I actually had to trim it down, since it randomly erased the last few paragraphs on me. I have little sympathy for those who can't meet the minimum word requirement. :P I want HTML in the reviews... stupid bureaucratic red tape. :(

My first review

Delerium and insomnia are beginning to take their toll... and I just KNOW that the first thing Allicrombie will do when she gets a computer is to find some excuse to kill my review. :( Good thing I saved it... or maybe I should have said that before, when I said that some paragraphs got erased... oh fiddle faddle wiggle waggle, what difference does this make in a world of wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff? Maybe I wrote it tomorrow and today was just a transcription of what had already come in the time after. Once I remember which way is down, I think I'll try and go up to bed.

Phantom Hourglass: Complete

Arkham Asylum: Platinum Trophy achieved.

Okami: Incomplete, and this makes me angry. :|

Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Is very good.

Perfect Dark XBLA: Is also very good, but the single player makes me think about throwing the 360 off a balcony.

Mega Man 10: Pew.

School: Reading burnout level at critical mass.

Router: Breaking.

Laptop: Broken hinge; pic incoming when coherent.

Desire to play games with more friends: Unsatisfied.

Spleen: Still unaccounted for.

It's the seemingly little things in life, like hitting each traffic light as it turns green... anyway.

So yesterday I drive an hour down to my university to try and find the dean of my school, as he's the one that could coordinate with my other professors to find the time for me to take my graduate exit exams. Since this is spring exam week (I'll be taking mine in the summer), everyone's quite busy but usually in their offices... unfortunately the dean was in meetings all day. >_> So I go to the library to re-check out my books and get some more reading done (which is about all I do these days...), and I take the first parking spot I see, even though there was one a bit closer to the library itself... odd decision on a rainy day, but oh well. I decided to check out and leave around 4:20/16:20, which took another 10 minutes thanks to late charges and needing to clear holds on my account.

So I drop my stuff in the back seat and start my car, then who should walk in front of me but the dean. :o I walked behind and started talking with him on the way back to his office and, long story short, got the ball rolling on finding an exam date. :D After it took 2 months to get a reading list from one of my other professors, I've come to trust e-mail less and rely more on face-to-face communication, so it not only was great that this wasn't a wasted trip, but also that somehow the time and place worked out perfectly, especially since he was just going back to his office to get something and leave.

Anyone else have those kinds of things happen?

So I was MIA for a little over a week... and during that time I only turned a game on for about 3 minutes to show my friend something. This is because I was at the Florida Keys for that week, with it being the first vacation I've ever taken with just friends that wasn't a school trip, and... I was sorta the only guy. :P

Basically, this was an idea between my friend and her friend that she met on a mission trip to Cambodia last year that lives in the Daytona area. Lots of people were invited, but only two other people were able to come: another friend of her's who had a few days off of work and lives in Palm Bay, and me, who is on an independant study in school right now. One Mailer, three 20-something girls. No complaints.

If you get a chance to go camping in the Keys, go for it, as you can find some good deals... to stay at the campsite was only about $260 for the week, and split between 3 people it was less than $90 to camp at a place with power, water + showers, and this on the neighbor's site:

He was nicer than you'd think, though we turned down his offers for joints and booze (cider = good, light beer not so much)... more than likely he was just happy to talk to some pretty 20-somethings rather than his loud wife (He described her with words I won't repeat... andI was just kinda there; most of the conversations he had with us involved Jane & Ashley :lol: ). Anyway, to talk about the entire trip would take a bit too long, but suffice to say it's one I won't forget anytime soon.

Naturally some crazy stuff had to happen, like fumigating the tent thanks to an ant nest in the bag, waking up with a foot in my face, renting motos for the day, going snorkeling at a live coral reef, parasailing, jet skiing, swimming, frisbee, sleeping on air mattresses instead of gravel, etc.

Oh yeah, and people like this on Duval Street on Key West:

:x Which reminds me, I need to get more trophies via the Challenge Mode in Batman: Arkham Asylum, which I finally beat the other day... I feel like reviewing it, strangely enough. Who'd have thought that the lack of papers for this term would lead to me getting a writing bug? :lol: Read read read for my area exams, but no writing for another two months... I also started Mass Effect recently, so I not only understand what people are referring to when they talk about the elevators, but I also wonder why I didn't start this earlier. Second Bioware game for me, haven't played one since KOTOR. :o

