It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Boredom

Hey all, I was told by my girlfriend to make an update, so here it is. Update. Bla bla bla.

Nothing much going on, just finished my last week of classes, and am heading into finals week. For me, all I have is one in-class final on Monday, and two take-home finals (due Tues and Thurs). Pretty easy for me this semester, and nothing too bad. I'll try to study for my final tomorrow (ha), and if I'm feeling up to it, maybe I'll even start the take-home for Tues. I can then do the Thurs take-home on Tues/Wed.

In other news, Happy 1/2/3/4/5 Hanukkah nights so far, 3 to go (happy to those in advance). The Xmas season is also rolling around, so happy that in case i happen not to update before then.

I kept on saying to myself "you'll update this sucker" and I never seem to. Oh well, I do what I can. Btw, Youtube is addicting as crack. Peace

Help, Help, I'm Being Repressed!

Ok, not really, but I didn't know what else to put in the title space. Lately it has been semi-busy with school and all that stuff, but I've still had plenty of time for play. Right now I should either be writing an newspaper article or working on my script for Production class, but instead I'm right here. Ha, take that educators of upper-level learning! Anywho, like I said I've been trying to work moderately hard this semester so I can attain decent grades, but without leaving out friends and gaming and all that good stuff.

I've been going back and re-playing some older NES games; right now I find myself back at Chrono Trigger (Frog: Thou hast stolen mine macaroni and cheese!). I'm also playing Median in a friendly little Unholy vs. Holy Paladin tournament. I'm on the holy side, and it has given me a chance to play a character other than barbarian.

School-wise, nothing much is going on other than the usual assignments here and there. I have my Newswriting midterm on Tuesday, so I should probably study for that at some point...over in Production class we are still working both on photography and our individual productions we need to make (mine is on college dorm microwave cooking; script due tomorrow)...meanwhile the English side is more lax. We're basically just reading Equus in Drama Lit, and trying to think of research paper topics...and in Creative Writing, we're just writing stuff (we did sonnets last week and fixing them up for next week, he told me to just write a new one since I guess I got the hang of iambic pentameter).

So yeh, guess that's it for now...now to go read up on how the whole grad school process works; peace.

Post-Bday Post

Hey all, I'm just making a quick post here. Yesterday was my birthday, and it was fun and good times, yupp. Not only was it my birthday; it was my 21st. Yikes.

I'm not the drinker type, but I did have a drink with dinner just out of tradition sakes. Yes, it was some kind of drink that had fruit and alcohol (I think some kind of Bacardi or some kinda rum). I realize one could call me a girl because it had fruit and alcohol, but I didn't want something that would taste nasty or whatever.

After dinner I had a movie date with my gf (we watched Airplane because she got it for me and it is a great movie). Also, I got a new digital camera from my parents, and a voice recorder from my sister (I write for my college paper so it helps with interviews). Also a cookie cake, so I have something to eat while writing papers at 2 in the morning. 'Twas a good day overall, and now I'm legal funnn.

Anyways, now it's 364.25 days til my birthday, or something like that. Start the countdown... =P

Peace out all; lates.

Check-in

Hey bloggie, what's up? Looks like it has been awhile once again since I've posted anything. I'm actually on my fall break now, but I'm still at school. I must want to learn that much, eh? Nah, I'm just waiting in the Blue Bean for my sis to pick me up. Yeupp....so nothing much going on.

I took a Com Production exam today; it wasn't too bad (I actually did study, w o w) and I ended up first getting an 80% on it, which the professor said was very good for this test (must be because either first test and whatnot to get used to the style, or maybe it was the content - photography stuff and some production process stuff). I tried to contest one question via email, but I was shot down. However, I was happier after he curved the tests, and I got an 89 so I'm happy with that.

Creative Writing was shortened today so we could all skip our merry ways off to break. That class was pretty good; I enjoy creative writing, it's a refreshing break from Professional Writing. It's basically poetry, so I get to write a bunch of odd poems, and not understand the deep metaphorical stuff of real poetry.

Anywho, not too much gaming; just Median 2008 and FFR basically. It's good times. College is going well; I'm actually working pretty well. I'm doing a bit more newspaper-related stuff because I am still a Staff Writer (Campus Life), and now this semester I am taking an Applied Communications course working with the newspaper so they shuffle me around the different sections and I get to write for them. Last week I wrote for News, and I am writing for News once again for the paper next week.

Just remembered, my birthday is in 10 days! I'll be 21, wohoo (although I don't drink so whatev it's just another year, but still saying you're 21 sounds so much older than saying you're 20).

Well, I don't think I really have anything else to say, so I guess I'll head off - only about a half hour til my sis should be here, yay! I can't wait to see my dogs when I get home, and be able to sleep in. Woot.

Peace out y'all.

Who dat? Who dere?

Hey blog, it has been a little while since I've written here. Anways, school is underway, and it's going pretty well. I havn't failed out of any classes (that I know), and I may actually be learning a thing or two. Of course, I'm probably not learning as much in my English classes as I am with my Comm classes, because I guess we're expected to know how to read and write like pro's coming into college, so there's nothing much else to learn in the field of English.

