Homecoming

Two posts in one day. Keep that in mind. Check out the one below as well
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Yesterday was the Bronx Science homecoming, a day that was a lot more surprising than I figured, but not for the reasons that I thought they would be.

I met up with Alvin around 830 in Flushing and it was off to Science. Taking the 7 express to the yellow line to the 4 train was all very nostalgic. The same graffiti tags, the same sounds and the smells all reminded me of the treks I made to school and back. When the train announced "Bedford Park Blvd-Lehman College", it made things seem way weirder and surreal. Making the walk, the stupid truck unloading bell chimed and class was already well under way. First stop, Mr. Fox. I just basically slammed into his room and disrupted the class. It was all good and dandy to see him. Sampson and a few other students showed up as well. Him asking the same java questions he asked yesterday made me glad that college taught me something, something that Science really didn't do.

Fox: "What does the toString method do?"
Me: "I know I know!"
Fox: "I know you do Nick and if you didn't I'd be extremely disappointed"

There were a few other stops. I saw my english teacher, who joked around that I decided to keep my short hair. A few seniors visited all at once, and so we imparted our wisdom and experience. Then some dude asked what would happen if Devry was his reach. I don't wanna know.

I expressed how I felt about college to Ms. Philips, Ohkawa-sensei and Schoor. All were glad that I liked RIT and that I would stay. Philips, fresh from college the other year, told me that college is way more liberating and there aren't as many rules, which is why college is probably the better experience for me. Schoor, after mentoring so much, hoped that I would continue pursuing the game career path, and Ohkawa-sensei told me about the work the I would encounter next quarter since she was familiar with the textbook I would be using. If it's one thing I missed, it's the relationships I forged with teachers and I'm sure others would agree with me.

Throughout the day, I met up with friends, giving hugs, talking about the old times and taking pictures. They're gonna be on the facebook. I decided to join Josh and crew to watch American Gangster and then eat. Then the train ride home.
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The biggest thing that happened to me during homecoming was my epiphany. I figured out why I was so angry during high school.

It was because I went to high school.

7th period, I went to see Ohkawa-sensei to check out her freshman class. I must say, as the years pass by, the rowdier and stupider the kids get. They were so smug, talking to sensei in a sarcastic tone, not doing the easiest homework. Come on, it's freakin hiragana and sentence structure. I admit. My class was loud and rowdy, but HOLY FUCK. Maybe it's having her for 4 years but DAMN I wanted to break these kids legs for being such ass' to a great teacher.

And then it hit me. I had one of those jaw drop moments. I haven't threatened someone since I left high school. All my time in college, I was so chill, so relaxed and very rarely did I raise my voice and use some form of physical pain to get my point across. You know why? Cause as far as I know, no one is a freakin idiot. People are willing to listen to you. Sure there's a douchebag here and a douchebag there but not enough to the point where one would feel they're surrounded by them. Ms. Philips said so herself. I was exposed to more, and there are more people that I could relate to. It was something high school really didn't offer.

People didn't change either, for better or for worse. Josh is still Josh. He has the grand plans sometimes, but he still doesn't lead. It's pretty sick that his brother cleaned himself up. People are still stuck in their cliques and don't venture outside of it much. It's a reminder that I really didn't relate to a lot of kids 100% at science. I wasn't part of any one clique.

However, there was one thing I was appreciative of out of all this gloom that had to do with students. It was George's attitude. He knew what I would be getting myself into, but he was "more power to you if you like where you are" cause partying and the kind of social life most people are accustomed to might not be that necessary, so long as you like where you are.
That and Dan and Joe. Dan still is a crazy jew and Joe seems more insightful. Hope that music gig works out for ya.

So homecoming was bittersweet. I got to see my friends, but I had to let go and say bye. I realized a few uneasy truths, but as Vernon pointed out, you might need to leave to figure out why you were the way you were during high school. Maybe I'm some old man at heart or too grown up for my own liking. In any case, thanks, V.

Home, it's trimmings and some other realizations

I got home Thursday night by train. It was just me and my laptop, watchin' movies. Ratatouille, the Kevin Smith movies and just listening to my tunes. It was just one of those alone periods that I don't get anymore. So I don't get to think about random things anymore. Once I got off that train and out of Penn Station, I just said to myself, "I'm home. ただいま”(tadaima is "I'm home in Japanese"). I'm here to savor the moments. I'm here to enjoy my time. "It's all good...in the neighborhood".

So what exactly did I miss?
Family and friends. That's kind of a no brainer as to why, so I'll skip it.

My own bathroom. Yeah. Public bathrooms? Not cool. Goin number 2 farmer style(squatting). That ain't fun. Brushing your teeth and taking a shower thinking what everyone else could have done in there. That ain't cool either. *shiver*

FOOD. OH DAMN, FOOD. I missed mom's cooking. I missed chinese food. I MISSED EDIBLE FOOD. 'nuff said.
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*Note. It's as of this point where I really don't care how people feel in response to what I write. It's my blog. I write to flesh out my thoughts. Not to please. Not to entertain. If I offend the person that the next couple of paragraphs is about, sorry, but that's how I feel. In any case, she doesn't read this thing anyway, but there are lurkers that read but don't comment. There usually are.

