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T-Hybrid

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Blog Entries posted by T-Hybrid

  1. T-Hybrid

    Triple Your Fun!

    By T-Hybrid,

    All-Star Rosters annouced, Justin Morneau...Torii Hunter...Johan Santana. None of them starters, but that's still a good showing. Not to mention Pat Neshek is in the Final Vote.
     
    Justin Morneau has the honor of being the only first-baseman representing the American League. David Ortiz's 7 starts (as great he is offensively) do not qualify. Kevin Youkilis is the Red Sox 1B, and the fact they listed Ortiz instead is doing him a disservice.
     
    No Mauer, but that's alright. Joe had an injury that kept him out for a month or so, which meant he really didn't have a chance to get himself in the public eye enough. Hopefully he can stay healthy next year and give Pudge Rodriquez a chase for the starting catcher spot in '08.
     
    And not to be Mr. Conspiracy Theory, but I find it fishy that Barry B*nds manages to wiggle into the 3rd starting OF spot in the final days of voting. It'd be easy to make happen. Slip B*nds into the starting spot and make Alfonso Soriano (who wast he actual 3rd vote-getter) into the first backup spot.
     
    It's especially fishy when all you hear on the sports reports is "Boy MLB got lucky that turned out." and "Oh, I guess the fans DON'T all hate Barry."
     
    Meh. I'm rooting for the AL. Hopefully things can work out so Johan can make the start. That, or Morneau can show his stuff in the Home Run Derby.
  2. T-Hybrid

    I Grow Impatient

    By T-Hybrid,

    I see pics and read stories about how the Mahri are now available. Yet it appears the LIC at MoA has yet to get them in stock. In fact, the Bionicle section's been moved deep into the middle. The formerly Bionicle display cases are now filled with Batman, and the shelves close to the front are Exo-Force I think. But seriously, where are the Mahri? LIC was the one of the first places to get Rahkshi and Hordika, I'm sorta surprised by this recent twist.
     
    But it's probably for the best. I gotta make my first rent payment this weekend!
  3. T-Hybrid
    Day 1 of my post-college career started yesterday at 8am. And I have to say I think I now know what KIE was talking about. As I was slowly going through the different forms and notifications, I had that feeling that it was all for real now.
     
    401(k), Insurance, Vacation Time...what were all these numbers and terms being thrown at me? Apparently "becoming vested" doesn't mean you get a new overcoat. Who'd a thunk? Thankfully I've got a month to get everything set up, which gives me a chance to learn a few things from the parents.
     
    After a full day of overview training from HR yesterday, my first full day on the actual team came today. About 10 of us in a company of 6000. That's pretty cool that even when it's that big they're able to keep teams small. Will make working together a lot easier, and I think that everybody in the group except me has about a decade of work with the project...if not far more. That means I'm really green comparred to them. Extremely green. My first team meeting was today, with a three-hour block of meetings slated for tomorrow morning. Looks like I'm getting the crash course in reality pretty quick here.
     
    But I'm looking forward to it. Something I've really only said about two jobs in my life...both of which have been in the last year.
  4. T-Hybrid
    "Rock This Town" once again proved to be my downfall. But for an official event held in the Rotunda of the MoA, the GHII Tourney on Saturday sure seemed pretty unprofessional. Since my one and only performance was at 12:15, I was left with quite a bit of time to discuss the merits of the contest with those around me.
     
    For starters, the field was open to over 200 competitors...however, the limited time constraints for the tourney left them able to only take the top 10 scores. 10 out of 200. One song eliminated 190 people. Which means after all the excitement and all the build-up, most everybody who went to the MoA on Saturday ended up being done after only 4 minutes. Hardly exciting.
     
