Then I must be some kind of Genius

Well, I got my midterm marks back. I got a 90 in Network Flow...excellent. Network Design? Well, I got the second highest mark in the class! Unfortunately, that mark was 35%. The odd thing is that the highest mark in the class was around 75%, so there was a pretty huge drop-off. We're going to have a make-up midterm, and the prof talked to us all individually. I didn't tell him off or anything. What worries me is that it doesn't look like he's admitting that he's partially to blame for the class doing so poorly. Well, there's still 90% of the mark to be decided, so we'll see how this second midterm goes.

My sleep schedule is quite off lately. Lately, I've been going to bed between 4 and 5, and waking up at around 2PM. On days that I have class, I usually only get a few hours of sleep, and then crash when I get home. I forget what messed up my schedule. I was looking forward to attending a games day yesterday, but I woke up at 3 and realized it was half over, and by the time it would take to get ready and get there, it wouldn't be worth going.

I'm finally on the second disc of Shadow Hearts, but I think there's still a ways to go before I finish it. I beat the co-op story mode of Timesplitters: Future Perfect with Hugh, after some horrendously difficult stages. For Yoshi's Island, I've only got to acheive my goal of getting at least 80 on every stage for the last world, and then beat the last stage. I haven't touched FFVI lately. I have too many games started up already, so I'm trying to get SH and YI out of the way first.

I'm talking to Aly as we speak ('we speak', being figurative, of course). He reminded me that he has my Serenity DVD. I suggested that we actually do something, rather than just saying "hey, we should do something". It looks like I'll be going to see 300 this Friday in Mississauga (or Mrs. Sauga, as I jovially refer to it) at the IMAX theatre. I guess it doens't really mess with my midterms or anything, and the roads should be nice enough to drive on, so I can't think of any good reason not to go.

Katie was over last night, for the first time in a while. I was starting to get the feeling that she didn't really want to hang out with us anymore, but she initiated the hangout, so I suppose my fears were unfounded. She, Andrew and I played some NES (I have a NES emulator for PS2 with 900+ games), Scene It, and Carcassonne. As the night went on, activities included making spaghetti, and Katie falling asleep on the couch. I didn't know if I should wake her up or not, so I just played some Megaman 3 instead. Eventually she woke up (at 3:30 AM) and I kicked her out of my house. Good times, as usual! Unfortunately, she is babysitting this Monday and as such can not come over to watch TV.

I bought a Pitchshifter CD from those seedy guys that set up shop in the SLC the other day. "deviant", if you must know. It was a rare find, so I was happy to pay the eight dollars (sans tax). It's not as good as www.pitchshifter.com (the album), but I haven't really given it any time to grow on me. Now if only I could find a Bucket Truck or Chore cd...

The university had 1.5 snow days at the end of last week. They closed up shop at 3:30 on Thursday due to some pretty fierce snowfall. Overnight, there was really nasty freezing rain, hence the closure on Friday. It didn't mean much to me, besides letting me sleep in and saving me three hours of unenlightening class.

Well, that's as much as I'm willing to type for now.

Listening to... Reel Big Fish - Take On Me
Link of the moment... NES emulator for PS1. Needs a swap disc or mod chip to work.

Shag-adelic, baby

You may notice a slight addition to the sidebar. Hopefully by putting that up, it'll cut down on the "games I want to play" posts. I finally beat Resident Evil 4. I'm right near the end of Megaman ZX as well, but there's no way I can get through the "beat all the eight bosses again" part without some FAQ help.

At Blockbuster the other day, I picked up Okami as planned, and since they had a buy-one-get-one-half-off deal, I picked up Meteos for DS for another ten bucks. The next day at Rogers, I saw Kirby: Canvas Curse in the used games section. It looks like a good game, and I can never find it on eBay, so I picked it up as well. I'd better not buy any more games for a while, it looks like I have enough to last me through until the summer.

