I’d say I’m about mid-way through this semester, and I’ve never experienced something quite like I am now. On one hand, in my math class (Precalc), I’m doing pretty great. Out of the three tests I’ve taken, I’ve gotten 94 and 95 on two of them. It helps she lets you use a sheet of notes… but even still. I’m glad I’m doing this well as I learned I need to take Calculus 1 and 2 in my upcoming two semesters. As expected I’m doing pretty great in my two programming classes as well.

Despite performing my best in an area I never thought I could have, I’m also floundering when it comes to my Networking and Tech Writing classes. For both of them I don’t have the textbook yet for… reasons… and it’s really dragging me down. To use a metaphor, not having the book is like shackling a weight to me leg and throwing me in a river. I’d say I’m about 40% from the bottom right now. This isn’t easy, and explaining this situation isn’t easy either. I need things to get better here, and I wish I could take the reigns and make it better on my own. But it’s not dependent on me.

I really can’t wait for Summer. At the start of this semester I was pretty easygoing about it but now I want it to be over.

My sister and niece have been away on vacation for a while, and the house… is really quiet. Relatively. While my brother-in-law had to stay behind, he’s pretty quiet and away most of the time too. Really, this is how it should be… but it is almost too calm. I don’t know what to want. Them in their own place for peace of mind or them to stay to keep things fun and interesting.

Pokemon SoulSilver came out over two weeks ago and it took me about as much time to beat it completely. Of course, beating a Pokemon game isn’t my main motivation anymore – competitive battling is. While I’ve lamented the super-hardcore nature of this aspect of Pokemon, I still enjoy it. Even though I haven’t started the whole process again, I’m sure the experience learned from last time will more than help out so I can hit the ground running.

As for the game itself, it’s great. Definitely the best Pokemon game ever made. Essentially, I loved the graphics, features, and updated battle system of Pokemon Pearl, and they combined it with the best story and setting (Johto and Kanto combined slightly beat out Sinnoh, in my opinion) in the series for a winning combination. It doesn’t hurt they improved the speed of the battle system and threw in all the extras from Pokemon Platinum (and then some.)

While I got some nostalgia trips off of it… for some reason I guess I was expecting more. They changed some things ever so slightly that would have sent my nostalgia-meter off the hook, (for those playing, I was sad they took away the outdoor area of the daycare and the roof area in the Goldenrod Department Store.) This is a shame as I have huge fond memories for the original Silver (and Gold, got them both one Christmas) and I so wanted this game to invoke them. As I said, it’s the best in the series almost by default, but for some reason I didn’t get the pangs of excitement I think I should have. Maybe I was too young…

Regardless there’s still a ton I have to do even not counting the main game and competitive training. I have yet to experience the Safari Zone, Cerulean Cave, the Battle Frontier, Ho-oh, and the tons of daily or weekly events like the bug catching contest. The game is going to keep delivering for a long time. But for now, I’ve been a bit distracted by another game…

What’s primarily stunting my interest in leaping into stat grinding again is another DS game I recently picked up – WarioWare D.I.Y. The game is focused around creating your own two to eight second long “microgames,” which involve tapping the Nintendo DS’s screens to trigger on-screen actions and win. You can customize everything, from the graphics to music, to the AI and effects. It’s powerful, but coming from Nintendo, it’s also easy to learn as you’d expect it to be, with great tutorials and learning challenges. The game offers 90 pre-made microgames that the WarioWare series is known for, although the real source of great content will be friends. By registering a bunch of people on a forum thread, I now have access to new user-made microgames every day, heck sometimes every time I log on. You can put up the ones you make, which I love, however the severe downside is that you can only store two of them at a time, and there’s not stats or rating system. You never know how many times your games are downloaded, which is a shame.

WarioWare: Touched! was the first DS game I bought (Super Mario 64 DS was bundled with my first system), and I loved it immensely. My younger sister had gotten WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Party Games! and although I never really paid it much attention, Touched stole my heart. As a prospective (and currently hobbyist) game developer/programmer the game has really helped me see how much I need to focus to make a compelling experience. I know it’s silly that it takes making a 5-second game to teach me this, but yeah. You can’t throw a bunch of random stuff together and expect people to like it. You always have to think of the player. That much I knew before, but now I’ve actually seen it in action.

It’s almost a shame these two DS games released so close together as I haven’t put any good amount of time into SoulSilver since I got DIY. Maybe in July or August I’ll come back around and work on putting a strong “dream team” together, like what happened back in 2007 with Pokemon Pearl. But for now, getting player feedback on my dumb little games and playing other people’s creations jolts the pleasure center of my brain a little each time.

Heh, this entry turned out to be as night-and-day as my current college situation. I don’t really have anything deep to say to close this out… So I’ll just say, I’m glad it’s practically April.
-Andrew