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SO what's happened since my last one. High school ended. Yep. I ended up graduating tied for second in my class, which was a shock to me, seeing as the last time I checked I was fourth. And of course, that meant that I had to give a speech at graduation. Actually, I had to give two speeches around that time, one in front of the school for a yearbook dedication for my friend who battled cancer throughout high school, and the Salutatory address (of which there were two, and also the Valedictorian speech) in front of all the parents and everyone at graduation. I was very nervous both times, but once I started speaking I think I did a good job. My speech was short and to the point, whereas the other speeches were long and drawn out, and I think my classmates and the audience appreciated that.

Something else unexpected happened as a result of my moving into the 2 spot for my class, my college gave me an extra four thousand dollars in scholarship money as a result of my being salutatorian. I still had to take out larger loans that I would have liked to for my school, but having four thousand dollars dropped into my lap was rather nice.

After school ended I started looking for a job for the summer. Unfortunately, with the market so bad compounded with the fact that I am leaving come August 23rd, I was unable to ever find one. I almost had one at Wal-mart, but unfortunately they had a hiring freeze ordered from higher up right before they could hire me. Some luck I have. So my summer has been a whole lot of nothing, kind of sitting around, hanging out with friends, all while watching my savings slowly dwindle down. I will have a job when college starts though in a work study, which will be nice. It doesn't pay too much, but anything helps.

I guess the lone highlight of this summer was when I received my AP exam scores last month. I ended up getting a 5 on Calc AB (no idea how I managed that, but I'll take it), a 5 on Environmental Science (Not trying to sound cocky, but I knew that was coming. I walked out of that test knowing I nailed it,) a 4 on Statistics, and a 4 on Lit and Comp, which was one higher than I expected. Because I scored high on these exams (they are scored from 1-5, 5 being the highest, 3 is usually the minimum to receive credit at colleges) I received credits at my college for those classes that those exams would cover, which included the 5 I scored on AP US History last year. So I'd say the AP experience was very well worth it, in terms of gaining college credit and in terms of getting used to a more rigorous course load.

College starts in three weeks for me, well a little less than that now. I have two roomates who I have started to contact, and I'm looking forward to it. I'm sure a few months from now I'll look back on that statement and think I was crazy knowing the work I'll likely be doing, but I do want to meet new people and see new places. I'm very bored of where I live, though leaving it does have a strange sadness to it, as I have lived here my entire life. But I know I'll adjust.

Well, I hope I didn't bore you guys out there, if anyone even reads this.

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2. Spaceballs is not a funny movie.

That is all.

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College: I've decided what college I will be attending. The decision was between the College of the Holy Cross, UMass Amherst, and Worcester polytechnic Institute, and I chose WPI. I decided against Holy Cross as it does not have an engineering program, and engineering is what I want to study, so even though it probably was my favorite of the three schools I got into, I decided against it. It has an option for a 3/2 engineering program in which you receive a bachelor's degree from Holy Cross and a bachelor's degree in engineering from Columbia or Darmoth, but it takes more work than usual and after five years you only have two bachelor's degrees, where at WPI or UMass I could potentially have a bachelor's and a Master's by that time, if I went into a one-year master's program. I decided against UMass Amherst, even though it was the least expensive mainly because I wasn't thrilled by it. I initially applied to it as a safety school, and seriously considered it for a while, but after a visit, I wasn't impressed. The campus had no charm; it felt like an industrial park. I know I could have saved quite a bit of money by going there, but my gut feeling told me not to, so I decided to trust my feelings.

I chose WPI in the end for a few reasons. One, the campus had more charm to it, and its located in a more interesting place than UMass, Worcester. Worcester is one of the biggest cities in New England and I have always wanted to try city-ish life after growing up in a small suburb of Boston my entire life. It is also a very strong school academically, more so than UMass I believe. It also has more options than UMass in terms of engineering. Umass only had the basic engineering majors, civil, mechanical, chemical, etc. where WPI has more biological and biomedical options, options I have always considered, and options that are not present at UMass. WPI is also a smaller school, which in a way is better in my opinion.

