Whew. Gaming is going well. I have wrapped Metroid Prime 2. Jeremy was around for the final battle, and trying to get all of the scans and items. We weren't able to get all of the scans because of a few missed one-shot opportunities, but the percentage of the game is based on items, NOT on scans.

Which leads me to a discussion on getting 100% in a game. I'm ofcourse a huge fan of getting 100% on games. There are a lot of games nowadays where there are onshot chances to get things, where you better fucking hope that you get it or you are out of luck. I think Metroid does it pretty well, the scans are the only oneshot things in the fames, and they don't determine the 100% but rather the galleries available.

I wanted to get kicking in RE4 again, but part of me feels like that game should only be played with friends around. So instead I spent the rest of that night playing Donkey-Konga. More will come about the wierd conga game from nintedo.

Yesterday Jeremy and I started into a few puzzle games. The first was Tetris Attacks, which was released for the SNES and features Yoshi. It is a strange tetris style, head to head competition, puzzle game. The thing that makes it weird is that you don't control the blocks, but rather you switch spots the block occupy. You can only switch block that are side by side, and you can switch one block with an empty spot. What makes this game hard is that you have very little vertical control, so you have to be ingenious to get things to work out well. It also helps that the rounds are seldom more than two minutes long, so there is a lot of turn over. We'll spend more time with that game soon. We also spent a bit of time with Puzzle Fighter, which was fun, but much slower. It feature a way to "counter" a person dropping blocks on you, which adds a new element to the game.

Geez, sorry this is so long. I think I should get going. Much work will get done this week, but I need to make sure that I focus on Chowning a lot. She'll be out of town for many weekends to come, so my time with her will get limited. So, off to my girlfriend. Out.

Hello, it looks like I have time again. I'm here in Athens with Chowning. The ice has hit and the roads are hard to drive on, so I think we will be in today. Sigh.

But that isn't the big news. The REALLY big news is that I have gotten my grade for the class I was taking at Tech. Unfortunately I have gotten a B, which means that I will no longer be attending Georgia Tech to get my masters, and the past four years fighting to get an advanced degree from Tech will most likely be for naught. I have been screwed countless times by the system, and inparticular how Tech employees will hide behind the system to do their dirty work so that they can distance themselves from what gets done to some students. Obviously this doesn't speak to all Tech employees, but let me explain what happened when I spoke to Dr. Joshi (head of graduate studies for ME).

To will in the back parts of this story, there are two years of getting screwed, and we wont get into all of that, we'll pick up when I tried to get my degree through a degree petition last time. This was at the end of the summer, just before I went to go to Washington. I was told that I needed to be enrolled in order to file my degree petition. So that was done, and as I got back from Washington I was told that I couldn't graduate because my GPA was below 3.0. I was never notified of this, and when I was asked what I needed to do. Regardless, I had to sign a readmission contract laying all blame for my standing on me. The contract stated that I would take one class (Numerical Methods), get an A in that class to get my GPA up to 3 and then I could graduate. At that point I asked what would happen if this didn't make and I was told that we could draft another contract if more classes needed to be taken (this is the big downfall of everything).

So I try to sign up for Numerical Methods, which should be offered every fall, however it wasn't this time because Dr. Fulton had passed away and they haven't found another person to do this. It is important to understand the timeline of these events. I was admitting very close to the deadline, and then I had to deal with this contract, but the deadline was still close. We get the first contract signed a few days late, but they said that they could get it in. At this point, I was told that I couldn't take that class and I had to get another option, so I had to put another class in that slot. It had to be done super quick because there was no time in which we could get it in. There was only class that I could find so we put that on the contract and I signed it (downfall number two).

That is the class that I got a B in. It was a great class and I feel like I learned a lot, although it was all on my own. So after I get the B I go talk to get another contract taken care of and . . . as I should have seen coming, Dr. Joshi has no recollection of telling me that we could draft another contract. He and I spend a while talking about it, and he makes the very valid point of "you signed the contract and the contract stated that you had one chance." I countered with "well, you did say that we could redraft the contract, but since you aren't remembering that, how about we talk about the fact that the contract was already revised because the class originally on the contract wasn't available." It was silly to include that in quotes. We went back and forth, each of us sitting on our stories, I signed that contract, which is now over, and the contract wasn't what was originally discussed, and there was no time to reassess the class to take (not that there was an option in the classes I would get to choose from).

In the end neither of us would budge. He stood by the original contract, and I had no choice but to leave. He told me that I had one option, to petition the graduate committee in an effort to get them to let me change the contract, if that didn't work I would be dismissed.