My Comm classes, however, are a chance for me to learn something. Especially with my Newswriting class, I think it will be helpful for my newswriting for my college paper. I am also taking an Applied Comm class doing...yep, the newspaper. Basically, it gives me a chance to rotate around the different sections of the newspaper and write for each at least once. The downside being that the first week I am assigned to Sports. Ugh. I havn't finished the article because I still need to get results from a cross country meet, and I need to interview (me =/= orator) some people. Next week I am actually on photography for the paper, so that should be an interesting experience.

Anyways, my other Comm class is a production class. We havn't actually done any productioning yet, but that's okay because first we need to be lectured on the production process and planning and whatnot. I believe next week we are actually going to start the section on photography. With this, we're actually gunna be using real 35mm SLR (non-digital) cameras - authentic. Hopefully it'll be a pretty good time, and we'll see just how good (or bad) of a photographer I am.

Hmm, I don't think there's much else to talk about. My girlfriend and other friends are doing just fine. We're been having lots of fun on the weekends, taking advantage of days off, and sometimes activities provided by the school. Yesterday, there was a drive-in (really a lay-in) movie in the Dell (basically one of our big fields). They showed Knocked Up and Shrek the Third. I guess the movies connect because they both involve babies. One teaches you it's ok to get drunk and do it unprotected, because you will be happy in the end. The other teaches you that it is ok to have ogre babies, as long as everyone is happy in the end???

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Game-wise, basically it's been mostly FFR lately. There was a Median 1.56 patch that came out if you wanted to take a look (http://modsbylaz.planetdiablo.gamespy.com/). Every once in awhile I pop on Silkroad Online, and maybe work on some quests, or just let my guy have a stall open in town while I'm at a class.

Well, I guess I'll call it a post here. Have a good one y'all - peace!

Oh back to school...bts...to prove to dad I am not a fool...

Yes, it is 7am. And yes, I am awake. That only means one thing - college has once again started. I actually don't have class until 9, but I figured I should wake up early on the first day of classes and try to get in a more morning-ish scheddy. Alternating between M/T/W/H I have 9/8/9/8 in the morning. No Friday classes, woot! Another good thing is just this one class today, so it's a kind of way to ease into the Mondays.

We basically got our room set up yesterday, and it looks good to me. I am living in an upperclassmen dorm, so that's pretty sweet. One I put up some posters my side looked better to me because that's what seems to always make a difference.

The move-in yesterday wasn't too bad. I had tried bringing less stuff this year, and my Mom kept on saying, "You have practically nothing." Well, way to go me. I figured by junior year I should know kinda what I really don't need, and I should be fine on what I have. If worst comes to worst, I have some space for more, but I doubt I'd be bringing more stuff.

Anyyyyyways, I don't think I actually have anything else to say; sorry for the short blog post, but I knew I had to make one around the time that school started. I havn't done too much gaming lately because of coming back to school, but now that my schedule is different than summer, free time means I could be doing gaming. But I should also prolly somewhat have a life, so it won't be 20/7 gaming or anything.

The latest patch for Median (1.55) should be coming out sometime this week, so I guess I'd hit that up somewhat when the time comes. Maybe I'll play Silkroad Online a bit more now that I'm back at school. Of course, I can still go strong with FFR/Stepmania (T1 = faster downloading of song packs!). And lastly, I almost feel like replaying Terranigma; no idea why, it was just a pretty fun game overall.

Well, I guess this is it for today, blogeroo. Have a good one! Peace.

Exercise to Burn that Gamer Fat Off...

Well, I decided to go with my mom when she was went out to Ridley Creek State Park to walk five miles (she's in training for the Breast Cancer 3-Day Walk), so I was up around 9:30 to do that. Yeh, I don't think my schedule had me ready to wake up at that hour, but I managed to heave myself outta bed and accompany her. It was nice out, and it wasn't all that bad. I'm still kinda tired now (but of course going to bed around 5 or 6am may be the fault of that). A nice soft sprinkle of rain even came along to cool us down.



Later that day, my family went to Philly to see my sister (my dad hadn't seen her place before). It was quite trafficky (whatever, I can spell it like that if I want) because of some work here, an accident there, and a Unity Day Festival near the Franklin Institute (all during a nice rainfall). It's a nice part of the city where she lives. Anywho, we ended up eating at a Chinese buffet back near where I live. I made sure to pile up the chicken (nice spicey Thai chicken!).


So yeh, I dunno if it'll be rainy for the next couple of days, but it rained a bunch today. We'll have to see. Man, I'm tired from this day of not being a total bum.

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I guess a reason I am so tired is that I stayed up last night to finish Terranigma. I had talked about it in the last post, and you saw the interesting "box world" menu screen. I enjoyed the rest of the game, but there were points that I must have not totally been listening to the story because I got lost at some points. I'll letcha play it for yourself and see what you make out of it.


Well, I'm kinda tired right now, so I guess I'll just stop talking about the game since I prolly said enough last post. Overall, it's a very nice game and I think you should try it out, especially if you like playing games like Zelda. Take a look at the screenies and see if you wanna try it out (highest pic I'm about to destroy a lovely large cube, second I have no idea why I put in there [kissing, love announcements, and circle of doom about to swallow them], and the final is the final stage of the final boss in this game...finally)

Peace out, blog.

The End is Coming!

Hey all, whaaaaat’s happenin’? Nothing much here, although I am trying to get myself together somewhat in preparation for my junior year which starts in a little over a week. It’s pretty exciting to be able to see everybody again (esp my gf), and all that good stuff. I’m almost thinking whatever they have first night, I’d have to get a cheesesteak wrap because that’s my “thing.” Anyways, that’s not that important, so we’ll see what goes down come the 26th.

