So Saturday night I did some stupid things, and this was the result:




In all reality, the 5 on 1 could have turned out a lot worse. So I removed the scabs today to clean the cuts and realized that the cut on my upper lip is definitely going to scar. Not wanting to look like some monster, I looked around for anti-scarring creams and such. Turns out there's not much for lowered scars (meaning the scar tissue is lower than the surrounding tissue, which this one will be). Plenty for raised, though. I was wondering if any of you know anything on the topic/have any suggestions.

In other news, DERP.

As you may or may not have noticed, my journal is no longer friends only. The reasons that I made it friends-only in the first place were....let's say childish. I've kept the post labeling this as friends-only for historic purposes (read: I'm dumb and think the picture's funny). Also, I'm considering actually keeping this thing regularly updated. Shocking, I know. We'll see how that fares when school starts back up again.

So last night I went into Harvard Square to pick up Slayer's new CD Christ Illusion (if you're a metal fan, obtain this CD now, you won't be disappointed ). So I leave my house, walk down to Davis Square, and take the subway down to Harvard Square. That part was rather uneventful. Upon getting there, I immediately proceeded to get lost. It was only my second time there, the first being when Laura visited. I had looked up the place I was going to on the internet and had seen a nice map of how to get there from the subway station. Unfortunately, I didn't realize there were half a dozen subway exits. So I wander around for a good hour, not finding a single music store, much less the store I was looking for.

Then I saw a big blue circle with an "I" in the middle of it. Sweet, information. Talked to a very nice lady there and found out the place I was looking for was just across the street. It was situated along with several other stores inside of a single building such that you had to enter the building to find it. Also, the building, called "The Garage," was a place that Laura and I had went when she was here. Go figure. So I ran in and grabbed Christ Illusion.

On the way back to the subway, I was stopped by not one, but two gaggles of young female asian tourists. Apparently I'm a tourist attraction, who knew? A few pictures later and they were appeased. I booked it for the subway. The ride and subsequent walk home were thankfully uneventful.

Oh yeah, I'm on myspace now. Don't ask me why, I'm not entirely sure. Comments on how my profile is currently empty are not welcome. I'll fill it out when I fucking feel like it.

I guess I should probably update this thing.

So I've been in Boston for over a month now. It's alright I guess. I live in an ok part of town. It's not the ghetto, but I do live next to a halfway house full of crazies. Being woken up at night by some guy yelling gibberish is a regular occurrence. My housemates are pretty cool. Michael's a lazy bum, but he's nice. Andrea cooks for us a couple of times a week. Good food too, a lot of salmon and chicken dishes.

As for work, it's enjoyable. I am the Systems Engineer. The two other guys just do chemical sensor crap. So it's my job to develop a full-blown wireless solution to interface with their sensors. A lot of responsibility and therefore pressure.

I haven't explored Boston too much. I went down to Newport last Friday to check out some mansions with Michael, Andrea, and their friend Kyle. Then my lovely lady came to visit for the weekend. Speaking of which...



I had gotten a really bad summer cold in Newport, so that kinda killed the weekend some. But Laura and I got out to see X-Men and explore Harvard Square. X-Men was decent. It was interesting to see what they did to the Phoenix storyline to adapt it to the big screen. Laura and I got free dinner at Uno because the waitress messed up. That always helps with my constant money issues.

Life here's pretty good and I would say that I'm content. Now if only Laura lived with me things would be almost perfect.

Dave reminded me of an event that took place at HOWZ. This kid named Dan or something decided to argue with me about the power of the Cell processor. Basically, he said that it was crap compared to current PC technology, never-mind the fact that it has the equivalent computing power of 40 Pentium 4's. I want to see a commercial PC with 256 GFLops of single precision. Should you ever run across somebody like this, here's some ammunition:

Powerpoint Overview of the Cell
In-Depth Technical Report on the Cell

Well I just read Penny Arcade bashing the FFXII demo.

Issue #1: The previous system was "more explicit regarding game events."

Honestly, what's so wrong about having battles in the field? There's no more load times waiting for some crummy battle background that's the same for every battle in a particular area. Now you actually fight the monsters where you encounter them. Yeah, I see a reason to be angry there.

Issue #2: In the previous system, the player had "greater control."

First off, the demo doesn't have the full ally system in the place. In the final one, you'll be able to set up behavioral patterns for every person in the party. Besides, if you want complete control (which you most likely will for boss battles), put it in Wait mode and use the menu to order each person. Wow, putting the system into Wait mode makes it almost turn-based. Amazing how that works.

Vague Issue #3: Square changed the battle system to appeal to larger audiences.

Why is it that a lot of old school gamers hate anything that deviates from what was done in the past? And why do they always say that companies make large changes to a franchise based solely on selling more games? In all honesty, they don't know why the battle designers made the changes they did, nor do I. Even if it was for marketability, why does that matter when the system is fun? When did it become wrong to like a game for being fun? Each and every Final Fantasy that gets released should be looked at solely on its merits, and not compared to those that came before it. Sure, it's not going to be a FF5 or 6, but from what I've seen, there's no reason to hate.

Now, FFX-2, that was a trajesty. That's MY word bitches! Back off!

So I go the FFXII demo today. Played through it a couple of times. A lot of people are upset about the sweeping changes implemented in the battle system. The battle system has been likened to FFXI, only single-player. Having played FFXI, that just isn't the case.

