On the downside I just started my new semester. I'm actuallyestatitic to be switching teachers and subjects alike but my course line-up isn't exactly made up of lollipops and dandelions. I've got math, french, chemistry and biology.I'm surprised theydidn't score an instant kill on me the first day back to school but I'm growing to live with them. Math and french seem easy enough so far; I'm enjoying the first unit of biology but chemistry it just confusing with all the new ideas the constantly hurl at you. Everything you wre taught a few years ago was a lie and it's alot more complicated than you originally thought. I'm glad to say I'm no longer afraid of the word isotope though. :P

And Mirror's Edge 2 was "stalled" not "cancelled" (hopefully), there seemed to be a lot of conflicting reports. If it was cancelled I'd be knocking down EA's door and knocking some sense into those guys (assuming EA would pay for my plane tickets and hotel in the first place). The first game was great and unique, something never done before, and for what I think, it was a success. Yes it was flawed but having a steep learning curve and no multiplayer is no reason to discontinue a franchise full of brimming potential. I'm not totally upset with EA, they set it aside for Battlefield 3 and jsut released Dead Space 2. DS2 is one of the most atmospheric games I've been in a long time and the single player is absolutely engaging. Now for an 8 hour campaign (on th easiest mode [no I'm not a pansy]) the full price may seem a little steep but it is a game that should make it's way to every gamers collection eventually.

Just to clear something up now instead of later. No, I'm not in denial about the fate of ME2.

Overall things have been going smoothy for me, or at least I like to believe they are. As long as I'm still breathing at the end of the day I don't see how things can be considered disastrous in unproprtional levels uncomprehensable to animalia. :P

Some of you may or may not know that I've been watching a superb show called Battlestar Galatica. I've been ranting about it for the past month, and for this past month it has actually played a pretty big part in my life. It's one of the few things that can help me truly unwind at the end of a day because I can just lay back and lose myself within the depth and intricacy of this show. (I'm not exactly sure what intracay means, it just fits.)

For a brief summary of the show, it's about a battlestar (essentially a space battleship that's a beast) named Galatica that is the only remaining battlestar in the fleet. There are 12 colonies that are attacked by giant toastersand I'm horrible at explaining the just of this show. This is what Google is for! Or MSN if any of you sly men/opposite genderlean that way. Just trust me, this is the best Sci-fi drama show there is.

Side note: Sorry if it seems I've been harassing you Ultrabeatdown as of late, but this is something I think you'd enjoy viewing a lot. Even though you may ever think it's as good as LOST, I hope it will one day be your number 2 show. :P

Now as of late this show has been throwing me through a bunch of emotions, the latest being upset in a good way (if that's possible).BSG Galatica only gets better as it progresses, and I've been hooked to it. At the end of every episode I want moar, and I usually get more. :P I usually end up using time I shouldn't to watch three episodes in a row. One ends and you need to know what happens next. Even during exams I was watching a couple episodes per day, and statistically I did better on exams where I watched 2+ episodes while trying to study. I could amble on about BSG forever, so I will, just not now. Consider yourselves spared.

I wish I had an unconventional super power just for the lulz. If you haven't noticed, the top half is the botom section and bottom section the top half.

Recently I purchased an iPhone 3GS planning tomainly use itas an iPod to play music since my old MP3 kept freezing. Once I started using it often I noticed it was capable of much more, including the ability to download numerous games. I wouldn't exactly callmost of these apps full-fledgedgames though, more like mini-games that'll keep you busy for a dozen minutes, nothing more. I've been playing quite a few of these but none could keep my attention focusedfor hours asAsh did, now it's hard to take the iPhone as a portable gaming device not seriously.

Ash is an old school 16-bit turn-based RPG that delivers an enjoyable story with accesable gameplay and a dash of great humor/sarcasm. The main story develops around two characters, one named Nicholas and the other Damien. Both witness the slaughtering of a village by the Imperial Black Guard and go into hiding but the plot becomes so much more interesting than when first viewed as the game progresses.

