D E C E M B E R 0 2
The site was redesigned for 2003 into a light blue format. Dave and Mike enjoy snow days. Dave shares a bathroom with Jason Mraz, remembers Mario Paint and jams with Russ. Eugene remembers Turbo Teen, Andrew remembers bird hats. Mike Ferenczy joins the samurai by stealing things from Dave.
lose the l.b's (and take off those pounds)
I'm about to head back to Baltimore after a short but relaxing holiday break. Unfortunately, we really didn't have enough time for Okay Samurai to get together with DonnieG5 in Arizona for the past week. Missed Eugene and Eric too, but I'm sure we'll chiggity-chill over the summer. So anyway, last night Russ and his girlfriend Courtney came over and helped fill the holiday musical void. We jiggity-jammed for about 2 hours with all the old UVA standbys like Pour Some Sugar On Me, Straight Up and Stay. Andrew set up his bongos along with a woodblock, cow bell and cymbal, so the three of us together seemed very Guster-esque. Andrew also rocked out on guitar for our last song, the acoustic version of Forgot About Dre (e-mail me if you've never heard it before and want a copy). Without a doubt, the highlight of the night was an impromptu song. Russ sat down on a stool and thought he had broken it (which he didn't) and said, "gotta lose some l.b's" (pounds). What followed was a 3-minute song about "losing the l.b's," with a freestyle from me that left a lot to be desired. I rhymed "pig" with "burger" and had trouble rhyming something with the extremely rhyme-able "whole". Andrew said that he thought I should have done better, being that I teach in the inner-city and all. How true. But the three-part harmonious chorus of "lose the l.b.'s, and take off those pounds" was well worth waiting for. Courtney took some pictures so maybe we'll be able to post a few here in the near future. All in all, it was a good ending to the break. And thanks to Mike for his first posting yesterday, but I counted my Sierra Mists before I left and will be expecting full compensation upon my arrival home.
See you in 2003.
Tuesday, December 31 at 10:20 AM
stealing pop (aka soda)
OK. I don't know how to insert the cute little pictures, and I am only a mediocre typer, so there may be a few mistakes. Since I have a ton of work to do before some college friends come to town, I figured I would make my first post to okay samurai. Dave invited me to post on this blog, since I live with him and play drums, and as such, have become an "extended member of the okay samurai family." Sort of like the Wutang Killer Bees, only better, and with a lower incarceration rate. So basically, my role as I see it is to steal Dave's pop when he's not home (which I am doing right now, mmmm, Sierra Mist); to say things like "pop," "chicken wings," and "what? you call this a snow storm?" being as I am from Buffalo, NY; to type run-on sentences on the okay samurai web log; and occasionally to ruin my hearing playing the drums in dave's room while he converts "God Bless Ye Merry Gentlemen" from a lovely Christmas carol into a rock cover. Yeah, and I also teach the little middle school kiddies in Baltimore, as does the aforementioned "Dave." On a musical note that has nothing to do with Christmas, this summer I taught several kids to add fraction using quarter notes, eighth notes, sixteenth notes and triplets. That was possibly my coolest day teaching so far. So look for the periodic rambling updates from me. I'm sure they will appear most frequently around times that are extremely busy, like the end of marking periods, or Sunday nights...
Monday, December 30 at 11:43 AM
I made this mainly for my own benefit, but by all means, enjoy. Animal Crossing is the highly addictive Nintendo Gamecube game where you live in an animal town and do everything from fishing to playing old-school Nintendo games. Because the Gamecube has an internal clock, it keeps track of day and night, seasons and holidays. Here are four resources that might be helpful as you create your own town:
*[official site] It's mostly filled with promotional info trying to sell the game, but if you continuously click on some of the small rectangular "advertisements" of characters talking, you'll sometimes get a code generator that will hook you up with some of the rarer items (I got NES Soccer this way).
*[gamefaqs] This is the single best Animal Crossing online resource. Check out the growing "Universal Codes FAQ" for ways to get free items, as well as complete item lists and even the lyrics to the songs Kapp'n sings (including the crowd-pleaser "Zucchini Spooks").
*[animal crossing online] Nice layout, updated regularly...the "guide" section is the best reason to come here. There's a section dedicated to the Japanese version too (and the N64 Animal Forest game that never made it overseas).