I took a trip to Staples to get the staple school supplies – notebooks and pencils (I made sure to get 0.7mm this time since I tend to break 0.5mm), and I picked up some Sharpie’s because you can never go wrong with them. All I need now is basically a trip to Walmart or whatever to get anything else (ie duct tape). Until then, it’s coming down and I got the whole “if there are any dinners you would like to request before you go back, let us know” thing. I did request taco’s, and I’ll probably make quesadillas for them before I go back (beyond that I know I’ll have to bust out the mac+cheese, and I guess a pizza wouldn’t be out of the question).

My dad likes to try and get my textbooks online before I go back to save some money, so I think most of them have come in. Now we’re trying to get a 35mm manual SLR camera I’ll need for one of my Comm classes on Ebay, and I’m waiting for some ink for my printer to come in. Meanwhile, I have to try and help more around/outside the house (still need to mow again and pull weeds or whatever). I’m also trying to get myself back on an acceptable sleeping schedule (I don’t think going to bed like every night at sometime between 5-8am would fly for the school year). So yeh, I guess I’m at that whole transitioning stage from summer couch potato to ripe college studious tomato (sorry, had to rhyme).

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Anyways, one game I had been playing for a couple of days was Dungeon Siege for the PC. This is a kind of Action-RPG game (kinda like Diablo 2 or WoW), and it was a fun single-player experience (it has a multiplayer, but I have not tried it out). The story is your typical one, with a bad side (the Seck, led by Commander Gom), who are a bunch of baddies who have escaped from their lair that had been sealed off (or whatever) and I guess want to take over the world (etc etc etc…). You gotta kill them off and send them back to where they belong or something, and you get some help along the way.

One difference from the other two games I listed is that in this game, you won’t have basically just one guy that you take through the game, but rather a group of people. The way it works is that if you move one guy, the rest will follow and basically help that person by automatically attacking whatever needs to be slain. You can select any and control them, or you (as I did) can just select everybody and move everybody at once. You can have up to either 8 people or 7 people and a mule (who cannot be equipped like others but has a larger storage space).

Another kind of difference (especially against a game like WoW) is that you aren’t going to have 50 billion quests. Quests in this game are more like checkpoints that act as stages pointing out your progress in beating the game (therefore this type of game is one that you basically are done playing the game once you beat it, unlike WoW in which there are 60 billion other things to do even if you get through the game – I’m not sure what multiplayer is like though, so I cannot be sure what else lies in that realm of gameplay). Enemies stay dead, even if you quit the game and reload your save later.

There is basically four ways in which you can deal damage – Melee, Ranged, Combat Magic, and Nature Magic. Melee is you basic hit the enemy head-on with some type of weapon, Ranged involves the use of a bow, Combat Magic focuses more on the damaging types of magic (like fire, and spells that will help others in combat situations), and Nature Magic focuses more on magic that involves the manipulation of environment and whatnot (ice, lightning, healing, etc). Both types of magicks (pretty spelling) have spells that do kind of overlap, with different names and effects (ie summoning, healing, etc.). Each character can specialize in any of the four, and you are free to swap it up at any point in the game (one character can start out Melee, but by the end of the game be a Nature Magician).

I guess I better wrap this up…I’m pretty sure everyone is asleep by this point. I do like this game because there is a pretty linear path to get you through the game, but you are still free to do a little exploring for a dungeon or two that is a bit off the path. There are a good number of items (and spells) available for use, and I do recommend getting a packmule to help you carry all of those items you will run across. You can change the camera angle around, so that’s pretty nice too. Replayability lies in the fact that your guys can switch their profession at any point (in one runthrough of the game, my main dude was Melee; this last time I played I made him a Ranger). Overall, it may not have all the “everything” that WoW has, but it’s still a great play (there is also a Dungeon Siege 2 out there, which I have played and am impressed by).

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Surprise! This one will (hopefully) be shorter, but I just wanted to make a quick thing with a game I just started playing tonight, Terranigma, for the SNES. This one is another RPG, with a more Adventure-RPG style (much like a Zelda game, for instance). Basically, here the main character jumps into a magical box and upsets the balance of the 2 worlds or something, and he must go fix the world(s).

The game plays much like Zelda, where you need to go around to different areas and get through them (whether that involves getting through some kind of puzzle, killing bad guys/bosses, etc). One different here is that it is more basic RPG-oriented (hit points, most of the strength/dex/vit/luck bonuses or whatever they are). Most of the weapons (so far) seem to be spear-oriented, and you can do a couple of maneuvers (swinging, jabbing, jump spin, etc). So yeh, most everything is your basic Adventure-RPG style.

One other difference is the menu screen…er…not really sure what I can call it. As I said before, the kid found this magical box and somehow binded with it. Now, whenever you want to pull an item up/switch armor or weapon/change game options, hit the Select button and your character will jump into a box. This transports you to the box world, and you take control of a little flying thing by the name of Yomi (it looks like a purple bouncy ball with wings and flapping ears). Here, you can travel to 4 different rooms (Center Room [where you can do basic things, like game options, or just some guides to help you with the game], Item Room, Weapon Room, and Armor Room). Do your thing, and just hit Select when you are done and, BOING, you jump right out of the box and you can continue with your game.

