First day of classes. >:|

Today is my first day of classes this semester. Blech.

Wish me luck.



-David

The Trials of Televisions and Technology: A True Tale

First of all, I want to congratulate myself on the awesome alliteration as the title for this post. <3

Secondly, let me actually tell you the story. It started off YEARS ago, when I first got my trusty Nintendo 64 gaming system for Christmas. I didn't want to have to play it in the LIVING ROOM where other FAMILY MEMBERS would often reside! No, this device was mine, and subsequently, I wanted to enjoy my gaming in the comfort and privacy of my own bedroom.

But alas, my parents denied my pleas for my own television. Even if I bought it with my own money, they wouldn't let me keep it in my room. "We want to see you sometimes," they would say with a laugh while I was dying on the inside.

Again and again the argument would be brought up, when I got my Gamecube, my Xbox and my Wii, but I was always met with the same opposition.
This changed slightly when we moved into our new house about a year ago- the family tv would be in MY room, so even though I didn't own a TV of my own, it was fairly irrelevant. I was happy for a while, free to game and never go downstairs except for dinner sometimes.

And then, school came. Specifically, college. I was going off away from home, and with no TV, I was forced to leave my games at home. I told myself bitterly that they would be "Something to look forward to" whenever I came home, but I could barely stomach my own lie.

I survived, though. I don't know how, but I did it. And then, over Christmas Break, something miraculous happened: I got a TV.

Nate, my youth minister, gave one to me. I was ecstatic! It had two AV plugs, so I could have my 360 and my Wii connected at the same time, without having to worry about the whole "I have to manually plug in whatever system I wanted to play each time I play it" deal that I was afraid of. I rushed home to test the TV (I didn't want a faulty television) and had all of those hopes utterly crushed when I realised that I needed a remote control to get the Video Mode 1 and 2 of the television, which was essential for playing games. After all that effort, I was left dejected and helpless.
That is, until I remembered a nifty invention called the Universal Remote.

Of course, I had no money, but it gave me hope. A dream of a time when I could have my cake and eat it, too! A wonderful vision of me and my television, playing games with my friends here at school instead of studying for that music test the next day... It was a glorious dream, and I knew the steps I'd have to take. Maybe, for once, I'd be able to achieve one of my dreams. (I gave up on being a Ninja Astronaut Chef years ago)

But, a mere three days later, it seemed as if all my worrying was unfounded- another gift, this time from my good friend Macey. It turned out that she had a universal remote control that she no longer needed. It was wonderful! I was all set to head back to school, with all my wonderful toys close behind me. It was going to be a wonderful semester.

I arrived at school yesterday afternoon, and started moving stuff up to my room. Within mere minutes, I had my gaming set-up... well, set up. And it was beautiful:





My TV facing my bed, so I could recline and play video games, BUT with enough room to angle it (Should friends come over).
My 360 placed in front of the television (Low enough not to block any screen) and plugged into Video Mode 1.
My Wii placed behind my television to plug into Video Mode 2. It's seemingly out of the way, but it can be turned on wirelessly, so that isn't really a problem.
My games nestled in one of the many cubbies just to the right of my desk, in a conveniently out-of-the-way, but still aesthetic location.
And, should I need it, more than enough room for a textbook or two on my desk (If I'm actually going to be doing work there, which I doubt- I always did my assignments on my bed. I rarely used my desk last term)

So there you go, the perfect gaming set up (relatively speaking).

But no, that's not the end. After setting it all up I realised a few things:
1) I'm only allowed to connect 2 things to the school's wireless network.
2) I have 3 (four if you count my DS, but psh) things I want to connect.
3) I don't have a wireless adapter for my 360 anyway, but I have an ethernet cable.
4) There isn't a plug for my ethernet cable in my dorm.

So, I was in a sticky situation. I figured that first of all, I'd set up internet on my computer. It's the most important one of the three things- schoolwork (email, assignments, Cracked.com) comes before gaming (360 and Wii).

Now, the obvious choice would be to connect my Wii in the second slot because I don't have a wireless adapter for my 360. But the problem with that is, I play my 360 more than I do my Wii, and if I get a wireless adapter in the near future, I'm SOL.

So here I am, stuck in a debate over what to do, when it hits me. I connect the Wii to the wireless internet. Problem solved.

"But David," you readers at home must be asking, "What about your ExBawx?"
Well, I realised that I could cheat the system using a computer with internet access (Check) and an ethernet cable (Check).

