I Quit.

As a number of you would know, from the previous posts on this very blog, over last week, I was on Media Restriction Week, during which time I was not allowed to consume media. Well, as of 7:00pm on Saturday night, I give up. It's not that I can't take the lack of media, I'm sure under a number of circumstances I could have gone the full seven days, it's just, I found out something very, very important: Media Restriction Week turns me into an absolutely intolerable person to be around.

I became something of a self-righteous dick over the past week. Telling others constantly to turn down or turn off their own media, feeling smugly superior to those of my colleagues who had cracked before me, alienating my friends and family... it was on Saturday when I realized the type of person I had become, and it was on Saturday that I decided to stop being that person. After all, I was going to spend all of Sunday hanging out with my girlfriend, and I wasn't about to subject her to my obnoxious behaviour.

So, despite vowing to the contrary, despite saying that I would use every single iota of my self-control to do this, I quit.

After all, there are more important things in life than completing assignments.

My Rain Dance.

Today, my good internet-peoples, was my final trial of media-free week.

If this week were a video game, today would be the final boss, the giant fire-breathing turtle that I had to throw off of its platform, the dragon I needed to slay.

If this week were a TV show, it would be the season finale, the climax, right before all is made right with the world once again. Ted Mosby's on a rooftop, and he has ten more minutes in the episode to make it rain.

Ok, so maybe I'm being a little bit melodramatic here.

 Today, our school had a two-hour lunch break, with a movie in the library, and video games in The Caf, meaning it was virtually impossible to go today without being subject to media. In fact, at least one of the other people doing media free week allegedly cracked, and spent their lunch playing video games. Luckily, despite this downright devious deluge of disaster, I managed to secure the seminar room for those two hours, and spent that whole period playing board games with my friends and colleagues. However, I still had to suffer through the hour-long spare I had immediately afterwards. Thankfully, I managed to stay sane that period, despite rather blatant media consumption on the part of my colleagues and peers. From here on out, I've got a somewhat dreary Friday afternoon, a Dungeons and Dragons day tomorrow, and a day with my sweetheart the day after.

It's all going to be smooth sailing from here on out.

I'll admit though, of the times that I've gone on this laptop to blog, this may be the first time that I've been tempted to open up a new tab, go on Reddit, and break my promise to myself. But, I will stay strong. I will not fail this test of mind and spirit. In fact, I owe it to myself to see this all the way through! I will power through the next two days, and then, on Monday, I will read my webcomics, watch my Ponies, and all will be right with the world.

Ok, now I know that that was too melodramatic.

Mind Games and Cerebral Sitcoms.

Firstly, before I post of anything else, my kind followers, I would first wish to describe to you my media-free  sins: On Monday night, at around 8:00 pm, I accidentally watched the tail end of an episode of the show Redemption Inc., a show with which I am in no way familiar. I did this accidentally, in that I kind of temporarily forgot that I was going media-free.

Secondly, I would like to apologize for a lack of a post yesterday. I told myself that I would post every day for 7 days, and I failed, mostly due to a lack of any interesting developments. Obviously, today is different. 

Today, I want to talk about a subject that I have always been mildly interested in; Dreams. I say mildly interested, in that I'm one of those people who doesn't care remotely about dream interpretation and what it says about who you are as a person, not because I don't think it has validity, and more because I can't be arsed. However, I've always been fascinated by things like lucid dreaming, (Look it up, because I can't.)

and the idea that one's dreams can be controlled if one simply becomes aware of them. But, this rant is about neither of those things. This rant, is about a dream that I had last night, and a dream that I had the night before.

