So I finally finished grade 11--phew! What a school year it's been! Social Studies 11 is probably the hardest (mandatory) class there is in high school--at least in Canada--what with the fact that so much is covered! My class mainly learned the past century of history along with an expansion of our geographical knowledge (ie, absolute and relative poverty) and how the Canadian government works. I can't believe that this much can be covered within the span of a semester! Anyways, now that the hard part of high school is finally over and I can relax now that I only need to pass six courses next year in order to have enough credits to graduate and I can take another course by mail so that I only have to go to school for five, my look upon life has become unusually optimistic. With that said, I celebrated my 17th birthday last Wednesday. Yay! I'm not sure why my birthyear in my profile is set to 1987 instead of 1989, but I guess I'll eventually be able to fix that (that setting's locked. boourns!). What did I get for my birthday? Not much. Although, by "not much," I mean a summer vacation to Dallas next week for the...wait...what? The Intel Summer Championships? I thought it was called CPL Summer 2006. Whatever. I'm still excited to go as this will be the first LAN event I attend. I'll also be competing in the Quake 4 tournament there, so wish me luck! Anyways, I should be going on with the rest of my day. I'm not sure what I'm going to do and when I'll be doing it yet...and I feel good about it. Anywho, bye for now!

Well, it's been a good four months or so since my last entry, so I can honestly say that a lot has happened since the time I joked around with Oilers for being a Conservative supporter. =P December was a pretty good month--I got the majority of my Christmas presents early in the form of subscriptions to various websites, including Gamespot. Unfortunately, my only option for getting Gamecenter was monthly, so that ended up screwing me over as my mom's CC maxed out mere weeks before Total Access was introduced and I could subscribe to it annually. Drats! I ended up getting two A's and two B's in my first semester classes, which ended up academically being the best semester I've had in high school. I can't say that I miss being in those classes (with the exception of Computer Programming) or being taught by their respective teachers, although I do miss making fun of how lame my math teacher was. XP I just started a "work experience" at my local EB Games thanks to some help from my school--I won't get a dime directly from working at the store, but I'll get some stuff done for graduation as well as a class's worth of credits, which will help me get a second spare block for grade 12. Also, there's the "getting EB Games to know how I so belong there" part. I just finished my second day there a few hours ago, and I must say: although the many hours of doing work such as inventorying items and alphabetizing the shelves is pretty mundane, I still like working there. We'll see what I think of it after a month, well, within a month. Anywho, it's getting late and I have to go to school early tomorrow, so I'm off to bed. I wish y'all a good spring! =)

With the recent vote of "No Confidence" in Canadian Parliament, the nation of Canada is going to have a stressful holiday season--especially when it comes to my fellow British Columbians, who just finished up municipal elections. However, a certain Canadian in these forums is more than willing to show us all who he supports (or doesn't support...I'm not sure what his intentions are, exactly) in the upcoming federal election: That's right! I'm talking about you, Oilers!! Those Albertans sure are happy this week, what with their latest Grey Cup win ( the Edmonton Eskimoes beat the Montreal Alouettes this weekend 38-35 in OT to win the 93rd annual Grey Cup, which is pretty much the Canadian Football League's). I heard that the halftime show with the Black Eyed Peas was bad, by the way (I had gone out for the majority of the game, listening to some of the second half on the radio and watching the last few minutes of the game on TV when I got home). Anyways, back on topic: ya know what? Reflecting back upon the Parliament's behavior in the past decade or so--especially with the scandal surrounding former Prime Minister and member of the Liberal party, Jean Chretien--I've come to the realization that there is no political party in Canada that's truly worthy of running our country of some 30,000,000+ people. I came to this conclusion just now because I simply cannot recall one good reason to praise any of the political parties. And, so, responding to Oilers' visual display of (a lack of) political support, I messaged him personally, with my PM titled "Conservatives = teh sux:"

The Liberals suck, too. And so does the NDP, the Green Party, Bloc-Quebecois, and pretty much every other Canadian political party that's currently in existence! In fact, now that I think about it, we may as well have Bear Hugger running the country: Bear Hugger for Prime Minister of Canada!!!

