AGH!!!!

Finals are coming up all of next week, and I need to do a lot of studying and hustle on finishing projects!! Anyway, I thought it wouldn't hurt to tell you all how my Thanksgiving break was even though I am really late on that report. Also, there's a math problem that I was e-mailed to, and I must say it's really awesome. =D I'm serious!

BREAK THANKSGIVING REPORT

My uncle took me home for Thanksgiving since he's only four hours away from the college and stayed with us for the meal. It was a good meal, and I was glad to be eating real food again. =D This was actually the first time I've been home since the summer. The reason being is that I was asked from a friend if I'd like to stay with him over the fall break which I had no problem with. However, I could have gone home during that time.

When Black Friday came, we stopped by at a local Circuit City for its store closing sales, and I bought Okami for the Wii. The original price was, of course, $40, and they were having a deal that all there games would be 20% off ( $39.99 = $31.99). Then, I go up to the cashier to pay for the game, and I was surprised by how much I really had to pay for it. $21.84!! Seriously, I was ready to pay for it at $32 plus tax, and I told the guy about it. "Well, we usually get glitches like this," he told me and put his index finger up to his lips. I just smiled and left feeling happy for having to pay that much. =D If anyone ever plans on playing the game for either the PS2 or Wii, you're all in for a real treat. I had played about three hours into it, and I loved what I saw and played. =D Speaking of games, I did borrow the SNES copy of Chrono Trigger during the break. I didn't get to play much of it, but I was able to meet with Magus for the first time. Now my characters are in the past and are about to enter a lair (forgot the name).

On the Saturday before I went back home, my uncle took my sister and I to see the new James Bond movie, Quantum of Solace. We were looking forward to watching it despite some of the negative press it received. However, the movie projector quit on us 20 minutes into the movie. It was rather disappointing, but we were fortunate to get a refund.

MATH PROBLEM

All right, everybody. Here's the math problem you've been waiting for. Once you figure this out, I highly recommend that you don't share the answer on this blog. Trust me.

Here is a math trick so unbelievable that it will stump you.
Personally I would like to know who came up with this and why that person is not running the country.
Grab a calculator. (you won't be able to do this one in your Head)

1. Key in the first three digits of your phone number (NOT the Area code..)
2. Multiply by 80
3. Add 1
4. Multiply by 250
5.. Add to this the last 4 digits of your phone number
6. Add to this the last 4 digits of your phone number again.
7. Subtract 250
8. Divide number by 2

Do you recognize the answer ??

Well, that'll be all for now. Wish me luck on the finals! =D

Until next time, Giant Bombers! 8-)

When the school semester started, a friend had just bought Chrono Trigger for his Super Nintendo (about $60 for the game I think) because I had mentioned that I wanted to play the game for some time now. Well, it seems that he got the game for me to play since he doesn't play much of his SNES. Before I go on, this all takes place at my favorite hangout on campus. So, I started to play it and had only clocked in about an hour. Then, school work got in the way, and I barely had enough time to play it. It wasn't until Thursday night of this week that I had picked up the game and just played it. As of now, I have clocked in 6 hours and 22 minutes, and I've been having one of the best RPG gaming experiences with this game. Wow. Now I wish the Sega Genesis had something like this. LOL  In case you're wondering how far I am, I have just acquired the pieces to a broken Masamune, and I'm in the process of trying to find a Dreamstone so that it can be repaired. So, I look forward to continue playing this game. I just thought I'd share it with all of you. =D

TWO-YEAR ANNIVERSARY ON DA

That's right. November 14 marked my second year on Deviantart. If you're interested in seeing the drawings that I received, be sure to click on the link that will take you to the journal.

Two-Year Anniversary Journal

Until next time! 8)

You know the deal. It's time to give you guys an update of what I've been up to.

THE FINAL STRETCH OF THE SEMESTER

Mid-terms have come and gone, and I'm happy to report that I did well with all of them. All that I have left to do is do a final group project in my Interaction for Gaming class and a final paper for American Literature. The rest, including American Lit., are just final exams. However, my Principles of Interaction class won't be having a final because our professor was out for a week due to stomach problems. That makes me happy we won't be having a final in that class. :D

HALLOWEEN

There's nothing much to say about this year's Halloween..... at least from my perspective. One of my friends wanted four of us, him and myself included, to be the main characters from The Big Bang Theory, and I was supposed to be this guy. If you haven't seen the show, you should check it out. It's really funny. Anyway, the reason it was so disappointing was because the friend who came up with the idea had to be somewhere which left our group kind of pointless if it wasn't all of us together. So, I pretty much stayed who I was while the one that played as Sheldon went home while the one that played Howard left to change into Max Payne. Oh well. At least I watched The Nightmare Before Christmas with a group of friends. It's been a long time since I've seen that movie, and I never realized that sang so much. :P I wouldn't mind getting the soundtrack though.

