5/31/12: We Are As Mayflies

It would appear that you can no longer start an entry, save, then resume it at a later time and have it posted at the time when it was first started. That's a little annoying.

From the beginning, I had planned to start the month with the "Mayfly" title and then finish with "We Are As Mayflies". There wasn't really any deeper meaning to them other than time passes in the blink of an eye and, well, it was May. Now that Zip is gone, the titles really have come true now. Like a mayfly, life is short and can be taken quickly. I know that one phrase "you only live once" is really getting popular lately, but it's something I've always thought of to go the extra mile. As much as I want to hate the phrase for being popularized as YOLO, I can't bring myself to. Some people really are motivated by the discovery that life is indeed short and that we only live once. Unfortunately, many people also take that phrase to mean that you should do more bad things just because you only live once. That's pretty much my dad's excuse for abandoning us after all. Sure we only live once, but so does everyone else. What you do can cause a ripple, and by you giving to selfish desires, you risk taking away just a little bit of enjoyment from someone else's life. Is that fair for them? No, no it isn't. I think people should try to do more positive things, things they wouldn't find themselves normally doing. That's my meaning of YOLO, anyways.

Sorry for that. I know I'm the last person who should be preaching about this, but I am trying, and at least I can recognize there's a problem.

I'll start from the lab yesterday.

I don't remember the title of this lab, but it was similar to the last one in that it was less experiment and more assignment. Actually, it was hardly an experiment at all. Basically, we watched a Billy Nye video on genetics and DNA and then were given bags of puzzle pieces and told to construct a DNA strand a certain way. It really only seemed like a few people understood the proper way to create the DNA strand the way the assignment wanted it. I mean, it was still a puzzle, but the putting it together portion was brain dead easy. Thankfully, Johanna seemed to have an idea of what she was doing while the rest of us just kinda pretended to look busy. I did trace a small portion of the puzzle in my notes so I could refer to them when I got stuck. In the end, that was pretty much the "experiment". The video had a much cooler example where they used clip-on toys to build a DNA tower. I thought we'd be doing that too. In retrospect, this was a really disappointing class. I mean, I was kinda hoping it'd be an accessible class for someone who isn't good at science, like me, but I didn't think it would be so dull. I'm glad I got the teacher I did though as without those online tests, the people in the class, or how the teacher teaches, I'd probably be up a creek and in a much worse situation. I guess boredom is the trade I made for getting through the class in one piece. Still, a few more real experiments wouldn't hurt.

Which, speaking of, I hadn't read over the lab the previous night due to having to finish the pea lab as well as some of the lab from the week before. When I came into class, I saw a bunch of jars sitting out with various fetuses in them. Yeah, fetuses. The most prominent was a pig fetus which looked very well formed. It must've been taken late into the pregnancy. There was also a rat or mouse of some sort, and what looked to be a manta ray, though I doubt it was. I had initially assumed that was what we were going to work with, but of course it wasn't. The girls gave me disappointing reactions, though Cherry gave me the grossed out reaction I was hoping for and began questioning the teacher whether or not the fetuses were really dead. She also didn't actually know what the word "fetus" meant.

Then there was all the Zip stuff when I got home...

Sis had an award banquet at her school she wanted to go to and she had her friend over for a while before they left. Sis is getting honors cords, which is something I didn't get back in high school, though that's more a choice I made than anything else. I did get an award from Commercial Art, so it's not like I was a completely worthless student my Senior year. That said, I didn't attend my award banquet because my advisory teacher wanted me in a suit and it was really hot that day. Plus, I had assumed she was the one giving me an award, not my Commercial Art teacher. Had I known it was from the Commercial Art teacher, I probably would've gone. I digress, my sister said the banquet was boring, just as I though it would be all those years ago. Mom was a little out of it that night due to losing Zip and Sis being rude to her earlier, so that left me to pick Sis up and take her friend home. I was having some wanderlust and thought the prospect of a drive in the early evening was nice so I didn't need much convincing. Her friend didn't live all that far either and Sis was giving me direction as we went. No getting lost for once!

That just leaves today, Thursday, the last day of May.

It actually wasn't very exciting of a day. It started raining last night and it continued for most of the day, though it was mildly humid. I got away with wearing my Northface in the morning, but the closer it got to noon the more unbearable it was to keep it on.

Logic was rather dead. Awkwardly quiet too. Some summer catalogs were sitting out and I asked the teacher if he was teaching any summer classes. He gave me an "Are you kidding?" look and I said it was a good thing he wasn't because then he'd have to compete with the likes of fly fishing, forklift operation, and belly dancing classes. That really cracked him up. We continued predicate in Logic, starting the four new strategies. I forget their names. The teacher did keep his promise though and they're pretty easy to memorize, and even a little fun to put into action. I started getting ahead of the teacher as he was explaining the methods to solve these new proofs, preferring to put them into action myself to see how they work. During breaks between examples, I looked around the class and saw that Johanna wasn't around. I started tossing around the idea of skipping Biology then. Class ended soon after and I saw that Johanna and her friend had simply moved next to a guy towards the back. I asked the guy sitting next to me if he had any coins on him so I could flip to decide whether to skip or not. He didn't, so off I went to Biology. I had more and more doubts the closer I got, and when I was in the hall right outside the class, I turned around and decided I didn't have it in me to stick around for two hours. Not today. I wanted to finish the month with a movie and still have time to study.

On the shuttle, I got a text from my sister asking for either my mom or I to help her. She had a big project in one of her classes today and had forgotten her flash drive at home. Thinking, "It must be destiny," I told her I'd get it to her since I was already skipping anyways. Incredible coincidence. I rushed home and found the flash drive still in her computer then went over to the high school and delivered it to the office. I had to fight a bit of a crowd as I arrived during one of the lunch hours. I looked around at all the students as I walked along, feeling like I still looked young enough to walk among them but feeling alien because I'm still much older than most of them and to have a look to my face that shows it. In any case, I got to the academy office in one piece and made sure to tell the receptionist (who I was an assistant for and who mailed my transcripts to UW) that I got accepted to UW and she got all excited and started congratulating me. I didn't stay long as all the students walking around left me feeling claustrophobic. Sis was thankful I went out of my way for her yet again.

My reward was coming home and popping in Die Another Day. I had wanted to do it yesterday but had too many disruptions, and since I was out of school early today I had no excuse not to watch it now. Plus, I've been itching to watch an old Bond movie for a while now and Die Another Day is the only Bond movie from my childhood that I watched all the way through. I hardly remembered it though, aside from the whole chase sequence in the beginning of the movie and Bond's torture. It was a fun movie to watch, and I kinda miss having Pierce Brosnan as Bond. He was a perfect example of what Bond should be: dark-haired, handsome, British, and fashionable. The movie as a whole felt so much more stylish than the Mission: Impossible series too, with those movies having more stunts and feeling more gritty.

And so May comes to a close. It's been a bit of an odd month. It started out rather well, but had some pretty steep downs as it went on. I never really had any moments where I felt like May was taking forever to end or that it was over so quickly. May just kinda happened.

Die Another Day - Madonna

Zip

Well, it happened. We found Zip, but I wish we hadn't.

