Step into my mind...

So guys, haven't posted anything awesome in about a day, so I figured I'd here's a status update on my life.

Car Situation
Right now I've got 2 people who go to auctions and stuff like that looking for cars for me. One of them found an '02 Firebird (V6, 3.8L, 200HP, enough said) for $5000. In the classifieds I found a '98 Civic EX "Fully Loaded" for $3850. I'm gonna call the person with the Civic today. Other than that, I've been looking everyday. I'll keep you'll updated on that situation.

Graduation
So, a loooooot of people I know are graduating/graduated yesterday from High School. Graduation is one of those things that before it happens, doesn't seem like a big deal, but after it happens is a huge deal. It seems like barely a year ago I walked across that stage as they called my name....oh, er yeah...it was a year ago wasn't it. Anyways, congrats/congrads to all the graduates. It may not seem like a big deal yet, but once you start registering for college classes and getting books and stuff you'll realize how big of a step it really is. I'd say graduation is on the big "5" things that happens in life. The others being:
1) Becoming a teenager
2) Turning 16
3) Graduating High School
4) Graduating College
5) Getting married
6) Getting to level 50 in Halo (obviously the most important one of all)

I will admit that as the list goes on, the events get more and more important.

Awesome Websites!
So this might seem lame, but there are some awesome websites out there that I pretty much check regularly - thus they play a huge role in my life, kind of like my best friend(s) in the for of HTML. Check 'em out:

BensBargain's
BensBargain's is one of the coolest sites ever. Ben, the owner, spends his time searching for awesome deals in-store and online, and then posts them on his site so they're easily found. My favorite is the "Freebies" section where everything is free. I've been getting a magazine (EGM (Electronic Gaming Monthly)) for FREE for 3 years because of his freebies section. Thanks Ben.

Craigslist
Buy, sell trade, get free stuff, etc. Craigslist is an awesome site very similar to eBay, except free. Over the past 2 years it's popularity has sky-rocketed. The best part? No ads, no registration, no fees, no nothing. You have something you wanna sell? Go to Craigslist, fill out the info, upload some pics, bam you're done. Easy as that. I've bought and sold countless things on Craigslist, each time without hassle.

Another cool thing about Craigslist is all the sections it has. There are sections for Cars/Trucks for sale (which I currently check everyday), Job Postings, locations of garage sales, general discussion forums, etc. It's an awesome site that I use frequently.

WordPress
Now it would be just plain rude of me to plug these other sites without mentioning the site that is currently hosting my blog and allowing you read it. Wordpress is one of, if not the best free blog sites. They make it so very easy to get a good URL (i.e. www.yourname.wordpress.com), set up your blog, manage it, use different themes, use tags to increase pageviews, etc. I really do encourage anyone who enjoys reading blogs to make their own on here - it's addicting! It's really interesting to see your posts get linked to other places, and watch your hits go up.

Many people dont realize that you can actually make money blogging. You have to pay to have your blog hosted somewhere else (WordPress wont allow you to put ads in your posts if your site is hosted by them), but generally the Ad-Sense, pay per click, or general ads pay a lot annually. A friend one of mine told me that last year he made $45,000 off his blog...and it was about Poke'mon. Yeah, so make a blog guys, it's so fun to post and even more fun to read! Who knows, maybe your niche blog about the pros and cons of anteaters could be worth a fortune in a few years...

TexAgs Forums
Christopher introduced me to these forums a few weeks ago, and I LOVE them. I've always enjoyed forums because of the quick, instant help you can get, and because of the sense of community they give. TexAgs is awesome because their boards are so very popular. You'll post a topic, and within minutes it'll have 50 views and 10 responses. Above all, the people are hilarious. You quickly become addicted and will find yourself posting every chance you get. Not only that, but pretty much everyone there is an Aggie. *insert cliche whoop or Texas A&M reference here*.

WELL, quite a long winded blog post. I'm about to go watch Vantage Point, which I've been meaning to do for a while. Comment it up, and take it easy guys. Everyone have a fun and safe memorial day.