Of course, WPI has its disadvantages. The big one is cost. It'll cost me about twice as much per year to go there as opposed to UMass, but I'd rather go to WPI and be happy than go to UMass and only have mixed feelings. Another disadvantage is the male/female proportion... it's around 70% male there. I don't think I need to go into why I consider that a disadvantage... I guess WPI also has the disadvantage of being such a focused school, as if I decide engineering is not for me, I'll probably have to transfer out, where at another college I could just switch majors. WPI does have other options, but these options seem rather limited.

I am also on the waiting lists of Washington University in St. Louis, Carleton College, and Cornell University, and if I get off the waiting list at any of these schools except Carleton (same problem as Holy Cross, no engineering) I would face a tough decision. Both Cornell and Wash. University are amazing schools, and I would seriously consider either if I got off the waiting list at either. But, for now, seeing as those events are very unlikely, I'm perfectly happy with WPI.

School: I'm about a month away from graduation. This last month is going to be rough, with AP Exams coming up next week and the week after, but I think I can last this last sprint. Unless something changes, I'll be graduating fourth in my class, a place I am perfectly happy with. I have mixed feelings about leaving high school. On one hand, I do want to move on to college, as much as I know it will suck in terms of work, I do want to be more independent, and I think the college atmosphere would challenge me more. But, all the people I know I will be leaving with high school, so I don't know.

Gamespot: I haven't been on the site as much lately. As some of you may have noticed, I have stepped down as a moderator. I guess the decision was partly lost interest in the position and partly lack of time because of school and other things. I'm not sure at this point if I'll ever re-join the team (if they'll have me back ), I think I'll just have to let some time pass and see how I feel.

Games: I've been playing the Splinter Cell games (Original, PT, CT) and Morrowind pretty much exclusively lately. I bought all three of the original xbox splinter cell games for under $10, which was definitely worth it. The Splinter Cell series is one of my favorites, and playing through them again is very awesome. I've beaten Pandora Tomorrow on hard so far, and am through most of Chaos Theory on expert (with every mission at 100% success so far). After, I'm going to finish up the original game on hard. Each game in the series is a minimum 9/10 in my book. If you haven't played them before, play them.

In Morrowind, I've basically finished the game. I still have some stuff to do, as there is always something to do in the vast world of Morrowind, but as far as the major quests go, I'm done. I went through the Tribunal expansion over the past few months (city of Mournhold) and last week beat the Bloodmoon expansion in a three days where I didn't have much homework to do. At finish, my character is a level 75 Redguard with the best everything. That;s the third time I've played through it. My other two games were on my old original xbox and were lost when I got rid of that a few years ago. Morrowind is another one of those games I recommend very highly, though it is not a game for everyone. It requires patience to get into, and quite a bit of it. It's rather slow at times, but can be immerse if you let it be. A solid 9.9/10 in my book, the .1 off being for the annoying technical issues that pop up rather often. If you remember to save often though, these can be overcome.

Phew, that's more than I intended to write. Well, see you guys around.

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It was a good run...

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And today, I got one admissions decision. I found out that I was accepted into Worcester Polytechnic Institute, which does not surprise me. (Kind of funny, I could tell from the second I saw the letter titled "admissions decision" that I was in, as it was pretty big and lots of stuff in it. I doubt they would have sent all that stuff if they rejected me, lol.) WPI is probably my fourth or fifth choice school, but it is nice to know I am into at least one in case everything else goes wrong.

Well, now all there is left to do is wait for more possible interview requests, or if not, then more admissions decisions.

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If you have never seen The Prisoner, I highly recommend it to anyone. McGoohan did a great job on it. It is currently being remade and "re-imagined", so you may be hearing about that at some point in the future, but in most Hollywood related things like shows and movies, the remake is never as good as the original... so watch the original.

R.I.P. Mr. McGoohan. You were one of very few actors that I can actually say I like.

EDIT: Oh, and look here! AMC is streaming the original Prisoner series online in advance of the release of their remake this year, if you do want to watch it.

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1. Money- I got over $100 in money this Christmas. Can't complain about that, right?

2. A warm, gren blanket. This thing rocks. It is so soft.

3. iPod Nano 16GB Black- I've never owned a mp3 player before, so this was a big gift for me. I've been playing around with it all day, and I must say, I approve. I do not approve of the ear buds that came with it though, as they fall out and are just plain annoying. I may buy some new headphones or earbuds tomorrow to replace them.

