The Trials and Tribulations of a Madman

CURSE YOU JACK FROST!

2009-12-21T04:51:28Z

Everyone please pray to the deity of your choosing as you hope that I will be able to get home for Christmas.

In otherwords:

ffffUuuuuuUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUu-ck my life. I may elaborate later, but essentially I'm stuck.

YUSSSSSSSSSS!

2009-12-17T14:23:06Z

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu-

I'm finally done!

YES.

FUCKIN' AWESOME.

(I searched "fucking awesome" on youtube, so I could visually express my enthusiasm at being done with this semester, and this is what came up, enjoy; I recommend watching all of this).

I'm going to eat more cereal.

2009-12-15T04:03:53Z

Finals week sucks, but it's things like this that keep you going.

Shanksgiving

2009-11-29T23:16:40Z

So I'm back from my trip to New York. There is so much to talk about, so if you really want hard details, just give me a jingle and I'll fill you in.

Quick overview commences now:

The parade: Rocked; was on national TV :-D omgmarchingbandisoverthatisawesomebecauseIhatemarchingband

Food: YESSSSS. I loved the food. Thanksgiving dinner was the best Italian food I've ever had. I went all over town finding good food. My family: good at finding food, concierge: not so good at recommending food.

The shows: In the Heights was very good. STOMP was even better (at least from my point of view, because I sat in the very front row in A2, which means I'm in the middle).

The Tim Burton Gallery: SUCKED BALLS because it sold out. :-/ It was a day of disappointment, but it's okay. We went to the EH-PUCK BATHROOM instead.

Speaking of epic bathrooms, seriously, go to the Charmin bathroom and come out telling me your shit was not glorious.

FFFFFFffffffffffff-

2009-11-24T01:17:03Z

So. I'm on the bus to New York. What is Miles going to New York for? Well, funny story. I'm going to be in the Macy's Day Parade. No, I'm not going to assassinate the Jonas Brothers, even though I want to. The Towson University Marching Band will be marching in the parade this Thursday. So everyone turn on the tube, because around 11:30-11:45 AM my band (which has sucked up my life for the past few months) will be performing for the NBC cameras.

Anyways back to the bus ride. I'm on the Megabus (that's really the name). It's a double-decker, kick ass bus with Wi-Fi, AC outlets, and TVs. For $5-20 bucks, depending on the time of departure, they'll take you from White Marsh, MD to Penn Station in Manhattan. Pretty sweet, huh?

Yeah well it would be if the wigger of the century wasn't sitting three rows behind me. He has the foulest shit blaring on his speakers (yes, he has speakers). He also keeps making some douche bag comments to people sitting around. A black dude is sitting next to me, and he looks like he wants to kill this bitch. If I wasn't 100% sure this guy was on some kind of drugs right now, I'd say something, but I'd rather just try to drown it out until someone gets angry enough to make a comment.

Also, I was wigging out because I was five minutes late for the bus due to traffic. When I show up, I find that luckily my bus is running late. The bus pulls up at 6:50 (my bus was 6:40) and they tell me that I can't board because they are actually the 5:40 bus showing up an hour late. The entire lower deck of the bus is practically empty. There are no stops between White Marsh and New York. What's the big deal of letting me get on this bus? It's the same price, you're showing up at the time my real bus should be here, and there's practically no one on the bus. But no, I am not allowed to board because of "seating" issues. So I ask where our bus is and the lady says "oh, right behind us." Well maybe this chick lives on a different plane of space and time, because "right behind us" has changed from 5-15 minutes to 55 minutes. So..yeah. I sat in the cold rain for 55 minutes because the lady wouldn't let me (and the rest of the customers waiting) on the bus that clearly had an entire deck open. That's not even the best part. When my actual bus shows up at 7:45, people wanting to board the 7:40 try to board this bus and they get the same shit, but this time, they somehow work their way on to our bus. I was furious to say the least.

To be honest, I'm not really that angry, even though I should be.

Waffles Ballin' and all that shit.

<3 Miles

Obama might control the internet?

2009-04-26T20:08:46Z

Wow I am behind the times.

