School's out

Or just about. I still have my weekend adventure class, but I hardly think that counts as school, haha.

Finished the summer session pretty easily. Billiards was an obvious Pass, I'm not actually sure how to fail that course. I haven't gotten my grade for Microecon back yet, but assuming I didn't totally bomb the final, I should easily have an A. Infosys I *did* get my grade back, and it's not really that surprising I got an A, haha. My lowest assignment grade in the class was an 88, and the next lowest was a 97.5. =D My Hiking class is this weekend, so I'll be out in West Virginia for about 2 days. Sounds fun.

Finished FFIV: TAY a while ago, it certainly had a rather interesting ending to everything. Unfortunately, they opted for one of those final bosses that look like a mass of...stuff. I totally had no idea what I was supposed to be fighting the entire time aside from what the name told me it was, haha. Overall, I'd rate the game as a 6.5/10, like I gave FFIII, haha. I *do* recommend that anyone who wants to play FFIV also play TAY shortly thereafter, because TAY is notably better and develops the characters alot more than they bother to in the original game, especially Kain.

Currently playing Pokemon Soul Silver now, although at sort of a lax pace. Pokedex is @ 60-some odd, with 3 badges. Once I get past the Lake of Rage event, I'll probably spend most of my time filling out my pokedex for a while, so I'll probably start playing another game around then to break up the tedium. Not sure which one yet though.

FFXIV has entered actual beta-testing finally! Of course, I don't really follow it that closely, haha. I'll get it when I get it. I'll probably preorder the collector's edition in a few weeks after I figure out how much money I need to spend on a new camera.

Oh yeah, I guess I never said which laptop I ended up getting. It's this one. The cheapest of the G73s sure, but I don't really need any of the stuff that makes the others cost more. And it can still kick arse. Almost hit 4000 on the FFXIV benchmark, which is absolutely amazing for a laptop right now, especially for this price. Hoping this will take care of my gaming needs for 3-4 years, until I finish college and all that jazz and it's practical to actually build a proper desktop, with modifications. ;D

Looks like K-ON! S2 isn't finished after all! I was expecting another half-season, but they've started a new intro, so it'll be a full-length season it seems. That's good, as KyoAni isn't trolling everyone like they did with Haruhi S2. Looking around at the other summer anime seeing if anything's worth watching, but I haven't seen anything yet.

Me and Erik hit up the PF Chang's in Annapolis to see how their cuisine held up. It was certainly quite good, and the servers were surprisingly professional, but the food just didn't match up to the local stuff from Hunan L'Rose. And it cost more. So Hunan L'Rose has been added to our list of places we like to eat often (incl. Matsu Sushi, Potato Valley, Famous Dave's, etc.) Probably gonna move away from Asian cuisine now and look at other stuff, and I'd also like to try out a few new curries before the end of the summer. Hopefully I won't "discover" Death Curry Mk. II, haha.

Summer!

SUCKS! =D You know it's true. God damn giant fireball thing.

Anyway, today's a recap post since I've been too busy/lazy to post for two months.

Spring Semester I more or less dominated. A's in Calculus II, Chemistry I, and Scenography (Theatre Shop). B's in CompSci II and Discrete Math(Logic & Proofs). No idea how I pulled the A in Calc, other than being awesome. GPA for semester was 3.6, overall rose to 3.5.

Started Summer classes (half over already, lol). Microecon is easy and I currently have a 98%. Management InfoSys is also easy, but more annoying, so I *only* have a 97%. lol. I actually went out of my way to write up all the assignments for InfoSys early, so now I don't have any outside homework assignments except reading. Billiards/Ping Pong is a Pass/Fail class probably, and I don't see how I could possibly fail, haha. My Trail Hiking course sent me a notice a few weeks ago, but I still don't have dates on that. I guess it's early though, but it should be confirmed in the next two weeks.

GAMES. I CAN PLAY VIDEO GAMES AGAIN! =D Haven't done too many, trying to work down my queue (But it's only getting bigger? haha) Played through Fallout 3 and all the add-on scenarios. Honestly, while it was a good start, the game just flat-out isn't as good as Oblivion. Combat in particular, but there's also significantly less story to explore and the fan-content isn't quite as good either. The Add-ons mostly sucked though. Mothership Zeta and maybe Broken Steel were passable. Was on a post-apoc kick, but the fuel died out pretty soon after exploring Megaton. Maybe there's something else out there to satisfy me...

