Monkey-Bubble

Squaresoft to Square Enix. Was it worth it?

2010-09-29T12:46:00.001-07:00

In my opinion, square just hasn't been the same since the merge with Enix Corp. I dont think that they've put out a game since the merge that equated in quality with the games that came pre-merge. I remember playing FF10 (my first final fantasy game) and saying that it was the best game i had ever played. I loved the battle system, the music, the story, all the back stories of the characters and the history of Spira. I loved everything about it! so much that i have multiple gamesaves of 60+ hours (one over 110 hours). Then the merge came and, being so new to square games, i didn't know anything about it.
I recently played FF7 also! This game has been known as the crown jewel of the final fantasy series since it came out. The PS1 games are sought after by collectors like they were gold, and i can clearly see why. No, the graphics aren't that great. Heck, they SUCK by today's sandards, but back in the days of PS1, the cut scenes were revolutionary. A clear win for squaresoft, as this was there first 3D FF game. The characters are unforgettable, the story was gripping, twists around every corner and the embodiment of all things evil: Sephiroth himself. Sephiroth was, in my opinion, the greatest villain in the history of the world. To say why would be giving away more details than i would care to. If you've played this game, you know what i'm talking about. This is one of the few games that i would ever give 10 stars out of 10. It had everything that a good FF game should.

onto post-merge stuff.

I saw FF10-2 on the shelf and when i played it for the first time, i was less than impressed. The story was shallow, battle-system completely changed (reminiscent of FF7 im thinking which isnt a bad thing, but not good when used with the next point), job system incorporated (which im not a huge fan of to begin with), and the entire game is played in missions? wtc is this? This isn't final fantasy X.

I never really forgave that game.

A few years later, i saw FF12 on the discount rack at gamestop and thought i'd try it. I popped it in, and an hour or two into the game i was getting hooked. I thought the battle and level-up system in this game were unique. You get to program your characters to do what you want in certain situations? heck yes! (well, thats what i said at first)
After a few boss fights and several level ups, i realized that the game just wasn't really worth it. I never ran from a battle, used the gambit system to the best of my abilities and i still had to level grind after every boss. I got tired of level grinding and gave up on the game.
Looking back, i dont really understand The character's reasons for journeying. It seems that Vann (the main character) is just along for the ride and everyone else has their own motives. You'll have to forgive me if there's some explanation later in the story that i haven't gotten to yet.

btw, I never played FF11. never appealed to me to pay 15 dollars a month to play a game, but apparently Square Enix aced the online gaming aspect of the series? idk.

Finally FF13. They're finally starting to get their act together again. The visuals are stunning. The battle system is inventive and fast paced. The story is interesting. The level up system actually gives jobs necessity (GASP!). I didn't really care very much about how linear the game was(although it would have been nice to have some more freedom to explore). I rarely found myself grinding for experience points, so i didn't get bored. My only complaint thus far (i havn't finished it yet) is when you get to Pulse. It's as though they drop the story and its ALL exploration, incorporated with an indirect kind of mission system. The enemies are too string for the characters at this point, so almost every battle I got into, I died. It took a decent amount of strategy to win a few battles with the lesser monsters. Now, im getting stronger and can almost beat the lesser monsters consistently.
Sorry, Square. You can't simply make everything linear in the game and give us all the exploration all at once with NO lineage. Both aspects have to present through the whole game.

I think that FF13 was the closest thing in quality to the pre-merge games. Hopefully, square will get its feet on the ground again with FF15, since 14 is going to be another online game. They seem to be getting closer and closer, but just missing one little undefined detail.

Halo Reach -- The needle rifle: then and now

2010-08-26T17:48:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post to reiterate my nerdiness 8D

So the needle rifle is being put into halo:reach as the covenant version of the BR, but did you know that bungie actually got the idea from a fan-made map back in the days of Halo 1?

Here is a picture that i took of it way back when.

Here is a picture of the rifle now:

The original rifle had two modes. The first was a burst mode that shot like the needler with the same rapid fire, homing needles we all know that explode when many impact the target. The second mode is a single shot that uses 2 or 3 needles in one concentrated super-needle. This shot, if you missed, bounced off of walls several times before dissipating, and was an instant kill if it hit the target.

The newer version of the needle rifle has only one mode which is fully automatic, although most players use it as a semi auto weapon. Its damage is almost the same as a the DMR or BR, but deals less damage than either when shot into flesh.

