No Place For Hideo, Or Why No Updates

The lack of updates are killing me! Sorry everyone! I'm so swamped with school right now that I barely even have enough time to enjoy Metal Gear Solid 4. Blasphemy!

I'm writing up papers, finishing assignments, and taking tests like crazy. Summer semester is a lot of work! Apologies to my readers.

However, I am currently working on an in depth video game article, which will be published by the end of the month. I've contacted about 15 different sources for the article, which means, quotes a plenty! Stay tuned and have a great day!

Ending One Semester, Beginning Another

Well, its been one heck of a semester! Everything is coming to a close with two huge finals this week, along with GTA IV, PixelJunk Encore, Okami Wii, Mario Kart Wii, and Iron Man. After that, I'll be starting summer semester, which promises a whole new slew of joy and frustration!


That's it. I'm out until May 10th. Expect no new posts until that time. In the meantime, please enjoy this picture taken from my work.

kind regards,
-Tim

"Shady eh?" My College Story Of Absurdity

Recently I've been privileged enough to sign up for 29 credits at my local university, 15 for summer, 14 for fall. One class of those 29 credits is offered at an extension campus in an adjacent city. And as much as I hate driving to another city just to take one class, this class worked out best for my schedule. I'm not looking forward to it, but I'll just have to stick it out.

So I'm looking at my tuition balance and I notice a $1,000 charge for this one particular off campus class. Wait what? “They're really going to charge me $1,000 for just one class? That must be a mistake." So I go back on campus and talk to a guy in the extensions office. He explains to me that there's no mistake on my account and that if I want to be charged a sane amount of money, I would need to email the people in charge of this stuff. All the meanwhile, he is being cynical and mocking me for not knowing what to do in the first place. Oh and the best part, by paying a sane amount of money, my registration was going to be put on hold. So I couldn't sign up for fall classes immediately, and if any of you are familiar with signing up college classes, then you know that if you don't sign up for classes asap, you’re not going to get the schedule you want.

At this point I'm annoyed and thinking, this guys a jerk, and I'm also thinking, this school knowingly charges students insane amounts of money for off campus classes, in which the only way to pay a fair amount is to send an email to some random dude in an office, AND your registration is put on hold for next semester! Ridiculous, but so is college.

Alright, so I go home, I send the email; I wait a day, and get a response. The response is no more than two sentences long, and was really unhelpful. So I send another email, again this time I am replied with just two sentences that say I need to go back in and talk to someone in the office.

At this point, I presumed that this meant to talk to someone in the office in order to register for next semester. That was my assumption and I was basing it off of just two short sentences that could be taken in any context. There wasn't much logic in this entire process to begin with, so I figured "that must be it".

Fast forward a couple weeks. To my surprise I am able to register normally and my tuition amount has not been adjusted one bit. So being both slightly annoyed and grateful for being able to register, I go back to the office that put me in this mess in the first place.

So here's where the story gets interesting and inspired this entire big long post. I approach the guy in the office (same guy I talked to a month ago), I explained to him the situation and that I had followed his instructions of emailing these other people. In the process of explaining my situation I said,"The emails were not very helpful and kind of shady,.. just one or two sentences long." Then within 10 seconds he pulls up all the emails I sent and reads them off to me....It turns out that the same person who had replied to my emails was the same person I was currently talking to and whom I had talked to a month ago. FYI, who would have thought that a guy at a desk had the power to instantly pull up every email I ever sent. INSANE!

So let me just back track for a second for clarification. I met this guy and he explained to me how being charged an arm and a leg was normal and that I should email someone else. Okay, got that. I send the emails and it turns out to be the EXACT SAME FRIGGIN GUY! THEN, he tells me to go back into the office, only to talk to the EXACT SAME FRIGGIN GUY! WTF! All I wanted was helpfulness and clarification, not a back and forth trip to gather bits and pieces of information. I'm bitter and I'm pissed off!

Okay, so now back to the conversation in the office. The guy I'm speaking to explains that he had not done any fee adjustments yet for any students. Apparently, there’s a magic date in which tuition becomes reasonable to pay, I just never got the memo.