*[animal crossing ahead] Ain't the prettiest site, but there are at least three reasons to visit it: a complete illustrated list of every single possible animal, a chart about answering the train questions at the beginning of the game (which determines how your character's face looks), and a huge amount of premade textures.
Sunday, December 29 at 10:38 PM
1.7 seconds of fame
Merry Christmas, or for our readers en espagnol, Feliz Navidad, or for our reader(s) in Slovenia, Happy Snowy Day Awesome Tree. Speaking of snow (hello segue), it snowed while we were opening presents yesterday, which was nice. Then it turned into sleet and rain, which wasn't nice.
Good loot this year. Socks, a tie and other assorted clothes were great, especially a Pac-Man shirt. Got the new Phish CD, Round Room, and Andrew got the new Ben Folds live album (make sure to ask Andrew what quality piece of cinematic magic I gave him). We were watching the Ben Folds DVD features and Army's crowd participation with the horns is great. Tiny Dancer doesn't disappoint either with an Elton John impression.
Jasmine gave me her Nintendo Gamecube with Super Mario Sunshine and Animal Crossing (yeah, that's a pretty big present, but we evened things out). Both are great games and I'm sure that I'll have more about each in the near future. Mario's "blooper surfing" has become a new treasured pastime at this house (I'm lying, but it's close). I moved into Jaz's Animal Crossing town and caught a lot of fish.
CNN did a special on Teach For America last night and one of the featured teachers was Mike Garcia from Baltimore. I was in a few of the early New York auditorium crowd scenes and was seen walking out of the building with Nick, on air for about 1.7 seconds. The B'more crew was well represented; they showed our institute "dance" and graduate classes at JHU. It will be on again at 10pm EST on New Year's Day.
Wednesday, December 25 at 11:34 PM
mas pelicuas por favor?!
Wow, there have been many-a-posts in the recent days. Letsee...
I shall follow in the footsteps of the great dave werner and post some thoughts on movies that I have recently seen:
Panic Room: 74/100
This movie i thought had a cool idea to it, but (and don't read the next part if you haven't seen it) it would've been cooler if what the robbers wanted that was in the "panic room" wasn't just money. That part was actually really lame. Whenever I saw the previews for the movie and the blue fire was on the ceiling because they set propane gas on fire in the panic room, i thought that it was a portal to another land. and yes, if what they wanted in the room was a portal to dimension X (refer to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), it would've been a much cooler movie.
Murder by Numbers: 79/100
This movie also had potential, but totally lost me when they had a baboon in the shed, and also when i can predict such cheezy lines as: "i've lost all my feelings......except for you".
well i hope these links in this blog work...if not, i hope dave can fix them for me. hey guys, we should get together, i'll give you a call sometime this break! Although someone commented to me at work that it's no longer counts as a break or even as "reading days" anymore because i'm a full time worker and not a student. oh well...this work thing could take a while to get used to.
-jeff
Tuesday, December 24 at 9:48 AM
dog reading a newspaper
Andrew and I have seen a lot of movies recently (even without Jvan Zebari):
*Lord of The Rings - The Two Towers :: A
Three hours of action. Legolas continues to be the best character, as proven by his "skateboarding on a shield down the stairs while firing three arrows" scene.
*Death To Smoochy :: C+
If I had a dime for each time that I hoped Hollywood would make a movie "from the dark and demented mind of Danny DeVito," I'd be in debt. This movie was a lot better than I thought; at the very least, it's entertaining.
*Reign of Fire :: A
Dragons, explosions, and Matthew McConaughey jumping into the air with a pickaxe. It delivered.
*The Peabody Collection :: B+
As mentioned in the last post, Andreus Gallaraga and I watched our old Peabody tapes. I forgot about Vroom D'oh and Vroom D'oh: Part Deux, documenting Peabody's misadventures with cars.
The highlight of seeing LOTR:TTT was seeing the preview for Bruce Almighty. Crap story short: there's a scene at the end where a dog is sitting on a toilet reading a newspaper. Funny? Yeah. Hilarious? Not really. Worth laughing 10 seconds for as loud as possible? No. Seat-in-front-of-us-guy thought this was the funniest thing ever printed on celluloid and made sure the entire theater knew about it. I'm all for enjoying yourself at the movies, but enjoy responsibly...like the big guy in the back of the theater who squealed "WHEEEEEE!" when the Regal Cinemas roller coaster intro started up (which shows you, as you ride, trash and talking policies). Almost as funny as the movie theater employees wearing "Frodo lives" buttons, but not quite.