If I enable internet sharing over a Network on my computer, I can connect it to my 360 with the eternet cable, and my Xbox will ALSO CONNECT TO THE INTERNET, as long as the system is connected to my computer which is connected to the internet. I'm sure my dad would be proud.

So, my friends, THAT is the end of my adventure. (For now, at least)
It was long and hard, but at least it has a happy ending.



-David

Oh, Leliana...<3

As you know, almost all of my free time has been dedicated to playing Dragon Age. It's a great game, easily my favourite made by Bioware. The amount of work that the makers put into creating the world and its characters is simply astounding- more effort than I've seen in most novels I've read. But of all the characters, one stands out as a clear favourite: Leliana.





Leliana is a bard from Orlais that becomes a member of the church to atone for her past. However, she has a vision from the Maker that tells her that she needs to go with the Playable Character and help him stop the Blight. So she leaves the chantry and follows along.
She's one of the more complex characters, and quickly become one of my favourite characters not only in the game, but out of all the fictional characters I like.
As she's also one of the romance options in the game, I decided to pursue her as my male Mage, named Polaris.

Romancing characters in a video game isn't anything new, really. Lots of games have done it before, and certainly every Bioware game I've played has had the option. But it is interesting, though, how the developers make the "romance." Most games, it's a pretty mindless thing, with the end result being a kiss or a short scene; nothing special. This game stands out, though. At the end of the game, I decided to sacrifice my character to save Ferelden. As my character dealt the killing blow the Archdemon, Leliana and my other companions just watched as I died.
In the epilogue, there is a funeral for my character, and Leliana is crying. And then, after the clip scene, it explains what becomes of Ferelden and all of my followers. What happens to Leliana?

"Leliana remained in the royal court for a time, mourning. She poured her heart into a ballad that would eventually become known throughout Thedas. But after one performance, Leliana quietly vanished. Some say that the Maker came to her in a vision again that night. Smiling, tears in her eyes, she told a maid that she would see her love again at last."

;__;

It was sad! D:
I dunno what the point of this post is, other than to say that this game did a spectacular job with making me empathise with the characters, and that Leliana is pretty much the best fictional woman ever.

<3



(I was planning on making this post about four or five times longer, really fleshing out her character and comparing aspects of this to other games and various novels I've read that have had the same effect. But.... It's early, and I'm tired. Maybe if I can remember later. For now, you get this.)


-David

Addiction

Excuse me if I don't post for a while.

You see, I just bought myself an XBox 360, and I'm playing through Dragon Age right now. It currently has almost all of my attention. If you don't mind, I'm going to go back to playing it.


-David

My Christmas loot.

I'll go ahead and say this right now: This was a good Christmas.

My first Christmas where I actually had to come home from school, my first Christmas in our new house (Is it really that new? It feels much older), and a lot of other things that just made it spectacular.

Last night, for instance. I went over to the Davis household for a delightful dinner with some cool people (And Emily was there, too) and had a wonderful time being moderately social. Did I use enough descriptive terms in that sentence?

After that, we went to my Grandmother's house for some hot wassail (My favourite Christmas tradition) and our tradition reading of "The Night Before Christmas" and Luke 2:1-20 and then lighting the candles on the tree. With Uncle Mike there, it was very enjoyable. :)

And then the Christmas Eve service at 11:00. I showed up at 9:30 because I was playing trombone there and I needed to rehearse with the choir before-hand. I met this girl named Mary (A fitting name for Christmas) and she was singing with the choir that evening. I played the 6 songs in total for the service:
Two variations of "Good Christian Friends, Rejoice"
"Riu Riu Chiu"
"O Holy Night"
"O Come, All Ye Faithful"
and "Away in a Manger"

Overall, I did pretty well. I kind of botched "Away in a Manger" because it was right after Communion and goddamn, that wine dries up your mouth. Other than that, though, it went well. Oh, and I got paid $100 for my services (Which was an unexpected gift).

After the service, Mary and I went to go get some food at IHOP because both of us were hungry. We saw Mr. Starling there, along with his wife and (What I assume are) some friends. I talked to him for a bit, and he mistook Mary for my girlfriend (AWKWARD).
>.<
But, it was still neat.

So then I took Mary home and then went home and slept. I woke up dreadfully early this morning, but it's okay because it's CHRISTMAS. So I woke up my parents and sister at the bright hour of 7:30, and we began our festivities.

