Rules: using only song names from ONE ARTIST, cleverly answer these questions.
You can't use the band I used and don't repeat a song title. It's a lot harder than you think!
Repost as "my life according to (band name)".

Pick your Artist:
Rascal Flatts

Your sex:
Waiting All My Life

Describe yourself:
Winner at a Losing Game

How do you feel:
Better Now

Describe where you currently live:
Close

If you could go anywhere, where would you go:
Oklahoma-Texas Line

Your favorite form of transportation:
Fast Cars and Freedom

Your best friend is:
You

You and your best friends are:
We Got Love (Lost Demo)

What's the weather like:
Shine On

Favorite time of day:
Summer Nights

If your life was a TV show, what would it be called:
It's Not Just Me

What is life to you:
Unstoppable

Your relationship:
It's Not Supposed To Go Like That

Your fear:
My Worst Fear

What is the best advice you have to give:
Break Away

Thought for the Day:
Love Who You Love

How you would like to die:
Holdin' On

Your soul's present condition:
No Reins

Your motto:
Stand

... That was surprisingly easy...

From TAI-Santi. Who deserves a cyber-hug. Go do it. Now.

1.) What is your name?
That falls under the category of none of your business. *paranoid*

2.) Do you find it annoying when surveys ask for your name?
Yes.

3.) What do you plan to buy in the future?
HEAVY RAIN (holy crap when is that coming out OMG I WANTZ IT NAO!)

4.) Where did you get the underwear you are currently wearing?
Dunno. Why?

5.) How many pairs of Converse do you own?
Big fat zero.

6.) Who is your favorite “That ’70s Show” character?
Kelso's the stupid one, right? Then him or Red.

7.) There is a mummy standing behind you. What do you do?
Scream, then rip off the head bandages to see if it's the really hot mummy from Night at the Museum.

8.) What do you think of Miley Cyrus?
Who cares?

9.) Do you tend to think that you are always right?
Yeah, but then someone says something that shoots me down.

10.) Top Five Favorite Songs:
Ooh, toughie.
1. Another Heart Calls- All-American Rejects
2. Just to Get High- Nickelback
3. Home- Blake Shelton
4. How 'Bout You Don't- The Lost Trailers
5. Bob That Head- Rascal Flatts (Don't get too excited, guys. It's a song about a truck.)

11.) What was your favorite toy as a child?
There was a time when I wasn't playing video games?

12.) Have you thought more about your funeral, or your wedding?
Wedding.

13.) Dinosaurs or Unicorns?
Dinosaurs, man! But don't ask me to get on the ride. It kinda scares me.

14.) What is your favorite musical?
Wicked. Or Avenue Q. But I've actually SEEN Wicked, and so I think that counts more.

15.) You need new jeans. Where do you go?
Wally World!

16.) Do you play the Sims 2?
I did. Then I got the Sims 3. *nerd*

17.) Do you think Harry Potter is at all immoral to read?
No. And the people who think it is are insane.

18.) What do you think of Maroon 5?
Who?

19.) What about Coldplay?
Who?

20.) Fall Out Boy?
They have a few good songs, but I really only know them through Rock Band.

21.) Katy Perry?
... WHO?

22.) How about The All-American Rejects?
They are the definition of love. Those guys are amazing.

23.) Have you ever snuck into an R-rated movie when you weren’t old enough to see it ?
No, because the R-rated movies that I want to see, my dad wants to see as well, so it all works out.

24.) The Wii or Xbox 360?
As much as I hate to say this, 360 all the way.

25.) Team Demi/Selena or Team Miley?
Wait, what?

26.) Do you know many Emily’s?
Only three.

27.) What do you think of the Jonas Brothers?
THEY ALMOST RAN ME OVER IN NEW YORK. Also, that song of theirs, Paranoid, once it gets into your head it doesn't leave.

28.) Have you ever slept in a tent, indoors or out?
Yep.

29.) What is your favorite kind of Girlscout cookie?
Do they still make those lemon coolers?

30.) Do you enjoy surveys?
Sometimes.

31.) What do you hear at the moment?
My keyboard.

32.) Why do you think so many people love deviantArt?
IDK.

33.) What do you think of people who do illegal drugs?
I think they're crazy and they're going to mess up their brain doing it.

34.) Do you watch the Olympics?
Depends. What events are we looking at here?

35.) What are your top five favorite stores?
GameStop, Best Buy, Wally World, Kohl's, and Target, I guess.

36.) Do you like the new Weezer album?
They have a new album?

37.) What did you think of Panic at the Disco taking out the exclamation point in their name?
It was a lot of hype over nothing.

38.) What is the worst job you have ever had?
Haven't had one.

39.) Have you ever been to Minnesota?
No...wtf?

40.) What is the strangest thing you’ve ever seen on TV?
Probably a lady who tore her ACL and the dr. was showing how they were going to fix it. He stuck this THING into her knee and was moving it around... *shudders*

41.) Do you watch informercials when there is nothing on?
Nope.

42.) What is your favorite Disney Show?
Wizards of Waverly Place?