A coworker sitting behind the guy immediately replies after hearing this conversation and says,”Shady eh?" Which provokes the man I'm speaking with to say, "well now I'm not sure if I even want to adjust your fees." Being flabbergasted and stunned by the situation, I stumbled over my words and apologized.

You should have seen this guy. His face looked as if I had offended his dead parents and disgraced his family honor. Admittedly, I should never have said "shady" and I feel bad about it. It really was just a poor choice of words. I'm not sure why I even said it, or why it popped into my head. Perhaps it was my total and utter bitterness towards the situation, but none the less, I regret saying that.

The point of this whole story? College pisses me off.... That’s about it. Thanks for reading!

Busy Busy Busy

It’s been busy lately, very busy… That’s not necessarily a bad thing; it’s generally good to be busy. It’s good to have that feeling of accomplishment. But like most people, I don’t like the stress that goes along with it and I don’t have as much time for the things that I like. I still have time for the things, just not much of it.

Recently I’ve had to deal with the fact that two family members are about to exit my life. Not forever, but for a long time, and at the same time. At the same time friggin time! So for me, busy has been busy. It’s never easy saying goodbyes.

Over the past two weeks, I’ve been trying to cram in as much time as possible with those people leaving. So much time, that even my grades are suffering a little. But that’s good! I want to look back at this moment in time and have no regrets.

Hit the link for what I’ve done over the week

Over the past week I’ve:
-played Super Smash Bros Brawl….and lost horribly at it
-drank 100 oz of smoothies
-ate tons of Mexican food
-accomplished no homework
-watched 3 movies
-snuck ice cream and a taco into a movie theater
-played board games
-played many video games
-beat one game (PixelJunk Monsters)

My Long Day Plus Details On New Video

It's going to be one long day! With my day starting at 7 and ending at 8, I'd say yeah, my day is *insert profanity that would turn heads* LONG! Let me give you the run down of my day. But before I do that, let me just say that I very often have days like today and this is probably pretty normal for a college student. Woe is me!

--Before you hit the link below, I thought I'd make use of this post by giving my latest video a quick plug. Unlike many other videos that I say I'll make and most of the time itend to, the latest video I'm working on will in fact be coming to my channel. I PROMISE. I've already shot more than half of it. I'll keep you updated, in the meantime I can say that this video will be like none of my other ones. It will not be Kyle XY related and it won't be uploaded on the channel anytime soon. And lastly, this is not the only video I'm currently working on. So for those of you who enjoy my channel, stay tuned!--

Hit the link for my schedule today.

-Get up, do the usual morning tasks
-Drive to campus and hunt down a parking spot which is typically the furthest distance away from my first class.
-Class
-Work
-Study
-Class
-Study
-Lunch
-Blog
-Study
-Class
-Study Group
-Homework and studying for tests
-Dinner
-Bed
-Repeat on thursday

Does anyone else have days like this? Does anyone else have days worse than this? Please share.

Belittling People Verbally

I've recently realized how annoyed I am by people speaking down to other people. Specifically I mean, teachers or authority figures speaking down to "lesser" people. Any form of tone or phrase that might imply that the person speaking is more important than the person being spoken to.

It annoys me, A LOT. But, I'm also pretty sure I'm more sensitive on the subject than other people, as I've rarely heard other people protest about such things. With that being said, I admit that it's possible I'm overreacting, but I'm annoyed all the same.

To give you an example of this annoyance, if a teacher says something to the affect of "Come on guys!?!? You can do better than that!", as if spoken as if to a fiver-year old. Guess what? I'm in college, and when a teacher says that to a college class, often times that's being spoken to people 10, 20, 30 years older than myself.

Dear world,
Please note that, there are a lot of immature people in this world. I admit that and I'm not delusional in implying that. It's true that some people who look 20 really do act like they're five, but that doesn't mean that treating them similar to how they act will resolve any issues. It only further degrades them and promotes no sense of self worth.

