Return of the Revenge of the Son of Saying Hi to Josiah!

[Saber Knight]

Hey.

Dude, Silver, you're like a ninja. I've never really been interested in dating for the sake of dating... but one of my friends got into a relationship like a month ago, and they're so happy together, and I kind of was a bit jealous, and wondered if I was closing myself off to something that could be really good. But, yeah, I often have issues picturing myself with a guy because I was basically one of the guys for so long... it'd just be kinda weird. Ugh. I guess I've just been thinking about it a lot lately, more so than usual, because I wanna figure out some shortcut to being happy, 'cos it seemed to work out so well for my best friend.

Also, thanks, Josiah! You guys realt are the best :D

In other news, my laptop monitor has been flickering off the past few days. Well, not OFF, but the brightness completly disappears... if you look hard enough, you can see a vauge outline of everything. I just kind of ignored it, like I do everything... and now it flickers off within 10 seconds of being turned on. Here's Saber, reporting from her mom's laptop....

[Josiah]

Hi! Being is a relationship doesn't neccessarily make you happy. The right relationship, sure. But if you end up in one with the wrong person, you could easily make yourself miserable. When it comes to being happy, you shouldn't rely on any one thing. A relationship may (or may not) bring happiness but so can reading a good book, playing Pokémon, hanging out with friends, eating ice cream, or any of a zillion other things (depending on personal preference). Also, try to make sure that you've got some things that make you happy that don't require other people. If you rely solely on friends or a boyfriend/girlfriend for happiness, you're setting yourself up to be miserable when you can't spend time with them or if you have a split. It's always best to be at least somewhat self-reliant. Finally, one of the best tricks for being happy is to just think and act happy. It may be cliche, but if you dwell on things that stress you out or aren't going well, you'll feel worse. If you try hard to act happy (even if you're faking it sometimes) and think happy thoughts, you'll start to be happier in general.

On the subject of Angry Birds and Plants vs. Zombies... PvZ is probably one of the best casual games out there. All of Pop Cap's games are really well done (Peggle, for example, is a great time killer), but PvZ is especially funny, has a great soundtrack, and is just a whole lot of fun to play. You can get the PC version for $10 on Steam ($20 everywhere else) and it's also on the 360, DS, iPhone/Pad, and now Android. The Android and iPhone versions are cheapest, but all the versions are pretty much the same. It just comes down to what screen size and control scheme you like best. I played the demo of the PC version shortly after it came out and wasn't blown away but liked it enough to pay $10 for the full game. After a few hours though, I was completely hooked and ended up putting over 100 hours into it. I highly recommend it.
Angry Birds is, in a word, overrated. It's not bad, by any means. In fact it's probably one of the better physics based 2D destruction games out there (that genre has been done to death on the internet). It's free (or really cheap if you don't mind some ads), has a lot of unlockables, and they frequently release new level packs (also free). It's a perfectly good way to kill five minutes here or there and can be somewhat addicting. That said, it's just a simple physics based desctruction game. And, like all such games, it's a bit finicky and relies too much on really precise aim and a bit of luck. There's only the teeniest bit of story, no soundtrack (just some simple sound effects), and nothing groundbreaking about it. I find it amusing if I have a few minutes to kill and nothing but my phone, and it's probably one of the best free phone games you can find (at least on Android) but I don't see what all the fuss is about. There's plenty of better casual games out there. You just have to pay for them.

[Siranae]

Yeah I figured it was overrated. It kinda is. It's a good game, but I don't think it's good enough to garner all the hype it's gotten. Just one of those things :P

Over 100 hours, huh? Sounds like a pretty good game. I've still got a couple bucks leftover from the iTunes giftcard I got for my birthday, maybe I'll give it a shot :)

The back of my neck is tingling, maybe it's because I've been staring at a paper drawing for four hours. The illustrations for that book took longer than I thought. Well, there were twenty minutes where my brother passed me the phone to help his friend install a font. The kid couldn't. even. make. a folder. Usually I'm pretty good at helping people out with computer stuff, but this kid...I dunno. Too many reasons to explain. One was that I asked him what kind of system he had. He said Windows 2010...yeah.