    There were other problems to. The biggest was the apparant inability of the organizers to realize the significance of HD Lag in any sort of gaming. Especially one who's major focus is on timing. Anybody who has an HD TV knows that there is a certain lag associated that doesn't exist in an old school fat TV. So failure to properly calibrate the delay left each player with a different delay, and no opportunity to adjust for it (I've played GHII on a 360, so I've come to realize that if the game isn't properly calibrated for the lag it can take anywhere from two to three songs to get used to the delay). This wasn't helped any bit by the fact that the entire tournament was played on Expert.
     
    That's really my biggest complaint. If MoA and GameStop are supposedly trying to draw a diverse fanbase and make the tourney accessible, why set it at the absolute highest difficulty? There's a big enough cut-off when people transition from Medium to Hard, as there's an extra bit of practice required to start moving your pinky to hit that fifth button. Expert Mode is just that. If you think of Easy as the Tutorial portion of the game, Medium becomes a more standard difficulty. Hard is a good enough difficulty level for an open tournament, as anybody who's good enough to win a tournament on Expert is theoretically good enough to rise to the top of the pack in the Hard setting.
     
    There were other issues. Since this was organized by GameStop, every store in the district was asked to bring their 360 Kiosk to the Rotunda. These were all wired together and hooked into some massive power supply somewhere. Whoever set it all up though didn't realize the kind of juice the whole thing would be pulling though. Throughout the opening rounds of the "tournament", one entire section of 360's would repeatedly power down. Not surprisingly, most of the people who were forced to start over (some people had to restart twice) didn't make it through. Why? Because they were slowly getting adjusted to the Lag, which was then restarted (and never recalibrated by the organizer) when the machine was powered down.
     
    All in all, the whole thing turned into a joke. There were people who I knew could do better who were coming out of it with scores between 50-60%. This is not a game where you can just get "lucky" and get a high score. If you can consistently get a certain range, that's the range you'll get anytime. You're not going to consistently hit 95% in a certain song, then suddenly fall apart and hit only 55%. And when everybody mentioned the lag as they came out of there...yeah.
     
    It's sad when an tourney at a local restuarant is more professional and entertaining than a large-scale public event. And if anybody who was running that tourney is reading this...next time make sure you make that if you're going to set up a website ahead of time, you actually go ahead and put more info on there. Because had I known it was going to be on Expert...and there was a good liklihood I'd only play one song in the whole 4 hour period, I wouldn't have bothered. I'm not good enough on Hard yet to even think about playing on Expert. The whole thing was just a waste of my time. And for shoppers who were watching, it was the same song...over and over again (the first two hours were people playing Rock This Town). Hardly entertaining for them.
     
    I hope they learn from this, and next time have qualifiers at Local Gamestops. That way by the time it gets to the MoA event, they can have a solid bracket already built...and everybody just plays on the same giant TV. That way it's the same lag, and the audience sees a variety of songs.
  5. T-Hybrid
    If any of my fellow Minnesotan BZPers have nothing to do tomorrow, I suggest you make a trip to the Mall of America, where they'll be holding a Guitar Hero tournament. I've been playing it a lot since my embarrassing second-chance at the smaller-scale tourney a few weeks ago. Five buttons isn't as hard as it once was, and my weakness now is just those faster chains (hammer-ons and pull-offs are quite tricky but nearly essential in the tougher songs).
     
    Registration starts at 10 at the Rotunda and ends at noon, with the tourney itself running till 4. I have no idea how this is going to work, but it is my duty as a gamer to go. If you go, hopefully I'll be able to come up with a way to make myself recognizable. Come cheer me on, or sign up and maybe face off against me. Whatever the case, I'm looking to have a good time tomorrow.
     
    And while I'm there, I hope to scout the Lego Imagination Center. All these rumors of Mahri sightings, I figure if they're trickling into stores I may be able to catch one or two in some kind of preview release much like the Rahkshi so many years ago. Though I'm going to have to almost as soon as my run in the tourney's out. Got family plans in the evening.
     