So that is where I sit right now. The next meeting of the graduate committee is wednesday, and there is no way that I can draft a good letter that will determine whether or not I can even persue my degree at Tech by then. So I will have to get it in by March. Until then I will try to rally whatever advocates I still have at Tech and see if I can get a little justice and a degree to boot. I feel like what I am asking (a chance to actually take a class that I want to take) isn't that unrealistic, but I can't argue with the fact that I have signed a contract that states that I will no longer be at Tech.

The whole situation is pretty fucking ridiculous. I feel like I have worked hard for Tech, and at this point she is going to fuck me one more time and kick me out the front door to boot. I'n sure this wont sour my disposition on the school in general, but there are certainly a few people at the school that I hate with a passion at this point, and given a chance to fight them I'd fuck them up royally. The thing that I don't get, and this comes up often, is I don't understand why it has to be so difficult. What is so hard with working with your students to try to maximize their achievement, rather than working against them to get them out of school? But I guess that is part of the whole process. Tech is great at not working for you, but rather in spite of you (and teaching you what it feels like to take a buick up the ass in the process), and I don't understand why things have to be so adversarial. So while there is still a glimmer of hope of getting my degree, it is just a glimmer.


Aside from that life is going well. I will have to check my options of getting a masters somewhere else . . . or maybe I have to pack it up at together and accept defeat. Who knows? I will say one thing, when I found out my Dad called and I brought this up with him and he told me "well, regardless of what happens you need to know that although they can take away the degree, they can't take away the things you learned and the things that you have done." It was one of the few truely supporting, well timed, caring (in a non-hokey way) things that my Dad as ever said. It was very like my Mom.

Test. Test.

Hello, it looks like I have time again. I'm here in Athens with Chowning. The ice has hit and the roads are hard to drive on, so I think we will be in today. Sigh.

But that isn't the big news. The REALLY big news is that I have gotten my grade for the class I was taking at Tech. Unfortunately I have gotten a B, which means that I will no longer be attending Georgia Tech to get my masters, and the past four years fighting to get an advanced degree from Tech will most likely be for naught. I have been screwed countless times by the system, and inparticular how Tech employees will hide behind the system to do their dirty work so that they can distance themselves from what gets done to some students. Obviously this doesn't speak to all Tech employees, but let me explain what happened when I spoke to Dr. Joshi (head of graduate studies for ME).

To will in the back parts of this story, there are two years of getting screwed, and we wont get into all of that, we'll pick up when I tried to get my degree through a degree petition last time. This was at the end of the summer, just before I went to go to Washington. I was told that I needed to be enrolled in order to file my degree petition. So that was done, and as I got back from Washington I was told that I couldn't graduate because my GPA was below 3.0. I was never notified of this, and when I was asked what I needed to do. Regardless, I had to sign a readmission contract laying all blame for my standing on me. The contract stated that I would take one class (Numerical Methods), get an A in that class to get my GPA up to 3 and then I could graduate. At that point I asked what would happen if this didn't make and I was told that we could draft another contract if more classes needed to be taken (this is the big downfall of everything).

So I try to sign up for Numerical Methods, which should be offered every fall, however it wasn't this time because Dr. Fulton had passed away and they haven't found another person to do this. It is important to understand the timeline of these events. I was admitting very close to the deadline, and then I had to deal with this contract, but the deadline was still close. We get the first contract signed a few days late, but they said that they could get it in. At this point, I was told that I couldn't take that class and I had to get another option, so I had to put another class in that slot. It had to be done super quick because there was no time in which we could get it in. There was only class that I could find so we put that on the contract and I signed it (downfall number two).

That is the class that I got a B in. It was a great class and I feel like I learned a lot, although it was all on my own. So after I get the B I go talk to get another contract taken care of and . . . as I should have seen coming, Dr. Joshi has no recollection of telling me that we could draft another contract. He and I spend a while talking about it, and he makes the very valid point of "you signed the contract and the contract stated that you had one chance." I countered with "well, you did say that we could redraft the contract, but since you aren't remembering that, how about we talk about the fact that the contract was already revised because the class originally on the contract wasn't available." It was silly to include that in quotes. We went back and forth, each of us sitting on our stories, I signed that contract, which is now over, and the contract wasn't what was originally discussed, and there was no time to reassess the class to take (not that there was an option in the classes I would get to choose from).

In the end neither of us would budge. He stood by the original contract, and I had no choice but to leave. He told me that I had one option, to petition the graduate committee in an effort to get them to let me change the contract, if that didn't work I would be dismissed.

