Friday, June 5, 2009

HOME

http://www.youtube.com/homeproject

I don't have too much to say because I'm sure not many people read this, but I really think everybody should watch that video in its entirety. It is a video that discusses our planet and how we are hurting it. It scares me. I don't know what I can do personally to help, but it is something I will be looking into.

Friday, January 9, 2009

Updates

It's been awhile and a lot has happened:

I got let go from my job at GameStop today. It was a great two months and I would've loved to stay indefinitely, but considering I was hired as a temporary worker, I saw it coming eventually. They run a great store up here in Bangor and everybody there is cool as hell. The manager is a really great guy and I made a few new friends. No hard feelings, GameStop!

I spent the last week hanging out with my friend Alex who is currently enrolled at UConn. He came up here last Sunday night and stayed until Friday afternoon. We had an amazing time, played a ton of video games, and just had fun. No other obligations, responsibilities, just good times. It made me realize how much I miss him. Growing up is weird; I love having my own apartment with Kristina, being able to do what I want when I want to, but I miss the way things used to be, too. Anyway, I can't wait until Alex and I get to chill again.

Christmas was a good time, for the most part. I envy all those who have bigger families, or have closer families. I have three brothers, but I might see them two or three times a year and we all live within an hour of each other. Christmas is one of those times, so I try to have the best time I can and catch up with everybody. I got a set of adjustable dumbbells and the "perfect pushup". It's nice having stuff in the apartment to work out with, makes it a lot easier and accessible. I also got a HOOKAH from Kristina (well, kinda...) and it's AWESOME! Me likey.

New Years was also a good time, Kristina and I just sat around and watched TV. I only made one resolution, and that's to get into better shape.

As far as gaming goes, a lot has happened also. My CS team made CAL-Invite playoffs, the ESEA league playoffs, and made it to the final 16 teams for the CEVO Atomic Theory tournament. We lost in the CAL-I playoffs on two maps, both of which went to overtime. We lost our ESEA playoff match in DOUBLE OVERTIME. We lost in the round of 16 for the CEVO tournament to one of the top teams in the US, so that didn't hurt too badly. The day after we lost our ESEA playoff match, my team died because of World of Warcraft and some other scheduling conflicts. This seems to be the trend for every team I've ever been on, but I guess that's just the way it goes. I'm lucky to have made it this far living in Maine and being so far away from the real CS scene.

There are three teams I'm looking to join right now. One of them is with a good friend of mine, briN. The other two teams I don't really know anybody that well but I think they might hold better opportunities for me. One team, sure-shot, wants me to travel to Maryland at the end of this month for the x3o Winter Classic, which would be a great opportunity to further solidify my place in the CS community; but since I lost my job, I won't have any money to do that, unfortunately. The last team, zetsumei, is in CAL-I, CEVO-M, and will also be participating in the ESEA league. I played with them today and had a great time, they also want me to call strats I think...which could be fun. It would give me more control over what's happening but it'll also put more stress on me in-game. We'll see how things pan out.

I hit level 80 on my paladin quite awhile ago, my guild has been running pretty much all the content every week, which isn't that extensive. I'll probably slow down on WoW a bit while I try to find a solid CS team and work my way back up.

Prince of Persia is a great game up until a point. The fighting system is great, the platforming is a blast, but once you realize that you'll be fighting the same 5 or 6 enemies throughout the entire game, you might lose interest. REPETITIVE, ANYBODY?

Mirror's Edge is similar in a way, you play the first couple levels and are like, "Wow, this is a great game." Once you beat the 5th or 6th level, it's like, "Wow, the fighting system sucks and all of the 'free running' has gotten repetitive." Good attempt, boys, better luck next time.

I beat a game for the first time in probably a few years; the game was Trace Memory on Nintendo DS. It had a great story, fun puzzles, intriguing characters, and it was SHORT! A girl from GameStop let me borrow it and I beat it overnight. I also picked up Elite Beat Agents for DS which is a quirky rhythm game with no real story to follow. Pretty fun, I'll probably beat that in the next few days. Got Locke's Quest too but haven't played that more than an hour.

So classes start on Monday already, which is nuts. Such a short Christmas break. I'm taking two sociology courses, a world religions course, a business course, and a course on diseases and plagues. Nothing too serious and hopefully they're all interesting. We'll find out soon enough. Anyway, that's all I can think of right now...hope everybody had a great break!!!

Peace and love, everybody

LT