In addition to the needle rifle, bungie also got the idea of other things from fan-maps. one of which is the Halo 2 map "relic" which was copied from the Halo: CE fan-map "blood islands."

looking for final fantasies

2010-08-03T15:43:00.000-07:00

Yea, thats right. i'm starting to collect the entire series. well, of the main line. Thats final fantasy 1 - 13 on playstation disks right now, and not and sides like chocobo tales crystal chronicles or tactics, although i may end up going for those too eventually.

as of right now i have 8, 10, 10-2, 11, 12 and 13. So if anyone has Origins(1 & 2), chronicles(4 and chrono trigger), Anthology(5 & 6), 7, or 9 and you're willing to sell please say something and maybe we can work something out. I prefer black box editions, but greatest hits work also.

obsessive stuff

2010-07-13T10:03:00.000-07:00

----------OBSESSIONS----------
Ever since Cornerstone this year, I've been thinking about getting into unicycling. I'm not sure why it started there, but i think it would be a good new obsession to get into. Yoyos are kind of dying out a little and i need to find something to keep me occupied.

he way my obsessions work is I find an obsession to occupy my time and stick with it exclusively for a long time, usually a year or two. Then when i get bored with that one, i either find a new one or go back to an old one. Then when i come back to the obsession i got bored with later, I'm better than i ever was before and can do things i wasn't able to before.
I've seen this with both rubik's cubes and yoyo's so far. rubik's cubes are starting to make their way back, but not the whole way. It's weird because all of my obsessions before have been all about micro-motion (small movements with fingers or whatever) but this one is more about macro-motion (bigger, full-body movements). I've never had one that dealt with macro motion before so im interested to see how this will turn out.

I've asked Dave Krack (the local unicyclist) on facebook if i could borro one until i can buy my own, but who knows if he'll check his messages o not. So far he hasn't accepted my friend request, probly because wither he forgets or he doesn't know how :/

anyways, those are my thoughts lately

----------PARTAE!----------
My parents went away on monday for a few days and gave me permission to have a party. I decided to have a Halo party since we haven't had one in a while. There were two groups. It just happened that all the halo veterans were on one team and all those that never really played before were on another team. The second game we tried to even it out with 3 people on the veterans and 5 people on the n00b team. The inexperienced team still didn't have fun because they couldn't get a kill on the other team. *sigh* i wish bungie didn't take out the handicap option that they had in halo 2.
after that was a short amount of DDR which didnt really work ince the TV had a bit of lag with the PS2, and the rest was us wandering youtube.

What i learned: leave the video game parties to the pros.

I didn't really fight, but the law still won

2010-06-25T06:46:00.001-07:00

yoyo club and drive in night yesterday. Toy story 3 was AWESOME. see it. Price of persia...it was pretty good, but i dont care if i see it again. just not my kind of movie :/

Going to and from the drive in i had to drive jared's girlfriend's house to pick her up and drop her off, and she lives deep into prospect, which is in the complete opposite direction from where i live from the church by a good 15 miles, then another while on the backroads.

While driving her back, I see lights in my back mirror, and i thought it was an ambulance since it was a fairly big car, but couldn't really see very well because of their headlights, so i pulled a little onto the berm (while still driving) to let them pass. they didn't pass. I tried it a few more times and nothing. Finally, they put on their siren. Ohhh crap, the police >.>
I pulled over and stopped, turned off the car and waited. I didn't know what to expect because i'd never been pulled over before...
police: "DRIVER OF THE WHITE VEHICLE, STEP OUT OF THE CAR WITH YOUR HANDS UP!"
me: (WHAT!? what'd i do?)
I stepped out, hands in the air.
P:"NOW BACK UP SLOWLY TO US!"
when i got back far enough, the guy pushed me on the hood of their car, twisted my arm behind my back, shoved my head against the car, and pulled my belt up so high it gave me a wedgie.
He asked me a bunch of questions, once or twice using some colorful language. Then prceded to frisk me.
"Do you have and weapons on your person?"
"No," i answered in a loud, firm voice.
"Do you have and alcohol or any narcotics in the vehicle?"
"No," i answered again.
He pushed me again against the vehicle, "You better stop that attitude right now! You're already in a whole load of SH**."
I was only doing what i was taught to do in school...i didn't MEAN and attitude.
He eventually released me and took me to the front of the car and put my hands on the bar-thing while he went into his car and did something (im guessing talking on the radio?) and then he questioned Jared and Hope who were still in the back of my car.
He came to me told me i could stand up, and that our stories matched. Turns out i crossed the fog line on mount chestnut, and they started following me. Once i saw them and tried to let them pass by going over it again a few more times, they were convinced i was a DUI (i guess that makes sense...wish i would thought of that while i was driving >.>;). He let me off with a warning because he was convinced i wasn't drunk (didn't make me take a breathalyzer, though), and it was my first pull-over. he took down my info, and sent me off.

By the end (or actually from the first step out of the car) my heart was pounding out of my chest and twitching (yea, i twitch when i get really nervous. Especially in my right leg).
It wasn't until i was home and laying in bed that i realized that i probably has two guns pointed at me while i was backing up tot heir car, and i had a pocketknife in my pocket that i forgot about which would have looked bad, and i also forgot to mention the tylonol and ibuprofen that was in my glove compartment (im nto sure if those are considered narcotics, but i dont think it would have gotten me in trouble.)

all around, a good day, but a frightening night.

Just like that...

2010-06-09T08:17:00.000-07:00

So, after trying for YEARS to get a job, I finally got one at the Salvation army about a week and a half ago, but i wasn't going to start until next week. My girlfriend was also hired there a few days before i was. We figured that we shouild probly tell them that we were dating just in case there were a problem. Turns out its against Their policy to hire two of the same family, or people that are dating.
I just got a call stating that I cannot be hired for this reason, so now im back to square one, in looking for a job for another few years to no avail. Just my luck.

