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

[Josiah]

Hi! If you guys haven't seen the Google Maps April Fools joke yet, you really should check it out really soon (it only runs through part of tomorrow).

In other news, I'm back in Florida and mostly over the cold I picked up near the end of my travels. Unfortunately, it's not the type to go down easy and I've been steadily losing my voice since yesterday, which is a problem since I'm supposed to be teaching classes and all.

[PoisonWing14]

Hey,

Bit quiet around here after KotF, huh?

Either way, I'm learning that my klutziness still rings true to me. I recently broke one of my nice glasses. I specifically use them for drinking soda when I'm relaxing. That makes three I've broken so far in the past couple of years. I'm now on my last one.

Also, spring is finally upon my area (i.e. no more snow, but instead a ton of rain). I even took a few minutes after getting out of school to just take in the rain...and get my clothes soaked.
Unfortunately, my backyard is also slightly...swampy, let's say. My next door neighbor has something of a pond forming in the very back of their property. This entire area used to be a brick factory at some point due to the abundance of clay here. Good for a brick business, not so much for runoff...and gardening...and house foundations.

[Silver]

Oh yeah. This place is a thing.

So um, I've got a new car. He's a Chevy Impala and I named him Vlad. Vlad the Impala. I've still got my Carlton ('99 Cavalier with no heat, no AC, no gas gauge, and... inappropriate words keyed onto the side) but Colly's adopted him more or less.

Buying new cars is terrible and there's just SO MUCH PAPERWORK that needs to go to so many different places and there's a million different things I could get a ticket for right now just for driving the thing but I HAVE A CAR WITH HEAT.

[PoisonWing14]

Hey,

Glad to hear, Silver. I have said before, and I will say again, I know almost nothing of cars or what kinds are better than others, but a car with working heat? That I can get behind.

So, I'm heading off in a bit to visit two colleges. The last two I have yet to visit. Due to one being almost on the other side of the state and having to visit one today and the other tomorrow, my dad and I will be staying at a friend's house tonight, after the first college. The drive back here tomorrow, after visiting the second college, will be just about a 4 hour long drive. I hope I can find something to do during that period of time...or just sleep. Sleep is always an option.

Stay radical people!

[Josiah]

Hi! I know what you mean, Silver. I'm hoping my current car lasts a long time because I really don't want to go through the car buying process again any time soon.

Ugh... That cold hung on way longer than I thought it would and I half lost my voice as part of it, which made getting through a week of classes tough. But now it's finally gone, though I think it'll take a couple days for my throat to finish healing.

In other news, I got a PS4! Haven't done much with it yet, but I've got Metal Gear Ground Zeroes waiting for me as soon as I finish Lightning Returns. One thing I did do pretty much as soon as I got the PS4 was swap out the hard drive. Assassin's Creed IV had a ridiculous 20GB install and if other games follow that trend, the base 500GB drive isn't going to last long so I put in 1TB instead. Though between that and the recent upgrade of my PS3's hard drive, I've now got a couple of extra hard drives laying around that I'm not sure what to do with.

[shauni]

Buying new cars is terrible and there's just SO MUCH PAPERWORK

I hear ya Silver, but I'm glad I went and bought my Little Sakura



20GB for a game? god, it takes 5 hours for my internet to download 2GB, I'd hate to try and download that....I still see a place for games on disc as long as millions of people like me are in internet poverty.

[Josiah]

Hi! Even with a good internet connection, 20GB would be a very long download followed by an even longer install. More than enough time for me to drive to Gamestop and buy the physical game (probably half a dozen times over, at least). I really don't get who would want to buy a downloadable version of a current AAA game unless they live so far out in the middle of nowhere that they have no easily accessible stores or mail delivery (yet still have great internet).

[shauni]

I can understand PS Vita and 3DS downloads so you can take more than one game with you, and I guess a digital copy of a game doesn't have the box and disc taking up space, but I think I'm like a lot of people and I like to display my games as a collection. Plus the whole, trading it in when you are done thing is a bonus.

Think I'll stick to physical media until my internet is better and I'm forced by download only games

[Josiah]

Hi! Sigh... This place has been dead for weeks now...

