Reprioritize

There's definitely a need in terms of how I'm spending my time.

Despite 'plans' for the coming semester, things are already falling apart as I'm trying to deal with the reality of how things really are. After 3 weeks ish, I've got a pretty good idea of how my courses are shaping up:

Bcem543 - Is difficult stuff. There's lots of material and I'm not sure how I'll cover everything. If only the slides weren't so cluttered with text and wordart. The study of enzymes is interesting though.

Nans502 - I'm in lab. Like usual. Data analysis for nearly 3 hours isn't nearly as exciting as sitting in front of a gas-powered extruder for 20 minutes. Lol.

Soci327 - A course that is much more interesting than I thought it would be. It's a lot of work because there's a textbook with which I must glean information from lest I miss questions on the midterm. But textbook work is definitely much more of a hassle.

Zool463 - Relatively simple, takes a bit of studying but I should be able to understand

Zool575 - No exams, there's a paper and a presentation, but as of yet, how in-depth it'll have to be is still slightly uncertain, but at least the course is interesting? It's bringing up questions about neurons that I've never thought about before

On top of course work, there's also personal health, exercise, extracurriculars, volunteer duties, work, and relationships to manage.

Personal health - Was trying the whole sleep at 10/11 ish and wake up at 6am thing. Worked for the first two weeks. This week, trying to catch up on Soci, I've been sleeping at 2 or 3 and waking at 6 to go to the university and study. It's not working that well as I completely crashed today.

Exercise - Been trying to get more of this but so far it's still just squash and ultimate. Somehow Fridays have turned out to have more people (that I pseudo-know) for squash than previously thought, so new opponents are welcome. But some of them playing, despite not playing that often, can still beat me because of their epic badminton upbringing. It just... goes to show how much I still suck have room to improve.

Extracurriculars - That's... pretty much only martial arts at this point, unless Ultimate counts here. I guess Ultimate can count here. So let's talk about that. There's too many people on the team. This results in: less play time alongside an increase in confusion (think 3D graphs). It's... saddening seeing as how I was really looking forward to play... but now it's like there's less of a chance to play.. and definitely less chance to get better.

Volunteer duties - That's just Safewalk and SU stuff. SU-wise, I'm still trying to get use to everything... which is funny because elections for next year is already coming about. It's still up for debate whether I want to run or not. It's quite a bit of work... but at the same time it's also pretty neat stuff. Apparently homeless break into the place where we store recyclables and take them across to the bottle depot. It's like an epic arms-race of minuscule proportion. Expensive too, apparently.

Work - That's tutoring. It's frustrating and not at the same time. It's a work in progress that's blue-screen'd half the time.

Relationships - Well... that's always a work in progress. More steps backwards than forwards. Or more steps forward than back... except the steps forward are small ones relatively to those backwards. Net result is the same.

So. Yes. There's a lot of things. How to set things out to work properly? Maybe if I stopped playing games... or played less... because Trauma Team, Assassin's Creed Brotherhood, Magicka, and whatever else can wait. Right?

16^2

I don't remember the last time I've had a nightmare. I mean, dreams sure. Weird dreams even. But nightmares? No. Not at all.

Of what I remember, it sort of broke down like this:

Me and family was at a Co-Op somewhere in a small town (which is odd since Co-Op is supposedly Calgary-specific). We somehow found out that the cops were after me for some reason or another. Some narrow misses ensue as my parents are driving while I try to hide in the back seat. I remember it being cold / rainy.

When we're stopped somewhere. I bump into my student but he seems restricted regarding why he was here except for something about a radio show (?). After saying good bye and while waiting in the car listening to the radio, I hear an interview being conducted with my student's mother talking about how horrible a tutor I am.

More escaping later as we stop at several different places to try and hide because my parents knew people there, each time we stopped there was some person familiar, but each time we were also betrayed or they wouldn't help out.

I know at some point I couldn't even speak properly anymore out of shock because of what these people said / evil cackle / their twisted visages.

I finally get caught, but my family somehow breaks me free as we race away. For some odd reason we head to the festival in the middle of town. While trying to settle down for food, we see 3 elderly people of whom we recognize as being part of an association in Chinatown.