Also played through Pokemon Colosseum's Story Mode, since I sort of had skipped that before and gone straight to XD: Gale of Darkness. Was somewhat interesting, though XD was longer and better, even if the main characters in Colosseum are significantly cooler, haha. I picked up Pokemon Soul Silver the other day, though I'm trying to save it just a little bit more. I played enough to start messing around with the PokeWalker though, so I've been carrying that around now. =D

Current game is FFIV: The After Years. Honestly...it's kinda painful. I've cleared the first scenario, but this has potential to be the worst FF game I've played. As a small bit of respite, Kain isn't a one-dimensional failure of a character like he was in FFIV, now he's two-dimensional just like everyone else. =D No complex plot here yet though, but maybe I'll like it more after all these side stories. Of course, maybe it'll all be tedium. Let's find out! (Thank god Rydia's story is next.)

Oh yeah, I started working! Yeah... It's not too bad though, even if it is dreadfully boring. Better than most jobs I've worked. Working 3 nights a week atm, might bump it up after classes are over. Hope to buy at least a new laptop and a PS3 along with some games by the end of the summer. Not finalized on which PC yet, though I've got it narrowed down to a handful, and I may very well buy it next weekend or the following. If I have enough funds, I'm also thinking of getting a new digital camera and a tablet. We'll see how long they keep me around, haha.

No additional progress on the HeroQuest minis. I know, it's been sitting there since Spring Break. >_>; I'm actually hoping to start that up soon in-between bouts of being ruthlessly frustrated at FFIV:TAY.

Nothing much new on the anime front. I ended up watching Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou through to the end. It wasn't terribad, but after about 3 episodes it seemed like they just said "Screw it!" and threw the plot into hyperdrive. Amusing at least, though I'd only give it a 6/10. K-ON! S2 should also be ending this week, and has been significantly more irrelevant than the first season.

I managed to get my hands on the Higurashi translated game! So far I only have the first four chapters, but I can't wait to actually sit down and realize all the loads of stuff they had to cut from the animoo. Hoping to get Ch5 and 6 soon too, since Tsumihoroboshi-hen is easily my favorite of the series. I probably won't get to read any of these until August though, haha.

Discovery! Hunan L'Rose in Odenton is absolutely fantastic for Chinese cuisine. Myself and Erik went there for a curry lunch a few weeks ago, and got almost more delicious food than we could eat for dirt cheap. I didn't see any steam buns though. =(

Animoo

This past weekend was nice, first time in a while I just kicked back without worrying about schoolwork at all. Even started to work on my HeroQuest minis a bit more. I didn't get any done though, so I don't have anything to show yet. With Finals just around the corner, I might not get another weekend like this until after that. And then I need to get a job and start summer session. Haha, Katy, you're nuts.

Tried out a Thai place down the road from Marley on Saturday with Erik. A bit pricey, but the food's pretty good. Been a while since I had Thai. The staff was really good, but the atmosphere was...off? I do't really know how to put it. Maybe it was too bright inside? Not good for casual dining, but a good place to bring your parents. Next up, gotta find a good Chinese or Ramen place in the area.

After Thai, went to go check out Lunar Golf, WHERE WALDENBOOKS USED TO BE. It's a neat little place, probably the best minigolf for your money (unless other places changed in the 10 years since I've been), as you get to go around 3 times for 1 pay. Personally though, I'd prefer to go to an outdoor course. The holes are larger and Lunar Golf had no Windmill! How can you have minigolf without a windmill!? My wall-bouncing and jump tactics were pretty awesome, but I ended up losing in the end, haha.

Picked up Phantasy Star Zero, and FF3 again, the later of which I got sucked into faster. I should have FF3 done by the end of the month, god I have too many games to play.

- To Aru Kagaku no Railgun (A Certain Scientific Railgun) S1 rating: 8.5/10
Railgun ended a week or so ago, so I needed more animoo to keep me entertained. Especially after Mikoto's epic Railgun halfway through the finale, I don't think I can just slug through crap for a while. (Even skipped through OP's Luffy vs. Hannyabal fight yesterday, and I never skip OP filler) Lucky me though! K-ON! season 2 just started, so that's another 3 months of them eating cake and not performing, haha. Decided to try out Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou, but it looks like there's too much ecchi and not enough substance, so I might drop it after a couple more eps. Finally, on a whim I decided to start Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha earlier today, and it was pretty decent. Then about halfway in HOLYCRAPWEHAVEANANIMATIONBUDGET. Seriously, that was a surprise. Not your typical Magical Girl series either, much darker. I'll update on that later on as I have time to work through.