Compy maitenance

2010-06-01T08:51:00.000-07:00

It amazes me that there are still people out there that still dont know how to do basic computer maintenance tasks like defraging your hard drive, or clearing your cookies (why are they called cookies anyways? always makes me hungry..), or...cleaning your registry (okay, thats not exactly that basic..even im afraid to do it because of what could happen >.>).

But people go out, buy a nice computer, have it for two years, dont do anything to maintain it at all and wonder why there's lag between their keyboard and the text on the screen, or between the mouse and cursor. Nine times out of ten its because it needs to be defraged, and unfortunetly thats where companies like bestbuy get their money with geeksquad type businesses. They take their computer in, the business defrags it and charge the guy an arm and a leg for running software that was already on their computer to begin with!!

I just think its so stupid...If you get a computer, you should know how to take care of it. There should be a crash course in computer maitenance...

post-tea feelings

2010-05-15T13:09:00.000-07:00

Last week, the Graphic Design tea marked the end of my fourth semester of college. We got to show off all our work that we'd done to potential employers.
It was really discouraging to me.
I wasn't proud of a lot of my stuff and i've been questioning my decision to become a Graphic Designer. I'm not really very good at hand-done traditional work, and my digital work...is okay i guess. I could just be thinking this because I'm comparing myself to the graduating students, especially Ira and Anthony. Ira has a lot of really nice hand done work and anthony is practically a prodigy with adobe programs. Anthony's futuristic cityscape is being used as the cover to this year's facets book.
I've been thinking maybe i'd be better off switching majors to Web Design. I'm pretty good with layouts and I like working with digital art more than traditional. I'm just afraid that I'd have to start over again and many of my GD classes would be a waste. I just don't know.

ewwwww

2009-11-09T12:58:00.000-08:00

what a gloomy day. not weather-wise, but brian-wise. I've been less than motivated all day and havn't been able to do much of anything. well, okay i've done some stuff, but not what i was SUPPOSED to be doing which is homework and grants.

essays. blah.

instead i've been doing other things that i dont usually do. I mowed the leaves in the yard, did my english homework, went for a jog on the tread mill with some follow-up crunches, and researching my phone upgrade for next month.

going to class tonight. hopefully i'll be more motivated by then. :P

Top o' the Mornin' to ya~

2009-10-29T05:57:00.000-07:00

HELLO!!! And how're y'all doing this fine mornin? i hope well.

This year's you group retreat was awesome. The first night we played a game where the leaders (ME!!! W00T!) dress up and try to tag the youth...like hide and seek mixed with tag. I was Dwight from the office. Everyone was amazed at how much i looked like him and that made me proud :D

Yesterday was mine and heidi's 2 year anniversary. We coudn't do anything since she's at Malone U. in Ohio, and we probably wont be able to for the next week or so. Doesn't feel like 2 years at all! Feels more like 1. Time flies i guess.

My adobe classes are going well. Just got done with a redesign of a cd cover that i didn't think quite fit the bill. I did The Myriad's "You Can't Trust a Ladder." I actually like the original cover, but i dont really see what it has to do with the title.

Mine is a bit more dramatic, but i like it.

Our final projects in the classes are gonna tale a while. The first one is to make a full advertising package for a restaurant, coffee house or company with a partner and come the end of the project, your not supposed to b able to know who did what. The project is supposed to be seamless. This will be a bit of a challenge because I tend to be a perfectionist at this kinda stuff, and my partner tends to settle for lesser than best. Fun.

The second project is to pick a magazine article and make two interpretive illustrations to it. Doesn't sound that hard, but its gonna take more work than i care to realize. :/

I've been yoyoing a LOT lately. Wow, i know i always go on breaks before getting back into things, but that break was really short. I'm skipping a lot of tricks in the videos im learning from and going straight to the technical tricks in the master section. i'm trying to learn superman, but there is no way my current yoyo has enough spin time to make it through the trick. Thats why im looking into getting my first high-end yoyo. Most yoyos are for beginners, the one i have now (The YYJ Dark Magic) is for Intermediate to Expert users, not im looking into getting an all-metal YYF(Yoyo Factory yoyo). I am torn between getting the undersized eight8eight, the full-sized DNA or another full-sized G5.

The eight8eight is undersized which means that i will probably suck with it at first, but my skill will increase once I learn to hit the smaller yoyo on the string. It also comes with hubstacks (little nubbies on the sides which let you hold the yoyo while it spins). The DNA is essentially an eight8eight except bigger, so same spin time with a bigger yoyo and hubstacks. The G5 is meant for grinding (making the yoyo spin while touching your hand or finger) and comes with hub stacks AND z stacks. Z-stacks are like hub-stacks where you can hold the yoyo while it spins, but they're more like plates rather than nubbies. The plates make for a better chance of catching the yoyo.