So that means whenever I'm not reading, I have something on any modern console to play. Batman on PS3, Mass Effect on 360, Okami on Wii, Shadow of the Colossus on PS2, Professor Layton and the Curious Village on DS (gotta return these two to SkylinePigeon sometime...), and I need to actually beat Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions on PSP, though I always get distracted and just do random battles in my attempt to get Ramza to master every single job. >_>

Hardly anyone read my ski trip blog. :(

Skiing is something I always wanted to do as a kid despite a fear of heights, but I only got to go once when I was 9 with my parents, and since it was Ober Gatlinburg, it didn't exactly go very well... I was afraid of the ice (good powder up there is, to put it mildly, a rare thing), my mom got whacked by some idiot flying down the slopes after she had fallen, and the ski school taught us the wedge without telling us that you're supposed to dig the inside edges of the skis into the snow, resulting in what some of my experienced friends call the "speed wedge." Since that, I didn't get to ski again until two years ago, and had a chance to go this past weekend.

So, there were about 13 people in a mountain cabin in Beech Mountain, NC, and the variety of personalities made it quite interesting, to say the least. Five of us were downstairs trying to sleep while the rest were upstairs playing beer pong through the night, and the only good heater on that floor was the one in the living room, so rather than sleep in the room with the bunk beds, three of the people (guy, girl, guy) downstairs took two of the bunk mattresses, put them together in front of said heater, and slept on sleeping bags. One girl took the queen-size bed in the bedroom, and I was going to take one of the bunks in lieu of the other people coming downstairs. Unfortunately, whoever set the bunks up forgot to put all of the slats in place, plus one of them was unsteady. So, when I tried to make my bed, two of the slats broke, sending both the mattress and myself down to the lower bunk, where I hit my forehead and foot on the frame (they're still nice and bruised). :lol:

By the way yes, we did indeed just have a bad snowstorm that we decided to drive through to get to this. Crazy? Nah, we were perfectly controlled and safe in a small Scion with front wheel drive w/o chains or snow tires and manual transmission when driving up a mountain covered in snow and ice. :P It's not like we had to get out and push the cars sometimes to get them from place to place... nope nope, nor did we have to abandon one car at the bottom of a hill or use a 4WD to recover anyone who slid 300 feet down a switchback... nein.

Anyways, the slopes themselves were covered with fresh powder, and considering that the southeastern US hasn't had really good snow in a while, this is a rare season where they've been able to have everything open without going crazy with the fake snow, and a lot of times ski areas just can't cut it without real snow... which one would think goes without saying, but the point is that there's no substitute for the real thing. Stuff I developed a taste for after falling as much as I did. However, I did get better as it went along, despite coming close to hyperextending my knee and having trouble keeping my posture correct due to a sore lower back... the latter problem should be helped as I continue to work out, get more consistent with martial arts, lose weight (Wii Fit says I've lost 15 since I started at the beginning of January, which wasn't acually a New Year's Resolution, but rather something I just kinda bought), and just get more skiing experience. Otherwise, it's a matter of unlearning a lot of natural fears that have developed through my lifetime, where my mind knows it's fine but my body starts shaking if I'm going too fast or feel out of control. I got better as I went though, and on the last run I managed to push through the pain and shakes to have a pretty decent go at it. Can't ignore the time I bit it, cartwheeled, and somehow didn't lose anything, but instead landed with poles in hand while sitting on my skis; it was crazy enough for some boarder who looked like he was in his late 30's/early 40's to stop by me and say "... Nice fall, man!" before going on. 8)

The bizzare thing is that somehow, while going up the quad lift for the first time, I lost my lift ticket. The wire was still there, but somehow the sticky pass (that people usually have to either cut off with scissors or somehow remove the wire from one's coat... so yeah, as the lone newb in a group of 13 experienced skiiers and snowboarders, I managed to do something that none had ever seen before: lose my lift ticket. Next time, they didn't pay attention and let me go on, but when they started checking, they told me I'd have to go get a new one... yeah, not paying $60 a second time that day. :| My good friend's dad, who happens to be a ski coach up there, told me just to wait a bit and try again... sure enough, I was able to go up a few more times before the Day Session ended at 4:30. :D Knee was a bit jacked thanks to one fall where the bindings didn't come loose and tried to take my leg in a direction it's not meant to go, but I fought the pain on my last run. Overall, I really enjoyed it... hopefully I'll get to ride a few more times before the season is over, and let it continue to snow as it has here for the past month. :)

In other good news, I'm nearly done with the evil level 64... it may be a week to 10 days, but this, the longest known level on GS thus far... DON'T CONGRATULATE! Just know that it won't be as annoying for me to see that thing under my name everywhere. :D In some bad news, I found out and observed when I got back that one of my parents' dogs has been sufferring some bad spasms... he keeps falling down and will just suddenly shake. The vet says that he may have a brain tumor, though there's no way to know for sure until they give him an MRI. :(

