discussing the anatomy can lead to startling revelations.

It's weird to think that most of my friends will be embarking on their Junior/Senior year in college tomorrow. I feel old.

"You are old." - Loren
"Shut up." - Me
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In two days time, the team here at Imaginary Trends will be temporarily broken up. Kyle has taken a gig going on tour with the newly formed "Curious George Live!" and I've taken a job...well, doing projects and spending time with my family who I haven't really seen in about a year. Kyle's job pays well. My paycheck will be in love and the fuzzy feeling you get when you are in your hometown. To each their own. I don't want to follow a monkey around the USA anyway, isn't that how AIDS started?

I've learned an awful lot this week in terms of recording audio with limited options and accessories. First off, turn off all fans, TVs, game systems, and anything that makes noise. Secondly, some sort of fabric or material is essential to dampen certain hard sounds. Thirdly, rapping (AKA 'spitting rhymes') is more difficult than it seems when you're white and you've got less rhythm than a bassist on a sinking ship. I guess that is what makes it work though...

What is incredibly long overdue is another Developer Diary. I know there hasn't been much of an outcry for one, but there's been a TON of footage taken of our various sessions around New Hampshire.

I also learned that a Batarang can hurt when thrown at high speeds, but that's neither here nor there.

I've had quite a few people ask why the LAN'ded blog has died. Well, to put it bluntly, we really can't openly advertise what we're doing with the project. I can easily say that LAN'ded has never been more alive. We're taking it in a much more realistic direction, and I think this is a direction that will ultimately make the show truly worth watching.

Alas, laundry calls. Til next time.

"sunflowers" - everclear.

of batarangs and possible accidental injuries

UPDATE: PICTURES APPARENTLY AREN'T ABLE TO BE VIEWED IN MY BLOG POSTS, BUT REST ASSURED, THE BATARANG AND MACAULEY CULKIN ARE BEING USED TO THE FULLEST EXTENT.

Well, the website is up. I guess I can check that off my bucket list then.

I wanted to draw attention to the hub for my company: Imaginary Trends. Imaginary Trends was a company created early this year in order to house the projects created by myself and Kyle Igneczi, who is the other main component of the group. Kyle's website isn't quite done yet, but that doesn't mean you can't visit our minimalistic-styled bare-bones themed site for some love.

It's roughly 10:20 P.M. right now but I wanted to upload some pictures because 1) I want to see how the website handles pictures being inserted into blog posts and 2) the materials we have scraped together for the latest viral amuses me greatly.

Can you see what we are working with for tonight? A batarang and Macauley Culkin. Truly an epic combination. It kills me that I cannot directly talk about why these videos are being made but once again, if you take a good look around YouTube, maybe search for some Vlogs, then you'll catch on...

Time to get into costume for the viral video. If you guys discover it, I hope you enjoy it. :)

"i can't stay" - the killers

oh vanessa hudgens, i bet your mother is so ashamed of you.

I can honestly say that when I grab hold of a creative idea and wrestle it to the ground, I never feel more alive. Today a suggestion was made for something to be done for the character of Christian in LAN'ded. Currently, the past 9 hours Kyle and I have been writing, scripting, and organizing a team to be brought together for a small yet difficult project we hope to complete by the end of the week. Though, because of the nature of the project, I cannot discuss it very deeply. I know I'm beginning to sound like a broken record saying that but I'm sure if people just snooped around YouTube by the end of this week then they'd see the fruits of our labors. Or labours if we are using Shakespearean prose. Also, it involves me rapping. Yep, rapping. T-Pain style.

Hopefully, if all goes as planned, you're reading this on ImAaronJ.com. If so, I hope you're enjoying it. If not, well...trust me, it's pretty nifty. Kyle and I bought a flurry of domain names last night in an attempt to secure our virtual real estate and I feel as if we came out on top. You'll now be able to access our personal sites and company information at www.thisguyandi.us (cost 50 cents) and www.thisguyandi.com (cost $10). We bought the dot-com out of peer pressure and bought the dot-us to appease our penchant for thrifty shopping. In the end, everyone wins.

The grim realization that this job in New Hampshire will be done soon approaches us with more aggression with each passing day. This has been a haven for creative freedom as far as our work is concerned. We've made some good connections and have even found some new colleagues but a change of venue is necessary. I've always said that my father was the best source of comedy I've ever had and as fate would have it, I'll be heading home next. We have set up a mobile postal service on the internet though. A feasible way for Kyle, our fellow colleagues, and I to exchange ideas, videos, and upload our work to the series of tubes and connections you're navigating through now. We're very excited about the prospect of recording and releasing a podcast every so often, perhaps a fortnight, and getting feedback on our work instantly.

Getting away from all of that professional news, has anyone else turned into a 13-year old again due to the fact that a new video game about The Dark Knight is coming out? I sure have, and the fact that the collector's edition comes with a batarang does nothing to further my personal responsibility or well-being. I expect band-aids to be bought in bulk when that weapon is unboxed.

I just received an update. It's a negative, we won't have the URL site up by tomorrow, maybe tuesday though. GoDaddy.com likes to make their site as slow as possible, and when you combine that with the [sarcasm] always reliable [/sarcasm] internet here you've got a winning combination.

Guess that means it is time for bed. Peace out cub scouts.

"someone is crazy" - jonathan coulton

saving receipts for taxes is a trend that is difficult to fall into.

I can only imagine how my past relationships would've turned out if my girlfriends had this handy dandy little resource. But I digress.

It is almost unfathomable for me to believe that a part of my job as an actor now requires me to play video games and publish my (or my character's) thoughts on them. It is definitely exciting and I'm quite interested to see what sort of waves I can make doing this.

Today I went to a few different places nearby my current job to see some friends sing and dance and even prance around. Being graduated from University, it's sad to see your younger friends (who are already very talented and going to get even better) knowing that you won't see them in classes or in halls come September. It can't be helped though. I really can't wait to see where life takes them. Just knowing that paths can cross so easily makes me believe this won't be the last time I see them. So I guess until next time...

P.S. I met actor Richard Kind at my friend's park today. He's always been a terrific character actor and I've enjoyed him in most every project he's been a part of. To add to it, he was incredibly polite and a very nice guy. It's always nice to encounter celebrities that are as nice as you'd expect them to be. It also helped that we played Bumper Cars together. I don't think anyone else can say they played Bumper Cars with Lucious Lavin from "Stargate: Atlantis". (I know he was on Spin City but c'mon, Stargate is more my speed.)

I hooked up my 360 to XBL today and downloaded Felicia Day's "Do You Want To Date My Avatar?" music video. I'm not sure how many times I can praise her, but I'll continue to do so. She has literally laid down the framework for how an actor can make a living through Internet media. So I'm hot-linking to her video and her material as much as I possibly can. It doesn't hurt that she's gorgeous and plays video games too.

I need to update the LAN'ded blog because it looks like a graveyard currently. How do I blog about a project I can't publicly talk about? Maybe if people watched more YouTube then they would understand what I mean...

Apparently this District 9 film is a pre-requisite for geeks everywhere. Even Entertainment Weekly thinks so. When did my niche culture get hip? Oh yeah, when Battlestar Galactica aired. I forgot. Will def. have to check it out this week.

I have to sing and dance in eight shows tomorrow and all I can think about is how to jazz up my avatar. Oh Microsoft, how you've ruined me.

I'm totally excited for my website to launch so I can begin posting my latest writing exercise: Thing-A-Day. I decided to write at least one thing a day for a year. At the end of the day I can't work on that selection any more. It has to just stay where it is. I can always expand on it with a different selection later but I can't add to an existing TAD. It's given me a ton of creative ideas for LAN'ded and other projects and I decided to post some of my favorite ones on here for all to see. Keep checking back to the blog to see how the progress is going.

Break time is over now! Back to playing video games...for fun and profit. Never thought I'd see the day...