So that is where I sit right now. The next meeting of the graduate committee is wednesday, and there is no way that I can draft a good letter that will determine whether or not I can even persue my degree at Tech by then. So I will have to get it in by March. Until then I will try to rally whatever advocates I still have at Tech and see if I can get a little justice and a degree to boot. I feel like what I am asking (a chance to actually take a class that I want to take) isn't that unrealistic, but I can't argue with the fact that I have signed a contract that states that I will no longer be at Tech.

The whole situation is pretty fucking ridiculous. I feel like I have worked hard for Tech, and at this point she is going to fuck me one more time and kick me out the front door to boot. I'n sure this wont sour my disposition on the school in general, but there are certainly a few people at the school that I hate with a passion at this point, and given a chance to fight them I'd fuck them up royally. The thing that I don't get, and this comes up often, is I don't understand why it has to be so difficult. What is so hard with working with your students to try to maximize their achievement, rather than working against them to get them out of school? But I guess that is part of the whole process. Tech is great at not working for you, but rather in spite of you (and teaching you what it feels like to take a buick up the ass in the process), and I don't understand why things have to be so adversarial. So while there is still a glimmer of hope of getting my degree, it is just a glimmer.


Aside from that life is going well. I will have to check my options of getting a masters somewhere else . . . or maybe I have to pack it up at together and accept defeat. Who knows? I will say one thing, when I found out my Dad called and I brought this up with him and he told me "well, regardless of what happens you need to know that although they can take away the degree, they can't take away the things you learned and the things that you have done." It was one of the few truely supporting, well timed, caring (in a non-hokey way) things that my Dad as ever said. It was very like my Mom.



Whew. Gaming is going well. I have wrapped Metroid Prime 2. Jeremy was around for the final battle, and trying to get all of the scans and items. We weren't able to get all of the scans because of a few missed one-shot opportunities, but the percentage of the game is based on items, NOT on scans.

Which leads me to a discussion on getting 100% in a game. I'm ofcourse a huge fan of getting 100% on games. There are a lot of games nowadays where there are onshot chances to get things, where you better fucking hope that you get it or you are out of luck. I think Metroid does it pretty well, the scans are the only oneshot things in the fames, and they don't determine the 100% but rather the galleries available.

I wanted to get kicking in RE4 again, but part of me feels like that game should only be played with friends around. So instead I spent the rest of that night playing Donkey-Konga. More will come about the wierd conga game from nintedo.

Yesterday Jeremy and I started into a few puzzle games. The first was Tetris Attacks, which was released for the SNES and features Yoshi. It is a strange tetris style, head to head competition, puzzle game. The thing that makes it weird is that you don't control the blocks, but rather you switch spots the block occupy. You can only switch block that are side by side, and you can switch one block with an empty spot. What makes this game hard is that you have very little vertical control, so you have to be ingenious to get things to work out well. It also helps that the rounds are seldom more than two minutes long, so there is a lot of turn over. We'll spend more time with that game soon. We also spent a bit of time with Puzzle Fighter, which was fun, but much slower. It feature a way to "counter" a person dropping blocks on you, which adds a new element to the game.

Geez, sorry this is so long. I think I should get going. Much work will get done this week, but I need to make sure that I focus on Chowning a lot. She'll be out of town for many weekends to come, so my time with her will get limited. So, off to my girlfriend. Out.

Well, it looks like I have a few moments on my hands so I guess this is a good time to blog.


Things are going pretty well. Life with Chowning is absolutely wonderful. I fall more in love with her every day. Unfortunately she will be knee deep in tournaments soon so I wont get to see her as much. Then there is the whole Valentines day thing coming up.

School goes well. I've got a pretty good routine down right now. It is one where I don't really have to work much at home, but I bust my ass while at school. A slightly more routine night-life has led to more working out, which is great. It has also led to more . . .

Video games. I'm close to the end of Metroid, and Mark and I have been trudging through Resident Evil 4. The game is hard, however it has gotten easier. I have finally achieved the part of the game where I can buy shit from the merchant, and what wasn't mentioned in Penny Arcade was that there is a weapons upgrade system that makes it feel like an RPG. Mark and I have yet to figure out all of the nuances (sp?) of the weapons upgrade shit, but we'll have it posted soon.

