What Was the Last Video Game You Played?

[carmi-chan 0]

If you're ino Police Detective and Action games, try LA Noire. I've been playing it for a while now and I like it.

[Akazora 293]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

loljk happy april fools c:

Traveling with friends is a blast, so definitely try it sometime! My dad's always in a better mood when he's around people he knows, there's another plus, haha. Most of the time I only travel with my family, and although that's also fun, nothing can beat traveling with friends. We also have band/orchestra trips around here. Freshman year was NYC, sophomore year was Disney World, and this year is going to be some place in Tennessee, lol. It's a shame that you weren't able to enjoy yourself during the trips since those trips are all about having fun. I don't travel with friends often unless their families are people my parents know really well. My parents like bringing people with them on certain occasions, so if they're not bringing families of my friends, they're bringing families of my sister's friends, haha.

 

I really hate being disappointed from something I had high hopes for, which is why I usually avoid unaired shows. And from what I've seen, most of the shows on MAL get ratings lower than 8, so I feel that it's safe to assume that most unaired shows receive similar ratings as well. Actually, I trust the user reviews more than the ratings. Heck, even Mirai Nikki got a score higher than 8 and I thought that show was deserving of a 6 at best. The entire rating system is kinda misleading at times so most of the stuff I watch are shows that my friends recommend--most of which I do end up enjoying. Mirai Nikki is the exception since my friend recommended it to me before he finished it, haha. I think it's awesome that you managed to get your grandmother to watch SnK! I have to hide my anime watching from my parents, so I only watch when they're sleeping or when they're not around. Gosh, they'd murder me if they found out how much time I "waste" watching anime, although to be honest, I don't think I've watched that many. I have a few friends who also managed to get their parents to watch anime and other shows with them, and frankly, I'm a bit envious. But back on topic-ish, sometimes, I feel that I should also adopt MAL's rating system with 5 as average, but giving shows like DC a 5 or Mirai Nikki a 3-4 seems a bit harsh, doesn't it? Also, I haven't watched enough anime to have a good grasp of what is considered average. I tend to keep my ratings above 5 for this reason and save the lower ratings for shows that really deserve it *cough Lucky Star and MK1412 *cough*. I haven't encountered many shows that are that terrible either since I rely on recommendations and reviews most of the time. But to make up for this, I always round down. Shows that might get a 8.7 from me will get an 8 instead of a 9. You've been an anime veteran for quite a while so if I were you, I'd probably be too lazy to adjust all of my ratings on MAL--especially for those I haven't watched in years. Plus, impressions constantly change so a show you gave a 7 today might end up getting a 5, years later. I wouldn't be willing to go through all of that, lol. I don't think I'll ever give a show a 10. My enjoyment might be a 10, but like you said, there is no anime without flaws.

 

We need phys ed as a prerequisite for participating in athletics, so most people end up taking it the summer before freshman year. However, we also need to take a second phys ed class if we're not going to do at least two seasons worth of athletics or if we don't get a waiver. Most people at our school end up taking track or cross country for this reason. The lazier people just take on sports that have no competition at our school, like lacrosse. I know a few people at our school who've been accepted (not sure if actually recruited though) by colleges mainly based on their athletic record. I know this one guy who got accepted into Yale to play on their soccer team, but he also had the grades to back him up. Of course, he also played varsity soccer at our school as well. So this friend of yours didn't join your school's swim team? I think it's nice how he didn't have to, but still, haha. Nearly all of my friends took phys ed over the summer to leave space for other classes (and for the prerequisite) since it's a pointless class to waste an entire semester for. Girls tennis is in the spring while boys tennis is in the fall. It used to be the other way around quite a while ago, but I kinda like this current system. Our games have already started, and we even had our first tournament of the season not too long ago.

 

I think it's great how you have a lot of schools to fall back on! I've heard surprising stories about students getting accepted mainly because of their essays and letters of rec into schools that no one expected. You wrote a pretty awesome essay, plus you already have a bunch of acceptances behind you, so I think you're in a pretty good position at the moment! Then again, I'm only a junior, so what would I know, haha. You're getting quite a bargain with Rutgers, so going there probably wouldn't be a bad idea at all.

 

I’m definitely going to take the Zelda games into consideration once I get a 3DS—they look awesome from the playthroughs I’ve seen so far. Oh my gosh, I didn’t realize how much more value certain amiibos have over others. I think it’s awesome how they’re like collectibles! It’s also interesting how the “less popular” characters tend to be ones with the most value (with exceptions, of course). Once again, I apologize for not being able to contribute to discussion much. However, this was still a fascinating read for me, so I’d love to read more if you don’t mind writing about it, haha.

 

The places I've been are really wide-spread. I've been to many corners of this country just through random vacations, lol. Most of these trips occurred when I was little though, so I can't recall much from them. Is there a reason why you developed a preference for coastal colleges? Since I already knew your state location, I figured my next best bet would be to figure out your county location. I just assumed that narrowing it down to a county would make pinpointing a city location easier. Our county name is mentioned a lot around here, so I was a bit surprised when you implied that mentioning it was a bit out of the ordinary where you live. Also, I'm going to trail a bit off topic again because I recently discovered that I may or may not have visited Edison before. I think I heard my mom mention that one of our road trips a few years ago might have crossed paths with the town when we were heading back to NYC for a bit. One of my old friends back in NYC also moved there a while ago. I barely remember him since we never kept contact, but he was a relatively good friend of mine back then. My parents even planned to visit his family in Edison at one point but never got around to it. Haha, I just found that interesting.

 

For me, it would be science first, then math (math used to be first, haha). English would be third and history would be last. Actually, if I could, I would bundle the entire social studies package under history. I never liked learning about the government and "global studies". It just wasn't very interesting and never appealed to me. I love learning about the world around me. I also love numbers because everything falls into place once you make sense of them. I used to struggle in English quite a bit since I used to be so math-oriented, but it's kinda growing on me. Sometimes, I feel that our teacher is going overboard with all this analysis stuff though. What if the author just wanted to write it like that? What if the conch shell in Lord of the Flies was never meant to represent democracy? (okay, yeah, there's a lot of backing that disproves this, but you get the gist, haha). My teacher would slap me for this. Hmm, that's interesting. I've always found world history to be a lot more fascinating than American history. It's probably because the American history that schools force us to regurgitate is way too over-glorified. Everything they've taught us seems so subjective and it just doesn't feel like they give us the overall picture. In other words, the American history curriculum just feels like it's loaded with white-washed pro American propaganda. They antagonize the British, treat most wars as if we managed to rise to the top single-handedly, and exhibit a martyr complex towards wars we lost. How about giving us an outsider's perspective of these colonizations and revolutions rather than playing the victim and brainwashing us into idolizing America more than we should? I guess I'm not really in any position to say this since I've kinda given up on learning any history at this point. If I could add anything more, the witch trials in Europe and people like Joan of Arc are subjects of history that seem a lot more intriguing than American history in my opinion.

 

Ahaha, you're far too kind. I think smiles in general are one of the best aspects of people. In fact, a person's smile is one of the first things I look at when I meet someone--it can say quite a bit about the person. Not to mention, I just love seeing people smile in general. Kinda sucks that I don’t smile as often as I should though, haha..

 

The seniors at our school usually don't gossip about anyone unless it's about promposals or college acceptances. But even then, I wouldn't call it "gossiping" since they're typically congratulating those people most of the time, lol. I never liked getting into drama, and there's not a lot of it around here--thank goodness. Most of the "drama" is about grades and complaints about certain teachers, but usually never any trash-talking. I guess it mainly depends on what kind of friend group you have since our school can be quite divided in terms of social groups.

 

I’ll definitely be able to catch on sleep during spring break. I doze off in class far too often, and not because the class is boring, but because I’m just so gosh darn tired. My procrastination tendencies definitely contribute to this issue, or maybe it’s because I can’t manage my time as well as others. I appreciate your concern though, so thank you for that, haha.

 

Four episodes a day? Phew, I don’t think I’ll ever have that much commitment for watching anime. That’s pretty impressive, haha. I’m glad you’ve decided on starting Steins;Gate! Let me know what you think of it when you’re finished! I also suggest for you to watch the OVA and movie afterwards. The OVA had a nice comic spin on the show and the movie is also a good supplement. Both provide for some pretty decent closure.

I see, it does sound like it would be fun.  Unfortunately for me, my parents only ever gave me the opportunity to travel with my immediate family.  Even though a lot of their friends have children my age, they’ve never even considered traveling together with them.  And even if they did, I don’t know those kids well enough to perhaps enjoy myself as much as I would like.  My friends who I’d love to travel with all have parents who aren’t acquainted with my parents, and my folks would never let that fly.  However, I know some seniors right now who have been planning a NYC outing, over this spring break in fact.  Haha, that’s pretty awesome I think and it makes me a bit envious.

 

Yup, even though I only watch what’s promising with a few wild cards thrown in there, most unaired anime are rather bad.  It’s a waste of time, but part of me enjoys it.  Not to mention, I don’t want to become numb to what’s good.  If I watch only good anime, then I won’t appreciate things that deserve more credit given the saturated nature of the anime industry right now.  It’s a bit of an inefficient and time consuming and risky way to maintain a status quo and a true “average”, but it’s worth it, haha.  My relatives in China all pretty much know about SnK, since it took China by storm while it was airing just as much as it caused waves in the States.  In fact, since I visited China two summers ago while SnK was still airing, one of my cousins there actually brought it up in conversation before I could.  My parents know I watch a lot of anime, and while they rag on me about it a lot they don’t really do too much about it since I’m doing fine in school. The only anime they like is Detective Conan on occasion, and Studio Ghibli stuff.  I have heard about some really chill parents who actually watch anime with their children, which is awesome.  My older sister doesn’t watch anime much, but I’ve shown her things like Death Note, Code Geass, and Fate/Zero to sort of familiarize herself with what it has to offer and I think she’s liked what she’s seen so far.  My younger brother on the other hand watches a lot of anime, maybe not four episodes a day like me but quite a bit regardless.  I used to think the 5=average system was rather harsh myself, but I’ve slowly shifted from giving out a lot of 7s and 8s to given mostly 7s to giving a lot of 6s to giving 5s.  It’s taken nearly three years, but I’m content with how I rate now.  It was a bit annoying to go through my whole list, but it’s only getting longer from here on out, so I might as well get it done, right?  Oh, and another thing, I also don’t give out 10s because I think it looks bad on MAL, haha.  When scrolling down someone’s list with 10s, the 10s stick out so much from all the other single digits and my OCD starts kicking in.

 

Geez, the way your school does things make so much sense.  It’s nearly impossible to not take phys ed in my school.  Because my school doesn’t really offer summer credit of any kind, I’m still having trouble wrapping my mind around how much freedom you guys have, heh.  I’m used to the conformity of my school now, but sometimes I’m reminded of just how stale and wasteful things are.  My friend was actually recruited, haha.  I asked him, and in his age group he’s ranked among the top ten swimmers nationwide.  If he continues to work at it, I’m fairly certain he’d end up being a pro, no joke.  I think even Princeton approached him with an offer.  Only thing is, his academics are rather subpar.  He got a 2030 on his SATs and doesn’t take very intense classes and manages straight Bs, so definitely far from your average Ivy Leaguer.  But hey, he’s a great guy to hang around with and if he becomes famous I’d be proud to have known him, haha.  Oh, the season’s already started!  How has it been going?  Do you have games over spring break as well?

 

All of my college decisions have come in now, so I’ll be listing them all with details in the spoilers, because God knows how much I’m going to end up typing…

Acceptances:

 

1. Case Western Reserve University: This was one of the schools I applied to last second.  After Early Action deadlines passed, CWRU sent me an e-mail on November 2nd saying they never got an application from me and that they would be extending the deadline for another 24 hours.  A lot of low ranked schools do this to try and get your attention, so I almost brushed it off as spam before I realized that Case Western isn’t too shabby of a school.  I asked my parents about it and they said I should apply.  CWRU was one of the few (if not only) Common App school that doesn’t have any supplemental essays, so within a few minutes I sent the app out, and I got in, despite me showing absolutely no demonstrated interest.  This is actually one of my top choices, since they’re giving me $15,000 a year and their Weatherhead School of Management seems pretty good.  They also said most of their students get a master’s degree in tandem with their bachelor’s within their four years there, and if I need a fifth year they’ll give me $20,000 to get that diploma.  Public schools don’t ever offer this, and other private schools require five years instead of letting you get it all done in four.  The only real downside to this school is its location, and it’s in Cleveland, Ohio.  It’s a ways away from home, but it’s not all that bad since it’s closer to where you are, hahah…  I still need to do more research, so I’ll be visiting the school sometime in the coming week.

 

2. University of Maryland, College Park: This public school located only a few miles from Washington, DC has impressed me so far.  They’ve given me a bit of money, and since it’s a public university it’s overall pretty cheap.  It’s location is ideal for internships and job opportunities, the campus is nice (just visited it yesterday) and it’s not too far from home.  I’ve been considering UMD for a while now, and my parents think favorably about it.  It’s definitely one of the ones at the top of my list, right up there with CWRU and Rutgers.

 

3. Rutgers University, New Brunswick: I’ve already talked about this, so I’ll keep it short.  I’ll be visiting the school again in a few days, specifically for the business program that they have.  Once I do more research on this and CWRU, I guess I’ll be choosing between the three.

 

4. Brandeis University: This is a really new school near Boston that’s trying to make a name for itself.  While I really like the campus and vibe and they did give me $12,000 per year, their business school isn’t very impressive, mainly because it’s so new.  My parents are somewhat against this school, and while I’ll keep it in mind I doubt they’ll be able to change my opinion of them when I visit them on Monday.  I just don’t feel like it’ll be a good investment, financially speaking.  It’s a pity too, because their mascot is the Judges, which is unique and honestly really cool, haha.

 

5. University of Pittsburgh: This is a public school that gave me a bit of money so it’s not that expensive, but for whatever reason I can’t seem to like the campus enough to want to attend.  Their business school is alright, but nothing that great.  It’s located, obviously, in Pittsburgh and really close to Carnegie Mellon.  I haven’t visited it in a while, but will be going back there on Wednesday, if I recall, to see if I change my mind.

 

6. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute: This school’s case is much like Pittsburgh’s.  While it doesn’t seem too bad on paper, the campus doesn’t attract me for whatever reason and the scholarship money they’re throwing at me it’s doing anything to change my mind.  They’re more famous for their engineering than their business anyway.  It’s located in Troy, NY, so it’s not too far away, but I doubt I’ll be going there.

 

7. Lehigh University: My dad really liked this school, but I’m definitely not going because we received no scholarship money from them at all.  That was probably the only breaking factor, unfortunately, since I would have considered it otherwise.  It’s just over the Pennsylvania-New Jersey border in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania so it’s super close, and my cousin is currently enrolled there, but the price it just too much.  It was nice to get accepted, but it’s too bad I won’t be attending.

 

8. Boston University: Same story as Lehigh; no scholarship money.  This was actually a last second school as well, and I’ve never visited it so I don’t have any emotional connection to it and it doesn’t feel like much of a loss.

 

Rejections:

 

1. Amherst College: This was a reach school I applied to because I wanted to apply to a liberal arts school and not regret it later, but I wouldn’t have gone anyway since it would have been all sorts of expensive.

 

2. Brown University: Aw jeez, looks like hitting it up with the interviewer about LoZ didn’t really help, haha.  Whatever, another reach school that I applied to mainly because it was an Ivy League and I wanted to try my luck.

 

3. Carnegie Mellon University: I didn’t really like this school when I visited it, but applied for the heck of it anyway.  I doubt I would have gone if I were acceptance, because they wouldn’t have given me any money.  In fact, all high ranked schools after a certain point are really stingy.

 

4. Dartmouth College: Same story as Brown, with the added aspect of it being the school my sister attended.  If I had gotten accepted, it would have been an insult to her since she’s far more ambitious than I am.

 

5. Haverford College: Same story as Amherst, except this was a last second application and I had at least visited Amherst for fun.

 

6. New York University: This was my Early Decision school.  The Stern School of Business is crazy hard to get into; it’s like an Ivy League even though the rest of NYU isn’t too impressive.  If I had applied to the College of Arts and Science, I probably would have been accepted.  I wouldn’t have gone though, since the only thing worthwhile about NYU is its business school.

 

7. University of Notre Dame: Their business school is really good, so I was really pushing my luck applying to them.  I had no demonstrated interest, which probably hurt a bit, but this was actually a last second school so a rejection doesn’t bother me at all.

 

Waitlisted:

 

1. Wake Forest University: Believe it or not, I’m really happy I was waitlisted.  I know a lot of people are waitlisted from schools and I wanted to know how it felt, hehe.  Up until that point, all I got were straight up acceptances or rejections.  If I had demonstrated interest, I might have gotten in; much like Notre Dame this was a last second school.  Their campus looks great from Google Images, but even if they contact me later saying they’ve ultimately accepted me I won’t attend.  Any school that waitlists you won’t be giving you a penny, so unless it’s your dream school it’s not worth it.

 

Aaand that’s it!  All 16 of the schools I’ve applied to, laid out nice and neat.  Phew, the college application process was crazy but it was kind of fun as well.  There weren’t any surprises; I got into literally all of my safety schools and got rejected from literally all of my reach schools.  Huh, it seems my star gazing essay canceled out my atrocious math grades sophomore and junior year then.  All in all though I think I did well.  If I consider Wake Forest a rejection, I have a 50% success rate.  I’m getting really close to making a decision, but I must ask you a question.  I know this is probably silly and irresponsible and selfish of me, but I’ll ask anyway: Which school do you think I should attend?  I’d bet my rare amiibos that you’d say something along the lines of “whatever you want/whatever you’re happy with” and “my opinion wouldn’t really mean much” but whatever, haha.  Also, as for that summer program you got into, may I ask what school that was for?  You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, but I’m curious to know.

 

Speaking of amiibo, future waves of them were announced and wave 4 was up for preorder in some places.  Oh God, to keep a long story short it’s been a mess.  All wave 4 amiibo preorders (the previously announced Wario, Pac Man, Charizard, Robin, Lucina, and Ness as well as the Nintendo Direct announced Greninja, Jigglypuff, and three Inking amiibo) sold out in literally 5-7 minutes on Target’s and Best Buy’s websites on Thursday (and yes, I’m using “literally” right).  GameStop has in-store pre-orders, but then the servers nationwide all crash.  No one can preorder anything.  People who have been waiting in line all across the country begin to freak out.  Nearly an hour later, preorders start to go through.  But then Robin and Lucina sell out in 0 minutes.  That’s right, 0 minutes.  Many people who were first in line were unable to order either of them.  This is because they had a set number in warehouses, and if you were unlucky and had poor service, people ordering at the same time elsewhere with good service ordered Robin and Lucina before you did.  To make things simple to understand, let’s assume there are 5,000 GameStops in the US.  Every store has exactly one first person in line, so 5,000 first persons in lines.  Let’s say there are 5,000 Robins and Lucinas in the warehouses.  In an ideal situation, everyone first in line gets one Robin and Lucina and they’re all happy, right?  Unfortunately, with the server crash, people came back online at different times.  Let’s say 2,500 GameStops come back online at 4:00 pm EST while the other 2,500 come back online at 4:05 pm EST.  The first people in lines at the first 2,500 GameStops get their preorder through, and in the 5 minutes the other 2,500 people are waiting the people second in line at the first GameStops order a Robin and Lucina.  Now the 4:05 first in lines order, and lo and behold: sold out.  You can imagine the salt and rage that flowed through the amiibo subreddit that day.  But wait, there’s more!  Like a nightmare that never ends, the preorder shenanigans were not over.  A Toys R Us employee announces that preorders or wave 4 were to go up at 7:00 am EST on Friday.  After the majority of people had missed out on, well, everything, they set their alarm clocks and go to sleep early, in order to not miss out a fourth time.  But then then working preorder links were leaked at 3:00 am EST.  While those well informed are sleeping peacefully, those who have for whatever reason stayed up late snag up all the preorder and within half an hour: sold out.  Salty cannot even begin to describe how bad the situation was on Friday morning when amiibo hunters woke up, credit card ready.  After the embarrassment that was the 4/2 amiibo in-store preorders, GameStop still hasn’t allowed online preorders yet.  Walmart and Amazon also haven’t made their moves.  All in all, the amiibo wars are a mess.  All I want is a Lucina amiibo, and while I’m telling myself I’ll somehow manage I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t worried or stressed about my chances.  On the bright side, Dark Pit and Palutena have been announced to be released in July and Ganondorf for September. The Marth restock has been pushed back to May instead of late April.  Just be thankful you haven’t gotten caught up in the amiibo situation; it’s so stressful once I get the ones I want I’m out.

 

My parents are rather concerned with how far away a college is, and most of the better colleges tend to be in coastal states so via indirect influence those were the only ones I’ve applied to.  CWRU is an exception though of course, haha.  For whatever reasons, counties aren’t very important in New Jersey, or at least in Edison.  If you told me to name the townships in Middlesex, I wouldn’t be able to.  If you told me to name all the counties bordering Middlesex, I wouldn’t be able to.  Just a town’s name and general things like northern, central, and southern Jersey are enough to explain where things are.  Maybe it’s because New Jersey is just significantly smaller than Michigan?  Oh woah, that’s pretty cool!  I wonder if I know your former friend?  Haha, I actually don’t really know many people in my school or even my grade (not having a Facebook doesn’t really help), so I probably wouldn’t even recognize his name if he goes to my high school.

 

Oh gosh, given how similar we are, it’s interesting how we’re so different when it comes to school subjects.  Because I have a tendency to make so many careless mistakes, math has just been feeling worse and worse as the years go one.  I actually really like analyzing texts.  There’s just something magical about finding a hidden meaning in something.  Of course, I still like English mainly because of the beauty of language.  Not many things beat a wonderfully written poem or novel.  Heh, my English teacher, after reading my Common App essay, said I should have been born in the Romantic era.  Unfortunately, they didn’t have video games and anime back then, so I’m not too sure how happy I’d be living during that time period, haha.  Hmmm, generally I’d agree that your school system is better than mine, but goodness when it comes to American history my township may have yours beat.  I don’t know what kind of history you learned over the summer and stuff, but the text book and teacher I had for APUSH were very moderate and unbiased.  The text book I had was really good, it showed both the good and the bad to everything regarding American history.  My teacher was really cool, too.  Maybe you’d like American history more if you learned it in my school?  I look at history like a story.  Learning about American history is like reading a really nice adventure book.  Sure, America isn’t perfect but that’s what makes its story so interesting.  I’d hate a story where the main character only ever wins.  Some of my favorite parts of American history are at its lowest, darkest, and most corrupt and twisted years.

 

Ohh, you think a lot like I do!  In general, I find a person’s smile and laugh as well as eyes to be their most attractive features, physically at least.  Of course, a beautiful personality beats a beautiful figure any day, but I had to judge someone based on looks alone I’d go straight for the smile, laugh, and eyes.  They say eyes are the window to the soul, so I’ve always seen the mouth as the door.  A smile is like a peak into one’s heart and a laugh is like a burst of soul escaping.  Eh, I hope that makes sense, haha.

 

I’m started to hear about a few more promposals now.  Info’s traveling slowly to me, but I imagine a lot is happening without my knowledge.  Not to mention, it would be weird for my guy friends to brag about a promposal success, especially in person.  Also, does your school have a junior prom?  Since you haven’t mentioned it, I’m guessing not.  I know my high school used to have one, but they stopped a long time ago, even before my sister was going there.  I don’t really know why.  It doesn’t seem all that bad though, since a ton of underclassmen, juniors in particular, are asked to prom by seniors and end up going anyway. 

 

I finished Steins;Gate right on time, just I had predicted, the day before you sent your response on Wednesday, haha.  I really liked it!  Time travel has been done to death, but the way it was handled was very impressive.  The characters weren’t all too great, but the execution, atmosphere, music and plot made up for it.  I must say though, the beginning of the Gate of Steiner OST sounds suspiciously similar Great Fairy’s Fountain in OoT…  I’ll definitely check out the OVA and movie when I have the time.  I actually have a separate backlog of anime OVAs and movies to watch, apart from the full shows.  When I have the time and the urge for some more Steins;Gate though, I’ll get around to them.  Also, since you’ve been busy, I guess you haven’t heard the news.  Steins;Gate is getting a sequel.  A sequel in the form of both a visual novel and anime was announced while I was in the middle of watching the series, no joke.  It’ll be called Steins;Gate 0 and will take place on the beta world line.  I’m sure you’d be super stoked to hear about this, so I wanted to let you know, haha.

 

It looks like a typed a bit too much again, eheh.  Sorry, I know most of what I’ve written just pertains to college and amiibo.  Hope it isn’t too much of a bother.  Regardless, spring break has started for you, right?  I hope you enjoy it and catch up on sleep! 

[Kenzi 146]

 

I see, it does sound like it would be fun.  Unfortunately for me, my parents only ever gave me the opportunity to travel with my immediate family.  Even though a lot of their friends have children my age, they’ve never even considered traveling together with them.  And even if they did, I don’t know those kids well enough to perhaps enjoy myself as much as I would like.  My friends who I’d love to travel with all have parents who aren’t acquainted with my parents, and my folks would never let that fly.  However, I know some seniors right now who have been planning a NYC outing, over this spring break in fact.  Haha, that’s pretty awesome I think and it makes me a bit envious.

 

Yup, even though I only watch what’s promising with a few wild cards thrown in there, most unaired anime are rather bad.  It’s a waste of time, but part of me enjoys it.  Not to mention, I don’t want to become numb to what’s good.  If I watch only good anime, then I won’t appreciate things that deserve more credit given the saturated nature of the anime industry right now.  It’s a bit of an inefficient and time consuming and risky way to maintain a status quo and a true “average”, but it’s worth it, haha.  My relatives in China all pretty much know about SnK, since it took China by storm while it was airing just as much as it caused waves in the States.  In fact, since I visited China two summers ago while SnK was still airing, one of my cousins there actually brought it up in conversation before I could.  My parents know I watch a lot of anime, and while they rag on me about it a lot they don’t really do too much about it since I’m doing fine in school. The only anime they like is Detective Conan on occasion, and Studio Ghibli stuff.  I have heard about some really chill parents who actually watch anime with their children, which is awesome.  My older sister doesn’t watch anime much, but I’ve shown her things like Death Note, Code Geass, and Fate/Zero to sort of familiarize herself with what it has to offer and I think she’s liked what she’s seen so far.  My younger brother on the other hand watches a lot of anime, maybe not four episodes a day like me but quite a bit regardless.  I used to think the 5=average system was rather harsh myself, but I’ve slowly shifted from giving out a lot of 7s and 8s to given mostly 7s to giving a lot of 6s to giving 5s.  It’s taken nearly three years, but I’m content with how I rate now.  It was a bit annoying to go through my whole list, but it’s only getting longer from here on out, so I might as well get it done, right?  Oh, and another thing, I also don’t give out 10s because I think it looks bad on MAL, haha.  When scrolling down someone’s list with 10s, the 10s stick out so much from all the other single digits and my OCD starts kicking in.

 

Geez, the way your school does things make so much sense.  It’s nearly impossible to not take phys ed in my school.  Because my school doesn’t really offer summer credit of any kind, I’m still having trouble wrapping my mind around how much freedom you guys have, heh.  I’m used to the conformity of my school now, but sometimes I’m reminded of just how stale and wasteful things are.  My friend was actually recruited, haha.  I asked him, and in his age group he’s ranked among the top ten swimmers nationwide.  If he continues to work at it, I’m fairly certain he’d end up being a pro, no joke.  I think even Princeton approached him with an offer.  Only thing is, his academics are rather subpar.  He got a 2030 on his SATs and doesn’t take very intense classes and manages straight Bs, so definitely far from your average Ivy Leaguer.  But hey, he’s a great guy to hang around with and if he becomes famous I’d be proud to have known him, haha.  Oh, the season’s already started!  How has it been going?  Do you have games over spring break as well?

 

All of my college decisions have come in now, so I’ll be listing them all with details in the spoilers, because God knows how much I’m going to end up typing…

Acceptances:

 

1. Case Western Reserve University: This was one of the schools I applied to last second.  After Early Action deadlines passed, CWRU sent me an e-mail on November 2nd saying they never got an application from me and that they would be extending the deadline for another 24 hours.  A lot of low ranked schools do this to try and get your attention, so I almost brushed it off as spam before I realized that Case Western isn’t too shabby of a school.  I asked my parents about it and they said I should apply.  CWRU was one of the few (if not only) Common App school that doesn’t have any supplemental essays, so within a few minutes I sent the app out, and I got in, despite me showing absolutely no demonstrated interest.  This is actually one of my top choices, since they’re giving me $15,000 a year and their Weatherhead School of Management seems pretty good.  They also said most of their students get a master’s degree in tandem with their bachelor’s within their four years there, and if I need a fifth year they’ll give me $20,000 to get that diploma.  Public schools don’t ever offer this, and other private schools require five years instead of letting you get it all done in four.  The only real downside to this school is its location, and it’s in Cleveland, Ohio.  It’s a ways away from home, but it’s not all that bad since it’s closer to where you are, hahah…  I still need to do more research, so I’ll be visiting the school sometime in the coming week.

 

2. University of Maryland, College Park: This public school located only a few miles from Washington, DC has impressed me so far.  They’ve given me a bit of money, and since it’s a public university it’s overall pretty cheap.  It’s location is ideal for internships and job opportunities, the campus is nice (just visited it yesterday) and it’s not too far from home.  I’ve been considering UMD for a while now, and my parents think favorably about it.  It’s definitely one of the ones at the top of my list, right up there with CWRU and Rutgers.

 

3. Rutgers University, New Brunswick: I’ve already talked about this, so I’ll keep it short.  I’ll be visiting the school again in a few days, specifically for the business program that they have.  Once I do more research on this and CWRU, I guess I’ll be choosing between the three.

 

4. Brandeis University: This is a really new school near Boston that’s trying to make a name for itself.  While I really like the campus and vibe and they did give me $12,000 per year, their business school isn’t very impressive, mainly because it’s so new.  My parents are somewhat against this school, and while I’ll keep it in mind I doubt they’ll be able to change my opinion of them when I visit them on Monday.  I just don’t feel like it’ll be a good investment, financially speaking.  It’s a pity too, because their mascot is the Judges, which is unique and honestly really cool, haha.

 

5. University of Pittsburgh: This is a public school that gave me a bit of money so it’s not that expensive, but for whatever reason I can’t seem to like the campus enough to want to attend.  Their business school is alright, but nothing that great.  It’s located, obviously, in Pittsburgh and really close to Carnegie Mellon.  I haven’t visited it in a while, but will be going back there on Wednesday, if I recall, to see if I change my mind.

 

6. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute: This school’s case is much like Pittsburgh’s.  While it doesn’t seem too bad on paper, the campus doesn’t attract me for whatever reason and the scholarship money they’re throwing at me it’s doing anything to change my mind.  They’re more famous for their engineering than their business anyway.  It’s located in Troy, NY, so it’s not too far away, but I doubt I’ll be going there.

 

7. Lehigh University: My dad really liked this school, but I’m definitely not going because we received no scholarship money from them at all.  That was probably the only breaking factor, unfortunately, since I would have considered it otherwise.  It’s just over the Pennsylvania-New Jersey border in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania so it’s super close, and my cousin is currently enrolled there, but the price it just too much.  It was nice to get accepted, but it’s too bad I won’t be attending.

 

8. Boston University: Same story as Lehigh; no scholarship money.  This was actually a last second school as well, and I’ve never visited it so I don’t have any emotional connection to it and it doesn’t feel like much of a loss.

 

Rejections:

 

1. Amherst College: This was a reach school I applied to because I wanted to apply to a liberal arts school and not regret it later, but I wouldn’t have gone anyway since it would have been all sorts of expensive.

 

2. Brown University: Aw jeez, looks like hitting it up with the interviewer about LoZ didn’t really help, haha.  Whatever, another reach school that I applied to mainly because it was an Ivy League and I wanted to try my luck.

 

3. Carnegie Mellon University: I didn’t really like this school when I visited it, but applied for the heck of it anyway.  I doubt I would have gone if I were acceptance, because they wouldn’t have given me any money.  In fact, all high ranked schools after a certain point are really stingy.

 

4. Dartmouth College: Same story as Brown, with the added aspect of it being the school my sister attended.  If I had gotten accepted, it would have been an insult to her since she’s far more ambitious than I am.

 

5. Haverford College: Same story as Amherst, except this was a last second application and I had at least visited Amherst for fun.

 

6. New York University: This was my Early Decision school.  The Stern School of Business is crazy hard to get into; it’s like an Ivy League even though the rest of NYU isn’t too impressive.  If I had applied to the College of Arts and Science, I probably would have been accepted.  I wouldn’t have gone though, since the only thing worthwhile about NYU is its business school.

 

7. University of Notre Dame: Their business school is really good, so I was really pushing my luck applying to them.  I had no demonstrated interest, which probably hurt a bit, but this was actually a last second school so a rejection doesn’t bother me at all.

 

Waitlisted:

 

1. Wake Forest University: Believe it or not, I’m really happy I was waitlisted.  I know a lot of people are waitlisted from schools and I wanted to know how it felt, hehe.  Up until that point, all I got were straight up acceptances or rejections.  If I had demonstrated interest, I might have gotten in; much like Notre Dame this was a last second school.  Their campus looks great from Google Images, but even if they contact me later saying they’ve ultimately accepted me I won’t attend.  Any school that waitlists you won’t be giving you a penny, so unless it’s your dream school it’s not worth it.

 

Aaand that’s it!  All 16 of the schools I’ve applied to, laid out nice and neat.  Phew, the college application process was crazy but it was kind of fun as well.  There weren’t any surprises; I got into literally all of my safety schools and got rejected from literally all of my reach schools.  Huh, it seems my star gazing essay canceled out my atrocious math grades sophomore and junior year then.  All in all though I think I did well.  If I consider Wake Forest a rejection, I have a 50% success rate.  I’m getting really close to making a decision, but I must ask you a question.  I know this is probably silly and irresponsible and selfish of me, but I’ll ask anyway: Which school do you think I should attend?  I’d bet my rare amiibos that you’d say something along the lines of “whatever you want/whatever you’re happy with” and “my opinion wouldn’t really mean much” but whatever, haha.  Also, as for that summer program you got into, may I ask what school that was for?  You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, but I’m curious to know.

 

Speaking of amiibo, future waves of them were announced and wave 4 was up for preorder in some places.  Oh God, to keep a long story short it’s been a mess.  All wave 4 amiibo preorders (the previously announced Wario, Pac Man, Charizard, Robin, Lucina, and Ness as well as the Nintendo Direct announced Greninja, Jigglypuff, and three Inking amiibo) sold out in literally 5-7 minutes on Target’s and Best Buy’s websites on Thursday (and yes, I’m using “literally” right).  GameStop has in-store pre-orders, but then the servers nationwide all crash.  No one can preorder anything.  People who have been waiting in line all across the country begin to freak out.  Nearly an hour later, preorders start to go through.  But then Robin and Lucina sell out in 0 minutes.  That’s right, 0 minutes.  Many people who were first in line were unable to order either of them.  This is because they had a set number in warehouses, and if you were unlucky and had poor service, people ordering at the same time elsewhere with good service ordered Robin and Lucina before you did.  To make things simple to understand, let’s assume there are 5,000 GameStops in the US.  Every store has exactly one first person in line, so 5,000 first persons in lines.  Let’s say there are 5,000 Robins and Lucinas in the warehouses.  In an ideal situation, everyone first in line gets one Robin and Lucina and they’re all happy, right?  Unfortunately, with the server crash, people came back online at different times.  Let’s say 2,500 GameStops come back online at 4:00 pm EST while the other 2,500 come back online at 4:05 pm EST.  The first people in lines at the first 2,500 GameStops get their preorder through, and in the 5 minutes the other 2,500 people are waiting the people second in line at the first GameStops order a Robin and Lucina.  Now the 4:05 first in lines order, and lo and behold: sold out.  You can imagine the salt and rage that flowed through the amiibo subreddit that day.  But wait, there’s more!  Like a nightmare that never ends, the preorder shenanigans were not over.  A Toys R Us employee announces that preorders or wave 4 were to go up at 7:00 am EST on Friday.  After the majority of people had missed out on, well, everything, they set their alarm clocks and go to sleep early, in order to not miss out a fourth time.  But then then working preorder links were leaked at 3:00 am EST.  While those well informed are sleeping peacefully, those who have for whatever reason stayed up late snag up all the preorder and within half an hour: sold out.  Salty cannot even begin to describe how bad the situation was on Friday morning when amiibo hunters woke up, credit card ready.  After the embarrassment that was the 4/2 amiibo in-store preorders, GameStop still hasn’t allowed online preorders yet.  Walmart and Amazon also haven’t made their moves.  All in all, the amiibo wars are a mess.  All I want is a Lucina amiibo, and while I’m telling myself I’ll somehow manage I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t worried or stressed about my chances.  On the bright side, Dark Pit and Palutena have been announced to be released in July and Ganondorf for September. The Marth restock has been pushed back to May instead of late April.  Just be thankful you haven’t gotten caught up in the amiibo situation; it’s so stressful once I get the ones I want I’m out.

 

My parents are rather concerned with how far away a college is, and most of the better colleges tend to be in coastal states so via indirect influence those were the only ones I’ve applied to.  CWRU is an exception though of course, haha.  For whatever reasons, counties aren’t very important in New Jersey, or at least in Edison.  If you told me to name the townships in Middlesex, I wouldn’t be able to.  If you told me to name all the counties bordering Middlesex, I wouldn’t be able to.  Just a town’s name and general things like northern, central, and southern Jersey are enough to explain where things are.  Maybe it’s because New Jersey is just significantly smaller than Michigan?  Oh woah, that’s pretty cool!  I wonder if I know your former friend?  Haha, I actually don’t really know many people in my school or even my grade (not having a Facebook doesn’t really help), so I probably wouldn’t even recognize his name if he goes to my high school.

 

Oh gosh, given how similar we are, it’s interesting how we’re so different when it comes to school subjects.  Because I have a tendency to make so many careless mistakes, math has just been feeling worse and worse as the years go one.  I actually really like analyzing texts.  There’s just something magical about finding a hidden meaning in something.  Of course, I still like English mainly because of the beauty of language.  Not many things beat a wonderfully written poem or novel.  Heh, my English teacher, after reading my Common App essay, said I should have been born in the Romantic era.  Unfortunately, they didn’t have video games and anime back then, so I’m not too sure how happy I’d be living during that time period, haha.  Hmmm, generally I’d agree that your school system is better than mine, but goodness when it comes to American history my township may have yours beat.  I don’t know what kind of history you learned over the summer and stuff, but the text book and teacher I had for APUSH were very moderate and unbiased.  The text book I had was really good, it showed both the good and the bad to everything regarding American history.  My teacher was really cool, too.  Maybe you’d like American history more if you learned it in my school?  I look at history like a story.  Learning about American history is like reading a really nice adventure book.  Sure, America isn’t perfect but that’s what makes its story so interesting.  I’d hate a story where the main character only ever wins.  Some of my favorite parts of American history are at its lowest, darkest, and most corrupt and twisted years.

 

Ohh, you think a lot like I do!  In general, I find a person’s smile and laugh as well as eyes to be their most attractive features, physically at least.  Of course, a beautiful personality beats a beautiful figure any day, but I had to judge someone based on looks alone I’d go straight for the smile, laugh, and eyes.  They say eyes are the window to the soul, so I’ve always seen the mouth as the door.  A smile is like a peak into one’s heart and a laugh is like a burst of soul escaping.  Eh, I hope that makes sense, haha.

 

I’m started to hear about a few more promposals now.  Info’s traveling slowly to me, but I imagine a lot is happening without my knowledge.  Not to mention, it would be weird for my guy friends to brag about a promposal success, especially in person.  Also, does your school have a junior prom?  Since you haven’t mentioned it, I’m guessing not.  I know my high school used to have one, but they stopped a long time ago, even before my sister was going there.  I don’t really know why.  It doesn’t seem all that bad though, since a ton of underclassmen, juniors in particular, are asked to prom by seniors and end up going anyway. 

 

I finished Steins;Gate right on time, just I had predicted, the day before you sent your response on Wednesday, haha.  I really liked it!  Time travel has been done to death, but the way it was handled was very impressive.  The characters weren’t all too great, but the execution, atmosphere, music and plot made up for it.  I must say though, the beginning of the Gate of Steiner OST sounds suspiciously similar Great Fairy’s Fountain in OoT…  I’ll definitely check out the OVA and movie when I have the time.  I actually have a separate backlog of anime OVAs and movies to watch, apart from the full shows.  When I have the time and the urge for some more Steins;Gate though, I’ll get around to them.  Also, since you’ve been busy, I guess you haven’t heard the news.  Steins;Gate is getting a sequel.  A sequel in the form of both a visual novel and anime was announced while I was in the middle of watching the series, no joke.  It’ll be called Steins;Gate 0 and will take place on the beta world line.  I’m sure you’d be super stoked to hear about this, so I wanted to let you know, haha.

 

It looks like a typed a bit too much again, eheh.  Sorry, I know most of what I’ve written just pertains to college and amiibo.  Hope it isn’t too much of a bother.  Regardless, spring break has started for you, right?  I hope you enjoy it and catch up on sleep! 

 

It’s not much, but I wanted to post this a little early in time for your birthday, heh.

 

I’m really close to the friends my parents are familiar with—same with my sister. My parents can be pretty social people if you put them in any environment that has Chinese people so it’s easy for me to introduce them to my Chinese friends. Even if your parents decided to travel with people you don’t know too well, you could always make friends with them, haha. One of our family trips had only my sister’s friends and the only person who was closest to my age was my sister’s best friend’s brother. Her other friends still accepted me into their group so I still had fun regardless. Just having anyone to talk to around your age is a blast! Heck, sometimes I’d have small talk with random strangers around my age while waiting in line for something, haha. Maybe introduce some of your friends to your parents, or maybe invite them over to your place sometime. Have their parents chat with yours for a while, and who knows, maybe they’ll become good friends! 

 

Gosh, I don’t think I’d be able to handle being bogged down by awful anime. I’ve encountered a few, and needless to say, I almost wanted to pull my eye sockets out. I could write an essay’s worth of complaints about these anime because they were just awful. Just… awful. However, a lot of the anime that I’ve encountered turned out to be great sources of entertainment for me despite them being the vast majority of what I’ve watched. So I’d have to disagree with your statement of becoming numb to what’s good--I haven’t gotten sick of watching good anime yet, haha. Aw geez, I haven’t visited China since the summer after 7th grade, so I wasn’t able to witness the SnK hype. If my parents found out how much time I “waste” on the internet (including watching anime), they’d scold me by listing a bunch of other things that’d be much more “worthwhile”. At the moment, they trust me and usually don’t question me much, so I guess I must be doing a decent job hiding it all. Haha, my parents have never heard of Detective Conan or Studio Ghibli. My sister doesn’t watch anime anymore, though one of her friends managed to persuade her to watch SnK. I tried to get her to watch Steins;Gate, but why trust an opinion of a younger sibling, haha. I’m still going to keep my ratings from 6 through 9. Everything else below can be considered trash and the number rating becomes arbitrary afterwards. I’ll admit that it’s not the best way to rate shows, but it’s worked for me so far, lol. I’ve never been OCD about 10s sticking out too much since the double digits do make scrolling through/finding potential recommendations easier, haha.

 

Honestly, summer school was the only reason I’m able to take the classes I’m taking right now. If it weren’t for summer school, I’d be stuck taking all my history/social studies classes during the school year along with gym and health. To be frank, those classes would’ve taken up way too much space in my schedule and I would have been bored out of my mind during the school year. I’m actually quite surprised that your school hasn’t adopted some form of summer credit yet. And likewise, I’m having trouble wrapping my mind around the lack of freedom you guys have, haha. Are you guys allowed to take online classes then? Being a nationally ranked swimmer is pretty insane. I guess it’s self-explanatory considering the offers from colleges he got, lol. We also have private schools around here that offer a free ride if your athletic record is really good, but it’s not nearly as impressive as getting approached by Ivy Leagues though, haha. The season’s been pretty good so far, except that I got chewed out by the coach for being late to one of our practices, ehehe… I don’t think he’s planning to have us play any matches over spring break, but rather, use the time to make room for more practices. I also broke my racquet strings not too long ago, so I’m pretty pleased about that, haha.

 

Oh my gosh, wow. You’re so open about everything, I’m really shocked, haha. I don’t think I’d ever have the guts to openly state all my acceptances or rejections, lol. You applied to many of the same colleges my sister applied to, and that also took me by surprise. You’re similar to my sister a lot more than I originally thought. Well, it could have been a coincidence, but still, heh. Hmm, I don’t think I have much say in this since I’m only a junior and since I haven’t visited many colleges yet. In all honesty, I think you should base your decisions off of what impressions those colleges give you when you visit them. You’re going to spend at least four years of your life there (unless you transfer), so you’re going to want to take advantage of everything the school has to offer. It’s not much, but I really don’t have other “advice” to give you since I’m still a bit new to the process, haha. It’s great how you have so many choices to choose from though! It might be harder to narrow it down, but having variety is always nice! Oh, and the summer program I applied to was for the University of Michigan—shouldn’t be too shocking, lol.

 

Geezus, I never thought that collecting amiibos was that competitive. 0 minutes? Gosh, I just can’t wrap my head around this, haha. And wow, whoever released those preorder links was really careless. Geez, I can only imagine how much rage that must’ve occurred in the amiibo subreddit. I mean, I’d probably be pretty salty about it. My F5 key would probably need a replacement if I was caught up in all this amiibo stress. Nah, that’d be an understatement. My entire laptop would probably need to be replaced. Walking into this amiibo situation would be like walking into a war zone. I’m just… I have no words, ahaha……….. 

 

My parents aren’t too concerned about how far away a college is. They’re much more focused on the tuition, lol. I suppose it is true that out of state colleges tend to have higher tuitions, but if I manage to get scholarship money, my parents would probably be okay with it. Our county name is mentioned often in stuff like newspapers and when referring to schools and event locations. Like “Oakland County schools are…” If you asked me to name the townships or surrounding counties, I probably wouldn’t be able to do it either, haha. I mentioned before that I barely remember this old friend. I know his first name is Brandon, but I can’t even remember what his last name was. He’s younger than me, so he’s definitely an underclassman. If it helps, I think he was uncharacteristically good at math, haha. 

 

I usually don’t let my silly mistakes in math bog me down, though I’ll admit that they have made the class a bit more stressful. I especially love a geometry problem where there are multiple ways to approach it, and I can use whatever creative method I want to solve it. Math is so much fun once you get the hang of it, and it makes me so happy knowing that I’ve done something correctly. The end result, the reward, makes it all worthwhile. You know those problems that you can visualize or can make sense of? Those are the best! Like finding volumes of solids using the washer or disk method—all you have to do is imagine the solid being composed of an infinite amount of those disks or rings of varying sizes. Just being able to visualize what’s happening makes solving those problems so much fun, so much easier, so much more meaningful. It was arguably one of my favorite units in calc so far, haha. Whoops, strayed off too much again, gomen, gomen. Likewise, I also enjoy analyzing texts. But there comes a point when it turns into overkill. Suddenly, I find myself digging through essays trying to decipher author’s purpose when I’d much rather enjoy the piece for what it is. Other times, I’m off-mark when analyzing something even though I have sufficient evidence that proves my point (or at least I think I do). English can sometimes become a jumbled mess for me. It certainly has helped change the way I watch movies or read books in a way that helps me appreciate them more, but gosh, this overanalyzing stuff can be a huge turn-off for me. Sometimes, I swear that my English teacher can write a rhetorical analysis essay on a dictionary definition of buttock. Heck, I could probably bs an essay by analyzing how a deformed carrot symbolizes racism. But back on topic, you always struck me as the kind of person who’d enjoy romanticism—especially given how much you enjoy nature. Maybe even transcendentalism, lol. I agree with the ideas of romanticism, transcendentalism, and dark romanticism, though it feels a bit conflicting to say the least, haha. Ah, yes, when I was talking about the biased American history textbooks we had, it was for regular summer school American history. I heard that there’s a huge difference between what regular American history taught versus what APUSH taught in that APUSH is a lot less biased. I still wasn’t willing to take my chances since history was never a subject that resonated with me. Some of my favorite parts of history deal with the downfalls of empires and the like, and how/why it happened. The American history we were taught barely touched on the depression and kinda glazed over the events dealing with conflicts.

 

Ahaha, I’m glad we’ve found another subject we see eye to eye on! I couldn’t care less about someone’s figure since it’s the person’s personality that stands out to me the most. Genetics is a lottery and it’s unfair to judge someone based on what they have no control over, though I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t have my fair share of thinking “mother nature dun you good” moments. If you have good genetics, embrace them, haha. Facial features give away a lot about a person, but I’ve never been able to put it into words as well as you just did.

 

Promposals spread like wildfire around here. “Oh, hey, did you hear _____ just got asked??” or “omg, did you hear what _____ did for his promposal??” It’s not hard for me to get all “caught up” even with a Facebook, lol. Most guys tend to shy away when they’re teased about their promposal, so I can imagine that they wouldn’t be comfortable bragging about it, haha. Nope, our school doesn’t have a junior prom, and I didn’t even know that they existed until I read your response. There are a ton of underclassmen who get asked every year, though it’s probably never enough to generate a junior prom, lol.

 

I’m really glad that you enjoyed Steins;Gate! Haha yeah, Steins;Gate is one of the few shows that manages not to completely screw up the time travel concept, which I was quite pleased about. Yeah, the banana goo and the vegetable changing someone’s gender bothered me a bit, but the anime was still really well thought out. The only other thing that bothered me is that the subject of time travel is very, very delicate. A simple event that was triggered in the past (even something as simple as being there), can cause an immeasurable number of kinds of events following it—the butterfly effect. In other words, Okabe shouldn’t have been able to reverse the damage he did that easily. In fact, considering the degree of change he caused to the timelines, he shouldn’t have been able to fix it at all. But of course, Steins;Gate is one of my favorite anime, and because time travel is such a touchy concept, it’s something I can overlook—especially since it was needed to progress the plot. Holy hell, Gate of Steiner sounds… way too similar to Great Fairy’s Fountain. And Gate of Steiner was one of my favorite OSTs too :c Also…. what what what what Steins;Gate is getting a sequel whaaaaaaattt. Damn right I’m stoked about this now. You should have seen me when I first discovered that a movie was coming out a while ago, ahahaha. I just watched the trailer and ermahgerd. Ahhhhhhhhh sdflkdsfdsklhsdf. What a beautiful way to start spring break! Thank you informing me about this! Akazora, you are a god.

 

Ahaha, it's not a bother at all! As always, I love reading what you have to say. Yup, yup, I’ve been averaging ~10 hours of sleep ever since spring break started. I’ve never felt better, haha. Reminds me of the time back in middle school when I’d force myself up early because I thought sleep was a waste of time. Nope, never again. Oh, and thank you once again for allowing my previous response to be a little late! If you ever find yourself too busy to respond, please don’t hesitate to take a break as well!

[Akazora 293]

It’s not much, but I wanted to post this a little early in time for your birthday, heh.

 

I’m really close to the friends my parents are familiar with—same with my sister. My parents can be pretty social people if you put them in any environment that has Chinese people so it’s easy for me to introduce them to my Chinese friends. Even if your parents decided to travel with people you don’t know too well, you could always make friends with them, haha. One of our family trips had only my sister’s friends and the only person who was closest to my age was my sister’s best friend’s brother. Her other friends still accepted me into their group so I still had fun regardless. Just having anyone to talk to around your age is a blast! Heck, sometimes I’d have small talk with random strangers around my age while waiting in line for something, haha. Maybe introduce some of your friends to your parents, or maybe invite them over to your place sometime. Have their parents chat with yours for a while, and who knows, maybe they’ll become good friends! 

 

Gosh, I don’t think I’d be able to handle being bogged down by awful anime. I’ve encountered a few, and needless to say, I almost wanted to pull my eye sockets out. I could write an essay’s worth of complaints about these anime because they were just awful. Just… awful. However, a lot of the anime that I’ve encountered turned out to be great sources of entertainment for me despite them being the vast majority of what I’ve watched. So I’d have to disagree with your statement of becoming numb to what’s good--I haven’t gotten sick of watching good anime yet, haha. Aw geez, I haven’t visited China since the summer after 7th grade, so I wasn’t able to witness the SnK hype. If my parents found out how much time I “waste” on the internet (including watching anime), they’d scold me by listing a bunch of other things that’d be much more “worthwhile”. At the moment, they trust me and usually don’t question me much, so I guess I must be doing a decent job hiding it all. Haha, my parents have never heard of Detective Conan or Studio Ghibli. My sister doesn’t watch anime anymore, though one of her friends managed to persuade her to watch SnK. I tried to get her to watch Steins;Gate, but why trust an opinion of a younger sibling, haha. I’m still going to keep my ratings from 6 through 9. Everything else below can be considered trash and the number rating becomes arbitrary afterwards. I’ll admit that it’s not the best way to rate shows, but it’s worked for me so far, lol. I’ve never been OCD about 10s sticking out too much since the double digits do make scrolling through/finding potential recommendations easier, haha.

 

Honestly, summer school was the only reason I’m able to take the classes I’m taking right now. If it weren’t for summer school, I’d be stuck taking all my history/social studies classes during the school year along with gym and health. To be frank, those classes would’ve taken up way too much space in my schedule and I would have been bored out of my mind during the school year. I’m actually quite surprised that your school hasn’t adopted some form of summer credit yet. And likewise, I’m having trouble wrapping my mind around the lack of freedom you guys have, haha. Are you guys allowed to take online classes then? Being a nationally ranked swimmer is pretty insane. I guess it’s self-explanatory considering the offers from colleges he got, lol. We also have private schools around here that offer a free ride if your athletic record is really good, but it’s not nearly as impressive as getting approached by Ivy Leagues though, haha. The season’s been pretty good so far, except that I got chewed out by the coach for being late to one of our practices, ehehe… I don’t think he’s planning to have us play any matches over spring break, but rather, use the time to make room for more practices. I also broke my racquet strings not too long ago, so I’m pretty pleased about that, haha.

 

Oh my gosh, wow. You’re so open about everything, I’m really shocked, haha. I don’t think I’d ever have the guts to openly state all my acceptances or rejections, lol. You applied to many of the same colleges my sister applied to, and that also took me by surprise. You’re similar to my sister a lot more than I originally thought. Well, it could have been a coincidence, but still, heh. Hmm, I don’t think I have much say in this since I’m only a junior and since I haven’t visited many colleges yet. In all honesty, I think you should base your decisions off of what impressions those colleges give you when you visit them. You’re going to spend at least four years of your life there (unless you transfer), so you’re going to want to take advantage of everything the school has to offer. It’s not much, but I really don’t have other “advice” to give you since I’m still a bit new to the process, haha. It’s great how you have so many choices to choose from though! It might be harder to narrow it down, but having variety is always nice! Oh, and the summer program I applied to was for the University of Michigan—shouldn’t be too shocking, lol.

 

Geezus, I never thought that collecting amiibos was that competitive. 0 minutes? Gosh, I just can’t wrap my head around this, haha. And wow, whoever released those preorder links was really careless. Geez, I can only imagine how much rage that must’ve occurred in the amiibo subreddit. I mean, I’d probably be pretty salty about it. My F5 key would probably need a replacement if I was caught up in all this amiibo stress. Nah, that’d be an understatement. My entire laptop would probably need to be replaced. Walking into this amiibo situation would be like walking into a war zone. I’m just… I have no words, ahaha……….. 

 

My parents aren’t too concerned about how far away a college is. They’re much more focused on the tuition, lol. I suppose it is true that out of state colleges tend to have higher tuitions, but if I manage to get scholarship money, my parents would probably be okay with it. Our county name is mentioned often in stuff like newspapers and when referring to schools and event locations. Like “Oakland County schools are…” If you asked me to name the townships or surrounding counties, I probably wouldn’t be able to do it either, haha. I mentioned before that I barely remember this old friend. I know his first name is Brandon, but I can’t even remember what his last name was. He’s younger than me, so he’s definitely an underclassman. If it helps, I think he was uncharacteristically good at math, haha. 

 

I usually don’t let my silly mistakes in math bog me down, though I’ll admit that they have made the class a bit more stressful. I especially love a geometry problem where there are multiple ways to approach it, and I can use whatever creative method I want to solve it. Math is so much fun once you get the hang of it, and it makes me so happy knowing that I’ve done something correctly. The end result, the reward, makes it all worthwhile. You know those problems that you can visualize or can make sense of? Those are the best! Like finding volumes of solids using the washer or disk method—all you have to do is imagine the solid being composed of an infinite amount of those disks or rings of varying sizes. Just being able to visualize what’s happening makes solving those problems so much fun, so much easier, so much more meaningful. It was arguably one of my favorite units in calc so far, haha. Whoops, strayed off too much again, gomen, gomen. Likewise, I also enjoy analyzing texts. But there comes a point when it turns into overkill. Suddenly, I find myself digging through essays trying to decipher author’s purpose when I’d much rather enjoy the piece for what it is. Other times, I’m off-mark when analyzing something even though I have sufficient evidence that proves my point (or at least I think I do). English can sometimes become a jumbled mess for me. It certainly has helped change the way I watch movies or read books in a way that helps me appreciate them more, but gosh, this overanalyzing stuff can be a huge turn-off for me. Sometimes, I swear that my English teacher can write a rhetorical analysis essay on a dictionary definition of buttock. Heck, I could probably bs an essay by analyzing how a deformed carrot symbolizes racism. But back on topic, you always struck me as the kind of person who’d enjoy romanticism—especially given how much you enjoy nature. Maybe even transcendentalism, lol. I agree with the ideas of romanticism, transcendentalism, and dark romanticism, though it feels a bit conflicting to say the least, haha. Ah, yes, when I was talking about the biased American history textbooks we had, it was for regular summer school American history. I heard that there’s a huge difference between what regular American history taught versus what APUSH taught in that APUSH is a lot less biased. I still wasn’t willing to take my chances since history was never a subject that resonated with me. Some of my favorite parts of history deal with the downfalls of empires and the like, and how/why it happened. The American history we were taught barely touched on the depression and kinda glazed over the events dealing with conflicts.

 

Ahaha, I’m glad we’ve found another subject we see eye to eye on! I couldn’t care less about someone’s figure since it’s the person’s personality that stands out to me the most. Genetics is a lottery and it’s unfair to judge someone based on what they have no control over, though I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t have my fair share of thinking “mother nature dun you good” moments. If you have good genetics, embrace them, haha. Facial features give away a lot about a person, but I’ve never been able to put it into words as well as you just did.

 

Promposals spread like wildfire around here. “Oh, hey, did you hear _____ just got asked??” or “omg, did you hear what _____ did for his promposal??” It’s not hard for me to get all “caught up” even with a Facebook, lol. Most guys tend to shy away when they’re teased about their promposal, so I can imagine that they wouldn’t be comfortable bragging about it, haha. Nope, our school doesn’t have a junior prom, and I didn’t even know that they existed until I read your response. There are a ton of underclassmen who get asked every year, though it’s probably never enough to generate a junior prom, lol.

 

I’m really glad that you enjoyed Steins;Gate! Haha yeah, Steins;Gate is one of the few shows that manages not to completely screw up the time travel concept, which I was quite pleased about. Yeah, the banana goo and the vegetable changing someone’s gender bothered me a bit, but the anime was still really well thought out. The only other thing that bothered me is that the subject of time travel is very, very delicate. A simple event that was triggered in the past (even something as simple as being there), can cause an immeasurable number of kinds of events following it—the butterfly effect. In other words, Okabe shouldn’t have been able to reverse the damage he did that easily. In fact, considering the degree of change he caused to the timelines, he shouldn’t have been able to fix it at all. But of course, Steins;Gate is one of my favorite anime, and because time travel is such a touchy concept, it’s something I can overlook—especially since it was needed to progress the plot. Holy hell, Gate of Steiner sounds… way too similar to Great Fairy’s Fountain. And Gate of Steiner was one of my favorite OSTs too :c Also…. what what what what Steins;Gate is getting a sequel whaaaaaaattt. Damn right I’m stoked about this now. You should have seen me when I first discovered that a movie was coming out a while ago, ahahaha. I just watched the trailer and ermahgerd. Ahhhhhhhhh sdflkdsfdsklhsdf. What a beautiful way to start spring break! Thank you informing me about this! Akazora, you are a god.

 

Ahaha, it's not a bother at all! As always, I love reading what you have to say. Yup, yup, I’ve been averaging ~10 hours of sleep ever since spring break started. I’ve never felt better, haha. Reminds me of the time back in middle school when I’d force myself up early because I thought sleep was a waste of time. Nope, never again. Oh, and thank you once again for allowing my previous response to be a little late! If you ever find yourself too busy to respond, please don’t hesitate to take a break as well!

(Phew, posted this just in time for it to still be a Saturday, ehehe...)

 

Haha, thanks for the advice!  It’s a shame I won’t really be able to put it into practice since I’m going off to college in a few months and my high school life is winding down.  It’s a bit too late to get my parents acquainted with my friends’ parents, and it’s not like we’re planning any family outing any time soon.  Well no, that’s a bit of a lie, since I think my parents may be planning one last trip down to Orlando.  My sister works for Disney in LA, so she gets free tickets and she’s been giving them out to her friends to let them have some fun at Disney Land, but since I’m graduating and becoming a “grown up” she felt it would be fitting to take some time off from work and get the immediate family together to visit Disney World for old times’ sake.  After all, the older we get the harder it’s going to be for the family to find time to spend together.  Anyway, before I stray off topic, it’s interesting how you strike up a conversation with strangers when you’re waiting in line for things.  I think I’m a bit too self-conscious to do that, eheh.  You’re a really friendly person, and that’s a very nice thing for you to do.

 

Well, I suppose you’re right.  I don’t think I’m numb to what’s good and I don’t think it has anything to do with me watching a lot of bad anime with the good.  Anime as a whole is awesome, even though it can sometimes be lacking.  Gosh, though with that being said, there’s not much of an argument for watching an anime that hasn’t finished yet or hasn’t had many episodes out.  I guess old habits die hard after all.  It may be a time consuming habit, but I’ll be sticking with it.  If anything, it gives me a sense of comfort and helps me pace what I watch.  The SnK hype was pretty awesome, but China was going through record temperatures that summer.  Temps averaged at 90+ degrees F and very often went well over 100.  I’m fairly certain it would have been a lot more comfortable back in the States.

 

My school does kind of have a form of summer credit, but it’s a really petty system that only allows you to “skip” a few levels.  Like, if you’d otherwise be stuck in a level 1 class, taking a supplemental summer course would allow you to take the AP version instead.  You can’t use it to break the ceiling that they give you, so since it’s impossible for anyone to take AP Calc as a sophomore under any circumstances, regardless of how proficient you are in math you’re going to have to wait until at least junior year, usually senior year.  There are online courses offered at the local community college, but you really get nothing from it.  Maybe a digital “congratulations” and a pat on the back or something.  Nothing that happens over the summer ever counts as true credit, bleh.  It’s fine though, I’ve gotten used to it.  It’s not like I’d be able to skip anything anyway, since I’m terrible at the sciences and math and wouldn’t be able to jump ahead very far and I like history enough to want to take a full course.  I only really dislike gym and health, which have been almost complete wastes of my time.  Oh geez, was it a morning practice over the weekend or something?  I have so much trouble getting up in the morning, that it’s always a struggle attending things on time before lunch.  Don’t let it get to you, there’s nothing wrong with being fashionably late.  Is it like, a good thing to break your racket strings?  Does it mean you’ve be hitting the balls hard and playing a lot or something?  I’d think it would be kind of annoying since you’d have to get new strings or maybe even a whole new racket.  And what if you get emotionally attached to a set of strings or something, and then you just off and break them?  Maybe I’m overthinking this.  Forgive me for being so unknowledgeable about tennis; my sister played it back in high school and I have actually a lot of friends who play as well, but I don’t go to any of their games and I don’t follow it professionally so I only know as much as gym class teaches, eheheh.