Sunday, December 22 at 1:26 PM
blew 'em away!: the history of mario paint
I've decided, if I can get my hands on the software, to start learning Flash (dave edit 11:08 PM: said hands have gotten on said software). I'm not sure why I haven't jumped aboard this ship yet considering all the Mario Paint movies Andrew and I made. Storytime, gather 'round.
In the early 90s, Andrew got the Super Nintendo game Mario Paint for Christmas. It came bundled with the SNES mouse and mousepad, peripherals only used in about 2.53 other games (slightly better statistics, mind you, than the Super Scope 6). It was basically a computer paint program with animation, sound capabilities, and the infamous coffee break flyswatter game. After buying the Mario Paint Player's Guide, however, we entered a whole new world. By hooking up your video game system to a VCR, you could record your creations to videotape. And I am honestly willing to say that I think Andrew and I have recorded more animations with Mario Paint than any other person on this planet. If I was a betting man, which I am, I'd put money on it.
Enter Peabody, the African American star of 95% of our cartoons (that's us, always celebrating diversity and multiculturalism). We would draw and animate a sequence, record it for a few seconds, then change the backgrounds, characters, music and start with the next sequence (just like the pros!). Peabody was born with "Peabody goes to the Pool" (all our stuff had elaborate title screens a la Looney Tunes), a 30-second comedy/adventure extravaganza where Peabody basically just jumps in a freakin' pool and that's it. He was an instant hit with the rest of Okay Samurai, so we continued making these cartoons. Hours upon hours were poured into that video game, churning out some of Peabody's most memorable experiences. In "Peabody meets Barney," our first experiment with mixing animation and live-action, we had Barney the Dinosaur pop out of Peabody's TV and dance with him (only to meet an untimely demise by dancing off a cliff, Wile E. Coyote style). Peabody lost his teeth in Peabody Plays Hockey. Half of his face gets bitten off by a dinosaur in Peabody Goes To The Museum. He even goes crazy and blows up half the world in the cult classic Blew 'Em Away!.
Soon we started doing spinoffs; Farmer Bob: Chicken Sacrifice was the debut of Peabody's friend Farmer Bob, whom he later teamed up with in A Present for Farmer Bob. Peeteeweewas, Peabody's girlfriend, showed up in Andrew's Peabody Does The Laundry (where she shoots a mutant rat with a rocket launcher). Peabody was the celebrity of our house; each new cartoon was premiered in front of our family and shown to our friends.
But oh no, hold your proverbial horses and round up the metaphorical cattle, it didn't stop there. Soon we were using Mario Paint for each and every school project we could, and even some where we couldn't. Every single Mario Paint project we made (understandably) got an A, putting the other kids' dioramas and stenciled posters to shame. Countless book reports. French trivia games. Peabody does CPR for Health. The Issac Newton cartoon for Mrs. Jurinski's 12th grade Calculus. In fact, it was that very cartoon that prompted Mrs. Jurinski to ask me about working for our school's televised morning announcements show (and that's a whole other story for a later day). So I created short introductory cartoons and advertisements for our school announcements, which continued to rock everyone's pants off. Pretty soon it was expected of me to turn in Mario Paint projects, and people would be disappointed if I didn't. When I went off to college, I left video games as a pastime behind, including Mario Paint. I think I satisfied my animation fix with VRML and illustration with Second Nature, but both owed a lot to Mario Paint.
And that's why I want to get back into animation, after seeing an awesome site like Homestar Runner, where they too have archives of their old work with Mario Paint. It seems that this game, whether we've recognized it yet or not, has influenced a small generation of present day web designers and animators. Peabody's hours of cartoons are gathering dust in the Werner family dining room cabinet, but my guess is that Andrew and I will bring them out over this holiday break for an extended viewing.
This has reminded me of so many more stories - the Ed Emberly Make-A-World mural, our "End of Science" movies, the morning announcements hijinks and the best video we ever made: a book report for Shogun. I'm realizing that my biggest interest is in anything dealing with creativity, whether that's movies, drawing, music, writing, web design...whatever. I have felt and still do feel that imagination is one of humankind's most powerful and overlooked abilities. In a nerdy scholarly essay (with footnotes and all that crap that I always added in at the last second during college), Peabody would personify that creative drive. It started with him jumping into a swimming pool. Maybe one day it will end with a proverbial splash and a metaphorical tsunami.