We also had the great Ticket to Ride experience. We played it once with Brad and once with mizx0r. That game is damn fun. I'm trying to figure out the strategy of the game, and we're also going to be playing with the expansion soon which should add to the fun. Jeremy will hoepfully be getting Mystery of the Abbey soon. I'm interested inplaying this guesswho-clue game. In the meantime Ticket to Ride is interesting. It isn't Tigris and Euphrades, but it pretty fucking fun.

Out.

I must be employed, because I've been reading slashdot far too frequently lately.

that was a lengthy game post Martin. I read some reviews on Resident Evil 4. they all read similar to yours. i've also read it's fairly short. that sounds like a game I should try since my patience for long games seems to have died.

I played some Whirlyball this Saturday. What a hoot. I think we should get our group together to play some Whirlyball. A good time would be had by all. The only drawback being it relative expense, ($15/hr per person) and the fact that you need 10 people to commit. Other than that it's a hoot.

Since everyone loves to hear me talk about football, I'll discuss the Great Split. As everyone is aware, I was in a fantasy league this past year. I hired Ryan to help me and we will split the earnings when they finally arrive in my paws. Well, I have mentioned going it alone for next year. Ryan took some offense to that and I have teased him about it. Well, there is a post season fantasy football challenge going on at CBS Sportsline. Ryan and I are now competing head to head. I'm beating Ryan, but I'm still not doing very good. Perhaps teamwork is the key to success.

Looks like I'll be rolling off my current project on Jan. 27th. Still no traveling prospects so I'm in town for now.

yeah, it was more that there were 4 or 5 copies of the same post there. not really an interface problem.

I wont be there on Tuesday, but in the interest of speeding up our game (the current rate being somewhere around that of evolution) I'm going to call my orders in by 8:30 or whatever, maybe 9. 8:30 should be ok though. I also have no problems with having a second round on Tuesday, provided that there is enough time between rounds to discuss via email and phone, and enough time for SOMEBODY to get the map on the internet.

Also, anybody who wants to talk for me before next turn should email me
mfaughnan@gmail.com

Hmmm . . . the interface looks good to me, as in I haven't a clue what the fuck you are talking about.

Anyway, finished Paper Mario, which will rank pretty high on the list of great games. Since I didn't play the last one I can't make a comparison. Maybe Jeremy can tell you more about that. The final boss wasn't particularly difficult, however I had done a ton of sidequests to beef my character (Mario) up. I haven't collected all of the badges, I think there are four or five left. I haven't collected all of the shine sprites (I think there are 4 more). I have finished all of the troubles. And I haven't gotten all of the recipies. The problem is this, I have no idea where any of the missing shit is, and I have no idea where I can find it. And don't even get me started on the fucking recipies. It isn't as stupid as the camera-merge action I heard about in Drak Cloud, but it is pretty fucking random. There is some logic behind it. Most of the things are combinations of food products, but they are combined with really strange shit.

But the game is really good. It isn't for the people who want to shoot things, or even people who want adult dialog. It isn't for people who want to be able to press start to get through cinema scenes. It IS for people who like innovative games, and simple pleasures in life. The story is well woven together, and it uses the paper idea really well. So I do recommend playing it and enjoying all of the cute things the game brings.

On to Metroid: This is a classic Metroid game. I felt like the people at Retro did a great job with the first Metroid Prime. It really kept the search aspect of Metroid alive and well. This game is no exception. I am forced to travel back and forth over the areas in the planet until I find what I am looking for. Sometimes I've had to wander around enough so that I take enough time and they give me a hint as to where I need to go. It isn't as bad a bombing everything in sight, but it isn't just a straight forward game. So although they have hat aspect from the original and Prime, they have made it new and exciting. Although the storyline isn't that great (there's a planet that has been "split in two" with a light side and a dark side and you are trying to return it to balance) the game play is as crisp as the first one, no new features there. All of the beams come back form before, as well as alternate visors, but a few new additions have been added in order to keep the game interesting. But if you are playing Echoes (Prime 2) then you are playing it for the large worlds, fun combat system and interesting puzzles . . . oh, and because it is a metroid game and you lose your gamers card for not playing it.


But the really exciting thing to talk about is Resident Evil 4. Perhaps you recall my previous expereince with the demo of this game where Mark and I spent all night trying to accomplish the very beginning of the game. There is one word that describes this game well . . . FUCK!!!! That's what you are going to be yelling as you get raped from every corner of the map. If I were to add other words to the list I would include hard, scary and not normal. Let me set the scene . . . there are no more zombies. Yes, you heard me, no Zombies. We aren't in racoon city, there isn't an Umbrella, you're going to be killing humans, Europeans to be exact.