GAMES

During Halloween, I had my DS with me, and I played some of Tales of Phantasia (GBA) since I've yet to finish that game. Now I've been playing it on and off along with Bangai-O Spirits (DS). Speaking of which, I have finally finished all the levels that the game had to offer. Now I'll have to check out the levels that others have designed since the game features an Edit mode which I may check out someday. As for Tales of Phantasia, I'm in one part of the game where I'm in a colessium, and I'm trying to obtain a title and a special move by beating all the monsters you face. However, I'm having a rather difficult time with that. My main character has leveled up so much that he has exceeded the rest of my party. So, I'll have to keep working on that and then move onto Final Fantasy VI and The World Ends With You once I'm finished with the Tales game.

OUT WITH ONE TREASURE......

And in with a new one! :D If anyone is confused as to what I'm saying, that's okay because I was never good with explaining my point. :P What I'm referring to is Treasure, developer of games like Bangai-O Spirits, Gunstar Heroes, Ikaruga, and Astro Boy: Omega Factor. Well, they had released the sequel to Bleach: The Blade of Fate called Bleach: Dark Souls. I must say I'm quite impressed with how much it has improved. Sure, the tweaks in this one are kind of minimal, but it's still a fun game even if there are a few minor things that kind of irritate me like some of the voices in the game aren't as loud as the others. Also, the story mode is much better in this one because you go through events where as in the first game you just go through one fight after another. So, I'm really glad they put some variety in this sequel. :)

TWO-YEAR ANNIVERSARY

DeviantArt, that is. Once it arrives, I'm going to be showcasing artwork that others have done of my fursona to celebrate the milestone. :) I may even showcase my best even though I haven't drawn that much. :P We'll see about my artwork, but I'm definitely going to be showing other's artwork of my character. :D

BONUS VIDEO

I'll be closing with a video I found on YouTube.

Until next time, GameSpotters! 8)

Like I said in my previous video blog, I was going to show you guys what gifts I received from my mom's package. Well, here it is! =D

Yeah, I know I didn't receive that many gifts, but I'm just waiting on the late birthday cards for birthday money. You can't go wrong with that. :P

Also, I happened to come across a Japanese ad of this game. 8)

I was surprised that a commercial of it actually existed, and now I feel like playing it. =D

Here it is. Another video blog by me. =D

Whew! This is the time of the semester I've been waiting for. Like I said in my video blog, this semester seems to have gone by real quick for I'm surprised that my fall break is already here. Anyway, you guys may see me from time to time during the break since I'll be doing stuff with a friend over the break. Even though I'll be relaxing, I do plan on playing some DS and GBA games like The World Ends With You (still need to finish that one), Contra 4 (time to work on the Hard setting), Final Fantasy VI (again, still need to finish it),Tales Of Phantasia (I doubt I'll be playing it since it's kind of boring), and Drill Dozer (new game I got from my mom for $10 at Wal-Mart). Other than gaming, there's a 2-3 page paper I'd like to get out of the way, and that shouldn't be hard to do. :) Plus, I need to finish that comic for a friend on DA. I'm long overdue on that, but I don't think he will mind if I get it in late. Anyway, it's time to go into detail about a few things I'd like to mention.

DRILL DOZER

When I first heard about this game back when it was released, I shrugged at it despite it getting good reviews. I mean I didn't doubt that it was a good game. It's just that it didn't look very appealing to me. Then, my mom called me last month telling me that Wal-Mart had some games that were on sale, and Drill Dozer was one of them (I hope she got Metal Slug Anthology for the Wii since that was one of those games). So I told that I had heard good things about it and decided to try it out. After receiving in a package full of goodies (candy, gaming magazines, and T-shirt), I popped in the game on my DS, and I was impressed with how the game plays. What really amazed me was that this game is developed by Game Freak, Inc., of Pokemon fame. As I play this game, I think to myself, "Wow. These guys could try games like this other than Pokemon." I know there are a lot of you that continue to play Pokemon, and I really have nothing against that......well, you could say that I'm tired of Nintendo continuing the franchise. Anyway, it's just that after seeing this game I would like for them to try new things out other than the Pokemon franchise. I know that they have done other things before Pokemon, but it wouldn't hurt for them to experiment with new ideas. :)