    This is the last weekend where I won't have to worry about getting up for work...probably for a looong time. I've gotta make the most of it right?
  6. T-Hybrid
    93+ Hours: 159 Seen, 92 Obtained. 8 Badges, 1 Championship
     
    At exactly 1 am this morning, I was victorious. After more than a month of on again, off again training and playing, I was able to finish off the Elite Four and become the Champion in Pokemon Diamond. Comparred to the previous games, I have to say this was a tougher Elite Four than the last few gens, especially the champion, who was more difficult than the last two and could probably give the original Rival a run for his money.
     
    Having seen all 150 Shinnoh Region Pokemon, the next step of the game is collecting the remaining Legendary Pokemon and attempting to complete the full dex. If you're keeping score at home, that's over 490 Pokemon. But not much over. So from the above status report, you can tell I've got a LONG way to go. For now, if I can just see most of them...I'll consider it a victory.
     
    But my best option is to start breeding back in Sapphire and LeafGreen, then transfer the freshly hatched babies to Diamond. This is opposed to just clearing out the two previous Gen games. I put a lot of hours into those two games, and have some decent Pokes that I'm going to use in Colleseum and XD on the Cube.
     
    From there, who knows. Battle Revolution is coming soon for the Wii, so I'm hoping to have a decent Battle Team together to start fighting my way through that game. And then, if I'm lucky, I'll have a team I'm confident enough in to start getting into more PvP battling. Haven't fought a human since way back in the Red/Blue/Yellow days.
     
    I'm enojying this game quite a bit. There is a lot to do. Like, an FFXII load of things to do.
  7. T-Hybrid

    My New Place

    By T-Hybrid,

    I'm working on getting pics, but right now I'm busy getting finished moving...and thusly there's not much to be seen in it. This place is a lot bigger than I remembered it being when I signed the lease. So it feels really empty. People have told me it's because I'm not used to living on my own, and odds are that's what it is.
     
    So when I start getting paid, that's when I'm going to start filling it up. But in the meantime, I've got a few shelves worth of things I've got to bring over. If only to take up some space. Once things get more moved in, I'll get some pictures and get those online.
  8. T-Hybrid
    While I was packing up my Bioncle sets to free up some furniture for moving, I got to thinking...where the heck has Takanuva been?
     
    Things weren't going so well for Bionicle during the Bohrok/Kal stuff. I don't want to speak for everybody, but it felt like fans were growing tired of the repetitvness of the Bohrok. And though they were just as repetitive, the Rahkshi pics began to get people interested again. Not to mention the news of a new Toa.
     
    Now, I'm an on and off PR fan. And one of the more interesting times of the year for both PR and it's Japanese counterpart is when news of the additional Rangers begins to spread. So it was no surprise when the mysteries of the 7th Toa began to grip everybody on BZP.
     
    And then MoL came out, and Takanuva arrived. But then just as quickly, he was gone. The next year's storyline would go back in time to cover the tales of the Turaga when they were Toa. And upon the return to the present, the Nuva were taken out of commission and the Inika were called into action.
     
    But during all this time, Takanuva has faded into the background. I vaugely remember references to some kind of force field or other "thing" keeping Takanuva from getting involved, but I can't help but think these are story elements that are being used more to keep him from being in the story. We don't have any sets of him afterall.
     
    Takanuva was originally Takua, and was very good friends with a good number of the Tohunag/Matoran that would eventually become the Inika. What better time for him to reenter the story then when his old friends suddenly found themselves in the same situation he had been in earlier. Takanuva could've gone from being a sideline character to the trusted leader of the new team of Toa, and together they could've explored the challenges that come with the Transformation (the Turaga didn't seem to address this very well in the movie, there are chances...especially with Hewkii/Macku...where they could show problems in the relationships between Toa and Matoran).
     
    But instead, he was written out, and after his dramatic indroduction in the first ever Bionicle movie, he has appeared to have done little to further cement his place in Bionicle lore. If you are/were a PR fan, you can recall just how well the first "extra" Ranger went back during the first season. The Green Ranger/Tommy became one of the most popular characters, and remained that way for so long that his actor was brought back more than a decade later to reprise the role.
     
