The hell.

Okay, I think I've figured something out about these Topography of Thought posts.

"Addendum" was a jumble of letters followed by "foxtrot," right?

The next one, two days later, was "trespass."

Today, there was one that said "from genesis to revelation," as well as "We've set up camp."

Well, it was the two-day gap that set me off. I know what would have been posted on the day inbetween. It would have been "nursery cryme." Foxtrot is Genesis' fourth album, Trespass their second, From Genesis to Revelation their first. In between Foxtrot and Trespass is Nursery Cryme.

Bottom line is, I think this is some kind of countdown. Something's happening tomorrow. It most likely has something to do with that jumble of letters.

Posting the jumble of letters here for convenience.

hahauhahaihaha
hahahahahahauhahaphaha,haha,hahayhahauhahakhaha]haha]hahaghahayhahauhaha]hahanhaha'hahanhaha]haha/haha


Does anyone have any ideas?

Topography: "Addendum"

Someone informed me of a new post on The Topography of Thought. For the sake of convenience, I am now following that thing.

The reason this post apparently stands out is because Weathered Crashes seemed to be preparing people for some puzzles by providing keys. I'm just paraphrasing what the person told me, by the way. So, uh... I mean, I recognize "foxtrot." It's a Genesis album.

Email: "You're Invited!!!"

I got this in a separate email. Oddly enough, there was no email address listed. But this seems to be an invitation to something. I hear Marillion. I like Marillion. I hear Skye Blue doesn't want me going to this. Skye Blue has been antagonistic so far, so.. this is probably actually a really good thing for me to go to.

The question is, when is it, where, and with whom?

Skye Blue emailed me again.

An elegant question for the sophisticated mind

Why is there rarely any good porn?

Siggggh...

I wonder if any of my friends, former or current, got home from school all excited/had tons of fun at a friend's house and then thought about their good pal Jordan. I wonder if they ever thought, "Wow, I'm having all this fun, and he's just spent the night alone." I admit, I probably wouldn't have thought that. After all, there's bound to be someone who's there for that lonely person to talk to!

Well, let me tell you. There's not. Everyone was gone today. Whenever a few people got online, they were too tired or it was too late to talk. It's 7 AM now. This was one of the loneliest nights I've had in a while.

I mean, I got the sound to work on this damn computer, so that's something. I was thinking I could finally Skype with someone, as that seems to be all the rage these days. But no. Nobody was around to talk to.

I have a new hat. It was a gift. It's also a trilby, like my usual hat. But this one's all black, and a little taller than my usual one. I also have a new shirt, a sports shirt. Really thin. It's not tight or anything; it's a little loose. In this shirt, I actually look... slender. In a good way.

I still look thin as a rake, though. And god, I was one cold boy tonight. Seriously, it's the end of May. Why is it so cold? All the people I spoke to sounded.. stiff. I spoke to one girl, she sounded so wooden.

..whoa, there's a lot of birds outside my window. And the city outside looks so empty. I don't even see any shadows; it's that early. The birds' singing sounds like a choir, though. ...holy shit, I thought I saw a black dog. I guess not. Weird. It looked like it was dying. For a split second, I even thought it was a dying man. Then I looked again, and it was a dog, and.. it's gone.

You know what I really need right now? An angel. A fucking miracle. I feel like I've been stumbling in the dark, like some kinda blind man. I need to see the metaphorical light, or some kinda doctor to lift this plague of darkness and let me see the light.

...I'm tired. I'm rambling. I'm gonna go look for some food. If I can get something to eat, I'll be one happy camper.

Well, it's official.

I haven't been to school in a year.

It's.. scary, almost. A very brooding fact. I miss school. I really, really do. I just missed a whole fucking year of it. I'm scared to go back in two years or whenever the fuck dad's gonna let us. God. I feel.. I just know that, when we go back, I'm not gonna get to graduate along with my peers. All my former friends. Everyone I used to know.

My life. This is my life now. These investigations, this prog, this blog, it's all my life now.

Oh god, forgive me.

woldsla,fkpelp

iwaaaaaaaaaaaant hte puppweet

i WANt the puppet!