Here is all my Christmas loot:










And, in case the picture quality is bad, here is a list of everything I've received thus far:

Edibles:
-A box of Pizza Rolls
-3 boxes of Hot Pockets
-Marshmallows
-Hot Chocolate
-A shit-ton of chocolate (Not pictured)
-Satsumas (Not pictured)
-Assorted nuts (Not Pictured)

Stocking Stuffers:
-$35 worth of iTunes cards
-$50 Best Buy gift card
-Tic-Tacs
-A comb
-A toothbrush
-Carmex
-Dentine Ice gum
-A Mario Kart PEZ-style dispenser
-2 bags of Pop Rocks
-Air Heads Xtreme Sweetly Sour Belts
-2 Pokemon Pencils (Featuring Chimchar and Piplup)
-Trolli Sour Gummy Worms

Actual Presents:
-A microphone
-"The Ultimate Nap Kit"
-"The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks"
-"Roger von Oech's Ball of Whacks"
-A black dress shirt
-A T-shirt with the image of a trombone and the caption "WWJP? What would Jesus Play?"
-A T-shirt that says "Haikus are easy/But sometimes they don't make sense/Refrigerator"
-A Trombone (Not yet, actually, just the promise that I'm getting one)

Actually, on that note, I'd like to talk about my potential trombone for a bit. It's going to be a Shire, which is a great brand. But that also means it's going to cost close to $4,000...
But it's a great horn, and I'm excited! We're going to go up to Birmingham sometime soon and get one custom-made. :D


Oh, and I'm also excited because I have enough money (I'm fairly sure) to buy myself a 360! So yes, this has been a great Christmas.
We're going to my Grandparent's house again this evening for Christmas Dinner and more presents.

Happy Christmas to all of my readers. :)


-David

After all, there's only one more sleep 'till Christmas...

Oh, right. I have a blag. I'm sorry.

Well, I will do a quick recap of the past week:

Friday: Spent the day with Rin, went to a party, met people, had fun. I ended up shirtless at the party, like I always do. It was fun.

Weekend: Went to New Orleans with the band. What happens in New Orleans STAYS in New Orleans.

Week: I wrapped presents and hung out with people. Saw Avatar, too.

Actually, I'll take this time to put my thoughts about Avatar on paper. Er... in text.

It was a beautiful movie. The CGI was stunning, and the effects were amazing. It also had one of the best action scenes I've EVER seen in a movie.
But...
It was slow. Very slow. It didn't feel like a movie, it felt like a documentary. I know that was the direction they were going for, but all it did was make the movie drag more than it needed to. Also, the plot was pretty weak and extremely predictable. Predictable to the point where EVERY SINGLE THING THAT HAPPENED AT THE END, I called a hour earlier. That bad.
Avatar also villainised the wrong person. Instead of making the head-of-operations there the bad guy, the made the leader of the military the bad guy. Sure, he loved killing and mercilessly attacking the natives, but what do you expect? HE'S A MILITARY LEADER! And I must note here that he was also only acting on the orders OF THE GUY IN CHARGE. Blech. Little things like that bug me.

Overall rating: 8/10
I'd certainly watch it again when it comes out on DVD, but there's no way in hell I'm going back into the theatre to see it.



And then two nights ago was OPERATION: DRAGON ROLL. Macey, Hannah, Chis, Erin, and I all stayed the night at Macey's house and played Dragon Age: Orgins the whole time. I was the last person to fall asleep, at around 6:00 AM. It was a good night.


And now, today is Christmas Eve. Woo. Tonight, I'm going to the Davis household for food, and then to my grandparent's house for holiday stuff, and then to church to play music. And then, it will be Christmas and I will post again tomorrow.

So... Yeah. I'm sorry for letting you all down by not delving into the mundane details of my life more often over the past few days. This problem will be alleviated in the coming weeks. Thank you for your patience.


-David

Busy day, busy day.

As you can undoubtedly tell by the title of today's post, today was busy busy. But in a good way.

Well, I woke up exceptionally early today (Around 10) and got up, got dressed. That stuff. I was planning on meeting my grandmother at around noon to bake some delicious cookies with her. :3
So, I went to the Coffee Loft to get some breakfast and kill time. I just got a cup of coffee (a medium roast, pretty good) and a hummus bagel with sliced tomatoes. Yum.
I sat down with my breakfast and read the latest issues of This That and the Other and Lagniappe. It was a pretty relaxing morning.

I called her when I was finished, but she wasn't ready for me to come over yet, so I decided to go home and REVIEW SOME MUSIC.
I recently downloaded some Lady Gaga stuff (I'd never even heard "Poker Face" until about a week ago), but I hadn't listened to it yet. I wanted to see what all the fuss was about, so I sat down and listened to all 20 tracks I've downloaded. I was originally going to do a song-by-song review and post it here, so I wrote detailed reactions to the first 9 or so songs, but around track 10 or 11, I just stopped caring.