The art and music found in Ash both complement the game and enchance the experience. Enemies are well detailed and the music suits each new environment and situation. The battle system interface is well designed and allows the option to skip attack animations to speed through normal battles. Searching random items in the world is useful because you can find extra weapons and items; just don't go overboard. I was sointo this game I killed my iPhone fully charged twice in one day because I was playing it non-stop. It's a great game to pass the time with.

Ash is definitely worth your time and money. You can find it for $4.99 on the App Store or for free if you stumbled upon a promo. I highly recommend this game to anyone wanting to relive the great RPG days of old game platforms whohave an iPad, iPod Touch or iPhone. It's a nice little dose of nostalgia.

A little something extra. Space Time by Delta Heavy.

So I think I'm going to drop my online course, It's just to much work for too little a reward. It pains me to drop it becauseI've always seen it as good to learn something new but I don't want it to scar my overall marks later on.

I should actually be writing something about religion versus science right now in my online grade 12 history course (I'm in grade 11), but the topic seems so overdone. Sometimes I don't know whether I'm taking a history or religion course. I know religion played a big part throughout history but it seems it's all I'm ever learning about. I go to a Catholic school (which is probably why it's such a popular theme) but I wish they'd leave it in the religion cl@ss; they are already mandatory. To bad I couldn't focus the energy I have to write this now onto that topic.

In addition my parents keep telling me I'm going to burnout soon with everything I have going on. I have a part time job where I work 4-5 times a week until 9:00 PM after school and when I'm not working a venture over to my local gym. I have barely anytime for myself anymore, after I get home I have no urge to do work so I'll just sit at my computer and do something meaningless. I still get things for my online course done, it's just spread over the period of a few hours and done sloppily. I don't know if thiswould as burning-out but once a week now when I get home from school I'll just lay down, watch TV and constantly nap for 5 hours until I grudgingly start my course work. I usually stay up to around to 2:00 AM and wouldn't have the energy to do so otherwise on certain days.

I've already fallen 2 weeks behind in my online course. I started out with 6 other people and I'm the only one left doing the course. It's not like I've never done an online course before, I took two during the summer and was doing up to 6 assignments per day and got good marks (94 and 89). I currently have a 75 average in this cl@ass, below what I'm accustomed to. Now I'm writing a lot more than I ever beforefor any other course in my life. I'm getting up to 2000 words per assignment (the max before I started this course that I had written was below 1000) and my teacher says I don't have enough details.

I think I'll just try torefine the area I want to eventually work in so I can drop general courses and go into more specific stuff. Next year I'm taking french, english, maths, physics, chemistry, biology, and something elsebut I want to go into something more like ecology, earth sciences, environmental or geography related. I just thought History might be a nice addition if I were to move into those things, although I can still take it during the summer or try again next semester and hopefully geta normal markingteacher. There's just to much I want to learn, like sociology, physiology or computer sciences I wish I had joined online courses when I was younger or went to a different school where religion didn't take up room for stuff I was actually interested in.

I really don't know what to do, after my post secondary education I want to do something I like but still make a good living. I just know I wouldn't want to become a teacher for later grades, I wouldn't be able to keep a clear conscience giving out lowmarks and only allowing a student to pursue their education to a certain degree. Toget a good job it always seems you need a strong background in sciences or math, which I'm good at but don't necessarily want to be doing for the rest of my life. I guess the whole point of the blog is just asking for advice as for how I should proceed if any of you were in similar situations or not.

In conclusion, if I drop this course I'll be able to write more blogs. :)

Sorry if this holds little interest to you guys, I just had to get this off my chest somehow. In gaming news, Naruto Ultimate ninja Storm 2 and New Vegas have caught my eye but I'll be holding off on them because I doubt I'd have the time to play them. Instead I think I'll be getting Black Ops even though I'm not expecting much; it'll be just to jump in anytime and play with friends from school. Also I'm going to see Jackass 3D tomorrow, it's kind of hard to say what I'm expecting from it. :P

So I've gotten pretty bored these past few days and decided to pick up my Gameboy and play some Pokemon Ruby. To my horror I found out that my sibling (who I will be executing revenge on soon enough) deleted my save file and put an innapropriate name for the character. Obviously someone was mad that they missed out on childhood because they never played Pokemon.