Gaming-wise, I haven't been able to play much, but I beat Super Paper Mario, have been making gradual progress in Okami and Batman Arkham Asylum, Got a refurb'd 360 thanks to the RRoD, and I may be starting Mass Effect on it soon. That's about it for now; still trying to get readings lists for my Area Exams/independant study for my last term of grad school. :o

... honestly, this past term was a killer with all of the papers I had to write, so writing more, even if it was something I actually wanted to write about, was simply not in the equation. :P Regardless, all I have left now are my exit exams, so there will be more reading than writing... it's either read 30 books then take a written exam and an oral exam in front of three professors or write a 70-100 page thesis. I'll take the one that requires less writing, thanks. ;)

So, the last few months have been strange for me on the gaming front because I haven't bought anything except a DualShock 3. Nothing new since Batman: Arkham Asylum, which I still haven't finished yet (wanted to take care of Assassin's Creed first, which I finished the day before the sequel came out). My poor, poor backlog... yet there I was today playing Mega Man Maverick Hunter X and Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions (which I haven't technically finished yet, but mastering every possible job to have a level 8 Onion Knight is somewhat time consuming). My 360 is on its last legs, and the warranty is running out in mere days... argh. I want it to die now! If nothing else, it would hinder me from going after achievements and make my backlog a bit less imposing... my sad gamerscore just broke 9000 (uh oh, meme incoming) after getting 1000 in Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection. Maybe I should play through the Phantasy Star and Shining Force games in there, even though I should start Mass Effect or Valkyria Chronicles. :?

*sigh* As much as I'm enjoying my break, I'm kinda bummed that a trip to New York that I tried to do with a friend of mine from school fell through. We've already decided to try again next year, but since she's graduated, I'll be graduating this year, and we both may be leaving the country for a while, there are no guarantees. Maybe I should become a world traveller after I graduate... just stow away on a boat to the UK and go wherever my passport will let me. By the time I get to Japan I'd have a documentary crew following me or something and they might pay for the trip back... maybe. All I know is that I would get kinda bored if I were to thrust myself into the workforce to do something I don't enjoy, so we'll see what happens. I have too much to live for to just settle at this point. :x

Regardless, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all! Hmm... I can think of four people I know through GS that have birthdays between now and Jan. 1. :P

Some of you may notice that I'm not a mod now. That's intentional; I'm taking some time off to try and gain some perspective on things. I think it's important for every moderator to take a break once-in-a-while and remember that they're here for the community, not because they need something to kill time with, and as an m-mod, the example begins and ends with me. So I'll be back in the mix sometime this month, but for a few weeks I'd like to just chill on GS when I come on. :)

Well that was fun. If you get grossed out by talk of insects and/or rotten food, skip paragraph 3.

During the two weeks of break that I had from the end of summer school to now, I was rather unaware of any goings-on at my apartment, and the friend that normally checks on things while I'm gone (and stays here occasionally) was not available, since he had just gotten married and was away on his honeymoon. :P So... I was oblivious to the fact that my utilities were shut down for what I first thought was a few days based on the door notice, but now I think it was about a week or more that it was off after what I came back to.

It was bad enough that it was a hot and sticky day thanks to the rain, but the strange odor made me realize that something bad was going on in the fridge, and I couldn't follow the example of Toys in the Attic and just throw the thing out an airlock... though at the time I wasn't too worried about what might have been growing in there, since I thought I'd taken out most perishables. Regardless, I slept with an open window (this apartment is not designed for circulation, though it did kinda help cool it a bit), which would have given me a nice camping-like experience if not for the crack house down the road having a block party until 2 in the morning. Since I don't know where to look for groundwater and had no way to boil it, I bought some water at the store to brush my teeth and drink if I got thirsty, and with that heat, it's a good thing I bought two gallons. Also played some Super C on DS (it's a bonus in Contra 4) to try and distract myself.

Anyway, I got the mix-up settled and the utilities back on, but even if I'd guessed that the fruit flies in my apt weren't from the open window, I still wouldn't have been ready. It's a good thing I waited until the power was back on and let the thing cool off, because otherwise I'd have been swarmed by fruit flies that were using my fridge and freezer as a breeding ground... instead they were all dead from the cold. Maggots, pupae, and flies... they were all there, loving the fact that I hadn't seen a reason to throw out some frozen fish I was keeping in there. The beef they didn't really bother with, since it was wrapped-up too well, but the fish... I still haven't gotten rid of the smell completely, and I threw away my ice trays since I do NOT want to eat anything that's come into direct contact with those... things, not to mention whatever that was out of the fish box. The freezer was worse than the fridge, since none of the pupae in the fridge had hatched yet, but ugh... I hope I never have to clean up maggots and such out of a fridge ever again.