So, as I mentioned on PV, my travel plans are starting to fall into place. First, I've got a meeting I need to attend a week from Monday in Honolulu. Hopefully something pretty good will come out of it. And, even if it doesn't work out, I'm getting a free trip to Hawaii out of the deal (the people I'm meeting with are paying for airfare). Since my parents have their condo there, I'm going to stay in Honolulu for a few weeks. After that? Two weeks in China. It's a country I've wanted to visit for a long time and I made a couple friends over there over the past year that I'd like to visit, so it'll be a mix of hanging out with them and touring. Part of me wishes it were a longer trip (China is huge and there's a lot of cool things to see), but plane tickets worked out best that way. Plus, since I don't speak the language and am a bit worried about pollution and some other issues there, it seems like a reasonable length for a first trip. If everything works out, I'll be a lot more familiar with the country and more prepared if I want to do a longer trip in the future. And then after China, a month (maybe longer) in Japan. No particular reason other than that I love Japan and it's a short and fairly cheap flight from China. I'm not quite sure exactly how long I'll stay, since it's somewhat dependent on how that Hawaii thing turns out (if it goes well, I'll want to be back in early July to prepare). Still working out exactly what I'll be doing there (I've got some time), but visiting friends (especially around the Tokyo area) and touring some parts of the country I haven't been to before are priorities. Speaking of which, if any of you didn't see my Facebook post, and have some time and money to spare, I wouldn't a travel companion for all or part of my time in Japan. It'd be fun to have someone around for a change (I like playing tour guide) and we could split hotel costs and stuff.

[shauni]

Man Josiah, Wish you had asked this time last year, I was actually in Japan LOL

I'm planning to go again with a friend of mine in 2020 before or during the Olympics if we can afford it.

Still, its a long time off and I really miss Japan. Defo going to have to go again.

All my holidays are tied up this year with Italy. Already had to cancel a trip to Thailand & Ireland due to money. Never mind, I'm going to enjoy Italy, and who knows, the next big holiday I want to do is Florida again, but right this time.

When we went in 2006 we did not do a SINGLE THEME PARK. This was the whole reason I wanted to go, next time I'm arranging the trip MYSELF.

If you are in the USA next time I'm over (2016 onwards) we should meet up! I'm braver now!

[Josiah]

Hi! I'd love to meet up sometime, though keep in mind that the US is a really big place. That's kinda like saying we should meet next time I'm in Europe. But anyway, if we're ever near each other, we should definitly meet up.

Well, this week is off to a crazy start. There's grading finals but a bunch of Aurora's Nightmare stuff is going on too and I've still got some stuff to do before I leave for Hawaii on Sunday. And then that Monday's that meeting I mentioned (which I just found out I need to prepare a presentation for). Once that's over though, things should be fairly calm until I head to China and Japan.

[shauni]

I'd love to see Hong Kong. Don't know why just always liked the idea of going.

My bucket list top 5 are, in this order

Japan (Done)
Disney Land Florida (So near yet so far already!)
Egypt (Nile Cruise)
Italy Pompeii and Herculaneum (Going this year woot!)
Iceland Northern Light

[Silver]

Well, between the lot of us, you could probably meet up with someone wherever you end up in the US! Should you decide to visit New York City on Philadelphia, I'm about 2 hours away from them and could easily meet you there.

[Josiah]

Hi! I've enjoying myself in Hawaii. Got my meeting done (though I have a bit of related follow-up work to do for that today), got my suitcase back, spent some time on the beach... And tomorrow I can finally sleep in for a change (I've had way to many late nights over the past week).

As for me, there's a lot more places I'd like to see in some of the countries I've already visited (such as Japan and Italy), but if I'm going to list my top countries that I've never been too:
China (gonna be there in three weeks!)
Australia
Greece
France

Now if I was listing towns, cities, and other locations rather than countries, that'd be a much longer list.

[shauni]

BREAKING NEWS!

Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire confirmed November 2014!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=p ... wGSON9tNq0

SO EXCITED!

Also, I've never really fanised New York before, dunno why, but I'll let you know if I'm ever near Philadelphia LOL

I am so looking forward to Italy.

I'd also really like to go to Poland as well for a tour of all the War related sites. I studied it at collage. Its like Hiroshima and Pompeii, I just need to see it to understand what happened.