I have no idea which one to get. They all have about the same price tag (which really hurts the wallet, but its okay i guess). Yes, they are very expensive for a yoyo, but this summer i've learned to not judge a price by what the product is, but by how much that you'll use and enjoy it. I yoyo all the time and need a better yoyo to be able to progress in the tricks, and i enjoy it a lot, so i believe the price is worth it for me.

Soli Deo Gloria

2009-09-08T03:51:00.001-07:00

Wow, i haven't written anything here since CStone... whelp, time to get going.

Not much has happened, really. Life moves slow when your trying to get back into routine and you seem to forget the fun that has happened.

Most of my friends (I'm mostly friends with lower classman) are going off to collage. I'm still no differ ant from them except that i go to a community collage and get to stay home.

Among those friends is Heidi. She seems to be adjusting well to Malone U. I've already been there twice (its a 2 hour trip each way which makes commuting hard). I'm trying to learn my way there for some future reference.

On Friday when Heidi showed us (her dad and i) the collage, we went to admissions and saw some people on my going there next year (its at the top of my collage-transfer list...not solely because of Heidi, though. although she plays a part). We brought her home for the Labor Day weekend but i didn't get to see her much due to homework issues on both sides, but it was nice to see her at church and to and from the collage.

When we took her back to her dorm, the trip didn't seem nearly as long as it had before. Probably because my mom and dad were tagging along. Mark (her dad) and i didn't talk almost at all on the first trip).Its always far easier to talk when there's at least a third person there for some reason. Well, I said it wasn't as painful as the first trip...i shoulda said for me. Heidi got her computer out (it has been screwing ip with numerous problems) and saw that she lost almost all of the artwork she'd been working on except for on duck. That made her so irritated at her computer that she wanted to jam a rusty fork into whoever made lenovo (my words, not hers), and also said a few things that I'd never heard her say before (nothing all THAT bad, but still).

She'd meant to give my parents the same tour that she gave me when we got done seeing her and Ashley's dorm but it just ended up being too late to do much of anything. Plus several of us had to get up early this morning, AND the computer problems were getting to her, so we let her be. We walked away from the school and i just started tearing up and I'm not completely sure why. Maybe because the girl i've known for 2 years is going to collage and im proud (like a parent?), maybe I dont want to have to wait another two weeks to see her again...probly more of the second one, but i AM proud of her. I'm proud that she chose such a good collage to shape her future in, where she can form her mind and habits for Jesus' glory.

CStone 2009

2009-07-06T11:05:00.000-07:00

My third year there (Cornerstone, that is). For those of you who have no idea, it is a Christian Music Festival in Illinois. Many of my favorite bands play there and its the funnest thing i do all year.
The thing that gets me every year is the car ride. It's really long; around 14-15 hours usually. we left about 2:00am on sunday night (well, monday morning i guess). we didn't get there until about 4:00 that afternoon. We never seem to be able to get the camping spot we want. Its a good spot between two trees, so we gets lots of shade on hot days. we settles for a spot out in the field. it wasn't bad since this year was very kind with the weather (except fot the last day. more on that later).

My sister's band "Hand Drawn Mountains" won a slot in the New Band Showcase, so they were able to go and rock the faces of people from all over the country. They played four times (i think?) over the course of the week. This picture is from they're first show at the Texas stage. They got a lot of response during this first show and they're merch sold like hotcakes. Devin C. was in chage of the merch during this show. I hope they become popular. It'd be nice to be the brother of a rockstar xDD

Over the week i took on two rubik's cube students. Eli Harvey and Matt Neyman. Matt came first and started learning. I never got to finish teaching him, but he had the determination and the mind to do it. Eli was a VERY fast learner. He was able to solve it on his own in 2 DAYS!!! t took me about a week to do that. I tried using a differant teaching method on them. Instead of teaching them the code for the algorithms like RUR'U'RU2R, i taught them the moves and how they worked to put each peice in place. It seemed to work well for them.

This year for me was all about getting more music. I found a new favorite band called SPOKEN. They are a Punk Rock/Hardcore genre and do cover songs. I heard them do "Time After Time" and "Livin' on a Prayer" at they're show. I also got Don't wake Aislin, Jonezetta, Flatfoot 56, the new Emery cd, and...the two spoken cds "Last hance to breath" and "Spoken." i alos got another Dont wake aislin cd for heidi and a little bag for her yarn if she just wants to grab a scane and go. Holly was patient and waited for the last day to buy her music for a cheap deal. as a result, she got as many cd's as i did for $20 while i spent $60. I gotta try doing that. i mean 3 dollars a cd is not bad at all.

Relient k was FINALLY at CStone!! I never saw them before because two years ago (my first year), their van caught fire and they couldn't make it. Then last year, they played Warped Tout instead of CStone. I was really happy to see them. And they played The Office theme!! I always wanted to hear that live. I took a video that is located here. They also did a rap song cover that i wasn't too fond of. I'm told that i am very picky with the music that i like. This is true.