 

Yup, as I mentioned earlier, I’m open and honest about myself to a fault.  Well, I don’t have any reason not to trust you, but I’m putting a little more faith in the rest of DCW and the Interwebs than maybe I should, but whatever.  Kirsch is the only one who stalks this thread I think, and even now she’s been relatively quiet.  Geez, am I really that similar to your sister?  Which schools did she apply to that I did likewise?  She applied to schools before you guys moved to Troy right?  I feel like some of my schools are ones only people in the NYC area would apply to, based on travel distance.  In fact, where did she end up going to college?  Also, how old is she?  Is she still an undergrad or has she already graduated and have a job?  Sorry for all the questions, I actually only just realized I don’t know as much about your sister as I thought I did.  And you keep on saying we’re similar, but ehhh anime is my lifeblood and she doesn’t have any interest in that anymore, soo…  Anyway, I finally got around to visiting Case Western, and as far away as it is I really like the school.  The campus size is just right and this integrated study program that the Weatherhead School of Management has is really awesome.  I mentioned it before, but it’s that 4-year program where you can get your bachelors in accounting as well as your masters in accountancy all in 8 semesters.  It’s really efficient and it’s also super cheap, or at least as cheap as private schools can get.  For your fourth year, you get scholarships from both the undergraduate school as well as the graduate school, since it’s a joint program, so my last two semesters will really cheap.  The academics aren’t the only thing that caught my attention.  For first year students, you choose a residential college to be a part of.  There are four houses, Harry Potter style: Cedar, Juniper, Magnolia, and Mistletoe.  Each house has its own emblem and are focused on certain aspects of learning.  Cedar is “growth through the arts”, Juniper is “knowledge through multiculturalism”, Magnolia is “engagement through sustainability”, and Mistletoe is “leadership through service”.  You room in a dorm associated with that house for your first year (you have more freedom to room with whomever you like following years of course) in order to help freshmen establish themselves and be part of a closer community.  Each house hosts events and whatnot, so it’s pretty neat.  I’d probably join Juniper, because I guess anime falls under multiculturalism.  Speaking of which, Case Western has a student run mini anime convention on campus once every semester called Case Con.  They apparently gather together and just binge watch all kinds of anime and play a ton of video games.  I was eating in their dining hall and saw an ad on the table.  It’s run by the Japanese Culture Society and the Anime Club together.  That there exists an anime club wasn’t a make or break factor naturally, and if a school didn’t already have one I would have founded one myself, haha.  It was just nice to see how well established the one in CWRU was, is all.  Maybe it’s because they have a large number of international students?  There were a lot of Asians, and I heard a ton of Mandarin thrown around campus.  Apart from that, the overall vibe of the whole school is awesome.  Just small things, like the simple colors and the way things are laid out.  In fact, the campus layout is so nice, if I had to make a university myself I’d have made it that very same way.  A north and south residential area with main dining halls at the center of each, and the academic buildings as well as other places to catch a bite sandwiched in between.  To me, it just makes so much sense, haha.  The athletics aren’t too crazy or hyped like in bigger public schools, which I kind of like, though the city of Cleveland offers three pro teams which I can always root for if I’m in the mood for sports.  It’s only a few miles from downtown Cleveland, and while I haven’t yet visited the city I’m sure it’s nice.  Also, the Weatherhead School of Managemnt's building, the Peter B. Lewis building, is really awesome.  On the outside, it looks like a perfectly normal brick building with cancerous metal things growing out of it, morphing the walls and windows.  The inside is just as wacky.  Apparently, there are no right angles in that building or something.  The walls and ceiling bend and twist and the whole thing is a maze.  There is no symmetry and it's very easy to get lost.  Stairs lead from the first floor directly to the third floor, small dimly lit hallways lead to professors' offices while large well lit hallways lead to dead ends.  It was all kinds of fun exploring and needs to be experienced to be believed, haha.  The only thing that kind of bothers me is the amount of clouds in the area.  I didn’t realize how often the Great Lakes area is covered by clouds year round.  Is it like that in Troy?  Heh, I’ve never liked the sun that much so I don’t mind, but similarly I guess I won’t be able to do any stargazing for a while, which is a bummer.  I wouldn’t really call Case my dream school or say I’ve fallen in love with it, since those are rather strong words and I’m not sure if I’m ready for that kind of commitment, haha, but I definitely like it a lot.  My mom is actually rather against it (it wouldn’t be a big or important decision without my mom disagreeing with me after all) just because it’s so far away.  She says there are so many job opportunities here in New Jersey with our proximity to NYC and that the cost and time investment would be straining.  She also says that Cleveland is in the middle of nowhere and that the Midwest in general is empty, haha.  I won’t deny that it is a bit far from home, but I don’t think I’ll mind.  My mom still wants me to go to Rutgers or at least Maryland.  Phew, anyway, I didn’t mean to ramble, and I’m not sure how much of that meant anything to you.  Ohh, UMich huh?  That’s a really good school, I’m really glad you have an opportunity to attend their summer program!  My parents would never have let me apply to it of course.  It’s so close to Troy though, and the in-state tuition is really cheap, I’m rather envious.  I can imagine your parents would want to attend if you were accepted.

 

It’s actually be an unusually quiet week for amiibo hunters since Amazon and Walmart still haven’t put up their preorders.  Apart from a few baseless rumors, everybody’s just waiting.  I’ll take advantage of this eye of the storm to elaborate more on all the amiibo I plan on getting.  Because of your little birthday present, I know you know which amiibo I want and it looks like you’re all caught up on UBW.  I mentioned this earlier, but I’m not sure if you still remember: I’m getting amiibo that correlate to the Servants in the Fifth Holy Grail War.  Lucina (yellow) is Saber, Dark Pit (red) is Archer, Ike (blue) is Lancer, Sheik (light purple) is Rider, Palutena (dark purple) is Caster, Marth (Roy’s colors) is Assassin, and Ganondorf (purple) is Berserker.  If I want to make full 8-amiibo smash games, I’d probably buy a Link (yellow) and make him Gilgamesh.  But Link’s easily obtainable, so I can get him whenever.  The best matches are Lucina and Dark Pit.  Lucina is a lot like Saber given they both pretended to be men and that they both want to change the past to save a kingdom.  Dark Pit just looks so amazing as Archer, especially since the shade of red is a near perfect match and that both wield a bow as well as two curved swords.  If Dark Pit’s skin and hair had this coloration, it would be flawless.  Ike is a bit of a stretch, as is Sheik.  Lancers are supposed to be the most agile of all the classes, but Ike is, well slow and he doesn’t even use a spear.  Sheik doesn’t physically look like Rider at all, but her quick and fluid movements match.  Since Rider was shortchanged in the UBW route, I won’t really know much about her until Heaven’s Feel in which she’s apparently practically a main character.  Palutena uses spells and has wings, so she fits as Caster, though her green hair is kind of ehh.  Marth doesn’t have the fabulously long locks that Assassin has, but if I change his custom moves to differentiate him as much as possible from Lucina/Saber, it would be fine.  Similarly, Ganondorf doesn’t have long hair like Berserker, but he was a pretty obvious choice regardless.  If LoZ: Skyward Sword’s Demise had been added to the roster and got an amiibo, it would have been a perfect Berserker match.  If I end up getting a Link, it would be obvious why he’s Gilgamesh; he flings stuff and has a chain grappling hook after all.

 

My mom is absolutely adamant that I attend Rutgers, mainly because it’s really close.  I know I just mentioned this, but she’s really against me attending CWRU and it’s not even the cost that bothers her.  She said if it was located at most two hours from Edison, she’d be fine with me going and that would be that.  My mom can over worry and be super anxious about things like flying and sickness, and really wants the peace of mind of me being only a few minutes away.  Sigh, it’ll probably be a while before we work things out and figure out where I’m going.  Also, I asked my brother and he doesn’t know any Brandon.  He doesn’t have a Facebook either, so maybe there’s a freshman or sophomore Brandon who’s good at math roaming the halls, but neither of us know, haha.

 

It does seem like you like math a lot.  That’s good, I wish I was able to appreciate math for what it is.  I didn’t mind geometry, but apart from that it’s been awfully difficult finding moments I enjoyed in those classes.  Oh my gosh, the washer and disk methods!  We just learned that and took a quiz on it right before break, and I was reminded that I’m going back to school on Monday and that I’ll have to face math classes again. Geez, this spring break felt really short, especially compared to winter break.  I spent most of it sick and traveling, so I actually had more trouble finding time to watch my anime this past week than during the normal school schedule.  Bleh, I wish I had time to enjoy spring break more than I did…  Hopefully you had more fun on these days off than I did.  Anyway, while I guess the disk and washer methods are nice and all, my brain must not work right because I still have a hard time getting things visualized and worked out.  You’re probably running laps around those problems and I’m just, a useless mess, haha.  Math isn’t my forte at all; I’m glad people are saying accounting is only basic math.  You’ve actually always seemed like a math person, though I don’t really know why.  Sometimes over-analyzing can be annoying and feel pretentious, but I don’t usually run into that problem.  I’ve had pretty nice and lenient English teachers for nearly all of my high school career, and the only one who was a bit of a slaver driver really opened my mind to the beauty of language, despite being a difficult teacher.  I think analyzing books or movies or anime and manga is best when done in a non-school setting.  Like, if you just happen to connect the dots and read between the line when no one’s forcing you to look for context clues and word choice and you instead just pick things up on your own because you enjoy it.  That’s the most rewarding kind, at least that’s how I see it.

 

Ohh, there need to be more people like you in this world!  I know it sounds kind of corny, especially given the old adage “never judge a book by its cover” has been instilled in children around the world since the beginning of time, but there are still a lot of guys and girls alike I know who are only romantically interested in a certain body type or face.  I feel that it would be best not to be that shallow, but whatever, grandstanding to them isn’t going to change their minds.  I’ve tried, jokingly, to convince this one girl that she should be open to guys who don’t necessarily have a six pack, but I guess her standards are just really high.  I’m not going to hold it against those who are picky about looks, it’s their life and it’s no business of mine who catches their eye, but given how I can be a bit self-conscious I would definitely prefer it if there were more people like you who didn’t let genetics get in the way of getting along with people.

 

Most of the time, I learn about a promposal when I’m with a friend and we’re making small talk and someone comes by and drops a little hint like “that was cute” or “congratulations” to my friend.  Then I’m just like, “Woah wait, you asked someone out to prom?” and he just either sheepishly says “yeah” or nods and I’m like “Dude, we were talking about the damn weather for the past five minutes, why didn’t you bring this up?”  Other times, with my lonelier of friends, when the conversation shifts to prom and I try thinking of someone my friend can go with, for fun even, I casually suggest “Why not ask _______?  You’re friends right?” and he’s just “Nah, _______ already asked her out.”  Huh, I realized being a guy with mostly guy friends makes it difficult to actually learn about exactly how promposals go down.  I’m slowly learning about all the pairings, but not of the process that lead up to it all.  Maybe they’re all kept on the down low, or maybe everyone just lets off steam online and feel it’s not necessary to talk about it in person, because damn I actually have go out and hunt those wild promposals.  My class has never really had much school spirit, and we almost didn’t even fundraise enough money to host prom at a nice venue.  Maybe it’s because prom always seems to be on the backburner is why I don’t really feel much need or pressure to attend.  It just doesn’t seem like it would be very eventful.  If I’m lucky, someone’s going to choke on a mini hotdog and I’m going to save him by performing the Heimlich maneuver and the principal’s going to give me a cheap certificate.  I have a higher chance of saving a rich lady from a pickpocketer and having her show her gratitude by buying me a North American Marth amiibo on eBay.  Your school seems so much more into the whole prom business, which is actually kind of nice.

 

Ah, now that you mention it, it was kind of fishy how things ended up all nice and peachy even after all that jumping around and messing up and fixing up of events, but I thought Okabe and Ruka’s date was cute, so all was forgiven!  Nah, not really, but everything else was handled well so I can forget about the small stuff.  And gosh, I’m awfully happy you’re excited to hear the news, but to call me a god is more than just an overstatement.  I’m always on top of up-and-coming anime news with my eyes peeled for the next big thing, so I’m just doing what I do.  Not to mention, you’d have probably learned of the sequel sooner or later, haha.  Regardless, you’re very welcome!

 

Along similar lines, you and I both know I’m far from flawless, but I’d be lying if I said it didn’t make me very happy to hear, errr read.  I’d like to take this time to formally and more thoroughly thank you for your birthday gift.  I’m not sure how much you think it means to me or how long it took you to make, but I assure you I couldn’t be happier.  In fact, I’d print it out and hang it up on my wall if I had poster paper.  It might be kind of weird seeing “happy birthday” every day, but I don’t think I’d mind.  Like parents like children, since my mom and dad have a habit of leaving up holiday/birthday decorations in and outside the house year round.  Usually, I’m wished a happy birthday before spring break starts, and sometimes after.  If I’m lucky, a friend or two will e-mail me or use Google chat to say happy birthday on April 7th, give or take 24 hours.  My parents and relatives sometimes give gifts of course, and I’ve always been more than pleased with what I’ve gotten.  I don’t have birthday parties; haven’t had one since elementary school.  That’s why this graphics poster you made for me means so much.  I know for something big like an 18th birthday, some people are getting fancy cars or some other expensive coming of age present, like a watch or jewelry.  But I’d take what you’ve given me over those pricey gifts any day, and not just because I can’t drive.  I’m just so happy and so touched you put all this effort in a personal gift like this.  It really is the thought that counts.  I’ve never received a present quite like this before, from someone not a part of my family, someone whose face I wouldn’t recognize in the streets, someone hundreds of miles away.  I was grinning like a fool for an hour straight after seeing that picture, and it’s a good thing my parents weren’t around because they would have known something was up and I’m not a very good liar.  I didn’t even react that strongly to any of my college acceptances, no joke.  I can’t find the proper words to describe how much this present, and you, mean to me.  It seems all has already been said for past occasions, and very soon I’m going to start sounding like a broken record.  Either my vocabulary is extremely limited, the English language isn’t nearly as sufficient as I need it to be, or I’m just holding myself back from using stronger words.  You’re an amazing person, and I cannot stress that enough.  If you say I’m flawless, then gosh you’re on a whole other level, really.  Thank you so very much for this gift and for making this one of the most unforgettable birthdays ever.

[Kenzi 146]

 

(Phew, posted this just in time for it to still be a Saturday, ehehe...)

 

Haha, thanks for the advice!  It’s a shame I won’t really be able to put it into practice since I’m going off to college in a few months and my high school life is winding down.  It’s a bit too late to get my parents acquainted with my friends’ parents, and it’s not like we’re planning any family outing any time soon.  Well no, that’s a bit of a lie, since I think my parents may be planning one last trip down to Orlando.  My sister works for Disney in LA, so she gets free tickets and she’s been giving them out to her friends to let them have some fun at Disney Land, but since I’m graduating and becoming a “grown up” she felt it would be fitting to take some time off from work and get the immediate family together to visit Disney World for old times’ sake.  After all, the older we get the harder it’s going to be for the family to find time to spend together.  Anyway, before I stray off topic, it’s interesting how you strike up a conversation with strangers when you’re waiting in line for things.  I think I’m a bit too self-conscious to do that, eheh.  You’re a really friendly person, and that’s a very nice thing for you to do.

 

Well, I suppose you’re right.  I don’t think I’m numb to what’s good and I don’t think it has anything to do with me watching a lot of bad anime with the good.  Anime as a whole is awesome, even though it can sometimes be lacking.  Gosh, though with that being said, there’s not much of an argument for watching an anime that hasn’t finished yet or hasn’t had many episodes out.  I guess old habits die hard after all.  It may be a time consuming habit, but I’ll be sticking with it.  If anything, it gives me a sense of comfort and helps me pace what I watch.  The SnK hype was pretty awesome, but China was going through record temperatures that summer.  Temps averaged at 90+ degrees F and very often went well over 100.  I’m fairly certain it would have been a lot more comfortable back in the States.

 

My school does kind of have a form of summer credit, but it’s a really petty system that only allows you to “skip” a few levels.  Like, if you’d otherwise be stuck in a level 1 class, taking a supplemental summer course would allow you to take the AP version instead.  You can’t use it to break the ceiling that they give you, so since it’s impossible for anyone to take AP Calc as a sophomore under any circumstances, regardless of how proficient you are in math you’re going to have to wait until at least junior year, usually senior year.  There are online courses offered at the local community college, but you really get nothing from it.  Maybe a digital “congratulations” and a pat on the back or something.  Nothing that happens over the summer ever counts as true credit, bleh.  It’s fine though, I’ve gotten used to it.  It’s not like I’d be able to skip anything anyway, since I’m terrible at the sciences and math and wouldn’t be able to jump ahead very far and I like history enough to want to take a full course.  I only really dislike gym and health, which have been almost complete wastes of my time.  Oh geez, was it a morning practice over the weekend or something?  I have so much trouble getting up in the morning, that it’s always a struggle attending things on time before lunch.  Don’t let it get to you, there’s nothing wrong with being fashionably late.  Is it like, a good thing to break your racket strings?  Does it mean you’ve be hitting the balls hard and playing a lot or something?  I’d think it would be kind of annoying since you’d have to get new strings or maybe even a whole new racket.  And what if you get emotionally attached to a set of strings or something, and then you just off and break them?  Maybe I’m overthinking this.  Forgive me for being so unknowledgeable about tennis; my sister played it back in high school and I have actually a lot of friends who play as well, but I don’t go to any of their games and I don’t follow it professionally so I only know as much as gym class teaches, eheheh.

 

Yup, as I mentioned earlier, I’m open and honest about myself to a fault.  Well, I don’t have any reason not to trust you, but I’m putting a little more faith in the rest of DCW and the Interwebs than maybe I should, but whatever.  Kirsch is the only one who stalks this thread I think, and even now she’s been relatively quiet.  Geez, am I really that similar to your sister?  Which schools did she apply to that I did likewise?  She applied to schools before you guys moved to Troy right?  I feel like some of my schools are ones only people in the NYC area would apply to, based on travel distance.  In fact, where did she end up going to college?  Also, how old is she?  Is she still an undergrad or has she already graduated and have a job?  Sorry for all the questions, I actually only just realized I don’t know as much about your sister as I thought I did.  And you keep on saying we’re similar, but ehhh anime is my lifeblood and she doesn’t have any interest in that anymore, soo…  Anyway, I finally got around to visiting Case Western, and as far away as it is I really like the school.  The campus size is just right and this integrated study program that the Weatherhead School of Management has is really awesome.  I mentioned it before, but it’s that 4-year program where you can get your bachelors in accounting as well as your masters in accountancy all in 8 semesters.  It’s really efficient and it’s also super cheap, or at least as cheap as private schools can get.  For your fourth year, you get scholarships from both the undergraduate school as well as the graduate school, since it’s a joint program, so my last two semesters will really cheap.  The academics aren’t the only thing that caught my attention.  For first year students, you choose a residential college to be a part of.  There are four houses, Harry Potter style: Cedar, Juniper, Magnolia, and Mistletoe.  Each house has its own emblem and are focused on certain aspects of learning.  Cedar is “growth through the arts”, Juniper is “knowledge through multiculturalism”, Magnolia is “engagement through sustainability”, and Mistletoe is “leadership through service”.  You room in a dorm associated with that house for your first year (you have more freedom to room with whomever you like following years of course) in order to help freshmen establish themselves and be part of a closer community.  Each house hosts events and whatnot, so it’s pretty neat.  I’d probably join Juniper, because I guess anime falls under multiculturalism.  Speaking of which, Case Western has a student run mini anime convention on campus once every semester called Case Con.  They apparently gather together and just binge watch all kinds of anime and play a ton of video games.  I was eating in their dining hall and saw an ad on the table.  It’s run by the Japanese Culture Society and the Anime Club together.  That there exists an anime club wasn’t a make or break factor naturally, and if a school didn’t already have one I would have founded one myself, haha.  It was just nice to see how well established the one in CWRU was, is all.  Maybe it’s because they have a large number of international students?  There were a lot of Asians, and I heard a ton of Mandarin thrown around campus.  Apart from that, the overall vibe of the whole school is awesome.  Just small things, like the simple colors and the way things are laid out.  In fact, the campus layout is so nice, if I had to make a university myself I’d have made it that very same way.  A north and south residential area with main dining halls at the center of each, and the academic buildings as well as other places to catch a bite sandwiched in between.  To me, it just makes so much sense, haha.  The athletics aren’t too crazy or hyped like in bigger public schools, which I kind of like, though the city of Cleveland offers three pro teams which I can always root for if I’m in the mood for sports.  It’s only a few miles from downtown Cleveland, and while I haven’t yet visited the city I’m sure it’s nice.  Also, the Weatherhead School of Managemnt's building, the Peter B. Lewis building, is really awesome.  On the outside, it looks like a perfectly normal brick building with cancerous metal things growing out of it, morphing the walls and windows.  The inside is just as wacky.  Apparently, there are no right angles in that building or something.  The walls and ceiling bend and twist and the whole thing is a maze.  There is no symmetry and it's very easy to get lost.  Stairs lead from the first floor directly to the third floor, small dimly lit hallways lead to professors' offices while large well lit hallways lead to dead ends.  It was all kinds of fun exploring and needs to be experienced to be believed, haha.  The only thing that kind of bothers me is the amount of clouds in the area.  I didn’t realize how often the Great Lakes area is covered by clouds year round.  Is it like that in Troy?  Heh, I’ve never liked the sun that much so I don’t mind, but similarly I guess I won’t be able to do any stargazing for a while, which is a bummer.  I wouldn’t really call Case my dream school or say I’ve fallen in love with it, since those are rather strong words and I’m not sure if I’m ready for that kind of commitment, haha, but I definitely like it a lot.  My mom is actually rather against it (it wouldn’t be a big or important decision without my mom disagreeing with me after all) just because it’s so far away.  She says there are so many job opportunities here in New Jersey with our proximity to NYC and that the cost and time investment would be straining.  She also says that Cleveland is in the middle of nowhere and that the Midwest in general is empty, haha.  I won’t deny that it is a bit far from home, but I don’t think I’ll mind.  My mom still wants me to go to Rutgers or at least Maryland.  Phew, anyway, I didn’t mean to ramble, and I’m not sure how much of that meant anything to you.  Ohh, UMich huh?  That’s a really good school, I’m really glad you have an opportunity to attend their summer program!  My parents would never have let me apply to it of course.  It’s so close to Troy though, and the in-state tuition is really cheap, I’m rather envious.  I can imagine your parents would want to attend if you were accepted.

 

It’s actually be an unusually quiet week for amiibo hunters since Amazon and Walmart still haven’t put up their preorders.  Apart from a few baseless rumors, everybody’s just waiting.  I’ll take advantage of this eye of the storm to elaborate more on all the amiibo I plan on getting.  Because of your little birthday present, I know you know which amiibo I want and it looks like you’re all caught up on UBW.  I mentioned this earlier, but I’m not sure if you still remember: I’m getting amiibo that correlate to the Servants in the Fifth Holy Grail War.  Lucina (yellow) is Saber, Dark Pit (red) is Archer, Ike (blue) is Lancer, Sheik (light purple) is Rider, Palutena (dark purple) is Caster, Marth (Roy’s colors) is Assassin, and Ganondorf (purple) is Berserker.  If I want to make full 8-amiibo smash games, I’d probably buy a Link (yellow) and make him Gilgamesh.  But Link’s easily obtainable, so I can get him whenever.  The best matches are Lucina and Dark Pit.  Lucina is a lot like Saber given they both pretended to be men and that they both want to change the past to save a kingdom.  Dark Pit just looks so amazing as Archer, especially since the shade of red is a near perfect match and that both wield a bow as well as two curved swords.  If Dark Pit’s skin and hair had this coloration, it would be flawless.  Ike is a bit of a stretch, as is Sheik.  Lancers are supposed to be the most agile of all the classes, but Ike is, well slow and he doesn’t even use a spear.  Sheik doesn’t physically look like Rider at all, but her quick and fluid movements match.  Since Rider was shortchanged in the UBW route, I won’t really know much about her until Heaven’s Feel in which she’s apparently practically a main character.  Palutena uses spells and has wings, so she fits as Caster, though her green hair is kind of ehh.  Marth doesn’t have the fabulously long locks that Assassin has, but if I change his custom moves to differentiate him as much as possible from Lucina/Saber, it would be fine.  Similarly, Ganondorf doesn’t have long hair like Berserker, but he was a pretty obvious choice regardless.  If LoZ: Skyward Sword’s Demise had been added to the roster and got an amiibo, it would have been a perfect Berserker match.  If I end up getting a Link, it would be obvious why he’s Gilgamesh; he flings stuff and has a chain grappling hook after all.

 

My mom is absolutely adamant that I attend Rutgers, mainly because it’s really close.  I know I just mentioned this, but she’s really against me attending CWRU and it’s not even the cost that bothers her.  She said if it was located at most two hours from Edison, she’d be fine with me going and that would be that.  My mom can over worry and be super anxious about things like flying and sickness, and really wants the peace of mind of me being only a few minutes away.  Sigh, it’ll probably be a while before we work things out and figure out where I’m going.  Also, I asked my brother and he doesn’t know any Brandon.  He doesn’t have a Facebook either, so maybe there’s a freshman or sophomore Brandon who’s good at math roaming the halls, but neither of us know, haha.

 

It does seem like you like math a lot.  That’s good, I wish I was able to appreciate math for what it is.  I didn’t mind geometry, but apart from that it’s been awfully difficult finding moments I enjoyed in those classes.  Oh my gosh, the washer and disk methods!  We just learned that and took a quiz on it right before break, and I was reminded that I’m going back to school on Monday and that I’ll have to face math classes again. Geez, this spring break felt really short, especially compared to winter break.  I spent most of it sick and traveling, so I actually had more trouble finding time to watch my anime this past week than during the normal school schedule.  Bleh, I wish I had time to enjoy spring break more than I did…  Hopefully you had more fun on these days off than I did.  Anyway, while I guess the disk and washer methods are nice and all, my brain must not work right because I still have a hard time getting things visualized and worked out.  You’re probably running laps around those problems and I’m just, a useless mess, haha.  Math isn’t my forte at all; I’m glad people are saying accounting is only basic math.  You’ve actually always seemed like a math person, though I don’t really know why.  Sometimes over-analyzing can be annoying and feel pretentious, but I don’t usually run into that problem.  I’ve had pretty nice and lenient English teachers for nearly all of my high school career, and the only one who was a bit of a slaver driver really opened my mind to the beauty of language, despite being a difficult teacher.  I think analyzing books or movies or anime and manga is best when done in a non-school setting.  Like, if you just happen to connect the dots and read between the line when no one’s forcing you to look for context clues and word choice and you instead just pick things up on your own because you enjoy it.  That’s the most rewarding kind, at least that’s how I see it.

 

Ohh, there need to be more people like you in this world!  I know it sounds kind of corny, especially given the old adage “never judge a book by its cover” has been instilled in children around the world since the beginning of time, but there are still a lot of guys and girls alike I know who are only romantically interested in a certain body type or face.  I feel that it would be best not to be that shallow, but whatever, grandstanding to them isn’t going to change their minds.  I’ve tried, jokingly, to convince this one girl that she should be open to guys who don’t necessarily have a six pack, but I guess her standards are just really high.  I’m not going to hold it against those who are picky about looks, it’s their life and it’s no business of mine who catches their eye, but given how I can be a bit self-conscious I would definitely prefer it if there were more people like you who didn’t let genetics get in the way of getting along with people.

 

Most of the time, I learn about a promposal when I’m with a friend and we’re making small talk and someone comes by and drops a little hint like “that was cute” or “congratulations” to my friend.  Then I’m just like, “Woah wait, you asked someone out to prom?” and he just either sheepishly says “yeah” or nods and I’m like “Dude, we were talking about the damn weather for the past five minutes, why didn’t you bring this up?”  Other times, with my lonelier of friends, when the conversation shifts to prom and I try thinking of someone my friend can go with, for fun even, I casually suggest “Why not ask _______?  You’re friends right?” and he’s just “Nah, _______ already asked her out.”  Huh, I realized being a guy with mostly guy friends makes it difficult to actually learn about exactly how promposals go down.  I’m slowly learning about all the pairings, but not of the process that lead up to it all.  Maybe they’re all kept on the down low, or maybe everyone just lets off steam online and feel it’s not necessary to talk about it in person, because damn I actually have go out and hunt those wild promposals.  My class has never really had much school spirit, and we almost didn’t even fundraise enough money to host prom at a nice venue.  Maybe it’s because prom always seems to be on the backburner is why I don’t really feel much need or pressure to attend.  It just doesn’t seem like it would be very eventful.  If I’m lucky, someone’s going to choke on a mini hotdog and I’m going to save him by performing the Heimlich maneuver and the principal’s going to give me a cheap certificate.  I have a higher chance of saving a rich lady from a pickpocketer and having her show her gratitude by buying me a North American Marth amiibo on eBay.  Your school seems so much more into the whole prom business, which is actually kind of nice.

 

Ah, now that you mention it, it was kind of fishy how things ended up all nice and peachy even after all that jumping around and messing up and fixing up of events, but I thought Okabe and Ruka’s date was cute, so all was forgiven!  Nah, not really, but everything else was handled well so I can forget about the small stuff.  And gosh, I’m awfully happy you’re excited to hear the news, but to call me a god is more than just an overstatement.  I’m always on top of up-and-coming anime news with my eyes peeled for the next big thing, so I’m just doing what I do.  Not to mention, you’d have probably learned of the sequel sooner or later, haha.  Regardless, you’re very welcome!

 

Along similar lines, you and I both know I’m far from flawless, but I’d be lying if I said it didn’t make me very happy to hear, errr read.  I’d like to take this time to formally and more thoroughly thank you for your birthday gift.  I’m not sure how much you think it means to me or how long it took you to make, but I assure you I couldn’t be happier.  In fact, I’d print it out and hang it up on my wall if I had poster paper.  It might be kind of weird seeing “happy birthday” every day, but I don’t think I’d mind.  Like parents like children, since my mom and dad have a habit of leaving up holiday/birthday decorations in and outside the house year round.  Usually, I’m wished a happy birthday before spring break starts, and sometimes after.  If I’m lucky, a friend or two will e-mail me or use Google chat to say happy birthday on April 7th, give or take 24 hours.  My parents and relatives sometimes give gifts of course, and I’ve always been more than pleased with what I’ve gotten.  I don’t have birthday parties; haven’t had one since elementary school.  That’s why this graphics poster you made for me means so much.  I know for something big like an 18th birthday, some people are getting fancy cars or some other expensive coming of age present, like a watch or jewelry.  But I’d take what you’ve given me over those pricey gifts any day, and not just because I can’t drive.  I’m just so happy and so touched you put all this effort in a personal gift like this.  It really is the thought that counts.  I’ve never received a present quite like this before, from someone not a part of my family, someone whose face I wouldn’t recognize in the streets, someone hundreds of miles away.  I was grinning like a fool for an hour straight after seeing that picture, and it’s a good thing my parents weren’t around because they would have known something was up and I’m not a very good liar.  I didn’t even react that strongly to any of my college acceptances, no joke.  I can’t find the proper words to describe how much this present, and you, mean to me.  It seems all has already been said for past occasions, and very soon I’m going to start sounding like a broken record.  Either my vocabulary is extremely limited, the English language isn’t nearly as sufficient as I need it to be, or I’m just holding myself back from using stronger words.  You’re an amazing person, and I cannot stress that enough.  If you say I’m flawless, then gosh you’re on a whole other level, really.  Thank you so very much for this gift and for making this one of the most unforgettable birthdays ever.

 

Ahaha, I really wouldn’t have minded if you posted a little late. I know you had your college visits to focus on so it would have been fine to post the next day, or even postpone it to next week. If these responses ever feel too taxing, let me know!

 

Whaaaaat your sister works for Disney? That’s awesome! I think it’s great how your family is planning a trip to Disney World! We have family trips regularly, but I have a premonition that it’s going to change after my sister is out of school. She’ll probably get a lot busier and she probably won’t have time to join us on our trips anymore. But I’d rather not dwell on that, ahaha… If you don’t mind me asking, what does your sister do for Disney? Ah, I usually strike up conversations out of boredom. You know how lines in Disney World tend to get really long during the day? It’s usually in situations like those when I decide to talk to someone—typically around my age since casually approaching random adults to chat with is a bit out of my comfort zone, and not to mention a bit creepy, lol. If my sister’s around, I’ll talk to her, but if I’m alone and I find a point of interest to talk about with someone, I would probably go for it.

 

I’m not gonna lie, I’ve been getting increasingly critical about anime as the years have passed. My standards have been inflated because of all the good anime I’ve watched, so when I stumble across a mediocre one, it really comes off as a disappointment. I remember a few years ago I wanted to get into Soul Eater because of how popular it was. It looked pretty cool and I wanted to see what the hype was about. I watched a few clips not too long ago just to see what I’d be getting into and I was…pretty disappointed. The humor was too forced and the characters were predictable, and gosh, it was awful. The MAL rating is an 8 and from what I’ve seen (and based on my ratings), I’d give it a 6 at best. But if I watched it back in middle school, I feel like I would have enjoyed it a lot more. Maybe if everything I watched wasn’t saturated with good anime, I might have enjoyed it more as well, lol. The clips I watched were fan favorites on YouTube so I don’t think I’m being too unfair. Then again PSG was rated a 7 and I enjoyed it quite a bit despite the profanity. I also gave it a 7 because it really wasn’t deserving of an 8, but I’d say my enjoyment was an 8-9. Hmm… I guess I really shouldn’t trust MAL ratings after all. Haha, the only reason I got into SnK was because of a piano cover I saw from a YouTube subscription. At the time, I didn’t even realize how big of a deal it was until I saw the trailer rack up over two million views. To think the hype even reached China is just, wow, haha. 

 

Your school system is similar to what I used to get into Chem AP sophomore year. I didn't have enough space in my schedule for Chem 1 freshman year so I had to take online chem over the summer for the prerequisite. Admittedly, I wasn't able to retain as much information as a full year of chem would have supplemented (2 months vs. 2 semesters), but it got the job done for the most part (jk, I almost regretted my decision because of how much summer I wasted). I've had a few other friends who've done the same since they also wanted to jump ahead. I'm still not comfortable with how strict your school system is with "jumping levels". If a student has the capability to "skip" a class, it's not really fair to suppress him/her. This is why our school has the testing out system. Basically, if you can pass the test out, you get credit for the class. It's also the same reason why we have a bunch of seniors (and a few juniors) who leave school during the day to attend calc 3 at a local college since they already took all the math classes offered here. It can feel a bit demeaning to say the least, but I've also taken advantage of the system so I can't really complain. Haha, it was a practice after school I was late for. I was taking a make-up test and I forgot to tell the coach about it--even worse since I thought I'd finish it on time. Breaking your racquet strings usually means that you've worn them down a lot, which can also be a representation of how much spin you put on the ball. The spin causes the strings to fray, making them more susceptible to breaking (especially if hit the ball hard enough). My coach was rather annoyed when he saw how giddy I was, "You shouldn't look that happy when you break your strings!" Nah, you don't have to replace your racquet entirely, lol. You just have to take it to a local tennis store to get it restrung, haha. I don't think I've ever seen anyone get emotionally attached to his/her strings before. I actually think it's rather annoying having to constantly rearrange your strings back into place every time you hit a ball. Strings tend to get loose before breaking, making them prone to change position every time you hit a ball, and if you don't fix them, you won't be as consistent. I don't follow tennis professionally either, lol. I'll watch a few games in the tennis bubble when I have some downtime, but I've never actively followed anyone.

 

My sister applied to schools after we moved to Troy, but I don't think that ever affected her decisions since we moved here quite a while ago. She applied to Brandeis, NYU, Boston University, and Carnegie Mellon (not in total, but the schools you guys had in common). Or at least, that's to my knowledge. She ended up going to Brandeis. I'm not entirely sure why, but I don't want to pry too much from her either. She's 21 so she's graduating this year, and she has a job, haha. My sister used to watch anime a lot, so I'd say her high school self had a lot in common with you, lol. She even attended anime conventions like Youmacon. I'm not sure how she managed to persuade our parents, but she did somehow. Wow! It's awesome how much CWRU appeals to your interests! You look like you'd be really happy there, haha. I don't think distance should be too big of an issue though. Brandeis is also rather far away from here so my sister comes back home during winter and summer vacation. She keeps in contact with us through phone calls and she also occasionally messages me on Facebook to brag about her glorious college life keep me updated, lol. My parents didn't seem to care how far away Brandeis was either. The only thing that annoyed them was the drive there when we were moving her stuff (since that was around the time when Hurricane Sandy decided to make its debut), but that was a one time thing. I think it's nice how much your parents care about your well-being! Although I do agree with them that the Midwest is a bit lackluster compared to the East Coast, I think it's more important for you to enjoy your college experience. Job opportunities will come to you if you look hard enough, and I've heard stories of professors helping students look for internships as well! This is just my two cents though, haha. Yup, I'm really excited to attend the program this summer. I also feel really fortunate to have a shot at this school since it's in-state. My parents probably wouldn't let me apply if I was out of state either. As for the cloud coverage, we actually have sunny, clear skies quite often around here. You'd think that it'd be perfect weather for stargazing, but the street lights combined with neighboring garage lights are just enough to drown out most of the stars.

 

Oh my gosh, I didn't even realize that your choice in amiibos paralleled with Fate characters. Ahaha, that's awesome! Most of the characters actually do seem to fit well with their amiibo “counterparts” haha. That’s really creative! Even if some of them don’t match as well aesthetically, I still think it’s great how many connections you were still able to make. Is this what initially got you into the amiibo craze? 

 

Only two hours? I could see where your mom's coming from if the school was somewhere along the West Coast, but I honestly don't think that CWRU is too far away. It's probably not worth the drive, but....hmm... I acutally don't have an argument. A seven hour drive can be pretty far away, I guess. Hm, maybe you can reassure your mom that everything will be okay? Perhaps this could be a good time to utilize your cell phone, haha. You could always call them to make sure that everything's all right, maybe even offer to Skype them. My sister used Skype for a year or two and that kinda helped to calm our parents since Troy to Brandeis is over ten hours away, though I don't think they really cared much about distance to begin with. How did your mom cope with your sister going to Dartmouth then? It's nearly five hours away so how was you sister able to reassure her that everything was going to be all right? Especially considering that she works at Disney now (which is absolutely awesome, I can't get over that, haha). Disney is even farther away, so is there any particular reason why your mom wants to keep you close to home? It's heartwarming to hear that she cares so much about you though! Haha, yeah, I didn't expect much especially since I couldn't even provide a last name. He might even go to a different school, but ehh... it was worth a shot, lol. 

 

I'm not going to lie, math has been pretty difficult for me at times, but I still love it. I absolutely loved math to pieces back in elementary and middle school--everything just made sense. Once high school rolled in, it started becoming a bit more difficult, but I wasn't struggling in it nearly as much as I am this year. Maybe it's because calc is such a new and abstract concept for me, it's hard for me to adjust. But after all the years I've been through loving math, it'd feel like such a waste to throw it all away just because of this one class. Stubborn old me might just be deluding myself into loving it, haha. I've seen my English teacher's novels and they're just filled with color coded highlights and tabs and side-notes--it's insane, it looks like a rainbow threw up all over the books. Every square inch of color seems to serve some purpose and it's mind-boggling how much analyzing they do. It can be quite intimidating, to be honest. Of course, I wouldn't tell that to their faces even though it really does seem like they're going overboard with this analyzing stuff. However, I do find a certain joy in analyzing anime, movies, and books. It has certainly affected how I look at them in that I nitpick on little details (such as the inconsistencies in Steins;Gate) that I otherwise would have overlooked. And maybe, even prevented me from enjoying the show/movie/book a bit more. Middle school me would be giving shows like SnK 12/10 instead of 8/10 if it weren't for analyzing. Yet, analyzing helps give the show/movie/book a bit more meaning. Because at the same time, middle school me would be utterly lost reading books like 1984 without catching symbolism. Analyzing can feel like a punishment, yet it's a gift. I could be a naive fool, blindly enjoying and giving 10/10 to everything I encounter, but I'd much rather be a person complaining about overused tropes if it means being able to catch subtle details that also make the anime/movie/book more meaningful. It's corny, but this is how I feel about analyzing. Oh yeah, spring break felt like nothing. School is starting again, and I'm going to go back feeling like a sleep deprived zombie before long. Ehh, summer vacation barely feels like it's within reach, but it'll still be my main motivation to keep going. I most certainly enjoyed my sleep and lack of schoolwork, but other than that, it was pretty uneventful. But I managed to catch up on F/SN and finished Tatami Galaxy, and I went to the bookstore on most evenings so I didn't completely waste my time, lol. It seems like you're happy with your college visit for the most part, so I'm glad it went well for you! You must be really efficient in time considering that you were still able to find time to fit in anime into your schedule, haha. 

 

Aw, I'm flattered. "Never judge a book by its cover" can be applied to so many different situations, and the fact that it's such an overused cliche doesn't help its purpose either. It's really a shame because the proverb holds a lot of truth. Would you rather have a person to talk to or a figure to look at? Sure, it's nice to have someone with an ideal body type or face shape, but those characteristics won't determine how compatible someone is with him/her. If anything, this person would be treating these people as if they were trophies, which really bugs me. To each his own, I guess. 

 

Speaking of promposals, I recently found out that our prom is this Saturday. Geezus, where did the time go. Haha, I guess people act differently depending on who asks them about their promposal then. Most people around here just smile awkwardly, but I've seen some people really embrace the congrats. A lot of times, promposals can be seen in classrooms and lunches, and you know someone's been asked when you hear a bunch of cheering and clapping coming from the same area. Then a picture of the promposal gets released on Facebook, and the cycle keeps going from there. Haha, our class has had the most school spirit for the past three years. Every year we hold a spirit week competition and we've won every single one so far. The seniors were close to beating us this year, but we managed to keep our wining streak. Only one more year to go, lol. Your school almost didn't fundraise enough money to host a prom? Our school would probably riot if that happened. We usually have loads of fundraisers that help support school events so lack of funding is rarely an issue for us. Gosh, is prom really that uneventful? I guess it's true that people sometimes make too big of a deal out of it, but most of the people still tend to have a good time there. It's kinda like a "reward" for seniors, I guess? We also host an all-night party exclusive to seniors as a "reward" and I've heard that those were a blast. 

 

Okabe and Ruka's date was... it was awkward for me to watch. I still don't know how I feel about it, ahahaha. I love Steins;Gate, so finding out that a sequel was coming out was a huge surprise for me. I thought the movie was going to be the end, and that there'd be no chance for a sequel since everything had been resolved. I was shaking my head in disbelief when I read your response because I didn't think it was possible. So yes, thank you once again!

 

Oh my goodness, I really didn't realize how much this meant to you until now, but I’m really glad I was able to make this birthday memorable! I rarely make these pictures for friends, especially since very few of my friends know that I make graphics--though I doubt that they even remember. The others have only seen me use photoshop to make gag gifts/pictures. Even then, I haven’t done it in such a long time they might’ve forgotten by now. And likewise, I also haven’t had a birthday party since elementary school. My mom thinks I’m strange since it’s because I don’t want one. I get invited to parties and I buy gifts for my friends, but I never ask for anything, so my mom just thinks I’m wasting money. Haha, my parents rarely decorate the house. The only time we ever put up lights is for Christmas. We leave lights on our walkways and we re-build our synthetic Christmas tree every year (which we sometimes leave up until March). But gosh, just reading how grateful you were about this small gift made me very happy. Honest to goodness, I really didn’t expect this heartfelt of a response from you—I’m even flattered that you liked it so much. I'm so glad that you were able to enjoy your birthday! You’re such a wonderful person, and seeing how happy you were made me very content. You're very welcome!<3

[Akazora 293]

 

Ahaha, I really wouldn’t have minded if you posted a little late. I know you had your college visits to focus on so it would have been fine to post the next day, or even postpone it to next week. If these responses ever feel too taxing, let me know!

 

Whaaaaat your sister works for Disney? That’s awesome! I think it’s great how your family is planning a trip to Disney World! We have family trips regularly, but I have a premonition that it’s going to change after my sister is out of school. She’ll probably get a lot busier and she probably won’t have time to join us on our trips anymore. But I’d rather not dwell on that, ahaha… If you don’t mind me asking, what does your sister do for Disney? Ah, I usually strike up conversations out of boredom. You know how lines in Disney World tend to get really long during the day? It’s usually in situations like those when I decide to talk to someone—typically around my age since casually approaching random adults to chat with is a bit out of my comfort zone, and not to mention a bit creepy, lol. If my sister’s around, I’ll talk to her, but if I’m alone and I find a point of interest to talk about with someone, I would probably go for it.

 

I’m not gonna lie, I’ve been getting increasingly critical about anime as the years have passed. My standards have been inflated because of all the good anime I’ve watched, so when I stumble across a mediocre one, it really comes off as a disappointment. I remember a few years ago I wanted to get into Soul Eater because of how popular it was. It looked pretty cool and I wanted to see what the hype was about. I watched a few clips not too long ago just to see what I’d be getting into and I was…pretty disappointed. The humor was too forced and the characters were predictable, and gosh, it was awful. The MAL rating is an 8 and from what I’ve seen (and based on my ratings), I’d give it a 6 at best. But if I watched it back in middle school, I feel like I would have enjoyed it a lot more. Maybe if everything I watched wasn’t saturated with good anime, I might have enjoyed it more as well, lol. The clips I watched were fan favorites on YouTube so I don’t think I’m being too unfair. Then again PSG was rated a 7 and I enjoyed it quite a bit despite the profanity. I also gave it a 7 because it really wasn’t deserving of an 8, but I’d say my enjoyment was an 8-9. Hmm… I guess I really shouldn’t trust MAL ratings after all. Haha, the only reason I got into SnK was because of a piano cover I saw from a YouTube subscription. At the time, I didn’t even realize how big of a deal it was until I saw the trailer rack up over two million views. To think the hype even reached China is just, wow, haha. 

 

Your school system is similar to what I used to get into Chem AP sophomore year. I didn't have enough space in my schedule for Chem 1 freshman year so I had to take online chem over the summer for the prerequisite. Admittedly, I wasn't able to retain as much information as a full year of chem would have supplemented (2 months vs. 2 semesters), but it got the job done for the most part (jk, I almost regretted my decision because of how much summer I wasted). I've had a few other friends who've done the same since they also wanted to jump ahead. I'm still not comfortable with how strict your school system is with "jumping levels". If a student has the capability to "skip" a class, it's not really fair to suppress him/her. This is why our school has the testing out system. Basically, if you can pass the test out, you get credit for the class. It's also the same reason why we have a bunch of seniors (and a few juniors) who leave school during the day to attend calc 3 at a local college since they already took all the math classes offered here. It can feel a bit demeaning to say the least, but I've also taken advantage of the system so I can't really complain. Haha, it was a practice after school I was late for. I was taking a make-up test and I forgot to tell the coach about it--even worse since I thought I'd finish it on time. Breaking your racquet strings usually means that you've worn them down a lot, which can also be a representation of how much spin you put on the ball. The spin causes the strings to fray, making them more susceptible to breaking (especially if hit the ball hard enough). My coach was rather annoyed when he saw how giddy I was, "You shouldn't look that happy when you break your strings!" Nah, you don't have to replace your racquet entirely, lol. You just have to take it to a local tennis store to get it restrung, haha. I don't think I've ever seen anyone get emotionally attached to his/her strings before. I actually think it's rather annoying having to constantly rearrange your strings back into place every time you hit a ball. Strings tend to get loose before breaking, making them prone to change position every time you hit a ball, and if you don't fix them, you won't be as consistent. I don't follow tennis professionally either, lol. I'll watch a few games in the tennis bubble when I have some downtime, but I've never actively followed anyone.

 

My sister applied to schools after we moved to Troy, but I don't think that ever affected her decisions since we moved here quite a while ago. She applied to Brandeis, NYU, Boston University, and Carnegie Mellon (not in total, but the schools you guys had in common). Or at least, that's to my knowledge. She ended up going to Brandeis. I'm not entirely sure why, but I don't want to pry too much from her either. She's 21 so she's graduating this year, and she has a job, haha. My sister used to watch anime a lot, so I'd say her high school self had a lot in common with you, lol. She even attended anime conventions like Youmacon. I'm not sure how she managed to persuade our parents, but she did somehow. Wow! It's awesome how much CWRU appeals to your interests! You look like you'd be really happy there, haha. I don't think distance should be too big of an issue though. Brandeis is also rather far away from here so my sister comes back home during winter and summer vacation. She keeps in contact with us through phone calls and she also occasionally messages me on Facebook to brag about her glorious college life keep me updated, lol. My parents didn't seem to care how far away Brandeis was either. The only thing that annoyed them was the drive there when we were moving her stuff (since that was around the time when Hurricane Sandy decided to make its debut), but that was a one time thing. I think it's nice how much your parents care about your well-being! Although I do agree with them that the Midwest is a bit lackluster compared to the East Coast, I think it's more important for you to enjoy your college experience. Job opportunities will come to you if you look hard enough, and I've heard stories of professors helping students look for internships as well! This is just my two cents though, haha. Yup, I'm really excited to attend the program this summer. I also feel really fortunate to have a shot at this school since it's in-state. My parents probably wouldn't let me apply if I was out of state either. As for the cloud coverage, we actually have sunny, clear skies quite often around here. You'd think that it'd be perfect weather for stargazing, but the street lights combined with neighboring garage lights are just enough to drown out most of the stars.

 

Oh my gosh, I didn't even realize that your choice in amiibos paralleled with Fate characters. Ahaha, that's awesome! Most of the characters actually do seem to fit well with their amiibo “counterparts” haha. That’s really creative! Even if some of them don’t match as well aesthetically, I still think it’s great how many connections you were still able to make. Is this what initially got you into the amiibo craze? 

 

Only two hours? I could see where your mom's coming from if the school was somewhere along the West Coast, but I honestly don't think that CWRU is too far away. It's probably not worth the drive, but....hmm... I acutally don't have an argument. A seven hour drive can be pretty far away, I guess. Hm, maybe you can reassure your mom that everything will be okay? Perhaps this could be a good time to utilize your cell phone, haha. You could always call them to make sure that everything's all right, maybe even offer to Skype them. My sister used Skype for a year or two and that kinda helped to calm our parents since Troy to Brandeis is over ten hours away, though I don't think they really cared much about distance to begin with. How did your mom cope with your sister going to Dartmouth then? It's nearly five hours away so how was you sister able to reassure her that everything was going to be all right? Especially considering that she works at Disney now (which is absolutely awesome, I can't get over that, haha). Disney is even farther away, so is there any particular reason why your mom wants to keep you close to home? It's heartwarming to hear that she cares so much about you though! Haha, yeah, I didn't expect much especially since I couldn't even provide a last name. He might even go to a different school, but ehh... it was worth a shot, lol. 

 

I'm not going to lie, math has been pretty difficult for me at times, but I still love it. I absolutely loved math to pieces back in elementary and middle school--everything just made sense. Once high school rolled in, it started becoming a bit more difficult, but I wasn't struggling in it nearly as much as I am this year. Maybe it's because calc is such a new and abstract concept for me, it's hard for me to adjust. But after all the years I've been through loving math, it'd feel like such a waste to throw it all away just because of this one class. Stubborn old me might just be deluding myself into loving it, haha. I've seen my English teacher's novels and they're just filled with color coded highlights and tabs and side-notes--it's insane, it looks like a rainbow threw up all over the books. Every square inch of color seems to serve some purpose and it's mind-boggling how much analyzing they do. It can be quite intimidating, to be honest. Of course, I wouldn't tell that to their faces even though it really does seem like they're going overboard with this analyzing stuff. However, I do find a certain joy in analyzing anime, movies, and books. It has certainly affected how I look at them in that I nitpick on little details (such as the inconsistencies in Steins;Gate) that I otherwise would have overlooked. And maybe, even prevented me from enjoying the show/movie/book a bit more. Middle school me would be giving shows like SnK 12/10 instead of 8/10 if it weren't for analyzing. Yet, analyzing helps give the show/movie/book a bit more meaning. Because at the same time, middle school me would be utterly lost reading books like 1984 without catching symbolism. Analyzing can feel like a punishment, yet it's a gift. I could be a naive fool, blindly enjoying and giving 10/10 to everything I encounter, but I'd much rather be a person complaining about overused tropes if it means being able to catch subtle details that also make the anime/movie/book more meaningful. It's corny, but this is how I feel about analyzing. Oh yeah, spring break felt like nothing. School is starting again, and I'm going to go back feeling like a sleep deprived zombie before long. Ehh, summer vacation barely feels like it's within reach, but it'll still be my main motivation to keep going. I most certainly enjoyed my sleep and lack of schoolwork, but other than that, it was pretty uneventful. But I managed to catch up on F/SN and finished Tatami Galaxy, and I went to the bookstore on most evenings so I didn't completely waste my time, lol. It seems like you're happy with your college visit for the most part, so I'm glad it went well for you! You must be really efficient in time considering that you were still able to find time to fit in anime into your schedule, haha. 

 

Aw, I'm flattered. "Never judge a book by its cover" can be applied to so many different situations, and the fact that it's such an overused cliche doesn't help its purpose either. It's really a shame because the proverb holds a lot of truth. Would you rather have a person to talk to or a figure to look at? Sure, it's nice to have someone with an ideal body type or face shape, but those characteristics won't determine how compatible someone is with him/her. If anything, this person would be treating these people as if they were trophies, which really bugs me. To each his own, I guess. 

 

Speaking of promposals, I recently found out that our prom is this Saturday. Geezus, where did the time go. Haha, I guess people act differently depending on who asks them about their promposal then. Most people around here just smile awkwardly, but I've seen some people really embrace the congrats. A lot of times, promposals can be seen in classrooms and lunches, and you know someone's been asked when you hear a bunch of cheering and clapping coming from the same area. Then a picture of the promposal gets released on Facebook, and the cycle keeps going from there. Haha, our class has had the most school spirit for the past three years. Every year we hold a spirit week competition and we've won every single one so far. The seniors were close to beating us this year, but we managed to keep our wining streak. Only one more year to go, lol. Your school almost didn't fundraise enough money to host a prom? Our school would probably riot if that happened. We usually have loads of fundraisers that help support school events so lack of funding is rarely an issue for us. Gosh, is prom really that uneventful? I guess it's true that people sometimes make too big of a deal out of it, but most of the people still tend to have a good time there. It's kinda like a "reward" for seniors, I guess? We also host an all-night party exclusive to seniors as a "reward" and I've heard that those were a blast. 

 

Okabe and Ruka's date was... it was awkward for me to watch. I still don't know how I feel about it, ahahaha. I love Steins;Gate, so finding out that a sequel was coming out was a huge surprise for me. I thought the movie was going to be the end, and that there'd be no chance for a sequel since everything had been resolved. I was shaking my head in disbelief when I read your response because I didn't think it was possible. So yes, thank you once again!

 

Oh my goodness, I really didn't realize how much this meant to you until now, but I’m really glad I was able to make this birthday memorable! I rarely make these pictures for friends, especially since very few of my friends know that I make graphics--though I doubt that they even remember. The others have only seen me use photoshop to make gag gifts/pictures. Even then, I haven’t done it in such a long time they might’ve forgotten by now. And likewise, I also haven’t had a birthday party since elementary school. My mom thinks I’m strange since it’s because I don’t want one. I get invited to parties and I buy gifts for my friends, but I never ask for anything, so my mom just thinks I’m wasting money. Haha, my parents rarely decorate the house. The only time we ever put up lights is for Christmas. We leave lights on our walkways and we re-build our synthetic Christmas tree every year (which we sometimes leave up until March). But gosh, just reading how grateful you were about this small gift made me very happy. Honest to goodness, I really didn’t expect this heartfelt of a response from you—I’m even flattered that you liked it so much. I'm so glad that you were able to enjoy your birthday! You’re such a wonderful person, and seeing how happy you were made me very content. You're very welcome!<3

Ayup, she’s been working there for a few years now.  She studied business in Dartmouth, though I’m not certain what she majored in.  It was something along the lines of a major in finance and a minor in English, or something.  Not the most impressive portfolio on the surface, but hey it’s Dartmouth so it works.  Dartmouth doesn’t even have a designated business school, and the only reason why my sister went there was because she didn’t know what she wanted to study and so applied and ultimately attended to generally highly ranked schools.  If she knew what she wanted to go into business as a high school senior, she probably would have applied to a more cost efficient school.  After all, though everyone starts off Googling “best colleges” and ogling at all the Ivy Leagues lined up nice and neat, everyone eventually realizes those are just schools generally ranked.  A lot of the highly ranked business schools are black horses that most people have never about, just look at this list.  In fact, almost no Ivy Leagues are listed.  Dartmouth is not at all known for its strong business program, because it doesn’t actually have one, haha.  My sister was still able to use its name status to land her a job at Deutsche Bank in NYC immediately after graduation.  It paid a lot and the benefits were good, but my sister had a rough time because she worked long hours, her bosses were kind of bad, and all her income for the first few years went toward paying off her college debts.  That’s why she applied for a job at Disney, in the finance sector.  It didn’t pay as much as the benefits weren’t as great, but the hours were good, the workplace was comfy, and, well, she lives in LA which I hear is amazing, especially for those who want mild weather and clear skies year round.  According to my sister, it’s paradise.  Once you’re there once, you never want to leave, unless you’re craving snow I guess.  She has a lot of free time now.  Sometimes she goes to museums, other times to charity events, and occasionally she gets together with friends to go on a road trip.  Every once in a while, since my sister’s a social butterfly, she’ll also go out to a club and party, drink a bit.  Even though she’s just started graduate school at UCLA and she’s been a bit busier, I think she’s still enjoying life.  Eheh, I know I’ve strayed off topic quite a bit, sorry about that.  Whenever I’m waiting in line for something, if possible I whip out my DS and play a bit.  Nothing too big, maybe a bit of grinding or soft resetting or a solo run.  I can imagine how strange I must look, standing in lines in the modern day and playing with a rickety old flip-screen stylus device instead of the smart phones every third person is staring into.  If I’m with my brother and/or sister, we talk and whatnot, and if I’m with friends or acquaintances we chat a bit as well.  But I’m not one to start conversations with strangers, not even ones my age.  I’ve been approached on occasion by friendly people like you and I reciprocate just fine, but I’m never one to initiate conversations.  Heh, I kind of regret it, because I’ve met some really awesome people and friends through sporadic convos.  There’s probably a lot I’m missing out on.  Well, that’s fine, as long as there are nice people like you going around willing to put up with dorks like me, life’s not too bad, haha.

 

Haha, I’ve been on MAL long enough to realize that some shows are severely underrated or overrated on there.  It has to do with the way the ranking system works.  I don’t think you’re aware of this, but your vote only adds to the average score if you’ve seen one-fifth of the anime, or some other arbitrary number.  This rewards longer shows and hurts shorter ones.  For example, let’s say 1,000 people start watching an anime that is planned to have 25 episodes.  The beginning is, for whatever reason, a train wreck and 900 people drop the show after watching only 1-4 episodes, giving the series 1s-7s.  The other 100 stick it out to the very end and think that the anime is a masterpiece.  They give it 8s and 9s and 10s, and the overall average on MAL ends up being way up in the 9s or at least high 8s.  The vast majority who watched it and disliked it were completely silenced by the algorithm that ranks shows on the site.  Of course, my example is an exaggeration but it demonstrates how broken it can be.  In theory, it prevents people from trolling and giving shows low scores out of hate, but it’s not like they can’t just set the anime as “25/25 complete” and do the same thing.  This is why long shows are severely favored.  If you watch a whopping 39 episodes of a 200 episode anime before dropping it, all that time you spent watching a series (more time than most anime) is all for naught as your opinion isn’t represented.  However, one only needs to watch a measly three episodes of a 12 episode anime to have their rating count.  This is why as much as I use and reply on MAL, it’s rating and ranking needs to be taken with a grain of salt.  Shows like Gintama are severely over-represented (just take a look at the top anime page) while I’ve found a handful of hidden gems rotting away in the 7 or even 6 range, and it’s a terrible pity.  Shows this season like Kekkai Sensen and Punchline are falling under the radar.  I’ve never seen PSG, but similar shows with raw humor like Yondemasu yo Azazel-san are easily swept under the rug and short one-episoders like Harmonie and Voices of a Distant Star are buried into oblivion.  It took a lot of digging and good luck to find these, as you can imagine, haha.  Anywhoooo, this is the second time I’ve rambled so far, and I haven’t even finished my second paragraph yet.  Ohh, are you talking about this SnK trailer, the first ever footage of the series revealed?  Goodness, it’s over five million views now!  December 8th, 2012 huh?  I checked anime news regularly even back then, so that must have been the day I discovered the show.  Time’s been flying ever since.  It still boggles my mind how big this show got.  The trailer had only one to two thousand views when I first saw it.  Same goes for the first opening, which has nearly twenty million views now.

 

Yeah, sasuga oppressive Edison Township school system.  Ah well, I’m out of there soon enough.  It may have limited me in a sense, and I probably would have been happier in a different district, but I managed and I turned out alright if I may say so myself.  I’m not a complete shut-in and I think I’ll work fine in the real world, haha.  Phew, Calc 3?  That’s a thing?  Goodness, that’s crazy.  I know my township is actually trying to improve upon the education system and expand the curriculum by adding an “applied calculus” class that didn’t exist before for seniors who show promise and take an AP Calc course over their sophomore-junior summer and “super calc” as a junior, whatever the Devil that is.  It’s going to be implemented next year.  I guess it’s a step in the right direction.  I see, I realized I never even knew rackets strings could break in the first place.  I didn’t even know there were places to get them fixed, like tennis stores.  That’s really good though!  I guess it can be seen as kind of weird if you get a bit too excited over breaking your strings, but if it’s an indication of how much spin you’ve been putting on the ball then it can’t be all too bad.

 

Brandeis is a pretty neat school, for sure.  It’s one of the newer ones I applied to and probably one of the smallest ones as well.  I liked it a lot over the summer when I visited it, but I’ve since realized it’s probably not the best fit for me.  It has one of the newest and most underdeveloped business programs out of any of the school I’ve applied to.  While it’s overall a great school, I don’t think I’d walk out with a very impressive resume which is one of the reasons I’ve decided not to go.  It’s good that your sister seemed to have a good time there!  What did she study?  Oh gosh, an anime convention.  I’m going to attend one at the end of the school year right before summer starts.  It’s called AnimeNEXT, and it’s pretty much the biggest (or only noteworthy) anime convention in sad, old New Jersey.  Eheheh, I actually haven’t told my parents I’m going yet.  At the end of last year’s AnimeNEXT, they were selling ticket bundles at a discounted price four about a one-week period, for those who knew they were going to attend 2015’s.  A group of my friends convinced me I should go, so I had someone else pay for my ticket.  I’m going to officially ask my parents after AP tests are over and pay him back then, haha.  I’m actually surprised your parents are okay with letting your sister go to a school so far away.  Sure, the Boston area is famous for having an insanely high concentration of good schools, but the drive seems pretty crazy.  My parents only allowed my sister to go to Dartmouth because it was an Ivy League and because, as their first child, they naturally tend to spoil her a bit.  I don’t mean that in a negative way, since she deserves it, haha.  The thing is, my sister was the one who didn’t always handle the distance well.  Apparently, my sister broke down crying her first semester because she was missing home and that sort of put my mom on edge.  Of course, as you could probably tell from the first paragraph, my sister and I are on completely different wavelengths when it comes to a lot things, so I really doubt I’m going to end up like that, but mothers will be mothers.  Also, before moving to Cali my sister had gotten over her home-sickness, so after a decent amount of squabbling my mom let my sister go.  She didn’t actually have much of a choice, since my sister applied for a job in secret, heheh.  My mom just absolutely needs to see my face every once in a while, and while I can definitely video chat her (I’ve never video chatted anyone before, but there’s a first for everything) she still worries about things like my health.  Also, if I ever go back home, I’m going to have to take a plane trip and while I enjoy those my mom is relatively terrified of them and doesn’t really approve of me using that mode of transport.  Ah well, as much as like CWRU my second choice is University of Maryland.  It’s a school my mom would much rather I attend, and though she’s been pretty stubbornly arguing with me this past week since my last post on this topic, just recently she’s starting to lose steam and telling me to do whatever I want as long as I don’t come back crying to her.  I don’t think I’ll be able to make a final decision until the very last day, April 30th, since deposits are due the first of May.  Oh gosh, and Hurricane Sandy was awesome.  I know a lot of people were affected negatively, but here in Edison we just got some strong winds and power outages.  School was out for about a week, so it felt like another fall break, especially since our power went back up after only a day and a half, which was great.  It sucked for those who had no power for the duration of the week though.  UMich is pretty darn cheap in-state, but goodness me that out-of-state tuition is absolutely insane.  It’s nearly on the level of a private school’s cost.  I guess that’s one way to keep to the in-state vs out-of-state quota in check, heh.  I know you probably haven’t thought of this yet, but what kind of colleges do you think you’ll prefer?  Small or large ones?  Nearby or far away?