Dad made a brief visit to the house and Mom and him went into the garage for something and discovered Zip lying near a ladder, blood pooling from its mouth. My mom had touched it and it didn't feel like it had been dead long and the blood seemed fresh. I didn't see any of this as I'd rather remain ignorant. I don't need to see another one of my pets dead. Ignorance is bliss.

What was most mysterious was that Zip was found in an area of the garage that my mom and I had definitely looked around when searching for it. After Dad left, Sis brought up the possibility that he had something to do with Zip's death as he was the one who made the coincidental discovery and then left shortly after. Since he's moved out of the house, we've had a few problems with Zip and he's told Mom to just put Zip down already. He actually said that. My mom accused him over the phone and his first reaction was to accuse all of us, something many guilty people do to their accusers to try to get blame off of themselves. There are still some very big holes in the theory, and I don't really think he killed Zip, but at the same time there are still some things that can't be explained. If it was in the garage all along, why did it never meow or call out to us? Was it even in the garage in the first place? Mom now thinks that Zip dragged itself back into the garage this morning while she was stuck in traffic taking Sis to school. Zip also had no noticeable wounds on its body, yet blood was coming from its mouth. Poison? Internal injuries? I don't know.

Enough about that though. Zip is gone now. If it seems like I'm being cold and calculating about all of this, it's because I'm trying not to dwell on it. Plus, Zip was more of my mom's pet than mine, though that's no excuse.

Our family first got Zip in either 2000 or 2001, back when we were still living in our old house. It was a birthday present for my sister and was our first "real" pet since Smokey. It was named after a Beanie Baby, a black cat also named Zip. The only difference was the plush had white paws while Zip was completely black. We really spoiled Zip for a while too, getting it a cat collar, lots of toys, and plenty of food to see what all it would like. Someone was constantly playing with it.

Zip was always a shy cat, but around the time we moved things got a little worse for it. My sister and I started playing really roughly with it, and it's something I'll always feel guilty about. Because of us, Zip came to be really cautious around people, maybe even hate them. Whenever someone not from our family came over, it would immediately jump under Mom's bed and hide in a crevice between the bed and the wall. We called this hiding spot "the crevice". Someone would ask where our cat was and all we'd say is, "The crevice." A sad, dark little hole hidden away from everyone where no one could reach it. It's sad to think about now. Because of how my sister and I treated Zip, it only really liked Mom and Dad and for as long as I can remember it's been staying in their room. It rarely ever left that room unless it was hungry, needed to use the bathroom, or wanted to go outside. Our other cats were constantly wandering about.

Speaking of them, Zip never liked Kiki or Meeka either. Kiki tried to be its friend at first, but Zip would just growl and hiss at it whenever it came near it. Even with other cats Zip was unfriendly. For a while after we got Kiki, we were worried Zip would run away, feeling like it had been replaced or something. Obviously, that didn't happen and Zip stuck around.

That's a pretty good way of describing Zip though. "It suck around." As Sis and I got older and had less time to play with any of the cats, they were left to their own devices. The other cats started avoiding Mom and Dad's room as that was Zip's "territory". Because of this, Zip finally started becoming comfortable with all of us and openly slept on the bed. It only ever went down into the crevice when strangers were over now. Yes, one thing that's become a constant over the years is Zip sleeping on Mom and Dad's bed, and almost always in the same spots. It was like a living pillow. Zip was always at its happiest sleeping the day away. In that regard, I guess you could say it lived out its final days doing what it loved to do. Zip was the definition of a lazy cat after all.

Zip was also very chatty, something we discovered most bombays are known for. It would meow just when people came into the room, like it was saying hello. It would really meow when it wanted something, be it affection, food, or to be let out. You could hear its whining rooms away. And even in its old age, it still had moments of energy. There were a few times where I guess Zip was lonely, and it would try to lead me back to either the den (it had moved to the couch in there during my middle school years) or to Mom and Dad's room so I could pet it. Then it'd climb onto my lap and it seemed so happy to be getting attention. It always broke my heart a little whenever I had to get up and leave. It would even play on odd occasions. I remember a recent summer where I brought a string to it and it actually chased after it and bit it. It was a pretty funny sight, especially considering Zip wasn't really known for playing anymore.

I won't lie, none of us were expecting Zip to really last much longer. Over the last year, it's really had some bad bowel problems and it seemed like it was either forgetting to use the litterbox or it couldn't make it to it on time. It caused us quite a few problems, and we had to start putting these pads in known spots where it would pee. I've had to start closing the door to the bonus room as I came into it one day and discovered pee all over the side of my chair. The truth is, Zip was really getting on in years, and like I mentioned before, it was basically a pillow now. My mom still valued Zip's company, and Kiki's death really made me aware of its presence again.

It really sucks to lose one of our other cats one year after Kiki, but ultimately it's not up to us to decide. It was probably just Zip's time, and despite the mystery surrounding its death, I really do hope it went out peacefully. Zip has had a hard life thanks to us kids, but I don't think I'll ever forget all those days I'd come home from middle school to an empty house and find Zip waiting for me on the couch. Zip may have been a chicken, but it was our chicken and it loved us despite our flaws. I hope Zip felt, in the end, that we returned its feelings and that it will be sorely missed.

Goodbye Zip. You can finally rest now.

Rest in Peace.

Zip
July 2000/2001 - May 30th, 2012

5/29/12: Keep on Keeping on

I was looking through the two previous May sections of this blog and noticed that, compared to last year, entries have definitely been getting longer. There are less for this month, but just scrolling down this page should give you a pretty good indication that I may be getting a tad wordy. Admittedly, I have fallen into a belief that longer is better, but I'm starting to think that maybe some of these entries are just too long. I guess I'll try to keep things a bitter shorter and maintain a more consistent posting frequency.

One thing I didn't talk about in the last entry was how our oldest cat, Zip, disappeared this last weekend. Before I get to that, let me tell a small story.

When I was a little boy and still an only child, we had a cat named Smokey. Smokey was, as the name implies, gray. He was a tough cat too, and my dad loved to tell stories of all the adventures it went on around the neighborhood. One of the more painful stories is how Smokey got caught in the fence surrounding our backyard and had to have its tail cut off. From what I remember, it hardly was phased by the loss of its tail. Funny story, Smokey is also the culprit behind the scar under my eye, though I'll never admit to it out loud. I was playing with it one day and it scratched me pretty good! My parents still remember that day well and tell me that I didn't cry from the scratch either; I was just surprised. I was pretty much a baby then making this even more odd. I've kept that scar my entire life, and I'm of the opinion that it looks pretty cool. Then again, it's only really noticeable in certain light, so it's not like my face is disfigured by it or anything. Anyways, one day Smokey was just gone. We used to live in a foresty area with an irrigation pond and something of a small swamp a neighborhood below us, so it wouldn't be all that surprising that whatever lived there attacked Smokey one day. That's the family's opinion on what happened. We never did find out what happened to Smokey.