Two nights ago, my subconscious managed to dream up a non-existent episode of the show How I Met Your Mother, a show that is very dear to my heart. Now, I find this fascinating, because that day was my first day without media. Just last night, I played through a level of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3, a game that I have not played in over a year. Now, these two media-related dreams, in such close chronological proximity to each other, makes me think that this is the way my brain is trying to cope. Even more odd, is that this is the first time in a while that I have actually been able to vividly remember my dreams. You see, I think my brain actually needs media. Not on a superficial level, like how you need a lot of money, or you need a fast car. No, I think that my subconscious knows that media is essential to my identity, and quite frankly, my existence as a human being. Thus, it is creating something for me to focus on, and something for me to look forward to at the end of the day. But, maybe it's simply that I've been thinking about media a lot more since I lost it.

Another thing that I'd like to talk about, mostly because it irritated the crap out of me, is an incident that happened yesterday afternoon. So, yesterday after school, my younger brother (by 2 years), Cameron, had a friend over, and, instead of going to Cammy's room, and doing their thing, my little brother did something that confused and utterly baffled me: He brought his friend into the very game room I am sitting in right now, and explained my "plight" to him as if I were some kind of endangered zoo animal. "Yeah, Kyle is on Media Free week right now. He can't watch TV, play games or use the Internet, so he's just reading some shitty book." And then, as if that wasn't bad enough, my younger sibling's moron friend starts asking me questions, as if I'm some sort of guest speaker doing a Q & A! With no regards for my desire to be left alone, to read my damn book in peace! What's up with that?!?

Also, that reminds me; I have recently been reacquainted with the author Terry Pratchett, and would recommend that anyone reading this blog who enjoys either fantasy novels, or Hitch-hikers Guide to the Galaxy, to check his works out.

Anyways, reporting on Day 3 of Media Restriction Week, this is Kyle Whittle, signing off. 

Bad Day, Bad Day, Bad Day!

So. Today, I started Media Restriction Week, for a project for my Media Studies course. For those of you who don't know, Media Restriction Week basically means that, for the next week, from Monday to Sunday, I am not allowed to consume media. Sounds crazy, right? Well, it most definitely is. You see, I made a promise to eliminate virtually ALL media from my life, except for blogging, which I will do once a day, and books. Now, so far, I've learned a couple of things about how myself, and the world works. Firstly, I finally confirmed to myself once and for all that I, Kyle Scott Whittle, have ADHD. Now, this may seem obvious to a number of you, and logically, this should already seem obvious to myself. I mean, I've already been diagnosed with it, and I've been taking medication for it all my life. However, up until now, I've never really understood what that meant. I mean, I got that I found it hard to focus on certain things, but I never really understood the Hyperactivity part of ADHD. Until now, that is. Today, during my spare, after playing a board game with a couple of friends, I found myself with absolutely nothing to do. Like, seriously nothing. So, I had a weird, hyperactive breakdown. I picked up a random, empty tupperware container, and I started throwing it in the air. When that got boring, I sat on a table, and started kicking my legs, to make noise. I did this for no other reason than it was something to do. This is just how my brain works. I found myself uncontrollably tapping my feet, and I couldn't stand still for any given amount of time. So, I think that today, I learned what media is to me. Media isn't a distraction, or a means through which I gain knowledge about life.
Media, for me, is a root. An anchor. Media is the thing that keeps me in one place, focusing on one thing.

Secondly, I learned that breaking habits has consequences. Ladies and Gentlemen, I have a very concrete morning routine. Wake up at 5:20, go on my laptop, read all of my webcomics, go back upstairs, sleep until 6:20, wake back up, shower, get dressed, play games until 7:00, make lunch, leave for the bus by 7:10. Today, however, my schedule went like this: Wake up at 5:20, go back to sleep, wake up at 6:27, sleep until 6:42, shower, get dressed, nap until 7:00, eat breakfast while my mother makes lunch, leave for the bus at 7:20. Do you want to know why this happened? Simple. This happened, because my body is not used to an extra hour and twenty minute sleep. I couldn't handle the extra time, and I spent my morning in a nearly dead state, where every single part of my body, and even my mind, felt heavy. Today was not a good morning.

Finally, and most importantly, I learned that time passes really, really, really slowly. I swear, in the three hours since I've gotten home, at least six or seven hours have passed. I got home at 3. It's 6'o'clock now.