4. The movie A Hard Day's Night. Yet to watch it.

5. Some other small things not worth noting.

So, overall, I'd say this was a decent Christmas. I think I'm going to spend the money on a few CD's and some new headphones, and maybe save some of it. Merry Christmas again and I hope you all got what you wanted.

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But seeing as everyone is making a Christmas blog, I'll add something more to this one. This really annoyed me when I read it earlier today.For those of you that don't know, (and for those of you that care), Wes Welker is a receiver for the New England Patriots, and he is heading to his first Pro-Bowl this year. He has always been (from what I have seen), a somewhat mild-mannered guy, never showboating after scoring like so many players do, just letting his play do the talking for him, and I respect him for that and his great play). Last Sunday, the patriots played in a snowstorm (for the first half of the game anyway), and Welker caught a touchdown pass. He jumped into a patch of snow, made a snow angel, and was flagged for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.

OK. I can accept that. I disagree that his act was unsportsmanlike, it was just a spur of the moment thing and not meant to taunt anyone, its nearly Christmas and its snowing, but whatever, the pats were ahead by a lot by that point and could take the hit. But today, he was fined $10,000 for mnaking that snow angel.

What? $10,000!?!?! My lord, some players who make dirty, dangerous hits are fined less than that. Sometimes worse things go unfined. And to make it worse, on this same day, a player on the Jets was fined $10k for lobbing a giant snow-ice chunk at someone in the stands. I understand that fine, as that thing really could have hurt someone. But $10,000 for a snow angel? C'mon Roger Godell, you give Welker the same fine as a guy that lobbed a huge ice chunk at someone in the stands? Jeez.

Anyway, before I go too far with this, again, Merry Christmas to all you out there. Have a great day.

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Overall, I wouldn't call the game very hard. The purple coin comets really got on my nerves at times, especially the ones with time limits attached to them, but with enough work I was able to conquer all of them. For some stars, the hidden ones, I admit I did have to use youtube a few times, but when it comes to searching for hidden things like that, I just don't have the patience. I know I could find them if I wanted to look for long enough, but I just don't want to look for that long. I did try to find most on my own though, and fould maybe half of them or so without help. I've never really felt guilty at all for looking for help, I don't know why.

*possible minor spoiler warning? maybe? just to be safe I'll put it in tags...*

Maybe I'll write a review for this game soon. The college application process for me is winding down, it is vacation, there's a foot of snow on the ground (and I don't like being cold very much... ) and most of my friends are elsewhere, so maybe. Right now I'm thinking about a score of either 8.5 to 9 out of 10. It was a fun game, but it did have a few things I didn't like about it, like the often awkward camera and at times annoying controls, as well as a too-kiddish feel for me (especially the part of the game where you go into the library and listen to the story... my god), but overall it was very good, though not coming close to my two favorite games of all-time, Morrowind and Star Wars X-Wing Alliance...

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The timing of this college admission process isn't working out so well for me. I am trying to get everything ready for Cornell's due date, 1/2, which means his week I am working my butt off trying to finish everything. I have to out the finishing touches on my college essay (which I should be doing now instead of this blog) and meeting with my guidance consular multiple times this week, all this during the week before Christmas vacation, where all the teachers at my school decide to give tests. So I have to balance large amounts of work and this college BS, and this balance equals a week that is anything but fun. But, I see the light at the end of the tunnel. Within two weeks, I will have (hopefully) finished everything, and then I can stop worrying about getting this stuff done. It will be out of my hands.

Well, I'd better get back to work...

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I did my best to make it look like me, but there is a limit to how realistic I can make it. I guess the avatar feature is cool. The option does have much more customization that I thought it would have, but at the same time the feature did annoy me. For one, I could not find a hairstyle that fit my actual self. I just have generic short to mid legnth hair, nothing fancy, and the closest thing I could find was the "swept" style, which you can see I used above. Also, the lack of clothing options was rather disappointing. I know they just released it and that more updates are probably on the way in the future, but you think they'd have at least a wide variety of shirts and pants and shoes and other stuff available. Oh well.

As far as the new dashboard goes, I find it confusing. I don't know how to do anything, though I am slowly figuring it out. I found the blades system that was in place before much easier to use, but I guess in time I'll get used to this new system. (If you want an example of how lost I was, it probably took me 10 minutes to figure out how to change the dashboard theme).