So my question to you is who should I pick as my starter, I really really can't decide. D:

I guess it is kind of good that I'll get to re-experience the game but I had some pretty cool pokemon before. So suggest one and even a name if you'd like. Or what pokemon is your favourite starter of all time?

Pokemon is probably one of the games I'll always come back to even when others may say it's childish. It's played such a huge role in my life and is one of my most played games of all time. From Charizard to Team Rocket it's been a pretty engulfing series. I'm sure most of you have played through a pokemon game some time or another.

So no matter what anyone says, pokemon are cool.

As some of you may know I work within a grocery store. Well today as I was doing my oil run the big bucket full of greasethat was on mytrolley and fell onto the floor and splashed everywhere. I sometimes work in the back of the Hot Meals section so I prepare and cook food but also clean. Bringing the grease made from all the food outside to a special dumpster is only one of my responsibilities.

Like this but three time more onto a floor.

The bucket was completely full and pretty heavy, so there was no way in hell I thought it fall off if I put it in the middle of a trolley. I've had buckets with nothing in them stay put while I was swerving a trolly around customers and different objects.As to my surprise though as I rounded a corner it magically moved to the side and fell onto the floor. I then spent an hour cleaning it up, which wasn't fun or at all.

I was working fast to get back to cooking and serving, I started by cleaning the floor, then the mops and then bringing all the grease finally out to the dumster. There was actually some grease that congealed which I couldn't mop up and had to pick up with my hands (I had gloves on though). Overall, it was a pretty disgusting experience. Just imagine a few gallons of fatty oils thrown onto the floor and having to clean it up.

Luckily though my manager was in a goodmood and I still finished all my duties ahead of time tonight. So what are some of the worst, wierdest or funniest experiences you've had at work? I've only been working for a little under two months myself but already have a few good stories I've gained from working already. Some involve cardboard castles and others crazy customers.

Life the nature document that is (I hope you weren't expecting something else). It is a documentary hampered by it's grand objective of summarizing life itself in only a few episodes while being narrated by Oprah Winfrey who seemingly gives no effort.

I may have come into this series expecting to much from it but as an avid nature documentary watchee it'd be a shame for me to expect less. It ispretty much is the pinacle of what nature documents represent, the thing that underlies every other single documentation film. And this is where it begins to set itself up for failure, you can not possibly show life and all of it's wonder in ten episodes, it just isn't possible.

I would like to think I have watched my fair share of nature documentations and I feel safe to say that Life was jumping from animal to animal like a child high on sugar at a zoo. I'm just not used to that kind of presentation, when I watch a documentation about something I expect to learn a certain thing it from beginning to end. Life just shows you one animal, something special about it and then moves on to another one not really reaching the real potential is has. Each time I find it begins to get interesting it stops talking about that specific animal and moves on. It's really aggravating and ruins the pace or rythm of the show as it just hops from one idea to the next.

I will admit Life does have some amazing video footage but it also seems it has enough recycled film. The series has been out for a little while now but I think I've seen some of the clips before the show was originally released which left me feeling a little cheated. It reshows some of the same clips within the show a few times to. To expand upon this idea I thought they could've done a little more in four years (although great efforts by some crews). I feel really sorry for the guy that simulated plants growing for two years just for a one minute place in a episode. There's some animals that are alot more interesting and exotic than some of which the had decided to chose.

Also Life is basically about animals having sex to reproduce. Animals having sex. Animal sex. Sex. There are different aspects to life than just wooing the opposite sex into getting them to do the deed with you. Unfortunately all that other stuff seems to take a back seat when species you never heared of get jiggy with it on your television screen.

The soundtrack didn't really heighten the experience at all. Then again, I did have the volume set pretty low. That was because Oprah has done the worst job at narrating I've ever heard.

