The end is nigh.

Fall semester just closed up, and from the grades posted I passed just about everything. Note I didn't say I did well, I passed. My average is a B right now, although I know that will change when my math grades come in.

The issue of the day right now is the power outage that occurred Thursday night, lasting all through Friday. The problem is that my math final, my last final of the semester is on Friday. The test is rescheduled for January. This give me 3 more weeks to study, 3 weeks that is my winter break. Regardless, I had a flight to catch. I'm going home.

I pack my stuff Friday night, my flight is the following day, Saturday at midnight. I make arrangements for a taxi to the airport. The guy's late, by half an hour. What the fuck. I call the dispatch and the dude gives me an attitude. "to be honest, your lucky to even be getting a taxi at all on a night like this" It was a nice night to be outside, I was enjoying myself despite my ride being late. Luckily I arrived at the airport on time, mainly because my flight has also been delayed by half an hour. So things worked out, mostly.

After checking in, on the way to the security check at the airport, I've never been so freaked out. Now note that its late, all the stores at the airport are closed and there are only a few people around. A stocky short Hispanic guy in a leather jacked, blue shirt, and jeans is walking to my right within my peripheral vision. That's alright you know, this is what people do in a hallway, they walk. I stop to check my boarding pass on which gate I'm supposed to head to. Here's the weird part; He stops as well. No he doesn't stop to check a store or take a call or to tie shoelaces he just stops and stands there. Whoa, that's weird. Now it's not hard to notice this either, the area was empty except for me and him. I stuff the boarding pass back into my pocket, I didn't even check my gate, I'm on high alert now. I start walking again, towards the middle of the hall and stop abruptly to "check my shoe laces". He stops instantly just as I do and tries to act nonchalant. I inspect my shoelaces intentionally for a awkwardly long amount of time. After a bit he begins to act real nervous and walks to a CLOSED information booth and stands there. I get up and being to head towards the security check, as I start moving he does to.

I'm really starting to get nervous at this point because the first time may have been coincidence but now I'm pretty sure somethings up. So I get inline for the security check with him right behind me. The way the security at this airport works is that you get in a single line which after ID check splits into 5 separate x-ray scan and metal detector terminals. Now I'm thinking, I checked in so I can't really miss my flight; they do a paging passenger etc. when your not there on time. So after ID check I intentionally get on the longer line, which got me a few weird looks but get this, the guy also gets on the same line as me. So being from NYC, I figure he's going to mug me but then I think about the situation and any possible explanation gets tossed out. We're in the middle of a security check point with, probably armed, security officers surrounding us. There's a metal detector up ahead and there's no real backing out once your on this line so either he's unarmed or really stupid. So why the heck did he follow me all this time? Lacking any real good reason why someone would follow me, I decide notifying a security officer would cause a unnecessary situation. So I get through the check point and take off. I looked back to see him looking at me while struggling to put his shoes back on (security requires you to take off your shoes and put them through x-ray). I make a few quick turns around some corners and arrive at my gate, I never saw him again.

That was a week ago, I didn't want to think about it during vacation but figured I'd better write it down before I forget all the details.

Now onto why I'm writing this entry. This is my last one for the fall semester and I overdrew my bank account. The fee is fucking ridiculous and it really wasn't my fault. I wrote a check out to my roommate for the electric bill, water, and groceries a month ago. He never cashed the check but I figured he did and kept my bank balance under the assumption that I have no checks floating out there. Then a month later he cashes the stupid thing and behold I have insufficient funds. Crap.

Till spring!

Finally some time for another entry. Last Saturday night I waited 9 hours for the midnight launch of the Nintendo Wii. It was awesome since I met some cool people and nabbed some great swag. I picked up a Wii and a extra controller. Sadly I don't have a T.V so I haven't opened it yet. My room-mate however does have a T.V and a Wii so I've been playing it on his equipment.

As for my Wii, it's on eBay. I'll get another one when I head back to NYC for Christmas. It shouldn't be so hard to get considering an expected 4 million units to be in stores. This week was only 3 days with Thanksgiving off and Friday off so I've had a lot of time to relax and take a break from all the school work. I rented Call of Duty 3 for the Wii and I normally hate WW2 shooters and shooters in general for consoles. I must say though, I am surprised. COD3 is an awesome game for the Wii. Everything just feels right, the controls are awesome and the immersion is amazing. Nothing is more satisfying than jabbing your Wii-mote forward and having your on screen character doing the same thing knocking out a enemy with the butt of the gun. It's awesome.