A few days ago(it was meant to be yesterday but I never got around to finishing this post Tuesday), I saw Kat at St. Johns. It wasn't a big deal. She was still the same. I guess all that was different was her joining a sorority. I told her that I was going to church more frequently and in response, she said, "Oh, they got you too".

It struck a chord. Here I am, finding my lot in life, going through the ropes, wondering if Christianity is the right for me and rather than giving me support, I get some crap response like its brainwashing. It may be. It may not be, but regardless, you're my friend and all I ask is a good luck or something. But I didn't get it.

I had my disliking toward the greek system. Not because of the sterotypes, but more of the certain type of people that joined them. They seemed to be the same. Somewhat fake and lacking a certain amount of depth. I had a certain amount of respect for them, though, if anything, because they do fund raising for good causes. But Kat I wasn't so sure. Joining a sorority out of boredom at St. Johns and to some pressure is a dumb reason. Jan was right. She is a robot. She let her parents dictate where she went to college and now this. Epic fail. So through all of this, I finally figured out why Gala doesn't talk to Kat as much. Be it a matter of faith or the very different values they have come to develop, it's something I'm sure. I suppose I was too optimistic, as I usually am, and hoped that this person would grow up for a change. Guess not *shrug*. I guess most people my age want to party and want to have a "good time" and I'm some big nerdy loser. So says the girl who received a pledge name of a bad birth control pill. Yeah. Stay friends? Sure. Stay close friends like we used to be? Probably not, unfortunately. These are the times we live in*sips tea*

*takes another big long sip of his tea*

Yeah. I like being a nerd or geek or w/e. The Reporter defines it rather well when the question, "What makes a geek?" is posed.

"You stay up way too late.

That's the tell-tale sign. It doesn't matter much what you're doing. You could be building your own MP3 player or painting a self-portrait or writing a novel. Maybe you're coding a sick Perl script, or perhaps you're reciting from memory the finer points of the CMYK printing process. Font design, personal website work, music composition, or stock investment. It simply does not matter. You could even be calculating the first thousand digits of Pi by hand. The act itself is irrelevant.

Geekdom is not defined by what you're doing, by how you go about doing it. It's about obsession- the little voice in the back of your head that prevents you from sleeping because you need to do this one more thing. Not for class and not for money, but for the sheer joy of it all. The hours flip to one, two, three, four, five in the morning. And, when you wake up, after having fallen asleep at your desk, you'll wipe the droll off the paper and start converting those first 1000 digits of Pi into binary, because you love math, and no one on this planet can make you think differently.

There are literally thousands of different geek breeds across the world, each embracing their respective sphere of geekery with the utmost love and respect."

And that's how I feel about myself. I'm glad I went to college, among the many that haven't yet. I'm not looking back, and I'm glad I came back to New York and finally realize that.

I'll post about homecoming later tonight, along with some more realizations that came along with the trip back to Bronx Science.

Stay safe and have a Happy Thanksgiving

call me crazy...

Or is college supposed to be a place where you can have fun while managing the work that's given to you. Or am I just an exception to the whole rule of "college is FREAKIN' HORD that I don't have time to talk to my friends from high school that went to other colleges"? Also, I noticed (from what I see anyway) that they're not liking college, as opposed to those who are.

Now what defines liking college? I'm not so sure. From what I understand, it's a combination of liking the people, having fun with what's given to ya, and managing your work. Lately, I've been asking people how they are, how's life treating them, and how's college treating them.

"Sorry, busy. Can't talk." "I'm busy." "Hi. Bye" "Must sleep"

Huh?

It's only first quarter/semester(remember I'm one of the few kids on quarter system) and yet so many people are working so hard. On paper, the roles are supposed to be in reverse. I'm supposed to be crying cause I'm on quarter system. More work is packed in. In fact, finals are two weeks away. But here I am with my classes adding up to 18 credits. Somewhat stressed, but it doesn't stop me from keeping in contact with friends. Maybe it's the fact that Rochester is in the middle of nowhere and that because I don't have a car, I don't get to have fun. But then there's the fact that I go to fellowship, I go to club, and a lot of other things(hockey games and college sponsored events, to name a few). Maybe the work is too easy or I'm just that smart. But then I'm not that smart and the work really is not that easy, cause then I would've gotten this material in a moments notice. Maybe it's cause I don't like it here? But I am. In fact, I love it here. I love doing what I do, working to get that profession that I've always wanted since I was 9. That effort I'm putting is going somewhere, right?

Or am I wrong? Maybe I'm not working HARD ENOUGH?!

Yeah sure, screw that.

So the question I'm posing is...am I crazy, or is college supposed to be this hard.

Out of habbit already

Words are a powerful thing. A few can influence, inspire, confuse. Anything. Try not to think about it they say. Patience. A result will come. Frankly, I take it with stride myself, but sometimes it's hard to ignore the things people say to you.