The same thing is happening now. Zip is an older cat and mainly just sleeps, though it does go out once in a while. The night it disappeared was altogether forgettable, mainly due to us simply following the usual nightly rhythm. Meeka was let out earlier that night as it was wild, and Zip might've been let out that night as well though that might've been the night before. Either that or it was in the garage sleeping in its little spot under the stairs. My sister came home late that night and came in through the garage meaning Zip could've run out then, but this would be odd as it has never done that in the past. Over the course of the weekend, when we started to worry about where Zip could be, we looked all over in and around the outside of the house. Nothing, and no signs of it having been anywhere recently. We called out to it, but no luck there either. It had vanished. That's all there was to it. Like our old house, we also live in a bit of a foresty place now too, and as was the case with Kiki, it's obviously not as safe as it should be for animals outside. I don't know, it just doesn't look good. I've thought about going door to door and asking neighbors if they've heard anything, though I doubt any would admit to running over someone's cat. In a way, not knowing what ultimately happened to Zip is a little comforting as I don't think I could stomach seeing another one my pets dead before my eyes again. It's too soon after Kiki's death to have to go through that again. I know it's selfish on my part, and maybe I'll whip up a full entry on Zip so I can have a whole entry to talk about her. Yeah, I think I owe Zip that much.

Grim mood, huh? Well, today would follow a similar path as well.

The day started off kinda crummy. I woke up late with a very small bar of soap to use in the shower. The rest of the morning seemed just as clumsy, though I was at least comforted by how nice of a morning it was.

In Logic, we started predicate, which is a little strange. A bit easy, but strange. Basically, if I were to say, "Spock is tall," then the statement would be written as Ts. A universal statement like, "All humans are animals," would be written as (x)(Hx > Ax). For now we're just translating, and eventually we'll be working these into equations and solving them from there. The equations look pretty ugly from what I saw, though the teacher promised us the new strategies we'd be learning to solve them would be easy to figure out. I hope so. Sadly, yet another quiz is scheduled for this week on Friday and it'll be on stuff from last week. That's assumptions and indirect proof. It'll be hard to have to learn new material by day and go over the older stuff by night in preparation for the quiz. The stuff isn't bad per se, just a little time consuming to figure out what moves to make. Again, like chess.

As class was ending, I was talking with the guy sitting next to me and he said he had watched Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol over the weekend. Said he liked it and we started talking about the other movies and how they really felt like the era they came out in. We got to talking about what we'd classify our era as, and I brought up the sleeved blanket one which I have quoted on my Xbox profile. He got a kick out of it. On my way out the door, I saw that Johanna looked like she had been crying and was dressed rather gloomily. The rotten part of me perked up thinking that she had broken up with her boyfriend. Gave me something to think about on the walk to Biology.

Krista wasn't in a very good mood either. I walked in and told her, "Good morning," and then she told me about how an online quiz in her psychology class that had previously been extended suddenly wasn't anymore and her jerk of a teacher refused to open it back up for her on Wednesday. This was bad for her as today would then be the last day she could take it and she had to work longer hours and couldn't get to it without taking some time off. On top of that, all her schoolwork and regular work has just been crushing her so she's been under a lot of stress. Johanna came in soon after and I asked her what happened to make her cry and she simply told me she had a bad weekend. My comment after that was to try to cheer her up by saying, "Well, worst that could happen is you could've died." Wrong move. She said someone had died that weekend, but didn't go further. I bit my finger at this and just said, "Oh crap." I apologized, of course, and she told me it was okay, but I still felt like a jerk. That marks either the second or third time this has happened when I've said something similar. Think it's time to phase that out.

We actually did something in class for once! We didn't get very far in the Mendelian genetics lab on Wednesday of last week so the teacher promised that we'd go through some of it as a class together. We mainly focused on phenotypes and genotypes and mapping out family pedigrees. There was a kinda fun portion of the lab where we were given a family tree and then told to find out what alleles everyone had. The only information we had to go off of were gender, marriage, and whether or not someone was affected by some sort of disorder. It was a bit like solving a math problem. Sadly, once that was done, we'd have to write a big paragraph explaining our reasoning for the choices we made, and with three family trees that got progressively complicated, that wasn't very fun.

In any case, class seemed to really breeze by. It was nice, and what I wish the class was like all the time. I can stand one hour of lecture for classes I'm not all that interested, but two hours is hard. It was over soon enough, and despite feeling like I should've said something to both Johanna and Krista, I didn't know what to say. Cherry was waiting for us outside the class, saying she couldn't attend due to a job interview. She was certainly dressed nicely, that's for sure, so I believed her. Johanna and I caught her up and I admitted today was kind of a sucky day to miss. We walked across the bridge to the tech center where Johanna left, and I got a table with Cherry and let her take some pictures of the information I have for the pea lab, then lent her the Mendelian genetics lab for her to copy over. She was really thankful and gave me a box of cookies so I wouldn't starve on the way home. How nice.

Speaking of the pea lab, I really only had to make the graphs for the information I had before calling it a night. There was a bit of an essay scare the previous night when Krista and I got to the last page of the packet and saw that there were instructions to write a paper. I emailed the teacher about it as it also said it was mainly for section B of the lab which our class didn't do. Thankfully, the teacher confirmed that we didn't have to write a paper so all was good. My graphs came out very nicely, used from the same elementary school-esque website I usually use for graphs, and with that I could finish the last few questions and call it a night. It's nice knowing I don't really have anything major to worry about right now and can take the next couple of days a little easier.

Not counting the labs, I only have three more days of Biology left. Thursday, Tuesday, and Thursday again. Still a full week of Logic though. Almost done!

Investigation - Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth

5/28/12: Demon Hunter

Guess "Demonic June" is gonna start a little bit early!

Well, I haven't blogged in five days. Main reason for that being that, with this being a four day weekend, I've mainly just been hanging out and playing games. Nothing too exciting.

I was tempted to skip Thursday, but can't due to me having maxed absences in Logic. I don't want my grade to start falling after all. I made plans to skip half of Biology which I definitely could do thanks to me not having missed any class yet. So, that's what I did. I could've skipped Biology entirely, though I had wanted to check with the rest of the group about where we were on the pea lab. It's due Wednesday so we need to get everything together. We kinda did, but Krista decided to skip so there were some gaps. Johanna made me realize I could've just given my table to her and she would've filled in the gaps for me, thus meaning I had showed up for nothing. Class itself was boring and hard to follow, and as usual on one was there. I was getting a headache by the midpoint and once the teacher decided to show a "funny" children's music video about cells I was out of there. I did stop by the roof before I left and made some plant measurements. Just needed to know how tall both plants were, how many leaves they had, etc. Didn't take that long.

I started Metal Gear Solid 2 up again that night, but I'll talk about that further down. At one point I stopped and randomly looked out the window. The moon was shining very brightly and clearly, a golden crescent in the heavens. It was beautiful, and unfortunately I couldn't capture it in any sort of picture form. Really, I'm only mentioning it here for myself so I don't forget about it. That lonely, golden moon...