On the other hand, it did give me an excuse to finally clean out that thing and give it a needed scrubbing. I wish I couldn't say that my sweat AND blood didn't go into the job, but I cut my knee on an errant carpet tack that I thought was just a scratch until I noticed a bit of blood smeared on the floor. Nothing a little H2O2 couldn't handle, but still, it was an annoyance on top of all the other stuff. Maybe a day at the river tomorrow will be good for me. At least the smell is gone in the apartment, though I may have to deploy much NaHCO3 to get rid of the rest of it inside the freezer. Clean up and clean out, out with the old, in with... a water jug? :o

In gaming news, I'm done with nearly every sidequest in Fallout 3 & at level 30, so I'm ready to go back to the main quest (The Waters of Life is where I'm at). The only DLC I have right now are Broken Steel and Operation: Anchorage which I actually enjoyed, and I love the rewards from it, especially the Gauss Rifle. :D Helps me knock down those silly Super Mutant Overlords and Albino Radscorpions that just don't want to die thanks to Broken Steel. >_> The Contra contest in GGD I'm not expecting to compete in really, but it has inspired me to play through some of the old games again... in lieu of Contra Rebirth coming out on Wii soon, everyone who likes the hold side-scrolling shooters owes it to themselves to get Contra 4 on DS if they haven't already; not just because Way Forward is an underrated developer, but because it's a great game and has Contra and Super C (NES versions) in there as bonuses. Also, I've been having good fun with Ghostbusters: The Video Game; not the best game in the world, but a great example of a game based on a license done very, very well... and the fact that Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis wrote the story and lines for this game really show. If you like the old movies for whatever reason, you owe it to yourself to at least rent this.

*sigh* School starts back on Wednesday. So ready to be done... nearly 7 of the past 8 years of my life have been defined by college/university. :roll:

I think in these past two weeks I've only had three nights with more than 7 hours of sleep. Won't lie... between that, the Greek homework (that and studying vocabulary usually takes about 4-6 hours), the stronger-than-usual hate from all sides on GS, and the humid TN air averaging over 90/32+ temperatues a day, I'm a bit drained. Doesn't help either that the people across the street from me like to have loud outdoor parties with booming subs until the early morning hours either. >_> Also annoying is that I told my landlord two weeks ago that the tree outside my apartment was in bad condition (showed pictures of the rotting base and the fact that it's leaning. It really looks like one bad storm will knock that thing over, just like my neighbor's tree fell and damaged my gutters last summer... I'm not taking this thing lightly) They're aware and have been notified, so if the thing falls over and damages something, they were duely warned.

Although I finished an Assassin run in MGS4 recently, I haven't played that many games. Played a bit of Okami on Wii, some Dragon Quest VIII on PS2 (though my PS3... man I don't want to play $55 for a stupid Dual Shock), and wish I could find Assassin's Creed for my 360. Even though I don't have much in the way of money right now, I'd really like to get something on my PS3 that I can play online with people... I've had fun times with Worms, Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix, L4D, Uno, TMNT, and others on 360, but I can't say I've been able to do that on my PS3 yet. Since some of my friends have a PS3 but not 360, I don't want to be exclusionary... but I don't know what to play either. :lol:

*sigh* I hate being this way when I know a lot of people who have it worse right now... makes me feel selfish. :x I need a good slap or shellacking to break out of this! :o

So yes, Monday morning I'll be getting up early, driving with some family to Nashville, then flying to the Sonaran Desert, where for some reason a large city happens to be. My stepbrother's getting married, and I'm a groomsman... we'll be out there from Monday to Saturday for all the festivities and golfing and visitations and such... the last time I was out there was for my stepsister's wedding, about 6 and a half years ago. :shock: Bringing the PSP, DS, and a few books... not sure about the laptop yet. Finally got around to buying Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon, so I can get my handheld FE fix addressed for the first time in years. :P

I hope I'm not getting sick though... this scratchy/sore throat and allergy-like stuffy nose better just be from a dusty air conditioner and a humidity shift rather than a cold, or I'm gonna be slightly annoyed. >_> Whatever the case, the temperature is looking to average about 97F/36C out there. :( Just like the sand, I suppose I'll have to just