If you're the type of person who talks down to others in a degrading nature, 'think'. It goes back to that golden rule of, "treat others how you would want to be treated".

Kind regards,
-Tim

*UPDATE* I just want to emphasize that I wrote this post purely based off of what was going on around me. It had not occurred to me when I wrote this, that it could be interpreted as a situation that was directly affecting me. That's not the case at all, I just feel strongly that people need to treat other people better.

My Mac & Cheese Story

So I'm sitting in the Library, minding my own business and starving. So I thought "Why not?" Why not go purchase that mac & cheese plus bagel from the cafe next door. After all, it's late, I'm hungry, and I needed to study.

So it's settled! I take my newly purchased mac & cheese plus bagel to the nearest work station in the library. Just seconds after sitting down, a guy comes up and sits down next to me to study. Then just 5 minutes after that, he looks over at my completely unopened and uneaten food and decides "I don't want to sit here anymore."

Intrigued by this guy sitting next to me, my eyes watched him as he stood up and walked to a different work station located not too far from mine. I was flat out shocked! This guy KNEW, HE KNEW, that my food was going to bother him, so instead of waiting for me to take a couple bites into it, he makes a judgment call and says "Forget this crap! This guys going to annoy me to death unless I move NOW!"

So what do I do? The only thing I could have done in this situation. I got up, grabbed my food and went over and sat next to this guy. AND THEN, he slams his pen against the table, stands up, and shouts "What the Hell's the matter with you!!!!!"

By this point everyone around us is now staring at us. I'm also thinking "Oh crap! This guys going to kill me! Oh crap, oh crap!" Although, being the nice guy that I am I apologize to him.... Except, in a not so very nice way. I apologize, then lean in with my bagel and take the BIGGEST bite imaginable just inches from his face.

Bread crumbs fall everywhere across his homework and textbooks. He looks down at the crumbs, looks up, then gives me the eeriest "I'm going to kill you" look on his face.

Basically in the end, I had one black eyes and a bloody lip. The plus side though, and there is a plus side! I still got to keep the mac & cheese. MAC & CHEESE!!!! This was turning out to be a great day!
this story never happened

Peace On Earth

BLAMO! On the first day of any semester, you know how you get those people who come in late and ask "is it okay if I sit there?" pointing to the seat next to you. And you say "oh sure, that would be just swell miss. Can I get your jacket for you too?" At that point you might chit chat a bit, talk about things like bad teachers, your major, and peace on earth. But what IF...What IF, on that occasion instead of saying "gee golly miss, yes you can sit here." Instead you grab her hair viciously and quickly bring up your leg to draw a quick Chun-Li like kick to her abdomen, then like a drunken sailor you say "What are you insane! This seat is taken! Crazy!" and proceed with your afternoon....

Now, that would never happen, but what if it did? It would definitely break the ice on the first day of class. Your welcome!

A Radio Interview?

Besides the craziness of finals week, I'm going to be on the radio bright and early tomorrow morning for an interview. I'm not really sure what radio station I will be on, it was kind of last minute, but I do know it will be an east coast station. America morning show....something something....yeah, that sounds right. I'll just show up to the conference room and make it happen! Wish me luck! Especially for the Japanese final afterwards...

University of Utah Vrs. Utah State University

What a sad sad game. USU lost and it was embarrassing. It seemed as though we didn't even try to win, like we gave up half way through. Air ball after air ball, this game made USU look like they had never played a game of basketball before. It was truly embarrassing to watch.

But, on the plus side, I got to go to an away game for the first time. Proving that not all arenas are as run down as your schools. Oh and I got to eat some really good deli food in Salt Lake City.

"Tim-san! You Cook Bento?"

Friday was the last day of Japanese. Instead of reading boring Japanese phrases from the text book, we decided to cook bento instead! Not familiar with bento? Click this link.

The process of cooking bento was instructed by two native Japanese speakers. So not only was it very interesting to cook bento for the first time but being lead by two people who spoke mostly in Japanese added a level of difficulty and amusement.