On Friday I had to take my sister and her friend to Green River for that We the Kings concert I mentioned before. It was the first time in quite a while I've driven in traffic, which was a little nerve wracking. The weather was great though and we had the windows down and good music so it wasn't all bad. I couldn't crank it like normal though which ironically led to me getting distracted without having the music blaring. There was already a small line when we got there, not that it really concerned me. I had to go back over to the science building as I had forgotten to make a few other measurements the day before. A few people ran into me along the way and asked where the concert was, which made me think that there were a lot of strangers hanging around. Non-students. Little odd to think about. In any case, I made my measurements then left the greenhouse to look over the school for a while. The sun was setting and an early night breeze was kicking in. I love that time of the day. I left shortly after, heading through the dead science building and walking back through the empty campus. I always thought the school would at least be a little active into the evening, but I guess that's not the case. On my way to the car I walked by one of the roadies for the band and then a girl whose family was arriving for her birthday. She still looked like she was in early high school. Drove home contemplating the side of the school I had never seen.

And that was pretty much all the excitement this weekend! Well, as far as non-gaming related things go.

On that same Friday, I was browsing through CAG to see if there were any interesting deals for the weekend or coming week. I stumbled upon Best Buy's deal of the day topic and saw that Friday's deal was Battlefield: Bad Company 2 for five bucks. I played the first one back in 2008 when it first came out and it was one of my final game rentals. I had a blast playing it which is odd as I don't even really like modern shooters. It was pretty different though, from what I remember. The levels are gigantic and one of the selling points is the ability to destroy pretty much anything. It just was a lot of fun and I've almost picked it up just to own a few times since then. My friends all loved the sequel and some still play it once in a while so getting a copy of my own for only five dollars sounded like a steal. Unfortunately, because I had seen the topic so late, I think people already made a jump on it as the Best Buy here was completely sold out of the 360 version. Tacoma was the nearest place to have them and I didn't really feel like going all the way up there. My mom had the idea to just print a copy of the ad then go over to Walmart and do a price check there. Genius. Walmart is pretty much a stone's throw away from my house and I called ahead of time to make sure they had copies. I brought the game to the register and showed the old man working there the ad and he took a long time looking it over. He got suspicious then asked another one of the people working in electronics if I could use the ad and they said I couldn't use ads from the internet. Er. They pointed me to customer service after that and I tried there. The guy working seemed to be in a good mood and made everything go through just fine. Walked out with yet another new game for my pile.

On Saturday Mom decided to upgrade her and my sister's phones together as sort of a graduation present. My mom promised she'd get me Diablo since I've been really helpful with my sister's college stuff and as a bit of a graduation present too. We all went over to Best Buy together, though my sister was in a bad mood and was being pretty uncooperative. I couldn't find Diablo anywhere and asked an employee where they were and he said they sold out recently but might have a new stock in at the front. Which they did. It amazed me that Diablo actually sold out, though I think it was also the fastest selling PC game ever. Go figure, right? I finally had my copy now though, my first Blizzard game since World of Warcraft and first PC game since Team Fortress 2. Been a long time coming. Amusingly, despite the real reason for us all getting out, my mom ended up not being eligible to upgrade her phone and my sister was being wishy-washy and grumpy so she didn't get hers either.

On the topic of Diablo, I had to start the game on its lowest settings pretty much. My computer just doesn't have a good graphics card I guess and the game really slows down when I up the settings. Sigh. It's still a pretty fun game though! Basically, it's a dungeon crawler with randomized dungeons and loot. There are five classes: Barbarian, Demon Hunter, Monk, Witch Doctor, and Wizard. Contrary to the title, I rolled a Wizard. He has tons of AoE abilities that I'm loving, and the basic gist of the class is when it comes time to fight tough enemies or bosses you gotta kite. Lead enemies around and use spells on them when you get the chance. It can be a little slow, but if you're in a fight like the one I was just in where you have a boss with a lot of HP who summons tons of minions, having AoE skills and the ability to kite is a godsend and pretty awesome to watch on the screen. The game, on a whole, isn't much different from, say, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, so it was easy enough to get into. Still getting used to holding the mouse button to move, but I'm sure I'll get a rhythm down eventually. The game is really addicting though and I'm sure I'll be playing it for some time to come. Tag time.

I mentioned it before, but I tried to start up Metal Gear Solid 2 again. Keyword "tried". I watched all the cutscenes from the beginning of the Plant chapter, which took a while, and then I finally got to jump into the game and get to it. I actually was starting to enjoy myself just a little as there weren't many guards around and most of my game time was just spent watching cutscenes. Then I got to the bomb disposal part. Guards are springing up all over the place now, and because I have to log into security nodes ("nerds", according to Raiden) at every building I'm basically blind as the map can't be accessed. I can't see how and where the guards move thanks to the camera, and because firing a gun seems to alert everyone in the area, I can't even get by a guard without setting off some sort of alarm. I got to a bridge where I was contacted by "Mr. X" and told there were mines everywhere and I'd need a minesweeper to get by. I don't have that and don't know where I can get one, and when I tried to just climb by a floating robot shot me down. Great. This game just isn't clicking with me, and even though I hear the other two games in the package are better, I just don't even want to play anything similar anymore. MGS has pretty much turned me off of console gaming for this month in case it wasn't obvious, and it's getting to a point where I feel like I'm wasting money for not beating any of them. Games are piling up behind the set now, and I'm really tempted to just trade it in for some money to go towards either Pikmin or Pokemon Conquest, games I know I'll enjoy playing.

Lastly, Devil Survivor 2. I actually got stuck on it finally, after having barely scraped by on Monday's boss. That was an odd fight. Basically, the boss is positioned on one end of the field and spawns enemies down the sides. If he detects any of your characters in the middle, he'll fire a laser all the way to the end of the middle field, so sticking to the sides is required. As if that wasn't bad enough, if any of the enemies the boss spawns reach the other side, it's a game over. Other demons also interfere. It's just a mess of a fight, and because you're only allowed to bring four people into a battle your forces are spread pretty thin. I had my main character and Keita, the physical attacker, go ahead of Joe and Io, the other two, and focus primarily on the boss. Io and Joe ran interference, mainly blocking and/or attacking the units spawned my the boss. It was a tough fight and only the main character and a dying Io were left. The first story battle of Tuesday I just was not ready for, so I grinded a little, cracking new skills for the characters I had and getting some new demons. Waira ended up being the new demon to carry me through fights thanks to his natural strength, his ability to use Force Dance, and the addition of gaining Devil Speed to move more spaces. I have one for everyone except Joe now and am really tearing through missions again. I don't want to jinx it, but this game isn't as hard as the first one, and as a result doesn't seem as long. The first game had some fights feel like battles of attrition, and I was barely winning after a certain point. The first Bel boss is rather infamous in that it takes place fairly early in the game and requires you to use your main character to beat him to death with a cellphone strap. There's been nothing like that in Devil Survivor 2 so far (thankfully) and I feel like I can enjoy the game a little bit more knowing I won't constantly have my back to the wall.

And that's my weekend. Essentially four days of nothing, but I think I earned it. Back to normal tomorrow, sadly. Only for two more weeks though. I can do it!

Battlefield 1 - Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2

5/23/12: Quantum Entanglement

Hump day. Week eight is already almost over. Thank goodness.

