@Phatmac: Thanks! :'D

@Pepsiman: The only thing driving experience will net you in ETS2 are some fundamentals like checking your blind spots and stuff when turning/changing lanes. It's a game, and the game only penalizes you for exceeding the speed limit, crashing into other cars, or driving in the opposite lane for too long. You can get plenty of enjoyment out of it, I feel, regardless of your SiCk dRiViNg SKiLLz. That said, I'd recommend a steering wheel. Or a controller, at the very minimum. The few minutes I played with it on a keyboard and mouse was a lousy experience.

I've been definitely tempted to pick up Euro Truck since seeing the Quick Look for a lot of reasons you outlined here. It seems like a pretty relaxing game for something of its genre and I just really like the idea of games being able to tune into Internet radio stations, especially when it adds to the actual immersiveness. That being said, as somebody who has next to no actual driving experience (I've lived in cities with good biking and public transit systems my entire adult life), do you think I'd be able to eventually grasp the basics and not end up hilariously breaking everything on the road? It didn't seem like Vinny was really having to go into super nitty gritty stuff mechanically to get going after those initial hiccups, but obviously I can only grasp so much watching from afar.

Fuck yeah Euro Track Simulator 2! Good luck with your classes Aura! :)

@AllIsHeresy: Thank you. :) Here's hoping.

@pyromagnestir: Have you been doing part-time schooling or something? Or just taking time off? :o

@Ravenlight: THE ONLY THING MISSING IN THAT GAME. DRIVE-BYS.

@CommodoreGroovy: One could argue that is the best way to read any blog.

@AjayRaz: Yeah mang, Driving Force GT. Gran Turismo 5 turned out to be a huge piece of shit so I gotta get use out of this wheel somehow. Fortunate of me that it's with a really awesome game. And I feel you on the French. :( It's my native language and I have trouble speaking it now because I've spoken nothing but English for the past, like, 6-7 years now. I can barely complete sentences when I talk to my dad and stuff. It's embarassing. ><

@EarlessShrimp: I've never heard of either, but I'll check them out! I'm always down for new music. c:

@LikeaSsur: Dude, I'm like, one out of five people on my Steam friends list who play it. It's a great game!

I'm most surprised that someone's actually playing Euro Truck Simulator 2.

@aurahack: Question: what do you think of pelican if you're down with 65daysofstatic? Actually Cougar is pretty good too if you're down with that. You, kid, have good music taste.

yuck. you go back to class tomorrow? i go back on Monday, but i'm still nervous 'cause i'm taking French this semester, and my french is asssssssssssssssss ; ;

it's nice to see you starting up your blog again. i hope the streak will continue and last because that would be pretty cool. also, Euro Truck. are you using a racing wheel for that joint?

Nice blog, Aura. For some random bored reason, I decided to read it out loud with a Morgan Freeman voice, and I had a good time -- had a good time.

Blogs are cool! Needs more cat pics or torsos, though.

I sort of skimmed it on my first read and came up with this hilarious string:

... Euro Truck Simulator 2 ... everyone dies in one or two bullets ...

@AllIsHeresy said:

It is my humble opinion that you'll be fine. Despite your anxieties, you've got a real talent and a good soul...both of which stand you in good stead.

All that plus you continue to be a handsome fella.

I believe I am similarly anxious about the idea of a return to class. Only in my case I've had a couple years off since I last regularly attended classes.

It is my humble opinion that you'll be fine. Despite your anxieties, you've got a real talent and a good soul...both of which stand you in good stead.

Hey, duders. To break in the new year properly, I'm taking it upon myself to reset my blog. I tried to run a regular(ish) series last year that didn't exactly pan out because the format I restricted myself to made it so that I needed to invest more time into it than I really had. More often than not, it'd result in me not really bothering in writing or proof-reading the small bits I had written. Some of you over on the beta site might have seen the exciting, fantastic, brilliant, award-winning prologue entry to this blog series. To those of you returning: yo. To those of you who are new: Double yo. To those of you wondering about the name: I didn't know what to call the new blog series, so I named it after the unfortunate silence that rang through my head when trying to come up with a title. The parentheses are because the title didn't look good design-wise without them. SUPER INTERESTING FACTS, YO.

The idea is to give myself a spot where I can vent on stuff, more-so than I can on Twitter or Tumblr. Neither of my accounts there are places where I can do that in proper comfort, so to the wonderful community of Giant Bomb it is! I'll (hopefully) still be talking some about games but there's most likely going to be a mess of off-topic stuff going on up in hurr.

So, what do I want to talk about? ... I don't know. My head's in a bit of a stir because of a couple things, the more notable ones being the return to class tomorrow and the really dumb situation I've put myself in with a close friend. The two make me feel anxious for different reasons and both being problems at once is less than ideal. I'm slightly terrified of returning to school because I worry I lack the creativity to make it through this final semester. What comes after I graduate scares me just as much, if not more.