What. The. Hell.

This is the first time in my life that life has taken so damn long. Earlier today, I had taken a nap, had a dream that felt like it had lasted at least an hour and a half, woke up, and it was 15 minutes later! Is this how time passes for normal people? Has life always been this slow, and I've simply not noticed due to the time-warp that is media? Dear god, that's a terrifying thought.

Anyway, I should probably get back to... whatever the hell it is I was doing before. Despite all my griping and groaning, I'm going to continue my quest to escape media for a week. I'm going to do this, despite the obvious tolls to my mental health that this is going to take, because I promised myself I would do it, and, although I have very few principles in life, I always keep my promises.

What I've been reading/watching/whatever.

Good evening, my dear men and women of the blagosphere, and welcome, to another installment of What Kyle's Been Reading/Watching/Whatever. I'll keep this brief, as I only have the attention span to put down so many words at any given time. As many of you know, I write reviews, and in my opinion, I write damn good ones. Thus, here are my musings on the things I've been doing as of late.

What I've Been Playing.
Only recently, I beat a game that I had absolutely fallen in love with. L.A. Noire, developed by Rockstar games, is a game that takes place in, as the title would suggest, in Los Angeles, specifically during the years immediately following World War 2, as well as the Pacific campaign that went along with it. Crime is running rampant, women are being murdered in broad daylight, illegal surplus morphine has made it onto the streets, and as Cole Phelps, rising star in the LAPD, it's your job to put an end to all of it. Now, there are two ways to describe this game, but the first, and simplest one, hardly does it justice. The first way of describing it is, "It's Grand Theft Auto, except you're a cop." However, I personally prefer The lengthier, and more in-depth way; L.A. Noire is an interesting hybrid of a classic point-and-click detective story, which manages to utilize an extraordinarily detailed facial reconstruction system to create very well-made interrogation sequences, made greater by a stellar cast of semi-recognizable actors, and a third-person action game.Quite frankly, although I seem to be gushing about the game right at this very moment, it is not as perfect as I make it out to be. The body animation has yet to catch up to the faces, resulting in a very awkward juxtaposition between marionette and human being. The interrogation is overly simplistic, and yet simultaneously quite luck-based, in my opinion. (Although I am certainly willing to admit that that judgment may simply arise from my being absolutely shite at reading people's faces.) The clue finding can get a bit repetitive, and can occasionally turn into an irritating version of the game hide-and-seek. However, I found that, when playing through this game, I didn't generally seem to care. I played through the entire game, and remained very attached to the story, and to the character. I'll admit though, the game REALLY grabbed me in the last two or so hours of play, but due to a secret code of honour that I, as a critic, have been sworn to take, I cannot divulge any of its secrets.

On a completely separate note, I have also really started to enjoy, of all things, Shaun White Snowboarding, produced by Ubisoft. Now, I feel bad for liking this game. To be perfectly honest, owning it kind of makes me feel like a douchebag. And yet, I find something uniquely zen about going down a mountain at mind-blowingly high speeds. So, there's that.

Also;

• Skyrim
• Skyrim
  
• Skyrim
• Various illegally downloaded Gameboy Advance games from CoolROM.com. But please, don't tell anyone.

What I'm Listening To.

Recently, I've become absolutely enamored, entranced, and enraptured by a British indie rock band by the name of the Arctic Monkeys. Specifically, I've become addicted to their newest album, Suck It and See, which was released on June 6 of last year. Now, the first thing you really need to know about Suck It and See, is that it projects this beautiful air of nostalgia, of young love, of taking chances, and not having a care for the future. Throughout the album, the music, for the most part, is very light and airy, and yet simultaneously quite firm and present. This, combined with vocals that sound very distant and displaced, results in an almost sad yearning for a time when things were simple, and there was no big, black storm cloud of causality hanging above your head. All-in-all, I beg you check out the Arctic Monkeys. I'm sure you won't regret it.