One thing I have to say that is awesome about the NXE is the Netflix option. My parents subscribe to Netflix, and I'm using their account to watch movies over my 360 at pretty high quality. I watched 2001: A Space Odyssey over my 360 the other day (a really good movie, I must add) and plan to watch more in the future. I hope there aren't any hidden fees involved, or my parents will be pretty mad with me.

I haven't tried the new "install game" feature yet. I could try it if I wanted to I guess, but the 20GB hard drive is pretty limiting. I had like 7GB of free space the other day, and I knew that would pretty much all get taken up by a game should I choose to install it, so I cleared away some stuff and I expanded it to 10. Now the question is: what game to install? I feel like it is some major commitment, even though it is probably easy to delete. I'm thinking of trying Fable II... maybe I'll try tomorrow to see if it is worth it. I'll just have to make sure to remember never to install Halo 3.

OH I ALMOST FORGOT. I LOVE THIS: The menus are much, much faster now. One drawback of the blades system was the really sloooooooooow loading blade that would sweep across the screen, and it really annoyed me, especially when I accidentally hit the middle xbox button during a game. Now a quick loading box appears that is MUCH more manageable. Thank you Microsoft.

And in other news...

I got my SAT Subject Test results back today.

Literature-510- Better than I thought I did, but still a disappointing score. I don't know what it was, but when I took that test I just couldn't fully focus. I kept drifting off. Maybe I shouldn't have taken it last out of the three. Besides, I think I have more of a strength in writing than what was on the literature test, reading passages, difficult questions, and a very strict time limit.

Chemistry-600- I am really proud of this score. I worked really hard to review for this exam, and I hit my goal right on the money. This exam was so difficult for me because I got kind of screwed in Chemistry last year. For one, my teacher taught at a slower pace, so we didn't get to a lot of stuff at all, but what my teacher did teach, he did very well, which is probably one of the reasons I did as well as I did. Also, in about March-ish of last year he had a mild stroke that put him out for two months, and my class didn't do too much during those two months. I chose to take the SAT Subject Test in Chemistry because my Chemistry teacher said that a lot of colleges that teach sciences like to see, if not require, a science SAT Subject test. He also said that my class was at an even further disadvantage because a lot of the kids who take that exam have had two years of chemistry going into it, while I just had 4/5 of one, so I really was fighting an uphill battle.I reviewed hard, took the test, and was very surprised to see that 600. I told my chemistry teacher (who is now my physics teacher) my score and he said it made his day.

Math 1-740- That test was pretty easy, except for the last 10 problems or so.

And now I need to stop procrastinating and get some homework done...

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I still have a bunch of games that I want to review, but I haven't had the time or the desire to go through the process of reviewing them. I've been kind of strapped for time with all the college stuff that is due in about a month and a half and the homework for all my classes. But, maybe once all that is sorted out I'll start reviewing again. I guess I must be doing something right if I was chosen as a top community reviewer, right?

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Dammit. Yes, it just happened again. It also happens when I go for the "a" key. Normally I'd edit it out but I'll leave it in there for the sheer comedy of it...

Oh, Caps Lock, if there were a way to kill you, I'd do it. But you aren't alive so I can't really do that. But I see you sitting there, in all your blackness with white font-ness, mocking me. I know there is some way to disable you by editing the registry, but I'm too scared I'll break something in the process. I hate you.

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And In the past few weeks I have gotten four new emblems, one of them appearing in my profile today.

It's a bloodbath out there.
Proud recipients of this emblem immersed themselves in our Gears of War 2 gameplay marathon. The rubber duckie was optional.

'Twas a good marathon, and in my opinion, a good emblem was given out for it. The other three I got were the Virtual Sackboy and the two Halowwen scavenger hunt emblems. Emblems are cool.