I went to Chris' house the other day and played some Wii. I've gotta say it doesn't really live up to my expectations. With Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, I felt like all I needed to do was shake the controller in front of me until the guys were dead. When I tried doing one move, it would wind up doing a different one. With Wii Sports golf, the same sort of thing happened; it wouldn't do what I wanted it to do. Boxing had the same problem. When I'd try to punch low to the body, it would do a hook to the face. Tennis was definitely fun though. Props to tennis.

I played another two games of Carcassonne with Grant and Sheena last night. I think I might actually be getting to the point where I'm getting sick of that game. I've played it entirely too many times since I got home.

Maybe later today I should go return stuff. X-mas gifts, that is. I'm still not sure if I'm going to keep the camera I have or exchange it for one with a smaller frame. I guess I use it so rarely that it won't make too much of an impact. Canon's a good name, and I don't really feel like putting in the time to finding out what the best model is otherwise. I guess I'll just take it all in cash, because I can't think of what I should get from Future Shop. I certainly have enough games. I'm not sure if I really want to invest in any more boxsets at the time being.

Well I need to get some food in me. I'm sure I'll have to look for it outside the house, as the cupboards don't seem to be well-stocked lately.

Link of the moment... Slightly interesting article over at Joystiq

Happy commercialized holiday!

It doesn't feel like Christmas this year. There's no snow on the ground, and we didn't bother putting up a tree this year (we just had a two-foot stand-in on a table). Let's see what booty I got this year:

-New Canon 5.0MP digital camera (I might return it in favour of a smaller model, if I can find one at the same price. Quality is fine and all, but bulky cameras are no fun to carry around)
-Poker's Wild! (A game from the creators of Sequence. Might be fun every now and then)
-shirt and pants (love the pants, the shirt is ok)
-Battlefield 1942 (looking forward to play this via LAN, but not sure if I'll get around to playing it solo for a while)
-Yoshi's Island DS (yay!)
-Lego Star Wars 2 (I happened to burn this from a rental the other day, so I'm going to return it and get Okami for PS2 instead)
-large cash donation for me to buy things for myself (my mom wants me to get a Wii, but considering the lack of great games and my current backlog of games for GC, PS2, PC, and DS, I'll spend it elsewhere and buy a Wii later on in 2007. I'm going to get that video card which is now on sale at Future Shop for Boxing Day.)

I've also added Metroid Prime to my "to play" list. It's the top rated GameCube game, and third highest overall at GameRankings.com. I'm on the last chapter of RE4. For the first three days, I was able to play through a chapter per day, but the fourth chapter took me a long time. I should be done this game in a few days, and then I'll move on to The Warriors. I should be able to finish that in a week and a half, and when I get back to Waterloo I'll probably move on to whatever I'm in the mood for. In the handheld division, I should be done Megaman ZX in less than a week, and then I'll play my new Yoshi's Island DS.

Hugh says that by scheduling video games like this, I take a fair chunk of the fun out of it by destroying the spontaneity. I suppose that's slightly true, but I think that with games taking 20+ hours to beat, and with some games having pretty steep learning curves, it's too difficult to jump back into a game that you've already started and still take as much out of it as you would if it were still fresh on your mind.

So far Adam and I have played 5 (or maybe 6) games of Carcassonne. I think the game works very well with fewer players. There's much more of a "screw over your opponents" element. I played Settlers of Catan with Adam, Grant, and Chanel, and they all seemed to enjoy it. We had to cut it short since Adam had to go somewhere, and while we were playing, Martine and her boyfriend came over. I think we stopped with a three-way tie where Grant, Chanel and I all had 8 points. I'm sure they'd like to play again if the number of people fits. I still want to play with Sheena.

After Adam left, the five of us played Bang!. I started off by stripping a lot of cards out (character cards, more complicated action cards) to leave more of a basic game. After the first game, we added the characters and some more action cards and played again. My one qualm with the game is that it seems to take forever to kill anyone. After playing ten minutes, everyone might still be at full health. I think it would be better to play more rounds that are quicker to play. To remedy this, I think I'll take out some "Missed!" and "Beer" cards (which evade shots and restore health, respectively).