-Cameron

Pretty interesting story over at Engadget about a line that formed out side of the "Cube" Apple store in the heart of New York City. Pretty funny. Here's are some pics for you guys:

I mean, yeah the new iPhone is gonna be awesome (3G, GPS, cheaper, etc.) but it's definitely not worth getting in line weeks before it comes out. Rumors have been going around hinting at release date of June 9th. Anyways, I'll be flying to New York later to stand in line with these idiots. Anyone wanna join me?

-Cameron

Yesterday tragedy struck - I was driving home from class and my car overheated. I acted fast, taking it to the local mechanic I always use. It was too late though, his chances of living were slim. Yesterday, at 3:35pm, my best friend (The "Green Blur", aka my 1993 Ford Escort) died in Sevcik's parking lot.

I really cant think of a better place for him to pass though. He loved Sevcik's, and Sevcik's loved him. Sevcik's changed his oil, rotated tires, checked his fluids; basically kept him alive for the 4 years that he was loyal to me. BTW if anyone can offer me more than $300 for it, you can have it.

Anyway, this is actually a blessing in disguise. Although the Escort was a beast, his time was up. He had been working hard for 15 years, and he deserves to rest in peace. The Killswitch sticker that I put on him a few months ago will remain forever, a sign of my love and appreciation of him.

So as this door close on the Escort's life (no pun intended), another door opens: what will I drive next? I've been looking everywhere for a decent car. Here are my conditions as of now:

- $6000 max (cash)
- Most likely a Civic or Accord (although maybe a Camry)
- 1998 - 2002
- Less than 150,000 miles
- Preferably local, although if shipping isn't crazy I'll by anywhere
- Clean title (will run the VIN myself)

That's about it for now. I'm going to look at an Accord EX later today, looks pretty nice. I'll definitely post back on how that goes.

Until then, take it easy guys. Be sure to not let your car overheat and cause the head gasket to crack, because I now speak from experience - it's no fun.

BUT, until I post back let's take a look at some of the cars I've looked at so far:

All of those are in my price range, but none of them really "felt" right ya know?

Hopefully I have better luck tomorrow...

-Cameron

Slow motion popcorn popping

Anti tank missile launching

Water Balloon

Bullet through glass

Bullet through apple

Bullet through egg

Bullet through crayons

Dart going through balloon (very cool)

Bullet through card

Bullet through rose

Bullet through dollar

Cool guy popping balloon

Bullet through cracker

That's all I've got for now guys, enjoy.

-Cameron

So I've started a WordPress blog  to compare to this. I'm going to talk about separate topics on each and then decide which I want to keep. I blogged on it earlier about Office Live (this site) vs. WordPress. Bookmark them both and feel free to comment on the WordPress one since anonymous comments are actually allowed there. I've been looking at hosts that offer domains + WordPress and have been pretty impressed. For $6.95 a month you can get unlimited storage/bandwidth, 99.9% uptime, and lots of applications (WordPress, Fantastico, Mamba, PHP, cpanel, MYSQL databases, Joomla, etc.). Really not a bad deal. I have to wait 60 days until I can release this domain and transfer it to a new host. Until then, this will have to do. Have a good week everyone.

-Cameron

EDIT: For some reason the pics get cut off on my actual blog site, so sorry about that :/.

So I've been bored at home on my laptop all day, and I've been obsessed with finding  awesome Mac setups. Here's what I've found:

That's all I've got for now. Someday I'll have my own sick mac setup :). Take it easy guys, check back tomorrow for another post.

-Cameron

Well guys, as you can see I'm alive. The surgery went well, nothing went wrong. Instead of going up through my nose and fixing the bones, they decided to go through the cut that was on the top of my nose instead (yikes). So that's stitched up now, hopefully it wont leave too bad of a scar. Something that everyone should experience is falling asleep to anesthesia - it really is one of the craziest feelings ever. You're just laying there, and all of the sudden you start seeing double/triple and your eyes get really heavy and everything gets blurry.

So far the pain hasn't been too bad. Right when I first woke up after the surgery yesterday it was pretty intense, but luckily they immediately gave me some pain stuff through my IV that eased the pain quickly. Now I'm just taking ibuprofen twice a day. The splint thing they put on me nose isn't anywhere near as annoying as I thought it'd be. It really covers just my nose and doesn't get in the way of anything else.