Thursday, December 19 at 7:05 PM
bird hats
Hey howdy hey everybody. I have to say that I love seeing good old smilin' Eugena writing regularly. With the semester over I'll be back in Burke for the near future playing drums, video games, and working on job applications. I would definitely be up for recording over the break but I was wondering which song we should do? The obvious answer is "bird hats' but it has been so long since we all played together my only fear is that we wouldn't do it justice. Instead maybe a little 'disregard', maybe a little 'fake toby' eh? Well I'm sure I'll be seeing a bunch of you over the break, except maybe that guy from Slovenia. I'll see you in the studio with my bird hat on.
Wednesday, December 18 at 6:31 PM
the road less traveled
I have no idea where I got that title/quote from, but it just popped up into my head as I was getting ready to write this. As I was looking at the recent postings on the site, I couldn't help but feel alot of just sympathy for my brother Dave. Again, I look back when times were so much easier in High School, and the only things we had to worry about were if the Werner's ran out of pepsi and Mrs. Jurinski's Calculus exams. I now have so much respect for teachers, since I myself did a summer teaching job for only a month, and it still stressed the heck out of me. So I dedicate this post to our dear brother David Werner and to all those other teachers out there who deserve alot more. But there's a reason why they do it, because they have perserverance and drive to help others and that's something no one can take away from them. So, Daveed, I salute you. I also am having a hard time at my job since I absolutely hate it. I work for a company that believes in standards, honesty, and strict guidelines in the Information Technology Industry. Yet when I hear my boss curse at others, behind people's back, and their kids, I lose all respect for them. Money has turned them into greedy business men. Which is why I am going to quit after a year and maybe take a break and work on my music career. Let me know what you think. On a good note, I checked out one of Dave's links to X-Entertainment...it's freakin' hilarious. My personal fav:"The Great Pumpkin Halloween Cake Adventure, starring Whiplash and Dr. Zaius."
Okay Samurai Factoid #3: .........Okay Samurai....the original ska band? Back in the winter of '96 or so, Adam Kantor joined the band as a special guest musician for the song "Golfing w/Fish." He played the trumpet and it sounded so great that we decided to not to pursue it because we wanted to save it for later I guess. From this historic moment spawned many other great ska bands that aren't around any more since that whole scene is dead now. We love you Adam.
at 9:18 AM
look ahead
Four months into Teach For America, I know that this is not what I want to do for the rest of my life.
And I've got over one and a half years to go on my two-year commitment.
This isn't to say that TFA isn't a great organization. They are. By a competitive selection process that is growing in applicants exponentially, they hook in a lot of people who would not teach otherwise. Unequal quality of education is one of the biggest problems in America today; education in general is always a hot topic with politicians. Simply put, the quality of education in certain areas is better than others. The inner city of Baltimore falls in the latter category. That's why I'm here: TFA sends its corps members on 2-year assignments to make an impact in the areas that need help most. This is not complaining, but a daily reality.
I teach in a "classroom" in a hallway. The only thing that distinguishes the shape of my classroom is a set of about 7 dividers, most bent and crooked (one fell over twice today). Without a door or walls, my classroom is constantly open to distractions - students or staff walking by or into my class, things being thrown over the dividers (yet another trash can was thrown and hit one of my more well-behaved students in the back of the head today) and students yelling things into my class or my class yelling back. Half the lights don't work, but sometimes it feels like that doesn't even matter - the main hallway light switches are right by the 6th grade wing door, which means that any student can turn them off. My lights are turned out no less than 10 times a class period. Several styrofoam-ish ceiling tiles are missing; one gaping hole leaks water when it rains. This is the environment I "teach" in.