Tuesday was an incredibly dull day, but I almost made an entry here just because I have a lot of other things I've been meaning to talk about. Mainly games and movies. It wasn't like Tuesday was a bad day or anything, just nothing of note really happened. We're continuing to work on assumption proofs and have started indirect proofs in Logic, which are a little awkward to work out. I kinda had fun with yesterday's homework, though one problem in particular was a bit hard to figure out. And I think I got it wrong in the end, sadly. Biology was just lame, and from the get-go I had my Logic homework whipped out. First time this quarter I've actually had the idea of doing homework in another class. I know, I can be a bit dense sometimes, but I like to pay attention most of the time so I have at least some semblance of what's going on. Not on Tuesday. Interestingly, Johanna immediately sat next to me. Cherry didn't show up that day anyways, so it was a little weird that Johanna just took her seat next to me as soon as class began. Can't think that way anymore.

Today was more of the same, just replace Biology with lab time.

I had read over the lab experiment the previous night and had noticed it's the longest yet, but mainly because all of it is assignment based. The topic is Mendelian genetics, which is pretty interest in and of itself, just a little hard to follow at times. I had a similar lab in high school involving some of the same questions and research, so there wasn't a whole lot that was unfamiliar to me. Basically, there was a lecture first and then, as a class, we would work through the assignments together. Much easier when everyone is doing the same thing at the same time. The first few questions were basic, dealing with people who can roll their tongues. The girls asked if I could and I said I could only do it to the side. I did it and I must've made a funny face or something because they all really cracked up. Next up was earlobes and whether or not ours are connected to our jaws. I think mostly everyone had free ones, though Cherry didn't. It's kind of odd to start thinking about parts of our body or abilities we take for granted that might actually be rather unique.

The topic of eye color got brought up after that, and the teacher used an example of brown and blue eyes, something I'm fairly familiar with as both my sister and I are living exceptions to the rule. Just like in the example the teacher used, my dad has brown eyes, and my mom has blue eyes. Somehow, my sister and I were born with blue eyes. It's also worth mentioning that my dad has black hair and my mom blond, and clearly I got my mom's hair, while my sister has brown hair. We have colorful genes I guess. Traits passed down through the family were also brought up and I got to thinking of the similarities I share with both sides of my family. One thing is pretty certain at least: I don't follow the same thinking patterns or ideas as anyone really, but I do share some qualities possessed by both of my grandfathers. My dad's dad was a quiet, intelligent, and modest man, while my mom's dad was humorous, a family man, and tried his best to be strong for the sake of the people around him. Both were good men who I aspire to be more like. It's really interesting to follow family genetics.

Anyways, after that we tried a new little experiment. PTC strips were distributed to everyone, and we all had to take a lick of them. People will either taste something pretty horrible and bitter or nothing at all. I steeled myself and took a lick and then... nothing. Nearly everyone in the class immediately started gagging at the taste and went out to go get a drink of water or soda. Johanna and I were both left behind and a little worried. We were the strange ones. I came home and looked it up and, sure enough, a majority of people who lick a PTC strip will get a bitter taste. Pretty weird how I ended up being one of the few who didn't. To me, it was just like I had licked a regular piece of paper. No effect. And yet the strong reactions to the strip throughout the class made it seem like it was the worst thing ever.

We did some more questions regarding PTC strips and who all would taste something before calling it a day. I had kinda wanted to leave with Johanna but she was lagging behind and I wasn't even sure of what I'd say to her so I popped my headphones in and walked ahead. I had to stop by the student center and buy some tickets to a concert at the school on Friday for my sister, something she's been wanting to go to with her friend. Yeah, apparently We the Kings will be playing at the school this Friday, so that's pretty cool. I'm not into them or concerts though.

After that, it was a walk through the rain to the shuttle. Today just happened to be cold enough to warrant wearing the blue Northface with hood, which came in handy.

The week isn't as interesting as I had hoped, and I'm really getting tired of all these lab write-ups. Originally, I was going to skip Biology tomorrow but now it's looking like I should go just so I can compare notes withe everyone regarding our pea lab. Oy. I think I'll at least stay for the first hour then make up some excuse and leave before noon.

And that's school. I haven't talked about gaming lately so I think I'll start there.

After finishing Radiant Historia on the 12th, I had the urge to pick up Super Mario 3D Land again and finish my Luigi file. In order to get all five stars, you need to go through all the regular and special levels again, just with Luigi. And since I already had gold flags and every coin collected, I could afford to breeze through the levels. Boy, did I! Without worrying about any of the collectibles, levels went by very quickly and efficiently without much side exploration. I could just jump through all the hoops and obstacles and bam, level over. Luigi's naturally jumping ability made it so the Tanooki Suit wasn't as much of a necessity as it was when I was Mario and focused on getting coins and gold flags. No, I could go through whole worlds without needing a flutter jump and the game felt a little more rewarding as result. That said, my eyes were opened to the fact that the game really isn't all that long or even that difficult. If I had been looking forward to this game as much as others I'd have been a little disappointed. In any case, Mario 3D land is 100% finished with now, which is really something I should've done months ago.

I was back to Mario Kart 7 right after 3D Land as it had finally received the long awaited patch. It's finally safe to go online and race without worrying about people constantly picking one of the Wuhu levels and cheating. I admit, my views of Mario Kart 7 were tainted a little after I first got it and played through it. The AI was (and is) really cheap, the blue shell ruins races, and people pick the same levels over and over online just to cheat. It could've been better. Now that the patch is out, I went back online and was free to enjoy any level I wanted without having to worry about cheaters. Everyone was on an even level again. I played for a solid week pretty much every night and sometimes during the day as everyone seemed to be out in full force and I was getting into a lot of good matches. I don't mean to brag, but it was also pretty rare for me not to end up in a top spot and there were quite a few races where I simply dominated. I remember a race where the level I chose, Neo Bowser City, was randomly picked to be raced on and I was so far ahead of everyone else it was hardly even a race. That was more of an exception though as quite often things would come down to the wire. It was great fun and now I'm sure that Mario Kart will be a game I continue coming back to. It'd be nice if more of my online friends played though.

I started Devil Survivor 2 Saturday night after getting burned out on Mario Kart despite having another couple strategy games on the horizon that'll be here soon enough. I had planned to have Radiant Historia finished much sooner and spend the majority of May on Devil Survivor, but things didn't work out that way, obviously. I've actually been looking forward to starting up Devil Survivor since picking it up, and the first game has been something I've been meaning to replay for a while now. So far, the two games feel nothing alike. The first involved the invasion of demons during a hot summer weekend, had a very desperate feel, and music that made my ears want to die after hours of hearing it over and over. The second one has a different alien invader arriving every day for seven days, summoning demons in the process. The game isn't as hopeless despite being under similar circumstances, but during either fall or winter. The characters aren't as depressing or hopeless, and in fact just got recruited by a secret police force setting out to help people around the country. Already it's much more upbeat due to that alone, and there doesn't seem to be as much widespread chaos. Also, the music is pretty catchy. So, I guess to make a comparison, Devil Survivor 1 would be Persona 3 while 2 is feeling more and more like Persona 4. They even have different color schemes like the two. The first was very red and the second is blue. That said, I kinda wish the plot felt more like the first's. I don't feel like I'm as invested with a big ol' secret organization when compared to a small group of people just trying to survive. Plus, I think actually playing Devil Survivor 1 during the sweltering summer help make an extra connection.

