Day Six, No Observable Change in Behaviour

I've been hermiting. I think the last time I left the house was... last Tuesday. Don't get me wrong, as I've said before, I do enjoy being at home, but I do sometimes enjoy, y'know... other things.

I did have a lot of fun last Tuesday. Sort of. I went to Trinidad on the Ferry, which wasn't fun, so that I could go to the dentist, which was even less fun, but then I spent the afternoon with my Mom which was very fun indeed. We went down to the Port and hit up the Hyatt and I got a Mojito that was just delightful. Minty minty goodness.

We even got to watch Dad come in on the boat! Boats really aren't that exciting.

And so yeah, since then I've... pretty much just sat here. I read 1984, pondered that for a few days, completed the main story for Arkham Origins, cleaned some stuff. It's certainly been relaxing. Too relaxing?

My brother also surprised me with The Amazing Spiderman on steam, which is surprisingly really good! I think the last Spiderman game I played was Spiderman 2 for the gamecube, or possibly PS2- rest assured that you can still attach web to clouds and swing through central park! But I should be fair, that does happen far less frequently and most of the time there is an effort to attach the webbing to buildings, which actually makes you swing at a weird angle that kind of makes it really easy to get turned around and confused. My theory is that maybe that's more realistic, because when you think about it, from Spiderman's perspective he is just constantly flipping and going upside down and what have you. Either way I'm quite liking the game. The fighting mechanics are enjoyable, but repetitive, and I am comparing the game to the Arkham series in that regard. Spiderman always seems to use the same move to slam enemies heads into the pavement, 'knocking them out'. The other thing I noticed is the weird difficulty settings. I set my game mode in the beginning to "superhero" which is their version of hard mode, because I'm hardcore like that and they presented it like a challenge. But instead of the enemies being more skilled or tougher to take down, it feels like Spiderman is just incredibly weak. He takes a few hits and bam, he's dead. There is a kind of silly health regeneration to balance that out, but I can't help wondering if this is their version of higher difficulty. But, on the plus side, the game looks great, feels very expansive and the story seems cool so far. There also seems to be a lot of different ways that you can go about using Spiderman's powers, which I really like.  The most impressive thing to me is that it really doesn't feel like a video game based on a movie. The story actually takes place I think a few months after the movie and many of the characters are in very different situations than before. Overall I'm enjoying what I've seen so far, which is I think around two hours of gameplay.Impromptu first impressions review!

My Degree is Half Full!

New layout, new design, new title, new blog!

I get the strange feeling that this blog gets a revamp every time exams season rears its ugly head. In any case, hope you like it! I think it's much more neat and clear than previously. When I was designing it the comic theme just kind of asserted itself, and I think it works.

Obviously I haven't been keeping up with the blog this semester so I'll just jump right on in to the complexities of my life.

It's the end of my second year of university! And I'm starting to get really excited for third year. As of this semester I got a lot of prereqs out of the way and can focus entirely on taking the courses that are interesting and significant to what I want to do in my life. I suppose that's where the trouble begins, really. Next year these courses really will count towards whatever it is I do with my life after my undergrad. My marks have to be better than ever and just the thought of that is exhausting. Not only that, but this semester I've been elected president of the student organization that I'm involved with on campus. The world now has to refer to me as madam president. Also I don't think I can adequately describe how much it means to me that I've been given this incredible responsibility. On the one hand, yeah, it's just a club but on the other hand it's my go-to example of something that I just dove into without really thinking (or over-thinking) and I've actually succeeded. Not that I don't ever succeed at things, but this was different. I'd never done anything like student government before, but in first year I just picked up a form and decided it was something that I wanted to do. That kind of direction and, frankly, stalwart optimism that things weren't going to blow up horribly in my face is kind of the way I want to live my life.

So in other words, I sort of don't want to fuck next year up.

It's exciting, but also very worrisome. On top of this stress heap I also have teetering the monumental issue of not having anywhere to live for next year. I know things will work out (see that optimism? See how good I'm getting?) but I just want to run out and sort them right now. I keep finding myself caught in this very awkward life stage somewhere between relying on parents and relying on myself. I know it's a learning process for the parents too, they don't really know when to assign me to helm control for my life and I don't really know when to maneuver. Somehow I feel like the confusion is driving us towards the edge of a cliff and into a deep dark crevasse of adulthood (optimism gone), but I had been picturing a spaceship with this driving analogy so cliff sides shouldn't be a thing. In a perfect world I don't want to have to worry about stupid and largely pointless things like where I'm going to live for eight months of the year.