I FSAKSARAWNRIE$IWKEL KWROSKO

I WANAT HEA TAE PUPPEEET

OEMEED onme (iewrrrrrRRRRR

MY GOD DS RW I NEED IN EEED IN EDDED

Whoa.

Wow, I was tired last night.

I don't feel like blogging tonight. Just putting this here so you know I'm not crazy or something.

im s itll aewka

Haarrrlequin, Haaaarlqeui n

If ucjking love hrtfivs song, man its' a fgreat song. Gneidskdsainohk

tired

Fuck work. I'm sixteen, dammit. I need to talk to friends. That's what I've been doing for two days straight.

If The Topography of Thought wants to be cryptic and post screenshots or whatever the fuck it wants, it can do it itseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeedc

Prooooooooooog Tiiiiiiiiiiiiime

God, guys. This prog. This genre. This music! >W<

Nothing, nothing can come close, it's just so structurally ideal for the intellectual mind. I've been listening to it all day. It's so.. yes. ...haha, and Yes is a prog band! xD

Hahaha, I need soda. x_x

Have sex with me, Tony Banks.

Ohhh my god fuck the pond prog is so much more fulfilling.

PROGRESSIVE ROCK IS KINKY SEX FOR THE EARS.


Tony Banks is like.. if Beethoven were to shred.

Jordan Rudess is like if Hitler could play the keyboard.

Steve Hackett is like.. like if Jesus played the guitar.

John Petrucci? Oh my fucking god, don't get me started on John Petrucci. John Petrucci is a man with whom there are no comparisons. At times, you may want to compare him to Dave Mustaine, but Petrucci is more than that. Mustaine was epic, Mustaine was a god, but Mustaine was a metal god. Petrucci is just.. a god. There is nothing he can't do. He can kick your ass in 16/8. John Petrucci isn't like Dave Mustaine or Chuck Norris or Samuel L. Jackson. John Petrucci isn't like Jesus. Jesus is like John Petrucci.

Interesting train of thought!

Guys, great news! I was looking into The Topography of Thought when I kinda got derailed. I started Googling water. I mean, I'm starting to get pretty curious about it. All my life, I've been unable to drink it 'cause it makes me throw up, but.. I mean, the world's, what, 70% water?

Oh, that's another thing. My QI book says the Earth is only 0.01% water, volume-wise. The surface is 70% water, but the whole Earth is less than 1% made of it.

I'm gonna look up the nearest pond. I wanna feed the ducks. .w. I love ducks, like oh my god they're so cute.

I guess I found my expy of totheark

Goddamn. The Topography of Thought is just weird now. Cryptic and weird.

I'll post screenshots of every new entry when I get the chance.

Holy shit, what.

I clicked the first link and got:

The Topography of Thought isn't down.

I will look into this. Now.

The rapture outside is blinding. ...nothing's happening.

I'll look into The Topography of Thought now.

More progress!

DAY AFTER DAY AND NIGHT AFTER NIGHT, WE PRAY IN THE EVENTS DID THEY EVER SEE THE RED LIGHT? OVER AND OVER, SCENE BY SCENE, LIKE A RECURRING NIGHTMARE HAUNTING MY DREAMS! HOW COULD YOU PREPARE FOR WHAT WOULD HAPPEN NEXT? A BOY SHOULD NEVER HAVE TO SEE his.. father, how the fuck does this part go. IT'S A MIRACLE HE LIVED, IT'S A BLESSING NO ONE DIED! BY THE GRACE OF GOD ABOVE, EVERYONE SURVIVED! HUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Okay, so Black Clouds & Silver Linings doesn't have the best lyrics in the world. They're hilarious, though.

I looked up Fish, Man! and I asked around.. various.. fish websites. I don't know much about fish. I also sent a message to Patrick Endelhog's brother again. I hope he'll respond this time. Oh, and I've also sent a message to wiseaufan01 yet again.

God, at this rate, I probably won't even bother looking into The Topography of Thought. I really doubt I'll make any progress at all. Unless you guys really really want me to.