Wednesday night, me and my room-mates headed down to EBGames and I picked up a DS Lite. Only 4 days after blowing most of my money on the Wii, I get a DS Lite. I'm officially broke. With my new DS I also got Brain Age, I guess it's something to do when I need to pass time.

School is still going along just as usual. Only a few more weeks to finals and then a much needed break. I went with a friend of my mom who lives around here for a min-thanksgiving thing. It was boring and I didn't understand, well hardly understood, a word anyone was saying. There was food and it didn't come out of a microwave, that's all I cared.

If I find time, I will add more entries. One more thing to note, I was offered a chance to get out of my game team, whose producer I hate, but something in me made me decline. I don't know why, but I did. So since it is my own choice, I am stuck with that idiot willingly. Shit happens in life I guess. I need to work more on my math, if I slip up just a tiny bit, I will fail. I can't take that risk because it is essentially going to decide if I get to relax for the 4 month summer or I get to work my ass off again. I think I need the break.

It's been almost a month since my last post but for good reason. Mid terms were at the last two weeks of October and I spent the first two weeks studying. I just failed the math mid term but since it was so borderline I can still pass.

They sent the tuition bill for the spring semester to my address in New York; so I didn't pay in time but luckily there were no consequences and I got that taken care of. I registered my spring classes but some of the classes I wanted to take were full unfortunately. I only got 19 out of the 22 I wanted to take. I'll be staying over the summer it look like to take an additional 10 - 20 credits. Just to lighten my load for next year.

Despite my skepticism on the first semester team project (Turing test) it's actually coming along quite nicely. It has a 70 percent accuracy rate which is quite nice. I'm debating weather or not to post the finished programs as each semester closes since it may reveal who I am.

Recently I was at Gas Powered games play testing a game called Supreme Commander. Beyond that I can't say much since I did sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement.

What I can say is that tomorrow I will be hauling my ass down to Monolith productions to play test another game. I need to figure out how to get to their offices, I might car pool. Although I don't know anything about it other than it's a console shooter with multi player and is in early concept stages, which means spring 2008 release and a fall 2007 announcement. Although I may be wrong and completely off. I haven't seen the thing yet. But, once I have I'll have signed another NDA telling me to keep my mouth shut. It's awesome to play test games since there's usually soda and pizza.

Class has been going along as usual, nothing really major to note. The project is moving along nicely, it's week 10 and the project is in early alpha stages. The final deliverable is due week 15.

A lot of people have already dropped out. My math class especially has emptied out after the mid term. I'm borderline so I'm working my ass off to pass otherwise I'll be down over $1,000 to retake the class. I'm doing fine in all my other classes.

Other than the two play tests and mid terms, October was uneventful and November seems the same way.

From the time of my last post you can probably tell I've been swamped by the work load. I've gotten myself into the advanced GAM100 lab so we've already put together teams for our first game. In the 4 weeks that I've been at Digipen I've already completed 3 essays, 2 books, and 2 coding assignments as well as over 10 pages worth of math assignments. As well as several chapters in various textbooks. They weren't kidding when they said it was going to be tough, but this is also supposed to be the easy year.

I've been designated as Designer for the team and our first game will be a mini game compilation, the rules are that it has to be text based and written in Standard C. Not hard, but we also have to implement LUA. We have a 15 week design phase and a 15 week build phase. All the while I have a second major coding project that's due the same time as the design.

The Turing test, or a implementation of one. 15 weeks and limited to 1.44MB tops, meaning it has to fit on a floppy. So much for my original idea of a massive database of responses is dead. There's been a lot of discussion but nothings being done. I have doubts about our producer but I've already made my dislike of him clear, no need to pursue the issue further. He also lacks the ability to communicate his ideas properly. Then again, that's also why we're all here. That's life, I'll deal with it.

Things at "home" are going well, I've been left a lot of personal space in my room and enjoy it there. Not having to deal with my roommates (don't get me wrong, I don't hate them, I just don't like to deal with people unless I must). Someone forgot to pay their share of the cable bill last month but we figure it out and he paid up. All is well so far but I haven't been able to play and games since I've gotten here sans the occasional round of Counter-Strike. I've spent most of my time in school actually, working on math (my weakest subject, already failed a quiz) and programming (my strongest area, perfect scores on code that takes me 2 minutes). I've been keeping my head afloat for art and English with no drive to excel in those areas.