    Now, Bionicle may not run for ten years (though it is going into it's 6th now). When a decade has passed, what will the history books...and fans for that matter...say about the first ever "Extra" Toa?
  9. T-Hybrid
    So I shut my computer down last night, and the next thing I know I start hearing little spits of static out of the speakers. Go to the Tower and the little light around the button (the one that's normally green when it's on) is blinking yellow at me. I pulled the plug and tried to plug it back in. Same thing happened.
     
    Well, it's either the power supply or the motherboard. And I don't know yet if the data on the harddrive can be recovered. I don't think I've backed up anything important on the harddrive since the beginning of the school year. Not to mention my music, my pictures, and Photoshop are all on there.
     
    I'll be down in Kato tonight, and am going to hustle over to the campus computers to hopefully salvage the latest revision of my website (did I forget to mention it's been updated recently?)
     
    Best case scenario, the power supply went bad and it'll cost me $150 to fix ($90 if I install it myself). Worst case scenario, the motherboard's fried and I need a new everything. Even worster case scenario, the motherboard took the harddrive down with it.
     
    Just when everything was starting to fall into place.
  10. T-Hybrid
    Like the title says, it's rare when you get a second chance. So don't do what I did tonight and make a fool out of yourself in front of a large number of strangers.
     
    If you remember I attempted to enter a Guitar Hero Tournament last week, and missed qualifying for the Finals by a very slim margin. Well, I was told by the guy running it that if there was a no-show the following week it was possible I could get in.
     
    Well, it happened. There were two no-shows. Ironically enough, the guy who beat me last week to take the last spot in the finals was one of them. Apparently he chickened out at the last minute and decided not to come. The guy running it, to be fair, opened the floor to anybody who was interested in competeing. It turned out it was just me, and one other guy.
     
    So now, I was forced to play The Last Vegas' "Raw Dog" on Expert. Expert being the difficulty I had never played on before. It was a battle for a tournament slot that really should've been mine. But not everybody else knew that, and I suppose he didn't want to appear to be showing any sort of bias or favortism.
     
    Needless to say, I got stomped. Not because the other guy had played Expert, but because he just managed to struggle through it less. The final tally was 76% to 60%, so the scores weren't even close. Later on in the night (after a rocking rendition of Free Bird on expert) I challenged him to a rematch and lost 95%-93% on Nirvana's "Heart Shaped Box". I felt that justified things. And watching the rest of the tournament, I decided I wouldn't have stood a chance. Though the practice would've been nice.
     
    The long story/short is, if you get your second chance in life. Be ready for it. I had opportunities to practice playing a bit over the past week, but I spent it trying to catch up on Voltron and Pokemon Diamond (I caught Dialga...YAY!).
  11. T-Hybrid

    Creepy Girl

    By T-Hybrid,

    In my time on the Internet, I've come to accept that dynamically generated banner ads that come up on each page. But lately, there's been one that's shaken me to my very foundation.
     
    I'm speaking of a specific ad for something called "Chemistry." Now, I always thought these dynamically generated ads came based on the various content of the page their loading on (and I will most likely summon forth another one just by mentioning it in this post. Perhaps it was the mix of Video Game and Bionicle talk on this blog that lead it to somehow know I was single, though I have a different theory.
     
    It's Creepy Girl. Maybe you've seen her. She's the random woman that appears in one of those Chemistry ads staring out from the page. I'd argue she's staring deep into your soul, reading you for the purpose of generating dynamic ads on the pages you view.
     