On Least Favourite Songs and stuff

I'm on break from my research. I checked out dreamtheaterforums.org for kicks and happened upon a topic about people's least-favourite songs from each Dream Theater album. I don't know why, but I found it an interesting read. It's prompted me to make my own. For everyone to see.

Jordan's least-favourite songs from every Dream Theater album!


When Day and Dream Unite, their debut, is one of the two albums I do not yet own. But I have listened to it a few times on the internet, and.. I'm not ready to choose. >_>

Images & Words, often considered to be one of their greatest, is certainly a classic. Though I never liked it as much as their later releases. "Metropolis, pt. 1" certainly rocks. But we're not here to discuss songs that rock. Hm, my least-favourite? That's probably "Another Day," which I find to be along the likes of Genesis' "Dusk" off of Trespass. It's just filler. Sounds beautiful. Still filler. Background noise.

Awake is heralded under ridiculously high regard by a lot of Dream Theater fans. It took me a while to get into it, and I do enjoy it more than Images & Words; "The Mirror" would probably be my favourite piece. But still, Awake just doesn't sound.. complete. It sounds like they were still learning how to be perfect. As a result, we get a good number of not-so-good songs, such as "Caught in a Web" and "Lifting Shadows off a Dream." I sure hope none of the aforementioned dreamtheaterforums.org read this. >_>

Falling into Infinity is the other album I do not yet own. Except I haven't listened to a single track off of this.

Metropolis, pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory is also heralded under ridiculously high regard. I admit, I obsessed over this album when I first got it. But yet, it still sounds.. incomplete. And it's very unrelated to "Metropolis, pt. 1," a fact that really bothered me. I think my least-favourite piece off of this would have to be "Scene Eight: The Spirit Carries On." I dunno. It just.. oh my god, it's one of the only songs I like to skip. And I never skip prog. I mean, "The Spirit Carries On" has fucking nothing to do with advancing the plot. It's basically the protagonist giving up. They didn't need a full song to tell us that. The least they could have done was make it a good song, instead of boring faux-gospel repetitiveness. x_x

Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence. This one's the last of four albums to be heralded under ridiculously high regard. Except in this case, I'm one of the heralders. Though as much as I fucking adore this album, there is, indeed, one song that I don't listen to much. The shortest song in the album, I'm talkin' degree five, "Disappear." I mean, it's still beautiful! Gorgeous! On-par with the rest of the album! But it's just.. it's like an intermission to me. An intermission between fucking epic Disc One and fucking epic Disc Two.

Train of Thought, oh my god. I hold this album under ridiculously high regard, myself. I listen to it all the way through pretty much every day. I think I respect this album as much as most Dream Theater fans respect Awake. And you wanna know an oddity? Train of Thought's structure almost resembles that of Between the Buried & Me's Colors! Starts off with weirdness, then the first song is pretty neat, second song is quirky and also pretty neat, third song is utter beauty, fourth song is fucking heavy and intense and epic, (fifth and sixth songs are swapped; Colors has a musically brilliant fifth song and a quiet interlude that introduces recurring motifs in the sixth, Train of Thought is vice-versa), then the seventh is a truly epic heavy masterpiece around fourteen minutes that pulls out all the stops and wraps shit up excellently, even having very similar endings! xD It's almost uncanny! Anyway, "This Dying Soul" is my least-favourite song. But that's not saying much; I still love it. It's just.. a song I prefer as background noise.

Octavarium would have been the best album ever if a lot more work was put into the songs. I mean, it certainly had the potential. But still, it's still a classic in various ways, and every single song has its brilliant moments. I think I like it more than most Dream Theater fans do. But I'd have to say my least-favourite song was probably "I Walk Beside You," just because I can't listen to the damn thing. xD My CD was busted the day I got it. And after looking it up, it's not exactly a spectacular piece. On an unrelated note, I love "Never Enough." I don't see why so many people hate it. I utterly love it. I actually find it funny how so many fans hate it, as it's about fans who can't be pleased. xD

