So I've held out for a long time on buying one of the current-gen video game systems. Usually I'm on top of it right when they come out, but because of money & time, I've been waiting to make a decision on which system to get first. For me, the biggest must have game is Smash Bros. Brawl, but that won't be out until February, and my roommate has a Wii, so I can play that or any other Wii games on there until I get one. So it was down to the PS3 & 360.

Which means that I now own an XBox 360! There just weren't many PS3 exclusive games that I really wanted, compared to the 360 exclusives (and there were a bunch of multi-platform games I wanted.) Plus, I just really like everything Microsoft did with the system, and with XBox Live & the Marketplace (downloading demos, additional content, smaller games, etc.) So I'm all giddy & excited about it.

My Gamertag on XBox Live is Lord Icy, so if you're on there let me know your name and add me to your list. I picked up Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, Halo 3, Dead Rising, Eternal Sonata, Enchanted Arms, Tony Hawk's Project 8, and I downloaded Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD from the XBox Live Arcade (I was so excited to find that game on there; it's my favorite puzzle game of all-time, and someone borrowed my copy of the PSone version and never returned it.) So yeah, look me up for some gameage!

Tags: video games
Current Mood: w00t!

But just barely. This semester has more or less been hell. Outside of classes, rehearsals, and homework, I've scarcely had any time to breathe, much less have time to myself to do the things I'd like to do (little things like video games and the internet tend to fall in there.) But as busy as I've been, it's been fun. I'm taking two work-intensive theatre performance classes, which is a bad idea in-and-of itself when it comes to time management, but I'm getting a lot out of it and still doing well in the classes, so it's worth it.

I was also in my first theatre show in over 6 years, which was really exciting for me. We just finished doing The Man Who Came To Dinner, in which I played Professor Metz, the cockroach-happy German scientist. I'll have a bunch of pictures up eventually, but here's one for the time being (linked so as to not stretch out screens.)

I also had my first hosting gig with the improv troupe that I'm in, hosting a show after TMWCTD of an original format that I developed from the ground up. It got a great response, and we had a number of people saying they thought it was the best show they've seen us do, so that made me really happy. I'll put it up on YouTube at some point for people to check out.

There's more, but I highly doubt anyone wants to read an 8 page essay on everything that's been going on with me this semester. Do people still read LJ? Heh, I've been gone so long I don't really know who all does or doesn't. Hopefully I can become active on here again, but I make no promises!

Tags: acting, school, tbnl, theatre
Current Mood: drained
Current Music: James Blunt - 1973

I get Reward Zone emails from Best Buy, and the one I got today was about getting all the back-to-school must haves. The things shown? A new laptop, printer, router, Microsoft Office... and World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade.

Exactly what school is requiring WoW in order to attend? Because I think I kinda want to transfer.

Tags: world of warcraft
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: Bowling For Soup - If You Come Back To Me

I just realized it's been two years since I last updated the fan art site. At this point, I wonder if everyone just assumes that the site is dead, and they've given up on it. I'd love to get it back up and running, but I don't think I can manage to continue doing it all manually, and I still haven't found any sort of script that might work for it. Ugh.

Tags: icybrian.com
Current Mood: blah
Current Music: The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus - Cat and Mouse

I was very tempted to go to one of the midnight releases for the new Harry Potter book, stand in line for an hour, and then get to the front and just buy the first book.

Sadly, I don't know anyone in town who's actually going to get the new book at midnight, and it just seemed kind of sad to do it by myself. Oh well.

Current Mood: bored
Current Music: watching Heroes

For a while now, I've been looking for a better program to use to organize all my writing notes. The program I had been using was really old, and definitely not made for writers, but it was easier than having a ton of Word files spread out all over the place. I went looking for a better program today, and I found WriteItNow. I tried out the demo and really liked it, so I went ahead and bought it. I can already tell that I'm going to love it.

It's made with novel writing in mind, but I can still use it just fine for organizing all my screenplay notes, and just typing the actual script in Final Draft rather than the built in editor for chapters. But it's great because it has set places to enter notes on all your characters, events, locations, ideas, & notes, and they can all tie in with each other. I've already got all my notes transferred over, with a separate file for each of the major projects I'm working on, plus one file for ideas that I'm still working on developing or that I've just jotted down a quick note about. It's really handy for organizing notes on the film scripts I'm working on, and I made a file for all my Emoderia notes (the fantasy world that Into the Black was set in; I've got like five different stories set in that world, although I haven't worked on them in years.)

This just makes me really happy, because having my notes well organized is really important to me when I'm writing, as it makes it easier for me to find what I'm looking for and feel more free while writing/brainstorming. And I've been really bad about writing lately, so hopefully this'll give me the kick in the pants that I need. I'd highly suggest to any other writers out there to check it out; it's definitely worth at least downloading the demo and giving it a shot. If you do, let me know what you think.