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/obama-shut-down-internet-legislation,7478.html

Has anyone else read this and felt like they've walked into 1984? Let's just wrap a collar around our necks and hand the "messiah" our leashes.

In all probability, this thing will never pass, but with everything that has been happening lately, you never know.

Cosplay - Rantilicious

2009-02-21T04:25:09Z

You know what really grinds my gears? When people talk about the different "tiers" of cosplay. I'm tired of hearing about this bullshit. There is only one "tier" of cosplay and that involves EVERYONE.

Cosplay and conventions are supposed to be your escape from the real world into a comfortable place where you can be free from drama, free of every day stresses, and be someone else for a weekend, while all the while having a great time with friends. Instead, we pit ourselves against each other, turning contests—that are supposed to be fun affirmations that add to your cosplay experience—into stressful and highly competitive bitchfests, where awards and titles become more important that friends.

And then there are websites like 4chan, CosplayTrainWreck, and Cosfucks, where people's work is torn apart viciously with no sign of mercy whatsoever. What ever gave anyone the right to proclaim themselves as a "master of all that is cosplay," whose endless knowledge of the way things should be done shall be imparted upon those who they feel are inferior? In the end, cosplay is all about perspective, and if you think your perspective is better than that of anyone else you should become a politician, because that is all you will amount to be: a conceited, selfish individual who thinks about nothing but their personal gain and "appraised" status in their community.

It is unfortunate that so many people are plagued with ridicule and jest in this community. It disgusts me. We are supposed to support and help our peers who are often struggling to fit in (that would be why/because they go to conventions wearing costumes...). By the way, anonymously posting about someone else in a negative way does not make you cooler or better than them. It makes you seem weaker. If you had any honor, and a legitimate problem with someone, you would come out and face them with civility.

So, please, try to grow up and have fun with cosplay, because in the end, we are all a bunch of loser nerds wearing costumes that we spend hundreds (sometimes thousands) of dollars on. When you step out of those convention doors, your so-called "cosplay status" goes to hell, because you're just another one of those "Ah-nuh-may" kids who thinks Halloween comes ten times a year. You know what? I'd not rather be anything else.

Harry Potter is a lie!

2008-12-18T06:26:13Z

Here's a really long rant. :-D

Today, I re-read parts of the seventh and final (puahahahaha...) Harry Potter book. Now you might be thinking/asking: "Shit, why the hell would you read that crap?" Well, Harry Potter holds a special place in my heart. Whenever I need to go to a "happy place," looking to the magical world of J.K. Rowling's angsty teenage wizard is sometimes the best option.

Some consider her work to be minimalistic and crude, while others bask in the richness and color. I really don't give a shit. Harry Potter to me is a nostalgic thing. I guess that requires explaining. I wouldn't call it a guilty pleasure, since the book doesn't bring any feelings of shame to me in any form. Harry Potter is a past obsession and by indulging myself with its fantasy, I can get closer to a time when things were less stressful and complicated (probably because I was younger and most certainly because I was less experienced and knowledgeable).

When I say obsessed, don't picture what is normally associated with the word. Well, OK, YES, I have dressed up like a character from the series, but this is no different to me than dressing as a character (meaning someone who is not me) from any other medium. NO, I cannot tell you anything and everything about the extended universe of the Harry Potter series. When you get into this kind of intense obsession, I think you ruin the idea of being a fan. There is no contest for being a fan (or at least one that matters and the idea of a contest is pathetic).
Being a fan is about sharing a feeling of joy and excitement with other fans, something special that others do not share. When you can recite the entire book from memory, you have become more of an expert than a fan (and good luck getting a job ANYWHERE as an expert in something as insignificant to the welfare of society as Harry Potter (or Star Trek, Star Wars, House, Lost, Heroes, Barbies, LoTR, Twilight (and by the way if you like this go die), Will and Grace ,ect.)).