DRAWING

Like I said earlier, I still need to finish that comic for a friend. I'm almost finished with the third page, and the fourth one is going to be my last for the comic. I hope he likes it. I've already shown him the first one, and he liked what he saw. So, it shouldn't be so bad. :) Other than that, I hope to at least do some serious drawing such as doing some gift art as a way of thanking those that have been helpful and have been such good friends. Keep in mind that this is mainly for the ones in DeviantART. :) Also, I've discovered something that could help me give some color to my artwork. I've tried doing the traditional way by using colored pencils, but it has proven that I would need more practice to get the colors to where I want them. So if I want to get things out of the way quickly, the only thing I can rely on is Adobe Photoshop. Take this for example. I was told by one of my professors in the digital media department to try using the wand tool to highlight a spot I want to color. I know that it's not the best method, but I'm sure that he wanted me to experiment after I got the hang of it. Thanks to SciFiCat for telling me a better method of doing digital color with Photoshop, I went back to give the same drawing another try. This time I'm applying line-art over the sketch, and I'm rather pleased with how it's turning out so far. After I got all the flat colors I wanted for it, I showed it to my professor, and he showed me how to use the burn tool for shadows and the dodge tool for highlights. I was amazed how much better my picture turned out. So, I plan on doing using those tools in the near future. :D Don't worry, I'm not going to be cheap by showing you guys the final product with his work by using those tools. I'll be sure to go by that example though. If you guys are curious about my gallery, you'll be able to view it if you go to the hyperlink that shows the colored version of my fursona I used for this part of the blog. :D

NEXT FRIDAY

Yep. It's coming. Right now, I'm not so sure if it will be a good or bad thing. We'll just have to wait and see. :P In case you guys still don't know, I'll be turning 21 next Friday. I'll be sure to post something on that day just so I feel more special from you guys. :D I wonder what I'll end up getting. Here's my birthday list as of now:

I thought now would be a good time to do one. So, here's my eighth video blog.

Hey all!

I've been away over the weekend for a fall retreat with some friends. It felt great being away from campus, and I didn't feel like coming back after it was done. :P Anyway, I come back to check on what I missed out GameSpot, Giant Bomb, and DeviantART, and I have been getting problems on both GS and DA. With GS, I noticed that the PM system isn't allowing me to view my PMs as I keep getting a blank page upon viewing them. As for DA, it seems the site will lock up on me every time I look at messages. Once it's finished with that, I'm automatically on a different site other than DA, and it has caused me to bring up another browser closing the problematic one. I wonder if this has to do with the school's servers or because the computers are now running on Vista. :(

Anyway, school is going well for the most part. I'm staying on top of everything on my studies even though I've been stressing here and there. Nonetheless, I'll continue to do well. :)

I wanted to share a few videos I found on YouTube which I found to be quite humorous even though there are a few that are very, very crude, and I have thought on whether or not I should just hyperlink the ones I found to be crude. So, I might as well show them and put a little warning on the side of which ones I'm referring to. Hope you enjoy them. :)

Seth MacFarlane's take on Super Mario
Cat versus Printer Note: It's obvious that sound effects were used, but it's still funny. :P
Idiot's of Garry's Mod Warning: Some crude humor.
Idiot's of Garry's Mod 2 Warning: More crude humor than the first with some language.
Pac-Man: The Movie
Pachelbel Rant

I guess that's all I have to say for now. You guys take care.

Until next time, Giant Bombers! 8-)

Hey all!

I know I said that I was going to share with all of you what my semester is like. So, here are the classes I'm taking.

FALL SEMESTER 2008

Interaction for Game Development: (from the syllabus) This course is an introduction to 3D level Scripting. Through lectures and studio application of the student will experience and gain a comprehensive understanding of: game engine scripting, importing animations and models, pre planning, compiling, asset organization, and industry terminology. Principles governing critical analysis of level scripting. Lecture and lab.

Principles of Interaction: (from the syllabus) This course provides practical and theoretical knowledge in interactive development. Through lectures and studio application of the underlying interactive principles, the student will experience, and gain a comprehensive understanding of interactive project planning, media components, interactive delivery systems, information architecture, usability, user interface design, and interactive application development. Principles governing critical analysis of interactive content and graphical design will be emphasized.

American Lit. II: It's one of those classes I need to take. I've said that I have been slacking on reading, but I will take pleasure reading more than required. Anyway, this course goes over some of the American literature after the Civil War. Every now and then we'll take a quiz over what we've read. Some of the poetry that we had to read is quite bizarre, but the class discussions help me understand them more.

Intro to Cultural Geography: Again, it's one of those classes I need to take. There's nothing much to say about this class. All it goes over is how different cultures affect the environment around themselves and what changes are made over a period of time.