    Look at her. She's watching you. So beware. Chemistry knows what you're thinking, and I would guess that they know where you live.
  12. T-Hybrid
    Well, Creepy Girl and her ilk are now on TV. Though it's mostly been late night. I guess this Chemistry thing is "successful" enough to have gone from an eerie banner ad to a full-fledged TV advertised product. Or perhaps Creepy Girl was able to ascertain our locations and has instructed her leaders to broadcast to those TVs that belong to those she has identified. Be cautious, they are coming.
     
    In lighter news (or not depending on your opinions of the newest film), they've already annouced Shrek 4 for 2010. Odds are right now they'd prefer to do a prequel. Which I suppose make sense. Portray a young Shrek, giving them a chance to gather up a new set of VAs in case the originals can't be brought back. If they can, then it's a prequel set more recently. Otherwise it's young Shrek and friends. Odds are the latter would lead to an eventual Shrek TV series and the guaranteed destruction of the franchise.
     
    Oh, Hollywood...when will you stop annoucing sequels only days after a movie is launched? Though I know it's not the earliest. Saw's IV and V were both annouced a week after the third hit theaters, and there was the talk of a Spiderman franchise to the tune of 6 movies while the second was still filming.
     
    Beh on Hollywood.
  13. T-Hybrid

    The Waiting Game

    By T-Hybrid,

    The Barakki continue to tempt me when I walk through the LEGO Aisle at various stores. I'm waiting for the Mahri to start trickling out so I can decide which canister sets are more worth picking up. Because with the way I go about collecting, I won't be able to just buy one Barakki. And I know that if I buy the Mahri I'm going to want to buy spares to make Puhi and Mahi Mahri.
     
    Why can't it be July already? Or is it June? Whatever the case, the Mahri need to come out already.
  14. T-Hybrid
    It's Mother's Day once again. Remember to take today off from your normal routine to go do something she enjoys. Movie, lunch, come up with something.
     
    Me? Well, I'm going to have to make due with a phone call. My mom's up in Colorado, so it'd be a bit of a toughie to do anything else. And hopefully you don't require a specific day to be put away in order to let your moms know how much you appreciate what they've done for you.
  15. T-Hybrid

    The Final Friday

    By T-Hybrid,

    T-Hybrid is busy finishing up his last day at work, as well as packing up for his move tomorrow. As such, he has requested his guest writer fill in...
     
    I have to say, I've never seen Big T this excited. He came floatin' in to the Haven today, and I mean that literally! His final four hours at the internship finish up today, followed by an afternoon of packin up his things and then by noon tomorrow he's going to be heading back home.
     
    Personally, I was disappointed that he didn't wanna walk on Saturday, but when he told me his reasons it seemed fair enough. I was there when the school's Alumni Foundation called him asking for donations. This was like a month ago when he still wasn't sure if he was going to graduate.
     
    So you can understand if later on when he did find out, he was less than interested in shelling out a couple of hundred bucks for a cap and gown that was only going to be good for a day. They don't let you rent those things anymore apparently.
     
    What did he do with the money he saved? He told me he was putting it away for his first really boring day at the new apartment. But I think he's already spent it on a few new games. For all I know it's the same thing.
     
    Me? I'm lookin' forward to the big relocation. The Haven hasn't been as bouncin' round campus lately, so the change of scenery will hopefully do it some good. My job description's changed from bouncer to moving boy for the next few weeks. I can live with it. In the meantime, I'll start buggin T-Boss so he gets back to Rebirth. He's hasn't forgotten those of you still reading it. And he may not say anything, but thanks for staying faithful to it. T can get a bit scatterbrained at times, especially with everything going on right now.
  16. T-Hybrid

    I Win.

    By T-Hybrid,

    Four years and some thousands of dollars late...and I have slain the beast know as College. All that's left now is to actually be handed my diploma and I will become not a student, but an alumni.
     
    With this class change comes the responsibilities of a true adult. I must set off in the world with only my wits and my skills to make my own way. Will I rise to the occasion or sink like a stone under the weight of the world?
     
    Stay tuned and find out.
     
    ...
     