But I'm free now! Yay!

[Saber Knight]

Hey.

Sooo... tornado warning. In Massachusetts. There have been tornados doing damage. In Massachusetts. Granted, in western Massachusetts, and I live in the east... but there are tornados. In Massachusetts.

Did I mention there were tornados in Massachusetts?

I'm pretty sure mother nature forgot that this is Massachusetts. We don't get tornados. It just doesn't happen.

Also, thanks for the advice, Josiah! Yeah, I do my best not to rely on other people... but sometimes I get so sick of just relying on myself and also having other people rely on me and... meh.

Tornados. Massachusetts. Wut?

[Giga-Gar]

Hey.

Sooo... tornado warning. In Massachusetts. There have been tornados doing damage. In Massachusetts. Granted, in western Massachusetts, and I live in the east... but there are tornados. In Massachusetts.

Did I mention there were tornados in Massachusetts?

I'm pretty sure mother nature forgot that this is Massachusetts. We don't get tornados. It just doesn't happen.

Also, thanks for the advice, Josiah! Yeah, I do my best not to rely on other people... but sometimes I get so sick of just relying on myself and also having other people rely on me and... meh.

Tornados. Massachusetts. Wut?

Yes, the South has had a surplus of the tornado crop this year and decided that we should give some to you folk up north. Hope you like them! But seriously, the south has had a lot of tornados lately. It just wrecked northern Alabama a few months ago and now it's doing damage in Missouri. It's not just the tornados, but the t-storms attached to it. So much rain caused the river to flood, making us move BBQ Fest over to the Liberty Bowl, where the U of M has their football games. Tragic, I know. But anyway, more storms for us. Yay... One of them even turned the sky yellow, as if there was a solar storm outside.

[Silver]

Well. It's not quite as bad as tornadoes, but there was hail in New Jersey today. I left my windows open a crack, because otherwise it gets really hot in my car, and then I heard rain. Figuring I didn't want to sit on soaking wet seats, I ran out, but... well, my car was far enough away that it just wasn't worth it. Hail isn't really great weather to go for a run.

[Josiah]

Hi! My brother is in Texas now (for chiropractic school) and he had golf ball sized hail the other week. The weather here in Arizona is perfectly fine, however. That's one of the great things about the mid-west. We don't get tornados/hurricanes, earthquake, or tsunamis. We don't even get any serious electrical storms. There's the occasional fire, but I can't remember the last time a major fire came anywhere near a town or city. And I suppose there's flash floods too, but those are only dangerous if you're standing at the bottom of a canyon during a rainstorm so yeah... When it comes to natural diasters, the mid-west is a pretty good place to live.

In other news, I've got a free movie ticket! I think I'll use it today to finally see Pirates 4.

[Pikachu127]

I pronounce... My brief return. As in one post. So hai. Wish I could have more access, but... Oh well. Just wanted to say hi.

[Saber Knight]

Hey.

That's one of the great things about the mid-west. We don't get tornados/hurricanes, earthquake, or tsunamis. We don't even get any serious electrical storms. There's the occasional fire, but I can't remember the last time a major fire came anywhere near a town or city. And I suppose there's flash floods too, but those are only dangerous if you're standing at the bottom of a canyon during a rainstorm so yeah... When it comes to natural diasters, the mid-west is a pretty good place to live.

We were just talking about that the other day, except replace mid-west with northeast! And then the the tornadoes hit, which left us all in shock becaues tornadoes DO NOT BELONG IN MASSACHSETTS. At all. Which just means that no one is prepared for something as freakish as that. Never had an issue with a fire.... we kind of get some flooding issues, but not too much, and it's never anything dangerous... no hurricanes, no earthquakes and NORMALLY no tornadoes but Mother Nature just feels like messing with us. I guess we get some blizzards, but really nothing too bad.