The character is at least familiar. We've seen the main character Leon before as part of the Jill/Leon tandem in RE2. Now that he is done killing zombies and rescuing Jill he has gotten a job protecting the Presidents daughter. He sucks at his job, because the daughter (Claire) gets kidnapped (oh no!). By whom we don't know, but we're told she's in . . . Europe. Nothing more specific than that. Just a town in . . . Europe. I wonder what county it is in?? By the time you get there it looks Eastern European (drab, bleak countryside), but everyone is speaking spanish. Regardless, the people at Capcom still haven't spent money to buy a good scriptwriter. Apparently they spend all of their money developing a scary motif and good game mechanics.

But I've kind of let the cat out of the bag. The first thing you do in this village is visit a house on the outskirts. It is a long walk to the town and if the girl is there it would make this much easier. So you get in there and start talking to a guy by the fire. You talk a bit, and he turns around and takes a swing at you with an axe. So you 'deal' with him by putting a lot of rounds in him. The you step outside and are greeted by a guy who stabs you with a pitchfork, a FUCKING pitchfork. This sucks, you back up a bit and try to get a good shot in, which is when you realize your fucked because the guys are dodging your attempts to aim (aiming isn't easy in this game, and dodging people doesn't make it easier).

This is the way things go. You have to kill a shit ton of people in a small part of the village. They range from people with no weapons to a guy with a chain saw. Fortunately you get a shotgun, lots of ammo, and grenades with which to kill people with. Kill them all and you get to the next stage, with more people that want to kill you. Man this sucks. Kill all of those people and there is . . . a break in the action. Whew, catch your breath, just in time for people to roll a boulder after you. Buttonmash your way away from the boulder and you're safe yet again . . . or so I tought. I was looking around after the boulder and all of a sudden one of the guys on top of the hill (the ones who pushed the boulder after me) throws a fucking axe in my back.

The point is: this game doesn't let up. The next area is filled with people who throw very deadly sticks of dynamite after me. And after all of that you get knocked out. I have yet to see where I will end up, but I feel that this game is going to end up being the best of the Resident Evil games I have played this far.

There is more to talk about aside from games. But for now I have to go. Out.

M

Martin, what the hell have you done to the blog posting interface?

I'm thinking about ATT's VoIP telephone service. anybody got any thoughts?

Welcome back from all your travels, gentlemen. It is time for the new year to begin in ernest. Yes, I think all of us are back at work in some fashion or another. Even mikex0r is looking forward (perhaps) to his working days this february.

I've been back a work for a week. Life is fast and furious. I have no time to plan during the day, and have had shit ton work to do since the passing of the new year.

First up was my final for what I sincerely hope will be my last class at tech. After doing well on the homework, and one out of two tests, everything boiled down to the final . . . but then again at 50% that was the way it was going to be no matter what. I do a good job studying over the break, and walk in ready to go, with my two cheat sheets, two mountain dews to keep me awake (the test is at the bad part of the day for me where I fall asleep often) and some combos in case I get hungry. That and the night before were the only days that I have let myself drink coke this year. I'm trying to eliminate a good chunk of caffine (sp?) from my diet. I'm also poor, and spending less money is ALWAYS good.

The test was three problems long and I think I did a pretty good job with it. I was able to check my work a bit, and catch a few errors. Hard to say whether I got an A or a B . . . and that really sucks because that will determine my grade. But regardless at least that was behind me. But that wasn't the last of my do or die testing. This past saturday I had to take the PRAXIS, which is a teaching requirement test where they test my understanding of general science, shit gotta go, taking a test to prove I can us a cumpewter . . . later.


Oh, finsihed Paper Mario

M

Happy New Year to everyone who didn't hear it from me on Saturday.

Football is over so I'll have to find something else to blog about now. I went to a wedding Sunday. It was short and sweet and the food was tasty. My friend Russel's sister got hitched. The guy who she married is a bit of a gamer. Well, bit might be an understatement. The groomscake had a print of his World of Warcraft character on it. That might make him a byte of a gamer instead. ha!! I kill me.

Ryan and I are trying to find parts to make a DIY projector. We're going to use an overhead projector and an "old" 15" lcd screen. At least, that's the current plan.

We still have a Diplomacy game going? Sheesh. How many more times do I have to spend hours doing nothing?

Well, for all of those that are showing up tomorrow:

We aren't sure if there will be diplomacy, it depends on what we hear rom Jeremy and what we decide to do about it.

There WILL be other games for people to play. Chowning will also be in town. There will also be lasagna to eat again if you so wish. See you all tomorrow.

M