43.) Have you ever seen the Wedding Singer?
No

44.) Top five reasons people rank things:
Because they can, because it makes them feel superior, because they're bored, because they have nothing better to do, because they're procrastinating on a big project.

45.) Have you ever gone camping?
Is this 'camping' in the literal term, where it's outdoors, or 'camping' as in "we're on a school trip and can't afford a hotel room so we're going to sleep on the floor of a gym/livestock showroom'?

46.) What do you miss most about elementary school?
Your homework consisted of problems such as "8+5=?"

47.) What do you do when you want to fill out a survey, but none of your friends have posted surveys that you have not taken yet?
I go find something better to do.

48.) What is your favorite kind of DQ Blizzard?
I don't even know what they have any more, it's been so long since I've had one.

49.) Has anything funny ever happened to you while in Wendy’s?
One of my best friends works at Wendy's, so I walked in and he looked at me and told me to get out of his restaraunt.

50.) What is your current job? If you are applying anywhere, where?
Applied at GameStop and Michaels.

So. There's this crazy-awesome series. A video game series. It's not really well known, at least not by a bunch of people around here. But it should be.

I've been alive long enough for the entire series, but only just. I was way too young to play the first two, the third one never worked until recently, and the fourth I watched my dad play, I was still too young to play it myself.

This series is a game of craziness and randomness known as *insert fanfare here*

MONKEY ISLAND.

Oh, go on. Go look it up. I'll be here waiting. Watch some gameplay or something. Just... go view the awesomeness that is Monkey Island.




Okay. So now that you know how amazing it is, let me go over the series as a whole.

The Secret of Monkey Island released in 1993, a year after I was born. Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge released in 1995. The Curse of Monkey Island came out in 1997, and is the first one that I played by myself (unless you count the guidebook and my cousin sitting on my lap watching me). Escape From Monkey Island came out in 2000 and was the first to be released not only in 3D, but on consoles as well as PC.

Notice a trend here? Like, maybe... how they all came out within two years of each other?

It's been almost a decade without a new Monkey Island. And finally, a spark on the horizon!

At E3 of this year, LucasArts announced two Monkey Island games. One is going to be a remake of the original game, with full voice acting and much better graphics. The other has sorta released and is why this topic came up. The second game is Tales of Monkey Island and is being made by Telltale Games. It's being released in an episodic fashion.

The first episode released on July 7, 2009. And the only thing that I can say is HOLY CRAP AMAZING.

You have to understand. This is the FIRST Monkey Island game that I will be playing, by myself, as it comes out. Though I was certainly old enough to play the fourth one, and as I've been "playing" since I was eighteen months old on my daddy's knee, so I knew how to handle the controller, I am also a huge bookworm. And at the time, my dad got the guide for basically every game. See where this is going? I was smart enough to realize that I didn't have the dexterity/reflexes to perform Monkey Fu or whatever.

Why they didn't stick with Insult Swordfighting, I'll never understand. If Telltale doesn't put Insult SOMETHING in this game, I'm going to be extraordinarily pissed. That has some of the best lines in the entire game, and that's saying something.

Okay, not the point. Anyway, I'm just excited. Let's just leave it at that.

So I played through the first episode, and though I got stuck on a rather simple puzzle (bomb goes IN the underwear, Guybrush...) I thought it was amazing. From the opening puzzle, when you have to enchant a cutlass with voodoo root beer, but the root beer MUST be fizzy and yours is flat, so you have to put breath mints in the root beer, to the hilarious/French stereotype/EVILLL Marquis de Singe who wants to take your evil, cursed hand off of your body by using a miniature guillotine (and he pronounces it like I always thought it was: gillotine instead of geeyotine) to the aforementioned bomb-in-the-underwear puzzle, this chapter was amazing. The one-liners were spot-on, from Guybrush making a reference to the length of time since the last game to the multiple Indiana Jones references.

The games are riddled with references. Unfortunately, I'm apparently not cultured enough to understand most of them. There were a few Star Trek references in the third game that I didn't get until I read about them on one of the best Monkey Island sites around: World of Monkey Island.

Overall, Tales of Monkey Island Episode One: Launch of the Screaming Narwhal gets four and three quarters out of five stars.

How appropriate. You fight like a cow.

ROCK ON TELLTALE!!!

and i'm serious. you'd better put in some insult swordfighting or armwrestling or something or many of your fans are going to fire the studio. the mel gibson way.

So I totally stole a 2008... uhr... "meme". Is that what we call it on the Intrawebz?

1. What did you do in 2008 that you'd never done before?
I went to New York City and marched in the Macy's parade!!

2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
No. I didn't quit biting my nails, so... I might, but I don't know.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
I think my second cousins were both born this year, but the older one might've been born last year.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
January 1, 2008.
No.

5. What countries did you visit?
Does the USA count, considering I live here?

6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?
A job?

7. What date(s) from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
November 27, 2008. Thanksgiving. When we marched in the Macy's Parade.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
How many times must I say this? Macy's!!!