Overall, it was a lot better than I expected it to be. She has her share of mindless pop tracks (I counted about 4 of the 20 I sampled) and then she has her masterpieces (5/20). Everything else was somewhere in between. But seriously, I can see what all the hype is about. Now, I don't think she deserves all of the hype, but I can at least see where it's coming from (Something I'm STILL trying to find with all the "musicians" Disney is spouting out).

DAVID'S OFFICIAL RATING:
ORIGINALITY: 6.5/10
LYRICS: 4/10
MUSIC: 8/10
EFFECTS: 9/10
OVERALL: 7.5/10
RATING: "Pretty Okay."


So, after my MUSIC REVIEW SESSION and EXCESSIVE USE OF CAPS LOCK, I headed over to my Grandmother's house to begin our awesome cookie cooking... thing.
Anyway.
I get there, we made some delicious cookies. While the cookies are cooking, we play cards. She hands my ass to me, seriously. >:|
But the cookies turned out well, and I had a lot of fun. And we (she) melted a spatula!




After that exciting installment, our hero finds himself in the dreaded Middle School Car Line, waiting to pick up his sister from school. He succeeds.

After briefly stopping at the house (I had to finish the touches on my Christmas Present to Macey), Sarah and I decided to do some Christmas Shopping up in Malbis. On the way, though, we stopped at Macey's house so she and I could exchange gifts.

I GAVE:
-A bag of cookies that I baked today
-A Christmas Mix CD that is simultaneously AWWWWWWWW and KICKASS
-An insense burner in the shape of the Triforce. (That I made in Art)

I RECEIEVED:


This. Sorry for no direct picture, Blogger is being retarded. Just click this and behold the adorable-ness.

:D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D



Not only is Spheal my favourite Pokemon, he's the MOST ADORABLE Pokemon, too! Macey made this for me, and I think that she is the most amazing person ever for doing so. And, for those of you who know nothing of Pokemon, here's a picture of Spheal's art:






...Pretty spot-on. You're the best, Macey!



Then Sarah and I went on our CHRISTMAS SHOPPING ADVENTURE and we ended up just buying 2 DVDs, some candy, and some other assorted things. Yay Christmas!


And that brings us to the highlight of every Wednesday ever: Youth Group.
Wally, Mosher, and Kathy (Plus other little kids) were there, and it was alright. But then, Cleveland and I decided to play Ping Pong. But oh no, this wouldn't be REGULAR Ping Pong. We ended up inventing the game SUPER RIDICULOUS BOOGIE BALL, and damn, this needs to be like an Olympic Sport or something.

It's basically Ping Pong mixed with Calvinball. In other words, the best thing on earth. Ever.

After a match lasting close to an hour, the final score was
David with: 3 Ghosts (Not counted)
29 Dinosaurs
619 Points

And Cleveland with: 0 Ghosts
201 Dinosaurs
310 Points
1 Boogey Man

So, of course, Cleveland won. The game ended with us going into Boogey Man (Which is the most exciting round of any game you will ever play ever), and since he initiated it, I challenged him. I barely failed the challenge, so Cleveland was considered the Boogie Master and the game was over. It was a great match.

After Youth, I went over to Cleveland's house for a bit. We played the Left 4 Dead 2 Demo (Yes, I know it's already out, but he doesn't have it yet. Stfu) and then ate some delicious Ramen-hotdog-cheese mix while we watched a new X-Men motion comic (Based off of Amazing X-Men and WRITTEN BY JOSS WHEDEN). It was a pretty good night.

And now I'm here, in front of my dad's computer (Mine isn't connecting to the internet), typing all of this up. Hurrah.

Quick notes about THE FUTURE:
Friday will be amazing. Going to spend all afternoon with Rin, and then go to a Dirty Santa party hosted by her friend. I'm excited.

Saturday will be like negative amazing. Fuck you, Saturday. Leaving the house a little after 6 to drive to Hattiesburg so the band can go play in some stupid football game in New Orleans. Blech.

Sunday will be a continuation of Saturday.

And we have two events in the making:
"Operation: Dragon Roll" and "Operation: Lovecraft Bludgeon."
I feel like both are aptly named and both will be glorious.
No details on either one, yet.


And that is it. I will be going to bed early tonight (Well... Before 300) because I am relatively tired. Until next time.



-David