Systematic Chaos is, in every way, a classic album. I love it love it love it. Every song has some of the most brilliant moments in music. "In the Presence of Enemies" was, for the longest time, my favourite song ever. "The Dark Eternal Night" is so clearly a musical metaphor for sex that I shouldn't even need to mention it. "Repentance" is fucking chilling and just.. oh god yes. Who gives a shit if the songs are fantastical and seem to be almost parodies of themselves? I'm glad the lyrics are about fantasy. They're called Dream Theater, not Realism Theater. Anyway, my least-favourite song. "The Ministry of Lost Souls." I never particularly liked this song. I normally love long songs just because they're long, but this one just dragged on and on, oh my god. I loved the bridge, the extended instrumental section, the entire second half of the song. But the entire first half is just... ugh. It's called progressive rock, guys! So progress! Change! ..odd, 'cause I love "Dogs." Then again, even "Dogs" changes more than "The Ministry of Lost Souls."

Black Clouds & Silver Linings, their most recent album, is also a classic album in every single way. I think Dream Theater is perfect, I really do. The songs I don't like are still perfect. My musical tastes just aren't. xD I find it brilliant how the first half of the album has considerably darker, bleaker songs (the Black Clouds) while the latter half is all emotional, beautiful, more cheerful pieces (the Silver Linings). Much like Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence earlier, I don't think there is a single song in this six-song setlist that I dislike in any goddamn way. I love every moment of this album. But also like Six Degrees, I can easily state the song I like the least. It's "Wither," which, like "Disappear," is the shortest. It's basically just an intermission between the beaaautifully heavy first two tracks and the utter beauty mindrapes that are the Silver Linings. It's still great. .w.

I can't fucking wait for Dream Theater's eleventh album, coming this September, I believe. >W<

It's weird. I didn't realize how much I utterly loved Black Clouds & Silver Linings until I did this album-by-album analysis. I think I'll do more of these. .w. Maybe one for Genesis.

EDIT: Looking back, I'm sensing a pattern in the songs I dislike. They're all the lightest, least-heavy, and usually around average or short song length. Damn, I'm a heavy prog fan. ^^;

Progress.

Goddamn, Radiohead can be pretty boring. I mean, they really made art with Kid A and Amnesiac, but.. the individual songs are just dull. And don't get me started on their other albums. OK Computer? More like Okay, you can shut up already and let real musicians entertain us.

Anyway, it looks like Progression Enhanced was pretty underground. Not many people even knew about it. I'm asking around progarchives.com and stuff, but no cigar. Looking up Fish, Man! soon. Then I'll take Topography of Thought.

Make a Vow

I find it simply mindblowing that I have ten followers. Are my rambles just that interesting? xD I mean, sure, my Portal 2 ramble earlier was pretty cool, but.. c'mon! It's like a miracle, ten followers.

I think I owe it to you guys to go back to my investigations. If you guys are going to actually read the thousands of posts made by this sixteen-year old with no responsibilities, then this sixteen-year old will give himself a responsibility to you followers. I'm gonna look into why Progression Enhanced, Fish, Man! and The Topography of Thought were removed. I'm gonna look into what other blogs have been removed under similar circumstances. And I'm going to blog more.


'Bout freaking time.

Puppet Shop

First of all, lookit! New computer! 8DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD YES YES YES. .W.

Second, on my daily little walk thing today, I happened upon a shop next to Blockbuster that I never really noticed before. It's a puppet shop, no kidding. Is that sweet or what? I mean, puppets are just.. badass. And there's one in particular that I've been eyeing for a while now. I think I might just save up the money to get it.

Random thought of the day

Y'know what would really suck?

If my blog was gonna shut down, and someone had to take screenshots of every post. xD I mean, my god. I have a lot of posts. That'd take a lot of work.

I went to the NHS today.

There's an hospital here in Ashford. I went for a psychiatrist's appointment, though the psychiatrist was actually a senior mental health consultant. I would have taken a bajillion pictures if my camera worked.

The psychiatrist senior consultant person appointment went well. That's not what I'm here to talk about, though.

See, outside the hospital was a weird guy. He stopped me and asked if I was Jordan Dooling. Obviously I am, so I said "Yes." He introduced himself as "J. LaBrie." It's the guy who my GP recommended! Clearly, this guy wasn't the real Kevin James LaBrie, and he certainly didn't sound like him.

