Terraria and a night of dreams

I play games. That's not a new thing to most of you, is it? Sorry if it disappoints you that I sit for hours staring at a screen. It doesn't disappoint me so much when it's a really good game.

Terraria is one of those games.



It had me up until the wee hours of 5:45am two nights ago, just playing it. It's like Minecraft, like a 2D Super Nintendo RPG, and like.....(I don't know, I ran out of things to compare it to.).
So that's that. Asleep on my couch at 6:00am.

Then I was awake three hours later because my dad and Preston were talking about the power being out.
Apart from being reeeeeally tired and kind of not caring, I was awake now, couldn't go back to sleep, but now my Terraria was down for the count.
I guess a sub station blew up or something that cut power from Manti all the way down to Wayne County. Projected uptime: 2:00.

So I sat around a lot. I ate some cold food. I played games on electronic devices that were quickly running out of battery power.
I guess now's the time to touch on the fact that my family is different-er, I've noticed. We didn't have a jolly old time together. We did our own things. Each had a phone out, or mini Tetris game, or other something, and when I (albeit sarcastically) asked if anyone wanted to play a card game it was a stark "nah."  Hmm. Oh well.

I went to Annabella, where they had power, and played Terraria with my uncle and others until around midnight. My phone was terminally ill, having no power to charge it, so an entire day of careless gaming, no cell phone, etc., was really nice. Then I drove home still on 3 hours of sleep.

The dreams I had were interesting. During one, I knew I was dreaming, but I was so out-of-it that I couldn't wake up. I kept thinking, "Okay, when I close my eyes and open them, I'll be awake, and this will be the real world."  It 'worked' once (in the dream..), but then I blinked, and went back.
But, ah, lucid dreaming. It's fun, and very elusive. It's just too bad that this was one lucid dream that I wanted to get out of, so I didn't think to change it and make it epic.

Later I dreamt (That's a word! British English says so.) of a Walmart that looked like a study hall, friends from Snow (Hah, one kid always calls me JL, but he called me Justin in this one.), a clear cell phone which was SOOOO cool, and a visit from a thought that I've pushed to the back of my mind. That thought kept the plot rolling...Shoot.
I guess what my mind is trying to tell me is like what the Beatles said: "I get by with a little help from my friends."

Then I woke up to my cell phone ringing the Final Fantasy 6 boss battle theme. I guess it was a good morning.

Now for more Terraria.

Phenomena Series - 2

This is another addition to strange/cool/interesting worldly phenomena that I run into and discover.

Phenomenon #3 (I hope it's three; I can't remember the last from Series 1):
When you get a big drink of water, if you fill up a big cup with hot water first--about halfway--then quickly fill it up with cold water, it provides an interesting temperature sensation... When you drink it immediately after adding the cold, you drink warm water first, then as it goes down, it turns colder.

On that note...
Phenomenon #4 (again, don't judge my counting prowess):
Take three bowls of water: one filled with cold water, one filled with hot water, and another with warm--in the middle. Put one hand in the cold bowl and one in the hot for a li'l bit. Then put both into the warm water.
The cold-water hand "seeks out" the warmth, and the hot-water hand feels the cold.

Call it a left- and right-handed perspective.
(Ooooo, that line gives me chills.)

Waiting - my Haiku

Make an impression:
I await what Life will give.
It has four days left.

(I've never written a haiku before. It's....exhilarating.)

I am a moron. But I blame...

Last night was a funny night. I was talking to a friend, and near-death experience talk popped into the conversation. It's ironic that I couldn't think of any at the time. It figures that fifteen minutes later would give me a nice conversation starter.

I spent most of the day in Provo/Orem/some in transit to Lehi. Ate extremely spicy Del Taco. Had a kid beat me at ping pong. Had cake batter ice cream. Watched Pirates 3. Found a geocache. Then I started for home around 10:50.

I am a moron. But I blame the fact that there are multiple visible "arrow" stoplights that beckon traffic their way. I happened to be looking at the wrong one. There were cars waiting to my left to cross over from the freeway exit, and when "my light" turned green, I started out. But....what the heck were THEY doing? This stupid Utah traffic--of course they would make me try to cross through.

Of course not, you moron.

So I stopped in the middle of the wide intersection, still baffled at what the heck they were all doing, but noticed that the same corresponding lane on the other side had a green light, too, and cars were now coming toward me.
Now what was I thinking? Something like, "Hmm, I need to get back to my stop-here-at-red-light line. Or die. Or something." So I threw it into reverse, somehow dodging one lane of cars entirely (I didn't bother to try looking out for them. Figures.) and pulled back into my place, all fine and dandy. Minus the adrenaline and weight of potential near-accident crushing me.

I'm glad I didn't die, that the oncoming cars weren't cruising extra-fast, and that the time of night offered significantly less traffic. Joy.

Did I have nightmares? No. Not about this.

Sharp

My blog is ever-sadly neglected, and Facebook posts get overrated and forgotten in the mix of others' narcissistic tendencies. So, for my readers--few be your numbers--I present to you this would-be Facebook status.

Justin Leon Stoker

As I cut into a brick of cheese the knife grazed past my finger and I thought, "Ahh! Sharp!" Then I realized what I was saying and rephrased: "No! It's mild!"

All for you guys. Thanks.
Enjoy the rain, marvel in the thunder.

Phenomena Series - 1

I had this idea for a li'l theme of sorts to set random posts. These are just things I think of during the day--the first of these are while driving.