Parents suggest that perhaps I may have wronged them somehow and that I should go see why. As I was approaching the menacing group of people, I trip towards them, which would probably just make things worse.

Then I woke.

Definitely an odd departure of what I would define as a nightmare, or at least what my younger self would've defined at least. No monsters of any sort. Unless you count the hidden nature beneath the some people's facade of humanity.

It's left a bitter taste in my mouth.

Or that may be from the poorly prepared coffee that I made.

In any case, I've been up since 5. Let's go read my textbook.

Chronicles of Narnia Azeroth

So my subscription for WoW ends tomorrow. Sadness. All around. Sort of. Now that classes have resumed, I definitely need to re-prioritize what I want to do. Gaming can wait. Classes, assignments, and exams certainly cannot. So it's time to hang up my [sword and shield, mace and dagger, staff, wand, ax and gun] and sweep the dust off my books.

Slight word of caution: this is just a pseudo-rant (again) of WoW and nothing but. Feel free to not read.

Cumulative general stats of sorts:

Fyra - Night Elf Feral Druid - Level 85 - 19 days and 20 hours

Feira - Night Elf Shadow Priest - Level 55 - 1 day and 23 hours

Quoryn - Worgen Demonlogy Warlock - Level 30 - 21 hours

Vraz - Gnome Frost Mage - Level 12 - 5 hours

Daibeard - Dwarf Beast Mastery Hunter - Level 42 - 1 day and 3 hours

Neidras - Dranei Enhancement Shaman - Level 13 - 5 hours

Reavas - Human Protection Warrior - Level 37 - 20 hours

Overall play duration - 601 hours (or 25 days)

Overall play duration for this subscription - 165 hours (almost 7 days)

Actually... just taking a step back... 7 days out of 30 days... is almost a quarter. That's actually a little scary, just imagining how much time I spent playing... it was fun though. Or at least most of it, the shaman part wasn't.

First of all, I've really got to hand it to Blizzard for revamping the questing system in the game. They grouped the quests that you need to complete within the same area so there was no longer any needless running back and forth between areas half way across the map. They added different ways of advancing the quests such as having communicators or objectives that 'you' (rather your character) sets for themselves.

This was readily apparent when I played the Dranei's starting zone, which was introduced way back when the Burning Crusade expansion was released. Whereas all the zones were changed for the inclusion of Cataclysm, these areas remained the same. The changes to the questing system became readily apparent as I spent more time running from location to location rather than actual questing. It was a good departure.

There's actually been a lot of things I wanted to talk about as I was playing... 'this quest chain was neat', 'lol, the dialogue of the NPC's here was ridiculously awesome', or just random insights that I wanted to share because I'm quite sure you all (don't) care. But now I don't know where to start.

Herbalism, one of the many professions you can take up in the game, has been one of my mainstays since my first character. Originally, it just made sense since I played a druid. They're attuned to nature, so being good at picking out herbs and making potions out of them (alchemy) just felt right.

Flash forward a bunch of characters doing herbalism later, I (embarrassingly) now have a better understanding of the environments of where herbs grow (sad, I know). For example, peacebloom grows in the middle of fields, silverleaf beside trees, earthroot from rocks, and liferoot being close to sources of water. Or rather, it means that instead of just throwing a bunch of herbs randomly into the world, Blizzard decided to give them specific characteristics, which just makes the world much more believable.

I find it laughable how of the two new races, Worgen and Goblins, I have rarely seen any Goblins but I've seen many a Worgen throughout my adventures. I think it's mostly because the Worgen look so damn cool while the goblins are... well. Goblins. Lol.

Speaking of Worgens, their starting zone's storyline was amazing. You start off within the walled-off city of Gilneas, where it's apparently being attacked by monsters of some sort. As you desperately fend off these monstrosities to protect your home, you're bitten by one of them. Finally being overwhelmed by them, you're later recaptured in the wild and was (luckily) able to regain your consciousness through help before the transformation took over completely. Which is epic. So so epic.

Of the classes I played during the subscription period, I'd probably rate it as thus: Druid / Warrior, Priest / Hunter / Warlock, Mage / Shaman.

