I'm Home

I landed in SD about 2 hours ago. I'm home. I set up my Wii downstairs and I heard the sounds of Link in the Legend of Zelda for the first time. Of course, I got my new Rayman game only to have it not work right out of the box. I'm trying some solutions to get it to read the disc since the splash screen works and it proceeds to part of the opening (once) before giving me a read disc error. We'll see.

Also, check out starcraft2.com, they've got some really awesome videos up. Like I said yesterday. I'm dead :P

And, if you're still in San Diego and you want to hit up some clubs or bars or something outrageous, let me know. I'm sure I'm gonna be bored :(

It's Official: My Life Is Over

I'm already planning out my summer spending, looking into picking up a refurb 37" LCD HDTV for my apartment so I can play Guitar Hero 3 when it comes out for the Wii later this year. Once that happens, I'm pretty resigned to wasting most of my time Guitar Hero'ing. Still, I can usually function with one obsession holding me back.

Today. Blizzard announced the killer blow. Starcraft 2. Dear goodness me. Doesn't look like much changes from Starcraft, though. From early reports, it looks like a few more units, a new race, and new and improved graphics, but nothing dramatic in terms of gameplay. Don't know if that matters or not, but I'm sure it'll absorb me much more than it should.



So, Adieu. Glad I knew you.

Live blog of Blizzard's Worldwide International @IGN

A Season of Finales

Last night was a big night for TV season finales. And, if the Gilmore Girls fans will excuse me, probably the most important night of finales of the week. Since I went out last night, and since a lot of my sources of TV watching were messed up early on, I didn't get a chance to watch anything until this afternoon. It was well worth the wait.

Of course, I usually watch these shows with Maggie, but since she's out of the country, she gave me permission to watch them ahead of time just to satiate my undying need for something to do.

First, The Office. I love it. It was a great episode with a lot of loose ends that will progress into next season. If you haven't seen it, I won't ruin the ending, but it's sweet. Jan's boob job is fun, too, but kind of awkward. At any rate, I loved the storyline and the sheer potential, on top of a Spamalot cameo...

I also made a new blog because of it. During one scene in the episode, Creed talks about his blogging exploits. He gives the website www.creedthoughts.gov.www/creedthoughts. Trying it out (since in 24, the phone # they give actually works and directs you to the "fan" phone), I got nothing. So, I stole the email address creedthoughts at gmail and made a blog called creedthought.blogspot.com (someone already has creedthoughts...). Now I haven't actually done anything with it yet, but I signed up for an AdSense account for it and put some tracking software on it as a precurser to what I'm planning to do. If all goes well, I could possibly, maybe, design a CSS scheme that integrates a popup video showing clips from The Office + Previews + Guest appearances of stars, as well as link to various articles and write various reviews/link to reviews about our favorite hit show, The Office. I may even eventually migrate to a real webhost/webserver and take the domain www.creedthoughts.com, and publish with wordpress, but we'll see. It's got potential, so I thought I'd be entrepreneurial and make a move.

Next up though, I went through an episode of Scrubs (one hour double episode) and even though it was an emotional rollercoaster, it ended in one of the most dramatic cliffhangers of the shows 6 season. A lot happened (and a lot of stuff didn't matter) but the personal relationships that drive the show really shined in the two finale episodes. I can't wait to see what's coming up next.

Finally, the ever-present girly-man show. Grey's Anatomy. It was good. Not awesome. Definitely surprising, but much more in character than any of the last month's worth of episodes. One intern fails his test (and no one knows what's going to happen), one person gets to be Chief of Surgery, another gets shafted out of Chief Resident, and...Derek isn't an ass? Oh, and Meredith's half-sister is on the show now. Cool. And I feel really bad for the end, it's sad. Real sad. *sniff*

If you get a chance, definitely take some time to check these out. NBC and ABC are pretty good at webhosting the episodes after they air, so go there first. If that doesn't work (or you're computer literate and love your divx avis), check out some torrents for TV Rips. Otherwise, have a great day, and I'll see you in sunny San Diego tomorrow!

So Boring. So Dull.