"LaBrie" told me that he had heard of my adventures through a friend of a friend. Who the hell could possibly have told him, I have no idea. ..actually, maybe Nathan could have. I mean, he was at the hospital for a while, getting his eye seen to. ANYWAY, I keep derailing the topic. So the guy told me I was getting into business bigger than I think it is. He asked me what happened to the girl I was looking into. I told him she's.. gone. For all intents and purposes, I'm pretty sure she's dead. "LaBrie" seemed a little surprised.

"You might be able to make it after all. But listen, where was this girl, where'd you find her?" I briefly explained about the house, where I've been hanging out in the day. He didn't look too happy. >.>; He looked behind me and said he had to go, but before he left, he told me to stop going to the house, and that he was going to contact me again later. Said he'd probably send me an email. I said I'd give him my email, but he turned it down, saying he'll find it himself somehow. Then he ran off.

Then I had my appointment.

200th post! 8D

You know what's surprising? Two months ago, this blog only had around fifty posts. So that means I made about one-hundred and fifty posts in two months.


Now, this post is just here to tell you guys I got some new albums! :DDD

Dream Theater's Train of Thought is an album I originally bought months ago, but I left it. On the train. >_> So I got it back. And Train of Thought is, undoubtedly, one of my all-time favourite albums. Of all time. There isn't a single song on there that is anything less than mindshatteringly great. Plus, it includes "Stream of Consciousness," which truly is one hell of a song.

After listening to this album formally and officially, I can now safely say that the second-to-last song excerpt from "7" is "Honor Thy Father."


Dream Theater's Black Clouds & Silver Linings, I have never owned before. It's their most recent album (not counting their eleventh which will be released this fall!) and damn, do I love it. "A Nightmare to Remember" is pretty much.. rough, kinky sex. "A Rite of Passage" is pretty much normal sex. Still rough. "Wither" is like.. passionate sex. "The Shattered Fortress" is the opposite of foreplay (I'll probably do a ramble on the Twelve-Step Suite later). "The Best of Times" is the kind of sex where I cry all the way through it. Which I seriously did; that's a beautiful song. "The Count of Tuscany..." is the kinkiest sex imaginable. It's so kinky that it's not even sex anymore. It's just beautiful kinkiness. And I love it.


Marillion's Script for a Jester's Tear was interesting. ..well, not really. I once had Marillion's Misplaced Childhood, but I sold that 'cause it was just too damn uninteresting. LUCKILY, Script for a Jester's Tear, Marillion's debut, is so much better. Jester has motherfucking "Garden Party." "Garden Party" is one of the greatest songs I have ever heard. In all my life. It's like Gabriel-era Genesis mixed with... some 80s band. That's it, though. The rest of the songs aren't too memorable.

Pink Floyd's Animals. I can't tell you how long I've been searching for this damn album. It's somewhere close to a year, though. I've checked several HMVs across all of England for this. It was only on my third visit to the big-ass HMV in Piccadilly Circus (the shop that is, without a doubt, my Chocolate Factory) that I found the damn thing. And it was for only seven quid! ;w; Lemme tell ya, I had heard "Sheep" off of their greatest hits album, and it sounded nothing like the other songs. See, "Sheep" was actually good. This surprised me. So I decided to get Animals. The Wall was lackluster, The Dark Side of the Moon puts me to sleep, and Meddle is.. decent. Animals? Yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes, YES. "Dogs" is.. progressively.. progressive. "Pigs (Three Different Ones)" is also progressively progressive. "Sheep" still rocks. That's pretty much the whole album, plus a little love song that's luckily short. It's a fantastic album, though. .w.