I've been continuing the movie marathon, finishing the Mission: Impossible series on Monday. I watched M:I3 on Friday when I got home from school, and I'm going to have to agree with my mom that it's definitely the second best after Ghost Protocol. Originally the best before it came out. The spy routine was thankfully back after the second movie forgot about it, and the Vatican infiltration was really great to watch. The villain was a big jerk too and someone I really wanted taken out. My main beef with this movie, and by extension the rest of the series, is the emphasis on Ethan's character and no one else. He has a group of partners in each movie, but only Ghost Protocol makes them feel like real people and have interactions with one another. For the most part, aside from Luther, everyone is faceless and expendable. It's all about Ethan and Tom Cruise. Until Ghost Protocol. Which I did watch on Monday despite only having just seen it this last Christmas. I like all the characters in it, and the infiltrations, spywork, and stunts are all top notch. It just is a good movie and one I'm really glad I bought as I can easily see myself watching it again and again. So, now I've seen all the Mission: Impossible movies. I wish there were more.

Yesterday I did something rather random and popped in Fullmetal Alchemist: Conqueror of Shamballa. I don't know, I just had the urge to watch it. I can't even remember the last time I watched it! I must've still been in high school at least as I caught many more historical references that I didn't remember the first time around. Honestly, knowing that the movie ultimately isn't canon lessens the impact, but it's still a great watch if you're only taking the original Fullmetal Alchemist anime into account. The plot is very interesting and does its best to follow what happened around the time World War 2 was on the horizon, and it does it from an interesting point of view. Everything takes place in Germany as Hitler begins recruiting men but before he's taken seriously by the masses. Towards the end, he's arrested after his first failed coup. The movie also touches upon many Germans' idolization of Aryan society and a wish for a country of only Germans. It's pretty interesting, and rather sad. Of course, there's all the steampunk and magic incorporated from the other world once Al and the Thule Society open the gate. I'm glad the movie ends on a good note, that adventure will continue in our world. I've always loved the Fullmetal Alchemist series, and watching the movie made me realize just how much thought and care Bones put into their production despite the manga not being finished yet. The animation is also top notch and still holds up today. Just a great and very unique series overall, and one I highly recommend even if you're not that big of an anime fan.

May is nearing its end now, as is Secret Mission May, or what I should probably just call Movie May at this point. I know it seems a little weird to theme your whole month around something, but it is something I see people do on occasion. I actually found it to be a lot of fun to dedicate a month to something. Plus, I really rediscovered movies! Maybe I'll do something like this again for June. Demonic June has a nice ring to it, and I'll still likely be playing Devil Survivor 2 at that point and maybe even Diablo if I have my way. Plus, I'm planning to start reading Inheritance once school is out since it's such a massive book, and maybe if I still feel like reading I'll start A Game of Thrones sometime that month too. Just something to consider for when I'm out of school. For now I'll continue to live through May.

Gold on the Ceiling - The Black Keys

5/21/12: Shadowcraft

I feel like I haven't seen rain in a while. Like, rain rain. Not just a random shower here and there. No, I mean dark days with gray skies and constant rain flow. As much as I hated these last fall and winter quarters, it was nice that rain seemed to be a constant. Just as last week and a bit of the week before mainly consisted of sun and warmth, this week will be rainy and a little chilly. A reminder, to me at least, of what all I've been through this year as I come upon the finish line.

That seemed like a good enough intro, eh?

More of the same this weekend. It's nice having a quiz or test on a Friday as that implies a lack of homework or any sort of studying. I did have a Biology test to think about, but those aren't worth worrying about. Not at this point. Unlike the other two quarters this year, I think I'll finish this one without any major worries. I have a project to finish and some tests, sure, but at the point I'm at right now I can't fail anything. It's nice. I can finally afford to slack off a little. That should set the tone for the weekend and probably this week in general.

Out of boredom, on either Thursday or Friday I was checking eBay for Pokemon plushes when I noticed a sudden influx in Eeveelutions. I went to a few collector blogs and couldn't find any solid evidence that Eeveelutions were being carried in Pokemon Center kiosks again (they were a few years ago, apparently, hence their scarcity) the pictures people posted spoke for themselves. Naturally, Espeon was the only one that mattered, and I decided a trip to the Tacoma Mall was in order. And that's exactly what happened on Saturday. Easily the sunniest day of the week too, so it was worth getting out. Tacoma Mall was packed when I got there, more so than usual. Not that I really go there all that often. I did have a few other errands in mind, namely finding a few more shirts in preparation for summer, and some Bond DVDs, which I've talked about briefly earlier this month. I hit up the Pokemon Center kiosk first, and my guess had been correct. Older Pokemon plushes are being brought back into rotation. This kiosk had more than usual too, with a row of new ones and a row of older ones. Unfortunately, I quickly discovered there was no Espeon to be found, only Umbreon. This would mark the second or third time in my life where Espeon had alluded me in favor of its nocturnal brother. I won't lie, the selection this time was really good, and there were quite a few I would've liked to have picked up. I wouldn't have minded Umbreon, but I also didn't really want him either. I don't remember the whole selection, but the ones I was mainly interested in were Groudon, Darkrai, and Bisharp. Groudon is one of my favorite legendaries so I bought him immediately then decided to walk around and think about whether I wanted another.

Hot Topic was up next since they tend to get in a lot of cool video game shirts that are only available for a brief period of time. My eyes were immediately drawn to a white Diablo III shirt featuring Tyrael holding a sword. It looked really nice, and even though I don't own the game (yet!) I bought that. I kept looking at it throughout the night afterwords.

I then made my way to the opposite end of the mall to Fye, a small little discover of mine I made a few trips back. They have quite a selection of older movies and cult classics and have recently started carrying some neat shirts too, though most of them are black. Anyways, I went in hoping to find Bond, and Bond I found. There weren't any new copies of Die Another Day, but I found a used copy that looked to be in pretty good condition for only four bucks, so my decision was made pretty quickly. I also found Quantum of Solace, but they were still selling it for $15 new and $10 used, and I had seen it for $5 on Walmart's site. Didn't pick it up, but now I'm beginning to regret it.

I had explored a few other places after that in search of sandals for the summer, but no luck there. It was getting well into the afternoon by now, so I figured it was time to head back. Visited the Pokemon Center kiosk one last time and settled on Darkrai, who, although he's not a favorite, I still like him enough and I probably have a million versions of him by now in-game due to how often he's given out as an event Pokemon. Plus, he was easily the biggest plush and arguably one of the coolest. My purchase went through with a little effort (needed to swipe my card a second time as I did it backwards the first) and, surprisingly, two Darkrai plushes were waiting for me. I checked the receipt and, sure enough, I was indeed only charged for one. I couldn't really do anything about getting one free, and it's not like people really monitor or keep track of all that happens at the kiosk as it's essentially a glorified vending machine, so I walked off with my twins. Mom wanted the second one.