9. What was your biggest failure?
Almost failing geometry in March.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Unfortunately. I hurt my ankle while marching, and of course I suffered the usual colds and such.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
Mmm... dunno. I don't usually buy my own stuff (see the lack of job mentioned above).

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
One of the drum majors for admitting when he screwed up. One of the mellophone players for also admitting when he screwed up and facing the hatred of the entire band.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Half of the drumline and one of the baritones, for making some very stupid decisions and getting themselves banned from band.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Video games!!

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Uhh... Dark Knight!! Well, no. Probably Macy's again.

16. What song will always remind you of 2008?
Just one? Uh, wow. That's a toughie. Um. Cool from the West Side Story soundtrack. It's saying no matter what life hands you or how bad it gets, stay cool and you'll get through it.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you
a) happier or sadder?
Does angrier count? Every year I lose more faith in the human race! Okay, just kidding. Probably happier, but...
b) thinner or fatter?
I lost weight, but I didn't lose the skin and flab unfortunately, so about the same.
c) richer or poorer?
Richer, considering I didn't spend all my Christmas money in one day!

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Writing and practicing and living for the moment really.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Practicing! Okay, kidding. Uhh... complaining.

20. How did you spend Christmas?
With the family, of course. I spent most of the day playing Rock Band and then on Christmas Day, playing Godfather.

21. How will you be spending New Year's?
Doing nothing but sitting on the Intrawebz and watching TV.

22. Did you fall in love in 2008?
I was in two relationships, but neither evolved into anything.

23. How many one-night stands?
None.

24. What was your favorite TV program?
Plastic Surgery: Before and After, or else anything on the Discovery Health Channel.

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
Try half the trumpet section.

26. What was the best book you read?
The Godfather by Mario Puzo.

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Urgh. I don't think West Side Story would count. So probably Nickelback and All-American Rejects. Call me sheltered if you wish, but I hadn't heard their work before.

28. What did you want and get?
Lots of video games.

29. What did you want and not get?
Tuition to PYIC!

30. What was your favorite film of this year?
Either Batman Begins or Dark Knight.

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I spent my sixteenth birthday at the worst competition of the year. We got yelled at a lot. Not fun.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Not having to break up with the second guy I dated. I really hated doing it.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?
Be comfortable. Later, be comfortable, but be pretty.

34. What kept you sane?
Video games and knowing that tomorrow was just another day and I had another chance.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Urp. I don't know. Don't really care.

36. What political issue stirred you the most?
Proposition Eight.

37. Whom did you miss?
My friend. She lives really far out of state and I haven't seen her in two years.

38. Who was the best new person you met?
xxxTAI-santixxx or however you spell her screenname.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008:
You have to live for the day. Don't live for tomorrow, and don't live for the past, because you never know when tomorrow won't come.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
"Still learning how to pray
Trying hard not to stray
Try to see things your way
Still learning how to pray.
I'm still learning how to trust.
It's so hard to open up
And I'd do anything for us
I'm still learning how to trust.
I'm still learning how to bend.
How to let you in,
In a world full of tears,
We'll conquer all our fears."

--Gary Allan, Learning How to Bend

Well, I'm home from NYC. The trip was absolutely amazing, spectacular, actually there are really no words. I've never seen New York before, so I was floored. Everything was so much better than it is on TV, although the parade was kind of bad in the sense that we were up at two thirty AM after getting four hours sleep tops and didn't get to go to bed until eleven-ish that night. There was a six hour downtime, though, but I doubt anyone actually got any sleep. Yeah, we were all ridiculously wired from all the adrenaline.

I have to say, though, my favorite part was definitely going to see Wicked on Broadway. While I couldn't force myself through the book, the musical was beyond words. I cried at the end, but I loved all the music and the acting was insanely awesome. My favorite song (and I apologize right now for the cliche) was definitely Defying Gravity. I've never seen anything like it, and I've only seen two real musicals (BriarPatch and Wicked).

We also saw the Rockettes, but that was last night and, well, there's only so many times you can see a line of pretty women do the can-can before it gets old. I nearly fell asleep, but I did manage to watch the entire thing. Although, allow myself to be fair to myself, we didn't have a whole lot of sleep the night before and I was dead on my feet walking out. I also owe a huge debt to one of my friends' parents, I ran out of money and they got me a Rockettes t-shirt!

A few bad things happened on the trip. Relationship problems that I don't want to go into at the moment, I lost my ring, and well, there was this one incident that nearly made me late for Thanksgiving dinner that embarrasses me just thinking about it. But I did manage to pull everything together and I think I looked really pretty for dinner. Actually, my section leader who is almost like my older brother was scared out of his mind when I walked up to him. He couldn't believe it was really me!

So yes, the trip was beyond words. It was insane. There was so much other stuff that I didn't get to write about, but I'm tired and I forgot to take my magnetic bracelet so my carpal tunnel is acting up again. But thank [insert name of deity here] I don't have to wear the stupid Ace bandage on my ankle anymore! Achilles Tendonitis FTL!