 

Mhm, I actually never really considered getting amiibo beforehand.  It sucks I didn’t realize Marth would work as Assassin until after the November release date.  He was super easy to preorder back in October and not that hard to find in stores for about a week.  It wasn’t until winter break, when I re-watched Fate/Zero with my sister and started playing Smash 4 that I got really hyped about both and started making connections between F/sn and amiibo.  Luckily, I was able to preorder Sheik and Ike successfully.  Sheik isn’t very rare, but Ike was a to-be unicorn, so I have that going for me.  It’s only going to be harder from this point onward though.  Speaking of which, Walmart released their preorders at an ungodly time just yesterday at three in the goddamn morning and sold out an hour later.  Ironically, you know for this past week that I’ve been staying up super later, well past that time, but Thursday night into Friday morning I unfortunately decided to catch up on sleep.  I can’t believe I was so close yet so far.  If the preorders were only a day or two earlier, I would have been on reddit when it happened and gotten a Lucina, even if it meant waking up parents to snag them, since I don’t have a Paypal or anything.  This sucks, and now I only have Amazon and Target to pin my hopes on.  Target said they weren’t going to be doing preorders, but their intel has been kind of shady when it comes to amiibo so I’ll be keeping an eye out.  Oh, and also, my Mewtwo download codes were e-mailed to me a few days ago.  I haven’t put him in my Wii U version yet, but definitely will when I get the chance.  I would still prefer to give the 3DS code to you over anything else, but the e-mail clearly stated the code expires July 31st of this year, which is a day after your birthday I think?  Sigh, that’s a bummer.  The only thing I can recommend is find a really nice friend of yours who has a 3DS and have him or her buy you Smash.  You can quickly borrow your friend’s 3DS to download Mewtwo onto your game, and then hold onto the cartridge and not play it until you can afford a 3DS/2DS of your own.  Of course, you’re going to have to pay your friend back later for the game, haha.

 

Funny thing is, I’ve had a somewhat better impression of math since I started calc, in other words, when I started senior year, haha.  I don’t count pre-calc since that class was just algebra 3 and I detested algebra, eheheh…  It’s not like I particularly “understand” calc more than algebra, or that I’m more fascinated by it.  It’s just that the class is a lot easier, so maybe I’m convincing myself it’s not as difficult?  Hmm, analyzing can be good, and as much as I like critiquing things I read and watch, I do try and remind myself I’m in it to have fun.  I’m not going to be an English teacher or professor when I grow up (er, I least I don’t think I am), so I don’t always have to be so high strung about things.  Even for anime that I watch, sometimes I give or dock points for petty, subjective reasons.  Hey, I’m only human after all, right?  So though you may read some of my ramblings on good or bad anime elsewhere on this forum, take it with a grain of salt.  I can be a blind fanboy just as often as I’m an unreasonable grader, hahah.  Spring break was pretty fun I guess, but only in retrospect.  The more I try to remember how it went down, the more I realize how much of a mess it was.  I was sick as could be most of the time off, and even now I’m not fully recovered.  I have a really dry cough and I’m sucking on Ricola as I type.  Thank goodness I can’t overdose on these.  The car trips wrecked my sleep schedule, and because I had somehow lost my ability to fight motion sickness I was forced to watch anime when I got to the hotels.  It was then I received a grim reminder that not all places had the Wi-Fi capable of streaming HD anime and watched low quality episodes late into the night, mainly due to the fact that I had to wait for the videos to buffer.  I wouldn’t exactly call it efficient, haha.  I probably didn’t look presentable while visiting colleges, sleep deprived and coughing.  At the very least, I didn’t feel very good about myself.  I don’t think it could compare to that migraine you had a few days back.  Hopefully you’re much better now!  I’ve never had headaches of any kind before, but they sound terrible.  It must have been especially bad if you wanted to kill yourself.  I know you just said that in the heat of the moment, but still, it worried me, eheh.  So yeah, my spring break was kind of janky.  It’s high points were UBW episodes and your birthday gift, haha.

 

Yeah, your prom is super early.  Honestly, the school year never feels quite over until at least after AP tests anyway.  Ehh, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a promposal live before.  Honest, I really haven’t.  Maybe it’s because I have terrible luck or maybe it’s because my class is just doing them in secret instead of during school hours.  They probably do post pictures all over Facebook though.  Though pretty much everyone is paired up at this point from what I can tell, since tickets were put up for sale this past week for a discounted price, there are still a few stragglers.  There’s this one friend of mine who still needs to ask out his girlfriend.  I guess he’s in no rush, but gosh prom is in less than a month and there are APs to worry about in between.  The girls all have their prom dresses picked out, but guys are just procrastinating getting their tuxes to kingdom come.  Ohh, how was prom?  Or rather, how was it from what seniors have been saying?  I know two years ago there was some drama at our prom.  Sigh, what a way to end the year…  My class is terribly unmotivated compared to yours.  We’ve always been nearly dead last at all battle of the classes events.  We only one a small fundraiser this year, but that’s about it.  The juniors pretty much have us at their mercy.  Funny thing is, everyone knew we were short on funds, but no one gave a damn.  It was a bit of a running gag for a while, too.  “Yo, prom in the cafeteria guise!”  It’s nice “we” got our act together at the end.  I use that term loosely, because I actually never helped fundraising at all, haha.  I know last year there was this small effort to get a safe post-prom party organized by the school, but I don’t think it was very successful because we don’t have one this year.  I guess everyone’s just going off to random people’s houses to, urh, do whatever.  Sounds shady as an overcast hell, but whatever.  I’m going to be playing Smash 4 until I pass out, unless my parents decide that as punishment for being a social outcast I wash the dishes or something…

 

Oh geez, speaking of synthetic Christmas trees, we still have ours up in the family room even now, eheh.  I don’t think we’re ever going to take it down, no joke.  I don’t mind though, turning on the lights gives the room a night warm feeling.  Haha, memories of Christmas on a summer’s night; that would interesting.

Edit: Whoops, posted this in a rush and forgot to add some links.  Also, fixed some glaring typos.

Edited April 19, 2015 by Akazora

[Rye 122]

The last video game I played was DanganRonpa 2: Goodbye Despair. It's been around two weeks since I last played, though. It's a pretty cool game.

[Kenzi 146]

 

Ayup, she’s been working there for a few years now.  She studied business in Dartmouth, though I’m not certain what she majored in.  It was something along the lines of a major in finance and a minor in English, or something.  Not the most impressive portfolio on the surface, but hey it’s Dartmouth so it works.  Dartmouth doesn’t even have a designated business school, and the only reason why my sister went there was because she didn’t know what she wanted to study and so applied and ultimately attended to generally highly ranked schools.  If she knew what she wanted to go into business as a high school senior, she probably would have applied to a more cost efficient school.  After all, though everyone starts off Googling “best colleges” and ogling at all the Ivy Leagues lined up nice and neat, everyone eventually realizes those are just schools generally ranked.  A lot of the highly ranked business schools are black horses that most people have never about, just look at this list.  In fact, almost no Ivy Leagues are listed.  Dartmouth is not at all known for its strong business program, because it doesn’t actually have one, haha.  My sister was still able to use its name status to land her a job at Deutsche Bank in NYC immediately after graduation.  It paid a lot and the benefits were good, but my sister had a rough time because she worked long hours, her bosses were kind of bad, and all her income for the first few years went toward paying off her college debts.  That’s why she applied for a job at Disney, in the finance sector.  It didn’t pay as much as the benefits weren’t as great, but the hours were good, the workplace was comfy, and, well, she lives in LA which I hear is amazing, especially for those who want mild weather and clear skies year round.  According to my sister, it’s paradise.  Once you’re there once, you never want to leave, unless you’re craving snow I guess.  She has a lot of free time now.  Sometimes she goes to museums, other times to charity events, and occasionally she gets together with friends to go on a road trip.  Every once in a while, since my sister’s a social butterfly, she’ll also go out to a club and party, drink a bit.  Even though she’s just started graduate school at UCLA and she’s been a bit busier, I think she’s still enjoying life.  Eheh, I know I’ve strayed off topic quite a bit, sorry about that.  Whenever I’m waiting in line for something, if possible I whip out my DS and play a bit.  Nothing too big, maybe a bit of grinding or soft resetting or a solo run.  I can imagine how strange I must look, standing in lines in the modern day and playing with a rickety old flip-screen stylus device instead of the smart phones every third person is staring into.  If I’m with my brother and/or sister, we talk and whatnot, and if I’m with friends or acquaintances we chat a bit as well.  But I’m not one to start conversations with strangers, not even ones my age.  I’ve been approached on occasion by friendly people like you and I reciprocate just fine, but I’m never one to initiate conversations.  Heh, I kind of regret it, because I’ve met some really awesome people and friends through sporadic convos.  There’s probably a lot I’m missing out on.  Well, that’s fine, as long as there are nice people like you going around willing to put up with dorks like me, life’s not too bad, haha.

 

Haha, I’ve been on MAL long enough to realize that some shows are severely underrated or overrated on there.  It has to do with the way the ranking system works.  I don’t think you’re aware of this, but your vote only adds to the average score if you’ve seen one-fifth of the anime, or some other arbitrary number.  This rewards longer shows and hurts shorter ones.  For example, let’s say 1,000 people start watching an anime that is planned to have 25 episodes.  The beginning is, for whatever reason, a train wreck and 900 people drop the show after watching only 1-4 episodes, giving the series 1s-7s.  The other 100 stick it out to the very end and think that the anime is a masterpiece.  They give it 8s and 9s and 10s, and the overall average on MAL ends up being way up in the 9s or at least high 8s.  The vast majority who watched it and disliked it were completely silenced by the algorithm that ranks shows on the site.  Of course, my example is an exaggeration but it demonstrates how broken it can be.  In theory, it prevents people from trolling and giving shows low scores out of hate, but it’s not like they can’t just set the anime as “25/25 complete” and do the same thing.  This is why long shows are severely favored.  If you watch a whopping 39 episodes of a 200 episode anime before dropping it, all that time you spent watching a series (more time than most anime) is all for naught as your opinion isn’t represented.  However, one only needs to watch a measly three episodes of a 12 episode anime to have their rating count.  This is why as much as I use and reply on MAL, it’s rating and ranking needs to be taken with a grain of salt.  Shows like Gintama are severely over-represented (just take a look at the top anime page) while I’ve found a handful of hidden gems rotting away in the 7 or even 6 range, and it’s a terrible pity.  Shows this season like Kekkai Sensen and Punchline are falling under the radar.  I’ve never seen PSG, but similar shows with raw humor like Yondemasu yo Azazel-san are easily swept under the rug and short one-episoders like Harmonie and Voices of a Distant Star are buried into oblivion.  It took a lot of digging and good luck to find these, as you can imagine, haha.  Anywhoooo, this is the second time I’ve rambled so far, and I haven’t even finished my second paragraph yet.  Ohh, are you talking about this SnK trailer, the first ever footage of the series revealed?  Goodness, it’s over five million views now!  December 8th, 2012 huh?  I checked anime news regularly even back then, so that must have been the day I discovered the show.  Time’s been flying ever since.  It still boggles my mind how big this show got.  The trailer had only one to two thousand views when I first saw it.  Same goes for the first opening, which has nearly twenty million views now.

 

Yeah, sasuga oppressive Edison Township school system.  Ah well, I’m out of there soon enough.  It may have limited me in a sense, and I probably would have been happier in a different district, but I managed and I turned out alright if I may say so myself.  I’m not a complete shut-in and I think I’ll work fine in the real world, haha.  Phew, Calc 3?  That’s a thing?  Goodness, that’s crazy.  I know my township is actually trying to improve upon the education system and expand the curriculum by adding an “applied calculus” class that didn’t exist before for seniors who show promise and take an AP Calc course over their sophomore-junior summer and “super calc” as a junior, whatever the Devil that is.  It’s going to be implemented next year.  I guess it’s a step in the right direction.  I see, I realized I never even knew rackets strings could break in the first place.  I didn’t even know there were places to get them fixed, like tennis stores.  That’s really good though!  I guess it can be seen as kind of weird if you get a bit too excited over breaking your strings, but if it’s an indication of how much spin you’ve been putting on the ball then it can’t be all too bad.

 

Brandeis is a pretty neat school, for sure.  It’s one of the newer ones I applied to and probably one of the smallest ones as well.  I liked it a lot over the summer when I visited it, but I’ve since realized it’s probably not the best fit for me.  It has one of the newest and most underdeveloped business programs out of any of the school I’ve applied to.  While it’s overall a great school, I don’t think I’d walk out with a very impressive resume which is one of the reasons I’ve decided not to go.  It’s good that your sister seemed to have a good time there!  What did she study?  Oh gosh, an anime convention.  I’m going to attend one at the end of the school year right before summer starts.  It’s called AnimeNEXT, and it’s pretty much the biggest (or only noteworthy) anime convention in sad, old New Jersey.  Eheheh, I actually haven’t told my parents I’m going yet.  At the end of last year’s AnimeNEXT, they were selling ticket bundles at a discounted price four about a one-week period, for those who knew they were going to attend 2015’s.  A group of my friends convinced me I should go, so I had someone else pay for my ticket.  I’m going to officially ask my parents after AP tests are over and pay him back then, haha.  I’m actually surprised your parents are okay with letting your sister go to a school so far away.  Sure, the Boston area is famous for having an insanely high concentration of good schools, but the drive seems pretty crazy.  My parents only allowed my sister to go to Dartmouth because it was an Ivy League and because, as their first child, they naturally tend to spoil her a bit.  I don’t mean that in a negative way, since she deserves it, haha.  The thing is, my sister was the one who didn’t always handle the distance well.  Apparently, my sister broke down crying her first semester because she was missing home and that sort of put my mom on edge.  Of course, as you could probably tell from the first paragraph, my sister and I are on completely different wavelengths when it comes to a lot things, so I really doubt I’m going to end up like that, but mothers will be mothers.  Also, before moving to Cali my sister had gotten over her home-sickness, so after a decent amount of squabbling my mom let my sister go.  She didn’t actually have much of a choice, since my sister applied for a job in secret, heheh.  My mom just absolutely needs to see my face every once in a while, and while I can definitely video chat her (I’ve never video chatted anyone before, but there’s a first for everything) she still worries about things like my health.  Also, if I ever go back home, I’m going to have to take a plane trip and while I enjoy those my mom is relatively terrified of them and doesn’t really approve of me using that mode of transport.  Ah well, as much as like CWRU my second choice is University of Maryland.  It’s a school my mom would much rather I attend, and though she’s been pretty stubbornly arguing with me this past week since my last post on this topic, just recently she’s starting to lose steam and telling me to do whatever I want as long as I don’t come back crying to her.  I don’t think I’ll be able to make a final decision until the very last day, April 30th, since deposits are due the first of May.  Oh gosh, and Hurricane Sandy was awesome.  I know a lot of people were affected negatively, but here in Edison we just got some strong winds and power outages.  School was out for about a week, so it felt like another fall break, especially since our power went back up after only a day and a half, which was great.  It sucked for those who had no power for the duration of the week though.  UMich is pretty darn cheap in-state, but goodness me that out-of-state tuition is absolutely insane.  It’s nearly on the level of a private school’s cost.  I guess that’s one way to keep to the in-state vs out-of-state quota in check, heh.  I know you probably haven’t thought of this yet, but what kind of colleges do you think you’ll prefer?  Small or large ones?  Nearby or far away?

 

Mhm, I actually never really considered getting amiibo beforehand.  It sucks I didn’t realize Marth would work as Assassin until after the November release date.  He was super easy to preorder back in October and not that hard to find in stores for about a week.  It wasn’t until winter break, when I re-watched Fate/Zero with my sister and started playing Smash 4 that I got really hyped about both and started making connections between F/sn and amiibo.  Luckily, I was able to preorder Sheik and Ike successfully.  Sheik isn’t very rare, but Ike was a to-be unicorn, so I have that going for me.  It’s only going to be harder from this point onward though.  Speaking of which, Walmart released their preorders at an ungodly time just yesterday at three in the goddamn morning and sold out an hour later.  Ironically, you know for this past week that I’ve been staying up super later, well past that time, but Thursday night into Friday morning I unfortunately decided to catch up on sleep.  I can’t believe I was so close yet so far.  If the preorders were only a day or two earlier, I would have been on reddit when it happened and gotten a Lucina, even if it meant waking up parents to snag them, since I don’t have a Paypal or anything.  This sucks, and now I only have Amazon and Target to pin my hopes on.  Target said they weren’t going to be doing preorders, but their intel has been kind of shady when it comes to amiibo so I’ll be keeping an eye out.  Oh, and also, my Mewtwo download codes were e-mailed to me a few days ago.  I haven’t put him in my Wii U version yet, but definitely will when I get the chance.  I would still prefer to give the 3DS code to you over anything else, but the e-mail clearly stated the code expires July 31st of this year, which is a day after your birthday I think?  Sigh, that’s a bummer.  The only thing I can recommend is find a really nice friend of yours who has a 3DS and have him or her buy you Smash.  You can quickly borrow your friend’s 3DS to download Mewtwo onto your game, and then hold onto the cartridge and not play it until you can afford a 3DS/2DS of your own.  Of course, you’re going to have to pay your friend back later for the game, haha.

 

Funny thing is, I’ve had a somewhat better impression of math since I started calc, in other words, when I started senior year, haha.  I don’t count pre-calc since that class was just algebra 3 and I detested algebra, eheheh…  It’s not like I particularly “understand” calc more than algebra, or that I’m more fascinated by it.  It’s just that the class is a lot easier, so maybe I’m convincing myself it’s not as difficult?  Hmm, analyzing can be good, and as much as I like critiquing things I read and watch, I do try and remind myself I’m in it to have fun.  I’m not going to be an English teacher or professor when I grow up (er, I least I don’t think I am), so I don’t always have to be so high strung about things.  Even for anime that I watch, sometimes I give or dock points for petty, subjective reasons.  Hey, I’m only human after all, right?  So though you may read some of my ramblings on good or bad anime elsewhere on this forum, take it with a grain of salt.  I can be a blind fanboy just as often as I’m an unreasonable grader, hahah.  Spring break was pretty fun I guess, but only in retrospect.  The more I try to remember how it went down, the more I realize how much of a mess it was.  I was sick as could be most of the time off, and even now I’m not fully recovered.  I have a really dry cough and I’m sucking on Ricola as I type.  Thank goodness I can’t overdose on these.  The car trips wrecked my sleep schedule, and because I had somehow lost my ability to fight motion sickness I was forced to watch anime when I got to the hotels.  It was then I received a grim reminder that not all places had the Wi-Fi capable of streaming HD anime and watched low quality episodes late into the night, mainly due to the fact that I had to wait for the videos to buffer.  I wouldn’t exactly call it efficient, haha.  I probably didn’t look presentable while visiting colleges, sleep deprived and coughing.  At the very least, I didn’t feel very good about myself.  I don’t think it could compare to that migraine you had a few days back.  Hopefully you’re much better now!  I’ve never had headaches of any kind before, but they sound terrible.  It must have been especially bad if you wanted to kill yourself.  I know you just said that in the heat of the moment, but still, it worried me, eheh.  So yeah, my spring break was kind of janky.  It’s high points were UBW episodes and your birthday gift, haha.

 

Yeah, your prom is super early.  Honestly, the school year never feels quite over until at least after AP tests anyway.  Ehh, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a promposal live before.  Honest, I really haven’t.  Maybe it’s because I have terrible luck or maybe it’s because my class is just doing them in secret instead of during school hours.  They probably do post pictures all over Facebook though.  Though pretty much everyone is paired up at this point from what I can tell, since tickets were put up for sale this past week for a discounted price, there are still a few stragglers.  There’s this one friend of mine who still needs to ask out his girlfriend.  I guess he’s in no rush, but gosh prom is in less than a month and there are APs to worry about in between.  The girls all have their prom dresses picked out, but guys are just procrastinating getting their tuxes to kingdom come.  Ohh, how was prom?  Or rather, how was it from what seniors have been saying?  I know two years ago there was some drama at our prom.  Sigh, what a way to end the year…  My class is terribly unmotivated compared to yours.  We’ve always been nearly dead last at all battle of the classes events.  We only one a small fundraiser this year, but that’s about it.  The juniors pretty much have us at their mercy.  Funny thing is, everyone knew we were short on funds, but no one gave a damn.  It was a bit of a running gag for a while, too.  “Yo, prom in the cafeteria guise!”  It’s nice “we” got our act together at the end.  I use that term loosely, because I actually never helped fundraising at all, haha.  I know last year there was this small effort to get a safe post-prom party organized by the school, but I don’t think it was very successful because we don’t have one this year.  I guess everyone’s just going off to random people’s houses to, urh, do whatever.  Sounds shady as an overcast hell, but whatever.  I’m going to be playing Smash 4 until I pass out, unless my parents decide that as punishment for being a social outcast I wash the dishes or something…

 

Oh geez, speaking of synthetic Christmas trees, we still have ours up in the family room even now, eheh.  I don’t think we’re ever going to take it down, no joke.  I don’t mind though, turning on the lights gives the room a night warm feeling.  Haha, memories of Christmas on a summer’s night; that would interesting.

Edit: Whoops, posted this in a rush and forgot to add some links.  Also, fixed some glaring typos.

 

Our orchestra is going on a trip, so I’ll be gone for the rest of the week. I decided to post this early because I’ll be leaving tomorrow midday, haha.

 

Ivy Leagues have such a high reputation that doing anything at one of the schools seems impressive—even if the program is a bit lackluster. Getting into an Ivy League is a remarkable feat in itself, so it all evens out in the end, haha. Gosh, it seems like your sister is living the dream right now. I’ve heard so many positive comments about UCLA’s campus, so it’s great that she’s enjoying life at the moment! A job at Disney is awesome. Even if it means less pay, I’d think that everything else the job has to offer completely makes up for it. My parents often joke about moving to Cali because of how nice it is over there. Michigan weather can be awful, and we have a running joke around here that we only have two seasons: winter and summer. We might experience 60* conditions on one day, and 40* conditions on the next. Living in Cali would be a nice break from Michigan’s bipolar weather, but I’d have to sacrifice the snow. And not to mention, half of my wardrobe would become obsolete, lol. My DS is currently collecting dust because I’ve done everything there is to do with the games. I can’t go on wifi since it’s been shut down, and I’m too stubborn to reset my games for sentimental reasons. Ahh, well, hopefully that won’t happen once I get my hands on a 3DS. I bring my phone everywhere with me nowadays. People ask me to exchange numbers with them, the tennis team uses a group chat to inform us about whether or not a match has been canceled, and it’s a lot more convenient than using a PC to check my email. I remember telling myself back in middle school that I didn’t want to turn into one of those people who’re obsessed with their phones. Although I don’t think I reached that level of obsession yet, I can’t help but feel like I’ve failed myself for relying on it so much now, haha. I guess the apps are also nice ways to keep myself entertained when I’m waiting in line and have no one to talk to, I suppose. I still try to talk to people whenever I can though. Recently, I made a new friend (or acquaintance I guess) after discovering that he’s applying to the same summer program that I did. We had some small talk about how we discovered it while waiting in line in the counseling office. It’s easiest to approach people when you find out that you have similarities with them, and I’ve made many of my friends just through that. And I think it’s also how I met you—which I’m grateful about, haha.

 

Oh geez, I never realized that there was a certain system for this rating business on MAL. But in hindsight, I still think this system beats the usual of counting everyone’s rating equally. There really is no way of getting an “accurate” rating of a show because different people have different things that appeal to them. And likewise, different people also have different rating systems—so a 5 from one person could be equivalent to a 7 from another person, if that makes sense. I do agree that the current MAL system is a bit broken, but it’s impossible for all anime to rated from the same ground. Most anime sitting at 6s or 7s usually have reasons for being there, which is why I tend to steer away from them unless something catches my eye. In PSG’s case, it was probably the trollish nature of the show (which I absolutely loved) or the profanity that turned people away. And for this reason, I usually don’t recommend this anime as something people should watch. Even though I enjoyed its raw humor, its appeal isn’t universal--you either love it or hate it. But we could also create a system where we compare anime of similar genre. For example, magical girl anime could be compared with other magical girl anime, slice of life anime could be compared with other slice of life anime, etc. It’s not much improvement from the current rating system, but this method of ranking could provide some form of common ground, albeit not much. Maybe even create a system that shows the demographics of each show? How big the fanbase is could also cause inflation in ranking, which--unfortunately like you said--can cause hidden gems to go left unnoticed. Keeping up with new seasons of anime can help unearth these hidden gems, which I guess is a benefit that comes from being an avid anime veteran, haha. Gosh, I only started on SnK towards the end of freshman year. I started right when episode 7 aired and I was hooked. I didn’t expect it to blow up as much as it did, though I’m glad I was able to experience the hype with everyone. It’s times like this when I wonder how it got so popular. Was it the art that stood out? Was it the plotline or characters? There are lots of anime out there with plotlines much more unique than SnK’s. For all I know, it might have blown up for the same reason Gangnam Style blew up. Ahh, the internet will never cease to surprise me.

 

Apparently calc 3 is supposed to be some college class that isn’t offered in the normal school curriculum (it comes after calc 1 and 2, which is the BC course), so those who take it only do so to fill up a math credit. Geez, your school is going to let people take AP Calc over the summer? There’s a lot of material in an AP class and two months usually isn’t enough to cover it all. It took BC around one semester to finish the calc 1 material, and we just finished the calc 2 material right before spring break started. To fit all of that over one summer is insane. Even fitting the AB course in one summer is a bit much. Gosh, and I thought chem online was bad. Also, I’m not trying to sound overly critical or anything, but “super calc” sounds a bit silly, haha. It's good that your district is revamping the education system though! Yeah, I didn’t even realize we had a tennis store nearby until a few years ago when a coach told me. Strings aren’t supposed to break too often so breaking mine felt like an accomplishment. Or maybe it’s just me, lol. 

 

The cost of going to Brandeis is getting far too high now, so my sister is fortunate to be graduating this year. Even I initially thought about applying there, but I guess that’s not going to happen now, haha. My sister is majoring in econ and has a minor in comp sci, which I have no idea what she’s planning to do with. I don’t think my parents care too much about how far away a school is as long as there’s a sensible reason for going there. If I got into an Ivy League or if I got a scholarship into some far away college, they’d probably be okay with it. Otherwise, I’d be out of luck. Afraid of plane rides? Plane rides are relatively safe and very rarely will any problems occur. There’s nothing to be afraid of, really. But if your mom is that against it, I guess it can’t be helped. You don’t seem like the kind of person who’d regret going to CWRU since it gave you such a good impression. University of Maryland isn’t a bad choice either, but I’d go with whichever appeals to my interests more. Remember, it’s you who’s going to spend four years of your life there, not your parents, haha. Unless there’s some huge tuition difference between the two, or maybe if the living conditions or expenses of either are subpar, I’d much rather go to a school that would give me the better college experience. Of course, that also includes factoring in surrounding cities and potential programs or opportunities, so it’s a pretty tough decision. Your mom might be right in wanting to keep you close to home, but it’s ultimately up to you to decide. I’m sure you’ll be fine wherever you go, haha. I don’t really have a preference in colleges at the moment. The size doesn’t matter to me, though the distance may bug my parents a bit when they’re moving my stuff if it’s far away, lol. Oh, and let me know how that anime convention goes if you attend! 

 

Ohh, so it wasn’t until winter break when you started investing time into getting amiibos? That’s actually fairly recent, haha. Was there any particular reason why the connections you made with the Fate series compelled you to buy amiibo counterparts? Oh gosh, your parents would allow you to wake them up in the middle of the night to let you buy amiibos? And why on earth would Walmart open up preorders at three in the morning? Geez, that’s awfully cruel of them. If it’ll help, you could create your own PayPal and have your parents store some money in there so you won’t have to bug them. From my experience, I think PayPal is almost universal (except for competing sites like Amazon), so it really helps to have a bit of money in there when you’re in a pinch. If not, you could get a debit card (either that or a credit card which you’ll have to get anyway if you plan on reaping the full benefits of PayPal). Good luck with your amiibo hunting endeavors! I don’t mind that the Mewtwo code expires on my birthday. I could always buy one when the time comes, which is perfectly okay with me. Buying Smash isn’t top priority for me at the moment since I’d rather wait until college to play it. Thank you for the suggestion though, haha.

 

A lot of my friends have also had better impressions of math after starting calc. These were the same people who were struggling in pre-calc the previous year, so they decided upon themselves that AB was a better investment than BC. They ended up getting high As as their final grades because of how much easier it was for them. First semester was a complete mess for us, but all of my AB friends were breezing through the class with no trouble. Naturally, how much you love a subject can depend on how well you’re doing in the class. So yeah, most of my AB friends ended up reconciling a love for math, while most of the BC kids ended up dreading its existence, haha. I don’t consider myself a reasonable grader either, especially since I do hold a bias for certain shows. I don’t trust ratings as much as I do reviews. Rating systems vary from person to person so a number rating can be meaningless at times. But by the same token, some of these reviews seem like they’re written by blind fanboys or fangirls who praise every aspect of the show, which is why I’m so wary about what I watch these days. Oh gosh, you still haven’t recovered from your cold yet? I really dislike that dry, scratchy feeling in the back of my throat from the aftermath of a cold. I’m assuming that this is what you’re experiencing at the moment. I hope you get well soon! During one of my road trips, I discovered this handy trick that allowed me to watch anime without the need for immediate wifi: open up a window or tab with anime you want to watch and wait for it to fully load in an area with wifi before you leave on your trip. Then you’re all set. Once the video is fully loaded, you no longer need wifi to watch it (as long as you don’t close your windows or anything). It’s not so much a trick as it is a silly practice I use during road trips or airplane rides, so I wouldn’t be surprised if this ends up being a useless “suggestion” for you, haha. Of course, you could also download the episodes beforehand, but that’s if you don’t mind how much space they’ll take up. Most of my headaches come from playing tennis as a result of dehydration. I rarely get “normal” headaches these days. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I had one of those. Headaches vary in intensity for me, so all I can do is swallow an ibuprofen pill and hope for the best. I typically get these headaches a couple times a month, although most of them tend to be mild enough for me to sleep them off. The one I had last week just happened to be especially agonizing, but I don’t get those too often. I appreciate your concern though; the message was very heartwarming, haha. 

 

Our prom is usually in May so I really have no idea what they were thinking when the date was changed to April this year. From the Facebook pictures I’ve seen, a lot of the seniors seemed to have a nice time there, so that’s good, haha. Prom is usually a huge deal for the seniors at our school so I was rather surprised by the lack of fundraising at your school. Our school isn’t exactly rolling around in money either, but most people around here tend to care enough to participate in fundraising. For example, at the beginning of the year, our school sells carnations at a dollar per flower (along with a personalized message) and has them delivered to classrooms right before homecoming. Most people buy them for friends and it’s arguably one of the biggest fundraisers we have.

 

Ahaha, I don’t think my parents even bothered to put up the Christmas tree this year since we spent most of our winter vacation down in Florida. Do you normally leave it up till spring?

[Akazora 293]

Our orchestra is going on a trip, so I’ll be gone for the rest of the week. I decided to post this early because I’ll be leaving tomorrow midday, haha.

 

Ivy Leagues have such a high reputation that doing anything at one of the schools seems impressive—even if the program is a bit lackluster. Getting into an Ivy League is a remarkable feat in itself, so it all evens out in the end, haha. Gosh, it seems like your sister is living the dream right now. I’ve heard so many positive comments about UCLA’s campus, so it’s great that she’s enjoying life at the moment! A job at Disney is awesome. Even if it means less pay, I’d think that everything else the job has to offer completely makes up for it. My parents often joke about moving to Cali because of how nice it is over there. Michigan weather can be awful, and we have a running joke around here that we only have two seasons: winter and summer. We might experience 60* conditions on one day, and 40* conditions on the next. Living in Cali would be a nice break from Michigan’s bipolar weather, but I’d have to sacrifice the snow. And not to mention, half of my wardrobe would become obsolete, lol. My DS is currently collecting dust because I’ve done everything there is to do with the games. I can’t go on wifi since it’s been shut down, and I’m too stubborn to reset my games for sentimental reasons. Ahh, well, hopefully that won’t happen once I get my hands on a 3DS. I bring my phone everywhere with me nowadays. People ask me to exchange numbers with them, the tennis team uses a group chat to inform us about whether or not a match has been canceled, and it’s a lot more convenient than using a PC to check my email. I remember telling myself back in middle school that I didn’t want to turn into one of those people who’re obsessed with their phones. Although I don’t think I reached that level of obsession yet, I can’t help but feel like I’ve failed myself for relying on it so much now, haha. I guess the apps are also nice ways to keep myself entertained when I’m waiting in line and have no one to talk to, I suppose. I still try to talk to people whenever I can though. Recently, I made a new friend (or acquaintance I guess) after discovering that he’s applying to the same summer program that I did. We had some small talk about how we discovered it while waiting in line in the counseling office. It’s easiest to approach people when you find out that you have similarities with them, and I’ve made many of my friends just through that. And I think it’s also how I met you—which I’m grateful about, haha.

 

Oh geez, I never realized that there was a certain system for this rating business on MAL. But in hindsight, I still think this system beats the usual of counting everyone’s rating equally. There really is no way of getting an “accurate” rating of a show because different people have different things that appeal to them. And likewise, different people also have different rating systems—so a 5 from one person could be equivalent to a 7 from another person, if that makes sense. I do agree that the current MAL system is a bit broken, but it’s impossible for all anime to rated from the same ground. Most anime sitting at 6s or 7s usually have reasons for being there, which is why I tend to steer away from them unless something catches my eye. In PSG’s case, it was probably the trollish nature of the show (which I absolutely loved) or the profanity that turned people away. And for this reason, I usually don’t recommend this anime as something people should watch. Even though I enjoyed its raw humor, its appeal isn’t universal--you either love it or hate it. But we could also create a system where we compare anime of similar genre. For example, magical girl anime could be compared with other magical girl anime, slice of life anime could be compared with other slice of life anime, etc. It’s not much improvement from the current rating system, but this method of ranking could provide some form of common ground, albeit not much. Maybe even create a system that shows the demographics of each show? How big the fanbase is could also cause inflation in ranking, which--unfortunately like you said--can cause hidden gems to go left unnoticed. Keeping up with new seasons of anime can help unearth these hidden gems, which I guess is a benefit that comes from being an avid anime veteran, haha. Gosh, I only started on SnK towards the end of freshman year. I started right when episode 7 aired and I was hooked. I didn’t expect it to blow up as much as it did, though I’m glad I was able to experience the hype with everyone. It’s times like this when I wonder how it got so popular. Was it the art that stood out? Was it the plotline or characters? There are lots of anime out there with plotlines much more unique than SnK’s. For all I know, it might have blown up for the same reason Gangnam Style blew up. Ahh, the internet will never cease to surprise me.

 

Apparently calc 3 is supposed to be some college class that isn’t offered in the normal school curriculum (it comes after calc 1 and 2, which is the BC course), so those who take it only do so to fill up a math credit. Geez, your school is going to let people take AP Calc over the summer? There’s a lot of material in an AP class and two months usually isn’t enough to cover it all. It took BC around one semester to finish the calc 1 material, and we just finished the calc 2 material right before spring break started. To fit all of that over one summer is insane. Even fitting the AB course in one summer is a bit much. Gosh, and I thought chem online was bad. Also, I’m not trying to sound overly critical or anything, but “super calc” sounds a bit silly, haha. It's good that your district is revamping the education system though! Yeah, I didn’t even realize we had a tennis store nearby until a few years ago when a coach told me. Strings aren’t supposed to break too often so breaking mine felt like an accomplishment. Or maybe it’s just me, lol. 

 

The cost of going to Brandeis is getting far too high now, so my sister is fortunate to be graduating this year. Even I initially thought about applying there, but I guess that’s not going to happen now, haha. My sister is majoring in econ and has a minor in comp sci, which I have no idea what she’s planning to do with. I don’t think my parents care too much about how far away a school is as long as there’s a sensible reason for going there. If I got into an Ivy League or if I got a scholarship into some far away college, they’d probably be okay with it. Otherwise, I’d be out of luck. Afraid of plane rides? Plane rides are relatively safe and very rarely will any problems occur. There’s nothing to be afraid of, really. But if your mom is that against it, I guess it can’t be helped. You don’t seem like the kind of person who’d regret going to CWRU since it gave you such a good impression. University of Maryland isn’t a bad choice either, but I’d go with whichever appeals to my interests more. Remember, it’s you who’s going to spend four years of your life there, not your parents, haha. Unless there’s some huge tuition difference between the two, or maybe if the living conditions or expenses of either are subpar, I’d much rather go to a school that would give me the better college experience. Of course, that also includes factoring in surrounding cities and potential programs or opportunities, so it’s a pretty tough decision. Your mom might be right in wanting to keep you close to home, but it’s ultimately up to you to decide. I’m sure you’ll be fine wherever you go, haha. I don’t really have a preference in colleges at the moment. The size doesn’t matter to me, though the distance may bug my parents a bit when they’re moving my stuff if it’s far away, lol. Oh, and let me know how that anime convention goes if you attend! 

 

Ohh, so it wasn’t until winter break when you started investing time into getting amiibos? That’s actually fairly recent, haha. Was there any particular reason why the connections you made with the Fate series compelled you to buy amiibo counterparts? Oh gosh, your parents would allow you to wake them up in the middle of the night to let you buy amiibos? And why on earth would Walmart open up preorders at three in the morning? Geez, that’s awfully cruel of them. If it’ll help, you could create your own PayPal and have your parents store some money in there so you won’t have to bug them. From my experience, I think PayPal is almost universal (except for competing sites like Amazon), so it really helps to have a bit of money in there when you’re in a pinch. If not, you could get a debit card (either that or a credit card which you’ll have to get anyway if you plan on reaping the full benefits of PayPal). Good luck with your amiibo hunting endeavors! I don’t mind that the Mewtwo code expires on my birthday. I could always buy one when the time comes, which is perfectly okay with me. Buying Smash isn’t top priority for me at the moment since I’d rather wait until college to play it. Thank you for the suggestion though, haha.

 

A lot of my friends have also had better impressions of math after starting calc. These were the same people who were struggling in pre-calc the previous year, so they decided upon themselves that AB was a better investment than BC. They ended up getting high As as their final grades because of how much easier it was for them. First semester was a complete mess for us, but all of my AB friends were breezing through the class with no trouble. Naturally, how much you love a subject can depend on how well you’re doing in the class. So yeah, most of my AB friends ended up reconciling a love for math, while most of the BC kids ended up dreading its existence, haha. I don’t consider myself a reasonable grader either, especially since I do hold a bias for certain shows. I don’t trust ratings as much as I do reviews. Rating systems vary from person to person so a number rating can be meaningless at times. But by the same token, some of these reviews seem like they’re written by blind fanboys or fangirls who praise every aspect of the show, which is why I’m so wary about what I watch these days. Oh gosh, you still haven’t recovered from your cold yet? I really dislike that dry, scratchy feeling in the back of my throat from the aftermath of a cold. I’m assuming that this is what you’re experiencing at the moment. I hope you get well soon! During one of my road trips, I discovered this handy trick that allowed me to watch anime without the need for immediate wifi: open up a window or tab with anime you want to watch and wait for it to fully load in an area with wifi before you leave on your trip. Then you’re all set. Once the video is fully loaded, you no longer need wifi to watch it (as long as you don’t close your windows or anything). It’s not so much a trick as it is a silly practice I use during road trips or airplane rides, so I wouldn’t be surprised if this ends up being a useless “suggestion” for you, haha. Of course, you could also download the episodes beforehand, but that’s if you don’t mind how much space they’ll take up. Most of my headaches come from playing tennis as a result of dehydration. I rarely get “normal” headaches these days. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I had one of those. Headaches vary in intensity for me, so all I can do is swallow an ibuprofen pill and hope for the best. I typically get these headaches a couple times a month, although most of them tend to be mild enough for me to sleep them off. The one I had last week just happened to be especially agonizing, but I don’t get those too often. I appreciate your concern though; the message was very heartwarming, haha. 

 

Our prom is usually in May so I really have no idea what they were thinking when the date was changed to April this year. From the Facebook pictures I’ve seen, a lot of the seniors seemed to have a nice time there, so that’s good, haha. Prom is usually a huge deal for the seniors at our school so I was rather surprised by the lack of fundraising at your school. Our school isn’t exactly rolling around in money either, but most people around here tend to care enough to participate in fundraising. For example, at the beginning of the year, our school sells carnations at a dollar per flower (along with a personalized message) and has them delivered to classrooms right before homecoming. Most people buy them for friends and it’s arguably one of the biggest fundraisers we have.

 

Ahaha, I don’t think my parents even bothered to put up the Christmas tree this year since we spent most of our winter vacation down in Florida. Do you normally leave it up till spring?

Oohh, an orchestra trip!  Awesome, I hope you have fun!  Where are you going?  Or I guess, once you read this, it would be more like “Where did you go?”  I’d like to hear all about it, haha.  It seems all music related trips are organized this way.  The yearly band and orchestra trips at my school start on Wednesdays after school or Thursdays in the morning and last until Sunday at night (which is when I assume your trip will end).

 

(Ah yes, and I’ve decided to cut up the paragraphs, since those bloated things were getting out of hand.)

 

Yeah, getting into an Ivy League is definitely impressive.  That being said, not getting into an Ivy League isn’t a slight on your ability to do well in college either.  The biggest factor that determines whether or not an Ivy League school will accept you is luck.  It’s like seventy percent luck and thirty percent preparation, which consists of grades, extra curriculars, SAT/ACT scores, demonstrated interested, race, etc.  There are a ton of really talented and deserving people I know, both in this senior class and senior classes prior, that should have gotten into Ivy Leagues but didn’t.  Their resumes were jam-packed with stuff, and they honestly put my profile to shame.  I had a ton of respect for them and felt that at least one Ivy League school was in the bag.  It’s a shame none of these people were accepted and had to settle for something a little less.  All still really good schools and everything, but they had the potential for something much greater, that’s for sure.  And it’s only getting harder from this point out.  A perfect SAT score means much less than it did ten years ago.  I’m just really glad I got into as many as I did, haha.  Really, you have no idea how bad my math grades were sophomore and junior year.  You know I’m really honest and open about things, but gosh those grades are embarrassing enough for me not to say out loud, eheheh.  

 

I’ve considered at the very least visiting California, or heck the west coast in general.  Not sure if I’d be willing to live in LA permanently, but it’s like Young People City, USA there.  A ton of Americanized Asians and it always seems to be on the cutting on edge of what’s hip, cool, and “in”.  It’s not just rumors or hearsay either; my sister insists LA is probably one of the few places in the world that lives up to the hype of the stereotype.  It’s really enticing I must say, but as you said I’d have to give up snow.  And I’ve always been a winter person more than any other kind of season person.  I’m just more comfortable wearing a comfy sweater than a t-shirt, and I’m not sure if I’d be okay with wearing shorts all year round.  

 

Aw, but there are still so many things you can experience with the old DS, like Ace Attorney and 999.  As I suggested a while ago, you should invest in a bootleg DS chip that can play roms, like the M3 DS Simply.  It will play any DS game you want, so it would save you the money the entire AA library would cost you.  Maybe look into it in college?  

 

Gasp!  You’ve become one of those people!?  I don’t think we can be friends anymore…  Nah, just kidding, I don’t discriminate.  I’m overly attached to my gaming consoles, and while I don’t bring them around with me everywhere I wouldn’t want others to judge my character because of that, so I won’t judge a person based on how often they check their texts.  Well, of course, if they’re obnoxious about it and put lives at risk by texting while driving that’s a different case, but still.  I’m a stubborn guy, so even when I’m off to college I’ll probably be super detached from my cellphone.  I have this bad habit: whenever my parents lend me a phone to hold on to when I go on a school trip or something, I keep it off.  I only turn it on to call someone, and after the call is made I shut it right back down and don’t think about it until I need to make another call, heheh.

 

The problem with me is that even if I know I have something in common with somebody and consider talking to them, I end up chickening out because I’m just shy and self-conscious enough to keep my mouth shut.  As I’ve said before, I don’t think I give people very good first impressions, honest.  I don’t smile very often, and my resting face gives off bad vibes.  I also stutter a bit more than I’d like with strangers.  I feel like I’d scare off most people I try to get to know.  This is why I probably don’t say anything unless approached, eheh.  Pathetic, I know, but I can’t really help it.  I’ll try to get my act together when I go to college though.  And yes, I’m also really grateful for our friendship brought on by our mutual interested in Pokemon.  You’d think someone like me would have no luck when it comes to making good friends, haha.

 

I was actually kind of surprised when I found that you liked PSG.  As you can imagine, it’s something nearly all girls I know, anime watchers or not, would steer clear from given its heavy sexualization and profanity.  Honestly, I’m rather impressed you decided to watch it instead of brush it off as nothing more than pure fan service.  What’s even more impressive is that you were open-minded enough to not nit-pick and judge and dislike it just for the sake of disliking it, so good on you for that!  I’m curious though, what made you want to watch PSG of all anime?  It’s a series I’ve considered watching for a while now, but I haven’t gotten around to it because, you know, I still have quite a few on-hold shows that need to be dealt with first.  Not to mention, PSG is relatively low priority for me right now, so it won’t be for a while when I watch it, hah.  If you’re one for the vulgar and profane, I’d recommend an anime I mentioned earlier: Yondemasu yo, Azazel-san.  It’s nowhere near as popular as PSG, I think because there’s no fan service, but its sense of humor is horrifically insane.  If you have the time and are in the mood for it, check it out.  Ah yes, speaking of SnK, I don’t think you realize this but the second half of Levi’s backstory OVA was released and subbed a few weeks ago, so be sure to get around to that!

 

I’m not all that impressed with the changes myself, and they’re ignoring a lot of issues with the physical education and health classes, but whatever it’s a step in the right direct for those lucky to be still attending the school in the coming years and for those that are willing to put in the extra work.  It’s my high school’s 50th anniversary or something, so that’s pretty cool.  The newspaper just published a few articles related to that, quoting some old documents and stuff from years ago.  It’s crazy to see how much everything has changed, haha.

 

After much debating and moments when my mom barged in my room while I was watching anime to “talk”, it’s pretty much final I’m going to Case Western.  My parents wouldn’t have completely prevented me from going to any school I was accepted to, but they would have strongly advised against it.  My mom is going to respect my decision, and just wanted to make sure I knew what I was going to get myself into, which I did.  The accelerated integrated studies program is going to be a bit of work, but hey if it means being able to avoid having to pay up for a graduate school down the road (which my sister says is expensive and a pain) and graduate with everyone else in four years, I’m all for it!  I haven’t sent in my deposit yet, but I’ll probably do that later tonight or at the very latest tomorrow, so by the time you read or at least by the time you get around to replying the decision is going to be final.

 

Yeah, I got into the hunt “late”, and but late I mean one month after the initial release of wave one at the end of November, haha.  In any other case, given it’s already the end of April, you’d think I’m more of a veteran hunter, but by amiibo standards you’re late if you didn’t get the holy trinity (Marth, Wii Fit Trainer, Villager) for MSRP at Target, heh.  I’m not sure why I absolutely needed to get my hands on amiibo after I made the connection to F/sn.  After all, I could have just made 8 level nine CPUs duke it out and be satisfied that way, but I guess since amiibo are crazy strong and because you can name them and have their name appear on the victory screen it would be nice to get physical counter parts.  Not to mention, some extra Nintendo merchandise can’t hurt, right?  I knew Smash 4 was going to be a long lasting game that I would have fun playing for potentially even ten years, so I wanted to take advantage of everything it had to offer.  It’s not too unreasonable for Walmart to put up pre-orders at three in the morning, since that’s midnight on the west coast.  This of course put west coast amiibo hunters at a significant advantage (huh, maybe living in LA has more perks than I thought).  My dad would probably be really annoyed if I woke him up so early/late to order a “toy”, but he’d have gotten it done.  The pre-orders for Lucina and Robin were up for a solid hour, and pre-orders for the rest of wave 4 lasted a little bit longer, which is really good.  It was a shame I missed out on that chance, buuuuuuuuut…

 

(new paragraph to make things easy on the eyes)

(edit: never mind, typed it all up and there’s still a long paragraph, gomen…)

… I managed to get Walmart’s second big wave of pre-orders on the 22nd!  You probably saw me post about this elsewhere, but I feel like I can vent more freely here (hope you don’t mind).  I check the amiibo subreddit religiously, and it’s one of the tabs I always have open including my e-mail.  I got home on the Wednesday after school (whoo, happy Earth Day) and was honestly pretty pooped out, but slipped into my regular schedule of logging into the subreddit to refresh every couple of minutes while I checked anime news and whatnot.  My mom called and told me I should take a nap, knowing how tired I must have been, and I told her I would.  I had actually planned on catching a few z’s, and the subreddit looked like it was having a slow day anyway, but for whatever reason I didn’t.  Thank goodness too, because at 4:34 PM EST, a few minutes before my dad was expected to get back home from work, someone posted that Robin and Lucina were back in stock on Walmart.  I was right there when it happened.  “submitted just now”, “0 comments”, the whole nine yards.  I immediately clicked on the link, tried adding Lucina to my cart, and when I did a dialogue popped up saying the item just sold out.  Welp, looks like it was a single canceled pre-order or a glitch or something.  Happens a few times every day on the subreddit, whatever.  I went back and started refreshing the topic page, waiting for others to post that the pre-orders were somehow already out.  To my surprise (and very soon worry), people started posting that they secured a Robin/Lucina pre-order.  Okay, good for them, they somehow beat me to the punch.  No big deal, I don’t have a PayPal and needed to wait for my dad to come home anyway.  But then it was more than just a handful of people.  It was a lot of people.  After about three minutes, around ten to fifteen people found success.  Hold up, this wasn’t a glitch or canceled orders, this was real.  I started freaking out.  I opened up Lucina’s page again, and clicked on that enticing orange pre-order button but Walmart adamantly declared they were out of stock.  This couldn’t be right.  I read through more comments and realized that some people pre-ordered fine while others were told they were out of stock.  People were freaking out, in good and bad ways.  Why could some people order and others not?  What was going on?  Comments poured in by the second and it was becoming exceedingly difficult to get a grasp of the situation.  On the subreddit, people started opening up new topics to made heads and tails of the situation.  Some suggested it was a browser issue.  But that wasn’t the case since sometimes Chrome worked, other times it didn’t.  Firefox?  50/50.  Internet Explorer?  Sometimes.  Incognito/private mode?  Varying amounts of luck.  People thought maybe it had to do with having a Walmart account or not, but that wasn’t the case either.  Geographical location had no bearing on the issue.  Clearing cookies and cached files didn’t always work.  PC vs Mac vs mobile didn’t make a difference.  The subreddit was losing it and so was I.  I grabbed up all the Internet-accessing devices I had in my house and tried to order Lucina.  I made a Walmart account as fast as I could and hoped my dad would arrive home soon.  He eventually did, and by that time my brother and I (yes, he helped me try to pre-order the unpre-orderable) hadn’t found any success.  I tried all combinations of anything I could, and I was a mental wreck copying and pasting and typing stuff into half-asleep computers.  Somehow I randomly got incognito Chrome on my main HP laptop to work, though I swear it wasn’t ten minutes ago.  I was hyperventilating at this point, because it had been over twenty minutes and this amount of time to pre-order during the day was unheard of.  My dad was kind of confused but sensed I was anxious like you couldn’t believe so he used his PayPal info to order her for me.  After navigating through a really glitchy and slow process, bam: “thank you for order etc.”  I was stoked.  Damn, I still haven’t fully recovered.  I got my confirmation e-mail at 4:59 PM EST and after sticking around the subreddit to watch others either succeed like me or flounder and fail in hopelessness, the pre-orders ended just a few minutes after five o’clock.  I had snatched a Lucina with barely any time left.  I was left breathless and physically exhausted.  Staying up late the night before didn’t help.  What a day…  If it weren’t for your birthday present, I’d have thought this was the best day of the month, potentially the year.  I feel so accomplished and so lucky.  Things could have gone wrong at many times, even right at the beginning if I had taken a nap.  I’m so grateful, and I couldn’t be happier!  I check every day to make sure my order hasn’t been canceled, and thankfully it hasn’t been so far.  Maybe this is just the romanticist side of me speaking, but I’m glad you wished me luck in your previous response.  I believe it made a difference, silly as it may sound, haha.  I’m so so so glad I have Saber, ready to fight alongside my purchased Lancer and Rider.  Now I just need to Wait/sit tight (you see what I did there?) for the remaining Servants to be summoned.

 

Oof, high A’s you say?  Eheheheh, welp, maybe it’s just your grading system is a lot easier than mine, or maybe it’s because I have lower standards than you do, but when I said my grades went up I didn’t really mean by that much… heheh (how did any college accept me, seriously?)  Though I guess it’s not like I particularly like calc or anything.  Some parts still really irk me, and it’s still one of my least favorite classes of this year, no, of all time (it’s math after all).  Haha, sorry, but it’s just not that bad for a math class.  Still really dislike having it first period every day.

 

I never bring my own laptop with me on trips, so I’ve just never bothered with having tabs open in advance or downloading episodes prior to leaving.  I’ve just always had good and often times misplaced faith in the hotels, haha.  I might consider this when my family goes to Disney World.  Since it’ll likely be a significant amount of time, I should probably bring my laptop.  I only didn’t bring it with me while visiting colleges because I didn’t want it to get banged up while unpacking and repacking (I’m really protective of this thing).  I actually download my anime quite a bit.  Every Saturday, when UBW is to be released at 1:30 PM EST by HorribleSubs, I’m sitting there hitting the refresh button.  The moment the 1080p version is out, I immediately click on the link and start torrenting, and the moment it’s done I dim the lights, lock the door, turn up the volume, and watch through the whole thing without skipping the opening or ending.  I did something similar with SnK.  *cough* Of course I don’t have an amiibo and anime obsession ahahahah… hahaha… aha… ha… (please send help…)

 

Dehydration, huh?  That sounds rough.  I've actually never had problems with dehydration, as I have the habit of drinking tons of water all the time.  Not to mention, I'm actually more prone to sweating a lot.  I think my body just has a lot of water inside it, heheh.  It's kind of annoying, especially when I'm not exercising and it's just a hot day and I'm sweating profusely while everyone else is a bit uncomfortable but not dripping all over the place.  It's one of the reasons I prefer the winter to the summer; I just have too much water in my system to live in a humid or warm environment, haha.  Anyway, don't push yourself too hard while playing tennis!

 

That carnation fundraiser sounds nice.  I feel like people in my school just didn't really care enough for fundraising.  It seemed boring, tedious, and kind of tacky.  I think singing grams were pretty popular around Valentine's Day, but that's pretty much it.  I'm not one to talk though, since I didn't participate in any fundraisers and I guess I'm part of the problem.  Prom tickets are pretty much done being sold, and they're already organizing a seating chart for the dinner portion apparently.  I didn't realize there was a sit down and eat aspect to prom.  Hm, the more you know...

 

Leaving up the Christmas tree until spring isn’t actually a normal occurrence.  Usually we don’t put up a tree at all, and I guess we just forgot that it’s there.  I don’t think it’s going to come down until… ever…

Edit: My parents just took it down today, haha.

I'm sorry for being so inconsistent recently, eheh.  I rushed while typing this so I went back and added a bit to the end.

Edited April 27, 2015 by Akazora

[Kenzi 146]

 

Oohh, an orchestra trip!  Awesome, I hope you have fun!  Where are you going?  Or I guess, once you read this, it would be more like “Where did you go?”  I’d like to hear all about it, haha.  It seems all music related trips are organized this way.  The yearly band and orchestra trips at my school start on Wednesdays after school or Thursdays in the morning and last until Sunday at night (which is when I assume your trip will end).

 

(Ah yes, and I’ve decided to cut up the paragraphs, since those bloated things were getting out of hand.)

 

Yeah, getting into an Ivy League is definitely impressive.  That being said, not getting into an Ivy League isn’t a slight on your ability to do well in college either.  The biggest factor that determines whether or not an Ivy League school will accept you is luck.  It’s like seventy percent luck and thirty percent preparation, which consists of grades, extra curriculars, SAT/ACT scores, demonstrated interested, race, etc.  There are a ton of really talented and deserving people I know, both in this senior class and senior classes prior, that should have gotten into Ivy Leagues but didn’t.  Their resumes were jam-packed with stuff, and they honestly put my profile to shame.  I had a ton of respect for them and felt that at least one Ivy League school was in the bag.  It’s a shame none of these people were accepted and had to settle for something a little less.  All still really good schools and everything, but they had the potential for something much greater, that’s for sure.  And it’s only getting harder from this point out.  A perfect SAT score means much less than it did ten years ago.  I’m just really glad I got into as many as I did, haha.  Really, you have no idea how bad my math grades were sophomore and junior year.  You know I’m really honest and open about things, but gosh those grades are embarrassing enough for me not to say out loud, eheheh.  

 

I’ve considered at the very least visiting California, or heck the west coast in general.  Not sure if I’d be willing to live in LA permanently, but it’s like Young People City, USA there.  A ton of Americanized Asians and it always seems to be on the cutting on edge of what’s hip, cool, and “in”.  It’s not just rumors or hearsay either; my sister insists LA is probably one of the few places in the world that lives up to the hype of the stereotype.  It’s really enticing I must say, but as you said I’d have to give up snow.  And I’ve always been a winter person more than any other kind of season person.  I’m just more comfortable wearing a comfy sweater than a t-shirt, and I’m not sure if I’d be okay with wearing shorts all year round.  

 

Aw, but there are still so many things you can experience with the old DS, like Ace Attorney and 999.  As I suggested a while ago, you should invest in a bootleg DS chip that can play roms, like the M3 DS Simply.  It will play any DS game you want, so it would save you the money the entire AA library would cost you.  Maybe look into it in college?  

 

Gasp!  You’ve become one of those people!?  I don’t think we can be friends anymore…  Nah, just kidding, I don’t discriminate.  I’m overly attached to my gaming consoles, and while I don’t bring them around with me everywhere I wouldn’t want others to judge my character because of that, so I won’t judge a person based on how often they check their texts.  Well, of course, if they’re obnoxious about it and put lives at risk by texting while driving that’s a different case, but still.  I’m a stubborn guy, so even when I’m off to college I’ll probably be super detached from my cellphone.  I have this bad habit: whenever my parents lend me a phone to hold on to when I go on a school trip or something, I keep it off.  I only turn it on to call someone, and after the call is made I shut it right back down and don’t think about it until I need to make another call, heheh.

 

The problem with me is that even if I know I have something in common with somebody and consider talking to them, I end up chickening out because I’m just shy and self-conscious enough to keep my mouth shut.  As I’ve said before, I don’t think I give people very good first impressions, honest.  I don’t smile very often, and my resting face gives off bad vibes.  I also stutter a bit more than I’d like with strangers.  I feel like I’d scare off most people I try to get to know.  This is why I probably don’t say anything unless approached, eheh.  Pathetic, I know, but I can’t really help it.  I’ll try to get my act together when I go to college though.  And yes, I’m also really grateful for our friendship brought on by our mutual interested in Pokemon.  You’d think someone like me would have no luck when it comes to making good friends, haha.

 

I was actually kind of surprised when I found that you liked PSG.  As you can imagine, it’s something nearly all girls I know, anime watchers or not, would steer clear from given its heavy sexualization and profanity.  Honestly, I’m rather impressed you decided to watch it instead of brush it off as nothing more than pure fan service.  What’s even more impressive is that you were open-minded enough to not nit-pick and judge and dislike it just for the sake of disliking it, so good on you for that!  I’m curious though, what made you want to watch PSG of all anime?  It’s a series I’ve considered watching for a while now, but I haven’t gotten around to it because, you know, I still have quite a few on-hold shows that need to be dealt with first.  Not to mention, PSG is relatively low priority for me right now, so it won’t be for a while when I watch it, hah.  If you’re one for the vulgar and profane, I’d recommend an anime I mentioned earlier: Yondemasu yo, Azazel-san.  It’s nowhere near as popular as PSG, I think because there’s no fan service, but its sense of humor is horrifically insane.  If you have the time and are in the mood for it, check it out.  Ah yes, speaking of SnK, I don’t think you realize this but the second half of Levi’s backstory OVA was released and subbed a few weeks ago, so be sure to get around to that!

 

I’m not all that impressed with the changes myself, and they’re ignoring a lot of issues with the physical education and health classes, but whatever it’s a step in the right direct for those lucky to be still attending the school in the coming years and for those that are willing to put in the extra work.  It’s my high school’s 50th anniversary or something, so that’s pretty cool.  The newspaper just published a few articles related to that, quoting some old documents and stuff from years ago.  It’s crazy to see how much everything has changed, haha.

 

After much debating and moments when my mom barged in my room while I was watching anime to “talk”, it’s pretty much final I’m going to Case Western.  My parents wouldn’t have completely prevented me from going to any school I was accepted to, but they would have strongly advised against it.  My mom is going to respect my decision, and just wanted to make sure I knew what I was going to get myself into, which I did.  The accelerated integrated studies program is going to be a bit of work, but hey if it means being able to avoid having to pay up for a graduate school down the road (which my sister says is expensive and a pain) and graduate with everyone else in four years, I’m all for it!  I haven’t sent in my deposit yet, but I’ll probably do that later tonight or at the very latest tomorrow, so by the time you read or at least by the time you get around to replying the decision is going to be final.

 

Yeah, I got into the hunt “late”, and but late I mean one month after the initial release of wave one at the end of November, haha.  In any other case, given it’s already the end of April, you’d think I’m more of a veteran hunter, but by amiibo standards you’re late if you didn’t get the holy trinity (Marth, Wii Fit Trainer, Villager) for MSRP at Target, heh.  I’m not sure why I absolutely needed to get my hands on amiibo after I made the connection to F/sn.  After all, I could have just made 8 level nine CPUs duke it out and be satisfied that way, but I guess since amiibo are crazy strong and because you can name them and have their name appear on the victory screen it would be nice to get physical counter parts.  Not to mention, some extra Nintendo merchandise can’t hurt, right?  I knew Smash 4 was going to be a long lasting game that I would have fun playing for potentially even ten years, so I wanted to take advantage of everything it had to offer.  It’s not too unreasonable for Walmart to put up pre-orders at three in the morning, since that’s midnight on the west coast.  This of course put west coast amiibo hunters at a significant advantage (huh, maybe living in LA has more perks than I thought).  My dad would probably be really annoyed if I woke him up so early/late to order a “toy”, but he’d have gotten it done.  The pre-orders for Lucina and Robin were up for a solid hour, and pre-orders for the rest of wave 4 lasted a little bit longer, which is really good.  It was a shame I missed out on that chance, buuuuuuuuut…

 

(new paragraph to make things easy on the eyes)

(edit: never mind, typed it all up and there’s still a long paragraph, gomen…)

… I managed to get Walmart’s second big wave of pre-orders on the 22nd!  You probably saw me post about this elsewhere, but I feel like I can vent more freely here (hope you don’t mind).  I check the amiibo subreddit religiously, and it’s one of the tabs I always have open including my e-mail.  I got home on the Wednesday after school (whoo, happy Earth Day) and was honestly pretty pooped out, but slipped into my regular schedule of logging into the subreddit to refresh every couple of minutes while I checked anime news and whatnot.  My mom called and told me I should take a nap, knowing how tired I must have been, and I told her I would.  I had actually planned on catching a few z’s, and the subreddit looked like it was having a slow day anyway, but for whatever reason I didn’t.  Thank goodness too, because at 4:34 PM EST, a few minutes before my dad was expected to get back home from work, someone posted that Robin and Lucina were back in stock on Walmart.  I was right there when it happened.  “submitted just now”, “0 comments”, the whole nine yards.  I immediately clicked on the link, tried adding Lucina to my cart, and when I did a dialogue popped up saying the item just sold out.  Welp, looks like it was a single canceled pre-order or a glitch or something.  Happens a few times every day on the subreddit, whatever.  I went back and started refreshing the topic page, waiting for others to post that the pre-orders were somehow already out.  To my surprise (and very soon worry), people started posting that they secured a Robin/Lucina pre-order.  Okay, good for them, they somehow beat me to the punch.  No big deal, I don’t have a PayPal and needed to wait for my dad to come home anyway.  But then it was more than just a handful of people.  It was a lot of people.  After about three minutes, around ten to fifteen people found success.  Hold up, this wasn’t a glitch or canceled orders, this was real.  I started freaking out.  I opened up Lucina’s page again, and clicked on that enticing orange pre-order button but Walmart adamantly declared they were out of stock.  This couldn’t be right.  I read through more comments and realized that some people pre-ordered fine while others were told they were out of stock.  People were freaking out, in good and bad ways.  Why could some people order and others not?  What was going on?  Comments poured in by the second and it was becoming exceedingly difficult to get a grasp of the situation.  On the subreddit, people started opening up new topics to made heads and tails of the situation.  Some suggested it was a browser issue.  But that wasn’t the case since sometimes Chrome worked, other times it didn’t.  Firefox?  50/50.  Internet Explorer?  Sometimes.  Incognito/private mode?  Varying amounts of luck.  People thought maybe it had to do with having a Walmart account or not, but that wasn’t the case either.  Geographical location had no bearing on the issue.  Clearing cookies and cached files didn’t always work.  PC vs Mac vs mobile didn’t make a difference.  The subreddit was losing it and so was I.  I grabbed up all the Internet-accessing devices I had in my house and tried to order Lucina.  I made a Walmart account as fast as I could and hoped my dad would arrive home soon.  He eventually did, and by that time my brother and I (yes, he helped me try to pre-order the unpre-orderable) hadn’t found any success.  I tried all combinations of anything I could, and I was a mental wreck copying and pasting and typing stuff into half-asleep computers.  Somehow I randomly got incognito Chrome on my main HP laptop to work, though I swear it wasn’t ten minutes ago.  I was hyperventilating at this point, because it had been over twenty minutes and this amount of time to pre-order during the day was unheard of.  My dad was kind of confused but sensed I was anxious like you couldn’t believe so he used his PayPal info to order her for me.  After navigating through a really glitchy and slow process, bam: “thank you for order etc.”  I was stoked.  Damn, I still haven’t fully recovered.  I got my confirmation e-mail at 4:59 PM EST and after sticking around the subreddit to watch others either succeed like me or flounder and fail in hopelessness, the pre-orders ended just a few minutes after five o’clock.  I had snatched a Lucina with barely any time left.  I was left breathless and physically exhausted.  Staying up late the night before didn’t help.  What a day…  If it weren’t for your birthday present, I’d have thought this was the best day of the month, potentially the year.  I feel so accomplished and so lucky.  Things could have gone wrong at many times, even right at the beginning if I had taken a nap.  I’m so grateful, and I couldn’t be happier!  I check every day to make sure my order hasn’t been canceled, and thankfully it hasn’t been so far.  Maybe this is just the romanticist side of me speaking, but I’m glad you wished me luck in your previous response.  I believe it made a difference, silly as it may sound, haha.  I’m so so so glad I have Saber, ready to fight alongside my purchased Lancer and Rider.  Now I just need to Wait/sit tight (you see what I did there?) for the remaining Servants to be summoned.

 

Oof, high A’s you say?  Eheheheh, welp, maybe it’s just your grading system is a lot easier than mine, or maybe it’s because I have lower standards than you do, but when I said my grades went up I didn’t really mean by that much… heheh (how did any college accept me, seriously?)  Though I guess it’s not like I particularly like calc or anything.  Some parts still really irk me, and it’s still one of my least favorite classes of this year, no, of all time (it’s math after all).  Haha, sorry, but it’s just not that bad for a math class.  Still really dislike having it first period every day.

 

I never bring my own laptop with me on trips, so I’ve just never bothered with having tabs open in advance or downloading episodes prior to leaving.  I’ve just always had good and often times misplaced faith in the hotels, haha.  I might consider this when my family goes to Disney World.  Since it’ll likely be a significant amount of time, I should probably bring my laptop.  I only didn’t bring it with me while visiting colleges because I didn’t want it to get banged up while unpacking and repacking (I’m really protective of this thing).  I actually download my anime quite a bit.  Every Saturday, when UBW is to be released at 1:30 PM EST by HorribleSubs, I’m sitting there hitting the refresh button.  The moment the 1080p version is out, I immediately click on the link and start torrenting, and the moment it’s done I dim the lights, lock the door, turn up the volume, and watch through the whole thing without skipping the opening or ending.  I did something similar with SnK.  *cough* Of course I don’t have an amiibo and anime obsession ahahahah… hahaha… aha… ha… (please send help…)

 

Dehydration, huh?  That sounds rough.  I've actually never had problems with dehydration, as I have the habit of drinking tons of water all the time.  Not to mention, I'm actually more prone to sweating a lot.  I think my body just has a lot of water inside it, heheh.  It's kind of annoying, especially when I'm not exercising and it's just a hot day and I'm sweating profusely while everyone else is a bit uncomfortable but not dripping all over the place.  It's one of the reasons I prefer the winter to the summer; I just have too much water in my system to live in a humid or warm environment, haha.  Anyway, don't push yourself too hard while playing tennis!

 

That carnation fundraiser sounds nice.  I feel like people in my school just didn't really care enough for fundraising.  It seemed boring, tedious, and kind of tacky.  I think singing grams were pretty popular around Valentine's Day, but that's pretty much it.  I'm not one to talk though, since I didn't participate in any fundraisers and I guess I'm part of the problem.  Prom tickets are pretty much done being sold, and they're already organizing a seating chart for the dinner portion apparently.  I didn't realize there was a sit down and eat aspect to prom.  Hm, the more you know...

 

Leaving up the Christmas tree until spring isn’t actually a normal occurrence.  Usually we don’t put up a tree at all, and I guess we just forgot that it’s there.  I don’t think it’s going to come down until… ever…

Edit: My parents just took it down today, haha.

I'm sorry for being so inconsistent recently, eheh.  I rushed while typing this so I went back and added a bit to the end.

 

Gosh, I'm terribly sorry for being so late. With the trip and APs coming up, my schedule has been getting pretty screwy lately.

gomen, gomen.

 

Haha, yup, you guessed right. Left Wednesday and got back home Sunday night. And gosh, it was so much fun. We got to see an underground waterfall and we went to an aquarium. I originally thought that going to Tennessee wouldn’t be as eventful as some of our previous trips, and boy was I wrong. A lot of people liked this trip more than the Orlando trip from last year since it was so hectic. This year’s trip gave us much more chill time, which was exactly what I needed to escape from school stresses for a short time period. One of my highlights from the trip was relaxing on the hotel patio next to a bonfire with a bunch of friends. It was quite lively, but relaxing at the same time—it’s a bit hard to explain, haha. I put my head down for a while and just stared at the sky. Granted most of the stars were still drowned out by light pollution, but the sky was still breathtaking. There was a perfect ratio of clouds vs. sky that night. The clouds were effortlessly passing by the moon, and the way they were backlit was absolutely stunning. I had some small talk with a few sophomore and junior friends and just sitting by the bonfire with everyone, chatting and clowning around like there was no tomorrow—it was such a nice stress reliever for me. All of my worries were temporarily suppressed and I was at bliss. It’s a shame that this was short-lived, because it was one of the best experiences I’ve had in a while. I just can’t seem to gather the words to explain how at peace I was, ahahaha…The bus ride back was also fun-ish. During the first few hours, we drove through some hilly areas, and the elevation was high enough for us to see the clouds up close. The cumulus clouds were very, very low hanging, and we even managed to drive through some of them as if they were fog. It was quite relaxing to see, haha. Most of the people on the bus were sleeping by then, so only a few of my friends and I were awake at that point. It’s funny because we were frantically trying to finish our homework while everyone else was sleeping soundly. Gosh, we kept telling ourselves that we would finish it back at the hotel, but we never got around to it, ehehehe… Seriously, you wouldn’t believe some of the excuses we made to avoid doing homework, lol. As for the festival, both of our orchestras received top marks. I thought it was strange because there wasn’t a single orchestra we were competing with in this one—they were all bands. One of the higher level bands was playing the fifth movement of Symphony Fantastique (Berlioz) which we played in our winter concert. They played it entirely without an orchestra, and it was… odd, to say the least. It just didn’t feel the same without hearing the strings, haha. I guess it just didn’t feel as climactic at some points. Apparently, this was also only the second time when an orchestra managed to top all competing bands in this specific festival, which felt like a pretty awesome accomplishment. Also, I’m curious—how was your band trip last year? Did you also compete in the Orlando Music Fest?

 

While it’s true that getting into an Ivy League is quite the accomplishment, it shouldn’t be something that people should get all worked up about. There’s nothing wrong with transferring into one if they aren’t accepted at first, haha. It’s pretty easy to predict who’s getting into Ivy Leagues around here though. If he/she isn’t getting into Harvard, he/she’s getting into Yale or UPenn. But sometimes, I’m more surprised about the acceptances than the rejections. Some people are getting into these top tier schools when I feel that other people are much more deserving of them. Maybe it has something to do with colleges looking at applications holistically, but it truly has led me to believe that getting into certain schools is just a game of luck. My grades aren’t looking too great either at this point. My freshman and sophomore years were pretty solid for the most part, and everything went downhill after junior year started. I’m still trying to get out of this huge hole I dug myself into last semester, but with the school year ending within a matter of months, it’s probably not going to happen. I’ll be taking relatively easier APs next year (with the exception of Physics C since I’m still debating on whether or not to take it), so hopefully I’ll be able to hoist myself up enough for colleges by the end of first semester next year. At this point, I’ll be relying on my standardized test scores to make up for this huge mess. I’ll be cramming up on my SAT subject tests after APs are over and on SAT/ACT practice over the summer to squeeze in some last minute improvement. Gosh, it makes me so mad that I didn’t try as much as I could have last semester—especially since this “downhill trend” is going to look awful on college applications.

 

Wait wait wait. You’ve never gone to the west coast before? California has gorgeous weather all year long and I’ve been heavily considering about moving there, ahahaha. I do enjoy winter (especially during the holidays), but the winter around here can be quite harsh sometimes. December is easily the best winter month, and everything else after that is just… bland. Dark, cold, and just eventless. January has always been one of the more depressing months for me, and February isn’t much improvement either, to be honest. However, I’m still not willing to give up winter for the sake of moving to someplace like LA. It’d be nice to vacation there once in a while, but I don’t think I’d be the type of person who’d live there long-term. I do enjoy wearing shorts and capris when I have the opportunity. Although I love wearing jeans, they can feel a bit restricting at times, haha. I also love wearing t-shirts, but I still love my sweaters all the same.

 

Yup, definitely going to look into a bootleg DS chip after senior year is over. I’ve been meaning to for a while now ever since my friend mentioned it a few years ago.

 

I’ve assimilated into this technology-dependent society far too much than I would have liked, to be honest. I never realized how much I “needed” a cellphone until junior year started. In sophomore year, it just sat in my backpack and the only time I took it out was for calling or when I needed to charge it. Now checking my cellphone has become a daily habit of mine which can’t be stopped at this point. My friends might text me asking for help, and the tennis team might message us with last minute changes on matches and events. As much as I’d like to put my phone down, I just can’t anymore. It’s actually quite convenient, in a way, but it’s also tiresome having to constantly check my cellphone just so that I won’t miss an update.

 

Haha, I also have a tendency to stutter but most people seem to overlook that during most of our conversations. I brush it off like it’s nothing because it doesn’t bother me. If I’m with my friends, they might tease me (especially with some of the freudian slips I make), but it’s all in good fun, heh. It’s usually not the content of the conversation that’s memorable, but the impression that it leaves off. I don’t care what we’re talking about as long as the conversation was mutually effortless. I can talk about anything and everything as long as it’s not too personal, so it can be easy for me to approach some people. There are, however, certain people who I find myself having a hard time talking to. People who tend to travel in heavy cliques are people who I tend to avoid and/or have trouble talking to. I could awkwardly ask one of these people what the homework was for a certain class, and the “conversation” would end there. There’s nothing to lose when talking to strangers, haha. Worst comes to worst, you might have a “bad” conversation, but it won’t really matter he/she is just someone you met in a line. Sometimes, you might meet that same person again at a workplace or something, and the next thing you know, you guys are laughing it off and suddenly he/she becomes a real good friend of yours. I love that feeling, and whatever risk that comes with it is totally worth it. Please do try it out sometime! I’m sure you’re much more capable of making friends than you make yourself out to be, haha. I mean, just look at the range of conversations we’re having nowadays, lol.

 

The purpose of PSG wasn’t to promote profanity, which is why I was perfectly okay with it. The profanity was just added humor, and it did work in its favor at times. What caught my attention was the art style of the show. It seemed to be satirizing western cartoons, which I thought was absolutely hilarious. So I tried it out, and I was not disappointed. There were certain episodes/scenes that made me feel a bit uncomfortable (mostly the episode that showcased a bunch of retching), which is why my enjoyment ended up as an 8-9 rather than a 10. I’m not the one to indulge in vulgarity or profanity unless it’s for humor because I’m not too big on ecchi or hentai. But I do find certain kinds of vulgar or profane humor to be highly amusing (I can thank the internet for that). Yondemasu yo, Azazel-san sounds pretty interesting after reading some reviews, so I’ll check out a few clips when I have time. And thanks for the reminder once again! I’ll be sure to get around to watching the rest of Levi’s backstory later as well!

 

So CWRU is your final decision, huh. Good for you, and tell me how it goes in the fall! It sounds like you’re really going to enjoy it there, which I’m glad about, haha.

 

Oh damn, that must have been quite the emotional rollercoaster for you. But I’m really happy that you managed to secure a Lucina amiibo! It’s crazy how glitches work sometimes, but geezus, 4:59? And it ended only a few minutes after? Haha, I can only imagine how relieved you must’ve felt. Perhaps “catharsis” would be a better way to describe it, heh. Glad to hear that everything worked out in the end! Best of luck to you summoning your remaining servants!

 

I don’t know how the grading system is for AB, but I’ve had friends who’ve dropped BC for AB at the end of first semester. According to them, it’s was a lot easier since nearly all the material in AB was already covered by BC by the time they dropped the class. Most of my AB friends also said that the class is much easier than pre-calc (most of them also took honors pre-calc instead of regular). The grading system stayed relatively the same—rarely any curves. Hmm, I’m not sure. Maybe AB is a bit slower than honors pre-calc? (we managed to touch on derivatives and concavity in that class before taking the final). Much of calc is just built on the fundamentals coming from pre-calc, so maybe that made it easier for them as well. Also, that’s funny, because I also have calc first period, haha though it’s probably just a silly coincidence

 

I never bring my laptop with me either—I was referring to mobile devices like phones and tablets, lol. I also don’t find the need to download anime. I know a few sites that often have 1080p in their video players, so I don’t have an issue with the video quality. But, of course, I don’t watch anything unless my parents are away or sleeping. I can’t risk having them barging into my room in the middle of an episode then confiscating my laptop. Schoolwork also gets in the way of anime watching so I usually save it for the weekends if I can. Haha, I’m quite protective of my laptop as well as it almost never leaves my desk. 

 

Dehydration is only a problem for me when I’m playing tennis in hot, stuffy conditions. It’s not until my head starts throbbing when I can anticipate an oncoming headache. By that point, it’s already too late to rehydrate myself, and I have to resort to an ibuprofen pill before it gets worse. This has been going on for the past few years so I’m pretty used to it by now. Sweating usually isn’t much of a problem for me unless, like I said before, I’m playing in hot, stuffy conditions—which is usually the cause of my dehydration.

 

Haha, I don’t think fundraisers are boring, tedious, or tacky at all. Well, I guess it depends on the occasion since the Noodles fundraiser is wayyy too overused around here. But at the same time, I don’t participate in fundraisers as much as I should. I usually won’t have my parents drive me to a restaurant to support a cause since I don’t have that kind of freedom. A lot of people (including teachers) can be very enthusiastic about fundraisers, so I guess it all evens out in the end, ehehe… For prom, most people either go to the mall or a fancy restaurant (or at least that’s what I gathered after being bombarded by those kinds of photos on Facebook, lol). Tell me how prom goes if you decide to attend! If not, maybe tell me how it goes for some of your friends, haha.

 

And once again, sorry for being so late on the reply without a warning beforehand :c

[Akazora 293]

Gosh, I'm terribly sorry for being so late. With the trip and APs coming up, my schedule has been getting pretty screwy lately.

gomen, gomen.

 

Haha, yup, you guessed right. Left Wednesday and got back home Sunday night. And gosh, it was so much fun. We got to see an underground waterfall and we went to an aquarium. I originally thought that going to Tennessee wouldn’t be as eventful as some of our previous trips, and boy was I wrong. A lot of people liked this trip more than the Orlando trip from last year since it was so hectic. This year’s trip gave us much more chill time, which was exactly what I needed to escape from school stresses for a short time period. One of my highlights from the trip was relaxing on the hotel patio next to a bonfire with a bunch of friends. It was quite lively, but relaxing at the same time—it’s a bit hard to explain, haha. I put my head down for a while and just stared at the sky. Granted most of the stars were still drowned out by light pollution, but the sky was still breathtaking. There was a perfect ratio of clouds vs. sky that night. The clouds were effortlessly passing by the moon, and the way they were backlit was absolutely stunning. I had some small talk with a few sophomore and junior friends and just sitting by the bonfire with everyone, chatting and clowning around like there was no tomorrow—it was such a nice stress reliever for me. All of my worries were temporarily suppressed and I was at bliss. It’s a shame that this was short-lived, because it was one of the best experiences I’ve had in a while. I just can’t seem to gather the words to explain how at peace I was, ahahaha…The bus ride back was also fun-ish. During the first few hours, we drove through some hilly areas, and the elevation was high enough for us to see the clouds up close. The cumulus clouds were very, very low hanging, and we even managed to drive through some of them as if they were fog. It was quite relaxing to see, haha. Most of the people on the bus were sleeping by then, so only a few of my friends and I were awake at that point. It’s funny because we were frantically trying to finish our homework while everyone else was sleeping soundly. Gosh, we kept telling ourselves that we would finish it back at the hotel, but we never got around to it, ehehehe… Seriously, you wouldn’t believe some of the excuses we made to avoid doing homework, lol. As for the festival, both of our orchestras received top marks. I thought it was strange because there wasn’t a single orchestra we were competing with in this one—they were all bands. One of the higher level bands was playing the fifth movement of Symphony Fantastique (Berlioz) which we played in our winter concert. They played it entirely without an orchestra, and it was… odd, to say the least. It just didn’t feel the same without hearing the strings, haha. I guess it just didn’t feel as climactic at some points. Apparently, this was also only the second time when an orchestra managed to top all competing bands in this specific festival, which felt like a pretty awesome accomplishment. Also, I’m curious—how was your band trip last year? Did you also compete in the Orlando Music Fest?

 

While it’s true that getting into an Ivy League is quite the accomplishment, it shouldn’t be something that people should get all worked up about. There’s nothing wrong with transferring into one if they aren’t accepted at first, haha. It’s pretty easy to predict who’s getting into Ivy Leagues around here though. If he/she isn’t getting into Harvard, he/she’s getting into Yale or UPenn. But sometimes, I’m more surprised about the acceptances than the rejections. Some people are getting into these top tier schools when I feel that other people are much more deserving of them. Maybe it has something to do with colleges looking at applications holistically, but it truly has led me to believe that getting into certain schools is just a game of luck. My grades aren’t looking too great either at this point. My freshman and sophomore years were pretty solid for the most part, and everything went downhill after junior year started. I’m still trying to get out of this huge hole I dug myself into last semester, but with the school year ending within a matter of months, it’s probably not going to happen. I’ll be taking relatively easier APs next year (with the exception of Physics C since I’m still debating on whether or not to take it), so hopefully I’ll be able to hoist myself up enough for colleges by the end of first semester next year. At this point, I’ll be relying on my standardized test scores to make up for this huge mess. I’ll be cramming up on my SAT subject tests after APs are over and on SAT/ACT practice over the summer to squeeze in some last minute improvement. Gosh, it makes me so mad that I didn’t try as much as I could have last semester—especially since this “downhill trend” is going to look awful on college applications.

 

Wait wait wait. You’ve never gone to the west coast before? California has gorgeous weather all year long and I’ve been heavily considering about moving there, ahahaha. I do enjoy winter (especially during the holidays), but the winter around here can be quite harsh sometimes. December is easily the best winter month, and everything else after that is just… bland. Dark, cold, and just eventless. January has always been one of the more depressing months for me, and February isn’t much improvement either, to be honest. However, I’m still not willing to give up winter for the sake of moving to someplace like LA. It’d be nice to vacation there once in a while, but I don’t think I’d be the type of person who’d live there long-term. I do enjoy wearing shorts and capris when I have the opportunity. Although I love wearing jeans, they can feel a bit restricting at times, haha. I also love wearing t-shirts, but I still love my sweaters all the same.

 

Yup, definitely going to look into a bootleg DS chip after senior year is over. I’ve been meaning to for a while now ever since my friend mentioned it a few years ago.

 

I’ve assimilated into this technology-dependent society far too much than I would have liked, to be honest. I never realized how much I “needed” a cellphone until junior year started. In sophomore year, it just sat in my backpack and the only time I took it out was for calling or when I needed to charge it. Now checking my cellphone has become a daily habit of mine which can’t be stopped at this point. My friends might text me asking for help, and the tennis team might message us with last minute changes on matches and events. As much as I’d like to put my phone down, I just can’t anymore. It’s actually quite convenient, in a way, but it’s also tiresome having to constantly check my cellphone just so that I won’t miss an update.

 

Haha, I also have a tendency to stutter but most people seem to overlook that during most of our conversations. I brush it off like it’s nothing because it doesn’t bother me. If I’m with my friends, they might tease me (especially with some of the freudian slips I make), but it’s all in good fun, heh. It’s usually not the content of the conversation that’s memorable, but the impression that it leaves off. I don’t care what we’re talking about as long as the conversation was mutually effortless. I can talk about anything and everything as long as it’s not too personal, so it can be easy for me to approach some people. There are, however, certain people who I find myself having a hard time talking to. People who tend to travel in heavy cliques are people who I tend to avoid and/or have trouble talking to. I could awkwardly ask one of these people what the homework was for a certain class, and the “conversation” would end there. There’s nothing to lose when talking to strangers, haha. Worst comes to worst, you might have a “bad” conversation, but it won’t really matter he/she is just someone you met in a line. Sometimes, you might meet that same person again at a workplace or something, and the next thing you know, you guys are laughing it off and suddenly he/she becomes a real good friend of yours. I love that feeling, and whatever risk that comes with it is totally worth it. Please do try it out sometime! I’m sure you’re much more capable of making friends than you make yourself out to be, haha. I mean, just look at the range of conversations we’re having nowadays, lol.

 

The purpose of PSG wasn’t to promote profanity, which is why I was perfectly okay with it. The profanity was just added humor, and it did work in its favor at times. What caught my attention was the art style of the show. It seemed to be satirizing western cartoons, which I thought was absolutely hilarious. So I tried it out, and I was not disappointed. There were certain episodes/scenes that made me feel a bit uncomfortable (mostly the episode that showcased a bunch of retching), which is why my enjoyment ended up as an 8-9 rather than a 10. I’m not the one to indulge in vulgarity or profanity unless it’s for humor because I’m not too big on ecchi or hentai. But I do find certain kinds of vulgar or profane humor to be highly amusing (I can thank the internet for that). Yondemasu yo, Azazel-san sounds pretty interesting after reading some reviews, so I’ll check out a few clips when I have time. And thanks for the reminder once again! I’ll be sure to get around to watching the rest of Levi’s backstory later as well!

 

So CWRU is your final decision, huh. Good for you, and tell me how it goes in the fall! It sounds like you’re really going to enjoy it there, which I’m glad about, haha.

 

Oh damn, that must have been quite the emotional rollercoaster for you. But I’m really happy that you managed to secure a Lucina amiibo! It’s crazy how glitches work sometimes, but geezus, 4:59? And it ended only a few minutes after? Haha, I can only imagine how relieved you must’ve felt. Perhaps “catharsis” would be a better way to describe it, heh. Glad to hear that everything worked out in the end! Best of luck to you summoning your remaining servants!

 

I don’t know how the grading system is for AB, but I’ve had friends who’ve dropped BC for AB at the end of first semester. According to them, it’s was a lot easier since nearly all the material in AB was already covered by BC by the time they dropped the class. Most of my AB friends also said that the class is much easier than pre-calc (most of them also took honors pre-calc instead of regular). The grading system stayed relatively the same—rarely any curves. Hmm, I’m not sure. Maybe AB is a bit slower than honors pre-calc? (we managed to touch on derivatives and concavity in that class before taking the final). Much of calc is just built on the fundamentals coming from pre-calc, so maybe that made it easier for them as well. Also, that’s funny, because I also have calc first period, haha though it’s probably just a silly coincidence

 

I never bring my laptop with me either—I was referring to mobile devices like phones and tablets, lol. I also don’t find the need to download anime. I know a few sites that often have 1080p in their video players, so I don’t have an issue with the video quality. But, of course, I don’t watch anything unless my parents are away or sleeping. I can’t risk having them barging into my room in the middle of an episode then confiscating my laptop. Schoolwork also gets in the way of anime watching so I usually save it for the weekends if I can. Haha, I’m quite protective of my laptop as well as it almost never leaves my desk. 

 

Dehydration is only a problem for me when I’m playing tennis in hot, stuffy conditions. It’s not until my head starts throbbing when I can anticipate an oncoming headache. By that point, it’s already too late to rehydrate myself, and I have to resort to an ibuprofen pill before it gets worse. This has been going on for the past few years so I’m pretty used to it by now. Sweating usually isn’t much of a problem for me unless, like I said before, I’m playing in hot, stuffy conditions—which is usually the cause of my dehydration.

 

Haha, I don’t think fundraisers are boring, tedious, or tacky at all. Well, I guess it depends on the occasion since the Noodles fundraiser is wayyy too overused around here. But at the same time, I don’t participate in fundraisers as much as I should. I usually won’t have my parents drive me to a restaurant to support a cause since I don’t have that kind of freedom. A lot of people (including teachers) can be very enthusiastic about fundraisers, so I guess it all evens out in the end, ehehe… For prom, most people either go to the mall or a fancy restaurant (or at least that’s what I gathered after being bombarded by those kinds of photos on Facebook, lol). Tell me how prom goes if you decide to attend! If not, maybe tell me how it goes for some of your friends, haha.

 

And once again, sorry for being so late on the reply without a warning beforehand :c

Oh gosh, there’s no need to apologize.  I’d have been more surprised if you had somehow sent out a reply on time, haha.  I know how stressful AP tests are, as I’ve been studying for them recently myself, haha.  I’m so screwed for the Calc and Physics tests, oh my gosh…  It’s probably even worse for you since you’re feeling the recoil of the trip you just had and all the make-up work that comes with it.  As flattered as I am by your devotion to reply back in the wee hours of the morning, you really didn’t need to go to such lengths.  You should have gotten some sleep or finished some of that calc work you fell asleep on.  Thank you, but you should put yourself first, haha.

 

I’m really glad you had so much fun in Tennessee!  I don’t think I’ve ever been to that state.  Wow, it sounds like you had a blast.  It makes me a bit envious, haha.  An underground waterfall and an aquarium, huh?  When I was younger, my family used to take a bunch of trips to various caverns along the east coast.  You know, the ones located in the middle of Nowhere, Virginia that have tours and little gift shops where you can buy rocks and stuff.  Those trips weren’t the most exhilarating, but I look back on them fondly.  And I don’t think I’ve been to an aquarium in years, geez.  The most recent thing that counts might have been that zoo/aquarium hybrid I visited while in China two summers ago.  But it was kind of unkempt and wasn’t the nicest experience.  That must have been a really fancy hotel to have a patio and a bonfire.  I don’t think any of the hotels we slept in during band trips had things like that.  Or maybe they did, but there was a really strict curfew so we were never given the opportunity to wander around the hotel at night.  I’m glad you managed to, to an extent, stargaze.  I know how difficult it can be to put into words how an experience like that made you feel; my Common App essay gave me writer’s block more times than I can remember.  I actually agree with you, sometimes the moon and clouds in the sky at night actually enhance the stargazing experience.  I know pro stargazers avoid cloudy and moon-y nights like the plague, and I’m sure it’s frustrating if either of those is preventing you from getting a good view of a particular constellation, but it’s still really nice.  Moonlit nights are just as good as starlit ones, haha.  You’re also super fortunate to have shared this experience with friends!  I would love to go stargazing with friends of my own, but it’s hard to find people sympathetic to my cause.  One of these days, one of these days…  Ohh, and the clouds you drove through sound kind of interesting.  I also rarely find myself sleeping on buses.  It’s not because I have work to do (sometimes I’m just letting my mind wander as I look out the window), but it’s more so I find it really difficult and uncomfortable to drift off.  More often than not though, I’m just sitting in a nearly soundless bus because everyone else had already nodded off to sleep.  I never get work done on school trips, eheheh.  I’ve tried occasionally, but it’s never worked out so I guess I must not have been trying very hard.  Ah, I’m really glad your orchestra did well!  It is kind of strange there were only bands competing and no other orchestras, but whatever.  

 

And the band trip last year was just a really informal thing.  I can’t remember exactly what is was, but it was some Disney hosted mini-concert, not a competition.  My school’s band understands that no one’s really in the mood for an intense amount of music during an outing to Orlando, so they hang loose during the yearly trips but pull out all at the stops at local competitions.  I’m not sure how much I’ve talked about my band trip, but I know I did cover some of it in bits and pieces during our long exchange or elsewhere on this forum.  I’ve already mentioned how Epcot completely blew me away, if only because of the Japan section of the World Showcase.  Funny thing is, I only just realized that the Epcot globe thing, apparently called Spaceship Earth, did indeed used to have a Mickey wand attached to the side of it (it wasn’t just child me hallucinating) that was added in the year 2000 and then removed in 2007.  I know I also mentioned how I didn’t really enjoy the trip as much as I could have just because I’ve always been at odds with the band program and many of its members.  That’s not to say it wasn’t a ton of fun, because it definitely was.  I can’t deny the fact that our jazz band, at least last year, was absolutely phenomenal.  Our solo alto sax player was superb; I think he was planning on studying music in college.  When the jazz band performed on the outdoor stage, the sun was already down and the dusk was cool and comfortable and the music was good, haha.  It would have been nice if there were actual friends with me, but ehhh I’ll still take it over a regular day.  Hrm, I also vaguely recall mentioning how I got completely soaked through during a classic Florida surprise storm, from which I never fully recovered.  My shoes were squelching even after I got back to the hotel, a few hours after the downpour.  I don’t really want to bother you with the smaller details, but those were probably the biggest highlights of the trip last year.  Eheheh, and I’m also having a bit of trouble remembering what else happened…

 

Huh, maybe your classmates are just really lucky or my classmates are just really inconsistent, because there are two or three deserving candidates I can name off the top of my head who were rejected from every single Ivy League and had to settle for a public school, hoping to redeem themselves through a transfer and/or graduate school.  I don’t really know why this happens, though I think there are rumors and whisperings going around the Interwebs that you have a higher chance of being rejected if you apply to all 8 Ivy League schools, because it looks like you’re only applying for the name and aren’t legitimately interested in any of the individual schools.  Ivy Leagues are pretty overrated, and I’m not saying this because I’m salty that I never got into one or because I’m trying to be a hipster, but as someone who’s gone through the college application and research process, I do have to say Ivy Leagues are generally not worth it.  Unless you’re dead broke, you’re not getting a penny in financial aid from them because they don’t give out merit based scholarships, so it’s a middle-class family trap (especially if there is more than one child in the family), money-wise at least.  It’s good for bragging rights, but if you got in by BS-ing saying “I’m interesting in majoring in East Asian Religious Studies, hurhur” when you really have no clue what you’re doing, there’s not a ton to be proud of.  Not to mention, you’re most likely going to be wasting a lot of your time and money when you realize you’re in the same class as people who have the next ten years of their lives planned out while you’re still deciding what a good major would be at the end of your freshman year.  As much as my sister loved Dartmouth, she agrees that it was pricey and that she could have saved a lot of stress paying off her debt by instead going to Rutgers, or a public school of a similar caliber.  But hey, if an Ivy League has a program that you like and you’re willing to pay up and you’re lucky enough to get in, knock yourself out.  I know I’m not Ivy League material; I don’t have much self-motivation or inner drive and I’d most likely literally fail out, haha.  Anywhoo, I didn’t mean for this to turn into a rant on Ivy Leagues, heheh, sorry about that.

 

Aww, it’s too bad to hear that your grades aren’t exactly where you want them to be.  Junior year was rough, for sure.  It’s definitely my weakest academic year of my life thus far (hopefully it stays that way even after I go off to college).  It’s good that you’re aware of this weakness, and it’s a shame there isn’t more time in the school year to bring your grades up this semester.  Before we know it, it’ll be mid to late June and bam another sweltering summer break to sit through.  I know you’re probably upset that you have a downward trend going on, but the case was the same for me and I think I turned out alright, all this considered.  Your profile, from what I can gather, is much stronger than mine, so I’m confident you’ll get into better schools than I did, or at least receive more scholarships than me.  And from what you’ve said, you’re still planning on taking the SATs again?  How did you do last time?  Or rather, nah it’s fine, you don’t have to tell me, haha.  If you’re not satisfied with your score, I suppose you wouldn’t want to share it.  And which SAT II’s do you plan on taking?  I didn’t take too many myself, but I did well on all the ones I did take (barring US History, ironically enough).  There’s no need to kick yourself over this lull in your grades; think positive!

(Oh, and it wasn’t because you started talking to me that your grades are down….. right……….??)

 

Eheh, yup, the furthest west I’ve been was Las Vegas, so I guess I was pretty close. But the weather in Vegas can’t compare to the weather in LA I’m sure.  You’d think with a sister living in LA, I’d have a higher chance than most people to have visited the city before, haha.  It probably has to do with my mom’s fear of planes and the unrealistic notion of planning the mother of all road trips by driving from sad old Edison to SoCal (and back!).  The reason why she was fine with flying to China and to Vegas was because you can’t bring China to Edison nor can you bring National Parks to New Jersey.  You can, however, bring a single young woman back “home”, and since my mom doesn’t really care for LA as a city she doesn’t feel it necessary to fly there, hauling the whole family along.  So I guess that’s why I have yet to lay eyes on California soil.  Of course, once I'm on my own and eventually find a job and settle down somewhere, I’ll find time to actually visit my sister instead of have her come over every Christmas.  I’m definitely curious to know what the hype is all about.  I wear jeans exclusively in public, all year round.  When at home I revert to shorts or sweatpants, depending on the weather.  It makes anime watching more comfy, hahaha.  And there’s no rule saying you can’t wear your shorts during the winter!  Joking, I don’t think it’s a very good idea to wear clothing out of season like that, though there are a lot of girls and guys who do.  I just think it’s kind of funny whenever I see a girl at my school walk in in the dead of January with a skirt and winter jacket on.  I’m guessing with leggings it may not be too cold, but I’m not sure how well those keep in heat.  Ah well, how people want to make fashion statements isn’t my business.

 

Oof, your experience with your phone is like my relationship with /r/amiibo.  I didn’t mean to be so dependent on it, but now I check it religiously, every few minutes if I’m not watching anime.  It’s paid off, since I managed to pre-order Lucina because of it, which I otherwise would have had zero chance at, but still.  Dark Pit and Palutena aren’t even due until the summer, and Ganon isn’t going on shelves until fall.  I have trading fodder in the form of Shulk and Rosaluma, so I shouldn’t be this anxious and check the subreddit all the time.  I really should cut back and take a break.  I guess I’m just kinda worried about the Marth restocks, which were scheduled to happen in May.  And welp, it’s May.  Sigh, the ride never ends, does it?  When I have a smart phone it’ll be even worse, since I’ll even be able to check on the go.  Once I get Ganon, I’ll end this madness, bleh.

 

Yikes, people in cliques definitely are hard to talk to.  It’s still really admirable of you to be able strike up a conversation with nearly anyone though.  It’s a skill, even if you don’t see it as one, that you should be proud to have.  I guess I’ll try my darndest best to be a bit more open in college.  It’s a whole new start after all, so why not?  Not to mention, the Weatherhead School of Business is relatively small, and I’ll be spending the next four years of my life with that small group of people, so it wouldn’t be very smart of me to be reserved early on.  It would probably just makes things weird down the road.  Ahah, I do appreciate the encouragement.

 

You may feel it’s still too early for you to be thinking about colleges, but before you now it it’ll be summer break and I know you’re not going to spend every day with that UMich summer program.  You’re more likely than not going to have some time to visit colleges, and you’re going to have to choose which one’s you’re seriously considering.  Heck, in exactly a year you’re going to know where you’re going to spend the next few years of your life.  That being said, biased as this may sounds, I recommend you consider Case Western, haha.  It has a very good engineering program, and its pre-med program is phenomenal, since there are so many nationally acclaimed hospitals right on campus.  I believe you’re thinking of pursuing some kind of science related major, so there’s that.  The tuition is on the lower end for a private school, and since they’re known for being super liberal with their merit-based financial aid, it’s probably the cheapest private institution you’re going to find.  Not to mention, it’s relatively close to where you live.  They’re the only Common App school I know of that doesn’t ask for additional supplemental essays, and there is no application fee, so with a few extra keystrokes you can probably apply with very little effort.  Of course, these are just suggestions; if you really don’t even want to bother applying I guess you don’t have to, haha.

 

Another quiet week regarding amiibo passed (which is good, I guess, since it wasn't stressful at least).  However, I did get around to actually playing some video games.  I know, not the best timing given AP tests are right around the corner, but I couldn’t resist.  I’m nearly done with Spirit Tracks, for real this time.  A while ago I mentioned I was almost done, but I was sorely mistaken.  I thought I was close, but that was because I was approaching a false ending of sorts and there was still a lot of hidden stuff that I didn’t realize I had to go through.  I thought there were originally five-ish sections of the game: the beginning/intro, the forest realm, the ice realm, the water realm, and the fire realm.  You’d think the fire realm would be the climax, but nah they pulled a quick one on me as there were the hidden sand and dark realms I still had to go through.  Sigh, so the game took a few hours longer than I originally thought, but now I know I’m at the very end.  I’m fighting the final boss, actually this time.  In other news, you probably already saw this in the other thread, but I ran into a completely random shiny Tentacool in my Sapphire version.  Phew, thank goodness Hoenn has too much water.  It’s not my favorite Pokemon, and it’s nature and stats are rather subpar, but it’s a shiny (in a 3rd gen game at that!) so I have the urge to train him up.  I don’t really have the time for it though, but I’ll see what I can manage over the summer.  I still need to put getting a black trainer card in Pearl first, as I have yet to RNG abuse the final member of my three-mon dream team, Latios.

 

The strange things is, the pre-calc classes in my school don’t cover much at all.  The class teaches you enough to do well on the Math II SAT IIs, but no more.  I didn’t learn what a derivative was until just a few months ago, eheh.  That’s why AP Calc just feels like a completely different monster than pre-calc was, which was just a class teaching harder versions of algebra II problems.

 

Even though KissAnime (which is what I assume you use) has 1080p of all new and popular anime, streaming quality is still worse than download quality.  The videos need to be compressed just a tiny bit, so it’s not a 1:1 upload.  Not to mention, KissAnime gets almost all their stuff from HorribleSubs, who get all their stuff from Crunchyroll.  By the time HorribleSubs uploads the torrent link of Fate/stay night, I‘m able to download and watch it from them before KissAnime can even finish uploading the 720p version.  Why not cut out the middle man, right?  Since my parents go shopping without fail a few minutes before 1:30 pm EST n Saturdays (the moment UBW’s download links are put up by HorribleSubs), I’m always free to watch the anime in the way that I prefer: lights off, locked door, full screen.  And yes, 1080p KissAnime isn’t quite as good as 1080p HorribleSubs.  It’s only marginally worse, but I took the time to carefully compare the two, especially during the action scenes.  I know… I… probably shouldn’t take anime watching so seriously… Eheheheh……………  Anyway, for whatever reason, I also never have my laptop leave my desk.  I’m kind of OCD about it, because if it’s not positioned and angled perfectly straight I can tell immediately and I need to stop what I’m doing to fix it.  Gosh, I really need to loosen up in college.  Don’t mind me, I’m just being the usual dork that I am, haha.

 

Ah, it’s kind of too late for me to go to prom now.  The first wave of tickets were sold for around $95, but now they’ve jacked it up to $125.  I don’t know if it’s a form of punishment or a way to make up for my class’s lackluster fundraising spirit.  Even if I was willing to pay the “late” fee, I think they’ve already organized table charts and stuff.  For dinner, I’m guessing there are a bunch of tables set up and you’re allowed to request who and where you want to sit.  Since I’d be buying a ticket late, I wouldn’t have a choice and would be thrown in an odd-numbered group awkwardly, and I’d like to avoid that scenario.  Without a Facebook, I’m going to have a tough time finding out how prom goes down, but I’ll try my best!  (I don’t even what which building we’re using as the venue…)

 

And once again, there’s no need for you to apologize!  The upcoming weeks will be hectic, so feel free to take a week off or at least postpone your reply for a few days!  Good luck on your AP tests! 

[Kenzi 146]

 

Oh gosh, there’s no need to apologize.  I’d have been more surprised if you had somehow sent out a reply on time, haha.  I know how stressful AP tests are, as I’ve been studying for them recently myself, haha.  I’m so screwed for the Calc and Physics tests, oh my gosh…  It’s probably even worse for you since you’re feeling the recoil of the trip you just had and all the make-up work that comes with it.  As flattered as I am by your devotion to reply back in the wee hours of the morning, you really didn’t need to go to such lengths.  You should have gotten some sleep or finished some of that calc work you fell asleep on.  Thank you, but you should put yourself first, haha.

 

I’m really glad you had so much fun in Tennessee!  I don’t think I’ve ever been to that state.  Wow, it sounds like you had a blast.  It makes me a bit envious, haha.  An underground waterfall and an aquarium, huh?  When I was younger, my family used to take a bunch of trips to various caverns along the east coast.  You know, the ones located in the middle of Nowhere, Virginia that have tours and little gift shops where you can buy rocks and stuff.  Those trips weren’t the most exhilarating, but I look back on them fondly.  And I don’t think I’ve been to an aquarium in years, geez.  The most recent thing that counts might have been that zoo/aquarium hybrid I visited while in China two summers ago.  But it was kind of unkempt and wasn’t the nicest experience.  That must have been a really fancy hotel to have a patio and a bonfire.  I don’t think any of the hotels we slept in during band trips had things like that.  Or maybe they did, but there was a really strict curfew so we were never given the opportunity to wander around the hotel at night.  I’m glad you managed to, to an extent, stargaze.  I know how difficult it can be to put into words how an experience like that made you feel; my Common App essay gave me writer’s block more times than I can remember.  I actually agree with you, sometimes the moon and clouds in the sky at night actually enhance the stargazing experience.  I know pro stargazers avoid cloudy and moon-y nights like the plague, and I’m sure it’s frustrating if either of those is preventing you from getting a good view of a particular constellation, but it’s still really nice.  Moonlit nights are just as good as starlit ones, haha.  You’re also super fortunate to have shared this experience with friends!  I would love to go stargazing with friends of my own, but it’s hard to find people sympathetic to my cause.  One of these days, one of these days…  Ohh, and the clouds you drove through sound kind of interesting.  I also rarely find myself sleeping on buses.  It’s not because I have work to do (sometimes I’m just letting my mind wander as I look out the window), but it’s more so I find it really difficult and uncomfortable to drift off.  More often than not though, I’m just sitting in a nearly soundless bus because everyone else had already nodded off to sleep.  I never get work done on school trips, eheheh.  I’ve tried occasionally, but it’s never worked out so I guess I must not have been trying very hard.  Ah, I’m really glad your orchestra did well!  It is kind of strange there were only bands competing and no other orchestras, but whatever.  

 

And the band trip last year was just a really informal thing.  I can’t remember exactly what is was, but it was some Disney hosted mini-concert, not a competition.  My school’s band understands that no one’s really in the mood for an intense amount of music during an outing to Orlando, so they hang loose during the yearly trips but pull out all at the stops at local competitions.  I’m not sure how much I’ve talked about my band trip, but I know I did cover some of it in bits and pieces during our long exchange or elsewhere on this forum.  I’ve already mentioned how Epcot completely blew me away, if only because of the Japan section of the World Showcase.  Funny thing is, I only just realized that the Epcot globe thing, apparently called Spaceship Earth, did indeed used to have a Mickey wand attached to the side of it (it wasn’t just child me hallucinating) that was added in the year 2000 and then removed in 2007.  I know I also mentioned how I didn’t really enjoy the trip as much as I could have just because I’ve always been at odds with the band program and many of its members.  That’s not to say it wasn’t a ton of fun, because it definitely was.  I can’t deny the fact that our jazz band, at least last year, was absolutely phenomenal.  Our solo alto sax player was superb; I think he was planning on studying music in college.  When the jazz band performed on the outdoor stage, the sun was already down and the dusk was cool and comfortable and the music was good, haha.  It would have been nice if there were actual friends with me, but ehhh I’ll still take it over a regular day.  Hrm, I also vaguely recall mentioning how I got completely soaked through during a classic Florida surprise storm, from which I never fully recovered.  My shoes were squelching even after I got back to the hotel, a few hours after the downpour.  I don’t really want to bother you with the smaller details, but those were probably the biggest highlights of the trip last year.  Eheheh, and I’m also having a bit of trouble remembering what else happened…

 

Huh, maybe your classmates are just really lucky or my classmates are just really inconsistent, because there are two or three deserving candidates I can name off the top of my head who were rejected from every single Ivy League and had to settle for a public school, hoping to redeem themselves through a transfer and/or graduate school.  I don’t really know why this happens, though I think there are rumors and whisperings going around the Interwebs that you have a higher chance of being rejected if you apply to all 8 Ivy League schools, because it looks like you’re only applying for the name and aren’t legitimately interested in any of the individual schools.  Ivy Leagues are pretty overrated, and I’m not saying this because I’m salty that I never got into one or because I’m trying to be a hipster, but as someone who’s gone through the college application and research process, I do have to say Ivy Leagues are generally not worth it.  Unless you’re dead broke, you’re not getting a penny in financial aid from them because they don’t give out merit based scholarships, so it’s a middle-class family trap (especially if there is more than one child in the family), money-wise at least.  It’s good for bragging rights, but if you got in by BS-ing saying “I’m interesting in majoring in East Asian Religious Studies, hurhur” when you really have no clue what you’re doing, there’s not a ton to be proud of.  Not to mention, you’re most likely going to be wasting a lot of your time and money when you realize you’re in the same class as people who have the next ten years of their lives planned out while you’re still deciding what a good major would be at the end of your freshman year.  As much as my sister loved Dartmouth, she agrees that it was pricey and that she could have saved a lot of stress paying off her debt by instead going to Rutgers, or a public school of a similar caliber.  But hey, if an Ivy League has a program that you like and you’re willing to pay up and you’re lucky enough to get in, knock yourself out.  I know I’m not Ivy League material; I don’t have much self-motivation or inner drive and I’d most likely literally fail out, haha.  Anywhoo, I didn’t mean for this to turn into a rant on Ivy Leagues, heheh, sorry about that.

 

Aww, it’s too bad to hear that your grades aren’t exactly where you want them to be.  Junior year was rough, for sure.  It’s definitely my weakest academic year of my life thus far (hopefully it stays that way even after I go off to college).  It’s good that you’re aware of this weakness, and it’s a shame there isn’t more time in the school year to bring your grades up this semester.  Before we know it, it’ll be mid to late June and bam another sweltering summer break to sit through.  I know you’re probably upset that you have a downward trend going on, but the case was the same for me and I think I turned out alright, all this considered.  Your profile, from what I can gather, is much stronger than mine, so I’m confident you’ll get into better schools than I did, or at least receive more scholarships than me.  And from what you’ve said, you’re still planning on taking the SATs again?  How did you do last time?  Or rather, nah it’s fine, you don’t have to tell me, haha.  If you’re not satisfied with your score, I suppose you wouldn’t want to share it.  And which SAT II’s do you plan on taking?  I didn’t take too many myself, but I did well on all the ones I did take (barring US History, ironically enough).  There’s no need to kick yourself over this lull in your grades; think positive!

(Oh, and it wasn’t because you started talking to me that your grades are down….. right……….??)

 

Eheh, yup, the furthest west I’ve been was Las Vegas, so I guess I was pretty close. But the weather in Vegas can’t compare to the weather in LA I’m sure.  You’d think with a sister living in LA, I’d have a higher chance than most people to have visited the city before, haha.  It probably has to do with my mom’s fear of planes and the unrealistic notion of planning the mother of all road trips by driving from sad old Edison to SoCal (and back!).  The reason why she was fine with flying to China and to Vegas was because you can’t bring China to Edison nor can you bring National Parks to New Jersey.  You can, however, bring a single young woman back “home”, and since my mom doesn’t really care for LA as a city she doesn’t feel it necessary to fly there, hauling the whole family along.  So I guess that’s why I have yet to lay eyes on California soil.  Of course, once I'm on my own and eventually find a job and settle down somewhere, I’ll find time to actually visit my sister instead of have her come over every Christmas.  I’m definitely curious to know what the hype is all about.  I wear jeans exclusively in public, all year round.  When at home I revert to shorts or sweatpants, depending on the weather.  It makes anime watching more comfy, hahaha.  And there’s no rule saying you can’t wear your shorts during the winter!  Joking, I don’t think it’s a very good idea to wear clothing out of season like that, though there are a lot of girls and guys who do.  I just think it’s kind of funny whenever I see a girl at my school walk in in the dead of January with a skirt and winter jacket on.  I’m guessing with leggings it may not be too cold, but I’m not sure how well those keep in heat.  Ah well, how people want to make fashion statements isn’t my business.

 

Oof, your experience with your phone is like my relationship with /r/amiibo.  I didn’t mean to be so dependent on it, but now I check it religiously, every few minutes if I’m not watching anime.  It’s paid off, since I managed to pre-order Lucina because of it, which I otherwise would have had zero chance at, but still.  Dark Pit and Palutena aren’t even due until the summer, and Ganon isn’t going on shelves until fall.  I have trading fodder in the form of Shulk and Rosaluma, so I shouldn’t be this anxious and check the subreddit all the time.  I really should cut back and take a break.  I guess I’m just kinda worried about the Marth restocks, which were scheduled to happen in May.  And welp, it’s May.  Sigh, the ride never ends, does it?  When I have a smart phone it’ll be even worse, since I’ll even be able to check on the go.  Once I get Ganon, I’ll end this madness, bleh.

 

Yikes, people in cliques definitely are hard to talk to.  It’s still really admirable of you to be able strike up a conversation with nearly anyone though.  It’s a skill, even if you don’t see it as one, that you should be proud to have.  I guess I’ll try my darndest best to be a bit more open in college.  It’s a whole new start after all, so why not?  Not to mention, the Weatherhead School of Business is relatively small, and I’ll be spending the next four years of my life with that small group of people, so it wouldn’t be very smart of me to be reserved early on.  It would probably just makes things weird down the road.  Ahah, I do appreciate the encouragement.

 

You may feel it’s still too early for you to be thinking about colleges, but before you now it it’ll be summer break and I know you’re not going to spend every day with that UMich summer program.  You’re more likely than not going to have some time to visit colleges, and you’re going to have to choose which one’s you’re seriously considering.  Heck, in exactly a year you’re going to know where you’re going to spend the next few years of your life.  That being said, biased as this may sounds, I recommend you consider Case Western, haha.  It has a very good engineering program, and its pre-med program is phenomenal, since there are so many nationally acclaimed hospitals right on campus.  I believe you’re thinking of pursuing some kind of science related major, so there’s that.  The tuition is on the lower end for a private school, and since they’re known for being super liberal with their merit-based financial aid, it’s probably the cheapest private institution you’re going to find.  Not to mention, it’s relatively close to where you live.  They’re the only Common App school I know of that doesn’t ask for additional supplemental essays, and there is no application fee, so with a few extra keystrokes you can probably apply with very little effort.  Of course, these are just suggestions; if you really don’t even want to bother applying I guess you don’t have to, haha.

 

Another quiet week regarding amiibo passed (which is good, I guess, since it wasn't stressful at least).  However, I did get around to actually playing some video games.  I know, not the best timing given AP tests are right around the corner, but I couldn’t resist.  I’m nearly done with Spirit Tracks, for real this time.  A while ago I mentioned I was almost done, but I was sorely mistaken.  I thought I was close, but that was because I was approaching a false ending of sorts and there was still a lot of hidden stuff that I didn’t realize I had to go through.  I thought there were originally five-ish sections of the game: the beginning/intro, the forest realm, the ice realm, the water realm, and the fire realm.  You’d think the fire realm would be the climax, but nah they pulled a quick one on me as there were the hidden sand and dark realms I still had to go through.  Sigh, so the game took a few hours longer than I originally thought, but now I know I’m at the very end.  I’m fighting the final boss, actually this time.  In other news, you probably already saw this in the other thread, but I ran into a completely random shiny Tentacool in my Sapphire version.  Phew, thank goodness Hoenn has too much water.  It’s not my favorite Pokemon, and it’s nature and stats are rather subpar, but it’s a shiny (in a 3rd gen game at that!) so I have the urge to train him up.  I don’t really have the time for it though, but I’ll see what I can manage over the summer.  I still need to put getting a black trainer card in Pearl first, as I have yet to RNG abuse the final member of my three-mon dream team, Latios.

 

The strange things is, the pre-calc classes in my school don’t cover much at all.  The class teaches you enough to do well on the Math II SAT IIs, but no more.  I didn’t learn what a derivative was until just a few months ago, eheh.  That’s why AP Calc just feels like a completely different monster than pre-calc was, which was just a class teaching harder versions of algebra II problems.

 

Even though KissAnime (which is what I assume you use) has 1080p of all new and popular anime, streaming quality is still worse than download quality.  The videos need to be compressed just a tiny bit, so it’s not a 1:1 upload.  Not to mention, KissAnime gets almost all their stuff from HorribleSubs, who get all their stuff from Crunchyroll.  By the time HorribleSubs uploads the torrent link of Fate/stay night, I‘m able to download and watch it from them before KissAnime can even finish uploading the 720p version.  Why not cut out the middle man, right?  Since my parents go shopping without fail a few minutes before 1:30 pm EST n Saturdays (the moment UBW’s download links are put up by HorribleSubs), I’m always free to watch the anime in the way that I prefer: lights off, locked door, full screen.  And yes, 1080p KissAnime isn’t quite as good as 1080p HorribleSubs.  It’s only marginally worse, but I took the time to carefully compare the two, especially during the action scenes.  I know… I… probably shouldn’t take anime watching so seriously… Eheheheh……………  Anyway, for whatever reason, I also never have my laptop leave my desk.  I’m kind of OCD about it, because if it’s not positioned and angled perfectly straight I can tell immediately and I need to stop what I’m doing to fix it.  Gosh, I really need to loosen up in college.  Don’t mind me, I’m just being the usual dork that I am, haha.

 

Ah, it’s kind of too late for me to go to prom now.  The first wave of tickets were sold for around $95, but now they’ve jacked it up to $125.  I don’t know if it’s a form of punishment or a way to make up for my class’s lackluster fundraising spirit.  Even if I was willing to pay the “late” fee, I think they’ve already organized table charts and stuff.  For dinner, I’m guessing there are a bunch of tables set up and you’re allowed to request who and where you want to sit.  Since I’d be buying a ticket late, I wouldn’t have a choice and would be thrown in an odd-numbered group awkwardly, and I’d like to avoid that scenario.  Without a Facebook, I’m going to have a tough time finding out how prom goes down, but I’ll try my best!  (I don’t even what which building we’re using as the venue…)

 

And once again, there’s no need for you to apologize!  The upcoming weeks will be hectic, so feel free to take a week off or at least postpone your reply for a few days!  Good luck on your AP tests! 

 

Oh dang, you're taking the physics exam? Physics 1, 2, or C? I heard that the Physics C exam is one of the hardest out there, so good luck to you if you're taking it! Actually, best of luck to you regardless of which exams you're taking, haha. I've been debating on whether to take AP Stats or Physics C for a while now, and I'm leaning towards Physics C. Would you recommend taking it? Or rather, out of all the AP physics classes offered at your school, which one would you recommend for me to take? Ahaha, it was completely because of my carelessness for not posting my reply on time. I wanted to finish my calc homework before posting my response (which I had nearly all typed out), but I dozed off before that could happen, ehehe...

 

The aquarium we visited was really nice and even had an area where you could "pet" the fish, ahahaha. The underground waterfall we visited was also spectacular! There were lights at the bottom of the pool that lit up the waterfall and it was absolutely breathtaking. The crashing waterfall also sprayed a light, breezy mist everywhere in the cavern. Gosh, I wish you were there with me to witness it. You seem like the kind of person who'd enjoy something like this, haha. We tend to stay in quality hotels during orchestra trips, but saying that this was a "nice" hotel would be a huge understatement. Actually, as disappointing as this may sound, most of my friends weren't stargazing with me. The majority of them were either staring at or playing with the crackling bonfire, and the others were partying with the background music. I just gazed at the sky for most of my time there, but still managed to hold a few conversations with friends. Haha, the clouds that we drove through really kept my friend and me occupied for quite some time. After a while, both of us even mistook a passing truck to be a passing cloud, lol (twice, actually, ehehe...). I just love letting my mind wander. Geez, it's so difficult for me to concentrate on homework during trips. Everything becomes a distraction, and it's too easy to come up with excuses. I always keep telling myself to get it done, but it never happens.

 

Honestly, I don't think our orchestra rehearsed too much for this festival either. I wouldn't really call this a "competition" (even though we were competing with bands), but it's not on my turf to argue about linguistics, haha. Our director/conductor was pretty loose about winning--especially given that he didn't seem worried at all. He treated the trip as more of a vacation than preparation for the festival, which was nice. It might've been because he's retiring this year though (oh my gosh what's going to happen to the orchestra after he leaves)... I'm really glad to hear that you enjoyed your trip to Orlando! Was there anything else that was particularly memorable about your trip? It must have been awesome seeing the jazz band perform in such fitting conditions, heh. I'm also curious to know what other aspects of Epcot made you take such a liking to it, haha.

 

Going to Ivy Leagues just for the sake of reputation seems tacky. There are tons of schools out there with programs that can compare to, or are even better than, those of Ivy Leagues. I know Case's med program caught my attention, haha. Also, I've heard from a few friends that Ivy League schools can be quite generous with financial aid if you can't afford it. Apparently, if you get accepted by one of them, they don't just want you there, they want you there. If that's the case, then there's nothing wrong with attending the school, but it really isn't worth going broke for--basically what you said, lol. Ahaha, I still don't know what I'm going to major in when I head off to college. I'm planning on consulting my physics teacher when everything begins to wind down. Since he's a physics teacher, he might skew me towards something in the engineering field, but that's fine. I just need help deciding and I need someone to help push me in the right direction. He's a very wise man and I feel really fortunate to have him as my physics teacher this year.

 

It sucks that my junior year isn't going to get me anywhere, but I'm confident that my first semester senior year will make up for it (or at least help me appeal to waitlists). I'll be honest, I was shocked when I got my SAT score back. I did worse than I anticipated and my math score was embarrassing. I was utterly dumbfounded because I did better on the writing section than I did on my best subject. Ahaha, and the worse part is, I thought I nailed the math section. I recently got my ACT scores back, and managed to redeem myself with a 35 in math (still slightly annoyed about the one question I missed though). The ACT math is harder than the SAT math in my opinion (mostly since it covers more material like algebra 2 and trig) but it's still one of the easier sections for me. My overall composite score still wasn't that great, although I find it ironic that I did better on the ACT than on the SAT (especially since I was mainly focusing on the SAT at the time, and only spent about a week's worth preparing for the ACT). But whatever, hopefully some summer practice will bring rise to some better scores. As for the subject tests, I plan on taking Math II and Bio M this year. My cruddy grades is one of my biggest regrets, if not my biggest regret, of this year. Probably around 90 percent of my stress constitutes of my junior year grades so it's impossible for me not to kick myself over them, haha. I appreciate your concern though! 

 

I know you mentioned before that you've gone on road trips, but damn. Your mom was planning on driving all the way to California? And back? Just to avoid riding on an airplane? Holy geezus. That's insane, haha. The farthest we've driven was to Hilton Head (South Carolina) and it was just so we could save money, lol. But seeing that you've never gone to California before, I'll help fill you in: I know you mentioned before that your sister told you about this, but......... the weather is great almost year round, and it can be surprisingly mild. I personally think that the conditions there are better than those in Florida. It's definitely worth a visit, and I'm genuinely surprised that you haven't set foot on California soil yet. The only downside is that it feels like spring/summer year round (though I guess it could be considered an upside to some, haha). I'll wear jeans more often than not, but when I'm not, I'm wearing either soccer pants, capris, sweatpants, or shorts. Summertime is the only time when I'm able to take out my capris and shorts, so I try to take advantage of it whenever possible, heh. My parents would constantly hammer me about not wearing enough. Even though today was supposed to be in the 70s, my dad forced me to wear my trench coat on top of my t-shirt before heading off to school. But I'm not crazy enough to wear spring/summer clothing like shorts in the winter. Yeah, there are also quite a few people around here who like to pair leggings with skirts in the winter. I never understood why they dressed like that unless it was for some formal presentation. I rarely wear leggings+skirts outside of tennis, but I can still affirm that they don't do the greatest job of keeping you warm.

 

Geezus, you're making the amiibo ordeal sound more stressful than school, lol. Checking the subreddit every few minutes feels like a bit much, but considering how competitive/active some of these collectors are, I guess it's understandable. I'm glad you managed to get your hands on Lucina, but you should really wind down for a bit, haha. This may seem a bit contradictory to my previous statement, but for your sake, I hope you'll be able to gather the rest soon!

 

I'm really happy to hear that from you! Definitely don't be afraid to approach people because many of these people can be a lot friendlier than they seem. Even if someone appears to have a resting grump face, he/she may suddenly light up when approached. I wish you the best of luck when you head off to college! 

 

Actually, I've been considering Case for a while now (even before you posted about it). I've been getting emails from the school, advertising and asking me to visit the campus. Initially, I thought these emails were sent to everyone just to inflate the applicant pool (kinda like what UChicago does), but I eventually took a look at the school and I started taking a liking to it. The UMich summer program is only two weeks, so I'm planning to devote the extra time to studying for the SAT/ACT. However, that doesn't mean I'm not planning on visiting Case, heh. I want to visit around August (definitely subject to change since I haven't scheduled anything yet), and if I like it, I'll probably apply. If I get accepted, the only way my parents will let me go is if I manage to get some scholarship/financial aid since the out of state tuition is pretty pricey--so I'm glad to hear that the school is liberal about it, haha. 

 

Playing video games before AP tests isn't too bad of an idea in my opinion. There's no use in cramming the day before the test, so why not take a break from all that studying and play some video games? As long it's not a rage-inducing game, I personally think that it's a great way to loosen up and de-stress before the test. It's good to hear that you're getting far in Spirit Tracks, but you're making it sound like it's a chore, haha. It was really easy for me to get lost in Hoenn's waters. Often times, I had to look up an online map of Hoenn just so I could keep track of the places I have or haven't visited yet, lol. And once again, congrats on the shiny Tentacool! Be sure to update me on how its training goes or its speed-run (if you're planning on it). Ahaha, I still can't get over how ambitious you are for chasing after that black trainer card. Hopefully all goes well for you!

 

Calc still felt like a entirely new concept despite having touched on it in pre-calc. I personally thought that pre-calc was just an "enhancement" of algebra 2 with a morsel of calc incorporated into it. I guess calc was a new way of approaching math. The concept felt so abstract though. Like how taking the integral of area gives volume, or how the derivative of position is velocity. I got used to it after a while, and things started making sense, but I still can't get over how... different it is to what I'm used to. It gave me a tiny head start in physics though, so I guess that's one good thing that came out of the class, haha.

 

I'm most comfortable watching anime during the nighttime. It's a weird habit of mine that eventually grew on me. I'm not too uptight about the quality as long as it's still HD or isn't anything like 240p, lol. I don't have a regular anime watching schedule either. In fact, as much as I'd hate to admit it, I'm actually a bit behind on stay night because of my chaotic schedule that I have yet to tame. But on the bright side, at least I'll be able to binge when I have the time as opposed to getting internally hurt from waiting between every episode, ehehe. I'm also not a fan of downloading stuff on my laptop. I had a bad experience with an emulator I attempted to download a while ago and ended up with a pesky trojan. I considered asking my dad for help (he's a computer science guy), but god knows what would've happened to me if I did. I was forced to seek online help to eradicate this virus, and getting rid of it was a painstakingly tedious process. So yeah, I try to avoid downloading whenever possible after that somewhat traumatic experience. In other words, lesson learned. The experience made me unreasonably paranoid about what I download, so I never download anime. But that's okay. I'm perfectly happy watching 720p/1080p on KissAnime, and I don't want to become too picky about video quality, haha. Likewise, I also feel uncomfortable when someone adjusts the position of my laptop or when I'm forced to move my laptop somewhere. It has more to do with it's problematic power jack than anything else, but it has also made me somewhat OCD about how it's positioned, ahahaha...

 

Damn, prom tickets are $95? I'm not sure what the cost of tickets is for our school, but geez. I didn't expect your school's to be that high, haha. Homecoming tickets were $15 per person here, so I'd assume that prom might be a bit more, but not nearly as much as $95. Phew, maybe I'll consult one of my senior friends later and ask how much it was. I keep forgetting to ask, but it'll happen eventually. Your school's prom also seems really organized with this whole fancy dinner stuff, so maybe that might also be why. I'm still a bit stunned that our prom ended a few weeks ago. Actually, I can't believe that it's May already, haha.

 

Believe it or not, but my workload has been lightened quite a bit because of AP tests. Most of my AP classes are in study hall mode for the time being, so I actually have a bit more free time than I used to. But that's only if I'm discounting the preparation for upcoming AP tests, lol. My schedule is still a bit rough, but it's getting better.

[Akazora 293]

Oh dang, you're taking the physics exam? Physics 1, 2, or C? I heard that the Physics C exam is one of the hardest out there, so good luck to you if you're taking it! Actually, best of luck to you regardless of which exams you're taking, haha. I've been debating on whether to take AP Stats or Physics C for a while now, and I'm leaning towards Physics C. Would you recommend taking it? Or rather, out of all the AP physics classes offered at your school, which one would you recommend for me to take? Ahaha, it was completely because of my carelessness for not posting my reply on time. I wanted to finish my calc homework before posting my response (which I had nearly all typed out), but I dozed off before that could happen, ehehe...