Hopefully orange box will take things off my mind. That or any form of work will do.

Subject: Halo and "other"

[Skip down after the picture to...ya know...actually read about my life and not a game]
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So the release of Halo 3 has come and gone, and after 3 days (goes to check the bungie website), the kill count for all the players playing the campaign mode is nearing the 1 billion mark. Pretty impressive for 3 days if you ask me.

Since Tuesday morning, I've been playing on my off time from class (which is usually after 6-8). I haven't been playing as much as my friends, but I think I've been playing enough. Playing it enough times showed me that Bungie put a lot of time and effort to make it nice for the fans. Far from being the greatest game ever though. It gets more credit than it really deserves. To those that play often, the multiplayer has its definite differences from that of 2, but to the average player, it may not seem the same. Just run, gun and shoot. Storyline is straightforward and escapes the confusion set in 2. However it isn't the best story ever either. Something that makes me go "Wow" is a good story. Halo doesn't. I think of all the shooters out there though, Halo has the most decent one.

More attention should be focused on the multiplayer gameplay aspect, since that's what Halo is all about. The Matchmaking service is probably the best I've ever seen, using a ranking system and a skill level system so that players don't get caught getting killed by pros and that things seem generally fair. Bungie also logs every game you play, from where you die, how you die, what medals you've earned, and other things. Pretty extensive, and this is why Bungie gets props from me. The effort put into this is astounding. Personally, I don't play many online multiplayer games. Maybe I really don't know what I'm talking about, but hey man, logging matches of the players that number of the hundred thousands must take up so much server space. Looking at the picture on the right, we can see what parts of the world are playing. White means players are present. That's pretty cool, but that's what gets to me in games. The little subtleties in games that developers put into it, cause coming from a programmers perspective, making all of this is SO HORD. One highlight is forge and theater modes. Make your own maps, then watch you screw around in the map editor.
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So...waiting in line for games does NOT APPLY AT ALL here like it does in New York. I mean, here I am, at a tech school, where there is actually a pretty decently sized contingent of halo players. What does that tell me? Go to wal-mart a few hours early before release so I can nab an actual copy(cause I didn't reserve it). Come 8:30, wal-mart was freakin EMPTY. No line, only a few people getting groceries, but other than that, nothing. Me and johnny are thinking to ourselves...what's goin' on? Turns out that most of the people waiting on line(around 50), started coming at around 10:30, so that was a big "D'oh" moment. Doesn't stop us from having fun though. So what do we do in wal-mart? Johnny buys risk, which we didn't even play. We go to the sporting goods section and that's where I find the paddle and start swinging like a mad man. Then one of the lowly wal-mart employees tells us to cut it out cause he has to clean. Too bad. We nab the copy and all is well. The day of the launch, there was a small game play party for the game design students. High light was the 4v4v4v4 team slayer matches cause big battles = big fun. Explosions, death, the works.

So all was well until yesterday night when the fire alarm came off. Fire drill? I didn't realize dorm houses had fire drills. Didn't matter. The alarm was loud, the lights were blinking and I just wanted to get out of there. Took my jacket and headed out. Turns out the other buildings didn't come out. So, huh? Turns out that it was an actual emergency, but it really wasn't. Know why? Cause someone burned popcorn. fricken popcorn. It was all fun and games. One guy that lives on my floor ran in to get someone. "I'm A HERO DUDE. *raises arms up in empowerment* I said it was a giant rave in the dorm house cause all the lights were flashing so all we really needed was a nice beat, and some BASS. In any case, that's all. Halo really is running my life, so I gotta put that crap done and actually study.

Oh yeah, according to Abel, master chief dies. Oh really? Ya rly. *nods head in agreement*

It's fricken Game time

So...what? No class for another 3 hours. You know why!? cause that comp sci test was cake and I just blasted through everything. It's like AHHH BUST THROUGH A WALL easy. We'll busting through a wall isn't easy. But it could be. For like the Hulk. Or something. I mean what?

In any case, today is September 24th. Are you gonna go out of your way to FINISH THE FIGHT?! Cause I am. I wouldn't have been saying that if it was...3 or 4 years ago? I hated Halo and I was a hardcore PC shooter. Time's change don't they. I just don't like shooters in general, except for that decent one like Halo. I might buy source or team fortress in the future, but that's the future. After Halo and Smash i'm gonna be BROKE. POOR. Like all the other college students. Huzzah! It doesn't matter cause Halo will probably run a good chunk of my life for a good few months. I'm gonna go to the midnight launch at the wal-mart tonight, so I'll post up stuff on that. And then on Halo. And how I'm not gonna sleep. And how im gonna drink those BAWLS. You need some extra BAWLS?!

The Weather Here

So...my stay here so far has taught me something...

The weather here is screwy. Like more screwy than it usually is back at home.

Take today for example. This morning felt like a November day before it snows. Then comes 12 PM. It's warm. Like T-shirt and shorts warm. So...welcome to Rochester