I basically did nothing today. Nothing. Except go out to eat with Yuan, Tyler, and Kristina. Otherwise, nothing.

Maggie e-mailed about her first day in Thailand. Apparently, she slept for awhile, so that's something to cheer about. She saw a killer elephant and she doesn't understand Mandarin. So, all in all, something nice to hear.

Yeah, with finals over, I'm pretty much in a state of perpetually finding something to do. I played some games, read some forums, got all excited over the possibility of spending a couple thousand on an ultra-micro PC (See OQO Model 02, or the Vaio UX1).

Oh, and I have not watched The Office season finale yet, so stay tuned for that...

On a last note, I still want playlists. But since no one reads this, I don't expect any. And uh, I'm gonna be in San Diego for 12 days or so, so if you want me to say hi, say so, otherwise I'll probably just end up calling anyways. And uh, I'm starting to think I should let this blog die like my last one.

Boom!

I'm done. Woo.

I just finished my Psych midterm this morning, and I'm not terribly disappointed by my performance, although there were a few questions where I had just no idea. Some of it was because the question was out of left field (i.e. from the book) and some of it was just poorly explained in the lecture/review section, so it wasn't a really good question to start with. Seriously, one questions was about "In what country is Angel Falls located?" What does that have to do with Psychology? I knew it, but not because I remembered it from lecture...

At any rate, I don't think I did worse than 90% which means my grade-average should be high enough for an A (and hopefully not an A-) and if there's any consolation, even if it isn't good enough for an A (and it is an A-), then I'll probably get a bump (*cross fingers*). Why? Good question.

I'll tell you why.

I raped my Psych paper. That's why. Not like "Oh, I did pretty well and it's good enough for an A" kinda thing. No. It's like, "Oh shit. That paper got raped. Bitch.". Ridiculous. "Best paper I've read so far". Doublepluspwned. 100% awesome (i.e. I got 100 points out of 100 possible, but it could've been like 100 points out of 150 possible and then it wouldn't have been so impressive, so I made it unambiguous).

Yeah, I'm done. It's still cool though, cause I put a lot of thought and effort into the idea and the paper and it worked out well. I think it could've been better, but with these page limits, it's hard.

Anyways, I also got an A in Bio1A, so I can stop worrying about that. I got an A+ in Bio1AL, so I can stop worrying about that. And I'm probably getting an A in Psych, so I'm pretty much done worrying. They still need to grade/post Asian Studies grades, but since that's P/NP and I kinda don't see myself not passing, I should be in the clear for 4.0 semester #2. Ridiculous? Maybe. Awesome? Definitely.

Boom.

Edit: I guess I made a mistake. I still have to worry about MCB C100A grades. I should be ok, but who really knows. It's really up in the air and I'm not sure exactly where it'll fall.

On that same note, I just calculated my GPA after this semester (assuming I do get a 4.0), and it goes up by 0.03 points. How awful. This is a lesson to everyone out there. Don't get B+'s...you'll never get those points back...ever...

Keeping This Short

I've got a final tomorrow morning, so I'm going to sleep right now.

Maggie just left for Thailand about an hour ago and I'm pretty bored and lonely. I'll be in Berkeley for a couple more days (Tomorrow, Thursday, and Friday) and I'm doing a little bit of work between and now and then; but, since Yuan cancelled on me for IMAX Spiderman 3, I've got no major plans until I leave. So, if anyone wants to grab lunch or dinner or hang out or talk or something...(just no random sex...Maggie wouldn't approve...), I'd be happy to accommodate.

Uh, so IM or e-mail me or text message me or even call me (after 2pm). I'd love to do something. PLEASE!

What A Waste

My ears hurt, but I suppose that's more my fault than anything else. I picked up the new Linkin Park album, Minutes to Midnight, yesterday along with the new White Stripes single Icky Thump and the new Maroon 5 album, It Won't Be Soon Before Long.

Yeah, I know, LP isn't supposed to be released wide until May 15. Yeah, I know even iTunes doesn't have it yet. And yeah, it's real.

Oh, and I know Maroon 5 isn't supposed to be wide until May 22. Yeah. It's real too.