In other news, there have been a few things released since my last set of reviews that I would love to call attention to. First of all, PROTODOME, the artist responsible for the wonderfully cheerful album BLUENOISE, that I mentioned last time I did this, has come out with a new album, BLUESCREEN. Now, BLUESCREEN is certainly a call-back to BLUENOISE, but it is also vastly different. BLUENOISE marked itself with saccharine-sweet chiptunes (For those of you unfamiliar with the term, I would ask that you check out my personal favourite of the genre, a beautiful combination of chiptune and classical music.), whereas BLUESCREEN, while still staying true to its roots, seems to draw most of its influences from jazz, even including a live saxophone on one of its ten tracks. BLUESCREEN is free to download, and is worth every megabyte.

Lastly, I can't go through this article without first mentioning what I found to be the most exciting, but also the most frustrating musical development of the past few months    The Black Keys, who are quite possibly my favourite band ever, released their new album, El Camino, on December the 6th. This is exciting because, as you already know, I absolutely loved the single they released from the album, Lonely Boy, and I'm happy to say that the rest of the album is just as awesome. However, this is frustrating, because I am not the best music critic, and unable to describe my love for this album in words. So, just get it. That's literally all you need to know.

Also;

• Tree of Knowledge - yogurtbox
• Ravenmark, Scourge of Estellion - Josh Whelchel
• We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank - Modest Mouse
• Rubbber Factory - The Black Keys

                                                              

Well, that's all for today, folks! I promise though, this segment isn't done, not by a long shot. After all, I still have TV, movies, and literature to cover. You see, this article is a two-parter! I'll have the second part up sometime this week or next, but don't worry, it will most definitely get done. (I hope.)

To be continued...

Stun Gun Lullaby

Well, after a long bout of combing through my personal music library, I think I've figured out my theme song. My theme song, the song that best defines me as a person, (That I can think of at the moment.) is the song Reckless Serenade, by the Arctic Monkeys. Now, this song isn't actually a description of me. Rather, it's a description of a woman, more specifically, it's about a boy, who's fallen so in love with a girl, that he's lost his senses, his sense of caution, his ability to reason, and see consequences to his actions. In reality, Reckless Serenade describes a self-destructive kind of love that, deep down, everyone yearns for. And yet, despite this song having very little to do with me directly, I've found that it also, in a way, describes me perfectly. As I've only recently come to conclude, I am a highly senseless person. All the time, I do things that are unhealthy, unintelligent, unsafe, and irresponsible, for no reason other than I enjoy it at the time. This explains a great number of aspects of my life, such as my marks, my weight, and a number of people's opinions of me. (You know who you are.) But, that's just how I am. I try to "live in the moment." I know that's a terrible cliché, but clichés are as such for a reason, are they not? Forethought is not my forte, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

"I've been trying to figure out exactly what it is I need;

 Call up to listen to the voice of reason, 

 And got the answering machine." 

I Feel Fine.

So, our world is coming to an end. Life as we know it will be over, tomorrow. What do I do until then? Well, I spend the day with my girlfriend. We spend the the morning to the afternoon as a couple. For you, my wonderful readership, this is what we would call the "Boring Part." Now, what happens from around 7:00 to 12:00 pm, that's where things get interesting. I call everyone I know in the immediate area. I tell them to call everyone they know. Then, I organize a huge, anything-goes, no-holds-barred, end of the world block party. Blaring music, bright lights, more food or drink than could ever be fed or drunk, and enough people to fill a few large city blocks. This, would be my greatest achievement. This, would be my rage against the dying of the light. I would make sure that, if anyone in the future came across our planet, they would look upon us as the biggest group of badasses in non-existence. We would be remembered as the civilization that, when faced with their inevitable doom, decided, “Feick it, let’s party.” We would be remembered as the people who decided that their lives could not be better spent doing something which didn’t make us happy. Most importantly, though, we would be remembered. In that way, we would never die.

It’s the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine.