Welcome to my blog. I'm Adam Sawicki and I write about my life, the people around me, and where I live. I write about technology, art, and interactivity. I love mostly everything in one way or another. More than anything, I take pride in answering, "everything" when someone asks me what I like to eat, what I want to do, and hopefully eventually, what I've done in my life.

So read on. I give you permission to delve into my head and try to piece together the below fragments of my life into a completely finished puzzle that is me, Adam Sawicki. The below adage may help a bit...

"When you're up to your neck in shit, the only thing left to do is sing" - Samuel Beckett.

Now, I’m a pretty proud nerd. I’m not embarrassed in the slightest about it. I just never realized how many nerdy things I actually do. There’s a lot. A lot more than 50. That’s for sure.

I decided to list them.

There are some things in the below list that you may believe are not that nerdy, but I included everything that I believe makes me nerdy. So read on, and if you can think of other nerdy things about me, let me know about them in the comments section.

50 Totally Nerdy Things About Me

1. I made an iPhone stand(rotates between portrait and landscape mode) out of Lego

2. I also made one out of paper, and affixed an Apple logo on it.

3. I listen to podcasts regularly (Joystiq is my favorite).

4. I read comic books (100 Bullets is my favorite).

5. I have a subscription to Wired magazine.

6. I’m an Apple fanboy.

7. I’m an expert user of both Mac OSX and Windows.

8. I have installed Linux on my PS3.

9. I own a PS3, 360, Wii, PSP, and two DSs.

10. At the moment, there are over 20 devices plugged into outlets all over my room.

11. I’m on Twitter, Facebook, Linked In, and a bunch of other social networks.

12. I read Digg daily.

13. I have a midi keyboard and I use it with programs like Ableton Live, Garageband, and Reason.

14. I record my own music on my computer.

15. I play the guitar, piano, and drums (super novice on drums though).

16. Except on Rock Band where I’m able to play hard and expert difficulty on drums.

17. I own 4 Apple devices and I’ll most definitely be acquiring more in the future.

18. I have a jailbroken iPhone.

19. I own three different kinds of headphones because I’m very particular on how I use them. I have one fairly expensive pair of cans for home use only, one pair of cheap $20 cans for outdoor use, and a pair of iPhone earbuds with the microphone built in for portable use and for talking to people if I bike somewhere.

20. I own the box set of Home Movies.

21. I enjoy both Buffy and Dollhouse.

22. I make websites for money and just for fun.

23. I know many programming languages. Some are HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Java, ActionScript, PHP. Oh, and Visual Basic!

24. I have movie posters of “The Magnificent Seven”, “Fight Club”, and “The Girl.”

25. I have read at least 5 books by Chuck Palahniuk.

26. My Mac is always running at least 6 programs at once. Usually, more than 12 are running.

27. I modded my Xbox to install and run Xbox Media Center. The mod involved hot swapping hard drives.

28. My current desktop set up includes two monitors.

29. I know the names of many video game developers, companies, and even journalists.

30. Before seeing most movies, I check their reviews on Rotten Tomatoes to make sure it’s worth seeing them.

31. I loved university and almost all of my classes.

32. I own the 2001: A Space Oddyssey soundtrack.

33. Each day when I wake up, I reach for my iPhone and check Twitter, Facebook, my email, and my RSS feeds. All before even getting up out of bed.

34. I had (now gave away) over 30 Rock Band t-shirts.

35. I can tell the difference between MP3 and CD quality.

36. I regularly control my computer remotely, either through another computer somewhere else, or through my iPhone.

37. I video chat through iChat regularly.

38. I warn my new girlfriends about my love for video games. So they know what they’re getting themselves into.

39. I played Magic: The Gathering card game for a while.

40. I’m contemplating getting the $150+ Prestige Edition of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 for the included night vision goggles.

41. I get called by many friends asking me questions about video games.

42. I keep the boxes of all of my gadgets and show them off on a bookcase.

43. I routed a 50ft Ethernet cable through my house to plug in the 360. Kept it wired so there would be no lag in online games.

44. I hate wires so my keyboard and mouse are both Bluetooth enabled.

45. I own a record player that I use a lot. I update my library frequently.

46. I used to work at a video game store.

47. I used to work for a music and movie store.

48. I have videogame soundtracks.

49. I want to work at Google.

50. I made a list of 50 things that make me nerdy and I posted it on my blog.

Like I stated earlier, there’s probably much more, but these are some that come to mind right away.

I love you,

Adam Sawicki.

I have a beer gut. It’s not huge, but it’s there. And it’s definitely noticeable. I knew something had to be done about it, because not only do I not look as good as I used to, I don’t feel as good as I used to either.

I have wanted to start a regular workout for a few months now, but I have never been able to keep myself motivated enough to keep at it. That’s where technology and a little magazine called Wired comes in. Wired’s July issue, titled Living by Numbers had a lot of great articles detailing just how tracking your workout can help you burn fat, gain muscle, feel better, look better, and teach you a lot about yourself. If you’re curious, check out this article which was also published online: Know Thyself: Tracking Every Facet of Life, from Sleep to Mood to Pain, 24/7/365.

So what am I doing, using, and monitoring to help me feel better? First of all, I have to say that without Apple’s iPhone, this routine I’ve started could never have come to fruition. Check it out (after the break):

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I found the above fortune in a Mandarin fortune cookie earlier today just hours after receiving my double degree in paper form. I think this is a good sign.

More important than fortune cookies and Chinese buffets is the fact that I have graduated! It took me four years, but I did it. Most people aren’t aware that I wasn’t at just one campus for my entire university career. Because the New Media program I was accepted into was a joint program, I moved around quite a bit.

So actually, my first 2 years were spent at the University of Toronto at Scarborough campus, the next full year was spent at the Centennial College HP campus, the summer after my third year was spent first attending an internship course at the Centennial College Centre for Creative Communications and second, attending summer school at the University of Toronto St. George campus while simultaneously interning at a small new media company’s office as a junior producer, and my final fourth year was spent back at the University of Toronto at Scarborough campus. What a ride.

In total, in the four years I attended university/college classes, I attended 4 different school campuses and 1 work place as a student intern. Why am I giving this so much attention? Because after reading the above fortune and reminiscing about my education for a little bit, I realized that this constant change-up of location greatly enhanced my education and has given me more experience in a rapidly changing and evolving world than I asked for. And that’s good!

I’m now ready for almost anything. I can’t wait to see what my future holds in store for me. Without a doubt, the options presented in front of me are expanded considerably because of my time at University of Toronto. So yeah, thanks UofT!

Click the More button to see a somewhat awkward jumping picture of me celebrating my freedom from sleepless nights of essay writing and hair pulling days of coding.

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Last night, Davy Bell, Heather Whitney, and I launched a new website. It’s a webcomic about relationships. It’s pretty funny, I think. I’m pretty sure you’ll find it funny too. So, if you haven’t already scooted over to boy-vs-girl.com, you’re probably just waiting for me to describe the site a bit more. Well, for you, and only you, I’ll quote our talented writer’s description of our website:

After sitting down and discussing relationships we realized, that despite how wrong everything can go, in the end, relationships are funny…to someone. This site was created in the hopes that you, who have been in a relationship or two, or are in one now, recognize the similarity between yourselves and the characters in our comic… and from there you can begin to laugh with or at us.

We’re going to be updating the site on a weekly basis, so definitely check it out and keep coming back.

Love,

Adam Sawicki.

07
Jun

*Photo credit: Heather Whitney

I’m free. See that sailboat? See how free it looks just floating ever so freely? It’s untethered, unconfined, unchained, unrestrained, unrestricted, free and clear. That’s me. I’m the boat. Before metamorphosing into this boat, I was tethered, confined, chained, and restricted by school. Now the thing is: I enjoyed my time at university and I believe that my time there has been beneficial to me, but it kept me away from friends, family, and my own ideas and projects that I wanted to create, explore, and work on.

Enough with the complaints! I’m done! I have a lot of time on my hands right now. A LOT. One of the things I’m currently working on is just about to launch. It’s a project between me and two friends of mine, one of whom is more than a mere friend to me. Heh. If you know me, you’ll hear about this project very soon. Keep an eye on this space, my Facebook, and/or my Twitter account.

What else? Well, I want to create more and more! If you’ve got any ideas, let me know.

That’s it for now, I guess. I’ll be updating this here blog much more often now. Actually, you know what? Let’s try to update this blog daily. I’m up for it. Yes! Here we go…

Love,

Adam Sawicki.

I’ve wanted to make a Flash game for a very long time now, but I just haven’t had the time to build one. Just recently however, I was given a chance to make one for a school project. And that’s how Hellacious began its life.

It’s currently still in development, so right now the only way to play it is to try out the demo. It’s short, but should introduce you to the world of Hellacious.

One more thing: I’m thinking of changing the character. I’m just not very good at drawing, so I may be looking for help in producing art for this game. We’ll see how it goes. But if you’re interested in helping me out, let me know.

See the ‘N’ key? I’ve been using it a lot for the past few months. You’ve no doubt heard me say, “Nah, I can’t tonight. I have to finish a damn essay.” Or “Not until this school year is finally over.” Or “Negative ghostrider.” Okay, that last one; something my brother would say.

So here’s this post. It’s basically an apology for saying “No” to so many of you for the past few months. It’s also a little bit of a plea for sympathy.

You know what makes this all bearable though? I’m not alone in suffering through this year of nos, negatives, and nevers -alliteration FTW! Heather’s by my side pretty much everyday, enduring through an endless torrent of assignments with me. Essentially, there’s a bunch of you in the same boat as me and the boat is sinking super fast. But keep in mind my fellow studious sailors, the water is a warm blanket under which we rest at two in the afternoon after sleeping in on a sunny Tuesday afternoon. And we don’t drown. We graduate.

What I’m saying is, hey, I’m still your friend! You can call me and we’ll hang out…sometime.

Presenting Overheard at EB Games, a feature wherein I quote a conversation I overheard while working at my part time job at EB Games. Sometimes people say something funny, sometimes people say something interesting, but most of the time, people say something stupid. You be the judge.

After calling on me numerous times with the attention grabbing and oh so eloquent, “YO!” I finally answer two gangsta’ kids (maybe in their late teens) looking for a sick game to play. I answered their questions but did not recommend any good games for them to take home as I had no intention or hope of having an engaging conversation with these two incredibly intelligent young adults. After fielding their inquisitive questions, I overheard their conversation:

L’Mo: Yo, Ima return Army of Two.

BigJ: Ye?

L’Mo: Ye. I beat it. Game’s sick, man. You can turn you gun gold and shit.

BigJ: Siiiiiiiiiiiiick.

Gangsta’ kids’ names are completely fictional. I’m probably not far off though.

Yup. I haven’t finished a song in I don’t even know how long. So, I just quickly made a small page for all of the unfinished music I’ve made. The page holds songs I started working on and just never got around to finishing.

When you’re listening to these songs, I encourage you to think about how you could make them better. What can you add?

So have a listen and let me know what you think:

adamsawicki.com/unfinishedmusic

Love,

Adam.

It’s funny. I wanted to go to sleep early tonight, so I looked around for something to watch to ease me into a nice and relaxing deep sleep. I noticed one of my friends on MSN had a link for a Google Video video (wow redundancy) posted in their name. I thought, “Ah what the heck. Let’s see what this video’s about.”

Well, it’s about a lot. I still have not gone to sleep. I’m inspired. I want to see what others think about this video’s take on money, society, resources, energy, technology, and love. I don’t want to say too much about it because I don’t want to influence your opinion in any way. When you have 2 hours to spare, have a watch. Like with everything you watch, you should view it with an open mind, criticize everything you see and hear, and ask yourself how this video makes you feel.

So, as Oleg so efficiently put it, “What do you think about this?”