So yeh, like I said, I am still in the midst of playing the game (but I have brought back the plants, birds, wind, and animals [and I think currently working on humankind]), so woot for that. It’s a pretty fun game overall (although nothing too special), but it may have the most interesting menu screen I’ve seen.

Okay, well I guess I’ll call this post finished for now. If you actually got this far, good for you. Later y’all, peace.

Back in Boredom

Ok, so that title was supposed to be some kind of reference to "Back in Black" (don't worry, no hating here, it's a great song). Anywho, it is around 3 weeks 'til I go back to Etown, but until then it has been pretty boring for the time being. I have been entertaining myself by kinda still unpacking stuff so I can then try and repack stuff for college. I think I wanna try and take a lot less stuff this year (you think by junior year I'd know what I need), but we'll see how things work out.

I havn't been doing an overwhelming amount of gaming (for me); mostly just some FFR (Flash Flash Revolution - online keyboard DDR'ing), and I am actually playing through that old school RPG I played (and reviewed) awhile back, Castle of the Winds. I am on the second of the 2 CoTW's, and this time I am kinda aiming more towards a melee character (last time I was kinda mostly a wizardess). It's a lot more fun than one would think at first glance (although there are flaws with the game of course, but then again there are flaws with every game). I had hoped for a third CoTW game, but there is none as far as I know. Oh well, still a good play second time around.

Hmm, so I don't think I have much else to say. Um.....I had Kraft Mac & Cheese for dinner if that's any incentive for me to end this blog post. It is? Thank you. Lata =)

Weekend of Good Times

Hey Bloggie, just checkin in. Only thing I really have to say that happened recently was that my girlfriend came to visit with us this weekend. It was awesome seeing her again, and we had a good time. Mostly we just chilled around the house and watched TV. On Saturday night we got a couple of pizzas from Little Anthony's and rented Ghost Rider starring Nicholas Cage. Needless to say, I think I was the only one who liked the movie, and of course it doesn't help that I like just about any movie I watch (although I would've liked more action in it).

On Sunday the weather was kinda iffy so we hung around and played some FFR on the computer. That night I tried cooking quesadillas for her and the fam, and I was happy that they worked out fine. Props out to Etown's quesadillas for making me think about them in the first place.

Today the weather was nicer so we went out for a walk on State Street and had lunch at On a Roll, a nice little restaraunt. Afterwards we stopped for ice cream at Cold Stone Creamery. When we got back to my house we basically hung around and watched some more TV, then we actually played with Crazy Bones a little. I don't feel like going into a long description about them, so you can Google them if you want, but basically they are like little figures that you flick at the other person's Crazy Bones and try to knock them down. I think the C.B faze is out (don't know if it was ever in), but they are still neat little things to pass the time.

After she left I spent a couple of hours watching Discovery Channel (it's Shark Week), then I ate dinner and then later tonight I had watched last week's Hell's Kitchen and the new Hell's Kitchen that was on. I like the show because the head dude (Chef Ramsey) is such an intense character and really puts a lot of pressure on the chefs. Probably my fav of the cooking reality shows. Next week is the finale, so I'm looking forward to what will happen with that.

Well, I guess that's it for now - now let's see if I can survive the rest of the summer, and in about 4 weeks I'll be back in Etown! Wheee! Peace out, y'all.

Just another summer day

Hey there, I just decided to post here for probably no apparent reason. Whatev. Anywho, it's a pretty nice day outside (as usual). I did take a walk to Eckerd to pick up some prescriptions, and I stopped at Rita's on the way home since I havn't had any of their water ice this summer yet. I got myself something like Tropical Melon or something, and of course it was pretty good. My mom had some work done on her mouth, so I was helping my dad in taking care of her for the rest of the day - pretty much gave me a chance to be on the computer all day and just randomly surf the web. Maybe I'll watch a movie later or something; I do have a small list of some movies I wanna see (I also wanna see the 1st and only season of "Freaks and Geeks" since I saw the first episode last year in Psych and enjoyed it).

In terms of gaming, I don't really have much to share at this point. At some point, I did start a game called "Tales of Phantasia" for SNES (an RPG), and it's pretty interesting I guess. The battles are real-time and it isn't turn-based. You actually need to move and walk and attack your opponents yourself, which kind of makes it like a 3rd-person action RPG or whatever. You can see a screenie there of just a random battle I photo'ed (I just did it, but I would have tried to screenie a more impressive battle if I had the time), so you can see the graphics are also pretty interesting. I don't think I have gotten really far into it, but I probably like turn-based ones like the FF series a bit better.

Well, I mostly made this post just to make a post and to check up since I had previously left my blog dead for a couple of months without update. I'll try to check in a bit more frequently (maybe like once a week or whatever), and I guess we'll just see how things go. Hope all (read: if there are any) readers are having a good summer - I'll ttyl peace.

Resurrection!

Hey Blogger; long time, no type, eh? Man, it’s been awhile. The last time I did something I was a sophomore. Alas, I have moved up to junior status. Here are the classes I will be taking for the Fall ’07 semester (remember I am Professional Writing major/Communications minor):

EN280 – Creative Writing – Poetry, Prose
EN313 – Studies in Drama
COM125 – Media Design and Production
COM311 – Reporting and Newswriting for the Print Media
COM205A – Applied Communications – News/ Yearbook

I’m kind of excited for the Creative Writing class because it’s been awhile since I’ve done creative writing instead of professional, and this is a smaller P/F class with probably just English majors, so it should be a good outlet for my…er…”creative” writing. The other English class is part of major – it appears to be another fun lit course, so whoopee for that. Fortunately, I’ve had the professor before and he’s really nice so hopefully it goes along smoothly.

