Time

It’s been some time since I last posted an entry here.  It’s not that I haven’t wanted to, because I have; I find WordPress to be ingenious in a simple manner.  Despite the numerous social networking websites I’m a part of and my lovely community of gamers on GT, I still like blogging here.  That probably has to do with the fact that this site is dedicated solely to blogging.

Anyway, the reason I haven’t been able to post anything here for a little over a month is due to my time becoming something of a precious resource.  I’ve been playing a bunch of old-school NES games and reviewing them for Suite101.  It’s been fun, but it’s also been hard, and I’m hardly making any money off of this gig.  Still, I’m glad to be earning valuable experience.  My writing on GamerSyndrome tends to fluctuate.  Sometimes I’ll write very few articles (due to dedicating so much of my time to Suite), and sometimes I’ll provide a hefty amount of content to the site.

Last week was a very busy week.  I had to write up this multi-page assignment.  I earned $50 for it, and half of that money has already gone to gas.  The assignment was a total bore, but I was glad to make money for my writing.  It’d be nice to get contracted every week for a job that pays.

School’s been…annoying.  My math class continues to steal my precious time away, and I’ve lost all hope for that class.  I’m looking forward to next semester, though.  I plan on taking a couple journalism courses, and that should be kind of fun.

I’ll try and post another entry on here soon.  I have various things to talk about including video games, trips to the eye doctor, and Global, the company from hell.  If I can stay focused, I can probably get that entry out this week.  We’ll see.

I’ve Been Somewhat Busy Lately

It’s been a week since I lasted posted an entry, and it’s not due to laziness.  I’ve actually been somewhat busy for the past few days.  Aside from the insurmountable amounts of homework that I’ve been receiving, I’ve also been busy writing.  I applied at Suite101, and I was hired, so I can now say that I am officially a freelance writer.  Kind of cool, no?  Anyway, I’ve been busy writing for that site, and my commitment to GamerSyndrome continues.  I’m adding more and more credentials to my resume, and that’s something I am totally stoked about, because by volunteering here and there, freelancing at a few places, and so on, I’ll have more references and experience under my belt.  I know I’m just getting started on something that will undoubtedly take a long time to reach the apex of, but I have no problem with paying my dues.  If I want to get somewhere, I’ll have to work hard, and I’m completely comfortable with that.

Aside from my writing, school has been taking a ton of my time.  With the mediocre teacher I have, it’s bound to stay that way for the rest of the semester.  The guy’s lectures are so convoluted that when I get home and try to do my homework, I am completely lost.  It’s ridiculous.  I took my second quiz for that class, and I did even worse than the first time.  I wasn’t the only one either.  Quite a few people scored below me.  I’ve get a test next week, and I have no doubt in my mind it will be difficult.  Damn this class, and damn that teacher!

This past Saturday I worked the Ladyhawke concert.  I was put by the low box.  It was really easy, and I had a clear view of the stage, so I enjoyed the show.  Well, I enjoyed Ladyhawke; all the other bands sucked.  I really wanted to get a Ladyhawke shirt, but I felt rushed to leave, and I’m being extra careful with my money.  I can always get a shirt online anyway.

I haven’t played video games all that much lately.  Maybe later this week I can finish Oni.  We’ll see.

Exhaustion

This morning was pleasant.  I didn’t do much.  I enjoyed my bowl of Count Chocula as I watched Prey the Stars gameplay videoes.  All the while I brainstormed the cynicism with which I would approach my article on the remake of Earthworm Jim.  I mean, I loved that cartoon series as a kid, and even though I only played the game briefly, I liked it a lot.  I even plan on downloading the game to my Wii.  I just wish the next release was a sequel instead of a remake.  I guess I’ll have to hold out on Earhtworm Jim 4 for quite some time.  Damn Interplay and their lagginess!

I just finished writing out a study guide for my math class.  I am not looking forward to tomorrow’s quiz at all.  I think I’ll do better than last time based solely on the fact that I’m a bit more prepared and have actually devoted time to studying, but the teacher’s method is so mediocre and the book is so terribly worded that I haven’t gotten a complete grasp on the material.  I can only hope I pull out a much better grade than I did on the last quiz.  I’m tired of studying right now, though, so I’ll have to devote some more time to math tomorrow.

On a much lighter note, the weather continues to be nice.  October weather came just a few days early, and that’s something I was really happy about.  I’m looking forward to Halloween once again, even though I never do anything on that day.  It’s just an overall enjoyable day for me.  I’ll most likely do what I usually do: get a pizza, watch Halloween, and give out candy.  It’s simple, and maybe a bit cliche, but I’m a creature of habit.  I’ve had that same tradition for years now, and I don’t plan on changing it.

Busy Days

My weekends have become two of my busiest days.  I find that those are the best days to do my math homework, which is large in quantity.  With all of the talking that goes on in the house, it should come as no surprise that I prefer doing my homework at night when everyone’s asleep.  Last night I finished one of the assignments at around 2 o’clock.  Today’s Sunday, and I have to wake up early tomorrow, so I’ll obviously have to just do my homework in whatever conditions the environment in my house may be.