Overall, I'm glad the surgery is over and that I'm not dead. This event caused a lot of "firsts" for me. Let's take a look at those: turn with me to page 53 in your copy of Cameron's Life: The Untold Story:

Page 53: Cameron's Firsts That Were Caused By Him Being Punched In The Face:

1) Being punched in the face

2) Bleeding profusely from multiple wounds

3) Breaking nose

4) Breaking a bone

5) Going to the ER for anything more than just being sick

6) Having Surviving surgery

Well, there we go. Hope you enjoyed guys.

 
-Cameron

 
P.S.
You can get your copy of Cameron's Life: The Untold Story from major booksellers like Amazon, Barnes and Noble, etc.

Well this is it. In 30 minutes I'll be in the surgery room, getting prepped and stuff (whatever that is). In 1.5 hours the surgery will begin. Let's make a checklist of how I'm feeling right now:

Scared? Yes

Ready? Yes

Hungry? YES

Excited? Yes

Nervous? Yes

Ready to be in pain? No

Ready to be lied to by the Men In Black with the memory eraser thing? No

Ready to have a normal nose again? Yes

Ready to sit at home and play Halo all night? Yes

Ready to wear a goofy nose brace for a week? No

Ready to go to another metal show? Yes (and maybe break someone else's nose?)

Well, looks like I'm good to go. Keep me in your prayers. I'll post back afterwards and let you'll know how it went (IF I'M ALIVE). Bye for now ladies and gents.

-Cameron

P.S.
I like the way this looks better than this site, so bookmark that link if you want. It's the same thing, just better layout and stuff.

Got a special treat for you guys: double update today.

Firstly, as you'll might have heard, my nose is broken. Went to a concert in Houston this past weekend (local metal bands), and got in an accident. To make a long story short, I got bumped into a guy and he through a punch. Wasn't a "fight" since I didn't fight back, so that should clear up everyone's questions of "WAS IT A FIGHT?!". But yeah...it's broken, has a pretty deep gash at the top, etc. I'm meeting with the plastic surgeon tomorrow afternoon to figure out what needs to be done. It's not obvious, but looking at the x-rays it's pretty apparent that my nose is crooked and needs to be fixed. Hopefully this wont be too big of an ordeal, but either way keep me in your prayers. Oh and in case anyone didn't know, this was the first bone I had ever broken in my body (surprisingly). Actually it was also my first visit to the ER that wasn't sickness related. Hopefully it'll be the last visit for a long time too...
Secondly, my minimester at Blinn started today. The class is "Music Appreciation", and is even sillier than the title suggests. Here's a summary from the syllabus:

"Music appreciation is a general survey curse including music from various styles, cultures and historical periods.  The general objectives of the course are: to introduce the student to music sources other than the normal mass media offering available, and to give the student tools which will help to increase listening pleasure and understanding.

During the course of study, the student will learn to hear and discuss music by using the elements of timbre, melody, harmony, rhythm, texture, and form.  The student will also learn general information about music terminology and how the elements of music are used in the style periods of western music."

Like I said, nothing to be too excited about. So here's the reason I'm even taking time to write this: the instructor (Dr. Marcelo Bussiki) is a trip. Jentry and I walk in, and Dr. Bussiki is all smiles. He begins talking and doesn't stop for 2 solid hours. During those 2 hours, I saw/experienced some of the most awkward and funny moments ever.

Before I go any further, let me show you what I just found courtesy of Google...

Dr. Marcelo Bussiki himself (he's the Brazos Valley Symphony Orchestra conductor) Also here's his Wikipedia profile and his Blinn Staff profile.

Anyways, so Dr. Bussiki is one of the most energetic professors I've ever had. He LOVES music with a passion. He was singing and making crazy sounds and beats in no time. We watched a 30 minute clip of an orchestra and he paused and rewinded just about every 10 minutes to explain something. The funny thing is, although his class is extremely boring, I love it. He has the coolest accent ever and makes everything he talks about somewhat (used loosely) enjoyable.

That's all I've got today guys. Stay tuned for more posts are time goes on...

-Cameron