Now read this whole blog in Oprah's voice. I know, it's horrendous right? Now imagine she added her own slang and only said about half of each sentence. There's no emotion (or extemely noticable fake emotion)or meaning in her voice, just her reading with an amazing lack of rythm.If any one should've narrated this it would've had to be Morgan Freeman. In my opinion he has the most powerful voice today and it would've had a fitting place in this series.

Life does have its moments though. There are scenes that are gloriously beautiful and it is still worth a watch. Although I'd say it's more for the casual nature documentary watcher it still shines through all of its blunders. Even though it may seem like there's alot more bad than good I'm just an amazing comlpainer. Just remember to watch the original version that isn't narrated by Oprah. ;)

I leave you with pretty pictures.

[spoiler] Animal Sex. [/spoiler]

Gaming has changed.
It's no longer about originality, self expression, or interpretation.
It's an endless series of reboots brought by bussiness men and the like.
Games - and its obsession of stats - has become a well-worn combination.

Decided to see what I could do with this quote from Metal Gear Solid 4. I didn't do the rest because it would've been hard to find words to put in and I'm lazy. Maybe I'll add on more later. Well, that's what happens when you're bored. Hope you weren't expecting more from this blog.:P

Original:

[spoiler]

War has changed. It's no longer about nations, ideologies, or ethnicity.It's an endless series of proxy battles fought by mercenaries and machines. War - and its consumption of life - has become a well-oiled machine.Snake

Also, this guy is awesome. He even does the Zelda and Star Wars theme songs!

You may have guessed it, but Battlefield: Bad Company 2 has really been getting on my nerves lately. After letting it sit for two weeks, I decided to give it another try only to be dissappointed again. It's not only EA's fault though, the community also contributes to my frustration.

To start off, they should fix this game before they go off and make more DLC. It's like they've just given up and don't give a crap about the lag that plagues the servers. Aslong as they're making money they're fine with it. Right now I don't really care about Onslaught Mode or Vietnam because either way, they're unplayable due to the servers.

Fix the servers then we'll talk about DLC.

Moving along now, they shouldn't listen to some gamers whine because a weapon is to powerful. There will always be a gun people complain. It's what got everything messed up in the first place, when nothing was wrong. Just because you get killed more often with the M60 doesn't make it a god gun, it's just favored by most people. Even now after they "nerfed" it I can still go around and get big killstreaks with it. What was the point? And now people are complaining about the Carl Gustav. The community will never be happy, because after that they'll find another weapon to whine about. The only time they'd be satisfied is if every gun had the same stats.

Of course it's going to kill you it's a damn rocket.

While I myself am nitpicking the community, I'll say very few of them play the game as it is meant to be played. By this I mean they don't give a flying snot about objectives and what not. Most times I end up being the only one defending a position while everyone else is hanging back, trying to get kills from afar. Not only is this stupid because you're not doing anything, they aren't getting any kills and are simply letting the enemy win. I mean either play the damn game or go sit in a corner.

You get medics who are forever forgetting the dead and engineers who wear rocket launchers only as if it was a fashion statement. Snipers who hang back solo only to accomplish nothing and assault who are pretty much target practice. If anything, the community definitely does not enchance the experience of the game. I'd have more fun with a weak AI.

I don't care if it's a cute cat, I still hate campers.

Demolition isn't all it worked up to be either. Sure it helps you make a new doorway and get the jump on an enemy but other than that it's useless. You can't even shoot through walls or sheets of metal. Getting demolition kills is a rarity doused in luck. Good luck trying to get one without dying forty times. Not only is it hard enough to sneak up on an enemy in a building, plant C4 and get away without dying with no help what-so-ever from your teammates the buildings do notalways fall. Even if it does, the enemy can simply jump out before. So many times I've had a three story building with only two walls remain standing. In all honest that's really pathetic, especially when the walls are on the same side. I would show you a picture I took, but Dice hasn't delivered on the photo taking ability yet.

