Simply Put, My Grandpa is Awesome

So if you haven't heard by now, I have some bad news. My grandfather passed away last month at the age of 93 years old....

Most everyone who reads this will not have met him, but just know that he was a great man who will be missed by many. Now most of the time when someone passes there is a lot of sadness and depression, but my grandpa's passing was a lot different, at least for me. (By the way, I always called him PawPaw, and that's how I will reference him for the rest of this post, as will the majority of my family forever.)

 Long before PawPaw passed away we had a talk about life and death, and how he was ready to pass whenever his time came... That conversation really prepared me for what happened, but it was surprising how well I was able to handle it all. I figured I was going to put on a happy face, crack a few jokes, and when I was alone break down uncontrollably, but the break down never came. If anything, I was happy. Now I know it sounds weird to think of someone's death as a time of joy, but this is the one time in my life where it was true. My grandfather had led a long long life, full of joy and pain, of triumphs and failures. He had traveled the world and created a family, survived threats both physical and mental, and was an all around incredible person who had the unique ability to consistently keep me grounded in reality and encourage me to follow my dreams to their full potential at the same time.

 Honestly I have been trying to write this post about how amazing he was for weeks now, but I don't think that anything that I could ever write would be a proper enough tribute to him. Luckily, he solved this problem for me long ago by taking the following picture:

 Now that's worth much more than a thousand words.

 I'll miss him for the rest of my life, but I'm so honored to have had James Rorie as my grandfather. I loved him so much, and I'm happy that we got to spend as much time together. I'm the luckiest guy in the world, plain and simple.

 And I think I'll just leave it at that.

It's a Geek Week Extravaganza!

I just punched myself over how lame that title was, but seriously, it's Geek Week on Youtube, and I am insanely excited!!! Even better, it coincides with Shark Week.... Yeah, that Shark Week. Seriously, go watch some sharks. They're the aquatic dinosaurs of our time.

That's one of the highest compliments I can give an animal.... or anyone else by the way. You're welcome sharks.

Ok, now back to my original post topic: Geek Week. If you don't know what this is, this video will probably help a bit:

So I figured in honor of Geek Week, I would make a post about my personal favorite YouTube channels, just in case you were ever interested in what I waste my time watching. Warning, some of these videos will have graphic language, if you don't like that sort of thing. I'm going to post links to each channel I mention, but I'm only going to post a random assortment of videos so this post doesn't go on forever.

First up, I watch a lot of gaming videos. I really enjoy watching people play games, do commentary, and generally be ridiculous. Though I'll watch some random people now and again, I mainly follow 3 channels for my gaming, with my personal favorite being a guy named Jerma who does a bunch of variety gaming. By far the best thing he does is "Scare Saturdays" where he plays scary games and yells a lot. And what's better than watching a grown man scream in fear of a video game?

Next up is pure entertainment. Now I know there are tons and tons of channels that make incredible original content, but I'm only going to mention a few gems here. Freddie W. (who made Video Game High School, now in its second season), Epic Meal Time, Cartoon Hangover, Cinema Sins, HISHE, and something that appeals to Dr. Who fans and puppet lovers, HelloDoctorPuppet:

Yeah, that's a puppet Dr. Who.

I'm constantly amazed about how much time and effort put into these labors of love. These people had an idea and completely ran away with it, and that's something that is way too rare. Or whatever. As long as they continue to make with the chuckles for me, that's what really matters.

Finally, and mainly cause I'm a bit tired, I'm going to wrap the rest of these channels in a category I'm going to call, and quite originally I might add, "Miscellaneous". A more accurate description might be "Informative/Educational" but who has time for that? Amazing channels include MyHarto (location of My Drunk Kitchen), Daily Grace, Mental Floss, Minute Physics, ASAP Science, Cars and Water, Numberphile, Smarter Every Day, Laci Green, VSauce 1,2, 3, and my absolute all time favorite channel, at least for now, PBS IdeaChannel:

That pretty much wraps it up. There are tons more channels out there, feel free to let me know if I missed any amazing channels, or if you just want to open my eyes to the awesome that is your favorite channel. I'd really appreciate that... Like that would be super cool awesome. Thanks. Oh yeah, go watch Geek Week please.


