RFTSOB

Recently, I've taken to re-reading old blog posts en masse when I want to waste time in the wee hours of the morning instead of sleep. First mine, then the blogbuddies. Having spent the past hour and a half wrapped up in happy blogosphere nostalgia of years past, here are my thoughts:

1. God this blog used to suck. As annoying as it is when people never post, I now fully understand your wise desire for quality control.

2. Note to self: avoid excess ditzy smiley faces in comments. Actually, work on commenting skills all together.

3. Once upon a time, I would tell people "oh yes, and these are the nerdy friends I hang out with. I only understand what they're talking about maybe a third of the time." Now, looking back based on what I know now, I'm pretty sure that number has tripled. It's official, I'm out of excuses. Oh well, the dork side is nice, plus they have cookies. (or at least that's what the t-shirt said)


Also- As you may know, I recently ran into a serious (yet serendipitous) snag in an attempt to dedicate the aching void in my life to WOW. When my credit card wouldn't work initially, an investigation yielded the following results: You see, a character cannot be transferred from the European server to the US server, making any efforts I put in whilst over here absoultely fruitless once I head back stateside. Furthermore, joining the European server means paying 14.99 Euros a month, not dollars. At the current exchange rate, plus the cost my credit card charges to convert, that's well over double what I would pay in the US. Initially I was able to get over my cheap-ass self enough to pay $14.99/mo for the joy that is being a Horde Tauren Shaman (I know, Tauren, surprising, right?) but this is simply too much.

So I need some serious help- and by that I mean another (preferably free) game to fill the void until I'm back in the US for an extended period of time. Come to think of it, with the multitude of mmorpgs out there, surely there exist several games just as awesome as warcraft, just without the brandname allure and hefty price tag, right? (BGII is still an option, but try finding a game store for US PCs in Francophone Switzerland. Internet shopping fails because I've probabaly already spent enough on international shipping from US websites to have the import facility in Zurich give me an entire file. Plus, this is also very expensive, which brings us back to the problem that started this questline to begin with- my cheap-ass self. And no, when you're in this deep to character development, Pokemon simply won't do. )

Suggestions? Guidance? Obi Wan?

OMGMSFT

When it comes to hard work and academic pursuits under non-stressed conditions, my attention span is decent, but nothing wonderful. Maybe 2-3 hours tops before I need a lengthy, serious distraction. I'm always amazed, then, when I find myself able to be entertained by doing the most mundane online activity for hours and hours on end (literally, six or more) without growing weary of it. Things like playing online games or reading webcomics are, to me at least, just the perfect balance between "doing something and being entertained by it" (albeit, clicking a mouse) and "not really anything that taxing" to the point where they become outright addictive. I think this also comes from my natural way of being. I know I don't like change in the longterm, but that often applies in the shortterm too. When I'm on the beach, I want to stay dry for as long as possible until the overbearing heat forces me into the ocean. Once I'm wet, however, I never want to get out. It's the same with sleeping vs. being awake, and apparently, hardcore web surfing.

But enough about me. Today I found the best webcomic ever, and I simply must spread the word. There are 900 something strips and I'm only on 200, and I am not at all knowledgeable when it comes to old school video games and the (apparently shitty) life of a game programmer, but the rest is Golden. By following this link, starting at one (which is technically #67), and proceeding chronologically (Very Important!!!) you will quickly find:



*Cosmology/Philosophy
*Zombies
*My College (no, really)
*Pirates
*The nature of the world as we know it
*Dungeons and Dragons
*Large quantities of self-pity and pessimism
*Cathulu
*Pink Floyd and Pearljam
*Pie
*The Northeast
*Beards
*An old school Atari game about Journey. (There were actually two)


So yeah, pretty much a must read. Click on, faithful Mango Addicts, and give this Godsend of a WebComic the hits it deserves:

Minimalist Stick Figure Theatre

(And in case you were wondering, yes, it did come first)

Dammit....

Nostalgia

Last night was pretty crazy. Infact, I only got two hours of sleep, and I was so hyped up from it that I managed to keep the buzz going all day long. When I awoke, my room was a mess, clothes were strewn everywhere along with empty glasses, and I couldn't beleive just how much I had consumed in one evening....



...Snack foods, that is. I am of course referring to the epic all nighter I had to pull to finish my half of a 20 page lab report. Today, for the first time in years, I actually bought and chugged a Red Bull so I could get all of my work done within my overcrowded class schedule. Sound familiar?



Yup, it's vectors. It's matrices. It's spherical coordinates. It's everything you didn't quite learn in PreCalc the last time you were a junior. And it's back...

Y'all Ready For This?

Funny European Cars

Yesterday, a very stereotypical Frenchman asked me if I was homesick, and I am. I'm also kind of sick in general. So I decided to make myself feel better by making a pretty list of things that I miss, and blogging about them in the alttext. Enjoy.















A guy outside of my window just yelled "Obama"...Meaning Obvious.

The Second Best Friend

(So it seems that since everyone went abroad, everyone decided to get a blog. I'm cool with this, but I would just like to point out that I was here first. No, MFA will not turn into a post-card blog after years of faithful blogging about whatever the fuck I want... though maybe expect something on the subject soon. And now, back to the show.)



I have recently had a tremendous epiphany: I am the Second Best Friend.

No really, one day when I was in elementary school, my friend said that I was her best friend and asked me if I was hers. I well-meaningly said no, you're my second best friend, and I have been suffering the karmic retribution ever since.

In pretty much every friendship I've had since then, I was always unfailingly, undoubedtly, and exactly number two. I often enjoyed Best Friend status because number one lived far away or went to a different school or something, but the fact remains. Now I don't want to sound like I'm complaining- oh no, number two is a highly honorable position. In fact, the differences that seperate the Best Friend from the Second Best Friend are infintesimally subtle, the kind that only the Second Best Friend could ever possibly notice, but they're still there. Even today, I've noticed that for every close friend I have, there is always one other person with whom I assume they are closer. This never bothered me, it was simply the status quo.

Come to think of it, I'm not sure if I've ever really had a Best Friend. OK, obviously I've had many in the basic sense, and I've had different friend groups for different things. But I don't think I've ever found one person who managed to encompass all of my bizarre and disjointed interests in a particultarly exciting and intruiging way. In short, I don't think I've ever shared the really outstandingly baller kind of Bestfrendship I've witnessed in some of the pairs I've met recently.


So, I've decided I'm on a quest. I'm now currently accepting applications for a mutually exclusive Bestfriendship. Anyone interested can contact me via the "comments" link below.

The End of Productivity as We Know It

One day, you will find yourself cramming a microwaved dinner down in the six minutes you have left before you resurrect. This is probabaly your 20th resurrection* today, seeing as you've been playing for roughly eight hours straight. You see a server shut down coming up and panic, but then realize this is serendipitous because you also need to shower, and might not have otherwise. This also reminds you that you're excited because The Guild updates soon. Oh, and next time you get a chance, you also need to check out Baldur's Gate II and see if it's actually as good as it's hyped up to be. Finally, As you coincidentally glance down at your xkcd t-shirt, a small part of your brain wonders "What happenned to my life?"

*Speaking of which, Season 4 came out in Switzerland this week. Thank you, random interview with Six in the daily paper. Apparently, she's Canadian!