About

What exactly does this blog’s name mean?

Well, according to dictionary.com (as well as various other well-known dictionaries), the word “sanguified” does not truly exist. However, if you look up similar words (and do a little thinking), you can come to find a meaning for the word: if “sanguify” is “to produce blood from” and “sanguifier” is “a producer of blood,” then you come to a conclusion that “sanguified” could mean “bloodied,” correct? “Strings,” the second part of the title, should be pretty self-explanatory, but since I am explaining the blog title’s meaning,  I shall help you out a bit — these would be the strings of a guitar.

So, now to put this all together for you. As many of you know, guitarists spend hours upon hours writing riffs and solos for new albums, which we all spend money on (or should at least). Now imagine, if you will, a guitarist is nearing the end of his/her writing session — when their fingers are getting a bit sore — and just as they are about to put the instrument down for the night, they strum a few chords in just the right rhythm so that it fits perfectly with what they had been playing. So, they spend another hour or two (or three, or four, five, maybe six…) to finish what is going through his/her head — fighting through the pain in their fingers — to the point where their fingers start bleeding.

And there you have it… a meaning to the name of the blog.

What is the purpose behind this blog?

This blog is just meant to be a place where I can blow off some steam and put my thoughts into writing — whether anyone actually wants to read about what goes on in my head is completely up to the individual. I will also possibly be posting the Spanish Inquisition articles out of the Metal Hammer magazines I have lying around my room out of boredom — though I did not originally write them, obviously. This blog is going to be a place for me to show off my collection of music as well… with links to official music videos (if I miss any, just let me know and I’ll update the post). However, this is NOT going to be a place to download the albums. If you are in a band or represent one and would like your music to be heard, feel free to send me your demo, single, EP, or full-length along with any information about the band and album and I will gladly post it (as a FREE download). Just message me the info.

What about you? Tell us a little about yourself.

Well… first of all, my name is Nick. Currently, I live in Florida — and absolutely hate it here. The weather is either hot and humid, really warm and humid, or on the rare occasion in the winter, freezing… and humid.

I graduated from Valencia College in 2010 with two degrees. Originally, I was planning for a degree in Architecture, but that changed a few semesters into it. I graduated the end of Spring 2010 with a General AA and an AS in Drafting & Design. I am not 100% on this, but I may be taking a while away from school — possibly leaving Florida and living wherever I go for at least a year. Then, hopefully, I will have an idea of what I want to do with my life and go back to school for the required degree. Maybe I will even take a class or something to learn to play the guitar that has been sitting in my room staring at me for the past few years.

January 2012, I finally moved out of my parents’ house and into my grandfather’s (on my mom’s side). About the middle of 2011, we put him into an assisted living home because we were constantly (as in every day) having to go help him with everyday tasks.

A few months in, my Xbox 360 “red ringed” and I had a friend fix it. When I went to pick it up, I asked if they needed any help with anything (since he owned the store) and he taught me to fix 360s for the same fix they had just done on mine… and later PS3s for, basically, the same problem (“yellow light”). A few months of doing repairs and using an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of repairs we were doing and warranties for customers, I coded a PHP application to do that for us… which I later made into a website where they could check the status of the fix (where it was in the repair process and what was being done to it, if it passed our testing, how long the warranty was still active, etc.). I now manage a few pages for the store, continue to do repairs, and am one of 4 people who run the business. We’re doing quite well too… especially, considering there’s a GameStop across the street from us (though they mostly deal with new-gen games while we mostly have retro and fix most gaming-related electronics).

January of 2014, I was let go from the retro game store for “not doing anything” (there was a pretty nasty blog post about it, but it was taken down a few days after as it was pretty unprofessional). To put it simple, I was working on too many things at once (dealing with customers, helping with repairs, and creating/updating about 7 different PHP projects for the store) and couldn’t focus. Honestly, for someone with ADD, I feel I was doing well… evidently not. Really, I feel as though I’m the reason the store succeeds as well as it does, but was terminated in a bad way.

In April 2014, I started working for uBreakiFix as an intern web developer and 6 months later was promoted to a salary position doing the same thing. I mostly work on the back-end system which only employees (at almost 100 different franchise locations) have access to, but do a few minor things to the main website as well. The work environment is a huge improvement over retail. I’ve only been working with the company for a few months, but already it feels like family. It doesn’t hurt that almost every Friday, we go out to the local arcade bar.

I have long hair, and I have been told on countless occasions that it is pretty — I get complimented on it all the time and do not plan on cutting it any time soon. Since I was about 8-years-old, I had very short hair (almost to the point of being bald) and just before starting college, I got it cut one last time… and I have been growing it out ever since. I am still working out how often I get it cut though — and what shampoo/conditioner to use. I shave about once or twice a week (and suck at it), but it’s not like I have much facial hair anyway, so what is the point?

My music preferences range anywhere from classic rock to glam/hair/sleaze metal to punk to some of today’s rock to power metal to black metal to [melodic] death metal to metalcore, but I have quite a few odd groups in my library you would not/should not expect. I’m almost willing give anything at least one listen. Lately, a lot of video game music and film soundtracks have been making their way into my library as well.

I can be a bit of a gamer as well. I prefer my Genesis to most of the stuff out now, but I also have an Atari 2600, Dreamcast, PS2, PS3, PS4, PSP, Xbox, and Xbox 360, Xbox One… and of course my PC.

I am not much of a sports fan — the only sport I can sit through is football, but I’m pretty bored by the end of whatever quarter I was watching.

Anything else? Hmm… oh, personality! There isn’t really any way to describe it — I am too random. Despite my looks and metalheadedness, I am actually a really nice, sweet, kindhearted, etc. person (though maybe this is just a metalhead thing?) — people just normally are not willing to give me a chance. I can be a goof, but I have to know you pretty well (or be talking to you through instant messaging). I can be an ass — but hey, we all can, right? I can also be a huge perv., but I blame that on the music I was raised on, my parents and, well… the simple fact that I am a guy. I guess the best way to figure me out would be to talk to me. I don’t really have many guy friends, but since sports channels rarely find a place on my TV, I tend fit in with the female crowd better anyway. I also tend to get along better with younger people as well.

Recently, I took one of those Briggs/Meyer personality tests (the entire office did out of boredom) and the result was pretty damn accurate. I fit into the rarest personality type, which is about 1% of men: INFJ.

As for religion, I would consider myself an Atheist — but I don’t care one way or another what someone else believes. And I would hope no one is going to judge me just because I find it hard to believe there is an all-powerful being controlling my life. As long as you are not going to try to push your religion on me, there should never be any tension between us. I do, however, believe that organized religion is a load a crap — if someone wants to believe in a being who looks over them, so be it. A book/church should not dictate how you worship that being. I jokingly say my theory is that an alien came to Earth and screwed a monkey… which explains evolution and the theory that a being created human kind. But seriously… why do people care so much? Honestly, I think religion was created to scare people into being more obedient.

Is there anywhere else we can find you?

I mostly spend my time working (web developer at uBreakiFix, and my own non-profit Casual and Professional Gamers Association (CAPGA)) or playing video games, when I’m not doing that, you can pretty much find me roaming around all over the internet. You can also find me on Steam or add me on Battle.net (Slinky#11427) to see what games I spend most of my free time playing.

This Public Service Announcement was brought to you by the letter 5, because… fuck letters.