Concert Band: Unfortunately, I didn't make Wind Ensemble this time. I think what really messed me over was that I thought too much on a particular major scale causing me to start over and crash-and-burn through it. :( (sighs) Now here's where it kills me the most. For the past two years that I've attended ETSU, we've had to do auditions each semester to see which band we belong in. This year is different. Our director of bands has decided to leave all of us as is meaning that we won't be auditioning next semester. Why? In April, Wind Ensemble will be going to Carnegie Hall in New York to perform meaning that the music they're working on this semester will also be the same music they will be playing come April. So, yeah. I was really bummed out by this, but this all works for me because I would have been missing about fifteen minutes of my Game Development class if I took Wind Ensemble. I hope that next time I make it to Wind Ensemble for another trip.

Tuba/Euphonium Ensemble: Nothing much to say about this class. It's just tubas and euphoniums getting together rehearsing music. :)

REFERRING TO THAT SCHOLARSHIP VIDEO

Remember I said that the one with the most votes wins for that scholarship video? Well, I got it confused with another scholarship that had that objective. Instead, it's one person from the top 100 videos that will win the prize. I do thank you all for the votes, but I do hope that I win nonetheless. Who knows?

MY 2008 ANTICIPATED GAMES REVISED

Yeah, I wasn't too happy with my list because there were a couple of games that I totally forgot. Now that Spore's out, I will be taking out another game and add two in there place.

1. Prince of Persia
2. Final Fantasy XIII
3. Gears of War 2
4. Madworld
5. Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World
6. Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix
7. Street Fighter IV
8. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
9. Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen
10. Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood

Honorable Mentions:
Sonic Unleashed
Guitar Hero IV
Rock Band 2
Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia
Time Hollow

There. Noticed which ones I added? Yeah, I can't believe I forgot them. Silly me! :P

RETRO REVIVAL WEEK VIDEOS

Huzzah! I finally posted the remaining videos on Veoh! :D If I remember correctly, you guys have only seen my playthrough of the Emerald Hill Zone from Sonic 2. Well, here are the other videos I've done while participating RRW.

Sonic 3 & Knuckles
Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine
Columns III
Golden Axe II
Lightening Force Part 1
Lightening Force Part 2
Lightening Force Part 3
Indiana Jones' Greatest Adventures Part 1
Indiana Jones' Greatest Adventures Part 2
Indiana Jones' Greatest Adventures Part 3
Zombies Ate My Neighbors Part 1
Zombies Ate My Neighbors Part 2
Killer Instinct
Gradius III
Super R-Type
F-Zero
Super Mario Kart
Aladdin SNES
Aladdin Genesis
Super Star Wars
Super The Empire Strikes Back
Super Return of the Jedi
Half-Life Deathmatch Warning: Due to the graphic nature of this video (mainly bodies explode), you must be at least 18 to watch this video.

Well, I hope that you guys enjoy them. :) I do apologize for not embedding these videos.

I guess I better be heading out now. I'll catch you all later and be sure to study hard in school or college for those that are taking classes. :D

Until next time, Giant Bombers! 8-)

Hey all!

Wow. The month is almost over, but the summer has just ended for me now that I'm back in school. So, here I am going for my third year of college. Incredible, eh? Well, I'm not really that excited about it. I don't know why. I mean I should be since I only have two years of school including this. Maybe I'll feel it once I finish this semester, but I won't know until it happens. As for the classes I'm taking, I will discuss that in another blog. Right now I want to talk about other things besides school.

AT THE MOVIES

This summer brought some really cool summer movies, and here's my list of the best movies that I've seen in theaters.

1. The Dark Knight
2. Wall-E
3. Speed Racer
4. Iron Man
5. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
6. Kung Fu Panda
7. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
8. Star Wars: The Clone Wars

As for the last two movies, I wasn't really impressed with them, but I was very disappointed in The Clone Wars. If any of you plan on seeing it, DON'T! Remember the Cartoon Network version? That's all you need. Not convinced? Read Roger Ebert's review of the movie. I couldn't agree more with him.

ANTICIPATED GAMES

I know I said that I was going to do this list in the past, but life got in the way. So, here is a list of the games I'm looking forward to.

1. Prince of Persia
2. Final Fantasy XIII
3. Gears of War 2
4. Madworld
5. Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World
6. Spore
7. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
8. Time Hollow
9. Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen
10. Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood

Honorable Mentions:
Sonic Unleashed
Guitar Hero IV
Rock Band 2
Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia

Well, I think that about does it for this blog. Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you guys have a good Labor Day weekend. :D

Until next time, Giant Bombers! 8-)