Son of a Submariner!

Yay! Yay.

It's Spring Break! Woo!

Final Fantasy XIII comes out tonight! I am very very excited! I hope it doesn't suck... I mean I'm a pretty big fan of anything Final Fantasy so I'm pretty sure I will enjoy this one but I have a few things I'm worried about.

Namely, that the game is linear and it has no towns and/or stores. I mean I was never a big fan of stumbling around looking for clues on where to go next, but I liked how the towns really helped set the mood for the next dungeon/series of upcoming events. I liked talking to all the stupid NPCs and reading their useless information. There was a certain charm to it I guess.

One thing that I desperately hope is still in the game is Chocobos! I love Chocobos! They're so cute! I know there's supposed to be a baby Chocobo that lives inside the black guy's afro, but you don't get to ride it and that makes me sad. Maybe it grows up and you do get to ride it? That would be amazing.

In any case, I'm excited for FFXIII and I hope it's a great addition to the series. I've liked every one of the games that I've played so far, so I doubt it will let me down. Here's hoping it lives up to my expectations. The battle system looks great and the graphics are quite impressive. The characters and the story are supposed to be pretty awesome from what I've heard so that's good too.

My friend's brother is picking up the game at midnight tonight so I'll probably watch him play it when he comes home. I can't wait.

Esquiggity

Here's a response to my last entry from my friend Stephen: http://dillionmcrich.blogspot.com/

I haven't posted in a couple of days; I've been busy. Okay so I got my Physics test score. A nice uplifting 50%!

Well luckily failing the first test doesn't mean I fail the class. I plugged in all my grades and I have a solid C+ right now. Of course, that grade could worsen I suppose, but I think I'll manage to pass this hellish "class."

Anyway, on Tuesday night, I had a glorious bout of creativity. I drew and I wrote music and I played music, etc. It was a fun time. I might post the song I'm working on when I'm done with it. It's not super good, but I just found myself urged to make it.

Alright well it's time to do some grand ole physics homework and then it's time to go to my lab. After my lab I have 2 more classes and then it's on to Spring Break!

This hurts you more than it hurts me, cause I'm immortal and stuff.

I got a B on my Calculus 2 Test! Yay! Really surprising considering I assumed I did really poorly. I am quite happy about my grade :)

So I went to my friend Stephen's church this last Sunday and I heard a sermon that really didn't sit well with me. It was about the story of a man named "Uzzah" who tries to stop the Ark of the Covenant from falling into the dirt and when he touches it he is struck down by God.

Apparently it's justifiable that Uzzah was murdered on the spot because his hands were "too unclean" to touch "God's throne." I suppose he should have let the Ark fall into the mud and then just left and been like "oh well, I can't pick it up because otherwise I'll be screwed." But no, he tries to help and God gets pissed and shoots him with a big "F you."

Why is God's rule in this story so harsh and so unconditional and arbitrary? I mean it's such a strange rule. I also find a few things to be inconsistent. Like why are the Jews allowed to worship an idol (the ark) yet God condemns other idol worship?

Idol:

noun

an image or representation of a god used as an object of worship.

Also how were the Jews even able to create this idol without touching it? Or were all the constructers killed, too? I mean, that wouldn't be any MORE cruel so...

What really shocked me was how smug the preacher acted. As if it was somehow good or just for God to kill this guy. I'm trying to decipher how this story fits with the idea of a "loving benevolent God" and the whole idea of mercy and kindness in the New Testament.

Honestly, the sermon made me sick. I'm sure it's a "fault" of mine for not accepting that a "benevolent" God is able to just fly off the handle and bitch-slap someone to death for touching a shiny table.

I talked to Stephen about it and he had some words to say about it that I still don't agree with. I'm really struggling with some of the things the Bible teaches and it's making it really really difficult for me to accept Christianity. I'm sorry, but I really can't justify this story. I really can't in good conscience.

Mr. Pompous Preacher Ph.D. would probably say that I'm evil because I can't justify this story. Whatever. More thoughts on this later I guess... when I have some time to think.

In Soviet Russia, test is be doing you!

I had my first Physics test today. What a disaster. My hack of a professor has no idea how to prepare proper exams.

