So, first things first.  The project I was working on (many of you seemed to have guessed what it was).  I was using an old website I still had hanging around out there to start up the Giant Bomb Xtreme Girl Advice Line

But... that's coming along slowly at the moment.  I had gotten pretty close to done, but then realize that I may want to switch it over to this other website I have - one that isn't a pre-made template for video game clans/guilds.  So I have to do that at some point.  I'll get around to it.  What would actually be cool though is if we could get Top Men to create a separate page like that within the Whiskey Media site and maybe get some people to moderate it/etc.  So yeah, that's the project.  And it's a weekend thing, and sometimes during work when things aren't too crazy thing.  But I don't even officially have the time to be doing this blog.  Ah well.

So those who follow this weekly blog know that I had started playing Guild Wars lately.  I had decided that really wasn't hitting the spot.  There's like no good loot in Guild Wars.  While I'm not necessarily looking for a loot-driven game like Diablo or Torchlight, I want something where I can pick up armor/weapons, and when I put them on, I look different.  I want to go quest.  I want to randomly wander around and go explore what's over that next ridge.  I actually considered reinstalling Morrowind.  I never did finish that game.

But instead, I found Risen.  So far this game has hit the spot.  The beginning was interesting - and eerily similar to Age of Conan.  Your character was on a ship that was torn to pieces, and he's been washed ashore.  Both games start with you face down in the sand, groggily getting up and trying to remember what happened, and trying to figure out where you are now.  I must admit, once I found a weapon, I did end up dying a few times.  This NPC did keep telling me that I probably shouldn't be going into that cave, but would I listen to her?  Hell no!  There was a chest within sight and I needed to know what was in it!  The melee combat in this game is very interesting.  It's like a dance.  You have to figure out the rhythm of block/parry/swing with your opponent to do well, and each opponent is different depending on what they're wielding.  And there's a craft system!  While I've fried up some meat, I haven't really messed with the alchemy yet.  But I'm constantly picking flowers.  I joked with my husband that I feel like an herbalist from WoW because I'm constantly stopping to pick some plants.

However, in most RPGs I prefer to play a mage or healer.  A finger waggler.  Unfortunately, with this game, the "quick" way to becoming a mage is to get yourself arrested.  Which I'm not interested in doing.  So after spending however long playing this game, I just towards the end of the weekend finally got the ability to become a mage.  Awesome.  Now I just have to go make a trek to wherever to go actually learn mage stuff.

Besides this game fulfilling the loot and quest itches for me, there was something about the description that really grabbed me, and that is another great draw of this game.

And it's true.  There are two main factions.  The first faction is a group of people who are native to the island.  They are familiar with melee and ranged combat, but have no knowledge of magic.  Most of this faction seems to be corrupt criminal types - smugglers, bribe-takers, etc.  General rough-around the edges, looking for a quick buck types.  The other faction is the Inquisition.  Their melee combat consists of staff-fighting I think, and they can also train in magic.  This faction came over from the mainland and has displaced the locals.  Once you side with one faction, the other will have nothing to do with you except try to kill you.  Between your choice of faction, and how you handle quests, you really do affect things on the island.

So from all this, I really have been enjoying this game so far.  The graphics are... Oblivion-ish?  I dunno, I don't think they're too bad really.

Earlier this week there was an open house at Seattle U that I attended.  It actually was of some help.  I had been really stressing about juggling work, school, homework, family, etc.  The homework was a big stress factor.  How was I going to have time for homework when I won't be getting home till 10pm and have to be up at like 6am the next morning?  But the answer was given to me:  I don't have to.  In fact, it was suggested that during the week, we leave our school stuff in our lockers.  Much like you don't bring work home with you from your job, they suggested leaving school at school for the most part.  Of course there will be things I will have to do.  And then there will be the time leading up to finals.  But this information truly was helpful.

I've registered for my summer class, though I need to re-order my book because the vendor cancelled the order and pulled the book from Amazon.  I've also seen the fall schedule, and I feel better about that too.  I think my latest class in the fall gets out at like 8:15pm.  That's not nearly as bad as I thought.  So on those nights I will be home around 9pm.  Not too bad.    

So for school I had to order a new laptop.  I ended up going to Newegg and getting a Gateway for $399.  It's a Pentium Dual-Core 2.13GHz, 500gb HDD, 4gb RAM.  The only thing that kinda sucks is the "Intel HD Graphics" onboard.  But this wasn't supposed to be a gaming computer.  (So we'll ignore the fact that it's sitting behind me on my credenza with Steam downloading some of the games in my library.)  But here's the thing:  It's Windows 7.  I'm still running XP at home, and my work computer is XP Pro.  So I'm not really used to Win7.  I've messed with it a little before, but not much.  So I'm having problems with some things.  Like at home, I try to tell it to find my secondary drive on my desktop (that's where all my music is), but it just gets stuck on looking for other devices.  And the other problem I've been having is that I wanted to install Bejeweled 3 on the machine, and I have the setup file downloaded, but every time I click Run, I get the box that gives me crap about the security certificate.  I tell it to run anyway, and nothing happens.  But I'm mostly happy with my new laptop.  And it's MINE.  Last time we got a laptop, my husband told his dad (who was buying it for us) that it was for me for school.  But in fact, my husband used it far more than I ever did.  But this one is all mine.  :)