Later, I went over to Walmart to see if I could find Quantum of Solace there. Unfortunately, I was pointed to the sale bin, which is just a giant round container filled to the brim with old DVDs. I did make an effort to dig around and found some cool things like Watchmen and Batman Begins laying around, though I ultimately didn't find Quantum of Solace. Just too much of a mess and I wasn't even sure if I'd find it in the end. Ah well, I'm sure I'll find a copy someday. I also was in the market for shirts, which I'm sure some people will scoff at. Shopping at Walmart for clothes? Really? Actually, some of my favorite shirts are from Walmart, and easily the thinnest and comfiest come from there as well. I go there a lot during the summer to pick up some cheap shirts that aren't heavy to wear around and give nice airflow. Kind of my goal then as well. A popular shirt of mine is a teal one with a "vintage" Return of the Empire design, and I was hoping to find something similar, but no luck. What I did find was a red shirt with the new Spiderman logo on it, and a blue shirt with a big tie-dye Avengers "A" on it. Both were pretty cool. Later, when I was putting them in my closet, I dug out some really old shirts I used to be fond of in high school and tried them on to see if they still fit. Surprisingly they did! So, although I walked away with three shirts that day, I rediscovered a bunch more in my closet. A success all in all.

Sunday was pretty boring and just consisted of my taking a Biology test and farting around on the internet so I'll do you a favor and skip to today.

Rain, rain, and more rain. This meant I finally got to don the black Northface again, something I was beginning to assume had been retired in favor of lighter dress. Sadly, traffic was just stupid this morning and consisted of idiots who seemed to think that going 50 in the fast lane was okay, and because all the trucks were out in full force (at least in the slow lane where they belong!) I couldn't really change around them. Then I got closer to the school and had a window of opportunity and amusingly sped by all the cars in the fast lane just by going the normal speed limit in the slow lane.

I was a little worried going into Logic today as that meant I'd be learning of how I did on the last quiz. I felt confident enough and tried my best to remember the questions and my answers, but I couldn't think of anything I had really done wrong. The teacher didn't give us our scores back as he still had some grading to do, but he said two-thirds of the class did decently to perfect while the last third really needed some help, especially taking into account what's to come. He told us this coming Friday would be made into a study session to get the last third back into shape, and that attendance wasn't mandatory for those who did well. He said to check our grades online and if our recent quiz was marked as a zero we would have to come in on Friday to make it up. I really didn't want to attend Friday if I didn't have to, and even more so when you consider than Monday is a day off for everyone. A four day weekend would be great! All that said, we began the new unit, assumptions. A quick way of solving proofs where implications are involved. I like it a lot so far, though the homework has me a little confused in some areas. The teacher really blew my mind when he created an assumption within an assumption, which we dubbed assumpception. Real tongue twister. We spend the rest of class working them, felt productive. When class ended, Johanna started hissing behind me, but I realized she was actually saying, "Yessss!" She wouldn't have to come in on Friday. I really hoped the same could be said for me.

I checked first thing when I got home. I had a score of 25/30 listed, my best test score yet. Looks like it's gonna be a four day week two weeks in a row! I'm also now considering skipping Biology on Thursday just to start the weekend off earlier. Believe it or not, I have yet to miss a day of Biology yet so I think I've earned a little absence by this point.

The remainder of my afternoon was working on my sister's schedule. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned it already, but she enrolled in Green River too and will be starting in the fall. She took her Compass test this last weekend and did about the same as I did, right down to being a few points shy of getting into English 101. She's also starting a class above me in math, which I was a little surprised by as I thought this last year of precal would've helped her along. But back to the English 101 thing, that's become very problematic as, at Green River, near a majority of classes require you to have taken English 101, and the fact she can't take it immediately is really detrimental. I didn't, but I got lucky and took the Compass again my second quarter and made the grade that time. Plus, I was only taking two classes my first quarter. She needs the full three. I helped set up her schedule yesterday, and we basically decided on Math 2 either at 9 - 9:50 or 10 - 10:50, and Photography 101 at 11 - 11:50. I also needed to get her PIN number by doing a quick online school introductory session and quiz, getting the PIN in an email a few hours later. I made some calls to enrollment services to see if I could bring her in for an appointment with an adviser, and they told me there weren't openings but I could just bring her in from four to seven and I should be able to get in without an appointment. I registered her for the two classes she had wanted in the meantime, getting her Math 2 but having to be put onto a waitlist for Photography. She's number four so hopefully she'll get in, but... I don't know, I feel like I'm more worried about her schedule than she is. This was pretty much confirmed when she came home and told me she didn't feel like leaving as she probably wouldn't get into English. She then went to sleep. Urgh. She really needs to start taking this more seriously. Finding her classes was hard enough due to how finicky she is. What'll happen if she can't get into English or Photography? I don't know, and I don't think she does either.

Bit of an interesting Monday for once. Still raining. I hope the rest of this week is also interesting so I can keep entertained.

Temptation (Part 2) - LA Noire

5/18/12: Redacted

It's only been three days since the last entry but I feel like so much has happened since then. I'm having trouble deciding where to start.

Okay, so on Tuesday I said I had a pretty good plan on how to find out if Johanna was interested or, at the very least, single. Basically, what I was planning to do was to pretend to forget whether it was her or Holly who said the scratches on my face looked cool. When she'd confirm it was her, I'd ask, "Are you taken?" and in her confusion she'd most likely tell the truth, yes or no, and then I'd look at the clock and say, "Well, what're we waiting around here for?! We need to get hitched!" All joking, of course. I like to think I'm pretty good at making sure people don't think I'm serious when the need arises, so she hopefully would just think I was joking around when, in reality, I'd be getting exactly what I wanted. That was my plan, as lame as all that sounds.

Wednesday wasn't getting off to a good start, and I was starting to reach that point in the week where I was getting tired. This either makes me act like a zombie or a little loopy, and Wednesday was loopy day.

I ran into Johanna as she was about to go up the stairs. We walked up together, her stumbling on the first step. I mentioned how she always seems to be tripping around me and she laughed. She had a flower in her hair and just looked really good. I was a little caught off guard by her. Once we got to class, I was getting my stuff together and about to turn around and talk to her when her friend walked in. They started talking and at one point the friend asked Johanna if she and her boyfriend had any plans. Well, crap. She has a boyfriend. Admittedly, I was a little shocked by all this, but I don't think I was all that surprised. Johanna is pretty, is smart, and has a great personality and sense of humor. I was only fooling myself thinking she wasn't taken. I spent most of Logic reflecting over all of this, which may have come back to bite me in the rump the more we got into the new strategies. How could I not feel a little down after that? I really liked her! Unlike previous crushes, be they this year or in the past, this was someone I really thought I had a chance with and I felt we had good chemistry. I guess I just mistook her kindness and attitude as interest when that's just how she is. Kind.