His quizzes are too long and the same thing goes for his tests. They aren't difficult, per se, but they are way too long! He gives us too many problems...

We had 50 minutes to do 20 problems. That's less than 3 minutes for each problem! Personally, it takes me a good minute to make a free-body diagram and figure out all the forces and whatnot. Then to calculate everything it can take another minute or so. Assuming you don't mess up at all you have barely enough time to finish.

If you mess up once then you're screwed over. In my case, I got screwed over. I actually stopped to think about one of the problems and it made me run out of time. I had to guess for at least 5 out of the 20 questions because I ran out of time!

Maybe in Soviet Russia time works differently... I can understand that things might seem slower if you're wasted on vodka or whatever. This professor needs to get a freaking grip on reality. We're freshmen. We're not 70 years old and we haven't been doing Physics for 40+ years. Hell, we haven't even been alive for 40+ years. It's not as simple for us to do these problems and he needs to learn this.

Holy shit. A wall of overwhelming fragrance slapped me in the face when I walked into my dorm just now. My roommate obviously thinks it's a great idea to pour a gallon of cologne on himself in the middle of the day. As if he's going out... right.

This kid is driving me insane. He better be glad I'm a fairly nice/reserved person or I would have snapped by now.

I can't wait for Spring Break... I really need to unwind or I'm going to go crazy.

More reasons to hate ignorant people.

Alright, so I was checking Facebook and I noticed some annoying fan pages.

i pretend to have a coughing attack when i walk by a smoker

I Don't Smoke, I Wont Smoke, I Never Want to and Never Will

You Smoke Pot, We Get It, You're Not Cool.

Im PROUD 2 say : I DONT SMOKE WEED!

I HATE WALKING BEHIND PEOPLE WHO SMOKE

Coughing Really Loud Near Smokers Too Make Them Think Smoking Is Bad :)

I HATE people who think they are cool because they smoke weed.

Okay, so those are just a handful of some obnoxious pages I saw people becoming "fans" of.

I don't personally endorse smoking cigarettes. I think it's unhealthy.

That said, I'm not going to criticize someone who decides to smoke.

Cigarettes really help people calm down and can keep them alert and focused. The smell doesn't agree with everyone, but that really doesn't mean that you have to go out of your way to make someone feel bad because they want to smoke.

Marijuana helps with all kinds of different disorders and is often used recreationally as well. People don't "smoke pot" or "smoke weed" because they "think they're cool", they do it because:

A) It's helping them with a disorder/disease.

B) It makes them feel good.

People who criticize smokers obviously don't understand the motivation behind smoking. It's not because it makes people "feel cool", it's because it helps people relax or relieve stress or even overcome a health problem.

Don't be a prick. Think before criticizing (although I know that's really tough for some of you).

The masses are asses.

People are really stupid. Honestly, I figure about 50% of the people attending the University Of Central Florida are mentally handicapped.

My World Civilization class is a really good indication of how dull some people truly are. About 95% of the class couldn't locate Iraq on a world map and the same bunch didn't know why 1944 was important. I really just had to shake my head in despair.

On the way back from class, I had tremendous difficulty avoiding idiots who decide it's a grand idea to stop in the middle of the road when they see me coming on my longboard. Why do they just stand there like a deer in the headlights? Why don't they just keep moving?

I have to judge how I'm going to move based on the trajectory of nearby people. If one of them decides "gee, I'm gonna stop and stare at this kid on the longboard coming towards me really fast" it really ruins everything. Seriously, some people...

My engineering group met for the first time yesterday. It seems like a (mostly) smart bunch, so I have confidence that our project is going to do well. Stephen (I think his name was) had some really good ideas and I think he'll really help us succeed. Looking forward to a good semester project...

I'm noticing more and more how much people really fail to grasp the rules of grammar and spelling. They're/their/there, your/you're, are/our, then/than, etc...

Spelling and grammar errors aside, what really irks me is failure to comprehend proper diction. A big pet peeve of mine is the misuse of words. A really commonly misused word is irony. I constantly hear people say "how ironic!" when the situation is not ironic whatsoever. Irony has a specific meaning; that meaning doesn't magically change.

Okay, so I could bitch/vent some more, but I think I should save that for later. I guess this about wraps up my first post...