I thought of this when a friend of mine blogged about a pretty awesome occurrence in that fraction of time that all of an intersection's stoplights are red. Go take a look. It's somewhere amongst her many posts.

Anyway, I want to give it a shot.

Phenomenon #1:
When a crowded, speeding, handful of cars on a freeway sees a single police car that has pulled over a hapless victim, the throng slows down. Then speeds up a little ways down the road when they forget about what they saw.
"Poor guy. I'm glad it wasn't me," they all think.
The poor guy thought the same thing once.

Phenomenon #2:
This is more of an observed physics phenomenon. The cars on a freeway don't move, if you look at it a certain way. Just a tiny increment of speed -- single miles-pers-hours-es -- are what creates and closes gaps. It's not that one car is going 64 mph and another cruising at a cheery 60. In a sense, one car is going 0, the other is going 4.

The only thing that lets you, yourself, know that you are moving is the whizzing by of the opposite lane's traffic, and of the orange construction cones (this is Utah County I've been driving in...). On that note, physics makes it seem like those cars are flying by at 120 mph. Impressive.

It's basically a cool perspective to take on whilst on a freeway. Too bad accidents don't happen at those negligible speeds. They kind of start moving when they crash into each other.


I had a Phenomenon #3, but I can't remember it. Tiredness overcomes me sometimes. This is a sometime.
I'll remember and continue the series.

Thanks for reading.

Where am I headed?

Last time I wrote anything here it was about what my summer plans were going to be.
Well, one (and definitely the plan I had in mind from the beginning) is now in effect.

I'm writing right now from my aunt's computer up in the big hubub city that's...... (Ah, screw it, it's kinda too late and pointless to not name names and stuff when I have a link to my Facebook page here).

I'm in Springville now, looking for a job and staying in my aunt and uncle's spare bedroom. (Hah...Narnia flashback with that'n. Sadly, there is no large, grand wardrobe in it. :[  )
So far I've applied at a Gamestop, an orchard, and.....that's pretty much it.

I did get really lucky, though (if it works out), when I ran into a lady friend (meaning older woman--a mom) whose husband had connections to a tire store in Provo that was in need of working help. I still need to give that guy a call and check that place out. I'll be doing that today, and finding more summer orchard stuff :P


So, bar none, I live here now, and I don't know what to do...
I don't know what kinds of thing to do, what kinds of places there ARE ("...apart from everything...") so I'm hopefully not gonna be bored out of my mind. That's suppposin' a job doesn't occupy a lot of my time, anyway.
I need a good friend system. Frankly, I can't always hang with one person all the time, because she's got a job, lots of friends, and all that other jazz. (...heh. Hi, you, reading this after requesting more blogging ;)  )
(Of course, there's nothing wrong with hanging out!! Believe me when I say I want to -- but you know what I'm sayin', hehe. Fer your sake...).

So, friends (except those of you who used to live up here and are now back in Richfield....grrr, haha), let's do something. Drag me along to one of your outings so I can make some friends and have this place feel more like home. Pleeeease...? :)

Eh....if you don't have my number, FB message me or something and I'll give it to ye. ....Yeah, all you 10 people who read this, anyway.....hah......

Take it easy!
--Stoker

Summertime, and the livin' is easy.

This summer is different from the rest.
Last summer, I had a couch to sleep on. I still have a couch, but I can't take it this time around.

Also, my parents have taken over the free room with a weight set and treadmill, and they use it often, so if I wanted my own space in there, I'd have to share. Sorry, no.

So now I have options.


Sleep on an air mattress -- This is also something I couldn't handle. It's plastic. And air. A foot off the ground. It has no real support, and I hurt when I wake up. Plus it has no real air flow. After spending a week sleeping on it during spring break, there was a sweaty wet spot under the blankets I was laying on. That can't be a good thing.


Stay at my grandma's house -- It's a 6 bedroom house, and only three are occupied. They have beds. Beds. I actually think this is my best, temporary option. I could help my grandpa out with things around the yard, and mingle with my uncle and stuff. I could handle that. It's in a small town to the south, less than 10 minutes away, so it's not terribly out of the way.


Move north -- This is a big goal, but it relies on a lot of things to work well. My main deal this summer is to get a job and pay off that credit card I used for school. If I can find a decent job, that's just about a month of work.
But: I'm also signed up for the BLM camp crew this summer. That would be a huge chunk of  money in just two weeks that could pay off the credit card and give me a good $1000 cushion on top. A fire is unreliable, though. There's the problem with that. Also, I think they have a time limit from when they call you to when you're supposed to be completely ready to go. I'm not sure if it's an hour or if it's 4 hours. The longer, the better, of course. If it's long, I can still be north and be able to get back down here for that. I'll know after I go to one of the orientation meetings next week. I'm hoping...

As for places I would live, my aunt is one option. They live 15 minutes south of the main city in the area, and have a bedroom that I've stayed in a couple times before. I could snag a job, pay 'em a lodging fee, and, most importantly to me right now....

.....be closer to the friends I made at college. My main friends down here aren't here this summer. No offense to the ones that are, but you're all girls. Hah. I need some man friends to do manly things. I would just sit around here aallllll the time, and not do anything. In the city there are things to do, people to see and visit, and more jobs.

North is full of more opportunities. Down here...not so much. It's a great place, but I think I'm done with it.

Time will tell. Give it a week and a half.