"you and i" - jason mraz

cracking wise.

Being a recently graduated and poor actor floating around the country, I've had a lot of time to think about my career and where it is going. I know my calling is theatre but what specific facet of performing is yet to be determined. Interactive media has always been a big part of my life, as well as science-fiction and comic books. Because of this, I figured that the locations chosen for my web-site photo shoot should mainly be arcades and places that I can call home. My good friend and photographer buddy Derek Fitting generously volunteered to take some simple snapshots of me in my native environments and suggested that we hit up some not-so-common places for Kodak moments.

New Hampshire is actually rife with arcades and so the possible locations to shoot at were quite varied and debated upon. It was decided that FunSpot would be the best place to start, and why not? After all, this was the very same arcade that Steve Wiebe attained his Donkey Kong world record a few years previous. Needless to say, I soaked it all in. Where else can you find vintage arcades machines like TRON or The Real Ghostbusters? I dropped quarters like they were candy into the mouths of the hungry arcade cabinets only to be rewarded with a few high scores and continue countdowns screaming at me for another go.

Not having professional headshots yet and knowing that these photos were going to be used mainly for my website, I wanted these pics to be fun and so we attempted to make them as unique and varied as possible. I posed with Pole Position, Defender, several pinball machines, and Double Dragon. Never in my wildest dreams would I think I'd be posing with Billy and Jimmy Lee but hey, time makes fools of us all. I'm sure I can use most, if not all, of the pictures taken in some way shape or form.

In other news, I've formally begun work on my cabaret. I've tentatively titled it "save points" because I figure I'll be hitting some major checkpoints in my life during the course of the show. Once I get it on its feet, you can expect some JoCo, Nobuo Uematsu, Sam Hart, and some more contemporary Broadway musicals to make appearances. I'm excited for this project. I am aiming at having it finished by November and hopefully getting it performed sometime in December. I would really love to have one performance of it where I take donations for Child's Play. I think it is time that more gamers give back. After all, we can spend $150-$250 on prestige editions of games and Rock Band bundles, so what is a few bucks here and there towards kids who really need the support?

Also, I almost fell head-first into a waterfall today. I never said my life wasn't uneventful.

"boxing" - ben folds

i've got no control over the dog

The constant reminder that I'm going to be back in my hometown of Erie, PA soon keeps nudging me closer to that state where I get both sentimental about going home but sad about leaving my current venue. Things aren't all sad though, many things are moving forward. You may be able to be directed to my new personal website thru a few new URLs soon. By the time this is posted, you'll probably be reading it on my new website. It's nowhere near complete but at least I'll have SOMETHING up on the interwebs. It's an interesting feeling purchasing a URL/domain name. It's like you're buying up prime real estate on the internet.

It's funny how I am known to most of my friends as Aaron J., and that automatically makes me think I'm the only one out there. Stupid right? It's like I am thinking "How could there EVER possibly be another person who goes by 'Aaron J.'?" and yet I DO think that. So when I went to purchase the domain name AaronJ.com and it was taken, my mind was blown. I may have to settle for ImAaronJ.com or something else but man, some stuff just totally blindsides you. I suppose I could have the guy lynched but that just doesn't seem kosher y'know? Ah, the entertainment industry, what a cruel beast.

Making the viral videos for LAN'ded has taken up most of my time recently. Some people have asked WHY the virals are being made and distributed via the internet and if I think the characters in the videos would actually publish such content. Well, if you were to search YouTube on a sad lonely dreary sunday afternoon, you'd find videos with alot worse content and reasoning than ours.

Filming the current viral had to be suspended due to the absence of a tissue box. Looks like I'll have to go out and buy some props tomorrow then. In order to make the most of the time I had set aside though, I'm going to play Fable 2. I know I'm about a year late in playing it but hey, better late than never right?

In all seriousness, I'll probably end up sketching out a few new ideas I've had and THEN hit up Fable 2, but let's face it, I'll still end up with a controller in my hand.

Til next time.

"walking after you" - foo fighters