Druid is up there due to it's versatility as either a tank or as a DPS. The ability to shapeshift, heal / deal damage / and soak up damage was awesome. Also, flight form made life so much easier. Warriors on the other hand are ridiculously overpowered. A Protection-spec'd warrior deals high damage, can take on multiple enemies, and their ability 'Victory Rush' allows them to regain health for each foe demolished. I never once have to worry about how many enemies I pull when I play with these classes.

The priest I played as a DPS rather than healer, even when the opportunity to dual-spec came up. I was surprised at how well the priest played because I've always had this belief that leveling a priest would be difficult since they were so flimsy. Apparently not true. Also, shadow form just looks badass. Hunters on the other hand have a pet to command, which is pretty awesome. Also, if you don't know Cantonese, the name 'Daibeard' might not make any sense. Warlocks, focusing mostly on DoT's can also have a demon under their command. Using DoT's is a completely different play style from what I'm use to, so it's a good change of pace.

Mages are basically too flimsy and I'm not good enough at kiting opponents to make playing the mage fun. Shaman on the other hand... I think it was more because I was playing through the Dranei's starter zone than the actual class that made it not as fun. Perhaps another subscription some other day.

At the end of it all (although it technically never ends), one of the parts that I appreciate about WoW above all else is the writing in the game. In combination with the character's animations in the game, they've managed to give the characters in the game their own personalities, make your quests seem like they mean something, and most of all, it's entertaining.

Playing through familiar zones and seeing how they've changed was definitely a pleasure. As Feira, the younger sister of Fyra, went through locations that her sister went through, noticeable changes can be seen in the world. A cave where Fyra earned her right to shapeshift into a bear, having to fight through loads of moonkin was now occupied by their ghosts as they were all driven into a crazy.

As Quoryn and his companions sought to help out in Westfall. The once Defias Brotherhood occupied region was now a place filled with homeless people and dissidence. As the quest chain reached a climax, you realize that the daughter of the leader of the brotherhood had watched as you murdered her father. Now she's back and she's reformed the brotherhood once again to destroy the alliance. So you and your heroes have to journey into the Deadmines to find and defeat her before things escalate.

While journeying through Stranglethorn Vale, a tiny raptor takes a liking to Reavas. Unwittingly, with the help of the raptor, you accidentally revive one of the trolls of the Zul'Gurub temple, which are once again trying to revive their blood god Hakkar. There's also a neat portion where you can take control of the raptor and try to escape, including parts where you lay a skull on a bridge and make trolls slip off of them.

It's neat because with both Deadmines and Zul'Gurub, Blizzard found a way of making the dungeons make sense in terms of Cataclysm. Not to mention the story lines were epic.

There are dozens upon dozens of easter eggs within the game and references to other games and famous icons that it's impossible not to find one that makes you laugh. A few of these include:

- Rolling a giant ball of energy that goblins cling to (Katamari Damacy)
- Harrison Jones and his series of quests, such as 'Harrison Jones and the Temple of Uldum' (Indiana Jones)

- Quests related to pirates, such as one where you had to destroy their mortal enemies (pirates vs ninjas)

- A man trying to purify a sample you collecting by spinning on one leg really fast while screaming 'CENTRIFUGAAAAAAAATE' (centrifuges XD)

- A little sister and her big papa (Bioshock series)

- The 1 Ring obtained from fishing (Lord of the Rings)

- Hiding in a cardboard box to spy on people and sneak around (Metal Gear Solid)

- Lieutenant Horatio Laine and his cheesy one liner (CSI: Miami)

- Haris Pilton and her pet chihuahua (Paris Hilton)

- Collecting pages of 'The Green Hills of Stranglethorn' (Hemingway)

- Bossy the cow because "Booty Bay needs you now, more than ever".

- The shop "A Tailor to Cities" (A Tale of Two Cities)

- Imps being afraid of rainbows, sobbing uncontrollably when they see one, and exclaiming 'what does it all mean!?' (Double Rainbow Guy)

- The bankers in Undercity all have the last name Montague (Shakespeare)

- Gorillas in Un'goro dropping empty barrels (Donkey Kong)

- Linken and the items he gives you, such as his boomerang and his sword of mastery (Link)

- Dwarves screaming 'Mortar Combat' (Mortal Kombat)

- Turtle boss in BFD called Ghamoo-ra (Gamera)

- And much more here.