 

The aquarium we visited was really nice and even had an area where you could "pet" the fish, ahahaha. The underground waterfall we visited was also spectacular! There were lights at the bottom of the pool that lit up the waterfall and it was absolutely breathtaking. The crashing waterfall also sprayed a light, breezy mist everywhere in the cavern. Gosh, I wish you were there with me to witness it. You seem like the kind of person who'd enjoy something like this, haha. We tend to stay in quality hotels during orchestra trips, but saying that this was a "nice" hotel would be a huge understatement. Actually, as disappointing as this may sound, most of my friends weren't stargazing with me. The majority of them were either staring at or playing with the crackling bonfire, and the others were partying with the background music. I just gazed at the sky for most of my time there, but still managed to hold a few conversations with friends. Haha, the clouds that we drove through really kept my friend and me occupied for quite some time. After a while, both of us even mistook a passing truck to be a passing cloud, lol (twice, actually, ehehe...). I just love letting my mind wander. Geez, it's so difficult for me to concentrate on homework during trips. Everything becomes a distraction, and it's too easy to come up with excuses. I always keep telling myself to get it done, but it never happens.

 

Honestly, I don't think our orchestra rehearsed too much for this festival either. I wouldn't really call this a "competition" (even though we were competing with bands), but it's not on my turf to argue about linguistics, haha. Our director/conductor was pretty loose about winning--especially given that he didn't seem worried at all. He treated the trip as more of a vacation than preparation for the festival, which was nice. It might've been because he's retiring this year though (oh my gosh what's going to happen to the orchestra after he leaves)... I'm really glad to hear that you enjoyed your trip to Orlando! Was there anything else that was particularly memorable about your trip? It must have been awesome seeing the jazz band perform in such fitting conditions, heh. I'm also curious to know what other aspects of Epcot made you take such a liking to it, haha.

 

Going to Ivy Leagues just for the sake of reputation seems tacky. There are tons of schools out there with programs that can compare to, or are even better than, those of Ivy Leagues. I know Case's med program caught my attention, haha. Also, I've heard from a few friends that Ivy League schools can be quite generous with financial aid if you can't afford it. Apparently, if you get accepted by one of them, they don't just want you there, they want you there. If that's the case, then there's nothing wrong with attending the school, but it really isn't worth going broke for--basically what you said, lol. Ahaha, I still don't know what I'm going to major in when I head off to college. I'm planning on consulting my physics teacher when everything begins to wind down. Since he's a physics teacher, he might skew me towards something in the engineering field, but that's fine. I just need help deciding and I need someone to help push me in the right direction. He's a very wise man and I feel really fortunate to have him as my physics teacher this year.

 

It sucks that my junior year isn't going to get me anywhere, but I'm confident that my first semester senior year will make up for it (or at least help me appeal to waitlists). I'll be honest, I was shocked when I got my SAT score back. I did worse than I anticipated and my math score was embarrassing. I was utterly dumbfounded because I did better on the writing section than I did on my best subject. Ahaha, and the worse part is, I thought I nailed the math section. I recently got my ACT scores back, and managed to redeem myself with a 35 in math (still slightly annoyed about the one question I missed though). The ACT math is harder than the SAT math in my opinion (mostly since it covers more material like algebra 2 and trig) but it's still one of the easier sections for me. My overall composite score still wasn't that great, although I find it ironic that I did better on the ACT than on the SAT (especially since I was mainly focusing on the SAT at the time, and only spent about a week's worth preparing for the ACT). But whatever, hopefully some summer practice will bring rise to some better scores. As for the subject tests, I plan on taking Math II and Bio M this year. My cruddy grades is one of my biggest regrets, if not my biggest regret, of this year. Probably around 90 percent of my stress constitutes of my junior year grades so it's impossible for me not to kick myself over them, haha. I appreciate your concern though! 

 

I know you mentioned before that you've gone on road trips, but damn. Your mom was planning on driving all the way to California? And back? Just to avoid riding on an airplane? Holy geezus. That's insane, haha. The farthest we've driven was to Hilton Head (South Carolina) and it was just so we could save money, lol. But seeing that you've never gone to California before, I'll help fill you in: I know you mentioned before that your sister told you about this, but......... the weather is great almost year round, and it can be surprisingly mild. I personally think that the conditions there are better than those in Florida. It's definitely worth a visit, and I'm genuinely surprised that you haven't set foot on California soil yet. The only downside is that it feels like spring/summer year round (though I guess it could be considered an upside to some, haha). I'll wear jeans more often than not, but when I'm not, I'm wearing either soccer pants, capris, sweatpants, or shorts. Summertime is the only time when I'm able to take out my capris and shorts, so I try to take advantage of it whenever possible, heh. My parents would constantly hammer me about not wearing enough. Even though today was supposed to be in the 70s, my dad forced me to wear my trench coat on top of my t-shirt before heading off to school. But I'm not crazy enough to wear spring/summer clothing like shorts in the winter. Yeah, there are also quite a few people around here who like to pair leggings with skirts in the winter. I never understood why they dressed like that unless it was for some formal presentation. I rarely wear leggings+skirts outside of tennis, but I can still affirm that they don't do the greatest job of keeping you warm.

 

Geezus, you're making the amiibo ordeal sound more stressful than school, lol. Checking the subreddit every few minutes feels like a bit much, but considering how competitive/active some of these collectors are, I guess it's understandable. I'm glad you managed to get your hands on Lucina, but you should really wind down for a bit, haha. This may seem a bit contradictory to my previous statement, but for your sake, I hope you'll be able to gather the rest soon!

 

I'm really happy to hear that from you! Definitely don't be afraid to approach people because many of these people can be a lot friendlier than they seem. Even if someone appears to have a resting grump face, he/she may suddenly light up when approached. I wish you the best of luck when you head off to college! 

 

Actually, I've been considering Case for a while now (even before you posted about it). I've been getting emails from the school, advertising and asking me to visit the campus. Initially, I thought these emails were sent to everyone just to inflate the applicant pool (kinda like what UChicago does), but I eventually took a look at the school and I started taking a liking to it. The UMich summer program is only two weeks, so I'm planning to devote the extra time to studying for the SAT/ACT. However, that doesn't mean I'm not planning on visiting Case, heh. I want to visit around August (definitely subject to change since I haven't scheduled anything yet), and if I like it, I'll probably apply. If I get accepted, the only way my parents will let me go is if I manage to get some scholarship/financial aid since the out of state tuition is pretty pricey--so I'm glad to hear that the school is liberal about it, haha. 

 

Playing video games before AP tests isn't too bad of an idea in my opinion. There's no use in cramming the day before the test, so why not take a break from all that studying and play some video games? As long it's not a rage-inducing game, I personally think that it's a great way to loosen up and de-stress before the test. It's good to hear that you're getting far in Spirit Tracks, but you're making it sound like it's a chore, haha. It was really easy for me to get lost in Hoenn's waters. Often times, I had to look up an online map of Hoenn just so I could keep track of the places I have or haven't visited yet, lol. And once again, congrats on the shiny Tentacool! Be sure to update me on how its training goes or its speed-run (if you're planning on it). Ahaha, I still can't get over how ambitious you are for chasing after that black trainer card. Hopefully all goes well for you!

 

Calc still felt like a entirely new concept despite having touched on it in pre-calc. I personally thought that pre-calc was just an "enhancement" of algebra 2 with a morsel of calc incorporated into it. I guess calc was a new way of approaching math. The concept felt so abstract though. Like how taking the integral of area gives volume, or how the derivative of position is velocity. I got used to it after a while, and things started making sense, but I still can't get over how... different it is to what I'm used to. It gave me a tiny head start in physics though, so I guess that's one good thing that came out of the class, haha.

 

I'm most comfortable watching anime during the nighttime. It's a weird habit of mine that eventually grew on me. I'm not too uptight about the quality as long as it's still HD or isn't anything like 240p, lol. I don't have a regular anime watching schedule either. In fact, as much as I'd hate to admit it, I'm actually a bit behind on stay night because of my chaotic schedule that I have yet to tame. But on the bright side, at least I'll be able to binge when I have the time as opposed to getting internally hurt from waiting between every episode, ehehe. I'm also not a fan of downloading stuff on my laptop. I had a bad experience with an emulator I attempted to download a while ago and ended up with a pesky trojan. I considered asking my dad for help (he's a computer science guy), but god knows what would've happened to me if I did. I was forced to seek online help to eradicate this virus, and getting rid of it was a painstakingly tedious process. So yeah, I try to avoid downloading whenever possible after that somewhat traumatic experience. In other words, lesson learned. The experience made me unreasonably paranoid about what I download, so I never download anime. But that's okay. I'm perfectly happy watching 720p/1080p on KissAnime, and I don't want to become too picky about video quality, haha. Likewise, I also feel uncomfortable when someone adjusts the position of my laptop or when I'm forced to move my laptop somewhere. It has more to do with it's problematic power jack than anything else, but it has also made me somewhat OCD about how it's positioned, ahahaha...

 

Damn, prom tickets are $95? I'm not sure what the cost of tickets is for our school, but geez. I didn't expect your school's to be that high, haha. Homecoming tickets were $15 per person here, so I'd assume that prom might be a bit more, but not nearly as much as $95. Phew, maybe I'll consult one of my senior friends later and ask how much it was. I keep forgetting to ask, but it'll happen eventually. Your school's prom also seems really organized with this whole fancy dinner stuff, so maybe that might also be why. I'm still a bit stunned that our prom ended a few weeks ago. Actually, I can't believe that it's May already, haha.

 

Believe it or not, but my workload has been lightened quite a bit because of AP tests. Most of my AP classes are in study hall mode for the time being, so I actually have a bit more free time than I used to. But that's only if I'm discounting the preparation for upcoming AP tests, lol. My schedule is still a bit rough, but it's getting better.

As I mentioned elsewhere, I took the Physics 1 exam.  I don’t think I did too well on it, which I’ll get into shortly.  As for whether you should take Stats or Physics C, there’s not much advice I can give.  My school doesn’t offer classes on either of the Physics C APs, only Physics 1 and 2, and while Stats is a relatively popular course for seniors I never took it.  That being said, more people are taking the Stats exam as opposed to Physics C exams, but only because most people don’t want to be bothered to self-study for a notoriously difficult test.  As for how useful they are in college, I’d say both tests are accepted by pretty much all schools (except for Ivy Leagues and other universities full of themselves, haha) so you can’t go wrong with either.  I don’t know the details of other colleges, but Case accepts 4-5s for Physics B (which was an AP test up until just this year, before it was split into Physics 1 and Physics 2) and the two Physics Cs but they accept only 5s for Stats.  Sorry I couldn’t really give you much more of a definitive answer, so I guess it’s up to you in the end, haha.  Whichever one you choose, good luck with the course and I hope you prepare well for the exam next year!

 

Anyway, as for how well my AP exams went, you already know I felt pretty good about the Calc AB exam.  However, the same can’t really be said about the Lit and Physics 1 exams.  The Lit exam got off to a good start, since the multiple choice section just felt like a glorified SAT I Reading section, except literally every single passage/poem was about love.  Literally every single one.  But then when I got to the three FRQs, my mind shut down.  As in, I fell asleep.  Eheheheheh…  I didn’t fall asleep for the entirety of it, but I nodded off for a minute or two at least thrice every essay.  I really don’t know why I was so tired.  And it only got worse from there, since the Physics exam was immediately afterward.  I fell asleep quite a bit during the multiple choice section and had to rush at the very end, though by the Physics FRQs I think the gravity (ohohohoho!) of the situation dawned on me and I perked up a bit (or at least woke up enough to only blank out once).  Ughhh, that was really bad.  I’m a bad example, don’t do what I did, though I seriously don’t really know why I felt so exhausted.  I got plenty of sleep the night before and I’ve been more awake on less hours on previous occasions.  Maybe I haven’t been eating well recently, or maybe I’ve been exercising too much, or maybe it’s a mix of both.  Eheh, my sister claims that as a young man going off to college I need to build up some muscle mass, so I’ve been doing a set of push-ups and sit-ups every day as well as a jog every weekend.  I don’t think it’s anything too intense, but I’m consistent with it.  Blehh, it would really suck if over-exertion paired with two meals a day is what caused me to feel so tired.  Soo, that’s my story.  I hope things take a turn for the better come Monday.  How were AP exams for you?

 

Aww geez, it would have been awesome if I were also there, haha.  Because visiting colleges has gotten in the way of visiting places just for fun in the past year, I seriously need a chance to just relax.  I’ll try to find some time over the summer before college starts.  The waterfall sounds really cool, and it seems you had a lot of fun at the aquarium.  Ah well, you can’t really expect many people to pay the sky any attention.  It’s always there, so sometimes we take it for granted and forget to look up.  Hm, did my Common App essay in any way influence your choice to star gaze instead of poke at the fire?  I do have to say though, fire can be pretty neat to look at.  Last summer, my family and I went camping with my aunt, uncle, and cousin.  It was only for one day and one night, and it was at a designated camping site so we were in close proximity to other campers, but it was fun regardless.  We got a campfire going, and it was entertaining to just watch the flames dance and occasionally throw some paper or twigs or wood in it to keep it alive.  I did manage to stargaze a bit then, but not for long because my parents were yelling at me to get in the tent and go to sleep, eheheh.  I wish I could have been there with you, and I’m glad you managed to get something out of the experience.  Hopefully you get many more chances to stargaze in the future.  Oh geez, it really must have been pretty foggy/cloudy to mistaken trucks as cloud formations.  It’s a good thing the bus driver was driving safely, haha.

 

Oh no, your director’s retiring?  That sucks.  I hope the orchestra’s new director can make up for it, though I suppose things will never quite be the same.  The conductor for my own band program was actually planning on retiring a few years ago, but either he changed his mind or he was met with a lot of opposition because he’s still here, heh.  As much as I dislike my band program, I can’t deny that the director’s a really talented man.  He was even nominated for the Grammy Music Educator’s Award (yes, the actual Grammy's) and though he didn’t win the fact that he was nominated is evidence of his skill.

 

Anything else memorable about the Orlando trip, huh?  Gosh, are you really that interested in my ramblings?  Ah, I’m awfully grateful that you’re willing to sit there and take in a lot of the drivel I can spout, so thank you for that.  No one else listens and puts up with me quite as well as you do.  That being said, you really are making me dig deep into my memory, because even though the Orlando trip was only a year ago so much other stuff has happened since then, as you can imagine.  One thing I’ve forgotten to mention was the Wishes: A Magical Gathering of Disney Dreams fireworks show at Magic Kingdom (abbreviated to Wishes for obvious reasons).  I’ve seen some really amazing fireworks shows before, but this definitely takes the cake as the most breathtaking of them all.  Have you been to Disney World and seen it before?  I know there’s also a version of it shown at Disney Land.  It’s basically a fireworks show with music and narration and video images projected onto the Cinderella Castle.  It seems simple enough, but it’s awe-inspiring for sure.  It’s constantly updated as new movies come out, so you can imagine the cheers that went up when they got to the Frozen portion of the montage.  I vaguely remember seeing the show when I went there years ago with my family, but I was really young then and apparently my dad said I was too short to see much.  I guess that’s why it didn’t impress me nearly as much back then.  During the band trip I watched it from Main Street instead of right up near the front, and the view was surprisingly good.  If you have yet to experience Wishes, I highly recommend you do.  It’s super grand and heart-pounding, and it has a much wider range of appeal than the Japan store at Epcot, haha.  Also, the fireworks show was nostalgic, and I think that’s the part that really got me.  This goes for the parks in general as well.  When you’re just a little kid and you’re looking for big loud things, Disney World is kind of fun and you enjoy your time there.  But then when you “grow up” and become a tween, you start thinking “Oh, I’m too old for Disney; that stuff’s just for kids” and don’t give the parks the light of day.  And then once you fight, bleeding and sweating and crying, through high school and take your first steps into the real world, you start looking back on Disney World fondly.  It was the physical manifestation of your childhood, back before you truly worried about anything and before you actually had to work and before you realized life can sometimes suck.  You realized you took it all for granted and that you can never be a kid again. Not in the true sense at least, but places like Disney World can provide a temporary escape.  That’s what makes it so wonderful, and I didn’t really understand it before but I guess that’s also why my sister loves the company so much and chose to work for them.  That’s what makes the parks and the Wishes fireworks so magically.  It’s a sad kind of magic, but it’s wonderful at the same time.  If you ever have the chance to look up discontinued and now nonexistent Disney attractions, you’ll realize how much has changed.  It’s kind of sad to see all these rides that I’m sure a lot of older people had grown up with being replaced with newer ones.  It’s understandable, since Disney needs to stay profitable and relevant, but still.  Ah, sorry, I don’t really know if I’m making any sense or not.  I just started typing this all out, and it may be kind of convoluted since it’s hard to put these feelings into words.  Maybe I’m just too sentimental for my own good.  I do recommend you visit Disney World someday, even if you’ve been there before.  It’s quite the different experience once you’ve grown up.  Things like Universal Studio have their appeal as amusement parks with thrill rides (Oh, have you heard the news that Nintendo is partnering with Universal to get a Nintendo-themed section of the park?  Super hyped for that!), and while that has its time and place you can’t really say it’s better or worse than the nostalgia driven entertainment you get from Disney.  They’re good for two different reasons.  

 

Whoops, I realized that I’ve only addressed half of your question and yet I’ve already dabbled off for this long.  As for the rest of Epcot, it was actually mainly the Japan section of the World Showcase that really made it so amazing for me, eheh.  However, I must say that the World Showcase itself was spectacular.  Future Word, the face of Epcot, wasn’t nearly as exciting, but the countries all circling around the central lake was pretty awesome.  I didn’t remember this part of the park at all from when I first visited, since child me probably just wasn’t interested in world countries, but the atmosphere of each portion is masterfully executed.  It’s an underrated and underappreciated part of Disney World, haha.  Oh, also, the Norway section of the World Showcase used to have a ride called Maelstrom.  It was discontinued just a few months ago, and I was luckily able to ride it last year before it was shut down for good.  It’s being replaced with a Frozen attraction, and as you can imagine it’s been met with a lot of controversy.  Many people are saying replacing a historical ride with a cash-grab one is cheap and distasteful, and I can’t say disagree.  The World Showcase was special in that in celebrated various cultures and customs, without the need to have the Disney logo slapped on everything.  Every country in the Showcase was built with the help of natives from those very countries, to make sure everything was accurate and portrayed correctly.  A lot of love was put into the small details.  A Frozen ride should have been built in a place like Magic Kingdom, where it would better jive with the atmosphere of the park.  While Maelstrom wasn’t the biggest or most exiting ride, it’s still sad to it go since it’s a classic.  Ah well, what’s done is done.  I’ve said far too much about Disney at this point.  If I’m starting to bother you with the length of some of my responses, don’t be afraid to let me know, really.  I don’t want to bore you with stuff you don’t want to hear.

 

All schools have two ways of giving out scholarships: merit-based and need-based.  Merit-based scholarships are completely up to the school, as they choose how much they want to cut off of the tuition to entice you to attend their school, especially if your profile is especially strong in comparison to the average student at the college.  Need-based scholarships are, if I’m not mistaken, handled by some government organization.  You apply for need-based scholarships, and then the organization determines if, based on familial income and other factors (completely separate from academics), your family needs help to pay for college in general.  That info will be sent to schools that want you, and more likely than not they will meet that need nearly 100%, even Ivy Leagues.  My guess is that it’s less because they’re nice and more because they just have a reputation to maintain.  If they were truly nice, they would give merit-based scholarships in tandem with need-based scholarships, which they rarely if ever do.  After all, if someone rejects their offer because “Oh, you didn’t cut my tuition enough!” it doesn’t bother them.  They have thousands of highly qualified students banging on their doors dying to be accepted, some of them willing to pay extra to get in, so it’s not like they don’t have a source of income that can replace the loss of a few students.  It’s the sad truth of the situation, but I guess that what happens when a business gets so big, heh.  It’s really nice you have such a good physics teacher, I’m kind of envious.  All the physics teachers in my school are agreed to be terrible, and though my teacher is a nice guy he’s honestly a very weak teacher.  He watches anime though, which is cool.  Huh, though when you say wise man, I can’t help but imagine some old sage-like teacher, Dumbledore style.

 

Aww shucks, it’s too bad the SATs didn’t go quite as planned.  I find the writing section to be really overrated.  It’s not terribly difficult to do well in those portions, from my experience at least.  I got a perfect score the first time I took it, though my reading score was really bad.  My math score was pretty good; I only got one wrong, but the curve must have been sharp because that one question already knocked me down to a 770.  I wanted to improve my reading section at the very least, so I could take advantage of Score Choice, so I decided to completely forgo the math and writing sections to exclusively focus on reading.  Funny thing is, the second time I took it, I did even worse in reading while my writing score sat at a comfy 790.  Like, hooooowwww??  I still don’t know, but whatever, bleh.  There’s a lot of luck involved unfortunately.  On my PSATs for example, I had a perfect reading score, not a single question wrong.  Maybe I’m just really inconsistent?  Hrmph, junior year sure was a wild time for me.  I hope you manage to do well on your next try!  I believe you’ll be able to pull through!  Oh heey, you’re also planning on taking Math II and Bio M?  Those were two tests I also took!  (Okay, for real, why we so similar…?)  Uh, I don’t want to put any extra pressure on you, and I hope I don’t come off as bragging, because it isn’t my intention, but I actually got 800s on both of those tests…  Yeaaah, see, I don’t know why either (I’ve said “I don’t know” so many times in the course of this response).  I know I’ve said math and science are my weakest and least favorite subjects, and believe me they are.  You can imagine how shocked I was to get those scores back.  With the number of questions I guessed on the Math II test, I was probably one question off from not getting a perfect score and I had never gotten an 800 on any Bio M practice exams, so I guess the curve was lenient.  Huh, I may just be exceedingly lucky.  It sure is looking that way with the recent amiibo orders.  Anyhow, I wish you the best of luck on the SAT IIs and the SATs!  Know that I’m rooting for you all the way, and if you have any concerns let me know and I’ll try to help out in any way I can.

 

Ah, I see, a simple but effective wardrobe you have there!  What kind of tops do you wear?  I know a lot of girls have an array of really fashionable stuff.  It’s like they never repeat an outfit for the entire school year.  I never found that particularly necessary, but then again, I’m not a girl, haha.  As I said earlier, I wear jeans year round in public, and sweatpants for in-home use in the winter and shorts for in-home use in the summer.  I pair that up with button downs or polos or the occasional nerdy graphic tee, and I wear only one pair of sneakers at a time until they start tearing apart and I have to get new ones.  That’s all there is too it.  Nothing fancy and rather forgettable, but it gets the job done.  Leggings don’t really help with the cold, hm?  I wonder how some girls do it.  It’s kind of like marching band uniforms.  They may look toasty and feel really thick, but they don’t do jack against the winter wind.  I guess if there was too much insulation, you’d have poor kids passing out during the warmer months.  Why aren’t there seasonal marching uniforms?  Gosh, some of the most important questions are never answered.

 

Thank you for your kind thoughts of wanting me to collect the rest of the amiibo so I can relax, because as you know I actually snagged a North American Marth off of Amazon for MSRP!  Nintendo announced a restock in May way back in January (yeeup, it’s been a long time coming), and I guess they’re being sent to warehouses across the country right about now.  Funny thing is, Amazon is the first major retailer to put up Marth restock orders but still hasn’t put up wave 4 pre-orders though all other stores did that weeks ago, hence why my Lucina is secured from Walmart.  Since he’s not a pre-order and actually on-hand, he’ll be shipping and arriving in about a week.  Those that chose 2-day shipping are going to get him really soon, if the subreddit is anything to go by.  There were a lot of technical problems with Amazon’s site, similar to the Walmart fiasco but not nearly as severe.  Of course, nothing can compare to GameStop’s site completely crashing on April 2nd, but then again they announced they were going to put up pre-orders at a specific time so I guess they kinda asked for it.  I don’t want to bore you with the details, and I’ve already typed a lot, haha.  I’m theoretically completely done with my amiibo hunt.  I have Sheik, Ike, Lucina, and Marth in the bag.  Dark Pit, Palutena, and Ganondorf are due to be out later, so worrying about them now isn’t going to help, and I can do a 1:1 trade with the extra amiibo I have if I need to.  Shulk for DP, Rosaluma for Palutena, and if Ganon is an uncommon like every other Zelda character a Sonic for him should suffice.  If I want to pick up Link, I can easily grab him off a shelf whenever I feel like it.  Phew, I’m so close I can almost taste it!

 

Oh gosh, if anything I’m the one with the resting grump face, hahaha.  Every time I see a candid picture of myself, I always think “Was I really unhappy then?  I sure don’t think I was…”  At the very least, I’m not exactly photogenic, ahah.  I hope I don’t scare anybody away…

 

Ahhh, it would be really awesome if you also attend Case!  We could meet each other in real life, which is something I’d love to do.  Um, hahah, I’m getting ahead of myself though, sorry.  You haven’t even applied yet.  I’m really glad you’re considering the school.  There are a lot of really great schools around your area though, like UMich, so even if you don’t end up going to CWRU I’m sure you’ll be going to a really nice school.  It really is a good idea to visit schools you’re considering, so you can potentially rule out a few that rub you the wrong way.  Mid-August is actually when orientation starts for Case.  Goodness, things are moving fast.  Case gave me more in scholarship money than any other school, though that’s kind of an unfair comparison since public schools are cheaper than private ones, so proportionally Rutgers gave me a ton more than Case did.  That being said, even my Case scholarship money wasn’t astronomical or anything.  My parents know someone whose son apparently got $35,000 a year from them, which is certifiably insane, haha.

 

Weeelll, the thing is, even though I was taking a break to play some video games, I ended up cramming the night before the Calc exam anyway, using that dandy little formula sheet you posted, eheheheh.  Once again, I don’t think I’m a good role model for you, so don’t follow in my footsteps, hah.  I’ve finally finished Spirit Tracks, and I guess all in all it wasn’t a bad game.  I was probably a little unfair with my criticism of it before; expecting something like OoT, considered one of the greatest video games of all time by many, from Spirit Tracks isn’t exactly right.  It has its own charm, and I must say Toon Link and Toon Zelda make a much better pair than OoT Link and OoT Zelda did.  It’s nothing I would ever play again, but it was a fun game.  I’ve played through Hoenn games so many times, I actually know the water like the back of my hand because of how many times I’ve forced myself to scout the seas for trainers.  I hope this knowledge helps me with Alpha Sapphire, haha.

 

I guess some of the themes in calc were a bit abstract.  I actually didn’t really mind, because I’d been stumped by so many other previous subjects like trig that I’ve learned to just memorize for the sake of memorization.  I know I know, it’s not good for me to do this and it would better to understand instead of just memorize concepts, but I find that in a pinch it prevents me from getting worked up over the small stuff.

 

Geez, that virus must have really been a pain.  I haven’t had anything major wreck my computer in the past few years, but I can imagine how frightening it must have been especially since you couldn’t tell your dad about it.  I’m glad you resolved the problem though.  The anime downloading community is actually pretty extensive and really safe, as long as you know what you’re doing.  It’s safer than downloading American movies even.  But I guess it’s fine to stay out of it anyway, haha.  I only download a minority of anime that I watch, like the ones that I especially love that also have a lot action.

 

This may sound weird coming from me, but don’t pay the price much mind and seriously consider prom.  Sure it may be expensive, but that was only a small factor for me when deciding not to attend.  I mainly opted out of it because I just felt like it wouldn’t really be my idea of a fun night.  Prom is in a week for us (May 15th) but if your friends say it’s fun then you should go!  Whether or not you’re asked out, I’m sure prom will still be a unique experience at the very least.  Heh, I guess you won’t really need much convincing though, since you were the one trying to get me to go to prom, but I felt like that needed to be said.  You seem like the type who’d like it, or at least regret not going.

 

I’m really happy to hear that your schedule is loosening up!  Unfortunately for me, for whatever reason a lot of my teachers are assigning quite a bit of work.  I have a couple of quizzes lined up for the second AP week, a few projects coming up really soon, and some research to get done.  Bleh, it’s a bit of a bummer, but oh well.  My life is still far from stressful, so I don’t want to sound like I’m whining too much, haha.

[Kenzi 146]

 

As I mentioned elsewhere, I took the Physics 1 exam.  I don’t think I did too well on it, which I’ll get into shortly.  As for whether you should take Stats or Physics C, there’s not much advice I can give.  My school doesn’t offer classes on either of the Physics C APs, only Physics 1 and 2, and while Stats is a relatively popular course for seniors I never took it.  That being said, more people are taking the Stats exam as opposed to Physics C exams, but only because most people don’t want to be bothered to self-study for a notoriously difficult test.  As for how useful they are in college, I’d say both tests are accepted by pretty much all schools (except for Ivy Leagues and other universities full of themselves, haha) so you can’t go wrong with either.  I don’t know the details of other colleges, but Case accepts 4-5s for Physics B (which was an AP test up until just this year, before it was split into Physics 1 and Physics 2) and the two Physics Cs but they accept only 5s for Stats.  Sorry I couldn’t really give you much more of a definitive answer, so I guess it’s up to you in the end, haha.  Whichever one you choose, good luck with the course and I hope you prepare well for the exam next year!

 

Anyway, as for how well my AP exams went, you already know I felt pretty good about the Calc AB exam.  However, the same can’t really be said about the Lit and Physics 1 exams.  The Lit exam got off to a good start, since the multiple choice section just felt like a glorified SAT I Reading section, except literally every single passage/poem was about love.  Literally every single one.  But then when I got to the three FRQs, my mind shut down.  As in, I fell asleep.  Eheheheheh…  I didn’t fall asleep for the entirety of it, but I nodded off for a minute or two at least thrice every essay.  I really don’t know why I was so tired.  And it only got worse from there, since the Physics exam was immediately afterward.  I fell asleep quite a bit during the multiple choice section and had to rush at the very end, though by the Physics FRQs I think the gravity (ohohohoho!) of the situation dawned on me and I perked up a bit (or at least woke up enough to only blank out once).  Ughhh, that was really bad.  I’m a bad example, don’t do what I did, though I seriously don’t really know why I felt so exhausted.  I got plenty of sleep the night before and I’ve been more awake on less hours on previous occasions.  Maybe I haven’t been eating well recently, or maybe I’ve been exercising too much, or maybe it’s a mix of both.  Eheh, my sister claims that as a young man going off to college I need to build up some muscle mass, so I’ve been doing a set of push-ups and sit-ups every day as well as a jog every weekend.  I don’t think it’s anything too intense, but I’m consistent with it.  Blehh, it would really suck if over-exertion paired with two meals a day is what caused me to feel so tired.  Soo, that’s my story.  I hope things take a turn for the better come Monday.  How were AP exams for you?

 

Aww geez, it would have been awesome if I were also there, haha.  Because visiting colleges has gotten in the way of visiting places just for fun in the past year, I seriously need a chance to just relax.  I’ll try to find some time over the summer before college starts.  The waterfall sounds really cool, and it seems you had a lot of fun at the aquarium.  Ah well, you can’t really expect many people to pay the sky any attention.  It’s always there, so sometimes we take it for granted and forget to look up.  Hm, did my Common App essay in any way influence your choice to star gaze instead of poke at the fire?  I do have to say though, fire can be pretty neat to look at.  Last summer, my family and I went camping with my aunt, uncle, and cousin.  It was only for one day and one night, and it was at a designated camping site so we were in close proximity to other campers, but it was fun regardless.  We got a campfire going, and it was entertaining to just watch the flames dance and occasionally throw some paper or twigs or wood in it to keep it alive.  I did manage to stargaze a bit then, but not for long because my parents were yelling at me to get in the tent and go to sleep, eheheh.  I wish I could have been there with you, and I’m glad you managed to get something out of the experience.  Hopefully you get many more chances to stargaze in the future.  Oh geez, it really must have been pretty foggy/cloudy to mistaken trucks as cloud formations.  It’s a good thing the bus driver was driving safely, haha.

 

Oh no, your director’s retiring?  That sucks.  I hope the orchestra’s new director can make up for it, though I suppose things will never quite be the same.  The conductor for my own band program was actually planning on retiring a few years ago, but either he changed his mind or he was met with a lot of opposition because he’s still here, heh.  As much as I dislike my band program, I can’t deny that the director’s a really talented man.  He was even nominated for the Grammy Music Educator’s Award (yes, the actual Grammy's) and though he didn’t win the fact that he was nominated is evidence of his skill.

 

Anything else memorable about the Orlando trip, huh?  Gosh, are you really that interested in my ramblings?  Ah, I’m awfully grateful that you’re willing to sit there and take in a lot of the drivel I can spout, so thank you for that.  No one else listens and puts up with me quite as well as you do.  That being said, you really are making me dig deep into my memory, because even though the Orlando trip was only a year ago so much other stuff has happened since then, as you can imagine.  One thing I’ve forgotten to mention was the Wishes: A Magical Gathering of Disney Dreams fireworks show at Magic Kingdom (abbreviated to Wishes for obvious reasons).  I’ve seen some really amazing fireworks shows before, but this definitely takes the cake as the most breathtaking of them all.  Have you been to Disney World and seen it before?  I know there’s also a version of it shown at Disney Land.  It’s basically a fireworks show with music and narration and video images projected onto the Cinderella Castle.  It seems simple enough, but it’s awe-inspiring for sure.  It’s constantly updated as new movies come out, so you can imagine the cheers that went up when they got to the Frozen portion of the montage.  I vaguely remember seeing the show when I went there years ago with my family, but I was really young then and apparently my dad said I was too short to see much.  I guess that’s why it didn’t impress me nearly as much back then.  During the band trip I watched it from Main Street instead of right up near the front, and the view was surprisingly good.  If you have yet to experience Wishes, I highly recommend you do.  It’s super grand and heart-pounding, and it has a much wider range of appeal than the Japan store at Epcot, haha.  Also, the fireworks show was nostalgic, and I think that’s the part that really got me.  This goes for the parks in general as well.  When you’re just a little kid and you’re looking for big loud things, Disney World is kind of fun and you enjoy your time there.  But then when you “grow up” and become a tween, you start thinking “Oh, I’m too old for Disney; that stuff’s just for kids” and don’t give the parks the light of day.  And then once you fight, bleeding and sweating and crying, through high school and take your first steps into the real world, you start looking back on Disney World fondly.  It was the physical manifestation of your childhood, back before you truly worried about anything and before you actually had to work and before you realized life can sometimes suck.  You realized you took it all for granted and that you can never be a kid again. Not in the true sense at least, but places like Disney World can provide a temporary escape.  That’s what makes it so wonderful, and I didn’t really understand it before but I guess that’s also why my sister loves the company so much and chose to work for them.  That’s what makes the parks and the Wishes fireworks so magically.  It’s a sad kind of magic, but it’s wonderful at the same time.  If you ever have the chance to look up discontinued and now nonexistent Disney attractions, you’ll realize how much has changed.  It’s kind of sad to see all these rides that I’m sure a lot of older people had grown up with being replaced with newer ones.  It’s understandable, since Disney needs to stay profitable and relevant, but still.  Ah, sorry, I don’t really know if I’m making any sense or not.  I just started typing this all out, and it may be kind of convoluted since it’s hard to put these feelings into words.  Maybe I’m just too sentimental for my own good.  I do recommend you visit Disney World someday, even if you’ve been there before.  It’s quite the different experience once you’ve grown up.  Things like Universal Studio have their appeal as amusement parks with thrill rides (Oh, have you heard the news that Nintendo is partnering with Universal to get a Nintendo-themed section of the park?  Super hyped for that!), and while that has its time and place you can’t really say it’s better or worse than the nostalgia driven entertainment you get from Disney.  They’re good for two different reasons.  

 

Whoops, I realized that I’ve only addressed half of your question and yet I’ve already dabbled off for this long.  As for the rest of Epcot, it was actually mainly the Japan section of the World Showcase that really made it so amazing for me, eheh.  However, I must say that the World Showcase itself was spectacular.  Future Word, the face of Epcot, wasn’t nearly as exciting, but the countries all circling around the central lake was pretty awesome.  I didn’t remember this part of the park at all from when I first visited, since child me probably just wasn’t interested in world countries, but the atmosphere of each portion is masterfully executed.  It’s an underrated and underappreciated part of Disney World, haha.  Oh, also, the Norway section of the World Showcase used to have a ride called Maelstrom.  It was discontinued just a few months ago, and I was luckily able to ride it last year before it was shut down for good.  It’s being replaced with a Frozen attraction, and as you can imagine it’s been met with a lot of controversy.  Many people are saying replacing a historical ride with a cash-grab one is cheap and distasteful, and I can’t say disagree.  The World Showcase was special in that in celebrated various cultures and customs, without the need to have the Disney logo slapped on everything.  Every country in the Showcase was built with the help of natives from those very countries, to make sure everything was accurate and portrayed correctly.  A lot of love was put into the small details.  A Frozen ride should have been built in a place like Magic Kingdom, where it would better jive with the atmosphere of the park.  While Maelstrom wasn’t the biggest or most exiting ride, it’s still sad to it go since it’s a classic.  Ah well, what’s done is done.  I’ve said far too much about Disney at this point.  If I’m starting to bother you with the length of some of my responses, don’t be afraid to let me know, really.  I don’t want to bore you with stuff you don’t want to hear.

 

All schools have two ways of giving out scholarships: merit-based and need-based.  Merit-based scholarships are completely up to the school, as they choose how much they want to cut off of the tuition to entice you to attend their school, especially if your profile is especially strong in comparison to the average student at the college.  Need-based scholarships are, if I’m not mistaken, handled by some government organization.  You apply for need-based scholarships, and then the organization determines if, based on familial income and other factors (completely separate from academics), your family needs help to pay for college in general.  That info will be sent to schools that want you, and more likely than not they will meet that need nearly 100%, even Ivy Leagues.  My guess is that it’s less because they’re nice and more because they just have a reputation to maintain.  If they were truly nice, they would give merit-based scholarships in tandem with need-based scholarships, which they rarely if ever do.  After all, if someone rejects their offer because “Oh, you didn’t cut my tuition enough!” it doesn’t bother them.  They have thousands of highly qualified students banging on their doors dying to be accepted, some of them willing to pay extra to get in, so it’s not like they don’t have a source of income that can replace the loss of a few students.  It’s the sad truth of the situation, but I guess that what happens when a business gets so big, heh.  It’s really nice you have such a good physics teacher, I’m kind of envious.  All the physics teachers in my school are agreed to be terrible, and though my teacher is a nice guy he’s honestly a very weak teacher.  He watches anime though, which is cool.  Huh, though when you say wise man, I can’t help but imagine some old sage-like teacher, Dumbledore style.

 

Aww shucks, it’s too bad the SATs didn’t go quite as planned.  I find the writing section to be really overrated.  It’s not terribly difficult to do well in those portions, from my experience at least.  I got a perfect score the first time I took it, though my reading score was really bad.  My math score was pretty good; I only got one wrong, but the curve must have been sharp because that one question already knocked me down to a 770.  I wanted to improve my reading section at the very least, so I could take advantage of Score Choice, so I decided to completely forgo the math and writing sections to exclusively focus on reading.  Funny thing is, the second time I took it, I did even worse in reading while my writing score sat at a comfy 790.  Like, hooooowwww??  I still don’t know, but whatever, bleh.  There’s a lot of luck involved unfortunately.  On my PSATs for example, I had a perfect reading score, not a single question wrong.  Maybe I’m just really inconsistent?  Hrmph, junior year sure was a wild time for me.  I hope you manage to do well on your next try!  I believe you’ll be able to pull through!  Oh heey, you’re also planning on taking Math II and Bio M?  Those were two tests I also took!  (Okay, for real, why we so similar…?)  Uh, I don’t want to put any extra pressure on you, and I hope I don’t come off as bragging, because it isn’t my intention, but I actually got 800s on both of those tests…  Yeaaah, see, I don’t know why either (I’ve said “I don’t know” so many times in the course of this response).  I know I’ve said math and science are my weakest and least favorite subjects, and believe me they are.  You can imagine how shocked I was to get those scores back.  With the number of questions I guessed on the Math II test, I was probably one question off from not getting a perfect score and I had never gotten an 800 on any Bio M practice exams, so I guess the curve was lenient.  Huh, I may just be exceedingly lucky.  It sure is looking that way with the recent amiibo orders.  Anyhow, I wish you the best of luck on the SAT IIs and the SATs!  Know that I’m rooting for you all the way, and if you have any concerns let me know and I’ll try to help out in any way I can.

 

Ah, I see, a simple but effective wardrobe you have there!  What kind of tops do you wear?  I know a lot of girls have an array of really fashionable stuff.  It’s like they never repeat an outfit for the entire school year.  I never found that particularly necessary, but then again, I’m not a girl, haha.  As I said earlier, I wear jeans year round in public, and sweatpants for in-home use in the winter and shorts for in-home use in the summer.  I pair that up with button downs or polos or the occasional nerdy graphic tee, and I wear only one pair of sneakers at a time until they start tearing apart and I have to get new ones.  That’s all there is too it.  Nothing fancy and rather forgettable, but it gets the job done.  Leggings don’t really help with the cold, hm?  I wonder how some girls do it.  It’s kind of like marching band uniforms.  They may look toasty and feel really thick, but they don’t do jack against the winter wind.  I guess if there was too much insulation, you’d have poor kids passing out during the warmer months.  Why aren’t there seasonal marching uniforms?  Gosh, some of the most important questions are never answered.

 

Thank you for your kind thoughts of wanting me to collect the rest of the amiibo so I can relax, because as you know I actually snagged a North American Marth off of Amazon for MSRP!  Nintendo announced a restock in May way back in January (yeeup, it’s been a long time coming), and I guess they’re being sent to warehouses across the country right about now.  Funny thing is, Amazon is the first major retailer to put up Marth restock orders but still hasn’t put up wave 4 pre-orders though all other stores did that weeks ago, hence why my Lucina is secured from Walmart.  Since he’s not a pre-order and actually on-hand, he’ll be shipping and arriving in about a week.  Those that chose 2-day shipping are going to get him really soon, if the subreddit is anything to go by.  There were a lot of technical problems with Amazon’s site, similar to the Walmart fiasco but not nearly as severe.  Of course, nothing can compare to GameStop’s site completely crashing on April 2nd, but then again they announced they were going to put up pre-orders at a specific time so I guess they kinda asked for it.  I don’t want to bore you with the details, and I’ve already typed a lot, haha.  I’m theoretically completely done with my amiibo hunt.  I have Sheik, Ike, Lucina, and Marth in the bag.  Dark Pit, Palutena, and Ganondorf are due to be out later, so worrying about them now isn’t going to help, and I can do a 1:1 trade with the extra amiibo I have if I need to.  Shulk for DP, Rosaluma for Palutena, and if Ganon is an uncommon like every other Zelda character a Sonic for him should suffice.  If I want to pick up Link, I can easily grab him off a shelf whenever I feel like it.  Phew, I’m so close I can almost taste it!

 

Oh gosh, if anything I’m the one with the resting grump face, hahaha.  Every time I see a candid picture of myself, I always think “Was I really unhappy then?  I sure don’t think I was…”  At the very least, I’m not exactly photogenic, ahah.  I hope I don’t scare anybody away…

 

Ahhh, it would be really awesome if you also attend Case!  We could meet each other in real life, which is something I’d love to do.  Um, hahah, I’m getting ahead of myself though, sorry.  You haven’t even applied yet.  I’m really glad you’re considering the school.  There are a lot of really great schools around your area though, like UMich, so even if you don’t end up going to CWRU I’m sure you’ll be going to a really nice school.  It really is a good idea to visit schools you’re considering, so you can potentially rule out a few that rub you the wrong way.  Mid-August is actually when orientation starts for Case.  Goodness, things are moving fast.  Case gave me more in scholarship money than any other school, though that’s kind of an unfair comparison since public schools are cheaper than private ones, so proportionally Rutgers gave me a ton more than Case did.  That being said, even my Case scholarship money wasn’t astronomical or anything.  My parents know someone whose son apparently got $35,000 a year from them, which is certifiably insane, haha.

 

Weeelll, the thing is, even though I was taking a break to play some video games, I ended up cramming the night before the Calc exam anyway, using that dandy little formula sheet you posted, eheheheh.  Once again, I don’t think I’m a good role model for you, so don’t follow in my footsteps, hah.  I’ve finally finished Spirit Tracks, and I guess all in all it wasn’t a bad game.  I was probably a little unfair with my criticism of it before; expecting something like OoT, considered one of the greatest video games of all time by many, from Spirit Tracks isn’t exactly right.  It has its own charm, and I must say Toon Link and Toon Zelda make a much better pair than OoT Link and OoT Zelda did.  It’s nothing I would ever play again, but it was a fun game.  I’ve played through Hoenn games so many times, I actually know the water like the back of my hand because of how many times I’ve forced myself to scout the seas for trainers.  I hope this knowledge helps me with Alpha Sapphire, haha.

 

I guess some of the themes in calc were a bit abstract.  I actually didn’t really mind, because I’d been stumped by so many other previous subjects like trig that I’ve learned to just memorize for the sake of memorization.  I know I know, it’s not good for me to do this and it would better to understand instead of just memorize concepts, but I find that in a pinch it prevents me from getting worked up over the small stuff.

 

Geez, that virus must have really been a pain.  I haven’t had anything major wreck my computer in the past few years, but I can imagine how frightening it must have been especially since you couldn’t tell your dad about it.  I’m glad you resolved the problem though.  The anime downloading community is actually pretty extensive and really safe, as long as you know what you’re doing.  It’s safer than downloading American movies even.  But I guess it’s fine to stay out of it anyway, haha.  I only download a minority of anime that I watch, like the ones that I especially love that also have a lot action.

 

This may sound weird coming from me, but don’t pay the price much mind and seriously consider prom.  Sure it may be expensive, but that was only a small factor for me when deciding not to attend.  I mainly opted out of it because I just felt like it wouldn’t really be my idea of a fun night.  Prom is in a week for us (May 15th) but if your friends say it’s fun then you should go!  Whether or not you’re asked out, I’m sure prom will still be a unique experience at the very least.  Heh, I guess you won’t really need much convincing though, since you were the one trying to get me to go to prom, but I felt like that needed to be said.  You seem like the type who’d like it, or at least regret not going.

 

I’m really happy to hear that your schedule is loosening up!  Unfortunately for me, for whatever reason a lot of my teachers are assigning quite a bit of work.  I have a couple of quizzes lined up for the second AP week, a few projects coming up really soon, and some research to get done.  Bleh, it’s a bit of a bummer, but oh well.  My life is still far from stressful, so I don’t want to sound like I’m whining too much, haha.

 

I'm not sure what I'm going to use stats for since it doesn't seem terribly useful. I was only debating between the two since I felt like I might be overwhelmed next year because Physics C is considered one of the hardest APs. A few of my friends told me that it might be worth taking so I guess there's that. Funny thing is, I was also considering taking Physics B a while back, but that was before I realized the class was split up into Physics 1 and 2. I personally think that Collegeboard shouldn't have split up Physics B, though it's not like I can argue with them to change it back or anything. I'm also rather surprised that your school doesn't offer Physics C, haha. Thanks for your input!

 

I've had times when I dozed off while taking a practice test, so I kinda understand how you feel. And your Physics exam was right afterward? Gosh, hopefully you had a solid break in between to lessen the aftermath of the Lit exam. Maybe nodding off during the exams means that the tests weren't too mentally stimulating--3easy5you, haha. Or at least I hope that was the case. Kudos to you for exercising regularly though! I would have thought that might actually help clear your mind a bit. I hope you weren't overexerting yourself! And yeah, I also have those days when I feel groggy even after a solid amount of sleep, and days when I feel perked up after significantly less sleep. It probably has something to do with sleep cycles, but I never bothered with it. Ehh, I'm not too sure how I feel about my AP exams. You know that feeling where you think you either did decently well or bombed your tests? I felt okay after leaving the exams, but the more and more I think back to them, the worse I feel like I did, ahahahaha... Hmm, I'm not sure. I've had times when I felt like I nailed the test but ended up bombing it, and times when I think I didn't do too well but ended up pleasantly surprised. I'm hoping for the latter here, lol. I often misread questions or go through them too quickly (which happened a lot during practice tests), so I can't help but feel a bit paranoid about how well I did, ehehe... As for the Bio exam we both took on Monday, I guess it was "okay". The multiple choice wasn't bad, but gosh, the free-response was rough. The proctors wrote on the board that we were supposed to end at 11:21, and around 11:10, I came to the sudden realization that I was running low on time. I bs-ed my way through the rest of the free-response, writing frantically whatever crap came to my head on the spur of the moment, and by the time it was 11:21, the proctors took down the sign, waited a few moments, then changed it to 11:31. I was royally ticked off. I wrote everything in pen so I couldn't change anything. What was I supposed to do? Cross out and rewrite everything that I just scribbled down? I couldn't, even if I wanted to because there was barely any extra space left. So I just sat there and stared at the lousy answers I wrote. I was 110% done with this bullcrap at that point and I pretty much accomplished nothing in the remaining time (other than fixing a few wordings, but that was it). Those ten minutes the proctors cut off from our original time limit definitely made a difference in the quality of my answers so I'm pretty mad right now. Ugh, whatever. I guess it was partially my fault for not keeping track of time. A few of my other friends also had the same problem, but at least we got the exam over with. The multiple choice on the Language exam went fairly well, but I ran out of steam during the free response. The prompts weren't terribly difficult to work with. It was just that I couldn't think of enough examples to support my claims so I ended up fabricating a bunch of details to make up for it. And sorry for making my ramblings so long, ehehe... Oh and by the time you read this, congrats on getting through all of your APs! I implore for you to take a nice, big break because you deserve it! 

 

I'll admit--your essay did influence me a bit, haha. I also spent a good chunk of my time gazing at the fire, but it just didn't feel as relaxing. Most of the people there were just derping around with it; roasting unpeeled bananas and Peeps on sticks, and sterilizing random objects they could find. I guess it was kinda entertaining watching them nearly catch third degree burns (it was a bit breezy outside). The only time I went camping was with my family back in Yellowstone. We slept in a teepee but we didn't set up a campfire (we weren't allowed to because of potential bear attacks, haha). Glad to hear that you had fun during your camping trip! I want to go to a true campsite one day and experience what you experienced, heh. My parents think that stargazing is a waste of time since, apparently, they did it all the time back in China. I find it hard to believe them because of all the pollution/smog over there, but who knows. Maybe it wasn't as polluted when they were my age.

 

Phew, your conductor was nominated for the Grammy's? Ahahaha, I really want to hear your band now, because that's insane. There was an article on USA Today about our conductor and we even played in Carnegie Hall at one point, but damn, the Grammy's? Our conductor was actually planning to retire a few years ago as well, but I guess he never got around to it until now.

 

Yup, I've been to Disney World before, but I haven't seen the fireworks in years. Naw man, I'll never be too old for Disney, heh. I've seen plenty of adults having the time of their lives in the parks, so it's not like I'm going to be any different, lol. Since I went to Disney World during my younger middle school years, I don't think I'd be able to catch many changes to the park if I were to visit again. I do, however, remember certain aspects of the park, albeit vaguely. Whaaaaaattt, there's going to be a Nintendo-themed section of the park?? Welp, that settles it. I'm definitely heading back to Disney World when I find the opportunity (hopefully in my college years though).

 

Gosh, I don't remember too much from my last trip to Disney World probably because I didn't ride as many rides as I would have liked. The lines were far too long and my parents were getting a bit impatient having to sit and wait for the majority of the day while my sister and I just stood in lines. We mainly just walked around the park and looked for things we could do as a family so many of the rides went ignored--unless the lines were at a reasonable length. But geez, it's a shame that some of the classics are getting replaced by Frozen themed rides. I personally don't think it's worth getting rid of historical rides. I can see what the appeal is, but it's still a pretty tasteless reason. I agree that placing them in the Magic Kingdom would feel more fitting, but it's not like we can reason with them at this point, haha.   

 

There's no way I'd be able to apply for need-based scholarships, so I'll be relying on the merit-based scholarships then. It's a shame that some students have to turn down their dream college because of income, but I guess it really doesn't matter too much in the long run. My physics teacher is incredibly enthusiastic and is one of the most liberal and morally upright people I know (I'm also a bit on the liberal side so it's easy for me to talk to him). And yes, I guess you could describe him as some sage-like/Dumbledore-like teacher--he most certainly fits the profile, haha.

 

Well, damn, lol. 800s on both Math II and Bio M despite them being your weakest and least favorite subjects? I'll be honest, I'm rather impressed--even if it was through "luck" (I'm gonna give you the benefit of the doubt here, heh). Actually, considering that you're taking Bio AP as a senior, you probably took Bio M without knowing the Bio AP material beforehand. And the fact that you still managed an 800 is pretty impressive (tell me ur secrets to lyfe pls). I looked over some practice tests on Math II not too long ago and I don't think I'm going to have too much trouble on it (except maybe I'll need to refresh myself on a few topics/formulas). I'm a bit more concerned about Bio M since the curve isn't as high. Also, how much did you prepare for these subject tests? Would you recommend any study aids or maybe a specific study schedule for me to follow? Heheh, sorry for bombarding you with all these questions but I can't help but admire you for being able to score 800s on these tests.  

 

Hmm, what kind of tops do I wear? Normally t-shirts, polos, sweaters, light jackets, and the occasional blouse. The only time I wear tank tops is during tennis since it's part of our uniform, haha. I personally don't think my wardrobe is that impressive (especially compared to some of the other girls at our school). Ahhh, I don't think I'd be able to pull off jeans in 90* conditions so I guess that's pretty persistent of you, lol. I have two pairs of canvas shoes I wear year round and some boots and running shoes I wear casually. Most of the guys at our school used to wear running shoes year round but now they wear loafers regularly and are becoming increasingly fashion-conscious. The trend happened very recently and I'm willing to bet that it's because they've become white-washed, to say the least--not that that's a bad thing, haha. Dang, you only have one pair? How long does it normally take for you to wear them down? Owning more shoes means that they'll last longer since you'll be alternating between them, so I guess that's another way to look at it, lol. The students at our school have to pay for uniforms so implementing seasonal marching uniforms can really take a toll on their bank accounts (they do look rather expensive).

 

Ahaha, I'm glad that you managed to nab a Marth amiibo! Hmm, maybe GameStop underestimated the number of amiibo hunters out there when the site crashed, haha. It seems that you are sitting in a pretty good position since you have leverage for the other three if you happen to miss them. Let me know about any more updates along the way! I'll be rooting for you!

 

I used to be the person who'd avoid cameras as much as possible, but now I've learned to roll with it. Sometimes my friends like to take pictures of me at the worst possible moments but I just laugh it off now, haha. I've noticed that most people are much more concerned about their own appearance and heed almost no attention to how others look in photos. So even if I'm caught at an unflattering angle or moment in time, I'm not as bothered anymore. I guess that might be why I'm a bit more photogenic now, lol. I love making derpy faces and photobombing, heheh..

 

Haha, motivation from potentially meeting you + possible scholarship money + strong programs is seriously making me consider Case as a prospective school I might want to attend. You're making my decision too difficult, ahahaha... But of course, I don't want to get ahead of myself either since junior year hasn't even ended yet, lol. 

 

Well, I'd be lying if I said that I didn't do my fair share of cramming either, ahahahaha.. You seem to have your life sorted out for the most part and I do look up to you to some extent, heh (does that make you a senpai????? O:). Haha, wow, you're glorifying OoT quite a bit. I knew the game was good, but one of the greatest video games of all time? Damn, lol. I know you also think highly of the game, but how would it rank compared to the other games you've played? And let me know how Alpha Sapphire goes when you get around to it!

 

I know you're not a fan of math, but gosh, I loved trig, haha. You can do so much with triangles and the trig functions, though it's probably better for me not to ramble off again, ehehe... And yeah, calc did feel like a lot of blind memorization. I guess it was kinda the same back in elementary school when we had to memorize the formulas for the areas of squares and circles. I blindly accepted them without a second thought (as I did with other math concepts at the time), but they did make sense eventually.

 

I was unbelievably lucky that the virus was just a "harmless" trojan rather than a nasty malware. The trojan did give me a good scare though since it rewired my laptop to spontaneously play advertisement audio. I had no idea where it was coming from at the time and I had no idea what was going on. The confusion and paranoia led me to pull a close all-nighter trying to fix it (though, in total, it took a few days for me to get rid of it). I couldn't sleep, I couldn't pay attention in school, I couldn't concentrate on anything. The experience has been engraved into my memories and I remember it like it was yesterday. It was awful, just awful. I can't even begin to fathom the consequences of having my dad find out about this incident. I'm willing to believe that anime subbers aren't cruel enough to implant viruses into their files (I mean, why would they, lol), but it's rather hard for me to download files from strangers without flashbacking to that ordeal. The experience may not have sounded like much, but it definitely left an imprint on me. I've been slowly loosening up so maybe the idea will warm up to me eventually, haha.

 

Hmm, I guess I just felt that $95 was a bit much since I think prom tickets cost $40 around here. The idea of homecoming never appealed to me, so I'm not sure why I feel the need to attend prom (ahaha, what was I so enthusiastic about again?). Maybe the stresses of junior year have finally got to me. Hmm, the more and more I think about it, the more prom just seems like a regular social event. You're essentially coughing up money just to go into a decorated room and socialize with people in gaudy attire. But most of my friends seemed to enjoy prom so I'll trust their judgment on that, lol.

 

Most of our AP teachers can empathize with the stress that students go through so they're letting up on the work load--thank goodness, haha (*cough* except for the bio teacher, who's planning on issuing the final exam next week *cough*). Our calc teacher is going to teach us some new concepts that weren't covered by the curriculum (like shell method and how to program our graphing calculators), but the amount of work load he's going to assign us will be significantly less than it was before. In fact, the quizzes that he plans to give us will all be partner quizzes! The other teachers might assign us some projects to do but they'll be more "fun" than "torturous" lol (hopefully). Gosh, your teachers are planning to give out quizzes during an AP week? That's a bit cruel of them, I'm not gonna lie. But I'm glad to hear that your stresses have lightened up a bit!

 

(oh geez, I definitely didn't type up as much as I should have, gomen, gomen)

[Akazora 293]

I'm not sure what I'm going to use stats for since it doesn't seem terribly useful. I was only debating between the two since I felt like I might be overwhelmed next year because Physics C is considered one of the hardest APs. A few of my friends told me that it might be worth taking so I guess there's that. Funny thing is, I was also considering taking Physics B a while back, but that was before I realized the class was split up into Physics 1 and 2. I personally think that Collegeboard shouldn't have split up Physics B, though it's not like I can argue with them to change it back or anything. I'm also rather surprised that your school doesn't offer Physics C, haha. Thanks for your input!

 

I've had times when I dozed off while taking a practice test, so I kinda understand how you feel. And your Physics exam was right afterward? Gosh, hopefully you had a solid break in between to lessen the aftermath of the Lit exam. Maybe nodding off during the exams means that the tests weren't too mentally stimulating--3easy5you, haha. Or at least I hope that was the case. Kudos to you for exercising regularly though! I would have thought that might actually help clear your mind a bit. I hope you weren't overexerting yourself! And yeah, I also have those days when I feel groggy even after a solid amount of sleep, and days when I feel perked up after significantly less sleep. It probably has something to do with sleep cycles, but I never bothered with it. Ehh, I'm not too sure how I feel about my AP exams. You know that feeling where you think you either did decently well or bombed your tests? I felt okay after leaving the exams, but the more and more I think back to them, the worse I feel like I did, ahahahaha... Hmm, I'm not sure. I've had times when I felt like I nailed the test but ended up bombing it, and times when I think I didn't do too well but ended up pleasantly surprised. I'm hoping for the latter here, lol. I often misread questions or go through them too quickly (which happened a lot during practice tests), so I can't help but feel a bit paranoid about how well I did, ehehe... As for the Bio exam we both took on Monday, I guess it was "okay". The multiple choice wasn't bad, but gosh, the free-response was rough. The proctors wrote on the board that we were supposed to end at 11:21, and around 11:10, I came to the sudden realization that I was running low on time. I bs-ed my way through the rest of the free-response, writing frantically whatever crap came to my head on the spur of the moment, and by the time it was 11:21, the proctors took down the sign, waited a few moments, then changed it to 11:31. I was royally ticked off. I wrote everything in pen so I couldn't change anything. What was I supposed to do? Cross out and rewrite everything that I just scribbled down? I couldn't, even if I wanted to because there was barely any extra space left. So I just sat there and stared at the lousy answers I wrote. I was 110% done with this bullcrap at that point and I pretty much accomplished nothing in the remaining time (other than fixing a few wordings, but that was it). Those ten minutes the proctors cut off from our original time limit definitely made a difference in the quality of my answers so I'm pretty mad right now. Ugh, whatever. I guess it was partially my fault for not keeping track of time. A few of my other friends also had the same problem, but at least we got the exam over with. The multiple choice on the Language exam went fairly well, but I ran out of steam during the free response. The prompts weren't terribly difficult to work with. It was just that I couldn't think of enough examples to support my claims so I ended up fabricating a bunch of details to make up for it. And sorry for making my ramblings so long, ehehe... Oh and by the time you read this, congrats on getting through all of your APs! I implore for you to take a nice, big break because you deserve it! 

 

I'll admit--your essay did influence me a bit, haha. I also spent a good chunk of my time gazing at the fire, but it just didn't feel as relaxing. Most of the people there were just derping around with it; roasting unpeeled bananas and Peeps on sticks, and sterilizing random objects they could find. I guess it was kinda entertaining watching them nearly catch third degree burns (it was a bit breezy outside). The only time I went camping was with my family back in Yellowstone. We slept in a teepee but we didn't set up a campfire (we weren't allowed to because of potential bear attacks, haha). Glad to hear that you had fun during your camping trip! I want to go to a true campsite one day and experience what you experienced, heh. My parents think that stargazing is a waste of time since, apparently, they did it all the time back in China. I find it hard to believe them because of all the pollution/smog over there, but who knows. Maybe it wasn't as polluted when they were my age.

 

Phew, your conductor was nominated for the Grammy's? Ahahaha, I really want to hear your band now, because that's insane. There was an article on USA Today about our conductor and we even played in Carnegie Hall at one point, but damn, the Grammy's? Our conductor was actually planning to retire a few years ago as well, but I guess he never got around to it until now.

 

Yup, I've been to Disney World before, but I haven't seen the fireworks in years. Naw man, I'll never be too old for Disney, heh. I've seen plenty of adults having the time of their lives in the parks, so it's not like I'm going to be any different, lol. Since I went to Disney World during my younger middle school years, I don't think I'd be able to catch many changes to the park if I were to visit again. I do, however, remember certain aspects of the park, albeit vaguely. Whaaaaaattt, there's going to be a Nintendo-themed section of the park?? Welp, that settles it. I'm definitely heading back to Disney World when I find the opportunity (hopefully in my college years though).

 

Gosh, I don't remember too much from my last trip to Disney World probably because I didn't ride as many rides as I would have liked. The lines were far too long and my parents were getting a bit impatient having to sit and wait for the majority of the day while my sister and I just stood in lines. We mainly just walked around the park and looked for things we could do as a family so many of the rides went ignored--unless the lines were at a reasonable length. But geez, it's a shame that some of the classics are getting replaced by Frozen themed rides. I personally don't think it's worth getting rid of historical rides. I can see what the appeal is, but it's still a pretty tasteless reason. I agree that placing them in the Magic Kingdom would feel more fitting, but it's not like we can reason with them at this point, haha.   

 

There's no way I'd be able to apply for need-based scholarships, so I'll be relying on the merit-based scholarships then. It's a shame that some students have to turn down their dream college because of income, but I guess it really doesn't matter too much in the long run. My physics teacher is incredibly enthusiastic and is one of the most liberal and morally upright people I know (I'm also a bit on the liberal side so it's easy for me to talk to him). And yes, I guess you could describe him as some sage-like/Dumbledore-like teacher--he most certainly fits the profile, haha.

 

Well, damn, lol. 800s on both Math II and Bio M despite them being your weakest and least favorite subjects? I'll be honest, I'm rather impressed--even if it was through "luck" (I'm gonna give you the benefit of the doubt here, heh). Actually, considering that you're taking Bio AP as a senior, you probably took Bio M without knowing the Bio AP material beforehand. And the fact that you still managed an 800 is pretty impressive (tell me ur secrets to lyfe pls). I looked over some practice tests on Math II not too long ago and I don't think I'm going to have too much trouble on it (except maybe I'll need to refresh myself on a few topics/formulas). I'm a bit more concerned about Bio M since the curve isn't as high. Also, how much did you prepare for these subject tests? Would you recommend any study aids or maybe a specific study schedule for me to follow? Heheh, sorry for bombarding you with all these questions but I can't help but admire you for being able to score 800s on these tests.  