Toward the end of the week, we needed to clean off the van of all the paint that we'd put on to decorate it. It was paint made specifically for cars. We got it off of the windows easy enough but it wasn't coming off of the paint. turns out its not intended to be used on paint, and we were in trouble. we tried a bunch of stuff to try to get it off. Hand Sanitizer, Coke, spit and water didn't work at all. We finally thought that we would try tooth paste but nobody thought it would work, but to our surprise it came right off. We cleaned the paint off the best we could with it and just gave up eventually. Jordan Harvey decided to keep going and scrub it off of the parts that we couldn't get it off of. she alone got the entire car completely clean! I was VERY impressed with her. OCD can be a blessing sometimes, eh? xD

The last day was the most miserable day ever. It rained. A lot. between that day and night we got around 5 inches of rain, i think i heard. Worse the Fox's den (my tent) was leaking on my side and eventually caved in on my side. Tyler, Jordan, Josh and I ended up sleeping in the van that night while Dustin and Jared took the tent all to themselves. Yes, there were six people in our tent for most of the week. It was cramped. Next year we'll split into 2 or 3 tents.

The morning that we were to leave and come home, we woke around 5:00am and leaned up everything that remained from the night before (we'd cleaned up everythig that we could beforehand) in about an hour. We went to leave and got stuck in the diarrhea-like mud. We tried to work ourselves out by puching, but we always got stuck again. Eventually, some kind soul came with his 4-wheele drive monster and helped us out. It was another hour after cleanup that we finally got back on the road. I didn't take any pictures of this. I really should have.

The return trips always feel so much shorter than the going to trips. I wonder why?
Now, i appreciate showers, percelain toilets and fresh water a lot more and feel so much closer to everyone. I pray they feel the same. I love my friends from the bottom of my heart and i dont know what i'd do without them. Thanks, everyone.

End

I have a mandate

2009-05-27T11:53:00.001-07:00

I guess its been a while since i wrote here. i don't honestly remember where i left off. eh..lets start back then.

So, I finished my first year of collage a few weeks ago. I feel so old now that im thinking about this. I got all A's and B's and am now taking Summer school.
I'd never taken SS before, but it's no differant from regular school except it goes a whole lot faster..The class is intro to micro-computing. Sounds inpressive, but its just learning windows and microsoft office programs. This class is a prerequisite for 2 classes that I took last semester, so i have NO idea how i got away with that. When Ms. Rose (my class counselor) saw that she just stared at the aper amazed and asked "Who schedualed you for this past semester?" and i answer "You did." That confuses her to no end, but here i am.

Heidi also graduated last Friday. Their grad ceremony is a lot more fun than butler's. Since they have such a small graduating class (15 this year?) they have room for inside jokes and such in their speeches and it makes for a short ceremony too. After, the Boyce sisters, Papa Boyce, Des and I all went to people's grad partys that werescattered all over the place in pittsburgh, evan's city (i think?), slippery rock and cranberry. We really just sat around at each of them and talked to each other. We thing that the chicken at Spenc's party made Heidi sick though. She felt horrible all sunday and got better on monday.

MY troubles started on the day that Heidi's got better. On memorial day, i was eating our annual steak and i bit it the wrong way on my bad tooth and i was in agonizing pain for the rest of the day. Why'd it have to happen on the one day that there were no dentists working. I tried several remedies for tooth aches and few of them worked for this one. The only one that semed to work was having three Hall's cough drops in your mouth at once and dont swallow. just swoosh your spit around until the pain goes away.
The next morning i was the first person in the office with an emergency appointment. Turns out i had to get a root canal done which felt really weird. Didn't hurt, just felt weird. now im fine and dandy :)

Lastly, today after S.School, I decided to sit down and start reading Captivating (Yea, i know its a book for girls about girls, but knowledge is power, right?). In the middle of my reading Josh Mauro calls me outa the blue and asks if im free for a lunch-date sometime. I dont really like going on one-on-one...anythings with anyone because it always get really awkward. I dont even really like to do it with Heidi very much unless we're both in a really chatty mood. Oh, well maybe it wont be awkward at all, God willing.

Aw well. Jeremy's picnic party thing is tonight and i get to come to my first small groups activity in a long time! im exited!

okay, love you all. bye-bye
End

yeep

2009-05-01T11:20:00.001-07:00

School's almost out. Hard to believe that I've already gone a year through collage and now its time to schedule again. I'm also going to my third prom this month on the fifteenth. POville outings are always really hard for me because of the no touching rule. yea. According to POville, hugs lead to sex. no questions asked. I understand that you have to protect the young ins and keep them pure and all, but still...

With my new found adobe powers I am now able to update my rubik's cube tutorial with pictures!! This'll hopefully make it easier for noobies to understand because i know its really had when there isn't somebody beside you walking you through each step. I was there once. I know. But honestly learning by yourself is in a way better because when you learn it, you learn it solid even if it does take longer to do. But you also can't ask questions if there's nobody there, so i dont know.
Here's a link to the tutorial. It's in PDF format. Tell me what you think about it!
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=SHYXREUW

I realized that i'd deleted my friend's email address a month or so ago. I couldn't just talk to them because she kinda lives in California ( i think? ) She went on the Japan trip with us and became a good friend while we were over there. I finally found the sketchbook that i'd written the address in while looking for stuff for the churche's rummage sale. Turns out she now has a facebook and is now my friend! YAY!