Most of this sounded better (e.g. more interesting and cool) than it probably reads. Now it's just nerdy. Although that's also what I am, so I guess it works out in the end.

Until the next expansion is released (if ever, and seriously, why not?), I'll be taking my leave from Azeroth while other heroes take on its ever encroaching problems because Earth has problems of its own that I need to deal with.

Of course, this doesn't mean I won't talk about WoW... I just won't be playing it.

Socks

I don't like throwing away my socks despite all the holes (other than the one I put my foot through) there are on them. I mean... why not? If my shirt gets too many holes, I'd probably throw it away. If my shoes had too many holes, I'd throw them away. If my jeans... wait, I'd just get those patched.

But why not socks?

I think my mom had to just throw them out for me and tell me because I wouldn't do so myself. Or maybe it's my frugal side thinking that there's still some use for them because it's not completely ridden with holes.

Or maybe I just never want to throw my socks away because one can never have enough socks.

In other news...

That's one week down of this semester, 12 more to go. I'm still not too sure what's happening with computational neurophys, I do know that it, alongside enzymology, are going to be tough to topple. Criminal justice is appearing to be more and more interesting, and hopefully it stays that way. It's a shame that none of the names that she mentions in class ring a bell for me. It's definitely a disadvantage.

Played lots of squash yesterday. Or at least much more than usual. While two buddies of mine were taking a break, some random guy knocked on the glass and asked if we could play a few rallies. Scary. Then after the two of them had to leave early, I played with a friend and her buddies too. It's... interesting to play against new people since I'm practically always playing the same guy over and over again (no offense). Trying to read different people and seeing different shots definitely kept me on my toes throughout. Not to mention just playing non-stop for almost an hour. That kept me on my toes too.

After a week of classes, I'm glad that my subscription for WoW is ending, because I'd have difficulty getting any work done at the university since my laptop (and subsequently WoW) is there. So there I am, on battle.net ending my subscription, making a peon cry. Interestingly, when you unsub., they ask for you to give a reason for why you're ending the subscription, and you can choose from a list of a list which'll give you pseudo-tailored responses.

For example, my (obvious) reason is that it is a 'temporary hold' because I'm 'going to school'. Blizzard had this to say:
"We are sorry to hear that you may be leaving World of Warcraft, however we do appreciate your dedication to your studies. If you think you may wish to play on weekends, or perhaps during time reserved for recreation (even just a few hours a week!), it may be worth it to you to keep the account active. You may also want to consider the chatting aspect of World of Warcraft. Many of our customers have come to appreciate the camaraderie and fellowship that comes with the ability to log on and talk with friends across the region or just chat with guild mates."

They also don't neglect to mention that "should you get the opportunity to play at a later time, your account will remain available for your reactivation." Hilarious, really. Yes, I'm 'dedicated to [my] studies'. "

"The peon is full-on weeping now. We hope you're happy. Are you positive you want to deactivate your subscription?" Sorry peon.

Reflecting on Fall2010

Classes have resumed for only two days... and I'm already a little exhausted.

We actually started learning in our classes, which I guess should be expected since we're no longer first years where the professor feels obligated to hold our hands through everything. Classes feel relatively interesting overall, although Criminal Justice no longer seems as interesting since I was probably thinking more about deviance than the actual justice system. We'll see how things turn out.

The 500 level Bcem and Zool courses seem a bit daunting in terms of what we'll be learning. That should be a given since they are senior level courses.

Anyways, onto the topic of the post, since I said something about reflecting...

Looking back, for a relatively (or supposedly) 'chill' semester, I still ended up being rushed for studying. That's probably because things were pretty slack, leading to less motivation since there always appeared to be more 'time', which lead to more slacking.

Grades for most courses turned out to be around what I was expecting, but the Bcem final's exam lead me to believe that I might've done a bit better. Apparently that was misleading. Which sort of ruined my evening. Sigh.

Overall, it was a good semester. I'm now (hopefully): a better speaker, a better presenter of seminars, a person that can write lab proposals, a bit more skilled with lab techniques, possessing a stronger grasp on animal physiology, slightly well-versed with lipids and all its wonderfulness.

Onwards! Again.

In other news...

My WoW subscription needs to end. The urge to play is oft intoxicating and overpowering. A post on my adventures therein at a later time and date.

