Hit-and-Run Blog Post

OK guys, I know I'm only like a week into this new blog and I'm already late, but cut me some slack - I'm trying to figure out school stuff, I got promoted at work, my house is being remodeled, and when I get a day off, I like to SLEEP.

But in the interest of consistency, here is a list of the three pop-culture-related things that have consumed most of my free time over the last week or two.

3) A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin

In particular, A Dance With Dragons

I'm a huge Fantasy fan. The more epic, the better. I plan on doing a full post on this amazing series as soon as I finish this book, but for now you just need to know that you should read it. Like most Fantasy, there's magic and monsters, but breaking with tradition, it's mostly on the periphery. The books are FAR more concerned with the characters. The focus is truly (at the beginning anyway) about the noble Starks and the villainous Lannisters and their competing interests in Westeros. Of course as the series progresses , the scope begins to pull out and we see how truly complicated both of these families (and the other thousand or so characters) really are.  So, do yourself a favor and read the first book, "Game of Thrones," and then watch the truly spectacular HBO adaptation that I cannot praise highly enough.

2) A Very Potter Musical

To be totally hipster for a moment, I actually knew about this almost as soon as it came out. But I was at camp and couldn't watch it. Then I either forgot about it or repressed it. Why would I repress something so awesome? It's simple really. You see, as long as I hadn't seen this musical, then there would always be more of the Potterverse out there for me to explore. I think subconsciously this tempered the blow of the movies ending, and stopped me from crying (too much) over the end of this chapter of my life. Of course, when I finally did watch the musical, I was both giddy from something new, and totally depressed when it was over. Like ASOIAF, I plan on doing a more in-depth post about just how deep my love of Harry Potter runs, and how it has impacted my life. 

1) MINE-EFFING-CRAFT

Also known as Minecraft. It's like... Legos meets the Sims meets Sim City meets crack. You start out as just a dude (sorry ladies). All you can do it harvest wood and dirt with your bare hands. But as you collect these basic resources, you learn you can make tools. Wooden axes, shovels, picks, and swords allow you to collect more resources, faster. With wooden tools, you can get stone, and make stone tools, which allows you to get iron, which allows you to get diamonds, gold, "red dust" that can be used to make electronics, and so much more. You can combine sticks and coal to make a torch to explore caves and dungeons. You can melt sand to make glass to build an awesome house. You can build a boat to explore the seas. You can shear sheep to get wool, and harvest flowers or squid ink to dye new clothes. You can even feed bones to wild wolves to tame them into partners. 

OH YEAH, and at night, ZOMBIES COME OUT TO KILL YOU. So you can make armor, swords, and bows and arrows to fight back. 

This game is the very definition of "sand box." It's still in the beta testing phase now, which means a) it's CHEAP ($20), b) it's constantly improving, and c) when the final version comes out, YOU GET IT FREE. GO. BUY. NOW. minecraft.net

Anyway, I love you all, thanks for being part of my world, and now I'm going to go to Chick Fil A.