 

Hmm, what kind of tops do I wear? Normally t-shirts, polos, sweaters, light jackets, and the occasional blouse. The only time I wear tank tops is during tennis since it's part of our uniform, haha. I personally don't think my wardrobe is that impressive (especially compared to some of the other girls at our school). Ahhh, I don't think I'd be able to pull off jeans in 90* conditions so I guess that's pretty persistent of you, lol. I have two pairs of canvas shoes I wear year round and some boots and running shoes I wear casually. Most of the guys at our school used to wear running shoes year round but now they wear loafers regularly and are becoming increasingly fashion-conscious. The trend happened very recently and I'm willing to bet that it's because they've become white-washed, to say the least--not that that's a bad thing, haha. Dang, you only have one pair? How long does it normally take for you to wear them down? Owning more shoes means that they'll last longer since you'll be alternating between them, so I guess that's another way to look at it, lol. The students at our school have to pay for uniforms so implementing seasonal marching uniforms can really take a toll on their bank accounts (they do look rather expensive).

 

Ahaha, I'm glad that you managed to nab a Marth amiibo! Hmm, maybe GameStop underestimated the number of amiibo hunters out there when the site crashed, haha. It seems that you are sitting in a pretty good position since you have leverage for the other three if you happen to miss them. Let me know about any more updates along the way! I'll be rooting for you!

 

I used to be the person who'd avoid cameras as much as possible, but now I've learned to roll with it. Sometimes my friends like to take pictures of me at the worst possible moments but I just laugh it off now, haha. I've noticed that most people are much more concerned about their own appearance and heed almost no attention to how others look in photos. So even if I'm caught at an unflattering angle or moment in time, I'm not as bothered anymore. I guess that might be why I'm a bit more photogenic now, lol. I love making derpy faces and photobombing, heheh..

 

Haha, motivation from potentially meeting you + possible scholarship money + strong programs is seriously making me consider Case as a prospective school I might want to attend. You're making my decision too difficult, ahahaha... But of course, I don't want to get ahead of myself either since junior year hasn't even ended yet, lol. 

 

Well, I'd be lying if I said that I didn't do my fair share of cramming either, ahahahaha.. You seem to have your life sorted out for the most part and I do look up to you to some extent, heh (does that make you a senpai????? O:). Haha, wow, you're glorifying OoT quite a bit. I knew the game was good, but one of the greatest video games of all time? Damn, lol. I know you also think highly of the game, but how would it rank compared to the other games you've played? And let me know how Alpha Sapphire goes when you get around to it!

 

I know you're not a fan of math, but gosh, I loved trig, haha. You can do so much with triangles and the trig functions, though it's probably better for me not to ramble off again, ehehe... And yeah, calc did feel like a lot of blind memorization. I guess it was kinda the same back in elementary school when we had to memorize the formulas for the areas of squares and circles. I blindly accepted them without a second thought (as I did with other math concepts at the time), but they did make sense eventually.

 

I was unbelievably lucky that the virus was just a "harmless" trojan rather than a nasty malware. The trojan did give me a good scare though since it rewired my laptop to spontaneously play advertisement audio. I had no idea where it was coming from at the time and I had no idea what was going on. The confusion and paranoia led me to pull a close all-nighter trying to fix it (though, in total, it took a few days for me to get rid of it). I couldn't sleep, I couldn't pay attention in school, I couldn't concentrate on anything. The experience has been engraved into my memories and I remember it like it was yesterday. It was awful, just awful. I can't even begin to fathom the consequences of having my dad find out about this incident. I'm willing to believe that anime subbers aren't cruel enough to implant viruses into their files (I mean, why would they, lol), but it's rather hard for me to download files from strangers without flashbacking to that ordeal. The experience may not have sounded like much, but it definitely left an imprint on me. I've been slowly loosening up so maybe the idea will warm up to me eventually, haha.

 

Hmm, I guess I just felt that $95 was a bit much since I think prom tickets cost $40 around here. The idea of homecoming never appealed to me, so I'm not sure why I feel the need to attend prom (ahaha, what was I so enthusiastic about again?). Maybe the stresses of junior year have finally got to me. Hmm, the more and more I think about it, the more prom just seems like a regular social event. You're essentially coughing up money just to go into a decorated room and socialize with people in gaudy attire. But most of my friends seemed to enjoy prom so I'll trust their judgment on that, lol.

 

Most of our AP teachers can empathize with the stress that students go through so they're letting up on the work load--thank goodness, haha (*cough* except for the bio teacher, who's planning on issuing the final exam next week *cough*). Our calc teacher is going to teach us some new concepts that weren't covered by the curriculum (like shell method and how to program our graphing calculators), but the amount of work load he's going to assign us will be significantly less than it was before. In fact, the quizzes that he plans to give us will all be partner quizzes! The other teachers might assign us some projects to do but they'll be more "fun" than "torturous" lol (hopefully). Gosh, your teachers are planning to give out quizzes during an AP week? That's a bit cruel of them, I'm not gonna lie. But I'm glad to hear that your stresses have lightened up a bit!

 

(oh geez, I definitely didn't type up as much as I should have, gomen, gomen)

Ahaha, I’m not too sure I was all together helpful, but you’re welcome nonetheless!  You know yourself and your limits, so if you think you can handle Physics C senior year then you go out there and take down that monster!  I’m guessing you’re choosing classes for your schedule next year, so whether you decide to take Physics C or Stats or something else entirely different, I wish you the best of luck and I’ll be rooting for you the entire time!  And yeah, at this point I’ve learned to just not be surprised about any of my school’s shortcomings, heheh.  Sasuga Edison Township School District…

 

If by solid break you mean a quick 15 minute breather during which I didn’t eat lunch, ehh yeah I guess I got the chance to stretch a bit.  And yeah, I don’t each lunch in school at all.  I may have mentioned this elsewhere, but I use my lunch period to work on homework or study, and I’ve never eaten a high school lunch before.  Ever.  And if you ask why, I wouldn’t be able to give a good answer, since it’s the same reason why I don’t have a Facebook and have been wearing jeans every single day in public for the past 6-7 years, haha.  I’m just stupidly stubborn and hard-headed like that.  Unfortunately, I didn’t feel that the Physics test was that easy.  If anything, I felt that it was the exact opposite, bleh.  The quick “workout” sets that I do aren’t anything worthy of praise.  There are guys (and heck even girls) I know who are much more fit than I am, as they regularly go to the gym and whatnot.  Nothing I do can really compare to participating in school athletics either.  Not to mention, all my work is countered by my somewhat poor eating habits, ahahaha…  Ohh, I’m sure you did fine!  There’s no need to stress about it now that it’s all behind us, and I’m confident someone like you will end up on the upside of things.  I also felt that the Bio multiple choice section was really easy, surprisingly so, but the FRQs were kind rough.  There were just a ton of questions and overall not much time to elaborate on each of them to the point of satisfaction.  But gosh, at least I didn’t have to deal with proctors like that!  I can imagine that would have thrown me off as well, since I never bring my own watch and I rely on whatever time they put up on the board.  I hoped you managed to bs pretty well (I’m actually hoping for the same, hah).  I’m glad LangComp went well at least, for the most part.  Oh gosh, there’s no need to apologize.  If anything, I ramble on far more than you do, so I don’t mind at all!  As I’ve said before, if something is bothering you and you just want to let it out, feel free to.  I may not be able to help in scenarios like this, but I’m willing to listen, that’s for sure!  And congrats to you too for getting through as many APs as you have!  Just one more year left!  Be sure to take a break yourself!

 

Ah, I guess if people were just goofing off like that, it can ruin any mood you’re trying to set for yourself, ahah.  Eheheh, I’m actually kind of glad my essay influenced you in some way.  It’s probably the most direct feedback I’ve gotten, since I have no real way of knowing how admissions officers felt about it and I really don’t think any of my friends who read it became motivated to start stargazing.  Man, I wish my family had camped out in Yellowstone. We were there for a couple of days, but we spent the nights at this tourist lodge, outside the park. It was still pretty neat, and I’m sure I could have attempted to stargaze and get something out of it, but my parents wouldn’t have let me stay up.  And they aren’t like your parents, since I don’t think they’ve ever stargazed before.  They just think it’s a waste of time because I could be doing more important things, heh.

 

Yeah, it is pretty amazing.  He was even on national television for like, a few seconds when they showed all the nominees.  It probably didn’t matter to most people, but it was a pretty big deal in our school as you can imagine.  I guess his skill does show in our band.  Our band is one of the more renown high school groups in central NJ, heck even all of Jersey.  That could also just be because we’re located in such a convenient place that regional auditions for central Jersey and all-state auditions are held in our school, so any player worth their stuff has at least heard of our school because they need to make a trek there once or twice a year, hahah.  I’m actually not sure how well the band will hold itself come next year, since my class was a really strong musical class with a lot of leaders.  The current juniors (future seniors) are, admittedly, on the weak side.  I’m not even trying to sound mean; the juniors all agree themselves.  We have a lot of rival schools, as you can imagine, since we’ve been getting the most members accepted into both regions and all-state in all of New Jersey for the past few years (that’s bound to fire up some other conductors), but I don’t think we’ll be able to keep that streak going with next year.

 

Ah, whoops, I must have been unclear with my previous response.  Nintendo is partnering with Universal Studios, not Disney.  In the coming years, they’ll be adding Nintendo attractions and themes to their parks around the world.  If the Wizarding World of Harry Potter is anything to go by, this is going to be amazing.  I won’t deny it, even though I wasn’t a diehard fan of the series or anything, the amount of detail they put into giving it such an amazing atmosphere completely blew me away.  I was last there as a freshman, but it was undoubtedly the best part of Universal Studios.  I have faith they’ll be able to handle a Nintendo-themed section of the park amazingly well.  Oh, and Nintendo is also going into the mobile device market.  They’re planning on releasing mobile games soon, so we’ll see how those turn out.  They won’t be releasing any info at this year’s E3, since they want to focus on video game exclusive content, but it’s pretty neat anyway.  For the band trip, we all had a couple of fast passes (or whatever the Disney version of those are) to use every day, which made the experience significantly better, especially with the popular rides.  It’s too bad you didn’t go on as many rides as you wanted to.  Soaking in the sights and sounds probably wasn’t all too bad either, since there’s a charm to that in its own little way.

 

Aww, you’re really lucky to have such a good teacher and just overall a strong facility.  I wish I had teachers I could rely on like that.  I’ve had a fair share of pretty decent teachers, but none I could really ask for life advice or talk about college with, which was a shame.  The physics teachers are especially clueless about things.  Speaking of parks though, I’m actually going on a physics trip this Friday to Six Flags Great Adventure, arguably one of more popular Six Flags out there, I guess because of our record breaking Kingda Ka.  Hrmm, New Jersey does have some perks after all.  I’m hoping Kingda Ka isn’t closed for maintenance (it often is) so I can ride it before going off to Cleveland.

 

Biology is actually an exception to the “I dislike science” rule.  While chemistry and physics both get my mind all twisted in bad ways, biology’s alright.  I wouldn’t say I love it, and if I had a bad and/or difficult teacher I’d probably dread the class, but under the right circumstances it’s rather agreeable.  Math I dislike, but I’ve found that all standardized tests are significantly easier than the honors and AP classes in my school, and in most schools in fact, so there’s that.  Honestly, the 800s aren’t anything ogle over, I swear.  This isn’t me being modest; I really got super lucky on both tests.  The only thing that’s remotely impressive is the fact that I didn’t use a graphing calculator on the Math II test.  Back when I took it at the end of junior year, I hadn’t taken a true calc class yet so I was never required to use a graphing calc.  I’ve had my TI-34 Multiview since 6th grade, and I knew that calculator in and out like the Hoenn region.  I didn’t want to bother learning my way around a completely new device, and I was kinda emotionally attached to the trusty scientific calculator I’ve been using for so long.  In the stubborn manner that should be expected of me by now, I dived into the test and prepared for it without the aid of the TI-84 Plus that I’ve actually gotten familiar with in the past year of calc.  And well, I guess I did fine, even though my tutor at first told me I was crazy.  I didn’t do anything too special to study for these tests.  I took them at different times: Math II in June and Bio in October of my senior year.  That probably helped ease the stress a bit.  I’m guessing you’re taking both in June and then the SAT I again in October?  I can’t recall the exact books I used to prep, but I think I mainly focused on Barron’s and Princeton Review and Kaplan.  I just took a bunch of practice tests.  There wasn’t actually much sitting down and reading over material as there was practicing to see what I didn’t know and then just quickly reviewing my weak points.  Even then, I didn’t manage amazing scores in Bio M or anything.  I got scores in the 700s for practice in the days leading up to the test, but my first and only 800 was on the real deal.  For Math II, since pre-calc had prepared me pretty well for the test, I didn’t really go crazy with the studying until after APs.  For Bio M, I took the time over summer break to study, between the college visits and whatnot.  I slowed down a tad when school started up, but I guess my summer preparation was good enough.  While I’m awfully flattered that you admire this (and believe me, it does make me happy) I can’t help but feel your admiration is misplaced, haha.  I only managed these scores because of lucky curves, and I’m fairly certain that, even if you don’t also get 800s on both, you’re still more skilled than I am at both math and biology.

 

Oh geez, how could I forgot, I didn’t mention I also wear sweaters all the time during the older months.  And yeah, a light jacket for fall and a really cozy coat for winter.  Tank tops, or rather any sleeveless shirts, aren’t allowed at our school, though by the end of the year the weather gets so hot that even the administration gets lax with the dress code.  Shorts and shirt hems start riding way above the fingertip limit.  For most guys around here, sneakers are still the way to go because phys ed is a required course unfortunately.  Having to change shoes back and forth and worry about the hassles that come with that just are enough to deter almost every guy from wearing loafers.  Girls on the other hand are a lot more determined it seems, since they’re still wearing all kinds of fancy footwear especially during the spring when they start pulling out the heels and sandals.  My sneakers last about one year before I have to toss them, which is good enough I think.  I only wear black or white or grey sneakers (sometimes with a hint of blue here and there), so they always go well with jeans and pretty much any top I decide to cap myself off with.  It keeps me from having to worry about an outfit every morning, since there are other things I’m usually stressing about, haha.

 

My Marth arrived yesterday, exactly a week after ordering him.  He looks really really great.  This is a reprint, which is significantly better than the first run.  The first line of Marths had really derpy faces and were lovingly dubbed as Merths.  Their heads were really flat, their hair wasn’t molded correctly onto their skulls, and their eyes were big and almost never symmetrical.  I’m glad the reprints look a lot more like the way he was supposed to.  The only thing wrong with mine is that it has a bent sword, but it’s nothing a simple boiling water plus ice water trick can’t fix.  I’ll be opening him over the summer along with Lucina to train.  My brother and I have split the amiibo between ourselves: he’ll be claiming Lancer, Rider, Caster, and Berserker while I’ll be taking Saber, Archer, Assassin, and Gilgamesh.  Over the summer, I’ll be training up Saber and Assassin while he works on Lancer and Rider.  If Palutena and Dark Pit are released before I leave for college, hopefully I’ll be able to start training Archer and my brother Caster.  I’ll hold off on getting Link until Ganondorf is out in September so we can keep the numbers relatively even.  I hope I befriend someone in Case who has Smash 4, since I’ll want to play with my amiibo some more but my Wii U is staying with my brother.

 

Ohhh, it’s great you’ve embraced your formerly non-photogenic self!  I suppose confidence does make a difference when it comes to pictures, too.  You do seem like the type of person who’d mess around in photos and make funny faces at the camera, hahaha.  Hmm, maybe there’s a scientific reason for certain people just not being photogenic?

 

Ehhhhhh?!!?  Why is it that I always seem to make decisions more difficult for you??  (I think you’re just saying this to make me feel bad for some reason, hrmph…)  Ahah, yeah, it’s still early so be sure to give a bunch of colleges some thought.  Heck, applying to Case Western was a spur of the moment, last second decision, one I don’t regret that’s for sure.  You’d be surprised by the course of events some things will take.

 

Uwahh--!  Hahahah, I don’t see myself as the senpai type at all, gosh.  I still feel like I look up to people older than me far more than others rely on me.  But, well, if a senpai is what you want to see me as, I’ll do my best to not let you down and live up to your expectations, hahh.  Unlike anime, I feel that most of what I’ve played and currently play has been really great.  I guess I just don’t have the time to play every video game that comes out, otherwise I’d probably run into my fair share of cruddy titles.  That being said, OoT is definitely one of the better games that I’ve played.  Others praise it as the best game ever, and while I don’t think it quite deserves that label it’s definitely a game you need to play, for the sake of experiencing a classic.  The original N64 version is only a few months younger than you, and yet it’s aged amazingly well.  The 3DS version just cleaned up the textures and graphics and altered the menu to make full use of the touch screen.  It’s more of a port than it is a remake, so the core gameplay and features are still intact.  Yet I was still blown away by it, over a decade and a half after it was first conceptualized, and that’s saying something.  As much as I love Pokemon, Red and Blue haven’t aged nearly as well as OoT has.  They came out at around the same time, and while Red and Blue started the Pokemon craze much of the gameplay is so different when compared to 6th gen.  Even the remakes in the form of FireRed and LeafGreen can’t really hold up to today’s games, and that completely revamped the gameplay to 3rd gen’s style.  Young kids experimenting with video games in 2015 aren’t going to play the original Pokemon games (they might, but they probably won’t like it very much) but they’ll play OoT 3D and love it as much as children back in 1998 did when they first played OoT.  That’s probably what makes OoT so impressive.  Its longevity really is unparalleled.

 

Along the lines of video games, I have a bit of an announcement to make.  I managed to purchase a 2DS without my parents’ knowledge to bring to college.  This sounds like it’s coming out of left field, but it’s pretty important so I guess I’ll start from the very beginning.  When my parents got me the limited edition Pikachu 3DS XL for my 16th birthday, I knew I wasn’t going to play it enough to fully satisfy my 3DS cravings in high school and knew I was going to have to be patient and wait for college to get full reign over the games that I wanted to play.  However, my mom dropped the bomb a couple of weeks ago when she announced that she wouldn’t let me bring any video games to college in fear of my failing (I think she was just in a bad mood because I told her I wanted to go to Case instead of Rutgers, but once she’s made up her mind there’s no way to get her to change it).  Now, this wouldn’t do at all.  I was patient for so long, and there was absolutely no way I was going to wait another 4 years just to play with my Pikachu 3DS again.  I decided the best course of action would be to completely forgo that console and get a new one in complete secrecy.  I temporarily contemplated getting a New 3DS XL (since it was newer after all), but realized that would be unrealistic and set my sights for the economic 2DS.  I wanted to get the Crystal Blue version, the transparent one made to reference the good ol’ Sapphire cartridges of our childhood, which ran for a little under $120 on Amazon.  They’ve sold out at other major retailers and were admittedly being sold for a tad more than a standard 2DS, but the cost was worth it for the nostalgia.  I decided to attack the cost from two fronts.  The first was to use Swagbucks to get as many Amazon gift cards as I could.  I got $50 in free money from over the course of over two months (and I’m currently saving up my Swagbucks for even more future purchases), which I put in my secret Amazon account.  The rest of the money came from my parents, but indirectly.  You see, while I don’t eat lunch my brother still does.  School lunch costs $3.25 (ugh, crazy right?) but since my parents are too lazy to count up an uneven number like that every day they just give my brother a five dollar bill and tell him to bring the $1.75 change back home.  My parents are thankfully too lazy to collect the change at all, and so my brother has been holding onto the change for pretty much the entire year.  We both decided to abuse this to our favor.  My brother is perfectly fine with skipping lunch and only eating breakfast and dinner.  If he skips an entire week of lunch but still asks for money as if he intends to eat, he’ll receive $25 in a single week.  Because my parents are expecting him to spent $3.25 a day, which totals to $16.25 per week, they’d be looking for $8.75 every week in change back.  However, they have no way of knowing if that $16.25 not returned was used for lunch or something else.  That means, my brother and I get a maximum of $16.25 in completely free spending money every week.  If the 2DS is $120, and I have $50 of the cost covered by Swagbucks, then it would take a minimum of month of not eating lunch for my brother to acquire the remaining $70.  It didn’t take him very long to do this, and with the money on hand I asked a sympathetic friend to go to 7-Eleven to buy a Visa debit card, whose code could be used on Amazon to purchase an Amazon gift card, which would feed into my gift card credit.  And with that, I got my hands on over $120 in digital money, which was used to order a 2DS Crystal Blue.  It arrived on the front steps just this past Monday, and since I walk home from school while my parents are still at work, I scooped it up and hid it in one of the many secrets places of the house (after hiding games from my parents for years, I’ve found some of the most unbelievable places).  Now I can play all my 2DS games to my heart’s content, without my parent’s knowledge, even at night in bed and most importantly even in college!  My 3DS games are pretty much all under lock and key in a filing cabinet, but if I ask my parents to play video games (“just for a few minutes, pretty please?”), they’ll let my take them out temporarily, and instead of returning the chips to their original boxes, I’ll sneak them into my pocket and relocate them to an area under my control.  My parents never check to see if game chips are in the boxes they’re supposed to be in (I determined this after some experimenting a while back), and the only reason I didn’t already sneak away my 3DS games earlier was because I had nothing to play them on, since it would be impossible to stash away my Pikachu 3DS in a similar way as the chips.

 

Aaaaand so that’s the story behind how I put way too much thought and effort into getting my hands on video games.  I don’t recommend you try something similar to buy your own 3DS-family console (it’ll make you seem crazy like me and also my circumstances were very specific and particular).  You probably think I’m really weird now, huh (no need lie, you can be honest, ahahahah).  Well, because of my 2DS, I’ve been able to make very good progress on my Pokemon Y run.  And by very good progress, I mean I’ve beaten the third gym and am training up my newly caught Skrelp to the level my other five Pokemon are on, bleh.  Since it’s my first time playing through this region, I’m making sure I take things slowly.  My party consists of only 6th gen Pokemon and I’m catching every Pokemon I see with Pokeballs, regardless of generation.  I’m going to make it my goal to buy every article of clothing, whether I like it or not, and I refuse to turn on Exp. Share, which will make grinding a requirement.  It’ll take some time, but I think it’s worth.  Believe it or not, I haven’t really spoiled myself of X and Y’s plot.  Except for the really obvious stuff, I’m pretty much in the dark.  I haven’t listening to the OST i advance, I don’t know what the cities and towns are like, and of course I don’t know how the campaign ends or what comes after the credits.  I’ve waiting so long, I’m going to make the most of this game, haha.  After that, I’ll move on to Alpha Sapphire, then I’ll tackle Dual Destinies and Virtue’s Last Reward.  I’ll play Majora’s Mask after that, and whenever Fire Emblem if comes out I’ll get into that while the hype is still high.  I’m also planning a Lunatic run through of Awakening, and a Master’s Quest run of OoT.  Heh, I’m sure I’ll find the time…

 

Goodness me, what’s with you and all these Internet experiences that wreak havoc on your sleep schedule and concentration?  First it was the YouTube channel incident, and now this virus you got.  I hope you have better luck in the future, and it’s commendable of you to have gotten it fixed, even with the help of others.  I don’t know if I would have been able to keep my cool if I were in your situation, haha.

 

What you were so enthusiastic about, huh?  Something something high school memories, tradition… something something no regrets, pleasantly surprised…  Yeah, those were the major points, ahaha.  Well, if prom is only $40 where you are then the cost isn’t really so big of a deal.  You have an entire year to think about it anyway.  From the little I’ve heard so far, the food was decent and it was “fun”.  I mean, you know, can’t really expect every little detail, but no one I’ve talked to seems to have regretted going.  Some have said it was like a big sweet sixteen (I’ve never been to one, I wouldn’t really know how those are) and those who weren’t really keen on going said that while it’s nothing too special it’s an American tradition.  I know girls have a lot of fun preparing for the event.  This past week or two, the only thing girls were talking about were their dresses, their makeup, their permed hair, and their manicures. Meanwhile, guys were trying their very best to find a bow tie that matched their date’s dress, and if a guy didn’t have a date then… I guess there wasn’t much for him to worry about, hahah.  If it interests you come senior year, there’s no harm in going!  Just mind the post-prom house parties, all kinds of illegal things happen at those (and legal but not “decent” if you know what I mean).  I already know for a fact that a really big party went down last night and it was, well, wild… 

 

Oh geez, good luck on your bio finals!  My bio teacher is pretty chill, so he’s not assigning anything too crazy (ah wait, I have a lab report due Monday night…) though my calc teacher doesn’t look like she’ll be letting us take a break.  We actually learned shell method right before the AP exams, for some reason.  I don’t really know why.  Bleh, I’d love to take a partner quiz; I'm quite envious.  I have a ton of physics stuff lined up for next week, projects and reports mainly, sigh.  We’re watching a movie in Lit, but we’re going to be tested on it.  Ehh, this past week wasn’t too bad.  Had to take a quiz and two tests, but they weren’t difficult.  From your OMM post though, it seems like you’re still having it rough.  Gosh, I’d really like for you to get some rest and relax, and I’ve been hoping you’d be able to for months now, but darned school keeps getting in the way.  Guess there’s not much else to do but wait until summer break.  When’s the last day of school for you?

 

Speaking of our OMM posts, which books were on the Lit summer reading list?  I may be able to recommend a book I liked if I read it, or steer you clear from one I don’t feel is worth the effort, haha.  Oh, on the topic of books, Case assigns a new "common reading" book to all incoming freshman each year, which will be used as a focal point for discussion and programs during orientation and into the fall semester.  This year's book is "Whistling Vivaldi: How Stereotypes Affect Us and What We Can Do" by Claude M. Steele, and they'll be shipping a copy to my home in June, which is pretty cool.  I hope it's a good read!

 

There’s no need to apologize!  You typed more than you usually do so if anything I should be thanking you, haha.  You’re under a lot more stress than I am, so don’t feel pressured to match my word count.  A response of any length from you is always appreciated.  Good luck with your school work and remember to take breaks when necessary!

[Kenzi 146]

 

Ahaha, I’m not too sure I was all together helpful, but you’re welcome nonetheless!  You know yourself and your limits, so if you think you can handle Physics C senior year then you go out there and take down that monster!  I’m guessing you’re choosing classes for your schedule next year, so whether you decide to take Physics C or Stats or something else entirely different, I wish you the best of luck and I’ll be rooting for you the entire time!  And yeah, at this point I’ve learned to just not be surprised about any of my school’s shortcomings, heheh.  Sasuga Edison Township School District…

 

If by solid break you mean a quick 15 minute breather during which I didn’t eat lunch, ehh yeah I guess I got the chance to stretch a bit.  And yeah, I don’t each lunch in school at all.  I may have mentioned this elsewhere, but I use my lunch period to work on homework or study, and I’ve never eaten a high school lunch before.  Ever.  And if you ask why, I wouldn’t be able to give a good answer, since it’s the same reason why I don’t have a Facebook and have been wearing jeans every single day in public for the past 6-7 years, haha.  I’m just stupidly stubborn and hard-headed like that.  Unfortunately, I didn’t feel that the Physics test was that easy.  If anything, I felt that it was the exact opposite, bleh.  The quick “workout” sets that I do aren’t anything worthy of praise.  There are guys (and heck even girls) I know who are much more fit than I am, as they regularly go to the gym and whatnot.  Nothing I do can really compare to participating in school athletics either.  Not to mention, all my work is countered by my somewhat poor eating habits, ahahaha…  Ohh, I’m sure you did fine!  There’s no need to stress about it now that it’s all behind us, and I’m confident someone like you will end up on the upside of things.  I also felt that the Bio multiple choice section was really easy, surprisingly so, but the FRQs were kind rough.  There were just a ton of questions and overall not much time to elaborate on each of them to the point of satisfaction.  But gosh, at least I didn’t have to deal with proctors like that!  I can imagine that would have thrown me off as well, since I never bring my own watch and I rely on whatever time they put up on the board.  I hoped you managed to bs pretty well (I’m actually hoping for the same, hah).  I’m glad LangComp went well at least, for the most part.  Oh gosh, there’s no need to apologize.  If anything, I ramble on far more than you do, so I don’t mind at all!  As I’ve said before, if something is bothering you and you just want to let it out, feel free to.  I may not be able to help in scenarios like this, but I’m willing to listen, that’s for sure!  And congrats to you too for getting through as many APs as you have!  Just one more year left!  Be sure to take a break yourself!

 

Ah, I guess if people were just goofing off like that, it can ruin any mood you’re trying to set for yourself, ahah.  Eheheh, I’m actually kind of glad my essay influenced you in some way.  It’s probably the most direct feedback I’ve gotten, since I have no real way of knowing how admissions officers felt about it and I really don’t think any of my friends who read it became motivated to start stargazing.  Man, I wish my family had camped out in Yellowstone. We were there for a couple of days, but we spent the nights at this tourist lodge, outside the park. It was still pretty neat, and I’m sure I could have attempted to stargaze and get something out of it, but my parents wouldn’t have let me stay up.  And they aren’t like your parents, since I don’t think they’ve ever stargazed before.  They just think it’s a waste of time because I could be doing more important things, heh.

 

Yeah, it is pretty amazing.  He was even on national television for like, a few seconds when they showed all the nominees.  It probably didn’t matter to most people, but it was a pretty big deal in our school as you can imagine.  I guess his skill does show in our band.  Our band is one of the more renown high school groups in central NJ, heck even all of Jersey.  That could also just be because we’re located in such a convenient place that regional auditions for central Jersey and all-state auditions are held in our school, so any player worth their stuff has at least heard of our school because they need to make a trek there once or twice a year, hahah.  I’m actually not sure how well the band will hold itself come next year, since my class was a really strong musical class with a lot of leaders.  The current juniors (future seniors) are, admittedly, on the weak side.  I’m not even trying to sound mean; the juniors all agree themselves.  We have a lot of rival schools, as you can imagine, since we’ve been getting the most members accepted into both regions and all-state in all of New Jersey for the past few years (that’s bound to fire up some other conductors), but I don’t think we’ll be able to keep that streak going with next year.

 

Ah, whoops, I must have been unclear with my previous response.  Nintendo is partnering with Universal Studios, not Disney.  In the coming years, they’ll be adding Nintendo attractions and themes to their parks around the world.  If the Wizarding World of Harry Potter is anything to go by, this is going to be amazing.  I won’t deny it, even though I wasn’t a diehard fan of the series or anything, the amount of detail they put into giving it such an amazing atmosphere completely blew me away.  I was last there as a freshman, but it was undoubtedly the best part of Universal Studios.  I have faith they’ll be able to handle a Nintendo-themed section of the park amazingly well.  Oh, and Nintendo is also going into the mobile device market.  They’re planning on releasing mobile games soon, so we’ll see how those turn out.  They won’t be releasing any info at this year’s E3, since they want to focus on video game exclusive content, but it’s pretty neat anyway.  For the band trip, we all had a couple of fast passes (or whatever the Disney version of those are) to use every day, which made the experience significantly better, especially with the popular rides.  It’s too bad you didn’t go on as many rides as you wanted to.  Soaking in the sights and sounds probably wasn’t all too bad either, since there’s a charm to that in its own little way.

 

Aww, you’re really lucky to have such a good teacher and just overall a strong facility.  I wish I had teachers I could rely on like that.  I’ve had a fair share of pretty decent teachers, but none I could really ask for life advice or talk about college with, which was a shame.  The physics teachers are especially clueless about things.  Speaking of parks though, I’m actually going on a physics trip this Friday to Six Flags Great Adventure, arguably one of more popular Six Flags out there, I guess because of our record breaking Kingda Ka.  Hrmm, New Jersey does have some perks after all.  I’m hoping Kingda Ka isn’t closed for maintenance (it often is) so I can ride it before going off to Cleveland.

 

Biology is actually an exception to the “I dislike science” rule.  While chemistry and physics both get my mind all twisted in bad ways, biology’s alright.  I wouldn’t say I love it, and if I had a bad and/or difficult teacher I’d probably dread the class, but under the right circumstances it’s rather agreeable.  Math I dislike, but I’ve found that all standardized tests are significantly easier than the honors and AP classes in my school, and in most schools in fact, so there’s that.  Honestly, the 800s aren’t anything ogle over, I swear.  This isn’t me being modest; I really got super lucky on both tests.  The only thing that’s remotely impressive is the fact that I didn’t use a graphing calculator on the Math II test.  Back when I took it at the end of junior year, I hadn’t taken a true calc class yet so I was never required to use a graphing calc.  I’ve had my TI-34 Multiview since 6th grade, and I knew that calculator in and out like the Hoenn region.  I didn’t want to bother learning my way around a completely new device, and I was kinda emotionally attached to the trusty scientific calculator I’ve been using for so long.  In the stubborn manner that should be expected of me by now, I dived into the test and prepared for it without the aid of the TI-84 Plus that I’ve actually gotten familiar with in the past year of calc.  And well, I guess I did fine, even though my tutor at first told me I was crazy.  I didn’t do anything too special to study for these tests.  I took them at different times: Math II in June and Bio in October of my senior year.  That probably helped ease the stress a bit.  I’m guessing you’re taking both in June and then the SAT I again in October?  I can’t recall the exact books I used to prep, but I think I mainly focused on Barron’s and Princeton Review and Kaplan.  I just took a bunch of practice tests.  There wasn’t actually much sitting down and reading over material as there was practicing to see what I didn’t know and then just quickly reviewing my weak points.  Even then, I didn’t manage amazing scores in Bio M or anything.  I got scores in the 700s for practice in the days leading up to the test, but my first and only 800 was on the real deal.  For Math II, since pre-calc had prepared me pretty well for the test, I didn’t really go crazy with the studying until after APs.  For Bio M, I took the time over summer break to study, between the college visits and whatnot.  I slowed down a tad when school started up, but I guess my summer preparation was good enough.  While I’m awfully flattered that you admire this (and believe me, it does make me happy) I can’t help but feel your admiration is misplaced, haha.  I only managed these scores because of lucky curves, and I’m fairly certain that, even if you don’t also get 800s on both, you’re still more skilled than I am at both math and biology.

 

Oh geez, how could I forgot, I didn’t mention I also wear sweaters all the time during the older months.  And yeah, a light jacket for fall and a really cozy coat for winter.  Tank tops, or rather any sleeveless shirts, aren’t allowed at our school, though by the end of the year the weather gets so hot that even the administration gets lax with the dress code.  Shorts and shirt hems start riding way above the fingertip limit.  For most guys around here, sneakers are still the way to go because phys ed is a required course unfortunately.  Having to change shoes back and forth and worry about the hassles that come with that just are enough to deter almost every guy from wearing loafers.  Girls on the other hand are a lot more determined it seems, since they’re still wearing all kinds of fancy footwear especially during the spring when they start pulling out the heels and sandals.  My sneakers last about one year before I have to toss them, which is good enough I think.  I only wear black or white or grey sneakers (sometimes with a hint of blue here and there), so they always go well with jeans and pretty much any top I decide to cap myself off with.  It keeps me from having to worry about an outfit every morning, since there are other things I’m usually stressing about, haha.

 

My Marth arrived yesterday, exactly a week after ordering him.  He looks really really great.  This is a reprint, which is significantly better than the first run.  The first line of Marths had really derpy faces and were lovingly dubbed as Merths.  Their heads were really flat, their hair wasn’t molded correctly onto their skulls, and their eyes were big and almost never symmetrical.  I’m glad the reprints look a lot more like the way he was supposed to.  The only thing wrong with mine is that it has a bent sword, but it’s nothing a simple boiling water plus ice water trick can’t fix.  I’ll be opening him over the summer along with Lucina to train.  My brother and I have split the amiibo between ourselves: he’ll be claiming Lancer, Rider, Caster, and Berserker while I’ll be taking Saber, Archer, Assassin, and Gilgamesh.  Over the summer, I’ll be training up Saber and Assassin while he works on Lancer and Rider.  If Palutena and Dark Pit are released before I leave for college, hopefully I’ll be able to start training Archer and my brother Caster.  I’ll hold off on getting Link until Ganondorf is out in September so we can keep the numbers relatively even.  I hope I befriend someone in Case who has Smash 4, since I’ll want to play with my amiibo some more but my Wii U is staying with my brother.

 

Ohhh, it’s great you’ve embraced your formerly non-photogenic self!  I suppose confidence does make a difference when it comes to pictures, too.  You do seem like the type of person who’d mess around in photos and make funny faces at the camera, hahaha.  Hmm, maybe there’s a scientific reason for certain people just not being photogenic?

 

Ehhhhhh?!!?  Why is it that I always seem to make decisions more difficult for you??  (I think you’re just saying this to make me feel bad for some reason, hrmph…)  Ahah, yeah, it’s still early so be sure to give a bunch of colleges some thought.  Heck, applying to Case Western was a spur of the moment, last second decision, one I don’t regret that’s for sure.  You’d be surprised by the course of events some things will take.

 

Uwahh--!  Hahahah, I don’t see myself as the senpai type at all, gosh.  I still feel like I look up to people older than me far more than others rely on me.  But, well, if a senpai is what you want to see me as, I’ll do my best to not let you down and live up to your expectations, hahh.  Unlike anime, I feel that most of what I’ve played and currently play has been really great.  I guess I just don’t have the time to play every video game that comes out, otherwise I’d probably run into my fair share of cruddy titles.  That being said, OoT is definitely one of the better games that I’ve played.  Others praise it as the best game ever, and while I don’t think it quite deserves that label it’s definitely a game you need to play, for the sake of experiencing a classic.  The original N64 version is only a few months younger than you, and yet it’s aged amazingly well.  The 3DS version just cleaned up the textures and graphics and altered the menu to make full use of the touch screen.  It’s more of a port than it is a remake, so the core gameplay and features are still intact.  Yet I was still blown away by it, over a decade and a half after it was first conceptualized, and that’s saying something.  As much as I love Pokemon, Red and Blue haven’t aged nearly as well as OoT has.  They came out at around the same time, and while Red and Blue started the Pokemon craze much of the gameplay is so different when compared to 6th gen.  Even the remakes in the form of FireRed and LeafGreen can’t really hold up to today’s games, and that completely revamped the gameplay to 3rd gen’s style.  Young kids experimenting with video games in 2015 aren’t going to play the original Pokemon games (they might, but they probably won’t like it very much) but they’ll play OoT 3D and love it as much as children back in 1998 did when they first played OoT.  That’s probably what makes OoT so impressive.  Its longevity really is unparalleled.

 

Along the lines of video games, I have a bit of an announcement to make.  I managed to purchase a 2DS without my parents’ knowledge to bring to college.  This sounds like it’s coming out of left field, but it’s pretty important so I guess I’ll start from the very beginning.  When my parents got me the limited edition Pikachu 3DS XL for my 16th birthday, I knew I wasn’t going to play it enough to fully satisfy my 3DS cravings in high school and knew I was going to have to be patient and wait for college to get full reign over the games that I wanted to play.  However, my mom dropped the bomb a couple of weeks ago when she announced that she wouldn’t let me bring any video games to college in fear of my failing (I think she was just in a bad mood because I told her I wanted to go to Case instead of Rutgers, but once she’s made up her mind there’s no way to get her to change it).  Now, this wouldn’t do at all.  I was patient for so long, and there was absolutely no way I was going to wait another 4 years just to play with my Pikachu 3DS again.  I decided the best course of action would be to completely forgo that console and get a new one in complete secrecy.  I temporarily contemplated getting a New 3DS XL (since it was newer after all), but realized that would be unrealistic and set my sights for the economic 2DS.  I wanted to get the Crystal Blue version, the transparent one made to reference the good ol’ Sapphire cartridges of our childhood, which ran for a little under $120 on Amazon.  They’ve sold out at other major retailers and were admittedly being sold for a tad more than a standard 2DS, but the cost was worth it for the nostalgia.  I decided to attack the cost from two fronts.  The first was to use Swagbucks to get as many Amazon gift cards as I could.  I got $50 in free money from over the course of over two months (and I’m currently saving up my Swagbucks for even more future purchases), which I put in my secret Amazon account.  The rest of the money came from my parents, but indirectly.  You see, while I don’t eat lunch my brother still does.  School lunch costs $3.25 (ugh, crazy right?) but since my parents are too lazy to count up an uneven number like that every day they just give my brother a five dollar bill and tell him to bring the $1.75 change back home.  My parents are thankfully too lazy to collect the change at all, and so my brother has been holding onto the change for pretty much the entire year.  We both decided to abuse this to our favor.  My brother is perfectly fine with skipping lunch and only eating breakfast and dinner.  If he skips an entire week of lunch but still asks for money as if he intends to eat, he’ll receive $25 in a single week.  Because my parents are expecting him to spent $3.25 a day, which totals to $16.25 per week, they’d be looking for $8.75 every week in change back.  However, they have no way of knowing if that $16.25 not returned was used for lunch or something else.  That means, my brother and I get a maximum of $16.25 in completely free spending money every week.  If the 2DS is $120, and I have $50 of the cost covered by Swagbucks, then it would take a minimum of month of not eating lunch for my brother to acquire the remaining $70.  It didn’t take him very long to do this, and with the money on hand I asked a sympathetic friend to go to 7-Eleven to buy a Visa debit card, whose code could be used on Amazon to purchase an Amazon gift card, which would feed into my gift card credit.  And with that, I got my hands on over $120 in digital money, which was used to order a 2DS Crystal Blue.  It arrived on the front steps just this past Monday, and since I walk home from school while my parents are still at work, I scooped it up and hid it in one of the many secrets places of the house (after hiding games from my parents for years, I’ve found some of the most unbelievable places).  Now I can play all my 2DS games to my heart’s content, without my parent’s knowledge, even at night in bed and most importantly even in college!  My 3DS games are pretty much all under lock and key in a filing cabinet, but if I ask my parents to play video games (“just for a few minutes, pretty please?”), they’ll let my take them out temporarily, and instead of returning the chips to their original boxes, I’ll sneak them into my pocket and relocate them to an area under my control.  My parents never check to see if game chips are in the boxes they’re supposed to be in (I determined this after some experimenting a while back), and the only reason I didn’t already sneak away my 3DS games earlier was because I had nothing to play them on, since it would be impossible to stash away my Pikachu 3DS in a similar way as the chips.

 

Aaaaand so that’s the story behind how I put way too much thought and effort into getting my hands on video games.  I don’t recommend you try something similar to buy your own 3DS-family console (it’ll make you seem crazy like me and also my circumstances were very specific and particular).  You probably think I’m really weird now, huh (no need lie, you can be honest, ahahahah).  Well, because of my 2DS, I’ve been able to make very good progress on my Pokemon Y run.  And by very good progress, I mean I’ve beaten the third gym and am training up my newly caught Skrelp to the level my other five Pokemon are on, bleh.  Since it’s my first time playing through this region, I’m making sure I take things slowly.  My party consists of only 6th gen Pokemon and I’m catching every Pokemon I see with Pokeballs, regardless of generation.  I’m going to make it my goal to buy every article of clothing, whether I like it or not, and I refuse to turn on Exp. Share, which will make grinding a requirement.  It’ll take some time, but I think it’s worth.  Believe it or not, I haven’t really spoiled myself of X and Y’s plot.  Except for the really obvious stuff, I’m pretty much in the dark.  I haven’t listening to the OST i advance, I don’t know what the cities and towns are like, and of course I don’t know how the campaign ends or what comes after the credits.  I’ve waiting so long, I’m going to make the most of this game, haha.  After that, I’ll move on to Alpha Sapphire, then I’ll tackle Dual Destinies and Virtue’s Last Reward.  I’ll play Majora’s Mask after that, and whenever Fire Emblem if comes out I’ll get into that while the hype is still high.  I’m also planning a Lunatic run through of Awakening, and a Master’s Quest run of OoT.  Heh, I’m sure I’ll find the time…

 

Goodness me, what’s with you and all these Internet experiences that wreak havoc on your sleep schedule and concentration?  First it was the YouTube channel incident, and now this virus you got.  I hope you have better luck in the future, and it’s commendable of you to have gotten it fixed, even with the help of others.  I don’t know if I would have been able to keep my cool if I were in your situation, haha.

 

What you were so enthusiastic about, huh?  Something something high school memories, tradition… something something no regrets, pleasantly surprised…  Yeah, those were the major points, ahaha.  Well, if prom is only $40 where you are then the cost isn’t really so big of a deal.  You have an entire year to think about it anyway.  From the little I’ve heard so far, the food was decent and it was “fun”.  I mean, you know, can’t really expect every little detail, but no one I’ve talked to seems to have regretted going.  Some have said it was like a big sweet sixteen (I’ve never been to one, I wouldn’t really know how those are) and those who weren’t really keen on going said that while it’s nothing too special it’s an American tradition.  I know girls have a lot of fun preparing for the event.  This past week or two, the only thing girls were talking about were their dresses, their makeup, their permed hair, and their manicures. Meanwhile, guys were trying their very best to find a bow tie that matched their date’s dress, and if a guy didn’t have a date then… I guess there wasn’t much for him to worry about, hahah.  If it interests you come senior year, there’s no harm in going!  Just mind the post-prom house parties, all kinds of illegal things happen at those (and legal but not “decent” if you know what I mean).  I already know for a fact that a really big party went down last night and it was, well, wild… 

 

Oh geez, good luck on your bio finals!  My bio teacher is pretty chill, so he’s not assigning anything too crazy (ah wait, I have a lab report due Monday night…) though my calc teacher doesn’t look like she’ll be letting us take a break.  We actually learned shell method right before the AP exams, for some reason.  I don’t really know why.  Bleh, I’d love to take a partner quiz; I'm quite envious.  I have a ton of physics stuff lined up for next week, projects and reports mainly, sigh.  We’re watching a movie in Lit, but we’re going to be tested on it.  Ehh, this past week wasn’t too bad.  Had to take a quiz and two tests, but they weren’t difficult.  From your OMM post though, it seems like you’re still having it rough.  Gosh, I’d really like for you to get some rest and relax, and I’ve been hoping you’d be able to for months now, but darned school keeps getting in the way.  Guess there’s not much else to do but wait until summer break.  When’s the last day of school for you?

 

Speaking of our OMM posts, which books were on the Lit summer reading list?  I may be able to recommend a book I liked if I read it, or steer you clear from one I don’t feel is worth the effort, haha.  Oh, on the topic of books, Case assigns a new "common reading" book to all incoming freshman each year, which will be used as a focal point for discussion and programs during orientation and into the fall semester.  This year's book is "Whistling Vivaldi: How Stereotypes Affect Us and What We Can Do" by Claude M. Steele, and they'll be shipping a copy to my home in June, which is pretty cool.  I hope it's a good read!

 

There’s no need to apologize!  You typed more than you usually do so if anything I should be thanking you, haha.  You’re under a lot more stress than I am, so don’t feel pressured to match my word count.  A response of any length from you is always appreciated.  Good luck with your school work and remember to take breaks when necessary!

 

I've decided to knock stats out of my schedule for now, unless I want to torture myself with five AP classes and seven AP tests next year (there's no way in hell I'm doing that, even though stats is considered one of the easier APs). I'm getting mixed feelings about Physics C as the end of the year draws closer, but hopefully I'll be able to settle any doubt by then. Thank you for your support, haha.

 

You've never eaten a high school lunch before? Not even once in your entire four years of high school? I don't eat school lunches anymore either, but when I forget to bring my lunch, I'll resort to buying something from school (only happens once in a blue moon though). Does that mean you starve yourself whenever (if ever) you forget to bring lunch from home? I don't want to believe that your stubbornness would carry you that far, so hopefully that's not the case, haha. Nah, I still think it's pretty commendable of you to commit to regular workout sets. Barely any of my friends hit up the gym (neither do I, lol), and I also have some pretty poor eating habits (been losing my appetite lately though). Ehh, there's no need to get worked up about the AP tests now. It's probably better to leave them behind now that everything's been said and done, ahahahaha... Mmm, I'm just glad that I finally got my APs over with. The only downside is that I missed a lot of school and have to play catch-up now. Sigh, at least my workload has lightened up a bit. 

 

I always loved the idea of stargazing, but I guess reading your essay helped make the experience feel a bit more meaningful--as corny as that may sound, eheheh... We also spent most of our nights in Yellowstone at a lodge since the campout was a one-time thing. I felt like I was going to freeze to death in that teepee, but it was still a fun experience nonetheless, haha. My attempt at stargazing in Yellowstone was short-lived, unfortunately. My parents didn't want to worry about me staying outside all night and my sister lost interest after a few minutes. They also think that stargazing is a waste of time since they would rather save energy for the following day's activities.

 

Our orchestra is definitely one of the top in the state, though I'm not too sure if our school is as well-known as some people make it out to be, haha. We rarely hold any outside competitions here (we usually travel to other schools). I think the orchestra will hold itself up the next few years. Our class has pretty solid sections--the sophomores and freshmen have some really good violinists and a prodigy cellist. I'm not too sure what's going to happen to our band, but I'm fairly certain that our flute section won't be as good after our class leaves (I think two of them were in the top two chairs since freshmen year). The horn section is probably the weakest section of them all (across all grades), but I don't have a good grasp of how good the overall band is since only a select few can play in the orchestra.

 

I haven't been to Universal Studios before, but my diehard Harry Potter friends absolutely loved it. In fact, I think they only traveled there because of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, haha. When I get to visit (which, hopefully, won't be too long from now, or maybe in a few years), I'll be able to experience the best of both worlds--the Wizarding World of Harry Potter and the Nintendo-themed section of the park. Oh damn, mobile games? I don't have any games on my phone (or at least not yet) because I'm well aware of how unproductive I'd end up, but geez. I don't think I'll be able to hold out very long if Nintendo is planning to release mobile games, haha. Dang, Nintendo knows what's up.

 

As much as I love my physics teacher, he rarely passes out notes or gives us anything to take notes on. I think it's his way of forcing us to learn on our own (aka preparing for the real world), but as you can imagine it's hard to keep up when you miss school (I got lost during the current and resistance unit because of APs). But it's very easy for people to approach him for help so it's not all too bad, haha. And on the topic of physics trips, we actually had our trip to Cedar Point yesterday, lol. I decided to opt out since I'd be skipping way too many days of school just in the month of May if I went (APs + regional tennis tournament + sister's graduation + state tennis tournament). I hope you'll have fun on your trip to Six Flags though!

 

Geez, you took Math II without a graphing calculator? I haven't taken a practice test yet but I can imagine that using a scientific calculator must have made things a bit more difficult. Well, maybe not since you've been accustomed to it, I suppose. I've been actively using my graphing calculator since pre-calc, but I've also used my TI-30X IIS enough to be able to alternate between the two calculators without a problem (sometimes I forget to switch between radians and degrees though, lol). Oh, so you had a tutor? My parents offered to get me one on occasions, but I don't think I'd be too comfortable in a 1v1 learning environment. I'd much rather be in a classroom environment or just a self-studying one. Plus, I'm not comfortable with my parents "observing" me. Still though, don't be so humble about your scores! 800s on your worst/least favorite subjects is pretty notable, haha. So Barron's, Princeton Review, and Kaplan? I had a bad experience with the Kaplan books while I was studying for AP Chem last year, so I think I'll just stick to Barron's and Princeton Review. Thanks for the suggestions! Also, I think I'll hit up on some SAT Chem books over the summer and take the test in October (I really regret not taking it last year and I have no idea why I decided not to). Worst comes to worst, I won't do as well, but I'll still have Bio M and Math II down. And if I feel the need to retake either or both of those (which I have a feeling that I might since I only have a little over two weeks to study, and during the school year at that), I can just take them along with Chem in October (we're allowed to take up to three tests in one day, right?). I'm beginning to change my mind about taking SAT I. I have a lot to do over the summer and I think that taking the ACT is sufficient enough. I might get around to it if I can make room for it though. Gosh, everything is so last minute, but I guess it can't be helped at this point. Sucks that my sophomore self didn't see this coming. Thank goodness for summer vacation. 

 

Tank tops and sleeveless shirts aren't allowed at our school either, but I guess the administration doesn't really care if they're uniforms for sports--I've never gotten yelled at for changing into my uniform after school, lol. Tons of girls wear shorts that don't go past their fingertips during the spring and no one cares. I guess that just means that the administration is just pretty laidback about dress code, haha. Most of my friends have already taken phys ed over the summer, so there's no concern about whether or not to wear running shoes during school. Is phys ed a required class for only seniors, or can it be taken by anyone in your school? Honestly, I couldn't care less about what people wear as long as it's sensible--people's attitude or personality can change depending on what they wear, from what I've noticed. Most of the girls around here aren't determined enough to regularly wear heels to school, though flip-flops and sandals are common occurrences. I don't mind changing shoes, to be honest. I'll wear my canvas shoes during the school day and switch to my tennis shoes before practices and matches. I used to wear my tennis shoes everyday during the season, but that was before I realized that doing so wore them down a lot quicker. One year is not too bad of a lifespan for shoes you wear everyday. I see you also like to wear classic colors? So do I, lol, though my tennis shoes are kinda flashy (mainly black and bright yellow--not necessarily neon). What I wear to school isn't top priority for me either. During the winter, I'd slap on a sweater, jump into my jeans, then head off to school; no two ways about it.

 

lol, Merths? That's... a nice, err... fitting way to put it, haha. I didn't realize that amiibos had reprints. Hmm, learn something new everyday. And I'm assuming that Saber, Archer, Assassin, and Gilgamesh are your favorite servants? Or were the amiibos split randomly? I've heard of Smash clubs in colleges, so I'm sure that you'll find someone to go against! In fact...

 

I don't think there's a scientific reason for being photogenic, haha. I've seen really extroverted people avoid cameras and certain introverted people photobomb for the lulz. I only learned to be photogenic after realizing that many people have slight narcissistic tendencies when it comes to photos. They'll only criticize their own appearances (even if they look perfectly fine), and everyone else is considered as background, lol.

 

Ahaha, my intention wasn't to make you feel bad at all. I guess that with everything Case has to offer, it'd be hard for me to turn them down if I were to be accepted. I visited a few colleges up in the Boston area after my sister's graduation though none of them were too imposing. Wellesley has one of the best campuses from what I heard, but it really wasn't all too impressive when I went there. I only visited for about an hour or two, so I guess it's a bit unfair to base my judgment off of only that brief trip, haha.

 

Hmm, if OoT is that great of a game, I just might pick up a copy myself. But if you don't consider it as the best game ever, what was your favorite game you've played so far? Admittedly, I haven't played as many games as my childhood self would have liked, so I'm sorta open to suggestions at the moment. Hmm, I'll have to agree that the old Pokemon games can't compete with the current ones. The X/Y graphics blew me away and it felt like a huge step up from B/W--and I thought the B/W graphics were already impressive, lol. Genwunners can disagree all they want, but the old games simply cannot compare with the current generation of games. Because of this, I'm a bit skeptical about your point that OoT "aged amazingly well." I'll have to verify that myself when I have the time then, haha. 

 

Actually, I could see myself doing something similar if I was in your predicament, lol. But maybe not to the extent where I'd sacrifice my sibling's lunch. That was really considerate of your brother to skip his lunch for your sake, so I hope you're planning on returning him the favor when you get the opportunity, haha. And to be frank, I don't find this weird at all. What you did was pretty resourceful of you, and it really showcased your persistence. I haven't bought lunch since middle school and even then, the money was stored on my ID card so I wouldn't be able to withdraw anything. If I was really desperate to bring a 3DS/2DS to college with me, I'd cash out my money from PayPal instead--and my parents would never find out as long as I could intercept the mail before them. But as I've said before, I'm a bit attached to the money I earned from YouTube so this would be a last-resort kinda thing. I would probably utilize a site like Swagbucks or obtain a job before resorting to my YouTube earnings. And congrats! I hope you'll be able to put that 2DS to good use when you head off to college! $3.25 is a pretty standard cost for lunch around here as well, but it seemed to work in your favor so that's good, haha. Oof, you still aren't familiar with X and Y's plot yet? Considering the nature of the internet, I'm rather surprised that you haven't been exposed to the plot--especially since it's been over a year since the games came out. In fact, I'm actually more impressed than I am surprised that you managed to keep yourself in the dark for so long, lol.

 

Commendable? Oh, not at all. It was my carelessness that caused me to be entangled in that mess in the first place. The only thing that could be considered "commendable" was my incredible luck in finding online help. I ended up donating to my helper because of how grateful I was--straight out of my PayPal (which should say a lot if you consider how attached I am to my earnings, haha).

 

A lot of my senior friends also had fun preparing for prom and seemed to have an even better time during the event. So I guess there really isn't much reason why I shouldn't go. I don't think I'll have a change in heart any time soon, but who knows!

 

Eyyyy, that bio final was hard af but at least there's going to be a huge curve (or so she says...). Ahaha, silly old me thought I was going to get a break after APs were over. Geezus, not even close. Hmm, since seniors get to leave school early, you shouldn't be so hard on yourself for these next few days! Seniors in our school leave for summer vacation next week so everyone is slacking off beyond belief. If your grades are where you want them, don't be afraid to "drop" a few projects if ya know what I mean, lol. We have a policy that seniors don't have to take the final exam if their grades are sitting at As (a few teachers may ignore this rule), so pretty much every senior is taking it easy and bs-ing their assignments in classes where they have solid grades. The last day of school for everyone else is June 12. Start the countdown, y'all.

 

Well, the summer reading list was online, and then it was taken down?? Gosh, I'm sorry about that. I'll have to fill you in when they decide to re-upload it. I'm assuming that they probably made a few changes to the list then. Oh, and thank you for offering your help, haha. My sister also had a common reading book she had to read before she headed off to college. I believe it was Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic. I managed to get my hands on her book while she wasn't looking (this was back in the summer after 7th grade, before she left for college). I never got to finish it, but the comic book format of the story was visually pleasing to me. Hmm, the book Case picked out for you guys sounds pretty interesting. And judging from the online book reviews, it seems to be a good read, haha.

 

Gah, I barely made it today. Only a minute till Thursday, ehehehe...............................

[Akazora 293]

I've decided to knock stats out of my schedule for now, unless I want to torture myself with five AP classes and seven AP tests next year (there's no way in hell I'm doing that, even though stats is considered one of the easier APs). I'm getting mixed feelings about Physics C as the end of the year draws closer, but hopefully I'll be able to settle any doubt by then. Thank you for your support, haha.

 

You've never eaten a high school lunch before? Not even once in your entire four years of high school? I don't eat school lunches anymore either, but when I forget to bring my lunch, I'll resort to buying something from school (only happens once in a blue moon though). Does that mean you starve yourself whenever (if ever) you forget to bring lunch from home? I don't want to believe that your stubbornness would carry you that far, so hopefully that's not the case, haha. Nah, I still think it's pretty commendable of you to commit to regular workout sets. Barely any of my friends hit up the gym (neither do I, lol), and I also have some pretty poor eating habits (been losing my appetite lately though). Ehh, there's no need to get worked up about the AP tests now. It's probably better to leave them behind now that everything's been said and done, ahahahaha... Mmm, I'm just glad that I finally got my APs over with. The only downside is that I missed a lot of school and have to play catch-up now. Sigh, at least my workload has lightened up a bit. 

 

I always loved the idea of stargazing, but I guess reading your essay helped make the experience feel a bit more meaningful--as corny as that may sound, eheheh... We also spent most of our nights in Yellowstone at a lodge since the campout was a one-time thing. I felt like I was going to freeze to death in that teepee, but it was still a fun experience nonetheless, haha. My attempt at stargazing in Yellowstone was short-lived, unfortunately. My parents didn't want to worry about me staying outside all night and my sister lost interest after a few minutes. They also think that stargazing is a waste of time since they would rather save energy for the following day's activities.

 

Our orchestra is definitely one of the top in the state, though I'm not too sure if our school is as well-known as some people make it out to be, haha. We rarely hold any outside competitions here (we usually travel to other schools). I think the orchestra will hold itself up the next few years. Our class has pretty solid sections--the sophomores and freshmen have some really good violinists and a prodigy cellist. I'm not too sure what's going to happen to our band, but I'm fairly certain that our flute section won't be as good after our class leaves (I think two of them were in the top two chairs since freshmen year). The horn section is probably the weakest section of them all (across all grades), but I don't have a good grasp of how good the overall band is since only a select few can play in the orchestra.

 

I haven't been to Universal Studios before, but my diehard Harry Potter friends absolutely loved it. In fact, I think they only traveled there because of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, haha. When I get to visit (which, hopefully, won't be too long from now, or maybe in a few years), I'll be able to experience the best of both worlds--the Wizarding World of Harry Potter and the Nintendo-themed section of the park. Oh damn, mobile games? I don't have any games on my phone (or at least not yet) because I'm well aware of how unproductive I'd end up, but geez. I don't think I'll be able to hold out very long if Nintendo is planning to release mobile games, haha. Dang, Nintendo knows what's up.

 

As much as I love my physics teacher, he rarely passes out notes or gives us anything to take notes on. I think it's his way of forcing us to learn on our own (aka preparing for the real world), but as you can imagine it's hard to keep up when you miss school (I got lost during the current and resistance unit because of APs). But it's very easy for people to approach him for help so it's not all too bad, haha. And on the topic of physics trips, we actually had our trip to Cedar Point yesterday, lol. I decided to opt out since I'd be skipping way too many days of school just in the month of May if I went (APs + regional tennis tournament + sister's graduation + state tennis tournament). I hope you'll have fun on your trip to Six Flags though!

 

Geez, you took Math II without a graphing calculator? I haven't taken a practice test yet but I can imagine that using a scientific calculator must have made things a bit more difficult. Well, maybe not since you've been accustomed to it, I suppose. I've been actively using my graphing calculator since pre-calc, but I've also used my TI-30X IIS enough to be able to alternate between the two calculators without a problem (sometimes I forget to switch between radians and degrees though, lol). Oh, so you had a tutor? My parents offered to get me one on occasions, but I don't think I'd be too comfortable in a 1v1 learning environment. I'd much rather be in a classroom environment or just a self-studying one. Plus, I'm not comfortable with my parents "observing" me. Still though, don't be so humble about your scores! 800s on your worst/least favorite subjects is pretty notable, haha. So Barron's, Princeton Review, and Kaplan? I had a bad experience with the Kaplan books while I was studying for AP Chem last year, so I think I'll just stick to Barron's and Princeton Review. Thanks for the suggestions! Also, I think I'll hit up on some SAT Chem books over the summer and take the test in October (I really regret not taking it last year and I have no idea why I decided not to). Worst comes to worst, I won't do as well, but I'll still have Bio M and Math II down. And if I feel the need to retake either or both of those (which I have a feeling that I might since I only have a little over two weeks to study, and during the school year at that), I can just take them along with Chem in October (we're allowed to take up to three tests in one day, right?). I'm beginning to change my mind about taking SAT I. I have a lot to do over the summer and I think that taking the ACT is sufficient enough. I might get around to it if I can make room for it though. Gosh, everything is so last minute, but I guess it can't be helped at this point. Sucks that my sophomore self didn't see this coming. Thank goodness for summer vacation. 

 

Tank tops and sleeveless shirts aren't allowed at our school either, but I guess the administration doesn't really care if they're uniforms for sports--I've never gotten yelled at for changing into my uniform after school, lol. Tons of girls wear shorts that don't go past their fingertips during the spring and no one cares. I guess that just means that the administration is just pretty laidback about dress code, haha. Most of my friends have already taken phys ed over the summer, so there's no concern about whether or not to wear running shoes during school. Is phys ed a required class for only seniors, or can it be taken by anyone in your school? Honestly, I couldn't care less about what people wear as long as it's sensible--people's attitude or personality can change depending on what they wear, from what I've noticed. Most of the girls around here aren't determined enough to regularly wear heels to school, though flip-flops and sandals are common occurrences. I don't mind changing shoes, to be honest. I'll wear my canvas shoes during the school day and switch to my tennis shoes before practices and matches. I used to wear my tennis shoes everyday during the season, but that was before I realized that doing so wore them down a lot quicker. One year is not too bad of a lifespan for shoes you wear everyday. I see you also like to wear classic colors? So do I, lol, though my tennis shoes are kinda flashy (mainly black and bright yellow--not necessarily neon). What I wear to school isn't top priority for me either. During the winter, I'd slap on a sweater, jump into my jeans, then head off to school; no two ways about it.

 

lol, Merths? That's... a nice, err... fitting way to put it, haha. I didn't realize that amiibos had reprints. Hmm, learn something new everyday. And I'm assuming that Saber, Archer, Assassin, and Gilgamesh are your favorite servants? Or were the amiibos split randomly? I've heard of Smash clubs in colleges, so I'm sure that you'll find someone to go against! In fact...

 

I don't think there's a scientific reason for being photogenic, haha. I've seen really extroverted people avoid cameras and certain introverted people photobomb for the lulz. I only learned to be photogenic after realizing that many people have slight narcissistic tendencies when it comes to photos. They'll only criticize their own appearances (even if they look perfectly fine), and everyone else is considered as background, lol.