As for the Communications courses, the Production course seems interesting, and the professor was my freshman seminar professor, so hopefully it works out well. I do know the Comm Dept decided to be unique and use Macs for their building for their supposedly superior audio/video editing and those kinds of software, so I’ll need to learn that system (I’ve been brought up with PC). I write for the college newspaper, so hopefully I can actually learn the correct way to write in the Newswriting class. As for the Applied Comm, we are required to do 2 of: News/Yearbook, TV, and Radio, so I definitely chose this one first, and I’ll probably then choose TV and try to do something behind the scenes or whatever.

Next year I’ll be living in Brinser, which seems like the upperclassmen dorm. I’m not exactly sure what it offers that others don’t, but overall it seems like it’s good (especially since my girlfriend will be living on the floor below me!). My roommate is a really nice guy and a Music major, so he’ll probably be living in Zug (the music building) since I heard that’s where they chill.

As for this summer, I’ve been doing a great job at doing nothing productive. At some point I’m going to need to actually do something, but for the time being I’ve got the bumness down pat. Basically I’ve just been sleeping, gaming, using the Internet, or watching TV.

Basically I guess that’s it for now in terms of my life, so now I guess I’ll say a few words about 2 similar games, Final Fantasy V and Final Fantasy VI.

FFV (SNES)
This one I have played through and beat. Although I really have not played other games in the Final Fantasy series, this is definitely a good one. It’s the basic RPG-style game we all know and love. Turn-based, with plenty of vehicles to take you to different lands as you battle against the evil Exdeath. The big thing in this game, and probably the biggest plus, is the use of the job system (picture to the left). There are up to I believe 22 different jobs that you can pick from by the end of the game (you get a couple each time as you progress through the game), and each job has a special abilities which you can gain to add to your total list of abilities. Mix and match your abilities to create a unique set of characters, and go hither to fight the evil!

FFVI (SNES)
This one I also have beaten, and it was pretty good as well. At first I didn’t think I would enjoy it because I figured it’d take a lot to match up to the job system in FFV, but overall this was another nice play. There are not jobs in this one – to gain spells and whatnot, you need to pick up various summonable creatures placed in “Magirock” and equip one to a character for that character to eventually learn the spells available from that summon. So, to me, FFV seemed to emphasize skills, which this one seemed to emphasize spells (tip: have each character learn Ultima and you pretty much have the game in the bag).

Some quirks in this game was when there were times that the game forced you to split up your party (there was actually a sequence pretty early in the game that you have 3 different scenarios to complete with 3 different parties); I felt this constant splitting burdened me with character development, which is a major part of RPG’s. Still, this wasn’t too bad for me because near the end I took the extremist route and leveled everybody to 99 (and taught all spells to all characters *cough* Ultima *cough*), so enemies were a breeze.

Picture-wise; the one way above is basically just one of the many battles you'll be in. Also, just above is a little 4-picture montage. Top left shows one of the weird cutscenes with some fun language, top right is actually the final boss, bottom left shows the abilities screen with different catagories which are only open to specific characters(nothing much to show there), and bottom right is a pretty emo looking screen with a dead bird and one of the characters attempting to jump off a cliff (like I said, pretty weird cutscenes in this game)

Oh ya, another thing I did like about this game was that basically every item had a description so I knew what it did. I think if I remember FFV had some times when I didn’t know what an item would do. Overall, I do certainly recommend this as another decent FFV experience.
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Well journal, I guess I’ll get going now. It’s possible I may start to use this blog more, but don’t expect daily updates or anything. There may be times that I’d just use this as a normal blog, and not as a gaming blog since I don’t just play a game then play another game then play another game then play another game…ok that was complete BS of course that’s what I do. Still, I don’t always feel like saying anything about some of them. Well…I shall peace out now so you can go do something productive with your life; lates.

Busy / Pokemon Emerald

Sorry it has been awhile since I've posted - I've kinda been busy with work and kind of neglected this blog. I think the professors met together and decided to throw a billion things at all of us at the same time just for the heck of it. That added with my procrastination = ouchie.

I just finished writing a research paper proposal for my American Lit class - who knows if I'll be able to write a 6+ paper on William Carlos Williams and the Imagist movement; I guess we'll have to see when the time comes up. Tomorrow I'll have to write a paper for my Understanding Human Cultures class on some article I should've gotten several weeks ago but consquently just got today - that should be fun. Sigh......work....

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Okies, so this will probably be a short review. After I saw a friend playing the game, I decided to try out Pokemon Emerald for the GBA (played on the VisualBoyAdvance emulator). I have briefly played other Pokemon games, and I figured it would end up being all weird Japanese writing and just blah.

However, this game was better than I thought it would be. Sure, it may be a childish series,but meh to that, it was an enjoyable RPG to play through. Like the rest, you basically get to pick one of three pokeballs at the beginning as your starting pokemon. I ended up picking a Torchic (however you spell it; basically a fire pokemon), and this quickly became my most powerful pokemon. To your right you'll see i'll named it Torch and it evolved twice (I think the to level is Blaziken); it quickly becomes a fighter/fire pokemon, and a powerful one at that. Of course I leveled it a lot so it was normally taking on enemies at least half its level, but hey isn't that what an RPG is for, lol?