Links to My Favorite Channels:

Variety Gaming:

Jerma: http://www.youtube.com/user/Jerma985
Star: http://www.youtube.com/user/Niichts
Shibby: http://www.youtube.com/user/Shibby2142


Entertainment:

Freddie W. http://www.youtube.com/user/freddiew
Epic Meal Time: http://www.youtube.com/user/EpicMealTime
Cartoon Hangover: http://www.youtube.com/user/CartoonHangover
Nerdist: http://www.youtube.com/user/Nerdist
HISHE: http://www.youtube.com/user/HISHEdotcom
CinemaSins: http://www.youtube.com/user/CinemaSins
Hello Doctor Puppet: http://www.youtube.com/user/HelloDoctorPuppet

Other:

Daily Grace: http://www.youtube.com/user/dailygrace
MyHarto: http://www.youtube.com/user/MyHarto
Laci Green: http://www.youtube.com/user/lacigreen
Mental Floss: http://www.youtube.com/user/MentalFlossVideo
Minute Physics: http://www.youtube.com/user/minutephysics
Smarter Every Day: http://www.youtube.com/user/destinws2
VSauce: http://www.youtube.com/user/Vsauce
PBS Idea Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/pbsideachannel

Random Memory at 2:24 A.M.

So I can't sleep, mainly due to me laying here in bed playing on my laptop watching Batman Beyond on Netflix... Ladies. But I started thinking about my past, like I usually do, and one memory has been plaguing me for the last couple of days. Okay, plaguing is a putting it too seriously. How about.... standing out among my thoughts? That sounds a better and takes this post in a much less serious direction.

Before I get to my memory, I just have to say that I really like Batman Beyond a lot. It's well written, smart, full of strong characters, and it has Batman The Musical. Seriously, go watch that. I will wait. (Actually I'm probably rewatching it) So everything is perfect right? WRONG! I have one glaring problem with the show, and it's how they portray Bruce Wayne as this decrepit and bitter old man who has been abandoned by everyone he ever cared about or was close to... and that just doesn't fly for me. He just stops fighting crime entirely, which is the most un-Batman thing I can think of him to do, and locks himself away for years and years until Terry McGinnis randomly comes by one night.

I've gotta stop before I go off on a rant that is much better suited for in person with elaborate hand gestures and possibly an impromptu sword fight. Back to my memory that has been rattling around in my head.

When I was in elementary school there was a school wide celebration for Earth Day, complete with guest speakers that no one cared about and poems written by students about saving the Earth and where will the penguins live? (I did not win the poem contest, in case you were curious). All in all, it was probably a really boring day but my young mind loved it, especially since I didn't have to go to class. What made the day stick out in my head was this game they made us play. I actually think they made us play a bunch of different games, grouped by grade, but that isn't what I'm focusing on. That was just a bit extra for you to enjoy, to put a better mental picture of the Rienzi Elementary School Gymnasium and my Earth Day experience. Dang, I'm rambling again, and instead of just deleting what I wrote I decided to call attention to the situation.

Dancing Taco

Anyways, the game I remember so well had us all pick a card, and on that card was something in the food chain. We had to go around and find everything that we either ate or that ate us, and when we did we were connected by a piece of yarn. Since there were about 40-50 of us doing this, things got pretty chaotic pretty quickly. Finally, after we were all connected, and some people were really cool animals (I think I was some kind of berry) the people running the game started incorporating things like poisons and pollution into the system. The idea was that if you were poisoned, then everything up the food chain that ate you was poisoned as well. That turned the tables entirely! No longer was I this ineffectual berry, I was core of the existence of the people who got really cool animals. The power was in my hands!! I would be the one berry to rule them all!!! MUWHAHAHAHA!!! I actually started hoping that I would get poisoned so that I could collapse this fragile excuse for an food chain, so I could bring down the powers that be and change the world! (Or at least the gymnasium), but alas, it was not meant to be for me, the berry best of the bottom of the food chain. I think that some sort of grain got chosen to be poisoned, lucky guy, and really the whole thing ended quite anticlimactically with everyone connected just sitting down and the people running the game yelling "See!? Just one small link in the chain can pull down an entire ecosystem! What does that tell you??" like this game was going to be the single reason that I chose not to go poison grains or whatever. And maybe for one of the other kids it was exactly what they needed, but for me it just felt like a big waste of time.