Well it's nearly time for Christmas dinner, so I'm going to go shower and put on my new clothes, then stuff myself with delicious goodness.

Listening to... Rage Against the Machine - Freedom
Link of the moment... Oh yeah, I forgot to talk about the new board games I've got my eye on. Lucky you.

Nothing screams "back in Thunder Bay" like a can of Razz Blast

I loaded up on Safeway Select pop today. It was on sale for $2.50 a pop (here, I cleverly used "a pop" to stand in for "a piece" and also as metonymy by referring to the case of pop as "a pop". I am so clever). Among the six flavours I got was Razz Blast, which is a blue raspberry flavoured concoction that might be described as some to be a sugar orgasm.

Sleep has been very odd since I got home. The first night I got home, I went to bed at 11PM and woke up at 3AM. I think that was a combination of getting up earlier that day for my exam, and sleeping on the way to the airport. I could tell when I woke up that I wouldn't be falling back asleep, so I played some Resident Evil 4 for a while and watched some Beverly Hillbillies until my parents woke up. Then I got some McDonald's breakfast and did some early morning shopping. I guess most of my shopping is out of the way, except for my sister, for whom I have no idea what to get. The local Walmart is open 24 hours through the Christmas, so I think I'll go there some night at 2 in the morning when I have nothing better to do.

I fell asleep no fewer than three times during the day, sometimes for ten minutes, sometimes for an hour, depending on when I was awoken by some distraction. I went to bed last night at about 12:30 and woke up twelve hours later, perhaps due to my lack of 'real' sleep the night before. Tonight, I can't seem to fall asleep, as it's 4AM. 48 hours ago, I was already up for the day. Peculiar, if you ask me. I wonder what time I'll be rolling out of bed, and I wonder what time I'll be falling asleep tomorrow.

Since starting Resident Evil two days ago, I've blown through the first two chapters. I'm on something like 3-2 now, so nearly halfway through the game, I think. If I keep this up, I should be done before Christmas. It's a pain playing in the daytime, because the sun is usually shining on the tv screen, and it makes for a pretty nasty glare.

I played Carcassonne (: The Discovery) with Adam and Sheena last night. They both seemed to enjoy it, and said they'd play again. Adam kicked our asses. I look forward to playing Settlers of Catan, but getting exactly four people to play might be tricky (six would be fine too, but I think four makes for the best game).

Future Shop recently had Battlefield 2 for $20 (Reg $40) and Guild Wars: Nightfall for $40 (reg $50), but I didn't buy either. I'd better not buy any games 'til after Xmas. I played BF2 with Andrew a few days ago, and to be honest it was kinda boring.

I think I'm gonna ask someone to go see a movie perhaps tomorrow. I haven't seen a movie in a while, and Casino Royale might thrill me. There's a particular someone who I may or may not have some chemistry with, and she may or may not be the only single girl I'm friends with in this city. I may or may not make a fool of myself if I put myself out there, and I may or may not care if I do or do not. It's a very dubious situation.

Do you think it's wrong to put the moves on someone without the intention of having any sort of prolonged relationship with them? It seems like the last two times I've made out with a girl, it didn't materialize into anything, and I had no plans for it to do as such. I realize that if you look at my love life in the last two years, I look like much more of a sleaze than I used to. Just getting my jollies with girls without any commitment. Maybe I've turned into a sleaze. Maybe my standards for "realtionship girl" have risen above that of "make-out girl" in the last while. Maybe my libido is just starting to take over. Maybe I've come to the conclusion that starting a relationship with anyone in Waterloo or Thunder Bay is futile anyways. Yes, I think it's a combination of all of those things.

Listening to... Cold - Just Got Wicked (Winamp Radio)
Link of the moment... lolz? Kitties are cute.

PHYS 121 destroyed me

Well, one exam down. It was physics, and it was gruesome. I'm not looking forward to what my mark will be in that course, but I can't say I care too much. It's just an elective, and even beyond that, what's the worts that will happen if I don't get a good mark in some course this term? Nothing.