I've made a conscious decision to save up for new cubes. Especially the uber exensive v-cube set of the 5x5, 6x6, and 7x7. Those are gonna be awesome to solve and definitely give my hands a workout.In addition i also want to get my first 2x2, a new DIY 3x3 speedcube and a 4x4 speedcube PLUS my rubik's magic's sring just broke so i have to get a new one of those and i also want some extra cores for DIY cubes. I've picked up cube modding a litle bit. namely turning a rubik's cube into a DIY. no idea if this is gonna work or how well, but i wanna try it.

End

I DID IT!

2009-04-24T09:14:00.001-07:00

I FINALLY ACHIEVED MY GOAL OF THE 30 SECOND RUBIK'S CUBE SOLVE!!!
I was trying to get a good video of a 45 second solve with the new method, but instead i got this!!!! it took several takes, but in the end im really happy!

As for FM static....

2009-04-07T17:40:00.001-07:00

Immediately after my firt class today i went to FYE to get the new FM static CD "Dear Diary." After searching, i found nothing. I asked the cashier lady and she said that she just put away the only one that was shipped to the store. So its MINE! WOOOOOT!
The booklet doesn't have lyrics like most cd's do. It has diary entries to make a story. If you only listen to the music, and not read the boolet, your not gonna get the story, and vice versa. Also its best to read one entry, then listen to the song because the story alternates between them.

I dont know if anyone (mainly marcia 'cause she's about the only person that reads this...) is all peeved about spoilers, so ill white out the spoiler section. highlight it if you want to read it.

The story goes that an unsaved kid that has put up walls to keep people out of his life moves to a new school in a new town. There, he struggles to fit in with everone else and to blend in. He's trying to really discover who he is and his purpose in life as a person. One day, when he's walking out from school from a detention that he didn't deserve, he meets a happy homeless sitting on the steps of the school with a sign reading "Money, can't live wth it, cant live without it." He sits down with the guy and discusses what eachother would do with money if they had it, and the homeless guy shows him that you dont have to have money to be happy. Then, later he sees this girl who he only refers to as "ET" because he feels like she is so different (in a good way) from everyone else that she has to be from another planet. He becomes friends with ET and learns a great deal from her. He feels drawn to her and she is always there helping him out. They do many things together including going to a church meeting at her chuch. The best part of all this to him is that hey live right next to eachother.
One day, the boy is in his room and sees an ambulance across the street at ET's house. Her father had committ suicide. He felt absolutely helpless and felt like he needed to do something to comfort her, but does nothing for days. When he finally does call her up, she doesn't answer. This goes on for a few days until he goes over to her house and speaks with her mother saying that they are moving far away from there and ET went ahead with her cousin. He then feels lost and empty. Then he gets saved. He doesn't know how to speak to God yet, so he writes him a letter and sends it to a non-fixed address hoping that God would get it. He felt this amazing security and warmth when he excepted God into his heart.
He gets excepted into collage, where he is reunited with ET, and they dont skip a beat despite their not seeing eachother all summer. And they lived happily ever after (okay, i added that in...)

That's not taken directly from the booklet, but thats the jist of it.
Like the other two cd's i don't dislike any song on the entire disk. They are all very good and catchy and i cant help but sing along in the car.
Yes. i am very happy with this cd.
next up: a v-cube

end

Kitten katastrophe (haha...not funny)

2009-03-29T12:00:00.001-07:00

today is the one week anniversary of me getting mine lapop!!! (yaaaay)
its a gateway MD series with 250 GB just like i was looking for.whn we called bestbuy, they said they didn't have any in this model, but they lied!!! we went to see if any others caught my eye, and this one did...even though it the same as i was looking for...all the better!!
anyways, that outa the way, the day after i brought home the new laptop i noticed a new smell in the house. I thought it was just something the laptop was making, so i didn't think anything of it. Days went by and it steadily got worse and worse. Now we cant stand it anymore. we were hinking it was the cats spraying, but not sure. This morning, my mom saw sushi spin and leave a stink on the couch. needless to say they ARE spraying. we're looking into getting them fixed, but we have to do one at a time bec. we dont have the money to do all three right now...heck we dont relly have it for one, but it has to be done. for the moment they're confined to he basement where the smell is the worst, we washed the rug upstairs and it smells fine. Surprisingly, there is no smell in my game room, so its safe for the time being. and we think that it is onl sushi that is doing the spraying so far and he other two aren't there yet in their growth.
okay...onward
this week has been a really big week for me on homework. a 600 word essay for english, 8 sections for math, a technical illustration in ilustrator and a newsletter for indesign. i have the newsletter done, featuring a picture of my sis with her hoop-team (stolen from her flickr...shhhh, dont tell her). the essay is almost done, and my math is HALF done. i might put that off for a week since i have all ths other stuff. the technical illustration is of a camera, and it has to look exactly like the photograph. I have a long way to go before wednesday.
Now, im waiting to go to member's class at the church that has been moved up to 4:00, 2 hours a week for 1 quarter instead of 2. fun.
ah,well ill live.
End

halp?