At the beginning of the year, I had 44 kids in one of my classes. I'm content now with no more than 32 students per class, but class size is one of the biggest factors in learning, without a doubt. Individual attention is harder to give, but we still try. The state of Maryland tells us what stories we have to read and what we have to teach with them. Then "the state" becomes personified when older men in suits start flooding the building with clipboards. The state comes into your classroom and makes sure you have a learning objective written on your board in the correct "know-do" format, or maybe critique your teaching style. When I gave the students newspapers to read once they had finished their work one day, a wandering state member told me I should have taught "newspaper etiquette" to the students, showing such life-saving techniques as how to fold a paper properly and what a "gutter" is. When I saw one of these state members drive away in his red Corvette while an older teacher at our school walked to her Volvo, I sort of lost interest in what the state had to tell me.
The kids I thought were "bad" in high school have nothing on these kids. The amount of swearing, fighting, disrespect, vandalism and general insanity that I see in any given day is sometimes overwhelming. And the talking. The talking. The talking. Apparently it's okay to yell across the classroom to say something about someone's dead mother while I'm talking in the front of the class. Teaching, for me, is 75% discipline. That number is getting slightly better with time, but as a first-year teacher thrown into this world, I'm still learning. Detention, zero grades, suspensions, phone calls home to parents - you would think that these methods would work. You would think that. I've made 30 parent phone calls in one night before and felt like nothing happened differently the next day. When I've got a misbehaving student, I have a pretty good idea of what the parent (usually not a plural) is going to be like. Again, I'm learning and I've seen some incredibly well-managed classrooms (even from younger teachers), but it's something I focus on every day.
Teaching is hard; there's no other way around it. You teach and come home to grade papers and plan for the next day...the work rarely stops. We've already had about ten people quit TFA Baltimore and maybe 5-7 "regular" teachers quit at my school alone (sometimes even the substitutes quit!). And that's the main reason that I feel compelled to stay around: I don't want to give up on these kids. Yes, it's a hard job. Yes, it's stressful. Yes, it's underpaid. But someone has to be in these classrooms. I'm trying. I'm nowhere as good as I could be, still young and naive and not ready for the real world where things do tend to get more difficult. I'm trying.
The main reason I revamped this website was in looking ahead towards the future. I want to attend a creative arts graduate school in 2004; in particular, Portfolio Center in Atlanta (hence the "portfolio" section on this site). But since I currently don't have the money to attend, I'm trying to save up as much as I can during these two years. In the meantime, I hope I make a small difference in a few lives. Right now, I find comfort in my peanut butter and jelly sandwich at lunch, my friends and family, and the hope of a better tomorrow. That's pretty much it.
(I'll probably be "blogging" a little less often now, but this will still serve as my out-of-school creative outlet with music and illustration.)
Tuesday, December 17 at 8:19 PM
abandoned mine cart
Eight old songs were uploaded today to the Okay Samurai IUMA audio section. 5 are from our 1997 CD, Grasscatcher: Musicfest Orlando, Uncle Charlie's Song, Third, F# and Letdown. Hammock is from our first album and two mp3.com-only released songs were Song Called Song and Abandoned Mine Cart. Click on "album 1" to see our total list of 18 songs. More to come.
Via rollingstone.com: an article about Eminem's lack of controversy in 2002 and an interview with Busta Rhymes. The Finding Forrester star himself is working with the Neptunes (aka N.E.R.D.) on his next album, just like the rest of the world. I guess they're taking over Timbaland's place as the omnipresent musical voice.
at 4:29 PM
more espiritu sessions?
hey guys, long time no talk. school has been kickin my @$$, so i've been doing my best to stay on top of things due to my severe case of procrastination. anyway, i'm going to be back in virginia for winter break so we should definitely get together. i'm also going to be bringing home my studio gear so i'll be working on projects in the good 'ol basement @ swan landing court, so if there are any tracks that okaysamurai would like to do, let me know!! my most recent project has been mixing the new "scarred visions" EP that should be due out by the end of the year. you might remember those guys from JMU; eric, andrew, alex, dorian, and chris. i've seen them a couple times at jaxx and they're good. reminds me of a much more technical version of system of a down with more melodic vocals and killer guitar solos. you can check them out at scarredband.com. alright well that's all for now, but i'll make an effort to post here more often. awesome site, dave! peace. p.s. i suck at html and don't know how to put cool little pictures and stuff so forgive my extremely bland looking post.
(dave's edit: that's okay eric, i did it for you.)