    Okay, I'm only kidding about that last part. I'm actually really excited to wake up tomorrow and face the first day of the rest of my life (I can't believe I've actually found a reason to use that old cliche!) Only a few days left at the internship and that'll be that for my time at MSU.
     
    On a completely unrelated note, anybody know where to find some decent sprite sheets for the characters from the Pokemon games? Just curious.
  17. T-Hybrid
    Finals Week this week. Tests Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday...all in the morning, all finishing before noon. Thankfully it's only one a day, but it pretty much means that I didn't get to enjoy my weekend at all beyond the bit of Pokemon I played (I now have Alakazam, Golem, Machamp...and Crobat).
     
    Celebrated by grabbing a few news games, including LEGO Star Wars. I have to admit it's a bit of guilty fun running around as a Minifig version of Darth Maul. Unfortunately the TV I've got my Wii hooked up to for the rest of the week doesn't seem to like Channel 3, which is the only way I can play it (AV cables plugged into a VCR then run to the TV). But oh well, after this week I'm going to suddenly have the rest of my life for gaming. If you don't hear from me for a few days you'll know why.
  18. T-Hybrid

    Weekend Fun

    By T-Hybrid,

    Getting an early jump on the weekend tonight by going to the Spiderman 3 midnight showing (12:05 technically). Only the third midnight release I've gone to (Matrix Revolutions and Goblet of Fire being the previous two). I plan on checking out Pirates 3 when it comes out at the end of May too.
     
    Pokemon's been on the back burner lately, 40 hours in the first week...and only about an hour and a half since. Projects all over the place with finals right around the corner. But I have a feeling Wednesday after my last test it's going to be a Pokethon as I try and catch up with everybody.
  19. T-Hybrid

    The Final Countdown

    By T-Hybrid,

    40 hrs, 2 badges, 73 seen, 44 caught...
     
    I say that, because I've only had the game for a week. Holy cow eh? But that's not the topic of today's entry. Today we're talking about graduation, round 2.
     
    Today marks the beginning of the final week of classes. After Friday all focus will be on my three finals, which almost appropriately enough scale up in difficulty. One a day starting Monday and finishing Wednesday. What does this all mean? Well, as of noon on Wednesday May 9th I will no longer be a student at Minnesota State, Mankato. All that will be left to do is graduate and I'll be on my way to the "real world" I've heard people referring to for the last 16 years of schooling.
     
    After talking with my friends and family, I've decided I'm not walking with my classmates this time around. It was a bigger deal when I made it through high school, as that was the beginning of my independent life. But this time, it just feels like I'm going through the motions. The only reason I would have done it would have been for my parents, but they have been the most vocal in suggesting I save the money and just have some fun that day instead.
     
    Another turn off? Com Sci majors graduate at 9 am Saturday May 12th. Look at that again. Nine in the morning on a Saturday. That'd essentially mean I'd have to sit on my hands Friday night so I wasn't completely burned out Saturday morning. Nah, I'd rather hang out with my friends one last time before I move out and start my big boy 9-5 lifetime grind.
     
    If your interested, donations can be made between now and enternity to the "Help Torhu Survive On His Own Fund". Just call 1-800-555-OHDEARLORDWHATDOIDONOW!! Operators are standing by.
  20. T-Hybrid

    Pokemon Is Work

    By T-Hybrid,

    Pokemon Diamond came out Sunday. It's now Friday and I've already put around 30 hours into the game. To put things in perspective, I work only 20 hours a week. And I'm only just now about to challenge the third gym leader.
     
    I've been spending time in the Underground getting fossils, spheres, and decking out the secret base that nobody will probably see (nobody I know is getting Diamond or Peal so odds are I'm never getting Spiritomb legitimately). I've also entered contests (already won Cute, Cool, and Smart at Normal Rank). There's honestly just so much to do in this game. Battles are hardly the most of it.
     