2009-03-21T12:28:00.000-07:00

Dad, like he usually does, has found some stuff on the lappy that isn't that great. Namely...
-Many reviewers have said that the keyboard is hard to press buttons on
-some have said that the speakers suck
-almost everyone has said that the outside gets fingerprints like crazy due to being glossy
-1 or 2 people said that the touch-sensitive volume buttons were hard to use.
-i'd have to order it and probably pay shipping bec. they dont carry it anywhere in the area.

As for the fingerprints, i dont care. I'm getting it to use, not as a trophy. The keyboard might irritate me a little bit, but i think i could get used to it.
Speakers might be a problem too. I'd mostly use headphones i think, though... but maybe i wont, idk.
the volume button...idk. maybe they didn't know how to use touch buttons (what?) or maybe it is bad, idk. it shouldn't be problem, methinks.

bottom line, i really like this one but idk if it would get on my nerves or not. i'd really like to try it out before i commit, but thats not happening.
any advice?

EDIT: few hours later
turns out that they have the same laptop in bestbuy, just 500GB memory, 4GB RAM for $700.
makes me go O___o;; but i was willing to go $650 for an all around smaller one. what's 50 more for a gigantic one? is it worth it? how long to newer laptops usually last nowdays?

Lappy 486

2009-03-20T18:09:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, i was supposed to get my second-hand laptop from anthony, with a touchscreen and 150G of HDD and 2G of RAM. not bad, but not good either. Guess what? he doesn't bring it. All he brings is an excuse saying "I dont want to give it away just yet...i like XP." That got my so annoyed at him...The thing i hate in people more than anything is unreliability. That night i said screw it...ill buy a brand new one.
I've been shopping for one ever since. I've settled on a Gateway MD2601u. Since that proably doesn't mean much to most people, here's a link

250GB HDD, 3GB RAM, 15.4 inch, wide, HD screen. only thing is it runs Vista, but you cant really get outta that now days. It is 650 dollars on gateway.com, but i searched around and it $100 less at bestbuy. SCORE!
We're gonna call them, and if they have it at the store and its the same price, we're going down to cranberry to get one. I pray they we do. I'm really excited about it :D
I just have to pay my dad, like $5 a week for the rest of my life to get it. okay, maybe only a year and 3 months, but its worth it.

My head hurts.

2009-03-14T14:42:00.000-07:00

I had to miss the HDM show at the church yesterday. Instead, I went to Mars HS (I think its HS..?) and saw guys and dolls. I never saw it before, and had preconceived notions about what it would be. Turns out it was actually very cute. A big gambler makes a bet with someone that he can take a missions girl to some far away place with him for a day. There's a lot more to it, but that's the basic part of it.
Today, we went to the flea market to look for Heidi's steady ring that i got her on our anniversary. Shame she didn't even get to have it half a year...We didn't find it. Didn't really expect to either. After, I went with Heidi and Kim dress shopping for Heidi's prom dress and got to see her in it. She looked so beautiful.....i cant imagine what it'll be like on prom night when she's all, make-upped and glittery (probly).

spring break...fun...

2009-03-10T11:04:00.000-07:00

The last week of school was slow and not very good all around. It started with Heidi getting sick with the plague-flu, as Audrey called it. I wasn't able to see her all week until friday. We ate at Taco Bell for around an hour. The next day I got sick with the stomach flu. At the time we were afriad it was the flu, but now im thinking it was food poisoning from taco bell. I got the same thing at new years and had to empty out at the Harvey's party. The next day (Sunday), I woke up with a gut-wrenching (?) stomach ache and didn't go to church. It kept on going all day and finally let up in the afternoon. I was afraid it would start again, so i didn't go to youth group or class either. Plus we weren't sure if it was the flu yet. Turns out its not, thank God. I can eat normally now and all is good.

In addition to all this, on Wednesday when i was s'possed to see Anthony in class, I found out that he also got the plague-flu and I wasn't able to get my laptop that i'd been waiting for for a week.
So, I've been home all spring break so far, i'm getting a bad case of cabin fever and i still have homework that im s'possed to do for school next week. Some break this has been >.>;

Computer talk

2009-02-26T14:39:00.001-08:00

Last day of school for the week. WHOOOOOO!!!!
anyways, after i got home, I decided to try out google chrome and see why people liked it so much. I didn't see much that was better. a little bit faster, most visited sites page and you can resize text boxes.

Then Marcia told me to try out Flock. I installed it and, once i got used to it and everything set up, this is the best web browser i've ever seen. Just like firefox, except you get constant updates on social networking sites like facebook and myspace, its an email notifier, photouploader, blogger and media viewer. It's amazing. It works with greasemonkey, so that makes me love it even more and is really easy to use. It's only my first day with it, so I dont now about any bugs or anything, and i think this is just a beta to the full version. Try it. You'll like it.
Flock.com

Secondly, My parents decided to help me save for a laptop. If im lucky ill have a fully-functional laptop by saturday. We're gonna reformat the desktop computer because its so slow, you have no idea. Hopefully this will make it faster and i can not bog it down with so much crap (as if its entirely my fault...dad thinks it is >.>).