Sunday, December 15 at 11:53 AM
ja rule starring as bob cratchit
Last night was the big TFA winter party at Spike and Charlie's. Nice to see people like Justin Watkins; people I've barely seen since starting teaching. Today I'll be cleaning my room and planning for these remaining five days. We're reading "A Christmas Carol" in my classes, and the greatest part is that finally some of my more disruptive students want to participate...by reading the part of Scrooge. We made Chrismas Carol DVD covers last week to learn about the elements of drama like cast (most students picked Lil' Romeo or Mini-Me to play the part of Tiny Tim) and acts/scenes (DVD chapter selection).
For those on winter breaks - The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers is coming out on Wednesday [Rotten Tomatoes' current rating]. I've only read the first book and only saw the first movie once, so I'm probably not the best person to comment on this next installment. I just hope they don't do [this] again. As Conan O'Brien said when the first LOTR came out (something like this): "Lord of the Rings was #1 at the box office this weekend, touting record numbers of theatre-goers for 2001. What's especially impressive is that none of those people brought dates."
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at 9:18 AM
do it rockapella
The contact section has been updated, so hooks Eugene up with some fan mail. I may eventually add a simple form to fill out, but as of today I don't know how to do that and don't really want to nerdy nerdy learn. Send in a question to any of us and chances are that we'll probably answer it in our next post, like this made-up question:
"Where in the world in Carmen Sandiego?" Rodney Kiyama; St. Paul, Minnesota
Montana, Rodney. Montana. Do it Rockapella...YEAH! Rockapella's great, but I always wanted to see some sore loser on the TV show say something different after he/she lost the giant country map final round. Something like "Death to tyrants!" or "Edward Norton is quite a versatile actor!" All I remember is that Rockapella also sang a song called "Zombie Jamboree" that they did on the talk-show circuit. Needless to say, it paled in comparison to the theme song.
If you're doing some last-minute online Christmas shopping, check out something new from google: froogle (get it? GET IT? FRUGAL?). I'm not that impressed by it so far, but it's a pretty good idea for comparison shopping.
Rotten Tomatoes just posted the latest Indiana Jones 4 news. I'll believe it when I see it.
Saturday, December 14 at 10:08 AM
obselete fisher price massacre
Today, a website visitor from Singapore visited 7 pages on dave2n.com. I shouldn't know this, I shouldn't care about this, but I do.
See, I'm addicted to website statistics in the worst way. Through the company that hosts this site, Feature Price, I get mad crazy password-protected website statistics. For 'xample, it shows me what words people typed in a search engine to get here. I get a lot of "blankity-blank cartoon" searches, like "tiger woods cartoon" or "u2 cartoon". But apparently on some search engines my site also shows up for fantastic phrases like "oh snap," "stupid people," "very funny stuff" and "accomplishments or squeak or second or swinburne or fawns." And at least once a month I get one "hadoken" visitor. The sad/funny/interesting/strange thing is, since I know every page of this site (73 of them as of today), I know exactly where these words appear on dave2n. These people probably ended up horribly, horribly confused as to why they were sent here. What power. I mean, watch, I'm going to type "obselete fisher price massacre" and I guarantee someone will come here because of searching for it. "second nature" and "dave werner" continue to be the top search terms, followed by "drool" (Kyle Gabler's Cav Daily comic) and "nature comics."
I can say things like, "Congratulations for nothing, wkstn107-149.reiss.georgetown.edu, you downloaded 18632 kilobytes of information in November; the most out of any other person on this planet!" It's sort of satisfying to see the countries that have visited here, though. To name just a few: Sweden, Japan, New Zealand, Australia, Poland, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Hungary and good ol' Slovenia! I don't even know where the heck that is, but it's appreciated. That's pretty cool to think that someone from Slovenia may have read my Cookieface Galaraga comics.
And yet another great feature is showing how people get to this site. The overwhelming majority have dave2n.com boomarked or just type it in, but I'm linked in some strange places (as evident in the "linked to me" section on the left sidebar). The seemingly innocent U2log.com link pretty much tripled my visitors here on the day it was posted. Most people come here for the VRML video game (it's had a decent-sized 20,000 players since its inception in March 2002).
So in the end, yes oh freakin' yes, it's a waste of time to check website statistics. But it does make me happy; nay, euphoric, to see the site's visitors grow over time. It's nice to see that I've got a fan or a confused search engine user in Slovenia. Thanks for visiting.