Aaaand Between the Buried and Me's The Parralax: Hypersleep Dialogues. This is their newest EP. Three songs. Half an hour. >w> Yes, it's prog. Remember all my rambles about Colors, about how that's a fucking masterpiece? Well, Hypersleep Dialogues... is certainly part of a masterpiece. You see, the EP is sort of.. a prelude, I think, to an upcoming album of theirs. I think. I know it's part one of a two-part series. And it's utterly magnificent, I came every goddamn minute. It's like brutal kinky fucking, and Kinky Fuck ;D is my middle name. The story being told in the lyrics is absolutely breathtaking, captivating, brilliant, especially when you actually figure out what's going on! xD The only bad thing is it ends! I want to hear the whole picture! I want to know how this story pans out, how it ends! This series has potential of being better than Genesis' own The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway! I'm definitely keeping tabs on this.

So there you have it. Two Dream Theater albums, a Marillion album, some Pink Floyd, and a long EP half-masterpiece from Between the Buried and Me. My CD collection is pretty huge right now, and it is filled with good music. I'm proud. :3

I only wish this was a planned event, like Entry ######. That'd be cool.

Wait, why am I suddenly following my own blog? That's a stupid thing that only weirdos do! What the hell else happened to my damn account?

Hack?

I got on today to find my blog had been removed. Holy shit. xD

I think you guys know what my first thoughts were. >_> "HOLY SHIT JUST LIKE PROGRESSION ENHANCED AND TOPOGRAPHY OF THOUGHT AND FISH MAN AND THAT ONE OTHER SITE I FOUND ONE DAY THAT PROBABLY HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH ANYTHING." But no, this was just Google being stupid.

..actually, when I finally got my account back up, I noticed some emails sent out from my account from the past few days. I think I actually was hacked.

Another matter, I had exactly one comment awaiting moderation for this blog. You guys can imagine what I completely expected it to say. Turns out it was just Piranha/Noble. I almost missed that guy. .w.

Pictures from the house! :D

The first thing I saw upon entering the front room was this. The TV was on, and there were all these computers and monitors on the ground.

Here are the computers and monitors.

I tried to get a picture of the spot where the door Nathan and Sam entered was. That door you see to the left is the open door to the back room where I entered and left once.

So yeah, I said I'd get photos.

Stuff'll get better, I promise.

Life is boring as hell when you don't have a working laptop. I only get this substitute late at night, and I can't exactly do much on it besides browse the internet as it's not mine.

Since I don't have much to do in the day anymore, I'm spending more and more time out at the house. I might see if I can't upload pictures of it. 'Cause y'know, it's been a while since I last posted pictures on this blog. All text and no pics makes Jordan Eats a dull blog. :3

Sarcasm? Yeah, right.

I'm not a very sarcastic guy. In fact, I hate sarcasm with such a burning rage that, if you were to say a sarcastic sentence to me, I will respond completely straight entirely out of spite. Having said that, I should probably open up a little more.

Why'd I say that? It's 'cause of a conversation I had with a good friend earlier. But I won't discuss that.

In the meantime, I still have no working computer. Except this substitute, which I will only have for another hour. Yeah, I know.

And I'm starting to spend a lot of time at what used to be Sam's house. Again. The cats have always been there to greet me. .w. Especially Archie; he's always there. :3

Things seem to have settled down in my life. In fact, one could even say that.. things are looking up. :D Though I can't help but shake the feeling that I'm missing something huge. Like that countdown from earlier, the one that ended on the first of May. What the hell was that?

Sorry for the silence.

Things are complicated.

Sam's laptop is missing.

And I still don't have the new desktop computer up yet. I have a substitute for tonight, but tonight's the only night I have it.

The desktop's one of those freaking.. specialist types. By Dell. An old model, too. It requires special cables that most likely aren't even made anymore. This isn't gonna be easy, getting it to work. But when it's up? Shit'll be beautiful.

Here's more stuff and stuff. Update. Thing. I dunno.

So today, dad got me a desktop computer plus computer monitor from his workplace. However, he did not get any cables whatsoever. He says he will get them tomorrow.

You wanna know how last night went? Eh. It went alright. A cat broke in at late hours and I played with him. :3

Let the Night Begin

I'm in the house again. Spending the night here. Please don't ask why; it's just.. too long a story.

I played with one of the many cats outside the house. He had a collar. His name was Archie. .w. Ain't that just adorable?

Countdown Questions

Goddammit. It's hard to sleep tonight. My clock is stuck on 00:00, and it's reminding me of that countdown.