Overall, the future looks bright, even if there is a thunderstorm rolling through Guelph this fine evening. My spirits shan't be dampened! I found an incredible masters program at the University of Glasgow last week, and after what could accurately be called the year where I didn't know where the hell I was going with all of this education shit, I think I may finally have a new goal. Her name is MLitt in Environment, Culture, and Communication, and I think you're going to like her.

Final note- I just discovered upon tagging this post that I last tagged 'Glasgow' when blogging about my acceptance out of grade 12. Well, I can't really afford her, but she clearly wants me. ; )

They Call Him Flipper, Flipper, Flipper...

It's my birthday soon. I know, I know, I'm excited too. My birthday is on September 27th, which is a very cool day. Not only is it MY birthday, but it's also Google's birthday, Avril Lavigne, my cousin Adrian, my best friends aunt, and best of all, Bill Colter, the weatherman from Global News.

Anyways, this year I asked for a tablet so I could try out doing some art on my computer. I don't pretend to be anything like an artist, but I do dabble, and we all know the fun that comes from dabbling. I'd been anxiously awaiting my present when my parents decided to be AWESOME. 'Cause I got my present now. In JULY. Nice job, parents. Buying my love is COMPLETELY the right way to go about things.

Truthfully though, they gave it to me now because they know that when I go back to school I wont have any time for fun because I'll be so busy 'working'. I, uh, didn't argue the point. They seemed so proud. So I get my prezzie now and cake on my birthday! Double win! Hurray!

Onward with the point of this whole post; before I told you about it I figured I should draw something to post with it. I thought it would take me a really long time to get used to using it, but so far it really isn't bad. I'm using a Bamboo (adorable name): Pen & Touch or something? I know nothing about these sorts of brands, but it seems to be good. The drawing surface is nice and big and everything. Pretty much my only concern is that the pen tip is wearing down really fast. It came with two replacements, and it seems like I'm going to need them sooner than I thought... I wonder if all pens are like this or if it's the brand? Or me, I could very well be pressing too hard. In any case, I heart my new tablet to pieces.

The first thing I did was a picture of the TARDIS. Being my first attempt at using it, that picture will hopefully never see the light of day. Apart from that I've been working on the main reason of my getting a tablet rather than just thinking about getting one, which is that my best friend, Thingbe and I are starting a webcomic. I hope to have a few comics finished soon so we can start posting. The plan is that Thingbe will write and I'll draw (here's hoping I'll be able to keep up with her intense writing skillz) and we'll grow to such incredible popularity that we'll be a recognized voice in the gaming world causing us to be invited to E3 and the San Diego ComicCon every year while getting awesome jobs as voice actors. Yes, yes we are that cool. Or we will be. Y'know.

Anyways, I didn't have anything drawn to do a post with, so I thought I'd come up with a cool new profile picture since Emperor Palpatine is awesome, but less than original and it'd be really neat to use something that I made. I couldn't think of anything so after much deliberation, I came up with a penguin (get it? get it?). Since that seemed incredibly dull, I decided to personalize it (which isn't easy with a penguin) so it turned into a penguin in SPACE.

Tah Dah!

Indeed, the Magic Penguin has a name, and that name is Flipper. Together, it's a nickname of mine that's way longer than my actual name. Go figure.

It's a little rough, yeah, but I'm fairly proud. While drawing it I found two things that I didn't know about drawing penguins:

1. There's pretty much one way to draw a cartoon penguin.

2. No penguin looks right without a bow tie.

I think it looks too much like another penguin, but I can't think of one to match it, so I'm just going to assume that it's fine.The only thing I know for sure is that the beak is definitely inspired by Topper from that one old Christmas movie with the song that's like "Put one foot in front of the other~!". Man I love that movie. Santa Claus is coming to town or something? In any case, I think I'll try this out as my dp for a while, see if it fits.

Oh yeah, and one last thing: Metroid Prime 3: Corruption is an amazing game, probably one of the best out for the Wii and I have no idea why I didn't play it years ago.