Similarities to FFXI:
- Real-time
- You see the monsters on the field, and there's no transition to a battle screen, battles take place on the field.
- You only control one character

Differences from FFXI:
- It's actually fun
- It's fast-paced, especially in active mode
- You have a party of up to 3, and you can change which character you're controlling on the fly
- You can set the other members to an automatic mode. In the demo, you can't dictate how they behave in this mode, but in the final version you will be able to set their behavior patterns. What exactly this entails, I don't know, but it could potentially be pretty awesome.

The visuals are absolutely stunning. Square has really outdone themselves on this one. But of course, nobody was expecting any less. The graphics whores will be especially happy about that. The demo doesn't have much in the way of story. There is an opening sequence, but it's one I've seen before, and others probably have too. After the opening sequence, you get to pick one of two scenarios. One is active mode, and the other is wait mode. Personally, wait mode was too slow-paced for me, but beginners would probably enjoy it.

The wait mode one has you at level 1 on a beach hunting three horse-like enemies. Upon defeating them, a T-Rex attacks you. The best part of this scenario is if you perform the summon that's available to you, it will use a skill called "Roxxor." I shit you not. And it does, indeed "Roxxor." When you perform a summon, the other party members vanish and are replaced by the summon for a set time period. Once the time period is up, the summon disappears. However, should the summon lose all its HP before the time period is up, it performs a devastating final attack.

The active mode has you at level 20 in a dungeon hunting an Adamantoise for a key to the boss. Not too much to note, except that the dungeon looked the same no matter where you were in it, which I guess is to be expected. The boss was fucking tough though, because for some reason, you're not allowed to use a summon against him. Flares were absolutely essential.

So yeah, I can't wait for it to come out after the PS3. That's just ridiculous. Too long of a wait, I say. BTW, if anybody wants to play the demo between now and Friday, let me know.

Well, long time no update. But this isn't really an update, more like a cry for help.

Here's my situation:
As most of you know, I had to pack basically my entire life into 3 suitcases for the summer, and put the rest of my crap into storage. Well, the time has now come to bring said 3 suitcases of life back to rochester. Now, I'm flying, of course, so I would be needing to take a cab home from the airport. Normally, this isn't a problem and is what I would usually do. However, I need to stop at Riverknoll to pick up my apartment key. Here is my problem. I could always ask the cab driver to stop there for a couple minutes, then continue on to the Racquet Club. This would mean entrusting him with my 3 suitcases of life, containing thousands of dollars in electronics and up to a grand in clothes of doom. I, as you may have guessed, do not like this idea, not one bit. So I was wondering if there was anybody out there gracious enough to do me the favor of picking me up from the airport. My flight is due in at 11:05. Add to that possible (read: likely) delays and waiting for my checked bags and I would need to be picked up around noon.

Also, if somebody does indeed rescue me from my plight, they shall be treated to a meal at the venue of their choice sometime before this coming Saturday.

Perhaps I will post my summer adventures later this week, but that will be in a protected post. Damn hippies.

(Edit)
Yes, that would be tomorrow the 30th at 11:05 AM.

Well, I've got more pictures.

From the 30th:





And yesterday:



Things are looking pretty good. The swelling's going down every day. I'm still eating mostly liquids. I recently started eating Lipton's Italian Sides because they use pasta that's small enough for me to swallow without chewing. So some diversification of my food is excellent. I actually got sick of milkshakes. Never thought that could happen, but it did.

Had two appointments today. One with the orthodontist. He didn't really do anything, just looked around. He said it was too soon after the surgery to go changing wires and bands and shit. He wants to give me a couple more weeks to recover before he causes me more pain. What a nice guy. Second appointment was with the surgeon himself. He was happy with how things are going, but added another rubberband to one side of my face. So now I have three rubberbands to contend with.

In other news, I truly started learning guitar today. I had messed around before, but I actually sat down and learned and practiced hardcore for a couple hours. I intend to do this on a regular basis. I have also set a goal (because they always help motivate me): July 4, Star Spangled Banner. Yeah, I'll make it.

In other other news, I'm writing a cel-shaded graphics engine. Why you ask? Why the fuck not? I figure I could use it in a game that's been brewing on the backburners of my mind. Plus, it's some interesting shit, especially some of the advanced techniques. It's all about taking lighting into your own hands and telling OpenGL to go fuck itself.

Well, for those who're interested, here's how I looked the day after my surgery:





Yeah, what a fucking codface. All in all, it still looks the damn same. The doctors said that Friday/Saturday would be the worst days of the recovery. I fucking hope they meant friday and not saturday, because today was hell. I had to cut rubberbands out of my mouth with nailclippers (ok, i could have used scissors, but they're weren't readily available) in order to eat. That and the fucking blender broke. So my mom borrowed our neighbor's, but it turns out it's an old POS, so when I made a shake with it, 90% of it leaked out the bottom and now shit's all fucked. I think the best moment out of this happened right after I left the hospital. I had to stop at the surgeon's office in North Charleston to pick up my prescriptions, and right before I got out of the car, I noticed a smudge on my glasses. So I take off my glasses and proceed to wipe them off. Tell me my glasses don't BREAK IN FUCKING HALF KASEKRJEKWEJEFKHWEH!@K$!@#@!KJAFSDKFJWDAone!!!

On another note, blended chicken nuggets and barbeque sauce is quite tasty.