Thursday, December 12 at 3:58 PM
you can't play if it's not raining
I added a search engine down the left sidebar which looks through all of the dave2n.com content. This should be handy in a few months when you're sifting through all those posts by "Furious Tiger" and want to find the one about "snatchmonkeys".
If you've never checked out [Homestar Runner], go now. The Strong Bad E-mails are the best. And going along with Eugene's nostalgia posting yesterday, give a look at [x-e]. Although not as broad as yesterdayland.com, their articles are extremely well-written and funny.
Eugene was also talking about the infamous Brian Shea / Richie Pettibon game yesterday. While he got most of the rules right, two crucial ones were missing: when you play it has to be raining and a tree branch from the neighbor's yard needs to be in a certain place on the street. Nothing like inside jokes to humor the masses. The "impossible snes unicycle game" was uniracers.
at 1:50 PM
turbo teen
Jeff Chin and I had a good conversation about this awhile back and thought I'd share it with you guys. I stumbled upon one of the most freakin' awesome websites in the world. Entitled www.yesterdayland.com, a user can look up cartoons, video games, television shows, and movies from years past. The 80's was a special decade of wonderment and amazement for cartoons. Sure, everyone's heard of He-Man and GI Joe, but what da freak is "Benji, Jax, and the Alien Prince." Check it out. I actually found the cartoon that I was looking for years: Turbo Teen! The animated series of a young boy who turns into a red convertible when he gets hot (crucial, huh?). Ahh, and in reference to Dave's last post, it was David Sindt (big red-headed guy), who gave me this huge bass amp for a 2N CD, sweet deal if you ask me...
Okay Samurai Factoid #2: Okay Samurai had several enjoyable pastimes including basketball, tron, some unicycle game on snes that was impossible for me, and the barely known "Richie Petibon" Game. What da heck is this game you ask. I think Don and Dave made it up, but it's like playing "500" with a small ball, and the person that gets to throw the ball has to wear this undersized football helmet backwards. I forget the rest of the rules.
Wednesday, December 11 at 1:29 PM
the nation of procratsti
A two-hour delay today thanks to freezing rain, the non-fun cousin of snow. Only about half the kids showed up for our abbreviated slacktastic schedule...Austin Powers: Goldmember was played over our school televisions during the last two periods.
Via ign.com: Here's an interesting [interview] with Shigeru Miyamoto about the new Gamecube Zelda game. Looks good, insert obscure Zora's Flippers reference here for no reason.
Via rottentomatoes.com: Hollywood's making a [sequel to The Ring], [Mad Max 4], [Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines] and [The Fast and the Furious 2].
And yes Eugene, aka Eugena, aka Korean Elvis, aka Alarm Clock Nas, not only do i miss Cici's pizza, but I remember your makeshift bass stereo in the early Second Nature days. Didn't we later trade a CD for that red haired guy's huge bass amp? Freak-knockin' deal of the century if you ask me.
at 1:06 PM
return of the king
Hello All! How I've missed the antics of Okay Samurai and many games of Tetris Attack during our spare times. This is my first posting, and I must say I'm pretty nervous. I feel as if there is so much catching up to do, but I hope to bring back the fun times and reconnect with everyone. I don't want to write a long comment, but through this log hope to bring up some funny moments I've had with the gang. So here goes.
Okay Samurai Factoid #1 - When I first joined the band back in '96 or so, I didn't have a bass amp. So, what did I use? With the aid of a simple guitar chord, single jack convertor, and my old sony stereo, I was able to create a make-shift Base Amp! Creative eh? To this day, my sony stereo does not sound right after I did this. Remember that one guys? Haha!
Tuesday, December 10 at 12:58 PM
the bear was a ghetto bear
because we had two hour standardized testing for one class, i only had my other 2 classes for short periods of time. we did a group story where they would write for 5 minutes and then pass their paper to the next student. the topic, against my better judgement, was "mr. werner gets stuck on a deserted island." here are some choice excerpts:
* "Soon Mr. Werner realized that it was a shark and when the shark jumped for his head he leaned backwards like The Matrix. The shark missed him by 1 inch. When the shark hit the water Mr. Werner started jetting. He was gone until he ran into a tree and landed on top of a cactus."