So basically in this game you follow the story and you'll need to defeat 8 gym leaders and collect their badges to move to the championship island and defeat the Elite Four and win the game basically. Pretty simple, but you'll need to catch Pokemon to do this, right?

I don't recall the exact number of pokemon if you want to fill your Pokedex (a directory of all the pokemon), but it'll take some time if you wish to fill your entire list. Catch em, train/level them, and there are some skills you'll receive throughout the game that'll help you get around, such as Surf (travel over the water) and Fly (fly to previously visited towns).

There's not much else to say, so I'll just tell you that ya "Gotta Catch 'em All!"

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I gotta get to bed; nite blog.

Spring Break

Hmm, so it has been awhile since I've made a blog post; I've been on Spring Break this week so I guess I was just too bored to make a post. Yeh....tis a boring Spring Break this year. Most of the time I was either sleeping, playing a game on the computer, or watching tv.

I made myself a list of a couple of movies I wanted to make sure I watched On Demand, including Chronicles of Narnia, Stay Alive, Final Destination 3, and to be honest I already forget the other movies I had on my list. I still watched a bunch of other movies like RV and whatnot (watched that the first night with a pizza). Yeh, so basically I once again made a waste of my Spring Break, and as it comes to a close I face all the work I probably should've done but didn't do for next week. They really like to load us up on the goodies, eh? Oh well, I can take a couple of all-nighters if I need them to do crap. Tis the life, but still yucky work I'd rather not do.

I really havn't done a lot of gaming this break; I think the most I did was some Diablo II (played the mod Median 2008) and some Stepmania - I'll try to write a little something on both down the road in a later blog post, but both are great games. I did a couple of sudoku puzzles because those things are pretty fun, and also I tried to see if I could get any plans going for rooming situations next year (forms for apartments due soon this month), but no definite plans thusfar.

I had my "last supper" tonight, the ever awesome taco meal. I believe I took down 9 of those bad boys, edging my mom out by 2 (although she always says "It's not a contest," but I showed her eh?). There are plenty of things I should've gotten done this break that I didn't do, such as job searching, doing some financial aid stuff, and trying to help my dad with starting a website, but oh well I can be a bit on the lazy side and I was too busy being bored already.

Well, I guess I'll get heading off; I go back to school tomorrow so I'm excited to see my girlfriend and other friends again, and hopefully I can survive the workload I'll have in the upcoming week, as well as all of the other things I need to get done. Lata gata.

Busy Little Week, Lalalala

Hey bloggie, sorry I've been neglecting ya a bit. Next week is Spring Break, so obviously all the professors rush to give work and whatnot right beforehand; thus I've been a little busy with schoolwork and whatnot. I also had some odd issue and was not mentally with it for a day or so, but fortunately that basically wore off soon enough.

It's been a little busy in Publication class with writing query letters for our magazine assignment. My first query letter is to a literary magazine called VERBATIM, my second is to a column in Smithsonian (I doubt my idea will be taken up upon), and the third (not yet written) will be to Chicken Soup for the Soul.

In other classes, I'm trying not to fall asleep in Lit, Understanding Human Cultures is also a bit of a drag, but fortuantely I have been enjoying Psychology - it's interesting stuff to think about and know. I like its applications to real-life situations; fun stuff.
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The screenie to your left (may be small, but oh well) is something else I've been doing this week. Alas, welcome to the RPG, Castle of the Winds. I actually started playing this because my girlfriend has played this game (she is not an avid gamer like myself, but she enjoys a little small game every now and then) and I have watched her play the game myself. I then decided to give it a go for the hey of it.

Don't let the graphics fool you - this may look like a primitive game, but it's gameplay is well made. The premise: avenge the death of your family (and the burning of a town) by setting out into a dungeon with multiple levels. Get through these dungeons, killing monsters, getting items, and avoiding traps. Get to the last level, and kill the boss. Simple as that.

There are actually two games. The first game consists of two towns; a small dungeon (~4 or 5 levels) accompanies the first town, then a larger dungeon (11 levels) accompanies the second town. The second game used to cost moola, but it is now free and can be downloaded with the first game. The second game consists of one town (with everything you'll need) and one dungeon with 25 levels, the last which hosts the boss of the game, the evil demon lord Surtur. I havn't made it all the way through the second game (I am about on dungeon level 18 or something like that); hopefully soon enough I'll make it.

You can learn all 30 of the spells (most likely will learn all of them before you finish the game), and you can keep like 10 of them in a little bar while playing for ease. Most of the spells are ones you'd figure would be in an RPG game (ex. healing, fire, cold, lightning, teleportesque spells), but maybe you want to try out some of the spells that are less likely in an RPG, such as Transmogrify Monster (changes targeted monster to either a weaker or stronger monster), or any of the detection spells (monster/item/trap; detects them on the map level).

While this game may look really old and savage, it's a nice little gem in the pile of older RPG's that should definately be given a try. Enjoy!

To download the game, visit this site: http://www.exmsft.com/~ricks/ and scroll down, looking for the link to download Castle of the Winds.
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Well I guess that's it for todays blog; Mike signing off (well first I have to hit the publish button, then I can do whatever). Peace.