Also, while I was transferring all my notes over, I realized that I have ideas for over 100 different movies in there. I really need to get my writing ass back into gear O_o

Tags: cold silver films, into the black, writing
Current Mood: creative
Current Music: Papa Roach - Forever

So Keely was doing an opera workshop at Harrower at Georgia State for the last month, which culminated in the performance of over 20 scenes from various operas last Friday and Sunday. She had large roles in two of the scenes performed on Sunday, and did a fantastic job in both of them. I'm incredibly proud of her. One of the pieces, Wolfy, was a world premiere opera about the women in Mozart's life; she played his mother and they performed the finale, which takes place after his death. The composer put it up on YouTube, so I figured I'd link it on here. She's the one who starts out on the far left of the screen (wearing the blue dress.) Give it a look!

Tags: opera
Current Mood: proud
Current Music: The Ataris - Looking Back On Today

Rhonda's convinced that I have some kind of weird electrical aura around me, because all the computers in the office are always working fine until I get here, and as soon as I touch them they crash. Happened three times yesterday and once today. Even Aquaman doesn't have it this bad.

Oh, and I'm back in Lilburn (well, have been for a few weeks.) Show me some love!

Tags: natc
Current Mood: busy
Current Music: Boys Like Girls - The Great Escape

I think there's something beautiful about the fact that I'm analyzing "Tunak Tunak Tun" for my final paper for World Music Cultures.

Tags: school
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: Daler Mehndi - Tunak Tunak Tun

Holy shit, Pirates 3 was FUCKING AWESOME. A bit different from what I was expecting, but I loved it. Did a great job of wrapping up the trilogy, I thought. And the Keith Richards cameo was amazing. I just may have to see it again (and I still need to see Spider-Man 3 and Shrek the Third.)

Tags: movies
Current Mood: happy

(cross-posted from the forum)

I just put one of my short films up on YouTube, and wanted to share it here with everyone. I'm in the improv troupe at my college, and once a year we do a show that's all original sketch comedy and stand-up. Our date for the show this year got tossed around several times, and when we finally got it nailed down, it was less than a week before the actual show.

I dug back through some of the old scripts that I'd written and never filmed, and found one called "Telemarketing For Beginners." It was something I wrote like five years ago, and was inspired by the actions of a certain SweetElly. So I made a few changes to the script to fix a few things in it that I didn't like, and I changed the character's name to Elly as a little bit of an homage. I also included a certain line that just begged to be included. So I give mad props to DK for inspiring me on this. I love you MY DIRTY GAY BOY!

I shot everything in about two days between a massive amount of schoolwork, and finished editing it together at 5:30am the morning of the show (leaving me about two hours to sleep before my 8am class.) It got a really good reception, and I was very happy with it. So please watch it, rate/favorite it, and pass the link around to your friends to spread the love.

And so, here it is: "Telemarketing For Beginners."

Tags: cold silver films, film, ibwf, icybrian.com, movies, school, tbnl, theatre
Current Location: Keely's apartment
Current Mood: accomplished

There are a bunch of forest fires in the area, scattered between Waycross and north Florida. So more or less every day for the last few weeks the air has been completely full of smoke. And let me tell ya, that's been just great for my lungs and my breathing. There have even been a few days where I've gone outside and found my car covered in a nice layer of ash. We've been lucky so far to not have had the fires actually reach us, and they're starting to get them contained so hopefully that won't be an issue. But man, my lungs have been screaming.

Got one more week left in Maymester down here. Just finished one test today and I have another one at 11:00, and then I have to give my speech in Communications tomorrow about why Paris Hilton needs to get the hell off of TV, and I'm still not fully prepared for that, nor do I have a visual aid. I was thinking about shooting a little short video showing what would happen if people in everyday life acted like she did, but I don't know if I'll have time to shoot and edit it for class tomorrow. Blargh. We'll see.

Tags: school
Current Mood: busy
Current Music: Living Things - Bom Bom Bom

Managed to get all my play cards and sociology projects done, and I've currently got 30 out of the 45 journal entries completed. So I'm making my way on all that at least. I shouldn't have trouble getting the rest of the journal entries done, but my problem is going to lie in finishing my one-act play itself. I've also got a "Just For Laughs" show with the improv troupe on Tuesday, which is for original comedic material, but I haven't had any time to get anything together for that. I was hoping to get an easy short film written and shot by then, but I'm wondering how likely that's going to be.

Getting ready now to get out of here to head up to Atlanta for the Butch Walker concert tonight! Woo!

Current Mood: good
Current Music: Butch Walker - Diary of a San Fernando Sexx Star