    Plus I don't have fly yet, so when nighttime rolls around I have to stop what I'm doing and go running around various areas trying to grab time exclusives (Murkrow's the big problem child right now). My team is pretty set right now, though I can see future need for expansion (won't get far without a good psychic type). If anybody's interested, I'm slowly trying to collect extras of the version exclusive Pokes, this includes future need for GBA exclusives.
     
    I've got Leaf Green, Sapphire, and of course Diamond available. As well as Collisseum (though I've yet to beat it...and can't get them to the GBAs until I've purified all of them...at least I think). Whatever the case, if you start having offers available (starters who aren't Piplup, Bulbasaur, or Torchic), or just want to help me swing a temp trade so your Machoke can evolve, let me know. I'm about to graduate, and with work being only M-F my weekends will and evenings are hopefully going to start freeing up so I have time to hop on the WiFi...once I get it set up of course.
  21. T-Hybrid

    Everything Balances

    By T-Hybrid,

    It's probably a good thing right now that I've got Pokemon to get my mind off of the impending doom that has seemed to slowly grow over the last few months. And I suppose I had it coming, after I got my confidence up after a nearly perfect first half of the school year.
     
    It started with two courses with professors that are absolutely terrible. Three weeks away from finals and we get our first test (and in the case of both classes the first actual form of grading we had recieved the whole time). It's now a full two weeks later and we still haven't heard back from one of the tests. The other class has clogged most of my free time with a pointless project that is essentially what we did in the 300 level class but far slower because the professor has never taught the class before, will never teach the class again, and doesn't seem to have a clue what he's doing.
     
    But the biggest cause for panic over the last few weeks has been the sudden realization that come May 27th I may be stuck paying rent in two apartments. Let this be a lesson that verbal agreements hold no weight over signed contracts.
     
    It all started when I got my job offer in Decemeber. I began looking for apartments so that I could be living closer to where I work (nearly 2 hours comparred to 15 minutes). I talked with my roomates and got a verbal agreement that it would be alright for me to sign over my part of the lease at the beginning of May. Here we are two weeks out, and it doesn't look like either has filled out the approriate paperwork. What makes things worse, the guy who's supposed to take over (who also recieved verbal agreement that it'd be okay about two weeks ago), is getting things set up so he can move in the day after I move out.
     
    I'm at a loss. Big time. To the point where the last few nights I've been losing sleep over it. After the semester I had last year (awesome internship, great courses, job offer...) this last half has turned into a Semester of Disaster. And it has me terrified.
  22. T-Hybrid
    Pokemon Diamond and Pearl launch today, comparred to the usual Tuesday/Wednesday game launch. Haven't gotten to GameStop to grab my copy yet, but when I do you can bet I'll get my Friend Code up ASAP.
     
    I'm picking up Diamond, because Dialga pretty much wastes Pairuka. Will probably choose the Penguin starter, not because I'm not a fan of water-types, but because Penguins are just so durn cute. And he develops into an Ice Type, which are always handy against the Elite Four.
     
    Can't wait to start playing. This is the last game I'll be getting for a while, and it's going to hopefully last me a while, especially with Online play. I may even get one of those nifty headsets so I can chat with my fellow trainers!
  23. T-Hybrid

    Gaming Under Fire

    By T-Hybrid,

    Unless you've been under a rock the last few days, you know the story of the week...and probably the year right now. I'm not going into details because of the nature of this forum, but needless to say it's a tragedy the likes of which you don't want to see ever happen.
     
    But almost as tragic as the event itself was the kneejerk reaction of the media as a whole. Rather than report on the events with the facts provided, they decided to start playing the blame game. Was it the school's fault? Did local authorities mess up? Or, as is the case with any tragedy of this nature, were video games to blame?
     
    It seems these days that blaming the entertainment industry has become the popular means of sluffing blame off of any except the person who committed the atrocity themselves. It doesn't matter how many people in the world are able to play games, watch movies or TV shows, or listen to music without flying off the handle and doing something terrible...if one "kid" does something, it immediately becomes the target of fingerpointing.
     
