Jaxon Brooks

Modern Warfare 2: Oingle’s First Game in Over a Month

Jaxon — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 23:59:23 +0000

Salvage Free for All

I put down the PS3 for almost 6 weeks because it had taken over my life. I love MW2, but I wanted more than one hobby. I read a book, I played Ukulele, I started guitar lessons and I got social IRL again. Now I am back and man do I suck in this game. My aiming and maneuverability are both sad and hilarious. I didn't even follow the radar because I completely forgot about it. There were boosters in this game, but I didn't go after them even thought everyone else did.

Posted from JaxonBrooks.com

CoD4 MW2: Jaxon Returns [8 Days and Counting]

Jaxon — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 23:55:48 +0000

I've made it 5 weeks and have only 8 days left on my Call of Duty fast. Oingle, my gamer tag, will soon be online p0WN1NG N00bZ again.

Also, I finished that book I talked about in my last post: The Bed Wetter by Sarah Silverman.

Posted from JaxonBrooks.com

41% Into a Book for the First Time in 20 Years

Jaxon — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 01:04:40 +0000

Somewhere around 1990, my petition for a special major in Creative Writing was turned down.

I already had enough credits to get the degree, and most of them were in English, at the advice of the board who turned me down, I tried to turn a now defunct Creative Writing degree into an English degree. After another year, I had three classes left to finish a degree: one each in English, Art and General Education. But I could not take another year, so I moved on with my life.

My time spent perusing Creative Writing was prolific and a joy (as was work towards my minor in Fine Art Studio Painting). My time working toward an English degree was laborious and stifling. It soiled all love of reading I had. Since then I have tried, fruitlessly, to get into reading. But I never make it past about 20% of the way into a book before I get frustrated and bored. I feel like I know what the writer is doing, it's all too transparent to me, and I want him to spare me the overindulgent prose and just get the point.

Fast forward about 20 years.

As you may know from an earlier post, I had a minor affinity for a fun little past time know as Call of Duty, an affinity that needed self intervention. I've temporarily quit the game for about three weeks now. The point of which was simply allow time for other interests to have time to re-emerge. In that time, I have got back into coding for MilkandCookies.com, I picked up the ukulele again and I thought about taking another stab at reading.

I mentioned all of this at a birthday party a couple weeks ago and was told emphatically to read Moby Dick, "There's a reason it's a classic!!". I thought that was a bit intense and would set me up for failure. So someone else, Aaron Wooster, suggested I read from The Complete Sherlock Holmes Collection. So I did. He was right about them being engaging and fun to read, and it worked to a point. I almost read one complete story.

Another week or so goes by and I hear an excerpt Sarah Silverman reading from her new book The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption, and Pee. So I decided to get it.

A while back I looked into Chelsea Handler's book, Chelsea Bang Bang and it was AWFUL! Unlike that trash — and I love Chelsea Handler so that's saying something — Sarah's book hit me in the right place. For me it's funny, honest, concise, and resonates; often mirroring my own experiences. Maybe you'll hate it, I don't know. But two days after buying it, I am twice as far into it as I have been into any book since college: a whole 41% (according to the Kimble app I am using to read it).

Maybe 20 years was just enough time for the indelible stain a near English degree left on me. If I finish this book and start another one, I will feel better about feeling "cured".

In the meantime, a new milestone is always fun. Huzzah!

A word of advice, which I have both heard and repeated frequently: never get a degree in anything you love, it will surely destroy your love of it.

Fresh milk, warm cookies! (via MilkandCookies Blog)

Jaxon — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 23:57:51 +0000

Isabella Organ is is helping me out with MilkandCookies by working our Social Media ventures and blogging at the new MilkandCookies blog.

Sweet!

Welcome to the new and (hopefully) improved MilkandCookies blog. I'm Isabella, and even though I'm kind of just getting started here, I'm going to be doing some blogging for MilkandCookies.com. I'm actually trying to be really active on the site already, adding some videos and stuff like that. The original blog will still be around for your viewing pleasure. There. That looks official, right? Blogging for someone else is a whole new thing for me, … Read More

via MilkandCookies Blog