* (Mr. Werner talking) "You know my dance was the stuff. I dance better than anyone. However, some parts I lack. I can't do the Harlem Shake that well. But I can rock the Crypt Walk. Oh, oh. Go Werner, go Werner, it's your birthday, it's your birthday. 4 hours had passed and he was still rocking the Crypt Walk."
* "Mr. Werner went to a secret island. People look at Mr. Werner and they jump on Mr. Werner. It was like WWE Smackdown."
* "All of the sudden a frog came and danced around the fire. Mr. Werner started to dance with the frog. The frog fell into the fire. Mr. Werner ate the frog."
* "So Mr. Werner pushed the bear one good time, so that he could get up. So he got up and they started fighting. They was doing karate. The bear was a ghetto bear. The bear beat 'em up real bad and took his money. Mr. Werner was mad so he pulled out a 49 caliber and shot the bear."
at 12:55 PM
the adventures of link
mike ferenczy and russ jenkins have been added to the extended okay samurai family and have access to post on here, so you may be seeing some stuff from them sometime. let me know via dave2n@hotmail.com if you like the more regular updates. in the meantime:
[googlism] :: type in your name
[gba skins] :: make your own game boy advance covering
[trash birthday party] :: there's an idea
[burj al arab] :: coolest hotel ever...if you're going to dubai
[virtual stapler] :: we have reached a new low
and the acoustic singer/songwriter trend i talked about yesterday is evident with [john mayer], [jack johnson], [howie day], [jason mraz]...so since it's a trend, careful, it may be uncool to jump on the bandwagon now. i'm borrowing jack johnson's brushfire fairytales from jasmine and it's fantastic...extremely scaled back and sparse. you've probably heard "flake" on the radio but check out "bubble toes" too.
Monday, December 9 at 3:56 PM
school was cancelled on friday too, so i drove down to charlottesville. because of awesome job interview travelling and a trip to korea, i won't see jasmine for about a month. we saw "the ring"...scariest...movie...ever. that video tape freaked me out, 'specially the woman in the mirror. i'm scared of mirrors now, which should make for an interesting ride back to baltimore tomorrow with no rear-view. officially, i'm also scared now of horses, gravity-defying spinning chairs, wells, flies, television and scary dead people. officially.
we also managed to find a way into a pretty intimate show with jason mraz (jasonmraz.com), who fits snugly into the john mayer / jack johnson singer/songwriter trend. mraz, a ferris bueller lookalike, had a great voice but TOCA stole the show. TOCA, whose name deserves to be in all caps, was a large african american / latino mix of a man armed with a conga and cymbal. little did i know at first, but before the show, i used the urinal right next to TOCA, talked to the drummer while waiting and moved away from the sink so jason could wash his hands. jasmine also said hello to sissy spacek at ann taylor in the mall today. brushing into semi-famous people is fun, try it!
super mario sunshine is a great nintendo gamecube game, as is animal crossing. it's been a fun weekend. 10 days of school left before break and counting, ever counting. back to smores and video games for now. lata.
Saturday, December 7 at 9:41 PM
snow day, no school, yeah!
mike woke me up at 5:30 this morning to tell me that school was cancelled. i replied with "i love you" and then went back to sleep for a couple of hours. only yesterday did i realize that the teachers want snow days just as much as the kids. we're supposed to get 6-9 inches up here in b'more, it doesn't show signs of stopping and i definitely have some corn for popping. mike and i decided yesterday that if it snowed, the only logical progression would be to go to walmart and try to get kicked out. i'll let you know how that goes.
site looks a little different, eh? EH? not all sections are up yet (portfolio will take a while especially), but now all things dave2n are included here: okay samurai, second nature, second nature world and this blog. there are five different title images at the top of the page which change each time you visit (a la okaysamurai.com): 3 photos courtesy of electric samurai and 2 from me - times square from this summer and andrew on "whale rock" in st. maarten. the portfolio section will eventually have documentation of ads, clothes, logos, websites, music, comics, sketches, photos, fiction and other work i've done...mostly for future employment purposes...
thanks for checking out the new site. the archives are back up, i'll be posting some new songs on okaysamurai.com by the end of the day, making a few changes here and there to second nature and getting kicked out of walmart. peace.
Thursday, December 5 at 7:52 AM
Okay Samurai Multimedia is Dave Werner's personal site. I'm currently working at Minor Studios in San Francisco. Thanks for visiting! (more...)
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