As some of you may know, I am mexican. Almost all of my older relatives were born and raised in Mexico, but mine is the first generation to be born here in the U.S. As a result, I'm fluent in English and I know just enough spanish to talk with my grandma and grandpa and aunts and uncles. I've decided that I want to become more fluent in Spanish, just because I don't want to waste the oppurtunity to be truly bilingual. I figure the best way is to read books in spanish and use them to improve my vocabulary and grammar.

The weird thing is, I feel like I'm back in kindergarten. I'm struggling to understand about one in every seven words I read, and I find myself literally moving my lips and sounding out the words It's absurd! The first book is called Harry Potter y la piedra filosofal. I hadn't realized just how clumsy and limited my spanish was until I tried reading this book. It's going to be a nice challenge.

Five days without school begins tomorrow, and I intend to make the most of it.

Although there's still two days left, I want to wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving

I got the feather stylus from the PH registration thing on Nintendo.com! I was half-expecting to be too late, but here it is. What really surprised me was that I ordered it only last Saturday; it didn't take anywhere near the 4 - 6 weeks I was told to wait.

Now that I actually have it, though, it looks really cheap, and boring. Still, it's a free stylus, so I guess I shouldn't complain

Oh, and I'm finally level 14. Ring King! It goes great with the LOTR books I'm reading

Super Mario 64 was one of my favorite games ever, and with Galaxy out on the Wii and Brawl on the way, I've made up my mind to buy a Wii. First I'll have to save up for it though. It's times like this I really wish I had a reliable source of income . Christmas is only about a month away, I'll probably get a big boost from that. Still, it's going to be a while before I can raise $250+.

Side note: I finished The Hobbit, and it was great . I'll be picking up The Fellowship of the Ring in just a few days.

I justbegan reading J.R.R Tolkein's The Hobbit yesterday, and I have to admit it is much better than I expected. I've only read the first 60 pages or so,but already I think it may be one of my favorite books. If The Lord of the Rings is anywhere near as good as this I may just forget about waiting until the summer and instead start to read them immediately.

I'm thinking of signing up for the Gamestop membership deal. I talked to one of the guys and from what I understood,Iwould be getting:

1) 12 monthly issues of my choice gaming magazine (probably Nintendo Power) delivered to my mailbox.

2) A certain percentage off of game purchases (I think it was somewhere around 10%).

3) A poster from this box on the floor behind the counter (weird...).

The thing is, I was considering re-subscribing to Nintendo Power for $20.00, and now I'm wondering if the Gamestop thing is a better deal. Basically what I'm asking is for those of you have signed up before to give me your opinions on whether or not the Gamestop deal is any good. I was told that it would cost twenty dollars, but I really want to make sure that's all I'll be paying.

I finally got Phantom Hourglass today It's been over a month since it was released, I know, but I had a few other games I wanted to finish up. Now I'm ready to play it, and I can't wait. Once again, my Legend of Zelda game collection is complete.

I used to be one of those people who tried to always get at least seven or eight hours of sleep, no matter what. However, in the past couple of weeks there were several days where, for one reason or another (usually homework), I was only able to get about four hours. At first I thought it was horrible, but then I realized that it wasn't so bad. I even aced all of my term finals . That got me thinking: Sleep is such a waste of time. Eight hours of sleep a day means that I am wasting a full third of my life doing absolutely nothing.

So from now on, I will try not to spend too much time sleeping. I realize that rest is important so I will still get as much as I can before a big test or an especially tiring excercise in P.E., but on days where it isn't important I plan to spend the extra time doing more productive activities. Those few additional hours really add up. So, what are your thoughts? Good idea, bad idea, or wait and see how it goes?

It's name is Picross DS. The game is probably best described as Sudoku mixed with Connect-the-Dots. It's basically acollection of these puzzles, which are apparently called nonograms, that in order to solve you must use the process of elimination and basic logic. I got the game about 2 days ago and I play it at almost every oppurtunity I get. I'm going to submit a review sometime this week, and I'd recommend it to anyone who's interested in a puzzle game for their DS.

*UPDATE*
I didn't get around to writing that review this weekend like I had planned (There goes my procrastination again ) HOWEVER it will be the very next review that I submit, whenever that may be.

I'm always postponing things until the absolute last minute, like homework assignments or leaving to go someplace important. Even as I type this blog I've got a giant project due tomorrow that I haven't even started, though it was assigned weeks ago. It usually turns out okay; I'm getting A's and B's in all of my classes, and I'm almost never late, but still.....It's a bad habit that I need to deal with.

I finally got back from Nevada yesterday evening, and I couldn't be happier. My aunt and uncle had no internet ot cable television. All I had for entertainment were two DVDs of The Office, a book, and Tetris DS. It sounds like enough, but somehow I still got bored.

My family and I are headed towards Nevada tomorrow, I'm probably not going to be here for the whole day

As a side note: Is it everyone on Gamespot that has their level percentage stuck? I know it's very common right now, but I don't see how it could affect every single user. I have been at 70% for three or four days, and it's driving me crazy.

So I came home from school today and noticed both my sisters at home on the couch, watching a DVD. It was rare (because I'm the only one still living at home ), but not strange. I go about my usual business, eating lunch, trying to judge if I should do my homework immediately or later on in the evening, when out of nowhere one of them comes up to me and says "Guess what?" very excitedly. I figured it was something about her work or her house, so I half-heartedly replied with the usual "What?" Imagine my surprise when I hear that the other sister is pregnant It was completely unexpected!

So, now I'm going to have a little nephew in a few months, and I'm not sure what to expect. I probably won't even talk to him much, but still, this is pretty big news for me.

Like the title says, I've gotten kind of tired of playing video games recently. I've started reading books again, and I've got so many to read before I have to get a job and I'll have virtually no free time. Mostly I'm into fiction books, especially sci-fi or horror. What I'm really disappointed to find out is that Gamespot has no place to discuss books. Even just a sticky thread in OT would be nice, but apparently the closest thing will be a book union, which I'll look for right after this post. Anyway, I know this is an uninteresting blog, but I haven't posted anything for a while and I just felt like sharing this about me.

I'm sure this is a question that has been asked way too many times before, but here it is: Who do you think would win in a fight between Samus and Master Chief?

I was talking about this with some guy at school before summer break, and I figured this would be a great place to get some more opinions from fellow gamers. Personally, I think Samus would win the battle. She has Thermal and X-ray visors, plus a lock-on for her weapons so Master Chief wouldn't really be able to avoid her. Morph Ball mode means she can hide in small areas, then burst out for a surprise attack. However, her armor doesn't look like it would be able to protect her from most of Master Chief's weapons. This is just my opinion though, feel free to comment on who you think would win. I'm interested in seeing who mostof you guyschoose.