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Today is Election Day! All I can say is "finally." I am so tired of this Presidential race and just want closure either way at this point. Tomorrow I will go to vote for John McCain and Sarah Palin to be our next Pres./VP combo. I don't like either very much, but I'd rather have the experienced McCain in office at this point. I realize Obama has a pretty good chace of not only winning this election, but winning in a landslide, which I don't like, but I still feel I should vote. (Though here on Massachusetts, my vote is essentially rendered meaningless by the overwhelming Democratic leaning population.) I'm also going to vote against John Kerry, simply because I dislike the man, not that my one vote will have much of an impact in his likely landslide victory. As far as state positions go, I'll be voting for the Republican in every case. I consider myself Conservative, but I'm not a true Republican, so in a sense, I am considering my vote a protest vote. The Mass. State government is roughly 80% Democratic, and there is literally no opposition within the government. Whatever the Dems want, it is passed quickly. I consider that dangerous. I believe this is the reason why the Mass State government seems to be full of inefficiency corruption (take the case of Diane Wilkerson as an example; it took her years and multiple convictions to finally be unseated. If you want inefficiancy, look up the Big Dig). Its been so safe for the Dems for so long that they have grown too comfortable. We need to shake things up a bit here in MA to keep the Dems honest, and that is why I will cast my protest vote. As far as the ballot questions go:

The ballot questions in MA are...

Question 1- This question involves the income tax. A "yes" vote will eliminate the income tax. A "No" vote will keep it the same.

My take: I'm torn on this one. Being a conservative, lower taxes and less government spending are appealing to me. But I worry that cutting the tax to 0% is too extreme. It'll cut the State budget (which is strained as it is) by about 1/3. I do see it as a way of shaking things up a bit and keeping the Dems in line with their spending, yet I worry the meat of this will end up being taken out on the schools. I'm not sure about this one yet.

Question 2: Question 2, if voted yes on, will make possession of a small amount of marijuana a civil offense to be met with a fine as opposed to a criminal offense to be met with prison time.

My take: Yes all the way. It will make the prisons less crowded, saving the state money, and prevent such a minor offense from hampering people's futures (as it is, the criminal offense on one's record I've heard can be damaging.)

Question 3: A yes vote will prohibit greyhound racing. A no vote will keep it legal.

My take: I've heard that greyhound racing can be pretty inhumane at times (toward the dogs). I was thinking of voting yes, even though a yes vote will cost some people their jobs.

And now I'm burned out in regards to politics...

So, School! My first term grades ended up being all A's and the other day I took the SAT subject tests in Chemistry, English, and Math (Level 1). I think I did fine on Math, alright on chem (the test was VERY hard for me because I had only taken one year of chemistry, and two months of that were wasted when my teacher had a stroke), and the English one I bombed. I only answered about half the questions, and those I answered I wasn't sure on. I don't know why I had so much trouble with it; normally I can do alright on tests like that, but that test did not go well AT ALL for me. I think that test might hurt my chances of getting into certain schools..

And now let's shift to games. I've been playing Fable 2 the most out of any game lately. I beat the game as a "good" character, along with most of the side quests, but I sort of screwed myself out of totally finishing the file (I'd have to go into some spoilers to tell totally why, and I don't feel like making the spolier tags. ) I've been playing as a "evil" character now, terrorizing Albion through murder, pillage, and vulgar thrusts while only in my undergarments (which is a crime). I may consider writing a review for it at some point in the future.

And that is it for this blog...

Except for one thing I just remembered. We held a mock election at my high school today, ad to no great surprise, Obama, Kerry, and the other Dem. candidates won by very wide margins. Youth + Massachusetts = A Democrat's dream.

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The amount of stuff I can do in the world just increased. Yet I feel about the same. Oh well.

Birthdays FTW!

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Thing Two- I purchased Fable 2 today! But before I get into that, let me get a small rant out of the way-

The "childhood" stage sucked. It really did (though the story twist at the end was good). It was far too linear and there were too many glitches. The voice acting in the game is awkwardly paced to the point where it really takes me out of the game. The pauses between characters speaking is awkwardly long. You know, sort of like this. I bet its something I'll have to get used to... but I guess after playing games like Mass Effect where the dialogue is so well done, anything less than that won't appear as well done as it might be. I'm also not seeing much of the laugh out loud funniness yet.

Those things aside, I have to say the game is a good step up from Fable 1. The land does feel more open and the dog is a surprisingly good addition. I like how more buildings and stores are on sale in town (I've only been to Bowerstone so far), and I'm sure I am going to have some fun with that once I get some more money. I also like the addition of jobs. I've only done one quest so far, so I can't really comment on that yet. I have not played any co-op yet either, but I plan to try some this weekend. There is plenty left for me to see and do, and I may write a few more blogs about later.

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Honestly, I could not stop laughing the first time I saw this. It takes the word "bad" to a whole new extreme. You don't even need to know a word of spanish to see how bad this movie is.

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