First two days of class were painfully long. Stayed in lab an extra 2ish hours to work out whether our Triton was working properly and then analyzing data. Today's SLC meeting just went on and on for way to long.

Which leads into another thought: do I want to run for Faculty Representative again? There's a lot of work going into just running again with platform / campaigning and whatnot. Not to mention I'm not sure if I'm even doing a good job currently.

The new Taylor Family Digital Library certainly makes our campus feel more contemporary and whatnot with it's shininess and fancy furniture. There's bean bag chairs, work stations with dual screen computers, workrooms have a large monitor for you to plug in your media, it's all pretty neat. It's also pretty excessive. As another note, snooping around restricted floors of the level somehow netted being shot by the photographer for some gallery on the website.

Oh, and the new vendors on campus are set to open tomorrow, next week, the week after, and sometime later. Whee.

Winter 2011

The 3rd winter semester of my university career starts today! For others, it might've been a week ago because of block week, but that's just unlucky (or technically lucky) for them.

I initially wanted to do some sort of "let's reflect on Fall 2010" kind of thing... but my last grade still isn't out yet, so that's kind of hard to do, therefore it'll have to wait.

So instead, let's talk about WoW this semester! I'd talk about WoW, but there's not enough time right now.

I'm not exactly sure how well I'll fare with another 500 level Bcem course seeing as how last semest-... oh wait, that mark's not out yet. I don't know how I did with that course. >__>. Whichever the case, unless I study really hard, I don't think I'll be able to do well just because Bcem is difficult stuff. Fun mind you, just difficult.

Not sure what to expect of the 500 level Zool, but I do know what's coming along with Animal Phys II, so that should be fine. Nans research paper'll have to be written sometime the end of this semester, which sounds daunting because we don't have any real hard data yet (oh noes).

Then there's finally the Soci course. Criminal Sociology! Sounds badass. I sure hope it is, because being a social 'sciences' course, it'll mean a lot of reading the textbook. D=.

Don't know what's going to happen this semester, but I feel better prepared this semester than any for some odd reason. Or maybe it's the first day high. o___o. Or maybe it's because I slept early, woke early, did a light bit of exercise, took a shower, and ate breakfast.

Bring it on >__>.

2011

I often wonder why a new year is the time for resolutions, a time for big changes in one's life.

Why choose an arbitrary date to change? Why not change now? If the change is something that's good for you, shouldn't you kind of make that change right away instead of dilly-dallying till whenever?

Yes. I made that sentence extra long so I could use 'dilly-dallying'.

In any case, we like to stay within our comfort zones. It's familiar, it's what we're used to, we know what'll happen and how it'll happen. Change implies moving into the unknown, diving into something we cannot foresee entirely. Change can be... scary.

So perhaps the new years resolution is really taking advantage of all the other people breaking free of their comfort zones to break out of yours. It's okay to feel uncomfortable if everyone else is feeling uncomfortable... right?

Or of course, we're all just lazy people and procrastination is easier than actual change. That's probably more the case than anything else.

You may ask: do you, (as in me), have any new years resolutions. I will then reply to you, (the questioner), no. Not because I am perfect and need not change (hardly the case, my imperfections flourish daily), but rather I try not to hinder myself with arbitrary dates (although it may still happen).

That, or my laziness is so excessive that I decided to not waste energy in creating a resolution that I will not accomplish out of sheer laziness. Go figure.

In other news...

WoW. I've been playing lots of it still. An update later. Maybe. If I'm not too busy. Started a dwarf hunter because I can.

I either keep saying or doing the wrong things. Then you get mad or frustrated. My apologies. It's not intentional. I just have a natural propensity towards not doing the right thing, whatever the right thing may be.

Grades still aren't out for most courses. According to a recent email, 'the second week of January'! Why so long? So tortuous? Some people need to know their grades, their winter prerequisite courses demand so. I am mildly surprised at my Zool grade and my Bcem final exam mark.

Realized that if I stay up late (like now), I start having fits of coughing. I wonder why that occurs. It's probably a sign that I should go sleep. I'm slightly confused as to why I'm still up. It's not like I'm doing anything productive like leveling...

Recently played two card games called Dominion and Bang!. I will explain those... another day. I am tired. Happy arbitrary new year or whatever.