 

Ahaha, my intention wasn't to make you feel bad at all. I guess that with everything Case has to offer, it'd be hard for me to turn them down if I were to be accepted. I visited a few colleges up in the Boston area after my sister's graduation though none of them were too imposing. Wellesley has one of the best campuses from what I heard, but it really wasn't all too impressive when I went there. I only visited for about an hour or two, so I guess it's a bit unfair to base my judgment off of only that brief trip, haha.

 

Hmm, if OoT is that great of a game, I just might pick up a copy myself. But if you don't consider it as the best game ever, what was your favorite game you've played so far? Admittedly, I haven't played as many games as my childhood self would have liked, so I'm sorta open to suggestions at the moment. Hmm, I'll have to agree that the old Pokemon games can't compete with the current ones. The X/Y graphics blew me away and it felt like a huge step up from B/W--and I thought the B/W graphics were already impressive, lol. Genwunners can disagree all they want, but the old games simply cannot compare with the current generation of games. Because of this, I'm a bit skeptical about your point that OoT "aged amazingly well." I'll have to verify that myself when I have the time then, haha. 

 

Actually, I could see myself doing something similar if I was in your predicament, lol. But maybe not to the extent where I'd sacrifice my sibling's lunch. That was really considerate of your brother to skip his lunch for your sake, so I hope you're planning on returning him the favor when you get the opportunity, haha. And to be frank, I don't find this weird at all. What you did was pretty resourceful of you, and it really showcased your persistence. I haven't bought lunch since middle school and even then, the money was stored on my ID card so I wouldn't be able to withdraw anything. If I was really desperate to bring a 3DS/2DS to college with me, I'd cash out my money from PayPal instead--and my parents would never find out as long as I could intercept the mail before them. But as I've said before, I'm a bit attached to the money I earned from YouTube so this would be a last-resort kinda thing. I would probably utilize a site like Swagbucks or obtain a job before resorting to my YouTube earnings. And congrats! I hope you'll be able to put that 2DS to good use when you head off to college! $3.25 is a pretty standard cost for lunch around here as well, but it seemed to work in your favor so that's good, haha. Oof, you still aren't familiar with X and Y's plot yet? Considering the nature of the internet, I'm rather surprised that you haven't been exposed to the plot--especially since it's been over a year since the games came out. In fact, I'm actually more impressed than I am surprised that you managed to keep yourself in the dark for so long, lol.

 

Commendable? Oh, not at all. It was my carelessness that caused me to be entangled in that mess in the first place. The only thing that could be considered "commendable" was my incredible luck in finding online help. I ended up donating to my helper because of how grateful I was--straight out of my PayPal (which should say a lot if you consider how attached I am to my earnings, haha).

 

A lot of my senior friends also had fun preparing for prom and seemed to have an even better time during the event. So I guess there really isn't much reason why I shouldn't go. I don't think I'll have a change in heart any time soon, but who knows!

 

Eyyyy, that bio final was hard af but at least there's going to be a huge curve (or so she says...). Ahaha, silly old me thought I was going to get a break after APs were over. Geezus, not even close. Hmm, since seniors get to leave school early, you shouldn't be so hard on yourself for these next few days! Seniors in our school leave for summer vacation next week so everyone is slacking off beyond belief. If your grades are where you want them, don't be afraid to "drop" a few projects if ya know what I mean, lol. We have a policy that seniors don't have to take the final exam if their grades are sitting at As (a few teachers may ignore this rule), so pretty much every senior is taking it easy and bs-ing their assignments in classes where they have solid grades. The last day of school for everyone else is June 12. Start the countdown, y'all.

 

Well, the summer reading list was online, and then it was taken down?? Gosh, I'm sorry about that. I'll have to fill you in when they decide to re-upload it. I'm assuming that they probably made a few changes to the list then. Oh, and thank you for offering your help, haha. My sister also had a common reading book she had to read before she headed off to college. I believe it was Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic. I managed to get my hands on her book while she wasn't looking (this was back in the summer after 7th grade, before she left for college). I never got to finish it, but the comic book format of the story was visually pleasing to me. Hmm, the book Case picked out for you guys sounds pretty interesting. And judging from the online book reviews, it seems to be a good read, haha.

 

Gah, I barely made it today. Only a minute till Thursday, ehehehe...............................

Ahh, unfortunately it seems you might have misinterpreted what I meant by not eating school lunch.  The thing is, I don’t eat lunch in school.  At all.  I don’t bring lunch and only run on breakfast and dinner with the occasional snack in between, once I’m home. I know you’re probably going to reprimand me for this and say that it’s important to eat three full meals a day and that lunch helps you concentrate during school and all that, but it’s really not that bad.  I’ve gotten used to it, and I don’t feel that lunch is necessary, at least for my lifestyle.  I don’t think I’m starving myself at all, since I’m never really hungry until around four in the afternoon anyway.  However, from the way you worded your response, I can tell you’re worried about me potentially starving myself, and while I assure you that is not the case, I also appreciate your concern, haha.  I just didn’t really feel that my quick workout sessions were all that impressive because around school I always see a significant number of guys who are buffer than I am, eheh.  From what I’ve gathered, they put significantly more work and effort into staying fit.  But thanks anyway, for thinking it’s commendable.

 

Nah, I don’t think that’s corny at all.  Admittedly, I’ve also felt the same about certain things.  I’d heard great things about Steins;Gate for the longest time, but I’d continually put it off until you recommended it, ahah.  Oh yeah, the nights there definitely got surprisingly cold.  But still, thinking back on it brings back really great memories.  I hope I find the time to visit Yellowstone again.  And of course, if I ever get around to visiting Cali I’d want more than anything to visit Yosemite.  It’s also a great place for stargazing, and I’m just drooling over these Google Images, haha. I hope I manage to find the time even with college and all.

 

Oohh, a prodigy cellist, huh?  That’s pretty awesome.  When I was a freshman, there were two senior saxophonists who were pretty close to prodigies.  I don’t really know what would technically qualify as a “prodigy”, but at the very least they were both crazy talented.  Ever since they were freshman, they were apparently both neck and neck vying for the top alto sax spot in the all-state band of all things.  They crushed the competition everywhere.  As a senior, one of the guys looked at the regional tenor sax piece for the first time the night before tryouts and tried out the next morning for fun (his main instrument is alto sax), getting first overall.  Heh, looking back on it they were both such jokers, hahah.  The French horn is an exceedingly difficult instrument to play.  Horn is what my brother plays, and he says the fact that professional hornists commonly crack notes is evident of just how much work is required to wield the instrument.  Because of that, it’s one of the weakest sections in my band as well, and I can imagine it’s the same story in most schools.

 

Ehhh??  You really haven’t visited Universal Studios before?  Hm, admittedly it’s overall a bit weaker than Disney World and is something you can experience in its entirety in about one to two days, but it provides more “thrills” if that’s what you’re looking for.  Couple of interestingly gimmicky rollercoasters and the like.  I don’t blame your friends for only going because of the Harry Potter World; it’s the newest part of the park and it’s really well made.  I remember the first time I visited Universal a long time ago, they were still in the process of making it, and there was just this really awkward bridge between the rest of the park and the Dueling Dragons rollercoaster (soon to be Potterfied into Dragon Challenge).  They put up tall fences and covered them with drapes to hide the unsightly construction.  My sister found a few loose spots where you could see a literal sliver of what was being made, but back then it was just a bunch of dirt and grime with the loose framework of some buildings.  They hadn’t announced the Wizarding World of Harry Potter yet, so it was all a big mystery.  When I came back after the completion of the addition, I couldn’t believe how wonderfully they had crafted Hogsmeade from the nothing I had seen just a few years back.  I’d like to visit again, since just last year they opening a new expansion in the form of Diagon Alley and a new ride.  I’m no diehard fan, but I think they were selling wands there, which in reality were nothing more than just well-crafted sticks.  Still, there were pretty important in the books and movies, being all “personalized” and everything, so I guess I can imagine the excitement behind getting one of your very own.  It was really legit; there was a waiting line and everything, like it was a ride, and the shopkeeper made a really big flashy deal about going through the towering shelves to find the perfect match, just like in the books.  It was probably crazy expensive though.  Ahh, I don’t mean to ramble.  Honest, I’m no diehard fan of Harry Potter and haven’t read or watch it in years, but I can’t get over how well made Harry Potter World was.  You definitely should check it out, if only for the experience.  I’m just hoping Universal does Nintendo justice.  And yeah, mobile games.  Phew, when I officially own a phone in college, I guess I’ll be using it for more than just calling.  I wish there was a release window for the games (maybe there was one, but I can’t remember when it was), since I’m fairly certain it was announced that they wouldn’t be addressing their plans for mobile games at E3. 

 

Aww, it’s too bad that you missed out on a trip to Cedar Point!  I don’t know much about it, but from what I’ve looked up it seems like a trip there would have been a lot of fun.  In fact, the Top Thrill Dragster looks a lot like Great Adventure’s Kingda Ka.  After a bit of research, I’ve found that the two coasters were built by the same manufacturer, Intamin, with TTD the older of the two.  It used to be the tallest coaster in the world before Kingda Ka topped it in 2005.  The two coasters are the only two strata coasters in the world (coasters that reach a height of at least 400 ft and make a complete circuit) and they both utilize the accelerator design.  Huh, the more you know…  Speaking of Kingda Ka, I rode it for the first time yesterday.  It was actually quite the experience, and I recommend going on it if you’re ever hanging around Jersey.  Though it’s the tallest rollercoaster in the world, the view wasn’t that great.  In classic amusement park fashion, once you reach the peak of the “top hat”, you’re greeted by the welcoming sight of parking lots and trees.  Not to mention, you only have a second or two to take everything in before you’re sent back down.  What was impressive was the speed.  The advertised 128 mph in 3.5 seconds was intense, to say the least.  By the time you hit the first leg of the top hat, the train is shaking so violently you’re afraid the whole thing is going to rip itself apart and you’re going to make the evening news.  It sure doesn’t look that rocky from a distance, but the turbulence is definitely something to be respected, haha.  It lost its fastest rollercoaster in the world title to Formula Rossa in Abu Dhabi, also made by Intamin, those crazy record breakers.  Apparently that rides hit 240 kmph (just over 149 mph), so I guess if I want those 21 extra mph, I’ll have to get my hands on tickets to the UAE.  As for the rest of Six Flags, I guess it was pretty decent.  I’ve been there plenty of times already, so the whole park actually kind of tired me out.  It was a really sunny day (not hot, just sunny) so I left with rather tanned arms and neck, bleh.  Should have applied that sunscreen.  I’m actually getting a bit tired with the park.  I don’t mean to say Great Adventures is bad, because it’s a great amusement park.  I guess I’m just bored of the rides?  Heh, I don’t mean to come off as some kind of adrenaline junkie, because I’m not (I’m the type of person who keeps a straight face on any and all types of coasters, even Kingada Ka).  I’m only human and I guess the rides are just predictable now.  They’re all unique in their own way (Kingda Ka for its height and speed, Superman for its people-angled-parallel-to-the-track gimmick, Green Lantern for its stand-up gimmick, Batman for its intense g-forces, El Toro for its former fastest wooden coaster title, etc.) so it’s not that variety is an issue.  Huh, I hope there are some pretty decent amusement parks near Cleveland.  Funnily enough, Case is only about an hour away from Cedar Point.  Have you ever been to Cedar Point before?  In fact, I should have asked earlier, did you ever go to Six Flags Great Adventure before you moved?

 

Before this amusement/theme park conversation gets us any further off track (ohohohohoh!)…  The Math II test wasn’t too difficult without a graphing calculator.  There may have been a few questions here or there that could have been done quicker with one, but it wasn’t worth the time lost with other questions I’d be able to do faster on my scientific.  I worked like a slug with my graphing calculator before calc, haha.  I was fumbling with the menus and the graphs and everything, it’s kind of embarrassing.  The tutor I had was less of a tutor and more of a person there to make sure I studied regularly.  He didn’t really teach me anything particularly new, just made sure I was on top of my game with practice tests and consistency.  He was a pretty chill guy, so it wasn’t very intimidating.  But I know how you feel; if the decision was up to me I’d much rather not have a tutor at all.  Hrm, may I ask why you have a grudge against Kaplan?  I feel that make decent practice tests at the very least.  Oh gosh, so now you’re going to try and tackle the Chem test as well?  Your determination and goal setting surprises me with each passing week, hahah.  I can’t help you with that at all, since I’m godawful at chem.  I only got by with decent grades because my chem teacher was nice and kind of gave out free points.  Good luck studying for that when summer rolls around!  And yes, you can take up to three SAT IIs at a time, though I’ve never personally tried.  I can imagine it would be kind of rough, like taking two APs in one day, though maybe not that intense.  If you don’t take the SAT I again, I guess it wouldn’t be too big of a deal.  I know you’re not particularly proud of your score, but the ACT will definitely balance that out.  Ahah, yeah, most people procrastinate quite a bit on SAT IIs; there’s no need to beat yourself over it.  Standardized tests are only a portion of the admissions process, and you have a very strong record from what I’ve gathered.  I’m also confident you’ll be able to write outstanding college essays when that times comes.  I’d love to help out with those if you need the assistance, since essays are more in my ballpark.  Since you’re going to be having a rough couple of days in the coming weeks, I recommend you not push yourself.  Feel free to take a break from this conversation.  In fact, I have half a mind to tell you outright not to respond until your workload has somewhat lessened, but I feel like that might fall on deaf ears and you might just stubbornly reply this Wednesday as always, hahahah.  In the end, I guess it’s up to you to decide how you want to spend your time, but just know that I wouldn’t mind not hearing from you for a little while, if it meant you had more time to worry about school and tests.  You’ve been on DCW even less than you were a month ago, so it’s apparent you’re pressed for time.

 

Bleh, gym is just a required four-year class for everyone that isn’t exempt because of health or is a prodigy at a sport.  (Speaking of prodigies, the really talented Columbia-bound swimmer I mentioned earlier is planning on trying out for the United States Olympic Swimming Team after he trains for it.  By gods, what a monster.  If he makes it big, I’ll tell you his name and we can look for him on television.  Hmmm, maybe I should ask for an autograph in advance…)  You’re required to take gym every year in high school, as well as health, and there’s no way to earn credit during the summer.  Yeaaah, the situation kind of sucks.  I’ve only had to change shoes because of projects and presentations when the teacher asks you to dress up all fancy like.  Those days are the worst, since you’re expected to wear long black socks paired with dress shoes.  The main issues that arise are remembering to bring along my sneakers to school with me that one particular day and dealing with the oddity that is pairing long socks with sneakers and shorts during gym.  I just roll them down, but it makes my ankles look kinda off balance as you can imagine.  Girls have it easier, since long socks aren’t a requirement with many formal outfits.  You should feel rather lucky to not have phys ed a required year long course; there are definitely consequences you might not think about too often (and that doesn’t even begin to address the lack of A/C in our school).  Anyway, what do you mean by “people's attitude or personality can change depending on what they wear”?  Yeah, I wear pretty standard colors, only because I’ve found those are good for pretty much any outfit. They work with jeans, which are the most important aspect, and they don’t stand out too much.  Bright, flashy shoes probably wouldn’t work with anything in my wardrobe, not even my quirky graphic tees.

 

Hmm, the amiibo were split between my brother and me for varying reasons, Servant preference actually not being a particularly big reason, believe it or not.  I received Saber and Assassin, only because I kind of main Lucina (still haven’t actually settled on a true main yet) and because my brother was disillusioned by Marth’s nerfed sword length, so I was best suited to train the two up to their fullest potential.  Even though Saber is the face of Fate, I don’t like her particularly more than most other Servants.  I actually think I like Assassin a bit more, in UBW at least.  I feel like he’s an underrated and sometimes forgotten Servant, with fabulous hair, and a voice that really brings out his poetic jests.  I think Archer’s a pretty cool Servant, as he gets the majority of his screen time and development in UBW of course, but I actually claimed him because my brother dislikes both Pits.  He has trouble using them, as his type of characters are Sheik and Ganondorf; the hands-on, physical characters.  I’m not especially good with the Pits yet, but I’m slowly and surely working on them.  Thankfully, I prefer Dark Pit to Pit, haha.  I was only designated as the Link trainer because by the time we had both realized Gilgamesh played more than just a stationary role in F/sn, we had already split the amiibo between ourselves, me with three and my brother with four.  By default, I guess I ended up with Gilgamesh.  My brother absolutely loves using Ganon, and he also likes Sheik a good amount, so Berserker and Rider were his without much debate.  I let him have Lancer, since I felt that he’s a better Ike player than I am, haha.  I’m almost beginning to regret that, since Lancer is pretty awesome in UBW.  Palutena was a character in limbo, since neither of us played her much and we both didn’t feel too strongly about Caster either way.  My brother decided to take her, since the only other Kid Icarus character was going to me and he didn’t want any one person to claim every character from a specific franchise.  Ahh, it’s good to hear there’s a Smash community in Case!  It’s probably still small and definitely not as big as the fanbase in Rutgers (APEX, one of the biggest video game tourneys that brings in some of the biggest names in Smash from all across the globe is hosted in Rutgers University), but it’s good to know it’s there, haha.

 

So your sister just graduated then, hm?  Brandeis is a really small school, so hopefully the ceremony didn’t drag on for too long.  Dartmouth isn't so big either, so I guess my sister’s graduation was relatively painless.  I can’t even begin to imagine how large public schools handle graduation day.  Did a prominent figure give a speech there?  At my sister’s graduation, Conan O’Brien gave the commencement speech (which you can see here if you're interested), and it was pretty cool to see him live. He was standing really far away, but it was neat anyway.  Wellesley is a pretty highly ranked liberal arts school, though its acceptance rate is relatively high for its rank, probably because it’s an all-women’s school.  Did you visit any of the other schools around the Boston area?

 

I don’t really have a favorite video game, haha.  The Pokemon series and Smash series have undoubtedly influenced me the most, though other titles definitely deserve attention.  You know I really love the Ace Attorney series, so when you have more time next year that’s one you should definitely check out.  I’ve mentioned this a few times elsewhere before, but the Zero Escape series is fantastic.  The first game, 999, is on the DS and the second game, Virtue’s Last Reward, is on the 3DS.  A third game was planned but then canceled due to lack of funds (it’s an underground series after all).  They’re probably the closest you’re going to get to a traditional visual novel on a Nintendo console, since Ace Attorney is a very unorthodox VN with no real bad ends.  Zero Escape games don’t have three distinct routes like F/sn, but they have a lot of bad ends for sure.  999 has five bad ends and one true end.  VLR apparently has 26 endings, though since I haven’t played the game yet don’t know how many are bad ends and how many are good/true ends.  I can attest that 999 is incredible and needs to be played, and it’s something I’d recommend over Ace Attorney even.  At the very least, Zero Escape and AA are two great series that are amazing for their own specific reasons.  If you find yourself with free time after or during senior year, before you jump on all the new games that are sure to have come out by then, I’d recommend you first finish AA and Zero Escape.  You haven’t played a VN yet from what I can gather, so it’ll at least be a new experience.

 

Ah well, I guess thanks if you think my 2DS fiasco showed I was resourceful.  I do plan on repaying my brother some way in the future.  Actually my brother was the first to realize we could “cheat the system” the way we did, and he bought himself his own 2DS first (the Red Crystal version), haha.  New gens are always really exciting, and since X and Y were given a simultaneous release worldwide I thought it would be my first chance to experience a region before all the Japanese magazine mumbo jumbo that always used to come first.  Of course, when I realized I didn’t have the time to keep up with the rest of the world, I decided that it would be best to cut all ties with the new gen until after high school.  I guess it’s worked well, haha.  It’s not nearly as difficult as you think though.  I just had to distract myself with other stuff.  It was during this time that I began watching anime more than ever, and it was also the time I used to dive into Ace Attorney and 999.  I used the little 3DS time I had to play OoT and finish Awakening instead of Pokemon.  There was just so much other great stuff I kept my mind occupied with that I’ve never had an itching to Google or YouTube anything related to Kalos.  Likewise, I’ve kept nearly all of the changes to Hoenn in ORAS a secret, since it’s the region whose trainers, quotes, and item locations I know better than other.  I want to test my memory and discover the discreet changes all myself, haha.

 

Whhhhaaaaaaa??  Seniors leave school early?!?  And next week no less????!!  And your school ends on June 12th?!??!?/?!?!1/??!!1!!!1?  …………………………… Even to the very end, my high school finds ways to disappoint me.  Thanks Edison Township, when I told you to do your worst, I didn’t expect you to… oh gosh, I was prepared for trouble but not for this!  Seniors don’t get any privilege when it comes to school ending.  We need to attend until the very end, which is June 17th for us.  You’re going to be out of school before I will, and my summer break is going to feel shortened because I’ll be heading off to Cleveland mid-August *sobs*  Oh the humanity!!  We’re allowed to skip finals if our grades are good, but all my grades have been dancing around the B+/A- range (save for phys ed of course) so I don’t qualify, bleh.  And the only class that’s still giving me projects and reports and massive write-ups is the only class I’m doing poorly in: physics.  Our Six Flags packet was gigantic: 72 total pages, from which we choose 5 rides to solve problems about, which adds up to about 10 pages of work, front and back, both short answer and open ended.  That’s all due Wednesday, which is also the same time another physics project and write-up are due, which was assigned the day before the trip on Thursday.  I… this… this sucks.  Goddamn, it’s like all my luck has run dry after over a year of really amazing happenings.  What a terrible way to end an overall sour high school career.  Oh well, it’s only four years of my youth, right?  Right??  *sobs harder*  Screw it, if college isn’t better, I’m going to lose it.  High school has made me hate the American education system more than I should, and I’m just hoping Case blows my expectations out of the water (not that they’re very high to start).  With time perception and all, my patience is running thin, that’s for sure.  Sigh, I don’t mean to rant.  Your school life is probably worse off than mine in some aspects, and you maybe don’t want to hear me complain, but I felt that I need to let loose if only a little bit.  Ah well, I’ll take senior skip day off (it’s this coming Tuesday, right after Memorial Day) so at least I’ll have more time to relax, I mean, er, work on my projects.  I do have a few more unused unexcused absence days I can use to knock some school days off of my schedule, so I guess I’ll do that.

 

I’d guess they are indeed updating the list.  Or maybe when they put the list up all the local bookstores immediately began selling out of listed books as Troy highschoolers rushed to order their copy and in a frantic attempt to prevent customers from losing it over out-of-sock merchandise, the bookstores petitioned to your high school to remove the summer reading list from the website until the publishing companies could print more copies.  Excuse me, this amiibo situation has me on edge.  Hrm, Fun Home sounds interesting.  Oh, speaking of Case, I got my roommate assignment.  He’s a Korean guy from this really nice looking Georgia town.  When I have the time, maybe after school ends, I’ll reach out to him since I have his e-mail address.  It would probably be best to get to know my roommate before I move in after all.

 

Don’t sweat it, I’ve posted my own responses at the last second as well, sometimes a bit sloppily and with corners cut, hahah. 

[Kenzi 146]

 

Ahh, unfortunately it seems you might have misinterpreted what I meant by not eating school lunch.  The thing is, I don’t eat lunch in school.  At all.  I don’t bring lunch and only run on breakfast and dinner with the occasional snack in between, once I’m home. I know you’re probably going to reprimand me for this and say that it’s important to eat three full meals a day and that lunch helps you concentrate during school and all that, but it’s really not that bad.  I’ve gotten used to it, and I don’t feel that lunch is necessary, at least for my lifestyle.  I don’t think I’m starving myself at all, since I’m never really hungry until around four in the afternoon anyway.  However, from the way you worded your response, I can tell you’re worried about me potentially starving myself, and while I assure you that is not the case, I also appreciate your concern, haha.  I just didn’t really feel that my quick workout sessions were all that impressive because around school I always see a significant number of guys who are buffer than I am, eheh.  From what I’ve gathered, they put significantly more work and effort into staying fit.  But thanks anyway, for thinking it’s commendable.

 

Nah, I don’t think that’s corny at all.  Admittedly, I’ve also felt the same about certain things.  I’d heard great things about Steins;Gate for the longest time, but I’d continually put it off until you recommended it, ahah.  Oh yeah, the nights there definitely got surprisingly cold.  But still, thinking back on it brings back really great memories.  I hope I find the time to visit Yellowstone again.  And of course, if I ever get around to visiting Cali I’d want more than anything to visit Yosemite.  It’s also a great place for stargazing, and I’m just drooling over these Google Images, haha. I hope I manage to find the time even with college and all.

 

Oohh, a prodigy cellist, huh?  That’s pretty awesome.  When I was a freshman, there were two senior saxophonists who were pretty close to prodigies.  I don’t really know what would technically qualify as a “prodigy”, but at the very least they were both crazy talented.  Ever since they were freshman, they were apparently both neck and neck vying for the top alto sax spot in the all-state band of all things.  They crushed the competition everywhere.  As a senior, one of the guys looked at the regional tenor sax piece for the first time the night before tryouts and tried out the next morning for fun (his main instrument is alto sax), getting first overall.  Heh, looking back on it they were both such jokers, hahah.  The French horn is an exceedingly difficult instrument to play.  Horn is what my brother plays, and he says the fact that professional hornists commonly crack notes is evident of just how much work is required to wield the instrument.  Because of that, it’s one of the weakest sections in my band as well, and I can imagine it’s the same story in most schools.

 

Ehhh??  You really haven’t visited Universal Studios before?  Hm, admittedly it’s overall a bit weaker than Disney World and is something you can experience in its entirety in about one to two days, but it provides more “thrills” if that’s what you’re looking for.  Couple of interestingly gimmicky rollercoasters and the like.  I don’t blame your friends for only going because of the Harry Potter World; it’s the newest part of the park and it’s really well made.  I remember the first time I visited Universal a long time ago, they were still in the process of making it, and there was just this really awkward bridge between the rest of the park and the Dueling Dragons rollercoaster (soon to be Potterfied into Dragon Challenge).  They put up tall fences and covered them with drapes to hide the unsightly construction.  My sister found a few loose spots where you could see a literal sliver of what was being made, but back then it was just a bunch of dirt and grime with the loose framework of some buildings.  They hadn’t announced the Wizarding World of Harry Potter yet, so it was all a big mystery.  When I came back after the completion of the addition, I couldn’t believe how wonderfully they had crafted Hogsmeade from the nothing I had seen just a few years back.  I’d like to visit again, since just last year they opening a new expansion in the form of Diagon Alley and a new ride.  I’m no diehard fan, but I think they were selling wands there, which in reality were nothing more than just well-crafted sticks.  Still, there were pretty important in the books and movies, being all “personalized” and everything, so I guess I can imagine the excitement behind getting one of your very own.  It was really legit; there was a waiting line and everything, like it was a ride, and the shopkeeper made a really big flashy deal about going through the towering shelves to find the perfect match, just like in the books.  It was probably crazy expensive though.  Ahh, I don’t mean to ramble.  Honest, I’m no diehard fan of Harry Potter and haven’t read or watch it in years, but I can’t get over how well made Harry Potter World was.  You definitely should check it out, if only for the experience.  I’m just hoping Universal does Nintendo justice.  And yeah, mobile games.  Phew, when I officially own a phone in college, I guess I’ll be using it for more than just calling.  I wish there was a release window for the games (maybe there was one, but I can’t remember when it was), since I’m fairly certain it was announced that they wouldn’t be addressing their plans for mobile games at E3. 

 

Aww, it’s too bad that you missed out on a trip to Cedar Point!  I don’t know much about it, but from what I’ve looked up it seems like a trip there would have been a lot of fun.  In fact, the Top Thrill Dragster looks a lot like Great Adventure’s Kingda Ka.  After a bit of research, I’ve found that the two coasters were built by the same manufacturer, Intamin, with TTD the older of the two.  It used to be the tallest coaster in the world before Kingda Ka topped it in 2005.  The two coasters are the only two strata coasters in the world (coasters that reach a height of at least 400 ft and make a complete circuit) and they both utilize the accelerator design.  Huh, the more you know…  Speaking of Kingda Ka, I rode it for the first time yesterday.  It was actually quite the experience, and I recommend going on it if you’re ever hanging around Jersey.  Though it’s the tallest rollercoaster in the world, the view wasn’t that great.  In classic amusement park fashion, once you reach the peak of the “top hat”, you’re greeted by the welcoming sight of parking lots and trees.  Not to mention, you only have a second or two to take everything in before you’re sent back down.  What was impressive was the speed.  The advertised 128 mph in 3.5 seconds was intense, to say the least.  By the time you hit the first leg of the top hat, the train is shaking so violently you’re afraid the whole thing is going to rip itself apart and you’re going to make the evening news.  It sure doesn’t look that rocky from a distance, but the turbulence is definitely something to be respected, haha.  It lost its fastest rollercoaster in the world title to Formula Rossa in Abu Dhabi, also made by Intamin, those crazy record breakers.  Apparently that rides hit 240 kmph (just over 149 mph), so I guess if I want those 21 extra mph, I’ll have to get my hands on tickets to the UAE.  As for the rest of Six Flags, I guess it was pretty decent.  I’ve been there plenty of times already, so the whole park actually kind of tired me out.  It was a really sunny day (not hot, just sunny) so I left with rather tanned arms and neck, bleh.  Should have applied that sunscreen.  I’m actually getting a bit tired with the park.  I don’t mean to say Great Adventures is bad, because it’s a great amusement park.  I guess I’m just bored of the rides?  Heh, I don’t mean to come off as some kind of adrenaline junkie, because I’m not (I’m the type of person who keeps a straight face on any and all types of coasters, even Kingada Ka).  I’m only human and I guess the rides are just predictable now.  They’re all unique in their own way (Kingda Ka for its height and speed, Superman for its people-angled-parallel-to-the-track gimmick, Green Lantern for its stand-up gimmick, Batman for its intense g-forces, El Toro for its former fastest wooden coaster title, etc.) so it’s not that variety is an issue.  Huh, I hope there are some pretty decent amusement parks near Cleveland.  Funnily enough, Case is only about an hour away from Cedar Point.  Have you ever been to Cedar Point before?  In fact, I should have asked earlier, did you ever go to Six Flags Great Adventure before you moved?

 

Before this amusement/theme park conversation gets us any further off track (ohohohohoh!)…  The Math II test wasn’t too difficult without a graphing calculator.  There may have been a few questions here or there that could have been done quicker with one, but it wasn’t worth the time lost with other questions I’d be able to do faster on my scientific.  I worked like a slug with my graphing calculator before calc, haha.  I was fumbling with the menus and the graphs and everything, it’s kind of embarrassing.  The tutor I had was less of a tutor and more of a person there to make sure I studied regularly.  He didn’t really teach me anything particularly new, just made sure I was on top of my game with practice tests and consistency.  He was a pretty chill guy, so it wasn’t very intimidating.  But I know how you feel; if the decision was up to me I’d much rather not have a tutor at all.  Hrm, may I ask why you have a grudge against Kaplan?  I feel that make decent practice tests at the very least.  Oh gosh, so now you’re going to try and tackle the Chem test as well?  Your determination and goal setting surprises me with each passing week, hahah.  I can’t help you with that at all, since I’m godawful at chem.  I only got by with decent grades because my chem teacher was nice and kind of gave out free points.  Good luck studying for that when summer rolls around!  And yes, you can take up to three SAT IIs at a time, though I’ve never personally tried.  I can imagine it would be kind of rough, like taking two APs in one day, though maybe not that intense.  If you don’t take the SAT I again, I guess it wouldn’t be too big of a deal.  I know you’re not particularly proud of your score, but the ACT will definitely balance that out.  Ahah, yeah, most people procrastinate quite a bit on SAT IIs; there’s no need to beat yourself over it.  Standardized tests are only a portion of the admissions process, and you have a very strong record from what I’ve gathered.  I’m also confident you’ll be able to write outstanding college essays when that times comes.  I’d love to help out with those if you need the assistance, since essays are more in my ballpark.  Since you’re going to be having a rough couple of days in the coming weeks, I recommend you not push yourself.  Feel free to take a break from this conversation.  In fact, I have half a mind to tell you outright not to respond until your workload has somewhat lessened, but I feel like that might fall on deaf ears and you might just stubbornly reply this Wednesday as always, hahahah.  In the end, I guess it’s up to you to decide how you want to spend your time, but just know that I wouldn’t mind not hearing from you for a little while, if it meant you had more time to worry about school and tests.  You’ve been on DCW even less than you were a month ago, so it’s apparent you’re pressed for time.

 

Bleh, gym is just a required four-year class for everyone that isn’t exempt because of health or is a prodigy at a sport.  (Speaking of prodigies, the really talented Columbia-bound swimmer I mentioned earlier is planning on trying out for the United States Olympic Swimming Team after he trains for it.  By gods, what a monster.  If he makes it big, I’ll tell you his name and we can look for him on television.  Hmmm, maybe I should ask for an autograph in advance…)  You’re required to take gym every year in high school, as well as health, and there’s no way to earn credit during the summer.  Yeaaah, the situation kind of sucks.  I’ve only had to change shoes because of projects and presentations when the teacher asks you to dress up all fancy like.  Those days are the worst, since you’re expected to wear long black socks paired with dress shoes.  The main issues that arise are remembering to bring along my sneakers to school with me that one particular day and dealing with the oddity that is pairing long socks with sneakers and shorts during gym.  I just roll them down, but it makes my ankles look kinda off balance as you can imagine.  Girls have it easier, since long socks aren’t a requirement with many formal outfits.  You should feel rather lucky to not have phys ed a required year long course; there are definitely consequences you might not think about too often (and that doesn’t even begin to address the lack of A/C in our school).  Anyway, what do you mean by “people's attitude or personality can change depending on what they wear”?  Yeah, I wear pretty standard colors, only because I’ve found those are good for pretty much any outfit. They work with jeans, which are the most important aspect, and they don’t stand out too much.  Bright, flashy shoes probably wouldn’t work with anything in my wardrobe, not even my quirky graphic tees.

 

Hmm, the amiibo were split between my brother and me for varying reasons, Servant preference actually not being a particularly big reason, believe it or not.  I received Saber and Assassin, only because I kind of main Lucina (still haven’t actually settled on a true main yet) and because my brother was disillusioned by Marth’s nerfed sword length, so I was best suited to train the two up to their fullest potential.  Even though Saber is the face of Fate, I don’t like her particularly more than most other Servants.  I actually think I like Assassin a bit more, in UBW at least.  I feel like he’s an underrated and sometimes forgotten Servant, with fabulous hair, and a voice that really brings out his poetic jests.  I think Archer’s a pretty cool Servant, as he gets the majority of his screen time and development in UBW of course, but I actually claimed him because my brother dislikes both Pits.  He has trouble using them, as his type of characters are Sheik and Ganondorf; the hands-on, physical characters.  I’m not especially good with the Pits yet, but I’m slowly and surely working on them.  Thankfully, I prefer Dark Pit to Pit, haha.  I was only designated as the Link trainer because by the time we had both realized Gilgamesh played more than just a stationary role in F/sn, we had already split the amiibo between ourselves, me with three and my brother with four.  By default, I guess I ended up with Gilgamesh.  My brother absolutely loves using Ganon, and he also likes Sheik a good amount, so Berserker and Rider were his without much debate.  I let him have Lancer, since I felt that he’s a better Ike player than I am, haha.  I’m almost beginning to regret that, since Lancer is pretty awesome in UBW.  Palutena was a character in limbo, since neither of us played her much and we both didn’t feel too strongly about Caster either way.  My brother decided to take her, since the only other Kid Icarus character was going to me and he didn’t want any one person to claim every character from a specific franchise.  Ahh, it’s good to hear there’s a Smash community in Case!  It’s probably still small and definitely not as big as the fanbase in Rutgers (APEX, one of the biggest video game tourneys that brings in some of the biggest names in Smash from all across the globe is hosted in Rutgers University), but it’s good to know it’s there, haha.

 

So your sister just graduated then, hm?  Brandeis is a really small school, so hopefully the ceremony didn’t drag on for too long.  Dartmouth isn't so big either, so I guess my sister’s graduation was relatively painless.  I can’t even begin to imagine how large public schools handle graduation day.  Did a prominent figure give a speech there?  At my sister’s graduation, Conan O’Brien gave the commencement speech (which you can see here if you're interested), and it was pretty cool to see him live. He was standing really far away, but it was neat anyway.  Wellesley is a pretty highly ranked liberal arts school, though its acceptance rate is relatively high for its rank, probably because it’s an all-women’s school.  Did you visit any of the other schools around the Boston area?

 

I don’t really have a favorite video game, haha.  The Pokemon series and Smash series have undoubtedly influenced me the most, though other titles definitely deserve attention.  You know I really love the Ace Attorney series, so when you have more time next year that’s one you should definitely check out.  I’ve mentioned this a few times elsewhere before, but the Zero Escape series is fantastic.  The first game, 999, is on the DS and the second game, Virtue’s Last Reward, is on the 3DS.  A third game was planned but then canceled due to lack of funds (it’s an underground series after all).  They’re probably the closest you’re going to get to a traditional visual novel on a Nintendo console, since Ace Attorney is a very unorthodox VN with no real bad ends.  Zero Escape games don’t have three distinct routes like F/sn, but they have a lot of bad ends for sure.  999 has five bad ends and one true end.  VLR apparently has 26 endings, though since I haven’t played the game yet don’t know how many are bad ends and how many are good/true ends.  I can attest that 999 is incredible and needs to be played, and it’s something I’d recommend over Ace Attorney even.  At the very least, Zero Escape and AA are two great series that are amazing for their own specific reasons.  If you find yourself with free time after or during senior year, before you jump on all the new games that are sure to have come out by then, I’d recommend you first finish AA and Zero Escape.  You haven’t played a VN yet from what I can gather, so it’ll at least be a new experience.

 

Ah well, I guess thanks if you think my 2DS fiasco showed I was resourceful.  I do plan on repaying my brother some way in the future.  Actually my brother was the first to realize we could “cheat the system” the way we did, and he bought himself his own 2DS first (the Red Crystal version), haha.  New gens are always really exciting, and since X and Y were given a simultaneous release worldwide I thought it would be my first chance to experience a region before all the Japanese magazine mumbo jumbo that always used to come first.  Of course, when I realized I didn’t have the time to keep up with the rest of the world, I decided that it would be best to cut all ties with the new gen until after high school.  I guess it’s worked well, haha.  It’s not nearly as difficult as you think though.  I just had to distract myself with other stuff.  It was during this time that I began watching anime more than ever, and it was also the time I used to dive into Ace Attorney and 999.  I used the little 3DS time I had to play OoT and finish Awakening instead of Pokemon.  There was just so much other great stuff I kept my mind occupied with that I’ve never had an itching to Google or YouTube anything related to Kalos.  Likewise, I’ve kept nearly all of the changes to Hoenn in ORAS a secret, since it’s the region whose trainers, quotes, and item locations I know better than other.  I want to test my memory and discover the discreet changes all myself, haha.

 

Whhhhaaaaaaa??  Seniors leave school early?!?  And next week no less????!!  And your school ends on June 12th?!??!?/?!?!1/??!!1!!!1?  …………………………… Even to the very end, my high school finds ways to disappoint me.  Thanks Edison Township, when I told you to do your worst, I didn’t expect you to… oh gosh, I was prepared for trouble but not for this!  Seniors don’t get any privilege when it comes to school ending.  We need to attend until the very end, which is June 17th for us.  You’re going to be out of school before I will, and my summer break is going to feel shortened because I’ll be heading off to Cleveland mid-August *sobs*  Oh the humanity!!  We’re allowed to skip finals if our grades are good, but all my grades have been dancing around the B+/A- range (save for phys ed of course) so I don’t qualify, bleh.  And the only class that’s still giving me projects and reports and massive write-ups is the only class I’m doing poorly in: physics.  Our Six Flags packet was gigantic: 72 total pages, from which we choose 5 rides to solve problems about, which adds up to about 10 pages of work, front and back, both short answer and open ended.  That’s all due Wednesday, which is also the same time another physics project and write-up are due, which was assigned the day before the trip on Thursday.  I… this… this sucks.  Goddamn, it’s like all my luck has run dry after over a year of really amazing happenings.  What a terrible way to end an overall sour high school career.  Oh well, it’s only four years of my youth, right?  Right??  *sobs harder*  Screw it, if college isn’t better, I’m going to lose it.  High school has made me hate the American education system more than I should, and I’m just hoping Case blows my expectations out of the water (not that they’re very high to start).  With time perception and all, my patience is running thin, that’s for sure.  Sigh, I don’t mean to rant.  Your school life is probably worse off than mine in some aspects, and you maybe don’t want to hear me complain, but I felt that I need to let loose if only a little bit.  Ah well, I’ll take senior skip day off (it’s this coming Tuesday, right after Memorial Day) so at least I’ll have more time to relax, I mean, er, work on my projects.  I do have a few more unused unexcused absence days I can use to knock some school days off of my schedule, so I guess I’ll do that.

 

I’d guess they are indeed updating the list.  Or maybe when they put the list up all the local bookstores immediately began selling out of listed books as Troy highschoolers rushed to order their copy and in a frantic attempt to prevent customers from losing it over out-of-sock merchandise, the bookstores petitioned to your high school to remove the summer reading list from the website until the publishing companies could print more copies.  Excuse me, this amiibo situation has me on edge.  Hrm, Fun Home sounds interesting.  Oh, speaking of Case, I got my roommate assignment.  He’s a Korean guy from this really nice looking Georgia town.  When I have the time, maybe after school ends, I’ll reach out to him since I have his e-mail address.  It would probably be best to get to know my roommate before I move in after all.

 

Don’t sweat it, I’ve posted my own responses at the last second as well, sometimes a bit sloppily and with corners cut, hahah. 

 

The only time when I willingly skip lunch is when I have an upcoming test I need to cram for or when I have an unfinished homework assignment to do, haha. It doesn't happen very often so this normally isn't a problem for me. I used to skip breakfast all the time because I didn't get my appetite until later in the day--I just couldn't eat. In fact, I frequently skipped lunch back in middle school just so I could go to the school library to finish my math homework early, lol (I broke out of that habit though). While I don't support you skipping lunch, I understand how you feel. 

 

I've never visited Yosemite either. It's also on my bucket list of places to go, haha. And was there a specific reason why you put off Steins;Gate for so long? I'd assume that it's because of the backlog of anime you had at the time, but what do you mean by "I'd continually put it off until you recommended it"? Considering how high it's ranked on MAL, I was quite surprised that you hadn't watched it yet when I first asked you, lol. I'm really thankful that my parents told me to pack sweaters and jackets to Yellowstone because I thought they were insane at first, lol. The steam of the Basins counteracted the cold climate a bit, which was also nice. 

 

The two senior saxophonists you were talking about are a near exact mirror representation of the two flutists in our band. Both shared the top chair since their freshmen year and they frequently alternate seats because both are freakishly good. Hmm, I didn't realize that the horn was that difficult to play. Our first chair horn is pretty good, but the rest kinda pale in comparison. Oh, and our clarinet section is going to crash and burn after the seniors leave. They basically carried the entire section this year, lol.

 

Nope, never visited Universal Studios before, and it's making me feel a bit left out, haha. Man, I haven't read a Harry Potter book since middle school so if I ever get the chance to visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, I'll have to refresh myself on the series. Dang, they're really going hardcore for this portion of the park. A replication of Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley? Personalized wands too? ...and possibly Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans? It really does sound like paradise, even though I'm not a diehard fan. But judging by your reaction to the Wizarding World, I'm willing to bet that Universal will not disappoint for Nintendo. Mobile Nintendo games though... I'm surprised that they didn't invest in this idea earlier, to be honest. I'll be looking forward to the announcement though, haha.

 

Nope, I haven't been to Cedar Point before, nor have I been to Six Flags. Ahaha, I haven't gone on a rollercoaster in ages. Perhaps it's because my parents think I'm too old to go, so they never take me to amusement parks or maybe they thought that it wasn't worth their time. The thought of spontaneous adrenaline highs has been getting less and less appealing as time progressed, but maybe I just need to get out more, lol. Actually, now that I think about it, I can't remember the last time I've gone on a rollercoaster (was it back in Disney World?). Oh my gosh I really do need to get out more. Just reading about your experience on the Kingda Ka sounds exhilarating, haha. But how is it that you keep a straight face on these kinds of rides? You know how some rollercoasters have cameras that take pictures of you while you're riding? Pics or it didn't happen, hehehe... Oh, and my physics teacher showed us a simulation of that one Batman ride a few months ago. Just watching it made me want to throw up. Geezus, who would want to put themselves through that?

 

As much as I love my scientific calculator, my graphing calculator is just a lot more convenient and has a crap ton more functions. I even programmed the quadratic formula in there last year because I was too lazy to write out all the steps of the quadratic formula (which can be a bit time consuming on a test). Using a graphing calculator almost feels like cheating, haha. Oh geez, I really dislike Kaplan. I understand that their practice tests are supposed to be hard, but their method of over-preparation is much too excessive, which is why I like Barron's a lot better. Barron's also over-prepares you, but not to the extent where you end up agitated and shot down. Kaplan kills your confidence to the point where you think trick questions are going to be a common occurrence on the actual test--which usually isn't the case. Not to mention, I've heard stories where people encountered many errors in their prep books. So, I looked up the Common App prompts for 2015, and I'm not particularly happy with them. I'm going to have to dig into the nitty gritty of my life in order to figure out what I want to write about because I'm absolutely clueless right now. I appreciate your offer to help me though! How long did it take for you to come up with a topic and how long did it take for you to write it? I had school off on Monday for Memorial Weekend so I had more time to type this up. Don't worry about it! I know you've also been busy writing reports and doing projects, so I want you to look after yourself first, haha.

 

Geezus, gym is a four-year class for you guys? That's awful. What a waste of schedule space, especially considering how you guys don't have summer school either. And what do you mean by "prodigy at a sport"? Are you saying that people who already play sports still have to take gym unless they're like that Columbia-bound swimmer you were talking about? I don't understand the logic behind this?? Ahh, we also have to take health, but most people either take it freshman year or over the summer. I'm not a fan of dressing up for presentations either, but it normally doesn't bother me too much (mostly since I don't have to change for a gym class). And I didn't realize how fortunate I was for having the luxury of being able to wear ankle socks, lol. What I mean by "people's attitude or personality can change depending on what they wear" mainly pertains to my observations. Girls seem to act more feminine when wearing frilly skirts or blouses. Guys seem to act less reckless when wearing suits and dress shirts. It might have something to do with the persona the clothes force people into. Right now, I'm trying to observe whether neon colors have an effect on how bold people are (I know unsaturated colors like grey and black seem to make people more reserved). "You are what you wear." 'Twas just another silly social experiment I wanted to try out. Ahaha, you must think I'm crazy by now. I'll be honest, my flashy tennis shoes don't match a single outfit I wear. But I'm perfectly fine with that because they look freaking awesome regardless (I've gotten a few compliments, lol). Most of the girls on the tennis team also rock pretty flashy shoes and they almost always clash with what they wear. No one really cares though, haha. It can become quite tedious for some people to find colors that complement their blue and neon pink shoes.

 

My favorites would probably be Lancer, Gilgamesh, and Berserker. Assassin didn't get too much screen time (which is a shame because I would have loved seeing more of him) and I guess Archer is still pretty cool, lol. Glad you managed to work things out with your brother! And it's nice to see that the amiibos are split pretty evenly, haha. There's a good chance that any college you visit will have a Smash community of some sort because of how popular the game is. I hope you manage to make the most of it at Case!

 

My parents actually encouraged me to do my homework during my sister's ceremony. It felt kinda rude, but my parents would threaten me for "wasting time" if I didn't. Geez, why did they bother taking me there then? The ceremony lasted about a few hours and it was incredibly stuffy inside, so thank goodness I brought water with me. Nope, I don't think anyone prominent made a speech there. It seemed pretty typical, almost like my sister's high school graduation, haha. And dang, Conan O'Brien gave a commencement speech at your sister's graduation? Perks of attending an Ivy, lol. I watched the recording, and he nailed it. None of the speeches at Brandeis were nearly as entertaining, to be honest. I didn't visit too many colleges around the Boston area, but I managed to drive through a few campuses. We drove around Tufts, and it was also kinda nice.

 

adlkghsdfghdflg so many games so little time D: jk I've read the synopsis of some of these and I'm planning to watch some playthroughs over the summer (I'm counting on you to remind me, hahaah...). I know you won't approve since you're rather against Let's Plays, but I think it's my best option because I'm really in no position to ask for or buy any games at the moment, eheheh... Although I never played the Steins;Gate VN, I watched a portion of it so I think I kinda have a feel to what the format of a VN is like. And I also need to make sure I dive into the Fate VN when the anime finishes airing (or would it be better to wait until HF came out?). Thank you very much for the suggestions!

 

Oh dang, so it was your brother who originally came up with the idea? Not bad, not bad... If I were you, I would have dove into X/Y the moment I got my hands on it because I'd want to experience the hype with everyone else, haha. But I'm still really glad that they decided to release X/Y on the same date worldwide. Before then, like in HGSS or BW, everything was already spoiled for me by the time the games were released in the US (I couldn't help myself, hehe). And judging by the looks of it, you must have gone through Hoenn far too many times to count if you have the trainers, quotes, and even item locations all committed to memory. Could it be that 3rd gen is your favorite generation, or was it because of all the speed-runs you did? Pretty impressive stuff, I must say, lol.

 

Haha yeah, today was the last day for seniors. They're all off on summer vacation now (unless they want to visit for whatever reason probably just to mock us). And the senior prank this year was... interesting. They let chickens loose in the school, lol. What did you guys do for your senior prank? Aw geez, June 17th? I wouldn't be able to make it; I'm already running on empty. Although you'll have to leave for college mid-August, on the bright side, as a college student you'll be able to finish the school year a month before everyone else does, haha. 72 pages??? What the... ? Geezus, that's awful. The people who went to Cedar Point also had to work on a packet (including those in Physics 2 and C I think...), but it wasn't nearly as big as 72 pages. Wow, I just... 72 pages. Even the 10 pages front and back sounds overwhelming. I also had a book report to do in English that was due yesterday, but I couldn't get myself to read the book (even though it was really good) because I was suffering from another headache. The ibuprofen didn't kick in until 8pm and I stayed up till 12am trying to finish it, then 4am writing the report. At least we'll be suffering together, ahahahahaha............. And I'm sure college life will be a lot better! A lot of my college friends seem to be having the time of their lives (except for maybe the job hunting and the rent), so I'm confident that you'll be just fine! Oh, and don't be afraid to vent out as well! I know you had to deal with my fair share of ranting, ehehe... I really wouldn't mind listening whenever you find the need to let loose a little so feel free, haha.

 

Whaddya know, they finally re-uploaded the reading list! We have to pick one book from each of the two lists:

 

List 1:

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner

The Trial by Franz Kafka

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

 

List 2:

Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Native Son by Richard Wright

Blindness by Jose Saramago

Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Atonement by Ian McEwan

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

 

wait I thought your amiibo hunting was on a hiatus at the moment The bookstore normally doesn't run out of books that quickly--it only gets competitive for students when they want to borrow them from the library instead of buying them--the books fly off the bookshelves of the library in the blink of an eye. Ohh, and let me know how it goes with your roommate!

[Akazora 293]

The only time when I willingly skip lunch is when I have an upcoming test I need to cram for or when I have an unfinished homework assignment to do, haha. It doesn't happen very often so this normally isn't a problem for me. I used to skip breakfast all the time because I didn't get my appetite until later in the day--I just couldn't eat. In fact, I frequently skipped lunch back in middle school just so I could go to the school library to finish my math homework early, lol (I broke out of that habit though). While I don't support you skipping lunch, I understand how you feel. 

 

I've never visited Yosemite either. It's also on my bucket list of places to go, haha. And was there a specific reason why you put off Steins;Gate for so long? I'd assume that it's because of the backlog of anime you had at the time, but what do you mean by "I'd continually put it off until you recommended it"? Considering how high it's ranked on MAL, I was quite surprised that you hadn't watched it yet when I first asked you, lol. I'm really thankful that my parents told me to pack sweaters and jackets to Yellowstone because I thought they were insane at first, lol. The steam of the Basins counteracted the cold climate a bit, which was also nice. 

 

The two senior saxophonists you were talking about are a near exact mirror representation of the two flutists in our band. Both shared the top chair since their freshmen year and they frequently alternate seats because both are freakishly good. Hmm, I didn't realize that the horn was that difficult to play. Our first chair horn is pretty good, but the rest kinda pale in comparison. Oh, and our clarinet section is going to crash and burn after the seniors leave. They basically carried the entire section this year, lol.

 

Nope, never visited Universal Studios before, and it's making me feel a bit left out, haha. Man, I haven't read a Harry Potter book since middle school so if I ever get the chance to visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, I'll have to refresh myself on the series. Dang, they're really going hardcore for this portion of the park. A replication of Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley? Personalized wands too? ...and possibly Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans? It really does sound like paradise, even though I'm not a diehard fan. But judging by your reaction to the Wizarding World, I'm willing to bet that Universal will not disappoint for Nintendo. Mobile Nintendo games though... I'm surprised that they didn't invest in this idea earlier, to be honest. I'll be looking forward to the announcement though, haha.

 

Nope, I haven't been to Cedar Point before, nor have I been to Six Flags. Ahaha, I haven't gone on a rollercoaster in ages. Perhaps it's because my parents think I'm too old to go, so they never take me to amusement parks or maybe they thought that it wasn't worth their time. The thought of spontaneous adrenaline highs has been getting less and less appealing as time progressed, but maybe I just need to get out more, lol. Actually, now that I think about it, I can't remember the last time I've gone on a rollercoaster (was it back in Disney World?). Oh my gosh I really do need to get out more. Just reading about your experience on the Kingda Ka sounds exhilarating, haha. But how is it that you keep a straight face on these kinds of rides? You know how some rollercoasters have cameras that take pictures of you while you're riding? Pics or it didn't happen, hehehe... Oh, and my physics teacher showed us a simulation of that one Batman ride a few months ago. Just watching it made me want to throw up. Geezus, who would want to put themselves through that?

 

As much as I love my scientific calculator, my graphing calculator is just a lot more convenient and has a crap ton more functions. I even programmed the quadratic formula in there last year because I was too lazy to write out all the steps of the quadratic formula (which can be a bit time consuming on a test). Using a graphing calculator almost feels like cheating, haha. Oh geez, I really dislike Kaplan. I understand that their practice tests are supposed to be hard, but their method of over-preparation is much too excessive, which is why I like Barron's a lot better. Barron's also over-prepares you, but not to the extent where you end up agitated and shot down. Kaplan kills your confidence to the point where you think trick questions are going to be a common occurrence on the actual test--which usually isn't the case. Not to mention, I've heard stories where people encountered many errors in their prep books. So, I looked up the Common App prompts for 2015, and I'm not particularly happy with them. I'm going to have to dig into the nitty gritty of my life in order to figure out what I want to write about because I'm absolutely clueless right now. I appreciate your offer to help me though! How long did it take for you to come up with a topic and how long did it take for you to write it? I had school off on Monday for Memorial Weekend so I had more time to type this up. Don't worry about it! I know you've also been busy writing reports and doing projects, so I want you to look after yourself first, haha.

 

Geezus, gym is a four-year class for you guys? That's awful. What a waste of schedule space, especially considering how you guys don't have summer school either. And what do you mean by "prodigy at a sport"? Are you saying that people who already play sports still have to take gym unless they're like that Columbia-bound swimmer you were talking about? I don't understand the logic behind this?? Ahh, we also have to take health, but most people either take it freshman year or over the summer. I'm not a fan of dressing up for presentations either, but it normally doesn't bother me too much (mostly since I don't have to change for a gym class). And I didn't realize how fortunate I was for having the luxury of being able to wear ankle socks, lol. What I mean by "people's attitude or personality can change depending on what they wear" mainly pertains to my observations. Girls seem to act more feminine when wearing frilly skirts or blouses. Guys seem to act less reckless when wearing suits and dress shirts. It might have something to do with the persona the clothes force people into. Right now, I'm trying to observe whether neon colors have an effect on how bold people are (I know unsaturated colors like grey and black seem to make people more reserved). "You are what you wear." 'Twas just another silly social experiment I wanted to try out. Ahaha, you must think I'm crazy by now. I'll be honest, my flashy tennis shoes don't match a single outfit I wear. But I'm perfectly fine with that because they look freaking awesome regardless (I've gotten a few compliments, lol). Most of the girls on the tennis team also rock pretty flashy shoes and they almost always clash with what they wear. No one really cares though, haha. It can become quite tedious for some people to find colors that complement their blue and neon pink shoes.

 

My favorites would probably be Lancer, Gilgamesh, and Berserker. Assassin didn't get too much screen time (which is a shame because I would have loved seeing more of him) and I guess Archer is still pretty cool, lol. Glad you managed to work things out with your brother! And it's nice to see that the amiibos are split pretty evenly, haha. There's a good chance that any college you visit will have a Smash community of some sort because of how popular the game is. I hope you manage to make the most of it at Case!

 

My parents actually encouraged me to do my homework during my sister's ceremony. It felt kinda rude, but my parents would threaten me for "wasting time" if I didn't. Geez, why did they bother taking me there then? The ceremony lasted about a few hours and it was incredibly stuffy inside, so thank goodness I brought water with me. Nope, I don't think anyone prominent made a speech there. It seemed pretty typical, almost like my sister's high school graduation, haha. And dang, Conan O'Brien gave a commencement speech at your sister's graduation? Perks of attending an Ivy, lol. I watched the recording, and he nailed it. None of the speeches at Brandeis were nearly as entertaining, to be honest. I didn't visit too many colleges around the Boston area, but I managed to drive through a few campuses. We drove around Tufts, and it was also kinda nice.

 

adlkghsdfghdflg so many games so little time D: jk I've read the synopsis of some of these and I'm planning to watch some playthroughs over the summer (I'm counting on you to remind me, hahaah...). I know you won't approve since you're rather against Let's Plays, but I think it's my best option because I'm really in no position to ask for or buy any games at the moment, eheheh... Although I never played the Steins;Gate VN, I watched a portion of it so I think I kinda have a feel to what the format of a VN is like. And I also need to make sure I dive into the Fate VN when the anime finishes airing (or would it be better to wait until HF came out?). Thank you very much for the suggestions!

 

Oh dang, so it was your brother who originally came up with the idea? Not bad, not bad... If I were you, I would have dove into X/Y the moment I got my hands on it because I'd want to experience the hype with everyone else, haha. But I'm still really glad that they decided to release X/Y on the same date worldwide. Before then, like in HGSS or BW, everything was already spoiled for me by the time the games were released in the US (I couldn't help myself, hehe). And judging by the looks of it, you must have gone through Hoenn far too many times to count if you have the trainers, quotes, and even item locations all committed to memory. Could it be that 3rd gen is your favorite generation, or was it because of all the speed-runs you did? Pretty impressive stuff, I must say, lol.

 

Haha yeah, today was the last day for seniors. They're all off on summer vacation now (unless they want to visit for whatever reason probably just to mock us). And the senior prank this year was... interesting. They let chickens loose in the school, lol. What did you guys do for your senior prank? Aw geez, June 17th? I wouldn't be able to make it; I'm already running on empty. Although you'll have to leave for college mid-August, on the bright side, as a college student you'll be able to finish the school year a month before everyone else does, haha. 72 pages??? What the... ? Geezus, that's awful. The people who went to Cedar Point also had to work on a packet (including those in Physics 2 and C I think...), but it wasn't nearly as big as 72 pages. Wow, I just... 72 pages. Even the 10 pages front and back sounds overwhelming. I also had a book report to do in English that was due yesterday, but I couldn't get myself to read the book (even though it was really good) because I was suffering from another headache. The ibuprofen didn't kick in until 8pm and I stayed up till 12am trying to finish it, then 4am writing the report. At least we'll be suffering together, ahahahahaha............. And I'm sure college life will be a lot better! A lot of my college friends seem to be having the time of their lives (except for maybe the job hunting and the rent), so I'm confident that you'll be just fine! Oh, and don't be afraid to vent out as well! I know you had to deal with my fair share of ranting, ehehe... I really wouldn't mind listening whenever you find the need to let loose a little so feel free, haha.

 

Whaddya know, they finally re-uploaded the reading list! We have to pick one book from each of the two lists:

 

List 1:

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner

The Trial by Franz Kafka

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

 

List 2:

Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Native Son by Richard Wright

Blindness by Jose Saramago

Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Atonement by Ian McEwan

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

 

wait I thought your amiibo hunting was on a hiatus at the moment The bookstore normally doesn't run out of books that quickly--it only gets competitive for students when they want to borrow them from the library instead of buying them--the books fly off the bookshelves of the library in the blink of an eye. Ohh, and let me know how it goes with your roommate!

Ah, well, it’s a bit hard to explain.  It’s really popular and all, and everyone says it’s amazing, but whenever I have the freedom and time to watch an already aired anime, Steins;Gate was just something I was never in the mood for, I guess.  You know, that spur of the moment “I’m looking for something light-hearted and funny” or the “I want something short, like a movie or a quick OVA” feeling?  Steins;Gate never felt like something that would satisfy me at all those moments when I had just finished a completed series and was looking for something I could start watching in tandem with airing shows, so it just kept on getting pushed back.  But then you personally recommended it, and I was like weellll, Kenzi liked it, so……  Ahah, it just ended up being higher priority after that, and I found the time for it.  Eheheh, silly, huh?  I don’t even know if I’m making any sense or if I even answered your question at all.

 

Mhm, French horn is a bit of loose cannon instrument.  Some instruments are just like that.  I wouldn’t say the oboe was particularly difficult to play, but it’s a significantly more wishy-washy instrument than, say, the alto sax.  I picked up the alto sax really fast in my freshman year, and a lot of people complimented me on how I could get such a nice sound out of an instrument I had only just started.  Because the oboe is an unpredictable double-reed instrument, I had been wrestling with wild intonation and harsh tone quality for years.  The single-reed alto sax was a blessing in comparison.  My tone quality was really good since my mouth muscles were already trained to play an instrument that required a lot of work to keep in tune, and I mastered sax vibrato before I mastered oboe vibrato (even to this day, I wouldn’t exactly say I’ve “mastered” vibrato on the oboe).  Granted, since I had only played alto sax for a few months, I couldn’t play very technical pieces and my fingers flubbed around a lot for fast songs of course, so I was far from an amazing sax player or anything.  Anyway, before I get any further off topic, good hornists sound amazing.  They really do give certain songs a fantastic flair when they sound out over an orchestra.  Funny thing is, my band’s flute and clarinet section will probably continue to be the strongest sections.  There’s just such an excess of people playing those instruments, it hasn’t been too difficult finding replacements, apparently.  I don’t think the sections will be nearly as strong overall, because we had some very dedicated and talented flutists and clarinetists in my class, but they’ll definitely hold their own.

 

I think Nintendo only avoided mobile games because of the negative connotation that came with them.  After all, it’s no secret that games on the app store are generally casual games.  Just quick little addictive things that you use to whittle the time away when you have the urge to pull out your phone but don’t have anyone to text.  I remember reading this interview somewhere (as a Nintendo fanboy, these are the things I commit to memory, hahah) that they didn’t want to “dumb down” their IPs by having them produced on the mobile market.  Not to mention, games that require a lot of precise control input, like classic Super Mario style side-scrollers or wild fighters like Smash, don’t translate well on the delayed and inaccurate touch screens of today.  After all, nothing beats actually pressing the “A” button on a real controller or handheld.  Also, there was the risk that putting full games on the app store would discourage people from purchasing the console version.  This would lead to an increase in digital software sales but a decline in hardware sales.  More money would be going to the companies that made the smart phones (if people bought smart devices for the Nintendo games specifically), and while Nintendo would reap some of the benefits they could potentially lose their edge in the hardware fight.  After all, they’ve been fighting Sony’s Playstations and Microsoft’s Xboxes for years, and if people began to forgo their handhelds and home consoles for mobile games, that might be enough to send Nintendo over the edge and stop hardware production all together.  Now, this is of course a worst case scenario, but it’s not outside the realm of possibility.  If anything, it’s a surprise that Nintendo decided to embrace the mobile market at all given how they’ve been against it since the very first iPhone was released and revolutionized the world, indirectly competing with DS sales.  As long as they keep things under control, by having the mobile games they produce be supplements for their console games, requiring you to get the “real” versions for example, then they should be a-okay.  That doesn’t mean their mobile games should be of inferior quality, since I expect the quality that Nintendo has managed thus far to be reflected in app games.  I just hope that their mobile games won’t be enough to overshadow and compete with their “real” games. They should exist almost as little advertisements for the full experience, like maybe an interactive Pokedex or a spin-off plot-less puzzle game featuring Zelda characters and motifs.