So, on that note, I think I have to do some justice and give a quick spin down of what I think.

Icky Thump is first and foremost, really good. The guitar riffs are edgier and the sound is heavier than before, but it works really well. I definitely like it a lot more than most of their previous album, Get Behind Me Satan. If you get a chance to check it out, YouTube has a few radio edits out mixed into some random White Stripes motifs.

Now to the good stuff. Linkin Park's third album, Minutes to Midnight (in reference to the Doomsday Clock which is now 3 minutes to midnight...or doom...or wtfijustblewup), has 12 new songs each with a very distinct feel and sound. Unlike Hybrid Theory and more like Meteora, Minutes to Midnight sounds much more refined, but it loses a lot of the dynamic sound that makes LP sound like LP. If you like "My December", "Numb", "In the End", maybe even "Faint", this album sounds pretty good from top to bottom. If you preferred the heavier, Mike Shinoda driven rap and Chester shrieking from "One Step Closer" or "Crawling", this might not be it for you. Now, that's not to say it's not there, but it's a small and it's definitely separate from the other stuff. Stuff like "Bleed It Out" and "Given Up" sound really good, but you won't hear it mixed into the more ballad-driven songs like you would in previous LP efforts.

From the first couple runs through the album (on shuffle since this was on my Nano), I think "What I've Done" is probably one of the strongest songs on the album, but I've really gotten into "Bleed It Out" and "Leave Out All The Rest". "Hands Held High" is the cliche anti-war song with Mike Shinoda rapping and it's not bad, but nothing spectacular. "Shadow Of The Day" isn't bad either, but I don't think it matches up the average on Meteora. Other than that, it's pretty average, lot less noticeable synth work in the back, more guitar all-around, a more typical rock product than most LP fans probably expected.

The Maroon 5 album, on the other hand, is Maroon 5 through and through. High-end, ear-piercing, and agonizingly pop lamentations about the opposite sex. What better way to go than that? I'm actually enjoying the first go-around with the album, maybe even a little more than the LP album (which probably will fade after I realize how shallow the pop sound is). Even though their first single, "Makes Me Wonder", made me wonder why I should even try with this album because of it's emotionlessness, a lot of other songs really make up for it. I've been enjoying "Kiwi" and "Can't Stop" and "Little Of Your Time" and "Not Falling Apart" are both pretty good. Outside of that, there's not one really bad song (except maybe "Makes Me Wonder", but it grows on you in the grand scheme of the album). If you like Songs About Jane, this album should grow on you. Of course, that's if you like the sound and not the lyrics, because this album is more about breaking up than finding love and wooing it. Top to bottom, this album is much better than Songs About Jane, but I don't think there's a "Sunday Morning" or a "She Will Be Loved" here (whether that's a bad thing or not, is up to you).

Oh, and there's a song with an intro that sounds a lot like Eve 6's "Here's to the Night". I don't know. Maybe just a coincidence.

Oh, and apparently, my "friend" playlist thing isn't going to work. Three days later and I've still got nothing. Thanks guys.

Maybe I should let this blog die. If you disagree, let me know by giving me songs...
http://yavanatidae.blogspot.com/2007/05/im-not-confident-good-thing-and-help-me.html

Happy Mother's Day and Video of the Week: The Office

Happy Mother's Day to all the mother's in the world. I called my mom this morning, so you should too (OK, I lied, I called her an hour ago because I wasn't awake this morning, but still...)

I don't have a funny picture or video for this special occasion, so I'll just put up some funny videos. The Office season finale is this week, which is unfortunate since that just means its all over until the fall. While this season might not be as good as last (debatable, some have been really good), the finale should be exceptional. What's gonna happen to Pam and Jim? What about Michael? Are they going to find Andy Bernard? We'll see. If we don't, then atleast we'll have these classic moments from earlier episodes. Probably the best intro/outro of the series. Ever.





Oh, and don't think I haven't forgotten, I still need playlists!
http://yavanatidae.blogspot.com/2007/05/im-not-confident-good-thing-and-help-me.html