Looking back, that game had to have some lasting effect on me. Otherwise why would I be thinking about it all these years later? And I'm pretty sure I've come to a conclusion: I hate stupid things that are supposed to teach you lessons. I get bored and my mind starts to wander, usually to dreams of world (or gym) domination (or waffles). I just want you to tell me what I need to know, and then we can spend the rest of that time doing something awesome instead. For example, instead of the game where we knew everything was gonna die we could've played kickball. I love kickball. Boom! And winner would be proclaimed King of Earth.... Day. Or something like that.

I'm tired now, and I think I'm good to put this memory to bed. Thanks so much for reading, you really are my favorite. I'll probably do a few more posts kinda like this one where I dive back into my memories, but no promises. I don't want you to get all spoiled and junk.

Where Have I Been?

I swear, I haven't abandoned you. Well, I kinda did, but that's ok cause I'm back now.... Sorta. Let me explain.

As you know, or maybe you don't since you may not have read all my posts, one of my assigned goals for this year was to blog once a week for three months. Now I kinda bent the rules in some parts, but I finally achieved my goal not too long ago. Honestly, I'm pretty proud of that... which is probably a weird thing to be proud of but it was something I actually set out to do, and I achieved it. So go me and whatnot. Huzzah!!!

But where does that leave us? Do I now stop blogging? Do I move on to bigger and better things? NAY I SAY! There is no bigger nor better thing than blogging for you six people who read my written word. (Originally I wrote spoken word there because I typically speak things that I type like this, and since I'm writing in the empty classroom of McCool right now I bet this seems really weird to anyone walking by. Also, I don't use brackets properly since my typical bracket is longer than the sentence or piece it is explaining.) ((Also, there are better things than blogging, like nachos, jet skis, and swordfights, but since I have none of those currently, this is it. And I know there are more than six of you reading this... hopefully. I did just pass a 1000 views for this blog, which makes me feel really tingly.))

Since I'm no longer on a dedicated timeline, this is how my posting schedule is gonna go: There is no schedule. Boom, plot twist! Right now I am swamped with grad school stuff, and for the next couple of weeks I'm gonna be a wreck. But I still love to write, and I may start posting some of the random things I write during the week and when I can't sleep at night. It might get weird.... In fact, I know it's gonna get weird. Some weeks I may post a ridiculous amount, but we may go for awhile without speaking to one another. I hope our relationship can survive. This is what my grandfather must've meant when he said relationships take hard work and dedication. I'd always wondered about that.

Anyways, that's what gonna be happening over the next few weeks. Onto other things:

It's been a really dark last few weeks with all the crazy that's been happening, most notable being the Boston Marathon bombings. I'm not going to go too in depth about the situation since you should already know everything about it. I was gonna post some things I wrote about the situation, but I feel like other people have already said it better and with a much larger vocabulary... All I'm going to say is this:

Anytime someone tells you that we are living in the worst of times, where evil runs rampant and no one cares, where everyone casts a blind eye to anything that does not involve them and people are only looking out for themselves, they can go jump in a lake. The worst of humanity played their cowardly hand and we responded in force with goodwill, kindness, heroism, and unity. I saw men and women put themselves in unknown danger willingly to try and help those who were injured. There's a lot of bad in the world, but we often forget that there's a lot of good as well. The darker the shadows, the brighter the light.