I watched a few episodes from the first season of The OC last night both before and after doing my homework.  I remember being a junior in high school and Matthew forcing me to watch an episode of that show.  I ended up getting hooked, and he ended up getting annoyed with just how over-the-top it had become towards its final season.  Good times.

I turned in a few applications yesterday.  It’s probably become repetitive by now, but I so desperately need a steady job.  It would be nice to get hired at one of the many GameStops I’ve applied at, but at this point I’ll take almost anything.  No grocery store jobs, though.  That’s really not for me.  I do have that guard card.  Maybe a mall cop job would be alright.  Times are tough, and I need something better than what Global Event Staffing has to offer.

I picked up a game at one of the GameStops I applied at yesterday.  Prey the Stars for the DS.  It was only 10 bucks, and it was new, so I thought I might as well.  It’s a hard-to-find game, and I had been interested in playing it for a while.  I’m glad I got it.  It’s one of those games that is easily overlooked due to its simplistic nature, but it’s actually a lot of fun.  The only thing that bothers me is that I had to dip into my PS3 account.  I have about $230, so I’m almost there.  I’m really looking forward to the day when I get that awesome brand new PlayStation 3 Slim.

Rooster Hat

I picked up my copy of Scribblenauts yesterday.  I showed up at the mall a little after 9; I honestly thought GameStop opened up at 9.  After checking the website just now, it appears they open at 10.  Anyway, the GameStop at the mall didn’t up until 10.30.  Some tall, manly lady went in before me (I swear she looked like Chyna.) and bought something.  I went up to the counter, paid for my game, and got my cool rooster hat.  Haha  It’s a cool little hat and a nice preorder gift.  My mom and sisters thought it looked funny, and my dad gave me a look of disgust.  I could care less what he thinks, though.  He’s against joy of any kind, so I hardly ever take his opinions into consideration.  Back to the game, though.  I played for a few hours yesterday before and after class.  The game is really fun.  The controls aren’t perfect, and it’s easy to screw things up if you’re not careful, but with a little patience, I find that the controls do their job.  I didn’t like the notepad as an input method because it hardly ever recognized what I was writing.  For example, I would write the letter h, but the game would register it as a u.  It took me about five minutes to come to the conclusion that the notepad just isn’t for me.  I have to see what others think about it.  Maybe my writing just sucks.  I haven’t dabbled with the level editor yet, but I probably will later this week.

So, yesterday I took my math quiz, and I know I failed that thing.  I studied a little, and I knew a good amount of the material, but when I looked at the quiz, none of the stuff I was completely sure about was on the quiz.  I was pretty frustrated after leaving class, but there’s nothing I can do.  I’ll just have to make sure to do well on the next quiz.

No More Functions

I’ve spent countless hours on countless homework assignments for my math class.  It’s a very crappy feeling when you’re burnt out from doing homework at the end of the day and you know you’re not even close to being finished.  I know that if I would have gotten that textbook earlier, I wouldn’t be where I am right now.  Stupid online rental…  I find comfort in the fact that after tonight I’ll be all caught up, and hopefully things get easier from this point on.  Well, the subject matter may not get easier, but at least I’ll be caught up, so doing my assignments on time will be easier to accomplish.  I have a quiz tomorrow, and I can’t say I’m looking forward to it.  I’m not all that prepared, and I’ll be lucky if I score at least a C on the damn thing.  The book’s no good and the teacher’s worse, so the odds are stacked against me.  But it’s math, and I happen to be good at the subject, so I know I’ll do well in the long run.

One thing I’ll be looking forward to tomorrow is the Scribblenauts release for the DS.  I’m pretty excited about that game, and I’m not going to let the annoyance that is my math class take away from that.  I’ve been looking forward to that game for some time now, and it’s going to be so cool to finally get my hands on it.  Hopefully the cute girl will be working at GameStop tomorrow.  Haha

In an attempt to move forward with my gaming, I recently started playing Oni.  I started this past Saturday, and I’ve managed to play a little everyday since then.  It’s a fun game, and it’s a total throwback to the gaming scene of the early 2000s.  I know I would have loved that game back when I barely got my PS2, but even now I am enjoying it a lot (because it reminds me of a simpler time in gaming and because it’s just a good game).  I played the game for a short time on my old computer, but the controls were a mess.  It feels good to finally be able to appreciate the game for what it is, a fun 3D beat ‘em up with some good third-person shooting elements.  The controls don’t hold up all that well for today’s standards, but the game is both playable and enjoyable.  I’ll likely continue playing the game in conjuction with Scribblenauts.

I almost forgot to mention the results of my Hooters/Modest Mouse Experiment blogs.  I’ve been examining my stats for the past few days, and it is apparent that the tags that generated the most viewers for my blog were the Modest Mouse tags.  Although my tests may seem trivial, it was interesting to find out that what drew people to my blog was music as opposed to breasts.  I guess there is hope left for society after all.  Maybe we’re not all sex-crazed maniacs.