Anyways, J.K. Rowling has had a habit recently of selling out. She's pulling a George Lucas. I miss the days when she wrote stuff because that's the way she originally planned to write it. With the last three or four books, she has just kind of writes what comes to mind as she goes along. I mean it's obvious that there was a plan somewhere in there, but it is overshadowed by nonsensical fan-service. J.R.R. Tolkien, another "J.something [Last Name Here]" author who writes about dragons and wizards, NEVER sold out. He was a man with a plan and his books prove it. Even the movies prove it. Peter Jackson didn't fuck up his books. You know why? There was very little room to. If you have a decent directing skill, a good team of screen writers, and a decent crew, you can make a Lord of the Rings movie. Harry Potter movies are different. While Chris Columbus' two movies get at the materials of the books, he forgets or better FAILS to deliver emotion (John Williams does it for him). Alfonso does a great job (with the third movie) at getting at the mood and tone changes of the third book from its predecessors, but misses a great deal of plot (concerning things that are more of less the main focus of books 4-7 and provide important details to why some characters do really important things that they do). The latest two movies aren't even worth talking about as they may do a decent job (not so much 5) of book to movie adaption, yet still fail to deliver important things. Instead they focus on stupid shit that teenie-boppers and other casual movie goers care about.

The reason these movies fail is because Rowling throws in a lot of random information that may or may not be useful and it's left up to the directors and screen writers to try to pull what is useful out of what is probably more difficult to understand than the Indian Code Talkers.

Look at the epilogue to the entire series. Nothing in those pages is worth anything to the Harry Potter series. In no way does it bring closure to the events in the seventh book (in which Harry Potter is turned into Jesus and Gandal-I mean Dumbledore is turned into God.) All the epilogue does is prove how people love to kill things. We gather around something cool and make it so fucking retarded that even big business is asking: "How the hell can you milk something for this long?" In this case (that of the epilouge's) I refer to the contents Rowling fills her "last words" about the Harry Potter series (quotes are there because she wrote another book after years of swearing not to). The epilogue tells about who got together and made babies with who in the end. Harry Potter is NOT FUCKING TWILIGHT (though I guess J.K. could give some awesome tips about shitty writing and how to attract the masses of retarded, drooling, screaming teenie-boppers to your work...oh wait...Stephenie Meyer is already a pro at this).

To be honest, the entire seventh book is kind of like the epilogue in a way. Harry Potter has to gather all of the Horcruxes and throw them into Mount Doom-I mean destroy them somehow to defeat the Dark Lord (who surprising to all is NOT Sauron, but Voldemort (or Satan, which is funny because Voldy is also linked to Lucifer in that he pulled an Anakin Skywalker and went to the dark side and got lots of other people to join him (and he owned their souls or something like that) and openly fought against God who is actually Dumbledore in a big war). Anyways, Harry has to do all of this important stuff, but in the meantime, he spends half of the book in the woods while also juggling a strange hormonal dysfunction and one-hundred relationships (with friends, enemies, and love interests). Instead of focusing on the plot, which I think she just lost somewhere along the way, Rowling wastes hundred of pages and minutes of my time with teenage drama.

Why all of this ranting? I guess I just wish I could see Harry Potter like I used to. It was so innocent, so much fun. Shit, I used to skip class in elementary school to go to the library to read and talk to the librarian (we still talk whenever I go to pick up my siblings) about Harry Potter. I don't think I did it because there was something wrong with me, but because I felt like I didn't fit in with my peers (I once argued that the word "iron" is pronounced "eye-ron" in fourth grade for about an hour...with the teacher [whatever, forgive me for learning to read and write by sounding out words by myself instead of being force fed them like some other people]). Harry Potter was my escape, my salvation. No one judged me when I read about the exploits of my young idol. I could forget about the hard truths of being a loser and drink in the lovely fantasies of a simple, yet satisfying story.

What happened to this Harry Potter? Did he grow up, or did I? It's ironic that I say this because we (Harry and I) ended up being the same age (seventeen) when the book series ended. Somewhere in the time that I started reading to when the books stopped we fell apart. I like to think that it's not Harry's fault or mine, but that of someone else (J.K. Rowling's).

I just hope that in thirty years I can go back and read these books, remembering how much fun they were when I was a kid. Somehow I doubt I'll come out feeling that way.

