As for the new year (I believe it's the year of the Tiger now?), it means that there's lots of family time, which is fun. I won about $9 in family Lotto (it's somewhat similar to Bingo), and it's always nice to see everyone, especially my cousin/niece (her grandma is my dad's cousin). I only really get to see her a few times every year (such is a side effect of me not going to church anymore), but it's always nice (now that I think about it, she's the closest relative age-wise to me).

There was only one downside to the events this weekend, and that was that it reduced my time to prepare for the two midterms today. They're over now, but with all of my terrible prioritizing, it's time to SUPER FOCUS and catch up. GOGOGO!!!

Go, go, go! sound bite  Starcraft sound bites

I held a Glee-athon last week, which I think went well. I now own both of the Glee soundtracks, as well as a few singles (since not all of the songs from the show are on the soundtracks). iTunes keeps track of how many times you play the songs within your library, and looking at my Glee playlist (which has all the Glee songs I own), it's no wonder that my favorite (and most played) song is "Somebody to Love" (originally by Queen).

Being one of my favorite things in the world (Love), with one of my favorite bands in the world (Queen), on one of my favorite shows in the world (Glee), it's no wonder that it's one of my favorite songs.

Recently, I talked with a friend about my feelings towards another friend, as well as my growing feelings for another friend. After some discussion, we came to the conclusion that the feelings I had weren't really romantic feelings, but feelings of a strong, close friendship. It was merely the fact that they are females that completely threw my mind around (the determining factor was apparently the complete lack of any feelings of jealously with the fact that one of them has a boyfriend). On one hand, my mind is relieved of the self-inflicted pressure that came with romantic feelings, and I'm glad to discover that I do love my friends as much as anyone can love their close friends while still being close friends. On the other hand, my mind is a bit saddened by the fact that I have yet to discover the feelings of romantic attraction/love.

I was with some friends yesterday, promoting the Medieval Combat Club, and at one point, one of my friends asked me why I don't hit on women. I didn't really give an answer, but I think with that question, I realized that I'm not really the type of person who goes up to a woman and starts flirting. I prefer to develop a friendship first, building bridges and forging bonds. What I realize this has done is that I actually put myself into the "friend zone", which also explains why I seem to have more female good friends than male good friends. I don't think I really want to change that part about me, mainly because I think I'm looking for a romantic love that comes and grows naturally. If I never find it, c'est la vie, and I can still find comfort to know that I still have a love of friends.

Thanks to The Digg Reel for showing me this video; it reminds me of how much I like mashups, and I've had it stuck in my head for the past few days.

The night went pretty well, though I actually barely used my computer at all. I played a bit of Ikaruga (Gamecube version, which I'm now borrowing from my friend Don), finally got to play Mahjong with some people (who, fortunately, were also most familiar with Japanese Mahjong rules), played a bit of cards, Last Word, and Puerto Rico. Plenty of fun, though my friends Erin and Jasmine got their poke war revenge. I can't say it was eventually coming to me though, so it's fine.

The sad part in all of these fun is the reminder that most of us are leaving town, as the winter term (for those of us on a quarter system) starts on the 4th. Also, I have obligations on both the 2nd and the 3rd, which means that today is my last full day of the break. It was coming sooner or later, but I had hoped that it wouldve lasted a little longer.

I still have plenty to think about, and who knows if any of it will lead to anything. Now, to wait patiently until the short spring break in 3 months.

Mirror's Edge (I liked it overall, but I wouldn't have paid the original price of $50 for it. Beat it in ~10 hours)
Mass Effect (It was pretty enjoyable, though I never really used any of the tactical features in the game. I guess I'm a fan of the brute force approach in combat. Beat it in ~20 hours).
Evil Genius (It's very similar to Mastermind, which is a flash game. It's fun, if not really slow to progress.)
And currently, I'm playing The Last Remnant. It's working out pretty well so far, and I enjoy the way it works. :)

Still too many games to catch up one, but hey, it's progress!

My grades ended up as follows:

AI/Game Design: B+
Intro to Operating Systems: B-
Languages/Compiler Design: B-
Intro to Databases: C (I need to contact the prof about this; I'm pretty sure I got better than this)

So, considering all the busyness and everything else that's been going on, I think I came out okay. Next term is going to be busier than this one though, so I'll have to stay on my toes:

Languages/Compiler Design II
Algorithms and Complexity
Computer Graphics
Languages of the World (for my minor's Linguistics requirement)
Continuing to work for KPSU
Medieval Combat Club (2 interschool events in the upcoming months)
Jazz/Pop a Cappella group

There's a lot going on, and I hope I don't go insane. :)

I'm actually using it right now, and it seems pretty nice.

In other news, I'm glad this week is finally over (after homework stress, low sleep and not doing well on those homework as well). I'm also rediscovering how much I enjoy Glee. :)

AI & Game Design
Intro to Operating Systems
Intro to Databases
Languages and Compilers I

All of those classes are required for my degree, except for the AI & Game Design class. That one is a CS elective (and I have to take a couple of electives anyway).

My schedule's been pretty full as of late:

AI & Game Design: It's a fun class, though I only wish that it took place in a computer lab. We cover lots of interesting topics, and it's basically an intro to AI class (which means all of my classes are basically "Intro to" classes, even though they're all upper-division stuff), applied to games and game design.

Intro to Operating Systems: This class is totally confusing. It's a lot of low-level simultaneous stuff, so it's really hard to wrap my head around. Even the professor said that this stuff is pretty tricky and confusing. Hopefully it won't end with me in a smoldering, ashy mess.

Intro to Databases: This class may be the only class without any major programming involved, though we will be entering into some PHP later. The databases stuff has been helping with me understanding Drupal, which helps out a bit with my job at KPSU.

Languages and Compilers I: My professor's pretty awesome, and the material reminds me of the abstract stuff I liked about the Discrete Math/Finite State Machines class.

KPSU: Work is coming along, albeit pretty slowly. Tackling things one at a time. As for the Metal and Moku Show, I think the format's evolving a bit. We've had our friend Caitlin guest in fairly regularly, so we may lessen the music a bit (but still use it for background effect), while chatting about some of the most random things. And it's all on the spot! Also, we may start recording the show w/video (by bringing in a laptop/webcam), so we'll see how popular we can be...

Medieval Combat Club: There's been a lot of work to be done lately, and we definitely hit a big bump in the road last week. On the bright side, we're getting lots of new members, and the club may be headed for bigger and better things. We just need to push more past the wall composed of people thinking that we're a LARPing group.

2 midterms down, 2 more next week. And lots of homework ahead. Wish me luck.

Speaking of shonen anime, this may have just been a bad time for my friend to get into Yu-Gi-Oh (the show), which subsequently made me get somewhat back into it, which made me look into the Japanese version of the show (some of the stuff that was changed/censored adds a different view on some things). Probably one of the bigger things they changed was the cards themselves: in the Japanese version, they actually use an image of an actual card, with the name, level, description, etc. whereas in the American version, they just have an enlarged version of the image, and the attack/defense points. It mainly means that they really put in a lot of work to change the setting from Japan to America, and not having any Japanese references in the show. Hmm.

Also, speaking of shonen anime, a different friend of mine got me into Katekyoshi Hitman Reborn!, which is mainly about a good-for-nothing kid, who, after encountering a baby named Reborn, starts his training as a mafia boss. It's a pretty good read. Lots of comedy, and lots of action. Pretty gruesome at times, though.

I do know, however, that I have an affinity towards people who wear glasses. In men, it may just be something that makes me feel more similar to them, and in women, it's a 90% certain way for me to be attracted (because most of the time, it adds a level of cute that I really like).