Harvey Moiseiwitsch Volodarskii

Tomorrow seems to be the day that I’ll have finished No More Heroes for the fourth time.  (Last blog, I incorrectly stated that it was my fifth playthrough of the game.)  Normally, it would have taken me a bit longer to play through the game, but since I carried over all of my cash and equipment from my last save, getting through the game was a breeze.  Perhaps next year I’ll start a new file from scratch; no cash, no upgraded weapons.  Since I have so many other games I need to pass, playing with all of my old stats intact seemed like the wiser thing to do.

I’m almost done catching up with all of my math homework.  I just need part of the final section.  If I’m not feeling too lazy, then I’ll definitely do that tomorrow.  It was a relief catching up as much as I did, but by the end of the night I was already burnt out after three days of nonstop math homework.  I am not looking forward to class tomorrow…

If I Become Number One, Will You Do It with Me?

I started playing No More Heroes a while ago.  Once I get through the game, this will be my fifth play-through.  Marcela got the game for me last summer before she left, and it remains one of my favorite Wii titles.  It’s a lot of fun, the gameplay is great, and the comedy in the game is the best.  NMH is probably one of the top five funniest games I’ve ever played.  Once I get through this game, then I’ll move on to other games.

Earlier today I played the NES classic Pro Wrestling.  It’s a lot of fun, and I dare say it’s about as fun as Punch Out!!  The game gets progressively harder, but that’s how those old-school games work.  It certainly seems more possible to finish this game as opposed to Punch Out!!, that’s for sure.

I did some homework today.  Out of the six sections I need to catch up on, I didn’t even finish the first.  It’s not like I slacked off too much; it’s just a whole lot of work.  I may still finish up the first section tonight.  And tomorrow is going to be a really busy day.  None of what I did today was difficult at all, it’s just a lot of work.

Marcela came over from Kentucky last night.  I got home from work after she got here.  It was nice seeing her after almost one year.  I remember I used to always give her a hard time when she lived here.  I guess I was just being the jerk younger brother.  There were times when I really felt bad about it, though.  I knew I hurt her feelings sometimes, so I felt bad.  There are no hard feelings, but this is the sort of thing you live with.  Anyways, it’s really good to see her again.  I told her about my new major, and she was very supportive.  I really appreciated that.

Boredom Will Surface Tonight

So it’s set: I will be working a high school football game tonight.  Out of every sport, I think football is my least favorite, and high school football is probably the worst incarnation of the game for me.  That’s probably because I have to work security for these events, and it feels like it takes an eternity to get through the shift.  The only upside is that the game is in Orange County, so hopefully it won’t be too hot over there.  At least I’ll be getting about five hours of work tonight.  I was told that I’d be working every Friday for the next two months or so.  I really hope that happens because I need the money.

I finally got my math book yesterday.  I have about six homework assignments due.  Luckily, everything is due at the end of the unit, so I have about a week or so to finish everything.  This weekend is going to be all about catching up.  The assignments are pretty big, so I doubt I’ll be having much fun this weekend.  It doesn’t bother me, though.  I know I’ll feel a great deal of satisfaction once I get all those assignments done.

My gaming has been completely scattered this week.  I haven’t touched Kingdom Hearts in about a week or more.  Instead, I’ve been playing House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return.  It’s a fun collection for what it’s worth.  It’s nothing ground-breaking, but it gets me hooked.  It’s pretty tough too, so I’ll probably move on to another game until I find a partner to play cooperatively with.  Aside from that, I’ve been doing a fair amount of old-school gaming.  I played Blaster Master for the first time.  It’s a fun game, but the multiple paths and unforgiving difficulty are a bit much.  I doubt I’ll ever complete the game, but you never know.  I’ve also been playing Battletoads lately.  The game is definitely awesome, but a high difficulty is evident in this game too.  I guess that’s to be expected in NES games.  I missed out on a lot of great titles as a kid, so I’m glad to be able to play some of the games I didn’t get the chance to play back then.

It feels good to be blogging after three days.  I feel like blogging often, but I’m used to doing it at night.  Lately, however, I’ve been remembering to post a new entry once I’ve shut down my computer.  Perhaps I need to move my blogging activity to around noon.

Tomorrow Will Equal Suckage

Tomorrow’s looking to be a crappy day.  I’ve got to go to school early tomorrow to meet with a counselor and discuss my major change.  I’m not sure if I have to go at 11 or 1, so I have to call and double check.  I don’t want to have to deal with the damn heat that has been really prominent lately.  Without AC, my car’s a freaking boiler.  I think I’m going to take the bus.  At least that way I can sit back and enjoy the AC and watch the scenery.  I’m not very fond of the fact that the bus ride is an entire 50 minutes, but that’s better than 30 minutes in a hot car.

I was really hoping that my math book would arrive in the mail today.  I may have to cram two chapters worth of homework tomorrow…if the book arrives that is.  I’ll have to send out an email to my teacher explaining my predicament.  Hopefully he’ll be understanding about it.  I mean, what am I supposed to do without the textbook?