And that's why hot dogs once came in packages of ten while buns in packages of eight.

-Miles

Are you fucking kidding me?

2008-09-25T00:14:01Z

I found this in the news today.

" Muslims: We must kill Mickey Mouse

A prominent Saudi Islamic cleric has issued a fatwa, or religious edict, against (fucking) Mickey Mouse, whom he characterized as an agent of Satan sent to corrupt young minds.

Sheikh Mohammed Al-Munajid told Saudi Arabia's Al-Majd Television that his beef with Mickey is that he is a mouse, a creature that Islam sees as "repulsive and corrupting."

Al-Munajid explained that Islamic law refers to the mouse as "little corrupter" and a creature that is "steered by Satan," and grants permission to all Muslims to "kill [mice] in all cases."

Therefore, according to Islamic law, insisted the sheikh, "Mickey Mouse should be killed."

Last year the Palestinian Islamic group Hamas tried to redeem Mickey by recreating his likeness on a popular children's television program designed to teach Arab children to hate and seek the violent demise of Jews. "

From: http://www.israeltoday.co.il/default.aspx?tabid=178&nid=17181

So...

Dear George Lucas,

2008-05-22T07:55:06Z

Dear George Lucas,

I hate you. You have taken everything I loved and murdered it right in front of me. You have taken my candy from my poor, defenseless baby carcass and have devoured it like Satan would a wanton soul. You have single-handedly deflowered my dreams. You have taken my childhood and raped it, thrusting upon me your crudely-constructed excuse for a story. I let you get by with Episode One. You hadn’t been making movies for a while, you’d been away from the world for a long time, and you weren’t really used to the whole “modern” thing. It’s OK I get it. You made some mistakes. Jar Jar or pod racing are good examples here. But you know, you gave us Darth Maul and we ate it up like hungry piglets sucking hungrily off of the unrelenting teats of their gargantuan mother. Then Episode Two. That movie should have been thirty minutes long. The only important scenes had Yoda or Mace Windu in them. Everything else was complete trash. And finally, there was Episode Three. Now you know, that one was okay. Considering how distasteful the first two were, you made a pretty good comeback with number three. But now look at what you’ve done. You’ve gone and stolen from me something that I thought you could never touch. You’ve intruded upon my holy temple and have desecrated my sacred icon with your inexorable stream of urine.

I want my $7.50 back. Douche.

Dear Stephen Spielberg,

What the hell, man? E.T. was good, but it did not need a sequel. Come on! Stop letting Jar Jar Lucas do whatever the hell he wants. You don’t need him. He, my good sir, is a tool.

Dear Harrison Ford,

You, good sir, even in your old age, continue to amaze me. Thank you for somehow not contracting whatever disease George Lucas gave to Spielberg. I commend you on the best performance of the shittiest script (that can possibly be written by man or ape) ever given.

Dear Sean Connery,

Even without acting in the movie, you somehow give an amazing performance. I’d just like you to know that you were the best part of a movie you were never even in. Congratulations for doing the impossible (or at least, what was once thought impossible).

Sincerely,

Miles McCready

Fo' shizzle! ST reprezent.

2008-02-18T04:41:06Z

So Katsucon was pretty epic. Although we did kind of putz around a little bit, we still managed to have a great time!

Jiraiya and Tsunade got some epic shots together, including an amazing story photoshoot. Luckily Jiraiya is a major cock block or I fear more people would have tried to poke at Tsunade's boobs. -.-;

ST got some pretty epic shots, too. There was some difficulty surrounding the costumes; we'd never worn them before, so some things didn't come together how we'd have liked, but we worked through it and still looked freakin' epic. You can't mess with the kidz from the land of the sizzle.

piratess__ and katetriss looked amazing in their Cowboy Bebop stuff and had two very successful shoots along with a few random ones on the side.

The trip was alright. There isn't much to say about it except that I almost missed my flight, but everything worked out in the end. Stupid Metro.