Kirby Super Star!

Okies, I probably won't say too much here on this game, but as you know I've been playing some SNES emulations lately, and I decided to give Kirby Super Star a go. As you know, kirby is that little cute pink marshmellow that can fly in the air on puffs of breath and suck in baddies and copy their powers.

Overall, this was a fun little play. The controls are pretty simple, and the content of the game was fun. Probably most I loved the ability to suck in some of the baddies, and gain their powers. Who doesn't love becoming a ninja, swordsman, magician, or even a yo-yo master? There are many other alternate forms you can take, so you'll have to play the game yourself and try it out! Two of the games in this game are also just smaller mini-games, one being a type of quick draw, and the other is based on precision.

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So.......nothing much going on at this point. I have some work I probably should be doing, but why do today when I can wait til tomorrow? Yes yes....I am known as a pretty avid procrastinator. Fortunately I'm a pretty good one and can get my work done (even at last minute) so I guess that's all that matters.

Wellllll.....I don't think I have anything else to say so I'll just call it quits for the time being. Later.

Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals

Hey all, the most recent game I've played was Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals for the SNES, although I played it as a ROM on the excellent Super Nintendo Entertainment System simulator, ZSNES. This game is known probably as one of the best RPG games for the SNES.

It is good old classic turn-based RPG, and (surprise!) the hero of this game is your basic sword-wielding hero who can use some of the more basic magic (yet of course not the amount of magic that the typical wizard or healer can use). Several characters leave and join throughout the game, but by the end of the game, your party consists of four characters - the hero, the brute fighter, basically a healer, and an elfish (I believe it was an elf) wizard. There is also a 5th character to your party; what is known as a "capsule monster" that you can have fight for you. There are I believe 6 different capsule monsters you can find and switch through (different elements/abilities). Think of these guys as Pokemon - just a little extra power (and meat-wall) to add to your party. You can also feed them your equipment to make them evolve into a higher being.

The story was well written, and followed itself nicely all the way to the end. Like most RPG kind of games like this (like Mario RPG, which I played before this - also a very nice game), I tend to try and max out my characters levels even if it is not really needed to beat the game. So of course I reached 99 with all of my characters (including capsule monster) before the end of the game.

When you are not in battle, you must travel the world and get through dungeons and whatnot to do what needs to be done. The monsters in the dungeons will only move if you perform an action such as moving, swinging your sword, or using one of the many special tools you can find that will help you get through the dungeons (such as arrows, bombs, and hooks - think Zelda with the hookshot on that one). Touching a monster will innitiate battle. Kill them, and gain the rewarding experience and gold. Simplicity.

One thing that is pretty interesting is the number of puzzles that must be accomplished throughout the dungeons. Some are easy, some are harder. This adds a nice perspective to the game so it's not just a pure hack-and-slash RPG - you might actually need to dust off that noggin'.

There are many towns, where you can do the same good old kinds of things like saving, sleeping at an inn, buying goods/gear, or just talking to NPC and figuring out what you need to do. Later in the game, walking will not be the only way to get around while on the world map - you will also be able to ride one the waters on a ship, which later gains the ability to go underwater, and finally the ability for it to fly as well. So that would make it a subflyship or whatever...who knows.

In general, I do recommend this game to any RPG fan. I think I spent somewhere from 90-100 hours on the game, but of course I spent the time reaching max levels; one could probably get through the game find if their party are all in the 70's or so. This game sure gets a nice thumbs up from me.

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I guess that does it for a review; I better get to bed so I can wake up for anthro tomorrow morning. Night y'all.

Questionnaire thingy

Hey all, I decided to use one of these questionnaire thingies to kind of post some info about me, any maybe post some extra stuff at the end; enjoy.