What the hell did that countdown lead up to?


Does anybody else know? I mean, I really doubt it; this is Sam's laptop we're talking about here, and unless she was counting down to the release of some video game or something, we're not gonna find it on the internet.

I know that the countdown ended on May 1st, 2011. So what happened on that day? Nothing happened with me.

Regarding Portal, Portal 2, and Oddworld (SPOILERS)

I've done a lot of thinking about Portal 2, and why its structure appeals to me so much.

Also yeah, spoilers spoilers SPOILERS abound. For Portal 2, for Oddworld shit, and.. stuff.


The structure of the original Portal was simple. The protagonist wakes up in the Aperture Science Enrichment Center and must exit. Portal was an exodus.


The structure for Portal 2 is a little bit more complex. Upon first glance, it appears to be the same as the original, with the protagonist waking up in the Aperture Science Enrichment Center again and trying to escape. But no. The story is so much more complex than that.

First, we have Wheatley trying to break Chell (the protagonist) out, taking her along and looking for the exit. The game starts off giving us the expectation that the game will follow a similar exodus structure to the original. Then the protagonists accidentally wake antagonist GLaDOS up. Wheatley is taken behind-the-scenes, and Chell is placed back into testing. As the testing continues, Wheatley meets up with Chell and explains that he wants to return to GLaDOS' chambers to take her out somehow.

At this point, the player subconsciously figures out that the focus of the story is no longer on exiting the facility, but rather on returning to GLaDOS. This is most apparent to veterans who have played the original, as they would undoubtedly acknowledge that, in the end, they are going to go back and fight the big boss like in the previous game.

Then things change up.

The protagonists break out of a test chamber and make it to the antagonist's lair. What happens? Well, I won't explain the specifics, but Chell is sent miles underground. She has left the industrial facility and is now lost in the more.. natural areas. Though in this case, the natural areas are still very industrial, but bare with me; I'm setting it up for a comparison later on. In these more natural areas, she will brave individual "courses" where she will master new abilities.


At this point in the game, the player's focus is a little vague. But as Chell progresses through the subterranean tests, she meets up with a person whose name I'm not sharing on here. There are spoilers in this post, but not that many. By this point, the character announces that the protagonists need to head upwards to stop another character from destroying the facility. We'll just call that one the antagonist.

So the player realizes that the focus is now definitely on returning to the industrial facility. I can stop telling the story of Portal 2 here, as this should be enough for my analysis.

As Portal was an exodus, Portal 2 is, in many ways, an odyssey. As you can probably assume from my previous paragraphs, an exodus focuses on exiting (on a rather epic scale, I'd suppose) while an odyssey focuses on returning.

Now, as to the underlined words. What prompted me to analyze the Portals and discover their ex/od structures was a realization I had mid-second playthrough of Portal 2. I was in the natural areas. I then realized,

"Hey. There's another game out there, a game I grew up with, that told the story of a slave in an industrial factory of sorts. The slave escapes, only to wind up in some temples out in.. nature and stuff. In the temples, he masters new elements, returns to the industrial factory, and gains redemption or some shit.

"That game was Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee. Spelling intentional."

See, I grew up with many things. Oddworld was one of them. So Portal 2's structure reminded me subconsciously of Abe's Oddysee, and that touched my heart. It was then after I considered that Abe's Oddysee actually does tell the story of an odyssey that I started to consider the original's exodus structure, and how fucking fitting the contrast between the two is.

...so yeah, I'm done. Sorry. I lost my train of thought. I'm done now.

Quiet nights.

I've had a weird night. Did the Endless Setlist III on Rock Band 3. That was fun. Slept a little again. I've been getting quite tired lately.

I'm still wondering what the hell that countdown was for. o_o; I've actually gotten a little paranoid. Looking around for anything that might have changed in the house.

I should be able to upload video footage of the house soon. Just to show you guys that I'm serious that that one door's not there and whatnot.

Countdown: 00:00:00

Well! ..I slept. And the countdown finished hours ago. Yet nothing seems to have happened. What was the point of the countdown, then?

I'll post more when I'm not busy.