Spawning camping is evident in the game too. No word of a lie, while playing Squad Rush my spawn (area of one meter squared) was surrounded by enemies. It was spawn, die, spawn, die, etc. Even in modes with random spawning you barely get a chance to breath. Instead of putting you on the empty side of a map you spawn between two squads, ensuring your death in mere seconds. Then you get the person who will sneak across half a damn map just to spawn camp your base. I'm sorry but there's no one more pathetic than these guys.

A rare scene of people working together, savour it.

To top it all off to me it seems the hit detection has gotten alot worse. It's probably because of the lag but when I unload 7 shotgun slugs into an enemy and he walks away with 32% health, damn right I'll be pissed. And bullet drop issniper exclusive. So go ahead and shot your SMG across the map. Usually I don't try to get worked up over video games, but this is the poorest service ever delivered by a developper I've ever witnessed in all my days of gaming. I've even gone back to MW2 since it's a more relaxing, stress free experience.

I'm trying as hard as I can to like this game but it keeps giving me reason to hate it. In short (yes short) that's what's been bugging me. I just had to get it off my chest and that's why I've made this rant.

On a side note MoH isn't all it's worked up to be. Take the worst from MW2 and BC2, put it in a blender and you have MoH. It has a long way to go if it's going to be a decent game. I'm not even going to go into details since there's so much wrong with it.

Few comics:

So it's finally been a year I've been roaming the depths of GS, although it doesn't feel as though it's been that long. I originally came here for the gaming news, but then Igot addicted to the forums. To this day, I am still addicted to the forums here and I doubt I have the willpower to leave. So that's all, no long speech, no thanks to the great users here, just one measly paragraph. I'm not really in a typing/writing mood at the moment, unfortunately.

I will say though that it's kind of ironic that I signed up for GS the day after I got a year contract at the gym. Although I've found time for both, I'll admit that once or twice I may not have gone to the gym because of GS. In the end though, I'm glad I found this place.

Sazh approves.

Short version for the busy body:

[spoiler] Bananas as we know them may decrease drastically in numbers during the years to come becoming harder or almost impossible to get. Maybe. [/spoiler]

Long version for the intellectual being:

So, I'm not sure if you've heard but the common banana is now being threatened by a disease (kinda old news). It is not the first time a beloved banana as been pushed to extinction. The original banana "Gros Michel" (supposedly better) had been replaced by the "Cavendish" banana because of it's dwindling numbers, caused by the Panama disease. Now the Panama disease is back stronger than ever and is now affecting the Cavendish bananas.

Banana 101: All bananas of the same variety are genetically the same. So if one gets sick they all do.

This means every single Cavendish banana is threatened by this disease.The banana is the fourth largest agricultural product in the world after wheat, rice, and corn. If this disease is allowed to spread it could have a devastating effect all around. And this time they can't simply replace it with another banana. No other banner has a similar taste and most have giant seeds.

Although you shouldn't expect any noticable changes for atleast a few years, eat every banana as if it were your last. The very least I see happening is lower production and higher demand. It's up to the industry wether they can control this disease or not. This could very well be a huge problem or just a minor threat.

One avenue is genetic engineering although there has been disputes about wether it's right or not. Even though, I've already noticed bananas are two times larger than they used to be. Changing them a little more couldn't hurt to keep them around.

Fun facts:

-The United States controls all production of bananas yet none are grown in the United States.

-Bananas are actually a berry. And banana trees aren't actually trees either, go figure.

That probably not going to make you feel any better after hearing thatthe common bananamight one day be gone, but atleast it's better then nothing. So while I'm ruining your day I may aswell add this:

An oil rig off of Louisiana has sunk. It had burned fornearly twodays after an explosion. Some 42,000 gallons a day areleaking out now creating a filmof oil stretches for 1,800 square miles. If the main well opens up up too one hundred times that amount can come gushing out. Let's just hope that it doesn't, since this is already proving to be a major environmental disaster.

So that's it, my most depressing blog evar. Whether the mainstream bananas population will severly decrease in the coming years I'll leave up to you to decide. ;)