As always, Mr. Rodgers said it best:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=-LGHtc_D328

Patton Oswalt did a pretty good job too:

https://www.facebook.com/pattonoswalt/posts/10151440800582655

Thanks for reading and go hug someone,

Tim

Dear Body

Dear Body,

What's goin on? Allergies??? Really? We are supposed to be a team. Like Batman and Batman. Please quit failing at this pivotal time. I've got finals, projects, and a life.

Seriously, please don't be a jerk. I know we haven't always gotten along. You got me pretty good during that whole puberty thing, but I've forgiven you for that. You even pulled a fast one that time I was on a date and you decided stomach problems were appropriate for the occasion. So good job, but I'm willing to let bygones be bygones. I listen to you, I take care of you, I make you smell good, so now it's time for you to do your part.

Sincerely,

Me

Boom!

I purposely waited until today to post this, the last of the required blogs on my goals. I can officially check one item off, which feels pretty dang good if I must be honest. And this week/next I'm definitely going to check off a couple more goals, just cause I'm a butt-kickin ninja like that.

Last week I produced a pretty lackluster post, and I do apologize for that. Posting once a week for three months was much more difficult that I had ever thought it would be, and I then to think things are impossible so..... yeah.

Instead of giving you another subpar post this week I'm staying up way past my bedtime to talk about one of my least favorite days of the year, April 1st. Also known commonly as April Fool's Day, April 1st sucks. At least it does to me. I know there's a rich and beautiful history behind it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_Fools'_Day

But I simply don't care. I hate it. I hate that I can't find a news source that isn't trying to be what the Onion is year round. I hate that I can't accept something from someone without questioning their motives. I hate that everyone tries to be funny but they end up being Carrot Top funny, not Steve Martin funny.

Also, how creepy does Carrot Top look?

Instead look at these tacos!

Maybe hate is the wrong term. I just strongly dislike the day really. Plenty of amazing things have happened on April 1st, such as:

Susan Boyle was born.

The Great Britain Royal Air Force was founded.

Riverboat gambling was made legal in Iowa.

and many more http://www.thepeoplehistory.com/april1st.html

I dunno. I might just be a stick in the mud. I typically do enjoy what Google does (This year it's treasure maps, Google Smell, and Gmail Blue). YouTube isn't too annoying either, in fact I did chuckle a tad when I saw the YouTube Collection today. But I think they're ok because their jokes are usually funny, poke fun at themselves, and I can ignore them for the most part if I really want.


As long as I'm talking about things I hate I'll talk about a couple more, cause that's what blogs and the Internet is really for right??

I hate surprise parties. I hate them so much. Please don't ever throw me a surprise party. Just punch me in the kidney a couple of times and give me cake. That works for me.

I hate when a restaurant puts onions on something I asked for sans onions. I hate that sometimes I forget to check and bite into it. And I hate when I do check, they put onions on, and they are the diced kind that you always end up leaving one on somewhere, probably hidden in the lettuce.

Oh, and I hate Bojangles, the chicken place. There are far too many chicken places in Starkville. I am still mad we didn't get a Dairy Queen instead. I don't even like Dairy Queen!!! BUT I HATE BOJANGLES!!!

I was gonna put a really funny picture here of something hating something else, and use that to represent my hate for Bojangles. But I'm kinda tired, and I need to get to sleep. I'm sure there are many typos in this post, and now I'm just rambling because that's what I tend to do when I'm sleepy and am typing. I'm gonna stop now. Well after this:

Thanks for reading. It really means a lot that people continue to read the inane things I write on this blog. The simple act of you taking a bit of time out of your life humbles me more that I can say here. Just know it's a lot. Especially you. Yeah, you. You know exactly who you are, I don't have to call you out by name. Thanks...

TTFN, Ta Ta For Now

Things I'm terrible at...

Planning ahead, not eating bacon, and bringing exciting content to you in blog form. My life hasn't been too exciting this week, but it has been really busy, which means that while I am posting this sexy mini-post to tide you over I really don't have much to talk about. So please forgive me, new delicious content will be coming soon.

I heart you,
Tim