And, results came out for who's on the National Honor Society board of directors next year. I didn't make it, but the 4 girls that did I think are totally deserving, so I'm fine with that. However, the 2 boys that made it... I was rather surprised, their speeches weren't all that good. Oh well!

SATs tomorrow, whoo!

[Josiah]

Hi! I got a job offer. I don't want to go into the details right now, since I haven't accepted yet, but it's for teaching game design. The reason I didn't accept it right away is because it looks like I have a pretty good shot at a similar job at a different school which looks like it may be all around better (better location, better salary, etc). I'll let you guys know once I know what I'm going to be doing.

Though if I'm going to be teaching, what I'd really like is a position at the university that I attended. They need another game professor and you'd think I'd be a shoe in seeing as I got my degrees there (so I know the program well), am already in the area, and am friends with a lot of the other professors there. Though at this point I'm starting to seriously think that God Himself doesn't want me to work there since, despite seeming like the obvious choice for that job, things just haven't gone well. They've been advertising that position since last winter. First, a professor I'm friends with actually wanted to offer me a job but then her duties got shuffled around so she no longer had any say in hiring. The guy who got put in charge (who I never met) either didn't like me for some reason or was just horribly unorganized. When he finally replied to my application, he wrote like he was a teenager texting someone (no caps, no punctuation, two sentence e-mails, etc)... And the position never did get filled. Now they're advertising for it again, and they really need someone seeing as they've got one of the 3D modeling teachers teaching game design courses (he's a great guy, he just doesn't know anything about game design). This time, different people are in charge of the hiring. But they seem pretty unorganized and apparently haven't even finished sorting through resumes and deciding who to call yet (despite having tons of time to do so). Ugh... I love the professors and deans at that place but upper management was always a bit off...

[Giga-Gar]

Good luck with the job Josiah!

[Josiah]

Hi! Seems the forums were having some trouble this morning. I think I fixed it though. And...I gotta run. Lot's to do today. There's a bunch of stuff going on in relation to my job search and Shavuot starts tonight. Not to mention that I didn't get a chance to spend much time on Aurora's Nightmare yesterday so I'd really like to catch up... Anyway, I'll be taking it easy for Shavuout (I have to, since it's a religious holiday and I can't work) so that'll be nice (though not great for my schedule).

[Silver]

Hello, everyone. A lot of things have happened lately, and it's got me thinking. There's something... that I really ought to tell you. I've been hiding this for a long time... It's my deepest, darkest secret, but I just can't lie to you all anymore. Please, don't think badly of me for this. I'm sure you'll understand why I had to hide this... But I'm still the same old Silver! It's just that I...








Well...









The truth is...








I like My Little Ponies. Specifically, Friendship is Magic.


...What?

[Saber Knight]

Hey.

What's up with the internet My Little Pony craze? It's everywhere! I might have to watch it to figure out what the fuss is about... but I've been busy re-watching Digimon Season 3 like a boss.

So, undergrad awards are tonight! This is my 3rd year straight of getting one.... sweet. It's one of my friend's first year, and he was like "I never got one before because I had all my good classes 2nd semester and they don't give awards for 2nd semester!" and I was like "Yeah, they do." and he was like "NO THEY DON'T" and then my other friend was like "Dude, the award I got last year was 2nd semester." and he was like "....." and I was thinking HAHAHA OWWWWNEEEED. That'll teach him to stop making dumb excuses.

Also, I'm going to our church yard sale to help organize stuff. That and to look at the antique sword that my dad said was there. It has a sheath. And I want to buy it. It better be awesome.

[Josiah]

Hi! Congrats, Saber!

It's shavuot today! But services were last night which means I've got the entire day to relax and hang out. That's awesome. What's no so awesome is that I'm not feel particularily great. Got a really annoying kink in both my back and my neck (no idea how that happened) and I'm just feeling a bit off in general. Nothing too serious, but enough to kinda constantly bug me a bit throughout the day... Fortunately, my parents are coming down tomorrow so I can have my dad fix me up then. Even better, we're going to see Weird Al Saturday night!