    I surf around the 'Net, and one of the gaming blogs I frequent (don't know if I can name it here since it has discussion boards of sort) posted what I thought was a very interesting letter of sorts for gamers to present to their friends and family following this tragedy. Because I'm unsure if I can link to it, I will instead repost it here. If you wish to know where it came from, you may contact me via PM. Or if a Blog Leader gives me the okay I'll add it to this post.
     

    I'd like to have been able to come up with something as eloquent as this myself, but I saw this prior to writing my entry today. And I decided that after seeing this, anything I would've written would've only been built off of these statements anyway. So during this time of recovery, while we search for answers, remember that it's important to know the facts before reaching out to place blame.
     
    And remember that regardless of who committs a crime, it doesn't mean that all people of a certain type are suddenly just as capable. That kind of distrust and suspicion will never lead to anything but paranoia.
  24. T-Hybrid
    In all this news of the new Titans, Mahri, and Barakki...one question is still going unanswered (at least the last time I checked it was). Are we getting a Titan combiner this year? It's going to be hard to top Kardas, which really was a huge achievement for set design, though I would've appreciated getting instructions for the individual sets as well. But LEGO should at least make sure not to skimp on the combiners.
     
    It was the combiner models that got me into Bionicle in the first place, and seeing them slowly phased out over the years is sorta heart-wrenching. We got Irnakk last year, as well as Kardas, but what about the Toa sets? Aren't they worthy of getting a combiner model?
     
    I'm starting to think it was those combiner models that was keeping me interested in the sets each year, and the driving force behind me going out and purchasing full sets of vilians and Titans. I didn't buy all of the Piraka, even after I picked up Irnakk, and now there's just something about the Barakki that's keeping me from just running to the store right now and grabbing a full set.
     
    I'll still get the Toa...I always get the Toa. But until I see combiners start to make a comeback, I just don't think I'm that interested in picking up the Titans or full sets of villians.
  25. T-Hybrid
    What started off as a throwaway comment almost lead to me getting elected to a school office yesterday. And with almost little effort on my part. Yesterday's key election issue was the decision a to whether or not students would allow the school to increase Student Fees to allow for the construction of a series of improved athletic facilities. When I logged in to vote, I noticed that one posistion (Communications Board) was being put up for vote with out any official candidate. The only choices were to Abstain, or Write-In a candidate.
     
    My roomate jokingly voted for me. Not knowing who was actually running, I also voted for myself. Then I started thinking, how fun would it be to get my name listed on the voter results. I didn't want the office, and since I was graduating in May I wouldn't be elligible to hold the office anyway. Worst case scenario (or was it best?) was that I'd get elected and would just have to back out. I got to work, and by the end of the day I estimated that I had recieved 5-6 votes. Hardly enough to get elected right?
     
    Boy was I wrong! You'll note that the winning "candidate" for Communications Board recieved a whopping EIGHT votes. That means if my estimates are accurate, I was only two votes away from a tie, and potential victory. How frightening is that? On a campus of 14000 students, I could've held a Student Government Office simply because me and a handful of friends thought it'd be funny to write me in.
     
    Other scary results: The Crawford Complex representatives each recieved a total of 2 votes. That is, they each voted for themselves and were thusly elected. Not only that, but only around 3000 people voted on the Student Fee referendum. That's not even a third of the campus deciding on something that will effect everybody!
     
    After seeing the results, I emailed the MSSA to ask why my name didn't appear on the results. Apparently they were only showing the winner for some categories in order to keep the document from being too large. I'm going to visit the offices tomorrow and view the official results to see just how close I came to being the Communications Something-Or-Other. I'll report back just how close it actually was.
     
    The lesson you should take away from all this? Get involved in politics...or somebody who may be totally unqualified for the posistion may end up getting it!
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