All About You- Survey

Name:	Mike Moss
Birthday:	October 20, 1986
Birth Place:	Media, PA
Current Location:	Elizabethtown College (Permanent Address: Media, PA)
Eye Color:	Hazel
Hair color:	Black
Height:	5' 7" I guess
Right/Left Handed:	RIght Handed
Heritage:	American?
Shoes you wore today:	New Balance; really only have one pair
Weaknesses:	I guess my work/study habits are a bit off, Time Management to a degree (Procrastionator right here)
Your Fears:	Fear of...maybe people not respecting/hating me, I guess kinda have a slight fear of being in a large body of water all alone
Your Perfect Pizza:	Meat Lovers
Goal You Would Like To Achieve This Year:	Sometimes I don't really like setting goals so I know I have nothing I must accomplish, ZOMG be the Koolest person in the world and make l33t money and fame and ultimate powers of domination!
Most Overused Phrase You Use On Instant Messanger:	"heh"
Thoughts When You First Wake Up:	"I'd like a class and to do nothing, hold the class please"
Your Best Physical Feature:	Um.....uh.......I lack in the physical, but I'll make it up and say personality, lol
Your Bed Time:	Whenever I am tired...so....never? (jk, maybe around 2am)
Your Most Missed Memory:	I guess being a child with no real responsibility
Pepsi or Coke:	hmmm....Etown uses Coke, so I guess I'll say Coke
MacDonalds or Burger King:	I don't hate against any particular fast food, unhealthy but good is unhealthy but good
Single or Group Dates:	Just me and my girlfriend, good times...
Lipton Ice Tea or Nestea:	Uh......Lipton? I dunno really.
Chocolate or Vanilla:	I think I prefer Vanilla, I don't like things that are over-chocolately
Cappuccino or Coffee:	I get my caffeine from other sources, ie soda
Do you Smoke:	No
Do you Swear:	I may, but not frequently, and not in spite of something (swear words at their basic level are only letters)
Do you Sing:	I try not to, because I know I can't
Do you Shower Daily:	I try to keep up with the whole hygiene thing, however not as much as others.
Have you Been in Love:	I AM in love; I met my girlfriend Freshman year of college and we've been together ever since (over 1 year now)
Do you want to go to College:	I am in college; Elizabethtown College (known as Etown)
Do you want to get Married:	Yes; to my current girlfriend
Do you belive in yourself:	I do have a sense of identity, yes. Varies depending on given situation
Do you get Motion Sickness:	Nope
Do you think you are Attractive:	No
Are you a Health Freak:	Nope
Do you get along with your Parents:	Yuppers
In the past month have you Drank Alcohol:	Nope
In the past month have you Smoked:	Nope
In the past month have you been on Drugs:	Unless you count caffeine as a drug, nope
In the past month have you gone on a Date:	Define "date." Technically I guess most times with my girlfriend could be a "date."
In the past month have you gone to a Mall:	Not that I recall. I'm normally not a huge mall person.
In the past month have you eaten a box of Oreos: nope :	Nope
In the past month have you been on Stage:	Nope
In the past month have you been Dumped:	Nope
In the past month have you gone Skinny Dipping:	Nope
In the past month have you Stolen Anything:	Nope
Ever been Drunk:	Nope
Ever been called a Tease:	Nope
Ever been Beaten up:	Nope
Ever Shoplifted:	Nope
How do you want to Die:	Hmm, natural death?
What do you want to be when you Grow Up:	I'm thinking some type of writer; of course making money is also a good thing so who knows
What country would you most like to Visit:	I'm content with the US, but perhaps the Galapagos Islands could be an interesting visit (what is that, Ecuador or something?)
Favourite Eye Color in Guy/Girl:	Doesn't matter
Favourite Hair Color in Guy/Girl:	Doesn't matter
Short or Long Hair on a Guy/Girl:	Doesn't matter
Number of Piercings You Have:	Zero
Number of Tattoos:	Zero
Number of things in my Past I Regret:	I try not to regret things, I just shrug and move on.

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Political View: registered Democrat, but more Moderate.

Activities/Interests: obviously gaming, hanging with friends (especially my girlfriend), puzzles, being random

Favorite Music: I really will listen to anything, except for rap/hip-hop and opera music. I tend to like more oldies, electronic-kinds of music (ie techno, club, trance, etc), soundtracks/movie themes (disney = awesome), and i usually enjoy a good parody (ie some Wierd Al music).

Favorite Movies: In lieu of space, I really can't decide and thus have a lot of favorite movies. In terms of genres, I tend to enjoy comedies the most, and then secondly action/adventure.

Favorite Books: Some of the books I particularly enjoy are some of the Richard Preston books (ie Hot Zone), Harry Potter series, Ender's Game, Douglas Adam books, comic strips/books (I never really read like Marvel comics, but those you'd see in a newspaper such as Garfield or Calvin and Hobbes), magazines

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Well, I must head off to class, so afterwards if I think of more stuff to say I'll edit this or whatever and add upon. Have a nice day, peace out.

First Blog Post!

Hello World. Can anybody read me?

My name is Mike, I am 20 years old, and while I am not new to the world of blogging (I used to have a LiveJournal, but eventually got rid of that), I am new to this blog. Okies, so what shall I say....what shall I say....

Ah, well as you can probably read in the profile (if you can't read, you'd probably have trouble asking if you can), I am a Professional Writing major at Elizabethtown College in (surprise!) Elizabethtown, PA. I decided to make this journal simply because I do enjoy writing, but I don't think I really do enough writing that I really should be doing. Also, I like the idea of an electronic journal to share what I wish to share; I am not adverse to technology, I embrace it.

As it goes with the title of this blog, I am indeed also a gamer. The clarification I should make is that I may play games for awhile at a time, but I do not really consider myself a "hardcore" gamer in that I do not eat, breathe, and live games 24/7. I also do not have like a million games to choose from - I try to go with cheaper (or free - free is good) games. I am mostly a PC gamer, but I have done some console (mostly the smaller ones, ie Nintendo and whatnot - no next-gen consoles) gaming. Also, I play games more for the fun experience and thus I am (say it....say it...) pleasant (there we go!) in my gaming. As many studies show how people that play violent video games and not really punished for it become violent, I do not consider myself a violent person at all. I am a well-mannered, nice/kind individual, and I am usually in a pretty good mood. Oh ya, also I do not play World of Warcraft (although I did play a 14-day trial; wow I had no life for those 2 weeks...)

I actually need to cut this short because I am working on Psychology homework for tomorrow, but I'll try to maybe say more stuff about me and my life later on.

Just a note that while the title leads it to believe I will just be talking about gaming, I'll try to expand it out and make it more of a general blog in terms of content (although I will most likely end up talk about something game-related in it at some point).

Thank you for allowing me to enter the world of this blog, and I hope I am able to effectively use it to say what's going down in the world of this gamer.