I did entertain the idea of us actually getting together. One thought that always sobered me was that I wouldn't be able to make her, or by extension anyone, happy in the long run. I still have many childish tendencies, live at home, don't have a job... I also don't really think I'm ready for a relationship, though that may just me being a sore loser after all this. Truth is, I'm only just beginning to come to terms with myself, and I feel like I need some time before I can be happy and confident enough to really start dating. I'm happy enough on my own for now, and once I got home later on Wednesday and played some games, I was reminded as to who I really am and that I'm happy just being a gamer. My life already has enough drama and chaos as it is.

It still stings a little, but I think I'll come out of this for the better.

Anyways, that wasn't all of Wednesday. Oh no. There was still a lab that day, though I wasn't sure what it all was about after reading through it the previous night. Seemed like another boring internet lab with a little microscope action thrown in for good measure. And that's pretty much what it ended up being. We started out looking through the microscopes at a fish cell and an onion cell and drawing the different types of mitosis in the cell. I was kinda confused as to what the point of it all was. After that we did some online karyotyping, analyzing different cells in people suffering from certain conditions and then finding out what those conditions were. We didn't actually finish this part meaning the rest would have to be done at home. Lame. Remember how I said I was a little loopy before? Well, throughout the lab I was being incredibly snarky and sarcastic to everyone, and my group kinda picked up on that. I felt really embarrassed once class was over and made sure not to leave with anyone. I then ran into just about everyone I hate on the way to the shuttle, including my old PE teacher. Awkward. I just wanted to get home by that point.

As mentioned, I gamed out at home and started my Logic homework late. I had severely underestimated it and was stuck beyond belief. After a half hour of staring at the paper, I went upstairs onto the computer, desperate to find something that could help. I need to back up here first and explain something before moving on. Earlier in the month I saw Crim was playing an online game called Divina. I did some research and it looked fun, and I had an itch to play something with people again. An MMO would do nicely. I asked him to see if he could keep a look out for beta keys and eventually he found me one. I had misunderstood and thought the beta was currently going on when it actually could only be played under certain circumstances. Installing it had put some annoying and unwanted programs on my computer, and after a history of computer troubles involving online games I decided maybe I wasn't ready for Divina. I uninstalled it then deleted what extra files I could, then remembered I could always reset the computer back to an earlier date, which I did. This had the unfortunate effect of bugging out my Norton Antivirus. I've been too busy to fix it, which brings us back to Wednesday. As I was searching, I went to a site that suddenly warned me I was being infected by viruses. I immediately closed the internet down and panicked. No Norton made things very bad. I remembered my mom had a new copy of Norton on disc, and since the copy on my computer was bugged and couldn't be uninstalled normally, I thought I'd try that. It started working at first, uninstalling my Norton and then installing the new one, prompting me to reset the computer. After the reset, the new Norton attempted to finish installing, and then my computer screen had a brief moment of static and everything shut down. Upon restarting, I was greeted with an error message saying the computer had black screened. It attempted to find a fix, but prompted me to reset to an earlier date. I was pretty scared at this point as I definitely didn't want to have to start over yet again. Thankfully, the computer came back online after that and I got my hard drive and backed up pretty much everything.

My first mistake was assuming that the crash was due to a virus. I tried everything again and got the same result. This time I used the new Norton's on-disc feature of scanning the whole computer when in safe mode and ran that while I sat down and did my best to finish my homework. To no avail. No viruses were being picked up, which meant I had either had a knee-jerk reaction to a fake virus message, they were erased during the reset, or they were so deeply ingrained they couldn't get picked up. The latter I'm still really worried about. In any case, it was around 10:00 now, which meant the computer had been scanning for nearly an hour. I was getting tired so I canceled the scan early then tried one more thing: using a Norton removal tool and reinstalling the version I got from Comcast. The original one, in other words. I also installed some other virus removal software and did a quick scan, once again picking up nothing. The Norton reinstallation was going fine, but then the computer black out yet again once it was just about to be installed. After that I just called it a night, but at least now I'm pretty sure the problem was on Norton's end. Most likely corrupted.

Getting to sleep was the best part of Wednesday. I was hoping Thursday would be better, but after being told that my sister was running late and I'd have to shower elsewhere, I had a feeling things might not be all that peachy.

I was wrong, actually! I had Johanna lend me her homework briefly, having told her about my computer troubles, and copied a few down. She took it back before I could get everything written down, but at least now I would have something tangible to turn in. The teacher walked in and looked around while everyone did their own thing, then asked how many of us had actually finished the homework. No hands. What I hadn't realized was that, like me, most of the class was still working on their homework, or at the very least needed some help to get it done. Lots of people whispering or copying down answers off their neighbor's paper. Even the guy sitting next to me hadn't finished. Teacher then told us to hold on to our homework and we'd review it in preparation for the quiz Friday. Already things were looking up, and I picked up a few good pointers on how to do the new strategies. That said, I was still pretty worried about the quiz and was thinking of attending a tutor session similar to last quarter's math class. Unfortunately, I forgot to check on my way out the door.

I had also been debating skipping Biology due to how worn out I was by the previous day. Nothing would be happening that day anyways and I have yet to miss a class. I still wandered over, at least thinking I'd stay for the first hour and see how things were going. Imagine my surprise when I get there and see some of my fellow students hustled around the door. A noted was posted saying class was canceled. Excellent, someone was definitely looking out for me. I talked with a girl on the way out of the building and mentioned how I had planned on skipping and she pretty much said I don't seem the type. I chuckled and remembered she's the one who has come to me for questions during a few labs. I had accidentally bumped into her chair during the previous lab and she had bumped back in retaliation. She was funny, at the very least. I told her she'd be surprised before we separated, though what she said kinda bothered me. She basically called me a nerd, right? I don't really feel like one as far as schooling goes, especially after this last year. I just have ways around the system is all.

As you can see, I had a lot to talk about and was planning on getting this entry in yesterday, but once night rolled around I decided to roll up my sleeves and spend the remainder of my time studying Logic and doing all the problems that had answers in the back of the book. Last week's section was fine and I spent most of my time on that. This week's took a little to get going and I spent less on it despite needing more. In my defense, I did solve a full written page's worth of questions and had an okay handle on how to solve proofs involving them. Oh, the five new ones are transportation, exportation, implication, tautology, and equivalence. The latter two are rare to come across, only used in certain scenarios. I really could've done better in remembering their names and how they're used.

That left today, Friday, as the big quiz day. I really needed a better score as I'm starting to worry about failing. I don't think my grades are quite that low yet, but they were a little worse than what I thought they were, a nice little reminder after the last quiz and exam. Once the quiz was plopped in front of me, I took one look at it and panicked. Then I started actually writing down the questions on a sheet of paper and I started to calm down a little. That done, I solved one, then another, and entered something of a zen state, doing my best to recall everything I had crammed the previous night. I had forgotten one strategy and what it was called, so I took things down a notch and started recanting them in my head and counting them on my hand. It was implication, I think, and the reason I was having trouble was because it was in its reverse form. Turned in my quiz after that, then wandered over to the science building to water the plants and measure them.

Today started off dark and cloudy, looking like it would rain at any moment. As I sat on the roof of the science building jotting some notes down, it felt like a fitting end to the week. It had been sunny every day, and now it was gloomy. It reminded me of fall and, oddly, I felt very comfortable.

Nocturne No.3 - Erik Satie