I've got a few days until my next exam. The next two are Linguistics and Graph Theory on Wednesday and Friday respectively. I think I'll mostly wing it on those exams. I'll review all the linguistics slides, but it will all be multiple choice and T/F, so it's nothing worth wracking my brain over. Graph Theory will mostly be about memorizing a few theorems, and being able to apply the rest of them. I've got a good grasp on the material, so I shouldn't run into anything that will disturb me on the final.

I went to J&J the other day, as I said I would. I found Bang!, and found Lost Cities after scouring the shelves a few times. Through the Desert, and Mystery of the Abbey, however, were missing. I figure MotA is a bit obscure, and they said TtD was out of print but they should get some more eventually. I didn't want to walk out of there without buying a $30 game, since I'm not often in a spendy mood and figured I should get something for myself. I wound up buying Carcassonne: The Discovery based on a review I found on Board Games With Scott, which says it captures the essence of Carcassonne while being more accessible to new gamers. TtD will have to go on my 'to buy' list for the next time I feel the need to get more games. I think the next time I want to buy some games, I might try out GermanGames.com which is local to Waterloo and has good prices and selection.

I won Megaman ZX off of eBay today for a measly $20 after shipping (it retails for $40). The only reason I got it so cheap was because I got it off a user with almost no feedback. It's probably a bad idea, but the price was right.

I think I might try to get involved in Watsfic and the UWGamers next term, if it fits my schedule. I stopped by the Watsfic office while on campus the other day to see if they were having any more games days. Turns out I just missed one last weekend. I also scolded them for not having their information more accessible, such as on their now-defunct website and perhaps over a newsletter. I'd join in hopes of playing games with people who play games. Similarly, joining the UWGamers would let me try out the new consoles and test drive new games for DS. Of course, walking to campus is such a pain in the winter term, I'm not sure I'd be motivated enough to go to events.

I'm almost done FF5! Isn't that so exciting? Although, I wound up exploiting a game feature to buff up my guys. I guess it takes some of the fun out of the game, but the final boss will still put up a challenge, and there's still an entire optional dungeon after that.

Only nine more days until I'm back home!

Listening to... Raised Fist - Illustration of Desparation
Link of the moment... I'm sure I'll buy from here when I'm back in TBay...no local shops there.

No mo' class

Today was the last day of classes. I feel like there's still so much more I should have learned this term but maybe that's because I only have 3 on-campus classes, one of which I skipped frequently. Now it's just a matter of exams.

I think I will buy some new board games soon. I've been looking around on the interwebs and have narrowed it down to a few. Seeing as how I've little else to talk about, I'll now list the said five games.

Lost Cities: I plan on buying this because it's a 2-player game. Andrew's the only one nearly as eager as I am about games, so we're often short of players when we want to play something. If I had to compare the play mechanic of this game, I'd have to choose Gin Rummy.

Bang!: I've already talked about this one a lot. It seems like something Grant would go in for. If I had to compare it to another game, it would be Werewolf/Mafia.

Through the Desert: It's gotten some good reviews, and is a staple of many peoples' collections. It seems like a game I might be able to make John and Hugh play. If I had to compare it to another game, it would be Go (for the 'blocking in' aspect of the game).

Mystery of the Abbey: This would be a good addition to my collection since I don't really have a deduction game yet (besides scotland yard that no one will touch). From what I've seen, it's a hybrid of Clue and Guess Who.

Carcassonne: I might buy this after Christmas. Sonja says she got it cheap from a calendar kiosk after boxing day. I played it once and didn't like it a lot, but it seems to be one of 'the' games to own, so maybe I just need to know the rules a bit better.

Since I really haven't spent much lately, I've got $500 coming to me from marking, and J&J is a resource I can only use for five more months, I think I'll spend a non-trivial amount on games. I'll probably get Bang!, Lost Cities, and one of MotA or TtD. If the prices are fair, maybe I'll go ahead and buy both! It's just a bloody shame that I won't have enough room in my luggage to take a fair number of my larger games to play.

Listening to... Death By Stereo - Unstoppable
Link of the moment... A pretty awesome board game vlog I stumbled upon.