Blue Bombing

I got accepted to my number one choice college.

Today I got my acceptance e-mail from University of California, Davis.  I’m stoked.  Now I just need to hear if UC Berkeley has accepted me so I can really brag.  For those curious, I intend to become a physicist.  I want to do my undergraduate work at Davis and then go to Berkeley (or Stanford) for my graduate/doctorate work.

I went to a Linkin Park concert last night it was the last date of their 2008 tour.  The opening acts were pretty damn good (Chiodos and Coheed and Cambria).  But Linkin Park was… fucking amazing.  After the concert everyone kept on saying it was the best concert they had ever been too, and I whole heartedly agree.

Linkin Park played a good mix of songs from all three of their CD’s, with a slight emphasis on Minutes to Midnights.  Everything they played sounded amazing and was really powerful in every sense of the word.  I have never been to a concert like this.  As the played, everyone sung (read: screamed) the lyrics.  These people were damn into this, and so was I.  It was tons of fun, and if you are a Linkin Park fan, you should try incredibly hard to go to a concert of theirs (especially one in which they play an hour and a half set, and have two encores (and play almost all of your favorite songs)).

So, it’s been a while since I’ve talked about what I’ve been playing.  I’ll preface this by saying that I got a PS3 for my 18th birthday, which means the majority of my gaming has been on that.

Anyways, on to the list in no particular order.

Mega Man ZX Advent -   I love all and anything Mega Man related.  This game is amazing both as a Mega Man game and as a standalone game.  It played great (even if some of the bosses forms were, for all intents and purposes, useless) and it definitely improved on everything I didn’t like in it’s predecessor (mainly the map system).  The only two actual complaints would be some of the plot holes it had and the voice acting for a few of the characters (Model A mostly… but I wish Model X and Model Z had the X8 voice actors).

Castlevania Dracula X Chronicles -  The remake of Rondo of Blood is graphically fantastic and plays pretty good for it’s age.  It’s game play aged much better than the remake of Ghost and Goblins.  Symphony of the Night if of course fantastic.  I can see why most dub it the best Castlevania game made.

Monster Hunter Freedom 2 - I love Monster Hunter.  Seriously, enough said.

Assassins Creed - A lot of people love this game, quite a few call it repetitive.  Personally, I think it’s damn good and has amazing graphics.  The free running/climbing system is perfect and combat is fun.  It’s true that what you do leading up to each assassination is pretty much the same, but it’s still extremely fun.  For the most part the repetitive-ness involves the games two best systems, climbing and fighting.  No complaints here.

Devil May Cry 4 Demo -  Amazing.  I love Devil May Cry, this totally renewed my love into a stronger and more bad ass form.

Chain Factor -  An obscenely addicting java (I think) game.   I’m seriously hooked.
Games I have and still need to get around to:  Final Fantasy Tactics (PSP), Motorstorm (came with the 80gb PS3),  Armored Core 4 Demo, Uncharted:  Drakes Fortune Demo, and that’s it for now.

I turned eighteen today.  It was awesome.  I got tons of love from my friends and family and had an overall good time.

For those curious, I got an 80 gb PS3 in addition to Assassins Creed and a surround sound system for my room (Logitech’s X-540).  And then I got some micellaneous goodies from my friends including tie-die and some CD’s… and cookies.

For those who don’t live in the States, 18 is a pretty big deal.  I’m now a legal adult, I can sign legal documents and things of the like.  I can now buy porn, cigarettes (yuck) , some misc. other food items, and lotto tickets.  I can also gamble in certain casinos and most importantly all, I can vote in the next election (including the primary in three weeks).

Oh yeah, and wish me luck on the lotto!  Woo, time to strike it rich!  /sarcasm

This is not a recent discovery of mine, but only recently have I put it into such succinct words:

Hugs are perhaps the strongest force known to man.  Only in a hug can you say so much without saying anything at all.

Two blog posts in two days, holy shit I’m on a roll (it ain’t gonna last, you’ve been warned).

So, today marks my one year anniversary on the Stencyl team. It’s really cool to be one of the longest standing members. I really feel like I’ve contributed, and I intend to contribute for a long time.

Long live Stencyl, huzzah!

Today a great stress came off of me.  I completed and turned in my Author Study for AP English.   To keep it short, the Author study is a 10-20 page essay about the works of a particular novel, it must incorporate a strong thesis, textual evidence, and your ideas must be backed up via quotes from published literary critics.  All in all, it is a very intense assignment that spanned the course of five months (two of which were the actual writing).  Mine was 5670 words, seventeen pages almost exactly.  It was one of the longest in the class and contains citations from twelve different sources and over twenty sources were consulted (counting anthologies of criticisms as one consulted source).

For those familiar with American authors, I read and wrote about Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald, he is most famous for The Great Gatsby and Tender is the Night (I also read his first two novels This Side of Paradise and The Beautiful and Damned).

Now, I need to work on my college applications and finish up Light In August, a novel by Faulkner for said AP English class.   After all that is done (rough one to two weeks) I’ll have a lot more time for recreational pursuits, including Stencyl.

On the Stencyl related note, production is still in swing for Mega Man X:  Lost Heaven, but in addition to that I am in pre-production for my own original game that will be made with Stencyl and is being designed to truly show case Stencyl’s potential, specifically as a side scrolling action game creator (among it’s other fortes).

Stay tuned!

I started school on Monday, and because of that I will be posting significantly less and will be working at a bit slower pace.  Normally school would not be a problem adn would not interfere with my leisurely activities… except I’m a senior (12th grade) and have a huge course load.  For those who are American or are familiar with the American system:  I am taking five AP classes, plus Calculus through the college (so it is a real college course and not an AP class).  For those not familiar with the AP system, this means I am pretty much taking five semester long college classes, but having them spread out between two high school semesters (one year), and then in May I will be tested to see if I really know the material; I have to do good on these tests to get college credit along with the high school credit for these AP classes.  All in all, it is a lot of work.

Anyways, that is the update on my situation in case anyone is wondering.

The final boss name for Mega Man X: Lost Heaven is Zodus. If you don’t like it, then tell me, but you have to suggest something better if you complain.

Last Thursday’s project address was awesome. It pretty much went down without a hitch, infact the only mistake was minor, and it was all my fault!

Hopefully the turnout is even bigger at our next address which will probaly be in around 2 months when we have a plethora of delicious goodies to show off.

I’d also like to give a quick shout out to Cyclone. Without him that Q&A portion would not have gone as well. Thanks man!
MMX: LH Fact: I’m on the verge of coming up with a final boss name, I got alot of good suggestions (and alot of funny joke suggestions). But I think I finnaly have something I like.