AAAANYWAYS! I'm kind of brain dead. I don't know. I'm a little tired, but considering I got a lot more sleep than normal at this con, I'm feeling pretty good. I'm just a bit jumbled at the moment. One of my bags didn't make it back on my flight. @@;

Well, I'm going to go to sleep nao. There isn't much more to say generally anyways. The con was fun, I got to spend time with Lauren, and I got to wear cat ears and look good (defies the laws of physics, I know).

Night(izzle). ^^

Happy.

2008-01-28T01:49:31Z

I am so very happy. <333

I am also very excited! Ikkicon is in two weeks and then Katsucon is right after that the next week! I'm so pumped up that it is becoming ridiculous. Though, I can wait. I've taught myself how to be patient, and although I may complain, I will not drive myself insane.

I really just need something to keep me busy. Cosplay usually serves its purpose here, but seeing as I don't have a lot of work to do on it as usual, I'm finding myself with a lot of free time. I think I'll go get a new job and continue through with my plans to begin exercising more often.

Other than not knowing what to do with myself, I'm happy.

Today.

2008-01-19T06:04:26Z

It's really hard to express a feeling of happiness like this without singing a song, but screw that. I'll just list it all out in a really weird format.

Today was an amazing day. It started extremely early this morning. <3

Then I woke up and finished all of my work for Community Partners. That was good.

Then I got to go to Wing Stop. There, I found out that I can go to Katsucon.

Then I went to the phone store and got a new phone (a Chocolate).

Then I went to see Cloverfield. It's amazing and my new favorite movie.

Now it's actually another day, so we'll see how well this one measures up to yesterday.

Sublime Moment

2008-01-14T04:39:26Z

In my English class we were recently asked to write about a sublime moment. This is what I wrote:
(Note: This was a joke. I hate my English teacher, so I do my best to spite her.)
    To understand why the following is a sublime moment, you first have to understand something about me. I happen to find even the most minuscule of moments important in some way, for I do believe in insight and omens. I think that in the series of events surrounding life, there are reoccurring anomalies that, in the random and spontaneous arrangement of their appearance, provide a link to previous and future events. Therefore, even the smallest action could provide insight into a much greater, much more monumental event. The opposite is true as well. A very important event could be a symbol for a tiny, unimportant moment.
    In light of this, sublime instances can be found quite often if one peers into the future, predicting the cataract effect a moment will have. In theory, a normal moment could produce a sublime moment, therefore making it sublime in nature due to the great significance it has.
    It was 2:30 P.M. I had just left the band hall after a sectional, and I was thirsty. The long, drawn out lecture and constant playing of the trombone left my throat parched to the comparison of a barren desert. So I made my way to the local watering hole, which really isn't a hole at all. It's actually a restaurant in the fast food category. And I actually didn't get any water; I ordered a flavored, carbonated drink known as a "Cherry Limade."
    Limade in hand, I made my way to my house, quite ready to throw myself somewhere comfortable, like my chair, or a couch, and not move for at least an hour.
    It wasn't until after I pulled into the driveway, got out of my car, unlocked the back door, entered my house, closed the door, took off my shoes, walked up the stairs, turned on the fan, walked over to the television, turned on the television, and sat in my favorite seat of the family entertainment room couch that I realized something that not only caused me to yell, curse, stamp my feet, and grit my teeth, but also made me seriously doubt the foundations upon which our everyday lives are based. Buried deep under the ice of my drink was an exotic flavor that was unfamiliar to my Cherry-craving taste buds. There, in the bottom of my cup, floating there, innocently, in my "Cherry Limade," was a strawberry. Fuck.

Myspace Surveys

2008-01-14T04:36:31Z

How can you sum up your life in fifty questions? A hundred questions? Even a million questions? Isn't there so much more to us than just a simple answer to a simple question? Maybe we've become so disfigured and disillusioned that we really have become just a set of simple answers for a set of simple questions. What really gives us meaning? Is it the answers to the questions? Or is it the questions we ask? Sometimes we know the answer before we ask, so why do we ask anyways?

Skit

2008-01-09T22:52:55Z

The scene begins with Alucard and Father Anderson playing a…friendly…game of chess while Seras watches.

