MatthewMeyer.net

I think I have a lot of these sort of random “here’s what I’m doing” posts… I haven’t had enough external stimulation for long rants or big opinions recently, and I don’t have regular times to write in here, so I guess that’s why.

Anyway, I’ve been playing D&D since coming home and that’s probably what was missing most out of my life last semester… well, besides Frances of course! (But that’s a given, so that’s why I didn’t write it. ) I’m job hunting still, and I’ve been sketching in order to get some portfolio pieces I can show to gaming companies and whatnot (since my chickens are hardly material for those types of jobs). A lot of my time has been spent cleaning up my room… and now it’s clean enough that I can actually focus on starting my “after-college” life, rather than finishing up my “in-college” life (not that there’s a real difference; just that I finally feel settled down back here once again).

So today I’m going to start painting 4 character sketches that I made.

I’ve also been reminiscing about Japan, since it’s been a year now since I was there. It’s so sad to think I’m not going back… and how much happier it was there last year… but reminiscing is fun. And so I’ve been recording down a few more posts in the Kanazawa section just to make sure I don’t leave out any details that may be important to me down the line. I don’t think there will be any major details, but feel free to peruse.

What blog would be complete without a post about Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith? Not this one, that’s for sure. But I don’t feel like writing much these days, so I’ll keep it short.

I liked it a lot. CG has progressed enough that it doesn’t bother me as much as it used to. The action wasn’t top notch, but the story was excellent. The script wasn’t as bad as in the other two prequels either. I laughed at the movie in a few places (like E.T.’s exit scene… whoops I meant Yoda), but it was a very cool movie.

I interviewed for a job this week. (Did I mention that already?) I’ll find out next week if I got it or not. And now that my desktop is fixed and we have DSL at my house, I finally feel like I’m at home.

Okay, that was it. Short post… Back to work!

I’ve been so busy that I haven’t had time to write an update in a little while. So here’s what’s happened:

My harddrive broke down the day before I left… so I’ve been without my computer for some time. I’m using my laptop now on stolen wireless internet. My car exploded in South Carolina, so I the trip took 2 days longer than it should have due to waiting around. So now I have no car either.

But my friends and I set up a gaming room in my basement, and that is providing a good bit of entertainment, including a new place to play D&D. We also started a new D&D campaign, which is quite promising. I can’t wait to play again next weekend.

Job searching will have to be on hold until I have access to my hard drive, so until then I pretty much get to unpack and think about D&D. Hopefully the computer can be fixed without any reformatting or loss of data… I *really* hope.

In the meantime, the biggest change I’m feeling is… television! Once again I have cable TV, and today I watched The Simpsons and Seinfield for the first time in ages. I even saw a commercial for men’s wrinkle-cream, which shows me how much the media world has changed since I last paid any attention. Right now I’m watching Full House… and man… I can’t get enough of this show. I must have seen them all when I was a kid, but they’re so much better than anything else that’s on TV right now. I never thought I would want to watch this show again… but damn.

Well I’ve got to pay attention to the dumb-box. I’ll try to write more later…

I guess I didn’t mention this: I graduated yesterday.

Congratulations to all of my classmates, and to everyone back from NJ who is graduating this year too.

My house is now so empty that it doesn’t feel like my home anymore… I’ve taken all the posters off the walls, dismantled my shelves, and other good things like that. There is a huge mountain of things in my living room that (supposedly) will have to fit into my tiny car, though I’m beginning to seriously doubt that it will be possible. I may have to make a trip to UPS beforehand (I still hate you, UPS… don’t think I’ve forgiven you).

I plan to go home Monday night so I should arrive in NJ by Tuesday evening. Ugh… the drive from Hell. At least it’s the last time I’ll have to do it.

And when I arrive home, summer begins! I’ll be building a game room in my basement for a little while, then starting up a new D&D game (maybe I’ll try to keep up a web journal like I did in the past). I’ll also be illustrating more game-y stuff, like I used to do in high school, and hopefully I’ll be able to get a few jobs from gaming companies. I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself for now… but that’s the plan.

Strangely, though my parents were all happy about sending me to art school when I was in high school, they’ve finally hit that mark where they suddenly decide it was a bad idea after all. I guess my parents are finally getting old. (Have they forgotten they went to music school?) It was a real bummer at graduation because it seemed like they were not proud at all… and I keep hearing the “when are you going to get a real job” line. My mom has some bizarre plan for me that there is no way I will do… so I expect there to be a lot of fighting this summer.

I guess it’s a sign of the times… I just got out of my car where I was listening to the oldies station (playing 70′s and 80′s songs) and unloaded my purchase of Pepsi and Pringles. I looked at the box for Pepsi’s current promotion: Call Upon Yoda! Then I was saddened to see the entry requirements: 1) find your game piece in the box, 2) register online at some website, 3) text message the number provided to see if Yoda responds.

Look how complex those instructions are! What happened to the age where you could open a box and find out if you won? How come now to enter any contest we have to subject ourselves to endless spam by registering online, and then spend money on a sending a text message? Doubly saddenning is not only knowing that I would never be willing to complete such uneven requirements, but knowing that countless millions will.

And as for the disturbing trend of foods now to be covered in “low carb” labels and forgetting the whole “low fat” phase, will our children grow up teasing their classmates with names like “carby-warby” instead of “fatty-watty?” If I ever become fat enough to warrant a nickname, there goes my title!

…On the other hand, if your name is Barb, I feel sorry for you.

It’s happened to all of us; you wake up only to discover that your neck is out of kilter. You slept on it wrong, or twisted it in your sleep, or whatever.

That’s what I’m like today, only it’s the most pain I’ve ever had in my neck. I woke up feeling like someone was twisting a knife around in my spine, and it’s not gotten any better since. I tried taking a hot shower to relax the muscles, I took 600 mg of ibuprofin… nothing… I can barely move without feeling crippling pain shoot through my body. It hurts so bad I feel nauseus…

I hope this clears up before graduation, cause theres no way I can go if it still hurts like this.

My senior show was last Thursday. I forgot to bring a camera then, so I came back later and took a picture of the setup.

Senior Show

As you can see, Frances is visiting me. That explains why I haven’t updated this site in over a week. She was here for 10 days, and it was the best vacation I could have from all the work this semester. We went to Busch Gardens last Saturday and had a great time… this week was actually the first time I really enjoyed being in Florida, and even though I could write up a long list of reasons why I don’t like this state, I think finally after 4 years of living here I’m finally able to appreciate Florida. That said, I’m really looking forward to returning to New Jersey. I will miss the nice weather down here, beautiful plants and birds, and the nice sea breeze… but I’ll be glad to get away from the most inefficiently managed place I’ve lived in, with some of the stupidest people I’ve ever lived near. I promised myself I wouldn’t turn this post into a rant about Florida, so I’ll leave it at that.

Now that Frances is gone I’ve got some emails to catch up on, some cleaning to do, and some packing to do. I also want to run down to school and scan some of the work I did in the fall semester, since I haven’t been able to do that yet.

I’ve spent so much time this week around tame birds that I’ve decided I want to try to train Igor to be more comfortable being handled.