His reply?

:lol: That was fast.

I say we take Oilers' suggestion and laugh at Canadian politics. Laughing at politics is now officially ftw. This random rant was brought to you by sugary but wholesome cookies, as well as the "O RLY?" owl: I can't help but crack up at the sight of that bird! :lol:

You see the name of this post? Well, that's what I expected to go through after having my wisdom teeth removed this morning. That's right: I had four wisdom teeth in my mouth--one in each "corner" of the mouth. The aftermath sucked and continues to suck as the bleeding afterwards wasn't one bit pleasant and I can only eat stuff like pudding and Jell-O as well as only drink clear fluids for the next few days. I also have to take the following during my recovery:

• One to two tablets of Tylenol #3 once every four hours
• One tablet of Dymethasaxasomething twice a day
• Two tablets of Penicillin four times a day

The surgery itself, however, wasn't nearly as bad as I had anticipated. When it was time for me to "sit in the chair," they took my blood pressure and put one of those things on my finger (I think it keeps track of your pulse). When the doctor who was going to remove my teeth came in the room, they put a needle-tube thingy in my hand, injected some ultralight anesthetic (puts the subject into a very light sleep), and before I knew it, by wisdom teeth were gone. The anesthesia made everything very trippy: I don't even remember closing my eyes. It's as if the procedure, which was in the vicinity of 15 to 20 minutes, took only five seconds. That somewhat freaked me out... Anywho, enough about my dental surgery. You can check out the premiere issue of the E-Sports Report in the UCB "The Virtual Underground" by clicking here. If you would like to see the complete version (due to some technical difficulties, I could not post the entire article on the Gamespot forums), you can check it out here. Have a great weekend, everyone! I know I will. ([/sarcasm])

...because they're hard to get back into.

I say this because, well, not only has my passion for writing about video games died off because I took a break from it for schooling (and also because my personal funds have run dry for the majority of the year), but my passion for posting the forums has sort of died off because of the downtime Gamespot needed for the redesign--I've posted in these forums more today and yesterday than I have since mid-September!

I've mainly been spending my free time going to the gym to work out, playing my favorite PC games competitively (I've been pubbing less and scrimming more in CS 1.6/Source now) and chilling with IRL friends and some of my closer "e-friends," if you'd like to call them that.  It seems as if I'm having trouble getting into old habits because, ever since I stopped doing the old things that I loved, I got plenty of new things to love.  Hopefully, I can get back on track and post more at my favorite forums, as well as write about video games more.  If only school weren't so long! >_<

I finally got to making one tonight. Personally, I think it's one of the best banners I've ever made, and I'm really proud of how the GIF animation turned out! Anyways, I'll let you in on a few things:

• I learned how to code actual lists in HTML (ya know, those < ol > and < ul > tags that expand upon the < li > tag I've used for a year now). Now my lists stand out in my posts! :)
• For one more minute, school will be in exactly three days. In another minute, it shall be in two days. Stupid quickass summer! :(
• Skeptical about the reviews that it got from EGM and OXM, I decided to transfer the funds that I put on my review for NHL 2K6 onto my preorder for Burnout Revenge. After reading Alex Navarro's review of the game, I still don't regret this decision since I wasn't in the mood to play some virtual hockey...

Anyways, gotta go, so KTHXBYE!!!

The end-of-summer edition of "Just To Let You Know..." is here! And guess what? Nobody cares! Well...I do. Anyways, let's get a move on:

Some games coming out before the end of the year that I have preordered or would like to buy: NHL 2K6 (Xbox): One of the two games that I've preordered so far. I've paid off more than half the price of this game and would like to pay off the rest real soon. I think it will ultimately be the better hockey game coming out in September--especially considering NHL 2005's performance last year and the lack of promise that I've seen from NHL 06. And, besides, Take-Two's hockey game this year is once again a mere 20 clams (that translates to $25 or $30 here, I guess)! It should arrive at my local EBGames by September 2nd. Burnout Revenge (Xbox): The other game that I've already preordered. I've only put the bare minimum ($5) on this game but I hope to pay off this game very soon as well! I have very high expectations for this latest entry in the series and I hope those expectations are met come September 15th when I'll be able to pick it up from the local EBGames! :D Indigo Prophecy (PC): If I somehow get enough money to, I'll definitely buy this title! As I said in JeremyK's journal, this is my pick for sleeper hit of the year and it certainly looks like Fahrenheit, as it's known in its developer's European homeland, will have that reputation come September 20th! Capcom Classics Collection (Xbox):Final Fight!? STREET FIGHTER II!?!! Not only does this game have two classic games that I absolutely love, but it also includes several other games that basically defined and re-defined Capcom throughout its history? Count me in! Quake IV (PC): This game looks awesome, period. The one thing I'm worried about, however, is how it will run on my PC. Doom 3 ran pretty good on it but Quake 4, albeit a game that uses the same engine, looks like it could take my computer to its limit. Hopefully, I can at least get a refund if it turns out the computer and the game don't want to get along. SSX On Tour (GCN): Well, due to a few certain factors and a lack of interest for online console play, I'm leaning towards the Gamecube version of SSX On Tour. I'm still a bit iffy about getting the game in the first place, but I still have two months to make up my mind so I'll take my time with this one. Soul Calibur III (PS2): I love fighting games and, boy, do I love Soul Calibur! Well...maybe I'm not exactly that fond of the series but Soul Calibur II is an awesome game and the third entry in the SC series looks like it won't disappoint! Half-Life 2: Aftermath (PC): OMGOMGOMG I must have this expansion pack to one awesome, awesome game! But, seriously, I loved Half-Life 2 and I'll definitely check out the expansion pack.

I got my schedule for grade 11 on Thursday and I'm really happy with what I have and when I have it. I think this will be my first year in high school where I don't have to go change my schedule. I have my "fun semester" first, which is great because I always did better during the second semester since that's when I had all my fun/easy classes. Here's my schedule:

First Semester (September - January) Block A - AP Prep Math 11 Block B - TV Production 11 Block C - Computer Programming 12 Block D - Spanish 10 (didn't take it last year) Second Semester (February - June) Block A - Socials 11 Block B - Spanish 11 Block C - English 11 Block D - Chemistry 11

My school year starts on September 6th. And, to be honest, I just can't wait! :D

I'm really starting to get into the DS, what with Advance Wars: Dual Strike and the blue DS coming out recently. Nintendo recently announcing that Metroid Prime: Hunters will have online play is leaning my mind more towards getting a DS for Christmas, too. And I won't neglect to mention that a handheld equivalent of Mario Kart 64 (which, IMO, deserved better than a 6.4) or, at the very least, the next best thing is just pure awesomeness! And, lastly...

Microsoft...for god's sakes, not everyone's wallets are as big as your headquarters! Anywho, that's all for now! See you guys around!

Yup. As I sent in my last "lightning round" entry, I was fairly relieved as I had some real trouble with my last entry. Anywho, all but two of the participants will be eliminated all at once, so I'm kind of nervous as I've seen, well, almost everyone who's still in the contest (and has decided to bow out in the past) has had at least one strong mark. This basically means that anyone could proceed to the grand finale! Good luck to the others anticipating their marks and their fate! And with that, I bid you all adieu! (But not without letting you know that the journal banner may come soon, but I still don't have a very good idea for it and I've been fairly busy lately...)

OMG! That's such a catchy title! :) Anyways, seeing TRG's posts about what he wants to do made me want to make an entry on the exact same topic. I've probably already mentioned most of these things that I want to do to you guys before, so if I'm repeating myself, I apologize. I know resolutions are for New Year's, but I don't really care. Arranged from what's the most important right now to what's the least important:

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[size=14]Lose a lot of weight[/size] I'm not afraid to admit that I'm 6'1" and 290 pounds. Yes--I'm a fatty, and I don't care about anyone's reaction to it nor do I care for anyone's perspective of it. However, I would like to feel good, and shopping for clothes that fit me comfortably is a royal pain in the ass. I think I've made excellent progress so far--I've cut down on what I eat, I've been drinking tons of water and I've gone to the gym once this summer (I would have gone more often but a phase of daily charlie horses, unexpected outings, tennis lessons, and laziness have stopped me from going more often). I plan to go tomorrow in the morning before my tennis lesson--even though that will probably leave me hella pooped by dinnertime. My goal is to lose 100 pounds in a year. [size=14]Get a nice, part-time job for August[/size] All but one of my close friends will be gone for the entire month and Staples has a ton of openings for part-time jobs at branches throughout the Lower Mainland. To me, this just screams "capitalize!" I'm going to take another week to consider applying and then, if I decide to apply, I'm going to get me some proper, formal clothes for submitting my application and, if it happens, my interview before getting to submitting my application. Hopefully, I will not have waited too long. [size=14]Go to this year's CPL Winter Championships and/or World Tour Finals[/size] I was supposed to go to the Summer Championships as my birthday present last week but I took too long to make up my mind and so I didn't get to go. Man, do I wish I went there! Hopefully, I'll get the chance to go this winter as my Christmas present! :D [size=14]Build my own computer from scratch[/size] I've completely disassembled a computer and put it back together before. Now I want to do that with a brand-new set of computer parts. Hopefully, my dad will be able to buy me a set of parts so that I can have an uber-l33t computer all for myself--having only one working desktop in the household sucks. :( [size=14]Try harder at school[/size] The portion of high school that matters the most is approaching for me as I'll start grade 11 in September. I got two A's and two B's last semester, and that was nice and all. But my previous "first" semesters have been horrendous. And, last year, I failed Shop! This was due to poor attendance, and I'm going to do my damndest to work on that. Also, I think I'll apply for a gym membership (only $20 for the school year) so I can work out after school (this will help since I'm not taking PE in grade 11). [size=14]Take the SAT before the end of grade 11[/size] If I'm not mistaken, this entrance exam can be taken more than once if desired, and I'm going to capitalize on it during the upcoming school year. I think I'm intellectually capable of getting a good score on it before grade 12, and who knows? I might just get over 1000! :D [size=14]Write a novel before graduating from high school[/size] This is, by far, the craziest of my resolutions as it would involve a lot of work and consuming a lot of my time towards it. I highly doubt that I will actually be able to take a synopsis that I think up and extend it to at least a 100-page novella. But, if I do, I think I'd feel like I've really accomplished something. Hopefully, it will boost my morale and re-ignite my once burning passion for writing. And I have another 2 school years to do it, too. :)

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I was going to make this an entry about wishing everyone a happy Canada Day, but I kept thinking up more stuff to think about. And, therefore, a new segment of "Just To Let You Know" is here!

It's July the 1st today, so I thought I'd wish my fellow Canadian peeps a good Canada Day. If anyone else wants me to wish them the same thing, that's cool--read the subject line! :D

I bought two games today--something that I don't think I've ever done. Yep. SVC Chaos: SNK vs. Capcom (XBOX) and Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes (GCN) are now part of my constantly developing library. I've decided not to trade in games anymore, although EBGames' $5,000 trade-in sweepstakes is making it mighty tempting! >_>

If you, for some reason, miss my longer and more insightful entries, don't worry: I've got a really neat idea for a game design that I'm reserving for DFAD4 and I'm currently in the brainstorming process of making an editorial for Ioden's ForumSpotting 3.0.

Man oh man, have I missed out on all these cool user boards! At first, the only user board that I frequently visited was the Everything Metroid Board (I'm not counting Battle of the Writers: Second Draft since that isn't really a for-fun discussion board). However, as of late, other user boards have come to my attention--namely The Virtual Underground, as well as MOLTOX's PC Enthusiast Hangout. The latter is a private board which I'm currently trying to become a member of, but I have no doubt that I'll have some fun talking about PC's with others who know just as much as--if not more than--myself about them. Anywho, that's all for now. I'm about to drift asleep as I went to bed at 6 AM earlier today and woke up at 11 (9_9). So, in the meantime, go do something else, and have a good night and a great Canada Day (and, on Monday, a great 4th of July)!