The recipe consisted of three main dishes: deep-fried zesty chicken, rolled omelet, and spinach salad with sesame dressing. After deciding that the spinach salad was right for me, I began to ground black roasted sesame seeds in a rigid bowl with a stick, (I'm sure there is a much more technical name for the process.) much like you would do in a science class. Honestly, I chose the spinach salad because it had the fewest steps compared to the other recipes.

Tossed all three recipes into a container and "ta da!" You have an authentic Japanese lunch that looks way more impressive than you would have ever thought. "Did I make that?"

Why iPhones Are A Pain or A Long General Update

As I write this, my laptops battery life is yelling at me. It has only 10 minutes left of battery life. Which, usually doesn't always mean I have 10 minutes left. It more likely means that I only have 5.

I had a great week! Now, that vacation is over, its back to the sad reality that is my life. Good news is that I start my job today and this semester is getting ever closer to finishing.

*UPDATE* Turns out my laptop did turn off. What did I say about that 10 minute lie!?! More like 3 minutes you liar!

Really I could have just posted something from my iPhone. I'll either post from my computer or my iPhone. Never a public computer, which is what I am using right now. Poor me, I know. Too many eyes looking down at me. Freaks me out!

Speaking of my iPhone, I don't know how many of my readers are familiar with the hacking scene or the firmware related to it but, I've decided to restore my phone to the first firmware then add version 1.1.1. I've been using 1.0.2 all this time because of the stability of it. Mostly I was waiting for the hacking scene to become more stable on 1.1.1 before I committed to a new firmware. The other reason was that I simply got tired of constantly wiping and restoring my phone. But seeing as how there is no hope or need to wipe my phone for future updates(Apple fixed all the exploits in the system), I'm willing to do it one last time.

I'm really looking forward to playing the classic Lucas Arts "point and click" adventure games on my phone. An emulator was just released for the phone that apparently is the best emulator yet for the genre! I missed out on a lot of the classic adventure games and I'm hoping to reconcile by getting my phone up and running.

*A note about the lack of updates etc. etc.*
I've been busy lately, blah blah blah. I've been feeling a little creatively frustrated lately. Rather than promising weekly updates (which I never did, but certainly implied) I'm going to post videos and podcasts when I feel like I have something worth posting. It's the whole quantity versus quality thing. It's important to consider that the style of videos that I make are not vlogging meaning, more work goes into them than just sitting in front of my computer talking about my day....thats why I have a blog!

Anything to add to this post? Let me think. I finished Uncharted, Rayman, and Mario Galaxy. I highly recommend all of those games. Of the three I was most impressed by Uncharted, simply because I did not expect it to be so much fun or so well developed. The voice acting was amazing, just as good as Heavenly Sword! The game really reminded me of Tomb Raider and Resident Evil 4. Check it out if you have a PS3!

Trash or Art?

You might ask, "Did Tim throw a pig party last night?" or "WTF Tim?", when looking at the above picture. But would you ever say "OMFG! That is pure genious! I would pay out the bum for that art work!" Well dear reader, the above picture is in fact a piece of artwork and it is currently being shown at my campus.

All I want to know is, what class is this for and why did I not sign up!?! Apple Jesus!

Worst Semester Of My Life

Dear College,

Give a guy a break.

thanks,

-Tim

Don't let the title throw you off. I'm not crying myself to sleep every night, but this semester honestly has been the worst semester of my life. I'm currently not taking any classes I enjoy and college shows no mercy when it comes to schoolwork. So in short, bad classes+college= Hell.

Next semester I'm taking a bunch of Journalism classes and I'm hoping it will turn things around for me. If it goes well, I'll be a Journalism major. If not, ummm....I have no idea! Balloon animals?

Biology Class

I really have no idea what's going on in this class. Education is
great and all and have a more overall general education is great, but
I find this class a complete waste to me personally. I'm sure there
are many people who would disagree with me and that's fine. Personally
this class just doesn't do anything for me.

Japanese Class

Basically this class consists of me barely knowing what the heck is going on mon-thurs, then Thursday night cramming for the test on Friday. Then on the weekend, I forget everything. Rinse and repeat.