I apologize for being more or less non-existant. I still check blogs from time to time just to see what most everyone is up to. It seems to be same old same old. No big upsets like Aber's downthumber anyways. Which is a bummer, because whether you like it or not, drama is pretty fascinating stuff.

I haven't been here because of school, but mainly girls. I'm discovering that I'm quite the Johnny Bravo (sans blonde hair).8)In anycase, One of the reasons why I ventured onto this site was because I was lonely and bored with my highschool life. But going to a Uni was exactly what I needed to spice it all up. A little work, a little drama, it's all great fun when you look back (not so much when you're in the thick of it with your trousers around your ankles).

But now that my first two semesters of college have come to a close, I'm left with a very small list of things to do. One of them includes reading Reddit, of which I've seriously cut back on in recent times because it saps my productivity and also because it isn't quite as enjoyable as it was when I signed up. The other three check boxes are music, movies, and videogames.

The music front has been very fascinating indeed. My brother and I have joined up with a friend of ours to start performing regularly. Right now, we're talking about having a select number of people come to our house and listen to a pre-performance so we can practice performing all of the songs in front of a crowd of people. I've written a lot more songs as well. Most of them end up as junk, but I occasionally hit on something that I like:

Buried In the Sea

Number Three

I've also been using netflix instant watch to catch up on some c1assic movies like the 'Thin Red Line' and 'Bladerunner' as well as some more independent films like 'You and Me and Everyone we Know'. By the way, I would not recommend watching 'You and Me and Everyone We Know' unless you're ready for some odd and esoteric drama. It is by no means unentertaining. It's just a bit twisted. But on to the meat of the blog:

I've been playing my copy of Monster Hunter Tri recently and I have to say that it is truly one of the best wii games I've played. It amazes me how much of a hypocrite I can be. I consistently bash RPG games and yet my favorite games of all time are, in fact, RPGs: Paper Mario, The World Ends With You etc. etc. The thing is, Monster Hunter has a simple and rather tame premise. It doesn't get in the way of the game. It doesn't interrupt you with unecessary cut scenes. It gets straight to the point; that point is management.

At it's core, the form is pretty much the same as 'Football Manager' or 'Band Manager'. The key to winning any fight is getting the right supplies (potions, rations traps, tools, weapons). But even those can't guarantee your head at the end of a fight. It takes some strategic thought. I've recently been given the challenge to defeat the mighty Royal Ludroth (pictured above). I first tried a straight forward approach: I stocked up on potions, mega potions, and an ancient potion just in case and I went for it. Not only did I die, but I was just about to run out of time. I had managed to break him down considerably, but at the cost of twenty six potions. I tried using traps the second time. It was effective for the most part, but monsters become wary of traps after they've been used once. So it's not likely that it could've been incredibly successful.

Right now, I'll probably try going the gunner route and going for him at a distance, although that might be a problem, because Mr. Royal Ludroth likes to keep you close when you're underwater. In anycase, this Royal Ludroth is a Royal Pain in my ass.

But I love this game. It's provided a really fascinating challenge. The fact that the monsters don't have strict patterns and their behavior differs depending on the time and environment you catch them in really adds that level of unpredictability that makes a game interesting. Overall, I have to say this beats out Muramasa and Sin and Punishment 2. Both of those are good games, particularly Sin and Punishment 2 which seriously plays with the on rails format in so many ways.

I hope everyone has a wonderful week. Make the most of it while you can! And remember "Time you enjoyed wasting is not wasted at all."

peace,

-nick