 

Ehhh??  I thought I was a bit of a shut-in, but you really haven’t been to many amusement parks, huh?  You just seem like a person who’d enjoy spending a day off from school with friends, hitting up all the coasters and re-riding the ones that had short lines, so it’s a bit surprising the last time you went on a roller coaster was so long ago you can’t even remember it.  Admittedly, roller coasters aren’t as fun as they used to be.  As you’ve said, a sudden rush of adrenaline isn’t quite as attractive as it used to be, especially with the boring and unstimulating lines that precede it.  Oh, speaking of lines, you know how you said that sometimes you hit up a conversation with a stranger if you’re waiting in line for something?  Well, even though I said I was going to try and open up to people more readily, the one time I went on a ride by myself last week (because my friends wanted to sit down and take a break I know, we’re slowly but surely starting to become old geezers) I didn’t say a word to anybody in front or behind me.  It wasn’t my fault though, since I was sandwiched between two chummy looking groups on both sides.  The group behind me consisted of guys in their 20s, but more like approaching 30 kind of 20s, since they didn’t look like college kids and they had tats all over their arms.  I don’t want to sound mean, but the stuff they were talking about made them very unapproachable.  The group in front of me was made up of girls and boys alike, either in 8th grade or in their freshman year of high school (it was a bit hard to tell).  However, it was clear that they were the popular kids in their school.  They were all very attractive, well dressed, laughed and talked loud, and were basically just as hard to approach as the guys behind me.  Sigh, oh well, such was the luck of me.  Oh gosh, I’m usually not very photogenic and of course it’s even worse with coaster cams.  Heh, while I guess I wouldn’t mind showing you a picture of myself, it would embarrass me to no end if the first you ever saw of my face was of one while I was riding a roller coaster.  Not to mention, I haven’t purchased a coaster photo in years, so the most recent one is already kind of aged, ahah.  Are you talking about that “4-D” Batman roller coaster in San Antonio’s Six Flags?  The one that literally had its status change from “testing” to “operating” during the past 24 hours on Wikipedia?  Call me crazy, but that looks like a lot of fun.  It’s nothing at all like what Great Adventures has.  If the lines aren’t too long, it may just be worth it.  Anyway, to wrap this up, I really do recommend you get together with some of your friends and go to an amusement park someday relatively soon.  Maybe after senior year ends?

 

Oh gosh, I really don’t think I’m using my graphing calculator to its fullest potential.  I just use it for the simple stuff and have nothing special programmed into it.  It gets the job done, but I guess for those who know how to really abuse it, it would feel like cheating, haha.  Huh, I didn’t realize Kaplan had such a reputation.  I’ve always thought Barron’s was the generally accepted “difficult” prepper, and that Kaplan was just one of the underdogs it seems less people talked about.  When I took practice tests, my dad actually photocopied a copy for me to write all over so I could leave the books relatively untouched for my brother to use in the future.  Because of this, I wasn’t directly exposed to who made the test I was taking.  Sure, by paying attention to the font it was easy to see whether it was Princeton Review, Barron’s, or Kaplan, but after a while I just didn’t really feel the need to particularly care which company made which tests.  When I started taking a test it was less like “Oh no, it’s Kaplan again.  This is going to suck…” and more like “Alright, another day, another test.  Let’s see if I can do better than last time.”  That’s why to this day all test prep companies feel the same to me, ahahah.  Geez, you’re pulling the whole “Memorial Day Break gave me extra time” excuse on me now.  Hmph, well fine, do what you want with your time, eheh.

 

Ahh, I just checked the new Common App prompts myself.  You’re right, these essays aren’t nearly as good as last year’s.  Or rather, the one prompt I liked (#4, your special place) was completely changed as the entirely of the new question 4 is italicized, which according to their blog means it’s completely new text.  Everything else was left unchanged or was only slightly changed.  Oh dear, I guess that the 6000 people surveyed must not have been very impressed by responses to question 4.  Was my stargazing essay really that poorly received???  Haha, oh well, guess I should count myself lucky for being born the year I was.  From the start, I knew I was going to write about prompt 4, the one about my special place, since it seemed like the one that would give me the most freedom in terms of topic and poetic touch.  It didn’t take me very long to realize writing about stargazing would be my best bet.  I think it was around July?  At the time, I was actually feeling a bit unmotivated, so for the remainder of July and for nearly the entirety of August I told my parents “yeah, yeah, I’m working on it, don’t worry” while my Word Doc remained blank and I watched Fate/Zero and various other anime instead.  Funny thing is, Fate/Zero reminded me of my Common App essay unexpectedly when I got to the poignant talk between Waver and Glen Mackenzie on their roof as the sun was coming up, near the end of the second season.  Hahah, that scene, small as it was, motivated me enough to start my essay.  I wrote the first paragraph (it was a bit rough around the edges, but all in all it was similar to the final copy I sent you) and then hit writer’s block.  By then school started and I lost some motivation again (I don’t think I’m a particularly good role model, by the way…) and I didn’t start writing until early October.  At this point, I was already starting to feel the pinch of the deadline, since my EA and ED apps were due November 1st.  I still had supplements to worry about, and since very few public schools are on the Common App I also had full applications to fill out as well.  I forced myself to sit down and just start typing until I ran out of ideas.  I hit the 600 word limit, called it a day, and sent it to my sister to critique.  My main issues were a few oddly worded metaphors and a conclusion that didn’t really feel conclusive.  Fixed those up, sent it back to my sister.  She found a few more wording issues, and after one more alteration my sister said it was wonderful.  Gave it to my Lit teacher for good measure, and lucky for me she found a small spelling error (one of the ones that don’t register on Word because it was a short word and the misspelling made another real word) but apart from that she loved it.  And that pretty much wraps up my Common App essay fiasco.  I think I may have answered more than you asked for, and even then I don’t know if I was of much help.  I know you’re struggling to think of topics, so how about you brainstorm here and I’ll help you to the best of my ability?  Maybe think of multiple topics for one specific question, or maybe think of one topic for each question?  There are different ways to approach this, so figure out how you you’re most comfortable with working first.  Actually, I just remembered.  There was this really great book I read on college essays, titled “On Writing the College Application Essay” by Harry Bauld.  It’s a fantastic read.  It’s neither too long nor too short and addresses any concerns you may have.  It takes a somewhat light-hearted approach, so it remains an engaging read while still presenting the facts to you straight, if that makes any sense.  You won’t get bored of it for sure, and if you have the time over the summer, finishing it in two sittings is pretty reasonable.  This book helped me more than any advice I received from a person I know or the Internet.  If there’s anything you take from this long paragraph, it’s this.  Order it from Amazon immediately, or check to see if your local stores have it.

 

Yuuup, my high school is just really wasteful.  I also feel like they’re responsible for holding back a lot of really talented students.  I remember back when my sister was in high school, a ton of people got into Ivy Leagues.  In my grade, I know some crazy talented individuals and the fact that they’ve been snubbed from some prestigious schools has come as a bit of a shock.  Now, this could be explained by the fact that maybe nowadays it’s overall harder to get accepted by an Ivy League than it was eight years ago, but I personally have a hunch that my high school over the years has just gotten worse.  Or rather, relatively worse.  Very little of the curriculum has been changed since my sister was in school, and very little to the school has been changed as well.  I remember my high school always used to be like “Ohoho!  We’re such a good high school!  Look at how high we rank on these lists!” and because we got so full of ourselves we never strove to be better.  We’re falling behind schools like yours as our building ages (seriously, no A/C?), our good teachers retire and are replaced with bad ones, and our courses remain almost entirely identical to the ones from a decade ago.  What may have worked back then is definitely not working today, and it sucks I spent four years of my life in a dated institution.  All my peers are trying to reach their fullest potential, but it’s awfully hard when their high school prevents them from doing that.  Ughh, as much as I want reform for my school, since I’m leaving soon and have such bad impressions from it I almost don’t even care anymore.  I guess I may be part of the problem, huh?  Anyway, I don’t mean to drag on for too long.  Phys ed is theoretically a three year course, since we spend 1/4th of the year learning health instead of “exercising”.  If you want to look at it another way, it boils down to three years of phys ed and one year of health, spread out relatively evenly over four years.  And yes, it doesn’t matter if you take school athletics.  If you’re not Olympic material, you’re taking phys ed, simple as that.  It would make more sense if my school used your system, right?  Yeah, well, the thing is, that would make too much sense.  And God forbid we allow too much sense to flow through the doors of our Edison schools, right?

 

Hmmm, I guess you do have a point there with your observations.  Though, there are a lot of factors that are involved with determining how a person acts a specific day.  For example, maybe a girl was feeling rather feminine and flirtatious one morning, and thus decided to wear a frilly skirt?  From your wording, it’s like the skirt caused the feminine acting instead of the feminine acting that led to a skirt being worn.  As for why guys act less reckless in formal attire, perhaps it’s because formal attire is just generally pretty uncomfortable to be in? Suits can be rather stiff, and it’s easy to wrinkle up dress shirts and have them shift around in your pants, making you look unkempt and messy.  If a guy hasn’t done his presentation or speech or whatever yet, then he probably doesn’t want to muss up his look.  And naw, I don’t think you’re crazy at all.  These little social experiments sound kind of fun.  What else have you noticed about people?

 

Well, May 29th, the official release date of wave 4 amiibo has come and gone.  As expected, Lucina, Robin, Greninja, Jigglypuff, and Ness flew off the shelves so fast that almost the entirely of America sold out before lunch break.  Only stores that still had stock leading into the afternoon and evening were stores in Bumpkin, Kansas.  My Lucina amiibo looks like it’ll be here on Tuesday, and I’m hoping Walmart hasn’t completely wrecked my packaging.  I also bought the Inkling 3-pack amiibo, not just because they looked good but because I’m actually planning on getting Splatoon.  I know I won’t be able to play much without a Wii U in college, but I really want to support Nintendo’s new IP and the game looks super fun.  My dad thinks I’ve already asked for too much this year, so he won’t be buying me any more amiibo or video games.  That’s fine, I’ll manage on my own with Swagbucks and trading, haha.  Ah, and speaking of Servants, have you watched any of UBW's second season apart from the first episode?  And I guess I'll answer your question regarding the F/sn visual novel here.  A good time to read the Fate route would probably be right after the UBW anime ends.  During the wait between the UBW series and the HF movie(s), you can take the time to enjoy Fate.  If you finish that quickly, maybe you can check out the UBW visual novel so you can compare it to the anime.  If you get done with that as well, I suppose you can choose to either wait for the movie(s) to release and then play HF to compare, or do it the other way around by playing it first so you know what's going to happen and then see how the adaptation holds up.  Really, it's pretty much up to however much of the visual novel you're willing to read, haha.

 

Huh, that’s weird of your parents for wanting you to do homework during your sister’s graduation.  My parents wanted me and my brother to watch and be proud (and be inspired to work harder in school).  Tufts was alright, though my parents didn’t really like it and I didn’t feel too strongly about it so I just chose not to apply.  I don’t think Case got any fancy celebrity at this year’s graduation.  Their commencement speaker was Barry Meyer, an alum who is the former Warner Bros. CEO and chairman, so it’s something.

 

Oh no no no no no!!  Ace Attorney and Zero Escape don’t work well with Let’s Plays at all!  There are definitely better options.  For example, if you’re patient enough you can wait until you have the ability to buy a bootleg DS chip, which can be used to play an infinite number of DS games as long as you download their ROMs.  If that doesn’t work for you, the second best option would be to emulate the game on your computer.  Now, I know you had a really bad experience in the past and that you’re dealing with some form of PTSD, but I can help you through the process.  No, scratch that, I will help you through the process.  During summer break, I’ll take the time to figure out which emulator is the best and how to install it.  Then, I’ll write up an entire step-by-step “so easy even a caveman could do it” tutorial on how to get it all set up so you don’t run into any viruses.  It will be thorough and written specifically for you.  Heck, I’ll even have all the files you need compiled and personally put up on Dropbox or some other reliable file sharing site and link you to it, so you know there are no string attached with anything you click.  Emulator, ROMs, and everything.  If doing all this would prevent you from watching a Let’s Play or walkthrough, then it’s worth the effort.  I promise, I will get this done as soon as I can during summer break.  It won’t matter if you respond to this and insist you want to watch a Let’s Play; I’ll do it anyway.  Nothing is going to change my mind about it, and you know how stubborn I can be, hahahah.  

 

As for why AA and ZE don’t work very well as Let’s Plays, it’s because while they’re part visual novel they’re also part puzzle/investigation game.  AA has investigation portions of the game where you click around and collect evidence and clues.  In fact, these portions are pretty much half of the gameplay.  The thing about this is that there are a lot of clickable-but-not-necessary-for-the-plot things to read through.  For example, maybe you can check out a lamp and initiate a funny conversation with the person you’re in the room with, but nothing else is accomplished.  I’m the kind of person who is sure to click every which way in order to read all the dialogue possible, even the “useless” ones.  In Let’s Plays, you’re most likely to watch a playthrough that either rushes through or skips most of the “extra” stuff in order to cut video time and keep things engaging for viewers who just want to know how things end.  Either that, or they go into the game with a walkthrough handy so that nothing extra is clicked and only advance-able items are investigated.  With the games experienced like this, you miss a ton of subtle character development, jokes and funny localization changes, and even some running gags.  There’s a lot to be had from slowly taking your time to develop the characters you meet (AA has a really colorful cast).  Furthermore, because AA boils down to being an episodic mystery series with an overarching plot (much like DC), you’re also expected to deduce things and solve the crime.  With Let’s Plays, the player may work/think too fast or too slow.  It’s possible he or she may be fumbling around thinking, “What’s wrong with that statement, hmmm…?” and you’re just like, “Oh come on man, there’s clearly a contradiction with the timing of the murder!”  Likewise, if the player has figured out certain aspects of the mystery early than you, he or she make have a eureka moment and spoil all the fun and prevent you from having a similar eureka moment at your own pace.  The ZE series shares many of the same aspects as AA: investigation stages with clicking around and optional funny convos, a lot of mysteries that could be prematurely spoiled by the player, etc.  ZE also has a ton of puzzles, and a lot of the exciting moments came from messing around with a crazy array of things to solve.  Having someone solve the puzzles for you really lessens the excitement, and it’s not much fun watching someone sliding boxes around with the stylus and manipulating numbers and words to solve codes.  Something ZE has that AA doesn’t have is a branching storyline with bad ends.  This brings about even more problems.  For instance, in 999, there are 6 different endings: 3 bad ends, an unlocked “true” end, an end that unlocks the true end, and finally the true end.  In theory, you only need to play through the game a minimum of twice: the first time you reach the ending that unlocks the true end, and the second time you play the true end.  After that, the game considers you as having finished the whole story.  But of course, you’re still missing the bad endings.  Those bad ends have a ton of character development and hints not found in the required ends, and without them certain characters don’t feel fleshed out enough by the conclusion and some revelations and reveals don’t feel as impactful and more deus ex machine-like.  However, because endings are determined by a series of choices you make over the course of the game, you don’t know which ending you’re going to get until you reach it.  The unlock end and the true end both have only one very specific set of choices to reach, so your chances of hitting them up the first time are slim to none, while the three bad ends all have multiple ways to reach the same ending, which means you'll most likely get the same bad ends multiple times by accident.  It’s certainly possible a Let’s Play skips a bad end or two, or maybe if they’re (un)lucky enough or using a walkthrough they don’t hit any bad ends at all.  This will certainly and undoubtedly hinder your experience of the story, I promise.  Finally, something that applies to both AA and ZE: emotional moments will be completely ruined.  A bad habit it seems many Let’s Play-ers have is reading the text out loud.  They start feeling awkward if they aren’t saying something while playing, and since it’s impossible to talking about something else all the while clicking “A” to advance the text, they have no choice but to read what’s on the screen.  This proves to be plenty awkward during certain scenarios (jokes, for example, fall flatter), but it’s especially dangerous when you reach an emotional, tear-jerking scene.  Both AA and ZE have their fair share of heavy moments, and the last thing you need is a Let’s Play-er ruining it by either reading the lines out loud himself or trying to laugh it off as to seem like he’s not affected.  It really kills the mood and ruins an experience you cannot replicate.  After all, you only learn someone dies for the first time once, so you might as well learn it in the most personal and immersive way possible.  Sure, you can just watch a playthrough without narration, but that doesn't prevent everything I've said above from happening, like missing out on the not-required dialogue and not being able to solve the puzzles by yourself and not being able to deduce the mysteries at your own pace.  Phew, that was a longer rant than I expected.  Ahh, I hope I didn’t sound like I was yelling at you or anything, I just wanted to make sure what needed to be said was said.  Personally, I find the most enjoyable way to play the games is on an actual DS so you can play it at your convenience, and heck I’d ship a bootleg DS chip over to where you live, if I knew your address, so you could experience it that way.  But I know friends I’ve recommended the game to who absolutely loved it and they played it on an emulator, so I’m sure it’s all good.  I’ll consult them when I make my set-up tutorial.  I still have all the AA and 999 ROMs saved up on my PC from when I used the DS chip and just need to figure out the whole emulator business.

 

Looking back on it, you’re right, I should have just tackled Y first.  I think I was a bit OCD, since I had already started Awakening (I’m fairly certain I was completely done with OoT by that time) and wanted to finish it before filling my head with Pokemon stuff, ahah.  Though I’m super late to the party and everyone is already over the Kalos hype, discovering new places and exploring “uncharted” territory is still a blast.  Man, it’s like exploring Unova for the first time all over again, it’s great!  I’m already six Gym Leaders in, though from the looks of it the seventh one is a bit of a ways away.  Sigh, that just means more routes to cover and more Pokemon to catch.  It’s a bit tedious using only Pokeballs and having only Thunder Wave to help me on my quest, but it’s not too difficult so far.  For some reason, Stunfisk gave me a helluva hard time and I wasted a truck load of Pokeballs on him.  Never liked him anyway, bleh.  I need to be as frugal with my money as possible, since Lumiose City’s boutique is crazy expensive.  However, because I turned off Exp. Share, I also need to make sure my Pokemon keep up with the NPC’s in terms of level.  That’s why I have this weird balancing act with my Lucky Egg and Amulet Coin.  When I’m versing rainers, I put AC on my first Pokemon and LE on my second.  Against wild Pokemon, I put LE on my first and AC on my second.  This maximizes both my revenue and exp gain.  It gets kind of rough in places with both trainers and tall grass, because then I’m constantly switching the two items back and forth and saving every few steps. 

 

Anyway, on a slightly different train of thought, I’m actually planning on getting Smash 4 3DS.  I know, back when we first met (ahahaha, it’s been a while hasn’t it?) I said the controls felt kind of weird and that I wasn’t planning on getting the 3DS version, but since then I’ve changed my mind.  Japan is getting the NFC adaptor (used to allow for amiibo usage on non-New 3DS consoles) at the end of July, and North America will surely follow suit.  With this, I’ll be able to train my amiibo on even Smash 3DS, so why not invest in the game?  I’ll have saved enough money soon enough, and I’ll order it and receive it in time to use the Mewtwo code before it expires on your birthday.  I’d have much rather let you have it, but unless you gave me your address so I could ship you Smash 3DS that won’t be possible it seems, hm.  After that, I’ll need to invest my Swagbucks money in Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies since it’s an eShop only game and no NA physical copy exists.  amiibo aren't really a concern anymore, haha.  After that, I’ll be so inundated with 3DS games I probably won’t be buying much else.  I might just horde all my Swagbucks credit and part time job money (when I get one) and go all out to get a personal Wii U some time during college.  I suppose that would be the best course of action given the position I’d be in by then.  Ah, and as for which generation is my favorite, I don’t really have one.  Each have their pros and cons and I'd be hard pressed to choose a favorite.  I just know all the small details about Hoenn because, as you’ve said, I’ve run through it out of boredom so many times now.  I beaten the Elite Four on at least 7 different files and have started but not finished at least 5-10 more run-throughs.  So yeah, about 12-17 times through Hoenn total.  There are certain things that will definitely stick with you, haha.

 

We……… didn’t have a senior prank.  Or rather, it hasn’t been executed yet.  I’ve asked my friends, and apparently nobody is making any serious contributions on Facebook.  I wouldn’t mind seeing a student led coup on the faculty, but I think that might be illegal…  The whole chicken thing must have been odd.  I kind of feel bad for the chickens.  The physics work sucks, but it got done (somehow).  I still have even more physics work piling up in the coming week.  I was going to get most of it done this weekend, but then something came up and now I feel like I’m barely on schedule again.  Oh geez, I may have to take more days off from school, since I still have a few unexcused absence days to use.  And you’re still being bombarded by headaches, huh?  Goodness, that must be such a nuisance.  Have you gotten it checked by a doctor yet?  I’m fairly certain you shouldn’t just be getting headaches so often and so easily like that.  Maybe there’s an underlying problem?  And thanks, I really wouldn’t want to bother you with my rants all the time, but it’s good to know there’s someone willing to listen if I’m just having a rough day.

 

It seems the books on the first list are all older, more recognizable novels while the ones on the second list are somewhat more modern and lesser known.  Unfortunately, I’ve only read a single book on either of those lists and that’s Heart of Darkness.  I really disliked that book and would not recommend it at all.  It had one redeeming moment, near the beginning in chapter 9, but it was a train wreck from that point onward.  Stay away from it, for sure.  I’ve heard of pretty much everything else on the first list, but since I haven’t personally read them or know anyone’s who read them, I can’t really help you there.  As long as you steer clear from HoD you’ll be fine, so choose whichever one interests you the most!  As for the second list, the only familiar thing on there is Margaret Atwood.  She also wrote Heart of Darkness, and it’s one of my favorite books.  Read it over the summer last year, and it was gripping and just fantastic.  She has amazing style and prose, so based on that alone I’d recommend checking out Oryx and Crake.  That book written by the Japanese guy seems like it could be interesting, only because it’s not very often you run into Japanese authors.  And ya know, I have a bias toward Japanese things, so there’s that.  Ehhhh, I wish I could have provided more of an input, but that’s all I can give based on what I know.  I’m sure if you look the books up individually online you’ll find far more helpful info, ahah.

Edited June 2, 2015 by Akazora

[Nara-chan 38]

*sneaks in back door*

 

Because I'm poor and desperate, I didn't actually play DanganRonpa: Another Episode. Rather, I watched a translated walkthrough of it. It was a change from the previous two games, but it was certainly darker. I like it, although the Monokumas creeped me out.

[Metantei Kiddo 147]

Agar.io

It's a very simple online game but it's so freaking addicting especially, the teams. I played it midnight till morning, twice, just some days ago.

[Crimson Tide 0]

Games currently playing last played:

 

NBA 2k15 - MyGM and MyCareer

Elder Scrolls V Skyrim - went through the introduction, downloading mods

Child of Light - went through introduction, the story's being told in a poem damn

Pokemon Reborn - challenging first gym

Final Fantasy X HD Remaster - Guadosalam, deleted save data planning to restart game

[Moonlit Flower 12]

Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney

 

Just got my new 3ds xl as a birthday gift a few days ago, and I decided to give this game a try. I'm glad I did, because as soon as I started playing the first puzzle in the game, I was addicted. I'm really getting into both the Professor Layton series and Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney series. I played a short demo of the new Phoenix Wright game, and it seems pretty good. I like on how you have to solve the cases and present evidence based on your theories, and how they can make it a challenge by giving you little clues. It involves some very critical thinking, which I like about it. However, the series that interests me the most is Professor Layton. I've enjoyed solving puzzles ever since I was small, so I kinda took a liking to it right away. I really love the characters as well, especially Luke. And oh, I'm already halfway through this game. Well, this is no surprise considering I was up all night solving a court case in the game.

[Akazora 293]

Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney

 

Just got my new 3ds xl as a birthday gift a few days ago, and I decided to give this game a try. I'm glad I did, because as soon as I started playing the first puzzle in the game, I was addicted. I'm really getting into both the Professor Layton series and Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney series. I played a short demo of the new Phoenix Wright game, and it seems pretty good. I like on how you have to solve the cases and present evidence based on your theories, and how they can make it a challenge by giving you little clues. It involves some very critical thinking, which I like about it. However, the series that interests me the most is Professor Layton. I've enjoyed solving puzzles ever since I was small, so I kinda took a liking to it right away. I really love the characters as well, especially Luke. And oh, I'm already halfway through this game. Well, this is no surprise considering I was up all night solving a court case in the game.

You need to play Ace Attorney.  Play all of them, trust me, it's worth it.  Don't just take my word for it though; our very own mods Black Demon and Chekhov are fans of the series.

 

And by new Phoenix Wright game, do you mean Dual Destinies?  Ehhhh, it's not the best idea to play the demo of a game that's the fifth installment of a main series (with an overarching plot no less), but it doesn't spoil much unless you read too deeply into it.  Definitely start with the first game, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney for the DS.

[Kenzi 146]

 

Ah, well, it’s a bit hard to explain.  It’s really popular and all, and everyone says it’s amazing, but whenever I have the freedom and time to watch an already aired anime, Steins;Gate was just something I was never in the mood for, I guess.  You know, that spur of the moment “I’m looking for something light-hearted and funny” or the “I want something short, like a movie or a quick OVA” feeling?  Steins;Gate never felt like something that would satisfy me at all those moments when I had just finished a completed series and was looking for something I could start watching in tandem with airing shows, so it just kept on getting pushed back.  But then you personally recommended it, and I was like weellll, Kenzi liked it, so……  Ahah, it just ended up being higher priority after that, and I found the time for it.  Eheheh, silly, huh?  I don’t even know if I’m making any sense or if I even answered your question at all.

 

Mhm, French horn is a bit of loose cannon instrument.  Some instruments are just like that.  I wouldn’t say the oboe was particularly difficult to play, but it’s a significantly more wishy-washy instrument than, say, the alto sax.  I picked up the alto sax really fast in my freshman year, and a lot of people complimented me on how I could get such a nice sound out of an instrument I had only just started.  Because the oboe is an unpredictable double-reed instrument, I had been wrestling with wild intonation and harsh tone quality for years.  The single-reed alto sax was a blessing in comparison.  My tone quality was really good since my mouth muscles were already trained to play an instrument that required a lot of work to keep in tune, and I mastered sax vibrato before I mastered oboe vibrato (even to this day, I wouldn’t exactly say I’ve “mastered” vibrato on the oboe).  Granted, since I had only played alto sax for a few months, I couldn’t play very technical pieces and my fingers flubbed around a lot for fast songs of course, so I was far from an amazing sax player or anything.  Anyway, before I get any further off topic, good hornists sound amazing.  They really do give certain songs a fantastic flair when they sound out over an orchestra.  Funny thing is, my band’s flute and clarinet section will probably continue to be the strongest sections.  There’s just such an excess of people playing those instruments, it hasn’t been too difficult finding replacements, apparently.  I don’t think the sections will be nearly as strong overall, because we had some very dedicated and talented flutists and clarinetists in my class, but they’ll definitely hold their own.

 

I think Nintendo only avoided mobile games because of the negative connotation that came with them.  After all, it’s no secret that games on the app store are generally casual games.  Just quick little addictive things that you use to whittle the time away when you have the urge to pull out your phone but don’t have anyone to text.  I remember reading this interview somewhere (as a Nintendo fanboy, these are the things I commit to memory, hahah) that they didn’t want to “dumb down” their IPs by having them produced on the mobile market.  Not to mention, games that require a lot of precise control input, like classic Super Mario style side-scrollers or wild fighters like Smash, don’t translate well on the delayed and inaccurate touch screens of today.  After all, nothing beats actually pressing the “A” button on a real controller or handheld.  Also, there was the risk that putting full games on the app store would discourage people from purchasing the console version.  This would lead to an increase in digital software sales but a decline in hardware sales.  More money would be going to the companies that made the smart phones (if people bought smart devices for the Nintendo games specifically), and while Nintendo would reap some of the benefits they could potentially lose their edge in the hardware fight.  After all, they’ve been fighting Sony’s Playstations and Microsoft’s Xboxes for years, and if people began to forgo their handhelds and home consoles for mobile games, that might be enough to send Nintendo over the edge and stop hardware production all together.  Now, this is of course a worst case scenario, but it’s not outside the realm of possibility.  If anything, it’s a surprise that Nintendo decided to embrace the mobile market at all given how they’ve been against it since the very first iPhone was released and revolutionized the world, indirectly competing with DS sales.  As long as they keep things under control, by having the mobile games they produce be supplements for their console games, requiring you to get the “real” versions for example, then they should be a-okay.  That doesn’t mean their mobile games should be of inferior quality, since I expect the quality that Nintendo has managed thus far to be reflected in app games.  I just hope that their mobile games won’t be enough to overshadow and compete with their “real” games. They should exist almost as little advertisements for the full experience, like maybe an interactive Pokedex or a spin-off plot-less puzzle game featuring Zelda characters and motifs.

 

Ehhh??  I thought I was a bit of a shut-in, but you really haven’t been to many amusement parks, huh?  You just seem like a person who’d enjoy spending a day off from school with friends, hitting up all the coasters and re-riding the ones that had short lines, so it’s a bit surprising the last time you went on a roller coaster was so long ago you can’t even remember it.  Admittedly, roller coasters aren’t as fun as they used to be.  As you’ve said, a sudden rush of adrenaline isn’t quite as attractive as it used to be, especially with the boring and unstimulating lines that precede it.  Oh, speaking of lines, you know how you said that sometimes you hit up a conversation with a stranger if you’re waiting in line for something?  Well, even though I said I was going to try and open up to people more readily, the one time I went on a ride by myself last week (because my friends wanted to sit down and take a break I know, we’re slowly but surely starting to become old geezers) I didn’t say a word to anybody in front or behind me.  It wasn’t my fault though, since I was sandwiched between two chummy looking groups on both sides.  The group behind me consisted of guys in their 20s, but more like approaching 30 kind of 20s, since they didn’t look like college kids and they had tats all over their arms.  I don’t want to sound mean, but the stuff they were talking about made them very unapproachable.  The group in front of me was made up of girls and boys alike, either in 8th grade or in their freshman year of high school (it was a bit hard to tell).  However, it was clear that they were the popular kids in their school.  They were all very attractive, well dressed, laughed and talked loud, and were basically just as hard to approach as the guys behind me.  Sigh, oh well, such was the luck of me.  Oh gosh, I’m usually not very photogenic and of course it’s even worse with coaster cams.  Heh, while I guess I wouldn’t mind showing you a picture of myself, it would embarrass me to no end if the first you ever saw of my face was of one while I was riding a roller coaster.  Not to mention, I haven’t purchased a coaster photo in years, so the most recent one is already kind of aged, ahah.  Are you talking about that “4-D” Batman roller coaster in San Antonio’s Six Flags?  The one that literally had its status change from “testing” to “operating” during the past 24 hours on Wikipedia?  Call me crazy, but that looks like a lot of fun.  It’s nothing at all like what Great Adventures has.  If the lines aren’t too long, it may just be worth it.  Anyway, to wrap this up, I really do recommend you get together with some of your friends and go to an amusement park someday relatively soon.  Maybe after senior year ends?

 

Oh gosh, I really don’t think I’m using my graphing calculator to its fullest potential.  I just use it for the simple stuff and have nothing special programmed into it.  It gets the job done, but I guess for those who know how to really abuse it, it would feel like cheating, haha.  Huh, I didn’t realize Kaplan had such a reputation.  I’ve always thought Barron’s was the generally accepted “difficult” prepper, and that Kaplan was just one of the underdogs it seems less people talked about.  When I took practice tests, my dad actually photocopied a copy for me to write all over so I could leave the books relatively untouched for my brother to use in the future.  Because of this, I wasn’t directly exposed to who made the test I was taking.  Sure, by paying attention to the font it was easy to see whether it was Princeton Review, Barron’s, or Kaplan, but after a while I just didn’t really feel the need to particularly care which company made which tests.  When I started taking a test it was less like “Oh no, it’s Kaplan again.  This is going to suck…” and more like “Alright, another day, another test.  Let’s see if I can do better than last time.”  That’s why to this day all test prep companies feel the same to me, ahahah.  Geez, you’re pulling the whole “Memorial Day Break gave me extra time” excuse on me now.  Hmph, well fine, do what you want with your time, eheh.

 

Ahh, I just checked the new Common App prompts myself.  You’re right, these essays aren’t nearly as good as last year’s.  Or rather, the one prompt I liked (#4, your special place) was completely changed as the entirely of the new question 4 is italicized, which according to their blog means it’s completely new text.  Everything else was left unchanged or was only slightly changed.  Oh dear, I guess that the 6000 people surveyed must not have been very impressed by responses to question 4.  Was my stargazing essay really that poorly received???  Haha, oh well, guess I should count myself lucky for being born the year I was.  From the start, I knew I was going to write about prompt 4, the one about my special place, since it seemed like the one that would give me the most freedom in terms of topic and poetic touch.  It didn’t take me very long to realize writing about stargazing would be my best bet.  I think it was around July?  At the time, I was actually feeling a bit unmotivated, so for the remainder of July and for nearly the entirety of August I told my parents “yeah, yeah, I’m working on it, don’t worry” while my Word Doc remained blank and I watched Fate/Zero and various other anime instead.  Funny thing is, Fate/Zero reminded me of my Common App essay unexpectedly when I got to the poignant talk between Waver and Glen Mackenzie on their roof as the sun was coming up, near the end of the second season.  Hahah, that scene, small as it was, motivated me enough to start my essay.  I wrote the first paragraph (it was a bit rough around the edges, but all in all it was similar to the final copy I sent you) and then hit writer’s block.  By then school started and I lost some motivation again (I don’t think I’m a particularly good role model, by the way…) and I didn’t start writing until early October.  At this point, I was already starting to feel the pinch of the deadline, since my EA and ED apps were due November 1st.  I still had supplements to worry about, and since very few public schools are on the Common App I also had full applications to fill out as well.  I forced myself to sit down and just start typing until I ran out of ideas.  I hit the 600 word limit, called it a day, and sent it to my sister to critique.  My main issues were a few oddly worded metaphors and a conclusion that didn’t really feel conclusive.  Fixed those up, sent it back to my sister.  She found a few more wording issues, and after one more alteration my sister said it was wonderful.  Gave it to my Lit teacher for good measure, and lucky for me she found a small spelling error (one of the ones that don’t register on Word because it was a short word and the misspelling made another real word) but apart from that she loved it.  And that pretty much wraps up my Common App essay fiasco.  I think I may have answered more than you asked for, and even then I don’t know if I was of much help.  I know you’re struggling to think of topics, so how about you brainstorm here and I’ll help you to the best of my ability?  Maybe think of multiple topics for one specific question, or maybe think of one topic for each question?  There are different ways to approach this, so figure out how you you’re most comfortable with working first.  Actually, I just remembered.  There was this really great book I read on college essays, titled “On Writing the College Application Essay” by Harry Bauld.  It’s a fantastic read.  It’s neither too long nor too short and addresses any concerns you may have.  It takes a somewhat light-hearted approach, so it remains an engaging read while still presenting the facts to you straight, if that makes any sense.  You won’t get bored of it for sure, and if you have the time over the summer, finishing it in two sittings is pretty reasonable.  This book helped me more than any advice I received from a person I know or the Internet.  If there’s anything you take from this long paragraph, it’s this.  Order it from Amazon immediately, or check to see if your local stores have it.

 

Yuuup, my high school is just really wasteful.  I also feel like they’re responsible for holding back a lot of really talented students.  I remember back when my sister was in high school, a ton of people got into Ivy Leagues.  In my grade, I know some crazy talented individuals and the fact that they’ve been snubbed from some prestigious schools has come as a bit of a shock.  Now, this could be explained by the fact that maybe nowadays it’s overall harder to get accepted by an Ivy League than it was eight years ago, but I personally have a hunch that my high school over the years has just gotten worse.  Or rather, relatively worse.  Very little of the curriculum has been changed since my sister was in school, and very little to the school has been changed as well.  I remember my high school always used to be like “Ohoho!  We’re such a good high school!  Look at how high we rank on these lists!” and because we got so full of ourselves we never strove to be better.  We’re falling behind schools like yours as our building ages (seriously, no A/C?), our good teachers retire and are replaced with bad ones, and our courses remain almost entirely identical to the ones from a decade ago.  What may have worked back then is definitely not working today, and it sucks I spent four years of my life in a dated institution.  All my peers are trying to reach their fullest potential, but it’s awfully hard when their high school prevents them from doing that.  Ughh, as much as I want reform for my school, since I’m leaving soon and have such bad impressions from it I almost don’t even care anymore.  I guess I may be part of the problem, huh?  Anyway, I don’t mean to drag on for too long.  Phys ed is theoretically a three year course, since we spend 1/4th of the year learning health instead of “exercising”.  If you want to look at it another way, it boils down to three years of phys ed and one year of health, spread out relatively evenly over four years.  And yes, it doesn’t matter if you take school athletics.  If you’re not Olympic material, you’re taking phys ed, simple as that.  It would make more sense if my school used your system, right?  Yeah, well, the thing is, that would make too much sense.  And God forbid we allow too much sense to flow through the doors of our Edison schools, right?

 

Hmmm, I guess you do have a point there with your observations.  Though, there are a lot of factors that are involved with determining how a person acts a specific day.  For example, maybe a girl was feeling rather feminine and flirtatious one morning, and thus decided to wear a frilly skirt?  From your wording, it’s like the skirt caused the feminine acting instead of the feminine acting that led to a skirt being worn.  As for why guys act less reckless in formal attire, perhaps it’s because formal attire is just generally pretty uncomfortable to be in? Suits can be rather stiff, and it’s easy to wrinkle up dress shirts and have them shift around in your pants, making you look unkempt and messy.  If a guy hasn’t done his presentation or speech or whatever yet, then he probably doesn’t want to muss up his look.  And naw, I don’t think you’re crazy at all.  These little social experiments sound kind of fun.  What else have you noticed about people?

 

Well, May 29th, the official release date of wave 4 amiibo has come and gone.  As expected, Lucina, Robin, Greninja, Jigglypuff, and Ness flew off the shelves so fast that almost the entirely of America sold out before lunch break.  Only stores that still had stock leading into the afternoon and evening were stores in Bumpkin, Kansas.  My Lucina amiibo looks like it’ll be here on Tuesday, and I’m hoping Walmart hasn’t completely wrecked my packaging.  I also bought the Inkling 3-pack amiibo, not just because they looked good but because I’m actually planning on getting Splatoon.  I know I won’t be able to play much without a Wii U in college, but I really want to support Nintendo’s new IP and the game looks super fun.  My dad thinks I’ve already asked for too much this year, so he won’t be buying me any more amiibo or video games.  That’s fine, I’ll manage on my own with Swagbucks and trading, haha.  Ah, and speaking of Servants, have you watched any of UBW's second season apart from the first episode?  And I guess I'll answer your question regarding the F/sn visual novel here.  A good time to read the Fate route would probably be right after the UBW anime ends.  During the wait between the UBW series and the HF movie(s), you can take the time to enjoy Fate.  If you finish that quickly, maybe you can check out the UBW visual novel so you can compare it to the anime.  If you get done with that as well, I suppose you can choose to either wait for the movie(s) to release and then play HF to compare, or do it the other way around by playing it first so you know what's going to happen and then see how the adaptation holds up.  Really, it's pretty much up to however much of the visual novel you're willing to read, haha.

 

Huh, that’s weird of your parents for wanting you to do homework during your sister’s graduation.  My parents wanted me and my brother to watch and be proud (and be inspired to work harder in school).  Tufts was alright, though my parents didn’t really like it and I didn’t feel too strongly about it so I just chose not to apply.  I don’t think Case got any fancy celebrity at this year’s graduation.  Their commencement speaker was Barry Meyer, an alum who is the former Warner Bros. CEO and chairman, so it’s something.

 

Oh no no no no no!!  Ace Attorney and Zero Escape don’t work well with Let’s Plays at all!  There are definitely better options.  For example, if you’re patient enough you can wait until you have the ability to buy a bootleg DS chip, which can be used to play an infinite number of DS games as long as you download their ROMs.  If that doesn’t work for you, the second best option would be to emulate the game on your computer.  Now, I know you had a really bad experience in the past and that you’re dealing with some form of PTSD, but I can help you through the process.  No, scratch that, I will help you through the process.  During summer break, I’ll take the time to figure out which emulator is the best and how to install it.  Then, I’ll write up an entire step-by-step “so easy even a caveman could do it” tutorial on how to get it all set up so you don’t run into any viruses.  It will be thorough and written specifically for you.  Heck, I’ll even have all the files you need compiled and personally put up on Dropbox or some other reliable file sharing site and link you to it, so you know there are no string attached with anything you click.  Emulator, ROMs, and everything.  If doing all this would prevent you from watching a Let’s Play or walkthrough, then it’s worth the effort.  I promise, I will get this done as soon as I can during summer break.  It won’t matter if you respond to this and insist you want to watch a Let’s Play; I’ll do it anyway.  Nothing is going to change my mind about it, and you know how stubborn I can be, hahahah.  

 

As for why AA and ZE don’t work very well as Let’s Plays, it’s because while they’re part visual novel they’re also part puzzle/investigation game.  AA has investigation portions of the game where you click around and collect evidence and clues.  In fact, these portions are pretty much half of the gameplay.  The thing about this is that there are a lot of clickable-but-not-necessary-for-the-plot things to read through.  For example, maybe you can check out a lamp and initiate a funny conversation with the person you’re in the room with, but nothing else is accomplished.  I’m the kind of person who is sure to click every which way in order to read all the dialogue possible, even the “useless” ones.  In Let’s Plays, you’re most likely to watch a playthrough that either rushes through or skips most of the “extra” stuff in order to cut video time and keep things engaging for viewers who just want to know how things end.  Either that, or they go into the game with a walkthrough handy so that nothing extra is clicked and only advance-able items are investigated.  With the games experienced like this, you miss a ton of subtle character development, jokes and funny localization changes, and even some running gags.  There’s a lot to be had from slowly taking your time to develop the characters you meet (AA has a really colorful cast).  Furthermore, because AA boils down to being an episodic mystery series with an overarching plot (much like DC), you’re also expected to deduce things and solve the crime.  With Let’s Plays, the player may work/think too fast or too slow.  It’s possible he or she may be fumbling around thinking, “What’s wrong with that statement, hmmm…?” and you’re just like, “Oh come on man, there’s clearly a contradiction with the timing of the murder!”  Likewise, if the player has figured out certain aspects of the mystery early than you, he or she make have a eureka moment and spoil all the fun and prevent you from having a similar eureka moment at your own pace.  The ZE series shares many of the same aspects as AA: investigation stages with clicking around and optional funny convos, a lot of mysteries that could be prematurely spoiled by the player, etc.  ZE also has a ton of puzzles, and a lot of the exciting moments came from messing around with a crazy array of things to solve.  Having someone solve the puzzles for you really lessens the excitement, and it’s not much fun watching someone sliding boxes around with the stylus and manipulating numbers and words to solve codes.  Something ZE has that AA doesn’t have is a branching storyline with bad ends.  This brings about even more problems.  For instance, in 999, there are 6 different endings: 3 bad ends, an unlocked “true” end, an end that unlocks the true end, and finally the true end.  In theory, you only need to play through the game a minimum of twice: the first time you reach the ending that unlocks the true end, and the second time you play the true end.  After that, the game considers you as having finished the whole story.  But of course, you’re still missing the bad endings.  Those bad ends have a ton of character development and hints not found in the required ends, and without them certain characters don’t feel fleshed out enough by the conclusion and some revelations and reveals don’t feel as impactful and more deus ex machine-like.  However, because endings are determined by a series of choices you make over the course of the game, you don’t know which ending you’re going to get until you reach it.  The unlock end and the true end both have only one very specific set of choices to reach, so your chances of hitting them up the first time are slim to none, while the three bad ends all have multiple ways to reach the same ending, which means you'll most likely get the same bad ends multiple times by accident.  It’s certainly possible a Let’s Play skips a bad end or two, or maybe if they’re (un)lucky enough or using a walkthrough they don’t hit any bad ends at all.  This will certainly and undoubtedly hinder your experience of the story, I promise.  Finally, something that applies to both AA and ZE: emotional moments will be completely ruined.  A bad habit it seems many Let’s Play-ers have is reading the text out loud.  They start feeling awkward if they aren’t saying something while playing, and since it’s impossible to talking about something else all the while clicking “A” to advance the text, they have no choice but to read what’s on the screen.  This proves to be plenty awkward during certain scenarios (jokes, for example, fall flatter), but it’s especially dangerous when you reach an emotional, tear-jerking scene.  Both AA and ZE have their fair share of heavy moments, and the last thing you need is a Let’s Play-er ruining it by either reading the lines out loud himself or trying to laugh it off as to seem like he’s not affected.  It really kills the mood and ruins an experience you cannot replicate.  After all, you only learn someone dies for the first time once, so you might as well learn it in the most personal and immersive way possible.  Sure, you can just watch a playthrough without narration, but that doesn't prevent everything I've said above from happening, like missing out on the not-required dialogue and not being able to solve the puzzles by yourself and not being able to deduce the mysteries at your own pace.  Phew, that was a longer rant than I expected.  Ahh, I hope I didn’t sound like I was yelling at you or anything, I just wanted to make sure what needed to be said was said.  Personally, I find the most enjoyable way to play the games is on an actual DS so you can play it at your convenience, and heck I’d ship a bootleg DS chip over to where you live, if I knew your address, so you could experience it that way.  But I know friends I’ve recommended the game to who absolutely loved it and they played it on an emulator, so I’m sure it’s all good.  I’ll consult them when I make my set-up tutorial.  I still have all the AA and 999 ROMs saved up on my PC from when I used the DS chip and just need to figure out the whole emulator business.

 

Looking back on it, you’re right, I should have just tackled Y first.  I think I was a bit OCD, since I had already started Awakening (I’m fairly certain I was completely done with OoT by that time) and wanted to finish it before filling my head with Pokemon stuff, ahah.  Though I’m super late to the party and everyone is already over the Kalos hype, discovering new places and exploring “uncharted” territory is still a blast.  Man, it’s like exploring Unova for the first time all over again, it’s great!  I’m already six Gym Leaders in, though from the looks of it the seventh one is a bit of a ways away.  Sigh, that just means more routes to cover and more Pokemon to catch.  It’s a bit tedious using only Pokeballs and having only Thunder Wave to help me on my quest, but it’s not too difficult so far.  For some reason, Stunfisk gave me a helluva hard time and I wasted a truck load of Pokeballs on him.  Never liked him anyway, bleh.  I need to be as frugal with my money as possible, since Lumiose City’s boutique is crazy expensive.  However, because I turned off Exp. Share, I also need to make sure my Pokemon keep up with the NPC’s in terms of level.  That’s why I have this weird balancing act with my Lucky Egg and Amulet Coin.  When I’m versing rainers, I put AC on my first Pokemon and LE on my second.  Against wild Pokemon, I put LE on my first and AC on my second.  This maximizes both my revenue and exp gain.  It gets kind of rough in places with both trainers and tall grass, because then I’m constantly switching the two items back and forth and saving every few steps. 

 

Anyway, on a slightly different train of thought, I’m actually planning on getting Smash 4 3DS.  I know, back when we first met (ahahaha, it’s been a while hasn’t it?) I said the controls felt kind of weird and that I wasn’t planning on getting the 3DS version, but since then I’ve changed my mind.  Japan is getting the NFC adaptor (used to allow for amiibo usage on non-New 3DS consoles) at the end of July, and North America will surely follow suit.  With this, I’ll be able to train my amiibo on even Smash 3DS, so why not invest in the game?  I’ll have saved enough money soon enough, and I’ll order it and receive it in time to use the Mewtwo code before it expires on your birthday.  I’d have much rather let you have it, but unless you gave me your address so I could ship you Smash 3DS that won’t be possible it seems, hm.  After that, I’ll need to invest my Swagbucks money in Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies since it’s an eShop only game and no NA physical copy exists.  amiibo aren't really a concern anymore, haha.  After that, I’ll be so inundated with 3DS games I probably won’t be buying much else.  I might just horde all my Swagbucks credit and part time job money (when I get one) and go all out to get a personal Wii U some time during college.  I suppose that would be the best course of action given the position I’d be in by then.  Ah, and as for which generation is my favorite, I don’t really have one.  Each have their pros and cons and I'd be hard pressed to choose a favorite.  I just know all the small details about Hoenn because, as you’ve said, I’ve run through it out of boredom so many times now.  I beaten the Elite Four on at least 7 different files and have started but not finished at least 5-10 more run-throughs.  So yeah, about 12-17 times through Hoenn total.  There are certain things that will definitely stick with you, haha.

 

We……… didn’t have a senior prank.  Or rather, it hasn’t been executed yet.  I’ve asked my friends, and apparently nobody is making any serious contributions on Facebook.  I wouldn’t mind seeing a student led coup on the faculty, but I think that might be illegal…  The whole chicken thing must have been odd.  I kind of feel bad for the chickens.  The physics work sucks, but it got done (somehow).  I still have even more physics work piling up in the coming week.  I was going to get most of it done this weekend, but then something came up and now I feel like I’m barely on schedule again.  Oh geez, I may have to take more days off from school, since I still have a few unexcused absence days to use.  And you’re still being bombarded by headaches, huh?  Goodness, that must be such a nuisance.  Have you gotten it checked by a doctor yet?  I’m fairly certain you shouldn’t just be getting headaches so often and so easily like that.  Maybe there’s an underlying problem?  And thanks, I really wouldn’t want to bother you with my rants all the time, but it’s good to know there’s someone willing to listen if I’m just having a rough day.

 

It seems the books on the first list are all older, more recognizable novels while the ones on the second list are somewhat more modern and lesser known.  Unfortunately, I’ve only read a single book on either of those lists and that’s Heart of Darkness.  I really disliked that book and would not recommend it at all.  It had one redeeming moment, near the beginning in chapter 9, but it was a train wreck from that point onward.  Stay away from it, for sure.  I’ve heard of pretty much everything else on the first list, but since I haven’t personally read them or know anyone’s who read them, I can’t really help you there.  As long as you steer clear from HoD you’ll be fine, so choose whichever one interests you the most!  As for the second list, the only familiar thing on there is Margaret Atwood.  She also wrote Heart of Darkness, and it’s one of my favorite books.  Read it over the summer last year, and it was gripping and just fantastic.  She has amazing style and prose, so based on that alone I’d recommend checking out Oryx and Crake.  That book written by the Japanese guy seems like it could be interesting, only because it’s not very often you run into Japanese authors.  And ya know, I have a bias toward Japanese things, so there’s that.  Ehhhh, I wish I could have provided more of an input, but that’s all I can give based on what I know.  I’m sure if you look the books up individually online you’ll find far more helpful info, ahah.

 

I kinda understand how you feel. I had the same initial reaction when my friend first recommended Nichijou to me. He first just showed a few clips of it and while it looked interesting (actually I was just thinking wtf), I kept pushing it back because I was craving shows with more plot in them at the time. He kept pestering me with more and more clips and I eventually gave in, lol. 

 

I'm not familiar with many of the band instrument mechanics so I can only go off on their sound most of the time, haha. Whenever we have rehearsal with the band members in our orchestra, my friend often comments on how she wish she could play the oboe if given the opportunity even though it's considered one of the hardest to play band instruments (she's currently a violist). I can't seem to disagree with her. Though the bassoon also seems like a fun instrument to play, haha. Hmm, although you say that you struggled with the oboe for years, I think the fact that you still made it to the top of the section says a lot. Any horn with good tone sounds freaking fantastic. I didn't realize how difficult it was to play it, so I'll make sure to give them a lot more credit next time. Haha, there's always a huge influx of flutists and clarinetists that come into our band so it's not necessarily that we'll have trouble finding replacements. The graduating seniors will put a hole in the clarinet section, but probably not big enough to make a huge difference in the quality of the section. The flutists might have trouble holding itself up after the juniors graduate, especially since these people have been at the top of the section since freshman year. It's not like any of this would be disconcerting though, since there's always a few really good incoming freshmen to help fill the gaps.

 

Hmm, I see what you mean. Nintendo never struck me as the type to advertise mobile games. And while mobile games may not harbor actual buttons, there are emulators out there that can be downloaded onto phones and tablets that include touch-screen buttons. I've seen a few people playing Pokemon games (and hacks) on their phones without much trouble at all. Since there are touch-screen arrow keys and buttons that come with the emulator, the only problems I can think of are the amount of buttons, screen size (if you're playing on a phone), and possibly the proportions (which I guess could be fixed with a bit of resizing). Worst comes to worst, Nintendo could come up with an alternative for buttons (maybe something that utilizes a stylus?). Now that I think about it, maybe they could find a way to install actual buttons. I know iPads can have keyboards installed, so it's definitely possible. Mobile games tend to be more casual and "mindless" than console games so I can see what you're getting at with mobile games' negative connotation. I personally don't think that creating mobile games will put Nintendo at a disadvantage just because of how widespread console games are at the moment. Mobile games can be pretty limiting without certain buttons (rip L and R buttons), and I'm sure Nintendo acknowledges that so I'm pretty confident that they won't go overboard if they start investing in some mobile games. Apps definitely will not overshadow console games. There's a certain magic to console games that just can't be replicated through mobile games, haha. So yeah, I don't think it's a bad idea for Nintendo to invest in some apps. Maybe create some teaser games or post-game supplements so they can reach a bigger audience.

 

I was actually offered the opportunity to go to Cedar Point during that summer program I'm attending. I turned it down because I assumed that I was going to attend the physics Cedar Point trip (which I also ended up turning down months later because of how much school I was missing). Ahahaha, there's always next year's physics trip (possibly the only good thing coming out of Physics C). I'm glad that you at least thought about opening up to some people! I normally don't barge in on people's conversations unless it's something I happen to have in common with them, and since the age-gap between those groups were rather large, I probably wouldn't have interrupted them either, to be honest. Hmm, maybe when you head off to college and see someone groaning at the lunch menu, just comment on how the lunch food sucks, haha. Most college students seem to share the same opinion about college lunches (and I've heard my fair share of complaints from my sister). And yes, I will call you crazy for wanting to ride that Batman rollercoaster. My gut is wrenching just thinking about it, but maybe it's because I haven't ridden a rollercoaster in such a long time, lol.

 

Welp, I took the subject tests and I'm probably going to retake them in October. I was wayyy too overconfident with Math II and when I opened the prep books (which was the day before, ehehehe) I had a sinking feeling in my stomach because I didn't realize how much I'd forgotten. And so I spent the entirety of my Friday night in my room trying to skim through as much math and bio material as I could. So yeah, my procrastinating tendencies have not yet improved and I'll be spending part of my summer cramming for those two tests again. I could justify my actions with the untimely finals a few of my teachers dropped on us, but it really was my fault for not making any time to study for the subject tests. Funny thing is, I'm not even mad. I was just so sick of studying after APs were over.

 

Most of the good college essays I've read are about ordinary everyday experiences but with certain details accentuated in order to bring out that personal touch. I never wanted to write about anything "big" to begin with since it just feels overused and braggart-ish. I still can't seem to find anything to go off on at the moment. One of my friends is thinking about writing a sob-story about her immigration to America. She showed me a sample of her rough draft and it's not bad. The concept seems overused, but I think she could pull it off. I was thinking about doing something similar (even though I was born in America) but I don't think I could write one without the essay sounding like a huge complaint or rant, lol. Hmm, seeing as how you were inspired from watching anime, maybe I should follow suit, heheheh...... But in all seriousness, I'm drawing a blank right now (I still can't understand how you did it). However, I did follow your advice in buying Bauld's book and it has given me a bit of hope. I've already read through a few sections and did one of the exercises and it really does feel like a great asset for writing a college essay. Haha, thank you very much for the recommendation! 

 

Geezus, really? The courses are almost identical to the ones from a decade ago? I know AP tests are constantly changing (chem, bio, calc, etc.), but your school doesn't do anything about the curriculum? Our district's curriculum is constantly changing (sometimes for the worse) so we can keep up with everyone else. And I still find it hard to believe that your school doesn't have A/C. Heck, our school is being renovated as I speak (err, type) in order to have more classrooms so that certain classes won't have to utilize the portables anymore. I would've signed a petition or something if I were you because not even having access to A/C is just absurd. Damn, Phys ed is a three year course for you guys?? And you guys don't have A/C????? I can't remember if I mentioned this before, but our phys ed class is only one semester, and same with health. If you were to take those two courses freshman year, it'd only be about a year's worth. And if you don't plan on playing at least two seasons of a sport, then you'd just have to take another semester of gym. Or you could just take the classes over the summer to make room for classes that you'd actually want to take (or take online classes or even test out). I have no idea what your district is thinking, but I commend you for being able to survive all of this (perhaps our district has spoiled us to pieces without us realizing). But wow, I really. I just. I...I...what. It's times like this when I truly want to drag you over here just so you can experience high school in a different (and hopefully better) setting. I'd force you re-join band because everyone in band is practically family and I'd show you where the A/C is in every classroom so that you wouldn't have to worry about it anymore. I still can't believe that you guys have phys ed for three years, no summer school, no athletic credits to skip phys ed, no change in curriculum, no A/C. I think it's very admirable that you managed to keep your sanity dealing with all that. I really have nothing else to say. I almost feel ashamed complaining about going to school now, ahahahahaha............................

 

Haha, it almost did feel like the clothes is what caused the change in personality or attitude from what I observed, but I think I was just being a bit too narrow-minded. It does seem a bit silly to think that something as trivial as clothes could cause an entire change in persona, lol. I'm sure that it still affects people to some extent, but probably not as much as I originally anticipated. As for my other observations, I haven't had any lately. They're nothing I take too seriously; they're just little side notes I like keeping in the back of my head. Sometimes, I like taking a step back to admire how far we have advanced. To think that we can communicate with others hundreds on miles away with a hunk of metal, wires, and programming. To think that being able to reach the local library--miles away--can be done in a matter of minutes. To think we can store gigabytes of information on a microchip. It's absolutely mind-blowing. Not only that, but to think that our brains--three pounds worth of neurons--are capable of doing such things. And the fact that we know how to operate this kind of technology, yet most of us don't even know the mechanics behind them. Even mundane, everyday undertakings like being able to convey information through facial expressions and how we can interpret scribbles on paper (aka words)...it's so fascinating. I've been more and more conscious of this and every once in a while when people say euphemisms like "can I have a ride", I think to myself how awesome it is that we're able to infer from this phrase that these people are just asking someone to take them somewhere. Or maybe I could completely change peoples' perception of me by knocking someone's glass out of his/her hand on "purpose". But in this person's subconscious, he/she trusts me (and everyone else) not to do so even if we're complete strangers. Or when someone asks for a favor like "could you go downstairs and bring me the textbook?" Perhaps there are dozens of textbooks downstairs but you happen to know exactly which one he/she is talking about. So you associate "downstairs" with the basement and you find the textbook, which happens to be sitting on a chair because you are able to commit its location to memory. And all of this information is conceived within mere milliseconds. For some reason, it feels so liberating to think this way. But at the same time, I also feel a bit dense for dwelling on such ordinary routines and social standards. I suppose this could count as something else I've noticed about people. Geezus, I almost feel embarrassed talking about something this silly. I'm not too sure why, but thinking like this really helps to pull me out of the dark at times. 

 

Ahhh, I saw clips of Splatoon on the Nintendo World Championships live stream and the gameplay looked freaking awesome. The multiplayer looks like a pain though, haha. Also, how are your Lucina and Splatoon amiibo doing? Hopefully everything went all right! And yup, I'm finally caught up with UBW. I liked how Archer defected to Caster's side, and I felt that it was kinda cheap that he was going to betray her all along (overused TV trope much?). I also had a hunch that Archer was Shirou but since all the heroic spirits were people from the past, I felt that it was too big of a stretch. I was relatively surprised when I found out that that was exactly who Archer was. The memory loss and the ability to create imitation weaponry was what gave it away but I didn't actually think that heroic spirits could come from the future, which is why I tossed away my hunch at first. I've also begun looking at F/Z in a new light seeing as it's just a supplement to UBW. I wouldn't be enjoying UBW as much if it weren't for the prior knowledge from F/Z and I probably didn't enjoy F/Z as much because I hadn't watched UBW yet. I think it's fascinating how both shows go hand in hand like that. I'm going to have a pretty hectic summer this year so I'm not sure if I'll be able to get through the visual novel in time. I'll try my best though!

 

I'm absolutely speechless. I really can't believe that you went through such lengths just so I can experience the games firsthand. You are truly the one of the most selfless people I know, and it really means a lot to me that you went out of your own way to do this. Even though I said that I'd be perfectly content watching a Let's Play, you still felt the need to find a safe way for me to download the emulator and games. And you even included and numbered the games for me! I'm so incredibly happy that I'll finally be able to get my hands on a game after what seemed like ages. I don't know how much trouble you went through to compile/compress the files and type out the instructions, but I'm really grateful that you did it all for my sake. Nothing can describe the amount of joy I felt when I saw that message of yours. I can't believe it. I really can't. It feels so unreal and I just can't seem to properly convey how I'm feeling. To think that someone hundreds of miles away, someone who I haven't even met yet... I know you wrote something similar but actually experiencing it...it's indescribable. Ahaha, what a remarkable way to start the summer! You're freaking amazing and this means so much to me, you have no idea<3 

 

Hmm, I thought Pokemon were supposed to be easier to catch after 4th gen (or does that only apply to legendaries?). I know I had a problem with catching everything "rare" on my sister's Emerald ROM. And by that I mean I had two boxes full of Pokemon by the time I reached Watson. My sister tried to convince me to get rid of a Shedinja because it was ugly despite all my efforts in raising it up. I was quite heartbroken when she told me that I couldn't play her game anymore if I continued to use it on her team. Yeah, I don't know why I remember this (and this was quite a while ago). I was going to relate it to your problem with catching that Stunfisk somehow but it seems that I trailed off too much and can't remember what I was going to say. Anywhoooooo....... it does seem unreasonably tedious constantly switching between the Amulet Coin and the Lucky Egg. If I were you, I'd probably stock up on Pokeballs (and sell everything else I don't need) and catch to my heart's content. Afterwards, I'd just slap that AC on any Pokemon that needs grinding and force my way through the Elite 4 as many times as I need in order to save up for my wardrobe. My wardrobe would be second-priority since it seems exceedingly difficult to do both at the same time, and I'd be too lazy to keep track of what I want to catch--I'd catch them as I see them (which is what I'm assuming you're doing at the moment), haha. 

 

I probably wouldn't have spent the extra effort investing in another Wii U when there's one readily available at home. Well, I know you said that your parents didn't agree with you taking it to college, but maybe you could negotiate with them. If they don't trust you bringing it to college, tell them if your grades are maintained well after first semester that you should be able to bring it to college with you. I think that's good enough reassurance that everything's gonna be all right. The only problem I can think of is if your brother wants you to leave the Wii U at home so he could use it. Haha, and I'm really glad that the Mewtwo code won't be going to waste! And I didn't realize how useful Swagbucks could be. Hmm, I might toy around with it if I'm ever in a pinch. Dang, you ran through 3rd gen out of boredom 12-17 times and it's not your favorite? I know every generation has its ups and downs, but my favorite generation is 4th gen and it's purely based on bias (also felt a bit more challenging than 3rd and 5th gen). I've clocked hundreds of hours in Platinum and I invested more time in that game than in any other Pokemon game that I've owned. 4th gen has a special place in my heart since it holds the first Pokemon games that weren't my sister's (Shadows of Almia and Platinum). I'm super stoked for 4th gen remakes despite the fact that they're probably not coming out until years later, but whatever. You'll see me explode into fireworks once the news comes out, heh. If you don't have a favorite generation, do you have a favorite Pokemon game then?

 

Whaaaaaa.... you guys didn't have a senior prank? Surely you must have had one the year before, right? For this year's senior prank, I didn't get to see the chickens running loose in the hallways. They told me that they released them on the first floor during first period, and even though I had first period on the first floor, I still didn't get to catch a glimpse of them. I'm hoping that our class is going to pull off a memorable senior prank next year. Maybe put a bunch of "For Sale" signs in front of the school or something, lol. Ahh, it sure feels nice to be on summer vacation. I still have a lot to do but I'll take this over going to school any day. Yeah, the headaches are starting to become a concern for me every time I go out to play tennis. Even though they started freshman year, I didn't start taking ibuprofen pills until junior year (they progressively became more frequent). Headaches can be pretty crippling and I really can't accomplish anything when I have them. My mom also has this problem but her headaches come in much more frequently and they tend to be more severe. She doesn't complain about them very often though. I don't think she had hers checked out by a doctor yet (well, I mean, she's a doctor herself, haha), so I don't want to sound fussy about my headaches seeing as hers are much worse. 

 

I took your advice and got Oryx and Crake after reading a sample of Atwood's prose. It was pretty captivating and I don't think I'll have much trouble getting through it (which is a complete understatement, by the way). I still haven't chosen a book from the first list yet. I asked one of the employees from the bookstore for a recommendation and he said that all of them were fantastic reads, which made me a bit skeptical since you told me to avoid Heart of Darkness like the plague. So I looked up reviews on some books like Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights and they all received equal amounts of praise and criticism. They're all "classics" so I shouldn't be too surprised but it hasn't made my decision any easier. Sigh, I might be better off picking a book blindfolded instead. I'll be sure to stay away from Heart of Darkness though, so thanks for the heads up, haha. I still have two more required readings to get through (four summer reading books in total) and I currently own three so I'll get my hands on a book from the first list after giving it a bit more thought.