FA: Dust to dust! You people who are but dust, return to dust. Amen!

A: To attack a vampire full on without thinking about the consequences is foolish. You’re one courageous father.

S: What are they talking about? –slumps down, annoyed-

-Integra walks in and Seras goes over to join her while Alucard and Father Anderson go at it more-

A: Come, it’s time we get to know each other better! Oh, Judas Priest!

FA: I shall purify all in one righteous sweep! Stand before me!

I: Are they at it again?

S: Yes, sir, and it seems like there’s no end to it. They’ve just been sitting there talking like that for an hour now. No one’s even made a move.

-Integra walks over to the chess board and slams her fist down-

I: You two know better! This is a direct violation of our treaty with the Vatican! This is going to be a big mess for Section XIII to try to explain, Paladin Anderson. And you’re no better Alucard.

-FA mumbles while Alucard sighs and frowns slightly-

I: Alucard and Seras Victoria. According to my latest update, Hellsing is struggling financially –she looks at Alucard- due to a very large bill from Dillard’s for an order of some one hundred red coats and hats; womens, I might add…

-Alucard grins and crosses his legs-

I: Anyways, the fact of the matter is, Hellsing is struggling to afford to pay benefits out to our employees, so in order to lessen our strain, we’re now encouraging our employees to wed so that their assets are shared and therefore we payout less. We also get a nice tax cut.

S: So…are you saying that you want the master and I to…

I: Yes. You and Alucard are to be married immediately.

-FA stops what he’s doing and stares at Integra, while Alucard begins to chuckle-

S: M-m-marry the master? B-b-b-but!

A: Hmph. If the master wills it so, then it will be done. I’m not sure where you’re going with this, but I happen to find it amusing. Come police girl, we’ll be married now.

S: Now?! But-but! We need stuff to get married! Like licenses.

I: Already taken care of.

S: Oh, well what about a priest?

-everyone turns and looks at FA-

FA: Now wait just a minute here. You’re all crazy…wanting to do something like that.

I: Isn’t it your duty as a priest to ordain and wed?

FA: I would never wed such monsters as these!

–Seras gets distracted and twirls around-

FA: Such dark beasts that defy our God should be cast away into Hell from whence they came!

S: -stops in the middle of twirling- Monsters? Beasts?

I: You don’t have to like it, but I have strict orders here from Section XIII for you to comply with our demands for the time being seeing as you have already twice now broken the creed of our treaty with the Vatican.

-FA mumbles while Alucard gets up and walks over to FA and then after Integra stomps her foot, Seras quickly moves to Alucard’s side with a whimper-

I: Now, to business. Anderson, you are to wed these two immediately.

-FA grumbles and pulls out a big bible, which he flips open and clears his throat to-

FA: -with great hesitation- We are unfortunately gathered here today to bring together two evil creatures in a ceremony of pure darkness that will bind their souls together so that they may eternally share a room together in their suffering in Hell.

I: That’s not what I meant but I guess it’s good enough…

FA: -continuing- In the light of God you will be cleansed, good beasts, and perhaps will see a lesser punishment for your sins against Him. Let this union of wickedness signify a last attempt to stand against the Lord, for he will purge you of your wrongness. –jumps out to attack Alucard-

A: -beings laughing and stops Anderson with one of his guns-

FA: -continuing and now louder- Let this joining of these two great fiends bring the end to their unholy lives that scourge the land and bring shadows.

I: -in the middle of FA’s speech- Wait! Stop…Alucard…Alucard! You stupid priest! Damnit! We’re trying to have a wedding here!

-Seras goes off and entertains herself with a new found cookie-

S: Ooh! Look! It’s a cookie!

-Integra stops her foot and growls-

FA: Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron. Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel. Be wise now, therefore, O ye kings; be instructed ye judges of the earth…

I: This is pointless. –she sighs and walks off-

-Alucard continues laughing and beckoning FA on as they exchange hits every few seconds-

FA: …serve the Lord with fear…and rejoice with trembling…

The skit ends with Alucard and FA fighting.