I've found a quaint little area in my apartment complex to read, the top of the jungle jim. Just like when I was in elementary school I used to climb to the top so I can enjoy life and the moments that evanescence. I'm working hard at school, something I rarely do and something I'm rarely if ever happy about. I'm enjoying myself despite not getting to do any of my hobbies anymore. Does this really mean so much to me?

Regardless of whether I'm happy or not, stress is stress. Making due dates and taking tests will take it's toll whether I enjoy the assignment or not. However, my usual channel of stress relief is not there anymore. I no longer have the time to be playing games or skating. I haven't had an adrenaline rush for the longest time and I'm starting to crack. I need to find some release and since I can't barrel down the busiest street in Queens at 50MPH on skates, I'll need to find something else. I need to find time to do it too.

I'm beginning to believe more and more in the idea that time is the most precious commodity we have. Ever minute of my life, I wish I had just more time, to accomplish more. It's also the one commodity one can't gain. That's life, I'll have to deal with it.

It's the second day of classes. Things are going smoothly and the school itself surpassed my expectations, which was rather shocking to me because I have rather high expectations. Usually what you hear during orientation is what the school wants to implement and usually never gets to doing. But here at Digipen, everything not only works, but works well.

First day, I showed up and had to get my ID since I slept through the day of orientation where people normally get their ID's. It was a bad idea to sleep through that day. But I got my ID and was off to my first class. Rather standard happenings. The hour and 20 minutes passed extremely quickly and the 3 hour gap before the start of my next class we a definite plus. It's great not having to rush from one class to the next in four minutes and forgetting everything along the way. I took a walk around the building, the neighborhood, got some food and drink. In general, just enjoying the change of scenery. I also spent some time in the computer lab.

I think I'm in love with these computers. 2.8 ghz dual core CPU's, GeForce 7900GT, 2 GB's ram. And these are school computers, can you believe it? I'd never thought in my life I'd actually want a school computer. These PC's are better than the one I have at home and the one I have at home was designed to be a high end gaming rig. And there's just rows after rows of these computers for me to use. I think I'm in heaven and loving it. I don't want to leave, ever.

Second day of class was a little more unsure than the first, I forgot my schedule. So I had to guess at which class I was supposed to attend. I guessed right when the attendance sheet showed my name. Imagine the relief. I biked home during my hour 20 minute break to grab my schedule. Feeling adventurous I decided to take the bike trail, that thing is all down hill all the way. Insanely fun and fast! The way back wasn't so much... Newtons law of conservation of energy. I hate that law.

I can't believe any school would actually invest so much money in these computers, which must cost at least $2000 a piece. Not only that, there is a great backbone behind everything and all devices in the building are interconnected. Props to the IT team.

My Internet is finally up and running after a few hitches with comcast. I didn't think service can get any worse then what I had back in NYC. I've been here for 8 days now I'm pretty much settled in.

For furniture ikea was a life saver. A mattress and desk was all I bought, the mattress is on the floor and the desk is already messy. My roommates showed up one at a time and for the time being they seem alright. Although one of them really fits the stereotypical geeky gamer type. I've been cooking a bit here and there and I'm surprised I haven't burned the place down already. Things were rather uneventful as things were unpacked and set up. Although one of my roommates brought a big screen TV in which was rather shocking.

Orientation was yesterday and was quick and painless. Just a run down of the rules and photos for ID's. My computer also came via UPS and they busted it up bad. I took photos and filed a claim. Not only was it damaged, it was late. Talk about adding insult to injury. Although if it ever starts working again, my roommate had spare ram so I'm at 1.5 gigs now.

Today, early in the morning I took the placement exam. Going in, I had no clue what it was going to be on. They didn't say and I didn't ask. If anyone reads this, a word of advice, ask. Good news is that the professor said "Alright, your good, yup all good." Does that mean I passed? Failed? I'll have to find out.

Regardless, the test was tough, much tougher then I had thought and I thought it was going to be pretty hard. The staff have been trying to spook the freshmen with the workload for a while and I've been immune until now. That was my first taste of college and it looks like I have a lot of work to do in the next four, hopefully three, years.

At the airport, today's my flight. Not much time, must make all arrangement's for arrival. If all goes well everything should be waiting for me when I get there. Almost a month of planning all comes down to the next 10 minutes.

Airport check-in was standard enough sans the need to open the cardboard boxes I used to substitute for actually suit cases. Other then that, it was rather nice. Also great that JetBlue has Wi-Fi in the waiting area. Last post for a long time now. At least 3 days while I get net over in Redmond.