here’s a picture…

My friend Kara (@teenagesleuth) once said I should be more visual with my websites. Since the household’s only digital camera was lost somewhere between Ohio and Houston, carlwatkins.com has seen a nearly 100% decrease in pictures. So I leave you with this:

Life has been hectic lately

It’s amazing, I went from nothing but free time to feeling like I have no free time. I would be incorrect in that feeling, but it feels like the truth all the same. I think it really comes down to getting used to having stuff to do again. I have been working part time at Gamestop, writing at least one article a week at Guerrilla Geek, trying to work on my fiction (*note- This has been complete fail) and trying to keep normal household stuff like laundry in check (again fail.)

Before I get into whatever this post will eventually be about, I have written two more articles for Guerrilla Geek. Here’s the links;
An interview with Professor Elemental
A review of Haroula Rose’s new Album These Open Roads

It was really cool because my interview with Professor Elemental actually got linked by Warren Ellis. If I’ve ever talked comics with your or you’ve listened to Kneel Before Pod, you’ll know I am a HUGE Warren Ellis fan. It’s really strange to wake up one day and know that someone you really respect suddenly knows you exist.

Since the interview I have been trying to stay in touch with the Prof and I have to say, he is a super cool guy. I know I have been pimping him hardcore lately, but he really deserves it. He works with kids, raps, is clever and makes the sexy dance. What’s not to love? Speaking of which, I need to make sure I replied to his last email… Doing that now. This post can wait. If the tone completely switches, it’s because I took some time out and returned to this post later.

**20 minutes later**

Yeah, I’m a giant idiot and forgot to email him back. That’s been resolved.

Anyways, fuck it… I can’t remember what else I wanted to say. Nothing important. I hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season if that’s their thing.

Holidays and another posting at Guerrilla Geek

So the holidays are upon us. For us in the U.S., today is a day we show we’re thankful for what we have by being over indulgent with what we have. I know it really doesn’t make sense to some non-U.S.ers, but it’s how we roll. It’s one of the few stupid things we do that I fully support, but only because I love oven roasted turkey.

It also is more or less the unofficial start of the Holiday season here in the states. From here on out things are going to get crazy for me since I work in retail again. I actually have to go into work at 4:30am tomorrow. People are insane. Still worlds better than my last job and I still have plenty of time to other things I enjoy, such as writing and playing games.

Speaking of games, I talked a bit about great card games to play with nerdy and geeky folk over at Guerrilla Geek. It has some great ideas for the holidays! Many of these games can be picked up pretty cheap and are a lot of fun to play with friends.

http://www.guerrillageek.com/2010/11/card-night-not-just-for-poker-anymore

New Article and some random thoughts

First off, I have another article posted at Guerrilla Geek, http://www.guerrillageek.com/2010/11/new-adventures-of-old-conando/

Any ways, I don’t think I have been this tired and busy for awhile. After today I will have worked five of the last six days, I’ve written two articles while starting a third, helped Ed prepare for the upcoming VOR Trivia show and still got to level 57 with my Hunter in lotro. It’s been crazy, but being this busy allows me to feel less guilty when I take a day off like I did on Sunday.

I am hoping that once I get settled in with all this new stuff going on that I will be able to get refocused on my fiction writing. I think this time away will help me come back to the projects with fresh eyes.

Lastly, the KFC Doublicious is amazing. Everything else on their menu may suck, but that sandwich is just delicious. I give it my full support. =D

Another article published!

I had another article published on Guerrilla Geek yesterday. This one isn’t video game related, but still nerdy as hell. Do me a favor, go visit it and show me love. I feel neglected because of the lack of comments!

Thanks for the support everyone!

On a lighter note…

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That’s it. All I had was a title apparently. I logged into the blog and happened to notice a long list unpublished post drafts saved. This one I started on July 8th but was just a title and no content. I wonder if it was a positive post or not. Must have been a horrible idea if I abandoned it before I even began.

Anyways, just a heads up that I have been writing a lot recently. Not nearly enough fiction, but at least I’m writing.

I have also fallen in love with Professor Elemental.