Ja!

Blogged with the Flock Browser

The problem with pizza

2009-02-24T10:24:00.000-08:00

okay, im making some digornoe (or whatever) pizza right now, and when i opened it out of the package, i find that it has tiny little cut up peperoni in the sauce in addition to the full ones on top.
Tombstone did that to me too, and i just have to ask why? pepperoni is good, but not THAT good.

Thats the problem with storebought, bake it yourself pizzas. They overdo things like that. If I want extra pepperoni on my pizza, I'll put it on. Why do they have to ruin it?

Odanjoubi desu.

2009-02-20T13:26:00.000-08:00

yay its my birthday today!
i've really just been sitting at home, playing oc. and doing homework today, though. I sat myself down and played catch-up with my math homework. Thats six sections in less than a day. Fun.
I'm trying to gather enough money up to get a new laptop off of my friend. I had no idea what this thing was worth, though.
Im pretty sure that this is it:Link
I'm s'possed to be getting this thing for cheapoe money. I wonder what the catch is? I'll have to try it out before i buy it off him. He would rather have his laptop since it has a TERRABYTE of internal memory. I'm pretty sure that could hold everything I have ever had on the compy and then some. too much for me
I'm torn between that and the Focalink ocarina. I'll probly go with the lappy because i need it more for school. This Desktop computer is dying fast. It seems to get slower every day and we need to restart it constantly to make it faster. I'm gonna have to start backing up my stuff so i dont lose it. Dad's laptop isn't much better, but, sadly, it IS better at times.
Our old van that we got in 1992(i think?) just died. the transmission blew, so my parents are goin car shopping tonight. Hopefully they'll find a good deal and have one by the end of the night (maybe ill even permenently get the white car? :D)

end

Weekend at Dusty's

2009-02-16T15:16:00.001-08:00

I've been staying with Dustin while his parents were on vacation since thursday night. I had a lot of fun! It was a great change of pace from my normal, slow-paced life. I had to drive out to kmart like a million times, so i got to know that side of town fairly well, which is good, cause we never drive that way any other time. Twas good seeing Ty and Jordie again. Not the short 15 minutes i usually see them for. We went to Villa Grande With the girls on valentine's eve for a double date, and did our own things with them on V-day. I went to heidi's house and watched A: A spontanious showing of Heidi's 3rd birthday. That was amusing. She was the most adorable little girl! now she's the most adorable....bigger girl...*shrug*, then we watched B) Porco Rosso. Its a Miyazaki Film about an airpilot that was cursed into a pig form. Its a really good movie. Really screwy and funny.

Today, after Dustin went to school, I woke up and went to take a poo and broke they're toilet!!! well, toilet SEAT, but...yea. Dustin was proud of me.

The entire time Dustin and I were playing Zelda: Ocarina of Time. While he was at school, I caught up to him and he didn't allow me to play anymore while he was there. Very good game. NOT the reason that i picked up the ocarina, but I still like it a lot.

End

Changes...

2009-02-05T06:35:00.000-08:00

Okay, just a quick note to anybody that reads this (which is probly only Marcia, but just in case...) We are getting rid of our house phone as of tomorrow, as well as cable tv.
If you do not have my cell phone number, leave a comment and ask for it and ill be sure you get it.

thoughts on adobe

2009-02-04T19:08:00.000-08:00

I'm finding from my classes that I love adobe illustrator. The adobes have so many features that i had no clue about. I just wish that the programmers could be consistent from program to program. I'm used to the photoshop gradient tool, and it took me a while of my own effort and an super-experienced guy to figure out how to do it in illustrator. Once we figured it out, it was easy as heck, but other than that, uhhhhg.
InDesign is different, its a little more boring, because you don't get to make pretty pictures, but ill deal.

short and sweet :)

What's going on...

2009-02-03T13:34:00.000-08:00

I decided to make a blogger for a couple of reasons:
1: Myspace blogs are alright, but not everyone can see it all that easy.
2: I wanted to try something new(ish)
C:To lessen the reasons to have a myspace :P
4: ...Everyone else has one xD

So what's been happening in my life?
I've actually committed myself to picking up an instrument (O0O *GASP!!!*) Never actually thought i would. The ocarina has an amazing sound, i think, and a lot of people can relate to it from Ocarina of Time.
I never really finished that game... I barely started. I got to the Deku tree (i think?) and couldn't figure out what to do, so...there ya go.
Anyways, the ocarina is my -new- obsession. So what is that now? Rubik's cubes, yoyos, card tricks and now ocarina. What can i say, im a master of many useless talents. (I hope this doesn't turn into a mini fad like the cube did...)

I've been applying for jobs at a bunch of places, none of which are hiring until at lease the end of spring, so no money for me :(

uhh...thats it for now. love you guys! =D